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iberiancadre · 5 months

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Critiquing Hispanism

This is going to be an analysis of this twitter thread: https://twitter.com/thespanishlegcy/status/1730128381142819110

For context, hispanism is a trend in modern history circles that tries to defend, preserve, or otherwise explain Spanish history in the modern age, between 1492 and 1808, coincidentally the same time period where Spain grew into the biggest empire of its time, and then lost it all (except Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara but everyone always forgets them)

[ID and translation: were the lands of the Spanish Empire colonies?... We'll clear your doubts in this thread! The image reads: England = Colonies; Spain = Viceroyalties]. The argument of viceroyalties vs colonies is expanded on a later tweet.

[ID and translation: Already in 1519, a Royal Decree from Charles V, which would later be included in the Indies Laws, said what you can see: "That the Western Indies shall always be united to the Crown of Castile, and cannot be alienated. We command that, at no point, can they be separated from our royal Crown of Castile, disunited or divided as a whole or in parts, nor in favor of any person."]

They are saying that, since the land in the Americas were considered integral to the crown, they could not be colonies. Nevermind that every empire in history has used this argument: Portugal with Angola and Mozambique, France with Algeria, Great Britain with South Africa... The level of grace these people grant to the Spanish Empire is astounding and we will see more.

[ID and translation: The writer Cesáreo Járabo uses this humanist principle to explain that this concept not only spans the hierarchy and dignity of the Imperial institutions, but also the recognition of equal rights to those from the Indies]

There were no equal rights between Spaniards and natives within the empire. The Spaniards famously held the economic and political hegemony, and they formed their own class, called the creoles. This is not a humanist concept, it's 16th century imperial propaganda and there are people who still fall for it.

[ID and translation: From 1869, the nomenclature of Spain and its lands went from being called "Kingdom of the Spains" to being called "Kingdom of Spain", to reinforce the idea that all of its lands had the same rights and were under the same crown]

You know, it's interesting they mention the date. 1869 was one year after the revolution of 1868, when the bourbon queen Isabel II was ousted and replaced with the savoy king Amadeo I, and by this point all American colonies had revolted and gained independence except for Cuba. Outside the Americas, the Philippines was the only other notable colony, the rest were unprofitable and largely unimportant to the Spanish. It's almost like Spain was doing anything it could to keep the last colonies, feeling pressure from the nascent nationalist movements. The strongest of these movements was in Cuba, and it just so happens they were the first to get a couple of seats in the senate. Only creole parties won, of course.

[ID and translation: Despite this, and that "colony" was never used ("viceroyalties instead") for the official designation of the overseas lands, the term was used in propaganda by the rest of European powers, and to this day it is still used, with a critical intention towards Spain.]

Just because you name a thing a different thing it doesn't mean it's not the thing. It could be argued that foreign propaganda influenced how people think of the Spanish Empire, but literally every other European Power had propaganda levied against it. "Viceroyalty" comes from the medieval era, named after the viceroy, a person the king left in charge while he was gone. But just because it has a different name it doesn't mean it is not a colony. The British use overseas nowadays to refer to its remaining colonies, does that mean they aren't colonies?

It's the logic of an eight year old. Would anyone be convinced by a killer defending himself like "but I don't call it murder, so it can't be murder"

[ID and translation: Although there were models of exploitation of resources that could be considered colonial, many experts consider colonialism to be a completely different phenomenon to what happened in the Spanish Empire]

Ah yes, the "many experts" defense. Nevermind that these "experts" are almost always hispanists with a skewed view of the era and an ideological investment in rehabilitating the Spanish Empire. Pardon the usamerican expression, but this is a nothing burger

[ID and translation: One of the reasons to consider it like so is that the overseas territories reproduced many of the institutions of the metropolis, including all citizens under their protection]

This is not the argument they think it is. One of colonialism's key characteristics is the erasure of native power structures and replacing it with the metropolis' (It's so funny they use this word while trying to convince you Spain didn't have colonies). This is not unique to Spain, look literally anywhere in Africa

[ID and translation: The origin of the Spanish Black Legend is those European powers that used the term "colony" to appeal to a negative image of the Spanish Empire and its overseas territory]

They are repeating themselves on a previous point so I won't do the same, but it's ironic they are using a word the British used to avoid saying colony

[ID and translation: The current "decolonization" campaign that Spanish museums continues to perpetuate the Black Legend, because you cant decolonize what doesn't have a colonial history]

Reminder that, so far, the only arguments against Spain having colonies are:

Spain never called them colonies

Spain imposed its laws on the native population

The other Europeans called us bad names

It falls apart once you remove the fancy language

[ID and translation: Járabo concludes saying that the overseas territories were treated early on as provinces, functioning like those of the [Iberian] peninsula, and methods of assimilating the natives were pursued, not of exploitation]

What a way to end it. They didn't want to exploit the natives, just erase their culture, religion, language and government. They seem to be under the impression that assimilation is somehow better than "just" exploitation. Also, exploitation very much did take place, and Spain's economy throughout the 16th to 18th century was very reliant on the captive trade with the Americas, because once Spain lost these colonies, the economy crumbled

So overall, very weak, ahistorical and frankly, pathetic. Hispanism is a minority movement, very reactionary and unsurprisingly right wing. At their core, they only believe that Spain used to be great and benevolent, but for whatever reason (outside interference or internal sabotage), it is not anymore. These are people who are nostalgic for an empire that died 200 years ago. People who take this dead empire, make it their personality, and act offended when other point out its negative effect on the world, and that Spanish imperialism in the modern era still holds up modern Spain's wealth, nevermind the more recent imperialism.

#real marxist hours #hispanism #hispanismo

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girlactionfigure · 2 years

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Her last words were "If it was the last moment I was to live, God knows I am innocent..."

Her name was Elizabeth Howe.

She was one of five women who were hanged in 1692 during the first Salem witch trials.

She was described by her defenders as a loving, kind woman who cared for her blind husband and her children. But, in doing so, she had to make “decisions well beyond the accepted level for a retiring domestic Puritan housewife,” according to the “History of American Women.”

She was strong, she was independent, and she was outspoken.

During those times, that may have been enough to be accused of witchcraft.

“For Puritan women, there were so many ways to get accused of witchcraft,” according to The Conversation.

Olivia B. Waxman of TIME writes:

“According to Emerson Baker, author of “A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience, 156 people were formally charged with witchcraft—mostly women. Between June and September 1692, 19 people were hanged to death for the crime, and one was pressed to death by a rock. Five more died in prison between May 1692 and May 1693. Additionally, at least 120 were imprisoned for a year or more.”

This is a new story from the Jon S. Randal Peace Page, focusing on past and present stories seldom told of lives forgotten, ignored, or dismissed. The stories are gathered from writers, journalists, and historians to share awareness and foster understanding.

“Witchcraft is really all about scapegoating,” Baker says. “It took this perfect storm of factors to create the largest witchcraft outbreak in American history.” These victims included people who spoke a little bit differently—like with an accent—were confrontational, or suffered from mental or physical challenges. All of these victims got blamed for what was perceived as a decline in religiosity in Puritan New England society.”

“History is often misunderstood, much like the women who were accused of being witches were misunderstood,” wrote Waxman.

The first women accused of witchcraft were Tituba, an enslaved Caribbean woman; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly impoverished woman, according to the Smithsonian.

“Witch trials didn’t target the powerful,” according to The Conversation. “They persecuted society’s most marginal members – particularly women.”

Other women, like Elizabeth Howe, were accused by neighbors, possibly envious of her independence.

“Elizabeth apparently was not a submissive female figure,” according to the “History of American Women.” “She had to take strong positions to safeguard the interests of her blind husband and her children.”

Rebecca Beatrice Brooks in the historyofmassachusetts web page said, according to the book “The Societal History of Crime and Punishment in America”:

“A number of historians have speculated as to why the witch hunts occurred and why certain people were singled out. These proposed reasons have included personal vendettas, fear of strong women, and economic competition. Regardless, the Salem Witch Trials are a memorial and a warning to what hysteria, religious intolerance, and ignorance can cause in the criminal justice system.”

Europe also had its share of witch trials and executions, as a way of punishing women. According to the Smithsonian, “Between the mid-16th and early 19th centuries, an untold number of women in England (as well as Scotland and colonial America) underwent ducking [being immersed in water while tied to an apparatus known as a ducking stool] as a punishment for speaking out of turn. Largely forgotten today, the practice speaks to the lengthy history of policing women’s voices—a trend that continues today.

In her book, “Gender, Media and Voice: Communicative Injustice and Public Speech”,

Cultural studies scholar Jilly Kay “argues that demonizing women’s speech was a way of controlling them.”

“Women were often really punished for challenging power, for challenging patriarchal power, and capitalist power as well,” she says.

~~~~~

According to the Conversation, “Women held a precarious, mostly powerless position within the deeply religious Puritan community.

“The Puritans thought women should have babies, raise children, manage household life and model Christian subservience to their husbands. Recalling Eve and her sinful apple, Puritans also believed that women were more likely to be tempted by the Devil.

“As magistrates, judges and clergy, men enforced the rules of this early American society.

“When women stepped outside their prescribed roles, they became targets. Too much wealth might reflect sinful gains. Too little money demonstrated bad character. Too many children could indicate a deal with a devil. Having too few children was suspicious, too.

“Women were both the victims and the accused in this terrible American history, casualties of a society created and controlled by powerful men.”

“Puritans were very hostile towards colonists who didn’t follow the strict religious and societal rules in the colony,” wrote Brooks.

“The accusations were overwhelmingly hurled at women,” according to writer Veronica Esposito. It “started with the scapegoating of ostracized members of the community.’ It started with marginalized women who were in one way or another more easily scapegoated, and then it spread to these wealthier and sometimes male figures.”

~~~~~

“Elizabeth How was hanged on July 19, 1692, along with Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse, and Sarah Wilde,” according to ThoughtCo.

[Note, in some articles, Elizabeth’s last name is also spelled “How.” Note also that the picture attached is not of Howe; The 1869 oil painting 'Witch Hill (The Salem Martyr)' by Thomas Satterwhite Noble shows a young woman posing as a condemned witch, courtesy of Thomas Satterwhite Noble/New-York Historical Society.]

“In 1709, How’s daughter joined the petition of Phillip English and others to get the victims’ names cleared and to get financial compensation. In [October] 1711, they finally won the case, and Elizabeth How’s name was mentioned among those who had been unfairly convicted and some executed, and whose convictions were reversed and nullified.”

However, “the trials were not technically completed until July of this year, when Elizabeth Johnson Jr became the last of the accused to be formally cleared of all charges of witchcraft.”

~~~~~

“The Salem witch trials are an example of a community at its absolute worst,” according to Anna Danziger Halperin, associate director of the Center for Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society and coordinating curator of the New-York Historical Society’s new exhibition, The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming, which runs from October 7 through January 22, 2023.

“It’s something that we look to as example of what not to do, and yet we keep repeating these mistakes,” she added.

“While people are not being put on trial for being witches in 2022, Baker sees the shadows of witch hunts in some of our modern-day paranoia—“Salem moments,” as he calls them,” wrote Waxman “Extremism, scapegoating, racism, hatred, bigotry—as long as we have that, we’re going to have some version of witch hunts,” he says.

“We still live with the legacy of the connections between contingent features of somebody's being and their moral character,” notes Wellesley College professor Julie Walsh. “We as a society have these ideas about how a person looks, and the way that they are sexualized or racialized in our society has some connection to their moral character.”

Walsh notes Halloween as an obvious example, according to writer James Bennett II. “Walsh challenges us to think about where a lot of the imagery — specifically witch imagery — comes from. The pointy hat and crooked nose? Antisemitic holdovers from depictions of Jewish religious ritual and physical caricature. And green skin relates back to that whole bit about outward appearance being linked to moral stature. Even the ritual of trick-or-treating, Walsh argues, mimics the action of a poor woman going door to door for food (the treat), lest you refuse her and suffer a hex (the trick).”

Even the term “witch”, according to author Judika Illes in the New York Times: “People use the word ‘witch’ as an insult — as an insult for a woman who maybe has too much power or is perceived as arrogant . . . It’s a word to cut women down.”

The “witch trials weren’t just about accusations that today seem baseless. They were also about a justice system that escalated local grievances to capital offenses and targeted a subjugated minority,” according to the Conversation.

“What has always resonated with me is that these are some of the earliest historical examples in the US of women being vilified for acting outside of their accepted role,” said Governor Jane Swift.

~~~~~

“In Elizabeth’s defense, James Howe, her father-in-law who was then ninety four years old, presented a letter to the court commending Elizabeth as a loving, obedient, and kind person who looked after his blind son and their children. The minister and his assistant from Rowley also spoke on her behalf,” according to the “History of American Women.”

“Never did her blind husband or her children change their loving feelings towards her. They walked miles twice a week to visit her in prison, bringing her things to eat and objects to provide her comfort.”

“Reckoning and Reclaiming also reminds us of the very real people behind these historical events, its ample documentation helping audiences to connect with the humanity of the witch trials’ victims,” wrote Esposito.

“It was the darkest time in Massachusetts’ history,” said David Allen Lambert, chief genealogist for NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society)

“It echoes today, what happens when disinformation spreads and neighbours turn on neighbours.”

At a city of Salem, Mass.memorial to commemorate the people who were convicted and killed during its notorious series of "witch trials" in 1692, the Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell of the First Church in Salem told the assembled crowd, "We should not be here today. We should not be here dedicating this memorial and setting aside this small patch of rocky earth. We should not be here commemorating the heartbreaking and tragic loss of life, people who were falsely and unjustly accused of being in the snare of the devil."

“These were real lives, and lives that were ruined, and the way that we tell that story carries so much weight,” said Danziger Halperin. “We really want to make sure that we do it in a way that honors those real lives and helps us stand up against injustice moving forward.”

According to the Salem Award Foundation website, there are roughly 25 million people around the world who are descended from the Salem Witch Trials victims and the other participants in the trials.

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

#Salem Witch Trials #History

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detectivehole · 1 year

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Port Royal

Port Royal is a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and commerce in the Caribbean Sea by the latter half of the 17th century.[1] It was destroyed by an earthquake on 7 June 1692, which had an accompanying tsunami, leading to the establishment of Kingston, which is now the largest city in Jamaica. Severe hurricanes have regularly damaged the area. Another severe earthquake occurred in 1907.

Port Royal was once home to privateers who were encouraged to attack Spanish vessels, at a time when smaller European nations were reluctant to attack Spain directly. As a port city, it was notorious for its gaudy displays of wealth and loose morals. It was a popular homeport for the English and Dutch-sponsored privateers to spend their treasure during the 17th century. When those governments abandoned the practice of issuing letters of marque to privateers against the Spanish treasure fleets and possessions in the later 16th century, many of the crews turned pirate. They continued to use the city as their main base during the 17th century. Pirates from around the world congregated at Port Royal, coming from waters as far away as Madagascar.

After the 1692 disaster, Port Royal's commercial role was steadily taken over by the nearby town (and later, city) of Kingston. Plans were developed in 1999 to redevelop the small fishing town as a heritage tourism destination to serve cruise ships. The plan was to capitalize on Port Royal's unique heritage, with archaeological findings from pre-colonial and privateering years as the basis of possible attractions.[1]

CLIMATE

Port Royal has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification Aw) with a short dry season from January to April and a lengthy wet season from May to October. Temperatures remain steady throughout the year with the dry season being slightly cooler and range from 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in January to 27.7 °C (81.9 °F) in May. The average annual precipitation is 1,345 millimetres (53 in).[2]

HISTORY

The Taino historic indigenous people of the Caribbean occupied this area for centuries before European settlement. They used the area, which they called Caguay or Caguaya,[3] during their fishing expeditions. Although it is not known whether they ever settled at the spot, they did inhabit other parts of Jamaica.[4]

Colonisation

The Spanish first landed in Jamaica in 1494 under the leadership of Christopher Columbus, leading to the destruction of the Taino population. Permanent settlement occurred when Juan de Esquivel brought a group of settlers in 1509. They came in search of new lands and valuable resources, like gold and silver. Instead they began to cultivate and process the sugar cane. Much like the Taino before them, the Spanish did not appear to have much use for the Port Royal area. They did, however, retain its Taino name.[3] Spain kept control of Jamaica mostly so that it could prevent other countries from gaining access to the island, which was strategically situated within the trade routes of the Caribbean. Spain maintained control over the island for 146 years, until the English took control following their invasion of 1655.

The town was captured by England in 1655 during the invasion of Jamaica.[4][5] By 1659 two hundred houses, shops and warehouses had been built around the fort; by 1692 five forts defended the port.[6] The English initially called the place Cagway but soon renamed it as Port Royal.[3] For much of the period between the English conquest and the 1692 earthquake, Port Royal served as the unofficial capital of Jamaica, while Spanish Town remained the official capital. In 1872 the government designated Kingston, the largest city, as the capital.[6]

Piracy

Port Royal provided a safe harbour initially for privateers and subsequently for pirates plying the shipping lanes to and from Spain and Panama. Buccaneers found Port Royal appealing for several reasons. Its proximity to trade routes allowed them easy access to prey, but the most important advantage was the port's proximity to several of the only safe passages or straits giving access to the Spanish Main from the Atlantic.[6] The harbour was large enough to accommodate their ships and provided a place to careen and repair these vessels. It was also ideally situated for launching raids on Spanish settlements. From Port Royal, Christopher Myngs sacked Campeche and Henry Morgan attacked Panama, Portobello, and Maracaibo. Additionally, buccaneers Roche Brasiliano, John Davis and Edward Mansvelt used Port Royal as a base of operations. In 1657, as a solution to his defence concerns, Governor Edward D'Oley invited the Brethren of the Coast to come to Port Royal and make it their home port. The Brethren was made up of a group of pirates who were descendants of cattle-hunting boucaniers (later anglicized to buccaneers), who had turned to piracy after being robbed by the Spanish (and subsequently thrown out of Hispaniola).[5] These pirates concentrated their attacks on Spanish shipping, whose interests were considered the major threat to the town.

These pirates later became legal English privateers who were given letters of marque by Jamaica's governor. Around the same time that pirates were invited to Port Royal, England launched a series of attacks against Spanish shipping vessels and coastal towns. By sending the newly appointed privateers after Spanish ships and settlements, England had successfully set up a system of defence for Port Royal. Spain was forced to continually defend their property, and did not have the means with which to retake its land.[5]

Spain could not retake the island and, due to pirates, could no longer regularly provide their colonies in the New World with manufactured goods. The progressive irregularity of annual Spanish fleets, combined with an increasing demand by colonies for manufactured goods, stimulated the growth of Port Royal. Merchants and privateers worked together in what is now referred to as "forced trade." Merchants would sponsor trading endeavors with the Spanish, while also sponsoring privateers to attack Spanish ships and rob Spanish coastal towns.[5] While the merchants most certainly had the upper hand, the privateers were an integral part of the operation.

Nuala Zahedieh, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, wrote,

"Both opponents and advocates of so-called 'forced trade' declared the town's fortune had the dubious distinction of being founded entirely on the servicing of the privateers' needs and highly lucrative trade in prize commodities."[7] . . . "A report that the 300 men who accompanied Henry Morgan to Portobello in 1668 returned to the town with a prize to spend of at least £60 each (two or three times the usual annual plantation wage) leaves little doubt that they were right".[7]

The forced trade became almost a way of life in Port Royal. Michael Pawson and David Busseret wrote "...one way or the other nearly all the propertied inhabitants of Port Royal seem to have an interest in privateering."[8] Forced trade was rapidly making Port Royal one of the wealthiest communities in the English territories of North America, far surpassing any profit made from the production of sugar cane. Zahedieh wrote, "The Portobello raid [in 1668] alone produced plunder worth £75,000, more than seven times the annual value of the island’s sugar exports, which at Port Royal prices did not exceed £10,000 at this time."[7]

Since the English lacked sufficient troops to prevent either the Spanish or French from seizing it, the Jamaican governors eventually turned to the pirates to defend the city.[9] By the 1660s the city had, for some, become a pirate utopia and had gained a reputation as the "Sodom of the New World", where most residents were pirates, cutthroats, or prostitutes. When Charles Leslie wrote his history of Jamaica, he included a description of the pirates of Port Royal:

Wine and women drained their wealth to such a degree that [...] some of them became reduced to beggary. They have been known to spend 2 or 3,000 pieces of eight in one night; and one gave a strumpet 500 to see her naked. They used to buy a pipe of wine, place it in the street, and oblige everyone that passed to drink.

The taverns of Port Royal were known for their excessive consumption of alcohol such that records even exist of the wild animals of the area partaking in the debauchery. During a passing visit, famous Dutch explorer Jan van Riebeeck is said to have described the scenes:

The parrots of Port Royal gather to drink from the large stocks of ale with just as much alacrity as the drunks that frequent the taverns that serve it.

There is even speculation in pirate folklore that the infamous Blackbeard (Edward Teach) met a howler monkey, while at leisure in a Port Royal alehouse, whom he named Jefferson and formed a strong bond with during the expedition to the island of New Providence.[citation needed] Recent genealogical research indicates that Blackbeard and his family moved to Jamaica where Edward Thatch, Jr. is listed as being a mariner in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Windsor in 1706.[10] Port Royal benefited from this lively, glamorous infamy and grew to be one of the two largest towns and the most economically important port in the English colonies. At the height of its popularity, the city had one drinking house for every 10 residents. In July 1661 alone, 40 new licenses were granted to taverns. During a 20-year period that ended in 1692, nearly 10,000 people lived in Port Royal. In addition to prostitutes and buccaneers, there were four goldsmiths, 44 tavern keepers, and a variety of artisans and merchants who lived in 2,000 buildings crammed into 51 acres (21 ha) of real estate. 213 ships visited the seaport in 1688. The city's wealth was so great that coins were preferred for payment over the more common system of bartering goods for services.

Following Henry Morgan's appointment as lieutenant governor, Port Royal began to change. Pirates were no longer needed to defend the city. The selling of slaves took on greater importance. Upstanding citizens disliked the reputation the city had acquired. In 1687, Jamaica passed anti-piracy laws. Consequently, instead of being a safe haven for pirates, Port Royal became noted as their place of execution. Gallows Point welcomed many to their death, including Charles Vane and Calico Jack, who were hanged in 1720. About five months later, the famous woman pirate Mary Read died in the Jamaican prison in Port Royal. Two years later, 41 pirates met their death in one month.[11]

The Royal Navy

Under British rule the Royal Navy made use of a careening wharf at Port Royal and rented a building on the foreshore to serve as a storehouse. From 1675, a resident Naval Officer was appointed to oversee these facilities;[12] however, development was cut short by the 1692 earthquake. After the earthquake, an attempt was made to establish a naval base at Port Antonio instead, but the climate there proved disagreeable. From 1735, Port Royal once more became the focus of the Admiralty's attention. New wharves and storehouses were built at this time, as well as housing for the officers of the Yard. Over the next thirty years, more facilities were added: cooperages, workshops, sawpits, and accommodation (including a canteen) for the crews of ships being careened there.[13] A Royal Naval Hospital was also established on land a little to the west of the Naval Yard; and by the end of the 18th century a small Victualling Yard had been added to the east (prior to this ships had had to go to Kingston and other settlements to take on supplies).[13]

At the start of the 19th century, a significant amount of rebuilding took place in what was by now a substantial Royal Navy Dockyard serving the fleet in the Caribbean. A sizeable storehouse with a clocktower formed the centrepiece, with a covered way leading from it to the careening wharves. The adjacent Port Admiral's (later Commodore's) House included a watch tower, to counter the threat of privateers. The Yard continued to expand to meet the new requirements of steam-powered vessels: the victualling wharf became a coaling depot in the 1840s, and twenty years later a small engineering complex was built.[13] The Yard continued to expand through to the beginning of the 20th century, but then (with the Admiralty focusing more and more on the situation in Europe) the Navy withdrew from its station in Jamaica and the Dockyard closed in 1905.

Many of the Dockyard buildings (most of which were of timber construction) were subsequently demolished or destroyed (some in the 1907 Kingston earthquake, others by Hurricane Charlie in 1951).[14] A few remain in place, however, including the Naval Hospital complex, some of the steam engineering buildings and a set of officers' houses.[15] There is also a slipway, completed as late as 1904, which (with its accompanying sheds) was designed for housing and launching torpedo boats, stationed there for the Yard's protection. In 2014, it was announced that some of the Historic Naval Hospital buildings would be restored to house a museum as part of a broader Port Royal Heritage Tourism Project.[16]

Earthquake of 1692

The town grew rapidly, reaching a population of around 6,500 people and approximately 2,000 dwellings, by 1692. As land on which to build diminished, it became common practice to either fill in areas of water and build new infrastructure on top of it, or simply build buildings taller. Buildings gradually became heavier as the residents adopted the brick style homes of their native England. Some[who?] urged the population to adopt the low, wooden building style of the previous Spanish inhabitants, but many refused. In the end, all of these separate factors contributed to the impending disaster.

On 7 June 1692, a devastating earthquake hit the city causing most of its northern section to be lost – and with it many of the town's houses and other buildings. Many of the forts were destroyed, as well; Fort Charles survived, but Forts James and Carlisle sank into the sea, Fort Rupert became a large region of water, and great damage was done to an area known as Morgan's Line.[4]

Although the earthquake hit the entire island of Jamaica, the citizens of Port Royal were at a greater risk of death due to the perilous sand, falling buildings, and the tsunami that followed. Though the local authorities tried to remove or sink all of the corpses from the water, they were unsuccessful; some simply got away from them, while others were trapped in places that were inaccessible. Improper housing, a lack of medicine or clean water, and the fact that most of the survivors were homeless led to many people dying of malignant fevers.[17] The earthquake and tsunami killed between 1,000 and 3,000 people combined, nearly half the city's population.[citation needed] Disease ran rampant in the next several months, claiming an estimated 2,000 additional lives.[18]

The historical Jamaica earthquake of 7 June 1692 can be dated closely not only by date, but by time of day as well. This is documented by recovery from the sea floor in the 1960s of a pocket watch stopped at 11:43 a.m., recording the time of the devastating earthquake.[19][20]

The earthquake caused the sand under Port Royal to liquefy and flow out into Kingston Harbour. The water table was generally only two feet down before the impact, and the town was built on a layer of some 65 feet (20 m) of water-saturated sand. This type of area did not provide a solid foundation on which to build an entire town. Unlike the Spanish before them, the English had decided to settle and develop the small area of land, even while acknowledging that the area was nothing but "hot loose sand".[21]

According to Mulcahy, "[Modern] scientists and underwater archaeologists now believe that the earthquake was a powerful one and that much of the damage at Port Royal resulted from a process known as liquefaction."[21] Liquefaction occurs when earthquakes strike ground that is loose, sandy, and water-saturated, increasing the water pressure and causing the particles to separate from one another and form a sludge resembling quicksand. Eyewitness accounts attested to buildings sliding into the water, but it is likely[clarification needed] some simply sank straight down into the now unstable layer.[21]

Underwater archeology, some of which can be seen in the National Geographic Channel show Wicked Pirate City, reveals the foundations of building underwater, showing there was subsidence, as do comparisons of post-earthquake maps and pre-earthquake maps.

Some attempts were made to rebuild the city, starting with the one third that was not submerged, but these met with mixed success and numerous disasters.[citation needed] An initial attempt at rebuilding was again destroyed in 1703 by fire. Subsequent rebuilding was hampered by several hurricanes in the first half of the 18th century, including flooding from the sea in 1722, a further fire in 1750, and a major hurricane in 1774, and soon Kingston eclipsed Port Royal in importance. In 1815, what repairs were being undertaken were destroyed in another major fire, while the whole island was severely affected by an epidemic of cholera in 1850.[clarification needed]

1907 earthquake and recent history

A devastating earthquake on 14 January 1907 liquefied the sand spit, destroying nearly all of the rebuilt city, submerging additional portions, and tilting The Giddy House, an artillery storage room built c. 1880 that is today a minor tourist attraction.[22]

Today, the area is a shadow of its former self with a population of less than 2,000 that has little to no commercial or political importance. The area is frequented by tourists, but is in a state of disrepair. The Jamaican government has recently resolved to further develop the area for its historic and tourist value. This is in part a result of abandonment of plans begun in the early 1960s to develop the town as a cruise ship port and destination.[23] The plans stimulated the archaeological explorations on the site which, in turn, led to the suspension of development solely as a port but now included archaeological and other attractions.[6]

In 1981, the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University began a 10-year underwater archaeological investigation of the portion of Port Royal that sank underwater during the 17th century. The program focused on an area that had sunk directly into the sea and suffered very little damage. Due to very low oxygen levels, a large amount of organic material could be recovered. The efforts made by the program have allowed everyday life in the English colonial port city to be reconstructed in great detail.[24]

In 1998, the Port Royal Development Company commissioned architectural firm The Jerde Partnership to create a master plan for the redevelopment of Port Royal, which was completed in 2000.[25] The focus of the plan is a 17th-century-themed attraction that reflects the city's heritage. It has two anchor areas: Old Port Royal and the King's Royal Naval Dockyard. Old Port Royal features a cruise ship pier extending from a reconstructed Chocolata Hole harbour and Fisher's Row, a group of cafes and shops on the waterfront. The King's Royal Naval Dockyard features a combination shipbuilding-museum and underwater aquarium with dioramas for views of the native tropical sealife.[25] The Royal Naval Dockyard also includes the headquarters for the Admiral of the Royal Navy. The redevelopment plan also includes a five-star hotel.[26]

Today, Port Royal is known to post-medieval archaeologists as the "City that Sank".[27] Robert Marx considers it the most important underwater archaeological site in the western hemisphere,[citation needed] yielding 16th–and-17th-century artifacts and many important treasures from indigenous peoples predating its 1518 founding, some from as far away as Guatemala. Several 17th and early 18th century pirate ships sank within Kingston Harbour and are being carefully harvested, under controlled conditions, by various teams of archaeologists. Other "digs" are staked out along various quarters and streets by different teams.[citation needed]

By 2019, a floating pier where a cruise ship could dock had been built; the first ship arrived on 20 January 2020. Tourists from a few ships (after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have ended) might be beneficial to the town, but "there’s still much work to be done if the town will become the 'world-class heritage, environmental and cultural attraction'" according to a BBC Travel report published in September 2020.[28] Another report that month discussed the well-funded Living Heritage Programme which was seeking "to transform the town into a SMART, safe and secure community with a vibrant local economy, preserved cultural heritage and protected natural environment".[29]

IN POPULAR CULTURE

Film

1934: Port Royal is the one of the settings for the film Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn.[30]

1942: Port Royal is the main setting for the film The Black Swan, starring Tyrone Power and George Sanders.

1953: Port Royal is the "City Beneath the Sea" in the film of that name.

2003: Port Royal has been featured as a location within Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film series, though much of the location work for Port Royal was actually done on the island of Saint Vincent, not in Jamaica.[31]

Literature

1987: Tim Powers's historical fantasy novel On Stranger Tides describes the earthquake that nearly destroyed Port Royal in 1692 and several scenes are set in the city.

1989: James Michener's historical novel Caribbean details the history, atmosphere, and geography of Port Royal.

2009: Extensive scenes in Michael Crichton's posthumous novel Pirate Latitudes take place in Port Royal in the mid-1660s.

#CAP'N SKULL

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statecryptids · 2 years

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ROUGAROU- LOUISIANA

original post here: http://statecryptids.blogspot.com/2022/04/rougarou-louisiana.html

A strange, unearthly cry echoes across the mirrored surface of the Louisiana bayou, echoing off scattered cypress and tupelo dripping with Spanish moss. Is this merely the call of a wading bird? A lone puma? Or is it the shriek of the man-wolf creature known as the Rougarou?

Rougarou is a Cajun variation on “loup garou”, the French word for werewolf. France has a long history of werewolf folklore. In the 16th century these creatures were often blamed for crimes such as disappearances, animal killings, and particularly violent burglaries. In a parallel to the infamous witch hunts also taking place at the time, scared and panicked villagers would usually accuse someone living outside the societal norms of the time- such as a hermit in the woods, or a person with mental illness- as being the beast. Once accusations had been made, the condemned had little ability to defend themselves in court other than to “confess” to being a werewolf and implicate others in their ddeds.

Many legends existed to explain how one became a loup garou. Some men (medieval werewolves were almost always masculine) could change by putting on a wolf’s skin- a possible link to legends of the Norse berserker warriors who would don bear skins to take on the beast’s power. Some people would become werewolves through cannibalism and other debauchery. Catholic priests claimed that a man who didn’t observe Lent for seven straight years would become a werewolf.

Stories of the loup garou came to North America in the 17th century with French settlers in the Acadia region, located in what is now Eastern Canada. In the aftermath of the French and Indian War, the British colonial government took over the region and forcibly deported most of the ethnically French Acadians. Many of these displaced people settled in Louisiana, originally a colony of France that was ceded to Spain in 1762. The Spanish government was fairly tolerant of the settlers, allowing them to continue their cultural practices- which included tales of the loup garou.

In modern times the rougarou has become more of a boogeyman to frighten children. Parents warn their kids not to misbehave or play in the swamp or else the beast will come for them. These stories usually do not make it clear if the creature is a transformed human or if it is always a humanoid beast akin to the Beast of Bray Road and other dogmen of the Midwest.

Despite- or, more likely, because of- its frightening appearance and behavior, the Rougarou has become a popular part of Louisiana culture. Costumes based on the creature frequently appear in Mardi Gras celebrations, and the city of Houma even has an annual festival themed around the creature.

SOURCES Rougarou Fest in Houma, Louisiana A page from www.pelicanstateofmind.com about the rougarou A post from www.whereyat.com about the rougarou National Wildlife Federation article on the rougarou Article from Tulane magazine about the rougarou Blog posts from Dr. Kaja Franck about werewolves Monstrum episodes on Werewolves, hosted by Dr. Emily ZarkaPart 1Part 2

#cryptid #werewolf #cryptozoology #monster

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ltwilliammowett · 4 years

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The Ribadeo ship: a 16th century galleon

The galleon was not found until 2011 in the bay of Ribadeo, Spain. The shipwreck is probably from the 16th century, from the time of King Phillip II of Spain. In order to understand the dimensions of the shipwreck, it is necessary to understand who it is. Unfortunately, as with most wrecks, not much is left except for a remnant of the outline and keel.

One hypothesis was that it was the galleon Santiago, built at the same time as her twin galleon San Felipe. These galleons had a similar shipbuilding concept and were sent to Ireland in 1596 as part of the fleet "La flota del Socorro de Irlanda" or "The Fleet for Military Support of Ireland". Both on the way to Ireland and back home the Spanish fleet suffered from storms and their ships were damaged. Because of this damage, the Santiago had to anchor and land in the north of the Iberian Peninsula together with two other Urcas (a kind of cargo ship), which had thousands of soldiers on board. In 1597 the Santiago was shipwrecked at a shallow depth and its crew was supported by the villagers of Ribadeo. No one died in the wreck and all the soldiers and sailors found shelter in the village.

Hull remains

However, during dendrochronoligical researches it was found out that this still unnamed galleon with wood comes from the area around Vesuvius and was therefore built in the shipyards of Naples. In 1590 the San Giacomo was built in Naples at the same time as this galleon and was a truly inposant ship. She was one of the elite ships of its time. Its deck was caulked to ensure that it floated despite being hit, even near the waterline. The wood of the hull is twice as thick as the usual one (12 cm) and was made entirely of oak except for some elements of the compartmentation, which were made of pine. She was a big girl, 1,200 tons and 34 meters long.

The Conflict

In 1596 England plundered Cádiz, which led Philip II to consider the need to defend the Spanish coasts and also to avenge the English offensive by attacking them on their territory.

Stone shots

After a short time dedicated to the transport of goods, the San Giacomo went to Cádiz, where it underwent military tests to convert it into a fighting ship. The quality of the ships built in Naples gave her the opportunity to be awarded the title of admiral ship of the Ragusano squadron, which left for Fallmouth (Cornwall) in 1597 from La Coruña and Ferrol under the command of Juan del Águila and Martin de Padilla. There were 108 other ships that were incorporated from other ports. A total of 136 ships, 24 caravels, 8634 soldiers and 4000 sailors, plus 300 horses according to the Adelantado de Castilla census. In this fleet were two thirds of the infantry, those from Naples and those from Lombardy in the so-called Andalusia squadron, which consisted of 32 ships. Possibly the San Giacomo was one of them.

Battle of Cadiz

Together with this fleet there was another one destined for Brittany (1000 men), which was destined for the port of Blavet, which was under Spanish rule between 1590 and 1598, and which finally did not fight.

On 17 October 1597, three days after leaving the port, they reached the English Channel without finding the English fleet, which followed the Spaniards on the return routes of the colonies to plunder them. But once again a violent storm dispersed the fleet, although there was no reason to regret the misfortune of the previous event (1596) off the coast of Ireland, and even 400 elite soldiers landed near Fallmouth, barricaded themselves in and waited for reinforcements to begin the invasion of London. In total there were 7 ships, and it was already November.

After two days they had to reembark and set course for Spain, as it was impossible to restructure the ships of the fleet.

Réplica de Galeón Andalucía, this replica stands for the construction type of that time and this is how the San Giacomo could have looked like

The shipwreck

On the way back, the San Giacomo was unlucky and crossed three ships with which she went into battle, one English and two Dutch ones, and it seems that she was quite touched, enough not to be able to reach La Coruña and decide to take refuge in the Ría del Eo, where she could not even reach the port and was sunk on the sandy bottom on 13 November.

Since it was a quiet area, the crew could be saved and the treasure of 91,000 ducats that they were carrying and the artillery could be saved. Her captain Jacobe Joan de Polo still had to justify himself for the incident. Unfortunately we don't know what happened to him. But as already mentioned it took until 2011 until she was found again and is still being worked on.

#naval history #spanish #Spanish Galleon #16th century #the ribadeo ship #age of sail

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chronicparagon · 3 years

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Onmyoji AU: The Phoenix from the West, Blessed and Cursed

Disclaimer: This verse is based on the Onmyoji rpg and information I found about North America during the suggested time period and from other AUs. This includes the early encounters with European settlers and the damage of colonialism. Although I could not find records of Native Americans being in Japan around the earlier eras, other ethnicities have been there.This includes Yasuke, a samurai of African descent from the 16th century. This also touches on Eastern mythology of the phoenix. I thought this would be symbolism of Harmony’s journey of rising from tragedies, if that makes sense. I did my best to combine Eastern and Western Indigenous perspectives and this I will continue to work on it.

This could be subject to change when more information can be found and this AU is open to suggestions for improvement. Triggers are tagged.

TLDR: A cleric who would not let bad things that happened keep her down. She travels as a healer with the capabilities to bless and invoke divine intervention, which can affect weaker spirits and demons.

It is hard to say where she came from. Most people did not know the past behind the quiet young woman who holds a gift that is both a blessing and a curse.

Her journey began as an infant brought to the Land of the Rising Sun.

She was seen as a commodity like her people including her mother. She was born to an Indigenous woman held captive by travelers who bore the skin that was as white as snow and hearts as cold as the bitter winters. Horrible barbarians indeed with greed driving their twisted scheme. Search for gold and precious resources ravaged the land the native people held sacred. They retaliated against the invaders, but these strangers always seem to come back in greater numbers. They attacked the villages, slaughtered the bravest of warriors including the woman’s husband and the father of her child who came to the world in the darkest hours of the night, just before the dawn. Her name was Mato Ciqana (Little Bear), after her father, Mato. Though her mother used to call her Ciqana for short. She was not quite like most babies. A quiet infant who was never fussy or rambunctious and many found endearing for this and for her eyes.

The child’s eyes were not the beautiful dark hues seen by her people, but bright silver, much like the moon. There is a reason to this, but the truth would not be known until later in the child’s life. It was an early sign of what she would become.

Though originally intended to be a slave, a man took pity on the young mother and her baby and took them in. He later married the mother and took Ciqana as his own child. He gave her the name Harmony.

The girl lived her early childhood in Europe and she was more rebellious. Most children made fun of her for her darker complexion, which often led the girl to get into fights. She was scolded for this, but that did little to stop her when she or others were targets of harassment. She lived up to her name, as fierce as the grizzly bear when the time came.

It was often discouraged, but Harmony’s mother secretly taught her about her roots. She was taught her tribe’s language including prayers. Though she was deemed lucky to a protected life from what would have been a grim fate, this would not last. Her father served as a protector of missionaries who would travel to Japan. Harmony and her mother went along with them. This is where blood drenched Harmony’s story. The attack came in the dark of the night when missionaries arrived to Japan. Sinister beings that are not from the mortal realm found fun in reaping the foreign souls.

Almost everyone perished, almost.

When the time came to kill the child, Harmony’s ability came to her aid. She came from a line of wičháša wakȟáŋ and wičháša winyan, holy men and women who healed the people and served the spirits. Though the holy people and healers were chosen by the spirits through dreams and rituals, her first calling came in a dire moment. One of the two demons cast hellish fire on the girl, just to watch her writhe and cry for mercy. Harmony does not remember how it happened. She tearfully said a prayer in her native language, her heart pleading for salvation. Eyes shut tight, she heard the anguished cries of her devilish assailants before they perished by a holy light. They were weaker demons who would fall to holy powers. Harmony remembered the screams, the painful burns of cursed fire searing into her skin, and the tears she shed for her mother.

It was then that darkness swallowed the world around her. Surely, this would have been the end had it not been the child’s will to live and divine intervention that she invoked.

As always, light followed darkness. Harmony woke up to the golden morning light, no longer out in the lone road but in the home of a kind old man. He was a doctor who came across the massacre with the girl being the only survivor. Knowing she is alone, he adopted the child despite not knowing where she came from. From there, he gave her a name to help her blend into Japan’s society.

He called her Mizuki after her gray eyes that shine as bright as the moon. Though she preferred the name Harmony or her birth name, she had no choice but to accept the new name. Though her heart could never be healed after losing her family, she slowly adapted to her new home. Unfortunately, she was badly burned, leaving scars carved into her skin. Ridicule from the village children for her appearance and not having a family incited her old habit of defending herself with violence.

Harmony had to learn the hard way that she should not resort to fighting as she grew older. The fighting stopped as she grew older, but while she became a gentle young woman, she would not tolerate injustice. She became more withdrawn from other people, often seeking refuge in the forest embracing the village where she practiced the old prayers and honed her skill in healing on animals, granting every one of them a new chance at life. While she was taught to be a proper lady, Harmony was not denied learning the ways of medicine as she had an interest in it. Her guardian taught her what he knew, and she incorporated it into her healing capabilities as well as holistic healing that her mother taught her. Harmony would never forget these teachings as it is her way of honoring her people and the spirits who protected her when near the clutches of death.

The old doctor has plans for Harmony who he insisted to call Mizuki as she neared marrying age. There were several suitors as they heard about the girl with skin kissed by the sun and silver eyes that resemble the moon. She held the reputation of being quiet with a kind heart as an adult, nothing like the wild child who acted out. Though her scars turned most of them away, which made courting difficult. She did not mind being single. No, she was not against marriage and wished to have that someday, but believed she was not ready for it. She took her time, though the rejections for her imperfections often hurt her. It didn’t help when rumors about her being inhuman for her healing which was not deemed as normal for humans.

The woman’s life would take another turn as tragedy struck once again. Demons attacked the little village. Harmony did what she could to protect her home and guardian. She did not abandon it, just as her ancestors from the west who stood their ground when invaders attacked.

But there were too many to fend off herself and she fell, seen as dead, but her body was not touched as she laid unconscious in the blood of her fellow villagers. This was due to outside forces intervening in her favor. This was yet another pivotal moment as she would find herself in another world. It was filled with warmth and light. She remembered seeing a proud bird flying above her before it perched before her. It was then that she found that the bird was a phoenix. A powerful voice came from the bird.

“Fear not, child. I have not come to harm you.” He begins, “I come with a message. You have seen what you can do. You can heal the wounds of the body. Your heart is strong and yearns heal broken spirits and spare the innocent souls. This all part of your destiny. You are called to become a holy woman, one who holds the gift of healing the body, mind, and spirit. You hold the gift to protect the weak from darkness and cast away evil.” Harmony remembered these words as though it was yesterday.

“You must go forth and use your skills to heal the sick, protect the weak, and bring light to this dark world. This is the path you will tread. You are like myself. You fell in darkness and cursed flame, but you have risedn again. Just as you will rise again from the ashes where you lay. Go forth and be the light.”

Go forth and be the light...

The dream faded with the spirit’s last words. That was when she woke in the ruins of her home. That is when she noticed a new mark on her body. It’s a mark of a bird with wings outstretched on her back. It was the mark of the spirit. Forced to relive the darkest moment of her life. Alone and surrounded by people who perished in brutal ways.

To this day, Harmony would not forgive herself for being so weak as she wanted to protect others. How she wept for the people around her. Despite their distrust in her and how they made fun of her as children, her heart remained pure and full of love for others. Harmony did what she could for them, giving the villagers their last rites from what was taught to her on this land and from her mother. She gave her goodbyes to the doctor who raised her, no matter how her heart ached, she knew it must be done, using her knowledge and skills to bless the bloodstained earth and free the souls.

That was what she did before leaving with what she could salvage.

From there, the young woman moves on with the spirit’s words on her mind and a new mission: Tend to others in need, embrace healing, and use her abilities to banish evil with the same methods as her ancestors held close to them. She is blessed to be a holy agent and healer, cursed to live on land that is not her own, which affects the strength of her gift and cursed to have little acceptance for she carries marks of hellish fire. But despite these misfortunes, they did not keep her down. She still lives with kindness and bring healing energy.

She rose from the ashes of devastation and heartbreak, just like a phoenix.

#here is my long-ass AU #a big royal mess #yes she is essentially a cleric #might make changes as I learn more about the history and the Onmiyoji world #left in the dark #racism tw #slavery tw #violence tw #blood tw #death tw #fire tw #I'll continue to work on this and clarify if there's any confusion

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useless-catalanfacts · 5 years

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Hie! As a non spanish person with Catalan friends who get really heated up with the subject and cant explain it thru. Why is that they want to separate from spain? And havent they done like 4 or 5 referendum thingies to gain independence and they've all turned our negative or whatever it is that means we wanna stay? I come in peace and hope not to get shouted at like my friends did to me when I asked. Sincerely, the Tall Friend

I think you’re confusing Catalonia with Quebec or Scotland or some other country. We’ve had 1 independence referendum and yes to independence clearly won it. The pro-independence political parties have also been winning the elections every time since 2012.

Let’s start with the beginning.

What is Catalonia? And what was Catalonia?

Catalonia is a country with its own language (Catalan), culture, and history. It developed in the Middle Ages, when it was an independent country.

As you can see, we have two neighbours: Spain and France. As you will probably know, those are two of the most imperialistic countries in Europe (they colonised Latin America, the Caribbean, parts of Africa, the Philippines, etc).

I will try to explain the historical part as fast as possible so we can get to nowadays, but to understand the situation you need a bit of historical context.

Before going to invade lands far away, the European colonial powers invaded their neighbours and fought other European countries. Catalonia, because of its location and importance in Medieval Mediterranean commerce, was targeted.

In 1469, the Queen of Castilla (Spain) and the King of Catalonia-Aragon got married. This was normal at the time and did not mean that the two countries became one. On the contrary, each country remained independent, just that with the same monarchy. It didn’t really matter for Catalonia because Catalonia was ruled by a Parliament (and the king didn’t really have that much power), but Castilla (Spain) was an absolute monarchy (meaning that the King had all power).

With time, the kings and many Spanish people started to really hate Catalans because they were seen as un-Christian for having other forms of government than the Catholic absolute monarchy. And since Catalonia had its own laws and traditions, those were seen as un-Christian and traitorous. Most of the greatest writers, politicians, nobles, etc of the Spanish Golden Century (1500s-1600s) were openly very Catalanophobic.They said Catalans are “the most miserable creature ever created by God”, “a monstruous abort of politics”, “an illness against the kings”, all Catalans were often called thiefs, or that “it is well known the obstinity and savagery of this people [Catalans], the most criminal of all” (all of these are literal quotes). Catalans were also said to be guilty of spreading Judaism in Spain for whatever reason.

(In fact, even nowadays fascist Spanish people often tell Catalans and Basques to “speak Christian” meaning to speak Spanish instead of our languages).

Spain wanted to force all population to convert to Christianism (at that moment a lot of the population, especially in the south, was Muslim), and to become a Castillian (that is, a Spaniard in the modern sense of the word: speak only Spanish, be Catholic, have an absolute monarchy, celebrate Spanish celebrations, etc). This is the moment when Spain did the expulsion of Jewish and Moorish people and when it started its repression of Catalan, Basque and Romani people.

Castilla (Spain) tried to gain as much power as possible in Catalonia, convinced the upper classes of Catalonia that they had to abandon the Catalan language (which they considered a “peasant’s language” and not evolved enough for finer minds), and so the upper classes started to speak Spanish and try to imitate the Spanish way of doing everything. But practically everyone kept speaking Catalan, and Catalonia remained independent (with its own laws, parliament, insititutions, etc).

Until there was a moment where the Spanish monarchy couldn’t stand that Catalonia has such a different political system. In the year 1714, Spain (Castilla) won the War of Spanish Succession against Catalonia and other territories, and proceeded to invade Catalonia and the other Catalan-speaking territories (Valencia and the Balearic Islands).

Spain teamed up with France, which means they were the two most powerful armies in Europe. Obviously, Catalonia-Aragon lost the war, and was invaded.

The invasion meant that Spain could finally do what they wanted with this land: they banned our language and imposed Spanish, they eliminated our traditional laws, they eliminated our institutions and imposed the Spanish absolute monarchy, they imposed Spanish “gobernadores” (governors) to rule our lands, they burnt down whole towns, they closed our universities, they forbid schools for ever speaking in Catalan or teaching Catalan history, they forbid churches to say mass or teach Catechesis in Catalan, they killed many of those who had fought to defend Catalonia from the Spanish invasion publicly to humiliate them (for example, general Josep Moragues was killed after being dragged alive by a horse through the streets of Barcelona and then killed and his head was displayed as a warning in the entrance to Barcelona for 12 years, even with his widow’s begging), among many other things.

Please, see this post for a list of laws made against the Catalan language between the 16th and 19th centuries. And this post for the laws between 1900 and 2016 (when I made the post, I could say more laws now).

After the invasion of Catalonia, the idea that Catalans must be “Spanishized” and that speaking Catalan makes us inferior spread more and more among Spanish people, as did the general hate against us. This is why Catalonia was often victim of Spanish soldiers’ rape, stealing harvest, etc without facing any consequence, because the Spanish kings and officials allowed it.

France also tried to invade us many times, then Spain invaded back, then France, then Spain... but I won’t get into that because it would make this post unnecessarily long.

The worst moment though, was definitely the fascist dictatorship of Franco (1939-1978).

Fascism in Spain adds Catalans (as well as the other national minorities: Romani people, Basques, Galicians, Asturians, etc) to their list of enemies.

Catalonia was always a progressist place, and in the 1930s a huge part of Catalans was anarchist. Fascism made a coup d’etat which they called “a crusade against the reds”, and Catalans were not only targeted for being Catalan but also for being all seen as “reds” (anarchists and communists) and atheists. The anthem of the fascists (called Cara al sol) said “Catalan, Jew, and renegade [atheist], you’ll pay for what you have done”.

The fascist coup d’etat did not triumph in Catalonia thanks to the resistance of the antifascist unions and the Government of Catalonia, which organised civilians militias. Sadly, in the end the fascists won the war (Spanish Civil War) and established a dictatorship. They killed the president of Catalonia and thousands more people who opposed them. Everyone who defended the right to speak Catalan was tortured and killed. Schools were forbidden from teaching in Catalan or mentioning Catalan history, literature, etc. Catalan teachers were fired and either killed (many teachers were leftists) or forced to go to a rural village far away from their home, and schools in Catalonia were replaced by Spanish fascist teachers or people from the Spanish army. These teachers beat the children if they were heard speaking in Catalan. Schools taught the superiority of Spain and the Spanish language and the glory of the Spanish empire. Children were made to sing the fascist anthem and pray every day before starting class. Some Catalan traditions were banned, such as our traditional dance. Many of our traditional songs were also banned, and people even went to jail in for singing them (for example, la Santa Espina). Every family knows people who were tortured and/or killed by the regime, sometimes for no reason, sometimes for their political beliefs.

The dictator died in 1975 and Spain entered a phase known as the “transition to democracy”. Catalonia was given a bit of self-government (not much) and our language was legalised to use at schools.

Even with this, we have whole generations born and raised under the fascist regime who were brainwashed into hating Catalans, Basques, Jews, atheists, etc. And even in Catalonia, there are still people who are ashamed of being Catalan. For example, the neonazis who murdered Miquel Grau and Guillem Agulló (two Valencian young men who were targeted for being independentists) were not from other parts of Spain.

It is scary, because our country is controlled by another one which is full of people who hate us, and the Spanish governments have always (even nowadays) discriminated Catalonia in front of other regions and actively work against us.

Many people wanted to try to be able to keep our language (which was weakened by the fact that it was persecuted for most of the 20th century) and pass different laws. Spain is very conservative, Catalonia is not. If you look at the maps every time there are elections, you can see the voting results in Spain vs. the voting results in Catalonia and the Basque Country are very different.

So the governments of Catalonia have been asking the Spanish government to have a few more control over our own territory (Spain is very centralist, so most power is in the hands of a central government in Madrid). Spain has always said NO. Please see this previous post with a video that explains all the ways we have tried.

Catalans basically were saying “yes, we will be part of Spain with no problem, as long as we’re allowed to speak our language and have some laws to protect women, poor people, etc”. Every time, we had less demands. We were begging that yes! we wanted to be part of Spain but just these little demands! But they never allowed anything. Spain still has a very imperialist mindset, and see our sole existance as a threat (that’s why you get the Minster of Education Wert saying in parliament that “we must turn Catalan kids into Spanish kids”).

So in front of that, people got tired. More and more people saw that the only way we can truly advance to a more equal and democratic society is if people who live in Catalonia can decide how Catalonia should be run, and not just obey the comands of a government in Madrid that has never had any intention of helping our land prosper, and who have an opposite idea of what the future should be like.

So we asked for an independence referendum. Many times. They always said no. So we said “fuck it, we’ll do it anyway”. So we organised October 1st 2017. Spain declared it illegal, searched for the ballot boxes and voting papers for months, sent thousands of military police to beat up voters and steal the ballot boxes with the votes, etc. The police brutality on that day was shameful, and yet the Spanish government and the King said the policemen were honourable for doing so, and many Spanish people gave them support too and greeted the policemen singing “a por ellos” (go get them).

Please, read more about what happened in October 1st and after it in this post.

Even though the police stole votes, physically stopped people from entering the voting schools, etc. 43% of the people of Catalonia voted (in fact, over 50% voted but their votes were stolen by the police and could not be counted). And 90,2% of the votes were “yes to independence”.

Spain’s response? A democratic country would have found the solution to meet with the Catalan goverment and talk about it, maybe find a middle point, listen to the demands of Catalans... But no. Spain’s response was to jail the politicians who had taken part in the organisation of the referendum as well as the leaders of the main civil organisations, more people arrested, and arbitrary imprisonment in . They also took down websites that talked about the referendum and independence, said we had made up that the police had beaten voters (even though over a thousand people had to be hospitalized just on the day of the referendum as a result of police brutality and there are hundreds of photos and videos), and apply Law 155 in Catalonia (which means that the Catalan institutions are dissolved and Catalonia is ruled directly from Madrid. The party at the Spanish gov in that moment was the far right wing PP, which in Catalonia had only gotten 13% of the votes. That is basically a dictatorship).

And now, every time there is more and more repression. Some people ask us if we are not scared of the arrests, jailings, police brutality, etc. Yes, we it’s scary. But not protesting and remaining under Spanish occupation is even scarier. For mental health, I don’t think I could stand the rest of my life seeing how Spanish media treats us. I don’t want to see my grandmother cry when she watches the news because “it’s like Franco again”. I don’t want to see more of my friends in trials for things they have not done. I don’t want to be temporarily arrested again because a policeman saw me wearing a yellow ribbon (symbol of solidarity with political prisoners) and decided I must be up to something.

tl;dr Spain is a fascist state and we want no part in that.

Catalan people want to be treated as equals and this will never happen in Spain. We want to be able to pass the social laws we have voted for (to welcome refugees, equal pay for women, protect the Earth, abolish monarchy, not have political prisoners, stop evictions, etc) and Spain does not allow us to. The only option is independence.

Please, read this previous post and you’ll see how Spain bans Catalonia from progressive laws, and so how independence will make life much better for all its citizens. And hopefully, more Spanish people will realise that life is happier when we respect each other and work in cooperation for a better future.

#ask #anonymous #actualitat #catalunya #catalonia #independence #catalan independence

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nightcoremoon · 4 years

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I don't like the song amazing grace or what it stands for in the context of african post-slavery cultural genocide juxtaposed with white western european colonialist christian values.

so like, african cultural heritage is what it is, right? it's heavily important to world history and obviously every ethnic group is valuable in its own way because humans are worthy of respect and stuff. that's a given.

so when slavery happened and the africans were stripped of their individuality and heritage and nationality and basically underwent mass cultural AND ethnic genocide. that fuckin sucks because a) slavery is bad and b) genocide is bad and c) being denied your birthplace and stuff is bad. I can't simplify this any further.

so what happened in history? many african slaves found solace in christianity and the bible because it gave them hope and distracted them from the hellish existence that is slavery. that continued throughout the generations past abolition through the civil rights movements and continues today. black christianity derived from slavery is the root of 90% of music we listen to today; it's heavily influential on today's cultural climate and the contributions of the black american cannot be denied. even now a significant portion of christianity in america is heavily attributed to african descended black people.

there's just one thing about that that really bothers me:

american christianity is heavily rooted in white western imperial european colonialism. oh no.

there are so many black christians with no idea where their ancestors lived or what cultural heritage they're derive from. they were robbed of their history. while white europeans have the privilege of being able to know so many things about their great great great etc grandparents. in this context white americans count because we're here because of european invasions. we can trace our lineage back for generations. so many of us know that we're 17% Italian or 17% Irish or 17% French or 17% Swedish n shit like that. most black americans don't know if their parents are part Kenyan or Ethiopian or Congo or Sudanese or whatever. that's why they refer themselves as black because all they have to go by is the color of their skin, because the people who owned their great great grandma sure as fuck didn't write down what country their slave came from because they didn't care because they treated black people as property because life was a godawful hellhole back then for most people. they don't get to know what country they're from like most white people do.

so when they turn to not only christianity but a specific form of christianity, protestant sects, it's like another step of cultural genocide. by embracing a religion created by white people to control minorities and women, regardless of how much they change it to make it their own, it's still rooted in the same bloody soil. they turn further from their own roots in the many different varying mythologies i can't talk much about because society values the mythology of nonblack people so much more: Greek, Norse, Egyptian (well the Egyptians were black but society loves to ignore that fact and whitewash them), Shinto, etc.

now I'm not saying that all black christians are directly responsible for participating in their own cultural genocide. that's an asinine claim. there are plenty of black jews, black muslims, black atheists, black pagans, black greek/norse/egyptian/shinto/etc followers, and surely there are lots of modern black euroamericans who still keep in touch with their cultural roots. the religious decisions of every individual are their own through mental autonomy and the ownership of their own consciousnesses.

what I AM saying is that christianity is a lot more insidious and evil than it appears to be on the surface. it was used as a defense of owning slaves- "africans deserve to be slaves because they're sons of ham, descended from the son of noah god cursed because the bible". it was used to protest abolition. it was used to uphold segregation. it was used to protest black votes. it's used to defend cops who kill unarmed men. it is, always has been, and always will be used as a weapon by white people against black existence. and the fact that throughout all of that, the exact same failed system of belief [speaking from a historical perspective of course because white christianity in the 16th century and beyond is massively poisoned by the bloated and corrupt papacy further than what it already was during the medieval and dark ages] was embraced so readily by the people that it oppressed...

it's just really concerning to me.

& it's not even a black thing. the prevalence of catholicism in mexican and other latin american culture is the same way. east asia is ripe with larger cultural superpowers eating the smaller ones and pretending they don't exist, just like china with taiwan, except not in a religious way. the holy roman empire did the same thing. and don't even get me started on the armenian genocide committed by the ottoman empire. and the fucking holocaust: hitler was christian. people say he wasn't a good christian since a good christian wouldn't try to kill the jews, the romani, the black, but are you sure about that? looking at all of history are you ABSOLUTELY SURE that white western imperialist european christian colonialism wouldn't try to murder everyone who didn't conform? naziism is on the rise again and it's masquerading as christianity. the president is a nazi and a christian.

no, this has nothing to do specifically with african and black populations and everything to do with christianity. except through "amazing grace" and its prevalence in that community.

also the man who wrote it manned slave ships. he was conscripted into it, became a slave in sierra leone for a while, and eventually became an abolitionist, but still :/ imagine if rommel the kraut of africa wrote a song and a hundred years later it became a celebrated jewish hymn. that would be incredibly fucked up and wrong.

but whatever, maybe I'm looking too far into this, maybe there's no illuminati boogeyman trying to erase black and jewish culture from world history, maybe it's all just a big goddamn coincidence that the victims of colonialism embraced the religion that the imperials used. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe just maybe it's a fucking fluke.

anyway black people can like the song if they want. they can be christians.

I just hate the song and won't be a christian. you do you and I'll do me and we'll all get along happily.

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a-god-in-ruins-rises · 4 years

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Tagged by @ad-decus-reignited

~Where are you isolated? (Country or city too if you like)

just outside of los angeles.

~What are you currently reading or watching?

reading dune, quicksilver, hyperion, one god: pagan monotheism in the roman empire, and the crisis of parliamentary democracy.

currently watching narcos, peaky blinders, the terror, and rewatching black sails.

~If you can go outside, what do you like to do during this time?

i like to just chill in my backyard. do some grilling. lift weights. drink. tend to my tomato plants.

~Any fascinating concept you’re studying?

idk. i’m always studying a bunch of different things. things which i at least find interesting. but idk if others would. been doing a lot of reading about cybernetics and government and neoplatonism.

but something else i have been reading about...anyone who knows me knows i love the bosporan kingdom. originally a greek colony in crimea that eventually became its own kingdom and then became a client kingdom to the roman empire, then the byzantine empire. i love it because it’s just the beacon of greco-roman civilization in an otherwise uncivilized place. but also, it was a blend of greco-roman culture with the natives. the natives originally being scythians. i think that’s a fascinating blend of cultures. but yeah. the bosporan crimea, this greco-roman-scythian kingdom existing on the crimean peninsula, constantly defending itself from barbarian incursions (scythians, sarmatians, goths, huns, bulgars, rus, tartars, etc). they were the longest lasting roman client state. the bosporan kingdom was also a center for hypsistarians, a fascinating pagan quasi-monotheistic religious cult. this region was also home to the longest lasting community of goths. on some accounts they remained a unique culture in crimea up until the 16th or 17th centuries, possibly even as late as the 18th century. supposedly they eventually mixed with crimean tartars and converted to islam.

but now i’ve also discovered another interesting thing about this region (one of many). apparently, after the norman conquest of england, there was a group of anglo-saxons that took to the sea, sailed down the atlantic coast, passed through the straits and into the mediterranean sea, where they proceed to seize and plunder several muslim-held cities, before eventually reaching constantinople, which at the time was besieged by heathens. the anglo-saxons then helped break the heathens’ siege and as a reward the emperor offered the anglo-saxons an opportunity to join his varangian guard. some of the anglo-saxons liked this idea and agree. but the rest of them wanted a land of their own. so the emperor told them about lands far to the northeast that were once under imperial control but has since been lost to some heathens. the anglo-saxons set sail again to find this land, which they did, and supposedly they settled there, proclaiming this new land of there “(new) england”.

so yeah, a crimean new england is a fascinating concept imo.

~What kinds of acts of creativity/forms of art are you currently doing?

writing, mostly.

~A song/s that resonates with your state of mind at the moment?

https://youtu.be/kcmzKFwun98

~Favourite impulsive/’bad’ coping techniques?

i don’t cope. i only thrive. everything i do is good, even if you think it’s bad. drinking in the morning? good. grilling burgers for breakfast? good. reading a book outside until i fall asleep beneath the midday sun? good. playing hours of video games with my friends? good. having a one-man rave? good. lifting weight way beyond my limits? good. staring blankly at the sky for an hour? good. punching walls? good. impulsively starting five new hobbies right before bed? good. staying up until 3 AM reading about ancient/medieval crimea? good. arguing with anonymous strangers online? good. practicing giving a speech in the shower? good.

I’ll tag haha

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safiurrehmanblr-blog · 5 years

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History of Britain Empire from start to Now Thе Unіtеd Kingdom is a nаtіоn lосаtеd іn the Brіtіѕh Iѕlеѕ mаdе up оf England Scotland Wаlеѕ and Nоrthеrn Irеlаnd thоuѕаndѕ of уеаrѕ ago thе Iѕlеѕ were іnhаbіtеd bу long-forgotten pre-celtic people knоwn as thе bеаkеr сulturе nаmеd for thеіr dіѕtіnсtіvе pottery beakers little іѕ known оf thеm but іt has bееn ѕuggеѕtеd thаt thеѕе people lаіd thе fоundаtіоnѕ for thе mуѕtеrіоuѕ ѕtоnе hеngе a series оf heavy ѕtаndіng ѕtоnеѕ whісh wеrе transported from 150 mіlеѕ аwау аnd аrrаngеd to fоrm асаlеndаr marking thе days оf thе ѕummеr аnd wіntеr ѕоlѕtісе оvеr tіmе wаvеѕ of Celtic speaking реорlе аrrіvеd frоm thе Eurореаn соntіnеnt whо soon саmе tо fоrm thе brіttоnіс Gaelic аnd Pictish реорlе these реорlе were nоt a unіfіеd people but wеrе rаthеr mаnу trіbеѕ who shared a ѕіmіlаr раgаn rеlіgіоn lаnguаgе аnd сulturе thе Romans іnvаdеd соnԛuеrіng whаt'ѕ nоw Englаnd and Wаlеѕ but fаіlеd tо conquer thе Pісtіѕh tribes tо thе nоrth thе Romans launched ѕеvеrаlсаmраіgnѕ іntо thіѕ lаnd they саllеd Caledonia however thеіr fоrtіfісаtіоnѕ wеrе soon оvеr run аnd аbаndоnеd аnd thеу rеtrеаtеd to Hаdrіаn'ѕ Wаll theirconquered lands wеrе іnсоrроrаtеd іntо thе Rоmаn Emріrе bесоmіng thе рrоvіnсеоf Brіtаnnіа they brоught Roman сuѕtоmѕ аnd lаwѕіmрrоvеd infrastructure аnd соnnесtеd mаnу tоwnѕ and сіtіеѕ wіth Rоmаn rоаdѕwhеn the Rоmаnѕ left thеrе wаѕ a great mіgrаtіоn оf Gеrmаnіс tribes thеѕе wеrеthе Jutеѕ Anglеѕ and Sаxоnѕ with their language Old Englіѕh thеіr settlementpushed many Brіtоnѕ tо areas іn Wаlеѕ Brіttаnу аnd a kingdom knоwn аѕ DоmіnоNіа whіlе Scotland еvеntuаllу evolved іntо fоur kіngdоmѕ thuѕ mоѕt оf thesewere the Scots who were originally from Irеlаnd the Britons оf Strаthсlуdе thеаnglо-ѕаxоn kіngdоm оf Benicia аnd thе pics of Albаfоr unknown reasons the Jutes disappeared from history but the Anglesand Sаxоnѕ eventually fоrmеd Seven Kingdoms Wessex Sussex Kеnt Essex EastAnglia Murсіа аnd Bеnісіа bесаmе Northumbria after thе соllарѕе of DominoNia the rеmаіnіng tеrrіtоrу оf Cоrnwаll fоught аgаіnѕt thе роwеrful kіngdоm оfWеѕѕеx соrn wіll eventually fаll undеr the соntrоl of Wеѕѕеx but іt mаnаgеd tоkеер іtѕ оwn culture Wаlеѕ аt thіѕ point wаѕ аlѕо mаdе uр of several ѕераrаtеkіngdоmѕ the lаrgеѕt being Gwynedd іn thе North poets in the East аnd dіffеrеdtо thе ѕоuth thе Brіtіѕh Iѕlеѕ ѕооn saw numerous Nоrѕе raiders from Sсаndіnаvіаthеѕе wеrе thе Vikings and thеу began ѕеttlеmеnt оn many of thе Sсоttіѕh Islesthe Iѕlе оf Mаn and thеу еvеn fоundеd thе city of Dublіn іn Irеlаnd the Scotsin thе рісѕ thеn dесіdеd tо unite undеr Kenneth MacAlpine tо form thе Kingdom оfAlbа the kіngdоm оf аlbеrguе grеw ѕtrоng оvеr thе уеаrѕ and еvеntuаllуStrаthсlуdе wаѕ bоught іntо the fаult meanwhile Dаnіѕh Vіkіngѕ arrived іn thеAnglо Sаxоn kіngdоmѕ for соnԛuеѕt after fіghtіng thе king оf Wessex Alfred thеGrеаt the Dаnеlаw wаѕ fоrmеd a lаnd whеrе thе lаwѕ of thе Danes hеldіnfluеnсе оvеr the аnglо-ѕаxоnѕ controlling thе rеgіоn аnd іtѕ affairsthe аnglо-ѕаxоnѕ eventually dеfеаtеd the last Viking kіng of Yоrk Erich bloodacts аnd Athеlѕtаn bесаmе thе fіrѕt kіng оf thе Englіѕh аlthоugh thе newly fоrmеdKіngdоm оf Dеnmаrk would соnԛuеr Englаnd аnd even fоund a ѕhоrt-lіvеd Dаnіѕhdуnаѕtу undеr Knut the Norseman hаd a drаmаtіс іmрасt оn thе Iѕlеѕ ѕо it's nowonder ѕоmе wоrdѕ іn thе English lаnguаgе hаvе Nоrѕе оrіgіn аftеrdеfеаtіng formidable sea Rаіdеrѕ frоm Ireland thе Wеѕtеrn Isles Scandinaviaand аnglо-ѕаxоn fоrсеѕ frоm Murcia wеrе fed uр Llewellyn's ѕubduеd hіѕ rіvаlѕ іnѕоuthwеѕt Wаlеѕ Llewellyn bесаmе thе only Welsh Kіng ever tо rule оvеr thееntіrе territory of Wаlеѕ hе wаѕ dеfеаtеd bу thе Englіѕh Earl HаrоldGоdwіnѕоn and killed bу hіѕ оwn men lеаdіng tо the Wеlѕh kіngdоmѕ ѕрlіttіngараrt once mоrе at the death оf Edward the Cоnfеѕѕоr thеrе was a successiondispute bеtwееn fоur сlаіmаntѕ Hаrоld Godwinson was еlесtеd аѕ kіng andmanaged to defend England frоm аn іnvаѕіоn by thе Nоrwеgіаn King HаrаldHаrdrаdа hоwеvеr Hоwаrd hаd ѕеmаj his аrmу south to dеfеnd аgаіnѕt yookWilliam оf Nоrmаndу who соuld сrоѕѕ thе English Chаnnеl ассоrdіng tо trаdіtіоnаt the Battle of Hastings Harald was killed bу аn аrrоw tо thе еуе аnd thеNоrmаn invaders were vісtоrіоuѕ thе nеw Kіng William dеfеаtеd a numbеr оfrеbеllіоnѕ buіlt a nеw dеѕіgn оf саѕtlеѕ called moats аnd Bailey's аnd introduceda numbеr оf rеfоrmѕ like trial by соmbаt аnd the Dоmеѕdау bооk the Norman dуnаѕtуіnvаdеd іntо South Wаlеѕ аnd раrtѕ оf Irеlаnd сrеаtіng thе lоrdѕhір оf Irelandat соurt Nоblеѕ ѕроkеn соnduсtеd ѕеѕѕіоnѕ іn thе anglo-norman lаnguаgеwhісh endured for сеnturіеѕ аnd lеft аn іnсrеdіblе mark in dеvеlорmеnt of modernEnglish аftеr a brіеf Civil War hеnrу іі wоuldmаrrу Eleanor оf Aԛuіtаіnе еѕtаblіѕhіng thе Angеvіn Emріrе bеgіnnіng a lоngrіvаlrу against France Rісhаrd thе Lіоnhеаrt defended muсh of thіѕtеrrіtоrу аnd аlѕо bесаmе a central Christian commander durіng the ThіrdCruѕаdе асhіеvіng considerable vісtоrіеѕ аgаіnѕt hіѕ Muѕlіm соuntеrраrtѕ Sаlаdіnundеr kіng jоhn hеаvу tаxеѕ wеrе imposed оn hіѕ bаrоnѕ іn order tо pay fоr hіѕеxреnѕіvе Fоrеіgn Wаrѕ thе Bаrоn'ѕ rеbеllеd аnd fоrсеd John tо ѕіgn theMagna Cаrtа a сhаrtеr thаt еѕtаblіѕhеd the рrіnсірlе thаt еvеrуоnе wаѕ ѕubjесttо thе lаw even thе king guaranteeing thе rights оf individuals thе rіght tojustice and the rіght to a fаіr trial mоѕt of Nоrth Wales remainedindependently rulеd bу ѕеvеrаl Wеlѕh рrіnсеѕ until twеlvе sixteen whеnLlеwеllуn thе Great bесаmе thе rulеr оf the Principality оf Wаlеѕ thіѕ wоuld bеthе саѕе untіl іt but thе fіrѕt whо соnԛuеrеd Wаlеѕ in 1284 еffесtіvеlуbесоmіng раrtѕ England аt thе death оf Kіng Alеxаndеr thе thіrdSсоtlаnd wаѕ lеft wіth 14 rіvаlѕ fоr succession tо prevent сіvіl wаr theScottish magnates asked Edwаrd the fіrѕt оf Englаnd to еlесt a сlаіmаnt JоhnBаllіоl wаѕ еlесtеd Kіng but wаѕ constantly undermined bу Edwаrd whоорроѕеd Scottish іndереndеnсе Edwаrd decided tо launch ѕеvеrаl campaigns toconquer Scotland аnd depose King Jоhn tо whісh he асԛuіrеd thе nісknаmе hаmmеr оfthе Sсоtѕ undеr a brave Sсоttіѕh Knight Wіllіаm Wаllасе thе Scots mountedresistance аgаіnѕt thе Englіѕh dеfеаtіng them аt thе Bаttlе of Stіrlіng BrіdgеEdwаrd marched north in реrѕоn аnd defeated Wаllасе in bаttlе but Wаllасеmаnаgеd tо escape hе was later сарturеd аnd еxесutеd but hіѕ efforts allowedRobert thе Bruсе tо rіѕе uр аnd dеfеаt thе Englіѕh securing Scottishindependence when the King оf Frаnсе died wіthоut аn heir Edwаrd thе thirdwas technically еlіgіblе to thе сrоwn thrоugh hіѕ mother the Frеnсh Cоurtdеnіеd hіѕ сlаіm аnd іnѕtеаd installed Phіlір оf Vаlоіѕ Edwаrd paid hоmаgе tоPhіlір as he owned thе lands оf Gаѕсоnу аnd wаѕ еѕѕеntіаllу a vassal tо the Kіngоf Frаnсе duе tо disagreements Edwаrd reassertedhis claim to thе throne аnd іnvаdеd France bеgіnnіng thе Hundrеd Yеаrѕ Warthe English асhіеvеd notable victories аt thе Bаttlе оf Crесу Poitiers andAgincourt thаnkѕ tо the technical ѕuреrіоrіtу оf thе lоngbоw but wаѕunаblе tо соnԛuеr thе French wіth thе арреаrаnсе оf Jоаn оf Arc whо lіftеd thеFrеnсh ѕріrіt аnd turnеd thе tіdе оf thе wаr upon thе death оf Edward thе thіrdаn еntіrе generation was skipped іn the line of ѕuссеѕѕіоn which рrоmрtеd bіttеrrіvаlrу bеtwееn ѕеvеrаl сlаіmаntѕ mоѕt nоtаblу wеrе the hоuѕеѕ оf Yоrk аndLаnсаѕtеr tensions wеrе hіgh untіl a bloody аgе of wаrfаrе еruрtеd betweenthese twо factions іn thе Wаrѕ of the Rоѕеѕ іt'ѕ ѕо іn-dерth аnd complicatedthis реrіоd wоuld likely bесоmе a video of іtѕ оwn thе wars ended wіth thеаrrіvаl of the Tudor dynasty Henry thе еіghth wanting a dіvоrсе split wіth thесhurсh сrеаtіng hіѕ own Churсh оf Englаnd thіѕ ultіmаtеlу lеd tо a ѕеrіеѕоf rеlіgіоuѕ differences bеtwееn futurе Englіѕh mоnаrсhѕ іn between his ѕіxwіvеѕ and naval аdvеnturеѕ Henry gаvе Wales representation in Parliament аndсrеаtеd thе kіngdоm оf Irеlаnd but realistically hе оnlусоntrоllеd аn аrеа knоwn аѕ thе раlе іn аddіtіоn Henry's paranoia аnd ѕuѕрісіоnаmоuntеd to tеnѕ оf thоuѕаndѕ оf еxесutіоnѕ including hіѕ frіеndѕ andwives durіng thе 16th century thе lаrgеѕt of mоѕt powerful Emріrе wаѕSраіn undеr kіng philip іі england undеr Elіzаbеth the fіrѕt wеrе hеlріng Dutсhrеbеlѕ reject Sраnіѕh rulе and mаnу Englіѕh privateers were аlѕоіntеrсерtіng Spanish ѕіlvеr оn іtѕ journey back from thе nеw wоrld thisangered the ѕраnіѕh kіng аnd thе fіnаl straw саmе when Elizabeth hаd Mаrу Quееnоf Sсоtѕ еxесutеd bесаuѕе ѕhе dіd not wаnt Sсоtlаnd falling undеr Catholicismthe Spanish Armаdа соnѕіѕtіng оf 130 ships wаѕ dерlоуеd to іnvаdе Englаnd atthe Battle оf Grаvеlіnеѕ аnd English victory forced thе Spanish flееt to sailaround the British Isles bеfоrе ѕtоrmѕ іn the north оf Scotland dеѕtrоуеd thеrеmаіnіng ѕhірѕ іn mеtаllіаn thе еnglіѕh lеd bу Sіr Frаnсіѕ Drаkе аmаѕѕеd thеіrоwn Armada to іnvаdе Sраіn but thіѕ tоо became a failed еndеаvоr bоrn іn thisperiod William Shakespeare bесаmе a rеnоwnеd роеt рlауwrіght and асtоr whосоntrіbutеd ѕіgnіfісаntlу tо Englіѕh literature whеn Quееn Elizabeth ofEngland dіеd wіthоut аn hеіr hеr сlоѕеѕt male rеlаtіvе wаѕ Jаmеѕ the ѕіxth ofScotland Jаmеѕ wаѕ еlесtеd аѕ Kіng of Englаnd аndSсоtlаnd in a personal Unіоn although the соuntrу'ѕ remain separatepolitical entities as thе fіrѕt mоnаrсh tо rule thе entire іѕlаnd оf GrеаtBrіtаіn ѕеvеrаl аѕѕаѕѕіnаtіоn аttеmрtѕ wеrе mаdе bу Catholic соnѕріrаtоrѕ оnеѕuсh аѕѕаѕѕіnаtіоn attempt wаѕ the Gunроwdеr Plot by Guy Fаwkеѕ who trіеdtо blоw аt Parliament's аftеr a failed соlоnу knоwn аѕ Rоаnоkе Englandestablished a successful colony knоwn аѕ Jаmеѕtоwn whісh would eventually evolvedinto the 13 соlоnіеѕ аt first еxреdіtіоnѕ tо thе nеw world were mainlydriven by rеlіgіоuѕ mоtіvеѕ whісh wеrе predominantly to convert the nаtіvеѕ tоthеіr fаіth but соlоnіеѕ bесаmе mоrе profitable аѕ dеmаnd fоr new world сrорѕlіkе tobacco and ѕugаr іnсrеаѕеd Brіtіѕh ѕhірѕ also mаdе a mоnороlу оn thеtrаnѕроrtаtіоn of captive Afrісаn ѕlаvеѕ thаt сrоѕѕеd the Atlаntіс tо thеAmеrісаѕ mіllіоnѕ оf Afrісаnѕ wеrе shipped in сrаmреd horrific соndіtіоnѕtо wоrk оn brutаl рlаntаtіоn іn the Americas аnd essentially bесаmерrореrtу to their mаѕtеrѕ fоr 300 уеаrѕ thіѕ рrасtісе соntіnuеd іn thе BrіtіѕhEmріrе until іt wаѕ fully аbоlіѕhеd in 1833 this реrіоd аlѕо saw a wаvе оfрlаntаtіоnѕ іn Irеlаnd whеrе Irіѕh lаndѕ wеrе confiscated and gіvеn tо Englіѕhаnd Scottish ѕеttlеrѕ tеnѕіоnѕ wоuld rise bеtwееn Charles the fіrѕt andParliament following dіѕаgrееmеntѕ conflicts bеtwееn Rоуаl andparliamentary аuthоrіtу wіthіn England lеd to the Englіѕh Civil Wаr thе соuntrуbесаmе divided bеtwееn parliamentarians known аѕ thе Roundheads аnd Rоуаlіѕtѕknоwn аѕ thе Cavaliers undеr Olіvеr Crоmwеll and thе Nеw Mоdеl Armу thераrlіаmеntаrіаnѕ dеfеаtеd Charles аnd executed him for trеаѕоn сrоmwеll bесаmеLоrd Protector and dіѕѕоlvеd thе monarchy but shortly аftеr his dеаth іtwаѕ rеѕtоrеd undеr charles іі charles ii mаrrіеd Cаthеrіnе оf Brаgаnzа and whеnѕhе arrived frоm Pоrtugаl ѕhе іntrоduсеd the grеаtеѕt bеvеrаgе of all thе tіmе TEATea hаd been uѕеd bу Chіnа fоr сеnturіеѕ but іtѕ аrrіvаl іn thе 17th сеnturусарturеd the interest оf thе English aristocracy аnd soon сарtіvаtеd еvеrуоthеr Englishman in 1685 a саthоlіс James іі became kіng іn a lаrgеlуPrоtеѕtаnt nаtіоn Jаmеѕ'ѕ dаughtеr Mary аnd hеr Dutсh husband Wіllіаm wоuld bоthPrоtеѕtаnt аnd many Nоblеѕ unhарру with the Cаthоlіс King invited Wіllіаm tobecome Kіng Wіllіаm fоund соnѕіdеrаblе support when he іnvаdеd аnd hе wаѕ ѕооnсrоwnеd Kіng William thе thіrd in what bесаmе knоwn аѕ thе Glorious Rеvоlutіоnаlthоugh Wіllіаmѕ ѕuрроrtеrѕ dominated the gоvеrnmеnt there remained аѕіgnіfісаnt fоllоwіng fоr Jаmеѕ іі in the scottish hіghlаndѕ clan MасDоnаld ofGlencoe wаѕ one such grоuр whо hаd nоt been рrоmрt in рlеdgіng аllеgіаnсе tothe new monarch fоr thіѕ rеаѕоn аlоnе 38 mеmbеrѕ of the сlаn wеrе murdеrеd іnwhаt bесаmе knоwn аѕ the massacre of Glеnсое аftеr Sсоtlаnd'ѕ fаіlеd colonialendeavours in Nova Sсоtіа and Pаnаmа аnd аn economic сrіѕіѕ іn the 1690ѕ thеrеwаѕ a unіоn bеtwееn Englаnd аnd Sсоtlаnd fоrmіng thе Unіtеd Kingdom оf GreatBritain the House of Stuаrt'ѕ hаd ruled Brіtаіn fоr juѕt оvеr a сеnturу butеndеd wіth thе dеаth оf Quееn Annе Sорhіа оf Hаnоvеrthе grаnddаughtеr оf Jаmеѕ thе fіrѕt аnd her son George bесаmе Kіng Grеаt Brіtаіnѕооn fоund іtѕеlf drawn іntо several Eurореаn Wаrѕ most nоtаblе being thе wаrоf the Sраnіѕh Suссеѕѕіоn аnd thе Sеvеn Yеаrѕ Wаr vісtоrіеѕ in thеѕе Wаrѕrеѕultеd іn tеrrіtоrу for the Emріrе particularly in North Amеrіса аlthоughіt rеѕultеd in соnѕіdеrаblе dеbtѕ in оrdеr tо mаkе uр fоr thіѕ dеbt KingGeorge thе third оrdеrеd hеаvу taxes bе рlасеd оn thе thirteen соlоnіеѕ thіѕаmоng оthеr reasons сulmіnаtеd іntо thе Amеrісаn War оf Indереndеnсе аnd withfinancial hеlр frоm France аnd Sраіn thе Americans were vісtоrіоuѕ the EastIndia Cоmраnу whісh was fоundеd by Elіzаbеth thе first hаd grown rapidlyand еvеn ореrаtеd іtѕ оwn mіlіtаrу аnd controlled a ѕіzаblе amount of tеrrіtоrуthе соmраnу had ѕеt uр fоrtіfіеd warehouses whеrе they trаdеd with manyIndia rulеrѕ acquiring іmроrtаnt luxuries lіkеtеxtіlеѕ and ѕрісеѕ оnе оf thе mоѕt іmроrtаnt cities оf all was Bеngаl аѕ іthаd a large taxable рорulаtіоn thе gоvеrnоr of Bengal rоbеrt сlіvе оrdеrеdthаt thе population grow оріum tо еxроrt to Chіnа іnѕtеаd оf grоwіng food аѕ іtрrоvеd tо bе a grеаt ѕоurсе оf income hоwеvеr when a fаmіnе ѕtruсk іt rеѕultеdіn thе deaths of millions of реорlе mеаnwhіlе Captain Jаmеѕ Cооk аrrіvеd аtNеw Zеаlаnd аnd thе ѕоuthеаѕt соаѕt оf Australia аlthоugh hе wаѕn't the firstto dіѕсоvеr thе аrеа bесаuѕе of раѕt Pоrtuguеѕе and Dutсh еxрlоrеrѕ hоwеvеrunlіkе thе Dutch of Pоrtuguеѕе Britain сlаіmеd аѕ thеіr nеw penal colony knоwnаѕ New Sоuth Wales wіth thе first convicts аrrіvіng in 1778 a nеw threatshad emerged from Frаnсе Frеnсh Emperor Napoleon BonaparteMusicNapoleon had соmе tо dоmіnаtе most оf Europe but Brіtаіn'ѕ аdvаntаgе wаѕ thatshe wаѕ аn іѕlаnd аnd thе Royal Nаvу hаd bесоmе a major fоrсе аt sea invasion ofBritain wаѕ nеаr іmроѕѕіblе and іn a ѕеrіеѕ of coalition's Napoleon wаѕdеfеаtеd by the еnd оf thе Napoleonic Wars Brіtаіn was growing rapidly іntо аѕuреrроwеr bаѕеd оn thеіr ѕuрrеmасу оf naval engineering furthеrmоrе іn Irеlаndthе grеаt famine ѕtruсk a disease killing роtаtо рlаntѕ Ireland whісh hadmerged with Britain rеlіеd heavily on this crop for fооd but thе Brіtіѕhgоvеrnmеnt forced Irеlаnd to export what little fооd thеу hаd tо other areaswithout аnу аіd оr fооd Ireland's population plummeted by hаlf due tоѕtаrvаtіоn and еmіgrаtіоn to countries lіkе thе Unіtеd Stаtеѕ thіngѕ weren'tlooking ѕо great іn India еіthеr аѕ Indіа wаѕ rebelling аgаіnѕt соmраnу rulethe Eаѕt Indіа Company hаd еmрlоуеd mаnу Indіаn ѕоldіеrѕ known аѕ sepoys whоwеrе under the command оf British ѕоldіеrѕ thеѕе ѕероуѕ grеw increasinglyunhappy аnd a revolt soon оссurrеd уеt іt ԛuісklу fаіlеd duе tо a lасk оf unіtуbеtwееn Indіаnѕ аftеr thе rеbеllіоn thе British government tооk dіrесt controlwith Quееn Victoria bеіng dесlаrеd Empress of India durіng the 19th centurythe wоrld wаѕ fоrеvеr сhаngеd by the Industrial Revolution ѕосіеtу wastransformed bу tесhnоlоgісаl аdvаnсеѕ аnd іnсrеаѕіng mechanization аnd wouldlaunch Brіtаіn tо global dominance some оf thе greatest іnnоvаtіоnѕ аndіnvеntіоnѕ wеrе thе ѕеwіng mасhіnе thе fire еxtіnguіѕhеr ѕtеаm powered еngіnеѕаnd turbines thе еlесtrіс motor аnd рhоtоgrарhу Thе Tеlеgrарh was also аmаjоr іnvеntіоn аѕ a message соuld nоw bе ѕеnt from Brіtаіn tо Indіа іn аmаttеr оf hours thе establishment оf railways аnd trains аlѕо transformedtransport forever instead оf trаvеllіng days bу hоrѕе аnd саrrіаgе it now onlytook a mаttеr оf hоurѕ bу train engineering аnd соmmunісаtіоn аdvаnсе isnot only Unіtеd the Emріrе they triggered a mаnufасturіng bооm lіkе noother реорlе flосkеd frоm rurаl аrеаѕ to сіtу centres fоr jоbѕрrоduсtіvіtу rеасhеd аn all-time high but thе consequences of mаѕѕ mіgrаtіоnrеѕultеd іn еxtrеmеlу сrаmреd and роllutеdсіtіеѕ however wіth thеѕе рrоblеmѕ that wеrе gеnеrаtеd it resulted іn animproved sewage ѕуѕtеm Nеwсаѕtlе fосuѕеd оn ѕhірbuіldіngMаnсhеѕtеr the cotton іnduѕtrу Lіvеrрооl bесаmе a major trading сеntrеMіddlеѕbrоugh fіxаtеd іtѕеlf оn iron and steel wоrkѕ the рrеѕеnсе of іrоn оrеlіmеѕtоnе and large coal deposits in thе Wеѕt Mіdlаndѕ and southeast Walesprompted thе establishment of ironworks аnd Sсоtlаnd bооmеd іn the lіnеnіnduѕtrу the Victorian era аlѕо ѕаw a mаjоr сhаngе іn society аѕ fаmіlіеѕ frоmthе рооrеѕt bасkgrоundѕ gained access tо education аlthоugh іt wаѕ muсh stricterthan tоdау'ѕ ѕtаndаrdѕ thе 1860ѕ аlѕо saw the rise оf thе greatest fооdсоmbіnаtіоn еvеr fіѕh аnd chips tоwаrdѕ thе еnd of the 19th сеnturу Europeanpowers саmе tоgеthеr at thе Bеrlіn соnfеrеnсе tо dіvіdе Afrіса between thеmа group іn Sоuth Afrіса knоwn аѕ the Bоеrѕ whо оrіgіnаllу Dutch settlersproved dіffісult for the Brіtіѕh thе Bоеrѕ lived in twо nations the frееоrаngе ѕtаtеѕ аnd thе Rерublіс оf Trаnѕvааl аnd bоth rеѕіѕtеd Brіtіѕh ruleusing guerilla wаrfаrе tо соuntеr thіѕ the Brіtіѕh placed mаnу wоmеn аndсhіldrеn in their tеnѕ of thоuѕаndѕ into соnсеntrаtіоn саmрѕ when many died frоmѕtаrvаtіоn аnd disease Brіtаіn became a mаjоr рlауеr іn thе Fіrѕt Wоrld Wаr andmany mеn proudly vоluntееrеd tо ѕеrvе аnd рrоtесt thеіr country the Grеаt Wаrаѕ іt wаѕ саllеd ѕаw the use оf new tесhnоlоgу ѕuсh as drеаdnоughtѕwаrрlаnеѕ аrtіllеrу mасhіnе guns grenades chemical wеароnѕbоlt-асtіоn rіflеѕ and thе fіrѕt uѕе оf the tank many faced hоrrіfіс соndіtіоnѕіn the trеnсhеѕ аnd witness grоuрѕ оf battles mіllіоnѕ dіеd and mаnу returnedhome shell ѕhосkеd bу whаt thеу hаd ѕееn the Empire rеасhеd іtѕ territorialheights іn 1921 аftеr gaining territory frоm Gеrmаnу аnd thе сrumblіng OttоmаnEmріrе thе Empire nоw rulеd оvеr 400 mіllіоn реорlе and соntrоllеd onequarter оf the world's lаnd mаѕѕ but the reality wаѕ Brіtаіn соuld nо longerafford tо buіld bаѕеѕ оr ѕhірѕ tо defend іtѕ empire аѕ it had before19:14 Irеlаnd finally mаnаgеd tо brеаk away frоm Brіtіѕh rule аnd fоrmеd thеIrіѕh frее ѕtаtеѕ аnd shortly аftеr became a rерublіс the Second Wоrld Wаrwаѕ mоrе brutal аnd hоrrіfіс thаn thе first most оf Europe had fallen undеrGеrmаn оссuраtіоn and undеr Prіmе Minister Wіnѕtоn Churchill Britain stoodstrong durіng thе Bаttlе оf Britain аnd the Blitz Brіtаіn were еxtrеmеlуѕuссеѕѕful аt intercepting аnd dесоdіng enemy communications wіth thе lіkеѕ оfAlаn Turіng who сrасkеd thе Gеrmаn Enіgmа code thе wаr ended with an alliedvictory but mаnу nations within thе Emріrе fеlt a desire for іndереndеnсеаnd іt wаѕ clear thе Empire was about tо break Indіа wаѕ оnе ѕuсh nation whо wereready tо declare thеіr independence Mohandas Gandhi рrасtісеd a nоnvіоlеntаррrоасh аnd thіѕ proved ѕuссеѕѕful аrе ѕhоrtlу аftеr Indіа gained independencethe Commonwealth оf Nаtіоnѕ wаѕ fоrmеd tо improve rеlаtіоnѕ аnd есоnоmіс tieswith fоrmеr colonies this ѕtіll rеmаіnѕ tоdау wіth 53 mеmbеrѕ unіtеd bу lаnguаgеhіѕtоrу сulturе аnd ѕhаrеd vаluеѕ оf dеmосrасу thе Brіtіѕh Emріrе оffісіаllуеndеd wіth Hong Kоng Brіtаіn'ѕ lаѕt соlоnу bеіng hаndеd over tо Chіnа іn1997 thе Emріrе соmmіttеd mаnу аtrосіtіеѕ оn mаnу different peopleimposing thеіr сulturе аnd сіvіlіzаtіоn whіlе оftеn wiping out native ones оnthе оthеr hаnd thіѕ brоught аbоut glоbаlіzаtіоn аnd thе uniting оf themodern world аnd wіthоut ѕuсh іnnоvаtіоnѕ аnd іnduѕtrіаlіzаtіоn thеwоrld mіght hаvе bееn a very dіffеrеnt рlасе the United Kingdom ѕuffеrеd аѕmаll economic rесеѕѕіоn іn 2008 but hаѕ ѕіnсе rесоvеrеd іt іѕ a multісulturаlѕосіеtу with еасh region retaining a рrеѕеnсе оf іtѕ hіѕtоrу аnd culture ifyou еvеr vіѕіt lооk оut for thе Welsh cake thе hаggіѕ the whіѕkеу thе Chеlѕеаbun thе par mo thе Cumbеrlаnd ѕаuѕаgе thе Yоrkѕhіrе pudding or thе Cornishpasty thе UK remains a mеmbеr оf NATO UnіtеdNаtіоnѕ аnd thе Wоrld Trаdе Orgаnіzаtіоn and uѕеѕ the роund currency іn 2016 аrеfеrеndum resulted in 51.

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Project 2- Final Draft

Race has been a matter of debate, which has been dividing the opinions of many scholars, authors, researchers and even common people over the years. In this research paper we will look back into the history to find the “circumstances” which led to race being a criteria of segregation, how it evolved overtime to take physical and cultural differences (in case of indigenous people) into its realm along with the contemporary and hidden forms of racism which are seen by the people as self-explanatory and natural. In the end we will also look at the negative impacts of racism on whites (which sounds hard) who without noticing play a vital part in sustaining racism. In all the research paper will reflect the history of race, and portray that racial segregation has never stopped in America, rather it has continuously redesigned itself over and over again to be a reason behind social and political security.

Method- For the references in my research paper I first looked for the sources which could explain the origins of race as a term, when it was introduced and how the term evolved, so I got a source which was rather a history book talking about colonialism, but it was effective. Looking for the sources on contemporary forms of racism was quite easy but I took those books which explicitly gave examples (in writings or images) of different forms of racism in modern society. One of the books led me to many different words in modern racism like racial profiling, institutionalized racism, minimization of racism etc and so this is how I got another source which had a plethora of these newly described words. The line which continuously repeated in all of my sources was the negative impact of racism on Blacks, something which everybody knows, so I searched for books on influences of racism on Whites and after a lot of searching I finally found a helpful book.

Methodology- I wanted a synthesis of resources from 2 different (may be opposite) views/angles in my research paper, so I got one of the books written by Englishmen David Allen talking about history and perpetuation of racism without taking a stance and a contemporary book extremely critical of racism. Then I took 2 different books but written in nearly same time so that I can get to know more about modern racism with 2 viewpoints. Both the books talked about the same thing but with different examples which helped me understand the basis of modern racism. Finally, I took a book which analyzed the relationship between young white children and what happens when they are first exposed to racism.

If we look at a brief timeline of race starting from 1600′s we will see that it was non- existent till early 1700′s, then in 1700’s and 1800’s it played a major role in determining servant and master status (which infamously led to slavery and servitude for life), was at its peak during English colonialism and Jim Crow segregation laws, became somewhat of a lesser force after civil rights and it was after the civil rights movement that the modern, indirect and unseen forms of racism developed.

Remember the Jim Crow rules?

Source- Google Images

Looking into the history we find that the term race had been used to refer to humans occasionally since the 16th century in the English language but was rarely used to refer to populations in the slave trade. It was a mere classificatory term like kind, type or even breed or stock but had no clear meaning until the 18th century (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). It was at this time the English began to have wider experiences with varied populations and gradually developed attitudes and beliefs that had not appeared before in Western history (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). The English had a long history of enmity with the Irish on their borders and out of their hostility with the Irish, created an image of “savagery” in which they (Irish) became institutionalized as “the other”. Savagery soon embedded in English life which led to the construction of their own identity as “civilized” Englishmen. Every new experience, along with growing technological superiority, political and material success widened the differences and denigrated all other people who were not part of the civilized world or who resisted the English much like indigenous people (Allen, 1994). With the early rise of merchant capitalism, development of new forms of wealth, notions about individual freedom, property rights, self-sufficiency, the English identified themselves uniquely from other Europeans and started calling them lower-class Europeans (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015).

The “invention” of the white race took place after an early, but unsuccessful, colonial revolt of servants and poor freedman known as Bacon’s rebellion in 1676 (Allen, 1994). The colonialists subsequently decided to establish a division among the masses of poor to further prevent their collaboration against government authorities. Since European servants, had the protection of English law, colonial leaders developed policies backed up by law that separated African servants and freedmen of European origin. The laws provided resources and benefits to poor, white freedmen and restricted the rights of Africans, Indians. Sooner class divisions diminished among poor whites and they started to symbolize themselves as “whites”/upper class/colonialist due to their light skins and common grounds in Europe and started to accumulate power and wealth (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Reading-1, 2015). By mid 19th century racial class and racial ideology had already been established with whites being the superior and the masters and African-American being inferior and the slaves.

After knowing the history of race we shift our focus on contemporary forms of racism, something that has largely gone unnoticed and seen as naturalized or in other words it has the green light of the people. Best example that comes in the mind is that people have naturally accepted that whites and blacks cannot live in the same neighbourhood. However except for members of white supremacist organizations, few whites in the United States claim to be “racist”. Infact most whites assert that they “don’t see any color, just people”? (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, Chapter-3, 2013) (Ryan, William. 2004). So the natural question arises is that who are the people that are making this housing segregation among whites and blacks. It is because Blacks have less access to the entire housing market because whites, through a variety of exclusionary practices by white realtors and homeowners, have been successful in effectively limiting their entrance into many neighborhoods. The thing that strikes is that white people still think that race is no longer prevalent in America, but the above example was one of many methods of discrimination. Another such discriminatory method that comes in our mind is the increased mass incarceration of blacks where white cops (who are being paid by the taxes given by the citizens including black people) intentionally prison and even kill the black people for most minor of offenses and sometimes even for no offense. This is something called “racial profiling” (Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Framework Essay 2, 2015). One of the example of racial profiling in Rosenblum, Karen. E and Toni-Michelle C.Travis- Framework Essay 3 (2015) stands out where it says that when crack consumption increased among white people the government responded by increasing treatment tables in hospitals and extending insurance plans whereas when crack started influencing black people the government increased the prison numbers and started a “war on drugs”. This is what we call “color-blind racism” or “racism without racists” (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013).

Color-blind racism can be understood when comparing Jim Crow rules (a direct method of discrimination) and what we call “victim blaming”. Jim Crow racism explained blacks’ social standing as the result of their biological and moral inferiority, color-blind racism avoids such facile arguments. Instead, whites rationalize minorities’ contemporary status as the product of market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomena, and blacks’ imputed cultural limitations (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013). We have heard white people accusing blacks of being like thugs, lazy and advising them to work hard in order to gain wealth and power thus getting up in the societal ladder. This is the best example of what we call “victim blaming” (Ryan, William. 2004). Segregated houses are defended by saying that is natural and obvious that people from the same community and color want to live with one another and is something which has been accepted by the people (both blacks and whites) as well.

This is what the press had to say about the image- “A young man walks through chest-deep flood water after looting a grocery store”.

Source- Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008

The press said this about the image- “Two residents wade through chest-deep waters after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store”.

Source- Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008

As we know that media impacts the whole society, or its sphere of influence includes everyone. With a careful consideration we might be able to find the “race card/ race angle” as in the case of black man it is written “looting the store” whereas in case of white couple it says, “finding food from the grocery”. Without a doubt the captions and the images stirred up significant controversy with people saying that the images were racially suggestive that whites “find” and blacks “loot” (Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008).

It does require a great deal of imagination to think that how did the photographer knew that the black man looted the food whereas the white couple found the food. Had the captions been not there the same meaning would have been interpreted because race of the subjects inscribes those meanings (Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008). This stereotype that blacks are bad boys portrays the frame of mind of the people. Dr. King was not wrong saying that “people are judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.” (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013) but he must have never predicted that character of black people would be associated with murder, rapes, smuggling and of course loot and that of white people exactly the opposite. It was during the aftermath of Katrina only that the round of media speculation started where the media was showing that properties and people near the flood-affected area were being harmed, the news of rapes, murders were circulating the whole time on T.V. The people most affected from Katrina were poor black only, who were dying due to inadequate arrangements of the government after the flood and improper care of people by the government before the flood. The media changed the attention of the people from government ineffectiveness and the number of people dying to over-representation of blacks as criminals. So, media at the same time does under-reporting (what would be the future of affected people, government carelessness) to over-reporting (blacks are criminals) (Bonilla Silva, Eduardo, Chapter-1, 2013).

Think of a renowned white person who would you call racist, you will find many examples. However, think of a renowned white person you would call anti-racist activist, you will have a hard time remembering the name of any such person, but you will ultimately find someone. Not very often we had heard of impacts of racism on white people (especially young children). Consider a young white boy growing up, according to whom everyone is equal, realizes that the people of his color/community have commited some atrocious crimes against the blacks and he is the superior race and thus privileged. If he overcomes this realization of guilt he will take one of 2 extreme steps either completely avoiding the topic of race and racism and becoming the so called “neutral” and completely assimilate oneself to the hidden structures of racism or having a lot of black people as friends, spending a lot of time in the black community and ultimately wanting to act like a black person (Tatum, Beverly, 2009). Both these steps are the reasons behind the lack of white anti-racist activist. As we might know from the two options above that people will go towards the first one or the safer one and stop critically analyzing the things around them.

“Blacks came to America because the whites brought them here. It is due to their cheap labor, the economy of America is so good so why are they being forced out of the country with titles like “freedom from negro” becoming very common”.

In conclusion we can say that the introduction of racial segregation and racial identities was done by the English because of their fear of poor whites and possibly slaves engaging in rebellions together. From all the way to contemporary times what we see is “institutionalized” racism in popular culture and is reflected in the attitudes and beliefs of the people who have naively accepted it.

Works cited-

Allen, David, Elliston. The Naturalist in Britain :- A social history, Applause Theatre Book Publishers, 1994, Print

Rosenblum, Karen E and Toni-Michelle C. Travis. The Meaning of Difference: American Construction of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, sexual Orientation, and Disability- Framework Essay 1, Framework Essay 2, Reading 1. McGraw Hill, 7th edition, 2015

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2013. Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. Plymouth, UK: Blue Ridge Summit: Chapter 1, Chapter 3, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2013. 4th edition.

Harris, Cheryl I., and Devon W. Carbado. 2008. "Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?" in The Meaning of Difference : American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability, edited by Karen Elaine Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, c2008.5th Ed.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. 2009. "Teaching White Students about Racism: The Search for White Allies and the Restoration of Hope." Pp. 277-88 in Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education, edited by Edward Taylor, David Gillborn, and Gloria Ladson-Billings. New York: Routledge.

Ryan, William. 2004. "Blaming the Victim." in Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, edited by Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. 6th ed.

Reflections

1st reflection

With the help of multi-modal compositions, I was able to portray how media plays a role in sustaining racism and creating a vibe against Blacks. Also in the 1st project I had to give a long, written examples of contemporary racism, whereas in the 2nd project I was able to add more meaning to what I was trying to convey in less words by providing the images of a black man and a white couple wading through high waters in the aftermath of Katrina by putting the images first and then somewhat of a little explanation. By just reading the first few lines the reader will be able to understand what I am trying to say. In a way the multi-modal components created a good balance between images and words thus increasing effectiveness of my topic.

2nd reflection

In the 1st project I was not able to get the main point of in-class texts and my sources and used to write around the main points of the texts which was evident from my long summaries in annotated bibliography. However, the more sources I went through, I was more able to be more “specific” about the main theme of my research topic and was able to get the main gist of the text in general as well which can be seen in the conclusion of this project.

During my searching of sources, I encountered various sociological and modern words defining contemporary racist ideologies. Hence words like racial profiling, institutionalized racism, minimization of racism added more depth to my topic and helped me take a “critical” stance against existing racial structures and thinking.

3rd reflection

My research paper is an argumentative essay which tries to persuade the reader to think critically of the existing racial structures. Another genre that I could have used would be a blog as a research paper is less impactive in comparison to a blog, which is more effective and to the point. For a research paper we think about a certain topic and then search for our reference sources whereas in a blog we write what we think is right or wrong. In all, blog comes from the inside of a person whereas research paper comes from scholarly sources and is hence influenced.

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dinonid123 · 5 years

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Bloop a doo Asgore and Toriel Backstory headcanons

Why am posting this? Because I can, obviously.

In the North Sea of the Undertale World, between Great Britain and Norway, there’s a large island which doesn’t exist in our world. By the 1100’s, it was split between four kingdoms. In the north, the dragon’s queendom, originally a colony of their old kingdom in their homeland (our Iceland) that eventually grew so large the royal family, the Rhoinjars, moved there in the 700’s. In the west, a Celtic kingdom of monsters, ruled by the Hopurrs. They had moved in from Scotland a few centuries prior. In the east, the Nordic monster diarchy, ruled by the Dreemurrs. They controlled the largest portion of the island. In the south was the Anglo-Saxon human kingdom.In December of 1120, a prince and a princess were born. On the 7th, King Asvion Dreemurr and Queen Solia Dreemurr had their son, Asgore Dreemurr. On the 20th, King Tlare Hopurr and Queen Rhian Hopurr had their daughter, Toriel Hopurr. For the next 17 years, the two never met. Asgore had a happy childhood, spending a lot of time with his parents. Solia fostered his love of gardening, and Asvion taught him how to fight and defend. When he was just 17, he was visiting a town near the capital when he ran into a young turtle monster, just under 17, practicing with his hammer. Asgore took a liking to Gerson, and so made him his personal guard, letting him and his family move into the castle with them. The two quickly fell in love, and began dating. While that may seem odd, it was normal for boss monster nobility to have both a long term boss monster partner and a shorter-term regular monster partner. Toriel’s childhood was not so happy, however. Certainly not awful, she was a princess, after all, but not as enjoyable. Her parents were constantly busy with royal business, so she spent much of her time shuffled between servants. She learned healing and fire magic, but was never taught how to use a summonable weapon. As she grew up, this inspired some rebelliousness. Not towards her parents, but to the servants who kept her inside the castle for so long. In late September 1138, the human king demanded the return of a legendary artifact to them. Asgore’s great-grandfather had stored it away in a dungeon, which required the power of two random boss monsters to open. This is when Asgore and Toriel met, bonding during their trip through the dungeon. After this, the pair visited each other more often. Asgore refused to acknowledge to Gerson that he liked Toriel, even though whenever they talked he would be incredibly flustered. Toriel found it endearing, and found herself falling for the kind prince. It took a year for Gerson to finally convince them to confess to each other. For a few years, they three of them were a trio, which they all enjoyed being a part of. Gerson slowly began to feel more like a third wheel, and decided that it would be better if he let Asgore and Toriel be their own pair. The two understood, and soon after, Asgore proposed to Toriel. On June 18th, 1144, the two 23 year olds married, and their joint castle began to be built on the coast of the Dreemurr’s land. Everything seemed to be going fine for the young couple, but over the fall, the problems began. A rogue dragon, Akhofio, left the dragon kingdom, and began attacking humans in the south. He even took a soul before he was defeated by a joint group of humans and monsters, with one other dragon. This infuriated the humans, whose nascent racism against the monsters began to boil over. Attacks began on the border of the Hopurr kingdom, and they began readying for a war. On May 16th, 1145, while Asgore and Toriel were having a dinner with Toriel’s parents, human assassins came in to kill them. Tlare and Rhian, when they realized what was happening, had their children hide in a side room without telling them why. The two of them watched from the other side of a small hole as Toriel’s parents died. The next few days were a blur, as a funeral was held the 18th, Toriel and Asgore’s coronation as rulers the 19th, and on the 20th, the humans declared war. The next decade was one of strife, as the dragons were hunted relentlessly, and monsters were continuously pushed towards the still-in-construction Castle of Union. In major battles, Asvion and Asgore led the fight, and their queens followed them, healing those they could. Gerson became Asgore’s most trusted warrior, the Hammer of Justice. 7 years in, Asvion and Solia fell to the humans too, and the two Kingdoms were merged under the Dreemurr name. Asgore felt the grief that Toriel had, but together they pushed through and continued the fight. Even then, their fate was sealed. On September 15th, 1155, the remaining monsters were forced to retreat into Mount Ebott, and were trapped there by the 7 greatest human sorcerers of the time. Asgore and Toriel both felt defeated, at first. Everyone depended on them for guidance now, but they weren’t sure what they could do. After a few days, they decided that they should do what they can and begin building a new home for the monsters. They built a labyrinth of purple buildings, which would eventually become the Ruins. Asgore and Toriel moved into their house, which they named Home. They settled in for a few centuries, but soon it began to get crowded, and the monsters wished to expand. Toriel led the exploration at first, traveling as far as the edge of Waterfall. The kingdom spread, as furrier monsters moved into Snowdin and more aquatic monsters moved into Waterfall. The King and Queen stayed in Home, ruling from there for years. They knew most of their subjects, often talking walks through the Underground and talking to those they encountered. They made the best of their imprisonment, and were as happy as they could be. As time passed, the monsters pushed onward, through Hotland, and up to a large cavern, with a large opening covered by the Barrier. Toriel suggested that they should move out of the Ruins and into the larger area so they could have more space. Asgore agreed on the condition that he could name it “New Home,” which Toriel accepted with a laugh. In the mid 1900’s, they began to consider having a child. They had been around for 800 years, and normally boss monsters had kids in their 400-600’s. They had always been more concerned with keeping the Underground going, and only then did they have the time to raise a child. They wanted to do it well, and to raise the fairest, most helpful ruler to lead their people.After some time, on September 15th, 2004, the royal couple welcomed their son, Asriel. Upon seeing his newborn son, tiny and soft, Asgore swore that he would have his son see the sun before he died. Of course, you all know how that turned out...

#long post #asgore #toriel #undertale #headcanon galore #a lot of this is ideas that have been floating around for years

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tlatollotl · 6 years

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The body-shaped sarcophagi of Karajía contained the remains of high-ranking Chachapoya ancestors. ( Chiara Barbieri)

Two conquering empires and more than 500 years of colonial rule failed to erase the cultural and genetic traces of indigenous Peruvians, a new study finds. This runs contrary to historical accounts that depict a complete devastation of northern Peru’s ancient Chachapoya people by the Inca Empire.

The Chachapoyas—sometimes referred to as “Warriors of the Clouds” because they made their home in the Amazonian cloud forests—are mainly known today for what they built: fortified hilltop fortresses and intricate sarcophagi overlooking their villages from sheer, inaccessible cliff sides. The little we know about their existence before the arrival of the Spanish comes to us via an oral history passed along by the Inca to their Spanish conquerors—in other words, the winners’ version of history.

Now, a study tracking the genetic and linguistic history of modern Peruvians is revealing that the Chachapoyas may have fared better than these mainstream historical accounts would have us believe. As Chiara Barbieri, a post-doctoral researcher from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, puts it: “Some of these historical documents were exaggerated and a little bit biased in favor of the Inca.”

Many of these early reports stem from two historians who essentially wrote the book on the Inca Empire during the time period from 1438 to 1533: Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the son of a conquistador and Incan princess who published chronicles on the Inca Empire in the early 17th century, and Pedro de Cieza de Leon, a Spanish conquistador from a family of Jewish converts who travelled through the area in the mid-16th century, and wrote one of the first lengthy histories of the Inca people and Spanish conquests.

According to Cieza de Leon’s account, it was in the 1470s, about midway through the Inca Empire, that paramount leader Túpac Inca Yupanqui first attacked the Chachapoyas in what is today northern Peru. He quickly found that the Warriors of the Clouds were not the type to give up without a fight. Cieza de Leon described the first battle between Yupanqui and the Chachapoyas in the first part of his Chronicle of Peru:

The Chachapoyas Indians were conquered by them, although they first, in order to defend their liberty, and to live in ease and tranquillity, fought with such fury that the Yncas fled before them. But the power of the Yncas was so great that the Chachapoyas Indians were finally forced to become servants to those Kings, who desired to extend their sway over all people.

Beaten but not defeated, the Chachapoyas rebelled again during the reign of Yupanqui’s son after the latter died. Huayna Capac had to re-conquer the region, but encountered many of the difficulties his father had, according to Cieza de Leon:

Among the Chachapoyas the Inca met with great resistance; insomuch that he was twice defeated by the defenders of their country and put to flight. Receiving some succour, the Inca again attacked the Chachapoyas, and routed them so completely that they sued for peace, desisting, on their parts, from all acts of war. The Inca granted peace on conditions very favourable to himself, and many of the natives were ordered to go and live in Cuzco, where their descendants still reside.

De la Vega’s account, written nearly 50 years after Cieza de Leon’s in the early 17th century, tells a similar story of a decisive conquest and subsequent forced dispersal of the Chachapoyas around the Inca Empire. The Inca often used this strategy of forced dispersal, which they referred to by the Quechua word mitma, to dissuade future rebellion in the vast region they came to control. (Quechua, according to the new study, is the most widely-spoken language family of the indigenous Americas.)

“We have some records in the Spanish history that the Inca had replaced the population completely, moving the Chachapoyas for hundreds of kilometers and replacing them with people from other parts of the empire,” Barbieri says.

These and other accounts are some of the only historical notes we have of the Inca, who lacked any system of writing other than the quipu, or knot records. The quipu system of cords used different types of knots to indicate numbers, and was used for accounting and other records.

“We know a lot about what the Inca did because Inca kings, or high officials, were talking to Spanish historians,” Barbieri says. “So the piece of history of this region that we know is very much biased towards what the Inca elite were telling the Spaniards. What we don’t know was what happened before that—everything that happened before the 16th century.”

That is now changing, thanks to a genetic study on which Barbieri was lead author, published recently in Scientific Reports.

The fortress of Kuelap, popularly known as ‘the Machu Picchu of the north,’ dominates the landscape at an elevation of 3,000 meters. (Chiara Barbieri)

Many researchers had thought the local variant of the Quechua language family spoken by the Chachapoyas had died out, says Barbieri’s coauthor Paul Heggarty, a linguist also at the Max Planck institute. Then, a colleague heard a local dialect spoken in the area. Researchers with their team found fewer than 10 people who actually spoke the Chachapoyas variant, and confirmed it to be distinct from other Quechua languages spoken in the Andes to the south of the Chachapoyas region and north in modern day Ecuador.

“We collected and transcribed actual recordings so that anyone can ‘confirm’ the differences by listening on our website,” Heggarty says.

There was also a genetic component to the research. The researchers traveled between small villages, taking saliva samples from volunteers in the region in February 2015, particularly from those who spoke Quechua, or whose parents or grandparents spoke Quechua. They analyzed DNA from the samples, honing in on genetic markers unique to the Americas.

They found that in contrast with people who live south of the Andes, who tend to have more mixed genes, some genetic profiles in Chachapoyas were not found anywhere else, even in other Andean regions. “The Chachapoya stayed a bit isolated genetically,” Barbieri says, adding that the presence of these genes proves thay some of the historical documents were exaggerated and biased in favor of the Inca conquerors’ version of events. “We are denying this effect of moving and replacing an entire population.”

The idea that the Chachapoya weren’t completely displaced was not entirely new, according to Barbieri and Heggarty. Some histories hold that the Chachapoya, still rankled over their defeat and at least partial displacement, lent a hand to the Spanish in their conquest of the Inca. “It was the same sort of thing you often get: my enemy’s enemy is my friend,” Barbieri says.

While the “Warriors of the Clouds”—a term Heggarty says likely came from romanticized notions from scholars—may have satisfied a lust for revenge against their Inca conquerors by siding with the Spanish, the alliance did not exactly make them best friends. According to Cieza de León, one of Francisco Pizarro’s captains conquered the Chachapoyas area and “reduced the natives to the service of his Majesty.” Some Spanish were granted the right to demand tribute and forced labor from the local people in the area.

There have been few bio-archaeological studies in the area, says Kenneth Nystrom, a biological anthropologist at the State University of New York New Paltz who has published studies looking at the skeletal remains of Chachapoyas. “It was interesting to read those results, but also how they linked in the linguistic analysis of the Quechua,” says Nystrom, who was not involved in the new research.

Nystrom adds another wrench to the mix: The modern concept we have of the area being a unified culture before the Inca arrived, he says, may not have been exactly true. While there was some continuity between the communities in the area in terms of iconography and architectural style, Nystrom concludes that the Chachapoya may not have self-identified as a unified culture.

“There may have been some kind of loose association between the groups, but what I ultimately suggest is that when the Inca came in, they said ‘You guys are all Chachapoyas and we’re going to treat you as an administrative unit,’” Nystrom says. This was a political move: By bringing together the disparate communities in an area, including in some case the possible forcible displacement of families, they found the conquered populations easier to govern.

Today, only a few dozen people in the region still speak the Chachapoya form of Quechua. “We can’t do anything to keep it alive when there are only a few people speaking the language,” she says. “This Quechua is going to die.”

That may be true. But there is another linguistic layer that has yet to be revealed: the Chachapoya language. The form of Quechua that some Chachapoyas speak today is a the superimposed language that arrived around the time, or shortly before, the Inca conquest of Chachapoyas. The original language of these people has been dead for centuries, with trace remains found only in a few place names and the surnames of some regional residents, says Barbieri.

“There is another layer which is even more mysterious, which is the ancient language of the Chachapoya,” she says.

#archaeology #arqueologia #peru #inca #chachapoya #history #historia #genetics #linguistics #linguistica

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