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Racism in History

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, Racism is:  “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.” And then there is another meaning: “The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.”

Unfortunately, there has been racism since the beginning of history. And if you really get into it you will find facts that you did not want to know, for example, when you realize that even one of your favourite philosophers like the Greek Aristotle said that Greeks are free by nature while Barbarians (non-Greeks) are slaves because they are more willing to submit to a despotic government! This statement is published in a book by Kevin Reilly called ‘Racism: A Globar Reader’.

Just imagine how popular Aristotle would be if he had said that in 2019, he would probably lose all his credibility or would only be supported by the few racists that mingle with us in the 21st century. Or ar they not so few? Many people think that the United States of America, Spain or even Great Britain are still racist countries…

Racism in the United States has been there since the very beginning, we are talking about the Colonial Era. Only white Americans had privileges and rights while all other races had no rights at all. Education, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, etc, were exclusive privileges for white Americans. These kind of things remind us that we are true animals indeed, and that we don’t know anything about humans and how we really are. Racism in history still makes black people want revenge in America, let alone native Indians.

But black people and Indians weren’t the only ones who’ve suffered from racism throughout history, what about Jews after World War I ? Anti-semitism “was successfully exploited by the Nazi Party, which seized power in 1933 and implemented policies of systematic discrimination, persecution, and eventual mass murder of Jews in Germany and in the territories occupied by the country during World War II (see Holocaust)”, according to britannica.com.

Did you know that even National Geographic had a Racist Coverage for decades? And how do we know it? Because they have acknowledged it in an article by Susan Goldberg (Editor in Chief). This is what she wrote: “It is November 2, 1930, and National Geographic has sent a reporter and a photographer to cover a magnificent occasion: the crowning of Haile Selassie, King of Kings of Ethiopia, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. There are trumpets, incense, priests, spear-wielding warriors. The story runs 14,000 words, with 83 images. If a ceremony in 1930 honoring a black man had taken place in America, instead of Ethiopia, you can pretty much guarantee there wouldn’t have been a story at all. Even worse, if Haile Selassie had lived in the United States, he would almost certainly have been denied entry to our lectures in segregated Washington, D.C., and he might not have been allowed to be a National Geographic member.”

Henry M. Stanley, explorer and journalist

Henry M. Stanley, explorer and journalist

Stanley with a bearer carring his favourite shooting stick / literaturadeviajes.com

Stanley with a bearer carring his favourite shooting stick / literaturadeviajes.com

One is not too sure that modern schoolchildren are taught about persons like Henry Stanley, or for that matter Dr. Livingstone, with whom Stanley is inextricably connected. It is supposed that vast changes in syllabus are responsible for this, just as in the Classics, neither Latin or Greek are these days awarded much importance. At my school we were unfailingly taught that Henry Stanley was American; he was a naturalized American citizen for a period, but he was born British – Welsh in fact – son of a farmer from that region. He was also illegitimate, and was first called John Rowlands.

Stanley lived a life so adventurous it seemed to be fiction stemming from the Boys Own Paper. Born in 1841 he existed, somehow, in a poorhouse from 1847 to 1856, got away and managed to get himself on a ship sailing to the United States. Here he was luckily befriended by a merchant in cereals who adopted him. Young Henry also took the merchant’s name – Stanley, and after adoption automatically became an American citizen. (more…)

By | 2019-10-15T08:34:10+00:00 September 23rd, 2015|African History, British History, US History, World History|0 Comments

Another message from Jeremy Taylor

The author / apaisada.com

The author / apaisada.com

You can read a book (at the risk of your eyesight) off your computer screen, or you can have it read to you by some famous actor; you can beg, borrow or steal a book from a friend – in my case the last verb is the most appropriate – or you may, just possibly prefer to buy the book to keep among all the others in your bookshelf. This kind of printed book is what you take to bed with you, where you read it chapter after chapter with your head nicely rested on your pillows and that reading light you found at Ikea providing the light. Or you can seat yourself in a favourite armchair after choosing a real book from a vast library or a modest collection.

General History is available to just about everywhere on this planet by going to Amazon Books, clicking on Books, and then typing ‘Jeremy Taylor-General-History’ or ‘Dean Swift-General-History’. Click on this and all three volumes (there will soon be a fourth) will appear on your screen. Then choose how you will buy it (at remarkably low cost), and very soon you will have 99% of the articles or posts published on-line, in printed book mode, to keep for ever.

Very best wishes, yours ever, Jeremy Taylor.

By | 2016-06-07T21:34:20+00:00 September 16th, 2015|Today, World History|3 Comments

The revolt of Portugal

Sunrise over an older part of Lisbon / the guardian.com

Sunrise over an older part of Lisbon / the guardian.com

The first king of this tiny country, washed by the Atlantic, and blessed with fine seamen, navigators and harbours, was Alfonso I, in 1139, but the Portuguese Empire as such began in the fifteenth century. Portuguese ships were making voyages of discovery right round the world. Perhaps her immediate neighbour, Spain, felt that Portugal should belong to her, and by 1580 she did. This situation, most unpopular with the Portuguese, lasted from the above mentioned date until 1668. The French invaded in 1807, and the monarchy was overthrown. Most of the Empire vanished with the loss of Brazil, Goa and Macao.

That union of crowns in 1640 brought nothing but unrest in Portugal, partly because the people quickly noted that Spain was not ready (or able) to defend and protect the vast Portuguese possessions overseas. When troubles started up (again) in Cataluña, powerful Portuguese were encouraged to gather round the standard of the Duke of Braganza. They proclaimed him King Joao IV during an uprising in the capital, Lisbon in December, 1640, which ended with the murder of the Spanish Viceroy Vasconcellos. This was a serious mistake, for Vasconcellos was a personal friend and confidant of the all-powerful Conde-Duque de Olivares, the Spanish minister who managed Spain for the King. No-one, perhaps not even the King, had more power than Olivares at that stage. (more…)

Further thoughts on the Khmer Rouge

In 1970, serious trouble boiled up again when the Prince Sihanouk was knocked off the throne by a Cambodian communist guerilla force called Khmer Rouge. This brutal, well-organised group was inevitably opposed to an American invasion of Eastern Cambodia, and rapidly gained control of the entire country by 1975. The ‘government’ was led by a man called Pol Pot, noticeably insane, who announced the dramatic transformation of his country into what he called ‘Democratic Kampuchea’. His aim was to move the masses out of urban areas into the countryside, where they could be usefully employed in tilling the soil, if they could find some, and could irrigate it if there was nearby water. To control the new agricultural population Pol Pot invented thousands of new ‘agricultural cooperatives’ managed by his specially trained uncivil servants, while at the same time just as many ‘bougeois elements’ (previous owners of land) were eliminated. (more…)

By | 2018-04-02T09:40:49+00:00 September 8th, 2015|Asian History, History of the Far East, World History|2 Comments

Four revolutions of 1848

Gen. Moritz Karl Ernest von Prittwitz / wikiwand.com

Gen. Moritz Karl Ernest von Prittwitz / wikiwand.com

Revolutions are a regular feature in all history, human nature being what it is. The careful student can probably find a revolution of some kind every year since records began, but in 1848 there were FOUR in Europe alone – In France, Italy, the Habsburg Empire and the greater part of what was then Germany. Reasons for these violent upheavals were failure of crops, especially that of the potato; pathetic cereal harvests, resultant food shortage and high prices, and a reduced demand for manufactured items, which in turn led to massive unemployment. In today’s enlightened days governments are better equipped to deal with such serious matters, but they were notably short of political and economic measures in the first half of the nineteenth century. (more…)

By | 2015-09-07T16:10:50+00:00 September 5th, 2015|World History|0 Comments

Important European families: Este and Esterhazy

The Villa d'Este at Tivoli / en wikipedia.org

The Villa d’Este at Tivoli / en wikipedia.org

Any family that distinguishes itself for eight hundred and seventy-five years must have something special, and the Italian family d’Este has it. Appearing first in the misty beginnings of the eleventh century, they became rulers of the city of Ferrara near the end of the twelfth. Their iron rule stayed firm until 1598, when Ferrara was incorporated into the Papal States.

The first Marchese or marquess was Azzo d’Este (1205 – 1264), whose absolute authority seems to have been established by the last year of his life. The office of Signore or Lord was made hereditary during the time of his son, Obizzo, who annexed the territories of Modena and Reggio. Niccoló III, born 1383, brought peace and security to the area; his sons Leonello, born 1407, Borso, b. 1413, and Ercole, b. 1431 were mainly known as fervent patrons of the arts, as well as being scholarly students of the humanities. The daughters of Ercole, Isabella, b.1474 and Beatrice, b. 1475 continued this peaceful tradition. The first married Francisco Gonzaga (q.v.) of Mantua while the second married Lodovico Sforza (q.v.) of Milan, thus uniting three of the grandest (and richest) Italian families. (more…)

The murder of Elisabeth Feodorovna

/ russiapastand present.blogspot.com

/ russiapastand present.blogspot.com

This beautiful, doomed woman was the sister of the Tsarina Alexandra of Russia, and of Prince Ernest of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the daughter of Princess Alice of Great Britain, which made her a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Her other sisters were Princess Victoria of Battenberg (who became Marchioness of Milford Haven), and the Princess Henry of Prussia.

Elisabeth was tall and slim, with a gentle expression that hid a will of steel. She married the Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovitch, fourth son of Tsar Alexander II. In 1891 her husband was made Governor-General of Moscow, and Elisabeth became a much loved figure in both St. Petersburg and Moscow. In February of 1905, as the Grand Duke was crossing the Senate Square in a carriage, a terrorist took his opportunity and threw a bomb, which blew both the carriage and the Grand Duke to pieces. Elisabeth was working at one of many charities in a workroom in the Kremlin and heard the violent explosion.In the square, she found the badly hurt coachman and two dead horses, but the vehicle and the Duke were scattered over the snow. Some of his fingers, still wearing rings, were found on the roof of of one the great houses facing the square. (more…)

By | 2015-08-29T11:46:18+00:00 August 29th, 2015|German History, Russian history, World History|2 Comments

Seven Christian kings in Scandinavia

Christian X riding in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen / copenhagenet.dk

Christian X riding in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen / copenhagenet.dk

Christian I was born in 1426 and became King of Denmark in 1448, King of Norway in 1450 and Sweden in 1457. In case this seems greedy he was also the founder of the Oldenberg royal line, being a son of the Count of Oldenberg and his lady Hedvig, the heiress of Schleswig and Holstein. He was monarch by election in Denmark, succeeding Christoph (of Bavaria to ensure more complication). Norway wanted him to replace their king, one Karl Knutsson (of Sweden to complicate matter more), and he was crowned king in Sweden too, though Karl K. was offended and ousted him in 1464.

To complicate the issue more the people elected him sovereign ruler of Schleswig/Holstein. It is all quite wondrous, for Christian was not a good king; he spent too much on himself and his glittering court, and was therefore always broke. When he married his daughter Margaret to James III of Scotland, he was expected to provide a dowry of 60,000 guilders. Not being able to find the complete sum he mortgaged the Orkneys and Shetland, getting 8000 guilders (which he never repaid). He did, however, found the University of Copenhagen in 1478: where did the money come from? Dying in 1481, he was succeeded by his son Hans I. (more…)

By | 2015-08-27T10:35:52+00:00 August 27th, 2015|Scandinavian history, World History|0 Comments

Further thoughts on Thomas Becket, martyr and saint

O'Toole & Burton (right) as the King and Thomas Becket in the famous movie / mrfalk.18.wordpress.com

O’Toole & Burton (right) as the King and Thomas Becket in the famous movie / mrfalk.18.wordpress.com

Thomas Becket, or Thomas à Becket as he was called by my teacher of History, was not a Saxon. He was a son of a wealthy Norman merchant (born 1118), and as Norman as his friend and king, Henry II. Thomas read Canon Law at the University of Bologna, where his teachers found him a first-class student, digesting books when he was not drinking or whoring. It may have been his ability to keep up glass by glass with the young Henry Plantagenet that cemented (he thought) his friendship, and caused Henry to make Thomas his Chancellor, the holder of the royal seal, and high on the list of very powerful men in England, an island he had chosen to make his home. (more…)

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