There are indications that the hypothesis of the previous landing of Iberian navigators to the Dutch and English is feasible. These are the words of the New Zealand researcher Winston Cowie in his book New Zealand, a historical puzzle , and that it would quarantine the discoveries in Oceania of th
The outrages and abuses of the nobility have been a constant throughout history, but I believe that none reached the extreme of Carlos de Borbón, count of Charolais . From a family with a pedigree, since he was the son of Luis III de Borbón-Condé and Luisa Francisca de Borbón, legitimized daughter o
The Miracle of Empel or the Battle of Empel occurred on December 7 and 8, 1585 during the Eighty Years War, in which a third of the Spanish army, the Tercio Viejo de Zamora, commanded by field master Francisco Arias of Bobadilla, faced and defeated in very adverse conditions a fleet of ten ships of
The seventeenth century gave us numerous personalities without whom we could not understand the world as we do today. In the field of the scientific revolution, one of the most relevant was the French Blaise Pascal , who made notable contributions in the field of mathematics, including the design an
Hernán Cortés burned more than his ships in the conquest of Mexico. This mythical episode of leadership was not really his invention. But when Alexander the Great used this tool of persuasion, he did not do it to ensure the loyalty of his men but to motivate them in the face of an unequal battle:the
We are at the dawn of the Edo era (early 17th century), with the newly unified country under the aegis of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Japanese know peace for the first time in decades, and in cities like Kyoto and Osaka a thriving bourgeoisie, eager for entertainment and fun, begins to prosper. Thes
At any time, at any time while I was a slave, if I had been offered a minute of freedom, and told that I had to die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it, just to know what it was like to be free – Elisabeth Freeman Elisabeth , daughter of slaves from Pieter Hogebooms farm in Claverack
On the 11th of November, after sunset, while looking up at the sky, I became aware of the appearance of a new star, brighter than the others, located almost directly above my head. As I knew, almost from my childhood, perfectly the stars of the sky, I knew that there had never been any star in that
The Invincible Armada (also Grande y Felicísima Armada or Gran Armada) is the term usually used to designate a naval fleet that in 1588, and within the so-called Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604, was sent by King Philip II of Spain for the invasion of England, then ruled by Elizabeth I, with the aim o
The men and ships that were called corsairs -for some criminals and for others national heroes-, traveled under the protection of a marque letter , a document in which a king or a government gave them authorization to attack ships and enclaves of enemy powers. In this sense, it was very common, in a
This year 2019 marks five hundred years since the beginning of a great adventure that led to the transformation of the world in every way:the first circumnavigation of the planet, begun by the Portuguese at the service of the Spanish crown Ferdinand Magellan and culminated by the Spanish Juan Sebast
Logically, this article is not written to defend the indefensible, especially when even the Pope himself -John Paul II in 2004- apologized for the horrors of the Inquisition, it is only to denounce the many artistic licenses and linguistic festivities that surround the Inquisition and that the popul
We continue analyzing the Inquisition with points 3 and 4 of the previous article:Everything you believed about the Inquisition and it was not true. He was sentenced in summary proceedings Unlike the episcopal Inquisition, which depended on the good judgment of the bishops, and the medieval one, su
Henry of Bourbon , was king of Navarre as Henry III between 1572 and 1610, and king of France as Henry IV between 1589 and 1610, the first French monarch of the house of Bourbon, and, by the name given to him by his compatriots, le Bon Roi (the Good King), he is considered one of the best kings in h
The late incorporation of Spanish women to the American continent had a lot to do with the relations between Spaniards and indigenous people, and with the subsequent miscegenation. The Spanish equalized that numerical imbalance by “incorporating” indigenous women into their lives as wives, concubine
Since the 16th century the Jesuits had the exclusive right to evangelize Japan, but in 1608 Pope Paul V also authorized the Dominicans and Franciscans. The Franciscan Luis Sotelo , who was in the Philippines, moved to the vicinity of Tokyo. He was too optimistic, because in that area the Christians
They say that one day, at the beginning of the 17th century, a Portuguese captain faced an entire garrison of samurai in Nagasaki. The Portuguese were barely 50 men. The Japanese, about 3,000. And they endured like lions, aboard their ship, for more than three days of battle. This is the story of th
By name, Bartholomew. Of surnames, Esteban and Murillo (although Pérez would be the legitimate one for being the first of his mother). Born in Seville at the end of December 1617 and baptized on the first day of the following year in the parish of Santa María Magdalena… This could be a good start
Tobacco arrived on the European continent with the discovery of America, where the plant originates from. Although at first it was even used as a remedy against certain diseases —in fact, the first European to cultivate it was Francisco Hernández de Toledo , physician to Philip II—, nowadays we are
Every time that from Spain, for some reason or another, the question of sovereignty over Gibraltar is raised, from the other side of the Strait, as if produced by an echo, the claims of Morocco over Ceuta and Melilla arrive. Regardless of who they should or should belong to today, Im not going to go
As a result of the comment that Cayetano left in the previous post, in which he defined Messalina as an icon for compulsive onanists, I remembered a story that he had read in the book Historias de la Historia by Carlos Fisas -the bedside book for all of us who write this type of article- and now I
Poseidon was the Greek god of the seas and rivers and considered a cause of catastrophe. His cult is believed to have originated in the Pre-Homeric period. Poseidon he was one of the most important gods present in the religiosity of the ancient Greeks. The Greeks considered him the god of the seas
During some of the darkest moments of Spanish history the mere mention of him, always in a low voice, instilled panic among the people. The Holy Garduña it was a secret society of criminals whose power challenged the Church and the Crown alike. They were rogues, prostitutes and swordsmen for hire. F
Artemis was one of the most revered deities of Ancient Greece, known as the goddess of the hunt and protector of women, children and birth. Artemis she was a deity in Greek mythology known as the goddess of hunting, nature and chastity, as well as being the protector of women, children and birth. S