When it comes to sizes and dimensions, almost everything is relative. It all depends on who or what you compare yourself to. And it seems logical to think that to say of someone, in this case Napoleon, that he is tall or short, the average height of the time would be a valid reference. So, if the av
At 9:40 p.m. on February 15, 1898, an unexpected explosion disturbed the nightlife of Havana. An explosion on the US battleship Maine It sank him hopelessly. That episode, used by the US as an excuse to intervene in Cuba, changed the history of Spain and ended up turning the victim into the first mi
Although in the first third of the 19th century the European nobles were already exchanging their cutlery and crockery made of precious metals for those made of light aluminum, their price was still prohibitive for them to become popular. It would be necessary to wait until the end of the century, a
Sylvester Graham he was a Presbyterian minister who belonged to the temperance movements of the first third of the 19th century in the US -those that in 1920 managed to get Prohibition approved-. While his fellow reformers dealt with social and humanitarian issues such as alcohol consumption, womens
On April 25, 1890, US President Benjamin Harrison announced the choice of Chicago as the site of the Universal Exposition , also called Worlds Columbian Exposition . Although the central theme of the exhibition was the fourth centenary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the so-called New Worl
Last Friday the film 1898 was released. The last of the Philippines , a remake of the homonymous 1945. I admit that I have not seen it, but I have read quite a few criticisms, not from professionals but from viewers, for the treatment and approach to what happened on the Baler site. Leaving aside th
Although women were not legally allowed to participate in the US Civil War, it is estimated that around 400 of them posed as men and fought. At this time, the role of women was limited to the domestic sphere and, in response to this role, recruitment was prohibited. Still, these 400 women decided to
Sunday again. Meals with the family, morning walks, complaints about how close Monday is again... What do we do? Shall we watch a movie? Or go out for coffee? Surely this is the typical Sunday that many of us practice week after week in Spain today. However, throughout the ages and different places
If we look at the index of a current manual on the history of French painting of the 19th century, we will see something very similar to this:1. Neoclassical (David and Ingres)2. Romanticism (Gericault, Delacroix and Chasseriau)3. Realism (Courbet, Millet, Daumier, Barbizon School)4. Impressionism (
The journalist and writer Ramón Pérez de Ayala said that when the scam is huge it already takes a decent name. Name that in the case of the ruse carried out by the Scotsman Gregor MacGregor took the name of Kingdom of Poyais , a fictitious country that never existed and with which he managed to tric
The brothers John and Jesus Garcia Naveira emigrated from Betanzos (A Coruña) to Argentina in the 19th century to make a fortune, like so many other compatriots... but they succeeded. On his return to Spain in 1893 he financed charitable works in his native village:schools, fountains, asylums, hospi
Grover Cleveland he has been the only President of the United States who served two non-consecutive terms:1885–1889 and 1893–1897. Regardless of his decisions, he was considered an honest politician whose motto was “ I only have one thing to do, and that is to do the right thing ”. In June 1893, a
When Gran Colombia had just become independent from Spain, Simón Bolívar named (by finger, as autocrats do) the Venezuelan General Juan José Flores as governor of the Southern District -consisting of Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca-, but Flores ambition shattered the dreams of the Liberator Simón Bolíva
While the employees of the post office in Albany (New York) loaded the sacks to distribute the mail around the city, they found a surprise:a terrier puppy, a terrier cross to be more exact. He was huddled in the sacks against the cold. It was an ordinary morning in 1888. The employees decided to ado
In 1889 Menelik II he was crowned emperor of Ethiopia after having conquered the regions of Tigray and Amhara with the support of the Kingdom of Italy. In recognition of the support received, Menelik ceded to Italy the coastal strip of the Red Sea -Italian Eritrea, the first Italian colony on the Af
Robert Smalls he was a slave on a cotton plantation in Beaufort, South Carolina, owned by the McKee. Thanks to his mother, he managed to learn to read and write, something that would be essential for his future. After some bad harvests and in need of extra income, Henry McKee he decided to rent some
He who loses his riches loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he who loses courage loses everything. These words of the universal Miguel de Cervantes they should not have reached the ears of the Frenchman Pierre Charles Silvestre de Villeneuve or at least they did not make a dent in it
Representatives of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and chiefs of the Dakota (Eastern Sioux) signed several treaties in the 1850s in which the Indians ceded large tracts of land in the Minnesota Territory (it would become a state on May 11, 1858) in exchange for financial compensation and
The Choctaws , a Native American people located in the southeastern United States in present-day Mississippi Territory, were the first people to experience forced removal, dressed in friendly agreement, to Indian reservations. In 1830, the US Congress passed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek , a pe
Mid-late 19th century. The European population was facing, perhaps for the first time, the forebodings of Malthuss theory which said that food production would not increase in the same proportion as the population, which meant that, in fact, there would be in the short term term serious supply probl
The Choctaws , a Native American people located in the southeastern United States in present-day Mississippi Territory, were the first people to experience forced removal, dressed in friendly agreement, to Indian reservations. In 1830, the US Congress passed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek , a pe
The negotiations held in the city of Santa Fe not only served to close things in Granada, but also opened an exceptional page for the future:in the Capitulations of Santa Fe (April 17, 1492), the conditions of the agreement between the Catholic Monarchs and Christopher Columbus to reach the Indies f
Philip IV, known as the Beautiful, king of France from 1285 to 1314, owes his nickname to his immense stature and the beauty of his impassive face. “It is neither a man nor a beast, it is a statue .” said of him the French prelate Bernard Saisset. His reign is considered by historians to be one of t
If at the time we already talked about the patron saint of experts, eunuchs and whores, today we have to deal with Vespasian , the pattern of this hobby, almost turned into a job, so fashionable today. Vespasian he was emperor of the Roman Empire from 69 to 79 and founder of the Flavian Dynasty.