Hurricanes are a part of life if you live on the Eastern Seaboard or Gulf Coast of the US or the Caribbean. What we tend to forget is these powerful storms have been around longer than the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. We discussed a few such hurricane in our posts about the 1900 Galveston Storm […]
Tag: Exploration
A German Texas- Mainzer Adelsverein
When most people think of Texas they think of wide open spaces, cowboys and oil rigs. They do not think of oompah bands. However, that is what you will find in the German Belt of Texas. This is an area of towns founded by the The Mainzer Adelsverein at Beibrich am Rhein or Adelsverein for […]
Chevalier Henri de Tonti- Thunder Arm
Born the son of an Italian banker in 1649, Henri de Tonti has illustrious relatives. His father, Lorenzo de Toni, was the governor of Gaeta and invented the tontine life insurance plan, where the initial investors split the returns until all but one dies. His brother Alphonse de Tonti was one of the founders of […]
The Loves of John Smith
Written on January 12, 2017 by ER at 3:00 PM | 0
Austria, Byzantium, England, ER, Northern Europe, Turkey, United States
Austria, Byzantium, England, ER, Northern Europe, Turkey, United States
As we discussed in our previous post on Pocahontas (http://www.historynaked.com/pocahontas/), explorer John Smith had his life saved by the Native American princess. Some historians have cast doubt on this story as the only source we have is a letter Smith wrote to Queen Anne describing the event in 1616 when Pocahontas journeyed to England. Smith’s […]
Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba- Always have a Chair for the Queen
Written on December 11, 2016 by ER at 2:00 PM | 0
Africa, ER, Portugal, Rest of the World, Southern Europe
Africa, ER, Portugal, Rest of the World, Southern Europe
The Portuguese had begun colonizing Africa after their rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. The English and the French had begun exploring northeast Africa, so the Portuguese concentrated on the south, what is now Congo and Angola. Their chief aim was to provide slaves for their colony of Brazil in South America. […]