-
The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635
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 (Please see this post for more information:http://www.historynaked.com/great-storm-1900-galveston-hur…/ ) and one that destroyed the young city of New Orleans (Please see this post for more information: http://www.historynaked.com/founding-of-new-orleans/ ). There was even a hurricane that possibly stopped Washington DC from burning in 1814 (Please see this post for more information:http://www.historynaked.com/white-house-white-house-white/ ) However, hurricanes have been plaguing the…
-
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 short. This was a society set up to fund the immigration of Germans to Texas to start a New Germany. Wait, Germans in Texas? How does this work? Germany in the 19th century was divided into more than thirty independent kingdoms, principalities, and free cities. Adding to this chaos was the birth of the industrial…
-
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 Detroit. His cousin Duluth went onto explore Minnesota and the city of Duluth is named for him. Henri is best remembered as the right hand man of French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. However, he has quite a story in his own right. The family was originally from Naples, but fled to France…
-
The Loves of John Smith
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 only journals from that time make no mention of the event and describe the Powhatan people as nothing but friendly. What is known is Smith had a thing for princesses as another one made a significant impact on his life. Before his journeys to the New World, John Smith was a bonafide pirate. As a…
-
Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba- Always have a Chair for the Queen
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. Ndongo was ruled by a king called a Ngola, and the government was run by slaves. This was similar to the system of the janissaries in the Ottoman Empire. Slaves loyal to the royal family took high positions in the government and the military to ensure absolute loyalty. Ndongo was a trading partner of the…
