English New World Colonies post 1660AD

Today our tour of New World Colonies continues with those English colonies founded after 1660AD.  Of course, these lists should not be considered exhaustive!


Map of Eastern North America in the wake of the Seven Years' (French and Indian) War, in 1763AD.

• Carolina (1663):  We now move to the era of the restored Stuart throne (post 1660).  In this period immediately after the restoration of Charles II to the throne, a political friend, the Earl of Shaftesbury, sought a New World proprietorship.  He, along with the Governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir John Colleton of Barbados, sought this new charter from the King, which they received in 1663 for the territory south of the Virginia colony, perfect as a buffer with Spain.  It would be named for the King – Carolus in Latin – as Carolina.  The first inhabitants were folks who drifted south from Virginia – outcasts and dubious wild folks from Virginia who would tobacco farm.  In the south of this new Colony, planters from Barbados, immigrants from England set up shop – including the new city of Charles Town (Charleston) – founded inland in 1670, and moved to the present location in 1680.  This colony would take a while to catch on, although the proprietors were extremely unpopular.  The sections would split into two colonies in North and South in 1719 – even as the proprietors lost control.  This would lead to the official formation of two royal colonies in 1729.  The proprietors were also given title to the Bahamas!
• New York (1664): By the time of the mid 1660s, New Netherlands were a mishmash of twelve nationalities in the port town of New Amsterdam.  Fort Orange (Albany) and Fort Nassau (Trenton), both inland on rivers, the Hudson & Delaware respectively, were the centers of the fur trade.  Between Fort Orange & New Amsterdam were massive manorial estates (patroonships) that characterized the rural settlement of the colony.  Wedged between the English colonies of Maryland & Virginia to the South, and those of New England to the North, the English sought the opportunity to extinguish this economic and political threat.  In 1664, in the midst of a trade war between England and the Netherlands, an English naval force approached New Amsterdam, and the governor, Stuyvesant, finding no support was forced to surrender without firing a shot.  The old Dutch colony of New Netherland was now the English proprietary colony of King Charles II’s younger brother, James, Duke of York (he would convert to Catholicism by the end of the decade, and become James II in 1685).  Thus, New York was the new English name.  The English, for their part, gave sections of Guiana in South America to the Dutch to compensate.
• New Jersey (1664): This English colony was carved out of the newly conquered colony of New York.  The Duke of York essentially sublet – as proprietor, he granted another proprietary colony from the territory that he now controlled.  This would be a chaotic colony, as it was opposed by New York – the port of Perth Amboy across the Hudson from New York tried to take business – and the proprietors were numerous, and interested in short-sighted policies that didn’t seek to plant a well-grounded colony.  In 1674, it would be split in half as East & West Jersey.  They would be reunited as a royal colony in 1702.
• New Hampshire (1679): This little colony, with its port of Portsmouth, had been settled before MA Bay, but didn’t get a separate charter until now.  It would fall back under MA control at times.  Maine, however, is still under MA jurisdiction.
• Pennsylvania (1681): The last new colony before 1700, Pennsylvania was another proprietary colony granted by the restored crown, again returning a favor, or in this case, paying a debt.  The founder, William Penn, would found this as a social experiment and charity work.  The Duke of York, to pay off his debt to Penn, granted him the land west of the Delaware in his proprietary colony – to be named for Penn by the Duke.  It would be a much more clearly governed colony than the other recent proprietaries, like Jersey or Carolina.  William Penn, as a Quaker, formed his colony on their ideals – pacifist, tolerant, and believers in an “inner light.”  Thus, they founded the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, as their capital.  By the time of the American Revolution, this would be the #2 city in the British Empire, after only London.
• Delaware (1702):  This area of the old New Sweden colony was actually a sort of disputed area.  In the end, Pennsylvania controlled these three “lower counties,” and although sharing the same proprietor, these non-Quaker counties were granted their own legislature in 1702, first meeting in 1704.  Delaware, then, was a semi-independent part of Pennsylvania until the Revolution.
• Nova Scotia (1713): This English colony would be added as a result of Queen Anne’s War (War of Spanish Succession), which we will discuss later.  In 1713, this section of Acadia would come under English rule as Nova Scotia (New Scotland) with the city-fortress of Halifax becoming a significant northern base of operations.  The French held on to Ile Saint Jean (Prince Edward Island) and Ile Royale (Cape Breton Island), with the Fortress Louisbourg.  In 1763, Nova Scotia would receive those islands, too.
• Prince Rupert’s Land (1713): This was the large, but unpopulated, company owned land around the Hudson Bay in the far north of Canada.  It was granted by charter in 1670, but recognized by treaty in 1713.
• Newfoundland (1713): Britain and France had squabbled over this fishing area, which finally went to Britain with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. [British at St. John’s, French at Plaisance -- both had been on the island for some time before the settlement]
• Georgia (1732): Georgia would be the first new colony chartered under the new ruling house of Hanover.  King George II granted a charter to a group of Trustees, with James Oglethorpe most notable, for a colony to bear his name south of South Carolina.  This was a social experiment of sorts, as the colony was to be for debtors and downtrodden Englishmen.  Slavery was illegal under the rule of these Trustees.  The colony, sitting as it did south of the Savannah River, was to be a buffer against the Spanish in Florida.  Development was slow to start, though the capital city of Savannah was laid out, planned, and founded by Oglethorpe in 1733, including its now famous squares.  The rule of the Trustees would expire, and Georgia became a royal colony in 1751.  This was a frontier colony that saw some combat, in addition to its difficult conditions.
• Prince Edward Island (1769): The French Ile St. Jean, it became British and part of Nova Scotia in 1763, made its own colony in 1769, and finally took the name PEI in 1798.

Sources: American Colonial and Revolutionary History by Smelser; The Columbia Encyclopedia.

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Hurricane Resources

The Storm Warning Flag for a Hurricane, based on the Beaufort Scale.  For the details of this wind scale, check here: Met Office: Beaufort Scale

In light of the rather unique tropical system currently menacing the East Coast of the United States, here are a couple of useful Hurricane and Tropical Resources:

First, and foremost, is the National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/


The current culprit, Sandy.

Especially useful today is the entry for "Sandy": http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/#SANDY

They also offer a summary of the Hurricane season so far, including the memorable system "Isaac" that caused trouble along the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana and Mississippi that the author of this blog got the chance to drive past: Link to Atlantic Hurricane Season Summary 2012

For comparison, and for an alternative source of information, here is the commercial Weather Channel Hurricane Central website: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/

Here is the Accuweather Hurricane page: http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hurricane/index.asp

Also, for reference, the Weather Underground site on the subject: http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/


Typhoon Omar of August 1992 (the author witnessed the eye of this storm)

Finally, here is a little more information on Typhoon Omar that the author of this blog got to ride through, including eye passage, in 1992: Houston Chronicle Article on the Storm

Live well!

1,700th Anniversary of Milvian Bridge

The Battle of Milvian Bridge by Romano (+1546AD)

Tomorrow is the 1,700th Anniversary of the Battle of Milvian Bridge, fought just north of Rome, on 28 October 312AD.  It was at this battle that the army of Constantine I "the Great," fighting with the Christian emblem of the Chi Rho on the shields of his troops, defeated the army of Maxentius and the Pretorian Guard.  This victory allowed Constantine to consolidate power, and pave the way for the Edict of Milan promulgated the next year with the Emperor Licinius in the East, which legalized Christianity.


An engraving of the Battle of Milvian Bridge after the painting by Charles Le Brun (+1690)

Some background then:

·         Diocletian, convinced by his Caesar, Galerius, opened a savage persecution of the Church in 303AD.  As St. Justin Martyr put it some time earlier: “The world suffers nothing from Christians but hates them because they reject its pleasures.”  The historian Henri Daniel-Rops describes the time this way: “A whole society became drunk with sadism and torture.”  Romans faced a choice: Sacrifice to Roman gods or die.  One such martyr was the protomartyr of England, St. Alban, killed in 303.  Diocletian, himself, withdrew from public in 304, actually retiring as Emperor on 305.  This meant that Maximian was to retire in the West, too, and the two Caesars would become the new Augusti, and that there would be two new Caesars – supposed to be Severus in the West and Maximin Daia in the East. [Diocletion had introduced a system, the Tetrarchy, whereby the Eastern and Western portions of the Empire each had an Augustus and assistant Caesar.  With the death or retirement of an Augustus, the Caesars were supposed to step up into that office and appoint new Caesars.]

·         When Constantius Chlorus died in 306 his armies declared Constantine, his son, the new Augustus of the West from York in England.  Galerius recognized him as a Caesar, at least, and considered Severus the new Augustus.  Maximian’s son, Maxentius actually seized control of Italy in 307 and proclaimed himself one of the Emperors by making promises to neglected Rome; he did this with the support of his father.  Severus, however, campaigned against him, only to be captured and killed.  As a result, Galerius presented Licinius as the new Augustus (though he would have to defeat Maxentius to have any real power)!  By 310AD, Galerius was dying of a venereal disease, and Diocletian of despair.  As Galerius died with his decomposing ulcers, he offered toleration to Christians, in 311.  So, in 311 Licinius has established himself in the Balkans, Greece and Thrace; Maxentius in Italy and North Africa, Constantine in Britain and Gaul, and Maximin Daia in the East, who continued the savage persecution – St. Anthony even comes out of the desert to strengthen the martyrs in Egypt. 

·         Battle of Milvian Bridge.  312 In hoc signo vinces – Constantine invaded Italy to attack Maxentius – Maxentius, who had already defeated Severus & beat off Galerius.  Before the battle Constantine has the vision of the Chi Rho in the sky, and has his men put this emblem on their shields.  In the battle of 28 October the Praetorian Guard was broken, the bridge over the Tiber collapsed, and Maxentius plunged to his death.  Constantine entered Rome in triumph on 29 October.  The Senate approved Constantine, and an arch was erected, and the monuments of the persecutors were torn down.  Daia in the East is commanded to stop persecutions, he complies.

·         Edict of Milan.  313 began with Constantine’s sister marrying Licinius, and in February 313 (June in East), the Edict of Milan was ratified by Constantine and Licinius, giving Christianity freedom of religion in the Empire.  In 313, with the barbarian attack along the Rhine, Daia, fearing an alliance of these two, attacked Licinius in Thrace – he was beaten by Licinius at near Adrianople (Tzirallum) on April – and by September Daia is dead and Constantine victorious along the Rhine.  Two Emperors now, Constantine in the West and Licinius in the East.

For your reference, here is the full text of the Edict of Milan of 313AD:

The "Edict of Milan" (313 A. D.)

When I, Constantine Augustus, as well as I Licinius Augustus d fortunately met near Mediolanurn (Milan), and were considering everything that pertained to the public welfare and security, we thought -, among other things which we saw would be for the good of many, those regulations pertaining to the reverence of the Divinity ought certainly to be made first, so that we might grant to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred; whence any Divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens may be propitious and kindly disposed to us and all who are placed under our rule And thus by this wholesome counsel and most upright provision we thought to arrange that no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion, of that religion which he should think best for himself, so that the Supreme Deity, to whose worship we freely yield our hearts) may show in all things His usual favor and benevolence. Therefore, your Worship should know that it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever, which were in the rescripts formerly given to you officially, concerning the Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without molestation. We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases ; this regulation is made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.

Moreover, in the case of the Christians especially we esteemed it best to order that if it happems anyone heretofore has bought from our treasury from anyone whatsoever, those places where they were previously accustomed to assemble, concerning which a certain decree had been made and a letter sent to you officially, the same shall be restored to the Christians without payment or any claim of recompense and without any kind of fraud or deception, Those, moreover, who have obtained the same by gift, are likewise to return them at once to the Christians. Besides, both those who have purchased and those who have secured them by gift, are to appeal to the vicar if they seek any recompense from our bounty, that they may be cared for through our clemency,. All this property ought to be delivered at once to the community of the Christians through your intercession, and without delay. And since these Christians are known to have possessed not only those places in which they were accustomed to assemble, but also other property, namely the churches, belonging to them as a corporation and not as individuals, all these things which we have included under the above law, you will order to be restored, without any hesitation or controversy at all, to these Christians, that is to say to the corporations and their conventicles: providing, of course, that the above arrangements be followed so that those who return the same without payment, as we have said, may hope for an indemnity from our bounty. In all these circumstances you ought to tender your most efficacious intervention to the community of the Christians, that our command may be carried into effect as quickly as possible, whereby, moreover, through our clemency, public order may be secured. Let this be done so that, as we have said above, Divine favor towards us, which, under the most important circumstances we have already experienced, may, for all time, preserve and prosper our successes together with the good of the state. Moreover, in order that the statement of this decree of our good will may come to the notice of all, this rescript, published by your decree, shall be announced everywhere and brought to the knowledge of all, so that the decree of this, our benevolence, cannot be concealed.

from Lactantius, De Mort. Pers., ch. 48. opera, ed. 0. F. Fritzsche, II, p 288 sq. (Bibl Patr. Ecc. Lat. XI).

Live well!

English New World Colonies pre 1660AD

My look at the New World colonies continues -- today the English colonies established prior to 1660AD and the restoration of King Charles II.


Captain Smith's Map of Virginia.  It is oriented with the west to the top, and north to the right.

• Virginia (1607): The first attempts of the English crown in the New World came in the form of raids against Spanish holdings – Sir Francis Drake in 1570-1572, for instance.  Eventually, a desire came to plant a colony so as to gain gold and an economic foothold in the New World.  The first hurrah came with the Sir Walter Raleigh organized colony at Roanoke (NC) in what they dubbed “Virginia” for Queen Elizabeth I of England.  This was set up in 1587, but disappeared before the return trip of supplies in 1590.  The name Virginia, however, stuck for much of the East Coast at this point – as Florida was the Spanish name (1571, Spanish Jesuits in Virginia, but martyred.)  The check of Parliament prevented crown funded expeditions, so the Virginia Company, with two parts, the London & Plymouth Companies, set forth.  The London Company got what ended up being Virginia – in 1607 Jamestown was established in modern Virginia, and so the colony was born.  This small group lost 2/3 of their colonists in the first eight months to sickness and the like.  John Smith and his hard discipline kept them alive, and the discovery of Tobacco kept an economic reason for the colony.  It received two new charters, in 1609 and 1612, but never really achieved its goals.  Slavery and an elected assembly both arrived in 1619.  After the devastating Indian attacks by the Powhatan Confederation in 1622 (1/4 of colonists killed) and the disinterest of the stockholders, however, Virginia was made a royal crown colony in 1624 by King James I.  This would pretty much assure its survival, and the final destruction of the Powhatan.  The capital would remain at Jamestown for most of the rest of the century, and in 1634 the colony would be divided into “shires” or Counties.  The crown would keep the colonial assembly, called the House of Burgesses.
• Bermuda (1612): The island of Bermuda, sitting off the east coast of the modern United States would also become part of the British colonial empire – founded in 1612, and made a royal colony – a status it still holds – in 1684.
• Plymouth Colony (1620): Most Americans are familiar with this colony above all others – this is the location of the Pilgrims we all drool over on Thanksgiving.  The Pilgrims were a radical Calvinist group that had left England in 1609 for the Netherlands, but wanting a place of their own, set forth on the Mayflower in 1620 to found the Plymouth colony, which would be independent and generally self governing until it was merged with Massachusetts Bay colony to found the royal colony of Massachusetts in 1691.
• Barbados (1627): The oldest British holding in the Caribbean, Barbados was significant for the foothold it provided the crown in the south.  The sugar revenue of this tiny island was extremely valuable.
• Massachusetts Bay (1629): This was the largest and most significant of the colonies in New England, settled by Calvinst Puritans, although not as radical as the Pilgrims.  This colony started at Salem in 1629 and quickly incorporated the territory of Boston.  To the North, a few colonists settled in what would become New Hampshire in 1623, but would soon fall under the jurisdiction of MA Bay.
• Maryland (1634): Unique amongst the colonies of the coast, Maryland was founded by a charter from King Charles I of England to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, making the first proprietary colony that got off the ground.  The English Catholic Calverts, originally given Newfoundland, could not stay in Virginia as they could not take the Oath of Supremacy.  Calvert asked for a new grant to be named “Maryland” for the Queen, and his son Cecilius Calvert actually received the charter in 1632 for the territory north of the Potomac, and including the river, and south of what is basically the Mason-Dixon line today (the 40^th parallel, but Philly later…).  This was supposed to be a refuge for Catholics (although they had to be smuggled past the port officials administering the Oath of Supremacy), and although Jesuits helped organize the expedition, Catholics remained a minority.  They landed in 1634, Mass was said on St. Clement’s Island, and they established the capital at St. Mary’s City in southern Maryland.  There was a fight against Virginians living in this territory – Claiborne, for one resisted, although without success.  In 1649 the Calverts formalized the Toleration Act, so that Catholics could freely practice.  Fleeing Puritans, though, during the English Civil War and after soon took control and repealed the act.
• Connecticut (1636): This colony was merely an offshoot of the Massachusetts Bay colony.  MA Bay allowed a group of settlers from MA Bay, under the leadership of Puritan Rev. Thomas Hooker to settle and govern the area around Hartford, Connecticut, on the Connecticut River.  This, of course, annoyed the Dutch.
• Rhode Island (1636): Another offshoot of MA Bay, this time founded by a religious outcast, Rhode Island was originally a loose conglomeration of towns.  Roger Williams is considered the primary founded, and established Providence in 1636.  Portsmouth followed in 1638, Newport in 1639, and finally Warwick in 1643 make up the full colony.  The 1644 charter allowed these four towns to be self-governed.  In 1663 they received another, from King Charles II, that gave them self governance as the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  Religious freedom was guaranteed – it was viewed as a moral sinkhole of outcasts.
• New Haven (1638): This colony on Long Island Sound was founded by London Puritans seeking a trading post.  This was a weak and poorly governed colony hemmed in by unfriendlies: the Dutch & CT.  Eventually, given the choice, they were absorbed by CT in 1664, rather than NY.
• We might note, too, that in the early 17^th century (1638) the English pirates got a foothold on a neglected section of the Central American Coast: British Honduras, now called Belize.  It would be subordinated to the government of Jamaica in 1742.
• Jamaica (1655): This large Caribbean island would be captured by the English from Spain in 1655.  This would be a martial and commercial outpost of some importance – by far the largest Caribbean island colony of England.  This, too, is the only major addition to the English colonial Empire under the Cromwellian rule.  Not until the restoration of the king in 1660 does the numbers of new colonies again increase.

European Colonization up to 1700.

Sources: American Colonial and Revolutionary History by Smelser, Colonial American Troops by Chartrand; The Columbia Encyclopedia.

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Colonies of the Dutch and Northern Europeans

Today I note the colonies of the "other" powers that established colonies in the New World; the Dutch, the Swedes, the Danes, and the Russians.  Don't worry, the English are to follow.


A Map showing the original areas of New Netherland and New Sweden.

• DUTCH:
• Guiana (1616):  Here, on the north coast of South America, the Dutch would have a colony.  Its capital is Paramaribo
• New Netherlands (1626): The date for the establishment of the Dutch colony of the New Netherlands is certainly variable!  Henry Hudson, sailing for the Netherlands explored the area in 1609 (one date), the earliest Dutch settlements came in 1613 (another date), but the foundation of the actual city of New Amsterdam in 1626 by the Dutch West India Company really makes the firms start of the colony.  This, like New France, was a fur trading venture, and a place from which to strike at Spanish shipping.
• Dutch Brazil or New Holland: from 1630-1654, the Dutch set up shop in the northeast corner of Brazil, seizing Portuguese Pernambuco with its sugar.  The Dutch capital was at Recife.
• Curacao (1634) & Aruba:  These islands made up the Dutch West Indies.  Curacao was settled by the Spanish in 1527, but taken by the Dutch in 1634.  It would be an odd mix of Dutch, Spanish, and African residents, as it is today.  The capital is Willemstad.

 

Map of the Dutch Caribbean, which also includes St. Maartin, Saba, and St. Eustatius.

• SWEDISH: New Sweden (1637): Founded by the poor and rather disinterested Kingdom of Sweden, under the leadership of Peter Minuit, New Sweden occupied the Delaware River valley in what is now Delaware and parts of NJ & PA.  This was to be a fur & tobacco based colony.  Log cabins are reputed to originate here.  The Swedish experiment in American colonies ended in 1655 when the Dutch under Peter Stuyvesant (gov. 1647-1664) conquered New Sweden and added it to the holdings of the New Netherlands, expanding the NN to include NY, NJ, & DE.

The Danish Virgin Islands (now the US Virgin Islands).

• DANISH: Virgin Islands (1672):  A portion of the Virgin Islands, just east of Puerto Rico, were acquired for the Denmark – St. Thomas in 1672, St. John in 1683, and St. Croix was bought from France in 1733.  They became a royal colony in 1754.  These are now the US Virgin Islands.

 

Russian America, prior to its sale to the United States.

 

• RUSSIAN: Russian America [Alaska] (1799): The Russian Empire would also establish a colony in the New World, in what is now Alaska.  Initially, the Russians only explored the area to determine its relationship to Siberia, but by the mid 18^th century, fur traders were making excursions here.  Permanent settlements began in the 1790s.  The Czars finally made this a formal colony and possession only in 1799.

Live well!

Viceroyalty of Brazil

The Viceroyalty of Brazil formed the Portuguese colony in the New World, and not a small one at that!


Viceroyalty of Brazil in 1789AD.

* - refers to the year of the establishment of a diocese.


Though claimed in 1500, with its discovery by Pedro Cabral, the Portuguese were not diligent in Brazil, for Africa and Asia (India) was so much a focus, and Portugal was simply not a large county.  The initial economic interest in Brazil came in the form of brazilwood that made a red dye.   In an attempt to settle and block foreign incursions, the crown divided Brazil into fifteen Captaincies, of which only Pernambuco in the north (famous for its sugar, as brazilwood ran out) and Sao Vincente in the south did well – indeed, the first colonial city was that of Sao Vicente in Sao Paulo in 1532. In 1549, Thome de Sousa (1549-1553) was named first governor-general, and he established the first colonial capital at Salvador, Bahia (founded in the 1549, *1552 first Portuguese Bishop).  This change was, in large part, owing to the general failure of the captaincies.  Salvador was placed mid-way between the two successful areas, Sao Vicente in the south and Pernambuco in the northeast.  Jesuits, who had spearheaded the early missionary activity here, sought to evangelize the interior, especially as the first bishop was in conflict with them, and the Society of Jesus founded a city-mission of Sao Paulo inland from Sao Vincente in 1554.  With French incurtions on the coast, the Governor-General Mem de Sa (1558-1572) expelled the French and their “Antarctic” colony and founded the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1565 (*1575).

Brazil would be divided into two states in 1621, Brazil in the South, its capital at Salvador, and Maranhao in the north, with its capital at Sao Luis (a city founded by the French in 1612, but seized in 1615), also notable being the city of Belem, founded in 1616.   Indeed, in 1774, Maranhao was divided, and a new state of Grao-Para was formed in the northwest, with its capital in Belem.  The Dutch, for their part, occupied the northeast and Pernambuco from 1630-1654.



Exterior of the Church of Sao Francisco, Salvador, Bahia.
 
Sugar would dominate the economy after its introduction and throughout most of the 17^th century, when gold and mining became the chief concern of Brazil, especially in the Minas Gerais region, where it was discovered in 1695, and in the Mato Grosso where it was discovered in 1719.  The spurred colonization of the interior (indeed, Minas Gerais had a population of 320,000 in 1782 compared to 1.5 million throughout Brazil), and caused the capital city to be shifted to Rio de Janeiro in 1763, as it became a busy port for exporting precious metals.  That same year, the crown formed a unified Viceroyalty that included all of the states.

The decline of gold production, and general dissatisfaction at the treatment of the colonies led to the 1789 revolt in Minas Gerais, the Inconfidencia Mineira under Tiradentes.  Soon, of course, the royal family would arrive.


Interior of the Church of Sao Francisco, Salvador, Bahia.

Of course, Brazil's road to independence would be rather unique, with the Portuguese royal family, fleeing Napoleon, taking up residence in 1808 in Brazil, and when the royal family returned to Europe in 1821, one of the princes stayed found a dynasty in the new Empire of Brazil that ruled until the 1880s.

Live well!

Gas Prices

Of all the prices that folks tend to watch closely, few top the price of gasoline.  Here are a couple of resources that can help you follow the price of petrol...


Map of the Oil Balance -- the Export-Import difference.

The US Energy Information Administration gives a short explanation of some of the factors that contribute to the cost of gasoline: http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=gasoline_factors_affecting_prices


Pie Town, NM by Russell Lee.


One of the more useful sources floating about the world wide web is certainly the Gasbuddy.com USA National Gas Price Heat Map, which you can find here:
http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

This map shows you current average gas prices across the country, broken down by county.  Zoom the map into a moral local area and county averages shift to zip code averages, and, finally, to individual gas station prices!  I have found it generally up-to-date and reliable!

Canadians, fear not, the same Gasbuddy website also has a Canada National Gas Price Heat map here:
http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_can_gastemperaturemap.aspx

Live well!

Viceroyalty of Peru

Today I continue my look at the colonial New World, focusing on the Viceroyalty of Peru, which, until 1717, encompassed Spanish South America and Panama.  In 1717, the Viceroyalty of New Granada would be carved off the north, and in 1776, the Viceroyalty of La Plata to the Southeast.  You might note the map below.


The Viceroyalty of Peru around 1650AD.  The numbers and colors designate Audiencias -- 1, Panama, 2, Bogota, and 3, Quito would become, with Venezuela, the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717AD, 4, Lima, and 6, Santiago, which would remain under the Viceroy of Lima until independence, and 5, Las Charcas, which became the Viceroyalty of La Plata in 1776AD.  This map, if anything, over estimates how far the authority of the audiencias of Lima and Las Charcas extended -- the Portuguese were in the way!

[* refers to the date of the establishment of a diocese, ** is for an Archdiocese]

• Initially, from the formation of the Viceroyalty seated at Lima in 1542, all of Spanish South America was part of a single Viceroyalty of Peru.  It consisted of several audiencias:
• Lima: It was from here that St. Rose of Lima & St. Martin de Porres hailed! The capital was Lima, the “City of the Kings,” (*1541, **1546) which, in 1574, boasted 2,000 Spanish families, 25,000 Indians, five monasteries, two convents, two hospitals. This was established as a viceroyalty in 1542, and Audiencia in 1543, but it was not well organized until Viceroy Francisco de Toledo (1569-1580) arrived.
• Further inland the old Inca city of Cuzco would be the early seat of a bishopric (*1536) and later, in 1787, an audiencia.
• To the south, there would eventually be an Audiencia in Chile in 1609 (*1561 at Santiago).  The highlands to the north subsisted on mining, but this area would be focused on agriculture.  A Captaincy General was erected in Chile in 1778.

·     The second Viceroyalty of South America, New Granada was split off of Peru in 1717, suppressed in 1723, and then again established in 1739, this viceroyalty consisted of northern South America. This included the famous Spanish Main along the coast of the Caribbean Sea.  Its audiencias were as follows:

• oThe capital was Santa Fe de Bogota, founded in 1538 by Jiminez de Quesada at over 8,000 ft. (*1562, **1564), which received its Audiencia in 1548, and oversaw what is now modern Colombia. St. Peter Claver did his work at the important port of Cartagena, founded in 1533 (*1534) in this area.  The Audiencia would be famous for its emeralds.
  oPanama (*1513), which received an Audiencia in 1538/1564, but was suppressed in 1751 and merged with Santa Fe.
  oQuito was raised to an Audiencia in 1563, and governed the area of modern Ecuador.  It was added to the realms of Spain in 1534 by Sebastian de Benalcazar.  It was a relative backwater, owing to the lack of mineral wealth.  In Quito of 1574, there were 400 Spanish families, three monasteries (with an Indian school at the Franciscan monastery), and a hospital.  It would also be notable for its art.
  oVenezuela (under Santo Domingo until formation of New Granada), and made a Captaincy General, at Caracas, in 1777 (*1531, Diocese of Coro until 1637). It received an Audiencia in 1786.

• The last of the viceroyalties created, Rio de la Plata was in the south, and bordered the Portuguese colony of Brazil. The Viceroyalty was formed in 1776, to combat foreign incursions into what had been the backwater of Spanish America
• The capital of the Viceroyalty was Buenos Aires (*1620), a city founded initially in 1536, but abandoned in 1541, and permanently founded in 1580, but cut off from foreign trade, except for black market activities, it received an Audiencia in 1783.  The Spanish crown hoped to exert itself into an area that the Portuguese sought to encroach upon.  Most of Argentina had been a vast cattle ranch, whose products were taken into the mountains of Bolivia and Peru – to feed the mines. 
• The original Audiencia of this area, since 1559, was known as Las Charcas, under the Viceroyalty of Peru.  This was located in the modern city of Sucre (*1552), Bolivia. Of crucial importance, at least until the late 17^th century for this area were the silver mines at Potosi – founded around 1545 at 13,780 ft.; for its first 50 years it was the most plentiful source of silver ever known. It would reach a population of 160,000. It would later be eclipsed by the mines of Mexico and Peru.
• It was in the border land between modern Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil, that the famous Jesuit reductions operated.  This was the real thriving part of Argentina and Paraguay – the Jesuits missions and a city like Cordoba (*1570), officially founded in 1573, which had one of the earliest Universities in the New World, founded in 1613.  Of course, the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1769 would be tragic for this region, as had the earlier conflicts with the Portuguese.

Sources: American Colonial and Revolutionary History by Smelser, Spain in America by Bourne, and The Columbia Encyclopedia [for a few dates].

Live well!

Viceroyalty of New Spain

Having earlier noted a bit about the French Viceroyalty of New France [http://thoscole.blogspot.com/2012/09/viceroyalty-of-new-france.html] -- inspired by a visit to those lands -- I plan to continue a tour of the colonial New World.  Today, I continue with the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain.

After the discovery of the New World, Spain and Portugal took the lead in both exploring and colonizing the continents.  It was a daunting task -- especially for a nation of a population not unlike that of the modern state of Virginia.


Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1795, at its geographical height.  The pink is New Granada, of which, Venezuela had been part of New Spain until 1717.

While the Portuguese possessions on the Americas amounted to the enormous territory of Brazil, that of Spain was divided into several "kingdoms" each managed by a Viceroy.  North America, Central America (except Panama) and the Caribbean, along with the Philippines in Asia, made up the Viceroyalty of New Spain, governed from Mexico City.  South America was initially the Viceroyalty of Peru, with the viceroy resident in Lima, but in the 18th century, the Viceroyalties of New Granada (modern day Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador) and Rio de La Plata (modern day Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay) were established under the Bourbon monarchs.  Today, we take a glance at New Spain and the governmental structure of the Viceroyalty:

• The viceroy was the highest official appointed by the crown, he answered to a Council for the Indies, and the viceroyalties were divided into Audiencias (high courts, presided over by either the Viceroy himself, or a President), and autonomous Captaincy Generals (for unstable or threatened areas -- the President of the Audiencia, as Captain General, held extra martial authority to co-ordinate civil and military functions), and under these were provinces.  All the same, the Indians were given their own villages and allowed to keep much of their old leadership, but “instead of fearful temples…there were Christian churches; while upon the Indians themselves have been bestowed the hardly won prizes of ages of slow progress, the developed arts, the various domestic animals, the grains, vegetables, and fruits, the use of letters, and the printing press, and the forms of government.”  Abuses did remain a serious problem (though there was a triennial audit of these realms) as did the ravages of disease (particularly smallpox) – all the same, there was an earnest attempt to convert, civilize, and protect the Indians by the crown and Church.  The crown spent its own money seeing to the introduction of missionaries, and orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, & Jesuits made important gains.  By the end of the 16^th century there was a thriving Spanish New World culture, complete with “universities, scholars, authors, presses, scientists, and saints.”  [Quotations from Bourne, cf. below]

Map of New Spain in 1650.

• New Spain: The Spanish crown would, in 1535, establish a Viceroyalty of New Spain with its seat in Mexico City. New Spain consisted of a number of subdivisions, including the following audiencias, and 18 provinces [* refers to the date of the establishment of a diocese, ** is for an Archdiocese]:
• Audiencia of Santo Domingo was formed in 1526, which (*1511 S. Domingo, **1545 Santo Domingo became the first Archdiocese in the Americas) had its seat in the city founded in 1496 (made a Captaincy General, as well, in 1535).  The audiencia was a kind of governing high court with an area of jurisdiction.  It, as all later governmental structures, would report to the Council of the Indies in Seville.  This Audiencia of Santo Domingo consisted of Hispaniola (site of Santo Domingo, of course), Puerto Rico (San Juan, *1511; a separate Captaincy General in 1580), Cuba (Conquered by Diego de Velazquez in 1511, founding Havana in 1519, it became a C.G. in 1607), Jamaica (until surrendered to England in 1655), Trinidad, Florida (Discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513, St. Augustine was founded under Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565), and, until 1717, when it was shift to the new Viceroyalty of New Granada, Venezuela. These Caribbean islands were quickly eclipsed by the mainland, as disease, mismanagement of early colonists, and the absence of precious metals took their toll. A census in 1574 revealed the thin population in these areas: in Hispaniola, there were 10 Spanish villages with about a population of 1,000 Spaniards with 12,000 blacks, mainly raising sugar – and only 2 Indian villages.  Cuba had but 240 Spanish colonists, with 70 in Havana. Puerto Rico and Jamaica were similarly de-populated. Although prime growing territory for sugar, the dynamics of the treasure fleet (only so much room, meaning priority to the most valuable products) meant that aside from Havana, where the fleet departed, and the capital at Santo Domingo, the Spanish Caribbean remained isolated and given to ranching and subsistence farming until the time of independence. It could not compete with the precious metals of the mainland. The Spanish crown was concerned, however, with the growth of other foreign interests and colonies, hence the new Captaincies General established in the 17^th century.
• Audiencia of Mexico (conquered by Hernan Cortez from the Aztecs in 1519-1521) with the capital at Mexico City (*1530) was the seat of an Audiencia and the Viceroy himself. It would be elevated to a Viceroyalty in 1535 under Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza (1535-1550). This was a very populated and prosperous area. The same 1574 census figures registered as follows: Mexico City had 15,000 Spaniards and 150,000 Indians – along with a university, schools, and four hospitals. In the bishopric of Tlaxcala (*1525) to the east of Mexico City, there were two Spanish towns (Vera Cruz had 200 Spanish families and 600 blacks), and 200 Indian villages, with 250,000 Indians. St. Juan Diego (1531) lived in this viceroyalty, of course. Mexico was wealthy because of fantastic silver mines such as those at San Luis Potosi, Taxco, and Guanajuato. The main seaports were Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico (point of embarkation for Mexican silver) and Acapulco on the Pacific Coast (the trade route to the Philippines).
• Guadalajara was the seat of an Audiencia that included the Province of New Galicia (modern Jalisco & Zacatecas), northern Mexico and the Southwest United States (New Mexico [Santa Fe, 1608] & California). The city itself, at 5,000 ft. was officially founded in 1542, though settlement in the area started around 1530, after the initial conquest of the area by Nuno de Guzman from 1529-1531.  The audiencia was formed in 1548 (*1548). The California missions of Blessed Junipero Serra came in the 1770s. This area also had important silver mines, such as those at Zacatecas.
• Central America formed the Audiencia of Guatemala, conquered for Spain by Pedo ad Alvarado from 1523-24, in became the seat of an Audiencia in 1543, and in 1609, a Captaincy General was established (Guatemala, *1534), though this excluded Panama, which was politically attached to South America.
• The Captaincy General of Yucatan was formed in southern Mexico in 1617. It was previously under Mexico City directly.  The Maya here had been subdued from 1527-1546 by Francisco de Mantejo the elder and younger, father then son.
• The Philippines in Asia was part of this Viceroyalty, first seriously subdued starting in 1564 with arrival of Lopez Legaspi, who founded Manila in 1571.  It became the Captaincy General of the East Indies in 1574. There would be an Audiencia in Manila in 1583. *1595.

Sources: American Colonial and Revolutionary History by Smelser, Spain in America by Bourne, and The Columbia Encyclopedia for a few dates.

Live well!

Queen Marie Antoinette of France

On this day in 1793, Queen Marie Antoinette of France was executed in the midst of the French Revolution.


Queen Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, in 1783AD.

She was the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria (ruled Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia, 1740-1780) and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I (reigned 1745-1765), former Duke of Lorraine (reigned 1729-1737; switched with Tuscany owing to the outcome of the War of the Polish Election), and Grand Duke of Tuscany (reigned in Tuscany, 1737-1765).  Thus, Marie Antoinette was a member of the House of Hapsburg and of Lorraine.

Her reputation is without question worse than she deserves, being the object of a load of Revolutionary propaganda which refuses to die.  As wife to King Louis XVI, who was guillotined in January 1793, she would face execution at the very same time that the Department of the Vendee in the west of France was in rebellion against the forces of the Revolution.  Dark days, indeed, but worth recalling.

On 21 January 1793, His Most Christian Majesty, Louis XVI, was executed.  Even Louis XVI’s own cousin, Louis Philippe of Orleans voted for his death.  This royal execution was wildly unpopular in the rest of Europe, and that summer half of France would rebel against the rebels.  France declared war on Great Britain and Holland on 1 February, and 24 February draft bill demanding 300,000 troops.  7 March saw France declare on Spain, and the Austrians push back the French in Belgium.   The draft of February along with the other outrages of the Revolution prompted a rising in the Vendée on 12 March, the days that followed saw the word spread, and new forces and leaders join the attempt to defend Church and Throne (“Long live the King, Long live the good priests! & White cockade”).  By 14 March, 12,000 were in arms (The Catholic and Royal Army).  A couple leaders: Jacques Cathelineau, a baker and Francois-Athanase Charette, a young nobleman.  On 5 April 1793 the Committee of Public Safety was established.  In May, the 2^nd largest city in France, Lyons, rose in rebellion against the Revolution.  The Girondin [former anti-monarchist Republicans, once on the left, now considered Conservatives in the Assembly] were ejected from power by a mob of 80,000 on 2 June.  The Assembly ordered their arrest – and they would be dead by the end of the year.  This led to the “reign of terror” (3 June ’93 to 28 July ’94 – 14,080 would be put to death).  On 9 June, the Vendéens seize the city of Saumar – momentum continues in their favor in this counter-Revolution.  On 27 July 1793, Robespierre joined the Committee of Public Safety, and the Terror begins.  What of the Vendée?  Cathelineau made the decision to march on the port of Nantes rather than Paris itself – and an attack there on 29 June 1793 would cost his life (died 14 July), and doom the cause.; d’Elbée would be the new commander of the rising. In October, on the 5^th, the new Revolutionary calendar was introduced, surely a triumph of mankind.  On 9 October, the Lyons uprising was finally crushed, and 2,000 were executed.  It was on Oct. 16 that Queen Marie-Antoinette was executed, to be followed by the Girondin leaders on 31 Oct.  That Autumn, Henri la Rochehajaquelein, would be commanding the Vendée rising, as the movement crumbles – he was famous for the “if I advance, if I retreat, if I die” quotation.  By December, however, the Vendee uprising, too, is extinguished.



As Edmund Burke, the British Member of Parliament, had noted in 1790, regarding Queen Marie Antoinette and this wicked Revolution, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France:
 

"I hear, and I rejoice to hear, that the great lady, the other object of the triumph, has borne that day, (one is interested that beings made for suffering should suffer well) and that she bears all the succeeding days, that she bears the imprisonment of her husband, and her own captivity, and the exile of her friends, and the insulting adulation of addresses, and the whole weight of her accumulated wrongs, with a serene patience, in a manner suited to her rank and race, and becoming the offspring of a sovereign distinguished for her piety and her courage: that, like her, she has lofty sentiments; that she feels with the dignity of a Roman matron; that in the last extremity she will save herself from the last disgrace; and that, if she must fall, she will fall by no ignoble hand.

125

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in,—glittering like the morning-star, full of life, and splendour, and joy. Oh! what a revolution! and what a heart must I have to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! Little did I dream when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour, and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that charity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness."

Chivarly is gone.  We are in an age of sophists, economists, and calculators.  The glory of Europe, and the West, is extinguished.  I nurse a hope that Burke is incorrect that this is "for ever," but grim it looks, indeed.

 I present below the final will and testament of His Most Christian Majesty, King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette's husband.  The words and thoughts of a tyrant?  I think not.  May the soul of King Louis, and his Queen, rest in peace, and may we have such serenity of charity towards our enemies:

LAST TESTAMENT OF LOUIS XVI

In the name of the Very holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

To-day, the 25th day of December, 1792, I, Louis XVI King of France, being for more than four months imprisoned with my family in the tower of the Temple at Paris, by those who were my subjects, and deprived of all communication whatsoever, even with my family, since the eleventh instant; moreover, involved in a trial the end of which it is impossible to foresee, on account of the passions of men, and for which one can find neither pretext nor means in any existing law, and having no other witnesses, for my thoughts than God to whom I can address myself,

I hereby declare, in His presence, my last wishes and feelings.

I leave my soul to God, my creator; I pray Him to receive it in His mercy, not to judge it according to its merits but according to those of Our Lord Jesus Christ who has offered Himself as a sacrifice to God His Father for us other men, no matter how hardened, and for me first.

I die in communion with our Holy Mother, the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, which holds authority by an uninterrupted succession, from St. Peter, to whom Jesus Christ entrusted it; I believe firmly and I confess all that is contained in the creed and the commandments of God and the Church, the sacraments and the mysteries, those which the Catholic Church teaches and has always taught. I never pretend to set myself up as a judge of the various way of expounding the dogma which rend the church of Jesus Christ, but I agree and will always agree, if God grant me life the decisions which the ecclesiastical superiors of the Holy Catholic Church give and will always give, in conformity with the disciplines which the Church has followed since Jesus Christ.

I pity with all my heart our brothers who may be in error but I do not claim to judge them, and I do not love them less in Christ, as our Christian charity teaches us, and I pray to God to pardon all my sins. I have sought scrupulously to know them, to detest them and to humiliate myself in His presence. Not being able to obtain the ministration of a Catholic priest, I pray God to receive the confession which I feel in having put my name (although this was against my will) to acts which might be contrary to the discipline and the belief of the Catholic church, to which I have always remained sincerely attached. I pray God to receive my firm resolution, if He grants me life, to have the ministrations of a Catholic priest, as soon as I can, in order to confess my sins and to receive the sacrament of penance.

I beg all those whom I might have offended inadvertently (for I do not recall having knowingly offended any one), or those whom I may have given bad examples or scandals, to pardon the evil which they believe I could have done them.

I beseech those who have the kindness to join their prayers to mine, to obtain pardon from God for my sins.

I pardon with all my heart those who made themselves my enemies, without my have given them any cause, and I pray God to pardon them, as well as those who, through false or misunderstood zeal, did me much harm.

I commend to God my wife and my children, my sister, my aunts, my brothers, and all those who are attached to me by ties of blood or by whatever other means. I pray God particularly to cast eyes of compassion upon my wife, my children, and my sister, who suffered with me for so long a time, to sustain them with His mercy if they shall lose me, and as long as they remain in his mortal world.

I commend my children to my wife; I have never doubted her maternal tenderness for them. I enjoin her above all to make them good Christians and honest individuals; to make them view the grandeurs of this world (if they are condemned to experience them) as very dangerous and transient goods, and turn their attention towards the one solid and enduring glory, eternity. I beseech my sister to kindly continue her tenderness for my children and to take the place of a mother, should they have the misfortune of losing theirs.

I beg my wife to forgive all the pain which she suffered for me, and the sorrows which I may have caused her in the course of our union; and she may feel sure that I hold nothing against her, if she has anything with which to reproach herself.

I most warmly enjoin my children that, after what they owe to God, which should come first, they should remain forever united among themselves, submissive and obedient to their mother, and grateful for all the care and trouble which she has taken with them, as well as in memory of me. I beg them to regard my sister as their second mother.

I exhort my son, should he have the misfortune of becoming king, to remember he owes himself wholly to the happiness of his fellow citizens; that he should forget all hates and all grudges, particularly those connected with the misfortunes and sorrows which I am experiencing; that he can make the people happy only by ruling according to laws: but at the same time to remember that a king cannot make himself respected and do the good that is in his heart unless he has the necessary authority, and that otherwise, being tangled up in his activities and not inspiring respect, he is more harmful than useful.

I exhort my son to care for all the persons who are attached to me, as much as his circumstances will allow, to remember that it is a sacred debt which I have contracted towards the children and relatives of those who have perished for me and also those who are wretched for my sake. I know that there are many persons, among those who were near me, who did not conduct themselves towards me as they should have and who have even shown ingratitude, but I pardon them (often in moments of trouble and turmoil one is not master of oneself), and I beg my son that, if he finds an occasion, he should think only of their misfortunes.

I should have wanted here to show my gratitude to those who have given me a true and disinterested affection; if, on the one hand, I was keenly hurt by the ingratitude and disloyalty of those to whom I have always, shown kindness, as well as to their relatives and friends, on the other hand I have had the consolation of seeing the affection and voluntary interest which many persons have shown me. I beg them to receive my thanks.

In the situation in which matters still are, I fear to compromise them if I should speak more explicitly, but I especially enjoin my son to seek occasion to recognize them.

I should, nevertheless, consider it a calumny on the nation if I did not openly recommend to my son MM. De Chamilly and Hue, whose genuine attachment for me led them to imprison themselves with me in this sad abode. I also recommend Clery, for whose attentiveness I have nothing but praise ever since he has been with me. Since it is he who has remained with me until the end, I beg the gentlemen of the commune to hand over to him my clothes, my books, my watch, my purse, and all other small effects which have been deposited with the council of the commune.

I pardon again very readily those who guard me, the ill treatment and the vexations which they thought it necessary to impose upon me. I found a few sensitive and compassionate souls among them - may they in their hearts enjoy the tranquillity which their way of thinking gives them.

I beg MM. De Malesherbes, Tronchet and De Seze to receive all my thanks and the expressions of my feelings for all the cares and troubles they took for me.

I finish by declaring before God, and ready to appear before Him, that I do not reproach myself with any of the crimes with which I am charged.

Made in duplicate in the Tower of the Temple, the 25th of December 1792.

LOUIS

(Archives Nationales, Paris, dated 25 Dec 1792; given by the King to M. Baudrais, a municipal officer, on 21 Jan 1793, a few moments for he left for his place of execution. Baudrais immediately signed his name to authenticate it and deposited it with the commune, where it was signed and certified by Coulomneau, the secretary, and Drouel, the vice-president)

Vive le Roi!

Live well!