1.
Nicaragua
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Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the largest country in the Central American isthmus. Nicaraguas capital, Managua, is the countrys largest city and the third-largest city in Central America, the multi-ethnic population of six million includes indigenous peoples, Europeans, Africans, and Asians. Native tribes on the eastern coast speak their own languages, the Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century. Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821, since its independence, Nicaragua has undergone periods of political unrest, dictatorship, and fiscal crisis—the most notable causes that led to the Nicaraguan Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Nicaragua is a democratic republic. The biological diversity, warm climate and active volcanoes make Nicaragua an increasingly popular tourist destination. The name Nicaragua was coined by Spanish colonists based on the name Nicarao, when Spaniard Gil González Dávila came to Nicaragua in 1521 he found in the areas between Rivas and San Jorge the first pre-Columbian natives of Nicaragua. At the time the city was called Quauhcapolca and the cacique leaders name was Macuilmiquiztli. The Pipil migrated to Nicaragua from central Mexico after 500 BC, meanwhile, the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua was inhabited by other peoples, mostly Chibcha language groups. They had coalesced in Central America and migrated also to present-day northern Colombia and they lived a life based primarily on hunting and gathering. In 1502, Christopher Columbus became the first European known to have reached what is now Nicaragua as he sailed southeast toward the Isthmus of Panama, on his fourth voyage, Columbus explored the Miskito Coast on the Atlantic side of Nicaragua. The Spanish attempted to convert all three tribes to Christianity, Nicaragua and Nicarao and their people converted, but Dirangen, however, did not, the first attempt to conquer what is now known as Nicaragua was by Gil González Dávila, who arrived in Panama in January 1520. The first Spanish permanent settlements were founded in 1524, conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded two of Nicaraguas principal towns in 1524, Granada on Lake Nicaragua was the first settlement, followed by León at a location west of Lake Managua. Córdoba soon built defenses for the cities and fought against incursions by other conquistadors, Córdoba was later publicly beheaded following a power struggle with Pedro Arias Dávila. His tomb and remains were discovered in 2000 in the ruins of León Viejo, the clashes among Spanish forces did not impede their destruction of the indigenous people and their culture. The series of battles came to be known as the War of the Captains, Pedro Arias Dávila was a winner, although he had lost control of Panama, he moved to Nicaragua and successfully established his base in León. Through adroit diplomatic machinations, he became the first governor of the colony, many indigenous people died as a result of new infectious diseases, compounded by neglect by the Spaniards, who controlled their subsistence. In 1610, the Momotombo volcano erupted, destroying the capital and it was rebuilt northwest of what is now known as the ruins of Old León
2.
Piracy on Lake Nicaragua
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Piracy on Lake Nicaragua refers to an era in Nicaraguan history from 1665 to 1857, when Caribbean pirates and filibusters operated in the lake and the surrounding shores. Lake Nicaragua, then called the Sweet Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in Central America and is connected to the Caribbean Sea by the San Juan River. Due to the burning of León in 1610, by a volcano, by 1650 the Golden Age of Piracy had begun in which buccaneers from several races and nations infested the West Indies. The lake is known to have been controlled by pirates as early as 1665 when Henry Morgan led six shallow draft canoes up the San Juan for an attack on Granada. The canoes were twelve metres long and acquired during an attack on Villahermosa, Mexico, in June Morgan led his band up the river by night while hiding in the day and when they reached the lake the pirates stealthily crossed it and landed outside town. A general assault was made on Granada and the Spanish were found completely off guard. After the hostilities had ceased Morgan went after the treasury of silver and his men set fire to the buildings. Pirates also founded their own towns at the time, among them Pueblo Viejo and Bluefields. Soon after Morgan left, the pirate Captain Gallardito began operating on Lake Nicaragua, following that incident the Spanish resorted to fortifying their territory. At one area southeast of Granada the Spanish Army Captain Fernando Francisco de Escobedo began building the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception in 1673 next to a rapid in the San Juan River. Dampier then went on to attack Granada after marching overland and he burned the colony down again on September 8, soon after the city of Leon was attacked and destroyed as well. Since the founding of British colonies in the West Indies, most notably Jamaica, pirates and Miskito Sambu filibusters attacked the Fortress of the Immaculate Conception repeatedly during the 18th century. Perhaps the most famous battle occurred in 1762 during the Seven Years War, eventually a force of 2,000 Britons and Sambus sailed up the San Juan in more than fifty boats and canoes where they laid siege to about 100 Spaniards in the fortress on July 26. The garrison commander had died only recently leaving his daughter, the nineteen-year-old Rafaela Herrera, Herrera killed the British commander herself on the first day of the battle and for six days afterward the two sides duelled with cannons. Occasionally the British and Sambus would charge forward for a close quarters engagement though they were beaten every time with heavy losses. A second British expedition was launched in 1780 and it captured the fort. Filibustering became popular in the 19th century, primarily in Latin America, perhaps the most famous filibustering expedition was William Walkers Conquest of Nicaragua in 1855, by which time the country was independent from Spanish rule. A civil war had broken out in 1854 between liberal and conservative forces, the conservatives, or Legitimists, held Granada while the liberals held Leon
3.
United States occupation of Nicaragua
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The United States occupation of Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 was part of the Banana Wars, when the US military forcefully intervened in various Latin American countries from 1898 to 1934. The formal occupation began in 1912, even there were various other assaults by the U. S. in Nicaragua throughout this period. American military interventions in Nicaragua were designed to any other nation except the United States of America from building a Nicaraguan Canal. Nicaragua assumed a status under the 1916 Bryan–Chamorro Treaty. But with the onset of the Great Depression and Augusto C, Sandinos Nicaraguan guerrilla troops fighting back against U. S. troops, it became too costly for the U. S. government and a withdrawal was ordered in 1933. The Conservative Party sought to overthrow Zelaya which led to Estradas rebellion in December 1909, two Americans, Leonard Groce and Lee Roy Cannon, were captured and indicted for allegedly joining the rebellion and the laying of mines. Zelaya ordered the execution of the two Americans, which severed U. S. relations, U. S. Naval warships that had been waiting off Mexico and Costa Rica moved into position. Zelaya resigned on December 14,1909, and his hand-picked successor, U. S. Secretary of State Philander C. Knox admonished that the United States would not resume relations with Nicaragua until Madriz demonstrated that his was a responsible government. Prepared to make reparations for the wrongs done to American citizens, on May 27,1910, U. S. Marine Corps Major Smedley Butler arrived on the coast of Nicaragua with 250 Marines, for the purpose of providing security in Bluefields. United States Secretary of State Philander C, knox condemned Zelayas actions, favoring Estrada. Zelaya succumbed to U. S. political pressure and fled the country, Madriz in turn had to face an advance by the reinvigorated eastern rebel forces, which ultimately led to his resignation. In August 1910, Juan Estrada became president of Nicaragua with the recognition of the United States. Estrada’s administration allowed President William Howard Taft and Secretary of State Philander C, knox to apply the Dollar Diplomacy or dollars for bullets policy. The policy opened the door for American banks to lend money to the Nicaraguan government, minister of War General Luis Mena forced Estrada to resign. He was replaced by his president, the conservative Adolfo Díaz. Díazs connection with the United States led to a decline in his popularity in Nicaragua, nationalistic sentiments arose in the Nicaraguan military, including Luis Mena, the Secretary of War. Mena managed to gain the support of the National Assembly, accusing Díaz of selling out the nation to New York bankers, Díaz asked the U. S. government for help, as Menas opposition turned into rebellion
4.
Sandinista National Liberation Front
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The Sandinista National Liberation Front is now a democratic socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas in both English and Spanish, the party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s. The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981, a militia, known as the Contras, was formed in 1981 to overthrow the Sandinista government and was funded and trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency. In 1984 elections were held but were boycotted by opposition parties. The FSLN won the majority of the votes, and those who opposed the Sandinistas won approximately a third of the seats, the civil war between the Contras and the government continued until 1989. The FSLN remains one of Nicaraguas two leading parties, the FSLN often polls in opposition to the Constitutionalist Liberal Party, or PLC. Ortega and the FSLN were re-elected again in the election of November 2011. The Sandinistas took their name from Augusto César Sandino, the leader of Nicaraguas nationalist rebellion against the US occupation of the country during the early 20th century. The FSLN originated in the milieu of various organizations, youth and student groups in the late 1950s. The University of Léon, and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua in Managua were two of the centers of activity. Inspired by the Revolution and the FLN in Algeria, the FSLN itself was founded in 1961 by Carlos Fonseca, Silvio Mayorga, Tomás Borge, only Tomás Borge lived long enough to see the Sandinista victory in 1979. The term Sandinista, was added two years later, establishing continuity with Sandinos movement, and using his legacy in order to develop the movements ideology and strategy. By the early 1970s, the FSLN was launching limited military initiatives, on December 23,1972, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake leveled the capital city, Managua. The earthquake killed 10,000 of the citys 400,000 residents, about 80% of Managuas commercial buildings were destroyed. The president gave reconstruction contracts preferentially to family and friends, thereby profiting from the quake, by some estimates, his personal wealth rose to US$400 million in 1974. The siege was carefully timed to take place after the departure of the US ambassador from the gathering, at 10,50 pm, a group of 15 young guerrillas and their commanders, Pomares and Contreras, entered the house. They killed the Minister, who tried to shoot them, during the takeover, the guerrillas received US$2 million ransom, and had their official communiqué read over the radio and printed in the newspaper La Prensa
5.
Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The combined population of Central America is between 41,739,000 and 42,688,190, Central America is a part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently, these disasters have resulted in the loss of many lives. In the Pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west. Soon after Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish began to colonize the Americas, the seven states finally became independent autonomous states, beginning with Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, followed by El Salvador, then Panama, and finally Belize. Middle America is usually thought to comprise Mexico to the north of the 7 states of Central America as well as Colombia, usually the whole of the Caribbean to the north-east and sometimes the Guyanas are also included. According to one source, the term Central America was used as a synonym for Middle America as recently as 1962, in Brazil, Central America comprises all countries between Mexico and Colombia, including those in the Caribbean. Mexico, in whole or in part, is included by British people. For the people living in the 5 countries formerly part of the Federal Republic of Central America there is a distinction between the Spanish language terms América Central and Centroamérica, in the Pre-Columbian era, the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Most notable among these were the Mayans, who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the Aztecs, following Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish sent many expeditions to the region, and they began their conquest of Maya territory in 1523. Soon after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado commenced the conquest of northern Central America for the Spanish Empire. Beginning with his arrival in Soconusco in 1523, Alvarados forces systematically conquered and subjugated most of the major Maya kingdoms, including the Kiche, Tzutujil, Pipil, and the Kaqchikel. By 1528, the conquest of Guatemala was nearly complete, with only the Petén Basin remaining outside the Spanish sphere of influence, the last independent Maya kingdoms – the Kowoj and the Itza people – were finally defeated in 1697, as part of the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1538, Spain established the Real Audiencia of Panama, which had jurisdiction over all land from the Strait of Magellan to the Gulf of Fonseca. This entity was dissolved in 1543, and most of the territory within Central America then fell under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia Real de Guatemala. This area included the current territories of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, the president of the Audiencia, which had its seat in Antigua Guatemala, was the governor of the entire area
6.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
7.
Colombia
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Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a transcontinental country largely situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and it shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is a unitary, constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments, the territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples including the Muisca, the Quimbaya and the Tairona. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of conquest and colonization ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the Gran Colombia Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada, the new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation, and then the United States of Colombia, before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Since the 1960s the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict, Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, and thereby possesses a rich cultural heritage. Cultural diversity has also influenced by Colombias varied geography. The urban centres are located in the highlands of the Andes mountains. Colombian territory also encompasses Amazon rainforest, tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, ecologically, it is one of the worlds 17 megadiverse countries, and the most densely biodiverse of these per square kilometer. Colombia is a power and a regional actor with the fourth-largest economy in Latin America, is part of the CIVETS group of six leading emerging markets and is an accessing member to the OECD. Colombia has an economy with macroeconomic stability and favorable growth prospects in the long run. The name Colombia is derived from the last name of Christopher Columbus and it was conceived by the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to all the New World, but especially to those portions under Spanish and Portuguese rule. The name was adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819. When Venezuela, Ecuador and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was changed, this time to United States of Colombia. To refer to country, the Colombian government uses the terms Colombia. Owing to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human migration from Mesoamerica, the oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza and El Totumo sites in the Magdalena Valley 100 km southwest of Bogotá. These sites date from the Paleoindian period, at Puerto Hormiga and other sites, traces from the Archaic Period have been found
8.
Honduras
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Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a republic in Central America. It has at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras. Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, the Spanish introduced Roman Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras has the worlds highest murder rate, Honduras spans about 112,492 km2 and has a population exceeding 8 million. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone, as reflected in the areas demographics and culture. Honduras is known for its natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry. Honduras literally means depths in Spanish, the name could either refer to the bay of Trujillo as an anchorage, fondura in the Leonese dialect of Spanish, or to Columbuss alleged quote that Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas Honduras. It was not until the end of the 16th century that Honduras was used for the whole province, prior to 1580, Honduras only referred to the eastern part of the province, and Higueras referred to the western part. Another early name is Guaymuras, revived as the name for the dialogue in 2009 that took place in Honduras as opposed to Costa Rica. In pre-Columbian times, modern Honduras was part of the Mesoamerican cultural area, in the west, the Maya civilization flourished for hundreds of years. The dominant state within Hondurass borders was in Copán, Copán fell with the other Lowland centres during the conflagrations of the Terminal Classic in the 9th century. The Maya of this civilization survive in western Honduras as the Chorti, remains of other Pre-Columbian cultures are found throughout the country. On 30 July 1502 Columbus sent his brother Bartholomew to explore the islands and Bartholomew encountered a Mayan trading vessel from Yucatán, carrying well-dressed Maya and a rich cargo. Bartholomews men stole whatever cargo they wanted and kidnapped the elderly captain to serve as an interpreter in what was the first recorded encounter between the Spanish and the Maya. In March 1524, Gil González Dávila became the first Spaniard to enter Honduras as a conquistador, followed by Hernán Cortés, bringing forces down from Mexico. Much of the conquest was done in the two decades, first by groups loyal to Cristóbal de Olid, and then by those loyal of Francisco Montejo. In addition to Spanish resources, the conquerors relied heavily on armed forces from Mexico—Tlaxcalans, resistance to conquest was led in particular by Lempira, and many regions in the north never fell to the Spanish, notably the Miskito Kingdom. After the Spanish conquest, Honduras became part of Spains vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala, Trujillo and Gracias were the first city-capitals
9.
Costa Rica
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It has a population of around 4.5 million, of whom nearly a quarter live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San José. Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by people before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century. Since then, Costa Rica has remained among the most stable, prosperous, following a brief civil war, it permanently abolished its army in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army. Costa Rica is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. The country has consistently performed favourably in the Human Development Index, placing 69th in the world as of 2015 and its rapidly developing economy, once heavily dependent on agriculture, has diversified to include sectors such as finance, pharmaceuticals, and ecotourism. Costa Rica is known for its environmental policies, being the only country to meet all five UNDP criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. Costa Rica officially plans to become a country by 2021. In 2012, it became the first country in the Americas to ban recreational hunting, historians have classified the indigenous people of Costa Rica as belonging to the Intermediate Area, where the peripheries of the Mesoamerican and Andean native cultures overlapped. More recently, pre-Columbian Costa Rica has also described as part of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. The oldest evidence of occupation in Costa Rica is associated with the arrival of various groups of hunter-gatherers about 10,000 to 7,000 years BCE in the Turrialba Valley. The presence of Clovis culture type spearheads and arrows from South America opens the possibility that, in this area, agriculture became evident in the populations that lived in Costa Rica about 5,000 years ago. They mainly grew tubers and roots, for the first and second millennia BCE there were already settled farming communities. These were small and scattered, although the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture as the livelihood in the territory is still unknown. The earliest use of pottery appears around 2,000 to 3,000 BCE, shards of pots, cylindrical vases, platters, gourds and other forms of vases decorated with grooves, prints, and some modelled after animals have been found. The impact of indigenous peoples on modern Costa Rican culture has been small compared to other nations. Costa Rica was described as the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America by a Spanish governor in 1719, for all these reasons, Costa Rica was, by and large, unappreciated and overlooked by the Spanish Crown and left to develop on its own. Costa Rica became a democracy with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class. It was not long before Spanish settlers turned to the hills, where they found rich volcanic soil, like the rest of Central America, Costa Rica never fought for independence from Spain
10.
Caribbean Sea
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The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the islands of the West Indies. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km2, the seas deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays, the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria, the Caribbean Sea has the worlds second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs 1,000 km along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, the name Caribbean derives from the Caribs, one of the regions dominant Native American groups at the time of European contact during the late 15th century. During the first century of development, Spanish dominance in the region remained undisputed, from the 16th century, Europeans visiting the Caribbean region identified the South Sea as opposed to the North Sea. The Caribbean Sea had been unknown to the populations of Eurasia until 1492, at that time the Western Hemisphere in general was unknown to Europeans. Following the discovery of the islands by Columbus, the area was colonised by several Western cultures. As of 2015 the area is home to 22 island territories, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Caribbean Sea as follows, On the North. In the Windward Channel – a line joining Caleta Point and Pearl Point in Haïti, in the Mona Passage – a line joining Cape Engano and the extreme of Agujereada in Puerto Rico. From Galera Point through Trinidad to Galeota Point and thence to Baja Point in Venezuela, note that, although Barbados is an island on the same continental shelf, it is considered to be in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Sea is an oceanic sea largely situated on the Caribbean Plate, the Caribbean Sea is separated from the ocean by several island arcs of various ages. The youngest stretches from the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands to the north east of Trinidad, the larger islands in the northern part of the sea Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico lie on an older island arc. The geological age of the Caribbean Sea is estimated to be between 160 and 180 million years and was formed by a fracture that split the supercontinent called Pangea in the Mesozoic Era. It is assumed the proto-caribbean basin existed in the Devonian period, in the early Carboniferous movement of Gondwana to the north and its convergence with the Euramerica basin decreased in size. The next stage of the Caribbean Seas formation began in the Triassic, powerful rifting led to the formation of narrow troughs, stretching from modern Newfoundland to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico which formed siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. In the early Jurassic due to powerful marine transgression, water broke into the present area of the Gulf of Mexico creating a vast shallow pool, the emergence of deep basins in the Caribbean occurred during the Middle Jurassic rifting. The emergence of these marked the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean
11.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
12.
Cay
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A cay, also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, a cay forms when ocean currents transport loose sediment across the surface of a reef to a depositional node, where the current slows or converges with another current, releasing its sediment load. Gradually, layers of deposited sediment build up on the reef surface, such nodes occur in windward or leeward areas of reef where surfaces sometimes occur around an emergent outcrop of old reef or beach rock. The island resulting from sediment accumulation is made up almost entirely of biogenic sediment – the skeletal remains of plants, if the accumulated sediments are predominantly sand, then the island is called a cay, if they are predominantly gravel, the island is called a motu. Cay sediments are composed of calcium carbonate, primarily of aragonite, calcite. They are produced by plants and animals. Small amounts of sediment are also contributed by sponges and other creatures. Over time, soil and vegetation may develop on a cay surface, a range of physical, biological and chemical influences determines the ongoing development or erosion of cay environments. Significant changes in cays and their surrounding ecosystems can result from natural phenomena such as severe El Niño Southern Oscillation cycles, also, tropical cyclones can help build or destroy these islands. There is much debate and concern over the stability of cays in the face of growing human populations and pressures on reef ecosystems. Understanding the potential for change in the sediment sources and supply of cay beaches with environmental change is an important key to predicting their present and future stability. Despite, or perhaps because of all the debate around the future of cays, there is consensus that these environments are very complex. Examples of cays include, The Florida Keys are composed primarily of exposed ancient coral reefs, a few of the Florida Keys, such as Sand Key, are cays as defined above. Approximately 750 by 1500 m wide, this island is situated on the surface of a large 11 km2 emergent reef platform. This cay and the reef flat are Holocene in origin
13.
Nahuatl
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Nahuatl, known historically as Aztec, is a language or group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua peoples, all Nahuan languages are indigenous to Mesoamerica. Nahuatl has been spoken in central Mexico since at least the seventh century CE and it was the language of the Aztecs who dominated what is now central Mexico during the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history. This early literary language based on the Tenochtitlan variety has been labeled Classical Nahuatl, today, Nahuan languages are spoken in scattered communities, mostly in rural areas throughout central Mexico and along the coastline. There are considerable differences among varieties, and some are mutually unintelligible, Huasteca Nahuatl, with over one million speakers, is the most-spoken variety. They have all been subject to varying degrees of influence from Spanish, No modern Nahuan languages are identical to Classical Nahuatl, but those spoken in and around the Valley of Mexico are generally more closely related to it than those on the periphery. Nahuan languages exhibit a complex morphology characterized by polysynthesis and agglutination, through a very long period of coexistence with the other indigenous Mesoamerican languages, they have absorbed many influences, coming to form part of the Mesoamerican language area. Many words from Nahuatl have been borrowed into Spanish, and since diffused into hundreds of other languages, most of these loanwords denote things indigenous to central Mexico which the Spanish heard mentioned for the first time by their Nahuatl names. English words of Nahuatl origin include avocado, chayote, chili, chocolate, atlatl, coyote, peyote, axolotl, as a language label, the term Nahuatl encompasses a group of closely related languages or divergent dialects within the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The Mexican Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas recognize 30 different individual varieties within the language group labeled Nahuatl, the Ethnologue recognizes 28 varieties with separate ISO codes. Sometimes the label also is used to include the Pipil language of El Salvador, within Mexico the question of whether to consider individual varieties to be languages or dialects of a single language is highly political. This article focuses on describing the history of the group. For details on individual varieties or subgroups, see the individual articles, in the past, the branch of Uto-Aztecan to which Nahuatl belongs has been called Aztecan. From the 1990s onward, the alternative designation Nahuan has been used as a replacement especially in Spanish-language publications. The Nahuan branch of Uto-Aztecan is widely accepted as having two divisions, General Aztec and Pochutec, General Aztec encompasses the Nahuatl and Pipil languages. Pochutec is a scantily attested language, which became extinct in the 20th century, other researchers have argued that Pochutec should be considered a divergent variant of the western periphery. Nahuatl denotes at least Classical Nahuatl together with related languages spoken in Mexico. The inclusion of Pipil into the group is debated, current subclassification of Nahuatl rests on research by Canger, Canger and Lastra de Suárez
14.
Lake Nicaragua
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Lake Nicaragua or Cocibolca or Granada is a freshwater lake in Nicaragua. With an elevation of 32.7 metres above sea level and it is intermittently joined by the Tipitapa River to Lake Managua. The Pacific is near enough to be seen from the mountains of Ometepe, the lake has a history of Caribbean pirates who assaulted Granada on three occasions. Plans were made to take advantage of this route to build a canal, the Nicaragua Canal. In order to quell competition with the Panama Canal, the U. S. secured all rights to a canal along this route in the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1916. However, since this treaty was mutually rescinded by the United States and Nicaragua in 1970, protests against the ecological and social effects of the canal as well as questions about financing have led to doubts about the project. Lake Nicaragua, despite being a lake, has sawfish, tarpon. Initially, scientists thought the sharks in the lake belonged to an endemic species, in 1961, following comparisons of specimens, the Lake Nicaragua Shark was synonymized with the widespread bull shark, a species also known for entering freshwater elsewhere around the world. As evidence of these movements, bull sharks tagged inside the lake have later been caught in the open ocean, numerous other species of fish live in the lake, including at least 16 cichlids that are endemic to the general region. A non-native cichlid, a tilapia, is used widely in aquaculture within the lake, nicaraguans call the Lake Lago Cocibolca or Mar Dulce. It is the nations largest source of freshwater, the lake has sizeable waves driven by the easterly winds blowing west to the Pacific Ocean. The lake holds Ometepe and Zapatera, which are volcanic islands, as well as the archipelago of the Solentiname Islands. The lake has a reputation for powerful, unnavigable storms. In the past 37 years, considerable concern has been expressed about the condition of Lake Nicaragua. It was found that 32 tons of raw sewage were being released into Lake Nicaragua daily, industry located along the lakes shore had been dumping effluent for an extended period of time. Pennwalt Chemical Corporation was found to be the worst polluter, nicaraguas economic situation has hampered the building of treatment facilities nationwide. The countrys worst drought in 32 years is taking its toll on the lake, also, plans for the Nicaragua canal through the lake could lead to saltwater and other contamination during construction and operation of the canal. According to the plans and geography, the lake is 32 meters above sea level, Nicaragua Canal Piracy on Lake Nicaragua Zapatera Archipelago JPL NASA, Perspective View with Landsat Overlay, Lakes Managua and Nicaragua
15.
Spanish colonization of the Americas
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The Colonial expansion under the crown of Castile was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through indigenous conversions and it is estimated that during the colonial period, a total of 18.6 million Spaniards settled in the Americas and a further 3.5 million immigrated during the post-colonial era. Spains loss of these last territories politically ended the Spanish rule in the Americas, the Catholic Monarchs Isabella of Castile, Queen of Castile and her husband King Ferdinand, King of Aragon, pursued a policy of joint rule of their kingdoms and created a single Spanish monarchy. Even though Castile and Aragon were ruled jointly by their respective monarchs, the Catholic Monarchs gave official approval for the plans of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus for a voyage to reach India by sailing West. The funding came from the queen of Castile, so the profits from Spanish expedition flowed to Castile, in the extension of Spanish sovereignty to its overseas territories, authority for expeditions of discovery, conquest, and settlement resided in the monarchy. Columbus made four voyages to the West Indiesas the monarchs granted Columbus the governorship of the new territories and he founded La Navidad on the island later named Hispaniola, in what is present day Haiti on his first voyage. After its destruction by the indigenous Taino people, the town of Isabella was begun in 1493, in 1496 his brother, Bartholomew, founded Santo Domingo. By 1500, despite a death rate, there were between 300 and 1000 Spanish settled in the area. The local Taíno people continued to resist, refusing to plant crops, the first mainland explorations were followed by a phase of inland expeditions and conquest. In 1500 the city of Nueva Cádiz was founded on the island of Cubagua, Venezuela, the Spanish founded San Sebastian de Uraba in 1509 but abandoned it within the year. There is indirect evidence that the first permanent Spanish mainland settlement established in the Americas was Santa María la Antigua del Darién, the Spanish conquest of Mexico is generally understood to be the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire which was the base for later conquests of other regions. Later conquests were protracted campaigns with less spectacular results than conquest of the Aztecs, but not until the Spanish conquest of Peru was the conquest of the Aztecs matched in scope by the victory over the Inca empire in 1532. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire was led by Hernán Cortés, the victory over the Aztecs was relatively quick, from 1519 to 1521, and aided by his Tlaxcala and other allies from indigenous city-states or altepetl. These polities allied against the Aztec empire, to which they paid tribute following conquest or threat of conquest, leaving the political hierarchy. The Spanish conquest of Yucatán was a longer campaign, from 1551 to 1697, against the Maya peoples in the Yucatán Peninsula of present-day Mexico. When Hernán Cortés landed ashore at present day Veracruz and founded the Spanish city there on April 22,1519, Spain colonized and exerted control of Alta California through the Spanish missions in California until the Mexican secularization act of 1833. It was the first step in a campaign that took decades of fighting to subdue the mightiest empire in the Americas. In the following years Spain extended its rule over the Empire of the Inca civilization, in the following years the conquistadors and indigenous allies extended control over Greater Andes Region
16.
Lake Managua
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Lake Managua is a lake in Nicaragua. The Spanish name is Lago de Managua or Lago Xolotlán, at 1,042 km², it is approximately 65 kilometres long and 25 kilometres wide. Similarly to the name of Lake Nicaragua, its name was coined by the Spanish conquerors from Mangue, the city of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, lies on its southwestern shore. The level of Lake Managua raises significantly during the periods of heavy rain, the highest water level was recorded during the flooding of 1933. The lake rose 3 metres in five days during Hurricane Mitch in 1998, an even higher flooding occurred in September/October 2010. Since then, the city has prohibited use of the most flood-prone areas. Lake Managua has been described by authors as the most contaminated lake in Central America. The lake has been polluted, mostly by decades of sewage being dumped into the lake. The city sewers have drained into the lake since 1927 and it was only in 2009 that a modern wastewater treatment plant was opened in Managua, but even it treats only 40% of the citys wastewater. The lake today has no outlet, with only occasional floods to Lake Nicaragua through the Tipitapa River. Despite the pollution, some of the people of Managua still live along the lakes shores, in 2007 the malecón area was dredged and the sediment hauled off on barges. A strong odor which permeated the area from the sediment disappeared, a stone rip-rap and concrete wharf was constructed and a sight seeing boat called La Novia de Xolotlán makes hour-long lake tours when there are sufficient tourists. About 20 fish species survive in Lake Managua. While joined to Lake Nicaragua, the Bull sharks of that lake cannot migrate to Lake Managua due to a 12 ft high waterfall on the Tipitapa River, JPL NASA, PIA03365, Perspective View with Landsat Overlay, Lakes Managua and Nicaragua
17.
Petroglyph
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Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use such as carving, engraving. Petroglyphs are found world-wide, and are associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from the Greek word petro-, theme of the word meaning stone, and glyphein meaning to carve. The term petroglyph should not be confused with petrograph, which is an image drawn or painted on a rock face, both types of image belong to the wider and more general category of rock art or parietal art. Petroforms, or patterns and shapes made by large rocks. Inukshuks are also unique, and found only in the Arctic and they are a category of rock art, and sometimes found in conjunction with rock-cut architecture. However, they tend to be omitted in most works on rock art, a few such works exploit the natural contours of the rock and use them to define an image, but they do not amount to man-made reliefs. Rock reliefs have been made in many cultures, and were important in the art of the Ancient Near East. Rock reliefs are generally large, as they need to be to make an impact in the open air. Most have figures that are over life-size, and in many the figures are multiples of life-size, the vertical relief is most common, but reliefs on essentially horizontal surfaces are also found. The term typically excludes relief carvings inside caves, whether natural or themselves man-made, natural rock formations made into statues or other sculpture in the round, most famously at the Great Sphinx of Giza, are also usually excluded. Reliefs on large boulders left in their location, like the Hittite İmamkullu relief, are likely to be included. Some petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, if not earlier. Sites in Australia have petroglyphs that are estimated to be as much as 27,000 years old, around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, other precursors of writing systems, such as pictographs and ideograms, began to appear. Petroglyphs were still common though, and some cultures continued using them much longer, petroglyphs have been found in all parts of the globe except Antarctica with highest concentrations in parts of Africa, Scandinavia, Siberia, southwestern North America and Australia. There are many theories to explain their purpose, depending on their location, age, some petroglyphs are thought to be astronomical markers, maps, and other forms of symbolic communication, including a form of pre-writing. Petroglyph maps may show trails, symbols communicating time and distances traveled, as well as the terrain in the form of rivers, landforms
18.
Ometepe
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Ometepe is an island formed by two volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua in the Republic of Nicaragua. Its name derives from the Nahuatl words ome and tepetl, meaning two mountains and it is the largest island in Lake Nicaragua. The two volcanoes of Concepción and Maderas are joined by a low isthmus to form one island in the shape of an hourglass, Ometepe has an area of 276 km2. It is 31 km long and 5 to 10 km wide, the island has an economy based on livestock, agriculture, and tourism. The island first became inhabited during the Dinarte phase, although evidence is questionable, the first known inhabitants were Nahua Indians from Mexico. In their footsteps came the Niquirano Indians who established an important settlement on the island, traces of this past can still be found in petroglyphs and stone idols on the northern slopes of Maderas volcano. The oldest date from 300 BC, after the Spaniards conquered the Central American region in the 16th century, pirates began prowling Lake Nicaragua. They came in from the Caribbean Sea via the San Juan River, the inhabitants of Ometepe were hard hit. The pirates kidnapped women, stole the animals, possessions, and harvest. This made the local population move to higher grounds on the volcanoes in search of shelter, the island was finally settled by the Spanish conquistadors at the end of the 16th century. The most important villages on the island are Altagracia, on the eastern side and these two villages are the centers of the two municipalities and the island is divided between the two. Many traditions have been alive, thus inhabitants of Ometepe celebrate more religious. Today, Ometepe is developing tourism and ecotourism, with the archaeological past and the bounty of its nature sanctuary, a new airport opened in 2014. Volcán Concepción is on the northwest half of the island, Concepcion has a symmetrical cone and is an active volcano. The volcano is believed to have risen in the early Holocene epoch and, through continual eruptions, Concepcion is considered the most perfectly formed volcano cone in Central America. Although it went through a quiet period, on December 8,1880. This eruption was extensive, and the volcano remained active for a year, more eruptions followed in 1883,1889,1902,1907, and 1924. In 2005, an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale occurred as a result of increasing pressure within the volcano, cracks appeared on roads throughout the island and an advisory to leave the island was issued
19.
Geography of Nicaragua
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Nicaragua is a country in Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras. Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, Nicaragua covers a total area of 130,370 square kilometers and contains a variety of climates and terrains. The countrys physical geography divides it into three zones, the Pacific lowlands, the wetter, cooler central highlands, and the Caribbean lowlands. The natural regions are the following, The Pacific lowlands extend about 75 kilometers inland from the Pacific coast. Most of the area is flat, except for a line of volcanoes, many of which are still active. These peaks lie just west of a large crustal fracture or structural rift that forms a long, the rift is occupied in part by the largest freshwater lakes in Central America, Lago de Managua and Lago de Nicaragua. These two lakes are joined by the Río Tipitapa, which flows south into Lago de Nicaragua, Lago de Nicaragua in turn drains into the Río San Juan, which flows through the southern part of the rift lowlands to the Caribbean Sea. The valley of the Río San Juan forms a natural close to sea level across the Nicaraguan isthmus from the Caribbean Sea to Lago de Nicaragua. From the southwest edge of Lago de Nicaragua, it is nineteen kilometers to the Pacific Ocean. This route was considered as an alternative to the Panama Canal at various times in the past. Surrounding the lakes and extending northwest of them along the valley to the Golfo de Fonseca are fertile lowland plains highly enriched with volcanic ash from nearby volcanoes. These lowlands are populated and well cultivated. More directly west of the region is a narrow line of ash-covered hills. This line is highest in the portion near the cities of León. Because Western Nicaragua is located where two tectonic plates collide, it is subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Although periodic volcanic eruptions have caused damage from fumes and ash, earthquakes have been by far more destructive to life. Hundreds of shocks occur each year, some of which cause severe damage, the capital city of Managua was virtually destroyed in 1931 and again in 1972. The triangular area known as the highlands lies northeast and east of the Pacific lowlands
20.
Muisca
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The Muisca are the Chibcha-speaking people that formed the Muisca Confederation of the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombias Eastern Range, in particular the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. As one out of four advanced civilizations of the Americas, they were encountered by the Spanish Empire in 1537 and it bordered the territories of the Panche and Pijao tribes. At the time of the conquest, the area had a large population, estimates vary from half a million to up to three million inhabitants. The Muisca spoke muysccubun, a dialect of Chibcha, also called Muysca and Mosca, the economy was based on agriculture, salt mining, metalworking and manufacturing. Today the Muisca population has almost died out, although in the municipalities and districts Cota, Chía, Tenjo, Suba, Engativá, Tocancipá, Gachancipá, a census by the Ministry of Interior Affairs in 2005 provided a total of 14,051 Muisca persons in Colombia. Excavations in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense show evidence of activity since the Archaic stage at the beginning of the Holocene era. Colombia has one of the most ancient archaeological sites of the Americas, El Abra, human skeletons were found that date to 5000 BCE. Analysis demonstrated that the people were members of the El Abra Culture, scholars agree that the group identified as Muisca migrated to the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Formative stage, as shown by evidence found at Aguazuque and Soacha. Like the other cultures of America, the Muiscas were in a transition between being hunter-gatherers and becoming sedentary farmers. Around 1500 BCE, groups of agrarians with ceramic traditions came to the region from the lowlands and they had permanent housing and stationary camps, and worked the salty water to extract salt. In Zipacón there is evidence of agriculture and ceramics, the most ancient settlement of the highlands dates to 1270 BCE. Between 500 BCE and 800 BCE, a wave of migrants came to the highlands. Their presence is identified by multicolor ceramics, housing, and farms and these groups were still in residence upon the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. They left abundant traces of their occupation that have been studied since the 16th century and it is possible that the Muisca integrated with more ancient inhabitants, but the Muisca were the ones who molded the cultural profile and the social and political organization. Their language, a dialect of Chibcha, was similar to those peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Zipa Saguamanchica was in a constant war against aggressive tribes such as the Sutagao, and especially the Panche, the Caribs were also a permanent threat as rivals of the zaque of Hunza, especially for the possession of the salt mines of Zipaquirá, Nemocón and Tausa. The Muisca people were organized in a confederation that was a union of states that each retained sovereignty. The confederation was not a kingdom, as there was no monarch, nor was it an empire
21.
Slash-and-burn
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Slash-and-burn agriculture, or fire–fallow cultivation, is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. In subsistence agriculture, slash-and-burn typically uses little technology and it is often applied in shifting cultivation agriculture and in transhumance livestock herding. Slash-and-burn is used by 200–500 million people worldwide, in 2004 it was estimated that in Brazil alone,500,000 small farmers each cleared an average of one hectare of forest per year. The technique is not scalable or sustainable for large human populations, methods such as Inga alley farming have been proposed as alternatives which would cause less environmental degradation. Historically, slash-and-burn cultivation has been practiced throughout much of the world and this happened in the river valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Due to this decrease in food hunting, as human populations increased. Some groups could easily plant their crops in fields along river valleys. In this context, humans used slash-and-burn agriculture to more land to make it suitable for plants. Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn techniques have been used for converting forests into crop fields. Fire was used before the Neolithic as well, and by hunter-gatherers up to present times, clearings created by fire were made for many reasons, such as to draw game animals and to promote certain kinds of edible plants such as berries. Slash-and-burn fields are used and owned by a family until the soil is exhausted. At this point the ownership rights are abandoned, the family clears a new field, after a few decades, another family or clan may then use the land and claim usufructuary rights. In such a system there is no market in farmland, so land is not bought or sold in the open market. In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are typically cut months before a dry season, the slash is permitted to dry, and then burned in the following dry season. The resulting ash fertilizes the soil and the field is then planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as upland rice, maize, cassava. Most of this work is typically done by hand, using basic tools as machetes, axes, hoes. Large families or clans wandering in the lush woodlands long continued to be the most common form of life through human prehistory, axes to fell trees and sickles for harvesting grain were the only tools people might bring with them. All other tools were made from materials found at the site, such as fire stakes of birch, long rods
22.
Cassava
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Manihot esculenta is a woody shrub native to South America of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is extensively cultivated as a crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root. Though it is often called yuca in Spanish and in the United States, it differs from the yucca, Cassava, when dried to a powdery extract, is called tapioca, its fermented, flaky version is named garri. Cassava is the third-largest source of carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice. Cassava is a staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people. It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils, Nigeria is the worlds largest producer of cassava, while Thailand is the largest exporter of dried cassava. Cassava is classified as sweet or bitter. Like other roots and tubers, both bitter and sweet varieties of cassava contain antinutritional factors and toxins, with the bitter varieties containing much larger amounts, the more toxic varieties of cassava are a fall-back resource in times of famine or food insecurity in some places. Farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, the cassava root is long and tapered, with a firm, homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about 1 mm thick, rough and brown on the outside. Commercial cultivars can be 5 to 10 cm in diameter at the top, a woody vascular bundle runs along the roots axis. The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish, Cassava roots are very rich in starch and contain small amounts of calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin C. However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients, in contrast, cassava leaves are a good source of protein, but deficient in the amino acid methionine and possibly tryptophan. Forms of the domesticated species can also be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil. By 4,600 BC, manioc pollen appears in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, the oldest direct evidence of cassava cultivation comes from a 1, 400-year-old Maya site, Joya de Cerén, in El Salvador. With its high potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern Mesoamerica. Cassava was a food of pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas and is often portrayed in indigenous art. The Moche people often depicted yuca in their ceramics, spaniards in their early occupation of Caribbean islands did not want to eat cassava or maize, which they considered insubstantial, dangerous, and not nutritious. They much preferred foods from Spain, specifically wheat bread, olive oil, red wine, and meat, for these Christians in the New World, cassava was not suitable for communion since it could not undergo transubstantiation and become the body of Christ
23.
Pineapple
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The pineapple is a tropical plant with an edible multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries, also called pineapples, and the most economically significant plant in the Bromeliaceae family. Pineapples may be cultivated from a cutting of the fruit, possibly flowering in 5-10 months. Pineapples do not ripen significantly after harvest, pineapples can be consumed fresh, cooked, juiced, or preserved. They are found in an array of cuisines. The fiber is used as a component for wallpaper and other furnishings. The word pineapple in English was first recorded to describe the organs of conifer trees. When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit in the Americas, they called them pineapples, other members of the Ananas genus are often called pine, as well, in other languages. In Spanish, pineapples are called piña, or ananá, the pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to 1.0 to 1.5 m tall, although sometimes it can be taller. In appearance, the plant has a short, stocky stem with tough, when creating its fruit, it usually produces up to 200 flowers, although some large-fruited cultivars can exceed this. Once it flowers, the fruits of the flowers join together to create what is commonly referred to as a pineapple. After the first fruit is produced, side shoots are produced in the axils of the main stem. These may be removed for propagation, or left to produce additional fruits on the original plant, commercially, suckers that appear around the base are cultivated. It has 30 or more long, narrow, fleshy, trough-shaped leaves with sharp spines along the margins that are 30 to 100 cm long, surrounding a thick stem, in the first year of growth, the axis lengthens and thickens, bearing numerous leaves in close spirals. After 12 to 20 months, the stem grows into an inflorescence up to 15 cm long with over 100 spirally arranged, trimerous flowers. Flower colors vary, depending on variety, from lavender, through light purple to red, the ovaries develop into berries, which coalesce into a large, compact, multiple fruit. The fruit of a pineapple is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction,13 in the other, each being a Fibonacci number. The pineapple carries out CAM photosynthesis, fixing carbon dioxide at night and storing it as the acid malate, seed formation needs pollination, but the presence of seeds harms the quality of the fruit. In Hawaii, where pineapple is cultivated on an agricultural scale, certain bat-pollinated wild pineapples open their flowers only at night
24.
Tribal chief
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A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. In the case of tribal societies existing within larger colonial and post-colonial states. The most common types are the chairman of a council and/or a broader popular assembly in parliamentary cultures, the war chief, the hereditary chief and this term has largely fallen out of use, however, and such personages are now often called kings. Historically, tribal societies represent a stage between the band society of the Paleolithic stage and civilization with centralized, super-regional government based in cities. Stratified tribal societies led by tribal kings thus flourished from the Neolithic stage into the Iron Age, albeit in competition with civilisations, after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, tribal kingdoms were again established over much of Europe in the wake of the Migration period. By the High Middle Ages, these had coalesced into super-regional monarchies. Tribal societies also remained prevalent in much of the New World, excepting Paleolithic or Mesolithic band societies in Oceania, europeans forced centralized governments onto these societies during colonialism, but in some instances they have retained or regained partial self-government. Tribal chiefs are known as Sheikhs, though this term is sometimes applied as an honorific title to spiritual leaders of Sufism. In Botswana, the chiefs of the various tribes are constitutionally empowered to serve as advisers to the government as members of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi. In addition to this, they serve as the ex officio chairs of the tribal kgotlas, meetings of all of the members of the tribes. The band is the unit of governance among the First Nations in Canada. As well, there may be hereditary or charismatic chiefs. There were 614 bands in Canada in 2012, there is also a national organization, the Assembly of First Nations, which elects a national chief to act as spokesperson of all First Nations bands in Canada. The offices and traditional realms of the chiefs of Ghana are constitutionally protected by the constitution of the country. The chiefs serve as custodian of all lands and the culture of the traditional area. The Solomon Islands have a Local Court Act which empowers chiefs to deal with crimes in their communities, apo Rodolfo Aguilar serves as the chieftain of the Tagbanwa tribes people living in Banuang Daan and Cabugao settlements in Coron Island, Palawan, Philippines. His position is recognized by the Filipino government, the pre-colonial states that existed in what is today Uganda were summarily abolished following independence from Great Britain. However, following constitutional reforms in 1993, a number of them were restored as politically neutral constituencies of the state by the government of Yoweri Museveni, generally, a tribe or nation is considered to be part of an ethnic group, usually sharing cultural values
25.
Monarchy
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The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
26.
Rivas, Nicaragua
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Rivas is a city and municipality in southwestern Nicaragua on the Isthmus of the same name. The city proper is the capital of the Department of Rivas, Rivas has a tropical savanna climate with a short dry season from January to April and a lengthy wet season from May to October. Temperatures remain steady throughout the year with the dry season being slightly cooler, the average annual precipitation is 1,345 millimetres. Erasmo Ramírez, Major League Baseball pitcher, violeta Chamorro, first female president of Nicaragua, was born in Rivas
27.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
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Mestizo
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The term was used as an ethnic/racial category in the casta system that was in use during the Spanish Empires control of their New World colonies. Mestizos are usually considered to be mixed Spaniards by the crown of Spain, the term mestizaje - taking as its root mestizo or mixed - is the Spanish word for miscegenation, the general process of mixing ancestries. To avoid confusion with the usage of the term mestizo. In colonial Venezuela, pardo was more commonly used instead of mestizo, pardo means being mixed without specifying which mixture, it was used to describe anyone born in the Americas whose ancestry was a mixture of European, Amerindian, and Black African. In colonial Brazil most of the population was mestiço in the original Iberian definition of the word. In the Philippines, which was a colony of Spain, the term came to refer to a Filipino with any foreign ancestry especially whites. In Canada, the Métis people is a community composed of those who possess combined European, in Saint Barthélemy, the term mestizo refers to people of mixed European and East Asian ancestry. The Spanish word mestizo is from Latin mixticius, meaning mixed and its usage has been documented as early as 1275, to refer to the offspring of an Egyptian and a Jew. This term was first documented in English in 1582 and it is related to the particular racial identity of historical non-white Amerindian-descended Hispanic and Latino American communities in an American context. In English-speaking Canada, Canadian Métis, as a loanword from French, refers to persons of mixed French, in the United States, Métis Americans and Mestizo Americans are two distinct racial and ethno-racial identities, as reflected in the use of French and Spanish loanwords, respectively. The latter was listed as a mestizo de sangley in birth records of the 19th century, with sangley as a reference to the Hokkiense word for business. Mestizo, mestiço, métis, mestís, Mischling, meticcio, mestiezen, mestee, in the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish developed an extremely vast complex system of racial hierarchy, which was used for social control and which also determined a persons standing in society. There were three categories of race during the initial period of colonization of the Americas by the Spanish, White Spaniard, Amerindian. During the Spanish colonial era, a myriad of terms were created to differentiate these racial mixtures, by the end of the colonial period in 1821, over one hundred sub-categories of possible variations of mixture existed, but official church and civil records were maintained with few categories. Church baptismal and marriage registers and civil records used the terms español, castizo, mestizo, mulato, and indio. As time went on, a system of hierarchy, the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas developed where society was divided based on race, wealth. Mestizo – a person of mixed White European and Amerindian ancestry, in theory, and as depicted in eighteenth-century Mexican casta paintings, español status could also be attained by people of mixed origin who consistently had intermarried with Europeans. Such cases might include the offspring of a parent and one Peninsular or criollo parent
29.
Spaniards
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Within Spain there are a number of nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the countrys complex history and diverse culture. There are several commonly spoken languages, most notably Basque. There are many populations outside Spain with ancestors who emigrated from Spain, the Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. As a result of Roman colonization, the majority of languages, with the exception of Basque. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial conquered the peninsula in 409 AD. The Iberian Peninsula was conquered and brought under the rule of the Arab Umayyads in 711 and by the Berber North African dynasties the Almohads, in the early 16th century the Kingdom of Navarre was also conquered. In parallel, a wave of emigration began to the Americas began with over 16 million people emigrating to the Americas during the colonial period. In the post-colonial period, a further 3.5 million Spanish left for the Americas, particularly Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, as a result, Spanish-descendants in Latin America number in the hundreds of millions. Spain is home to one of the largest communities of Romani people, the Spanish Roma, which belong to the Iberian Kale subgroup, are a formerly-nomadic community, which spread across Western Asia, North Africa, and Europe, first reaching Spain in the 15th century. The population of Spain is became increasingly diverse due to recent immigration, the earliest modern humans inhabiting Spain are believed to have been Neolithic peoples who may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35, 000–40,000 years ago. In more recent times the Iberians are believed to have arrived or developed in the region between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, initially settling along the Mediterranean coast, celts settled in Spain during the Iron Age. Some of those tribes in North-central Spain, which had contact with the Iberians, are called Celtiberians. In addition, a known as the Tartessians and later Turdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians successively founded trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast over a period of several centuries, the Second Punic War between the Carthaginians and Romans was fought mainly in what is now Spain and Portugal. The Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC transformed most of the region into a series of Latin-speaking provinces, hispania emerged as an important part of the Roman Empire and produced notable historical figures such as Trajan, Hadrian, Seneca and Quintilian. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial, the Suebi became the first Germanic kingdom to convert officially to Roman Catholicism in 447 AD. under king Rechiar. After two centuries of domination by the Visigothic Kingdom, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by a Muslim force under Tariq Bin Ziyad in 711 and this army consisted mainly ethnic Berbers from the Ghomara tribe, which were reinforced by Arabs from Syria once the conquest was complete. Muslim Iberia became part of the Umayyad Caliphate and would be known as Al-Andalus, the Berbers of Al Andalus revolted as early as 740 AD, halting Arab expansion across the Pyrenees into France
30.
Miskito people
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The Miskito are a Native American ethnic group in Central America, of whom many are mixed race. In the northern end of their territory, the people are primarily of African-Native American ancestry, others are of mixed African-Native American and their territory extends from Cape Camarón, Honduras, to Río Grande, Nicaragua, along the Mosquito Coast, in the Western Caribbean Zone. The indigenous people speak a native Miskito language, but large groups also speak Miskito creole English, Spanish, which is the language of education and government, the Miskito language is a part of the Misumalpan langauage family. The creole English came about through frequent contact with the British for trading, the name Miskito derives from the Miskito-language ethnonym Mískitu, their name for themselves. It is not related to the Spanish word mosquito, which derives from the word mosca, meaning fly, before the arrival of Europeans in the region, the area was divided into numerous small, egalitarian indigenous groups, possibly speaking languages related to Sumu. The Spanish listed 30 nations in Taguzgalpa and Tologalpa provinces, as the Spanish understood their geography, karl Offens analysis of this historic data suggests there were about a half dozen entities, groups who were distinct by their language dialects, who were situated in the river basins. The Spanish were unable to conquer this region during the sixteenth century, much of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and northeastern Honduras was outside any Spanish authority. The region became a haven for northern Europeans, especially Dutch, a number of Africans reached the coast from shipwrecked slave ships, notably one in the mid-seventeenth century. The survivors of shipwrecks, and/or escaped slaves from the Providence Island colony and they intermarried with the indigenous people. The Spanish referred to their descendants as Mosquito Zambos. Those Miskito living in the region were less racially mixed. Modern scholars have classified them as Tawira Miskito, rivalries between these two groups and competition for territory often led to wars, which were divisive in the eighteenth century. English privateers working through the Providence Island Company made informal alliances with the Miskito and these English began to crown Miskito leaders as kings, their territory was called the Mosquito Kingdom. A1699 written account of the kingdom described it as spread out in various communities along the coast and it probably did not include the settlements of English traders. The king did not have total power, the 1699 description noted that the kings and governors had no power except in war time, even in matters of justice. Otherwise the people were all equal and their superior leaders were named by the English as the king, a governor, a general and, by the 1750s, an admiral. Historical information on kings is obscure as many of the kings were semi-mythical. In the late seventeenth and early centuries, the Miskito Zambo began a series of raids attacking Spanish-held territories
31.
Sumu (people)
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The Mayangna are a people who live on the eastern coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, an area commonly known as the Mosquito Coast. Their preferred autonym is Mayangna, as the name Sumo is a derogatory name historically used by the Miskito people and their culture is closer to that of the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia than to the Mesoamerican cultures to the north. The Mayangna inhabited much of the Mosquito Coast in the 16th century, since then, they have become more marginalized following the emergence of the Miskito as a regional power. In the seventeenth century the British, rather than the Spaniards, established a presence in the regions of what are now Nicaragua. But it was a different indigenous group who profited from contact with the new European arrivals. The Miskitu acquired firearms as a result of their lucrative trading arrangements with the Europeans, the Mayangna tribes and the Miskitu had always raided as well as traded with one another, but the new weapons tipped the local balance of power firmly in the direction of the latter. Miskitu raids into the interior carried away increasing numbers of captives, of whom the women were kept, in the eighteenth century the Spanish managed to penetrate the central Nicaraguan highlands, where they converted and permanently settled many of the native Matagalpa Indians. However, these attempts were made difficult by the resistance of the neighbouring Mayangna groups who constantly raided the new communities, sometimes in conjunction with Miskitu war parties, from a possible pre-contact total of more than 30,000, by 1862 only around 5-6000 remained. The rising price of copper meant the opening of a new mine at Rosita in 1959, but the discharge of toxic waste products into the local rivers devastated the ecosystems that the Mayangna communities traditionally depended on for their food supply. Proclaiming as one of their targets the ‘integration’ of the Atlantic Coast. Many of those remaining in Nicaragua were then moved by the Sandinista government from their homes - now in the midst of a war zone - to equally unsanitary camps in the interior of the country. In the Mayangna language, ‘autonomy’ translates as “alas yalahnin lani” – ‘to live our system of life, the ruling established that indigenous peoples had rights to the land where they had traditionally lived and had tenure. The indigenous groups previously known collectively as the Sumu have never spoken a single, both languages belong to the Misumalpan language family. The community of Awas Tingni The community of Krausirpi Gall, T. L. & Gale Group, worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, Detroit, MI, Gale. Sumo artwork, National Museum of the American Indian
32.
Christopher Columbus
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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean and those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of routes and colonies. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America. These voyages had, therefore, an impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion, Columbus never admitted that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited indios, the name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish and he was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa, though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers, Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta, Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian. In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10, in 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead and these competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro, later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in a convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe
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Voyages of Christopher Columbus
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For a very long time, it was believed that Columbus and his crew had been the first Europeans to make landfall in the Americas. Columbus was an Italian–born navigator sailing for the Crown of Castile in search of a route to Asia, to access the sources of spices. This led to the discovery of a New World between Europe and Asia, Columbuss voyages led to the widespread knowledge that a new continent existed west of Europe and east of Asia. This breakthrough in science led to the exploration and colonization of the New World by Spain and other European sea powers. The search for a route to Asia continued in 1513 when Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the narrow Isthmus of Panama to become the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean. The search was completed in 1521, when the Castilian Magellan expedition sailed across the Pacific, Portugal had been the main European power interested in pursuing trade routes overseas. Their next-door neighbors, Castile had been slower to begin exploring the Atlantic due to the bigger land area it had to re-conquer from the Moors. In 1492 the joint rulers of the Spanish nation conquered the Moorish kingdom of Granada and he proposed the king equip three sturdy ships and grant Columbus one years time to sail out west into the Atlantic, search for a western route to India, and return. Columbus also requested he be made Great Admiral of the Ocean Sea, appointed governor of any and all lands he discovered, the king submitted the proposal to his experts, who rejected it after several years. It was their opinion that Columbuss estimation of a travel distance of 2,400 miles was, in fact. In 1488 Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal, receiving a new invitation for an audience with King John II and this also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal following a successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa. With an eastern sea route now under its control, Portugal was no longer interested in trailblazing a western route to Asia crossing unknown seas. Columbus traveled from Portugal to Spain to convince the Catholic Monarchs of Spain to finance the expedition, King Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1469, uniting the two largest kingdoms into what would later be the Spanish Crown. They were known jointly as the Catholic Monarchs, and ruled their kingdoms independently, Columbus was granted an audience with them, on May 1,1489, he presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who referred them to a committee. They pronounced the idea impractical, and advised the monarchs not to support the proposed venture, after continually asking, nagging, begging, and crying for the monarchs to support his plan at the royal court and enduring two years of negotiations, Columbus finally succeeded in January 1492. Queen Isabellas forces had just conquered the Moorish Emirate of Granada, Isabella and Ferdinand received Columbus in the Alcázar in Córdoba to support his plans. The monarchs left it to the treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made Admiral of the Seas and would receive a portion of all profits, the terms were unusually generous but, as his son later wrote, the monarchs were not confident of his return
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Baptism
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Baptism is a Christian sacrament of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally. The canonical Gospels report that Jesus was baptized—a historical event to which a degree of certainty can be assigned. Baptism has been called a sacrament and an ordinance of Jesus Christ. In some denominations, baptism is also called christening, but for others the word christening is reserved for the baptism of infants, Baptism has also given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the candidate to be immersed, in v.16, Matthew will speak of Jesus coming up out of the water. The traditional depiction in Christian art of John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus head may therefore be based on later Christian practice, other common forms of baptism now in use include pouring water three times on the forehead, a method called affusion. Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as baptism by blood, later, the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before actually receiving the sacrament are considered saved. Today, some Christians, particularly Christian Scientists, Quakers, The Salvation Army, and Unitarians, do not see baptism as necessary, among those that do, differences can be found in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite. Most Christians baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, much more than half of all Christians baptize infants, many others hold that only believers baptism is true baptism. Some insist on submersion or at least partial immersion of the person who is baptized, others consider that any form of washing by water, as long as the water flows on the head, is sufficient. The term baptism has also used to refer to any ceremony, trial, or experience by which a person is initiated, purified. The Greek verb baptō, dip, from which the verb baptizo is derived, is in turn hypothetically traced to a reconstructed Indo-European root *gʷabh-, the Greek words are used in a great variety of meanings. John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, the apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, and baptism in the name of Jesus, and it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism, though whether Jesus intended to institute a continuing, the earliest Christian baptisms were probably normally by immersion, complete or partial. Though other modes may have also been used, at the hour in which the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing, that is, then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall be baptized first, all of the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, after this, the men will be baptized
35.
Panama
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Panama, officially called the Republic of Panama, is a country usually considered to be entirely in North America or Central America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, the capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half of the countrys 4.1 million people. Panama was inhabited by indigenous tribes prior to settlement by the Spanish in the 16th century. Panama broke away from Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, when Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined, eventually becoming the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, in 1977 an agreement was signed for the total transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the 20th century, which culminated on 31 December 1999. Revenue from canal tolls continues to represent a significant portion of Panamas GDP, although commerce, banking, in 2015 Panama ranked 60th in the world in terms of the Human Development Index. Since 2010, Panama remains the second most competitive economy in Latin America, covering around 40 percent of its land area, Panamas jungles are home to an abundance of tropical plants and animals – some of them to be found nowhere else on the planet. There are several theories about the origin of the name Panama, some believe that the country was named after a commonly found species of tree. Others believe that the first settlers arrived in Panama in August, when butterflies abound, the best-known version is that a fishing village and its nearby beach bore the name Panamá, which meant an abundance of fish. Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán, while exploring the Pacific side in 1515, in 1517 Don Gaspar De Espinosa, a Spanish lieutenant, decided to settle a post there. In 1519 Pedrarias Dávila decided to establish the Empires Pacific city in this site, the new settlement replaced Santa María La Antigua del Darién, which had lost its function within the Crowns global plan after the beginning of the Spanish exploitation of the riches in the Pacific. Blending all of the above together, Panamanians believe in general that the word Panama means abundance of fish and this is the official definition given in social studies textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education in Panama. However, others believe the word Panama comes from the Kuna word bannaba which means distant or far away, at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the known inhabitants of Panama included the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes. These people have disappeared, as they had no immunity from European infectious diseases. The earliest discovered artifacts of indigenous peoples in Panama include Paleo-Indian projectile points, later central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making in the Americas, for example the cultures at Monagrillo, which date back to 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations best known through their spectacular burials at the Monagrillo archaeological site, the monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles site are also important traces of these ancient isthmian cultures. Before Europeans arrived Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, the largest group were the Cueva. The size of the population of the isthmus at the time of European colonization is uncertain
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Santo Domingo
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Santo Domingo, officially Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic and the largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. In 2010, its population was counted as 965,040, the city is coterminous with the boundaries of the Distrito Nacional, itself bordered on three sides by Santo Domingo Province. Santo Domingo is the site of the first university, cathedral, castle, monastery, the citys Colonial Zone was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Santo Domingo was called Ciudad Trujillo, from 1936 to 1961, after the Dominican Republics dictator, Rafael Trujillo, following his assassination, the city resumed its original designation. Santo Domingo is the cultural, financial, political, commercial and industrial center of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo also serves as the chief seaport of the country. The citys harbor at the mouth of the Ozama River accommodates the largest vessels, temperatures are high year round, with a cool breeze around winter time. At the time, the territory consisted of five chiefdoms, Marién, Maguá, Maguana, Jaragua. These were ruled respectively by caciques Guacanagarix, Guarionex, Caonabo, Bohechío, dating from 1496, when the Spanish settled on the island, and officially from 5 August 1498, Santo Domingo became the oldest European city in the Americas. Bartholomew Columbus founded the settlement and named it La Nueva Isabela, in 1495 it was renamed Santo Domingo, in honor of Saint Dominic. Santo Domingo came to be known as the Gateway to the Caribbean, in June 1502, Santo Domingo was destroyed by a major hurricane, and the new Governor Nicolás de Ovando had it rebuilt on a different site on the other side of the Ozama River. The original layout of the city and a portion of its defensive wall can still be appreciated today throughout the Colonial Zone. Diego Colon arrived in 1509, assuming the powers of Viceroy, in 1512, Ferdinand established a Real Audiencia with Juan Ortiz de Matienzo, Marcelo de Villalobos, and Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon appointed as judges of appeal. In 1514, Pedro Ibanez de Ibarra arrived with the Laws of Burgos, rodrigo de Alburquerque was named repartidor de indios and soon named visitadores to enforce the laws. In 1586, Francis Drake captured the city and held it for ransom, an expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 attacked the city of Santo Domingo, but was defeated. The English troops withdrew and took the less guarded colony of Jamaica, in 1697, the Treaty of Ryswick included the acknowledgement by Spain of Frances dominion over the Western third of the island, now Haiti. From 1795 to 1822 the city changed several times along with the colony it headed. The city was ceded to France in 1795 after years of struggles, it was captured by Haitian rebels in 1801, recovered by France in 1802. In 1821 Santo Domingo became the capital of an independent nation after the Criollo bourgeois within the country, led by José Núñez de Cáceres, the nation was unified with Haiti just two months later
37.
Conquistador
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Conquistadors /kɒŋˈkɪstəˌdɔːrz/ is a term used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish Empire or the Portuguese Empire in a general sense. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Asia, conquering territory and they colonized much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Portugal established a route to China in the early 16th century, sending ships via the southern coast of Africa, human infections gained worldwide transmission vectors for the first time, from Africa and Eurasia to the Americas and vice versa. The spread of diseases, including smallpox, flu and typhus. In the 16th century perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered American ports, by the late 16th century silver imports from America provided one-fifth of Spains total budget. The conquistadors were professional warriors, using European tactics, firearms and their units would often specialize in forms of combat that required long periods of training that were too costly for informal groups. Their armies were composed of Iberian and other European soldiers. Native allied troops were largely equipped with armament and armour that varied geographically. Some groups consisted of men without military experience, Catholic clergy which helped with administrative duties. These native forces often included African slaves and Native Americans and they not only fought in the battlefield but served as interpreters, informants, servants, teachers, physicians, and scribes. India Catalina and Malintzin were Native American women slaves who worked for the Spaniards, Castilian law prohibited foreigners and non-Catholics from settling in the New World. However, not all conquistadors were Castilian, many foreigners Hispanicised their names and/or converted to Catholicism to serve the Castilian Crown. For example, Ioánnis Fokás was a Castilian of Greek origin who discovered the strait that bears his name between Vancouver Island and Washington State in 1592, german-born Nikolaus Federmann, Hispanicised as Nicolás de Federmán, was a conquistador in Venezuela and Colombia. The origin of people in mixed expeditions was not always distinguished. Castilian law banned Spanish women from travelling to America unless they were married and accompanied by a husband, women who travelled thus include María de Escobar, María Estrada, Marina Vélez de Ortega, Marina de la Caballería, Francisca de Valenzuela, Catalina de Salazar. Some conquistadors married Native American women or had illegitimate children, European young men enlisted in the army because it was one way out of poverty. Catholic priests instructed the soldiers in mathematics, writing, theology, Latin, Greek, and history, Kings army officers taught military arts. An uneducated young recruit could become a leader, elected by their fellow professional soldiers
