Area Studies

Post by J

This may be proof that I was sleeping during Geography and/or History in high school, but the following information was brand new to me during the first week of Western Hemisphere Area Studies:

• Haiti was once the richest and most prosperous colony in the Americas (even richer than the United States), and was known as "The Pearl of the Antilles."
• Haiti was so desirable that Britain offered to trade all of Canada for it (France's response at the time was essentially, "In your dreams").
• After the Haitian slave revolt in the late 18th century, Napoleon sent over 20,000 troops to contain the insurrection, but was unsuccessful. This impacted the U.S. because Napoleon decided if he couldn't have Haiti he didn't need Louisiana (besides, he needed money to fund an ongoing struggle with the British Empire) and, rather than agree to the original treaty that Thomas Jefferson was proposing regarding allowing a passageway for American goods via the Mississippi River, he offered to sell the entire Louisiana Territory. Jefferson, of course, jumped at the opportunity, doubling the size of the United States in one fell swoop.
• Paraguay is the only country in the Americas where an indigenous language (Guarani) is one of its nation's official languages.
• In fact, although only 5% of Paraguay's population is indigenous, over 90% speak Guarani.
• In an effort to combat illegal wildlife poaching, the U.S. government symbolically crushed six tons of ivory in 2013.
• Argentina declared war with Japan one week after the U.S. bombed Hiroshima, so that they would be considered an ally and be eligible for membership in the United Nations.
• The reason that some areas in South America speak Spanish while others speak Portuguese is that in order to keep Catholic nations from fighting each other Pope Alexander VI established a line of demarcation (which stretched around the entire globe), with those areas falling west of the line belonging to Spain and those east of the line belonging to Portugal. The line was revised a few years later in a treaty at Tordesillas, Spain, and the line became known as the Tordesillas Line. 

What gems will next week hold?