The Azores is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in between North America and Europe. Azores is a region not a country. The main language is Portuguese. The archipelago is 760 miles from Lisbon and 2,110 miles from New York.
The Azores is made up of nine beautiful and fascinating islands, Corvo, Flores, Faial, Graciosa, Pico, Sao Jorge, Sao Miguel, Santa Maria, and Terceira. A group of islands like this is also called an archipelago. They are divided into three groups. The Eastern group is made up of Santa Maria and Sao Miguel. The central group is made up of Terceira, Graciosa, Sao Jorge, Pico, and Faial. The western group is made up of Flores and Corvo.
The capital of these islands are: Corvo, Vila Nova do Corvo, Flores, Lages, Faial, Horta, Graciosa, Santa Cruz, Pico, Lagis, Sao Jorge, Vila das Velas, Sao Miguel, Ponta Delgada, Santa Maria, Vila do Porto, and Terceira, Angra do Heroismo.
All the islands have there own little story on which they tell their history and important facts and this all makes up the history of the Azores.
First I will start with the island of Sao Miguel: which is also known as the Green island because color given by the Forests. Sao Miguel is the most populated of the nine islands, and has an area of 297 square miles and a population of 250,000. The discovery of this island took place sometime between 1426 and 1439.
Santa Maria: The island of Santa Maria has an area of 42 square miles. It is the southernmost island in the archipelago and its major settlement is Vila do Porto its capital.
Its exact date of discovery is still a matter of discussion today. It is believed that it was discovered between 1427 and 1432. The settlement of the island took place during the course of the 15th century. Santa Maria is exceptional for the way its white painted cottages with their unusual chimneys are scattered over the landscape.
Terceira: The island of Terceira has an area of 250 square miles. Its called Terceira because it was the 3rd island to be discovered. About 1450 a Fleming, Jacome de Bruges, began to colonize the island.
Owing to its privileged location, the island was then the port of call for Portuguese ships sailing the Atlantic. Angra was the 1st settlement to be razed to the status of township (1534).
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
The Aztec Empire was the most powerful Mesoamerican kingdom of all time. They dominated the valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Aztecs were an advanced and successful civilization that built beautiful, sophisticated cities, temples, and pyramids. They also created a culture full of creativity with mythological and religious traditions. Aztecs lead a structured and evocative life that let their society to become a very superior civilization. The Aztec’s communication skills were very well developed for their time; through religious beliefs, government involvement, and family life they lived a full and productive life. Until in 1519 when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico, and defeated the Aztecs.
Published in 1493, Luis Santangel received the embellished journal of Christopher Columbus as validation for the much-promised riches in the Indies. Centered around an era of power and conquest, Columbus tapered his writings and findings to pacify his Royal sponsors for the voyage. Santangel was also one such wealthy sponsor. Although the tone of the letter was vastly hyperbolic, Christopher Columbus still managed to document the labeling of the numerous islands and its topography. Yet even the size and measurement is a bit exaggerated as well referring to one island being twice as large as that of Great Britain and Scotland. Columbus did his best to acknowledge various “thousands upon thousands” in this letter with that of spiceries and gold mines with mountains in a “thousand shapes...full of trees of a thousand kinds” as well as deeming the exotic islands incomparable to any other islands that “there could be no believing without seeing” firsthand. Colu...
The Portuguese were the first European settlers to arrive in the area. They were led by adventurous Pedro Cabral, who began the colonial period in 1500.
Santa Catalina Island, often known as Catalina Island, is located off the coast of Southern California, southwest of Los Angeles. Catalina Island forms part of the Channel Islands archipelago. Catalina is the only island, out of eight, that has been significantly developed. There are two major settlement location within the island - the city of Avalon and the unincorporated town of Two Harbors (“Visit Catalina Island,” 2014). Beyond the town boundaries the island is covered by wild life that it is owned and operated by the Catalina Island Conservancy ("The Official Catalina Island Website,” 2013).
For at least 5,000 years before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America for the Europeans the island, which he called Hispaniola, was inhabited by Amer-Indians. Anthropologists have traced 2 major waves of immigration, one from the West in Central America (probably Yucatan) and the second from the South, descendant of the Arawakan Indian tribes in Amazonia and passing through the Orinocco valley in Venezuela. It is from this second source that the ancestors of the Taino Indians who welcomed Columbus on his first voyage originated.
Knowledge of the native peoples in Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, prior to the colonial era derives from the accounts of contemporary Spanish writers and from archaeological examinations as oppose to written records since there were no evidence of them. The earliest knowledge of individuals immigrating to Cuba dates back to around 4200 BC. After arriving in four waves of migration from continental America, three different indigenous groups inhabited the island: the Tainos, the Ciboneys, and the Guanajatabeyes.
The Aztec built a powerful empire that became a dominant and formidable force. The empire supported an enormous population, encompassed a vast territory and yielded an abundance of precious metals and other natural resources. Several factors contributed to the overall success of the empire, including an ideal geographical location and a social hierarchy that imposed law and order. To maintain such a vast domain the Aztec had to employ tactics that included domination and subjugation of enemy forces and an enormous slave population, as well as the organization of resources necessary to support an empire. The collapse of the Aztec Empire came relatively swiftly at the hands of a small, but menacing, force of Spanish conquistadors, who had set their sights on invading the territory, displace the indigenous leaders, and seize their immense reserve of gold. The downfall of the Aztec centered on ineffective leadership, internal conflicts, susceptibility to germ warfare and a history of brutality against their enemies.
The Galapagos Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean with a chain that stretches as far as 220 kilometers from the most northern to the most southern island. This archipelago of volcanic islands is positioned in a way where some islands are found north of the Equator and others are found south of the Equator. There is even one island, Volcan Wolf, which is positioned directly on the equatorial line. The Galapagos has absolutely no indigenous population, and those 25,000 citizens that do live there now speak primarily Spanish. There are a total of 18 main islands, 3 small islands, and 107 islets (very small islands).
It appears that the majority of the actions of the Native Americans towards the new European colonists were in peace and acceptance. Unfortunately the colonists dreams conflicted with the views of the Native Americans. The ‘free living’ philosophy of the Native American’s left them open to an unexpected overtaking by the colonists. The Europeans believed in making a new world out of America while completely disregarding the fact that there was already an Old World.
...an and Caribbean Sea and more than 400 Islands and cays are found in the neighboring sea and bays of this island
Majority of the the island’s geographical location is mountainous, which consist of Guaniguanco chain, the largest system Sierra Maestra, Pinar del Rio, and the Escambrey (everyculture.com). Havana is the capital of Cuba which is located at the island’s western third of the northern coast. It used to be one of the world’s busiest cities in the past, its architecture and extraordinary infrastructural designs are evidences of its grand. Today, Havana is still regarded as one of the world’s favored venue for rendering special events. (cubaheritage.com)
Between 1680 and 1683, Portuguese colonists in Brazil established several settlements along the Río de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires. However, the Spanish didn't make any attempts to remove the Portuguese until the year of 1723, when the latter began fortifying the heights around the Bay of Montevideo. A Spanish expedition forced the Portuguese to abandon this site, and there the Spanish founded the city of Montevideo in 1726.
...The last two reasons that the Aztecs were defeated had to do with the disease that the Spaniards brought with them from Europe mainly small pox and the Aztec warfare rituals. The Aztecs had never been exposed to this disease and therefore their immune systems could not beat it and it eventually claimed the lives of thousands of Indians not only the Aztecs. The Aztecs had many rituals that they performed and most of them had to do with human sacrifice and this was something unspeakable and unholy in the eyes of the Spaniards which only fueled their cause in killing them and stopping such barbaric acts. Also the Aztecs would perform rituals before declaring war which the Spaniards used to their advantage and caught them off guard with their immediate attack of Tenochtitlan. These were the most important factors that led to the eventual fall of the Aztec empire.
Jamaica is one of the three islands in the Northern Caribbean forming the Greater Antilles. It's the largest English-speaking country in the Caribbean Sea, and stretches 146 miles from east to west. The country's name is derived from an Aarawak word “Xaymaca", meaning "land of wood and water". Jamaica has one of the richest and most varied landscapes in the region. The center of the island is mostly mountainous and heavily wooded, spotted occasionally with small mining towns and villages, while the land is low along the coast, providing for some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.