Uncategorized – Page 12 – Amazing Bible Timeline with World History

Posted on December 21, 2017August 7, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

“The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African” Inspires Growing Abolitionist Movement 1789

In 1789, the book entitled “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African” was published. Penned by the freedman Olaudah Equiano himself, the book was part travelogue and part autobiography. When distilled, however, the book was a searing condemnation of slavery and the British Empire’s part in the slave trade.

The indomitable Equiano himself went on a tour of Britain, Scotland, and Ireland between 1789 and 1791 to promote his book. It became a bestseller and soon inspired the growing abolitionist movement in England. Together with the anti-slavery group Sons of Africa, Equiano and other black activists intensified their lobbying against slavery in the British Parliament.

Despite the hardships he experienced, Equiano’s story had a happy ending. His marriage to Susanna Cullen of Cambridgeshire produced two daughters. His book went on to have several editions and later translated into several languages. Equiano was one of the wealthier Englishmen when he died in 1797. He, however, did not live long enough to see his book’s impact on the abolitionist movement. Britain finally passed the Act for the Abolition of Slavery in 1833. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.

First Volume

Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 in present-day Igboland region of Nigeria. Olaudah in the Igbo language “signifies vicissitude or fortune also, one favoured, and having a loud voice and well spoken.” His father was one of the “embrence” (chieftain or elder) under the suzerainty of the distant king of Benin. He had several siblings and was very close to his sister.

He was also close to his mother, and he sometimes accompanied her to the market as a child to trade with a neighboring people called “oyibo.” Their peoples often traded food, but there were instances when he saw slaves being traded in the market. These slaves were often prisoners of war or were convicted of crimes.

His parents and the other adults were working in the fields when some men came to their village and kidnapped some children, including the eleven-year-old Olaudah and his sister. It was the last time Olaudah would see his village or family again. To his grief, the kidnappers separated him and his sister. He was sold to the chief of another village where he worked as a servant for some time before he was sold again.

Olaudah was briefly reunited with his sister when he and the slave traders arrived at the Atlantic coast. The reunion was shortlived as he and his sister were separated by the traders once again. The slave traders brought him to a place called Tinmah and sold him to a wealthy widow. The widow and her young son treated him as if he was one of their own, but his time with them did not last long. The slave traders suddenly uprooted him again and passed the child from one slave trader to another.

After six or seven months, Olaudah was forced to board a slave ship bound for the West Indies. It was the first time the boy had seen white men who then crammed him and other slaves inside the ship’s hold. He and the other slaves were then transported to the West Indies in a dangerous journey across the Atlantic called the Middle Passage. The young Olaudah was chained together with other prisoners inside the foul smelling and densely packed hold. During the course of the journey, the boy once gave in to despair and refused to eat, but the slave traders flogged and force-fed him as punishment. Other slaves became sick and later died because of starvation and the unhygienic conditions of the hold.

Olaudah noticed the crew use a mariner’s quadrant during the few times he was allowed on deck for some fresh air. The seamen, in a fit of benevolence, showed him how to use it. The boy was astonished by what he saw and considered it a magical device. Little did he know that his interest in the mariner’s quadrant would change his life later on.

After several weeks at sea, the slaves disembarked at Bridgetown in Barbados. Plantation owners and merchants flocked to the port to check and buy the slaves. Some buyers often picked and chose among the slaves, so that mothers were sometimes separated from their children, wives torn from husbands, or siblings separated from each other.

Olaudah and those who were not fit for sale were forced to board a sloop bound for North America. When they arrived in Virginia, the boy was brought to the plantation of a man named Mr. Campbell. The new master soon changed his name from “Olaudah” to “Jacob.” After working for some time in Virginia, he was sold to Henry Pascal, the captain of a British trade ship and an officer in the royal navy. After bringing the boy to his ship, Pascal ordered his crew to sail back to England. Olaudah spent the next few years as Pascal’s personal servant.

On a whim, Pascal gave the boy a new name. He called Olaudah “Gustavus Vassa” after the great 17th-century Swedish king. Olaudah refused to answer when Pascal called him by the name and insisted that his new master call him by the name “Jacob.” Pascal responded by hitting him.

The journey across the Atlantic was long and rough, but the crew’s mistreatment of Olaudah made it more difficult. A boy named Richard Baker later befriended him, making the voyage more bearable. Richard (or Dick as he was called by the crew) became the boy’s interpreter, and Olaudah learned more of the English language because of him.

Olaudah became curious after he saw Dick and Pascal reading books. With his curiosity piqued, he took a book and proceeded to “talk[ed] to it, and then put my ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.”

They arrived in Falmouth, England in spring of 1757. During the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), Olaudah accompanied Pascal (who recently returned to the navy) to Guernsey, Holland, Scotland, the Orkneys, Turkey, and the coast of France. He was not a part of the English navy, but his mere presence in Pascal’s ship compelled him to help the crew during naval engagements with the French.

During a trip to London, Pascal left Olaudah under the care of his relatives, the Misses Guerins. The sisters showered him with kindness and became his first instructors in Christianity. They taught him how to read and write, but supplemented it by sending him to school. The boy later asked them to allow him to be baptized. They agreed to his suggestion, and he was baptized in St. Margaret’s Church in Westminster in 1759.

He accompanied Pascal to the American colonies before sailing to Cape Breton in 1758. They returned to Europe after the successful siege of Louisbourg (Nova Scotia) but was grief-stricken when he learned of Dick’s death in 1759. In 1761, the crew sailed to Gibraltar but soon went back to the Atlantic coast to capture Belle-Isle. By the end of the war in 1763, the 18-year-old Olaudah was already a battle-hardened veteran.

Olaudah and his friends fully expected for Pascal to set him free now that the war was over. When they arrived in England, however, Pascal informed him that he had been sold to a Captain James Doran. The young man protested, saying that he had served Pascal faithfully and that his master had taken whatever meager salary he was supposed to receive. Besides, he was already baptized as a Christian, so no one had the right to sell him. However, the protests fell on deaf ears, and he was forced to make a new voyage across the Atlantic not unlike to the one he took in 1756.

Captain Doran’s ship took him to Montserrat where he was then sold to a Quaker merchant, the kind and humane Robert King. Olaudah initially worked odd jobs for King, but King elevated him to the position of a clerk when his master realized that he had someone capable and talented in his hands. For the next three years, he became King’s most trusted slave.

Olaudah saw for himself how fellow slaves were treated in the West Indies. In St. Kitts, for example, he saw that it was common “for the slaves to be branded with the initial letters of their master’s name; and a load of heavy iron hooks hung about their necks. Indeed on the most trifling occasions they were loaded with chains; and often instruments of torture were added. The iron muzzle, thumb-screws, etc. are so well known, as not to need a description, and were sometimes applied for the slightest faults. I have seen a negro beaten till some of his bones were broken, for even letting a pot boil over.”

They did backbreaking work for long hours in return for measly wages. Masters sometimes purchased slaves and rented them out to plantation owners, but tended to withhold the slaves’ wages the plantation owners paid them. Those who dared complain about this would be beaten or flogged. Robert King, a staunch Quaker, earned the goodwill of the other slaves when he himself fed them when their masters would not.

Any property a slave possessed was fair game for the West Indies white elites. Olaudah once heard of a slave who was able to buy a boat after saving up money from his meager wages. The governor, however, seized the boat without giving the slave compensation. The slave later complained to his master, but to no avail. Olaudah sense of justice was later satisfied when he learned that the governor died in the King’s Bench in England… in great poverty.” Equiano’s Narrative contains more harrowing accounts about the life of slaves in the West Indies. His firsthand experience with slavery had a profound effect on his spirituality and pushed him to be involved in England’s abolitionist movement.

He was later loaned out to Captain Thomas Farmer as a sailor. Olaudah started trading fruits and other merchandise while traveling as a sailor in the West Indies and the American east coast. He started with a capital of three pence but managed to save his earnings from his small enterprise. Robert King had remarked to Olaudah that he would set him free if he came up with 40 pounds sterling. King’s promise of freedom only motivated him to work harder.

Second Volume

By 1764, Olaudah had saved as much as 47 pounds sterling from trading in the islands of West Indies and the American east coast. He approached King when he went back to Montserrat and to his master’s surprise, handed him the 40 pounds sterling he had saved up. He asked King to grant him his freedom, but King loathed to let a talented worker go. With the help of Captain Farmer, he eventually convinced his master to grant him his freedom and release his manumission papers. Despite King’s protests, Olaudah left Montserrat and sailed all over the West Indies and North American east coast again. Captain Farmer, however, died at sea before Olaudah sailed for England.

Upon Captain Farmer’s death, Olaudah continued his adventures in the Americas when he joined Captain William Phillips’ crew. He visited Savannah, Georgia, but did not stay long when a couple of hostile white patrollers tried to kidnap him and send him back to slavery. Luckily, he was able to bluff his way out of the kidnapping. He then went back to Montserrat to say goodbye to Robert King before sailing for London. He immediately visited the elderly Guerin sisters to thank them for their kindness.

He found that living in London was not as easy as he envisioned. He could not find work, so he apprenticed as a hairdresser under Dr. Charles Irving. He worked as a steward and hair-dresser to the captains of ships bound for Montserrat and Turkey. He later joined a voyage to the Arctic with Dr. Irving in 1773 where they trapped in ice for eleven days.

The Arctic incident made him grateful for God’s mercy. When he returned to London, he immediately pushed himself “to seek the Lord with full purpose of heart ere it was too late” and become a” first-rate Christian.” He “shopped” around for a church where he could join and began reading the Bible earnestly. He continued to work as a steward, but his spiritual crisis deepened during a voyage to Spain where he claimed to have seen a religious vision. This vision had a profound effect on his life, and he went back to London a transformed man.

Olaudah met Dr. Irving once again and agreed to accompany him to Jamaica’s Miskito Coast to establish a plantation. He worked as Irving’s overseer, but his heart yearned for cosmopolitan London. After some resistance on Irving’s part, they finally parted ways amicably in 1776. He secured a passage first to Jamaica on board a sloop, but Hughes, the vessel’s captain, tried to kidnap him on the way. Olaudah, however, was lucky enough to escape and reach England several months later.

He was already tired of seafaring, but there was no work available for a man like him in England. During this period, he became involved with the Sons of Africa, an anti-slavery group whose members were former slaves. They spoke out against slavery and lobbied in Parliament to end the enterprise.

In November 1786, Olaudah became the commissary of the British slave repatriation expedition bound for Sierra Leone. He quickly lost his enthusiasm for the job when he witnessed the ineptitude and abuses of the British leaders of the expedition. He tried to intervene, but the authorities fired him as a result. He went back to London, wrote to Queen Charlotte, and asked for her support for the abolitionist movement. Olaudah ended his narrative with his views on slavery and how he became involved in England’s abolitionist movement.

References:

Picture by: Unknown – Project Gutenberg eText 15399 – http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15399Author: Uploader: User Tagishsimon on en.wikipedia; description page is (was) here* 01:52, 17 April 2005 [[:en:User:Tagishsimon|Tagishsimon]] 455×700 (50,997 bytes) <span class=”comment”>([[:en:Olaudah Equiano]] – [[:en:Project Gutenberg]] eText 15399.png From http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15399 {{PD}})</span>, Public Domain, Link

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. Edited by Vincent Carretta. London: Penguin, 2003.

Equiano, O. (2005). The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, by Olaudah Equiano. [online] Project Gutenberg. Available at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15399/15399-h/15399-h.htm [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017].

Posted on December 20, 2017August 15, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Republic of Haiti

The Republic of Haiti was founded in 1804 after a series of bloody revolts against the oppressive rule of the French colonists. The Haitian Revolution (1791) came close on the heels the French Revolution (1789) and was led by mulatto and black leaders. After a long and bloody struggle for freedom, the Haitians finally drove the French off the island and succeeded in establishing the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time.

The Spanish and French Colonization of Haiti

The Taínos (Antillean Arawaks) were the first people Christopher Columbus and his crew encountered when they landed in Haiti in 1492. The Spaniards later renamed the island Hispaniola and established mines and farms in the area during the early 16th century. The colonists forced the Taíno people to provide cheap (in most cases, free) labor in their mines and fields.

The backbreaking work and their lack of immunity to Old World diseases, however, decimated the indigenous people. By the early 1500s, many of Hispaniola Taínos had died out and the Spanish authorities were faced with a serious labor shortage. The thriving transatlantic slave trade presented the Spaniards with a handy solution to this problem. Beginning in 1517, thousands of slaves were shipped from West Africa to Hispaniola to fill in the labor shortage.

The Spanish Empire, however, started to crumble during the early 17th century, resulting in the government authorities’ neglect of Hispaniola. This allowed the French to slowly encroach upon the island. They first landed on the island of Tortuga on Hispaniola’s northwest tip. In 1659, the French had established a permanent settlement on Tortuga. They then crossed to the northwest part of Hispaniola mainland during the latter part of the 1600s.

By the 1670s, the French colonists had already established Cap-Haïtien as its largest settlement on the island. These early colonists established coffee, sugar, cotton, cocoa, and indigo plantations. Like the Spaniards, the French used slave labor to plant, cultivate, and harvest crops.

Near the end of the Nine Years’ War in 1695, several European nations signed the Treaty of Ryswick which divided the island of Hispaniola between Spain and France. Spain received the eastern part of the island which it renamed Santo Domingo. France, meanwhile, received the western part which it renamed Saint Domingue.

Social Stratification and Slavery in Saint Domingue

In Saint Domingue, French plantation owners and other elites (grand blancs) claimed superiority above everyone else. A number of plantation owners sexually abused their black female slaves, and the result of these assaults (or in some cases, consensual liaisons) were the gens de couleur or mulattoes. Their white fathers often freed their mixed-race children, and sometimes granted them properties and sent them to France to study. Below the gens de couleur in status were the impoverished or convicted whites (petit blancs) who were sent to the colony as servants or laborers. The grand blancs looked down on the petit blancs and often treated them with contempt equal to the black slaves. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the noirs or black slaves who worked as domestic servants or laborers. They also made up the bulk of Saint Domingue’s population.

Life as a black slave in Saint Domingue was hellish. Healthier and able-bodied men and women bore the brunt of the hard tasks in the fields. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, and those who just arrived from the Middle Passage were given lighter tasks. Work started at 5 in the morning and was broken at intervals so the slaves could eat and rest. Work continued until the sun sets, and the slaves when they were sent to meager dinners. In some cases, sugarcane plantation owners forced their slaves to wear masks to prevent them from eating the cane they harvested. Some masters felt that they should not be responsible for feeding their workers, so they sometimes allocated small plots of land so that their slaves could grow their own food. Managers and foremen supervised the slaves and were ready to whip those who took a break from the grueling work. Some slaves fled to the mountains to escape the spirit-breaking work at the plantations. These escaped slaves (later called Maroons) often mixed with the few remaining Taínos in the mountains.

The mulattoes, too, had their grievances against the system. They initially enjoyed the freedom and privileges of the elites, but the whites later became worried that they might be overpowered when the number of gens de couleur increased. To this end, the whites slowly curtailed the freedom and privileges of the Saint Domingue mulattoes. Segregation in public spaces became a policy. Gens de couleur were forbidden marry white men and women, as well as insult or harm them. Carrying arms was also strictly prohibited.

The privileges enjoyed by the white elite caused great resentment among the poor whites, the mulattoes, and the African slaves. It was only a matter of time before this resentment would boil over and upend the French dominance in the island.

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture had an important leadership role in the Haitian Revolution.

News of the success of the French Revolution during the spring of 1789 quickly reached Saint Domingue. The mulattoes, led by Vincent Ogé, hoped that the Revolution’s motto “liberty, equality, fraternity” also applied to them. The colonial government, however, thought otherwise. The French authorities knew that if they granted rights to the mulattoes, they would also be compelled to grant the same rights to the slaves. The prosperity of the island hinged on the exploitation of the black slaves, so setting them free was out of the question. Vincent Ogé led the disaffected mulattoes in a rebellion, but it was quickly crushed by the colonial authorities. His execution outraged both the National Assembly in France and the black slaves of Saint Domingue.

In 1791, a number of black slaves started attending meetings led by the Vodou priest Dutty Boukman. These night meetings were disguised as Vodou rituals to escape the notice of the French authorities. On August 22 of the same year, Dutty Boukman and his rebel forces launched brutal attacks against their white masters. They burned down plantations and massacred their white masters along with their wives and children. Thousands of French plantation owners died in 1791 alone, while those who survived fled Saint Domingue for France. Mulattoes soon joined the rebellion against the whites, but would sometimes turn against the blacks. Peace was finally restored when the French government sent reinforcements in 1792. In his eagerness to address the island’s problem, the colonial commissioner and abolitionist Léger-Félicité Sonthonax declared the abolishment of slavery in 1793 without the knowledge of the National Assembly.

Spain and Britain soon stepped in to take advantage of the chaos, and (along with the French) made separate alliances with black and mulatto rebel leaders. The black leader François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, however, successfully used the tangled alliances to his advantage beginning in 1793. His rival to the south, the mulatto rebel leader André Rigaud, also made alliances with colonial powers but was less popular because of his insistence to keep slavery the status quo. The French authorities, on the other hand, tried to weaken the rebel forces by pitting the blacks and the mulattoes against each other. This only served as kindling to the civil war that eventually engulfed the colony.

In 1799, the black forces led by Toussaint Louverture and the mulatto régiment led by Rigaud faced off in the War of the Knives. Toussaint Louverture’s troops were able to rout Rigaud’s. By the end of the war, around 10,000 mulatto lives were extinguished. Rigaud and other mulatto leaders fled to France upon their defeat.

With the French colonialists and Rigaud out of the way, Toussaint Louverture was free to establish a new Saint Domingue government with him at the helm. His regime tried to modernize the island and improve its economy, but he and his cronies proved to be just as corrupt as the French. His military cronies became the new plantation owners. The implemented the fermage system which initially improved the condition of the workers but later proved to be slavery in all but name. To his people’s dismay, Toussaint Louverture’s regime became as oppressive and tyrannical. In response, disaffected blacks and mulattoes took up arms and launched an uprising in 1801. The uprising, however, was quickly crushed by Toussaint Louverture and his troops.

In February 1802, Charles-Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, Rigaud, and 21,000 French troops landed in Saint Domingue. They had been sent by Leclerc’s brother-in-law, Napoleon Bonaparte, to retake the island. Toussaint Louverture knew that his troops were no match for the French, so he retreated to the mountains with his forces. They burned fields and massacred white civilians as they made their retreat. Toussaint Louverture later tried to sue for peace, but he was arrested during a meeting and was soon shipped as a prisoner to France in exile. He died in France in 1803.

Nature was the blacks’ and mulattoes’ best ally against the French. One by one, Leclerc’s soldiers died of yellow fever until he himself succumbed to the disease in October 1802. He was succeeded by the tyrannical General de Rochambeau who wanted to reinstate the unequal system of the French colonial government. This united Toussaint Louverture’s black general Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Rigaud’s mulatto supporter Alexandre Sabès Pétion against Rochambeau. In 1803, their combined black and mulatto forces defeated the French and successfully drove them out of the island.

In January 1804, Dessalines declared Saint Domingue independent and soon reverted the island’s Taíno name Haiti. Haiti was the first independent black state in the Americas. Its constitution was ratified in the following year. Violence, however, continued as blacks and mulattoes took part in the massacre of the few remaining French settlers of the island.

References:

Picture by: Unknown – NYPL Digital Gallery, Public Domain, Link

Collier, Simon, Thomas E. Skidmore, and Harold Blakemore, eds. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Fagg, John Edwin. Cuba, Haïti, & the Dominican Republic. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1965.

Girard, Philippe. Haiti: The Tumultuous History – From Pearl of the Caribbean to Broken Nation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Posted on December 20, 2017August 19, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ethiopia Resists Colonization 1896

On May 1, 1896, Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia and his army fought the Italian forces in the Battle of Adwa. The Ethiopians decimated the Italians and scored a spectacular victory by using rifles and bullets they had received from the Italian government. Ethiopia became the first African state to successfully resist European colonization and defend its independence. This event is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History during this time.

Ancient Ethiopia

The Kingdom of Aksum was founded in AD 100 in the area now occupied by northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. Christianity first arrived during the 4th century and quickly spread throughout the kingdom. Since the Aksumite churches had strong ties with the neighboring Copts of Egypt (and their supposed belief in monophysitism), Rome was quick to brand the Ethiopians as heretics. As Islam spread throughout eastern and northern Africa, Aksum became increasingly isolated. Despite the isolation, the Ethiopians managed to develop their own unique brand of Christianity. It became the dominant religion throughout the kingdom’s existence.

In the late 13th century, the Solomonic Dynasty (whose heirs claimed direct descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) started to rule Ethiopia. For many centuries, the Ethiopian church maintained a relationship with Jerusalem. In 1441, the Ethiopians briefly broke their isolation by sending delegates to the Council of Florence. Jesuit missionaries first entered its borders in 1554 and again in 1603. The Jesuit interlude abruptly ended, and the kingdom remained in isolation until the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century. Because of its people’s fierce independence and its rulers’ willingness to match European cunning, Ethiopia became one of the two African states which escaped European colonization during the 19th century.

Ethiopia and Italy During the Age of Imperialism

For many centuries, the interior of the African continent was not as attractive to the Europeans as the Mediterranean coast or the Cape. This would change when missionaries and explorers (such as James Bruce, David Livingstone, and Henry M. Stanley) made the dangerous journeys into its interior. They brought back news of exotic people and mysterious places with plenty of resources. Eager to strike it rich, European colonial governments followed the path of the missionaries and explorers. King Leopold II of Belgium made the first move by claiming the Congo and by establishing Belgian colonies in the area in 1876. This pushed the French to claim a section of central Africa as its own. It was followed by other European powers, bringing about the mad Scramble for Africa.

In 1855, the Ethiopian Empire emerged from division and was united under the leadership Emperor Tewodros II of the Solomonic Dynasty. The kings who ruled the various Ethiopian provinces grudgingly acknowledged Tewodros as their overlord until his death in 1868. He was succeeded by the ruler of the province of Tigray, King Yohannes IV, as emperor of the Ethiopian Empire. The equally ambitious Menelik II ruled the province of Shewa in the south and proved to be Yohannes’s rival in the dominance of the Empire. To curb Menelik’s power, Yohannes first had him imprisoned for ten years before sending him back to his own domain.

The Scramble for Africa intensified during the reign of Yohannes and Menelik. Britain had South Africa and Zimbabwe and was extending its influence in Egypt and Sudan. France, meanwhile, had claimed Algeria, large areas of West Africa, as well as most of the islands in the Indian Ocean. In 1862, France signed treaties with the local rulers of Djibouti (later French Somaliland) to counter British presence in the Red Sea. Italy, a country that was united only in 1861, soon entered the race to acquire its own colony. The latecomer’s target was the Ethiopian Empire.

Italy’s first contact with the Ethiopian Empire was in 1869 when the Rubattino Shipping Company established a small trading port in Assab (present-day Eritrea). Realizing their potential, King Menelik then made overtures to the Italians and soon befriended them in exchange for arms. The Italian government soon took over the management of Assab in 1882 with some encouragement from Britain.

In 1885, Italy sent two military expeditions to Massawa in Eritrea. It soon became clear to Menelik that Italy had colonial ambitions of its own and it put him on edge. Emperor Yohannes, meanwhile, experienced firsthand Britain’s unreliability as an ally. The emperor had counted on the British to get rid of the Egyptian garrisons in the coast so Ethiopia could finally gain access to the Red Sea under the Hewett Treaty of 1884. But instead of entrusting it to Yohannes, the British authorities disregarded him and pushed Italy to occupy the coast to safeguard a portion of the Red Sea from the French.

To contain Italian colonial ambitions, King Menelik decided to set his grievances aside and swore allegiance to Emperor Yohannes so they could put up a united front. He also remained friendly to the Italians who were his main (if not only) arms dealer (a decision which proved prudent many years later). On January 26, 1887, both sides finally came to a head when Italian troops started heading west of Massawa and into the Ethiopian interior. Ras Alula, a governor under Emperor Yohannes, was able to hold the Italians back and rout them in the Battle of Dogali.

The loss at Dogali was a humiliation for Italy, but it stubbornly held onto its ambition to colonize Ethiopia. Menelik remained cordial with the Italians while he was consolidating power. During this time, he was also preparing for any eventuality by stockpiling Italian arms. In November 1888, however, Yohannes and Menelik had a falling out and war seemed inevitable. The Italian envoy Count Pietro Antonelli encouraged Menelik to escalate the hostility to a civil war and promised to supply him with rifles and bullets. In truth, Antonelli was counting on using the distraction so that Italians troops could occupy the highlands. The king saw through the scheme, but he cautiously allowed the Italians to continue meddling in Ethiopian internal affairs so he could stockpile arms.

The promised rifles did not appear until December of 1888. By then, the civil war had been averted when the Mahdists of Sudan declared war on Yohannes. The emperor died in battle in 1889 against the Mahdists, and (after some struggle with Yohannes’s heir) was succeeded by Menelik as emperor. The new emperor soon gained recognition from Italy in the Treaty of Wichale which both parties signed in 1899. In the Treaty, Menelik agreed to cede what is now modern Eritrea to Italy in exchange for money plus rifles and heavy artillery.

The First Italo-Ethiopian War

Little did the two parties realize that a mistake in translation would spark the First Italo-Ethiopian War in 1896. In the Italian document of the Treaty, Article 17 specified that the Italian government would serve as Ethiopia’s sole representative in its foreign affairs. This was contrary to the Amharic version which simply stipulated that Ethiopia could ask for assistance with the Italian government anytime. The mistake (deliberate or not ) was discovered when diplomatic letters to foreign governments were sent from Shewa when Menelik was crowned as emperor in late 1889. To his rage, he found that the foreign governments rebuffed him and told him to direct his letters to Italy as Ethiopia was now its protectorate. Emperor Menelik realized his mistake and was quick to disavow the Treaty in 1894.

A rift formed between the two countries formed because of the Treaty, but Italy still provided the emperor with arms to curry his favor. Little did they know that the same weapons would be used against them later on. Local elites who did not favor Menelik also resented Italy’s encroachment, so they decided to set aside their grievances and submit to Menelik. This allowed the emperor to consolidate power and strengthen his army to prepare for a war with Italy.

The First Italo-Ethiopian War started with skirmishes between the Tigray army led by Ras Mengesha and the Italian soldiers stationed in Eritrea in 1895. Ras Mengesha finally succeeded in luring General Oreste Baratieri and his troops into Ethiopia proper. The emperor then roused the anger of Ethiopians by declaring that the Italian troops and their Eritrean reinforcements were trespassing on their land.

On March 1, 1896, General Baratieri and Emperor Menelik’s troops finally met in Battle of Adwa. Baratieri was prepared to wait until Menelik’s troops became weak, but he was relentlessly harassed by the Italian Prime Minister Crispi’s nagging telegrams from Rome. The general also heard rumors that a more capable Italian commander was on his way to Adwa to relieve him. His ego now stung, he rashly decided to prove his skills by ordering his army to attack Menelik’s forces on February 29, 1896. By March 2, his badly outnumbered troops were routed by the Ethiopians. 4,000 Italian and 2,000 Eritrean soldiers died that day. Thousands more were either wounded or taken as prisoners of war by the Ethiopians.

Although the Ethiopian death toll was far lower than that of the Italians, Menelik dared not gamble his victory away and immediately retreated to Addis Ababa. After the humiliating defeat, Italy was finally forced to recognize Ethiopia’s independence. Prime Minister Crispi, on the other hand, was forced to resign from his position immediately after news of the fiasco reached Italy. Ethiopia became the only African country to successfully resist European colonization.

References:

Picture by: Unknown – Pankhurst, Richard. Ethiopia Photographed: Historic Photographs of the Country and its People Taken Between 1867 and 1935 p. 52, Public Domain, Link

Jones, A. H. M., and Elizabeth Monroe. A History of Ethiopia. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Marcus, Harold G. A History of Ethiopia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Zewde, Bahru. A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1991. 2nd ed. Oxford: James Curry, 2001.

Posted on December 20, 2017May 17, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

First African Baptist Church in America 1773-1775

The First African Baptist Church was organized by Reverend George Liele (Lisle) of Savannah, Georgia between 1773 and 1775. Liele was born into slavery in 1750 in Virginia. During his youth, he was transported to other parts of the colonies until he was sold to a Baptist deacon named Henry Sharp of Burke County, Georgia. His master later allowed him to attend a nearby Baptist church. He was baptized by Matthew Moore, the pastor of the Big Buckhead Baptist Church in Millen, Georgia. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during that time.

The Foundation of the First African Baptist Church

Lisle helped to convert some of the original members of the First African Baptist Church.

The future of the first African church in North America became uncertain. Liele’s friend David George also fled to Nova Scotia with his family and the Loyalists. The task of continuing Leile’s legacy was left to Andrew Bryan and his wife Hannah who had chosen to remain in Savannah. Bryan started preaching months after Liele’s departure and soon attracted a number of followers. A man named Edward Davis offered the preacher and his congregation a piece of land in Yamacraw where they could build a church and hold services. Bryan agreed, and his small congregation soon had a new home. Unfortunately, they were soon evicted from this location.

Since he was a slave, Bryan and his ministry encountered fierce opposition from the white community. He was forbidden to preach and was twice imprisoned for defying the order. He, his brother Sampson, and other members of their ministry were whipped for their defiance. They were finally released from imprisonment when Andrew’s master, Jonathan Bryan, intervened on their behalf. Jonathan Bryan then offered a barn on his property called Brampton so that Andrew Bryan and his congregation could worship without fear of harassment. The congregation agreed to occupy the barn as their makeshift church. This arrangement lasted for two years.

The prominent Baptist pastor Abraham Marshall and his colleague Thomas Burton visited the congregation in early 1788. The two men conducted an interview and examination of the congregation and its pastor. After finding their answers satisfactory, he then certified the church and its pastor on January 19/20, 1788.

With more than 500 members, Bryan and his flock agreed to rename the church to First African Baptist Church in 1790. The church was under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Baptist Association. By 1794, the First African Baptist Church, with the help of their white Baptist supporters, was able to buy a plot of land in Savannah and build a permanent church there. Pastor Andrew’s master died in 1795, so his children finally allowed him to buy his freedom for a sum of fifty pounds sterling. By the time he died in 1812, the First African Baptist Church already had more than 1,000 members.

References:

Picture by: KudzuVine – Own work, Public Domain, Link

Davis, John W. “George Liele and Andrew Bryan, Pioneer Negro Baptist Preachers.” The Journal of Negro History 3, no. 2 (April 1, 1918): 119. doi:10.2307/2713485.

Gates, Henry Louis, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. African American Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Love, Emmanuel King. History of the First African Baptist Church, From its Organization, January 10th, 1788, to July 1st, 1888: Including the Centennial Celebration, Addresses, Sermons, etc. Salem, MA: Higginson Book Co., 1998.

Posted on December 20, 2017August 21, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Liberia Established by African-Americans

The country of Liberia was established by freed African-Americans with the help of the American Colonization Society (ACS) between 1821 and 1822. The country was established out of ACS’s desire to create a haven for freed blacks who faced discrimination in America. Later, Liberia became one of Africa’s first independent states and modeled its government after its foster parent, the United States of America. These events are recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History during that time.

The Free Blacks and the Foundation of the American Colonization Society (ACS)

During the early 19th century, thousands of free blacks flocked to the urban centers in the North to make a new life for themselves. Reverend Robert Finley, a Presbyterian pastor in Princeton, New Jersey, became concerned about the welfare of the free blacks who lived in the city. Although they had been freed, Finley realized that these people still lived in poverty and did not enjoy the rights and privileges of white men. In the South, on the other hand, many remained in slavery and continued to live in oppression.

While some late 18th and early 19th century thinkers advocated the assimilation of the blacks into the society, others—like Thomas Jefferson—proposed a different solution. He asserted that it was impossible for blacks and whites to live in peace, so he proposed to send the free blacks somewhere else. The idea quickly gained traction among some well-meaning abolitionists who genuinely saw it as a way to give the blacks a new start in life. Others only saw it as a convenient way to assuage their conscience and reassure themselves that they were doing the right thing.

To this end, Reverend Finley and his brother-in-law, the prominent Washington D.C. attorney Elias B. Caldwell, founded the American Colonization Society in 1816. They were later joined by prominent political personalities and wealthy men, such as Bushrod Washington, Charles Fenton Mercer, Henry Clay, General Andrew Jackson, and Colonel Henry Rutgers. Robert E. Lee’s uncles, the plantation owners Edmund Lee and Richard Bland Lee, were also members of the group.

The members’ motivations were as diverse as the men who joined the ACS. The Quakers genuinely believed that it was their duty to give the blacks a home where they could prosper and eventually spread the Christian message. Others saw the blacks’ presence and the discrimination they faced as reminders that the republic’s egalitarian philosophy applied only to its white citizens. Some (such as the Lee brothers) only wanted to get rid of the disaffected blacks for fear that they would one day rise up and rebel against their masters. Despite the differences in motivation, they all agreed that sending the free blacks to Africa would be a good plan. This project was later approved by President Monroe and funded by Congress through the Slave Trade Act of 1819.

The Foundation of Liberia

John Randolph was a well-known supporter of the American Colonization Society.

In spring of 1820, free blacks boarded the ship Elizabeth and sailed to Africa’s west coast. They were accompanied by the United States Navy, whose officers were commissioned to scout for possible locations on the Pepper Coast. The British government had established a colony for free blacks in Sierra Leone during the 1780s, so it was only sensible that the Americans would establish one near the area also. The new colonists tried to settle into Freetown but they encountered fierce resistance from the indigenous Temne people. They then coasted south to Sherbro Island but quickly found it unsuitable. They also tried the Ivory Coast but abandoned it when they found the place unfit for settlement.

In December 1821, the naval officers and crew came across Cape Mesurado. The colonists’ leaders, Navy Lieutenant R.F. Stockton and Dr. Eli Ayres, disembarked with the crew and approached King Peter of the De people. With the help of their Kru allies, the group started the negotiations to acquire the land which the De inhabited. King Peter hesitated but quickly made a decision to cede the land after Stockton threatened him with a pistol. The king then signed the treaty with the leaders of the ACS.

The first settlers left Freetown and arrived in Cape Mesurado in January 1822. They called their new home “Liberia” (or the “land of the free”) and called their new capital Monrovia after President James Monroe. The Baptist minister Lott Cary and fellow African-American Elijah Johnson became the de facto leaders of the settlers.

Life in early Liberia was not as rosy as the colonists initially envisioned. Malaria and yellow fever quickly killed some settlers, and there was the additional problem of living near the De people who felt that they had been cheated during the negotiations. The settlers—like the American pioneers—established farms which they protected with stockades. De warriors attacked the settlers in November 1822 but were easily repulsed with the help of a cannon and guns the settlers brought from America. The De made a second attempt but were thwarted with the help of British naval officers who happened to pass by the area.

The Liberians switched to trading after finding that farming was not lucrative. Their numbers increased when nearly 6,000 “recaptives” were resettled by the ACS in Liberia in the next 40 years. These “recaptives,” however, were segregated from the more influential American-born settlers. The settlers later spread along the coast, displacing indigenous peoples and slave traders alike. In 1839, an offshoot of the ACS called the Maryland State Colonization Society resettled free blacks in Cape Palmas. English was the commonwealth’s primary language, and it was ruled by an ACS-appointed governor.

The Liberian government finally declared its independence from the United States in 1847. Liberia became one of the two independent states (Ethiopia being the other) in Africa during the 19th century. The Republic of Liberia adopted a constitution and closely modeled its form of government after the United States. Liberia’s government is headed by a president, while the Senate and House of Representatives make up the country’s lawmaking body. Like the US, the country also has a supreme court.

References:

Picture by: John Wesley Jarvis – awFR66sTRSfCug at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, Link

Fyfe, Christopher. The Cambridge History of Africa: from c. 1790 to 1870. Edited by John E. Flint. Vol. 5. London: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Pham, John-Peter. Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State. New York, NY: Reed Press, 2004.

Starr, Frederick. Liberia: Description, History, Problems. Chicago, 1913.

Posted on December 20, 2017August 21, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Britain Takes Cape Colony 1795

Europe and North America were plagued by revolutions and wars in the latter part of the 18th century. Cape Colony, a distance Dutch territory in Africa, was largely insulated from all the conflicts. This would change when France took the Dutch Republic and tried to disrupt British trade in India during the Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802). Eager to protect its lucrative trade, Britain decided to take Cape Colony in 1795. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.

The Colonization of South Africa

Dutch sailors bound for Asia were the first Europeans to venture into the Cape Peninsula to buy food from the Khoi herdsmen and farmers. The number of Dutch ships that sailed to and from Asia increased in the 17th century, so the need for meat and fresh vegetables also spiked. This compelled the Dutch East India Company to send Jan van Riebeeck and several Dutch farmers to establish farms in the Cape Peninsula in 1652.

The Dutch East India Company established restrictions on the amount of land that could be farmed by each Boer (Boere for plural). The company’s directors also maintained that the Cape would only be a way station for their ships. The arrival of additional Dutch settlers with their Malay and West African slaves in tow put a strain on the Cape’s resources. French Huguenots and Dutch immigrants later followed the Dutch settlers. It was not long before disagreement sparked between the neighbors.

Despite the restrictions placed by the Dutch East India Company, a number of Boere and their families left the Cape Peninsula and pushed northeast in search of land. They were later known as “Trekboere,” and later became the ancestors of the Afrikaners. These hardy people believed that the land was theirs by right because they were “chosen” by God. This belief, however, had a dark side. Armed with muskets and a sense of destiny, Boer families managed to kill and displace the indigenous Khoi and San peoples in search of land. They later encountered the Xhosa people who fiercely resisted the encroachment on their land. The Dutch (and later the English) and Xhosa people engaged in the Xhosa (Kaffir) War between 1779 and 1879.

The British Occupation 1795

A map showing the extent of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1795.

Cape Colony remained a backwater trade and farming town while Europe and North America were engulfed in wars during the latter part of the 18th century. The American (1776) and French (1789) Revolutions made naval wars and blockades on both sides of the Atlantic common. In 1792, Britain, the Dutch Republic, and their allies waged a war against France (the Revolutionary War). After defeating the Dutch Republic in 1795, however, France renamed the territory “Batavian Republic,” and began to occupy it.

The defeat of the Dutch Republic in 1795 and France’s ambition to disrupt the lucrative trade in India alarmed Britain. To combat France, the British war ministers then decided to seize the strategically important Cape Colony to secure the Indian Ocean passage. Nine British warships were dispatched to Cape Colony in the same year. On August 7, 1795, defeated the Dutch militiamen in the Battle of Muizenberg.

British colonists occupied Cape Colony until the country’s relations with France improved. In 1803, Cape Colony reverted to the Batavian Republic after France and Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens. The peace of Amiens, however, would not last as hostilities resurfaced in the same year.

British troops once again invaded Cape Colony on January 4, 1806. They easily subdued Dutch, French, and native troops in the Battle of Blaauwberg on the 8th of January, 1806. The Dutch troops held out for another week, but their leader, Lieutenant General Janssens, knew that defeat was inevitable. He capitulated on the 18th, and he and his troops were sent back to the Netherlands soon after. The British occupied Cape Colony until the Dutch ceded it to Britain in the Convention of London in 1814.

References:

Picture by: George McCall Theal – https://archive.org/stream/historyofafricas03thea/historyofafricas03thea#page/n374/mode/1up, Public Domain, Link

Fage, J.D. A History of Africa. London: Routledge, 1998.

Omer-Cooper, J.D. The Cambridge History of Africa: from c. 1790 to 1870. Edited by John E. Flint. Vol. 5. London: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Oliver, Roland Anthony, and John Donnelly Fage. A Short History of Africa. Sixth ed. London: Penguin Books, 1988.

Posted on December 20, 2017August 25, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Taiwan as Seat of Government of the Republic of China (ROC)

In 1949, Mao Zedong’s People’s Liberation Army drove Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists (Kuomintang or KMT) out of mainland China after nearly five years of civil war. The Kuomintang members fled the mainland and transferred the seat of government in the island of Taiwan. Although repressive at first, Chiang Kai-shek’s government turned Taiwan’s devastation around and transformed it into an economic powerhouse in Asia. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time period.

Taiwan’s Early Inhabitants and the Island as a Dutch Colony

Austronesian aborigines were the first known inhabitants of the island of Taiwan. They remained isolated from mainland China for thousands of years, but this isolation was occasionally breached by a few Chinese merchants who braved the dangerous waters of the strait, evaded pirates, and defied the Ming sea ban to trade with aborigines. Portuguese sailors en route to Japan were the first to sight the island of Taiwan in 1542, naming it “Ilha Formosa” (“Beautiful Island”). Despite its beauty, the Portuguese did not find the island attractive and did not make attempts to colonize it.

The Ming and Qing Dynasties

It was the Dutch who colonized the Pescadores and Formosa during the early 1600s. They were driven out by the Ming rebel leader Koxinga who then ruled Formosa until it was completely folded into the Manchu domain as part of Fujian. For many years, the Qing rulers ignored this island as it was considered an insignificant outpost. Han Chinese, however, started to cross the Taiwan Strait and settle in the island. As Han migrants slowly trickled in, the aborigines were forced to retreat to the mountainous areas of the southwest.

The Japanese Occupation

The perception that Taiwan is a distant and unimportant territory would change during the late 19th century when the island (along with Penghu) was ceded to Japan during the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Japan occupied Taiwan in 1895 and ruthlessly tamped down on any resistance by the Han Chinese.

Under Japan, Taiwan was spared from the upheavals that engulfed mainland China. It soon became industrialized, prosperous, and self-sufficient during Japan’s 50-year occupation. Ordinary Taiwanese benefited from the development of the territory, but there was no doubt as to who ruled the island. Taiwanese were often treated as second-class citizens, while Japanese migrants received most of the benefits. Universities were non-existent, and workers were limited to agriculture and industries. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), Taiwan was largely spared from the devastation that the mainland suffered. Japanese troops and officials evacuated the island in 1945 and were soon replaced by Nationalist forces.

The Republic of China

Chiang Kai-shek helped establish Taiwan’s reputation as an economic powerhouse.

Nationalist leaders, however, treated the Taiwanese as Japanese collaborators and soon became repressive. Taiwan’s economy collapsed, and the crisis was soon followed by widespread protests. The Nationalists responded with violence, killing thousands of Taiwanese in 1947. This repression only fueled anti-mainland Chinese sentiment in Taiwan.

Post-World War II China was racked with a civil war between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists (KMT) and Mao Zedong’s Communists (CCP). Although the KMT had the better army and possessed modern arsenal, the Communists were able to capitalize on the people’s alienation from and resentment of the KMT to defeat them. By 1948, key cities north of the Yangtze were in the hands of the Communists. After realizing that he and his party had lost popular support, Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters left the mainland and fled to Taiwan in 1949. He transferred the Republic of China’s seat of government from Nanjing to Taipei and imposed a military dictatorship over the island.

This, however, was only the start of the 20th-century success story that is Taiwan. Chiang Kai-shek was able to do in Taiwan what he could only dream of in mainland China. He invited liberal Chinese supporters from the mainland to work in the KMT government in the island. With American support, the Kuomintang revitalized industries and slowly resurrected the economy during the 1950s and 1960s. Chiang also supported the improvement of higher education, and it was not long before Taiwanese students were flocking to the United States to seek postgraduate degrees. Many of them came back to Taiwan to work and contribute to the economy.

As the world slid into the Cold War and China became increasingly hostile to the United States, the American government decided to transfer military aid and development assistance to Taiwan. American missionaries also pulled out of the mainland and established missions, hospitals, and schools in Taiwan. The United Nations also recognized the government in Taiwan as the legitimate representative of China, rather than the one led by Mao in the mainland.

By the 1960s, Taiwan had established a reputation as an economic powerhouse. The country became the home of American and Japanese electronic manufacturing facilities. Steelmaking and petrochemical facilities appeared in the 1970s. These industries were quickly followed by automobile production and computer hardware facilities in the 1980s.

Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975 and was succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo as president of Taiwan and head of the KMT. Under Chiang Ching-kuo, Taiwan inched toward political liberalization. He also abolished the martial law his father imposed on the island when the Nationalists first arrived. During his presidency, Taiwanese were allowed to travel to the mainland for the first time since the Japanese occupation and the Chinese Civil War.

References:

Picture by: Unknown – Fu Runhua, Zhongguo Dangdai Mingren Zhuan, Shijie Wenhua Fuwu She, 1948, p.1., Public Domain, Link

Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge (Mass.): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.

Roberts, J.A.G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Wright, David C. The History of China. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Posted on December 20, 2017August 25, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905

Between 1904 and 1905, Russian and Japanese forces fought in the destructive Russo-Japanese War. The conflict started when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian Pacific Fleet on February 8, 1904. By the end of the war in 1905, Japan was the undisputed power in Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula. These events are recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History during that time.

The Fight for Supremacy in Asia

Despite its victory in the Sino-Japanese War and its annexation of Korea, Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands, Japan’s ministers still considered the Treaty of Shimonoseki a failure. The country tried to claim the Liaodong Peninsula, but Russia, Germany, and France (Triple Intervention) forced it to give up its claim. The presence of Russian troops in eastern Siberia definitely “helped” Japan in its decision to abandon the peninsula. Russia later forced China to lease Port Arthur which finally gave it a warm-water port in the Pacific. This move, however, only rubbed salt to Japan’s wounded pride.

When the Boxer Rebellion exploded in 1900, Russia and Japan both joined the Western coalition in response to the foreign community’s pleas for help. The Russian officials, however, refused to evacuate their troops from northern China even after the rebellion was quelled. Instead, it took advantage of the situation to establish a foothold in Korea and northern China. A fuming Japan appealed to the international community, but its ministers’ requests only fell on deaf ears.

Japan never forgot this humiliation. Over the years, the government poured resources to strengthen its army and navy. The government invested in heavy industries such as steelworks, railway networks, and shipbuilding. By the early 1900s, it was one of the wealthiest industrialized nations in Asia. Its military’s morale was also at an all-time high.

Britain and Japan became allies in 1894 to counter Russian presence in eastern Siberia. The alliance was solidified further in 1902. Discussions continued between the representatives of Japan and Russia, but Russia’s obstinacy only led to the breakdown of the negotiations in 1904. Japan was at the end of its rope.

The Russo-Japanese War

On the evening of February 8, 1904, the Japanese warships attacked the Russian fleet anchored at the harbor of Port Arthur. The torpedoes were able hit two battleships (the Tsarevich and the Retvizan) and a cruiser (the Pallada) until all three vessels sank. Japanese warships then blockaded the port, while the Russian crew scrambled to the mainland.

News of Japan’s unannounced attack on the Russian naval base shocked the international community. Russia scrambled to send reinforcements to Manchuria, but they were mostly defeated by the more mobile and adequately supplied Japanese troops. While Russian troops were engaged in combat on land, the naval fleet led by Admiral Rozhestvensky was on its way from its base in the Baltic to Asia. Passing through the Suez Canal was out of the question as it was held by Britain, so the fleet was forced to sail south to the Cape of Good Hope and enter the Indian Ocean there. The Russian navy, however, ran into trouble as most of the coaling and repair stations from Africa to China were held by the British.

Its target was to reach the Russian base in Vladivostok, but the fleet had to engage the Japanese warships led by Admiral Togo off the coast of Tsushima on May 27, 1905. Admiral Rozhestvensky made the fatal mistake of running directly into the Japanese blockade which was concealed by fog. The Russian fleet suffered a heartbreaking loss in just thirty-six hours of engagement. Most of the ships were sunk, while a few were either captured by the Japanese navy. A handful managed to limp to the Russian base in Vladivostok.

Loss and Compromise

Despite this spectacular victory, the Japan knew that the country could not go on a war of attrition against Russia. They had lost thousands of soldiers already and could not afford to lose more. After eighteen months of war, Japan’s ministers requested that President Theodore Roosevelt mediate between them and Russia. Russia, in the midst of a revolution itself, welcomed this reprieve and accepted the offer. On August 10, 1905, representatives of the United States, Russia, and Japan gathered in New Hampshire. Nervous of Japan’s newfound power and eager to contain it, President Roosevelt pressured Japan’s representatives to take whatever Russia proffered during the negotiations. The negotiations lasted until the end of August, and the treaty was signed on the September 5, 1905.

The terms included the annexation of Liaoning and Korea to Japan, as well as the promise that Russia would not attempt to interfere in Korean internal affairs. Japan also took the Russian South Manchuria Railway, and took over the lease of Port Arthur. Russia agreed to let go of the southern portion of the Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in favor of Japan. Russian representatives, however, frustrated the Japanese negotiators when they stubbornly insisted that they would not pay an indemnity. The Japanese won the war, but the Russians were able to rout them in the negotiations.

The Japanese people, unaware of the cost of the war and the fact that the government could not afford to prolong the hostilities, felt that the Treaty of Portsmouth was another blow to their national pride. Protests and riots soon broke out when news of Japanese representatives’ compromise reached the people. The Japanese public heaped the blame on America when the reviled representatives informed their government of the events in Portsmouth and how President Roosevelt pressured them agreeing to the compromise.

Despite the existence of the Treaty of Portsmouth, peace remained elusive for both countries. Russia’s loss at the Battle of Tsushima fueled the 1905 Revolution and weakened the Romanov Dynasty. On the other hand, the humiliation brought by the treaty would lead to Japanese jingoism in the succeeding years.

References:

Picture by: http://andrewnz2.tripod.com/id41.html, Public Domain, Link

Meyer, Milton Walter. Japan: A Concise History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012.

Nish, Ian H. A Short History of Japan. New York: Praeger, 1968.

Perez, Louis G. A History of Japan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Posted on November 4, 2017October 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Edict of Nantes Revoked 1685

On October 22, 1685, King Louis XIV had the Edict of Nantes revoked and replaced it with the repressive Edict of Fontainebleau. This royal decree made the persecution of Huguenots a state policy and started the decline of Protestantism in France. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.

The Edict of Nantes 1598

The Edict of Nantes granted multiple freedoms to the Protestants of France.

The Edict of Nantes was a royal decree signed by King Henry IV on April 13, 1598. The aim of the decree was to unite the kingdom which had been wracked by the Wars of Religions since 1562. It granted the Huguenots the freedom of conscience, as well as the freedom to worship in Protestant towns except in Paris or in areas near the city.

The Huguenots would then allow the Catholics to worship in Protestant towns without fear of harassment. Huguenots were also allowed to hold public offices, as well as elect their own representative in the Parliament. The state itself would pay the pastors with an annual grant, and allow them to maintain their own strongholds.

The Edict gave limited freedom to Protestants, but Pope Clement VIII and much of France’s Roman Catholic clergy did not rejoice when it was issued. Queen Elizabeth I, the Protestant queen of England, became furious, while Spain’s Philip II was happy with the issuance of the decree.

The Edict of Fontainebleau 1685 (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes)

The Edict of Nantes was ratified “perpetual and irrevocable,” but the irrevocable part was only valid during Henry’s lifetime. He died on May 14, 1610, and his son, Louis XIII, succeeded soon after his father’s assassination. A devout Catholic, it was not long before Louis moved to undo his father’s legacy.

Catholics were still the overwhelming majority in 17th-century France. The influential Marie de’ Medici (Louis XIII’s mother) herself was a devout Catholic, so it was no wonder that many clauses of the Edict were not enforced. Huguenot rebellions flared up once again in 1620, and tensions continued until the signing of the Peace of Ales in 1629. Cardinal Richelieu, Louis’s chief minister, disregarded some clauses of the Edict of Nantes and offered what was left to the Huguenots in exchange for amnesty.

The persecution and economic repression of the Huguenots intensified during the reign of King Louis XIV. The king forbade them from working in certain professions, while the salaries of their pastors went unpaid. The authorities also closed down Huguenot schools and churches. They were not allowed to construct new churches while existing ones were soon demolished. The Huguenots were also forbidden to move anywhere within their own homeland.

The king also sent dragoons to live in Huguenot houses and harass the families so they would be forced to convert to Catholicism. It didn’t take long for many Huguenots to give in to pressure and convert. Others, meanwhile, chose to leave France for New France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and Protestant-friendly European states than forsake their beliefs. On October 22, 1685, King Louis XIV made his anti-Huguenot stance an official state policy by having the Edict of Nantes revoked and replaced with the Edict of Fontainebleau.

Protestant churches were burned or demolished, while children born from Huguenot parents were forcibly baptized into Catholicism. Protestant men who tried to flee the kingdom to avoid forced conversions were sent to galleys as slaves. Female fugitives, on the other hand, were sent to prisons. It was illegal for Protestants to leave France, but thousands still chose to become exiles. The few Huguenots who chose to remain in France, meanwhile, were mostly confined to the rugged southeastern portion of the kingdom. Some chose to convert publicly, but remained Protestants in their own homes for fear of execution.

References:

Picture by: Henry IV – Grands Documents de l’Histoire de France, Archives Nationales, Public Domain, Link

Cathal, J. Nolan. Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.

Long, Kathleen P. Religious Differences in France: Past and Present. Kirksville: Kirksville, Mo., 2006.

“Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 22, 1685.” Internet History Sourcebooks. Accessed August 30, 2017. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1685revocation.asp.

Posted on November 2, 2017October 19, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Alexis I, Second Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty 1645

Alexis Mikhailovich (born March 9, 1629) was the eldest son of Tsar Michael I of Russia and Tsarina Eudoxia Streshneva. He inherited the throne at the age of sixteen upon his father’s death on July 13, 1645, and suffered another devastating loss five weeks later when Eudoxia herself died. Young Alexis, however, had little time to indulge his grief as Russia’s borders were threatened by Tatars and Poles. He was crowned tsar at Moscow’s Cathedral of Dormition on the 28th of September, 1645. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time.

Second Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty

Alexis was reputed to be athletic, energetic, and imposing. Raised in affluence, Prince Alexis received the best education possible for a man of his status. Unlike his father, this young king could hold his own and did not hesitate to use cruelty against any minister who dared oppose him.

Alexis received the epithet “Young Monk” because of his religious devotion that sometimes bordered on fanatical. When he was not holding court or hunting with his hawks, he could be found praying at church—often for hours on end.

Even a powerful tsar needed an ally, so he promoted a former tutor named Boris Morozov as his chief minister soon after his coronation. Two years later, Alexis asked his courtiers to organize a bride-show so he could choose for himself a tsarina. He chose Euphemia Vsevolozhskaya as his bride, but the wedding was called off when the young lady fainted after the too-tight crown was placed on her head. The audience thought that she was probably unhealthy or bewitched which made her unfit as a queen. She and her family were soon sent into exile.

Morozov used this incident to elevate another maiden named Maria Miloslavskaya as Alexis’s possible wife. She was the elder daughter of Ilya Miloslavsky, a close friend of Morozov. Alexis found her to his liking, and they were married on January 16, 1647. The crafty Morozov then bound himself to Alexis by marrying Maria’s younger sister Anna several days later. Morozov used his role as the Tsar’s brother-in-law and closest adviser to become one of the richest boyars in Moscow.

Morozov then earned the anger of the people when he cut the government spending on services but continued raising the salt tax. The people finally had enough, and they vented their anger on Alexis on the 1st of June, 1648. The Tsar was on his way back from a pilgrimage, but he was stopped by an angry mob as he was about to enter the city. They presented their grievances to the tsar, and he promised to investigate, but some of his guards swooped in on the crowd and arrested some of their leaders.

Another mob formed the morning after the confrontation and demanded that their leaders be released. They also demanded that Morozov and other corrupt officials be removed from their positions. The crowd then went to Morozov’s home (as well as the homes of other government officials) and started to riot. Morozov secretly fled Kremlin, but other boyars were not as lucky and were beaten by the crowd when they were caught. A senior official named Leonid Pleshcheev was beaten to death by the crowd when Alexis finally gave him up.

The tsar had no choice but to promise that he would remove Morozov from power and reform the government. He then appointed his cousin, the popular Nikita Romanov, to replace Morozov as his adviser. He also addressed the people the next day, but tearfully told them that he could not bring himself to hand his ex-tutor over to them. The people were moved, and they agreed to let the tsar send him to exile to a distant monastery instead.

The Tsar then summoned the Zemskii Sobor (Assembly of the Land) so they could come up with the reforms he promised to the crowd. Alexis and the Zemskii Sobor came up with some reforms, but those were not in the best interest of the peasants. instead was the Sobornoye Ulozheniye, a legal code with clauses that bound the peasants and slaves to serfdom.

Religious Reforms and Russian Expansion

Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich ruled Russia from 1645-1676.

Alexis then made another fatal mistake when he appointed a popular monk named Nikon (a member of his clique of holy men, the Zealots of Piety) as Patriarch of Moscow. Soon it was not the Tsar who signed his own decrees but the Patriarch himself. He turned on German migrants (mostly merchants) and confined them in their own quarters where they were free to “commit sins.” He also decreed that the sign of the cross should be made with three fingers instead of two. Those who refused to follow his instructions would then be executed.

Alexis declared war against Poland on April 23, 1654, with the encouragement of the Ukrainian Cossack warlord Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the blessing of Patriarch Nikon. The Tsar himself led his troops to Smolensk and besieged it until it fell to the Russians five months later. Nikon, meanwhile, was in charge of Moscow while Alexis and the Russian troops were busy taking some parts of Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania. This alarmed the Swedes who then sent troops to check Russia’s advance.

Complaints of Nikon’s high-handedness soon reached the Tsar and forced him to return to Moscow. A confrontation between the two men descended into a shouting match when the Tsar blamed the patriarch for the wars that they were facing. This was the start of the end for Nikon. In 1658, the Patriarch finally left Moscow and returned to a life as an ordinary monk.

Alexis became bolder in his newfound independence and began to modernize the government and the military. The Russian army, however, suffered a major defeat in 1659 at the hands of the allied Poles, Tatars, and Swedes. The Russian minister Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin was forced to sue for peace with Sweden and consider an alliance with Poland.

Later Years

The tsar had promoted his father-in-law Ilya Miloslavsky as head of treasury, but he was unaware of his corrupt dealings while in office. Miloslavsky had debased the currency by substituting silver coins with less valuable copper ones which then resulted in a surge of prices of goods. An angry mob stormed the Kolomenskoye Palace on July 25, 1662, and demanded that the Tsar’s father-in-law be put to death. The Tsar tried to reason with the people but it did not work. He prepared to travel back to the Kremlin on horseback to deal with the matter but was forced to stop when the mob met him. The overwhelmed Tsar commanded his soldiers to protect him and they obeyed. Protesters were then arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death for angering the Tsar.

The episode deeply affected Alexis and made him more intolerant and despotic. He was still religious, and despite Nikon’s fall from grace, Alexis was determined to continue his reforms. Those who refused to fall in line were tortured, exiled, or executed. He also managed to crush the Cossack rebellions led by Stepan Razin and False Simon during his reign.

Tsarina Maria died on March 3, 1669, and this tragedy was soon followed by the death of another son, Simon. His courtiers organized another bride-show, but this was cut short by the death of the Tsar’s heir, Alexis. The bride-show resumed, and this time, Alexis chose Natalya Naryshkina as his new bride. They married on January 22, 1671, and the bride gave birth to their son, Peter, on May 30th of the following year.

The forty-seven-year-old Tsar fell ill on January 22, 1676. He was taken to bed, but his condition continued to worsen despite the skills of his doctors. Alexis, the man who ushered Russia into a period of rapid growth, died on January 29, 1676, and succeeded by his sickly son, Feodor.

References:

Picture by: Unknown – Google Art Project, Public Domain, Link

Montefiore, Simon Sebag. The Romanovs: 1613-1918. New York, Vintage Books, 2017.

Perrie, Maureen, ed. The Cambridge History of Russia. Vol. 1. The Cambridge History of Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521812276.