HOW I
BECAME A HISTORY BUFF!
GLACIER IN THE BEAGLE CHANNEL
Source: Inconsequential, CC BY SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons
My Blog Hop
groups for FTSF provided the following prompt:
One time
when I was bored out of my mind, I …
became a History Buff!
I had been
ill, and was forced to stay at home. I had read everything I could lay my hand
on (no Internet then!) and I was totally bored.
I was a
teen high school student at that time, and I hated History, I didn’t like the
teaching methods or the contents.
Well, the only
available reading material in the house was a massive reference work on Chilean
History. Three huge tomes, with at least two thousand pages each.
I settled
down to wade through these tomes. I started on Page 1, Prehistory. It was
fascinating! A couple of days later, I was hooked for life. I read the first
two volumes at that date, and finished the third one some months later.
That was
the start of a long journey which eventually led up to this Blog on Spanish
America.
Through my
readings, I have also come to understand the role of Chile in the Southern Cone
of South America, and the unique position occupied by Chile due to the
extremely long coast facing the Pacific Ocean.
SOME
QUESTIONS ON SPANISH AMERICA I HAVE ANSWERED THROUGH MY
READINGS.
- Why
the Drake Passage has that name: Sir Francis Drake, 16th century privateer, and
his maritime explorations.
-Why
the Beagle Channel has that name: HMS Beagle, the ship on which Charles Darwin
sailed. The first survey of the Southern Cone was carried out from 1826 to
1830.
-Why
there were so many corsair attacks along the coast of Chile: Elizabethan
privateers in the 16th century.
-Why
most of the towns in Chile have streets named Lord Cochrane: Lord Thomas
Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald and the first Vice Admiral of the
Chilean navy, 19th century.
-Why
there are areas in the Patagonia (Argentina) where Gaelic is spoken: Welsh
settlers, displaced after the collapse of the Welsh coal mines, 1865 to 1912.
-Why
British capital was invested to create the Pacific Steam Navigation Company -
the PSNC - 1838 to 1965. The ships sailed mostly from Liverpool.
-Why
Thomas Alva Edison designed a hydroelectric plant in Lota, just south of
Concepcion, my home town: the Chivilingo Hydroelectric Plant came on line in
1897.
-What
Darwin learnt when he visited the Southern Cone.
-Which
great earthquake was described by Darwin in his journal: Concepcion Chile, 1835.
-Why
my Scottish Great Grandfather visited Eater Island in 1887.
-Why
this same Great-Grandfather (John Robert Stewart) provided the name for a
Chilean island in the vicinity of the Beagle Channel: Stewart Island, named in
the 1880 by the Chilean Navy. (See The Naming of a Chilean Island)
-Why
the first naval battle of World War I took place near my home town: the Battle
of Coronel, November 1st, 1914.
-Why
there is a neighborhood called California in Tomé, a small port just north of
Talcahuano near my home town: the mill provided the prospectors with flour for
making bread, during the California Gold Rush in the 1850s.
-Why
the German warship Dresden remains sunk
in Cumberland Bay, on the Chilean island of Juan Fernandez: scuttled in March
1915 due to capture by British war ship.
-What happened at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, WW I, December 1914.
-What happened at the Battle of the River Plate: first naval action in World War II, December 1939
-And more!
A MUSEUM IN TRELEW, PROVINCEOF CHUBUT, ARGENTINA
Source: Gaston Cuello, CC BY SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons
CHILEAN PATAGONIA
Source: Vincent van Zeijst, CC BY SA 3.0. Flickr.
MY JOURNEY CONTINUES.
It’s been a fascinating trip through both
fiction and non fiction!
Many of these topics have provided material for
my articles on Hubpages.com. My home
page there is http://joanveronica.hubpages.com. You are cordially invited to
search out these topics!
SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS.
I have found that long and relatively complete
historical descriptions and recounts are more motivating than short ones.
History is not boring for me if I can grasp the
general context, the why, the when and the what of all these topics.
SPANISH VERSION
(This Blog is bilingual)
En mi grupo de
entusiastas escritores y escritoras de diversos Blogs, se propuso el siguiente
tema:
Si en algún momento de
tu vida estuviste muy, pero muy aburrida, ¿qué hiciste?
Mi respuesta fue la siguiente:
me transformé en una adicta del estudio de la Historia.
Comencé leyendo un
voluminoso tratado de la Historia de Chile en tres enormes tomos. Al final de
esa lectura, ya era adicta total. ¡Era fascinante!
Mis diversas lecturas
me permitieron apreciar el rol de Chile dado su especial ubicación en el Cono
Sur de de la América Hispana, con una extensa costa mirando hacia el Océano
Pacífico.
Mis lecturas me han
permitido comprender los siguientes temas:
-El origen del nombre
del Paso de Drake, en las aguas del extremo sur del continente americano.
(Siglo 16)
-El origen del nombre
del Canal de Beagle (primeros años del siglo 19).
-La razón de los
saqueos de corsarios y piratas en las costas de Chile (siglo 16)
-El motivo por el cual
tantas ciudades de Chile tienen calles y avenidas que llevan el nombre de Lord
Cochrane.
-La razón por la cual
se habla el dialecto galés (Gran Bretaña) en un sector de Chubut, Argentina.
-La participación de
capitales ingleses en la creación de la PSNC (Compañía Naviera del Pacífico),
1938 – 1965.
-La participación de
Thomas Alva Edison en la instalación de la Planta Hidroeléctrica Chivilingo, en
Lota, Chile, en 1897.
-Los conocimientos
obtenidos por C. Darwin cuando visitó el Cono Sur.
-A qué gran terremoto
corresponden los registros de C. Darwin en su Diario de Viajes.
-El motivo por el cual
mi Bisabuelo escocés visitó Isla de Pascua en 1887.
-La razón por la cual
este mismo Bisabuelo, de nombre John Robert Stewart, otorgó su apellido como
nombre de la Isla Stewart que se ubica cerca del
Canal de Beagle (década de los
años 1880)
-Los antecedentes de la
primera batalla naval de la Primera Guerra Mundial: la Batalla de Coronel, 1º
de Noviembre de 1914.
-El origen del nombre
de un barrio en Tomé, pequeño puerto cercano a Talcahuano, que se llama
California.
-Los antecedentes del naufragio
del Dresden, barco de guerra alemán,
que yace en la Bahía Cumberland, archipiélago de Juan Fernández. (Pertenece a
Chile)
-El desarrollo de la
Batalla de las Islas Malvinas en Diciembre de 1914, Primera Guerra Mundial.
-El desarrollo de la
Batalla de Mar del Plata, a inicios de la Segunda Guerra Mundial – Diciembre de
1939.
¡SOY UNA ADICTA A LA
HISTORIA!
More about similar topics in a future post. Más sobre temas similares en un
próximo post.
LANGUAGE TIPS FOR ENGLISH
Words that go together! * Make money
- * Break a window - * Keep control - * Get frightened – * Go crazy
LANGUAGE
TIPS FOR SPANISH.
Expresiones
de uso frecuente: * De verdad! - * En casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo - * Entre pitos y flautas
How is your level of comprehension? ¿Cómo está su nivel de
comprensión?
© 2013
joanveronica (Joan Robertson)
I will be very happy to receive your comments! Just
click the word “comments” lower down.
I loved how something you thought was boring (history) truly wasn't in the end and that you actually got hooked on this. Great job and thank you as always Joan for linking up with us!! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Janine, many thanks for your visit and comment! About my addiction, ithas been a long and interesting trip indeed, There's no excuse for mw to feel bored, I just need to feed my addiction! And the Internet foes a splendid job for that! See you!
DeleteDear Joan: Thank you for sharing that exciting story! I have never known that our (German) warships made it to South America.
ReplyDeleteHi there, I'm glad you like my post! I have had so much fun with this blog, and reading everybody's comments is mostly the best part. Thanks for the visit and the comment, and have a good day!
DeleteI am so impressed with your knowledge! It is really humbling to remember how much about history I truly cannot comprehend, and have never even considered before! Such an interesting post and a great story for FTSF!
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie! So happy for your comment! I'm glad you liked this post, it was fun to write. I want to remind you that I have been reading just about everything that came into my hands, for a LOT of years, so it's not amazing at all that I have collected lots of information. The good pàr is that nearly all of it is very interesting. Has to be, otherwise I don'r remember it! Have a good day!
DeleteI'm sorry I missed this last Friday. Your blog is amazing and I love learning more about Chilean and Latino culture: it will always remain one of my passions and I LOVE being able to practice my Spanish when I come here...not that I am right in this moment, LOL
ReplyDeleteHi Cyndi, so happy to have you visit. You seem to be extra busy with your project, so I do appreciate it! We share so much in common, this area of the world is so interesting! So have a nive day, and thanks again.
Delete