If I told you that today we are going to talk about a 17th-century figure named Felipe Francisco de Fachicura, you would probably think of a military officer, a writer, or perhaps a politician from the Spain of Philip III. However, that is not the case—or at least, not exactly—because that was the name given […]
Age of Exploration
Posted inAge of Exploration
The Great Fire That Destroyed 500 Palaces, 350 Temples, and Almost the Entire Capital of Japan in 1657, Giving Rise to the Yakuza
If we talk about the number of fatalities and the degree of destruction, three major disasters stand out in Japan. Two are well known: the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, which reached 8.3 on the Richter scale and claimed the lives of about one hundred and fifty thousand people, and Operation Meetinghouse of 1945, an […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
When the Dutch Attacked the English and French Colonies in America and Reclaimed New York
In that article we dedicated to the tragic end of the Dutch Prime Minister and his brother in 1672, we explained that the Treaty of Dover, signed between Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France, led to the so-called Third Anglo-Dutch War. In this conflict, the French army was halted by the floods […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Travel
Herzgruft, the Crypt in Vienna Where the Hearts of the Habsburgs Are Preserved
Saying that the heart of the Habsburgs is in Vienna may sound like a poetic expression to embellish a historical fact, but it can be taken literally if one visits the Church of the Augustinians, part of the Hofburg Imperial Palace. There, in a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, the Loretokapelle, lies […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
Horo, the Inflatable Cloak that Protected Samurai from Behind
If there is one type of historical warrior that has reached mythical dimensions, it is the Japanese one. The figure of the samurai has been excessively mythologized, probably due to cinema, to the point of acquiring an aura of invincibility that doesn’t quite match reality. Samurai were human, and as such, they accomplished great deeds… […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Archaeology
Nature of the Enigmatic “Armas de la tierra” of the Coronado Expedition in the 16th Century Revealed
Recent research has unveiled the nature of the weaponry used by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition (which crossed the present-day U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas), referred to as Armas de la tierra (weapons of the earth), which had until now remained an enigma. This study, led by Deni J. Seymour, […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Culture
Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, the chronicles of the Korean kingdom spanning five centuries, are the longest uninterrupted ones of a single dynasty in history
In 2006, the Seoul government announced that the Guksa Pyeonchan Wiwonhoe (National Institute of Korean History) had undertaken the digitization of the Joseon Wangjo Sillok, that is, the “Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty”, 1,893 books distributed across 888 volumes written in Chinese characters. These chronicles document the successive reigns of the monarchs of that […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
When France Evacuated Toulon and Converted the Cathedral into a Mosque to Temporarily Cede It to the Ottomans
Hayreddin Barbarossa, the famed admiral of the Ottoman Empire, effectively became the master of the Mediterranean during the first half of the 16th century. Between 1543 and 1544, he raided numerous towns along the Spanish coast as well as the Genoese coast. This was nothing new, as he had been doing so for years; what […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
Hongzhi, the ‘Great Ruler’ of the Ming Dynasty and the Only Monogamous Emperor in Chinese History
He lived at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, becoming one of the most unusual emperors in Chinese history—not only as the first to renounce any military glory but also the only one to have a single wife, in contrast to the usual collection of consorts and concubines. A devout follower of Confucius, […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
George Anson, the British seafarer who circumnavigated the world to capture the Spanish Acapulco Galleon
The War of Jenkins’ Ear pitted Britain against Spain from 1739 to 1748, leaving three particularly noteworthy episodes in its wake. One was the incident that sparked it, leading the British to name it that way while Spanish call it Guerra del Asiento. Another was Admiral Howard Vernon’s disastrous attempt to conquer Cartagena de Indias, […]
