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The First Balkan War began on October 8, 1912 when Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia quickly followed suit, resulting in a seven month war for the control of the Balkans. Although the goal of the war was ostensibly to free Macedonia and Albania from the Ottomans, a more accurate description would be that the nations involved hoped that removing the Ottoman Empire from Europe would allow them to expand their own territories.
The Ottoman Empire was placed in a difficult situation. First, they were already involved in a war at the time, fighting the Italians over Libya. Second, they found it difficult to muster an army to the extreme western edge of their territory.
The killing blow was struck when the Bulgarians besieged and then took Adrianople (modern Edirne, Turkey) in March of 1913. In May, the Treaty of London was signed, ending the war. The Ottomans – for centuries the rulers of the Balkans – were forced to retreat almost entirely from Europe.
Map:
Albania was independent, and Thrace and Macedonia were divided up among the allies. But by then the alliance was crumbling. Bulgaria and Serbia were both unhappy with the division of Macedonia, setting the region up for the Second Balkan War.
Pictures from here. Click on the photos for descriptions.
(Recently declassified USAF documents detail “Project 1794”, an attempt by the Air Force to build a flying saucer with a top speed of Mach 4 and a range of 4,000 nautical miles)
1977 Radio Shack advertisement.
Full title: ‘Negroland and Guinea with the European Settlements, Explaining what belongs to England, Holland, Denmark, etc’.
By H. Moll Geographer (Printed and sold by T. Bowles next ye Chapter House in St. Pauls Church yard, & I. Bowles at ye Black Horse in Cornhill, 1729, orig. published in 1727).
The Slave Coast is the name of the coastal areas of present Togo, Benin (formerly Dahomey) and western Nigeria, a fertile region of coastal Western Africa along the Bight of Benin.
In pre-colonial times it was one of the most densely populated parts of the African continent. It became one of the most important export centers for the Atlantic slave trade from the early 16th century to the 19th century.
Other West African regions historically known by their prime colonial export are Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), Ivory Coast (modern-day Côte d’Ivoire), and Pepper Coast (or Grain Coast, in modern-day Liberia).
According to most research, the beginnings of the slave trade in this area are not well documented. It is difficult to track the development of trade in this area and its integration into the Atlantic slave trades before about 1670, when European sources begin to document this interaction.
The slave trade became so extensive in the 18th and 19th centuries that an “Atlantic community” was formed.
The slave trade was facilitated on the European end by the Portuguese (mostly by Portuguese Empire’s Brazilians), the Dutch, the French and the British. Slaves went to the New World, mostly to Brazil and the Caribbean. Ports that exported these slaves from Africa include Ouidah, Lagos, Aného (Little Popo), Grand-Popo, Agoué, Jakin, Porto-Novo, and Badagry.
These ports traded in slaves that were supplied by African communities, tribes and kingdoms, including the Alladah and Ouidah, which were later taken over by the Dahomey kingdom.
Researchers estimate that between 2 and 3 million slaves were exported out of this region and were traded for goods like alcohol and tobacco from the Americas and textiles from Europe.
This complex exchange fostered political and cultural as well as commercial connections between these three regions. Religions, architectural styles, languages, knowledge, and other new goods were mingled at this time. Slaves as well as free men used the exchange routes to travel to new places which aided in hybridizing European and African cultures.
Intermarriage has been documented in ports like Ouidah where Europeans were permanently stationed. Communication was quite extensive between all three areas of trade, to the point where even individual slaves could be tracked.
After slavery had been abolished by European countries, the slave trade continued for a time with independent traders (instead of government agents). Cultural integration had become so extensive that the defining characteristics of each culture were increasingly broadened.
In the case of Brazilian culture—which had differentiated itself from Portuguese culture through its combination of African, Portuguese and New World traditions—Brazilian-style dress, cuisine and speaking Portuguese had become the main requirements for Brazilian identity, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or geographic location.
Mail Call Letterpack – You get two players that play only the cartridges you can buy from Smith Corona and you can send a 3, 6 or 10 minutes letter. Just $70 a pair in 1967, these would be $450 in today’s dollars. How is this better than a phone? They say, it has no static and it’s cheaper!
Life, 1967
Emperor Norton
Joshua Abraham Norton, the self-proclaimed Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 proclaimed himself “Emperor of these United States.”
Born in England, Norton immigrated to San Francisco in 1849 after receiving a bequest of $40,000 from his father’s estate. He lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice. After losing a lawsuit in which he tried to void his rice contract, Norton left San Francisco.
He returned a few years later, apparently mentally unbalanced, claiming to be the Emperor of the United States. Although he had no political power, and his influence extended only so far as he was humored by those around him, he was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.
Norton spent his days inspecting San Francisco’s streets in an elaborate blue uniform with gold-plated epaulets. Although penniless, he regularly ate at the finest restaurants in San Francisco; restaurateurs took it upon themselves to add brass plaques in their entrances declaring “[b]y Appointment to his Imperial Majesty, Emperor Norton I of the United States.” Such “Imperial seals of approval” were prized and a substantial boost to trade. No play or musical performance in San Francisco would dare to open without reserving balcony seats for Norton.
On January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at a street corner, and died before he could be given medical treatment. The following day, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage to Norton.
[Thanks to lexgurst]
