Fun fact: King John II of Portugal pushed hard to have the line drawn by the Treaty of Tordesillas go further west to include Brazil. Considering the treaty was signed in 1494 and that the Portuguese had been sailing around that area since 1488, there's a very good chance that they knew Brazil was there and that the "accidental" discovery in 1500 was merely the first time they made landfall rather than the first time they spotted the land.
Brazil actually is that big because a couple of years later the kings of spain and portugal became 1. So theoretically tordesillas wasn’t a thing anymore, that made possible for brazilian expeditions “bandeiras” to explore the heart of South America, as spanish were too busy inside mountains searching for gold, and having a hard time crossing the Andes mountains. And that is also a big difference: spanish south america has huge inside mountains gold mines, and in brazil gold is found mostly on rivers
Right, but not the first time they landed there, only the first time they made it official, you see, the Portuguese were always trying to keep secret the sources of their power, they had done it in Africa, later in Asia, and of course in Brasil! It all worked well for decades, some places for centuries, but when you have spies from all over Europe because you're getting too rich and they wanna know how, it all becomes open knowledge, and something must be done to prove your possesions and Status Quo :)
It’s believable, especially since the eastern tip of Brazil juts out into the Atlantic, which was a Portuguese hotspot at the time (especially with cape verde being right there). I’m sure there was a time where they spotted the landmass of South America and decided to go back East toward Africa before 1492, but didn’t land on it until 1500
The portuguese knew that America existed way before Columbus even had the idea to go sailing west to "get to the Indies". I'm not necessarily saying that the portuguese set foot in the Americas before Columbus, but they for sure knew that there was a big land mass somewhere in that side of the ocean. That was one of the main reasons King John II of Portugal refused the proposal of Columbus, because Columbus wanted to make this trip not only to prove the world that the voyage was possible to the Indies, but to make himself famous for his deeds (which would make the world know that he did in fact find the west route to the Indies, or in this case, discovered America), and the King wanted to make this land a secret for as long as possible, because new lands were synonym of money. There are several reasons that point that the portuguese knew of the existence of the continent, mainly because in the Azores islands (portuguese territory) there would wash up materials on the shores that were not naturally from Europe (like different wood types, or fishing material from the american natives for example), which made people question and possibly make undocumented voyages west. The official and "accidental" landfall from Pedro Álvares Cabral was just to show the world (since America was being explored by the spaniards and known to Europe) that Brazil would become now "official" portuguese land, and that they were the main controllers of it, so that everyone knew that that land would not be explored by others. And one more thing that confims this, in the first version of the Treaty of Tordesillas, the line that divided the world was located a bit more to the east that it officially was. King John II of Portugal asked if the line could be moved a bit more to the west, to "make space for the portuguese sailors to take advantage of the sea currents", in which the King and Queen of Spain (Aragon and Castile) didn't see any problem in that. But John II was not a fool, he knew what he was doing. He wanted to have more space in territory since he knew there was land in that area...
I always think that maps are by far the best way to show history in a zoomed out way. I really like how the video used something akin to "fog of war" to simulate how little people knew back then, that really puts it into perspective. It is easy for us to frown at some of the things that happened back then, but that is often because we have more knowledge than they had then.
Crazy to think how much of history changed because of a random Turkish beylik in Anatolia growing powerful out of nowhere... and when you track the events that caused THAT to happen, it gets even crazier. I love history.
Well tell these left wing warriors in the US that slavery and all that shit happened because of some Ottoman blocking the spice route. I wish you good luck. They won’t listen to facts but at least you and I have tried :)
@@bodigames I mean I get your point dude but you rly gonna tell the 90 year old black guys in america "its cuz of a spice trade route" ignoring the evident race aspect? LOL, talk about bias
fun fact: French Guyana, Guyana and Suriname do not identify themselves as South Americans countries, they identify themselves as Caribbean. The difference in culture is so big that they don't even participate in the South American football cup.
As a South American, I can confirm. They are mostly considered Caribbean countries. It’s mostly because of history, culture and language, but also because they are kind of isolated geographically, in the middle of the rainforest. While all the other countries are better connected to each other.
Brooo you have no idea how much I wanted to see this lol this is a great channel I’ve been watching geo history lately and he’s great at covering topics
This kind of oversimplification was taught to me the first time I learnt about the Aztec and Inca. The Spanish didn't just show up with 200 men and conquer millions of people. Both the Aztec and Incas ran brutal empires and made a lot of enemies from the people they assimilated and subjugated, when the Spanish showed up these peoples allied with the Spanish and overwhelmed the major cities, once the capitols fell the rest of the cities fell to neighbouring tribes who took back areas that were taken from them.
In this video, when talking about the fall of the aztecs and incas, the oversimplification leads to the thought that the spanish killed everyone and were brutal during the conquest, but that is not true at all. Cortes had 200 men with him, so not even the technological advancements with weapons and the new diseases are enough to take over a whole empire this quick, same with Pizarro. As they say in Spain, the conquest was not done by the spanish, but by the indians, precisely referring to what you are saying. The thing is in the english speaking this is not studied in detail and that is qhy this conclusions are drawn, without really knowing how the spanish empire worked
It's funny how many people believe that only a few hundred people conquered the Aztecs and Inca's yet never they realise it is completely impossible to do that on your own with a few hundred men. Too many people lack that critical thinking to pause for a moment and come to the conclusion that it is an oversimplification of history of which there are many.
@@samrevlej9331 brutal as pretty EVERYONE at that time? Right? So what's your point in singling out the Spanish? Would the British have brought candy and generous gifts instead? What's your point? Please enlighten us.
It is a good point you made about slavery. There was no single race, nation or religious movement that was solely responsible for slavery... Slavery was widespread all over the world, not just in European controlled lands. Every race/people has been enslaved by other races/people through history, for example Europeans were enslaved by Berbers and Arabs.
@@CARBONHAWK1 again, Europeans??? ... That is like me telling you that turkey benefited from the expansion of Japan because they are all Asians ... Central, Eastern and North european countries, at that time, have hardly known that even africa exists ... This was the work of Spain, France, Britain, and a couple of western countries, that where leading conquests in Africa and America
@@CARBONHAWK1 How do you quantify that? Slavery was just as economically beneficial 2000 years ago as it was 300 years ago. Before the industrialization, hard labor was much more desirable than it is post-industrialization where machines can lighten the work-load. It was the industrial revolution that made Slavery redundant.
@@blankeon6613 I don’t think you understand where I’m coming from. You said Europeans were enslaved by Berbers yet Europe today is not a economic and sectarian mess like Africa which they due to enslavement and Neo/colonialism.
@@CARBONHAWK1 Blaming the current state of Africa on colonialism is very reductive. Lots of countries that used to be colonies are thriving economies today for example India, Indochina, Indonesia, The Philippines, Bangladesh etc. Take the glaring example of Rhodesia, everything fell apart when Robert Mugabe came to power even though he inherited a successful nation built by whites and had every opportunity to succeed. Many countries in Africa are still using the old infrastructure built by Europeans 100+ years ago.
I'm kinda' half laughing and hurting when you said that we have known about the earth not being flat since the ancient Greeks, some people today don't know still! Enjoy your content and as a fellow lover of history appreciate what your doing on here! Best of luck!
Portuguese here. I'd like to thank you for the videos, which are incredible. Couple of notes: The discovery of Brazil tends to be described as luck. The fact is, the currents forced the caravels to stray from the coast of Africa massively, moving the route closer to South America. Portuguese sailors noticed the presence of sea birds, like seagulls, on their detour. These birds, of course, are usually a sign of land. These sightings were noted by the sailors, and the Pedro Álvares Cabral expedition was always meant to sail to the unknown shores of Brazil, and if it failed, to sail back to route and move on to India.
@@neymarmessironaldo5881 The demarcation line was original further East. But the Portuguese crown requested a change to move it further West, on a revision of the treaty. The Spanish crown saw no issues with this. A bit more Ocean, a bit less, it's just water
There needs to be more taught in school about the reasons WHY the Europeans went west. I don't recall it coming up until I took a college class on the Americas.
We are never told the Roman Empire fell a few years before the colonization happened. Just to imagine what would've happened if Constantinople never fell, got help from the Christians of the West, and colonize the Americas... Just in a parallel universe.
Hi! Spaniard here. The way we learn about the conquest of the Americas here does indeed begin with the fall of the byzantine empire. It's crucial for the beginning of Portuguese exploration, and then the Spanish go to the west instead. As a basque person, we also learn about our great basque explorers like Elkano
The book Salt which is a bio of the very important commodity of salt - which is something like an Middle Ages-refrigerator - tells of Basques exploiting Vikinger Norse ships and going ever farther our looking for that underwater mountain of gold of fish. They found it in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. They kept it secret so they could keep the ‘gold’ to themselves. And they used salt to keep it edible for the long journey. So perhaps it was the Basques that ‘discovered’ the ‘New World’ ‘first’… uhh after the Vikings.. but they kept it mum shhh. But it was Columbus et al that ‘put it on the map’ publicly.
This is great! I love geography and history so this is an awesome blend! When we learn history we always learn about a certain region and certain events at a time instead of looking at the events of the entire world at that time. I wish there was a channel that focused on that.
You are amazing! I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. You make it fun to learn about this and your reacts have been really entertaining! I have been watching for months but just now im saying this. You are so underrated!
13:00 If I am not mistaken most of the diseases come from contact with animals because of animal husbandry but since they didn't do that in America at that time there weren't as many over there which is why it didn't have the same effect the other way around.
Just one little correction, I'm brazilian and the Portugueses already knew that there was something south of what Christopher Columbus had found, so they called Pedro Alvarez Cabral to proof their beliefs, and that's when they found Brazil, although what came to the public in that time wass that Pedro got lost and found the land, I can be wrong, but that's what I've been taught.
its pretty disputed right now, both what you said and what the video said could be true, there just isn't enough evidence right now to prove one way or another
@@Lorem_64 that is not exactly true, the fact that Pedro and the Portuguese Crown already know about the land where Brazil is located is quite strong by academics of Brazilian history. The disputed point is if Pedro was the first to arrive in Brazil. But it's quite established that Pedro's object was to find Brazil.
This video is very good. My only comment is they didn’t mention that in 1670, settlers from Barbados settled in Charles Towne (what is now Charleston) to establish the first permanent settlement in the Carolinas
Also, fun fact, Atahualpa offered Pizarro a room full of gold and two rooms full of silver for his ransom filled up to Atahualpa's arms reach. The red line marked in the rooms to this day was about 9 feet height which would make atahualpa around 6 feet tall.
As a Mexican it's very interesting to see your perspective on the history of America since many times it goes unnoticed. Even in this video I realized how much of history I still don't know well but still I'd like to learn more everyday. You're refueling my love for history, so thanks for making that journey fun and interesting!
Interesting(and kind of sad) fact, in Brazil we don’t usually learn about the things that happen in North America, it is basically like: look, those people arrived at north america, then after some time we briefly talk about the seven years war then we only get to talk about it again when the American Revolution happens and we talk about how it impacted us, in fact, for some time Brazil had a flag almost equal tô the “American” one, except it was green and yellow, and if you search for the flag of Piaui,( a brazilian state) you will also find a similar flag. I’m sorry if there were any mistakes of english language, as I have mentioned I am brazilian, só the translator sometimes mess it up.
I always find it strange that other public schools never went into the geopolitical reasons why Europeans went west. Mine did, but around 6-7th grade onward. It's way to important of a subject to just ignore as far as I'm concerned.
7:39 you should also add, he didnt even knew he found new territory, he thought for real he found the indies and that he was right all along, eventually dying without learning the thruth
@@VloggingThroughHistory epic history tv has some Alexander stuff if you’re interested (I know you get loads of suggestions, so of course no rush, but it’s just an idea)
Machu Pichu was discoverd in the 1920th and the first european crossing the sahra was ten years earlyer. the map is pretty optimistic about what europeans knew.
Fun theory?: the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl was probably a viking that ended up on America by chance, viking boats usually were long and had a dragon head on the front, and their sails often had bright colors, giving the impression of a huge snake with bright "feathers", the myth also says that quetzalcoatl took the form of a blonde white man who held knowledge about agrigulture, navigation and stargazing, so yeah, there is a possibilty that some unknown viking ended up becoming a god. Sorry if my english is bad
I learned a lot of this in the 7th grade. I think Extra History says that Pizarro “returned” to Ecuador/Peru to find the Incas in civil war. I think this video is saying that it was his first time there.
Actually, we refer to you most commonly as "estadounidenses" which does not exist in english but it would be something like Unitedstaters or something like that
United States citizens or United States people are current valid terms in English, but not used, as they'll keep calling themselves "Americans". They still believe that the name of their country is "America" and made almost everyone in the world believe in it too :(
Huh. That's a neat bit of information. I kind of like it too. Unitedstaters would be an awesome way to call myself. I believe the only reason that it's shortened to "Americans" is because it's the last word in our country's name and it doesn't make much sense to rattle off the whole name.
Have you seen CGP Grey’s “Missing Ameripox” video? He talks about the historical development of plagues and why the americas were underdeveloped. Might be good for a reaction!
I love maps. I ask for a new map of something or a globe almost every year, there's this indescribable feeling of wonder when you trace your fingers along the contours of a mountain range or a river valley. It makes the world seem so large, but at the same time it feels like every place you can see is reachable. I just love maps.
25:50 - just a point I want to make and that may help visually help to make region seems more tangible: The Amazon rainforest (large planes full or rivers and extremely dense forests) has barely been touched at this point in this map, most of Portugal's conquests have been in the Atlantic forest (a mountanous coastal rainforest, think in Thailand or Indonesia, for example), the Sertão (a semi-arid biom that becomes basicly a desert half of the year) and a little bit of cerrado (a Savannah-like region that *NEEDS* to burn eventually in the winter to keep existing), most of them were and are as difficult to trespass as the Amazon but in their unique ways.
Just a little bit more context for the Spanish exploration into the West. During the war of Castilian succession at the battle of Guinea in 1478 the Portuguese defeated the Castilians and when the treaty was signed it give the Portuguese the rights over the lands South of the Canary islands this meant that Spain needed another route to Asia instead of going through the Portuguese controlled route. And also that's why the treaty that created the spheres of influence for Spain and Portugal was created because the islands discovered by Columbus were South of the Canery Islands which sparked disputes with Portugal.
Loved the video! I'd like you to react to the decolonization map. As a Mexican, is always nice to re visit and learn new things about the Americas. Cheers my friend! Keep it with the good work!
This was great! Really helped me understand the foundations of the Americas. I knew it was the Europeans etc who formed the modern day Americas, but the extent and the naming etc I didn't know. Also how things linked together etc. Would love to see your reaction to their next video on this (American Revolution).
I found this very fascinating. I really liked the visual perception of the known world being represented in real time. It's so hard to get in that mindset today because we are taught from a very early age what the world generally looks like and in order to understand history you have to try and see the world and the problems of the day through the eyes of the people in that time.
I haven't finished the video yet so I don't know it this will be mentioned, but an important difference that they taught us in Italian school is that Portugal had no interest in going deep inside the land of South America, they preferred to found colonies on the coast because they were aware of the fact that they didn't have as many resources as Spain did to go around the newly discovered continent. The Spanish on the other hand went as far as they could, which is why most of South and Central American countries speak Spanish today.
Great video and reaction. Of course they could not cram every aspect of that era into the video, but one detail I sure would have liked to see was the failed scottish colony of New Caledonia, also known as Darien scheme. It was an early attempt, heavily backed by Kingdom of Scotland to establish a trade route between Atlantic and Pacific oceans on the Panama peninsula. Mind that they had an overland route in mind, not a canal at this point. The reason I think this is relatively important, is that since the whole plan failed miserably it really drained the coffers of the Kingdom of Scotland and was one major reason that led to the unification of the kingdoms of Enland and Scotland. CGP Grey did a video on this a while back, which is where I first learned of this.
Something I’d like to mention is the American Revolution was a revolution. The American Revolutionary War started in 1775 as a revolt in Massachusetts. It wasn’t until 1776 that people made it about independence. But it’s called a revolution because it started as a revolt in Massachusetts.
My dorm in college was called Plymouth and is the highest point on campus so I had a lot of days walking up the hills to my dorm. I just a random thought I had while watching this. This was a very interesting look at this history alot of stuff I kinda knew but got more information on by watching.
Loving the longer format. I feel like I learn much more. Would you consider doing videos about books on specific topics? For example, a video about the books and resources you recommend regarding English history.
I am a History Education major and I love watching your videos because of how unbiased you are. You draw attention to how impressive it is that the Europeans conquered so quickly while also drawing attention towards how inhumane and horrible it was.
I wouldn't say unbiased. Everyone has bias, including Chris, and that's unavoidable. He's not unabashedly partisan, and he has intellectual honesty, meaning he tries to hear multiple narratives and confront them critically. That's what makes this a quality content.
"Tovar Colony" (Colonia Tovar) still a very German, very turisty part of Venezuela, relative cold climate makes it a good destination in november and december
Please react to Lemmino`s video of "the lost colony of Roanoke" he goes in depth over its foundation and the mystery surrounding it, he had done months of research to accurately make sense of it all, so much so that he brings his own insight over what might have happened
I enjoyed the vid, but I also get frustrated when people downplay the significance of Columbus. Certainly he had personal flaws and he didn't touch the mainland. Nonetheless he landed in the Americas and his discovery was THE pivotal moment that changed the world forever. Later explorers would reveal the fact that he did not land in Asia and fully explore the continents, but they would not have tried except that Columbus went there first and did what no one wanted to do or even thought possible.
As Portuguese im proud to know that the Portuguese were the first intercontinental Empire, with territories in Europe, Africa, America and Asia. And it was the longest, for almost 6 centuries, from 1415 with the conquer of Ceuta (in Marrocos) until Macau (in China) in 1999.
One has to remember that Slavery was abolished in Europe at the time of the re-discovery of the new world. It did exist on the border with Islam on both sides though but you could not have a Christian slave in Europe. The reason slavery gets re-invented in a new form in the New World is the lack of central control and how cheap it is to buy black slaves from African tribes to replace Native American workers.
Fun fact, Samuel de Champlain and his group had settled in Ile st Croix, but there were few resources and the next year they relocated to create port Royale
There is a brazilian power metal band called Armahda, they made a song called Pathfinder that talks about a bandeirantes expedition that tries to find our equivalent of El Dorado, but instead of gold, it's emeralds, pretty dope song, you should check it out, even if you do it off-camera, they also have other songs, some in English, some in Portuguese, most of them tell tales from the First republic and the times before It (Empire, Colony etc...)
You are correct on syphilis being a disease that the Americans introduce to Europe, but it was the only one and obviously the imbalance of this exchange skews heavily in one direction.
you should watch the "knowing better" episode about columbus. he shows the original maps from the time and translats a few diary entraces from columbus original italian. the picture of columbus is pretty incorrect after 500 years of myth and legands around columbus.
Sigh. . . . . 19:48 - Decimate is a pet peeve of mine. The linguists out there will quickly point out that Deci means 10 or 1/10. As the population loss was suggested around 40%, that is 4x Deci. Decimate comes from Decimation. This was practiced in the Roman army on rare occasions. Legions that fled combat would be decimated. That meant every 10th (deci) person would be killed whether they were one of the soldier that fled or not. The term is most often misused in modern times to mean devastated not decimated.
Recently subscribed n love what I've learned so far dude. Have you ever done a vid about if Edward the 8th hadn't abdicated? Keep up the good work. Dave, Peterborough England.
3:50 The one civilisation that has three thousand years of deep ocean navigation is pacsifica. crops, languages and cultures continued to trade from South America to Asia from around 1000CE. the fartherist corners of the pacific had been colonised by pacsifica cultures well before columbus. They used outriggers and catamarans with triangle sails.
19:30 "They were rounding the horn, in the eye of a storm it was not meant to be. And you read all your letters from oceans away and you took them to the bottom of the sea". Bit further south but this Gordon Lightfoot song, "Ghosts of Cape Horn" is certainly relevant to the dangers of those trying to go around South America.
13:50 most of the world actually uses "America" to identify the whole continent: South America, Central America and North America. The Olympics, you may noticed, uses one halo as America and not separate continents like you are taught in USA and Canada. Geographically that makes sense since subcontinents would be a better term to divide those three parts that are very distinct culturally, but still considered the New World :) Cheer, love your videos.
@@notolecta2579 i agree with what you are saying for the most part but the technically correct definition of a continent are the main tectonic plates, with smaller plates being classified as a "subcontinent" usually referring to the indian subcontinent. using this definition there would be six continents; North America, South America, Eurasia, Africa, Oceania, and Antarctica
@Notolecta Great information, as I've seen, the six-continent model came to be first and were widely used before the United States declared independence within its letter the word, "america", to the country. The first map for example used "America" to refer from territories of (now) Canada to Chile. However, since US never maned itself, after the independence of it was taught there and eventually shared to English speaking countries the use of "America" to identify "USA", from this came the seven-continent model with the separated America; but really, it wasn't a cultural expression to divide it first or geographical reasons, but just politics and the lack of a better name. This is completely flawed when compared to the six-continent model, culturally speaking we were what Africa now is, different cultures, but everyone colonized from Europeans to be the "New World": being slaved, selling its natural resources and goods, and trying to build a better life.
An intresting part of history that is often misunderstod. I am glad to hear from an US american like yourself that you bring up Columbus crimes in his travels. There is this stereotype that Every US american treats Columbus like a hero of mankind and Im glad to hear the true story. Good video, your starting to become one of my favorite youtubers. C:
I would like to hear more on "the Great Expulsion". This all seems murky, with the Portuguese and Basque whalers and fishermen mixing and trading with the Acadians, while with the British claiming rights to a land of mixed non-English speaking people for over 50 years before sending most of them to points south and Louisiana that is supposedly claimed by Spain. A bunch of Acadians at that time then moved to the banks of the Saint Lawrence, south of Montreal, and after mixing with Quebecers for 80 years, started migrating south into upstate New York and later into New England.
Re: the slave trade and who is at fault, two things jump to mind: 1) If you read air incident reports, they are loathe to find specific fault in one cause. Generally, there are two or three primary causes and a half dozen to a dozen contributing factors. We have too simplistic a concept of blame, this naive idea that there is a singular person at fault for something happen. But the reality is: the final tragedy is a consequence of a dozen mistakes made by a dozen individuals until someone is placed in a final, heartbreaking moment and makes the wrong choice. Every single person who held a slave chose to hold a slave and every single person who held the slave made the choice to buy them/enslave them and didn't make the choice to free them. We can make all the economic arguments along the way we want, but that is a reality that is ignored when we lay at the feet of the Africans the choice to bond these people in the first place 2) My wife and I were talking the other day about whether interior BC would continue to be populated after they had yet another round of severe forest fires for the third year in the last 5. She was convinced that it would soon be depopulated but I argued that so long as the economic opportunities within the region exist, they will draw people back. The money is there so they will find a way to make the operation profitable. I have a similar mindset to the slave trade. The slave trade didn't blossom because sub-Saharan Africans started fighting each other, it blossomed because someone was looking to buy slaves and sub-Saharan Africans went "hey, we have some vanquished enemies to sell you". This doesn't ignore my first point but arguing that the supplier holds all the blame denies the history that the increase of demand is correlated with the increase of the industry.
As a Portuguese history nerd I remember that there is an interesting theory that my history teacher had told me when I was in school a long long time ago. It seems that there is no way to prove it now but there were to many coincidences on how the Treaty of Tordesillas came to be. 1. It is possible that the Portuguese were aware of the existence of land to the west before 1942's voyage though as it was not the objective of the Portuguese naval endeavours it would have been kept a secret. When the time came to split the world between Spain and Portugal the Portuguese made sure to split it in the world in that particular meridian because they supposedly were aware of that there was land in there. Also to note that the meridian did not encompass Brazil, just the tiny east portion of it, they were not aware of the real size of the landmass- That being said post Iberian union -1640- and the Tordesilhas agreement the treaty was forfeited. One can READ "BEFORE 1942" to learn a bit more about this. Remember tho - IT is only a speculation
Small fact about New York and New Amsterdam. It was, before the Dutch, named Nouvelle Angoulême, in the honor of François 1er Count of Angoulême, and obviously King of France (Verrazzano came in his name). I live in Angoulême, and we have a Place New York since the 1950's, period when this was discovered.
I know this is an old video, dont think you check comments here anymore. But if you want to have a deep dive into the Aztecs theres a channel called "Fall of civilizations". Its one of the best history channels ive ever seen. Its hours of content for every episode.
My great grandpa’s last name was Dutch and changed a bit in spelling and pronounciation over time and was one of my earliest Dutch ancestors that settled in new york
Fun fact: King John II of Portugal pushed hard to have the line drawn by the Treaty of Tordesillas go further west to include Brazil. Considering the treaty was signed in 1494 and that the Portuguese had been sailing around that area since 1488, there's a very good chance that they knew Brazil was there and that the "accidental" discovery in 1500 was merely the first time they made landfall rather than the first time they spotted the land.
Brazil actually is that big because a couple of years later the kings of spain and portugal became 1. So theoretically tordesillas wasn’t a thing anymore, that made possible for brazilian expeditions “bandeiras” to explore the heart of South America, as spanish were too busy inside mountains searching for gold, and having a hard time crossing the Andes mountains. And that is also a big difference: spanish south america has huge inside mountains gold mines, and in brazil gold is found mostly on rivers
Right, but not the first time they landed there, only the first time they made it official, you see, the Portuguese were always trying to keep secret the sources of their power, they had done it in Africa, later in Asia, and of course in Brasil! It all worked well for decades, some places for centuries, but when you have spies from all over Europe because you're getting too rich and they wanna know how, it all becomes open knowledge, and something must be done to prove your possesions and Status Quo :)
It’s believable, especially since the eastern tip of Brazil juts out into the Atlantic, which was a Portuguese hotspot at the time (especially with cape verde being right there). I’m sure there was a time where they spotted the landmass of South America and decided to go back East toward Africa before 1492, but didn’t land on it until 1500
The portuguese knew that America existed way before Columbus even had the idea to go sailing west to "get to the Indies". I'm not necessarily saying that the portuguese set foot in the Americas before Columbus, but they for sure knew that there was a big land mass somewhere in that side of the ocean. That was one of the main reasons King John II of Portugal refused the proposal of Columbus, because Columbus wanted to make this trip not only to prove the world that the voyage was possible to the Indies, but to make himself famous for his deeds (which would make the world know that he did in fact find the west route to the Indies, or in this case, discovered America), and the King wanted to make this land a secret for as long as possible, because new lands were synonym of money. There are several reasons that point that the portuguese knew of the existence of the continent, mainly because in the Azores islands (portuguese territory) there would wash up materials on the shores that were not naturally from Europe (like different wood types, or fishing material from the american natives for example), which made people question and possibly make undocumented voyages west. The official and "accidental" landfall from Pedro Álvares Cabral was just to show the world (since America was being explored by the spaniards and known to Europe) that Brazil would become now "official" portuguese land, and that they were the main controllers of it, so that everyone knew that that land would not be explored by others. And one more thing that confims this, in the first version of the Treaty of Tordesillas, the line that divided the world was located a bit more to the east that it officially was. King John II of Portugal asked if the line could be moved a bit more to the west, to "make space for the portuguese sailors to take advantage of the sea currents", in which the King and Queen of Spain (Aragon and Castile) didn't see any problem in that. But John II was not a fool, he knew what he was doing. He wanted to have more space in territory since he knew there was land in that area...
@@falmin2512source?
I always think that maps are by far the best way to show history in a zoomed out way. I really like how the video used something akin to "fog of war" to simulate how little people knew back then, that really puts it into perspective. It is easy for us to frown at some of the things that happened back then, but that is often because we have more knowledge than they had then.
Yeah I like how they're able to show macro- and microhistory at the same time
Crazy to think how much of history changed because of a random Turkish beylik in Anatolia growing powerful out of nowhere... and when you track the events that caused THAT to happen, it gets even crazier.
I love history.
So much crazy shit happened
Well tell these left wing warriors in the US that slavery and all that shit happened because of some Ottoman blocking the spice route. I wish you good luck. They won’t listen to facts but at least you and I have tried :)
@@bodigames I mean I get your point dude but you rly gonna tell the 90 year old black guys in america "its cuz of a spice trade route" ignoring the evident race aspect? LOL, talk about bias
@@MrHerolet The racist aspect only began in the 19th century, not in the 15th century.
fun fact: French Guyana, Guyana and Suriname do not identify themselves as South Americans countries, they identify themselves as Caribbean.
The difference in culture is so big that they don't even participate in the South American football cup.
you watched the country balls video didn’t you
@@bandkgrover Ya gotcha me 😂🤣
But i'm also from brazil, so the part about the cup i already knew.
As a South American, I can confirm. They are mostly considered Caribbean countries. It’s mostly because of history, culture and language, but also because they are kind of isolated geographically, in the middle of the rainforest. While all the other countries are better connected to each other.
@@bandkgrover yes, same here the country balls video
And to make matters more odd, French Guyana is part of the EU because it's part of France
Brooo you have no idea how much I wanted to see this lol this is a great channel I’ve been watching geo history lately and he’s great at covering topics
Same here man
This kind of oversimplification was taught to me the first time I learnt about the Aztec and Inca. The Spanish didn't just show up with 200 men and conquer millions of people. Both the Aztec and Incas ran brutal empires and made a lot of enemies from the people they assimilated and subjugated, when the Spanish showed up these peoples allied with the Spanish and overwhelmed the major cities, once the capitols fell the rest of the cities fell to neighbouring tribes who took back areas that were taken from them.
In this video, when talking about the fall of the aztecs and incas, the oversimplification leads to the thought that the spanish killed everyone and were brutal during the conquest, but that is not true at all. Cortes had 200 men with him, so not even the technological advancements with weapons and the new diseases are enough to take over a whole empire this quick, same with Pizarro. As they say in Spain, the conquest was not done by the spanish, but by the indians, precisely referring to what you are saying. The thing is in the english speaking this is not studied in detail and that is qhy this conclusions are drawn, without really knowing how the spanish empire worked
It's funny how many people believe that only a few hundred people conquered the Aztecs and Inca's yet never they realise it is completely impossible to do that on your own with a few hundred men. Too many people lack that critical thinking to pause for a moment and come to the conclusion that it is an oversimplification of history of which there are many.
And by the diseases
@@diegogarciamula9395 The Spanish WERE pretty brutal, though.
@@samrevlej9331 brutal as pretty EVERYONE at that time? Right? So what's your point in singling out the Spanish? Would the British have brought candy and generous gifts instead? What's your point? Please enlighten us.
It is probably in your list somewhere but Extra History did a series on the Inca Empire. Makes a good watch
It is a good point you made about slavery. There was no single race, nation or religious movement that was solely responsible for slavery... Slavery was widespread all over the world, not just in European controlled lands. Every race/people has been enslaved by other races/people through history, for example Europeans were enslaved by Berbers and Arabs.
The thing is the Europeans benefited the most out of it.
@@CARBONHAWK1 again, Europeans??? ... That is like me telling you that turkey benefited from the expansion of Japan because they are all Asians ... Central, Eastern and North european countries, at that time, have hardly known that even africa exists ... This was the work of Spain, France, Britain, and a couple of western countries, that where leading conquests in Africa and America
@@CARBONHAWK1 How do you quantify that? Slavery was just as economically beneficial 2000 years ago as it was 300 years ago. Before the industrialization, hard labor was much more desirable than it is post-industrialization where machines can lighten the work-load. It was
the industrial revolution that made Slavery redundant.
@@blankeon6613 I don’t think you understand where I’m coming from. You said Europeans were enslaved by Berbers yet Europe today is not a economic and sectarian mess like Africa which they due to enslavement and Neo/colonialism.
@@CARBONHAWK1 Blaming the current state of Africa on colonialism is very reductive. Lots of countries that used to be colonies are thriving economies today for example India, Indochina, Indonesia, The Philippines, Bangladesh etc.
Take the glaring example of Rhodesia, everything fell apart when Robert Mugabe came to power even though he inherited a successful nation built by whites and had every opportunity to succeed. Many countries in Africa are still using the old infrastructure built by Europeans 100+ years ago.
I'm kinda' half laughing and hurting when you said that we have known about the earth not being flat since the ancient Greeks, some people today don't know still! Enjoy your content and as a fellow lover of history appreciate what your doing on here! Best of luck!
Portuguese here. I'd like to thank you for the videos, which are incredible. Couple of notes: The discovery of Brazil tends to be described as luck. The fact is, the currents forced the caravels to stray from the coast of Africa massively, moving the route closer to South America. Portuguese sailors noticed the presence of sea birds, like seagulls, on their detour. These birds, of course, are usually a sign of land. These sightings were noted by the sailors, and the Pedro Álvares Cabral expedition was always meant to sail to the unknown shores of Brazil, and if it failed, to sail back to route and move on to India.
doesnt it have more to do with the demarcation line set up by the pope between the spanish and portuguese?
@@neymarmessironaldo5881 The demarcation line was original further East. But the Portuguese crown requested a change to move it further West, on a revision of the treaty. The Spanish crown saw no issues with this. A bit more Ocean, a bit less, it's just water
your opinion about portugal colonising and using millions of slaves in the new colonies after exacuvating the natives there?
@@nithincristano8572 slavery will always be bad
@@nithincristano8572 why ask, because he's Portuguese? Looking for some sort of 'apology'? What is wrong with people like you.
No better alert I get than an upload from VTH
As a Brazilian and a lover of history, I really like your channel and the curiosities you talk about.
There needs to be more taught in school about the reasons WHY the Europeans went west. I don't recall it coming up until I took a college class on the Americas.
Which is why all the kids today flat out don't understand what happened. I guess they think Europeans gave the natives swirlies until the submitted?
Then they would have to talk about the atrocities the Europeans did which isnt ok
We are never told the Roman Empire fell a few years before the colonization happened. Just to imagine what would've happened if Constantinople never fell, got help from the Christians of the West, and colonize the Americas... Just in a parallel universe.
@@ichidoriyou7472 And they would have to talk about the atrocities of the natives too!
What was wrong with people back in the day 🤦🏻
Hi! Spaniard here. The way we learn about the conquest of the Americas here does indeed begin with the fall of the byzantine empire. It's crucial for the beginning of Portuguese exploration, and then the Spanish go to the west instead. As a basque person, we also learn about our great basque explorers like Elkano
Thats pretty cool. Im guessing it's northern EU and NA that start it at Columbus.
same in argentina
I live in Quebec and in university I had a professor who specialized in studying basque ships that came to Quebec to fish for cod and whales.
The book Salt which is a bio of the very important commodity of salt - which is something like an Middle Ages-refrigerator - tells of Basques exploiting Vikinger Norse ships and going ever farther our looking for that underwater mountain of gold of fish. They found it in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. They kept it secret so they could keep the ‘gold’ to themselves. And they used salt to keep it edible for the long journey. So perhaps it was the Basques that ‘discovered’ the ‘New World’ ‘first’… uhh after the Vikings.. but they kept it mum shhh.
But it was Columbus et al that ‘put it on the map’ publicly.
This is great! I love geography and history so this is an awesome blend!
When we learn history we always learn about a certain region and certain events at a time instead of looking at the events of the entire world at that time. I wish there was a channel that focused on that.
You are amazing! I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. You make it fun to learn about this and your reacts have been really entertaining! I have been watching for months but just now im saying this. You are so underrated!
I still think one of the craziest geography facts is that France's longest international border is with Brazil.
It would be with Spain if it wasn't for Andorra
13:00 If I am not mistaken most of the diseases come from contact with animals because of animal husbandry but since they didn't do that in America at that time there weren't as many over there which is why it didn't have the same effect the other way around.
Lemmino did a great video on the colony of Roanoke if your interested.
Just one little correction, I'm brazilian and the Portugueses already knew that there was something south of what Christopher Columbus had found, so they called Pedro Alvarez Cabral to proof their beliefs, and that's when they found Brazil, although what came to the public in that time wass that Pedro got lost and found the land, I can be wrong, but that's what I've been taught.
its pretty disputed right now, both what you said and what the video said could be true, there just isn't enough evidence right now to prove one way or another
@@Lorem_64 that is not exactly true, the fact that Pedro and the Portuguese Crown already know about the land where Brazil is located is quite strong by academics of Brazilian history. The disputed point is if Pedro was the first to arrive in Brazil. But it's quite established that Pedro's object was to find Brazil.
I've been waiting for this for so long... thank god you uploaded it
This video is very good. My only comment is they didn’t mention that in 1670, settlers from Barbados settled in Charles Towne (what is now Charleston) to establish the first permanent settlement in the Carolinas
I love maps, and i love history so this is an A+ channel for me and my interests. They got a new subscriber and i hope you do more reactions to these.
Also, fun fact, Atahualpa offered Pizarro a room full of gold and two rooms full of silver for his ransom filled up to Atahualpa's arms reach. The red line marked in the rooms to this day was about 9 feet height which would make atahualpa around 6 feet tall.
Hey I also discovered this channel recently! It’s really good. Glad your exploring this channel too
As a Mexican it's very interesting to see your perspective on the history of America since many times it goes unnoticed. Even in this video I realized how much of history I still don't know well but still I'd like to learn more everyday. You're refueling my love for history, so thanks for making that journey fun and interesting!
Geo history is one of my favorites in history channels
This was a fun one. I liked how they keep the undiscovered bits still blacked out
Interesting(and kind of sad) fact, in Brazil we don’t usually learn about the things that happen in North America, it is basically like: look, those people arrived at north america, then after some time we briefly talk about the seven years war then we only get to talk about it again when the American Revolution happens and we talk about how it impacted us, in fact, for some time Brazil had a flag almost equal tô the “American” one, except it was green and yellow, and if you search for the flag of Piaui,( a brazilian state) you will also find a similar flag.
I’m sorry if there were any mistakes of english language, as I have mentioned I am brazilian, só the translator sometimes mess it up.
I always find it strange that other public schools never went into the geopolitical reasons why Europeans went west. Mine did, but around 6-7th grade onward. It's way to important of a subject to just ignore as far as I'm concerned.
Love Geo History, some of the best and informative videos out there
7:39 you should also add, he didnt even knew he found new territory, he thought for real he found the indies and that he was right all along, eventually dying without learning the thruth
Hey VTH, love the content.
Would you ever consider doing some more videos exploring Ancient Greek (or other ancient civilisations) history?
Definitely. We will get there.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Awesome. Can’t wait!
@@VloggingThroughHistory epic history tv has some Alexander stuff if you’re interested (I know you get loads of suggestions, so of course no rush, but it’s just an idea)
Lol looks like you ate a blue jolly rancher before starting the video
Apple head.
i though he got a piercing in his tongue xD
I love how with each expedition the dark areas of the map get revealed. Its like exploring the fog of war in videogames.
Machu Pichu was discoverd in the 1920th and the first european crossing the sahra was ten years earlyer. the map is pretty optimistic about what europeans knew.
Fun theory?: the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl was probably a viking that ended up on America by chance, viking boats usually were long and had a dragon head on the front, and their sails often had bright colors, giving the impression of a huge snake with bright "feathers", the myth also says that quetzalcoatl took the form of a blonde white man who held knowledge about agrigulture, navigation and stargazing, so yeah, there is a possibilty that some unknown viking ended up becoming a god.
Sorry if my english is bad
I learned a lot of this in the 7th grade.
I think Extra History says that Pizarro “returned” to Ecuador/Peru to find the Incas in civil war. I think this video is saying that it was his first time there.
Actually, we refer to you most commonly as "estadounidenses" which does not exist in english but it would be something like Unitedstaters or something like that
United States citizens or United States people are current valid terms in English, but not used, as they'll keep calling themselves "Americans". They still believe that the name of their country is "America" and made almost everyone in the world believe in it too :(
Huh. That's a neat bit of information. I kind of like it too. Unitedstaters would be an awesome way to call myself. I believe the only reason that it's shortened to "Americans" is because it's the last word in our country's name and it doesn't make much sense to rattle off the whole name.
Have you seen CGP Grey’s “Missing Ameripox” video? He talks about the historical development of plagues and why the americas were underdeveloped. Might be good for a reaction!
I love maps. I ask for a new map of something or a globe almost every year, there's this indescribable feeling of wonder when you trace your fingers along the contours of a mountain range or a river valley. It makes the world seem so large, but at the same time it feels like every place you can see is reachable. I just love maps.
25:50 - just a point I want to make and that may help visually help to make region seems more tangible:
The Amazon rainforest (large planes full or rivers and extremely dense forests) has barely been touched at this point in this map, most of Portugal's conquests have been in the Atlantic forest (a mountanous coastal rainforest, think in Thailand or Indonesia, for example), the Sertão (a semi-arid biom that becomes basicly a desert half of the year) and a little bit of cerrado (a Savannah-like region that *NEEDS* to burn eventually in the winter to keep existing), most of them were and are as difficult to trespass as the Amazon but in their unique ways.
Just a little bit more context for the Spanish exploration into the West. During the war of Castilian succession at the battle of Guinea in 1478 the Portuguese defeated the Castilians and when the treaty was signed it give the Portuguese the rights over the lands South of the Canary islands this meant that Spain needed another route to Asia instead of going through the Portuguese controlled route. And also that's why the treaty that created the spheres of influence for Spain and Portugal was created because the islands discovered by Columbus were South of the Canery Islands which sparked disputes with Portugal.
blueberry slushy before recording? anyone else notice lol. really enjoy the channel!
Loved the video! I'd like you to react to the decolonization map. As a Mexican, is always nice to re visit and learn new things about the Americas. Cheers my friend! Keep it with the good work!
1:28 Yes! I have been wanting you to do an intro ever since you got rid of the old one. Finally, this channel can go to being a fully legit channel.
Oh ya I didn’t even notice at first. Pretty slick.
This was great! Really helped me understand the foundations of the Americas. I knew it was the Europeans etc who formed the modern day Americas, but the extent and the naming etc I didn't know. Also how things linked together etc.
Would love to see your reaction to their next video on this (American Revolution).
35:26 Reminds me of Eddie Izzard "No Flag, No Country" skit you should react to.
Great job, carry on. Recommend you the Spanish mini series: "Conquistadores Adventum"; who speak about this facts. Greetings from Mexico.
I found this very fascinating. I really liked the visual perception of the known world being represented in real time. It's so hard to get in that mindset today because we are taught from a very early age what the world generally looks like and in order to understand history you have to try and see the world and the problems of the day through the eyes of the people in that time.
Yeah geohistory is really good imo
now, this is a part of history I have 0 idea about.
Its one of the most interesting times in history. Two worlds coming together and sharing stuff like chocolate and horses. Incredible
@@laughsatchungus1461 chocolate is the most important thing in human history.
@@laughsatchungus1461 "coming together and sharing"? Not the words I would chose for that brutal conquest. ^^
@@mori1bund true but still its like coming across an alien world
@@laughsatchungus1461 Sharing and destroying each other
I haven't finished the video yet so I don't know it this will be mentioned, but an important difference that they taught us in Italian school is that Portugal had no interest in going deep inside the land of South America, they preferred to found colonies on the coast because they were aware of the fact that they didn't have as many resources as Spain did to go around the newly discovered continent. The Spanish on the other hand went as far as they could, which is why most of South and Central American countries speak Spanish today.
Loving that new intro sequence
This videos style is fantastic
Your commentary really added to the contents of the video
Great video and reaction.
Of course they could not cram every aspect of that era into the video, but one detail I sure would have liked to see was the failed scottish colony of New Caledonia, also known as Darien scheme. It was an early attempt, heavily backed by Kingdom of Scotland to establish a trade route between Atlantic and Pacific oceans on the Panama peninsula. Mind that they had an overland route in mind, not a canal at this point. The reason I think this is relatively important, is that since the whole plan failed miserably it really drained the coffers of the Kingdom of Scotland and was one major reason that led to the unification of the kingdoms of Enland and Scotland.
CGP Grey did a video on this a while back, which is where I first learned of this.
thankyou for ur viewpoint on slavery many ppl like to point fingers its a shame that it happened period
Something I’d like to mention is the American Revolution was a revolution. The American Revolutionary War started in 1775 as a revolt in Massachusetts. It wasn’t until 1776 that people made it about independence. But it’s called a revolution because it started as a revolt in Massachusetts.
Geo History is very good, nice you finally took a look.
My dorm in college was called Plymouth and is the highest point on campus so I had a lot of days walking up the hills to my dorm. I just a random thought I had while watching this. This was a very interesting look at this history alot of stuff I kinda knew but got more information on by watching.
Loving the longer format. I feel like I learn much more.
Would you consider doing videos about books on specific topics? For example, a video about the books and resources you recommend regarding English history.
I like the blue tounge look. 🤣🤣 Good video as always.
The entire video I kept wondering what he ate/drank to get that blue tongue.
I am a History Education major and I love watching your videos because of how unbiased you are. You draw attention to how impressive it is that the Europeans conquered so quickly while also drawing attention towards how inhumane and horrible it was.
I wouldn't say unbiased. Everyone has bias, including Chris, and that's unavoidable. He's not unabashedly partisan, and he has intellectual honesty, meaning he tries to hear multiple narratives and confront them critically. That's what makes this a quality content.
I like this format of video, it's like a live action version of historical Risk. I might have to check Geo History out.
Excellent presentation. Easy to understand. Thanks!
Anybody else think of the strategy game Civilization as the black shroud is lightened as they explore further out.
Absolutely. Finding the settler trick in Civ II was cool.
More like EU4 vibe to me )
"Tovar Colony" (Colonia Tovar) still a very German, very turisty part of Venezuela, relative cold climate makes it a good destination in november and december
Please react to Lemmino`s video of "the lost colony of Roanoke" he goes in depth over its foundation and the mystery surrounding it, he had done months of research to accurately make sense of it all, so much so that he brings his own insight over what might have happened
I enjoyed the vid, but I also get frustrated when people downplay the significance of Columbus.
Certainly he had personal flaws and he didn't touch the mainland. Nonetheless he landed in the Americas and his discovery was THE pivotal moment that changed the world forever.
Later explorers would reveal the fact that he did not land in Asia and fully explore the continents, but they would not have tried except that Columbus went there first and did what no one wanted to do or even thought possible.
Cap
As Portuguese im proud to know that the Portuguese were the first intercontinental Empire, with territories in Europe, Africa, America and Asia.
And it was the longest, for almost 6 centuries, from 1415 with the conquer of Ceuta (in Marrocos) until Macau (in China) in 1999.
Superb video.!!
One has to remember that Slavery was abolished in Europe at the time of the re-discovery of the new world.
It did exist on the border with Islam on both sides though but you could not have a Christian slave in Europe. The reason slavery gets re-invented in a new form in the New World is the lack of central control and how cheap it is to buy black slaves from African tribes to replace Native American workers.
Fun fact, Samuel de Champlain and his group had settled in Ile st Croix, but there were few resources and the next year they relocated to create port Royale
There is a brazilian power metal band called Armahda, they made a song called Pathfinder that talks about a bandeirantes expedition that tries to find our equivalent of El Dorado, but instead of gold, it's emeralds, pretty dope song, you should check it out, even if you do it off-camera, they also have other songs, some in English, some in Portuguese, most of them tell tales from the First republic and the times before It (Empire, Colony etc...)
You are correct on syphilis being a disease that the Americans introduce to Europe, but it was the only one and obviously the imbalance of this exchange skews heavily in one direction.
you should watch the "knowing better" episode about columbus. he shows the original maps from the time and translats a few diary entraces from columbus original italian. the picture of columbus is pretty incorrect after 500 years of myth and legands around columbus.
Could you do a forgotten history about the military career of George Washington pre revolution?
Very interesting. Really enjoyed this one
3:55 Can't believe I'm just spotting this now... had a bit of Slushie there, Chris? 'Cause you're tongue's lookin' awfully blue 😁😜
Sigh. . . . . 19:48 - Decimate is a pet peeve of mine.
The linguists out there will quickly point out that Deci means 10 or 1/10. As the population loss was suggested around 40%, that is 4x Deci.
Decimate comes from Decimation. This was practiced in the Roman army on rare occasions. Legions that fled combat would be decimated. That meant every 10th (deci) person would be killed whether they were one of the soldier that fled or not. The term is most often misused in modern times to mean devastated not decimated.
Recently subscribed n love what I've learned so far dude. Have you ever done a vid about if Edward the 8th hadn't abdicated? Keep up the good work. Dave, Peterborough England.
This dude went hard with the Jolly Ranchers
3:50 The one civilisation that has three thousand years of deep ocean navigation is pacsifica. crops, languages and cultures continued to trade from South America to Asia from around 1000CE. the fartherist corners of the pacific had been colonised by pacsifica cultures well before columbus. They used outriggers and catamarans with triangle sails.
11:26 potatos or Kumura, Taro, etc along with Solomon islands/Paupan yams made it across the pacific before making it to Europe.
19:30 "They were rounding the horn, in the eye of a storm it was not meant to be. And you read all your letters from oceans away and you took them to the bottom of the sea". Bit further south but this Gordon Lightfoot song, "Ghosts of Cape Horn" is certainly relevant to the dangers of those trying to go around South America.
13:50 most of the world actually uses "America" to identify the whole continent: South America, Central America and North America. The Olympics, you may noticed, uses one halo as America and not separate continents like you are taught in USA and Canada.
Geographically that makes sense since subcontinents would be a better term to divide those three parts that are very distinct culturally, but still considered the New World :)
Cheer, love your videos.
@@notolecta2579 i agree with what you are saying for the most part but the technically correct definition of a continent are the main tectonic plates, with smaller plates being classified as a "subcontinent" usually referring to the indian subcontinent. using this definition there would be six continents; North America, South America, Eurasia, Africa, Oceania, and Antarctica
@Notolecta Great information, as I've seen, the six-continent model came to be first and were widely used before the United States declared independence within its letter the word, "america", to the country. The first map for example used "America" to refer from territories of (now) Canada to Chile.
However, since US never maned itself, after the independence of it was taught there and eventually shared to English speaking countries the use of "America" to identify "USA", from this came the seven-continent model with the separated America; but really, it wasn't a cultural expression to divide it first or geographical reasons, but just politics and the lack of a better name.
This is completely flawed when compared to the six-continent model, culturally speaking we were what Africa now is, different cultures, but everyone colonized from Europeans to be the "New World": being slaved, selling its natural resources and goods, and trying to build a better life.
An intresting part of history that is often misunderstod.
I am glad to hear from an US american like yourself that you bring up Columbus crimes in his travels. There is this stereotype that Every US american treats Columbus like a hero of mankind and Im glad to hear the true story. Good video, your starting to become one of my favorite youtubers. C:
Is a Hero of our history, spanish history. And even with that we know he did bad things
You should continue the Napoleonic Wars series by Epic History TV part 7 to 15 or the playlist
28:00 As a little addition and fun fact: To this day the longest land border France has is with Brazil.
I would like to hear more on "the Great Expulsion". This all seems murky, with the Portuguese and Basque whalers and fishermen mixing and trading with the Acadians, while with the British claiming rights to a land of mixed non-English speaking people for over 50 years before sending most of them to points south and Louisiana that is supposedly claimed by Spain. A bunch of Acadians at that time then moved to the banks of the Saint Lawrence, south of Montreal, and after mixing with Quebecers for 80 years, started migrating south into upstate New York and later into New England.
Re: the slave trade and who is at fault, two things jump to mind:
1) If you read air incident reports, they are loathe to find specific fault in one cause. Generally, there are two or three primary causes and a half dozen to a dozen contributing factors. We have too simplistic a concept of blame, this naive idea that there is a singular person at fault for something happen. But the reality is: the final tragedy is a consequence of a dozen mistakes made by a dozen individuals until someone is placed in a final, heartbreaking moment and makes the wrong choice. Every single person who held a slave chose to hold a slave and every single person who held the slave made the choice to buy them/enslave them and didn't make the choice to free them. We can make all the economic arguments along the way we want, but that is a reality that is ignored when we lay at the feet of the Africans the choice to bond these people in the first place
2) My wife and I were talking the other day about whether interior BC would continue to be populated after they had yet another round of severe forest fires for the third year in the last 5. She was convinced that it would soon be depopulated but I argued that so long as the economic opportunities within the region exist, they will draw people back. The money is there so they will find a way to make the operation profitable. I have a similar mindset to the slave trade. The slave trade didn't blossom because sub-Saharan Africans started fighting each other, it blossomed because someone was looking to buy slaves and sub-Saharan Africans went "hey, we have some vanquished enemies to sell you". This doesn't ignore my first point but arguing that the supplier holds all the blame denies the history that the increase of demand is correlated with the increase of the industry.
the intro is AMAZINGGGG
Currently using you to help me study for my first AP US history test 😉😉
As a Portuguese history nerd I remember that there is an interesting theory that my history teacher had told me when I was in school a long long time ago. It seems that there is no way to prove it now but there were to many coincidences on how the Treaty of Tordesillas came to be. 1. It is possible that the Portuguese were aware of the existence of land to the west before 1942's voyage though as it was not the objective of the Portuguese naval endeavours it would have been kept a secret. When the time came to split the world between Spain and Portugal the Portuguese made sure to split it in the world in that particular meridian because they supposedly were aware of that there was land in there. Also to note that the meridian did not encompass Brazil, just the tiny east portion of it, they were not aware of the real size of the landmass- That being said post Iberian union -1640- and the Tordesilhas agreement the treaty was forfeited.
One can READ "BEFORE 1942" to learn a bit more about this. Remember tho - IT is only a speculation
Absolutely love Geo History and VTH. You should check out History Matters for short videos on more obscure topics
Finally!!
yes there wasn’t an eagle eating a snake on a cactus (nopal)
the snake was added later to represent the death of quetzalcoatl
The movie Master and Commander has a scene where they cross the strait of Magellan, it really looks brutal, like you say.
In Latin America there is no distinction between "North" or "South" America, they refer to both continents as America.
Small fact about New York and New Amsterdam. It was, before the Dutch, named Nouvelle Angoulême, in the honor of François 1er Count of Angoulême, and obviously King of France (Verrazzano came in his name). I live in Angoulême, and we have a Place New York since the 1950's, period when this was discovered.
I know this is an old video, dont think you check comments here anymore. But if you want to have a deep dive into the Aztecs theres a channel called "Fall of civilizations". Its one of the best history channels ive ever seen. Its hours of content for every episode.
My great grandpa’s last name was Dutch and changed a bit in spelling and pronounciation over time and was one of my earliest Dutch ancestors that settled in new york