Fractured Fairy Tales

One of my favorite events in ancient American history occurred on this date in 1621. The Mayflower had arrived in the new world the prior November and spent the next month scouring the New England coastline for a suitable place for the Pilgrims (Latin for funsters) to call home. They had decided to head to Florida for the winter, when the week before Christmas they found a former Indian settlement which had been cleared by the locals and looked just about perfect for homesteading, so they stayed.

Ever been to New England in winter?  It's cold, and the weather is bad.  The Pilgrims that could stayed aboard the Mayflower.  Those that couldn't went to work building shelter.  Over the winter 7 homes and 4 common buildings were built, while 45 of the 102 newcomers died. By the end of January the Mayflower was finally unloaded, and by the end of February the menfolk had formed a rifle club and militia.

So now it's mid March.  The Mayflower is itching to return home, the weather is improving and the surviving Pilgrims somewhat apprehensively take tentative steps to build a permanent settlement in the middle of nowhere, when proud as punch, on March 16  in walks Samoset, a local (Indian to Americans) and greets the new neighbors in English with "Welcome Englishmen". The Pilgrims never saw that coming.

Later, Samoset let drop that the reason the Pilgrims found the village vacant was that the previous tenants died during a smallpox epidemic.  Samoset invited the Pilgrims to his place for Thanksgiving dinner if they survived.  The witches came later.

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UST

One of the great difficulties facing history teachers is how to place events in context.  Certainly wars are easy enough, but what do you do with clusters of events happening simultaneously?  It's a subject that has interested me for a long time, and is likely to become an irregular series on these pages.

For American's, living in a nation with few reminders of the distant past, events which occurred 100 years ago happened in the dark ages.  Any North American event prior to the American Revolution in 1776, is almost pre-history, as is much of European history.

Consider Galileo Galilei. Kids from Catholic schools may be familiar with his dance before the Spanish Inquisition (which began on this date in 1633) in which he was invited to defend his heretical belief that the earth revolved around the sun. The Church taught that Earth was the center of the universe. Under pressure, Galileo recanted, apologized to the church and was placed under house arrest.  Eventually, he was forgiven by the Vatican (in 2008).

Would it surprise you to learn that by the time of Galileo's trial, the city of St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest European established,continuously occupied city in what is now the US was already 67 years old?  St. Augustine was founded on this date by Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1566.

Only 3 years after Galileo's trial, Harvard University was founded.

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World War I officially over

There will be a European History quiz today. I trust you've studied.

In 100 words of less describe the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and its impact on 20th Century history.

OK, so there isn't a quiz, but I'll trigger your memory anyway.

The Treaty of Versailles between Germany and the Allies formally ended World War I. Britain, France and US each had different objectives in the peace treaty and subsequently made a mess of things.

The major terms were:
Germany accepted full responsibility for starting the war.

The German Kaiser and other officials would be tried for war crimes.

Alsace and Lorraine would return to France.

The German military would become a self defense force only.

German financial reparations to the the tune of US $31 Billion (1919) would be paid, in gold, to the Allies.



As you will recall, the severity of the reparation payments are credited for the hyperinflation which reeked havoc in Germany after the war, leading to the rise of Adolph Hitler, WWII, blah, blah blah.



All ancient history you're thinking, but not so.

Tomorrow, the German government is expected to make its final First World War reparation payment, thus officially ending World War I, 92 years later.

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