RED INDIANS CROSSED AMERICA

Indigenous people crossed into America when the two continents were joined by a land bridge which is now called the Bering Strait. They came from north-east Asia between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago.

The earliest evidence suggests the American continent was inhabited around 15000 years ago.

In Mexico, Chile and Brazil finds are dated as early as 30,000 or even earlier.

Indigenous people are usually classified as Mongoloid peoples and seen as a distinct racial group. The Inuits (Eskimos) and Aleuts (inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands) who are definite Mongoloid. They inhabited the New World before the first explorers landed in the late 15^th century.

Archaeological findings show that there may have been several colonisations. The first colonisers had little more than stone tools. The hunters and gatherers spread south killing the plentiful games with their stone-pointed lances.

These indigenous people are now named Amerindians and slowly started agriculture. They developed differently to the Old Wold. It is assumed that it started 7000 or more years ago. It was mainly maize, squash and beans. Cassava being grown in tropical forest regions.

It was a slow progress with no domestic animals, apart from llamas and guinea pigs and no draught animals to pull the plough.

Farmers in the Andes developed skills in working metal from 1000 BC.

Complex societies started in South and Central America. They developed into highly sophisticated civilisations such as the Aztecs and Incas. However, they were destroyed by the arrival of the Conquistadores (Spanish) and other European explorers during the 16^th century.

The worst killing of Indian tribes were happening during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries when the USA government gave their land to European settlers. If they were not killed right-out they were forced into reservation with very poor land or no land at all relying on food supply from the US government which were handled through agents. These agents were mostly crooks and sold their supply to fil their own pockets.

To demoralise them further and to increase starvation; the US Army killed all the buffaloes on the Great Plain which was the Indians' source for meat and clothing. The huge herds of buffaloes kept the grass growing; nowadays it is a dust bowl. Well done politicians.  

They also discovered, now, that buffaloes' meat is the best with the least fat.

PLANTATION AND PIRACY

TEA  PLANTATION

It was not a strange coincidence that as the plantations developed and the shipping increased it piracy also grew.

Right through, from the earliest centuries, where there were ships, there were pirates.

Even Julius Caesar was captured in 78 BC and held for ransom. However, once released the pirates lived to regret it.

The Vikings were notorious for raiding the settlements along the shores of England and Ireland from 834 till 930 BC.

Corsar, a Mediterranean pirate captured Christians and sold them as slaves in North America.

Drake Hawkins and Walter Raleigh were encouraged by Queen Elizabeth I to pirate the Spanish Ships and bring her the treasures.

COTTON PLANTATION 
AT THE BEGINNING 
OF THE 20TH CENTURY

PIRACY  FLAG OR 
JUST A BLACK FLAG

Piracy was at its height from 1500 till 1750.  Merchant ships laden with treasures plied the seas without protection. When the navy grew bigger, they could protect the ships and piracy was declining.

After they discovered America and a route to India, the trade really began to increase by the 100-fold. That also encouraged the pirates. Ships went from Europe to Africa and America. Or from Europe to Africa and the East. They carried tea, coffee, spices, sugar, tobacco and slaves.

Indian and Arab pirates operated once in the Indian Ocean only. After the European discovered the route round the Cape of Good Hope pirates came from every nation to get their hands on those merchant ships.

From the islands on the east coast of Africa, especially Madagascar, the goods were silk. jewels, ivory and spices. The pirates took the lot plus clothing, food and tools.

Drake and his sailors used to pirate the Spanish merchants ships coming from the Spanish Main loaded with treasures. The mass islands were a paradise for pirates' ships with their deep harbours and secluded inlets for hiding out.

Treasure ships were less in the 16th century and those few were heavily guarded. The merchant shipping increased because of the New World which was being colonized rapidly.

The settlers in the Spanish West Indies, the English colonies in Virginia and Georgia and the Portuguese and Dutch colonies in South America were planters and grew rich on growing sugar and tobacco for the European market.

Tea and coffee became fashionable and demand of sugar grew. Tobacco were smoked or chewed by many people.

Plantations multiplied and so did the demand for people to work on it. The Caribs and Native Americans had been either killed off or died of diseases brought over by Europeans for which they had no resistance. Therefore, slaves were brought over from Africa and sold to planters.

With that a triangular was slowly established and proved to be very lucrative. The ships took manufactured goods to West Africa and exchanged them for human cargo. They were shipped in appalling conditions to the Caribbeans and colonies in North and South America to be sold. From that money they bought sugar and tobacco to be taken to Europe.

The trade companies tried to reduce cost and increase profits. They shipped the goods in undermanned and under gunned ships which were an easy target for pirates. National government directly or indirectly encouraged piracy. To 'unload' an enemies' ship when you are at war with the country was thought of as patriotic act.

Another reason for becoming a pirate was that in the national navies the conditions were appalling and low pay. They turned into pirates because they would get rich on the loot although the conditions weren't any different.

There were three types of sea villains operating:

PIRATES who were sea-going thieves.

PRIVATEERS who were licensed by government or shipping companies but just the same sea-going thieves.

BUCCANEERS who belonged to a band of sea-going thieves.

Many of those people have been settlers but after being dispossessed by the Spaniards turned to be sea-going thieves to survive.

The status of one of those three types was important. Piracy was punishable by death or branding. However, if you did it for someone else, you could get away with it or even got a reward from some king.

The pirates of the Caribbean or elsewhere did not died out. Owners of luxury yacht are given guns to protect themselves. These pirates are now after luxury goods which are easily to carry.

Pirates also operate in the South China Sea and have high-speed motor vessels. Kidnapping and demand for ransom is mostly their businesses and rapidly increasing.

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