|
Vanuatu is one of the first of many nations that will be discussed that lies in the South Pacific Ocean which is famous for its tourist hot spots like Bora Bora in Tahiti and Fiji. Islands that were created by still active volcanic calderas, the South Pacific has some of the most famous and beautiful beaches in the world. Located in the Ring of Fire, Vanuatu’s closest neighbor is the French territory of New Caledonia to the southwest, the Solomon Islands chain to the northwest, and Fiji directly to the east with the massive continent of Australia laying southwest and New Zealand being located directly south.
The history of Vanuatu can be quickly summarized. This part of the South Pacific is where the United States began its island hopping strategy during World War II towards Okinawa and their eventual defeat of the Empire of Japan. 10,000 Vanuatu men served in the labor force during World War II helping the Allies with logistics during the Battle for Guadacanal in the Solomon Islands just to the northwest. The South Pacific is divided into three island regions. The first is Polynesia spanning a triangle from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the south to Easter Island to the east. The second region is Micronesia laying west of Hawaii and located the furthest north with all the primary islands in this section being very small and self-contained. The American territory of Guam which we re-captured during World War II is inside this region. The final region is Melanesia where Vanuatu is located. These are the islands located northeast of Australia. The first recorded human activity on Vanuatu was by the Austronesians of the Lapita Culture tracing back as much as 3000 years. The first contact with foreigners occurred in 1606 when the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Querios discovered the island chain. The Spanish eventually created a settlement of their own in 1768. The islands were a source of indentured servitude for these European Empires. Eventually, the British and French took them over. Captain Cook, calling the islands New Hebrides, visited as well as French missionaries who came to convert the population to Christianity. The British and French entered into a condominium agreement exercising dual control over the islands in 1887. Due to the poverty and ongoing colonial conditions, a man named Jimmy Stevens began a rebellion against British rule. Conquering the island of Espiritu Santo and declaring it the new nation of Vemerana, Papua New Guinea attacked Vanuatu in what would eventually be called The Coconut War. A month later on July 30, 1980, the Republic of Vanuatu as an independent sovereign nation was created. Flag of Vanuatu Vanuatu is an archipelago officially recognizing 83 islands as part of its nation. All of them were created through volcanic activity and 65 of them are inhabited. The population of the island are the native Ni-Vanuatu people which make up close to 99% of its citizens. Their native language of Bislama is spoken as well as the languages of English and French. Over 90% of the population is Christian. Its capital is Port Vila and the country has around a 335,000 person population. The total area of all 83 islands still makes it one of the smallest nations on the Earth ranking 157th. Their currency is the Vatu. Vanuatu is still recovering from its colonial era. It is a poor nation with approximately 30% of the people living below the poverty line. Part of the reason for this is that the majority of the population practices subsistence farming, fishing and craft making which gives the people the basic necessities for survival but does not produce enough to make it an economic force of internatioal trade. The largest island, Espiritu Santo has the largest mountain resting at 6165 feet above sea level. Due to ongoing volcanic activity from a couple of submarine, underwater volcanoes, the island grows in size slowly every single year while continuously being aware of the threat that their calderas can activate at any time. Next week: Argentina
0 Comments
On occasion, I will stop my ongoing project evaluating nation-states to discuss an ongoing political topic, personal interest, or cultural event. The main purpose of this nation-state project is not to degrade or critique historical eras and imperial rule. Whether we want to believe it or not, corporations, organizations and governments are still the slave to human desire and self interest. History plays this out repeatedly over thousands of years. Outside of naturally occurring environmental events like earthquakes and volcanoes which throughout history have altered civilizations, most of history was created through human action whether through positive means like world changing inventions or through negative actions like global wars that kill tens of millions of innocents. Most of us just want to get up every day and make just enough money so that we can do something fun with their families on the weekend. So what is my motivation to engage in this project? And how have I changed over my middle aged lifetime?
I was born in Southern California during the mid-1970s, a few days after Richard Nixon resigned over Watergate. 1974 was not a very good year in the United States as the country’s removal off the gold standard in 1971 led to an inflationary crisis, correction and eventual stagflation that lasted throughout the 1970s until Paul Voelker skyrocketed the interest rates into the double digits to cool the spending. From 1980 to 1988, I attended Catholic School and experienced everything that an individual would think a Californian would do. I loved the beach and was an above average boogie boarder and body surfer. Could not surf for the life of me. Loved to ride my bike around the city of Redondo Beach. As children, we were living in an adult world. The infantilization of our culture was still a good decade away. But living in an adult world meant that children had more freedom to experiment and wander. And wander I did. One of my favorite things was watching the aspiring Beach Volleyball League play its tournaments in nearby Hermosa and Manhattan Beach. My parents never had an issue with my biking along the ocean many miles away from our home as long as I made it back before the sun went down. Throwing in the eight years of Catholic School which developed my ethical and moral standards despite my issues with that Church, I moved into adulthood with a sense of ethical righteousness and an intelligence that was subtle but as I have been told, sometimes intimidating. Even from early adulthood, I did not think like a capitalist. Now that I have been part of a relationship with a women who does, this has been the one sore spot between us. My interest was always in the spiritual and philosophical. While I did spend the early 1990s partying, going to the best Gen X-band concerts, enjoying night club after night club, and having some rough nights of heavy drinking and substance abuse inside crazy Los Angeles which was at the center of the culture back then, I also would go to the Torrance Library on weekends and study Tibetan Buddhism. This led me to take a day off from school in the late 1990s to meet the Dalai Lama and hear him speak at the Pyramid in Long Beach, California. While others focused on advancing their careers, I was more interested in studying the political philosophy of Murray Rothbard or Mikhail Bakunin or the psychological studies of Karl Jung (I can call myself a Jungian). And while my firm sense of confidence in myself led me to believe that financial wealth would soon follow, this proved to be a much more difficult task. While I am definitely middle class and living comfortably, my partner likes to remind me of the mistakes I have made (This was often due to listening to economists and financial “experts” that were outdated in their thinking applying a common sense model to an economy that lacked all sense of logic and rationalization). In the 21st Century, a data analyst living inside a world of logic will not be a good investor. The best are the ones who treat the market like the casino it now is and have learned the proper way to read the cards. Never underestimate the illogical beliefs of a corporate banker. I believe every person needs to evolve their identity and thinking every eight years to a decade. Stay active mentally and physically. Politically, even from an early age, I leaned into similar politics as my father, a classic liberal who believed in the ideas of the Constitution and the creation of a society that did not specify preference for one privileged group over another. I do not negotiate on my anti-war stance (Except in very specific self-defense scenarios) nor my belief in natural human rights which are guaranteed in the Constitution. As an open-minded individual that is mostly tolerant and who has been open-minded enough to experience so many diverse cultural events ranging from Church revivals to perverted burlesque shows, my anti-war beliefs are a line in the sand that will never be negotiated on nor can I be convinced to consider a different opinion on this. Understanding this, the year 2020 changed my life. I was always a person that dabbled in libertarianism but like the idea of nirvana in Buddhism which so few people can actually attain, I have always felt that libertarians are good-hearted people living inside an ideology that will never be understood nor practiced by many of their fellow citizens because the power dynamics of present-day politics makes the entire idea impossible to implement. But 2020 broke me because the shared culture that I believe the United States still had got fractured. When I discuss this issue, it usually needs an explanation. For many Gen-Xers and older, the defunct music channel VH1 did a series that was extremely popular that celebrated the innovations and trends from a particular decade. These shows were popular because growing up in those decades, we can remember those shared cultural experiences whether the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of the early 80s, to the embracing of the ridiculous song “I’M TOO SEXY” in the 90s, to the absolute cultural sensation of movies like JAWS and STAR WARS in the 1970s. These moments are what defined us as Americans. Than COVID came around and the culture shifted to one of fear and authoritarianism. The decline of a shared cultural identity has been on life support since social media began becoming ubiquitous in the late 2000s. With the cultural need to have a smartphone, our culture has shifted from one that had a shared common identity and purpose to one that is individualized and narcissistic. While the internet has changed so many things for the good, it has also led to some societal implications that no one in government or business wants to acknowledge. What I discovered with these changes is that the individualization of our culture has led to an almost religious belief in institutions. For example, Scientism: The belief that scientific research is infallible and that as a citizen, you need to listen to the “experts” pushing this scientific research onto you. But for a logical mind, it quickly becomes apparent that much of this research was often guided by the individuals or businesses that funded it. Making scientism equivalent to a faith based religion. Do you know that we have never done a scientific study on the entirety of the vaccine schedule? Maybe taking the vaccines individually is fine scientifically. But when you give a child a combination of five different viruses at once in three different shots, the research on the individual vaccine no longer matters as the underlying circumstances have changed. Technologicalism: A belief in technology bringing about a more peaceful and logical world. This is often blended in with autocracy. The people who are technologicists often want to rule or control the world around them because they firmly believe in their own moral superiority. Making this another issue that is an article of faith. Christian Zionism: The now popular version of Christianity in the 21st Century United States that believes that Israel is a chosen nation of God because of a controversial analysis of parts of the Bible. This ideology completely changed Christianity in the 20th Century. It also led to apocalyptic teachings like “LEFT BEHIND” which is a speculative prediction of how the end times of the Bible will play out in the modern day. These Dispensationalists and Evangelicals truly believe in the ideas of these teachings even though again, it is clearly an article of faith. And the worst of these examples, Statism: The idea that an individual can change the world for the better through voting or citizen action. Because of how diverse our political beliefs actually are, statism has evolved into a wrestling match between two competing ideologies while a ruling class actually controls the government and is moving the nation in the direction they desire it to be. These “elitists” want control but this does not mean they actually know how to rule. Like the rest, the belief in the postiive aspects of government to guide society forward is another matter of faith. During my lifetime, we have eliminated those shared cultural moments and corrupted our institutions that meant so much to older generations like churches and town hall meetings which used to give people a sense of purpose and identity. We lived in neighborhoods where neighbors socialized and took care of each other’s kids in times of need. Now, all identity is personal and even illogical. This has led to people looking for anything that gives their lives meaning. Things have changed so much in my lifetime. I have seen a total transition from a more self disciplined analog adult world to a child-like digital world where all knowledge is available to every human on the planet and yet this has led to more cultural division than I have ever seen in my lifetime. During my childhood, it was common for families to have every night of the week blocked out for some sort of club, sport, or local activity. When I see individuals attaching themselves to science, politics, social media, or government in an almost devout, religious way, not only will these topics be unsatisfying for your own mental health, it will not lead to the social acceptance that your mind seeks. So how do we fix this? This is where I am at in my middle aged stage of life. For me personally, I now embrace four things that have finally brought me the sense of happiness and calm that I have spent the entirety of my life trying to achieve. If you are a social individual that loves being around people all the time, I am probably not the best person to take advice from. I prefer solitude most of the time. Because I have learned that a disciplined, creative mind can find joy in loneliness. And because I have a wife and two kids who give me plenty of attention, solitude is often what I seek. But no person can survive without human interaction. Here are four activities I embrace that have given me mental fulfillment. Hiking: I believe WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau maybe one of the wisest books ever written. Whether enjoying a backcountry hike with the wife engaging in small talk or walking through the tall trees of the nearby National Forest on my own quietly and experiencing the birds singing in the trees, the bees buzzing nearby, or the lush, green bush that is growing the most beautfiul and shiny berries, nothing motivates my mind more than a walk in nature. It is an incredible way to distract you from a terrible day or just give you some quiet self reflection. Constant Mental Stimulation: There is a famous saying. “If your bored, it really is your fault.” Life is about experiences and learning. If you reject either and complain about being “bored” as so many young children do now, it is not that the topic is boring, It is likely that you are uninteresting. Recently, I bought myself a house that requires some patching and upgrades. I have spent the last six months learning how to lay concrete, patching cracks in the brick, digging a ditch in dirt to run the water into my backyard, and properly pruning trees to keep growth under control. You will never learn even 1% of the vast amount of knowledge that exists. And to live an enjoyable and satisfactory life, I believe you need to learn as much as you can during the short time you live on this planet. Children: Do you need a dose of humility? Have a couple of kids. Preferably as I have, one boy and one girl. Watching them grow up and become human beings with full fledged personalities and flaws has been one of the best experiences of my life. And no matter how rich and successful you maybe, your kids do not care. They will remind you repeatedly that you are just “DAD.” Plus, it has been interesting to experience the fact that the world is much easier for girls now than boys despite our society believing the exact opposite. My son has had to work much harder than my daughter to find success as societal support mechanisms are in place for girls. For boys, they are much harder to find. But despite his struggles, he has really come around and has begun to develop into a full fledged and interesting person. One of the best pieces of advice I can give. Sometimes, just observing and letting your kids figure things out on their own is often the best “parenting” any person can do. Travel: Travel is all about experiencing something new. There is nothing on this planet I enjoy doing more than traveling. Even on a slow, boring weekend, jumping in the car and taking a highway into the unknown often brings incredible pleasure as you find that hidden steakhouse underneath a beautiful, red rock mesa in the middle of the Utah desert that has one of the best sirloins you have ever had. That is the beauty of travel. Engaging in one new experience after another. This is part of the reason why the idea of researching nation-states became so interesting to me. Because at some point, I will likely travel to one of these places. I hope you enjoyed this 2400 plus page self help essay. Whether you take my advice or not, it does not matter. Happiness depends on one biological mechanism over all others, your mind. Don’t ever let anyone try to take it away from you (Especially the government and its propaganda). Enjoy your thoughts even if they are bizarre and socially unacceptable. Being human with all your flaws and positive traits is what makes life worth living. The world is a vast, beautiful and interesting place. Experience as much of it as you can. At the end of 2023, my family and I did our first international cruise. Part of that experience was having a one day layover in Antigua which is the larger more populated island of the two. Going into the Caribbean for the first time, it does surprise you how poverty-ridden many of the islands are. Especially if you mix in a few trips to a couple of United States territories. On that trip, we went to three territories in which all three islands had more cultural appeal and more wealth (Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands which are United States territories and the island of Saint Maarten which is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) than their independent national counterparts. Of those three with national sovereignty, the Dominican Republic, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua were difficult to enjoy. Throwing in a couple of other poverty ridden countries (Belize and Honduras) from a later cruise (Which will be discussed later), my family and I decided that we would avoid the resorts (We never left it in Honduras and quickly went back to the resort in the Dominican Republic after being surrounded by the worst poverty) and went to see the interior of Antigua while throwing in a ziplining adventure along the way. While the ziplining was fun (But not as enjoyable as the one in the Forests of “DELIVERANCE” Georgia}, the drive through the heart of Antigua was depressing. Shacks and rickety sheds litter the highway with families loitering around the streets playing ball and trying to find some sense of enjoyment. There does seem to be an attempt to clean the island up but this drive ruined the enjoyment of the zipline tour. While the lush vegetation of the island is beautiful in many spots, it is often ruined by the sense of hopelessness that you will perceive upon traveling through the interior. During our time in and around the St. John’s tourism resort, there was a shooting nearby that led to a flood of emergency vehicles on the street. Casinos are legal on the island and can be found in almost every tourist location. One of the more enjoyable experiences was talking to workers who ferried over from Barbuda to work their full-time jobs. Many of them do this every day. The ferry ride is 90 minutes meaning many of these people spend 12 hours a day working and transporting themselves back and forth between the two islands.
There is evidence of people living on this island as far back as 5000 years ago. While not much is known of this tribe or where they originated, much more is known of the first inhabitants of Antigua and Barbuda in recent history. The Arawaks which were a tribe that lived in the north of South America and the Antilles islands (Including Trinidad & Tobago) settled Antigua and Barbuda in the 1200s and brought a sustainable agricultural economy to Antigua and Barbuda including tobacco, corn, sweet potatoes, guava, and cotton. The Arawakan language is one of the few remaining on the planet that originated among the indigenous tribes of South America. It is considered one of the most diverse languages on the planet with elements of it found in hundreds of other languages as well as being widespread throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America. In the 1500s, the Caribs who originated in the Guyana and Orinoco areas took over the island. They were known among tribes for their advanced maritime skills. The name of the island “Antigua” comes from Christopher Columbus who discovered it in 1493 and named it after a church in Spain. The English eventually settled Antigua in 1632 and turned the country into a sugar plantation slave state with the usage of many native Caribs and imported Africans as the labor force. Barbuda was colonized later in 1678 and was turned over to the noble British Codrington Family who had a significant presence in the Caribbean (And will be discussed again). The Codringtons intended on turning Barbuda into a slave breeding colony but the experiment failed. The slaves that were left over ended up creating their own community. Emancipation of the slaves occurred in 1834 and like is often the case with British colonies, both islands quickly fell into an economic decline which the island still seems to be recovering from to this day. The push for sovereignty was slow. The British slowly gave them nation state status under the Commonwealth in 1967. Full independence did not occur until November, 1, 1981. Antigua and Barbuda remains an active part of the UK’s Commonwealth of Nations with other nations like Canada and Australia. As the country tries to rebuild itself, it has focused on tourism as the primary driver of its economy due to the large amount of scenic beaches that litter the coasts of both islands. St. John’s is the capital of Antigua and the biggest city with a population of a little over 22,000. Antigua is the larger island and very heavily populated with a little over 95,000 people. Barbuda is not very well developed with only about 2300 people living on the island and is located 38 miles due north. Antigua is close to four times the size of Barbuda. Barbuda has the famous Pink Sand and Princess Diana Beaches on its southern side which are often considered two of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean. St. John’s is angled down towards the ocean from the landmark Anglican Saint John’s Cathedral looking over the city with many of the most famous buildings being located at the top of this hill. Like other Caribbean nations, Antigua and Barbuda operate on the Caribbean dollar. The flag of Antigua and Barbuda is very unique. Created in 1967 after the country was granted limited sovereignty, the flag has a red base with an inverted isoceles triangle in the middle. The triangle portrays a rising sun representing the dawn of a new nation. The sun rests on the color black (Representing the people), blue (Representing the ocean), and white (Representing the land). The country is anywhere between 65 to 80% Christian with the state religion of the UK, Anglicanism, being the largest Christian minority sect. I can not recommend a trip to Antigua but the isolated island of Barbuda should defiitely be seen. It is a very quiet island with beautiful peaceful beaches with very few tourists to ruin the experience. Next week, an even more unique island nation, Vanuatu. Until then. Today’s blog on a nation state may have entered your consciousness over the past year. At the beginning of 2026, Donald Trump authorized a raid on Venezuela to capture its current president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, who are currently awaiting trial in the state of New York for the federal crimes of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. What has Maduro done to be given the same treatment as another villain from the same region, Manuel Noriega, got over three decades ago? How did we get to a state of confrontation between the United States and Venezuela? And what does the future hold for this once prosperous nation. This is where focusing on history may give us a clue. As we continue evaluating the current nation states of the world, there is going to be a lot of discussion about “Empires” and colonization. Especially the largest and most impactful empires of the last 500 years. As the liberal media and education system set about trying to destroy history and riddle Europeans with blood guilt for the behavior of their ancestors, it is important to have perspective about these empires and their colonies. While the focus is often on the brutality of these empires especially in their treatment of rebels or the cultures they created that had very clearly defined lines between the classes as well as a history of slavery, most of these imperial colonies had one defining purpose; economics. This is probably the greatest crime that was committed against most of these nations. But focusing on cynicism also overlooks the fact that colonialism was not completely negative for every nation. Many colonies to this day have benefitted especially at a financial level from the changes that were brought about by foreign interests. South America has developed as an offshoot of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires with both languages and many cultural traditions from that era still celebrated in these nations today. In fact, it is impossible to know what South America would have become if these two empires had never taken notice of the continent. Would it just be a continent loaded with tribes each living inside of their own designated territories? Venezuela is currently called the Bolivaran Republic of Venezuela named after one of the country’s heroes (Who will be discussed later), Simon Bolivar. This name was adopted in December of 1999 when the socialist Hugo Chavez took power who idolized Bolivar. Despite the kidnapping of Maduro, Venezuela remains a socialist republic run by Acting President Delcy Rodriguez who so far has not moved the country away from its socialist economy. Venezuela declared independence from Spain in 1811, from Gran Colombia in 1830 and was internationally recognized for the first time in 1845. Currently ,Venezuela has a population of 33.8 million people. The capital of the nation is Caracas located at the north end of the nation on the Caribbean Sea. Caracas has a population of 3.242 million. Their currency is the Venezuelan Bolivar. Economically, Venezuela has been in decline since even before the socialist takeover in 1999. GDP capita is on the lower end of nations (127th) despite being the 69th richest country in the world due to its large size, and vast agricultural and mineral wealth which the current government has had difficulty exploiting. The United States considers Venezuela a socialist dictatorship. Other nations perceive it as a socialist state with a president and Congress. A couple of interesting facts about present-day Venezuela.
 Venezuela has one of the nost beautiful color combination flags in the world. The yellow represents wealth, the blue represents the Caribbean Sea, and the red represents the blood that was shed for the country’s independence. The eight stars in a semi-circle inside the blue stripe are a symbol for the eight original provinces of the land.
The history of Venezuela begins with its discovery. Christopher Columbus was the first individual in Eruope to spot the land observing its coast in 1498 and calling it “Tierra de Garcia.” The name Venezuela (Little Venice) comes from the description given to the land by later explorers Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci (Who “America” is named after). Before the Spanish discovery, the country was filled with indigenous tribes scattered throughout the region. The most famous were the Timoto-Cuica people of the Andes in the west while the coast and the internal lowlands hosted the Arawak and Carib people who survived on small-scale farming, hunting and fishing. After Spain began its colonization, the Arawak and Carib people responded violently and resisted the early colonial period but were eventually subjugated. The first Spanish settlement was at Cumana in 1523. Caracas was founded a little later in 1567. For a short period of time, a German family called the Weisers were given a concession for a settlement from the King of Spain, Charles V, who owed them a great deal of money. The Weisers were attached to the great money families of Europe during that time. After 18 years, the Germans admitted defeat as the last colonists died from disease or fighting with the indigenous tribes. The Weisers abandoned it in 1546. Venezuela is over 92% Christian with Catholic being the majority religion. After the Spanish subdued the territory, many of the tribes were converted to Catholicism. Venezuela’s territory in the 1700s was almost the entirety of its current borders plus the countries of Guyana, Surinam, and French Guiana plus chunks of northeastern Brazil. At its peak, Venezuela had six provinces. 1) Barinas Province (Established in 1786): Located in Southern Venezuela 2) Guayana Province (Established in 1585); Located in the southern portions of Guyana and northeast Brazil 3) Maracaibo Province (Established in 1676): Western Venezuela and a chunk of Eastern Colombia 4) Margarita Province (Established in 1525): Present day Trinidad and Tobago 5) New Andalusia (Also called Cumana) Province (Established in 1537): Northern Guyana and Surinam 6) Venezuela (Also called Caracas) Province (Established in 1527): The heart of modern day Venezuela Venezuela declared independence on July 11, 1811. But establishing its own republic proved difficult. A devastating earthquake and an internal rebellion destroyed the first one after just a year. The Second Republic declared in 1813 with Simon Bolivar re-capturing most of the territory was crushed by the royalist Jose Tomas Boves just a few months later. With the Spanish weakened, Bolivar declared the Third Republic in 1817. The Congress of Angostura in 1819 brought New Granada and Venezuela together into the new nation of Colombia in 1819. The Venezuelan War of Independence that started in 1811 officially ended in 1821 at the Battle of Carabobo and New Granada became independent again in 1823 after the Battle of Lake Maracaibo. One of the leaders of this revolution went onto liberating Ecuador and Bolivia. The union with Colombia officially ended in September of 1830 when Venezuela became its own nation. Jose Antonio Paez became the first official president of Venezuela. The present day border dispute with neighboring Guyana goes back to the late 19th Century. The British controlled the Essequibo territory which it declared part of its empire. The Venezuelans protested and said that this was their land. This led to a crisis between both countries in 1895. The matter went to international arbitration in Paris and the UK was awarded the territory in 1899 which they would later name Guyana. Oil was discovered in Venezuela in the early 20th Century and the nation became extremely wealthy. With wealth came corrupt politics. Like many South American countries, Venezuela fell under the control of various dictatorships. The Gomecista Dictatorship ruled from 1935-1945 and was eventually overthrown with an internal citizen rebellion. After a short three year period of democracy, the country was again rocked by a coup where it became a military junta from 1948-1958. After the republic was restored, Venezuela entered a period of time where their natural resources as well as government corruption began hurting the country’s wealth. Economic crises occurred throughout the latter half of the 20th Century with one president being imprisoned for embezzlement in 1993. This brings us to the Bolivaran Revolution. Avowed socialist Hugo Chavez won the presidency in 1998 and began reforming the Venezuelan economy. His actions turned the United States against Venezuela. Multiple coup attempts were made to remove him from power but all failed. And while the new socialist economy of Venezuela worked for a short time, terrible inflation began to have its impacts. Chavez died in 2013 and Maduro won the election to be his predecessor. This brings us to the current state of things inside Venezuela. The economy continues to struggle and despite the intervention of President Trump, Venezuela is still facing massive economic turmoil that will not resolve anytime soon. Next week: Our first Caribbean island country and the second nation I have visited, Antigua and Barbuda. Until then.   For this week’s nation state, we will analyze the nation of Angola. In my lifetime and for many other citizens of this planet, the first time Angola came across our radar was being the unfortunate first victim of the 1992 Michael Jordan-led Dream Team in the Summer Olympics. Angola got crushed 116-48 in an absolute obliteration as that American team cruised to a Gold Medal. Angola also borders a country that was previously analyzed, Zambia, which lays to its east. It also shares a border with the massive Democratic Republic of Congo to the North/Northeast and Namibia to the south.
There are narratives about the African continent that have always had a kernel of truth but are actually false premises. As the world has evolved towards big government nation states and centralization, Africa has always been seen as the exception to this rule. While Africa does embrace scientific and technological change, it is often observed through a First World lens that complains about the infrastructure, trade difficulties and severe topography. While colonization and exploitation by European powers is often blamed for many of the continent’s current problems (Again, a kernel of truth), history tells a much different story. While kingdoms did exist inside Africa, they often existed in a decentralized manner with multiple different kingdoms ruling inside existing borders as the example of Angola in this article and earlier nations like Zambia and Zimbabwe have shown. The ability to centralize the continent has proven to be impossible up to this point. Even the long running Egyptian Empire was limited in its scope due to the brutality of the Sahara Desert and the limitations put onto it by the Nile River. Recently, Google made a bold claim that they could connect the entire African continent and bring it into the modern world by laying Google Fiber throughout the continent. Up to this point, it has been a massive failure due to last mile issues related to the infrastructure and consistent problems with the underseas cables along with piracy problems on the East Coast. Personally, the solution to Africa is decentralization. If the continent needs to be broken up into hundreds of nations (There are currently 54) to bring about peace and development, this maybe the best solution. The people of a region know what is best for them. The globalists need for control over the Earth requires continental unions and world government organizations. But up to this point, not much of this has helped Africa. Especially when it comes to global health initiatives. The Angolan flag was actually designed by the Portuguese. Upon declaring independence on November 11, 1975, the Angolan people kept it. The primary language of Angola is Portuguese (More on this later) and the majority religion is Catholicism. Unlike many African nations that rejected many aspects of their colonization, the Angolans adopted many of the customs of the Portuguese and brought them into their culture. Three ethnic tribes (Ovimbundu, Amibundu and Bakongo) make up over 70% of the population. Around 5% of Angola is Asian, European or Mestico (The term used for a mixed individual of European and African descent) ethnicity. The capital of Angola is Luanda that rests on the Atlantic Ocean coast to the northwest of the nation. The population of Luanda is around 8.8 million people and is the largest city by far. Angola transitions from tropical forests in the north to drier desert climates in the south. The overall population of the country is approximately 36.6 million people. Their currency is the Angolan Kwanza. Angola has a very large disparity of wealth. Looking at GDP, the country comes in around middle of the pack (68th) but due to its massive population, the per capita income rests on the lower end of nations (Usually in the 130s). Angola is the 22nd largest nation on the planet and continues to this day to have issues with water often being forced to import large amounts of it to keep the population satisfied. Like so many countries in Southern Africa, the ancestors of this land were often very innovative and creative people. Like Zambia and Zimbabwe, archaeological evidence has shown that the early Angolans had sophisticated political structures and specialized in pottery making. The Bantu migrated into this region around 100-200 AD displacing the Bushmen and Khoihoi hunter-gatherer tribes that originally settled in this land for over ten thousand years. The Bantu specialized in iron works, cattle herding and agriculture which would establish the background of their future kingdoms. The first kingdom in Angola was the Kingdom of the Kongo which records show developed at some point in the thirteenth century and which took control of the region in the 14th. The main city of the Kongo Empire was Mbanza Kongo which was located inside present-day northern Angola. The territory stretched through almost all of modern day Angola, parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon. The wealth of this nation was agriculture and each territory was controlled by a Mani, aristocrats who operated with tons of autonomy and who only could be controlled by the King. The King (Manikongo) broke the territory up into six sections and allowed the Mani to create their local bureaucracy that collected taxes through cloth, shells or agricultural products. The people were highly creative specializing in metal works, clothing and a very sophisticated system of law that was used to resolve personal disputes. Other empires that existed inside Angola around this time or after the demise of the Kongo Kingdom were the Ndongo which is what the nation currently takes its name from. Ruled by Kings bearing the title of Ngola, the Mbundu people lived in the highlands, specialized in ironworks and agriculture and created a similar decentralized structure to their northerly neighbors giving power to local chieftains who were loyal to the king. The Lunda Empire existed in eastern Angola and was known for its elaborate trade networks that brought copper from the mines to the Atlantic Coast. As the Lunda Empire grew, its people, the Chokwe, became internationally renowned for their artistic masks and wooden sculptures that were used in rituals. Inside Angola was also the Kingdom of Matamba east of the Ndongo. In the south, the Kwanyama developed an agricultural and pastoral community in the semi-arid desert climate. There was also a tribe that developed during this Middle Ages era called the Herero who maintain a distinctive cattle-herding culture to the present day. The women can be identified by the elaborate headresses and body coverings they still wear in the 21st Century. The Portuguese first arrived in the late 1400s and the Kingdom of Kongo signed a trade agreement with them. Providing the Portuguese with minerals, ivory and slaves while receiving technological advancements and weaponry in return, the Kingdom quickly adopted Christian culture and began the conversion of its people to this newfound religion. As the Europeans began to encroach more and more into the territory, the Kongan King was eventually beheaded. This led to a power vacuum in which Angolan hero Queen Nzinga emerged. Famously sitting on an attendant’s back during negotiations with the Portuguese, she was rejected as an equal. After her brother died in 1624, she took control and conquered the Kingdom of Matamba and formed alliances with the remainder (Kongo, Kassanje, Dembos and Kissamas). During her reign, she aligned with the Dutch, embraced escaped slaves and pushed the Portuguese out of their area of control until she died a national hero in her 80s. During this guerrila war, the Portuguese were conquered by the Spanish making their overseas territories a secondary concern. This allowed Nzinga to bring in the Dutch and push the Portuguese back to their only remaining settlement in Massangano. After the Portuguese regained independence, their Brazilian colony attacked the Kingdom. After Nzinga’s death, the Kingdom of Kongo put up a valiant fight but eventually ceded control of the territory to the Portuguese in 1671. Many books have been written about Luanda which was founded in 1575 by the Portuguese. The re-capture of Angola made Luanda the centerpiece of the trans-Atlantic slave trade which was maintained for almost 300 years before being abolished in 1836. Luanda was often considered one of the primary economic hubs of the Portuguese Empire for centuries as it became a center for the export of raw materials and minerals, agriculture, ivory and rubber. While the Portuguese often engaged with the population better than the British, the cultural differences eventually led to racism, forced labor camps and a lack of modern development. The Portuguese did nothing to invest in the people famously not building one university inside the country during their rule. This inevitably led to the development of revolutionary groups who initiated their first attack against the Portuguese in 1961 which led to the Colonial War. The Portuguese Colonial War was brutal with every side committing atrocities. There were three main belligerents in the war. Despite all of them fighting the Portuguese, they also fought each other. The MPLA (The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola) was the Marxist/Democratic Socialist Group that had a large amount of support from the Mbundu people, the city elites of Luanda and was supported by the Communist nations of the Soviet Union and Cuba. An educated poet named Agostinho Neto led this group. The FNLA (The National Liberation Front of Angola) was led by Holden Roberto and was backed by the Bakongo People and supported by the dictatorship of Zaire (The DRC now) and by the United States for a short time. Finally, the UNITA (The National Union for Total Independence of Angola) founded by Jonas Savimbi represented the Ovimbundu majority and was backed by China, Apartheid South Africa and the United States. No one won this war. It ended because in 1974, the Carnation Revolution overthrew the ruling Portuguese dictatorship and one of their first acts was to withdraw from their African territories. In January of 1975, the Alvor Agreement was signed giving Angola its autonomy. With no definitive ruling coalition, the inevitable Civil War between the three groups mentioned above became reality. With the help of 50,000 Cuban troops who repelled interventions by Zaire to the north and South Africa to the South, the Socialist MPLA emerged victorious in November. Independence was declared shortly after. And as soon as this occurred, another Civil War broke out that lasted all the way into 2002. The battles between the MPLA and UNITA who controlled the “blood diamond” trade in the South were brutal leading to anywhere between half a million to 1.5 million deaths. During this war, the country to the South, Namibia, gained independence and after Jonas Savimbi was killed in 2002, the war finally came to its bloody end. Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled from 1979 through the war into 2017 and amassed a massive fortune in mineral wealth. Since then, the country has been cracking down on corruption and been trying to establish a more people friendly democratic government with anti-corruption campaigns. The MPLA still holds power winning the last election with a small majority (51%) but the capitalist forces inside the country are rising as Angola has slowly evolved to become the second largest producer of oil in Africa which if handled correctly, can make the country incredibly wealthy in the future once they put their recent violent history behind them. Next week, a country that has been in the newspapers a lot lately, Venezuela, our first South American country. Until then. The nation state under analysis today has a lot of meaning to me personally. Both my children are ¼ Vietnamese and my partner’s ethnicity is ½ Chinese (Hoa) and ½ Vietnamese (From her father’s side). During our nearly 30 year partnershp, I have experienced more Vietnamese culture than probably most expatriated Vietnamese have. I have a great deal of respect for their culture and perseverance through a 20th Century that was not very positive. Understanding the domination that the Chinese have had in the region going back two thousand years, how did these short, intelligent people gain their autonomy from their intimidating neighbors to the north? How did the Vietnamese end up with their chunk of paradise on their narrow strip along the South China Sea?
Vietnam rests alongside the South China Sea to the east and the Gulf of Thailand to the south. Vietnam’s population has exploded and recently passed 100 million in total population for a midsized nation (102 million exact) and is now the 14th most populous country on the planet. In comparison, California is 22% bigger (Wider going west to east) than Vietnam, but has only a population around 40 million. So Vietnam packs over two and a half times the amount of people in an area that is smaller. According to the WorldPopulationClock, Asians make up 59.1% of the individuals on this planet, a clear majority. Vietnam’s population when understanding how many individuals are packed into the Far East is not that much different from the norm in terms of density. The capital of Vietnam is Hanoi which rests to the north while the most populated city is Ho Chi Minh City (Also knows as Saigon) with a population that just passed 14 million lying near the Mekong River in the South. Since 1976, Vietnam is officially called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after reunification being one of six remaining countries that continue to exist under Communist rule. The others are mostly in Asia: North Korea, Laos and China along with the Caribbean island of Cuba and South American nation of Venezuela. The currency of the nation is the Vietnamese Dong. For thousands of years, Vietnam was an agricultural hamlet. But with the centralization of the communist state, private ownership is now encouraged and Vietnam has become one of the primary producers of Bauxite (Aluminum) and has embraced the internationalists’ global economy with textiles and apparel being one of their largest exports as well as increasing their service economy through tourism and tech call centers. Currently, the Vietnamese economy is the most prosperous it has ever been and its share of global wealth has almost doubled over the past decade. Historically, tracing the history of the Vietnamese people usually starts with the Nguyen Dynasty. In the United States diaspora population, you would not be wrong to assume that half the Vietnamese people have the last name of “Nguyen.” Well, this summary explains why. “Approximately 36 to 40 million Vietnamese, or around 40% of the population, bear the surname Nguyen. Nguyen (Nguyễn) is the most common surname in Vietnam, with estimates suggesting that 30% to 40% of Vietnamese people carry it. Given Vietnam's population of roughly 100 million, this translates to 36 to 40 million individuals. The surname is also prevalent among the Vietnamese diaspora worldwide, further increasing the total number of people with this last name. Historical and Cultural Context of Nguyen The widespread use of Nguyen is not coincidental but the result of centuries of historical events and dynastic changes:
The Vietnamese were ruled by the Chinese for over a thousand years right around 200-300 BC before the time of Christ into the 900s. The Chinese dominated the region building infrastructure and due to the rebellious nature of the Vietnamese who fought their attempts at cultural assimilation, they divided the people up into rural communities and had them controlled by lords to fight any attempts at revolution or centralization. One of the most famous rebellions was called the Trung Sisters Rebellion. Trung Trac’s husband was murdered by the Chinese. She and her sister gathered together some tribal chiefs and destroyed Chinese strongholds. The women declared an independent Vietnamese kingdom around 40 AD. This was later crushed by the Han Chinese a mere three years later. The Chinese successfully controlled the area as long as their dynasties and empires thrived. But when the economy began to fail, the Vietnamese often rebelled. When the Tang Dynasty fell in 907 AD, a commander named Ngo Quyen defeated the Chinese in 939 and established the first ever independent Vietnam. Eventually, the entire nation was united under the Later Ly dynasty which had ties with both the Khmer and Chinese. But Islamic incursions into the region in the 12th and 13th Centuries by the Indian based Champa and the Khmer Empire based out of Angkor weakened the nation. As the Ly Dynasty fell, the Tran Dynasty re-established control and ruled for over 150 years into the 1400s. The Vietnamese for the first time in their history would soon be recognized as brave fighters (More on this later) as the Mongols invaded the area in the 1200s and Tran Hang Dao, the commander of their military, repelled the Mongols making the Vietnam area one of the few places in Asia that the Mongols did not have any influence. He is still considered one of the greatest Asian military strategists of all-time. As the Tran Dynasty failed, the Chinese regained control of the Vietnamese land until again being expelled around 1418 which led to the founding of the 3rd Vietnamese Dynasty. This era is what led to the expansion of their territory which is similar in size to where Vietnam’s borders are now. The Vietnamese pushed south and conquered land from the fading Khmer Empire including taking Saigon in 1747. The country became long and narrow (Almost a 1000 miles) and the Southern Vietnamese began to evolve differently from their richer neighbors to the north. The kingdom did eventually divide and they fought Civil Wars amongst themselves multiple times over the next 150 years. During this period of time until the conquest by the French, all the dynasties of Vietnam were scholarly but the economy never diverted much from its agricultural and metallurgical core with different rulers just controlling these same resources and territories over long periods of time. The Portuguese were the first people to make contact with the Vietnamese in the 1500s. First Portugal and then France established a Christian presence there. Multiple Vietnamese rulers had no interest in preserving the European culture that was being established. Eventually, they kicked the French out. As this region was very prosperous for the French Empire, Napoleon III eventually sent a military force to take Vietnam in 1850. Over twelve long years, the French eventually took full control of their three protectorates and the Vietnamese signed a peace treaty in 1862. The French pushed south and did not take the entirety of that area until the 1870s along with Cambodia. North and Central Vietnam (Known as Tonkin and Amman respectively) took even longer to conquer, 1883, when the Vietnamese officially turned that section over to the French. Laos was added in 1887. The French would call the area Cochinchina. So coming into the present day, a question is often asked? Did the Vietnamese who had a lot of military success in their history, actually win four wars in the 20th Century? The answer is YES. Disgusted by the economic exploitation of the area by the French and the downgrading of Vietnamese citizens into second and third class tiers while forcing the women to “service” the French elite eventually led to rebellion. Even among the educated Vietnamese, the French prevented the population from participating in the modern day economy and civil liberties were non-existent. This was the beginning of the Vietnamese hatred for capitalism. Multiple uprisings occurred through the early 1900s which were always put down by the French military. After the French fell in World War II, Hitler gave Indochina to the Japanese who stationed over 30,000 troops there. After Japan took over administration, the French allowed the last Vietnamese administrator to declare independence despite the Japanese military having firm control over the nation. This led to the creation of the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh who despised the Japanese and who helped the Allies by feeding them information on troop movements and locations. The Viet Minh, a Communist organization and after gaining power due to their support of the French, ordered a general uprising near the end of the war and declared the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After the war ended and the French regained control over the territory, Ho Chi Minh signed a treaty with them in 1946. But quickly, he realized that the autonomous state of Vietnam promised to him was a façade. Leading guerilla attacks on the French, Ho Chi Minh eventually got the French to acquiesce in 1954 which led to the division of North Vietnam into a Communist Country and South Vietnam which stayed under the influence of the Allied West. War number two followed with the United States. There is so much written about the Vietnam War that I will not go into detail about it here. But in late 1975, the entirety of Vietnam fell to the Communist north reuniting the country again as one. Reuniification occurred in 1976. After reunification, Vietnam won War number three with Cambodia who invaded the nation during the Communist reign of tyrant Pol Pot. After massacring over three thousand Vietnamese civilians, the Vietnamese launched an invasion of Cambodia in December of 1978 and took the country in a couple of weeks effectively ending the rule of the Khmer Rouge. This intervention likely saved millions of Cambodian lives who were struggling to survive in the Killing Fields. Vietnam called the new nation Kampuchea which Vietnam occupied till 1989. They turned the country over to the UN in 1991 which helped establish a government and enabled the first democratic elections inside Cambodia in 1993. The final war that the Vietnamese won was against China. They launched a war as a protest against the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and occupied a few cities in the North. Before that war escalated and knowing that the Vietnamese were coming back to capture what was taken, the Chinese withdrew.  One of the fun things about analyzing and researching nation states is learning about a country that most people on the planet have very little knowledge about. This is the case for Andorra; a country I had no idea existed until my adulthood. Andorra is one of Europe’s few remaining micro-states and its existence like the others served a political purpose in history that allowed its formation. Other functioning microstates in Europe are: Monaco (Inside Southern France) San Marino (One of the oldest countries in the world surrounded by Italy) Liechtenstein (Nestled between Switzerland and Austria) Luxembourg (Between France, Belgium and Germany) The Holy See (Also known as Vatican City, the small nation housing the Pope) Three of the European microstates are located on a mountain range or solitary mountain. Andorra’s average elevation is over 6000 feet making it one of the highest elevated nations on the planet. Liechtenstein is a mountain country as well as San Marino whose entire nation is based around one mountain, Mount Titane. One defining aspect of micro-states is that many of them are some of the richest nations on Earth per capita. Due to its location between two historical empires, Andorra has benefitted from that relationship as well as being located high in the scenic Pyrenees mountains, the range that separates France from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and a tourist haven. Andorra's Flag  Andorra is only 180 square miles and a little over 30 miles wide at its largest width. This ranks it as the 178th largest nation in the world. Because of its free trade history, Andorra is one of the richest nations in Europe ranking 18th per capita in the world. The population is currently a little under 90,000 people. Because of its location between two Catholic nations, over 85% of Andorrans are Catholic. Andorra La Vella, its largest city of only a little over 22,000 residents, is its capital. The main language of Andorra is Catalan, but Spanish is also increasingly common. Native Andorrans make up only about a third of the population with the Spanish being the majority ethnicity at 40%. The country also has a significant French population. So how did this little nation stuck high up in the Pyrenees come into existence?
The history of this nation can be traced back to Hannibal going over the Pyrenees with his army during the Punic Wars of 218 BC. While scaling the Pyrenees, he encountered a pre-Roman Iberian native tribe called the Andosinis living in the region that is now Andorra. They were pastoral people using the natural resources of the mountains to survive. The Andosinis are often thought to have moved down the mountain and integrated with the northern Basque population of Spain who became world famous for their agricultural techniques. During the Gothic migrations from Germany at the end of the Roman Empire, medieval Spain was founded by the Visigoths in the late 400s who were eventually conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate in 721 leading to Spain being ruled by Muslims until 1492. But for the area in the Pyrenees, the rule of the Muslims was short lived. Due to their preference for the northern Franks, the people in the Pyrenees sided with Charlemagne in the 800s to form the Marca Hispanica, a neutral region that kept the Islamic Moors out of France. The first recognition of Andorra was by Charlemagne’s grandson Charles who gave the land to the Count of Urgell who would later transfer it to the Diocese of Urgell which remains one of the rulers of modern-day Andorra. Andorra’s current territory was fixed in 1278 when the French Count of Foix in Southern France and the Bishop of Urgell (Catalonia) signed a treaty giving them both equal rule over the territory. Over the years, the Spanish have migrated into the territory and have become the majority. But the Andorran people that live inside the country today can be traced back to the nation’s founding in 1278 when they were first identified with that title. Andorra has been neutral through almost every key war in history including the recent Spanish Civil War and World War II. Like other micro-states, Andorra thrives off being a financial services hub with low taxes and a constitution that emphasizes privacy and civil rights. Over time, the Count of Roix transferred his management of Andorra to the French crown while the Bishop of Urgell remains the ruler from the Spanish side. Andorra has been occupied a few times in history due to regional wars in either France or Spain. But because of its economic output and high quantity of skilled workers in various industries like metallurgy, textiles and service (Evolving into tourism), the country was always granted its autonomy back. It gained independence from the Kingdom of France in 1652, the Principality of Catalonia in 1715 and again from the French Empire by decree in 1814. In 1993, the country officially created its Constitution and became a member of the United Nations. One of the most famous historical moments for Andorra is that it became a hub for banned art and anti-censorship in opposition to the fascist rule of Franco in Spain to the south which helped it evolve into the free-market economy that currently thrives inside the nation today. Next week, a country that has a genetic tie in my family line, Vietnam. Until then.  Like our previous country, Algeria, Yemen is a country with an elaborate and prolific history. Civilization in this region dates back over 5000 years. Currently, Yemen is in the news due to the rule of the Houthis over the northern section of the country who are in an active war with Israel. Because of this, the Southern part of Yemen is run by the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) composed of eight members that replaced the nation’s previous president Adrabbuh Mansur Hadi who transferred his powers to the council in 2022. In the South, the United Arab Emirates is influencing another council called the Southern Transitional Council (STC) that is fighting with the PLC over commodity wealth and is openly looking to secede to recreate South Yemen. Historically, the existence of two Yemen’s has been the norm throughout most of the region’s history. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been at war with the Houthis, but this conflagration was de-escalated in 2023 when Iran and Saudi Arabia signed a treaty. The status of Yemen as a nation state is in flux due to the major geo-political battles that are ongoing in the area. First, a little description of this small nation anchored in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula with only the Red Sea to the west and Gulf of Aden to the south keeping the nation from touching the African continent. Because of the chaotic internal politics, being the target of warmongering with multiple nations including the United States bombing and sanctioning it, and economic mismanagement, Yemen is one of the poorest nations on the planet. The country’s economy functions on oil and agriculture with its southern section being slightly wealthier than the Houthi-controlled North. The Republic of Yemen is a Muslim nation with over 90% of the country being Arabic with a small minority that came over from Eastern Africa. Yemen is the 54th largest country in the world with over 32 million citizens. It is often ranked in the mid-100s for wealth, putting it near the bottom of established nation states. Their currency is the Yemeni Rial, and the capital of the nation is Sanaa which is also its largest city with 3.3 million residents. The city of Sanaa goes back to the book of Genesis as one of Noah’s sons, Shem, founded Sanaa (then known as Azal) under the mountains of Jabal Nuqum to the north. Like so many countries in the cradle of civilization in North Africa and the Middle East, the history of Yemen goes back a long time. THE FLAG OF YEMEN  The region that is now Yemen has gone by many names over its long history. The name “Yemen” is based off the Islamic word “YUMN” which means ‘blessing’ or ‘fortunate.’ Because of its milder climate, this land was always seen as abundant as its location near the Red Sea allowed it to be a trading hub for many other empires and was the epicenter of the very popular spice trade including two spices mentioned in the Bible, frankincense and myrrh. The Romans called Yemen “Arabia Felix” which means ‘Happy Arabia’ due to its milder climate and prosperous agriculture. The first known kingdom in the area was known as the Minaean Kingdom which started around 3000 BC. It became famous for its trading routes via the Red Sea to the West. One of its most famous eras is when the Sabean Kingdom ruled the area, the birthplace of the Queen Sheba. This kingdom established more infrastructure, developed the spice trace, and was known for elaborate architectural and irrigation projects that allowed the kingdom to expand outward. Another kingdom that existed nearby was the Qatabans who also got absorbed by the Himyarites. The Himyarite Kingdom eventually took control of the Sabean Kingdom and expanded their territory northward into Saudi Arabia. Upon expansion in the 6th Century, the Himyarites got into a war with the Aksumite Empire in Eastern Africa which eventually led to their defeat in 525. The Aksumites ruled the area for a short time till the Sasanians defeated them in 570 AD. A pattern you will see develop when talking about the Middle East are the Caliphates which developed in the 7th Century around their living prophet Muhammad. After the Sasanians fell to the Caliphates around 630 AD, the region of Yemen converted to the new religion of Islam.
Like much of the European and Islamic world, Yemen went through various dynasties during the Middle Ages. Some of the most famous were: The Ziyadids from around 819 to 1018 AD The Zaydi Imans who existed from the late 800s all the way until 1962 when they were finally defeated in the Republican Revolution (More on this below). Its most prosperous era after the Muslim takeover was the Rasulids who controlled a good chunk of the region from 1229 to 1454 and pushed forward many cultural and maritime advancements that were later used by the Ottomans. The division of this region into two separate entites began to occur during the Rasulid era as Shia Muslims took over the north while the Sunni Muslims ruled the south. This led to sectarian divisions that split the future nation into two entities that did not re-unify until recent times. Because of this division, Yemen is often considered one of the hubs of Islamic scholarship and study over the religion’s long history in the region. To show that history often repeats and has a personality, the Ottomans took control of Southern Yemen in 1538 but the Northern regions (Now controlled by the Houthis) could not be tamed. The Zaidi Imans kept the Ottomans out of the region till the 1800s when due to dissatisfaction with their rule by most of the population, the Ottomans were allowed in to conquer the region and establish the Yemen Vilayet (The first time this name would be used). While the Ottomans took control of North Yemen, The British in 1839 seized the region around Aden and created the maritime port, the Aden Colony, which became a key ocean transportation hub between the newly opened Suez Canal and the British East India Company. The region became part of the crown after World War I in the 1930s. After World War I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and they gave up control of North Yemen. That region became the Kingdom of Yemen in 1918 back under the control of the Zaydi Imans. These Imans who lost power in the 1500s due to mismanagement and brutal rule only regained this power until 1962 when the Republican Revolution broke out and the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) was formed. Getting sick of the Brits and their exploitation of their wealth and the two-tiered society, South Yemen became independent in 1967 as a separate country from the YAR. Yemen became the only Middle Eastern state to flirt with Communism. In 1970, South Yemen was taken over by Marxists and became the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. On May 22, 1990, due to the economic problems of Southern Yemen, the Communist South united with the YAR and became the nation state of Yemen that everyone is aware of today. Today’s country takes us to the largest nation on the African continent, Algeria. The people that live in Algeria are genetically tied to the ancient Berbers and make up 99% of the population whether it is the one quarter who identify as indigenous or the remainder who are mixed Arab/Berber and identify as Amizagh. The Berbers are prominent in many North African countries including neighboring Morocco and Tunisia and their language and culture date back to the Egyptian Empire. Berbers were nomadic, practiced subsistence agriculture and were prominent in various trades like metalwork, pottery and weaving. Their creations were highly valued and traded, especially during the height of the Roman Empire. Algeria is 2.38 million square kilometers in size and besides being the largest country on its continent, it is the 10th largest in the world. Over 85% of Algeria is the Sahara Desert with its most prosperous and historical regions being along the Mediterranean Sea with its slightly more humid climate and milder weather that is perfect for farming. While Berber is the native and most spoken language, Arab and French are also commonly spoken inside the country. Despite the coast being a little over 10% of the country’s size, 90% of Algeria’s citizens live along it. The current population of Algeria is around 47 million. Algiers, which is located on the Mediterranean, is the largest city with 3.06 million people and is the capital of the nation. Algeria is one of the richest countries in Africa due to its massive commodity wealth in oil and natural gas. The country is considered in the upper middle compared to other nations, but it does have a wide disparity in wealth like many First World industrialized nations. Algeria is a Muslim nation and 99% of its citizens practice the Sunni form of that religion. Algeria is officially called the People’s Republic of Algeria. And despite that title, it practices its own version of democracy. The executive has a lot of power over the government, which has led to many rights violations in the past. The military will often act to repress and tamp down protestors violently if necessary. Algeria falls into a similar pattern to many of its “Western” neighbors by having a semi-authoritarian system guiding many aspects of life inside the nation. One interesting tidbit about Algeria. Algiers is famous for a UNESCO heritage site called the Casbah, a word that many people probably first heard in a CLASH song. It is often considered one of the best designed cities in the world during antiquity due to its large dense population living comfortably together and was often the model for many ancient cities during the Roman Empire. Due to Phoenician, Roman and Ottoman influence, the city has added specific details like ramparts which the Ottomans installed in the 16th Century. ALGERIAN FLAG Because the Berbers are historically a nomadic people known more for their artistic creations and agricultural proficiency, they have been conquered many times in their history. According to historical records, seven foreign civilizations have conquered the region. In order:
The Phoenicians The Romans The Vandals/Alans The Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire) The Umayyad/Abbasid Caliphates The Ottomans The French For Bible historians, the Phoenicians were the Canaanites in the Holy Book. They traded and conquered mostly along the Mediterranean Sea. They were the first civilization to have a light impact on the nomadic Berbers. Once the Greek and then the Roman Empire began to expand, the northern part of Algeria fell under Roman control. Roman ruins litter the landscape of Algeria including probably the best-preserved known as Tipaza. When the Roman Empire began to collapse in the 400s, a Germanic Barbarian tribe known as the Vandals took control of the Algerian region and established a short lived 100-year-old Empire which also included the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica in partnership with the Indo-Iranian tribe known as the Alans. The Vandals looted along the Mediterranean for decades and infamously participated in the sacking of Rome. The Vandal Empire came undone mostly due to demographic changes. The initial Vandal Kings murdered the upstart Catholic population but eventually, later kings became tolerant of them. Eventually, Justinian, the Byzantine King who reassembled a massive chunk of the fallen Western Roman Empire declared war after Helderic who tolerated the rising Catholic population was overthrown by the Arian faction within his Royal Family. He was eventually executed in 533. Belisarius, the commander of Justinian’s army, landed ten miles from the Vandal capital of Carthage and defeated their pieced together army. The Battle of Tricamarum was the final nail in the short-lived Vandal kingdom which came to an end in 533 AD. The Byzantines ruled the Algerian region with a light hand taking control of the prosperous coastal cities while allowing the Berbers to run the interior of the country. This all ended when the Umayyad Caliphate took control of the area around 698 AD. The Caliphate would change Algeria more than any other conqueror. Due to high taxation and many Berbers being forced into slavery, the Berbers revolted against the Umayyad Caliphate in 740. Even though many Berbers began to practice Islam, a very specific class system was established where their population was considered second class citizens as well as disagreements over foundational aspects of the religion. The Berber revolt had an incredible impact on African, Middle Eastern and European history. It led to two significant developments. The Umayyad and its predecessor, the Abbasid Caliphates never regained control of the Maghreb (Modern Day Morocco). As the Caliphate pushed north of the Pyrenees into modern day France, the Berber revolt led to the diversion of forces which allowed Charlemagne of the Franks to push the Muslims back into Spain. While the Abbasids did regain control over the Algerian region, the area of Morocco was lost forever as it split into various kingdoms. After the revolt, the Berbers ruled the region with various dynasties over the next 800 years with the most famous being the Zirids. Bringing the region into the modern day, the Spanish at the beginning of their empire conquered a few cities along the Algerian coast in the 1500s but the Ottomans expelled the Spanish in 1518 and established a regency which lasted until 1830 when it fell to the conquering French. Most people are aware of Algeria because of the over 100-year colonization of the territory by their neighbor across the Mediterranean. Algeria was a source of commodities for the French which allowed them to continue their empire. King Charles X of France began the war against Algeria in 1827 after a diplomatic incident between the two countries. Controlled by the Ottoman Turks at the time, Algeria was blockaded and eventually surrendered to the French on July 5, 1830. The colony of Algeria is one of the most brutal on record. After the French were conquered by the Germans during WW II, many Algerians helped the French win back their nation as part of the Allies. After the war ended, the French went back on its promise of independence and began brutalizing the Algerians. The dual Setif and Geulma massacres killed anywhere between 15,000 to 20,000 people. This led to the creation of the brutal Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) which engaged in terrorist attacks and eventually started a brutal six-year war with the French. One of the best documentaries ever made, THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) gives wonderful historical account of this era. One of the best fictional movies is called OUTSIDE THE LAW (2010 which involves three brothers wrapped up in the events of that timeframe. The Algerians eventually won the war and declared independence on July 1, 1962. The French recognized Algeria as an independent country two years later. Next week, Yemen. A country that is playing a part in the current geo-political rift.  Apologies for the delay. Due to some personal circumstances and some financial strain because of a thirty-day escrow, I have been unable to post. This is coming to an end today. Now that the house is mine, the furniture is moved in and Feng Shui’d, and life has regained some aspect of stability, my nation-state project continues with the African nation of Zambia. A month back, I did a quick summary of one of this Southeastern African nation’s neighbors, Zimbabwe. Zambia border Zimbabwe to the north and there is an aspect of “shared” history between the two even though both countries, due to colonial interests, have a separate history despite sharing one of the most beautiful regions on the planet. Zambia is the official home of Victoria Falls along the Zampezi River which also borders Zimbabwe to the south. The river acts as the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe through most of its length including flowing into Lake Kariba which is the largest artificial lake in the world. It was formed when the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland completed the Kariba Dam in 1960 on behalf of the British Empire. The Zampezi River flows through one of the most scenic and heavily touristy sections of Africa. National Parks near the river include Sioma Ngwezi, Kafue, Lower Zambezi, and its most famous, the Mosi-Oa-Tunya. This area of high elevated plains, grasslands, wetlands mixed into the river valley and beautiful forests is infamous for being one of the best locations to see the amazingly large creatures of Africa. Counting Zimbabwe, this area has national parks, forest reserves, safari areas, wildlife preservation areas and conservancies. Almost the entire region along the Zambezi is protected in some form or another.  Zambia has one of the more interesting flags in the world. The flag was green even during colonization but after independence, each stripe on the flag in the lower right-hand corner had a meaning. The vertical red stripe stands for freedom, the black stripe for the African people of the region, and the orange is for copper, the mineral that attracted the British colonists in the 19th Century. The gold eagle symbolizes the people of the nation soaring above all the nation’s problems. Zambia has a population of almost 22 million people. Its capital city of Lusaka is often considered one of the nicest capitals in the entirety of Africa. With just over three million people, it is the cultural and political hub of the nation and a short distance from all the natural beauty to the south. Most of the people of the nation are genetically linked to their Bantu ancestors and various versions of that language are spoken inside the country. The biggest tribes are the Bemba, Tonga, and the Lozi currently with over seventy different tribes being represented inside the borders. The national language is English and 95% of the country is Christian with a very small Muslim minority. Zambia is middle of the road in terms of wealth. It currently ranks 110th in the world with an economy that is booming due to its large amount of copper exports and friendly tourism. Due to the nation being located on an elevated plain, almost the entirety of Zambia resides at 3300 to 5200 feet in elevation. Its capital city is 4196 feet.
The history of Zambia is not that different from Zimbabwe. The Bantu moved into the region from the Congo and Eastern Africa around 300 AD and introduced agriculture, ironworks, and the first forms of governmental organization. Copper was discovered around 600 AD and became a central aspect of the region’s economy. Copper ingots have been found in the region dating back to the years 900-1000. The currency of the area was often made from copper until recently when the Kwacha adopted paper banknotes. Like much of African history, tribes began competing and the conquered individuals became slaves often traded on the open market. There were four empires that broke out of Zambia between 1500-1900, the Chewa to the East near Mozambique, the Bemba to the northeast, the Luapula to the south, and the Lunda along the upper Zambezi (Now called the Lozi). Because of the incredible amount of land on the plains and the dense, rich valley, many of these kingdoms were spread out which did lead to the creation of an early form of central government to tie all the kingdoms’ regions together. Trade with the industrialized nations began in the 18th Century with the Portuguese who set up colonial outposts along the Zambezi River to trade cotton and cloth for ivory and copper. Later, the Portuguese became the first colonists to start hunting elephants due to the high value of ivory in the European market. The slave trade began shortly after in Western Zambia as African traders from Angola and other nearby nations brought slaves into the Lozi Kingdom who would sell them to the Portuguese who would then ship their purchases to its Brazilian colony. Due to the economic growth and competition between the various empires, raiders, traders and invaders became part of Zambian life in the 19th Century. The value of ivory and slaves led to often violent competition but helped introduce crops like tobacco, peanuts and corn into the nation. Due to its decentralized and internal competitiveness, the country easily fell to the British in the late 19th Century. Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (BSAC) staked claims to the region and began administration of the territory. Rhodes deals with neighboring tribes and other colonizers are what led to the unique shape of the nation including the deep penetration of the Democratic Republic of Congo to its north. Like most colonial outposts, the British looted the copper out of the nation while treating the natives as mostly second-class citizens including introducing an income tax in 1920. The class situation in the nation often led to small scale rebellions and riots inside the colony. Unlike Zimbabwe and South Africa to the south, Zambia never had a large increase in British settlers leaving the administration with a little over fifty thousand people taking care of tens of millions of native Bantus. The Great Depression put a lot of economic pressure on the colony. Despite developing the nation, most Zambians remained uneducated. Poverty began to spread as more 20th Century wars began and the Copper Belt became a key and important source of minerals for the British war effort. This led to massive strikes and labor protests. The British consolidated its Rhodesian and Nyasaland into the Central African Federation in 1953. But nothing could save the decline of this British colony despite an increase in the development of infrastructure including the building of the Kariba Dam and the carving out of roads along its high-altitude topography. Kenneth Kaunda in 1958 inspired by Ghana achieving statehood in 1957 formed the United National Independence Party (UNIP). Civil disobedience eventually allowed the Zambians to take majority control of their Congress in 1963 and on October 24, 1964, the Republic of Zambia was born (16 years sooner than its neighbor to the south, Zimbabwe). Kenneth Kaunda would be the first president of the country lasting 27 years into 1991 when his long rule led to increased corruption and authoritarianism. The National Assembly abolished Kaunda’s one-party rule due to massive student protests and Zambia became a multiparty Democratic Republic which is where it stands currently. Zambia is one of the more stable nations on the African continent and like many of its neighbors, building infrastructure continues to be one of its biggest problems due to the extreme environments of the region. But with the incredible wild animals and diverse scenery that Zambia has been blessed with, maybe keeping the nation “wild” will benefit it in the long run. Next week: Another Muslim and African nation often tied to the French, Algeria. Until then. |
AuthorEXPERT OF SOME Archives
August 2026
|
RSS Feed