History questions not worth their own thread IV

[Dachs]

Are there any estimates of how much treasure was sent from the Conquistadors back to Europe that was lost due to sunken ships or piracy or other causes?

Lost due to piracy would be a relatively piddling amount, since a significant portion of any of the silver convoys was only taken once (by the great Dutch admiral Piet Hein's fleet in 1628, during the Eighty Years' War). I'd be more interested in the weather stats.

Don't know either of them offhand, though. Hein's action resulted in the capture of 11.5 million guilders' worth of loot, for whatever that's worth.

 

[sophie]

Lost due to piracy would be a relatively piddling amount, since a significant portion of any of the silver convoys was only taken once (by the great Dutch admiral Piet Hein's fleet in 1628, during the Eighty Years' War). I'd be more interested in the weather stats.

Don't know either of them offhand, though. Hein's action resulted in the capture of 11.5 million guilders' worth of loot, for whatever that's worth.

Well that one capture was fairly significant at the time, but yes, piddling in the long run. As for weather, I would be interested in knowing that too. I know that a series of bad trade years really hurt the Spanish in the 1630s (maybe 40s?)

 

[Ajidica]

I have a vague recollection of somewher around 25% was lost due to weather. It was a PBS program about the Spanish Treasure Fleets.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Not a question, but does anyone happen to have or know a good website or book that covers Ethiopian history in detail? I am looking more towards post the 900's, after Axum had fallen.

 

[Tee Kay]

Ethiopian history is somewhat of an abyss...

 

[Dachs]

Let me know if you do find anything on that, actually.

 

[Phrossack]

Ethiopian history is somewhat of an abyss...

 

[TheLastOne36]

Ethiopian history is somewhat of an abyss...

I'm curious because I plan on expanding Ethiopia a whole lot in a EU3 mod as I know the area had lots of individual kingdoms and interesting politics and the region unlike today, used to be very rich and powerful but the internet doesn't seem to have a lot on it.

An old history textbook I had in high school I remember had a whole chapter on Ethiopia which went into some depth and had some good maps, too bad I can't remember the name of the text book.

This shouldn't be a lost cause as even though Ethiopia after Axum was cut off from the East Roman Empire (and thus Europe) following the Islamic expansion into North Africa, I highly doubt the Arabs didn't have some detailed records in the region as they traded with Ethiopia heavily and later some Muslim Sultanates formed in the region anyway, the region is just across the red sea from Mecca after all. Beyond that, Ethiopia had their own independent writing system which I am sure they used for keeping some sort of records.

 

[Dachs]

Just because people theoretically had the capacity to keep records doesn't mean any of those records - if they were made in the first place - survive. I mean, the Greek empire of Baktria is almost invisible in the historical record, and the Greeks had one of the most active historical traditions of antiquity.

 

[Flying Pig]

Yes, but that's hardly saying much, considering that history books were extremely rare compared with today until quite recently.

 

[Dachs]

Yes, but that's hardly saying much, considering that history books were extremely rare compared with today until quite recently.

The point is that just because there theoretically could've been records about Ethiopia doesn't mean there are many.

And even if there are records about Ethiopia, that doesn't mean that anybody's worked on them and tried to turn them into a coherent narrative, much less a good coherent narrative. Which means it's still useless to TLO.

 

[TheLastOne36]

I believe there are records. Just going through Wikipedia reveals each Ethiopian Emperor's life and notable wars and events in decent detail, and not just the famous ones like Zara Yaqob and Dawit either, not to mention the availability of accurate dates of things like revolts, conquests, birth and death of ruling family etc. I just realized that the Portuguese also had heavy contact with the Ethiopians from the 1500's, and the Indians had trade relations from even earlier. There is the whole Beta Israel thing as well, and they like other Jews, kept a strong oral tradition.

All this leads me to say that it is the second one, it seems not many people have cared to work all the records into a coherent narrative.

 

[TheLastOne36]

As it appears, someone(more like some people) is trying to create a coherent narrative.

http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/EAE/

I don't feel like paying 78 euros for it though...

I am finding my way through wikipedia though. It's given me enough information to get what I need done.


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edit: Google Books has the encyclopedia online.

Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: He-N

Unfortunately I can't find the 4th volume, O-X online. And the 5th Volume which will include Y-Z and tons of appendices and maps doesn't come out until 2013. Still this is much better than nothing. I'll definitely be bookmarking these.

 

[LightSpectra]

Just a heads up, I'll have an article on the French Wars of Religion done before the end of the month. If anybody would like me to focus on a particular event or theme, I would be happy to do so.

 

[Yui108]

Can anybody take these?

1. Did the "Huns" referenced in 6-8th century Indian history have anything whatsoever to do with the group identified with the late Roman Empire.

2. I just read the auto-biography-cum-memoir-cum-reflections of Bernard Lewis. He seems to be in the right in his arguments with Said, but does anyone have any opinions or evaluations on his work and worth as a whole?

 

[W|M]

Had Charles Martel lost at Tours, could the Umayyads have realistically conquered France?

 

[Dachs]

Can anybody take these?

1. Did the "Huns" referenced in 6-8th century Indian history have anything whatsoever to do with the group identified with the late Roman Empire.

The Hunas, Hephthalitai, or "White Huns" may have had a connection to the earlier Huns, but that is hard to substantiate. It is equally likely that they assumed that name because of its reputation, or that the name was applied to them because of same.

Had Charles Martel lost at Tours, could the Umayyads have realistically conquered France?

No. The Umayyads were incapable of properly drawing facial expressions.

 

[Traitorfish]

No. The Umayyads were incapable of properly drawing facial expressions.

This demands explanation.

 

[Flying Pig]

Surely as Muslims, the Umayyads were religiously prohibited from drawing any facial expressions?

 

[Traitorfish]

The Islamic prohibition on depicting humans is actually pretty flexible. Depending on the time and place, it's often been perfectly acceptable to draw Muhammad himself, albeit often with his facial features obscured by a veil or sacred flame. (IIRC correctly, Shi'ite Islam is more tolerant of these sort of depictions than Sunni Islam, demanding only that they be used in a clearly non-idolatrous context.)