11
votes
Accepted
What date did Henry Morgan capture his most famous flagship, the "Satisfaction"?
Le Cerf Volant, a 14-gun warship, was probably captured in late December 1668 (New Style date) by Edward Collier while commanding the Oxford. Collier seized the French ship at Cow island while it was ...
- 108k
10
votes
Were there ever instances of sailors pressed into British service in Europe ending up in the Caribbean?
Sure, I see no problems with this, press gangs for the Royal Navy were still active, not ending until sometime between 1814 and 1853.
The British had a Naval presence in the Carribean. In the early ...
- 41.5k
10
votes
Why are the Lesser Antilles so politically fragmented?
The Lesser Antilles are so fragmented because they were (collectively) colonized or captured by no less than eight different countries. Even today, some of them are colonies belonging to France, ...
- 104k
8
votes
Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03: Why is there a Russian flag on the cover of the prominent newspaper 'Le Petit Parisien'?
After zooming in, it does look like the white part is a faded yellow and there is a circle of stars in the middle of the flag (as pointed out in Aaron's answer):
6
votes
Accepted
When did the Ciboney arrive on Cuba and displace the Guanahatabey?
The Guanahatabey by all accounts were hunter-gatherers. AKA: Mesolithic. They also appear to have spoken a language completely unrelated to the various forms of Arwakian spoken in the rest of the ...
- 122k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the brown doll on Nicolás de Ovando's desk?
The rather limited available evidence would suggest that the object is (as you suggested) a Taino artefact, possibly a representation of a deity (zemi / cemi).
Cemi objects/idols
came in different ...
- 108k
5
votes
What date did Henry Morgan capture his most famous flagship, the "Satisfaction"?
As near as I can find, the Cour Volant was captured by Edward Collier in December 1668 at the Isle à la Vache, off the harbour of Aux Cayes in Hispaniola. Collier was, at that point commander of the ...
- 77.3k
4
votes
Accepted
What is the true history of the blue bricks of Old San Juan?
There does seem to be a combination of myth and history concerning these blue slag cobblestones or adoquines as they are known in Spanish. The actual History surrounding these objects appears to be ...
- 41.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Why did not Spain manage to keep any colonial possessions in the new world?
Spain lost control of its main colonies in America essentially for the same reasons as England lost the US: the colonies liberated themselves. Speaking of the Philippines and small islands, which ...
- 38.9k
2
votes
Were there ever instances of sailors pressed into British service in Europe ending up in the Caribbean?
Yep, this is fine. In addition to mainland-based press gangs, the Royal Navy pressed merchant sailors including American sailors until the end of the War of 1812. The Carribean, of course, lies ...
- 14k
2
votes
Why did not Spain manage to keep any colonial possessions in the new world?
Note that during the critical early years of Simon Bolivar's independence movement in Venezuela and New Granada Spain was being torn apart by the Peninsular War (1808-1814). Likewise the Hidalgo ...
- 72.5k
1
vote
What is the difference between Taino and Puerto Rican?
Pre European contact ie Christopher Columbus aka Cristobal Colon the chain islands from the Bahamas through the Greater Antilles and some in the Lesser Antilles (mostly ruled by the Caribe Tribes “...
- 19
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