ITT: Obscure historical facts. A foreigner becoming sympathetic

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Couto Misto was an independent country that existed in Iberia, in between Spain and Portugal, for nearly a thousand years.

>>3176461
Elaborate on that, I've literally never heard of it.

>>3176485
There isn't much to elaborate on, we know very little about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couto_Misto

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Sinking a rival pirate ship with cannon fire from your galleon in the Caribbean in 1708. Seen it.

Sinking a rival pirate ship with cannon fire from your schooner on the Great Lakes in 1908. Where's THIS maniac's movie?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Seavey

>>3176502
Holy shit, it survived until the 19th century? Surely as a kind of unrecognised state, but damn, they held on!

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Around 50,000 Scots fought for Sweden during the Thirty Years' War. At some points comprising as much as 1/3 of the Swedish army.

Director of King Kong participated in 1918 Polish-Soviet war as volunteer on polish side

>>3176461
>>3176485
>>3176592
>50 guys lost in the mountains that didn't have to pay taxes
not the most impressive fact, tb h

>>3176461
"""Country"""

The last airstrike on American forces is widely claimed to have taken place in the Korean War. Actually, the last one appears to have occurred in 1968, when a group of North Vietnamese biplanes strafed an American observation outpost in Laos. On the way back they engaged in a dogfight with some helicopters.

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>>3176441
He's already been adapted into anime.

>>3176441
>Finally I have become the Last Samurai (tm)
Seriously?

>>3178604
What the actual fuck

A Dutchman was captured by Barbary pirates, only to become one of the most notable pirates of them all - Jans Janszoon. The fucker converted to Islam, took control of the autonomous city of Salé (then ruled by Andalusian-Morisco refugees), and seceded from Morocco, which was in the middle of a deadly civil war. The dude started conducting pirate raids in places as far away as Iceland and Ireland, making Salé one of the most feared - and powerful pirate states. At point the Salé corsairs owned the island of Lundy between Cornwall and Wales, where they conducted a few of their European raids from. During the 30 Years War, he was a huge fucking pain in the ass for the Spaniards too, AFAIK.

>>3176441
Maybe a Turk bought and used the sword?

>>3176441
>it was later discovered the sword was made in the XVIIth century and was unlikely to have been used in the actual battle
Why? It's perfectly possible that the guy owned a 17th century sword no?

>>3180364
Yeah, specially since the guy probably wasn't gonna use it as an actual sword and it was more like a symbolical relic.

>>3176650
based

>>3180373
The why bring it on the battlefield? The battle of Plevna was a meat grinder why carry extra dead weight. Besides I can't imagine a guy dubbed "samurai" to lose his sword.

Norway was offered some islands as colonies after becoming independent from Denmark but turned it down because they'd have to be represented in Parliament and nobody wanted niggers there

>>3180431
when Crete unilaterally decided to join Greece, they sent a group of elected dignitaries to the Greek parliament, which locked them out and told them to go away

>>3180425
>why carry extra dead weight
The guy was a commander, not a basic grunt, officers carried a sword in the battle until ww2. Plus he was a samurai from before the Meiji Restauration. Also it's "only" its secondary sword that was lost.

>>3180425
Precisely because it was a meat grinder it's not surprizing that he lost the sword in the chaos. Samurais were humans after all. He probably felt bad about it but don't expect a smart man to die for a sword.

It's also not really a deadweight, all officers had swords and the wakizashi is a relatively small secondary sword.

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Ok here's a chain of obscure and interesting historical facts.

This unassuming little church is called Άγιος Δημήτριος της Θεσσαλονίkης or Saint Dimitrios of Thessaloniki. The church was build in the Xth century when the territory was Byzantine. Bulgarians later conquered these lands in the XIIth century. When the Ottoman Turks invaded in late XIVth century the locals fearing that church will be converted into a mosque actually started covering it with earth. The church became a mound which was known as "Cross Hill". But the building was all but forgotten until as the legend goes a shepherd resting on the hill fell down in a hole when the some of the church collapsed. It was excavated in the early XIXth century and renovated in the XXth. It is still known as the "Buried Church"

2nd fact: Back to the name of the Church - St. Dimitrios of Thessaloniki the patron saint of said city. In iconography St Dimitrios is depicted as slaying a man with a spear. This man is actually the Bulgarian ruler Tsar Kaloyan who died suddenly during a siege of the city of Thessaloniki. The citizens who thought they were doomed thought this was a miracle and attributed it to St. Dimitrios hence the depiction of him slaying Kaloyan and saving the city.

3rd fact: Before his death supposedly at the hands of St. Dimitrios, Kaloyan was a highly successful ruler, his most famous exploit is no doubt that he signed an agreement with the remaining Byzantine nobility to fight against the Latin Empire despite being crowned by Pope Innocet III himself. Kaloyan thrashed the crusaders so hard he captured the Latin emperor Baldwin of Flanders and mortally wounded his son who died upon returning in Constantinople. When Baldwin died in captivity Kaloyan made a drinking cup out of his head as was the ancient Bulgar tradition regarding slain enemy emperors. In the next year his army proceeded to kill almost all of the original leaders of the 4th Crusade.

>>3176441
>He was later decorated by Russian and Romanian officials but funnily enough not by the newly liberated and obviously ignorant Bulgarians
This is because the bulgarians never actually fought for it's independence, it was handed to them by the russians and the romanians.

>>3180496

t.Mygaricus Romanicus Latinicus

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>>3180425
>why carry extra dead weight
Officers carried and used swords, pic related

>>3180510
Prove me wrong , faggot.

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>>3180546
>>3180451

This is an edo period wakizashi.
It has tiny ass guard, short blade length, light weight not to mention it was for EDO period samurai which were basically trained bureaucrats.

>>3180483
That's fucking cool, speciall the buried church.

>>3176630
Why is the filename Welsh if it's about Scots?

>>3180661
sensible chuckle

>>3180571
>>3180496

>>3180571
>>3180496

>12 000 - 40 000 Bulgarian volunteers
>Bulgarian villagers providing food and shelter for the army
>When the Russian logistics went to shit trying to cross the Balkan mountains in winter time and the horses couldn't pull the cannons and provisions through the snow Bulgarians voluntarily gave their Oxen which could pull the heavy load albeit slowly through the passages.

And finally they risked it all, had the war failed they would have certainly shared the fate of the Armenians as signs of that were already showing. Make another thread if you want us to we wuz together 'till the end of time, this one's point is different.

>>3180735
>12 000 - 40 000 Bulgarian volunteers
Literally cannon fodder that surenderred every time, and allowed the turks to rape their women ( Stara Zagora)
Your women got so much turkish dick the rest of the world made vintage cartoon porn about it.

>>3180661
kek'd

>>3178110
>biplanes

Absolute madmen

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>>3180589
A detain of the sword in question. Some years back it was shipped back to Japan where experts unwrapped the handle and discovered said sword was made in Edo by the Sekido in the 17th century

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This chad was basically a fucking pirate adventurer and became king of a bunch of Malaysians.

>After a few years of education in England, he served in the Bengal Army, was wounded, and resigned his commission. He bought a ship and sailed out to the Malay Archipelago where, by helping to crush a rebellion, he became governor of Sarawak. He then vigorously suppressed piracy in the region and, in the ensuing turmoil, restored the Sultan of Brunei to his throne, for which the Sultan made Brooke the Rajah of Sarawak. He ruled until his death.

>>3176441
/his/ /xan/

There are unconfirmed reports of soldiers in the Campaña del Desierto (1878-1884) regarding sightings of saber tooth felids.

Due to the poor logistics and field documentation no data is available, but the few reports talk of pumas with long teeths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanfang_Republic

An obscure state.

>>3180772

Nationalism is a thing mate, but being butthurt is a lifestyle

>>3176630
Hell, even the 'Swedish' troops were mostly Finns

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>>3176441
Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, King of Araucania and Patagonia.
A Frenchman who managed to unite some of the worst natives around his own self made kingdom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Or%C3%A9lie-Antoine_de_Tounens

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This is a painting of an Irish Chieftain from the 17th century

Look at the bottom left

>>3182014
He wuz samuraiz?

>>3176441
thats one big ass sleeve dooley

>>3180425
>>3180373
wakizashis are for seppuku.

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>>3182107
Bullshit, it was used as a dagger would have been in Europe

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The type of bear on the official California state flag is now extinct. It was the California Grizzly Bear. While it was hunted during Spain's ownership of the Californian territory, they didn't over hunt it. Everything went downhill when the gold rush happened. Prospectors, in search of gold, would hunt and slaughter the bears. Sometimes for money, sometimes for food, sometimes for fame, the last bear was killed in the early 1920's.

The actual flag was purportedly based upon the last California Grizzly in captivity, Monarch, who died shortly after the flag was finished.

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>>3179029
it happened all the time in the mediterranean.
Sinan Capudan Pascià Cicala, commander of the Berber fleet, was a Genovese who was captured by pirates, converted and he fought in Lepanto against christians

>>3183603
Sad.
I've always wondered why there was a bear instead of a gay tycoon in front of a motorway interchange on this flag.

>>3176565
A true Wisconsinite and a hero.

Here's an obscurity to wrap your head around.
1453, the siege of Constantinople. The highest quality soldiers in Mehmet's army were Christian vassals, and the most hardcore, to-the-death defenders of Constantinople were Muslim guests. The former were Catholics who didn't mind killing Orthodox Greeks, and the latter was a usurper who claimed Mehmet's throne along with his entourage; they faced death by torture if captured.

>>3184781
What really blows my mind is his retirement gig.
>Say, boss. Remember that pirate in the papers? Stealing boats and robbing docks, what not?
>Yeah, got off on a technicality. What about 'im?
>He put in for a spot. Ya wanna make him a US Marshal?

>>3180483
"The greekman who went inside a church but came out of a hill"
Soon in a screen near you!

one of the Nuremberg Major War Criminals was a prisoner at Dachau from 1943 until the war ended

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjalmar_Schacht

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After the population of the British provinces threw the Roman officials out in 410 AD, the island descended into chaos. Tens of thousands of Britons migrated to what is now called Britanny and a small province in northern Galicia, Spain called Britonia. According to a Gallic aristocrat and bishop called Sidonius Apollonaris, in about the year 470 AD a Briton known as Riothamus brought an army from the former province to assist the ailing Roman authorities in Gaul in their fight against the mad king Euric of the Visigoths. Though he was defeated near the city of Bourges his mysterious appearance on the continent still draws some scholarly interest. Who was he? Some say he may have been the historical basis for King Arthur as a so-called supreme commander of the Britons. Where did he get his forces from? Was he a mere mercenary or was he some sort of old fashioned Roman custom following warlord that wished to help the Roman foothold in northern Gaul at Soissons. Who knows? His existence is only known to us through one sentence comments by later historians and in one of Apollonaris' detail-lacking letters.