Two Underrated Peoples

American Thinker ^ | May 2, 2015 | Mike Konrad

[Aria]

In looking over the history of the past 500 years, four nations stand out for having completely and massively altered world civilization in a way that no others have, before or after: England, Spain, France, and Portugal.

No other empires even come close. The Muslim conquests were landbound except for island hopping. Chinese and Mongolian conquests were landbound. Even in ancient times, Greek, Roman, and Persian conquests were essentially land operations, except for river fording. Yes, they all had navies, but were not defined by them.

What separates the English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish was that these nations had vast transoceanic empires. They defined themselves by their navies, especially the English.

Portugal sent off its explorers to discover the Eastern oceanic routs to Asia -- the land routes having been closed by the Muslims. The Spanish circumnavigated the globe. The British empire was completely a naval operation; and the French, contrary to our American prejudices, were no slouches and actually a major player: Remember it was Rochambeau's fleet that prevented British reinforcement of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

[Aria]

A very interesting and though provoking article.

BTW, I searched and didn't see it posted yet.

[Mercat]

Very cool. I’m not sure we can assume that the Basque and the Celts are related but generally an interesting article. One of my favorite books is The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation. I didn’t see where the article mentioned Brendan. See another of my favorite books: The Brendan Voyage. We discovered it in a folk park in Ireland where the actual boat resides. This is the story of a man and a small crew who researched and constructed a boat which only used materials available in the time of St. Brendan and tried to retrace the steps the saint sets out in his account from the sixth century. They made it to Newfoundland.

The key here is that the Irish and the Basque were fishermen and who knows of a good and serious fisherman who broadcasts his best fishing grounds.

[Aria]

I had my DNA done - my mother was half English and half Scot. I have Spanish also...among other things...including a bit of Mayan. My father’s side of the family got around.

I’m going to see if I fit in that R1b halpotype. My whole life I’ve questioned everything, had to try to figure it out for myself, and am very stubborn and independent. My boss even says she looks to me to ask the questions. Maybe it’s genetic.

[Mercat]

I’m thinking about giving my sons DNA testing for Christmas. I’ve done quite a bit of genealogy. I do have two distant ancestors who were Indians and each married a white settler, one in the 18th century and one in the 17th century. My mother’s maternal grandmother has no proof in her genealogy of native american or african blood but I have a lock of her hair and it is very dark and very straight. It also has no roots so no, I can’t have it tested. I do have two relatives that I want to dig up. LOL One I am sure is a step mother and the other I’m pretty sure is my great great grandfather’s half brother and a slave when he died in the late 1850s. He had the family name, had made two long migrations with the family, and was buried in the family plot. Actually, I’m not sure he was a slave but he lived and died in slave states and was identified on his tomb stone as “colored.”

[Aria]

That’s interesting about the Basques. I am going to look that book up.
Flamenco dancing is very similar to the Irish dancing - not that this necessarily proves anything.

A person posting at American Thinker said he knew of an account of the Basque and Mayan languages being so similar that they could talk to each other - that would really be a surprise.

Another interesting tangent is the basis of liberty and equality. The idea that these concepts are genetic is quite interesting. We take for granted that dogs, for instance, have genetic traits, so I am curious about humans.

[VanShuyten]

It’s not odd that poor outsiders who have some knowledge of sailing opted for exploration/emigration. I’m not so sure that the “love for liberty” had a lot to do with it. More likely a distaste for oppression and poverty drove this.

[alexander_busek]

My boss even says she looks to me to ask the questions.

What kind of questions?

"What are we supposed to say when a customer complains that his Chicken McNuggets are too salty?"

/humor

Regards,

[Monorprise]

Western civilization remade the world with the most profound impact yet seen in Human history. Its quite sad that it should collapse to a plague self-distinctive ideology, but i suppose there is no other way such a successfully civilization could go out than to Abandon it’s own demographic foundation.

In the end nature cares nothing for control and influence if it is not used to propagate your kin.

[Aria]

:-))

I work in the tax department of a Fortune 500 company that’s on a steep growth path. You’d be surprised what sorts of things come up.

[Tallguy]

De Gresse, it was Admiral de Grasse’s fleet that blockaded the British at Yorktown. Rochambeau was the French Army commander.

[Publius]

Navy ping.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Two Underrated Peoples
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3285638/posts

[x]

Hoe zit het met de Nederlanders? Zijn ze niet onderschat genoeg?

Amazingly, these Celts and Basques may be genetically related.

I thought that was pretty much assumed. Not so much the Celts, though, more the pre-Celts. Whoever it was who occupied Europe before the Celts and Germans came, they got pushed into the far West of Europe -- Northeast Spain and the Celtic fringes of the British Isles. So it wouldn't be surprising if Basques and the Irish had some genetic material in common.

[Aria]

I should have known. Really interesting article. I am going through my DNA test results right now. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

The two Roman invasions of Britain by Julius Caesar were the largest troop landings ever made in Britain -- until that of Claudius a century later. And Claudius' numbers remain the record right up to the present day.

The Roman navy cleared the Seven Seas of piracy for 400 years. The Romans planted at least one outpost in Ireland, and like the Greeks before them sowed colonists in India and elsewhere to the east.

Also, I'd like to point out that the Netherlands went far and wide until its conquest by the Hapsburgs and a long series of other rebellions, invasions, occupations, and other wars. There, that should give some of my ancestors a good night's sleep. ;')

[SunkenCiv]

Dang, thanks 2ndDivisionVet!

[Theoria]

Basque speak the only indubitably indigenous non-Indo-European language in Western Europe.

There are similar casual observations.

Incidence of the Rh Negative Blood Group in Various Populations

Population	Incidence
Chinese and Japanese	1%
North American Indian and Inuit	1 – 2%
Indo-Eurasian	2%
African American	4 – 8%
Caucasian	15 – 16%
Basque	30 – 35%

[Aria]

Very interesting. I have been looking at my DNA test today. I am a citizen of the world - 70% European and then a bunch of ancestors who went far and wide. It couldn’t have been easy.

My thought is the explorers of the world had certain traits that those who stayed home lacked and the USA benefited enormously from these adventurous, self-reliant, intelligent people. Unfortunately now it doesn’t take courage to come here...the new people are mostly just imported to vote for dependency. They’re dumbing down the gene pool to favor the communists.

Always have been interested in why some civilizations progress and others stay mostly the same decade after decade, even century after century for the most part.

[Colorado Doug]

"What are we supposed to say when a customer complains that his Chicken McNuggets are too salty?"

Oh that was cold blooded. At least I refrained from making milkman jokes when Mercat mentioned getting his sons DNA testing.

[ansel12]

Basque speakers were also used as radio “windtalkers” by the American military during WWII, in some areas.