When most of us think of the Romance languages, what usually comes to mind are the “Big Five:” French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian. All of them have a country to themselves, even if some of them share it with speakers of other tongues, such as German in Italy’s Trentino-Alto Adige region near the [...]
Filed under: History by Emilia Liz
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If a visitor from outer space were to go to any Christian country, he would probably conclude that the most important religious holiday there was Christmas. He might be forgiven for thinking so. Christmas after all receives much more attention, whether in the media, at home and especially in the business world, than [...]
Filed under: History, Religion by Emilia Liz
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Monday’s front page of the Toronto Star featured a black-and-white photograph of a man in a military cap. Underneath were the words “Suharto: 1921-2008.” The former Indonesian president died on Sunday at the age of 86 from multiple organ failure. As his health had been deteriorating for some time, there was talk [...]
Filed under: History, Society by Emilia Liz
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What are we? Where are we from? Where do we go?
Paul Gauguin (1897)
People study history because of some hidden motivations. Perhaps the more important is to know better what role we play in the world. Of the tree classical questions above, history has the potential to answer partially at least two of them: “what are [...]
Filed under: History, Travel by Omar Vega
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Standing in my room in the attic, I look through the window at a hill ten kilometres away. There is nothing special on it except for the ruins of an old stone and mud-mortar fortress. There, the Inca soldiers dominated all of the valley of Santiago, Chile, ensuring that the trade routes were free from [...]
Filed under: History, Travel by Omar Vega
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Living in Toronto , it seems, brings us in contact with dozens of different languages. We may hear them on the street or in the subway, see them in print on newsstands, or come across them while flipping through the channels of the TV. And if we are really determined, we can learn [...]
Filed under: History by Emilia Liz
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A New World city with Old World charm.
A slice of Europe in North America.
These are some of the descriptions given to Quebec City, Canada. Every year, thousands of tourists flock to the municipality and surrounding area to see the historic buildings and monuments, make a pilgrimage to the basilica of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, or enjoy events like [...]
Filed under: History, Travel by Emilia Liz
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On February 12, 1541, Spanish explorer and conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded the City of Santiago (Chile) of the New Extreme. Valdivia named this city in honour of the worshiped military protector of the Spaniards during their fight for independence from Moorish dominion. But Santiago also accompanied the Spaniards to the New World, an enterprise [...]
Filed under: History, Travel by Omar Vega
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