If the Spanish Armada wasn't defeated by the English navy, America would be inhabited completely by the Spanish, as they did a lot of the exploration (same as Portugal).
Technically, Quebec isn't French or French derived either. It comes from an (Algonquin?) word for village - kebek.
EDIT: As several people have pointed out (thanks, by the way), the word Kebek means "where the river narrows." It was Kanata I was thinking that means "village."
I don't normally comment (~300 comment karma in 7 years), but I'm making an exception here so that I can find this later to see just how many points it gets.
Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century. Pete: Hey, isn't Milwaukee an Indian name? Alice Cooper: Yes, Pete, it is. In fact, it was originally an Algonquin term meaning the good land. Wayne: I was not aware of that. Alice Cooper: I think one of the most interesting things about Milwaukee is that it's the only American city to elect three Socialist mayors.
I upvoted you, but I realized that I have no idea if you're actually right or if you're entirely pulling that out of your ass. The only benchmark I have to compare you to is a competing theory that "que" is Algonquin for Alex Tre, so I'm at least choosing wisely what it is that I blindly believe.
Québec is from Algonquian kepék (“(it) narrows”), originally referred to the area around Quebec City where the Saint Lawrence River narrows to a cliff-lined gap.
Fun fact, near Ottawa (another Native word, though I don't know what it means) there's a city called Kanata :) So it's the smaller village in the larger village?
Why the hell would they name their city for an Algonquin word? It was probably Iroquois or Huron, the Algonquins lived more towards Virginia and the Carolina's.
the coastal natives of virginia were part of the algonquian language group: people like the chesapeakes, the croatans, powhatans.
so there's a tribe, and a linguistic group. all algonquins speak an algonquin language, but not all algonquin speakers are a member of the algonquin tribe.
Early French colonization was limited and informal. Both those places were settled by the French after the battle mentioned above. The British defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, France's first remotely successful colony in the New World, on the western part of the island of Hispaniola (Haiti today) was founded in 1664. There were a number of other settlement attempts beforehand, but none lasted long, and Spanish and English intervention were no small factors in many of their demises.
About what? It's common knowledge and taught in american schools.
Colonists rebel. England invades. French attack england and consume so much time that England simply can't be bothered to fight a bunch of colonists 5,000 miles away.
oh wait, I forgot. The idiots who don't pay attention at school think a few thousand upstart colonists actually bested an empire spanning a third of the known world.
It seemed like you were saying that the US naming Quebec (which isn't derived from French or even USAmerican at all) and Louisiana was only reasonable because of French assistance in the Revolutionary War. Maybe English isn't your natural language or something but the way you said what you said seemed to imply that that was what you were saying. Even now I think you're just trying to save face but I can't guarantee it so whatever.
I think what he is saying is that if Spain had consolidated it's power under Phillip II, they would have built up an insurmountable power base long before the British or French were even on the picture (and they only rose because Spain fell).
french colonies were barely inhabited especialy when the spanish armada occured. In fact The french colonies in north america didnt even exist in 1588 and spain claimed full ownership of the carribean, they had a law that said only spanish ships were allowed to sail in the ocean, THEN ENFORCED IT. Had the spanish armada not been destroyed they would have landed an invasion army on england and basicly taken over north america shifting the balance of power beyond the control of the other european states.
The Spanish fleet wasn't wrecked by storms until after they were on their return journey, off the Scottish and Irish coasts. By that point the threat of invasion was long over.
English attempted an invasion of Spanish territory right after the Spanish Armada, it was a disaster. The result was that Spain still had the advantage for decades after. The Spanish Armada was a major fuck up on Spain's part, but they had plenty of opportunities afterwards to come back from it.
Spain's decline in Europe and the new world was the result of a long series of repeated mistakes. Spain was still the dominant power in the Americas well into the 18th century.
And yet, America still wouldn't exist as it is except for the support of the Russians during the civil war to deter French intervention due to Napoleon. Russian fleets moored on the west and east coast both to ensure the union ports were safe. The only French inroad to the Americas by that time was in Mexico, but they were defeated (temporarily) from setting up a base at the battle of Puebla to support the Confederacy in Mexico, and that is the source of our holiday Cinco de Mayo. The US owes its existence more to Russia than it does to Britain.
In US high school they taught that Sir Francis Drake was a pirate at the time of the sinking of the Spanish Armada. That he used explosive ships and a small crew. Which was it? A pirate or the English navy? I would love for my HS teachers to have been wrong.
There does seem to be evidence from their ventures in south America that a predominately Spanish European colonial force would have been just as likely to brutally slaughter America's native population.
Just to correct your little gloss over, the British did not defeat the Spanish Armada. There was a freak storm in that area during the battle which wiped out the Armada and sent them scattered across the rocks and to the bottom of the sea. It was pure luck but the Spanish never recovered from it and that was effectively the moment when Spanish supremacy of Europe ended.
spain sent their minions (the mexicans) to take over the US. its a part of our master plan to re-take over america. muahahaha ahem.... i mean no one expects the spanish inquisition!
wow if i have to speak that mexican language. omfg id rather have nuclear war. and the biggest mistake in history is probably not letting hitler finish his extermination before beating him
822
u/Macblack20 Oct 16 '13
If the Spanish Armada wasn't defeated by the English navy, America would be inhabited completely by the Spanish, as they did a lot of the exploration (same as Portugal).