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| Sao Tome |
nManynislands in the world have slowly risen up out of the ocean –nbecause they are the tips of giant underwater volcanoes. (A newnHawaiian island is growing that way right now… Actually, Lo’ihi isnstill a “seamount” rather than an island, because the top of thenmountain is still about three thousand feet below sea level. Butnmaybe someday…)
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| People of Kiribati |
nItntakes time for islands to be discovered and settled by plant seeds,nby land creatures, and even by people. It takes time for explorersnfrom far away to discover islands and establish trade with theninhabitants—or, far to often, to take over the land and rule overnits people. And of course it often takes a whole lot of time for thenislanders to get rid of colonial overlords as well!
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nTodaynis the national day of two different island nations:
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- SaonTome and Principe won its independence from Portugal on this date inn1975.
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- AndnKiribati became independent from the United Kingdom on this date inn1979.
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Inwas surprised to learn that the islands of Sao Tome and Principe,nwhich lie quite close to Africa, were never settled by people untilnPortuguese explorers discovered them in the 1400s. I imagine that anvariety of African peoples knew about the islands but found no reasonnto leave their homes to live there; the Portuguese, on the othernhand, saw the islands as a good base from which to trade with anvariety of African empires and groups.
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SaonTome and Principe were both formed from extinct volcanoes; thenvolcanic soils of the islands had a lot of minerals, and so they werengood for agriculture. First sugar and later cotton and cocoa werengrown there, and the islands remained important for trading ships asnwell. nn
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| Pico Cao Grande is a volcanic plug that was created when magma cooled while still inside the volcano. The rest of the volcano has eroded away, leaving this hard plug that roughly shows the shape of the original magma chamber. |
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Kiribatinis quite different than Sao Tome and Principe. First, there is onlynone true island, which is a “raised-coral island.” An atoll (anring shaped reef) is formed by coral, and then tectonic forces (thenforces that cause the continents to slowly move about the surface ofnthe Earth, and that cause earthquakes and volcanoes) raise up thenatoll so that true soil can develop. The rest of Kiribati is nn
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nThenEuropean navigators also discovered the islands more quickly than Inhad suspected they would, in the early 1500s. The Spanish came first;nby the 1800s whalers, slave traders, and merchants arrived in largennumbers. In 1837 the first British settlers arrived, and it wasn’tnlong before some of the islands of Kiribati became a Britishnprotectorate. n
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nEventually,nof course, the islanders gained self-rule from Great Britain.
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| During World War II, three of the atolls of Kiribati were taken over by the Imperial Japanese. In November of 1943, Allied forces started a campaign to take over the Japanese-held atolls. It was some of the bloodiest battles of the war. |
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| Today you can still see tanks and guns left behind. |
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ApparentlynKiribati is trying to buy land in mountainous Fiji before globalnclimate change causes the entire nation to disappear beneath thenwaves! Because the atolls were made by sea creatures, the land isnvery low—just a bit above sea level. And as sea levels rise…well,nthe 100 thousand people of the nation are planning ahead and willnmigrate if necessary.n
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nFigure skater Kristi Yamaguchi’s birthday
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nInventornand scientist George Washington Carver’s birthday
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nCryptographernMichael Ventris’s birthday
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nPlannahead:
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nJulyn holidays
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nJulyn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in July
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nAugustn holidays
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nAugustn birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in August
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