The Ruler of Hawaii

Hawaii is an interesting place. For the longest time, its people had been largely isolated by its location in the middle of the Pacific, surrounded by miles and miles of deadly nothingness. It was controlled by an assortment of rulers that held demesne across the islands. It wasn't until around the 1780's that the warring states began to consolidate around a single warlord: Kamehameha.

He didn't have an easy time of it. After many years of fighting and peace-making, the only lands he could control were a few districts on the Big Island and, through a diplomatic marriage, another few districts in Maui.

The breakthrough came when he turned to foreign traders. Admittedly, foreign ships had been visiting the Hawaiian islands for quite some time. Its location in the middle of the Pacific made it a useful halfway point in many journeys. Whenever possible, Kamehameha traded island goods for weapons.

After several victories, he was eventually drawn into another stalemate as other powers began amassing their own stock of Western weapons. It wasn't until a timely volcanic eruption all but wiped out the army of a rival leader that Kamehameha turned things around again. He then invited his rival to a peace meeting to discuss their differences. Upon landing, the rival was swiftly executed and offered as a sacrifice to the god of war. And with that sacrifice, Kamehameha became the undisputed ruler of the big island, Hawaii.

Maui, the next island on Kamehameha's wishlist, was exhausted after a war against neighbouring Oahu and soon fell to Kamehameha's forces.

The ruler of Oahu knew what was coming and beefed up his arsenal of American weapons. However, even that was no match for Kamehameha's tactics and he eventually fell.

Kamehameha next wanted to take Kauai, but rebellions in his holding forced him to bide his time. A few years later, Kauai was struck with an outbreak of cholera. Seeing his weak position, the ruler of Kauai agreed to become Kamehameha's vassal, a bitter arrangement that the ex-ruler resented. Nevertheless, Kamehameha finally held all of the populated Hawaiian islands.

After conquering all of the islands, Kamehameha set upon boosting the government, economy, and foreign relations. He actively encouraged trade of the islands' resources and quickly grasped the concept of currency. Trade flourished, especially with America, Britain, and eventually Russia. He maintained a group of trusted advisers and administrators, and took steps to ensure they guided his son and heir after his death.

Upon his death, Kamehameha was buried in a secret grave to ensure his bones would never be disturbed. He was succeeded by his son, crowned Kamehameha II, and his wife, now queen regent. These two ushered in a series of reforms that changed Hawaii for ages to come.

Sources:
"Captive Paradise" - James L. Haley

Military Intelligence

As someone who works in computer security, I have a passing fascination with the intelligence community. One name that interested me recently is COL Oscar Koch. He was the head intelligence officer for LTG Patton during World War II and basically predicted the Ardennes Counteroffensive, a.k.a. The Battle of the Bulge.

At the time, most intelligence officers had little motivation and collected meager information about the enemy directly in front of them. Koch handled things differently. He took in everything he could get. He knew troop positions, towns, rivers, railways, bridges, contours, and every other little thing for hundreds of miles around.

His collection methods were as varied as the data coming in. Reconnaissance planes would mark enemy positions. Draftsmen would map out an entire area to determine optimal paths around obstacles. American soldiers that could pass for Germans would disguise themselves behind enemy lines and eavesdrop in bars and restaurants. Encrypted radio transmissions would be broken.

All of this data would pour in for analysis by Koch. In Patton's war room, he would physically mark everything he could onto a large 1:250,000 scale map showing the entire Western Front.

That's great and all, but what's really impressive is how Koch was able to tie together subtle troop movements, on both sides, and realize that a large counteroffensive was imminent. 

Around October of 1944, Koch noticed a buildup of German troops to the north. At the time, most intelligence officers considered the area of the Ardennes Forest to be a rest area for the Germans, where troops rotated in and out between stints. Movement was not uncommon. However, Koch felt something was unusual. Wehrmacht troops were collecting there in much higher numbers. More of the movements occurred at night. All of the movements were under complete radio silence. The Germans clearly did not want the Allies to know about this.

Koch reported his ideas to Patton in very certain terms. Considering Koch's reluctance to speak in certainties unless, well, absolutely certain, Patton took him at his word and established a contingency plan to shoot north if anything should occur. Regrettably, most intelligence officers did not agree and assumed the German army was too weak for such a counteroffensive.

As Patton made his march eastward, Koch received signal intelligence of the Germans leaving their staging area before switching to radio silence. Koch reported that the Germans were almost certainly launching their attack. Patton immediately turned his army 90 degrees to the north and flanked the Germans during their attack.

Even though the Germans did break through the Allied line, they eventually ground to a halt and Patton's army rammed into their southern side while Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery pinched from the north. Supply lines were cut and the German troops eventually had to retreat.

The important thing to take away is this: thanks to Koch's thorough intelligence, Patton's army was ready and able to counter the German offensive before it even had a chance to start. I just thought that was very impressive.

Sources:
"Killing Patton" - Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
"Oscar Koch and the Confidence of the Commander"
"Oscar Koch: An Unsung Hero Behind Patton's Victories" - MAJ Kevin Dougherty (p.66-68)

Luther's Christianity

Around the time of the Renaissance, the Catholic Church believed that a man was saved based on how he acts while alive. Salvation is a justified reward for earthly actions that were considered good.

Martin Luther came to feel that this was the wrong way of seeing things. It was selfish. He thought it was wrong for a person to behave properly for the sole purpose of securing a place in Heaven. To put it in the author’s words, "it is God who saves us, not we who save ourselves."

Luther felt that it should be the other way around. God had already granted us salvation. As long as people have faith in this salvation, they'll be okay. Luther believed that if people truly believed in this salvation, they would willingly live a morally good life. They would accept this gracious gift from God, and try to do right by God purely out of goodwill. It is in the true believer's nature.

As one can imagine, this kind of thinking would raise serious eyebrows when it came to church indulgences. If a person was already saved, why would he need to pay the church more money to be more saved?

(Full disclaimer: The Reformation is a very deep subject. This was just one thing that stuck with me and marked a key theological difference between the Catholic Church and Martin Luther's worldview.)

Sources:
"The Reformation" - Patrick Collinson

18th Century Healthcare

The late 1700s was a weird time for healthcare. True medical knowledge was scarce, while superstition and home remedies were rampant. Here are some alleged "treatments" folks performed to cure what ailed them.

Have a nasty stye on your eye? Just stroke the eyelid with the tail of a black cat and the swelling should go down after about an hour!

Cut yourself while shaving? Kill a moth fluttering around your candle and apply the insect to the bleed. The bleeding will stop instantly!

Have skin covered in blots and blemishes? A mix of onion juice and vinegar takes them all away!

Have a toothache? Try pouring some freshly squeezed beet juice up your nose to quickly relieve the pain!

Still have a toothache? Have the tooth removed then jammed back in! This will probably destroy the nerve and cease the pain.

Have a cough and a fever? Get some powdered rhubarb root, mix it with some ginger, brandy, and water, drink the mixture, and within a few days all symptoms will dissipate! ORDER NOW and the rhubarb powder can even help cure other ailments, including but not limited to: gout, styes, ear aches, jaundice, nearsightedness, and much, much more!

If none of these treatments help, there's always bloodletting! Bring balance to the humours by physically removing the bad blood.

Sources:
"Jane Austen's England" - Roy and Lesley Adkins
"Culpeper's Complete Herbal" - Nicholas Culpeper

Candles

I don't know why, but I found the section in Jane Austen's England about candles strangely fascinating.  Around the turn of the 19th century, there was no electricity, and gas lighting was still a fancy new technology. Aside from the home's hearth, the primary source of light at night came from candles. Depending on your status in life, there were plenty of candle options, too.

The most expensive and highest-quality candles were made of beeswax. The flax or cotton wicks were either wrapped with sheets of beeswax or melted into a solid candle. Because they worked well in chandeliers and produced very little smoke, these candles were favoured in public buildings like theatres and churches.

Whale oil candles filled a similar niche as beeswax candles. They could be made in moulds and also burned cleanly.

Unfortunately, these pleasant candles were expensive, so the everyday folks had to turn to tallow candles. The wick of these candles would be repeatedly dipped in hot animal fat, then cooled to solidify. These candles would give off a flickering light and a bad smell. They also needed thicker wicks that would produce smoke. This wick would need to be regularly trimmed with scissors called "snuffers" while burning to avoid the charred wick getting too long. Mutton tallow was the choice animal fat, but beef and pork fat were also used.

All of those candles were taxed, however. The poor would need to make their own rushlights. Rushes would be picked, peeled, dried, and drawn through used cooking grease. Rushlights didn't last very long, but were cheap and gave a reasonably clean source of light.

Oil lamps were popular in coastal areas with access to cheap whale oil. Essentially, lamps were shallow containers filled with oil and held a suspended wick. Cheaper lamps produced more smoke and stink than candles, but some of the later lamps with glass chimneys did a better job of preventing that.

Sources:
"Jane Austen's England" - Roy and Lesley Adkins