Kamehameha I also known as Kamehameha the Great conquered most of the Hawaiian Islands, formally establishing the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1810. Kaumualiʻi, was the last independent aliʻi nui of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau before becoming a vassal of Kamehameha I of the unified Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1810. Kaumualiʻi continued to serve as Kamehameha's governor of Kauaʻi.
The Russian Empire and the Russian-American Company established contact with Hawaiian king Kamehameha I in 1804. Russian vessels continued to visit the Kingdom irregularly, with the primary transactions were focused on foodstuffs. On January 29, 1815 a Russian-American Company ship, Bering, dropped anchor near Waimea on Kauai. Captain James Bennett was ordered by Russian-American Company Governor Alexander Andreyevich Baranov to use its estimated 100,000 roubles worth of furs and other cargo to purchase needed food and material supplies for settlers in Russian America. On the next night the vessel ran aground in a storm. Bennett made an agreement with King
Kaumualii, giving him the wrecked ship though its cargo remained Russian property. Several hundred Kauaians were involved in salvaging the furs and purchased supplies. Despite this, Bennet would later report that the ship and its cargo were both seized by Kaumalii. Two months later the stranded crew was evacuated from Kauai by Albatross. Bennett and two other American captains employed by the Company pressed Baranov to wage an armed punitive expedition against Kaumualii. The proposal stirred long discussions between Baranov and his deputies, but the governor favored a peaceful solution.
In 1815 the Russian-American Company send German physician Georg Anton Schäffer to Hawaiʻi to retrieve goods seized by Kaumualiʻi, chief of Kauaʻi island. According to the Company instructions, Schäffer had to begin by establishing friendly relations with king Kamehameha I. Then, with or without Kamehameha's support, Schäffer had to recover the cost of lost merchandise from Kaumualiʻi. Kaumualiʻi eagerly signed a "treaty" granting Russian
Tsar Alexander I of Russia a protectorate over Kauaʻi. Kaumualiʻi convinced Schäffer that the Russians could just as easily capture the whole archipelago. Schäffer promised that Tsar Alexander would help him to break free of Kamehameha's rule. Kaumualiʻi allowed Schäffer to build a fort near Waimea, named Fort Elizabeth in honor of the Empress of Russia at the time,
Louise of Baden. Two others – Fortress Alexander and Fort Barclay-de-Tolly – were named for the reigning emperor Alexander and his marshal Barclay-de-Tolly and constructed near Hanalei on Kauaʻi. Alarmed by all these activities the natives of Hanalei had revolted, leveled the forts at Hanalei and burnt a distillery, which had just been built and killing one of the Aleutian workers employed by Schäffer.
When it was discovered that Schäffer did not have the backing of the Tsar, he was forced to leave Kauaʻi. On July 19 1817 Schäffer left Hawaii for Guangzhou. Captain Alexander Adams replaced the Russian flag with the new Kingdom of Hawaii flag some time before October 1817. Russian Fort Elizabeth eventually came under the control of Kamehameha supporters. The Schäffer affair cost the Russian-American Company, between 200,000 and 230,000 rubles.
European colonization of present-day Canada began as early as the 10th–11th century, when West Norse sailors explored and briefly settled limited areas on its eastern shores. The Norse, who had settled Greenland and Iceland, arrived around the year 1000 and built a small settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland. Carbon dating estimate this between 990 – 1050 Current Era. L'Anse aux Meadows is also notable for its connection with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas.
According to Icelandic Sagas, violent conflicts with the indigenous population ultimately made the Norse abandon those settlements. Under letters patent from King Henry VII of England, the Italian Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) became the first European known to have landed in Canada after the time of the Vikings. Records indicate that on 24 June 1497 he sighted land at a northern location believed to be somewhere in the Atlantic provinces. Official tradition deemed the first landing site to be at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, although other locations are possible.
After 1497 Cabot and his son Sebastian Cabot continued to make other voyages to find the Northwest Passage, and other explorers continued to sail out of England to the New World, although the details of these voyages are not well recorded.
Based on the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Spanish Crown claimed it had territorial rights in the area visited by John Cabot in 1497 and 1498. However, Portuguese explorers like João Fernandes Lavrador would continue to visited the north Atlantic coast, which accounts for the appearance of "Labrador" on topographical maps of the period. In 1501 and 1502 the Corte-Real brothers explored Newfoundland or Terra Nova, and Labrador claiming these lands as part of the Portuguese Empire.
In 1506, King Manuel I of Portugal created taxes for the cod fisheries in Newfoundland waters. João Álvares Fagundes and Pêro de Barcelos established fishing outposts in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia around 1521. However, these were later abandoned, with the Portuguese colonizers focusing their efforts on South America.
French interest in the New World began with Francis I France, who in 1524 sponsored Giovanni da Verrazzano to navigate the region between Florida and Newfoundland in hopes of finding a route to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of Francis the first. Earlier colonization attempts by Cartier at Charlesbourg-Royal in 1541, at Sable Island in 1598 by Marquis de La Roche-Mesgouez, and at Tadoussac, Quebec in 1600 by François Gravé Du Pont had failed. Despite these initial failures, French fishing fleets began to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the Saint Lawrence River, trading and making alliances with First Nations.
England has its own attempts to establish a permanent settlement in present-day Canada. The English, led by Humphrey Gilbert, had claimed St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1583 as the first North American English colony by royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I.
In the reign of King James I, the English established additional colonies in Cupids and Ferryland, Newfoundland, and soon after established the first successful permanent settlements of Virginia to the south.
In 1604, a North American fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Du Gua, Sieur de Mons. The fur trade became one of the main economic ventures in North America. Du Gua led his first colonization expedition to an island located near the mouth of the Saint Croix River.
Among his lieutenants was a geographer named Samuel de Champlain, who promptly carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the United States. In the spring of 1605, under Samuel de Champlain, the new Saint Croix settlement was moved to Port Royal.
This was the France's first successful settlement in North America. Port-Royal served as the capital of Acadia until its destruction by British military forces in 1613. France relocated the settlement and capital 8 kilometers upstream and to the south bank of the Annapolis River, the site of the present-day town of Annapolis Royal.
On 3 July 1608 Champlain founded what is now Quebec City, probably the earliest permanent settlement in present-day Canada , which would become the capital of New France. Champlain, also called "The Father of New France", served as its administrator for the rest of his life.
Italy invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, also known as The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a conflict fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire. The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia.
Before the war, Ethiopia was one of only two countries, the other being Liberia, in Africa that had not been colonized by a European power. Also, Ethiopia was the only country in Africa to repel a foreign European invasion, the first Italian invasion in 1895-1896. This invasion was defeated at the battle of Adwa in northern Ethiopia on the border of Eritrea by a force of 100,000 men under emperor Menelik II.
Ethiopia during the Italian invasion was under the rule of Emperor Haile Selassie, whereas Italy was under the rule of Benito Mussolini.
The initial conflict that sparked the war took place at Wal Wal, an oasis in the Ogaden Desert in 1934. On November 22, 1934, Italian forces marched fifty miles into Ethiopia and clashed with Ethiopian troops at Wal Wal, leaving 107 Ethiopians and 50 Italians and Somalis dead. The League of Nations evaluated the conflict and exonerated both nations, although Italy was the clear aggressor.
Great Britain and France, which dominated the League, hoped to prevent Italy from becoming an ally of Nazi Germany. Taking advantage of this situation, Mussolini signed agreements with France and the United Kingdom, thus isolating Ethiopia and forcing it to face Italy alone. Upset with Italy's initial objections to the Anschluss in Austria, Germany sent material support to the Ethiopians. This included three airplanes, 10,000 Mauser rifles, and 10 million rounds of ammunition.
In a few months 685,000 Italian soldiers arrived in East Africa. There were also 400,000 Italian soldiers in Eritrea and 285,000 in Italian Somaliland before the new divisions arrived. The equipment for the build-up alone included 6,000 machine guns, 2,000 pieces of artillery, 599 tanks, and 390 aircraft. Before these arrived, the Italians had 3,300 machine guns, 275 artillery pieces, 200 tankettes, and 205 aircraft.
According to Italian estimates, on the eve of hostilities the Ethiopians had an army of 350,000 - 760,000 men. But only about one-quarter of this army had any kind of military training and the men were armed with 400,000 rifles of every type and in every kind of condition. The new recruits consisted of around 500,000 men, some of whom were armed with nothing more than spears and bows. The Ethiopian armies were poorly equipped. They had 800 light and 250 heavy guns, 234 antiquated pieces of artillery mounted on rigid gun carriages, some 300 trucks, 7 Ford A-based armored cars and 4 Fiat 3000 tanks of the First World War age. In all, the air force consisted of 13 aircraft and four pilots at the outbreak of the war.
The war began on October 3, 1935, when General Emilio De Bono marched his troops over the Mareb River into Ethiopia before Italy officially issued a declaration of war. Emperor Selassie instead declared war on Italy, but the invading forces advanced rapidly into northern Ethiopia, taking both Adigrat and Adowa by October 6. The latter was where the Italians had been defeated in 1896. Also General Rodolfo Graziani attacked Ethiopia from south implementing Milan Plan. Objectives of Milan Plan were to remove Ethiopian forces from various frontier posts and to test the reaction to a series of probes all along the southern front.
By mid-October, Italian troops had taken the ancient city of Axum, and by November 8, they had conquered Mek’ele as well. Nonetheless, Mussolini was impatient with what he called De Bono’s slow advance and replaced him with Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio. In an attempt to test Italy’s new commander and rally his own nation, Selassie ordered a Christmas Offensive, counterattack against the Italians. Although the Ethiopians were initially successful and won the Battle of Dembeguina Pass where they defeated one thousand Eritrean troops under Italian command, the Italians continued their steady advance across the nation.
On 26 December, Badoglio asked for and was given permission to use chemical warfare agents such as mustard gas. The Italians delivered the poison gas by special artillery canisters and with bombers of the Italian Air Force. While the poorly equipped Ethiopians experienced some success against modern weaponry, they did not understand the "terrible rain that burned and killed."
On 20 January, the beginning of the inconclusive First Battle of Tembien marked the end of the Ethiopian "Christmas Offensive" and also marked a shift of the offensive back to the Italians. In early February, the Italians captured Amba Aradam on northern front. On 31 March, the last Ethiopian army on the northern front was destroyed during the Battle of Maychew.
After a lull in February 1936, the Italians in the south prepared a major thrust towards the city of Harar. On 22 March, the Italian Air Force bombed Harar and Jijiga as a prelude. Both cities were reduced to ruins even though Harar had been declared an "open city". In the Battle of Ogaden (14–25 April), italians defeat the last Ethiopian army left.
On May 5, 1936, they took the capital Addis Ababa, and Emperor Haile Selassie was exiled and fled to Palestine and eventually to England. Mussolini then named King Victor Emmanuel the 3rd of Italy as the Emperor of Ethiopia. On 10 May 1936, in Ethiopia Italian troops from the northern front and from the southern front linked up at Dire Dawa. On 1 June Italy officially merged Ethiopia with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, calling the new state Africa Orientale Italiana. Italy declared the country pacified in December 1936. Over 9,500 Italian soldiers died during the war, while Ethiopians lost over 275,000.
