The World полностью

* Just after abolition, a young amateur naturalist set off on the Pacific voyage of HMS Beagle that was both imperial project and scientific inquiry. Born at the heart of the interrelated industrial families of Wedgwoods and Darwins, Charles Darwin was partly chosen for his study of marine invertebrates and partly because his wealth covered his expenses. His father Robert vetoed the trip until persuaded by his brother-in-law, the pottery king Josiah Wedgwood II. On the five-year voyage, Darwin studied the long-isolated animals of the Galapagos Islands and, noting the variety of natural life, developed the idea that ‘It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another.’ In 1859 he published On the Origin of Species, in which he argued, ‘As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself … will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected.’ He concluded that ‘from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved’.

* The oba of Lagos, Kosoko, a Dahomean vassal, refused to cooperate until in 1851 the Royal Navy bombarded the city and deposed him, replacing him with another ruler: the first step towards a new colony. In 1862, fear of French encroachment persuaded Palmerston to annex the city. Further west, on the Gold Coast, the Asante now used slaves to work their gold mines and plantations, many living in villages around the capital Kumasi; unlucky slaves were sacrified in annual rituals.

* The best of the Ottoman advisers was a young Prussian captain from a Danish–Mecklenburger family who would later transform war and the shape of Europe: he advised the vizier not to fight at Nezib. The vizier ignored his advice with fatal consequences. The adviser was Helmuth von Moltke, who was a very untypical Prussian officer, thoughtful, literary and cosmopolitan, author of romantic novels, history books and now his Letters from Turkey.

* When Shah Shuja was deposed as a boy, he was given asylum by the empire builder Ranjit, who demanded in return his treasured diamond, the Koh-i-Noor.

* A separate community developed of Black Seminoles – half African, half Seminole – who developed a hybrid culture combining Native American and African culture, and speaking the Gullah language, fusing west African Krio with Seminole. During the Slave Revolts of 1835, Black Seminoles joined African-American slaves in attacking plantations. Later many Black Seminoles served as scouts with the US or Mexican armies.

* In 1821, as a young officer fighting for Spain, Santa Anna switched sides to join the revolution along with a general, Agustín de Iturbide. The two manifested the contradictions of Mexico: the revolution was started by a priest of mixed race but now its leaders were white Catholic officers. Iturbide offered the Compromise of Iguala, based on three guarantees – independence, Catholicism and equality between white and mixed-race Mexicans. It would establish a monarchy, possibly Bourbon. But in October 1821 Iturbide’s victory was so heady that his backers suggested he take the crown: ‘I had the condescension – or call it weakness – of allowing myself to be seated on the throne I’d created for others.’ Iturbide was crowned Emperor Agustín but quickly faced resistance. In December 1822, the twenty-nine-year-old Colonel Santa Anna rebelled and marched on Mexico City, leading to the emperor’s exile and the creation of a republic. When Agustín returned to retake the throne, he was executed.

* Lamar’s parents named their children after their French revolutionary and Roman heroes: his brother was Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar.

* Their atrocities inspired the classic novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Kirker served later as a scout for the American invasion of Mexico, then escorted 49ers (participants in the 1849 Gold Rush) into California, where he settled and died peacefully.

* Santa Anna again retreated into exile, but in 1853 he returned as dictator for life and ‘Serene Highness’, toying with the crown until forced to resign, replaced by a new sort of Mexican leader, an Amerindian Zapotec lawyer, Benito Juárez, who had once served him barefoot as a waiter. Santa Anna denounced Juárez, the ‘dark Indian’ who had ‘to be taught to wear shoes, jacket and trousers’.