What in the World Am I Talking About?

Hell if I know, but I'll do my best to collect my thoughts into coherent words for a quick blog assignment.

Something that I love talking about is history, so I think I'll go with that one. I've read numerous history textbooks cover to cover (I'm weird ok? Lay off) and I'll tell you I never got bored. For whatever reason, friends always complain to me about how history is THAT class, you know the one, where you walk in and are instantly tired, even though you just drank a red bull and got 9 hours of sleep the night before? We've all had them. But yeah, THAT class. And I can't understand why, everything in history is just fascinating. I think it's one of the most enlightening things, to make those sorts of connections back 300 years. You probably don't know what I'm talking about, so I'll give you an example. Ever wonder why all of South America speaks Spanish, but for some obscure reason in Brazil they speak Portuguese? Well, I doubt you may have wondered about that, because who really cares right? But I wondered, and it turns out that back when the New World had just been discovered, and the Pope was still the de facto ruler of all Europe, the Spanish and Portuguese were the leaders in exploration. They both started trying to claim the same lands in the Americas, and something had to be done to prevent war from breaking out. Other European nations probably could've cared less, but the Pope couldn't have Catholic nations spilling each others blood, so he drew an imaginary line on a map, splitting the New World in half. Now mind you, they had no clue back then just how large America was, so they gave Spain everything west of this imaginary line, and Portugal everything east of it. They both went about their colonizing, and Spain was quite pleased with the amount of land they soon discovered. At this point, most of North America and 97 percent of South America was controlled by the Spanish, but as it turns out, the imaginary line had been unknowingly drawn directly on the tip of Today's Brazil. So the Portuguese claimed it as quickly as they could, and established their colony there. Due to the large amount of rainforest in the Brazil area, the Spanish never did find out about this small Portuguese settlement. It wasn't until the Spanish got involved in numerous wars and financial troubles that the Portuguese decided to expand, and turned their colony into the largest in South America. The rest, as they say, is history.

So that's why Brazil speaks Portuguese amid the multitude of Spanish speaking countries! I hope you learned something today, and I sincerely hope I didn't bore you to death. Wouldn't want that kind of weight on my chest. Yes, I know this wasn't really the main point of my blog to begin with, but just think of it as a really extended example to prove my point: history is fun! So if your reading this, try to stay awake through history tomorrow. If you happen to be Mrs. Giddens and don't have a history class, just keep teaching English. It might not be quite as exciting as history, but I try my best to enjoy it.

Sincerely,

~Deranged Student