Historical Tidbits Archives – Page 3 of 59

April 6, 2026April 9, 2026

F is for Fiji

Courtesy Countryreports.co, Fiji is east of Australia. (Islands are not as close together as they may seem.)

Fast Facts

Named for: Fiji is the Anglicized pronunciation of the Tongan pronunciation of the indigenous’ name Viti.
Capital: Suva
Long/Lat: 18.1S/178.3 E (almost in the West), 5500 mi, 10 hours west
Population: 926,000 (14 Castro Valley’s worth)
Size: 7000 sq mi of land (411 CVs) but 75,000 sq mi total territory, 332 islands
Avg temp in April: 89 F/31 C, tropics!
Median household income: $6000 annually
Ethnicity: 57% indigenous Fijians, 38% Indo-Fijians
Main industries: Tourism, sugar cane, gold

Fiji is not a particularly small island, compared with others that we’ll see later, however, it is the smallest country beginning with F. It’s actually two big islands, plus 330 other small islands, some with and some without people. Plus, technically, a lot of water in between.

Beaches and mountains on the two largest islands, Viti Levu and Vanau Levu.

We might, perhaps, be tiring of the pronunciation issue. Fiji is called that because that’s what Captain Cook heard the Tongans call it, i.e., the name is not what the people who live there call it. But since their language isn’t ours anyway, they may not care how we butcher their name. They know who they are. Also, it always pleases me to remember that the arrogant colonizer Cook ended up clubbed to death because he opened fire on indigenous Hawai’ians who thought he had given them his boats. He said, “No, I take them back, you savages,” and they said, “Yeah, well you shot one of us, but while you’re reloading your fire stick, we avenge all our island brothers.” *whomp*

April 4, 2026April 9, 2026

D is for Dominica

Dominica circled in red, graphic by Aoeuidhtns.

Named for: Sunday, the day Columbus sailed by
Capital: Roseau
Long/Lat: 15.2 N/61.2 W, 4000 miles or 8 hours east of Castro Valley
Population: 72,000, 1.1 CVs
Size: 290 sq mi, 10 CVs (less dense)
Avg temp in April: 87 F/23 C phew!
Median household income: ~$4,000
Ethnicity: 85% Afro-Dominican, 4% Kalinago/Caribe, <1% European
Main industries: Small agriculture, growing financial services (offshore banking/tax havens)

Dominica, fortunately, stopped practicing cannibalism. If they ever did, which is doubtful. Even so, historians as late as the 1960s were still tossing off lines like, “By the middle of the sixteenth century, however, the Caribs had almost ceased eating Christian Europeans, for on one occasion all who had dined on a Spanish friar had fallen deathly ill or died.”

Dominica is the fourth small country in my A-Z series, another island and definitely not the last. It was named by Columbus on his second journey to the New World, the first island he sailed by on Sunday, November 3, 1493. Not a very enterprising name, since Dominica means Sunday. The naming conventions here seem particularly uninspired. Columbus also named islands Ferdinanda, Isabela, Juana (their daughter), and San Salvador (Holy Savior). I suppose we should be lucky he didn’t just number them, or Jamaica would be Dieciocho.

April 1, 2026April 9, 2026

A is for Andorra

Where in the world is Andorra? Graphic by Bosonic dressing.

Note: Today begins the first of the April A-Z challenge. See Running a Small Country for more details.

Fast Facts

Named for: The “Andosins” i.e. Big People or Water People or “land covered with bushes” or “the wild valleys of hell” as in Andor in the Bible. That is, nobody really knows.
Capital: Andorra la Vella (Vella being city in Catalan)
Long/Lat: 42.30 N/1.30 E. 6,000 miles east of Castro Valley, 10 hours.
Population: 89,000 or 1.3 Castro Valleys
Size: 467 sq mi or 30 Castro Valleys
Avg temp in April: 55 F, very similar to CV
Median income: 28,000€ ($30k)
Ethnicity: 35% Spanish, 32% Andorran, 10% Portuguese
Main industries: Tourism, Banking (tax haven)

Andorra is a carve-out in the Pyrenees, the mountain border separating France and Spain, a roundish dot, balancing the stability between those two large personalities. It’s far larger than my Castro Valley, but more sparsely populated. That’s due to the mountains: average elevation is 6500 ft. Mountains mean ski resorts, which explains the 20 millions of tourists per year, 117 tourists per inhabitant.

It’s also a tax haven, meaning taxes so low that international companies are headquartered there. Nothing like wealthy people skiing after they’ve finished their banking. Meanwhile, the people serving them coffee earn a pittance. Same as it ever was.