Month: May 2019

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Morocco 1956, The Alaouite Sultan Muhammed V outlasts the French to become independant and King

The Royal Dynasty in Morocco has been kept around a long time and the country has been fairly stable by Arab standards. The dynasty was brought in to the country in the hopes that being of Mohammed’s family they might bring God’s blessings. Well it went as well as it could have. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

If we put this stamp into it’s time we see how traditional it is. Morocco was just getting it’s independence and instead of pan Arabist socialist in the vein of Egypt’s Nasser, or the Phoenician traders that first organized the place, or even Berber nomads like Libya’s Kaddafi. we see a Sultan from a dynasty that has ruled for 300 years to one extent or another. Will he be able to stand without the French and Spanish behind him?

Todays stamp is issue A1, a 30 Franc stamp that was the first issue of independent Morocco in 1956. It was a 7 stamp issue in various denominations featuring Sultan Mohammed V before he took the title of King. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The first settlements in Morocco were set up by Phoenician traders but the area had long been home to Bedouin and Berber nomadic Muslim tribesman. The trading posts on the coasts thus developed somewhat differently from the interior. The first Alaouite was brought in in the 13th century from Hejaz to serve as an Imam. The Alaouites could trace their heritage to Mohammed. By the  15th century, they were ruling from the then capital at Fez. There was some rudimentary agriculture involving date palms and of course the piracy that targeted richer European ships. This criminality was defended as some sort of tax due to Allah for Europeans heresy.

Naturally this criminality saw to it that the area was colonized by Spain and France with the trading post of Tangier set aside as an international city. See https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/16/spain-claims-an-international-city-in-morrocco-annoying-the-morroc-er-the-british/ . The Europeans did not have much interest in the interior so left the Alouite sultan in place to deal with the interior. The Alaouites showed their flexibility in bending into this new role as memorialized by the Treaty of Fez in 1912. Unfortunately for especially the Spanish, the Sultans were not much help against the Berbers from the Rif mountains who fought a costly but losing war against Spain. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/25/spanish-morocco-it-is-useful-to-have-a-second-stringer-occupy-much-of-a-large-dangerous-place/ .

In 1943, with The Americans landing in Morocco to push out the Vichy French and trap the German Africa Corp in Tunisia, Sultan Mohammed V saw it was time to again show the Dynasty’s flexibility and expressed support for the socialist independence movement. The Free French for a while tried to hold on. They forced Mohammed V into exile first in Corsica and then more uncomfortably in Madagascar. The French also made a more accommodating cousin Sultan as Mohammed VI. The area got very violent and the French and the Spanish decided it was time for their exit. They allowed Mohammed V to return and both Spanish and French Morocco becoming united and independent. The traditional Monarchy, the Sultan soon declared himself King was not what everyone had in mind. The pro independence socialist became the opposition and the trading posts such as Tangier lost their international flavor as they lost their previous diversity. At least the piracy never started back up and I have no information on how the palm date crop goes. Mohammed V’s grandson is currently King as Mohammed VI. The previous Mohamed VI having been memory holed when he was forced into exile. The poor fellows old Royal Seal was even stolen from him in Beirut.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in a non monetary tribute to the Sultan from Fez wearing a fez, Mohammed V. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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French Guinea, We are just not getting rich enough on palm oil

The colonies of France in Africa were just not that profitable. The slave trade was over as far as colonials and the easy gold was no longer easy to find. Palm oil trade had many intermediaries and much competition from neighbor trade post. The obvious question is then why not just leave? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

These early French colonial offerings do not appeal as much to me as the equivalent British colonies. They are better than the Portuguese who usually just show the King or De Gamma’s ship, or the Germans that often just show the Kaiser’s yacht. The French stamps usually show a native scene, here fording a river. How the British did them better was to show them as part of a greater whole with a common purpose. The British were sometimes kidding themselves as to whether that was really happening, but the other colonials often didn’t even bother.

Todays stamp is issue A6, a one Cent stamp issued by the French colony of Guinea in 1913. It was part of a whopping 42 stamp issue in various denominations that lasted for many years. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused. The folks on the stamp weren’t fording the river to get to the post office. There is an imperforate version of this stamp worth $75.

The west African coast was littered with trading posts. Most started as Portuguese, but the end of the slave trade saw most of theirs abandoned. The word Guinea comes from the Portuguese word for black people. There are now three independant, black run countries in Africa with that name so it had real staying power. The three, now two, Guyanas in South America come from the same root word. The English, French, and Germans began to have some luck with the palm oil trade. Palm oil was an ingredient in soap, so at that level of development, the natives had no need for it themselves. Diola tribal merchants brought the palm oil to the coastal trade stations including Conakry that became the capital of the colony and later the independent country. These outposts also had to function as forts as there were often native raids from the nearby Fouta Jallon highlands that contained warlike, nomadic, and Islamic Fulani tribe.

To avoid war between Europeans, A congress in Berlin in 1884 mapped out Africa as to which country had rights in which area. The tragedy of it was the spheres of influence extended far beyond existing trading posts. France had been in an anti colonial mood after reverses in the French colony in Indo-China. If the trading posts continued to not create wealth the posts would likely have been abandoned as with the Portuguese. The colony up to then was not even called Guinea but Southern Rivers showing that they were just trading posts at the mouth of rivers. Instead the French sent expeditions inland to bypass the Diola merchants and conquer Fouta Jallon. The last Imamate of Fouta Jallon leader, Boko Biro was defeated by the French at the Battle of Poredaka in 1896. Boko Biro escaped but was then captured by a Fulani rival and beheaded. Apparently no love for the loser.

Needless to say all this did not make the colony more profitable. In the late 1950s, the French tried to find a face saving way out and offered the African colonies a vote on staying in the French community with ever more self rule. Guinea was the only country that voted for the clean break and the French duly left. Interestingly, with France gone the trading post cities did not die with natives returning to the highlands. Even has the first President for life styled himself Touré’ after an earlier African anti colonial. There is no meaningful trade any more but the country relies on food aid which is more easily accessible on the coastal cities. Conakry had 60,000 people when independence came in 1958, the city now has more than two million. That is an estimate, how would you count?

Well my drink is empty. So sad. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Germany 2000, after Germany gives up on East Prussia it embraces Charlemagne and again claims him as theirs

This is a stamp that looks strange to this American. Charlemagne, the French Holy Roman Emperor, repackaged as Kaiser Karl and placed in Aachen at the western edge of modern Germany. Well the past 50 years had Germany facing west. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Germany united around 1870. America in 1781. You will see precious little on American stamps showing history before 1776 but Germany is not afraid to go back much further in this case to 800 AD. Interestingly, the stamp celebrates Charlemagne as one of it’s own, showing the accomplishment of the Cathedral in the Holy Roman capital of Aachen. Charlemagne had conquered and by force Christianized Saxony which was ruled by actual German Widukind and practiced a native religion. Widukind has no stamp, well he lost and no one practices his religion except a few Nazis. Besides the area along the Rhine river is the center of power in Europe again with French and Germans at the lead. So time again to get all holy roman.

Todays stamp is issue A991, a 1.1DM stamp issued by Germany on January 13th, 2000. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the 1200 or so years since the completion of the Cathedral at Aachen. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents used.

Charlemagne is still the subject of debate as to where and when he has born but somewhere in the general area of Aachen. Of course in modern terms that could place him as Belgian, German, French, or even from Luxembourg. Notice how central that area is to the modern EU. He started out as King of the Franks, but also added over time western Germany, Northern Italy, the Alpine region and the Pope named him Holy Roman Emperor. This was the first time such a great area was under one leader since Rome had fallen 300 years before. Notice the mention of the Pope, as one of the things he was doing was forcing Catholic Christianity on his subjects. This was progressive at the time and spurred advancement of the human condition.

He was not able to put back together the whole of the old Roman Empire. The breaking with the Orthodox Church based in Constantinople was getting more serious. The churches had different positions on the Holy Trinity. The west emphasized more God the Son and the East more God the Father as the originator of the Holy Spirit. That Charlemagne promoted the western view precluded him from being their leader and Eastern Europe to not fall to him. Also he had only limited success with then Muslim, Moorish Spain.

The fact was that for many years after Charlemagne there  were Holy Roman Emperors crowned in Aachen the Germans could recognize as one of their own. Frederick Barbarossa, a Swabian later Holy Roman Emperor canonized 300 year earlier Charlemagne sealing the claiming of him as German. Over time the Holy Roman Empire lost territory in Germany and under Hapsburgs the Empire became Austrian. It was left to Prussia to unite Germany, but they were more of the East in modern Poland.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Aachen Cathedral which still stands, though in a country less religious and with plenty of Lutherans. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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France 2003, Paris remembers fondly the peasant Cassoulet of Languedoc, to give a direction for white flight

This is a stamp, printed in Paris, that displays their view of the regions. Interesting that for the Languedoc region of southwest France, they picked a peasant dish to goes so far into tradition, that it contains a little of the dish that came before. This as Languedoc was taking in ordinary workers who could no longer exist in Paris do to the stratification. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue is meant to celebrate the regions of France. That it was put together by Paris sophisticates is obvious by the subjects chosen. Thus the region of Languedoc is not represented by the Airbus factory, but rather an old style peasant dish containing lots of beans. Says something I think of those moving from Paris to there. Good bye and good eats, and don’t forget your yellow vest.

Todays stamp is issue A1642, a 50 Euro Cents stamp issued by France on May 24th, 2003. It was a 10 stamp issue showing aspects of the various regions of France and was available as well as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, any individual stamp from the sheet is worth $1.30 used. The souvenir sheet as a whole is worth $16.

The Languedoc region of France is one of the fastest growing regions as real estate is more affordable and all of the industry as yet to depart. The region came into France later than areas further north so shows some vestiges of Spanish and Italian influences. By French standards, the area still has a low population density.

The Cassoulet dish originated among peasants and was a casserole containing white beans, sausage and pork skins and often duck or goose. Interestingly when the dish is eaten the brown stains at the bottom of the pot are deglazed and stored as a base for the next time. In this way there is an unbroken continuity from a dish from many years before. Sounds a lot like whiskey makers transferring the sour mash dregs of the last batch into the next one for continuity and tradition. This talk has now made me both hungry and thirsty though I am no fan of beans, sausage or eating foul. Well part of the tradition of peasant cooking in the big pot is throwing in whatever is on hand.

Of course tradition can always be dumbed down and homogenized. French big box supermarkets sell premade cassoulets in cans and jars. No doubt whatever finds its way into those giant casserole dishes/industrial vats is just as good. At least it gives something to throw at the next yellow vest rally.

Well my drink is empty, and my wife has in mind Thai food for lunch. No French peasant food around here and I can’t convince my wife to crack open her Jacque Pepin cookbook. You can trust that I will be thinking of Cassoulet while I eat my drunken noodles. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Spain 1980, The Spanish Army shrinks from empire and Franco to Nato and charity

This is an impressive picture that shows a then up to date Baleares frigate, an AMX-30 tank, and a F4C Phantom fighter plane. A show of strength while the reality was shrinkage, weapons received second hand by charity, and integration of the power into NATO. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

When the military of any nation is shrinking, and the mission changing, there will be a lot of uncertainty in the ranks. Indeed a year after the stamp there was an attempted coup. The changes also brought an end to the isolation Spain dealt with under Franco. Showing newer weapons was perhaps trying to show a way forward. It was still an iffy time,

Todays stamp is issue A570, an 8 Peseta stamp issued on May 24th, 1980. It was a single stamp issue for Armed Forces Day. There was a similar issue in 1979. There was not one in 1981 after the attempted coup. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

After Franco ended his long rule in 1975, the Monarchy was restored. King Juan Carlos fairly quickly replaced Franco’s people with those from the left. There was also an attempt to bring the military under control  by combining the separate Army, Air Force and Navy ministries under a unified defense department. The military was shrinking rapidly with Empire commitments at an end and conscription scaled back. There was a movement toward NATO integration which was achieved in 1982.  A rough time but the absence of Franco meant that doors of cooperation around Europe were opening. Those steeped in the long tradition of the Spanish Army may be forgiven if they viewed such changes skeptically.

The F4C Phantom fighter plane was a left over from earlier times. They were ex USA Air Force machines that were given free of charge to Spain in 1971 under the Peace Alfa aid program. At the time the USA Air Force was flying F4Es from a Spanish air base. Spain retired the F4C in 1989.

The Baleares class frigate was a license built copy of the American Knox class frigate. Again a left over from Franco, they were built a little later than the Knox and lasted longer in service, being retired in the early 2000s.

The AMX 30 tank was also still from the Franco period and license made from France. Interestingly Spain had originally chosen the superior Chieftain tank, but Britain had refused to sell to Franco. France has a tradition of selling arms more liberally. They were replaced by second hand Leopard II tanks donated from Germany.

Today the Spanish Army numbers about 85,000, about a third of it’s strength under Franco. There is no longer a draft and less second hand equipment, as Spain participates as a junior partner in many integrated European projects like the Eurofighter and the Airbus tactical transport A400M.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.