Author: John C

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El Salvador 1906, Giving up on a Greater Republic of Central America

Several times in the 19th century, Central America attempted to unite politically. It in some ways made sense, it was how the area had been administered by the Spanish, and independence theoretically would give a greater voice to the indigenous peoples that were the majority in Central America. Unless of course tiny El Salvador can unite their 14 Spanish families. 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 shows President Pedro Jose Escalon. The transfer of power to him and then from him had been peaceful. That hadn’t happened in El Salvador in quite a while. If only he could have managed to not invade his recently united neighbors, he might deserve a stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A65, a 50 Centavo stamp issued by El Salvador in 1906. This was a 12 stamp issue in various denominations. There are imperforate versions of this issue, also overstamp versions to reflect currency devaluations. There are versions with President Escalon’s face blotted out after he left office. There is a later reprint in a different size. Anything they could think of to sell a few more copies on the world market. According to the Scott catalog, my original version is worth 35 cents unused.

The 19th century saw power consolidate in 14 large landowning families whose main export product was coffee. The many updates of the constitution insured that the large landowners had the majority of seats in the legislature set aside for them they were also well represented in the upper ranks of the Army. This took power away from the indigenous majority in the country. It also left El Salvador hopelessly poor. The other countries of Central America were in the same boat. Perhaps if the example of the former united administration could be emulated by new institutions uncorrupted by the powers that be, a larger, stronger entity could make things better.

In 1896, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua agreed to form the Greater Republic of Central America. The capital was Amapala in Honduras. Guatemala and Costa Rica were invited to join but hadn’t yet ratified the union. The United States recognized the new entity.

If you blink you miss it. Stamp with the Coat of Arms of the Greater Republic of Central America

The landowning families of El Salvador saw this as a threat to their power. In 1898 there was a military coup and General Tomas Regalado was put in charge and  quickly pulled El Salvador out of the Greater Republic of Central America. In an effort to put a better face on what they had done the powerful arranged an election and a peaceful transfer of power to President Escalon, a former General. By now the spirit of union in central America was gone and El Salvador invaded Guatemala. The war went poorly and General Regalado, who was still Minister of War, even managed to get killed.

You might think this silly war like behavior might end the power of the 14 families. Indeed the USA intervened and it was the beginning of the USA Marines being used to keep in line the banana republics. This however only helped the 14 families as Americans were soon investing heavily in the various agricultural operations that the 14 families controlled.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering if Central America could have done better united. Perhaps not, people probably get the leaders they deserve. Well there was always William Walker, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/27/costa-rica-remembers-the-the-drummer-boy-that-saved-central-america-from-an-american-manifest-destiny/ . Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Spain 1984, It’s stamp day, why not remember our time in the Sahara

Spain usually does not remember fondly their time as a colonial power in North Africa. Indeed a late 1950s war there attempting to hold on to long established enclaves in the Sahara, Cape Juby, and Ifni is often called the forgotten war. Well this website likes to use postage stamps to remind of the nearly forgotten. For Stamp Day in 1984, Spain joined in that effort. 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.

The forgotten war was won militarily but only put off the inevitable of ceding the enclaves to independent Morocco and the Spaniards departing. This stamp remembers the better time when the daring horsemen on the noble Arab charger horses were in the service of Spain delivering the mail. Indeed the main Spanish town in the Cape Juby area Villa Bens, had an airfield that was a major transshipment point for airmail going between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. There was a big problem of Moors kidnapping the airmail pilots, but what is adventure without a little danger. Villa Bens is now the Moroccan town of Tarfaya, but of course the airmail like the Spanish is gone.

Todays stamp is issue A668, a 17 Peseta stamp issued by Spain on October 5th, 1984. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Spanish fishermen operating off the southern coast of Morocco in the 18th century were often facing sneak attacks by Tekna tribesmen. Under economic and trade treaties signed by Spain with the Sultan of Morocco, this should not have been happening. Spain decided however to sign a further treaty and pay an additional tribute so that Sultan Slimane would cede the coastal strip of land near Cape Juby to Spain. In 1797 a British private company North West Africa Company set up a trading post named Port Victoria next to Cape Juby. Not going through Sultan Slimane saw it attacked relentlessly by the Moroccans until the British gave up, Spain lasted almost 200 years.

You might wonder what was the attraction of the very sparsely populated by nomads area adjoining a vast dessert. Well in fact there were dreams of doing something transformative. It was imagined that if a small, short canal was dug inland from the coast near Cape Juby that water from the Atlantic could flood in to the Sahara desert turning it into a vast sea. The water then could be used for agriculture turning the whole land area around the Sahara Sea green. The dreamers believed much of the Sahara consisted of Wadis that lied below sea level and indeed were inland seas in earlier times. Though there are a few spots in the Sahara below sea level, connecting them so they can fill with sea water would have required much more work than a short canal. The notion of a Sahara Sea has not completely gone away but has moved. There is a proposed project to flood the Qattara Depression in Egypt with Mediterranean water brought to it by newly built canals.

I mentioned that the forgotten war was won militarily by the greatly outnumbered Spanish Foreign Legion supported by Franco’s Air Force and Navy. Pressure on Spain then turned to the United Nations where it was always easy to gin up anti colonial sentiment. Cape Juby was ceded in 1958, Ifni in 1969, and the Spanish Sahara in 1975.

Spanish Heinkel He-111 bombers that dropped their last bombs in anger during the forgotten war. Ju-52 3Ms were also dropping supplies and paratroopers.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the dreamers who imagine flooding a desert. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Pakistan 1964, Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan, well actually UNESCO, save the Nubian Abu Simbel temples

These third world UN stamps are fun. Having the gal to ask outsiders to do for them something they know should be done, but are unwilling to do for themselves. The outsiders, in this case UNESCO then bend over backwards to treat welfare queens as partners because otherwise they will just destroy. 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.

I am a little surprised Pakistan was willing to serve as a vehicle for this UNESCO project in Egypt. There is some degree of nervousness of the value of pre Mohammed history in Muslim countries. Remember the shock outside the Muslim world when the Taliban purposely blew up ancient Buddhist statues in neighboring Afghanistan. In the period UNESCO campaigned for funding of the Nubian temples. They don’t publicize who gave and how much. It would be interesting to know Pakistan’s contribution.

Todays stamp is issue A59, a 50 Paisa stamp issued by Pakistan on March 30th, 1964. It was a two stamp issue showing ancient sites in Egypt that they hoped to move so they would not be flooded by Lake Nasser when the Aswan Dam was completed. This stamp shows the Abu Simbel temple to and by Ramses II. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.20 unused.

The Abu Simbel temple is a cut from stone temple. It is believed built over a 20 year period from 1264BC to 1244BC after being ordered by Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. At the time it was the area of Nubia near the modern border between Egypt and the Sudan along the Nile River. The area was important to Egypt for it was the center of gold mining. The temples had fallen into disuse and indeed buried by desert sand by the time of Jesus Christ.

The temples high point was rediscovered by Swiss Orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1813. He convinced Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni to look further with a team and on his second try he dug an entry into the temple. The name Abu Simbel refers to the nearest Egyptian village.

The threat. The Aswan High Dam, as seen from space after completion.

In 1959, Egypt and Sudan petitioned the UN to do something about the Nubian historic sites that were to be flooded by the waters of Lake Nasser. Rather than directing the waters elsewhere, it was decided to cut most but not all the stone temples into moveable pieces of 20 tons each and reassemble them elsewhere. Some moved as much as 60 miles, but in the case of Abu Simbel it only moved 600 feet to a new location on a built up hill. The expensive undertaking  was managed by UNESCO and just this temple cost 40 million dollars in 1960s money to move a short distance. The was an alternate proposal from British Rank Organization filmmaker William McQuitty to build a glass dome over the temple and chambers for under water viewing. McQuitty is best known for his film “A Night to Remember” about the sinking of the Titanic. His proposal went as far as a serious engineering design study.

Reassembling the Ramses statue in it’s higher home in 1967. Hope they measured twice before they cut once

The UNESCO campaign to save the Nubian temples went on until 1980. Egypt was so happy about what was done that they again put forth their hand palm up and suggested that UNESCO fund a new Nubian History Museum in Cairo. It is possible for a tourist to visit the Abu Simbel. A guarded convoy of tourist buses leaves daily from Aswan. Interesting it requires guards, perhaps Nubia’s present isn’t so wonderful as the past. Well there is always hope for the future.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Burckhardt, Belzoni, and McQuitty for their Abu Simbel work. Gosh I should have an Egyptian in there somewhere. Of course, Ramses II! Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Belize 1979, Liberation theology suggests not replacing Britain with Guatemala

What to do when your independence leaders are pumped and ready to take control, the colonial power is ready to depart and then the larger neighboring, poor county announces, you really belong to us? Well your liberation theology suggests prayer, but also asking for help, from Britain, from the Commonwealth, from the nonaligned movement, and finally from the UN. Was the key helper Cuba? 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 looks forward to the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York in 1980. There is a reworking of the issue issued after the games took place showing the gold medal winners of the events featured. Though then British Honduras formed a recognized Olympic Committee al the way back in 1967, 14 years before independence, and sent athletes to every Summer Olympics since 1968. Belize has never sent athletes to a winter games and to date none of their athletes have medaled.

Todays stamp is issue A66, a 50 cent stamp issued on October 10th, 1979 while Belize was still a self governing colony of Great Britain. It was an eight stamp issue in various denominations that also offered a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents. The souvenir sheet is worth $13.50. The post game version of this stamp with the medal winner is worth $1.10.

The British had outposts in what they at first called the Mosquito Coast. The area was very sparsely populated but Spain was also making territorial claims in the area. After Guatemala was independent from Spain the claims on now British Honduras continued but Guatemala was always poor and weak.

In the 1950s the British were ready to wrap up the colony in Latin America. Their favored independence leader was George Cadle Price, the product of a British father and a Central American mother. Cadle Price studied widely to be a Priest. This allowed him to become immersed in the Liberation Theology of the day and also avoid military service to Empire at a time of war. When the pressure for military service lessened, he returned to Belize City having not been ordained as a Priest. He took a job with a prominent businessman and formed a sanctioned pro independence PUP political party.

George Cadle Price, Belize’s political leader under various titles from 1961 -1993.

The party though was about to have a giant monkey wrench  thrown by neighboring Guatemala. They announced their intention to occupy and integrate Belize into Guatemala based on old Spanish claims. All of Latin America immediately backed Guatemala’s claim. The British tried to negotiate with Guatemala but the best offer from them was Belize becoming an affiliated state. This was not acceptable to now Premier of British Honduras Cadle Price. He petitioned Britain to send a small infantry force and a detachment of Harrier jump jets to Belize to deter from the army of Guatemala. Meanwhile Jones started lobbying Cuba to change sides to crack the previously solid Latin America block. When Cuba indeed came out in favor of Belize independence, Mexico also joined the cause. Now it was possible to get a UN vote in favor of Belize independence. This happened in 1981.

Guatemala finally renounced their territorial claims on Belize in 1992 and Britain was able to withdraw their military the next year. I can find no accounting of the cost of maintaining a presence in Belize for 30 plus extra years. Remember also the troops so far from home stationed on the surely aptly named mosquito coast.

Well my drink is empty and no matter how many stamps are presented here, there is never an excuse to toast Guatemala. Come again soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Philippines 1974, Remembering Gabriela Silang, the Ilocano people’s Joan of Arc

It is fun when a newer smaller country country introduces the stamp collector to one of it’s heroes from long before. In them you not only find bravery adventure and even deception. You can also spot the similarities of how different places dealt with similar issues. 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.

The most common image of Gabriela Silang is of an indigenous woman furiously riding a horse while swinging a bolo type machete. The image on the stamp shows her much more feminine in traditional garb and making more clear her mixed heritage. This may take her more relatable across the Philippines and a better picture of who she was.

Todays stamp is issue A250, a 15 Sentimos stamp issued by the Philippines in 1974. It was a 21 stamp issue that came out over five years that honored historical female figures of history. In the 1960s there was an earlier series of stamps in a very similar style showing the males. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

It is believed that Ilocano people migrated to Luzon from Borneo as part of a third wave of migration around 300BC. Gabriela Silang was born in 1731 to a family that was mostly Spanish on her father’s side and mostly Ilocano on her mothers’. Her father was a trader that sold his wares along the Abra River. She was abandoned by her family at an early age and was taken in and raised by the local Catholic Priest. The Priest arraigned for her marriage to a wealthy much older businessman. When her first husband died three years later Gabriela found herself a wealthy young widow.

For her second husband, Gabriela chose mailman Diego Silang. As part of his job, he made frequent trips between Ilocano and Manila and was distressed with how poorly the Spanish brought in from Spain were administering the area. He felt people born on the islands would do a better job.

Diego’s chance came during the Seven Years war, what Americans know as the French and Indian War. In 1762, Britain declared war on Spain and occupied Manila. Diego thought the time was right for Ilocano to rise up in rebellion against the Spanish. Diego offered to cooperate with the British and they in turn named him their governor of Ilocano. What happened next showed that perhaps Ilocano was not quite ready to manage itself. The Spanish colonial authority put a bounty on the head of Diego Silang and two of his coconspirators quickly assassinated him to collect. Traditionally Ilocano men wear their hair long and gather it under a turban called a potong. If the potong was red it meant the man had committed murder. If it was striped, multiple murders. You would think Diego would have been tipped off by this as to the danger he was in.

Gabriela escaped her husband’s killing and set up shop in the house of an uncle. From there she appointed new generals to continue the rebellion. She tried to put herself forward as a cult priestess that would lead her people to victory. In 1763, her rejuvenated rebel force tried to lay siege on the town of Vigan. Her force was defeated by the Spanish and when she tried to escape back to her uncle’s house, the Spanish were waiting for her and arrested her. Gabriela and other prisoners from her army were hung in the town square of Vigan. The British occupation of Manila lasted 20 months until it was returned under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The news that Manila had fallen did not reach Spain till after it was all over.

Gabriela on her horse waving her machete. No doubt the Spanish Governor was tweeting law and order.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Algeria 1964, Ben Bella farms out looking out for Algerian kiddies to UNICEF, while looking over his shoulder

Here we have happy even fez wearing kids in newly independent Algeria. It had been a long struggle to rid Algeria of the French, and the pillaging of the Blackfoot’s assets hadn’t gone so well. It was thus up to UNICEF to see that the kids would be okay. Algeria sought to be a leader in the post colonial non aligned movement. It must have a tough pill to swallow to so openly admit being a welfare queen. 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.

I do really like the honesty of this stamp. No the children really weren’t so happy. The unemployment rate in Algeria was 70% after independence. It follows that the local kids were desperate for whatever crumbs UNICEF was handing out. The honesty is that the country was openly admitting that it was up to UNICEF to solve the problem.

Todays stamp is issue A76, a 15 Centimes stamp issued by Algeria on December 13th, 1964. It was a single stamp issue celebrating a UN sponsored children’s day. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Algeria was granted independence in 1962. Winning the pre independence vote, former Egypt exile and Nasser associate Ahmed Ben Bella was the new President. Algeria had been home to over a million colonists called Blackfoots because their feet were in Africa but their heart was in Europe. Some were French but there were also many Italians and Jews of Spanish heritage. Four days after independence, The European Quarters of Algerian cities were looted and the departing French Army did nothing to stop it. President Ben Bella declared European assets in Algeria abandoned and the property of the state. Soon there were almost no Europeans in Algeria and yet somehow it did not lead to instant prosperity. Perhaps this was due to Ben Bella’s  personal security.

Ahmed Ben Bella was born into a well off Algerian farming family. He was sent to France for University paid for of course by the French government. Ben Bella resented his teachers because he thought them racist against him. Perhaps his teachers wondered about having to teach someone on the dole who hated them while perspective French students were excluded. He further resented that the only career option without having to lower himself by going back to Algeria was enlisting in the French Army. Immediately after the war there were riots in Setif in Algeria that were put down by the French who were trying to reassert their authority. Ben Bella was incensed and made his way back to Algeria. Back home he was too good to work the family farm but also proved not very good when he was caught having robbed a bank in Oran. Escaping jail, he made his way to Egypt with a big pile. He there became a close associate of General Nasser. An on the lamb bank robber is perhaps not an obvious independence leader but Ben Bella created an elaborate back story of French persecution Among his tales while really living the good life in Cairo away from the actual struggle;

He claimed a package he didn’t recognize was delivered by taxi to his hotel and the taxi later exploded.

He claimed a shootout on the family farm that missed him.

He claimed that he was  shot and wounded in a Tripoli hotel while traveling under an assumed name and Pakistani diplomatic passport.

The passport didn’t work for him when he tried to return to Algeria with it and the French were waiting for his plane. So anxious to kill him they inexplicably released him to serve Nasser, I mean Algeria.

His Presidency did not go well as he attempted to follow the old African tradition of one man, one vote, once, followed by a by one party rule. The Defense Minister sensibly deposed Ben Bella in 1965 and put him in house arrest in a out of the way French villa. No doubt he resented the French for leaving behind a villa and not freeing him from it. When his house arrest was relaxed in 1980, Ben Bella moved to Switzerland to be close to his money. He was still using his Pakistani passport, to fool the French you understand.

President Ben Bella with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in Havana. He is the one with his hand out. Ha Ha

Well my drink is empty and unless UNICEF wants to buy another round I will have to wait till when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Southern Rhodesia 1953, The golden leaf from the high velts gets the colony beyond gold

Tobacco requires many things to be able to be a cash crop. Proper temperature and rainfall so only certain land, the leaves need curing which requires energy and access to transport for export. Then perhaps a devalueation to make the profits flow. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your fir sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

There was just a short window when Queen Elizabeth II appears on a Southern Rhodesia stamp as shortly after her Assentation Southern Rhodesia entered into a federation with Northern Rhodesia, (Zambia) and Nyasaland, (Malawi). Notice also that the tobacco farmer is white. That was a period truth as well as one of the reasons tobacco farming took off in Rhodesia and the lands that were useful for tobacco had not been allocated by previous generations as native reservations.

Todays stamp is issue A19, a one penny stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1953. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Even in modern Zimbabwe tobacco is known as the golden leaf not just for it’s color but because the export revenue of the crop rivals that of the gold mines. In the 1920s and 1930s it was realized that the belt of high velts was ideal for tobacco. The 3000 to 4000 feet elevation moderated temperatures and allowed  rainfall in the ideal range. The land was both owned by white settlers but close enough to ample black contract labour. The preexisting railroads would allow for export from the landlocked country and the tobacco leaves were cured on site. A big bonus to the industry happened when the pound was devalued after the war making the product more competitive. Starting in 1945, tobacco surpassed gold as Rhodesia’s chief export.

The transfer to black rule did not mean the end of tobacco cultivation. The first years of Zimbabwe saw the tobacco planters as the Rhodesians most likely to stay. As recently as 2000, there were 1500 active tobacco growers. In 2019 there were 171,000 and most whites have been pressured into leaving. In some countries after land reform, there is a large boost in output. This has been the case in Zimbabwe with production nearly four times the level of 1950. The end of the necessity of white ownership or ideal land has seen a dramatic increase in area under cultivation. Zimbabwe is the fourth largest tobacco exporter in the world, the largest in Africa.

There has been a down side. There is a great deal of slash and burn cultivation with much accompanying deforestation. I mentioned above that cultivation requires curing. The requires heat mostly generated by burning firewood. The government started a new tax of 1.5 percent gross to counteract deforestation. This has not solved the problem, as the programs main goal is to raise awareness instead of planting trees. Zimbabwe technological expertise might now be offering a solution. The government has been promoting the use of a coregated tin “twin turbo barn” for fast tobacco curing. It allows the switching to natural gas when available as a heat source. Exciting stuff.

High Zimbabwe tech Twin Turbo Barn for tobacco curing

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till  when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Hungary 1919. The Soviet Socialists would like to introduce you to some historical figures they intend to rehabilitate

In the chaos after World War I, Hungary was briefly declared a Soviet Socialist Republic. Obviously such a government was mainly Jewish outsiders. In their one stamp issue, they introduced the country to a cast of historical figures that give some basis for their government. In this case, Serbian Jacobin Ignac Martinovics. 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.

I always have a good time looking at the design of the early communist stamps. There was still a hint of the old Royal look as the commies were obviously torn as to how much of the old grandiosity to retain now that it was in their hands. On the other hand, it is also easy to spot the wild ride the whole country was on with the cheap paper and indeed slightly deranged look of the old would be hero. When a country is in the midst of a reign of terror, everybody is a little deranged.

Todays  stamp is issue A17, a 60 Filler stamp issued by Hungary on June 12th, 1919. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.00 unused.

Ignac Martinovic’s father migrated to Pest in Hapsburg era Hungary. To hear Martinovic tell it, his father was either a nobleman soldier or a Serb tavern keeper. Obviously both could be true in different periods and Hungary was playing host to many Serbs on the run from the Ottomans. In Hungary, he converted to Catholicism  and married a local German girl.

It is not clear where the money for it was coming from, but Martinovic was well educated. During his education he became involved in intellectual francophone Jacobin secret societies modeled on the reign of terror era French Jacobin societies under Robespierre. For the Jacobins he engaged in many secret missions on their behalf. He also lead a more mainstream life as a university professor in Lemberg, now called Lviv and in the Ukraine. The Jacobins were half satisfied with reform minded Emperor Joseph II  and even worked as a part time agent for Leopold II, but when he was succeeded by more conservative Francis II the Jacobins became more radicalized. They began to assert that the aristocracy was the root of Hungary’s troubles and deserved elimination. Lack of self awareness did not let them see that by logic a bunch of haughty French speaking heringguts at the universities should therefore be high on their lists of those that should go. Jacobins then tried to stir up trouble among serfs and the Emperor Francis II  had Martinovic and six other “Hungarian” Jacobins beheaded for their subversion.

1795 depiction of the execution of the six Jacobins including Martinovic

This 1919 issue was not Martinovic’s only Hungarian stamp. The later communist regime did one in 1947. yes again with the cheap paper. As with many such people, Martinovic was also a Mason, and the Masonic Temple in Budapest is named for him. Interestingly both stamps that I have so far written up from this set were executed by the Hapsburgs. Probably still a worry for the then Hungarian Soviet Socialists.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the use of stamps to signal rehabilitation. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Saint Vincent 1955, Choosing between Garanagu and Canada

A while back The-Philatelist presented a Saint Vincent post independence stamp that concentrated on the issues of that time, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/01/saint-vincent-against-all-odds-has-a-stable-currency-even-if-joshua-gone-barbados/ . While researching this stamp from the later days of colony I came on a whole different telling on the history of the island from a black rather then colonial perspective. It may shed light on why the West Indian Federation failed and these islands decided to go it alone. 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 was a fairly plain issue showing Queen Elizabeth as a new queen and in higher denominations the coat of arms of the colony. I have often equated a Monarch’s portrait on a colony’s stamp as a reminder to those far from the home country that Britain remembers and is looking out for their endeavor. During this time Britain was actively trying to extricate itself from the expense of looking out for these small islands and to me that tarnishes the intended calming effect of an issue like this. This stamp comes from a time of a great migration out of Saint Vincent, especially among those who might feel like they won’t fit in with an in charge Garanagu culture.

Todays stamp is issue A23, a 25 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Saint Vincent on September 16th, 1955. This was a 12 stamp issue in various denominations that lasted over a decade. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The traditional view of history of Saint Vincent is that British invaders subdued and then small pox wiped out local Caribe Indians. African slaves were imported to work sugar cane plantations and when slavery was abolished in 1834 the island fell into a deep poverty and an expensive failure for Britain.

Here is a different telling that is gaining favor in the region of a Garangu culture. As early as the 1300s AD, migrants from the west African Mali empire came to Saint Vincent. At the same time Caribe Indians were arriving from the territory that is modern Venezuela. They intermarried and a very strong culture developed that strongly resembled Mali. In 1635, a slave ship shipwrecked near the island and the Africans were freed and integrated instead of being returned to the slave traders. Hearing of the independent black culture of Saint Vincent, escaped slaves of other islands made way to Saint Vincent on makeshift boats and were welcomed.

A 1586 map depicting Saint Vincent with an earlier spelling of Garanagu

In 1763, Saint Vincent was awarded to Britain by the Treaty of Paris. What followed was a 34 year war to try to subdue the island. Garanagu leader Joseph Satuye lead Africans bravely against the British until his final defeat. Defeated warriors were held on the island of Beliceaux. Some then escaped to the Honduran island of Roatan. There is an annual pilgrimage of Saint Vincent residents  to Beliceaux to remember their fallen.

Though the Garanagu were militarily defeated, the British were unable to enslave them. Desperately British India contract workers and some Portuguese and Chinese were brought in to work their sugar cane plantations, but the British just could not make the colony work as they had gone against Garanagu culture. As a face saving way out, Britain tried to impose a West Indies Federation to be run out of Port of Spain under mixed race British trained Jamaican politician Norman Manly. The Philatelist presented a Jamaican stamp on him here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/09/jamaica-1970-mixed-race-leaders-try-to-graft-socialism-onto-black-jamaica/   . Canada was to provide guidance, help and supervision in place of the British. There was even talk that the Federation could include British Honduras and British Guyana and end up a Canadian province.

The British again failed to take into account the strength of Garanagu culture and the West Indies Federation failed. One benefit was the donation by Canada of two ships, the Federal Palm and the Federal Maple, that visited all the islands of the federation twice a month  to improve communication and ironically enhance Garanagu culture.

Saint Vincent became fully independent in 1979. Though the population is lower than in previous times, the demographics are much more in keeping with the time before the Garanagu were subdued. The island is still part of the Commonwealth and maintains friendly ties with Canada. It even host numerous American iffy medical schools. The key is not going against Garanagu culture.

Well my drink is empty and this was fun attacking a subject from a completely different perspective. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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France 1931, When Colonial powers held exhibitions to explain and defend what they were doing

At a time when all this stuff is just being erased as evil, I thought it might be fun to travel back to a time when things could at least be debated. 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.

I am fond of many French colonial stamps with their exotic views of far off colonies. So a total Empire set should really be exciting. Alas this stamp has too much going on and the rest of the issue is a small bulk mail stamp of a Fachie woman that is very familiar to stamp collectors.

Todays stamp is issue A42, a 1.5 Franc stamp issued by France itself in 1930. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 65 cents used. The exposition was a few years too early for the stamp souvenir sheets that would have been part of later expositions. It should be remembered though that French colonies themselves issued stamps as part of the exposition, and often were available to collectors at the colony’s pavilion at the expo.

World War I had a big negative effect on the prospects for European power’s colonial experiment. Most of the fighting was in Europe but there was a widespread sense that the natives of the colonies did not do their part in service to the mother country. There was further contreversy coming from the left in the Soviet Union and Weimar Germany that the whole endeavor of colonies leads to decadence, and race mixing. Our friends on the left don’t phrase things that way any more but it was an earlier time.

The six month long Exposition Coloniale Internationale was set at the Bois de Vincennes, the largest park in Paris. The park was laid out by Napoleon III who remember had lost a European war while much of his Army was tied down in the colonies. A reaction to the criticism was that France would be portrayed as not assimilating the colonies but their partners. Pavilions were in the local style and natives were brought in to demonstrate the native culture of the colonies and create art and crafts. One of the most popular pavilions was a recreation of the Angkor Wat Cambodian Temple. Smaller colonial powers like Portugal, Belgium, Holland and even the USA participated.  The expo was well attended and there was a spike afterward of French applying to serve in the colonies.

This poster would have made a better stamp. The exotic shown in the period art style

There was however some pushback. A Dutch recreation of Balinese Mero temple burned down under mysterious circumstances. The pavilion contained a great deal of the collection of the Batavia Museum. The was also a counter expo put on by French Marxists that had displays of the horrors of forced labor and compared in a positive light the Stalin era Soviet nationalities policy to the European colonial experiment. The Marxist expo attracted few visitors.

The legacy of the Expo was not great. A Permanent Colonial Museum was opened at the edge of the park. It proved not permanent, the building now houses a museum to immigrants in France and the former collection is mainly in storage at a museum honoring former French President Chirac. The biggest legacy seems to be a spike in the consumption of North African and Vietnamese food in Paris that has yet to dissipate. Maybe the 1920s lefties had a point? The Batavia Museum in the Dutch East Indies used the fire insurance payout to fund a major expansion back home. This is now the Indonesia National Museum. So in a way the colonial power is still there teaching the natives of their own culture. Funny how that works.

Well my drink is empty and here’s hoping that our hobby is not itself erased as part of our current leftie friends’ desire for a new year 1. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.