|
Don Antonio De Úlloa
Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Guiral (12 January 1716 – 3 July 1795) was a Spanish Navy officer. He spent much of his career in the Americas, where he carried out important scientific work. As a scientist, Ulloa is regarded as one of the major figures of the Enlightenment in Spain. As a military officer, Ulloa achieved the rank of vice admiral. He also served the Spanish Empire as an administrator in the Viceroyalty of Peru and in Spanish Louisiana. At the age of nineteen, Ulloa joined the French Geodesic Mission to the Equator, which established that the shape of the Earth is an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles, as predicted by Isaac Newton. The mission took more than eight years to complete its work, during which time Ulloa, in close collaboration with his fellow naval officer Jorge Juan, made many astronomical, natural, and social observations in South America. Ulloa and Juan also helped to organize the defense of the Peruvian coast against the English sq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Most Excellent
The Most Excellent ( (male) or (female), literally "Most Excellent Lord/Lady") is an honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain people in Spain and certain Spanish-speaking countries. Following Spanish tradition, it is an '' ex officio'' style (the holder has it as long as they remain in office, in the most important positions of state) and is used in written documents and very formal occasions. The prefix is similar (but not equal) to that of " His/Her Excellency", but in the 19th century "The Most Excellent" began to replace the former. The use of the prefix Excellency was re-introduced in Francoist Spain by '' Generalísimo'' Francisco Franco himself, who was formally styled as '' Su Excelencia el Jefe del Estado'' ("His Excellency the Head of State"), while his ministers and senior government officials continued using the prefix "The Most Excellent". The prefix " The Most Illustrious" (''Ilustrísimo/a Señor/a)'' is the lower version, and is mostly used for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish America
Spanish America refers to the Spanish territories in the Americas during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term "Spanish America" was specifically used during the territories' Spanish Empire, imperial era between 15th and 19th centuries. To the end of its imperial rule, Spain called its overseas possessions in the Americas and the Philippines "The Indies", an enduring remnant of Columbus's notion that he had reached Asia by sailing west. When these territories reach a high level of importance, the crown established the Council of the Indies in 1524, following the conquest of the Aztec Empire, asserting permanent royal control over its possessions. Regions with dense indigenous populations and sources of mineral wealth attracting Spanish settlers became colonial centers, while those without such resources were peripheral to crown interest. Once regions incorporated into the empire and their importance assessed, overseas possessions came under stronger or weaker crown co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Of Jenkins' Ear
The War of Jenkins' Ear was fought by Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and History of Spain (1700–1808), Spain between 1739 and 1748. The majority of the fighting took place in Viceroyalty of New Granada, New Granada and the Caribbean Sea, with major operations largely ended by 1742. It is considered a related conflict of the 1740 to 1748 War of the Austrian Succession. The name derives from Robert Jenkins (master mariner), Robert Jenkins, a British sea captain whose ear was allegedly severed in April 1731 by Spanish coast guards searching his ship for contraband. In 1738, opposition politicians in the Parliament of Great Britain, British Parliament used the incident to incite support for a war against Spain. The most significant operation of the war was a failed British attack on Battle of Cartagena de Indias, Cartagena in 1741, which resulted in heavy casualties and was not repeated. Apart from minor actions in Spanish Florida, Province of Georgia, Georgia, and Havan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Anson, 1st Baron Anson
Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, PC, FRS (23 April 1697 – 6 June 1762) was a Royal Navy officer and politician from the Anson family. He served as a junior officer during the War of the Spanish Succession and then saw active service against Spain at the Battle of Cape Passaro, off the south tip of Sicily, during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. He then undertook a circumnavigation of the globe during the War of Jenkins' Ear. Anson commanded the fleet that defeated the French Admiral de la Jonquière at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747, during the War of the Austrian Succession. Anson went on to be First Lord of the Admiralty during the Seven Years' War. Among his reforms were the removal of corrupt defence contractors, improved medical care, submitting a revision of the Articles of War to Parliament to tighten discipline throughout the Navy, uniforms for commissioned officers, the transfer of the Marines from Army to Navy authority ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion of the Americas. South America is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Drake Passage; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. The continent includes twelve sovereign states: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; two dependent territory, dependent territories: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and one administrative division, internal territory: French Guiana. The Dutch Caribbean ABC islands (Leeward Antilles), ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) and Trinidad and Tobago are geologically located on the South-American continental shel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jorge Juan Y Santacilia
Jorge Gaspar Juan y Santacilia (Novelda, Province of Alicante, Alicante, 5 January 1713 – Madrid, 21 June 1773) was a Spanish mariner, mathematician, natural scientist, astronomer, engineer, and educator. He is generally regarded as one of the most important scientific figures of the Enlightenment in Spain. As a military officer, he undertook sensitive diplomatic missions for the Spanish crown and contributed to the modernization and professionalization of the Spanish Navy. In his lifetime, he came to be known as ''el sabio español'' ("the Spanish savant"). His career as a public servant constitutes an important chapter in the Bourbon Reforms of the 18th century. As a young naval lieutenant, Juan participated in the French Geodesic Mission to the Equator of 1735–1744, which established definitively that the shape of the Earth is an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles, as predicted in Isaac Newton's ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Principia''. With h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed. His book (''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy''), first published in 1687, achieved the Unification of theories in physics#Unification of gravity and astronomy, first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy, shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating calculus, infinitesimal calculus, though he developed calculus years before Leibniz. Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science. In the , Newton formulated the Newton's laws of motion, laws of motion and Newton's law of universal g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spheroid
A spheroid, also known as an ellipsoid of revolution or rotational ellipsoid, is a quadric surface (mathematics), surface obtained by Surface of revolution, rotating an ellipse about one of its principal axes; in other words, an ellipsoid with two equal semi-diameters. A spheroid has circular symmetry. If the ellipse is rotated about its major axis, the result is a ''prolate spheroid'', elongated like a rugby ball. The ball (gridiron football), American football is similar but has a pointier end than a spheroid could. If the ellipse is rotated about its minor axis, the result is an ''oblate spheroid'', flattened like a lentil or a plain M&M's, M&M. If the generating ellipse is a circle, the result is a sphere. Due to the combined effects of gravity and rotation of the Earth, rotation, the figure of the Earth (and of all planets) is not quite a sphere, but instead is slightly flattening, flattened in the direction of its axis of rotation. For that reason, in cartography and geode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shape Of The Earth
In geodesy, the figure of the Earth is the size and shape used to model planet Earth. The kind of figure depends on application, including the precision needed for the model. A spherical Earth is a well-known historical approximation that is satisfactory for geography, astronomy and many other purposes. Several models with greater accuracy (including ellipsoid) have been developed so that coordinate systems can serve the precise needs of navigation, surveying, cadastre, land use, and various other concerns. Motivation Earth's topographic surface is apparent with its variety of land forms and water areas. This topographic surface is generally the concern of topographers, hydrographers, and geophysicists. While it is the surface on which Earth measurements are made, mathematically modeling it while taking the irregularities into account would be extremely complicated. The Pythagorean concept of a spherical Earth offers a simple surface that is easy to deal with mathematica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Geodesic Mission To The Equator
The French Geodesic Mission to the Equator (), also called the French Geodesic Mission to Peru and the Spanish-French Geodesic Mission, was an 18th-century expedition to what is now Ecuador carried out for the purpose of performing an arc measurement, measuring the length of a degree of latitude near the Equator, by which the Earth's radius can be inferred. The mission was one of the first geodesic (or ''geodetic'') missions carried out under modern scientific principles, and the first major international scientific expedition. Background In the 18th century, there was significant debate in the scientific community, specifically in the French Academy of Sciences (''Académie des sciences''), as to whether the circumference of the Earth was greater around the Equator or around the poles. French astronomer Jacques Cassini held to the view that the polar circumference was greater. Louis XV of France and the academy sent two expeditions to determine the answer: a northern ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louisiana (New Spain)
Louisiana (, ), was a province of New Spain from 1762 to 1801. It was primarily located in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of the Mississippi River plus New Orleans. The area had originally been claimed and controlled by France, which had named it '' La Louisiane'' in honor of King Louis XIV in 1682. Spain secretly acquired the territory from France near the end of the Seven Years' War by the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762). The actual transfer of authority was a slow process, and after Spain finally attempted to fully replace French authorities in New Orleans in 1767, French residents staged Louisiana Rebellion of 1768, an uprising which the new Spanish colonial governor did not suppress until 1769. Spain also took possession of the trading post of St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis and all of Upper Louisiana in the late 1760s, though there was little Spanish presence in the wide expanses of what they called the "Illinois Country". New Orlean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viceroyalty Of Peru
The Viceroyalty of Peru (), officially known as the Kingdom of Peru (), was a Monarchy of Spain, Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from the capital of Lima. Along with the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Peru was one of two Spanish Viceroyalty, viceroyalties in the Americas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The Spanish did not resist the Portuguese colonization of the Americas, Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian established by the Treaty of Tordesillas. The treaty was rendered meaningless between 1580 and 1640 while Iberian Union, Spain controlled Portugal. The creation during the 18th century of the Viceroyalties of Viceroyalty of New Granada, New Granada and Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, Río de la Plata (at the expense of Peru's territory) reduced the importance of Lima and shifted the lucrative Andean trade t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
