The Black Hole of Calcutta: People Will Only Take So Much Before They Snap

This week's edition of History's Mystery: We Never Learn is somewhat kairotic, given the recent election.  As many (hopefully all) of you probably know, Donald Trump is widely criticized for his angry rhetoric, especially towards Muslims, racial minorities and women.  Shortly after his historic victory over Hillary Clinton on November 8, riots and protests erupted across the country, and the hashtag #NotMyPresident went viral on all platforms of social media.  This is what happens after you treat a certain person (or in this case a group of people) poorly for too long.

The story I have for you all today is the Black Hole of Calcutta.  There's not much to it, to be honest.  Our journey begins in the mid-1700s.  As is the grand tradition of European nations, England was colonizing different continents.  This tale in particular took place on the Asian subcontinent of India.  Britain and France were the world's two largest empires at the time, and naturally were constantly trying to one-up each other in pretty much everything. In the late 1600s, Britain had a port in the city of Calcutta, and as the years went on they continued to fortify it to protect it from any possible French attack.  The Indians were getting increasingly mad.  They were angry to begin with because India wasn't Britain's land to begin with, so they had no right to be there anyway.  The continuation of foritfying the port of Calcutta was only adding to the anger.

The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daula, eventually had had enough of the nonsense.  He told the governor of Calcutta to tell the Brits to stop fortifying.  And what did the British do?  Ignored him.  Surprise, surprise.  The Indians did not come to play.  They marched on Calcutta with hundreds of elephants and scores of cannons.  Thousands of people died.  Heaps of British officials ran for cover in the ships and left the port with like, two men to defend it.  (I'm kidding, there were about 200)  On June 20, 1756, 146 prisoners were herded into a jail called the "Black Hole".  It was 18 ft. by 14 ft. with two small windows.  Because of the small area, large number of people, intense Indian summer heat, and only two small windows, most of the prisoners suffocated.  Only twenty-three people survived.

The Indians' reactions are not uncommon for this sort of thing.  In the words of my wise European history teacher, "People will only put up with so much crap before they snap."  Examples of this can be seen throughout history, from the Boston Tea Party, which followed the Black Hole of Calcutta by only a few short decades, to the French storming the Bastille, to the East German riots, to the Arab Spring in 2010, and even to the Black Lives Matter and #NotMyPresident protests and riots that are going on right now.  Throughout the centuries, people in power have been trying to oppress their citizens, and for centuries the citizens have been rising up and demonstrating that they won't take any more of it.  So the next time someone posts on Facebook about people "whining about the outcome of the election", feel free to tell them that this sort of thing has been going on for centuries, and in fact, this country would not be here if it weren't for reactions like these.

Charles II of Spain: West Virginia...Yikes!

This week's installment of History's Mystery: We Never Learn will be somewhat of a risqué post.  If you get offended by it, I am terribly sorry, but facts are facts, y'all.

It's no secret that West Virginia is notorious for its inbreeding, at least in the olden days.  If you were a West Virginian in the 1800s, it probably wasn't uncommon for your parents to be first cousins.  I think that problem has mostly been sorted out, but I haven't been to West VA since 1999, and I was at a hotel then, so I really can't say for sure.  But, I digress.

That is one thing that West Virginia and modern historic Europe (and probably earlier too) have in common!  The inbreeding was LUDICROUS!  Monarchs wanted to ensure that the crown stayed in the family, so they set up their kids with their cousins from distant ruling kingdoms.  The worst case of this was seen in Charles (or Carlos, if you will) II of Spain.

Poor Chuck.  He was a sad creature.  Charles was of the House of Hapsburg, an ancient ruling family of Europe.  There were two groups of Hapsburgs, the Spanish and the Austrian.  Charles II of Spain was of the Spanish Hapsburgs.  (duh)  He was born November 6, 1661 and ascended to the throne at age four.  His family tree is more of a family wreath.  See for yourself. (image courtesy of scienceblogs.com)

The Hapsburg family intermarried to keep the crown within its family.