Captain Morgan and the Sack of Panama

Captain Henry Morgan (1635-1688) was a legendary Welsh privateer who raided Spanish towns and shipping in the 1660s and 1670s. After the successful sacking of Portobello (1668) and a daring raid on Lake Maracaibo (1669) made him a household name on both sides of the Atlantic, Morgan stayed on his farm in Jamaica for a while before Spanish attacks convinced him to once again sail for the Spanish Main. In 1671, he launched his greatest attack: the capture and sacking of the rich city of Panama. Morgan the Legend Morgan had made his name raiding Spanish towns in Central America in the 1660s. Morgan was a privateer: a sort of legal pirate who had permission from the English government to attack Spanish ships and ports when England and Spain were at war, which was fairly common during those years. In July of 1668, he gathered some 500 privateers, corsairs, pirates, buccaneers, and other assorted seagoing villains and attacked the Spanish town of Portobello. It was a very successful raid, and his men earned large shares of loot. The following year, he once again gathered about 500 pirates and raided the towns of Maracaibo and Gibraltar on Lake Maracaibo in present-day Venezuela. Although not as successful as Portobello in terms of loot, the Maracaibo raid cemented Morgans legend, as he defeated three Spanish warships on his way out of the lake. By 1669 Morgan had the well-earned reputation of a man who took big risks and offered big rewards for his men. A Troubled Peace Unfortunately for Morgan, England and Spain signed a peace treaty around the time he was raiding Lake Maracaibo. Privateering commissions were revoked, and Morgan (who had invested his large share of the loot in land in Jamaica) retired to his plantation. Meanwhile, the Spanish, who were still smarting from Portobello, Maracaibo and other English and French raids, began offering privateering commissions of their own. Soon, raids on English interests began happening frequently in the Caribbean. Target: Panama The privateers considered several targets, including Cartagena and Veracruz, but decided on Panama. Sacking Panama would not be easy. The city was on the Pacific side of the isthmus, so the privateers would have to cross in order to attack. The best way to Panama was along the Chagres River, then overland through dense jungle. The first obstacle was the San Lorenzo Fortress at the mouth of the Chagres River. The Battle of Panama On January 28, 1671, the buccaneers finally arrived at the gates of Panama. The President of Panama, Don Juan Pà ©rez de Guzmà ¡n, had wished to fight the invaders along the river, but his men refused, so he organized a last-ditch defense on a plain just outside the city. On paper, the forces looked pretty equal. Pà ©rez had some 1,200 infantry and 400  cavalry, and Morgan had about 1,500 men. Morgans men had better weapons and much more experience. Still, Don Juan hoped that his cavalry – his only real advantage – might carry the day. He also had some oxen that he planned to stampede towards his enemy. Morgan attacked early on the morning of the 28th. He captured a small hill which gave him good position on Don Juans army. The Spanish cavalry  attacked,  but was easily defeated by French sharpshooters. The Spanish infantry followed in a disorganized charge. Morgan and his officers, seeing the chaos, were able to organize an effective counterattack on the inexperienced Spanish soldiers and the battle shortly turned into a rout. Even the oxen trick didnt work. In the end, 500 Spaniards had fallen to only 15 privateers. It was one of the most one-sided battles in the history of the privateers and pirates. The Sack of Panama The buccaneers chased fleeing Spaniards right into Panama. There was fighting in the streets and the retreating Spaniards tried to torch as much of the city as they could. By three oclock Morgan and his men held the city. They tried to put out the fires, but could not. They were dismayed to see that several ships had managed to flee with the bulk of the citys wealth. The privateers stayed for about four weeks, digging through the ashes, looking for fugitive Spanish in the hills, and looting the small islands in the bay where many had sent their treasures. When it was tallied, it was not as big a haul as many had hoped for, but there was still quite a bit of plunder and every man received his share. It took 175 mules to carry the treasure back to the Atlantic coast, and there were numerous Spanish prisoners – to be ransomed by their families – and many black slaves as well which could be sold. Many of the common soldiers were disappointed with their shares and blamed Morgan for cheating them. The treasure was divided up on the coast and the privateers went their separate ways after destroying the San Lorenzo fort. Aftermath of the Sack of Panama Morgan returned to Jamaica in  April 1671 to a heros welcome. His men once again filled the whorehouses and saloons of  Port Royal. Morgan used his healthy share of the proceeds to buy even more land: he was by now a wealthy landowner in Jamaica. Back in Europe, Spain was outraged. Morgans raid never seriously jeopardized relations between the two nations, but something had to be done. The Governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Modyford, was recalled to England and made to answer for granting Morgan permission to attack the Spanish. He was never severely punished, however, and eventually was sent back to Jamaica as Chief Justice. Although Morgan returned to Jamaica, he hung up his cutlass and rifle for good and never again led privateering raids. He spent most of his remaining years helping to fortify the defenses of Jamaica and drinking with his old war buddies. He died in 1688 and was given a state funeral.

Enron the Smartest Guys in the Room - 1989 Words

Enron’s ride is quite a phenomenon: from a regional gas pipeline trader to the largest energy trader in the world, and then back down the hill into bankruptcy and disgrace. As a matter of fact, it took Enron 16 years to go from about $10 billion of assets to $65 billion of assets, and 24 days to go bankruptcy. Enron is also one of the most celebrated business ethics cases in the century. There are so many things that went wrong within the organization, from all personal (prescriptive and psychological approaches), managerial (group norms, reward system, etc.), and organizational (world-class culture) perspectives. This paper will focus on the business ethics issues at Enron that were raised from the documentation Enron: The Smartest Guys†¦show more content†¦The fact that those ken lay, Jeff Skilling, Andrew Fastow, and other leaders decided to cross the legal line to cover up the company failures and to deceive investors lowered their stand in CMD even though they were actually considered extremely smart and successful businessmen. I personally think going against the laws is unacceptable in any circumstances, especially with those figurehead executives because they were the ones who set up such a bad culture for their organization. It’s hard to score those executives on Locus of Control. From my observation from the documentation, these smartest men were too confident about themselves. They always strived for the best. Actually, I believed they were the best in the arena. It suggested that they have high internal locus of control, which meant they absolutely have the ability to control their own life. However, at the same time, decision to go against the laws meant those leaders were gambling with their business, which is a high external locus of control behavior. Also, while internal locus of control people are more likely to take consequential approach in their prescriptive decision making process to reach the best solution for all parties, Enron executives chose to benefit themselves first off. Situational Factors Arguments above suggest that at the individual level, there are so many â€Å"bad apples† at EnronShow MoreRelatedEnron, the Smartest Guys in the Room.1229 Words   |  5 PagesEnron, the Smartest Guys in the Room. Enron was involved in American’s largest corporate bankruptcy. It is a story about people, and in reality it is a tragedy. Enron made their stock sky rocket through unethical means, and in reality this company kept losing money. 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Christian Scripture and Hermeneutics †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Christian Scripture and Hermeneutics. Answer: Introduction: The topic of this paper is to discuss about the scriptures in Christian religion and hermeneutics. The Christian gospels and sermons became to be used widely for the worshipping purpose very frequently. In the second century, some writings had been included in the list of Biblical writings and came to be known as the New Testament. The role of the scriptures has a special place in the Christian writings since they are the heart of the Christian religious concepts in a written form. Many Biblical concepts have been displayed through these scriptures. The Christian scripture mostly consisted of the letters from Paul and the edited version of the gospels and sermons of Luke. In this part of the document study, the viewpoints of many theology specialists have been discussed. One of them has to be picked in order to discuss about their viewpoints. In this discussion of the document study, the paper written by Francis Watson has to be selected. The name of the text is Church and World: Bib lical Interpretation in Theological Perspective. This piece has been chosen because he has shown that faith has to be kept in Christ always so that the Holy Scripture can be understood and mediation can be done between the God and the human beings. He has showcased the importance of scriptures and the hermeneutics better than all the authors of theology provided there. The canon of Marcion had portrayed a special challenge to the faith of Christianity. The Christian theology has been largely overviewed in this concept. The matters of salvation and its fundamental issues have been noticed in this section as well. The goodness in Christian faith has been discussed in this segment as well because in Bible, the goodness of the human beings has been displayed over and over. The matters of incarnation and its incarnation in the practice of Christianity have been overviewed in many ways. The docetic or the material side has a conflict over the interpretation of incarnation in Christianity. The Jewish writings have been segmented as the Old Testament in Bible and the new Christian writings have been segmented as the New Testament. These two parts of the Bible had been recognized as the scriptures and used for the purpose of worship to some level. The Old Testament has been viewed as the scripture that rises from the proper anticipation of Christ and in contrary; the New Testament had been viewed as a testimonial prophecy. The Christian theology has often said that the New Testament always brings something new in the array of the Christian theology as when the Christian scriptures have been incorporated in the Christian theology in a big way. Some issues have emerged in the reading of the New Testament because there are many confusing issues that have been raise in this context. It has been viewed as that the writings or the scriptures of the New Testament writings have been considered as the anachronistic ones since they are normative in the Christian perspectives. The writings of New Testament are not translations from the Old Testament and these writings are mainly based on Christ. The relationship between the scripture and time had been decreased to a certain level. Old Testament has always presented certain transposition hermeneutic in the matter. The problem had arisen that the theologians had viewed the world from one point but the topics related to Christianity but the scriptures had turned out to be the matter of study of Christianity. This can be contrasted with the Reform hermeneutics that the Old Testament and New Testament can be of an equal identity regarding to the Christian identity. This document study can be concluded by saying that scripture had been a legitimately dominating aspect in the Christianity and it was relevant for receiving the proper understanding the New Testament kerygma. The writings were not in line with the hermeneutical footing. Scripture can be used in interpreting the Biblical meaning in a more subtle way. References Baxter, M., 2015.The Formation of the Christian Scriptures. Fortress Press. Brown, R.E., 2015.An introduction to the New Testament. Yale University Press. Martens, E.A., 2015.God's design: A focus on Old Testament Theology. Wipf and Stock Publishers. Webster, J., 2016.Word and Church: essays in Christian dogmatics. Bloomsbury Publishing.