What if?

"Chile as a dependent country and one that swears loyalty  to the Monarchy of Spain"

Some classes ago, we were talking about the elaborations of maps and how these maps attracted or focused attention toward certain countries to make them look greater and more important, and at one point Miss Cardenas asked us what would have happened if these maps had been developed in reverse, if Chile was up instead of down, and recalling the exposition about the countries of the Commonwealth by my classmates just a few days ago, it came to my mind a similar question to which Miss Cardenas made us​​:



"What if Chile were part or swear loyalty to the Spanish Crown as well as the Commonwealth countries swear loyalty to the British Crown?"

After thinking about this for a while my first thought was "yeah, the idea of having kings and queens sounds pretty cool", and immediately after that I started thinking about the pros and cons about being under the rule of a parliamentary monarchy having the king as the head of state, of course the most of the commonwealth nations are former colonies of England, nonetheless, they are independent countries so they have their own political system and just 16 of them recognizes the Queen as their head of state, following this idea, if Chile is to be part of Spain, would it be while it still was a colony of Spain or would it be after the independence war? In the first case and after the national referendum of 1978, Chile would be just another autonomous community just as Navarre, Aragon, Asturias and the rest of the autonomous communities from Spain, but Chile would still be part of Spain as a whole. In the second case, I believe that the former Spanish colonies would form something like the "Commonwealth of southern american nations", but being independent and autonomous from Spain.

And so I started thinking about how would affect us culturally, in both cases, being in some way "connected" to Spain, would we be still speaking the so called "chilean-spanish"? what about our accent? would we be still considerate as thieves? would there be the same restriction to enter to Spain as chileans have it today? Would we be a more "advance" country by having the direct support and help from Spain and the countries of this southern commonwealth? Anyways I believe that now days we are more connected to the english-speaking world rather to our so called motherland, chileans tend to see Spain as a old enemy and oppressor, who will conquer us again just given the opportunity.

Chileans in Europe

Before the 1973, Chilean emigration to Sweden was nominal. Compared to other Latin American countries, Chile had a democratic government and stability. At the beginning mostly where politicians, politically active and intellectuals who came to Sweden but during the last years many poor people have arrived in hope that they can have a better life and provide for their families. Now Chilean Swedes is the biggest and one of the most important Latin American groups in Sweden.

In this context began to form a thought about us, a stereotype for us. In some parts of Europe they call us thieves, using the generalization as a way to explain this: 58% of Latin Americans living in Spain consulted felt that ethnic discrimination is widespread in the country, compared to 54% of North Africans or 43% of the Romanians.
Racism and discrimination against foreigners in Europe is becoming more and yet migration increases. For the migrants are few opportunities and many demands, Europeans abroad are a usurper of their welfare, their jobs, etc..

Should be created awareness in our country and do something, as there are many Latin Americans traveling to Europe (Sweden) and should not make a generalization, there are many people workers and humble to society.

Personally, I would love to travel to Europe, and I would hate people to see me as a thief or an uneducated person. I hope this erroneous thinking change over time and we treat it as a friendship in the future.

Captain James Cook:

After we talked about the time lines of different countries and doing some research the same name appeared to me several times: James Cook, so I looked up for information about him and I hope you find it as useful as I did. 

"Cook was an 18th century explorer and navigator whose achievements in mapping the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia radically changed western perceptions of world geography. As one of the very few men in the 18th century navy to rise through the ranks, Cook was particularly sympathetic to the needs of ordinary sailors."

James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 in Yorkshire England. At the age of 17, Cook moved to the coast, finding work with a coal merchant. In 1755, Cook enlisted in the Royal Navy, serving in North America.

In 1769, the planet Venus was due to pass in front of the Sun, a rare event visible only in the southern hemisphere. The British government decided to send an expedition to observe the phenomenon. A more secret motive was to search for the southern continent. Cook was chosen as commander of the Whitby-built Endeavour.

Endeavour arrived in Tahiti in April 1769 where Green was able to observe the transit of Venus. Endeavour continued on to New Zealand, and then sailed along the length of Australia's eastern coast, which had never before been seen by Europeans. Cook claimed it for Britain and named it New South Wales. Cook and his crew then returned home, arriving in July 1771.Once in England, he was promoted to commander and presented to King George III.

In 1772, Cook set out on a second voyage to look for the southern continent. His two ships sailed close to the Antarctic coast .Then they visited New Zealand and Tahiti, returning to England in 1775.

Cook's third voyage was to find the North-West Passage that was believed to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Unable to find the route, Cook took his two ships south and explored the island of Hawaii. Relations with the islanders got worst after the theft of a ship's boat. On 14 February Cook tried to take the local leader as a prisioner. There was an unexpected fight and Cook was killed.