October 18, 2018 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Francis Bacon and the United States
At about the time when Francis Bacon would
be charged with corruption and disgraced publicly he published a book that goes
by the name ‘Novum Organum Scientiarum’.
This translates into ‘New Instrument of
Science’ from Latin and truly speaking it is a work about science rather than
science itself and hence it is considered a work of philosophy.
And yet the ideas in this book would have a
great impact on many men who would actually do science in the future not only
in England or the British Isles but also in North America.
Why North America?
Much before his fall when Bacon was at the
height of his powers as a parliamentarian and solicitor general (not by getting
elected but by being in extremely good books of King James I) he along with
some very senior members of the Parliament were given the task of establishing
British colonies in North America starting from Newfoundland which is currently
the eastern most province of Canada.
Newfoundland would be the obvious choice
since by ship it would be the closest place to land anywhere in the Americas
for the English conquerors.
It would not prove too difficult for the
“progressive” Englishmen to displace the “native” indigenous Beothuk, people
who obviously had too little to defend for themselves.
For Englishmen, it was the discovery of
waters leaden with fish, the best fishing site in North Atlantic.
By 1829 this indigenous Beothuk group was
completely decimated due to violence, starvation and exposure to a new bacillus
of tuberculosis making then culturally extinct.
In 1610 Bacon and his associates received a
charter from the King to form the ‘Tresurer and the Companye of Adventurers and
planter of the Cittye of London and Bristoll for the Collonye or plantacon in
Newfoundland’.
Thus Newfoundland became the first colony
of England in North America and perhaps the earliest permanent English colony
in the new world a large contribution to which was played by Bacon.
It would remain with England till 1933
where it would become independent but would find it impossible to sustain
itself.
So in 1949 after the World War II it
decided to join Canada becoming the tenth province to enter the Canadian
Confederation.
After Newfoundland, Bacon would reign in
Virginia and the Carolinas for the King.
Many believe that Bacon was largely
responsible for drafting two charters of government for the Virginia colony.
So in some sense Francis Bacon should
feature politically as one of the founding fathers of the United States.
So this was his political impact on the
developments in North America.
Now let us consider how he shaped the
development of intellectual milieu both in Europe and northern America.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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