History of Finland Podcast Introduction in text form.

Hello and welcome to History of Finland. Brief instruction. We will not start from Finland's independence 1917. We will start as early as the last ice age when Sámi people stayed in Finland when everyone else left.
This podcast is first of it's kind. First podcast about history of Finland. I believe that every country deserves it's own series
Little bit about me. I'm not at all an patriot. I don't believe that Finland is the best country in the world. I try to remain neutral so that you can form your own opinion. I know 20th century will be very controversial.
Little peak behind the scenes. My current headset is reasonable, but I plan to upgrade it soon. You may have noticed that my pronunciation is lacking. Common problem for Finns. If it doesn't improve you can offer your services as a reader. Don't worry you just have to read you don't have to know anything.

Kingdom of Zimbabwe

If you have heard about Kingdom of Zimbabwe that's most likely because of great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe is magnificent city that was the capital of Kingdom of Zimbabwe in late Iron age. 

It's most impressive feature is it's walls. They were usually 5 meters high (some high as 20) and constructed without mortar.  City was highly secure serving as kings place. Buildings have been built out of granite which was the parent rock of the region.

Inside city is quite an labyrinth. 

There were concentric passageways, along with a number of enclosures. One of these is thought to be a royal enclosure. Large quantities of gold and ceremonial battle axes, along with other objects have been found there.  

There is also what is thought to be a gold workshop, and a shrine which is still regarded as sacred today. 

 -BBC World service

It seems to resemble the cities of Incas in south america.  It was the center of huge gold trade network. City used some questionable tactics like trading cattle to hungry miners for great amount of gold.

City was 40 kilometers away of the major mines. Long distance was one of the reasons city was abandoned in the middle 15th century. 

    One is environmental: that a combination of overgrazing and drought caused the soil on the Zimbabwe Plateau to become exhausted. 

 -BBC World service

It's truly remarkably that not long ago human lived by natures conditions. Nowadays people change the environment not other way around or it could be that people in some areas of our world have to once again leave because of mother nature. 

Read more/Reference

http://www.ushistory.org/civ/7d.asp

BBC World service

http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m7a/activity4.php

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/29/travel/900-year-stone-great-zimbabwe/

Early Years of American Football

I'd like to share with you some books about early years of american football. We learn about a sport that has a huge effect on american society today. We also learn how Americans lived in the late 19th century and early 20th century. That is quite interesting especially if you are not from USA.

You might have heard late Robert W. Peterson's name if you have read about black baseball players. His book called Only the Ball Was White published in 1970 attracted attention on Negro league players. Thanks to him among other journalists m any Negro League players made it to Baseball Hall of Fame.

Issue of race is addressed in Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football too. Nowadays 68% of players are black. In twenties there were some. In 1932 there were one and after that none until 1948. What happened?

In the early years of American Football colleges looked down on pro players. That was news to me. Peterson spends a lot of time on this issue. In the 20's leagues weren't as strong as today. Teams wanted to win desperately to stay in business. Because winning was the number one priority teams didn't care about race.

When pro football started to rise early NFL wanted to change the image of players. then the idea of role model was born. No advertising of alcohol, smokes or laxatives and no black players.

There hadn't been many altercations between players or between players and audience but that was the excuse league used to ban black players. Actually black players were never banned. There was gentleman's agreement that teams wouldn't sing black players. Talented black players ended up playing quite successfully in CFL.

In the book there is a lot about rules but most interesting parts are stories of players. Legendary Jim Thorpe is mentioned numerous times. Peterson doesn't go in-depth because he need his own book.
Thorpe (origally know as Wa-Tho-Huk) lived quite a life. 


Further Reading/Reference
http://www.besttickets.com/blog/nfl-player-census-2014/ (interesting numbers)
Jim Thorpe – All-American 1951 (That's one movie everyone should watch although white guy plays Thorpe)

Intorduction

About Me

You can go ahead and skip this part if you are not interested in who is the man behind all those links and articles that you enjoy.

I'm 18 future History or Journalistic student from Finland. English is not my first language and Mike Hill is not my real name. Why I don't go by my real name you ask. That might be because writing about history is not the most hippest hobby. You will most likely learn my real nae along the way.

I have been interested in history all my love. I know most about ancient Rome and World War II. I would like to think that I know a whole lot about world history as a whole. 

Purpose

Purpose of this blog is to share articles about historical and modern day events that I have written. I also share links that I find useful or entertaining. History can be fun as long as it stays factual. Speculation is fun but lets not take it too far. I hope that you learn and that I learn.

How Are We Going To Do It

I share links and write articles weekly. I hope they will be useful in the future too so check out older post too!