Why do Brazilians speak Portuguese and not Spanish?
Because of the rotation of the Earth and the distance between Puerto Rico and Cape Verde:
It's 1494
Just 6 years earlier, in 1488, Portugal discovered a path to the Indian Ocean passing below Africa. If they could establish a trade route to the Indies, they could break the Muslim monopoly on the Silk Road and get crazy rich. But the Spanish want in too...
But just 2 years earlier, in 1492, Spain discovered America while looking for another route to the Indies. Now Portugal wants in too...
After some negotiations, they sign the Treaty of Tordesillas: the eastern path is for Portugal, the western path for Spain.
What will be the limit between the 2 spheres of influence? They settle on the midpoint between Spain's islands in the Caribbean and Portugal's islands on Africa's west coast—Cape Verde.
Move the Caribbean islands or Cape Verde east, or Brazil west, and they would have fallen on the Spanish side and speak Spanish to this day
Alas, this line gives the Brazilian tip of America to Portugal. But they don't know that, because Brazil has not been discovered yet!
In another world, Portugal would have kept its focus on Africa & Asia, and Spain on America for so long that Spain would have reached & conquered Brazil. Hard to fight that after the fact.
But Portugal was about to discover Brazil independently! Because of the Earth's rotation
6 years after Tordesillas, in 1500, the Portuguese stumble upon Brazil without looking for it. How come?
The Volta do Mar
The Portuguese pioneered Atlantic sailing and soon realized the winds and currents were so strong and consistent that the fastest way to travel required a big detour to harness them. For example, coming back from India, it was fastest to go near America
The Portuguese discovered this because they realized the winds and currents formed a "gyre" in the North Atlantic.
They then assumed the inverse was true in the South Atlantic. They were right.
The Portuguese knowledge of winds and currents was so strong that that the 1st time Bartolomeu Dias rounded Africa's tip, he didn't realize he had because he was too far from the coast! He saw the Cape of Good Hope on the way back.
Over time, the Portuguese understood better the winds, currents, and geography of Africa, and started going way into the South Atlantic to round Africa's tip... Until they stumbled upon Brazil.
Brazil was perfect for Portugal:
• On the good side of the Treaty of Tordesillas
• A perfect pit stop for the ships
• Perfect for timber
• They could use their slave trade from Africa to bring slaves into Brazilian plantations
This video gives a chilling sense of the scale of that slave trade:
And why are there gyres in the Atlantic? Because of the rotation of the Earth. It's the Coriolis Force en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_…
So to summarize: 1. Brazil belonged to Portugal's sphere of influence because to define it, Spain and Portugal took the midpoint between Cape Verde and Spain's Caribbean islands in the Treaty of Tordesillas
2. The Earth's rotation causes the Coriolis force, which causes the Atlantic gyres, which made it useful for ships from Europe to Asia to pass by Brazil on their way below Africa's tip
In other words, Brazilians speak Portuguese and not Spanish because Brazil fell in Portugal's sphere of influence due to the distance between the Caribbean and Cape Verde; and Portugal found Brazil and needed it because of the Atlantic gyres caused by the rotation of the Earth.
I'll publish next week 2 articles, a brief history of Spain, and a brief history of Portugal. Follow me to get them, or sign up to my newsletter unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com
If you want a taste of it, you can head to my article or thread about France
Why did 🇮🇱Israel strike 🇮🇷Iran now, and not months or years ago or in the future?
A unique combination of a dozen factors converged to make the moment unique for 🇮🇱Israel: 🧵 1. No Hamas to its southwest 2. No Hezbollah to its north 3. No Assad threat to the northeast
4...
4. No more Syrian army to attack 🇮🇱Israel's planes: As the new forces of HTS took over Syria, Israel bombed all the existing Syrian military. No more fighter jets or surface-to-air missiles to threaten 🇮🇱Israel
5. Ability to fly over Syria to refuel
This is critical, because 🇮🇷Iran is ~600-1000 miles away from 🇮🇱Israel, so 1200-2000 miles round trip
The range of Israel’s stealth F35 is only about 1,350 mi
To operate inside 🇮🇷Iran, 🇮🇱Israel needed refueling over Syria
1. From Feb 2025 to Jun 2025, it increased its amount of enriched uranium by 50% 2. It now had 400kg of highly enriched uranium, enough for 9-10 bombs 3. This is 60% enriched uranium. Fuel only requires 5% enrichment.
4... 🧵
4. It's easy to go from 60% to 90% (weapons grade), it only takes weeks 5. The only country on Earth with such enriched uranium and without a bomb is 🇮🇷Iran 6. The IAEA (nuclear watchdog) found 3 secret nuclear sites
7. When 🇮🇷Iran didn't respond to this accusation, the IAEA censured it 8. 🇮🇷Iran responded to the censoring by saying it would open a 3rd enrichment site in a secret spot
Now that the 🇺🇸US has bombed 3 of 🇮🇷Iran's nuclear sites, where will the war go from here?
It depends on 🇮🇱Israel: 🧵
🇮🇷Iran never wanted the war, and its forces are being decimated. Its ability to send missiles to 🇮🇱Israel is being degraded every day. If it could sign a ceasefire while saving face, it would
Meanwhile, 🇮🇱Israel has kept striking Iran non stop. Its daily airstrikes didn't go down substantially in the first few days. Its ability to keep striking 🇮🇷Iran remains unabated
Can there be an invasion of Iran? Hardly. Two maps explain why, and also why Iran is the way it is today, whether its regime will fall, what other superpowers will do, and in general why Iran is the way it is today
The only truly exposed area is the southwestern corner of Khuzestan, which is a swamp
The biggest superpowers lie to the west, and there the very broad Zagros make it really hard to conquer Iran. The mountain range is tall and wide, making logistics similar to Afghanistan. Very hard.
Iraq learned it the hard way when it tried to attack there in 1980
Listening to the debate, it looks like 🇮🇱Israel & the 🇺🇸US intelligence community disagreed, but that's not really the case!
Both thought Iran was weeks to months away from being able to develop the bomb
So what's the disagreement?
Here are more facts:
• Tehran had just announced a 3rd enrichment site in an undisclosed place
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had recently produced a report censoring Iran for the 1st time in 20y
• It accused Iran of 3 undisclosed nuclear sites
• It claimed Iran had enough enriched uranium for 9-10 nuclear bombs
• All the other countries in the world who have enriched uranium at the same level also have nuclear weapons. Iran is the only country that doesn't have these weapons yet enriches uranium as much
Nuclear is the best source of energy across nearly all the factors that matter. It's the safest, cleanest, densest, most sustainable, geopolitically stable, predictable, dispatchable, and can be cheap.
1. SAFEST
It kills 1000x less than coal
Living close to a nuclear power plant for one year gives you less radiation than eating a banana (graph is logarithmic)
2. CLEANEST
Accounting for all the lifecycle of all energies, it's the one that emits the least CO2