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The expansion of what is now Las Vegas from a mere train stop is largely due to WWII in the Pacific Theater. Prior to the war, opium and heroin were imported through the Port of Los Angeles for distribution through the country. The LA drug trade was controlled by famed gangster Mickey Cohen. Once the War in the Pacific broke out & restricted the drug trade through LA, drugs were re-routed to the far South Pacific to land in South America and transported overland up through Nevada to Las Vegas for distribution. (Opium was legal in Nevada until the 1950s.)
While everyone knows about the Mob connection to Las Vegas via The Chicago Outfit, The Cleveland Crime Family, and the Kansas City (essentially everything in the movie Casino starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci & Sharon Stone is true), the expansion of Las Vegas was funded in large part by the Mormon Church. The Church dispatched banker Perry Thomas to Las Vegas to found The Bank of Las Vegas, which was the vehicle the Church used to finance expansion. Banks extend loans against assets. Casinos at that time didn't have any assets to secure a loan - their assets were card tables, decks of playing cards, and the like. Perry Thomas was the banker who implemented the concept of loaning against the mathematical house edge. The house edge was the asset.
In the movie Casino, Robert DeNiro played the real-life gangster Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, whom Martin Scorsese renamed Sam "Ace" Rothstein, and Joe Pesci played the real-life gangster Anthony "Tony The Ant" Spilotro whom Scorsese renamed Nicky Santoro.
Is your point that Cabrillo's explorations are not taught?
Fun fact: In 1542, Cabrillo rounded the tip of Long Beach to see what is now Los Angeles -- and yes, in 1542, Cabrillo was the first Westerner to DISCOVER SMOG. The indigenous people of LA called it "Valley of the Smokes." On October 8, Cabrillo came to San Pedro Bay (the site of the modern Port of LA), which he named "Baya de los Fumos" (English: Smoke Bay).
My focus was on historical context and the example of exploration in the 1540s. Maybe Cabrillo gets some attention in California? My point really is that there was a lot going on in that period of just a few years. The events were connected but usually not even mentioned together. What prompted the burst of Spanish exploration -- Coronado, De Soto, and Cabrillo (and who else) all in those few years is not mentioned in history other than a vague reference to the earlier ill-fated Narváez expedition and the awesome trek of the four survivors, usually just referring to Cabeza de Vaca, who wrote an account.
All three are mostly addressed as standalone events in what passes for History class, if they are covered at all. Where I grew up on the Mississippi in the Midwest we knew about De Soto. I now live about two miles from Coronado's winter camp on the Rio Grande in New Mexico, so he gets a lot of attention here. Cabrillo would probably be much better known now in coastal California. But they were all part of a major effort to find out what existed to the north.
Well, we've got a guy driving around up here with an Aztlan license plate. I keep wondering where he went to school. That's just carrying "the fish that got away" a step too far. Heh.
I notice a lot of social history is reported in a one-sided way with half the story told for political purposes., the other half the hows and whys, omitted.
Why are we so incapable of writing history in a multi-faceted style?
I live in Florida and watched a documentary on the state’s history, especially the establishment of St. Augustine. St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish military in 1565 while Jamestown in Virginia was founded by the British in 1607. So ironically, the US actually got it’s start as a Spanish colony (and now Hispanics are among the fastest growing group of residents here in the US—maybe we are returning to our roots?)
To me, it’s a case of emphasizing the history of the US from a northern, English perspective, rather than a southern, Spanish one.
The USA came out of British American, not Spanish Florida. Florida flipped between Britain and Spain a few times.
Last edited by Dave Davis; 08-04-2022 at 05:51 PM..
What are events in U.S. history that are taught incorrectly?
I don't know as I would say "incorrectly", as much as "incompletely".
One area that is almost completely ignored is the role the hidden financial masters played, in making secret deals with powerful rulers - kings and presidents.
Over the past decades, I've been reading about these secret deals. they are too numerous and unknown to just rattle off in a simple post.
A good example would be the real cause of the American civil war. There were so many issues and powerful cabals competing with each other, it's probably as difficult to know the "why" as it would be to know the "why" and "who" of the JFK assassination.
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What are events in U.S. history that are taught incorrectly?
