They Killed All The Dogs In Malta...

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In 1565 the Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, laid siege to the island of Malta. During the 4 months of the siege what was done then by the Knights of St. John was what needed to be done.

This siege, viewed as a success by the Ottomans as it forced the Spanish to expend a disproportionate percentage of their resources to maintain their presence in the Mediterranean, also shattered the European perspective of Ottoman invincibility. In the years that followed the Spanish became more secure with their presence in the Mediterranean and were able to focus their energies on other frontiers - namely, this one.

The history of the Americas, as most of us understand it, began then with the Spanish assuming the dominant role in an era of global exploration.

Everything accelerated from there. The English, French & Dutch generated a competitive response, but were not able to fully catch up with Spain for over 100 years. Bad, good and weird decisions followed by all parties involved as this land rush, this globalization, played out.

And now here we are.

All of this was driven by entrepreneurs. Some were market entrepreneurs. Some were political entrepreneurs. But entrepreneurs they were.

At least that's my opinion. ;-)

So on Nov. 13th maybe we find the next Sulieman the Magnificent? Or perhaps the next Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam? Someone who shakes the dust from the rafters of our complacency and changes everything.

What fun!

And maybe in this cycle the dogs will come out OK. As a concept the idea of civilization now gets fairly high approval ratings, so I would certainly hope so.

Cheers,
Kevin

The Etymology of the word Entrepreneur

The word "entrepreneur" is a loanword from French. In French the verb "entreprendre" means "to undertake", with "entre" coming from the Latin word meaning "between". In French a person who performs a verb, has the ending of the verb changed to "eur", comparable to the "er" ending in English. Therefore, an entrepreneur is an undertaker, a person who undertakes a task.

Enterprise is similar to and has roots in, the French word "entreprise", which is the past participle of "entreprendre".

Entrepreneuse is simply the French feminine word for "entrepreneur".