Happy Birthday to Panama!

An aerial photo of the capital St George’s. *Photo from Wikipedia February 7 is Grenada’s Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Grenada, a sovereign state in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, from the United Kingdom in 1974. First settled by indigenous peoples, by the time of European contact it was inhabited by the Caribs. French colonists drove most of the Caribs off the island and established plantations on the island, eventually importing African slaves to work on the sugar plantations. Control of the island was disputed by Great Britain and France in the 18th century, with the British ultimately prevailing. Grenada

Market in Serekunda, the largest city in The Gambia. *Photo from Wikipedia February 18 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965. The Gambia shares historical roots with many other West African nations in the slave trade, which was the key factor in the placing and keeping of a colony on the Gambia River, first by the Portuguese, during which era it was A Gâmbia, and later, on May 25, 1765, the Gambia was made a part of the British colony when the government formally assumed control, establishing the Province of Senegambia. On

Bandar Seri Begawan (formerly known as Brunei Town), the capital city of Brunei. *Photo from Wikipedia February 23 is National Day of Brunei, which remarks the Independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. (*Its actual independence day is January 1) At the peak of the Bruneian Empire, Sultan Bolkiah is alleged to have had control over most regions of Borneo. The maritime state was visited by Spain’s Magellan Expedition in 1521 and fought against Spain in 1578’s Castille War. During the 19th century, the Bruneian Empire began to decline. The Sultanate ceded Sarawak (Kuching) to James Brooke and installed him