Inventing Illyria for Gain and Glory
thenutshelltimes.com
Being an ambitious and accomplished sailor in 16th century Spanish Empire could only get you so far. Despite being a hero of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 against the Ottomans, saving two ships in …
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/thisisreddawn on 2024-11-26 13:32:42+00:00.

Original Title: TIL In the 1590s, a Spanish admiral made up an entire nation, complete with dozens of fake coats of arms, so that he could claim to be a nobleman and join a fraternity of knights. In doing so, he accidentally popularized the pan-South-Slavic movement, and caused the founding of Yugoslavia in 1918.