At its height, the Ottoman Empire ruled the Middle East and much of northern Africa and eastern Europe, but by the late 1800s, the Empire was in decline. Increasing instability had taken its toll, aided by ethnic and regional groups across the Empire who sought independence. Unsuccessful wars had weakened... More
Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, the German protectorate of New Guinea was divided up amongst the victorious Entente powers. The southern part of the protectorate, comprising territory on New Guinea and islands south of the equator, came under the Australian Mandate. New Zealand was awarded German... More
In 1853, Congress allocated money and authorized the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, to establish ‘the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean’. Until this time, reaching the west coast from the east required a travel time of several months, either... More
The largest Bronze Age archaeological site is the Palace of Knossos, which was the ceremonial and political centre of Minoan civilization. The palace was built between 1700 and 1400 BCE. It covers 6 acres and has a total of 1,300 interconnected rooms. Parts of it were built up to five... More
The Pale was defined by an Act of Parliament (1488), setting out the (much reduced) area of Ireland still effectively under the direct control of the English king. ‘Beyond the Pale’, the rule of Ireland was effectively parcelled out between resurgent Gaelic chieftains and the largely autonomous Hiberno-Norman earldoms. But... More
Following the Siege of Paris and the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War legislative elections in France in February 1871 revealed a majority in favour of a form of republican royalism, the Third Republic. Parisians, fearing the new regime would be republican in name only began to organize their own... More
In the words of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom." Upon independence on 15 August 1947, when the British left the subcontinent after 300 years of colonial rule, India was partitioned into... More
The attack on Pearl Harbor was launched without a declaration of war by Japan and resulted in a huge loss of life and the destruction of many naval vessels of the US Pacific Fleet. Following the two attack waves, all of the US battleships in port were destroyed or heavily... More
The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was the most serious uprising in Medieval England. The peasants were angry about a recently imposed poll tax (to cover the cost of war with France), food-shortages, poor wages and their serfdom. The revolt began when a tax collector was thrown out of an Essex... More
In the 1930s, tensions between the Arab and Jewish communities in Palestine steadily deteriorated as Jewish immigration and land purchase escalated. An Arab General Strike in 1936 was followed by an uprising led by prominent Arab clans, the Nashashibis and Husseinis. Lord Peel was called upon to examine methods to... More
The Pennsylvania Railroad is a Class 1 railroad established in the state of Pennsylvania in 1846, with its first line running from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, and a subsequent passenger line running from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. For the first half of the twentieth century it was the largest railroad in terms... More
The classic theory of Paleoindian colonization of the Americas proposed migration from a heartland in Siberia across the then existing Beringian landbridge c. 15000 BP. Thereafter, according to this model, the early Paleoindians exploited an ice-free corridor in western Canada before fanning out when reaching the present day United States.... More