By 1850, the need for raw materials continued to drive the expansion of European empires. This generated a ‘scramble’ for land, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. This imperialist drive created the beginnings of globalization, but also acted as a catalyst for revolution and nationalist movements. Not only were there... More
In the period from the Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871 to the outbreak of World War I, the European powers were ostensibly at peace but locked in a fierce rivalry which found expression in the New Imperialism, a period of rapid colonial expansion. Spurred by a second industrial revolution, the... More
In 1942 the Axis powers were Germany, Italy and Japan, who had cemented their alliance in December 1941 by collectively declaring war on the US. Japan and Germany reached an agreement concerning their operational spheres, with a dividing line along the 70th meridian east line of longitude. By 1942, the... More
After World War II, the USA and Soviet Union were the foremost military powers. Israel was established in 1948 by partitioning Britain’s former Palestinian mandates. Britain’s empire was shrinking, especially after Indian independence in 1948; in 1950, the British were on the verge of losing Sudan, which Egypt claimed as... More
By 2000, the former European colonies were independent, with Africa comprised of 54 sovereign states. With boundaries created predominantly by the Europeans, there were border tensions between many African countries. In 2000, there was war in the Congo and Eritrea-Ethiopia. Much of Africa was also blighted by poverty and famine.... More
The mid-3rd century was a period of crisis for the world’s empires. The Han dynasty in China had disintegrated, leaving the empire split into three kingdoms, and wracked by civil war; in India, the Satavahana kingdom fragmented in the 230s while, in the same decade, the Parthians would be supplanted... More
In 2500 BCE Stonehenge was in its most grandiose phase; the giant sarsen stones assembled and erected, the bluestones transported from quarries in West Wales, their disposition displaying their architect’s astronomical grasp. The Great Pyramids of Egypt had been built, proclaiming to posterity the god-like status of their commissioning pharaohs.... More
In the Eocene, commencing around 56 million years ago, the continents began to assume their modern configuration. Australia calved from the Antarctic portion of the old supercontinent of Gondwanaland, trapping a cold current round Antarctica, which would eventually become circumpolar with the separation of South America. India’s collision with Siberia... More
The Western Roman Empire came to an end in 476 when the Ostrogoth, Odoacer, deposed Romulus Augustulus. Theoderic the Great killed Odoacer in 493, replacing him as king of Italy and the Ostrogoths. Justinian’s attempts to restore the old Roman Empire from his base in Constantinople were ultimately thwarted by... More
750 CE opened with Marwan II ruling the Umayyad Caliphate, the world’s largest empire. Before the year’s end, he would be toppled and executed in the Abbasid Revolution. In the east, the Tang Empire held sway over China and a swathe of Central Asia: they too would be devastated by... More
Hecataeus was born in Miletus on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor in around 550 BCE. The city was an intellectual powerhouse at the time, and an earlier resident, Anaximander, had already produced a world map schematically similar to the version of Hecataeus. Both maps show a disc-shaped world with... More
The maps of the Greek writer and Roman citizen Ptolemy have not survived in their original form; those we have are medieval reconstructions. An accomplished astronomer and mathematician, he understood that the world of which he was aware was a fraction of the total. There are also substantial inaccuracies in... More