Backed by royal mandate, the French made the most impressive early inroads into the North American continent. Quebec was founded in 1608, and Montreal in 1642, while the British and Dutch were still largely huddled along the Atlantic coastline. However, the natural resources of New England and Virginia would, after... More
Between the 18th and 19th centuries the map of North America is dominated by migrations, many forced. President Andrew Jackson’s Removal Act (1830) pushed Native American populations progressively westwards. The first, and, most catastrophic, consequence was depopulation by disease. Often running ahead of the main body of settlers, initial contacts... More
The American colonies, which had declared themselves independent of Britain in 1776, did not have the naval resources to fight the powerful British navy. The solution was privateering, with many patriotic American citizens using government commissioned vessels to seize British merchant ships. Privateers were mandated by a law dating back... More
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, President Roosevelt stated America should become the ‘arsenal of democracy’ and US factories increased productivity to support the war effort. The Manhatttan Project established major nuclear facilities in preparation for the atom bomb: Hanford in Washington extracted plutonium; while uranium... More
Congress passed the Rail Passenger Service Act in 1970, and established the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRCP). This was a public-private profit-making entity that received government funding to provide a centralized intercity passenger rail service. Privately operated passenger lines were encouraged to become part of the NRCP and 20 systems... More
Anaximander was a revolutionary cosmologist who introduced the concept of ‘space’ and layers of celestial bodies rather than the static dome-like ‘celestial vault’ described by his predecessors. He envisaged the earth as free-floating and unsupported but stationary ‘in the same place because of its indifference’. He conceived its shape not... More
The Greek classical era (beginning c. 500 BCE) lasted around 200 years and saw the rise of democracy (‘people power’) when Athenian leader, Cleisthenes, created a political system that enfranchised adult men of Athenian descent. Many Greek city-states practised democracy, although there were exceptions, such as Sparta and ‘barbarian’ Epirus.... More
Proto-Greek speakers first migrated into southeastern Europe between 2200 BCE and 1600 BCE. Mycenaean Greek-speakers arrived in the second millennium BCE, settling in the southern part of the Greek mainland and in the Peloponnese. A later wave brought Ionic speakers into Attica as well as other parts of central Greece... More
The site of Tiahuanaco on Lake Titicaca in the Andean altiplano was first settled almost 4,000 years ago. The major constructions of apparent ceremonial significance date to around 300 BCE, and it appears to have developed regional significance as a place of veneration and pilgrimage. Around 400 CE religious power... More
The Angevin Empire was ruled over by England’s King Henry II, of the House of Plantagenet. He was the son of the Empress Matilda, who had a claim to the English throne, and was married to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. After he died she married Geoffrey of Anjou,... More
Occupying 500 acres and soaring to 699 feet (213 m) Angkor Wat, located in modern-day Cambodia, is the name of one of the largest temple complexes in the world. Built as a Hindu funerary temple in the 12th century, it became part of the Theravada Buddhist movement in the 14th... More
The Viking invasions in the 9th century threw the earlier process of diocese creation into reverse, with a broad swathe of England between Northumbria and Wessex falling under the Danelaw. After the Saxon reconquest by Athelstan (927–39), the Danish territory was recolonized by amalgamating dioceses: the huge see of Dorchester... More