tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39496986169268254222024-09-19T13:36:20.900-07:00A blogged history of the world and everything of interest in itAbercrombyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03393732734885780413noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3949698616926825422.post-41914595717463938802007-09-17T18:36:00.000-07:002007-09-17T19:14:28.006-07:00

A view of houses among the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro. Many large covered drains were constructed with corbelled arches. These drains ran beneath streets and lanes and were large enough for workmen to enter and clear any obstructions.The first expansion of civilisation beyond the Middle East was to the Indian Subcontinent. From about 2500 BC to 2000BC there flourished in the Indus Valley an

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Egyptologists in the early twentieth century interpreted the formation of the Egyptian state as a Darwinian process: the desiccation of the Sahara forced people into the Nile Valley, which gradually led to the development of villages, then ‘chiefdoms’. Over time, the chiefdoms were absorbed into two major Kingdoms, Upper Egypt (the Nile Valley), and Lower Egypt (the Delta). The two were united by

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The Renaissance was one of the great moments of the human spirit, comparable perhaps only to Athens in the times of Pericles. It was also the first time that Europe noticeably moved ahead of all other contemporary civilizations. As usual, the background was economic.The Italian trading cities, especially Venice and Genoa, had taken the lead in international trade since the crusades. After the

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Extract from the King List in the Temple of Ramesses II, Abydos, now in the British Museum The basic unit of Egypt’s ancient history is the dynasty. The most recent histories may count as many as 33 of these. These dynasties are then grouped into Kingdoms and Intermediary Periods, preceded and followed by other unnumbered dynasties and periods. This divides ancient Egyptian history into roughly

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Ancient Egypt is unique in terms of geography. Unlike ‘ancient Greece’, which, culturally, embraced a region far wider than the narrow geographical limits of its modern namesake, or ‘Rome’, which was culturally diverse within its broad political boundaries, Egypt is closely defined in geographical terms. Yet ‘placing’ Egypt in the world is actually fraught with difficulties.The most obvious

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Among the harsh deserts of northeast Africa, it was only the River Nile which made the development of an advanced civilization possible. In the late sixth millennium BC, farming was introduced from Palestine. The unique advantages of the Nile made a dramatic increase of the population possible. In the fourth millennium villages increased in size, until the first walled towns appeared in southern

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Early in the second millennium BC, there appeared in western Asia, peoples speaking Indo-European languages. Originally nomadic and pastoral they penetrated into Asia Minor and established there, the Hittite state, with its capital at Hattusas (around Turkey). By the middle of the 17th century BC, they had acquired control of central Anatolia and were attacking cities in northern Syria. In 1595

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Mesopotamia was the first of the great Ancient Civilizations. Its northern area, along the River Tigris, had first been settled during the seventh millennium BC. Various cultures are identified in the next 2000 years, spreading further westward and southward. The ‘Ubeid culture (5500-4000BC) is remarkable for the settlement of arid southern Mesopotamia, using the spring floods of the Euphrates

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After 500 years, has the dominant position of Western Civilization come to an end? Not so long ago the eminent historian Arnold Toynbee believed that all other civilizations had effectively disappeard and hd been absorbed by the victorious Western Civilization. But by the end of the 20th century it is clear that this was an incrorrect diagnosis. The Islamic Civilization continues to exist, and

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History’s turning points are frequently violent events. Revolutions are perhaps the most interesting, because they are often attended and caused by a significant change in thought or practice. The immediate causes of revolutions are often similar: a weak or unwise ruler such as Charles I and James II of England; Louis XVI or Charles X of France; or Nicholas II of Russia – in a place and time that

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European cultural, economic, and martial advantages from the 15th to the early 20th century brought about a unique occurrence in the history of mankind: the physical conquest of most of the planet by one civilization and the economic and cultural hegemony over the remainder. This was a gradual process which reached its height in the late 19th century, and is now arguably waning.It started in the

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Civilization is a rather subjective term, but for the sake of perspective, we will speak of it anyway, by measuring the advancement of cultural and technological output, compared to what came before, and what came afterwards. In this sense, by the end of the Crusades, Western Europe was still a less civilized region than, say, the Byzantium Empire, or other parts of the Islamic world. Even Muslim

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It is difficult to forget that Africa was the cradle of humanity. Even then, partly because of the late introduction of farming, Africa’s entrance into recorded history was later than that of Europe and the Middle East (remembering of course that Egypt, one of the premier civilizations, was very much part of Africa).The first hints of civilization spread through North Africa from Egypt, and by

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The Middle Ages is the name given to the period falling between the end of the Western Roman Empire. It was marked, at least in retrospect, by a sharp decline in civilization in the wake of the Western Empire, only to be “rediscovered” during the Renaissance. The term is problematic for a few reasons. First, it only applies to Western Europe, excluding the Islamic and Byzantine Empires (the

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History is commonly examined as though it only “happened” in Europe and the Middle East. Broadly speaking, many of the most momentous developments in civilization do occur in these regions, from urbanization to writing, to the Industrial Revolution and many of the scientific breakthroughs of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, during the 1st millennium AD, Asia must definitely receive some

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It is astonishing that the two most influential cradles of the Western tradition - Greece and Israel - were so small even in comparison to some of their neighbours. There were two reasons for the ability of their messages – classical civilization and thought, and Christianity – to spread: The Greek and Roman Empires. Alexander the Great’s conquests built behind his advance, a lasting fortress of

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There are times, rare though they are, when different societies and civilizations achieve a comparable level of development, independently of one another. This is very much what happened during the middle of the first millennium BC, in China, Greece, Persia, India and China. It is indeed curious that the various philosophies and religions for which these societies are famous today, seem to have

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The concept of Empire has its roots in the limited means of production in the agricultural society: land and trade, in that order, were the basis of power and indeed survival. Tribute sustained and greatly stimulated economies with relatively little effort on the part of the conquerors (this factor, due to complacency, tends to ultimately lead to their fall). For that reason, the idea of Empire

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The achievements of the Urban Revolution in the Middle East, and the later invention of writing and metallurgy slowly spread throughout Europe and Asia. The period after 5000BC saw a gradual, full transition to agriculture in Western Europe. Forest clearing made room for farming on a larger scale than was managed before, and a subsequent rise in populations, beginning first in fertile river

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The walls of Jericho todayBy about 10,000BC, the last Ice Age came to an end. Ice sheets which had covered most of the northern hemisphere were melting by this time and the water that had been locked up in them was released with the effect of raising ocean levels by over 400 feet, severing land-bridges between Britain and Europe, as well as those that connected Siberia and North America,

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A Neanderthal ChildHomo habilis seems to have lived in groups from an early period, as indicated by camp sites found in Tanzania, dating to 2 million years ago. Remains of roughly the same age have also shown strong evidence that Homo habilis constructed shelter, even huts. Not soon after – perhaps 1.7 million years ago, a more robust form of man appeared: Homo erectus – upright man.Homo erectus

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The face of Australopithecus The first life appeared around 1000 Million years after the formation of the Earth. Early life began in the sea, and consisted mainly of algae, plankton and bacteria. It was only 530 million years ago, during the Cambrian Period that life began to diversify in the sea, with mollusks, corals, vertebrates, amphibians and insects appearing around this time. Some of

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A map of the world's tectonic platesThe earth is but a small planet among the innumerable galaxies and still yet more star clusters in the universe. It orbits an insignificant star in the outer trails of the Milky Way. Sun, earth, Milky way. We, as a planet, are not terribly important in the grand scheme of things. The earth is believed to be some 4.6 billion years old, but we need not go back

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Historians used to draw a clear line between history and prehistory. The existence of written records was a touchstone if one was dealing with "history". As writing was invented in around 3300 BC in Mesopotamia, all earlier developments were regarded as prehistory. This differentiation has lost much of its significance in recent times. Archaeology and its auxiliary sciences and techniques have

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