Sonno joi, “Restore the Emperor and expel the Barbarians,” was the battle cry that ushered in the Showa Restoration in Japan during the 1930’s. The Showa Restoration was a combination of Japanese nationalism, Japanese expansionism, and Japanese militarism all carried out in the name of the Showa Emperor, Hirohito. Unlike the Meiji Restoration, the Showa…
The Indians originally came over to North America via the Bering Strait at a time when the ice age caused the gap to freeze over. They came from Asia by following herds and in search of more. During their travels, some decided to stop and settle down, hence the many different tribes. The Blackfoot occupied…
The center of the Aztec civilization was the Valley of Mexico, a huge, oval basin about 7,500 feet above sea level. The Aztecs were formed after the Toltec civilization occurred when hundreds of civilians came towards Lake Texcoco. In the swamplands there was only one piece of land to farm on and it was totally…
Since 1896, the year the Olympics were resurrected from ancient history, the Olympics have been a symbol of the camaraderie and harmony possible on a global scale. The gathering of athletic representatives, the pride of the pack, from participating governments, even throughout the recent Cold War period, is proof that world unity is possible; just…
Airships. In the early years of War, these beasts were known for their majestic presence in the sky and were icons of a country’s power and prestige. They reigned mostly as reconnaissance and transport utility aircraft but there was something about this “lighter-than-air” ship that made it far more than a mere utility workhorse. In…
The Beothuk people of Newfoundland were not the very first inhabitants of the island. Thousands of years before their arrival there existed an ancient race, named the Maritime Archaic Indians who lived on the shores of Newfoundland. (Red Ochre Indians, Marshall, 4.) Burial plots and polished stone tools are occasionally discovered near Beothuk remains. Some…
The 1968 Tet Offensive is described as one of the bloodiest military campaign of the Vietnam War; the North Communists launched against the South. The “general offensive and general uprising” of the north marked the sharp turn of the Vietnam War. Today there have been a great number of writings about this event. However, it…
Jan. 25.–U.S. battleship Maine, Captain C.D. Sigsbee, U.S.N., is ordered to Havana, Cuba. Feb. 8.–The publication of a letter written by Senor Dupuy de Lome, Spanish Minister of the United States, speaking disparagingly of President McKinley, leads to the Minister’s resignation of his post, and the appointment of Senor Luis Polo y Bernabe. Feb. 15.–The…
Sir Francis Drake Francis Drake was an experienced and daring seafarer. Among many adventures, the ‘famous voyage’, his successful circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580 ensured that he would be one of the best remembered figures of Tudor England. In his own lifetime, he was thought of with mixed feelings, both at home…
ALLIES AND ENEMIES Seneca are among the most respected and feared. The Seneca are culturally similar to their Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk confederates. The five tribes were known as the Five Nations or the League of Five Nations. Sometime between 1715 and 1722 the Tuscaroras from North Carolina joined the confederacy and changed the…
“As the United States is a nation made up of people from many nations, so the Seminole is a tribe made up of Indians from many tribes.” (Garbarino 13) The Seminole are the indigenous people living in southeastern America. They lived in what is now Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The…
Robert Penn Warren, born in Guthrie, Kentucky in 1905, was one of the twentieth century’s most eminent American writers. He was a distinguished novelist and poet, literary critic, essayist, short story writer, and coeditor of numerous textbooks. He also a founding editor of The Southern Review, a journal of literary criticism and political thought. The…
The English-French relations have not always been easy. Each is always arguing and accusing the other of wrong doings. All this hatred and differences started in the past, and this Quiet revolution, right after a new Liberal government led by Jean Lesage came in 1960. Thus was the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. Lesage had…
The Democrats nominated James Buchanan and John Breckenridge, the newly formed Republican party nominated John Fremont and William Drayton, the American [or Know-Nothing] party nominated former president Millard Fillmore and Andrew Donelson, and the Abolition Party nominated Gerrit Smith and Samuel McFarland. Buchanan started his political career as a state representative in Pennsylvania, was elected…
The Populist Party, a third political party that originated in America in the latter part of the nineteenth century, derived as a result of farmer discontent and economic distress. This was caused by the country’s shift from an agricultural American life to one in which industrialists dominated the nation’s development. The public felt as if…
Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, was once described as “A French Canadian proud of his identity and culture, yet a biting critic of French-Canadian society, determined to destroy its mythology and illusions”. He has also been identified as “A staunch, upholder of provincial autonomy holding the justice portfolio in the federal government”. Such…
Pearl Harbor was the operating base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The Japanese pulled a surprise attack on the U.S. on December 7, 1941 at 7:50 A.M. during the beginning of World War II. On November 26 a powerful Japanese task force, under the command of vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, left the Kuril Islands; on…
In 1825, a group of American businesspeople announced the formation of a canal building company, with interests in constructing a canal system across the Isthmus. This project was to take place in an area now called Panama. The endeavor was filled with controversy. Though the canal itself was not built until the early 1900’s every…
Many social changes that were addressed in the 1960s are still the issues being confronted today. The ’60s was a decade of social and political upheaval. In spite of all the turmoil, there were some positive results: the civil rights revolution, john f. Kennedy’s bold vision of a new frontier, and the breathtaking advances in…
Origins of Korean War Korean War started on the 25th June 1950, but do you know how and why it happened? When someone mentions the Korean War, everyone knows that it was a civil war between the North and the South Korea. But, do you know the origin of how it actually got started? There…