For seven centuries, the Samurai were Japan’s warrior class. As a class of warriors and knights, they dominated society in feudal Japan. Their code or “Way of the warrior”, bushido (History of the Samurai-www), called for a life of duty, discipline and self control, on and as well as off the battlefield (History of the…
There were many reasons for the downfall of the Middle Ages, but the most crucial ones were the decline of the feudal system, and the declination of the Church’s power over the nation-states. In feudal society, everyone had a definite place and a definite role, with the power resting in the hands of the local…
The Crusades were military expeditions planned and carried out by western European Christians. The crusades started around 1095. The purpose of these crusades was to overtake and gain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Holy Land was Jerusalem and the Christians believed that gaining control of it was their fate. The pope…
The summer of 1871 had been an unusually dry one in Chicago. Between July and October, only 5 inches of rain fell. In addition to twenty-seven fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke out in a planning mill on the West Side and destroyed almost every building…
Salinity in both the rivers and on the land is one of the main and most costly results of over clearing and irrigation. Salinity is caused by changes in the delicate balance between surface water and groundwater systems. A small increase in the infiltration of water from the topsoil to the groundwater, due to rainfall…
Skylab was America’s first experimental space station. Some of Skylab’s program objectives were: To prove that humans could live and work in space for extended periods, and to expand our knowledge of solar astronomy well beyond Earth-based observations. Skylab made much use of Saturn and Apollo equipment. Through the use of a “dry” third stage…
When Rome established a republic in 509 B.C., two major classes developed. The patricians controlled the government with a Senate, made up of 300 elected officials. The senate chose two consuls to administer the laws of Rome. The only power that plebeians had in the government was with a popular assembly, which approved the choice…
Robert Edward Lee was born of two distinguished Virginia families. He was a devoted son, an outstanding Westpoint cadet, and an United States army officer for thirty two years. He graduated second in his class. Lee started his impressive Military career as a Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. His first assignment was to work…
In the summer of 1966 there was a new effort on the part of the head leaders in China to further control the actions and thoughts of the people in China. The Red Guards were the force to do it all. A group of kids who mostly in their teens and some in college were…
Paranoid Personality Disorder is a disorder commonly mistaken for schizophrenic personality disorders. Schizophrenia, a psychosis, is when a person is has an image of a world and its transpiring events, and he/she is “living” it. Paranoid Personality Disorder, however, is a neurosis where an individual is living in the real world. This disorder, though not…
The area of Nicaragua is 50,193 sq. mi. The Nicaraguan highlands, with an elevation about 2000 ft, cross Nicaragua from the northwest to the southeast. Several mountain ranges, the highest of which, the Cordillera Isabelia, reaches an elevation of more than 6890 ft, cut the highlands from east to west. In the west is a…
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is judged to be one of the greatest political leaders of modern times. Among his many accomplishments are the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa and establishing democracy there and becoming the president of South Africa in 1994 following their first multiracial…
The geography of the Neanderthals domain was quite odd. 230,000 years ago Europe was filled with caves, marshes, and grasslands. It was a very harsh and cold wilderness. The Neanderthals were in existence right in the middle of the Ice Age, and although occasional warm periods would create subtropical conditions as far north as England…
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769 and died in 1821. Napoleon was a military genius for the loyalty of his troops, and for his spectacular victories. The many change of the government in France, against the background of war, made possible the rise of a military dictator. Since childhood, Napoleon was taught strategies and tactics…
What does NAFTA mean? A Free Trade Area is, by definition, an area where all barriers to trade are lifted. This is not the case with regards to NAFTA at this point. Currently most of the trade barriers between the United States and Canada are lifted but those with Mexico have largely been kept in…
Benito Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism and premier of Italy ruling as a dictator from about 1925 until his dismissal in 1943. Mussolini was born to a socialist blacksmith. As a child he was unruly and undisciplined. He shared his father’s views picking up other ideas from authors of the time. Mussolini became…
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in 1475. He was born in a small town called Caprese, in Tuscany, Italy. Michelangelo was one of the most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance. According to Charles de Tolnay Michelangelo’s three greatest works of his later life, were the Tomb of Pope Julius II, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and…
Marie Antoinette was the wife of King Louis XVI of France. She was born in 1755 in France and was the daughter of the Great Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria. Because her parents came from two countries at war with each other, their marriage formed a peace treaty. Marie was very spoiled…
In May of 1977, Daniel Levinson constructed a model of the seasons of a man’s life. His developmental theory consists of universal stages or phases that extend from the infancy state to the elderly state. Most development theories, such as Freud’s psychosexual development theory or Piaget’s cognitive development theory, end in the adolescent stage of…
Getting There On the way to Gettysburg was tough. It was a long hard and tough journey getting there because there was no other way to get there for the army besides walking. It was so hard that some people died, and some got sick. The trip there was very long. Only about half all…
