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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
In 1923, this statement was admitted to Congress under the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The ERA was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution granting equality between men and women under the law. If the Era was passed, it would have made unconstitutional any laws that grant one sex different rights than the other. …
Summary The movie “Disaster at Hillsborough” showed the complexity of a stampede. From the build-up of people outside the gate, to the disaster that ended in the death of 95 people. The stadium was not equipped for the masses of people to show up all at the same place at the same time. According to…
Deng Xiaoping was a loyal communist who sacrificed his own life so his people could have a better one. During his long political career, he served as a Communist political commissioner of the 129th Division (Liu-Deng Army) from 1929 to 1949. As political commissioner he bravely and successfully fought the Nationalists. In 1945, he was…
Ernesto Guevara was born in l928. When he was two, he moved to Cordoba, Spain, because of asthma. As a young child, Guevara became interested in reading Marx, Engels, and Freud found in his father’s library. As he grew up, he watched the Spanish refugees from the Spanish Civil War fight against the fascist dictator,…
When people hear the word “rape” they might imagine a stranger leaping out from the shadows of a dark alley and attacking someone. Although this is partly true, most rapes are committed by people who know their victims. When intercourse is unwanted and forced upon by someone you know, it is known as “date rape.”…
