History 1 Flashcards
Harp of pint of Guinness is fashioned after:
High king Brian Boru.
Unifying king of Ireland. Famous for ending Viking domination of Ireland with battle of Clontarf in 1014
The majority of Zimbabweans are ____ speaking
Shona speaking
Stanislav Petrov.
Man who saved the world in 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident.
Socrates sentenced to death
399 BCE
Henry I’s Charter of Liberties
1100
Caligula failed invasion of England was in ___.
40 AD
He told his troops to gather sea shells.
Inspirational leader of Singapore
Lee Kuan Yew
Which civilisation?
One enduring symbol from their artwork is the double-headed eagle—a design that was passed down and adopted by many other cultures throughout the ages, from Byzantium to Imperial Russia
Hittites
Fall of Western Roman Empire
476
In this year the last Roman emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by a Germanic prince called Odovacar.
___ was a moderate and he did not agree with the extreme views of the Jacobins and consequently left the Jacobin party.
Mirabeau
De Montfort’s rebellious parliament
1265
The ___ was a popular revolt by peasants that took place in northern France in the early summer of 1358 during the Hundred Years’ War.
The Jacquerie was a popular revolt by peasants that took place in northern France in the early summer of 1358 during the Hundred Years’ War.
A group of “twenty and odd” enslaved Africans arrived in the Virginia Colony
1619
Treaty of Tordesillas, where the pope divided the world between Spain & Portugal was in ____
1494
Julius Caesar first failed invasion of England
55, 54 BC
Claudius successful invasion
43 AD
Julius Caesar becomes dictator
47 BC
Rome raze Carthage & Corinth
146 BC
The ____ on the Greek island of Crete was the capital of the Minoan civilization.
Palace of Knossos
Pilgrimage of grace (uprising against Henry VIII)
1536
French Revolution:
The buff ugly guy in Place of Greater Safety =
Witty writer =
Georges Danton
Camille Desmoulins
The first President of Indonesia
Sukarno
1945 to 1967.
Overthrown by Foreign Office dirty tricks in 1966
Al-Kindi brings classical Greek texts to House of Wisdom in Baghdad in ___
900
Through the Government of India Act ____ the British Crown assumed direct control of East India Company-held territories in India in the form of the new British Raj.
Through the Government of India Act 1858 the British Crown assumed direct control of East India Company-held territories in India in the form of the new British Raj.
Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral
1517
Full modern thinking homo sapiens have been around for ___
50,000 years.
Farming was independently invented
7 times
Charlemagne was born
742
Women get vote in New Zealand
1893
Dates of the Malayan Emergency =
1948 - 1960 fight for independence.
Called an “emergency” because tin-mining industries had pushed for the use of the term “emergency” since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyd’s insurers if it had been termed a “war”.
10 days that shook the world referred to what?
1917 Russian October Revolution. Book by John Reed.
Boudicca uprising
60
Emily davidson killed herself throwing herself under the King’s horse
1913
1953 coup in Iran overthrew democratically elected leader named ____.
Mosaddegh - called Operation Boot
By about 600, Anglo-Saxon England had become divided into a number of small kingdoms within what eventually became known as the ____ .
Heptarchy
Arrival of Hengist and Horsa
449
Viking raid on Lindisfarne
793
Black Plague in England.
1348
It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the death of 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351
Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name ____, is a Jamaican DJ who is credited for originating hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s through his “Back to School Jam”, hosted on August 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue
DJ Kool Herc
Island of Borneo is known as ____ in Indonesia
Kalimantan
Fall of Constantinople was in ___
1453
Led to Columbus discovering America as a new way tor reach the East.
Chinese thinker who argued that to avoid nepotism we should have a meritocratic class of administrators
Mozi.
He was a woodworker and engineer and
believed humans were innately good.
Saint Augustine arrives in Britain. Wanted to set up in London but only had protection of Ethelbert in Kent, thus Canterbury
597
English king who expelled Jews from England
Edward I in royal decree of 1290
Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed. Most of the elite were taken into captivity in Babylon. The city was razed to the ground.
587 or 586 BCE
Much of the population was deported to Babylon and their descendants remained there until the Achaemenid Persians released them. This period of Jewish history was called the Babylonian Captivity.
fugitive slave act
1850
The ___ Party - an Egyptian nationalist movement that came into existence in the aftermath of World War I
Wafd
Capital of the Assyrian Empire destroyed by Babylonians & Medes in ____ . Jonah preaches to the people of the city warning of the coming destruction. Sits on the Tigris, opposite modern city of Mosul
Nineveh destroyed in 612 BC
Who was Bahadur Shah Zafar?
The ‘last Mughal’.
He had been the rallying point for the failed “Indian uprising” of 1857, when soldiers from undivided India rose against the British East India Company.
Act of Supremacy, which declared that Henry was the “Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England”
1534
First Indian war of independence
1857
Clause___ of Magna Carta ‘no free man shall be imprisoned… except by … the law of the land’
39
There was an Anglo-Saxon settlement by the early 7th century, called____ , about one mile west of Londinium, to the north of the present Strand.
Lundenwic
T rex v Stegosourus timeline
The difference in time between when the Tyrannosaurus rex and the stegosaurus lived is greater than the difference in time between when the Tyrannosaurus rex lived and now
Stegosaurus = Last around 150 mya
T rex = Last around 66 mya
____ Parliament of ___ is usually counted as the start of the regular summoning of the commons, as well as lords and prelates.
Edward I’s Parliament of 1295 is usually counted as the start of the regular summoning of the commons.
Birth of Muhammed
570
Glorious Revolution
1688
The overthrow of the Catholic king James II, who was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange.
The Last Glacial Period (LGP) finished c ____ years ago.
c. 115,000 – c. 12,000 years ago.
Who was knitting under the guillotine?
Madame Defarge in Tale of Two Cities
The Indian Rebellion happened in ___
1857
Magna Carta
1215
Traditionally, Buddha was born in
563 BC
First Crusade
1095
Indian thinker who helped found Mauryan empire and defeated Nanda empire. Wrote Arthashastra “the science of material gain” / “art of government’. “Listen to ministers” seems to be his big contribution. Kind of Indian Machiavelli. Associated with Indian independence
Chanakya
Ashurbanipal =
Last great ruler of Assyrian empire
(Reign = 669–631 BC)
Traditionally, Buddha was born in ____
563 BC
Native people of Borneo
Dayaks
James Cook’s missions lasted from ___ to ___
1768 - 1779
Queen Victoria had ___ children
9 children
Malayan Emergency lasted from ___ to ___
Malayan Emergency lasted from 1948–1960. The fighting spanned both the colonial period and the creation of an independent Malaya in 1957.
Montagnard (Vietnam) means =
Montagnard is an umbrella term for the various indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam
Horatius Cocles was famous for
Horatius Cocles defended the bridge over the river Tiber, protecting the New Roman Republic from Etruscans.
Made famous in a poem by Thomas Babington McAulay.
Cocles = “Cyclops,” so named because he had lost one of his eyes in the wars
What happened 541 mya?
Cambrian explosion
Simony =
Simony is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things.
It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he would place his hands. The term extends to other forms of trafficking for money in “spiritual things”.
Sulla became dictator
82 BC
Spartacus uprising
73 BC
Cicero killed after Octavian agreed to give him up in deal with Mark Anthony
43 BC
Vikings take ___ in 886
York
The Battle of __ in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, creating what was known as the Danelaw in the North of England
Battle of Edington
Danes kill East Anglian King ___ with arrows in the manner of Christian martyr Saint Sebastian in 869.
King Edmund the Martyr
According to one legend, his head was then thrown into the forest, but was found by searchers following the cries of an ethereal wolf calling out in Latin, “Hic, Hic, Hic” – “Here, Here, Here”. He was patron saint of England for many years before St George took over. Origin of Bury St Edmund’s.
Older brother to King Alfred and king before him
Aethelred
Battle of ___ in 871
This is the battle where Aethelred is busy hearing mass in his ten and Alfred has to do the fighting.
Battle of Ashdown, 871
First city-state, founded 4500 BC, most famous for its great king Gilgamesh and the epic tale of his quest for immortality
Uruk
Abandoned in 79 AD after eruption of Vesuvius
Pompeii
65,000 years ago. Arrival of humans in ___
Australia
anatomically modern Homo sapiens, evolved around ___
“300,000 years ago
Yet tools, artefacts, cave art – suggest that complex technology and cultures, “behavioural modernity”, evolved more recently: 50,000-65,000 years ago.”
The French invasion of Italy in ___ is widely seen as the beginning of the end of the Italian Renaissance.
1494
Italy divvied up among the Bourbons and Hapsburgs”
In 476 C.E. Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader ___ , who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome
Odoacer
also called Odovacar, or Odovakar
“The Oracle of Delphi told ___ he would destroy a great empire, but when he rode out to battle, the empire he destroyed was his own.
____ predicted the Israelites would rebel against God; they did so by killing His prophet ____ .
_____ heard a prediction that she would marry her infant son Oedipus, so she left him to die on a mountainside – ensuring neither of them recognized each other when he came of age”
Croesus, last king of Lydia, renowned for great wealth
Zechariah
Jocaster
Wilmington massacre was a mass riot and insurrection carried out by white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina. Happened in ____
1898
President assassinated by anarchist in 1901, led to witch hunt
William McKinley
Scythians also known as ___
The Huns
3 Mesopotamian empires =
Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians
1898 Spanish-American war led the US to gain:
“Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands.
Basically caused by US support for Cuban independence from Spain. began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor”
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - patriarchs of the Jewish people, were around in ____
17th Century BCE - 1600s…
First king of Israel was ___
Saul.
Marked a transition from a tribal society to statehood
Anointed by the prophet Samuel
625 - 605 BCE Assyrian empire collapses from in civil war and invasion from ___ & ___
Babylonians & Medes
2nd temple built in Jerusalem.
520 BC (Lasted until destroyed by Romans in 70 AD)
First crusade was in ___
1096 AD even though by then the Fatimid Dynasty had taken over and were cool with Christian pilgrimages
In ___ Israel invades Lebanon - Lebanese Christians massacred Palestinians in their refugee camp. IDF didn’t intervene.
1982
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon with the goal of ending PLO attacks from a country that was still engulfed in a civil war. The ensuing war pitched Israeli forces and Lebanese Christian militias against PLO and Syrian forces. After 10 weeks of fighting, PLO fighters left Beirut under a US-brokered truce. Israeli forces then allowed Christian militias into Sabra and Shatila refugee camps where they massacred Palestinians in revenge for the assassination of their leader Bashir Gemayel. Israel succeeded in exiling the PLO leadership from Beirut but its international standing was severely dented by the war, particularly by the massacres of Palestinians (for which Ariel Sharon was found to ‘bear personal responsibility). Israel eventually withdrew to a ‘security zone’ in South Lebanon and established a proxy militia, and withdrew completely in 2000.
Masada suicide was in ___
73 AD
445 / 444 BCE ____ was cupbearer to king of Persia. Went to Jerusalem and rebuilt the walls in 52 days.
Nehemiah
1187 Saracen general ____ takes Jerusalem. He was actually Kurdish, not Arab
Saladin
In ___ Israel unilaterally annexes Golan Heights, a rocky plateau in south-western Syria.
1981
It had been seized by Israel from Syria in the closing stages of the Six Day War of 1967.
First Intifada was in ___
1987
Hamas, an Islamic Resistance Movement inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood formed.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an orthodox Jewish student in ___
1995
Second Intifada
2000
There are ____ commandments in Judaism
613 commandments
During the whole post-WWII period, the Soviet Union murdered upward of ____ , its own citizens and others under its control, a grisly improvement over the 40 million executed, purposefully starved, and worked to death in the 1917–48 period.
20 million people
The bit about Virginia’s Wolf’s ‘room of your own’ essay that everyone ignores
Virginia wolf said you need a room of your own and___ a year in order to write.
£500
That’s £27k in today’s money, or a round £36k after tax. And she wasn’t talking about working.
At what battle did Ethiopia maintain its independence?
Defeated the Italian army at the Battle of Adwa, Ethiopia, in 1896.
As a result, the country drew the admiration of many newly independent states in Africa. The adoption of the Ethiopian national colours by many Pan-African entities is a consequence of this. The first African state to adopt a red, gold and green flag upon independence was Ghana in 1957.
Was a brief period of control under Mussolini
Conference that carved up Africa
The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885
Paris Commune
1871
Battle of Pylos & Sphakteria
425 BC
Athens leader was Demosthenes
Athens land on island near Sparta, Spartans attack.
Then the Spartans are trapped.
Kleon upends the negotiations in public by insisting they happen in public. He then became general and gets a Spartan surrender, something Spartans had never been known to do.
Changed course of the war, big boost to Kleon.
Later Battle of Navarino 1827
Crete civilization 2700 - 1350 BCE
Minoan
Civilization spread throughout Aegean
1700 - 1200 BCE
Mycenaean
England’s first martyr
St Alban
The prince gave orders for Roman soldiers to make a strict search of Alban’s house. As they came to seize the priest, Alban put on the priest’s cloak and clothing and presented himself to the soldiers in place of his guest
Crowds so clogged the bridge that the execution party could not cross. Filled with an ardent desire to arrive quickly at martyrdom, Alban raised his eyes to heaven, and the river dried up, allowing Alban and his captors to cross over on dry land.
In later legends, Alban’s head rolled downhill after his execution, and a well sprang up where it stopped.
Liu Bei and Cao Cao
Two rival warlords of ancient China
Three Kingdom era (220 – 280AD)
First Opium War
1839
Got Hong Kong
Potato famine
1845-7
Peel ends the Corn Laws
1846
tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food, enriched the landed aristocracy
In 1815 the Napoleonic Wars were finally coming to an end – which meant it would soon be possible to import corn from the continent again.
Now, the agricultural sector faced the prospect of foreign corn flooding the market and causing prices to tumble.
A lot of people – especially low-paid workers in Britain’s fast-growing towns – were pretty happy about the idea of food prices finally coming down. But of course Parliament was dominated by the landowning class, and MPs weren’t so pleased about the idea.
The laws were opposed by urban groups and by many Whig industrialists and workers, but even Whig governments declined to repeal the Corn Laws when they were in power.
The Anti-Corn Law League was founded in Manchester in 1838 and began to pick up speed in the 1840s. The League’s leader Richard Cobden worked to influence the Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel and campaigned heavily, eventually becoming an MP himself.
After the Irish Potato Famine, the Prime Minister was finally persuaded to support the repeal of all Corn Laws.
In 1846 he achieved repeal with the support of the Whig opposition party in Parliament, in the face of opposition from within his own party. But even though he won the vote 327-229, it was not a simple victory.
After Peel announced his plans to repeal the Corn Laws, Lord Stanley resigned from the Cabinet in protest. Faced by internal opposition, Peel actually resigned as Prime Minister – but when Whig leader Lord John Russell was unable to form a government to replace him, Peel remained in his post.
Having stayed on as Prime Minister after all, Peel got his bill through Parliament (with the help of the Duke of Wellington who guided it through the House of Lords).
But just as the Bill was passed, Peel’s Irish Coercion Bill was defeated in the Commons – with the help of rebels in his own party. This defeat indicated he had no control over his party and forced Peel to resign as Prime Minister.
The political aftershocks went even further. The Conservative Party split in two, with “Peelites” peeling off from the main party. The Whigs instead formed a government with Lord John Russell as PM.
First public railway Stockton to Darlington
1826
Mary I
1553 to 1558
Alexander the Great beats Darius at Gaugamela (near Mosul) in
331 BCE
Darius is too defensive.
264-241 BCE
First Punic War
Carthagians lose Sicily and Sardinia to Rome
Kǒng Fūzǐ 孔夫子 also known as
Confucius 551 - 479 BCE
Born in Qufu in state of Lu (Shandong province, beneath Beijing near Korean peninsular)
Administrator in the Zhou court
His large collection of sayings and ideas = Analects
first foreign-born samurai in 16th-century Japan
Yasuke
Austrian foreign minister who created balance of power system in Europe.
Klemens von Metternich
Peace of Westphalia 1648.
Saxons landed in Britain
449 AD
Start of London underground
1863
between Paddington and Farringdon
Peterloo massacre
August 1819
Around 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy protestors were attacked in an open square in Manchester.
King who started Danegelt
Ethelred the Unready
Turkic conqueror in the 14th century
Timur or Tamerlane
(9 April 1336 – 17 February 1405)
Regarded as one of history’s greatest military leaders and strategists.
His empire led to the Gunpowder Empires in the 1500s and 1600s, most notably the Mughal Empire of India.
St Brice’s Day massacre
1002.
Also killed Gunhilda, sister of King of Denmark
2 English kings who died on the toilet :
Edmund Ironside in 1016 &
King George II in 1760
According to Horace Walpole’s memoirs, King George “rose as usual at six, and drank his chocolate; for all his actions were invariably methodic. A quarter after seven he went into a little closet. His German valet de chambre in waiting heard a noise, and running in, found the King dead on the floor.”
Leading instigator of the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar
March 15, 44 BC
Cassius
Who was in charge of Second French Empire?
Napoleon III
Historians in the 1930s and 1940s often disparaged the Second Empire as a precursor of fascism
First Boer War
1880
In April 1880, Gladstone’s Liberal government took power. The First Boer War broke out when the Boers of the Transvaal formed the idea that they might persuade the new British Ministry to give them back their independence,
which they had surrendered when they sought British aid against the Zulus. On December 16, 1880, the Boers, under the leadership of Paul Kruger, proclaimed their independence. After they defeated the British at Majuba Hill in 1881, the independence of the Transvaal was again recognized by Gladstone’s government, though the British kept control of its foreign policy.
Who was Charles Braudlaugh?
Atheist MP
Charles Braudlaugh MP who was atheist and not allowed to take MPs oath
In 1880, Bradlaugh was elected as the Liberal MP for Northampton. His attempt to affirm as an atheist ultimately led to his temporary imprisonment, fines for voting in the Commons illegally, and a number of by-elections at which Bradlaugh regained his seat on each occasion. He was finally allowed to take an oath in 1886.
Zulus defeated British in 1879, then lost battle of __ .
Rorkes Drift 1879
Charles Kingsley’s book ___ led to ending of child chimney sweeps
The Water Babies
1863
a mainstay of British children’s literature for many decades, but eventually fell out of favour in America in part due to its claimed prejudices against Irish, Jews, Catholics and Americans.
Spanish Armada
1588
Weakened the Habsburgs
Despite all the wealth of Peru and Mexico, Philip II of Spain had to default on his debts in 1595.
Tensions rose as both Catholic and Protestant Germans scented that change could be in the air.
Things came to a head in 1618 when the new King of Bohemia and Emperor-apparent, Ferdinand, an ardent Catholic, tried to rescind a deal he’d done with the Bohemian Protestants. His top officials were thrown from a window – defenestrated – in Prague
=> start Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
Origin of Charing Cross …
A resting place for the body of Edward I’s wife, Eleanor of Castile.
Edward Longshanks 1272 - 1307
She died in Harby, near Lincoln, of fever. Her grief-stricken husband erected a cross at each of the 12 resting places on the way back to London. ‘Eleanor Cross’ at Charing, a hamlet north of Westminster became Charing Cross.
Jane Seymour = which number wife?
Henry VIII’s third wife.
Richard, Duke of York is famous for:
The one who took over when Henry VI had mental health problems.
Richard Plantagenet
Had three sons:
Edward IV (tall handsome one who got with commoner, Elizabeth Woodville);
George, Duke of Clarence;
and Richard III (hunchback)
House of York = what colour?
White rose, branch of the Plantagenet family
Princes in the tower
Two sons of Edward IV (one who married commoner Elizabeth Woodville). Their older sister married Henry VII to end the War of the Roses.
Edward IV married who?
Married commoner Elizabeth Woodville
was the first such consort to be crowned queen. Her marriage greatly enriched her siblings and children, but their advancement incurred the hostility of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, ‘The Kingmaker’
Who was Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond?
Henry VIII illegitimate son
Decembrist uprising in Russia =
1825
Emancipation of the serfs =
1861
Heian period
The Heian period - Japan period 794 to 1185. When Chinese influences were in decline and the national culture matured.
Jericho =
First town, from 8000 BC
3 Mesopotamian empires
Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians
Sumerians - first real civilization. Cities like Ur and Uruk. Invented cuneiform.
Assyrians - First true empire. Nineveh = capital. Two waves of expansion. Gilgamesh.
Babylonians - Took over from Assyrians with help of Medes.
Roman Republic founded
510 BCE
Ethelbert
589 – 616 First Saxon king to convert to Christianity
Edmund Ironside
King for a few months in 1016.
the son of King Æthelred the Unready
Killed by a viking waiting in his toilet hole who stuck a sword up his bum.
Alfred the Great
871-899 …
Burnt the cakes while hiding from Vikings in Somerset
Edward the Confessor
Reigned 1042 - 1066
…. Started Westminster Abbey.
When he died childless it plunged England into crisis. He’d promised his throne to his cousin, Duke of Normany but on his deathbed gave it to his brother-in-law, Harold Godwinson, England’s most powerful magnate, ruler of Wessex.
Father-in-law, Godwine of Wessex, was real ruler of England until 1051. He then outlawed them but they regained much power in 1053.
Defeated by William the Conqueror
Harold Godwinson
William I
1066 - 1087
Vast stomach exploded at funeral creating bad smell.
Starved Northern England into obedience.
Also known as William the Bastard (but not normally to his face!), he was the illegitimate son of Robert the Devil, whom he succeeded as Duke of Normandy in 1035.
William came to England from Normandy, claiming that his second cousin Edward the Confessor had promised him the throne, and defeated Harold II at the Battle of Hastings on 14th October 1066.
Was teased about his grandfather being a tanner, or possibly a man who dresses the dead for burial. When the town of Alencon mocked him about this he had 32 leading citizens’ feet and hands cut off and paraded them through the town.
Married Matilda of Flanders who was only 127cm tall. Rumoured that he had to beat her into saying yes.
William died at Rouen after a fall from his horse whilst besieging the French city of Nantes.
Apparently he slammed his stomach into the front of his saddle, bursting his fat gut. Bits of his body fell off when they tried to cram his fat body into a coffin. They had to rush through the service because the smell was so bad.
William II
1087 - 1100
William was not a popular king, given to extravagance and cruelty. Thought to be gay - rife in his court. A boorish dandy, short with a big belly. Wore short tunics, his hair long parted in the middle. Rufus the Red
Killed in the New Forest by a stray arrow whilst out hunting, maybe accidentally, or possibly shot deliberately on the instructions of his younger brother Henry. Apparently William fired an arrow at a stag but missed. He then called to his knight Walter Tyrrell to ‘shoot!’. So Tirel shot him… the king that is.
The Rufus Stone in The New Forest, Hampshire, marks the spot where he fell.
Son of William I, his brother Robert got Normandy. His youngest brother was Henry.
Henry I
1100-1135
Henry Beauclerc was the fourth and youngest son of William I.
Well educated, he founded a zoo at Woodstock in Oxfordshire to study animals. He was called the ‘Lion of Justice’ as he gave England good laws, even if the punishments were ferocious.
Locked away the older brother Robert in Cardiff Castle after beating him at Tinchebray in 1106. Burnt his eyes out and locked him up for his whole life.
Married Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland, granddaughter of Edmund Ironside and a descendant of the West Saxon kings. Pleased the Anglo Saxons.
When his two sons died in the White Ship disaster it meant his only heir was a woman, Empress Matilda. He married her to Geoffrey Plantagenet.
Got ill after eating too many eels / (lamphrey fish, some say). His doctor gave him a laxative and the diarrhoea killed him.
When he died his nephew Stephen of Blois took over, resulting in a period of civil war known as the Anarchy.
Stephen
1135 - 1154
William the Conqueror’s grandson. Claimed uncle Henry I made me heir on his death bed, not Matilda.
Matilda’s supporters captured him at Battle of Lincoln in 1141.
He grabbed the throne encouraged by pushy mum and wife.
A very weak king and the whole country was almost destroyed by the constant raids by the Scots and the Welsh.
During Stephen’s reign the Norman barons wielded great power, extorting money and looting town and country.
A decade of civil war known as The Anarchy ensued on Henry’s death, and in 1139 Matilda invaded from Anjou. A compromise was eventually decided, under the terms of the Treaty of Westminster Matilda’s son Henry Plantagenet would succeed to the throne when Stephen died. Agreed in 1153, Henry would be Henry II.
Henry II
1154-1189
Quarrelled with Thomas Becket, and Becket’s subsequent murder in Canterbury Cathedral on 29th December 1170.
Strong, athletic, red haired, violent tempered and croaky voiced.
First to use title ‘King of England’
Married Eleanor of Aquitaine, father to Kings Richard and John. Both turned against him, even his favourite John. He died in France fighting Richard and the king of France.
Introduced trial by jury and common law.
Moment when China turned from communism
1978
“Beginning with the famous third plenum of the 11th Central Committee in 1978, the Chinese Communist party set about decollectivizing agriculture for the 800 million Chinese who still lived in the countryside. The role of the state in agriculture was reduced to that of a tax collector, while production of consumer goods was sharply increased in order to give peasants a taste of the universal homogenous state and thereby an incentive to work. “ Fukuyama
Richard I
1189 - 1199
Richard was the third son of Henry II. By the age of 16, he was leading his own army putting down rebellions in France. Although crowned King of England, Richard spent all but 6 months of his reign abroad, preferring to use the taxes from his kingdom to fund his various armies and military ventures. He was the leading Christian commander during the Third Crusade. On his way back from Palestine, Richard was captured and held for ransom. The amount paid for his safe return almost bankrupt the country. Richard died from an arrow-wound, far from the kingdom that he so rarely visited. He had no children.
King John
1199-1216
John Lackland was the fourth child of Henry II. Short and fat, he was jealous of his dashing brother Richard I whom he succeeded. He was cruel, self-indulgent, selfish and avaricious, and the raising of punitive taxes united all the elements of society, clerical and lay, against him. The Pope excommunicated him.
On 15th June 1215 at Runnymede the barons compelled John to sign Magna Carta, the Great Charter, which reinstated the rights of all his subjects. John died – from dysentery – a fugitive from all his enemies. He has been termed “the worst English king”.
Persuaded Pope Innocent III to annul charter which led to civil war in 1216
Arranged for death of nephew, Arthur of Brittany.
Henry III
1216-1272
Henry was 9 years old when he became king. Brought up by priests he became devoted to church, art and learning.
He was a weak man, dominated by churchmen and easily influenced by his wife’s French relations.
In 1264 Henry was captured during the rebellion of barons led by Simon de Montfort and was forced to set up a ‘Parliament’ at Westminster, the start of the House of Commons.
Henry was the greatest of all patrons of medieval architecture and ordered the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey in the Gothic style.
Used lots of foreigners to rule which was unpopular.
Tried to get his son crowned King of Sicily.
Almost died in Battle of Evesham in 1265 when dressed as the opposition. The Battle of Evesham saw Montford defeated and his body mutilated (heads, hands, feet and testicles cut off). When the Welsh infantry deserted, it turned into a massacre. The forces were led by Henry III’s son, Edward, who trapped Montford in a loop of the Avon forcing him to fight an army twice the size of his. Montford is meant to have said at that point, “”May the Lord have mercy upon our souls, as our bodies are theirs”. Montford had captured the King and dressed him in his colours and he would have died but he was rescued by Roger de Leyborne, a converted rebel.
Richard II
1377-1399
The son of the Black Prince, Richard was extravagant, unjust and faithless.
King at 10 years old - The country was ruled by John of Gaunt, the Black Prince’s brother.
In 1381 came the Peasants Revolt, led by Wat Tyler. The rebellion was put down with great severity. The sudden death of his first wife Anne of Bohemia completely unbalanced Richard and his extravagance, acts of revenge and tyranny turned his subjects against him.
Rumoured to be son of Ghent butcher ?;
Had a gang of favourites
When John of Gaunt died Richard II seized the estates from Gaunt’s son and enemy Henry. Henry invaded and became Henry IV.
In 1399 Henry of Lancaster returned from exile and deposed Richard, becoming elected King Henry IV. Richard was murdered, probably by starvation, in Pontefract Castle in 1400.
Henry IV
1399-1413
Always rowing with his war-mongering son, Prince Hal.
aka Henry Bolingbroke.
Enemy of Owen Glendower, leader of rebellious Welsh
Son of John of Gaunt, 3rd son of Edward III
Stole throne from Richard II. When Rich II is murdered, Henry IV is feeling guilty and wants to go on a crusade to make up for it, but has too many rebellions to deal with.
First monarch to speak in English at coronation
Used pirates to help him stop King James I of Scotland invade England in 1406
The son of John of Gaunt (third son of Edward III), Henry returned from exile in France to reclaim his estates previously seized by Richard II; he was accepted as king by Parliament. Henry spent most of his 13 year reign defending himself against plots, rebellions and assassination attempts. In Wales Owen Glendower declared himself Prince of Wales and led a national uprising against English rule. Back in England, Henry had great difficulty in maintaining the support of both the clergy and Parliament and between 1403-08 the Percy family launched a series of rebellions against him. Henry, the first Lancastrian king, died exhausted, probably of leprosy, at the age of 45.
Henry V
1413-1422
While his father is still on the throne Prince Hal defeats rebel Harry Hotspur at Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.
Survived the Southampton plot to kill as he boarded ship. (At the start of the Shakespeare play.)
Won Battle of Agincourt 25th Oct 1415 - “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers”.
In Shakespeare’s plays he’s like today’s Prince Harry. He falls out with friend Falstaff who calls him Hal.
Died of dysentry aged 36 in France
Arrow in the face at 16
Only 9 years on throne.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends…”
Henry VI
1422-1461
Lancaster
Had mental breakdown and Richard of York was made protector. Henry VI recovered, but War of the Roses…
Founded Eton college and King’s College, Cambridge
King at 9 months old when Henry V died.
Murdered in Tower of London whilst praying.
Too pious, little interest in government
Joan of Arc weakened his rule over France which had been secured (?) by his dad Henry V.
Married religious Margaret of Anjou who had to take charge of the Lancastrian cause because he was so pathetic.
Edward IV
1461-70
1471-83
Roguishly handsome, tallest monarch at 6’4”
Marries beautiful commoner Elizabeth Woodville
Crowns himself King after winning battle against Lancastrians at 24 June 1465: Henry VI captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
1 May 1470. After quarrelling with Edward IV, Warwick the Kingmaker fled to France There he joined forces with Queen Margaret before returning to England and restoring the Lancastrian Henry VI to the throne on 13th October.
14 March 1471. The Yorkist King Edward fled to France, returning with a small army.
14 April 1471. Battle of Barnet. A victory for Edward’s Yorkist army. Warwick the Kingmaker killed.
4 May 1471. Battle of Tewkesbury. A defeat for the Lancastrian army, led by Queen Margaret and the Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales was killed and the queen was captured.
21- 22 May 1471. Henry VI was killed in the Tower of London. Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond and Lancastrian claimant to the throne, fled to France.
The Yorkist Edward IV was now the undisputed king
Edward V
1483
One of the murdered princes in the tower, Edward and Richard. Son of Edward IV.
Richard III
1483-1485
aka Duke of Gloucester.
Hunchback. Brother of Edward IV.
Last English king to die in battle.
Henry VII
1485-1509
Married Elizabeth of York, ending War of the Roses
Start of Tudor dynasty
landed at the westernmost tip of Wales with his band of foreign mercenaries and Welshmen to win Bosworth Field in 1485
Henry VIII
1509 - 1547
First ‘Your Majesty’
Thomas Cromwell was his helper
Catherine of Aragon, dour Spanish bride with no son but daughter, Mary
Sexy French Anne Boleyn who has affairs, produces Elizabeth
Jane Seymour produced son, Edward. She died in childbirth.
Married Anne of Cleaves to establish Protestant Alliance with German princes. But Henry divorced her and turned on Cromwell.
Catherine Howard next. Executed for treason and adultery.
Catherine Parr survived him. by
Edward VI
1547 - 1553
Died of TB
Changed his will to stop Catholic Mary becoming Queen.
Aged 9 when King, so England ruled by regents.
Lady Jane Grey
9 days in 1553
Engineered by Northumberland, regent of Edward VI to prevent Catholic succession by Mary. Failed.
George I
1714-1727
First Hanoverian king
Married his cousin but he suspected her of infidelity he locked her in a castle until her death.
Under 1701 Act of Settlement, George’s mother was made heir to the throne. It sought to guarantee a Protestant succession and George’s mother was the closest Protestant relative, although there were at least 50 Catholic relatives whose claims were stronger.
In 1715 he faced a rebellion by the Jacobites, supporters of the Catholic James Stuart, who had a strong claim to the throne. This was concentrated mainly in Scotland.
With some Tories sympathetic to the Jacobites, George turned to the Whigs to form a government, and they were to dominate politics for the next generation. Opposition to the king gathered around George’s only son, the prince of Wales, making their already poor relationship even worse.
In 1720 the South Sea Company, with heavy government, royal and aristocratic investment, collapsed. The resulting economic crisis made the king and his ministers extremely unpopular. Robert Walpole was left as the most important figure in the administration and in April 1721 was appointed first lord of the Treasury and in effect, ‘prime minister’.
George II
1727 - 1760
Difficult relationship with father, and his son would go on to fall out with him.
the prince’s London residence, Leicester House, became a rival court and focus for a dissident Whig group which included Robert Walpole.
But he fell out with Walpole and only Caroline’s intervention kept Walpole in office when the prince succeeded to the throne in 1727.
Walpole cemented his position by securing George a Civil List (allowance) from parliament of £800,000, considerably more than previous monarchs had received. Walpole also won acknowledgement of George’s legitimacy from many influential Tories who supported the exiled Stuart pretender to the English throne. As a result, no senior politician deserted George’s cause during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. Charles Edward Stuart, the ‘Young Pretender’ landed in Scotland but, after some initial success, was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
In 1743, George led his troops into battle against the French at Dettingen, the last British king to fight in battle.
During the last decade of his life George took little interest in politics. Britain’s involvement in the Seven Years’ War (1756 - 1763) was largely overseen by William Pitt the Elder.
George III
1760 – 1820
The grandson of George II. Like with Edward III to Richard II, the thing skipped a generation.
He was the first Hanoverian monarch to use English as his first language.
Suffered from recurrent fits of madness and after 1810, his son acted as regent - porphyria (an enzyme deficiency).
In 1770, George appointed Lord North as his first minister. Although an effective administrator, North’s government was dominated by disagreements with the American colonists over British attempts to levy taxes on them. War began in 1775 and was prolonged in 1779, at the king’s insistence, to prevent copycat protests elsewhere. The British defeat in 1781 prompted North to resign.
In 1783, North and the prominent Whig politician Fox formed a coalition government. Their plans to reform the East India Company gave George the chance to regain popularity. He forced the bill’s defeat in Parliament, and the two resigned. In their place George appointed William Pitt the Younger. The combination of Pitt’s skill and war with France in 1793 strengthened George’s position, but disagreements over emancipation of the Catholics - Pitt was in favour and George vehemently opposed - led to Pitt’s resignation in 1801.
George IV
1820 – 1830
Another gay one? Certainly camp.
Son of George III
George’s extravagant lifestyle caused his father to regard him with contempt.
In 1785, George secretly and illegally married a Roman Catholic, Maria Fitzherbert. In 1795, he was officially married to Princess Caroline of Brunswick, in exchange for parliament paying his debts. Queen Caroline was put on trial for trumped up adultery charges which gave her huge public sympathy.
Although he had courted Whig politicians in his youth, this was mainly to annoy his father, and he became increasingly pro-Tory.
Throughout his adult life, George was an important artistic patron, acquiring an impressive collection of art and patronising architects and designers, most notably at Brighton. He first visited the seaside town in 1783, returning frequently and from 1815 developing the Royal Pavilion in an exotic combination of Indian and Chinese styles.
Started National Gallery.
William IV
1830 – 1837
George IV’s brother.
He was known both as the ‘Sailor King’ and as ‘Silly Billy’.
was not expected to succeed to the throne. At the age of 13 he began a career in the Royal Navy. He enjoyed his time at sea,
William lived with his mistress, the actress Dorothy Jordan.
He was initially very popular. His insistence on a simple coronation contrasted with the extravagance of his brother’s reign.
William’s reign was dominated by the Reform crisis. It began almost immediately when the Duke of Wellington’s Tory government, which William supported, lost the general election in August 1830.
The Whigs, led by Lord Grey, came to power intent on pushing through electoral reform against strong opposition in the Commons and the Lords. Another general election in 1831 gave the Whigs a majority in the Commons but the Lords continued to reject the Reform Bill. There was a political crisis during the winter of 1831-1832, with riots in some parts of the country.
The king eventually agreed to create enough new Whig peers to get the bill through the House of Lords, but the Lords, who had opposed it, backed down and it was passed.
Victoria
1837 – 1901
Edward VII
1901-1910
A liaison with an actress caused considerable scandal and Prince Albert visited his son to reprimand him. Albert died two weeks later and Victoria held her son partly responsible for the death of his father.
He became a leader of London society, spending his time eating, drinking, gambling, shooting, watching racing and sailing.
Had a series of long-term mistresses, including the actress Lily Langtry.
Related to most European royalty (he was known as the ‘Uncle of Europe’), he was able to assist in foreign policy negotiations
George V
1910-1936
When George was 18 he went into the Royal Navy, but the death of his elder brother in 1892 meant he had to leave a career he enjoyed, as he was now heir to the throne.
He married his elder brother’s fiancée, Princess Mary of Teck.
After the Liberal government obtained the king’s promise to create sufficient peers to overcome Conservative opposition in the Lords (and won a second election in 1910), the Parliament Bill was passed by the Lords in 1911 without a mass creation of peers.
Edward VIII
Abdicated in 1936
William Walace takes back Scotland at Battle of Stirling Bridge
1297
Start walking on hind legs
4 million years ago
Saul = the start of the monarchy, dates from…
c.1050 - 1010 BCE
King David
c. 1010 - 970 BCE
Fall of Israel
722 BCE.
The northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria) was destroyed by the Assyrians under Sargon II. The population deported as per Assyrian military policy. The tribes forcibly resettled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes because they never returned.
Jews allowed to return from Babylon
538 BCE
Cyrus gives a decree allowing the Jews the freedom to leave Babylon and return to Judah. Cyrus’ kingdom rules over Judah and many other parts of the Middle East, but Cyrus allows people more cultural and religious freedom than did the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which he conquered in 539 BC.
Temple destroyed
587 BCE
first stage of Stone Henge built
2950 BCE
Romans withdraw from Britain
410
Constantine makes Christianity the state religion
312
___ is the site of Europes ‘first revolution’ when Henry IV stood in the snow for 3 days to reverse his excommunication. Start of church v state.
Canossa is the site of Europes ‘first revolution’ when Henry IV stood in the snow for 3 days to reverse his excommunication. Start of church v state.
___ translates Bible into English
Wycliffe translates Bible into English, 1382-4
Chaucer writes Canterbury Tales
1388
The Black Death comes to Britain
1348
Watt Tyler’s Peasants’ Revolt
1381
Battle of St Albans = first armed clash between Lancaster and York. Kind of draw?
1455
Henry IV also known as
Also known as Henry Bolingbrooke
War of the Roses dates
1455 - 1487
Henry VI has mental breakdown.
Henry VI’s wife Margaret of Anjou takes charge of Lancastrian cause.
1455 Battle of St Albans = first armed clash between Lancaster and York. Kind of draw?
Richard of York and his supporters were forced to flee the country, but one of his most prominent supporters, the Earl of Warwick, invaded England from Calais and captured Henry VI at the Battle of Northampton.
Richard of York returned to the country and became Protector of England, but was dissuaded from claiming the throne.
Margaret and the irreconcilable Lancastrian nobles gathered their forces in the north of England, and when York moved north to suppress them, he and his second son Edmund were killed at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460.
The Lancastrian army advanced south and managed to release Henry VI at the Second Battle of St Albans, but failed to occupy London, and subsequently retreated to the north
York’s son Edward takes up the fight, defeats the Lancastrians at Towton in 1461 and crowns himself Edward IV.
Edward IV had been helped by Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker, who gets pissed off when Edward IV marries the beautiful commoner Elizabeth Woodville. Warwick tries to help Ed’s younger brother, and finally tries to help Henry VI.
After some ups and downs, Edward wins battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 and executes Lancastrian heir, Edward Prince of Wales. Henry VI is murdered in the Tower of London several days later. That’s the end of the Lancasters.
All’s settled until… Edward IV dies suddenly in 1483.
Edward V takes the throne but is a minor but is killed in the tower.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Yorkist brother of Edward IV, seizes the throne.
Henry Tudor, distant relative of the Lancastrians, defeated Dick the Bad at Bosworth Field in 1485.
Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, one of the sisters of the of young murdered Edward V. This ended the War of the Roses, and was the start of the Tudor line.
The Great Schism between the Roman Empire and Eastern Orthodox Church.
1054
Guttenberg printing with moveable type
1440
Martin Luther in front of the Diet of Worms
1521
Fleming discovers Penicillin
1928
Independence of the Vietnamese from the Chinese!
939
Portuguese first make contact with the Vietnamese
1516
Queen Boudicca burnt London
61
King Ethelbert builds first St Pauls
604
Defeat Spanish Armada
1588
First known settlement of London was around the ____ river that flowed south into the Thames between Cornhill and Ludgate Hill
Walbrook river
____ , legendary founder of London, grandson of Aeneus - accidentally killed his father with an arrow and was banished from Italy. Goddess Diana told him about London in a dream.
Brutus of Troy
Where Marx lived in Soho
28 Dean Street, Soho, London. His family lived there from 1851 to 1856 in two small upstairs rooms.
They subsisted on a small weekly sum given to them by their friend Frierich Engles. Marx claimed that he rarely went out because my clothes are in pawn. His life was marked by tragedy during his tenure as three of his children died here.
Before this he lodged at number 64 with Heinrich Bauer. Marx earnt some money by writing for the New York Tribune. He was also sent some cash by Engels.
A Prussian agent said When you enter the Marx flat your sight is dimmed by tobacco and coal smoke so that you grope around at first as if you were in a cave, until your eyes get used to these fumes and, as in a fog, you gradually notice a few objects. … Everything is dirty, everything covered with dust; it is dangerous to sit down. Here is a chair with only three legs, there the children play kitchen on another chair that happens to be whole; true it is offered to the visitor, but the childrens kitchen is not removed; if you sit on it you risk a pair of trousers. But nothing of this embarrasses Marx or his wife in the least; you are received in the friendliest manner, are cordially offered a pipe, tobacco, and whatever else there is; a spirited conversation makes up for the domestic defects and in the end you become reconciled because of the company, find it interesting, even original.
Later in 1855 his wife Jenny received two small inheritances - and they were able to move to a small terraced house near Primrose Hill.
Edward I
1272 – 1307
Edward Longshanks was a statesman, lawyer and soldier. He formed the Model Parliament in 1295, bringing the knights, clergy and nobility, as well as the Lords and Commons together for the first time. Aiming at a united Britain, he defeated the Welsh chieftains and created his eldest son Prince of Wales. He was known as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ for his victories in Scotland and brought the famous coronation stone from Scone to Westminster. When his first wife Eleanor died, he escorted her body from Grantham in Lincolnshire to Westminster, setting up Eleanor Crosses at every resting place. He died on the way to fight Robert Bruce.
Edward II
1307 – deposed 1327
Edward was a weak and incompetent king. He had many ‘favourites’, Piers Gaveston being the most notorious (gay).
He was beaten by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Edward was deposed and held captive in Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. His wife Isabella joined her lover Mortimer in deposing him: by their orders he was murdered in Berkley Castle – as legend has it, by having a red-hot poker thrust up his anus! His beautiful tomb in Gloucester Cathedral was erected by his son, Edward III.
EDWARD III
1327 – 1377
Son of Edward II, he reigned for 50 years. His ambition to conquer Scotland and France plunged England into the Hundred Years War, beginning in 1338. The two great victories at Crecy and Poitiers made Edward and his son, the Black Prince, the most renowned warriors in Europe, however the war was very expensive. The outbreak of bubonic plague, the ‘Black Death’ in 1348-1350 killed half the population of England
Edward was crowned at age fourteen after his father was deposed by his mother, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer. At age seventeen he led a successful coup d’état against Mortimer, the de facto ruler of the country, and began his personal reign
Ww1 ___ dead
Ww2 ___ dead
Ww1 16m dead
Ww2 60m dead
In 1708 Englishman Abraham Darby invents
coke-smelting of iron
In 1733 John Kay develops ____ which mechanises weaving
flying shuttle
1765 James Hargreaves invents ____ -
spinning jenny - reduced the amount of work needed to produce cloth
Mines Act bans women and children from working underground
1825
English king who challenged Cnut to combat
Edmund Ironside
Hengist and Horsa invited to Britain by Vortigern to assist his forces in fighting the Picts
449
Bristol Bus Boycott
1963
Guy Bailey, Roy Hackett and Paul Stephenson protested against a bus company that refused to employ black and Asian drivers
Elite gay soldiers that defeated Spartans
The Sacred Band of Thebes
150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC
Ended Spartan domination
Lars Porsena
Etruscan king who besieged Rome.
After the revolution that overthrew the monarchy there in 509 BC, Tarquin the Proud was exiled. He appealed to Lars Porsena for help, who besieged Rome, but was sufficiently impressed by particular acts of Roman bravery in defending the city that he chose to make peace. Another story from that time is that a young man was sent to Porsena’s camp to assassinate him but failed (he mistook Porsena’s secretary for him because they looked the same). He then told Porsena he was the first of three hundred young men who would be coming and to prove his bravery, thrust his hand in a fire.
King Cnut won throne in
1016
Cnut’s father was the Danish prince Svein ‘Forkbeard’, who became king of England in 1013
Gauls sack Rome
390 BCE
after Battle of the Allia
The Hundred Years’ War
1337–1453
In the early years of the war, the English, led by their king and his son Edward, the Black Prince, saw resounding successes (notably at Crécy in 1346 and at Poitiers in 1356 where King John II of France was taken prisoner).
Telegraph invented
1844
Monroe Doctrine
1823
Opposed European colonialism in the Americas
Caesar defeats Gauls
Alesia 52 BC
Vercingetorix
Year without a summer
1816
caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in April in the Dutch East Indies (known today as Indonesia).
Adrianpole 378 AD
Big Roman defeat near Constantinople - beginning of the end
On August 9, 378 c.e., the Eastern Roman army under the command of Emperor Valens attacked a Gothic army (made up of Visigoths and Ostrogoths) that had camped near the town of Adrianople (also called Hadrianoplis) and was routed. The battle is often considered the beginning of the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century.
End of reconstruction
1876
Democrats supported Republican president Rutherford B Hayes in exchange for leaving the South alone.
Hannibal inflicted severe defeat in Second Punic War
Cannae 216 BC
Church of journalists
St Brides
River Fleet comes out near which bridge?
Blackfriars
Joseph McNeil
started lunch counter sit ins
a member of the Greensboro Four; a group of African American college students who, on February 1, 1960, sat down at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina challenging the store’s policy of denying service to non-white customers.
Ptolemy, governor of Jericho - famous for:
Murdering his guests
(1 Maccabees)
In his Inferno, Dante named one of the rounds in the ninth circle of hell for Ptolemy, son of Abubus, because of his treachery against his invited guests.
First civilization in Mesopotamia
Sumer civilization
One of the first settled society in the world to have manifested all the features needed to qualify fully as a “civilization”, eventually expanding into the first empire in history, the Akkadian Empire.
Before this just Jericho (c8000 BCE) & Catal Huyuk (6300 - 5600 BCE)
From c4500 BCE
Group of city-states
c 3100 BC - invented cuneiform
Uruk - the very first true city. Its peak was c 2800 BC. Had 6 miles of defensive walls.
City of Ur. Royal tombs c 2500 BCE
Lack of natural defences made them vulnerable to attack
c 2350 BC - Sargon of Akkad conquers First empire. Akkadian Empire lasted 200 years until it was destroyed by Gutians.
c 2000 BC - Amorite invade and Sumer splits into small states that later become part of the Babylonian Empire. (Hammurabai was Amorite)
Great Pyramid of Giza
c. 2600 BC
147m tall
There are over 30 pyramids in Egypt
Minoan civilization dies out
c 1450 BC
Palaces damaged. Volcano erupted nearby and maybe this caused a tidal wave. Mycenaeans invaded.
Troy destroyed
c 1250 BC
Mycenaeans civilization dies out
c 1250 BC
Many bad harvests and cities abandoned
Minoan civilization rises to power
c 2000 BC
For reasons not yet understood, the island-based Minoan culture suddenly made a leap forward around 2000 BCE and became the first advanced civilization of Europe
The Palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete was the capital of the Minoan civilization. Situated on the Kephala Hill near the modern-day city of Heraklion
No army, just ships
Civilization based in Asia Minor
c 2000 - 1200 BC
Hittites
Capital was Hattushash
Greatest king was Shuppiluliuma
Chief God was Teshub
Battle of Kadesh, (1275 bc), major battle between the Egyptians under Ramses II and the Hittites
c1195 BC Sea Peoples invade
Babylonians’ favourite God
Marduk
Defeated terrifying sea monster
Hummurabi comes to power
c 1792 BC
Fought other Amorite kings and formed Babylonian empire.
After he dies c 1750 BC, empire weakens
c 1595 Hittites raid and Empire collapses
Kassites took over
Two big Babylonian empires, famous people were:
Hammurabi & Nebuchadnezzar
Old empire (Hammurabi) c 1800 - 1600 BC
New empire (Nebuchadnezzar) 626 - 539 BC
Three Kingdoms of Egypt
Old, Middle & New
Old Kingdom - c2686 BC - c2180
- Ends in civil war and famine
Middle Kingdom - c2040 BC - c1720 BC
- Ends when invaded by Hyksos, a mysterious group of foreign invaders
New Kingdom c 1570 BC - c1070 BC
- Pharaohs buried in Valley of Kings, not pyramids
- c 1280 BC - Makes peace with Hittites
- c 1190 BC - Sea Peoples invade
- Ends in civil war
671 BC - Assyrians invade
525 BC - Persians invade
The Egyptians lost battle of Pelusium 525 BC because Cambyses II painted cats on shields and had lots of animals on the front line.
332 BC - Alexander the Great invades
30 BC - Egypt becomes part of Roman Empire
Empire: 626 to 539 BCE
Neo-Babylonian Empire
c 730 BC - Become part of the Assyrian Empire. In 689 BC Babylon is destroyed.
625 BC - Babylonians & Medes defeat Assyrians. Nebuchadnezzar II rebuild Babylon and make it richest city in the world.
Famous hanging gardens, blue Ishtar gate, the Processional Way which led to a huge ziggurat (Tower of Babel?)
When Cyrus the Great turned against the Babylonians, he was welcomed by a large segment of the population, including the influential priests.
Babylonian Captivity:
- 597 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and forced its king and nobles into exile. Installs puppet ruler.
- 586 BC - After rebellion Nebuchadnezzar II lays seige to Jerusalem, deports population. They remain there until the Achaemenid Persians released them.
539 Babylon becomes part of the Persian Empire
Philistines - from
The Sea Peoples
They had strong iron weapons
(Probably Greeks that attacked Hittites, Canaanites, then lost in Egypt)
Canaanites invent first alphabet
c 1400 BC
Hebrews arrive in Canaan
c 1250 BC
David’s son
Solomon
Israel split into two:
Israel in the north
Judah in the south
Judeans were conquered by Babylonians, became “Jews”, and returned when Babylonian Empire collapsed
Assyrian Empire was based in
Northern Iraq on Tigris river
911 BC to 612 BC
Ashur = chief god
Ashurbanipal = last great Assyrian king
Ended 612 BC - Medes from the Zagros mountains & rebelling Babylonians besieged and destroyed Nineveh, in northern Iraq (modern-day Mosul).
King Cyrus II of Persian defeats the Medes
550 BC
Later, under King Darius I, the Persian Empire grew to become the largest the world had ever seen.
Alexander the Great conquers Persia
331 BC
Burned Persepolis
What number of kingdoms came from Alexander the Great’s territory?
Three
1) Antigonas took Greece & Macedonia
2) Ptolemy - Egypt
3) Seleucid Empire
First Chinese dynasty
Shang
c 1765 - 1027 BC
Chinese dynasty that defeated Shang
Zhou
Pronounced “Joe”
c 1046 BC – 256 BC
lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history (790 years)
Ended with Warring States period
c 475–221 BCE - 7 kingdoms
Followed by Qin dynasty
China’s First Emperor
Qin Shi Huang
(“Chin sure Hwang”)
Reign: 221 – 210 BC
Great Wall of China
7,500 terracotta warriors
Chinese dynasty after Qin
Han dynasty
221 BC - 220 AD
Buddhism arrives from India
Paper is invented
Japan - 9000 BC - 500 BC
Yomon period
Japan - after Yomon period
Yayoi Period
500 BC - 300 AD
Then Yamamoto rulers take control
Buddhism founded by
Siddhartha Guatama
c 560 - 480 BC
Great ruler of Mauryan Empire
Asoka
Established in 321 BC by Chandragupta. Asoka was his grandson.
Empire grew weaker after Asoka’s death. Split up. Reunited by Guptas in 320 AD
People in South America - giant outlines of animals and shapes
Nazca
Mexican civilization famous for giant heads
Olmecs
Biggest ancient city of Americas
Teotihuacn
[teo ti wa’ kan]
Paul’s travels
45 - 58 AD Asia Minor & Greece
58 - 60 AD Rome
Discovered St Lawrence river in 1535
St Jacques Cartier
Lewis Howard Latimer invented …
carbon filaments for lightbulbs
Mentioned by Michael Holding, Jamaican cricket commentator
Swedish leader in Civilization
Christina
Queen of Sweden from 1632 until her abdication in 1654
She was one of the most learned women of the 17th century, with an interest in philosophy, science and art, and sparked controversy during her times due to her masculine dressing and unconventional lifestyle.
Her father was the mighty Swedish warrior-king Gustavus Adolphus, champion of the Protestant cause and the king who established the framework of the modern Swedish state
While Sweden is historically Protestant, Kristina is famously not; her Catholic beliefs were so unpopular in (dominantly Lutheran) Sweden that she was forced to abdicate and flee the country
US President 1901 to 1909
Teddy Roosevelt
the youngest person to become President of the United States (42 years old)
Roman Emperor who oversaw greatest territorial expansion
Trajan
preceded on the throne by the short-reigning, undistinguished Nerva and followed by Hadrian
Died of edema in his bed (swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in your body’s tissues)
Hojo Tokimune
renowned for twice repelling the Mongols in their attempted invasions of Japan, as well as fostering the spread of Zen Buddhism in Japan
