The Christian emperor Constantine was ever pragmatic; he could only push his pagan subjects so far. One act of his, in the end, ensured the position of Christianity: the establishment of a new capital that would be known as Constantinople. […]
Political turmoil in the Ukraine. The struggle of nationalism in Poland. The resurgence of neo-Nazism around the world. The conflicts of Eastern Europe are all over the news today, but beyond the headlines is a long and complex series of events going back more than a hundred years. […]
“I retain an unalterable affection for you, which neither time nor distance can change.” -Letter from George to Martha Washington, 1775 […]
Absolutism was a system of government in which all sovereignty resided with the king, true to Louis XIV’s dictum: “I am the state.” Particularly in France and Germany, the wars of religion had seriously weakened national governments and monarchies. Nobles had regained a great deal of power, peasants were in revolt, and there was really a great need for a political rebuilding of monarchies. […]
The role of the Middle East in World War II fundamentally altered Americans’ conception of the region. For the first time, U.S. officials saw the geopolitical orientation of the Middle East as vital to American national security—a view of the region that persists to this day. […]
Latin America does not usually loom in world history as the source of one of the great traditions. It’s a borrower of forces and influences from other places that then merge with more local elements and traditions, but Latin America has had a varied and significant role in world history. […]
Official Egyptian religious culture was centered on temple worship, and temple worship was always carried out in the name of the Egyptian Pharaohs. The concerns of official Egyptian religious culture were expressed in “cult”—that is, in actions of ritual worship. […]
Washington’s surprise at Trenton threw the British occupation of New Jersey into a panic. Carl von Donop—who was in command of the outposts at Trenton, Burlington, and Bordentown—now imagined himself outmaneuvered and cut off by unseen Americans, and he ordered a pullback to Princeton, where he furiously began throwing up entrenchments. […]
In the last millennium, the pace of change accelerated sharply and decisively. The isolation of the world zones was breached in the 16th century. Then, from 1700 on the pace of innovation began to accelerate so rapidly that, within just three centuries, the entire world had been transformed. […]
Before Italy’s city-states were united under Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy in 1861, Italy was, as Prince Clemens von Metternich said to Lord Palmerston, “merely a geographical expression.” […]
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