The best history documentaries. Traveling from the Middle ages to the industrial revolutions, to understand the past that shaped today's world.
A glimpse into the great ancient Western and Eastern civilizations, America's
history before and after Columbus, Indian and Chinese kingdoms and empires.
King Jehu of Israel bows before Shalmaneser III of Assyria, 825 BC
Present day Iraq, known in classical antiquity
as Mesopotamia, was home to the oldest civilizations in the world, with a
cultural history of over 10,000 years, hence its common epithet, the
Cradle of Civilization. Mesopotamia, as part of the larger Fertile Crescent,
was a significant part of the Ancient Near East throughout the Bronze Age and
the Iron Age.
Arabs have been the majority of Iraq's
population since Sassanid times.[6] Iraq was ruled by the indigenous empires,
Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and also by foreign empires; Median,
Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian empires during the Iron Age and
Classical Antiquity, before Iraq was conquered by the Muslim Rashidun Caliphate
in the 7th century, and became a center of the Islamic Golden Age during the
medieval Abbasid Caliphate. After a series of invasions and conquest by the
Mongols and Turks, Iraq fell under Ottoman rule in the 16th century,
intermittently falling under Iranian Safavid and Mamluk control.
The god Marduk and his dragon Mušḫuššu, from a Babylonian cylinder seal.
The story of Eden echoes the Mesopotamian myth
of a king, as a primordial man, who is placed in a divine garden to guard the
tree of life. In the Hebrew Bible, Adam and Eve are depicted as walking around
the Garden of Eden naked due to their innocence. Eden and its rivers may
signify the real Jerusalem, the Temple of Solomon, or the Promised Land. It may
also represent the divine garden on Zion, and the mountain of God, which was
also Jerusalem. The imagery of the Garden, with its serpent and cherubs, has
been compared to the images of the Solomonic Temple with its copper serpent,
the nehushtan, and guardian cherubs.
Mesopotamian religion refers to the religious
beliefs and practices followed by the Sumerian and East Semitic Akkadian,
Assyrian, Babylonian and later migrant Arameans and Chaldeans, living in
Mesopotamia (a region encompassing modern Iraq, Kuwait, south east Turkey and
north east Syria) that dominated the region for a period of 4,200 years from the
fourth millennium BCE throughout Mesopotamia, to approximately the 10th century
CE in Assyria.
Mesopotamian polytheism was the only religion
in ancient Mesopotamia for thousands of years before entering a period of
gradual decline beginning between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. This decline
happened in the face of the introduction of a distinctive native Eastern Rite
(Syriac Christianity such as the Assyrian Church of the East and Syriac
Orthodox Church), as well as Judaism, Manicheanism and Gnosticism, and
continued for approximately three to four centuries, until most of the original
religious traditions of the area died out, with the final traces existing among
some remote Assyrian communities until the 10th century CE.
As with most dead religions, many aspects of
the common practices and intricacies of the doctrine have been lost and
forgotten over time. Fortunately, much of the information and knowledge has
survived, and great work has been done by historians and scientists, with the
help of religious scholars and translators, to re-construct a working knowledge
of the religious history, customs, and the role these beliefs played in
everyday life in Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia during this time.
Mesopotamian religion is thought to have been a major influence on subsequent
religions throughout the world, including Canaanite, Aramean, ancient Greek,
and Phoenician religions, and also monotheistic religions such as Judaism,
Christianity, Mandeanism and Islam.
It is known that the god Ashur, among others,
was still worshipped in Assyria as late as the 4th century CE. Mesopotamian
religion was polytheistic, worshipping over 2,100 different deities, many of
which were associated with a specific city or state within Mesopotamia such as
Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Assur, Nineveh, Ur, Uruk, Mari and Babylon. Some of the
most significant of these deities were Anu, Ea, Enlil, Ishtar (Astarte), Ashur,
Shamash, Shulmanu, Tammuz, Adad/Hadad, Sin (Nanna), Kur, Dagan, Ninurta,
Nisroch, Nergal, Tiamat, Bel and Marduk.
Monks Mound, built c. 950-1100 CE and located at the Cahokia Mounds UNESCO World Heritage Site near Collinsville, Illinois, is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in America north of Mesoamerica.
The varying cultures collectively called Mound
Builders were inhabitants of North America who, during a 5,000-year period,
constructed various styles of earthen mounds for religious and ceremonial,
burial, and elite residential purposes. These included the Pre-Columbian
cultures of the Archaic period; Woodland period (Adena and Hopewell cultures);
and Mississippian period; dating from roughly 3400 BCE to the 16th century CE,
and living in regions of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River valley, and the
Mississippi River valley and its tributary waters. Beginning with the
construction of Watson Brake about 3400 BCE in present-day Louisiana, nomadic
indigenous peoples started building earthwork mounds in North America nearly
1,000 years before the pyramids were constructed in Egypt.
Since the 19th century, the prevailing
scholarly consensus has been that the mounds were constructed by indigenous
peoples of the Americas. Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers made contact with
natives living in a number of later Mississippian cities, described their
cultures, and left artifacts.[2] By the time of United States westward
expansion two hundred years later, Native Americans were generally not
knowledgeable about the civilizations that produced the mounds. Research and
study of these cultures and peoples has been based mostly on archaeology and
anthropology.
The Real Story of Christmas and Christmas Traditions, Full Documentary.
Bruegel the Elder, 1565 Oil on wood
panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna, Austria. The Hunters in the Snow (Dutch: Jagers in de Sneeuw), also known as The Return of the Hunters.
Mask reliquary of Charlemagne, located at Cathedral Treasury in Aachen
Charlemagne (2 April
742/747/748 – 28 January 814), also known as Charles the Great (Latin:
Carolus or Karolus Magnus, French: Charles Le Grand or Charlemagne, German:
Karl der Große, Italian: Carlo Magno or Carlomagno) or Charles I, was the
King of the Franks from 768, the King of Italy from 774, and from 800 the first
emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three
centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state he founded is called the
Carolingian Empire.
The oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada
of Laon, Charlemagne became king in 768 following the death of his father. He was
initially co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. Carloman's sudden death in 771
under unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the
Frankish Kingdom. Charlemagne continued his father's policy towards the papacy
and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy,
and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He also campaigned against the
peoples to his east, Christianizing them upon penalty of death, at times
leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden. Charlemagne reached the
height of his power in 800 when he was crowned "emperor" by Pope Leo
III on Christmas Day at Old St. Peter's Basilica.
Called the "Father of Europe" (pater
Europae), Charlemagne united most of Western Europe for the first time since
the Roman Empire. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of
cultural and intellectual activity within the Catholic Church. Both the French
and German monarchies considered their kingdoms to be descendants of
Charlemagne's empire.
Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as
emperor for just over thirteen years. He was laid to rest in his imperial
capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. His son Louis the Pious succeeded
him.
Kaaba at night. The Kaaba, in
Mecca, Hejaz region, today's Saudi Arabia, is the center of Islam.
Muslims from all over the world gather there to pray in unity.
Below is the full documentary. Episode one is about the Rasool Muhammad and the rise of Islam after its early turbulent history. Episode two relates Awakening of the world under Islam - the
advancements and discoveries credited to Islam as a system that ran
society. The third and last episode narrates the feats of the Ottomans and the Ottoman empire.
North Korea , officially the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK: 조선민주주의인민공화국;
Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk), is a country
in the northern part of the Korean
Peninsula. The name Korea is derived from Goryeo (or Koryo),
a name used by ancient and medieval kingdoms. The capital and largest city is Pyongyang. Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1910.
In 1945, when Japan was defeated in World War
II, Korea was divided into two occupied zones, with the north
occupied by the Soviet Union and the south by the United States.
Negotiations on unification failed, and in 1948 two separate governments were
formed: the Democratic PeopleNorth Korea (About this sound listen), officially
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK; Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국; Chosŏn Minjujuŭi
Inmin Konghwaguk), is a country in East Asia, in the northern part of the
Korean Peninsula. The name Korea is derived from Goryeo (or Koryo), a name used
by ancient and medieval kingdoms. The capital and largest city is Pyongyang.
North Korea shares a land border with China to the north and north-west, along
the Amnok (Yalu) and Tumen rivers. A small section of the Tumen River also
forms North Korea's short border with Russia to the northeast. The Korean
Demilitarized Zone marks the boundary between North Korea and South Korea. The
legitimacy of this border is not accepted by either side, as both states claim
to be the legitimate government of the entire peninsula. Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1910. In 1945, when Japan was
defeated in World War II, Korea was divided into two occupied zones, with the
north occupied by the Soviet Union and the south by the United States.
Negotiations on unification failed, and in 1948 two separate governments were
formed: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north, and the
Republic of Korea in the south. The conflicting claims of sovereignty led to
the Korean War in 1950. An armistice in 1953 committed both to a cease-fire,
but the two countries remain officially at war because a formal peace treaty
was never signed. Both states were accepted into the United Nations in
1991. The DPRK holds elections and describes itself as a self-reliant socialist
state,[9] but it is widely considered a dictatorship and has been described as
totalitarian and Stalinist[18][19][20] with an elaborate cult of personality
around Kim Il-sung and his family. Human rights violations in North Korea are
in a category of their own[21] with no parallel in the contemporary world[22]
as assessed by international human rights organizations.[23][24][25] The
Workers' Party of Korea, led by a member of the ruling family,[20] holds power
in the state and leads the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the
Fatherland of which all political officers are required to be a member. Over time North Korea has gradually distanced itself from the world
Communist movement. Juche, an ideology of self-reliance, was introduced into
the constitution as a "creative application of Marxism–Leninism" in
1972. In 2009, the constitution was amended again, quietly removing the
brief references to communism (Chosŏn'gŭl: 공산주의).
Credits: Wikipedia
DPRK: The Land Of Whispers (North Korea Travel Documentary) (2013)
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