Friday, February 24, 2017

Friday, February 17, 2017

History Documentary: Silk Road, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan



History Documentary: Silk Road, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

Kyrgyzstan's recorded history spans over 2,000 years, encompassing a variety of cultures and empires. Although geographically isolated by its highly mountainous terrain – which has helped preserve its ancient culture – Kyrgyzstan has historically been at the crossroads of several great civilizations, namely as part of the Silk Road and other commercial and cultural routes. Though long inhabited by a succession of independent tribes and clans, Kyrgyzstan has periodically come under foreign domination and attained sovereignty as a nation-state only after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Once part of the Turkic Khaganate and later Timurid Empires, the region that today includes the Republic of Uzbekistan was conquered in the early 16th century by Eastern Turkic-speaking nomads. The area was gradually incorporated into the Russian Empire during the 19th century, and in 1924 what is now Uzbekistan became a bordered constituent republic of the Soviet Union, known as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR). Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Credits: Wikipedia

Sunday, February 12, 2017

History Documentary: Japan, the Secret Empire



Commanding shoguns and fierce samurai warriors, exotic geisha and exquisite artisans - all were part of a Japanese renaissance between the 16th and 19th centuries when Japan went from chaos and violence to a land of ritual refinement and peace.

But stability came at a price: for nearly 250 years, Japan was a land closed to the Western world, ruled by the shogun under his absolute power and control. Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire brings to life the unknown story of a mysterious empire, its relationship with the West, and the forging of a nation that would emerge as one of the most important countries in the world.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Historian Channel: Documentay history of the Lost Kingdoms of West Africa, BBC Documentary


Art historian Gus Casely-Hayford explores the history of the Lost Kingdoms of West Africa, with particular attention to the 16th-century bronzes from the kingdom of Benin.