History Documentary: Catherine the Great, Yekaterina Alexeyevna (Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна) or Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, History Documentary

Documentary Catherine The Great Documentary: History Documentary: Catherine the Great, Yekaterina Alexeyevna (Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна) or Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, History Documentary

Portrait of Catherine II (Catherine the Great),  by Fedor Rokotov

Yekaterina Alexeyevna (Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна) or Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great (Екатерина II Великая, Yekaterina II Velikaya; 2 May [O.S. 21 April] 1729 – 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796), was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 1762 until her death in 1796 at the age of 67. Born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, she came to power following a coup d'état when her husband, Peter III, was assassinated. Russia was revitalized under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognized as one of the great powers of Europe.

In both her accession to power and in rule of her empire, Catherine often relied on her noble favorites, most notably Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Assisted by highly successful generals such as Pyotr Rumyantsev and Alexander Suvorov, and admirals such as Fyodor Ushakov, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was crushed following victories over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish wars, and Russia colonised the vast territories of Novorossiya along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the west, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover, king Stanisław August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. In the east, Russia started to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America.

Catherine reformed the administration of Russian guberniyas, and many new cities and towns were founded on her orders. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernise Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and economy continued to depend on serfdom, and the increasing demands of the state and private landowners led to increased levels of reliance on serfs. This was one of the chief reasons behind several rebellions, including the large-scale Pugachev's Rebellion of cossacks and peasants.

The period of Catherine the Great's rule, the Catherinian Era, is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire and the Russian nobility. The Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility, issued during the short reign of Peter III and confirmed by Catherine, freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service. Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the classical style endorsed by the Empress, changed the face of the country. She enthusiastically supported the ideals of The Enlightenment, thus earning the status of an enlightened despot.[1] As a patron of the arts she presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.

Credits: Wikipedia

History Documentary: King Midas and the Golden Touch, Greek mythology. History Documentary: Midas Phrygian King, Midas King of Phrygia

Midas (/ˈmaɪdəs/; Greek: Μίδας) is the name of at least three members of the royal house of Phrygia.

The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This came to be called the golden touch, or the Midas touch. The Phrygian city Midaeum was presumably named after this Midas, and this is probably also the Midas that according to Pausanias founded Ancyra. According to Aristotle, legend held that Midas died of starvation as a result of his "vain prayer" for the gold touch. The legends told about this Midas and his father Gordias, credited with founding the Phrygian capital city Gordium and tying the Gordian Knot, indicate that they were believed to have lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC, well before the Trojan War. However, Homer does not mention Midas or Gordias, while instead mentioning two other Phrygian kings, Mygdon and Otreus.

Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC, up until the sacking of Gordium by the Cimmerians, when he is said to have committed suicide. Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the Mita, called king of the Mushki in Assyrian texts, who warred with Assyria and its Anatolian provinces during the same period.

A third Midas is said by Herodotus to have been a member of the royal house of Phrygia and the grandfather of an Adrastus who fled Phrygia after accidentally killing his brother and took asylum in Lydia during the reign of Croesus. Phrygia was by that time a Lydian subject. Herodotus says that Croesus regarded the Phrygian royal house as "friends" but does not mention whether the Phrygian royal house still ruled as (vassal) kings of Phrygia.

Credits: Wikipedia 

In the Nathaniel Hawthorne version of the Midas myth, Midas's daughter turns to a statue when he touches her. Illustration by Walter Crane for the 1893 edition.

History Documentary: Decoding Neanderthals (Full Documentary), History of Neanderthal, Pre-History Documentary: Neanderthals or Neandertals

Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans—people physically identical to us today—left their African homeland and entered Europe, then a bleak and inhospitable continent in the grip of the Ice Age. But when they arrived, they were not alone: the stocky, powerfully built Neanderthals had already been living there for hundred of thousands of years.

Sites where typical Neanderthal fossils have been found

Neanderthals or Neandertals UK /niˈændərˌtɑːl/, us also /neɪ/-, -/ˈɑːndər/-, -/ˌtɔːl/, -/ˌθɔːl/) (named after the Neandertal area in Germany) were a species or subspecies of human in the genus Homo which became extinct around 40,000 years ago. They were closely related to modern humans,[ having DNA over 99.5% the same. Remains left by Neanderthals include bone and stone tools, which are found in Eurasia, from Western Europe to Central, Northern, and Western Asia. Neanderthals are generally classified by paleontologists as the species Homo neanderthalensis, or alternatively a subspecies of Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).

Several cultural assemblages have been linked to the Neanderthals in Europe. The earliest, the Mousterian stone tool culture, dates to about 300,000 years ago. Late Mousterian artifacts were found in Gorham's Cave on the south-facing coast of Gibraltar.

Neanderthals were large compared to Homo sapiens because they inhabited higher latitudes, in conformance with Bergmann's rule, and their larger stature explains their larger brain size because brain size generally increases with body size.[14] With an average cranial capacity of 1600 cm3,[15] the cranial capacity of Neanderthals is notably larger than the 1400 cm3 average for modern humans, indicating that their brain size was larger. Males stood 164–168 cm (65–66 in) and females 152–156 cm (60–61 in) tall.

The Neanderthal genome project published papers in 2010 and 2014 stating that Neanderthals contributed to the DNA of modern humans, including most non-Africans as well as a few African populations, through interbreeding, likely between 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Credits: Wikipedia

History Documentary: The Real Wild West - Geronimo, History Documentary: History of the Far West Conquer. Geronimo, History Documentary: The Apache-American conflict

Geronimo (Mescalero-Chiricahua: Goyaałé [kòjàːɬɛ́] "the one who yawns"; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader from the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe. From 1850 to 1886 Geronimo joined with members of three other Chiricahua Apache bands—the Chihenne, the Chokonen and the Nednhi—to carry out numerous raids and commit widespread depredations in the northern Mexico states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and in the southwestern American territories of New Mexico and Arizona. Geronimo's raids and related combat actions were a part of the prolonged period of the Apache-American conflict, that started with American settlement in Apache lands following the end of the war with Mexico in 1848. The Apache-American conflict was itself a direct outgrowth of the much older Apache-Mexican conflict which had been ongoing in the same general area since the beginning of Mexican/Spanish settlement in the 1600's.

Credits: Wikipedia

Edward S. Curtis, Portrait of Geronimo, 1905

 

History Documentary: The Real Wild West History Documentary: General George Custer, History of Civil War: General Custer (George Armstrong Custer), Full Documentary

George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1857, where he graduated last in his class in 1861. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Custer was called to serve with the Union Army.

Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer in field uniform, 1865.

Born	December 5, 1839 New Rumley, Ohio
Died	June 25, 1876 (aged 36) Little Bighorn, Montana
Place of burial	initially on the battlefield; later reinterred in West Point Cemetery
Years of service	1861–1876
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel

Custer developed a strong reputation during the Civil War. He participated in the first major engagement, the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861 near Washington, D.C. His association with several important officers helped his career, as did his success as a highly effective cavalry commander. During the war, Custer was eventually promoted to captain of the U.S. Army (May 1864), and to the temporary ranks of (brevet) major general of the U.S. Army (March 1865) and major general of the U.S. Volunteers (April 1865) at age 25. At the conclusion of the Appomattox Campaign, in which he and his troops played a decisive role, Custer was present at General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

After the Civil War, Custer remained a major general in the U.S. Volunteers until they were mustered out by February 1866. He reverted to his permanent rank of captain and was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment, in July 1866. He was dispatched to the west in 1867 to fight in the American Indian Wars. On June 25, 1876, while leading the 7th at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana against a coalition of Native American tribes, he and all of his battalion were killed including two of his brothers. The battle is popularly known in American history as "Custer's Last Stand." Custer and his regiment were defeated so decisively at the Little Bighorn that it has overshadowed all of his prior achievements.

Credits: Wikipedia

History Documentary: The Real Wild West - Crazy Horse, Full Documentary, History of the Far West Conquer: Crazy Horse

History  Documentary: The Real Wild West -  Crazy Horse, Full Documentary, History of the Far West Conquer: Crazy Horse

The Wild West collection features documentaries about some of the most controversial and mythic figures in American western history.

From Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to Billy the Kid, from Custers Last Stand to Geronimo's fight against the U.S. government, learn the real stories behind some of America's greatest western tales.

Crazy Horse (Lakota: Tȟašúŋke Witkó in Standard Lakota Orthography,[2] IPA:tχaʃʊ̃kɛ witkɔ), literally "His-Horse-Is-Crazy";[3] c. 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the United States Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.

Four months after surrendering to U.S. troops under General Crook in May 1877, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a military guard, using his bayonet, while allegedly[4][5] resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Native American tribal members and was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.

Credits: Wikipedia

A 1934 sketch of Crazy Horse made by a Mormon missionary after interviewing Crazy Horse's sister, who claimed the depiction was accurate.
Oglala Lakota leader
Personal details
Born	Cha-O-Ha ("In the Wilderness" or "Among the Trees") c. 1840
Died	September 5, 1877 (aged 36-37) Fort Robinson, Nebraska
Resting place	Undisclosed location
Spouse(s)	Black Buffalo Woman Black Shawl Nellie Larrabee (Laravie)

A 1934 sketch of Crazy Horse made by a Mormon missionary after interviewing Crazy Horse's sister, who claimed the depiction was accurate.

Cha-O-Ha ("In the Wilderness" or "Among the Trees")
c. 1840

September 5, 1877 (aged 36-37)
Fort Robinson, Nebraska

Undisclosed location

• Black Buffalo Woman
• Black Shawl
• Nellie Larrabee (Laravie)

Crazy Horse

He fought to the end to protect the lands that had been his people's since time immemorial. His death marked the end of an era. Crazy Horse cut his teeth fighting with the Olgala chief Red Cloud against United States troops in Wyoming. He earned a place in legend and signed his own death warrant for his role in Custer's last stand. Travel back to the waning days of the frontier for a revealing portrait of one of the great Indian leaders. Leading historians and elders of his Sioux tribe offer their take on his life and legend, while period accounts, art and artifacts show the fervor that marked his pursuit and capture by U.S. forces after the Little Big Horn. A stirring profile of a noble warrior who gave everything he had in a desperate and futile struggle to preserve the freedom and dignity of his people.

History Documentary: Phoenicia and the Phoenicians, Full Documentary: Who Really Were The Phoenicians. History Documentary: Phoenicia, the ancient civilization

Who Really Were The Phoenicians?  Documentary on Evidence of the Lost Civilization of the Phoenicians.

Phoenicia (UK /fᵻˈnɪʃə/ or US /fəˈniːʃə/; from the Greek: Φοινίκη, Phoiníkē; Arabic: فينيقية‎, Fīnīqīyah) was an ancient Semitic thalassocratic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern Lebanon, Israel and Syria. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1500 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenicians used the galley, a man-powered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme. By their innovations in shipbuilding and seafaring, the Phoenicians were enabled to sail as far west as present-day Morocco and Spain carrying huge cargoes of goods for trade. They were famed in Classical Greece and Rome as 'traders in purple', referring to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the murex snail, used, among other things, for royal clothing, and for the spread of their alphabets, from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived.

Although Egyptian seafaring expeditions had already been made to Byblos to bring back Lebanon cedars as early as the 3rd millennium BC, continuous contact only occurred in the Egyptian New Empire period. In the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani. Much later, in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα (Latinized: khna), a name Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix".

Phoenicia is really a Classical Greek term used to refer to the region of the major Canaanite port towns, and does not correspond exactly to a cultural identity that would have been recognised by the Phoenicians themselves. The term in Greek means 'land of purple', a reference to the valuable murex-shell dye they exported.[8] It is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single ethnicity and nationality. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to ancient Greece. However, in terms of archaeology, language, life style and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other Semitic cultures of Canaan. As Canaanites, they were unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements.

Each city-state was a politically independent unit. They could come into conflict and one city might be dominated by another city-state, although they would collaborate in leagues or alliances. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre in South Lebanon seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta (modern day Sarafand) between Sidon and Tyre in South Lebanon is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland.

The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make extensive use of alphabets. The Phoenician alphabet is generally held to be the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets. They spoke Phoenician, a part of the Canaanite subgroup of the Northwest Semitic language family. Other members of the family are Hebrew, Ammonite, Moabite and Edomite. However, due to the very slight differences in language, and the insufficient records of the time, whether Phoenician formed a separate and united dialect, or was merely a superficially defined part of a broader language continuum, is unclear. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to North Africa and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, who later transmitted it to the Romans. 

The Phoenicians: Map of Phoenicia and its Mediterranean trade routes

Capital		Byblos, Mount Lebanon (1200 BC–1000 BC) Tyre, South Lebanon (1000 BC–333 BC) Carthage (333 BC–149 BC)
Languages		Phoenician, Punic
Religion		Canaanite religion
Government		Kingship (City-states)
Well-known kings of Phoenician cities
•	c. 1000 BC	Ahiram
•	969 BC – 936 BC	Hiram I
•	820 BC – 774 BC	Pygmalion of Tyre
Historical era		Classical antiquity
•	Established	1500 BC
•	Tyre in South Lebanon, under the reign of Hiram I, becomes the dominant city-state	969 BC
•	Pygmalion founds Carthage (legendary)	814 BC
•	Cyrus the Great conquers Phoenicia	539 BC
Population
•	3200 BC est.	200,000

 Credits: Wikipedia