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The Historian Channel: Ukraine, The Birth Of A Nation, History of Ukraine, History Documentary -- From Rus To Ukraine
Realm of Kievan Rus at its height
(with dependent lands)
Kievan Rus' (Old East Slavic Рѹ́сь
(Rus'), Рѹ́сьскаѧ землѧ[1]
(Ruskaya zemlya), Greek Ῥωσία, Latin Rus(s)ia, Ruscia,
Ruzzia, Rut(h)enia,[2][3] Old Norse Garðaríki) was a loose federation[4] of
East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century,[5]
under the reign of the Rurik dynasty. The modern peoples of Belarus, Ukraine,
and Russia all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestors.
At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, it stretched
from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the
headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east,
uniting the majority of East Slavic tribes.
Kievan Rus' begins with the rule (882–912) of Prince Oleg,
who extended his control from Novgorod south along the Dnieper river valley in
order to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east and moved his
capital to the more strategic Kiev. Sviatoslav I (died 972) achieved the first
major expansion of Kievan Rus' territorial control, fighting a war of conquest
against the Khazar Empire. Vladimir the Great (980–1015) introduced
Christianity with his own baptism and, by decree, that of all the inhabitants
of Kiev and beyond. Kievan Rus' reached its greatest extent under Yaroslav I
(1019–1054); his sons assembled and issued its first written legal code, the
Rus' Justice, shortly after his death.
The state declined beginning in the late 11th century and
during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers.
It was further weakened by economic factors such as the collapse of Rus'
commercial ties to Byzantium due to the decline of Constantinople and the
accompanying diminution of trade routes through its territory. The state
finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1240s.
The French and Indian War changed the fate of America by initiating
questions over Britain's authority to restrict westward movement into
the western frontier of the Ohio River Valley (The Proclamation of 1763)
and to begin to the increase of taxes on the colonies to pay for the
cost of this North American military struggle.
Map of the French and Indian War (1754–1763)
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) comprised the North
American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756-1763. The war pitted
the colonies of British America against those of New France, with both sides
supported by military units from their parent countries of Great Britain and
France, as well as by Native American allies. At the start of the war, the
French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 European
settlers, compared with 2 million in the British North American colonies.[3]
The outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. Following months
of localised conflict, the metropole nations declared war on each other in 1756,
escalating the war from a regional affair into an intercontinental conflict.
The name French and Indian War, used mainly in the United
States, refers to the two main enemies of the British colonists: the royal
French forces and the various indigenous forces allied with them. British and
European historians use the term the Seven Years' War, as do English speaking
Canadians. French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conquête (the War of the
Conquest) or (rarely) the Fourth Intercolonial War.
Fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between
New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Nova Scotia
in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the
Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of
the French Fort Duquesne (within present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The
dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754,
during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George
Washington ambushed a French patrol.
In 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with
General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned
a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the main effort by
Braddock proved a disaster; he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9,
1755 and died a few days later. British operations in 1755, 1756 and 1757 in
the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and New York all failed, due to a
combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts,
French regular forces, and Indian warrior allies. In 1755, the British captured
Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia; soon
afterwards they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians (1755-1764). Orders for
the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North
America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians, both those
captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty,
were expelled. Native Americans were likewise driven off their land to make way
for settlers from New England.
After the disastrous 1757 British campaigns (resulting in a
failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry, which
was followed by Indian torture and massacres of British victims), the British
government fell. William Pitt came to power and significantly increased British
military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk
large convoys to aid the limited forces it had in New France. France
concentrated its forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theatre
of the war. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to
capture the Colony of Canada. They succeeded in capturing territory in
surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec (1759). Though the
British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec (1760), the French
ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris (1763).
The outcome was one of the most significant developments in
a century of Anglo-French conflict. France ceded its territory east of the
Mississippi to Great Britain. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi
River (including New Orleans) to its ally Spain, in compensation for Spain's
loss to Britain of Florida (Spain had ceded Florida to Britain in exchange for
the return of Havana, Cuba). France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean
was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Britain's
position as the dominant colonial power in eastern North America.
The Historian Channel: The Maya, Aztec, Olmec, History Documentry, Ancient Americans The Mayas, Aztecs, Olmecs.
Olmec jadeite mask 1000–600 BCE
The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Mexico
following a progressive development in Soconusco. They lived in the tropical
lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and
Tabasco. It has been speculated that Olmec derive in part from neighboring
Mokaya and/or Mixe–Zoque.
The population of the Olmecs flourished during Mesoamerica's
formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE.
Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by
1600–1500 BCE, early Olmec culture had emerged, centered on the San Lorenzo
Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz. They were the first
Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the
civilizations that followed. Among other "firsts", the Olmec
appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame,
hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.
The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is their artwork,
particularly the aptly named "colossal heads". The Olmec
civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on
the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Olmec artworks are considered among ancient America's most striking.
National Geographic Documentary 2015 - China Empire History channel BBC Documentary
"Departure Herald", 26 m
(85 ft) in length, from the Chinese Xuande reign period (1425-1435 AD);
the painting shows the emperor's large procession heading towards the
imperial tombs of the Ming emperors located roughly 50 km north of the
capital Beijing.
Ancient China
Xia dynasty (c. 2100 – c. 1600 BC)
Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC)
Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC)
Spring and Autumn period (722–476 BC)
Warring States period (476–221 BC)
Imperial China
Qin dynasty (221–206 BC)
Han dynasty (202 BC–AD 220)
Three Kingdoms (AD 220–280)
Jin dynasty (AD 265–420)
Northern and Southern dynasties (AD 420–589)
Sui dynasty (AD 589–618)
Tang dynasty (AD 618–907)
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (AD 907–960)
Song, Liao, Jin, and Western Xia dynasties (AD 960–1234)
