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.
The Franks (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) are historically
first known as a group of Germanic tribes that inhabited the land between the
Lower and Middle Rhine in the 3rd century AD, and second as the people of Gaul
who merged with the Gallo-Roman populations during succeeding centuries,
passing on their name to modern-day France and becoming part of the heritage of
the modern French people. Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other
Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became
the military rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. With the coronation of
their ruler Charlemagne as Imperator Romanorum by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he
and his successors were recognised as legitimate successors to the emperors of
the Western Roman Empire.
The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the
Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium
and the southern Netherlands. The kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after
357 AD. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united
under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th
century, which greatly increased their power. The Merovingian dynasty,
descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would
absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire. The Frankish state consolidated
its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century,
developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into
the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
In the Middle Ages, the term Frank was used in the east as a
synonym for western European, as the Franks were then rulers of most of Western
Europe. The Franks in the east kept their Germanic language and became
part of the Germans, Dutch, Flemings and Luxembourgers. The Franconian
languages, which are called Frankisch in Dutch or Fränkisch in German,
originated at least partly in the Old Frankish language of the Franks.
Nowadays, the German and Dutch names for France are Frankreich and Frankrijk,
respectively, both meaning "Realm of the Franks".
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe, or group of tribes,
who were first heard of in southern Poland, but later moved around Europe
establishing kingdoms in Spain and later North Africa in the 5th century.
The Vandals are believed to have migrated from southern
Scandinavia to the area between the lower Oder and Vistula rivers during the
2nd century BC and to have settled in Silesia from around 120 BC. They
are associated with the Przeworsk culture and were possibly the same people as
the Lugii. Expanding into Dacia during the Marcomannic Wars and to Pannonia
during the Crisis of the Third Century, the Vandals were confined to Pannonia
by the Goths around 330 AD, where they received permission to settle by
Constantine the Great. Around 400 the Vandals were pushed westwards again, this
time by the Huns, crossing the Rhine into Gaul along with other tribes in 406.
In 409, the Vandals crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, where
their main groups, the Hasdingi and the Silingi, settled in Gallaecia
(northwest) and Baetica (south central) respectively.
After the Visigoths invaded Iberia, the Iranian Alans and
Silingi Vandals voluntarily subjected to the rule of Hasdingian leader
Gunderic, who was pushed from Gallaecia to Baetica by a Roman-Suebi coalition
in 419. In 429, under king Genseric, the Vandals entered North Africa. By 439
they established a kingdom which included the Roman province of Africa as well
as Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta and the Balearic Islands. They fended off several
Roman attempts to recapture the African province, and sacked the city of Rome
in 455. Their kingdom collapsed in the Vandalic War of 533–4, in which
Justinian I managed to reconquer the province for the Eastern Roman Empire.
Renaissance and Early Modern writers characterized the
Vandals as barbarians, "sacking and looting" Rome. This led to the
use of the term "vandalism" to describe any senseless destruction,
particularly the "barbarian" defacing of artwork. However, modern
historians tend to regard the Vandals during the transitional period from Late
Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages as perpetuators, not destroyers, of Roman
culture.
The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia
in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of
the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor
Nicholas II, and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during
the first revolution of February 1917 (March in the Gregorian calendar; the
older Julian calendar was in use in Russia at the time). In the second
revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced
with a communist state.
The February Revolution (March 1917) was a revolution
focused around Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), then capital of Russia. In the
chaos, members of the Imperial parliament or Duma assumed control of the
country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt
they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, resulting in Nicholas'
abdication. The Soviets (workers' councils), which were led by more radical
socialist factions, initially permitted the Provisional Government to rule, but
insisted on a prerogative to influence the government and control various
militias. The February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military
setbacks during the First World War (1914–18), which left much of the Russian
Army in a state of mutiny.
A period of dual power ensued, during which the Provisional
Government held state power while the national network of Soviets, led by
socialists, had the allegiance of the lower classes and the political left.
During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many
strikes. When the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war
with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for
stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their
control into the Red Guards (later the Red Army) over which they exerted
substantial control.
In the October Revolution (November in the Gregorian
calendar), the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the workers' Soviets
overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd and established the Russian
SFSR, eventually shifting the capital to Moscow in 1918. The Bolsheviks
appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized
control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end
Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918.
Soon after, civil war erupted among the "Reds"
(Bolsheviks), the "Whites" (counter-revolutionaries), independence
movements and non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for several years, during
which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this
way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922. While many notable historical events
occurred in Moscow and Petrograd, there was also a visible movement in cities
throughout the state, among national minorities throughout the empire and in
the rural areas, where peasants took over and redistributed land.
The Shaolin Monastery (Chinese: 少林寺;
pinyin: Shàolín sì), also known as the Shaolin Temple, is a Chan
("Zen") Buddhist temple in Dengfeng County, Henan Province, China.
Dating back 1,500 years when founded by Fang Lu-Hao, Shaolin Temple is the main
temple of the Shaolin school of Buddhism to this day.
Shaolin Monastery and its Pagoda Forest were inscribed as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 as part of the "Historic Monuments of
Dengfeng”.
The name refers to the forests of Shaoshi (少室;
Shǎo Shì) mountain, one of the seven peaks of Song mountains. The first Shaolin
Monastery abbot was Batuo (also called Fotuo or Buddhabhadra), a dhyāna master
who came to China from India or from Greco-Buddhist Central Asia in 464 AD to
spread Buddhist teachings.
According to the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (645
AD) by Daoxuan, Shaolin Monastery was built on the north side of Shaoshi, the
central peak of Mount Song, one of the Sacred Mountains of China, by Emperor
Xiaowen of the Northern Wei dynasty in 477 AD, to accommodate the India master
beside the capital Luoyang city. Yang Xuanzhi, in the Record of the Buddhist
Monasteries of Luoyang (547 AD), and Li Xian, in the Ming Yitongzhi (1461),
concur with Daoxuan's location and attribution. The Jiaqing Chongxiu Yitongzhi
(1843) specifies that this monastery, located in the province of Henan, was
built in the 20th year of the Taihe era of the Northern Wei dynasty, that is,
the monastery was built in 495 AD.
The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty was a supporter of
Shaolin Temple, and he wrote the calligraphic inscriptions that still hang over
the Heavenly King Hall and the Buddha Hall today.
Traditionally Bodhidharma is credited as founder of the
martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. However, martial arts historians have shown
this legend stems from a 17th-century qigong manual known as the Yijin Jing.
The authenticity of the Yi Jin Jing has been discredited by
some historians including Tang Hao, Xu Zhen and Ryuchi Matsuda. This argument
is summarized by modern historian Lin Boyuan in his Zhongguo wushu shi:
As for the
"Yi Jin Jing" (Muscle Change Classic), a spurious text attributed to
Bodhidharma and included in the legend of his transmitting martial arts at the
temple, it was written in the Ming dynasty, in 1624, by the Daoist priest
Zining of Mt. Tiantai, and falsely attributed to Bodhidharma. Forged prefaces,
attributed to the Tang general Li Jing and the Southern Song general Niu Gao
were written. They say that, after Bodhidharma faced the wall for nine years at
Shaolin temple, he left behind an iron chest; when the monks opened this chest
they found the two books "Xi Sui Jing" (Marrow Washing Classic) and
"Yi Jin Jing" within. The first book was taken by his disciple Huike,
and disappeared; as for the second, "the monks selfishly coveted it,
practicing the skills therein, falling into heterodox ways, and losing the
correct purpose of cultivating the Real. The Shaolin monks have made some fame
for themselves through their fighting skill; this is all due to having obtained
this manuscript". Based on this, Bodhidharma was claimed to be the
ancestor of Shaolin martial arts. This manuscript is full of errors,
absurdities and fantastic claims; it cannot be taken as a legitimate source.
The oldest available copy was published in 1827. The
composition of the text itself has been dated to 1624.[6] Even then, the
association of Bodhidharma with martial arts only became widespread as a result
of the 1904–1907 serialization of the novel The Travels of Lao Ts'an in Illustrated
Fiction Magazine:
One of the most
recently invented and familiar of the Shaolin historical narratives is a story
that claims that the Indian monk Bodhidharma, the supposed founder of Chinese
Chan (Zen) Buddhism, introduced boxing into the monastery as a form of exercise
around a.d. 525. This story first appeared in a popular novel, The Travels of
Lao T’san, published as a series in a literary magazine in 1907. This story was
quickly picked up by others and spread rapidly through publication in a popular
contemporary boxing manual, Secrets of Shaolin Boxing Methods, and the first
Chinese physical culture history published in 1919. As a result, it has enjoyed
vast oral circulation and is one of the most “sacred” of the narratives shared
within Chinese and Chinese-derived martial arts. That this story is clearly a
twentieth-century invention is confirmed by writings going back at least 250
years earlier, which mention both Bodhidharma and martial arts but make no
connection between the two.
Other scholars see an earlier connection between Da Mo and
the Shaolin Monastery. Scholars generally accept the historicity of Da Mo
(Bodhidharma) who arrived in China around 480. Da Mo (Bodhidharma) and his
disciples are said to have lived a spot about a mile from the Shaolin Temple
that is now a small nunnery. In the 6th century, around 547, The Record of the
Buddhist Monasteries says Da Mo visited the area near Mount Song. In 645 The
Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks describes him as being active
in the Mount Song region. Around 710 Da Mo is identified specifically with the
Shaolin Temple (Precious Record of Dharma's Transmission or Chuanfa Baoji) and
writes of his sitting facing a wall in meditation for many years. It also
speaks of Huikes many trials in his efforts to receive instruction from Da Mo.
In the 11th century a (1004) work embellishes Da Mo legends with great detail.
A stele inscription at the Shaolin Monastery dated 728 reveals Da Mo residing
on Mount Song. Another stele in 798 speaks of Huike seeking instruction from Da
Mo. Another engraving dated 1209 depicts the barefoot saint holding a shoe
according to the ancient legend of Da Mo. A plethora of 13th- and 14th-century
steles feature Da Mo in Various roles. One 13th-century image shows him riding
a fragile stalk across the Yangtze River. In 1125 a special temple was
constructed in his honor at the Shaolin Monastery.
History Documentary: Martin Luther and the Reformation; Documentary: History of Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses placed in doubt and repudiated several of the Roman Catholic practices.
The
Protestant Reformation, often referred to simply as the Reformation (from Latin
reformatio, lit. "restoration, renewal") was a schism from the Roman
Catholic Church initiated by Martin Luther and continued by John Calvin, Huldrych
Zwingli, and other early Protestant Reformers in 16th century Europe.
Although
there had been significant earlier attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church
before Luther – such as those of Jan Hus, Peter Waldo, and John Wycliffe –
Martin Luther is widely acknowledged to have started the Reformation with his
1517 work The Ninety-Five Theses. Luther began by criticizing the selling of
indulgences, insisting that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that
the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the
gospel. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal
changes such as sola scriptura and sola fide. The core motivation behind these
changes was theological, though many other factors played a part, including the
rise of nationalism, the Western Schism that eroded faith in the Papacy, the
perceived corruption of the Roman Curia, the impact of humanism, and the new
learning of the Renaissance that questioned much traditional thought.
The
initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose
independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenberg's printing press provided the
means for the rapid dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The
largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists. Lutheran churches were
founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones
were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The
new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under
Edward VI and Elizabeth I, although the Church of England had been made
independent under Henry VIII in the early 1530s for political rather than
religious reasons.
There
were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the
Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other
Pietistic movements. Radical Reformers, besides forming communities outside
state sanction, often employed more extreme doctrinal change, such as the
rejection of the tenets of the late antique councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon.
The Roman
Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council
of Trent. Much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised
new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of
most of Ireland, came under the influence of Protestantism. Southern Europe
remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict,
culminating in the Thirty Years' War, which left it devastated.
History Documentary: Last of the Tsars - Nicholas II & Alexandra. Documentary: the lives of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia.
Tsar Nicholas II, in a British uniform 1909
Nicholas II or Nikolai II (Russian: Николай II Nikolay
Vtoroy; 18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of
Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March
1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from being one of the
foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Due to
the Khodynka Tragedy, anti-Semitic pogroms, Bloody Sunday, the violent
suppression of the 1905 Revolution, the execution of political opponents and
his perceived responsibility for the Russo-Japanese War, he was given the
nickname Nicholas the Bloody by his political enemies.
Russia suffered a decisive defeat in the Russo-Japanese War,
which saw the annihilation of the Russian Baltic Fleet at the Battle of
Tsushima, loss of Russian influence over Manchuria and Korea, and the Japanese
annexation of South Sakhalin. The Anglo-Russian Entente, designed to counter
German attempts to gain influence in the Middle East, ended the Great Game
between Russia and the United Kingdom.
As head of state, Nicholas approved the Russian mobilization
on 31 July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on the following
day. It is estimated that around 3.3 million Russians were killed in World War
I.[4] The Imperial Army's severe losses and the High Command's incompetent
management of the war efforts, along with the lack of food and other supplies
on the Home Front, were the leading causes of the fall of the Romanov dynasty.
Following the February Revolution of 1917 Nicholas abdicated
on behalf of himself and his son, and he and his family were imprisoned. In the
spring of 1918, Nicholas was handed over to the local Ural Soviet; with the
approval of Lenin, Nicholas and his family were eventually executed by the
Bolsheviks on the night of 16–17 July 1918. The recovered remains of the
Imperial Family were finally re-interred in St. Petersburg in 1998.
