The economy of Greece is the 45th largest in the world with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $238 billion per annum.
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Economy of Greece - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views
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Important Greek industries include tourism and shipping. With 18 million international tourists in 2013, Greece was the 7th most visited country in the European Union and 16th in the world.
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Greece was the 2nd largest foreign investor of capital in Albania, the 3rd in Bulgaria, in the top-three in Romania and Serbia and the most important trading partner and largest foreign investor in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
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Marco Polo - Journalist, Explorer - Biography.com - 0 views
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His book Il Milione describes his travels and experiences and influenced later adventurers and merchants.
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Their journeys brought them into present-day China, where they joined a diplomatic mission to the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol leader whose grandfather, Genghis Khan, had conquered Northeast Asia. In 1269, the two men returned to Venice, and immediately started making plans for their return to Khan's court. During their stay with the leader, Khan had expressed his interest in Christianity and asked the Polo brothers to visit again with 100 priests and a collection of holy water.
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Marco Polo was born in 1254, in Venice, Italy. He traveled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295. He remained in China for 17 of those years. Around 1292, he left China, acting as consort along the way to a Mongol princess who was being sent to Persia. His book Il Milione describes his travels and experiences and influenced later adventurers and merchants.
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The Renaissance at mrdowling.com - 3 views
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painting, sculpture, and architecture. Paintings became more realistic and focused less often on religious topics.
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Arab scholars preserved the writings of the ancient Greeks in their libraries. When the Italian cities traded with the Arabs, ideas were exchanged along with goods. These ideas, preserved from the ancient past, served as the basis of the Renaissance.
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A Turk is a person from Modern Turkey. They divide the European/Christian world from the Middle East and Asia (Arab/Islamic)
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The reason why Europeans all the sudden are now curious and are now investigating the world around them is that after the black death and the crusades, people became more humanist and farther away from religion, so this causes two things: First, religion was keeping others from wondering what everything is, (since religion would make an answer for the questions people had,) keeping everyone together in one place. Second, Christianity at that time had a pretty bad relationship with Muslims, so now that people aren't letting their Religion tell them what to do, people will go past those religious laws for the sack of curiosity.
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Rich families became patrons and commissioned great art. Artists advanced the Renaissance style of showing nature and depicting the feelings of people.
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Crusaders returned to Europe with a newfound understanding of the world. The invention of the printing press encouraged literacy and helped to spread new ideas. Wealthy families and the church had amassed enough wealth to become patrons. The development of financial techniques such as bookkeeping and credit allowed merchants to prosper
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If the Middle Ages are sometimes called the "DARK AGES", why is the Phrase "DAWN of a New Age" so important?
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I think the "DAWN" means that the "New Age" is going to be a better and nicer time for people and the world will be calmer that before
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Since the dark ages are now over, and now it's the "DAWN" of a new age, this could imply that, the "DARK AGES," was the night/hibernation of technology and/or knowledge and information, and now that it is now the "DAWN," we could infer that this could mean that technology and knowledge, are awakening.
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I think "DAWN" probably means the beginning of change in Europe. Everything from art to government transforms into new ideas for a new era.
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The Siege of Kaffa and the Black Death - History in an HourHistory in an Hour - 0 views
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Between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death raged through Medieval Europe. Historians and biologists have traced the origins of this deadly pandemic to the remote steppes of Central Asia. Plague had certainly erupted there by 1331 but how exactly did it spread from East to West? After ravaging Central Asia, the plague descended on China, India and Persia. In China alone, the plague killed around half of the human population. Despite such destruction, commercial activities continued unabated. This meant that the traders, their vessels and the rats aboard became the agents of infection. As they travelled along the established trade routes of the medieval world, they unwittingly carried the plague with them.
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For several years, the Mongols had allowed a group of merchants from Genoa to control Kaffa, a bustling seaport on the Crimean Peninsula. This was highly advantageous for the Mongols as it provided a direct link to Italy’s largest commercial centre and encouraged trade across all corners of their vast empire. Tensions and disagreements, however, were a common feature of this commercial relationship, arising primarily from their religious differences; the Italians were devoutly Christian and the Mongols had been practising Muslims since the 1200s.
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“Whereupon the Tartars (Mongols), worn out by this pestilential disease, and falling on all sides as if thunderstruck, and seeing that they were perishing hopelessly, ordered the corpses to be placed upon their engines and thrown into the city of Kaffa. Accordingly were the bodies of the dead hurled over the walls, so that the Christians were not able to hide or protect themselves from this danger, although they carried away as many as possible and threw them into the sea.”
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summer of 1347, the Italian merchants headed to their ships and the fled the city of Kaffa. En route, however, the Italians stopped at Constantinople, inadvertently infecting the city. Thousands of people were killed, including Andronikos, the son of the Greek Emperor, John VI Cantacuzenos. Those who were able fled the city, many not realising that they were already infected. By the autumn, the western coast of Asia Minor was experiencing the full force of the Black Death and it would not be long before returned home to infect their native Italy.
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Poe's Life | Edgar Allan Poe Museum - 1 views
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. Griswold followed the obituary with a memoir in which he portrayed Poe as a drunken, womanizing madman with no morals and no friends. Griswold’s attacks were meant to cause the public to dismiss Poe and his works, but the biography had exactly the opposite effect and instead drove the sales of Poe’s books higher than they had ever been during the author’s lifetime.
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Days after Poe’s death, his literary rival Rufus Griswold wrote a libelous obituary of the author in a misguided attempt at revenge for some of the offensive things Poe had said and written about him
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Two years later he heard that Frances Allan, the only mother he had ever known, was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to see him before she died. By the time Poe returned to Richmond she had already been buried. Poe and Allan briefly reconciled, and Allan helped Poe gain an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.
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Humiliated by his poverty and furious with Allan for not providing enough funds in the first place, Poe returned to Richmond and visited the home of his fiancée Elmira Royster, only to discover that she had become engaged to another man in Poe’s absence.
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Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families.
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“Panic of 1837,” Poe struggled to find magazine work and wrote his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
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Medieval Economy - Professions - 0 views
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blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, shoemakers, tailors, tanners, and weavers. Other occupations were based on food such as bakers to bake bread, millers to grind grain, brewers to make ale and beer, and vintners to make wine.
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List of Indian inventions and discoveries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views
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Button, ornamental: Buttons—made from seashell—were used in the Indus Valley Civilization for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE.[1] Some buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes pieced into them so that they could attached to clothing by using a thread.[1] Ian McNeil (1990) holds that: "The button, in fact, was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old."
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Calico: Calico had originated in the subcontinent by the 11th century and found mention in Indian literature, by the 12th century writer Hemachandra. He has mentioned calico fabric prints done in a lotus design.[3] The Indian textile merchants traded in calico with the Africans by the 15th century and calico fabrics from Gujarat appeared in Egypt.[3] Trade with Europe followed from the 17th century onwards.[3] Within India, calico originated in Calicut.[3] Carding, devices for: Historian of science Joseph Needham ascribes the invention of bow-instruments used in textile technology to India.[4] The earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India (2nd century CE).[4] These carding devices, called kaman and dhunaki would loosen the texture of the fiber by the means of a vibrating string.[4]
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The words for "chess" in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively — terms derived from caturaṅga in Sanskrit,[11][12] which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps.[13][14] Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.[15] This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.[13] Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.[15] Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.[14][16] Muslims carried Shatranj to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess.[15] Chintz: The origin of Chintz is from the printed all cotton fabric of calico in India.[17] The origin of the word chintz itself is from the Hindi language word चित्र् (chitr), which means a spot
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Coherer, iron and mercury: In 1899, the Bengali physicist Jagdish Chandra Bose announced the development of an "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.[19] He also later received U.S. Patent 755,840, "Detector for electrical disturbances" (1904), for a specific electromagnetic receiver. Cotton gin, single-roller: The Ajanta caves of India yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the 5th century.[20] This cotton gin was used in India until innovations were made in form of foot powered gins.[21] The cotton gin was invented in India as a mechanical device known as charkhi, more technically the "wooden-worm-worked roller". This mechanical device was, in some parts of India, driven by water power.[4] Crescograph: The crescograph, a device for measuring growth in plants, was invented in the early 20th century by the Bengali scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose.[22][
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Perhaps as early as 300 BCE—although certainly by 200 CE—high quality steel was being produced in southern India also by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique.[24] In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in a crucible and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.[24] The first crucible steel was the wootz steel that originated in India before the beginning of the common era.[25] Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the Christian era.[26][27][28][29] Dock (maritime): The world's first dock at Lothal (2400 BCE) was located away from the main current to avoid deposition of silt.[30] Modern oceanographers have observed that the Harappans must have possessed knowledge relating to tides in order to build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of the Sabarmati, as well as exemplary hydrography and maritime engineering.[30] This was the earliest known dock found in the world, equipped to berth and service ships.[30][31] It is speculated that Lothal engineers studied tidal movements, and their effects on brick-built structures, since the walls are of kiln-burnt bricks.[32] This knowledge also enabled them to select Lothal's location in the first place, as the Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuar
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location in the first place, as the Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuar y
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Incense clock: Although popularly associated with China the incense clock is believed to have originated in India, at least in its fundamental form if not function.[33][34] Early incense clocks found in China between the 6th and 8th century CE—the period it appeared in China all seem to have Devanāgarī carvings on them instead of Chinese seal characters.[33][34] Incense itself was introduced to China from India in the early centuries CE, along with the spread of Buddhism by travelling monks.[35][36][37] Edward Schafer asserts that incense clocks were probably an Indian invention, transmitted to China, which explains the Devanāgarī inscriptions on early incense clocks found in China.[33] Silvio Bedini on the other hand asserts that incense clocks were derived in part from incense seals mentioned in Tantric Buddhist scriptures, which first came to light in China after those scriptures from India were translated into Chinese, but holds that the time-telling function of the seal was incorporated by the Chinese.[34] India ink, carbonaceous pigment for: The source of the carbon pigment used in India ink was India.[38][39] In India, the carbon black from which India ink is produced is obtained by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other substances.[39][40] Ink itself has been used in India since at least the 4th century BCE.[41] Masi, an early ink in India was an admixture of several chemical components.[41] Indian documents written in Kharosthi with ink have been unearthed in Xinjiang.[42] The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in ancient South India.[43] Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink
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Indian clubs: The Indian club—which appeared in Europe during the 18th century—was used long by India's native soldiery before its introduction to Europe.[45] During the British Raj the British officers in India performed calisthenic exercises with clubs to keep in for physical conditioning.[45] From Britain the use of club swinging spread to the rest of the world.[45] Kabaddi: The game of kabaddi originated in India during prehistory.[46] Suggestions on how it evolved into the modern form range from wrestling exercises, military drills, and collective self defense but most authorities agree that the game existed in some form or the other in India during the period between 1500-400 BCE.[46] Ludo: Pachisi originated in India by the 6th century.[47] The earliest evidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta.[47] This game was played by the Mughal emperors of India; a notable example being that of Akbar, who played living Pachisi using girls from his harem.[47][48] A variant of this game, called Ludo, made its way to England during the British Raj.[
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Ruler: Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization in what today is Pakistan and some parts of Western India prior to 1500 BCE.[64] Excavations at Lothal (2400 BCE) have yielded one such ruler calibrated to about 1/16 of an inch—less than 2 millimeters.[64] Ian Whitelaw (2007) holds that 'The Mohenjo-Daro ruler is divided into units corresponding to 1.32 inches (33.5 mm) and these are marked out in decimal subdivisions with amazing accuracy—to within 0.005 of an inch. Ancient bricks found throughout the region have dimensions that correspond to these units.'[65] Shigeo Iwata (2008) further writes 'The minimum division of graduation found in the segment of an ivory-made linear measure excavated in Lothal was 1.79 mm (that corresponds to 1/940 of a fathom), while that of the fragment of a shell-made one from Mohenjo-daro was 6.72 mm (1/250 of a fathom), and that of bronze-made one from Harapa was 9.33 mm (1/180 of a fathom).'[66] The weights and measures of the Indus civilization also reached Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified.[66] Seamless celestial globe: Considered one of the most remarkable feats in metallurgy, it was invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in between 1589 and 1590 CE, and twenty other such globes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire.[67][68] Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically impossible to produce metal globes without any seams, even with modern technology.[68] These Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting in order to produce these globes
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Simputer: The Simputer (acronym for "simple, inexpensive and multilingual people's computer") is a self-contained, open hardware handheld computer, designed for use in environments where computing devices such as personal computers are deemed inappropriate. It was developed in 1999 by 7 scientists of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, led by Dr. Swami Manohar in collaboration with Encore India, a company based in Bangalore.[69][70] Originally envisaged to bring internet to the masses of India, the Simputer and its derivatives are today widely utilized by governments of several Indian states as part of their e-governance drive, the Indian Army, as well as by other public and private organizations.[71][72] Snakes and ladders: Snakes and ladders originated in India as a game based on morality.[73] During British rule of India, this game made its way to England, and was eventually introduced in the United States of America by game-pioneer Milton Bradley in 1943.[73] Stepwell: Earliest clear evidence of the origins of the stepwell is found in the Indus Valley Civilization's archaeological site at Mohenjodaro in Pakistan.[74] The three features of stepwells in the subcontinent are evident from one particular site, abandoned by 2500 BCE, which combines a bathing pool, steps leading down to water, and figures of some religious importance into one structure.[74] The early centuries immediately before the common era saw the Buddhists and the Jains of India adapt the stepwells into their architecture.[74] Both the wells and the form of ritual bathing reached other parts of the world with Buddhism.[74] Rock-cut step wells in the subcontinent date from 200-400 CE.[75] Subsequently the wells at Dhank (550-625 CE) and stepped ponds at Bhinmal (850-950 CE) were constructed.[75] Stupa: The origin of the stupa can be traced to 3rd century BCE India.[76] It was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics.[76] The stupa architecture was adopted in Southeast and East Asia, where it evolved into the pagoda, a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics.[76] Toe stirrup: The earliest known manifestation of the stirrup, which was a toe loop that held the big toe was used in India in as early as 500 BCE[77] or perhaps by 200 BCE according to other sources.[78][79] This ancient stirrup consisted of a looped rope for the big toe which was at the bottom of a saddle made of fibre or leather.[79] Such a configuration made it suitable for the warm climate of most of India where people used to ride horses barefoot.[79] A pair of megalithic double bent iron bars with curvature at each end, excavated in Junapani in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have been regarded as stirrups although they could as well be something else.[80] Buddhist carvings in the temples of Sanchi, Mathura and the Bhaja caves dating back between the 1st and 2nd century BCE figure horsemen riding with elaborate saddles with feet slipped under girths.[81][82][83] Sir John Marshall described the Sanchi relief as "the earliest example by some five centuries of the use of stirrups in any part of the world".[83] In the 1st century CE horse riders in northern India, where winters are sometimes long and cold, were recorded to have their booted feet attached to hooked stirrups.[78] However the form, the conception of the primitive Indian stirrup spread west and east, gradually evolving into the stirrup of today.http://en.wikipe
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How Feudalism Works - 0 views
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Mind Your Manors In the days of decentralized government, a fief was like its own mini country that produced pretty much everything that was needed from food to weapons to tools. At the heart of a lord's fief was the manor-large estates. The manor was where the lord's family, servants, and his knights lived. At first they began as large houses, but over the years became full castles as walls, towers, and moats were added for protection. Manors were always in the country and surrounded by farmland and woods. Some of the wealthier lords even had more than one manor. A manor was the center of the community. Not only did it serve as a place for peasants to run to in times of war, but was the political center as well. When he wasn't out fighting for his Lord, the lord of a fief would act as a judge in settling disputes. He also appointed officials who would collect taxes and rent from the peasants and townspeople. Large manors had their own churches complete with their own clergy, as well as a marketplace where locals could buy and sell goods. At any time one time, hundreds of people from priests, knights, squires, entertainers, merchants, peasants, and visiting nobles would head to the manor. For the Lady of the manor her day was spent overseeing servants & caring for the children. When her husband was away (or killed in battle) the Lady of the manor assumed the same roles her husband did, appointing officials and acting as judge. In the early Middle Ages a woman owning property was not all that uncommon.
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Living in a castle might sound romantic but it's not all that it was cracked up to be. Medieval manors were built of wood and stone and built on a large scale. Glass was rare and extremely expensive so windows often were either left open or covered with cloth during the winter. The only means of heating a manor was the fireplace. Each major room had its own. The Great Room, which as its name implies was the center of manor life. The Great Room was heated and lit by an enormous fireplace, big enough to stand in. The Great Room was where all of the eating, drinking, debating, politicking, and merry making and other business was conducted. Speaking of doing business, how did medieval people use the bathroom? All manor houses had privies either outside or inside the castle. The ones inside were nothing more than a seat that emptied directly into the moat. To modern observers manors would have been filthy places. Fleas were common and the smell of hundreds of unwashed people (who often only bathed once a week) would have pervaded. Rats and mice also would have been running around as food was thrown directly on the floor during meal times. At night the servants swept the floor and rushes (dried river reeds) would be spread on the floor and all minor visitors and knights would bed down. The manor was often dark, cold, and smoky. To liven things up a bit, tapestries would be commissioned to decorate the walls.
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Magna Carta - Constitutional Rights Foundation - 0 views
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The purpose of this chapter was to prevent King John from personally ordering the arrest and punishment of a free man without lawful judgment. According to Magna Carta, "lawful judgment" could only be made by judges ruled by "the law of the land," or by one's peers in a trial by combat.
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For people today the most significant part of Magna Carta is Chapter 39: No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [property taken] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimized, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. Some have interpreted this provision to mean that Magna Carta guaranteed to free men the right to a trial by jury. However, the idea of a jury trial as we would recognize it today had not yet developed by 1215.
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Other parts of Magna Carta corrected King John's abuses of power against the barons, Church officials, merchants and other "free men" who together made up about 25% of England's population. Magna Carta virtually ignored the remaining 75% of the population.
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Kids Biography: Marco Polo - 0 views
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The Silk Road referred to a number of trade routes between major cities and trading posts that went all the way from Eastern Europe to Northern China.
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Marco Polo was a merchant and explorer who traveled throughout the Far East and China for much of his life.
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Geography of Greece - Crystalinks - 0 views
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About 80% of Greece consists of mountains or hills, thus making Greece one of the most mountainous countries of Europe. Western Greece contains lakes and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has a maximum elevation of 2,636 m. The Pindus can be considered as a prolongation of the Dinaric Alps. The range continues by means of the Peloponnese, the islands of Kythera and Antikythera to find its final point in the island of Crete. (Actually the islands of the Aegean are peaks of underwater mountains that once consisted an extension of the mainland). The Central and Western Greece area contains high, steep peaks dissected by many canyons and other karstic landscapes, including the Meteora and the Vikos gorge the later being the second largest one on earth after the Grand Canyon in the US.
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We begin to look at the geography of ancient Greece by examining how Greeks lived on their farms, why they traded, road systems, and the plant life that ancient Greece had. Geography has always had a great influence on Greece and its inhabitants. It is largely responsible for numerous continuities in its extensive history. While the mountains that split the Greek lands have contributed to localism they have been a major barrier to unity as a nation. The struggle of communication by land and the significant presence of the sea have made mariners out of Greeks for numerous generations. The natural resources ensure a steady flow of abundance and guarantee sustenance if governed wisely.
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The Greeks had their private space that consisted of the agricultural fields in the territory of the polis and their houses compacted in settlements, whether in the central town of the city-state, in smaller towns, or villages. Ancient Greeks preferred to live in such compacted settlements, even when agriculture was their main source of support. Occasionally, there has been evidence of how agricultural land was organized by the residents of the settlements in rectangular and equal lots. The idea was that each family would farm a single plot of land. But, there was a tendency for farmland to become divided and for a landowner to own many plots of land scattered all over the community.
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In ancient Greece, many cities had land that was used for farming within the city, but most of the people lived in small towns and villages outside of the city.
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Greece consists of a large mainland at the southern end of the Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula (separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth); and numerous islands (around 3,000), including Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Euboea and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups of the Aegean Sea as well as the Ionian sea islands. Greece has more than 15,000 kilometres of coastline and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres.
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Plains are mainly found in Eastern Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Thrace.Greece's climate is divided into three well defined classes the Mediterranean, Alpine and Temperate, the first one features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures rarely reach extremes, although snowfalls do occur occasionally even in Athens, Cyclades or Crete during the winter.
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temperate climate is found in Central and Eastern Macedonia as well as in Thrace at places like Komotini, Xanthi and northern Evros; with cold, damp winters and hot, dry summers.
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About 50% of Greek land is covered by forests with a rich varied vegetation which spans from Alpine coniferous to mediterranean type vegetation.
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Seals, sea turtles and other rare marine life live in the seas around Greece, while Greece's forests provide a home to Western Europe's last brown bears and lynx as well as other species like Wolf, Roe Deer, Wild Goat, Fox and Wild Boar among others.
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According to this information, there would have been many villages, hamlets, single farms, and occasional small towns scattered over the land; as can still be seen in Crete.
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Ancient Greeks became a sea-going people due to the close proximity of the sea to most Greek city-states. These merchants and traders developed a sense of freedom and independence not seen before.
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Renaissance -- Out of the Middle Ages - 2 views
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As the fortunes of merchants, bankers, and tradespeople improved, they had more than enough money to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. They began to desire larger, more luxurious homes, fine art for these residences, sumptuous clothing to show off their wealth in public, and exotic delicacies to eat. These desires of the middle class stimulated the economy.
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reading for pleasure, learning to play musical instruments, and studying a variety of topics unrelated to their businesses.
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Bankers and accountants needed to understand arithmetic. Those trading with other countries needed a knowledge of foreign currencies and languages. Reading was essential for anyone who needed to understand a contract.
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Many Italian coastal cities became centers for trade and commerce, and for the wealth and education that ensued.
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Many Italian coastal cities became centers for trade and commerce, and for the wealth and education that ensued.
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So, what did the creation of a middle class do to society? How did it change society? And how did their spending impact others? Why is a strong middle class important today?
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The creation of the middle class stimulated society by having the new wealthier middle class buy expensive things. This impacted others because it made jobs for bankers (which led to learning math,) and made people around them want to buy more too. It is important to have a middle class today so we can have a balance.
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What do banks do today? How do banks help people today? They want do you think banks did to make peoples lives better in the 1450's?
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Banks help people today by holding peoples money for them so they don't lose it or so that it doesn't get stolen as easily. Also, banks help you balance out your budget so you don't over spend.
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They lived in beautiful homes, employed great artists, and engaged in intellectual pursuits for both business and pleasure.
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Medieval education in Europe: Schools & Universities - 0 views
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It is estimated that by 1330, only 5% of the total population of Europe received any sort of education
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Even then education, as we understand it, was not accessible or even desired by everyone. Schools were mostly only accessible to the sons of high lords of the land.
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The very fact that the curriculum was structured by the church gave it the ability to mould the students to follow its doctrine
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Unofficially, education started from a very young age. This sort of early education depended on the feudal class of the child’s parents
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Even the children of serfs would be taught the skills needed to survive by their parents. The boys would be taken out into the fields to observe and to help their parents with easy tasks, while the girls would work with the animals at home, in the vegetable garden with their mothers, or watch them weave.
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Children of craftsmen and merchants were educated from a very young age in the trade of their fathers. Trade secrets rarely left a family and they had to be taught and understood by all male (and unusually, female) heirs, in order to continue the family legacy.
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Young boys of noble birth would learn how to hunt and swing a weapon, while the young ladies of nobility would learn how to cook
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The main subject of study in those schools was Latin (reading and writing). In addition to this, students were also taught rhetoric – the art of public speaking and persuasion – which was a very useful tool for both men of the cloth and nobles alike.
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University education, across the whole of the continent, was a luxury to which only the wealthiest and brightest could ever aspire
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Students attended the Medieval University at different ages, ranging from 14 (if they were attending Oxford or Paris to study the Arts) to their 30s (if they were studying Law in Bologna)
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The dynamic between students and teachers in a medieval university was significantly different from today. In the University of Bologna students hired and fired teachers by consensus. The students also bargained as a collective regarding fees, and threatened teachers with strikes if their demands were not met
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A Master of Arts degree in the medieval education system would have taken six years; a Bachelor of Arts degree would be awarded after completing the third or fourth year. By “Arts” the degree was referring to the seven liberal arts – arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric
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Historians today believe that this policy was another way in which authority figures attempted to control the peasants, since an educated peasant/villein might prove to question the way things were done and upset the balance of power which kept the nobles strong.
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Students held the legal status of clerics which, according to the Canon Law, could not be held by women; women were therefore not admitted into universities.
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Renaissance Art Basics: Everything You Need to Know to Sound Smart at a Cocktail Party ... - 1 views
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The 14th century was a time of great crisis; the plague, the Hundred Years war, and the turmoil in the Catholic Church all shook people’s faith in government, religion, and their fellow man. In this dark period Europeans sought a new start, a cultural rebirth, a renaissance.
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Humanistic education, based on rhetoric, ethics and the liberal arts, was pushed as a way to create well-rounded citizens who could actively participate in the political process. Humanists celebrated the mind, beauty, power, and enormous potential of human beings. They believed that people were able to experience God directly and should have a personal, emotional relationship to their faith. God had made the world but humans were able to share in his glory by becoming creators themselves.
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Prior to the Renaissance Period, art was largely commissioned by the Catholic Church, which gave artists strict guidelines about what the finished product was to look like. Medieval art was decorative, stylized, flat, and two-dimensional and did not depict the world or human beings very realistically. But a thriving commercial economy distributed wealth not just to the nobility but to merchants and bankers who were eager to show their status by purchasing works of art
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Perspective. To add three-dimensional depth and space to their work, Renaissance artists rediscovered and greatly expanded on the ideas of linear perspective, horizon line, and vanishing point.
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Vanishing point: The vanishing point is the point at which parallel lines appear to converge far in the distance, often on the horizon line. This is the effect you can see when standing on railroad tracks and looking at the tracks recede into the distance.
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Shadows and light. Artists were interested in playing with the way light hits objects and creates shadows. The shadows and light could be used to draw the viewer’s eye to a particular point in the painting.
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Realism and naturalism. In addition to perspective, artists sought to make objects, especially people, look more realistic. They studied human anatomy, measuring proportions and seeking the ideal human form. People looked solid and displayed real emotions, allowing the viewer to connect with what the depicted persons were thinking and feeling.
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HowStuffWorks "Who Were the Vikings?" - 1 views
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Vikings were actually made up of several different groups, including the Danes, the Swedes and the Norwegians, who were themselves often broken into small petty kingdoms.
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They used their expertise at seamanship and battle to make raids on the towns and churches of neighboring kingdoms.
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History of Timbuktu, Mali - 6 views
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The popular statement, " From here to Timbuktu." conjures up images of remote, isolated and distant parts of this earth. Very few people are aware of this ancient city's location, and fewer still ascribe any kind of civilization to this historic area. Timbuktu is located in the western African nation of Mali at the edge of the sahara.
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The historic town of Timbuktu is located at the precise point where the Niger flows northward into the southern edge of the desert. As a result of its unique geographical position, Timbuktu has been a natural meeting point of Songhai, Wangara,Fulani, Tuareg and Arabs. According to the inhabitants of Timbuku, gold came from the south, the salt from the north and the Divine knowledge, from Timbuktu. Timbuktu is also the cross-road where "the camel met the canoe." It is to this privilege position that the city owes much of its historical dynamism. From the 11th century and onward, Timbuktu became an important port where goods from West Africa and North Africa were traded.
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Goods coming the Mediterranean shores and salt were traded in Timbuktu for gold. The prosperity of the city attracted both black scholars, blacks merchants and Arabs traders from North Africa. Salt, books and gold were very much in demand at that time.
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he first constructions in Timbuktu were designed by African architects from Djenne and later on by Muslim architects from North Africa. Trade and knowledge were at their height.
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Timbuktu became a celebrated center of Islamic learning and a commercial establishment. Timbuktu had three universities and 180 Quranic schools. These universities were the Sankore University, Jingaray Ber University and Sidi Yahya University. This was the golden age of Africa. Books were not only written in Timbuktu, but they were also imported and copied there. There was an advanced local book copying industry in the city. The universities and private libraries contained unparalleled scholarly works. The famous scholar of Timbuktu Ahmad Baba who was among those forcibly exiled in Morocco claimed that his library of 1600 books had been plundered, and that his library, according to him, was one of the smaller in the city.
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The booming economy of Timbuktu attracted the attention of the Emperor of Mali, Mansa Mussa (1307-1332) also known as “Kan Kan Mussa.” He captured the city in 1325. As a Muslim, Mansa Mussa was impressed with the Islamic legacy of Timbuktu. On his return from Mecca, Mansa Mussa brought with him an Egyptian architect by the name of Abu Es Haq Es Saheli.
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The Emperor also brought Arabs scholars to Timbuktu. To his great surprise, the Emperor has found that these scholars are underqualified compared to the black scholars of Timbuktu
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Mansa Mussa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 had made Mali known worldwide. The great rulertook 60,000 porters with him. Each porter carried 3 kilograms of pure gold, that is, 180,000 kilograms or at least 180 tons of gold (Reference: Volume IV UNESCO General History of Africa, pages 197-200). He had so much gold with him that when he stopped in Egypt, the Egyptian currency lost its value and as result, the name of Mali and Timbuktu appeared on the 14th century world map.
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Geography shaped Greek civilization - 2 views
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One factor that can be considered as an integral part of the development of Greek civilization is its geography.
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Balcan peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is surrounded by three seas: in the south is the Mediterranean Sea; Ionian Sea in the west; and the Aegean Sea in the east.
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Greece is a strategic location for empire building because it served as the crossroads between Africa, Asia and Europe
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temperate, making it comfortable to the people to be outside of their homes almost every year. This allowed them to engage in outdoor life within their city-states. They were able to interact with each other which enabled them to organize outdoor activities such as athletic competitions, public gatherings, entertainment and art shows, and meetings, which facilitate to the development of a rich and distinct Greek culture.
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advantage of the mountains is that they contributed to the preservation of the purity of Greek culture.
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hindered communication among communities and slowed down the introduction of new ideas and technology.
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isadvantage is the the rocky lands and poor soil which are not suitable for the domestication of plants.
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Having been surrounded by three major bodies of water served as an advantage because it allowed early Greeks to travel and trade
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olive oil, wine, wool and pottery with grains and other natural resources, which had a limited supply during that time
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