The History Book Big Ideas Simply Explained 1st edition by DK ISBN 1465457755 9781465457752

INTRODUCTION

HUMAN ORIGINS • 200,000 YEARS AGO–3500 BCE

At least as important as Columbus’s journey to America or the Apollo 11 expedition • The first humans arrive in Australia

Everything was so beautiful, so fresh • Cave paintings at Altamira

The foundations of today’s Europe were forged in the events of the late Ice Age • The Big Freeze

A great civilization arose on the Anatolian plain • The settlement at Çatalhöyük

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS • 6000 BCE–500 CE

To bring about the rule of righteousness in the land • The Law Code of Hammurabi

All the lands have fallen prostrate beneath his sandals for eternity • The temples of Abu Simbel

Attachment is the root of suffering • Siddartha Gautama preaches Buddhism

A clue to the existence of a system of picture-writing in the Greek lands • The palace at Knossos

In times of peace, sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who bury their sons • The Persian Wars

Administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few • Athenian democracy

There is nothing impossible to he who will try • The conquests of Alexander the Great

If the Qin should ever get his way with the world, then the whole world will end up his prisoner • The First Emperor unifies China

Thus perish all tyrants • The assassination of Julius Caesar

By this sign conquer • The Battle of Milvian Bridge

The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken • The Sack of Rome

Further events

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD • 500–1492

Seek to enlarge the empire and make it more glorious • Belisarius retakes Rome

Truth has come and falsehood has vanished • Muhammad receives the divine revelation

A leader in whose shadow the Christian nation is at peace • The crowning of Charlemagne

The ruler is wealthy but the state is destroyed • The An Lushan revolt

A surge in spirit and an awakening in intelligence • The founding of Baghdad

Never before has such a terror appeared in Britain • The Viking raid on Lindisfarne

The Roman church has never erred • The Investiture Controversy

A man destined to become master of the state • Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Shogun

That men in our kingdom shall have and keep all these liberties, rights, and concessions • The signing of the Magna Carta

The most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, that exists in the world • Kublai Khan conquers the Song

I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed • Marco Polo reaches Shangdu

Those who until now have been mercenaries for a few coins achieve eternal rewards • The fall of Jerusalem

The work of giants • The construction of Angkor Wat

He left no court emir nor royal office holder without the gift of a load of gold • Mansa Musa’s hajj to Mecca

Give the sun the blood of enemies to drink • The foundation of Tenochtitlan

Scarce the tenth person of any sort was left alive • The outbreak of the Black Death in Europe

I have worked to discharge heaven’s will • Hongwu founds the Ming dynasty

Cast down the adversaries of my Christian people • The fall of Granada

I have newly devised 28 letters • King Sejong introduces a new script

Further events

THE EARLY MODERN ERA • 1420–1795

As my city falls, I shall fall with it • The fall of Constantinople

Following the light of the sun we left the Old World • Christopher Columbus reaches America

This line shall be considered as a perpetual mark and bound • The Treaty of Tordesillas

The ancients never raised their buildings so high • The beginning of the Italian Renaissance

War has become very different • The Battle of Castillon

As different from ours as day and night • The Columbian Exchange

My conscience is captive to the Word of God • Martin Luther’s 95 theses

He began war in Bohemia, which he subjugated and forced into his religion • The Defenestration of Prague

Royalty is a remedy for the spirit of rebellion • The conquests of Akbar the Great

They cherished a great hope and inward zeal • The voyage of the Mayflower

We will cut off his head with the crown upon it • The execution of Charles I

The very being of the plantations depends upon the supply of Negro servants • The formation of the Royal African Company

There is no corner where one does not of talk shares • The opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange

After victory, tighten the cords of your helmet • The Battle of Sekigahara

Use barbarians to control barbarians • The Revolt of the Three Feudatories

I have in this treatise cultivated mathematics so far as it regards philosophy • Newton publishes Principia

As far as I think it possible for man to go • The voyages of Captain Cook

I am the state • Louis XIV begins personal rule of France

Don’t forget your great guns, the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings • The Battle of Quebec

Assemble all the knowledge scattered on the surface of the earth • Diderot publishes the Encyclopédie

I built St. Petersburg as a window to let in the light of Europe • The founding of St. Petersburg

Further events

CHANGING SOCIETIES • 1776–1914

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal • The signing of the Declaration of Independence

Sire, it’s a revolution • The storming of the Bastille

I must make of all the peoples of Europe one people, and of Paris the capital of the world • The Battle of Waterloo

Let us lay the cornerstone of American freedom without fear. To hesitate is to perish • Bolívar establishes Gran Colombia

Life without industry is guilt • Stephenson’s Rocket enters service

You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know • The Slave Trade Abolition Act

Society was cut in two • The 1848 revolutions

This enterprise will return immense rewards • The construction of the Suez Canal

Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved • Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species

Let us arm. Let us fight for our brothers • The Expedition of the Thousand

These sad scenes of death and sorrow, when are they to come to an end? • The Siege of Lucknow

Better to abolish serfdom from above, than to wait for it to abolish itself from below • Russia emancipates the serfs

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth • The Gettysburg Address

Our manifest destiny is to overspread the continent • The California Gold Rush

America is God’s crucible, the greatest melting pot • The opening of Ellis Island

Enrich the country, strengthen the military • The Meiji Restoration

In my hand I wield the universe and the power to attack and kill • The Second Opium War

I ought to be jealous of the Eiffel Tower. She is more famous than I am • The opening of the Eiffel Tower

If I could, I would annex other planets • The Berlin Conference

My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth, and the teachings of science • The Young Turk Revolution

Deeds not words • The death of Emily Davison

Further events

THE MODERN WORLD • 1914–PRESENT

You often wish you were dead • The Battle of Passchendaele

History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now • The October Revolution

This is not peace. This is an armistice for 20 years • The Treaty of Versailles

Death is the solution to all problems. No man — no problem • Stalin assumes power

Any lack of confidence in the economic future of the United States is foolish • The Wall Street Crash

The truth is that men are tired of liberty • The Reichstag Fire

In starting and waging a war, it is not right that matters but victory • Nazi invasion of Poland

The Final Solution of the Jewish Question • The Wannsee Conference

All we did was fly and sleep • The Berlin Airlift

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom • Indian independence and partition

The name of our state shall be Israel • The establishment of Israel

The Long March is a manifesto, a propaganda force, a seeding-machine • The Long March

Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever • Nkrumah wins Ghanaian independence

We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked • The Cuban Missile Crisis

People of the whole world are pointing to the satellite • The launch of Sputnik

I have a dream • The March on Washington

I am not going to lose Vietnam • The Gulf of Tonkin Incident

A revolution is not a bed of roses • The Bay of Pigs invasion

Scatter the old world, build the new • The Cultural Revolution

We shall defend it with our blood and strength, and we shall meet aggression with aggression and evil with evil • The Suez Crisis

The Iron Curtain is swept aside • The fall of the Berlin Wall

All power to the people • The 1968 protests

Never, never, and never again • The release of Nelson Mandela

Create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life • The Siege of Sarajevo

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack • The 9/11 attacks

You affect the world by what you browse • The launch of the first website

A crisis that began in the mortgage markets of America has brought the world’s financial system close to collapse • The global financial crisis

This is a day about our entire human family • Global population exceeds 7 billion

Further events

GLOSSARY

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