World History Test 5

Guess what

Chicken butt

• April Theses (1917

) - a series of directives issued by the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin upon his return to Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), Russia from his exile in Austria via Germany and Finland. The Theses were mostly aimed at fellow Bolsheviks in Russia. He called for soviets (workers' councils) to take power (as seen in the slogan "all power to the soviets"), denounced liberals and social democrats in the Provisional Government, called for Bolsheviks not to cooperate with the government, and called for new communist policies. The April Theses influenced the July Days and October Revolution in the next months and are identified with Leninism.

▪ Crimean War (1853-56

) - a war fought by Russia against Turkey, Britain, France, and Piedmont. The immediate cause was the dispute between France and Russia over the Palestinian holy places. War became inevitable after the Russians, having failed to obtain equal rights with the French, occupied territories of the Ottoman Empire in July 1853. In a bid to prevent Russian expansion in the Black Sea area and to ensure existing trade routes, a conference was convened in Vienna. Turkey was pressed by the powers to make some concessions to placate Russia, but it refused, and declared war. In November 1853 the Russians destroyed the Turkish fleet at Sinope, in the Black Sea. This forced the hand of Britain and France, who in March 1854 declared war, expecting, with their naval supremacy, a quick victory. Austria did not join the allies but, by mobilizing its army, obliged the Russians to evacuate the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia which they had occupied. The Allied forces were at first mustard at Varma, but in August 1854 they were transported to Eupatoria on the Crimean Peninsula with Lord Raglan, Commander in chief of an ill-prepared army which had been ravaged by cholera. They were able to defeat the Russian army, skillfully led by Menschikov, at the battle of the River Alma and began bombarding the strongly armed fort of Sevastopol. Following the Battle of Balaklava, a long winter of siege warfare ensued, aggravated by lack of fuel, clothing, and supplies for the Allied armies. Public opinion in Britain became critical of the war after reading eyewitness reports, sent back by Irishman W. H. Russell, the first journalist in history to write as a war correspondent using the telegraph. Florence Nightingale received permission to take nurses to the Crimea. Sevastopol fell on September 8, 1855; by that time the Russians, with the new emperor, Alexander II, was already seeking peace. This was concluded at the Congress of Paris in 1856.

▪ *Teutoburg Forest, Battle of the (9 AD

) -battle in which an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius ambushed and decisively destroyed three Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus. It is also described as the Varian Disaster by Roman historians and took place in the Teutoburg Forest in Lower Saxony, Germany. Arminius had become a Roman citizen and was trained with a Roman military education, which enabled him to deceive the Roman commander methodically and anticipate their tactics. Many historians regard Arminius' defeat of Varus Rome's greatest defeat.

Claudius

* spent his early life engaged in historical study, prevented from entering public life by his physical infirmity. He was proclaimed emperor after the murder of Caligula. His reign was noted for its restoration of order after Caligula's decadence and fourth expansion of the Roman Empire, in particular the invasion of Britain in the year 43, in which he personally took part. His fourth wife, Agrippina, is said to have killed him with a dish of poisoned mushrooms.

▪ Kidd, William (or Captain Kidd)

- Scottish pirate. Sent to the Indian Ocean in 1695 in command of an anti-pirate expedition, Kidd became a pirate himself. In 1699 he went to Boston in the hope of obtaining a pardon, but was arrested in the same year and hanged in London.

Name this Czar: 1881-1894 Emperor of Russia

Alexander III

Name this Russian leader: 1993 President

Alexander Rutskoy

The gel

El gel

The Shower

La ducha

• Salt March (March 12-April 6, 1930) -

a march by Indian nationalists led by Mahatma Gandhi. The private manufacture of salt violated the salt tax system imposed by the British, and in a new campaign of civil disobedience Gandhi led his followers from his ashram at Sabarmati to make salt from the sea at Dandi, a distance of 320 km. The government remained in active until the protesters marched on a government salt depot. Gandhi was arrested on May 5, but his followers continued the movement of civil disobedience.

• *Indus Valley Civilization (approx. 3300-1300 BC)

Bronze Age civilization located in the Indus River Valley located in what is now Pakistan. The two largest urban centers of the civilization were Mohenjo-Daro on the lower Indus and Harappa on the upper Indus. The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization, after its type site, Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated. The Indus script, or writing system, has not been deciphered, which has contributed to the lack of knowledge about the civilization. This culture developed the world's earliest flush toilets and had elaborate underground drainage systems. The cause of the decline of the civilization has not been determined definitively, but was possibly due to drying up of some tributary rivers or loss of soil fertility. The Aryans crossed the Hindu Kush and came in contact with Indus civilization around 1500 BC. Their Indo-European language and customs came to dominate the region.

Caligula

Brought up in a military camp, he gained a nickname * (Latin for 'little boot') as an infant on account of the miniature military boots he wore. *'s brief reign as emperor, which began when he succeeded Tiberius and ended with his assassination, became notorious for its tyrannical excesses. During his reign, he appointed Herod as governor of Palestine. * was insane; he made his horse a consul, held orgy parties, and had relations with his sister. His eventual assassination was carried out by the Praetorian Guard (the guards that Augustus made to guard the Emperor).

• Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) -

Portuguese prince, the third son of John I of Portugal and grandson of John of Gaunt. He did not himself undertake any voyages of exploration, but was the patron of the succession of Portuguese seamen who made voyages of discovery among the Atlantic islands and down the West Coast of Africa as far south as Cape Verde and the Azores, which led, after his death, to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope and the sea route to India With the aim of finding a new route to the Indies, as governor of the Algarve he established a school at which navigation, astronomy, and cartography were taught to his captains and pilots, and constructed the first observatory in Portugal.

The comb

El peine

The blow dryer

El secador

• Kim Il Sung (1912-94

) - Korean Communist statesman, first premiere of North Korea (1948-72) and President (1972-94). In the 1930s and 1940s he led the armed resistance to the Japanese domination of Korea; following the country's partition at the end of World War II he became premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (1948). He ordered his forces to invade South Korea in 1950, precipitating the Korean War (1950-53), and remain committed to the reunification of the country. He maintained a one-party state and created a personality cult around himself and his family; on his death he was quickly replaced in power by his son Kim Jong Il.

• Third Crusade (1189-92

) - Also known as the Kings' Crusade. In 1187, Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, recaptured Jerusalem. Pope Gregory VIII called for a crusade, which was led by several of Europe's most important leaders: Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick drowned in Cilicia in 1190, leaving an unstable alliance between the English and the French. Philip left, in 1191, after the Crusaders had recaptured Acre from the Muslims. The Crusader army headed down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They defeated the Muslims near Arsuf and were in sight of Jerusalem. However, the inability of the Crusaders to thrive in the locale due to inadequate food and water resulted in an empty victory. Richard left the following year after establishing a truce with Saladin. On Richard's way home, his ship was wrecked and he ended up in Austria, where his enemy, Duke Leopold, captured him. The Duke delivered Richard to Emperor Henry VI, who held the King for ransom. By 1197, Henry felt himself ready for a Crusade, but he died in the same year of malaria. Richard I died during fighting in Europe and never returned to the Holy Land.

• Fifth Crusade (1217-1221

) - By processions, prayers, and preaching, the Church attempted to set another crusade on foot, and the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215) formulated a plan for the recovery of the Holy Land. In the first phase, a crusading force from Hungary, Austria joined the forces of the king of Jerusalem and the prince of Antioch to take back Jerusalem. In the second phase, crusader forces achieved a remarkable feat in the capture of Damietta in Egypt in 1219, but under the urgent insistence of the papal legate, Pelagius, they proceeded to a foolhardy attack on Cairo, and an inundation of the Nile compelled them to choose between surrender and destruction.

Alexander I (1777-1825

) - Emperor of Russia (1801-25). The son of Paul I (and whose murder he may have indirectly unassisted), he set out to reform Russia and correct many of the injustices of the preceding reign. His private committee (Neglasny Komitet) introduced plans for public education, but his reliance on the nobility made it impossible for him to abolish serfdom. At first a supporter of the coalition against Napoleon, his defeats by the latter at the Battle of Austerlitz (1805) and at Friedland (1807) resulted in the Treaties of Tilsit (1807) with France and in the sea his support of the Continental system against the British. His wars with Persian and Turkey brought territorial gains, including the acquisition of Georgia. His armies helped to defeat Napoleon's gande armée at Leipzig, after its retreat from Moscow (1812). In an effort to uphold Christian morality in Europe he formed a holy alliance of European monarchs. He supported Metternich in suppressing Liberal and national movements, and gave no help to the Ottoman Turks, although they were Orthodox Christians like himself. He was reported to become a hermit.

• Moi, Daniel (1924-

) - Kenyan statesman and President of Kenya (1978- ). Originally a teacher, Moi was a founder of the Kenya Africa National Union (KANU). He oversaw the transition to multiparty politics in Kenya in the early 1990s and has been reelected twice since then.

• Olaf II, St. (or Olaf Haraldsson) (c.995-1028

) - King of Norway from 1015-28. He was converted to Christianity and continue the work of conversion begun by Olaf I but his attempts at reform provoke rebellion and he was killed in a battle with a rebel and Danish forces. Canonized as a saint, he is honored as Norway's national hero.

Hidalgo, Miguel (1753-1811

) - Mexican Roman Catholic priest and leader of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. On September 16, 1810, he incited rebellion with his Grito de Dolores ("Cry of Dolores") speech, proclaimed from the pulpit of his parish church at Dolores. In this speech, he called for the people of his parish to leave their homes and join with him in a rebellion to protect the interest of their King Fernando VII (held captive by Napoleon) by revolting against the European-born Spaniards who had overthrown the Spanish Viceroy. Within a few months he built a massive army of almost 90,000, but lacking the military skill necessary to complement his well-developed social ideology. The movement was defeated after much bloodshed at the hands of the royalist army. Most of Hidalgo's troops fled or were killed at the Battle of Calderon Bridge. Captured in 1811, he was tried by the Inquisition and referred to the secular authorities for execution.

▪ Erik the Red (originally Erik Thorvaldson)(c.940-c.1010

) - Norse explorer. Exiled from Iceland for manslaughter in 982, he sailed in search of land to the west, exploring Greenland and establishing a Norse settlement there in 986. He named the new land "Greenland" to make it attractive to colonists. His son was Leif Eriksson.

• Nansen, Fridtjof (1861-1930

) - Norwegian Arctic explorer. In 1888 he led the first expedition to cross the Greenland ice fields. Five years later he sailed north of Siberia on board the Fram, intending to reach the North Pole by allowing the ship to become frozen in the ice and leading the current carrier towards Greenland (he designed the ship with a special curved hull for this purpose). By 1895, it had drifted as far north as 84° four minutes; Nansen and then made for the Pole on foot, reaching a latitude of 86° 14 minutes, the furthest north anyone had been at that time. Nansen became increasingly involved in affairs of state, serving as Norwegian minister in London (1906-08). In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for organizing relief work among victims of the Russian famine.

▪ Amundsen, Roald (1872-1928

) - Norwegian explorer. Amundsen made his name as a polar explorer when he became the first to navigate the Northwest passage in the small sailing vessel Gjoa (1903-06), during which expedition he also traveled over the ice by sled and located the site of the magnetic North Pole. In 1911 he beat the British explorer Robert F. Scott in the race to be the first to reach the South Pole. In the 1920s Amundsen devoted himself to aerial exploration of the polar regions, eventually disappearing on a search for the missing Italian airship expedition led by Umberto Nobile.

▪ Arafat, Yasser (1929-

) - Palestinian leader and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1968. In 1956 he cofounded Al Fatah, the Arab group which came to dominate the PLO from 1967. In 1974 he became the first representative of a nongovernmental organization to address the United Nations General assembly. Despite challenges to his authority within the PLO, he remained its leader. After the signing of a PLO-Israeli peace accord providing for limited Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in July 1994 Arafat became leader of the new Palestine national Authority. The same year he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. Arafat won a landslide victory in the first Palestinian presidential elections in 1996.

▪ Aquino, Corazón (1933-

) - Philippine president from 1986-92. Her husband, Benigno Aquino, was the leader of the opposition to the corrupt government of Ferdinand Marcos. She succeeded her husband as leader of the opposition when he was assassinated and became president following the overthrow of Marcos, surviving several attempted military coups.

• Magellan, Ferdinand (1480-1521

) - Portuguese explorer. In 1519, while in the service of Spain, he commanded five vessels voyage from Spain to the East Indies by the western route. He reached South America later that year, rounding the continent through the strait which now bears his name and emerging to become the first European to navigate the Pacific. He reached the Philippines in 1521, but soon after was killed in the Battle of Mactan on the island of Cebu. The survivors, in the one remaining ship (the Victoria), sailed back to Spain round Africa under the leadership of Juan Sebastian del Cano for he, thereby completing the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522.

• da Gama, Vasco (c.1469-1524

) - Portuguese explorer. da Gama was commissioned by King Manuel I of Portugal to make journey by sea to India. He led the first European expedition round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, siting and naming Natal on Christmas Day before crossing the Indian Ocean and arriving in Calicut in 1498, thus completing the first voyage from Western Europe around Africa to the East (India). On his second journey (1502-03), da Gama planted Portuguese colonies at Mozambique and Sofala. He forced the raja of Calicut (who had massacred Portuguese settlers from an earlier expedition) to make peace.

▪ Tiberius (full name Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus) (42 BC-37 AD

) - Roman emperor from 14 to 37 AD. He was the adopted successor of his stepfather and father-in-law Augustus, under whom he had pursued a distinguished military career. As emperor he sought to continue his stepfather's policies but became increasingly tyrannical and his reign was marked by a growing number of treason trials and executions. In 26 he retired to Capri, never returning to Rome.

• Sakharov, Andrei (1921-89

) - Russian nuclear physicist. Having helped to develop the Soviet hydrogen bomb, he campaigned against nuclear proliferation and called for Soviet-American cooperation. He fought courageously for reform and human rights in the USSR, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. His international reputation as a scientist kept him out of jail, but in 1980 he was banished to Gorky (Nizhni Novgorod) and kept under police surveillance. He was freed in 1986 in the new spirit of glasnost, and that his death he was honored in his own country as well as in the West.

• Trotsky, Leon (born Lev Bronstein) (1879-1940

) - Russian revolutionary. Joining the Bolsheviks in 1917, he helped organize the October Revolution with Lenin, and built up the Red Army that eventually defeated the White Russian forces in the Russian Civil War. After Lenin's death he alienated Stalin and others with his view that socialism within the Soviet Union could not come about until Revolution had occurred in western Europe and worldwide. Trotsky was eventually defeated by Stalin in the struggle for power, being expelled from the party in 1927 and exiled in 1929. After settling in Mexico in 1937, he was murdered three years later by a Stalinist assassin.

• Tutu, Desmond (1931-

) - South African clergymen. He served as general secretary of the South African Council of churches from 1979-84, becoming the leading voice in the struggle against apartheid, calling for economic sanctions against South Africa, and emphasizing nonviolent action. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and in the following year he became Johannesburg's first Black Anglican bishop. He was archbishop of Cape Town (1986-96).

• Kruger, Stephanus (known as 'Oom (uncle) Paul') (1825-1904

) - South African soldier and statesman. He led the Afrikaners to victory in the First Boer War in 1881 and afterwards served as President of Transvaal from 1883 to 1899. His refusal to allow equal rights to non-Boer immigrants was one of the causes of the Second Boer War, during which Kruger was forced to flee the country. He died in exile in Switzerland.

• Fourth Crusade (1202-04

) - The Fourth Crusade was initiated in 1202 by Pope Innocent III, with the intention of invading the Holy Land through Egypt. The Venetians, under Doge Enrico Dandolo, gained control of this crusade and diverted it first to the Christian city of Zara (Zadar), then to Constantinople, where they attempted to place a Byzantine exile on the throne. After a series of misunderstandings and outbreaks of violence, the Crusaders sacked the city of Constantinople in 1204. The sacking of Constantinople made the gulf between Eastern and Western Churches unbridgeable. Some Crusaders benefited from the division of Byzantine territories known as the Latin Empire of the East (1204-61). This briefly replaced the Greek empire at Constantinople until Michael VIII retook the city.

• Spartacus (died c.71 B.C.

) - Thracian slave and gladiator. He led a revolt against Rome in 73, increasing his army from 70 gladiators at the outset to several thousand rebels. He was eventually defeated by Crassus in 71 and crucified.

• Marcos, Ferdinand (1917-89

) - a Filipino statesman and president from 1965-86. A ruthless and corrupt politician, he initially achieved some success as a reformer and identify closely with the US, but after his election to a second term he became increasingly involved in campaigns against nationalist and communist guerrilla groups, and in 1972-73 he first declared martial law and assumed near dictatorial powers. Hostility to Marcos intensified after the murder of the opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. in 1983. US support for his regime waned as a result of his failure to achieve consensus, and in February 1986 he was forced to leave the country. In 1988 he and his wife were indicted by US courts for fraud and embezzlement but he died before he could stand trial.

• Chaco War (1932-35

) - a conflict between Paraguay and Bolivia. The Gran Chaco, an extensive low land plane, had been an object of dispute between the two countries since the early 19th century, but Bolivia'a final loss of its Pacific coast in 1929 (Tacna-Arica settlement) prompted it to push its claim to the Chaco. Border clashes in the late 1920s led to outright war in 1932. Bolivia have a larger army and superior military equipment, but the Aymara and Quechua Indian conscripts from the Andean highlands did not fare well in a low, humid Chaco. The Paraguayan Colonel Estigarribia throws the Bolivians west across the Chaco and forced his enemies to sue for peace in 1935. Paraguay gained most of the disputed territory, but the price was immense for both countries. More than 50,000 Bolivians and 35,000 Paraguayans had lost their lives. Economic stagnation was to plague of both combatants for years to come.

• Northern War (1700-21

) - a conflict between Russia, Denmark, Poland on one side, and Sweden opposing them, during which, in spite of the victories of Charles XII, Sweden lost its empire and Russia under Peter I became a major Baltic power. By the treaties of Stockholm (1719, 1720) Bremen and Verden were ceded to Hanover and most of Pomerania to Prussia. After further Russian naval successes, the Treaty of Nystadt, which ended the war, gave Russia Sweden's Baltic provinces.

▪ Druze (or Druse

) - a member of a political and religious sect of Muslim origin, concentrated in Lebanon, with smaller groups in Syria and Israel. The sect broke away from Ismaili Shiite Islam in the 11th century over a disagreement about the succession to the imamate (leadership), a position in which spiritual and political leadership were and are indissolubly linked. The Druses followed the seventh caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, al-Hakim b'illah, who is claimed to have disappeared and whose return is expected. They regard al-Hakim as a deity, and thus are considered heretics by the Muslim community at large.

▪ al-Fatah (Arabic, 'victory'

) - a militant Palestinian organization founded in 1962 in Kuwait to fight for the restoration of Palestine to the Arabs. Al-Fatah assumed the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1969 and remained the dominant group within the PLO. Its guerrilla units were expelled from Jordan after the civil war in 1970, and it withdrew to southern Lebanon (Fatahland). Subsequently al-Fatah was drawn into the Lebanese imbroglio and became divided; a part was expelled from Lebanon after the Israeli invasion of 1982. Leadership remained in the hands of Yasser Arafat, who had led al-Fatah from its foundation. Al-Fatah played a leading role in the achievement of the 1993 peace agreement with Israel. However, divisions within the organization over the progress of PLO-Israeli negotiations became apparent in 1995 with some factions no longer remaining loyal to Arafat.

• Cossack (from Turkish, 'adventurer' or 'guerrilla'

) - a people in the southern Russia. They were descended from refugees from religious persecution in Poland and Muscovy, and from peasants fleeing the taxes and obligations of the feudal system. Settling mainly in autonomous tribal groups around the river Don and Dnieper, they played an important role in the history of Ukraine. A frontier lifestyle encouraged military prowess and horsemanship, males aged 16-60 years being obliged to bear arms. They were democratic, directly electing their leaders or hetmen. Their relations with Russia included military service and military alliance, especially against the Turks, but there were rebellions against Russia in 1667-69, 1709, and 1773-74. Ukrainian Cossackdom experienced a revival following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. There are 15,000 registered Cossacks in the Ukraine.

• gladiator (Latin for 'swordsman'

) - a slave or prisoner trained to fight other gladiators, wild beasts, or condemned criminals for the entertainment of the people in ancient Rome. Gladiators belonged to four categories: the Mirmillo, with a fish on his helmet, and the Sammite, both heavily armed with oblong shield, visored helmet, and short sword; the Retiarius, lightly clad, fighting with net and trident; and the Thracian, with round shield and curved scimitar. Thumbs up or down from the crowd spelt life or death for the loser. Formal combat degenerated into butchery watched by huge crowds.

Puebla, Battle of (May 5, 1862

) - a victory for the Mexican Army over occupying French forces. In the U.S., the Mexican holiday to commemorate this victory (El Dia de la Batalla de Puebla) has evolved into the very popular Cinco de Mayo holiday, a celebration of Mexican heritage. The Mexican Army was led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, and defeated a much larger French force led by Charles de Lorencez. The battle came about as a misunderstanding of the French forces' agreement to withdraw to the coast. When the Mexican Republic forces saw these French soldiers on the march, they took it that hostilities had recommenced and felt threatened. French, British, and Spanish forces had come to Mexico to force them to continue payments on foreign debts, which had been suspended by President Benito Juarez. The Tripartite Alliance fell apart by early April 1862, when it became apparent that the French wanted to impose harsh demands and provoke a war. The British and Spanish withdrew, leaving the French to march alone on Mexico City from occupied Veracruz. Napoleon III wanted to set up a puppet Mexican regime.

• Tordesillas, Treaty of (1494

) - an alliance between Spain and Portugal. It settle disputes about the ownership of lands discovered by Columbus and others. Pope Alexander VI had (1493) approved a line of demarcation stretching between the poles to 100 leagues (about 500 km) west of the Cape Verde Islands. All to the west was Spanish, to the east Portuguese - an award disregarded by other nations. Portuguese dissatisfaction led to a meeting at toward a CS in northwest Spain where was agreed to move the papal line to 370 leagues (about 1850 km) west of Cape Verde. The pope sanctioned this in 1506. It was modified by the Treaty of Zaragossa (1529), which gave the Moluccas (Spice Islands) to the Portuguese.

Issus, Battle of (333 B.C.

) - battle in modern-day Turkey between the Hellenic League led by Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid Persian Empire, led in person by Darius III. The Battle of Issus was a decisive Hellenic victory and it marked the beginning of the end of Persian power. It was the first time the Persian army had been defeated with the King (Darius III at the time) present. After the battle, the Hellenes captured Darius' wife, Stateira I, his daughters, Stateira II and Drypetis, and his mother, Sisygambis, all of whom had accompanied Darius on his campaign. Alexander, who later married Stateira II, treated the captured women with great respect.

*Calderón Bridge, Battle of (1811

) - decisive battle in the Mexican War of Independence, fought on the banks of the Calderon River east of Guadalajara. Almost 100,000 revolutionaries, led by Miguel Hidalgo, fought against 5,000-8,000 soldiers composing the Royalist forces of New Spain, led by Felix Calleja del Rey, a Spanish military officer who later became viceroy of New Spain. Royalist artillery struck an insurgent ammunitions wagon, causing it to explode. This caused much of the insurgent force to disperse, giving victory to the much smaller, but better equipped, Royalists. This battle was a turning point in the War of Independence and resulted in a 10-year delay before insurgent victory and Mexican Independence.

• *Poltava, Battle of (1709

) - decisive victory of Peter the Great of Russia over the Swedish

• Nicholas II (1868-1918

) - last Emperor of Russia, serving from 1894-1917. In 1894 he formalized the alliance with France but his Far Eastern ambitions led to disaster in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05), an important cause of the Russian Revolution of 1905. He was forced to issue the October Manifesto promising a representative government and basic civil liberties. An elected Duma and an Upper Chamber were set up. Although Russia was prosperous under Stolypin (1906-11) and Nicholas II won support for the war against Germany (1914) he I read personal command of the Army's, leaving the government to the Empress Alexandra and Rasputin. Mismanagement of the war and chaos in the government led to his abdication in February 1917 and later his imprisonment. On July 16-17, 1918 the Bolsheviks, fearing the advance of counterrevolutionary forces, murdered him and his family at Ekaterinburg.

• *Nevsky, Alexander (1221-1263

) - served as Prince of Novgorod (1236-40 and 1240-56 and 1258-1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1236-52) and Grand Prince of Vladimir (1252-63) during some of the most difficult times in Kievan Rus' history. He rose to legendary status on account of his military victories over German and Swedish invaders (Teutonic Knights) while agreeing to pay tribute to the powerful Golden Horde (Mongols). He famously won the Battle of the Ice over German Teutonic Knights and Estonians on the ice of frozen Lake Peipus. Many say he befriended the Mongol Horde in order to prevent repeated invasions by the Mongol army and to exempt Russians from fighting beside the Tatar army in its wars with other peoples. Some historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden Horde and refusal of cooperation with western countries and church as an important reaffirmation of East Slavs' Orthodox orientation.

▪ *Tarquinius Superbus, Lucius (reigned 535-509 BC

) - seventh and last king of Rome, reigning until the popular uprising in 509 BC that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is commonly known as Tarquin the Proud. His reign is described as a tyranny that justified the abolition of the monarchy. While away on a campaign against the Rutuli, his son raped Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus. This inflamed the people against Tarquinius, as they were already mad at his constant building programs, as well as how he had diminished the power of the Senate and judged crimes with out the advice of counselors. In place of the king, the comitia centuriata resolved to elect 2 consuls in place of the king. They elected Brutus and Collatinus (the man whose wife was raped - she later committed suicide because of the shame). When Tarquinius got word of the uprising, he returned with an army of Etruscans he had recruited, led by Lars Porsena. The king lost he hard-fought Battle of Silva Arsia, allowing Rome to remain a Republic.

• Nystadt, Treaty of (1721

) - the final Treaty of the Northern war. It was signed at * in southwest Finland. Under this Treaty Sweden recognized Peter the Great's title to Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, Kexholm, and part of Finland and so lost its Baltic empire. • pogrom (Russian, 'riot' or 'devastation') - a mob attack approved or condoned by authority, frequently against religious, racial, or national minorities - most often against Jews. The first occurred in the Ukraine following the assassination of Alexander II in 1881. Subsequently there were many programs throughout Russia, causing many Russian Jews to emigrate to the US and Western Europe, often giving their support to Herzl's Zionist campaign. After the revolution of 1905, anti-Semitic persecutions increased. Conducted on a large scale in Germany and Eastern Europe after Hitler came to power they led ultimately to the Holocaust.

• Second Crusade (1147-49

) -After a period of relative peace, in which Christians and Muslims co-existed in the Holy Land, Muslims conquered the town of Edessa. A new crusade was called for by various preachers, most notably by Bernard of Clairvaux. French and German armies, under the Kings Louis VII and Conrad III respectively, marched to Jerusalem in 1147, but failed to accomplish any major successes, and indeed endangered the survival of the Crusader states with a strategically foolish attack on Damascus. By 1150, both leaders had returned to their countries without any result. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who had in his preachings encouraged the Second Crusade, was upset with the amount of misdirected violence and slaughter of the innocent. This Crusade succeeded only in souring relations between the Crusader kingdoms, the Byzantines, and friendly Muslim rulers.

• Rhodes, Cecil (1853-1902

) -British-borne South African statesman, Prime Minister of Cape colony from 1890-96. He went to South Africa in 1870, where he became a successful diamond prospector, and 20 years later own 90% of the world's production of diamonds. Entering politics in 1881, he expanded British territory in southern Africa, annexing it won the land (now Botswana) in 1884 and developing Rhodesia from 1889 onwards through the British South Africa Company, which he founded. Rhodesia was eventually divided into Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). While Premier, Rhodes was implicated in the Jameson Raid into Boer territory in 1895 and forced to resign. In his will he established a system of Rhodes Scholarships to allow students from the British Empire (now the Commonwealth), the USA, and Germany to study at Oxford University.

• Sixth Crusade (1228-29

) -Emperor Frederick II had repeatedly vowed a crusade, but failed to live up to his words, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope in 1228. He nonetheless set sail from Brindisi, landed in Palestine and through diplomacy he achieved unexpected success, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem being delivered to the Crusaders for a period of ten years.

▪ Catherine II (or Catherine the Great)(1729-96

) -Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. A German princess, she was made Empress following a plot that deposed her husband Peter III (1728-62). Her attempted social and political reforms were impeded by the entrenched aristocratic interests and in later years her reign became increasingly conservative. Under Catherine's rule, Russia played an important part in European affairs, participating in the three partitions of Poland and forming close links with Prussia and Austria, while to the south and east further territorial advances were made at the expense of the Turks and the Tatars. nuclear accident in the world to date. 31 people died trying to fight subsequent fires, and many more received radiation burns are suffered from associated diseases. The accident was the result of on authorized experiments by the operators of one of the four reactors, in which safety systems were deliberately circumvented in order to learn about the plant's operation. The fallout from the explosions, containing the radioactive isotope cesium-137, affected large areas of Europe. In particular, livestock in high rainfall areas received on acceptable doses of radiation. In the mid- 1990s large areas of land in Ukraine, Belarus, and Southwest Russian were still contaminated and high levels of cancer, especially leukemia in children, were reported. The Ukrainian government announced plans to replace the power station with a gas-fired won by 2000.

▪ Andropov, Yuri (1914-84

) -General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR (1982-84) and President (1983-84). Born in Russia, he served as ambassador to Hungary (1954-57), playing a significant role in the crushing of that country's uprising in 1956. He was appointed chairman of the KGB in 1967; its suppression of dissidents enhanced Andropov's standing within the Communist Party, any gain the presidency on Brezhnev's death. While in office, he initiated the reform process carried through by Mikhail Gorbachev, his chosen successor.

• Shining Path (Spanish, Sendero Luminoso

) -Peruvian left-wing terrorist group, active from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. The Shining Path gained no variety for the violence of its campaign against the Peruvian government, which claimed some 28,000 lives. Founded in 1970 by a philosophy professor, Abimael Guzman, the movement adopted the revolutionary principles of Mao Zedong; its many recruits came both from universities and from the disadvantaged Amerindian peoples of the Andes. From 1980 it attacked projects established by foreign aid agencies in rural areas, but later moved to the major cities. The emergency powers taken by President Alberto Fujimori in 1992, in an attempt to stem political violence, led in the first place to increased guerrilla activity, especially against local politicians, but resulted in the capture and sentencing of Guzmán to life imprisonment in September of that year. Following the arrest of their leader, who called for a cessation of fighting, some 6000 Shining Path members took advantage of a government amnesty and surrendered. Isolated pockets of resistance remain in more remote areas (where the group has murdered Amazonian Indians opposed to their campaign).

• Dias, Bartolomeu (c.1450-1500

) -Portuguese explorer who led the first European expedition (1488) to round the Cape of Good Hope, thus opening the sea route to Asia via the Atlantic and Indian oceans. On a voyage surveying the West African coast he sailed to latitude 26° south, off Namibia, when he ships were caught in a storm and swept further south for 13 days. His landfall in 1488 was near the southern most tip of Africa. Following the coast eastwards, he found that the land turned north. He is attributed with having named variously as the Cape of Storms (Cabo Tormentoso) and the Cape of Good Hope. In 1500 he commanded a ship in Cabral's fleet which had discovered Brazil. He perished in a storm later on that voyage.

• Cabral, Pedro (1467-1520

) -Portuguese navigator. After da Gama's return, Cabral was sent by King Manuel I of Portugal in command of a fleet of 13 vessels to establish trade with India. He took a westward course and was carried by wind and currents to the coast of Brazil, landing there in 1500 and taking possession of it in the name of Portugal. Cabral then continued his voyage to the east, and lost four of his ships in a storm off the Cape of Good Hope. He eventually reached Calicut and established a trading post there. Cabral then returned home to Portugal with four ships.

• Salazar, Antonio (1889-1970

) -Portuguese statesmen, and prime minister from 1932-68. While finance minister from 1928 in 1940, he formulated austere fiscal policies to effect Portugal's economic recovery. During his long premiership, he ruled the country as a virtual dictator, firmly suppressing opposition and enacting a new authoritarian constitution along Fascist lines. Salazar maintained Portugal's neutrality throughout the Spanish Civil War and WWII.

• Potemkin, Gregory (1739-91

) -Russian soldier and favorite of Catherine II. He was a man of great energy and an able administrator, who extended Russian rule in the South, carried out a series of army reforms, annexed the Crimea in 1783, and built a Black Sea fleet and the naval base at Sevastopol. In the war with the Turks he was made army commander and died in a year of Russian military victory. The battleship named after the soldier is famous for the mutiny that occurred on it in 1905. This incident persuaded the Emperor to agree to the election of a Duma.

• Mandela, Nelson (1918-

) -South African statesman and president from 1994 to 1999. From his 20s he was an activist for the African National Congress (ANC); he was first jailed in 1962 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964. His authority as a moderate leader of black South Africans did not diminish while he was in detention, and he became a symbol of the struggle against apartheid. On his release in 1990 Mandela resumed his leadership of the ANC, and engaged in talks with President F. W. de Klerk on the introduction of majority rule. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with President de Klerk in 1993, and in the country's first democratic elections was elected president the following year. He subsequently became a much loved and respected international statesman.

▪ de Klerk, Frederick Willem (1936-

) -South African statesman. Son of a distinguished Afrikaner family, he was born in Johannesburg and practice law until entering politics in 1972. In 1982 he became Minister of Internal Affairs under President P.W. Botha. At that time he became leader of the National Party of Transvaal and pressed the concept of "limited power-sharing" between the races. On becoming president in 1989 he appeared to move steadily toward the position of accepting universal suffrage, while being threatened from the right by conservative and extremist groups, many of whom were clearly influencing his police force. In 1990 he opened discussion with Nelson Mandela and the African national Congress, and his government began to dismantle apartheid legislation. He established an all-party Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and in 1992 won a referendum to continue the reform process. In 1993 a new (transitional) Constitution was adopted, which gave all South African adults the right to vote. De Klerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Mandela, in 1993. He served as second deputy president of South Africa from 1994, following his country's first multiracial elections, until 1996, when he withdrew his party from the governing coalition.

• Khruschev, Nikita (1894-1971

) -Soviet statesmen and premiere of the USSR (1958-64). Born in Ukraine, Khrushchev became first secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR (1953-64) after the death of Stalin. He played a prominent part in the de-style meditation program that began in 1956, denouncing the former leader in a historic speech, and went on to succeed Bulganin as Premier (Chairman of the Council of Ministers) in 1958. He came close to war with the US over the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and clashed with China over economic aid and borders. He was ousted two years later by Brezhnev and Kosygin, largely because of his antagonism to China.

• Children's Crusade (1212

) -The Children's Crusade is a series of possibly fictitious or misinterpreted events of 1212. The story is that an outburst of the old popular enthusiasm led a gathering of children in France and Germany, which Pope Innocent III interpreted as a reproof from heaven to their unworthy elders. The leader of the French army, Stephen, led 30,000 children. The leader of the German army, Nicholas, led 7,000 children. None of the children actually reached the Holy Land; they were either sold as slaves, settled along the route to Jerusalem, or died of hunger during the journey.

• *Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS

) -a confederation of Independent states, formerly among constituent republics of the Soviet Union, established in 1991 following a summit in the Belarusian city of Brest at which the USSR was dissolved. The 12 member states are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The administrative headquarters of the CIS is in the Belarussian city of Minsk.

o assassin (from the Arabic hashishiyun, 'smoker of hashish'

) -a member of a secret sect of the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam. It was founded by Hasan ibn al-Sabbah in 1078 to support the claim of Nizar to the Fatimid caliphate and a headquarters was established at Alamut in Northwest Persia. The assassins wielded influence through suicide squads of political murderers, convinced that they would earn a place in paradise if they died while obeying orders.

• PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization

) -a political and military body formed in 1964 tonight various Palestinian Arab groups in opposition to the Israeli presence in the former territory of Palestine. From 1967 the organization nation was dominated by al-Fatah, led by Yasser Arafat. The activities of its radical factions cause trouble with the host country, Jordan, and, following a brief civil war in 1970, it moved to Lebanon and Syria. In 1974 the organization was recognized by the Arab nations as the representative of all Palestinians. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon (1982) undermined its military power in organization, and it regroups in Tunisia. Splinter groups of extremists such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Black September terrorists, have been responsible for kidnappings, hijackings, and killings both in and beyond the Middle East. In 1988 Arafat persuaded the movement to renounce violence, and its governing Council recognized the state of Israel. Since then the PLO has been accepted by an increasing number of states as being a government in exile. In 1993 Arafat became chair of the Palestinian National Authority administering the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

• KGB (Russian abbreviation, Committee of State Security

) -formed in 1953, the KGB was responsible for ex-colonel espionage, and internal counterintelligence, and internal 'crimes against the state'. The most famous chairman of the KGB was Yuri Andropov (1967-82), who later served as the Soviet leader (1982-84). He made KGB operations more sophisticated, especially against internal dissidents. In 1992 the KGB was dissolved, to be replaced by the Central Intelligence Service of the Russian Republic.

• *Shaka Zulu (1787-1828

) -influential monarch and founder of the Zulu Kingdom. In his early days, Shaka served as a warrior under the sway of Dingiswayo. Shaka went on to further refine the ibutho system used by Dingiswayo and others and, with the Mthethwa empire's support over the next several years, forged alliances with his smaller neighbours, to counter the growing threat from Ndwandwe raids from the north. The initial Zulu maneuvers were primarily defensive in nature, as Shaka preferred to apply pressure diplomatically, aided by an occasional strategic assassination. He soundly defeated Zwide in subsequent battles. His changes to local society built on existing structures. Shaka had made enough enemies among his own people to hasten his demise. It came relatively quickly after the death of his mother Nandi, and the devastation caused by Shaka's subsequent erratic behavior. Shaka ordered that no crops should be planted during the following year of mourning, no milk (the basis of the Zulu diet at the time) was to be used, and any woman who became pregnant was to be killed along with her husband. At least 7,000 people who were deemed to be insufficiently grief-stricken were executed, although the killing was not restricted to humans: cows were slaughtered so that their calves would know what losing a mother felt like. In turn, he was ultimately assassinated by his own half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana.

• intifada (Arabic, 'uprising'

) -the Palestinian campaign of violence, which began late in 1987, by Palestinian residents against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, after the Six Day war in 1967. Although a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis was signed in 1993, a number of terrorist acts by Arabs has perpetuated the violence and disrupted the peace process.

▪ glasnost ('openness') and perestroika ('restructuring'

) -the concepts of openness and restructuring whose effects lead to major changes in Soviet society as well as profoundly influencing the world balance of power and East-West relations. Introduced into Soviet domestic politics by Mikhail Gorbachev, who became Soviet leader in 1985. The concepts are described in his book Perestroika (1987). The twin processes aimed to reduce inefficiency and corruption in the former Soviet Union, and to encourage political liberalization. Internally the results of the Gorbachev doctrine were mixed and contributed to growing unrest, provoked by nationalist demands and economic discontent, which in 1991 brought about the disintegration of the structure of the Soviet Union, the secession of the Baltic republics, the displacement of the Communist Party from its formally dominant position, and the formation of a new Commonwealth of Independent States.

• Lenin, Vladimir (born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov) (1870-1924

) -the principal figure in the Russian Revolution and first Premier (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars) of the Soviet Union (1918-24). * was the first political leader to attempt to put Marxist principles into practice, though, like Marx, he saw the need for a transitional period to full communism, during which there would be a 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. The policies that he pursued lead ultimately to the establishment of Marxism-Leninism in the Soviet Union and, later, in China. Born in Russia, he lived in Switzerland from 1900, but was instrumental in the split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks in 1903, when he became leader of the more radical Bolsheviks. He returned to Russia in 1917, established Bolshevik control after the overthrow of the Czar, and in 1918 became head of state; he founded the Third International (or Comintern) the following year to further the cause of world revolution. With Trotsky's healthy defeated counterrevolutionary forces in the Russian Civil War, but was forced to moderate his socio-economic policies to allow the country to recover from the effects of war and revolution. During the last years of his life he denounced, but was unable to prevent, the concentration of power in the hands of Stalin.

▪ Bolshevik (Russian, 'a member of the majority'

) -the weighing of the Social Democratic Party in Russia at which, from 1903, and under the leadership of Lenin, favored revolutionary tactics. Their opponents, the Mensheviks ('members of the minority'), led by Martov and Georgi Plekhanov, favored a loosely organized mass labor party, in which workers had more influence, and which was prepared to collaborate with the liberal bourgeoisie against the Tsarist autocracy. After the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905 old civic leaders fled abroad, having made little appeal to the peasantry, and it was the Mensheviks led by Kerensky who join the provisional government, following the February Russian Revolution in 1917. The infiltration by Bolsheviks into Soviets and factory committees contributed to the success of the October Revolution. During the Russian Civil War the Bolsheviks succeeded in seizing control of the country from other revolutionary groups. In 1918 they change their name to the Russian Communist Party. The Mensheviks were formally suppressed in 1922.

Nero

* was adopted by Claudius, who had married his own niece, Agrippina, *'s mother. On Claudius' suspicious death in 54 AD * succeeded to the throne and poisoned Britannicus, Claudius' son by Messalina. * then had his mother murdered, compelled he boyhood tutor Seneca to commit suicide, and had his own wife Octavia executed. Another wife, Poppaea, died as a result of *'s violence towards her. He was the first emperor to persecute Christians, many hundreds of whom were put to their deaths in the arena. He also poured oil on people, set them on crosses in his garden, and then lit them on fire for outdoor lighting. Reputedly he set Rome afire in 64A.D, hoping to rebuild it in splendor. A large section of Rome was burned to the ground, and in the ruins * built his Domus Aurea ('golden house'- a huge mansion) and was therefore suspected of hiring arsonists to set the fire. Revolt broke out in Palestine and 66A.D followed by an army rebellion in Gaul and he committed suicide.

Tiberious

* was the adopted successor of his stepfather and father-in-law Augustus, under whom he had pursued a distinguished military career. As emperor he sought to continue his stepfather's policies but became increasingly tyrannical and his reign was marked by a growing number of treason trials and executions. In 26 he retired to Capri, never returning to Rome.

Olmec -

1. A member of a prehistoric people inhabiting the coast of Veracruz and western Tabasco on the Gulf of Mexico from 1200 to 100 B.C., who established what was probably the first developed civilization of Mesoamerica. They are noted for their sculptures, especially the massive stone human heads with realistic features and round helmets, and small jade carvings featuring a jaguar. 2. A member of a Native American people living in the highlands of Mexico or migrating to the Gulf Coast are in the 12th century. Their name is derived from a Nahuatl word meaning 'people of the rubber (-tree) country'.

▪ Dutch East India Company

- a chartered company established in 1602 under the aegis of Prince Maurice of Nassau to coordinate the activities of companies competing for trade in the East Indies and to act as an arm of the Dutch state in its struggle against Spain. It was involved in attacks on the Portuguese (then part of the Spanish Empire), and warfare with native rulers, and created a virtual monopoly in trade in fine spices (for example clothes, not make, and Mace) grown under its supervision in the Moluccas and the Banda Islands (sometimes called the Spice Islands). In 1619 it made Batavia its headquarters. It ousted the Portuguese from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), set up trading posts in India, Persia, and Nagasaki, and made the Cape of Good Hope a base for Dutch ships en route to and from the East. In 1799 it was liquidated, its debts, possessions, and responsibilities being taken over by the Dutch state.

• Northwest Passage

- the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans along the north coast of North America. Long sought by explorers it was first traversed by Roald Amundsen (1903-06) in his ship the Gjoa.

Vespasian

A distinguished general, * was acclaimed emperor by the legions in Egypt during the civil wars that followed the death of Nero and gained control of Italy after the defeat of Vitellius. This period was known as the Year of Four Emperors. The emperor Galba was murdered by Otho, who was defeated by Vitellius. Otho's supporters, looking for another candidate to support, settled on *. His reign saw the restoration of financial and military order and the initiation of a public building program, which included the rebuilding of the Capitol and the beginning of the construction of the Coliseum in 75 AD.

To go to bed

Acostarse (o-ue)

Name this Czar: 1645-1676 Tsar of Russia

Aleksey I

Name this Czar: 1801-1825 Emperor of Russia The son of Paul I (and whose murder he may have indirectly unassisted), he set out to reform Russia and correct many of the injustices of the preceding reign. His private committee (Neglasny Komitet) introduced plans for public education, but his reliance on the nobility made it impossible for him to abolish serfdom. At first a supporter of the coalition against Napoleon, his defeats by the latter at the Battle of Austerlitz (1805) and at Friedland (1807) resulted in the Treaties of Tilsit (1807) with France and in the sea his support of the Continental system against the British. His wars with Persia and Turkey brought territorial gains, including the acquisition of Georgia. His armies helped to defeat Napoleon's grande armée at Leipzig, after its retreat from Moscow (1812). In an effort to uphold Christian morality in Europe he formed a holy alliance of European monarchs. He supported Metternich in suppressing Liberal and national movements, and gave no help to the Ottoman Turks, although they were Orthodox Christians like himself. He was reported to become a hermit.

Alexander I

Name this Czar: 1855-1881 Emperor of Russia Known as the 'Tsar Liberator', he was the eldest son of Nicholas I and succeeded to the throne when the Crimean War had revealed Russia's backwardness. His Emancipation Act of 1861 freed millions of serfs and led to an overhaul of Russia's archaic administrative institutions. Measures of reform, however, did not disguise his belief in the need to maintain autocratic rule and his commitment to military strength, as witnessed by the introduction of universal conscription and 1874. His reign saw great territorial gains in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Far East, to offset the sale of Alaska to the US (1867). The growth of secret revolutionary societies, such as the nihilists and Populists, accommodating in an assassination attempt in 1862, completed his conversion to conservatism. After further assassination attempts, he was mortally wounded (1881) by a bomb, thrown by a member of the People's Will Movement.

Alexander II

Name this Czar: 1730-1740 Empress of Russia Daughter of Ivan V and niece of Peter the Great.

Anna Ivanovna

• Patrick, St. (5th century) -

Apostle and patron saint of Ireland. His Confession is the chief source for the events of his life. Of Romano-British parentage, he was captured at the age of 16 by Irish raiders and shipped to Ireland as a slave; there he experienced a religious conversion. Escaping after six years, probably to Gaul, he was ordained in return to Ireland in about 432.

To fix one's hair

Arreglarse (el pelo)

Name this Czar: 1598-1605 Regent, then Tsar of Russia He began his career of court service under Ivan IV (the Terrible), became virtual ruler of Muscovy during the reign of his imbecile son Fyodor (1584-98) and engineered his own elevation to the Tsardom. He conducted a successful war against Sweden (1590-95), promoted foreign trade, and dealt ruthlessly with those boyar families which opposed him. In 1604 boyar animosity combined with popular dissatisfaction ushered in the 'Time of Troubles' - a confused 8-year dynastic and political crisis, Boris having died suddenly in 1605.

Boris Godunov

Name this Russian leader: 1991-1999 President

Boris Yeltsin

Trajan

Born in Spain, * was the first Roman Emperor born outside of Italy. He was adopted by Nerva (a lawyer turned emperor for two years in the interregnum) as his successor. *'s reign is noted for the Dacian Wars, which ended in the annexation of Dacia is a province; the campaigns are illustrated on *'s Column in Rome. * encouraged great military campaigns, and the Empire reached its greatest extent ever under his rule in 117 AD. He was also an efficient administrator and many public works were undertaken during his reign.

• Aung San (1914-47) -

Burmese nationalist leader. A leader of the radicals from his student days, during World War II he accepted Japanese assistance in secret military training for his supporters. Returning to Burma in 1942 he became leader of the Japanese sponsored Burma national army, which defected to the Allies in the closing weeks of the war of the Pacific. As leader of the postwar Council of Ministers, in January 1947 he negotiated a promise of full self-government from the British; in July of that year he and six of his colleagues were assassinated by political rivals during a meeting of the council.

• Hamilcar Barca (died c.229 B.C.) -

Carthaginian general and father of Hannibal and Hasdrubal. He commanded the Carthaginian forces in the later part of the First Punic War and negotiated the peace of 241 B.C. When the mercenaries in Carthaginian service rebelled, Hamilcar, along with his rival Hanno, defeated them. In 237 he went to Spain, and brought the southern and eastern areas under Carthaginian control.

Name this Czar: 1725-1727 Empress of Russia She was a Lithuanian servant girl who was first a mistress and then the second wife of Peter the Great. On his death she was proclaimed ruler with the support of her husband's favorite, Menshikov, and guard regiments. Menshikov became the effective head of government, working through the newly established privy Council, but fell from power on Catherine's death.

Catherine I

Name this Czar: 1762-1796 Empress of Russia A German princess, she was made Empress following a plot that deposed her husband Peter the third. Her attempted social and political reforms were impeded by entrenched aristocratic interests and in later years for reign became increasingly conservative. Under Catherine's rule, Russia played an important part in European affairs, participating in the three partitions of Poland and forming close links with Prussia and Austria, while to the south and east further territorial advances were made at the expense of the Turks and Tartars.

Catherine II (Catherine the Great)

To brush teeth

Cepillarse los dientes

Name this Czar: 1825 Emperor of Russia

Constantine I

To cut one's hair

Cortarse el pelo

Name this Czar: 1741-1762 Empress of Russia

Elizabeth

To wake up

Despertarse (e-ie)

Name this Czar: 1359-1389 Grand Prince of Moscow First prince of Moscow to openly challenge Tartar authority in Russia.

Dimitry Donskoi

To Shower

Ducharse

• Barents, Willem (c.1550-97) -

Dutch explorer and leader of several expeditions in search of a Northeast Passage to Asia, south of the Arctic Ocean. He discovered Spitsbergen and reached the Novaya Zemlya archipelago north of European Russia. His accurate charting and valuable meteorological data make him one of the most important of the early Arctic explorers. The Barents Sea, north of Russia, is named after him.

▪ Erasmus, Desiderius (born Gerhard Gerhards)(c.1469-1536) -

Dutch humanist and scholar. During his lifetime he was the most famous scholar in Europe and the first to achieve renown through the printed word. He met Thomas more at Oxford, and tied Greek at Cambridge. He published his own Greek edition of the New Testament (1516), followed by a Latin translation, and paved the way for the Reformation with his satires on the Church, including the Colloquia Familiaria (1518). However, he opposed the violence of the Protestant Reformation and condemned Luther in De Libero Arbitrio (1523). Erasmus was regarded as the leader in the renaissance of learning in northern Europe. He settled first in Basel and later at Freiburg.

▪ Tasman, Abel (1603-c.1659) -

Dutch navigator. In 1642 he was sent by Anthony van Diemen (the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies) to explore Australian waters; that year he reached Tasmania (which he named Van Diemen's Land) and New Zealand, and in 1643 arrived at Tonga and Fiji. On a second voyage in 1644 he also reached the Gulf of Carpenteria on the north coast of Australia.

The Deodorant

El Desodorante

• Hirohito (born Michinomiya Hirohito) (1901-89) -

Emperor of Japan from 1926 to 1989. Regarded as the 124th direct descendent of Jimmu, he ruled as a divinity and generally refrained from involvement in politics. In 1945, however, he was instrumental in obtaining his government's agreement to the unconditional surrender which ended World War II. He was obliged to renounce his divinity and become a constitutional monarch by the terms of the Constitution established in 1946.

Maximilian (full name Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph) (1832-67) -

Emperor of Mexico from 1864 to 1867. The brother of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef and Archduke of Austria, Maximilian was established as Emperor of Mexico under French auspices in 1864. In 1867, however, Napoleon III was forced to withdraw his support as a result of US pressure, and Maximilian was confronted by a popular uprising led by Benito Juarez. His forces proved unable to resist the rebels and he was captured and executed.

▪ Alexander II (1818-81) -

Emperor of Russia (1855-81). Known as the 'Tsar Liberator', he was the eldest son of Nicholas I and succeeded to the throne when the Crimean War had revealed Russia's backwardness. His Emancipation Act of 1861 freed millions of serfs and led to an overhaul of Russia's archaic administrative institutions. Measures of reform, however, did not disguise his belief in the need to maintain autocratic rule and his commitment to military strength, as witnessed by the introduction of universal conscription and 1874. His reign saw great territorial gains in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Far East, to offset the sale of Alaska to the US (1867). The growth of secret revolutionary societies, such as the nihilists and Populists, accommodating in an assassination attempt in 1862, completed his conversion to conservatism. After further assassination attempts, he was mortally wounded (1881) by a bomb, thrown by a member of the People's Will Movement.

• Nicholas I (1796-1855) -

Emperor of Russia from 1825-55. The third son of Paul I, he succeeded his brother Alexander I, having crushed a revolt by the Decembrists, who favored his elder brother Constantine. His rule was authoritarian and allowed for little social reform. Russia was ruled by the Army bureaucracy and police, intellectual opposition only expressed itself in study circles and secret societies. These groups polarized into "Slavophiles", who held that Russian civilization should be preserved through the Orthodox Church and the village community, and "Westernizers" who wish to see Western technology and Liberal government introduced. Nicholas embarked on the Russo-Turkish Wars and brutally suppressed the uprising in 1830-31 in Poland. Religious minorities, including Jews, were persecuted. In the revolutions of 1848 he helped Austria crush the nationalists in Hungary, and his later attempt to dominate Turkey led to the Crimean War (1853-56). He was succeeded by his son Alexander II.

Name this Czar: 1605-1606 Tsar of Russia One of 3 impostors who claimed to be *, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, who supposedly escaped a 1591 assassination attempt. He soon married a woman that did not convert to the Orthodox faith, angering the boyars and population alike. Conspirators stormed the Kremlin, causing * to break a leg jumping out of a window (he was shot soon after).

False Dmitry I

Name this Czar: 1605 Tsar of Russia Son of Boris Godunov. Soon after becoming tsar, False Dimitry arrived to demand his removal. A group of boyars seized control of the Kremlin and arrested him. He and his mother were strangled soon after in his apartment (officially poisoned).

Feodor II

• Medici, Cosimo de (1389-1464) -

Florentine banker, the first member of the Medici family to rule Florence. In Florence the struggle for power between rival patrician families was intense and Cosimo was expelled from the city by the ruling House of Albizzi in 1433 before triumphing over his rivals in 1434. The basis of his wealth was the highly successful Medici Bank. He was a keen patron of the arts.

Name this Czar: 1584-1598 Tsar of Russia Son of Ivan the Terrible and Anastasia Romanovna (the first tsarina of Russia). Reputedly mentally retarded, Fyodor took little interest in politics - he spent most of his time praying. He left the task of governing the country to his able brother- in-law, Boris Godunov. His only daughter died in infancy, and Fyodor's failure to procreate led Russia into the 'Time of Troubles'.

Fyodor I

• Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506) -

Genoese navigator and explorer, celebrated as the first European to discover America. His great interest was in what he called his "enterprise to the Indies", the search for it westward route to the Orient for trade in spices. For over a decade he tried to get financial support for his enterprise, and at last in 1492 persuaded Ferdinand V and Isabella of Spain to sponsor an expedition. He sat out in one larger carrack, the Santa María, nicknamed Gallega (the Gallician), and two smaller caravels, Pinta (the Painted) and Santa Clara, nicknamed Niña (the Girl). He was expecting to reach Japan, and when he came upon the islands of the Caribbean he named them the West Indies, and the native Arawak people Indians. On Cuba (which he thought was China) tobacco was discovered. His published record was the first documentary evidence in Europe of the existence of the New World. For his second voyage a year later he was provided with 17 ships expected to trade for gold and establish colonies. He surveyed much of the Caribbean archipelago during the next three years, but then, no gold forthcoming, he was recalled to Spain in disgrace. After months of lobbying, however, he was allowed again to search for Asia; this time he took a more southerly route, discover Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco River, but the colony he left on Hispaniola was seething with rebellion. Ferdinand and Isabella sent a new governor to control it and paid off Columbus by allowing him to fit out a fourth voyage (1502-04) at their expense. He explored much of the coast of Central America vainly seeking at Panama City rate that would lead him to Japan, till his poorly equipped ships became worm-eaten and unfit for the voyage home. He chartered another vessel and reach Spain ill and discredited, and died in obscurity.

Name this Russian leader: 1953 General Secretary of the Communist Party

Georgy Malenkov

Hadrian

He was Trajan's cousin, accompanying him on many of his expeditions. On becoming emperor, he established the river Euphrates as the eastern boundary of the Roman empire. He established the northern boundary of the empire by building *'s Wall, which ran from Solway Firth to the mouth of the Tyne River. Erected many impressive buildings in Rome, including the Pantheon. Spent most of his reign traveling through the Roman provinces.

• Gandhi, Mahatma (born Mohandas Gandhi)(1869-1948) -

Indian nationalist and spiritual leader. After early civil rights activities as a lawyer in South Africa, in 1914 Gandhi returned to India, where he became prominent in the opposition to British rule and was frequently imprisoned. The president of the Indian National Congress (1925-34), he never held a government office, but was regarded as the country's supreme political and spiritual leader and the principal force in achieving India's independence. The Salt March to Dandi (1930) was followed by a campaign of civil disobedience until 1934, individual satyagraha, 1940-41, and the 'Quit India' campaign of 1942. As independence for India drew near, he cooperated with the British despite his opposition to the partition of the subcontinent. In political terms Gondi's main achievement was to turn the small, upper-middle-class Indian National Congress movement into a mass movement. In intellectual terms his emphasis was upon the force of truth and nonviolence (ahimsa) in the struggle against evil. His acceptance of partition and concern over the treatment of Muslims in India made him enemies among extremist Hindus. One such extremist, Nathuram Godse, assassinated him in Delhi. Widely revered before and after his death, he was known as the Mahatma (Sanskrit, 'Great Soul').

• Nanak (1469-1539) -

Indian religious leader and founder of Sikhism. He was born into a Hindu family in a village near Lahore. Many Sikhs believe that he was in a state of enlightenment at birth and that he was destined from then to be God's messenger. He learned about both Hinduism and Islam as a child, and at the age of 30 he underwent a religious experience which prompted him to become a wandering preacher. He eventually settled in Kartarpur, in what is now Punjab and Muslim faiths nor to create a new religion, preaching rather that spiritual liberation could be achieved through practicing and in word and disciplined meditation on the name of God. His teachings are contained in a number of hymns which form part of the principal sacred Scripture of Sikhism, the Adi Granth.

▪ Gandhi, Rajiv (1944-91) -

Indian statesman and Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989. The eldest son of Indira Gandhi, he entered politics following the accidental death of his brother Sanjay, becoming prime minister after his mother's assassination. His premiership, at the head of the Indian National Congress party, was marked by continuing unrest and he resigned in 1989; he was assassinated during the election campaign of 1991. His widow, Sonia Gandhi, became leader of the Indian National Congress in 1998.

• Nehru, Jawaharlal (1889-1964) -

Indian statesman, and first Prime Minister of India, serving from 1947-64. An early associate of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru was elected leader of the Indian national Congress, succeeding his father Pandit Motilal Nehru, in 1929. Imprisoned nine times by the British for his nationalist campaigns during the 1930s and 1940s, he eventually played a major part in the negotiations preceding independence. Nehru subsequently became the first Prime Minister of independent India. He was the father of Indira Gandhi.

• Gandhi, Indira (1917-84) -

Indian stateswoman and Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984. The daughter of Nehru, she had already served as President of the Indian National Congress (1959-60) and Minister of Information (1964) when she succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister. In her first term of office she sought to establish a secular state and to lead India out of poverty. However, in 1975 she introduced an unpopular state of emergency to deal with growing political unrest, and the Congress party lost the 1977 election. Mrs. Gandhi lost her seat and was unsuccessfully tried for corruption. Having formed a breakaway group from the Congress party in 1978, known as the Indian National Congress, she was elected prime minister again in 1980. Her second period of office was marked by prolonged religious disturbance, during which she alienated many Sikhs by allowing troops to storm the Golden Temple at Amritsar. She was assassinated in 1984 by her own Sikh bodyguards.

• Khomeini, Ayatollah (1900-89) -

Iranian Shiite Muslim leader. After 16 years in exile he returned to Iran in 1979 to lead an Islamic revolution which overthrew the Shah. He established a fundamentalist Islamic Republic, supported the seizure of the US Embassy in 1979 by Iranian students, and relentlessly pursued the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988. In 1989 he issued a fatwa condemning Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses and offering a reward for his murder, which provoked criticism from the West. The Iranian government withdrew its support from the fatwa in 1998.

• Rafsanjani, Ali (1934- ) -

Iranian statesman and religious leader, and president from 1989-97. A supporter and former pupil of Ayatollah Khomeini, in 1978 he helped organize the mass demonstrations that led to the Shah's overthrow the following year. In 1988 he helped to bring an end to the Iran-Iraq war, having persuaded Khomeini to accept the UN's peace terms. When Khomeini died in 1989 Rafsanjani emerged from the ensuing power struggle as Iran's leader. He sought to improve Iran's relations with the West, and kept his country neutral during the Gulf War of 1991.

• Collins, Michael (1890-1922) -

Irish nationalist leader and politician. He took part in the Easter rising in 1916. Elected to Parliament as a member of Sinn Fein in 1919, he became Minister of finance in the self-declared Irish government, at the same time directing the Irish Republican Army's guerrilla campaign against the British. He was one of the negotiators of the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 and commanded the Irish Free State forces in the civil war that followed partition. On the death of Arthur Griffith in 1922, he became head of the government, but was shot in an ambush 10 days later.

• Mussolini, Benito (known as 'Il Duce', the leader) (1883-1945) -

Italian Fascist statesman, and Prime Minister from 1922-43. Originally a socialist, Mussolini founded the Italian Fascist party in 1919. Three years later he orchestrated the march on Rome by the Blackshirts and was created prime minister, proceeding to organize his government along dictatorial lines. He annexed Abyssinian in 1936 and entered World War II on Germany's side in 1940. Mussolini was forced to resign after the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943; he was rescued from imprisonment by German paratroopers, but was captured and executed by Italian Communist partisans in 1945, a few weeks before the end of the war.

▪ Cabot, John (Italian name Giovanni Caboto)(1450-1498) -

Italian explorer and navigator. He and his son Sebastian sailed from Bristol England in 1497 with letters of patent from Henry VII of England in search of Asia, but in fact discovered the mainland of North America. The site of their arrival is uncertain (it may have been cheap Breton Island, Newfoundland, or Labrador). John Cabot returned to Bristol and undertook a second expedition in 1498. His son Sebastian made further voyages of exploration after his father's death, most notably to Brazil and the river Plate in 1526.

• Vespucci, Amerigo (1451-1512

Italian merchant, navigator, and explorer. While in the service of the King of Portugal, Vespucci made several voyages to the New World and claimed, on dubious authority, to have been the first to sight the mainland of South America (1497). The name 'America' is derived from his first name, an was so-named by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller.

• Francis of Assisi, Saint (born Giovanni di Bernardone)(c.1181-1226) -

Italian monk, and founder of the Franciscan order. Born into a wealthy family, he renounced his inheritance in favor of a life of poverty after experiencing a personal call to rebuild the semi-derelict church of San Damiano of Assisi. He soon attracted followers, founding the Franciscan order. He gathered a group of disciples and drew up for them a rule of life, based on complete poverty, approved by Pope Innocent III in 1209. He was a leader of movements to reform the Church. He retired to the mountain retreat of Alvernia, where he received the stigmata which are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.

• Verrazzano, Giovanni da (c.1485-c.1528) -

Italian navigator in the service of France. He led three expeditions in search of a Westward passage into the Pacific at the bus to the east. In 1524 he explored the North American coast from North Carolina to New York Bay and continued north to Newfoundland before returning to Dieppe. In 1527 he took a second expedition across the Atlantic and reached Brazil. He set out once more in 1528 but was met in the Antilles by Cannibal Caribs who killed and ate him.

▪ *Borgia, Cesare (1475-1507

Italian nobleman whose fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Machiavelli, who was his adviser. After initially entering the church and becoming a cardinal on his father Alexander VI's election to the Papacy, he became the first person to resign a cardinalcy after the death of his brother in 1498. His father set him up as a prince with territory carved from the Papal States, but after his father's death he was unable to retain power for long. According to Machiavelli this was due to his planning for all possibilities but his own illness. His sister was Lucrezia Borgia.

▪ *Borgia, Lucrezia (1480-1519

Italian noblewoman who was daughter of Pope Alexander VI and sister of Cesare Borgia. Lucrezia's family politics became subject matter for The Prince where well implemented ruthlessness represents a practical component of Machiavellian politics. Her family had arranged several marriages for her which advanced their own political position, including Giovanni Sforza (Lord of Pesaro) and Alfonso of Aragon (Duke of Bisceglie). After Pope Alexander VI did not need the Sforza family anymore, he had Lucrezia's marriage to Giovanni Sforza annulled. Cesare Borgia was suspected of having her second husband, Alfonso,strangled in order to break with the Kingdom of Naples and strengthen relations with France. Cesare is also suspected of having her alleged lover, Pedro Calderon, killed. Lucrezia was cast as a femme fatale, a role she has been portrayed as in many artworks, novels, and films. Several rumors have persisted throughout the years, primarily speculating as to the nature of the extravagant parties thrown by the Borgia family. Many of these concern allegations of incest, poisoning, and murder on her part. It is rumored that Lucrezia was in possession of a hollow ring that she used frequently to poison drinks.

• Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807-82) -

Italian patriot and military leader. He was a hero of the Risorgimento (the movement for the unification and independence of Italy), who began his political activity as a member of the Young Italy Movement. After involvement in the early struggles against Austrian rule in the 1830s and 1840s he commanded a volunteer force on the Sardinian side in 1859, and successfully led his 'Red Shirts' to victory in Sicily and southern Italy in 1860-61, thus playing a vital part in the establishment of a united kingdom of Italy. He was less successful in his attempts to conquer the papal territories around French-held Rome in 1862 and 1867.

▪ Aquinas, St. Thomas (known as 'the Angelic Doctor') (1225-74) -

Italian philosopher, theologian, and Dominican friar. Regarded as the greatest figure of Scholasticism, he also devised the official Roman Catholic tenets as declared by Pope Leo XIII. His works include many commentaries on Aristotle as well as the Summa Contra Gentiles (intended as a manual for those disputing with Spanish Muslims and Jews). His principal achievement was to make the work of Aristotle acceptable in Christian western Europe; his own metaphysics, his account of the human mind, and his moral philosophy or a development of Aristotle's, and in his famous arguments for the existence of God ('the Five Ways') he was indebted to Aristotle and to Arabic philosophers.

• Machiavelli, Niccolo (1469-1527) -

Italian statesman and political philosopher. After holding high office in Florence, he was exiled by the Medici's on suspicion of conspiracy, but was subsequently restored to some degree of favor. His best-known work is The Prince (1532), a treatise on statecraft advising rulers that the acquisition and effective use of power may necessitate unethical methods that are not in themselves desirable. He is thus often regarded as the originator of a political pragmatism in which 'the end justifies the means'.

• Moro, Aldo (1916-78) -

Italian statesman. He entered Parliament as a Christian Democrat in 1946. As Minister of Justice (1955-57) he reformed the prison system. He was Foreign Minister in several governments (1965-74), and Prime Minister (1963-68; 1974-76). Moro was kidnapped in 1978 by the Red Brigades, who demanded the release of imprisoned terrorists for his return. The government's refusal to accede led to Moro's murder.

• Marco Polo (c. 1254-c. 1324) -

Italian traveler. Between 1271 and 1275 he accompanied his father and uncle on a journey east from Acre into Central Asia, eventually reaching China and the court of Kublai Khan. After service with the Emperor and traveling widely in the empire for a decade and a half, Polo returned home (1292-95) via Sumatra, India, and Persia. His book recounting his travels gave considerable impetus to the European quest for the riches of the East.

Name this Czar: 1462-1505 Grand Prince of Moscow, then Grand Duke of all the Russias Responsible for extending the territories of Muscovite Russia, becoming independent of the Tartars, and subjecting Livonia and Lithuania. Claimed title of "Ruler of All Russia". He claimed leadership of the Eastern Orthodox Church. His authority declined as alcoholism, conspiracy, and succession problems diminished his effectiveness.

Ivan III (Ivan the Great)

Name this Czar: 1533-1584 Grand Prince of Moscow, then Tsar of Russia First ruler to assume the title of Tsar (emperor) of Russia. He had a violent and unpredictable nature, but his nickname (Russian, grozny) is better translated as 'awe-inspiring' rather than 'terrible'. Engineered successful campaigns against the Mongols and in Siberia. In 1564 he entered into a reign of terror, caused partly by his deteriorating mental condition, and partly by his determination to wrest power from the boyars. He used a special body of civil servants, the oprichniki, to break the power of the nobility. Shortly before his death he precipitated further turmoil for Russia by killing in a fit of rage his gifted son and heir, Ivan. Although another son, Fyodor, succeeded him, power soon fell into the hands of his favorite, Boris Godunov.

Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)

Name this Czar: 1682-1696 Tsar of Russia Older half-brother of Peter the Great, and coreigned with him between 1682 and 1696.

Ivan V

Name this Czar: 1740-1741 Emperor of Russia

Ivan VI

Daimyo (Japanese, 'great names') -

Japan's feudal lords. When they expanded their samurai armies during the confusion of the Ashikaga period, and territorial disputes between daimyo threatened Japan's unity. A reallocation of fiefs under Hideyoshi had reduced their power by 1591. The Tokugawa controlled most of their activity, although during this shogunate (1600-1878) the daimyo continued to exercise local control over domains comprising two thirds of Japan. The new national government at the time of the Meiji restoration persuaded the daimyo to surrender their titles, powers, and privileges as feudal landowners, compensating them by payment of a portion of their former revenues. This, along with the dismantling of the samurai class of warriors who served the daimyo, helped transform Japan from a feudal state to a centralized state.

• Tojo Hideki (1884-1948) -

Japanese general and the statesman. He participated in the war against China in the 1930s, was leader of the militarist party from 1931 onwards, and became war minister in 1940. He urged closer collaboration with Germany and Italy and persuaded Vichy France to sanction Japanese occupation of strategic bases in Indo-China (1941). He succeeded Konoe Fumimaro as Prime Minister (1941-44) and he gave the order to attack Pearl Harbor, precipitating the US into World War II. In 1942 he strengthened his position in Tokyo as war minister and created a virtual military dictatorship. He resigned in 1944 after the loss of the Marianas to the US. He was convicted at the Tokyo Trials and hanged as a war criminal in 1948.

Name this Russian leader: 1922-1953 General Secretary of the Communist Party (Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR)

Joseph Stalin

▪ Gallic wars (58-51 B.C.) -

Julius Caesar his campaign, which established Roman rule over central and northern Europe west of the river Rhine (an area known as Gaul). Crossing into Transalpine Gaul, Cesar rappelled German tribes in the south and east, Belgae in the north, and Veneti in the West. He even crossed the Rhine to demonstrate Roman control of that crucial natural frontier. With speed and ruthlessness and helped by intertribal disunity he subdued the northern and western coasts. He twice (55 and 54 B.C.) invaded Britain, which was regarded as a Belgic refuge and threat to Rome. In the winter of 53-52 B.C., Vercingetorix rallied the central Gallic tribes in unusual unity. In a long and bitter war, Cesar defeated him and his successors, and he was executed. Caesar's war dispatches, De Bello Gallico, supply most of the information about these events.

Kenyatta, Jomo (1891-1978) -

Kenyan statesmen, Prime Minister of Kenya in 1963, and first president of independent Kenya from 1964-78. He was in prison from 1952 to 1961 for alleged complicity in the Mau Mau uprising. On his release he was elected president of the Kenya African National Union and led his country to independence in 1963, subsequently serving as independent Kenya's first president.

Alexander III (the Great) (356-323 B.C.

King of Macedonia (336-323), the son of Philip II. He was a pupil of Aristotle. After his succession he invaded Archaemenid Persia, liberating the Greek cities in Asia minor, and then defeating the Persians in Egypt, serious, and Mesopotamia. While in Egypt he founded Alexandria (332 B.C.), his first and best-known city. He decided to rule the Persian Empire in cooperation with the Persian nobles, some of whom he appointed as his governors. He went on to extend his conquests eastwards, taking Bactria and the Punjab. He died of a fever at Babylon, and his empire quickly fell apart after his death. Regarded as a god in his lifetime, he became a model for many subsequent imperialist conquerors of antiquity, and the subject of many legends.

o Cyrus II (Cyrus the Great) (c.585-530 BC) -

King of Persia (539-530 BC) and founder of the Achaemenid dynasty. Cyrus succeeded his father Cambyses I as king of Anshan (558). He overthrew his grandfather, Astyages, king of the Medes (550), and he overthrew Croesus and his kingdom of Lydia (546), giving him control of Asia Minor. Cyrus then defeated and seized Nabonidus (the last of the Chaldean kings), adding Babylon, Assyria, Syria, and Palestine to his domains. He delivered the Jews from their Babylonian captivity, allowing them to return to Palestine to start rebuilding the Temple (their main religious center) at Jerusalem. The empire Cyrus created stretched from the Aegean Sea to the Indus River. According to Herodotus, he was killed in fighting the Massagetai, a savage tribe east of the Caspian.

• Darius I (or Darius the Great) (c.550-486 BC) -

King of Persia from 522 to 486 BC. Darius was the son of Hystaspes. He married Atossa, daughter of Cyrus II (the Great). Apparently killed Bardiya (522) and assumed the throne, although Darius claimed that he had actually killed Gaumata, who supposedly had usurped the throne and impersonated Bardiya. At first troubled by revolts in various parts of the empire, especially in Babylon, he restored order and reorganized his administration. Darius divided his lands into 20 provinces governed by satraps, allowing eac province its own government while maintaining some centralizing authority. He introduced reforms in administration and taxation, built roads, established a postal system, standardized weights and measures in coinage, and connected the Nile with the Red Sea by canal. He built the city of Persepolis, and was liberal in policy toward Jews, allowing them to rebuild their temple (519). He conquered eastern Thrace and annexed a province of India along the Indus River. He then conquered, through his western satraps, Thrace, Macedonia, and Lemnos. Darius then began a great struggle with Greece. After suppressing a revolt of the Greek cities in Ionia (499-494 BC), he set out to invade Greece to punish the mainland Greeks for their interference. He raised two expeditions to punish Greece. The first, in 492 under his son-in-law Mardonius, failed when the fleet was lost in a storm. The second, under Artaphernes and Datis, was defeated at the Battle of Marathon in 490.

Name this Russian leader: 1984-1985 General Secretary of the Chernenko Communist Party of the USSR

Konstantin

The towel

La toalla

• Pathet Lao -

Laotian Communist movement. In the independence struggle after World War II, Pathet Lao forces could walk great with the Vietminh against French colonial power. After the Geneva agreement (1954), it emerged as a major political and military force within Laos, seeking the alignment of their country with Communist China and North Vietnam. Between the mid- 1950s in mid-1970s the Pathet Lao and its political wing, the Neo Lao Haksat (Patriotic Party of Laos) under the leadership of Prince Souphanouvong, waged a prolonged political and military struggle for power with non-Communist government forces, eventually emerging triumphant with the formation of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos in 1975.

To wash your face

Lavarse la cara

Name this Russian leader: 1964-1982 First Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, then General Secretary

Leonid Brezhnev

• Qaddafi, Muammar (1942-

Libyan colonel and head of state since 1970. After leading the coup which overthrew King Idris in 1969, he gained power as chairman of the Revolutionary Council and established the Libyan Arab Republic. As self-appointed head of State Qaddafi has pursued an anti-colonial policy at home, expelling foreigners from Libya and seeking to establish an Islamic Socialist regime. He is been accused of supporting international terrorism and has been involved in a number of conflicts with the West, as also with neighboring Arab countries. By the mid-1980s, he was widely regarded in the West as the principal financier of international terrorism. Reportedly, Gaddafi was a major financier of the "Black September Movement" which perpetrated the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics, and was accused by the US of being responsible for direct control of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 200, of whom a substantial number were U.S. servicemen. He is also said to have paid "Carlos the Jackal" to kidnap and then release a number of the Saudi Arabian and Iranian oil ministers. Reagan himself dubbed Gaddafi the "mad dog of the Middle East." In March 1982 the U.S. declared a ban on the import of Libyan oil and the export to Libya of US oil industry technology; European nations did not follow suit. The U.S. attacked Libyan patrol boats from January to March 1986 during clashes over access to the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya claimed as territorial waters. Later in 1986, Reagan ordered major bombing raids, dubbed Operation El Dorado Canyon, against Tripoli and Benghazi killing 60 people, following U.S.accusations of Libyan involvement in a bomb explosion in West Berlin's La Belle discotheque, anightclub frequented by U.S. servicemen. Among the fatalities of the retaliatory attack by the U.S. was the adopted daughter of the Libyan leader. For most of the 1990s, Libya endured economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation as a result of Gaddafi's refusal to allow the extradition to the United States or Britain of two Libyans accused of planting a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Through the intercession of South African President Nelson Mandela - who made a high-profile visit to Gaddafi in 1997 - and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Gaddafi agreed in 1999 to a compromise that involved handing over the defendants to the Netherlands for trial under Scottish law. U.N. sanctions were thereupon suspended, but U.S. sanctions against Libya remained in force. In August 2003, two years after the bomber's conviction, Libya formally accepted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. Gaddafi agreed to pay compensation of up to $2.7 billion - or up to $10 million each - to the families of the 270 victims. The same month, Britain and Bulgaria co-sponsored a U.N. resolution which removed the suspended sanctions. (Bulgaria's involvement in tabling this motion led to suggestions that there was a link with the HIV trial in Libya in which 5 Bulgarian nurses, working at a Benghazi hospital, were accused of infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV.). Forty per cent of the compensation was then paid to each family, and a further 40% followed once U.S. sanctions were removed. Because the U.S. refused to take Libya off its list of state sponsors of terrorism, Libya retained the last 20% ($540 million) of the $2.7 billion compensation package. In 2006, the US State Department announced that it would restore full diplomatic relations with Libya, even after Gaddafi declared Libya's weapons of mass destruction programs. The State Department also stated that Libya would be removed from the list of nations that support terrorism. Later in 2006, the Libyan courts announced their final verdict in the HIV trial in Libya. The case had generated intense interest globally. The court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor of deliberately infecting 400 children with HIV and sentenced them to death, despite scientific evidence the youngsters had the virus before the medical workers came to Libya. Since 1979 he has held no formal post, although he has the ceremonial title 'leader of the revolution'.

Díaz, Porfirio (1830-1915) -

Mexican general and statesman, President (1877-80; 1884-1911). He was a distinguished soldier in the war with the US (1846-48), war of the reform (1857-60) in support of Juarez, and the struggle against the French (1861-67). He led a military coup in 1876 to overthrow Tejada, and was elected president the following year. His second administration as president was marked by piece, material prosperity, and foreign investments, but also by dictatorial methods, with little improvement in the condition of the masses. He was finally forced to resign in 1911 by a democratic movement and revolt led by Francisco Madero. He died in exile in Paris.

Santa Anna, Antonio (1794-1876) -

Mexican military adventurer and statesman. He entered the Spanish colonial Army and served as one of the Creole supporters of the Spanish government until 1821, when Iturbide made him governor of Veracruz. At first a supporter of the federal party, he subsequently overthrew Iturbide in 1822, and he himself became president in 1838. His policies led to the uprising at the Alamo, to his defeat in capture in the Battle of San Jacinto (1836), and to the secession of Texas. He was released, and returned to Veracruz, where he defended the city against the French from 1836-39. In his next presidential tenure during the early 1840s, he discarded the Liberal Constitution in 1824 and ruled as a dictator. Subsequently, despite defeat in the Mexican-American war and the loss of half of Mexico's territory to the USA, Santa Anna was recalled to the presidency in 1853 by Mexican conservatives. In 1855 the liberal revolution of Ayutla deposed him.

Villa, Pancho (born Doroteo Arango) (1878-1923) -

Mexican revolutionary. He played a prominent role in the Revolution of 1910-11 lead by Francisco Madero, and together with Carranza overthrew the dictatorial regime of General Victoriano Huerta in 1914. Later that year, however, he and Zapata rebelled against Carranza and fled to the north of the country after suffering a series of defeats. Villa invaded the U.S. in 1916 but was forced back into Mexico by the U.S. Army. He continued to oppose Carranza's regime until the latter's overthrow in 1920. Villa was eventually assassinated.

Zapata, Emiliano (1879-1919) -

Mexican revolutionary. In 1911 he purchased a painted in the revolution led by Francisco Madero; when Madero failed to redistribute land to the peasants, Zapata initiated his own program of agrarian reform and attempted to implement this by means of guerrilla warfare. He later joined forces with Pancho Villa and others, overthrowing Huerta in 1914; from 1914 to 1919 he and Pancho Villa against the regime of Carranza. Zapata was ambushed and killed by Carranza's soldiers in 1919.

Huerta, Victoriano (1854-1916) -

Mexican statesmen in general. Appointed in 1912 as commander of the federal forces, he became President of Mexico in 1913-14 by leading a coup against Francisco Madero. He instituted a ruthless dictatorship in which torture and assassination of his political opponents became commonplace. He was forced to resign under insurgent military pressure, supported not only by his Mexican opponents but also by the government of Woodrow Wilson in the US. An attempted return to power in 1915 ended unsuccessfully when he was arrested by US agents while attempting to cross the US-Mexican border.

Juarez, Benito (1806-72) -

Mexican statesmen, and President from 1861-64 and 1867-72. His refusal to repay of Mexico's foreign debt led to the occupation of Mexico by Napoleon III and the establishment of Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico in 1864. The withdrawal of the occupying French forces in 1867 prompted the execution of Maximilian and the rehabilitation of Juarez in the same year.

Name this Czar: 1613-1645 Tsar of Russia First tsar of the house of Romanov. He was elected tsar at the age of 17, but had to be begged by the boyars to accept the throne. Could not walk later in life due to a progressing leg injury from a horse accident early in his life.

Michael I

Name this Russian leader: 1985-1991 General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, then President

Mikhail Gorbachev

• Shah Jahan (1592-1666) -

Mogul Emperor of India (1628-58). He extended the Mogul power, notably in the Deccan, and rebuilt the capital at Delhi. His buildings there and in Agra, notably the Taj Mahal, built as a shrine for his wife, mark the peak of Indo-Muslim architecture. His severe illness in 1657 caused a succession war between his four sons in which Aurangzeb, the third son, killed his rivals, imprisoned his father in the Agra palace, and seized the throne. On his death Shah Jahan was buried with his wife in the Taj Mahal.

Akbar, Jalaludin (Akbar the Great) (1542-1605) -

Mogul emperor of India from 1556-1605. Akbar expanded the Mogul empire to incorporate northern India, and established administrative efficiency and a coherent commercial system. He was the first ruler of India to promote religious and racial toleration. He abolished slavery, legitimized the remarriage of widows, and banned polygamy (except in cases of infertility).

• Tamerlane (or Tamburlaine; born Timur Lenk, 'lame Timur')(1336-1405

Mongol (but Turkic-speaking) ruler of Samarkand (1369-1405). His designation ('lame') comes from an injury sustained to his leg as a child. His father was the first Mongol clansman to convert to Islam, and Tamerlane was also a Muslim. Leading a force of Mongols and Turks, between about 1364 and 1405 he conquered a large area including Persia, northern India, and Syria (sacking Damascus) and established his capital at Samarkand. He also subjugated Armenia, Mesopotamia, Georgia, and Iraq, sacking Baghdad. He routed the Golden Horde, and he marched into Russia and occupied Moscow. During his invasion of India he destroyed Delhi. He never took the title of khan, but rather he called himself an amir. He defeated the Ottoman Turks near Ankara in a great battle in 1402, capturing Sultan Bayezid I and compelling him to raise a siege of Constantinople. He died during an invasion of China. His mausoleum, the Gur-e Amir, is one of the gems of Islamic art. He is remembered the barbarity of his conquests and for transforming Samarkand into a center of culture. He was an ancestor of the Mogul dynasty in Indi .

• Kublai Khan (1216-94

Mongol emperor of China, and grandson of Genghis Khan. Between 1252 and 1259 he conquered southern China with his brother Mangu (then Mongol Khan). On Mangu's death in 1259 he was elected Khan himself, completing the conquest of China in founding the Yuan Dynasty. He established his capital on the site of the modern Beijing. He also established his summer capital at Shangdu (Xanadu). He He successfully invaded Korea and Burma, but failed in attacks on Java and Japan. He relinquished parts of the Mongol empire to other descendents of Genghis Khan, but retained at China for himself. He was visited by Marco Polo and his father and uncle (1275-92). He was an ardent Buddhist and patron of literature and the arts.

1205

Name this Year: St. Francis of Assisi (Francesco Bernadone) consecrates himself to poverty and religion o Bernadone joined the military in 1202, but one day's march was enough to ruin his health o Upon recovering his health, Bernadone became the "troubadour of religion", preaching the beauties of humility, poverty, simplicity, and the brotherhood of man, of man and the animals, and of man and nature o Francis' cheerful vernacular hymns won tremendous success in the towns of Italy o Francis' preaching was the spontaneous response of the church to rising anticlericalism of the cities, which were quickly expanding

325

Name this year: Constantine I (the Great) calls the First Council of Nicaea o The First Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical (world-wide) conference of bishops of the Christian church o This council was noteworthy because it was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom o Because it was called and presided over by Constantine, a measure of imperial control over the Church was established o The purpose of the council was to resolve disagreements in the Church of Alexandria over the nature of Jesus in relationship to the Father • The controversy was whether or not Jesus was of the same or of similar substance as God (The Father) • Arius of Alexandria held that Christ was of a different substance than God, whereas Bishop Alexander held that they were of the same substance • The council decided that Bishop Alexander was correct, that Christ was consubstantial (called homoousios), of the same substance as God • The council also decided that the date of the Christian Passover, now called Easter, would be on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox o The council ended with the issuance of the Nicene Creed, which contained the following points: • Jesus Christ is described as "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God," confirming his divinity • Jesus Christ is said to be "begotten, not made," asserting his co-eternalness with God, and confirming it by stating his role in the Creation • Jesus Christ is consubstantial, of the same substance as God - this belief is in direct opposition to Arianism

313

Name this year: Constantine I issues the Edict of Milan, which fully legalized Christianity for the first time in the Roman Empire

293

Name this year: Constantius declared Caesar, divorcing his wife Helena in order to marry Maximian's daughter Fausta (Constantius then recognized Maximian as senior Augustus) o Constantius and Helena were the father and mother of Constantine I (the Great) o After the divorce, Helena devoted her life to religious pilgrimages, visiting Jerusalem and founding the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

1209

Name this year: St. Francis of Assisi gathers up a group of disciples and drew up for them a rule of life approved by Pope Innocent III, thus founding the Franciscan orders o The Franciscans were also known as the Friars Minor, Minorities, Gray Friars, and Cordeliers

Name this Czar: 1825-1855 Emperor of Russia The third son of Paul I, he succeeded his brother Alexander I, having crushed a revolt by the Decembrists, who favored his elder brother Constantine. His rule was authoritarian and allowed for little social reform. Russia was ruled by the Army bureaucracy and police, intellectual opposition only expressed itself in study circles and secret societies. These groups polarized into "Slavophiles", who held that Russian civilization should be preserved through the Orthodox Church and the village community, and "Westernizers" who wish to see Western technology and Liberal government introduced. Nicholas embarked on the Russo-Turkish Wars and brutally suppressed the uprising in 1830-31 in Poland. Religious minorities, including Jews, were persecuted. In the revolutions of 1848 he helped Austria crush the nationalists in Hungary, and his later attempt to dominate Turkey led to the Crimean War (1853-56). He was succeeded by his son Alexander II.

Nicholas I

Name this Czar: 1894-1917 Emperor of Russia Last Emperor of Russia. In 1894 he formalized the alliance with France but his Far Eastern ambitions led to disaster in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05), an important cause of the Russian Revolution of 1905. He was forced to issue the October Manifesto promising a representative government and basic civil liberties. An elected Duma and an Upper Chamber were set up. Although Russia was prosperous under Stolypin (1906-11) and Nicholas II won support for the war against Germany (1914) he I read personal command of the Army's, leaving the government to the Empress Alexandra and Rasputin. Mismanagement of the war and chaos in the government led to his abdication in February 1917 and later his imprisonment. On July 16-17, 1918 the Bolsheviks, fearing the advance of counterrevolutionary forces, murdered him and his family at Ekaterinburg.

Nicholas II

Name this Russian leader: 1953-1964 First Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR

Nikita Khrushchev

• Ericson, Leif (c.970-c.1020) -

Norse explorer, the first European to set foot on North America. Son of Erik the Red, Leif Ericson sailed west from Greenland, eventually landing on Newfoundland, which he named Vinland. The story goes that one of Ericson's men found grapes vines growing there, hence the name. But the word 'vin' in Old Norse means 'meadow' or 'pasture', so this story is probably not true.

• *Quislng, Vidkun (1887-1945) -

Norwegian politician. With the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'état. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying forces. His pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Quisling regime, was dominated by ministers from Nasjonal Samling, the party he founded in 1933. The collaborationist government participated - willingly or unwillingly - in Germany's Final Solution. His name became a synonym for 'traitor' in Norway after WWII.

Constantine I

On the death of his father Contantius I in 306 at Eboracum (York) the army proclaimed * emperor. After a period of political complications, with several emperors competing for power, Constantine and Licinius divided the Empire between them, East and West. War was fought between the two rulers (314) and Constantine defeated and killed Licinius (323) and he became sole emperor, founding a new second capital at Byzantium, which he named Constantinople (now Istanbul). He adopted Christian symbols for his battle standards in 312, prompted by a vision of the sign of the cross in the rays of the sun. In the following year he proclaims tolerance and recognition of Christianity in the Edict of Milan. Although his own beliefs are uncertain he supported orthodox Christianity in an attempt to maintain the unity of the vast Roman Empire. Sunday was to clear a holiday in 326. Constantine is also known for calling the First Council of Nicaea. which was the first ecumenical (world-wide) conference of bishops of the Christian church. He and his mother Helena took great interest in the Christian sites of Rome and Palestine. Basilicas were built on the site of the stable-cave in Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ was supposed to have been born, his alleged tomb in Jerusalem, and St. Peter's grave on the Vatican Hill in Rome, and at Constantinople (St. Sophia). The Eastern Church lists him as a saint.

Name this Czar: 1796-1801 Emperor of Russia

Paul I

Bhutto, Benazir (1953- )

Pakistani Prime Minister from 1988-90 and again from 1993-96. In 1988 she became the first prime minister of a Muslim country. She took the country back into the commonwealth and promised radical reform but failed to win widespread support from other parties. After losing her last election she went into exile, but has subsequently returned to challenge Musharrif. He has subsequently placed her under house arrest, as of November 2007.

• *Panipat, Battle of (1526, 1556, 1761) -

Panipat was the site of 3 battles for control of Mughal India. The First Battle of Panipat was fought between the invading forces of Babur (who won the battle) and the Lodi Kingdom. It took place in north India and marked the beginning of the Mughal Empire. This was one of the earliest battles involving gunpowder firearms and field artillery in the Indian subcontinent which were introduced by Mughals in this battle. The Second Battle of Panipat was fought in 1556, between the forces of Hemu, the Hindu general and Chief Minister of Adil Shah Suri, and the army of the Mughal emperor, Akbar. Hemu was captured and subsequently beheaded. The battle ended in a decisive victory for Akbar. The Third Battle of Panipat took place in 1761 at Panipat, about 60 miles (97 km) north of Delhi, between a northern expeditionary force of the Maratha Empire and invading forces of the King of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Abdali, supported by two Indian allies—the Rohilla Najib-ud-daulah Afghans of the Doab, and Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh. The result of the battle was the halting of further Maratha advances in the north, and a destabilization of their territories, for roughly ten years. This period is marked by the rule of Peshwa Madhavrao, who is credited with the revival of Maratha domination following the defeat at Panipat.

Name this Czar: 1682-1725 Tsar of Russia, then Emperor of Russia Assumed sole authority after the death of his half-brother Ivan V. He launched a policy of expansion along the Baltic coast. Modernizing his armed forces, he waged the Great Northern War against Charles XII of Sweden, and went on to annex Estonia and Latvia, as well as parts of Finland, following the defeat of the Swedis monarch. He introduced extensive government and administration reforms that were instrumental in transforming Russia into a significant European power. He stood almost 6 feet 8 inches tall, had small hands, feet, and head compared to his body size. He also had noticeable facial tics, and probably suffered from petit mal epilepsy. In 1703 he made St. Petersburg his capital. In 1721 he was acclaimed 'Emperor of All Russia'.

Peter I (Peter the Great)

Name this Czar: 1727-1730 Emperor of Russia Only male-line grandson of Peter the Great.

Peter II

Name this Czar: 1762 Emperor of Russia

Peter III

Madero, Francisco (1873-1913) -

President of Mexico from 1911-1913, he assumed the leadership of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Thwarted in his attempt to unseat the dictator Porfirio Diaz, he fled to the US, from where he organized and armed movement that was unleashed in November 1910. The Diaz dictatorship fell 6 months later and in the ensuing elections Madero won the Mexican presidency. After putting down five insurrections against him, Madero fell victim to the sixth led by General Huerta in 1913. He was murdered a few days after being deposed.

• Brezhnev, Leonid (1906-82) -

President of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet (i.e. titular head of state) from 1960-64. As First Secretary of the Communist Party, he replaced Krushchev in 1964. His period in power was marked by the intensified persecution of dissidents at home and attempted détente, followed by renewed Cold War, in foreign affairs. He was largely responsible for the decision to invade Czechoslovakia in 1968, maintaining the doctrine that one socialist state may interfere in the affairs of another if the continuance of socialism is at risk.

• Pompey (106-48 B.C.) -

Roman general and statesman. His greatest achievements were the suppression of the Mediterranean pirates and 66, and the defeat of Mithridates in the east in 63. He formed the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Crassus in 60, but disagreement with Caesar resulted in civil war. Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus, after which he fled to Egypt, where he was murdered.

▪ Aurelius, Marcus (121-180

Roman Emperor (161-180). The adopted successor of Antoninus Pius, he was occupied for much of his reign with wars against Germanic tribes invading the Empire from the north. He was by nature a philosophical contemplative; his Meditations are a collection of aphorisms and reflections based on a Stoic outlook and written down for his own guidance.

▪ Caligula (born Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus)(12-41 AD

Roman Emperor from 37 to 41 AD. Brought up in a military camp, he gained a nickname Caligula (Latin for 'little boot') as an infant on account of the miniature military boots he wore. Caligula's brief reign as emperor, which began when he succeeded Tiberius and ended with his assassination, became notorious for its tyrannical excesses. During his reign, he appointed Herod as governor of Palestine. Caligula was insane; he made his horse a consul, held orgy parties, and had relations with his sister. His eventual assassination was carried out by the Praetorian Guard (the guards that Augustus made to guard the Emperor).

▪ Hadrian (full name Publius Aelius Hadrianus)(76-138 AD

Roman emperor from 117 to 138 AD. Hadrian was Trajan's cousin, accompanying him on many of his expeditions. On becoming emperor, he established the river Euphrates as the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. He established the northern boundary of the empire by building Hadrian's Wall in Britannia, which ran from Solway Firth to the mouth of the Tyne River (it was erected to keep the Scots out of southern Britannia). Erected many impressive buildings in Rome, including the Pantheon. Spent most of his reign traveling through the Roman provinces, promoting good government and loyalty to Rome, and securing the frontiers.

• Diocletian (245-313

Roman emperor from 284-305. Faced with military problems on many frontiers and insurrection in the provinces, in 286 he divided the Empire between himself in the East and Maximian in the west. In 293 he further divided the Empire, giving Galerius control of Illyricum and the valley of the River Danube, with Constantius Chlorus ruling Gaul, Spain, and Britain. An enthusiast for the old Roman religion, tradition, and discipline, Diocletian insisted on the maintenance of Roman law in the provinces and launch the final harsh persecution of the Christians in 303. He abdicated in 305.

▪ Constantine I (the Great; full name Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus)(c.274-337

Roman emperor from 324 to 337. On the death of his father Contantius I in 306 at Eboracum (York) the army proclaimed him emperor. After a period of political complications, with several emperors competing for power, Constantine and Licinius divided the Empire between them, East and West. War was fought between the two rulers (314) and Constantine defeated and killed Licinius (323) and he became sole emperor, founding a new second capital at Byzantium, which he named Constantinople (now Istanbul). He adopted Christian symbols for his battle standards in 312, prompted by a vision of the sign of the cross in the rays of the sun. In the following year he proclaims tolerance and recognition of Christianity in the Edict of Milan. Although his own beliefs are uncertain he supported orthodox Christianity in an attempt to maintain the unity of the vast Roman Empire. Sunday was to clear a holiday in 326. Constantine is also known for calling the First Council of Nicaea. which was the first ecumenical (world-wide) conference of bishops of the Christian church. He and his mother Helena took great interest in the Christian sites of Rome and Palestine. Basilicas were built on the site of the stable-cave in Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ was supposed to have been born, his alleged tomb in Jerusalem, and St. Peter's grave on the Vatican Hill in Rome, and at Constantinople (St. Sophia). The Eastern Church lists him as a saint.

▪ Claudius (full name Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus)(10 BC-54 AD

Roman emperor from 41 to 54 AD. He spent his early life engaged in historical study, prevented from entering public life by his physical infirmity. He was proclaimed emperor after the murder of Caligula. His reign was noted for its restoration of order after Caligula's decadence and fourth expansion of the Roman Empire, in particular the invasion of Britain in the year 43, in which he personally took part. His fourth wife, Agrippina, is said to have killed him with a dish of poisoned mushrooms.

▪ Nero, Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus (c.37-68 AD

Roman emperor from 54 to 68 AD. He was adopted by Claudius, who had married his own niece, Agrippina, Nero's mother. On Claudius' suspicious death in 54 AD Nero succeeded to the throne and poisoned Britannicus, Claudius' son by Messalina. Nero then had his mother murdered, compelled he boyhood tutor Seneca to commit suicide, and had his own wife Octavia executed. Another wife, Poppaea, died as a result of Nero's violence towards her. He was the first emperor to persecute Christians, many hundreds of whom were put to their deaths in the arena. He also poured oil on people, set them on crosses in his garden, and then lit them on fire for outdoor lighting. Reputedly he set Rome afir in 64A.D, hoping to rebuild it in splendor. A large section of Rome was burned to the ground, and in the ruins Nero built his Domus Aurea ('golden house' - a huge mansion) and was therefore suspected of hiring arsonists to set the fire. Revolt broke out in Palestine and 66A.D followed by an army rebellion in Gaul and he committed suicide.

• Vespasian (full name Titus Flavius Vespasianus)(9-79 AD

Roman emperor from 69 to 79 AD and founder of the Flavian dynasty. A distinguished general, he was acclaimed emperor by the legions in Egypt during the civil wars that followed the death of Nero and gained control of Italy after the defeat of Vitellius. This period was known as the Year of Four Emperors. The emperor Galba was murdered by Otho, who was defeated by Vitellius. Otho's supporters, looking for another candidate to support, settled on Vespasian. His reign saw the restoration of financial and military order and the initiation of a public building program, which included the rebuilding of the Capitol and the beginning of the construction of the Coliseum and 75 AD.

▪ Trajan (born Marcus Ulpius Traianus)(c.53-117 AD).

Roman emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born in Spain, Trajan was the first Roman Emperor born outside of Italy. He was adopted by Nerva (a lawyer turned emperor for two years in the interregnum) as his successor. Trajan's reign is noted for the Dacian Wars, which ended in the annexation of Dacia is a province; the campaigns are illustrated on Trajan's Column in Rome. Trajan encouraged great military campaigns, and the Empire reached its greatest extent ever under his rule in 117 AD. He was also an efficient administrator and many public works were undertaken during his reign.

▪ Caesar, (Gaius) Julius (100-44 BC

Roman general and dictator. Born into a patrician family, he studied at oratory at the university in Rhodes (a Greek island which held one of the best universities in the world). On his way there he was captured by pirates. Long story short, once he was released he came back with a hired army and crucified them all; the then continued on to Rhodes. He went on to becoming a general after a failed law career. He became Pontifex Maximus (High Priest) in 63 B.C. as part of a deal with Pompeii and Crassus, the so-called First Triumvirate; as consul in 59 he obtained the provinces of Illyricum and Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. A superb general, able to inspire loyalty in his soldiers, he subjugated Gaul, cross the river Rhine, and made two expeditions to Britain. He refused to surrender command until he had secured a second consulship for 48 B.C., which would render him immune from prosecution by his enemies, by now including Pompey. When the Senate delivered an ultimatum in January of 49, he crossed the Rubicon, took Rome, and defeated Pompey at Pharsalus in 48. He demonstrated clemency by permitting those who wish to do so to return to Italy. After campaigns in Asia Minor, Egypt, Africa, and Spain he returned to Rome and 45. He governed Rome as a dictator, finally as 'perpetual' dictator (named dictator for life by the Senate). His wide-ranging program of reform, which included the institution of the Julian calendar, reveals his breadth of vision, but he flaunted his ascendancy and ignored republican traditions. A conspiracy was formed, led by Brutus and caches, and he was assassinated on the Ides (15th) of March 44 B.C.

• Sulla (138-78 B.C.) -

Roman general and politician. Having come to prominence as a result of military successes in Africa, Sulla became involved in a power struggle with Marius, and in 88 marched on Rome. After a victorious campaign against Mithridates VI Sulla invaded Italy in 83, ruthlessly suppressing his opponents. He was elected dictator in 82, after which he implemented constitutional reforms in favor of the Senate, resigning and 79.

• Scipio Africanus (236-c.184 B.C.) -

Roman general and politician. His aggressive tactics were successful in concluding the Second Punic War, firstly by the defeat of the Carthaginians in Spain in 206 and then by the defeat of Hannibal in Africa in 202; his victories pointed the way to Roman hegemony in the Mediterranean. His son was the adoptive father of Scipio Aemilianus.

▪ Belisarius (505-65)-

Roman general under Justinian. He was instrumental in halting the collapse of the Roman Empire, if only temporarily. In 530 he defeated the Persians in the East, although they quickly reasserted themselves in Syria. Six years later he conquered Vandal North Africa, capturing its king. In 535-40 he took back Italy from the Ostrogoths, advancing as far north asRavenna, taking their keen prisoner, and followed it with a second Italian campaign in a few years later. He took Rome in 549 but was dismissed and eve n charged with conspiracy by a jealous Justinian, though reinstated in 564.

• Mark Antony (83-30 B.C.) -

Roman general. He served with Caesar at the end of the Gallic wars. As tribune in 49 he defended Caesar's interest in the Senate as civil war loomed. He was present at Pharsalus, and represented Caesar in Italy. His offer of a crown to Caesar was refused. After Caesar's murder he took the political initiative against the assassins, and delivered the funeral speech. Octavian, however, was Caesar's designated heir and hostility arose between the two. During Antony's struggle for ascendancy over the Senate led by Cicero, he was denounced in Cicero's 'Phillippic' orations and defeated at Mutina by the forces of the consuls and Octavian, and together with Lepidus they formed the second triumvirate, disposed of enemies including Cicero and defeated the 'Liberators', Brutus and Cassius, at Philippi in 42. Antony received the government of the eastern Mediterranean and began his liaison with Cleopatra in 42. Although a powerful ally she cost him much support at Rome. Their marriage, Antony's fifth, was illegal in Roman law. In 34 he declared Caesarion (Cleopatra's son allegedly by Caesar) as Caesar's heir in Octavian's place and divided the East among his family. War followed. After the battle of Actium he committed suicide in Egypt.

• Tacitus (c.56-c.120 A.D.) -

Roman historian. His major works on the history of the Roman Empire, only partially preserved, are the Annals (covering the years 14-68) and the Histories (69-96). They are written in a concise style, pervaded by a deep pessimism about the course of Roman history since the end of the Republic.

• Pliny the Elder (23-79) -

Roman lawyer, historian, and naturalist. Of his many works only the 37 volumes of his Natural History survive, a valuable compendium of ancient scientific knowledge blended with folklore and anecdote. He died while leading a rescue (and research) party on the stricken coastline near Pompeii, during the eruption of Vesuvius.

• Seneca, Marcus (c.55 B.C.-c.39 A.D.

Roman rhetorician, born in Spain. Seneca is best known for his works on a rhetoric, only parts of which survived, including Oratorum Sententiae Divisiones Colores and Suasoriae. His son, Lucius Seneca, was a Roman statesman, philosopher, and dramatist. Warning in Spain, he was banished to Corsica by Claudius in 41, charged with adultery; in 49 his sentence was repealed and he became tutor to Nero, through to influence of Nero's mother and Claudius's wife, Agrippina. Seneca was a dominant figure in the early years of Nero's reign and was appointed consul in 57; he retired in 62. His subsequent implication in a plot on Nero's life led to his forced suicide. As a philosopher, he expounded the ethics of stoicism in such works as Epistulae Morales. Seneca also wrote nine plays.

• Cicero, Marcus (106-43 B.C.) -

Roman statesman, orator, and writer. A supporter of Pompey against Julius Caesar, in the Philippics (43 B.C.) he attacked Mark Antony, who had him put to death. As an orator and writer, Cicero established a model for Latin prose.

▪ Cato (the Elder) (c.234-149 BC) -

Roman statesman. As consul in 195 Cato suppressed revolt in former Carthaginian Spain with severity; as censor us in 184 he was equally severe against private extravagance. Cato prosecuted Scipio Africanus for corruption. Cato was a famous orator, and was famous for ending his speeches with the quote "Carthage must be destroyed."

• Ceauşescu, Nicolae (1918/89)

Romanian communist statesman, first president of the Socialist Republic of Romania (1974-89). Noted for his independence of the USSR, for many years he fostered his own personality cults, making his wife Elena his deputy and appointing many other members of his family to high office. His regime became increasingly totalitarian, repressive, and corrupt; a popular uprising in December 1989 resulted in its downfall and in the arrest, summary trial, and execution of Ceauşescu and his wife.

• Rasputin, Grigori (1871-1916) -

Russian monk. Originally a Siberian peasant, he came to exert great influence over Czar Nicholas II and his family during World War I by claiming miraculous powers to heal the heir to the throne, who suffered from hemophilia. His appropriation of ecclesiastical, political, and military powers, with the support of the Empress Alexandra during Nicholas's absence, combined with a reputation for debauchery, steadily discredited the imperial family and was one of the main causes of the Russian Revolution. Rasputin was eventually assassinated by a group loyal to the Czar.

• Gorbachev, Mikhail (1931-

Russian statesman and executive president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. A Communist Party member since 1952, he was elected to the General Committee in 1979 and to the Politburo in the following year. On the death of Chernenko in 1985 he became the Soviet leader, exercising control from his position as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev's efforts to carry out glasnost and perestroika, the economic and social reform of Soviet society, led to a gradual process of liberalization and the introduction of high technology to the Soviet Union. Together with his foreign minister, Shevardnadze, he negotiated in 1987 and arms control treaty with the West to reduce nuclear forces in Europe. On the domestic front introduced stringent laws against alcohol abuse and encourage a greater degree of glasnost in the face of inefficiency and corruption. He released many political dissidents from restraint, including Sakharov and, for the first time the Russian people were told of the enormities of the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Stalin's regime. He initiated a number of constitutional changes, whereby the Congress of People's deputies was directly elected, the Congressman Dooley electing him executive president. He withdrew from Afghanistan, and in August 1990 negotiated with Chancellor Kohl that a united Germany could remain in a reformed NATO. He faced increasing resistance from a conservative, bureaucratic hierarchy, while the constituent republics of the union sought ever greater independence. Tensions during 1991, dated in an attempted coup in August, which he survived, but only because of the support given him by his rival Boris Yeltsin. He had by then accepted that the political monopoly of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had ended, but still believed in his communist ideals, and that the union could be reformed along evolutionary lines. As the Soviet command economy disintegrated his power base collapsed, as did the union itself. He resigned in December 1991. Gorbachev made an unsuccessful attempt to regain power in the presidential election of 1996, but fails significantly to challenge Yeltsin.

• Yeltsin, Boris (1931-

Russian statesmen, and President of the Russian Federation from 1991-99. At first a supporter of Gorbachev's reform program, he soon became its leading radical opponent. In 1990 * was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic; shortly afterwards he and his supporters resigned from the Communist Party. He emerged with new stature after an attempted coup in 1991, during which he rallied support for Gorbachev; on the breakup of the USSR at the end of that year he became president of the Independent Russian Federation. He survived another attempted coup in 1993. Despite criticism over his handling of the conflict in Chechnya, a heart attack in 1995, and a subsequent coronary bypass operation, he was reelected in the presidential elections in 1996. Concern over his health continued. During 1998 to 1999 he sacked the entire government four times but an attempt to impeach him failed.

To Dry

Secarse

Milosevic, Slobodan (1941-2006

Serbian politician and president of Serbia (1989-97) and of the self-declared Yugoslav Federal Republic (Serbia and Montenegro) from 1997-2000 Milosevic trained as a lawyer and became director of the Belgrade Bank in 1978. He was elected as first Secretary of the Serbian communist (later socialist) party in 1987 and won the presidential election in the republic two years later. A champion of Serbian hegemony over the constituent republics of the former Yugoslavia, Milosevic organized the intervention of the Yugoslav Federal army in Slovenia and Croatia (1991-92) and supported the secession of the Bosnian Serbs to began the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-95), with its 'ethnic cleansing' policies. As a result he achieved isolation from the international community and the collapse of the Serbian economy Serbia's subsequent policy of oppression, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the majority Albanian population in the province of Kosovo led NATO to unleash a devastating series of bombing raids against Yugoslavia from March to June 1999, when Serbia effectively capitulated. The displaced Albanians and flooded back into the country from temporary camps in neighboring states. As a result of his policies in Kosovo, Milosevic was branded a war criminal and faced growing internal demand for his removal. He was indicted in May 1999, during the Kosovo War, by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity in Kosovo. Charges of violating the laws or customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions in Croatia and Bosnia and genocide in Bosnia were added a year and a half after that. After demonstrations following the disputed presidential election of October 2000, he conceded defeat and resigned. Within nine months of his ousting, he had been arrested by security forces in Yugoslavia on charges of corruption whilst in power, and within a very short time, was extradited to stand trial in the The Hague where he died after five years in prison with just fifty hours of testimony left before the conclusion of the trial. Milošević, who began to suffer from heart ailments, high blood pressure and diabetes after he was imprisoned, died of a heart attack.

Name this Czar: 1610 A group of Russian nobles, led by Prince Theodore Mstislavsky, who deposed tsar Vasili IV and ruled Russia for a short time.

Seven Boyars

• Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919-1980) -

Shah of Iran (1941-79). The son of Reza Pahlavi, he succeeded on the abdication of his father. After the fall of Mussadegh in 1953 he gained supreme power and with the aid of greatly increased oil revenues, and embarked upon a policy of rapid social reform and economic development, while maintaining a regime of harsh repression. In 1962 he introduced a land reform program to break landlord power. In 1979 he was deposed by revolution led by the Islamic clergy, notably Ayatollah Khomeini, whose supporters were bitterly opposed to the pro-Western regime of the Shah. He died in exile in Egypt.

• Botha, P(ieter) W(illem) (1916- ) -

South African Prime Minister (1978-84) and State President (1984-89). An authoritarian leader, he continued to enforce apartheid, but in response to pressure introduced limited reforms, including a new constitution giving certain classes of non-Whites a degree of political representation. His resistance to more radical change ultimately led to his fall from power.

• Biko, Steve (1946-77) -

South African civil rights activist and student leader. A medical student at the University of Natal, he was co-founder and President of the all-Black South African Students Association, whose aim was to raise Black consciousness. Active in the Black People's Convention, he was banned and then arrested on numerous occasions. His death in custody, by falling from a window at police headquarters in Pretoria (officially ruled suicide, but widely regarded as murder), made him a hero and martyr.

• Molotov, Vyacheslav (1890-1986) -

Soviet statesman. Born in Russia, he was an early member of the Bolsheviks and a staunch supporter of Stalin after Lenin's death. As commissar (later minister) for foreign affairs (1939-49; 1953-56), he negotiated the nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany (1939) and after 1945 represented the Soviet Union at meetings of the United Nations, where his frequent exercise of the veto helped to prolong the Cold War. He was expelled from his party posts in 1956 after quarreling with Khrushchev.

*Hyder Ali (1720-1782) -

Sultan and ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. He strongly resisted the advances of the British East India Company during the First and Second Anglo-Mysore Wars. He was succeeded by his son, Tipu Sultan.

• Saladin (1137-93) -

Sultan of Egypt and Syria (1174-93). Muslim sultan and hero who was commander of Syrian forces and vizier in Egypt. He suppressed the Fatimid dynasty and was proclaimed sultan of Egypt and Syria. He then united the Muslim territories of Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egypt. He campaigned to drive the Christians from Palestine and defeated them in a battle at Hattin; he went on to capture Acre, Nazareth, Ascalon, and other towns. He invaded the Holy Land and reconquered Jerusalem from the Christians in 1187, and, for a period, resisted the Third Crusade, the leaders of which included Richard I (the Lion Heart). He was later defeated by Richard at Arsuf (1191) and withdrew to Damascus, where he died. He is considered to be the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and the greatest Muslim hero of all time

Marcus Aurelius

The adopted successor of Antoninus Pius, he was occupied for much of his reign with wars against Germanic tribes invading the Empire from the north. He was by nature a philosophical contemplative; his Meditations are a collection of aphorisms and reflections based on a Stoic outlook and written down for his own guidance.

Augustus

The first Roman Emperor. Originally called Gaius Octavius, he took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus when he was adopted by the will of his great uncle Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. he established his position as one of the triumvirate of 43 B.C., forming an alliance with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, Caesar's principal colleagues. The three formed a junta called the Second Triumvirate, an explicit grant of special powers lasting five years and supported by law, unlike the unofficial First Triumvirate. Octavian formed an alliance with Mark Antony against Lepidus. Octavian defeated Lepidus and turned his attention toward conquering Mark Antony. In the battle of Actium in 31 BC Agrippa, Octavian's most trusted general, defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra thus leaving Octavian the sole ruler of the Romans (31 BC is sometimes considered the beginning of his imperial reign because he was the sole ruler, but the senate did not officially give him the title Augustus until 27 BC). A constitutional settlement in 27 B.C. in theory restored the Republic but in practice regularized his sovereignty; in the same year he was given the title Augustus (Latin for 'venerable'). Augustus was elected pontifex maximus by the senate in 12 BC (pontifex maximus is the head priest of Rome). Augustus adopted Tiberius in 4 AD (he became the next emperor). His rule was marked abroad by a series of expansionist military campaigns and at home by moral and religious reforms intended to restore or later Roman values disrupted during the previous civil wars.

Name this Czar: 1389-1425 Grand Prince of Moscow

Vasili I

Name this Czar: 1425-1462 Grand Prince of Moscow

Vasili II (Vasili the Blind)

Name this Czar: 1505-1533 Grand Prince of Moscow Son of Ivan III.

Vasili III (Basil)

Name this Czar: 1606-1610 Tsar of Russia

Vasili IV

To get dressed

Vestirse (e-i)

Name this Russian leader: 1917-1924 Premier (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars) The principal figure in the Russian Revolution and the first Premier of the Soviet Union. Lenin was the first political leader to attempt to put Marxist principles into practice, though, like Marx, he saw the need for a transitional period to full communism, during which there would be a 'dictatorship of the proletariat'.

Vladimir Lenin

Name this Russian leader: 1999-present President

Vladimir Putin

Name this Czar: 1610-1612 Tsar of Russia Elected Tsar of Russia in 1610, but did not assume the Muscovite throne due to his father's opposition (the throne was held by Michael Romanov instead).

Wladyslaw IV Vasa

Name this Russian leader: 1982-1984 General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, then President

Yuri Andropov

• Downing Street Declaration (1993) -

a document signed by the British Prime Minister John Major, and the prime minister of the Irish Republic, Albert Reynolds, declaring their principles and conditions for the conduct of negotiations to achieve peace in Northern Ireland. The declaration restated the existing positions of both governments, confirming that they would seek the agreement of the people of both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to any change to the status of Northern Ireland and would uphold all existing guarantees to Northern Ireland.

▪ Antonine Wall -

a defensive fortification about 10 feet high and 39 miles long, built across the narrowest part of central Scotland between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde around 140A.D., in the time of Antoninus Pius. It was intended to mark the frontier of the Roman province of Britain, and consisted of a turf wall with a broad ditch in front and a counterscarp bank on the outer edge, with 29 small forts linked by a military road. The Romans, however, were unable to consolidate their positions and in 181 the wall was breached and the northern tribes forced their retreat from the Forth-Clyde frontier, eventually to that established earlier at Hadrian's Wall.

• shogunate -

a Japanese institution under which government was in the hands of a Sei-I dai-shogun ('barbarian-conquering great general'). The shogun's exercised civil and military power in the name of emperors, who became figureheads. The shogunate as a form of government originate with Minamoto Yoritomo's appointment without any limit to his authority in 1192. After he died the Hojo regents took control of affairs, but in theory they remained subject to the Emperor and the shogun. During the Ashikaga period, the shoguns were independent of any other authority, though there rule was ineffective. Under the Tokugawa the power of the shogunate was decisive in national politics. Japan had been effectively ruled by the toe cabal since the beginning of the 17th century, but from the 1840s it was progressively undermined by political pressures on leased by increasing foreign incursions into Japanese territory. Resistance to the shogunate's conservative policies coalesced around advocates of a return to full imperial rule, and between 1866 and 1869 the Tokugawa armies were gradually defeated by an alliance of provincial forces from Choshu, Satsuma, and Tosa acting for the Meiji emperor, who formally resumed imperial rule in January 1868.

▪ Arianism - the teaching of Arius (250-336 A.D.),

a Libyan priest living in Alexandria, who preached a Christian heresy. He declared Jesus Christ was not divine, simply an exceptional human being. In 325 the Council of Nicaea excommunicated and banished him. After Constantine's death the Roman empire was divided on the issue and another condemnation was issued at Constantinople in 381. Germanic invaders of the Empire generally adopted Arianism as it was simpler than orthodox Christianity. It spread throughout Western Europe and persisted in places until the 8th century.

• Moguls (or Mughals) -

a Muslim dynasty of mixed Mongol and Turkish descent, which invaded India in 1526, expanded over most of the subcontinent except the extreme south, and ruled in strength until the early 18th century. The first Emperor was Babur (1483-1530). He was succeeded by a line of remarkable emperors: Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb. They created a strong administration for the rapidly growing empire, and the official attitude of conciliation toward the majority Hindu population encouraged religious harmony. Culturally, the introduction of the Persian language and Persian artistic styles led to a distinctive Indo-Muslim style in miniature painting in architecture, the legacy remaining today than tombs and palaces of Delhi and Agra, and several other cities of India and Pakistan. Internal and external pressure accelerated the weakening of central power during the 18th century. Rival court factions undermined the position of less capable rulers, allowing provincial governors to seize local power. The abandonment of conciliatory religious policies encourage the resurgence of Hindu power, notably among the Marathas. Hostile invasions from Central Asia reveals the hollowness of the dynasty's claim to all-India hegemony, so that by 1803, when Delhi fell to the East India Company, all real power had already been lost. For another half-century they enjoyed a 'twilight era' as nominal 'kings of Delhi', dependent on British goodwill, but in 1857 the last Mogul king was exiled and the title abolished.

• Phoenicians -

a Semitic people of ancient Phoenician in southern Syriac, of unknown origin, but

African National Congress (ANC

a South African political party. It was established in Bloemfontein in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress by a Zulu Methodist minister, J.W. Dube. In 1926 in the ANC established a united front with representatives of the Indian community, which aimed to create a racially integrated, Democratic southern Africa. It sought to achieve racial equality by nonviolent means, as practiced by Mahatma Gandhi in India, and from 1952 until 1967 was led by the Natal chieftain Albert Luthuli. Together with the more militant breakaway movement, the Pan- Africanist Congress (PAC), it was declared illegal by the South African government in 1960. Confronted by Afrikaner intransigence on racial issues, the ANC saw itself forced into a campaign of violence. Maintaining that apartheid should be abolished, and every South African have the vote, it formed a liberation Army. In 1962 its vice president, Nelson Mandela, and some of his colleagues were convicted of sabotage and jailed for life. The exiled the wing of the ANC maintained a campaign of violence during the 1980s, but following the election of President De Klerk in 1989 the party was legalized and Mandela was released from prison in 1990. The ANC subsequently entered into talks with the government anticipated in the drafting of a new constitution, which gave the vote to all South African adults. The first multiracial elections, held in 1994, were won by the ANC and Mandela became president.

• Tito (born Josip Broz) (1892-1980

a Yugoslav marshal and statesman, prime minister from 1945-53 and president from 1953-80. Born in Croatia, he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I and was captured by the Russians in 1915. After escaping, he fought with the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution became an active Communist organizer on returning to his country in 1920. Tito responded to the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941 by organizing a Communist resistance movement using guerilla tactics. His success in resisting the Germans earned him allied support and he emerged as head of the new government at the end of the war. Tito defied Stalin over policy in the Balkans in 1948, proceeding to establish Yugoslavia as a nonaligned communist state with a federal constitution. As a result the Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform. On his death the office of President was to rotate between the six republics,. However, by 1989 the country began to disintegrate into separate warring factions.

• Medici family -

a banking family, political dynasty and later royal house in Renaissance Italy based in Florence that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence. The Medici produced four Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X (1513-1521), Pope Clement VII (1523-1534), Pope Pius IV (1559-1565), and Pope Leo XI (1605) they also had two regent queens of France—Catherine de' Medici (1547-1559) and Marie de' Medici (1600- 1610); and, in 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade. Until the late 14th century, prior to the Medici, Florence's leading family were the House of Albizzi.

• Philippi, Battle of (42 B.C.) -

a battle fought at Philippi, a city in Macedonia in northern Greece, in which Caesar's assassins under Brutus were defeated by the armies of Mark Antony and Octavian (Augustus). Both Cassius and Brutus committed suicide after defeat.

• Cannae, Battle of (216 B.C.) -

a battle fought at the village of Cannae in southern Italy, which was one of the classic victories in military history. The Carthaginian general Hannibal, his injured pretty considerably outnumbered, but stronger and cavalry, stationed his troops in a shallow crescent formation. The densely packed Roman legionnaires, under the consuls Aemilius Paullus and Terentius Varro, charged Hannibal's center, forced it back, but failed to break it. As it slowly and deliberately gave ground, and the Romans pushed deeper, Hannibal effected his brilliant double encirclement: his cavalry, having defeated the opposing right and left wings, closed the trap and assaulted the Romans from flanks and rear. Of some 50,000 men the Romans lost 35,000 killed or captured, Hannibal only 5700. Rome's hold on Italy was imperiled, and many of its allies in central and southern Italy defected to Hannibal.

• Hojo -

a branch of a powerful Japanese family, the Taira. After Minamoto Yoritomo's death they provided regents for puppet shoguns, nominated by themselves. From 1219 the region as he was hereditary, and the country prospered under them until around 1300. They are fused tribute to Kublai Khan and executed his envoys. His two invasions, though failures, weakened Hojo power. Vassals the Hojo were unable to reward for their victories turned against them. From 1331 there was war between the regent's forces and those attempting to restore imperial rule under Go-Daigo. Their power ended in 1333 when Ashikaga Takanji, a Hojo vassal, defected to the Emperor and another vassal took Kamakura. The last regent and his family committed seppuku (ritual suicide).

▪ eunuch -

a castrated human male. Eunuchs were used as guardians of harems in ancient China and in the Persian Empire and also at the courts of the Byzantine emperors and the Ottoman sultans. They became the friends and advisers of the rulers of these powers, as they did of Roman emperors. Castration was also imposed a form of punishment (Abelard suffered in this way); was practiced voluntarily by some Christian sects (the most notable Christian eunuch being the theologian Origen); and was used to produce male adult sopranos in Italy - castrati - until Pope Leo XIII banned the practice in 1878.

• Onin War (1467-1477) -

a civil war that occurred when a dispute between Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen escalated into a nationwide war involving the Ashikaga shogunate and a number of daimyo in many regions of Japan. The war initiated the Sengoku jidai, "the Warring States Period". This period was a long, drawn-out struggle for domination by individual daimyo, resulting in a mass power-struggle between the various houses to dominate the whole of Japan. During this long period three individuals emerged who would unite Japan under one rule; they were Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. During the civil war, Kyoto was damaged, but was reconstructed under the daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi. •

• Great Northern War (1700-21) -

a conflict between Russia, Denmark, and Poland on one side, and Sweden opposing them. In spite of the victories of Charles XII, such as at the Battle of Narva early in the war, Sweden lost its empire and Russia, under Peter I, became a major Baltic power. Peter I won a decisive victory at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. By the Treaties of Stockholm (1719 and 1720) Bremen and Verden were ceded to Hanover and most of Pomerania to Russia. After further Russian naval successes, the Treaty of Nystadt, which ended the war, gave Russia Sweden's Baltic provinces.

• War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguayan War) (1864-70) -

a conflict resulting from rivalries between Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina. The Paraguayan president Francisco Solano Lopez, alarmed by Brazilian intervention in Uruguay and harboring desires for Paraguayan territorial expansion and access to the sea, initiated hostilities against Brazil in 1864. Despite traditional rivalry between Brazil and Argentina, the latter joined Brazil and its puppet government in Uruguay in the Triple Alliance Pact (May 1865) against Paraguay. Paraguay's well-trained army of 600,000 men did not prove equal to the task, and Lopez's death in 1870 ended one of the most destructive wars in Latin American history. In addition to losing more than half of its population, Paraguay was also stripped of considerable territory as a result of the war.

• Nazca -

a culture developed on the southern Peruvian coast between approximately 200 B.C. and 600 A.D., eventually eclipsed by the expansion of the Huari culture of central Peru and the seventh century. In the extremely dry environment its settlements and population remained modest, but its craftsman produced a long sequence of pottery styles, with animal and human figures. It also produced large drawings of animals, abstract designs, and straight lines on the coastal plain (the Nazca lines), by clearing and aligning the surface stones to expose the underlying sand; their purpose is uncertain but may have been religious.

• Somoza -

a family dynasty that dominated Nicaragua from the 1930s until 1979. Anastasio Garcia Somoza (1896-1956) engineered a successful coup against the liberal regime and took over the presidency in 1936, exercising dictatorial control until his assassination in 1956. Somoza family rule continued under his sons Luis and Anastasio Somoza (1956-63, 1967-79, respectively). The Somozas used to the National Guard to eliminate political opposition while they accumulated vast amounts of Nicaragua's agrarian and industrial resources. Military and economic assistance from the US helped maintain the Somozas in power until 1979, when economic problems and world outcry against human rights abuses undermined Anastasio Somoza's control, and the Sandinista National Liberation Front took power.

▪ *Ashvamedha -

a horse sacrifice ritual followed by the Śrauta tradition of Vedic religion. It was used by ancient Indian kings to prove their imperial sovereignty: a horse accompanied by the king's warriors would be released to wander for a period of one year. In the territory traversed by the horse, any rival could dispute the king's authority by challenging the warriors accompanying it. After one year, if no enemy had managed to kill or capture the horse, the animal would be guided back to the king's capital. It would be then sacrificed, and the king would be declared as an undisputed sovereign.

• *Rajputs -

a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Rajput covers various patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. The Rajputs claim to be Kshatriyas (the second highest caste, after Brahmin) or descendants of Kshatriyas, but their actual status varies greatly, ranging from princely lineages to common cultivators. Traditionally, the kshatriya constituted the ruling and military class. Their role was to protect their interests by fighting in wartime and governing in peacetime. The first major Rajput kingdom was the Sisodia-ruled kingdom of Mewar in Rajasthan.

▪ Amritsar massacre (Apr. 13, 1919) -

a massacre of unarmed supporters of Indian self-government by British troops in the city of Amritsar, Punjab. Indian discontent against the British had been mounting as a result of the Rowlatt Act. The massacre in Amritsar are followed the killing, three days before, five Englishmen and the beating of an Englishwoman. Gurkha troops under the command of Brigadier Dyer fired on a crowd gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh, and enclosed park, killing 379 and wounding over 1200. Mounting agitation throughout India followed, and Dyer was given an official, if belated, censure. In 1984, Indian government troops stormed the Golden Temple of Amritsar and killed 400 members of a Sikh separatist group, in revenge for the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

• *Lombard League (1167-1250) -

a medieval alliance formed in 1167 and backed by Pope Alexander III, its purpose was to counter the attempts by the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperors to assert influence over the Kingdom of Italy as a part of the Holy Roman Empire. At its apex, it included most of the cities of Northern Italy, but its membership changed with time. With the death of the third and last Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II, in 1250, it became obsolete and was disbanded. The Lombard League succeeded the Veronese League, and included the cities of Verona, Padua, Venice, Milan, Genoa and many others.

Celt (or Kelt) -

a member of a group of West European peoples, including the pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain and Gaul and their descendents, especially in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man. The Celtic language is a sub-group of the Indo-European language group, divided into two groups, Goidelic (consisting of Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Manx) and Brythonic (consisting of Welsh, Cornish, and Breton). The Celts occupied a large part of Europe in the Iron Age. Their unity is recognizable by common speech in common artistic tradition, but they did not constitute one race or group of tribes ethnologically. The origins of their culture can be traced back to the Bronze Age of the upper Danube in the 13th century B.C., with successive stages represented by the urnfield and Hallstatt cultures. Spreading over western and central Europe from perhaps as early as 900 B.C., they reached the height of their power in the fifth through first centuries B.C. The ancients knew them as fierce fighters and superb horsemen, with savage religious rites conducted by the Druid priesthood. They were farmers, who cultivated fields on a regular basis and had developed off-drawn plows to use in place of manual implements, a revolutionary advance that permanently affected people's way of life. But Celtic political sense was weak and the numerous tribes, continually warring against each other, or crushed between the migratory Germans and the power of Rome, and were ejected or assimilated by the former or conquered outright by the latter.

• Teutonic Knight

a member of a military and religious order whose full title was the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem. Founded in 1190 at Acre, it was made up of nights, priests, and lay brothers and was active in Palestine and Syria, though its members are retreated to Venice when the Crusaders fail to contain the Muslims. The holy Roman Emperor Frederick the second employed the order as missionaries to overcome an convert the pagans beyond the northeastern border of the Empire and in this they were very successful, gaining Prussia in 1229. In 1234, though in practice independent, they declared that they held the lands they had conquered as a fief from the pope. Joining with the Livonian Order, they continued to advance around the Baltic coast, amassing huge territories, but their progress was checked decisively when they were defeated at 10 and buried in 1410 by King Ladislaus of Poland. In 1525, the Grand Master, Albert of Brandenburg, became a Lutheran, resigned his office, and the order was declared secular, and it remained in order under the control of the electors of Brandenburg.

• Knight Templar

a member of a military religious order properly called the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, founded in 1118 by Hugh de Payens, a knight of Champagne in France. He and eight companions vowed to protect pilgrims traveling on the public roads of the holy land (Palestine). At the Council of Troyes (1128) approval was given to their version of the Benedictine rule. They quickly became very influential, attracting many noble members and growing and wealth, acquiring property throughout Christendom. When Jerusalem fell in 1187 they move to Acre together with the Knights Hospitallers and great rivalry and hatred developed between the orders. In 1291 when Acre also fell, they retreated to Cyprus. In Cyprus their great wealth enable them to act as bankers to the nobility of most of Europe and its affluence attracted much hostility, in particular that of Philip IV of France. In 1307 they were charged with heresy and immorality. Though some of the charges may have been true, envy of their wealth seems to have been the reason for their persecution. They were condemned, their wealth confiscated, and the orders suppressed. The Grand Master and many others were burned at the stake.

Knight Hospitaller

a member of a military religious order, formally the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, so called after the dedication of their headquarters in Jerusalem to St. John the Baptist. From 1310 they were known as the Knights of Rhodes, and from 1530 as the Knights of Malta. They began in 1070 with Muslim permission to run a Hospital for sick pilgrims in Jerusalem, and were made in formal order when the city fell in 1099 to the first Crusade. They adopted a black habit bearing a white eight pointed Maltese Cross. Under the first Master their function became primarily military and spread to Western Europe. They fall of the Augustinian rule and were divided into three classes: nights, chaplains, and serving brothers. When they were driven out by Saladin then they went to Acre, only to be expelled a century later when Cyprus became their headquarters. In 1310 they captured the island of Rhodes and retained it till 1522. Given the island of Malta by Emperor Charles V they held it, having thought off the assaults of the Turks, until it finally fell to Napoleon I. By this time the order had lost its former influence. Some members moved to Russia where Paul I was made Grand Master. His death in 1801 led to a period of confusion. The English branch of the order was revived in the 1830s and today he cares for the sick.

• Rosicrucian

a member of certain secret societies who venerated the emblems of the Rose and the cross as symbols of Jesus Christ's resurrection and redemption. Rosicrucians claimed to possess secret wisdom passed down from the ancients, but their origin cannot be dated earlier than the 17th century. The anonymous Account of the Brotherhood published in Germany in 1614 may well have launched the movement. It narrated the tale of a mythical German knight of the 15th century, Christian Rosenkreutz, who traveled extensively to learn the wisdom of the East, and then founded the secret order. Robert Fludd subsequently helped to spread Rosicrucian ideas. In later centuries many new societies were founded under this name.

• Maori -

a member of the aboriginal people of New Zealand. Having arrived their first as part of a wave of migration from Tahiti, probably in the ninth century, by 1200 they establish settlements in various parts of the islands. The Maoris ceded all their rights and powers of sovereignty to the British crown in 1840 with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Maori Wars were fought intermittently in 1845-48 and 1860-72 between Maoris and the colonial government of New Zealand over the enforced sale of Maori lands to Europeans. In 1986 the Maoris numbered 404,775. In 1994 and 1995 the New Zealand government agreed to pay compensation to two tribal groups whose land had been seized illegally by settlers and to return traditional Maori lands in the government's possession. Many more Maori claims to land are under consideration.

• boyar -

a member of the highest non-princely class of medieval Russian society. In the 10th to 12th centuries the boyars formed the senior levels of the princes' retinues. They received large grants of land and exercised considerable independent power until the grand princes of Muscovy consolidated their own power, curbing boyar independence. Ivan the Terrible reduced their power and Peter I eventually abolished the rank and title.

• Druid -

a member of the ruling caste of the Gallic Celts. Knowledge of the Druids is derived chiefly from the hostile accounts of them in the Roman authors Julius Caesar and Tacitus. Cesar reports that they exercise judicial and priestly functions, worshipped in groves (clearings in forests), and cut and mistletoe from the oak tree (sacred to them) with a golden sickle. The religion was stamped out by the Romans to prevent its resistance to Roman rule.

• Mau Mau -

a militant nationalist movement in Kenya. Its origins can be traced back to the Kikuyu Central Association, founded in 1920, and it was initially confined to the area of the white highlands which Kikuyu people regarded as having been stolen from them. It imposed fierce posts on its followers. It was anti-Christian as well as anti-European. From 1952 it became more nationalist and aim and indulge in a campaign of violence, killing some 11,000 black Africans who were opposed to its brutalities and some 30 Europeans. Jomo Kenyatta was jailed as an allege Mao Mao leader in 1953. In a well organized counterinsurgency campaign the British placed more than 20,000 Kikuyu in detention camps Widespread political and social reforms followed, leading to Kenyan independence in 1963.

• *Winter War (1939-1940) -

a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland in November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty in 1940. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organization. The conflict began after the Soviets sought to obtain parts of Finnish territory, demanding among other concessions that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons—primarily the protection of Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. Finland refused, and the USSR invaded the country. Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded territory representing 11 percent of its land area and 30 percent of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country's international reputation suffered. Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and the USSR received substantial territory along Lake Ladoga and in Northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation. The Battle of Kollaa was a famous battle, lasting until the end of the war. A memorable quote, "Kollaa holds" (Finnish: Kollaa kestää) became a legendary motto among the Finns. Further contributing to the legend of Kollaa was the sniper Simo Häyhä, dubbed "the White Death" by Soviets and credited with between 505 and 542 kills during the war, the highest recorded number of sniper kills in any major war (259 were killed using a sniper rifle and the rest with machine gun).

o Alesia, Siege of (52 B.C.) -

a military engagement in the Gallic Wars that took place in September, 52 BC in modern-day France, around the Gallic oppidum (fortified settlement) of Alesia, a major centre of the Mandubii tribe. It was fought by the army of Julius Caesar against a confederation of Gallic tribes united under the leadership of Vercingetorix of the Arverni. It was the last major engagement between Gauls and Romans, and is considered one of Caesar's greatest military achievements and a classic example of siege warfare and investment. The battle of Alesia marked the end of Gallic independence in France and Belgium.

▪ Benedictine -

a monk or nun of an order following the rule of St. Benedict. From the original Benedictine foundations at Subiaco and Monte Cassino in Italy the number of monastic houses in Europe grew to many thousands. He order reached its peak of prestige and influence in the 10th 11th centuries, with the Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy its most prestigious foundation. The basic concept of Benedictine monasticism was that it should encourage a way of life separated from the world, within which monks could achieve a life devoted to prayer.

Toltecs -

a northern Mexican tribe, who established a military state between the 10th and 12th centuries at Tula, about 80 km north of modern Mexico City. They played an important part in the downfall of the city of Teotihuacán and were themselves overrun in the mid-12th century by nomadic Chichimec tribes from the north. One of their kings was Topiltzin-Quetzalcoatl, a religious leader who in their legendary history was driven from Tula by a military faction and sailed in east into the Gulf of Mexico, vowing to return one day.

▪ Papal States -

a part of central Italy held between 756 and 1870 by the Catholic Church, corresponding to the modern regions of Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Umbria, and Latium. Taken from the Lombards by the Frankish king Pepin III, the states were given to the papacy as a strategy to undermine Lombard expansionism. Greatly extended by Pope Innocent III in the early 13th century and by Pope Julius II in the 16th century, they were incorporated into the newly unified Italy in 1860 and 1870. Their annexation to Italy deprived the papacy of its temporal powers until the Lateran Treaty of 1929 recognized the sovereignty of the Vatican City.

Kurds -

a people who have maintained a distinct culture for over 3000 years despite never having been united under a single ruler. An Islamic past oral people the Kurds inhabit an extensive plateau in mountainous region of the Middle East, South of the Caucasus, including large parts of Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran, eastern Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The creation of a separate state of Kurdistan was proposed by the Allies after World War I, but this was abandoned in 1923 when Turkey reasserted its territorial authority in the region. The Kurds have suffered persecution in Turkey and Iraq.

• Magyars -

a people who speak a Finno-Ulgric language and whose ancestors came from an area around the river Volga in Russia. Under Prince Arpad, they entered what became of Hungary in the ninth century. They harassed the German kingdom but were finally defeated and repulsed by Otto I at the Battle of Lechfeld. Pope Sylvester crowned Stephen as the first king of their country in 1000 and he established unity and introduced Christianity.

Mexican Revolution (1910-40) -

a period of political and social turmoil in Mexico. The roots of the revolution can be traced to the demographic, economic, and social changes that occur during the rule of President Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911). The regime became increasingly centralized and authoritarian, favoring Mexico's traditional and newly emerging elite, but failing to incorporate growing urban middle class and labor groups into national politics. In 1910 Francisco Madero, the leader of the anti-reelectionist movement, received an enthusiastic response to his call to arms to overthrow the dictator. Although Diaz resigned in May 1911 and Madero was elected president, he failed to satisfy either his radical supporters or his Porfirian enemies, and was assassinated in a counterrevolutionary coup led by General Huerta in 1913. Wear a tie was defeated by an arms embargo, diplomatic hostility from the US, and a coalition of revolutionary factions led by Zapata, Pancho Villa, Carranza, and Obregon. The victorious revolutionary split into constitutionalists (Carranza and Obregon), who sought to reform the 1857 Liberal Constitution, and Conventionists (Zapata and Villa) who wished to implement the radical proposals of the convention of Aguascalientes (1914). The civil war which ensued was protracted and bitter. In February 1917 the reformed constitution was promulgated. However, the document was largely ignored, and Carranza's procrastination prompted his overthrow and assassination in 1920. Mexico's new revolutionary leaders faced the difficult task of economic regeneration and the reconstitution of central political authority, but were hampered by strong opposition from the Catholic Church. Tension culminated in the so-called war of the Cristeros (1928-30), in which thousands of Christian peasants arose in protest against the new "godless" state, and were finally defeated at the Battle of Reforma (1930). When President Avila Camacho (1940-46) was elected, a period of consolidation and re-conciliation began, marking the end of the revolution.

• Risorgimento (Italian, 'resurrection' or 'rebirth') (c.1831-61) -

a period of political unrest in Italy, during which the united kingdom of Italy emerged. Much of Italy had experienced liberal reforms and an end to fuel an ecclesiastical privilege during the Napoleonic wars. The restoration of repressive regimes led to uprisings in Naples and Piedmont (1821), and in Bologna (1831), then part of the Papal States. Following the French July Revolution in 1830, Italian nationalists began to support Mazzini and the Young Italy movement. In this they were encouraged by the liberal Charles Albert, who succeeded to the throne of Sardinia, and became ruler of Piedmont in 1831. In 1847 Count Cavour started a newspaper, Il Risorgimento; this had a considerable influence on Charles Albert, who in 1848 tried to drive the Austrians out of Lombardy and Venetia. He was defeated at Custozza (1848) and Novara (1849) and a dicated. He was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel II. During the revolutions of 1848 Republicans held power briefly in Rome, Florence, Turin, and Venice and hope to create a Republic of Italy, but were also defeated. Under the guidance of Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont from 1852, the French Emperor Napoleon III was encouraged to ally with Piedmont, in return for promises of Nice and a part of the Alpine region of Savoy, and Austria was defeated in the battles of Magenta and Solferino in 1859. Austria evacuated Lombardy and much of central Italy. Garibaldi liberated Sicily, marched north and almost reached Rome. Plebiscites were held and resulted in a vote to accept Victor Emmanuel II as first king of Italy (1861).

▪ antipope -

a person who claims and exercises the office of Pope (papacy) in opposition to the true hope of the time. There have been about 35 anti-popes in the history of the Catholic Church, the last being Felix the fifth (1439-49). There have been two main causes. First, a disputed election, in which there was disagreement among the electors or other interested parties as to which person was elected pope. Secondly, the desire of various Holy Roman Emperors to have a more pliable person as pope, and their setting up of antipopes for this purpose. In some cases, especially during the Great Schism of 1378-1417, it was very difficult to say which person was the true Pope and which was the antipope.

• Nobunaga, Oda (1534-1582) -

a powerful samurai daimyo warlord of Japan in the late 16th century who initiated the unification of Japan near the end of the Warring States period. He lived a life of continuous military conquest, eventually conquering a third of Japan before his death in a 1582 coup. His successors were Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal Oda supporter who was the first to unify all of Japan and was thus the first ruler of the whole country since the Ōnin War, and later Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was to consolidate his rule under a shogunate, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Nobunaga is remembered in Japan as one of the most brutal figures of the Warring States period and was recognized as one of Japan's greatest rulers. Nobunaga was the first of three unifiers during the Warring States period, followed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Oda Nobunaga was well on his way to the complete conquest and unification of Japan when Akechi Mitsuhide, one of his generals, forced Nobunaga to commit suicide in Honnō-ji in Kyoto. Akechi declared himself master over Nobunaga's domains, but was quickly defeated by Hideyoshi.

• Hideyoshi, Toyotomi (1536-1598) -

a preeminent daimyo, warrior, general, samurai, and politician of the Sengoku period who is regarded as Japan's second "great unifier". He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga (the 1st unifier), and brought an end to the Warring States period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle. After his death, his young son Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

▪ Black Hole of Calcutta -

a prison room at Fort William, Calcutta, India, so called after the alleged suffocation there in 1756 of some English prisoners. They had been incarcerated by the nawab, Siraj ud-Daula, in retaliation for extending the fort against previous agreements. The incident has an important place in British imperial mythology, for British accounts grossly exaggerated both the smallness of the room and the number of prisoners, thus suggesting an act of barbarism on the nawab's part.

• patrician -

a privilege to landed aristocrat early republican Rome. The patricians (or 'fathers') gathered after the expulsion of Tarquin to guide the state. Supported by revered tradition they were hereditary members of the Roman Senate. They monopolize all magistracies and priesthoods but during the 'struggle of the Orders' with the plebeians they were forced to share power with them - in 367 B.C. the consulship was open to plebeians. Therefore a 'plebeian nobility' arose, which together with the patricians form the ruling class. Their ranks were thin and their influence waned in the late Republic but the ancient names still carried prestige.

• centurion -

a professional middle-ranking officer of the Roman army. The title means "leader of a hundred". The rigorous discipline, leadership, and experience of the century and made them a vital factor in the success of the professional army.

Iran Hostage Crisis (Nov. 4 1979-Jan. 20 1981) -

a prolonged crisis between Iran and the USA. In the aftermath of Iran's Islamic revolution, followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini alleged US complicity in military plots to restore the Shah, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and seized the US Embassy in Iran, taking 66 US citizens hostage. All efforts of President Carter to free the hostages failed, including economic measures an abortive rescue bid by US helicopters in April 1980. The crisis dragged on until January 20, 1981, when Algeria successfully mediated, and the hostages were freed. It seriously weakened Carter's bid for presidential reelection in November 1980, and he lost to Ronald Reagan.

• Hamaguri Gate Rebellion (Kinmon Incident) (1864) -

a rebellion against the Tokugawa Shogunate that took place on August 20, 1864, at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. It reflected widespread discontent among pro-imperial and anti-foreigner groups, who rebelled under the Sonnō Jōi slogan. Sonnō Jōi had been promulgated by the Emperor Kōmei as the "Order to expel barbarians" in March 1863, and the rebels sought to take control of the Emperor to accomplish the restoration of the Imperial household to political supremacy. During the bloody crushing of the rebellion, the leading Chōshū clan was held responsible for its instigation.

• Rubicon -

a small stream in northeastern Italy near San Marino that flows into the Adriatic, marking the ancient boundary between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul. By taking his army across it (i.e. outside his own province) and 49 B.C. Julius Caesar committed himself to war against the Senate and Pompey.

• Counter-Reformation -

a revival in the Roman Catholic Church between the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries. It had its origins in reform movements which were independent of the Protestant reformation, but it increasingly became identified with, and took its name from, efforts to 'counter' the Protestant Reformation. There were three main ecclesiastical aspects. First a reformed papacy, with a succession of popes who had a notably more spiritual outlook than their immediate predecessors, and a number of reforms in the church's central government initiated by them. Secondly, the foundation of new religious orders, notably the Oratorians and in 1540 the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and the reform of older orders, notably the Capuchin reform of the Franciscans. Thirdly, the Council of Trent (1545-63), which defined and clarified Catholic doctrine on most points in dispute with Protestants and instituted important moral and disciplinary reforms within the Catholic Church, including the provision of a better education for the clergy through theological colleges called seminaries. All this led to the flowering of Catholic spirituality at the popular level, but also to an increasingly anti-Protestant mentality. The movement became political through its links with Catholic rulers, notably Philip II of Spain, who sought to reestablish Catholicism by force. The stalemate between Catholics and Protestants was effectively recognized by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which brought to an end the Thirty Years War and in a sense concluded the Counter-Reformation period.

• Sforza family -

a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan from the previously ruling Visconti family in the mid-15th century and lost it to the Spanish Habsburgs about a century later. The family governed by force, ruse, and power politics, similar to the Medici in Florence. Under their rule the city-state flourished and expanded. Muzio Attendolo (1369-1424), called Sforza (from sforzare, to exert or force), founded the dynasty. His son Francesco I Sforza ruled Milan, having acquired the title of Duke of Milan (1450-1466) after the extinction of the Visconti family in 1447. The Sforzas were briefly aligned with the Borgias through the marriage of Giovanni Sforza to Lucrezia Borgia, but this marriage was later annulled. In 1499, in the course of the Italian Wars, the army of Louis XII of France took Milan from Ludovico Sforza (known as Ludovico il Moro, famous for taking Leonardo da Vinci into his service).After Imperial German troops drove out the French, Maximilian Sforza, son of Ludovico, became Duke of Milan (1512-1515) until the French returned under Francis I of France and imprisoned him.

▪ Crusades -

a series of expeditions from the 11th to 14th centuries to secure Christian rule over the Muslim-controlled holy places of Palestine. The wealthy and powerful orders of Knights Hospitallers and Knights Templar were created by the Crusades.

• Palestine -

a territory in the Middle East on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, also called a holy land because of its links with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It has seen many changes of frontier and status in the course of history, and contains several places sacred to Christians, Jews, and Muslims. In biblical times Palestine comprised the kingdoms of Israel and Judaea. The land was controlled at various times by the Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, and Roman empires before being conquered by the Muslims in 634A.D It remained in Muslim hands, except for a brief period during the Crusades (1098-1197), until World War I, being part of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1917, when Turkish and German forces were defeated at the Battle of Megiddo. The name 'Palestine' was used as the official political title for the land west of the Jordan River mandated to Britain in 1920. Jewish immigration was encouraged by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and increased greatly in 1948 when the state of Israel was established. The name Palestine continues to be used, however, to describe a geographical entity, particularly in the context of the struggle for a territory and political rights of Palestinian Arabs displaced when Israel was established.

• Kanagawa, Treaty of (1854) -

a treaty between Japan and the US. After three years of negotiation, the US Commodore Perry came to an agreement with the Tokugawa shogunate, opening two ports to US vessels, allowing the appointment of a consul, and guaranteeing better treatment for shipwrecked sailors. The Treaty of Kanagawa was followed within two years by similar agreements with Britain, Russia, and the Netherlands, and in 1858 by the more wide-ranging Treaty of Edo with the US, and marked the beginning of regular political and economic intercourse between Japan and the Western nations.

• Lateran Treaties (1929) -

agreements between Mussolini's government and Pius XI to regularize relations between the Vatican and the Italian government, strained since 1870 when the Papal States have been incorporated into united Italy. By a treaty (concordat) and financial convention the Vatican City was recognized as a fully independent state under papal sovereignty. The concordat recognized Roman Catholicism as the sole religion of the state. The Vatican received in cash and securities a large sum in settlement of claims against the state.

▪ *Donatism (4th to 6th centuries AD

also called the Donatist controversy, it was a schism in the Church of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries AD that was named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. The Roman governor of North Africa, lenient to the large Christian minority under his rule throughout the persecutions, was satisfied when Christians handed over their scriptures as a token repudiation of faith. When the persecution ended, Christians who did so were called traditors—"those who handed (the holy things) over"—by their critics (who were mainly from the poorer classes). The Donatists were rigorists; the church must be a church of "saints" (not "sinners"), and sacraments administered by traditors were invalid. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to the non- Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists. Constantine's efforts to unite the church and the Donatists failed, and by 321 he asked the bishops to show moderation and patience to the sect in an open letter.

• *Grunwald, Battle of (1410) -

also called the First Battle of Tannenberg, it was a battle during the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War in which an alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania decisively defeated the German-Prussian Teutonic Knights. Most of the Teutonic Knights' leadership were killed or taken prisoner, and the Teutonic Knights were never able to recover their former power after this battle.

• Sepoy Rebellion (1857) -

also called the Indian Rebellion of 1857, it was an uprising in India against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. It began in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the Company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 miles northeast of Delhi (sepoy was formerly the designation given to an Indian soldier - the British East India Company recruited largely Indian troops, the lowest ranking being the sepoys). The rebellion was fed by resentment against British rule, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, treatment of some rich landowners and princes, and skepticism about the improvements brought about by British rule.

• *Crisis of the Third Century (AD 235-284

also known as Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, it was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of barbarian invasions and migrations into the Roman territory, civil wars, peasant rebellions, political instability (with multiple usurpers competing for power), Roman reliance on (and growing influence of) barbarian mercenaries known as foederati and commanders nominally working for Rome (but increasingly independent), plague, debasement of currency, and economic depression. The crisis began with the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander by his own troops in 235, ending the Severan dynasty. These continuing problems were addressed by the radical reforms of Diocletian, who broke the cycle of usurpation. He began by sharing his rule with a colleague, then formally established the Tetrarchy of four co-emperors in 293. Historians regard this as the end of the crisis period.

• *Tyrian purple -

also known as Tyrian red, it is a natural dye produced by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, rock snails originally known by the name Murex. The Phoenicians were famous for exporting Tyrian purple. In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labor, and as a result, the dye was highly valued. The dye was greatly prized in antiquity because the color did not easily fade, but instead became brighter with weathering and sunlight. Its significance is such that the name Phoenicia means 'land of purple.' It came in various shades, the most prized being that of "blackish clotted blood". The most senior Roman magistrates wore a toga praetexta, a white toga edged with a stripe of Tyrian purple. The even more sumptuous toga picta, solid Tyrian purple with a gold stripe, was worn by generals celebrating a Roman triumph. The toga picta was later worn by the Roman emperors, to the point that 'purple' is sometimes used as a metonym for the office (e.g. the phrase 'donned the purple' means 'became emperor').

• Chalons, Battle of (451

also known as the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, it was a battle between a Roman/Visigoth coalition led by Roman general Aetius and the Huns, commanded by their king Attila the Hun. It was one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire, although Germanic foederati composed the majority of the coalition army. Whether the battle was strategically conclusive is disputed: the Romans possibly stopped the Huns' attempt to establish vassals in Roman Gaul. However, the Huns successfully looted and pillaged much o Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. The Hunnic Empire was later dismantled by a coalition of their Germanic vassals at the Battle of Nedao in 454.

• *Operation Blue Star (1984) -

an Indian military operation ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in order to establish control over the Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar, Punjab, and remove militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his militant armed followers from the complex buildings. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was invited to the Harmandir Sahib, and later on made it his headquarters in December 1983. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, who were her two Sikh bodyguards, in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Subsequently, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the ensuing anti-Sikh riots in 1984.

• Medici, Catherine de (1519-1589) -

an Italian noblewoman who was Queen of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II. As the mother of three sons who became kings of France during her lifetime she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France. For a time she ruled France as its regent. In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Caterina married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. Henry's death thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail fifteen-year-old King Francis II. When he died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life.

• *Sejanus (20 BC - 31 AD) -

an ambitious soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, of which he was commander from AD 14 until his death in AD 31. While the Praetorian Guard was formally established under Emperor Augustus, Sejanus introduced a number of reforms which saw the unit evolve beyond a mere bodyguard, into a powerful and influential branch of the government involved in public security, civil administration and ultimately political intercession. During the 20s, Sejanus gradually accumulated power by consolidating his influence over Tiberius and eliminating potential political opponents, including the emperor's son Drusus Julius Caesar. When Tiberius withdrew to Capri in AD 26, Sejanus was left in control of the administration of the empire. For a time, the most influential and feared citizen of Rome, Sejanus suddenly fell from power in AD 31, the year his career culminated with the consulship. Amidst suspicions of conspiracy against Tiberius, Sejanus was arrested and executed, along with his followers.

• Gupta Empire (4th through 6th centuries AD) -

an ancient Indian empire, founded by Maharaja Sri Gupta, which existed at its zenith from approximately 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. This period is called the Golden Age of India and was marked by extensive inventions and discoveries in science, technology, engineering, art, dialectic, literature, logic, mathematics, astronomy, religion, and philosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as Hindu culture. The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent architecture, sculptures and paintings. The Gupta period produced scholars such as the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa, the mathematicians/astronomers Aryabhata and Varahamihira, and the philosopher Vatsyayana, who wrote the Kama Sutra (Sanskrit work on human sexual behavior). Chandragupta I was a major king of the empire,and many consider him to be the founder of the Gupta Empire. He is known for greatly expanding the empire through marriage alliances.

• Jericho -

an ancient city, now in the Palestinian-administered west bank of the River Jordan. A well watered away sits near the Jordan river crossing at the head of the Dead Sea, it was a strategic importance, located at the junction of the trade routes of antiquity. It was occupied from around 9000 B.C. and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Traces of a hunting society that developed into a settled agricultural community have been found. The principal mound, one of the best known of all near Eastern tells (amount of rubbish), accumulated over 15 m of deposit, even though the later occupation levels, from 2000 to 500 B.C., have been swept off the summit by erosion. The most interesting layers of the pre-pottery Neolithic period around 7000 B.C., when Jericho was already a walled settlement of some 10 acres. Little remains of the late Bronze Age period, the probable date of its destruction by Joshua recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible. Modern Jericho was granted Palestinian self rule in 1994, as part of the 1993 peace agreement between Israel and the PLO.

▪ Gaul -

an ancient region of Europe, corresponding to modern France, Belgium, the South and Netherlands, southwest Germany, and northern Italy. The area was settled by groups of Celts, who had begun migration across the Rhine in 900 B.C., spreading further south beyond the Alps from 400 B.C. onwards and ousting the Etruscans. The area south of the Alps was conquered in 222 B.C. by the Romans, who called it Cisalpine Gaul. The area north of the Alps, known to the Romans as Transalpine Gaul, was taken by Julius Caesar between 58 and 51 B.C., remaining under Roman rule until the fifth century A.D. Within Transalpine Gaul and the southern province, parts of which had fallen to the Romans in the previous century, became known as the Gallia Narbonensis.

• Trent, Council of (1545-63) -

an ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, which met in three sessions at the city of Trento in northern Italy. It defined the doctrines of the church in opposition to those of the Reformation, reformed discipline, and strengthened the authority of the papacy. Its first session (1545-47), produced a ruling against Luther's doctrine of justification by faith alone. The brief second session (1551-52) included a rejection of the Lutheran and Zwinglian positions on the Eucharist. By the third session (1562-63), any lingering hopes of reconciliation with the Protestants had disappeared. Various works recommended or initiated by the Council were handed over to the pope for completion, these include the revision of the Vulgate version of the Bible (finally completed in 1592). The Council thus provided the foundation for a revitalized Roman Catholic Church in the Counter-Reformation.

• Mongol Empire -

an empire founded by Genghis Khan early in the 13th century. Loosely related nomadic tribesmen who lived in felt huts (yurts) and subsisted on meat and milk, and fermented mare's milk (koumiss), were united for the first time under his leadership. From Mongolia they swept out to Asia and Eastern Europe. Splendid horse men and archers, their onslaught was difficult to resist. Khakhans (Great Khans) elected from among Genghis's descendents continued his conquests. Central Russia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania were overrun, but following the death of the Khakhan Ogodei in 1241 the Mongols withdrew to attend an election in their capital, Karakorum, in Mongolia. However the Golden Horde remained in control of Russia. In 1245 and advanced towards Mesopotamia began. In 1258 Hulagu, Genghis's grandson, sacked Baghdad, but was defeated by the Mamelukes at Ain Jalut (1260). The conquest of China, begun under Genghis, was completed 65 years later under Kublai Khan. After Kublai moved the capital to Khanbaligh (now Beijing), it became increasingly difficult to maintain the Khakhan's authority over remote parts of the empire. Quarrels over succession, corrupt and incompetent administration, and revolts accelerated disintegration. After 1300 the Khanates were fully independent. By 1368 the Mongols were driven out of China and in 1372 a Chinese army burned Karakorum.

• Expedition of the Thousand (1860-61) -

an event of the Italian Risorgimento that took place in 1860. A corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi sailed from Quarto, near Genoa and landed in Marsala, Sicily in order to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by the Bourbons. In March 1860, exile Rosolino Pilo exhorted Giuseppe Garibaldi to take charge of an expedition to liberate Southern Italy from Bourbon rule. At first, Garibaldi was against it, but eventually agreed. By May 1860, Garibaldi had collected 1,089 volunteers for his expedition to Sicily. The 1,089 volunteers were poorly armed with dated muskets and were dressed in a minimalist uniform, consisting of a red shirt and grey trousers, and they were thus known as the Redshirts. The sea venture was the only desired action that was jointly decided by the "four fathers of the nation" Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel II, and Camillo Cavour, pursuing divergent goals. However, the Expedition was instigated by Francesco Crispi, who utilized his political influence to bolster the Italian unification project. In 1860 Garibaldi, already the most famous Italian revolutionary leader, was in Genoa planning an expedition against Sicily and Naples, with the covert support of the United Kingdom. Sicilian leaders, among them Francesco Crispi, were discontented with Neapolitan rule over the island. On 25 June 1860, King Francis II of the Two Sicilies had issued a constitution. However, this late attempt to conciliate his moderate subjects failed to rouse them to defend the regime, while liberals and revolutionaries were eager to welcome Garibaldi. After defeating the Neapolitans on Sicily, Garibaldi crossed the Strait of Messina and landed in Calabria of mainland Italy. King Francis II was thus forced to abandon Naples and entrench himself in the formidable fortress of Gaeta, while a last stand was set up on the Volturno River, north of Naples. On 7 September Garibaldi took possession of Naples with little harm (he entered the city by train), hailed as a liberator by the population.

• Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) -

an important conflict over control of Manchuria and Korea. The Japanese launched a surprise attack on Russian warships at anchor in the naval base at Port Arthur (now Lushun), Manchuria, without declaring war, after Russia had reneged on its agreement to withdraw its troops from Manchuria. Port Arthur fell to the Japanese, as did moped in, the capital of Manchuria. The Russian Baltic fleet sailed 28,000 km (18,000 miles) from its base to the East China Sea, only to be destroyed in the Tsushima Straits by the Japanese fleet led by Admiral Togo Heihashiro. This was the first Japanese defeat of a Western power both on land and at sea. The war was ended by the Treaty of Portsmouth. For Russia, it was a humiliating defeat, which contributed to the Russian Revolution of 1905.

▪ *Aspromonte, Battle of (1862) -

an inconclusive episode of the Italian unification process. The battle is named after the mountain Aspromonte in southern Italy, which is near the place where the battle occurred. In the battle, the Royal Italian Army defeated Giuseppe Garibaldi's army of volunteers, who were marching from Sicily towards Rome, with the intent of annexing it into the Kingdom of Italy. In the battle, which took place a few kilometers from Gambarie, Garibaldi was wounded and taken as prisoner. Garibaldi's army marched for three days; on 28 August 1862, the leading regiment, led by Garibaldi, camped near Gambarie, where the rest of his army was expected to arrive in a few days. On 29 August, before Garibaldi's army was reunited, Bersaglieri from the Royal Army reached Garibaldi's camp and attacked. Garibaldi ordered his army not to open fire "on our brothers", and some Bersaglieri changed sides during the battle, joining Garibaldi's volunteers. However, despite Garibaldi's order, one wing of his regiment mounted a counter-attack against the Bersaglieri. During the altercation, two bullets hit Garibaldi's hip and malleolus. A cease-fire was declared shortly thereafter, and Garibaldi surrendered.

• Solidarity -

an independent trade-union movement in Poland. It emerged after a wave of strikes at Gdansk in 1980 organized by the Free Union of the Baltic Coast. Demands included the right to a trade union independent of Communist Party control. Under its leader Lech Walesa membership rose rapidly, as Poles began to demand political as well as economic concessions. In 1981 the Prime Minister, General Jaruzelski, proclaimed martial law and arrested the solid Solidarity leaders, outlawing the movement in 1982. In 1989 the government, under pressur from both left and right, sponsored roundtable talks from which Solidarity emerged as the dominant political organization. In 1990 Walesa was elected President of the Republic; but ideological differences soon emerged and the movement broke up into a number of separate political parties, only one, a minority party, retaining the name Solidarity.

• Bhopal -

an industrial city in central India in which the 1984 leakage of poisonous gas from a U.S.-owned pesticide factory (the company was Union Carbide, which has been acquired since then by Dow Chemical) caused the death of about 2500 people and thousands suffered injury in the world's worst industrial disaster.

▪ Carrhae, Battle of (53 BC

battle between the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire near the town of Carrhae in Upper Mesopotamia (modern Turkey). The Parthian general Surena decisively defeated a numerically superior Roman invasion force under the command of Crassus. It is commonly seen as one of the earliest and most important battles between the Roman and Parthian empires and one of the most crushing defeats in Roman history.

• Mafia (Italian, 'boldness') -

an international secret society originating in Sicily. In its modern form the Mafia can be said to data from the period 1806-15, when, under British pressure, attempts were made to break up the huge estates of the Sicilian feudal aristocracy. In the 1880s many Sicilians emigrated to the US and the Mafia, as Cosa Nostra ('our business'), became established in New York and Chicago. In the 1920s the fascist government in Italy brought Mafia leaders to trial, but some escape to the US, where there were active during the Prohibition era. After World War II, notably after the opening up of the former Soviet bloc, Mafia activities spread worldwide, increasingly centered on the drug trade. The Mafia is also involved in organized prostitution, fraud, theft, and kidnapping. In the US, the Mafia is notable also for its infiltration of legitimate businesses. For example, in transport, construction, gambling, and fast food, and its use of these businesses for money laundering. Mafia members are required to live by a code of silence and eschew all cooperation with legitimate authorities; any violation of this code is severely punished.

• forum -

an open public space in a town or city of the Roman Empire. From the sixth century B.C., the Roman forum was a place for civic meetings and religious and military ceremonials. The Curia (Senate House) and Comitia were situated there, together with markets, libraries, and courts. War trophies were put on display, the most famous being the ram-beaks ("rostra") of Carthaginian galleys taken in the first Punic war, which decorated the public platform or "rostra" outside the Senate House. Other forums were built in Rome by early emperors including Augustus, Vespasian, and Trajan. The model was followed in virtually every town of the Roman Empire.

• Iron Curtain -

and the colloquial name for the former frontier between East European countries dependent on the former Soviet Union and Western non-communist countries. Its application to countries within the Soviet sphere of influence originated in a leading article by Goebbels in Das Reich, February 1945. This was reported in British newspapers, and the phrase was first used by Churchill: 'I view with profound misgivings the descent of an Iron Curtain between us and everything to the eastward.' It was generally agreed to have gone by 1990, with the disintegration of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Union itself in 1991.

• Meiji Restoration -

and the restoration of imperial rule in Japan, often defined as the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, but sometimes considered a scratch from that day to the formal institution of the new Meiji constitution in 1889. The Tokugawa shogunate was faced by increasingly severe internal problems in the first half of the 19th century, and its failure to deal effectively with foreign incursions into Japanese territory resulted in the uniting of opposition forces behind a policy of restoring the Emperor to full power. Faced by a powerful alliance of regional forces, the last show gun formally surrendered his powers to the Meiji emperor Mutsuhito, who resumed formal imperial rule in 1868, moving his capital to Tokyo a year later. Thereafter, the feudal daimyo and samurai systems were quickly dismantled, a Western-style constitution introduced, and a policy of government-sponsored industrial development implemented, which would transform Japan into a centralized modern state.

• Duma -

any elective legislative assembly introduced in Russia by Nicholas II in 1906 in response to popular unrest. Toy caught it by the socialist parties, its efforts to introduce taxation and agrarian reforms were nullified by the reactionary groups at court which persuaded the emperor to dissolve three successive *s. The fourth * (1912-17) refused in imperial decree in 1917 ordering its dissolution and established a provisional government. Three days later it accepted the emperor's abdication, but soon began to disintegrate.

• Semite -

any of the peoples supposed to be descended from Shem, son of Noah, including especially the Jews, Arabs, Assyrians, and Phoenicians.

• Medici, Lorenzo de (1449-92) -

at the age of 20 he became joint ruler of Florence with his brother Giuliano. In 1478 the brothers were the targets of a plot organized by the rival Pazzi family and the pope: Giuliano was killed but Lorenzo survived. His main concern was the promotion of his family, and he was rewarded by seeing his second son Giovanni become Pope Leo X. He was a collector of antiquities and was Michelangelo's first patron.

o *Albritus, Battle of (AD 251

battle between the Roman Empire and a federation of Gothic and Scythian tribesmen under the Goth king Cniva. The Roman army of three legions was soundly defeated, and Roman emperors Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus were both killed in battle. They became the first Roman emperors to be killed by a foreign enemy. It was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Empire against Germanics.

• Milvian Bridge, Battle of the (312

battle between the Roman emperors Constantine I and Maxentius. The battle takes its name from the Milvian Bridge, an important route over the Tiber River. Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy that had been instituted by Diocletian and become sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the battle; his body was later taken from the river and decapitated, and his head was paraded through the streets of Rome. This battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Constantine and his soldiers had a vision sent by the Christian God - this was interpreted as a promise of victory if the sign of the Chi-Rho, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, was painted on the soldiers' shields. The Arch of Constantine, erected in celebration of the victory, attributes Constantine's success to divine intervention.

• *Balaclava, Battle of (1854) -

battle during the Crimean War that was part of the Siege of Sevastopol to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea. In this battle, the Allied forces, including British, French, and Ottoman troops under the British commander Lord Raglan (FitzRoy Somerset) and French commander Francois Canrobert faced the Russians, who were led by General Pavel Liprandi. A final Allied cavalry charge, stemming from a misinterpreted order from Raglan, led to one of the most famous and ill- fated events in British military history, the Charge of the Light Brigade. The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan during the Battle of Balaclava. Lord Raglan had intended to send the Light Brigade to prevent the Russians from removing captured guns from overrun Ottoman Turk positions, however, there was a miscommunication in the chain of command, and they were instead sent on a frontal assault against a well-prepared artillery battery. To the Russians, the battle was a victory and morale boost.

• *Battle on the Ice (1242) -

battle fought between the Republic of Novgorod, led by prince Alexander Nevsky, and the forces of the Livonian Order (of Teutonic Knights) and the Bishopric of Dorpat, led by Hermann of Dorpat. The battle took place on frozen Lake Peipus, and was a significant victory by Nevsky over the crusaders during the Northern Crusades.

• *Legnano, Battle of (1176

battle in which the Lombard League defeated the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, led by Frederick Barbarossa. The Lombard League army was led by Guido da Landriano. The battle was fought near Legnano, Lombardy, in present-day Italy. The battle resulted in the Treaty of Venice between the papacy, Lombard League, and Frederick I Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor. This treaty recognized the temporal rights of the popes over the city of Rome, but the city did not surrender to the pope and forced him to leave in 1179. Frederick also made peace with William II of Sicily. Negotiations continued until 1183, when the emperor finally recognized the independence of the Lombard cities in the Peace of Constance.

*Port Arthur, Battle of (1904) -

battle that marked the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War. It began with a surprise night attack by a squadron of Japanese destroyers on the neutral Russian fleet anchored at Port Arthur, Manchuria, and continued with an engagement the following morning; further skirmishing off Port Arthur would continue until May 1904. The attack damaged 7 Russian ships but ended inconclusively, though the war resulted in a decisive Japanese victory.

*Pastry War (1838) -

began in November 1838 with the naval blockade of some Mexican ports and the capture of the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa in Veracruz by French forces sent by King Louis-Philippe. It ended several months later in March 1839 with a British-brokered peace. The intervention followed many claims by French nationals of losses due to unrest in Mexico. In a complaint to King Louis-Philippe, a French pastry chef known only as Monsieur Remontel claimed that in 1832 Mexican officers looted his shop in Tacubaya (hence the name Pastry War). Due to this and other complaints by French nationals, prime minister Louis-Mathieu Molé demanded from Mexico the payment of 600,000 pesos (3 million Francs) in damages, an enormous sum for the time, when the typical daily wage in Mexico City was about one peso (8 Mexican reals). When president Anastasio Bustamante made no payment, the King of France ordered a fleet under Rear Admiral Charles Baudin to declare and carry out a blockade of all Mexican ports on the Atlantic coast from Yucatán to the Rio Grande, to bombard the Mexican fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, and to seize the city of Veracruz, which was the most important port on the Gulf coast. French forces captured Veracruz by December 1838 and Mexico declared war on France. Meanwhile, acting without explicit government authority, Antonio López de Santa Anna, known for his military leadership, came out of retirement from his hacienda near Xalapa and surveyed the defenses of Veracruz. He offered his services to the government, which ordered him to fight the French by any means necessary. He led Mexican forces against the French. In a skirmish with the rear guard of the French, Santa Anna was wounded in the leg by French grapeshot. His leg was amputated and buried with full military honors. Exploiting his wounds with eloquent propaganda, Santa Anna catapulted back to power.

• Sekigahara, Battle of (1600) -

decisive battle between the Western Army loyal to Hideyori and Eastern Army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The victory of Ieyasu and the Eastern Army led to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, with Tokugawa Ieyasu as the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

• *Plassey, Battle of (1757) -

decisive victory of the British East India Company, led by Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, and his French allies. The battle consolidated the Company's presence and control over Bengal, which later expanded to cover much of India over the next hundred years. The battle took place at Palashi (Anglicised to Plassey) on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta and south of Murshidabad, then capital of Bengal (now in the West Bengal district of India, which borders Bangladesh). Nawab was an honorific title bestowed by the reigning Mughal emperor to semi-autonomous Muslim rulers of princely states in South Asia). This was a pivotal battle in the control of the Indian subcontinent by the colonial powers, and the revenue gained allowed the British to push the Dutch and French out of south Asia.

• *Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) -

eldest son of Hyder Ali, he succeeded his father as ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore upon his father's death. Like his father, he resisted the advances of the British East India company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Tipu Sultan was killed in the 4th Anglo- Mysore War.

▪ *Borgia family -

family became prominent during the Renaissance in Italy. They were from Valencia, the surname being a toponymic from Borja, then in the kingdom of Aragon, in Spain. The Borgias became prominent in ecclesiastical and political affairs in the 15th and 16th centuries, producing two popes: Alfons de Borja, who ruled as Pope Callixtus III during 1455-1458, and Rodrigo Lanzol Borgia, as Pope Alexander VI, during 1492-1503. Especially during the reign of Alexander VI, they were suspected of many crimes, including adultery, incest, simony, theft bribery, and murder (especially murder by arsenic poisoning). Because of their grasping for power, they made enemies of the Medici, the Sforza, and the Dominican friar Savonarola, among others. They were also patrons of the arts who contributed to the Renaissance. Other prominent Borgias include Cesare Borgia and Lucrezia Borgia

• Cavour, Count (Camillo Benso) (1810-1861

first Prime Minister of Italy. He was a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was the founder of the original Liberal Party and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy.

• Botha, Louis (1862-1919) -

first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa (1910-19). He was one of the most successful Boer leaders in the Boer Wars, he waged guerrilla warfare against the British forces. He played a leading role in drafting the first constitution for the Union in 1909, an became Prime Minister a year later.

• *Afonso I (1106-1185) -

first king of Portugal. He achieved independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia, the County of Portugal, from Galicia's overlord, the King of León, in 1139. Pope Alexander III acknowledged Afonso as King and Portugal as an independent crown with the right to conquer lands from the Moors. This papal blessing secured Portugal as a kingdom. He doubled the area of Portugal with the Reconquista, an objective he pursued until his death, after fighting 46 years of wars against the Moors.

• French Indo-China -

former French colonial empire in Southeast Asia. Having gained early influence in the area through assisting Gia-Long in establishing the Vietnamese empire in the early 19th century, the French colonized the area between the late 1850s and 1890s, using the term 'Indo-China' to designate the final union of their colonies and dependencies within Annam, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Laos, and Tonkin. Nationalist movements aiming particularly at the formation of an independent and united Vietnam sprang up between the wars, and French influence in the area was fatally undermined in the early 1940s by the collaboration of the Vich colonial administration with the Japanese. The Vietminh resistance movement became active during the war; having consolidated a peasant base, it resisted attempts by the French to reassert their control after 1945. French rule ended after the French Indo-China War.

• *Mohács, Battle of (1526) -

fought near Mohács, Kingdom of Hungary, between the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary, led by Louis II, and those of the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent. The Ottoman victory led to the partition of Hungary for several centuries between the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Principality of Transylvania. Further, the death of Louis II as he fled the battle marked the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Hungary and Bohemia, whose dynastic claims passed to the House of Habsburg. The Battle of Mohács marked the end of the Middle Ages in Hungary.

Chaeronea, Battle of (338 B.C.) -

fought near the city of Chaeronea in Boeotia, between the Macedonians led by Philip II of Macedon and an alliance of some of the Greek city-states led by Athens and Thebes. The battle was the culmination of Philip's campaign in Greece (339-338 BC) and resulted in a decisive victory for the Macedonians. The battle has been described as one of the most decisive of the ancient world. The forces of Athens and Thebes were destroyed, and continued resistance was impossible; the war, therefore, came to an abrupt end. Philip was able to impose a settlement upon Greece, which all states accepted, with the exception of Sparta. The League of Corinth, formed as a result, made all participants allies of Macedon and each other, with Philip as the guarantor of the peace. In turn, Philip was voted as strategos (general) for a pan- Hellenic war against the Persian Empire, which he had long planned. However, before he was able to take charge of the campaign, Philip was assassinated, and the kingdom of Macedon and responsibility for the war with Persia passed instead to his son Alexander. Plutarch says that during the battle, Alexander was the "first to break the ranks of the Sacred Band of the Thebans, the elite of the Theban infantry. Plutarch suggests that all 300 of the Sacred Band were killed at the battle, having previously been seen as invincible

• *Tsar Bomba -

he Western nickname for the Soviet RDS-220 hydrogen bomb (code name Ivan or Vanya), the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created. Its test in 1961 remains the most powerful explosive ever detonated. It was also referred to as Kuzma's mother, possibly referring to First secretary Nikita Khrushchev's promise to show the United States a Kuzma's mother (an idiom roughly translating to "We'll show you!") at a 1960 session of United Nations General Assembly. The bomb was detonated over Severny Island, which is part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The energy output of the explosion was about 1⁄4 that of the 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatoa, which produced the loudest sound ever recorded.

• Crassus, Marcus (c.115-53

he defeated Spartacus in 71 B.C., though Pompey claimed credit for the victory. Crassus joined Caesar and Pompey in the First Triumvirate in 60. In 55 he was made consul and given a special command in Syria, where he hoped to regain a military reputation equal to that of his allies by a victory over the Parthians, but after some successes he was defeated and killed.

▪ Babur (1483-1530) -

in the first Mogul Emperor of India (1526-30). He was born in Ferghana, Central Asia, and a princely family of mixed Mongol and Turkish blood. Failure to recover his father's lands caused him to turn reluctantly south east, for India seemed to present the last hope for his ambitions. Defeat of Ibrahim Lodi, the Afghan ruler of Delhi, at the Battle of Panipat in 1526 initiated 200 years of strong Mogul rule in India. Having conquered much of northern India, Babur ruled by force, lacking any civil administration. In addition to his military genius, he possessed a love of learning and wrote his own memoirs.

*Juche

is the national ideology of North Korea. It was developed by North Korea's first leader, Kim Il-sung. It postulates that "man is the master of his destiny", that the Korean masses are to act as the "masters of the revolution and construction" and that by becoming self-reliant and strong a nation can achieve true socialism. Juche is often translated as "self-reliance."

▪ *Gaiseric (c. 400-477 AD

king of the Vandals who established the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. was one of the key players in the troubles of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. During his nearly 50 years of rule, he raised a relatively insignificant Germanic tribe to the status of a major Mediterranean power. After he died, they entered a swift decline and eventual collapse. Succeeding his brother Gunderic at a time when the Vandals were settled in Baetica, Roman Hispania (modern Andalusia, Spain), Gaiseric successfully defended himself against a Suebian attack and transported all his people, around 80,000, to Northern Africa in 428. He might have been invited by the Roman governor Bonifacius, who wished to use the military strength of the Vandals in his struggle against the imperial government. Gaiseric caused great devastation as he moved eastward from the Strait of Gibraltar across Africa. He turned on Bonifacius, defeated his army in 430, and then crushed the joint forces of the Eastern and Western empires that had been sent against him. In 435 Gaiseric concluded a treaty with the Romans under which the Vandals retained Mauretania and part of Numidia as foederati (allies under special treaty) of Rome. In a surprise move in 439, Gaiseric captured Carthage, striking a devastating blow at imperial power. Gaeseric made Carthage his capital. His most famous exploit, however, was the capture and plundering of Rome in 455. Subsequently, the King defeated two major efforts by the Romans to overthrow him, that of the emperor Majorian in 460 or 461 and that led by Basiliscus at the Battle of Cape Bon in 468. After dying in Carthage at the age of 77, Gaiseric was succeeded by his son Huneric.

• *Stanislaw II Augustus (Stanislaw II) (1732-1798) -

last King of Poland and the last monarch of the united Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1764-95). He was romantically involved with Catherine the Great, and with her support he defeated a coalition of nobles to become king. He was powerless, though, when Catherine annexed 1/8 of his land for Russia during the Second Partition of Poland. The Third Partition of Poland in 1795 among Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and the Russian Empire ended the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

o *Ancus Marcius (c. 677-617 BC

legendary fourth king of Rome. His surname of Ancus comes from his crooked arm ('ancus' = 'crooked' in Latin). He expanded Rome's infrastructure, building its first sewer system and aqueducts. He waged war successfully against the Latins, settling a number of them on the Aventine Hill in Rome. He extended Roman territory to the sea, founding the port of Ostia. According to the Roman historian Livy, his first act as king was to order the Pontifex Maximus to copy the text concerning the performance of public ceremonies of religion from the commentaries of Numa Pompilius to be displayed to the public, so that the rites of religion should no longer be neglected or improperly performed.

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• Tsushima Strait, Battle of (1905) -

major naval battle between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. It was naval history's only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets. It was fought in the Tsushima Strait between Korea and southern Japan. In this battle the Japanese fleet under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō destroyed two-thirds of the Russian fleet, under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, which had traveled over 18,000 nautical miles from its base in the Baltic Sea (33,000 km) to reach the Far East.

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• Decembrists -

members of a Russian revolutionary society, the Northern Society. A group of Russian army officers, influenced by French liberal ideas, combined to lead a revolt against the accession of Nicholas I in 1825. Some of their supporters proclaimed their preference for a republic, others for Nicholas's eldest brother Constantine, in the hope that he would be in favor of constitutional reform and modernization. A few Guards regiments in St. Petersburg refused to take an oath of allegiance to Nicholas and marched to the Senate House, where they were met by artillery fire. Betrayed by police spies, five of their leaders were executed, and 120 exiled to Siberia. The Decembrists revolt profoundly affected Russia, leading to increased police terrorism and to the spread of revolutionary societies among the intellectuals.

• Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) -

military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. It began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 in which a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops escalated into a battle. During the Marco Polo Bridge Incident Japanese military demanded permission to enter the Chinese city of Wanping to search for a missing soldier. The Chinese refused. Later in the night, a unit of Japanese infantry attempted to breach Wanping's walled defenses and were repulsed. An ultimatum by the Japanese was issued before they would declare war. The Chinese still refused. Although Private Shimura returned to his unit, by this point both sides were mobilizing, with the Japanese deploying reinforcements and surrounding Wanping. The conflict then escalated further into a full-scale war. China fought Japan, with aid from the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts of World War II. Despite continuing to occupy part of China's territory, Japan eventually surrendered on September 2, 1945, to Allied forces following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria. The remaining Japanese occupation forces (excluding Manchuria) formally surrendered on September 9, 1945, with the following International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened on April 29, 1946. At the outcome of the Cairo Conference of November 22-26, 1943, the Allies of World War II decided to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan by restoring all the territories that Japan annexed from China, including Manchuria, Taiwan/Formosa, and the Pescadores, to China, and to expel Japan from the Korean Peninsula.

*Actium, Battle of (31 B.C.

naval battle in the Ionian Sea, off the promontory of Actium in western Greece, at which Octavian defeated the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra to become ruler of Rome. Octavian's fleet was commanded by Agrippa. Octavian adopted the title of Princeps ("first citizen") after the battle, and some years later was awarded the title of Augustus ("revered") by the Roman Senate. After the naval defeat, Antony's land force, which had been the equal to that Octavian, deserted. Actium was the decisive confrontation of the Final War of the Roman Republic and signaled the beginning of the Roman Empire.

Operation Just Cause (1989-90) -

operation in which U.S. forces deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. President-elect Guillermo Endara was then sworn into office, and the Panamanian Defense Force was dissolved. The operation occurred during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

• praetorian -

originally a bodyguard for a Roman general or 'praetor'. In 27 B.C.E. Augustus established denying cohorts of such troops in and near Rome. They were an elite, better paid than legionaries, serving shorter engagements and with many privileges. They also became 'kingmakers' since their support was essential for gaining high political office. At least four prefects became emperor before Constantine abolished them early in the fourth century.

• kamikaze (Japanes, 'Divine Wind') -

originally the fierce storms that twice saved Japan from Mongol invasion (in 1274 and 1281). In World War II a kamikaze was an aircraft laden with explosives and suicidally crashed by the pilot into an enemy ship. The Japanese naval command resorted to these desperate measures in 1944 in an attempt to halt the Allied advance across the Pacific. At first volunteers were used, but the practice soon became compulsory. Off oaken now in 1945 over 300 kamikaze pilots died in one action.

• Herod (the Great)(c.74-4 B.C) -

ruler of ancient Palestine from 37 to 4 B.C. He built the palace of Masada and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus is thought to have been born during his reign. According to the New Testament (Matthew 2:16), he ordered the massacre of the innocents.

• Xerxes I (or Xerxes the Great) -

ruler of the Achaemenid Persian empire from 486-465 B.C. he personally led the great expedition against Greece, but after watching his fleet being defeated at Salamis in 480 B.C., he withdrew, leaving behind Mardonius under whose command the army was defeated at Plataea in 479. The subsequent activities of the Delian League deprived him of many Greek cities in Asia Minor. The latter part of his reign was marked by intrigues, one of which led to his murder.

▪ *Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767-1799) -

series of 4 wars fought between the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India and the British East India Company, the Maratha Confederacy, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. Mysore was led by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan during these wars. The 4th of these wars resulted in the overthrow of the house of Hyder Ali and Tipu, and the dismantlement of Mysore to the benefit of the East India Company, which won and took control of much of India.

• Politburo -

the highest policymaking committee of the former USSR and its satellites. The Soviet Politburo was founded, together with the Ogburo (Organizational Bureau), in 1917 by the Bolsheviks to provide leadership during the Russian Revolution. Both bureaus were later reformed to control all aspects of Soviet life.

• Kremlin, The -

the Citadel in Moscow, center of administration of the Russian government and formerly of the Soviet Communist government. Covering an area of 28 hectares, its palaces, churches, and monuments are surrounded by a wall 2235 m in length. The building of the Kremlin began in 1156 when Prince Yuri Dolgoruky ordered a wooden fort to be built on Borovitsky Hill. This later became the residents of the Grand Dukes of Moscow and the site where Russian emperors and empresses came to be crowned.

• Ostrogoths -

the Eastern Goths on the northern shores of the Black Sea. They became vassals of the Huns whose westward migration displaced them and under Attila they were defeated by Roman and barbarian Allied armies on the Catalaunian fields, 451A.D. 40 years later Theodoric the Great established a kingdom in Italy. After the murder in 533 of Theodoric's daughter, who was regent of Italy, Justinian's general Belisarius twice invaded and defeated them, and the Ostrogothic kingdom was crushed by Narses in 552.

• *Jai Singh (1688-1743) -

the Hindu Rajput ruler of the kingdom of Amber, he later founded the fortified city of Jaipur and made it his capital. Initially, Jai Singh served as a Mughal vassal. In the later part of his life, Jai Singh broke free from the Mughal hegemony, and to assert his sovereignty, performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice, an ancient rite that had been abandoned for several centuries. He moved his kingdom's capital from Amber to the newly-established city of Jaipur in 1727, and performed two Ashvamedha sacrifices, once in 1734, and again in 1741.

• Hamas -

the Islamic Resistance Movement founded in 1976 by Sheikh Yassin Ahmed, with the aim of creating an Islamic state in the former Palestine. Originally a non-militant organization, it became increasingly militant in the 1990s, launching terrorist attacks on Israeli targets. Opposed to the peace process between Israel and the PLO, which it regarded as a capitulation to Israel, Hamas carried out a number of suicide bombings in Israel in 1996, as a result of which many Israelis were killed and hawkish elements in Israeli politics were encouraged to vote out the peace- seeking Shimon Peres in favor of the right-wing Binyamin Netanyahu.

• *Nikkei -

the Japanese stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Also called the Nikkei 225, it measures the performance of 225 large, publicly owned companies in Japan from a wide array of industry sectors.

o Adrianople, Battle of (378 A.D.) -

the Roman city of Adrianople, 300 miles west of Constantinople and in the Roman province of Thracia, was the scene of the defeat of the Roman forces by the Visigoths. Emperor Valens, who had hoped to prevent the Gothic invasion of the Roman Empire, was killed. The Gothic rebels, which were largely Thervings, as well as Greutungs and non-Gothic Alans, were led by Fritigern. Adrianople is the modern city of Edirne in European Turkey. This battle was part of the Gothic War (376-382) and is often considered the start of the process which led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century.

• Golden Horde -

the Tartars of the Mongol Khanate of the Western Kipchaks (1242-1480). The word "horde" derives from the Mongol ordo, meaning a camp, while "golden" recalls the magnificence of Batu Khan's headquarters camp. In 1238 Batu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded Russia with a Mongol-Kipchak force. He burned Moscow and in 1240 took Kiev. After a sweep through Eastern Europe he established camp at Sarai on the Lower Volga. Khan of a region extending from Central Asia to the River Dnieper, he claimed sovereignty over all Russia but, apart from demanding tribute in money and military contingents, interfered little with the Russian princes, who in general avoided trouble by cooperating. The destruction of Kiev led to the rise of a more northerly, forest-based Russian civilization, and it was from Moscow that resistance to the Horde started. Defeat by Tamerlane in 1391 seriously weakened the Horde. Independent khanates emerged in the Crimea and Kazan. In 1480 the power of the Tartars was broken by Ivan III (the Great).

• Pharsalus, Battle of (48 B.C.) -

the battle in which Pompey was defeated by Julius Caesar. After Caesar crossed the Rubicon, Pompey retired to Greece to rally his forces. Caesar crushed Pompey and his supporters in Spain and then pursued him to northern Greece. Pompey's forces were routed in pitched battle, although he himself escaped.

• Persepolis -

the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian empire. A festival of tribute was held there each year, it was the burial place of the kings, and its treasury was a repository of enormous wealth. The city was captured, looted, and burnt in 331 B.C. b Alexander the Greats troops. Excavation of the palaces, built by Darius I and Xerxes, and other buildings, while confirming the destruction that took place, has also revealed some magnificent examples of Achaemenid art and architecture, particularly the bas-reliefs.

▪ Blackshirts -

the colloquial name given to the Squadre d'Azione (Action Squad) founded in a league in 1919. Organize a long paramilitary lines, they wore black shirts and patrol cities to fight socialism and communism by violent means. In 1921 they were incorporated into the Fascist party is a national militia. The SS in Nazi Germany and the followers of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in the 1930s were also known as Blackshirts.

• plebs -

the common people of ancient Rome, including the poor and landless. In the early Republic they were excluded from office and from intermarriage with patricians. The political history of the early Republic reflects largely their increasingly organized claim for greater political participation, which was rewarded by the concession of eligibility for the consulship and 367 B.C. During the 'Struggle of the Orders' in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. the office of Tribune became a watchdog over the activities of the traditional Roman Senate.

• Kashmir dispute -

the conflict between India and Pakistan over the state of Kashmir (now administratively part of the Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir) that erupted into war (1948-49) and remains unresolved. Kashmir, exposed successively to Hindu and Muslim rule, was annexed in 1819 to the expanding Sikh kingdom. After the first Sikh war with the territory was acquired by Gulab Singh, then Hindu raja of the Jammu region. It was a princely state for the rest of the British period. The Maharaja, a Hindu ruling over a predominantly Muslim population, and initially hoped to remain independent in 1947, but eventually acceded to the Indian Union. The war between India and Pakistan ended in 1949 when a UN peacekeeping force imposed a temporary cease-fire line which divided the Indian Union state of Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-backed Azad Kashmir. Kashmir remains divided by this line. In 1989 militant supporters of either Kashmiri independence or union with Pakistan intensified their campaign of violence civil unrest and Indian government troops were sent into the state. Direct rule by the president was imposed in 1990 and fighting has continued.

• Canaanites -

the inhabitants of ancient Palestine, but more specifically the land lying between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. The * occupied the area in the 3rd millennium B.C. but it was conquered and occupied during the latter part of the 2nd millennium B.C. by the Israelites, who described it as their 'Promised Land' (Exodus 3:8).

Gaugamela, Battle of (331 B.C.) -

the decisive battle of Alexander the Great's invasion of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. In 331 BC Alexander's army of the Hellenic League met the Persian army of Darius III near Gaugamela, close to the modern city of Dohuk (Iraqi Kurdistan). Though heavily outnumbered, Alexander emerged victorious due to his army's superior tactics and his deft employment of light infantry. It was a decisive victory for the Hellenic League and led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire. After the battle, Parmenion rounded up the Persian baggage train while Alexander and his bodyguard pursued Darius. As at Issus, substantial loot was gained, with 4,000 talents captured, the King's personal chariot and bow and the war elephants. It was a disastrous defeat for the Persians and one of Alexander's finest victories. At the end of the battle, Bessus, one of the Persian satraps, murdered Darius before fleeing eastwards. When Alexander discovered Darius murdered, he was saddened to see an enemy he respected killed in such a fashion, and gave Darius a full burial ceremony at Persepolis, the former ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire, before angrily pursuing Bessus, capturing and executing him the following year. The majority of the remaining satraps gave their loyalty to Alexander and were allowed to keep their positions. The Achaemenid Persian Empire is traditionally considered to have ended with the death of Darius III.

o Achaemenid -

the dynasty established by Cyrus II (the Great) in the sixth century B.C. and named after his ancestor Achaemenes. Cyrus' predecessors ruled Parsumash, a vassal state of the Media empire, but he overthrew their king Astyages and incorporated the Medes within his Persian Empire, which by his death in 530 B.C. extended from Asia Minor to the River Indus. His successor Cambyses II (529-521 B.C.) added Egypt. Darius I instituted a major reorganization of the administration and finances of the Empire, establishing 20 provinces ruled by Satraps. Both he and the Xerxes failed in their attempts to conquer Greece in the early fifth century. By the time Alexander III (the Great) invaded with his Macedonian army (334 B.C.) the Empire was much weakened. Darius III, defeated at Issus and Gaugamela, was killed by his own men in 330 B.C. Achaemenid rule was tolerant of local customs, religions, and forms of government. The construction of a major road system, centered on Susa, facilitated trade administration. The magnificent remains of Persepolis provide a glimpse of Achaemenid wealth and power.

• *détente -

the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation, through verbal communication. The term originated around 1912, when France and Germany tried, without success, to reduce tensions. The term is most often used for a phase of the Cold War, in which tensions relaxed between Moscow and the West, as promoted by Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Leonid Brezhnev, in the period from 1969-1974. With the U.S. showing weakness at the top that forced out Nixon, Brezhnev used the opportunity to expand Soviet influence. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 decisively ended any talk of détente.

▪ Byzantine empire -

the eastern half of the Roman empire. Emperor Constantine had reunited the two halves, divided by Diocletian, and had refounded the Greek city of Byzantium as his eastern capital, calling it Constantinople (now Istanbul). At his death in 395 Emperor Theodosius divided the Empire between his sons. After the fall of Rome to the Ostrogoths (476) Constantinople was the capital of the empire and was famous for its art, architecture, and wealth. While barbarian invaders overran the Western Empire, the Byzantine emperors always hope to defeat them and reunite the Empire. Emperor Justinian reconquered North Africa and part of Italy, making Ravenna the Western capital, but his success was short lived. After Mohammed's death (632) Muslim era of the forces swept through Persia and the Middle East, across North Africa, and into Spain. By 750 only the Balkans and Asia Minor remained unconquered. From the ninth century Charlemagne's Frankish empire dominated the West. In the 8th and 9th centuries religious disunity, notably the Iconoclastic Controversy, the weekend of the Empire. Theological and political differences between Rome and Constantinople led to the East-West Schism between Latin and Orthodox Christianity (1054). The vigorous Emperor Alexis Comnenus (1081-1118) defeated barbarian attacks from the north and appealed to the Franks for help against the Seljuk Turks. In the 12th century, some reconquests were made in Asia Minor and the period was one of achievement in literature and art, only brought to an end by the Frankish sack of Constantinople in 1204. The failure to achieve any united Christian opposition to the Turks and the growing independence of the Balkan princedoms weaken the Empire. Ottoman incursions in the 14th and 15th centuries, culminated in the capture of Constantinople in 1453 and the end of the Byzantine Empire.

▪ Augustus (known until 27 BC as Octavian)(63 BC-14 AD

the first Roman Emperor. Originally called Gaius Octavius, he took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus when he was adopted by the will of his great uncle Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. he established his position as one of the triumvirate of 43 B.C., forming an alliance with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's principal colleagues. The three formed a junta called the Second Triumvirate, an explicit grant of special powers lasting five years and supported by law, unlike the unofficial First Triumvirate. Octavian formed an alliance with Mark Antony against Lepidus. Octavian defeated Lepidus and turned his attention toward conquering Mark Antony. In the battle of Actium in 31 BC Agrippa, Octavian's most trusted general, defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra thus leaving Octavian the sole ruler of the Romans (31 BC is sometimes considered the beginning of his imperial reign because he was the sole ruler, but the senate did not officially give him the title Augustus until 27 BC). A constitutional settlement in 27 B.C. in theory restored the Republic but in practice regularized his sovereignty; in the same year he was given the title Augustus (Latin for 'venerable'). Augustus was elected pontifex maximus by the senate in 12 BC (pontifex maximus is the head priest of Rome). Augustus adopted Tiberius in 4 AD (he became the next emperor). His rule was marked abroad by a series of expansionist military campaigns and at home by moral and religious reforms intended to restore or later Roman values disrupted during the previous civil wars.

• Shanghai, Battle of (1937) -

the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire war, described as "Stalingrad on the Yangtze".

Genghis Khan (1162-1227

the founder of the Mongol empire. Originally named Temujin, he took the name Genghis Khan ('ruler of all') in 1206 after uniting the nomadic Mongol tribes under his command and becoming a master of both eastern and western Mongolia. He made his capital at Karakorum. He then attacked China, capturing Beijing in 1215. By 1218, the Mongol Empire extended as far west as Lake Balkhash, which bordered the Khwarezmia, a Muslim state that reached to the Caspian Sea in the west and Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea in the south. Genghis Khan saw the potential advantage in Khwarezmia as a commercial partner, and sent a 500-man caravan to officially establish trade ties with Khwarezmia. However, Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarezmian city of Otrar, attacked the caravan that came from Mongolia, claiming that the caravan was a conspiracy against Khwarezmia. The governor later refused to make repayments for the looting of the caravan and murder of its members. Genghis Khan then sent a second group of ambassadors to meet the Shah himself. The shah had all the men shaved and all but one beheaded. This was seen as an affront to the Khan himself. This led Genghis Khan to attack the Khwarezmian Dynasty. The Mongols crossed the Tien Shan Mountains, thus crossing into the Shah's empire. After compiling information from many sources Genghis Khan carefully prepared his army, which was divided into three groups. His son Jochi led the first division into the Northeast of Khwarezmia. The second division under Jebe marched secretly to the Southeast part of Khwarzemia to form, with the first division, a pincer attack on Samarkand. The third division under Genghis Khan and Tolui marched to the northwest and attacked Khwarzemia from that direction. The Mongol army quickly seized the town of Otrar, relying on superior strategy an tactics. Once he had conquered the city, Genghis Khan executed many of the inhabitants and executed Inalchuq by pouring molten silver into his ears and eyes, as retribution for the insult. According to stories, Khan diverted a river of Ala ad-Din Muhammad II of Khwarezm's birthplace, erasing it from the map. The Mongols' conquest of the capital was nothing short of brutal: the bodies of citizens and soldiers filled the trenches surrounding the city, allowing the Mongols to enter raping, pillaging and plundering homes and temples. After conquering the Khwarezmid Empire, the Mongols split into two component forces. Genghis Khan led a division on a raid through Afghanistan ,Pakistan and northern India, while another contingent, led by his generals Jebe and Subutai, marched through the Caucasus and Russia. Neither campaign added territory to the empire, but they pillaged settlements and defeated any armies they met that did not acknowledge Genghis Khan as the rightful leader of the world. In 1225 both divisions returned to Mongolia. These invasions ultimately added Transoxiana and Persia to an already formidable empire. He died on campaign against the Tangut kingdom of Hsi Hsia. While Genghis Khan gathered his forces in Persia and Armenia, a detached force of 20,000 troops, commanded by Jebe and Subutai, pushed deep into Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Mongols destroyed Georgia, sacked the Genoese trade-fortress of Caffa in Crimea, and stayed over winter near the Black Sea. At the Battle of Kalka River in 1223, the Mongols defeated the larger Kievan force. The Russian princes then sued for peace. Subutai agreed but was in no mood to pardon the princes. As was customary in Mongol society for nobility the Russian princes were given a bloodless death. Subutai had a large wooden platform constructed on which he ate his meals along with his other generals. Six Russian princes, including Mstislav of Kiev, were put under this platform and they were crushed to death. Genghis Khan recalled this force back to Mongolia soon afterwards, and Jebe died on the road back to Samarkand. This famous cavalry expedition of Subutai and Jebe, in which they encircled the entire Caspian Sea defeating every single army in their path, remains unparalleled to this day. A bold leader and military genius, when he died his empire extended from the shores of the Pacific to the northern shores of the Black Sea. He was the father of Ogodei (his successor) and Chagatai. His grandson Kublai Khan completed the conquest of China.

• Colosseum -

the medieval name for the Amphitheatre Flavium, a vast amphitheater in Rome begun by the emperor Vespasian around 75A.D and continued in completed by Titus and Domitian. It was capable of holding around 50,000 people, with seating in three tiers and standing room above; and elaborate system of staircases served all parts. The arena, floored with timber and surrounded by a fence, was the scene of gladiatorial calm ads, fights between men and animals, and large scale mock battles.

• Roman Republic (Latin respublica, 'common wealth') -

the political form of the Roman state for 400 years after the expulsion of Park win. The rule of a sole monarch yielded to the power of a landed aristocracy, the patricians, who ruled through two chief magistrates or consuls and an advisory body, the Roman Senate. The city of Rome could operate as a public concern as long as the small landed aristocracy managed the state. What, with overseas expansion, generals had to be given power to deal with problems abroad. There is substantial independence threatened Republican tradition with its corporate government and brief periods of high office for individuals in rotation. Eventually the general simply ignore the law, which required generals to lay down their commands on returning to Italian soil. The last of these commanders in chief, Octavian, achieved a settlement that appeared to combine republican institutions with personal military power. The Roman Empire succeeded the Republic.

• Indian National Congress -

the principal Indian political party. It was founded in 1885 is an annual meeting of educated Indians desire greater share in government and cooperation with Britain. In the 1930s began to conduct major political campaigns for self-rule and independence. In 1945 to 1947 the Congress negotiated with Britain for Indian independence. Under Nehru the Congress continued to dominate independent India.

• Black Death (1347-50) -

the most virulent epidemic of bubonic and pneumonic plague ever recorded. It reached Europe from the Tartar armies, fresh from campaigning in the Crimea, who besieged the port of Caffa. Rats carrying infected fleas swarmed aboard trading vessels, thus transmitting the plague to southern Europe. By 1348 it had reached France, Spain, and England; a year later Germany, Russia, and Scandinavia. Up to 25 million may have died in Europe, including about 1/3 of the population of England.

▪ Great Trek, the -

the movement north words in the 1830s by the Boers to escape from British administration in the Cape Colony. From 1835 onwards parties of Voortrekkers reached Natal, where in 1837 Zulu resistance provokes them to kill some 3,000 Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in revenge for the death of their leader, Piet Retief. Natal became a British colony in 1843 and migration continued north words into the Orange River country and the Transvaal.

▪ Batavian Republic -

the name given to the Netherlands by the French who occupied that country from 1795 until 1806 when Napoleon installed his brother Louis as King of Holland.

• Cursus Honorum -

the name given to the ladder of annual offices that would-be Roman politicians had to climb. After a prescribed period of military service, or the tenure of certain minor magistracies, the first major rung was quaestor, which gave membership to the Roman Senate. Thereafter came praetor and consul (though not all achieved these offices, and finally the quinquennial office of censor, the crown of a republican politician's career. Other magistracies, the aedileship, and the tribunate of the plebs, might be held between quaestor and praetor, but were not obligatory. In the middle and late republic, specific minimum ages and intervals between offices were established by statute. Quaestors, praetors, and consuls were often employed after their year of office at Rome as 'pro-magistrates' to administer the provinces of the Roman empire.

• Zealots -

the party of revolt among the Jews of Roman Palestine known for their fanaticism. Also known as Canaans after the early inhabitants of Palestine, they have been identified with the 'Daggermen' ('Sicarii') of the Jewish revolt of 66 to 70 A.D. and the defenders of Masada. Simon, one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, was also known as 'the Zealot', meaning either that he was a member of the party, or equally likely, that he was of zealous disposition.

▪ Appian Way (Latin Via Appia) -

the principal South word road from Roman classical times, named after censor Appius Claudius Caecus who began it in 312 B.C. It originally stretched to Capua (210 km), but was later extended to Brindisi in Apulia.

• khanate -

the region ruled by a khan (a Mongol or Turkic supreme tribal leader elevated by the support of his warriors). On Genghis Khan's death in 1227 his empire was divided into four parts, each ruled by one of his descendents. By the mid-13th century the Mongol empire consisted of four khanates; the khanate of the Western Kipchaks (the Golden Horde); the khanate of Persia, whose ruler was called the Il-khan; the khanate of Turkistan (the White Horde of the Eastern Kipchaks), and the khanate of the Khakhan in it he East Asia. The three khans were subject to the Khakhan (the Great Khan), but were generally resentful in their relations with him. After the death of Kublai Khan in 1294, the Khakhan's authority was nominal. In 1368 the Mongols were driven out of China and by 1500 all four khanates had disappeared. A number of lesser khanates emerged; the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, the Crimea, Khiva, Bukhara, Tashkent, Samarkand, and Kokand. These long presented a threat to the community surrounding them. One by one all were absorbed by Russia. The last to fall was Kokand in 1876.

Carthage -

the ruins of an ancient city on the north coast of Africa and Tunisia, situated to the west of Tunis. Traditionally founded by Phoenicians from Tyre (in modern Lebanon) in 814 B.C., it became a major center of the Mediterranean, with interests in North Africa, Spain, and Sicil which brought it into conflict with Greece until the 3rd century B.C. and then with Rome in the Punic wars, until the Romans destroyed it in 146 B.C. It was re-founded as a Roman city and prospered. It was a center of Christianity and Genseric made it his capital in 439. In 533-34 it was captured by Belisarius and was part of the Byzantine Empire until its destruction by the Arabs in 697.

• Romanov -

the ruling House of Russia from 1613 until the revolution of 1917. After the time of troubles (1604-13), a period of civil war and anarchy, Michael Romanov was elected Emperor and ruled until 1645, to be followed by Alexis (1645-76) and Fyodor (1676-82). Under these Emperors Russia emerged as the major Slavic power. The next Emperors established it as a great power in Europe: Peter I (the Great) (1689-1725) and Catherine II (the Great) (1762-96) were the most successful of these rulers.

• doge -

the title of the holder of the highest civil office in Venice, Genoa, and Amalfi from the 7th century until the 18th century. The office originated in Venice. In 1032 hereditary succession was formally banned an election was made increasingly complicated to prevent domination by particular factions, although the Participazio and Candiano families provided most candidates in the 9th and 10th centuries, and the Tiepolo and Dandolo in the 13th and 14th. The system ended with the Napoleonic conquest of 1797. The first doge's palace in Venice was built in 814 and destroyed in 976. The present gothic building was begun in the early 14th century.

• nihilism -

the total rejection of authority is exercised by the Church, the State, or the family. More specifically, the doctrine of our Russian extremist Revolutionary party active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In their struggle against the conservative elements in Russian society, the nihilists justified violence, leaving that by forcibly eliminating ignorance and oppression they would secure his human freedom. The government of Alexander II repressed the revolutionaries severely, and they sought vengeance by assassinating the emperor near the palace on March 13, 1881. After 1917 the small and diffuse cells of nihilists were themselves destroyed by better coordinated revolutionaries.

• Shimonoseki, Treaty of (1895) -

the treaty between China and Japan that ended the Sino-Japanese war (1894-95). With her Navy destroyed and Beijing in danger of capture, China was forced to grant the independence of Korea, pay a large indemnity, grand favorable trade terms, and cede Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula (including the naval base at Port Arthur, now Lushun). International pressure forced the return of Port Arthur and the abandonment of the claim to the Liaodong Peninsula shortly afterwards, but Japanese domination over North China had been established.

• Portsmouth, Treaty of (1905) -

the treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05). Although the Russians at the decisive lead defeated on land and at sea in 1904, it was the intervention of the US President Teddy Roosevelt that finally brought a successful end to the Russo-Japanese war. The treaty, signed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, allowed for the mutual evacuation of Manchuria but granted Japan Railway writes in southern Manchuria, Russian acknowledgment of Japanese supremacy in Korea, and the seating to Japan of the Liaodong Peninsula (including port Arthur, now Lüshun) and the southern half of Sakhalin. Russian the eastward expansion was us halted and Japanese hegemony in Northeast Asia confirmed.

o annals (from Latin annus, 'year') -

the yearly records kept by the priests in Rome from the earliest times. They noted ceremonies, state enactments, and the holders of office. The high priest (Pontifex Maximus) was responsible for maintaining the records in his official residence. The accumulated material, mainly dating from after 300 B.C., was published in 80 books known as the Annales Maximi (c. 123 B.C.). The name came to be applied generally to the writing of history and the strict chronological order.

• Panama Canal -

they canal about 80 km (50 miles) long and 150 m (490 feet) wide, across the isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Its construction, begun by Ferdinand Day less steps in 1881 but abandoned through bankruptcy in 1889, was completed by the US between 1904 and 1914. The surrounding territory, the Panama Canal Zone or Canal Zone, was administered by the US until 1979, when it was returned to the control of Panama. Control of the canal itself remained with the US until December 1999.

• Punic Wars -

three wars fought in the third and second century B.C. between Rome and Carthage, so named from 'Poenicus' ('Dark skin' or 'Phoenician'). The contest was for control of the Mediterranean Sea. Rome emerged as victor from each war. The First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) was fought largely at sea. Rome expanded its navy and took control of Sicily. Corsica and Sardinia were seized a few years later. Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, led the defeated side. The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C) arose from Hannibal's invasion of Italy from Carthaginian bases in Spain via the Alps. He led a huge force including elephant squadrons. Rome suffered disastrous defeats, most notably in the mists by the Lake Trasimene and at Cannae. Italy was overrun by Hannah Ball but the Italian tribes did not rise against Rome. The strategy of the dictator CBS prevented further losses. In a long, drawn-out series of campaigns Hannibal's extended lines of supply were threatened by defeats in Sicily and Spain and the brilliant generalship of Scipio Africanus. Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, was defeated on the Italian mainland in 207. By 203 Hannibal, who had no effective siege engines, was summoned to withdraw to Africa to defend Carthage itself, now threatened by Scipio. Pursued by Scipio he was defeated at the Battle of Zama in 202 and the Carthaginians were forced to accept humiliating terms the following year. Spain was acquired as a provincial territory by Rome. In 149 B.C. at peak of its territorial expansion and at the insistence of Cato, Rome intervened in the African dispute to side with Numidia against Carthage. In the Third Punic War (149-146) Scipio Aemilianus besieged and destroyed Carthage utterly, sowed the site with symbolic salt, and declared Africa a Roman province.

▪ *Maastricht Treaty (1992) -

treaty responsible for the creation of the European Union (EU) and the euro currency.

• Godunov, Boris (1551-1605) -

tsar of Russia from 1598-1605. He began his career of court service under Ivan IV (the Terrible), became virtual ruler of Muscovy during the reign of his imbecile son Fyodor (1584-98) and engineered his own elevation to the Tsardom. He conducted a successful war against Sweden (1590-95), promoted foreign trade, and dealt ruthlessly with those boyar families which opposed him. In 1604 boyar animosity combined with popular dissatisfaction ushered in the 'Time of Troubles' - a confused 8-year dynastic and political crisis, Boris having died suddenly in 1605.

• Falkirk, Battles of -

two battles fought in the Scottish town of Falkirk. The first (1298) resulted in a victory for Edward I of England over William Wallace, leader of the Scottish resistance to English sovereignty. The second (1746) was a victory for the Jacobite army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart over the government forces in the Forty-Five rebellion.

• Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) -

war fought between China and Japan. After Korea was open to Japanese trade in 1876, it rapidly became an arena for rivalry between the expanding Japanese state and neighboring China, of which Korea had been a vassal state since the 17th century. A rebellion in 1894 provided a pretext for both sides to send troops to Korea, but the Chinese were rapidly overwhelmed by superior Japanese troops, organization, and equipment. After the Beiyang fleet, one of the most important projects of the Self-Strengthening Movement, was defeated at the Battle of the Yellow Sea and Port Arthur (now Lushun) captured, the Chinese found their capital Beijing menaced by advancing Japanese forces. They were forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, granting Korean independence and making a series of commercial and territorial concessions which open the way for a Japanese confrontation with Russia, the other expansionist power in Northeast Asia.

• Maratha Wars (1774-82; 1803-05; 1817-18) -

wars between the Maratha peoples of India and troops of the English East India Company. By the late 18th century the Maratha Hindus, divided into over 90 clans have formed an uneasy confederacy that became a significant force in northern and central India. Rivalries between chiefs were exploited by the British. In the second war Sir Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) won the battles of Assaye and Argaon. The charter of the East India Company was renewed in 1813, when no further British acquisitions were envisaged, but in 1817 company troops under Lord Hastings invaded a Maratha territory to put down Pindari robber bands supported by Maratha princes, and finally made British power dominant within the subcontinent.

▪ *Boer Wars (First and Second, 1880-81 and 1899-1902

wars fought between Britain and Transvaal (First War) and the between Britain and the Transvaal and the Orange Free State (Second War). The first arose from the British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 and the incompetent administration that followed. In 1880 it was thought that the Gladstone government would grant independence, or at lease self-government; when hopes were dashed, Kruger, Joubert, and Pretorius took power as a triumvirate. British disasters at the battles of Laing's Nek, Ingogo, and Majuba Hill forced peace upon Gladstone, who granted self-government. The Second Boer War was caused by multiple grievances. The Boers, under the leadership of Kruger, resented the imperialist policies of Joseph Chamberlain, which they feared would deprive the Transvaal of its independence. The refusal of political rights to uitlanders aggravated the situation, as did the aggressive attitude of Lord Milner, British High Commissioner. For Britain, control of the Rand goldfield was all-important. In 1896 the Transvaal and the Orange Free State formed a military alliance. The Boers, equipped by Germany, never mustered more than 88,000 men, but defeated Britain in numerous initial engagements, for example, Spion Kop. British garrisons were besieged in Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking. In 1900 the British, under Kitchener and Roberts, landed with reinforcements. The Boers were gradually defeated, despite the brilliant defense of the commandos. Kitchener adopted a scorched-earth policy, interning the civil population in concentration camps, and systematically destroying farms. Peace was offered in 1901, but terms that included the loss of Boers independence were not agreed until the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902.

Mugabe, Robert

(1924- ) - Zimbabwean statesman, Prime Minister (1980-87) and President since 1987. In 1963 he confounded the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and in 1975 became a leader; the following year he formed the Patriotic Front with the leader of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), Joshua Nkomo. Mugabe was declared Prime Minister in 1980 after ZANU won a landslide victory in the country's first post-independence elections. In 1982 he ousted Nkomo from his Cabinet; ZANU and ZAPU agreed to merge in 1987 and Mugabe became President.

o Assad, Hafiz al

(1928) -- Syrian Baath statesman and Syrian President (1971-2000). While in office he assured the strengthening of Syria's oil-based economy and suppress political opposition such as the uprising of Muslim extremists (1979-82). He supported the coalition forces during the 1991 Gulf War.

▪ Amin, Idi (1925

) -- Ugandan head of state and dictator (1971-79). Possessed of only rudimentary education, Amin rose through the ranks of the Army to become its commander. In 1971 he overthrew President Obote and seized power. His rule was characterized by the advancing a narrow tribal interests, the expulsion of non-Africans (most notably Ugandan Asians), and the violence on a huge scale. He was overthrown with Tanzanian assistance in 1979 and went into exile in Saudi Arabia.

o Atatürk, Kemal (or Kemal Pasha; born Mustafa Kemal) (1881-1938)

- Turkish general and statesman, President (1923-38). Leader of the postwar Turkish nationalist party, he is elected president of a provisional government in 1920. The official establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, he was elected its first president, taking the name of Atatürk (Turkish for 'father of the Turks') in 1934. During his presidency he introduced many political and social reforms, including the abolition of the caliphate, the adoption of the Roman alphabet for writing Turkish, and other policies designed to make Turkey a modern secular state.

• Duncan I (c.1010

40) - King of Scotland from 1034-40. He was ruler of Strathclyde which was added to the Scottish kingdom inherited from his grandfather Malcolm II. His accession was unpopular with the northern tribes and twice he was defeated by the Earl of Orkney before being killed in battle by the Earl of Moray, Macbeth.

• Ottoman Empire (1299-1922)

- the Muslim empire of the Turks, established in northern Anatolia by Osman I and expanded by his successors to include all of Asia Minor and much of southeastern Europe. Ottoman power received a severe check with the invasion of Tamerlane in 1401, but expansion resumed several decades later, resulting in the capture of Constantinople in 1453. The Empire reached its zenith under Suleiman I (1520-66), dominating the eastern Mediterranean, including North Africa, and threatening central Europe, but thereafter began to decline. Still powerful and the 17th century, and had, by the 19th century, become the 'sick man of Europe', eventually collapsing in the early 20th century.

• Wallace, Sir William (c.1270

1305) - -Scottish national hero. He was a leader of Scottish resistance to Edward the first, defeating the English army at Stirling and 1297. In the same year he mounted milk campaigns against the North of England and was appointed guardian of the realm of Scotland. After Edward's second invasion of Scotland in 1298, Wallace was defeated at the Battle of Falkirk; he was subsequently captured and executed by the English.

• Mary, Queen of Scots (1542

1587) -- Queen of Scotland (1542-67), the daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. She was but throws to the future Edward VI of England in 1543 but Cardinal Beaton's veto of the marriage led to a war with the English, and the Scottish defeat at Pinkie (1547). Mary was then sent to the French court, where she received a Catholic upbringing under the supervision of her Guise uncles. She married the dauphin Francis (1558), who succeeded to the French throne in 1559 and died in 1560. By 1561 she returned to Scotland, and had also proclaimed herself the rightful Queen of England, as granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister, Margaret Tudor. She had to adapt to the anti-monarchical, anti-catholic, anti-French atmosphere of Reformation Scotland. Her unpopular romantic marriage to Darnley (1565), although it produced a son, the future James VI (James I), was disastrous. Darnley murdered Mary's secretary Riggio and was then murdered himself. Soon after she married Bothwell despite having been abducted by him. The subsequent rising of the Scottish lords resulted in her military defeat and flight to England. There she threw herself on the mercy of Elizabeth I, who kept her confined in various stronghold until her death. Wittingly or not, she was involved in a number of Catholic conspiracies against Elizabeth, figuring in the scheming behind the Northern Rising as well as the Ridolfi and Throckmorton plots. Her implication in the Babington plot (1586) provided enough damaging evidence for a commission to find her guilty of treason. For years was with had turned a deaf ear to Protestant pleas to execute this fellow monarch. Even now she delayed signing the death warrant, and then disclaimed responsibility for the execution of Mary at Fotheringhay.

• Rob Roy (born Robert Macgregor) (1671

1734) -- Scottish outlaw. His escapades as a Highland cattle thief and opponents of the government's agents on the eve of the Jacobite uprising of 1715 were popularized in Sir Walter Scott's novel Rob Roy (1817).

• Park, Mungo (1771

1806) -- Scottish explorer. He undertook a series of extra rations in West Africa (1795-97), among them being the navigation of the Niger River. His experiences were recorded in his Travels in the Interior of Africa (1799). He drowned on a second expedition to the Niger (1805-06).

• Knox, John (1505

72) -- Scottish Protestant reformer. After early involvement in the Scottish Reformation he spent more than a decade preaching in Europe, during which time he stayed in Geneva and was influenced by Calvin. In 1559 he returned to Scotland and played a central part in the establishment of the Church of Scotland within a Scottish Protestant state. A fiery orator, he became the spokesman of the religious interests opposed to the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots when she returned to rule in her own right in 1561.

• Livingstone, David (1813

73) -- Scottish missionary and explorer. He first went to Bechuanaland as a missionary in 1841; on his extensive travels in the interior he discovered Lake Ngami (1849), the Zambezi River (1851), and the victim for your false (1855). In 1866 he led an expedition into Central Africa in search of the source of the Nile; after many hardships he was eventually found in poor health by the explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika I 1871.

• *Operation Vengeance -

American operation to kill Japanese Admiral Yamamoto during World War II. Yamamoto was killed when his transport bomber was shot down by American fighter jets over Bougainville Island during the Solomon Islands campaign in 1943. This operation wasplanned as revenge, as the U.S. blamed Yamamoto for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

• Montgomery, Bernard Law (known as 'Monty') (1887-1976) -

British Field Marshal. In 1942 he commanded the 8th Army in the Western Desert, where his victory at El Alamein proved the first significant Allied success in World War II. He was later given command of the allied ground forces in the invasion of Normandy in 1944 and accepted the German surrender on May 7, 1945.

▪ Alfonso XIII (1886-1941) -

King of Spain (1886-1931). Alfonso ruled under the regency of his mother until 1902, during which time Spain lost her colonial possessions in the Philippines and Cuba to the US. In 1923 he supported Miguel Primo de Rivera's assumption of dictatorial powers, but by 1931 Alfonso had agreed to elections. When these indicated the Spanish electorate's clear preference for a public, the king was forced to abdicate.

Gustavus II (Adolphus)(1594-1632) -

King of Sweden from 1611-32. He was the grandson of Gustavus I and is generally recognized as Sweden's greatest ruler. His partnership with the Chancellor, Oxenstierna, bore fruit in important reforms in the government, armed forces, economy, and education. Abroad he inherited three Baltic struggles: the Kalmar War with Denmark; the Russian War; and the intermittent conflict with Poland. The successes achieved by his highly mobile, highly motivated, and disciplined forces impressed Cardinal Richelieu, who negotiated the Treaty of Altmark between Sweden and Poland, so that the Swedes could be recruited for action the Thirty Years War. Gustavus crossed into Germany in 1630 and proceeded to turn the tide of the war against the imperial forces. He was a devout Lutheran, and his war aims grew more ambitious as his invasion prospered. Originally intending to prevent the Catholic Habsburgs from dominating the Baltic, by 1632 he was pursuing grand imperial designs of his own. He was killed in action at Lützen.

• Isabella I (known as 'Isabella the Catholic') (1451-1504) -

Queen of Castile (1474-1504). She united her kingdom with that of Aragon by her marriage with its king, Ferdinand V, in 1469, retaining sole authority over Castilian affairs. She was noted for her Catholic piety, encouragement of the Spanish Inquisition, and her intolerance towards Jews and Muslims. She patronized Spanish and Flemish artists, and supported the exploration of America.

• De Soto, Hernando (c.1500-42) -

Spanish conquistador and explorer. De Soto took part in the conquest of Central America, before joining Pizarro's expedition in Peru. He returned to Spain when the Inca King Atahualpa, whom he had befriended, was executed by Pizarro. De Soto was then made governor of Cuba by Emperor Charles V, with the right to conquer the mainland of America. He landed on the Florida coast in 1539 and reach North Carolina before crossing the Appalachian Mountains and returning through Tennessee and Alabama. In 1541 he led another expedition, discovering the Mississippi River and going up the Arkansas River into Oklahoma. They were seeking gold, silver, and other treasure, but returned disappointed. De Soto died on reaching the banks of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, and his body was sunk in the Mississippi to prevent its being desecrated by Indians.

• Pizarro, Francisco (c.1478-1541)

Spanish conquistador. In 1531 he set out from Panama to conquer the Inca empire in Peru. Crossing the mountains, he defeated the Incas and in 1533 executed their emperor Atahualpa, setting up an Incan puppet monarchy at Cuzco and building his own capital at Lima (1535). He was assassinated in Lima by supporters of his rival Diego de Almagro.

• Loyola, Ignatius, St. (1491-1556)

Spanish ecclesiastical reformer, founder and first General of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). Born into a noble family, he attached himself to the court of Ferdinand II of Aragon. His military career was ended by a leg wound received law fighting for Navarre against France (1521). During his convalescence he underwent a spiritual transformation. He spent almost a year in prayer and penance (1522-23) and wrote the first draft of his Spiritual Exercises, an ordered scheme of meditations on the life of Jesus Christ and the truths of the Christian faith. After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1523 he attended the University of Paris. There he collected a band of like-minded followers, who worked through the Exercises. In 1534 he and six others took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the pope, and Pope Paul III recognize their "Society of Jesus" as an order of the Church in 1540. By the time of his death there were over 1000 Jesuits in nine European provinces as well as those working in the foreign missions.

▪ Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de (1475-1519) -

Spanish explorer. Having settled in the new Spanish colony of Hispaniola in 1501, in 1511 Balboa joined an expedition to Darien (in Panama) as a stowaway, but rose to command it after a mutiny. He founded a colony in Darien and continued to make expeditions into the surrounding areas. In 1513 he reached the western coast of the isthmus of Panama after an epic 25-day march, thereby becoming the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

• Ponce de Leon, Juan (c.1460-1521)

Spanish explorer. He accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493 and later became governor of Puerto Rico (1510-12). He landed on the coast of Florida and 1513, claiming the area for Spain and becoming its governor of the following year.

• Franco, Francisco (1892-1975)

Spanish general and dictator. A monarchist, he rose rapidly in the Army until 1931, when Alfonso XIII abdicated and was replaced by a republican government. He was temporarily out of favor, but by 1935 was chief of the General Staff. Elections in 1936 returned a more left-wing government and the army prepared to revolt. At first he hesitated to join in the military conspiracy in July he led troops from Morocco into Spain to attack Madrid and overthrow the Republic. After three years of the savage Spanish Civil War he was victorious became dictator of Spain in 1939. In 1937 Franco adopted the Falange, expanding it into a Spanish fascist party and banning all political opposition. During World War II he remained neutral though sympathizing with Hitler and Mussolini. His government was ostracized by the new United Nations until, with the coming of the Cold War, his hostility towards Communism restored him to favor. His domestic policy became slightly more liberal, and in 1969 he named Prince Juan Carlos, grandson of Alfonso XIII, as his successor and heir to the reconstituted Spanish throne. On his death being returned to a democratic system of government under a constitutional monarchy.

▪ El Cid (Campeador) (1040-99) (Arabic al-Said, 'the lord' and Spanish campeador, 'champion') -

Spanish hero. He was Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, a Castilian nobleman, who was exiled after the war between the brothers Sancho II of Castillo and Alfonso VI of Lyon, becoming a mercenary captain fighting mainly for the Moors. He captured Valencia on his own behalf but was expelled in 1099, dying shortly afterwards. Many of the legends concerning him bear little relation to historical facts.

• Zwingli, Ulrich (1484-1531) -

Swiss Protestant reformer, the principal figure of the Swiss Reformation. He was Minister of Zürich from 1518, where he sought to carry through his political and religious reforms and met with strong local support. From 1522 he published advocating the liberation of believers from the control of the papacy and bishops, and upholding the gospel as the sole basis of truth. He attacked the idea of purgatory, the invocation of saints, monasticism, and other orthodox doctrines. His beliefs differed most markedly from Martin Luther's in his rejection of the latter's doctrine of consubstantiation. The spread of Zwingli's ideas in Switzerland met with fierce resistance and Zwingli was killed in the resulting civil war.

• Osman I (or Othman) (1259-1326) -

Turkish conqueror, and founder of the Ottoman dynasty and empire. After succeeding his father as leader of the Seljuk Turks in 1288, Osman reigned as sultan, conquering northwest Asia Minor. He assumed the title of emir and 1299.

• Persing, John (known as 'Black Jack') (1880-1948) -

US General. He served in the Spanish-American war and later in the Philippines. He led the US expedition against Mexico in 1916. In May 1917 he was appointed commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in France and his talent for organization was largely responsible for the molding of hastily trained US soldiers into well integrated combat troops. In 1919 he became general of the armies of the USA and from 1921 to 1924 was Army Chief of Staff.

• Patton, George (1885-1945)

US General. In World War II Patton commanded a core in North Africa and then the seventh Army in Sicily. He lost his command in 1944 after a publicized incident in which he hit a soldier suffering from battle fatigue, but later led the 3rd Army in the Normandy campaign. His tendency to make rapid military advance, at times with no regard fo supporting units or allies, became evident in 1944 a spectacular sweep through France, crossed the Rhine, and into Czechoslovakia. As military Governor of Bavaria, he was criticized for his leniency to Nazis. He was killed in a road accident while commanding the US 15th army.

Bolivar, Simón (known as 'the Liberator)(1783-1830)

Venezuelan patriot and statesman. Bolivar was active in the Latin American independence movement from 1808 onwards. Although his military career was not without its failures, he succeeded in driving the Spanish from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador; Upper Peru was named Bolivia in his honor.

• Sucre, Antonio (1795-1830)

Venezuelan revolutionary and statesman, president of Bolivia from 1826-28. Sucre served as Simon Bolivar's Chief of Staff, liberating Ecuador (1822), Peru (1824), and Bolivia (1825) from the Spanish. The first president of Bolivia, Sucre resigned following a Peruvian invasion in 1828; he was later assassinated. The Bolivian judicial capital Sucre is named after him.

▪ Páez, José (1790-1873)

Venezuelan revolutionary and statesman. He was a leader of Venezuela's movement for independence, controlling (1810-19) a band of Llaneros (plainsmen) in guerrilla warfare against the Spanish. He led this separatist movement against Bolivar Colombian Republic and became Venezuela's first president. During his first term (1831-35) he governed within the provisions of the Venezuelan constitution, but he became increasingly oligarchic in his subsequent terms of office (1839-46, 1861-63). He was exiled from 1850-58, but returned in 1861 to become supreme dictator. In 1863 he again went into exile. He encouraged economic development, promotion of foreign immigration, and construction of schools.

▪ Falange, the (Spanish, 'phalanx')

a Spanish political party, the Falange Española. Founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the son of General primo de Rivera, its members were equally opposed to the reactionary right and the revolutionary left. They propose that Spain should become a syndicalist states on Italian Fascist lines. During the Spanish Civil War Franco saw the potential value of the Falange and adopted the movement in April 1937. After World War II ceased to be identified with fascism and its influence waned. It was formally abolished in 1977. • Ferdinand II (called the Catholic)(1452-1516) - King of Aragon (1479-1516). Ferdinand was the son of John II of Aragon by his second wife, the Aragonese noblewoman Juana Enriquez. He married the future Isabella I, the half-sister and heiress of Henry IV of Castile, and became Ferdinand V of Castile when Isabella succeeded her brother as Queen of Castile in 1474. The two young monarchs were initially obliged to fight a civil war against Juana, princess of Castile (also known as Juana la Beltraneja), the purported daughter of Henry IV, but were ultimately successful. When Ferdinand succeeded his father as King of Aragon in 1479, the Crown of Castile and the various territories of the Crown of Aragon were united in a personal union creating for the first time since the 8th century a single political unit which might be called Spain, although the various territories were not properly administered as a single unit until the 18th century. Ferdinand and Isabella. They began to rule jointly in both kingdoms in 1481, and in 1492 he finally defeated the Moors and annexed the conquered territory of Granada to Castile. On Isabella's death in 1504, he was recognized as Regent of Castile for his daughter Joanna the Mad. He subsequently married Germaine de Foix (1506), and incorporated Navarre into Castile (1515) thus becoming personal monarch of all Spain from the Pyrenees to Gibraltar. He established the Inquisition in 1478, aided Columbus's expeditions to the Americas, and was granted the title "the Catholic" by Pope Alexander VI in 1496, mainly for interventions in Italy. He was also the King of Sicily (1468-1516) and King of Naples (as Ferdinand III, 1504-16), and fought with France for supremacy in Italy between 1511 and 1513. He was succeeded by his grandson Charles I.

• Seljuk

a Turkish dynasty that ruled Asia Minor in the 11th through 13th centuries, successfully invading the Byzantine Empire and defending the Holy Land against the Crusaders.

• Bretton Woods Conference (1944) -

a UN monetary and financial conference. Representatives from 44 nations met in New Hampshire to stabilize world currencies and establish credit for international trade in the post-war world. They drew up plans for the World Bank (provides long- term aid to nations in need) and a plan for an International Monetary Fund (IMF), which finances short-term imbalances in international trade and payments. These programs continue today.

▪ Cairo Conference (1943)

a World War II meeting, attended by FDR, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek, to decide on postwar policy for the Far East. Unconditional surrender by Japan was its prerequisite; Manchuria was to be returned to China and Korea to its own people. At a second conference Roosevelt and Churchill met President Inonu of Turkey and confirmed that country's independence. The Teheran conference was held as easily afterwards.

• Caporetto, Battle of (1917)

a battle fought north of Trieste when Austro-Hungarian and German forces overwhelmed the Italian army. Some 300,000 prisoners of war were taken, which removed Italy temporarily from the war; this enabled a German offensive for March 1918 on the Western Front to be planned. The bloody aftermath of this battle was vividly described by Hemingway in his novel A Farewell to Arms.

• *Somme, Battle of the (1916) -

a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and France against the German Empire. It took place on both sides of the upper reaches of the River Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front. More than three million men fought in this battle and one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The first day on the Somme was, in terms of casualties, also the worst day in the history of the British army, which suffered 57,470 casualties (20,000 dead). This trench battle is notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank. At the end of the battle, British and French forces had penetrated 10 km (6 mi) into German-occupied territory, taking more ground than in any of their offensives since the Battle of the Marne in 1914.

• Congress of Berlin (1878) -

a conference of European powers that revised the Treaty of San Stefano (1878) which had ended the war between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Under the chairmanship of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the congress limited Russian naval expansion; gave Montenegro, Serbia, and Romania independence; allowed Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina; reduced Bulgaria to one-third of its size; and placed Cyprus under temporary occupation by the British. The congress left Russian nationalists and Pan-Slavs dissatisfied, and the aspirations of Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria unfulfilled. Bismarck's handling of the congress antagonized Russia.

▪ French Indo-China War (1946-54)

a conflict between French colonial forces and Vietminh forces largely in the Tonkin area of northern Vietnam. The Vietminh up again active guerrilla operations during the Japanese occupation of World War II and in September 1945 and their leader, Ho Chi Minh, proclaimed a Vietnamese republic in Hanoi. The French opposed independence, and launched a military offensive. Ho Chi Minh was forced to flee Hanoi and begin a guerrilla war in December 1946. By 1950, foreign communist aid had increased Vietminh strength to the point where the French were forced into defensive lines around the Red River delta but Vietminh attempts to win the war failed in 1951. Guerrilla operations continued until an ill advised French attempt to seek a decisive engagement let to the encirclement and defeat of their forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The war, and French rule in Indo-China, were formally terminated at the Geneva conference in April through July of that year.

• Spanish Succession, War of the (1701-13)

a conflict that arose on the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in 1700. One of his sisters had married Louis XIV, the other Emperor Leopold, so both the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs claimed the right to rule the Spanish Empire, which included the southern Netherlands, Milan, Naples, and most of Central and South America. Before Charles II's death William III took a leading part in negotiations to preempt the crisis, and a partition Treaty was signed in 1698 between Louis XIV and William, that Spain and its possessions would be shared out between France, Austria, and Joseph Ferdinand, the seven-year-old Elector of Bavaria, grandson of Leopold. Charles II meanwhile left all of Spain's empire to Joseph Ferdinand. When he died, Louis and Williams signed a second partition in 1699. However, Charles II left to wield the leaving his whole empire to Louis XIV's second grandson, the future Philip the fifth. Louis accepted this will end, instead of a laying European fears of French domination, intervened in Spanish affairs, sees the Dutch barrier fortresses, recognized James seconds signed as King of England, and refused to make it impossible for Philip also to inherit the French throne. In 1701, William III formed a grand alliance of the English and Dutch with the Austrian candidate, the Archduke Charles, on the throne; satellite and Portugal later join the alliance. William died in 1702 and the war therefore became Queen Anne's war. Fighting took place in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Spain. France's only allies were Bavaria and the people of Castile, who supported Philip V while Catalonia declared for the Archduke Charles. Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy won a series of brilliant victories, including Blenheim. France was invaded in 1709 and the allies were stronger at sea, taking Gibraltar, in 1704. The war came to an end because Castile would not abandon Philip V and when Marlborough fell from power the new Tory government in England began the negotiations, which led to the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

• Spanish Inquisition -

a council authorized by Pope Sixtus IV in 1478 and organized under the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Spain to combat heresy. Its main targets were converted Jews and Muslims, but it was also used against witchcraft and against political enemies. The first Grand Inquisitor was Torquemada. Its methods included the use of torture, confiscation, and burning. It ordered the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the attack on the Moriscos (Muslims living in Spain who were baptized Christians but retained Islamic practices) in 1502, and, after the Reformation attacked all forms of Protestantism. In the 16th century there are 14 Spanish branches and its jurisdiction was extended to the colonies of the new world, including Mexico and Peru, and to the Netherlands and Sicily. Its activities were enlarged in the reign of Philip the second, who favored it as a counterreformation weapon. It was suppressed and finally abolished in the 19th century.

Alamein, El, Battle of (Oct.-Nov. 1942)

a critical battle in Egypt in World War II. In June 1942, the British took up a defensive position in each. One flank rested on the Mediterranean at El Alamein and the other on the salt marshes of the Qattara Depression. In August, General Montgomery was appointed to command the defending eighth Army. He launched an offensive in which, after a heavy artillery preparation, about 1200 tanks advanced, followed by infantry, against the German Afrika Corps commanded by General Rommel. Rommel was handicapped by a grave fuel shortage and had only about 500 tanks. The outnumbered Germans never regained the initiative. Rommel managed to withdraw most of his men back into Libya, but this battle marked the beginning of the end of the North African campaign for Germany.

Antonine Wall

a defensive fortification about 59 C and his long, built across the narrowest part of central Scotland between the first of four and the Firth of Clyde around 140A.D., in the time of Antoninus Pius. It was intended to mark the frontier of the Roman province of Britain, and consisted of a turf wall with a broad ditch in front and a counterscarp bank on the outer edge, with 29 small forts linked by a military road. The Romans, however, were unable to consolidate their positions and in 181 the wall was breached in the northern tribes forced to retreat from the Forth- Clyde frontier, eventually to that established earlier at Hadrian's Wall.

o Barbarossa (Turkish Khayr ad-Din Pasha)(c. 1483-1546) -

a famous corsair and later grand admiral of the Ottoman fleet.he and his brother Aruj first came to fame for their success against Christian vessels in the eastern Mediterranean. Aruj was killed fighting in 1518 and his brother Barbarossa diplomatically ceded Algiers and its territory to the Ottoman sultan. he served as vice rolling until 1533, when he was made grand Admiral. In 1534 he took Tunis, but Charles V expelled him in 1535. After a number of minor engagements he retired in 1544

▪ El Dorado -

a fictitious country (a city, according to some) abounding in gold, believed by the Spanish and by Sir Walter Raleigh to exist upon the Amazon. The origin of the belief, which led Spanish conquistadors to converge on the area in search of treasure, appears to have been rumors of an Indian ruler, in what is now Colombia, who ritually coated his body with gold dust and then plunged into a sacred lake while his subjects threw in gold and jewels.

• Kursk, Battle of (July 1943)

a fierce tank battle between the Red Army and German invasion forces around Kursk in the Central European Soviet Union. Hitler had ordered the elimination of the important railway junction of Kursk. Under Field Marshal Walter Model, he concentrated 2700 tanks and assault guns on the city, supported by over 1000 aircraft. They were confronted by Marshal Zhukov's Tank Army, backed by five infantry armies. Many of the large German tanks were mined and others became stuck in the mud. The Russians had more guns, tanks, and aircraft, and when they counterattacked, the Germans were forced to retreat, losing some 70,000 men, 1500 tanks, and 1000 aircraft. The battle is ensured that the German army would never regain the initiative on the Eastern Front.

• Lepanto, Battle of (1571) -

a great sea battle near the northern entrance to the Gulf of Corinth On one side were the Ottomans, who were seeking to drive the Venetians out of the eastern Mediterranean. On the other were the Holy League forces of Venice, Spain, Genoa, and the papacy, under Don John of Austria. Despite the Ottomans' superior number of galleys, the League won the battle. Lepanto was the last naval action fought between galleys manned by oarsmen and the first major Turkish defeat by the Christian powers, but it was not followed up, and had little long-term effect on Ottoman power.

▪ Atlantic Charter

a joint declaration of principles to guide a post-World War II peace settlement. It resulted from a meeting at sea between Churchill and FDR on August 14, 1941. It's stipulated freely chosen governments, free trade, freedom of the seas, and disarmament of current aggressor states, and it condemn territorial changes made against the wishes of local populations. A renunciation of territorial ambitions on the part of Britain and the US was also prominent. In the following month other states fighting the Axis powers, including the USSR, declared their support for these principles. The Atlantic Charter provided the ideological base for the United Nations organization.

• Spanish Armada -

a large naval and military force that Philip II of Spain sent to invade England in 1588. It consisted of 130 ships, carrying about 8,000 sailors and 19,000 infantrymen, under the command of the inexperienced Duke of Medina Sidonia. The Spanish fleet was delayed by a storm off Corunna, and was first sighted by the English naval commanders on July 19, who harassed them with long-range guns, until the armada anchored off Calais. Unable to liaise with an additional force from the Low Countries led by Farnese, its formation was wrecked by English fireships during the night and as it tried to escape it suffered a further pounding from the English fleet before a strong wind drove the remaining vessels into the North Sea and they were forced to make their way back to Spain round the north of Scotland and the west of Ireland. Barely half the original Armada returned to port.

• Stalingrad, Battle of (1942-43)

a long and bitter battle in World War II in which the German advance into the Soviet Union was turned back. During 1942 the German 6th Army under General von Paulus reached the key city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) on the Volga. Soviet resistance continued, with grim and prolonged house to house fighting, while sufficient Soviet reserves were being assembled. The Germans were prevented from crossing the Volga and in November stall and launched a winter offensive of six Soviet armies under Marshalls Zhukov, Koniev, Petrov, and Malinovsky. By January 1943 the Germans were surrounded and von Paulus surrendered, losing some 330,000 troops killed or captured. This defeat marked the end of German success on the Eastern Front.

▪ Bannockburn, Battle of (June 24, 1314) -

a major battle fought between Edward II of England and Robert I (the Bruce) of Scotland at Bannockburn, about 2 miles from Stirling in Scotland. Edward's large invading army, perhaps 20,000 strong, was outmaneuvered and forced into the Bannock burn (or river) and adjacent marshes. It was a disastrous defeat for the English, and Edward was lucky to be able to flee to safety.

• *Coral Sea, Battle of the (1942)

a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces from the U.S. and Australia, taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II in the Coral Sea, between Australia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. The battle is historically significant as the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. Beginning on 7 May, the carrier forces from the two sides engaged in airstrikes over two consecutive days. On the first day, the U.S. sank the Japanese light carrier Shōhō; meanwhile, the Japanese sank a U.S. destroyer and heavily damaged a fleet oiler (which was later scuttled). The next day, the Japanese fleet carrier Shōkaku was heavily damaged, the U.S. fleet carrier Lexington critically damaged (and later scuttled), and Yorktown damaged. With both sides having suffered heavy losses in aircraft and carriers damaged or sunk, the two forces disengaged and retired from the battle area. Because of the loss of carrier air cover, Inoue recalled the Port Moresby invasion fleet, intending to try again later. Although a tactical victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk, the battle would prove to be a strategic victory for the Allies for several reasons. The battle marked the first time since the start of the war that a major Japanese advance had been checked by the Allies. More importantly, the Japanese fleet carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku - the former damaged and the latter with a depleted aircraft complement - were unable to participate in the Battle of Midway the following month, while Yorktown did participate, ensuring a rough parity in aircraft between the two adversaries

• Teheran Conference (Nov. 28-Dec. 1, 1943)

a meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin in the Iranian capital. Here Stalin, invited for the first time to an inter-Allied conference, was told of the impending opening of a second front to coincide with a Soviet offensive against Germany. The three leaders discussed the establishment of the United Nations after the war, and Stalin pressed for a future Soviet sphere of influence in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, while guaranteeing the independence of Iran.

• Yalta Conference (Feb. 4-11, 1945)

a meeting between the Allied leaders Stalin, Churchill, and FDR at Yalta and the Soviet Union. They discussed the final stages of World War II, as well as a subsequent division of Germany. Stalin obtained agreement that the Ukraine and Outer Mongolia should be admitted as full members to the United Nations, whose founding conference was to be convened in San Francisco two months later. Stalin also gave a secret undertaking to enter the war against Japan after the unconditional surrender of Germany and was promised the Kuril Islands and an occupation zone in Korea. The meeting between the Allied heads of state was followed five months later by the Potsdam conference.

▪ Casablanca Conference (1943)

a meeting in Morocco between Churchill and FDR to determine Allied strategy for the continuation of World War II. Plans were made to increase bombing of Germany, invade Sicily, and transfer British forces to the Far East after the collapse of Germany.

Basque -

a member of an ethnic group inhabiting the Western Pyrenees on both sides of the French-Spanish border. This region is known as the* country. The *s possess a distinctive culture and language, perhaps the result of their relative isolation from the rest of Europe until comparatively recently. It is been suggested that their ancestors migrated to Europe from the Caucasus about 12,000 years ago and about 5000 years ago moved to the * country. Although the * country is divided between Spain and France, the Basques have maintained an identity separate from both states. From the 14th century onwards the * were renowned for their fishing and whaling skills. * culture underwent a revival in the late 19th century, which ensured its continuance into the 20th century. During the Spanish Civil War, the Basques supported the Republic; in reprisal, German aircraft acting on behalf of Franco's Nationalists destroyed the Basque town of Guernica in 1937. Under Franco's regime, concerted attempts were made to suppress the * culture and language. In response to what they consider continuing efforts to stifle their culture by the imposition of centralized authority, many *s in Spain have campaign for an independent * state, through the Nationalist party Herri Batasuna or its violent military wing ETA (Basque Fatherland and Liberty).

• Spanish Civil War (1936-39) -

a military struggle between left- and right-wing elements in Spain. After the fall of Primo de Rivera in 1930 and the eclipse of the Spanish monarchy in 1931, Spain was split. On the one had were such politically powerful groups as the monarchists and the Falange, on the other were the Republicans, the Catalan and Basque separatists, socialists, communists, and anarchists. The elections of February 1936 gave power to a left-wing Popular Front government, causing strikes, riots, and military plots. In July 1936 the generals Jose Sanjurjo and Francisco Franco in Spanish Morocco led an unsuccessful coup against the republic, and civil war began. In 1937 Franco's Nationalists overran the Basque region, which supported the Republicans in the hope of ultimate independence. Franco then divided the Republican forces by conquering territory between Barcelona and Valencia (1938). The Republicans, weakened by internal intrigues and by the withdrawal of Soviet support, attempted a desperate counterattack. It failed, and Barcelona fell to Franco in early 1939, quickly followed by Madrid. Franco became the head of the Spanish state and the Falange was made the sole legal party. The civil war inspired while Italy and Germany supplied men to the Nationalists. Bombing of civilians by German pilots and the destruction of the Basque town of Guernica (1937) became the symbol of fascist ruthlessness and inspired Picasso's famous painting. As members of the International Brigades, left-wing and communist volunteers from many countries fought for the Republican cause. The war cost about 750,000 Spanish lives.

▪ Blitzkrieg (German 'lightning war')

a military tactic employed by the Germans in World War II, which was especially successful in campaigns against Poland, France, Greece, and the Soviet Union. It employed a fast-moving tanks and motorized infantry, supported by dive bombers, to throw superior but slower enemy forces off balance and thereby win crushing victories rapidly and with small expenditure of men and materials. In Britain, where it was known as 'The Blitz', it consisted of an air assault on British cities in 1940. After 1941, Germany's enemies were better prepared and new battlefields in the Soviet Union and Africa or less suited to the technique.

• Jutland, Battle of (1916) -

a naval battle between Britain and Germany, fought in the North Sea off the coast of Jutland. The only major battle fought at sea in World War I, it began between two forces a battle cruisers, the British under Admiral Beatty and the Germans under von Hipper. Suffering heavy losses, Beatty sailed to join the main British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Jellicoe, which then engaged the German High Seas Fleet under Scheer. The battle began at long range at 6 p.m., but as the Germans headed for home in the night, they collided with the British fleet, several ships sinking in the ensuing chaos. Both sides claim victory. The British lost 14 ships, including three battle cruisers; the Germans lost 11 ships, including one battleship and one battle cruiser; but the British retained control of the North Sea, the German fleet stay in port for the rest of the war.

• Leyte Gulf, Battle of (October 1944)

a naval battle off the Philippines. In the campaign to recover the Philippines, US forces landed on the island of Leyte. For Japanese naval forces converge to attack US transports, but a series of scattered engagements 40 Japanese ships were sunk, 46 were damaged, and 405 planes destroyed. The Japanese fleet, having failed to halt the invasion, withdrew from Philippine waters.

• Northeast Passage -

a passage for ships eastwards along the northern coast of Europe and Asia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean, sought for many years as a possible trade route to the east. It was first navigated in 1878-79 by the Swedish Arctic explorer Baron Nordenskjöld.

• guerrilla (Spanish, 'little war')

a person taking part in a regular fighting by small groups acting independently. The word was coined during the Peninsula War (1807-14) to describe the Spanish partisans fighting the armies of Napoleon. From Spain the use of the word spread to Sout America and thence to the USA. Guerrilla warfare avoids full-scale military confrontation while keeping the enemy under pressure with many small-scale skirmishes. The technique is suited to harsh terrain, particularly jungle and mountainous areas, and his been used effectively by materially weak forces against militarily strong opponents, where there are few opportunities for conventional military forces to use superior firepower. During World War II guerrillas formed the basis of the resistance movements that harassed the Japanese and German occupying forces. In post-war years they have become associated with such revolutionary movements as those in the South America under Che Guevara.

• Dunkirk evacuation

a seaborne rescue of British and French troops in World War II (May 26-June 4, 1940). German forces advancing into northern France cut off large numbers of British and French troops. General Gort, commanding the British Expeditionary Force, organized a withdrawal to the port and beaches of Dunkirk, where warships, aided by small private boats, carried off some 330,000 men - most, but not all, of the troops.

• Sèvres, Treaty of (1920) -

a treaty, part of the first side peace settlement, signed between the allies and Turkey, affectively marking the end of the Ottoman Empire. Adrianople and most of the hinterland to Constantinople (now Istanbul) passed to Greece; the Bosporus was internationalized and de-militarized; a short-lived independent Armenian was created; Syria became a French mandate; and Britain excepted the mandate for Iraq, Palestine, and Transjordan. The treaty was rejected by Ataturk, who secured a redefinition of Turkey's borders by the treaty of Lausanne.

alcazar (Arabic al-kasr, 'the palace')

a type of fortress in Spain, built by the Christians during their 14th and 15th century wars against the Moors. It was usually rectangular with great corner towers, and contained an open space or patio surrounded by chapels, hospitals, and salons. The most renowned is the Alcázar of Seville, built by King Pedro the Cruel (1334-69). The most splendid and Muslim fortress palace and Spain is the Alhambra ('the red'), built by the Moorish monarchs of Granada, chiefly between 1238 and 1358.

▪ *Audiencias -

also called Real Audiencias, they were appellate courts in Spain and its empire. Historian Peter Bakewell called these courts the prime conduit of the Spanish monarchy's force in the New World. Each audiencia had judges called oidores. These colonial courts served administrative and judicial functions. These courts were theoretically subordinate to viceroys, royal appointees that governed the territories of Spain, such as New Granada and the Rio de la Plata. The House of Bourbon's reforms created new audiencias.

• *Monte Cassino, Battle of (1944) -

also known as the Battle for Rome, it was a costly series of four assaults by the Allies against the Winter Line in Italy held by Axis forces during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The intention was a breakthrough to Rome. At the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans. Monte Cassino, a historic hilltop abbey founded in AD 529, dominated the nearby town of Cassino. Lying in a protected historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans, although they manned some positions set into the steep slopes below the abbey's walls. Repeated pinpoint artillery attacks on Allied assault troops caused their leaders to conclude the abbey was being used by the Germans as an observation post, at the least. Fears escalated along with casualties and in spite of a lack of clear evidence, it was marked for destruction. On 15 February American bombers dropped 1,400 tons of high explosives, creating widespread damage. The raid failed to achieve its objective, as German paratroopers occupied the rubble and established excellent defensive positions amid the ruins. Between 17 January and 18 May, Monte Cassino and the Gustav defences were assaulted four times by Allied troops, the last involving twenty divisions attacking along a twenty-mile front. The German defenders were finally driven from their positions, but at a high cost. The capture of Monte Cassino resulted in 55,000 Allied casualties, with German losses being far fewer, estimated at around 20,000 killed and wounded.

• Normandy Campaign (June-August 1944) -

an Allied counteroffensive in Europe in World War II. A series of landings were made on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning on June 6, 1944 (D-Day). The five beaches have been designated for the Allied invasion, codename 'Operation Overlord', for which General Eisenhower was the supreme commander. 'Operation Neptune' was the codename given to the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord', its mission to gain a foothold on the continent. British and Canadian troops fought across the eastern beaches (the British landed on Sword and Gold beaches, the Canadians on Juno beach), the US forces the western (Omaha and Utah beaches). Allied air forces destroyed most of the bridges over the Seine and Loire, preventing the Germans for reinforcing their forward units. On D-Day plus 14 two vast steel and concrete artificial harbors (codename 'Mulberry') were towed across the English Channel. One was sunk by a freak storm, but the second was established at Arromanches, providing the main harbor for the campaign. Meanwhile 20 oil pipelines (codename 'Pluto' -pipeline under the ocean) were laid across the Channel to supply the thousands of vehicles now being landed. The US forces under General Bradley had cut off the Cotentin Peninsula (June 18) and had accepted the surrender of Cherbourg. The British army attacked towards Caen, securing it after heavy fighting on July 9 before the advancing on Falaise. U.S. troops broke through the German defenses to capture the vital communications center of Saint Lo, cutting off the German force under Rommel. The Germans launched a counterattack to work, between the US and British armies in the Falaise Gap, and lost 60,000 men in fierce fighting. Field Marshal model, transferred from the Eastern front, was unable to stem Patton's advance, which now swept across France to Paris, while Montgomery moved his British army up the English Channel. Paris was liberated by General LeClerc on August 26, and Brussels on September 3. Two million troops, 4,000,000 tons of supplies, and 450,000 vehicles had been landed, at the cost of some 224,000 Allied casualties.

Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of (1918)

an agreement between Soviet Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, signed in the town of that name in Poland. The agreement ended Soviet participation in WWI. Trotsky skillfully prolonged discussions in the hope of Allied help for the Russian Revolution or of a socialist uprising of German and Austro-Hungarian workers. Neither happened. Lenin capitulated and ordered his delegates to accept the German terms. By the treaty, Russia surrendered nearly half of its European territory: Finland, the Baltic provinces, Belorussia (now Belarus), Poland, Ukraine, and parts of the Caucasus. The German armistice in the west in 1918 annulled the treaty, but in the Versailles peace settlement Russia only regained the Ukraine.

▪ Axis Powers

an alliance fascist states fighting the Germany during World War II. The term was used in 1936 in an agreement between Hitler and Mussolini proclaiming the creation of a Rome-Berlin 'axis around which all European states can also assemble'. Japan joined the coalition on signing the Anti-Comintern Pact (1936). A full military and political alliance between Germany and Italy (the Pact of Steel) followed in 1939. The Tripartite Pact between the three powers in 1940 cement to the alliance, and, by subsequently joining it, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as the Nazi created states of Slovakia and Croatia, became members.

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)

an international organization seeking to regulate the price of oil. The first move to establish closer links between oil-producing countries were made by Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia in 1949. In 1960, following a reduction in the oil price by the international oil companies, a conference was held in Baghdad of representatives from these countries, when it was decided to set up a permanent organization. This was formed in Caracas, Venezuela, the next year. Other countries later joined: Qatar (1961), Indonesia (1962), Libya (1962), United Arab Emirates (1967), Algeria (1969), Nigeria (1971), Ecuador (1973), and Gabon (1975). Ecuador left OPEC in 1992 and Gabon withdrew in 1995. OPEC's activities extend to all aspects of oil negotiations, including basic oil price, royalty rates, production quotas, and government profits. The organization rose t prominence in the mid-19 70s after the virtually quadruple the price of oil over a three-month period ended in 1973, and imposed an embargo on Western consumers who had supported Israel and the Arab-Israel (Yom Kippur) war. OPEC's successful use of the oil weapon had important repercussions for North-South relations, inspiring greater assertiveness among developing countries, and giving weight to their demands for a new international economic order. Some Arab states made large profits from the sale of oil during this period.

• Nuremberg Trials (1945-46)

an international tribunal for Nazi war criminals. The trials were complex and controversial, there being few precedents for using international law relating to the conduct of states to judge the activities of individuals. The charges were: conspiracy against peace, crimes against peace, violation of the laws and customs of war, crimes against humanity. As a result of the trial several Nazi organizations, such as the Gestapo and the SS, were declared to be criminal bodies. Individual judgments against a 24 wartime leaders included death sentences, imprisonment, and not guilty. 10 prisoners were executed, while Goering and Ley committed suicide. Rudolf Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment.

• Operation Gunnerside (1943) -

an operation in which the Allies successfully sabotaged the production of heavy water by the Germans at a Norwegian factory. Heavy water was a necessary component for the production of a nuclear bomb by the Germans.

• League of Nations -

an organization for international cooperation established in 1919 by the Versailles peace settlement. A league covenant embodying the principles of collective security, arbitration international disputes, reduction of armaments, and open diplomacy was formulated. Germany was admitted in 1926, but the U.S. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, containing the covenant. Although the league, with its headquarters in Geneva, accomplished much of value in postwar economic reconstruction, it failed in its prime purpose as a result of the refusal of member nations to put international interests before national interests. The league was powerless in the face of Italian, German, and Japanese expansionism. In 1946 and was replaced by the United Nations.

• *Tannenberg, Battle of (1914)

battle during the first month (August) of WWI between Russia and Germany resulting in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army and the suicide of its commanding general, Alexander Samsonov. The German commander was Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, who gained considerable prestige after the battle, along with rising staff-officer Erich Ludendorff. The battle was notable for fast rail movements by the Germans, enabling them to concentrate against each of the two Russian armies in turn, and also for the failure of the Russians to encode their radio messages. The battle actually took place near Allenstein, East Prussia (now Olsztyn, Poland), but Hindenburg named it after Tannenberg, 30 km to the west, in order to, in German eyes, avenge the defeat of the Teutonic Knights 500 years earlier at the Battle of Grunwald (which was always known as the Battle of Tannnenberg in German).

• *Janissaries -

elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops, bodyguards and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established during the reign of Murad I (1362-89). They began as an elite corps of slaves made up of kidnapped young Christian boys who were forcefully converted to Islam and became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical slaves, they were paid regular salaries. Forbidden to marry or engage in trade, their complete loyalty to the Sultan was expected. By the seventeenth century, due to a dramatic increase in the size of the Ottoman standing army, the corps' initially strict recruitment policy was relaxed. Civilians bought their way into it in order to benefit from the improved socioeconomic status it conferred upon them.

▪ *Diem, Ngo Dinh (1901-63) -

first president of South Vietnam, serving from 1955-63 after the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords. He garnered U.S. support due to his staunch anti-communism, but his right-wing dictatorship lost the backing of the U.S. and he was assassinated in 1963.

• Dominic, St. (1170-1221)

founder of the Dominican order of Friars. He was born in Spain, of noble family, but as a young man adopted an austere life, becoming a priest and Canon of Osma Cathedral. In 1215 he attended the Fourth Lateran Council. In that year he founded the Dominicans or 'Black Friars' because they wear a white tunic with a black mantle. The order became very popular in the 13th century, being used by several popes for preaching crusades and for the Inquisition.

• Red Cross -

international agency concerned with the alleviation of human suffering. Its founder, the Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant, horrified by the suffering he saw at the Battle of Solferino, proposed the formation of voluntary aid societies for the relief of war victims. In 1863 th International Committee of the Red Cross was established and in the following year 12 governments signed the Geneva Convention. This throughout the term for the care of soldiers and was extended to include victims of naval warfare (1906), prisoners of war (1929), and, 20 years later, civilians. Its conventions have now been ratified by almost 150 nations. Its flag is a red cross on a white background. In Muslim countries to cross is replaced by a red crescent. The International Red Cross was awarded Nobel peace prizes in 1917 and 1944.

• *Kerensky Offensive (1917)

last Russian offensive in World War I. The offensive was decided upon by Russian Minister of War Alexander Kerensky and led by General Brusilov. After initial success against the Austro-Germans in Galicia, the offensive was halted because Russian soldiers soon mutinied and refused to fight. The Russian provisional government was greatly weakened by this military catastrophe and the possibility of a Bolshevik coup became increasingly likely.

▪ appeasement

name given to the efforts by the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlin, and his French counterpart, Edouard Daladier, to satisfy the demands (1936-39) of the Axis powers. Their policy of appeasement enabled Hitler to occupy of the Rhineland, to annex Austria, and to acquire the Sudeten land and Czechoslovakia after the Munich pact of 1938. Appeasement ended when Hitler, in direct contravention of the servants is given and Munich, invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. A policy of guarantees was then instituted, by which Britain and France pledged themselves to protect Romania, Greece, and Poland should they be attacked by Germany or Italy. The German invasion of Poland five months later signaled the outbreak of World War II.

• Manila Bay, Battle of (May 1, 1898)

naval engagement during the Spanish-American war in the Philippines, in which a US fleet under George Dewey sank a Spanish fleet at dawn without losing a man. Do these objective had been to paralyze the Spanish fleet at the outset of the Spanish- American war of 1898 over Cuba, but his overwhelming victory widen the scope of the war by opening the way for US expansion in the Pacific.

• Dresden raid (1945) -

one of the heaviest air-raids on Germany in WWII. The main raid was on the night of Feb. 13-14 by Britain's Bomber Command; 805 bombers attacked the city, which, because of its cultural significance and lack of strategic importance, had until then been safe. The city was known to be overcrowded with some 200,000 refugees, but it was felt that the inevitably high casualties might in the end help to shorten the war. Over 30,000 buildings were flattened

• *Dien Bien Phu, Battle of (1954) -

the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. The French inserted paratroopers into the hills of Dien Bien Phu in northwestern Vietnam in an attempt to cut off Viet Minh supply lines into Laos, a French ally. The Viet Minh under General Vo Nguyen Giap surrounded and besieged the French. The plan was to resupply the French position by air, since the French believed that the Viet Minh had no antiaircraft guns. The Viet Minh brought in vast amounts of artillery (including antiaircraft guns) to overlook the French encampment and devastated them. The war ended shortly after this French defeat and the signing of the 1954 Geneva Accords. France agreed to to withdraw its forces from all its colonies in French Indochina

▪ *Boyaca, Battle of (1819)

the decisive battle which would ensure the success of the liberation campaign of New Granada. The battle of Boyaca is considered the beginning of the independence of the North of South America. This was the final defeat of the Spanish Royalist forces of the New Kingdom of Granada in northern South America under Colonel Barreiro by the Independentist army led by Simon Bolivar. The battle put an end to Spanish control over the American provinces, with the escape of Viceroy Juan de Samano. It also resulted in the creation of Gran Colombia and the start of an autonomous government in the former Spanish provinces. Finally, it led to the subsequent independence of Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and the creation of Bolivia, after a liberation campaign. The battle occurred 150 km from Bogotá in the Andes Mountains, close to a bridge over the Teatinos River.

• Leningrad, Siege of (September 1941-January 1944)

the defense of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) against the Germans by the Soviet army in World War II. The German army had intended to capture Leningrad in the 1941 campaign but as a result of slow progress in the Baltic area and the reluctance of Germany's Finnish ally to assist, the city held out in a siege that lasted nearly 900 days.

Cortés, Hernando (1485-1547)

the first of the Spanish conquistadors. Cortés as a young man chose to win a livelihood in the New World. He went to Hispaniola and later to Cuba, where he received an encomienda and for a period became mayor of a small town. In 1519 he was elected captain of the third expedition to the mainland, an expedition which he partly funded. His enmity with the governor of Cuba Diego Velázquez resulted in the latter calling back the expedition in the last moment, an order which was ignored by Cortés in an act of disobedience. Arriving on the continent Cortés executed a successful strategy of allying with some indigenous peoples against others. He also successfully used a native woman, Doña Marina, as interpreter. Later, she would bear Cortés a son. When the Governor of Cuba sent emissaries to arrest Cortés he fought them and won and used the extra troops as reinforcements. Instead he wrote letters directly to the king asking to be acknowledged for his successes instead of punished for mutiny. Cortés was believed by the Aztecs to be the god-king Quetzalcóatl and was able to overthrow the Aztec empire with a comparatively small army of adventures. In 1521 he destroyed the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán completely an established Mexico City as the new capital of Mexico (then called new Spain), serving briefly as governor of the colony. When the Aztec empire was overthrown Cortés was awarded the title of Marques del Valle de Oaxaca, while the more prestigious title of Viceroy was given to relatives of the king. Cortés returned to Spain where he died peacefully but embittered.

• Oder-Neisse Line

the frontier, formed by these two rivers, established between Poland and Soviet occupied Germany in 1945: it had once marked the frontier of medieval Poland. As a result of an agreement at the Potsdam Conference, nearly 1/5 of Germany's territory in 1938 was reallocated, mainly to Poland. Germans were expelled from these eastern territories, which were resettled by Poles. The frontier, which became the eastern boundary of the German Democratic Republic, was later accepted by the Federal Republic (West Germany) as part of the policy of detente known as Ostpolitik, and confirmed in 1990 when reunification took place.

• Potsdam Conference (July 17-August 2, 1945)

the last of the World War II summit conferences, held in the former Hohenzollern palace at Potsdam, outside Berlin, the conference was attended by Churchill (replaced by Attlee during its course), Stalin, and Truman. It implicitly acknowledged Soviet predominance in Eastern Europe by, on on other things, accepting Polish and Soviet administration of certain German territories, and by agreeing to the transfer of the 10 million or so German people in these territories and other parts of Eastern Europe to Germany. It established a council of foreign ministers to handle peace treaties, made plans to introduce representative and elective principles of government to Germany, discussed reparations, outlawed the Nazi party, de-monopolized much of German industry, and decentralized its economy. The final agreement, vaguely worded and tentative, was consistently breached in the aftermath of the German surrender, as the communist and capitalist countries polarized into their respective blocs. The Potsdam Declaration demanded from Japan the choice between unconditional surrender or total destruction.

▪ Ardennes Campaign (also called the Battle of the Bulge) (December 16-26, 1944)

the last serious German counteroffensive against Allied armies advancing into Germany in World War II. It resulted from a decision by Hitler to make an attack through hilly, wooded country and thereby take the US forces by surprise. Last-ditch resistance at several points, notably at Bastogne, held the Germans up long enough for the Allies to recover and prevent the Germans reaching their objective of Antwerp.

• Maginot line -

the line of defensive fortifications built along France's northeastern frontier from Switzerland to Luxembourg, completed in 1936, in which the French placed excessive confidence. Partly because of objections from the Belgians, who were afraid they would be left in an exposed position, the line was not extended along the Franco-Belgian frontier to the coast. Consequently although the defenses proved impregnable to frontal assault, the line was easily outflanked when the Germans invaded France in the spring of 1940. It is named after the French Minister of war Andre Maginot.

• Saud -

the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. Originally established at Dariyya in Wadi Hanifa, Nejd, in the 15th century, its fortunes grew after 1745 when Muhammad ibn Saud allied himself with the Islamic revivalist Abd alWahhab, who later became the spiritual guide of the family. The firs wave of Saudi expansion ended with defeat by Egypt in 1818, but Saudi fortunes revived under Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, who captured Riyadh in 1902, and other territories that formed the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Abd al-Aziz was succeeded by his sons Saud (1953-64), Faisal ibn Abd Al-Aziz (1964-75), Hkalid (1975-82), and Fahd (1982- ), as rulers of the richest oil state in the world.

• Marne, Battles of (Sept. 5-12, 1914; July 15-Aug. 7, 1918) -

two battles along the River Marne in east central France in World War I. The first battle marked the climax and defeat of the German plan to destroy the French forces before Russian mobilization was complete. By September the Germans were within 24 km of Paris and the government moved to Bordeaux. Joffre's successful counter offensive has been hailed as one of the decisive battles in history. The retreating Germans dug themselves in north of the River Aisne, setting the pattern for trench warfare on the Western front. The second battle ended Ludendorff's final offenses, when, on July 18, Foch ordered a counterattack.

• Rapallo, Treaties of -

two treaties signed at Rapallo, a city in northern Italy. The first Treaty of Rapallo (1920) established relations between Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia). Italy obtained the Istrian peninsula while Dalmatia went to Yugoslavia. Fiume (Rijeka) became a free city. The Second Treaty of Rapallo (1922) was more important. It recorded an agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union. The two countries agreed to abandon any financial claims that each might bring against the other following World War I. Secretly, in defiance of the Versailles peace settlement, German soldiers were to be permitted to train in the Soviet Union.

• Gallipoli campaign (1915-16) -

unsuccessful Allied attempt to force a passage through the Dardanelles during World War I. Its main aims were to force Turkey out of the war, and to open a safe sea route to Russia. A naval expedition, launched in February and March 1915, failed. A military expedition, relying mainly upon British, Australian, and New Zealand troops, with some naval support, with an attempted. The first landings, on the Gallipoli Peninsula and on the Asia mainland opposite, were made in April 1915. Turkish resistance was strong and, although further landings were made, fighting on the peninsula reached a stalemate. The Australian casualties on Gallipoli were 8587 killed and 19,367 wounded. The Allied troops were withdrawn. Winston Churchill, who was largely responsible for the campaign, was blamed for its failure.