Catégorie : Langues
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Qin Dynasty - history.
Terra-Cotta Tomb FiguresMore than 6,000 life-size terra-cotta soldiers and horses were produced for the tomb of the first Chinese emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.The figures remained buried near his burial mound from 210 bc until their discovery in 1974. Since then, they have beenpainstakingly restored to stand in their original formation.Wolfgang Kaehler/Corbis A nomadic empire named Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu) controlled the vast steppe land in northern Asia. During the Warring States period, the northern Chi...
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Roman Art and Architecture - history.
house, records office, and basilica. Imperial Forum, RomeThe Roman Forum was founded at the beginning of the Roman republic (around 500 bc), and it continued to develop into the late 2ndcentury ad. Among the ruins seen here are the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (since converted into a church, background, left),the foundations of the Basilica Julia (foreground, center), and the three remaining columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux(background, right).Donadoni/Bruce Coleman, Inc. The basili...
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Roman Empire - history.
the master of Rome. Three years later the Senate proclaimed him Augustus, the supreme ruler. III THE EMPIRE UNDER AUGUSTUS Roman Emperor AugustusAugustus, the first Roman emperor, brought peace, order, and prosperity to Rome after the civil wars that followed the assassinationof Roman leader Julius Caesar. Caesar had adopted the young Octavian, later known as Augustus, as his heir. After a victory overMark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, Augustus had absolute power over the entire Roman Empire....
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Han Dynasty - history.
of merit rather than birth. Written examinations were adopted as a means of determining the best qualified people, although use of the examinations in actually makingappointments was limited. A school was established at the capital for training government officials. The administrative bureaucracy was systematized, and a career civilservice was created and extended through much of the empire. Although personally interested in the magical side of Daoism, Wudi made a descendent of Confucius the sup...
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Inca Empire - history.
rediscovered the site in 1911.© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Inca society was strictly organized, from the emperor and royal family down to the peasants. The emperor was thought to be descended from the sun god, Inti, and hetherefore ruled with divine authority. All power rested in his hands. Only the influence of custom and the fear of revolt checked the emperor’s power. The emperor had oneofficial wife, but he had many royal concubines and his children by these wives often numbe...
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Indus Valley Civilization - history.
Stone Tablets from Mohenjo-DaroThese stone tablets were found at Mohenjo-Daro, an archaeological site in modern Pakistan. The city of Mohenjo-Daro flourishedduring the Indus Valley civilization (2500?-1700 bc). Merchants used the stone tablets, which show examples of pictographic writing,to mark their goods.Charles and Josette Lenars/Corbis The Indus Valley civilization was first defined by the British archaeologist Sir John Marshall's diggings at Mohenjo-Daro and M. S. Vat's excavations at Hara...
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Maya Civilization - history.
III CLASSIC PERIOD Maya Ruins, El SalvadorThe Maya occupied a large part of Central America, and their civilization reached its height between ad 300 and 900. Many ruins ofthe ancient civilization have been excavated in El Salvador, including huge limestone pyramids.Susan McCartney/Photo Researchers, Inc. Classic Maya civilization became more complex in about AD 300 as the population increased and centers in the highlands and the lowlands engaged in both cooperation and competition with each o...
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Mesopotamia - history.
AssyriaAssyria flourished in the region the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia. An Assyrian king established what was probably the firstcentrally organized empire in the Middle East, between 1813 and 1780 bc. In defending their territory from nomadic invasions,Assyrians gained a reputation in the ancient Middle East for being relentless and ruthless warriors.© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Beginning about 1350 BC, Assyria, a north Mesopotamian kingdom, began to assert itself. Assyr...
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Pyramids (Egypt) - history.
out, to the king’s burial chamber, which ideally was located directly underneath the pyramid’s center point. Sometimes, in addition to the burial chamber, there werestorage chambers within the pyramid. These chambers held objects used in burial rituals as well as items for the deceased to use in the afterlife. Some of these items werevaluable, and in later years people robbed many of the pyramids and stole the objects. Pyramid of Khafre at GizaThe pyramids at Giza in Egypt are among the best-kno...
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Assyria - history.
Assyrian ReliefThis Assyrian relief, made of alabaster, was found at the palace of Assyrian king Sargon II at Khorsabad (now in Iraq). It depictstimber from valuable cedars of Lebanon being shipped by sea. More than 2,500 years old, the sculpture is now in the Louvre in Paris,France.Giraudon/Art Resource, NY Assyrian culture resembled that of Babylonia in most respects. Except for the royal annals, for example, Assyrian literature was practically identical with its Babyloniancounterpart, and the...
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Aztec Empire - history.
and Tlacopan. In 1428 the triple alliance defeated the Tepaneca. Under the Mexica ruler Itzcoatl, his successor Montezuma I, and the Texcocan ruler Netzahualcóyotl, thethree states waged a series of conquests. They eventually established an empire that extended from central Mexico to the Guatemalan border and included many differentstates and ethnic groups, who were forced to pay tribute to the alliance. Tenochtitlán became the dominant power within the alliance. IV AZTEC CIVILIZATION Aztec soc...
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Babylonia - history.
Below the house was often located a mausoleum in which the family dead were buried. The Babylonians believed that the souls of the dead traveled to the nether world,and that, at least to some extent, life continued there as on earth. For this reason, pots, tools, weapons, and jewels were buried with the dead. B Technology The Babylonians inherited the technical achievements of the Sumerians in irrigation and agriculture. Maintaining the system of canals, dikes, weirs, and reservoirsconstructed...
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Greek Art and Architecture - history.
powerful independent city-states. From 334 to 323 BC, Alexander the Great extended his father's empire into Asia Minor (now Turkey), Syria, Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan, and as far as India. D The Hellenistic Period (323-31 BC) Although Alexander the Great extended Greek civilization far beyond the Greek mainland and the boundaries of the Aegean Sea, his empire did not survive his death in 323.After Alexander died, his generals and successors divided the empire into a number of kingdoms: Ptolem...
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Ancient Greece - history.
Palace of KnossosThe ancient city of Knossos was a center of the Minoan civilization, an advanced society on Crete named after Minos, a legendaryCretan king. Skilled in such fields as engineering and architecture, the Minoans constructed the palace at Knossos in 1700 bc. Aserious fire at least three centuries later caused the collapse of the palace and foreshadowed the subsequent decline of the city.Wolfgang Kaehler Settlers had begun sailing from Asia Minor to Crete about 6000 BC because the i...
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Ancient Egypt - history.
The Nile River runs through the ancient city of Thebes in eastern Egypt. For a time, beginning in 2040 bc, Thebes was the capital ofEgypt.Farrell Grehan/Photo Researchers, Inc. According to inscriptions and documents found by archaeologists, the Egyptians called their country Kemet, meaning “the Black Land,” a reference to the dark, fertile soil that remained after the Nile floodwaters had receded. They also used another term, Deshret, or “the Red Land,” a designation for the desert sands th...
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Zululand - history.
however, and had to be satisfied with constant raids and with the payment of tribute. Defeated or terrified chiefdoms who attempted to move out of the range of the Zuluarmies added to the general confusion and devastation of southeastern Africa. In 1824 a small British trading settlement was established at Port Natal (later Durban), which fatefully connected Zululand to the colonial world. Shaka welcomed the Britishhunters and traders as suppliers of exotic goods and, because they had firearms,...
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Acropolis - history.
Peloponnesian War, between Athens and an alliance led by Sparta, finally broke out in 431 BC. Sparta’s alliance defeated Athens, and the Propylaea was never completed. Greek Architectural OrdersThe ancient Greeks developed three major architectural styles, or orders, that determined the major features of a temple facade. TheDoric is the oldest and simplest order. The Ionic and Corinthian orders added a base to the column and developed a more elaboratescheme for the column’s capital. The entabl...
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Aegean Civilization - history.
powers of the sea, which was central to Cycladic life. IV HISTORICAL RECORD Recent archaeological discoveries, such as the excavated village of Dimini in Thessaly, produced material evidence of a cultural progression from the Neolithic (New StoneAge) to the Bronze Age, which commenced about 3000 BC and of which three phases were recognized: Early, Middle, and Late. A Early Bronze Age Cycladic FigureStylized marble figures, like this one, are distinctive of Cycladic culture, the earliest cultur...
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Jomo Kenyatta - history.
the challenge to his leadership and appealed for Kikuyu ethnic solidarity. The 1969 assassination of cabinet minister Tom Mboya—a Luo ally of Kenyatta’s—by a Kikuyu ledto months of tension and violence between the Luo and the Kikuyu. Kenyatta banned Odinga’s party, detained its leaders, and called elections in which only KANU wasallowed to participate. For the remainder of his presidency, Kenya was effectively a one-party state, and Kenyatta made use of detention, appeals to ethnic loyalties, an...
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Kwame Nkrumah - history.
Nkrumah guided the Gold Coast to independence in 1957 under the name Ghana, after an ancient West African empire. IV RULER OF GHANA Nkrumah built a strong central government and attempted to unify the country politically and to muster all its resources for rapid economic development. As a proponent ofPan-Africanism, he sought the liberation of the entire continent from colonial rule, offered generous assistance to other African nationalists, and initially pursued a policy ofnonalignment with ei...