Not signed in (Sign In)
Categories
- Main Junction
- CROSSED
- London Zoo
- Freakangels
- Music
- Printheads
- Culturegasm
- Web Nuggets
- WorldWeird
- Blogs
Welcome, Guest
Vanilla is a product of Lussumo:
Documentation and Support.
-
- CommentAuthorlooneynerd
- CommentTimeMar 17th 2009
@Jigsy
Was the Chagatai Khanate the same thing as the "white horde"? -
No. The White Horde was the eastern portion of the Golden horde. I think it encompassed modern kazakhstan. It did border the Chagatai Khanate though, and Chagatai means "the white", so it's a fair guess.
-
- CommentAuthorKosmopolit
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009 edited
"The animated maps themselves are pretty but I have no idea if they're accurate. "
The "history of Religion" seems to have some fairly major flaws in the Asian section - like showing South East Asia as converting to Buddhism relatively late; showing the Phillipines as Buddhist in the pre-Christian era; Missing the period of Buddhist dominance in India and showing Islam as covering the whole of the territory of the current Republic of Indonesia including Hindu-majority Bali and the christian-majority areas of the Molluccas and Papua. I think the average shintoist would also have a problem with Japan being simply labelled "Buddhist". Ditto for Daoists in China.
Similarly I'd have to say that omitting the United Provinces of the Netherlands from the history of democracy is a pretty major oversight. -
- CommentAuthorKosmopolit
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
I'm having trouble runnign the maps from Timemap but they look a lot more accurate than the "Maps of War" ones. -
- CommentAuthorlooneynerd
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
Timemap? -
-
CommentAuthorRootfireember
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
To Looney and the rest of the historians among us:
1)What in particular drew you folks to the field? What inspires you to keep researching and doing the work you do?
2) What're among the most interesting obscure historical trivia you know? -
-
- CommentAuthorlooneynerd
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
1: Well I always liked history. Growing up in Germany, my mom always made sure to take me to the different museums and historical sites around the country. It was always my best subject in high school, and after a while I had enough undergraduate credits in it to major, so that's what I did! I'm inspired by the pay, mostly. Like everyone. In a less capitalistic-sense though, I love my field. I love reading for a living.
2: Well a pro-historian's opinion of "interesting historical trivia" would bore the crap out of most people. Stuff like historiographical theory as it applies to linguistic movements revolving around religious diasporas. I know a few that might interest people though.
-Von Blucher, commander of Prussian forces at the battle of Waterloo was senile and was struck insane after falling from his horse. He insisted on leading the Prussian Blacks' charge into the French lines because he was under the impression that he was pregnant... with an elephant... and one of the French Infantrymen was the one who had done it to him.
-The Lycians were the first democrats. The Greeks were mostly brutal monarchies.
-The Greeks got most of their ideas (including political, philosophical, and religious) from the Egyptians. This fact was later glossed over during the colonial period, because the Egyptians were black.
-The earliest known permenantly inhabited settlement is Catalhoyuk, Turkey.
-The first trans-continental human flight took place in 1638 in Constantinople (now Istanbul). A man flew a primitive hand glider from Galata tower on the European side of the Bosphorous to the Asian side. He was then exiled from the Ottoman empire by the Sultan, who feared the man would figure out how to militarize his flyer and take over the Sultanate.
-Most gold found in Europe, even today, comes originally from Africa. Charlemagne's kingdom, as well as the Roman empire, were funded with gold from African Empires. At it's height, the Kingdom of Songhai had enough gold to purchase all of the land in Western Europe (Including modern day Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and the UK).
-Napoleon wasn't very short. He was average height for the time. He is always pictured with his Imperial guards, who had a required height of at least 6'1, abnormally tall for the time. -
Ohh my favorite bit of trivia involves this portrait:
It's the official court poirtrait of Genghis Khan. Even though it was painted by a Chinese artist decades after Genghis' death it's probably the most accurate image of Genghis in existence because (supposedly) when Khubilai Khan commissioned the portrait he brought in several old generals who served under Genghis to supervise the artist and ensure a proper likeness. -
- CommentAuthorKosmopolit
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
Timemap - the site linked to by Thom at 58 above.
http://www.timemap.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=124&Itemid=147 -
- CommentAuthorKosmopolit
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
"The Lycians were the first democrats. The Greeks were mostly brutal monarchies. "
There were also democratic city-states in India. when Alexander the Great invaded India, far from spreading Greek ideas of democracy, he crushed several of the native Indian democracies and replaced them with a monarchy under one of his generals.
That story about the first human flight between continents ties in nicely with my earlier question about why the Ottomans fell behind the European states in science and technology. When you're on top you have more to lose from disruptive technologies. -
- CommentAuthorlooneynerd
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
Yeah. The ottomans almost fell because of the power the Janissaries (the professional musket-wielding infantry of the empire) became too powerful. It took the Sipahis, traditional horse archers similar in role to Feudal military knights, to take the power from them and return it to the Sultan. -
"Stuff like historiographical theory as it applies to linguistic movements revolving around religious diasporas."
Part of me wants to ask if that's a reference to Gabrielle Spiegel's AHA address. The other part of me doesn't really want to know, in case I actually did recognize what you're talking about. -
-
CommentAuthorBrendan McGinley
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
Aristotle cites the Phoenicians as having the first constitution. Though they were by and large an oligarchy, Carthage was a Republic well before Rome.
Gods, I love Carthage. -
-
- CommentAuthorlooneynerd
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
@Jess
It's actually what I'm doing my thesis on before I move out of coursework... lol
@Brendan
That we've found, the oldest constitution on the planet is from the Hittites. Earlier or contemporary groups had codified sets of laws (Hammurabi's code), but theirs was somewhat close to a modern constitution. And I agree. Carthage is completely kickass. one of these days I'm going to get me a visa to Tunisia, just you watch... -
You have to do a thesis before finishing course work? Are you in a joint MA/PhD program?
You might want to look at Gabrielle Spiegel's AHA address, then. Unless by "linguistic movements" you mean something other than the linguistic turn. -
- CommentAuthorlooneynerd
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
Sort of. I'm finishing my MA at my undergrad university then transferring to Chicago for my Ph.D program. It's... kind of a complicated situation.
Basically, it's an analysis of the study of linguistics that revolve around the movement of central religious movements. Like the spread of classical Arabic with the rise of conservative Sufi Tariqs in the Ottoman empire. -
Chicago has a decent PhD program in history. Good luck with that. :) I'm an early modernist myself, and history PhD programs are almost always complicated situations. No need to explain!
-
- CommentAuthorlooneynerd
- CommentTimeMar 18th 2009
Chicago and Penn happen to be the two best in my field. Penn is normally considered the top, but I have a bunch of personal reasons for not wanting to go there, so Chicago is the best option for me.What area do you work on? -
Early America, Early Modern Europe, Women & Gender, Science -- some strange combination of all of that. Penn's a lovely program. I've been there to visit the McNeil center and had good conversations with the faculty.
-
- CommentAuthorScrymgeour
- CommentTimeMar 20th 2009
@looneynerd, im not so sure about the comment you made re: diffusion of democracy from Egypt. The developement of Egyptian Civilisation was my forte at university and i dont think anything they did was ever close to a democracy. Major Beaurocracy, but not democracy.
I think its more likely that democracy independently eveolved and converged (like flight) in a variety of places, notably Athens after the Alkmeonids.
Interestingly though, democracy would have been prevalent in most pre-urban societies, quite possibly even in Catalhoyuk. (although i guess its more like true anarchy, no actual leaders etc.)
Same in Egypt, but it was far earlier than the memory of even the greeks. something like 4000bc