In the early morning hours of April 13, 1861, after withstanding an artillery bombardment lasting more than twenty-four hours, a small garrison of U.S. troops under the command of Major Robert Anderson raised a white flag of surrender over ...

Ancient Mesopotamia is located in a land that we know today as the Fertile Crescent. In Greek the word "Mesopotamia" means "land between the rivers." According to many scholars it is considered the first civilization. And as it is a rich ag...

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest military powers the world had ever seen. They conquered a large amount of the civilized world by using excellent and superior weapons. The Romans had many weapons that they used in wars and battles...

MONASTERY. [This entry discusses the architecture of Christian monasteries. For discussion of monasteries in Asian religions, see Temple, articles on Buddhist Temple Compounds, Daoist Temple Compounds, and Confucian Temple Compounds. For f...

Why do fame and fortune cause people to lie about their experiences? Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay both wrote essays containing versions of their journey to the South Summit of Mount Everest. In each of their essays they have some...

"When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already. . . . What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know not...

Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World, although an accident, was an event that changed the world. Columbus had intended to reach the riches of Japan, India, and China by sailing west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean, instead o...

Nature and the Arts. An area of great human, natural, and climatic variety, West Africa is inhabited by indigenous and migrant populations that have lived for at least ten thousand years in an area larger than the United States. The geograp...

The Nuremberg war trials are an extremely controversial issue, debating the justification of the trials. However, for these men to commit crimes against peace, planning and waging wars of aggression, and war crimes on humanity, I believe th...

Having not really remembered much about the history of The Oregon Trail, I was highly impressed and moved by such an intriguing story. I fully believe that The Oregon Trail was much more than a pathway to the state of Oregon. The places we ...

Less than three months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the mass removal and incarceration of all Japanese Americans living on the...

Today most people enjoy hearing about the myths of pirates and how they existed in the 1500's. Most people don't realize that they exist today; they believe that they were just a myth in stories and legends. Pirates exist now and more tha...

"WANTED--young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over 18. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 a week..." (Biggs 7) When this notice entered the paper in 1860, half a million Americans lived west of the ...

Religion in New England town was extremely important. The people that lived here were the Puritans. To the Puritans religion was everything and their whole lives were based on their religion. Wanting to purify their religion, the...

The "rebirth of the arts", in the time period known simply as the Renaissance, created new opportunities for talented artists, architects, and writers. The writers are especially well known, for their re-introduction of drama in entertainme...

The 1920's was names the Decade of Extremes, meaning that social groups throughout the USA benefited varyingly; the minority of groups which did roar, roared to a very large extent, but the many who didn't roar suffered enormously; hence, t...

Roger Brooke Taney (1777-1864) was an American political leader and as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court greatly contributed to constitutional law. Roger B. Taney was born in Calvert County, Md., on March 17, 1777, into a landed, sla...

Growth of the New World depended on African slave labor. Slaves tilled the land in North America and the West Indies and mined precious ores in South America, bringing wealth to the European settlers. Transporting these slaves across the At...

Both challenging and skilled warriors, an excellent comparison can be drawn between the samurai and the knights. Each combatant had particular goals and characteristics, but was alike in many aspects. Both parties represented the ide...

The first American colonists arrived on the coasts on America in 1607. As time went on, and the colonies grew, colonists found that there was a high demand for labor. Slavery was the cheapest and easiest form of labor for the colonists, s...

The mission period began in California in 1769 with the founding of the mission in San Diego. The mission period lasted until the mid-1830s. During this time twenty-one missions were created from San Diego to north of San Francisco, over a ...

The Taliban (plural of talib, which is Arabic/Persian for "student of Islamic religious law") regime ruled Afghanistan from November 1994 to November 2001 under the leadership of mullah Muhammad Omar (b. 1959). After the terr...

The first modern American president, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was also one of the most popular, important, and controversial. During his years in office he greatly expanded the power of the presidency. A strong nationalist and a reso...

Thomas Jefferson's universally acknowledged importance as a statesman has tended to overshadow his very substantial contributions to American literature. He was the penman of the American Revolution who, more than any other single person, ...

Era of Australopithecus, the first hominid...