AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Vaccines have made encephalitis from some diseases much less common. These diseases include measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), polio, varicella (chicken pox), and pertussis (whooping cough). There are also vaccines for rabies, bacterial meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and some other diseases that can cause encephalitis.
People can protect themselves from diseases that are spread by insects, like Lyme disease and malaria, by avoiding insect bites. For example, they can use bug spray; wear long sleeves and long pants; sleep under a mosquito net; and make sure they have good window and door screens.
Mitosis is a part of the cycle of cell division. The chromosomes of a cell are copied to make two identical sets of chromosomes, and the cell nucleus divides into two identical nuclei.
Before mitosis, the cell creates an identical set of its own genetic information – this is called replication. The genetic information is in the DNA of the chromosomes. At the beginning of mitosis the chromosomes wind up and become visible with a light microscope. The chromosomes are now two chromatids joined at the centromere. Since the two chromatids are identical to each other, they are called "sister" chromatids.
Mitosis happens in all types of dividing cells in the human body except with sperm and ova. The sperm and ova are gametes or sex cells. The gametes are produced by a different division method called meiosis.
There are five phases of mitosis. Each phase is used to describe what kind of change the cell is going through. The phases are prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase.
During prophase, chromatin (tangled-up DNA) in the nucleus condense into chromosomes (bunched-up DNA). Pairs of centrioles move to opposite sides of the nucleus. Spindle fibers begin to form a bridge between the ends of the cell.
During prometaphase, the nuclear envelope around the chromosomes breaks down. Now there is no nucleus and the sister chromatids are free. A protein called a kinetochore forms at each centromere. Long thin proteins reach across from opposite poles of the cell and attach to each kinetochore.
During metaphase, the pair of chromatids are aligned by the pushing and pulling of the attached kinetochore microtubules, similar to a game of "tug of war". Both sister chromatids stay attached to each other at the centromere. The chromosomes line up on the cell's equator, or center line, and are prepared for division. This is the longest phase of mitosis.
During anaphase, the sister chromatids split apart and move from the cell's equator (metaphase plate) to the poles of the cell. The kinetochore is attached to the centromere. The microtubules hold on to kinetochore and shorten in length. Another group of microtubules, the non-kinetochore microtubules, do the opposite. They become longer. The cell begins to stretch out as the opposite ends are pushed apart.
Telophase is the final stage in mitosis: the cell itself is ready to divide. One set of chromosomes is now at each pole of the cell. Each set is identical. The spindle fibers begin to disappear, and a nuclear membrane forms around each set of chromosomes. Also, a nucleolus appears within each new nucleus and single stranded chromosomes uncoil into invisible strands of chromatin.
Cytokinesis, even though it is very important to cell division, is not considered a stage of mitosis. During cytokinesis, the cell physically splits. This occurs just after anaphase and during telophase. The cleavage furrow, which is the pinch caused by the ring of proteins, pinches off completely, closing off the cell.
The cell now has reproduced itself successfully. After cytokinesis, the cell goes back into interphase, where the cycle is repeated. If cytokinesis were to occur to a cell that had not gone through mitosis, then the daughter cells would be different or not function properly. One would still have the nucleus and the other would lack a nucleus. Cytokinesis is different in both animals and plant cells. In plant cells, instead of splitting into two halves, it forms a cell plate. This is a cell wall that forms between the two nuclei after they have split apart. This must happen because the cells have a rigid shape, and must be completely covered in the cell wall to function.
Inflammation is the first reaction of the immune system to an infection or irritation. First the organ involved gets red, then it will get hot, then it will swell, and then it will hurt. Finally it will stop working. The first four of these reactions have been known for a long time, since Antiquity. Finding them is attributed to Celsus. The last one was added by Rudolf Virchow in 1858.
Inflammation can also be present/responsible for skin disorders such as psoriasis/dandruff, joint pains, arthritis etc.
Car rental is when you rent a car. The company providing you the car becomes the car rental service provider, whereas you become the car hirer, as you hire the car for a fee.
A car rental agency or a rent-a-car (car hire in British English) is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time (ranging from a few hours to a few weeks) for a fee.
They can be found primarily located near airports or busy city areas. The internet is changing the car rental industry with companies that are now called online car rental companies. Travelers can pre-book their rental car online anywhere across the globe directly from the service providers like Hertz, Budget, Alamo, , Thrifty, Travelauto.com, Dollar, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Europcar.
Car rental agencies are mainly for people who need a car for a short period of time, for example travellers who are out of town, people whose cars were damaged or destroyed. Car rental agencies may also rent trucks for self-moving industry
Car rentals are subject to many conditions which vary from one brand to another. The vehicle must be returned in a good condition and must not exceed a maximum driven distance, otherwise extra fees may be incurred. Additionally, some companies set up a minimum age for the vehicle driver, which in some cases is as high as 25, even in countries where the minimum legal age to hold a driver's license is much lower. Recent conditions have used GPS technology to limit maximum speeds or driving to specific regions.
North America and Europe are leading the car rental market, followed by Asia-Pacific. North America is dominating the car rental market, owing to the high usage rate of car rental services by daily commuters, office-goers, and tourists in the country. Also, the growing trend of car sharing also boosts the usage of car rental in this region.
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor. He was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio. His mother was a Slovak; his father was a Jew who had one parent from Hungary and the other from Poland. Although Paul Newman was not a Jew by Orthodox Jewish standards he considered himself Jewish and would have been accepted as one by other Jewish movements.
He was known especially for the 1969 movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". He played Butch Cassidy in the movie. He was married to actress Joanne Woodward. He died of lung cancer in 2008.
Newman retired from acting in May 2007. He said "You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention. So I think that's pretty much a closed book for me."
He came out of retirement to narrate the 2007 documentary movie "Dale", about the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. He also narrated the 2008 BBC documentary "Meerkats: The Movie". It was recorded at a studio near his home shortly before his death. "The Meerkats" was the last movie credit of Newman's long career.
IRA may mean:
Piccadilly line
The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground. It is coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1. However, there are a number of surface sections mostly in its westernmost parts. Out of the 53 stations served, 25 are underground. It is the second longest line on the system, after the Central Line.
Like most Underground lines, the Piccadilly line is operated by a single type of rolling stock. In this case it is the 1973 tube stock. The trains are painted in the standard London Underground livery of blue, white and red. Seventy-six trains out of a fleet of 88 are needed to run the line's peak service. One unit (166-566-366) was severely damaged by the terrorist attack of 7 July 2005. The stock was recently refurbished, and was due for replacement by 2014, but the order for new trains was cancelled in July 2010.
The line was previously worked by 1959 stock, 1956 stock, 1938 stock, standard tube stock and 1906 gate stock.
The line has two depots, at Northfields and Cockfosters. There are sidings at Oakwood, South Harrow, Arnos Grove, Rayners Lane, Down Street, Wood Green, Acton Town, Ruislip and Uxbridge.
The line is controlled from the control centre at Earl's Court, which it used to share with the District line. It is in need of resignalling, and this work is planned to be carried out by 2014.
The current off-peak service pattern is:
Often late evening services terminate at instead of Cockfosters.
Trains will also make an additional stop at during early mornings and late evenings but will not stop at the station during the main part of the day.
Other services operate at times, especially at the start and towards the end of the traffic day.
Easier Versions can be found http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.gif
"(In order from east to west.)"
The Piccadilly line was to be upgraded in 2014–15 and would have had new trains as well as new signalling. This would have increased the line's capacity by some 24%. Bids for the rolling-stock order were submitted in 2008. However, after the acquisition of Tube Lines by Transport for London in June 2010, this order was cancelled.
The Berlin Olympiastadion is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. It was built for the 1936 Olympic Games.
Olympic Stadium (Athens)
The Athens Olympic Stadium () is a sports stadium in Athens, Greece.
2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, took place in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from September 15, 2000 until October 1, 2000.
199 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were in the Sydney Games. Four were in the Olympics for the first time. These were Timor-Leste, Eritrea, Micronesia and Palau.
Marion Jones, winner of three gold and two bronze medals for the United States, gave back her medals in October 2007. She said she took tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a drug that could make her run faster, from September 2000 through July 2001.
On 2 August 2008, the International Olympic Committee took the gold medal from the U.S. men's 4x400-meter relay team. Antonio Pettigrew said he used a banned substance. Besides Pettigrew other athletes used performance-enhancing drugs. These are twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison, and Jerome Young.
On 28 April 2010, the IOC took China's bronze medal from Gymnastics. This was for using an underage gymnast.
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States from February 8 2002 to February 24 2002. There were about 2,400 athletes from 77 nations. They were in 78 events. Utah was the fifth state in the United States to host the Olympic Games.
78 National Olympic Committees sent athletes to the Salt Lake City games. Cameroon, Hong Kong (China), Nepal, Tajikistan, and Thailand were in their first Winter Olympic games.
A Stradivarius is a string instrument (such as a violin) built by the 17th century Italian luthier Stradivari family (especially by Antonio Stradivari) that was famous for making them. Stradivarii are known for their high quality sound and ability to last a long time without tuning. Most of these instruments survive to this day, though few have been stolen. They are some of the best and most expensive instruments, and even each string instrument created has a name. So many people have wanted Stradivarii, and some have sold for more than a million dollars. Famous violinists, such as Midori Goto or Joshua Bell have Stradivarii.
Gadolinium
Gadolinium is a chemical element. It has the chemical symbol Gd. It has the atomic number 64. It is part of a group of chemical elements in the periodic table named the Lanthanides. It is a rare earth element. It is silvery white, malleable and ductile.
Its main uses are as chemical compounds in color televisions and nuclear magnetic resonance radio contrast agents. In color cathode ray tube televisions (the type first produced, not flat televisions) some of the pixels are dots gadolinium compounds. When the electrons from the cathode ray tube hit the pixels and transfer energy to the gadolinium compounds they give out light as energy. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging is used in medicine where it is named MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging). It is used to take picture of inside the body. How the pictures look is changed by the gadolinium compounds and how much water is around. It makes the images clearer because it makes the difference in the concentration of water in different parts of the body look more clear (more contrast) in the picture that is made.
Grand coalition
The "Grand coalition" refers to if the two biggest political parties in Germany (the SPD and the CDU) join forces together ("form a coalition").
Persephone (, "Persephonē") is the goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld in ancient Greek religion and myth. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter and is married to the god Hades, with whom she rules over the souls of the dead. As a vegetation goddess, she presided over the bounty of the harvest as it emerged during the season of spring.
Persephone and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised initiates a reward in the afterlife. The tale of her being abducted by Hades, during which she was tricked into eating seeds from a pomegranate (the food of the dead), served to explain the cause of the seasons, and is one prominently featured in ancient Greek literature. Her symbols included the pomegranate, flowers and seeds of grain. The goddess Proserpina is her Roman counterpart.
German Bundestag
The German Bundestag (commonly referred to as "Bundestag") is the legislature of Germany. It meets in Berlin, in the Reichstag building, which was specially rebuilt ready for the Bundestag to move from Bonn.
The Bundestag has at least 598 members. Every 4 years the German people vote. At the moment there are 709 members. Next elections are in 2021.
A party gets seats when it gets at least 5% of the votes. Every voter has two votes, one for a person and one for a party. 299 members each represent a constituency, just as in the British House of Commons or the US House of Representatives. The other half are elected from a party list in each Land. The total number of seats a party gets depends on the number of the second "party votes" it gets.
But if a party wins more constituency seats than its share of the party votes, then it keeps those extra seats. These extra seats, or "extra mandates", are the reason the Bundestag sometimes has more than 598 members. If a party gets extra mandates, the other parties get some extra seats too to make sure every party gets exactly its share of party seats. This system of giving extra mandates was changed in 2013. Before 2013, if a party won extra mandates, then it got to put more members in the Bundestag, which gave the party more influence over the Bundestag than it won in the elections.
The Bundestag president is named Wolfgang Schäuble. He oversees the sessions of the body.
1. FC Nuremberg
The 1..F.C Nürnberg is a football club from Nuremberg, Germany. It was founded on May 4, 1900.
The manager are Andreas Bornemann (Sports) and Michael Meeske (Finance). The coach is Michael Köllner.
Goalkeepers:
Defences:
Midfielders:
Strikers:
The history of the world (also called human history) is the study of what the entire human race did in the past, as recorded. This includes the time from prehistory to the present day. It excludes natural history.
Modern human beings, called "Homo sapiens" ('wise man') have lived for about 250,000 years. The first "Homo sapiens" lived at the same time as other "species" of human. These included "Homo erectus" ('standing man') and "Homo neanderthalensis" ('man from Neanderthal'). They were a little bit different from modern humans. The theory of human evolution says that modern humans, Neanderthals, and "Homo erectus" slowly developed from other earlier species of human-like creatures. Biologists believe that "Homo sapiens" evolved in Africa and spread from there to all other parts of the world, replacing "Homo neanderthalensis" in Europe and "Homo erectus" in Asia.
"Homo neanderthalensis", generally called Neanderthal Man, was discovered when the cranium of a skull was found in the Neanderthal Valley in 1856. It was different from a modern human skull so scientists believed it was from a new species. Entire Neanderthal skeletons have been found in other places since then. Neanderthals existed before modern humans, and knew how to use tools and fire. When ancient stone tools are found, their style often shows whether they were made by "Homo sapiens" or Neanderthals (see Palaeolithic). By the end of the Stone Age, it is believed that "Homo sapiens" were the only type of humans left.
Climate is different from one part of the world to another. Some areas are hot all year, and some are cold. Some areas are dry all year, and others are wet. Most areas have climates that are warm or hot in the summer and cool or cold in the winter. Most parts of the world get rain at some times of the year and not others. Some parts of the world have oceanic climates and others have alpine climates. These differences cause people to live differently.
Climate affects what food can grow in a certain place. This affects what food people eat. If one food is easier to grow, it often becomes a staple food. Staples foods are foods that people eat more of than other foods. Staple foods are usually grains or vegetables because they are easy to grow. Wheat, maize, millet, rice, oats, rye, potatoes, yams, breadfruit and beans are examples of different staple foods from around the world. Climate also affects the types of animals that can live in any area, which affect the types of meats that are available to eat.
Climate also affects the buildings that people make, the clothes that they wear and the way that they travel.
The climate on earth has not stayed the same through human history. There are long periods of time when it is generally warmer, and there are long periods of time when it is generally colder. When it is generally colder, there is more ice on the poles of the planet. A cold period is called an ice age. There have been many ice ages in the history of the earth. Two have affected humans.
From 70,000 to around 10,000 years ago there was a big ice age which affected humans and the way that they lived. Between 1600 AD and 1900 AD there was a period called the Little Ice Age when the climate was a little bit colder than usual.
The word "Prehistory" means "before history". It is used for the long period of time before humans began to write about their lives. This time is divided into two main ages: the Paleolithic Age (or Early Stone Age) and the Neolithic Age (or late Stone Age). The two ages did not start and end at the same time everywhere. A place moved from one age to another depending on when people changed their technology.
The end of prehistory also varies from one place to another. It depends on the date when written documents of a civilization can be found. In Egypt the first written documents date from around 3200 BC. In Australia the first written records date from 1788 and in New Guinea from about 1900.
In the Paleolithic era, there were many different human species. According to current research, only the modern human "Homo sapiens" reached the Neolithic era.
The Paleolithic Era is by far the longest age of humanity's time, about 99% of human history. The Paleolithic Age started about 2.6 million years ago and ended around 10,000 BC. The age began when hominids (early humans) started to use stones as tools for bashing, cutting and scraping. The age ended when humans began to plant crops and have other types of agriculture. In some areas, such as Western Europe, the way that people lived was affected by the Ice age. In these places, people moved towards agriculture quicker than in warmer places where there was always lots of food to gather. Their culture is sometimes called the Mesolithic Era (Middle Stone Age).
During the Paleolithic Era humans grouped together in small bands. They lived by gathering plants and hunting wild animals. This way of living is called a "hunter-gatherer society". People hunted small burrowing animals like rabbits, as well as birds and herds of animals like deer and cattle. They also gathered plants to eat, including grains. Grain often grows on grasslands where herds of grass-eating animals are found. People also gathered root vegetables, green vegetables, beans, fruit, seeds, berries, nuts, eggs, insects and small reptiles.
Many Paleolithic bands were nomadic. They moved from place to place as the weather changed. They followed herds of animals that they hunted from their winter feeding places to their summer feeding places. If there was a drought,flood, or some other disaster, the herds and the people might haved moved a long distance, looking for food. During the "Ice Age" a lot of the water on Earth turned to ice. This made sea much lower than it is now. People were able to walk through Beringia from Siberia to Alaska. Bands of "Homo sapiens" ( another word for people) travelled to that area from Asia. At that time there were rich grasslands with many large animals that are now extinct. It is believed that many groups of people travelled there over a long time and later spread to other parts of America, as the weather changed.
Paleolithic people used stone tools. Sometimes a stone tool was just a rock. It might have been useful for smashing a shell or an animal's skull, or for grinding grain on another rock. Other tools were made by breaking rocks to make a sharp edge. The next development in stone tool making was to chip all the edges of a rock so that it made a pointed shape, useful for a spearhead, or arrow tip. Some stone tools are carefully "flaked" at the edges to make them sharp, and symmetrically shaped. Paleolithic people also used tools of wood and bone. They probably also used leather and vegetable fibers but these have not lasted from that time. Paleolithic people also knew how to make fire which they used for warmth and cooking.
The Neolithic era was marked by changes in society. During the Neolithic era, people started to settle down. They developed agriculture and domesticated animals, both of which took a very long time. Because of these two things, people did not have to migrate as much any more. Villages could grow to much larger sizes than before. Over time, villages fought and spread their control over larger areas and some became civilisations. During this time, humankind also developed further intellectually, militarily and spiritually.
When humans started to grow crops and domesticate certain animals such as dogs, goats, sheep, and cattle; their societies changed. Because people now grew crops and raised livestock, they started to stay in the same place and build permanent settlements. In most places, this happened between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. Their diet also changed. People ate more cereals and vegetables. They started to keep extra foods and seeds for later. In some years there were surpluses (extras) that could be traded for other goods.
These changes happened independently in many parts of the world. They did not happen in the same order though. For example, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. No one is sure if Britain had agriculture, or if permanent villages existed there at all. Early Japanese societies used pottery "before" developing agriculture.
In the "Paleolithic Era" there were many different human species. According to current research, only the modern human reached the "Neolithic Era".
Vere Gordon Childe gave the name "Neolithic Revolution" to this process in the 1920s. He thought that it was as important as the Industrial Revolution (which happened in the 18th and 19th century).
Ancient history was the time from the development of writing to the fall of the Roman Empire. The fall of the Roman Empire caused chaos in Europe, leading to the Middle Ages (also called the Dark Ages or the Age of Faith).
Sumer was the world's first known ancient civilization. The Sumerians took over the fertile crescent region of Mesopotamia around 3300 BCE. By 3000 BCE, many cities had been built in parts of Sumerian Mesopotamia. They formed independently and each had their own government. They were called city-states and often fought with each other.
Sumer grew crops on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. A surplus in food led to a Division of labour. This means that some people were able to stop growing crops and do other jobs, since enough crops were already grown. This brought a split in society. Today, such a split is called "social pyramid". In a social pyramid, people are grouped into social classes based on their wealth and power. In Sumer, the king, priests, and government officials were at the top of the social pyramid. Below them were the artisans, merchants, farmers, and fishers. At the bottom of the pyramid were slaves. Slaves were often prisoners of war, criminals, or people working to pay off debt.
In Sumer, only the sons of the rich and powerful learned how to read and write. They went to a school called "edubba". Only the boys who went to "edubba" could become scribes.
The Sumerians created the world's first system of writing; it was called cuneiform. The oldest versions of one of the world's first literary works, the "Epic of Gilgamesh", go back to this time. They also invented sun-dried bricks, the wheel, the ox plow, and were skilled at making pottery. They are also thought to have invented the sailboat.
Other civilizations around this time were also built along major river systems. These civilizations are called river valley civilizations. River valley civilizations were the most powerful civilizations in this time period because water was needed to have an agricultural society.
These civilizations were similar to Sumer in that:
In the river system of Mesopotamia, after the Sumers, two other great civilizations rose to power: the Babylonians with their king Hammurabi (famous for the Codex Hammurabi) and the Assyrians. Just to the east was the long-lasting civilization of Elam.
Ancient Egypt grew along the Nile river and was its most powerful in the second millennium BC. When it was its biggest, it went all the way from the Nile delta to a mountain called Jebel Barkal in Sudan.
It was created around 3500 BC and probably ended at about 30 BC when the country was invaded by the Roman Empire.
The society of ancient Egypt depended on a balance of natural and human resources, especially the irrigation of the Nile Valley so that Egyptians could grow crops. They are also known for writing in hieroglyphs, building the famous pyramids, other sorts of tombs and big temples and for their military.
There was a great difference between classes in this society. Most of the people were farmers but they did not own the agricultural products they produced. These were property of the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. There was slavery, but it is not clear how it was practiced.
The rulers of ancient Egypt tried to keep their people happy by religion that made them respect the rulers and their past.
The religion of Judaism formed about 1500 BCE in context with the Egyptian and Babylonian civilization.
The first dynasty of Ancient China, the Shang Dynasty (商朝), has been carbon dated through Turtle shells with writing on them to back to about 1500 BC. They say China began as city-states in the Yellow River valley. At the end of the Zhou Dynasty lived the greatest Chinese philosophers: "Kong Fuzi", founder of Confucianism, and Laozi, founder of Daoism. The Qin (秦) emperor Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC created the first centralized state in China based on his political philosophy of legalism and made everyone write the same way. He fought against "Confucianism". He also started a precursor of the Great Wall. In 202 BC the Han Dynasty took over and developed an empire of similar strength as the Roman Empire and towards the end of its rule influenced by India introduced Buddhism in China.
The Indus Valley Civilization started from about 2600 BC to 1900 BC. It marked the beginning of the urban civilization on the subcontinent. It was centered on the Indus River and its tributaries. The civilization is famous for its cities that were built of brick, had a road-side drainage system and multi-storied houses.
During the Maurya dynasty started in 321 BCE, most of the Indian subcontinent was united under a single government for the first time. Ashoka the Great who in the beginning sought to expand his kingdom, then followed a policy of ahimsa (non-violence) after converting to Buddhism. The Edicts of Ashoka are the oldest preserved historical documents of India, and under Ashoka Buddhist ideals spread across the whole of East Asia and South-East Asia.
The Gupta dynasty ruled from around 320 to 550 AD. The Gupta Empire included only Central India, and the area east of current day Bangladesh, however this empire never included present-day Pakistan to the west. Gupta society was ordered in {accordance with Hindu beliefs. Historians place the Gupta dynasty alongside with the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Roman Empire as a model of a classical civilization.
The Maya civilization is a civilization that started in Central America. They lived mostly on the Yucatán Peninsula in what is now known as Mexico, but also Honduras, Belize and Guatemala. They were the only known civilization of pre-Columbian America to have a fully developed written language. They also made great achievements in art and architecture and had a very advanced system of mathematics and astronomy.
The area where the Maya civilization developed was inhabited from around the 10th millennium BC. The first Maya settlements were built there in about 1800 BC, in the Soconusco region. This is in the modern-day state of Chiapas in Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. Today, this is called the "Early Preclassic period". At the time, humans began to settle down permanently. They started to grow livestock. Pottery and small clay figures were made. They constructed simple burial mounds. Later they developed these mounds into step pyramids. There were other civilizations around, especially in the north, such as the Olmec, the Mixe-Zoque, and Zapotec civilizations. These people mostly lived in the area of the modern-day state Oaxaca. The exact borders of the Maya empire in the north are unclear. There were probably areas where Maya culture overlapped with other cultures. Many of the earliest significant inscriptions and buildings appeared in this overlapping zone. These cultures and the Maya probably influenced one another.
There has been a long history of contact between Papuan peoples of the Papua New Guinea and the Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people seem to have lived a long time in the same environment as the now extinct Australian megafauna. Stories about that are told in the oral culture of many Aboriginal groups.
The Hallstatt era is named after the city Hallstatt in Austria, where the first artifacts were found. It lasted from about 1200 BC to about 275 BC. There were different periods, which today are mainly told apart by the kinds of brooches used at the time. These brooches changed rather rapidly, and can therefore give us good guesses at to what time they came from. Hallstatt culture sites have been found in the east of France, in Switzerland, in the south of Germany, in Austria, in Slovenia and Croatia, northwestern Hungary, southwestern Slovakia and southern Moravia. The culture can be divided into an eastern and a western one quite easily; the dividing line runs through the Czech Republic, and Austria, between longitudes 14 and 15 degrees east.
In this time, the social structure developed into a hierarchy. This can be documented by various things that were added to graves. In the Bronze Age, people used to live in big settlements. As iron became available, trade routes changed. A new richer class evolved. Unlike before, these richer class people liked to live in big houses in the countryside, as a demonstration of their wealth. Funerals also changed, from cremation burials, to burials with stone coffins. The new upper class used their wealth for import goods, mostly from the Mediterranean.
The La Tène culture is a culture that lasted from about 500 BC to about 100 AD. It is named after the city of "La Tène" (today, Marin-Epagnier, next to Neuchâtel). It was influenced a lot by the Roman and Greek cultures. There are two sources for this:
The Celts basically lived in clans. Each clan was headed by a leader, which came from the Druids or the Bards. Women were much better off than with the Romans, they were almost equal to men. There was polygamy and polyandry (A man could have several women, a woman could have several men).
Illyria is the part of west-south Balkan Peninsula populated by Illyrians whose descendants are Albanians.
Illyrians lived in tribunes such as Epirus, Dardania, Taulantia etc.
They had their own language, the Illyrian language that was different from the Greek language and Latin.
At the year 1000 BC the population of Illyria is estimated to be around 500,000.
What is known today as "Ancient Greece" is a very important period in history. Most people agree that it came after the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations. It ended when the Romans invaded Greece, in 146 BC. Greek culture had a very powerful influence on later civilizations, especially the Romans. The Greeks developed what is now called a city-state, or a polis. There were many polises. Some of the more important ones were Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes. The word "politics" comes from there. It literally means: things that are about the polis. Greek cities did not have much contact with each other, because of the mountains and many islands Greece is made up of. When a city no longer had enough food to care for all its citizens, some people were sent out to set up a new city. This was called a "colony". Each city was independent, and ruled by someone within that city. Colonies also looked to the city where they originally came from for guidance.
When Greece went to war (for example against the Persian Empire), there was an alliance of such city states, against the Persians. There were also many wars between different city states.
There were many artists and philosophers who lived in that period. Most of them are still important for philosophy today. A well-known artist was Homer. He wrote epics about the war against the Trojans, and the early history of Greece. Other well-known artists were Aristophanes and Sappho. Well-known philosophers include Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. A well known mathematician of the time was Euclid. Statesmen of the time were Pericles and Alexander the Great.
Ancient Rome was a civilization that started in modern-day Italy, in the 8th Century before Christ. The civilization lasted for 12 centuries. It ended, when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, on May 29, 1453. According to legend, the Roman civilization was founded by Romulus and Remus, in the year 753 BC. The Roman Empire developed in wars against Carthage and the Seleucid Empire. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, modern France, and Augustus ended the Roman republic by becoming emperor. At its biggest extent, the empire covered all of the Mediterranean. Rome became so big, because it led war against other nations and then assimilated their culture.
In 293, Diocletian organized a separate administration of the western and the eastern part of the empire. The capital of the western part was Rome, the capital of the eastern part was Constantinople. Constantine I was the first to stop discrimination against Christians (313). Christianity became state religion under the reign of Theodosius I.
The western part of the empire had many problems with barbarians. In the 5th century, the Huns migrated westwards. This meant that the Visigoths moved into the empire, to seek protection. Rome was sacked by barbarians multiple times. On September 4, 476, the Germanic chief Odoacer forced the last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustus, to quit. After about 1200 years, the rule of Rome in the West came to an end.
The eastern part had similar problems. Justinian I managed to conquer parts of North Africa and Italy. Shortly after he died, all that was left were parts of Southern Italy, and Sicily. In the east, the empire was threatened by the Sassanid Empire.
After the fall of Western Rome, the Germanic tribes that took over tried to learn from Roman civilization, but much was forgotten and up to the Renaissance not many achievements happened in Europe. But with the rise of Islam, many changes happened during the Islamic Golden Age. The Greek and Roman traditions were kept and further development took place. The Chinese civilization had a Golden Age during the Tang period, when their capital was the biggest in the world. During the Renaissance, Europe developed and made great advancements in many areas as well.
In Arabia, Muhammad founded Islam in 632. His followers rapidly conquered territories in Syria and Egypt. They soon were a danger to the Byzantine Empire. In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Byzantine Empire stopped Islamic expansion and reconquered some lost territories. In 1000 A.D. the eastern Empire was at its height: Basileios II reconquered Bulgaria and Armenia. Culture and trade flourished. In 1071 the Battle of Manzikert led the empire into a dramatic decline. For the Byzantine Empire this meant centuries of civil wars and Turkic invasions. The Muslim caliphate had an Golden Age under the Abbasids.
Their power forced Emperor Alexius I Comnenus of the Byzantine Empire to send a call for help to the West in 1095. The West sent the Crusades. These eventually led to the "Sack of Constantinople" in the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Because of this, what was left of the Empire broke into successor states. The winner of these disputes was that of Nicaea. After Constantinople was again conquered by imperial forces, the empire was little more than a Greek state on the Aegean coast. The Eastern Empire came to an end when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453. The Ottoman Empire took its place and from 1400 to 1600 was the most powerful empire in the Middle East and ruled at the southern and eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Tang Dynasty (618–907), with its capital at Chang'an (today Xi'an), was the biggest city in the world at the time and is considered by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization as well as a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. The Ming Dynasty ruled from 1368 to 1644. The Ming built a vast army and navy.
From around the 6th–7th century. In South India, Chola kings ruled Tamil Nadu, and Chera kings ruled Kerala. They had trading relationships with the Roman Empire to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. In north India, Rajputs ruled in many kingdoms.
In 1336, two brothers named Harihara I and Bukka founded the Vijayanagara Empire in an area which is now in the Karnataka state of India. The most famous king of this empire was Krishnadevaraya. In 1565, rulers of this empire were defeated in a battle. But the empire continued for about the next one hundred years.
Northern India was ruled by Islamic sultans.
The Heian Period in Japan is famous for its art, poetry and literature. The writing system, Kana, was developed. It was followed by the feudal period (1185–1853) during which samurai and daimyos were the leading figures and the shogun the real monarch whereas the tennō had only a role as religious head. Between the years 1272 and 1281 the Mongols tried to invade but were driven out by the Japanese.
In 1542, a Portuguese ship reached Japan. Japanese learned about guns and firearms from them.
Genghis Khan in 1209 brought together the Mongol tribes and founded the Mongol Empire, one of the largest land empires in history. Later Kublai Khan would go on to expand the empire and found the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty of China. The empire later broke into several empires, all of which were later destroyed.
The Middle Ages was the time from the fall of the Roman empire until the middle of the 15th century. From 500 to about 800 there was some decline compared with the Roman civilization. European villages were often destroyed and looted by barbarians such as the Vikings. During the High Middle Ages magnificent castles and large churches called cathedrals were built and important works of literature were written. In the later Middle Ages, there was a plague called the Black Death. The Black Death killed one-third to one-half of Europe's population.
A system called feudalism was a very important part of the Middle Ages. In this system, the king was at the top of the social pyramid. The king gave land to the lord in exchange for loyalty. The lords were the next in the pyramid. The lords gave land (called a fief) to knights in exchange for loyalty and protection. The knights came next in the pyramid. Peasants were not part of the feudal system because they did not give or receive land. They worked on a lord's manor in exchange for protection.
The Crusades were also fought during the Middle Ages. There is a theory that says the Crusades helped end the Middle Ages along with the Black Death, increased trade and better farming technology.
The Renaissance started in Italy. "Renaissance" is a French word meaning "rebirth". The Renaissance meant that people learned from the ancient Greek and Roman or "classical" cultures that had been forgotten for some time. Artists learned from classical paintings and sculptures. So they reinvented perspective and the art of free standing realistic sculptures that had been characteristic in Greek and Roman art. Some famous Renaissance artists are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The Gutenberg printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenberg, was also developed during this time.
The Renaissance was also a time of great achievements in science (Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon), philosophy (Thomas More) and literature (Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare).
What is known as the classical period lasted from about 250 to about 900. During this time, many monuments were constructed. There are also many big inscriptions from then. In this period, the Maya moved to building large cities. This is known as urbanism. Many important intellectual and artistic developments happened in an area that is known as the "southern lowlands".
Like the Ancient Greek, the Maya civilization was made of many independent city-states. Agriculture was important around these city states like Tikal and Copán.
The most important monuments are the pyramids they built in their religious centers and the palaces of their rulers. The palace at Cancuén is the largest in the Maya area. There are no pyramids in the area of the palace. Other important things the archaeologists found include the carved stone slabs usually called "stelae" (the Maya called them "tetun", or "tree-stones"). These slabs show rulers along with hieroglyphic texts describing their genealogy, military victories, and other accomplishments. In North America, they made Mississipian culture with the largest land field from around 800 CE to 1600.
The Maya also had trade routes that ran over long distances. They traded with many of the other Mesoamerican cultures, such as Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, and other groups in central and gulf-coast Mexico. They also traded with non-Mesoamerican groups, that were farther away. Archaeologists have found gold from Panama in the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza.
Important trade goods were cacao, salt, sea shells, jade and obsidian.
In the 8th and 9th century, the cities in the southern lowlands had problems, and declined. At the same time, the Maya stopped making big monuments and inscriptions. Shortly afterwards, these cities were abandoned. Currently, archaeologists are not sure why this happened. There are different theories. Either ecological factors played a role in this, or the cause of this abandonment was not related to the environment.
In the north, development went on, form the 10th to about the 16th century. The influences from the outside left more traces in the Maya culture at that time. Some of the important sites in this era were Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Coba. At some point, the ruling dynasties of Chichen and Uxmal declined. Afterwards, Mayapan ruled all of Yucatán until a revolt in 1450. The area then degenerated into competing city-states until the Yucatán was conquered by the Spanish.
By 1250, there developed other city-states. The Itza maintained their capital at Tayasal. It ruled over an area extending across the Peten Lakes region, including the community of Ekckixil on Lake Quexil. Postclassic Maya states also survived in the southern highlands. One of the Maya kingdoms in this area is responsible for the best-known Maya work of historiography and mythology, the Popol Vuh.
The Spanish started to conquer Maya lands. This took them much longer than with the Inca or Aztecs, because there was no capital city. This meant that when they had conquered one city, this had little influence on the whole empire. The last Maya states were finally subdued in 1697.
The Maya people did not disappear though. There are still about 6 million of them. Some are well-integrated, others continue speak one of the Maya languages and uphold their cultural heritage.
The Aztecs built an empire in Central America, mainly in Mexico. The empire lasted from the 14th to the 16th century. They spoke the Nahuatl language. Their capital was Tenochtitlan. It was built on islands in a lake. Tenochtitlan was one of the greatest cities of the world in that time.
The Aztecs believed in polytheism. Quetzalcoatl (feathered snake), Huitzilopochtli (hummingbird of the south) and Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror) were the most important Gods. Sometimes the Aztecs killed humans to please their gods. Between 1519 and 1521 the Spanish leader Hernán Cortés defeated the Aztecs and took their empire. Some Aztecs did not want to fight against the soldiers of Cortés, because they thought they were Gods.
Today many Mexicans have Aztec and other Native American forefathers. People still use Aztec symbols in Mexico. On the Mexican flag there is a picture of an eagle on a cactus with a snake in its mouth. This was an Aztec symbol. Also the name "Mexico" is an Aztec word.
The Aztecs ate a lot of plants and vegetables that could be grown easily in the Mexico area. The main food that they ate was corn, which they called maize. Another food that they ate was squash.
Aztecs also had a lot of harsh punishments for certain crimes. For the following crimes the punishment was death: adultery, wearing cotton clothes (cotton clothes were only for the nobles), cutting down a living tree, moving a field boundary making your land bigger, making someone else's smaller, major theft and treason.
The Incas were a civilized empire in western South America. The Incas are called a "pre-Columbian" empire. This means that their country was here before Christopher Columbus. They ruled parts of South America around what is now Peru for a little over 100 years, until the Spanish invasion in the 16th century.
The Incan empire or , meaning "four regions" in Quechua, only lasted for about 100 years as the arrival of the Spaniards in 1532 conquered them. Their main language was Quechua, but as the Incas were basically made up of many different groups there were probably many other different languages.
Their capital was in the city of Cusco, or Qosqo, in what is now southern Peru.