the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
Two six volt batteries connected in series will make 12 volts.
Connecting the positive of one cell to the positive of the other, and the negative to the negative is called connecting them in parallel.
The voltage stays the same, but the current is added together.
Voltage is the pressure pushing the electrons through the wires, it is measured in volts.
Current is how many electrons can go at once, it is measured in amps.
The combination of current and voltage is the power (watts = volts x amps) of the battery.
Battery sizes
AA, AAA, C, and D cells, including alkaline batteries, are of standard sizes and shapes, and have about 1.5 volts.
The voltage of a cell depends on the chemicals used.
The electric charge it can supply depends on how large the cell is, as well as what chemicals.
The charge a battery delivers is usually measured in ampere-hours.
Since the voltage stays the same, more charge means a bigger cell can supply more amps, or run for a longer time.
The first battery was invented in 1800 by Alessandro Volta.
Nowadays, his battery is called the voltaic pile.
In small, modern batteries, the fluid is immobilized in a kind of paste and everything is put in a sealed case.
Because of this case, nothing can spill out of the battery.
Larger batteries, such as car batteries, still have liquid inside and are not sealed.
A kind of battery that uses molten salts as the electrolyte was invented during World War II.
Types of batteries
Dry cells, cells that do not contain a liquid (or contain an immobilized liquid such as a paste or gel) as the electrolyte
Primary cell, cells that cannot be recharged
Alkaline battery, "alkaline", not rechargeable
Mercury battery, not rechargeable
Leclanche battery, "super heavy duty", not rechargeable
Lithium battery, not rechargeable, "coin cell"
Silver oxide battery, not rechargeable, watch battery
Voltaic pile, Allesandro Voltas first battery
Secondary cell, cells that can be recharged
Lithium-ion battery, rechargeable, used in cell phones and laptops
Nickel cadmium battery, "NiCd", rechargeable
Nickel metal-hydride battery, "NiMH", rechargeable
Wet cells, cells that contain liquid as the electrolyte
Lead acid battery, rechargeable, car battery
Nickel-iron battery, rechargeable, Edison battery
Fuel cell, recharged by adding fuel
Alternatives to batteries
A capacitor is not a battery because it does not store the energy in a chemical reaction.
A capacitor can store electricity and create electricity much faster than a battery, but it usually costs too much to make it as big as a battery can be.
Scientists and chemical engineers are working to make better capacitors and batteries for electric cars.
Small electrical generators operated by hand and foot can supply power in small electrical devices.
Clockwork radios, clockwork torches and similar devices also have a wind-up spring to store mechanical energy.
A knife is a metal tool with a sharpened metal blade that is used to cut all sorts of things.
The plural form of "knife" is "knives."
Knives can serve various purposes.
Hunters use a hunting knife, soldiers use the combat knife, scouts, campers, and hikers carry a pocket knife; there are kitchen knives for preparing foods, table knives, weapons, knives for throwing or juggling, and knives for religious ceremony or display.
Archaeologists have discovered sharp-edged tools as ancient as 2.6 million years old.
Sharp stone tools became more advanced in design during the late Lithic periods, and a variety of techniques was used to produce such ‘knives’ in the Neolithic era.
The copper and bronze ages followed, and of course brought tremendous changes to the ‘sharp-edge’ technology.
These new metal tools were much more durable than stone ones, and hence mining and metal-processing became an important activity.
Types of knives
Cooking or kitchen knives: also known as the chef's knife.
Several types of knives are used in cooking.
Kitchen knives are sharp knives with wood or plastic handles used for chopping food and meat that is going to be cooked.
Table knives: These knives are used to cut up food for eating.
Some table knives are sharper than others, but none are as sharp as kitchen knives.
Steak knives are sharper because they need to cut steak.
Fish knives and butter knives are also used at the table and have rounded blades that are not sharp.
Hunting knives are used for skinning animals.
Fishing knives are used for cutting open fish.
Construction knives and utility knives are used for cutting vinyl flooring, insulation, plastic sheathing, and carpet.
Pocket knives These knives are used often.
Butter knife A knife used to cut butter or spread things.
Some people use it illegally to kill people.
Paring Knife paring knife is ideal for making garnishes and peeling vegetables and fruit.
Boning Knife helps to take meat apart from bone.
Carving Knife is ideal for carving large whole poultry pieces.
Picking the right type of knife
There are many kinds of knives, depending what is to be cut.
With the right knife, the cuts you want to make will happen faster and more easily.
With the wrong kind of knife, it will take more effort to perform the same amount of work.
When a knife is too small to cut something, a saw, axe, or power tool may be needed.
Illegal knives
Carrying knives is illegal in many countries, especially if the blade is longer than several inches.
Another type of knife which is illegal in many places is the "switchblade," a knife that has a button which when pressed activates a spring to open the knife.
Nyngan is a town in New South Wales, Australia.
It is built on the banks of the Bogan River.
It is  north west of Dubbo, and  south east of Bourke in the Central West Plains of New South Wales.
It is a town of 2500 people.
It exists because of the people who work on the farms and in a copper mine, 50 kilometres to the west.
It remains also well known as one of the last depots of Cobb and Co, the famous inland transporter of the 19th century (1801 to 1900).
One of the overnight depots was at Nyngan because it is about halfway between Dubbo and Bourke.
In the days of Cobb and Co, the trip from Dubbo and Bourke would have taken at least 4 days.
However, the route they took is not the route that is used today.
The new route runs beside the railway.
The railway is a direct line from Dubbo to Nyngan.
There is not a single bend for almost 160 kilometres.
In the other direction, the track goes 190 kilometres dead straight the whole way to Bourke.
Towns in New South Wales
the art and industry of making motion pictures
movies - also called motion pictures or films.
photographic film
a thin skin or membrane, or any covering or coating
a thin layer of liquid (film (liquid)) on water or solid stuff
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic for recording visual scenes.
The plastic has been specially treated to be sensitive to light.
The image is recorded on the plastic when the plastic is exposed to light.
Film is kept in small canisters (boxes) which protect it from the light.
A normal photographic film may hold up to 40 pictures.
Once all pictures have been recorded, the film has to undergo a special chemical treatment.
This is called developing a film or film processing.
That treatment makes the pictures visible (you can see them), and the exposed film is no longer sensitive to light.
Different kinds of films exist.
Some require more light to be exposed than others.
Some are black and white only; they record no colors.
There are also special films which can record infrared light.
Films also come in different sizes.
35 millimeter film, the most used size, comes in metal cans or canisters, but there are other camera films that come in paper wrappings or in single sheets.
Film can only be used once.
After that, it cannot be used again (if it is accidentally used again, this results in an artifact called a multiple exposure).
When not in use, film needs to be covered from light, otherwise it will record any lights that shine on it.
This will make it useless to record a picture.
Film comes in a can called a canister to cover it from light rays.
Film needs the right amount of light to make a picture.
If the picture is too bright or too dark, it will not record correctly.
The longer that the film keeps recording, the more light it will get.
If what is being photographed is bright, it will be recorded faster.
If it is darker, the film will need more time to record.
Films that need less time to record the picture are known as "faster" films.
Different speeds of films are marked with an ISO number.
The higher the number, the faster the films.
Films can only make a picture from focused lights.
If there is no lens to focus light, the film will only turn white from receiving just the light.
If a film with an ISO level of 200 instead of 100 is used, it will only need half as much time to record a picture of the same scene.
Examples of ISO numbers are ISO 50, ISO 100, IS0 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, and ISO 1600.
The ISO number is sometimes called the ''ASA number'' or the ''film speed''.
When the ISO number is low, for example ISO 50, the film takes a long time to record the picture.
This is called a slow film.
This means the shutter has to stay open for a long time.
When the ISO number is high, for example ISO 800, the picture is made in a very short time.
This is a fast film.
This means the shutter has to open and close quickly.
Before photographic film was invented, photography used glass dry plates.
In the 21st century, most cameras don't use film anymore.
A compass is a navigational tool that uses magnetism.
It has an arrow which points in the direction of the North Magnetic Pole.
A compass is very useful for navigating on oceans and in deserts, or other places where there are few landmarks.
The first compass was invented by ancient Chinese in the Han Dynasty.
It was a large spoon-like magnetic object made of magnetite ore set upon a square bronze plate.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer.
He became the first European to sail the Pacific Ocean, and the first to sail around the world.
Magellan's voyage proved that the Earth was round.
Born in 1480, his birthplace is recorded as either Sabrosa or Porto in Portugal.
He worked in the royal court.
Since his parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen at the age of 10.
In the royal court where he learned  many important skills, including map making, navigation and astronomy.
In 1505 he joined the navy.
When he worked for Portugal, he went to many parts of the world, such as India, the Spice Islands, East Africa, and Morocco.
When in Morocco in 1513 Magellan was wounded, and walked the remainder of his life with a limp.
After he lost his job for the King of Portugal, he went to work for the King of Spain.
He was also the first to sail through the Strait of Magellan, so it was named after him.
Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines, on 27 April 1521 in Mactan during a battle with the natives after he was accused of stealing.
Charles V of Spain provided him with five ships for the voyage round the world.
Only one ship, the Victoria, completed the voyage.
1480 births
1521 deaths
Dom Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) was a prince from Portugal, the third son of King John I of Portugal.
He was called Infante Dom Henrique in Portuguese.
He was never a navigator himself.
He got his name because he organized many ocean voyages on which lands were found.
He is seen as the man who started the Age of Discovery.
He also opened a navigation school in Portugal, so the technology of tools and ships could be made better.
His explorers discovered the first shipping routes directly from Europe to Asia for the Portuguese monarchy.
1394 births
1460 deaths
Portuguese royalty
Princes and princesses
Concrete is an important material for making different buildings and structures.
It is a composite made of Portland cement, sand, gravel or aggregate, and water in varying proportions depending on the task.
Concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world.
As of 2006, about 7.5 billion cubic meters of concrete are made each year—more than one cubic meter for every person on Earth.
The ingredients are mixed together into a paste, a bit like making dough for bread.
The concrete is then poured into a frame.
After a few hours it sets hard.
Concrete solidifies due to a chemical reaction known as hydration.
The water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a strong stone-like material.
Concrete is strong in compression but weak in tension.
For some purposes it needs to be reinforced with steel rods.
Reinforced concrete buildings can be made to link all the parts together, the foundations, walls, floors and roofs, but concrete construction does not make buildings earthquake-proof.
Concrete is as old as 5600 BC.
It was not invented by Romans, but much used by them.
Some kinds of concrete are waterproof, and some kinds even set underwater.
Additives
There are many additives to make concrete set faster, set slower, set stronger, reduce corrosion and so on.
The Romans discovered that adding volcanic ash produced a concrete which would set under water.
The Romans also knew that adding horse hair made concrete less liable to crack as it set, and that adding blood made it more frost-resistant.
Modern concrete was made in 1756 by British engineer John Smeaton.
He added pebbles and powdered brick to the cement.
In 1824, English inventor Joseph Aspdin invented Portland cement, which has remained the main cement used in concrete production.
He burnt ground-up limestone and clay together.
The burning process changed the chemical properties of the materials and Aspdin created a stronger cement than plain crushed limestone alone could produce.
The 19th century saw the invention of reinforced concrete by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 (patented in 1867).
François Coignet studied and improved it.
This is concrete with steel bars in it, called rebars (reinforcing bars).
Glass fibre or plastic fibre is beginning to replace steel bars.
Many modern chemicals can be added to the mixture to achieve special objectives. '
Superplasticizers' are chemicals which improve workability, which means the ability to shape the concrete before it has set.
Pigments can change the dull grey colour.
Corrosion inhibitors can reduce rusting on the steel bars. '
Air entrainment' is blowing little bubbles in the concrete before it sets.
This helps the concrete survive the freezing and thawing of a cold climate.
Blast furnace slag can be mixed with concrete.
It turns the colour into almost pure white and makes the concrete stronger.
A marathon is a long-distance running sport event where an athlete must run 42.195 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards).
There are many marathons held all over the world each year.
It is a very difficult event and runners are advised to run many miles before they compete.
This event was named after a battle of the Greco-Persian wars.
The famous battle of Marathon was fought in 490 B.C. An army from Persia came to fight the army of Athens.
The army from Athens was not expected to win, but they did.
After the victory, they sent their best runner, a man named Pheidippides back to Athens to tell everyone the good news.
He ran about 25 miles and died of exhaustion when he arrived.
In 1896 the first modern Olympics was held.
There was a race called the Marathon there.
It was only about 25 miles (40 km) then.
The Holy Roman Empire should not be mistaken for the Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire (; ), occasionally but unofficially referred to as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, was a group of regions and free cities in central Europe under the rule of an emperor who was elected by the princes and magistrates of the regions and cities within the empire.
When Charlemagne died, his Frankish Empire was given to his children and divided into three different countries: West Francia, Lotharingia and East Francia.
The Holy Empire started when Otto I of East Francia became emperor in 962, and it was ended by Napoleon in 1806.
The emperors claimed to be heirs of Charlemagne and that the Empire dates from 800, when Charlemagne became Frankish Emperor.
In the 17th century the Empire was shattered by the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
Nearly thirty percent of the population of the Empire was killed.
The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation lost parts of its territory.
Until the 13th century, the Holy Roman Empire was powerful.
Later, all the duchies and counties inside the Empire started to get more power.
At the end, the emperors had little real power anymore, and the country existed only in name.
The last emperor abolished the empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
It is known in popular culture that Voltaire, a French philosopher in the 18th century, once said that "the nation was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."
to criticize the very decentralized state of the empire during the 1700's and its claim as the successor to the Roman Empire.
The Empire was in fact Germanic and not Roman since it was mainly in the regions of present-day Germany and Austria.
It was not really holy since, after Charles V in 1530, no emperors were crowned by the Pope.
It was only really an Empire by name: the territories it covered were mostly independent.
The Empire had its own central government and armed forces that acted as one.
It was ruled by the House of Habsburg before that fell in 1806.
Napoleon forced the emperor to abdicate when France began invading the Holy Roman Empire during the First French Empire.
The Emperor made himself emperor of Austria and ended the Holy Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire was not a highly centralized state like most countries today.
Instead, it was divided into dozens – eventually hundreds – of individual entities governed by kings, dukes, counts, bishops, abbots, and other rulers.
They were collectively known as princes.
The Emperor directly ruled some areas.
At no time could the Emperor simply issue decrees and govern autonomously over the Empire.
His power was severely restricted by the various local leaders.
In the 16th century the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) had to deal with the rebellion of the Frisians lead by Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama.
This lasted from 1515 until 1523.
The Empire was one of the rare states in Europe that had an elective monarchy.
This meant that the Emperor was chosen by a small group of Prince-electors.
Common practice was to just elect the deceased Emperor or Empress 's heir to the throne.
States and territories disestablished in the 19th century
1806 disestablishments
1800s disestablishments in Europe
Friesland (Fryslân in West Frisian, Friesland in Dutch) is a province in the north of the Netherlands.
The capital (city) of Friesland is Leeuwarden (Ljouwert in Frisian).
People in Friesland speak West Frisian and Dutch.
People also speak Frisian in a small part of Groningen (province), and in  East Friesland and North Friesland in Germany.
In North Holland there is a region called West Friesland, but people who live there are not called Frisians.
About 651,000 people are living in Friesland (2021).
Notable Frisians
In Friesland the Frisians live.
They are an old ethnic group.
Members of this ethnic group are:
Pier Gerlofs Donia was a giant from Friesland.
He was said to be about 7 feet tall (2 meters and 15 centimeters).
Wijerd Jelckama was a legendary freedom fighter, rebel and warlord who was as tall as his uncle Pier Gerlofs Donia
Mata Hari was a famous courtesan and spy who was born a Frisian.
Doutzen Kroes, a Frisian born supermodel, speaks Frisan and encourages people to learn about it.
In 2021, Friesland had a population of 651,459 and a population density of .
Since the late Middle Ages, Friesland is known for the exceptional height of its inhabitants.
Even early Renaissance poet Dante Alighieri refers to the height of Frisians in his Divine Comedy when, in the canticle about Hell, he talks about the magnitude of an infernal demon by stating that "not even three tall Frieslanders, were they set one upon the other, would have matched his height".
Groningen is a province in the Northeast of the Netherlands.
At the east is the German region Lower Saxony, in the south is Drenthe, in the west is Friesland (or Fryslân in Frisian) and in the north is the Wadden Sea.
About 587,000 people are living in Groningen (2021).
The capital of Groningen is also called Groningen.
People from Groningen often call Groningen City "stad" ("city") and the rest of the province "Ommelanden" (which means something like "surrounding lands").
Website of the Capital City
Alternative Website of the Capital City (Local Shops and Small Businesses)
Map of Groningen
Website of the University
Website of the Polytechnic
Map of Province
Groningen (province), a province in the Netherlands
Groningen (city), the capital city of that province
Groningen (Suriname), a town in Suriname
FC Groningen, a professional football club in the Netherlands
Burgundy () is a former administrative region of France.
It is now part of the administrative region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
It was also a historic region in eastern France.
The French adjective and name of the inhabitants of the region is Bourguignon.
With over , it is one of the largest region of France.
It covers about 6% of the territory of the country.
The four departments in the region were Côte-d'Or, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire and Yonne.
Its capital was Dijon.
Burgundy was named for the Germanic Burgundian tribe who moved there from an island in the Baltic Sea.
They moved when the Roman Empire fell apart to set up a kingdom with its own laws.
This included part of what is now Switzerland.
During the Middle Ages, Burgundy was ruled by dukes.
In the 15th century it was very powerful.
The dukes ruled lands as far north as the Netherlands.
After Duke Charles the Bold died when he wanted to conquer the city of Nancy in 1477, France took southern Burgundy.
It was a province until 1790.
The House of Habsburg got the northern part, which later became the Southern Netherlands.
The Burgundy region is one of the largest regions of Metropolitan France.
It bordered with five other regions: Champagne-Ardenne to the north, Franche-Comté to the east, Rhône-Alpes to the southeast, Auvergne to the southwest, Centre-Val de Loire to the west and Île-de-France to the north.
Most of the territory of Burgundy is occupied by a plateau of low hills (the Burgundy Hills) surrounded by valleys of the main rivers.
The valley of the Yonne river and its tributaries is to the north of the region.
To the southeast is the valley of the Saône river.
In the centre of the plateau (and of the region), there is a group of low mountains: the Morvan.
The highest point in Burgundy, the Haut-Folin (), is in these mountains, in the Saône-et-Loire department.
It is  high.
The Burgundy region has a population, in 2012, of 1,641,130, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2.
The region is known for its wines, both red and white.
Many well-known wines, such as Macon and Beaujolais, were first made here.
A few wines are also the 'Arbois'-type.
Arbois wines are between red and white and almost yellow in colour.
Regional Council of Burgundy official website
Official website of Tourism of Burgundy
Netbourgogne.com
About-France.com: BURGUNDY - a short guide
Former administrative regions of France
A  Duke is someone part of nobility.
In monarchies, like the UK, the title has legal status, and is inherited in the male line.
Dukes are formally referred to as 'The Duke of (place name)', and addressed as "Your Grace".
On State occasions, dukes rank below Royal Dukes, and above Earls.
This is called the order of precedence, because in procession to the opening Parliament, or on other state occasions, they walk in order of their rank.
The wife of a duke is a Duchess.
This is an honorary title, given for life to the lawfully wedded wife of a Duke.
If she divorces and remarries a commoner, (person with no title) their children have no title.
The children of a duke, on the other hand, do have honorary titles (so long as they are born in lawful wedlock).
The eldest son may bear what is called a junior title which an ancestor was given before the dukedom was created.
Other children would be called 'Lady' Jane (or other Christian name) and 'Lord' James (or other Christian name).
Children use the family surname, not the Dukedom.
Historically, the land that is ruled by a duke is a duchy.
The eldest son of a duke inherits the duchy when the duke dies.
The word comes from the Latin word "dux", which means leader.
Latin is an Italic language that was used in Ancient Rome.
Short Latin texts have been found from about the 5th century BC and longer texts from about the 3rd century BC.
Classical Latin was used in the 1st century BC and was the official language of the Roman Empire.
It was widely used in the western part of the Mediterranean.
The languages known as Romance languages developed from the spoken, informal version, called Vulgar Latin.
Latin was very important to Christianity for many centuries.
It is still spoken today during some religious activities.
It is an official language in the Vatican, where the Pope leads the Roman Catholic Church.
People in the Vatican sometimes speak to one another in Latin (if they have different first languages).
The mass of the Catholic Church may be done entirely in Latin.
This is the Mass of the Roman Rite (Extraordinary Form).
Current usage
Latin is called a dead language because no one speaks Latin as a first language anymore.
Although it is a dead language, it is not an extinct language because it is still used in daily life by some people.
In fact, many people still study it in school.
Latin is still useful because it shows how society works.
Knowing Latin makes it easier to learn the Romance languages.
People still read Latin classics such as the poems of Virgil, the memoirs of Caesar and the speeches of Cicero.
Also, Latin is widely used as an international auxiliary language, notably in the Catholic Church, and by biologists when describing and naming new species.
Latin is still used in taxonomy to give scientific names to species and groups of species of living things.
Some terms used in medicine to name parts of the body (such as bones) and names of some diseases are also written in Latin.
There are three types of Latin: Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin, and Ecclesiastical Latin.
Classical Latin was used by the educated Romans and is still studied around the world.
Vulgar Latin was the more common spoken variety used by the common Romans and was learned by the peoples conquered by the Romans.
Ecclesiastical Latin is common in Italian schools and still used by the Roman Catholic Church.
Latin was once the most important language in most of Europe in the Middle Ages.
It was taught in many European schools, and all universities used Latin as the teaching language.
Latin began to lose its importance in the Reformation, but it was still often used by authors of scientific books and encyclopedias.
Until about 1900 many universities accepted dissertations written in Latin.
As people from other regions of Europe learned Vulgar Latin during Roman conquests, each region developed its own language, a simplified form of Latin.
Those languages are called Romance languages, and they are still spoken today.
The five Romance languages with the largest number of speakers are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian.
The Romance languages are very similar to one another, and speakers of one Romance language can understand many words and sentences (in both texts and spoken conversations) from another Romance language.
For example, speakers of Portuguese can often understand Spanish.
It can be said that the Romance languages are modern dialects of Latin.
Latin has seven different noun cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and locative.
The vocative case is almost always the same as the nominative case; however, if the nominative ends in -us, it changes to -e, and if the nominative ends in -ius, it changes to -i.
The locative takes the form of the dative.
Latin nouns are declined, or changed, according to how they are used in the sentence.
A noun can be declined five different ways.
These ways are called declensions.
The declensions are numbered 1 through 5 (first declension, second declension etc), each having different endings that identify the noun's declension.
When a noun is declined, twelve forms are made, two for each of the noun cases (the locative is omitted).
A similar thing is done to verbs, called conjugation.
When a verb is conjugated, six forms are made.
There are five factors that can change a verb: person, number, tense, voice, and mood.
In all, there are 120 possible forms Latin verbs.
Latin used to be written on plates of wax.
There was little space and so words were run together, with no space between words.
Sometimes papyrus was used, but this was expensive.
Punctuation was an ancient idea but came to Latin later.
Lowercase letters (small letters) are relatively modern inventions.
The Roman alphabet was derived from the Etruscan language.
The following is the introduction to the Metamorphoses by Ovid (Book 1, lines 89–100); it describes the Golden Age.
After the fall of the Roman Empire
After the fall of the Roman Empire, many people still used Latin.
Scholars such as Thomas Aquinas, Petrarch, Erasmus, Luther, Copernicus, Descartes and Newton wrote in Latin.
As an example, Hugo Grotius published his De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) in 1625, which is one of the bases of international law.
Post-Classical Latin (including Medieval and Neo-Latin)
Beginners' Latin on http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Glossarium Anglico-Latinum  having many modern words
Latin language Citizendium
The Middle Ages were a period of about a thousand years in European history.
They started around the year 476 , when the Western Roman Empire ended, and continued until around the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492.
This period of time is called the 'Middle Ages' because it took place between the fall of Imperial Rome and the beginning of early modern Europe.
It is often separated into the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages.
Sometimes people use other names, like “the Medieval Age,” to describe the Middle Ages.
Another name for the Middle Ages is “the Age of Faith,” because Christianity and Islam were becoming much more popular.
The early Middle Ages has also been called “the Dark Ages” because past scholars wrongly believed that there was very little culture, good literature, or art, or progress during this period.
Very few people in the Middle Ages could read, so there are not many records from this period.
Because of this, historians do not know as much about the Middle Ages as about earlier times.
During the Middle Ages, many people’s lives were short, difficult, and poor.
The fall of the Roman Empire, and the invasions of barbarian tribes, devastated Europe.
The Romans had made a lot of progress in science, technology, engineering, medicine, and literature.
During the Middle Ages, a lot of this new knowledge was lost.
There were mass migrations, wars, and plagues.
For around 300 years, there was continuous violence.
After that, the development of feudalism decreased some of the violence.
In 800 ce, Charlemagne became Emperor of the Romans.
He promoted order, education, and civilization.
Slowly, Europe began to regain what it had lost.
Still, the Late Middle Ages were a difficult time.
Wars and the Bubonic Plague killed millions of people in Europe and Asia.
Europe changed during the Middle Ages.
Independent, unified nation states formed across the old Western Roman Empire.
These new nations included England, Scotland, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway, and France (which evolved from the realm of the Franks).
Byzantium: The eastern side of Rome
In 330 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine created the Byzantine Empire (also called the Eastern Roman Empire).
He made the capital city Constantinople.
The Byzantine Empire controlled Asia Minor and Northern Africa, and sometimes southern Spain and southern Italy.
However, its lands were slowly eaten away by enemies like the Turks and the Franks.
The Byzantine Empire survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire and lasted until 1453.
Constantinople was a walled city on a peninsula.
This made it difficult for invaders to take over.
Finally, in 1453, the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople.
They gave the city its present-day name: Istanbul.
This was the end of the Byzantine Empire.
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks is sometimes called the end of the Middle Ages.
Islam and its golden age
The Islamic prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the early 7th century.
Soon after his death in 632 CE, Islam split into two branches.
These were the Sunni Muslims and the Shi'a.
Most Muslims (about 85%) are Sunni.
Shi'a Muslims live mostly in modern-day Iran and Iraq.
The Sunni-Shi'a split has been compared to the Protestant Reformation within the Christian Church much later, in 1517.
After the Prophet Muhammad’s death, Arab Muslims began to take over many Christian territories and convert them to Islam.
Over time, they took control of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Egypt, North Africa and Spain.
(France and other European countries stayed under Christian rule.)
Eventually, the Muslim Ottoman Empire conquered parts of eastern Europe too.
Many Muslim states held of vast areas of land, making them superpowers of the Middle Ages.
Islam spread along the major trade routes of the old world.
Many traders and travelers became Muslim.
The Middle Ages were a golden age of knowledge in Muslim territories.
While Europe was struggling greatly, the Islamic world was making great progress in the arts, agriculture, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, and technology.
Many Muslim caliphs and Sultans gathered the ancient texts of great classical empires.
(For example, the Caliphs of Andalusian Cordoba gathered ancient Roman texts, and the Anatolian Seljuk Sultans gathered ancient Greek texts.).
During this Islamic Golden Age, a Persian Muslim helped to develop algebra.
The golden age of Islam ended with the Mongol invasions in the mid-13th century.
Asian Trade and the Bubonic Plague
During the Middle Ages, trade between countries became much more common.
Most trade ran along the Silk Road, a trade route that connected Europe to the Middle East and East Asia.
Arab traders brought things back and forth between Europe and East Asia along the Silk Road.
Items that were light, easy to carry, and valuable traveled the furthest distances.
During the high Middle Ages, wealth began to return and consumers began to demand luxuries again.
Traders brought silk, porcelain, spices, incense, gold and gems thousands of miles across deserts, mountains and plains to reach Europe.
They also brought glass from Europe to Asia.
Not all items traveled along the entire Silk Road.
Traders carrying heavier, less valuable items would travel shorter distances.
Food, for example, would mostly travel only within a few villages.
Trade was greatly interrupted several times during the Crusades (1095-1291) due to Mongolian invasions, wars between Muslims and Christians, and (later) the Black Plague.
Histories think the Mongols brought the plague with them from Asia.
This disease devastated the world population from 1347-1351.
It killed almost a third of the world's population (although the Americas were not affected).
Buddhism in the Middle Ages
Buddhism is a non-theistic religion (meaning its followers do not believe in a god).
It is based on philosophy.
It began in India.
However, Muslim invaders drove Buddhism out of India.
This forced Buddhism to flee east.
There are very few Buddhists in India today, but Buddhism eventually took up strong roots in China.
The Mongolian Empire and Chinese Exploration
During the Middle Ages, the Mongols created the world's largest contiguous empire.
Under the leadership of Genghis Khan, the Mongols took over territories in much of Asia, the Middle East, and far eastern Europe.
Because the Mongol Empire was so large and powerful, there was little war within the empire.
This period is now called the Pax Mongolica (pax is Latin for “peace”).
Like the earlier Roman Pax Romana, the Pax Mongolica was a time of relative peace and stability.
This made it possible for trade, technologies, and ideas to travel safely throughout Eurasia.
International trade and diplomacy along the Silk Road expanded greatly.
Around the time of his death in 1227,  Genghis Khan’s empire had gotten too big to survive.
It collapsed under its own size (like Alexander the Great's did in Ancient Greece).
The former Mongol Empire was split four ways.
This allowed the Chinese to become the dominant power in the Far East once again.
Later, under the Yuan Dynasty, the Chinese also retook control of northern China.
Around 1405, a Chinese admiral named Zheng He went to explore the world.
His fleet of 300 'treasure ships' explored great areas of the Eastern world.
These ships were many times larger than anything the Europeans had built. (
A Zheng He Treasure ship was wider than Columbus' ship 'Santa Maria' was long).
The Late Middle Ages were the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, from around 1291 (when the Crusades ended) to 1492 (when Columbus traveled to the New World).
During this period the gun was invented, and changed the way wars were fought.
Aristocracy and feudalism became less important.
Before the late Middle Ages, armies were only formed when there was a war.
Now, states founded standing armies.
Technology, economy and science developed.
Cities were founded and existing cities grew larger and richer.
During the late Middle Ages, France and England fought the Hundred Years' War.
Also during this period, China regained its independence from the Mongol Empire.
So did the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which became the most important state in Eastern Europe, under the name of “Russia.”
The bubonic plague devastated Eurasia and North Africa during the late Middle Ages.
This was one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
It killed between 75 and 200 million people.
This was 1/3 to 3/4 of the world’s population at the time.
In the 15th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire.
This cut off the Silk Road, so Europeans had to find new trade routes.
In turn, Christian states drove the Muslims out of Spain.
This triggered the Age of Discovery during the Renaissance.
Student resources
History.com - Middle Ages Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts
Middle Ages - Citizendium
Middle Ages - Vikidia
Louis I of Holland (Lodewijk Napoleon in Dutch) (1779-1846), was the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of the Kingdom of Holland in 1806.
He served with his brother in the Italian campaign of 1796–97 and in Egypt in 1798–99.
Napoleon named him king of Holland in 1806.
When Louis disagreed with his policies, Napoleon dispatched troops against Holland.
Louis abdicated in 1810 and lived most of the remainder of his life in Italy.
Louis was born Luigi Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica.
He was a younger brother of Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien and Elisa, and the older brother of Pauline, Caroline and Jerome.
His early career was spent in the army and he served with Napoleon in Egypt.
Thanks to Napoleon, he was a general by the age of 25, although he himself felt that he had risen too far in too short a time.
Upon his return to France, he was involved in Napoleon's plot to overthrow the Directory.
After becoming first consul, Napoleon arranged a marriage for Louis to Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine and Napoleon's stepdaughter.
Hortense, who was opposed to the marriage, was convinced by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family.
King of Holland
Napoleon made him king of Holland on June 5 1806.
He took his duties as king seriously, calling himself Koning Lodewijk I (adopting the Dutch form of his name).
He practiced to speak Dutch language and tried to be a responsible, independent ruler of Holland.
His attempt at speaking the language earned him some respect from his subjects.
He declared that he was Dutch and renounced his French citizenship.
He also forced his court and ministers (mostly supplied by Napoleon) to speak only Dutch languages.
This was too much for his wife Hortense who refused his request.
Two major tragedies occurred during his reign: the explosion of a ship filled with gunpowder in the heart of the city of Leiden in 1807, and a major flood in 1809.
In both instances, Louis personally and effectively oversaw local relief efforts, which helped earn him the nickname of Louis the Good.
His reign of the Netherlands was short lived, due to a quarrel with his brother.
Napoleon I wanted Dutch troops for his invasion of Russia.
Louis refused; Napoleon didn't help defend the kingdom, and the British invaded.
Napoleon then suggested that Louis should abdicate but he refused.
Napoleon removed Louis from the Dutch throne and took over the entire Kingdom of Holland on July 1, 1810.
After his kingdom was taken from him, Louis remained in Holland for nearly three years and turned to writing and poetry.
Louis wrote to Napoleon after the disastrous Russian campaign to restore him to the Dutch throne.
Predictably, Napoleon refused and Louis returned to France in 1813.
Head of the House of Bonaparte
After the death of his elder brother Joseph in 1844, Louis was seen by Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French, although he took little action himself to advance the claim.
His son and heir, Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, on the other hand, was at that time imprisoned in France for having tried to engineer a Bonapartist coup d'état.
Louis died on July 25 1846, making his son the future Napoleon III.
Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life, by Alan Schom
1779 births
1884 deaths
Kings and Queens of the Netherlands
People from Corsica
De Ruyter was born in Vlissingen.
He fought the English in the three Anglo-Dutch Wars and scored several huge victories.
He won amongst others the Four Days Battle and the Raid on Medway, close to London, the English capital.
He also fought battles against Sweden and France.
He died because of injuries he got on a battle against France, he is buried in Amsterdam.
1607 births
1676 deaths
Dutch military people
People from Vlissingen
Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (14 January 1798 - 4 June 1872) was an important Dutch politician.
In 1848, he wrote a constitution almost on his own.
This constitution gave the king less power and the people more, so it made the Netherlands a democracy.
Thorbecke was a liberal.
Several times he was prime minister, and internal affairs minister.
Thorbecke was a Lutheran and had German roots.
He was born in Zwolle and died in The Hague, aged 74.
1798 births
1872 deaths
Dutch Protestants
Government ministers of the Netherlands
Lutherans
Politicians from Overijssel
Writers from Overijssel
Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman (April 23, 1889 in Utrecht - February 28, 1942) was a Dutch admiral (Dutch: schout-bij-nacht) during World War II.
In February 1942, he led his fleet against a much stronger Japanese fleet in the Java Sea.
This battle became a disaster for the Allies.
Doorman became a hero in the Netherlands, partly of his last words to the fleet: "Ik val aan, volg mij!" (
I am attacking, follow me).
Karel Doorman died when his ship De Ruyter (named after the famous Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter) was hit by a torpedo and sank.
There was enough time to escape, but Doorman rather went under with his ship, according to old tradition.
1942 deaths
Dutch military personnel of World War II
Military people killed in World War II
People from Utrecht (city)
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States.
Francis Scott Key wrote the words to it in 1814 after seeing British ships attacking Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland during the War of 1812.
The words are set to the music of a British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven".
The song has 4 stanzas but only the first one is usually sung.
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen thro’ the mist of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
’Tis the star-spangled banner.
long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep’s pollution.
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
And this be our motto—“In God is our trust.”
Library of Congress article
National Museum of American History  article
Maryland Online Encyclopedia article
British Attack on Ft.
McHenry Launched from Bermuda
Encyclopedia Smithsonian article on "The Star-Spangled Banner"
"Star-Mangled Banner: A look at some controversial, and botched, renditions of our national anthem"
"The Star-Spangled Banner" by John A. Carpenter
Easybyte—free easy piano arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner / Anacreon in Heaven"
"Stars and Stripes Forever"  City Pages, July 4, 2001
"The Toughest 2 Minutes"
19th-century American songs
Songs about the United States
Abdou Diouf (born September 7, 1935) was president of Senegal from 1981 to 2000.
He was the second president since the country became independent.
Diouf has been the Secretary General of La Francophonie since 2003.
Diouf, Abdou
Prime Ministers of Senegal
The needle consists of a short stick with a sharp point and hole for the thread.
Needles are now mostly made of steel, but in ancient or Stone Age times they would have been made of small bones or twigs.
1112 - Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona and Douce I, Countess of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of the two states.
1377 - Over 2,000 people in Cesena, Italy are killed by Papal troops.
1488 - Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands at Mossel Bay in present-day South Africa, having become the first European to travel round the Cape of Good Hope.
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
1781 - British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
1809 – Illinois Territory is created.
1815 – The first commercial cheese factory is founded (Switzerland).
1830 - Greece's sovereignty is confirmed by the London Protocol.
1870 – The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.
1900 - Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies four days after being shot, and three days after being sworn in to office.
1908 - The Panathinaikos Sports Club is founded in Athens.
1913 – The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
It lets the Federal government create and collect income tax.
1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announces a new policy of submarine warfare.
1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world, at 3,633 metres long.
1930 - The Communist Party of Vietnam is founded in Kowloon, then-British Hong Kong.
1931 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits New Zealand's North Island, mainly the cities of Napier and Hastings.
1943 - The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat, killing 672 of the 902 men on board.
1944 – United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
1945 – World War II: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre fighting against Japan.
1947 - North America's lowest temperature is recorded in Snag, Yukon, Canada.
1952 – The earliest known tropical storm makes landfall in South Florida.
1955 - Czechoslovakia declares an end to hostilities with Germany.
1958 - The Benelux Economic Union is formed.
1959 – An airplane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.