HISTORY OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE

HISTORY OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE

New European empires: 16th century AD

Since the fall of Rome, there has been no empire based in Europe which extends outside the continent. This situation changes abruptly in the 16th century, when Spain and Portugal become the pioneers in a new era of colonization.

The Iberian peninsula is well poised at the time for this leap into the unknown.
         
In their great voyages of discovery, in the 15th century, the Portuguese have developed ocean-going skills which are eagerly copied by their Spanish neighbours. Spain's internal conflicts of recent centuries have recently been resolved with the union of Castile and Aragon and then, in 1492, the conquest of Granada.

Two voyages in the 1490s lay the foundations for the future empires. Columbus, sailing west for Spain, stumbles upon America in 1492. Vasco da Gama, adventuring south and east for Portugal, reaches India in 1498.
     
Spaniards in a new world: 16th century AD

The half century after Columbus's voyage sees a frenzy of activity in the new world (part exploration, part conquest, part colonization) as the Spanish scramble and struggle to make the most of their unexpected new opportunities.

By 1506 the entire continental shore of the Caribbean Sea has been explored from Honduras to the mouth of the Orinoco. Known at first as Tierra Firme (a phrase applied to the isthmus of Panama), it is believed to be part of the coast of Asia - until Vespucci's furthest journey south gives him a different impression, which becomes gradually accept.......

Qutub Minar-History

     Qutub-Minar in red and buff standstone is the highest tower in India. It has a diameter of 14.32m at the base and about 2.75m on the top with a height of 72.5m.

     Qutb-u'd-Din Aibak laid the foundation of Qutab Minar in AD 1199. The minar was said to have been built to celebrate the victory of Mohammed Ghori, the invader from Afghanistan, over the Rajputs in 1192. He raised the first storey, to which were added three more storeys by his successor and son-in-law, Shamsu'd-Din IItutmish (AD 1211-36). All the storeys are surrounded by a projected balcony encircling the Minar and supported by stone brackets, which are decorated with honeycomb design, more conspicuously in the first storey.

    Numerous inscriptions in Arabic and Nagari characters in different places of the Minar reveal the history of Qutb. According to the inscriptions on its surface it was repaired by Firoz Shah Tughlaq (AD 1351-88) and Sikandar Lodi (AD 1489-1517).

      Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, to the northeast of Minar was built by Qutbu'd-Din Aibak in AD 1198. It is the earliest mosque built by the Delhi Sultans. It consists of a rectangular courtyard enclosed by cloisters, erected with the carved columns and architectural members of 27 Hindu and Jain temples, which were demolished by Qutbu'd-Din Aibak as recorded in his inscription on the main eastern entrance.

    Later, a lofty arched screen was erected and the mosque was enlarged, by Shamsu'd- Din IItutmish (AD 1210-35) and Alau'd-Din Khalji. The Iron Pillar in the courtyard bears an inscription in Sanskrit in Brahmi script of 4th century AD, according to which the pillar was set up as a Vishnudhvaja (standard of Lord Vishnu) on the hill known as Vishnupada in memory of a mighty king named Chandra. A deep socket on the top of the ornate capital indicates that probably an image of Garuda was fixed into it.
The Tomb of IItutmish (AD 1211-36) was built in AD 1235. It is a plain square chamber of red sandstone, profusely carved with inscriptions, geometrical and arabesque patterns in Saracenic tradition on the entrances and the whole of interior. Some of the motifs viz., the wheel, tassel, etc., are reminiscent of Hindu designs. Ala 'i- Darwaza, the southern gateway of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque was constructed by Alau'd-Din Khalji in AH 710 (AD 1311) as recorded in the inscriptions engraved on it. This is the first building employing Islamic principles of construction and ornamentation.

     Alau'd-Din Khalji commenced Ala'i Minar, which stands to the north of Kutub-Minar, with the intention of making it twice the size of earlier Minar. He could complete only the first storey, which now has an extant height of 25 m. The other remains in the Qutab complex comprise Madrasa, graves, tombs, mosque and architectural members.

RUSSIAN EMPIRE HISTORY

RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

To understand the complex history of Jews in Russia,
one must begin with a fundamental distinction, often effaced in the
historiography and popular memory, between Russia as a state—the Russian
Empire, the Soviet Union, and since 1991, the Russian Federation—and the
geographically much smaller entity of ethnic Russia. Until the 1720s, there
were essentially no Jews in the Russian Empire except for travelers and
migrant merchants, and the Russian state forbade Jews from settling in its
interior, out of
traditional
Christian hostility. 

A group of Jewish soldiers in the tsarist army,
Troitskossovsk, 1887. (YIVO Archives)
It was only
in the early
decades of the
eighteenth
century, when the
rulers of the
Russian Empire
started to expand
westward, after
more than a
century of
eastward inroads
and annexation
(into territories in
which Jews did not
live), that Jews began to move into areas of the Russian Empire—not Russia
proper. Thus, after Peter the Great conquered the areas connecting Muscovy
and the Baltic Sea, and especially after Catherine the Great colluded with
Prussia and Austria to divide and annex the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth (1772, 1793, 1795), the Russian Empire gradually included
the largest Jewish population in the world—a reality that persisted until the
division of this territory in the aftermath of World War I. In this century and
a half, however, the vast majority of Jews did not live in ethnic Russia itself
but in the Lithuanian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian provinces of the Russian
Empire, and in the Kingdom of Poland, a region controlled by the tsars but
not formally annexed to the empire. Throughout the nineteenth century, and
especially in its latter half, Jews with special privileges settled legally in
Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and other Russian cities, where they were joined
by larger numbers of Jews living there illegally. In the Soviet period, at first
hundreds of thousands and then millions of Jews migrated to the interior
provinces of Russia, particularly to the capital cities of Moscow and
Leningrad. The substantial presence of Jews in these cities (with Leningrad
reverting to its imperial name of Saint Petersburg) and in other parts of
Russia continued in the post-Soviet period. .........

Mongol history

History of Mongol Empire

Mongol Empire
biggest land empire in history
1279 - 1368

Mongol Empire was the biggest land empire in history. Its territory extended from the Yellow Sea in eastern Asia to the borders of eastern Europe. At various times it included China, Korea, Mongolia, Persia (now Iran), Turkestan, and Armenia. It also included parts of Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, and Russia.

The Mongols, who eventually became known as the Tatars, were the most savage conquerors of history. But this vast empire helped increase contacts between peoples of different cultures. Migrations fostered these contacts and promoted trade. Roads were built to connect Russia and Persia with eastern Asia. Many Europeans came to China, and Chinese went to Russia and other parts of Europe. Printing and other Chinese inventions such as paper, gunpowder, and the compass may have been introduced to the West during Mongol times.......

THE BRITISH EMPIRE HISTORY

HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

First steps: AD 1497-1600

England makes tentative first steps towards establishing a presence beyond the ocean in the same decade as Spain and Portugal, the 1490s. In 1497 Henry VII sends John Cabot on an expedition across the Atlantic to look for a trade route to China. The explorer probably reaches Newfoundland, but his journey provides no lasting result (apart from a theoretical claim to Canada, and news of the rich fishing potential in north Atlantic waters).

During the 16th century, when English seamen are honing their skills, Drake and his colleagues find it more profitable to raid the Spanish main as privateers than to go to the expense of transporting colonists across the Atlantic.
 
The exception is Walter Raleigh, who sponsors two attempts to settle a colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now north Carolina. Both are disastrous. The colonists left there in 1585 are soon desperate to return, and are brought back to England by Drake in 1586.

Another group of settlers is brought to the island in 1587, a year which sees the first child born in America to English parents. She is called Virginia Dare (Virginia, in honour of England's virgin queen, is the name given to the colony). But when an English ship next visits the island, in 1590, no trace remains of any member of this pioneering community.
 
The next attempt to establish English colonies in America comes in 1606, with the founding of two companies for the purpose.............