The History Book

Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION
2. HUMAN ORIGINS • 200,000 YEARS AGO–3500 BCE
   1. At least as important as Columbus’s journey to America or the Apollo 11 expedition • The first humans arrive in Australia
   2. Everything was so beautiful, so fresh • Cave paintings at Altamira
   3. The foundations of today’s Europe were forged in the events of the late Ice Age • The Big Freeze
   4. A great civilization arose on the Anatolian plain • The settlement at Çatalhöyük
3. ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS • 6000 BCE–500 CE
   1. To bring about the rule of righteousness in the land • The Law Code of Hammurabi
   2. All the lands have fallen prostrate beneath his sandals for eternity • The temples of Abu Simbel
   3. Attachment is the root of suffering • Siddartha Gautama preaches Buddhism
   4. A clue to the existence of a system of picture-writing in the Greek lands • The palace at Knossos
   5. In times of peace, sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who bury their sons • The Persian Wars
   6. Administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few • Athenian democracy
   7. There is nothing impossible to he who will try • The conquests of Alexander the Great
   8. If the Qin should ever get his way with the world, then the whole world will end up his prisoner • The First Emperor unifies China
   9. Thus perish all tyrants • The assassination of Julius Caesar
   10. By this sign conquer • The Battle of Milvian Bridge
   11. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken • The Sack of Rome
   12. Further events
4. THE MEDIEVAL WORLD • 500–1492
   1. Seek to enlarge the empire and make it more glorious • Belisarius retakes Rome
   2. Truth has come and falsehood has vanished • Muhammad receives the divine revelation
   3. A leader in whose shadow the Christian nation is at peace • The crowning of Charlemagne
   4. The ruler is wealthy but the state is destroyed • The An Lushan revolt
   5. A surge in spirit and an awakening in intelligence • The founding of Baghdad
   6. Never before has such a terror appeared in Britain • The Viking raid on Lindisfarne
   7. The Roman church has never erred • The Investiture Controversy
   8. A man destined to become master of the state • Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Shogun
   9. That men in our kingdom shall have and keep all these liberties, rights, and concessions • The signing of the Magna Carta
   10. The most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, that exists in the world • Kublai Khan conquers the Song
   11. I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed • Marco Polo reaches Shangdu
   12. Those who until now have been mercenaries for a few coins achieve eternal rewards • The fall of Jerusalem
   13. The work of giants • The construction of Angkor Wat
   14. He left no court emir nor royal office holder without the gift of a load of gold • Mansa Musa’s hajj to Mecca
   15. Give the sun the blood of enemies to drink • The foundation of Tenochtitlan
   16. Scarce the tenth person of any sort was left alive • The outbreak of the Black Death in Europe
   17. I have worked to discharge heaven’s will • Hongwu founds the Ming dynasty
   18. Cast down the adversaries of my Christian people • The fall of Granada
   19. I have newly devised 28 letters • King Sejong introduces a new script
   20. Further events
5. THE EARLY MODERN ERA • 1420–1795
   1. As my city falls, I shall fall with it • The fall of Constantinople
   2. Following the light of the sun we left the Old World • Christopher Columbus reaches America
   3. This line shall be considered as a perpetual mark and bound • The Treaty of Tordesillas
   4. The ancients never raised their buildings so high • The beginning of the Italian Renaissance
   5. War has become very different • The Battle of Castillon
   6. As different from ours as day and night • The Columbian Exchange
   7. My conscience is captive to the Word of God • Martin Luther’s 95 theses
   8. He began war in Bohemia, which he subjugated and forced into his religion • The Defenestration of Prague
   9. Royalty is a remedy for the spirit of rebellion • The conquests of Akbar the Great
   10. They cherished a great hope and inward zeal • The voyage of the Mayflower
   11. We will cut off his head with the crown upon it • The execution of Charles I
   12. The very being of the plantations depends upon the supply of Negro servants • The formation of the Royal African Company
   13. There is no corner where one does not of talk shares • The opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange
   14. After victory, tighten the cords of your helmet • The Battle of Sekigahara
   15. Use barbarians to control barbarians • The Revolt of the Three Feudatories
   16. I have in this treatise cultivated mathematics so far as it regards philosophy • Newton publishes Principia
   17. As far as I think it possible for man to go • The voyages of Captain Cook
   18. I am the state • Louis XIV begins personal rule of France
   19. Don’t forget your great guns, the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings • The Battle of Quebec
   20. Assemble all the knowledge scattered on the surface of the earth • Diderot publishes the Encyclopédie
   21. I built St. Petersburg as a window to let in the light of Europe • The founding of St. Petersburg
   22. Further events
6. CHANGING SOCIETIES • 1776–1914
   1. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal • The signing of the Declaration of Independence
   2. Sire, it’s a revolution • The storming of the Bastille
   3. I must make of all the peoples of Europe one people, and of Paris the capital of the world • The Battle of Waterloo
   4. Let us lay the cornerstone of American freedom without fear. To hesitate is to perish • Bolívar establishes Gran Colombia
   5. Life without industry is guilt • Stephenson’s Rocket enters service
   6. You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know • The Slave Trade Abolition Act
   7. Society was cut in two • The 1848 revolutions
   8. This enterprise will return immense rewards • The construction of the Suez Canal
   9. Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved • Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
   10. Let us arm. Let us fight for our brothers • The Expedition of the Thousand
   11. These sad scenes of death and sorrow, when are they to come to an end? • The Siege of Lucknow
   12. Better to abolish serfdom from above, than to wait for it to abolish itself from below • Russia emancipates the serfs
   13. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth • The Gettysburg Address
   14. Our manifest destiny is to overspread the continent • The California Gold Rush
   15. America is God’s crucible, the greatest melting pot • The opening of Ellis Island
   16. Enrich the country, strengthen the military • The Meiji Restoration
   17. In my hand I wield the universe and the power to attack and kill • The Second Opium War
   18. I ought to be jealous of the Eiffel Tower. She is more famous than I am • The opening of the Eiffel Tower
   19. If I could, I would annex other planets • The Berlin Conference
   20. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth, and the teachings of science • The Young Turk Revolution
   21. Deeds not words • The death of Emily Davison
   22. Further events
7. THE MODERN WORLD • 1914–PRESENT
   1. You often wish you were dead • The Battle of Passchendaele
   2. History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now • The October Revolution
   3. This is not peace. This is an armistice for 20 years • The Treaty of Versailles
   4. Death is the solution to all problems. No man — no problem • Stalin assumes power
   5. Any lack of confidence in the economic future of the United States is foolish • The Wall Street Crash
   6. The truth is that men are tired of liberty • The Reichstag Fire
   7. In starting and waging a war, it is not right that matters but victory • Nazi invasion of Poland
   8. The Final Solution of the Jewish Question • The Wannsee Conference
   9. All we did was fly and sleep • The Berlin Airlift
   10. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom • Indian independence and partition
   11. The name of our state shall be Israel • The establishment of Israel
   12. The Long March is a manifesto, a propaganda force, a seeding-machine • The Long March
   13. Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever • Nkrumah wins Ghanaian independence
   14. We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked • The Cuban Missile Crisis
   15. People of the whole world are pointing to the satellite • The launch of Sputnik
   16. I have a dream • The March on Washington
   17. I am not going to lose Vietnam • The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
   18. A revolution is not a bed of roses • The Bay of Pigs invasion
   19. Scatter the old world, build the new • The Cultural Revolution
   20. We shall defend it with our blood and strength, and we shall meet aggression with aggression and evil with evil • The Suez Crisis
   21. The Iron Curtain is swept aside • The fall of the Berlin Wall
   22. All power to the people • The 1968 protests
   23. Never, never, and never again • The release of Nelson Mandela
   24. Create an unbearable situation of total insecurity with no hope of further survival or life • The Siege of Sarajevo
   25. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack • The 9/11 attacks
   26. You affect the world by what you browse • The launch of the first website
   27. A crisis that began in the mortgage markets of America has brought the world’s financial system close to collapse • The global financial crisis
   28. This is a day about our entire human family • Global population exceeds 7 billion
   29. Further events
8. GLOSSARY
9. QUOTE ATTRIBUTIONS
10. CONTRIBUTORS
11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
12. COPYRIGHT