World History in Minutes 200 Key Concepts Explained in an Instant

Description

What happened to the Roman Empire? Why was the Magna Carter so important? What led to the First World War? Why did the USSR collapse? World History in Minutes provides succinct answers to these questions–and many more–in 200 simple and accessible essays. From the 100 Years War to the Gulf Wars, and from the wisdom of Aristotle to the Civil Rights movement, this book distills the major events in human history into easily digestible chunks. Each essay is accompanied by an image–or a clear diagram to illustrate complex ideas–and will plug the gaps in your knowledge of the most important eras, movements and events in the history of humankind. World History in Minutes is the perfect introduction to this expansive subject. Contents include: Neanderthals, Babylonians, Attilla the Hun, Abyssinian Empire, Magna Carta, Black Death, Inca, Henry VIII Reformation, Ulster Plantations, Rousseau and the Enlightenment, Declaration of Independence, French Revolution, Tonga Civil War, Universal Suffrage, Spanish Influenza, Great Depression, Pearl Harbour, The Space Age, Civil Rights, Environmentalism, Oligarchs and Tiger Economies. Contents Cover Page Title Page Copyright Page Map Introduction PREHISTORY Lucy and her kin Tools, art and belief Out of Africa Neanderthals Ice ages Oceania Neolithic expansion Bronze and iron FIRST CIVILIZATIONS Mesopotamia Babylon Unified Egypt Judaism Minoan Crete Phoenicians Akhenaten Mesoamerican civilizations Assyria Iron THE CLASSICAL WORLD Roman Republic Buddhism Thermopylae Warring States Era Lao Tzu Plato and Aristotle Confucianism and the bureaucratic state Alexander the Great Ashoka Carthage and the Punic Wars Celts Great Wall of China Julius Caesar The Fall of Egypt The Pax Romana Aksumite empire Constantine Sassanian empire Abyssinian empire Alaric THE MIDDLE AGES Shinto Silk Road St Augustine Attilla the Hun Islam An Lushan Rebellion Abbasid caliphate Native Americans Charlemagne Saxons Haroun al-Rashid Vikings and Rus La Conviviencia Lindisfarne Gospels Twelver Shi’ism Normans Schism Inca The Crusades Genghis Khan and the Mongols Magna Carta Mamluks Ottoman empire Tamburlaine Ming Hundred Years’ War Black Death Habsburgs Wars of the Roses THE RENAISSANCE Printing The Medici Fall of Constantinople Navigation Ferdinand and Isabella Safavid Persia Conquistadors Martin Luther Mughals Reformation in England Battle of Lepanto Nova of 1572 Tupac Amaru Missionaries Ivan the Terrible Ulster Plantations Thirty Years’ War Dutch East India Company (VOC) THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS ‘Triangle Trade’ Puritanism Queen Christina Coffee houses Sakoku Edict Louis XIV Peter the Great Newcomen’s atmospheric engine Ashanti empire South Sea Bubble Nadir Shah Treaty of Constantinople Steel Seven Years’ War Catherine the Great Lisbon earthquake House of Saud Enlightenment Factories The Declaration of Independence The Agrarian Revolution Cook and Australia Tipu Sultan Thailand Maratha wars Northwest Indian Wars The French Revolution Chemistry The Terror Napoleon in Egypt Irish rebellion Emperor Napoleon Haitian Revolution Abolitionists Louisiana Purchase Gauchos Waterloo Steam Simón Boíivar Greek independence Trail of Tears Telegraphy THE AGE OF EMPIRES Gold rushes Opium Wars Tonga Civil War Universal suffrage 1848 Crimean War On The Origin of Species The Risorgimento Taiping Rebellion American Civil War Emperor Maximilian The Schleswig-Holstein Question Reconstruction Xhosa Wars The Tsar Liberator Belgian Congo Ellis Island THE 20TH CENTURY AND BEYOND Sino-Japanese Wars Spanish-American War Boxer Rebellion Russo-Japanese War Polar exploration Mass production Mass media Panama Canal World War I Gallipoli Easter Rising October Revolution ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic Treaty of Versailles Mustafa Kemel Atatürk Stalin Great Depression Dust Bowl Spanish Civil War Abyssinia Annexation of World War II Stalingrad and Leningrad Pearl Harbor Gandhi and Churchill Holocaust Hiroshima and Nagasaki Partition Israel and Palestine Mao Berlin Airlift Korea Indochina Mau Mau Rebellion Suez Crisis The Space Race Civil Rights Cuba Environmentalism ‘Winds of Change’ Kennedy Apartheid Vietnam War Cultural Revolution Bangladesh Idi Amin Allende and Chile Yom Kippur War Pol Pot Ayatollahs in Iran Collapse of the Soviet Union Iran-Iraq War Bosnia The ‘War on Terror’ The Credit Crunch The Internet Index Acknowledgments