Beginning its adult life as the capital for the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, the city of Constantinople—later Byzantium, and Istanbul today—became the center of an extremely vibrant society that preserved Greek and Roman traditions while much of Western Europe slipped into the Dark Ages.  The Byzantine Empire protected Western Europe’s legacy until barbarism waned, when finally the preserved Greek and Roman masterworks opened the eyes of Europeans and stoked the fires of the Renaissance.

Many historians have agreed that without Byzantium to protect it, Europe would have been overrun by the tide of Islamic invaders. The purpose of this list is for the readers to take an accurate historical journey—based on real facts—very much worth taking.

The origins of Byzantium are clouded by mystery, but for our list we will follow the generally accepted version. Around 660 B.C., a Greek citizen, Byzas, from the town of Megara near Athens, consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. Byzas requested advice on where he should found a new colony, since the mainland of Greece was becoming overpopulated. The oracle simply whispered, “opposite the blind.”

Byzas didn’t understand the message, but he sailed northeast across the Aegean Sea. When he came to the Bosphorus Strait, he realized what the oracle must have meant. Seeing the Greek city of Chalcedon, he thought that its founders must have been blind, because they had not seen the obviously superior site just half a mile away on the other side of the strait. So
he founded his settlement on the better site, and called it Byzantium after himself.

Byzantium had an excellent harbor and many good fishing spots in its vicinity. It occupied a strategic position between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and therefore soon became a leading port and trade center, linking the continents of Europe and Asia. Occupation, destruction and regeneration became the rule for the city.

In 590 B.C., Byzantium was destroyed by the Persians. It was later rebuilt by the Spartans, and then fought over by Athens and Sparta until 336 B.C. From 336 to 323 B.C., it was under the control of the famous Greek general, Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander, Byzantium finally regained its independence.

In the following years, right before the city became the capital of one of the greatest empires ever, it was attacked by various invaders such as the Scythians, the Celts, and of course the Romans.

In A.D. 324 the Emperor of the West, Constantine I, defeated the Emperors of the East, Maxentius and Licinius, in the civil wars of the Tetrarchy. Constantine became the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire—though the complete conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity was not accomplished during his lifetime. There’s no doubt that during the rule of Constantine, Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire—but it’s very possible that Constantine’s biggest regret was that he was never able to achieve a unified Christian Church.

The construction of the city of Constantinople, however, was one of his absolute triumphs. While other Ancient Greek and Roman emperors built many fine cities during their reign, Constantinople exceeded them all in size and magnificence. It soon became the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and thus marked the dawn of a new era.

Most historians today have trouble deciding exactly which event or date signifies the fall of the Roman Empire. One of the most common conclusions is that when the Empire was split in two, it would never be able to reach its former glory again. There’s even more debate on the religions of the age, which were probably the decisive factor separating the Byzantine Empire from the spirit of Classical Rome.

Theodosius I was the last emperor to rule over the whole Roman Empire. He was also the one who split it right down the middle, giving Rome (West) to his son Honorius and Constantinople (East) to his other son Arcadius. The more classical, Western part of the Roman Empire weakened significantly when the land was divided, while the Greek-influenced Eastern half continued to develop the oriental aspects of its culture. The Roman Empire, as the world had known it, no longer existed.

One of the most widely known contributions of Justinian I was the reform of the laws of the Byzantine Empire, known as “The Justinian Code.” Under his rule the Byzantine Empire flourished and prospered in many ways.

Justinian gained power and fame for his buildings and architecture. One of his most famous buildings was the Hagia Sophia, which was completed in A.D. 538. It became the center of the Greek Orthodox Church for a number of centuries. This massive cathedral still stands today in Istanbul, and remains one of the largest and most impressive churches in the world.

Justinian also encouraged music, arts, and drama. As a masterful builder himself, Justinian commissioned new roads, bridges, aqueducts, baths, and a variety of other public works. Justinian is considered a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church nowadays, even though a good amount of Orthodox Christians don’t agree with his sanctification.

Most historians agree that after the accession to the Byzantine throne of Heraclius in 610 A.D., the Byzantine Empire became essentially Greek in both culture and spirit. Heraclius made Greek the official language of the Empire, and it had already become the most widely spoken language of the Byzantine population.

The Byzantine Empire, having had its origins in the Eastern Roman Empire, now evolved into something new—something different from its predecessor.  By 650 A.D., only a very few lingering Roman elements remained alongside the pervasive Greek influence. According to various historical sources, a large majority of the Byzantine population from 650 A.D. onwards was of Greek cultural background. Additionally, the Byzantine army fought in a style which was much closer to that of the Ancient Athenians and Spartans than that of the Roman Legions.

The Byzantine Navy was the first to employ a terrifying liquid in naval battles. The liquid was pumped onto enemy ships and troops through large siphons mounted on the Byzantine ships’ prows. It would ignite upon contact with seawater, and could only be extinguished with great difficulty.

The ingredients of “Greek fire” were closely guarded, but historians think it was a mixture of naphtha, pitch, sulfur, lithium, potassium, metallic sodium, calcium phosphide and a petroleum base. Other nations eventually came up with similar version of the stuff, but the fact that it was dangerous for their own troops, too, made it go out of military fashion by the mid-to-late fifteenth century.

When we hear the term “Greco-Roman,” we automatically think of culture, architecture, philosophy, the Olympic sport of wrestling—but not of Byzantine cuisine.

To learn about Byzantine cuisine properly, we need to go back to its roots. It involved a mix of Greek practices and Roman traditions. Byzantine culinary tastes focused on the regions where Hellenism flourished: cheese, figs, eggs, olive oil, walnuts, almonds, apples, and pears, were all staples of the Byzantine diet, indigenous to the lands of the empire and appreciated by aristocracy and common people alike.

The Byzantines also loved honey, and often used it in cooking as a sweetener, since sugar was not available. Bread was an essential staple of the Byzantine table, and a guarantee of stability for the government in Constantinople. And it was a massive enterprise—the bakeries of Constantinople regularly producing over 80,000 loafs per day.

The Byzantines could count on a steady diet of bread, cheese, meat, and fish, much of it cured and preserved in salt and olive oil. But just like in modern Greece, this diet was supplemented with vegetables that were produced in small gardens.
Despite the limited information we have today, our knowledge of Byzantine cuisine is like the restoration of a damaged mosaic; even though a lot of the pieces are still missing, the picture still has a beautiful quality to it .

Today, the aromas and ingredients of Greek and other Mediterranean food gives us a little taste of what Byzantine food must have been like.

The Byzantine Empire was mainly comprised of an array of small towns and seaports connected by a developed infrastructure. Production was very high, and there was a notable growth in land ownership. The Byzantines followed a Christian lifestyle which revolved around the home, where women dedicated themselves to the upbringing of their children. There were also various public places where men sought relaxation in their leisure hours.

From A.D. 500 to A.D. 1200, Byzantium was the wealthiest nation in Europe and western Asia. Its standard of living was unrivaled by other nations in Europe, and it led much of the world in art, science, trade, and architecture. We could even say that the “Byzantine Dream” existed long before the American one.

Most historians of Byzantium agree that the Empire’s greatest and most lasting legacy was the birth of Greek Orthodox Christianity. Eastern Orthodoxy arose as a distinct branch of Christianity after the “Great Schism” of the eleventh century between Eastern and Western Christendom.

The separation was not sudden. For centuries, there had been significant religious, cultural, and political differences between the Eastern and Western churches. Many historians assure us today that religion was the main reason why Roman culture lost all its influence on the Byzantine Empire.

There were major theological differences between Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox Christians, on topics such as the use of images, the nature of the Holy Spirit, and the role (and identity) of the Pope.

Culturally, the Greek East has always tended to be more philosophical, abstract, and mystical in its thinking, whereas the Latin West tended towards a more pragmatic and legal-minded approach.  All these factors finally came to a head in 1054 A.D., when Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople, who was the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church. In response, the Patriarch condemned the —and nearly one thousand years later, this division in the Christian church has still not been healed.

Theodoros II is a budding author and a law graduate. He loves History, Sci-Fi culture, European politics, and exploring the worlds of hidden knowledge. His ideal trip in an ideal world would be to the lost city of Atlantis.

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One of the most famous famines in history, the Great Famine was caused by a devastating potato disease. 33% of the Irish population relied on the potato for sustenance, and the onset of the disease in 1845 triggered mass starvations that lasted until 1853. The large Catholic population was suppressed by British rule, and left unable to own or lease land, or hold a profession. When the blight struck, British ships prevented other nations from delivering food aid. Ireland experienced a mass exodus, with upwards of 2 million people fleeing the country, many to the United States. At its conclusion in 1853, 1.5 million Irish were dead, and an additional 2 million had emigrated. In total, the population of Ireland shrunk by a resounding 25%.

As a protectorate under France, Vietnam was under colonial rule for much of World War II. As Japanese expansion began in Indochina, Vietnam was taken for the Japanese, and a collaborationist French government sided with the Japanese. Agricultural focus shifted from sustenance to war-materials, specifically rubber. The Japanese exploited what little crop farms remained, and the invading forces commandeered most of these crops. This, teamed with an unbearable drought followed by biblical flooding, caused mass starvation across much of Northern Vietnam. The resulting famine killed 2 million Vietnamese.

As the most recent famine on this list, North Korea suffered a tremendous famine from 1994 to 1998, brought about by a combination of misguided leadership and large scale flooding. Torrential rains in 1995 flooded the farming regions, and destroyed 1.5 million tons of grain reserves. Politically, Kim Jung Il implemented a “Military First” policy, which placed the needs of the military above the needs of the common people, food rations included. The isolated nation suffered from a stagnating economy, and was unable and unwilling to import food. As such, the childhood mortality rate rose to 93 out of 1000 children, and the mortality rate of pregnant women rose to 41 out of 1000 mothers. Over a 4-year span, an estimated 2.5-3 million people perished due to malnutrition and starvation.

The early 20th century was a tumultuous time for Russians, as they lost millions in World War I, experienced a violent revolution in 1917, and suffered from multiple Civil Wars. Throughout the wars, the Bolshevik soldiers often forced peasants to sacrifice their food, with little in return. As such, many peasants stopped growing crops, as they could not eat what they sowed. This resulted in a massive shortage of food and seed. Many peasants had taken to eating seeds, as they knew they could not eat any crops they grew. By 1921, 5 million Russians had perished.

The Bengal Famine of 1943 was set about by a whirlwind of catastrophic events. With World War II raging and Japanese imperialism growing, Bengal lost their largest trading partner in Burma. A majority of the food the Bengalis consumed was imported from Burma, but the Japanese suspended the trade. In 1942, Bengal was hit by a cyclone and three separate tidal waves. The ensuing floods destroyed 3200 square miles of viable farmland. An unpredictable fungus, destroying 90% of all rice crops in the region, then struck crops. Meanwhile, refugees fleeing the Japanese from Burma entered the region by the millions, increasing the need for food supplies. By December of 1943, 7 million Bengalis and Burmese refugees were dead due to starvation.

Yet another famine in Bengal, this horrific event killed a third of the population. Largely ruled by the English-owned East India Company, reports of severe drought and crop shortages were ignored, and the company continued to increase taxes on the region. Farmers were unable to grow crops, and any food that could be purchased was too expensive for the starving Bengalis. The company also forced farmers to grow indigo and opium, as they were much more profitable than inexpensive rice. Without large rice stocks, people were left with no food reserves, and the ensuing famine killed 10 million Bengalis.

Incredibly, the severity of this famine was not fully known in the West until the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s. The main cause was the policy of collectivization administered by Josef Stalin. Under collectivization, large swaths of land would be converted into collective farms, all maintained by peasants. Stalin went about implementing this by destroying the peasants existing farms, crops, and live-stock, and forcibly taking their land. Reports of peasants hiding crops for individual consumption led to wide-scale search parties, and any hidden crops found were destroyed. In actuality, many of these crops were simply seeds that would be planted shortly. The destruction of these seeds and the forced collectivization of land caused mass starvation, killing an estimated 10 million people.

The Chalisa famine refers to the year in the Vikram Samvat calendar used in Northern India. Occurring in 1783, the region suffered from an unusually dry year, as a shift in the El Nino weather system brought significantly less rain to the region. Vast swaths of crops withered and died, and livestock perished due to lack of food and drinking water. The tumultuous year killed 11 million Indians.

Ranking second in terms of death toll, the Chinese Famine of 1907 was a short-lived event that took the lives of nearly 25 million people. East-Central China was reeling from a series of poor harvests when a massive storm flooded 40,000 square miles of lush agricultural territory, destroying 100% of the crops in the region. Food riots took place daily, and were often quelled through the use of deadly force. It is estimated that, on a good day, only 5,000 were dying due to starvation. Unfortunately for the Chinese, this would not be their last great famine.

Much like the Soviet Famine of 1932-1933, the Great Chinese Famine was caused by Communist leaders attempting to force change upon an unwilling population. As part of their “Great Leap Forward”, the owning of private land was outlawed in China in 1958. Communal farming was implemented in an attempt to increase crop production. More relevant, however, was the importance the Communist Regime placed on iron and steel production. Millions of agricultural workers were forcibly removed from their fields and sent to factories to create metal.

In addition to these fatal errors, Chinese officials mandated new methods of planting. Seeds were to be planted 3-5 feet under the soil, extremely close together, to maximize growth and efficiency. In practice, what little seeds that sprouted were severely stunted in growth due to overcrowding. These failed policies, teamed with a flood in 1959 and a drought in 1960, affected the entirety of the Chinese nation. By the time the Great Leap Forward had ended in 1962, 43 million Chinese had died from the famine.

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“From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…” Sound familiar? The line about Tripoli in the U.S. Marine Corps hymn commemorates an action in 1805—the Battle of Derna—occurring during the First Barbary Coast War when the fledging American government had to take on the pirates of the Mediterranean. Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco, and Tunis were North African states on the infamous Barbary Coast, long considered a haven for pirates who preyed primarily on merchant ships.

Prior to America achieving independence from Britain, the colonists’ ships were protected by the Royal Navy. During the war, a treaty with France ensured the safety of American merchants. After the war, French protection ceased. In 1784, the Continental Congress solved the problem of the pirates in the same way as every other independent nation: bribery. Basically, the Barbary pirates ran a global protection scheme and the American government had to pay to keep its citizens and their vessels safe.

Some members of Congress like Thomas Jefferson believed paying the pirates would only lead to more demands, but an annual tribute and exorbitant ransoms for captured sailors continued since that was considered cheaper than all-out war until Jefferson became President. He refused to pay tribute directly to the Pasha of Tripoli in 1801, and the Pasha declared war on the United States.

After 4 years of conflict with wins and losses on all sides, in 1805 the Battle of Derna in Tripoli—memorialized in the hymn mentioned above—settled matters to a certain degree, but America still had to pay ransom for hostages taken by the pirates. It wouldn’t be until 1815 that all tribute ceased to be paid by the American government.

Millions of acres of prime real estate. Millions of dollars at stake. Politics, greedy businesses, bribery and corruption. Sound like an episode of a TV drama? A modern political conspiracy? Nope, it’s the late 18th century’s Yazoo Land Fraud scandal.

Right after the Revolutionary War, state boundaries weren’t quite fixed. Georgia claimed land as far west as the Mississippi River, biting off a little more than they could metaphorically chew. The frontier territory, called the Yazoo lands after a river, was already home to Cherokee, Creek, and other tribes (and is now part of Alabama and Mississippi). The lands were untamed, difficult to develop or defend, and twice Georgia tried to cede the territory to the federal government to no avail. The Yazoo lands seemed like a big white elephant nobody wanted … except greedy land speculators.

From the 1780s, companies lobbied state legislators with proposal after proposal for establishing settlements in the Yazoo lands, few of which came to fruition. Speculators continuing bombarding the state legislature, sweetening the pressure with bribes like company stock. Other influential men were bought. Finally, in 1795 a law was passed essentially allowing four land speculation companies to purchase 35 million acres of the territory for less than 2 cents an acre—even adjusted to modern prices, that’s suspiciously cheap. The land was sold for huge profits to other speculators or pioneers looking for a homestead to settle.

But all did not go smoothly. When news broke about the corruption surrounding the new law and the Yazoo lands, Georgians were furious. The anti-Yazooites gained political power and eventually oversaw the law rescinded and the sale overturned, even going so far as to arrange a public burning of the law and its records. In 1802, the lands were sold to the federal government for $1.25 million, but claims for compensation from losers in the land fraud continued to plague the court systems until 1814.

George Weymouth, an Englishman and captain of the ship Archangel, sailed his vessel from England to America—specifically Maine, near Cape Cod—while searching for the mythical northwest passage to India in 1605. Or so he said, but it’s also believed his voyage had more than one purpose: to spy on the French and their new colony in Nova Scotia, and try to settle English dissident (Catholic) colonists in prime locations in the New World.

After some exploration, Weymouth and his crew made contact with local natives, who were friendly and offered them hospitality and gifts. However, the good neighborly treatment clearly wasn’t enough for Weymouth, who decided that the perfect thing to take back to England would be some samples of indigenous life, namely the natives themselves—for the advancement of scientific knowledge, of course.

Through various deceptions, the treacherous Weymouth pretended to befriend several young native men, then lured or violently captured five of them and took them aboard his ship by force. He promptly sailed home to England with his prizes. Three of the kidnap victims were given to Sir Fernando Gorges, a sponsor of Weymouth’s expedition. The other two were turned over to Sir John Popham, the Chief Justice of England.

Unlike Weymouth, Popham and Gorges treated their native captives with kindness. Later, Gorges sent his three new English speaking friends back to their American homeland. As an interesting side note, one of the natives who returned may have been the famous Squanto, who met the Pilgrims when they first arrived on America’s shores—and while this was purportedly Squanto’s first kidnapping, it wasn’t his last. He’d suffer abduction and slavery three more times before the Pilgrims showed up.

When the French controlled the Gulf of Mexico territory containing Louisiana, they had a problem—too many men. The male settlers included soldiers, farmers, and tradesmen. Valuable assets, of course, but as all governments of the time understood, a really successful and lucrative colony needed families, not just single men. To do that, the men needed wives. It comes as no surprise that most men involved eagerly agreed with the idea.

However, finding ladies willing to marry a stranger and endure the rough frontier with their husbands for the rest of their lives wasn’t easy. Beginning in 1704, the Compagnie des Indes (Company of the Indies) which held the monopoly on trade in the area decided to send 20 young and virtuous French women aged 14-18 to Louisiana via the ship Le Pélican. These “Pelican girls” were snapped up by men desperate for marital bliss and/or the generous dowry and other benefits subsidized by the King.

Other shipments of volunteer brides occurred periodically. Many were orphans, some less than respectable from houses of correction. Perhaps the most famous were the seventy-eight upstanding “casket girls” or filles à la cassette, named after the small caskets (like suitcases) that carried their belongings. Upon arrival, they were popped into the newly built Ursuline convent in New Orleans and supervised by the nuns until they found husbands. Today, claiming a “casket girl” as an ancestress is a matter of pride for native Louisianans.

Despite the pressure put on new arrivals, not all girls chose to marry. Some entered convents, received the education denied their secular sisters, and became nuns. But most women married, many were widowed, and if they survived the hardships of childbirth and frontier life, they often prospered due to generous inheritance laws.

Most people have heard of the Scotsman Captain William Kidd and his exploits along the eastern seaboard of America. Fewer people know about Joseph Bradish, a home-grown pirate born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1672. His connection to Kidd came at the end of his life before facing the Execution Dock at Wapping in London.

Bradish was a young man when he worked as a boatswain’s mate aboard Adventure, a British 400-ton “interloper”—a ship interfering in trade monopolies—from London bound for the island of Borneo. During the voyage, he incited the crew to mutiny, marooned the captain and officers, and took over the roles of navigator and captain himself. With his newly formed pirate band, he enjoyed “some adventuring in Eastern seas.” While details are sketchy, it’s believed he seized valuable prizes of gold and jewels as well as Adventure’s cargo of lead, Spanish gold, opium, and other goods.

He sailed to Long Island in America in late 1698 or early 1699 and scuttled the ship. However, he was unable to buy a replacement vessel and settled on a small sloop. After seeing the majority of his crew scattered along the coast (and according to legend, burying treasures at Montauk Point and Block Island), he entered Boston. Unfortunately, Dame Fortune wasn’t on his side. Bradish was promptly arrested, but that isn’t the end of his tale.

The pirate captain’s luck hadn’t entirely run out. The local jailer, Caleb Ray, was a relation of Bradish’s and helped him escape (although in later accounts, the serving girl got the blame). An enraged governor ordered a search. Bradish was recaptured and shipped to England with William Kidd as his cellmate. Both men were executed.

In Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, a prosperous farmer named Thomas Harris enjoyed a long-term relationship with Ann Goldsborough, though the lady wasn’t his wife. They had four children out of wedlock. Harris’ unexpected death not only shattered the life he’d built with his family, it provided the catalyst for one of America’s strangest court cases.

In his will, Thomas Harris instructed his brother James to act as executor, sell the property, and divide the proceeds between his four children. He also had a conversation with James about his wishes prior to his death, but James had other ideas. He cast doubt on the will, ignored his deceased brother, and kept the money for himself.

A few months after Thomas Harris’ death, William Briggs—his best friend since boyhood and a respected Revolutionary War veteran—happened to ride past the graveyard where Harris was buried. His horse (which once belonged to Harris) suddenly wheeled around. Briggs saw an apparition of Harris in a blue coat, the same he’d worn in life.

The apparition vanished, but that wasn’t the only time Briggs would be visited by his best friend’s spirit. After several other sightings and some phenomena including being struck in the face by a mysterious force and having both his eyes blackened, Briggs finally learned what Thomas Harris wanted. The ghost told him about the will and James Harris’ betrayal. To make sure James believed the message came from his dead brother, Briggs was given several details about the conversation no one but Thomas and James could have known.

Briggs went to James with his story. The details were correct. James had a change of heart and promised to fulfill the terms of his brother’s will, but before he could make the arrangements, he died. His widow, Mary, refused to acknowledge James’ promise and claimed all her husband’s property as her own.

Years later, Thomas Harris’ illegitimate children filed a lawsuit against Mary. The key witness and main evidence in the trial was William Briggs, who testified in detail about seeing and speaking to his friend’s ghost. Although the defense attempted to refute Briggs’ testimony, and the outcome of the case hasn’t been discovered yet in Maryland’s archives, the judge did officially acknowledge the existence of ghosts in court.

Thomas Granger worked as a servant for Love Brewster in the Plymouth colony in Duxbury, Massachusetts. In 1642, at about 16 or 17 years of age, Granger was accused of violating statutes based in Biblical law, specifically Leviticus 20:15—“And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.” The Massachusetts area was experiencing something of a bestiality panic at the time, so was Granger a pervert, or was this just a prank that got out of hand due to hysteria? Either way, he lost his life.

Granger was caught performing lewd acts with a mare (the chronicler, William Bradford, governor of the colony, protected the delicate sensibilities of future generations by refusing to detail the acts in question). When confronted, Granger at first denied the accusation. However, it wasn’t long before he not only confessed to the magistrates to having done the deed with the mare numerous times, he also named a cow, 2 goats, 5 sheep, 2 calves, and a turkey as the objects of his past attentions.

The confession was enough to earn him the death penalty from a jury. A parade of sheep was brought into the courtroom so Granger could identify which ones he’d abused. All the animals he’d named were killed while he watched. The law required no part of the “unclean” animals be used, so a pit was dug and the carcasses buried. Following the slaughter, Granger was executed for committing “sodomy”—one of the death penalty crimes on the books. He became the youngest person in America to be hanged under these statutes.

Despite his age, Granger was survived by a wife and two children.

The poet Charles Olson wrote about Thomas Granger in 1947.

During the conflict, what did the British do with prisoners of war? Put them in prisons, of course, but these jails were soon overcrowded. Hulks—ships in too bad shape to see service—were anchored in harbors to serve as convenient places of confinement for POWs and regular criminals. These British prisons were infamous for the appalling conditions which included starvation, poor sanitation, and disease. The man in charge of prisoners in New York City was the cruel and petty Provost Marshal, William Cunningham.

Following surrender, British forces had to leave New York City during Evacuation Day in late September 1783. To signal the end of the occupation and indicate the last British solider had left aboard ship, it was agreed the British commander would fire a cannon at 1 o’clock. Jubilant, the newly independent Americans didn’t wait—they celebrated by knocking over a statue of King George III and flying the American flag. One such patriot was Mrs. Day, who ran Day’s Tavern located at 128th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue.

The very unpopular Provost Marshal Cunningham, infuriated by the displays ahead of the official time, ended up in front of Day’s Tavern where a rebel flag proudly flew. He tried to tear the flag from the pole, but Mrs. Day ran out of her drinking establishment toting a broom to defend her property. According to the story, she hit him with the broom with such force, powder flew off his wig and his nose was bloodied.

True or wishful thinking? The jury’s out, although Cunningham’s existence and his mistreatment of prisoners is not disputed. If Mrs. Day did, indeed, assault one of the most hated men in NYC, she certainly struck the last blow in the Revolutionary War.

The framers of the U.S. Constitution left it up to the individual states to determine their own voter qualifications. Some states imposed religious requirements on their citizens (although this pretty much ended by 1790). Others decided who had the right to vote based on property ownership or tax payments. And then there was New Jersey.

The men who drew up the state of New Jersey’s Constitution didn’t have a problem with women voters provided they met the rather low property ownership requirement. When every other new state deliberately left women out of the voting equation, New Jersey legislators embraced the radical idea that not only ladies should be members of the political community, but free blacks and aliens (non citizens), too.

This led to an unusual circumstance. According to the laws of the time, when a woman married, all her property automatically became her husband’s. Since a married woman owned nothing of her own in a legal sense, wives couldn’t vote as they no longer met the property ownership requirement. However, no such bar existed for single women and widows.

Did women cast ballots in New Jersey elections? From 1797, records clearly show the names of women on the polls. In fact, the female vote was courted in some cases by the Democratic-Republican and Federalist parties. Did women vote in great numbers? Not really. And the enfranchisement of women remained controversial and a subject of great debate in the state. Women, it was argued, were too delicate to make political decisions, unfit by nature to involve themselves in men’s business, and were too busy raising children anyway.

Eventually, the naysayers got their way. New Jersey rescinded women’s right to vote in 1807. Ladies wouldn’t get it back until the state ratified the 19th Amendment in 1920.

The connection may not seem obvious, but Nantucket whalers played a pivotal role in the American fight for independence, helping bring about American victory over the British, ultimately ending the Revolutionary War with General Cornwallis’ surrender.

One of the best kept secrets of the war was made earlier by curious New England whalers and merchants, who observed whale migrations in the Atlantic. They found the Gulf Stream, a strong ocean current first recorded by John White, governor of Virginia’s Roanoke colony, in 1506. Through years of trial and error, the whalers gained a good working knowledge of the current. Their observations caught the attention of Benjamin Franklin, who undertook a scientific journey to verify the claims and satisfy his own curiosity.

Why wasn’t the Gulf Stream generally known to all shipmasters? Because shipping routes were well established and had been determined by trained navigators, a conservative bunch who didn’t tend to share their information. The Gulf Stream was important since using it shaved off time from the journey between North America and Europe. The secret charts made by Franklin gave the American rebels an advantage over the British.

In 1781, the Continental Congress anticipated the arrival of their ally, Admiral Henri de Grasse, and a fleet of 173 French ships. So did British admiral Sir George Rodney in the Caribbean and his subordinate, Admiral Alexander Hood, who waited in the Leeward Islands. In France, British spies sent a report about De Grasse’s armada and its destination to Rodney via a fast cutter, but the cutter’s captain knew nothing about the Gulf Stream. By the time the message made it across the Atlantic, De Grasse’s fleet had already defeated Hood.

Had Rodney received the warning in time, he would probably have supported Hood and perhaps defeated De Grasse, which means the Battle of Yorktown—which gave America a decisive victory against the British thanks in part to the French troops brought by De Grasse—wouldn’t have happened or may have had a different outcome.

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Originally discovered through graffiti found in Pompeii in 1817, Tetraites was documented for his spirited victory over Prudes.  Fighting in the murmillones style, he wielded a sword, a rectangle shield, a helmet, arm guards, and shin guards.  The extent of his fame was not fully comprehended until the late Twentieth Century, when pottery was found as far away as France and England which depicted Tetraites’ victories.

Not much is known about these two rivals, although their final fight was well-documented.  The battle between Priscus and Verus in the First Century AD was the first gladiator fight in the famous Flavian Amphitheatre. After a spirited battle which dragged on for hours, the two gladiators conceded to each other at the same time, putting down their swords out of respect for one another.  The crowd roared in approval, and the Emperor Titus awarded both combatants with the rudis, a small wooden sword given to gladiators upon their retirement.  Both left the theater side by side as free men.

Spiculus, another renowned gladiator of the First Century AD, enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the (reportedly) evil Emperor Nero.  Following Spiculus’ numerous victories, Nero awarded him with palaces, slaves, and riches beyond imagination.  When Nero was overthrown in AD 68, he urged his aides to find Spiculus, as he wanted to die at the hands of the famous gladiator.  But Spiculus couldn’t be found, and Nero was forced to take his own life.

Though a Roman citizen by birth, Attilius chose to enter gladiator school in an attempt to absolve the heavy debts he had incurred during his life.  In his first battle he defeated Hilarus, a gladiator owned by Nero, who had won thirteen times in a row.  Attilius then went on to defeat Raecius Felix, who had won twelve battles in a row.  His feats were narrated in mosaics and graffiti discovered in 2007.

While other gladiators on this list are known for their hand-to-hand combat against other humans, Carpophores was a famed Bestiarius.  These gladiators fought exclusively against wild animals, and as such had very short-lived careers.  Fighting at the initiation of the Flavian Amphitheatre, Carpophores famously defeated a bear, lion, and leopard in a single battle.  In another battle that day, he slaughtered a rhinoceros with a spear.  In total, it is said that he killed twenty wild animals that day alone, leading fans and fellow gladiators to compare Carpophorus to Hercules himself.

Crixus, a Gallic gladiator, was the right-hand man of the number one entry on this list.  He enjoyed notable success in the ring, but resented his Lanista—the leader of the gladiator school and his “owner.”  So after escaping from his gladiator school, he fought in a slave rebellion, helping to defeat large armies amassed by the Roman Senate with relative ease.  

After a dispute with the rebellion leader, however, Crixus and his men split off from the main group, seeking to destroy Southern Italy.  This maneuver diverted enemy military forces from the main group, giving them valuable time to escape.  Unfortunately, the Roman legions struck Crixus down before he could exact his revenge on the people who had oppressed him for so long.

Flamma, a Syrian slave, died at the age of thirty—having fought thirty-four times and having won twenty-one of those bouts.  Nine battles ended in a draw, and he was defeated just four times.  Most notably, Flamma was awarded the rudis a total of four times.  When the rudis was given to a gladiator, he was usually freed from his shackles, and allowed to live normally among the Roman citizens.  But Flamma refused the rudis, opting instead to continue fighting.

Famously played by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 film Gladiator, Commodus was an Emperor who enjoyed battling gladiators as often as possible.  A narcissistic egomaniac, Commodus saw himself as the greatest and most important man in the world.  He believed himself to be Hercules—even going so far as to don a leopard skin like that famously worn by the mythological hero.  But in the arena, Commodus usually fought against gladiators who were armed with wooden swords, and slaughtered wild animals that were tethered or injured.

As you could guess, most Romans therefore did not support Commodus.  His antics in the arena were seen as disrespectful, and his predictable victories made for a poor show.  In some instances, he captured disabled Roman citizens, and slaughtered them in the arena.  As a testament to his narcissism, Commodus charged one million sesterces for every appearance—although he was never exactly “invited” to appear in the arena.  Commodus was assassinated in AD 192, and it is believed that his actions as a “gladiator” encouraged his inner-circle to carry out the assassination.

By far the most famous gladiator in history, Spartacus was a Thracian soldier who had been captured and sold into slavery.  Lentulus Batiatus of Capua must have recognized his potential, for he purchased him with the intention of turning him into a gladiator.  But a warrior’s fierce independence is not easily given up: in 73 BC, Spartacus persuaded seventy of his fellow gladiators—Crixus included—to rebel against Batiatus. This revolt left their former owner murdered in the process, and the gladiators escaped to the slopes of nearby Mount Vesuvius.  While in transit, the group set free many other slaves—thereby amassing a large and powerful following.

The gladiators spent the winter of 72 BC training the newly freed slaves in preparation for what is now known as the Third Serville War, as their ranks swelled to as many as 70,000 individuals.  Whole legions were sent to kill Spartacus, but these were easily defeated by the fighting spirit and experience of the gladiators.  In 71 BC, Marcus Licinius Crassus amassed 50,000 well-trained Roman soldiers to pursue and defeat Spartacus.  Crassus trapped Spartacus in Southern Italy, routing his forces, and killing Spartacus in the process.  Six thousand of his followers were captured and crucified, their bodies made to line the road from Capua to Rome.

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Fact: The Earls of Rosse were great inventors.

The Earls of Rosse, in Ireland were great inventors and in their castle studied things such as photography, engineering and other marvels. Their castle contained much photographic equipment and science of all sorts held great sway over many generations who lived there. Most famous, however, is the Rosse Telescope, which was built in the 1800s by one of the Earls and held the record for largest telescope in the entire world for the better part of a century. The telescope had a reflector that was 72 inches in diameter, which was incredibly impressive for its time. The telescope was known as the Leviathan, due to it’s incredible size.

Fact: Dracula may actually have been inspired by the Irish legend of Abhartach.

This one may surprise many of you; it turns out that while many believe the legend of Dracula from Bram Stoker’s famous novel was inspired by Vlad Tepes, that may not actually be the case at all. For those Romanians who want Vlad the Impaler’s name to be cleared on this matter, you are in luck. Bram Stoker was actually born in Ireland and raised in Dublin, and had never even been to Eastern Europe in his life. Irish legends included stories of chieftains and other important figures drinking blood. But more specifically there is the legend of an Irish wizard and chieftain who was known by the name of Abhartach, and one historian believes that he was the true inspiration for Dracula. In the legends Abhartach basically was a vampire king, and in Irish folklore Dracula actually means something closer to “bad blood”, than anything else.

Fact: Halloween was derived from an Irish festival.

If you like the holiday of Halloween, you may know that it originated from Pagan tradition, but you may not realize that it was the Irish again who started it all. The Celtics saw it as a time when our world and the spirit world were most connected to each other, and it was called Samhain. Of course when the Christians took over the holiday, they called it “All Hallows’ Eve”, and then later changed the name to “All Saints Day”. Halloween is one of the most stubborn Holidays, however, in that no matter what Christian influence has been exerted, much of the practices of the day are still very much of pagan origin and not just on the surface. Halloween is still known as the day when the spirit world crosses over into our realm, and is practiced as such by many.

Fact: St. Patrick’s Day is much more solemn in Ireland and less about drinking.

Around the world and especially in the United States of America, St. Patrick’s Day has become an excuse to drink cheap green beer and get completely hammered. However, in Ireland where the holiday originated it, it is celebrated in a much more solemn manner. In fact, in Ireland it is celebrated much more as a holy day. Now, don’t get the impression it is not celebrated at all. After observing St. Patrick’s Day, it is quite common to go to the pub to socialize and have a few drinks, it is Ireland after all. However, many of the parades and festivities on St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland were actually caused by American influence.

Fact: An Irishman designed the White House.

In 1792 George Washington and Thomas Jefferson organized a competition to decide who would build the domicile of the President, and the man who won was an Irishman named James Hoban. James Hoban was not only born in Ireland, but he also studied architecture in his homeland as well. Not only did he design it, but he also built it, and more than once. After the White House was destroyed in 1814, Hoban had to design and build it all over again. Only a true Irishman would be so stubborn. You can never keep us down.

Fact: St. Patrick’s clearing of the Emerald Isle of snakes isn’t true.

The legend says that St. Patrick cleared the Emerald isle of snakes; this has become such a widely popularized myth that it is believed by nearly everyone. It is also, completely untrue. The truth is that Ireland never had snakes in the first place. According to researchers, the last time Ireland had snakes was probably millions of years ago. The ice age would have killed all of the snakes, and by the time the ice melted Ireland was separated from other countries that still had the nasty buggers. The main point is that as far as scientists are able to deduce, snakes have not existed along with people during any time in Ireland’s history.

Fact: A spell in Madeleine L’Engle’s popular time quartet is derived from a prayer by St. Patrick.

Madeleine L’Engle, despite being attacked for having magic in her series the Time Quartet, was a Christian and strongly influenced by her beliefs. In her novel A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Charles Wallace is taught a sort of rhyming prayer by his sister’s mother in law that was taught to her by her grandmother, who was Irish. The rhyming prayer in A Swiftly Tilting Planet:

“At Tara in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place
By God’s almighty help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness!”

St. Patrick’s rune goes by many names, and is a rather long prayer of protection that can be read here. The part that the prayer above is based on can be seen below:

“I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun
Brilliance of moon
Splendor of fire
Speed of lightning
Swiftness of wind
Depth of sea
Stability of earth
Firmness of rock.”

Fact: The infamous Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley was Irish.

The infamous Queen of the pirates, Grace O’Malley, was an Irishwoman, if it wasn’t already clear by her name. She was said to be completely fearless, skilled both when it came to strategy in battle, and in politics as well. The woman was notorious, rebellious and a consummate pirate who none dared cross. She gained her reputation by fighting on the front lines as hard as anyone else, rallying her men against their enemies. Legend has it that in one battle; she gave birth at sea and then joined in a fierce battle the very next day, turning the tide against her enemies.

Fact: The Irish may have discovered America first.

Some say Christopher Columbus was the first to discover America, as the poem goes “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. Some suggest that the first to discover America were the Vikings, or perhaps the Chinese, but there is another legend in regards to which country first sailed to the America’s. According to one legend, an Irish monk called St. Brendan set out on an expedition to find paradise and after seven years discovered an island that was so large that even after forty days they could not reach the far shore. The monks returned home with the news, this voyage was said to be undertaken in the sixth century, which is much earlier than many of the other first discoveries of America. It should be clear, of course, that this legend has not been proven.

Fact: St. Patrick was not actually Irish.

St. Patrick is well known for being the patron saint of Ireland and having a day named for him that most of the world uses as an excuse to get incredibly drunk. However, St. Patrick, despite popular belief, was not actually Irish. St. Patrick was the son of Romans who were living in Britain, legend says he was kidnapped and taken as a slave to the Emerald Isle where he helped herd sheep. However, even more interesting is a recent study performed by Cambridge University that suggests a completely different take on the popular legend. According to the study, he may actually have gone to Ireland of his own accord and sold slaves himself so that he wouldn’t have to be drafted into a job as a tax collector for the Romans.

Gregory Myers will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with his Leprechaun friends and you can follow his ramblings on twitter

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Silas Gordon’s pro-slavery, anti-Union activities resulted in the Union burning down every town and farm in Platte County, Missouri twice. He appears to have been consumed by an intemperate fury against the North, and more than once killed people on mere suspicion, without any evidence of wrongdoing. He was probably responsible for the Platte Bridge Tragedy, in which a rail trestle was burned through, collapsing under the weight of a passenger train, killing at least 17 men, women, and children.

In retaliation for his guerrilla tactics, Colonel James Morgan burned down platte City and apprehended three of Gordon’s men, William Kuykendall, Black Triplett, and Gabriel Chase. They pled for a legitimate trial before a judge, but Morgan had them taken to Bee Creek Bridge, where Triplett was shot by 8 men with muskets. Chase fled with arms bound behind him, but sank to his waist in the muddy bank, where a soldier caught and bayoneted him through the throat with such force that he nearly decapitated him. Kuykendall had played dumb through all of this and his ruse worked. He was spared.

Ferguson was a Confederate guerrilla possessed of the same raging hatred of the Union as Silas Gordon, and led various posses of armed Confederate sympathizers, and sometimes soldiers, in ambushes and murderous raids throughout middle and eastern Tennessee. He is notorious for acting with marked cruelty and targeting anyone, even women and children, whom he felt crossed him or supported the North.

He is said to have cut the heads off 80-year-old men and rolled them down hills into towns. He was arrested within 3 months of returning home to Nashville after hearing news of Lincoln’s assassination, and was tried and hanged on 20 October 1865 for 53 counts of murder. He had personally knifed and shot unarmed civilians for their support of the abolitionist cause. His actions after the First Battle of Saltville, Virginia were specifically cited, in which he and his men invaded a Union field hospital and shot and stabbed to death over two dozen soldiers of the 5th U. S. Colored Cavalry regiment, including white officers.

This campaign is more popularly known as Sherman’s March to the Sea. It is dated from 15 November, in the aftermath of General John Bell Hood’s accidental razing of much of Atlanta, Georgia, to 21 December 1864. Hood’s intent was to burn military supplies lest they fall into General William Sherman’s hands, but most of the city was made of wood and the winds were high.

Sherman ordered his army of 62,000 men with 64 cannons to march from Atlanta 300 miles southeast to Savannah, Georgia and destroy absolutely everything in their path, especially the railroads. They ripped apart the ties, heated and wrapped the rails around trees, dynamited factories, and burned down towns, farms, banks and courthouses. Sherman had given orders that the civilian population was not to be harmed personally unless they resisted, and that his intent was to break the South’s back, physically and psychologically, and put an end to its stubbornness.

Whether the march itself constitutes a war crime is still a fiercely contended subject. It is effectively the same form of warfare as dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was understood in both cases that the civilians, not just the military, would suffer terribly, and civilian outcry would help put an end to the war. But Sherman had no intention of deliberately killing civilians and the march must be left open to debate because of this.

Nevertheless, Sherman knew that civilian deaths would be unavoidable and explained himself in a speech after the war with the statement, “War is Hell.” Uncorroborated reports exist of a massacre of 200 civilians north of Columbia, South Carolina a few months before the march commenced, so Sherman knew full well what his men would do whenever no responsible eyes watched them. Three days after Atlanta was fully evacuated, Sherman ordered the city’s unburned sections shelled to ruins. One shell passed down through a house and blew off the legs of a man named Warner. The same shell cut his daughter in half.

Sherman personally saw his men rape and murder unyielding slaves throughout the march and gave no order to stop this. Those slaves who accepted the offer to enlist were given unarmed porter duties and treated comparatively well, but could only rely on food and water provisions when they were in surplus after the army was satisfied. Sherman also ordered the execution by firing squad of a 50-year-old man accused of espionage. He was most likely not guilty but was given no trial. All crops were either consumed or burned, as were all livestock slaughtered. It is surmised that 50,000 civilians were killed during the war, and possibly 1,000 of them died during the Savannah Campaign at the hands of soldiers unlawfully entering their houses to pillage. The 3rd and 4th Amendments to the Constitution prohibit this.

In January of 1863, at the height of the war, Lieutenant Colonel James Keith was dispatched with the 64th North Carolina Regiment to the town of Marshall, in Madison County, on the border with Tennessee. A posse of pro-Union civilians had broken into the home of Colonel Lawrence Allen, looted and destroyed much of it, then broke into a storehouse for salt and stolen what they could carry, then blew it up with gunpowder kegs.

Keith was enraged and, with the 64th, he searched the Shelton Laurel Valley, found and fought with them, shot down 12, and captured about 7. He then tracked down these men’s family homes and tortured their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters by breaking their fingers until they revealed the locations of about 8 more Union sympathizers. Keith arrested these men and marched the 15 of them for Tennessee, but two escaped into a steep ravine.

Keith deliberately disobeyed the order of the North Carolina Governor, Zebulon Vance, to hold the prisoners until they could be tried, and had them all executed by firing squad and thrown in a ditch. Keith was given 2 years in prison for this before escaping. He was never seen again.

Few places throughout the United States saw quite the anarchic bloodshed as the Kansas Territory. Senator James Lane led a raid on Osceola on 23 September 1863, in pursuit of General Sterling Price’s invading army, east of Harrisonville and Clinton, Missouri, near the present border with Kansas. Lane was a staunch abolitionist, Price just as staunchly pro-slavery. Lane had about 1,100 men at his disposal and skirmished with a much smaller Union detachment outside Osceola. When the Union soldiers were routed, they fled into the surrounding woods and cornfields, and Lane led his men into the town where they burned 797 of 800 buildings to the ground.

They took care to kill none of the civilian population, but forced them from their homes and then searched every room of every building and stripped all belongings deemed of value, before torching everything, even the church. Lane stole a piano for himself. He then ordered 9 men of military age, one of them 16 years old and sobbing over his dead horse, to be tried on suspicion of aiding the Confederacy, and had them shot dead.

At about 9:00 in the morning, on 27 September 1864, William “Bloody Bill” Anderson and a force of 80 guerrillas, including Jesse James, rode into Centralia, Missouri to rip up the North Nissouri Railroad. Anderson decided against this and instead, they stopped an arriving train and looted it and its 125 passengers, of whom 23 were Union soldiers. Anderson ordered the train evacuated, the 23 soldiers lined up and stripped, and then asked which of them were officers. Only one man stepped forth, but instead of killing him Anderson’s men shot down the other 22, then scalped, skinned, and dismembered them.

This officer, Sergeant Thomas Goodman, escaped around noon. Some three hours later, 155 Union mounted infantry armed with single-shot muzzle-loading muskets arrived in town, heard of Anderson’s action, and attacked him from the rear. Anderson’s men were armed with up to 4 revolvers each, most stolen over the years, and routed the infantry within 3 minutes of engaging them. Anderson survived to be killed in a battle in October of that year.

Fort Pillow was a Union stronghold on the Tennessee banks of the Mississippi River, near Henning, and on 12 April 1864, it was besieged by up to 2,500 cavalrymen under General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who would later become the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest easily took control of the high ground around the fort and demanded it be surrendered. The commander refused and Forrest’s men assaulted and overwhelmed the defenders. Many of them were shot down as they fled into the river.

Both sides of the war reported that after the fort’s surviving garrison, most of it comprised of black soldiers and civilian workers, surrendered and was disarmed, the Confederates swarmed upon them and bayoneted, knifed, and clubbed some 250 men to death in an orgy of sadism. Over two dozen were castrated and lynched. Forrest always maintained that this massacre was a fair fight because the defenders were armed to the very end.

In retaliation for #6, Captain William Clarke Quantrill led a raid into Lawrence, Kansas on 21 August 1863. Lawrence was a hotbed of anti-slavery sentiment and Quantrill was a fervent pro-slavery Confederate guerrilla, who had effectively enlisted into the Army under General Sterling Price, but deserted to form his own band of soldiers. There was little law in the Kansas Territory, and Quantrill’s Raiders are known for more than one infraction of it.

Quantrill was especially out to kill James Lane, but Lane escaped into a cornfield. The Raiders descended from Mount Oread into town at about 5:00 in the morning and burned down every business and municipal building. Homes were spared torching but the families were driven outside and the husbands, fathers, and son all shot dead on their porches, in the streets, even in their beds. The women were raped, some of them and some children shot down or trampled while they fled. At least 185 men and boys as young as 11 were executed merely for being able-bodied.

Douglas was the Northern counterpart to the next entry, a prison-of-war camp in Chicago, Illinois for Confederate soldiers. It was built as a training depot for Union recruits, but by March 1862 was refitted as a prison for the large numbers of captured Rebels. It operated in this capacity until the end of the war. Within the first month its use as a prison resulted in the death of 1 in 8 inmates from exposure to the harsh winter or pneumonia. The prisoners were poorly cared for in the way of medicine and proper diet. They received enough to eat to save them from starvation, but did not receive much fruit or onions, which allowed disease to suppress their immune systems.

By the war’s end, the Camp had gone through no less than 15 commands of 12 different wardens, none of whom was able to run the facility efficiently. Not only were the prisoners grossly neglected, they were not even properly supervised, and there were over 100 successful escapes. From June 1864 to the end of the war, inmates caught breaking any rule were tortured on the wooden horse, a sharply edged, wood pyramidal beam that rested between the buttocks against the tailbone. Prisoners were forced to sit on it with weights tied to their ankles for hours, even in snow or rain, until they passed out and fell off.

From 1864 on, the inmates were no longer fed adequately, but given only enough to keep them alive and hungry, purely for the guards’ amusement. They were forced to stand at attention in freezing rain and sleet for hours, during which time the guards robbed them of any valuables.

The death toll by the war’s end has been put at 4,454, but many went unreported, and the total figure may be as high as 6,000, most from exposure and disease brought on by malnutrition. This is at least 17% of the 26,000 prisoners sent to Douglas.

Camp Sumter was a Confederate Prisoner-of-War Camp for Union soldiers, today a historic site located in Andersonville, Georgia, from which the prison derives its more well known name. Its conditions were little known from its opening in February 1864 until it was liberated in May 1865, one month after Lincoln was assassinated. When the mistreatment of prisoners came to light, the entire nation and even Europe were disgusted and dumbfounded by the photographs of horrifically emaciated prisoners who somehow found the strength to survive.

The prison covered 25 and a half acres east of Andersonville, and was nothing but a bare patch of land surrounded by woods and fenced in twice. The outer fence was a log palisade 1,620 feet by 779 feet, with two entrances in the west wall leading into town. 19 feet in from this palisade stood an inner fence of chest-high posts topped with single crossbeams. This was nicknamed the dead line. Anyone who tried to cross it for the outer palisade, or even touched it, was shot without warning.

Inside the camp, there were only eight small buildings that could house a total of about 100 men. The prison held 45,000 by the end of the war. Most were given tents in which to sit or sleep, but the Georgia summer was overwhelming. 13,000 of those men died within 7 months of summer incarceration from sunstroke, starvation, or disease. The entire prison population suffered from a hookworm epidemic, causing most of them to defecate bloody diarrhea filled with worms.

The prison was very poorly supplied with food and medical provisions, and when Dr. Joseph Jones was assigned to investigate, he vomited twice during the one hour he toured the camp, and contracted a severe case of the flu which he warded off with oranges. He then asked the commandant, Henry Wirz, why Wirz was not suffering from scurvy, which was rampant throughout the camp. Wirz replied that he ate apples and oranges. “And the prisoners?” Jones asked. Wirz shrugged and said, “What about them?” Prisoners were able to pull out their own teeth with their fingers because of vitamin C deficiency. 3,000 died per month, or 100 per day.

They had no clean drinking water, but were forced to drink from the same creek running through the camp’s center in which they bathed and which caught about half of all liquid and solid waste. Wirz was tried, court-martialed, and hanged for murder on 10 November 1865, the only Confederate officer to be so executed. His primary defense in court was that the prison’s food and water never arrived by train. When he was hanged, his neck did not break, and he strangled to death for 9 minutes.

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It is said that the desecration of Baghdad in 1258 by the Mongols ended the golden era of Islam. In this era, Iraq had developed canal systems that supported its agriculture. Baghdad had a refined culture, was a leading centre of education and was host to various mosques, palaces, hospitals and libraries. As the Mongols conquered and leveled the city, they also destroyed the House of Wisdom and the Grand Library—survivors claimed that the waters of the Tigris turned black from the vast amounts of books flung into it. Thousand were murdered, including the caliph. To this day, its former glory has never been restored.

The Parthenon was completed in 438 B.C.. It’s scarred and skeletal remains are the most important surviving remnants of Classical Greece. Through the ages, the temple served as a treasury, Christian church, mosque and a munitions dump. It was home to grandiose carvings, sculptures and decorative stonework—most notably the chryselephantine sculpture of Athena created by the famous sculptor Phidias, now lost and only known from descriptions, gems, coins and paintings. It was damaged beyond repair in 1687 when the munitions were ignited during a Venetian assault. During the 18th century, the ruins were desecrated even further when the remains of the sculptures and friezes were severed from the walls.

Memphis was the Capital of Ancient Egypt for several centuries. It was also the seat of the cult of the god Ptah. During its golden age, Memphis was the primary royal residence and sources speak of immense palaces that were built underneath important royal pyramids. Invaded by the Hyksos in 1650 B.C., the astounding monuments, temples, palaces and statues were destroyed and looted. The city gradually became a quarry for new settlements being built in the area. Even the foundations of Cairo were laid with stones from the destroyed temples. Today, apart from its ruins, almost nothing remains of ancient Memphis.

The First Temple or Holy Temple was dedicated to the God of Israel and is believed to have been built by King Solomon in 832 B.C. on the Temple Mount. It was the first fixed temple structure of the Jewish people as previously tents or tabernacles were used. It harbored the Ark of the Covenant that contained the two tablets Moses received from the Lord, as well as numerous sacred vessels and sculptures. Certain parts of the temple were even plated and glazed with gold. Though limited proof has been found to verify the temple’s existence, the sensitive religious and political nature of the area makes archaeological excavations impossible. Its destruction is one of the most tragic events in Jewish history.

The Imperial Gardens, built in the 18th century, was the residence of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. (The Forbidden City played host to formal ceremonies.) It was a combination of palaces, halls, pavilions, lakes and gardens that covered 860 acres, roughly 8 times the size of the Vatican City. It had one of the largest and most exquisite art collections in the world that included unique copies of manuscripts and compositions. It was destroyed in 1860 by British and French troops after two British envoys were murdered. Of the surviving relics most remain in private collections despite the Chinese government’s efforts to retrieve them.

Constantinople was the biggest and most prosperous capital in the Eastern Roman Empire. The Imperial Library was the last of the great libraries. It conserved ancient Greek and Roman manuscripts and also had a Scriptorium to duplicate the ancient texts in a time when uncertainty and chaos brought about their mass destruction in Africa and Europe. In fact, most of the Greek classics known today are copies that came from the Imperial Library. The greater part of the library was destroyed during the 4th Crusade in 1204 with the last vestiges completely lost after the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453. Some manuscripts were said to have survived into the Ottoman era but none has ever been found.

Timbuktu lies 620 miles northeast of Bamako. Its cultural treasures made it a hotspot for venturesome tourists and international academics. Home to priceless artifacts, thousands of ancient manuscripts and sacred tombs it is believed by many to be the academic and religious center of Africa. In April 2012 Timbuktu was captured by Islamist militants. In what has been called an “offense against the whole of Africa” the following months saw the destruction of several ancient tombs of Sufi saints because it “contravened Islam”. As Timbuktu was liberated by French and Malian forces, the militants further outraged the international community by setting fire to the Ahmed Baba Institute, burning thousands of ancient manuscripts.

Aristotle is one of the most influential people to have ever walked this earth. He contributed to nearly every area of human understanding and pioneered several new fields of study. His writings and dialogues (of which the majority are believed to be lost) covered a vast area of subjects. The remaining texts mostly consist of working drafts or notes that were used in Aristotle’s school. It is believed that the writings ended up in a cellar a few generations after his death where they were severely damaged. Rediscovered in the 1st century B.C., numerous errors were introduced into the writings when Apellicon of Teos tried to restore them.

Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Mexica Empire. Located on an island on Lake Texcoco, it was the largest city in the New World. In comparison to Europe, only Constantinople, Venice and Paris were larger. It was connected to the mainland by causeways obstructed by bridges that could be retracted if the city came under attack. It was home to the palace of Montezuma, the Templo Mayor temple complex, zoos, an aquarium and botanical gardens. The glorious city was destroyed by the Spanish conquistador Cortés in 1519. The city was destroyed and its palace and temple dismantled whereupon the Spanish constructed a cathedral and colonial city on top of it.

Created in the 4th century A.D., the Bamyan Buddhas were the largest standing Buddha carvings in existence. Placed at a crucial waypoint next to the fabled Silk trading route, these cultural landmarks were a testimony to the exchanging of Indian, Roman, Hellenistic and Islamic ideas for hundreds of years. They were also important figures in the accession of Mahayana Buddhist tutelage, which accentuated the capacity of each and every person to obtain enlightenment. In March 2001, the Taliban regime declared the statues to be “against Islam” and had them demolished with anti-aircraft munitions and dynamite. The methodical eradication of Afghanistan’s Buddhist inheritance has been criticized internationally.

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When developing nuclear weapons, one must acquire a large quantity of “heavy water,” or Deuterium Oxide.  It is used to produce isotopes for nuclear weapons, namely Plutonium-239.  A fertilizer production plant in Norway had been producing heavy water since 1934, at the rate of twelve tons per year.  Recognizing that German scientists were trying to create a nuclear weapon, Allied special forces alerted Norwegian resistance groups in 1940, encouraging them to destroy the facilities.

Despite a number of failures, saboteurs managed to destroy the German supply of heavy water in 1943.  In 1944, a single Norwegian commando managed to sneak onto a ferry carrying heavy water and sink it, finally undermining Germany’s plan to acquire nuclear weapons.  Germany had the scientific ability to generate a nuclear weapon; they simply lacked the materials.  Had it not been for the Norwegian resistance, Germany may well have been able to create an atomic bomb—altering the war, and changing world history.

In 1918, the world rejoiced at the end of World War One. Unfortunately, a far more sinister form of death was beginning to take lives: Spanish Influenza.  In two short years, the virus killed between fifty million and one hundred million people.  It is said that the Spanish Flu killed more in twenty-five weeks than AIDS has in twenty-five years—and more in a single year than the Bubonic Plague killed in a century.  The outbreak gave modern scientists the first true close look at an epidemic, paving the way for great advances in medicine.

Furthermore, the massive influx of patients led to a boom in the medical field, increasing the pay for doctors and encouraging many to enter the profession, a trend that continues to this day.  For better or for worse, the Spanish Flu introduced the idea of “medicine for profit” to the world.

In the early 1600s, Catholic Missionaries in Japan were successful in converting a number of powerful feudal lords to Catholicism—thereby garnering a surprising number of followers in the largely Confucian nation.  In 1639, Shogun Tokugawa Lemitsu expelled all Christians from the island, in fear of the growing Catholic population and the rebellions that these groups were causing.  Had Tokugawa not expelled the Christians, it is likely that, with time, a Catholic Shogun would have risen to power.

An allegiance to the Pope may also have fostered an alliance with France and Spain; and had Japan been on the side of France and Spain during the Seven Years’ War against England, it is likely that the British would have been defeated.  Such a defeat would have made the colonization of America by the British unlikely—reshaping the world as we know it.

Known by the French as Saint-Domingue, the Caribbean island nation of Haiti was founded following a violent slave revolt that lasted from 1791 until 1804.  The island was prized by the French, as its sugar cane proved to be a lucrative crop among the wealthy in Europe.  More importantly, Napoleon used the funds from these sugar cane plantations to establish a foothold in Louisiana.  Unable to quell the rebellion, Napoleon was forced to abandon his hopes of establishing a new French Empire in the Americas, as he now lacked the funds to do so.  In debt after thirteen years of fighting a war against the Haitians, Napoleon sold the American government its Louisiana territories at a remarkably low price, in what is now known as the Louisiana purchase.  Not only did the Haitian Revolution help form the modern day United States; it also prevented France from building a new North American Empire.

In 1944, with World War Two beginning to wind down, 730 delegates from all forty-four Allied nations met at a large hotel in New Hampshire.  The meeting was held in an attempt to “outlaw practices which are agreed to be harmful to world prosperity”.
In short, an international banking system was to be established.  Following this meeting, the International Monetary Fund was founded, all currencies were required to be convertible for trade, and exchange rates were modified so that one nation would not be favored over another.  The ideas founded at this conference led to the development of the World Bank.  In short, the international economy we now reside in and (occasionally) enjoy can be traced back to a meeting in the backwaters of rural New Hampshire.

The Crimean War pitted the Ottoman Empire, the French Empire, and the British Empire against the Russian Empire in 1854.  Although the Allied forces won the war, the Ottoman Empire was forced to take out massive loans from France and England.  Sixty years later, still heavily indebted to the French and English, the Ottomans chose to side with the Germans in World War One, in the hope that a victory would nullify their existing loans.  Unfortunately for the Ottomans, they were defeated, and France and England were able to enact their revenge upon the failing Empire.  They split the Empire into a number of nations, creating new borders and political entities.  This, in essence, formed the Middle-East as we now know it—and it sowed the seed for many of the problems we find in that region today.

In 1854, following centuries of Japanese isolationism (see number eight), American Admiral Matthew C. Perry successfully encouraged Japan to open up to foreign trade.  Still essentially a feudal nation, Japanese leaders began to comprehend the massive technological abyss which lay between their own nation and the industrialized world.

In their attempts to rapidly modernize, they needed to form an empire, since they required vast stockpiles of resources which could not be procured from their home islands.  This led to a Japanese invasion of Korea, which was at that time a vassal state to China.  Japan sided with the Allies during World War I, and continued to expand its territories following the war.

In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, outraging Western nations.  In response, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933.  In 1937, Japan went on to attack China, and than French Indochina in 1940.  This led to the United States imposing an oil embargo on the Empire.  Unable to continue their war efforts in China without oil, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor—setting the stage for the Pacific Theater of World War Two, and ultimately ushering in the atomic age.

The terrible tale of this notorious cruise liner has been told time and time again, but some good did come of it; the golden age of radio.  Following the sinking of the Titanic, it was mandatory for ships to possess wireless telegraphs, and eventually a radio had to be installed and manned at all times.  Working long shifts next to a quiet radio became quite boring, and the men eventually started playing instruments and songs to one another as a form of entertainment.

The idea spread, and the radio quickly became used to spread news and entertain families around the globe.  Although a terrible tragedy, the sinking of the Titanic allowed radio to become the first truly global form of entertainment.

The Boer War actually consisted of two separate wars fought between Dutch settlers and the British Empire in what is now South Africa. The first war lasted from 1880 until 1881, and the second took place between 1899 and 1902.  The second installment proved to be the most costly, as the British captured civilian populations and placed them in concentration camps—the first time they had ever been used by a modern power.

The German Empire viewed the British as weak, and openly supported the Boers and their allies.  Insulted by the Germans and embarrassed by their inability to deal with the Boers, the British became more involved in world politics, strengthening ties with Russia and France while remaining hostile towards Germany.  This animosity would continue to grow, ultimately coming to a head in World War One, which itself set the course of the twentieth century.

In 1241, Ogedei Khan—the Emperor of the Mongol Empire and son of Genghis Khan—passed away.  Shortly before his passing, he had approved of a plan to invade Western Europe, aiming initially for Vienna, Austria, and continuing towards Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.  This operation was to be carried out by Batu Khan.

Upon Ogadei’s death, a number of Mongol princes held an election, and chose Guyuk Khan to lead the Empire—but not before five years had passed.  By the time Guyuk was in power, Batu felt too old and weak to invade Western Europe, and the Mongol Empire would never again come close to conquering the region.  At around the same time, the basic ideas of “modern” banking and the concepts of capitalism were being developed in Austria.  A Mongol invasion at such a time could very well have ended these early forays into what is currently the most prominent economic system in the world.

Andrew Fitzgerald is a moderately poor college student who once ate a pizza box on a dare.  Follow him on twitter

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But in spite of these great accomplishments, the British Empire sowed the seeds for some of the worst disasters that have afflicted humanity. Although the British were not responsible for all of the events directly, their interference in others’ problems was often just as destructive. Here are ten ways the British Empire ruined the world:

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation by the National Party governments, the ruling party in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. The rights of the nation’s black majority were curtailed, and white supremacy and Afrikaner-minority rule was maintained.

The British did institute some reforms after they seized the Cape from the originally Dutch Boers—such as by repealing the more offensive anti-black Boer laws. But after one hundred years of wars, and having gained complete political control, the British made a decision that doomed many South Africans. They gave Boer republics the green light to disenfranchise all non-whites. The apartheid system was entrenched in the Union constitution, which was drawn and approved by the British government. In 1913, the Native Land Act was brought into force; it pushed black people off the land on which they were either owners or tenants, and relocated them to shantytowns in the cities.

Apartheid would not end until the F. W. de Klerk government moved to lift bans on African political parties, such as the Africa National Congress and Pan African Congress. These actions culminated in multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, which were won by the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela.

During the summer of 1845, a “blight of unusual character” devastated Ireland’s potato crop—the staple of the Irish diet. A few days after potatoes were dug up from the ground, they began to rot. Over the next ten years more than 750,000 Irish died from the ensuing famine, and another two million left their homeland for Great Britain, Canada and the United States. Within five years, the Irish population was reduced by a quarter.

The inadequacy of relief efforts by the British Government worsened the horrors of the famine. England believed that the free market, left to itself, would end the famine. In 1846, in a victory for advocates of free trade, Britain repealed the Corn Laws, which had protected domestic grain producers from foreign competition. The repeal of the Corn Laws failed to end the crisis since the Irish lacked sufficient money to purchase foreign grain.

Britain began to rely on a system of workhouses, which had originally been established in 1838, to cope with the famine. But these grim institutions had never been intended to deal with a crisis of such enormity. Some 2.6 million Irish entered overcrowded workhouses, where more than 200,000 people died.

In 1879, the Gardner Machine Gun was demonstrated for the first time. It could fire ten thousand rounds in twenty-seven minutes, and its accuracy was superior to that of the Gatling gun. This impressed military leaders from Britain, and the following year the British Army purchased the gun.

In 1881, the American inventor Hiram Maxim visited the Paris Electrical Exhibition. While he was at the exhibition a man he met told him “if you wanted to make a lot of money, invent something that will enable the Europeans to cut each other’s throats with greater facility.”

Maxim decided to move to London, and began working on a more effective machine-gun. In 1885, he demonstrated to the British Army the world’s first automatic portable machine gun. Maxim used the energy of each bullet’s recoil force to eject the spent cartridge and insert the next bullet. The Maxim Machine Gun would therefore fire until the entire belt of bullets was used up. Trials showed that the machine gun could fire five hundred rounds per minute, and therefore had the firepower of about one hundred rifles.

The British Army adopted the Maxim Machine Gun in 1889. The following year, Austria, Germany, Italy, and Russia also purchased the gun, causing an arms race on the European continent. The machine gun would haunt the British during the Battle of the Somme, when the British suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day. Since its introduction, the machine gun has caused countless fatalities across the world, and has allowed for more people to be killed within a shorter time span.

The British did not start the slave trade or even import the most slaves (both of these dubious distinctions belong to the Portuguese). In the beginning, British traders merely supplied slaves for the Spanish and the Portuguese colonies; but eventually, British slave traders began supplying slaves to the new English colonies in North America. The first record of enslaved Africans landing in British North America occurred in 1619, in the colony of Virginia.

In the 1660s, the number of slaves taken from Africa in British ships averaged 6,700 per year. By the 1760s, Britain was the foremost European country engaged in the slave trade, owning more than fifty percent of the Africans transported from Africa to the Americas. The British involvement in the slave trade lasted from 1562 to until the abolishment of slavery in 180—a period of 245 years. History Professor David Richardson has calculated that British ships carried more than 3.4 million enslaved Africans to the Americas during this time.

In addition to being a major player in the slave trade, the British supported the pro-slavery Confederates during the Civil War. The British needed cotton to fuel their machines; this caused the demand for cotton to skyrocket, which in turn demanded slave labor. If the Confederates had won at the battle of Antietam, the British would have given full support to the rebels, and may even have tipped the Civil War in favor of the Confederates.

And although Great Britain was one of the first nations to abolish slavery, they quickly made up for the loss of human labor by extracting Africa’s raw materials and resources.

Seeing little to gain from trade with European countries, the Chinese Qing emperor permitted Europeans to trade only at the port of Canton, and only through licensed Chinese merchants. For years, foreign merchants accepted Chinese rules—but by 1839 the British, who were the dominant trading group, were ready to flex their muscles.

They had found a drug that the Chinese would buy: opium. Grown legally in British India, opium was smuggled into China, where its use and sale became illegal after the damaging effects it had on the Chinese people.

With its control of the seas, the British easily shut down key Chinese ports and forced the Chinese to negotiate—marking the beginning of what is known as the “one hundred years of humiliation” for the Chinese. Dissatisfied with the resulting agreement, the British sent a second and larger force that took even more coastal cities, including Shanghai. The ensuing Opium War was settled at gunpoint; the resulting Treaty of Nanjing opened five ports to international trade, fixed the tariff on imported goods at five percent, imposed an indemnity of twenty-one million ounces of silver on China to cover Britain’s war expenses, and ceded the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain.

This treaty satisfied neither side. Between 1856 and 1860, Britain and France renewed hostilities with China. Seventeen thousand British and French troops occupied Beijing and set the Imperial Palace on fire. Another round of harsh treaties gave European merchants and missionaries greater privileges, and forced the Chinese to open several more cities to foreign trade.

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 began the process of carving up Africa, paying no attention to local culture or the differences between ethnic groups, and often leaving people from the same tribe on opposite sides of artificial, European-imposed borders.

Britain was primarily concerned with maintaining its lines of communication with India, hence its interest in Egypt and South Africa. Once these two areas had been secured, imperialists like Cecil Rhodes encouraged the acquisition of further territory, with the goal of establishing a Cape-to-Cairo railway. Britain was also interested in the commercial potential of mineral-rich territories like the Transvaal, where gold was discovered in the mid-1880s.

As a result, during the final twenty years of the nineenth century, Britain occupied or annexed territories which accounted for more than thirty-two percent of Africa’s population, making the British the most dominant Europeans on the continent.

By 1965, Britain had lost its stranglehold on the continent—but the consequences of imperialism were immense. Firstly, the settler states of Kenya, Rhodesia, and South Africa saw many episodes of violence before African nationalists could forge a return to stability, after the departure of the colonial governments. Corrupt African “strongmen,” or dictators, often gained power—despite ignoring the social needs of the people. Economic dependence on the West, coupled with political corruption, crippled attempts to diversify.

Even today, Africa is the least developed region in the world, with poverty and malnutrition running rampant. The idea that Europeans wanted to “civilize” Africa was an utter lie, and a means to justify the exploitation of the continent.

In March 1935, Hitler established a general military draft and declared the “unequal” Versailles Treaty disarmament clauses null and void; some European leaders appeared to understand the danger, and warned him against future aggressive actions.

The emerging united front against Hitler quickly collapsed. Britain adopted a policy of “appeasement,” granting Hitler possibly everything he could want in order to avoid war. The last chance to stop the Nazis without world war came in March 1936, when Hitler suddenly marched his armies into the demilitarized Rhineland, brazenly violating the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno. An uncertain France would not move without British support; and the British refused to act.

The years that followed led to a far stronger Germany. In 1936, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. At the same time, Germany and Italy intervened in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Their support helped the Spanish fascists defeat Republican Spain. In 1938, Hitler threatened to invade Austria, and thereby forced the Austrian chancellor to put local Nazis in control of the government. The next day, German armies moved in unopposed, and Austria became part of Greater Germany.

Simultaneously, Hitler began demanding that the German-minority area of western Czechoslovakia—called the Sudetenland—be turned over to Germany. In September 1938, British Prime Minister Chamberlain went to Germany to negotiate with the Nazis. The British and French agreed with Hitler that the Sudetenland should be ceded to Germany immediately. Hitler’s armies eventually occupied the remainder of the Czechoslovakia, in 1939.  For Hitler everything was set on September 1, 1939, German armies invaded Poland, and Britain and France finally declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun; in the next six years more than fifty million people would lose their lives.

The Industrial Revolution began in England during the 1780s, and started to influence continental Europe and the rest of the world after 1815. It profoundly modified much of the human experience. It changed the patterns of work, transformed the social class structure, and altered the international balance of political and military power, giving added impetus to the ongoing European expansion into non-European lands. The Industrial Revolution also helped ordinary people attain a higher standard of living. But industrialization would have terrible consequences for much of the world.

Factory owners became very rich during the Industrial Revolution, while factory workers lived in soul-crushing poverty. Cities grew around factories, often rapidly and without proper town-planning. This often meant that there was no sufficient sewage, running water, or sanitation systems. Ironically, “slums” first originated in Britain, where crowded and filthy settlements were breeding grounds for diseases such as cholera. Factory work was difficult and dangerous, with typical shifts lasting between twelve and sixteen hours. Owners hired women and children because they knew they could pay them less; they worked in the same dangerous factories, for the same long hours.

Aside from the way workers were treated, the industrial revolution had many awful long-term consequences. During the twentieth century, thanks in part to the new world system created by the industrial revolution, the world population would take on huge proportions—growing to six billion people just before the start of the twenty-first century (it has now already surpassed seven billion).

That’s a four hundred percent population increase in a single century. This has put severe strain on the resources available on the Earth. It was coal—a fossil fuel—which packed the furnaces of the industrialization that helped propel human progress to extraordinary levels. But of course this came with extraordinary costs for our environment, and to the wellbeing of all living things. The releasing of fossil fuels into the atmosphere has put mankind into a titanic struggle against climate change, global warming, and the threat of extreme weather.

After defeating the Ottoman Empire in World War One, Great Britain did not liberate their Arab allies but instead colonized them. The British received Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq. After centuries of anti-Semitism, many Jews began migrating to their original homeland of Palestine (ancient Judaea), and after the War, these migrations greatly increased. Many British officials, some of whom were also anti-Semitic, wanted to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East in order to kick the Jews out of Europe altogether.

The British announced in 1947 their intention to withdraw from Palestine in 1948. On November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly passed a plan to partition Palestine into two separate states—one Arab, and one Jewish. The Jews accepted, but the Arabs rejected the partition. The British officially left on May 14, 1948, without providing a resolution to the situation; that same day the Jews proclaimed the state of Israel. Arab countries immediately attacked the new Jewish state, but the Israelis drove off the invaders and conquered more territory. Roughly nine hundred thousand Arab refugees fled—or were expelled from—old Palestine.

This war left an enormous legacy of Arab bitterness towards Israel and its political allies, Great Britain and the United States. The Arab-Palestinian conflict has provided a deep divide between East and West, and between Christianity and Judaism on the one hand and Islam on the other hand. The modern “War on Terror” stems from the American and Western support of Israel. In addition, Israel has been accused of atrocities ranging from bulldozing Palestinian homes, to acts of terror committed by Mossad, the Israeli CIA.

After two centuries of colonialism in India, the British Labour government agreed to a speedy independence of India after 1945. But conflict between Hindu and Muslim nationalists led to murderous clashes between the two communities in 1946. When it became clear that the Muslim League would accept nothing less than an independent Pakistan, India’s last viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, proposed partition. Both sides accepted, and at the “stroke of midnight” on August 14, 1947, one fifth of humanity gained political independence.

Yet independence through partition brought tragedy. In the weeks afterwards, communal strife exploded into an orgy of massacres and mass expulsions. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Muslims were slaughtered, and an estimated five million made refugees. Indian Congress Party leaders were completely powerless to stop the violence. “What is there to celebrate?” exclaimed Gandhi in reference to the much-sought independence; “I see nothing but rivers of blood.” In January 1948, Gandhi himself was gunned down by a Hindu fanatic who believed that he was too lenient on Muslims.

After the ordeal of independence, relations between India and Pakistan remain tense to this day. Fighting over the disputed area of Kashmir continued until 1949, and broke out again in 1965-1966, 1971, and 1999. What makes the Indo-Pakistani conflict even more dangerous is that both sides contain nuclear weapons. With the possibility that Pakistan might become a failed state, there is a good chance of a major genocide erupting in the twenty-first century.

Phil Moore is a History Major and filmmaker, who seeks to enlighten the world.

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Chang and Eng, the 19th century’s conjoined “Siamese” twins, were once drafted . . . almost. Following the brothers’ retirement from show business in 1839, they bought 700 acres of land near White Plains, North Carolina, married sisters, adopted an American surname, fathered children, and owned slaves. According to local legend, in 1865, Union General George Stoneman came to the neighborhood to draft area men into the US Army as conscripts whether they liked it or not. All the names of male residents over 18 were put into a lottery. Eng’s name came up, but not Chang’s. Of course, as soon as he realized “Eng Bunker” was one-half of the famous inseparable duo, Stoneman let him go. By the way, each brother had a son who joined the Confederate cause, and both ultimately survived the war.

Read Edward Everett Hale’s classic, The Man Without a Country? The story was based on the life changing events suffered by a real gentleman, Clement Larid Vallandigham. He was an attorney and Congressman from Ohio, a states’ rights advocate who opposed the federal government’s support of the Civil War as he believed the South couldn’t be forced into rejoining the Union. In 1863, Union Major General Ambrose Burnside issued General Order 38, making it illegal to publicly express sympathy for the enemy. Vallandigham gave a speech criticizing President Lincoln, was arrested under the order, and tried before a military court despite his civilian status—the legality of the trial was debatable. Vallandigham was sentenced to 2 years in prison, but Lincoln avoided a political hot potato by commuting the sentence to banishment to the Confederate states. He eventually returned to Ohio since he still espoused the Union cause (not their policies) and the Confederates didn’t want him either.

Before President Lincoln issued his official Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, Union General John Charles “Pathfinder” Frémont, who’d been put in charge of the Department of the West by the POTUS, issued a proclamation of his own in August 1861. After putting Missouri under martial law due to instances of guerrilla warfare, threat of a Confederate invasion, and general lawlessness, he proclaimed that any rebel sympathizers or Confederates in the state would forfeit all their property, including their slaves, and the slaves would be declared free men and be given deeds of manumission. Lincoln wasn’t pleased. Believing the act unconstitutional, he ordered Frémont to amend his proclamation, and in November, removed him from his position. Frémont was the first, but he wasn’t the last—in May 1862, Union General David Hunter issued a similar emancipation proclamation for Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. A furious Lincoln ordered the proclamation retracted.

Not recognizing the usefulness of manned balloons for military aerial reconnaissance, the Union Army balked at creating a Balloon Corps, but America’s most famous aeronaut, Thaddeus Lowe, performed an impressive demonstration of tethered flight for President Lincoln in 1861 and the Corps was born. On that occasion, Lowe also sent the first telegram from the air. Beginning in 1862, Lowe in the Intrepid and his fellow aeronauts in other balloons flew successful reconnaissance missions over battlefields in the Peninsula campaign, Seven Pines, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Antietam, and others. Confederate attempts to emulate Lowe and his balloons failed. However, due to a pay dispute and continued strained relations with military commanders, most of whom had no appreciation for balloonists, Lowe resigned as Chief Aeronaut in 1863, which pretty much spelled the end of the Balloon Corps.

Mascots are a long standing military tradition. Soldiers have adopted dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, monkeys, pigs, birds—but the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment topped them all with the emblem of America itself, a tame bald eagle. The eaglet was taken from the nest and eventually made her way to the 8th Regiment, where she was named Old Abe after President Abraham Lincoln. She became a very popular patriotic symbol of the Union cause. She had a special shield shaped perch, but would walk through the camp stealing food. Old Abe flew over battlefields—39 in total—and although the Confederates had orders to capture her if possible, the eagle got through the war unscathed. After 1865, she was retired from the Army and given a new home in Madison, Wisconsin, in the State Capital building. Unfortunately, in 1881 after suffering smoke inhalation during a fire, Old Abe died. Some controversy exists regarding the bird’s sex, and whether “Old Abe” was one bird or several. That the eagle existed isn’t in doubt due to ample photographic evidence.

In March 1864, knowing they were on the cusp of losing the war, the Confederacy changed tactics, deciding to launch what we would consider terrorist attacks against New York City. The plan was for a group called the “fire brigade” to set off a series of fires in hotels across the city. These fires were both a diversion and a signal to other groups, who were to take over by force important targets such as the police and municipal buildings, and free the prisoners in Fort Lafayette. It was decided to use incendiary devices fueled by the chemical compound known as Greek Fire, formulated by a southern sympathizer chemist. Had the plan succeeded, it’s possible NYC would have fallen into Confederate hands. But when the time came on November 25, 1864, most of the plotters had no idea how to use the Greek Fire and few fires were set alight. One conspirator managed to accidentally burn down Barnum’s American Museum, but no one was hurt. The Rebel plot was exposed, and the chief architect of the plan to burn New York City was eventually captured, tried, and hung in 1865.

A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Thomas O. Selfridge Jr. fought for the Union side and saw almost constant action during the war. He showed courage under fire as well as an uncanny ability to survive. In his first major battle—USS Cumberland vs. CSS Virginia on March 8, 1862—when crewmen lay mangled and killed by flying splinters and shells, he calmly moved from gun to gun, firing at the enemy while cannonballs sizzled around him. When his ship sank, he swam to shore unscathed. He swam away again when he lost his first command, USS Cairo, to Confederate torpedoes. His next ship collided with another Union vessel and sank. He swam away without a scratch. When the USS Heron went down in 1865 during the naval bombardment of Fort Fischer, North Carolina, Selfridge ended the battle unharmed. The unsinkable officer was eventually given the rank of rear admiral. He retired in 1898. Death finally caught up with Selfridge in 1924. He died at age 88, in bed, on land.

Roswell, Georgia, became the site of a little-known mass deportation of innocent victims of the war between North and South. In the midst of General Sherman’s march to Atlanta, Union Brigadier General Kenner Garrard came to the small town of Roswell, where the local cotton and woolen mills employed 400+ female workers producing “Roswell gray” uniform cloth for the Confederacy. Noting Garrard’s approach, the cotton mill’s owner hoisted a French flag, hoping to avoid his mill being destroyed. The subterfuge backfired. Garrard ordered both mills burned. On Sherman’s direct orders, he took a further step—all the woman workers, black and white, and their children, approximately 700 people in all, were taken under guard to the railyard in Marietta, 10 miles away, where they were herded into boxcars and shipped to Indiana with nothing more than their clothes and 9 days of rations. Sherman ordered a second similar deportation of female textile workers in New Manchester. The women and children were simply dumped in a new city and left to fend for themselves. Most disappeared from history. A few managed to return home after the war.

To be clear, becoming a doctor in the mid 19th century required merely attending lectures at a medical school. There were no official standards. So when war was declared, every physician capable of wielding a scalpel and bone saw was needed—no matter how incompetent, drunk, or just plain sadistic. Dr. Charles Briggs was assigned to the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry (remember the movie Glory?). On November 6, 1863, Briggs examined Private James Reilly, a black soldier who’d been accused of having sex with a mare. Although he found no evidence, and the private was found not guilty based on Briggs’ testimony, the doctor wasn’t done. For reasons of his own, he had Reilly brought to his tent, stripped naked, bound, and gagged. He circumcised Reilly without anesthetic and cauterized the wound with a hot iron. Briggs was charged with using circumcision as punishment, but never court-martialed for his brutality. A few weeks after the torture of Private Reilly, Briggs was promoted to full surgeon of the unit and served to the end of the war.

When Confederate Captain John Newton Ballard of Mosby’s Rangers lost his leg in battle in 1863, like many of his fellow officers, he didn’t waste time fretting over his amputated limb. Instead, he acquired a second hand artificial leg and got back to war. Unfortunately, he was left literally without a leg to stand on near Halltown, Virginia, when his horse collided with a Union cavalry soldier’s mount and his prosthetic was crushed, making him the only Civil War soldier to lose the same leg twice. However, he was about to have a stroke of luck. In March 1864, Union Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was killed near Richmond, Virginia, during a cavalry raid. He, too, had lost a leg in 1863 (in fact, the severed leg was given a military funeral and is still sealed within the wall of Building 28 in the Washington Navy Yard). Dahlgren’s body was found by Confederates, one of whom took his wooden artificial limb as a souvenir. The Yankee prosthetic made its way to John Ballard, who wore it in active service to the end of the war.

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