Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).
Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.
Byzantium goes way back. And I mean waaaaaay back: it was founded by some Greeks from Megara in 667BCE. When you consider the fact that Byzantium didn’t fall until 1453AD, that’s a goddamn incredible history. And the site’s story isn’t over: now it’s known as Istanbul, and history continues.
(Source: thebygone)
Just before Lincoln ascended the throne,
Some southern states wanted a place of their own.
These few states didn’t like the rest,
Their institution was definitely best.
South Carolina was the first to secede,
but soon went the lot, Mississipi,
Florida, Alabama went one after the next.
Georgia, Louisiana, and good ol’ Texas.
The first thing they did was choose a new name,
And thus was born the Confederate States.
So how did democracy really start? Well, the first representative body was in Virginia. The House of Burgesses met for the first time on July 30, 1619 - a day to remember as this was the first time in the history of America there was a representative democracy. This democracy, however, was corrupt and unequal. The more populous backcountry had the same number of representatives as the sparser, richer coastal areas. This (along with some other things) led to a backcountry uprising known as Bacon’s Rebellion. Long story short, the rich guys realized how much power the poorer people really had and needed to give them a voice.
This happened a few more times in a few other areas in the colonies.
There have been many debates about what really started the slavery of Africans in America. Of course there’s the whole “but the Indians died so they didn’t have enough people to work” thing, but that’s what led to it, not the reasoning behind it. Why specifically AFRICANS?
Some people argue that it was because of our racist views towards them. Others argue that it’s because of the economic advantage it would give us and that racism grew as a result of the use of Africans as slaves. And yet others argue that although there was mild racism before, the motives were mainly economic and racism just grew as a result.
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The slaves came to America through a route known as the triangular trade. This sea route tied Africa, the Americas, and Europe together. However, the English colonies didn’t really start prolifically importing slaves until the mid-1690s. Although they did have slaves as early as the early 1600s, there weren’t many due to the difficulty in purchasing them because of a monopoly held by the Royal African Company of England. After that, the slaves started rolling in. Most of them went to the Southern colonies of Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia in order to fuel their plantation economies.
The slaves weren’t happy and really did want out. So when there was some tension between Spain and England, Spain manipulated this fact and told the slaves they’d be free if they just crossed into Florida, a Spanish colony at the time. Thus, the slaves started a revolt. Leading this revolt was Jemmy, a literate, Catholic, Portuguese-speaking, former military man from Kongo - definitely the wrong guy to accidentally pick up on slave raids in Africa… So he gets a few guys together and they start heading South, killing every white man and burning every plantation they pass. The local military eventually caught up with them and were able to kill most of them, but this left the colonists with a very important lesson: RAISE YOUR SLAVES YOURSELVES. From this point on, slaves were to be second generation - slaves who did not know the concept of freedom.
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The slaves in America developed their own culture. Because they were moved around a lot and were often split up, the slaves developed large extended families instead of small nuclear ones. They also created hybrid languages and religions - mixing African with American.
Although the English, Spanish, and French started colonizing America at roughly the same time, they all had slightly different goals and did it in a slightly different way.
The English
- First went to make a profit
- Later to escape religious persecution
- Meant to establish society (brought women and children also)
- Tried not to associate with the Indians
- Focused on Agriculture
The Spanish
- First went to make a profit
- Were very adamant about CONVERTING THE HEATHEN NATIVES
- Did not try to establish society
- Intermixed with the Indians (converted them, traded with them)
- Didn’t focus on agriculture and instead looked for gold.
The French
- First went to make a profit
- Weren’t very much into that whole “religion” thing in regards to the colonies
- Had good trading relationships with the Indians
I’ll be blunt about it, the English Reformation came about because King Henry VIII wanted to have sex with Anne Boleyn. The problem was, he was already married and the Catholic Church did not allow for divorce. So what did he do? He broke away from the Catholic Church and created the Church of England, or what we know today as the Anglican Church.
This made many Protestants living in England happy, but they soon realized the Church of England was still just as corrupt as the Catholic Church, and so they called for change. These people were known as the Puritans. They, however, did not get their change and were instead persecuted for trying to form their own congregations. For religious asylum, they migrated to the New World.
Same goes for the Pilgrims, the Quakers, the Catholics (later), and many other religious groups.
Mercantilism was a belief that ran European economies throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. It was the belief that:
- In order for one country to gain money, another has to lose money
- The more money a country had, the more powerful it was
Because of mercantilism, governments all over Europe started supporting merchants because now merchants were seen as supporting their country by trading. Government support meant merchants could start looking for new, innovative ways to make money. One man who took this to the extreme was a Mr. Christopher Columbus. Because of the immense costs, time, and difficulty traveling to Asia by land, he thought, “Well, since the world is round, why not try going west to get to Asia?” Big mistake. He had his calculations wrong and thought the world was only 2/3 of its actual size. All the monarchs he went to knew this too, except one: Queen Isabella of Spain. So off he went, funded by the Spain in search of Asia. As we all know, he did not find Asia and instead ended up in the Americas. He was convinced he had found Asia his whole life, but later explorers would prove him wrong.
Another result of this belief was the turning of sights to the New World. For England, especially, having New World colonies posed the possibility of being able to import resources from themselves rather than from another country.
It’s unlike anything history has EVER seen before. It has the potential, not only to end wars, but also to end all life on earth. All previous types of warfare wouldn’t even consider developing a system specifically to warn the other side of a potential attack, yet that’s exactly what happened immediately following the Cuban Missile Crisis. After seeing that that could have been THE END, a hotline was established between DC and Moscow for easy communication in times of crisis. Collaborating with the enemy in times of war? Say what? The idea of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) also comes along with the monster that is nuclear warfare. “If you attack us, we’ll blast you ten-fold.” It keeps both sides from ever attacking, but in the case of a real attack, it also ensures the total destruction of at least the countries involved - likely the whole world. The US’ stance in MAD is that of defense. But what good is defense when it will end the world? “Oh, you sent a nuke our way? We’ll send 10 your way, 100 your way.” Is that defense? Really? The Cold War Nuclear warfare became a prospect of the future the moment the US dropped the first A-bomb on Hiroshima. Leveling a city, killing thousands, and poisoning thousands more, it showed the world what atom bombs were capable of. It also showed the world what kind of “power” the United States had. It was the US’ way of saying, “So what if your army has 11 million men? We’ve got these babies.” It was the start of the Cold War. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the US had been mounting for months at this point. During the Yalta Conference in early 1945, the Big Three (US, USSR, UK) were trying to decide how to deal with Germany once they lost the war. President Roosevelt strongly pushed for the freed Eastern European states to be able to decide thedemocratic government of their choice. The USSR deeply opposed that, wanting the would-be newly liberated states to come under Soviet control. The same issue was later brought up in the Potsdam Conference following the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Cold War brought around many things. The countries ruled by the USSR weren’t all happy about the situation, although some were already communist. The Soviet Union oppressed many of the countries, putting their leaders and policies in charge. East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were countries that became “satellite states” of the Soviet Union. Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia all tried to stage revolts and were largely unsuccessful. Albania and Yugoslavia managed to dodge Soviet control as both were already communist and wanted to keep doing things their way. This was also around the time of the US civil rights movements. President Johnson (who took over after Kennedy’s assassination and was later reelected) was a strong advocate for equal rights and made it one of his domestic projects (as well as access to health care and stuff), which helped the African Americans in their quest for equality. However, although laws could be passed, that didn’t mean people would just change their minds over night. Equality was still far from met. Women were also fighting for their rights. During WWII, as many men vacated their jobs to fight, women started taking over. However, once the men returned, women were kicked off the jobs or the difference in pay became very apparent. With the end of WWII also came the proliferation of consumer goods such as the vacuum cleaner which made house work easier. Women were now demanding more equal rights. Better pay, better jobs. There were student revolts and stuff too, but they weren’t really too important. They kind of brought certain issues to public attention, but they had no significant impact in the long run. The Future? With more and more countries gaining nuclear capabilities, the fear of nuclear war still lies in our minds. Now, however, MAD is not so A. The ones to use such nuclear arms against us first will be terrorists with no single location. How do you reciprocate an attack by someone not affiliated with any one country? As we approach midnight, the entire world needs to realize more than ever how real this is and how little we can do to stop it. They must not be allowed to gain nuclear arms under any circumstance or it could mean the end for everyone. Wrote this a few months ago for a history class.
