Fri, Oct 21, 2016
There never was a single Germanic people, even the name was coined by Roman historian Tacitus for various tries and clans which wandered into most of Europe in waves, from the steppes around Central Asia, first mainly overrunning Celts and mingling with various locals. Lacking their own historiography, they got a 'barbaric' press from the Romans as mush ginger brutes, undervaluing their culture, in fact about at par with the Celts, and dreaded warriors, but living in small patriarchal units under single war leaders, no village over 200 people, mainly plundering each-other. Unbeaten in the forest, they halted Roman invasions and remained independent, the Empire getting shielded by fortifications. Pressed to emigrate northern and central Europe since the sixth century BC, chased further by Huns and other newcomers, they had to intrude the Roman world, settling by permission or, forming large confederations, fighting their way into the continent's largest-yet, ultimately crumbling empire. They largely embraced Roman civilization and adopting Catholicism allowed the Frankish Merovingian dynasty to become the feudal next empire, literally achieving that status in the name of the cross under Charlemagne, who subdued the Saxons by brutal force, but pagan traditions largely survive even in present folk-law. They and their many descendants largely shaped Europe and its colonies.
Sat, Oct 22, 2011
Theater comedian Hape Kerkeling makes a mildly ironical oversight of world history, occasionally acting out of caricature of a major figure. This episode is on the roots of civilization in Antiquity. First Pharaonic Egypt, starring Echnathon. Next Mesopotamia and the Indus cultures. Then the rise of imperial China, starring eponymous first emperor Chin. Finally classical Greece and its Macedonian unificator, first 'world conqueror' Alexander the Great.
Sat, Jul 24, 2010
After Columbus's arrival in the Antilles and the subsequent waves of Spanish and other conquests, consequences were grave for both European colonizers and exploited Indians, most of which were exterminated, most actually by diseases, exchanged in both directions, as would be plant and animal species, either on purpose or by accident. Soon the robbery phase exhausted the Aztec, Maya and Inca gold and silver treasures. Next came settlements, for rich agriculture, hunting, fishery and mining. The American ecology is totally distorted by the European-style economy.
Sat, May 2, 2015
Money and prosperity have always been a mainspring of mankind. But is the monetary system the only way to progress or could it be the trigger for fatal crises which we regularly suffer? We will follow the trail of money and focus on several topics: the origin and spread of coinage, the development of the banking system, financial bubbles and last but not least the rise of the modern financial world. Clever strategists and ambitious players have often left their marks on developments. "Die Spur des Geldes" (WT) gives a fascinating insight to the world of finance and tells the story of how money made history on the basis of famous personalities.
Sat, Oct 15, 2016
The Carthaginians got a poor press from their Greco-Roman rivals as traitorous child murders, leaving no history of their own, but archeological evidence concludes better. Carthage was the greatest city state of the Phoenicians, who colonized -like the Greeks- Mediterranean (often insular) coasts from present Lebanon (notably Tyros, Tripoli, Byblos and Sidon) circa 300 BC. Only carthage, near present Tunis, became a mighty metropolis dominating trade in the Western half trough its own colonies, from its North African region to southern Iberia and Sicily*. The capital's center was admiralty within the protected port, where they built 'in line production' standardized ship types for commerce and war, even distant expeditions past Gibraltar to the Gulf of Guinea (for gold, ivory...) and the North Sea (for British metals), possibly further. Their rich merchants, envied by all, also dominated political life i a senate under two elected 'suphets' (supreme magistrates). Researchers dispute the veracity of Ancient reports suggesting buried children at cultic 'tophet' sites where sacrifices even of the aristocratic firstborn, as last religious resort, or just young deaths. After 100 years of economic primacy, rival land-expansive republican empire Rome fought, defeated and in a second war utterly destroyed Carthage as a state (rebuilding the city as a rich colony). Their legacy was however lasting, having helped spread cultural cross-fertilization, the sense for exploration, innovation -as in shipbuilding- and especially the Phoenician alphabet, basis for the Latin and Greek, hence Slavic and other Western, as well as Arabic and other oriental descendants, spread into the known world in a few centuries. Their foundations, Europe's first cities, were the basis of its urban culture.
Sat, Mar 28, 2009
This sequel to Arminus' Treason reconstructs how the Cherusk prince tricked governor Varrus into the marshy Teutoburger forest, believing it to be a rescue. There, his coalition of Germanic tribes inflicted an unprecedented bloody defeat on his three legions, in several well-conceived phases. This reconstruction was based on recent archaeological finds and Ancient text.
Fri, Aug 20, 2010
German engineer Rudolf Diesel, of modest birth, dreams of designing a new type of combustion motor, efficient enough to make machine power affordable for the masses. He neglected to play on safe concerning the patent, which would cost him dearly. Leading industrialist Krupp decided to work with him to contribute the Diesel engine to the imperial Kriegsmarine's rush to technologically and strategically challenge the British Royal Navy, not what naive idealistic pacifist Diesel intended. After naval applications, especially in submarines, others like for cars would follow much later. Rudolf himself disappeared mysteriously, wile feared he would sell his knowhow to England, aboard a cruisers in 1913.