History with Descriptions - A through Z

[Hard_Rom]

Ming Dynasty

The Ming dynasty, or the Great Ming, also called the Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China for 276 years (1368–1644) following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the Shun dynasty, soon replaced by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty), regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1662.

 

[MatthewVett]

Nothing like terrorizing civilians to help the war effort, eh?

I mean, one, it did help the war effort. Total casualties during his march were miniscule compared to major battles. If he shortened the war at all, as he must have if he did significant damage, he undoubtedly saved lives. The South thought it could compete with a modern industrial nation. They thought war was glorious. He proved them wrong. “I would not coax them, or meet them half-way, but make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.” Is demoralizing civilians part of modern war? Yes.

By the time he decided to order the evacuation of Atlanta’s civilian population in September, Sherman professed to be utterly indifferent to the outcry that would ensue. “If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking,” he wrote to Halleck. “If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...3f7826-3391-11e4-a723-fa3895a25d02_story.html

 

[barefootgirl69]

King of Navarre - A region that was formerly the Kingdom of Pomplona

Antoine was the first monarch of the House of Bourbon.

Prince of the Blood, Antoine of Navarre, led a opposition movement against the Guise government during the reign of King Francis II of France.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I mean, one, it did help the war effort. Total casualties during his march were miniscule compared to major battles. If he shortened the war at all, as he must have if he did significant damage, he undoubtedly saved lives. The South thought it could compete with a modern industrial nation. They thought war was glorious. He proved them wrong. “I would not coax them, or meet them half-way, but make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.” Is demoralizing civilians part of modern war? Yes.

By the time he decided to order the evacuation of Atlanta’s civilian population in September, Sherman professed to be utterly indifferent to the outcry that would ensue. “If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking,” he wrote to Halleck. “If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...3f7826-3391-11e4-a723-fa3895a25d02_story.html

Well, I guess that "Trumps" the Geneva accord. Go after their relatives. Or do we just go Medieval, and when we take a town in a war, we conclude all the inhabitants opposed us, and put them all to the sword? If nothing else, I guess you could give the Donald a good American precedent for his proposals.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Well, I guess that "Trumps" the Geneva accord. Go after their relatives. Or do we just go Medieval, and when we take a town in a war, we conclude all the inhabitants opposed us, and put them all to the sword? If nothing else, I guess you could give the Donald a good American precedent for his proposals.

Neither the Geneva Convention on Prisoners or the Hague Convention on Rules of War existed at the time. A city which surrendered was shown mercy. Those that opposed a siege were shown no mercy.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Neither the Geneva Convention on Prisoners or the Hague Convention on Rules of War existed at the time. A city which surrendered was shown mercy. Those that opposed a siege were shown no mercy.

Obviously, and I clearly wasn't proposing a presentistic judgement of Sherman. My comments were about Matthew's assessment of Sherman, and Matthew does exist in a world of such conventions and ethics. My further discussion was also directed at present times, and the views, specifically, of the Donald. He does not seem to know we're no longer in the past, though he seems equally unaware of the precedents, even American, that would support his views. But then, his degree is probably from Trump University [sic].

 

[Hard_Rom]

Opium Wars

The Opium Wars were two wars in the mid-19th century involving Anglo-Chinese disputes over British trade in China and China's sovereignty. The disputes included the First Opium War (1839–1842) and the Second Opium War (1856–1860). The wars and events between them weakened the Qing dynasty and reduced China's separation from the rest of the world

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Pocahontas (1596?-1617) Famous daughter of Powhatan and wife of John Rolfe. She isn't mentioned in the first edition of Rolfe's Narrative of the Virginia Colony, but does make her apocryphal and dramatic appearance in his second edition. She is the focus of the Southern Narrative in American history - that of marriage between Indian and European kingdoms - which still exists in the "my grandmother was a Cherokee princess" trope. It contrasts with the Northern, or Cotton Mather, Narrative which saw the Indians as "Satanic imps, allowed by God to test the mettle of true puritans." The Northern Narrative became the "truth" with Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis," declaring that the role of the Indians in history was to develop the traits of strength and character specific to America. Few buy into that crap today.

 

[JKendallDane]

Dan Quayle

United States Vice President under George HW Bush (1989-1993)

Most famous for his misspelling of "potato" in a grade school classroom and his very public battle with the fictional television character Murphy Brown.

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[Carnal_Flower]

Rob Roy

The Rob Roy is a cocktail created in 1894 by a bartender at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, New York City. The drink was named in honor of the premiere of Rob Roy, an operetta by composer Reginald De Koven and lyricist Harry B. Smith loosely based upon Scottish folk hero Rob Roy MacGregor.

A Rob Roy is similar to a Manhattan but is made exclusively with Scotch whisky, while the Manhattan is traditionally made with rye and today commonly made with bourbon or Canadian whiskey.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Sacagawea (1788-1812) The Lemhi Shoshone woman who showed Lewis and Clark all they needed to "discover" about the "unknown territory" that the US had "bought" from France. No No Keshagesh

 

[Hard_Rom]

Tunguska event

The Tunguska event was a large explosion that occurred near the Stony Tunguska River, in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russian Empire, on the morning of 30 June 1908 (N.S.). The explosion over the sparsely populated Eastern Siberian Taiga flattened 2,000 km2 (770 sq mi) of forest (it caused no known casualties among humans). The cause of the explosion is generally thought to have been a meteor. It is classified as an impact event, even though no impact crater has been found; the meteor is thought to have burst in mid-air at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres (3 to 6 miles) rather than hit the surface of the Earth.

Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the superbolide's size, on the order of 60 to 190 metres (200 to 620 feet), depending on whether the meteor was a comet or a denser asteroid. It is the largest known impact event on Earth in recorded history.

 

[MatthewVett]

Well, I guess that "Trumps" the Geneva accord. Go after their relatives. Or do we just go Medieval, and when we take a town in a war, we conclude all the inhabitants opposed us, and put them all to the sword? If nothing else, I guess you could give the Donald a good American precedent for his proposals.

Do you find them comparable? How exactly would you wage a total war, then? Never attack means of production? Never go after supply lines? Sherman wasn't slaughtering unarmed civilians. He was damaging property and material that would have gone to help the treasonous Confederate war effort that wanted to continue to enslave black Americans in perpetuity. Is anyone suggesting that, to use current events as an example, we should avoid bombing ISIS convoys or roadways? That if they enter a city, we should forbid ground troops from even going nearby? Had Sherman not done anything, the war would have been deadlier than it was.

Please, tell me your Civil War strategy.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Do you find them comparable? How exactly would you wage a total war, then? Never attack means of production? Never go after supply lines? Sherman wasn't slaughtering unarmed civilians. He was damaging property and material that would have gone to help the treasonous Confederate war effort that wanted to continue to enslave black Americans in perpetuity. Is anyone suggesting that, to use current events as an example, we should avoid bombing ISIS convoys or roadways? That if they enter a city, we should forbid ground troops from even going nearby? Had Sherman not done anything, the war would have been deadlier than it was.

Please, tell me your Civil War strategy.

Total war is a relatively new thing. Peasants and crops were needed to feed foraging armies. Civilians in non-war zones would have suffered minimum privations. Non-essential industries would still have turned out luxury goods. The Crimean War and the US Civil War were two of the first to inflict massive casualties due to technologically advanced arms. but neither was 'total war'. For the Confederacy it may have been.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865. It included the permanent regular army, which was augmented by massive numbers of temporary units consisting of volunteers as well as conscripts. The Union Army fought and eventually defeated the Confederate Army during the war. At least two and a half million men served in the Union Army; almost all were volunteers. About 360,000 Union soldiers died from all causes; 280,000 were wounded and 200,000 deserted.

 

[MatthewVett]

V for Vicksburg . Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, control of which was vital to the Union's Anaconda Plan, in which a naval blockade was used to weaken the Confederacy. The Confederates surrendered on July 4, 1863, the same time General Lee was losing Gettysburg on the other side of the nation, and these two events combined are considered the turning point of the war. The Union suffered 4,835 casualties at Vicksburg, the Confederacy 32,697, including 29,495 surrenders. Our friends Grant and Sherman were both present on the Union side, and Grant's success here led to his eventually taking command of all Union armies in the war.

 

[JKendallDane]

William L. Dayton

Senator from New Jersey, Minister to France, and first Vice Presidential candidate of the newly formed Republican party in 1856, selected instead of a lesser-known congressman named Abe Lincoln.

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[Tio_Narratore]

Do you find them comparable? How exactly would you wage a total war, then? Never attack means of production? Never go after supply lines? Sherman wasn't slaughtering unarmed civilians. He was damaging property and material that would have gone to help the treasonous Confederate war effort that wanted to continue to enslave black Americans in perpetuity. Is anyone suggesting that, to use current events as an example, we should avoid bombing ISIS convoys or roadways? That if they enter a city, we should forbid ground troops from even going nearby? Had Sherman not done anything, the war would have been deadlier than it was.

Please, tell me your Civil War strategy.

That War is over, but I would not have been in favour of terrorism. And terrorism was Sherman's avowed aim. His purpose in marching across a state virtually devoid of enemy military presence was only to destroy the morale of the civilian population, and this he accomplished by destroying their stores of food and family supplies - not military supplies, and not means of producing military supplies. He outlined "proper" rules for his troops, and then never sought to have them enforced, setting the stage even for slaves - people who were to be liberated - to have their men stand guard over their women as Sherman's troops advanced. Did he shorten the war? Make it less deadly? Can't really tell, unless you want to count the Confederate soldiers saved by Sherman's marching on civilians instead. Of course it shortened the war and reduced casualties. Just like the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes. Military necessity: the ends justifies the means. You can have it.

History is essentially a field for disagreement and argument, but the aim of this thread is to present some historical "things" with a bit of description. The description does make it more interesting than the usual threads of mere lists, but it also opens it to argument. I'd like to let this one go and get back to informing, with a bit of viewpoint to make us think. So, if you rebut, I will leave it unanswered, and get on with history in alphabetical order.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I was quite hoping for W.

W: wrackspurt (Harry Potter lexicon)

"A Wrackspurt... They're invisible. They float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy, I thought I felt one zooming around in here."
—Luna Lovegood to Harry and Neville while onboard at Hogwarts Express in 1996


A Wrackspurt is an invisible creature which floats into a person's ears, making his/her brain go fuzzy. [1] Supposedly, Wrackspurts can be seen with aid of Spectrespecs. Those suffering from Wrackspurt infections can possibly dispel them by thinking positive thoughts.[2] In 1998, The Quibbler reported that some Wrackspurts broke out of the Ministry Elfin' Safety Enquiry.

 

[NotWise]

Xerxes governed the Persian Empire (as did his father, Darius I) at its apex. He is most known in western culture for his assaults on Greece, around 480 BC. The stand of the Trojans at Thermopylae against Xerxes is now popular culture. He was defeated by the Athenians in a naval battle at Salamis, which some historians regard as one of the most pivotal battles in the history of western culture.

Xerxes was assassinated by his bodyguard.

 

[JKendallDane]

Joseph A. "Jock" Yablonski

An American labor reform leader in the United Mine Workers in the 1950s and 1960s. He, his wife, and daughter were murdered in 1969 by killers hired by his chief union political opponent, Mine Workers president Tony Boyle.

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[Hard_Rom]

Zulu Kingdom

The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire, was a monarchy in Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north.

The kingdom grew to dominate much of what is today KwaZulu-Natal and Southern Africa, but when it came into conflict with the British Empire in the 1870s during the Anglo-Zulu War, it was defeated despite an early Zulu victory in the war. The area was subsequently absorbed into the Colony of Natal and later became part of the Union of South Africa.

 

[JKendallDane]

Albert 1

A rhesus monkey called Albert 1 became the first animal launched into space on June 11, 1948 on board a US-launched V2 rocket.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--OG0NfTuh--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/191cls8ov04i1jpg.jpg

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[Carnal_Flower]

Hans aka Jean Arp

Painter, sculptor, collagist. Founding member of the Dada Movement.

"Art should walk on tiptoe, unostentatious, unpretentious, and light as the spoor of an animal in snow. Art should melt into and even merge with nature itself. By so doing, art will rid itself more and more of self-centeredness, virtuosity and absurdity."

"The man who speaks and writes about art should refrain from censuring or pontificating. He will thus avoid doing anything foolish."

 

[Hard_Rom]

Brexit

Not yet history but on this day the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, the largest free trade zone in the world. History will judge if this was a good or bad decision.