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I don't know what I was doing that caused me to land on this site, but the maps are pretty neat and interactive in the sense that some of them will change to show the information over a period of time. There's a really interesting time lapse of the United States that shows how states have voted for the presidents over the years.

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From Indigenous territories in pre-colonial America to the height of the Nazi regime, these maps explain history better than any textbook.

Expansion Of The Mongol Empire

Wikimedia Commons

Countries That Were Never Invaded By The British

Division Of Colonial Africa

Library of Congress

Europe Under Nazi Control During World War II

Wikimedia Commons

The Spread Of The United Nations

Spread Of The United Nations

Extermination Of The American Bison

Wikimedia Commons

Every Presidential Election From 1860 To 2004

Wikimedia Commons

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We primarily think of maps as tools to show us where we're going. But these 35 world history maps can show us where we've been.

Some of the historical maps displayed above highlight how empires have risen and fallen throughout the centuries. We can learn how the Mongols once consumed a continent. We can see how Roman roads once stretched across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. And we can marvel at how the Ottoman Empire came to spread across 2 million square miles.

Other history maps show how warfare has touched various places around the world, and how things have changed after these battles have passed.

Several of the historical maps in the gallery focus on North America. While perusing them, you can learn about the decimation of the American bison. You can also see how diverse Indigenous tribes once controlled large swaths of land throughout the continent before European settlers arrived.

In one particularly engaging map, you can take a look back at the results of every U.S. presidential election from 1860 to 2004.

All in all, these history maps present the path of mankind in a variety of ways. Instead of telling just one narrative, they explore the evolution of people, places, and politics from above. Using the natural boundaries of continents, they show how human history has shifted with time.

Sometimes, they tell tragic stories from the past. Other times, they present a more hopeful future.
After looking through these world history maps, check out these maps that explain America. Then, take a look at these unique world maps that you won't find in any textbook.

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35 Maps That Explain History Better Than Any Textbook

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Wikimedia Commons Library of Congress Wikimedia Commons Spread Of The United Nations Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons Like this gallery?Share it: We primarily think of maps as tools to show us where we're going. But these 35 world history maps can show us where we've been.

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition started in 1804 and ended in 1806. The expedition was an United States military expedition which explored the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the U.S. and provided great strength to the U.S.

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What was the purpose of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?

Which president sent Lewis and Clark on their expedition?

Who was Seaman in the Lewis and Clark expedition?

What plants and animals did Lewis discover?

Who was the Native American woman who accompanied the expedition?

Lewis and Clark Expedition, (1804-06), U.S. military expedition, led by Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Lieut. William Clark, to explore the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest. The expedition was a major chapter in the history of American exploration.

Commissioning and preparation

On January 18, 1803, U.S. Pres. Thomas Jefferson sent a secret message to Congress asking for $2,500 to send an officer and a dozen soldiers to explore the Missouri River, make diplomatic contact with Indians, expand the American fur trade, and locate the Northwest Passage (the much-sought-after hypothetical northwestern water route to the Pacific Ocean). The proposed trip took on added significance on May 2, when the United States agreed to the Louisiana Purchase- Napoleon's sale of 828,000 square miles (2,100,000 square km) of French territory for $27 million. Jefferson, who had already sponsored several attempts to explore the West, asked his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition. Lewis was dispatched to Philadelphia for instruction in botany, celestial navigation, medicine, and zoology. He also purchased supplies and spent $20 on a Newfoundland dog, Seaman.

Lewis procured weapons at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia), supervised the construction of a 55-foot (17-metre) keelboat, and secured smaller vessels, in addition to designing an iron-framed boat that could be assembled on the journey. As his co-commander he selected William Clark, who had been his military superior during the government's battles with the Northwest Indian Federation in the early 1790s. The U.S. secretary of war denied Lewis's request of a shared command, but Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clark chose to address one another as "captain" to hide this fact from the other members of the expedition. For his part, Clark recruited men in Kentucky, oversaw their training that winter at Camp River Dubois in Illinois, and served as the expedition's principal waterman and cartographer.

Expedition from May 14, 1804, to October 16, 1805

Over the duration of the trip, from May 14, 1804, to September 23, 1806, from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean and back, the Corps of Discovery, as the expedition company was called, traveled nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 km). The entourage, numbering about four dozen men, covered 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) a day-poling, pushing, and pulling their 10-ton keelboat and two pirogues (dugout boats) up the Missouri River. Lewis's iron-framed boat was later assembled and covered with skins near Great Falls (in present-day Montana) but had to be abandoned because the seams leaked and there was no pitch to seal them. The captains and at least five others kept journals. President Jefferson had instructed Lewis to make observations of latitude and longitude and to take detailed notes about the soil, climate, animals, plants, and native peoples. Lewis identified 178 plants new to science, including bitterroot, prairie sagebrush, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine, as well as 122 animals, such as grizzly bear, prairie dog, and pronghorn antelope. The scientific names Philadelphus lewisii (mock orange), Lewisia rediva (bitterroot), and Clarkia pucella (pink fairy, or ragged robin) are but three examples of the men's discoveries. The expedition encountered immense animal herds and ate well, consuming one buffalo, two elk, or four deer per day, supplemented by roots, berries, and fish. They named geographic locations after expedition members, peers, loved ones, and even their dog (Seaman's Creek). They experienced dysentery, venereal disease, boils, tick bites, and injuries from prickly pear, yet only one man perished over the course of the journey.

Another primary objective involved diplomacy with Native Americans. The expedition held councils with Indians, in which the corps had military parades, handed out peace medals, flags, and gifts, delivered speeches, promised trade, and requested intertribal peace. There also was something of a magic show (magnets, compasses, and Lewis's air gun) and an invitation for Indian representatives to travel to Washington, D.C. Most tribes welcomed trading opportunities and provided the expedition with food, knowledge, guides, shelter, sex, and entertainment. The Lakota (encountered in South Dakota), however, already had British commercial ties and did not view American competition favourably, especially because it would make their enemies stronger. Their attempt to prevent the expedition from continuing upstream nearly turned violent, but Chief Black Buffalo's diplomacy defused the situation.

The expedition arrived at the Mandan and Hidatsa villages near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota, and constructed Fort Mandan in which to spend the winter. The captains prepared maps, artifacts, mineral samples, plant specimens, and papers to send back in the spring. On April 7, 1805, a small crew departed on a St. Louis-bound keelboat laden with boxes of materials for Jefferson that included live magpies and a prairie dog. Meanwhile, the permanent party proceeded up the Missouri in six canoes and two pirogues. It now consisted of 33 people, including soldiers, civilians, Clark's slave York, and two newly hired interpreters-a French Canadian, Toussaint Charbonneau, and his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, who had given birth to a boy, Jean Baptiste, that February. The departure scene was described by Lewis in his journal:

This little fleet altho' not quite so rispectable as those of Columbus or Capt. Cook were still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those deservedly famed adventurers ever beheld theirs...we were now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civillized man had never trodden; the good or evil it had in store for us was for experiment yet to determine, and these little vessells contained every article by which we were to expect to subsist or defend ourselves.

On June 2, 1805, the expedition party arrived at a fork in the river. Not knowing which waterway was the principal stream, they sent out reconnaissance parties up both forks. Although the evidence was not conclusive, the captains believed the south fork to be the major course while everyone else favoured the north. Lewis named the north fork Maria's River (now Marias River) and instructed the party to continue up the south fork. This choice proved correct when the expedition arrived at the Great Falls almost two weeks later. An 18-mile (29-km) portage around the falls was made even more difficult by broken terrain, prickly pear cactus, hailstorms, and numerous grizzly bears. On July 4, 1805, the party finished the portage and, to celebrate Independence Day, consumed the last of their 120 gallons of alcohol and danced into the night.

Arriving at the Three Forks of the Missouri River (the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers), Sacagawea recognized Beaverhead Rock and informed the others they would soon encounter some Shoshones. Lewis climbed Lemhi Pass, crossing the Continental Divide, only to have his hope for a single mountain portage dashed by the view of endless mountains stretching before him: "I discovered immence ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow." Fortunately, in mid-August he met a Shoshone band led by Sacagawea's brother Cameahwait, who provided the expedition with horses. The Shoshone guide Old Toby joined the expedition and led them across the Bitterroot Range. On the crossing, Clark lamented, "I have been wet and as cold in every part as I ever was in my life, indeed I was at one time fearfull my feet would freeze in the thin mockersons [moccasins] which I wore." Cold and hungry, the expedition finally spilled out of the mountains onto the Weippe Prairie, homeland of the Nez Percé. Upon the recommendation of a respected elderly woman, Watkuweis, the Nez Percé befriended the expedition. After leaving their horses with Chief Twisted Hair, the explorers hollowed out five cottonwood canoes and floated down the Clearwater and Snake rivers, reaching the Columbia River on October 16.

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Lewis and Clark Expedition | Summary, History, Members, Facts, & Map

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Lewis and Clark Expedition, U.S. military expedition (1804-06), led by Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Lieut. William Clark, to explore the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest. The expedition was a major chapter in the history of American exploration.

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The California Gold Rush started in the mid 1800's, which took place in the Sacramento Valley. Thousands of gold miners moved to Sacramento to mine the gold. More than 2 billion dollars worth was taken during the rush. The Gold Rush ended in 1855.

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Sutter's Mill

On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California.

At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of Nueva Helvetia (New Switzerland, which would later become the city of Sacramento). As Marshall later recalled of his historic discovery: "It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

Did you know? Miners extracted more than 750,000 pounds of gold during the California Gold Rush.

Days after Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States-a remarkable twist of fate with important ramifications for an America eager for westward expansion.

At the time, the population of the territory consisted of 6,500 Californios (people of Spanish or Mexican descent); 700 foreigners (primarily Americans); and 150,000 Native Americans (barely half the number that had been there when Spanish settlers arrived in 1769).

Sutter, in fact, had enslaved hundreds of Native Americans and used them as a free source of labor and makeshift militia to defend his territory and expand his empire.

Gold Fever Strikes

Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery under wraps, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter's Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Francisco was disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan set off a frenzy when he paraded through town displaying a vial of gold obtained from Sutter's Creek.

By mid-June, shops and businesses stood empty, as some three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco had abandoned the city for the gold mines, and the number of miners in the area ballooned to some 4,000 by August.

As news reports-many wildly overblown-of the easy fortunes being made in California spread worldwide, some of the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon, the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii), Mexico, Chile, Peru and China.

Polk Spreads Gold Fever

When the news reached the East Coast, press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off nationwide in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polk announced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California's military governor, in his inaugural address.

As Polk wrote, "The accounts of abundance of gold are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service."

The '49ers Come to California

Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) with gold fever borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns. In turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone.

Thousands of would-be gold miners, known as 49ers for the year they arrived, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the 49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune.

The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, alcoholism, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier.

Gold Rush Politics

The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California's admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution that barred the Southern system of racial slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and anti-slavery politicians.

According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed by Kentucky's Senator Henry Clay, California was allowed to enter as a free state, while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were left to decide the legal status of slavery for themselves.

California's Mines

After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased from what it had been in 1848.

As gold became more and more difficult to reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state's population was 380,000.

Impact of the Gold Rush

New mining methods and the population boom in the wake of the California Gold Rush permanently altered the landscape of California. The technique of hydraulic mining brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region's landscape.

Dams designed to supply water to mine sites in summer altered the course of rivers away from farmland, while sediment from mines clogged others. The logging industry in the area was born from the need to construct extensive canals and feed boilers at mines, further consuming natural resources.

In 1884, hydraulic mining was outlawed by court order, and soon agriculture became the dominant industry in California, and it remains so today. While a few mines and Gold Rush towns remain, much of the heritage of that era is preserved at places such as Bodie State Historic Park, a decaying ghost town, and at Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where Sutter's Mill once stood.

Sources

Environmental Impact of the Gold Rush. Calisphere.org.
After the Gold Rush. National Geographic.

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Gold Rush: California, Date & Sutter's Mill - HISTORY

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The Gold Rush in California started in 1848 after gold was found at Sutter's Mill. Within a year, hundreds of thousands of 49ers seeking fortune poured into the state.

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The Westward Expansion took place during the nineteenth century which started with the Louisiana Purchase and then was continued by the Gold Rush and the Oregon Trail.

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Westward expansion, the 19th-century movement of settlers into the American West, began with the Louisiana Purchase and was fueled by the Gold Rush, the Oregon Trail and a belief in "manifest destiny."

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Federalists were for the ratification of The Constitution as anti- federalists were against having a government with such power. Federalists thought that this would help the states come together and anti- federalists believed that the individual states should be granted more power.

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The constitution is a statement of laws for the United States of America. The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments to the Constitution. These are the basic laws that keep America free.

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Español Accordion [accordion classes="" id="59774" expand_first="true"][/accordion] Back to Main Page How Did it Happen?

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The Articles of Confederation was a document before The Declaration of Independence which established the function of the government of the United States.

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Thomas Jefferson was the main author of The Declaration of Independence. He had help from John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. This document explains why the thirteen colonies were forming a new country which became The United States of America.

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Declaration of Independence for Kids | American History Explained

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John Adams and Benjamin Franklin played a big role in negotiating The Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution. George Washington was Commander in Chief to the Continental Army during the war. Thomas Jefferson served as the Governor of Virginia.

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Some effects of Britain had on America at the time is that they created acts like the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts which created taxes on materials like tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass being imported.

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The American War of Independence (1775-1783) served as a harsh lesson to the British Empire that the dominions they controlled, if treated improperly, would always be susceptible to revolution.

The British did not wish to see the thirteen colonies break away from their realm, yet their colonial policies in the late-18th century proved consistently disastrous, demonstrating a complete lack of empathy or common understanding with the American population.

One might argue that independence was always on the horizon in this period for North America, yet even in an era of enlightenment the British seemed, through sheer ignorance, negligence and pride, to seal their own fate.

As with any revolution in history, ideological differences may have provided the foundation and impetus for change, but it is so often the events in the run up to the internal struggle that enhance tensions and ultimately trigger the conflict. The American Revolution was no different. Here are 6 key causes of the American revolution.

1. Seven Years War (1756-1763)

Although the Seven Years War was a multinational conflict, the main belligerents were the British and French Empires. Each looking to expand their territory across numerous continents, both nations suffered mass casualties and racked up copious amounts of debt in order to fund the long and ardous struggle for territorial dominance.

Arguably the most important theatre of the war was in North America, which in 1756 had been geographically split between the empires of the British, French and Spanish. With key but costly victories at Quebec and Fort Niagara, the British were able to emerge victorious from the war and henceforth assimilated large swathes of previously held French territory in Canada and the Mid-West as a result of the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

While British victory had removed any French and Native Indian threat (to an extent) to the thirteen colonies, the war had led to greater economic hardship in the US and an acknowledgment of the cultural differences between colonists and Britons.

Clashes in ideologies became all the more apparent as the British looked to levy higher taxes on the thirteen colonies in order to heal the debt they incurred from military and naval spending.

2. Taxes and Duties

If the Seven Years War had not exacerbated the divide between the colonies and the British metropole, the implementation of colonial taxation certainly did. The British witnessed these tensions first-hand when the Stamp Act of 1765 was introduced. Colonists bitterly opposed the new direct taxation on printed materials and forced the British Government to eventually repeal the legislation a year later.

"No taxation without representation" became an iconic slogan, as it effectively summarised the colonial outrage at the fact they were being taxed against their will and with no form of representation in Parliament.

A key cause of the American revolution which followed the Stamp Act was the introduction of Townshend Duties in 1767 and 1768. This was a series of acts that imposed new forms of indirect taxation of goods such as glass, paint, paper, lead and tea.

These duties caused outrage in the colonies and became the main root of spontaneous and violent opposition. Encouraged and rallied by propaganda leaflets and posters, such as those created by Paul Revere, colonists rioted and organised merchant boycotts. Eventually, the colonial response was met with fierce repression.

3. Boston Massacre (1770)

Just a year after the imposition of the Townshend Duties, the governor of Massachusetts was already calling for the other twelve colonies to join his state in resisting the British and boycotting their goods, which coincided with a riot in Boston over the seizure of a boat aptly named Liberty for smuggling.

Despite these tremors of discontent, nothing suggested that the colonies might seriously consider fighting their British masters until the infamous Boston massacre of March 1770. This was one of the most significant causes of the American revolution.

A detachment of redcoats were accosted by a large crowd in the city, and bombarded with snowballs and more dangerous missiles as the cold and frustrated townsfolk vented their anger on the soldiers. Suddenly, they opened fire after a soldier was knocked down, killing five and injuring six others.

The Boston Massacre is often represented as the inevitable start of a revolution, but in fact it initially prompted Lord North's government to withdraw the Townshend Acts and for a time it seemed like the worst of the crisis was over. However, radicals such as Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson kept the resentment ticking over.

4. Boston Tea Party (1773)

A switch had been flicked. The British government had a chance to make important political concessions to these disgruntled voices, yet they chose not to, and with this decision, the opportunity to avert rebellion was lost.

In 1772, a British ship which had been enforcing unpopular trade regulations was burned by angry patriots, while Samuel Adams set about creating Committees of Correspondence - a network of rebels across all of the 13 colonies.

Yet it was in December 1773 that the most famous and overt display of anger and resistance took place. A group of colonists led by Adams hopped aboard the East India Company trade vessel Dartmouth and poured 342 chests of tea (worth close to $2,000,000 in today's currency) of British tea into the sea at Boston Harbour. This act - now known as the 'Boston Tea Party', remains important in patriotic American folklore.

5. Intolerable Acts (1774)

Rather than attempting to appease the rebels, the Boston Tea Party was met with the passing of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 by the British Crown. These punitive measures included the forced closure of Boston port and an order of compensation to the East India Company for damaged property. Town meetings were now also banned, and the authority of the royal governor was increased.

The British lost further support and patriots formed the First Continental Congress in the same year, a body where men from all the colonies were formally represented. In Britain, opinion was divided as the Whigs favoured reform while North's Tories wanted to demonstrate the power of the British Parliament. It would be the Tories who got their way.

In the meantime, the First Continental Congress raised a militia, and in April 1775 the first shots of the war were fired as British troops clashed with militia men at the twin battles of Lexington and Concord. British reinforcements landed in Massachusetts and defeated the rebels at Bunker Hill in June - the first major battle of the American War of Independence.

Shortly after, the British withdrew into Boston - where they were besieged by an army commanded by the newly appointed General, and future president, George Washington.

6. King George III's Speech to Parliament (1775)

On 26 October 1775 George III, King of Great Britain, stood up in front of his Parliament and declared the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion. Here, for the first time, the use of force was authorised against the rebels. The King's speech was long but certain phrases made it clear that a major war against his own subjects was about to commence:

"It is now become the part of wisdom, and (in its effects) of clemency, to put a speedy end to these disorders by the most decisive exertions. For this purpose, I have increased my naval establishment, and greatly augmented my land forces, but in such a manner as may be the least burthensome to my kingdoms."

After such a speech, the Whig position was silenced and a full-scale war was inevitable. From it the United States of America would emerge, and the course of history radically changed.

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The American War of Independence (1775-1783) served as a harsh lesson to the British Empire that the dominions they controlled, if treated improperly, would always be susceptible to revolution. The British did not wish to see the thirteen colonies break away from their realm, yet their colonial policies in the late-18th century proved consistently disastrous, demonstrating a complete lack of empathy or common understanding with the American population.

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Causes and effects of European exploration and the colonization of North America

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Causes and effects of European exploration and the colonization of North America

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Some major effects from European exploration are basic effects like Europeans gaining new material like silver, gold, and jewels. They also enslaved Native Americans and took some back to Europe.

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‘Chronology’ means the order in time in which events occurred. There is the sequencing of time, for example BCE (Before common era) and CE (common era). ALso included is the Division of Time and Historical eras.

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Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/watches-old-antique-time-indicating-1204696/

The very first step in grasping History is to understand chronology.

Chronology in history refers to the arrangement of events in the order in which they occurred. It is the study of how time is organised and divided in relation to historical events.

The goal of chronology in history is to place events in their proper order, so that they can be studied and understood in their historical context.

There are several rules that have been developed over time to achieve this and they are outlined below. The terms and concepts outlined here can be used in your own historical writing to improve your academic vocabulary.

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The very first step in grasping History is to understand chronology. 'Chronology' means the order in time in which events occurred. There are several rules that have been developed over time to achieve this and they are outlined below. The terms and concepts outlined here can be used in your own historical writing to improve your academic vocabulary.

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A primary source is anything created by humans during the time period we are studying. A secondary source is anything that talks about or concerns the past, but comes after the time period.

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Episode 1: Primary and Secondary Sources

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Great definition and clarification for the validity and reliability of resources.

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A researcher must test the collect data before making any conclusion. Every research design needs to be concerned with reliability and validity to measure the quality of the research.

What is Reliability?

Reliability refers to the consistency of the measurement. Reliability shows how trustworthy is the score of the test. If the collected data shows the same results after being tested using various methods and sample groups, the information is reliable. If your method has reliability, the results will be valid.

Example: If you weigh yourself on a weighing scale throughout the day, you'll get the same results. These are considered reliable results obtained through repeated measures.

Example: If a teacher conducts the same math test of students and repeats it next week with the same questions. If she gets the same score, then the reliability of the test is high.

What is the Validity?

Validity refers to the accuracy of the measurement. Validity shows how a specific test is suitable for a particular situation. If the results are accurate according to the researcher's situation, explanation, and prediction, then the research is valid.

If the method of measuring is accurate, then it'll produce accurate results. If a method is reliable, then it's valid. In contrast, if a method is not reliable, it's not valid.

Example: Your weighing scale shows different results each time you weigh yourself within a day even after handling it carefully, and weighing before and after meals. Your weighing machine might be malfunctioning. It means your method had low reliability. Hence you are getting inaccurate or inconsistent results that are not valid.

Example: Suppose a questionnaire is distributed among a group of people to check the quality of a skincare product and repeated the same questionnaire with many groups. If you get the same response from various participants, it means the validity of the questionnaire and product is high as it has high reliability.

Most of the time, validity is difficult to measure even though the process of measurement is reliable. It isn't easy to interpret the real situation.

Example: If the weighing scale shows the same result, let's say 70 kg each time, even if your actual weight is 55 kg, then it means the weighing scale is malfunctioning. However, it was showing consistent results, but it cannot be considered as reliable. It means the method has low reliability.

Internal Vs. External Validity

One of the key features of randomized designs is that they have significantly high internal and external validity.

is the ability to draw a causal link between your treatment and the dependent variable of interest. It means the observed changes should be due to the experiment conducted, and any external factor should not influence the Internal validity variables.

Example: age, level, height, and grade.

External validity is the ability to identify and generalize your study outcomes to the population at large. The relationship between the study's situation and the situations outside the study is considered external validity.

Threats to Interval Validity

Threats of External Validity

How to Assess Reliability and Validity?

Reliability can be measured by comparing the consistency of the procedure and its results. There are various methods to measure validity and reliability. Reliability can be measured through various statistical methods depending on the types of validity, as explained below:

Types of Reliability

Types of Validity

As we discussed above, the reliability of the measurement alone cannot determine its validity. Validity is difficult to be measured even if the method is reliable. The following type of tests is conducted for measuring validity.

How to Increase Reliability?

Use an appropriate questionnaire to measure the competency level.

Ensure a consistent environment for participants

Make the participants familiar with the criteria of assessment.

Train the participants appropriately.

Analyze the research items regularly to avoid poor performance.

How to Increase Validity?

Ensuring Validity is also not an easy job. A proper functioning method to ensure validity is given below:

The reactivity should be minimized at the first concern.

The Hawthorne effect should be reduced.

The respondents should be motivated.

The intervals between the pre-test and post-test should not be lengthy.

Dropout rates should be avoided.

The inter-rater reliability should be ensured.

Control and experimental groups should be matched with each other.

How to Implement Reliability and Validity in your Thesis?

According to the experts, it is helpful if to implement the concept of reliability and Validity. Especially, in the thesis and the dissertation, these concepts are adopted much. The method for implementation given below:

Methodology
All the planning about reliability and validity will be discussed here, including the chosen samples and size and the techniques used to measure reliability and validity.

Discussion
Please talk about the level of reliability and validity of your results and their influence on values.

Literature Reviews

Discuss the contribution of other researchers to improve reliability and validity.

Conclusion
Talk about the issues you faced while ensuring reliability and validity here.

Include calculations of reliability and validity here.

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Ancient Rome had a large influence on the modern world. We can still see evidence of it in our art, architecture, technology, literature, language, and law.

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Traces of Ancient Rome in the Modern World

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The ideas and culture of ancient Rome influence the art, architecture, science, technology, literature, language, and law of today.

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The idea of democracy was first created in ancient Greece.

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Friday, March 15, 2019

After declaring independence from England in 1776, the founders of the United States possessed a unique opportunity to create a government of their choosing. This was a momentous task, and for guidance they looked to what they deemed the best philosophies and examples of government throughout world history. Along with the Roman model, the democratic model of ancient Greece's system of self-government greatly influenced how the founding fathers set out to construct the new United States government.

Prior to independence, the east coast of what is today the United States was divided into 13 separate colonies. The founders of the United States decided to keep the country divided into states rather than dissolving the colonial boundaries. They did this so that each region could be governed at a local level, with a national government acting as a dominant authority over all. These 13 colonies would become the first states of the newly established country.

A U.S. state resembles the community structure of an ancient Greek polis, or city-state. A polis was composed of an urban center and the land surrounding it, developments similar to that of the major cities and state capitals in the United States and the rural areas surrounding them. In ancient Greece, some of the main city-states were Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, and Syracuse. These city-states acted independently for the most part. However, sometimes they engaged in war against each other. They also banded together to defend Greece from foreign invaders.

All Greek city-states had sets of rules by which the people lived in observance and laws they were required to obey. In ancient Greece the idea of rule of law came from the philosopher Aristotle's belief in natural law. He claimed the existence of a higher justice in nature-certain essential rights-that superseded the laws written by humans. Aristotle believed that people should align themselves with this natural law and govern by its ethics.

In the United States today, the rule of law is a principle that ensures that all laws are publicly accessible, equally enforced, and independently judged, and that they adhere to international human rights ethics. The rule of law is important because it allows all individuals and institutions (including the government itself) to be held accountable for their actions. By agreeing to follow the rule of law, the United States can prevent abuses of power by leaders who might act as if they are above the law.

Another important ancient Greek concept that influenced the formation of the United States government was the written constitution. Aristotle, or possibly one of his students, compiled and recorded The Constitution of the Athenians and the laws of many other Greek city-states. Having a written constitution creates a common standard as to how people should behave and what rules they must follow. It also establishes clear processes by which people who break the law are judged and those who are harmed as a result can be compensated or given justice.

Like The Constitution of the Athenians, the U.S. Constitution is a vital document. It lays out the government's structure and how the checks and balances of power within it relate to one another. The U.S. Constitution acts as the supreme law of the country and establishes individual citizens' rights, such as the right to free speech or the right to a trial by a jury of one's peers. Today, the U.S. Constitution is still regularly referenced in law as the supreme law of the land and is enforced by the U.S. Supreme Court, the country's highest court.

The original U.S. voting system had some similarities with that of Athens. In Athens, every citizen could speak his mind and vote at a large assembly that met to create laws. Citizens were elected to special councils to serve as organizers, decision-makers, and judges. However, the only people considered citizens in Athens were males over the age of 18. Women, slaves, and conquered peoples could not vote in the assembly or be chosen to serve on councils.

The founders of the United States similarly believed that only certain people should be allowed to vote and elect officials. They chose to structure the United States as a representative democracy. This means that citizens elect officials, such as senators and representatives, who vote on behalf of the citizens they represent in Congress. It also means that instead of each individual citizen voting for president directly, a body called the Electoral College officially casts the votes of each state for president. As in Athens, when the United States was founded only white, landowning men were allowed to vote. Over time, however, all U.S. citizens over the age of 18 who have not been convicted of a felony have gained the right to vote.

The principles behind the ancient Greeks' democratic system of government are still in use today. The United States and many other countries throughout the modern world have adopted democratic governments to give a voice to their people. Democracy provides citizens the opportunity to elect officials to represent them. It also allows citizens to choose to elect a different person to represent them if they are dissatisfied with their current elected officials. Today, democracy and the rule of law provide people around the world with a means of protecting their human rights and holding each other accountable as equals under the law.

legislative branch of the government, responsible for making laws. The U.S. Congress has two bodies, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

group of people selected to determine facts in a specific case.

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Director

Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society

Author

Freddie Wilkinson

Production Managers

Gina Borgia, National Geographic Society
Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Society

Program Specialists

Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society
Margot Willis, National Geographic Society

Producer

Clint Parks

Last Updated

March 15, 2019

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Freddie Wilkinson

Clint Parks

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The United States has a complex government system. One important tenet of this system is democracy, in which the ultimate power rests with the people. In the case of the United States, that power is exercised indirectly, through elected representatives. Although the U.S. has been a strong proponent of democracy, it did not invent democracy.

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The Egyptians are attributed with many advances in math, writing, and the most scientific based calendar of 365 and one quarter days for a year.

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There is no doubt that ancient civilizations made significant and important contributions in all fields of life for humankind. These contributions allowed humans to develop and function better in their daily lives; thus societies managed to make big leaps in their economic and political development, as well as cultural production and their religion, whilst simultaneously leaving a legacy in evolutionary history for future generations. This consequently causes specialization and modernization, which eases such operations even more. Below is a list of some of these contributions.

Ancient Civilizations Contributions

Contributions made to mankind by the Egyptian civilization

The Ancient Egyptians made huge contributions to mankind, which were essential for the development of society. Some examples include their problem-solving techniques, their vision and ways of seeing the world, which subsequently served humankind to create thought and reasoning in general, ways of recording history, and many other things, which are mentioned below:

Hieroglyphics

This is a way of writing, which derives from Greek, "heiros" meaning sacred and "glypho" which means sculpt, etc. They were mainly pictograms, which symbolized people, animals, plants, and stylized objects, which were inscribed on Papyrus, temples, and pyramids. Current researchers have said that hieroglyphics are the most ancient type of writing in the world.

They created the so-called "false position" which was the base or the beginning of what we now know as the algebraic method. They also created the decimal system, complex mathematical formulas, calculated the areas of trapezoids, triangles, and squares, resolved algebraic equations and discovered "Pi".

The Egyptians were some of the first to incite popular movements, which achieved great things that are remembered throughout history as some of mankind's greatest historical phenomenon.

Other relevant contributions

Art and engineering were present in their buildings

Irrigation canals made the area the biggest grain producer in the ancient world

The origins of the scientific method can also be dated back to the Egyptians

The manufacture of glass was used on a daily basis and as an ornament in tombs

They invented sailing as a mode of transport.

Alchemy also originated in ancient Egypt.

They discovered the calendar of 365 and a quarter days, the most scientific calendar of ancient times.

Contributions made by the Mesopotamian culture

The creation of writing is attributed to the Sumerians around the year 3100 BC. It all began with pictographic writing, which subsequently changed to ideograms, due to the difficulty of drawing the concepts that they wanted to represent. Ideograms made the interpretation of drawings easier. As time went by, ideograms gave way to signs in the form of wedges or spikes that represented sounds. This process of simplification was due to the fact that Mesopotamia wasn't rich in rocky terrain, which means there was a shortage of stones, but the land was rich in clay, which later allowed them to create bricks. Cuneiform writing was carried out on clay when it was still wet, which would then laid out to dry and baked with other bricks forming larger scriptures.

The Calendar

The Mesopotamian calendar was one of the humankind's first calendars. Sumerian astronomers were the first to regulate the archaic calendar. The months were divided into four weeks of seven days, in accordance with the phases of the moon, leaving out the last two days of each month, hence the calendar of 12 months and 360 days.

The days of the week were named after the moon, the sun and the five planets that were known by the Sumerians at that time: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. These names have evolved in different languages in quite a similar way.
Currency

Before the onset of currency, bartering was the system that people used to exchange products, where they would swap something they didn't need for something else that they did need. Bartering was used for a long time but the growth of commercial activity came to prove that this system wasn't practical and hence currency was born.

In Mesopotamia, people began to use bars of gold, silver, copper, iron and bronze to intermediate exchanges but the first two had advantages on the rest due to their shortage, which made them more valuable. Little by little the first coins began to appear to simplify the levying of tax replacing cattle and wheat with coins.

Today's civilization would not function without the wheel. This circular mechanical object that revolves around an axis is a fundamental component in any machinery, in land vehicles and also to make pottery, despite the fact that the Incas and the Aztecs managed fine without it. The first evidence of the wheel is found in a Sumerian pictogram, dated the year 3500 B.C. One of the first ways it was used was in oxen-pulled wagons to transport goods, as well as lathes to make ceramic objects with greater speed and precision.

Given the abundance of water in Mesopotamia, agriculture was one of the most popular jobs. To try and facilitate the task of mixing the soil before planting seeds, the people of Mesopotamia invented and perfected the plow, which is considered an evolution of the pickaxe and the hoe. Initially humans pulled it, but later on animals such as oxen or mules were responsible for pulling the plow.

Plows were made completely out of a single piece of wood and were a similar shape to how they are today, but until the arrival of the Romans, plows did not include iron blades, which allowed them to delve deeper into the earth.

Although it is true that metallurgy was invented thousands of years ago, it was in Mesopotamia where copper and copper and bronze to make bronze started being used more regularly. People used copper and bronze in Mesopotamia until bronze finally prevailed.

In Mesopotamia, there were three professions related to metallurgy: the qurqurru was in charge of extracting the metal from the ore. The nappahu or smelter would make the pieces of metal from material retrieved from the ore. And finally, the kutimmu would be in charge of manufacturing objects with the precious metals.

The Sexagesimal (base 60) System

The sexagesimal system is a positional numbering system that uses the number 60 as an arithmetic base which facilitates calculations with fractions. The number 60 has the advantage of having many dividers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60). The sexagesimal system is used to measure times and angles.

First code of laws

Hammurabi was the sixth King of Babylon and is mainly known for the legislation of a new code of laws: the Hammurabi code, which became one the first written laws in history. The Hammurabi code contains 282 laws written on twelve tablets written in Akkadian so that any literate person could read it. These laws provided a punishment for every transgression of the law; punishments that were very tough indeed, such as the death penalty, eye for an eye, disfigurement, and the list goes on.

But apart from the tough punishments, it was the first code of laws that gave the King the opportunity to provide evidence to demonstrate if they were innocent of what they were accused of. Guilty or innocent, there was no in-between. Other Mesopotamian cultures created their own codes of laws such as those of the UrNammu, Esnunna, Lipit-Istar or the Hittite.

Architecture

As I have commented above, due to the lack of rocky terrain, stones were a scarce commodity, which obliged them to make use of mud, manufacturing bricks in order to build thick walls without openings, which meant that their buildings were resistant, heavy and uniform. Wood was also scarce commodity in the region, which is why it wasn't used in construction work either. Bricks were easy to use, and therefore they were used to build temples, palaces, walls and tombs.

The most characteristic element of Mesopotamia's temples is the Ziggurat, a square tower with several tiered floors, and on the top of which a sanctuary can be found. Each corner of the tower is orientated towards the four cardinal points, and the floors can be accessed by ramps or stairs located on the sides. These buildings were made with materials such as marble, alabaster, gold and Cedar.

Irrigation

Being surrounded by two rivers, agriculture in Mesopotamia was one of the main ways to stock up on goods. Above we have already mentioned that one of Mesopotamia's contributions to modern-day culture was the plow to help people work in the field. But in addition to the plow, another important advance in culture was irrigation, better known as riego, in which the correct amount of water is transported in order to help the crops grow. In order to do this, small canals were constructed to transport water from the rivers to the plantations.

Astrology and Astronomy

Assyrian Kings were surrounded by priests and clairvoyants that interpreted dreams and omens based upon astronomical observation. These Kings put the astronomers in charge of finding out the best dates to begin important projects such as the building of temples, and when to start wars...their predictions were also quite accurate.

Priests calculated the length of the days and nights, the sunrises and sunsets, and with this information, they created the first calendar, which has been mentioned above, and with which future eclipses could be predicted. The predictions were based upon the Moon's positioning in the sky but also in particular during the appearance of the first half Moon at the start of each month. These predictions were not applied to individuals, but instead were used to predict the future of crops, wars or epidemics.

Contributions made by the Indian Civilization

The main advance of the Ancient Indian civilization was its urban architecture; their buildings were made of adobe bricks, had several floors and an efficient sewage system. They were also the first to cultivate and make cotton fabrics.

Later on, in the 5th Century, when India was a part of the Gupta empire, they made big innovations:

They developed the decimal system, which established the numeric symbols that we use today. They were the first, along with the Mayas, to invent the concept of zero. The mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata determined the value of "Pi" (the approximate relation between the circumference and diameter of a circle) and the spherical shape and rotation of the Earth. Other astronomers calculated the diameter of the Muna and wrote about gravitation.
Metallurgy: they produced steel to make weapons and armors.
Medicine: they knew how to sterilize and how to use drugs to treat the sick. They cured bites from poisonous snakes. They did surgery such as gallbladder extraction and intestinal stitching.

Contributions made by the Chinese Civilization

The great contributions of the Ancient Chinese culture which are appreciated to this day can be separated into three areas:

They created pagodas, which were basically roofs which overlapped each other. They also manufactured porcelain and silk items which linked them to the spiritual world they believed in.

They are known as the first culture to use ink in writing. They also used paper made from bamboo fibers, tree bark, and water.

Another of their longest-lasting inventions, alongside the previous two, was gunpowder, which comes from mixing nitrate, charcoal with other substances. It was used to make fireworks.

There were major inventions, some of the most important of which being the first compass and the first seismograph.

In medicine, they tried to make sure the human body was in harmony with the mind, the spirit, and with its environment, the Tao, which is the origin of the universe. It has two primordial forces which have an unstable balance: Yin and Yang. This cosmology defines illnesses as a rupture in naural balance and to treat them, balance must be returned. Harmony can be restored with accupuncture which consists of applying needles to 365 points; when the needles are inserted into these points, the Yin and Yang in the body are stabilized. In the Golden Age of Taoism, they began to approach the use of vegetable and mineral remedies, poisons, respiratory techniques and physical exercise.

With regards to literature, many texts were created. An example is the " Book of Origins", which tells the story of the Zhou dynasty; in this book, its author Tchouang Tseu, who lived in the 3 rd Century BC, structured the main doctrines of Taoism. The Confucianists also wrote their main doctrines in " The Invariable Average" and in " The Great Study ".

Architecture

Their main principles were aesthetic beauty and functionality. Their houses, for example, were made from wood whilst the roofs had curved eaves and the roof tiles were painted in different colors. Their great creations include the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army.

The Great Wall of China: Built and rebuilt between the 5 th Century B.C. and the 17th Century A.D., its purpose was to protect the Northern area of the Chinese Empire during the dynasties of the attacks of the Xiongu nomads from Mongolia and Manchuria. It is approximately 8851.8 kilometers long, and goes from the Korean border to the Gobi desert, it is between 6 and 7 meters high and 4 to 5 meters wide, and was built by more than a million warriors. It is also known for being the world's biggest cemetery due to the fact that around 10 million workers died during its construction. It has been named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Cultural contributions of the Greek civilization

The Ancient Greeks developed independent cities (called Polis), which encouraged them to be strongly independent, but also promoted a strong appreciation for mankind, who developed them and accomplished many things, which became a real legacy for the Western world. Among them are the following:

In this activity, the Greek concept of "nothing in excess" was practiced, seen for example in architecture where there were no large monumental buildings, but instead a series of public buildings linked to daily life in the cities. In these constructions, the use of columns with different styles was common (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian).

Sculpture also has a prominent place in Greek culture, and in their sculptures, the Greeks show their appreciation for the human being, who is usually represented naked and harmonious in its anatomical composition. Phidias and Miron are among the leading sculptors of the Greek world.

Philosophy

The "love of wisdom" began with the Greeks, as can be seen in their search for the ground substances that the Universe is composed of (for example, for Tales it was water, however for Anaximenes it was air)

During the classic period, philosophers reflected upon the nature of man (anthropological period), of whom some of the most notable figures are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Socrates proposed that one must know oneself in order to be more wise and virtuous. He was accused of corrupting the youth, so he was condemned to drink hemlock. Plato was a disciple of the philosophers mentioned above (in fact information that we know about Socrates was found through Platonic dialogues). He suggested that there is a series of ideal elements that should govern man's conduct.

Aristotle was one of Plato's disciples, but unlike his teacher, he was a realist, not an idealist. He devoted himself to study a number of subjects, amongst them logic, metaphysics, politics, and biology.

This activity emerged in the Greek classical period and is closely linked to the religious festivities in honor of the God Dionysus (God of wine and festivities). In these events, done outdoors, they performed tragedies, which were tense plays with a tragic denouement. Authors such as Sophocles (author of "Oedipus Rex"), Aeschylus (author of the "Oresteia") and Euripides (author of "The Bacchae") were particularly renowned. Comedies also had an important role, as they satirized Greek society and politics, conveying the opposite message of a tragedy. Aristophanes (author of "The Birds", where the imperialism of Athens was critiqued) particularly stands out in this type of theater.

While the Greeks, in some areas, were not creators, they did focus on establishing some theorems, such as Pythagoras in mathematics. Medicine emerged in Greece because Hippocrates believed that illnesses were caused by natural causes, and not through magical practices.

History also has a leading role in Greece, where the research side was developed, it no longer being seen as a simple account of events. Its major exponents were Herodotus and Thucydides.

As explained above, the main political contribution to the Western world was the development of the democratic system in the polis of Athens. According to Pericles, who is considered the leading exponent of this regime, in Athens...

"We benefit from a political regime that does not imitate the laws of our neighboring states; we do more than imitate others, on the contrary, we serve as a model to others. This regimen has been named democracy because the administration is in the hands, not of a few, but of the majority. In the settling of private disputes, everyone is equal before the law. Election to public office is made on the basis of availability, not on the basis of membership to a particular class. No man is kept out of public office by the obscurity of his social standing because of his poverty, as long as he wishes to serve the state."
(Summary of the funeral speech of Pericles in honor of the fallen in the Wars of the Peloponnese. In Thucydides, the Peloponnesian War)

The Olympic Games

The Games were considered the most important religious holiday in the Greek world, where representatives from different cities would gather to compete in races, fights, discus throwing, and other games. Despite the fact that they have changed a lot over time, they originate in the Greek civilization.

Contributions made by the Roman Civilization

The main contributions that the Ancient Roman Empire brought to us were: architecture, sculpture, technique, painting and contributions to civilization from Rome. Also, Latin, their mother tongue, left a legacy to humanity.

Architecture

The Romans constructed buildings with arches, domes, and vaults, which they adopted from the Etruscans, mixing these elements with some decorative elements of Greek architecture.
Roman architecture is characterized by its monumental quality and by the way their buildings were open to the public. Rome and the Empire were filled with circuses, theaters, amphitheaters, baths, roads, forums, basilicas, arches, and more.

For the Romans, decoration and hygiene were very important, which is why they built squares, forums, markets, public baths, aqueducts, viaducts, bridges, and sewerage systems, whose remains can still be found in the rest of Europe.

Rome's main Amphitheater was the Roman Colisseum

The Roman Colosseum is a huge amphitheater, which was built to give favors to the best and most legendary wrestlers, as well as to celebrate the glory of the Roman Empire. The Colosseum is located in the heart of Rome. Its interior is made from sand-covered wood, and underneath there is a maze of halls divided into several floors, where dungeons and animal cages were kept. Cavea, the grandstand area, and was divided into three overlapping sectors, with a wooden fourth level for the standing spectators. Each sector was reserved for a different social class. In the tallest part, the Colosseum has a Velarium; a large tent that protected the spectators from the sun. The Emperor and the most important members of Roman society would sit at the podium.

Emperors and Roman generals built arches and columns to celebrate the memory of their triumphs, which they decorated beautifully with embossments and statues to remember their feats.

During the Republic, the severity of the Etruscan tradition still prevailed in Roman sculpture. The Romans tried to imitate the artistic forms of Greece and Asia Minor in their statues, paintings, and works of art.

Roman painting is distinguishable by the frescoes that decorated the houses in Pompeii and some tombs. Their painting style isn't just a simple imitation of Greek painting; it has a uniqueness that is incomparable to any other style.

Mosaic, or decoration with glazed bricks, originated from the East and was commonly used in Rome and throughout the whole Empire. It was used to represent big and important scenes with a technique similar to that used in painting.

Technology

Pure science wasn't cultivated in Rome; however, technology was advanced, as it was practical and useful.

Their enormous constructions, extensive walkways, bridges and aqueducts, and walls are testimony of their extensive knowledge of architecture, metallurgy, and hydraulics.

Rome had seven hills and eleven aqueducts. The size of the city grew proportionally with the water that entered it. When the barbarians cut the water supply, Rome fell.

In parts of the city, it is still possible to see remains of gigantic arcs, grand works of engineering. The grandeur of Rome is also apparent in the remains of the aqueducts in the southeast of Rome.

Aqueducts were canals built from waterproof cement and were covered with slabs of stone. They transported the water that collected at the bottom of the hills to the city, flowing at a constant angle. The water gathered pressure and was stored in large tanks next to the spring.

When the water reached the center of Rome it was used to supply fountains and public buildings. The Romans spent a large part of their public funds ensuring that the facilities were well maintained so that there was always a supply of clean and fresh water.

In Rome's heyday, there was always a large supply of clean and fresh water; however during the sieges of the barbarians they suffered from frequent water supply cut-offs until it finally dried up.

Latin: The origin of the Romance languages

When the Romans conquered new regions, they imposed their own language, Latin. However, it was not "pure" Latin, but common or "Vulgar" Latin, which was what was spoken at home, in the street and in the field.

Latin and Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin, what we know today as Portuguese, Catalan, Provençal, French, Sardinian, Italian, Romansh, Romanian and Spanish or Castilian. All places where the Latin language was spoken were called "Romania"; this included five European Nations: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Romania. Latin had an enormous influence.

Other contributions to modern civilization

The Roman law, made up of original laws of the Republic, Imperial rights, and decisions made in courts were all collected in the "Code of Justinian", which was used as the basis for the famous Napoleonic Code.

The Roman peace that was maintained in the ancient world for 200 years.

The public buildings that the Romans built for the whole population to use.

Literature and Roman history, classical Latin works and work compiled by historians have served as a model and an important source of knowledge.

Politics. Despite the mistakes made in civil wars and the failure of their economic system, which was based on slavery and estates, Roman politics still forms a base for modern nations.

Contributions made by the Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs stood out for their ability to build cities, their knowledge of science and their varied ways of artistic expression.

They had their own hieroglyphic writing, a numeration system and a calendar that consisted of 18 months of 20 days each with 5 extra days, but it was inferior to the Mayan calendar.

They developed metallurgy skills, working specifically with gold and copper.

They made cotton dresses.

Their ceramics were distinguished by the sets of polychromatic vases.

Chewing gum was another important contribution that the Aztecs brought to the world.

They were the first to chew the sap that was secreted by the rubber tree.

We can thank the Aztecs for bringing the flavors of vanilla and chocolate to the world.

Chinampas were an ingenious Mexican invention and are an example of the advanced level of technological and agricultural advancement that the Aztecs achieved. They are just a small part of the striking ecological and hydraulic balance that was around in the great Tenochtitlan until before the Spanish conquest.

Chinampas were true floating gardens, and were attached to the subsoil, nailing stakes or tree trunks, which gave stability to the ground when they took root.

Between the chinampas there were canals that were used as a quick communication route, which substituted the absence of the wheel.

In Xochimilco these Mexican wonders can still be found.

The Aztec codices, like the majority of the pre-Cortesian codices, were made with a special paper made from bark from the amatl tree.

Cultivation techniques

Seed selection

Crop rotation

Selection of land that is suitable for cultivation

Selection of the time of year

Taking the rain and the phases of the moon into account

These are the same techniques that farmers use today.

The cultivation of maize, which was used to make:

Bread

Cake

Tortillas

Chicha (a fermented drink)

These are foods that we often find in our daily diet and drinks that many farmers still enjoy.

Based on the cycles of the Sun or Venus they put together a solar calendar that they called the Sun Stone, which represented the 5 ages of humanity.

Art and Architecture

The State helped a large number of specialized artisans to develop feather art and precious metalwork.

They built several important constructions such as the Teocalli.

Language and Writing

The language spoken in the Empire was called Nahuatl.
Writing was based upon symbols that described history and mythology.

Contributions made by the Mayan Civilization

The Mayans developed a calendar that is as precise as the one we use today.

According to the observation of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, they could predict phenomena such as eclipses and equinoxes.

They were aware of the concept of zero and used it long before was discovered in other places.

They used a vigesimal number system, multiplying by 20 instead of 10.

Architecture

They built great monuments such as Kukulkan in Chichen-itza.

They built the Korbel Arch (the false arch), which replaced the real one.

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Ancient Civilizations Contributions (All Cultures From Sumerian to Mayan)

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There is no doubt that ancient civilizations made significant and important contributions in all fields of life for humankind. These contributions allowed humans to develop and function better in their daily lives; thus societies managed to make big leaps in their economic and political development, as well as cultural production and their religion, whilst simultaneously leaving a legacy in evolutionary history for future generations.

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Ancient Chinese civilizations contributed paper, the compass, and silk to the modern world.

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Ancient China has many contributions to the modern world. Ancient China had started to contribute to the modern world since 1600BCE.Their most contribution was their inventions that were created...

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Indigenous People who lived here before the colonists arrived.

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Indigenous People who lived here before the colonists arrived.

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Great, detailed list of the tribes of indigenous people who lived on this continent prior to white colonists evading their land.

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The Arctic

The Arctic culture area, a cold, flat, treeless region (actually a frozen desert) near the Arctic Circle in present-day Alaska, Canada and Greenland, was home to the Inuit and the Aleut. Both groups spoke, and continue to speak, dialects descended from what scholars call the Eskimo-Aleut language family.

Because it is such an inhospitable landscape, the Arctic's population was comparatively small and scattered. Some of its peoples, especially the Inuit in the northern part of the region, were nomads, following seals, polar bears and other game as they migrated across the tundra. In the southern part of the region, the Aleut were a bit more settled, living in small fishing villages along the shore.

Did you know? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 4.5 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the United States today. That's about 1.5 percent of the population.

The Inuit and Aleut had a great deal in common. Many lived in dome-shaped houses made of sod or timber (or, in the North, ice blocks). They used seal and otter skins to make warm, weatherproof clothing, aerodynamic dogsleds and long, open fishing boats (kayaks in Inuit; baidarkas in Aleut).

By the time the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, decades of oppression and exposure to European diseases had taken their toll: The native population had dropped to just 2,500; the descendants of these survivors still make their homes in the area today.

The Subarctic

The Subarctic culture area, mostly composed of swampy, piney forests (taiga) and waterlogged tundra, stretched across much of inland Alaska and Canada. Scholars have divided the region's people into two language groups: the Athabaskan speakers at its western end, among them the Tsattine (Beaver), Gwich'in (or Kuchin) and the Deg Xinag (formerly-and pejoratively-known as the Ingalik), and the Algonquian speakers at its eastern end, including the Cree, the Ojibwa and the Naskapi.

In the Subarctic, travel was difficult-toboggans, snowshoes and lightweight canoes were the primary means of transportation-and population was sparse. In general, the peoples of the Subarctic did not form large permanent settlements; instead, small family groups stuck together as they traipsed after herds of caribou. They lived in small, easy-to-move tents and lean-tos, and when it grew too cold to hunt they hunkered into underground dugouts.

The growth of the fur trade in the 17th and 18th centuries disrupted the Subarctic way of life-now, instead of hunting and gathering for subsistence, the Indians focused on supplying pelts to the European traders-and eventually led to the displacement and extermination of many of the region's native communities.

The Northeast

The Northeast culture area, one of the first to have sustained contact with Europeans, stretched from present-day Canada's Atlantic coast to North Carolina and inland to the Mississippi River valley. Its inhabitants were members of two main groups: Iroquoian speakers (these included the Cayuga, Oneida, Erie, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora), most of whom lived along inland rivers and lakes in fortified, politically stable villages, and the more numerous Algonquian speakers (these included the Pequot, Fox, Shawnee, Wampanoag, Delaware and Menominee) who lived in small farming and fishing villages along the ocean. There, they grew crops like corn, beans and vegetables.

Life in the Northeast culture area was already fraught with conflict-the Iroquoian groups tended to be rather aggressive and warlike, and bands and villages outside of their allied confederacies were never safe from their raids-and it grew more complicated when European colonizers arrived. Colonial wars repeatedly forced the region's Indigenous people to take sides, pitting the Iroquois groups against their Algonquian neighbors. Meanwhile, as white settlement pressed westward, it eventually displaced both sets of Indigenous people from their lands.

The Southeast

The Southeast culture area, north of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the Northeast, was a humid, fertile agricultural region. Many of its natives were expert farmers-they grew staple crops like maize, beans, squash, tobacco and sunflower-who organized their lives around small ceremonial and market villages known as hamlets. Perhaps the most familiar of the Southeastern Indigenous peoples are the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, sometimes called the Five Civilized Tribes, some of whom spoke a variant of the Muskogean language.

By the time the U.S. had won its independence from Britain, the Southeast culture area had already lost many of its native people to disease and displacement. In 1830, the federal Indian Removal Act compelled the relocation of what remained of the Five Civilized Tribes so that white settlers could have their land. Between 1830 and 1838, federal officials forced nearly 100,000 Indigenous people out of the southern states and into "Indian Territory" (later Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi. The Cherokee called this frequently deadly trek the Trail of Tears.

The Plains

The Plains culture area comprises the vast prairie region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, from present-day Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Before the arrival of European traders and explorers, its inhabitants-speakers of Siouan, Algonquian, Caddoan, Uto-Aztecan and Athabaskan languages-were relatively settled hunters and farmers. After European contact, and especially after Spanish colonists brought horses to the region in the 18th century, the peoples of the Great Plains became much more nomadic.

Groups like the Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Comanche and Arapaho used horses to pursue great herds of buffalo across the prairie. The most common dwelling for these hunters was the cone-shaped teepee, a bison-skin tent that could be folded up and carried anywhere. Plains Indians are also known for their elaborately feathered war bonnets.

As white traders and settlers moved west across the Plains region, they brought many damaging things with them: commercial goods, like knives and kettles, which Indigenous people came to depend on; guns; and disease. By the end of the 19th century, white sport hunters had nearly exterminated the area's buffalo herds. With settlers encroaching on their lands and no way to make money, the Plains natives were forced onto government reservations.

The Southwest

The peoples of the Southwest culture area, a huge desert region in present-day Arizona and New Mexico (along with parts of Colorado, Utah, Texas and Mexico) developed two distinct ways of life.

Sedentary farmers such as the Hopi, the Zuni, the Yaqui and the Yuma grew crops like corn, beans and squash. Many lived in permanent settlements, known as pueblos, built of stone and adobe. These pueblos featured great multistory dwellings that resembled apartment houses. At their centers, many of these villages also had large ceremonial pit houses, or kivas.

Other Southwestern peoples, such as the Navajo and the Apache, were more nomadic. They survived by hunting, gathering and raiding their more established neighbors for their crops. Because these groups were always on the move, their homes were much less permanent than the pueblos. For instance, the Navajo fashioned their iconic eastward-facing round houses, known as hogans, out of materials like mud and bark.

By the time the southwestern territories became a part of the United States after the Mexican War, many of the region's native people had already been killed. (Spanish colonists and missionaries had enslaved many of the Pueblo Indians, for example, working them to death on vast Spanish ranches known as encomiendas.) During the second half of the 19th century, the federal government resettled most of the region's remaining natives onto reservations.

The Great Basin

The Great Basin culture area, an expansive bowl formed by the Rocky Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevadas to the west, the Columbia Plateau to the north, and the Colorado Plateau to the south, was a barren wasteland of deserts, salt flats and brackish lakes. Its people, most of whom spoke Shoshonean or Uto-Aztecan dialects (the Bannock, Paiute and Ute, for example), foraged for roots, seeds and nuts and hunted snakes, lizards and small mammals. Because they were always on the move, they lived in compact, easy-to-build wikiups made of willow poles or saplings, leaves and brush. Their settlements and social groups were impermanent, and communal leadership (what little there was) was informal.

After European contact, some Great Basin groups got horses and formed equestrian hunting and raiding bands that were similar to the ones we associate with the Great Plains natives. After white prospectors discovered gold and silver in the region in the mid-19th century, most of the Great Basin's people lost their land and, frequently, their lives.

California

Before European contact, the temperate California area had more people than any other North American landscape at the time, with approximately 300,000 people in the mid-16th century. It's estimated that 100 different tribes and groups spoke more than 200 dialects. These languages were derived from the Penutian (the Maidu, Miwok and Yokuts), the Hokan (the Chumash, Pomo, Salinas and Shasta), the Uto-Aztecan (the Tubabulabal, Serrano and Kinatemuk) and the Athapaskan (the Hupa, among others). Many of the "Mission Indians" who were driven out of the Southwest by Spanish colonization also spoke Uto-Aztecan dialects.

Despite this great diversity, many native Californians lived very similar lives. They did not practice much agriculture. Instead, they organized themselves into small, family-based bands of hunter-gatherers known as tribelets. Inter-tribelet relationships, based on well-established systems of trade and common rights, were generally peaceful.

Spanish explorers infiltrated the California region in the middle of the 16th century. In 1769, the cleric Junipero Serra established a mission at San Diego, inaugurating a particularly brutal period in which forced labor, disease and assimilation nearly exterminated the culture area's native population.

The Northwest Coast

The Northwest Coast culture area, along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to the top of Northern California, has a mild climate and an abundance of natural resources. In particular, the ocean and the region's rivers provided almost everything its people needed-salmon, especially, but also whales, sea otters, seals and fish and shellfish of all kinds. As a result, unlike many other hunter-gatherers who struggled to eke out a living and were forced to follow animal herds from place to place, the Indians of the Pacific Northwest were secure enough to build permanent villages that housed hundreds of people apiece.

Those villages operated according to a rigidly stratified social structure, more sophisticated than any outside of Mexico and Central America. A person's status was determined by his closeness to the village's chief and reinforced by the number of possessions-blankets, shells and skins, canoes and even slaves-he had at his disposal. (Goods like these played an important role in the potlatch, an elaborate gift-giving ceremony designed to affirm these class divisions.)

Prominent groups in the region included the Athapaskan Haida and Tlingit; the Penutian Chinook, Tsimshian and Coos; the Wakashan Kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka); and the Salishan Coast Salish.

The Plateau

The Plateau culture area sat in the Columbia and Fraser River basins at the intersection of the Subarctic, the Plains, the Great Basin, California and the Northwest Coast (present-day Idaho, Montana and eastern Oregon and Washington). Most of its people lived in small, peaceful villages along streams and riverbanks and survived by fishing for salmon and trout, hunting and gathering wild berries, roots and nuts.

In the southern Plateau region, the great majority spoke languages derived from the Penutian (the Klamath, Klikitat, Modoc, Nez Perce, Walla Walla and Yakima or Yakama). North of the Columbia River, most (the Skitswish (Coeur d'Alene), Salish (Flathead), Spokane and Columbia) spoke Salishan dialects.

In the 18th century, other native groups brought horses to the Plateau. The region's inhabitants quickly integrated the animals into their economy, expanding the radius of their hunts and acting as traders and emissaries between the Northwest and the Plains.

In 1805, the explorers Lewis and Clark passed through the area, followed by increasing numbers of white settlers. By the end of the 19th century, most of the remaining members of Plateau tribes had been cleared from their lands and resettled in government reservations.

Photo Galleries

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Native American Cultures - Facts, Regions & Tribes

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Native Americans, also known as American Indians and Indigenous Americans, are the indigenous peoples of the United States. By the time European adventurers arrived in the 15th century A.D., scholars estimate that more than 50 million Native Americans were already living in the Americas - 10 million in the area that would become the United States.

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Trail of Tears and the 1830 Indian Removal Act

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Trail of Tears and the 1830 Indian Removal Act

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Short video of the evacuation of the Cherokee Indians from their lands in Georgia, and move to Oklahoma.

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How the Brutal Trail of Tears Got Its Name

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European Exploration and Colonization of America

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European Exploration and Colonization of America

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This is a great chart breaking down the different countries that came to America with the reasons they came, places they explored and the negative consequences they brought.

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European Exploration and Colonization of America