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Persians gained control of Phocis, Boeotia, and Attica.

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The Neolithic Revolution started the birth of agriculture.

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The Spanish Reconquista affected the Muslim and Christians. It also drastically decreased the population of three big cities.

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Islam fostered the creation of a religious, political, and the development of a global empire.

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The invention of gunpowder changed the weaponry used in wars.

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The crusading movement has left an imprint on the world as a whole. For example, many of the national flags of Europe incorporate a cross. In addition, many images of crusaders in our popular culture are indebted to the nineteenth century.

https://smarthistory.org/the-impact-of-the-crusades-4-of-4/

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It is hard to summarize the impact of a movement that spanned centuries and continents, crossed social lines, and affected all levels of culture. However, there are a few central effects that can be highlighted.

Military orders

First, the earliest military orders originated in Jerusalem in the wake of the First Crusade. A miltary order is a religious order in which members take traditional monastic vows-communal poverty, chastity, and obedience-but also commit to violence on behalf of the Christian faith. Well-known examples include the Knights Templar (officially endorsed in 1129), the Knights Hospitaller (confirmed by papal bull in 1113), and the Teutonic Knights (originated in the late twelfth century).

The military orders represented a major theological and military development, and went on to play central roles in the formation of key political units that still exist today as nation-states.

Territorial expansion

Second, crusading played a major role in European territorial expansion. The First Crusade resulted in the formation of the crusader states in the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean), which were initially governed, and in small part populated, by settlers from Europe.

Crusading in northern and eastern Europe led to the expansion of kingdoms like Denmark and Sweden, as well as the creation of brand-new political units, for example in Prussia. As areas around the Baltic Sea were taken by the crusaders, traders and settlers-mostly German-moved in and profited economically.

In the Mediterranean Sea, crusading led to the conquest and colonization of many islands, which arguably helped ensure Christian control of Mediterranean trade routes (at least for as long as the islands were held). Crusading also played a role in the conquest of the Iberian peninsula (now Spain and Portugal). This was finally completed in 1492, when the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I conquered the last Muslim community on the peninsula-the city of Granada. They expelled Jews from the country in the same year. And of course, they also authorized and supported the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, who-like many European explorers of his day-believed that the expansion of the Christian faith was one of his duties.

Impact in Europe (religious and secular)

Third, the crusading movement impacted internal European development in a few important ways. The movement helped both to militarize the medieval western Church and to sustain criticism of that militarization. It arguably helped solidify the pope's control over the Church and made certain financial innovations central to Church operations. And it both reflected and influenced devotional trends. For example, while there was some dedication to St. George from the early Middle Ages, the intensity of that devotion soared in Europe after he reportedly intervened miraculously at the Battle of Antioch in 1098, during the First Crusade.

Secular political theories were influenced by crusading, especially in France and the Iberian peninsula, and government institutions evolved in part to meet the logistical needs of crusading. Credit infrastructures within Europe rose to meet similar needs, and some locales-Venice, in particular-benefitted significantly in economic terms.

It goes without saying that the crusades also had a highly negative effect on interfaith relations.

Impact world-wide

Fourth, the crusading movement has left an imprint on the world as a whole. For example, many of the national flags of Europe incorporate a cross. In addition, many images of crusaders in our popular culture are indebted to the nineteenth century. Some in that century, like the novelist Sir Walter Scott, portrayed crusaders as brave and glamorous yet backward and unenlightened; simultaneously, they depicted Muslims as heroic, intelligent, and liberal. Others more wholeheartedly romanticized crusading.

These trends in nineteenth-century European culture impacted the Islamic world. Sometimes this influence was quite direct. In 1898 German Emperor Wilhelm II visited the grave of Saladin (Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, a Muslim leader who led the recapture of Jerusalem in 1187) and was appalled at its state of disrepair. He paid to have it rebuilt, thus helping encourage modern Islamic appreciation of Saladin.

Sometimes the European influence was more diffuse. Modern crusading histories in the Islamic world began to be written in the 1890s, when the Ottoman Empire was in crisis. After the Ottomans, some Arab Nationalists interpreted nineteenth-century imperialism as crusading, and thus linked their efforts to end imperial rule with the efforts of Muslims to resist crusading in previous centuries.

It would be reassuring to believe that nobody in the West has provided grounds for such beliefs, but it would not be true. Sadly, the effects of the crusading movement-at least, as it is now remembered and reimagined-seem to be still unfolding.
Additional resources What were the crusades? How was crusading justified? The when, where and who (of crusading). Dr. Susanna A. Throop, The Crusades: An Epitome (Leeds: Kismet Press, 2018), an open access book. Dr. Ariel Fein, "Material culture of the Crusades," Reframing Art History, 2022. The Crusades on The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

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The Crusades played a major role in European territorial expansion and also militarized the Western church.

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Printing Press is invented - Around 1436

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Printing Press is invented - Around 1436

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The printing press allowed information to spread more rapidly.

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Mandatory conversion to Roman Catholicism and expulsion from Spain's territories of people from other religious traditions resulted in a more homogenous Spanish culture.

https://www.britannica.com/summary/Spanish-Inquisition-Causes-and-Effects#:~:text=The%20Inquisition%20spread%20into%20other,of%20the%20Spanish%20monarchy%20increased.

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The institution of the Spanish Inquisition was ostensibly established to combat heresy.

The Spanish kingdom was unified with the marriage of Ferdinand II and Isabella I, and the Inquisition served to consolidate power in the monarchy.

The desire for religious unity in the Iberian Peninsula increased toward the end of the Reconquista, a series of campaigns by Christian states to recapture territory from the Moors.

Anti-Semitism had grown toward Spain's Jewish community during the reign of Henry III of Castile and Leon, and pogroms had forced many to convert to Christianity.

Marranos, those who had converted from Judaism to Christianity but continued to practice their faith in secret, were increasingly considered a threat to Spanish society. Spaniards were concerned with the idea of limpieza de sangre (Spanish for "purity of blood)," which the presence of even baptized Jews threatened.

The religious fervor of the Catholic Monarchs also led to the persecution of Muslims and Protestants.

Hundreds of thousands of Spanish Jews, Muslims, and Protestants were forcibly converted, expelled from Spain, or executed.

The Inquisition spread into other parts of Europe and the Americas.

Mandatory conversion to Roman Catholicism and expulsion from Spain's territories of people from other religious traditions resulted in a more homogenous Spanish culture.

The power of the Spanish monarchy increased.

Spain was deprived of many economically active citizens and suffered financially compared to other European powers.

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Some of the major causes and effects of the Spanish Inquisition, which became notorious for its use of torture, its secret procedures, the absence of counsel for the accused, the lack of any right to confront hostile witnesses, and the practice of confiscating the property of those who were condemned.

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The Columbian Exchange brought new diseases to both hemispheres, though the effects were greatest in the Americas.

https://www.biography.com/explorer/christopher-columbus#:~:text=Columbus%20has%20been%20credited%20for,of%20the%20islands%20he%20explored.&text=The%20Columbian%20Exchange%20also%20brought,were%20greatest%20in%20the%20Americas.

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Who Was Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new route to India.

Between 1492 and 1504, he made a total of four voyages to the Caribbean and South America and has been credited - and blamed - for opening up the Americas to European colonization.

Early Years

Columbus was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa, part of what is now Italy. In his 20s he moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and later resettled in Spain, which remained his home base for the duration of his life.

Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern-day Greece, brought him the closest he would ever come to Asia.

His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost him his life as the commercial fleet he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore.

He made his way to Lisbon, Portugal, where he eventually settled and married Filipa Perestrelo. The couple had one son, Diego, around 1480. His wife died soon after, and Columbus moved to Spain. He had a second son, Fernando, who was born out of wedlock in 1488 with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.

After participating in several other expeditions to Africa, Columbus gained knowledge of the Atlantic currents flowing east and west from the Canary Islands.

Columbus' Route

The Asian islands near China and India were fabled for their spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans - but Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East made travel eastward difficult.

Columbus devised a route to sail west across the Atlantic to reach Asia, believing it would be quicker and safer. He estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles.

Many of Columbus' contemporary nautical experts disagreed. They adhered to the (now known to be accurate) second-century B.C. estimate of the Earth's circumference at 25,000 miles, which made the actual distance between the Canary Islands and Japan about 12,200 statute miles.

Despite their disagreement with Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a westward voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.

Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic first to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa and finally to Venice. He was rejected each time.

In 1486, he went to the Spanish monarchy of Queen Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their focus was on a war with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, so they initially rejected Columbus.

The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, for they kept Columbus on a retainer. Columbus continued to lobby the royal court, and soon the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January 1492. Shortly thereafter, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition.

Ships

In late August 1492, Columbus left Spain from the port of Palos de la Frontera.

He was sailing with three ships: Columbus in the larger Santa Maria (a type of ship known as a carrack), with the Pinta and the Niña (both Portuguese-style caravels) alongside.

When Did Columbus Discover America?

On October 12, 1492, after 36 days of sailing westward across the Atlantic, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in the present-day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain.

There, his crew encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors, exchanging glass beads, cotton balls, parrots and spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of gold the natives wore for adornment.

Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting the islands of Cuba (which he thought was mainland China) and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which Columbus thought might be Japan) and meeting with the leaders of the native population.

During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola. With the help of some islanders, Columbus' men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de la Navidad ("Christmas Town") with lumber from the ship.

Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he set sail for home with the two remaining ships. Returning to Spain in 1493, Columbus gave a glowing, somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court.

Voyages

In 1493, Columbus took to the seas on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean. Upon arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad settlement had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred.

Spurning the wishes of the local queen, who found slavery offensive, Columbus established a forced labor policy over the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would prove to be profitable. His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the native population.

Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew and Diego to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed briefly around the larger Caribbean islands further convincing himself he had discovered the outer islands of China.

It wasn't until his third voyage that Columbus actually reached the mainland, exploring the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. Unfortunately, conditions at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to the point of near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they had been misled by Columbus' claims of riches and complaining about the poor management of his brothers.

The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority. He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. The charges were later dropped, but Columbus lost his titles as governor of the Indies and, for a time, much of the riches made during his voyages.

Final Voyage

After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on what would be his last voyage in 1502, traveling along the eastern coast of Central America in an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian Ocean.

A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the captain and his sailors on the island of Cuba. During this time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards' poor treatment and obsession with gold, refused to give them food.

In a spark of inspiration, Columbus consulted an almanac and devised a plan to "punish" the islanders by taking away the moon. On February 29, 1504, a lunar eclipse alarmed the natives enough to re-establish trade with the Spaniards. A rescue party finally arrived, sent by the royal governor of Hispaniola in July, and Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain in November of 1504.

In the two remaining years of his life following his last voyage to the Americas, Columbus struggled to recover his lost titles. Although he did regain some of his riches in May 1505, his titles were never returned.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS FACT CARD

Death

Columbus probably died of severe arthritis following an infection on May 20, 1506, still believing he had discovered a shorter route to Asia.

Columbian Exchange: A Complex Legacy

Columbus has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization - as well as blamed for the destruction of the native peoples of the islands he explored. Ultimately, he failed to find that what he set out for: a new route to Asia and the riches it promised.

In what is known as the Columbian Exchange, Columbus' expeditions set in motion the widespread transfer of people, plants, animals, diseases and cultures that greatly affected nearly every society on the planet.

The horse from Europe allowed Native American tribes in the Great Plains of North America to shift from a nomadic to a hunting lifestyle. Wheat from the Old World fast became a main food source for people in the Americas. Coffee from Africa and sugar cane from Asia became major cash crops for Latin American countries. And foods from the Americas, such as potatoes, tomatoes and corn, became staples for Europeans and helped increase their populations.

The Columbian Exchange also brought new diseases to both hemispheres, though the effects were greatest in the Americas. Smallpox from the Old World decimated millions of the Native American population to mere fractions of their original numbers. This more than any other factor allowed for European domination of the Americas.

The overwhelming benefits of the Columbian Exchange went to the Europeans initially and eventually to the rest of the world. The Americas were forever altered and the once vibrant cultures of the Indigenous civilizations were changed and lost, denying the world any complete understanding of their existence.

Santa Maria Discovery Claim

In May 2014, Columbus made headlines as news broke that a team of archaeologists may have found the Santa Maria off the north coast of Haiti. Barry Clifford, the leader of this expedition, told the Independent newspaper that "all geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests this wreck is Columbus' famous flagship the Santa Maria."

After a thorough investigation by the U.N. agency UNESCO, it was determined the wreck dates from a later period and was located too far from shore to be the Santa Maria.
Watch "Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World" on HISTORY Vault

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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new route to India.

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The Industrial Revolution transformed economies that had been based on agriculture and handicrafts into economies based on large-scale industry, mechanized manufacturing, and the factory system.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Industrial-Revolution

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Industrial Revolution | Definition, History, Dates, Summary, & Facts

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Industrial Revolution, in modern history, the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. The process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world, driving changes in energy use, socioecon…

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Plastics made possible the development of computers, cell phones, and most of the lifesaving advances of modern medicine. Lightweight and good for insulation, plastics help save fossil fuels used in heating and in transportation.

https://www.sciencehistory.org/the-history-and-future-of-plastics#:~:text=Plastics%20made%20possible%20the%20development,in%20heating%20and%20in%20transportation.

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What Are Plastics and Where Do They Come From?
Plastic is a word that originally meant "pliable and easily shaped." It only recently became a name for a category of materials called polymers. The word polymer means "of many parts," and polymers are made of long chains of molecules. Polymers abound in nature. Cellulose, the material that makes up the cell walls of plants, is a very common natural polymer.

Over the last century and a half humans have learned how to make synthetic polymers, sometimes using natural substances like cellulose, but more often using the plentiful carbon atoms provided by petroleum and other fossil fuels. Synthetic polymers are made up of long chains of atoms, arranged in repeating units, often much longer than those found in nature. It is the length of these chains, and the patterns in which they are arrayed, that make polymers strong, lightweight, and flexible. In other words, it's what makes them so plastic.

These properties make synthetic polymers exceptionally useful, and since we learned how to create and manipulate them, polymers have become an essential part of our lives. Especially over the last 50 years plastics have saturated our world and changed the way that we live.
The First Synthetic Plastic
The first synthetic polymer was invented in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt, who was inspired by a New York firm's offer of $10,000 for anyone who could provide a substitute for ivory. The growing popularity of billiards had put a strain on the supply of natural ivory, obtained through the slaughter of wild elephants. By treating cellulose, derived from cotton fiber, with camphor, Hyatt discovered a plastic that could be crafted into a variety of shapes and made to imitate natural substances like tortoiseshell, horn, linen, and ivory.

This discovery was revolutionary. For the first time human manufacturing was not constrained by the limits of nature. Nature only supplied so much wood, metal, stone, bone, tusk, and horn. But now humans could create new materials. This development helped not only people but also the environment. Advertisements praised celluloid as the savior of the elephant and the tortoise. Plastics could protect the natural world from the destructive forces of human need.

The creation of new materials also helped free people from the social and economic constraints imposed by the scarcity of natural resources. Inexpensive celluloid made material wealth more widespread and obtainable. And the plastics revolution was only getting started.
The Development of New Plastics
In 1907 Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, meaning it contained no molecules found in nature. Baekeland had been searching for a synthetic substitute for shellac, a natural electrical insulator, to meet the needs of the rapidly electrifying United States. Bakelite was not only a good insulator; it was also durable, heat resistant, and, unlike celluloid, ideally suited for mechanical mass production. Marketed as "the material of a thousand uses," Bakelite could be shaped or molded into almost anything, providing endless possibilities.

Hyatt's and Baekeland's successes led major chemical companies to invest in the research and development of new polymers, and new plastics soon joined celluloid and Bakelite. While Hyatt and Baekeland had been searching for materials with specific properties, the new research programs sought new plastics for their own sake and worried about finding uses for them later.
Plastics Come of Age
World War II necessitated a great expansion of the plastics industry in the United States, as industrial might proved as important to victory as military success. The need to preserve scarce natural resources made the production of synthetic alternatives a priority. Plastics provided those substitutes. Nylon, invented by Wallace Carothers in 1935 as a synthetic silk, was used during the war for parachutes, ropes, body armor, helmet liners, and more. Plexiglas provided an alternative to glass for aircraft windows. A Time magazine article noted that because of the war, "plastics have been turned to new uses and the adaptability of plastics demonstrated all over again."[1] During World War II plastic production in the United States increased by 300%.

The surge in plastic production continued after the war ended. After experiencing the Great Depression and then World War II, Americans were ready to spend again, and much of what they bought was made of plastic. According to author Susan Freinkel, "In product after product, market after market, plastics challenged traditional materials and won, taking the place of steel in cars, paper and glass in packaging, and wood in furniture."[2] The possibilities of plastics gave some observers an almost utopian vision of a future with abundant material wealth thanks to an inexpensive, safe, sanitary substance that could be shaped by humans to their every whim.
Growing Concerns about Plastics
The unblemished optimism about plastics didn't last. In the postwar years there was a shift in American perceptions as plastics were no longer seen as unambiguously positive. Plastic debris in the oceans was first observed in the 1960s, a decade in which Americans became increasingly aware of environmental problems. Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, exposed the dangers of chemical pesticides. In 1969 a major oil spill occurred off the California coast and the polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire, raising concerns about pollution. As awareness about environmental issues spread, the persistence of plastic waste began to trouble observers.

Plastic also gradually became a word used to describe that which was cheap, flimsy, or fake. In The Graduate, one of the top movies of 1968, Dustin Hoffman's character was urged by an older acquaintance to make a career in plastics. Audiences cringed along with Hoffman at what they saw as misplaced enthusiasm for an industry that, rather than being full of possibilities, was a symbol of cheap conformity and superficiality.
Plastic Problems: Waste and Health
Plastic's reputation fell further in the 1970s and 1980s as anxiety about waste increased. Plastic became a special target because, while so many plastic products are disposable, plastic lasts forever in the environment. It was the plastics industry that offered recycling as a solution. In the 1980s the plastics industry led an influential drive encouraging municipalities to collect and process recyclable materials as part of their waste-management systems. However, recycling is far from perfect, and most plastics still end up in landfills or in the environment. Grocery-store plastic bags have become a target for activists looking to ban one-use, disposable plastics, and several American cities have already passed bag bans. The ultimate symbol of the problem of plastic waste is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which has often been described as a swirl of plastic garbage the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean.

The reputation of plastics has suffered further thanks to a growing concern about the potential threat they pose to human health. These concerns focus on the additives (such as the much-discussed bisphenol A [BPA] and a class of chemicals called phthalates) that go into plastics during the manufacturing process, making them more flexible, durable, and transparent. Some scientists and members of the public are concerned about evidence that these chemicals leach out of plastics and into our food, water, and bodies. In very high doses these chemicals can disrupt the endocrine (or hormonal) system. Researchers worry particularly about the effects of these chemicals on children and what continued accumulation means for future generations.
The Future of Plastics
Despite growing mistrust, plastics are critical to modern life. Plastics made possible the development of computers, cell phones, and most of the lifesaving advances of modern medicine. Lightweight and good for insulation, plastics help save fossil fuels used in heating and in transportation. Perhaps most important, inexpensive plastics raised the standard of living and made material abundance more readily available. Without plastics many possessions that we take for granted might be out of reach for all but the richest Americans. Replacing natural materials with plastic has made many of our possessions cheaper, lighter, safer, and stronger.

Since it's clear that plastics have a valuable place in our lives, some scientists are attempting to make plastics safer and more sustainable. Some innovators are developing bioplastics, which are made from plant crops instead of fossil fuels, to create substances that are more environmentally friendly than conventional plastics. Others are working to make plastics that are truly biodegradable. Some innovators are searching for ways to make recycling more efficient, and they even hope to perfect a process that converts plastics back into the fossil fuels from which they were derived. All of these innovators recognize that plastics are not perfect but that they are an important and necessary part of our future.

[1] Joseph L. Nicholson and George R. Leighton, "Plastics Come of Age," Harper's Magazine, August 1942, p. 306.

[2] Susan Freinkel, Plastics: A Toxic Love Story (New York: Henry Holt, 2011), p. 4.
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History and Future of Plastics What Are Plastics and Where Do They Come From? Plastic is a word that originally meant "pliable and easily shaped." It only recently became a name for a category of materials called polymers. The word polymer means "of many parts," and polymers are made of long chains of molecules.

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Battle losses and consequences. By the end of the battle, in November 1916, the British had lost 420,000, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans 500,000. The Allied forces had advanced along a thirty-mile strip that was seven miles deep at its maximum.

https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/battles-of-world-war-one/the-battle-of-the-somme/#:~:text=Battle%20losses%20and%20consequences,miles%20deep%20at%20its%20maximum.

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Citation: C N Trueman "The Battle of the Somme"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, . .

The Battle of the Somme started on July 1 st 1916. It lasted until November 1916. For many people, the Battle of the Somme was the battle that symbolised the horrors of warfare in World War One; this one battle had a marked effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to epitomise the futility of trench warfare.

For many years those who led the British campaign have received a lot of criticism for the way the Battle of the Somme was fought - especially Douglas Haig. This criticism was based on the appalling casualty figures suffered by the British and the French. By the end of the battle, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000.

Ironically, going over the top at the Somme was the first taste of battle many of these men had, as many were part of "Kitchener's Volunteer Army" persuaded to volunteer by posters showing Lord Kitchener himself summoning these men to arms to show their patriotism. Some soldiers were really still boys as young as 16, and the majority of men going to battle had no idea what warfare entailed.

So why was the battle fought?

For a number of months the French had been taking severe losses at Verdun, east of Paris. To relieve the French, the Allied High Command decided to attack the Germans to the north of Verdun therefore requiring the Germans to move some of their men away from the Verdun battlefield, thus relieving the French. After the war, Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, explained what this strategy was:

"Remembering the dissatisfaction by ministers at the end of 1915, because the operations had not come up to their expectations, the General Staff took the precaution to make quite clear beforehand the nature of success which the Somme campaign might yield. The necessity of relieving pressure on the French Army at Verdun remains, and is more urgent than ever. This is, therefore, the first objective to be obtained by the combined British and French offensive. The second objective is to inflict as heavy losses as possible upon the German armies."

Ironically, the head of the French Army, General Foch, believed that the attack in the Somme would achieve little - this view was shared by some leading British commanders such as General Henry Rawlinson. However, orders from the army's political masters in London and Paris ensured that the battle would take place. Just how backward military thinking was then is shown by the fact that the British put a regiment of cavalry on standby when the attack started, in order to exploit the hole that would be created by a devastating infantry attack. British military faith was still being placed on cavalry attacks in 1916 when the nature of warfare in the previous two years would have clearly indicated that cavalry was no longer viable. This shows how conservative military thinking was during this war. Moreover the soldiers sent to fight on the battlefield were newly recruited volunteers and not trained military personnel. Conscription only began in Britain in 1916 but had been in place many years previously in France, meaning the French conscripts had usually some degree of military knowledge or training. British soldiers on the other hand were at a huge disadvantage and simply were not trained nor prepared for life on the battlefield.

The start of the battle

The battle at the Somme started with a weeklong artillery bombardment of the German lines. 1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans. The logic behind this was so that the artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire placed in front of the trenches. The use of artillery was heavily supported by Field Marshall Haig:

"The enemy's position to be attacked was of a very considerable character, situated on high, undulating tract of ground. (They had) deep trenches....bomb proof shelters......wire entanglements forty yards broad often as thick as a man's finger. Defences of this nature could only be attacked with the prospect of success after careful artillery preparation."

In fact, the Germans had deep dugouts for their men and all they had to do when the bombardment started was to move these men into the relative safety of the deep dugouts. When the bombardment stopped, the Germans would have known that this would have been the signal for an infantry advance. They moved from the safety of their dugouts and manned their machine guns to face the British and French. The British soldiers advanced across a 25-mile front.

Battle losses and consequences

By the end of the battle, in November 1916, the British had lost 420,000, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans 500,000. The Allied forces had advanced along a thirty-mile strip that was seven miles deep at its maximum. Lord Kitchener was a supporter of the theory of attrition - that eventually you would grind down your enemy and they would have to yield. He saw the military success of the battle as all-important. However, it did have dire political and social consequences in Britain. Many spoke of the "lost generation", finding it difficult to justify the near 88,000 Allied men lost for every one mile gained in the advance.

Inaccurate media reports

However, during the battle media information on the Somme was less than accurate. This was written by John Irvine of the "Daily Express" on July 3rd 1916 - though his report would have been scutinised by the British military and government and he could only have used what information the military gave him.

"A perceptible slackening of our fire soon after seven was the first indication given to us that our gallant soldiers were about to leap from their trenches and advance against the enemy. Non-combatants, of course, were not permitted to witness this spectacle, but I am informed that the vigour and eagerness of the first assault were worthy of the best tradition of the British Army. We had not to wait long for news, and it was wholly satisfactory and encouraging. The message received at ten o'clock ran something like this: "On a front of twenty miles north and south of the Somme, we and our French allies have advanced and taken the German first line of trenches. We are attacking vigourously Fricourt, la Boiselle and Mametz. German prisoners are surrendering freely, and a good many already fallen into our hands."

The Daily Chronicle published a similar report on the battle on July 3rd:

"At about 7.30 o'clock this morning a vigourous attack was launched by the British Army. The front extends over some 20 miles north of the Somme. The assault was preceded by a terrific bombardment, lasting about an hour and a half. It is too early to as yet give anything but the barest particulars, as the fighting is developing in intensity, but the British troops have already occupied the German front line. Many prisoners have already fallen into our hands, and as far as can be ascertained our casualties have not been heavy."

However, those who fought there knew what really happened - if they survived:

"The next morning (July 2nd) we gunners surveyed the dreadful scene in front of us......it became clear that the Germans always had a commanding view of No Man's Land. (The British) attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high water-mark. Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish caught in the net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as if they were praying; they had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall. Machine gun fire had done its terrible work."

-George Coppard, machine gunner at the Battle of the Somme.

Battle of the Somme Medals and Awards

In the course of the battle, 51 Victoria Crosses were won by British soldiers. 31 were won by NCO's and 20 by officers. Of these 51 medals, 17 were awarded posthumously - 10 to NCO's and 7 to officers.

MLA Citation/Reference
"The Battle of the Somme". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.
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The Battle of the Somme - History Learning Site

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The Battle of the Somme started on July 1st 1916. It lasted until November 1916. For many people, the Battle of the Somme was the battle that symbolised the horrors of warfare in World War One; this one battle had a marked effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to epitomise the futility of trench ...

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Treaty of Versailles end WW1 - June 28, 1919

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Treaty of Versailles end WW1 - June 28, 1919

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The treaty clause forced Germany and other Central Powers to take all the blame for World War I.

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His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/adolf-hitler-is-named-chancellor-of-germany#:~:text=Hitler's%20emergence%20as%20chancellor%20on,%2C%20unified%20one%2Dparty%20state.

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On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or führer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany.

The year 1932 had seen Hitler's meteoric rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people's frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. A charismatic speaker, Hitler channeled popular discontent with the post-war Weimar government into support for his fledgling Nazi party. In an election held in July 1932, the Nazis won 230 governmental seats; together with the Communists, the next largest party, they made up over half of the Reichstag.

Hindenburg, intimidated by Hitler's growing popularity and the thuggish nature of his cadre of supporters, the SA (or Brownshirts), initially refused to make him chancellor. Instead, he appointed General Kurt von Schleicher, who attempted to steal Hitler's thunder by negotiating with a dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. At the next round of elections in November, the Nazis lost ground-but the Communists gained it, a paradoxical effect of Schleicher's efforts that made right-wing forces in Germany even more determined to get Hitler into power. In a series of complicated negotiations, ex-Chancellor Franz von Papen, backed by prominent German businessmen and the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor, with the understanding that von Papen as vice-chancellor and other non-Nazis in key government positions would contain and temper Hitler's more brutal tendencies.

Hitler's emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. He began immediately, ordering a rapid expansion of the state police, the Gestapo, and putting Hermann Goering in charge of a new security force, composed entirely of Nazis and dedicated to stamping out whatever opposition to his party might arise. From that moment on, Nazi Germany was off and running, and there was little Hindenburg or von Papen-or anyone-could do to stop it.
READ MORE: When Hitler Tried (and Failed) to Be an Artist

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Adolf Hitler is named chancellor of Germany

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On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or führer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. The year 1932 had seen Hitler's meteoric rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people's frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty.

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The Nazi's killed around 6 million Jews a a result of the Holocaust.

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Atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki - 1945

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Atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki - 1945

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The continuous destruction forced Japan to surrender unconditionally and it laid down its arms in World War 2 on August 15, 1945, ending its aggression in Asia.

https://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/on-this-day-in-1945-atomic-bomb-dropped-on-nagasaki-4060484.html

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One of the darkest chapters of war history in human civilization is the atom bombing done by the USA on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the World War 2. While the world was used to wars during that phase, what happened in Japan was completely unexpected and devastating. The US first dropped a bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on August 6 and destroyed the southwestern city of Hiroshima. The bombing killed over 140,000 people out of the total estimated population of 3.5 lakh. The death toll continued to increase later due to injuries and radiation-related deaths.

Just 3 days later, the US attacked Japan with another atom bombing. This time over the southwestern city of Nagasaki. At 11:02 AM on August 9, US B029 bomber Bockscar dropped a 4.5-ton plutonium bomb nicknamed "Fat Man". While the hills surrounding the city averted some destruction, an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 lives were still lost because of the bombing.

The continuous destruction forced Japan to surrender unconditionally and it laid down its arms in World War 2 on August 15, 1945, ending its aggression in Asia.

Nagasaki was a shipbuilding centre for the Japanese and the US forces had planned to bomb it on August 11, 1945. However, bad weather predictions for the day pushed the bombing day forward.

While it's been over 70 years since the deadly day, the scars left behind by the bombing destruction are still afresh in Japanese people's minds. The days of the bombing are remembered every year as a mark for a tribute to people who lost their precious lives during the destruction.

The destruction caused by the bombing continued for years and even decades after the horror days, radiations left behind the bombing caused several diseases and deformities in people. Even newborn babies suffered the brunt of the destruction and were either born with a deformity or developed in later years.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here

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On This Day in 1945: Atomic Bomb Dropped On Nagasaki

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One of the darkest chapters of war history in human civilization is the atom bombing done by the USA on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the World War 2. While the world was used to wars during that phase, what happened in Japan was completely unexpected and devastating.

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The Green Revolution was the emergence of new varieties of crops, specifically wheat and rice varietals, that were able to double if not triple production of those crops in two countries.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/green-revolution-norman-borlaug-race-to-fight-global-hunger/#:~:text=Ray%20Offenheiser%3A%20The%20Green%20Revolution,those%20crops%20in%20two%20countries.&text=Once%20the%20new%20varieties%20of,diminished%20malnutrition%20across%20the%20country.

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The Man Who Tried To Feed The World | Article

The Green Revolution: Norman Borlaug and the Race to Fight Global Hunger

Ray Offenheiser discusses the humble plant breeder's audacious plan to feed the world and the fallout he didn't forsee.

Borlaug smiling in wheat field. Image, 1960s. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

When Norman Borlaug set out after World War II to develop an ultra-resilient strain of wheat in Mexico, he had no idea the impact his work would have. Borlaug's wildly successful efforts to increase crop yields came to be known as the "Green Revolution" and earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his role in fighting global hunger. But over time, the midwestern agronomist's methods came under increasing attack, with critics decrying his work's profoundly negative impact on rural farmers and the environment. To learn more about Borlaug's world-changing work, American Experience spoke with Ray Offenheiser, former president of Oxfam America and Distinguished Professor at Notre Dame, where he also leads the Pulte Institute for Global Development. This is Part 1 of a three-part interview series. Read the second interview, a conversation with author Raj Patel about the Green Revolution's social consequences and the third interview with Food Tank co-founder Danielle Nierenberg about the Green Revolution's environmental impact.

Raymond C. Offenheiser

American Experience: What was the Green Revolution and what were its goals?
Ray Offenheiser: The Green Revolution was the emergence of new varieties of crops, specifically wheat and rice varietals, that were able to double if not triple production of those crops in two countries. Norman Borlaug, who was the originator of what was a dwarf wheat variety in Mexico, is considered the godfather of the Green Revolution. The varieties of wheat that he developed there became a model for what could be done in other staple crops around the world. In the case of Mexico, he increased productivity dramatically. Once the new varieties of wheat were widely reproduced, you saw diminished malnutrition across the country. He was then asked to experiment with introducing wheat in India and Pakistan during dramatic famines in the 1960s, and they had a similar type of effect there. At some point those programs were named the "Green Revolution" by another agronomist, and Borlaug was credited with being the father of that kind of creative breeding he was doing.
AE: What was so trailblazing about his techniques?
RO: At the time there was a real question as to whether one could grow more crops on less land, and he was really interested in whether you could redesign the plant itself to do that. One of the things he realized was that normal wheat at that particular time grew on a very tall, long stalk that was basically seeking to get as much sunlight as possible. Borlaug realized that if he actually grew a smaller variety with a shorter and sturdier stem that it could hold more grains on its head. A similar type of thing was done in the Philippines at the International Rice Research Institute with rice, where you could take the plant, produce a dwarf variety with a sturdier stem and get more grains of rice on the head. Borlaug also was credited with developing a variety of this dwarf wheat that could be grown in pretty much any sort of environment around the world, because other varieties were sensitive to light and also temperature and other sorts of environmental changes. But over time his methods and these technologies have come under increasing scrutiny.
AE: What were some of the unintended consequences of the technologies that Borlaug helped to innovate?
RO: Well he was using the knowledge of what was known at the time about breeding for crop improvements-this is in the 1940s and '50s and '60s-to try to create these new varieties, and in doing so was relying on the idea that they were going to need fertilizer, and they were going to need water. He discovered that producing much more significant yields was going to require those kinds of inputs, but he didn't think that was particularly a problem. He came from a background of organic agriculture in the midwestern United States [in the 1920s and '30s] when nitrogen fertilizer wasn't available in abundance, but when it then did become available more easily in the '50s and '60s, he saw it as something that was going to aid this productivity increase and so was not necessarily averse to it.

Simultaneously with Borlaug's introduction of these new varieties, there were large investments by the World Bank and other major international funders in the India case, and also to some degree in Mexico, in large or modern irrigation systems. So in the Indus Valley that is along the border with India and Pakistan the irrigation system was not necessarily a problem, since water was there in abundance, and it became the breadbasket for wheat in India. What became a problem was that these new high-yielding variety crops were reliant on water fertilizers and pesticides. As time went on, what was realized was that that could have impact on the soil in terms of pollution. So there was a lot of criticism of the application of these crop varieties by environmentalists, who felt that if you intensified their use all over the world-here in the United States well as in Asia and Latin America, which is really where they took off-it meant we were just going to be exacerbating the kind of water pollution that we saw in the states, and which became the basis for the emergence of the environmental movement here in this country.

There were some other things that were happening that don't get talked about quite as much. Borlaug was very committed in his early years to working with very poor farmers in Mexico and really trying to create a crop and a product that would improve their livelihoods and reduce malnutrition and generate disposable income for those families. As time went on, however, one of the peculiar effects of this was that because you had to purchase inputs, and because you had to have access to water, to some degree it became the case that in many parts of the world only the more capitalized farmers can actually get access to the money needed to buy the fertilizer, or buy the pesticides or herbicides, and also have access to water. So to some degree you've got consolidation in the agricultural sector and instead of actually necessarily helping small farmers in certain instances, more in Latin America then in Asia, you ended up displacing the small farmers that Borlaug had intended to help. So those were other socioeconomic and political implications to the technology that were not forseen when Borlaug, I think with the best of intentions, was breeding for these new varieties to help these small farmers.

From there a larger critique began to emerge about the Green Revolution itself, its intentions, and whether the productivity increases that it had proposed should be viewed alone or whether you needed to take into account these environmental and social and political and economic factors.
AE: And yet it also seems that while Borlaug was addressing a pretty dire humanitarian crisis, even he understood that that these methods weren't intended to be a long-term solution...
RO: I think the interesting thing to remember about Borlaug is that he came from a forestry background and then became interested in plant pathology and genetics. He was looking at this interesting convergence of environment, population and food security, and he was looking at it at a time when nobody else was thinking about these issues quite that way. In other words, he was thinking about the larger food system and how we needed to make sure that the productivity of our core crops were actually exceeding the growth of the general population. At the same time he was trying to minimize the broader environmental effects on watersheds and on forests and so forth. Those are things that were very much top of mind for him way back in the '50s and '60s. Today we would define that as just thinking about sustainable development, but he was thinking about it back then. His view was that if we could achieve more productivity on small plots of land, we would actually minimize the amount of deforestation or damage to the environment that we would get otherwise. He was looking at the conservation of natural resources that we probably all desire and seeing higher levels of productivity as achieving that. And now ironically we're seeing the reverse with the modern food system, where we are deforesting at a very rapid rate and we're planting soybeans and other grains in those deforested lands in a way that I don't think he would feel very comfortable with.

Borlaug was a very down-to-earth humble guy, very much your Midwestern sort of agriculturalist, and he kept that identity despite all the commentary that's been made about him. What I appreciate is that from the very beginning, he took a job that nobody wanted initially-which was to go to Mexico and start this breeding program at a time when Mexico was a very poor country, relatively speaking, and there were some really serious food challenges. He could have easily had a very successful career as a breeder and plant pathologist at a major land great university in the Midwest, and instead chose this opportunity to learn about Mexican farmers and the problems they faced trying to feed their families.

He was someone who came out of a Depression-era background, with the sensibilities of the Depression generation, and brought that sensibility of a humble midwestern farmer who had grown up before the modern agricultural revolution. He was comfortable talking to farmers and listening to their perspectives on their particular problems, and then bringing that commentary and applying the best science of his era to problem-solving.
Raymond C. Offenheiser is Director of the Pulte Institute for Global Development, part of the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs, where he serves as Distinguished Professor of the Practice and provides strategic leadership to the Pulte Institute's academic, research, and public policy activities. A widely-known nonprofit leader, innovator, and international development expert, Offenheiser served as President of Oxfam America for 20 years. Prior to joining Oxfam, Offenheiser represented the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh and the Andean and Southern Cone regions of South America, as well as directing programs for the Inter-American Foundation in Brazil and Colombia. At the 2012 G20 Summit, Offenheiser was appointed by the Obama Administration to represent civil society on the leadership council of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa. Offenheiser was a co-founder of the ONE Campaign, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, and the Food Policy Action Network. He has also served on the advisory boards of the World Economic Forum, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute, the World Agricultural Forum, the Gates Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, and both Harvard and Cornell Universities.

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The Green Revolution: Norman Borlaug and the Race to Fight Global Hunger | American Experience | PBS

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The Man Who Tried To Feed The World | Article Ray Offenheiser discusses the humble plant breeder's audacious plan to feed the world and the fallout he didn't forsee. When Norman Borlaug set out after World War II to develop an ultra-resilient strain of wheat in Mexico, he had no idea the impact his work would have.

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Neil Armstrong lands on the Moon - July 20, 1969

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Neil Armstrong lands on the Moon - July 20, 1969

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Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969 on the flight called Apollo 11.

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Apartheid, the Afrikaans name given by the white-ruled South Africa's Nationalist Party in 1948 to the country's harsh, institutionalized system of racial segregation, came to an end in the early 1990s in a series of steps that led to the formation of a democratic government in 1994.

https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/pcw/98678.htm

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Apartheid, the Afrikaans name given by the white-ruled South Africa's Nationalist Party in 1948 to the country's harsh, institutionalized system of racial segregation, came to an end in the early 1990s in a series of steps that led to the formation of a democratic government in 1994. Years of violent internal protest, weakening white commitment, international economic and cultural sanctions, economic struggles, and the end of the Cold War brought down white minority rule in Pretoria. U.S. policy toward the regime underwent a gradual but complete transformation that played an important conflicting role in Apartheid's initial survival and eventual downfall.

Although many of the segregationist policies dated back to the early decades of the twentieth century, it was the election of the Nationalist Party in 1948 that marked the beginning of legalized racism's harshest features called Apartheid. The Cold War then was in its early stages. U.S. President Harry Truman's foremost foreign policy goal was to limit Soviet expansion. Despite supporting a domestic civil rights agenda to further the rights of black people in the United States, the Truman Administration chose not to protest the anti-communist South African government's system of Apartheid in an effort to maintain an ally against the Soviet Union in southern Africa. This set the stage for successive administrations to quietly support the Apartheid regime as a stalwart ally against the spread of communism.

Inside South Africa, riots, boycotts, and protests by black South Africans against white rule had occurred since the inception of independent white rule in 1910. Opposition intensified when the Nationalist Party, assuming power in 1948, effectively blocked all legal and non-violent means of political protest by non-whites. The African National Congress (ANC) and its offshoot, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), both of which envisioned a vastly different form of government based on majority rule, were outlawed in 1960 and many of its leaders imprisoned. The most famous prisoner was a leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, who had become a symbol of the anti-Apartheid struggle. While Mandela and many political prisoners remained incarcerated in South Africa, other anti-Apartheid leaders fled South Africa and set up headquarters in a succession of supportive, independent African countries, including Guinea, Tanzania, Zambia, and neighboring Mozambique where they continued the fight to end Apartheid. It was not until the 1980s, however, that this turmoil effectively cost the South African state significant losses in revenue, security, and international reputation.

The international community had begun to take notice of the brutality of the Apartheid regime after white South African police opened fire on unarmed black protesters in the town of Sharpeville in 1960, killing 69 people and wounding 186 others. The United Nations led the call for sanctions against the South African Government. Fearful of losing friends in Africa as de-colonization transformed the continent, powerful members of the Security Council, including Great Britain, France, and the United States, succeeded in watering down the proposals. However, by the late 1970s, grassroots movements in Europe and the United States succeeded in pressuring their governments into imposing economic and cultural sanctions on Pretoria. After the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in 1986, many large multinational companies withdrew from South Africa. By the late 1980s, the South African economy was struggling with the effects of the internal and external boycotts as well as the burden of its military commitment in occupying Namibia.

Defenders of the Apartheid regime, both inside and outside South Africa, had promoted it as a bulwark against communism. However, the end of the Cold War rendered this argument obsolete. South Africa had illegally occupied neighboring Namibia at the end of World War II, and since the mid-1970s, Pretoria had used it as a base to fight the communist party in Angola. The United States had even supported the South African Defense Force's efforts in Angola. In the 1980s, hard-line anti-communists in Washington continued to promote relations with the Apartheid government despite economic sanctions levied by the U.S. Congress. However, the relaxation of Cold War tensions led to negotiations to settle the Cold War conflict in Angola. Pretoria's economic struggles gave the Apartheid leaders strong incentive to participate. When South Africa reached a multilateral agreement in 1988 to end its occupation of Namibia in return for a Cuban withdrawal from Angola, even the most ardent anti-communists in the United States lost their justification for support of the Apartheid regime.

The effects of the internal unrest and international condemnation led to dramatic changes beginning in 1989. South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha resigned after it became clear that he had lost the faith of the ruling National Party (NP) for his failure to bring order to the country. His successor, F W de Klerk, in a move that surprised observers, announced in his opening address to Parliament in February 1990 that he was lifting the ban on the ANC and other black liberation parties, allowing freedom of the press, and releasing political prisoners. The country waited in anticipation for the release of Nelson Mandela who walked out of prison after 27 years on February 11, 1990.

The impact of Mandela's release reverberated throughout South Africa and the world. After speaking to throngs of supporters in Cape Town where he pledged to continue the struggle, but advocated peaceful change, Mandela took his message to the international media. He embarked on a world tour culminating in a visit to the United States where he spoke before a joint session of Congress.

After Prime Minister de Klerk agreed to democratic elections for the country, the United States lifted sanctions and increased foreign aid, and many of the U.S. companies who disinvested in the 1980s returned with new investments and joint ventures. In April 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected as South Africa's first black president.

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World Trade Organization is founded - January 1, 1995

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World Trade Organization is founded - January 1, 1995

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The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade between nations.

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Facebook is a social media app in which people can post information and share it.

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Cambridge Analytica goes Bankrupt - May, 2018

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Cambridge Analytica goes Bankrupt - May, 2018

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Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the center of Facebook Inc’s privacy scandal, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States late on Thursday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambridge-analytica-bankruptcy/cambridge-analytica-files-for-bankruptcy-in-u-s-following-facebook-debacle-idUSKCN1IJ0IS

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(Reuters) - Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the center of Facebook Inc's privacy scandal, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States late on Thursday.

This past March allegations surfaced that Cambridge Analytica, hired by President Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. election campaign, improperly used data of 87 million Facebook users beginning in 2014.

Cambridge Analytica and its British parent SCL Elections Ltd said earlier this month that they would shut down immediately and begin bankruptcy proceedings after suffering a sharp drop in business.

The petition to file bankruptcy was submitted at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York and was signed on behalf of Cambridge Analytica's board by Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer, daughters of billionaire Robert Mercer.

The Mercer family was one of Trump's biggest donors.

Cambridge Analytica LLC listed assets in the range of $100,001 to $500,000 and liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million.

London-based Cambridge Analytica was created in 2013 initially with a focus on U.S. elections, with $15 million in backing from Mercer and a name chosen by former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon, according to a report by the New York Times.

Facebook has faced multiple investigations in the United States and Europe over its handling of personal data of users, hurting shares of the Mark Zuckerberg-led company.

Zuckerberg has appeared before U.S. congressional committees to testify on data privacy and will meet leaders of the European Parliament soon.

Facebook said on Monday it has suspended around 200 apps in the first stage of its review into apps that had access to large quantities of user data before the company restricted data access.

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banking & investment services (trbc level 2)

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judicial process / court cases / court decisions

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social media & networking (trbc level 5)

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Cambridge Analytica files for bankruptcy in U.S. following Facebook debacle

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(Reuters) - Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the center of Facebook Inc's privacy scandal, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States late on Thursday. This past March allegations surfaced that Cambridge Analytica, hired by President Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. election campaign, improperly used data of 87 million Facebook users beginning in 2014.