History!!

[SsilverR]

History is written by the winners ... i have no doubt in my mind that "Official history" wasn't written the way it really happened but for the writers benifit

 

[D.C.]

Yep it's all fun except when you're killing the Irish...

Yehhh ... they never let that one go. (joke)

snip

Just don't mention how we got and maintained that Empire...

Yeh theres no denying What happened to maintain the British Empire... but it's something that has always happened in the world and still goes on today... so I dont feel too bad about it.. I've excepted it as a part of life.

Back OT How did Richard the Lionheart die? and more intrestingly how did he defeat the Saracans at the seige of Jaffa with only 55 men?

He died of gangrene brought about from an arrow wound and didn't he give each man a flag and have them stand around behind a hill so that he scared them into surrendering (I admit I could be entirely mistaken about this).

close they are both related... Richard the Lionhart did give each man a banner too look like there were more there than there actually was but what actually defeated Saladins large Army was he single-handedly charged the saracen line stark naked. He surprised the saracens apparently coming out of nowhere. the saracens tried to kill him; shooting arrows and crossbows non of them hitting him, When he reached their lines he killed several men without a blow landing on him. The Saracens thought he was a demon and fled. Thus Richard Defeated a force of several thousand more than him. Funny story.

He then tried this trick single handly charging a french castle naked.. The lookout simply shot him with a crossbow which did lead to his death from gangrene.

 

[historybuff]

How did the Mayans view time?

They viewed it as a circle, right? With events repeating themselves as you go round and round

You got it! They had no concept of linear time; it was cyclic to them.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

How did the Mayans view time?

What ruins is the Coliseum constructed over?

When did Denmark get a constitution?

1. Cyclical would be my guess.

2. The Flavian Amphitheatre was built on top of at least parts of Nero's Domus Aurea.

3. 1849. (With revisions in 1866, 1915, 1920 and finally in 1953)

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Who was America named after? (This is a seriously tricky question, just so your forewarned)

It named after an Italian map maker name Amerigo Vispucci(sp?), who made the first map of what was considered the "New World" and it showed the continents of North and South America. It wasn't geographically accurate in the least. He was considered the first to do it though.

Wrong, it was most likely named after Welsh businessman Richard Ameryk. If it were named after Vespucci it would be called Vespucciland or some other derivation

No, actually we were both wrong. Amerigo Vespucci who was an Italian explorer (my bad)who explored what we today consider the South American continent between 1497-1502 and who was the first to say it was not the West Indies. German cartographers Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann were actually the ones who named the continent after Vespucci using the latin version of his name but the feminine form of it. In 1538, another German, Gerand Mercater, used it to name the North American continent in his map. Sorry, no Welsh involved.

No, the first recorded use of the word America is in relation to an expedition made up in Labrador two years before Vespucci. This expedition was funded by Richard Ameryk, so the new land was named after him. I gave a much better explanation on the first page

 

[Sigel]

Who was America named after? (This is a seriously tricky question, just so your forewarned)

It named after an Italian map maker name Amerigo Vispucci(sp?), who made the first map of what was considered the "New World" and it showed the continents of North and South America. It wasn't geographically accurate in the least. He was considered the first to do it though.

Wrong, it was most likely named after Welsh businessman Richard Ameryk. If it were named after Vespucci it would be called Vespucciland or some other derivation

No, actually we were both wrong. Amerigo Vespucci who was an Italian explorer (my bad)who explored what we today consider the South American continent between 1497-1502 and who was the first to say it was not the West Indies. German cartographers Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann were actually the ones who named the continent after Vespucci using the latin version of his name but the feminine form of it. In 1538, another German, Gerand Mercater, used it to name the North American continent in his map. Sorry, no Welsh involved.

No, the first recorded use of the word America is in relation to an expedition made up in Labrador two years before Vespucci. This expedition was funded by Richard Ameryk, so the new land was named after him. I gave a much better explanation on the first page

"shrug" Wikipedia would like to disagree with you.

 

[lwm3398]

How did communism get the association with red? I've always wondered that...

because in soviet russia, communism is red!

nah,i have no idea.

 

[historybuff]

What remarkable feat did the French Cavalry achieve during France's war in Holland? 1794-5

Who was the last king of Rome?

They captured the Dutch fleet, which was ice bound~

 

[lwm3398]

How did Catherine the Great die? Iz can't remember.

EDIT: Oh, and I'd always wondered. Which was the first country or culture (In recorded history) to have a female leader?

I suspect it may be the Egyptians. When they had rulers they made no distinction between male and female, the word Pharaoh was used on both. Admittedly some of the women Pharoah (Hatepshut at least) wore a false beard though...

Who was America named after? (This is a seriously tricky question, just so your forewarned)

Wasn't it named after someone named Amerigo?
I can't remember first/last name or other facts about the guy.

Amerigo Vespucci.

 

[Sigel]

History is written by the winners ... i have no doubt in my mind that "Official history" wasn't written the way it really happened but for the writers benifit

Agreed- If you talk to people from other countries, our histories kinda don't match up. Like here in the USA, the Vietnam War is like a paragraph in our history books, or at least it was when I was in school. In fact, the biggest sections of my old history books are about the 13 colonies, and the War of Independence. After that, it's like, yeah, we did some other stuff.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Who was America named after? (This is a seriously tricky question, just so your forewarned)

It named after an Italian map maker name Amerigo Vispucci(sp?), who made the first map of what was considered the "New World" and it showed the continents of North and South America. It wasn't geographically accurate in the least. He was considered the first to do it though.

Wrong, it was most likely named after Welsh businessman Richard Ameryk. If it were named after Vespucci it would be called Vespucciland or some other derivation

No, actually we were both wrong. Amerigo Vespucci who was an Italian explorer (my bad)who explored what we today consider the South American continent between 1497-1502 and who was the first to say it was not the West Indies. German cartographers Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann were actually the ones who named the continent after Vespucci using the latin version of his name but the feminine form of it. In 1538, another German, Gerand Mercater, used it to name the North American continent in his map. Sorry, no Welsh involved.

No, the first recorded use of the word America is in relation to an expedition made up in Labrador two years before Vespucci. This expedition was funded by Richard Ameryk, so the new land was named after him. I gave a much better explanation on the first page

"shrug" Wikipedia would like to disagree with you.

I prefer to trust my sources over wikipedia

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Who ran the first Marathon and why?

Always loved this guy's name.

It was (supposedly) that Greek, Pheididipus or something typical like that. He had to go tell the Athenians that the battle of Marathon had been won, so ran all the way to the city, then all the way back to the beach at Marathon to tell the army commander the return message. its rumoured he dropped dead upon returning

I learnt it that he ran to sparta to get help. They refused because they were in the middle of a celebration for Apollo so he ran back to Athens and dropped dead there.
It doesn't really make sense otherwise, why would you kill yourself running when there's no danger?

It doesnt make sense to me because how often do people die running marathons and he was a professional runner surely he would have to run distances like that for a living.

 

[lwm3398]

Who ran the first Marathon and why?

Always loved this guy's name.

It was (supposedly) that Greek, Pheididipus or something typical like that. He had to go tell the Athenians that the battle of Marathon had been won, so ran all the way to the city, then all the way back to the beach at Marathon to tell the army commander the return message. its rumoured he dropped dead upon returning

he ran the marathon of twenty seven miles or so to tell them they had won. he ran and told the commander by just shout "NIKE" meaning "victory" that's how my old text book tells it.

 

[HerrBobo]

Who was the first F1 World Champoin?

Who was the first F1 driver to be killed at an F1 race?

No Goolgling! lol

Not sure who was the first to get killed in an F1 race, but the first driver was Guiseppe Farina?

I didn't google I asked my dad in an e-mail lol.

Yes! Well done!

The first one to be killed was Onofre Marimon.

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

Heres a new question what was the biggest (contiguous) Empire in History?

Population or land mass?

The mongol empire.

Yup the biggest contiguos empire... how about non-contiguous?

Britain?

Yup 1/4 of the world... makes me proud to be British..... sometimes.

Actually there is a BIG difference between an empire and a colonial empire,as the most advanced and large empire was the roman empire,since all the population was romanised and answered to one government. A colonial empire is basically 50 men with guns saying they control a continent, and shooting the indigent people. In the roman empire they had legions and police in every area they controlled,same with the Ottoman empire,in the 18th century (ish) europeans went around the world proclaiming someone elses teritory as their own,thats colonialism,but yeah the British colonial empire were the largest in the world

That's why he said non-contigous, but the largest empire actually was the mongol empire.

 

[HerrBobo]

The Coliseum was built where Nero had his golden palace.

Who fist referd the great Roman General Pompey as "Magnus?"

Bouns points if you can tell me why was called it.....

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

A general question but why do so many people call the French cowards? Is it just because of WW2?

 

[Sigel]

Who was America named after? (This is a seriously tricky question, just so your forewarned)

It named after an Italian map maker name Amerigo Vispucci(sp?), who made the first map of what was considered the "New World" and it showed the continents of North and South America. It wasn't geographically accurate in the least. He was considered the first to do it though.

Wrong, it was most likely named after Welsh businessman Richard Ameryk. If it were named after Vespucci it would be called Vespucciland or some other derivation

No, actually we were both wrong. Amerigo Vespucci who was an Italian explorer (my bad)who explored what we today consider the South American continent between 1497-1502 and who was the first to say it was not the West Indies. German cartographers Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann were actually the ones who named the continent after Vespucci using the latin version of his name but the feminine form of it. In 1538, another German, Gerand Mercater, used it to name the North American continent in his map. Sorry, no Welsh involved.

No, the first recorded use of the word America is in relation to an expedition made up in Labrador two years before Vespucci. This expedition was funded by Richard Ameryk, so the new land was named after him. I gave a much better explanation on the first page

"shrug" Wikipedia would like to disagree with you.

I prefer to trust my sources over wikipedia

"Authorities on Amerigo Vespucci" by Frederick Albion Ober, library.thinkquest.org, geography.about.com, and answers.yahoo would also like to disagree with you.

 

[Deadpoolsbrain]

A general question but why do so many people call the French cowards? Is it just because of WW2?

Pretty much that and Vietnam, but I personally don't agree because of Napoleon being a badass with is badass french army.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

History is written by the winners ... i have no doubt in my mind that "Official history" wasn't written the way it really happened but for the writers benifit

"History is written by the winners" is honestly kind of a useless cliché by now. History is written over and over and over. There is no such thing as "official history". There is only different interpretations of sources, be they primary or whatnot.

Herodotus may have written the history of the Persian Wars and Thucydides may have written about the Athenian Wars but they are hardly the final interpretations of those events. The sources are constantly taken up again and reinterpreted in light of new evidence, new ways of thinking or any combination thereof.

The way historians look at history now is a lot different than it was say 200 years ago and it will have changed again in 50 years. Hell, there is even difference in how we approach history in Denmark compared to other places. And many American historians have a (in my mind) really strange approach to it.

So just stating "History is written by the winners" is useless. If you want to boil it down to trite clichés you might say that history is written by observers. At least that's the way it should be.