Category: History Topics

Prince Henry the navigator was an eminent figure in the early days of the Portuguese empire. He was the third son of John I of Portugal, the creator of the Aviz dynasty. And his mother Philippa of Lancaster was the daughter of John of Gaunt. He took stride in wars at a very early age of his life. He was just 21 when he accompanied his father and brothers to lay attack on the Muslim port of Ceuta in northern Morocco. Success in war motivated Henry to explore down the coast of Africa – an unknown domain for the Europeans at that point of time. This laid the foundations to the making of Prince Henry the navigator.

Henry, an adventurous explorer wanted to explore the southern parts of Morocco. At the same time he was also obsessed with slave raiding along the coast of Africa. It was only in 1419 that his father chose him Governor of the state of Algarve. Throwing light on his personal life, you will find that Prince Henry remained a bachelor. Conversely, he disregarded the company of women but enjoyed strong emotional connection with several men to say the least.

It was in 1420 Henry, the navigator was appointed as the Governor of the very rich Order of Christ. The Order was a vital source of funds for him and his explorations, which kept his dreams of conquering the Canary Islands alive. History says that in 1427, one of Henry’s navigators discovered the Azores, perhaps Gonçalo Velho and in 1430 the Portuguese colonized these islands. What’s more in 1434, Gil Eanes, a Chief of one of Henry’s expeditions was first amongst the Europeans to get ahead of Cape Bojador.

You will also know that Prince Henry the navigator functioned as a primary organizer of the Portuguese mission to Tangier in 1437. But this time it spelled disaster for him as his younger brother Fernando was seized. They demanded a peace agreement in return to which Henry refused. Fernando eventually died after eleven years in captivation. His expeditions stretched to Nuno Tristão and Antão Gonçalves finally reached Cape Blanco in 1441. If that wasn’t enough then note that 1444 to 1446, as much as forty vessels sailed from Lagos on Henry’s behalf, and this is how the first private mercantile expeditions began.

This is how Prince Henry the navigator will be remembered in history.

Even today history celebrates the chronicles of ancient Egypt. The great Egyptian empire was concentrated on parts of northeastern Africa along the coast of the river Nile. Ancient Egyptian empire included areas under the Southern Levant, the Eastern desert, Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula and the oases of Western desert during different phases.

The Egyptian empire spanned for at least three and a half millennia. The embryo was the unification of the Nile polities around 3500BCE. This ancient civilization reached its zenith in second millennium BCE. The traditional date indicating the end of the Egyptian empire is 51 B.C when the Roman Empire absorbed Egypt as its province.

The Chronicle Of Ancient Egypt

Archaeological excavations suggest that the seed of the early Egyptian civilization can be traced back to the settlements of the nomadic hunters along the coast of river Nile during the Pleistocene age. This is the Pre-dynastic Egypt.

There are archaeological evidences of a gradual replacement of grain grinding people who used the earliest type of sickles by a hunter tribe who used stone tools around 10th millennium BCE.

Archaeology also indicates traces of human habitation in the Sudan border of Egypt before 8000 BCE. Probably climatic changes and overgrazing dried out the pastoral sources forming the Sahara desert around 2000BCE. The people migrated to the fertile coast of Nile and developed an agro-based civilization.

During 3300 BCE Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, the Upper Egypt (Ancient Egyptian- Ta Shemau) and the Lower Egypt (Ancient Egypt-Ta Mehu).

Around circa 3000 BCE ancient Egypt rose as a proper unified empire. Narmer was the first Egyptian king of the unified Egyptian empire who amalgamated Upper and Lower Egypt.

The Egyptian history slowly turned to the mighty pharaohs who ruled Egypt from 3000 to 30 BCE.

The Origin Of The Egyptian People

The ancient Egyptians traced their origin to the land they called ‘Punt’ or ‘Ta- Neteru’ (Land Of Gods). According to the scholars of Egyptian history these area encompasses Eritrea, Ethiopian Highlands and Somalia.

The Administration In Ancient Egypt

The Egyptian empire was divided into ‘nomes’ (district or ‘sepat’ in ancient Egyptian) or autonomous city-states probably from the pre-dynastic period around 3100 B.C and continued till the pharaohnic period. Ancient Egypt was divided into 42 ‘Nomes’.  A ‘Nomarch’, vested with regional authority, governed each ‘Nomes’. The ‘Nomarchs’ held their posts either hereditarily or were appointed by the pharaohs.

The Tax System

There was no currency in ancient Egypt so the taxes were paid ‘in-kind’ as per the craft or duty of the people. Numerous taxes were imposed on the people and the Vizier (tjaty in ancient Egypt) controlled the taxation system. One person from each household was required to do public work for a few weeks in a year known as ‘corvee’ or labor tax. However, rich people could hire laborers to do his public work.

The Language Of Ancient Egypt

Hieroglyphs, the Egyptian writing system are the oldest writing systems of the world. Hieroglyphics are partially syllabic and to some degree ideographic. Hieratic is a cursive form of hieroglyphs. Until recently the first known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette dated to 3200BCE excavated in Hierakonpolis (modern Kwam-al-Ahmar) during the 1890s. But recent archaeological excavations have found the Gerzean pottery dated to circa 4000B.C as the earliest forms of hieroglyphs.

Egyptian language is one of the oldest documented languages of the world, which was scribbled from circa 3200 BCE. Egyptian, is an independent linguistic branch of Afro- Asiatic language.

There are six major chronological division of Egyptian Language:

Archaic Egyptian (before 3000 B.C)
The pre-dynastic and early dynastic period inscriptions are examples of archaic Egyptian language. The Naqada pottery vessels are the earliest evidence of hieroglyphics.

Old Egyptian (3000-2000B.C)
The pyramid texts and the tomb walls containing autobiographical writings are inscriptions of Old Egyptian. It was the language of the old kingdom.

Middle Egyptian (2000-1300 B.C)

This is known as the classical Egyptian comprising hieratic texts and hieroglyphics of the middle kingdom. Some examples are:

1. Coffin texts inscribed on sarcophagi
2. Ancient Egyptian philosophy like the Ipuwer Papyrus
3. Adventure story of an individual for example the story of Sinuhe
4. Medical and science texts – Edwin Smith Papyrus and Eber Papyrus are two famous examples
5. Poetic texts praising the gods or the pharaoh

Late Egyptian (1300-700 BCE)
Language of the New Kingdom termed as the ‘Golden Age.’ Late Egyptian comprises a prosperous array of secular and religious texts like the ‘Instructions of Ani ‘or ‘The Story of Wenamun’.

The Demotic script and language followed the late Egyptian.
Then the Coptic language came into the picture and survived as the spoken language in the Middle Ages.

During 2700 B.C the Egyptian used pictograms representing vocal sounds. The oldest alphabet developed around 1800B.C known as ‘abjad system’ was derived from the unilateral signs and the Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Culture And Religion

The Egyptian mythology contains the chronicles of Egyptian pantheism starting from the pre-dynastic to the Greco Roman and the Arab eras. Indigenous African animals were worshipped in ancient Egypt.

Temples were considered as most sacred places where the priest and priestesses were allowed to enter. Only on special occasion people could enter the temple yards.

Egyptian art evolved round their rich religion with the depiction of gods, goddesses and the pharaohs. The focus was on the idea of order.

The pyramids and mummies speak of the tilt of Egyptian culture towards the pre-history.

The History Of Medicine

The Egyptians were much progressed in the field of medicine. The Egyptians could perform surgeries, could set bones and had thorough knowledge of pharmacopoeia. The mummies are the existing edifices of the accurate knowledge of human anatomy and the mummifying process proves the surgical skill of the ancient Egyptians.

The Advancement In Science And Technology

1. The polygonal Egyptian pyramids tickle the sense of our wonder still today. Ancient Egypt reeled on the pinnacle of engineering glory. The Egyptians outlined the pyramid bases by determining the exact position of points and distance between them. The ‘golden ratio’ has been used in the architecture of pyramids signifying harmony.
2. The Egyptians are credited with the invention of Hydraulic cement.
3. Ancient Egypt stored water for dry season as during the 12th dynasty, the natural lake of Fayyum was used as reservoir.
4. Egyptians mined turquoise in the Sinai Peninsula
5. Glass making was also a prominent industry in ancient Egyptian empire.
6. Modern discovery has illuminated the technical brilliance of ancient Egypt. Scientists have identified ‘tet’ or ‘djed’ of ancient Egypt as battery.
7. The advent of some important scientific method and mathematical formulas like the decimal system are attributed to ancient Egyptian scholars.

This grand civilization came to an end with the invasion of the rising Roman Empire during the 51 BCE.

Do you know that Mesopotamia is one of the earliest empires to embrace the light of civilization? The term Mesopotamia was coined in the Hellenistic period referring to the basins of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and the area between two rivers. Ancient Mesopotamia is often termed as the “cradle of civilization”.

You will be amazed to know that Ancient Mesopotamia was home to some of the most prominent civilizations like the Sumerian city-states, and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilization.

The history of Ancient Mesopotamia spans the period from 4th millennium B.C to the rise of Achaemenids in 6th century B.C and the recent map of Mesopotamia covers the areas occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria and Southeastern Turkey.

The Ancient Form Of Government practiced in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens to be descendents of city gods. Most kings took the epithet of “king of the universe” or “great king” or “shepherd” as he looks after the people. Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful king of Babylonia.

The Assyrian empire was divided into small provinces named after their main cities like Damascus, Ninevah and Arpad. A Governor ruled each province and ensured just implementation of law, collection of taxes and provided workers when a temple was built in the province.

Babylon was at first a small empire but it expanded tremendously during the rule of Hammurabi and became one of the greatest cities and center for learning in Mesopotamia. King Hammurabi was a prominent lawmaker and his set of laws known as the Code Of Hammurabi (circa 1780 B.C) is the best-preserved example of ancient laws of Mesopotamia.

Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks And Writes 

The earliest language the ancient Mesopotamians wrote was Sumerian. Later Akkadian, a Semitic language became dominant, though Sumerian was used in literary, religious, administrative and scientific arenas. Then Aramaic, which was already in vogue, evolved as the official language.

The development of writing has more interest in store for you. At first writings were pictographic. During 4th century B.C the pictures became more and more abstract and simplified giving way to cuneiform, a syllabary writing system. In cuneiform writing system the Mesopotamians used a reed stylus to form wedge shaped letters on clay tablets.

Development Of Science And Technology In Ancient Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia reached the peak of progress in science and technology. Mesopotamian civilization was one of the early Bronze Age civilizations in the world. They used copper, bronze and gold and later iron came into the picture. The precious metals were used to decorate palaces and to build armors. But probably gold armors were meant for exhibitions only. Mesopotamia was proficient in metalworking, glassmaking, textile weaving, food control and irrigation.

The Field Of Advanced Mathematics

Ancient Mesopotamia was the pathfinder of the Sexagesimal (base 60) numeric system. This system is the mother of the concepts like 60 minute in one hour, 24 hours a day and 360 degree circle in modern mathematics. The Sumerian calendar measured a week with 7 days, which was used for making maps.

Ancient Mesopotamia Dives Into The Depth Of Astronomy

The astronomers of ancient Babylonia studied the stars and the sky with vigor and predicted eclipses and solstices. Mesopotamia believed that astronomy relates to the life of the people. In Ancient Mesopotamia the eclipses, those, which are counted, were considered as bad omens The Sumerian and Babylonian astronomers singled out constellations like the Taurus, Leo, Scorpius, Auriga, Gemini, Capricornus and Saggitarius which are still in use today. The constellations were used to calculate time and to determine planting and harvesting of crops.  Astrology originated from the ruins of the knowledge this ancient astronomy.

The Religion Of Ancient Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the cradle of the oldest religion in the world. The Mesopotamians believed that the world is flat and is surrounded by a holed space with the kingdom of heaven above. According to them water encircled them from all the sides and the universe was born out of water.

Mesopotamians were pantheist, they believed in many gods. There were regional variations like the Sumerian word for the universe is An- Ki which refers to God An and Goddess Ki. Their son Enlil, the air god was believed to be the most powerful god and the chief of the pantheon.

The temples were built with clay and mud to worship gods. These temples were called Ziggurats.

The Mesopotamians believed in bad souls and painted pictures and built statues to ward off the evils of the ghosts.

The Flow Of Life In Ancient Mesopotamia

Agriculture was very developed in Mesopotamia. It was self sufficient in food with the rivers Tigris and Euphrates draining the land rich for crop harvest. But areas remote from Tigris or Euphrates were dry and infertile and not fit for habitation. But Mesopotamia was quite developed in irrigation. Dams and aqueducts were built to control water supply.

Early settlers used wooden plows for tilling the soil. Barley, onions, grapes, turnips and apples were the main crops. Mesopotamians were the first maker of beer and wine. Weather in Mesopotamia was harsh making food production unpredictable so support foods like lambs and cows were kept. 

In Mesopotamia houses were built of mud and brick with wooden doors. Evidences suggest that the inhabitants built the houses themselves.

The Aura Of Art and Games In Ancient Mesopotamia

Song and music provided options of entertainment to the rich and the ordinary alike. Hunting, boxing, wrestling were some popular games. Polo with men sitting on shoulders of other men was also popular.

The rich history of ancient Mesopotamia etches the story of the glorious past of human achievements.