Blog Archives

Science & Art: End of Pleistocene Ice age; advent of agriculture

Politics: Advent of tribal chief and witch doctor More →

SCIENCE & ART: Invention of writing. POLITICS: Tribal chief and witch doctor coalesce, leading to monarchy.

SCIENCE & ART: Invention of wheel. POLITICS: Monarchy continues.

Maya civilization begins and flourishes for centuries in present day southern Mexico and Central America. Especially from 250 to 900 CE, the Mayan people formed a highly advanced civilization which included developments in art, mathematics, calendrics, and architecture (including flat-topped pyramids, temples, and … More →

Chinese philosopher Confucius developed what has been called “The Silver Rule” which states: “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.”  This is a fundamental principle of morality that is also found in a variety of other religious and … More →

SCIENCE & ART: Greek civilization – Pythagoras, Socrates, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Archimedes, Euclid, Aristarchus. POLITICS: Democracy in Athens, oligarchy in Sparta; external wars of Athens with Persia and Troy, frequent costly and bloody cicvil wars within Greece.

SCIENCE & ART: Paper invented in Ancient China and spread to the west via the Silk Road. POLITICS: Han Dynasty.  

SCIENCE & ART: Roman architecture including the arch, vault and dome, aqueduct; poet Virgil. POLITICS: Roman Republic and starting in 27 BC the Roman Empire which was an autocratic dictatorship.

POLITICS: Christianity becomes state religion of Roman Empire.

SCIENCE & ART: Zero first used in mathematics in India. POLITICS: Monarchy continues.

POLITICS: Feudalism in Europe from 900 to 1500 and in Japan from 1200-1900.

POLITICS: Crusades: Seven wars between Christians and Muslims over control of Jerusalem.

SCIENCE & ART: The Gothic style of art and architecture developed in Europe. POLITICS:  Feudalism continues.

POLITICS: Swiss Confederation begins in 1291, grows and expands to present Switzerland over time; peaceful co-existence and religious tolerance among Switzerland’s varied German-, French-, and Italian-speaking population for the past seven centuries.

SCIENCE & ART: Renaissance in Italy which led to the rediscovery of art and science of ancient Greece and the rebirth of creativity in Europe. POLITICS: City-states in Milan, Venice, and Florence; Rule by Papacy in Rome; wars between the … More →

POLITICS: Hundred Years War between England and France.

SCIENCE & ART: Italian artist Brunelleschi introduces perspective in painting.  POLITICS: Florentine city-state and Rome under the Papacy.

POLITICS: First slaves brought to Portugal from Mauritania in Africa.

SCIENCE & ART: Invention of modern printing with movable type and printing press by Johannes Gutenberg generates rise in literacy. POLITICS: Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg’s domicile, under church rule.

SCIENCE & ART: Inca civilization flourishes. Major achievements in the arts and sciences including advances in architecture, measures, calendrics and the development of wind instruments. POLITICS: Inca civilization grows through conquest (often violent); human sacrifices to appease gods.

SCIENCE & ART: Polish scholar and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) uses scientific method to develop propositions of the triple motion of earth, that it revolves and tilts on its axis while revolving around the sun. POLITICS: Parliamentary government and monarchy in … More →

Martin Luther More →

SCIENCE & ART: Voyage of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, first to circumnavigate the globe, corroborates the idea that planet earth is round and revolves on its axis once a day. POLITICS: Monarchy in Portugal and Spain.

POLITICS: Religious wars between Catholics and Protestants throughout Europe.

SCIENCE & ART: Waiting until the year of his death Copernicus publishes heliocentric hypothesis, showing Earth revolves around the sun. POLITICS: Parliamentary government in Copernicus’ native Poland.

SCIENCE & ART: Violin developed in Italy. POLITICS: Brescia, Italy, Republic of Venice.  

ART & SCIENCE: Francis Bacon, English scientist, philosopher, and author. His essays served to establish an inductive method for scientific inquiry called the scientific method.

SCIENCE & ART: Giordano Bruno develops cosmological hypothesis stating that sun is a star in an infinite universe. POLITICS: Roman Catholic Church.

POLITICS: Giordano Bruno convicted of heresy and burned alive by Catholic Inquisition.

SCIENCE & ART: Galileo develops scientific method of experiment and observation, uses telescope for observation of moon, sun and planets, advocates Copernican hypothesis. POLITICS: Republic of Venice.

SCIENCE & ART: Johannes Kepler publishes laws of planetary motion. POLITICS: Germany under Holy Roman Empire.    

POLITICS: Galileo convicted of heresy by Catholic Inquisition, house arrest imposed as life sentence.

SCIENCE & ART: Isaac Newton: laws of motion, gravitation, optics, mathematics: invention of calculus (also independently invented by Leibniz). POLITICS: England, monarchy, with beginning of parliamentary democracy in 1688.

SCIENCE & ART: Publication of most important & influential book in history of science, Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica.  POLITICS: Monarchy under English King Charles II.

SCIENCE & ART: Invention of piano by Bartolomeo Cristofori. POLITICS: Florence as a principality under rule of Medici family.    

SCIENCE & ART: Emilie du Chatelet (Mathematician, physicist, and author) translates Newton’s Principia Mathematica from Latin into French. Her work remains the standard French translation in the 21st century.

SCIENCE & ART: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (who is depicted above), Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven in music. POLITICS: City-states, principalities, monarchy.

POLITICS: Worldwide war in Europe, North America, and India between France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and Spain on one side and Prussia, Great Britain, and Hanover on the other. The image above depicts a moment in the French Indian War when William … More →