Category History

In 1215, King John was forced into signing a charter, known as the Magna Carta. As a result he greatly reduced the power he held as the King of England and it led to formation of a powerful parliament. The Magna Carta, a collection of 37 English laws, thus became an important event for citizen’s rights. It curbed the King’s power and forced him to rule according to the old English laws that had prevailed before the Norman invasion. The most important features of the Magna Carta were the freedom of the Church from royal interference and no taxes were to be levied without the consent of the Great Council or Parliament.

The holocaust stands for the largest genocide of history. It describes a period of systematic killing of the Jews, who were considered ‘inferior’ by the Nazis. Starting from 1933 they were targeted and were denied basic rights. With the start of the Second World War, they were settled in ghettos, which were special areas marked for them or were deported to the concentration camps (CC). Many died through forced labour and malnutrition or were killed by the guards of these camps. After 1942 seven ‘death camps’ were established in Poland and Belarus, like the ones in Auschwitz, where the Jews were killed in gas chambers.

William I, known as William the Conqueror, was born in 1028, in Normandy, France. He became the Duke of Normandy in 1035 at age of just 7 years after his father, Robert I, named him as the heir to Normandy. William invaded England in 1066, and defeated the English forces of King Harold Godwinson in the Battle of Hastings. After suppressing subsequent English revolts in what is now known as the Norman Conquest he became the first Norman King of England. He was one of the famous soldiers of the medieval era who conquered a large kingdom from a smaller base. He established a feudal state that brought order, peace, and law to England. He promoted commerce and formed a long-lasting strong central government. 

The medieval ages are one of the three main periods in European history. They range from the 5th to 15th centuries and begin with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. This period is considered a deviation from the path of classical learning of the first period and the Renaissance scholarship of the modern period. North Africa and the Middle East, once part of the Eastern Roman Empire, became Islamic in this period. The medieval period witnessed sustained urbanization in northern and Western Europe. Art and architecture flourished during this period. The struggle for power between the Church and the emerging nation states in this period shaped the western world. 

Art played a very important role in ancient Aztec culture, mainly as an expression of religion and warfare. Music and dance were performed to please the Gods, and not for entertainment or for any other reason. They considered their musical instruments to be holy and mistakes made while playing were believed to be offensive to the Gods. Tattoos also played crucial role in the Aztec culture, and these were often used in rituals. The designs of tattoos were chosen so as to show the children’s devotion to the Gods. 

         Human sacrifice was a common practice among the Aztecs. No other civilization practiced human sacrifice to the degree of Aztecs. For example, in 1487, at the sanctification of for the re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, they reportedly sacrificed 84,400 prisoners over the course of four days. However, most historians and archaeologists consider these numbers to be exaggerated and agree that 2000 is a more likely figure. Reports of cannibalism among the Aztecs are also controversial points of debate among the experts.