Post-Classical History Printing Pressposting

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Post-Classical History Printing Pressposting

A meme page concerning the period from the end of antiquity to the modern times.

All memes are accompanied by explanations so that you could also learn about the referenced events.

09/12/2020

In 1934 after the creation of Italian Libya (a colony of the Kingdom of Italy located in Libya, though this was just a reorganization, as it had been part of Italy since 1912), Benito Mussolini - the fascist leader of Italy since 1922 - adopted a policy for encouraging Islam, calling the local population "Italian Muslims of the fourth shore of Italy", building or restoring mosques and Quranic schools, preparing service facilities for the pilgrims going to Mecca, and even creating a High School of Islamic Culture in Tripoli. Now why the hell would he do such things?

Well, this was all part of the plan to make the Islamic world aligned with Italy, instead of with the Allies (United Kingdom, France, United States, for the most part). Much of the Middle East was controlled by the first two of them and so resented their new overlords. Some even hoped that Mussolini would liberate them and grant them better conditions. And so on March 20th 1937, in the outskirts of Tripoli, Mussolini received the Sword of Islam from Iusuf Kerisc (a leading Berber supporter of the Italian occupation against the Libyan resistance) during a lavish ceremony. Mussolini then reaffirmed his closeness to the Muslim population, guaranteeing "peace, justice, wellness and respect for the laws of the Prophet." The title Protector of Islam was also bestowed on him. Benito Mussolini? More like Benito Muslimini haha.

-Sobekhotep IX
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08/12/2020

Yeah, I didn't post here for a week, and most probably will retire for good from this page soon. Posting this to remind you that this page exists and is up for grabs so please do apply for the content creator position.
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By the end of the 18th century France wasn't doing too well. It had recently lost the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763), which resulted in France losing most of its colonies and it cost quite a lot. Even before then France had a lot of debt, so this didn't help with the financial situation at all. And now to add to that, in 1775 when the American Revolution began, France decided to help them out a bit by funding the newly proclaimed country, as both states had a common enemy, that being the British Empire.

So the financial situation was quite bad, and most of the taxes were paid by the lower class, with the clergy and the aristocracy enjoying their privileges. And the lower class was already paying the most they could and were most definitely not happy about it. Yet even that still wouldn't make up for the deficit of the budget and no one could find a way to fix it. Oh and in 1788 there was a great crop failure, which made everything even worse for the peasants and so they grew more restless.

And yet the French monarchy still couldn't adapt, which soon lead to its downfall. After a series of events, the French Revolution began on July 14th 1789 with the rebels storming the prison of Bastille, a symbol of royal tyranny. This would be a long and bloody conflict, which would soon spill out into the rest of Europe and influence it in many ways.

Credit for the meme to r/okbuddyretard on Reddit

-Sobekotep IX
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02/12/2020

In the 17th century, as colonization of the Americas was intensifying, every European power with access to a sea wanted to get in on the action, and these included even little guys, the smallest of them being Knights Hospitaller. Now technically this was an order, but it was also a state as it controlled Malta (and was a vassal of the Kingdom of Sicily) in 1530 - 1798.

The Knights in total had 4 islands, all in the Caribbean: Sainte-Croix, Saint-Cristophe, Saint-Barthelemy, and Saint Martin. If you're wondering why they all sound French... Well I'm not French so I don't know if they sound French, it just looks that way to me, but anyways long story short the answer is that they were settled by France around the start of the 17th century. They became part of the Hospitaller realms when the French governor of the islands Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy resisted the authority of his overlords and so the French wanted him removed. Luckily for him, France was at war with Spain at the time (right after the Thirty Years' War) and so couldn't be bothered to do anything with him, which gave Poincy enough time, which was used to sell the islands to the Knights.

The transaction was done in 1651 and so Poincy remained the governor of the islands, without fear of French retribution. He built strong and impressive fortifications on Saint Christopher along with churches, roads, a hospital, and his own grand residence, the Château de la Montagne. However, he died in 1660 and so was replaced. The Knights themselves didn't have much to do with their colonies and in 1665, seeing that they're not turning a profit, sold them back to France. One of the more underwhelming colonization attempts, if I do say so myself.

-Sobekhotep IX
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30/11/2020

The onager was a late Roman - early medieval era torsion powered siege engine, which functioned like a small catapult. It was in first mentioned by the Roman author Ammianus Marcellinus in 353 CE, who described it as being the same as scorpions - an earlier Roman siege engine. Onagers originated in the eastern part of the Roman Empire and continued to be used there after the fall of the west.

The onager consisted of a large frame placed on the ground to whose front end a vertical frame of solid timber was rigidly fixed. A vertical spoke that passed through a rope bundle fastened to the frame had a cup, bucket, or sling attached which contained a projectile (either rocks or arrow-shaped missiles). To fire it, the spoke or arm was forced down, against the tension of twisted ropes or other springs, by a windlass, and then suddenly released. As the sling swung outwards, one end would release, as with a staff-sling, and the projectile would be hurled forward. The arm would then be caught by a padded beam or bed, when it could be winched back again. The optimal range was about 130 meters, and the weight of the projectile around 25 kilograms. However, it had very low mobility and was difficult to aim, not to mention that it also required 8 men just to wind down the arm. It was used against Goths by the Eastern Roman Empire, and while it didn't do much damage, such siege engines frightened the invaders. However, by the time of Arab conquests in the early 7th century, onagers fell out of use, and began to be replaced by more advanced torsion powered engines, such as the trebuchets.

-Sobekhotep IX
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29/11/2020

The North Sea Empire consisted of Denmark, Norway, and England, though it was a short-lived one. It was established after Sweyn Forkbeard, the king of Denmark from 986 and also of Norway from 1000, conquered the still rather young and weak kingdom of England in 1013 and so united these realms. Yet Sweyn died just one year later in 1014, and so England was returned to Æthelred II (known as the Unready, the previous English king from 978), meanwhile Norway went to Olaf II Haraldsson.

Yet this wasn't over just yet. Sweyn's eldest son C**t (the Great) retook England in 1016, became a king of Denmark in 1018 (when his brother Harald II died), and also secured Norway in 1028. The North Sea Empire was restored, and this time survived a bit longer. It was quite powerful, and C**t was the most influential ruler in western Europe after the Holy Roman Emperor. His reach extended over the entirety of Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Normandy. Also, he began the process of christianization in Denmark and Norway.

Yet, he died in 1035, and his son Harthacnut inherited only Denmark and England (which he held until 1042). Norway went to Olaf II's son Magnus I Olafsson. After Harthacnut died in 1042, England went back to its local monarchs for good (until the Norman invasion at least), while Magnus gained Denmark. Finally, Magnus died in 1047 and the two countries went their separate ways for a while. So this united empire didn't achieve or influence much, but it was still an interesting event I'd say.

-Sobekhotep IX
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28/11/2020

The Fourth Crusade was initially a crusade like the previous three, intended for a campaign in the Middle East. After the European powers lost the Third Crusade in 1198, Jerusalem was once again taken by the Arabs. And so Pope Innocent III called for a new crusade to retake this holy city. This time however, no kings attended it, as they were busy with internal or external affairs, though some lower tier nobles (from France and the Holy Roman Empire) answered the call. The crusaders set out in 1202 and arrived in Venice for transportation to Egypt, where the crusade was supposed to begin.

The problems began when the crusaders realized that they couldn't afford the ships, as Venice had raised the rates for them. But, as both parties needed each other, they reached an agreement. The Venetians would provide naval passage on their ships for free, while the crusaders would reconquer the city of Zara (modern Croatia; it had been taken over by Hungary) for them. Also, Venice would receive half of the crusaders' conquests. So at the end of the year Zara was taken and returned to Venice, but also sacked (the crusaders aren't exactly known for their restraint). For this both parties were excommunicated by the Pope, but this didn't stop the expedition. And now, the Venetian and crusader forces turned to Constantinople instead of Jerusalem. Both parties had a reason for this: the schism between the western Catholic and the Eastern orthodox churches made for intense rivalry between the crusaders and Eastern Romans, while Venetians wanted to remove their main trading opponent in the Mediterranean. This and also that Constantinople was a richer and easier to take city than Jerusalem.

In 1203 the armies (crusaders led by Boniface I and Venetians by Enrico Dandolo) began the siege of Constantinople, which was taken over and sacked after a month. This was the first time this ancient city had fallen to external forces, though it would not be the last. The Eastern Roman Empire all but collapsed, as in 1204 its lands were divided among the western powers. The crusaders established the Latin Empire, based around the Sea of Marmara (it also included Constantinople), as well as its vassals of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, the Duchy of Athens, the Duchy of Archipelago, and the Principality of Achaea (all in Greece). Meanwhile Venice, being more of a fan of islands, received the islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, Negroponte, Crete, and Rhodes, becoming quite the regional power. Also, the Sultanate of Rum (in Anatolia) and Bulgaria also seized some border territories, as the Empire was defenseless anyway by then. Yet the Roman Empire still survived in the form of its successor states in Epirus (western Greece), Trebizond (northern Anatolia), and Nicaea (western Anatolia), with the last one being the official successor state which would eventually retake Constantinople and restore the Empire, if only for a short while. The Eastern Roman Empire had already been on its last legs, but now even those legs were broken...

-Sobekhotep IX
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27/11/2020

Anne Boleyn was the second wife (in 1533 - 1536) of the English king Henry VIII (ruled 1509 - 1547). He had left his first wife Catherine of Aragon in 1527 due to her not producing any children for him, yet was unable to legally divorce her because of Catholic rules. Long story short, the Pope wouldn't allow any of this, so Henry, in the spirit of the Reformation which was just starting, broke off from the Catholic Church in 1532 and created his own Church of England, starting the English Reformation.

Anyways, he was now free to divorce her on his own terms, and so he did, in 1533 making the marriage void and the new one with Anne Boleyn valid. However, they didn't get along too well, and Henry's new wife seemed too independent for him. Also, in 1534 she had a miscarriage and Henry already started thinking about leaving her as well. She later had two more miscarriages, in 1535 and 1536 respectively (it was supposed to be a son all three times, which Henry needed so he would have a successor). He was now really pi**ed and decided to get a new wife. Henry also went even further this time, as Anne was arrested (accused of treasonous adultery and in**st) and later executed. The king would go on to have 4 more wives, though every time it would end up more or less the same.

Credit for the meme to r/okmatewanker on Reddit

-Sobekhotep IX (that's my new title, as proclaimed on the discord, still the same person though)
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25/11/2020

The Rhodian Sea Law (Lex Rhodia in Latin) was a body of regulations governing commercial trade and navigation in the Eastern Roman Empire beginning in the 7th century. However, it soon spread throughout the Mediterranean and influenced the maritime law of the medieval Italian cities.

The Law was based on a statute in the Digest of the Code of Justinian commissioned in the 6th century, as well as on maritime customary law originating on Rhodes in ancient times, when it was still an independent island. The regulations concentrated mostly on the liability for the cost of lost or damaged cargo. Cargo loss was greatest during storms, when part or all of it had to be thrown overboard in order to save the ship. Large amounts were also lost to piracy, as from the 7th century on there was increased danger of sea raids by Arab and Slavic pirates. Thus the maritime law served as a form of insurance, dividing the cost of the losses between the shipowner, the owners of the cargo, and the passengers.

Rhodian Sea Law persisted in influence, if not always in actual practice, through the 12th century. But, after the 4th Crusade (1202 - 1204), the Eastern Roman Empire basically collapsed and its sea commerce dwindled. This eventually made the law obsolete and it was replaced by those of other origins.

-Sanscydides
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24/11/2020

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon mostly used by the Eastern Roman Empire. It's a highly flammable liquid which was made of secret ingredients and used both in catapulted incendiary bombs and sprayed under pressure to launch flames at enemy ships and fortifications. It was used both in defensive and offensive cases.

Its invention is credited to a Greek named Kallinikos, who improved the earlier Roman fire weapons to make this new even more lethal variant. The actual formula is a secret one, as the Eastern Romans were extremely careful to protect it and make sure it doesn't fall into Arab hands (though now we do know that it consisted of light petroleum or naphtha, as well as quicklime, sulphur, resin, and potassium nitrate). It was known to only a select few, and was a jealously guarded state secret which emperors passed on to their successors.

Greek fire was first used in 678 against the Arab forces. After this success, it continued to be used for a few centuries, mostly in naval warfare. It helped the Eastern Romans immensely in the 8th - 11th centuries, yet at some point they stopped using it. After the Fourth Crusade (1202 - 1204) there are no more recorded instances of it being used. Oh well, it was great while it lasted.

-Sanscydides
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22/11/2020

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was created in 1787, ratified in 1788, and effective since 1789, making it the first constitution in the world (followed shortly after by the French and the Polish-Lithuanian constitutions, both in 1791). This all happened after the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) was won by the US.

The constitution originally had 7 articles, the first 3 talking about the doctrine of the separation of powers: the legislative branch, consisting of the bicameral Congress (Article I), the executive branch, consisting of the president and subordinate officers (Article II), and the judicial branch, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts (Article III). The next three are about the rights and responsibilities of state governments, and the states in general. And the last one establishes the procedure subsequently used by the thirteen States to ratify it.

Since 1789, the Constitution has been amended 27 times. The first 10 of these were in a collection known as the Bill of Rights (ratified in 1791), which offers specific protections of individual liberty. The other 17 were added gradually over time (and dealt with similar issues), with the last one becoming a part of the Constitution in 1992.

Credit for the meme to someone on facebook, sorry I forgot by now

-Sanscydides
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21/11/2020

Following the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir of Austria-Hungary's reigning emperor, in Sarajevo on June 28th 1914, the state issued an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. This was due to the fact that the assassin Gavrilo Princip belonged to the group known as Young Bosnia, which sought to free Bosnia from the Austro-Hungarian empire and had connections with Serbia. This ultimatum consisted of several points and would lead to war if Serbia refused.

These points included dissolving some Serbian nationalist organizations, removing all propaganda against Austria-Hungary, arresting some suspects involved in the assassination, and others. After deliberations, Serbia agreed to most points, except for one - that being allowing Austro-Hungarian delegates (law enforcement officers) to take part in the investigations, as they thought that it would be a violation of the constitution - and sent it back to the empire on July 24th. That wasn't good enough for Austria, and so it declared war on Serbia on the 28th, starting the First World War.

-Sanscydides
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20/11/2020

Brazil was first discovered by Europeans in 1500, when the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in the area and claimed it for his country. And while according to the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain was supposed to get most of the western hemisphere, eastern Brazil was in Portugal's sphere, and so it started colonizing this territory. At first, however, Portugal didn't care about it too much, only establishing a few outposts to trade for brazilwood with the natives, while the real money was being made in Asia, where Portugal was profiting from the spice trade.

Portugal started really investing in Brazil around 1530, when they started colonizing more of it and moving further south and inland. In the 16th century France and the Netherlands also tried taking this colony, but were pushed out and so Portugal continued expanding there. Not finding any gold or silver, they decided to use it to grow food products which couldn't be grown in Europe. They tried to***co and cotton, but sugar turned out to be the most suitable, and so the sugar age in Brazil began. Plantations were established and at first were worked by native slaves, but after many of them died due to disease, African slaves were also imported from Portuguese west African outposts.

The colony continued expanding until it reached more or less modern day borders around 1730, though the inland regions were still for the most part independent, as it was very hard to reach them. Around this time, gold was actually discovered and the Brazilian Gold Rush began. Though the biggest changes occurred in 1808, when the Portuguese royal court fled to Brazil after Napoleon had conquered the home country. The royalty were in a real pickle now, so in order to appease the locals, they gave a lot of freedoms to the Brazilians. Brazil even became an equal partner with Portugal, which after Napoleon's defeat in 1815, became known as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Yet Brazil wasn't satisfied even with this status, and in 1822 declared independence (though recognized only in 1825, after its war of independence), at a similar time as all other South American countries.

Credit for the meme to r/okbuddyretard on Reddit

-Sanscydides
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19/11/2020

Hello my loyal Landsknechts, sorry but today instead of a meme you'll only get an announcement from me. I don't know if you have noticed this, but I surely have - to put it bluntly, the posts here seem much less inspired and interesting than those in my other page, Ancient History Papyrusposting, and I'm not sure if I will be able to raise the quality of them any time soon. I always put this page second, tend to reuse topics more often, and just in general not pay too much attention to it, even though it's supposed to be an equal partner in this History page union. This may be for two reasons:

1) This page covers a very broad area, both in time (from the dark ages to modern days) and in space (the entire world, and theoretically even beyond), so it just doesn't have that spirit that a more defined page like AHP (which covers Asia and bits of Europe and Africa, and goes from the invention of writing to the rise of the Arabs - a time period which doesn't have too many difference in itself) has.

2) I am just not as interested in post-classical history as I am in ancient one. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy it very much and I know a lot about it, but that alone isn't enough to make interesting content. For example, 90% of the history books I've read are about ancient history, with only a few being about later periods, and that goes for most other forms of historical content I consume.

What I'm trying to say is, I'm looking for a successor. I suppose Alexander the Great's and Rome's Third Century Crisis metaphors won't fly here, but you all still know what happens to an empire whose ruler died with no heirs. Now, I'm not planning on dying, or indeed leaving the page, anytime soon, but finding a suitable successor is still a priority for me. The page has recently reached 1000 followers, so it definitely has potential, which I feel would better be used by someone who is as into post-classical history as I'm into ancient history. And I know that the typical lifespan of a page is like 1 - 2 years, but in my opinion it would really fit if these history pages were prolonged by a strong line of succession. Not many people make historical memes, and I don't know anyone who also writes about them, so not securing this market is a big missed opportunity.

So anyways, if you are interested in this position, be sure to let me know. I'll try searching on AHP and maybe other places as well, and hopefully a suitable candidate will appear. In the meantime, I will try to continue posting, but, as I said - every day I'm less and less motivated to do that.

-Sanscydides

18/11/2020

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery and other forms of involuntary servitude, was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, as the American Civil War was ending. However, Abraham Lincoln, the president of the US at the time and the main proponent of the abolition, wouldn't live to see this come to action, as he was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth on April 14, while he was at a theatre. He was succeeded by the vice president Andrew Johnson.

The Civil War ended on May 9th, which lead to northern troops being stationed in the south to enforce the new US laws. The Thirteenth Amendment then proceeded to be ratified on December 6, and proclaimed on December 18. Though some slaves had been freed already in the occupied southern states, this amendment finally put an end to slavery for good. However, things were far from good in the south still. The troops were withdrawn by 1876 (as part of the compromise for deciding the new president), and the southern states were left to their own devices. African Americans there were still subjected to white supremacist violence, experienced extreme voting suppression, and overall in practice had fewer rights than those in the north. This would continue to be so for almost another century, until Civil Rights legislation was passed in the 1960s.

Credit for the meme to r/okbuddyretard on Reddit

-Sanscydides
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17/11/2020

The English longbow was a powerful medieval type of longbow of about 1.8 meters long used by the English and Welsh for hunting and as a weapon in warfare. These bows were very effective during the Hundred Years' War, and helped the English win some battles against the French, such as at Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and perhaps most famously Agincourt (1415). Though in some battles the longbowmen were defeated as they hadn't had the time to finish defensive arrangements, such as at Verneuil (1424), or Patay (1429).

The preferred material to make the longbow was yew, although ash, elm, and other woods were also used. The bowstrings meanwhile were made of h**p, flax, or silk. As for the arrows - they were mainly made of poplar, but also of ash, beech, and hazel, and had an average length of 75 centimetres. The bow could shoot a roughly 50 gram arrow for up to 370 meters. However, longbows were very difficult to master because the force required to deliver an arrow through the armor of medieval European knights was very high by modern standards. Still the bows continued to be used in England throughout the Late Medieval period (1250 - 1450), until gunpowder eventually made them obsolete.

-Sanscydides
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16/11/2020

The Kingdom of Chenla was the successor state to the Kingdom of Funan in the region of southeast Asia. But just like with Funan, we don't have much in way of sources from the region itself and have to rely on Chinese travelers who explored this state and wrote about it. Most of the features of religion (Buddhism and Hinduism) and culture/language (Khmer) stayed the same, just another dynasty taking over or something of that sort.

Now the Chinese annals of the Sui dynasty (581 - 618) say that Chenla was established around the middle of the 6th century as a vassal state of Funan, and eventually became independent and even conquered the areas of its former overlord. They sent an embassy to China around 616 and some time after that finished the war, securing the region for themselves. With this state we have a little more local records, as the rulers of Chenla left behind the oldest known stone epigraphs in the region.

Right, so what about this whole water and land Chenla deal? Well, the New Book of Tang (a work of official history covering the Chinese Tang dynasty and the surrounding regions, written sometime in the 11th century) claims that in the 8th century Chenla split into Land Chenla (north) and Water Chenla (south), with the later being more focused on maritime affairs and eventually being integrated to the Javanese (Indonesia) realm, while the northern one remained independent and eventually reclaimed the south, establishing the Khmer Empire (the conventional founding date being 802). But again, this is not certain, as we have to rely on outsider information, and you know how that goes.

-Sanscydides
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Treaty of Versailles

After World War I ended on 11th of November 1918 with the surrender of Germany, it was time for some peace treaties. There was an individual treaty with all of the (now former) Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottomans, but the first and most important one dealt with Germany itself. This was the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on the 28th of June 1919, exactly 5 years after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand - the event which kickstarted the whole war. This treaty was part of the Paris Peace Conference, during which all the other treaties of the war were signed as well. The peace negotiations were dominated by the leaders of the victorious Western nations: Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, Georges Clemenceau of France and, to a lesser extent, Vittorio Orlando of Italy (Russia would have participated too, if it wasn't in a, you know, civil war with none of the factions representing the government which entered the war). For them Germany had been among the biggest rivals and so they wanted to knock it down a peg. In the end, the Allies imposed harsh peace terms on Germany. Territorially, it had to return Alsace-Lorraine to France, Schleswig to Denmark, give Eupen-Malmedy to Belgium, parts of Silesia and West Prussia to Poland, Memel to Lithuania, and all its colonies to the UK, France, or Japan, along with some other minor adjustments. There were other terms as well, such as the demilitarization of the Rhineland, limitation of the army and navy size (and having an air force was completely forbidden), and, of course, the reparation payments for the war to the western allies. It was quite an unpopular treaty, not only in Germany, but also in the western countries, as many there thought that the peace was either too lenient or too harsh and no one was truly happy with the results. -Sanscydides -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you enjoy my writ

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