The Super Summary of World History - Alan Dale Daniel [302]
[105] Sort of Protestant. The Church of England retained much from Catholic teachings. Note the year. This is about 500 years after William the Conquer carried a flag into battle against the Saxons and Britons which had been blessed by the pope. 500 years is a LONG time. The US has been around less than 250. Thus, Henry was really running against a long tradition of Catholicism in England. This was a world changing event.
[106] How did the public become literate so fast? Almost overnight, huge numbers of people in Europe learned to read.
[107] His words are now beamed into space, which could mean they will survive until the end of time as we know it, although the SETI project has stated radio beams disintegrate after a few years of traveling through space and become static. So why are they still looking for signals from space? The government must be paying.
[108] The “Divine Right of Kings” is a philosophy that holds the king is appointed by god; thus, he/she can do no wrong, and they rule by Divine Right. Only god can replace the king. Europe’s intellectuals were starting to think this kind of belief was pure hogwash and had to be reevaluated.
[109] Land and buildings are good things to tax because they are very hard to hide, and their ownership is normally very clear. The Catholic Church had been immune to taxation all over Europe for centuries, and a lot of the new leaders were fed up with that arrangement. Obviously, the Church had decreased in power.
[110] The First Estate was the clergy, the Second Estate was the nobility, and the Third Estate was the commoners—the ones that were starving.
[111] King Louis XVI was put to death on January 21, 1793, and his queen on October 16, 1793.
[112] For all his victories on land, Napoleon failed to win at sea; and this isolated him on the European landmass. Several key English naval victories by Admiral Nelson—Trafalgar in 1805 being the most famous—sealed Napoleon’s fate.
[113] Of course, it is hard to kill religion by decree. The Catholic Church survived the decree, although its political power was much reduced.
[114] Rome had industrial-level factories using waterwheels to grind flower and do other chores. These overshot waterwheel-driven factories turned out impressive amounts of grain for the vast empire. When the Dark Ages arrived, this Roman technology was lost.
[115] By 1399, the effects of the Black Plague were over; and the population was expanding again.
[116] Literature, music, and other artistic forms were expressing the same themes.
[117] In spite of the splotchy, close-up look, each stroke had a purpose, each color was exactly placed; and even when standing far away from the painting, the subject could still be discerned. When a person gets too far away from a painting by the old masters, the subject becomes indistinct. The Impressionists were showing the world that even though confusion seemed to be the scheme of life, in fact that confusion was organized into a solid, coherent whole when looked at in concert.
[118] As Will Rogers said during the Great Depression, “We (the US) will be the first nation to drive to the poor house.”
[119] Jefferson, the third US president, was elected in 1801, and this was the first power transfer between political parties. And yes, this is the same Thomas Jefferson that penned the Declaration of Independence. Note that political parties were not anticipated by the drafters of the US Constitution. Jefferson wanted Congress and the president to stay within the specific powers given them in the US Constitution, and since the ability to buy land was not specifically given to the president he worried that he was, by his actions, going to expand the power of the executive. Of course, he did expand the power of the executive, but it would make little difference given the massive expansion of power that would come later.
[120] Old Iron Sides was her nickname because metal sheeting placed over the hull caused enemy cannonballs to ricochet off.
[121] It was in one of these engagements that John Paul Jones, aboard the Bonhomme