Sunday, January 24, 2010

What if the South won the Civil War?

Its all speculation...

Confederacy forms alliance with the United Kingdom

Mexico attacks the Confederacy in an attempt to win back territory in the South Western United states.

Mexicans are driven backward and defeated.

US and Confederacy clash in the 1880's in a Second War. Conflict ends in stalemate. The War is fought over Expansion rights in the Western Half of North America.

Politics in the Confederacy is dominated by two groups: The Industrialists, who feel that the Confederates should focus on growing an industrial base to rival the North and the agriculturists, who still view the South as an agrarian society. The Industrialists will eventually succeed and as a result of necessity the Confederacy will become more industrialized than it did in Plane-zero USA.

The North (or the US) will continue to grow industrially fueled of course by the influx of European immigrants in the 19th century.

US and Confederacy agree to divide the Western states amongst each other. The Northwestern States and California will fall under US Domination. The southwestern and several mid-western states will join the Confederacy.

Slavery will eventually be abolished in the Confederacy but only in the 1920s after several devastating slave rebellions bring chaos to the Southern States. International pressure and a changing political scene will force the Confederacy to drop its pro-slavery stance.

Texas will break away from the Confederacy in the 1910s and form a new nation the Republic of Texas.

Without a dominant power in North America, the European countries will become more involved in South America. Major players will include Britain, France and Germany.

The Confederacy will enter the First World War at an earlier stage than the US did in reality.

The reason for this early entry by the Confederacy is motivated by a need to assist the British Empire, the South's most significant trading partner.

30 Greatest Breakthroughs in Mathematics

Ancient Humanity develops the know how to reason and comprehend numbers.
Development of the standard operations of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division.
The development of Fractions.
The development of the concept of the positive and negative integer.
Euclid formalizes Geometric Knowledge.
Early Development of Algebra by the Ancient Greeks and Arabs.
The development of the number zero by the Ancient Indians.
Arab Numerals make their way into the Western World.
Rene Descartes creates the discipline of Cartesian Geometry. Birth of the Era of the Graph.
Issac Netwton and Gottfried Leibnitz independently invent the calculus.
Birth of the discipline of trigonometry.
Indians develop what will later become known as Pythagoras's Theorem.
Development of the concept of the vector and n-space: Birth of Vector Algebra and Vector Geometry.
Blaise Pascal's work gives rise to Probability Theory.
The development of logarithms as a calculating technique by John Napier.
Development of Statistics as a mathematical discipline.
Development of the discipline of Numerical iteration by messrs: Newton, Simpson, Euler and Runge-Kutte.
Development of Matrix Algebra by Messrs Gauss, Jordan.
Geometrical work on the Theory of Conic Sections.
Development of the concept of Irrational numbers.
The Development of Set Theory.
Number Theory comes to light in the 19th century.
Invention of the concept of the Imaginary Number.
Invention of the discipline of game theory.
The development of Chaos Theory in the 20th century.
Birth of the discipline of surface topography.
Development of the concept of infinity.
Development of the mathematics of Solids and Crystals.
Omar Khayyam Develops the Binomial Theorem.
Formalization of Fermat's Last Theorem (by Pierre Fermat) and its eventual proof by Andrew Wiley.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Early French History

Many English speakers don't know much about French history....here is a snapshot of some key milestones prior to 1328.

1.Prehistoric activity in Early France as is evidenced by caves paintings at Lascaux and Gargas.
2. The Celts settle France (Gaul). City of Paris founded by Parsii tribe. Other cities founded by the Celts are Bordeaux and Toulouse.
3. Greeks found the port of Marseilles.
4. Gauls sack Rome in the 4th century BC
5. Caesar launches his Gallic Wars. Gauls defeated Romans at Gergovia but Caesar wins at Alesia and captures Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix. Gaul is assimilated into the Roman Sphere of Influence.
6.Romans Latinise the Gauls. Growth of Paris (known as Lutetia by the Romans)
7. Cities founded by the Romans include Lyon and Narbonne.
8. Germanic (Franks) tribes invade France in the 5th century. Clovis defeats the Romans at the Battle of Soissons (later a World War One site).
9. Paris established as capital by Clovis I in 508AD
10. Clovis I introduces Christianity to France. He is the First King of the Franks.
11. Merovingian dynasty founded by Sailian Franks.
12. Clovis battles his Burgundian rivals in the early 6th century.
13. Merovingians rule France between 481-751CE.
14. Charles Martel defeats the Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732 saving Christian France from Islam.
15. Pippin the Short establishes the Carolingian dynasty in 751AD.
16. Carolingian dynasty reaches the zenith of its power under Charlemagne.
17. Charlemagne defeated the Lombards, the Avars and the Saxons. He extended the frontier of his kingdom as far south as Barcelona and succeeds in uniting the Franks.
18. Golden age of learning under Charlemagne.
19. Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800AD (by Pope Leo III)
20. Louis I the Pious, Charlemagne’s son inherits kingdom. After Louis’s death the kingdom is divided after a series of military clashes and the Treaty of Verdun between Louis the German, Charles the Bald and Lothair.
21. Carolingian power declines under Viking attacks.
22. Vikings under Rollo establish kingdom of Normandy.
23. Carolingian dynasty ends in 987 AD.
24. Hugh Capet – The Duke of Franks becomes king of the Franks in 987 AD. His kingdom does not extend much beyond Paris. This does mark thebeginning of Capetian dynasty.
25. Abbey of Cluny becomes more influential in France Religious and Political circles.
26. French knights lead the successful First Crusade.
27. Louis VI extends Royal power at the expense of popularity, He is assisted by the talented politician Abbot Sugar (forerunner to Richelieu)
28. Sugar arranges for the marriage between Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine – more consolidation of Royal power.
29. Louis VII involves France in the disastrous Second Crusade.
30. Much of France is under control of the Plantagenet dynasty, which controls the English, thrown (through Henry II and his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine – she had split with Louis VII by then of course).
31. Reign of Philip II Augustus. France enters diplomatic period. Philip involves France in the Third Crusade and wins back territory from the English king John.
32. Louis IX (later St. Louis) defeats rivals and begins French expansion in Europe. Gothic architecture and biblical gain significance during his reign. Louis regains territory from English King Henry III but also involves France in the failed Seventh and Eight crusades. Louis, himself died in the eighth crusade.
33. Charles IV the Fair dies in 1328. He is the last Capetian ruler.