Tag: medieval world: centres of power

King Philip II of Spain, also known as Philip the Prudent, ruled one of the world's largest empires. His reign as Spain's king began the Golden Age, a period of great cultural growth in literature, music and the visual arts. He was also the King of England through his marriage to Mary Tudor for four years. The Philippines, a former Spanish colony, are named after him.

The Etruscan civilization flourished in central Italy between the 8th and 3rd century BCE. The culture was renowned in antiquity for its rich mineral resources and as a major Mediterranean trading power. Much of its culture and even history was either obliterated or assimilated into that of its conqueror, Rome. Nevertheless, surviving Etruscan tombs, their contents and their wall paintings, as well as the Roman adoption of certain Etruscan clothing, religious practices, and architecture, are convincing testament to the great prosperity and significant contribution to Mediterranean culture achieved by Italy's first great civilization.

The main similarity between Julius Caesar of the Roman Empire and Zhu Di of the Ming dynasty was that both were generals who took over the government. Julius Caesar was a Roman general and politician who overthrew the Roman Republic and established the rule of the emperors. Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming dynasty in China, reigning from 1402 to 1424. Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty.

Legalism was a philosophy of administration in ancient China. Upon first acquaintance with this system it seems no more than a rationalization by political administrators for their having total political control of their societies.

The changes that supports the claim that the regional politics of the Mediterranean world changed dramatically in 284 C.E. was the split of the Roman Empire into eastern and western halves.

The administrative system of the traditional Chinese government, the members of which were selected by a competitive examination. The Chinese civil-service system gave the Chinese empire stability for more than 2,000 years and provided one of the major outlets for social mobility in Chinese society. It later served as a model for the civil-service systems that developed in other Asian and Western countries. The Qin dynasty (221-207 BC) established the first centralized Chinese bureaucratic empire and thus created the need for an administrative system to staff it. Recruitment into the Qin bureaucracy was based on recommendations by local officials. This system was initially adopted by the succeeding Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), but in 124 BC, under the reign of the Han emperor Wudi, an imperial university was established to train and test officials in the techniques of Confucian government.

Stoicism means that only the educated are free. The founder of stoicism was Zeno of Citium. Epicureanism meant that the gods are not to be feared, death cannot be felt and the good can be won, all that we dread can be conquered. It was founded by Epicurus. There were practical similarities between stoicism and epicureanism. Both were popular in the Roman era, stoicism was followed by the rank and file of Roman citizenry, and epicureanism behind closed doors, especially at the highest levels of the empire.

The Romans started making concrete more than 2,000 years ago. In the later Roman eras, it was re-discovered that adding volcanic ash to the mix allowed it to set underwater. They had a different formula, which resulted in a substance that was not as strong as the modern product. Yet structures like the Pantheon and the Colosseum have survived for centuries, often with little to no maintenance. Geologists, archaeologists and engineers are studying the properties of ancient Roman concrete to solve the mystery of its longevity.