Sommaire pour No. 133 de All About History

CHIEF JOSEPH NEZ PERCE, C. 1840 – 1904 Having been forced out of their ancestral home, Chief Joseph faced misfortune head-on. Just as his people were set to relocate to Idaho from Oregon, three men from a fellow chief's group attacked and killed some white settlers. What followed was a three-month trek of nearly 300 people to try and reach Canada, fighting battles along the way, but endearing himself to local people. Chief Joseph ultimately surrendered, but continued to advocate for his people, including a personal meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt. EDMONIA LEWIS OJIBWA, 1844 – 1907 Raised in the Ojibwa community of her mother, Lewis was of Native American and African American descent and became the first person of either lineage to gain international recognition as a sculptor. Having…

ÖGEDEI KHAN 1185 - 1241 The third son of Genghis Khan, Ögedei inherited a mighty empire, but looked to expand it even further. He came to the throne in 1229 after his father's death and took the title khagan (meaning ‘great khan'). He trusted his commanders to orchestrate wars on multiple fronts, but he looked to preserve defeated regions to make use of their wealth and skills. GÜYÜK KHAN 1206 - 1248 Grandson to Genghis Khan and eldest son of Ögedei, Güyük was elected to the throne in 1246 following a regency period led by his mother Töregene. His time in charge may have proven contentious, having won out against his cousin Batu who had conquered Russia for the empire, and his interest in Christianity, but he died very shortly…

The Disappearance of Commander Crabb On 19 April 1956, Lieutenant-Commander Lionel “Buster” Crabb vanished into the murky waters of Portsmouth Harbour, never to return. Crabb was a diver of some renown and had been investigating the Russian cruiser Ordzhonikidze on a secret spy mission for MI6. A hero of World War II, he helped defend British ships at port in Gibraltar from Italian saboteurs and afterwards became a public figure as well as an occasional spy. Then, at the age of 47 he seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. The important files pertaining to Crabb's disappearance remain under embargo and their contents top secret until at least 2057. Was he murdered attempting to defect? Captured by Soviet agents? Or as his death simply an accident? Commander Crabb's fateful…

Once upon a time in medieval Paris, a man and a woman met and fell madly in love. Their names were Peter Abelard and Heloise: two intellectuals whose relationship, though ill-fated, has inspired and fascinated people through the ages. But how do we know their story, and why are they remembered with such veneration? The simple answer is that the pair wrote a series of remarkable letters to one another in their later lives, recounting the story of how they met and discussing their relationship as well as matters of philosophy and religion. These letters have been preserved and studied since they were first discovered around 100 years after their deaths, and have provided an incredible insight into a loving, if doomed, relationship from the medieval period. “We abondoned oursleves…

NIKOLAY SVYATOPOLK-MIRSKY This prince and cavalry general graduated from the Page Corps and served in the Caucasus prior to his involvement in the Russo-Turkish War. Following Shipka Pass he was made the ataman of the Don Cossack Voiska and later was made a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia in 1898. In 1895 he also bought and repaired Mir Castle in Belarus. IOSIF GURKO The count and field marshal was born in Novgorod and joined the hussars of the Imperial Guard around the age of 18, becoming a captain at around 29, adjutant to the tsar at 32 and colonel at 33. By the Russo-Turkish War he was a major general and spearheaded the Russian invasion, securing three Balkan passes in the space of 16 days. MIKHAIL SKOBELEV…

1603 - 1850s TIME OF THE SHOGUN From a fractured, warring nation, to one of relative peace through isolation from the majority of the rest of the political and economic world. The ruling dynasty of the Tokugawa shogunate was in many ways a velvet fist in an iron glove; movement in and out of the country was fiercely restricted, as was the visits of foreigners and any information from the outside world. Japan was able to settle into its own cultural and social identity. But the world was knocking on its door and wanted to come in. 1853 - 1868 THE WORLD GOMES GALLING In 1853 the expedition of Commodore Matthew Perry was to add fuel to the already dwindling support for the shogunate and a move towards support for…

ORIGINS OF THE JINGLE DRESS Jingle dresses are worn by indigenous women when performing the historical jingle dance. The dance is said to have begun in the lands of the Anishinaabe and is considered to be a healing dance. It first originated around the turn of the 20th century. The dance quickly spread and became popular among many Indigenous American tribes. BELT Traditional jingle dancers wear a conch or beaded belt around their waist. Concho belts (coming from the Spanish word for shell) are made to resemble rounded silver discs. Some of the first of these belts were made out of melted down silver dollars and were then moulded to create shell-like shapes. MOCCASIN Moccasins are a traditional form of Native American footwear. The shoe is constructed out of a…

Q&A ALL ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS What forms has the dispossession of First Nations in North America taken throughout history? The relationship between the Original People of this continent and the newcomers has been shaped from the start by Europeans' and later Euroamericans' insatiable greed for our land, and their unceasing efforts to gain possession of our resources and to erase us politically. We have always been an obstacle to European ambitions and demonised in colonial mythology. Our peoples' struggle has been to maintain ourselves, to survive the violence and legal machinations of the White Man in our homelands. The first stage of this history was defined by treaty-making on a nationto-nation basis, which was a necessity on the part of Europeans because of our numerical superiority. But as soon as the…

How Temüjin made friends of his enemies and conquered the rest Between 1200 and 1203 Temüjin built a Mongol conglomerate as a result of various conflicts. He was not working to a programme of conquest, picking off his enemies one by one. The situation was more fluid – today's foe might be tomorrow's friend. Merkits There had been bad blood between Temüjin's people and the Merkits since before Temüjin was born. Enmity continued for more than 20 years and was certainly fanned into a blaze when his father Yesugei abducted Hoelun, the wife of a Merkit chief. A generation later Merkit raiders carried off Börte, Temüjin's wife. In the rival assault on the Merkits' encampment Temüjin had the support of the Keraites, then the most powerful of the Mongol tribes.…

Staying on trend with the latest fashion is not just a modern concern – we have been trying to look our best and beat the rest almost since time began. This obsession with the cutting edge of style, however, has often come at a cost. From broken bones and fainting to disfigurement and ultimately death, these fatal fashion fads demonstrate how far some of our ancestors would go in search of style. RADIOACTIVE COSMETICS LATE 19TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURY Once radium was discovered in 1898, various uses for it were suggested including cosmetics. The likes of perfumes, toothpaste, lipsticks and creams containing radium and thorium chloride became especially popular in France. Before the dangers of being exposed to radiation were fully understood, many believed it contained energy that could be anti-ageing…

In the 1970s. a group of 113 letters were discovered by a German scholar. These letters recorded correspondence between a man and a woman and dated from the 1100s. After studying the letters. Professor Mews has attributed their authorship to Abelard and Heloise. But how did he come to this conclusion? The editing of the letters revealed that the two writers were a famous teacher and a brilliant female student of philosophy. Upon looking closer at the vocabulary used by the correspondents. Mews identified the voices of the lovers. “The first trigger was a single word and the word was. in English, ‘knowability'. It was a word that didn't exist before [Abelard first used it].” explains Mews. “I was able to check and it was clear to me that nobody…

MEHMED RAUF PASHA BIN ABDI PASHA Prior to the war Rauf Pasha had served as military attache in France, was aide-de-camp to Sultan Abdulaziz, appointed the governor of Crete (along with several other areas after that) before being made Minister of the Navy in 1875. Following the war with Russia he became governor of Edirne as well as advisor to the Second Army. SÜLEYMAN HOSNO PASHA Having graduated military school, Süleyman Hüsnü served as an officer in what are now Serbia, Bosnia and Albania, followed by a role as major in Crete where he stood against a local rebellion. Following this he was promoted to mirliva or brigadier general and worked in the military schools. He was chief commander of the Balkan Peninsula forces in the war with Russia.…

1894 NO BROKEN CHINA Should Japan have remained isolated, at least in part, then its regional ambitions may well have been very different. The conflict with China over Korea in 1894-5 may never have happened. The humiliation of the actual war caused the Chinese Qing dynasty untold damage, which may have been avoided altogether if Japan had not been an aggressor. If Chinese political and military reformers had not had the example of a successfully modernising Japan across the water, the Qing imperial dynasty might have survived rather longer than it did. 1904 - 1917 HALF A REVOLUTION Despite Japan's emerging overseas ambitions, Imperial Russian defeat by the developing military nation was regarded as preposterous by the Tsar. The humiliation for the Russian people was difficult to take, and unrest…

Author: Antonia Fraser Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Price: £25 Released: Out now AGeorgian aristocrat and author, Lady Caroline Lamb, born in 1785, led a remarkable life. Remembered as the obsessed lover of the poet Lord Byron, Caroline Lamb's life was extraordinary as she forged her way as a wife, writer and woman of high society. Antonia Fraser's beautifully written biography provides a wellrounded portrait of this extraordinary, multifaceted woman. Fraser paints a vivid picture of the closeknit family Caroline was born into, full of strong-willed women, including her aunt – the infamous Lady Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire. The romantic affairs of her mother and aunt set the tone for Caroline's later indiscretions: though Caroline married for love to William Lamb, she engaged in public friendships and romantic entanglements…

1756 FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR The Seven Years' War sees British and French forces battle each other to claim the area of the upper Ohio River Valley. Both sides are supported in their efforts by a number of Native American tribes. Eventually the British are the victors. 1804 SACAGAWEA MEETS LEWIS AND CLARK The Shoshone woman Sacagawea meets Meriwether Lewis and William Clark while six months' pregnant. She, alongside her French-Canadian husband and later her small baby, accompany Lewis and Clark to explore the US-acquired land from the Louisiana Purchase. ARCHAIC PERIOD c.6000 BCE - c.500 CE Indigenous people of the Archaic culture differ from their predecessors by living in larger groups with a less nomadic lifestyle and a more varied diet. MISSISSIPPIAN CULTURE c.1000 - c.1500 Mississippian culture, which originates in…

This striking wooden doll is one of a number of katsina dolls currently in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These dolls demonstrate the craftsmanship of the members of the Hopi tribe, but their importance goes beyond mere aesthetics. Katsina dolls are spiritually and culturally significant and can tell us a great deal about the folklore of the Pueblo indigenous peoples. The word Katsina (sometimes Kachina) refers to a race of supernatural beings in folklore. These beings come in many forms and are said to represent anything from animals, to crops, to the weather. The latter are stated to have magical powers that also allow them to control the weather, including influencing the rain – all important to agricultural peoples. Through the half of the year that they…

The bow was the most important weapon in the Mongols' arsenal. An ordinary bow, made of wood with a drawstring, was easy to construct, however, the Mongol bow was a completely different entity. Utilising a composite structure, with wood or bamboo, horn, sinew and animal-based glue, it was far more powerful than a regular bow, but also took far longer to construct. The wooden core had a strip of horn glued to one side, with animal sinews on the opposite side, all held in place with glue. Both horn and animal sinew had greater elasticity compared to wood and could store more energy. And once the component pieces had set together, the bow would be drawn back against its natural curve, creating the familiar shape and imparting even more power…

In the Greco-Roman world, forgotten cults enacted arcane rituals whose secrets historian Hugh Bowden reveals… EXPERT BIO HUGH BOWDEN Professor Hugh Bowden is head of classics at King's College London. He is the author of Mystery Cults of the Ancient World. In the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, secret societies practised rituals, the knowledge of which has since been lost to time. These rituals, known as ‘mysteries’, continue to fascinate historians who seek to piece together disparate sources, from scant written accounts to evidence found at archaeological sites, in an attempt to further understand these fascinating cults. Professor Hugh Bowden of King's College London has spent many years studying Greek religion and to celebrate the release of his seminal work, Mystery Cults In The Ancient World, in paperback,…

Peter Abelard died in 1142. His remains were taken to the Paraclete where Héloïse had them buried. When she died in around 1163. she was buried next to her husband. There is some dispute over what happened to the lovers' bodies next but it is believed that they were moved at least once and now rest in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. “At the time of the French Revolution they were the only people from the Middle Ages whose bodies were allowed to go into the cemetery of Pere Lachaise where they are still buried. They were seen as secular saints, and no one else got into that category.” says Mews. Though their respective legacies as writers, philosophers and theologians remain highly influential, the often fictionalised romantic aspects…

Through History Style and Society In the Georgian era, the dress of the royal court took on an exaggerated appearance. Dresses were bigger and wider, hair styles were taller, and jewellery and accessories were overstated and elaborately decorated. These styles were all influenced and enabled by the entertainment, trade and technological developments of the era, not only among the elite but also across wider British society. As courtly fashion started to become more outdated, the upper classes began to look at the styles of the lower classes, who were dressing for the new entertainment venues of the time such as theatres and coffee houses, for inspiration. In a new exhibition, displayed in The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, the world of Georgian fashion is being presented to the public through immaculately…