I’ve completely forgotten many important parts of history since I have a memory that hardly lasts a month. So can we revise, in most simple words, what some of the famous historians did and why they are famous? main events from their life?
How about:
and other such famous personalities?
P.S after we are done with historians, maybe we could move to basic history of each of the countries ..
Re: Revising history?
Good idea. I'll post about these persons shortly.
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Knock Knock … 
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Working on the material available on these personalities. Will definitely start posting by day end today IA. Keep visiting and contributing.
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Genghis Khan
The name echoes through the history of Europe and Asia with a drumbeat of horse-hooves, accompanied by the screams of doomed townspeople. Incredibly, in a span of just 25 years, Genghis Khan’s horsemen conquered a larger area and greater population than the Romans did in four centuries.
To the millions of people his hordes conquered, Genghis Khan was evil incarnate. ** In Mongolia and across Central Asia today, though, the Great Khan’s name is revered. Some Central Asians still name their sons “Chinguz,” in hopes that these namesakes will grow up to conquer the world, as their thirteenth century hero did.**
Genghis Khan’s Early Life:Records of the Great Khan’s early life are sparse and contradictory. He was likely born in 1162, though some sources give it as 1155 or 1165.
We know that the boy was given the name Temujin. His father Yesukhei was the chief of the minor Borijin clan of nomadic Mongols, who lived by hunting rather than herding.
Yesukhei had kidnapped Temujin’s young mother, Hoelun, as she and her first husband rode home from their wedding. She became Yesukhei’s second wife; Temujin was his second son by just a few months. Mongol legend says that the baby was born with a blood-clot in his fist, a sign that he would be a great warrior.
Hardship and Captivity:When Temujin was nine, his father took him to a neighboring tribe to work for several years and earn a bride. His intended was a slightly older girl named Borje.
On the way home, Yesukhei was poisoned by rivals, and died. Temujin returned to his mother, but the clan expelled Yesukhei’s two widows and seven children, leaving them to die.
The family scraped a living by eating roots, rodents, and fish. Young Temujin and his full brother Khasar grew to resent their eldest half-brother, Begter. They killed him; as punishment for the crime, Temujin was seized as a slave. His captivity may have lasted more than five years.
Temujin as a Young Man:Free at sixteen, Temujin went to find Borje again. She was still waiting, and they soon married. The couple used her dowry, a fine sable-fur coat, to make an alliance with Ong Khan of the powerful Kereyid clan. Ong Khan accepted Temujin as a foster-son.
This alliance proved key, as Hoelun’s Merkid clan decided to avenge her long-ago kidnapping by stealing Borje. With the Kereyid army, Temujin raided the Merkids, looting their camp and reclaiming Borje.
Temujin also had help in the raid from his childhood blood-brother (“anda”), Jamuka, who would later become a rival.
Borje’s first son, Jochi, was born nine months later.
Consolidation of Power:After rescuing Borje, Temujin’s small band stayed with Jamuka’s group for several years. Jamuka soon asserted his authority, rather than treating Temujin as an anda, and a two-decade-long feud developed between the nineteen-year-olds. Temujin then left the camp, along with many of Jamuka’s followers and livestock.
At the age of 27, Temujin held a kuriltai among the Mongols, who elected him khan. The Mongols were only a Kereyid sub-clan, however, and Ong Khan played Jamuka and Temujin off one another.
As khan, Temujin awarded high office not just to his relatives, but to those followers who were most loyal to him.
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(These all events are beautifully documented in movie Mongol)**.
Uniting the Mongols:In 1190, Jamuka raided Temujin’s camp, cruelly horse-dragging and even boiling alive his captives, which turned many of his followers against him.
The united Mongols soon defeated the neighboring Tatars and Jurkins, and Temujin Khan assimilated their people rather than following steppe custom of looting them and leaving.
Jamuka attacked Ong Khan and Temujin in 1201. Despite an arrow to the neck, Temujin defeated and assimilated Jamuka’s remaining warriors.
Ong Khan then treacherously tried to ambush Temujin at a wedding ceremony for Ong’s daughter and Jochi, but the Mongols escaped and returned to conquer the Kereyids.
Genghis Khan’s Early Conquests:Unification of Mongolia ended in 1204, when Temujin defeated the powerful Naiman clan. Two years later, another kuriltai confirmed him as Chingis Khan (“Genghis Khan”), or Oceanic Leader of all Mongolia.
Within five years, the Mongols had annexed much of Siberia and modern Chinese Xinjiang.
The Jurched Dynasty, ruling northern China from Zhongdu (Beijing), noticed the upstart Mongol khan and demanded that he kowtow to their Golden Khan. In reply, Genghis Khan spat on the ground.
He then defeated their tributaries, the Tangut, and in 1214 conquered the Jurcheds and their 50 million citizens. The Mongol army numbered just 100,000.
Conquest of Central Asia, the Middle East and the Caucasus:Tribes as far away as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan heard about the Great Khan, and overthrew their Buddhist rulers in order to join his growing empire. By 1219, Genghis Khan ruled from northern China to the Afghan border, and Siberia to the border of Tibet.
He sought a trade alliance with the powerful Khwarizm Empire, which controlled Central Asia from Afghanistan to the Black Sea. Sultan Muhammad II agreed, but then murdered the first Mongol trade convoy of 450 merchants, stealing their goods.
Before the end of that year, the wrathful Khan had captured every Khwarizm city, adding lands from Turkey to Russia to his realm.
Genghis Khan’s Death and Succession:In 1222, the 61-year-old Khan called a family kuriltai to discuss the succession. His four sons disagreed over which should be Great Khan. Jochi, the eldest, was born soon after Borje’s kidnapping and might not be Genghis Khan’s son, so second son Changatai challenged his right to the title.
As a compromise, the third son, Ogodei, became successor. Jochi died in February 1227, six months before his father, who passed away that autumn.
Ogodei took East Asia, which would become Yuan China. Chagatai got Central Asia. Tolui, the youngest, took Mongolia proper. Jochi’s sons got Russia and Eastern Europe.
The Legacy of Genghis Khan:Imperial Legacy:After Genghis Khan’s secret burial on the steppes of Mongolia, his sons and grandsons continued to expand the Mongol Empire.
Ogodei’s son Kublai Khan defeated the Song rulers of China in 1279, and established the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan would rule all of China until 1368. Meanwhile, Chagatai pushed south from his Central Asian holdings, conquering Persia.
Legacy in Law and Rules of War:Within Mongolia, Genghis Khan revolutionized the social structure and reformed traditional law.
His was an egalitarian society, in which the humblest slave could rise to be an army commander if he showed skill or bravery. War booty was divided evenly among all warriors, regardless of social status. Unlike most rulers of the time, Genghis Khan trusted loyal followers above his own family members (which contributed to the difficult succession as he aged).
The Great Khan forbade the kidnapping of women, probably due in part to his wife’s experience, but also because it led to warfare among different Mongol groups. He outlawed livestock rustling for the same reason, and established a winter-only hunting season to preserve game for the hardest times.
Contrary to his ruthless and barbaric reputation in the west, Genghis Khan promulgated several enlightened policies that would not become common practice in Europe for centuries more.
He guaranteed freedom of religion, protecting the rights of Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus alike. Genghis Khan himself worshiped the sky, but he forbade the killing of priests, monks, nuns, mullahs, and other holy people.
The Great Khan also protected enemy envoys and ambassadors, no matter what message they brought. Unlike most of the conquered peoples, the Mongols eschewed torture and mutilation of prisoners.
Finally, the khan himself was bound by these laws as well as the common people.
Genetic Legacy:A 2003 DNA study revealed that about 16 million men in the former Mongol Empire, about eight per cent of the male population, carry a genetic marker that developed in one family in Mongolia about 1,000 years ago. The only likely explanation is that all of them are descended from Genghis Khan or his brothers.
Genghis Khan’s Reputation: He is remembered by some as a blood-thirsty tyrant, but Genghis Khan was a practical conqueror, more interested in goods than in killing. He rose from poverty and slavery to rule the world.
Source: Weatherford, Jack. *Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.*Three Rivers Press, 2004.
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/GenghisKhanProf.htm
For further details on Genghis Khan, you can refer to Harold Lamb book ‘Genghis Khan’ also available online:
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I want to read about Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte
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Background
**He was born Napoleone di Buonaparte on the island of Corsica only one year after it was handed from Genoese rule to France: this why he changed his name to the more French sounding name of Napoléon Buonaparte, later in life.
His family were minor Italian nobility. His father was Corsica’s representative in the court of Louis XVI in 1778. The main influence in his childhood was his mother. Her influence kept the young Napoleon in check…his nickname meant the meddler or the disrupter.
**Education
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His noble background gave him the opportunity to study at a French military school near Troyes, which he entered at the age of nine. He had to learn French before started at the school but he always spoke with a strong Italian accent. Upon graduation, he entered the elite École Royale Militaire in Paris. He completed a two year course of study in twelve months.
**Military Experience
**In September 1786 , aged just sixteen, he took his commission as second lieutenant of artillery. He served on garrison duty in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789. This did include nearly two years leave spent in Corsica and Paris. He and his family were forced to flee to France after another sojourn in Corsica in June 1793.
Over the years Bonaparte’s skills as a tactician ensured his rise through the military ranks. He had an ability to apply his knowledge of conventional military thought to real life situations. He made use of spies to spring surprises on the enemy.
While he was campaigning in Italy, Bonaparte became interested in French politics. He gained influence through the two newspapers he published for his troops. He published a third newspaper, le journal de Bonaparte et des hommes verteux. The elections in 1797 resulted in more power for the Royalists. The Royalists attacked Bonaparte for looting Italy and overstepping the mark in his dealings with the Austrians.
Bonaparte joined a cou p d’etat, which purged the royalists in Paris. Leaving the republicans in firm control, he proceeded with peace negotiations with the Austrians. When he returned to Paris himself he was greeted as a hero and a dominant force in the government.
Military Expeditions
During the next eighteen months, Bonaparte proposed and undertook a military expedition to seize Egypt and a province of the Ottoman Empire to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain’s access to India.
His expedition was mostly successful but extremely brutal. With an army weakened by plague and poor supplies, he led 13,000 French soldiers to victory over the coastal towns of El Arish, Gaza, Jaffa and Haifa. In Jaffa, French soldiers slaughtered 2,000 Turkish troops as they tried to surrender. The French spent the next three days slaughtering the inhabitants of the city. Then Bonaparte ordered the execution of a further 3,000 Turkish prisoners.
The weakness of his army, caused by the plague, prevented Bonaparte from taking the fortress of Acre. He returned to Egypt. In order to speed his retreat, he ordered the killing of prisoners and plague stricken soldiers en route.
**I found it interesting to learn that it was during Bonaparte’s expedition, the Rosetta Stone was discovered. It is this stone with its use of three scripts, Egyptian, Greek and hieroglyphs, that gave the modern world the opportunity to decipher the hieroglyphics discovered in the remains of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation.
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On his return from Egypt, Bonaparte discovered that the Republic was bankrupt. He supported a coup to overthrow the constitution. He manoeuvred his way to being made First Consul In charge of France and later was declared First Consul for life!
Later that year, Bonaparte sent an army to reconquer Haiti. Yellow fever and fierce resistance from the supporters of Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines destroyed their base. It became apparent that the French possessions on the mainland could not be defended, and, knowing that he was facing a war with Britain, Bonaparte sold the French interest to the United States for less than three cents an acre……the Louisiana Purchase!
In 1803, Britain declared war on France. After discovering an assassination plot against him, sponsored by the Bourbons, Bonaparte ordered the execution of the Duc d’Enghein, declaring himself Emperor of France to prevent the recreation of an hereditary monarchy. He was crowned on 2 December 1804 in Notre Dame Cathedral. On 26 May 1805, he had himself crowned King of Italy in Milan’s Cathedral.
History shows the rest of his story with his desire to make France great and in doing so create positions for all his family. There are famous and infamous expeditions, battles and sieges, which we all learnt at school.
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Defeat & Death
**After all of this, Napoleon Bonaparte ended facing the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht at Waterloo in present day Belgium on 18 June 1815. His defeat, led to his imprisonment and exile by the British to the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. He was ill for much of his exile, although he was able to dictate his memoirs.
He died 5 May 1821.
http://www.motivationmatterslimited.co.uk/news/203.htm
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Some interesting facts about Napoleon
**- Autopsy report concluded that Napoleon died of stomach cancer but some scientists believed he was poisoned with arsenic.
Napoleon was a Roman Catholic but did not believe in the existence of a living God.
Bonaparte was good in mathematics and was fairly well acquainted with history and geography
Napoleon was also a writer; he wrote a romantic novella entitled Clisson et Eugenie. The story was about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to his own relationship with Desiree.
The famous German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven was Napoleon’s long-time admirer but when he gets disappointed at Napoleon’s turn towards imperialism, Beethoven scratched his dedication to Napoleon from his 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Symphony.
Stories telling that Napoleon was a very small guy are absolutely false. The British Tory press sometimes depicted Napoleon as much smaller than average height, and this image persists. Napoleon Bonaparte was about 1.7 meters or 5 ft 7 in tall, an average height during his period.
Napoleon’s last words were, “France, armee, tete d’armee, Josephine - “France, army, head of the army, Josephine.”
In Napoleon’s will, he have asked to be buried on the banks of the Seine, but the British governor said he should be buried on St. Helena, in the Valley of the Willows. Napoleon’s tomb at St. Helena was nameless. After 19 years, Napoleon’s remains were return to France in 1840 upon the request of Louis Phillip to the British government and a state funeral was held in on December 15, 1840.
In 1861, his remains were entombed in a porphyry sarcophagus in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides. Napoleon’s body was found to be remarkably well-preserved when moved in 1840. Experts say that arsenic is a strong preservative and therefore this supported the poisoning hypothesis.