ANSWERS: 9
  • My country is India. History of India must be looked at from a cultural perspective to be understood best. Indian Culture and Civilization can be traced back to the Vedas and Upanishads written some 10,000 years ago. People were spiritually inclined and were satisfied with minimum material comforts during the Vedic period and continue to be so to this day. Then came the period of the great epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, 5000 - 7000 years ago. A great deal of light about the life and times of people during this period can be gleaned from these epics. Then came a period of religious and spiritual decline when people forgot about the true essence of the Vedas and the Upanishads. Life of people of my country turned less spiritual and more material during this time. This culminated in the emergence of Buddhism and then Jainism which were in fact highly refined forms of Hinduism. These two religions spread all over the country and Buddhism found acceptance in foreign shores too where it flourishes to this day. Then came Aadi Sankara, who traveled the entire country re-converting Buddhists and practitioners of non-vedic Hinduism back into mainstream spiritual Hinduism. By efforts that were initiated by him India returned to basic Hindu Culture and traditions by 12th Century AD. The first attacks by Muslims from regions west of India in the Middle East commenced by the 11th Century AD and reached their peak with Babur founding a Mogul Empire in the 16th Century. Hindus, generally peace loving spiritual people, could not fight off the onslaught of the Muslim invaders who plundered the wealth stored in Hindu Temples and homes. Countless Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam dividing India into 2 cultures. Then in the 16th Century Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese sailor found a sea route from Europe to India. Others followed soon and The East India Company soon took over all trade between India and Europe. It is reported that the profits the company made on this trade was about 5000%! The East India Company soon created its own army, entered into trading pacts with Princely states in India and soon the direction of Indian History was changed. By the middle of the 19th Century the British crown took over the administration of the Raj (as the the Indian Colony of the British Empire was called then). Around this time a mutiny too took place among the Indian soldiers in the British army in India which became a strong force asking for independence from the British when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi took over leadership of the freedom struggle in early 20th Century. Gandhi managed to unite the entire population of India to fight for freedom through peaceful non-violent means. In 1947 his efforts bore fruit and India finally got its indipendence and later declared itself as a soveriegn democratic republic in 1950. The Muslim population of India who had participated in the freedom struggle demanded a separate country for themselves and Pakistan was carved out of India and it became an Islamic republic while India remained secular. East Pakistan, which too was carved out of India later became Bangladesh in 1971. In the 60 years after independence India has managed to consolidate its economy, develop a good agricultural and industrial base, make education compulsory, found some great democratic institutions and generally eradicate poverty and bring in prosperity. That is the situation as of now. What future holds for India? The future prospects are very bright indeed, in my opinion!
  • Yes, yes I would - thank you for asking. +5
  • It'll be impossible to top Suby's amazing answer, but here goes: Well, you know those Japanese suicide bombers in world war II, Kamekaze? Their name means 'devine wind' and it's named after a massive gust that destroyed an incoming Mongol fleet in ancient times. I'm unclear on the date.
  • Hmm. The daughters of the american revolution (DARs) are an organization that is made up of descendants of women whose ancestors were present at the revolution war (independence). Currently, the DARs organization has the mission of spreading history of USA to those who do not know it. That means publishing history tracts in languages other than english (amer). Of course, the DARs are made up of heavily conservative women. Mostly. There are some like me who piss off the rest of the DARs. My fathers family is revolutionary era long time blue blood pilgrim peeps. My mother (fathers wife) was 1/2 sioux indian. The DARs banned Marian Anderson from singing to a mixed audience in Constitution Hall (1939). http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_61.565.2.jpg just my 2 cents....
  • In living memory for some people, the UK was the only nation in Europe still in any postion to witstand the german war machine under Adolf Hitler, as you will all know. Since any, conventional, military action was out of the question at this time, the best brains in the country where thinking of other ways to fight back. Including an aircraft carrier made of ice. HMS Habbakuk was not strictly speaking made of ice, it was made of Pykrete, a mixture of wood pulp and water that when frozen, was much harder than concrete but still floated on water. Winston Churchill was enthusiastic, and ordered work to commence on a ship made of this new material. HMS Habbakuk was also not strictly speaking an aircraft carrier either. it was a massive floating airfield, that would be positioned in the middle of the Atlantic ocean to guard the trade routes between Britian and North America, which at the time where menaced by German U-Boats and long range bombers. By having an airfield in the middle of the ocean, British and other allied aircraft could destroy these threats, and keep the British lifeline secure. However, work progressed slowly and, by 1944, the battle of the Atlantic was won and the British supply line was secure. Indeed, the Allied forces where pushing back Germany and her allies on all fronts, so it was decided HMS Habbakuk was not needed and the prject was cancelled. Although the massive floating airfield was never put to the test, it is another example of British Ingenuity. Other examples are RADAR being used to great effect during the battle of Britian, and subsequently was used by every combatant to great effect. The jet engine was developed first by Sir Frank Whittle, unfortunatly for a combination of reasons the first British jet aircraft, the Meteor, never saw frontline service during the war. And what some say won the war in Europe, the breaking of the enigma code, took place at Bletchly park in southern England. Although the USA and USSR provided much of the brawn to defeat the Axis powers, it was the British who provided much of the brains. With the Americans and the Soviets in the war, it would be impossible for the war to be lost. But without the UK and the British Commonwealth, the result we all know would not have happend. Operation Overlord would not have been possible in June of 1944 without the British staging bases. Most likely, the Soviet Red Army would reach the French coast upon beating the Germans, trading one crazed Dictator for another.
  • I could but i'd be here all day and our history ain't pretty. :)
  • Well you some of those in your profile.+5
  • We invented the internet, the atom bomb, and put the first men on the moon (with the assistance of our friends of many different nationalities, of course).
  • Contrary to what the history books report, Hernando De Soto was more than just a Spanish Explorer, a Conquistador, a debonair and flashing advenueror. He was a vile and evil person. He led his men down from the Caolinas into Southern Alabama and met up with a Nation of Indians known as the Mobiles. He forced all the able bodied men to showm him the way to the Mississippi River. He left one man behind with the Mobile Nation that had yellow fever and the disease spread and wiped out the entire Mobile Nation. As for the able bodied Mobiles, De Soto forced them to swim into a lake and had his men shoot every one of them like sitting ducks. My text books told me De Soto was a wonderful man and exalted him as a hero. The moral...don't believe every thing you read.

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy