American Revolution History - American Revolution For more than a decade before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, tensions had been building between colonists and the British authorities. Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies (notably the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Tariffs of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773) met with heated protest among many colonists, who resented their lack of representation in Parliament and demanded the same rights as other British subjects. Colonial resistance led to violence in 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre. After December 1773, when a band of Bostonians dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, an outraged Parliament passed a series of measures (known as the Intolerable, or Coercive Acts) designed to reassert imperial authority in Massachusetts.
Guatamala's Maya Society Featured Huge 'Megalopolis,' LiDAR Data Show Learn how your family history is connected to the human journey with National Geographic’s Geno 2.0 DNA ancestry kit. In what’s being hailed as a “major breakthrough” in Maya archaeology, researchers have identified the ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala. Using a revolutionary technology known as LiDAR (short for “Light Detection And Ranging”), scholars digitally removed the tree canopy from aerial images of the now-unpopulated landscape, revealing the ruins of a sprawling pre-Columbian civilization that was far more complex and interconnected than most Maya specialists had supposed. Garrison is part of a consortium of researchers who are participating in the project, which was spearheaded by the PACUNAM Foundation, a Guatemalan nonprofit that fosters scientific research, sustainable development, and cultural heritage preservation.
Mass Grave in England May Hold a ‘Lost’ Viking Army In the mid-ninth century, a Viking military force known as the Great Heathen Army invaded England. It marked the transition among Vikings from raiding cities to conquering them, and is considered an important historical event in the creation of England. Yet for decades, no one could find any archaeological evidence to back this up. Now, a group of researchers at the University of Bristol in England think they might have found that evidence—i.e., the soldiers’ bones. However, initial carbon dating placed the skeletons in earlier centuries, leading researchers to conclude that they couldn’t be Viking soldiers. It was only after adjusting for Vikings’ seafood diet that researchers were able to correctly carbon date them to the 9th century. VIDEO: Viking Women – In Viking society, women enjoyed a surprising degree of autonomy and independence. The bones come from a mass grave of at least 264 skeletons at St. Other clues support the theory that these are remnants of the Viking army.
4,400-Year-Old Egyptian Tomb Discovered in Ancient Burial Ground Archaeologists have uncovered a 4,400-year-old Egyptian tomb that they believe belonged to a high-ranking priestess. The Egyptian government revealed the new discovery on February 3, 2018, noting that this tomb on the Giza plateau contains rare wall paintings. The researchers say this tomb belonged to Hetpet, a priestess for the goddess Hathor. “The tomb is in very good condition,” said Mostafa Waziri, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, according to the New York Times. Egyptian archaeologists unveil the tomb of an Old Kingdom priestess adorned with well-preserved and rare wall paintings. pic.twitter.com/a0eXSfD3pf— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 3, 2018 Hetpet’s tomb stands in the Saqqara necropolis, a famous burial ground for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. The Antiquities Ministry said that Hetpet’s tomb matches the Fifth Dynasty’s style and architecture.
Historians and Government Shutdowns By Donald A. Ritchie Federal government shutdowns are never in the best interest of historians. The government shutdown of 2013 forced the closure of all National Parks, including the National Mall. Although an enforced paid leave may seem like a gift, especially during the busy holiday season, most of the federal historians that I’ve dealt with have rued the experience. In the ever-ongoing budget disputes between the executive and legislative branches, Congress occasionally missed a deadline without federal employees being furloughed. When Clinton vetoed their appropriations bills, House Republicans led by Speaker Newt Gingrich chose to not to pass compromise measures but to let government spending lapse. The poster child of the massive 1995–96 shutdown was the 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. That crisis ended with the kind of budget compromise between the branches and the parties that they should have reached beforehand. Donald A.
Will Robots Rule the World? On a recent cover of the New Yorker (October 23, 2017), robots purposefully stride to their jobs; the only human in sight is unemployed and begging for change. We are warned: this could be our future. The illustration perfectly captures the current anxiety about automation’s impact on the workplace. People have long connected technological change with the destruction of jobs, as did the Luddites when they destroyed power looms in the 19th century. New fears about robots replacing humans in jobs now extend beyond industrial production to AI and other technologies. Similar concerns have been sparked by previous periods of rapid technological change. The fear that machines will make workers redundant is hardly new. While most Americans have associated science and technology with progress, especially since World War II, they also have been susceptible to waves of what Coopersmith referred to as “techno-pessimism.”
“Fire and Fury”: Military Economies and the Battle of Rhetoric between United States and North Korea By C. Harrison Kim The United States and North Korea recently exchanged several hostile and absurd words—“enveloping fire” (North Korea), “we are now a hyper power” (US), and, of course, “fire and fury” (POTUS). This is not the first time that the two countries have engaged in incendiary rhetoric since the Korean War ended in 1953. While another war has not happened—and a war today is very unlikely—the ongoing “war of words” has helped build the military cultures and economies of the two countries. President Jimmy Carter with Kim Il Sung, the leader of North Korea, in Pyongyang in 1994. A look at Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s party newspaper, can tell us, for example, what the country was saying about the global nuclear threat of 1962, which culminated in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October. The United States and North Korea have been exchanging confrontational rhetoric over the issue of nuclear missiles for over 50 years. C.
The Cold War Never Ended: Historical Roots of the Current North Korea Crisis By Suzy Kim With tensions at an all-time high between the United States and North Korea, the New York Times headlined its recent digital newsletter with Lies Your High School History Teacher Told You About Nukes. The basic point was to debunk the theory of “mutually assured destruction” that is often used to explain why the Cold War remained cold and did not result in a nuclear holocaust. Three soldiers from South Korea stand guard at Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Although the so-called end of the Cold War was expected to make a nuclear-weapons-free world achievable, the latest conflict with North Korea has only heightened the risk of nuclear war. While pundits harp about a lack of good options, it wasn’t so long ago that citizens across the Cold War divide called for peace and disarmament in unison. In 2015, an international group of about 30 peace activists crossed the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea.