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Why were the Balkans known as the "Powder Keg of Europe"?

Before the start of World War I, many countries in Europe wanted control of the Balkans. Russia and Austria wanted Serbia and many European countries opposed the Ottoman Empire. The instability in the region eventually caused the First Balkan war in 1912. Bulgaria was unhappy with the treaty that was drafted to end the first war so that country began the Second Balkan War in 1913.Germany and Russia were the two largest countries involved in the ongoing Balkan conflicts. They weren't always sure what to do because they had an obligation to their allies to assist if and when the situation w..

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Who invented the derringer pistol?

Many people copied Deringer's design, and the small pistol became known generically as a "derringer." Eliot's double-barrelled pistol used a .41 short caliber bullet and became very popular. The original derringer pistol was a single-shot muzzle-loading pistol. As firearms technology advanced, the design of the pistol changed significantly, but small pistols were still known as derringers. The name "derringer" is typically given to the smallest handgun of any specific caliber.

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How did Jose Rizal became a national hero?

Rizal was born in the Philippines' Laguna Province. He studied medicine in Manila but left to complete his degree in Spain in 1882. While in Europe, Rizal wrote multiple works that exposed the immorality of Spanish colonial rule and advocated for reform in the Philippines, particularly rallying for equal treatment of Filipinos, curbing the power of Spanish friars and allowing for Filipino representation in the Spanish political system. When Rizal returned to the Philippines, he founded a group that championed non-violent protest. Despite his peaceful ways, he was exiled from the Philippin..

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What is China's relationship to Tibet?

In 1959, a popular uprising among Tibetans attempted to reassert Tibetan independence, but the uprising failed. Following the failure, the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dali Lama, fled Tibet and began an international campaign to pressure world leaders to advocate for Tibetan autonomy and independence, with many of his supporters fleeing to India to establish a government-in-exile.\nThe relationship between the peoples of Tibet and the Chinese state have been tense since the 1950 Chinese military invasion. Riots occurred as recently as 2008. The conflict has been a major concern among human ri..

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What role did Hideki Tojo play in WWII?

As an army officer before WWII, Tojo was an advocate of hostilities against China and took part in battles in Inner Mongolia. Returning to Tokyo, he became army vice minister in 1938 and army minister in 1940, advocating alliances with Germany and Italy through the Tripartite Treaty. Tojo became prime minister of Japan in October 1941. Although at first he favored diplomatic efforts to forgo open warfare, eventually he gave approval to open aggression against nations in Indochina and the South Pacific, including the bombing of the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.\nAs early Japanese vic..

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What are some interesting facts about Pedro Alvares Cabral?

As with many discoveries of the day, Cabral finding Brazil was an accident. He led a fleet charged with establishing a trading route with India. He had the route mapped out by another famous explorer of the day, Vasco de Gama, but decided not to follow it and ended up in Brazil. As a result, Cabral did not explore Brazil, but continued his mission and finally reached the Malabar Coast of India in late September.\nHe set up a trading post, but an attack by Muslims killed all 50 of Cabral's men left there. Cabral retaliated by burning Indian ships and left to find a more welcoming region. T..

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What is the history of the Cartesian plane?

Apollonius of Greece found rudimentary ways to solve geometrical problems, and the French cleric Nicole Oresme of the 14th century used systems similar to Cartesian coordinates. However, it was not until Rene Descartes in 1637, that Euclidean geometry and algebra were at last united.\nScholars named the coordinate system after Descartes; however, many of the features of the modern Cartesian plane were additions by subsequent mathematicians. Descartes only worked with the x-axis and in the first quadrant; up until that time, the concepts of zero and negative numbers were not common.\nIt was Isa..

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Who killed Cleopatra?

Schaefer supported his theory with history and toxicology. He deduced that Cleopatra -- who wanted suicide and was reputed to want a quiet and pain-free death -- did not die of a cobra bite. A bite from a cobra is not always fatal and quick; instead, its victim endures a horrible death. Schaefer and German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs decided that Cleopatra might have used a mixture of hemlock, wolfsbane and opium. Opium can make a person fall into a quiet, deadly sleep.

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What caused trade to increase during the Renaissance?

During the Renaissance, nation-states and city-states ruled by monarchies began to take the place of feudal manors and fiefdoms. The monarchies viewed trade and commerce as a means of acquiring wealth and power and as a way of weakening the strength of the feudal barons and landholders. The urban centers of the Renaissance developed into hubs of influence and wealth, with trade and money-lending serving as their foundation.The Renaissance also sparked an increased interest in seafaring exploration but with the intent of generating profit. The development of new trade routes that were accessibl..

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What happened in 1939?

On September 3, 1939, German forces sunk a passenger vessel carrying over 1,000 people, and 112 of those passengers lost their lives, which angered the Allied forces. The next day, the Allied forces began dropping bombs on German ships causing mass causalities. The United States vowed to stay neutral during the war, but the country joined the Allied forces in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor. World War II finally ended with the Axis' surrender in 1945.

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