I’m sure that anyone with a real interest in rock music has a few bands that they absolutely love but when mentioning them to others they’re usually met with a response of, who? I’m no different and there are many bands that I listen to on a daily basis that my friends and peers seem completely oblivious to. Of course there is a certain charm in having music that you feel is your discovery, it can define your music taste and give you a sense of really owning the songs. While I would never listen to something just because it is unknown I will listen to anything that I like, whether it is popular or not. In this article I’d like to introduce three of the bands that I like most yet seem almost entirely unknown.
Oceansize are a band that defy classification. Founded in Manchester in 1999 Oceansize play a unique blend of progressive, indie, heavy and melodic rock. Blending driving guitars, complex rhythms and beautifully melodic passages the band scale heights rarely seen in music since Pink Floyd. They are unafraid to break convention with their songs often reaching past the ten-minute mark in strange time signatures with complex structures. Oceansize are a band that write the music that they wish to play without ever conforming to what a band typically should be doing, and the music is much stronger because of it.
The band are led by singer-guitarist Mike Vennart and have released three full length albums to date, 2003’s Effloresce, 2005’s Everyone Into Position and Frames in 2007. Extensively touring the UK they have also scored numerous support slots with much bigger acts, enabling them to reach new listeners. I discovered them when they supported The Smashing Pumpkins at the O2 arena in London. They have found it hard to break into the USA however, but with a new album coming out soon as well as more big support slots the future can only get brighter for Oceansize. I hope that they gain more fans but at the same time I wouldn’t want them to get too big. After all, the best live shows are always at the smaller venues.
From Irvine in California Thrice are a four-piece band that have crossed genres in a way that none of their contemporaries have. The band have kept the same members ever since their formation at school in 1998, singer-guitarist Dustin Kensrue, guitarist Teppei Teranishi and brothers Eddie and Riley Breckenridge on bass and drums.
The band initially started out playing a style leaning towards punk with elements of metal. The early material predominantly features driving heavy riffs with screaming vocals. It didn’t take long for the band to experiment and their second and third releases would see much more experimentation and deviation from their original style. The most recent album, 2007’s Alchemy Index, showed the depth to the band’s writing as they blended styles from metal, electronic ambience, indie and acoustic folk.
What really drew me to the band was their ability to write really heavy songs but at the same time keep a melodic edge and break into mellower sections to keep things interesting. So many bands seem to feel that they must play heavy the whole time, but really it is by breaking up the songs that the heaviness has impact. Something that Thrice has down to a fine art. They are also an excellent live act and are a band that you’ll likely see playing at a small venue, giving you a much more intimate show than you’d likely see from a more known act. Almost entirely unknown in the UK Thrice are one of my favourite discoveries of the past couple of years.
When you listen to the music of Chroma Key it is easy to see why keyboardist Kevin Moore left progressive metal giants Dream Theater. The New York based band’s sound is built on the driving forces of drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci and features a massively overblown sound with incredibly complex songs that often verge on the self-indulgent. The difference between Moore’s final album with Dream Theater, Awake, and his first as Chroma Key is like night and day. Chroma Key’s music is a lesson in understatement and subtlety, drifting from ambient to electronica and back to indie.
Moore uses his keyboard to weave intricate soundscapes full of masterful touches and effects. Gone is the virtuoso noodling from Dream Theater and in its place are songs that are both relaxing and interesting to listen to. The material at points crosses into radio-friendly territory, as single Colorblind shows. Moore also shows that he has a great singing voice taking vocal duties on his songs. While not the live powerhouse of the other bands I’ve mentioned Chroma Key remain one of my favourite acts to listen to when I need something a little more chilled out. A great band that pretty much no-one seems to have heard of.
I think the fact that some of my favourite bands are those that I’ve found myself and that few people know of them speaks volumes about the quality of popular music. There is the most amazing music out there to be discovered it’s just that the majority of people are too lazy to discover it and instead just listen to what is given to them by the radio or television. I hope that this article will inspire you to look beyond the MTV playlist and start to build up your own individual music collection. You’ll have a much more fulfilling musical journey because of it.
Any English boy that grew up at school playing football in the playgrounds at lunch time has surely played more different variations of the game than they can remember. When the lunch time bell went there would be the inevitable rush to lay claim for space on the playing field for an impromptu game of football. Of course, with no referees or goalposts these games would often have to form their own improvised rule set. Even now, years after leaving school, I still enjoy the various football mini-games with some friends. It has developed into its own subculture and language and I’m it sure can seem confusing to newcomers.
To Americans looking to play football, or soccer as they call it, the regional variations in small pick-up games may seem a little strange. In truth, these games are played far more than the 11-a-side format played professionally. Small three, five and six-a-side matches are much quicker and easier to play as they don’t require so much space and can be played with just a few players. In this article I thought I’d run through some of the different games of football that I’ve played, with the intent of showing that football can be played with just a few people for fun, and doesn’t always have to be that gruelling 90 minute match.
Headers and volleys is a casual game that can be played with as little as three players, only requiring one goal. One player plays in goal, and then the rest play outfield. The idea is that the outfield players must score a goal using only a header or a volley. There are far more variations of headers and volleys than I could list but that is the general idea of the game. It is usually a competition between the players and the keeper.
In the rules that I typically play if the kicker misses the target or the goalkeeper catches the ball before it bounces then they must switch and the keeper is allowed back out onto the pitch. The game is typically played for fun as a pick up with a few friends. There are variations where players have a set amount of lives, which can be lost by missing the target or being caught by the goalkeeper. Once their lives run out then they have lost. It is a fun game and can be used to practise two particularly difficult skills to execute consistently.
Another game that is common to play with just a few people is ‘one touch, two bounce’. The object of this game is to keep the ball in the air using just one touch of the ball per player while only allowing the ball to bounce twice between touches. Players are not allowed to touch the ball before it has been kicked by a different player. The game can be played in a ‘HORSE’ fashion, whereby each player collects a letter should they make a mistake. Once a player collects all the letters then they are out. The winner is the last player left. A mistake is made when a player kicks the ball so that it is impossible for another player to get to it. A fun game and can be played with almost any number of people.
If you’re feeling more competitive you could try a quick 3v3 game. Usually in a pick-up game of 3v3 small goals will be used and there will be no goalkeeper assigned. It is fast paced and focuses on quick touches and good close control. It can be great fun and again, no formal goalposts are needed, a few jumpers will do. These small games have given rise to the popular phrase, jumpers for goal-posts. This refers to a quick informal game among friends, often using variations on the goalkeeper position such as monkey rush or stick goalkeeper. Monkey rush is where the keeper is allowed to play on pitch like normal but still able to handle the ball around the goal. A stick keeper must stay on his line. These variations are often used to balance teams when there are an uneven number of players, with the numerically superior team having the stick goalkeeper.
Hopefully I’ve shown that playing football does not need to be what you see on television and that it is a really flexible game that is enjoyable with almost any amount of players. So next time you’re bored find a ball and some friends and go practise your headers and volleys, you may even notice improvements next time you play a match.
Ask anyone what the hardest job in football is and you’ll get a myriad of different answers. Maybe it’s being a goalkeeper or a manager, perhaps the chairman is the hardest job? Well without doubt the hardest job is that of the referee. It has been said that the best referees will go unnoticed as the game is played, and there is certainly a grain of truth in that statement.
Do your job well and people will be talking about the match rather than about your performance. However if you make even one mistake then expect abuse, bad press and even punishments. It is a fine balancing act and without the advantage of slow motion replay and time to ponder a decision the referee must make the right call in the heat of the moment. While pundits have the opportunity to look over an incident in slow motion from a multitude of angles, the referee does not have this chance, making his job all that more difficult.
Given the fine line between making the right decision and making a bad one in football it comes as no surprise that sometimes the referee gets things hideously wrong. While there may be an excuse for a bad decision sometimes the one given by the referee just can’t be explained. This article looks at some of the worst decisions ever made by football referees and should give some backing for calls of video replays being used during games to aid the officials.
Diego Maradona’s second goal against England in the 1986 World Cup is often hailed as one of the greatest goals of all time. His first goal has become known as one of the most bizarre. As the ball was played high into the penalty area the diminutive Maradona managed to out-jump England keeper Peter Shilton and put the ball into the net. Television replays clearly showed Maradona using his hand to beat the goalkeeper to the ball. The goal should never have stood and England were beaten 2-1 and knocked out of the World Cup with Argentina going on to win the tournament, showing just how much a bad refereeing decision can impact a team and a competition.
Generally regarded as a good referee, if a little prone to errors, Graham Poll committed one of the strangest refereeing mistakes in recent memory at the 2006 World Cup. During the match between Australia and Croatia Poll booked Josip Simunic twice without sending him off, eventually giving him his marching orders for a third yellow card at the end of the game. The mistake would see Poll sent home from the World Cup and his eventual retirement from tournament football, stating that this incident was his reason for stopping.
Standing out among all others as the strangest decision a football referee has made is the goal that Reading scored against Watford in 2008. The ball was hooked wide of the goal, but cleared away from the area. The linesman and the referee somehow gave a goal, despite the ball being a foot wide and never even touching the net. The referee, Stuart Attwell, later claimed that it was an optical illusion that made it look like the ball was inside the goal. Illusion or not, it is one of the most bizarre goals ever awarded and will surely be remembered for many years.
Another goal mouth incident is next up and it’s almost a direct opposite of the Reading incident. In 2005 while playing for Tottenham Pedro Mendes hooked the ball from the half-way line into the Manchester United goal. Goalkeeper Roy Carrol fumbled the ball before clawing it out from behind the line. The ball was over by about a foot but the officials said that it was not a goal. Television replays confirmed that the goal should have been allowed and Spurs should have won 1-0 and taken three points from the game. The disallowed goal sparked a debate over whether replays should be used to aid decision-making and based on this game it certainly has a strong case.
These are some of the worst and the strangest decisions that I can remember, and they present a strong case for the addition of television replays to help officiating top-level matches. It must be remembered, however, that for the most part referees do an excellent job and games pass by with barely a mention of the man in the middle. It is just an unfortunate situation that any error can so drastically change the course of a game, and even a season. Using replays to help the referee seems like a reasonable idea and in most cases wouldn’t slow the game down much at all. Surely it’s much better to get the right decision than save thirty seconds?
Whatever direction life on Earth takes over the next few billion years there is one certainty. One day it will all end. Life may cease to exist on Earth before the end of the planet, there are many potential scenarios that could lead to this happening, but it is absolutely certain to end when the Sun reaches the end of its life cycle. Stars have a finite life cycle and in five and a half billion years our Sun is due to expand into a massive Red Giant, engulfing the Earth. However, whether humans are still around to see it remains debatable.
The fate of humanity realistically must be different to that of planet Earth. Given the enormous time scale until the expansion of the Sun it would seem reasonable to assume that our species would have moved on from our current form. If four billion years has been enough time for all of life on Earth to evolve to reach civilisation then by adding almost twice as much time again we’ll be sure to see some drastic changes. A question is will the human race, or our descendents, remain until that time or will be have been long wiped-out?
The possible outbreak of World War Three and a nuclear apocalypse is a topic that has been widely spoken about and explored. The threat of nuclear war reached an all-time high during the Cold War and it is believed that the world stood on the brink during the Cuban missile crisis. Fortunately no bombs were launched and with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and increasing nuclear disarmament the threat of a nuclear annihilation seems to have passed.
Man’s end may come from self-imposed means or any number of natural disasters. A large impact event could prove fatal to life, and large volcanic activity, cosmic ray bursts and even extra-terrestrial invasions have been discussed by scientists as possible ends. The validity of many of these concerns is variable and the fate of mankind is enough for an article in itself, what I would like to look at here is what will certainly happen, regardless of whether our species lives or not.
The Sun, the object that provides all the energy used by the Earth, will be the cause of its end. Stars go through complex life cycles, starting with their birth and eventual demise. Each star will last billions of years, and depending on its mass and elements can form into a number of different types. Currently the Sun is a main sequence star, generating energy through nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium. The Sun will spend around 10 billion years as it is now before going on to the next stage of its life.
The Sun becomes brighter and larger as it grows older. In its first four and a half billion years it is estimated that the Sun has increased in brightness by around fourty percent. In one billion years time the Sun will have increased in brightness by around ten percent, boiling the oceans and scorching the surface. This in itself is enough to end life as we know it now. However in five and a half billion years the Sun will run out of hydrogen to burn in its core. It will start burning the hydrogen from the outer layers, shrinking the core and massively expanding the volume of the Sun, transforming it into a red giant.
Mercury and Venus will be swallowed by the growing star, while the fate of Earth is less immediately clear. If the Earth escapes being consumed by the growth of the Sun it will be burned to a charred, lifeless rock. After the red giant phase the Sun will continue to shed its outer layers into a planetary nebula until just the core remains. The core will cool into a white dwarf star and fade over billions of years. The Sun is not large enough to form a black hole or a supernova and it seems that the relatively inglorious end of forming a white dwarf is inevitable. The fate of Earth also seems to be certain and while not a concern for us living here at the moment, at some point in time it will be a very real problem, although quite what form life takes by that point remains to be seen.
Growth in computer speeds and capabilities has accelerated at an almost exponential rate since the 1960s. The changes show no signs of slowing down as the 21st Century continues. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted the growth in computing technology in 1965 stating that processor speeds and memory sizes would continue to double every two years. His predictions have proved to be entirely accurate and all progression in computing has followed the trends he laid out. The Internet and mobile computing technology have been the most visible and significant developments in society since the start of the 21st Century. With the world’s information and ever-increasingly powerful computers at people’s fingertips it is interesting to wonder where the technology may go and what future inventions hold in store.
Looking back at developments in media over the lifespan of humanity it is easy to see a clear path from the advent of language to writing, art, music, radio, television, computers and the Internet. Each stage of this development signified a great leap forward in civilisation and quality of living. What is interesting to note is that it takes less and less time to progress to each stage as we move on. The jump from basic language to writing took thousands of years, and then thousands more to art and music. From the renaissance to the invention of radio was just a few hundred years, television arriving just decades afterwards. The world wide web reached global use within a decade of its inception.
Each of these technological leaps are notable for the fact that they would engulf the previous development. Remember the song Television Killed the Radio Star? Well it proved to be oddly prophetic as television replaced radio as the primary source of entertainment and news in the home, just as the Internet has done to both in the 2000s. The Internet is perhaps even more significant as it is looking like it will render all previous technologies obsolete, entirely engulfing them. It is possible to watch TV, listen to radio, read the news, do your shopping and almost everything in-between online. Anything that the Internet does not engulf it will become an intrinsic part of.
Given its almost certain all-pervasive nature it can be hard to see where the next leap forward may come from. What could supersede the Internet? It is foolish to think that nothing will, after all would renaissance painters have predicted the rise of television and radio? Would people in the 1940s have predicted the introduction of mobile phones and personal computers? Just because we cannot see the next step it does not mean it will not happen. At some stage the Internet will become consumed itself.
Currently all advances in technology have been made due to human intelligence. It is what separated us from animals to begin with, and it is what continues to drive us now. Ever more complex leaps have been possible as intelligence is pooled and people are able to collaborate on how to solve problems that will lead to the next advancement. Language allowed communication, and then writing allowed the storage of ideas and the passing of information to other tribes and individuals. Radio, television and Internet technology in the 20th Century has opened up human intelligence to everyone as communication becomes instantaneous world-wide. The global nature of communication in the 20th and 21st centuries are inevitably why our greatest achievements have come in the last hundred years. It is no accident that the industrial revolution occurred with the introduction of the telephone and long range communication.
So taking the fact that human intelligence and communication is guiding the development of civilisation it is reasonable to expect that we will reach the point where our own intellects are unable to take us further. I believe we are reaching the point where communication and the sharing of ideas will start to plateau. We already have instant communication to anywhere on the planet and future developments in this area will only be able to accelerate this process. Granted, faster and faster Internet access will help a great deal in sharing scientific data, but at some stage we will need greater-than-human intelligence. Some people, such as the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, believe that this will come from a form of artificial intelligence either through an AI software or augmentation of the human brain.
The birth of an artificial super intelligence is often referred to as the singularity in reference to the singularity of a black hole. Similar to the black hole where known laws of physics break down in the singularity at the centre so would our model of the world once it contained intelligences greater than our own. There are many technologies already combining to create an artificial intelligence and many scientists believe that the singularity will occur during our lifetimes. Certainly if Moore’s Law and the accelerating rate of paradigm shifts are anything to go by then this prediction seems reasonable.
The creation of a truly super-human AI would completely change the world and our way of living extremely rapidly. It is thought that the invention of this AI would be the last thing that the human race ever needs to design. An AI with above human intelligence would then have above human capacity to improve itself. By improving itself once it would then become more intelligent than it was before, enabling it to improve itself further. This positive feedback loop would lead to the AI becoming massively intelligent and powerful very quickly, it is possible that civilisation would change overnight as the AI exponentially increases in intelligence.
By point of comparison human neurons can send signals at a speed of 150 metres per second and the speed of light is 300,000,000 metres per second, two million times faster than the human mind. The Singularity Institute states that an increase in speed of thought by a factor of one million would mean a subjective year would take only 31 seconds and the time from ancient Greece until now would take twenty two hours. The evolution from primates to humans needed an increase in brain capacity by a factor of three. The difference between us and chimpanzees is unarguably large, so it seems easy to agree that an intelligence many factors greater than ours and magnitudes faster would be capable of things far beyond our comprehension. We are as capable of guessing what it could do as chimps are of predicting the rise of human civilisation given that the gap between brain power would be similar.
Along with the theories of a singularity and the birth of intelligent machines there are always the inevitable doomsday scenarios thought to be possible such as those depicted in films such as the Matrix and the Terminator. It is hard to say what the AI would do, and eliminating the human race may well be in its best interests. However it is likely that considerable work will go into making the AI an ally of its creators and to build a system that we are capable of working alongside to accelerate our development and improve our living conditions and understanding of the world around us. There is already a lot of work being done to ensure this happens and that we avoid the doom that popular fiction predicts.
An interesting thought is to combine the theory of the singularity with that of natural selection. We already know that machines can do things that we are incapable of doing. Robotic probes are exploring places inaccessible to humans, countless examples are visible in space exploration programs. There are robotic vehicles on Mars exploring the terrain. The landscape is too harsh for a human visitor with our current technology but machines have already made the journey. Probes have been sent to every planet in the solar system and some have even left it entirely.
It may be that mechanical life is simply more suited than carbon-based life to the conditions of the universe. A machine does not need to eat or breathe and will be able to survive low and high atmospheric pressures, making them perfect for extra terrestrial exploration. The machines will need a power source, but provided that they develop a reliably powerful way of creating energy then in theory there is nothing to stop them from colonising the solar system relatively quickly.
Machines and artificial intelligences could simply be the next step in the evolution of life on Earth, it is hard to see any animal rising above humans now with the control that we exert over the planet. By the time the Earth is swallowed into the Sun it may be that it is inhabited solely by mechanical life forms, all of which are better suited to escaping the supernova from the death of the star. In terms of the eventual fate of the planet is is clear that machines and artificial intelligence is more suited to continued existence with its capability to migrate to different planets.
By Darwinian theory it may even be said that artificial intelligence is more suited to life on Earth and will replace the life that we know today. It is certainly an interesting concept and we may even find out whether it will come true within the next fifty years. With any luck the creation of a super-intelligent machine will bring a time of great advancement that solves a lot of the major problems that face humanity today and massively enhance the standard of living across the planet.
The period after the Second World War would see a time of rebuilding across Europe. Western society would remain conservative after the disastrous consequences of the changes in the 1920s and 1930s. Using many of the technological advances made during the war people would go on to invent the things that the 20th Century will be remembered for. Culture in the 50s moved on as television boomed in popularity and the film industry started exploring new areas such as science-fiction and horror. With the invention of the electric guitar popular music moved from traditional bebop and jazz and moved into blues and rock and roll, artists such as Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley lead the way as music looked to rebel against the conservative culture of the time.
The 1960s were the time when younger people looked to break away from the culture established by their parents and the decade has since become known as the Swinging Sixties. Drug use among young people hit an all-time high. The social revolution that formed out of the sixties was a reaction against the US involvement in Vietnam, the Cold War and widespread anti-war sentiments. The social changes during this time would eventually lead to more equality for women, black people and homosexuals. The time was not without its political problems however, with America’s continued war in Vietnam proving unpopular along with the assassination of Martin Luther King and President John F Kennedy.
The 1960s saw significant strides made in technology, building on those of the previous two decades. In 1961 Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, became the first man to orbit the Earth in a spacecraft. Just eight years later the American crew of Apollo 11 were the first people to land on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the satellite, and the first man to walk on an object other than Earth. Early computers started to take shape and the first programming languages were written.
Over the following decades social change would not be as radical but continue to be evolutionary in nature. The heavy drug using culture would cross over into the 1970s but would eventually die down after many campaigns to warn about the health effects of sustained drug abuse. The 1970s saw great leaps forward in physics theory with Stephen Hawking publishing a number of theories on black holes. Many probes including the Voyager spacecraft were sent to the outer reaches of the solar system during the 70s as our understanding of space grew.
The 80s and 90s would see the collapse of communism in Europe with the break-up of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. East and West Germany would return to a united Germany and many new countries were created in the Eastern bloc. Some were formed in bloody conflicts and others, such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were formed peacefully.
The 1990s were characterised by the rise of the Internet and power of computers and communication technology. Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, would become the richest man in the world during the 90s on the back of the success of his company’s operating system, Windows, which was installed on the vast majority of the world’s computers. His dream of a PC on every desk was realised during this decade and Internet access would increase exponentially over the decade as more and more houses connected to the web. The mobile phone was another one of the major cultural changes during the decade. Although invented in the 1980s, the mobile phone reached practical sizes and prices during the 90s, ending at almost 100% market penetration in developed countries at the turn of the century.
At the end of the twentieth century fears of a global computer crash at the turnover to the year 2000 proved to be falsely held and no problems were encountered. Population of humans had reached 6.1 billion and global warming and environmental damage would go on to be a major concern in the 21st Century after a hundred years of heavy industry began to take its toll.
The major world-changing event of the early 21st Century occurred on the 11th of September 2001 when Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four civilian aircraft and crashed them into the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC and the last into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks destroyed the World Trade Centre and caused almost three thousand deaths.
The USA were quick to respond, declaring a war on terror and would subsequently invade Afghanistan and Iraq, hoping to remove Al-Qaeda and its leaders. They still have not captured Al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden, but they were successful in removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Hussein was later sentenced to death by the Iraqi government and executed on December 30th 2006. The decade has been marred by further Muslim extremist attacks against countries in the West that they see as oppressing their freedoms. Bombs were detonated in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005.
Against the backdrop of the war on terror technological advances made substantial advances. Personal computer development and the Internet continued to make great progress with broadband access available across much of the civilised world. Space exploration and scientific discovery would continue. Despite the setback after the disintegration on reentry of Space Shuttle Columbia NASA carried on with its space program. In 2008 the Phoenix Lander touched down on Mars much further North than any other probe and was tasked with finding signs of water on the Red Planet. Also in 2008 the Large Hadron Collider was switched on at CERN in Switzerland with the hope of discovering the secrets behind the Big Bang.
There have been an unusually large number of natural disasters in the early 21st Century with 310,000 people dying in the tsunami caused by an Indian Ocean earthquake. There were also many deaths from Hurricane Katrina and powerful earthquakes in Peru, Kashmir and China. With global warming, terrorism and over-population beginning to cause problems at the start of the century humanity must find ways to alleviate these problems as the world population is set to hit nine billion by 2050.
During the 1920s the American economy increased in strength and the European economy remained stable up until the crash of 1929. In what has become known as The Great Depression many people suddenly found their savings worthless, leading to a disillusionment with capitalism and a rise to prominence of fascism. In 1933 Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany at the head of his Nazi party.
Hitler began to rearm Germany, and remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936, breaking the Treaty of Versailles. With Hitler’s anti-semetic policies and aggressive re-armament of Germany war was inevitable. On 1st September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and Britain and France both declared war on Germany and its allies.
The Second World War would prove to be even more lethal and long-lived than the first war. A global conflict in every sense of the word the war would see an unprecedented number of casualties and would change the world forever.
The Germans took Poland while its government fled to London, and then in May 1940 Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Germany was extremely successful in its early expansions and soon also took Denmark and Norway. Within four weeks of their assault Germany had taken France and on 14th of June 1940 Paris was occupied. Soon after Hitler would launch an offensive against Britain, attempting to gain air superiority in order to clear way for an aquatic invasion from France. In what has become known as the Battle of Britain the RAF successfully repelled the German attacks and claimed aerial superiority over England, ending German hopes of invading.
Turning his attention away from Britain, Hitler looked to invade the communist Soviet Union. After a delay in Yugoslavia and Greece after the Italian’s defeat Germany assaulted the Soviet Union with the largest army ever known to man. Over three million Germans took part in the invasion, laying siege to Leningrad and getting to within 15 miles of Moscow. The Germans would have to stop for the Russian Winter however, and by Spring 1942 an entire division were trapped in Stalingrad, eventually leading to their surrender. Hitler had seen what should have been a sure victory turn into a defeat. Russian casualties were astronomical, they lost around 27 million people, about half of the total casualties in the war.
As Germany were getting frozen out of the Soviet Union Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, which drew the United States into the war. The Americans, allied with the British and the Soviets would continue to push the German forces back.
On 6th June 1944 the Allies launched an attack onto the beaches of Normandy. The German thought that the Allies would attack Calais and were unprepared for an invasion on the beaches. At a great cost of human life the beach invasion was successful and the Allies were able to push into France. By 1945 the German army was pushed back by the Soviets from the East and the Americans and British from the West. Once the Soviets reached Berlin Hitler committed suicide and seven days later the Germans surrendered, ending the war in Europe. The USA would end the war with the use of nuclear weapons against Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After the war the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two dominant super-powers, with much of Europe in ruin after the bombing of the war. Many top-ranking German officers were convicted of war crimes, including those committed in the holocaust. During the war the Germans placed millions of Jews and other minorities in concentration camps, starving and eventually murdering them in one of the worst events in human history.
After the use of nuclear weapons by the USA at the end of the war America and the Soviet Union would enter the Cold War, a period of deep mistrust, propaganda, espionage and an arms race in which both countries would be on the brink of war but where fighting never actually broke out. It is thought that the only reason that stopped a war from happening is that a nuclear war would lead to mutually assured destruction and so it was in each country’s best interests not to launch missiles. The Cold War would last right up until 1991. After the failure of the League of Nations in preventing World War 2, the United Nations was formed in 1945. The organisation still continues today with nearly every country a participating member.
The next decades are characterised by a growth of technology and industry and the increased Americanisation of the West.
The 20th Century was a period that saw more scientific discoveries and inventions than any other period in time. The century started with steam-powered ships being the height of technology and ended with a constant human presence in space, moon landings and a world-wide network of computers and global distribution of information. The world has never shrunk so much as during the 20th Century, the Internet would give instant communication to anywhere on Earth and civilian aircraft gave people unprecedented levels of transport. With the mass production of the automobile humans gained a high level of personal mobility and had truly made the switch from relying on animals and nature to relying on machines and industry.
While Europe and much of the world would end the 20th Century at peace the first half of the century was scarred by two world wars. The rise of Japan, China and the United States as new economic powers would cause tension among the more traditional European super powers at the start of the century. With the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914 a number of international alliances and conflicts were ignited and within months almost all of Europe was at war. Dubbed at the time The Great War, World War 1 would see Britain, Russia and France fight Germany and Austria-Hungary, with the United States joining Britain and her allies later in the conflict.
The First World War was characterised by the use of 20th Century technology and 19th Century tactics. Much of the war was fought in trenches with neither side able to make any significant advantages. Often the only method of making an advance was to go over the top, this method would lead to an incredible amount of casualties, even leading to a French mutiny in 1917. Many of the generals would not know how to deal with tanks, machine guns and the deadly gasses used. Troops returning from the war would often suffer from shell shock and post-traumatic stress disorders. The Great War would also see large advances in communication technology and aircraft, both vital for their respective war efforts.
In 1918, a year after the USA joined the war, Germany surrendered and ended the conflict. In the aftermath of World War 1 Germany were forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles and accept responsibility for the war. They were forced to pay large reparations, much of the German population was left disillusioned after the war, angry at being blamed and upset at being declared defeated when they did not think they had lost. Much of this feeling would carry over into the 1930s and give rise to fascism and later naziism. After the war the Austro-Hungarian empire was broken up and the new nations of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were created along with the League of Nations, designed to stop future world wars from happening.
With the human body fully developed and farming and culture slowly spreading across the planet civilisation could begin. Civilisation began when people stopped leading nomadic lives and started to live in permanent settlements.
As farming techniques improved and became more efficient people would no longer have to spend all their time gathering food. This would leave time over for other pursuits and some member of the early civilisations would go on to other occupations such as priests and artisans. The division of labour would lead to social hierarchies forming as well as a larger range of activities. This would eventually lead to significant scientific and cultural discoveries and inventions. Once human intelligence could really be utilised then the path to the modern day seems inevitable.
The first civilisations proper are thought to have arisen around 3000 BC in Sumer and Egypt with the development of formal writing. Chinese states also began appearing and many other civilisations were founded with numerous wars fought for the next two thousand years. The main strength of early human civilisations was military, a state would often expand its borders through its armies and man power. As a result of the militaristic nature of early civilisations ancient history can be told as a series of wars and empires’ peaks and declines.
Around 800 BC the Greeks founded their famous civilisation. Many important philosophical and technological discoveries were made during this time. In 776 BC the first Olympic games were held and continue to be held every four years to the present day. The Greek civilisation would continue to last for hundreds of years and would eventually be conquered by Philip of Macedon in 338 BC.
As the Greek civilisation was rising another was forming not far away. In 750 BC Rome was founded in Italy. Over the next seven hundred years the Roman empire would stretch over much of Europe and become one of the most successful empires in history, with a significant legacy. Due to its immense size the Roman empire would have a huge impact on Western culture and language, even to this day. The Empire initially started as a republic but would grow extremely large at the turn of the millennium. At its peak in 117 AD the Empire was ruled by Trajan and controlled around 5,900,00 kilometres squared of land. Rome would eventually fall in 476 AD, the point which signals the start of the Middle Ages.
During the Middle Ages Christianity and Islam began to spread and Europe was in a constant state of flux as wars were fought and countries invaded. The Vikings were extremely active during the first thousand years AD, invading England in 865. Two hundred years later England would again be conquered in the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Normans would rule the country for centuries and produce the first ever national census when they wrote the Doomsday Book in 1086.
In 1206 Genghis Khan united the Mongols and set off creating one of the largest empires in history. Even after his death in 1227 the Mongols continued to gain land, invading Russia, Poland, Hungary and Bagdad. The next two hundred years would be characterised by war and conquest as countries tried to expand their borders.
The period of time that is thought to separate the Middle Ages from the Modern Era is known as the Renaissance. Meaning reborn, the Renaissance would see a huge leap forward in arts, education, politics and social thinking. It lasted from the 14th to the 17th century and began in Italy. Men such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michalangelo would inspire much of the new thinking during the period. The Renaissance has been seen as an attempt by scholars to gain a greater understanding of the world around them. This is also evident in art as painters started to try and paint much more realistically than before, developing techniques that would accurately show lighting and depth. The Renaissance would also see the introduction of the scientific method, where discoveries would be made based on results and observations. These methods put forward by Galileo and Copernicus would form the foundation for many discoveries in astronomy, physics, biology and medicine.
The next couple of hundred years were characterised by discoveries of new lands and the development of science and technology along with the arts. In 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, initially mistaking the land for East-Asia when he named the local people Indians. The discovery of this new continent by Europeans would see quick colonisation and the eventual extermination of much of the native people. Inca, Aztec and Mayan civilisations were wiped out by European diseases brought over by the Spanish and Portuguese.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and would go on to influence the English language like no one before or since, with his plays still studied almost five hundred years after they were written. In the century after Europeans would set out to colonise North America with English Puritans and the Dutch leading the way, founding New York and towns in New England. In China the Ming Dynasty was overthrown and replaced by the Manchu Dynasty. Oliver Cromwell rose to power in England in 1653 and London burnt down in the great fire of 1666. In 1687 Isaac Newton published his theories on the concept of gravity as scientific thinking continued to move forward.
The late 1700s saw the American War of Independence and the start of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. In 1789 George Washington became the first president of the USA and the French Revolution started. The 1800s would see the continuation of the Industrial Revolution, leading to many significant discoveries and the accelerated development of transport and urban areas. In 1859 Charles Darwin published his book, On the Origin of the Species, the first text that would seriously question religion. Light bulbs and steam power saw introduction in this time, as well as the ability to harness electricity. In 1885 the car was invented and in 1903 the first aeroplane was flown by the Wright brothers.
Civilisation had come a long way but the advances made in the industrial revolution were just the beginning. The 20th century would see the most significant discoveries made by mankind as well as some of the most important advances. In just 66 years humans would go from the first powered flight to landing on the Moon. However, the time would also see the deployment of this technology in some of the bloodiest battles ever seen.
Primates are thought to have evolved alongside other placental mammals after the K-T extinction event. They would continue to divide into numerous species over the next several million years.
Around 30 million years ago monkeys had prehensile tails and eyes on the front of their head. Most are thought to have lived in Africa with some migrating to South America, possibly on a raft of vegetation. Five million years later primates would split into apes and monkeys, apes being notable for a lack of a tail.
These early primates spent a great deal of time living in trees, giving rise to hands and fingers to help grip onto the branches. It is thought that this lifestyle also lead to sight being the dominant sense in primates as opposed to smell as in other mammals. It is easy to see that better eyesight would have given a significant advantage when swinging through the trees. Shoulders in apes had a great deal of freedom of movement, as well as other adaptations such as wrists, a wide flat ribcage and shoulder blades on the back. Around seven million years ago the descendants of humans split from those of chimpanzees.
After a further four and a half million years of evolution the first species of the Homo family appeared, Homo habilis. Alongside homo habilis lived homo erectus, which would go on to evolve into homo sapiens. Around 700,000 years ago the last common ancestor of homo sapiens and the neanderthals was alive. The two species would remain separate but lived alongside each other for thousands of years until the neanderthals became extinct.
With the arrival of homo sapiens 250,000 years ago the planet would undergo extensive changes. The key factor that allowed humans to go on and dominate in the manner that they have is due to the large brain and greater mental capacity than other animals. Humans would discover the use of tools and language, therefore reaching a level of communication and cooperation far beyond other apes. The hands that had evolved to climb in trees would prove invaluable in creating tools and later art and writing. The use of tools would allow humans to hunt for meat as well as fish, and language and arts would lead to complex social groups eventually culminating in civilisation. Early tools were made from flint and stone, but later development would see tools made from bones and fragments of antlers.
At around 40-50,000 years ago humans would undergo rapid changes known as The Great Leap Forward. During this time finely made tools, fishing, trading, jewelry, art, music, games and burial of the dead were all developed. This time would also see the expansion of the human population out of Africa and into Europe, Asia and Australia. 12,000 years ago at the end of the most recent Ice Age humans had colonised much of the planet. As the ice receded human populations would continue to grow.
The next key to human development was the arrival of agriculture. While arising at different times in different areas it is thought to have first started around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East. By 2700 BCE agriculture had spread to India, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. Irrigation, growth of crops and domestication of animals gave humans an early control over their surroundings. Religion also started appearing during this time.
With the advent of agriculture humans could start to move away from their typical nomadic lifestyles. Previously organised into loose tribes the new technology would encourage larger groups to gather and for permanent settlements to start. This would eventually lead to the first civilisations and the start of modern times.
