The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE) arose after the decline of the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty. This is an account of the beginnings of the Ming.
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Tag Archives: 151-4
Chaos and Recovery in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance
During the 14th and 15th centuries, Europe experienced a number of crises.
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The “Jacquerie”
Anon after the deliverance of the king of Navarre there began a marvellous tribulation in the realm of France, as in Beauvoisin, in Brie, on the river of Marne, in Laonnois, and about Soissons. For certain people of the common villages, without any head or ruler, assembled together in Beauvoisin. In the beginning they passed not a hundred in number they said how the noblemen of the realm of France, knights and squires, shamed the realm, and that it should be a great wealth to destroy them all: and each of them said it was true, and said all with one voice: “Shame have he that cloth not his power to destroy all the gentlemen of the realm!”
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The English Peasant Revolt
While these conferences were going forward, there happened in England great commotions among the lower ranks of the people, by which England was near ruined without resource. Never was a country in such jeopardy as was this at that period, and all through the too great comfort of the commonalty. Rebellion was stirred up, as it was formerly done in France by the Jacques Bons-hommes, who did much evil, and sore troubled the kingdom of France. It is marvellous from what a trifle this pestilence raged in England. In order that it may serve as an example to mankind, I will speak of all that was done, from the information I had at the time on the subject.
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The Conversion of Clovis
Following are two different accounts of Clovis’s (called Chlodovocar in these documents–Clovis was his Latin name, used more by the historians who wrote about him than by Clovis himself).
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The Early Middle Ages
After the decline of Rome in the West, various “barbarian” kingdoms emerged. One of these, the kingdom of the Franks, became dominant in what is now France and Germany. Its first dynasty, that of the Merovingian and, later, the stronger Carolingian Dynasty.
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Western Rome Declines
In 410 CE, the Visigoth Alaric besieged Rome and sacked the city, the first in a series of humiliations of the once great imperial city. The historian Procopius recounted this event.
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The Byzantine Empire: The Nika Revolt
The eastern remnant of the Roman Empire, which became known as the Byzantine Empire,had a tumultuous existence, gaining, and then losing, vast amounts of territory. The Nika Revolts, discussed here by the historian Procopius were one example.
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The Hundred Masters Period in East Asia
The “Hundred Masters” period in East Asia arose during the end of the Zhou dynasty and refers to a period of philosophical and political thought which sought, among other things, the best way to govern. Overall, the period lasted roughly between 600 and 200 BCE.
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From Neo-Assyrian to Persian Empires
The Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-612 BCE) is remembered for the brutal and efficient manner in which it conquered its foes, often using mass deportation to remove conquered people to different and unfamiliar parts of their empire, using these subject peoples as everything raging from agricultural slaves to soldiers and charioteers.
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