Sophia, ruling as Regent Michael Romanov, the first czar elected by representatives of the people, took power in 1613 AD. Czar Michael made peace with Lithuania and Sweden, and managed [...]
Elena Glinskaya, ruler of Russia 1533-38 (before Ivan the Terrible) Ivan the Great When Ivan the Great, the first Czar of Russia, died in 1505 AD, he left Russia just [...]
The Manchu leader Nurhaci (1600s AD) Where did the Manchu come from? The Manchu people were descended from the Jurchens. They spoke a language probably closely related to Turkic and [...]
A melon stall in Central Asia After Tamerlane died in 1405, his Altaic people kept on ruling Central Asia, but not as one big empire. There were lots of little [...]
Modern Afghanistan: the Dar-ul-Aman Palace outside Kabul (1920s) World War I From 1880 until the end of World War I, the British controlled Afghanistan along with British India. Afghanistan mostly [...]
Dost Mohammed Khan In 1834 AD Dost Mohammed Kahn pushed aside Ahmed Shah Durrani's grandson to become the ruler of Afghanistan. He found himself caught ruling a small, poor country [...]
Ahmad Shah Durrani's burial mausoleum (Kandahar, Pakistan) Afghanistan after the Mongol Empire After the Mongol Empire collapsed, Afghanistan's land was mostly split between the Mughal Empire of India and the Safavid [...]
A mosaic showing a circus from the 500s AD in Gafsa (North Africa), now in the Bardo Museum Can you see the people sitting in the stands? The central posts to [...]
What is B.C. short for? B.C. stands for Before Christ, and it means the number of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. That was about 2000 years ago, so the date [...]
Fresco painting from Thera, Greece (about 1600 BC) Why are they called frescos? Fresco is the Italian word for "fresh", and that's because painters do fresco painting on fresh, wet plaster [...]
