Dias was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to sail from Atlantic to Indian Ocean reaching the southernmost tip of Africa. The importance of this expedition was about European trade with India and the Far East where Dias wanted to discover a passage through south of Africa. Trading with India and the Far East had been expensive due to the expensive middlemen along the overland Euro-Asian route.
Babur
Babur was the founder of the Mughal dynasty which he formed after several battles including the battle with his uncles when he became the ruler of Fergana aged 12, the first battle of Panipat and the battle of Khanwa. Babur was influential in fostering the Mughal culture and for the influencing the persistence of Persian cultural India with historiographical, artistic and dazzling literary results.
Akbar
Akbar reigned between 1556 and 1605 as the third Mughal emperor. During his reign, he had a powerful political, economic, cultural and military dominance that led to the expansion of the empire to incorporate almost all of the Indian subcontinent. He is remembered for firmly establishing the supremacy of the Mughal Empire following threats from the Afghans during the preceding Humayun reign.
Jahangir
Jahangir reigned between 1605 and 1627 as the fourth Mughal emperor. Jahangir commenced his rule with a display of justice. Under the guidance of his son Khurram, Jahangir was able to claim the vital trade centers of Kandahar, Kabul, and Peshawar from the Safavid rulers. Jahangir did this with the main aim being expanding the Mughal empire and preserving its tradition.
Shah Jahan
Jahan ruled between 1628 and 1658 as the fifth Mughal emperor. He pioneered the architectural achievements during his reign which is largely regarded as the golden age of the Mughal art. Although his reign saw the empire becoming a large military machine, his most important legacy was on architectural advancement particularly on advancement of forts, mosques and the metal coins.
The Enlightenment
This was an 18th century movement termed as an intellectual and philosophical one that conquered the world of ideas in Europe. This period is very important since European science, politics, philosophy, and communications were radically reoriented as numerous revolutions, scientific discoveries, inventions, laws, essays and books were produced. The early enlightenment 1685-1730 produced philosophers such as John Locke and Isaack Newton, the high enlightenment produced people like Thomas Paine.
John Locke
Locke is one of the most influential English philosophers and physicians in the enlightenment era. Locke greatly contributed to development of the social contract theory. The developments of political philosophy and epistemology were greatly affected by Locke’s writings. His work also contributed to the liberal theory and classical republicanism that got reflected in the declaration of independence of America. The modern conceptions of self and identity originated from his theory of mind.
Thomas Hobbes
Hobbles is regarded as the fathers of the modern political philosophers. Having been born in England, Hobbes moved to Paris, France in the mid-1940’s when civil war emerged in England. While in Paris, Hobbes wrote his famous book, the Leviathan which demonstrated the need of having a robust central authority to evade civil war and the evil of discord. Hobbes also contributed in several fields including geometry and physics.
Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz
De la Cruz was a Mexican philosopher and self-taught scholar who lived in the era of colonial period in Mexico in the mid-17th century. De la Cruz was well known for her Spanish Golden age literature which led to her famous writings on the topics of religion, feminism and love. Her poetry work has also influenced numerous Spanish scholars of modern age. She criticized hypocrisy in men and misogyny.
Black Legend
The Spanish Empire came to be criticized and demonized regarding how bigoted and cruel their culture and people were by a series of historical writings dubbed the “Black Legend.” These historical writings arose in the 16th century in the periods when there was a fierce rivalry between European colonial authorities (anti-Spanish) and the anti-Catholic propaganda. Spain suffered from this religious and political propaganda since its image was blackened across Europe.
Hernan Cotes’
- Columbian Exchange
- “The Scientific Revolution”
- Proclamation Line of 1763
- Stamp Act
- Thomas Paine
- United States Constitutional Convention and resulting Constitution
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
- Napoleon
