Search Definitions
Browse Content (p. 15)
Definition
Ur - The Great Biblical City Abandoned by the Gods
Ur was a city in the region of Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, and its ruins lie in what is modern-day Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq. According to biblical tradition, the city is named after the man who founded...
Definition
Uruk - The First Great City
Uruk was one of the most important cities (at one time, the most important) in ancient Mesopotamia. According to the Sumerian King List, it was founded by King Enmerkar circa 5000/4500 BCE. Uruk is best known as the birthplace...
Definition
Eridu - The Divine Birthplace of Kingship and Order
Eridu (present-day Abu Shahrein, Iraq) was considered the first city in the world by the ancient Sumerians and is among the most ancient of the ruins from Mesopotamia. Founded circa 5400 BCE, Eridu...
Definition
Cleopatra VII - The Last Great Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt
Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE, reign 51-30 BCE) was the last ruler of Egypt before it was annexed as a province of Rome. Arguably the most famous Egyptian queen, Cleopatra was ethnically Greek as a member...
Definition
Monroe Doctrine - The Controversial Cornerstone of US Foreign Policy
The Monroe Doctrine, a significant piece of United States foreign policy, was first articulated by President James Monroe in 1823, and it essentially warns the powers of Europe from meddling...
Definition
Sumerian King List - Who Was King? And Who Was Not King?
The Sumerian King List (abbreviated as SKL and also known as Chronicle of the One Monarchy) is an ancient Sumerian document whose earliest version is dated to Mesopotamia's Ur III period (circa...
Definition
American Civil War - The Birthpangs of the United States
The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the pivotal event in United States history and the largest armed conflict in the Western world following the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) and prior to...
Definition
Jefferson Davis - President of the Confederate States
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) was a planter, soldier, and politician from Mississippi, who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States during the American Civil War (1861-1865...
Definition
Kellogg-Briand Pact - When 63 States Signed Up for Peace
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement signed in August 1928 by 63 countries, which all promised, after the horrors of the First World War (1914-18), to regard war as an illegal instrument of...
Definition
Locarno Pact - The Treaty that Won the Nobel Peace Prize
The Locarno Pact, actually a group of seven treaties (hence its other name: the Locarno Treaties), was signed on 1 December 1925 with the aim that peace continued in Europe despite the German government's...