"The Battle of Salamis was one of the most important battles in history. The victory by the Greeks under Themistocles insured that Xerxes would be forced to retreat to Persia. The battle would lay the foundation for an Athenian Empire that would come to be called the Delian League. The aftermath of Salamis left the Athenians the greatest naval power in the Mediterranean."
To seal off his empire from marauders, Chin commanded the building of the Great Wall. Three hundred thousand were employed, and thousands, especially the scholars, died and were buried within the wall. Called "the world's longest graveyard", it was his greatest accomplishment and his greatest tragedy.
If the battle of Actium had been won by Cleopatra and Antony, there would have been no Roman Empire. Yet Octavius Caesar's victory in 31 BC created an absolute dictatorship that sparked one-of the greatest imperial and cultural expansions the world has ever known.
By the 8th century, the rise of the Muslim Empire spread Arab rule over the Middle East, Egypt, and North Africa. After appointing a Berber, Tariq, to invade Spain, the Arabs enslaved the Visigoth Kingdom. Seven centuries of their Moorish rule brought accomplishments in mathematics, architecture, and science.
When a plague-ridden ship landed in Venice in 1347, it was immediately put into quarantine...but no one could stop the rats from corning ashore. Within three years, a third of Western Europe's population was dead. It was the greatest calamity in history.
In 1204 crusaders sacked the city, then renamed Constantinople. For the next thousand years, the Byzantine Kings hid safely behind the massive walls of Constantinople. Then in 1453, with the Turkish Ottoman Empire encircling the city, Sultan Mehmet brought the newest technology of the 15th century, the cannon, and finally brought down the walls of the world's most impregnable fortress.
When Pizarro, 170 soldiers and a friar arrived, The Inca, scornful of the scruffy Spaniards, invited them to stay in the town. They kidnapped the Inca, collected a ransom and killed him. But the plunder had only begun. The Spaniards diseases wiped out 90% of the Incas.
On the land of the Algonquins, 150 English settlers had built a trading post called James Town. And though Captain John Smith promised the Indians the colony was temporary, they saw it as a lie. He was captured and about to be stoned, when 13 year old Pocahontas, the favorite among Chief Pohantan's hundred children, intervened.
In the first half of the 18th century, British and French interests in North America increasingly overlapped. British war minister William Pitt ordered an invasion up the St. Lawrence. Racing winter, British forces scaled the cliffs near Quebec City at night, with no retreat possible.
Zulus were resentful that white settlers were encroaching into their territory. After the discovery of diamonds and gold in nearby areas it was impossible to keep out the white settlers. After defeating British soldiers at Isandalwana, the Zulu tribes was unable to capitalize on the advantage and never again were able to win another major battle. Eventually, the British were able to defeat the Zulu warriors and divided Zululand into 13 different provinces.
In 1902, the Japanese attacked the Russian city of Port Arthur. Using the teaching of his model Admiral Nelson, Admiral Togo defeated the corrupt Russian navy, with aristocrat-officers and brightly painted ships. Russia surrendered South Manchuria to the Japanese, changing the balance of power in Asia forever.
Both Lenin and Kerensky were driven to overthrow the Czar. From similar backgrounds, they were both fervent revolutionaries. Lenin wanted the rich to be poor; Kerensky wanted the poor to be rich. Lenin, a charismatic workaholic, won because he would not compromise.
Without doubt, the Second World War was the most momentous event in U.S. history. Few single instants have marked so great and historic watershed as 9:15 a.m., August 6, 1945. Traditional war as an instrument of international policy ended completely, and future relations between nations changed drastically afterward.