Rome, a city covering seven hills, later made its inhabitants the masters of an empire extending to the Tigris and Euphrates in the east, the Rhine and Danube in the north and the Sahara in the south. Rome is well known in history for the administration of an empire, the maintenance of peace through law and justice, its military strategy and for its transmission of the classical Greek heritage to the west. Were it not for Rome, the Barbarians would have wiped out the achievements of the Greeks from human history. The Romans who left a legacy of laws were also known for the building of roads, bridges and aqueducts.

Exhibit 1.8
A Roman coin imprinted with the figurehead of Caesar

Ernest Barker rightly remarks that "Rome built a culture, Greek in origin, but Roman in application and result." Both Greece and Rome blended harmoniously to give the world a well-balanced society.

There is a lot of controversy over the origins of the Indians in America. The existence of Indians in the American continent, the various tribes, languages, customs and occupations reveal that much before the Europeans set foot in the ’new’ world, an entire civilization existed in the Americas. Historians claim that the archaeological history of the Indians goes back to more than 30,000 years. As Betty and Ian Ballantine put it: "By the time Columbus landed in the ’New World’, it was a very old world that already had seen entire civilizations rise and fall through the centuries. These linked continents were, by then populated by some 75,000,000 people who spoke 2,000 distinct languages..."

Conflicting theories exist on the origin of the Indians in America. But the credit for the most scientific explanation for the origin of Indians goes to a Jesuit missionary called Josi de Acosta. As far back as 1589, de Acosta stated that small groups of hunters might have migrated from Asia to America, a million years before the Spaniards set foot the American coast. These Indians might have left their Siberian homeland either in search of food or due to war between the tribes. These migrating tribes might have followed animals (now extinct) to reach America, via the landmass that bridged Siberia and Alaska. This theory is supported by the following facts:

1. Geographers say that there was indeed a thousand-mile long land bridge stretching between Siberia and Alaska.

Index

1.0 - Introduction
1.1 History: Meaning and Importance
1.2 Pre-historic Period
1.3 Early Civilizations
1.4 The Dark Age
1.5 The Medieval Period
1.6 Dates & Events
1.7 Points to Remember

Chapter 2