Empire Earth is similar to the
Age of Empires series in that it is a history-based
real-time strategy game.
Empire Earth uses 3D graphics instead of sprites like
Age of Empires II, the comparable game at the time.
[2] The game itself contains many unique and innovative features, including a well implemented "
morale" system, which directly affects individual units statistics. It also incorporates a "hero" system. Heroes can be built at the town centre or capitol. There are two types of heroes, Strategist heroes who heal surrounding units and can demoralize enemy units while Warrior heroes give morale to surrounding units and have a greater attack power. Finally, the player has the option of creating their own civilization with unique bonuses. Empire Earth has a map editor included.
Epochs are the ages a player passes through in
Empire Earth. Each of these epochs represents an age within history. In
Empire Earth, the last two ages (Digital and Nano Ages) are set into the moderate future. In the Art of Conquest, a third future age, the Space Age, is available. It deals with space colonization. Each epoch brings new technologies and units. Epoch advancement requires additional buildings to be built and the costs of advancing increases as more epochs are attained, although the ability to gather the required resources greatly increases as well. With new epochs, some new units are available at the cost of having to abandon the ability to produce old units, though any old units still alive are kept. The epochs in Empire Earth are the
Prehistoric Age, the
Stone Age, the
Copper Age, the
Bronze age, the
Dark Age, the
Middle Ages, the
Renaissance, the Imperial age, the Industrial age, the Atomic
World War I age, the Atomic
World War II Age, the Atomic Modern Age, the Digital Age and the
Nano Age. An extra epoch, the
Space Age, is available in
Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest.
[8]
In-game screenshot of Empire Earth.
Several different units are available in each epoch, each being produced in a different building. Some units such as
infantry are available in every epoch and can be created at the
Barracks. Other units such as
archers are available from the Stone age to the Renaissance and are created at Archery Ranges.
Horsemen are available from the Copper Age to the Industrial Age and are created at
Stables. Siege weapons are produced at Siege Factories such as
catapults, they are available from the Bronze Age to the Dark Ages then are later replaced by the
trebuchet in the Middle Ages and ending their use in the Imperial age, when
cannons emerged in the Renaissance and are available then on. In the Atomic Age-WW1 epoch some new buildings are made available to the player, such as Airports, Tank Factories and Naval Yards where certain planes,
tanks and
submarines, etc can be produced. In the Digital age
Cyber Factories and Laboratories are available and can produce many types of
mechs, which are known as Cybers in Empire Earth.
[9]
Like many real-time strategy games, there are technologies available to improve the player's civilization. Technologies to improve farming can be researched at the granary. Health related technologies can be researched at a hospital. Technologies researched at the hospital improve the hit points and attack of your citizens, the speed of your citizens, your hospital healing rate and range, or your population capacity. Education upgrades are found in the university, which can protect units from being converted. Technologies researched at the university will increase your buildings' line-of-sight, your university's range, the hitpoints of your buildings, your dock's/naval yard's healing rate, or decrease tribute cost. Temple upgrades are found in the temple. A series of research projects will increase your prophets: speed, hitpoints and range. The upgrades for the priests are also almost the same, except that they have two extra upgrades which can let them convert other priests and buildings. Temple range, which prevents enemy prophets from casting calamities near a temple, can also be upgraded at the temple. Economic upgrades are found in the town center or capitol. These upgrades will increase your gathering rate for hunting and foraging, wood cutting, gold mining, iron mining or stone mining.
[10]
Empire Earth has 21 civilizations,
[11] (with two additional ones in
The Art of Conquest). Civilizations are predetermined in scenarios , but chosen by the player shortly after the beginning of random map games. Each civilization has several bonuses such as increased speed or decreased cost for a type of unit. Any civilization can be played in any epoch but will only be powerful in ages that use units that it has bonuses for. In scenarios, the player receives "civ points" for completing various tasks. The following are the available civilizations, grouped into their recommended epochs. With the exception of the futuristic Novaya Russia and Rebel Forces, all civilizations in
Empire Earth are based upon history. From the Prehistoric to Dark Ages, the civilizations are
Ancient Greece,
Assyrian Empire,
Babylon,
Byzantine Rome,
Carthage, and the Kingdom of
Israel. From the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age
Austria,
England,
Franks,
Kingdom of Italy,
Ottoman Empire, and
Spain are available. From the Atomic Age to Modern times
France,
Germany,
Great Britain,
Italy,
Russia, and the
United States are playable, and from Digital Age to Space Age
China,
Novaya Russia, and
Rebel Forces are playable.
Japan and
Korea are added in the
Art of Conquest expansion and belong in the "Digital Age to Space Age" group.
Multiplayer consists of
Local area network and Internet play. Players log in as a certain name profile, and search for, or create, a game that concerns several other players. The game is a basic war between all sides, unless diplomacy is involved. Advancement within Multiplayer comes about most easily when the player populates town centres. 5 citizens per centre, and one centre per age. Patches of the game are unlikely because the developer of the game
Stainless Steel Studios is no longer in operation.
[12][13]
Campaigns
Like many other real-time strategy games,
Empire Earth has single-player campaigns. But unlike some games, each scenario has a story to tell and by playing that scenario, you are actually playing out the story for that scenario. In order to win a campaign, you must play and win all scenarios in order. Apart from the Russian campaign, the mission, "
Operation Sealion" in the German campaign, and possibly the first four scenarios in the Greek campaign, all of the battles in the campaigns have actually occurred.
Learning campaign
The first campaign in Empire Earth is the Learning campaign. This campaign is where players are taught how to play Empire Earth. This campaign is available in both the original game and
The Art of Conquest. This campaign is not required to be played in order and is divided into two parts. The first part is about the rise of
Phoenicia. The second part is about the rise of the Byzantine Empire.
Greek campaign
The first real campaign focuses on Ancient
Greece. The opening five scenarios (of eight scenarios total) focus on the rise of Greece. The story tells of the early
Helladic peoples, the
Trojan War, the rise of
Athens, and the first years of the
Peloponnesian War, though with some fictional elements (such as the
Trojan horse being given to the
Ithacans by the gods). The second part is about the life of
Alexander the Great. The sixth scenario is about Alexander crushing the revolt of
Thebes and Athens. The following scenario is about the
Battle of the Granicus,
Battle of Issus and the siege of
Tyre. The final scenario is the
Battle of Gaugamela, the capture of Babylon and the battle for the
Persian Gates, a mountain pass which beyond lies
Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of
Persia. The campaign ends when Alexander and his army enters Persepolis and Alexander manages to escape an assassination attempt while visiting the tomb of
Xerxes I of Persia.
English campaign
The
English campaign is about the struggles between England and France for superiority in
Europe. The first three scenarios (of eight total) are about
William I of England, his victory against the rebellion from the barons with the help of
Henry I of France in 1047 , and the
Battle of Hastings in 1066 . The next three scenarios take place during the
Hundred Years' War between England and France;
Edward, the Black Prince and his raids in France are featured in the fourth and fifth scenarios. The sixth scenario is about
Henry V of England's story, some parts based on
William Shakespeare's
play. The first part is the internal unrest of
Lollards. Henry V starts the scenario fleeing from
London to
Oxford, where his units are protected from conversion by
Oxford University. After that Lollard churches are required to be destroyed and the capture or death of Sir
John Oldcastle in order to end the Lollards. After a cutscene with
Henry Chichele, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the second part takes the player to France, where Harfleur must be subdued to gain a foothold. Finally, the
Battle of Agincourt takes place. The next two scenarios are led by
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who meets
Napoleon I of France in battle. The first scenario deals with the
Battle of Roliça and the resulting
Convention of Sintra,
Battle of Talavera, and driving Napoleon out of
Spain. The last scenario in the English campaign is the
Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon finally meets Wellesley in person.
German campaign
In the
German campaign, the first four scenarios take place during World War I, and feature the Red Baron,
Manfred von Richthofen. The player follows Richtofen through his early days of flight and the development of his "Flying Circus." The first mission involves directing Richtofen and his pilot, Count Holck, to safety after their aircraft is shot down over
Poland in 1914, but in subsequent missions, Richtofen is a minor character. In the next three missions, the player protects shipments of war materials into Germany, directs German forces at the
Battle of Verdun, and directs the
Kaiserschlacht at the
Battle of the Somme. The second part, consisting of three scenarios, deals with
Nazi Germany and the first years of World War II in Europe. The first scenario introduces the
Blitzkrieg, in which the player has to conquer Poland,
Scandinavia, and France. The next mission deals with the German U-boat and naval blockade of Great Britain and the
Battle of Britain, which features the gargantuan
German battleship Bismarck. In the final scenario, the never-attempted
Operation Sealion, the player leads German forces in an invasion of Great Britain, under the famous Field Marshal
Erwin Rommel, ultimately conquering the country and annexing the United Kingdom to the Greater German Reich.
Russian campaign
In the
Russian campaign, the player leads Novaya Russia, a restructure of the Russian Federation. The game begins in 2018 , with the player directing the Russian political dissident Grigor Stoyanovich from the city of
Voronezh to safety in
Volgograd, followed by a seizure of power in the
Kremlin and
Moscow. The second scenario is about Novaya Russia's conquest of Europe. In the third scenario Grigor must crush a
coup in Moscow. He dies at the end of this scenario and is succeeded by a robot called Grigor II. Under Grigor II, Novaya Russia continues its conquest of the world by invading and subjugating China. In the fifth scenario, during an attempted invasion of the
United States, the player directs the disillusioned General Sergei Molotov and U.S. agent Molly Ryan as they try to build a
time machine to transport them back to the early 21st century and warn the original Grigor of the future. The final scenario takes place at the same time as the first. Molotov's Expedition, using Atomic Modern Age technology, battle against the technologically superior forces (thanks to Grigor II, who arrived earlier despite having left later) of the Ushi Party. At the end of the mission, Molotov or Ryan (it does not matter who; the outcome is the same) informs Grigor of the future atrocities that the machine will commit, and urge him to reconsider his seizure of power. Grigor is too propagandized by the cyber to listen to reason, and the character has no choice but to kill him. The Russian Campaign ends with an unanswered question:
[citation needed]
Prehistory
For a timeline of events in the early history of the universe and prehistoric Earth, see
Early prehistory.
Stonehenge, England, erected by
Neolithic peoples ca. 4500-4000 years ago.
Archaeology is often an important field when it comes to understanding prehistory.
Prehistory (
Latin,
præ = before
Greek, ιστορία =
history) is a term often used to describe the period before
written history.
Paul Tournal originally coined the term
Pré-historique in describing the finds he had made in the caves of
southern France. It came into use in
French in the 1830s to describe the time before writing, and was introduced into
English by
Daniel Wilson in 1851.
Prehistory can be said to date back to the beginning of the
universe itself, although the term is most often used to describe periods when there was
life on
Earth;
dinosaurs can be described as prehistoric animals and
cavemen are described as prehistoric people. Usually the context implies what
geologic or
prehistoric time period is discussed, f.e. "prehistoric
miocene apes", about 23 - 5.5 Million years ago, or "
Middle Palaeolithic Homo sapiens", 200000 - 30000 years ago.
Because, by definition, there are no written records from prehistoric times, (or at least there are none known to still exist down to this day) the information we know about the time period is informed by the fields of
paleontology,
biology,
palynology,
geology,
archaeoastronomy,
anthropology,
archaeology and other natural and social sciences. In societies where the introduction of writing is relatively recent,
oral histories, knowledge of the past handed down from generation to generation, contain records of "prehistoric" times.
The term became less strictly defined in the 20th century as the boundary between history (interpretation of written and oral records) and other disciplines became less rigid. Indeed today most
historians rely on evidence from many areas and do not necessarily restrict themselves to the historical period and written, oral or other symbolically encoded sources of communication; in addition, the term "history" is increasingly used in place of "prehistory" (e.g.
History of Earth,
history of the universe). Nevertheless, the distinction remains important to many scholars, particularly in the social sciences. The primary researchers into
Human prehistory are prehistoric
archaeologists and physical
anthropologists who use excavation, geographic survey, and scientific analysis to reveal and interpret the nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples.
Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of
chronology but in the way it deals with the activities of
archaeological cultures rather than named
nations or
individuals. Restricted to material remains rather than written records (and indeed only those remains that have survived), prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, the reference terms used by prehistorians such as
Neanderthal or
Iron Age are modern, arbitrary labels, the precise definition of which is often subject to discussion and argument.
The date marking the end of prehistory, that is the date when
written historical records become a useful academic resource, varies from region to region. In
Egypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BCE whereas in
New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, 1900.
Stone Age
The
Stone Age is a broad
prehistoric time period during which
humans widely used
stone for toolmaking.
Stone tools were made from a variety of different kinds of stone. For example,
flint and
chert were shaped (or
chipped) for use as cutting tools and
weapons, while
basalt and
sandstone were used for
ground stone tools, such as
quern-stones.
Wood,
bone,
shell,
antler and other materials were widely used, too. During the most recent part of the period,
sediments (like
clay) were used to make
pottery. A series of metal
technology innovations characterize the later
Chalcolithic (Copper Age),
Bronze Age and
Iron Age.
The period encompasses the first widespread use of
technology in
human evolution and the spread of
humanity from the
savannas of
East Africa to the rest of the
world. It ends with the development of
agriculture, the
domestication of certain animals and the
smelting of
copper ore to produce metal. It is termed
prehistoric, since humanity had not yet started
writing -- the traditional start of
history (i.e.,
recorded history).
The term "Stone Age" was used by
archaeologists to designate this vast
pre-metallurgic period whose stone
tools survived far more widely than tools made from other (softer) materials. It is the first age in the
three-age system. A division of the Stone Age into an older and younger part was first proposed by
Jens Jacob Worsaae in 1859 through his work with Danish kitchen middens that began in 1851.
[1] The subdivision into the
Palaeolithic,
Mesolithic and
Neolithic periods that still is in use today, was made by
John Lubbock in his now classic 1865 book
Pre-historic Times. These three periods are further subdivided. In reality, the succession of phases differs enormously from one
region (and
culture) to another, indeed, humanity continued to expand into new areas even during the metal ages. Therefore, it is better to speak of
a Stone Age, instead of
the Stone Age. As a description of people living today, the term
stone age is controversial. The Association of Social Anthropologists discourages this use.
Copper Age
The
Chalcolithic (Greek
khalkos +
lithos '
copper stone') period or
Copper Age period [also known as the
Eneolithic (
Æneolithic)], is a phase in the development of human culture in which the use of early
metal tools appeared alongside the use of
stone tools.
The period is a transitional one outside of the traditional
three-age system, and occurs between the
Neolithic and
Bronze Age. It appears that copper was not widely exploited at first and that efforts in alloying it with
tin and other metals began quite soon, making distinguishing the distinct Chalcolithic cultures and periods difficult.
The emergence of
metallurgy occurred first in the
Fertile Crescent, where it gave rise to the
Bronze Age in the
4th millennium BC. There was an independent and limited invention of
metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica form about the
7th century CE, which however didn't go past the "Chalcolithic" stage.
The literature of European archaeology generally avoids the use of 'chalcolithic' (they prefer the term 'Copper Age'), while Middle-Eastern archaeologists regularly use it. The Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus begins in the late
5th millennium BC and lasts for about a millennium before it gives rise to the
Early Bronze Age. Transition from the European Copper Age to
Bronze Age Europe occurs about a millennium later, between the late 4th and the late 3rd millennia BC.
According to Parpola,
[1] ceramic similarities between the
Indus Civilization, southern
Turkmenistan and northern
Iran during 4300–3200 BC of the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age) suggest considerable mobility and trade.
Bronze Age
For other uses, see
Bronze Age (disambiguation).
The term
Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced
metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for
smelting copper and
tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper ores, and then smelting those ores to cast
bronze. These naturally-occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in western Asia before 3,000 B.C. The Bronze Age forms part of the
three-age system for
prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the
Neolithic in some areas of the world. On the other hand, in many parts of
sub-Saharan Africa, the
Neolithic is directly followed by the
Iron Age.
[citation needed] In some parts of the world, a
Copper Age follows the Neolithic and precedes the Bronze Age.
Dark Ages
- This article is about the phrase "Dark Age(s)" as a characterization of the (Early) Middle Ages in Western Europe.
- For a history of the period, see Middle Ages or Early Middle Ages.
- For other uses of the phrase, see Dark Ages (disambiguation).
Petrarch, who conceived the idea of a European "Dark Age." From
Cycle of Famous Men and Women, Andrea di Bartolo di Bargillac, c.1450
In European
historiography, the term
Dark Age or
Dark Ages refers to the
Early Middle Ages, the period encompassing (roughly)
476 to
1000 AD.
This concept of a Dark Age was created by the Italian scholar Petrarch (
Francesco Petrarca) in the 1330s and was originally intended as a sweeping criticism of the character of
Late Latin literature.
[1] Later historians expanded the term to refer to the transitional period between
Classical Roman Antiquity and the
High Middle Ages, including not only the lack of Latin literature, but also a lack of contemporary
written history, general demographic decline, limited building activity and material cultural achievements in general.
Popular culture has further expanded on the term as a vehicle to depict the Middle Ages as a time of backwardness, extending its
pejorative use and expanding its scope.
The rise of
archaeology and other specialties in the 20th century has shed much light on the period and offered a more nuanced understanding of its positive developments. Other terms of
periodization have come to the fore:
Late Antiquity, the Early Middle Ages, and the
Great Migrations, depending on which aspects of culture are being emphasized.
When modern scholarly study of the Middle Ages arose in the 19th century, the term "Dark Ages" was at first kept, with all its critical overtones. When the term "Dark Ages" is used by historians today, it is intended to be neutral, namely, to express the idea that the events of the period often seem "dark" to us only because of the paucity of historical records, artistic and cultural output
[2] compared with later times.
[3]
Middle Ages
The fortified town and abbey of
Mont Saint-Michel off the northern coast of France is an iconic image of the Middle Ages that remains little changed since it was painted by the
Limbourg brothers in the 1430s
The
Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional
schematic division of European history into three "ages": the
classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and
Modern Times. The idea of such a periodisation is attributed to
Flavio Biondo, an
Italian Renaissance humanist historian.
The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the
fall of the Western Roman Empire (or by some scholars, before that) in the
5th century to the beginning of the
Early Modern Period in the
16th century, marked by the rise of
nation-states, the division of Western
Christianity in the
Reformation, the rise of
humanism in the
Italian Renaissance, and the beginnings of European overseas expansion which allowed for the
Columbian Exchange.
[1] There is some variation in the dating of the edges of these periods which is due mainly to differences in specialization and focus of individual scholars. Commonly seen periodization ranges span the years ca. 400–476 AD (
the sackings of Rome by the
Visigoths to the deposing of
Romulus Augustus)
[2] to ca. 1453–1517 (the
Fall of Constantinople to the
Protestant Reformation begun with
Martin Luther's
Ninety-Five Theses). Dates are approximate, and are based upon nuanced arguments; for other dating schemes and the reasoning behind them, see "
periodisation issues", below.
The Middle Ages witnessed the first sustained
urbanization of northern and western
Europe. Many modern European states owe their origins to events unfolding in the Middle Ages; present European political boundaries are, in many regards, the result of the military and dynastic achievements during this tumultuous period.
Renaissance
This article is about the European Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries. For the earlier European Renaissance, see
Renaissance of the 12th century. For other uses, see
Renaissance (disambiguation).
The
Renaissance (from
French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth";
Italian:
Rinascimento, from
re- "again" and
nascere "be born")
[1] was a
cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in
Italy in the late
Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of
Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic
era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform, this is a very general use of the term.
As a cultural movement, it encompassed a revival of learning based on
classical sources, the development of linear
perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread
educational reform. Traditionally, this intellectual transformation has resulted in the Renaissance being viewed as a bridge between the
Middle Ages and the
Modern era. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many
intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its
artistic developments and the contributions of such
polymaths as
Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo, who inspired the term "
Renaissance men".
[2][3]
There is a general, but not unchallenged, consensus that the Renaissance began in
Tuscany in the fourteenth century.
[4] Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of
Florence at the time; its political structure; the patronage of its dominant family, the
Medici;
[5] and the migration of
Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the
Fall of Constantinople at the hands of the
Ottoman Turks.
[6][7][8]
The Renaissance has a long and complex
historiography, and there has been much debate among historians as to the usefulness of
Renaissance as a term and as a historical age.
[9] Some have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and
nostalgia for the
classical age,
[10] while others have instead focused on the continuity between the two eras.
[11] Indeed, some have called for an end to the use of the term, which they see as a product of
presentism – the use of
history to validate and glorify modern ideals.
[12] The word
Renaissance has also been used to describe other historical and
cultural movements, such as the
Carolingian Renaissance and the
Renaissance of the 12th century.
World War I
"Great War" redirects here. For other uses, see
Great War (disambiguation).
World War I, also known as the
First World War, the
Great War, and
The War to End All Wars, was a
global war which took place primarily in
Europe from 1914 to 1918.
[2] Over 40 million
casualties resulted, including approximately 20 million military and civilian deaths.
[3] Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilized from 1914 to 1918.
[4]
The immediate cause of the war was the
June 28,
1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, by
Gavrilo Princip, a
Bosnian Serb citizen of
Austria-Hungary and member of the
Black Hand. The retaliation by Austria-Hungary against the
Kingdom of Serbia activated a series of alliances that set off a
chain reaction of war declarations. Within a month, much of Europe was in a state of open warfare.
The war was propagated by two major alliances. The
Entente Powers initially consisted of
France, the
United Kingdom,
Russia, and their associated empires and dependencies. Numerous other states joined these allies, most notably
Italy in April 1915, and the
United States in April 1917. The
Central Powers, so named because of their central location on the European continent, initially consisted of
Germany and
Austria-Hungary and their associated empires. The
Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October 1914, followed a year later by
Bulgaria. By the conclusion of the war, only The
Netherlands,
Switzerland,
Spain and the
Scandinavian nations remained officially neutral among the European countries, though many of those provided financial and material support to one side or the other.
The fighting of the war mostly took place along several fronts that broadly encircled the European continent. The
Western Front was marked by a system of trenches, breastworks, and fortifications separated by an area known as
no man's land.
[5] These fortifications stretched 475 miles (more than 600 kilometres)
[5] and precipitated a style of fighting known as
trench warfare. On the
Eastern Front, the vastness of the eastern plains and the limited railroad network prevented the stalemate of the Western Front, though the scale of the conflict was just as large. The
Middle Eastern Front and the
Italian Front also saw heavy fighting, while hostilities also occurred at sea, and for the first time, in the air.
The war was ended by several treaties, most notably the
Treaty of Versailles, signed on
28 June 1919, though the Allied powers had an
armistice with Germany in place since
11 November 1918. One of the most striking
results of the war was a large redrawing of the map of Europe. All of the Central Powers lost territory, and many new nations were created. The German Empire lost its
colonial possessions and was saddled with accepting blame for the war, as well as paying punitive
reparations for it. The Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were completely dissolved. Austria-Hungary was carved up into several successor states including
Austria,
Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, and
Yugoslavia. The Ottoman Empire disintegrated, and much of its non-
Anatolian territory was awarded as protectorates of various Allied powers, while the remaining Turkish core was reorganized as the
Republic of Turkey. The Russian Empire, which had withdrawn from the war in 1917, lost much of its western frontier as the newly independent nations of
Estonia,
Finland,
Latvia,
Lithuania, and
Poland were carved from it. After the war, the
League of Nations was created as an international organization designed to avoid future wars by giving nations a means of solving their differences diplomatically. World War I marked the end of the world order which had existed after the
Napoleonic Wars, and was an important
factor in the outbreak of
World War II.
World War II
World War II, or the
Second World War,
[1] was a global military conflict which involved a
majority of the world's nations, including all of the
great powers,
[2] organized into two opposing military alliances: the
Allies and the
Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, and placed the participants in a state of "
total war", erasing the distinction between civil and military resources. This resulted in the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort. Over
70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in
human history.
[3] The financial cost of the war is estimated at about a trillion 1944 U.S. dollars worldwide,
[4][5] making it the most expensive war as well.
[6]
The starting date of the war is generally held to be September 1939 with the
German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on
Germany by the
United Kingdom,
France and the British
Dominions;
[7][8] some sources use other starting points, including the
Mukden Incident, the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident, and the
Attack on Pearl Harbor. The Allies were victorious, and, as a result, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the world's leading superpowers. This set the stage for the
Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The self determination spawned by the war accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Western Europe itself began moving toward integration.
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology refers to a field of
applied science and technology whose theme is the control of matter on the
atomic and
molecular scale, generally 100
nanometers or smaller, and the fabrication of devices or materials that lie within that size range.
