# LocalizedText

Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_SHINTO_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
With no founding figure and no central doctrine, Shinto is the rather amorphous spiritual belief of the Japanese people based on an individual’s connection to the physical world … and to Japan itself. The recorded history of Shinto dates back to the two great works written by O no Yasumaro at the behest of the Empress Gemmei: the Kojiki (c. 712 AD) and the Nihon Shoki (c. 720 AD). Based on oral traditions, the first establishes the imperial family as the soul of Japanese culture, while the second focuses on the “correctness” of the social hierarchy and orderly living. If Hinduism is a polytheistic religion turned world religion, Shinto is animism turned state religion.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_SHINTO_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
One of the central aspects of Shintoism is the worship of spirits, known as Kami, who are acknowledged through the visiting of shrines. Although the Kami are not considered gods, they are spirits or entities with close ties to humans, and they can have a beneficial effect on the course of one’s existence. However, Shinto is not focused on the belief in Kami, but on the ritual of devotion itself. By paying respects to the Kami at shrines, one is showing interest and as such the Kami may bring positive benefits.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_SHINTO_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Although Shinto has been central to Japanese life for centuries, with over 100 million adherents found in Japan today, Shinto is not a religion in the traditional sense, but an ingrained faith unique to Japan.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_SIKHISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Founded in the 15th Century AD by the Guru Nanak Dev, Sikhism has grown through the efforts of successive Sikh gurus who espoused the virtues of peace, equality, and selfless service. Sikhism currently has over 20 million followers, based primarily in the Punjab region of India. The Sikhs believe in only one god, who has no physical form, but every Sikh has the ability to speak to God, and all are equal in God’s eyes – a very egalitarian faith.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_SIKHISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Sikhs are known for their generosity towards others, as one of the primary tenets of their religion is the idea that all people are created equal, regardless of religion, race, or sex. In differing from other major religions, Sikhism supports that belief that acts of good in service to others are more important than any form of ritual.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_SIKHISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Sikhs are also bound to defend against injustices, supporting all who are oppressed, as truth and peace should prevail above all else. The Sikhs believe that to attain salvation, every Sikh must practice disciplined meditation, as only through personal observance and focus on God can salvation be reached. Thus, there are a number of restrictions placed on the followers of the Sikh faith, including the requirement that they not cut their hair, not consume any intoxicating substances, and notably, not perform any ritual, superstition or pilgrimage.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_TAOISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Taoism is a unique religion, founded on the basis of the ancient beliefs and philosophies of the Chinese kingdoms of the 2nd Century AD. Although not attributed directly to a single founding figure like most faiths, Taoism grew based on the writings of the philosopher Lao-Tsu, who wrote the Tao Te Ching in the 4th Century BC. Zhang Daoling, the first “Celestial Master,” founded the first school of Tao based on the works of Lao-Tsu. Others followed.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_TAOISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Unlike most modern religions, Taoism is not dependent on the existence of some mythical, all-powerful, anthropomorphic “god.” Rather, it is a philosophical approach to life. One of the religion’s best known precepts, Yin and Yang, represent the world filled with complimentary forces in harmony and balance, a common example being light and dark. Followers of Taoism are encouraged to exercise humility, kindness, and compassion in their daily lives in order to maintain this balance in the world.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_TAOISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
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Throughout its history, Taoism has had many sects and branches split from the original school, as other elements of Chinese tradition crept into the philosophy. Magic, alchemy, and other mystical forces have all been included in some forms of Taoist thought since its early days. Although estimates of the total number of followers vary widely, it is believed that there are still several million “true” believers in China and the surrounding regions today.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_ZOROASTRIANISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Zoroastrianism, an ancient faith based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, is believed to have been founded some 3500 years ago in the region around Persia. Once one of the largest religions in the world, Zoroastrian is only followed today by an estimated 200 thousand adherents, living primarily in India, Pakistan, and Iran. In general, it has been marginalized and overshadowed by Islam since the decline of the Sassanid Empire after the 7th Century AD.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_ZOROASTRIANISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Zoroastrianism is considered by some to be the oldest monotheistic religion in the world, although this is a point of contention among scholars. Zoroastrian beliefs are centered on the creator god Ahura Mazda, who is the focal point of all Zoroastrian tradition and worship. It is said that Ahura Mazda revealed his wisdom to Zoroaster, who then wandered about to spread the teachings across the region. The sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, known collectively as the Avesta, contain hymns said to have been written by Zoroaster himself.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RELIGIONS_PAGE_RELIGION_ZOROASTRIANISM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
As with most religions, Zoroastrianism outlines the ways in which humans can supposedly live in harmony, in this case through “good thoughts and good actions.” Zoroastrians are often mischaracterized as fire worshippers, in part because of the prevalence of fire as a symbol in Zoroastrian rituals. In Zoroastrianism, fire represents the light of Ahura Mazda and believers will pray in the direction of the light, rather than to the fire itself.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_INTRO_CHAPTER_CONTENT_PARA_1
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Resources are sources of [ICON_Food] Food, [ICON_Production] Production, [ICON_Science] Science, [ICON_Gold] Gold, or [ICON_Culture] Culture, and they can provide special bonuses to a civilization. Your civilization's wealth and power will be determined by the number and kinds of resources you control to a large degree. To utilize a resource, it first must be within your civilization's borders, and then you must construct the appropriate "improvement" in that hex. For example, you must construct the Plantation improvement to get the benefit from a Banana resource.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_ALUMINUM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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The Greeks and Romans used aluminum salts as astringents and bath powders. For centuries, that’s all aluminum was good for, until in 1825 AD the Danish chemist Hans Orsted managed to create a lump of aluminum metal. In the 1850s, pure aluminum was so difficult to produce that bars of it were more valuable than gold and even exhibited as a curiosity at the Exposition Universelle in 1855. Scientists, of course, just had to find uses for it, and now aluminum is found in everything from spacecraft to skillets.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_ANTIQUITY_SITE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Francis Bacon wrote in 1605 that "antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time." Treasure hunters, grave robbers, and academics have been seeking “antiquities” to carry back to civilization for a millennium. By definition, antiquities are objects from the past, ranging from simple arrowheads to artistic treasures. The sense that a lost civilization could be uncovered by a systematic study of its relics and artifacts has driven amateur collectors and eminent scholars (and thieves) to seek out and dig these up at antiquity sites around the globe … including some of the most inhospitable places known. This passion for collecting the leavings of the human past eventually gave rise to a new academic discipline - the field of archaeology.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_BANANAS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Tasty and nutritious, bananas and the less-sweet plantains are the product of large, herbaceous, flowering plants found in tropical climates. First cultivated in New Guinea and Southeast Asia, records (mostly folk tales) suggest that bananas were first purposefully grown in the Kuk Swamp around 5000 BC. In time, traders carried banana plants to Madagascar, and the cultivation of these spread across Africa – to be discovered by Europeans looking for a new treat.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_CATTLE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Whether beef, dairy, or draft animals, cattle in all their forms have been serving mankind since before history began. In fact, it appears that wild aurochs were domesticated at some point around 10,500 years ago in what is today Turkey. Evidence shows that cattle were being used as a medium of barter around 7000 BC in the Indian subcontinent. Ever since, cattle and oxen have supplied meat and milk, leather and horn, and been beasts of burden and objects of religious devotion.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_CINNAMON_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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According to the Roman writer Pliny, a Roman pound (about 11.5 ounces) of cinnamon cost up to 300 denarii … ten months wages for a common laborer in the city. Cinnamon has been used since antiquity, as a medicine, aphrodisiac, and to flavor both sweet and savory foods. It was imported into Egypt as early as 2000 BC, and was so highly prized among the Greeks that small amounts were given as gifts to Apollo at his temple at Miletus. So valuable was the spice that traders kept the source (the bark of Cinnamomum trees found in Sri Lanka and on the Malabar coast of India) secret for centuries.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_CITRUS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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The genus Citrus includes a number of flowering plants that produce a variety of fruits – including oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, limes, lemons, and others that have been a staple in the human diet for millennia. First cultivated in Southeast Asia, the fruits from these trees and shrubs are a fine source of vitamin C, a shortage of which brings scurvy … a debilitating condition that can lead to a rather nasty form of death. Hence, on long voyages, commanders found it beneficial to keep a store of citrus on hand.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_CLOVES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Cloves are the dried flower bud from a tree native to the Maluku Islands in Indonesia; an aromatic spice, it is used in cuisines worldwide. Now harvested primarily in Indonesia, India, Zanzibar, and Madagascar, cloves have a numbing effect on mouth tissues and have been used in the past as a medicine as well as a spice. Until planted outside the islands, the Dutch East India Company had a virtual monopoly on the spice; in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, cloves were quite literally worth their weight in gold due to the demand.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_COAL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
From the Old English term col, meaning “mineral of fossilized carbon,” coal has been civilization’s primary source of heat for millennia – of homes, forges, smelters, electrical plants and such. Decomposed plant matter that has been compressed over millennia, coal was first used for carved ornaments dating back to c. 4000 BC found in the Shenyang region of China. Men have been stripping it out of the ground ever since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_COCOA_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Chocolate comes from cocoa beans, and cocoa beans come from the cacao tree, an evergreen native to Central and South America. Cultivation of the beans was extensive in early Mesoamerican civilizations; residue of chocolate drinks have been found in Olmec ruins dating back to c. 1750 BC. Introduced by the Spanish to Europe, by the mid-1700s cocoa was immensely popular there as a hot beverage, cooking ingredient, and even as a medicine.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_COFFEE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Coffee beans are cultivated in over 70 countries, and the bitter drink produced from them consumed worldwide. Like cocoa and tobacco, coffee acts as a stimulant … in this case due to the presence of caffeine, an adenosine antagonist. According to legend, it all began when Kaldi, a 9th Century Ethiopian, noticed that his goats became energized after nibbling beans from a wild coffee plant. Probably an apocryphal tale, but it is known that by the 15th Century coffee beans were being roasted, ground, and used in drinks across Arabia.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_COPPER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Ductile with a high heat and electrical conductivity, copper has been used by men for thousands of years, since at least 8000 BC (giving name to the so-called Copper Age). But mostly it was used in alloys, such as bronze, brass, and cupronickel, all of which are a lot more durable and stronger, and hence good for things like armor and swords. Copper itself has some useful properties, not the least the fact humans need trace amounts in their diet to avoid some unpleasant debilitating conditions.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_COSMETICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The use of cosmetics spans 6000 years and almost every civilization. In one way or another – ritual, religion, courtship, art – cosmetics have been a staple of being human. Even when frowned upon, as in ancient Rome (the wanton Cleopatra, for instance, was condemned for it) and ancient Israel (where Jezebel was lambasted for her painted eyes in the Old Testament). Even as late as 1900 AD using cosmetics was somehow disreputable, but the “Flapper Era” brought it to prominence in America and Europe, and made it a big business. The cosmetics industry has grown steadily ever since, driven by the “youth culture” prevalent today.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_COTTON_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Cultivated since the early Indus Valley civilization some seven millennia ago, the cotton plant produces a soft fiber that ripens in a boll and can be easily harvested. Spun into yarn, the fiber results in a soft, pliable, light fabric, perfect for hot climes. It remains useful, with around 27.5 million tons produced annually. And cotton helped spur the Industrial Revolution, once mechanized spinning machines and the cotton gin were invented in the late 1700s.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_CRABS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Living in both salt and fresh water, and even on land, the various species (over 800) of crab have a thick exoskeleton and twin claws. Crabs have been a source of food for humans for millennia; today, they make up over 20% of all the marine crustaceans caught, farmed, and consumed worldwide. Pheromones are used by fully aquatic crabs to attract a mate – given how tasty they are, a necessary survival skill – while terrestrial dwelling crabs often use visual signals, such as male fiddler crabs waving their large claws to attract a female.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_DEER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Found in just about every climate and terrain on the planet, herds of deer have been hunted by primitives with spears (or now guns) for necessity and sport forever. During the Upper Paleolithic period, reindeer were the primary meat of Cro-Magnon people; in China, Homo erectus fed upon the sika deer; ancient Celts hunted red deer. Since deer were so plentiful (and so tasty), they also figured in the artistic culture and heraldry of many civilizations.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_DIAMONDS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Formed in the lithospheric mantle under conditions of extreme heat and pressure, lumps of metastable allotropes of carbon – better known as diamonds – have fueled wonder and greed in civilization since the days of ancient India. Found in deposits near the surface, by the 4th Century BC several Indian settlements were trading in diamonds, which inevitably found their way to Europe. Although uncut and unpolished – the technology for this wouldn’t be developed until the late 1300s – diamonds became a marker of power and privilege. They still are, although now faux diamonds can be made in labs.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_DYES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Humans have always liked bright colors. And civilizations seemingly forever have used color to signify role and rank, status and membership. Ancient peoples discovered that a wide variety of substances – plants, minerals, and animal bits – could be used to produce dyes to provide those bright colors. So, for some 37 thousand years folk have been dying fabric, paint, and their skin and hair.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_FISH_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Rich in protein and oils and minerals, fish have been a staple in the diet of humans since the Paleolithic Age, some 40 thousand years ago. Shell middens, piles of fish bones, cave paintings, and analysis of the Tianyuan Man show that freshwater fish were regularly consumed by prehistoric primitives. As technology developed, especially in the realm of sea-going boats, fish and all things that came from them, became ever more available to civilizations. To the point now that overfishing the Earth’s oceans threatens to depopulate whole species.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_FURS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Homo sapiens have been wearing the pelts of fellow mammals since they wandered into the cold climes, about 125 thousand years ago. Once wool and flannel fabrics were developed, which were far more durable, warmer, and easier to keep clean, wearing furs was just an affectation. Nonetheless, several species were hunted to near extinction during the 1700s and 1800s – beaver, fox, mink, seal, the list goes on. Others were bred in captivity – ermine, sable, chinchilla, etc. – to be harvested for their coats. And the “fur trade” (think Hudson’s Bay Company) made some men very rich.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_GYPSUM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Hard, but relatively easy to carve, gypsum is a sulfate, evaporate mineral found in deposits in sedimentary rock. A fine-grained, white or lightly tinted variety – alabaster – was used for sculptures and monuments by the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Romans, the Byzantines, and English during the Middle Ages. Fairly common, gypsum can be ground into a powder and used as fertilizer, to make plaster, and even in the preparation of various foods (bread, beer, and mead for instance), shampoos, and creams. There are few things in civilization as useful as gypsum.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_HORSES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The horse is one of the two remaining extant subspecies of Equus ferus, and one of the first animals humans domesticated sometime around 3500 BC in central Asia.  It seems horses were very useful for all that moving about and hunting that primitives needed to do. As beast of burden, military mount, companion, and occasional food source, the horse is likely the most important tamed animal in history.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_INCENSE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Incense, believed to have both medicinal and mystic qualities, is any material – usually some part of a plant – that gives off an aromatic smoke when burned. Incense is known to have been used extensively in both ancient Egypt and ancient India by 3300 BC. Besides its use in religious ceremonies, incense has been used in homes to cover the rich scent of crowded humanity, while the cloying fragrance helped mute the odor of decomposition in mummies for Egyptians.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_IRON_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
By mass the most common element on Earth, with an atomic number of 26, iron is fairly malleable under heat … and fairly useful. Iron beads dating to about 3500 BC have been found in the excavations at Gerzah, Egypt. Iron proved useful for all kinds of things needed by early civilizations: cooking pots, hinges, tools, and pointy weapons to stab other people with.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_IVORY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Harvested from the teeth and tusks of various animal species – elephant, whale, hippo, walrus, and the like – ivory’s luster and durability made it (before plastic proved better suited) one of the most valuable commodities in civilization. The Greeks, Romans, and Chinese prized it for its ability to be carved into long-lasting decorations, statuettes, cups, utensils, and false teeth. This was unfortunate for the animals, who were hunted to near extinction. The demand for ivory in 1831 AD in Great Britain alone accounted for the deaths of over 4000 elephants in that single year.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_JADE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
In Mongolia’s Hongshan culture and China’s Liangzhu culture, c. 3500 BC, jade was used for both utilitarian and ceremonial purposes. Surface deposits of the silicate mineral were easily mined in both regions. Jade was put to use in both India and Korea as well, although somewhat later. Even later, the elite in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica treasured it for its symbolic use in religious rituals. Jade has lost none of its allure, and is still prized by craftsmen and artists for its luster and ability to be carved into virtually any shape.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_JEANS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Invented by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss in 1873, jeans were born of the need for a sturdier pair of pants during the western gold rush.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_MARBLE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The ancients found marble as a building material durable and beautiful, more lasting than sandstone and easier to quarry than granite. Categorized by color and location, marble became a cultural standard of tradition and taste. Highly prized by the Greeks and Romans, marble was used by sculptors and engineers for those things meant to stand the test of time. Now they use concrete … less enduring but a lot cheaper.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_MERCURY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Mercury – or quicksilver – is one of only two elements that is a liquid under normal conditions of temperature and pressure. Although known for centuries, it was more a curiosity than useful; in China and Tibet it was thought to prolong life and maintain vigor, while the Greeks put it in ointments, and the Romans in cosmetics (they’d all be shocked to learn it has serious adverse health effects). It wasn’t until the Scientific Revolution that it proved useful in things like thermometers, barometers, manometers, blood pressure gauges, mercury switches, and all kinds of other devices.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_NITER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Better known as saltpeter, niter is the mineral form of potassium nitrate. Although known for millennia, it didn’t become important until the Chinese figured out it could be combined with sulfur to make gunpowder in the mid-1st Century AD. And gunpowder is really good for making fireworks and blowing things up. Niter is also useful as a fertilizer and food preservative, but few people remember that.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_OIL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Oil greases the wheels of modern civilization, so to speak. For centuries before the coming of the internal combustion engine, oil was used for fire, lubrication, and to make asphalt. In 347 AD, oil was being produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China. But it wasn’t until 1847 when James Young discovered a method for distilling kerosene from oil that oil drilling became a booming industry. A boom only fueled by the discovery of the methods to refine gasoline from crude oil.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_PEARLS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Composed of calcium carbonate in concentric layers, a pearl is secreted by an oyster around something that is irritating its soft, inner tissues. Some people find these little coated irritations quite attractive, and so pearls have been highly prized for centuries. Since at least the 6th Century BC, divers in the Indian and Pacific oceans have brought pearls up from the depths to serve as jewelry, to be sewn onto clothing, and to grace crowns and thrones.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_PERFUME_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Fragrant oils mixed with solvents and fixatives have been used by civilized man for millennia, because people sometimes smell. Ancient records and the findings of modern archeologists confirm the use of perfumes of various sorts – made from plants, animal parts, and even some minerals – since the first human settlements. The modern perfume industry, tracing its roots to the 14th Century Arabia and France, expanded aroma compounds with ever new concoctions. Maybe if they had known that perfumes can cause asthmatic attacks, allergic skin reactions, headaches or nausea, they wouldn’t have.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_RICE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Rice is a dietary staple of more than half of the world's human population, mostly in Asia. Chinese legend attributes the first cultivation of rice to Shennong, who “invented” agriculture. Whatever the truth of that, it is known that the ancient Egyptians were exporting rice, and large deposits of preserved rice have been found in Roman camps dating to the 1st Century AD. Rice remains vital to stave off famine; world production of rice has risen steadily from about 200 million tons in 1960 to 600 million tons in 2000.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_SALT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Used for preserving food and to season it when cooking, salt also just happens to be essential to animal life. The earliest evidence of the processing of salt dates back six millennia, to the ruins of salt works found in Romania and China. Salt can be mined, or extracted by evaporation of sea water, both processes simple enough even for illiterate barbarians to manage.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_SHEEP_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Domestic sheep are likely descendants of wild mouflon breeds found scattered across Europe and Asia. Sheepherding is the oldest documented occupation, commencing some 5000 years ago in Asia Minor. Men and their dogs kept the sheep safe from predators so the village could enjoy the wool and the mutton, both essential to the rise of the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. The practice spread across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. There are today over 200 breeds of sheep in existence, each bred for a specific quality: hardiness, size, quantity and quality of fleece, milk production … and tastiness.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_SHIPWRECK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Ships sink … a fact known well to sailors. And to treasure hunters, salvage divers and underwater archaeologists, all seeking to make a name for themselves by bringing up artifacts (especially gold ones) from the shipwreck. A shipwreck is a treasure trove: underwater archaeologists seek to understand the past through it; salvage divers seek to recover cargo or parts from it; treasure hunters – despite any romantic notions – seek to get rich from it. The lure of lost treasure found on the seabed has been fostered by some fabulous discoveries, such as that of the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha (worth around $450 million) or the pirate ship Whydah Gally ($400 million). Still out there somewhere, among lesser shipwrecks, the Portuguese Flor de la Mar (estimated treasure of $2.6 billion).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_SILK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
A natural protein fiber, silk is produced by insect larvae to create cocoons. The best quality of silk comes from the cocoons of the mulberry silkworm, as the Chinese discovered around 3630 BC (archeologists uncovered the body of a child of that period in silk wrappings). Legend presents the Empress Leizu as developing silk weaving, which spread throughout the Far East during her reign. Soon enough it was carried along the Silk Road, becoming China’s notable export to the West.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_SILVER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Malleable and shiny, silver has lured prospectors and thieves alike for at least 6000 years, since it was first mined in Asia Minor and several Aegean islands. Roman currency was based on silver, and Roman mining (mostly done by slaves) produced silver on an as-yet unprecedented scale. Chinese dynasties too used silver as their medium of exchange, minting it into coins to pay off their debts to the colonial powers. In the New World, the Spanish Cerro de Potosi was history’s largest silver mine, and the Comstock Lode brought thousands west to Nevada. All of which made Judas Iscariot’s 30 pieces of silver seem a pittance.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_SPICES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Spices enhance (or mask) the flavor of prepared food, and might be made from seed, bark, root, leaf, blossom, or just about any other part of a plant. The “spice trade” developed across Southern Asia and the Middle East around 2000 BC when people discovered properly prepared cinnamon and pepper helped make spoiled food palatable. Within a few centuries, spice merchants ranged across the known world and linked East and West. Spices really were the “spice of life,” and demand for them has been insatiable ever since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_STONE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
According to geologists, stone is “a naturally occurring solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids.” Granite, for instance, is a mix of feldspar, biotite and quartz. The entire outer layer of the Earth’s crust is composed of rock. So, it isn’t surprising that “civilized” man has been using stone for constructions, tools, weapons, decorations, and paperweights since the – well – Stone Age.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_SUGAR_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Sugar is an incredibly sweet short-chain carbohydrate derived from sugar cane (or beets). It is believed that sugar was first used by Polynesians to spice their foods and drinks, and the practice spread to India and China, and from there across Asia and into Europe. Eventually sugar cane was transplanted to the Caribbean and to North and South America, where it was found to grow incredibly well … so long as someone was available to tend it.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_TEA_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Dried leaves steeped in hot or boiling water, tea is the second most human-consumed beverage (after water) in the world. Tea plants are native to Eastern and Southern Asia, and tea drinking began during the Shang dynasty in China, likely as a medicinal cure that evolved into an acquired taste. Many teas – such as Darjeeling or the green teas – have a bitter, astringent taste, but have a mildly stimulating effect. Over the centuries many flavors of teas have been developed, ranging from sweet to floral, and from nutty to grassy.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_TOBACCO_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Tobacco is the cured leaves of the tobacco plant, a member of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. Serving as a stimulant, smoking or chewing tobacco also releases dopamine in the human body, which gives a sense of pleasure and reward; dopamine is normally released by eating, drinking, and other pleasurable activities. Used since 1400 BC by the natives of the Americas, both for social and religious purposes, like so many vices tobacco was introduced to the world by Spanish explorers around 1559 AD, who brought seeds and leaves back to Europe on the orders of King Philip II.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_TOYS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
As any parent knows, children will play with anything at hand – rocks, sticks, cardboard boxes, paper bags, dead insects, etc. But civilized children play with civilized toys – dolls, blocks, small soldiers, wooden weapons, carved animals, etc – all, according to psychologists, to prepare them for adult life. Setting aside the notion of adult toys, playthings have been found in tombs dating back to the Indus Valley civilization (c. 3010 BC) and Mesopotamian city-states. With the Enlightenment, and the notion that children should “enjoy” childhood, “play” became a major industry … and more than one innovator has made a fortune catering to children’s whims.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_TRUFFLES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
A rare and expensive delicacy, truffles are the fruit of a family of fungi that grow underground. With a pungent aroma and powerful taste, truffles are used primarily for seasoning dishes in a variety of cuisines. But finding truffles is a laborious process. “Truffle pigs” were domesticated specifically for the purpose of finding truffles; with their uncanny sense of smell, these pigs are said to have been in use since the Roman Empire.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_URANIUM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
With 92 protons and electrons, six of the latter valence electrons, uranium is a silver-white metal that is slightly radioactive. The use of uranium dates back to at least 79 AD, when it was used to add a yellowish color to ceramic glazes. But Enrico Fermi found a more malevolent use for the metal; his research in 1934 led to the discovery of “nuclear fission.” And in December 1942, another team led by Fermi as part of the Manhattan Project initiated the world’s first self-sustained nuclear reaction. A few years later, thanks to uranium, the skies above Hiroshima lit up.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_WHALES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Whales have been hunted nearly to extinction for their meat, blubber, ambergris, oil, and bones (best not to be too useful to the dominant species). Whales have been hunted commercially since the 17th Century, but commercial whaling is now banned by several international commissions … although Norway, Iceland, Japan, and others have continued to license whaling vessels. The beasts also loom large in the folklore of several civilizations, and who can forget the 1851 novel 'Moby Dick.'


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_WHEAT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
First cultivated in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East about 8000 BC, wheat is a remarkably versatile grain; it can be ground into flour, fed to livestock, and made into beer. By 5000 BC, wheat farming had spread far; archeologists have found evidence of cultivation in China, India and even England. Relatively easy to grow and with relatively large yields, it was perfect for a growing, gluttonous civilization. Though wheat has found itself at the center of dietary controversy again and again, it remains a staple food across the world.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_RESOURCES_PAGE_RESOURCE_WINE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
'In vino, veritas.' In wine, truth. Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from fruit, honey, rice, and just about anything else that can be fermented. Archaeological evidence shows that wine was being produced from grapes as long ago as the Neolithic Age in the Zagros Mountains. Wine was so highly thought of that it became the staple in many religious ceremonies, national celebrations, and the dinner parties of effete snobs throughout history.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_INTRO_CHAPTER_CONTENT_PARA_1
Text:
Advancing technology makes a civilization stronger, bigger, smarter, and a formidable opponent. It is critically important for a civilization to keep up technologically with its neighbors. While it is possible for a unenlightened civilization to overcome their more advanced neighbor, there are only a few examples of such events occurring in history –so too is this the case in Civilization VI.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ADVANCED_BALLISTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Once humans started shooting off rockets, the need for a new understanding of ballistics became clear. The flight of rockets, jets, missiles, spacecraft and such simply couldn’t be covered by the current knowledge of internal, transition, external and terminal ballistics that had been accumulated by engineers to that time. When Goddard and von Braun began lighting up the heavens, something more than a gyroscope was required to get the missile to impact where desired. And issues such as escape velocity and orbital reentry began to be of some importance, especially to future cosmonauts and astronauts. Meanwhile, jet aircraft capable of flying at Mach at altitudes of 10-15,000 meters (33-49,000 feet) changed the dynamics of flight into that of ballistics.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ADVANCED_BALLISTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Although Newtonian mechanics still applied, ballistics for rockets and missiles became so complex that mathematicians had to derive second-order differential equations to calculate the plot, compute the drag, and estimate the arrival on target. Even gravity had to be taken into account. Then add in launching missiles and rockets from fast-moving aircraft in aft-crossing trajectory and only computers could possibly make sense of it all.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ADVANCED_BALLISTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Those looking to fire things into orbit and beyond were forced to create a whole new field: astrodynamics, a combination of ballistics and celestial mechanics. If one wanted to land a man on the Moon (and bring him back to Earth alive), mere ballistics wasn’t good enough. Trying to get two moving objects together safely was so complex that NASA’s Apollo Guidance Computer was developed, an on-board microcomputer with which the astronauts could communicate via the DSKY keypad for near-instantaneous ballistic calculations.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ADVANCED_FLIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
As the Second World War progressed, a new form of aircraft made its appearance, pioneered by the Germans but with the Americans and British not far behind. From the very beginning of powered flight, various forward thinkers proposed a jet propulsion system; in 1910 AD, the Romanian Henri Coandă even patented a crude one. Meanwhile, the Germans were experimenting with rockets strapped to airplanes, and in 1929 the first purpose-built rocket plane flew. As the war loomed, various inventors and engineers scrambled to create a true, and affordable, jet fighter.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ADVANCED_FLIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The first flight of a jet aircraft was made by the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 prototype in August 1940. The Germans had kept their own work, the Messerschmitt Me-262, under wraps. Although successfully test flown as early as 1941, mass production didn’t start until mid-1944 when several Luftwaffe jet squadrons took to the skies against the Allied bombers. The first jet fighter to see combat, its appearance was too late to affect the war significantly, but Me-262s did shoot down 542 enemy planes. And the reconstituted Czech air force kept them in service until 1951.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ADVANCED_FLIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Meanwhile about the same time in 1944 the British rolled out their turbojet Gloster Meteor, the only operational Allied jet aircraft of the war, to combat the scourge of the V-1 flying bombs. After the war, it was America that took the lead in advanced flight, pioneering swept-wing fighters such as the F-86 Sabre, F-4 Phantom and the Grumman F-14A Tomcat (made a Hollywood star in “Top Gun”). The U.S. Air Force brought the B-45 Tornado, the world’s first jet bomber, into service in 1948. Soon both superpowers had lots of bomb-laden jets on standby as the Cold War occasionally warmed up.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ADVANCED_FLIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
But those who looked to make a killing in post-war airline travel were not idle either. BOAC opened the first commercial jet service – London to Johannesburg – in 1952. But a series of crashes involving the de Havilland Comet jetliner gave Boeing the time to roll out its 707, which entered service in 1958 and soon dominated the market for commercial jets. Thus was born the “jet set.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ANIMAL_HUSBANDRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The domestication of animals and the selective breeding of some to accentuate certain traits (husbandry) appears to have occurred around the same time as the development of agriculture. The dog is thought to be the earliest domesticated animal, probably to assist in hunting game and protect the camp. (They also improved sanitation by eating all the scraps being tossed around the fire pit.) Evidence suggests that dogs were first tamed and bred in China – in fact, geneticists believe that about 95% of the breeds today are descended from just a few common Chinese ancestors.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ANIMAL_HUSBANDRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Meanwhile, goats and sheep were domesticated in the Middle East by about 10,000 BC. Next, men domesticated cattle, probably in the Middle East also according to geneticists. Then, around 4000 BC, horses on the Eurasian steppes. And then followed many of the rest of earth's creatures. In time, most of the domesticated animals became so tame that they could not survive on their own in the wild. Those that couldn’t be domesticated got hunted, by men on horseback … with dogs.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ANIMAL_HUSBANDRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
To be successfully domesticated, according to Charles Darwin, a type of animal must fit certain criteria. It should be able to consume food that is less attractive to humans (grass or vermin or leftovers). It should mature rapidly, so that it becomes useful quickly and so that it can be husbanded through repeated generations of breeding. The animal should have a pleasant disposition (doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it). It shouldn’t panic easily … or if it does, it should tend to stay together with others of its kind, making it possible for humans or dogs to protect the herd. Finally, it is useful if the animal can be trained or tricked to think of a human as its pack or herd leader.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ARCHERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Archery is the method by which a person uses the spring power stored in a bent stick to shoot a slender pointed projectile a great distance at rapid speed. A very useful technology, whether employed against game animals or against other human beings. Now it’s considered just recreation.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ARCHERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The earliest use of the bow is lost in the mists of time, but dates from the Paleolithic era (which ended around ten thousand BC), although archaeologists have found stone points in Africa dating 60,000 years ago that may have been arrowheads. Virtually every early civilization employed bows and arrows. It is known that the bow was used in warfare in pre-dynastic Egypt; several successful Classical civilizations – Assyrians, Persians, Parthians, Indians, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese – fielded large contingents of archers in their armies.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ARCHERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The technology of archery continued to advance. The composite bow, a laminate of wood and horn, spread outward from Asia to Arabia, North Africa and even Europe. The English longbow, so useful for poaching the King’s deer, proved itself in battle first at Sluys and Crécy, before eventually slaughtering the flower of French chivalry at Agincourt. Shortly thereafter the recurve bow, with its slightly outward bend at the end of the arms, provided greater power and range without increasing the draw weight. The complicated compound bow added wheels and pulleys to heighten the power even more. And then there was the crossbow – so simple and undemanding any peasant could use it effectively – developed by the Chinese during their Warring States period and in a few centuries adopted across Europe.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ARCHERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
The coming of the crossbow, and even more so firearms, saw the decline of archery, both in hunting and especially in war. Why spend years training an archer to be deadly, when it takes just a few weeks to teach someone to use a musket effectively?


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ASTROLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Now considered a “pseudoscience,” astrology is based on the premise that there is some sort of relationship between celestial objects and phenomena and events on this small ball of earth. Constellations, the moon, comets, the sun and planets (those that could be seen from Earth) were associated with gods, and it was believed that these thus had an impact on the physical universe. A certain planet or cluster of stars might appear each year around harvest time, and eventually men decided that that planet governed the harvest. Perhaps if one sacrificed a goat on the day that the planet first appeared, it would bless the upcoming harvest.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ASTROLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Most primitive civilizations attached great significance to this nonsense, and that spurred a number of advances. The Indians, Chinese and Mayans developed elaborate calendars to track celestial events. The standing stones of Stonehenge may have been erected for astrological purposes. The mixing of Hellenic astrology with Babylonian astronomy gave rise to many mathematical principles. Chinese astrology flourished during the Han dynasty, and gave birth to several traditional cultural markers: the yin-yang dichotomy, the five elements, Confucian philosophy, Chinese theories of medicine.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ASTROLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
During the so-called Scientific Revolution astrology shed much of its religious and mystical trappings, morphing into astronomy. In 1543 AD Nicolai Copernicus published 'De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium,' which postulated that the sun was the center of the universe, not the Earth, and that the planets orbited the sun, and the moon orbited the Earth. If all these heavenly bodies didn’t circle our planet, why should they affect our lives? During the Enlightenment, the last vestiges of support for astrology fell away, with leading thinkers declaring it to be puerile and infantile. Leaving only the old ladies casting horoscopes and the occasional New Age resurgence to keep astrology afloat in modern times.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ASTRONOMY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
If one stares into the night sky long enough, one discovers astronomy (or if none too bright, astrology – but that’s another topic). Up to the Renaissance, astronomy as the study of objects in space was neither a science nor particularly studious; until, that is, Nicholas Copernicus published his heliocentric theory of the solar system in 1543 AD. His work was defended, corrected and expanded by Galileo Galilei using that new wonder, the telescope. A key figure in the “Scientific Revolution,” Johannes Kepler next devised a mathematical system that detailed the motions of the planets; a few decades later, Newton worked out the mechanics with his development of celestial dynamics and the laws of gravitation, using the reflecting telescope he invented.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ASTRONOMY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Significant advances in astronomy have usually come with the introduction of new technology; it helps to be able to see things larger, farther away or in other spectrums when studying infinity. Better and better telescopes allowed William Herschel to create a detailed catalogue of nebulas and clusters, and to “discover” the planet Uranus in 1781. The German Friedrich Bessel managed to measure the distance to a star (61 Cygni) in 1838 for the first time. The spectroscope and photography thrust astronomical knowledge ahead, notably when scientists realized that other stars were similar to the sun in composition – just with a wide range of masses, temperatures and sizes.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ASTRONOMY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
But it wasn’t until the early 20th Century that astronomers finally realized that our system was part of a galaxy, the “Milky Way,” and that there were lots of other galaxies floating about. And in between these galaxies were all sorts of exotic things – quasars, pulsars, blazers, radio galaxies, black holes, neutron stars, and such – discovered with esoteric types of telescopes, and even some that orbit the Earth in space where all that man-made pollution doesn’t interfere with studiously observing the night sky.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BALLISTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The mechanics of throwing things have been known for quite a while; primitive cultures are quite adept at throwing things. The science of those mechanics is known as “ballistics.” The first ballistic weapons were sticks, stones and spears. Then bows get invented around 10 thousand years ago; then gunpowder and the study of the mechanics of launching things gets rather complicated. The motion, behavior and effects of bullets, shells, bombs, rockets and the like became of great interest to military and law enforcement forces throughout civilization.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BALLISTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
As cannon became common in warfare, military engineers began to study the combination of factors (ranging from elevation to windage) that might affect the path of a cannon ball on its way to flatten a wall or a human being. They soon divided that study into four subfields: internal ballistics concerned with the initial acceleration, transition ballistics for the shift to unpowered flight, external ballistics which focused on trajectory, and terminal ballistics for the effects when the flight ends (hopefully as planned). Their findings and the advances that resulted helped the military improve not only its weapons, but understanding all sorts of other aspects of warfare (such as the study of “military wound ballistics”). Better bullets, better bombs, better shells.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BALLISTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The study of military wound ballistics soon crept into the civilian realm. Colonel Calvin Hooker Goddard – army officer, physician, researcher, and forensic scientist – is generally credited with founding the field of forensic ballistics in the 1920s. He pioneered the use of the comparison microscope to study bullets from crime scenes. He established, not without opposition, the world’s first Bureau of Forensic Ballistics in New York City; so successful was it in solving crimes and prosecuting criminals that Hoover encouraged his FBI offices to take up the practice. These days, that’s all the average person ensconced in front of the television knows about ballistics.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BANKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Although there had been “banks” before – Hammurabi even set down laws governing banking in his famous Code – mostly these were private individuals that made loans, with various unsavory methods to insure repayment. With the fall of Rome in the West and the fall of money lending, Banks did not reappear in Europe until the Middle Ages, rediscovered by rulers looking for ways to fund their bloody and expensive Crusades. Benches were used by Jewish Florentine money-lenders as temporary exchange tables, and hence the term “bank.” Until laws were passed against usury, such as that of Edward I of England in 1275 AD (who used it as an excuse to seize the wealth of hundreds of executed Jews), it was not unknown for such loans to carry 24% or even 48% interest.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BANKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
During the 14th Century, avaricious and clever individuals in families such as the Bardi, de Medici, Peruzzi, Gondi and others established permanent banks in their home cities of Florence, Genoa, Venice, Siena, Rome and elsewhere across Italy. The oldest bank still open is the Monte dei Paschi in Siena, operating continuously since 1472. Soon enough the ruling princes got into the act; in 1407 the first state-chartered bank, the Bank of St. George, was founded by the Doge of Genoa (it ceased operations in 1805 after Napoleon’s invasion).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BANKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Meanwhile, by the time of the Song dynasty in China the two types of traditional financial institutions – the piaohao (nationwide) and the qianzhuang (local) – were in operation, facilitated by the creation of China’s first paper money in 1024 AD by the state of Sichuan. Although Chinese banks tended to focus on commercial banking based on personal relationships, all the major banking functions found in Europe had arisen independently there as well: deposits, loans, issuing notes, currency exchange, and money transfers.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BANKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
The arrival of the telegraph and electricity allowed international banking on a grand scale, pioneered by the Rothschilds. Today, banks generally perform the same functions that they did during the Renaissance. And still make a comfortable profit (not to use the term “usury”) doing so.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BRONZE_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The English word “bronze” was liberated from the French term bronze, which had been borrowed from the Italian bronzo, evolved from the Medieval Latin bronzium, adapted from either the Greek brontesion or Persian biranj. Whatever one calls it, bronze is a simple alloy of copper and usually tin, occasionally with traces of other metals for strength, luster, or ductility. Bronze “working” allowed men to create all sorts of useful things (like pans and swords) that were both durable and decorative.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BRONZE_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The earliest bronze artifacts – actually, arsenic bronze, alloys of metallic arsenic rather than tin – found by archaeologists in Iranian tombs date back to the fifth millennium BC. Tin-bronze was eventually found to be superior to arsenic-bronze … and the fumes of the alloying process didn’t kill the bronze worker, so that was a plus. The oldest (c. 4500 BC) tin-bronze items have been found in a Vinca site in Serbia, and other early examples include odd bits found in China and Mesopotamia.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BRONZE_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Deposits of copper and tin rarely occur near each other, and thus the export of tin from readily accessible surface mines became a major economic factor in some places; in Europe tin from ore deposits in Cornwall have been found as far afield as Phoenicia in the eastern Mediterranean. Besides being useful, bronze was also considered valuable, enough to give its moniker to an entire age of civilization. In Europe, extensive hordes of bronze tools have been found buried near ruins of treasuries, and in China ritual bronzes dating from 1650 BC have been found as grave goods in the tombs of royalty and nobility.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_BRONZE_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Although bronze is harder and can hold a sharp edge longer than iron, it is also harder to find and pound into something useful. Thus, the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CARTOGRAPHY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
There is a fair amount of scholarly debate about how long the “science” of making maps has been around, since there’s a fair amount of debate about what constitutes a map. The oldest “map” to have been discovered is a depiction of what may be local terrain features about Catal Huyuk in Anatolia, dated to the 7th millennium BC. But the first ink splatters that are definitely a map is the “House of the Admiral” wall painting dating to the Minoan civilization c. 1600 BC. Around the 4th Century BC, the Greeks and the Romans were making somewhat more portable maps. And Ptolemy produced his famous treatise on cartography, 'Geographia,' in the 2nd Century AD.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CARTOGRAPHY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
In ancient China, maps have been found dating back to the Qin dynasty, while cartography in ancient India seems to have been limited mostly to star charts of more use to priests than to travelers. During the Dark Ages, most Europeans barely knew what was around the next bend in the river, much less over the horizon. But the Arabs were producing marvelous atlases such as Muhammed al-Idrisi’s Tabula Rogeriana in 1154 showing what was known of Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and even the Far East. His work remained the most accurate and far-reaching map collection for three centuries.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CARTOGRAPHY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Until the Age of Exploration kicked off in the 1400s, Portuguese, Spanish, English, Dutch and French explorers and adventurers brought back crude sketches of coastlines and islands, and European cartographers started making innovative maps for those looking to plunder distant shores. In 1492 the German Martin Behaim made the first known globe of the earth; in 1527 the Portuguese map-maker Diego Ribero made one with an equator. And where they didn’t know what was there, these artists filled the empty spaces with sea monsters, mermaids, and all sorts of mythical and mythological creatures. So, if not as accurate, at least the maps were a lot more entertaining than those staid computer-generated ones created from satellite imaging, remote sensing and aerial photography these days.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CASTLES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Great piles of stone – some still intact (more or less) – dominate the varied landscapes of Europe, castles dating back to the early 10th Century AD when feudal lords sought to insure their power and influence. Some were little more than cold, dirty square stone boxes; others were fairy structures with tall towers, crenelated parapets and flying buttresses. But rather than the romantic visions of noble knights, damsels in distress, great feasts and throwing the barbarians back from the moat, castles served the ultimate utilitarian role in feudal society – imposing the lord’s will on the land.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CASTLES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
According to archeologists, the accumulation of surplus wealth and resources led to the need for defensive structures, and the earliest fortifications evolved in the Fertile Crescent, Indus Valley, Egypt and China to keep the barbarians out of the larder. Europe was rather slower to develop such fortresses, and it was not until the Bronze Age that hill forts began to be built. Soon after the collapse of the Pax Romana, Germanic tribes began to construct heavy stone fortifications. The incursions of the Magyars, Vikings and Muslims brought more castle-building, and the breakdown of the Carolingian Empire led to the privatization of local government as local lords assumed the “privilege” of protecting the people. The success of William the Conqueror set off a lengthy period of warfare and conquest by contending kings, dominated by castle building throughout western civilization … until gunpowder and cannon showed up in the 1600s.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CASTLES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Just as the thick- and high-walled castles fell out of vogue in Europe, Japan entered its own castle age. Evolving from the wooden stockades of the early daimyo, the first castles were constructed of stone with wooden upper structures. Thus, they tended to burn a lot – especially during the Sengoku (“Warring States”) period. Unlike in Europe, the introduction of gunpowder spurred the building of Japanese castles, and the 16th Century saw a boom in castle-building on a grander scale than ever until the Meiji Restoration and the end of feudalism there.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CELESTIAL_NAVIGATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Celestial navigation (or astronavigation, which sounds more scientific than artistic) is the practice of taking angular measurements between a celestial body (sun, moon, planet or star) and a point on the horizon to determine one’s position on the globe. A very useful skill for early sailors venturing out of sight of land. The altitude of the sun above the horizon at noon when compared with the altitude of other bodies gave, for instance, the latitude of the ship. Similarly, an angular measurement to the star Polaris and a similar measurement to a star near the western or eastern horizon could give a fairly accurate longitudinal position.


Language: en_US
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Polynesian navigation is probably the best known – not to mention earliest – form of celestial navigation; their “wayfarers” memorized the positions of the heavens at all seasons and could cross thousands of miles of open ocean with little error. In Medieval Europe, celestial navigation was considered one of the seven mechanical arts, and the first mariner’s astrolabe was used in the Mediterranean by Muslim merchants. (Perhaps by design, the astrolabe also allowed Muslim travelers to locate the Qibla and calculate the times for the Salat.) Meanwhile, the use of the magnetic compass spread from China across civilization.


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Since navigation by “dead reckoning” could have unfortunate results (like running aground and drowning or getting lost and starving), crossing the open seas using the astrolabe and the compass together reached its peak during the “Age of Discovery.” The first circumnavigation of the Earth utilized these tools, along with Magellan’s innate sense of direction (every great admiral of the period had one).


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Eventually, of course, the invention of radio, radar and satellite mapping made the entire process much easier and far safer. But even today, sailors rely on the heavens to keep them on course and off the rocks.


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Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CHEMISTRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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As astronomy evolved from astrology, chemistry evolved from another pseudoscience: alchemy. Alchemy spans four millennia and three continents; never underestimate mankind’s ability to believe in the irrational. The roots of Western alchemy can be traced to Hellenic Egypt, where Zosimos of Panopolis claimed that the ancient priests had discovered a way to transmute metals from one to another (such as lead to gold, the “Holy Grail” for alchemists). However, the method and the mix of elements that could bring this about had been lost. Whatever the hair-brained basis, this led hundreds of “scientists” over the centuries to investigate and record the chemical properties of various metals, liquids and compounds.


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But by the Renaissance, scholars had decided that transmutation – at least in this manner – was a pipe-dream, and began to organize what knowledge the alchemists had stumbled across. The posthumously-published work of Jan van Helmont in 1648 AD was the principle bridge between alchemy and chemistry, and enormously influential on Robert Boyle, an English scientist who published The Skeptical Chymist in 1661, the cornerstone of modern chemistry. Chemistry achieved its dignified status in 1789, when Antoine Lavoisier published a paper describing the law of conservation of mass. In “Elements of Chemistry,” Lavoisier revealed the composition of air and water, coining the term “oxygen.” If Boyle is the godfather, Lavoisier is considered the father of chemistry.


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As new equipment became available in the following two centuries, chemistry became an experimental science, with its own theoretical base. In 1803 John Dalton was the first to propose the atomic theory. The “gas laws” soon followed, along with Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table and Willard Gibbs’ laws of thermodynamics. In the 1890s the Curies pioneered the study of radioactivity in elements. By the turn of the new century, chemists were inventing all sorts of things – plastic, synthetic fibers, new drugs (some with medicinal properties), improved poisons, better explosives, and much more. Or, as the chemical firm DuPont would have it, “Better living through chemistry.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_COMBINED_ARMS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Since the earliest age, able military commanders had integrated formations of infantry, archers and whatever passed for cavalry in battle with more or less success. But it wasn’t until the campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus who fielded 3-pounder cannon in his infantry regiments and attached teams of musketeers to his cavalry units that the concept showed its true worth. As the century progressed, several European nations combined musketeers, light infantry, dragoon and horse artillery into unified brigades. Napoleon revolutionized tactics by employing fast-moving advance detachments composed of light cavalry, light infantry and horse artillery in his Grande Armée.


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Despite the descent into trench warfare on the Western Front, the First World War brought two new weapons to the forefront – the tank and the airplane. In the following years before the next big brouhaha, various military thinkers proposed new combined-arms systems for the "all-arms battles” they envisioned. These would include such as close artillery support, air support and tanks and infantry in mutual support during an attack. One of those whose ideas drew some attention was a German officer named Erwin Rommel, whose book 'Gefechts-Aufgaben für Zug and Kompanie' was published in 1934. The successful blitzkrieg in the West and East was carried out with fast-moving armored formations, supported by motorized infantry, self-propelled guns and specialized ground-support aircraft.


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After the successes against the Germans, the superpowers adopted the combined-arms approach as doctrine (never mind the nuclear missiles poised to rain down). The U.S. Marine Corps, for instance, formalized the concept of the independent Marine Air-Ground Task Force in 1963. The Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan War brought air-mobile forces and “special forces” to the field, allowing for quick-strike offensives in a range of terrain not suited to conventional combined-arms operations. The Gulf Wars finally gave the world a chance to see the new combined-arms theories put into practice, with impressive results.


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Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_COMBUSTION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Although there were internal combustion engines described by engineers before the 19th Century – for instance, a piston-and-cylinder gas-fired engine by Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir in 1860 AD – until industrial-level drilling for petroleum and methods for refining it into gasoline, they really weren’t much more than a curiosity. And a smelly and noisy one to boot. Even when Siegfried Marcus put a mobile gas-driven engine on a handcart in 1870 Vienna, the potential went unrecognized.


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But things picked up as designers in various countries began experimenting and developing modifications to the basic internal combustion engine. In 1879 Karl Benz was granted a patent for a two-stroke gas engine; a few years later, he devised a four-stroke engine which he put in his “automobiles,” which he then put into production in 1886. By 1884, English tinkerer Edward Butler had invented the spark plug, ignition magneto, coil ignition and jet carburetor (and coined the term “petrol” to confuse motorists for generations). In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler devised the supercharger so his autos would be faster than Benz’s. A few years later, Rudolf Diesel developed his Carnot heat engine type, better known as the “diesel engine.”


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Meanwhile, some daredevil types were fitting small gas-powered engines onto bicycle frames and tearing about the countryside in Europe. In 1894, the firm Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first to begin production of a motorrad (i.e., motorcycle). For true aficionados, Harley-Davidson began production of its bikes in 1903. That same year the Wright brothers put one on a glider and flew. Then Henry Ford figured out how to mass produce internal combustion engines and stick them in cheaply-made, assembly-line Model-Ts, founding the Ford Motor Company in 1908 … and launching a love-affair with excessive speed civilization has yet to outgrow.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_COMPOSITES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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A composite is any material made from two or more materials with significantly differing physical or chemical properties; composites are distinct from alloys or chemical compounds (in which the components do not retain their original properties).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_COMPOSITES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
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The earliest examples of Composites were likely Egyptian bricks, made from straw and mud, which were both durable and cheap. The Romans invented concrete, another composite used in construction. Around 3400 BC the Mesopotamians invented plywood, thin sheets of various woods glued together giving added strength and durability. Barbarians were using composite bows made of wood, bone, horn, and silk to slaughter the civilized; Mongolian composite bows carried their rule across much of the known world in the 14th Century AD. Papier-mâché, a composite of glue and paper, has been used for centuries by artists and other children. More recently, fiberglass was invented in the 1930s.


Language: en_US
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Modern composites are produced only in laboratories or specialized industrial plants. In 1961, carbon fiber was spun and within a few years the first carbon fiber composites were commercially available. The 1970s and 1980s saw a series of breakthroughs in producing ultra-high molecular weight composites, exceedingly sturdy and resistant to corrosion, soon used in the production of aircraft, boats, automobiles and a lot of household gadgets. By the mid-1990s, the production of composite materials dominated materials manufacturing.


Language: en_US
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The latest advances in composites include research into hybrid materials and nanocomposites, the creation of new materials on the molecular scale. Hybrid materials are a mix of organic and inorganic components; the intent is to mimic nature’s processes for a variety of benefits – weight, strength, durability, environmental-friendliness, and even healing. (Just imagine when cars can repair themselves.) Research into nanocomposites has just begun, but the potential (at least according to researchers) is great.


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Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_COMPUTERS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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If one thinks of a computer as a device simply to aid computation, then these have been around for millennia. An abacus, used as early as 2400 BC, is just such as device. (For that matter, so is counting using fingers, but that’s far too simple for modern civilization.) A mechanical astrolabe with a calendar calculator was devised by Abi Bakr in Persia in 1235 AD. The slide rule was invented around 1620. The “differential analyzer,” a mechanical analog calculator, was first proposed by Lord Kelvin in 1876, and by the 1920s Vannevar Bush and others had built such contraptions.


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But most people think of a computer as a device that is programmable to perform and display a wide variety of tasks, something more than a souped-up calculator. The primogenitor of such was built in 1833 – about a century ahead of its time – by the “father of the computer,” the Englishman Charles Babbage. His programmable “mechanical computer” incorporated punched cards, a printer, an arithmetic logic unit, conditional branching and even an integrated memory (of sorts) … all recognizable to any present-day computer geek.


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It was the arrival of electricity that spawned the “Computer Age.” The principles of pioneer “computer scientist” (actually, he was a mathematician) Alan Turing were first set out in his 1936 paper “On Computable Numbers.” During the Second World War, various battling nations set about turning his insights into reality, for everything from breaking enemy codes to shooting down enemy aircraft. Most of the engineers used electricity and vacuum tubes rather than mechanical switches, and gave their monstrous machines names such as “ABC,” “Colossus” (the first digital programmable computer), and ENIAC (capable of 5000 additions or subtractions a second) in 1946, the first “Turing-complete” machine.


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Since then, thanks to the invention of bipolar transistors and integrated circuits and semiconductors, and the efforts of a lot of tinkerers, computers have become ever faster, more compact and oozed into all sorts of human pursuits from research to manufacturing to warfare to entertainment. Thus, HAL 9000 and Skynet.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CONSTRUCTION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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When the architects and engineers get done mucking about, the contractors take over. Once there was agriculture and a reason to stay in one place, the first huts were constructed by the people who would live in them. As cities grew during the Bronze Age, professional construction workers – just bricklayers and carpenters at first – arose. This new class of skilled workers, including lots of slaves, literally laid the foundations for civilization.


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The ancient civilizations built in wood occasionally, but mostly in mud brick and in stone. Although remarkably durable, stone and brick are also quite heavy and inflexible. It's impossible to construct very tall structures out of these materials – unless the structure in question is solid stone or brick and is pyramid-shaped. Otherwise they tend to topple over when given a shake, as with the Pharos of Alexandria. The Greeks built the little things out of brick, but employed marble for the big things like the Parthenon.


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While the Romans didn’t develop any new building materials – if you discount their invention of concrete – they did revolutionize construction in terms of designs and of tools. The arch, the waterwheel, the sawmill, and a host of hand tools come from the Romans, who not only were constructing aqueducts, roads and walls but also some really nice villas and colosseums. Meanwhile, the Chinese and Japanese were working in wood, devising the likes of post and lintel construction and mortise and tenon joints to build their pagodas and palaces.


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The Industrial Revolution brought steel to construction. Strong and durable. Using steel, contractors could create soaring bridges, deep tunnels, towering skyscrapers, and elevated roadways. And new energy sources – electricity, gas-powered engines, arc welding, etc. – made construction a lot easier.


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Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_CURRENCY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Currency, where something relatively worthless in itself represents some amount of actual value, has been the bane of civilization since around 2000 BC, when a form of receipt was used to show ownership of stored grain in temples in Sumer. The Egyptians soon adopted the practice for their own grain warehouses, so that individuals could claim a portion they had “banked” therein. Then small bits of rare metals, a lot easier to keep track of than written receipts (especially since these were on clay tablets), came to represent certain amounts of various commodities, able to be exchanged … or hoarded. Thus, wealth was determined by how many of these bits a person had.


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But the collapse of the Mesopotamian and Mediterranean trading economy around 1100 BC revealed a flaw in this concept of circulating currency – it was only as good as the guarantees of worth that backed it. It was only with the recovery of Phoenician trade across the Mediterranean that coinage made a reappearance, this time being backed by rulers of the city-states of Phoenicia and Greece. Most of the major economies of the time were soon minting coins, usually out of gold or silver or copper. Trade flourished, taxes could be paid, banking evolved, and now people could even go into debt (a whole new concept).


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It was left to the Chinese to “invent” paper currency, initially in the form of promissory notes from wholesaler’s shops backed by the merchant, but these were only useful in the local region. The Song dynasty began issuing a more universal paper currency based on the state monopoly of salt production. It took until the 13th Century for this paper money to finally become standardized and acceptable across the kingdom. Around the same time, the Islamic nations adopted the practice and established a stable, high-value currency (the dinar). A vibrant and vigorous monetary economy resulted; the Muslims thus were the first to have credit, cheques, savings accounts, trusts, exchange rates, and all the other wonders of a “modern” economy.


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Economics is the understanding of “the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.” This understanding was a lot easier in olden times when things were distributed via barter (“I have a daughter and you have some goats; let’s trade."), but even in the early stages of coinage and mercantile trade notions of production and profits was pretty straightforward. Ancient writers such as Fan Li of China c. 517 BC, Chanakya of India c. 350 BC, and Aristotle of Greece c. 350 BC laid down the precepts of supply-and-demand, monopolies, loans and debts, and state economic policies. During the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus debated the philosophy of a “fair price” and, until Adam Smith, the Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun was considered to offer the most insight into economic theory, including “supply-side” economics, the specialization of labor, and the financial life-cycle of civilizations.


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But no one save a few befuddled historians remembers those writings. Instead Adam Smith’s studies – notably his monumental The Wealth of Nations (1776) – are considered the foundation of modern economics. In his book, Smith contends that a free market is the most efficient means of assigning worth to and for distributing goods and services. Moreover, when a person pursues his own financial self-interests (i.e., unbounded greed) he automatically is promoting the good of society in general through economic growth and investment. In other words, unbridled capitalism is the best economic basis for civilization.


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As might be imagined, Smith’s pronouncements were not without critics. David Ricardo argued in 1817 that there was an inherent conflict between the economic interests of landowners on one hand and labor on the other, and was the first to prove the principle of comparative advantage in international trade. The philosopher John Stuart Mill stated that governments would have to intervene in economic affairs because the market’s two roles – allocation of resources and distribution of income – could not otherwise be balanced. But it was Karl Marx with the publication of 'Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Ökonomie' who really kicked over the proverbial apple cart when he proposed the labor theory of value. Capitalists and communists have been fighting over who is right ever since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_EDUCATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Humans learn things, and civilization results. Obviously education has been around as long as mankind has. Through most of history, it was an informal affair, parents teaching their children the skills they needed to know to survive and be productive (household chores and hunting expeditions and dodging barbarians and so forth). As a tribe expanded and grew more prosperous, village elders and priests might educate the children while the healthy adults gathered food, built stuff and made war. Eventually a wealthy society might have formal classes for the more important children.


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As the thinkers of a nation-state extended its knowledge beyond the merely practical, into realms where learning by imitation wasn’t possible, schools were established. By the time of the Middle Kingdom, the priesthood in Egypt had established schools to teach reading and writing, mathematics, history, the sciences, medicine, astrology and, of course, religion. In Greece, private academies arose to teach the privileged, such as that established by Plato in Athens, the first institution of “higher” education in Europe. Further east, China’s Confucius began a program of establishing schools to teach his philosophies, as well as some basic skills such as reading and mathematics and music.


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Mostly, the dominant religion took on the task of education. In the cultures of Mesoamerica, teaching was in the hands of the priests, the “educated” class who served as advisors and judges as well as educators; their self-serving coursework in divination and writing and astrology and arithmetic was aimed at creating yet more priests. With the fall of Rome, the Catholic Church became the sole purveyor of “approved learning” across Western Europe. Elsewhere, Islamic schools produced the finest scholars of the age, being somewhat more tolerant of differing views of the world.


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Soon enough other civilizations too realized the importance of education. The Renaissance saw an explosion of schools and universities, both private and state-sponsored in a new age of discovery and enlightenment. Then came the thought that everyone deserved an education, and now one can get a degree even in basket-weaving or psychology.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ELECTRICITY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Mankind has known electricity existed since the first bunch of Neanderthals got blasted by a lightning bolt; in fact, for millennia afterwards, electricity in this form was associated with angry gods. Egyptian texts dating from c. 2750 BC record people getting shocks from electric eels. Around 600 BC Thales of Miletus observed that static electricity could be generated by rubbing rods of amber with cat’s fur (but didn’t investigate what the cats thought of this). Greek, Roman, and Arabic physicians attested to the numbing effects of electric shocks delivered by various animals. Electricity, however, remained nothing more than a scientific curiosity through the 17th Century.


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In 1600 the British dilettante William Gilbert made a comparative study of magnetism and this little-understood force, for which he coined the term electricus (from the Greek electron meaning “amber,” from which he was generating the static sort), hence “electricity.” The work of others – von Guericke, Boyle, Gray, and du Fay – led history’s ultimate dilettante Benjamin Franklin to “discover” electricity while flying a kite with a key attached in a thunderstorm (don’t try this at home). Franklin never did anything with his discovery, but it set others off searching for more sources of electricity. Luigi Galvani discovered bioelectricity, whereby messages are passed between nerve and muscle cells. Alessandro Volta invented the battery, a more reliable source of electricity than rubbing cats. Ampere discovered electromagnetism; and Michael Faraday built the first electric motor in 1821.


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Advances in electricity in the second half of the 19th Century by tinkerers like Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, Alexander Graham Bell, and Lord Kelvin revolutionized life around the world. The telegraph and telephone made the world smaller. The electric light opened home and workplace to night activity, and the phonograph, radio, and movies were certainly entertaining. Adding electricity to a chair was thought a more humane method of executing miscreants. The creation of power plants that pushed energy in the form of electricity into people’s homes changed civilization beyond comprehension.


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Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ENGINEERING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Engineering is the science (or perhaps “art,” if engineers themselves are involved in the discussion) of using science to design things: buildings, roads and bridges, machines, and other materially useful things. The term is somewhat vague – consider for example, software “engineering.” Originally the term referred only to creating “engines” of war; the Romans applied it to all sorts of public works, since their legions were building roads, bridges and walls all over the empire.


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Soon the term was being attached to the design and construction of all sorts of monumental monuments and wondrous works. And designing machines, such as water screws, pumps, differential gearing, and such. By the time of the Industrial Revolution, engineers were everywhere underfoot, creating steam engines (James Watt) and electrical gadgets (Thomas Edison), and building canals, railroads, bridges, tunnels, dams and skyscrapers.


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Around this time colleges and universities began offering degrees in engineering, such as that awarded by the Rensselaer Institute in the United States in 1835 AD; soon enough there was “higher” education in mechanical, civil, electrical, architectural, military, agricultural, structural, and all sorts of other practical engineering. The first doctorate in engineering was awarded by Yale University to one Josiah Gibbs in 1863 (it was only the second PhD awarded in the young United States at this time.)


Language: en_US
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So respected did the term “engineering” become among the masses that other pursuits started appropriating it, so that now there’s chemical engineering, software engineering, bioengineering, materials engineering, environmental engineering, aerospace engineering and the like. But it is the harnessing of mathematics and physics to design buildings and machines that remains the true essence of engineering. As some have noted, engineering is applied problem solving (as opposed to pure science), and has brought or dragged) civilization – for good or bad – into the 21st Century.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_FLIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Since the Renaissance, mankind has learned how to fly … and how to crash too. Leonardo da Vinci's visions of flight are well-known, of course, but he certainly wasn’t the first. From the earliest times there have been legends (some maybe even true) of men strapping on wings or other devices and attempting to fly, usually by jumping off something tall (most ended badly). In the Middle Ages, for instance, Armen Firman strapped wings with vulture feathers to himself and jumped off a tower in Cordoba during 852 AD. In China, man-carrying kites were the method of choice. But it wasn’t until 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers launched a manned hot-air balloon that man finally took off – and landed safely. Ballooning became all the rage across Europe.


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Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_FLIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
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In 1804 Englishman George Cayley flew a fixed-wing glider model, and in 1853 he created a full-scale model which carried his (reluctant) coachman in the first manned glider flight. Fifty years later two American brothers constructed their own glider with an advanced wing shape onto which they were going to stick a gasoline engine with a “propeller.” Unable to find anyone to construct a light gasoline-powered engine to their specifications, they built their own. On December 17, the Wright flyer flew four times, at distances up to 852 feet. The years following the Wright brothers’ breakthrough saw rapid improvements in the technology of powered flight. In 1908 American Glenn Hammond Curtiss flew over one kilometer, and in 1909 Frenchman Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel.


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Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_FLIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
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World War I saw significant advances in flight technology, especially in the militarization of the air, with the creation of fighters and bombers. By the 1920s pilots were regularly flying across the continents (and crashing into them), and in 1927 Charles Lindberg completed the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Seems flying was here to stay.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_FUTURE_TECH_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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Anything worth saying about “future tech” has already been said by science-fiction authors. There are a few broad things that all of them seem to agree upon. Sooner or later, medical breakthroughs will cure cancer and other diseases, dramatically increase the human lifespan, and hook the human brain up to machines. Cheap, clean forms of energy will be discovered. Computers will get faster and smaller; robots will take over the daily grind. Games will get more immersive and realistic. Nasty weapons will be invented … but not used. Extinct species wiped out by man (or asteroids) will be reborn. Ecologists will end pollution and recover lost ecosystems. Mankind will move beyond the heavens to other worlds. Civilization will be saved.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_GUIDANCE_SYSTEMS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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With the advent of rocketry, it became rather important not to get lost when launching a nuclear-tipped missile at the enemy or shooting a man into space. A compass and a sextant just wouldn’t serve any longer, not if you wanted to hit your target. So, if going ballistic, a guidance system was needed. And since the computations were too complicated for mere mortals, getting something to arrive where and when intended was turned over to machines.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_GUIDANCE_SYSTEMS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
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Guidance systems demand three sub-systems: input, processing, and output. Input devices include sensors, course data from radio and satellite links, radar, visual cameras and such. Processing is generally done with both onboard and ground-based central processing units, which determines such things as course, trajectory, velocity, etc. Output is the adjustments made to speed (via fuel pumps, engine operation, cooling systems) and course (ailerons, rudders, weight distribution). Since, in general, the rocket isn’t coming back, these systems can be fairly cheap and simple (save, perhaps for the onboard CPUs).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_GUIDANCE_SYSTEMS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
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The American Robert Goddard and, separately, the German team developing the V-2 rocket both experimented with simple gyroscopic guidance systems … which sort of worked. After the war, with its collection of some 500 German aerospace scientists led by von Braun, American research on self-contained guidance systems was concentrated at Caltech, MIT and the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. Their combined efforts led to the unreliable “Delta” system, which assessed the difference in position constantly from a reference trajectory; the problems were overcome with the “Q-system” in 1956 AD. So successful was it for nuclear missiles that the Q-system was classified throughout the 1960s, and is still used for many military weapons.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_GUIDANCE_SYSTEMS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
However, it was the “space race” that brought guidance systems to true efficiency. In August 1961 NASA awarded MIT a contract for the design of a guidance and navigation system for the Apollo program. The result was the ancestor to the PEG4 (“powered explicit guidance”) system used for the American shuttle program and most other space launches. Meanwhile, the global positioning system was being developed in tandem by the U.S. military so they could keep their shiny ICBMs on target. GPS was eventually commercialized, and now helps keep Dad from getting lost on the way to the mall.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_GUNPOWDER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The invention of gunpowder is usually attributed to Chinese alchemists during the Tang dynasty, one of the “Four Great Inventions of China.” The earliest written record of it – a formula composed of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate dating to the later Song dynasty – was supposed to be an elixir for immortality … it was anything but. But the Chinese did discover that it burned explosively and the resultant gases expanded rapidly when exposed to heat; so it was useful for making fireworks. The Chinese found a more practical use for gunpowder in crude bombs and rockets which they used against the Mongols … until the Mongols overran China and then used the new weapon against everyone else on their path westward.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_GUNPOWDER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
While the Mongols were using gunpowder to intimidate the Europeans they encountered, the Arabs sometime between 1240 and 1280 AD developed better recipes, purer niter, and more deadly weapons – notably cannon and a primitive arquebus. Some historical texts state that the Mamluks used the first cannon in history against the Mongols during the battle at Ain Jalut in 1260, but this is open to debate. The earliest description of a “portable hand cannon,” however, does appear in an Arabic manuscript from the 14th Century. Once they’d turned back the Mongols, the Arabs put these to use elsewhere.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_GUNPOWDER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
But it was the Europeans who really took to gunpowder as a means of wholesale slaughter. Not only did they improve the formula and add touches such as “corning” – using liquid to increase granularity and hence stability – and “smokeless” powder, but they created all sorts of toys that used it to hurl small and large bits of lead and iron at people. From the days of the Renaissance, military history in Europe was shaped by gunpowder, as it came to dominate the battlefield like no technology before.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_HORSEBACK_RIDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
There is archaeological evidence that around 4000 BC humans had used bits on their horses in the basins of the Dnieper and Don rivers; skeletons of horses found in the region shows signs that the horses chomped on bits. Thus, horseback riding. It is thought that the Scythians of the steppes may well have been the first to develop the stirrup and the saddle, although the historical argument is as yet unconvincing. (And ancient Greek historians also claim that the Scythians were the first to geld stallions, hence making them more docile and controllable … but that’s another story.)


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_HORSEBACK_RIDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
However, horses in the Bronze Age were relatively small by modern standards, some argue too small to be ridden comfortably or for any distance and more likely to have pulled wagons or chariots. On the other hand, Fell ponies – descended from Roman cavalry mounts – can easily carry a full-grown adult, and so it is likely that there was cavalry around long before the Greeks and Romans took to the battlefield (although this light cavalry was hardly a dominate factor in victory, mostly being used to slaughter the defeated foot soldiers trying to flee).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_HORSEBACK_RIDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
By the Middle Ages, however, heavily-armored mounted knights dominated warfare in Europe. And in the Far East, Japanese samurai fought from horseback for centuries, although mostly as archers. Indeed, horseback riding archers were the most common type of cavalry in Central Asia for a millennium. The Arabians, astride their magnificent stallions, spread Islam across the Middle East, North Africa, and into India and Europe. Horseback riding quite literally shaped history.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_HORSEBACK_RIDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Save in the Americas, where the native horse breeds had died out. Horseback riding was brought back to North America by European explorers and conquistadors, commencing with Columbus’s 1493 voyage. Soon enough, the Plains Indians would be combating the white settlers from horseback.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_INDUSTRIALIZATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Not many “technologies” (or, in this case a convergence of several technologies) give a label to a revolution and to an era. Industrialization is viewed by scholars as the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial one, which was historically accompanied by widespread social and economic upheaval. It is driven by the invention of new machinery and discovery of new power sources. The Industrial Revolution, beginning in Europe during the 18th century, brought about unforeseen changes in the way people lived their daily lives, both beneficial and detrimental.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_INDUSTRIALIZATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
With increasingly complex machinery and tools available, trades that were once left to talented craftsmen became obsolete with the advent of assembly lines operated by masses of unskilled factory laborers. New professions evolved. People moved to the cities, where factories and transportation were concentrated.  The process involved the reorganization of the world’s economy from self-sufficiency to one of manufacturing and consumerism. As the wages of workers rose, markets for services and goods expanded, demanding ever more production, resulting in higher prices and wages, and so forth in a tornadic cycle.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_INDUSTRIALIZATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Industrialization is also marked by urbanization, exploitation (over 40% of the world’s employees are considered to be “working poor” by the United Nations), institutional complexity, rampant consumerism, capitalism and communism, unprecedented population growth, and complex change in every social structure, even the nuclear family. The accumulation of capital permits increased investment in scientific research and new technologies, speeding the process of industrialization.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_INDUSTRIALIZATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Some argue that there was a Second Industrial Revolution, the period during the late 1800s in which the internal combustion engine, electricity, telephony, and innovative factory machines launched a new cycle of urbanization, consumerism and social alienation. There are even some who believe that civilization has entered yet another “Industrial Revolution” – just look at the changes over the past quarter-century.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRON_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
While the use of iron has been dated back to 4000 BC, the Hittites were the first to extract the ore, smelt it and fashion weapons – thus setting off the Iron Age around 1200 BC. In Asia, iron working developed at about the same time; iron Chinese artifacts have been unearthed dating back to around 600 BC. From those two places, using iron for weapons and tools spread quickly across the globe, except in the Americas where the natives continued to hit each other with rocks.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRON_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
There were two types of iron working, one producing wrought iron and the other cast iron. Wrought iron is a semi-fused alloy, tough, malleable, corrosion-resistant and able to be welded. It could be beaten into all sorts of shapes, and it was used extensively across Europe during the Middle Ages. Besides armor and weapons and tools, iron work was used to protect doors and windows with grills and bars, and even used as decoration for Canterbury Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and Notre Dame de Paris. The French even made it into balconies and stair railings.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRON_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
By contrast, cast iron is made by melting the iron ore and pouring it into molds; the Chinese were the first to use it, primarily to make beams and rods to support their elaborate pagodas and other tall buildings. Cast iron also made pretty good arrowheads and cannon shot, as the Chinese soon discovered.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRON_WORKING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
In the West, cast iron working did not take hold until around the 15th Century AD, the technique apparently moving along the Silk Road from Asia to Europe. The Europeans too found cast iron perfect for making cannon barrels and cannon balls, musket barrels and musket balls. During the Industrial Revolution structural engineers found some more creative uses for cast iron, using it to construct cast-iron bridges and as framing for ever taller buildings.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRRIGATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Irrigation has been a central feature of agriculture for over 5000 years, and forms the basis for the economy and culture of many civilizations throughout history. Perennial irrigation was first practiced in Mesopotamia with water flowing through small channels connecting to a river or a small lake. In Egypt, several pharaohs during the Twelfth Dynasty used oases to store water for irrigation during the dry season. Ancient Nubians devised a waterwheel device to bring water to their fields around the second millennium BC. Terrace irrigation evolved in pre-Columbian America, in Syria, China and India.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRRIGATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The first hydraulic engineers recorded in history were Sunshu Ao (6th Century BC) and Ximen Bao (5th Century BC) of China who both worked on extensive irrigation projects for the emperor (whoever that happened to be at the time) in the Sichuan region; with waters from the “four circuits of rivers” lifted into and moved through channels by chain pumps powered by humans or oxen, it was a marvel of ancient engineering.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRRIGATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Although it is not known precisely how the famed Hanging Gardens were irrigated, they may well have used the noria, invented around this time. The noria is a wheel with buckets or pots along its circumference. As the wheel rotated – driven by flowing water – the upper buckets emptied by gravity into a trough or channel. The wheel, turning, returned the empty buckets to be refilled. Pretty clever, since it didn’t depend on muscle power.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_IRRIGATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
It would be a thousand years before the next advance in irrigation: the windmill, designed to pump water upward into pipes or ditches to water the fields; the technology spread across Europe, allowing for population growth not seen before. That led to more irrigation. It is estimated that there are approximately 600 million acres being irrigated worldwide now.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_LASERS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The term “laser” is an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation,” which pretty much describes what it happens to be. The theory dates back to a paper by Albert Einstein in 1917 which offered a derivation of Planck’s Law concerning stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. In 1928, the atomic physicist Rudolf Ladenburg confirmed the phenomena of stimulated emission and negative absorption.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_LASERS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
By the time of the first true laser, American and Soviet Russian scientists had built masers, amplifying microwave radiation rather than light radiation. So it wasn’t long before various others were attempting to build “optical masers,” as commonly termed (“laser” was coined in 1959). The first functional laser was demonstrated in May 1960 when the Hughes Research Laboratories introduced laser technology capable of storing data on optical devices. Later that same year, the Iranian Ali Javan headed an international team that produced the first gas laser, utilizing helium and neon, capable of continuous operation in the infrared spectrum.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_LASERS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Since this early laser research many kinds of specialized lasers have been developed, ones optimized for different maximum firing ranges, output power, or utilizing different wavelengths. Chemical lasers, excimer lasers, dry lasers, solid state and fiber lasers, semiconductor lasers and free-electron lasers. So many kinds, with so many different purposes. Lasers have found their way into thousands of uses, from consumer electronics and entertainment to law enforcement and military use.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_LASERS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Perhaps the most advanced uses of lasers are in the fields of medicine and the military. In the former lasers offer “bloodless” surgery, removal of tumors and diseased organs, diagnostic tools unknown a decade ago, and photobiomodulation (i.e., laser therapy). And for the military nothing beats a laser for targeting and weapons guidance, although its potential as a directed-energy weapon has yet to be realized (despite research in the billions of dollars thus far). Industrial and home use (the oft-touted holography isn’t quite here yet) is expanding continuously. Just don’t look directly into the light from one.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MACHINERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
When humans began to develop tasks that they or their animals could not (or would not) do, they invented machines. From those first simple machines – the lever, pulley and screw – that Archimedes went on about, a machine civilization has evolved on Earth. Later Greek thinkers added the wedge and the wheel/axle to the list of the five simple machines (these form the basis for every other machine that aids physical work). Heron of Alexandria in his work Mechanica (c. 50 AD) described their fabrication and uses. But the Greeks, while they understood statics and friction, had no understanding of dynamics.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MACHINERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Thus, during the supposedly “Dark” Ages, men in various parts of the world began to devise machinery in which a tradeoff between distance and force was the principle behind producing mechanical energy. The complete dynamic theory of simple machines (the above plus some later ones) was worked out by Galileo Galilei and published in his Le Meccaniche in 1600; his was the first – or the first to publish anyway – insight that machines did not create useful energy but merely transformed it from one type to another.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MACHINERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The Renaissance witnessed tinkers on the order of da Vinci, di Giorgio Martini and Gutenberg invent everything from pile drivers to centrifugal pumps, from cranes to the printing press. It was an explosion of machines, to be followed a couple hundred years later by another explosion of machines during the Industrial Age. Machines invaded the mills and factories, but it was one revolutionary device – the steam engine – that profoundly altered civilization’s notion of what a machine was and what it could do.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MACHINERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
From that new type of machine sprang a thousand more, including the internal combustion engine, the electric generator, and the diesel motor. Now the world even has “machines” without moving parts … witness, the computer.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASONRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Masonry: the “art” of construction of something, sometimes utilitarian (houses) or not (temples and palaces), from blocks of stone, brick or even concrete usually held together with mortar (if not, it’s termed “dry set” masonry).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASONRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The ancient Egyptians mastered the art of masonry as early as the fourth millennium BC, constructing temples, palaces, pyramids and other edifices from limestone, sandstone, granite and basalt found in the hills of the Nile River. The Assyrians of the Fertile Crescent lacked easy access to stone but possessed rich deposits of clay, which they sun-dried into bricks. The Babylonians too used brick, held together with mortar made of lime and pitch. The Harappa city in now-Pakistan was built around 2600 BC with bricks and gypsum mortar (now called “plaster of Paris”).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASONRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The Romans invented concrete, a superior mortar for all that stone and marble building they did … and which could be used as a construction material itself. This “concrete revolution” allowed them to build monumental structures that were impossible using more primitive materials. From 300 BC to the fall of Rome, concrete paved roads, lined aqueducts, and held the Colosseum together (among other things). But the masonry skills were lost during the Dark Ages (as was so much else) until the 1300s, when Europeans again began using concrete as mortar for their castles.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASONRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
So endemic did the use of concrete become, the term “mason” evolved to include those who worked with concrete (along with the secretive members of a fraternal organization). To distinguish themselves as artisans, those who work with “real” stone took to calling themselves “stonemasons.” Although they occasionally labor on the building of modern monuments and memorials in capitals around the world, mostly they just carve tombstones these days.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASS_PRODUCTION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Until the Industrial Revolution, the idea of “mass production” was limited to pottery (molds), Chinese crossbows with interchangeable parts, and assembly line production of books. But in the Renaissance, Venice began mass producing ships to maintain their grip on the Mediterranean in their famed Arsenal, using prefabricated parts and assembly lines that would not be matched for output for three centuries. At its peak of efficiency, the Arsenal could produce a sea-worthy ship in a day and employed some ten thousand workers.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASS_PRODUCTION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Meanwhile, the printing press gave rise to another kind of mass production, standardized texts produced cheaply for the masses. Although the products of movable type printing were not as elegant nor as durable as hand-copied tomes, they were inexpensive and firmly established the idea of uniform quality (whatever the level) in the midst of quantity. Meanwhile, molds were being used to create ceramic and metal products in large numbers that were identical, and mills staffed by hundreds of spinners and weavers were churning out standardized woolen garments in England and France.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASS_PRODUCTION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The Industrial Revolution brought mass production to just about everything, even things that hadn’t been invented when it started in the early 1800s.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MASS_PRODUCTION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
In 1914 AD Henry Ford realized that by making a conveyor line on which automobiles moved and giving each worker on the line a series of specialized tasks they alone would do, he could make cars cheaply and more efficiently. The time it took to turn out a Model T in the factory went from 728 minutes to 98 minutes; this time was eventually to drop to one Model T every 24 minutes. Where once folks were thrilled to pay extra for mass-produced goods of uniform quality, now hand-crafted things are more highly valued. That’s progress …


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MATHEMATICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The term “mathematics” is derived from the Greek mathema, meaning “knowledge, study, or learning.” Appropriate, given that it is the science of science, focused on quantity, measurement, structure, logic and change. Mathematics, according to some, is also the art of art, focused on space, shape, relationship, perspective, and fractals. Not to mention mathematics relationship to music.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MATHEMATICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Whether art or science, virtually everything today is based or derived from mathematics. Mathematics has been around since some relatively intelligent human ancestor figured out that having four bananas was better than having two bananas – and clubbed his neighbor to get them. The Sumerians had a complex arithmetic (the manipulation of numbers), which was both “base-ten” (the modern system) and “base-sixty” as well. The remnants of that base-60 system survived in time-keeping: 60 second in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MATHEMATICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The Egyptians, needing to keep track of all the taxes and trade, not to mention designing massive pyramids and monuments, developed a written system of numerals during the Middle Kingdom period. Between 600 and 300 BC, the Greeks began a systematic study of mathematics, dividing it into two spheres: arithmetic and geometry (the understanding of shapes and area). More importantly, they divorced mathematics from reality and began the study of it in the abstract, evolving the concepts of proofs and theorems, leading to the likes of the Pythagorean Theorem and irrational numbers.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MATHEMATICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Mathematics continued to evolve to bedevil students over the following centuries. Muslim mathematicians developed algebra. In India, the Kerala School of astronomy and mathematics discovered infinite series and trigonometric functions. And the Indians invented “zero,” not just to fill an empty space in the calculations as the Egyptians did, but as an actual value around 600 AD. From that point mathematics as a discipline has grown (as one might say) geometrically ever since …


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_METAL_CASTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Metal casting is the process by which a craftsman can make multiple, identical metal objects by pouring molten metal into a mold. The oldest such yet found is a copper frog cast in Mesopotamia around 3200 BC. The first production of cast iron was in China between 800 and 700 BC; using sand mold casting, the Chinese were making cast iron plowshares by 233 BC. Cast iron was also handy for making a lot of arrowheads, spearheads and cannon balls, as the Chinese soon discovered. But mostly the ancients used metal casting to make jewelry.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_METAL_CASTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
One of the oldest methods of making a mold is the “lost wax” procedure, which dates back at least to the third millennium BC. In this process, the craftsman creates a wax duplicate of the object around which is built the mold, usually of clay (one needs something that the hot metal won’t melt); the wax is then melted and flows out of the mold and is replaced by molten metal. Historically, sand and clay have been popular materials from which to construct molds. In modern times molds have been constructed out of plastics and latex-like substances.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_METAL_CASTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
In the West, cast iron did not take hold until around the 15th Century AD, the technique apparently moving along the Silk Road from Asia to Europe. In 1455 the Germans are using cast iron pipe to carry water in the Dillenburg Castle, and around 1500 the Italian Vannoccio Biringuccio builds the first cast iron foundry.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_METAL_CASTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
In 1799s England metal casting – especially with iron and later steel – became common. In 1709 Abraham Darby established a foundry using sand-and-loam molds to produce high quality pig iron. Fifty years later, another Englishman, Benjamin Huntsman, reinvented the process to cast crucible steel. Fifty years after that A.G. Eckhardt of Soho developed centrifugal casting to make thin-walled metal cylinders. Engineers kept coming up with new metal casting methods, until now just everything is made of metal – what isn’t made out of plastic, that is.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_APPRENTICESHIP_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Traditionally, an apprenticeship is some method of instructing a new generation of “masters” in a craft, art, or trade … using hands-on training, leavened with lots of beatings. (The latter, not so much anymore.) During this period of training, the apprentice studies with an employer in exchange for his/her labor for an agreed time – typically, three to six years – until he/she has achieved a level of measurable competence. All this under the auspices of a guild or trade union. Those who complete their apprenticeship successfully become journeymen, and if diligent, masters themselves so they can instruct a new generation of apprentices. Thus, the trade or craft develops a self-sustaining core of practitioners.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_APPRENTICESHIP_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The whole system evolved during the late Middle Ages, when a master craftsman was given the right in many town and city charters to employ young people in exchange for lodging, food, a little spending money, and formal training. In effect, the apprentice was bound body and soul to the master for the length of the apprenticeship. But it was better than most other choices for poor and illiterate youngsters looking to get ahead. In most of Europe, once an apprentice became a journeyman (if he/she did), they were considered a freeman with all the rights of any citizen. If they became masters, they were respected and respectable members of society.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_APPRENTICESHIP_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Most apprentices during the medieval and renaissance periods were male, but female apprentices could be found in a few places learning to be seamstresses, tailors, cordwainers, or stationers. Civilization is built upon a constantly renewed skilled labor force, of course; whereas through much of history these skills were passed down in families, the population and technological explosion that began in the 1400s demanded an expanding force. And the guild-apprentice system worked very well. In time government regulations disbanded the guilds and the rise of vocational schools gave young workers other options; nevertheless, vestiges of the apprenticeship system remain, especially in the building trades.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_ENGINEERING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Loosely defined as “the art and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and communications,” military engineering dates back to the Roman legions, which each had a small, specialized corps devoted to overseeing the building of fortifications and roads. They were also the ones to build the catapults, battering rams and siege towers when needed to stamp out some unruly town. But for over five centuries after the fall of Rome in the west military engineering barely progressed; it wasn’t until late in the Middle Ages that the need for siege warfare again spurred the advance of military engineering.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_ENGINEERING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
With the development of gunpowder, military engineers became vital, both in designing fortifications to withstand cannon (one of the first innovations: earthen walls worked better than stone ones, since the cannonballs just went thunk and sank into the dirt) and devising ways to get the cannon close enough to the fortifications to be effective. Military engineers became specialized. Sappers, for instance, first appeared in the French army; their task was to excavate zig-zag trenches towards the enemy walls to protect infantry and artillery, all while under musket and cannon fire. In the British army, miners tunneled under enemy walls to place explosive charges … not a long-term career.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_ENGINEERING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Meanwhile Renaissance engineers were devising new types of forts and weapons; even da Vinci got into the act with his flights of military fancy. More practical engineers, such as French Marshal Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), developed new types of forts and new tactics to use against them during the wars of Louis XIV. During the brief times of peace, military engineers turned their attentions to fortifying the borders and building and maintaining roads and bridges to facilitate the movement of troops. With the coming of the telegraph in the 1800s, they also got stuck with maintaining the lines of communication and command. By the time of the First World War, military engineers were indispensable in modern warfare.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_SCIENCE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Military Science is the study of the theory and application of “organized coercive force,” both friendly and enemy. Until the end of the Second World War, when the arrival of atomic weapons made a lot of its assumptions baseless, the term was always written starting with capital letters in English and was considered an academic discipline on par with physics, philosophy and political science. However, as Clausewitz observed, “unlike in any other science or art, in war the object reacts.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_SCIENCE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Although there had been earlier generals and writers such as Sun Tzu, Aeneas Tacticus, Miyamoto Musashi, Niccolò Machiavelli, and others who had focused on using military power to efficiently achieve a civilization’s political goals – whether that be defending the homeland or beating up one’s neighbors – it was Carl von Clausewitz, Ardant du Picq, Alfred Thayer Mahan and Helmuth von Moltke (the Elder) who gave theories of warfare the patina of science in the latter half of the 1800s. With the evolution of weapons, tactics and technology that resulted from the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War, military science needed to go beyond mere considerations of the battlefield. Von Moltke, for instance, wrote extensively on exploiting the railroad and the telegraph to insure victory.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_SCIENCE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
In the process, military science came to consider all aspects of war. Ardant du Picq looked at the manner in which a soldier’s fighting performance was rooted in the individual’s personal and group psychology while Hans Delbrück formulated the theory of a “strategy of exhaustion.” Other soldier-academics focused on logistics, economics, national morale, military intelligence and even more esoteric parts of war. The Great War was the chance for the generals to put these new theories of military science to the test, a sort of empirical experiment in slaughter.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_SCIENCE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
The Cold War with its strategies of mutual destruction, state-sponsored terrorism and military-industrial complex, took military science from the merely theoretical to something far more terrifying and immediate for most civilians. Military Science has not been as simple since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Until the Middle Ages, “tactics” was limited to mostly running at the enemy in a frontal assault, leavened by the occasional maneuver to turn the flank of the enemy line or the decision of when to commit the cavalry to take care of the survivors. Which is not to say that some civilizations were not quite adept at all this: the Akkadians, the Assyrians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Guptas, and the Han Dynasty. Thus evolved the “Seven Classical Maneuvers” of tactics: penetration of the center, attack from a defensive position, single envelopment, double envelopment, attack in oblique order, feigned retreat, and the indirect approach.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
In the late 4th Century AD Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus wrote De re Militari, described by some historians as "the bible of warfare throughout the Middle Ages." One of the five major sections of this work focused on field tactics, and stressed the role of infantry and archers, because they were cheaper than cavalry and could operate across any terrain. Some 200 versions of the work appeared, translated into every European language. But European tactics were forced to evolve when the Arabs, Mongols and Turks didn’t pay much attention to Vegetius’ pronouncements on cavalry.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Tactics underwent another paradigm shift when gunpowder appeared on the battlefield. Black-powder warfare reached its apex in the Napoleonic Wars, which laid down the principles of tactics that would dominate war until the invention of machine-guns, barbed wire, poison gas, tanks and airplanes made them all moot come the First World War. Napoleonic tactics focused on formations and the maneuver of lines, columns and squares, as well as upon the melding of infantry, cavalry and artillery into supporting and integrated branches. It was all rather elegant.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
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But the First World War and even more the Second changed everything. The Germans developed the blitzkrieg, the British commando operations, the Americans airborne attacks, while the Soviets just bludgeoned their way forward. On the mobile battlefield the old accepted tactics were forced to give way to the feuerkampf (fire fight) between squads and platoons.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MILITARY_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_5
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And all this doesn’t even touch on the history of naval tactics, as triremes gave way to ships-of-the-line to dreadnaughts to battleships …


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MINING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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If it can’t be found laying about, dig it up. That’s the basic premise behind mining, one of civilization’s earliest and most pragmatic technologies. The Neolithics mined flint in England and France about 4000 BC; the ancient Egyptians mined malachite at Maadi between 2600 and 2500 BC, using the hard stone for ornamentation and pottery. These were generally open pit mines, or shallow shafts (less than 100 feet deep) such as the Athenian silver mines at Laurium, where over 20 thousand slaves labored.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MINING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
It was Roman engineers who developed large and efficient mining methods; among their other advances in the technology, building aqueducts to bring water to the mine site, where it was used to remove debris (a sort of early hydraulic mining) and separate ore from crushed rock. Romans also developed the process of thermal cracking to shatter rock, building fires against the rock face and heating the stone until it shattered when a stream of water was directed onto it. Their mining methods spread around the world, as men dug for copper, iron, gems, gold, silver, and just about every other mineral and crystal.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_MINING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
In Asia and the Americas, mining tech remained fairly primitive until the Europeans arrived to begin carting off the wealth of those lands. During the late Middle Ages, as the rich veins easily reached were exhausted, deep mining evolved, using hand tools to drive shafts further down and shoring the walls and ceilings up with timber. Then the great silver crisis of 1465 AD came when the mines reached such depths that groundwater filled the shafts. It took a hundred years for that obstacle to be overcome, and in the meantime gunpowder blasting replaced the picks and shovels (mostly). Then came the Industrial Revolution, with its thirst for coal, and mining became mechanized and ever more rapacious.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NANOTECHNOLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Tiny machines inside animals and humans snipping, slicing, splicing, melding or mutating cells. Tiny machines creating new materials on the molecular level. Or tiny machines making more tiny machines. Whatever use it may be put to, nanotechnology is just beyond the edge of science fiction.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NANOTECHNOLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The theoretical foundations of nanotech date back to December 29, 1959 AD, when the American physicist Richard Feynman introduced it in a Physical Science conference at CalTech. Norio Taniguchi first used the term “nanotechnology” in 1974 to describe the “process of separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule.” In 1985, fullerenes were discovered by a trio of chemists, who were able to form semiconductor clusters using pulsed molecular beams. In 1991 K. Eric Drexler gained his PhD degree with his work on nanotechnology and the following year published his dissertation, laying the basis for practical applications of the technology. Meanwhile, in 1989 IBM researchers became the first to manipulate atoms using a tunneling microscope.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NANOTECHNOLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
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The first decade of the 21st Century saw the initial uses of nanotech in commercial manufacturing, although mostly limited to the use of passive nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide and zinc-oxide in cosmetics and food products, silver nanoparticles in food packaging and disinfectants, and carbon nanotubes in textiles. In March 2011, the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies identified some 1300 nanotech products, with new applications being made available at the rate of three or four each week. Meanwhile, the National Nanotechnology Initiative was created by the American government for research to “foster the transfer of new technologies for public benefit … and support responsible development of nanotechnology.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NANOTECHNOLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Despite dystopian scenarios (such as in Crichton’s novel Prey) and the “polite” debate between leading theorists Richard Smalley (the discoverer of the “buckyball” molecule) and pioneer Eric Drexler over the advent of molecular assemblers, along with some concerns about DNA nanotechnology (the first DNA nanomachine which could change its structure via an input was demonstrated in 1999 by Nadrian Seeman), it seems civilization is on the cusp of a “nanotech revolution.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NUCLEAR_FISSION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Mushroom clouds and boundless energy; utopia or annihilation. The technology of nuclear fission carries the promise of both, or neither. In physics and chemistry, nuclear fission is the decay – natural or not – whereby the nucleus of an atom breaks down into lighter nuclei, spinning off neutrons and photons, thus releasing significant amounts of energy. If a chain reaction can be started, whereby these free neutrons and photons cause other nuclei around them to split, a lot of energy gets released all at once.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NUCLEAR_FISSION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Building on the work of scientific geniuses such as Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, and Edward Teller, the United States funded the Manhattan Project, headed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, in 1942 AD to create a sustainable nuclear reaction using uranium or plutonium. The result was the first atomic bomb successfully tested in the New Mexico desert in July 1945. The next month, America dropped two more on Japanese cities, leaving between 129 thousand and 246 thousand dead. Once Soviet spies stole the plans, the nuclear arms race was on.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NUCLEAR_FISSION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Yet nuclear fission also offered the hope for cheap, “clean” energy. In September 1948 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, electricity was generated by a nuclear reaction for the first time – at least enough to power a light bulb. A second, larger experiment in Arco, Idaho, in 1951 proved the feasibility of building a nuclear power plant. Thus, in 1954, the world’s first nuclear plant to generate electricity for a power grid started operations in Obninsk in the Soviet Union, followed shortly by the world’s first full scale nuclear power station at Calder Hall in England. Despite nuclear meltdowns such as those at Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, and the three at Fukushima-Daiichi in 2011, nuclear-generated power may be the savior of modern civilization.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NUCLEAR_FUSION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
In contrast to nuclear fission – where energy is generated by the division of a nucleus – nuclear fusion occurs when two or more atomic nuclei slam together hard enough to fuse, which also releases photons in quantity. Fusion reactions power the stars of the universe, giving off lots of light and heat.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NUCLEAR_FUSION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
During WW2, research to create a fission bomb subsumed research into nuclear fusion. But in 1946 AD a patent was awarded to two British researchers for a prototype fusion reactor based on the Z-pinch concept, whereby a magnetic field could be generated to contain plasma (akin to that in a star). Commencing the following year, two teams in Britain began a series of ever larger experiments to generate electricity via fusion; another Brit, James Tuck, working at Los Alamos in the United States, built a series of fusion reactors leading to the largest, known derisively as the “Perhapsatron.” As it turned out, the name was apt, for experiments revealed instabilities in all these designs such that fusion was never reached.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NUCLEAR_FUSION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Instead, it was left to the weapons engineers to create the first man-made fusion reaction – Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear bomb tested in 1952 at Enewetak atoll. Two years later Castle Bravo was exploded at Bikini Atoll, with a yield of 15 megatons. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was building and testing its own thermonuclear arsenal. But these were all uncontrolled fusion reactions.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_NUCLEAR_FUSION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
In many small steps – and some dead ends – the state of fusion research slowly advanced through the 1950s to the 1990s. Finally, in 1991, scientists at the Joint European Torus in England achieved the first controlled release of fusion power. This was followed, as expected, by lots of scientific papers on ways to improve the process, making any such reactor smaller and more affordable and more controllable. Despite debate and contending claims, in 2014 Lockheed Martin’s “Skunk Works” lab announced development of a high-beta fusion reactor and plans to build a 100-megawatt prototype by 2017, ready for regular operation in 2022.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PLASTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Synthetic or semi-synthetic organic polymers derived (generally) from petrochemicals of high molecular mass that are incredibly durable, malleable, lightweight and now pervasive in modern civilization. Plastic. It comes in many forms, some tougher, some more flexible, some with a greater or lesser tolerance to heat. Plastic can be molded, pressed, or extruded into virtually any shape desired. It’s found in every facet of life today, used in everything from automobile bumpers to prosthetic limbs, from product packaging to modernist furniture, home entertainment to the latest weaponry.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PLASTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
There had been some plastic-like materials developed during the Industrial Revolution; for instance, in 1855 AD Alex Parkes, spurred by the near extinction of the elephant, made a material from cellulose as a cheap replacement for ivory. But the first entirely synthetic plastic was Bakelite, invented in 1909 by inventor Leo Hendrik Baekeland. Bakelite was cheap and durable. So it was used to make radios, telephones, utensil handles, piano keys, and billiard balls. Although quite sturdy, Bakelite was also quite brittle.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PLASTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Following the First World War, radical advances in chemistry (all that production of poison gases and new explosives) led to an explosion of new forms of plastic. Polyvinyl chloride (or PVC), a rigid and durable plastic, began being manufactured commercially in the 1920s by various companies. The transparent polystyrene was commercialized in 1931 by I.G. Farben, and in 1941 – spurred by another war – Dow Chemical invented Styrofoam. (In 1960, Dart Container company, the largest maker of the now-ubiquitous Styrofoam cup, shipped their first order.)


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PLASTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
It was rapidly becoming a plastic world. By the 21st Century, just about every consumer product had plastic components or was wholly plastic. Indeed, the landfills around the world are filled with it, and great floating masses of plastic can be found in the oceans since it does not degrade naturally, and burning it tends to produce noxious fumes. Too, although relatively cheap to make, plastic takes a lot of petrochemicals to manufacture in quantity. So perhaps as oil becomes scarce and expensive, so too will plastic.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_POTTERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
“The art or craft of the potter, the skill of creating ceramic items” – in other words, making things out of mud. With pottery, objects (sometimes useful) are shaped out of clay and then placed in an oven and subjected to high temperatures. The resulting product is extremely brittle but is also airtight and more-or-less impervious to corrosion, oxidation, infestation, and other decay. The earliest pottery objects found include jugs and containers to hold liquid or grain. And some really ugly statuettes.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_POTTERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The earliest known ceramics are the Gravettian culture figurines (little, faceless representations of fat women) that date back to between 29 and 25 thousand BC. These were shaped by hand, and fired in a pit. Somewhere around 12000 years ago, clever folk figured out that clay – often mixed with sand, grit, crushed shells, or bone – could be used to make more useful items: pots, cups, plates, bowls, storage jars, and so forth. In Japan, during the Jōmon period, potters began putting glaze on their earthenware pots. During this time several types of pottery were developed – earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_POTTERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Until the potter’s wheel was invented in Mesopotamia sometime during the Ubaid period (6000-4000 BC), pots had to be shaped by hand … a laborious process. Harnessing the wheel speeded pottery making. Until the Etruscans made use of molds to “mass produce” pots and other items in the 6th Century BC, a process “acquired” by the Romans when they swept away their bothersome neighbors. In China, meanwhile, the process of slip casting – another way to mass produce ceramic vessels – evolved during the T’ang dynasty.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PRINTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
No technology since writing so impacted civilization as did movable-type printing. Woodblock printing had been used for decades in China, India and Europe. The pecia system developed in the early 13th Century at Italian universities gave booksellers a method for producing multiple copies of a book in a relatively short time. But books remained expensive, and possessions only for the educated elite.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PRINTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
By the 1400s, a faster, cheaper method of reproducing the written word had become the “Holy Grail” for European booksellers, driven by the rise in education and literacy. Even the commoners wanted to read the Bible for themselves, and their kids were learning their letters in new grammar schools springing up all over the continent. In China, moveable type – where each word could be placed in any order in a tray and then inked and pressed against paper – was made out of porcelain by Bi Sheng in 1040 AD, but proved rather fragile and expensive. Moveable wooden type wore out too quickly.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PRINTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
It was left to an itinerant German goldsmith and sometime bookseller (and sometimes other professions, none of which he was very successful at) named Johannes Gutenberg to develop movable type made from metal, each small piece representing a letter or punctuation mark that could be rearranged in a tray as needed to make a page. The metal type, made from lead, was durable and easy to cast; when worn, the type could be melted and used again to make more type. The failed goldsmith also devised an oil-based ink that worked well with the metal type to give long-lasting print.  Gutenberg set up a workshop in Mainz, and by 1450 was printing common texts (likely, Latin grammars) and church indulgences; in 1452 Gutenberg commenced work on a printed version of the Bible which was completed in 1455 – the so-called Gutenberg Bible.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_PRINTING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
The invention revolutionized the world, and gave rise to mass communication. It spread rapidly across Europe, since booksellers could now make (and sell) lots of copies. It not only standardized language and knowledge – bringing page numbers, tables of contents, indexes, the ability to cite other works and all sorts of things not possible with hand-copied books – but it taught humanity to think in linear (since that’s how folk read now) terms rather than holistically. And it sparked – or at least promoted – the Scientific Revolution and the Reformation. So, if civilization is a mess, blame it on Gutenberg.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_RADIO_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The idea of “wireless” communication begins with experiments in wireless telegraphy – sending impulses through the ground, water and even steel railroad tracks – in the 1830s. In 1888 AD, Heinrich Hertz proved conclusively that electromagnetic waves could be transmitted through the air; his publications set off a mad scramble among inventors and crackpots to produce these Hertzian waves. Even the likes of Nikola Tesla, Amos Dolbear, and Sir Oliver Lodge got involved. But it took an obscure Italian inventor by the name of Guglielmo Marconi to build the first working, completely successful wireless telegraph … or radio, as some folks called it … in 1894. He patented it in 1896 in England. Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909 for his work. He also eventually became wealthy, became a senator in the Italian parliament, and joined the Fascist Party in 1923, being made president of the Royal Academy by Mussolini – but that’s another tale.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_RADIO_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Initially the radio was used to transmit messages in Morse Code, but in 1900 a Brazilian priest, Roberto de Moura, successfully transmitted the human voice by radio waves (he was granted a patent for his modulator equipment a year later). The next advance was the vacuum tube, invented by engineers working for Westinghouse. Then, using all these together, the first radio broadcast was made from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts, on Christmas Eve 1906, a broadcast that included holiday music and readings from the Bible; ships at sea reported picking up this first amplitude modulation (now just termed “AM”) transmission. Two years later, on his way to being a millionaire, Marconi opened civilization’s first radio factory in Chelmsford, England.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_RADIO_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
In short order there were commercial radio broadcast stations opening all over the place; entrepreneurs had finally figured out how to make money broadcasting commercials (first from station WEAF in New York) and Congress how to make money licensing stations. The first news program broadcast was in August 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit. The first college station began broadcasting in October 1920 at Union College. That same month the college station there aired what is thought to be the first entertainment program, a series of Thursday night concerts. In 1921 the first sports broadcast – a football game between West Virginia and Pittsburgh – was offered. Now the radio programmers really had people’s attention.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_REPLACEABLE_PARTS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Evidence for the use of interchangeable parts can be traced back to the warships of Carthage during the First Punic War, when standardized parts made repairs to their galleys relatively quick. During the Warring States period, the Qin dynasty employed mass-produced crossbows with interchangeable parts to pummel its rivals. So it was throughout the ages, until Eli Terry finally mass made something not a weapon on his production line in America in 1814 AD – a pillar-and-scroll clock. In the mid-1800s, several clock and sewing machine manufacturers started using interchangeable parts in their factories. Both the Singer Sewing Machine Corporation (1870) and McCormick Harvesting Machine Company (1880) adopted the practice, followed by steam engine, typewriter and bicycle manufacturers. And then Henry Ford adopted it for his affordable brand of automobiles.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_REPLACEABLE_PARTS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The development of interchangeable parts in manufacturing was due in large part to the innovation and invention of a number of manufacturing machines, which permitted only very small variances in the final parts. Manufacturing was revolutionized by the slide rest lathe, screw cutting lathe, milling machine and metal planer, in turn. Add electrification of the machines for higher speed, and now hundreds of identical parts could be churned out each hour by skilled machinists. Configuration management evolved in the 1950s as a systems engineering field to insure consistency in performance and physical attributes of manufactured parts. Then came robots to work the assembly lines.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_REPLACEABLE_PARTS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The development of replaceable parts in all realms of consumer products spurred the Industrial Revolution, and boosted the quality of life since all kinds of things became affordable to the average working-class person. Conspicuous consumption was at last within the reach of civilization … or at least, of some of it.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_RIFLING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Rifling is merely the cutting of helical grooves into the inner part of a gun barrel so as to induce spin in a ball or bullet which serves to gyroscopically stabilize the projectile, giving it greater accuracy and range. In short, all this means is that it took a skilled marksman to hit anything specific with a smoothbore musket, but any fool with a steady hand has a fair chance of success firing a rifle at a target.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_RIFLING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Although problematic to decide who first came up with the idea, rifling of musket barrels was begun by several gunsmiths in Augsburg in the late 15th Century; August Kotter, in Nuremburg, improved upon the design around 1520 AD. However, rifling wasn’t particularly effective with black-powder weapons, due to the residue left behind in the barrel (thus mucking up the grooves); the most effective rifled black-powder weapons were breech-loaded pistols, such as the Queen Anne flintlock. Although rifling dates from the 16th Century, it didn’t become common until the wars of the Industrial Age.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_RIFLING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
In the early 1700s Benjamin Robins, an English mathematician, proved that an elongated “bullet” rather than a ball would retain the spin from a rifle barrel but cut the air resistance better. Within a couple decades, most continental armies had rifle battalions to augment the musket-armed infantry regiments. At first these units were used to snipe at enemy officers … sharpshooters in truth. But by the time of the Napoleonic wars, and more so during the American Civil War, rifle-armed troops were integrated into the regular line infantry.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_RIFLING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
In 1866, breech-loading rifles were being developed: the German “needle” gun, French Tabatière, British Snider-Enfield. Bolt action rifles such as the Chassepot meant that rifles could be loaded faster and fired even from the prone position. The American Colt “Revolving Rifle” was the first “repeating” rifle. Except for some deadly refinements – like automatic fire and telescopic sights – rifling had reached its apex.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ROBOTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
In 1942 AD, the science fiction author Isaac Asimov proposed three “laws of robotics.” In 1948 the American mathematician Norbert Wiener formulated the “principles of cybernetics” as the basis for practical robotics. And in 1961 the first programmable robot – “Unimate” – was constructed to lift and stack hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ROBOTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Automata – self-operating machines – have been around since described in the third-century BC Chinese text 'Liezi' attributed to the philosopher Lie Yukou. In 1495 AD, no less a genius than Leonardo da Vinci offered schematics for a mechanical knight, a proto-robot. The French artist and tinkerer Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical duck that was able to eat, flap its wings, and excrete afterward – the “Digesting Duck” in 1738; more significantly, he also built a completely automated loom, perhaps the first commercially viable “automaton.” So “robots” (so-named by Czech Karel Capek in his play R.U.R.) were around long before ABB Robot Group installed the world’s first microcomputer controlled industrial robot in Sweden in 1974.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ROBOTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
But, of course, it is humanoid robots – with a torso, head with facial features of some sort, two or more arms, bipedal locomotion – that get everyone both excited and concerned. The darlings of sci-fi writers and Hollywood studios, such robots are only starting to be realized. In 1973, Wabot-1 was built, able to walk, communicate in Japanese, and measure distance to objects with artificial eyes and ears. (Almost as entertaining as the Digesting Duck, apparently.) Soon enough, just about every year a new robot was delighting the world. In 2005, Wakamaru made its first appearance, a Japanese-built domestic robot intended to provide care and companionship for the elderly and disabled.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ROBOTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Of course, robots need not be humanoid in form. In fact, the human form is an inefficient design, and so there are a plethora of possibilities, all being explored by engineers and manufacturers for various tasks – wheeled robots, spherical-orb robots, tracked robots, etc. – with all sorts of grapplers and manipulators rather than hands. The possibilities are nearly endless. Or as Terry Pratchett asked, “I wonder what makes us build inefficiently-shaped human robots instead of nice streamlined machines?”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ROCKETRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
No one is quite sure who fired off the first rocket. Some historians state that rockets were first used in a battle in 1232 AD by the Chinese against the Mongols, with explosions being heard some 15 miles away. Others claim the first rockets were exemplified by the “ground-rat,” a type of firework, used by the Emperor Lizong on the occasion of his mother Kung Sheng’s birthday in 1264. It is certain that the first written mention of rockets was in the Huolongjing, by the Chinese artillery officer Jiao Yu in the mid-14th Century; it even describes the first multi-stage rocket, seemingly used by the Chinese navy.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ROCKETRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Until the Second World War, rockets remained relatively short-range, inaccurate, clumsy weapons … or were used for making pretty fireworks (not that military rockets don’t make pretty explosions). In 1792, iron-cased rockets were used by Tipu Sultan defending Mysore against the avaricious British East India Company. The British, sensing a good thing, developed the solid-fuel Congreve Rocket for use against the French, Americans and other unpleasant sorts. In 1914, Robert Goddard – inspired by the fanciful tales of H.G. Wells – patented several concepts that proved pivotal in the history of rocketry: a combustion chamber, multiple stages, and a nozzle to increase exhaust speed.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_ROCKETRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Meanwhile, German scientists were also refining their own designs for rockets – for bombing the enemy, of course. Where the V-1 was a crude, simplistic flying bomb, the V-2 was a marvel, with turbopumps, inertial guidance systems and many other innovations still used by rocket scientists. The end of the war set off a “space race” when the two superpowers “assimilated” many of Germany’s top rocket scientists from Peenemunde, notably America’s acquisition of Wernher von Braun. Although it was the Soviet Union that launched the first satellite and the first man into orbit. But it was America that built the first nuclear-tipped ICBM.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SAILING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Since rowing a ship is a lot of work, men developed sails to let the wind push it along. Sailing gave humans a quicker, easier way to travel than over land, and has been used for trade, transport, fishing and warfare since the first mast was raised. The oldest representation of a ship under sail was found on a painted disc in Kuwait, dating to between 5500 and 5000 BC. Tomb paintings c. 3200 BC show reed boats under sail on the Nile. A few hundred years later, the Egyptians were venturing along the shores of the Mediterranean. Along every coastline, from China to Scandinavia, the technology of sailing – distinctive to each seagoing culture – was evolving.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SAILING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Barques, brigs, caravels and clippers and catboats, feluccas, galleons, junks, longships, misticos, schooners and sloops; the technology and design of sailing ships was as diverse as the peoples who sailed these. By 2500 BC, the Egyptians were building sailing ships from planks of cedar wood, lashed together by straps and reeds to seal the seams; the “Khufu” ship discovered intact at the foot of the Giza pyramid in 1954 AD was a vessel of 143 feet driven by oars and cotton sails. Around the same time, the Scandinavians developed a method of boat building with segmented hull compartments, which allowed for ever larger longboats. By 1000 AD, the Vikings were the unchallenged seamen and boat builders of the world, sailing even across the Atlantic to North America.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SAILING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
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Trial-and-error (a lot of drowned sailors) brought technological improvements in sails, masts, hulls, rigging. Arab, Chinese and Indian merchants ranged along the fringes of the Pacific, opening trade routes and diplomatic relations. But it was the Europeans who would sail the world; from the 15th Century onward, European sailors went further, stayed longer, and explored the globe, creating colonial empires based on their sailing fleets.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SANITATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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A clean water supply and sanitation has been rather important for the rise of civilization, since without such folk tend to fall prey to disease and death. Especially when crowded together in urban centers. The earliest signs of city sanitation have been found in the ruins of the Harappan settlements Mohenjo-daro and Rakhigarhi in the Indus Valley c. 2500 BC. There groups of homes obtained water from a common well, and waste water (with all that was in it) was emptied into covered drains which lined the streets.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SANITATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Roman cities and villas had even better water and sanitation systems, with stone and wooden sewers – the famed Cloaca Maxima in Rome, which emptied into the River Tiber – to carry the waste away from civilized folk. But there is little evidence of sensible sanitation across the rest of Europe until the late Middle Ages; hence, the Plague of Cyprian (likely smallpox), Plague of Justinian (bubonic plague), the Black Death. Slowly – because of the expense – during the Renaissance sewers replaced the pail closets, outhouses and cesspits of Europe. (Meanwhile, the Mayan city of Palenque is believed to have had underground aqueducts and flush toilets.)


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SANITATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
In 1596 Sir John Harington published his work A New Discourse on a Stale Subject in which he described the forerunner to the modern toilet, which he had installed in his home, incorporating a flush valve, a water tank, and a means to wash down the bowl when used. He also installed one for his godmother Queen Elizabeth I at Richmond Palace, but she refused to use it because of the unseemly noise.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SANITATION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
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With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, urban growth and more disposable income for many workers – and the invention of the S-trap by Alexander Cumming in 1775 – indoor toilets became a practical reality. Inventor Joseph Bramah added a float-valve system to the water tank, and in 1778 began installing toilets in homes and businesses across London, a very lucrative operation by all accounts. For soon, everyone wanted one.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SATELLITES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
“Beep … beep … beep.” So it began. Sputnik, with an onboard radio signal transmitter, was launched in October 1957 AD by Soviet Russia. Orbiting overhead, the artificial satellite (as opposed to natural satellites like the Moon) Sputnik served notice to the humans huddled on the surface that the world had dramatically changed … for better or not remained to be determined. Sputnik 2 was launched in November, with the first living creature in space aboard, a dog named Laika (who died within hours of the launch).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SATELLITES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Following pressure from the American Rocket Society, National Science Foundation and (the only body that really mattered) the White House, the American military announced its own program to put a satellite into orbit. Three months after poor Laika’s orbit, the United States sent Explorer 1 around the Earth. In 1961, the U.S. Air Force used the newly created Space Surveillance Network to catalogue 115 Earth-orbiting satellites. Space was getting crowded. (Currently, it tracks about 8000 man-made objects circling the globe, much of it space “junk.”)


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SATELLITES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
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Around the time the United States was making a list of satellites, the Soviet Union launched a man into space; on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, aboard the Vostok 1 satellite. Unlike poor Laika, the cosmonaut returned alive. America’s John Glenn aboard Friendship 7 orbited in February 1962. China became the third nation to put a man in space: Yang Liwei in the Shenzhou 5 in October 2003. And scientists from many nations have served aboard the International Space Station – the largest orbiting satellite to date – since its first component was launched in 1998; it orbits the Earth every 92.69 minutes.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SATELLITES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Many countries – even the likes of Qatar (2013), Uruguay (2014) and Turkmenistan (2015) – have placed satellites in orbit. Not to mention dozens of private companies that have paid large sums to put their satellites (mostly telecomm ones) into orbit, spurred on by the passage of the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 by the United States Congress. Now there are also a number of firms exploring manned commercial flights into orbit, or beyond.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SCIENTIFIC_THEORY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Scientific theories work well to explain how the natural (and unnatural) world works, being based on well-substantiated and oft-observed phenomena that can be replicated. Thus, empirical scientific theories are predictive, universal and testable. Scientific laws, by contrast, offer no explanation of the mechanics of a phenomenon, merely unvarying observation of something occurring. Obsolete theories, such as the phlogiston theory of combustion, are tossed aside once research or instrumentation uncovers new empirical data about the phenomenon.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SCIENTIFIC_THEORY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Scientific theory is based upon the evolution of the scientific method, beginning with Aristotle’s inductive-deductive approach to scientific observation as laid out in his Organon. But Aristotle’s was not the only approach to formulating theories; Epicurus laid out his own rules for “inferring” how and why nature functions. Europeans didn’t pay much attention to science during the Dark Ages (being rather more concerned with surviving all the wars, plagues and famines), but in 1021 AD the Arab physicist ibn al-Haytham, known in the West as Alhazen, laid out his method of proposing scientific theories: observation, experimentation and rational logic.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SCIENTIFIC_THEORY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Once Europe emerged from its troubles, Renaissance humanists added their own thoughts on how scientific theories should be generated. Francisco Sanches in his writings, 1571 through 1573, argued that the only true method for knowing was based on skepticism, and Francis Bacon thus developed eliminative induction as the basis for proposing scientific theories. Descartes, Galilei and Newton refined his methods. In the 20th Century, Charles Peirce, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn debated and advanced the notion of what the scientific method should be, a standard for all inquiry in all the research disciplines.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SCIENTIFIC_THEORY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
There are, of course, other, less-empirical ways of understanding the universe, but scientific theories remain grounded in reality … and have brought civilization insights and technologies to make human life much more comfortable.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SHIPBUILDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Shipbuilding is, of course, the building of ships. Shipwrights follow a profession that traces its roots back to an age before recorded history. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans sailed to Borneo from Asia 120 thousand years ago aboard constructed ships; and later to New Guinea and Australia some 50 thousand years ago. In the fourth millennium BC, the Egyptians were constructing boat hulls from planks of wood, using treenails to hold them together and pitch to make them watertight. Across the ocean in India, the first shipbuilding docks were being utilized by the Harappans around 2500 BC.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SHIPBUILDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
While the Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians were pretty good at shipbuilding, most of their knowledge was lost during the “Dark” Ages. Save for the Vikings, the Europeans weren’t particularly skilled or innovative. However, in China during the Song and Ming dynasties, shipbuilding reached its peak, building junks and warships that filled the greatest ports of the time. In the Islamic world shipbuilding thrived in Basra and Alexandria, producing the dhows and feluccas that plied trade routes from East Asia to the tip of Africa.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SHIPBUILDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The Age of Exploration, as the Europeans set out to conquer the world, demanded new approaches to shipbuilding. Shipyards became large industrial complexes (like the Arsenal in Venice), able to turn out ships of a standard design (like the carrack) in a matter of weeks or even days. By the Napoleonic Wars, ships were still being built to basic, standardized plans in expansive shipyards; the British in fact established Royal Dockyards across the globe to support their naval aspirations.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SHIPBUILDING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Advances in ship design and materials during the Industrial Revolution for shipbuilding for the first time in centuries made new methods mandatory. Massive iron- and steel-hulled ships such as the Great Eastern and the Titanic and modern dreadnaughts meant that most ships now are constructed in expansive drydocks.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SIEGE_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
In essence, siege tactics haven’t changed much since Megiddo (c. 1457 BC), Tyre (332 BC), Carthage (149-146 BC), and Masada (73-74 AD) – not to mention Troy around 1200 BC should one believe Homer. Once the Assyrians and their neighbors began building walls around their cities to keep the riff-raff out, it became necessary for any serious conqueror to have the means to take such places.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SIEGE_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
From time immemorial, the attacker’s first act was usually a “surprise” assault, seeking to overwhelm the defenders before they were ready for or even aware of a threat. That usually didn’t work, but it was worth a try. And so most attackers fell back on investing the town, looking to force the defenders inside to surrender (or hoping for an insider to betray the garrison and open the gates). If the place was completely encircled, food, water and other supplies could be kept from reaching the besieged. If starvation loomed … as it often did … the defenders and civilians were reduced to eating anything vaguely edible – horses, family pets, leather, sawdust and even each other. Disease was also quite effective, and so the practice of hurling diseased carcasses (animal and human) over the walls. But either approach could take some time, especially if the city was large and well-stocked.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SIEGE_TACTICS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
To get things over quicker – since the besieging army itself might face illness, starvation or a relieving army – a large variety of siege engines were invented to breach or overtop the walls. Ladders and siege towers put men on the walls, while catapults and trebuchets shattered the walls and battering rams and siege hooks knocked or pulled down gates. Digging tunnels to collapse the walls – mining – sometimes worked. If these tactics were successful and the walls breached, it all ended in a bloody great melee in the city. The Ottomans were particularly adept at siege tactics … as Constantinople, Klis and Rhodes can attest.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SQUARE_RIGGING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The first two-mast square-rigged ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the mid-14th Century AD, replacing the triangular-rigged lanteen sailing ships that had been used for the previous thousand years. Perpendicular square sails had been used on sailing ships in Northern Europe before (on cogs and longships), and the design was adopted by the Crusaders for their transports, giving more speed and maneuverability so they could get to the Holy Land quicker. In short order, the Europeans added fore and stern castles, bowsprits, crow’s nests and additional masts.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SQUARE_RIGGING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The “Age of Exploration” saw the design of the square-rigged caravel (the caravela redonda – so named for its rounded stern) by the Portuguese for their long voyages around and across the oceans. It quickly became the definitive, most common beast of burden for the explorers, the forerunner of the much-larger galleon; Magellan had an all-caravel fleet when he circumnavigated the globe in 1519. For the next three centuries, naval history was dominated by ever larger square-rigged ships, which carried Europeans to claim the Americas and Africa, plunder the wealth of the Far East, and wage war against each other.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SQUARE_RIGGING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The cannon-armed ships-of-the-line (from the three-deck 1st rates with over 90 guns aboard to the lowly 5th rates with only 18 guns) blasted away at each other into the Napoleonic wars and beyond. Frigates and barques chased enemy merchants. Speedy square-rigged blockade runners slipped past Yankee warships during the American Civil War. Towering clipper ships plied the Pacific and square-rigged American whalers hunted those beasts to near extinction.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SQUARE_RIGGING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
But the romance of the Age of Sail was coming to an end. In 1821 the first iron steamship, the British-built 116-ton Aaron Manby (with no lack of hubris, named after her builder) went to sea. Although sailing ships were cheaper to build and operate, and early iron steam engines were notoriously unreliable (so most carried masts and sails), the end of the square-rigged ship was on the horizon, reduced to being a rich man’s yacht in less than a century.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEALTH_TECHNOLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The ability to creep around unseen and unleash havoc is the fantasy of every five-year-old; modern scientists are close to making it reality. Modern stealth technology is a combination of multiple military projects and experimental science expanded beyond what humans can see, trying to both hide and detect objects by radar, acoustics, thermal readings, or other less readily visible methods. Low observable technology, as stealth tech is also known, has been utilized since ancient hunters wrapped themselves in vegetation and/or skins to sneak up on animals. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, when all those bright red and blue uniforms made soldiers wonderful targets, various European nations began to experiment with camouflage.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEALTH_TECHNOLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
During the First World War, the Germans tested the use of cellulose acetate as a covering for their airplanes, a transparent fabric that they hoped would make the craft harder to spot. The Canadians and British likewise experimented with “diffused lighting camouflage” during the next world war, but it was rendered obsolete by advances in radar. However, the German U-480, covered with anechoic rubber tiles to absorb the waves of active sonar, was the world’s first true stealth submarine. The Germans also were developing the Horten Ho 229 fighter-bomber, with carbon powder in the glue to absorb radar waves and other tricks to make it “invisible.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEALTH_TECHNOLOGY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The Horten never flew, but in 1958 AD the American Central Intelligence Agency requested funds to design a stealth recon aircraft to replace the U-2 spy planes. The United States Air Force initiated its own research project in 1960, developing special screens for the air intakes, radar-absorbent materials and paint. In 1964, Lockheed’s Skunk Works produced the SR-71 “Blackbird.” A high-altitude stealth aircraft with – along with the above – canted vertical stabilizers and composite materials, lowering its radar signature significantly. It was followed in the 1970s by the stealth F-117 fighter and B-2 bomber. No doubt there are newer stealth aircraft, and even ships and ground vehicles, but those are as yet unseen by the public (or anyone else, if the technology works).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEAM_POWER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
When heated to boiling, water produces steam. Even barbarians knew this. But harnessing that steam wasn’t thought of until Taqi al-Din Muhammed ibn Ma’ruf described a hypothetical steam turbine for turning a spit in 1551 AD. The move towards a workable steam engine gets started a century later when Edward Somerset published a collection on his “inventions,” including a steam pump, a working model of which he built in Raglan Castle. But he died before he could put it to use in mining as he’d planned. In 1680 Huygens published memoirs describing an engine that drives a piston; in 1698 one Thomas Savery builds a virtual copy of Somerset’s machine … and patents it in just about every use to which steam power could be put.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEAM_POWER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
But in 1705 Thomas Newcomen coupled a steam boiler with a piston in a cylinder. Seven years later, now partnered with the unsavory Savery he installed his first commercial steam engine, intended to pump water out of mines. Soon enough every inventor was harnessing the “power of steam” to every conceivable machine imaginable, though occasionally blowing themselves up along with their boilers. In 1769, James Watt invented the separate condenser, installing a second cylinder with a water jet – making the steam engine both practical and much safer.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEAM_POWER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The “Industrial Revolution” arrived with steam. By 1802 steam engines were being installed in boats, and in 1825 steam railroads were in operation. Steam power revolutionized industry and transportation across the world. Within a century the globe was crisscrossed by rail lines and steamship routes. Steam-powered factory machines were turning out tens of millions of tons of commercial and consumer goods. The industrialized nations enjoyed a huge increase in productivity and wealth and pollution. Coal, the primary fuel used in steam engines, was being feverishly mined around the planet.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEAM_POWER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Eventually steam engines would be replaced by internal combustion engines, more efficient and a little less polluting. But before oil, steam was king, and our civilized world would never have existed without it.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The earliest examples of steel – an alloy of carbon and iron with both high tensile strength and high ductility – dates to c. 1800 BC in Anatolia; the “historian” Herodotus states in no uncertain terms that steel weapons were used in Iberia at the time of his scribblings, and Noric (Celtic) steel was favored by the Romans for weapons. Seric iron from southern India was reputedly the best for steel, and was used by the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, east Africans, Chinese and Middle Eastern kingdoms. Steel was especially favored by swordsmiths, for it could be folded and beaten in many layers (such as the famed katanas) and held an edge. Damascus steel was thought better than other types, near legendary and much favored by Arab warriors. Europeans had to make do with “crucible” steel.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Modern steelmaking got its start in 1855 AD, when Henry Bessemer perfected his process using pig iron as the basis to make “mild” (or “low-carbon”) steel in quantity fairly cheaply, a century after Benjamin Huntsman had established the first steelworks in Sheffield, England – a refinement but not much improvement over the old “crucible” method. Within a few decades, however, steel mills were springing up all over the world using Bessemer’s method; the steel industry had been born, producing tons of it for the new bridges, skyscrapers, trains and automobiles, household gadgets and weapons of the modern era.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STEEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Along with petroleum, steel is the backbone of modern civilization. In 1980, there were a half-million steelworkers in the United States alone. Between 2000 and 2005, demand for steel increased 6% worldwide, driven by the building boom in India and China. In 2005, China was the world’s leading steel producer, followed (in order) by Japan, Russia and America. In 2008 steel began being traded as a commodity, first on the London Metal Exchange. Seems it really is worth (nearly) its weight in gold.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STIRRUPS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Along with writing, gunpowder and pre-sliced bread, the stirrup is considered one of the basic inventions needed to spread civilization … at least by some historians. Like all great innovations, it seems such a simple idea. Humans had domesticated the horse around 4500 BC, but where to put one’s feet and how to stay on when the horse began running? The saddle, invented around 800 BC, took care of the latter problem. But adding two pieces of leather with a loop (later made of metal) on the end hanging down didn’t come about until around a half-millennia later – no one is quite sure when or where, although it was somewhere in east Asia as the Chinese Jin dynasty was using it by 322 BC.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STIRRUPS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The idea of stirrups spread quickly, thanks to those barbarian horsemen of Central Asia who saw the advantages. Images from ancient India c. 200 BC show bare-footed riders using big-toed stirrups. A Kushan engraving made a century later shows a mounted rider with platform stirrups. Digging up Korean tumuli from the 5th Century AD yield stirrups, such as those found at Pokchong-dong and Pan-gyeje; and by the Nara period similar ones were in use in Japan. Meanwhile, European riders had to make do without stirrups until the 8th Century, when the Avars came storming out of Eurasia.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_STIRRUPS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The Arabs soon picked up on the benefits, but more importantly so too did the Franks. Slamming into something with a ten-foot pole while astride a big horse was only feasible with stirrups. Especially if encased in heavy armor; indeed, medieval knights would have been hard pressed even to get mounted without stirrups. And thus was born – according to some – feudalism, notions of chivalry and other “advances” that would dominate Europe for the next several centuries.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SYNTHETIC_MATERIALS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Once chemistry took hold of civilization, scientists started searching for ways to improve upon naturally occurring animal and plant products. First up, synthetic fibers pioneered by Joseph Swan in the early 1880s; his fiber was made from tree bark, intended as a longer-lasting filament for light bulbs but somewhat better as a textile. Next the Frenchman Hilaire de Chardonnet invented artificial silk, which was displayed to great acclaim at the 1889 Paris Exhibition. Five years later, a trio of British chemists created a synthetic material they called “viscose," and in 1924 it was renamed “rayon.” Then came nylon from Wallace Carothers, who was working for the chemical company DuPont. The first polyester fiber – Dacron – was invented in England in 1941 as part of the war effort.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SYNTHETIC_MATERIALS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
It wasn’t only fibers that were being produced from synthesized polymers; chemists were inventing all sorts of artificial materials in their corporate and college labs. The ‘50s and ‘60s might be thought of as the “Synthetic Age.” Naugahyde (derisively known as “pleather”) was a composite of fabric overlaid with polyvinyl chloride developed by Byron Hunter of the U.S. Rubber Company. The first synthetic diamond was created in 1953. The year 1960 saw a team of researchers in North Carolina create the first artificial turf, which came to prominence when “AstroTurf” was installed in the Houston Astrodome in 1966. Borazon, an artificial cubic form of boron nitride created at temperatures greater than 1800 degrees, in its crystal form is one of the hardest materials known.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_SYNTHETIC_MATERIALS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
And new synthetics continued to be crafted at a frantic pace. Tyvek, a flashspun high-density olefin material, is used as a wrapping through which water vapor but not liquid can pass. Teslin was developed as a waterproof synthetic printing medium, a recyclable and non-toxic material used in a variety of ways; the first now-ubiquitous Teslin-based credit cards were produced by Ron Goade in 1984. And in 1965 Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont developed Kevlar, a para-aramid synthetic first used in the early 1970s in racing tires; now Kevlar, rated five times stronger than steel, is found in everything from toys to body armor. Ours truly is a synthetic civilization.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_TELECOMMUNICATIONS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Internet and cable television, cell phones and satellite radio … it’s all telecommunications. Civilization is wrapped in a web of electromagnetic waves (and even a few land-based physical cables as well). The history of telecommunications begins in May 1844 AD when Samuel Morse sent his famous message by telegraph from Baltimore to Washington. It picked up speed in March 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell told his assistant, “Watson, come here,” over a telephone line. Telecommunication engineers have been racing ahead ever since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_TELECOMMUNICATIONS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Telegraph and telephone communications were carried by wire, much too slow for the modern day. And even though they made the world smaller and changed the landscape of business, war, and politics, scientists and inventors were soon searching for “wireless” telecommunications, the process of sending electronic signals through the atmosphere to special receivers. In 1894 Guglielmo Marconi built the first commercially viable wireless telegraph, soon termed “radio.” In October 1925 Scottish inventor John Logie Baird publically demonstrated the transmission of moving halftone images, soon termed “television.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_TELECOMMUNICATIONS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Satellite telecommunications – or at least the idea for them – can be traced to a piece written by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke published in the magazine Wireless World in October 1945. Sputnik, with an onboard radio transmitter, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957; NASA soon followed with the balloon named Echo 1 which was capable of relaying signals between distant stations on the surface. Thus the Information Age floated into history. Now low Earth orbiting (LEO) and geostationary orbiting satellites bounce radio, television and telephone signals all around the globe.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_TELECOMMUNICATIONS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
In cultural terms, the advent of satellite telecommunications has increased the public’s access to cultural markers and memes from distant peoples; the world may be on the verge of a single, homogeneous human culture. In financial terms, the international telecommunication industry generated $149 billion in 2007; the world may be on its way to an information economy. Whatever may come, the telecommunications genie is well out of the regulatory bottle.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_THE_WHEEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
“Round, like a circle” … well, like a wheel, a circle artificially manufactured, with a hole in the middle for an axle. The wheel and axle combination is considered one of the “six simple machines” upon which civilization is based. Used on vehicles, it allows easy transport of heavy objects over distances; but the axle-wheel is also the basis for the likes of the steering wheel, potter’s wheel, flywheel, water wheel, and a whole host of other wheels that make life more comfortable.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_THE_WHEEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The invention of the wheel comes in the late Neolithic Age, and along with the advance of several other technologies kicks off the Bronze Age. Archaeological evidence for wheeled vehicles appears in the fourth millennia BC, more or less at the same time in Mesopotamia, the Caucasus and Central Europe (obviously, an idea whose time had come). In China the wheel was certainly in existence by 1200 BC, when Chinese chariots appeared.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_THE_WHEEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
The first wheels were of solid wood, planks with rounded ends that were put together to give a round shape. In other places, stone and even clay (the Harappans of the Indus Valley) were used to make wheels. Spoked wheels first appear around 2000 BC in Asia Minor, where they were used on horse-drawn chariots. Later improvements included iron hubs and rims, greased axles, and the addition of springs or other sort of shock absorber.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_THE_WHEEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Contrary to popular belief, the American natives did have the wheel before the Europeans arrived, as evidenced by Olmec pottery wheels and wheeled children’s toys; but since there weren’t any domesticated animals large enough to pull carts and wagons, the wheel remained underutilized. Elsewhere, the spoked wheel was getting attached to everything, from cannons to trains; and wheels remained relatively unchanged until the 1870s when wire wheels and pneumatic tires were invented.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_WRITING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Writing is a technology that – like a few others – quite literally changed the course of civilization. The ability to set things down so as to remember them – “external memory storage” – unaltered beyond a single lifetime meant that every aspect of the human condition, every social structural and cultural more, altered significantly. Writing allowed civilization to become organized – organized religion, organized government, organized economy, organized war, organized science. And literature, a great advance (according to authors) over mere oral tales.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_WRITING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Invented sometime around the fourth millennium BC, the earliest form of writing was “pictography,” in which little pictures represent an item or action. This may work adequately for very simple topics, but other methods become necessary when more esoteric topics are discussed. (Drawing a picture of a sheep may be easy, but how about a picture of the sound a sheep makes when it falls off of a pyramid?) Ideographs (pictures representing ideas) and pictographic writing never developed enough to be able to transmit meanings well.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_WRITING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
In time, logographic writing – using a single character to represent a word – evolved. In Mayan, the glyphs allowed representation of complex meaning when combined in “sentences.” Likewise, about 90% of the Chinese logographic characters are compounds of a semantic meaning with a phonetic guide. In other languages – Mycenaean Greek, Cherokee, Ethiopic, some Creole tongues – syllabaries were developed, wherein a single written symbol approximates a verbal syllable, and writing got shorter and easier to manage for barbarians.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_TECHNOLOGIES_PAGE_TECH_WRITING_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
Finally, the alphabet – dating to the second millennium BC used for Semitic languages in the Levant – evolved, bane of pre-school children worldwide. An alphabet uses a set of symbols, each of which represents a sound in the language. During the following millennium, the Semitic alphabet became the foundation of many differing alphabets across the Middle East, Europe, North Africa and South Asia. The rest is history … written down, of course.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_INTRO_CHAPTER_CONTENT_PARA_1
Text:
In Civilization VI, the term "unit" refers to anything that can move around the map. There are a number of types of units in play – military units, Builders, Settlers, Great People, and the like. Military units form the bulk of available units.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_AIRCRAFT_CARRIER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
It was likely inevitable that someone would have the insane idea of flinging an airplane off a moving ship at sea. That someone was Commander Charles Samson of the British Royal Navy in 1912 AD from the deck of the HMS Hibernia, following the example of the American Eugene Ely, who had been the first to takeoff from a stationary ship (USS Birmingham in 1910) and later land on one (USS Pennsylvania in 1911). Then, despite the nay-sayers, came the HMS Ark Royal, originally laid down as a merchant ship but converted to a “flat-top” for launching planes; she was commissioned in September 1914, just in time to serve throughout WW1. By the late 1930s, various navies – notably the Japanese and the American – had designed large aircraft carriers, meant to bring air power to bear across the expanses of the Pacific against those behemoth battleships that ruled the waves. Soon enough, they issued in the end of the battleship, commencing with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. These days, naval task forces are centered on the carriers, with every other ship dancing to their tune.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_AMERICAN_P51_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
With the coming of WW2, it was quickly apparent that America’s fighter aircraft were obsolete and not-up-to-snuff against the German and Japanese fighters, so the United States sold the old planes to the British and Russians and developed the P-51 “Mustang.” Designed to specifications supplied by the British Purchasing Commission as a long-range, high-altitude, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber and bomber escort – able to outperform the best Luftwaffe fighters above 15000 feet and outlast the Japanese fighters – the prototype was unveiled in September 1940. By 1943, Mustangs were in service on every American front, knocking the enemy out of the skies with abandon. Even with the advent of jet fighters, the old warbird served during the Korean War as a fighter-bomber. Afterward, those that weren’t scrapped were sold as surplus, most of which were converted for the obscure sport of air racing or restored for the obscure spectacle of air shows.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_AMERICAN_ROUGH_RIDER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The First United States Volunteer Cavalry – better known to the unenlightened as the “Rough Riders” (the nickname taken from Buffalo Bill’s “Congress of Rough Riders of the World” … and describing Teddy’s unruly recruits rather well) – was a regiment raised by Theodore Roosevelt in 1898 AD for action in the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt had been a staunch supporter of America acquiring a colonial empire by almost any means, and when troubles arose in Cuba the United States took advantage of the opportunity to beat up the moribund and bankrupt Spanish Empire. Roosevelt immediately resigned his post as Asst. Secretary of the Navy and raised a volunteer regiment of 1060 cowboys, ranchers, miners, college athletes, and other rough sorts from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Although a cavalry unit, they served with distinction – mostly afoot, as at the famous charge up San Juan Hill (actually, Kettle Hill – but that’s Americans abroad for you) on July 1st. Afterward the Rough Riders were part of the siege of Santiago, until Spain surrendered in August, whereupon the volunteers returned home and went about celebrating in their own ways.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ANTIAIR_GUN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The minute generals started using aircraft, other generals started shooting at them, usually with artillery. The unsporting use of balloons by the Union army to gather intelligence in the American Civil War compelled the Confederates to develop methods to bring them down to earth. Nothing very practical was developed for anti-aircraft purposes until WW1, when the British decided a few weeks into the conflict that something was needed to dissuade the Germans from flying over their coasts with Zeppelins; the QF 1-pounder “pom-pom” was the first artillery piece designed as a dedicated anti-aircraft (AA) gun. Soon, everyone had some type of “ack-ack” to fire at the growing number of warplanes buzzing about, both on the battlefield and on the home front. During WW2, there were lots of AA guns deployed, but they weren’t very effective against the new breed of fast aircraft; post-war studies showed that the vast majority of bombers still reached their targets (on the order of 90%). And thus, as jet aircraft made an appearance, so too did AA missiles.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_APOSTLE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
An “apostle” (from Greek, meaning “one who is sent away”) is a messenger and ambassador for the chosen deity of a given religion in an attempt to convert the faithless. In Christianity, where the concept is most prevalent, the Twelve were mere disciples before scattering out as ordered by the resurrected Christ to spread his “Word.” For Islam, an apostle is a prophet, specifically one sent to teach Allah’s truth: Ibrahim (Abraham in the Hebrew bible), Musa (Moses), Dawud (David), Isa (Jesus), and of course Mohammed. These days some churches simply appoint their own apostles; among the Latter-day Saints, for instance, an Apostle is a member of the priesthood with high authority, and in the Bahá’í faith the apostles were designated as such by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ARABIAN_MAMLUK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Although the term mamluk simply means “property” or “owned slave” in Arabic, most think of the military caste in medieval Islam as the only mamalik (the plural form) in history. They are certainly the most famous. Although there is disagreement among scholars, most agree that the mamluk slave-warriors arose during the reign of the Abbasid caliphs of Bagdad sometime around the 9th Century AD. These warriors were primarily of Kipchak, Circassian, Georgian, and Balkan tribes, captured or sold into slavery, and proved devoted converts to Islam, superb horsemen, and vicious adversaries. Over time the mamluks became a political power – as in Cairo where they established a sultanate – in many Muslim kingdoms, where they sometimes served as kingmakers (well, sultan-makers). So successful and influential was the mamluk caste that it survived 1000 years until wiped out by the Ottoman general Muhammed Ali Pasha in 1811.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ARCHAEOLOGIST_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Archaeologists study human behavior in the past, primarily through the excavation and analysis of human fossils, the ruins of buildings, and the remains of human artifacts. Although controversies rage about the ownership of artifacts, treasures, and human remains recovered, thousands of archaeologists still operate around the world at excavations sites, in museums, and on university campuses. These men and women work to undercover the common beliefs and daily activities of various peoples throughout history, furthering our understanding of our own history.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ARCHER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Another hunting tool that proved very effective for killing other people, the bow as a weapon was perhaps first used in the Paleolithic Era. Archery was likely developed in several places more-or-less simultaneously, and except for Australia, it was used on every continent by all sorts of people. Until the advent of gunpowder, and even after in some cases, it was the primary light projectile weapon. Not much good for melee though; therefore archers were usually integrated or protected by heavier infantry, the first combined-arms formations in the history of warfare. Over centuries, archers became more specialized, eventually requiring years to become experts at their craft. But most civilizations had elite archery units that could dominate a battlefield under the proper conditions – such as against mired heavy knights at Agincourt, or bare-chested berserkers at Stamford Bridge, or the misguided troopers of the Seventh Cavalry at the Little Big Horn.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ARTILLERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Field cannons have come a long way since Gustavus Adolphus introduced them, evolving into field artillery of all sorts, small and large. In point of fact, any mechanism capable of throwing or firing a rock or shell is “artillery,” but the term is generally used to refer to large, breech-loading cannon with rifled barrels to improve accuracy. With the advances in metallurgy and industrial production available, and the Crimean War showing the deficiencies of the decrepit British cannons, a government contract was awarded to William Armstrong to design a suitable replacement. The result of his engineering was the first modern artillery piece in 1855 AD, capable of both direct and indirect fire. In 1897 the French improved on the design, producing the French 75, perhaps the most ubiquitous artillery piece in history. The guns have gotten bigger, more reliable, more accurate, more deadly – and the generals more pleased – as the years have passed since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_AT_CREW_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Although the first appearance of tanks on the battlefield was hardly auspicious, by the end of WW1 it had become obvious that something needed to be done to keep them from grinding one’s infantry underfoot. By the opening of WW2, most countries’ arsenals included some small-caliber (none larger than 50mm) artillery pieces designed to punch through the armor plating of armored vehicles, causing havoc within for the crew, engine, and/or ammunition. But with the advances in tank design and tactics, Germany and then Britain created increasingly larger anti-tank guns, manned by a crew of stalwarts … for, since they had to be in the open to operate the gun, the crewmen were vulnerable to just about everything flying about the field. By the end of the war, the Germans relied on their famed 88mm gun, the Americans had 105s, and the Russians were using 122mm howitzers firing over open sights.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BARBARIAN_HORSEMAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
For many plains nomads, horses were more than livestock; they were a way of life. For groups such as the Vedics, Jurchen, Huns, the ancestors of the Mongols, and for New World groups post-contact, warriors lived in close symbiosis with their horses. Horse milk for Central Asian nomads was a staple part of the diet, and people moved constantly in search of new pastureland. Further, the sheer speed and maneuverability of horse-bound nomads made them a serious threat to more sedentary agriculturalists: horsemen could appear, raid, and disappear before settled people could mount any kind of response.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BARBARIAN_HORSE_ARCHER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Tools for subsistence could also be weapons of war. Many hunting groups would move between raiding and hunting as a way of life – trading when they could, finding food where they could, and taking from their neighbors when they had the opportunity. While the horse archer’s composite bow (a blend of wood and bone) was unapparelled when it came to putting firepower into a small device, foot-based archers could use a variety of different weapons. East African nomads’ arrows, for instance, were cruelly barbed – all the better to allow poisoned tips more time to deliver their payload. North American groups, too, fought back (at least at first) against European settlers (and each other) using bows as a principal weapon.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BATTERING_RAM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
As the walls protecting towns got higher and thicker, so too did the gates. Eventually, it wasn’t enough to have a bunch of expendables hammering away at the gate carrying a thick pole. In its simplest form, a battering ram is a heavy log suspended from a framework that can be swung against walls and gates, eventually – theoretically – knocking them down. Over time, the ends were capped with metal, wheels were added for mobility, and coverings protected the users from boiling oil, rocks, arrows and other discomforts. So useful were battering rams that, if they couldn’t be constructed from materials nearby, ancient armies would drag them along on campaigns. Pliny the Elder even described their use in mining for breaking down hard rock (although a bunch of slaves with picks was a lot cheaper). Battering rams were used right through the Middle Ages, until the advent of gunpowder brought cannons into the art of war.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BATTLESHIP_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The evolution of the dreadnought that dominated the waves of the early 20th Century was the battleship … bigger, faster, with bigger guns and thicker armor, able to sink anything else (including each other) afloat with a single salvo. The first “true” battleships to see action appeared at Jutland in 1916 AD, where – mixed with a motley collection of dreadnoughts and battle-cruisers – the German and British ones fought to a draw. In the inter-war years, the battleship evolved into the behemoth of popular thought, despite the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and other bits of international paper that tried to limit their size and armament. Not only was WW2 the golden age of the battleship – and all the best known sailed those troubled times: Bismarck, Hood, Arizona, Yamato, and Missouri among many others – it also witnessed its demise. By the end warplanes, submarines, radar-guided missiles and other technological marvels had relegated battleships to floating shore batteries and rusting tourist attractions.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BIPLANE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Before WW1, the airplane was a clever curiosity for getting grown men excited. Airplanes were fragile, underpowered (gliding as much as flying), clumsy, limited in distance and payload, expensive, and generally biplanes, since two wings served better than one for maneuverability and lift in the face of all these limitations. By the end of WW1, the airplane was a dreaded machine of war, able to spot enemy movement at a distance and then rain destruction down upon it. The biplanes of the 1914-1918 conflict became ever-more specialized as the war progressed, from the nimble fighters to the dependable recon planes to the lumbering bombers soon flying over enemy cities dropping explosives on civilians. By the end of the war, however, the wood-and-fabric biplanes were disappearing, being replaced by metal covered, single-wing craft capable of better speed and faster climb. But by then, the exploits of heroic, gallant men in their brightly-painted biplanes had already entered the psyche of war.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BOMBARD_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The oldest representation of a bombard – a muzzle-loading, smoothbore proto-mortar that was used to throw stone balls against fortifications during sieges – was found in China; the 12th Century AD Buddhist cave-sculpture depicts a demon firing one. In the Western world, English monarchs were certainly using them in the 14th Century, for Edward III had some at Crécy in 1346 and Henry V captured Harfleur using bombards in 1415. But with the largest weighing several tons and all notably inaccurate, bombards were not practical for field operations, soon enough being replaced by cannon; emplaced bombards, however, remained in use for centuries, usually protecting ports and sea passages. Among the last and largest, the Dardanelles Gun built by Munir Ali in 1464 weighted in at 16.8 tons and helped protect the straits for the Ottomans for a long, long time (being fired for the last time at a British fleet in 1807).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BOMBER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Raining destruction down from a great height is enjoyable, especially if punishment is unlikely … just ask any misbehaving urchin over an ant hill. Although some tried using dirigibles and zeppelins as long-range bombers during WW1, these had some definite disadvantages – notably that they tended to blow up when struck by a bullet. So, even before that war, several aircraft designers had turned their attention to creating heavier-than-air craft that could carry loads of bombs over enemy lines to strike at their heart; the first two airplanes built solely for bombing were the Italian Caproni and the British Bristol, both debuting in 1913 AD. By the end of WW1, bombers for both tactical (battlefield) and strategic (urban) use had seen action on every front. These lumbering biplanes were gradually replaced during the inter-war years by faster, heavily armed, sturdy, and long-ranging monoplanes capable of crossing oceans. Now both sides could engage in “terror bombing,” putting civilians in the heart of the action, such as the German “blitz” on London or the American firebombing of Japanese cities. And it all culminated with a pair of bomber crews dropping atomic bombs.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BRAZILIAN_MINAS_GERAES_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Intended to be the first step in Brazil becoming an international power, the Minas Geraes-class were two battleships of 11,800-tons launched in the early 20th Century. While these didn’t do much in making Brazil a power to be reckoned with, the Minas Geraes and sister ship São Paulo did start a South American naval arms race, and caused quite a stir in the United States and United Kingdom (who weren’t real keen on having battleships in South American waters that weren’t theirs). The design plans for the new class took two years to complete, and then were tossed when the new HMS Dreadnought launched in 1906 made them obsolete. Finally the keels of the new design were laid down, and in September 1908 the Minas Geraes launched, followed by the São Paulo in 1909. Their careers weren’t much to speak of – centerpieces in suppressing a naval mutiny and a couple of rebellions. And they met an ignominious end; the Minas Geraes was scrapped in 1950, and the São Paulo sank en route to the scrapyard in 1951.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_BUILDER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Every era has had the men and women who lay the foundations … the farms, fences, mines, roads, bridges, ditches, and all the rest that add up to “civilization.” Whether slaves, wage-slaves, contractors, or actually working for themselves, these “builders” spread out into the wilderness and tame it, making it productive and profitable. Then they keep it all running and in repair. No civilization can survive without these men and women (and children, at least until the early 20th century). While technology and machinery has certainly helped, the work of all this building and maintaining the infrastructure of a nation is still demanding, dirty, and dangerous; in 2013 AD, there were 828 fatalities in the construction industry in the United States, and 46 in the United Kingdom.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_CARAVEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
As Iñigo Arieta, the Spanish commander who escorted Columbus to sea in 1492 AD, put it, caravels were “corredoras extremadas, buenas para descubrir tierras.” The Nina and the Pinta were caravels, and Columbus praised the Nina for its maneuverability, speed and safety. Developed in the 15th Century and used extensively in the 16th, the caravel was a speedy sailing ship with lateen-rigged main- and mizzen-mast, sloping bow and high stern castle. It appears that the classic (there was a lot of variation) caravel design was a melding of an earlier Iberian fishing vessel and the Arab qarib plying the Mediterranean. Small, light and shallow-drafted compared to other sailing ships, it was perfect for exploring all those coasts and rivers the Europeans were finding during the Age of Exploration. Likely the first vision people had of Europeans was a caravel looming off of the coast. After the explorers came the conquistadors, priests, adventurers, traders and eventually settlers...and so the unpretentious little caravel spread conquest round the globe.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_CATAPULT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
No one is quite sure when or where someone figured out it was a lot easier to use a machine to hurl a big rock, but it is known that the Greeks were using catapults as early as the 3rd Century BC. In point of fact, the term catapult comes from the Greek for “downwards” and “to toss.” Catapults use tension in a twisted rope and/or bent wooden cross-arms to throw missiles a fair distance; since they are relatively inaccurate, catapults worked best against large, slow-moving targets (such as towns and forts). As history progressed, catapults were constructed such as to be able to be transported in pieces and assembled before a battle or siege. The last time they were used in warfare was during the early stage of WW1, when the French used them to launch grenades at the German trenches. Nowadays, they are used just for hurling pumpkins and other edibles in annual competitions among geeks.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_CAVALRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Technically, any unit that fought from horseback (or these days motorized or even helicopter transport) – archers, knights, lancers, dragoons, hussars, uhlans, cossacks, cuirassiers, etc. – is considered “cavalry.” But when the common sort think of the term, they envision sabre- and rifle-armed bravadoes mounted on magnificent steeds … the most mobile and noble (a misperception left over from the Age of Chivalry) of the traditional military branches. By the time of the Seven Years and Napoleonic wars, the standard cavalry were increasingly armed with pistols, sabres and small rifles, and thus able to fight either dismounted or from horseback. Speedy and maneuverable, they served as reconnaissance and raiding units, battlefield stalwarts, and pursuers of the defeated. Able to ride down the enemy under suitable conditions or gallantly run away when not, cavalry served in every military campaign through WW2, when horse-borne cavalry had its last hurrah.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_CHINESE_CROUCHING_TIGER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
After the Chinese discovered gunpowder c. 9th Century AD, they used it just for fireworks and making pretty, colorful explosions. But eventually someone figured out it was pretty useful in warfare too, and soon enough flintlocks and cannon were all the rage in Asia. According to Dr. Yongxiang Lu, the little-known Chinese “Crouching Tiger” lay somewhere between a bombard and a cannon, one of the earliest uses of gunpowder in warfare. A crude device, it was basically an iron tube, sealed at one end, wrapped with thick ropes to reinforce it and with two short legs at the front to elevate the barrel slightly (so the shot didn’t plow up the ground instead of smashing the enemy). It is known that the Crouching Tiger saw action c. 1368 at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, and was still being used as late as 1592 against the Japanese in Korea. When fired, it is reported to have had a range of about 800 paces, which no doubt made the enemy very uncomfortable since it outranged anything else at the time.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_CROSSBOWMAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The crossbow – easier to master than the bow and hence perfect for peasants, who really didn’t have much time to practice archery – is in essence a small, heavy bow set crossways on a mechanism for drawing and releasing a short arrow (termed a bolt or quarrel). Invented in eastern China, it is first recorded in use during the aptly-named Warring States Period, c. 4th Century BC. The famed Sun Tzu devoted no less than two chapters in his influential 'Art of War' to the use of the crossbow. Around the same time, a sort of crossbow ancestor made its appearance in Greece, and the Romans may have used a few. But it is during the Middle Ages that the crossbow dominated the European battlefield. Combined with pikemen, another weapon that didn’t require a lot of skill to use, massed crossbowmen could turn aside almost any threat. The only downside to the crossbow was the skill necessary to construct one. But, until the advent of muskets, it was the best thing available to those unruly peasants.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_DESTROYER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Originally developed in the late 19th Century to keep those annoying torpedo boats away from the dreadnoughts and first seeing action during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, destroyers have come to fulfill many duties for the world’s navies: patrol, escort, anti-air, and anti-submarine. The first ships to be designated “torpedo boat destroyer” (TBD or simply “destroyer”) were the six of the British Royal Navy’s Daring class (1892) and Havock class (1893) and Ferret class (1894); with light armor, displacing under 300 tons, armed with a single 12-pounder and several smaller guns and with one or more torpedo tubes, soon enough other navies copied the design. Tasked with screening friendly ships and attacking enemy ones, destroyers served throughout WW1 and proved especially effective against submarines stalking merchant shipping. By WW2, destroyers were even faster, more maneuverable, carrying enough ordnance and supplies for long-range missions; in both oceans they were to be the workhorses of the contending navies. Since, the 1960s guided-missile destroyers have been added to the mix.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_EGYPTIAN_CHARIOT_ARCHER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The maryannu (the singular form marya, meaning “young warrior” or “youthful hero”) was a hereditary caste of chariot-mounted nobility, found in several societies in Bronze Age Middle East. In Egypt, they rode in two-man light chariots, which offered a more stable base for archery than did horseback, given the length of the bows common at the time. And the marya could carry more ammunition. But there were some significant disadvantages for the young heroes such as the limitations of terrain and the maintenance of the vehicle and horses on long campaigns. Nonetheless, the maryannu were a powerful elite in the pharaoh’s army; the best record of their effectiveness in battle is at Kadesh, c. 1274 BC, where they carried the day for Ramesses II. There are lots of images left behind depicting the ancient Egyptian maryannu chariots (one of the indelible images of that civilization), and six well-preserved specimens were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (who passed over around 1323 BC).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ENGLISH_REDCOAT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The red (or, more accurately, the shade rose madder) coat of the British infantry evolved from the ceremonial uniforms of the early 1600s; it was officially adopted in February 1645 AD when Parliament drafted the regulations for the New Model Army, with the 12 regiments of foot all wearing red coats with different colored facings to distinguish between them. For the next quarter-millennia most of the British infantry wore such, making them splendid targets among the trees, dunes, jungles and hills of the Empire. The rationale for such a choice was that, despite the fiction it was because bloodstains were disheartening for the men, red coats were instantly identifiable on the field, and hence helped maintain order and morale. The term “redcoat” became a source of pride for the British, and a curse word for just about everyone else.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ENGLISH_SEADOG_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Heroic privateers to the English, pirates to everyone else. From 1560 to 1605 AD, Elizabeth I gave permission to her “Sea Dogs” to attack the ships and colonies of other nations – especially the Spanish – at will, usually without the nicety of being at war. The likes of Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh (in fact, many of these pirates were knighted) raided across the Caribbean and even reached the California coast to ply their bloody trade: grabbing as much treasure as they could for the English crown … and themselves of course.  In England’s hour of greatest need, the Sea Dogs spearheaded Elizabeth’s defense against the Spanish Armada in 1588. Hawkins is also known as the pioneer of the British slave trade, and Drake took part in the Rathlin Island Massacre of some 600 men, women, and children off the coast of Ireland.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_FIELD_CANNON_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Field cannon – the earliest form of mobile gunpowder artillery – dates back to the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, a bastardization of the Ottoman hand cannon and the heavy siege artillery used throughout Europe. The Swedish king needed increased mobility and devastation from his guns if he was going to conquer the north, and so he developed 4- and 9-pounder demi-culverins and a 12-pounder cannon (the traditional method of distinguishing type of cannon is by weight of shot); each gun was able to be serviced by three men and hauled by two horses. He also organized them into batteries, rather than scatter them about through the ranks. And the Swedes pioneered several types of specialized ammunition, including canister for blasting massed enemy infantry. So effective was Adolphus’ field guns and his tactics for their use that soon enough every nation in Europe and beyond had adopted his innovations, and the art of war again changed dramatically.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_FIGHTER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
And fighters filled the skies … well, eventually. Fighter aircraft were developed during WW1 to counter the dirigibles, balloons, recon, and bomber aircraft that populated the skies above the battlefield. Small, slow, fragile, and lightly armed by later standards, these first fighters – the original “pursuit” pilots used everything from grenades to grappling hooks to try to bring down enemy craft – were made effective in the role of killer when the 'stangensteuerung' (interrupter) gear was designed by Anthony Fokker in 1915 and fitted to the German Eindecker, making it the most feared fighter at the time. By the end of the war, thousands of fighters had taken to the sky … and been shot down by the hundreds. In WW2, fighters were generally metal monoplanes, and tasked with all sorts of things: strafing and bombing ground targets, interdicting or protecting bombers, patrolling over vital things, reconnaissance missions, and of course, shooting each other down. Modern jet fighters are even faster and more heavily armed than those vintage WW2 warbirds, but the missions haven’t changed much.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_FRENCH_GARDE_IMPERIALE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
From a small cadre of veterans under the direct command of Napoléon Bonaparte, formed in 1799 from the union of the Guard of the Directory and the Grenadiers of the Legislature (both of those effete democratic bodies soon enough done away with by the emperor), the Garde Impériale grew during the Napoleonic Wars to be a division strong. The Garde was divided into three echelons depending on experience: the Old, the Middle and the Young. Napoleon favored his Garde, giving them higher pay as well as better rations, equipment, and living quarters. Nonetheless, the Old Guard were outspoken in their complaints, often directly to Napoleon himself, earning them the nickname les Grognards (“the grumblers”) among the rest of the French troops. Serving in every campaign during the wars, at Waterloo they were committed in desperation to secure a victory, but the Middle Guard retreated (for the first and only time) under withering fire; the Old Guard and some Young Guard units stood their ground to cover the Emperor’s withdrawal, only to be virtually annihilated by the British and Prussian cannon. Thus came to an inglorious end the most elite (according to the French and to wargame designers) of all military units in history.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_FRIGATE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Over the centuries the frigate has evolved from a square-rigged three-master in the 1700s too small to stand in the line-of-battle to the fast guided-missile toting warship, nimble enough to avoid the really big ships. But the role of the frigate in naval warfare hasn’t changed: patrol and/or escort duties. The British Royal Navy declared a frigate to be any full-rigged “rated ship” carrying at least 28 guns on a single continuous deck; but despite the Admiralty’s best efforts to define a “frigate,” these came in all sizes and configurations, even ironclads by the mid-1800s. Modern “frigates” are frigates in name only; commencing with WW2, the label was applied to anything smaller than a destroyer. The introduction of missiles to modern naval warfare made frigates even more lethal, and cost-effective. Why build a blundering great battleship, or even a cruiser or destroyer, when a “cheap” frigate would do?


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GALLEY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
With a shallow draft, slender hull, minimal decking, and propelled by oars, the galley was the first boat (or ship, if grandiose) dedicated to warfare. Although most had sails on a single mast that could help, galleys were propelled primarily by human sweat. Galleys tended to stay in shallower waters near shore, not being particularly seaworthy. But these were the mainstay of the early Phoenician, Greek, Carthaginian and Roman navies in the Mediterranean … as well as barbarian pirates everywhere. Initially carrying just archers and spearmen for floating melee battles, eventually rams, catapults and even cannon were added to their armaments, making them useful even into the early Medieval Era. But in time the galley – and all its descendants, the biremes, triremes, dromons, etc. – were made obsolete by the more maneuverable (and bigger) sailing warships. And those didn’t need a bunch of sweaty and grumbling oarsmen.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GERMAN_UBOAT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The 'Unterseeboot' – U-boat – struck fear, and anger, in the hearts of Germany’s enemies during two world wars. The first German-built submarine, the 26-foot long Brandtaucher (“fire-diver”), sank during its initial test dive in the harbor at Kiel. This was followed by several submersibles built in Germany, which were sold to the Greeks, Ottomans, and Russians (all had rather ignominious careers). Finally the Germans got it right; the U-19 – they finally quit giving the boats names – was launched in 1912 with two-stroke diesel engines, four torpedo tubes and two deck guns, and able to dive to 164 feet. At the opening of WW1, Germany had 28 U-boats in service; in the first ten weeks, these sank five British cruisers. So effective were the U-boats that the Treaty of Versailles forbade the construction of German submarines. But, the U-boat fleet was rebuilt, and by the end of WW2 the boats had sunk some 2779 ships (confirmed) totaling 14.1 million tons – roughly 70% of Allied losses in all theaters. In 1955 West Germany was allowed to have a navy again … and promptly started building U-boats, the latest being the non-nuclear U-35, commissioned in March 2015.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_ADMIRAL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Some are born with salt water in their veins, and so take to a life at sea. In the past, these were the “great” admirals, leading voyages of exploration, trading shots across the bow with other warships, and terrorizing innocent merchant vessels. Once men found that they could sail across open water and not (usually) drown, ships of all sorts took to the shallow and deep seas. Yi Sun Shin, Cristoforo Colombo, Horatio Nelson, Isoroku Yamamoto, David Farragut, and the list goes on of those who made a name for themselves at sea. Thanks in large part to their efforts, the world shrank and civilization expanded. But, maybe they had no choice. As Jacques Yves Cousteau (who would have been a heck of an admiral if he were so inclined) wrote: “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_ARTIST_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Artists are the visionaries of civilization. They daub paint on canvas or chip away at stone, and leave it to others to find vision and meaning therein. They interpret the world and give beauty, brilliance, form, and color to the mundane; these are those who paint the pictures, carve the statues, take the photos, and make the films that define and reinforce our humanity. Sometimes they are appreciated in their lifetime; usually, not. Sometimes they make a living with their art; usually, not. However, the work of these artists can, occasionally, surpass its time and place, enlightening and elevating a people, making a civilization far greater than its material wealth and worldly power.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_WRITER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Great writers are those men and women who express our desires, insights, fancies, foibles, fears, and joys in the written word. History has been marked by their voices; indeed, “history” is one of their voices. Whether in poetry, in novels and stories, for the stage or screen, these are the artists who have defined their civilizations and cultures. Some write prose and poetry about imaginary worlds; others write tracts of philosophy, politics, religion, and science about how our world is or should be. And let’s not forget those who put down facts on paper. Whatever their muse, whatever their intent, their words echo through time, binding us all together...or sometimes setting us all apart.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_MUSICIAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
It has been said that “music is the soul of a people.” If that is indeed the case, then “great musicians” are the guardians of that soul. Whatever the form, whatever the beat, whatever the instruments, no other art speaks to our emotions like music. Since it does, it is also the most subjective of the arts; what is heavenly harmony to one is just a cacophony of noise to another. That rather broadens the definition of what is “great” music; perhaps the best way to judge this “greatness” is how long a piece has continued to be played and appreciated by others. But from the time that men first beat out a rhythm on logs to the modern electronic orchestra, great composers and performers have expressed the collective sorrows and joys of each civilization.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_ENGINEER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Engineers design and build workshops, schools, and homes; “great” engineers design and build wonders. Before the day of pre-fab buildings, uniform ticky-tack housing “estates,” stressed concrete and I-beam girders, these were the men (and women) who celebrated civilization in towering monuments, grand palaces, massive temples, vital dams and bridges, and structures of every kind. It’s their work that archaeologists dig up, tourists gawk at, and children learn about in school. Give thanks too for the indoor plumbing, electrical lights, and autobahns (along with everything else that makes life comfortable) that they designed and built. Without the great engineers dreaming in stone and steel, constructing skyscrapers, giving the world sports stadiums and shopping malls, how else would anyone even know civilization when they stumbled out of the wilderness?


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_GENERAL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Every age of civilization has had its “great” generals, those who change the course of history by being cleverer, braver, or simply luckier than their peers across the battlefield. These are the men who can convince other men to follow them into hell … and perhaps out the other side. They are innovators in the ways of death, inventing new weapons, formations, tactics and strategies to win wars. Or finding new benefits in the old ways of killing. Every person reading this can name dozens of great generals, for their names echo down to us in legends, histories and monuments. Some are leaders of their people, warrior-kings and president-generals; if not already the head of the government while becoming “great,” they are often awarded (or cursed with) that mantle afterward. And then they write their memoirs, provided they survive their wars.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_MERCHANT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Of the four things that determine the course of civilization, greed is probably the most pervasive. Once folk settled and started farming and mining, there was always someone who found that others wanted what they had in plenty, and were willing to pay for it. And so merchants fanned out across the globe, trading in everything from grain to gold, hemp to human beings. The most adventurous among these were always seeking new markets, and hence were explorers who brought back knowledge of distant peoples and customs. Some of the greatest discoveries were the product of the greed of these adventurers. Their travels also enriched their nations in more material ways, for the taxes and profits from their trips funded great works of engineering, education, colonization, art, and war. Without the great merchants, civilization would have been much poorer.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_PROPHET_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Holy men are common; “great” prophets somewhat less so. Some prophets have “visions”; others just have insights into life, the way it should be lived and how we might be better. Some wander and teach, while others build temples and churches. And some just have good public relations. Whatever the foundation, these are the ones who create religions, spread the faith, or challenge the beliefs of others … sometimes all three. They warn mankind about his hubris in thinking he can know everything or control anything. Every great religion has its great prophets, no matter how or what they worship, those who have been touched by the divine … and each one has altered the course of civilization as profoundly as any general, scientist, artist, or leader.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREAT_SCIENTIST_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Great scientists try to offer innovative and insightful notions of how the world does work … as opposed to philosophers and prophets who offer thoughts on how the world should work. In some cases, the lines between these – especially as the notion of directed mutagenesis, quantum physics, asymptotic math, and other theoretical constructs take hold – can be very thin indeed. One of mankind’s best, or worst, attributes is curiosity, and this is something great scientists have in plenty. They pry into everything natural and unnatural, and the results of their “scientific method” can be a boon or a curse, and often both, to their fellows. Despite the academic arcade that issues advanced degrees in every scientific cul-de-sac possible and the monolithic corporate research institutes (for these days science is a lucrative business), there is still room for the occasional great scientist to come along and change everything yet again.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GREEK_HOPLITE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Give a bunch of citizen-soldiers ten-foot iron-headed spears (called doru), put them in a tight formation shoulder-to-shoulder, and the hoplite phalanx appears. In the 8th or 7th century BC, the Greek city-states first began to raise hoplite units – composed of those “free” citizens who could afford the bronze armor and the doru – for fighting among themselves. As the Persians found out, hoplite phalanxes were pretty effective against others as well. Although enemy archers might pick off a few (most of the arrows of the time were too light to penetrate the bronzewear of the Greeks), a phalanx of hoplites could generally sweep everything from the field in front of them; the greatest threat came from exposing their flanks, or losing formation moving over rough ground. The hoplite-phalanx survived for almost 400 years, through the age of Alexander the Great still dominant, until it came up against the Roman legion, faster afoot, more flexible in formation, and more adept with their short swords once they slipped past those unwieldy spears.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GURU_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Historically, gurus have been both scholars and spiritual guides to their disciples. Which is to say, the guru would not only offer answers, but help their students interpret questions. The guru is thought to be 'heavy' with knowledge, wisdom, and sometimes hidden scripture.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GURU_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
Of course, one would best beware of unofficial gurus out there: these fake gurus have been known to take existing scripture and interject their own thinking.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GURU_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
In the guru-shishya traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, a potential student would come to the guru's home bearing gifts, showing their willingness to learn. And if the pupil was found acceptable, the guru would then pass along their esoteric or specialized learning.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_GURU_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_5
Text:
Similarly, Sikh gurus would retain and reproduce the writing of the gurus who came before. In this way, the guru relationship would ensure that their knowledge would live on across generations.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_HEAVY_CHARIOT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Ox carts – sort of proto-chariots – were first built by early Indo-European peoples in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC. Not long after, c. 2500, horses were domesticated on the Eurasian steppes, a practice that quickly spread. And not long after that, horses got hitched (usually side-by-side) to the carts, which had been made lighter – often just a platform on two wheels with a low railing – and more maneuverable. Besides practical uses for chariots in transport and racing, chariots were very useful in war, giving ancient armies a mobile arm of their military. The Hittites were the first master charioteers in warfare, manned by three men in nimble chariots drawn by two horses. The Egyptians ran roughshod over their enemies using a similar contraption. The Persians were the first to build heavy chariots, with a four-horse team and sometimes scythes on the wheels, which proved really effective in smashing through enemy infantry lines.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_HELICOPTER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Chinese children played with them c. 400 BC; da Vinci designed one in the early 1480s; the Frenchman d’Amécourt demonstrated a steam-powered aluminum one in 1861 (although it never got off the ground); in 1907 two Frenchmen, the Breguet brothers, finally built an engine-powered helicopter which lifted its pilot two feet off the ground. And in 1933 the German Focke-Wulf company designed and built the world’s first twin-rotor helicopter, intending it for military use, even as Igor Sikorsky was doing the same in the United States. Used rarely during WW2, the helicopter was primarily employed as transport in the Korean War, and finally as gunships during the Vietnam War. Able to hug the terrain and avoid detection (until too late) by flying “nap-of-the-earth,” during the Cold War it became the primary “tank-buster” in both the U.S. and USSR armies. Today, helicopters are as useful as they are ubiquitous in military operations, doing everything from recon, to medivac, to troop insertion and recovery, to providing close air support with guns and missiles.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_HORSEMAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Before the Iron Age, the role of horsemen was largely filled by light chariots, useful both for reconnaissance and in battle. Though occasionally used by commanders and couriers, the horses of the age were too small to carry much weight and were damn expensive. Around 2000 BC, however, those living in the Central Asian steppes domesticated and cultivated larger, stockier, and hardier breeds. Armed with spears, swords and eventually bows, these horsemen generally raised hell … and changed the face of warfare. Soon enough the Greeks to the west and Chinese to the east adapted mounted warriors for their own purposes, then everyone around did as well. But it was the development of the stirrup attached to a sturdy saddle that made horsemen the dominant shock weapon on the battlefield; the earliest saddles with stirrups date from c. 300 AD, and over the next four centuries the innovation spread across Asia and into Europe.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_INDIAN_VARU_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Although not the most reliable of battle-mounts (as apt to trample friendly troops as enemy when panicked), war elephants were a staple in Indian warfare for centuries until the advent of gunpowder. In pre-gunpowder combat, the 'vāru' (“royal elephant”) served two purposes. Their scent tended to terrify horses, thus rendering the enemy cavalry relatively useless. Second, they could usually break through even the strongest line of infantry, especially if armored, crushing spearmen and archers and everything else in their path (and reaching 25 kph on the run). Too, elephants were notoriously hard to kill, and there are records of them surviving as many as sixty arrows. Usually surmounted with a howdah or other platform for archers, the vāru could wade right into the fray. But, in case the elephants did go berserk and start squashing their own side, the driver carried a spike and mallet to kill them with a blow to the skull.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_INFANTRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
As the first half of the 20th Century moved forward, two of the most destructive wars in civilization, marked by remarkable advancements in the technology of killing each other, occurred. Through it all, the infantryman marched into battle, grimly facing every horror – machine guns, mines, gas, strafing and bombing from the air, and all the rest out of Pandora’s Box – that the greatest scientists of the age could invent. The task of the foot soldiers hadn’t changed much since the spearmen and swordsmen of antiquity: take and/or hold whatever ground the generals decided was important. But the infantryman’s own bag of tricks became ever more lethal, with magazine-fed rifles, automatic pistols, submachine guns, flamethrowers, grenades and all sorts of other clever devices. Since armor didn’t stop such, it was discarded for mobility and camouflage. By the end of WW2, infantry could hold their own against most any threat … provided enough of them survived.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_INQUISITOR_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Every faith has its inquisitors, those charged by the church to find the non-believers, back-sliders, and evil influences among the flock. But it is in Europe that the role reached its apex, as the Catholic Church during the Medieval and the Renaissance periods strove to insure the Jews, Moslems, and Protestants (not to mention scientists, artists, and philosophers) didn’t corrupt the faithful. The Catholic inquisitors were on the front lines in this struggle, as they banned and burned books, and disposed of heretics, all in the name of the Lord. In some cases, with the support of the secular government, as in Isabella’s Spain or the Holy Roman Empire, all made legal by the papal bull 'Ad extirpanda' in 1252 AD. Despite some excesses it can be said that inquisitors did keep the faith – whichever faith it may be.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_IRONCLAD_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The best-known clash between ironclads – those steam-propelled, lumbering behemoths covered by iron or steel plating – at Hampton Roads in May 1862 AD ended in a draw. The CSS Virginia had earlier wreaked havoc on the Union’s traditional warships there, and while there was a lot of fighting still to come, the age of wood and sail in warfare was doomed. But the American ironclads weren’t very seaworthy, and tended to sink in open water. The British Royal Navy built the first classes of “seagoing ironclads” (actually armored, iron-hulled frigates) in the early 1860s, and soon enough they added steam-engine driven screws to the designs. Seeing how the Virginia had handled wooden warships far larger, every nation scrambled to build ironclads. The first fleet action fought on the open water between ironclads was near the island of Lissa in the Adriatic between the Austrian and Italian navies; of the 19 ironclads involved, two went to the bottom. But, like that battle, the age of the ironclad didn’t last long.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_JAPANESE_SAMURAI_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Until the ‘ashigaru’ (peasant) infantry were armed with muskets, the samurai (“those who serve in close attendance”) dominated warfare and politics in Japan for nearly a thousand years. Although the roots lie in the Nara period, it was during the Heian period c. 800 AD that bushido (“the way of the warrior”) was codified and a number of noble clans adopted its philosophies. By the time of the Heiji Rebellion of 1160, the samurai clans dominated the landscape, with various factions fighting over the shogunate, defeating the Mongol invasion, and otherwise building an impressive historical legacy of fact and myth. Throughout the Edo period, Japan was unified and at peace, and so the samurai became refined - writing poetry, attending kabuki theater productions, and engaging in the sorts of intrigue that one would expect from a bored and pampered class of would-be warriors. Unfortunately, the Emperor Meiji instituted a number of reforms in 1868 – including the end of the shogunate and abolition of the samurai class.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_JET_BOMBER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
As fighters got faster and more lethal, for a brief period jet bombers were considered necessary by Cold War air forces … until intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles promised the ability to rain destruction on distant cities with less fuss. The United States designed the XB-70 Valkyrie, for instance, to carry nuclear warheads across the pole to Russia – only two were ever built. The B-1 Lancer was somewhat more successful; with a speed of Mach-2 it could (hopefully) outrun the nuclear blast so the crew might survive – about 100 of the B-1B version were put in service as “low-level penetrators.” But in general, the old B-52s and Soviet Su series worked just as well (although their attack would be a one-way trip), and were a lot cheaper. In modern air forces, the distinctions between bombers, fighter-bombers and fighters have blurred considerably, such that most aircraft in service today could be considered “jet bombers.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_JET_FIGHTER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The best propeller-driven fighters of the World War II era could fly about (at best) 650 kilometers per hour (400 mph) and could carry one or two machine guns, and perhaps a small bomb or rocket or two. The Germans decided this wasn’t enough to stop the Allied bomber fleets, and so they developed the first operational “jet” – the Messerschmitt 262. While it didn’t change the course of this war, it did for all those afterward. With the obvious success of the Me-262 (although it did tend to occasionally blow up), after the war everyone started designing and building new fighter jets: British Meteor, American F-86, Russian MiG-15. By the end of the Korean War, jet fighters formed the backbone of every major air force. At the time of the Vietnam War, jet fighters could carry a couple 20mm cannon, ten or so missiles, and dozens of rockets and bombs, as well as reach supersonic speeds.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_KNIGHT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
In the Middle Ages, a knight was usually the wastrel son of a noble family who, having served his apprenticeship in war as a page and squire, had been raised to honorable rank and bound to chivalrous conduct (more an ideal than a practice). Since the mounts and accoutrements and life-style of a knight were extremely expensive, it just wasn’t for the commoners (they got to be foot-soldiers). The knightly tradition arose from the Roman equites, an equestrian order that comprised the lower of the two aristocratic ranks of the Empire. Through the Dark Ages (and slightly beyond) knights dominated the open battlefield, able to trample the fleeing commoners. Unfortunately, not many battles were fought on dry, open ground. Too, eventually the unchivalrous commoners were armed with pikes and longbows, the bane of mounted knights. And so the day of the knight passed away, despite those archaic “knightly” orders still scattered about.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_KONGO_SHIELD_BEARER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Kingdom of Kongo’s army was a mass of archers with a smaller contingent of heavy infantry, which carried swords and shields. The colonial Portuguese referred to the latter in their accounts as adagueiros (“shield-bearers”) while in the few surviving native documents the Swahili term ngao mbeba is used. While the archers were militia conscripts in time of war, there is some evidence that the standing ngao mbeba were supported by stipends from the king. Perhaps as many as 20 thousand were garrisoned in the capital, with smaller contingents in the provinces under the command of the local authority. Under king Afonso I, a small unit of Portuguese-armed native musketmen was raised, and eventually the old shield-bearers were replaced by the deadlier youngsters.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_LINE_INFANTRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Roman legion was famous for its rigid discipline – moving in tight formation, infantry continuously cycled fresh soldiers to the front of the line, massacring tougher but less-disciplined Gaulish and German soldiers. A similar concept exists in the line infantry. Moving in rigid blocks and armed with muskets, the line infantry turned irregular fire into a simultaneous focused volley from two or more ranks. In battle, such lines proved short-lived as commands were drowned out by smoke and noise and the general chaos of the battlefield, and so lines quickly devolved into a bayonet charge, but that initial volley could be devastating against lesser-organized units. This was the case, for instance, during the Bengal Wars, when European line infantry were able to win impressive victories against similarly-armed but disorganized Indian units. On the other hand, line infantry were slow to move and could be outflanked easily… or, as the Americans showed the British in the Revolution, harassed into disunity via guerilla tactics. Line infantry were typically armed with matchlock or flintlock fusils (smoothbore long guns) and replaced pikemen as the typical infantry unit. They were often distinguished by elaborate uniforms, allowing commanders to see their units to be moved about the battlefield for tactical advantage rather as you, the Civilization player, move your units. Line infantry became the norm in European armies during the 1600s-1860s, but with the advent of rifles and a more mobile, skirmishing tactics, line infantry became obsolete.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MACHINE_GUN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Since the days of the arquebus innovative gunsmiths had sought for a rapid-fire firearm that required little training or skill to use. Stoper’s revolving arquebus in 1597 Nuremberg, the “Puckle Gun” in 1718 in London, Belton’s multi-shot flintlock in 1777 all had their proponents; but it was left to Richard Jordan Gatling to perfect an infantry weapon with controlled rapid fire, automatic loading, portability, speedy reloading of ammunition canisters, and operated by a simple hand-crank. The Gatling gun was immensely popular among military types of all nations, and it laid the foundation for the development of the machinegun, which stalemated WW1 and dominated WW2 infantry combat. In time, the weight was reduced without loss of rate of fire, machineguns becoming submachineguns (such as the Thompson so beloved of Prohibition-era gangsters) capable of being fired from the hip.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MAN_AT_ARMS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The term “man-at-arms” is a general term for heavy troops, especially European units in the middle ages. While a man-at-arms could be anything from a noble, mounted knight to a mercenary pikeman, here we use it to refer to the heavily armored footmen of the later middle ages. As armories and forges grew more standardized, cheap, replaceable “munition armor” became an option instead of the individually tailored, extremely expensive suits of plate that nobles used. With munition armor, regular soldiers or mercenaries could be nearly as well defended as a knight, and as such posed a real threat on the battlefield. The German-speaking “Landsknecht” of the 15th century, with their great two-handed swords, were a classic example of this.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MAN_AT_ARMS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Outside of Europe at the same time, similar pushes for mass-produced armor for non-noble soldiers led to similar “men-at-arms.” In the Sengoku period in Japan, a time when rival feudal claims to the Imperial throne tore the island apart, ashigaru (foot soldiers) dressed in folding armor (tatami gusoku), were vital. With the arrival of footsoldiers in mass-produced armor, no longer were infantry rabble to serve as backdrop for knightly conflicts, but they were suddenly significant on their own.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MECHANIZED_INFANTRY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
With the coming of the gasoline engine to the battlefield, and all those tanks and trucks zipping about, the foot-slogging infantry had trouble keeping pace. Between the world wars, various nations studied how this could be improved. But it was Nazi Germany, with its emphasis on blitzkrieg, that devoted the most attention to “mechanizing” the infantry to keep up with their panzers before they tore across Poland, France, North Africa and Russia. Since trucks couldn’t quickly traverse the sort of ground encountered in these places, the German engineers had designed the first half-track (the Sd.Kfz 251) to carry infantry and their supplies while keeping up with the tanks. Add in some tracked artillery and AA guns, and one had an independent battlegroup, capable of holding its own against anything the enemy had. So successful were the Germans that every other combatant emulated them, to the point where most infantry today are “mechanized.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MEDIC_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
It takes a brave person to rush onto a battlefield unarmed, especially to provide trauma care in the front lines. Although “protected” by age-old edicts and the Geneva Convention, being a military medic is not conducive to good health. Surgeon Dominique Larrey developed the first ambulances volantes (“flying ambulance”) – mobile field hospitals – for Napoleon’s Grande Armée; he also recruited and trained volunteers to aid the wounded and carry them back to the field hospitals. Not only did it improve the survival rate – which certainly boosted morale – but it insured that at least some would survive to fight again. During the American Civil War, Major Jon Letterman of the U.S. Army of the Potomac not only developed and standardized new equipment for saving lives (this in an age when amputation was the usual cure), but expanded the medic’s role to dealing with diseases and other ills of the draftees. Today, army medics and naval corpsmen are integral to every nation’s military.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MILITARY_ENGINEER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Military engineers – as opposed to “combat” engineers who are crazy enough to rush into battle carrying tools and explosives rather than weapons – are tasked with building fortifications and other structures and creating and maintaining lines of supply and communication. The most victorious armies of the past – Roman, Chinese, Ottoman, British, etc. – all had superior military engineering units, to which much of their success was owed, both for protecting their own troops and knocking down the enemy’s defenses. Just ask the Gauls at Alesia (52 BC) or the Zealots at Jerusalem (70 AD). Following the fall of Rome in the west, military engineering – like just about everything else – entered a “dark age,” not to be revived until the mid-Middle Ages, when once again sieges were prevalent. By the end of the age, military engineers were again an integral part of any victorious army. Throughout the Napoleonic, Crimean, various civil and world wars, military engineers were divided into ever-more specialties. These days, a military professional needs a degree in civil, electrical, mechanical, architectural or even environmental engineering to be given the chance to build things...or tear them down.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MISSILE_CRUISER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The term “cruiser” was first used in the mid-17th Century AD to refer to a warship that could operate independently of a fleet – fast enough to run away from anything with bigger guns and big enough to blast apart anything with smaller ones. During the next couple centuries these were often commerce raiders, and occasionally used in fleet actions to screen the main body. So they didn’t figure prominently in naval affairs … until the advent of long-range missiles. While a number of navies invested in the design and construction of missile cruisers during the Cold War (even the mighty Peruvian navy had one), only the Americans and Soviets have kept theirs afloat. The first of the U.S. Navy’s Ticonderoga-class cruisers was launched in 1981, arguably the most powerful vessels still in service, armed with 122 launch tubes with a staggering variety of surface-to-surface, surface-to-air, and anti-submarine missiles, thus able to kill just about anything.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MISSIONARY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Inevitably, in every religion, there are those who “hear the word” and then go out to spread it. Throughout history, the preachers and proselytizers have gone abroad, often at great risk – hence, all those martyrs and saints - to convert the non-believers into their faith, whichever faith it may be. That is not to say that missionaries don’t also do good works of a more practical sort: schools to teach, clinics to heal, social welfare programs to support, thrift shops to cover, and all the other benefits of civilization. Whether with a sword or a smile, the primary goal of the missionary is to share their faith and so gain new faithful. Whereas they once actually had to go out on missions to do so, now they can tele-evangelize, which is so much more safe and comfortable.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MOBILE_SAM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Like all the neat weapon systems, the Germans were first with the idea for a surface-to-air missile; in 1941 AD Friederich Halder proposed a “flak rocket” to counter Allied bombers, but scientific infighting delayed any serious work until 1943, and although several prototype systems were developed none were ready for deployment by the end of World War II. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy, spurred by the success of Nazi glide bombs and the Japanese kamikaze assaults, produced the SAM-N-2 Lark, a ramjet-powered antiaircraft missile for use at long distances … it too was operationally unused when the war ended. While the Allies puttered along with SAM designs, the Soviets created the S-75 Dvina, the first successful (it knocked down a Taiwanese bomber over China in October 1959) one. The Vietnam War was the first modern war in which SAMs figured prominently, leading to the “man-portable antiaircraft missile” (MANPADS), by the 1990s pervasive in guerrilla and terrorist operations around the globe.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MODERN_ARMOR_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Modern armor is significantly better than those wonderful Panthers, T-34s, Cromwells and Shermans that tore things up during World War II. Today's main battle tanks (MBTs) are bigger, faster, have far better armor and weapons, and, perhaps most importantly, are provided with sophisticated computers and communications equipment which greatly improves their power and survivability on the modern battlefield. What an MBT cannot just blast apart it can run over. A modern tank can scream across the battlefield at 60 kilometers per hour while firing with pinpoint accuracy at a target hundreds of yards away, a targeting computer minutely adjusting the tank's barrel, compensating for each bump or pothole. Infantry rarely carry weapons strong enough to destroy thick-skinned modern armor – except of course, for their radios, which they can use to call in artillery or helicopter gunships. Unfortunately, MBTs don’t work well in the irregular, anti-insurgent warfare now in vogue.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MODERN_AT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
World War I carried the warning that tanks (once the kinks were worked out) would come to dominate the 20th Century battlefield. The German blitzkrieg operations in the early months of World War II proved that. While anti-tank guns were all well-and-good for stopping enemy armor, on the fluid battlefields of that war the poor grunts needed something more immediate than waiting for the AT guns to arrive, set up, and start firing. Thus the evolution of MPATS (man-portable anti-tank systems). By the end of the first “war to end war” anti-tank rifles were in use. But it became a race between better armor and better MPATS. The second war brought better AT rifles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), bazookas, and panzerschreck, recoilless rifles, and eventually (after the war) man-portable anti-tank missiles such as the American Javelin and Russian Kornet. The battlefield suddenly became a dangerous place for those armored behemoths.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_MUSKETMAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
If an arrow or quarrel could stop an armored man, just think what a small, fast-moving ball of lead could do when it passed through the metal into the squishy bits below. Replacing the unwieldy arquebus as the preferred firearm in the early 1700s AD, the musket was a smoothbore, muzzle-loaded weapon triggered by a match- or cap-lock mechanism – the archetype being the British “Brown Bess,” which served the Redcoats so well from 1722 through 1838. Sure, frontier settlers also used them around the world for hunting, protection and killing the natives, but it was in the wars of Europe that military tactics evolved to make use of the musket en masse. In China the hand cannon had evolved into the musket, and the Ming and Qing dynasties made extensive use of them. But it was the Europeans and Ottomans who used them to best effect against each other, with elite units armed with muskets.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_NATURALIST_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The conservation movement can be traced back to the Royal Society’s John Evelyn and his study 'Sylva,' published in 1662, advocating conservation of England’s forests. Although sometimes linked to environmentalism, it differs significantly in that conservation aims to preserve resources expressly for continued sustainable use by humans. Conservationists have focused primarily on the setting aside of natural areas for recreation and education, and the active protection of wildlife and plants for their inherent value. Near the end of the 19th Century, politicians took a hand in this valiant effort; American president Theodore Roosevelt became a leading (and powerful) conservationist, using his office to establish the U.S. Forest Service and to create five national parks, four game preserves, 51 bird sanctuaries, and 150 national forests – some 230 thousand acres in all.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_NORWEGIAN_BERSERKER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
According to a number of Old Norse sources, the berserkers (Ulfheonar or “Odin’s special warriors”) were Vikings who fought in “an uncontrollable, trance-like fury.” Other sagas note they forsook armor and went into battle bare-chested wearing wolf pelts, and were “mad as hounds, bit their shields … they slew men but neither fire nor iron had effect upon them.” Pretty impressive, even to the other fun-loving Norsemen. King Harald Fairhair supposedly used them as shock troops in the front ranks of his army c. 800 AD, and other Norse kings kept some as royal bodyguards, depending on their fierce reputation to keep the unruly in line. As the pious Christians said, “From the fury of the Norsemen, good Lord, deliver us.”


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_NORWEGIAN_LONGSHIP_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
'A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine.' The famous prayer, usually uttered by hapless folk upon first sight of the sails of the Vikings’ longships, sums it up. From Ireland to the walls of Paris, the longships carried the fierce Norsemen to kill and plunder. But they also carried Norse explorers across the North Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland, and North America. And traders as far as Rome and Constantinople. Indeed, the longships were the apex of European naval design from the 9th through 13th centuries. Viking longships came in various types; by far the most infamous is the drekkar, a graceful, narrow, shallow-draft vessel, ornately decorated (dragons and snakes and the like), used primarily by those who went raiding. Not only were the drekkar able to sail deep waters, but their shallow draft meant these could navigate up rivers … useful in pillaging cities like Paris.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_NUCLEAR_SUBMARINE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The conceptual design of a nuclear-powered submarine was first proposed by the American Naval Research Laboratory in 1939 AD; it was finally realized with the launch of the U.S.S. Nautilus in 1954, which could stay underwater without surfacing for four months … although why one would wish to do so was never explained. Since underwater craft were ideal for launching nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles without warning, it was the perfect Cold War weapon, there not being much other use for such craft. Thus the Soviet Union soon followed the United States in filling the seas with nuclear submarines, beginning with the ill-fated K-19 in 1959. Despite reactor accidents, breakdowns and sinkings, both sides rushed to build ever larger SSBNs. At the height of the Cold War, some five to ten new nuclear submarines were being commissioned each month. Although the pace has slowed somewhat, today six countries deploy nuclear-powered “strategic” submarines (i.e., those meant to kill cities, not other ships): United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and India.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_OBSERVATION_BALLOON_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Military sorts began using balloons to carry intrepid aeronauts aloft for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting during the French Revolutionary wars, a practice that reached its highpoint during WW1 and then declined in the face of advances in aircraft design. The French Aerostatic Corps was formed in 1794 to use tethered hydrogen-filled balloons for reconnaissance, providing intelligence on enemy troop deployments during battle – the first one at Fleurus in June that year. However much the observation balloon may have contributed to the decisive French victory there over the Austrians, the device was here to stay (so long as the cable wasn’t cut and it floated away). Throughout the American Civil War, the Second Boer War, and various other conflicts, the use and design didn’t change much. The “kite balloons” of WW1 gave more stability, higher altitudes and were able to fly in more extreme weather conditions; it was the apex of using balloons in war, for by 1917 those unsporting pilots in their nimble biplanes were shooting them down by the dozens. So much for floating tranquilly above the muck.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_PIKEMAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
A pike is, basically, a very long spear, used for thrusting the sharp point into someone instead of throwing it at them. Very effective against other foot soldiers and especially against horsemen of all types. Indeed, besides longbowmen and muddy ground, the pike was about the only thing that would dissuade mounted knights from riding the peasants down. Thus, the pike was best used in mass formations, as by the Greek phalanx or Swiss mercenaries or German landsknechts. However, as it’s difficult to hold a pike with two hands and a shield simultaneously, pikemen tended to be vulnerable to archers and swordsmen; they weren’t much good in a melee. But if it could maintain close ranks, a pike-armed mass could roll right over the opposition, and could anchor the flanks against knights. During the heyday of its use in the Renaissance Era, the pikes became longer and longer, eventually some being 22 feet or so.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_PRIVATEER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
“Plausible deniability.” That principle of avoiding responsibility operated as well in the Age of Sail as it does today. The only difference – and it was a cutlass-edge thin one – between a pirate and a privateer was having a piece of paper, a letter of marque in hand granted by a sovereign. Privateers were privately-owned ships (anything from simple sloops to brigs and caravels) commissioned by a government to “gain reparations for the crown for specific offenses [by other nations] during time of peace” … or prey upon enemy shipping in time of war. After the crown took its share of the spoils from the privateer’s raids, the rest – the larger half – went to the owner and crew. Since just about everyone in Europe had a grievance against the Spanish during the colonial era, the 17th and 18th centuries were the heyday of privateering, especially by those English sea dogs coddled by Elizabeth I and by the French Protestant corsairs (who attacked just about everybody).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_QUADRIREME_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Ancient shipbuilders just kept adding banks of oars to the basic design of the galley until they reached the quadrireme, a galley with four banks, each oar rowed by two men. Pliny the Elder reports that no less a scholar than Aristotle ascribed the creation of the quadrireme to the Carthaginians, likely during the 4th Century BC. Their first recorded use was during the siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great, at that time marching south to invade Egypt. After his death, the design proved popular among his successors, squabbling over the empire. During the later Punic Wars, quadriremes were used by both sides. Historical sources (not always reliable) state that these had a displacement of about 60 tons and carried around 75 marines. With their wide, shallow draft, quadriremes were ideal for operations in shallow coastal waters.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_RANGER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
“Ranger” has a lot of meanings: a person who roves or ranges; one of a body of armed guards who patrol a region; a soldier trained in commando tactics to make surprise attacks. These days, the common perception of a ranger encompasses all of this. The military use of rangers traces back to the frontier wars between North American colonists and the indigenous natives, who were adept at “irregular” warfare in the trackless forests and swamps. Colonel Benjamin Church, commissioned by the Governor of Plymouth Colony to harry the savages during King Phillip’s War in 1676, raised a body that was to use the enemy’s own tactics. By the time of the American Revolution, there were several Ranger companies in action against the British, who complained mightily about the methods these colonials used – ambushes, raids, demolitions, sniping, and the like. According to the 'U.S. Army Ranger Handbook,' not much has changed since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ROCKET_ARTILLERY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Chinese Wu forces were firing off gunpowder-fueled rocket artillery as early as the siege of Yuzhang in 904 AD, although these were more colorful than deadly (save, perhaps, to their crews). The metal-cylinder ones used by the Tipu Sultan of Mysore in the 1780s and the British Congreve rockets in the 1790s weren’t much better. So it wasn’t until the German Nebelwerfer and Soviet Katyusha models of the Second World War that rocket artillery was anything but a curiosity on the battlefield. It was only after the war that designs in rocket artillery made them a mainstay for NATO and Warsaw Pact armies, poised to devastate Europe when the much-anticipated World War III broke out. The minimum recoil of rockets means that lighter carriages are needed, hence these can be more mobile (in fact, some can fire on the move); and advanced ones employ guidance systems, allowing for better accuracy against moving targets.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_ROMAN_LEGION_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The legion was the most efficient and effective fighting force in history...well, in its time anyway. A fully-equipped, fully-staffed Roman legion could march across any terrain, laying a road as it did, built a fortified camp at the end of it, and then take any foe or take any wall. During the Empire a legion was composed of infantry, recruited exclusively from Roman citizens, along with the cooks, armorers, engineers, artillerists, medics and command staff (as well as the usual camp followers and sutlers) necessary to operate in the field for years at a time. The light infantry, archers, scouts, and cavalry were generally auxiliaries, provincial non-citizens (those who survived to be honorably discharged gained citizenship) assigned to a legion as necessity dictated. Extremely disciplined (usually), the legion’s heavy infantry were armed with pilum (throwing spear) and gladius (short sword) and conquered most of the known world (granted, a bunch of barbarians and decaying empires) at the time.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_RUSSIAN_COSSACK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The kazaki were members of semi-democratic, semi-nomadic, semi-militaristic communities along the steppe-shores of the Dnieper, Don, Ural, Volga and other rivers cutting across the Ukraine. It isn’t clear when these Slavs started settling in the region after the collapse of the Khazar kingdom, but it is likely after the Mongol tide receded, so perhaps late 13th Century AD. A mixture of horse barbarians and “civilized” peoples, by the 1600s the Cossacks were a loose confederation of tribes and independent communes. Internal politics notwithstanding – and the various Cossack hosts fought among themselves as much as against their neighbors – they became a force to be reckoned with, light cavalry par excellence. In time, early 17th Century or so, some of the hosts took service with the growing Russian kingdom to the north, providing a buffer against the Crimean Tatars and Ottomans to the south. The Cossacks would thereafter figure in every war the Russians fought, until virtually annihilated by Stalin following WW2.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SCOUT_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Over the centuries many people have been termed “scouts” (including teenagers in neat uniforms camping out and earning “merit badges”). But fleet-footed warriors adept at wandering the wilderness and spying on the enemy have existed since the days of hunter-gathers. These “specialists” were the eyes and ears of early civilizations, spreading out from settlements, exploring new lands, and seeking the enemy. In time, they became ever more specialized, and are an inherent and vital part – even today – of any military formation. Knowing where the opponent is and what he is up to is still vital to avoid getting slaughtered.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SCYTHIAN_HORSE_ARCHER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The term “Saka” may refer to the Persian and Sanskrit word for the Scythians, or it may refer to a specific tribe among those horse-barbarians to the north of Assyria. Most of the confusion seems to the ambiguous usage of Saka among the ancient “historians” – Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and that lot. Herodotus states that the Saka were horse archers, riding without saddles or stirrups, and distinguished by wearing quilted trousers, open tunics and “high caps tapering to a point and stiffly upright.” These horse archers were feared in the open, mostly for harassing a moving column or raiding the baggage trains, but not very good in a stand-up fight. As Alexander the Great had shown at the battle of Jaxartes (329 BC) the Saka had no staying power, and could be readily driven off by massed infantry in depth supported by ample numbers of foot archers, whose greater range and rate of fire gave them a distinct advantage over the mounted ones.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SETTLER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
There have always been those willing to leave behind everything familiar in the hopes of finding a better life over that hill. These are the settlers, the ones who scattered mankind over the globe. Whether they travelled by water or by land or by air, the pioneers eventually came to a place they liked, usually one that offered good soil, clean water, and some prospect of safety … but not always. Some ended their journey in desert, marsh, ice field, or mountain valley. And, inevitably, among hostile natives. The reasons they left their old homes behind were as varied as the terrain they traversed: hunger, wealth, ambition, adventure, fear, freedom, and above all the hope for their descendants to have what they did not. Where they stopped became villages, towns, cities, and civilizations. And, the cycle began again...


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SIEGE_TOWER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Climbing walls up ladders - while the defenders above hurled boiling oil, rocks and pointy objects down - wasn’t conducive to high morale among the troops, and so the Neo-Assyrians invented siege towers around the 9th Century BC. At the time, most of the towns in Mesopotamia were surrounded by mud-brick walls, generally sufficient protection against attackers, but the siege towers of the Assyrians allowed them to get over the walls relatively unscathed; thus their empire spread virtually unchecked for three centuries. It was an idea whose time had come, and soon enough all the ancient civilizations had siege towers in their arsenals. In simplest form, a siege tower was a covered wooden tower on wheels; once pushed near the offending wall, a gangplank was dropped to bridge the gap and happy warriors rushed into the town or castle. Made ever more sturdy and efficient by those master engineers the Romans, the siege tower was used throughout the Medieval Era, until gunpowder finally made them obsolete.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SLINGER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Like most early weapon systems, the sling evolved from a tool for hunting game to one for killing people. Simply a pouch between two lengths of cord, the sling was used to swing a projectile – a stone, lump of lead, or anything else convenient – in an arc until such time as it was launched. Although a thrown stone doesn’t have the lethality of an arrow or bullet, it can still do a lot of damage. If nothing else, a rain of well-aimed stones gives an enemy pause before rushing in. And, until composite bows were invented, it had a considerable range advantage over bows and spears. In addition, wasn’t hard to find ammunition. With the exception of Australia, ancient slings have been found in archaeological digs all over the world. Even a barbarian can sling a rock. And, as the First Book of Samuel points out, a slinger can bring down even a Goliath...


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SPANISH_CONQUISTADOR_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Spanish conquistadores (“conquerors”) were the soldier-explorers who colonized the world for Spain from the 14th through the 18th centuries. With the end of the Reconquista in 1492 AD, there were a lot of veteran Spanish soldiers at loose ends; luckily, shortly thereafter the Spanish discovered a New World, just ripe for conquest and conversion to Christianity (the latter actually did motivate some). The conquistadors would spread across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and even Oceania, exploring, exploiting, and even settling down in places. Drawn primarily from the ranks of light horsemen, the combination of European tactics, weapons, mounts, and ruthlessness meant most of the natives had little chance of defeating the conquistadors … and that small chance only due to sheer numbers (provided enough of them were willing to die). There is no doubt that without the likes of Cortes, Pizarro, de Balboa, de Soto and others chasing fortune, there would have been no globe-spanning empire.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SPEARMAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
At some point in the prehistory of civilization, some Neolithic warrior decided his club would be more efficient if he sharpened the end of it. And, hence, the spear. But the point kept getting dull from all the stabbing of animals and people. Soon enough people were hardening the points by charring them over fire (another recent discovery); the next innovation was attaching napped stone heads to the stick. And eventually, metal spearheads. Spears are fairly simple to master; and so were popular among the early militia that were the staple for most ancient armies. Spears can be produced fairly quickly and cheaply. And they worked well against those horse-riding barbarians. Over the centuries the spear went through endless evolutions, culminating with the bayonet, which a soldier can stick on the end of his rifle to make a spear for eviscerating the enemy once again.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SPY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Despite the scribblings of Ian Fleming, Alistair MacLean, and Tom Clancy, the doings of most spies are far less glamorous – in fact, downright grim – or rewarding than most think. While employed in various times and places throughout history with more or less success, espionage has been a useful policy of the state only since Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan England developed most modern methods of uncovering or concealing state secrets (such as cryptography, forgery, seduction, blackmail, assassination, and more). And it is rare that spies do so for noble reasons; most are either well-paid or blackmailed into undertaking such a dangerous career. Although there have been some notable periods when spy-craft was rampant, none matched the era of the Cold War in methods or activities across the globe. But the “romance” was drained from the spy business with the advent of electronic and satellite information gathering that the superpowers seized upon in the 1990s. Bond would be terribly disappointed.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SUBMARINE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
When those madcap Confederates in the Hunley sank the USS Housatonic in 1864 AD, it launched a new age of naval warfare; unfortunately, the Hunley also sank itself, taking its crew to the bottom as well. Nevertheless, the submarine had made its stealthy appearance. The submarine, submersible, U-boat is a craft made for sneaking up on a target while underwater and then sinking it with torpedoes … or if possible surfacing and using its pathetic deck-guns. Germany pioneered their use as merchant raiders – really effective ones – during WW1, and expanded upon it during WW2, eventually sinking some 14.5 million tons of enemy shipping (including the odd warship) from 1939 through 1945. Advances in ballast tanks, power plants, control planes, hull plating and such sparked a “submarine-race” between the post-war superpowers culminating in nuclear-powered, deep-diving boats … armed with nuclear missiles that could be launched at population centers. What has the Hunley wrought?


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SUMERIAN_WAR_CART_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The nigh constant wars (more like backwood feuds than armed conflicts) between the Sumerian city-states helped develop a couple of innovations in killing that would spread across the ancient world. The first battle ever recorded for posterity was between Lagash and Umma c. 2525 BC as depicted on the “Stele of Vultures.” Among other things of interest, the stele shows the commander Eannatum riding in a “chariot” – actually, more a four-wheeled cart pulled by asses (the animals, not the humans). The Sumerian war-cart was a four-wheeled device composed of a woven basket mounted on wooden, solid wheels; it was manned by a crew of two carrying battle-axes and lances and pulled by a yoke of four onagers (those Asiatic asses). Although shown on this and other stele, there is considerable debate as to whether the war-carts were actually used in combat, or served more as a “battle taxi,” carting the commander around to strategic locations where he could dismount and lead his troops personally in the melee. Whatever the function, the Sumerian war-cart was the genesis for the later horse-drawn war chariot.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_SWORDSMAN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
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The “Art of the Sword” – although those first Bronze Age wielders probably weren’t very artistic – goes back to the time when a sword was little more than a large dagger, short and sharp. The most ancient swords yet excavated date to c. 1600 BC. Swords came in many types: some sharp along both edges, some just along one, some thin with a sharp point, some heavy. As often as not, a civilization’s favored type was its most distinctive aspect. It might also be noted that the evolution of the sword had a significant impact on the evolution of iron-working, mining and smelting … all rather useful technologies. Virtually every culture in history had swords, and used them proficiently against each other. In time, too, the increasing use of the sword in melee led to advances in armor, and soon enough there was an “arms” race between these military technologies. Today, the sword has been relegated primarily to ceremonial and sporting uses … but swordplay remains deep in our blood (so to speak).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_TANK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Like so many efficient ways of killing the enemy in great numbers, the “tank” was first used to any effect during WW1 and perfected during WW2. It is essentially an armored, self-propelled (on caterpillar-type tracks), self-contained fighting vehicle. The concept had been around a long time, and visionaries such as Leonardo da Vinci and Hebert G. Wells had offered simplistic views of an armored leviathan that could dominate a battlefield. But it was the stalemated fronts of WW1, dominated by barbed-wire, machineguns, artillery and mud that brought the concept to fruition. The tank (so-named on the first shipping manifests to mislead enemy intelligence) did not make a good first impression, being used solely as infantry support in the final Allied victory. The defeated learned their lesson, and in WW2 the Germans unveiled the blitzkrieg, the use of massed tanks to blow holes in the enemy lines, then pour through and overrun everything behind. Today, the battle tank is the mainstay of every nation’s army – or at least any big enough to matter.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_TRADER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
As soon as there were villages, there were traders. At first they used poor, dumb brutes – horses, mules, camels, llamas, men – as beasts of burden to carry gems, precious metals, spices and anything else that would turn a profit in a distant village. Every civilized, and many not, land was crisscrossed with trade routes, and these routes – such as the great Silk Road from China to the Middle East – shaped boundaries and civilization as surely as did any war or religion. In time, some traders took to the seas; many of the earliest written records are inventories of commercial goods in ships’ holds, and archaeology shows evidence of sea-going cargo ships in the Mediterranean and Red seas by the beginning of the first millennium BC. As longer voyages of trade were undertaken, cargo ship design was constantly revised; and the beasts of burden were replaced by truck convoys. But the same principle drives trade still … the human need to make a profit.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_TREBUCHET_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Artillery can be understood as a process of tossing bigger and bigger rocks at people. And for that, the trebuchet was the ultimate rock-tosser, at least until the widespread use of gunpowder. A catapult uses tension within a series of ropes and arms, but a trebuchet uses a lever and the force of gravity. The concept is pretty simple: a weight on one end and a sling on the other carrying its payload of stones (or even rotting carcasses to spread disease, or incendiaries to start fires). When the weight is allowed to drop, it swings the other end of the arm up and over, whipping the missile towards the target. A simple design, but one that required knowledge of levers and basic physics to perfect.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_TREBUCHET_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
The trebuchet was used in siege warfare in Europe in the 1100s until the advent of gunpowder, and in Asia were used occasionally in addition to smaller, more mobile “crouching tiger” siege weapons. Trebuchets, being large and unwieldy, were usually built close to the site of siege, making armies lighter but making the process of besieging a castle a lot more work.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_WARRIOR_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
According to the dictionary, a “warrior” is a person engaged or experienced in warfare. In primitive societies, that’s just about everyone since everyone fought everyone else. After all, it didn’t take much training to bash someone in the head with a rock or club, just some stamina and a strong stomach. Thus, early tribes and settlements did not have a professional standing army; that’s a benefit of civilization. Instead, all the able-bodied served in a loose militia, called to face a crisis and then returning to their farms and villages when it was past (or sometimes before). It would be centuries before some ancient kings had the foresight and wherewithal to maintain an army, with specialists in various weapons replacing the old warriors.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_WARRIOR_MONK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The myths of wall-running, magic-palmed warrior monks endure because of how outlandish they are. Unfortunately, we simply have to live with the actual feats of history's priests with astounding fighting skills.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_WARRIOR_MONK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_2
Text:
Consider the Shaolin Monastery in China, founded by the Indian Buddhist monk Batuo in 495 CE. While the history of martial training at Shaolin is tangled with legends and pop culture, it's said that Batuo and his first Chinese disciples, potentially soldiers before joining the monastery, already came equipped with martial arts skills, passing them down to their students.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_WARRIOR_MONK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_3
Text:
By 581, monks at Shaolin would have their own fighting style, even siding with would-be second Tang Emperor Li Shimin during the dynastic wars of the period.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_UNITS_PAGE_UNIT_WARRIOR_MONK_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_4
Text:
By contrast, Japan's Buddhist sohei would engage in the less glamourous inter-temple turf wars, picking up arms and using their fighting skills in order to gain political, not spiritual dominance.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_INTRO_CHAPTER_CONTENT_PARA_1
Text:
Wonders are the spectacular buildings, inventions, and concepts that have stood the test of time and changed the world forever. Wonders require time, energy, and effort to complete, but once constructed, they provide your civilization with many benefits.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_ALHAMBRA_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Alhambra began as a small fortress, constructed in 889 AD by the Moors of Granada in Andalusia (Spain); then it was rebuilt and expanded by the emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar in the 11th Century and yet again expanded and converted into a royal palace by Sultan Yusuf I in 1333. The al-Hamra (literally, “the red one”), so named for its red clay fortress walls, was lavish – at least by European standards of the time – with all the comforts, including indoor plumbing. It integrated the natural beauty of the spot with structures and gardens designed and outfitted by the finest Muslim, Jewish, and even Christian craftsmen and artisans of the region. Among its most striking aspects, many of the interior walls and columns are inscribed in carved flowing Arabic script with poetry and verses from the Quran. The last sultan of the Nasrid dynasty, Muhammad XII, surrendered Granada to the Spanish in 1492 AD, without the Alhambra being attacked by the crusaders – otherwise it would be just another pile of rubble and memories of elegance.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_BIG_BEN_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The giant bell, Big Ben, is housed in the Elizabethan Tower – so named to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (being just the “Clock Tower” before that) – at the north end of the Palace of Westminster, where sits the Houses of Parliament. Being rather casual in language, most Brits and flocks of tourists tend to refer to the whole thing as “Big Ben.” The great 16-ton bell was cast in August 1856 at the foundry at Stockton-on-Tees and recast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in April 1858 after it cracked while being transported to London. The pendulum clockwork was designed by the Astronomer Royal and crafted by the clockmaker Edward Dent and his stepson Frederick; it was ready in 1854. So fine is the precision, that adding or removing a penny (English, of course) to the pendulum will change the speed by four-tenths of a second each day. But all had to await the completion of the clock tower itself, which wasn’t done until 1859. Despite being silenced during wartime and the occasional breakdown, Big Ben has chimed the hour ever since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_BOLSHOI_THEATRE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow – bolshoi being the Russian for “grand” – is home for the Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera companies, among the oldest and largest in the world (the ballet has some 200 dancers). The ballet company was founded in March 1776 by Prince Urusov and Michael Maddox, a British theater manager; after performing in private homes for some years, the company was profitable enough to acquire the Petrovka Theater and opened there for the first time in December 1780. Sadly, the Petrovka burned down in 1805, to be replaced by the New Arbat Theater, which burned down in 1812 during Napoleon’s occupation of the city. The current Bolshoi Theater was built between 1821 and 1824, and it managed not to burn down – although it was renovated in 1843, 1856, 1921, 2002 and 2011. The last renovation included restoring the theater’s acoustics to the original high quality (which had been mucked up by the Soviets) and restoring the original imperial décor (which had been ripped out by those same Soviets). Despite prices ranging up to 5000 rubles, ballet and opera performances continue to be sold out – mostly to tourists.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_BROADWAY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Broadway is a 15-mile long thoroughfare through the heart of Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City, lined with offices, shops and apartments … but no-one thinks of those. Instead, Broadway is best known for the middle section between 42nd and 53rd Streets dubbed the “Great White Way” – the Theater District. Commencing in the mid-1800s a number of theaters opened on Broadway. In 1880 AD a stretch between Madison and Union squares was illuminated with arc lamps, making it one of the first electrically lit streets in the United States (leave it to New Yorkers to light up theaters before homes, hospitals and schools). Spurred by growing American wealth and cultural aspirations, the theaters made it a mecca of popular entertainment. By 1900 some 20 theaters had opened along this stretch, and so bright were their electric billboards that it became the Great White Way. In 1925 at its peak popularity, there were 80 theaters along Broadway, specializing in lavish productions, primarily revues and musicals.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_CHICHEN_ITZA_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Mayans decided to build their great city of stone in the Yucatan in the middle of a jungle instead of on some nice beach. Whatever the logic of selecting such a spot, Chichen Itza was a metropolis of homes, temples, palaces, courtyards and ballcourts of extraordinary artistry; some of the ornamented structures date back 1500 years. The ball games were a special time in the city, as the winning captain was beheaded at the end of the play as a sacrifice to the gods (seems like a perfect reason to “throw” the game), possibly at the massive stepped-pyramid Temple of Kukulcan. Chichen Itza was a thriving concern until the 13th Century, when revolt and civil war broke out among the Mayans, at which point the city went into a steep decline from which it never recovered. What war didn’t take care of among the populace, disease and famine did. The center of the city was largely abandoned and in ruins by the time of the Spanish conquest.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_COLOSSEUM_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Flavian Amphitheater, better known as the “Coliseum” lies in the center of Rome. Construction began during the reign of Emperor Vespasian, c. 72 AD, funded by the spoils from the Jewish Second Temple after the fall of Jerusalem during the First Jewish-Roman War. Built of concrete and stone, it is the largest amphitheater ever built, and one of the great wonders of ancient architecture and engineering. It could hold between 50 and 80 thousand spectators to watch gladiatorial matches, animal hunts, mass executions, and more. By the time medieval Christianity had taken root, it had been repurposed to house low-rent apartments, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a quarry and a Christian shrine. Although knocked about by earthquakes and pillaged by stone-robbers, the Coliseum is still pretty impressive two millennia after the inaugural gladiatorial slaughter.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_COLOSSUS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Built from the smelted-down brass and iron of abandoned arms and equipment of a failed invasion, the Colossus of Rhodes was a 98-foot depiction of the Titan Helios erected to celebrate the victory. Construction under the direction of Chares of Lindos began in 292 BC, and by 280 was completed, to the amazement of all. Although the details are a bit hazy – the ancient histories being what they are – the towering statue overlooked the Mandraki harbor entrance set upon a 49-foot high marble pedestal. But it only stood for 56 years before being toppled by an earthquake. Ptolemy III of Egypt offered to pay for its reconstruction, but the Rhodians refused because the Delphi Oracle informed them that the gods were offended by it. Though the gods may have been offended, for nearly 900 years the rusting ruins of the statue were a tourist “must-see.” In 653 AD the forces of the Muslim caliph Muawiyah I overran Rhodes, and the new owners promptly sold it for scrap to Jewish merchants, who used – it is said – 900 camels to haul the mass away. From scrap to scrap.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_CRISTO_REDENTOR_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The largest art deco statue in the world, Cristo Redentor (“Christ the Redeemer”) stands atop Corcovado Mountain 2300 feet above Rio de Janeiro, keeping a watchful eye on the sinners of that city. With arms spread wide to embrace the city sprawling below in spectacular disorder, this statue of Christ stands 98 feet tall, with the arms measuring 92 feet from fingertip to fingertip. It was sculpted by the Frenchman Paul Landowski, and built of reinforced concrete and soapstone. The idea of putting a giant statue of Christ above the city was first proposed by the Catholic priest Pedro Boss; proposed again in 1920 by the “Catholic Circle” of Rio, the group raised the necessary funds from donations, mostly from devout Brazilian Catholics (of course). Construction began in 1922, and the monument opened to the public in October 1931.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_EIFFEL_TOWER_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Named after Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company built the gigantic steel tower to serve as the main entrance for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (world’s fair) in Paris, the Eiffel Tower has come to symbolize the “City of Lights.” (And as garishly illuminated as the tower is at night, this seems fitting.) It was the tallest structure in the world at the time it opened to awestruck crowds, but it was also the subject of considerable controversy and criticism from self-appointed arbitrators of culture. Before it was even built a 300-member committee made up of some of the most prominent French engineers and artists dispatched a petition to the Minister of Works that opened: “We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection … of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower.” Many were also upset that it was going to cost French taxpayers a million dollars – a not inconsiderable sum at the time. Luckily for the Parisian Tourism Board, the protests were ignored and up the Eiffel Tower went.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_ESTADIO_DO_MARACANA_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Officially the Estadio Jornalista Mario Filho – must have been a heck of a sports writer to get a stadium named after him – but better known as the Maracanã, the fútbol stadium is part of a large complex in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. Begun in 1948 AD, after Brazil had won the right to host the FIFA World Cup, it was opened (more-or-less, for construction was not complete) for the first matches in that contest in 1950. Unfortunately, heavily favored Brazil was upset in the final by the team from Uruguay, 2-1, before a crowd of 199,854 rabid fans – making it the world’s largest (and loudest) stadium at the time. Since then the Maracanã has served as host to the Pan-American Games, another World Cup, numerous concerts and cultural events, and thousands of soccer matches. Having been renovated to a smaller capacity (78,838) and more comfortable accommodations (including 292 new toilets), the stadium hosted the Olympics (Summer, obviously) for the first time in 2016.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_FORBIDDEN_CITY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Lying in the center of Beijing, a visit to Gu Gong (the Imperial Palace of China) was forbidden to the common folk without special dispensation from the emperor himself; hence the complex became known across the land as the “Forbidden City” (much like most presidential residences these days). Construction of the walled “city” – liberally sprinkled with ornamental gardens, graceful terraces, restful fountains and lots of utilitarian administrative offices – began in 1408 AD under the guidance of the Yonglu Emperor, third of the Ming dynasty. The complex grew over the centuries, serving as home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing. It grew until it encompassed 9,999 rooms spread over 178 square acres, surrounded by a 170-foot wide moat and 32-foot high walls (just to make sure none of those commoners entered unchecked). At its peak, the Forbidden City was home to ten thousand people, all to serve the needs of one emperor. Now only a few hundred inhabit the sumptuous grounds, to serve as guides and janitors.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_GREAT_LIBRARY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
It is generally assumed that the Royal Library of Alexandria was founded at the beginning of the 3rd Century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II after his father had built the Temple of the Muses on the site. The original collection is attributed to Demetrius Phalereus, a student of Aristotle’s (supposedly the famed philosopher’s own scrolls served as the seed); with the patronage of Ptolemy’s successors, the holdings eventually reached between 400 and 700 thousand papyrus scrolls and various vellum codices. Expansion of the collection became an obsession for some of the rulers; by decree of Ptolemy III, all visitors to the city had to surrender any writings in their possession, which were copied for the Library. Sources differ widely on responsibility for the fiery destruction of the Great Library’s collection of texts; usual suspects listed include Julius Caesar’s troops in 48 BC, Roman Emperor Aurelian c. 270 AD, and others. But it does appear that the last vestiges were burned in 391 at the orders of the Patriarch Theophilus to eradicate pagan influences in Egypt – not the last time Christians would burn books.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_GREAT_LIGHTHOUSE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Great Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the seventeen cities the egotistical young general named after himself), known to the ancients as the Pharos, was reputed to stand between 393 and 450 feet high – making it one of the tallest structures in civilization for many centuries. Begun in 280 BC by Ptolemy Sotor, one of Alexander’s Macedonian generals and successors, on a small island to help guide trade ships into the harbor of the thriving city, the Lighthouse was not completed until 247 at the phenomenal cost of 800 talents. Its light at the top of the massive tower was produced by a furnace reputedly made of solid blocks of limestone, and was visible for one hundred miles. Although badly damaged by three earthquakes between 956 and 1323 AD, it did not topple over – making it the third-longest surviving of the ancient wonders. Finally, the sultan of Egypt quarried the remaining stone (some had fallen into the harbor) to build the Citadel of Qaitbay in 1480 to protect Alexandria against the Ottoman Turks (didn’t work).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_GREAT_ZIMBABWE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
According to one set of legends, Great Zimbabwe was the palace complex of the Queen of Sheba. According to another set, it was where the laborers of King Solomon’s Mines – which were thought nearby by a generation of deluded treasure hunters – relaxed during their time off. In point of boring fact, it was the capital city, eventually covering some 1700 acres with a peak population of around 18 thousand, of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe which arose in 1220 AD and was gone by 1450 AD. Built entirely of stone (quite a feat in the jungle), Great Zimbabwe was soon afterward abandoned and fell into ruin. The earliest known record of the ruins is by the Portuguese officer Vicente Pegado, written in 1531. He makes mention of great walls, made of chiseled stone fitted without mortar. The ruins lie in three groupings: the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure, where the majority of the archaeological artifacts have been found: soapstone figurines, gold beads, copper ingots, bronze spearheads, jeweled pendants and bracelets, and much else. So, maybe those treasure hunters weren’t so deluded after all.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_HAGIA_SOPHIA_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The city of Istanbul (or Constantinople or Byzantium, as one prefers) has been home to many peoples, although best known in its role as capital for the Byzantine and then the Ottoman empires. And it has been home to many faiths, most notably Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Islam respectively. Nothing personifies that personality disorder under one dome so well as the fabulous Hagia Sophia (literally, “holy wisdom”). Built around 532 AD as the Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica, it has served worshipers for almost 1500 years. In 1453 when Constantinople was captured by the Ottomans and renamed, the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque. Ornate and stately, the structure is built of stone and marble, topped by a golden dome measuring 102 feet in diameter, before the Muslim rulers added four minarets. The structure has survived several earthquakes, fires, riots, lootings (such as during the Fourth Crusade), and one massacre (when the elderly and infirm who had taken shelter there were slaughtered by the Ottoman conquerors). Today the Hagia Sophia serves as a museum, and yet remains one of the most striking buildings in civilization.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_HANGING_GARDENS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Hanging Gardens may not have even existed, much less been a “wonder”; no Babylonian source mentions them, and there is no archaeological evidence for them (unlike for other ancient wonders of the world). The primary evidence for the Gardens comes from several Greek and Roman texts – how they were created, why they were created, their size and variety, even how they were watered. According to these, Nebuchadnezzar II constructed the Gardens c. 600 BC for his (obviously spoiled) homesick Median wife Amytis, who missed the green hills of her birth place. The “historical” sources also state that the Gardens were an ascending series of terraces (much like a ziggurat) built of mud bricks and containing all manner of plants. The base was supposedly 400 feet square, and the whole mass rose 75 feet into the very dry air; estimates are that the gardens would have required 8200 gallons of water a day to keep the plants alive in Babylon. If the Gardens did exist, it is assumed these were destroyed sometime during the first century AD.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_HERMITAGE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The core of what is today the famed Hermitage in St. Petersburg encompasses the monumental Winter Palace, residence of the Tsars since 1764 AD when Catherine the Great completed the palace on a scale to reflect the might and power of Imperial Russia. Catherine declared it her “treasure,” and proceeded to fill it with treasures – Renaissance paintings, jeweled and gilded crafts (the likes of Fabergé eggs, for instance), the crown jewels, and other trinkets. After adding several extensions to the palace and some reorganizing, in 1852 Nicholas I opened it to the public. And the Tsars kept adding to the collection. With the February Revolution of 1917, the building briefly housed the Provisional Government, until the Bolsheviks seized power in October and declared it a gift to the proletariat. Now spread across five buildings, the Hermitage is one of the largest museums in the world, with over three million art and historical items in its collection, including the largest gathering of paintings in the world.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_MAHABODHI_TEMPLE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Mahabodhi Temple (or “Great Awakening” Temple) in Bodh Gaya is one of the four sacred sites of the Lord Buddha’s (Siddhartha Gautama) life, and the very spot where he attained Enlightenment. On the western side of the temple is the sacred Bodhi Tree, the very fig tree under which the Buddha was sitting when he did so. Be that as it may, the first Mahabodhi Temple (there have been a couple) was built by the Emperor Ashoka c. 260 BC. The current temple complex – notably the great tower, one of the first brick structures in India – dates from the 5th and 6th centuries AD. A high wall around the temple grounds was added at a later, undocumented, date; the wall encompasses the Bodhi Tree and six other sacred sites of Buddha’s Enlightenment, since he spent seven weeks in seven different spots meditating on his own revelations, as well as numerous Votive stupas. In the 1880's the British Raj undertook a restoration effort; in 1949 control of the site passed to the state government of Bihar. Today, Buddhists from around the world over make pilgrimages to Bodh Gaya as the holiest place of their faith.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_MONT_ST_MICHEL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Perched on a rocky islet between Normandy and Brittany in the midst of sandbanks washed over by ocean tides, Mont St. Michel is a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel Micheal built between the 11th and 16th centuries. Besides St. Aubert's skull, the Mont also was repository for bits of St. Petroc and St. Olaf and other holy relics. The place did have a practical purpose; its high walls, turrets and position made it of strategic worth … and many a French king stationed a small garrison (all that was needed) there. At low tide, it was readily accessible to pilgrims eager to give up a coin or two to be blessed; at high tide, the incoming sea would strand or drown any attacking force. The Mont would remain unconquered throughout the Hundred Years War and beyond. Its position also made it ideal to incarcerate unrepentant traitors and other sinners; Louis XI turned the Mont into a prison, a role it served through the rest of the Ancien Régime. Now, alas, it’s just a tourist attraction.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_ORACLE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Of all the places in ancient Greece where priestesses uttered prognostications, by far the most famous (and cryptic) was the Oracle at Delphi, a shrine to Apollo located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. There a priestess known as the “Pythia” would – for suitable compensation – interpret dreams, commune with the gods while in a trance, and read the signs in the entrails of sacrificed animals (chickens for the cheap, or goats for those willing to pay more). The Oracle began operation as early as 1400 BC, and enjoyed a thriving business until Christianity arrived with the Romans. The greatest structure was the stately temple to Apollo (of course), and it stayed standing until pulled down on orders from Theodosius I in 390 AD. The site remained an active “pagan” center throughout the 4th Century, however, and the Pythian Games (a predecessor to the Olympics today) continued to at least 424 AD.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_OXFORD_UNIVERSITY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The oldest university in the English-speaking world (and, thus, of Merry Ol’ England), instruction has been taking place at Oxford University since c. 1096 AD. It grew from a small institution when, in 1148, Henry II granted it a royal charter and then, in 1167, prohibited British students from attending the University of Paris. Although it was a Royalist center during the English Civil War, having survived that error the university has since taken little part in politics. In the mid-1800s the Oxford curriculum was greatly influenced by the reformed model of German higher education which came with the arrival of scholars such as Pusey, Jowett and Muller. The first women’s college (Lady Margaret Hall) at Oxford University was established in 1878. And in 1974, five previously all-male colleges there admitted women for the first time. Things haven’t been the same since.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_PETRA_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, Petra is a city cut from the red sandstone around Wadi Musa (now part of Jordan) by the Nabataeans – who obviously had a lot of free time – around 400 BC. Mentioned in Egyptian, Greek and Biblical sources, the city would develop into a major caravan center, a vital crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria to the north. Surrounded by mountains riddled with gorges and canyon passages, it was defensible; but it was the ingenious and extensive system of cisterns and reservoirs in the middle of a desert that made it a trade center. At its peak, Petra was home to perhaps 20 thousand inhabitants, and served as the capital of the Nabataean kingdom. That is, until the Romans arrived and annexed it in 106 AD. Struck by a series of earthquakes, as well as Roman taxes, it was essentially abandoned two hundred years after – not to be “discovered” until 1812 by the Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_POTALA_PALACE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Since there wasn’t much level ground in Tibet, with its base set on the southern slope of the Red Hill, the Potala Palace – home to the Dalai Lama (until the fourteenth one fled an uprising in 1959) – sort of grew along the hillside. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, abode of the eleven-headed bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Today, its crimson and white walls and golden roof “shine in glory” … for paying tourists. Lozang Gyatso, the fifth Dalai Lama, began construction of the “modern” palace above Lhasa c. 1645 AD, and moved in four years later. Since then more bits and pieces have been added to the sprawling edifice, notably the Potrang Marpo (“red palace”) and the holy stupa completed in 1694. However, it should be noted that the Potala Palace has only one bathroom, located on the right side of the White Palace Square … although it is said to be the most beautiful restroom on Earth, filled with sunlight and good thoughts.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_PYRAMIDS_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the really big heaps of stone along the Nile were piled up commencing in the late third dynasty and continuing through the sixth (roughly 500 years). The Great Pyramid of Giza that is virtually synonymous with the “glory”  of ancient Egypt went up around 2560 BC to serve as the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu (who is unremarkable for anything else save the length of his reign). It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built by tens of thousands of workers, including skilled masons, and covered with “casing stones” (slabs of polished limestone), the Pyramids of Giza were a testament to Egypt’s power and the natives’ conviction of the afterlife – at least for the elite. To date, some 135 pyramids have been found in what was once the greatest empire in the world.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_RUHR_VALLEY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Since the 1700s, the Ruhrpott (Ruhr Valley) has been dug up – the coal and iron mines there are some of the most productive in the world. Initially the ore was easily accessible by strip mining; after that was exhausted, the German miners dug deeper. By 1850, some 300 mines were in operation in and around the Ruhrpott. And, since it was troublesome to ship all this elsewhere, collieries, blast furnaces, rolling mills and the high chimneys of the Industrial Revolution shaped the skyline. Nor was coal and steel the only things pouring out of the Ruhr; by 1820 hundreds of water-powered mills were producing textiles, lumber and iron bars. Urban centers filled with wage slaves sprawled across the land … until today Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen form one interconnected metropolis. With the recent decline of the coal and iron industries, the Ruhrpott has undergone a cultural transformation, and such edifices as the Zeche Zollverein coal mine complex and the Gasometer Oberhausen have been reborn as historical landmarks, even listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_STONEHENGE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
A circle of fifty-ton slabs of rock, arranged in orientation to the stars and sun, Stonehenge is an observatory and temple in one. Begun in Southern England some 5000 years ago, Stonehenge was concentric circles of stones surrounded by a moat (or “henge”). After the henge was in place, about a thousand years later an inner ring of “bluestones” were set in place, followed by an outer ring of larger, upright “sarsen” stones some 500 years after that. The 80 bluestones, coming in at about four tons each, were transported from a quarry over 240 miles away; the sarsen stones were cut and transported about 20 miles to the site. However done, for whatever purpose, Stonehenge remains a “wondrous” achievement even after a few millennia.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_SYDNEY_OPERA_HOUSE_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The construction of an enormous arts center for Sydney on Bennelong Point had been debated since the 1940s; in 1956 AD the government of New South Wales announced an open-ended competition for the design of something grand to show the world that the city really did have some taste. A Danish architect, Jørn Utzon won with his unique expressionist design, a series of precast concrete “shells,” covered with over a million white- or cream-colored tiles with interior glass curtain walls. So unique was the problematic design (Utzon had paid no heed to structural engineering) that it took sixteen years to build at a cost ten times more than estimated. But, once completed and officially dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II in October 1973, it has since become the iconic symbol of the one-time penal colony. From its 2,679-seat grand Concert Hall to the intimate 210-seat Utzon Room, the Opera House brings performances of all sorts down under.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_TERRACOTTA_ARMY_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
Since his efforts at immortality didn’t bear fruit, when it came time for Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of Qin, to be interred, he made sure that it was done with style as befitted his greatness. Never lacking in hubris, the emperor had ordered work to begin on his mausoleum in 246 BC, when he was but 13 years old and just ascended to the throne. According to the Chinese geographer Li Daoyuan, writing six centuries after, Mount Li was selected for the site because of its auspicious geology, with its southern face rich in jade and its northern slopes in gold. In the Records of the Grand Historian (by one Sima Qian), it is claimed some 700 thousand laborers would be employed in digging and outfitting the tomb and filling it with 8000 soldiers, 130 chariots with horses, and 150 mounted cavalry – all made from clay-based ceramic – and armed with functioning weapons. Arranged in military formation. Hence, the “Terracotta Army.” Undisturbed until 1974, when discovered by peasants attempting to dig a well. So much for hubris.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_PEDIA_WONDERS_PAGE_BUILDING_VENETIAN_ARSENAL_CHAPTER_HISTORY_PARA_1
Text:
The Arsenal of Venice, begun about 1104 AD, was eventually a sprawling complex of shipyards, armories, and weapons shops. Built to serve the needs of the Venetian Navy upon which the Republic relied for both its independence and its lucrative sea trade routes, it was termed “the most important example of a large production complex with a centralized structure of the pre-industrial” civilization. Different areas of the Arsenal produced a prefabricated ship part, armaments, rope, sails and everything needed to put together a warship in a single day if necessity demanded. A state-owned forest in the Montello hills provided the timber and tar. The Porto Magna (“great gate”) to the Arsenal was added c. 1460, from a design by the artist Jacopo Bellini, the first Classical Revival structure built in Venice; two stone lions, captured in Greece, were added to the entrance in 1687 to awe visitors. The Arsenal also, when not launching warships to beat down Venice’s challengers in the Mediterranean, produced most of the Venetian merchant ships bringing wealth back to the city-state … to build more ships.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COLDWAR_RULESET_DESCRIPTION
Text:
The Cold War runs hot in this combat-based scenario set in the Atomic Era. Lasts 50 Turns.[NEWLINE]Victory Conditions[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]Lord of the Armageddon: If any city center is nuked, nuke the most city centers by the turn limit.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]Tank Banker: If no city centers are nuked, have the most tanks by the turn limit.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]Proxy War: Capture 3 city-states.[NEWLINE]Gameplay Changes[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]Units and nuclear devices are cheaper to build and maintain. They don't require strategic resources.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]Extended ranges for WMD Strikes and Bombers.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]Builders have more charges for faster city development.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]The map starts revealed.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]No Tribal Villages.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]No Barbarians.[NEWLINE][ICON_Bullet]War Weariness is disabled.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_ARMAGEDDON_VICTORY_REQUIRES_PLAYER_HAS_MOST_WMD_DIRECT_CITY_HITS_PROGRESS
Text:
City Centers Nuked {NukedCityCenters} {NukeCountStatusIcon}[NEWLINE]Any City Center Nuked {NukeWarStatusIcon}


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_VICTORY_TANKBANKER_REQUIRES_PLAYER_HAS_MOST_TANKS_PROGRESS
Text:
Tanks Possessed {NumPromotionClass} {PromotionStatusIcon}[NEWLINE]No City Centers Nuked {NoNukeWarStatusIcon}


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_YOU_KILLED_ENEMY_UNIT
Text:
While defending, your {2_UnitName} ({5_Num} damage) killed {LOC_GRAMMAR_A_AN << {3_EnemyAdjective}} {4_EnemyUnitName}!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_YOU_KILLED_ENEMY_UNIT_DEFENDING_CITY
Text:
While defending, your City of {2_CityName} ({5_Num} damage) killed {LOC_GRAMMAR_A_AN << {3_EnemyAdjective}} {4_EnemyUnitName}!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_YOUR_UNIT_WITHDREW_ANTI_AIR
Text:
Your attacking {2_UnitName} ({3_Num} damage) was damaged by {LOC_GRAMMAR_A_AN << {4_EnemyAdjective}} {5_EnemyUnitName}!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_YOUR_UNIT_WITHDREW_INTERCEPTED
Text:
Your attacking {2_UnitName} ({3_Num} damage) was intercepted by {LOC_GRAMMAR_A_AN << {4_EnemyAdjective}} {5_EnemyUnitName} ({6_Num} damage)!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_YOUR_UNIT_DIED_INTERCEPTING
Text:
While intercepting, your {2_UnitName} was destroyed by {LOC_GRAMMAR_A_AN << {4_EnemyAdjective}} {5_EnemyUnitName} ({6_Num} damage)!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_YOUR_UNIT_DIED_DEFENDING
Text:
While defending, your {2_UnitName} was destroyed by {LOC_GRAMMAR_A_AN << {3_EnemyAdjective}} {4_EnemyUnitName} ({5_Num} damage)!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_ENEMY_WMD_FAILED_HIGH_DAMAGE
Text:
You successfully stopped {LOC_GRAMMAR_A_AN << {1_EnemyAdjective}} {2_EnemyUnitName} WMD attack by causing {3_Num} damage!


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_COMBAT_YOUR_DISTRICT_DEFENSE_WAS_ATTACKED_BY_ENEMY
Text:
Your {1_Name} was attacked by an enemy {2_EnUName} ({3_Num} {2_Name} damage, {4_Num} defense damage)


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_LIBERATE_EXPLANATION
Text:
Liberating a city will return it to one of their previous owners, possibly bringing that civilization back into the game.[NEWLINE][NEWLINE]{1_WarmongerInfo}


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_LIBERATE_WARMONGER_EXPLANATION
Text:
Liberating a city provides a [COLOR_MEDIUM_GREEN]SEVERE REDUCTION[ENDCOLOR] to previously earned warmonger penalties.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_KEEP_EXPLANATION
Text:
Keep this city in your empire for now.  It will be a less productive, occupied city until its post-war ownership is discussed at the peace table.[NEWLINE][NEWLINE]{1_WarmongerInfo}


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_KEEP_WARMONGER_EXPLANATION
Text:
Warmonger penalty for keeping this city now is: {1_WarmongerLevel}[NEWLINE][NEWLINE]Penalty will be either refunded or doubled at the end of the war depending on whether or not you keep the city.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_KEEP_LAST_CITY_EXPLANATION
Text:
Warmonger penalty for keeping a player's final city is based on the Surprise War penalty for this era. This value is [COLOR_RED]DOUBLED[ENDCOLOR] if capturing this city eliminates a major civilization (not a city state).


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_RAZE_EXPLANATION
Text:
Raze city clearing it and all its districts and buildings from the map. This option must be chosen the turn the city is conquered.[NEWLINE][NEWLINE]{1_WarmongerInfo}


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_RAZE_WARMONGER_EXPLANATION
Text:
[COLOR_RED]Razing a city may give you a serious Warmonger penalty![ENDCOLOR] [NEWLINE][NEWLINE]Warmonger penalty for razing this city now is: {1_WarmongerLevel}


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_RAZE_LAST_CITY_EXPLANATION
Text:
Warmonger penalty is [COLOR_RED]TRIPLE[ENDCOLOR] the Formal War penalty for this era when you raze a player's final city.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_RAZE_CITY_RAZE_DISABLED_EXPLANATION
Text:
You cannot raze a major civilization's original capital or a city that you or an ally founded or owned at the start of this war.


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_CREDITS
Text:
[3]CREDITS



[2]Firaxis Games
[1]Sid Meier’s Civilization VI




[2]TEAM LEADERSHIP
[3]Lead Designer
[4]Ed Beach

[3]Lead Engineer
[4]Ken Grey

[3]Art Director
[4]Brian Busatti

[3]DLC Art Director
[4]Jason Johnson

[3]Senior Producer
[4]Dennis Shirk

[3]DLC Senior Producer
[4]Andrew Frederiksen

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]DESIGN TEAM

[3]Lead Designer
[4]Ed Beach

[3]Designer/Programmers
[4]Matthew Beach
[4]Brian Feldges
[4]Andrew Garrett
[4]Anton Strenger

[3]Lead AI Engineer
[4]Andrew Garrett

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]PRODUCTION TEAM

[3]Senior Producer
[4]Dennis Shirk

[3]DLC Senior Producer
[4]Andrew Frederiksen

[3]Associate Producer
[4]Sarah Darney

[3]Additional Production
[4]Amy Pickens, Technical Animation Group
[4]Stuart E. Zissu, Systems and IHV Support

[3]Writers
[4]Alexander Horn
[4]Rex Martin
[4]Zach Bush

[3]Additional Writing
[4]Steffen Drees
[4]Angelica Fuchs
[4]Carlton Harrison
[4]Dominic "Bull" Mancuso
[4]Timothy McCracken
[4]Peter Murray
[4]Maurice Suckling
[4]Charles Webb
[4]Scott Wittbecker

[3]Special Thanks
[4]Andrew Alan Johnson

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]PROGRAMMING TEAM

[3]Lead Engineer
[4]Ken Grey

[3]Gameplay Engineers
[4]Eric Jordan
[4]Adam Sherburne
[4]Scott Spanburg

[3]Additional Gameplay Engineers
[4]Jeff Hiebert, Ghostpunch
[4]Olex Lozitskiy, Ghostpunch

[3]Lead Systems Engineer
[4]Greg Osefo

[3]Systems Engineers
[4]Ian Schmidt
[4]Adam Sherburne

[3]Lead Graphics Engineer
[4]Josh Barczak

[3]Graphics Engineers
[4]Navjot Garg
[4]Arthur Gould
[4]Kevin Jones
[4]John Kloetzli
[4]Theodore Maselko
[4]David Raabe
[4]Jeremy Shopf
[4]Kiran Sudhakara
[4]Marek Vojtko

[3]Lead Database/Modding Engineer
[4]Shaun Seckman

[3]Lead Interface Engineer
[4]Tronster

[3]Interface Engineers
[4]Samuel Batista
[4]Whitney Bell
[4]Joe Cortese

[3]Additional Interface Engineers
[4]Keaton VanAuken, Ghostpunch

[3]Lead Multiplayer Engineer
[4]Bradley Olson

[3]Multiplayer Engineers
[4]Todd Smith

[3]Lead Tools Engineer
[4]Brian Whitman

[3]Tools Engineers
[4]David Gurley

[3]Additional UI and Gameplay Support

[3]Blind Squirrel Games
[4]Chris Wade – Gameplay Engineer
[4]Leo Simkin – Gameplay Engineer
[4]David Baker – Executive Producer
[4]Amanda Khoury – Associate Producer 

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]ART TEAM

[3]Art Director
[4]Brian Busatti

[3]DLC Art Director
[4]Jason Johnson

[3]Lead Interface Designer
[4]Whitney Bell

[3]DLC Lead Interface Designer
[4]David Cory

[3]Interface Artists
[4]Rob Sugama

[3]Lead Animator
[4]Hector Antunez

[3]DLC Lead Animator
[4]Grant Chang

[3]Animators
[4]Rachel Anchors
[4]Aaron Andersen
[4]Lou Ferina
[4]Alex Kim
[4]Greg Marlow
[4]Dennis Moellers
[4]Daniel Perry
[4]David Senita
[4]Justin Thomas
[4]Bryan Twomey

[3]Additional Animators
[4]Jason Johnson

[3]Technical Animation Group
[4]Brian Evans
[4]John Stewart

[3]Additional Technical Animation
[4]Savannah Myers

[3]Lead Character Artist
[4]Matthew Kean

[3]Lead Unit Modeling
[4]David Jones

[3]Character and Unit Modelers
[4]John Fitzgerald
[4]Ryan Jackson
[4]David Jones
[4]Michael Unkrich

[3]Additional Unit Modelers
[4]Benjamin McArdle
[4]Gameshastra Solutions Private Limited

[3]Lead Environment Artist
[4]Jason Johnson

[3]Environment Artists
[4]Clark Coots

[3]Lead Structure Modeler
[4]Matthew Quickel

[3]Structure Modelers
[4]Jerome Atherholt
[4]Michael Bates
[4]Todd Bergantz
[4]Andrew Clark
[4]Clark Coots
[4]Tommy Cox
[4]Alex Llivicura
[4]Matt McAuliffe
[4]Rambo Siu

[3]Additional Structure Modelers
[4]John Dunford

[3]Lead Visual Effects Artist
[4]Troy Adam

[3]Visual Effects Artists
[4]Michael Bazzell
[4]Rick Menkhaus

[3]Additional Visual Effects Artists
[4]Todd Bilger

[3]Lead Concept Artist
[4]Sang Han

[3]DLC Lead Concept Artist
[4]Kat Berkley

[3]Concept Artists
[4]Taylor Fischer
[4]Sam Gauss
[4]Michael Tassie
[4]Ryan Andrade
[4]Aaron Whitehead

[3]Additional Concept Artists
[4]Andrew Bosley
[4]Eric Ehoff
[4]Jeff Paulsrud
[4]Colleen Peck

[3]Motion Graphics Designer
[4]Steve Ogden

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]AUDIO

[3]Lead Audio Designer
[4]Roland Rizzo

[3]Associate Lead Audio Designer
[4]Griffin Cohen

[3]Sound Designers
[4]Griffin Cohen
[4]Dan Costello
[4]Roland Rizzo
[4]Christopher D'Ambrosio
[4]Dan Price

[3]In-Game Music
[4]Geoff Knorr
[4]Roland Rizzo
[4]Tim Wynn

[3]Opening Cinematic and Main Menu Music
[4]Christopher Tin

[3]End Game Cinematic Music
[4]Geoff Knorr
[4]Christopher Tin

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Audio Programmer
[4]Ian Schmidt

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Performers

[3]Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra
[4]Orchestra conducted by Andy Brick
[4]Rita Cepurcenko, Concertmistress
[4]Kühn Mixed Choir
[4]Marek Vorlícek, Choir Conductor
[4]Jan Holzner, Orchestra and Choir Recording Engineer
[4]Petr Pycha, Orchestra Contractor
[4]Tomás Kirschner, Orchestra Librarian
[4]Geoff Knorr, Orchestrator
[4]Chris Whittaker, Orchestral Parts Preparation
[4]Orchestra Recorded at Smecky Music Studios
[4]Niccolo Seligmann, Bass Viol, Vielle, Kemençe
[4]Deepak Ram, Bansuri
[4]Bing Xia, Guzheng
[4]Chakib Hilali, Oud, Ney, Kawala
[4]Kylie Hilali, Qanun
[4]Brad Kolodner, Banjo
[4]Patrick McAvinue, Fiddle
[4]Kahil Nayton, Cavaquinho
[4]Cesar Garabini, 7-string guitar
[4]Sissel Morken Gullord, Norwegian Bukkehorn
[4]Andrei Saveliev, Balalaika
[4]Mathew Poovan, Sitar
[4]Souvik Ghosh, Tabla
[4]Chris Reber, Mandolin
[4]Dave Hadley, Dobro
[4]Benjamin Beirs, Classical Guitar
[4]Sandro Freidrich, Duduk, Hotchiku, Recorder, Bombarde, Pivava, Tenor Pivana, Schwegel, Occorsoflute,
[4]Kaval, Ciaramella, Bass Recorder, Bena, Erdklangfloete, Ocarina, Floyera, Doucaine, Tin Whistle
[4]Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin, Shakuhachi
[4]Roland Rizzo, South American Flutes
[4]Geoff Knorr, 9-String Golden Lyre of Erato
[4]Jon Anders Narum, Norwegian Bukkenhorn Recording Engineer

[3]Kongolese Instrumental Recording by Regulus Sound Productions (PTY) LTD – South Africa
[4]Caleb Vaughn-Jones, Producer, Recording Engineer, double bass, nyunganyunga, mbira
[4]Simphiwe Funde, Production assistant, African instruments
[4]Brent Kennedy, Production assistant and language transcriber
[4]Joe Van Der Linden, guitar
[4]Massi Bambino, vocals and Kongolese music researcher
[4]Sebastian Sala, vocals and Kongolese music researcher
[4]Candice Bowkers, Recording Engineer

[3]Additional Vocals
[4]Kyle du Preez, African vocals

[3]Mixing and Mastering
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Cinematic and Main Menu Score 
[4]Main Menu: "Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight)"
[4]Composed by Christopher Tin
[4]Lyrics by Leonardo da Vinci, adapted by Chiara Cortez
[4]Performed by Angel City Chorale, Cappella SF and the Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra
[4]Mixed by Jason Schweitzer
[4]Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Skywalker Sound, The Bridge and MRTV Studio M1
[4]Recording Engineers: Andrew Dudman, Leslie Ann Jones, Milton Gutierrez and Giorgi Hristovski

[4]Opening Movie: "A New Course"
[4]Composed by Christopher Tin
[4]Lyrics by Leonardo da Vinci, adapted by Chiara Cortez
[4]Performed by Cappella SF and the Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra
[4]Mixed by Leslie Ann Jones
[4]Recorded at Skywalker Sound, The Bridge, and MRTV Studio M1
[4]Recording Engineers: Leslie Ann Jones, Milton Gutierrez and Giorgi Hristovski

[4]Additional Arrangements by Alex Williamson
[4]Additional Orchestrations by Jerome Leroy
 
[3]Angel City Chorale
[4]Music Director: Sue Fink
 
[3]Cappella SF
[4]Music Director: Ragnar Bohlin
 
[3]Orchestra: Macedonian Symphonic Orchestra
[4]F.A.M.E.'S. Project - Skopje
[4]Conductor : Oleg Kondratenko
[4]Recording Engineer : Giorgi Hristovski
[4]Pro Tools Operator : Atanas Babaleski
[4]Stage Manager : Riste Trajkovski
[4]Mixed by Leslie Ann Jones at Skywalker Sound
[4]Assistant Mix Engineer: Dann Thompson
[4]Pro Tools Editor: Andre Zweers
 
[4]Additional Arrangements by Alex Williamson
[4]Additional Orchestrations by Jerome Leroy

[3]Special Thanks
[4]Radio Active Productions Publishing Studio 
[4]Peabody Institute Recording Arts and Sciences

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]SIGNAL SPACE
[3]Creative Director
[4]Jose Aguirre

[3]Researcher
[4]Inga Knoth

[3]Audio Editor 
[4]Valentino Lercher

[3]Audio Editor 
[4]Matthew Knutson

[3]Project Manager 
[4]Christopher Fox

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]SOLID AIR 

[3]VO Editors
[4]Transatlantic Audio/Dante Fazio
[4]Austin Krier
[4]Garrett Montgomery M.P.S.E
[4]Stephen Selvaggio

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]QUALITY ASSURANCE

[3]QA Supervisor
[4]Timothy McCracken

[3]QA Lead
[4]Carlton Harrison

[3]Testers
[4]Daron Carlock 
[4]Steffen Drees
[4]Carlton Harrison
[4]Jen Kraft
[4]Dominic “Bull” Mancuso
[4]Kelsey Orem

[3]Additional Testing
[4]Albert Briggs
[4]Bennett Kauffman
[4]Santiago Loane
[4]Joseph Walker
[4]Chloe Wright

[3]Testing Interns
[4]Steven Eisner
[4]James Hopkins
[4]Sam McNear

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]FIRAXIS LIVE TEAM

[3]Producer
[4]Clint McCaul

[3]Senior Network Programmer
[4]Michael Springer

[3]Senior Online Services Engineer
[4]Robert Dye

[3]Telemetry Programmer
[4]Timothy Talley

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]FIRAXIS MANAGEMENT

[3]CEO / President
[4]Steve Martin

[3]Creative Director
[4]Sid Meier

[3]Studio Art Director
[4]Arne Schmidt

[3]Director of Software Development
[4]Steve Meyer

[3]Director of Gameplay Development
[4]Barry Caudill

[3]Executive Producer
[4]Kelley Gilmore

[3]Director of Marketing
[4]Lindsey Riehl

[3]Marketing Associate
[4]Peter Murray

[3]Community Manager
[4]Kevin Schultz

[3]Human Resources Director
[4]Shawn Kohn

[3]Office Manager
[4]Donna Milesky

[3]IT Manager
[4]Josh Scanlan

[3]IT Technician
[4]Matt Baros
[4]David McFall

[3]Special Projects
[4]Susan Meier

[3]Special Thanks
[4]Joanne Miller
[4]Beth Petrovich

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]MODDING CONTRIBUTIONS

[3]UI
[4]Bradd Szonye - Map Tacks

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]FRANKENSTEIN TEST GROUP
[4]Camikaze
[4]Sam "SamBC" Barnett-Cormack
[4]David "Browd" Brown
[4]Gloria "Nolan" Carson
[4]Sean "Gorbles" Hickman
[4]MadDjinn
[4]Joel "colonelmustard" Myers
[4]Adam "Pouakai" Partridge
[4]Daniel "DanQ" Quick
[4]Rob Riley
[4]Hannah "Codex" Schofield
[4]Elliot "Ekmek" Schroeder
[4]Anthony "Ztaesek" Seekatz
[4]Peter "Maniac" Steenbeke
[4]Daniels "Solver" Umanovskis
[4]Stephen "WarningU2" Warner
[4]Frithjof Nikolai Wilborn
[4]Onno "donald23" Zaal

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]VENDOR SUPPORT

[3]AMD
[4]Cristian Cutocheras
[4]Raul Aguaviva
[4]Josh Salem

[3]NVidia
[4]Timofey Cheblokov
[4]Alex Dunn
[4]Amanpreet Grewal

[3]Intel
[4]Raja Bala
[4]Chris Seitz

[3]Quixel
[4]Teddy Bergsman
[4]Eric Ramberg

[3]Wwise
[4]Martin Dufour
[4]Adrien Lavoie

[3]Fork
[4]Noor Khawaja

[3]Valve
[4]Justin York

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]PRODUCTION BABIES
[4]Alan
[4]Dominic
[4]Eleanor
[4]Graham
[4]Gwendolyn and MacArthur
[4]Ian
[4]Leah
[4]Luca
[4]Owen
[4]Owen

[4]To all of our families and loved ones! Thank you for your patience and support!

[4]Published by 2K
[4]2K is a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K PUBLISHING

[3]President
[4]Christoph Hartmann

[3]C.O.O.
[4]David Ismailer

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

[3]VP, Product Development
[4]John Chowanec
[3]Director of Product Development
[4]Melissa Miller

[3]Sr. Producer 
[4]Garrett Bittner

[3]Producer 
[4]Joe Faulstick

[3]Associate Producers 
[4]Andrew Dutra
[4]Meghan Lee

[3]Production Assistants 
[4]Ross Marabella
[4]Shelby Martin

[3]Digital Release Manager
[4]Tom Drake

[3]Digital Release Assistant
[4]Myles Murphy

[3]Additional Production Support
[4]Tiffany Nagano

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

[3]VP, Creative Development
[4]Josh Atkins

[3]Design Directors 
[4]Jonathan Pelling
[4]Francois Giuntini

[3]Art Director
[4]Robert Clarke

[3]Sr. Director, Creative Production 
[4]Jack Scalici

[3]Director, Creative Production 
[4]Chad Rocco

[3]Sr. Manager, Creative Production
[4]Josh Orellana

[3]Creative Production Coordinator
[4]William Gale

[3]Creative Production Assistants
[4]Cathy Neeley
[4]Megan Rohr

[3]Media Producer
[4]Mike Read

[3]Developer Support Team – Visual Effects Lead 
[4]Stephen Babb

[3]Developer Support Team – Animation Lead 
[4]PJ Leffelman

[3]Developer Support Team – Modeling Lead 
[4]Peter Turner

[3]Gameplay Capture Lead
[4]Homer Rabara

[3]Gameplay Capture Team
[4]Luke McCarthy
[4]Dana Koerlin

[3]Director of Research and Planning
[4]Mike Salmon

[3]Sr. Market Researcher
[4]David Rees

[3]User Testing Manager
[4]Francesca Reyes

[3]User Researcher
[4]Jonathan Bonillas

[3]User Test Assistant
[4]Julian O’Neal

[3]Motion Capture Supervisor  
[4]David Washburn  

[3]Motion Capture Stage Manager
[4]Anthony Tominia  

[3]Motion Capture Stage Technicians 
[4]Jen Antonio
[4]Emma Castles
[4]Jeremy Schichtel
[4]Alexandra Grant
[4]Christopher Barton

[3]Motion Capture Production Manager
[4]Charles Ghislandi

[3]Motion Capture Specialists 
[4]Ryan Girard
[4]Michelle Hill
[4]Jose Gutierrez  
[4]Gil Espanto  
[4]Jeremy Wages

[3]Motion Capture Pipeline Engineer
[4]Charles “Auggie” Harris III

[3]Motion Capture Media Supervisor
[4]J. Mateo Baker 

[3]Motion Capture Audio Assistant
[4]Andrew Hanson

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K CORE TECH

[3]VP, Technology
[4]Mark James

[3]Director of Engineering
[4]David R. Sullivan

[3]Operations Manager, Core Tech
[4]Peter Driscoll

[3]Sr. Online Architect
[4]Louis Ewens

[3]Lead Technical Artist
[4]Jonathan Tilden

[3]Principal Technical Artist
[4]Kris DeMartini

[3]Senior Software Engineer
[4]Mitchell Fisher

[3]Software Engineer
[4]Jack Lui
[4]Jason Howard

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K Account TEAM 

[3]Lead Software Engineer
[4]Adam Lupinacci

[3]Producer
[4]Jason Johnson

[3]Jr. Technical Producer
[4]Nick Silva

[3]Sr. Software Engineers 
[4]Alberto Covarrubias
[4]Dale Russell
[4]Robin Lavallee
[4]Sky Schulz
[4]Scott Barrett

[3]Sr. Dev Ops Engineer
[4]Matthew Rich

[3]Jr. Engineers
[4]Sourav Dey
[4]Taylor Owen-Millner

[3]QA Manager
[4]Ian Moore

[3]Sr. QA Tester
[4]Greg Vargas

[3]QA Testers 
[4]Mackenzie Hume
[4]Parisa Mirshah

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K MARKETING 

[3]SVP, Marketing
[4]Sarah Anderson

[3]VP, Marketing
[4]Matt Gorman

[3]VP, International Marketing
[4]Matthias Wehner

[3]Director of Marketing, North America 
[4]Kelly Miller

[3]Director, Marketing 
[4]Matt Knoles

[3]Product Manager 
[4]Jenny Tam

[3]VP of Communications, The Americas
[4]Ryan Jones

[3]Sr. Communications Manager 
[4]Richie Churchill

[3]Communications Coordinator
[4]Erica Hebert

[3]Sr. Manager, Community Content 
[4]Darren Gladstone

[3]Community and Social Media Managers 
[4]David Hinkle

[3]Community Associate
[4]Joseph Bustos

[3]International Project Manager 
[4]Ben Kvalo

[3]Creative Director, Marketing
[4]Gabe Abarcar

[3]Sr. Director, Marketing Production
[4]Jackie Truong

[3]Marketing Production Manager
[4]Ham Nguyen

[3]Marketing Production Assistant
[4]Nelson Chao

[3]Sr. Graphic Designer
[4]Christopher Maas

[3]Project Manager
[4]Heidi Oas

[3]Director, Video Production
[4]Kenny Crosbie

[3]Video Editor & Motion Graphics Designers
[4]Michael Regelean
[4]Eric Neff

[3]Video Editor
[4]Peter Koeppen

[3]Associate Video Editors
[4]Doug Tyler 
[4]Nick Pylvanainen

[3]Web Director
[4]Nate Schaumberg

[3]Sr. Web Designer
[4]Keith Echevarria

[3]Sr. Web Developer
[4]Alex Beuscher

[3]Web Developer
[4]Gryphon Meyers

[3]Web Producer
[4]Tiffany Nelson

[3]Channel Marketing Managers
[4]Anna Nguyen
[4]Marc McCurdy

[3]Partner Marketing Specialist
[4]Kelsie Lahti

[3]Sr. Director of Events
[4]Lesley Zinn Abarcar

[3]Events Manager
[4]David Iskra

[3]Event Tech Manager 
[4]Mario Higareda

[3]Director, Customer Service
[4]Ima Somers

[3]Customer Service Manager
[4]David Eggers

[3]Knowledge Base Coordinator
[4]Mike Thompson

[3]Customer Service Coordinator
[4]Jamie Neves

[3]Customer Service Lead
[4]Crystal Pittman

[3]Senior Customer Service Associates
[4]Alicia Nielsen
[4]Ryosuke Kurosawa

[3]Director, Partnerships & Licensing
[4]Jessica Hopp

[3]Partnerships & Licensing Manager
[4]Ryan Ayalde
[4]Greg Brownstein

[3]Partnership & Licensing Associate Manager
[4]Ashley Landry

[3]Marketing Project Specialist
[4]Kenya Sancristobal

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K OPERATIONS

[3]SVP, Senior Counsel
[4]Peter Welch

[3]Counsels
[4]Justyn Sanderford
[4]Aaron Epstein

[3]VP, Publishing Operations
[4]Steve Lux

[3]Director of Label Operations
[4]Rachel DiPaola 

[3]Director of Operations
[4]Dorian Rehfield

[3]Director of Analytics
[4]Mehmet Turan

[3]Sr. Data Analyst
[4]Adam Dobrin

[3]Sr. Analysts
[4]Tuomo Nikulainen
[4]Kyle Bishop

[3]Partner Marketing Manager
[4]Dawn Earp

[3]Licensing & Operations Specialist
[4]Xenia Mul

[3]Operations Coordinator
[4]Aaron Hiscox

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K IT

[3]Sr. Director, 2K IT
[4]Rob Roudebush

[3]Sr. IT Manager
[4]Bob Jones

[3]Sr. Network Manager 
[4]Russell Mains

[3]Sr. Systems Engineer
[4]Jon Heysek

[3]Security Systems Engineer
[4]Lee Ryan

[3]Network Engineer
[4]Don Claybrook

[3]Systems Administrator
[4]Fernando Ramirez
[4]Tareq Abbassi
[4]Scott Alexander
[4]Davis Krieghoff

[3]IT Analyst
[4]Michael Caccia

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K ONLINE OPERATIONS  

[3]Director, Online Operations
[4]Tim Holman

[3]Mobile Marketing Manager
[4]David Hoffman

[3]Associate Mobile Marketing Manager
[4]Ramon Aranda

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K QUALITY ASSURANCE 

[3]SVP of Quality Assurance & Submissions
[4]Alex Plachowski

[3]Test Manager
[4]Doug Rothman

[3]Submission Manager
[4]Scott Sanford

[3]Project Lead
[4]Jason Kolesa

[3]Associate Lead
[4]Alexander Coffin
[4]Joshua Vance

[3]Support Leads
[4]Chris Adams
[4]Nathan Bell

[3]Senior Testers
[4]Kayla Mager
[4]Raynard Moreno
[4]Brian Reiss
[4]Jake Merryman
[4]Keith Rische
[4]Summer Breeze
[4]Todd White

[3]Testers 
[4]Anthony Garland
[4]Alex Buckner
[4]Brandon Peterson
[4]Bryan Fritz
[4]Bryant Leos
[4]Bryce Fernandez
[4]Demetri Ghaeni
[4]Douglas Huth
[4]Douglas Reilly
[4]Ian Bennett
[4]James Schindler
[4]Jason Smith
[4]Jorge Segarra
[4]Kelsey Sissons
[4]Kiwawn Pearson
[4]Kristian Garcia
[4]Kyle Kraemer
[4]Kyle Lucero
[4]Mason Gagliardo
[4]Matthew Finck
[4]Michael Galo
[4]Michelle Foley
[4]Miguel Garcia
[4]Monique Davis
[4]Natasha Francois
[4]Nicholas Giebel
[4]Nick Bigler
[4]Preston Chapin-Soriano
[4]Richard Pugh
[4]Robb Bryant
[4]Sacha Moctezuma
[4]Sampson Brier
[4]Seth Kent
[4]Shaylea Gallagher
[4]Steven Danner
[4]Tiffany Chung
[4]Vanessa Derhousoff
[4]Victoria Cormier
[4]Wenceslao Concina
[4]Wesley Bolin
[4]Zachary Little

[3]IT Manager 
[4]Chris Jones

[3]2K Las Vegas IT
[4]Kris Jolly
[4]Juan Corral
[4]Cameron Steed
[4]Travis Allen
 
[3]Special Thanks
[4]Alexandria Belk
[4]Ashley Fountaine
[4]Candice Javellonar
[4]David Barksdale
[4]Ian Moore
[4]Jazmine Sarmiento
[4]Jeremy Ford
[4]Jeremy Richards
[4]Joe Bettis
[4]Leslie Cullum
[4]Louis Napolitano
[4]Rachel McGrew

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING

[3]VP Publishing, Operations
[4]Murray Pannell

[3]Director, International Marketing and Communications
[4]Jon Rooke

[3]Head of International Product Marketing
[4]David Halse

[3]Senior International Communications Manager
[4]Wouter van Vugt

[3]International Territory Manager
[4]Warner Guinée

[3]2K International Community & Social Manager 
[4]Melaine Brou

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K INTERNATIONAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

[3]International Producers 
[4]Sajjad Majid

[3]Head of Creative Services and Localisation
[4]Nathalie Mathews

[3]Lead Project Manager
[4]Emma Lepeut

[3]Sr. Design Manager 
[4]Tom Baker

[3]External Localization Teams 
[4]Around the Word
[4]Effective Media GmbH
[4]Synthesis Iberia
[4]Synthesis International srl
[4]QLOC S.A.

[4]Localization tools and support provided by XLOC Inc.

[3]Localization Special Thanks
[4]Adam Rycki, Adriano Dezulian, Aleksandr Lavrenov, Aleksandr Skakovsky,
[4]Aleksandr Sukhanov, Altieres Rohr, Andrea Della Calce Maucieri, Andrea Peruzzotti,
[4]Ania Wojciechowska, Anna Matsutskaya, Chiara Caccivio, Claudia Rampiconi,
[4]Damaris Reinke, Dashima Zhigzhitova, Elías Pastoriza, Estrella Del Campo,
[4]Floriana Grasso, Francesca Tretto, Gabriel Perez-Ayala, Gema Solís, Jose C. Cabezas,
[4]Katja Kämper, Kira Nepochatova, Laura Bellintani, Maciej Polak, Marie Lorbach,
[4]Marina Rossieva, Mariya Yunger, Massimiliano Chierici, Mike Kolbasnikov,
[4]Monique Paula Pereira, Natalia Kalinina, Nazar Orlov, Oleg Perfilyev, Pablo Trenado,
[4]Paula Ianelli G. Luiz, Paulina Golanowska, Paweł Oleszczuk, Piotr Goździk, Roman Firsov,
[4]Salvador Tintore, Stefano Gaburri, Thales Ferreira, Vladislav Lebedinskiy, Yuliana Brezhneva

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K INTERNATIONAL QUALITY ASSURANCE

[3]Localization QA Manager
[4]Jose Minana

[3]Mastering Engineer
[4]Wayne Boyce

[3]Mastering Technician
[4]Alan Vincent

[3]Localization QA Senior Lead
[4]Oscar Pereira

[3]Localization QA Project Lead
[4]Jose Olivares

[3]Localization QA Leads
[4]Alba Loureiro
[4]Elmar Schubert
[4]Florian Genthon

[3]Associate Localization Lead
[4]Cristina La Mura

[3]Senior Localization QA Technicians 
[4]Christopher Funke
[4]Enrico Sette
[4]Harald Raschen
[4]Johanna Cohen
[4]Sergio Accettura

[3]Localization QA Technicians 
[4]Clement Mosca
[4]Daniel Im
[4]David Sung
[4]Dimitri Gerard
[4]Ernesto Rodriguez-Cruz
[4]Etienne Dumont
[4]Gabriel Uriarte
[4]Gian Marco Romano
[4]Gulnara Bixby
[4]Iris Loison
[4]Javier Vidal
[4]Julio Calle Arpon
[4]Luca Magni
[4]Manuel Aguayo
[4]Martin Schücker
[4]Matteo Lanteri
[4]Namer Merli
[4]Nicolas Bonin
[4]Noriko Staton
[4]Pablo Menéndez
[4]Patricia Ramón
[4]Roland Habersack 
[4]Samuel França
[4]Seon Hee C. Anderson
[4]Shawn Williams-Brown
[4]Sherif Mahdy Farrag
[4]Stefan Rossi
[4]Stefanie Schwamberger
[4]Timothy Cooper
[4]Toni López
[4]Yury Fesechka
[4]Benny Johnson 
[4]Tristan Breeden

[3]Design Team
[4]James Quinlan

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K INTERNATIONAL TERRITORY MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS 
[4]Agnès Rosique 
[4]Alan Moore 
[4]Aaron Cooper
[4]Belinda Crowe
[4]Ben Seccombe 
[4]Carlo Volz 
[4]Carlos Villasante
[4]Caroline Rajcom 
[4]Charley Grafton-Chuck
[4]Dan Cooke
[4]Dennis de Bruin
[4]Devon Stanton
[4]Diana Freitag 
[4]François Bouvard
[4]Gemma Woolnough
[4]Jan Sturm
[4]Jean Paul Hardy
[4]John Ballantyne
[4]Julien Brossat
[4]Lieke Mandemakers
[4]Maria Martinez
[4]Roger Langford
[4]Sandra Melero
[4]Sean Phillips
[4]Simon Turner
[4]Stefan Eder
[4]Zaida Gómez

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]TAKE-TWO INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
[4]Anthony Dodd
[4]Nisha Verma
[4]Phil Anderton
[4]Denisa Polcerova
[4]Robert Willis

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K ASIA TEAM

[3]Asia General Manager 
[4]Jason Wong

[3]Asia Marketing Director
[4]Diana Tan

[3]Sr. Marketing Manager
[4]Jason Dou

[3]Asia Marketing Manager
[4]Daniel Tan

[3]Japan Marketing Manager 
[4]Maho Sawashima
[3]Korea Marketing Manager 
[4]Dina Chung

[3]Sr. Product Executive
[4]Rohan Ishwarlal

[3]Product Executive
[4]Sharon Lim

[3]Sr. Localization Manager 
[4]Yosuke Yano

[3]Localization Coordinator
[4]Pierre Guijarro

[3]Localization Assistant
[4]Yusaku Minamisawa

[3]External Localization Teams
[4]entalize co., ltd.
[4]GlobalWay Co., Ltd.
[4]Jiali Flourishing Age Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.
[4]VGLOC Localization Studios Co., Ltd.

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]TAKE-TWO ASIA OPERATIONS
[4]Eileen Chong 
[4]Veronica Khuan 
[4]Chermine Tan 
[4]Takako Davis
[4]Ryoko Hayashi

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]TAKE-TWO ASIA BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
[4]Erik Ford
[4]Syn Chua
[4]Ellen Hsu
[4]Kelvin Ahn 
[4]Paul Adachi
[4]Fumiko Okura
[4]Hidekatsu Tani
[4]Fred Johnson
[4]Ken Tilakaratna
[4]Anna Choi
[4]Cynthia Lee
[4]Hyun Jookyoung

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K CHINA QUALITY ASSURANCE	

[3]QA Director
[4]Zhang Xi Kun

[3]Localization QA Manager
[4]Du Jing

[3]Civilization VI Localization QA lead
[4]Shigekazu Tsuuchi

[3]Localization QA leads
[4]Chu Jin Dan
[4]Zhu Jian 

[3]Senior QA Testers
[4]Cho Hyunmin
[4]Kan Liang
[4]Qin Qi

[3]QA Testers
[4]Bai Xue
[4]Hu Meng Meng
[4]Jin Xiong Jie
[4]Tan Liu Yang
[4]Tang Shu
[4]Wang Ce
[4]Zhao Yu
[4]Zhou Qian Yu
[4]Zou Zhuo Ke
[4]Liu Kun Peng

[3]Junior QA Testers
[4]Chen Xue Mei
[4]Li Ling Li
[4]Mao Ling Jie
[4]Tang Dan Ru
[4]Xiao Yi
[4]Zhao Jin Yi
[4]Ou Xu
[4]Wang Rui
[4]Pan Zhi Xiong

[3]IT Engineers
[4]Hu Xiang
[4]Zhao Hong Wei
[4]Jiang Fei Kai 

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]FOX SOUND STUDIOS 
[4]Rick Fox 
[4]Victoria Fox

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]SPECIAL THANKS

[4]Strauss Zelnick
[4]Karl Slatoff
[4]Lainie Goldstein
[4]Dan Emerson
[4]Jordan Katz 
[4]David Cox
[4]Steve Glickstein
[4]Take-Two Sales Team
[4]Take-Two Digital Sales Team
[4]Take-Two Channel Marketing Team
[4]Siobhan Boes
[4]Hank Diamond
[4]Alan Lewis
[4]Daniel Einzig
[4]Christopher Fiumano
[4]Pedram Rahbari
[4]Jenn Kolbe 
[4]Greg Gibson
[4]Take-Two Legal Team
[4]David Boutry
[4]Juan Chavez
[4]Rajesh Joseph
[4]Gaurav Singh
[4]Alexander Raney
[4]Barry Charleton
[4]Jon Titus
[4]Gail Hamrick
[4]Tony MacNeill
[4]Chris Bigelow
[4]Brooke Grabrian
[4]Katie Nelson
[4]Chris Burton
[4]Christina Vu
[4]Betsy Ross
[4]Pete Anderson
[4]Oliver Hall
[4]Maria Zamaniego
[4]Nicholas Bublitz
[4]Nicole Hillenbrand
[4]Danielle Williams
[4]Sean Roberts
[4]Gwendoline Oliviero 
[4]Ariel Owens-Barham
[4]Kyra Simon
[4]Ashish Popli

[3]Agencies (In alphabetical order): 
[4]Access Communications
[4]Freddie Georges Production Group
[4]Kathy Lee-Fung
[4]MODCo Media

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Aspyr Media

[3]Co-CEO
[4]Michael Rogers

[3]Co-CEO
[4]Ted Staloch

[3]Producer
[4]Jacky Coiro
[4]Jordon Reese
[4]Jonathan Woo

[3]Associate Producer
[4]Moye Daniel

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Aspyr Development Team

[3]Technical Directors
[4]Dave Idemoto
[4]Tim McDaniel

[3]Manager of Engineering
[4]Stephen Hughes

[3]Software Engineers
[4]Luke Soldano
[4]Zachary Varnadore
[4]Andy Molloy
[4]Bobby Thurman

[3]Senior Infrastructure Engineer
[4]Steven Cattrell

[3]QA Lead
[4]Rockie Knittel

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Aspyr IT Team

[3]IT Manager
[4]John Blackburn

[3]IT Help Desk Tech
[4]Tyler Kloss
[4]Marshall Peterson

[2]Aspyr Human Resources

[3]Vice President of Operations
[4]Ryan Anson

[3]HR Manager
[4]Blythe Arguez

[2]Accounting & Finance Team

[3]Head of Finance
[4]Anabel Balderas

[3]Assistant Controller
[4]Roxie Garza

[3]Accounting Team
[4]Kirsten Hagen
[4]Brooklyn Morris

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]EXTERNAL VENDORS AND CONTRACTORS

[3]Music Composition 
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Music Composition 
[4]Christopher Tin
[4]Timothy Michael Wynn
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Original Score Recording 
[4]FILMharmonic Orchestra of Prague 
[4]Conductor and Music Director
[4]Andy Brick

[3]Cinematic Sound Design
[4]Source Sound, Inc.
[4]Supervising Sound Designer & Mix
[4]Charles Deenen

[3]Sound Designers
[4]Matt Cavanaugh
[4]Brent Burge
[4]Braden Parkes

[2]Voiceover Cast  
[3]Narrator
[4]Sean Bean

[3]Advisor 
[4]Natasha Loring

[3]Hojo Tokimune
[4]Yoshi Ando

[3]Pedro II
[4]Renato Belschansky

[3]Tomyris
[4]Alina Irbekov Berezova

[3]Trajan
[4]Gianmarco Ceconi

[3]Frederick Barbarossa
[4]Bert Coll

[3]Peter the Great
[4]Mikhail Danilyuk

[3]Gorgo
[4]Angeliki Dimitrakopoulou

[3]Gilgamesh
[4]Jorge Badillo Galvan

[3]Saladin
[4]Alhan Gharam

[3]Cleopatra
[4]Nirvana Hisham

[3]Qin Shi Huang
[4]Junchao Huang

[3]Mvemba a Nzinga
[4]Mamengi Alfredo Lombisi

[3]Queen Victoria
[4]Lucy Briggs Owen

[3]Catherine de Medici
[4]Lara Valentina Parmiani

[3]Montezuma
[4]Irwin Daayan Rosenthal Sarli

[3]Gandhi
[4]Pawan Shukla

[3]Harald Hardrada
[4]Atli Rafn Sigurdsson

[3]Pericles
[4]Konstantinos Stelloudis

[3]Theodore Roosevelt
[4]Richard Tatum

[3]Philip II
[4]Anton Carmano Vega

[3]Jadwiga
[4]Julia Jakubowska

[3]John Curtin
[4]Simon Burke

[3]Alexander
[4]Dimitris Papadopoulos

[3]Cyrus
[4]Arian Risbaf

[3]Amanitore
[4]Fatma Abd Elsalam

[3]Gitarja
[4]Dyah Febriani

[3]Jayavarman VII
[4]Heng Sarorn

[2]French Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Philippe Catoire

[3]Advisor
[4]Caroline Victoria

[2]German Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Achim Barrenstein

[3]Advisor
[4]Karoline Mask von Oppen

[2]Italian Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Giorgio Bonino

[3]Advisor
[4]Katia Sorrentino

[2]Spanish Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Alfonso Laguna

[3]Advisor
[4]Beatriz Berciano

[2]Polish Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Przemysław Walich

[3]Advisor
[4]Joanna Matuszak

[2]Russian Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Andrey Lysenko 
[4]Андрей Лысенко

[3]Advisor
[4]Alina Milosh 
[4]Алина Милош

[2]Japanese Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Kenichi Suzumura

[3]Advisor
[4]Nao Toyama

[2]Korean Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Shin Han

[3]Advisor
[4]Yoon Seon Lim

[2]Simplified Chinese Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Zhang Lei

[3]Advisor
[4]Yang Yi Fang

[2]Traditional Chinese Cast

[3]Narrator
[4]Fang Rong Feng

[3]Advisor
[4]Qi Qi

[2]Voiceover Recording Studios

[3]Lime Studios
[4]Dialog Recordist
[4]Tom Paolantonio
 
[3]Producer
[4]Susie Boyajan 

[3]Orchard Recording Studios, Somerset UK

[3]Engineers
[4]Mark Bowyer
[4]James Wilkes
[4]Charlotte Worthy-Jarvis

[3]Side UK 

[3]Production Manager
[4]Emily Munster

[3]Sound Engineer
[4]Ant Hales

[2]Additional Voiceover Casting and Recording 

[3]Signal Space

[3]Creative Director 
[4]Jose Aguirre

[3]Researcher
[4]Inga Knoth

[3]Audio Editors
[4]Valentino Lercher
[4]Matthew Knutson

[3]Project Manager 
[4]Christopher Fox

[3]Voiceover Directors
[4]JB Blanc
[4]Chad Rocco

[3]Dialogue Editors
[4]Transatlantic Audio/Dante Fazio
[4]Austin Krier
[4]Garrett Montgomery, M.P.S.E.
[4]Stephen Selvaggio

[3]Additional Writing 
[4]Maurice Suckling

[3]Cinematic Production Services 

[3]Plastic Wax Pty Ltd

[3]Creative Leads
[4]Nathan Maddams
[4]Dane Maddams
[4]Tyrone Maddams

[3]Production Management
[4]Mick Hammell	
[4]Carly Glover	
[4]Toby Alderton	
[4]Terry Mickaiel	

[3]Lead Modeler
[4]Dean Wood

[3]Modelling
[4]Ben Mikhaiel	
[4]Josh Shahinian	
[4]Alexia Zantides	
[4]Vee Ng	

[3]Modellers
[4]Dan Horsfall	
[4]Josh Davies
[4]Josh Knorr
[4]Tristan Locke
[4]Werner Gradwell
[4]Brett Sinclair	

[3]Lead Animator 
[4]Wes Adams	

[3]Animators and Rigging	
[4]Mitch Coote
[4]Damian Paon
[4]Cam Ralph
[4]Tom Janson
[4]Gareth Rhodes
[4]Zarvan Kotwal
[4]Phil Hook 
[4]Sina Azad
	
[3]Lead Lighter 
[4]Ben Malter

[3]Lighting and Rendering
[4]Nigel Waddington	
[4]Owen Gillman	
[4]Ben Shearman

[3]Lead VFX TD 
[4]Sidney Cheng	

[3]VFX 
[4]Steven Cheah
[4]Dave Frodsham
[4]Fernando Flores Gonzales

[3]Lead Compositor 
[4]Daniel Loui	

[3]Compositors
[4]Jad Haber
[4]Ryan Trippensee
[4]Yoav Dolev

[2]Additional Cinematic Production Services

[3]Section Studios

[3]Production
[4]Justin Yun 
[4]Kami Talebi 

[3]Concept
[4]Gabriel Yeganyan
[4]Cuba Lee
[4]Brian Kim
[4]Howard Pak
[4]Hyunjae Lee
[4]Lucas Helmintoller
[4]Mohammad Chowdhury

[3]Animation
[4]Cameron Mott
[4]Judson Morgan

[3]Applied Cinematics
[4]Mike O’Rourke
[4]Jason Flynn

[2]3D Art Assets
[3]Gameshastra Solutions Private Limited


Language: en_US
Tag: LOC_FRONTIER_CREDITS
Text:
[3]CREDITS

[1]Firaxis Games 

[1]Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
[2]New Frontier Pass


[2]TEAM LEADERSHIP

[3]Lead Designer
[4]Anton Strenger

[3]Lead Engineer
[4]Ken Grey

[3]Art Director
[4]Kat Berkley

[3]Additional Art Direction
[4]Jason Johnson

[3]Senior Producer
[4]Dennis Shirk

[3]Lead Producer
[4]Amanda Bonacorso

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]DESIGN TEAM

[3]Franchise Lead Designer
[4]Ed Beach

[3]Lead AI Engineer
[4]Andrew Garrett

[3]AI Contributors
[4]Matthew Beach

[3]Lead Designer
[4]Anton Strenger

[3]Designer/Programmers
[4]Matthew Beach
[4]Brian Feldges
[4]David Raabe
[4]David McDonough
[4]Bradley Olson

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]PRODUCTION TEAM

[3]Senior Producer
[4]Dennis Shirk

[3]Lead Producer
[4]Amanda Bonacorso

[3]Associate Producers
[4]Kevin Schultz
[4]Rony Kahana

[3]Writers
[4]Peter Murray
[4]Andrew Johnson

[3]Additional Writing
[4]Angelica Fuchs

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]PROGRAMMING TEAM

[3]Lead Engineer
[4]Ken Grey

[3]Lead Multiplayer Engineer
[4]Bradley Olson

[3]Lead Graphics Engineer
[4]John Kloetzli

[3]Graphics Engineers
[4]Kevin Jones
[4]Theodore Maselko
[4]Gabriel Ortega

[3]Programming Support
[4]Don Wuenschell

[3]Principal Technical Artist
[4]Arthur Gould

[3]Lead Database/Modding Engineer
[4]Shaun Seckman

[3]Interface Team Lead
[4]Tronster Hartley

[3]Interface Engineers
[4]Ian Schmidt
[4]Karl-Heinz Gilbert-Wason

[3]Additional Interface Engineers
[4]Keaton VanAuken, Ghostpunch
[4]Micah DeBruno

[3]Lead Tools Engineer
[4]Brian Whitman

[3]Tools Engineers
[4]Matthew Kelley
[4]Nicholai Wojtowcyz

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]ART TEAM

[3]Art Director
[4]Kat Berkley

[3]Additional Art Direction
[4]Jason Johnson

[3]Lead Interface Designer
[4]Rob Sugama

[3]Additional Interface Designer
[4]Tyler Windham

[3]Lead Animator
[4]Grant Chang

[3]Animators
[4]Rachel Schneider
[4]Aaron Andersen
[4]Bobby Taylor
[4]Alex Schabbing

[3]Additional Animators
[4]John Fitzgerald

[3]Technical Animation Group
[4]Brian Evans
[4]John Stewart
[4]Ryan Griffin

[3]Lead Character Modelers
[4]Stephanie Gitlin
[4]David Jones

[3]Unit Lead 
[4]John Fitzgerald

[3]Unit Outsource Manager
[4]Ryan Jackson

[3]Lead Environment Artist
[4]Matthew Quickel

[3]Environment Artist
[4]Clark Coots
[4]Jerome Atherholt
[4]Michael Bates

[3]Buildings Lead
[4]Rambo Siu

[3]Lead Concept Artist
[4]Kat Berkley
[4]Sang Han

[3]Concept Artists
[4]Ryan Andrade
[4]Michael Bazzell
[4]Michael Tassie

[3]Additional Concept Artist
[4]Can Wen

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Visual Effects
[3]Visual Effects Lead
[4]Todd Bilger

[3]Additional Visual Effects
[4]Arthur Gould

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]AUDIO

[3]Audio Director
[4]Roland Rizzo

[3]Lead Sound Designer
[4]Dan Costello

[3]Music Composers
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phil Boucher

[3]Audio Tools Programming
[4]Dan Price

[3]Cinematic Music
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Audio Engineer
[4]Ian Schmidt

[2]Maya & Gran Colombia Pack Music Credits

[3]Music Composer
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Performers
[4]Martin Vejarano, Colombian Percussion and Gaitas
[4]Sandro Friedrich, Ocarina, Clay Flute, Gaitas
[4]Niccolo Seligmann, Bass Viol and Vielle

[3]Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra 
[4]Conducted by Andy Brick 
[4]Jan Holzner, Orchestra Recording Engineer
[4]Michael Hradiský, Orchestra Assistant Engineer
[4]Petr Pycha, Orchestra Contractor 
[4]Tomáš Kirschner, Orchestra Librarian
[4]Geoff Knorr, Orchestrator

[4]Orchestra recorded at Smecky Music Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

[4]Vielle and Bass Viol recorded at Studio A, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD
[4]Geoff Knorr, Recording Engineer
[4]Lara Villanueva, Pro Tools Operator

[4]Colombian percussion and gaitas recorded at Pinch Recording, Long Island City, NY
[4]Geoff Knorr, Recording Engineer
[4]Caio Carvalho, Assistant Engineer

[4]Mixed and mastered by Geoff Knorr

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Ethiopia Pack Music Credits

[3]Music Composer
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Performers
[4]Minale Bezu, Krar
[4]Getachew Mekuria, Vocals and Washint
[4]Niccolo Seligmann, Bass Viol and Vielle

[3]Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra 
[4]Conducted by Andy Brick 
[4]Jan Holzner, Orchestra Recording Engineer
[4]Michael Hradiský, Orchestra Assistant Engineer
[4]Petr Pycha, Orchestra Contractor 
[4]Tomáš Kirschner, Orchestra Librarian
[4]Geoff Knorr, Orchestrator

[4]Orchestra recorded at Smecky Music Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

[4]Vielle and Bass Viol recorded at Studio A, Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD
[4]Geoff Knorr, Recording Engineer
[4]Lara Villanueva, Pro Tools Operator

[4]Mixed and mastered by Geoff Knorr

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Byzantium & Gaul Pack Music Credits

[3]Music Composer
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Performers
[4]Niccolo Seligmann, Bass Viol and Vielle

[3]Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra 
[4]Conducted by Andy Brick 
[4]Martinů Voices
[4]Lukas Vasilek, Martinů Voices Conductor 
[4]Jan Holzner, Orchestra Recording Engineer
[4]Michael Hradiský, Orchestra Assistant Engineer
[4]Petr Pycha, Orchestra Contractor 
[4]Tomáš Kirschner, Orchestra Librarian
[4]Geoff Knorr, Orchestrator

[4]Orchestra recorded at Smecky Music Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

[4]Ancient lyre reproduction performed by Geoff Knorr

[4]Mixed and mastered by Geoff Knorr

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Babylon Pack Music Credits

[3]Music Composer
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Performers
[4]Gold Lyre of Ur reconstruction performed and recorded by Andy Lowings
[4]Niccolo Seligmann, Bass Viol and Vielle
[4]Sandro Friedrich, Ney

[3]Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra 
[4]Conducted by Andy Brick 
[4]Jan Holzner, Orchestra Recording Engineer
[4]Michael Hradiský, Orchestra Assistant Engineer
[4]Petr Pycha, Orchestra Contractor 
[4]Tomáš Kirschner, Orchestra Librarian
[4]Geoff Knorr, Orchestrator

[4]Orchestra recorded at Smecky Music Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

[4]Mixed and mastered by Geoff Knorr

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Vietnam & Kublai Khan Pack Music Credits

[3]Music Composer
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Performers
[4]Thi Vu: Dan Tranh, T’rung, Tam Thap Luc
[4]Niccolo Seligmann, Bass Viol and Vielle
[4]Sandro Friedrich: Sao Truc

[3]Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra 
[4]Conducted by Andy Brick
[4]Jan Holzner, Orchestra Recording Engineer
[4]Michael Hradiský, Orchestra Assistant Engineer
[4]Petr Pycha, Orchestra Contractor 
[4]Tomáš Kirschner, Orchestra Librarian
[4]Geoff Knorr, Orchestrator

[4]Orchestra recorded at Smecky Music Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

[4]Mixed and mastered by Geoff Knorr

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]Portugal Pack Music Credits

[3]Music Composer
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Electronics and Arrangements
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Performers
[4]Cordeone: Guitarra Portuguesa, Viola
[4]Niccolo Seligmann, Bass Viol and Vielle

[3]Prague FILMharmonic Orchestra 
[4]Conducted by Andy Brick 
[4]Jan Holzner, Orchestra Recording Engineer
[4]Michael Hradiský, Orchestra Assistant Engineer
[4]Petr Pycha, Orchestra Contractor 
[4]Tomáš Kirschner, Orchestra Librarian
[4]Geoff Knorr, Orchestrator

[4]Torre de Belem Wonder Vocal Soloists: Betty Knorr, Bronislav Palowski, and Lukáš Kremer

[4]Orchestra recorded at Smecky Music Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

[4]Mixed and mastered by Geoff Knorr

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]QUALITY ASSURANCE

[3]QA Supervisor
[4]Steffen Drees

[3]QA Lead
[4]Carlton Harrison

[3]Testers
[4]Albert Briggs
[4]Shaun Wilson
[4]Terrence Myers
[4]Kelsey Orem
[4]Timothy McCracken
[4]Gabe Scanlan
[4]Michael Kotey
[4]Daron Carlock
[4]Luke James

[3]Testing Interns
[4]Stephen Baker

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]FIRAXISLIVE TEAM

[3]Senior Producer
[4]Clint McCaul

[3]Lead Engineer
[4]Adam Sherburne

[3]Senior Engineer
[4]Brian Whooley

[3]Senior Brogrammer
[4]Todd Smith

[3]Senior DevOps Engineer
[4]Eric Konzal
[4]David Bisset

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]FIRAXIS MANAGEMENT

[3]CEO / President
[4]Steve Martin

[3]Creative Director
[4]Sid Meier

[3]Studio Art Director
[4]Arne Schmidt

[3]Directors of Software Development
[4]Casey O'Toole

[3]Director of Gameplay Development
[4]Barry Caudill

[3]Executive Producer
[4]Lindsay Riehl

[3]Director of Marketing
[4]Peter Murray

[3]Product Managers
[4]Kevin Schultz
[4]Rebecca Wise

[3]Marketing Artist 
[4]Ryan Taylorton

[3]Video Content Producer
[4]Dane Frederiksen

[3]Human Resources Director
[4]Shawn Kohn

[3]Human Resources Assistant
[4]Beth Petrovitch

[3]Office Manager
[4]Donna Milesky

[3]IT Manager
[4]David McFall
[4]Josh Scanlan

[3]IT Technician
[4]Justin McShane
[4]Matt Baros

[3]Special Projects
[4]Susan Meier

[4]Published by 2K
[4]2K is a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K PUBLISHING

[3]President
[4]David Ismailer

[3]Chief Operating Officer
[4]Phil Dixon

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 

[3]SVP, Product Development
[4]Josh Atkins

[3]VP, Publishing Operations
[4]Elizabeth Howard

[3]Executive Producer 
[4]Kirsten Kennedy

[3]Producer
[4]Casey Coleman

[3]Associate Producer
[4]Noelle Johnston

[3]Assistant Producer 
[4]Kelsey Mabbott

[3]Production Assistant
[4]Isabella Gentile

[3]International Producer 
[4]Sajjad Majid

[3]Executive Assistant
[4]Megan Grunenwald-Rohr

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K GLOBAL SERVICES  

[3]Sr. Director, Global Services
[4]Robert Clarke

[3]Director of Game Localisation & Ratings
[4]Nathalie Mathews

[3]Ratings Producer
[4]Nick Syrovatka
 
[3]Director of Distributed Development
[4]Jason Smith
 
[3]Sr. Project Manager
[4]Larry Nilsen

[3]Project Manager
[4]Mike Read
 
[3]Digital Asset Manager
[4]Janaka Conner
 
[3]Sr. Outsourcing Producers
[4]Tiffany Cullum De Kraan
[4]Jean-Marc Pereira
 
[3]Outsourcing Associate Producer
[4]Allyssa De La Torre
 
[3]Casting Managers
[4]Harasyn Sipes
[4]Tom Celia
 
[3]Casting Assistant
[4]Jaclyn Imai
 
[3]Production Assistant
[4]Abriana Carrillo
 
[3]Director of User Research
[4]Gina Smith

[3]Sr. User Research Manager 
[4]Francesca Reyes
 
[3]Principal User Researcher
[4]Michael DeFreest

[3]User Researcher
[4]Chance Hughes
 
[3]User Researcher Coordinator
[4]Solomon Chi
 
[3]Design Director
[4]Francois Giuntini
 
[3]Technical Director
[4]Jonathan Tilden
 
[3]Sr. Tools Engineer
[4]Carl Frederick

[3]Technical Project Manager
[4]Jennifer Sorem
 
[3]Technical Artist
[4]Jeremy Rodgers
 
[3]Production Assistant
[4]Andrew Reynaud

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K MARKETING 

[3]SVP, Head of Global Marketing
[4]Melissa Bell

[3]VP, Global Marketing
[4]Chris Snyder

[3]Sr. Director, Global Marketing
[4]David Silverman

[3]Director, Global Marketing
[4]Matt Knoles

[3]Associate Brand Manager
[4]Maya Clark

[3]Community and Social Media Manager
[4]David Hinkle

[3]Social Media Coordinator
[4]Alexis Polk

[3]VP, Global Marketing Planning
[4]Brett Stewart

[3]Director, Global Go to Market Strategy
[4]Hendrik Janse van Rensburg

[3]Senior Manager, Global Go to Market 
[4]Stephen Donlin
[4]Nicci McKenzie

[3]Sr. Manager, First Party Marketing 
[4]Andrew Walenga

[3]Manager, First Party Marketing 
[4]Alana Koster

[3]Manager, Marketing Partnerships
[4]Sam Robson

[3]Sr. Manager, Global Marketing Insights
[4]Bennett Robbins

[3]Paid Media Sr. Manager 
[4]Alistair Wong

[3]Purchase Order Administrator 
[4]Heather Crom

[3]VP, Global Marketing (EMEA/ANZ and New Franchise)
[4]Alison Bakunowich 

[3]Sr. Director, International Marketing & Communications
[4]Jon Rooke

[3]International Territory Marketing & Communications
[4]Axel Arnal
[4]Rebecca Armstrong
[4]Jorge Bardaji-Paredes
[4]Matthew Bone
[4]Julien Brossat
[4]Callum Cuming
[4]Dennis De Bruin
[4]Margaux Duval
[4]Stefan Eder
[4]Urel Eustatius
[4]Mikey Foley
[4]Matt Gardner
[4]Zaida Gómez
[4]Alison Gram
[4]Jean-Paul Hardy
[4]Diana Heinzelmann
[4]Natalie Jones
[4]Harry Large
[4]Maxime Le Nevanic
[4]Ben Lewis
[4]David Lewis
[4]Benjamin Magnan
[4]Maria Martinez
[4]Julia May
[4]Sandra Melero Miguel
[4]Caitlin O’Neill
[4]Adam Perry
[4]Agnès Rosique
[4]Javier Sastre
[4]Romina Schoener
[4]Ben Seccombe
[4]Anne Speth
[4]Jan Sturm
[4]Josh Taylor
[4]Simon Turner
[4]Shelley van Seventer
[4]Carlos Villasante
[4]Carlo Volz
[4]Kayleigh Watson

[3]Asia General Manager
[4]Jason Wong

[3]Online and Social Sr. Director, Taiwan
[4]Jack Lin
 
[3]Asia Marketing Directors
[4]Diana Tan
[4]Tracy Chua
 
[3]Asia Sr. Marketing Manager
[4]Daniel Tan

[3]Japan Marketing Manager
[4]Kyoko Fuke
 
[3]Korea Marketing Manager
[4]Dina Chung

[3]China Marketing Manager
[4]Leo Li
 
[3]Asia Associate Marketing Manager
[4]Hannah Tan

[3]Japan Associate Marketing Manager 
[4]Manami Takahashi 
 
[3]Asia Sr. Product Executive
[4]Wayne Ng

[3]Asia Product Executive
[4]Toh Jing Kai 

[3]Asia Marketing Executive
[4]Howard Chan
[4]Victoria Koh

[3]China Marketing Executives
[4]Nate Guo
[4]Jason Yi

[3]Japan Marketing Assistant
[4]Kasumi Hirokawa

[3]Korea Marketing Assistant
[4]Park Sangmin

[3]Marketing Assistant
[4]Benjamin Chia

[3]Sr. Localization Coordinator
[4]Mao Iwai

[3]Localization Coordinators
[4]Aki Kawashima 
[4]Chen Li

[3]Localization Assistant
[4]Chen Li

[3]VP, Global Marketing Planning
[4]Brett Stewart

[3]Sr. Manager, Global Marketing Insights
[4]Bennett Robbins

[3]Paid Media Sr. Manager
[4]Alistair Wong

[3]Purchase Order Administrator
[4]Heather Crom

[3]VP, Global Channel Marketing
[4]Steve Lux

[3]Manager, Channel Marketing
[4]Marc McCurdy

[3]Marketing Analyst
[4]Cameron Boucher

[3]Channel Marketing Project Managers
[4]Dustin Choe

[3]VP, Global Marketing Design & Creative Services
[4]Sami Thessman

[3]Senior Global Creative Director
[4]Adrien De Tray

[3]Senior Global Creative Director
[4]Adrien De Tray

[3]Sr. Director, Global Video Production
[4]Kenny Crosbie

[3]Manager, Global Video Lead
[4]Nick Pylvanainen

[3]Manager, Global Video Lead
[4]Shane McDonald 

[3]Global Motion Graphics Lead
[4]Michael Regelean

[3]Motion Graphics Designers/Video Editors
[4]Steven Giarla
[4]Dom Hassett

[3]Motion Graphics Designer
[4]Camille Galejs

[3]Video Editor
[4]Nat Magee

[3]International Video Editors
[4]Barney Austin
[4]Diana Cooper

[3]Jr. Capture Specialist/Editor
[4]David Omega

[3]Media Services Lead
[4]Luke McCarthy

[3]Sr. Media Specialist
[4]Allison Mann

[3]Media Services Specialist III
[4]Daniel Castro
[4]Kendra Mechling

[3]Media Services Specialists II
[4]Kenneth Ellis

[3]Media Services Specialist I
[4]Kiel Evins
[4]Lincoln Sissel

[3]Media Services Specialists
[4]Shaun Nathan
[4]Hannah Thompson

[3]Media Artist
[4]Haley Robinson

[3]3D Artist
[4]Derek Schumacher

[3]3D Artist/Animator
[4]Dylan Shapiro

[3]Director of Creative Operations
[4]Yasaman Golban

[3]Sr. Manager, Creative Studios US
[4]Heidi Oas

[3]Sr. Global Marketing Producer
[4]Hilary Petee

[3]Sr. Project Manager
[4]Cara Lacey

[3]Assistant Localisation Project Manager
[4]Iris Loison

[3]Design Lead 
[4]Ham Nguyen

[3]Sr. Design Manager
[4]Tom Baker

[3]Graphic Designer
[4]James Quinlan

[3]Localisation Project Manager
[4]Cara Lacey

[3]International Video Editors
[4]Barney Austin
[4]Diana Cooper

[3]Director of Creative Operations
[4]Yasaman Golban

[3]Senior Global Marketing Producer
[4]Hilary Petee

[3]Sr. Content Manager
[4]Jason Babler

[3]Manager, Marketing Production
[4]Ham Nguyen

[3]Sr. Designer
[4]Christopher Maas

[3]Designers
[4]Karrin Fletcher
[4]Darren O’Driscoll
[4]Gearoid O’Dea

[3]Sr. Project Manager
[4]Heidi Oas

[3]Sr. Global Marketing Producer
[4]Hilary Petee

[3]Sr. Project Manager
[4]Cara Lacey

[3]Assistant Localisation Project Manager
[4]Iris Loison

[3]Design Lead 
[4]Ham Nguyen

[3]Sr. Design Manager
[4]Tom Baker

[3]Sr. Designer
[4]Christopher Maas

[3]Sr. Content Designer
[4]Jason Babler
 
[3]VP, Global Communications
[4]Cori Barrett

[3]Global Communications Director 
[4]Joe DiMiero

[3]Global Communications Manager, Core Games
[4]Matt Chang

[3]Director, Global Influencer Marketing 
[4]Scott Pytlik

[3]Influencer Marketing Manager 
[4]Mitchel Inkrott

[3]Global Influencer Marketing Manager
[4]Josh Kaplan

[3]Communications Manager
[4]Scott Butterworth

[3]Manager, Global Communications Go to Market 
[4]Amy Ellison

[3]Director, Global Marketing Operations and Corporate Communications 
[4]Jaime Jensen

[3]Global Influencer Marketing Manager, Go to Market
[4]Zara Waqar

[3]Employee Communications Manager 
[4]Crishel Bonfante

[3]Administrative Assistant
[4]Trey Mosteller

[3]VP, Performance Marketing 
[4]Bart Storan

[3]Director, Performance Marketing
[4]Alan Doran

[3]Sr. Managers, Performance Marketing 
[4]Christina Crowley
[4]Davis Tiblier

[3]CRM Operations Manager 
[4]Trevor Loewenthal

[3]Performance Marketing International Manager
[4]Katie Moore

[3]Performance Marketing, SEO Manager
[4]Kevin Moore

[3]Lead Performance Marketer, CRM 
[4]Denise de Luca

[3]Lead Performance Marketer
[4]Adrian Breen

[3]Performance Marketers 
[4]David Baigel
[4]Kian Coleman
[4]Cian Flynn
[4]Caoimhe McVeigh
[4]Dionysios Pappas
[4]Jeevika Roberts

[3]Sr. Managers, Performance Marketing 
[4]Christina Crowley
[4]Davis Tiblier

[3]VP, Marketing Innovation 
[4]David Walker

[3]Director, Marketing Automation
[4]Martin Esani

[3]Sr. Manager, MarTech Automation 
[4]James Coulson

[3]Marketing Automation Analyst 
[4]Niamh McCann

[3]Sr. Director, Global Website
[4]Jeff Titus

[3]CRM Operations Manager 
[4]Trevor Loewenthal

[3]Sr. Web Producer
[4]Tiffany Nelson

[3]Web Production Coordinator
[4]Gerald Ingraham

[3]Sr. Web Designer
[4]Keith Echevarria

[3]Sr. Web Developers
[4]Gryphon Myers 
[4]David Sims

[3]Web Developer
[4]Charles Park

[3]Director, Marketing Technology
[4]Martin Esani

[3]Director, Marketing Technology - Product
[4]Juliette Jones

[3]Project Manager
[4]Maya Staeva

[3]Sr. Manager, MarTech Automation
[4]James Coulson

[3]Marketing Technologists
[4]Marco Fracasso
[4]Jill Ivers
[4]Niamh McCann
[4]Adam O’Reilly

[3]Manager, Marketing Technology
[4]David Genis

[3]Performance Marketer
[4]Honghao Li

[3]Performance Marketing Analysts 
[4]Andriy Babiy
[4]Philip Carroll
[4]Emily-Claire Burke
[4]Aine Corry
[4]Conor Dempsey
[4]Darragh Gaule
[4]Isolda Hanney
[4]Natalie Keyte
[4]Roisin Nesbitt
[4]Rónán Ó Grálaigh
[4]Clodagh O’Regan
[4]Addie Perry-Lennon
[4]Giovanna Reategui
[4]Laura Tierney

[3]Sr. Director, Chief of Staff
[4]Cindy Johnston

[3]Director, Global Marketing Operations and Corporate Communications 
[4]Jaime Jensen

[3]Employee Communications Manager 
[4]Crishel Bonfante

[3]Executive Assistant
[4]Trey Mosteller

[3]Administrative Assistant
[4]Ciera Serrano

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K CUSTOMER SERVICE
 
[3]Director, Customer Service
[4]Ima Somers

[3]Sr. Manager, Customer Service
[4]David Eggers

[3]Manager, Knowledge Base
[4]Mike Thompson

[3]Manager, Customer Service
[4]Matthew Gardner

[3]Supervisors, Customer Service
[4]Cassandra Hawkins
[4]Alicia Nielsen

[3]Associate Supervisors, Customer Service
[4]Dominic Hurton
[4]Ciera Scott

[3]Customer Service Coordinator
[4]Adam Schaefer

[3]Sr. Customer Service Representative
[4]Annastasia Larsen
[4]Genaro Siciliano
[4]Leo Shaverdian

[3]Customer Service Associates
[4]Jazmine Ayers
[4]Rykkie Bray
[4]Mando Delgado
[4]Dekel Fridman
[4]Heather Harper
[4]Jonathan Hernandez
[4]Candace Javellonar
[4]Chad Morton
[4]Morris Nwachukwu
[4]Joshua Peek-Whitfield
[4]Liana Piedra
[4]Emma Pyles
[4]Jaelyn Rowe
[4]Ashley Stewart
[4]Alexander Washburn
[4]Mike Whitebear

[3]Associate Lead QA Tester
[4]Michael Bond

[3]Sr. QA Testers
[4]Jade Dabu
[4]Taylor Galauska
[4]Kristian Garcia

[3]QA Tester
[4]Isiah Scott

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K COMMERCIAL & PARTNERSHIPS
 
[3]SVP, Growth & Partnerships
[4]Jessica Hopp

[3]Sr. Director, Global Licensing 
[4]Billy Inglis

[3]Sr. Manager, Partnerships & Licensing
[4]David Kelley

[3]Manager, Partnerships & Licensing
[4]Ashley Landry

[3]Sr. Manager, Global Licensing
[4]Morgan Ritter

[3]Sr. Director, Commercial Operations
[4]Zak Armitage

[3]Sr. Manager, Growth Strategy Planning
[4]Edward Park

[3]Sr. Director, Growth Strategy
[4]Graham Hennessey

[3]Director, Commercial Operations
[4]James Martin

[3]Sr. Manager, Business Analysis
[4]Joon Kim

[3]Sr. Manager, Growth Strategy AAA/EMEA
[4]Shane Dunne

[3]Commercial Analyst
[4]Lakshm Vasudevan

[3]Director, Global Partnerships
[4]Greg Brownstein

[3]Sr. Manager, First Party Partnerships
[4]Tom Drake

[3]Managers, First Party Partnerships
[4]Matthew Freedman
[4]Myles Murphy

[3]Sr. Account Executive, Media Partnerships
[4]Reeder Kelley

[3]Account Executive, Media Partnerships
[4]Devin Hawke

[3]Director, Business Development & Corporate Strategy
[4]Robert Johnson

[3]Manager, Investments & Label Strategy
[4]Chris Ostojic

[3]Director, Commercial Operations
[4]John Ceccarelli

[3]Manager, Business Analyst
[4]Christian Cordova

[3]Administrative Assistant
[4]Jennifer Cathcart 

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K DATA & ANALYTICS

[3]VP, Data & Analytics
[4]Mehmet Turan

[3]Sr. Director, Data Engineering
[4]Steven Yvinec-Kruyk

[3]Sr. Business Intelligence Manager
[4]Carlos Malpica

[3]Data Ops Lead
[4]David Dillane

[3]Data Ops Lead
[4]David Dillane

[3]Data Engineer II
[4]Naganthran Nagarajan

[3]Data Support Engineer
[4]Shubhendra Pathak

[3]Sr. Engineering Manager, Data Engineering and Platforms
[4]Subash Kumaresan

[3]Sr. Data Engineer
[4]Alvin Li

[3]Data Engineers II
[4]Ravi Satya Durga Prasad Yenugula
[4]Vishal Sinha

[3]Data Engineer
[4]James Dryden

[3]Director of Data Science and Analytics
[4]Brad Pflum

[3]Principal Data Scientist
[4]Kai Wang

[3]Sr. Data Scientist 
[4]Robin Luo

[3]Associate Machine Learning Scientist
[4]Jeremy Berkov

[3]Sr. Manager, Data Science
[4]Selcuk Baran

[3]Business Analytics Manager
[4]Nick Davies

[3]Data Analyst 
[4]Louis Yu

[3]Sr. Data Analyst 
[4]Garrett Moran

[3]Sr. Data Scientist
[4]Guido Maretto

[3]Director, Product Analytics and LiveOps 
[4]Jono Lane

[3]Sr. Data Scientist
[4]Richard Morrisroe

[3]Data Scientist II
[4]Antranik Kajajian

[3]Data Scientist 
[4]Colin O’Callaghan

[3]Analytics Producer
[4]Brian DeWolf

[3]Sr. Manager, Marketing Analytics
[4]Sara Bayley

[3]Sr. Data Scientist
[4]Stephen Wilson

[3]Data Science Analyst
[4]Graham Murphy

[3]Data Scientist
[4]Miguel Naranjo

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K OPERATIONS
 
[3]SVP & Deputy General Counsel 
[4]Peter Welch

[3]Director & Counsel
[4]Justyn Sanderford
[4]Aaron Epstein
[4]Chris Loeffler

[3]Counsel, Privacy
[4]Robyn Ellis

[3]Director & Counsel
[4]Oren Hoffman

[3]Paralegal
[4]Heidi Masturzo

[3]Legal Assistant
[4]Sandro Aldana

[3]VP, Business Affairs 
[4]Jerry Wang

[3]VP, Publishing
[4]Murray Pannell

[3]VP, Operations
[4]Melissa Miller

[3]Sr. Project Manager
[4]Natalie Netter

[3]Executive Assistant
[4]Taylor Navarro 

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]TAKE-TWO OPERATIONS
[4]Daniel Einzig
[4]Dorian Rehfield
[4]Ursula Baker
[4]Christopher Fiumano
[4]Siobhan Boes

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]TAKE-TWO INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
[4]Kevin Smith
[4]Nisha Verma
[4]Richard Kelly

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]TAKE-TWO ASIA OPERATIONS
[4]Eileen Chong
[4]Veronica Khuan
[4]Chermine Tan
[4]Takako Davis
[4]Yuki Suhara

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]TAKE-TWO ASIA BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
[4]Erik Ford
[4]Syn Chua
[4]Paul Adachi
[4]Hidekatsu Tani
[4]Aiki Kihara
[4]Ken Tilakaratna
[4]Anna Choi
[4]Hyun Jiwon
[4]Felix Ng
[4]Thomas Chung
[4]Dustin Zhao
[4]Fern Yeap

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K FINANCE

[3]Head of Finance
[4]David Boutry

[3]VP, Finance
[4]Melissa Shu

[3]Sr. Director of Finance Operations
[4]Barry Charleton

[3]Manager, Finance
[4]Tyler Morehead

[3]Sr. Accountant
[4]Rajesh Joseph

[3]Accounting Assistants
[4]Christian Beltran
[4]Amanda Windle

[3]Sr. Sales Data Analyst
[4]Jennifer Tang

[3]Sr. Director, Accounting
[4]Angelica Flores

[3]Financial Planning & Analysis Manager
[4]Mary Bolanos

[3]Sr. Financial Analyst
[4]Aaron Kim

[3]Director, Financial Planning & Analysis
[4]Cayla Pingel

[3]Finance Manager
[4]Benny Lee

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K Facilities

[3]Facilities Director
[4]Pete Anderson

[3]Facilities Manager
[4]Nick Bublitz

[3]Assistant Facilities Manager
[4]James Berti

[3]Facilities Coordinator
[4]Marquis Danner

[3]Facilities Assistant
[4]Arnoldo Rodriguez

[3]Maintenance Coordinator
[4]Maria Zamaniego

[3]Shipping & Receiving Coordinator
[4]Danielle Williams

[3]Groundskeeper
[4]William Deleon

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K HUMAN RESOURCES

[3]SVP, Human Resources
[4]Bobbie Grafeld

[3]VP, Global HR
[4]Gail Hamrick

[3]VP, Human Resources Business Partner
[4]Steven Myers

[3]HR Manager, Motion Capture Studio
[4]Amy Magni

[3]Global Head of Talent Acquisition
[4]Damon Berkhaug

[3]Sr. Recruiters
[4]Emily Davis
[4]Aaron Tankenson
[4]Nicole Martin

[3]Talent Acquisition Operations Specialist
[4]Anastasia Fedorova

[3]Recruiting Coordinators
[4]James Myers

[3]Sr. Director, People Operations
[4]Tony MacNeill

[3]HR Lead
[4]Ciara Larkin

[3]HR Business Partner
[4]Anna Noguerio

[3]HR Generalist
[4]Ashley Starr

[3]People Operations Specialists
[4]Bria Wesley

[3]HR Lead
[4]Ciara Larkin

[3]HR Generalist
[4]Sasha Genis

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K TECHNOLOGY

[3]VP, Information Technology & Security 
[4]Joe Garfola

[3]VP, Head of Technical Infrastructure and Operations 
[4]Sharif Aboul Fotouh

[3]Sr. Director, Information Technology
[4]Rob Roudebush

[3]Technical Director
[4]Russ Mains 

[3]Systems Engineering Manager 
[4]Petr Fiala 

[3]Sr. Systems Engineer
[4]Radek Trojan 

[3]Principal Engineer 
[4]Tim Lynch   

[3]Systems Engineer 5
[4]Josh Scanlan

[3]Sr. Systems Engineer
[4]Joseph Davila

[3]Solutions Engineer
[4]Allen Schade

[3]Director of Operations, Online Services
[4]Vaclav Dolezal 

[3]Network Operations Center Supervisor 
[4]Simon Pitel 

[3]Network Operations Center Operators
[4]Andrej Kacer 
[4]Josef Klima 
[4]Stepan Rycl 

[3]Junior Network Engineer 
[4]Jan Kubesa 

[3]Director, Site Reliability Engineering
[4]Scott Darone

[3]Lead Infrastructure Systems Engineer
[4]Peter Pribylinec

[3]Principal Site Reliability Engineer
[4]Darius Carrier

[3]Sr. Site Reliability Engineer
[4]Michael Shea

[3]Site Reliability Engineer
[4]Bo Dong

[3]Systems Engineers
[4]Michal Bernat
[4]Davis Krieghoff
[4]Manish Patel

[3]Jr. Systems Engineer 
[4]Adam Marek 

[3]Sr. Manager of Network Operations
[4]Tomas Caslavsky 

[3]Sr. Network Engineer 
[4]Windiyam Ouedraego

[3]Network Engineers 
[4]Don Claybrook 
[4]Fernando Ramirez

[3]IT Director, Novato
[4]Bob Jones 

[3]Managers, Information Technology
[4]Tareq Abbassi 
[4]Scott Alexander 

[3]Unified Communications Engineer 
[4]James Dykstra

[3]System Administrators
[4]Stuart Godbolt
[4]Steve Hunter
[4]Brandon McMurray
[4]Kent Pham
[4]Christopher Smith

[3]Jr. IT Support Specialist
[4]Connor Kann

[3]Director, Information Technology
[4]Chris Jones

[3]Mastering Lab Technician
[4]Travis Allen

[3]PC Technicians
[4]Martin Risher
[4]Steven Sexton

[3]Director - Chief of Staff
[4]Holly Macintosh

[3]Technical Creative Writer & Designer
[4]Donal Cotter

[3]Sr. Administrative Assistant
[4]Jessica Hurst

[3]Head of Security
[4]Justin Ferris

[3]Sr. Enterprise Security Engineer 
[4]Brian Thomas

[3]Game Security Engineer 
[4]James Roosens

[3]Sr. Security Analyst
[4]Patrick Lockett

[3]Security Analysts
[4]Nick Everson 
[4]Caitlin Long

[3]Risk Operations
[4]Connor Jung

[3]Director of Engineering 
[4]Martin Livesey

[3]Principal Software Engineers
[4]Frederic Loranger 
[4]Seven (Shan) Lyons

[3]Sr. Software Engineer 
[4]Sean Cosgrave 

[3]Software Engineer 
[4]Labhesh Deshpande

[3]Technical Director
[4]Sanju Sriram 

[3]Director, Technical Program Management 
[4]Mike Headley   

[3]Technical Program Managers
[4]Edris Afghanzada   
[4]Tushar Amritkar
[4]Christina Davis 
[4]Laura Lau

[3]IT Analyst 
[4]Michael Caccia 

[3]Technical Project Coordinator
[4]Tre’ Bohannon

[3]Special Thanks 
[4]Scott Belmont 
[4]Brian MacKenzie 
[4]Jason Rappoport 
[4]Jeff Erker 
[4]Jimmie Yoo 
[4]Stuart Morrison 
[4]Victor Carpetto 
[4]The Entire Take-Two IT & Security Teams

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done

[2]2K QUALITY ASSURANCE 

[3]Sr. Vice President of Quality Assurance
[4]Alex Plachowski

[3]Quality Assurance Director
[4]Katherine Sanford

[3]Project Lead
[4]Jason Kolesa

[3]Associate Lead Testers
[4]Matthew Abog
[4]Jared Shipps
[4]Devan Serrato
[4]Jeniffer Lunders

[3]Associate Leads
[4]Ana Garza
[4]Hugo Dominguez
[4]Matthew Finck

[3]QA Specialist
[4]Ian Bennett

[3]Senior Testers
[4]Kristian Garcia
[4]Michael Galo
[4]Stephi Lundy

[3]Testers 
[4]Chris Zambrano
[4]Richard Kimball
[4]Jordan Johnson
[4]Eliza Lacayo
[4]Bryttany Pagala
[4]Dekel Fridman
[4]Mando Delgado
[4]Elisa Esplana
[4]Jenn Holland

[3]Quality Assurance Test Manager - Support Teams
[4]Josh Lagerson

[3]Sr. QA Test Leads - Support Teams
[4]Ashley Carey
[4]Nathan Bell

[3]Lead Testers - Support Teams
[4]Bill Lanker
[4]Chris Adams
[4]Jordan Wineinger
[4]Timothy Erbil

[3]QA Associate Leads - Support Teams
[4]Jimmy Schindler

[3]QA Specialists - Support Teams
[4]David Dalie
[4]Taylor Galauska
[4]Zachary Little

[3]Sr. Testers - Support Teams
[4]Brian Reiss
[4]Julian Molina

[3]Support Team Testers
[4]Cazar Toni Palad
[4]Chris Doing
[4]Dan Nelson
[4]Travis Pointer

[3]IT Director
[4]Chris Jones

[3]Helpdesk Supervisor/System Administrator
[4]Mike Becker

[3]Mastering Lab Technician
[4]Travis Allen

[3]PC Technicians
[4]Martin Risher
[4]Steven Sexton 
[4]Mastering Engineer
[4]Wayne Boyce

[3]Mastering Technician
[4]Alan Vincent

[3]2K Las Vegas IT
[4]Martin Risher
[4]Michael Becker
[4]Steven Sexton
[4]Travis Allen

[3]Special Thanks
[4]Alexandria Belk
[4]Candice Javellonar
[4]Christina Smith
[4]Dustin Carey
[4]Douglas Rothman
[4]Jamey Wade
[4]Jeremy Ford
[4]Joe Bettis
[4]Joshua Vance
[4]Leslie Cullum
[4]Michael "Gryf" Weber
[4]Rachel McGrew
[4]Steven Johnson

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]2K INTERNATIONAL CREATIVE SERVICES

[3]Director of Creative Services and Localisation
[4]Nathalie Mathews

[3]Localisation Project Manager
[4]Cara Lacey

[3]Localisation and Creative Services Assistant
[4]Matt Lamplugh

[3]Snr Manager, Design
[4]Tom Baker

[3]Graphic Designer
[4]James Quinlan

[3]Video Content Editor
[4]Barney Austin
[4]Diana Cooper

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]EXTERNAL LOCALISATION TEAMS
[4]Around the Word
[4]Effective Media GmbH
[4]Synthesis - A Keywords Studio
[4]QLOC S.A.

[4]Localisation tools and support provided by XLOC Inc.

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]2K INTERNATIONAL TERRITORY MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
[4]Adam Perry
[4]Agnès Rosique
[4]Alison Gram
[4]Anne Speth
[4]Axel Arnal
[4]Belinda Crowe
[4]Ben Seccombe
[4]Benjamin Magnan
[4]Callum Cuming
[4]Carlo Volz
[4]Carlos Villasante
[4]Caroline Rajcom
[4]Dennis De Bruin
[4]Diana Heinzelmann
[4]Gemma Woolnough
[4]Jan Sturm
[4]Javier Sastre
[4]Jean-Paul Hardy
[4]Julien Brossat
[4]Kayleigh Watson
[4]Margaux Duval
[4]Maria Martinez
[4]Matt Gardner
[4]Maxime Le Nevanic
[4]Mikey Foley
[4]Roger Langford
[4]Romina Schoener
[4]Sandra Mauri
[4]Sandra Melero
[4]Sean Phillips
[4]Shelly van Seventer
[4]Simon Turner
[4]Stefan Eder
[4]Urel Eustatius
[4]Warner Guinée
[4]Yoona Kim
[4]Zaida Gomez

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]TAKE-TWO INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
[4]Kevin Smith
[4]Nisha Verma
[4]Phil Anderton
[4]Richard Kelly

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]2K INTERNATIONAL QUALITY ASSURANCE
[3]QA Director
[4]José Miñana
 
[3]Localisation QA Managers
[4]Adriana Cervantes
[4]Oscar Pereira 
 
[3]Localisation QA Leads
[4]Florian Genthon
[4]Jose Olivares
[4]Manuel Aguayo
[4]Sergio Accettura
 
[3]Localisation QA Associate Leads 
[4]Daniel Im
[4]Sarah Dembet
[4]Timothy Cooper
 
[3]Sr. Localisation QA Technicians
[4]Benny Johnson
[4]Dmitry Kuzmin
[4]Pablo Menéndez
[4]Patricia Ramón
  
[3]Localisation QA Technicians
[4]Alessandra Mazzarella
[4]Alexander Onesti
[4]Chong Eun Chi
[4]Dimitri Gerard
[4]Ernesto Rodriguez Cruz
[4]Etienne Dumont
[4]Frédéric Créhin
[4]Gabriele Cesarini
[4]Guillermo Andre Obregón
[4]Hannah Carrillo
[4]Koso Suzuki
[4]Luca Panaccione
[4]Luca Rungi
[4]Marcus Focht
[4]Natsue Bun
[4]Riccardo Gately
[4]Robert Chambers
[4]Samuel França
[4]Samuel Roux
[4]Seon Hee C. Anderson
[4]Stefania L. Monaco
[4]Yury Fesechka

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]2K ASIA TEAM 
  
[3]Asia General Manager 
[4]Jason Wong 
  
[3]Asia Marketing Directors 
[4]Diana Tan 
[4]Tracy Chua 
  
[3]Asia Sr. Marketing Manager 
[4]Daniel Tan 
  
[3]Japan Marketing Manager 
[4]Kyoko Fuke 
  
[3]Korea Marketing Manager 
[4]Dina Chung 
  
[3]China Marketing Manager 
[4]Leo Li 
  
[3]Asia Associate Marketing Manager 
[4]Rohan Ishwarlal 

[3]Asia Senior Product Executive 
[4]Hannah Tan
  
[3]Asia Product Executives 
[4]Wayne Ng 
[4]Toh Jing Kai

[3]Asia Marketing Executive
[4]Howard Chan

[3]China Marketing Executive
[4]Nate Guo
  
[3]Asia Marketing Assistant
[4]Victoria Koh

[3]Japan Marketing Assistant 
[4]David Anderson 
  
[3]Korea Marketing Assistant 
[4]Park Sangmin 
  
[3]Sr. Localization Manager 
[4]Yosuke Yano 
  
[3]Localization Coordinator 
[4]Mao Iwai 
  
[3]Localization Coordinator 
[4] Aki Kawashima
  
[3]Localization Assistant 
[4]Chen Li
  
[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]TAKE-TWO ASIA OPERATIONS 
[4]Eileen Chong 
[4]Veronica Khuan 
[4]Chermine Tan 
[4]Takako Davis 
[4]Yuki Suhara 
  
[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]TAKE-TWO ASIA BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT 
[4]Erik Ford 
[4]Syn Chua 
[4]Paul Adachi 
[4]Hidekatsu Tani 
[4]Aiki Kihara 
[4]Ken Tilakaratna 
[4]Anna Choi 
[4]Hyun Jiwon
[4]Felix Ng 
[4]Thomas Chung
[4]Dustin Zhao 

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]2K CHENGDU LOCALIZATION QUALITY ASSURANCE
[3]QA Director
[4]Zhang Xi Kun
 
[3]QA Manager
[4]Du Jing

[3]Localization QA Project Lead
[4]Kan Liang
 
[3]QA Localization Lead
[4]Zhu Jian

[3]Localization QA Associate Lead
[4]Kan Liang
[4]Hyunmin Cho

[3]Senior QA Localization Testers
[4]Tang Shu
[4]Jin Xiong Jie
[4]Hu Meng Meng
[4]Zhao Yu
[4]Tan Liu Yang
[4]Wang Ce
[4]Zhao Jin Yi
[4]Tong Yi Feng
[4]Tian Qi Feng

[3]QA Localization Testers
[4]Li Ling Li
[4]Chen Xue Mei
[4]Li Zong Yu
[4]Zhuo Wei
[4]Wang Bang Yan
[4]Hu Yong Jia
[4]Zhang Zi Tong

[3]Junior QA Localization Testers
[4]Zhao Peng
[4]Zhang Kun Rou
[4]Li We Jie
[4]Yan Xiao Kang
[4]Xiong Chang

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]2K CHINA QUALITY ASSURANCE

[3]QA Director
[4]Zhang Xi Kun

[3]Senior QA Manager
[4]Steve Manners

[3]QA Supervisor
[4]Qi Ke Lei

[3]Lead QA Tester
[4]Bai Gui Long

[3]Associate Lead
[4]Wang Dan Yang

[3]Senior QA Testers
[4]Gong Yi Ren
[4]Hu Die
[4]Lan Shi Bo
[4]Tang Cong
[4]Wu Di

[3]QA Testers
[4]Dai Tian Hao
[4]Sun Xu
[4]Wang Zhi Chen
[4]Wu Chun Feng

[3]Junior QA Testers
[4]Feng Lin Wei
[4]Li Xao Long

[3]Support Team Leads
[4]Ji Yang

[3]Support Team Senior Testers
[4]Liu Ya Qin
[4]Yang Hui
[4]Zhang Biao
[4]Zhang Wei
[4]Zhang Yin Xue

[3]Support Team Testers
[4]Zhou Hao Tian

[3]IT Support
[4]Hu Xiang
[4]Wang Peng

[3]Special Thanks
[4]Xie Ya Xi
[4]Li Hua
[4]Zhang Pei
[4]Duan Shuang Li
[4]Shao Bang Zhu
[4]Li Min
[4]Zeng Hui
[4]Yang Sheng
[4]Jiang Chuan

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]VERY SPECIAL THANKS
[4]Strauss Zelnick

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]SPECIAL THANKS 
[4]Pete Anderson
[4]Nicholas Bublitz
[4]Chris Burton
[4]David Cox
[4]Marquis Danner
[4]Hank Diamond
[4]Dan Emerson
[4]Greg Gibson
[4]Steve Glickstein
[4]Lainie Goldstein
[4]Brooke Grabrian
[4]Jordan Katz
[4]Jenn Kolbe
[4]Alan Lewis
[4]Katie Nelson
[4]Pedram Rahbari
[4]Arnoldo Rodriguez
[4]Betsy Ross
[4]Karl Slatoff
[4]Take-Two Digital Sales Team
[4]Take-Two Channel Marketing Team
[4]Take-Two Legal Team
[4]Take-Two Sales Team
[4]Danielle Williams
[4]Maria Zamaniego
[4]Wouter van Vugt
[4]Clifford Lim

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]AGENCIES
[4]Access Brand Communications
[4]Hammer Creative
[4]Ignition Creative

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]EXTERNAL VENDORS AND CONTRACTORS
[3]Music Composition 
[4]Geoff Knorr

[3]Additional Music Composition 
[4]Christopher Tin
[4]Timothy Michael Wynn
[4]Phill Boucher

[3]Original Score Recording 
[4]FILMharmonic Orchestra of Prague 
[3]Conductor and Music Director
[4]Andy Brick

[3]Cinematic Sound Design
[4]Source Sound, Inc.
[3]Supervising Sound Designer & Mix
[4]Charles Deenen

[3]Sound Designers
[4]Matt Cavanaugh
[4]Brent Burge
[4]Braden Parkes

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]VOICEOVER CAST  
[3]Narrator
[4]Sean Bean

[3]Advisor 
[4]Natasha Loring

[3]Hojo Tokimune
[4]Yoshi Ando

[3]Pedro II
[4]Renato Belschansky

[3]Tomyris
[4]Alina Irbekov Berezova

[3]Trajan
[4]Gianmarco Ceconi

[3]Frederick Barbarossa
[4]Bert Coll

[3]Peter the Great
[4]Mikhail Danilyuk

[3]Gorgo
[4]Angeliki Dimitrakopoulou

[3]Gilgamesh
[4]Jorge Badillo Galvan

[3]Saladin
[4]Alhan Gharam

[3]Cleopatra
[4]Nirvana Hisham

[3]Qin Shi Huang
[4]Junchao Huang

[3]Mvemba a Nzinga
[4]Mamengi Alfredo Lombisi

[3]Queen Victoria
[4]Lucy Briggs Owen

[3]Catherine de Medici
[4]Lara Valentina Parmiani

[3]Montezuma
[4]Irwin Daayan Rosenthal Sarli

[3]Gandhi
[4]Pawan Shukla

[3]Hardrada
[4]Atli Rafn Sigurdsson

[3]Pericles
[4]Konstantinos Stelloudis

[3]Theodore Roosevelt
[4]Richard Tatum

[3]Philip II
[4]Anton Carmano Vega

[3]Jadwiga
[4]Julia Jakubowska

[3]John Curtin
[4]Simon Burke

[3]Alexander
[4]Dimitris Papadopoulos

[3]Cyrus
[4]Arian Risbaf

[3]Amanitore
[4]Fatma Abd Elsalam

[3]Gitarja
[4]Dyah Febriani

[3]Jayavarman VII
[4]Heng Sarorn

[3]Mansa Musa
[4]Hesham Mostafa Elshazly

[3]Pachacuti
[4]Augusto Casafranca Cortez

[3]Dido
[4]Julie Fainer

[3]Matthias Corvinus
[4]Gabor Varga 

[3]Christina of Sweden
[4]MTAG

[3]Suleiman
[4]Yavuz Vatansever

[3]Eleanor of Aquitaine
[4]Lucile Barbier

[3]Kupe
[4]Te Arahi Napi Maipi  

[3]Sir Wilfrid Laurier
[4]Alain Cadieux  

[3]Lady Six Sky
[4]Carla Castañeda Mendoza

[3]Simon Bolivar
[4]Iván Ramón Orihuela Raschery

[3]Menelik II
[4]Debebe Eshetu

[3]Ambiorix
[4]Julien Boissaud

[3]Basil II
[4]George Petpidis

[3]Hammurabi
[4]Jose Daniel Martinez Robles

[3]Bà Triệu
[4]Ha Le Giang

[3]Kublai Khan
[4]Erdenechuluun Tumurbaatar

[3]Joao III
[4]Alberto Novo

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]FRENCH CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Philippe Catoire

[3]Advisor
[4]Caroline Victoria

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]GERMAN CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Achim Barrenstein

[3]Advisor
[4]Karoline Mask von Oppen

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]ITALIAN CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Giorgio Bonino

[3]Advisor
[4]Katia Sorrentino

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]SPANISH CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Alfonso Laguna

[3]Advisor
[4]Danai Jiménez

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]POLISH CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Przemysław Walich

[3]Advisor
[4]Joanna Matuszak

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]RUSSIAN CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Andrey Lysenko (Андрей Лысенко)

[3]Advisor
[4]Alina Milosh (Алина Милош)

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]JAPANESE CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Kenichi Suzumura

[3]Advisor
[4]Nao Toyama

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]KOREAN CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Shin Han

[3]Advisor
[4]Yoon Seon Lim

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]SIMPLIFIED CHINESE CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Zhang Lei

[3]Advisor
[4]Yang Yi Fang

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]TRADITIONAL CHINESE CAST
[3]Narrator
[4]Fang Rong Feng

[3]Advisor
[4]Qi Qi

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]VOICEOVER RECORDING STUDIOS
[3]Lime Studios
[3]Dialog Recordist
[4]Tom Paolantonio

[3]Producer
[4]Susie Boyajan 

[3]Orchard Recording Studios, Somerset UK

[3]Engineers
[4]Mark Bowyer
[4]James Wilkes
[4]Charlotte Worthy-Jarvis

[3]Side UK 

[3]Production Manager
[4]Emily Munster

[3]Sound Engineer
[4]Ant Hales

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]ADDITIONAL VOICEOVER CASTING AND RECORDING 
[3]Signal Space

[3]Creative Director 
[4]Jose Aguirre

[3]Researcher
[4]Inga Knoth

[3]Audio Editors
[4]Valentino Lercher
[4]Matthew Knutson

[3]Project Manager 
[4]Christopher Fox

[3]Voiceover Directors
[4]JB Blanc
[4]Chad Rocco

[3]Dialogue Editors
[4]Transatlantic Audio/Dante Fazio
[4]Austin Krier
[4]Garrett Montgomery, M.P.S.E.
[4]Stephen Selvaggio

[3]Additional Writing 
[4]Maurice Suckling
[4]Angelica Fuchs

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]CINEMATIC PRODUCTION SERVICES 
[3]Plastic Wax Pty Ltd

[3]Creative Leads
[4]Nathan Maddams
[4]Dane Maddams

[3]Executive Producer
[4]Felix Crenshaw

[3]Management
[4]Mick Hammell
[4]Pat Dedal
[4]Terry Mickaiel 

[3]Production Management
[4]Carly Glover
[4]Toby Alderton
[4]Abby Livermore

[3]Art Direction
[4]Tyrone Maddams

[3]Art Department
[4]Jeff Henderson
[4]Lars Holmgren

[3]Head of Modeling
[4]Dean Wood

[3]Modelers
[4]Alexia Zantides
[4]Dan Horsfall
[4]Josh Knorr
[4]Tristan Locke
[4]Werner Gradwell
[4]Ahmed Wafdy
[4]Ben Mikhaiel
[4]Brett Sinclair
[4]Bruno Camara
[4]Dan Horsfall
[4]Jacob King
[4]Josh Davies
[4]Josh Shahinian
[4]Lisa Schachner
[4]Luc Bégin
[4]Mahmoud Abdelfatah
[4]Mohamed Abdelfatah
[4]Nicole Padilha
[4]Sebastian Fletcher
[4]Sherif Amer
[4]Stephen Clark
[4]Stephen Macris
[4]Thomas Colla
[4]Vee Ng

[3]Head of Animation 
[4]Wes Adams

[3]Animators and Rigging
[4]Mitch Coote
[4]Damian Paon
[4]Cam Ralph
[4]Tom Janson
[4]Gareth Rhodes
[4]Zarvan Kotwal
[4]Phil Hook 
[4]Sina Azad
[4]Debby Albers
[4]George Varettas
[4]Huy Ngo
[4]Luke Sullivan
[4]Sina Azad
[4]Werner Gradwell

[3]Head of Lighting
[4]Ben Malter
[4]Damien Mahoney

[3]Lighting and Rendering
[4]Nigel Waddington
[4]Owen Gillman
[4]Ben Shearman
[4]Serge Kovalenko
[4]Elizabeth Poole
[4]Epona Toose
[4]Jake Robinson
[4]Johnathon Izquierdo
[4]Matt McKay

[3]Head of Visual Effects 
[4]Sidney Cheng

[3]Visual Effects
[4]David Frodsham
[4]Alejandro Garrido Portocarrero
[4]Antony Salvadorini
[4]Davide Mella
[4]Ferry Taswin
[4]Francis Andalis
[4]James Barnes
[4]Steve Cheah
[4]Fernando Flores Gonzales

[3]Head of Compositing
[4]Daniel Loui

[3]Compositors
[4]Jad Haber
[4]Ryan Trippensee
[4]Yoav Dolev
[4]Mike Holmes
[4]Grace Testa
[4]Ian Douglass
[4]Nick Bulman
[4]Stuart Spoard

[3]Pipeline and IT Systems
[4]Chris Lee
[4]Dave Sparrow
[4]Tom Mayfield

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]ADDITIONAL CINEMATIC PRODUCTION SERVICES
[3]Section Studios

[3]Production
[4]Justin Yun 
[4]Kami Talebi 

[3]Concept
[4]Gabriel Yeganyan
[4]Cuba Lee
[4]Brian Kim
[4]Howard Pak
[4]Hyunjae Lee
[4]Lucas Helmintoller
[4]Mohammad Chowdhury

[3]Animation
[4]Cameron Mott
[4]Judson Morgan

[3]Concept Art House
[3]CEO
[4]James Zhang 

[3]VP of Production
[4]Kaijing Yu 

[3]Director of Business Development
[4]Davis Kurzenski 

[3]Lead Artist
[4]Ken Chou 

[3]Project Managers
[4]Katharine Zhang, John Zhang 

[3]CAH Production Team

[3]Applied Cinematics
[4]Mike O’Rourke
[4]Jason Flynn

[i]TechTree_Meter_Done 

[2]3D ART ASSETS
[3]Gameshastra Solutions Private Limited

[3]Additional Character Modeling
[4]Pavel Protasov 

[3]Additional Animation
[4]Greg Marlow
[4]Dan Perry
[4]Heather Caprini Harris

[3]Additional Concept Art
[3]Opus Artz Studio

[3]Lead Artist
[4]Bjorn Hurri
[3]Concept Artist
[4]Bjork Tróndheim
[3]Concept Artist
[4]Sabina Lewis
[3]Creative Director
[4]Dr Chee Wong

[3]Additional Foley
[4]Studio Unknown


