All articles tagged with #world history
The Smithsonian Institution is examining the global impact of the transatlantic slave trade through a new exhibition, highlighting how it shaped societies and economies worldwide. The exhibition aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the cultural and historical significance of the slave trade.
As Rwanda marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide, survivors like Rachel Mukantabana, who lost many family members, now live in reconciliation villages alongside the perpetrators. The government has outlawed speech that draws ethnic distinctions and has a reconciliation barometer, rating reconciliation at 94.7%. Experts say reconciliation is a messy process, with perpetrators like Didas Kayinamura sharing complex narratives about their involvement. Despite the brutal history, survivors and perpetrators are learning to live side by side in a community where ethnic divisions are being replaced by a shared Rwandan identity.
Gad Partok, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor from Tunisia, was deeply traumatized by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, which revived memories of Nazi atrocities from his childhood. The attack, which resulted in the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, shattered his belief in Israel as a haven. Partok, who had escaped the Nazis in Tunisia and moved to Israel, felt a sense of abandonment as he watched the onslaught and wondered where the country's defenses had gone. The trauma of the recent attack has added extra weight to International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, a country with roughly half of the world’s Holocaust survivors.
The upcoming 2024 election is being touted as the most crucial in world history due to its potential global impact and political significance. With various geopolitical and domestic challenges facing nations around the world, the outcome of this election is expected to shape the course of international relations and policies for years to come.
The Montevideo Maru, a Japanese merchant ship carrying over 1,000 Allied prisoners of war, was torpedoed by a US submarine in 1942 off the coast of the Philippines. It was Australia's largest maritime wartime loss. The wreck was recently found by a team of explorers using an autonomous underwater vehicle. No efforts will be made to remove human remains and artifacts out of respect for the families of those who died.
The book "Pathogenesis" by Jonathan Kennedy argues that the reason Homo sapiens prevailed over other human species is due to their superior immune systems, which were exposed to a greater array of microbes in Africa. Infections have shaped fundamental elements of mammalian biology, and human civilizations have been shaped by disease. The introduction of infectious diseases from Europe resulted in a 90% fall in the population in the Americas, from about 60.5m in 1500 to 6m a century later. Kennedy marshals a dizzying range of material, from the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe to the defeat of the British army by American revolutionaries in Yorktown in 1781.