Adam Smith

Adam Smith (16 June 1723 NS (5 June 1723 OS) â€" 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher, pioneer of political economy, and ke...

Printing press

A printing press is a device for evenly printing ink onto a print medium (substrate) such as paper or cloth. The device applies pressure to...

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 â€" 18 February 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo ( Italian pronunciati...

Polymath

A polymath (Greek: πολυμαθής, polymathÄ"s , "having learned much") is a person whose expertise spans a significant ...

Intellectual

An intellectual is a person who engages in critical study, thought, and reflection about the reality of society, proposes solutions for the...

Curiosity

Curiosity (from Latin curiosus "careful, diligent, curious," akin to cura "care") is a quality related to inquisitive...

Witch-hunt

A witch-hunt is a search for people labelled "witches" or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic or mass hysteria. B...

Colonialism

Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colony in one territory by a political power fro...

Age of Discovery

The Age of Discovery is a historical period of European global exploration that started in the early 15th century with the first Portuguese...

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618â€"1648. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in ...

Mercantilism

Mercantilism was an economic theory and practice, dominant in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, that promoted governmental regulati...

Genoa

Genoa (/ˈdÊ'É›noÊŠ.É™/; Italian: Genova [ˈdÍ¡Ê'ɛːnova]  ( ) ; Genoese and Ligurian Zena [ˈzeːna]; French: Gênes ; Latin a...

Republic

A republic is a form of government in which power resides in the people, and the government is ruled by elected leaders run according to la...

Nation state

A nation state is a geographical area that can be identified as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign nation. A sta...

Politics

Politics (from Greek: πολιτικός politikos , meaning "of, for, or relating to citizens") is the practice and theory of in...

History of technology

The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques, and is similar in many ways to the history of humanity. ...

Vitruvian Man

The Vitruvian Man , Italian: Le proporzioni del corpo umano secondo Vitruvio , is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci around 1490. It is accompan...

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( Italian:  [leoˈnardo da vˈvintʃi]  ( ) ; 15 April 1452 â€" 2 May 1519) was an Italian painter, ...

Masonry

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the u...

Inca road system

The Inca road system was the most extensive and advanced transportation system in pre-Columbian South America. It was more than 20,000 mile...

Andes

The Andes is the longest continental mountain range in the world. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South Ame...

Cusco

Cusco /ˈkuːzkoÊŠ/, often spelled Cuzco (Spanish: Cuzco , [ˈkusko]; Quechua: Qusqu or Qosqo , IPA:  [ˈqÉ"sqÉ"]), is a city ...

Inca Empire

The Inca Empire (Quechua: Tawantinsuyu , lit.  "The Four Regions"), also known as the Inka Empire or Incan Empire , was the lar...

South America

South America is a continent located in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the N...

Classic Maya collapse

The Classic Maya Collapse refers to the decline of the Mayan Classic Period and abandonment of the Classic Period Maya cities of the southe...

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan /teɪˌoÊŠtiːwəˈkÉ'ːn/, also written Teotihuacán (Spanish  teotiwa'kan ), was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican ...

Cahokia

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoÊŠkiÉ™/ (11 MS 2) is located on the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city ( c. 600â€&quo...

Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeas...

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu (in hispanicized spelling, Spanish pronunciation:  [ˈmatʃu ˈpiktʃu]) or Machu Pikchu (Quechua machu old, old person, pi...

Rongorongo

Rongorongo (/ˈrÉ'Å‹É¡oʊˈrÉ'Å‹É¡oÊŠ/; Rapa Nui: [ˈɾoÅ‹oˈɾoÅ‹o]) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easte...

Aotearoa

Aotearoa ( Māori:  [aÉ"ˈtÉ›aɾÉ"a], originally used in reference to the North Island of New Zealand, is now the most widely kn...

Taputapuatea marae

Marae Taputapuatea is a large marae complex at Opoa in Taputapuatea, on the south eastern coast of Raiatea. The site features a number of m...

Society Islands

The Society Islands (French: Îles de la Société or officially Archipel de la Société ; Tahitian: Tōtaiete mā ) are a group of islan...

Thalassocracy

The term thalassocracy (from Greek language θάλασσα ( thalassa ), meaning "sea", and κρατεῖν ( kratein ), meaning ...

Kanak people

Kanak (French spelling: Kanak since 1984; earlier Canaque ) are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas colle...

Loyalty Islands

The Loyalty Islands (French: Îles Loyauté ) are an archipelago in the Pacific. They are part of the French territory of New Caledonia, wh...

Indonesia

Indonesia (/ˌɪndəˈniːÊ'É™/ IN -dÉ™- NEE -zhÉ™ or /ˌɪndoʊˈniːziÉ™/ IN -doh- NEE -zee-É™ ), officially the Republic of Indones...

Ava Kingdom

The Ava Kingdom (Burmese: အင်းဝခေတ်, pronounced:  [Ê"ɪ́ɴwaÌ° kʰɪÊ"]) was the dominant kingdom that ruled ...

Lan Xang

The Lao kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao (Lao: ລ້ານຊ້າງຂາວຂາວ Lanxanghômkhao /laːn˥˧ saːŋ˥˧ hom˧ khaːw˥...

Champa

The term Champa refers to a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vi...

Lavo Kingdom

The Kingdom of Lavo was a political entity (mandala) on the left bank of the Chao Phraya River in the Upper Chao Phraya valley from the end...

Srivijaya

Srivijaya (also written Sri Vijaya , Sanskrit: श्रीविजय Indonesian/Malay: Sriwijaya , Thai: ศรีวิชัย or Ṣ...

Burma

Burma (/ˈbÉœrmÉ™/ BUR -mÉ™ ), officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , commonly shortened to Myanmar (/ˈmjÉ'ːnËŒmÉ'r/ ...

Pagan Kingdom

The Kingdom of Pagan (Burmese: ပုဂံခေတ်, pronounced:  [bəɡàɴ kʰɪÊ"], lit. " Pagan Period "; also comm...

Thai people

The Thai people, formerly known as Siamese are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples fo...

Ayutthaya Kingdom

Ayutthaya (/É'ːˈjuːtÉ™jÉ™/; Thai: อยุธยา, [Ê"ajúttÊ°ajaː]; also spelled Ayudhya) was a Siamese kingdom that exist...