Histomap: Visualizing the 4,000 Year History of Global Power

This histomap, created in 1931 by John B. Sparks, is probably one of the most interesting bits of info you’ll probably come across in a while and serves as a good break from today’s politics.

 

View a high resolution version of this graphic

 

Imagine creating a timeline of your country’s whole history stretching back to its inception.

It would be no small task, and simply weighing the relative importance of so many great people, technological achievements, and pivotal events would be a tiny miracle in itself.

While that seems like a challenge, imagine going a few steps further. Instead of a timeline for just one country, what about creating a graphical timeline showing the history of the entire world over a 4,000 year time period, all while having no access to computers or the internet?

Norway: The People’s Revolution vs. The “Religion of Peace”

It seems that most people in Europe — in the wake of the Paris massacres at the magazine Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket — have either forgotten, or never been taught, that Muslims have invaded Europe several times before. In the Eighth Century, the Moors (Muslims from North Africa) succeeded in conquering Spain and the early medieval French King, Charles Martel, fought and put a stop to the Moors’ invasion of France. It took 800 years to expel Islam from Spain; the final expulsion of the Moors from Andalusia occurred 1492. Later, the Ottomans made it to the gates of Vienna in 1683. How has Islam’s nature and history in Europe been forgotten?

Norway, like many other countries in Europe after World War II, has built up an expansive welfare state. It is based on the principle of shared values, shared goals and shared faith in the state. Historically, Norway has prided itself in being a largely classless society with a large middle class, and only a small upper class or nobility.

Europe Riots Against … What?

Across Europe, the people are protesting. But they’re not fed up with a particular party or person. They’re rallying against the whole political system.

Between 100,000 and 200,000 people turned out to protest in Bulgaria last Sunday. That’s a lot of people for a small country—around 2 percent of the whole population. “Bulgarians rarely overcome their apathy to go out on the streets,” notes the EU Observer. “They don’t usually believe they can make a difference by protesting.”

What prompted them to turn out this time? The government had already stepped down a few days earlier. They were protesting against no one.

Why America Should Not Have Toppled Mubarak

Apparently, President Obama has a compatriot at heart in Egypt’s new president Mohammad Morsi. Don’t like what the nation’s judges rule? Just issue an executive order and ignore the constitution. On Sunday, Morsi ordered Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament back in session—boldly defying the nation’s Supreme Court and the military leaders who enforced the order.

On June 14, the Supreme Court ruled that one third of the members of the lower house had been elected unlawfully—that they had been elected to seats that were reserved for secular and minority religious groups. The interim military rulers subsequently dissolved the lower house.

A few days later, Morsi was elected president. And now, one of his first moves is to annul the court’s decree and order lawmakers (most of whom are members of his party, or other ultra-conservative Islamists) back to work.

Can he legally do that? Probably not. But who can stop him?

Morsi’s move was a direct challenge to the former military rulers. It shows his strength. But more importantly, it shows the direction Morsi wants to take Egypt—away from the more secular constitution and into a fundamentalist Islamic future.

Astoundingly, America doesn’t seem concerned. Morsi’s defiance of the courts and Egypt’s constitution comes just days before a high-profile visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Morsi has little reason to fear. The moment America decided to embrace the “Arab Spring” and push former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power, it was consigned to dealing with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

But it is actually worse than that. America is embracing Morsi.

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If America was truly interested in supporting parties that are committed to nonviolence and the way to peace, it never would have worked to overthrow Hosni Mubarak in the first place.

Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak administrations have done more than any other Muslim regimes to work toward real peace. Neither were perfect men, but they both risked their lives for their beliefs—and actions—that actually brought peace to a region. In fact, Anwar Sadat was assassinated by terrorists with links to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood (and Iran) for making peace with Israel. Isn’t peacemaking the ultimate nonviolence? After Sadat’s death, Mubarak upheld the peace treaty that was the foundation for the last 30-plus years of peace.

But Egypt’s new President Mohammed Morsi embodies the total opposite of what Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak stood for. And if people understood history, that would scare them.

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Morsi is also a 9/11 “Truther” who doesn’t believe terrorists blew up the World Trade Towers, but that it was some sort of U.S. government conspiracy.

This is America’s new ally. This is the man whom America helped put in power.

Full article: Why America Should Not Have Toppled Mubarak (The Trumpet)