Ancient history

• The prince, science and technology (15th-18th centuries)

  In modern times, the prince demands the same from arts and sciences, through patronage and academicism. It maintains scholars and artists, protects them and offers them a space of freedom to at the same time control and standardize science under an orthodoxy. Moreover, the utilitarian aspect is not

• Triangular trade and the Atlantic slave trade (15th-19th centuries)

  The Triangular Trade refers to the process of the slave trade from the end of the 17th century to the end of the 18th century between Europe, Africa and America (mainly the West Indies). The black slave trade represented a source of considerable profit for several European powers (in particular Engl

• The Age of Enlightenment, in France and in Europe

  Often called Enlightenment , the 18th century was marked by the cultural movement of the same name, which flourished partly in reaction to the religious conflicts of the previous century. The expression Age of Enlightenment is frequently used by writers of the time, convinced that they had just emer

• American Revolution and Birth of the United States

  The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a conflict between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies on the east coast of North America. Following its victory over France in 1763, Great Britain had become the first colonial power in the world. In the New World, once the threat of

• The sicisbeo:when Italy invented the three-way marriage

  In the 17th century, there appeared an Italian custom of going out into the world with three people:the husband, the woman and the Sigisbeus , which some call marriage of three . These particular characters, the cicisbeos, could be likened to the “knight servant” of the noble lady, in 18th century

• July 4, 1776 - United States Declaration of Independence

  Adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 , the Declaration of Independence is a document that proclaims the independence of the thirteen British colonies in America. Signed in Philadelphia, it paves the way for the founding of a new nation:the United States. This declaration shook the wor

• New France:when America was French

  We often tend to forget that North America was not always Anglo- Saxon. It was even, with India, the first French colonial empire, from Quebec to New Orleans. From the beginning of the 16th century, courageous and intrepid explorers surveyed the new world, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the s

• Francisco Pizarro and the capture of the Inca Atahualpa

  On November 16, 1532, the Inca Emperor Atahualpa was captured in the middle of his retinue by a small group of Spaniards led by Francisco Pizarro . This daring attack, coupled with a terrible massacre, would sound the death knell of the Inca Empire and begin its conquest by the Spaniards. However, t

• The prince of the Renaissance, in Italy and France

  Francis I is the monarch who most often embodies the model of the Renaissance prince . If the latter marks the transition between the Middle Ages and the so-called “modern” era, it is however more attached to the artistic field than to politics. However, it also marks an evolution between the prince

• The prince, the arts and death (14th-16th centuries)

  At the end of the Middle Ages, the princes mobilize the patronage system for their final resting place, built during their lifetime. The society of the time was marked by the phenomenon of death, as shown for example by the dances of death. Thus develops an ars moriendi , sets of instructions aimed

• The mirror to the princes (IXᵉ - XVIᵉ centuries)

  The mirror to princes ”, if we stick to the definition proposed by the historian Einar Már Jónsson, is a literary genre, correlated to the political treatise, which appeared within the Carolingian world during the 9th century, and which emerged in the German historiography at the beginning of the 20

• Pre-Columbian civilizations:America before Columbus

  Its from the 3rd century AD, and more from the 10th century , that the great pre-Columbian civilizations were born (before the arrival of Christopher Columbus ). The best known are the Mayas, Toltecs, Aztecs and Incas. Drawing their power from agriculture and endowed with developed political and rel

• The conspiracy of the Pazzi (1478)

  In universal history, plots, conspiracies and attacks were numerous, sometimes changing the course of things . The Pazzi Conspiracy , which took place in Florence in 1478 , is the typical example of a failed political plot in modern times. Angel Politian , intellectual and renowned member of the Flo

• Cloth of Gold camp (June 7, 1520)

  The Gold Cloth Camp , nicknamed the Bivouac de Luxe , is the scene of the meeting of two kings, on June 7, 1520:François Ier and Henri VIII. The King of France hoped to obtain the signing of a treaty of alliance there with the suspicious King of England, in order to counterbalance the new political

• Peace of the Ladies:the Treaty of Cambrai (August 3, 1529)

  The Peace of the Ladies is a treaty signed in Cambrai on August 3, 1529 and which puts an end to the second Italian war which opposes two enemy cousins:François Ier and Charles Quint. The mother of the first, Louise of Savoy, and the aunt of the second, Marguerite of Austria, met in Cambrai on July

• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494):dividing up the world

  Signed on June 7, 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas establishes an imaginary demarcation line crossing the Atlantic west of the Cape Verde Islands and delimits the overseas possessions of Spain and Portugal. By this treaty, which will be ratified by a papal bull, the Catholic Kings and John II of Port

• The Renaissance:Europe rediscovering Antiquity

  The Renaissance is the name given to the vast cultural and artistic movement that Europe experienced from the 14th century to the end of the 16th century, following the rediscovery of the cultural, intellectual and scientific heritage of Antiquity. Born in Italy, the Renaissance movement will shake

• Music in the Middle Ages

  From the song of the monk, praising God six-eight hours a day to the improvisations of a minstrel or a troubadour, music gave rhythm by its omnipresence to daily life in the Middle Ages, both in collective and private life. However, medieval society did not think of music , he thought according to m

• Pope Joan:beneath the legend a reality?

  At the end of the Middle Ages, a curious rumor circulated in Europe:a woman (the Pope Joan ?) would have occupied the papal throne between the year 855 and the year 858 under the name of John VIII the Angelica. After returning to orders, she would have become a cardinal and was then elected pope. S

• Tournaments and jousting of knights in the Middle Ages

  Gradually organized into tournaments, the jousting was a medieval combat of men on horseback who fought by means of a spear. Favorite occupation of nobles in the Middle Ages , the tournaments experienced an extraordinary vogue in France from the 12th century before spreading to Germany and England.