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In the book “Journey to the Center of the Earth” the setting plays a large role. The characters (the scientist uncle and his nephew the main character) start out in their home in Germany, where they are completely safe, and they have a chef that provides food whenever they need it, a stark contrast to their journey, when they must ration. They travel to Iceland after they find a note that tells them how to reach the center of the earth, but the trip to Iceland wasn’t eventful other than them meeting a guide who would travel with them, and so they quickly came to the entrance to the center of the earth.

They then came across a tunnel system that would bring them towards their goal. They came to a fork in the road and accidentally went down a tunnel with a dead end, and ran out of water. They then went back and chose a different tunnel with a hot spring behind the tunnel wall, which their servant (Hans) broke through with a pickax, and thusly follow the river, which flowed down one of the tunnels. Throughout this they had to ration their food, and the main character, Harry, was exceptionally whiny, and thought constantly of food and of all the ills that had befallen them, and I did not like him very much. They got lost a handful of times, and once Harry broke his foot after falling through the floor into a lower tunnel, though he was fine after a few days of resting. The whole tunnel system had no light, and so they were forced to use old style flashlights to see, which did not help the atmosphere.

When they reached the end of the tunnels they found a massive chamber filled with an ocean of unknown size, which the uncle named “The Central Sea”. There was an electrical light emitted from the constant lighting in the clouds, due to the atmospheric pressure, and the clouds were formed by the evaporation of hot springs by their own heat. They tried to make a raft and to sail across the ocean, but encountered sea monsters and storms, losing the majority of their food and forcing them to ration more strictly, causing the greatest joy¹ in the protagonist. On the shoreline they found many fossils and huge tree-size mushrooms, and thought they saw mastodons (similar to mammoths, which are similar to elephants) but never directly encountered anything. The story ended with them using gunpowder to blow open a sealed tunnel, but accidentally blowing a hole into a volcano shaft, causing them to flow in with some sea water and blow out of the volcano, ending up on a small island near Italy.

At the end of the story it took people a while to accept that what they had done was real, but eventually came around and gave the uncle several awards and titles and such, the protagonist married his sweetheart, and the guide/servant went back to duck hunting in Iceland.

¹ I’m being sarcastic. Obviously.

The 1600-1800s were times of exploration, with Spain, England, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands (called Holland back then, which is much nicer) all trying to colonize as much land as possible. France was later to the game then the other countries, England first putting a claim on Jamestown, North America in 1499, but it still got a considerable parcel of land.

Jacques Cartier was born in 1491, and became a mariner, sailing to the Caribbean to trade with the mostly Spanish ports there. In 1520 he married into a high aristocratic family, and was able to meet the king through this new position.

In 1534 the king commissioned him to find a passage through North America to the wealthy spice markets in Asia, not being able to go through Europe since Portugal and Holland guarded their routes well. Cartier set out with two ships and 61 men, making for Canada. He found many islands, including Prince Edward Island, Anticosti Island, the Magdalen Islands, and the Islands of the Birds.

He had several encounters with the natives, with limited trade occurring in the first few meetings, but the next meeting in Gaspe Bay resulted in Cartier claiming a huge part of their land and kidnapping two of the chiefs sons, so we can guess negotiations didn’t go well. However, the chief was assured they’d be returned when they got more European goods to trade. Cartier then returned to France later in 1534, under the belief he had found and (partly successfully) traded with Asians in Asia.

He then returned in 1535 with 3 ships and 110 men, including the captives. Things then went smoothly, the natives know trusting the French completely. Jacques then found the St. Lawrence River, believing it could bring him to Asia, having been told Canada was not China in France. They then lived with the natives until 1536, and Cartier heard stories about a land of gold in the north.

He told the king about these stories, but the king told him to instead help colonialists set up a colony in 1541. Cartier helped them get to Canada but when they started setting up the town Jacques decided to leave them and search for the treasure he had heard about. He found the treasure, and immediately went home to France to show the king. Upon arriving it was revealed, however, that the treasure was Pyrite, also known as Fool’s Gold, or Fake Gold. So Cartier’s reputation went up in flames, having disobeyed the king to look for gold, and not even finding good gold. The colony likewise failed, having no support from the ship or crew. It would take 44 years for the colony to be rebuilt, and made into Quebec City.

During the 1500s and 1600s the Spaniards and other countries sent out many explorers to colonize the New World, and there was no shortage of people who had heard of great wealth in the New World and wanted to visit it. The most famous explorer is, of course, Christopher Columbus, and despite being Italian he was funded by Spain to go to India in 1492, but he famously ran into America instead. However, Spain wouldn’t have funded him if it weren’t for the Navigation Guild, which was started by Prince Henry the Navigator (picture above) in 1431, after finding the African gold trade and stopping many pirates.

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese soldier who worked in Oceania, making sure shipments of spice went to Portugal. Unfortunately, he suffered a wound in his leg that gave him a permanent limp. Thinking this allowed him to go home, he sailed back to Portugal, only to be accused of desertion. This caused him immense shame, and made it almost impossible to find work, so he moved to Spain. All this time, the Spanish nobility have been thinking that, it’s good and all that Columbus found a new world, but we still need to get to India. So when Magellan offered to take a fleet through the new world, they gave him five ships and 270 men. The path he took is famous, (red line on the map, blue line is a different explorer) and he found the Straits of Magellan, but he died in the Philippines, the same place he was wounded. His men eventually got back, but out of the five ships and 270 men in the year 1519, only one ship and 18 men got home in 1522.

In 1504 Hernando Cortes went on his first sailing trip to Cuba, to work up some startup profit. In 1518 he got the okay to set sail to Mexico by the Spanish Government, but as he was boarding it came through that he should not set sail, but did this stop him? It should have! He continued to Mexico, and there met several friendly natives, but when an aggressive tribe attacked his hosts he fought with them, and he continued to make treaties with the Aztec Empire’s vassal states, until he managed to conquer the entire empire, winning him and his crew great riches, which encouraged poor people on the mainland to take to sailing. He was then made governor of Mexico (they called it “New Spain”) from 1521-1528 by the King of Spain, but he resigned and continued to explore California until his death at 1547

There were many other explorers, such as Hernando de Soto (in the picture), who discovered the Mississipi River, and sailed on it in 1541, and Juan Ponce de Leon who found much gold in Puerto Rico, later becoming the governor, but never found the Fountain of Youth (as far as we know), his goal. Another is Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, whose mission was to find Cibola, the seven cities of gold. He didn’t find Cibola, but explored much of North America’s Midwest, being the first explorer to find the Grand Canyon. There were a great many other explorers who didn’t do as much, or died without succeeding, and their names are not remembered, and are thus not in this post.

In “The Lion of the North” the main character is a soldier named Malcolm, who is a Scottish boy who lived with his uncle. When the uncle’s old friends showed up asking him to join them in the 30 year’s war (which was waging in Germany between the Catholics and the Protestants between 1618 and 1648) he agrees, and Malcolm wanted to join as well, so he was immediately joined in higher up, just under the uncle’s friend.

He was initially very curious when he was a lower soldier, but he lost that curiosity pretty quickly as he figured out what he had to do. This could also be because the author wanted to explain things quickly and only once, so he had him ask many questions upfront.

He normally avoids doing harm to the peasantry that wasn’t fighting (even being a guard who stopped other soldiers from burning for burnings sake.), and had the utmost abhorrence of the bandits that took advantage of the wartime to raid villages, having been captured and mistreated by a band early on in the book. But, when the villages that were on the Catholic side of the war killed and captured him and his soldiers, he had no trouble killing near 40 of them, despite him being the one who was invading them and his army often pillaging them, because that’s what armies did to keep up on supplies.

He always acted like a veteran, even when he first joined the army, because he was always imitating the way they talked and acted, and this helped lead him to his quick promotions. Evidence of this is that he made it to captain in only a few years.

I think that he was a very methodical thinker, only doing the most simplistic things and using simplistic tactics, but he does it consistently. This means that when other people are at a loss as to what to do, he has a plan, and when other people are panicked he still has a plan, simple as it is. He did this is when the bandits were riding to raid a village he recommended they dig a hole, so that the horsemen fell in. Or, when he decided to swim across a large, freezing river to get a boat on the other side, instead of throwing a hook, or even building a boat, which would probably have been easier.

He is also very awkward with just about everyone, making him painfully polite. This is often evident when his officer Munro talks to him, because he (Munro) is extremely jovial. It is also evident when he is talking to his wife-to-be, because there is absolutely no love evident, especially since the book is narrated by the author, not Malcolm, but both of those things are common in G. A. Henty books.

It is unclear throughout the book whether or not he believes in the Protestant cause, partly because of his painful formality, and while he does join in when others are talking about the “Catholic monstrosities” I feel that he joined the war more because everyone else in Scotland was, especially since he left to go home with his wife with absolutely no fuss about leaving while the Protestants were losing.

The War of the Roses was an English civil war, fought from 1455-1485. It was fought by the Lancastrian Family (who had the throne at the start) and the York Family (who started the rebellion). The reason the war was called “war of the roses” is because the Lancastrian coat of arms had a red rose on it, and the Yorkist symbol was a white rose.

The war started under King Henry VI, the son of Henry V, who had won greatly in the 100 year’s war, but died and left his infant son to wrap it up. Henry VI did this, but suffered an arrow through the neck, which put him in an infirmary, and unable to rule England. Richard III of York was appointed by Parliament to rule until Henry got better, but in 1455, after Henry came back to resume ruling, Richard decided to keep the throne. In his days as king he had become fairly popular among the people, and had made friends in the court.

This led to the Battles of Blore Heath and Ludford Bridge, but the Yorkers lost both of these, forcing them to leave London. The Battle of Northampton put Richard back on top however, and he had managed to capture Henry VI, so he brought him to London and demanded Parliament make him king. Parliament refused, though, saying Richard could become king after Henry died, but he couldn’t just take over. Richard agreed, but on his way home in York he was attacked in the Battle of Wakefield. Richard was killed in this battle.

This meant that his son Edward IV was to inherit the throne as the Duke of York, but Henry wanted his own son to become king, so the fighting continued. Edward lost the Battles of Mortimer’s Cross and Saint Albans, but made it to London, where he found incredible support because of the underhanded Battle of Wakefield, which happened after the treaty was signed. Both sides decided the war had lasted long enough (6 years in 1461) and decided on an all out battle. The Battle of Towton is recognized as being the bloodiest battle ever fought in England, and had the most English deaths, with the number of dead ranging from 20,000 (low) to 50,000 (high, do I really have to tell you?). This put the Yorkers solidly on top.

The Earl of Warwick, who had been an important ally to Edward, now chose the worst possible time to switch sides in 1464, and he actually died during a battle between his own men in the fog, after missing their enemy altogether. The Lancastrians continued to be a nuisance raiding party until 1471, when they were finally defeated for good. Edward lived and ruled until 1483. His brother then took over, and there were small uprisings that were quickly quashed in 1485, which is why we use it as the ending date, but the Battle of Towton was the real end to the war.

Leonardo Da Vinci (picture above) is quite probably the most famous artist from the renaissance, and for good reason. Born in Florence he was not a legitimate child of his father, being born to a lower classed servant. In spite of this his father remained a patron of him and remained a father figure, since bastards were not looked down upon. He was very quickly apprenticed to an artist and scientist named Verrocchio, who was considered the best of his time (just before Leonardo, obviously) and it was during this apprenticeship that Leonardo learned the basic art skills, and he was taught geometry and mechanics, among other skills that would come in handy during his life.

He was skilled enough that during his apprenticeship, at the age of 20, he became a master of a guild devoted to art and medicine. Indeed, he became very skilled at the medicine of his day, as well as several other fields, most notably engineering. Evidence of this is the famous designs he drew, some of which included flying machines, submarines, and even tanks (like the above image), not to mention the styles of guns he made. His inventions were primarily militarily focused because the governments of the time funded him for military advantages over the other armies, much like today, though it’s believed he disdained warfare, preferring art and peace. These designs were amazing, though, and several of them, like his machine gun, robot, and parachute, would have actually worked, had he devoted time to them. Others, like his screw helicopter, wouldn’t have worked, but by changing it a little and using different materials they could possibly work today.

Apart from these designs he also drew several impressive paintings, his most famous being the Mona Lisa (picture above), and others included “The Last Supper”, “Lady with an Ermine”, “Portrait of a Musician”, and he had several sketches that have also became famous, such as the “Vitruvian Man” or “Saint Jerome in the Wilderness”. In the end Leonardo Da Vinci left a sizable impact on history, and truly represented the Renaissance in the best way possible.

I am going through the Ron Paul Curriculum, a home schooling program, and for my English class I was asked to write a semester report. This is what I learned from the first semester of the 7^th Grade English class.

The first week I started reading “The Dragon and the Raven” by G. A. Henty, and it focused on getting me used to the schedule we would use, and how the reading assignments would work, so I didn’t learn any new content in that week.

The second week, however, we reviewed the five parts of a plot, the exposition (also known as the introduction), the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. I had learned this in the sixth grade, but review didn’t hurt, and I finished the book.

The third week we spent learning about the setting and I started reading the book “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain. The setting can be shown in three ways, the time, the place, and the social standing. Lots of books set their story in the past, but most of these are Fantasy books, while the future is often reserved for Sci-fi, though this is by no means is all you can do. The present as well is used in all manner of themes. The place is possibly the most variable, with fictional locations being used in abundance, though you can usually figure out what real world location it’s based on, if it is based on any. The social standing is normally variable within the story, and hinges on the story, with the protagonist normally rising in social standing as they do heroic deeds. Though this is most common, the more popular characters, like Batman and Spiderman, never rise in social standing, they are most often scorned, despite any heroic deeds.

The fourth week was spent reading the rest of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” and the teacher tested me by writing an essay on it’s setting, since time, place, and social standing take large precedence in that story.

The fifth and sixth weeks were spent learning about character development and reading another book from G. A. Henty, “Wulf the Saxon”. Character development is essential if one want’s to make a popular character. Some characters, however, don’t develop, and they are called Static Characters (Dynamic Characters do develop) and they are normally villains, so that you can be shown how the protagonist outgrew the villain. We also learned about primary characters and secondary characters, primary characters being “Main” characters like the protagonist, antagonist and oftentimes their sidekick, while allies and henchmen are secondary.

The seventh week was spent learning about theme, otherwise known as the moral. The theme of a story is what the reader is supposed to take away from the story, and returning to the example of Spiderman, his overarching theme is the famous line “With great power comes great responsibility”, or in the book I read, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson, a major theme would be “be careful of those you call friends” Unlike other parts of a story the theme can be subjective, which means different people can see different themes, though there often major themes that most everyone sees.

We learned about author’s style in the eighth week, but there wasn’t much there to cover, since all an author’s style is just the unique way in which the specific author writes. I read “White Fang” by Jack London, since he has a fairly distinct style of writing.

The ninth and tenth weeks I simply read “A Knight of the White Cross” also by G. A. Henty, and at the end of each week was asked to write half a report on it, describing in one the setting and character development and in the other the theme and plot.

Weeks 11 and 12 talked about the five forms of literature, novels (regular books), novellas (short books), short stories (partial books), poems (varying length, flowing words, not read using prose (how we read regular books)), and drama (which is preformed as a play and reads as an instruction manual). I read “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood” by Howard Pyle, since it’s practically a short story collection with several longer novellas.

13 and 14 covered genres, nonfiction and fiction included. Nonfiction genres include biographies and autobiographies, but most often are reports on historical facts. Fiction, however, is much more common, with genres like fantasy, Sci-fi, and pretty much everything you can imagine, since even realistic stories fall under “realistic fiction”. Speaking of realistic fiction, I read “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe these two weeks.

Week 15 had me read a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, and talked about the mystery genre, since it is relatively new, only being started around 200 years ago.

Week 16 was the week before winter break, so I got a break from school work and just read “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.

Week 17 and 18 I’ve spent reading “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carrol and have been tasked with writing this very semester report, after reviewing at length the proper way to organize your report. One such way is chronological order, which I have used here.

While decidedly the most famous (and the only famous) Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition was not at all the first, though it did change the definition slightly. Inquisitions were started by the Roman Catholic Church in 1229, because of the large numbers of what they believed to be heretics. Before 1229 the church had simply arrested heretics and either banished or imprisoned them on the decision of a court of clergymen. After the creation and spread of a heresy called “Catharism” the Church decided to have bishops and archbishops set up “Inquisitions” in their own areas. An “Inquisition” would be a group of priests or clergymen led by an “Inquisitor” that went from town to town and would “Inquire” or ask questions of the townsfolk. These Inquiries would pertain to the location of one who did not practice church correctly (they would ask questions about heretics in the area). They would normally make a public speech about how any heretics would go to hell, and so would anyone who hid them, but they said it slightly nicer. This was designed to put fear into people, so that they would give up any heretics among them, or, best case scenario, have the heretic give himself up and repent. If that was the case, he would get a reduced imprisonment and would be allowed home. But even priests preaching the heresy would not be injured, they would only be banished. However, if they fought back, they weren’t mourned by the church. Spain, which had been overall catholic, was divided into several kingdoms at this point, and adopted this method of inquiry. It’s important to note that violence was not used to deter heretics, the inquisitors only had power over people straying from Catholicism, not Jews or Muslims, and it was ruled by the church. In 1478, nine years after their practical unification of the Iberian Peninsula, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabelle I of Spain started the infamous Spanish Inquisition. Unlike the past Inquisitions this one was directly under the monarch’s rule, though it consisted of clergymen. This was also changed, however, because Ferdinand and Isabella approved of scaring people away from heresy by torturing and slaughtering heretics, so soldiers were added to the priest’s retinue. Ferdinand and Isabella were also known as “The Catholic Monarchs” so they wanted to rule the “Catholic Kingdom” and so they said that the Inquisitors could treat Jews and Muslims the same way as heretics. This caused mass death and conversion from Jews and Muslims, who were plentiful in Spain because it was right on the edge of Europe, and before this banished people could go to the Iberian Peninsula, and Iberia was once Muslim, so there were many leftover Muslims. But this killed hundreds and forcefully converted thousands in Spain alone, and when Spain learned of the Americas in 1492, it added the Native Americans to the list of outlawed religions. This all lasted to 1834, though it had begun petering out before this. Nowadays, we look back at the Spanish Inquisition with horror, Spaniards included, and it was considered brutal back then, but it was an abnormality in regards to much of it.

The Black Death, also called the Bubonic Plague, or just a The Plague, was horrible plague, and is easily the worst epidemic in known history. It’s believed to have originally came to Europe by a Mongolians invasion force, called the Golden Horde. It’s believed that Genoese trading ships then left during the siege of Crimea, with the famous plague spreading rats in the hold. They would’ve landed predominantly in Constantinople, thus bringing the worst disease known to man to Europe.

It’s believed that the plague wiped out 30-60% of the entire population of the western world. I know that sounds like a big gulf between 3 in every 10 people and 6 in every 10 people dying, but records weren’t well kept in the middle ages and so they ended up low-balling it. Historians and scientists know believe it was closer to 50% or higher, meaning half or more of Europe died in the peak years of the plague. And something that many people didn’t realize is that those peak years was only about 1347-1353, only about 6 years, making this Black Plague so much scarier, because it killed close to 25 million people in 6 years.

The symptoms of the Plague are fairly well known, but they’re worth going over anyway. Large red boils would grow out of peoples skin, predominantly the groin and armpits, ranging in size from apples to eggs. After a few days these would either heal and fade to scars, or, many more times likely, they would turn black and start leaking pus, while smaller black lumps spread from the originals all over the body. Once the spots turned black, you rarely lived more than 3 days.

The doctors of the time were completely incapable of stopping the disease, since they didn’t understand germs, and a great many of them believed it was a punishment from god, and to act against the disease would be to act against god, so they purposefully did nothing. This was a small number though, and the majority were just inept. They often tried things like bloodletting, were they believed the disease to be in the blood, so they cut peoples arteries and let them bleed out. This did not work. The only right thing they did was telling people to keep away from the diseased folk, but most did this anyway because of the stench.

Possibly the most horrifying aspect of this plague in the nursery rhyme, “Ring Around the Rosy” it goes: Ring around the rosy, pocketful of posies, ashes ashes we all fall down! Well this pleasant playtime song is actually talking about the subject of this paper. “Ring around the rosy” is referring to the discolored ring around the red lumps before they turn black, or the “rosy” “Pocketful of posies” refers to the fact that people carried posies and other flowers with them, so that they didn’t smell the dead and sick people. “ashes ashes” is talking about how millions of bodies were burned, because the graveyards were overflowing. The result was ash laden air. I believe you can figure out what “We all fall down” means, and how absolutely terrifying it is to hear children sing it, while falling over themselves.

The Hundred Years War (not the century long war) was a war that lasted between England and France for, you guessed it, 116 years, but it’s often rounded down to 100 years. It was started in 1337 by the king of England, Edward the III, when he claimed the French throne for himself. Indeed, he was the closest heir to the dead King of France, but this was on his mothers side, and the claim was thus rendered obsolete. Philip VI was the closest heir through the male line and was thus considered the king of France.

The French were against having an English King, so they supported the war. They sent a huge French navy in 1340 that quickly defeated the major English ships. The French held the channel, with twice as many ships as the English and each ship was twice as big as the English ships, and all of Edward III’s advisors told him to back off on his claim and let the French tempers cool. Edward III did not do this. He sent his small fleet up against the huge navy and destroyed them so badly that the English kept the channel for the rest of the war, which was, as I’ve said, 100 years. This is commonly refered to as the battle of Sluys.

Edward then led his army across the channel to the city of Caen. Their speed surprised the French and the city was captured within a day, and the next day the late French troops arrived and fought the English troops leaving Caen. This was a major loss for the French, and Edward easily captured the city of Crecy during it, and upon a followup attack on the surviving French he captured city Calais. These were land mark events in the war, and allowed England to keep troops stationed in France throughout the year, which was uncommon for such a war.

By this time it was 1348, and that year is marked by the arrival of the Black Plague. The war was suspended for roughly eight years while the plague ravaged both countries. Edward III survived, but was in poor health, and his son Edward IV, known as The Black Prince took over the English side of the war. In France Phillip VI died, and John II, also John the Good, took over the kingship and the French side of the war.

In 1356 the Black Prince led his army into France and fought at the Battle of Poitiers. If you’ve discovered the theme of the war yet, you’ll realize this was a resounding English victory. John the Good had also been at this battle, and had been captured by the English. They continued on and the English met their first defeat at the city of Reims, It wasn’t a defeat as such, it was simply the fact that Reims defended against the siege of the English. However, during a freak hailstorm the English lost over 1000 lives. After that, they agreed to a truce. The French were unable to pay the ransom for John, and John the Good died in England in 1364.

This Treaty caused peace from 1360-1369 but Aquitaine revolted because they would not pay taxes to England. This reignited the war, with Charles V going for the English in earnest. The English, however, were not ready for the war to begin again. Edward III and the Black Prince were not in good health, and had many debts and were trying to deal with, so the French retook some of their land without resistance. The Black Prince died in 1376, and Edward III in 1377. Richard II, son of the Black Prince, then took the throne and seeing how much debt the war had thrown him in, he stopped financing it and tried to solve all of England’s own problems. He still kept troops in France however, and it wasn’t until 1389 that he asked for a truce.

This lasted until 1415, when King Richard was deposed by his cousin Henry IV, and Charles VI died, leaving Charles VII to fight the new English King. Richard went over to France, and after a delay in getting back their previous lands, fought the french outright in the famous battle of Agincourt. It’s said that the French lost 6,000 men to an English 400, and those 6,000 were mostly nobles, while the 400 were plain soldiers. This almost won the war for England. The Treaty that resulted from the battle said that Henry’s son would be given all the French lands upon his coming of age, meaning the English could’ve won the war if Henry IV hadn’t died on the way back to England, and his son was too young to become king.

This is when Joan of Arc comes to France, and offers her services to the French heir. She reformed the army and used the story of her being a saint to encourage the soldiers. She single-handedly took back all of France and put the French king on the throne. In 1430 however, she was captured by the English and burned at the stake. The war formally continued until 1453, but no battles were fought and nothing changed, England just took 20 years to realize they didn’t have a choice.