Flo's History

China’s history is long and rich, filled with figures, many real but some mythical, who made and broke history. After all with four thousand years of history, you get your fair share of stories to tell. This time, we will go over one of the most influential figures in Chinese history: Qin Shi-Huang, the first emperor. Starting from his earlier days, Qin Shin-Huang was, like a lot of figures at the time, not born under this name. Before becoming emperor, he was Ying Zheng, the son of the king of Qin Zhuangxiang during the Waring States Period. What, you thought the Three Kingdoms was the only time of warring states? There were many, MANY instances where the region was fragmented into smaller quarreling kingdoms before being gobbled back up into a single entity. In fact, every time one of the great dynasties of China collapsed was followed by a warring state period before the next one began. The only exception to this is the Yuan Dynasty, as they directly deposed the Song before they co...

The crusades need little introduction, being a series of military conflicts waged by the Catholic powers of Europe against the Muslims in the Levant and Anatolia. These conflicts, although rarely successful for the Christians, left their mark on the region's history from the rise of the Ayyubid Dynasty to the destruction of the Sultanate of Rum. They also left many cultural traces in the region, such as the castles constructed by the various knightly orders that operated mainly during the earlier Crusades, like the Krak des Chevaliers located in modern-day Syria. The Castle was built between the cities of Tartus and Tripoli, on an elevated plateau, giving it a great defensive position. Constructed by the Mirdasids, it first served as a small fort and Kurdish settlement before it was taken over by the first Crusade by Raymond IV of Toulouse but was quickly abandoned as he followed the rest of the army to Jerusalem. Unfortunately, we have no record of what these early fortifications...

The Roman Republic, like every other empire saved a select few, built on military conquest and stabbing one's neighbours in the neck. And when it came to neck stabbing, the growing nation proved itself particularly adept at this, overcoming all opposition, such as the Etruscans, Samnites, and Greeks, and even two close calls with Carthage. They did suffer some setbacks, as the after-mentioned Punic Wars nearly broke Rome, and also other disastrous engagement including but not limited to the battle of Cannae, Arausio and Allia. However, the republic managed to bounce back every time and return stronger than ever, except once. The battle of Carrhae, fought between Rome and Parthia, had such a catastrophic outcome that it massively expediate the disintegration of the Roman Republic from which, after decades of civil wars, the Roman Empire would rise from.    But what exactly happened?    To better understand how this catastrophe happened, we must first look at the state...

I think most people have at least heard of the Assassin’s Creed series, created and managed by Ubisoft. For those unfamiliar with it, the games follow a shadow war between the Order of Assassins (the “good” side) and the Templars (the “bad” side) across human history. There are also odd plotlines about  an ancient civilization  and lost artifacts, but  that’s  not the topic here.  In reality, both  factions did exist, though they were drastically different from their video-game counterparts. The Order of Assassins, or  Hashshashins , was a militant sect defending the Nizari Ismaili Muslims from their enemies, who were mostly other Muslims. They almost never came to blows with the Knights Templar , who  didn’t  care much about world domination , even if neither side particularly liked the other.   Although the  Hashshashin  sect began in the late 11th century when Hassan- i  Sabbah founded the order, its origins go further ...