Flo's History

Early history generally focuses on the civilizations close to the cradles of civilization, like the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East or the Yangtze Valley in China. But civilization quickly spread out of these regions and saw the rise of many interesting cultures that evolved in their own ways. One such great example is the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in Eastern Europe. The Cucuteni lived mostly in the region of western Ukraine, first emerging from the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains. Like most other early civilizations, these people started as nomadic tribes adopting a semi-sedentary lifestyle, building temporary houses to stay in for a prolonged period of time before moving on. Around 5500 BC, the first permanent settlements appeared close to rivers to have a source of both drinkable water and clay, a major resource in Cucuteni culture. This would be when farming and herding took off, cultivating wheat, rye, and peas while domesticating cattle for the most part, with swine...

The Bronze Age, time of the first great human civilizations starting with the people of Summer and ending with the fall of the Egyptians, Mycenaeans and Hittites. The later in particular will be the focuses of today, as they tend to be the lesser known of the big three, with Egypt being the best recorded Nation while Mycenaean at least enjoy its connection with the Greek City S tates. But the Hittites were here, and they were a major player in the Region at the time.    Ruling from their capital city of Hattusa, of which the ruins can still be seen in modern day Turkey , they emerged from a co ali tion of smaller cities known as Kussara before being united by a strong leader. This came in the form of the first Hittite king, Hattusili the first, who exploited a time of heavy unrest submitted the cities around the Halys River to his rule. His decedents would then continue to build their power base until forming the nation that covered most of Anatolia. Funnily enough, ...

The Celtic peoples were a large and diverse ethnic group that covered most of Europe for a good chunk of the Iron Age, until other groups like the Romans overthrew their dominance. Within the Celtic culture existed many groups with their own variations of the greater Celtic identity, one such group being the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. Due to its antiquity, the origins of the Gaels and most of their history remain shrouded in mystery, even by Celtic standards. Although we can trace some of their history by putting together the pieces we have. Regarding their origins, and when the Gaels evolved from their Celtic foundations, two main schools of thought exist . One suggests that the Gaels actually came from a much older group of people called the Bell Beakers, who moved to the British Isles from mainland Europe and are one of the foundations of the later Celts. However, many also debate that the Gaels are not that ancient, and that even by 1000 BC, long after the disappearance of t...

  As I mentioned in my post on Rome’s economy, trade is a vital aspect of a healthy society. As civilizations developed and advanced, so did the trading routes, becoming more complex and farther reaching. Today, we will talk about one of the first transcontinental trade networks on the planet, the Silk Road, connecting the far east of Asia to Europe.   Everything started during the days of the Han dynasty, when Emperor Wu was searching for ways to end the threat of the Nomadic nation of  Xiongnu  in modern day Mongolia. As such, he sent an emissary , named  Zhang Qian, to central Asia for potential allies. Zhang, despite traversing the territories of his enemies, made it to his destination and successfully  made contact with  the local Yuezhi and  Dayuan  people, but was quickly attracted by something else: horses. Now, the Hans were no strangers to these animals, as they themselves fielded cavalry and chariot units in significant quantity. H...