“Wealth from trade was the mainspring of Western material advance; the visible agents of change were great guns. These came of age in Europe in the 15th century. On land their potency in reducing castle walls favoured central over local power, since in general only monarchs could afford siege-trains; so nation-states were consolidated and extended into great territorial empires. At sea, guns transformed sailing ships into mobile castles virtually impregnable to opponents who lacked equally powerful ordnance. With the ocean-going gunned warship, western Europe began to extend around the globe.” StatesAgeNationsWealthPowerfulSeaLandCenturyMaterialsWallOceanGunEuropeTradeTrainWesternLocalsShipsAgentsOpponentsVisibleEmpiresTransformedGlobesSailingCastlesMobileReducingMonarchsSiegePotencyTerritorialSailing ShipsWestern EuropeWarshipsOrdnanceCastle Walls Author:Peter Padfield
“Sixty thousand blacks are annually embarked from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native country; but they are embarked in chains: and this constant emigration, which, in the space of two centuries, might have furnished armies to overrun the globe, accuses the guilt of Europe and the weakness of Africa.” TwoCountryMightSpaceHistoryCenturyReturnThousandWeaknessEuropeArmyConstantGuiltChainsNativeSixtyGlobesCoastRoman EmpireGuineaEmigrationNative Country Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Our age is pre-eminently the age of sympathy, as the eighteenth century was the age of reason. Our ideal men and women are they, whose sympathies have had the widest culture, whose aims do not end with self, whose philanthropy, though centrifugal, reaches around the globe.” MenEndsSelfReasonAgeCultureProgressCenturyMen And WomenIdealsAimSympathyGlobesPhilanthropyAge Of ReasonIdeal Man Author:Frances E. Willard
“When we see the shameful fortunes amassed in all quarters of the globe, are we not impelled to exclaim that Judas' thirty pieces of silver have fructified across the centuries?” PiecesCenturyFortuneRichesThirtySilverQuartersGlobesShamefulJudas Author:Sophie Swetchine
“The twentieth century provides little or no evidence in any corner of the globe to support the contention that religion causes most human conflict.” HumansLittlesReligionCausesSupportCenturyConflictEvidenceCornersGlobesTwentieth CenturyContention Author:Michael Medved