6. The Periodic Table

The periodic table is the most important chemistry reference there is. It arranges all the known elements in an informative array. Elements are arranged left to right and top to bottom in order of increasing atomic number. Order generally coincides with increasing atomic mass.

Atomic Number – The number of protons in an atom defines what element it is. For example carbon atoms have six protons, hydrogen atoms have one, and oxygen atoms have eight. The number of protons in an atom is referred to as the atomic number of that element. The number of protons in an atom also determines the chemical behavior of the element.

The different rows of elements are called periods. The period number of an element signifies the highest energy level an electron in that element occupies (in the unexcited state). The number of electrons in a period increases as one travels down the periodic table. People again information from the periodic table by looking at how it is put together. By examining an element’s position on the periodic table, one can infer the electron configuration. Elements that lie in the same column on the periodic table (called a “group”) have identical valance electron configurations and consequently behave in a similar fashion chemically. For instance, all the group 18 (column 18) elements are inert gases. The periodic table contains an enormous amount of important information. People familiar with how the table is put together can quickly determine a significant amount of information about an element, even if they have never heard of it.

This periodic table of chemical elements and the links below present complete information including the chemical element symbol, atomic number, atomic weight and description.

1. H – Hydrogen
2. He – Helium
3. Li – Lithium
4. Be – Beryllium
5. B – Boron
6. C – Carbon
7. N – Nitrogen
8. O – Oxygen
9. F – Fluorine
10. Ne – Neon
11. Na – Sodium
12. Mg – Magnesium
13. Al – Aluminum
14. Si – Silicon
15. P – Phosphorus
16. S – Sulphur
17. Cl – Chlorine
18. Ar – Argon
19.  K – Potassium
20. Ca – Calcium
21. Sc – Scandium
22. Ti – Titanium
23. V – Vanadium
24. Cr – Chromium
25. Mn – Manganese
26. Fe – Iron
27. Co – Cobalt
28. Ni – Nickel
29. Cu – Copper
30. Zn – Zinc
31. Ga – Gallium
32. Ge – Germanium
33. As – Arsenic
34. Se – Selenium
35. Br – Bromine
36. Kr – Krypton
37. Rb – Rubidium
38. Sr – Strontium
39. Y – Yttrium
40. Zr – Zirconium
41. Nb – Niobium
42. Mo – Molybdenum
43. Tc – Technetium
44. Ru – Ruthenium
45. Rh – Rhodium
46. Pd – Palladium
47. Ag – Silver
48. Cd – Cadmium
49. In – Indium
50. Sn – Tin
51. Sb – Antimony
52. Te – Tellurium
53. I – Iodine
54. Xe – Xenon
55. Cs – Caesium
56. Ba – Barium
57. La – Lanthanum
58. Ce – Cerium
59. Pr – Praseodymium
60. Nd – Neodymium
61. Pm – Promethium
62. Sm – Samarium
63. Eu – Europium
64. Gd – Gadolinium
65. Tb – Terbium
66. Dy – Dysprosium
67. Ho – Holmium
68. Er – Erbium
69. Tm – Thulium
70. Yb – Ytterbium
71. Lu – Lutetium
72. Hf – Hafnium
73. Ta – Tantalum
74. W – Tungsten
75. Re – Rhenium
76. Os – Osmium
77. Ir – Iridium
78. Pt – Platinum
79. Au – Gold
80. Hg – Mercury
81. Tl – Thallium
82. Pb – Lead
83. Bi – Bismuth
84. Po – Polonium
85. At – Astatine
86. Rn – Radon
87. Fr – Francium
88. Ra – Radium
89. Ac – Actinium
90. Th – Thorium
91. Pa – Protactinium
92. U – Uranium
93. Np – Neptunium
94. Pu – Plutonium
95. Am – Americium
96. Cm – Curium
97. Bk – Berkelium
98. Cf – Californium
99. Es – Einsteinium
100. Fm – Fermium
101. Md – Mendelevium
102. No – Nobelium
103. Lr – Lawrencium
104. Unq – Unnilquadium
105. Unp – Unnilpentium
106. Unh – Unnilhexium
107. Uns – Unnilseptium
108. Uno – Unniloctium
109. Une
110. Unn

5. The Galaxy, Solar System and Planets

The word “solar” comes from the Latin meaning sun, therefore a solar system involves a sun ie a star. The term “solar system” commonly refers to a star with planets in orbit around it, although it could technically be applied to binary or triple star systems. The important point is that the word “system” implies a star with at least one other body.

A galaxy, however, is another beast altogether. A galaxy consists of hundreds of billions of stars, all of which are potential solar systems. And there are billions of known galaxies.. Certainly a humbling thought!

The milky way is the galaxy in which our solar system is located. Two smaller galaxies and a number of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group orbit the Milky Way.

The planets in our solar system –

Sun –

The sun is by far the most massive part of the solar system, containing almost 99.9% of the system’s total mass. It is often said that the Sun is an “ordinary” star. That’s true in the sense that there are many others similar to it. But there are many more smaller stars than larger ones; the Sun is in the top 10% of the galaxy by mass. The median size of stars in our galaxy is probably less than half the mass of the Sun. The Sun is, at present, about 70% hydrogen and 28% helium by mass everything else (metals) amounts to less than 2%. This changes slowly over time as the Sun converts hydrogen to helium in its core. The Sun’s power (about 386 billion billion megaWatts) is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons (=3.86e33 ergs) of energy in the form of gamma rays. As it travels out toward the surface, the energy is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is primarily visible light. For the last 20% of the way to the surface the energy is carried more by convection than by radiation.

Mercury –

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the eighth largest. In Roman mythology Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery, the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hermes, the messenger of the Gods. Mercury has been known since at least the time of the Sumerians (3rd millennium BC). Since it is closer to the Sun than the Earth, the illumination of Mercury’s disk varies when viewed with a telescope from our perspective. Galileo’s telescope was too small to see Mercury’s phases but he did see the phases of Venus. Mercury is the only body in the solar system known to have an orbital/rotational resonance with a ratio other than 1:1 (though many have no resonances at all). Temperature variations on Mercury are the most extreme in the solar system ranging from 90 K to 700 K. The temperature on Venus is slightly hotter but very stable. Mercury’s interior is dominated by a large iron core whose radius is 1800 to 1900 km. The silicate outer shell (analogous to Earth’s mantle and crust) is only 500 to 600 km thick. At least some of the core is probably molten. Mercury actually has a very thin atmosphere consisting of atoms blasted off its surface by the solar wind. Because Mercury is so hot, these atoms quickly escape into space. Thus in contrast to the Earth and Venus whose atmospheres are stable, Mercury’s atmosphere is constantly being replenished.

Venus –

Venus (Greek: Aphrodite; Babylonian: Ishtar) is the goddess of love and beauty. The planet is so named probably because it is the brightest of the planets known to the ancients. Venus has been known since prehistoric times. It is the brightest object in the sky except for the Sun and the Moon. The Earth and Venus are very similar – similar in size (95% of Earth’s diameter, 80% of Earth’s mass), both have craters indicating a relatively young surface and densities and chemical compositions are similar. However they are vastly different too. The pressure of Venus’ atmosphere at the surface is 90 ‘ atmospheres’ (about the same as the pressure at a depth of 1 km in Earth’s oceans). It is composed mostly of carbon dioxide. There are several layers of clouds many kilometers thick composed of sulfuric acid. These clouds completely obscure our view of the surface. This dense atmosphere produces a run-away greenhouse effect that raises Venus’ surface temperature by about 400 degrees to over 740 K (hot enough to melt lead). Venus’ surface is actually hotter than Mercury’s despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun.

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest. Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology. The name derives from Old English and Germanic. Earth, of course, can be studied without the aid of spacecraft. Nevertheless it was not until the twentieth century that we had maps of the entire planet.

The Earth is divided into several layers which have distinct chemical and seismic properties (depths in km):

0- 40 Crust
40- 400 Upper mantle
400- 650 Transition region
650-2700 Lower mantle
2700-2890 D” layer
2890-5150 Outer core
5150-6378 Inner core

The crust varies considerably in thickness, it is thinner under the oceans, thicker under the continents. The inner core and crust are solid; the outer core and mantle layers are plastic or semi-fluid. The various layers are separated by discontinuities which are evident in seismic data; the best known of these is the Mohorovicic discontinuity between the crust and upper mantle. Most of the mass of the Earth is in the mantle, most of the rest in the core; the part we inhabit is a tiny fraction of the whole.

The core is probably composed mostly of iron (or nickel/iron) though it is possible that some lighter elements may be present, too. Temperatures at the center of the core may be as high as 7500 K, hotter than the surface of the Sun. The lower mantle is probably mostly silicon, magnesium and oxygen with some iron, calcium and aluminum. The upper mantle is mostly olivene and pyroxene (iron/magnesium silicates), calcium and aluminum. We know most of this only from seismic techniques; samples from the upper mantle arrive at the surface as lava from volcanoes but the majority of the Earth is inaccessible. The crust is primarily quartz (silicon dioxide) and other silicates like feldspar. Taken as a whole, the Earth’s chemical composition (by mass) is:

34.6% Iron
29.5% Oxygen
15.2% Silicon
12.7% Magnesium
2.4% Nickel
1.9% Sulfur
0.05% Titanium

Unlike the other terrestrial planets, Earth’s crust is divided into several separate solid plates which float around independently on top of the hot mantle below. The theory that describes this is known as plate tectonics. It is characterized by two major processes: spreading and subduction. Spreading occurs when two plates move away from each other and new crust is created by upwelling magma from below. Subduction occurs when two plates collide and the edge of one dives beneath the other and ends up being destroyed in the mantle. There is also transverse motion at some plate boundaries (i.e. the San Andreas Fault in California) and collisions between continental plates (i.e. India/Eurasia). There are (at present) eight major plates.

Thus the very early history of the Earth has mostly been erased. The Earth is 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old, but the oldest known rocks are about 4 billion years old and rocks older than 3 billion years are rare. The oldest fossils of living organisms are less than 3.9 billion years old. There is no record of the critical period when life was first getting started. 71 Percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. The Earth’s atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water. There was probably a very much larger amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere when the Earth was first formed, but it has since been almost all incorporated into carbonate rocks and to a lesser extent dissolved into the oceans and consumed by living plants. Plate tectonics and biological processes now maintain a continual flow of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to these various “sinks” and back again. The tiny amount of carbon dioxide resident in the atmosphere at any time is extremely important to the maintenance of the Earth’s surface temperature via the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect raises the average surface temperature about 35 degrees C above what it would otherwise be (from a frigid -21 C to a comfortable +14 C); without it the oceans would freeze and life as we know it would be impossible. (Water vapor is also an important greenhouse gas.).

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest. It has been known since prehistoric times. Mars (Greek: Ares) is the god of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color; Mars is sometimes referred to as the Red Planet. The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965, the first actual landing was in 1976 and in 2004 the expedition rovers sent back geological data and pictures. The average temperature on Mars is about 218 K (-55 C) but can get to 27 C at certain parts during ‘summer’. Mars has some of the most highly varied and interesting terrain of any of the terrestrial planets, some of it quite spectacular. The interior of Mars is known only by inference from data about the surface and the bulk statistics of the planet. The most likely scenario is a dense core about 1700 km in radius, a molten rocky mantle somewhat denser than the Earth’s and a thin crust. Data from Mars Global Surveyor indicates that Mars’ crust is about 80 km thick in the southern hemisphere but only about 35 km thick in the north. Mars’ relatively low density compared to the other terrestrial planets indicates that its core probably contains a relatively large fraction of sulfur in addition to iron (iron and iron sulfide). There is very clear evidence of erosion in many places on Mars including large floods and small river systems. At some time in the past there was clearly some sort of fluid on the surface. Liquid water is the obvious fluid but other possibilities exist. Early in its history, Mars was much more like Earth. As with Earth almost all of its carbon dioxide was used up to form carbonate rocks. But lacking the Earth’s plate tectonics, Mars is unable to recycle any of this carbon dioxide back into its atmosphere and so cannot sustain a significant greenhouse effect. The surface of Mars is therefore much colder than the Earth would be at that distance from the Sun. Mars has a very thin atmosphere composed mostly of the tiny amount of remaining carbon dioxide (95.3%) plus nitrogen (2.7%), argon (1.6%) and traces of oxygen (0.15%) and water (0.03%).

Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest. Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus). It has been known since prehistoric times as a bright “wandering star”. But in 1610 when Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sky he discovered Jupiter’s four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (now known as the Galilean moons) and recorded their motions back and forth around Jupiter. This was the first discovery of a center of motion not apparently centered on the Earth. It was a major point in favor of Copernicus’s heliocentric theory of the motions of the planets (along with other new evidence from his telescope: the phases of Venus and the mountains on the Moon). Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium (by numbers of atoms, 75/25% by mass) with traces of methane, water, ammonia and “rock”. This is very close to the composition of the primordial Solar Nebula from which the entire solar system was formed. Our knowledge of the interior of Jupiter (and the other gas planets) is highly indirect and likely to remain so for some time. (The data from Galileo’s atmospheric probe goes down only about 150 km below the cloud tops.) Jupiter probably has a core of rocky material amounting to something like 10 to 15 Earth-masses. Above the core lies the main bulk of the planet in the form of liquid metallic hydrogen.

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest. In Roman mythology, Saturn is the god of agriculture. Saturn is the least dense of the planets; its specific gravity (0.7) is less than that of water. Like Jupiter, Saturn is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with traces of water, methane, ammonia and “rock”, similar to the composition of the primordial Solar Nebula from which the solar system was formed. Saturn’s interior is similar to Jupiter’s consisting of a rocky core, a liquid metallic hydrogen layer and a molecular hydrogen layer. Traces of various ices are also present. Saturn’s rings are extraordinarily thin: though they’re 250,000 km or more in diameter they’re less than one kilometer thick. Despite their impressive appearance, there’s really very little material in the rings — if the rings were compressed into a single body it would be no more than 100 km across. The ring particles seem to be composed primarily of water ice, but they may also include rocky particles with icy coatings.

Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third largest (by diameter). Uranus is larger in diameter but smaller in mass than Neptune. Uranus is the ancient Greek deity of the Heavens, the earliest supreme god. Uranus was the son and mate of Gaia the father of Cronus (Saturn) and of the Cyclopes and Titans (predecessors of the Olympian gods). Uranus, the first planet discovered in modern times, was discovered by William Herschel while systematically searching the sky with his telescope on March 13, 1781. Uranus is composed primarily of rock and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium (in contrast to Jupiter and Saturn which are mostly hydrogen). Uranus (and Neptune) are in many ways similar to the cores of Jupiter and Saturn minus the massive liquid metallic hydrogen envelope. It appears that Uranus does not have a rocky core like Jupiter and Saturn but rather that its material is more or less uniformly distributed. Uranus’ atmosphere is about 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane. Like the other gas planets, Uranus has bands of clouds that blow around rapidly. Like the other gas planets, Uranus has rings. Like Jupiter’s, they are very dark but like Saturn’s they are composed of fairly large particles ranging up to 10 meters in diameter in addition to fine dust. Uranus is sometimes just barely visible with the unaided eye on a very clear night; it is fairly easy to spot with binoculars (if you know exactly where to look).

Neptune

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the fourth largest (by diameter). Neptune is smaller in diameter but larger in mass than Uranus. In Roman mythology Neptune (Greek: Poseidon) was the god of the Sea. Because Pluto’s orbit is so eccentric, it sometimes crosses the orbit of Neptune making Neptune the most distant planet from the Sun for a few years. Neptune’s composition is probably similar to Uranus’: various “ices” and rock with about 15% hydrogen and a little helium. Like Uranus, but unlike Jupiter and Saturn, it may not have a distinct internal layering but rather to be more or less uniform in composition. But there is most likely a small core (about the mass of the Earth) of rocky material. Its atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium with a small amount of methane. Like a typical gas planet, Neptune has rapid winds confined to bands of latitude and large storms or vortices. Neptune’s winds are the fastest in the solar system, reaching 2000 km/hour. Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune has an internal heat source — it radiates more than twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun. Neptune also has rings. Earth-based observations showed only faint arcs instead of complete rings, but Voyager 2’s images showed them to be complete rings with bright clumps. Like Uranus and Jupiter, Neptune’s rings are very dark but their composition is unknown.

Pluto

Pluto orbits beyond the orbit of Neptune (usually). It is much smaller than any of the official planets and now classified as a “dwarf planet”. Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system’s moons (the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton). In Roman mythology, Pluto (Greek: Hades) is the god of the underworld. There has recently been considerable controversy about the classification of Pluto. It was classified as the ninth planet shortly after its discovery and remained so for 75 years. But on 2006 Aug 24 the IAU decided on a new definition of “planet” which does not include Pluto. Pluto is now classified as a “dwarf planet”, a class distict from “planet”. The surface temperature on Pluto varies between about -235 and -210 C (38 to 63 K). The “warmer” regions roughly correspond to the regions that appear darker in optical wavelengths. Pluto’s composition is unknown, but its density (about 2 gm/cm3) indicates that it is probably a mixture of 70% rock and 30% water ice much like Triton. The bright areas of the surface seem to be covered with ices of nitrogen with smaller amounts of (solid) methane, ethane and carbon monoxide. The composition of the darker areas of Pluto’s surface is unknown but may be due to primordial organic material or photochemical reactions driven by cosmic rays.

4. Wireless and WiFi

So what is the difference between wireless internet and WiFi?

Wireless Internet is a vague description in the industry. It can mean a mobile network connection requiring a contract (can get pre-paid now too) that works (almost) anywhere you can receive mobile phone coverage. However some people use the term ‘wireless’ when they are describing WiFi, which is simply a wireless connection that bridges the gap between a hard-wired broadband internet connection in your home (or anywhere) and your computer (usually laptop).

Wireless internet uses the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and can be used on mobile phones, PDA’s and laptops. You can use a wireless internet service by buying a specific wireless card that slots into a computer or mobile phone, you can also buy USB devices that slot into the USB port of your laptop. These devices use a telecommunication companies mobile phone network.

WiFi is simply a wireless communication standard used between computer devices to share files and resources. The wifi signal cannot travel long distances without loss of integrity, and it is therefore used for Local Area Networks (LANs). The wifi signal might also cover a small region within a city, creating hot spots or places where the wifi signal allows connectivity to the public through wireless access points (WAPs).

A wifi network is very easy to set up. The main computer acts as a server with a wireless network interface card (NIC). The wireless NIC features a small antenna that broadcasts and receives wifi signals. A router and switch direct traffic on the wifi network and are commonly built into a high-speed modem to integrate wireless Internet into the wifi LAN. Each computer connected to the network, referred to as a client, also requires a wifi NIC.

3. Pins and needles & hiccups

Why do we get pins and needles?

This uncomfortable sensation occurs when the blood supply to a part of the body is cut off for a short time.
The blood flowing back into the affected area causes the brain to send ‘messages’ to the nerves in the part of the body where the blood flow was affected, producing that familiar feeling we call ‘pins and needles’.

Why do we get hiccups?

Hiccups are actually a spasm of the diaphragm, a sheet of muscle that lies between the chest and the abdomen. The spasm forces air out of the lungs, resulting in that familiar sound. Hiccups happen when the diaphragm gets irritated, often caused by eating and drinking too fast. There are lots of theories on how to get rid of hiccups, but one of the best remedies is simply holding your breath. This will relax the diaphragm and bring it back to normal.

2. Broadand Internet – What it is and how it works

I jump from a very general topic to an extremely specific one – broadband internet. I must admit I’m not learning too much new here, but for the benefit of my new job I thought I should freshen up on the specifics, so here I go –

Broadband in telecommunications refers to a signaling method that includes or handles a relatively wide range (or band) of frequencies, which may be divided into channels or frequency bins. Broadband is always a relative term, understood according to its context. The wider the bandwidth, the greater the information-carrying capacity. In radio, for example, a very narrow-band signal will carry Morse code; a broader band will carry speech; a still broader band is required to carry music without losing the high audio frequencies required for realistic sound reproduction. A television antenna described as “normal” may be capable of receiving a certain range of channels; one described as “broadband” will receive more channels. In data communications an analog modem will transmit a bandwidth of 56 kilobits per seconds (kbit/s) over a telephone line; over the same telephone line a bandwidth of several megabits per second can be handled by ADSL, which is described as broadband (relative to a modem over a telephone line, although much less than can be achieved over a fiber optic circuit).

Instead of treating your phone line as a single, narrow pipe between your computer and the ISP’s computer, like a dialup connection, it divides the line into many different channels. Information can travel in parallel streams down these channels. It’s like dividing a highway into several lanes: lots more traffic can go down it in parallel than down a single-lane road. This is why broadband is so much faster than dialup. An average broadband line, working at 512Kbps, is about nine times faster than the best dialup connection, while a really fast broadband line, working at up to 8MBps (megabits per second), can be over 100 times quicker.

Broadband allocates more channels to downloading than to uploading. This is why broadband computers download several times faster than they upload. In other words, downloading and uploading are not equivalent or “symmetrical” processes: they are asymmetric. That’s why the technical name for this type of broadband is Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line or ADSL. Another type of broadband called DSL allows uploading and downloading at the same speed.

So how can you talk on the phone while your computer is simultaneously sending and receiving data? Simple. Some of the channels on the line are reserved for phone calls. People’s voices use relatively low-frequency sounds, compared to the higher-frequency signals that computer modems use, so it’s relatively easy to keep the phone signals separate from the computer data.

To install broadband you’ll need to have your telephone line tested and upgraded to broadband. This is a simple process that your ISP can arrange. Next, you’ll need a new ADSL modem or router to connect your computer to your ISP’s broadband system. An ADSL modem simply allows one computer to make one broadband connection. Think of it as a translator plugged into your computer, just like a dialup modem. A router is slightly different. It’s job is to act as a go-between: it links your home network to the outside world. Most routers let you plug several different computers (and other things like printers) into them. So if you have five PCs at home that all need Internet access, you can use one router instead of five separate modems. You can connect a computer to a router in two ways, either by plugging it in with a cable or by making a wireless connection. To make a wireless connection, both your router and your computer need to be capable of wireless networking (they must have wireless networking cards, aerials, and so on).

1. The history of War

I’m going to start with a topic that is very general and contains an abundance of information – the history of war. Obviously when learning a topic that has such a large quantity of facts and statistics it’s necessary to summarise, otherwise you could be reading and writing for weeks. I will break down my posts with lists, categories and titles like ‘key events’ or ‘highlights’. Obviously these categories/titles will change depending on the topic. For the purpose of this topic I will list wars based on an historical timeline and briefly describe a ‘summary/highlights’ of some of the larger ones. Here they are –

Ancient Greek Wars
499 – 479: BC Greco-Persian Wars

• Summary & Highlights – The Persian Wars represent mostly failed attempts by Persian Kings to control Greece. They took place in Greece, Cyprus, Asia Minor and Egypt. The Spartans on land and Athenians at sea were too strong for the Persians

431 – 404: BC Peloponnesian War

• Summary & Highlights – Spartans Vs Athenians. Under the leadership of Pericles, Attica was evacuated and the population took refuge within the walls of Athens. Food imports were protected because of the Athenians naval power. Pericles intended to fight a war of attrition—refusing to engage the Spartan hoplite army in a battle they were sure to win, while harassing the Peloponnesian coast with naval raids. But after Pericles’ death in the Plague, the unpopular policy was abandoned

334 – 323: BC Wars of Alexander the Great

• Summary & Highlights – Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the Greeks. Alexander set out east against the Achaemenid Persian Empire, under its “King of Kings”, Darius III, which he defeated and overthrew. His conquests included Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia, and he extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as Punjab, India.

300s BC: – Samnite Wars between Rome and Samnium

• Summary & Highlights – Samnium highlanders fought in ancient Italy against the Romans
  

Ancient Roman Wars
264 – 241 BC: First Punic War
218 – 202 BC: Second Punic War
149 – 146 BC: Third Punic War

• Summary & Highlights – The Punic Wars were fought between the two strongest contenders for control over the central Mediterranean Sea, Rome and Cathage. For a long time during the second Punic war, it could seem that Carthage would become the victor. The wars ended with a strong destruction of Carthage, that ended the city’s period as an independent power house and an important trade centre. However, the city would later became an important trading centre inside the Roman Empire.

215 BC 197 BC 168 BC: Macedonian Wars
91 – 88 BC: Social War
82 – 81 BC: Sulla’s civil war
58 BC – 50 BC: Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars
49 – 45 BC: Caesar’s civil war

• Summary & Highlights – Julius Caesar played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Caesar invaded Britain, giving him superior military power, before political standoffs with Pompey (the military and political leader of the Roman Republic) caused him to start a civil war, in which he was the victor. He was eventually proclaimed ‘dictator in perpetuity’ and shortly after assassinated.
  

48 BC: Battle of Pharsalus
31 BC: Battle of Actium
291 – 306: War of the Eight Princes in China
533 – 534 :Vandal Wars

Medieval European wars
1096 – 1291: Crusades

• Summary & Highlights – The French, German, and Italians were the European Christians that went on Crusades. The word Crusade meant “a war of the cross”. Some of the knights went on Crusades to get rich or to steal a new home from the people they were fighting, but most of the knights went to get healed of their sins. Richard the Lion Heart (or Richard the I of England) was a famous general in the Crusades.

1337 – 1453: Hundred Years’ War
1420 – 1436: Hussite Wars
1455 – 1485: Wars of the Roses
1454 – 1466: Thirteen Years’ War

• Summary & Highlights – Between Poland and Teutonic, which finally broke the power of the latter.
  

Pike and Shot (European warfare/method of combat (swords))
1568 – 1648: Eighty Years’ War

• Summary & Highlights – War of Dutch Independence

1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada

• Summary & Highlights –Armada can be translated to “Invincible Navy” and was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing England’s Queen Elizabeth 1. King Phillip 11 of Spain (once co-monarch of England) dispatched the fleet as he felt the Queen was an illegitimate ruler. His attempt failed against the Queen who claimed the victory as one of her greatest.

1618 – 1648: Thirty Years’ War

• Summary & Highlights – Across Europe, ends with the Peace of Westphalia.

1639 – 1652: English Civil War
1648 – 1660: The Deluge/Northern War

• Summary & Highlights – A series of wars involving Poland, Sweden, Prussia, Russia and Transylvania and Denmark

1652 – 1654: First Anglo-Dutch War
1664 – 1667: Second Anglo-Dutch War
1672 – 1674: Third Anglo-Dutch War
1672 – 1678: Franco-Dutch War
1680 – 1684: Fourth Anglo-Dutch War

• Summary and Highlights – The series of Anglo-Dutch Wars were fought between England and the United Provinces (Dutch Republic) for control over the seas and trade routes. During the second war New Amsterdam was captured and renamed to New York City.
  

1689 – 1698: War of the Grand Alliance
1700 – 1721: Great Northern War

• Summary & Highlights – Between a coalition of Denmark/Norway, Russia and Saxony/Poland on one side and Sweden on the other side

1710 – 1711: Russo-Turkish War (Part of above)
1702 – 1713: Queen Anne’s War The North American part of the War of Spanish Succession
1701 – 1714: War of Spanish Succession
1736 – 1739: Russo-Turkish War
1739 – 1742: War of Jenkins’ Ear
1740 – 1742: 1st Silesian War
1744 – 1748: King George’s War The North American part of the War of Austrian Succession
1740 – 1748: War of the Austrian Succession
1744 – 1745: 2nd Silesian War
1756 – 1763: Seven Years’ War, known as the French and Indian War in the United States, and also 3rd Silesian War
1754 – 1763: French and Indian War or the Seven Years’ War
1768 – 1774: Russo-Turkish War
1775 – 1781: American Revolutionary War
1787 – 1792: Russo-Turkish War
1792: War in defence of the constitution
1789 – 1815: French Revolutionary Wars (and Napoleonic Wars thereafter)

• Summary & Highlights – Was fought during the era of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era. The wars began as an effort to defend the Revolution, a period of political and social upheaval during which the French governmental structure, previously a monarchy, underwent radical change to forms based on principles of citizenship and inalienable rights. These changes were accompanied by violent turmoil which included the trial and execution of the king, vast bloodshed and repression during the Reign of Terror, and warfare involving every other major European power. Napoleon Bonaparte’s military and political leadership in France shaped his successful campaigns against the coalitions formed against France to contain the revolution. Napolean eventually crowned himself Emperor of France and turned the army against every major European power and dominated Europe.

1805: Battle of Trafalgar

• Summary & Highlights – Apart of the Napoleonic Wars, was a sea battle between the French/Spanish navy against the English Navy at Cape Trafalgar off the South Western Coast of Spain. The British Navy decisively won.
  

1815: Battle of Waterloo

• Summary & Highlights – Fought near Waterloo, Belgium. Forces of the French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte were defeated by those of the Seventh Coalition including an Anglo-Allied (UK) army under the command of the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher. It was the decisive battle of the Waterloo Campaign and Bonaparte’s last. The defeat at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon’s rule as the French emperor, and marked the end of Napoleon’s Hundred Days of return from exile.
  

Age of Rifles
1806 – 1812: Russo-Turkish War
1808 – 1809: The Finnish War between Russia and Sweden wherein Sweden cedes Finland to Russia
1812 – 1814: War of 1812

• Summary & Highlights – Fought between the United States and Great Britain, and part of the greater war between Great Britain and France

1821 – 1829: Greek War of Independence
1828 – 1829: Russo-Turkish War
1830 – 1831: Polish-Russian war following November Uprising
1835: Toledo War between US territory of Michigan and the US state of Ohio
1839 – 1842: First Anglo-Afghan War
1843 – 1872: Several Maori Land Wars in New Zealand
1846 – 1848: Mexican War between the United States and Mexico
1848 – 1849: Hungarian Revolt of 1848 waged by Hungary against Austria and later Russia
1848 – 1851: First war of Schleswig
1850 – 1865: Taiping Rebellion
1854 – 1856: Crimean War.
1857 – 1901: Caste War of Yucatán
1859 – 1860: Italian Independence War
1861 – 1865: American Civil War in the United States

• Summary & Highlights – This war was the result of decades of sectional tensions between the North and South. Focused on slavery and states rights, these issues came to a head following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, who was against slavery. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the U.S. and formed the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). Led by Jefferson Davis, they fought against the U.S. federal government (the Union), which was supported by all the free states and the five in the north. During the first two years of the war, Southern troops won numerous victories but saw their fortunes turn after losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863. From then on, Northern forces worked to conqueror the South, forcing them to surrender in April 1865.

1864: Second war of Schleswig
1866: Austro-Prussian War (aka Seven Weeks War)
1866 – 1868: Red Cloud’s War between the Lakota and the United States
1870 – 1871: Franco-Prussian War
1872 – 1873: Modoc War between the Modoc and the United States
1876 – 1877: Black Hills War between the Lakota and the United States
1877 – 1878: Russo-Turkish War
1839 – 1842: Second Anglo-Afghan War
1887 – 1889: Italo-Abyssinian War
1895 – 1896: First Italo-Abyssinian War
1894 – 1895: First Sino-Japanese War
1898: Spanish-American War
1899 – 1902: Boer War in South Africa

World War era
1905: Russo-Japanese War
1912 – 1913: Two Balkan Wars
1914 – 1918: World War I

• Summary & Highlights – Embroiled most of the worlds great powers. It was fought between two opposing alliances – the European military ‘Triple Alliance’ between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy and the ‘Allied Powers’ of the Russian Empire, Belgium, the UK, France, Canada, Australia, Italy (later changed sides), Japan, Portugal and the US. The immediate cause of the war was the assasination of the heir to the Austrian throne by a Serbian nationalist, causing the two powers to go to war. Gaining a number of alliances meant the war quickly spread worldwide. By the war’s end, four major imperial powers—the German, Russian, Austria-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires—had been militarily and politically defeated, with the last two ceasing to exist as autonomous entities. The revolutionized Soviet Union emerged from the Russian Empire, while the map of central Europe was completely redrawn into numerous smaller states. The “League of Nations” was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The European nationalism spawned by the war, the repercussions of Germany’s defeat, and the Treaty of Versailles (Treaty that required Germany to accept sole responsibility for causing rge war) would eventually lead to the beginning of World War II.

1917 – 1918: Russian Revolution

• Summary & Highlights – Creation of Soviet Union
  

1918: Finnish Civil War

• Summary & Highlights – Fought between “the reds” (rebellious Socialists) and “the whites” (anti-Socialists) in the aftermath of the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Germany intervened on the side of the Whites.

1918 – 1922: Russian Civil War

• Summary & Highlights – Fought between “the reds” (Communists) and “the whites” (tsarists) directly after the Bolshevist Revolution. US, France and Great Britain also intervened to “kill communism in the crib.”

1918 – 1920: Estonian Liberation War, Estonia against Soviet Russia and the Germans.
1918: Polish-Czech war in Teschen Silesia
1918 – 1919: Poland and Lwow against Westukrainian Republic
1918 – 1919: Great Poland Uprising, Provinz Posen against Germany
1919: Third Anglo-Afghan War
1919: First Silesian Uprising
1919 – 1921: Polish-Soviet war Poland and Ukrainian Peoples Republic against Soviets
1920: Second Silesian Uprising Silesian Poles against Germany
1921: Third Silesian Uprising Silesian Poles against Germany
1934 – 1936: Northern Expedition by Kuomintang
1935 – 1936: Second Italo-Abyssinian War
1936 – 1939: Spanish Civil War
1937 – 1945: Second Sino-Japanese War
1939 – 1941: World War II: (Allies vs Axis)

• Summary and Highlights – Was fought between the Allies and the Axis. The war in Europe began in earnest on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and concluded on September 2, 1945, with the official surrender of the last Axis nation, Japan. However, in Asia the war began earlier with Japanese interventions in China, and in Europe, the war ended earlier with the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. The conflict spilled over into Africa, included a handful of incidents in the Americas, and a series of major naval battles. It was the largest armed conflict in history, spanning the entire world and involving more countries than any other war, as well as introducing powerful new weapons, culminating in the first use of nuclear weapons. However, despite the name, not all countries of the world were involved; some through neutrality (such as the Eire – though Eire supplied some important secret information to the Allies; D-Day’s date was decided on the basis of incoming Atlantic weather information supplied from Ireland – Sweden, and Switzerland), others through strategic insignificance (Mexico). The war ravaged civilians more severely than any previous conflict and served as a backdrop for genocidal killings by Nazi Germany as well as several other mass slaughters of civilians which, although not technically genocide, were significant. These included the massacre of millions of Chinese and Korean nationals by Japan, internal mass killings in the Soviet Union, and the bombing of civilian targets in German and Japanese cities by the Allies. In total, World War II produced about 50 million deaths, more than any other war to date.

Cold War era
1945 – 1949: Chinese Civil War

• Summary & Highlights – Chinese Nationalist versus Chinese Communist parties. The two parties formed because of the Japan war and Japanese assault. Interestingly enough China never signed a peace treaty so there is some debate on whether the cold war has legally ended, even though the two countries have close economic ties now.

1946 – 1954: First Indochina War

• Summary & Highlights – Was fought between the French who occupied ‘French Indochina’, a region in mostly Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, part of the French Colonial Empire, and the Vietminh, a communist army led by Ho Chi Minh. Following the reoccupation of Indochina by the French following the end of World War II, the area having fallen to the Japanese, the Viet Minh launched a rebellion against the French authority governing the colonies of French Indochina. The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against French authority. However, after the Chinese communists reached the Northern border of Vietnam in 1949, the conflict became a conventional war between two armies equipped with modern weapons supplied by the United States and the Soviet Union. The lack of building materials (especially concrete), tanks (because of lack of road access and difficulty in the jungle terrain), and air cover prohibitted an effective defense. After the war, the Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, made a provisional division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with control of the north given to the Viet Minh as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and the south becoming the State of Vietnam under Emperor Bảo Đại, in order to prevent Ho Chi Minh from gaining control of the entire country. A year later, Bảo Đại would be deposed by his prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, creating the Republic of Vietnam. Diem’s refusal to enter into negotiations with North Vietnam about holding nationwide elections in 1956, as had been stipulated by the Geneva Conference, would eventually lead to war breaking out again in South Vietnam in 1959 – the Vietnam War.
• Notes – 1.Ho Chi Minh constantly appealed to the US for support and to help them in their hope for independence. 2. The French claimed without their overseas territories they would be in danger of not being a great power (their intentions were clear). 3. Ho Chi Minh stated “although he formerly favored Communist ideals, he now realized that such ideals were impracticable for his country, and that his policy now was one of republican nationalism”. It would be some 10,000 days later before the American public would learn of this. 4. After British and Chinese forces came to relieve the Japanese troops in Vietnam after their surrender, 1400 French soldiers released by the British from former Japanese internment camps enter Saigon and go on a deadly rampage, attacking Viet Minh and killing innocent civilians including children, aided by French civilians who joined the rampage.

1947 – 1949: First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan

• Summary & Highlights – Since British India was divided into: Pakistan, intended as a homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent; and India, a mainly Hindu state, there have been three wars. The main dispute is Kashmir. During the British period it was a princely state ruled by a Hindu Rajah. However, most of the population is Muslim. In 1947 the ruler decided to join India, though the people, if asked, might have wished to join Pakistan. In 1990 the people seem to be in revolt against Indian rule and the reported brutality of the “security forces”. Other causes of war have been: the Rann of Cutch, an arid area on the west coast where there is a border dispute; the revolt of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

1948 – 1949: First Arab-Israeli War

• Summary & Highlights – After the Arab rejection of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine that would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side, five Arab states invaded the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria attacked the state of Israel, leading to fighting mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also on the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon. The war concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements, but it did not mark the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

1950 – 1953: Korean War (UN-led coalition Vs. North Korea)
1956: Suez Crisis (Second Arab-Israeli War)
1962 – 1963: Sino-Indian War (China and India)
1964 – 1973: Vietnam War

• Summary & Highlights – The war was fought between the communist North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other member nations of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The North Vietnamese Army engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large-sized units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery and airstrikes. The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. Military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s and combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive. Despite Paris Peace Accords, a peace treaty signed by all parties in January 1973 and Case-Church Amendment, a legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in June 1973 prohibiting further direct U.S. military intervention without Congressional authorization, the U.S. was still heavily invested in the war until 1975. The capture of Saigon by North Vietnamese army, in April 1975, marked the end of Vietnam War. North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, including 3 to 4 million Vietnamese from both sides, 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians, and 58,159 U.S. soldiers.

1965: Second Kashmir War (Second Indo-Pakistani War)
1967: Six-Day War (Third Arab-Israeli War)
1969: Football War between Honduras and El Salvador.
1971: Bangladesh War of Independence (Third Indo-Pakistani War)
1973: Yom Kippur War (Fourth Arab-Israeli War)
1974 – 1991: Ethiopian Civil War

• Summary & Highlights – The Marxist, Derg (communist millitary junta) staged a coup d’état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991.

1975 – 1991: Lebanese Civil War
1979 – 1989: Soviet-Afghan War
1980 – 1988: Iran-Iraq War
1982: Falklands War between United Kingdom and Argentina

Post-Cold War era
1989 – 1990: Operation Just Cause, United States invades Panama
1991: Gulf War between Iraq and UN-led coalition

• Summary & Highlights – Was a military conflict initiated by a coalition force from 34 nations (led mostly by the US) and Iraq with the purpose of expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait after Iraq’s occupation and annexation of Kuwait in 1990. The Gulf War was perhaps the most efficient war in American History, at least when considering the cost in American lives. It proved that U.S. technology and U.S. military doctrine is a potent force when applied to the world stage. Years after the war’s end there are disagreements about whether the U.S. was justified in waging war against Iraq and over whether the war was prosecuted far enough. The expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait began in January 1991 and was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, which took over Kuwait and entered Iraqi territory.

1991: Slovene War of Independence
1991 – 1995: Croatian War of Independence
1992 – 1995: Bosnian Civil War
1994 – 1996: First Chechen War
1998 – 1999: Kosovo War (NATO Vs. Yugoslavia)
1999: Second Chechen War
2001 – present: Invasion of Afghanistan

• Summary & Highlights – The stated aim of the invasion was to find Osama bin Laden and other high-ranking Al-Qaeda members and put them on trial, to destroy the whole organization of Al-Qaeda, and to remove the Taliban regime which supported and gave safe harbor to Al-Qaeda. The United States’ Bush Doctrine stated that, as policy, it would not distinguish between terrorist organisations and nations or governments that harbor them. The initial attack removed the Taliban from power, but Taliban forces have since regained some strength. The war has been less successful in achieving the goal of restricting al-Qaeda’s movement than anticipated. Since 2006, Afghanistan has seen threats to its stability from increased Taliban-led insurgent activity, record-high levels of illegal drug protection and a fragile government with limited control outside of Kabul.

2003: Invasion of Iraq

• Summary & Highlights – Led by the US again, coalition forces invaded Iraq because of the ‘threat of weapons of mass destruction’. Later the UN Security Council after investigation found no such weapons. The invasion of Iraq led to an occupation and the eventual capture of President Sadam Hussein, who was later executed by the new Iraqi government. Violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups soon led to the Iraqi insurgency, strife between many Sunni and Shia Iraqi groups, and al-Qaeda operations in Iraq.

Wow, that was so much harder and took so much longer than expected, at least I learnt a bit. Next topic – keep it simple! 🙂

Welcome to my learning journal!

Hey guys, this is my online learning journal. Last week I decided to try and learn something new at least once a week and reference it in this journal. I’m doing this primarily for knowledge retention but also to help anyone else who might want to follow this blog and learn with me. Some things will be easy to learn and some things hard, some things you might already know, and some things you might not. I am going to try and be very diverse about the things I study up on and hit a wide range of topics. For any trivia buffs out there get on board, this will be a fantastic site if you wish to study up on things!

That’s it for now guys, stay tuned in next week for my first learning entry!

Disco Dave