Politics

The Magna Carta, meaning “Great Charter,” was issued by King John of England on 15 June 1215 at Runnymede, a meadow beside the River Thames. The charter emerged from a political crisis between the king and a group of rebellious English barons, but its significance eventually extended far beyond the dispute that produced it. Over the centuries, Magna Carta became associated with the principles that the ruler is subject to the law, that government has limits, and that certain rights cannot simply be taken away by royal authority. ...

On 12 October 1492, an expedition commanded by Christopher Columbus reached an island in the Caribbean after an extraordinary voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus believed that he had reached islands lying off the coast of Asia, but he had in fact opened a new and unexpected chapter in the history of relations between Europe and the Americas. The voyage was one of the great navigational achievements of the fifteenth century. It demonstrated that European sailors could cross the open Atlantic with the ships, instruments, knowledge, and seamanship then available to them and return safely to Europe. The expedition was followed by further voyages, permanent settlements, and eventually the creation of an Atlantic world linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas. ...

The Fall of Constantinople occurred on 29 May 1453, when the Ottoman army under Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The conquest ended the Byzantine Empire after more than a thousand years of existence and established the Ottoman Empire as the dominant power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. The event is one of the most significant turning points in medieval history. Background Constantinople had been founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 330 CE on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium. ...