In forty chapters Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb. This is not a text that is dominated by dates and facts, but by the sweep of mankind's experience across the centuries, a guide to man's achievements and an acute witness to his failties The international bestseller available in English for the first time: E. H. Gombrich’s world history for the curious of all ages PREFACE XV 1 ONCE UPON A TIME 1(4) The past and memory ? Before there were any people ? Dragonlike creatures ? Earth without life ? Sun without earth ? What is history? 2 THE GREATEST INVENTORS OF ALL TIME 5(5) The Heidelberg jaw ? Neanderthal man ? Prehistory ? Fire ?Tools ? Cavemen ? Language ? Painting ? Making magic ? The Ice Age and the Early Stone Age ? Pile dwellings ? The Bronze Age ? People like you and me 3 THE LAND BY THE NILE 10(7) King Menes ? Egypt ? A hymn to the Nile ? Pharaohs ? Pyramids ?The religion of the ancient Egyptians ? The Sphinx ? Hieroglyphs ?Papyrus ? Revolution in the old kingdom ? Akhenaton's reforms 4 SUNDAY, MONDAY 17(7) Mesopotamia today ? The burial sites at Ur ? Clay tablets and cuneiform script ? Hamurabi's laws ? Star worship ? The origin of the days of the week ? The Tower of Babel ? Nebuchadnezzar 5 THE ONE AND ONLY GOD 24(5) Palestine ? Abraham of Ur ? The Flood ? Moses' bondage in Egypt and the year of the departure from Egypt ? Saul, David, Solomon ? The division of the kingdom ? The destruction of Israel ? The prophets speak ? The Babylonian Captivity?The Return ? The Old Testament and faith in the Messiah 6 I C-A-N R-E-A-D 29(2) Writing with the alphabet ? The Phoenicians and their trading posts 7 HEROES AND THEIR WEAPONS 31(6) The songs of Homer ? Schliemann's excavations ? Sea-raider kings ? Crete and the labyrinth ? The Dorian migration ? The songs of the heroes ? Greek tribes and their colonies 8 AN UNEQUAL STRUGGLE 37(7) The Persians and their faith ? Cyrus conquers Babylon ? Cambyses in Egypt ? Darius's empire ? The Ionian revolt ? The first Punitive Expedition ? The second Punitive Expedition and the Battle of Marathon ? Xerxes' campaign ? Thermopylae ? The Battle of Salamis 9 TWO SMALL CITIES IN ONE SMALL LAND 44(7) The Olympic Games ? The Delphic Oracle ? Sparta and Spartan education ? Athens ? Draco and Solon ? The People's Assembly and tyrants ? The time of Pericles ? Philosophy ? Sculpture and painting ? Architecture ? Theatre 10 THE ENLIGHTENED ONE AND HIS LAND 51(6) India ? Mohenjo-Daro, a city from the time of Ur ? The Indian migrations ? Indo-European languages ? Castes ? Brahma and the transmigration of souls ? 'This is you' ? Prince Gautama ? The Enlightenment ? Release from suffering ? Nirvana ? The followers of the Buddha 11 A GREAT TEACHER OF A GREAT PEOPLE 57(5) China in the time before Christ ? The emperor of China and the princes ? The meaning of Chinese writing ? Confucius ? The importance of practices and customs ? The family ? Ruler and subject ? Lao-tzu ? The Tao 12 THE GREATEST ADVENTURE OF ALL 62(11) The Peloponnesian War ? The Delphic War ? Philip of Macedon ? The Battle of Chaeronea ? The decline of the Persian empire ? Alexander the Great ? The destruction of Thebes ? Aristotle and his knowledge ? Diogenes ? The conquest of Asia Minor ? The Gordion Knot ? The Battle of Issus ? The conquest of Tyre and the conquest of Egypt ? Alexandria ? The Battle of Gaugamela ? The Indian expedition ? Porus ? Alexander, ruler of the Orient ? Alexander's death and his successors ? Hellenism ? The library of Alexandria 13 NEW WARS AND NEW WARRIORS 73(7) Italy ? Rome and the myth of Rome's foundation ? Class warfare ? The twelve tablets of the law ? The Roman character ? Rome's capture by the Gauls ? The conquest of Italy ? Pyrrhus ? Carthage ? The First Punic War ? Hannibal ? Crossing the Alps ? Quintus Fabius Maximus ? Cannae ? The last call to arms ? Scipio's victory over Hannibal ? The conquest of Greece ? Cato ? The destruction of Carthage 14 AN ENEMY OF HISTORY 80(3) The Emperor Shih Huang-ti of Ch'in ? The burning of the books ? The princes of Ch'in and the naming of China ? The Great Wall of China ? The Han ruling family ? Learned officials 15 RULERS OF THE WESTERN WORLD 83(9) Roman provinces ? Roads and aqueducts ? Legions ? The two Gracchi ? Bread and circuses ? Marius ? The Cimbri and the Teutones ? Sulla ? Gladiators ? Julius Caesar ? The Gallic Wars ? Victory in the civil war ? Cleopatra ? The reform of the calendar ? Caesar's murder ? Augustus and the empire ? The arts 16 THE GOOD NEWS 92(5) Jesus Christ ? The teachings of the Apostle Paul ? The Cross ? Paul preaching to the Corinthians ? The cult of the emperor ? Nero ? Rome burns ? The first Christian persecutions ? The catacombs ? Titus destroys Jerusalem ? The dispersal of the Jews 17 LIFE IN THE EMPIRE AND AT ITS FRONTIERS 97(7) Tenements and villas ? Therms ? The Colosseum ? The Germans ? Arminius and the battle in Teutoburg forest ? The Limes ? Soldiers and their gods ? Trajan's expeditions in Dacia ? Marcus Aurelius's battles near Vienna ? Warrior-emperors ? The decline of Italy ? The spread of Christianity ? Diocletian's reforms ? The last Christian persecution ? Constantine ? The founding of Constantinople ? The division of the empire ? Christianity becomes the religion of the state 18 THE STORM 104(6) The Huns ? The Visigoths ? The Migrations ? Attila ? Leo the Great ? Romulus Augustulus ? Odoacer and the end of antiquity ? The Ostrogoths and Theodoric ? Ravenna ? Justinian ? The Pandects of Justinian and the Agia Sophia ? The end of the Goths ? The Lombards 19 THE STARRY NIGHT BEGINS 110(5) 'The Dark Ages'? ? Belief and superstition ? Stylites ? Benedictines ? Preserving the inheritance of antiquity ? The importance of the northern monasteries ? Clovis's baptism ? The role of the clergy in the Merovingian kingdom ? Boniface 20 THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH, AND MUHAMMAD IS HIS PROPHET 115(8) The Arabian desert ? Mecca and the Kaaba ? Muhammad's background and life ? Persecution and flight ? Medina ? The battle with Mecca ? The last sermon ? The conquests of Palestine, Persia and Egypt ? The burning of the Alexandrian library ? The siege of Constantinople ? The conquests of North Africa and Spain ? The battles of Tours and Poitiers ? Arab culture ? Arabic numerals 21 A CONQUEROR WHO KNOWS HOW TO RULE 123(7) The Merovingians and their stewards ? The kingdom of the Franks ? Charlemagne's battles in Gaul, Italy and Spain ? The Avars ? Battles with the Saxons ? The Heldenlieder ? The crowning of the emperor ? Harun al-Rashid's ambassadors ? The division and decline of the Carolingian empire ? Svatopluk ? The Vikings ? The kingdoms of the Normans 22 A STRUGGLE TO BECOME LORD OF CHRISTENDOM 130(7) East and West in Carolingian times ? The blossoming of culture in China ? The Magyar invasion ? King Henry ? Otto the Great ? Austria and the Babenbergs ? Feudalism and serfdom ? Hugh Capet ? The Danes in England ? Religious appointments ? The Investiture Controversy ? Gregory VII and Henry IV ? Canossa ? Robert Guiscard and William the Conqueror 23 CHIVALROUS KNIGHTS 137(7) Horsemen and knights ? Castles ? Bondsmen ? From noble youth to knight: page, squire, dubbing ? A knight's duties ? Minstrelsy ? Tournaments ? Chivalrous poetry ? The Song of the Nibelungen ? The First Crusade ? Godfrey of Bouillon and the conquest of Jerusalem ? The significance of the crusades 24 EMPERORS IN THE AGE OF CHIVALRY 144(12) Frederick Barbarossa ? Barter and the money-based economy ? Italian towns ? The empire ? The resistance and defeat of Milan ? The dubbing feast at Mainz ? The Third Crusade ? Frederick II ? Guelphs and Ghibellines ? Innocent III ? The Magna Carta ? Sicily's rulers ? The end of the Hohenstaufens ? Ghengis Khan and the Mongol invasion ? The lack of an emperor and 'fist-law ? The Kyffhäuser legend ? Rudolf of Habsburg ? Victory over Otakar ? The power of the House of Habsburg is established 25 CITIES AND CITIZENS 156(7) Markets and towns ? Merchants and knights ? Guilds ? Building cathedrals ? Mendicant friars and penitential priests ? The persecution of Jews and heretics ? The Babylonian Captivity of the popes ? The Hundred Years War with England ? Joan of Arc ? Life at court ? Universities ? Charles IV and Rudolf the Founder 26 A NEW AGE 163(9) The burghers of Florence ? Humanism ? The rebirth of antiquity ? The flowering of art ? Leonardo da Vinci ? The Medici - Renaissance popes ? New ideas in Germany ? The art of printing ? Gunpowder ? The downfall of Charles the Bold ? Maximilian, the Last Knight ? Mercenaries ? Fighting in Italy ? Maximilian and Diirer 27 A NEW WORLD 172(8) The compass ? Spain and the conquest of Granada ? Columbus and Isabella ?The discovery of America ? The modern era ? Columbus's fate ? The conquistadores ? Hernando Cortez ? Mexico ? The fall of Montezuma ? The Portuguese in India 28 A NEW FAITH 180(7) The building of the Church of St Peter ? Luther's theses ? Luther's forerunner, Hus ? The burning of the papal bull ? Charles V and his empire ? The sack of Rome ? The Diet of Worms ? Luther at the Wartburg ? The translation of the Bible ? Zwingli ? Calvin ? Henry VIII ? Turkish conquests ? The division of the empire 29 THE CHURCH AT WAR 187(6) Ignatius of Loyola ? The Council of Trent ? The Counter-Reformation ? The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre ? Philip of Spain ? The Battle of Lepanto ? The revolt of the Low Countries ? Elizabeth of England ? Mary Stuart ? The sinking of the Armada ? English trading posts in America ? The East India Companies ? The beginnings of the British empire 30 TERRIBLE TIMES 193(7) The Defenestration of Prague ? The Thirty Years War ? Gustavus Adolphus ? Wallenstein ? The Peace of Westphalia ? The devastation of Germany ? The persecution of witches ? The birth of a scientific understanding of the world ? Nature's laws ? Galileo and his trial 31 AN UNLUCKY KING AND A LUCKY KING 200(6) The Stuart king, Charles I ? Cromwell and the Puritans ? The rise of England ? The year of the Glorious Revolution ? France's prosperity ? Richelieu's policies ? Mazarin ? Louis XIV ? A king's lever ? Versailles ? Sources of the government's wealth ? The peasants' misery ? Predatory wars 32 MEANWHILE, LOOKING EASTWARDS... 206(7) Turkish conquests ? Insurrection in Hungary ? The siege of Vienna ? Jan Sobieski and the relief of Vienna ? Prince Eugene ? Ivan the Terrible ? Peter the Great ? The founding of St Petersburg ? Charles XII of Sweden ? The race to Stralsund ? The expansion of Russian might 33 A TRULY NEW AGE 213(7) The Enlightenment ? Tolerance, reason and humanity ? Critique of the Enlightenment ? The rise of Prussia ? Frederick the Great ? Maria Theresa ? The Prussian army ? The Grand Coalition ? The Seven Years War ? Joseph II ? The abolition of serfdom ? Overhasty reforms ? The American War of Independence ? Benjamin Franklin ? Human rights and negro slaves 34 A VERY VIOLENT REVOLUTION 220(7) Catherine the Great ? Louis XV and Louis XVI ? Life at court ? Justice and the landowning nobility ? The Rococo ? Marie Antoinette ? The convocation of the Estates-General ? The storming of the Bastille ? The sovereignty of the people ? The National Assembly ? The Jacobins ? The guillotine and the Revolutionary Tribunal ? Danton ? Robespierre ? The Reign of Terror ? The sentencing of the king ? The foreigners defeated ? Reason ? The Directory ? Neighbouring republics 35 THE LAST CONQUEROR 227(13) Napoleon in Corsica ? To Paris ? The siege of Toulon ? The conquest of Italy ? The Egyptian expedition ? The coup d'état ? The consulate and the Code Napoléon ? Emperor of the French ? Victory at Austerlitz ? The end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation ? Francis I ? The Continental System ? Victory over Russia ? Spain and the War of Spanish Resistance ? Aspern and Wagram ? The German uprising ? The Grande Armée ? The retreat from Moscow ? The Battle of Leipzig ? The Congress of Vienna ? Napoleon's return from Elba ? Waterloo ? St Helena 36 MEN AND MACHINES 240(8) The Biedermeier era ? Steam engines, steamships, locomotives, the telegraph ? Spinning machines and mechanical looms ? Coal and iron ? Luddites ? Socialist ideas ? Marx and his theory of class war ? Liberalism ? The revolutions of 1830 and 1848 37 ACROSS THE SEAS 248(7) China before 1800 ? The Opium war ? The Taiping Rebellion ? China's submission ? Japan in 1850 ? Revolution in support of the Mikado ? Japan's modernisation with foreign assistance ? America after 1776 ? The slave states ? The North ? Abraham Lincoln ? The Civil War 38 TWO NEW STATES IN EUROPE 255(9) Europe after 1848 ? The Emperor Franz Josef and Austria ? The German Confederation ? France under Napoleon III ? Russia ? Spain's decline ? The liberation of the peoples of the Balkans ? The fight for Constantinople ? The kingdom of Sardinia ? Cavour ? Garibaldi ? Bismarck ? The reform of the army in defiance of the constitution ? The Battle of Königgrätz ? Sedan ? The founding of the German empire ? The Paris Commune ? Bismarck's social reforms ? Dismissal of the Iron Chancellor 39 DIVIDING UP THE WORLD 264(9) Industry ? Markets and sources of raw materials ? Britain and France ? The Russo-Japanese War ? Italy and Germany ? The race to mobilize ? Austria and the East ? The outbreak of the First World War ? New weapons ? Revolution in Russia ? The American intervention ? The terms of peace ? Scientific advance ? End 40 THE SMALL PART OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WHICH I HAVE LIVED THROUGH MYSELF: LOOKING BACK 273 The growth of the world's population ? The defeat of the central-European powers during the First World War ? The incitement of the masses ? The disappearance of tolerance from political life in Germany, Italy, Japan and Soviet Russia ? Economic crisis and the outbreak of the Second World War ? Propaganda and reality ? The murder of the Jews ? The atomic bomb ? The blessings of science ? The collapse of the Communist system ? International aid efforts as a reason for hope