The smallest country in the world

Part II

In comparing countries by population, however, Vatican City loses out to the Pitcairn Islands for the title of smallest country. Compared to the 800-850 residents who live in Vatican City, the population of the Pitcairn Islands has fluctuated between 40 and 60 inhabitants over recent years. This British territory, located in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Peru and New Zealand, is composed of four islands, but Pitcairn is the only one that is inhabited. Pitcairn’s tiny population is also noteworthy due to its peoples’ heritage: They are descended from Tahitians and the mutineers on the Bounty. Fletcher Christian and eight other mutineers fled to Tahiti after their revolt at sea, but when hostilities arose with their new neighbors and they began to fear arrest, they escaped to the deserted island of Pitcairn to hide from British authorities, bringing a handful of Tahitians with them. The British rediscovered the islands in 1791 during a search for the mutineers, and they were named a British colony in 1838. Though the population has swelled since then to a whopping 223 just before World War II, the current population stands at about 50.

Considering the 50 smallest countries by landmass are each less than one-quarter of the size of Rhode Island and the 50 smallest countries by population are each about one-sixth the size of Washington, D.C., it really is a small world after all.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-is-the-smallest-country-in-the-world

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 Bermuda Triangle

 

A source of fascination for sailors, researchers and crackpots alike, the Bermuda Triangle is a roughly 500,000-square-mile expanse of the Atlantic Ocean located off the coast of Florida. Descriptions of its borders vary, but most accounts cite the three points of the “triangle” as Miami, Puerto Rico and the island of Bermuda. Reports of bizarre activity in the region date back to the days of Christopher Columbus, who reported unusual compass activity while traveling through it en route to the New World, but the Triangle would later earn a reputation as a dead zone for planes and ships after a string of unexplained disappearances in the 20th century. In 1945, five U.S. Navy aircraft known as “Flight 19” got lost and vanished in the triangle during a training mission. While the pilots most likely ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, no trace of the planes or their 14 crewmembers was ever found. Another famous mystery dates to 1963, when the tanker ship SS Marine Sulphur Queen sank near Key West, Florida. Life preservers and other items were later discovered drifting in the water, but the exact cause of the disaster remains unknown, and the wreck has never been recovered.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-is-the-bermuda-triangle

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What is the Magna Carta?

Part I

Hundreds of years before American colonists revolted against the crown, rebel nobles in England drafted the Magna Carta to curtail the power of their own tyrannical monarch–King John. While the Magna Carta, signed in 1215, primarily secured liberties for England’s elite classes, its language protecting due process and barring absolute monarchy has guided the fundamental principles of common law in constitutions around the world for the last 800 years. The Magna Carta brought an end to the absolute power of English sovereigns as they, too, were required to be held accountable by the law.

King John had a tumultuous relationship with Pope Innocent III, a controversial figure in the early 13th century who claimed supreme authority over European sovereigns. After opposing Stephen Langton’s appointment as archbishop of Canterbury in 1207, King John became the first English monarch to be excommunicated, so he struck back by taxing the Church and seizing portions of its lands. He was even more unpopular among the English barons, whom he taxed heavily to pay for his military defeats. In 1214, King John launched an unsuccessful invasion of France and taxed the English nobility again to pay for his war, sparking a revolt of the barons in 1215.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-is-the-magna-carta

 

 

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What is the Magna Carta?

Part II

To resolve the civil unrest and end the king’s abuse of power, Langton and a group of rebel barons drafted the Articles of the Barons, which became the Magna Carta. In fear that the rebellion would escalate to full-scale civil war and endanger his throne, King John affixed his seal on the document at Runnymede on June 15, 1215, making it Europe’s first written constitution. After only a few weeks, however, Pope Innocent III, who by then had reconciled with King John, voided the Magna Carta at the king’s urging. This reignited the violence between the monarchy and the barons, but after King John’s sudden death in 1216, the Magna Carta was reinstated under 9-year-old King Henry III. (It was revised in 1216, 1217 and 1225.)

Ironically, the Magna Carta would inspire American colonists a few hundred years later to declare independence from the British themselves. Around one-third of the provisions in the United States’ Bill of Rights draw from the Magna Carta, particularly from its 39th clause: “No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, disseised, outlawed, banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.”

The four remaining copies of the original Magna Carta are housed at Salisbury Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral and the British Museum.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/what-is-the-magna-carta

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The role of museums

The primary function of any museum is to educate the general public by exhibiting historical objects which have been found. Museums provide clear description of these objects. They explain where they are from, when they were made, and what they were used for. Museums help us to understand our history. What is more, people can learn about the history and culture of other countries. The exhibition of Tutankhamen’s tomb is a good example of this. The number of gold objects found in the tomb was extremely impressive. The exhibition travelled the world and taught people about ancient Egypt.

However, exhibitions are only useful if objects are correctly described and explained. There should be a text describing each object and its origins. In order to do this, historians and archaeologists in the museum have to do extensive research. Unless it is understood how an object relates to other subjects from the same period, and from earlier and later periods, it is not possible to understand the development of that object. For example, ancient glass bottles have been found all over the world. It was only through research, however, that archaeologists realized that glass blowing probably started sometime towards the end of the first century B.C. Syrian craftsmen were probably the first to use this new technology, which subsequently spread throughout Europe, and eventually to China.

http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_reading.htm

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