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A Little History of the World No.16 

Back to the Mediterranean and it’s time to meet one of the most incredible figures in ancient history. After the assassination of his father Phillip, Alexander was crowned King of Macedonia, a small country north of Greece. But that wasn’t enough for him. Over the next 12 years he marched eastwards and in a very short time ruled a huge kingdom that stretched all the way to India.

What’s even more incredible is how young he was; seriously you should go and find out more about him. 

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A Little History of the World No.15 

So far history has mostly been focused around the Mediterranean Sea. But civilisations were thriving all over the world. To the east, in what we now call India and China great cities were built. These societies had great thinkers too and around this time their ideas about love life and the universe began to spread. You’ll recognise their names: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.

(P.S. yet, the little histories are back! There’ll be at least one a week over the summer - more at delve.tv)

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A Little History of the World No.14 

After conquering Babylonia and Egypt the Persians turned their sights on Greece. Over 20 years two kings, Darius and Xerxes repeatedly attacked the islands.

Partly because they were more forward thinking, and partly because they were fighting for their lives, the Greek tribes united to push back the invaders time and time again. 

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A Little History of the World No.11

OK so it’s 800 BCE and now we can introduce some people you’ve definitely heard of. But Ancient Greece wasn’t really a single society as the name suggests, but a collection of smaller, competing, tribes. They included the Ionians who founded Athens and the Dorians better known as the Spartans.

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A Little History of the World No.10 

As merchants and traders, the Phoenicians needed receipts and invoices. This meant they needed a more efficient way of writing things down. Their ingenious solution changed our world.

This is part 10 in our series covering world history in 15-second instagrams. You can watch the rest of the series here.

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A Little History of the World No.9 

On the Mediterranean Coast in modern day #lebanon a society of great merchants and traders grew. In their legendary Phoenician ships they sailed all around the Mediterranean buying and selling goods. They also gave us something we still use today..any guesses?

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A Little History of the World No.8 

In July 1908 archeologists discovered something in the ruins of a Minoan temple on the island of Crete. A circular clay disc about 6.5 inches in diameter, that completely overturns our ideas of ancient technology. 

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A Little History of the World No.6 

1750 BCE. Law, and presumably lawyers, have been around a lot longer than you think. As early as 2100 BCE rulers were writing down laws of the land to keep order. The earliest surviving law book is what we now call the Code of Hummurabi, in 1750 BCE. Carved in stone, it sets down 300 laws, 30 of which were punishable by death. Many of its strict laws, including ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ found their way into the Jewish Torah and later the Old Testament. 

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A Little History Of The World No.4

Egypt wasn’t the only great civilisation around this time. The Mayans in Mexico, the Indus Valley civilisation in modern day Pakistan and the Xia Dynasty in China all emerged too.

We are publishing a short-fire history of the world throughout April and possibly beyond, inspired by EH Gombrich’s classic book “A Little History of the World”.

Find out more on our website.

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It’s the start of a brand new series!

Inspired by the classic book ‘A Little History of the World’ by E.H. Gombrich, we are taking you on a tour of world history over the last 5500 years. Every day throughout April a new chapter will be posted.

When did history start?

We start by asking when did history start? Did you know that the dinosaurs are not part of history and neither are cavemen. In fact, history didn’t start until around 3150 BCE when humans started thinking differently about their existence…