Page 10 - Citing Primary News Today

The Russians at Merv and Herat, and Their Power of Invading India is an account of Russian policy in Central Asia and of possible Russian intentions toward Afghanistan and India in the late 19th century, written from a British perspective. Topics covered include writings by Russian military officers on Central Asia and India; the analysis by the Russian general staff of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80); the journeys by Russian diplomat Pavel M. Lessar from Ashgabad (present-day Ashqabat, Tu...

This poster, published in Florence around 1915, portrays two women, personifications of Civilization and History, cursing the rulers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire (Wilhelm II, Franz Joseph I, Ferdinand I, and Mehmed V, respectively), and pointing at them as responsible for the First World War. The rulers appear withered by the gazes of the women. The background shows soldiers lying dead on a battlefield and a city in flames. The strongly-worded caption below the i...

Shown here is a color postcard from late-19th century Valencia, Spain, with season's greetings from a night watchman. Public workers delivered their aguinaldos (season's greetings) and received a small bonus or tip in exchange. The arrival of chromolithography in the world of graphic arts by the mid-19th century brought color to these simple postcards. The night watchmen were in charge of patrolling the streets and adjusting the street lighting. In some cities and neighborhoods, they als...

The prolific Urdu author and journalist Abdulhalīm Sharar (1860--1926) was born in and spent much of his life in Lucknow (in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India). He produced biographies, historical novels, romantic novels, histories, essays, and other works. Tarikh-e-Sindh (A history of Sindh) is one of Sharar's major historical works. Permanent settlement in Sindh, a province of present-day Pakistan, dates back to about 7000 BC. The Indus Valley civilization, one of the world's oldest c...

In 1874-75, the Russian government sent a research and trading mission to China to seek out new overland routes to the Chinese market, report on prospects for increased commerce and locations for consulates and factories, and gather information about the Dungan Revolt then raging in parts of western China. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Iulian A. Sosnovskii of the army General Staff, the nine-man mission included a topographer, Captain Matusovskii; a scientific officer, Dr. Pavel Iakovlevich Piasetsk...

This photograph is from a collection of 65 projectable lantern slides relating to the Arab Revolt of 1916-18, an important theater of operations during World War I. By supporting the revolt against Ottoman Rule, the British sought to weaken the Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with Germany and Austria-Hungary. For their part, the Arabs hoped to secure independence and create a unified empire embracing the region from Aleppo, Syria to Aden, Yemen. The photographs depict many of the protagonists ...

This military map of Puerto Rico was published in 1898, the year in which the United States, in the course of the Spanish-American War, seized the island from Spain. Hostilities began on May 12 with a blockade and bombardment of the city of San Juan by the U.S. Navy. This was followed with the landing off the coast of Guánica on July 12 of a force of 1,300 U.S. soldiers. In the peace treaty that was signed in Paris on December 10, 1898, the United States formally acquired Puerto Rico from Spai...

Article 18 of the Covenant of the League of Nations stipulated that "every treaty or international engagement entered into hereafter by any Member of the League shall be forthwith registered with the Secretariat and shall as soon as possible be published by it. No such treaty or international engagement shall be binding until so registered." President Woodrow Wilson of the United States believed that secret agreements between states had been a major cause of World War I and therefore i...

This world map is from the General Atlas of the World published by A & C Black in 1840. Adam Black founded his publishing company in Edinburgh in 1807. The firm dealt predominantly in maps and atlases for the rest of the 19th century. General Atlas of the World was published in successive editions up to 1898. The map is a good reflection of the cartographic knowledge of the world at the time it was made. The coastlines of the world had largely been explored, except for the polar regions. Hen...

The tenth-century manuscript on parchment presented here, Latin 4787 in the collections of the National Library of France, contains the texts of three important early medieval bodies of law: the Lex Salica, the Lex Alamannorum, and the Lex Ribuariorum. The Lex Salica, or Salic Law, is the legal code of the Salian Franks, written around the time of Clovis (ruled 481-511), the Merovingian king who united all of the Franks under his rule. The code deals mainly with monetary compensation for injurie...