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Japan: 'Horses Under a Willow Tree'. Woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunsen (1762-1830), c. 1804-1818. Katsukawa Shunsen (1762-1830), also known as Shunko II, was a designer of books and ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock prints. Shunsen is best known for his genre scenes, landscapes, and prints of beautiful women.
Germany: Portrait of Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 - 12 February 1804), German philosopher and writer. Oil painting by Gottlieb Doebler (c. 1762 - 1810), 1791. Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher considered by many as a vital figure in the development of modern philosophy. Kant argued that the human mind forms the structure of human experience, and that reason was the source of morality, among many other ideas. He was one of the earliest exponents of the belief that perpetual peace could be achieved through universal democracy and international cooperation.
Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th President of the United States (1853–57). Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation.<br/><br/> His polarizing actions in championing and signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act failed to stem intersectional conflict, setting the stage for Southern secession.
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those enslaved that were transported to the New World, many on the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, were West Africans from the central and western parts of the continent sold by western Africans to western European slave traders, or by direct European capture to the Americas.<br/><br/> The numbers were so great that Africans who came by way of the slave trade became the most numerous Old World immigrants in both North and South America before the late 18th century. Far more slaves were taken to South America than to the north. The South Atlantic economic system centered on producing commodity crops, and making goods and clothing to sell in Europe, and increasing the numbers of African slaves brought to the New World.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British Conservative politician, writer and aristocrat who twice served as Prime Minister. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach.<br/><br/> Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or 'Tory democracy'. He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He remains, as of 2015, the only British Prime Minister of Jewish (Sephardic) birth.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British Conservative politician, writer and aristocrat who twice served as Prime Minister. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach.<br/><br/> Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or 'Tory democracy'. He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He remains, as of 2015, the only British Prime Minister of Jewish (Sephardic) birth.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British Conservative politician, writer and aristocrat who twice served as Prime Minister. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach.<br/><br/> Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or 'Tory democracy'. He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He remains, as of 2015, the only British Prime Minister of Jewish (Sephardic) birth.
Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pseudonym George Sand, was a French novelist and memoirist. She is equally well known for her much publicized romantic affairs with a number of artists, including Polish-French composer and pianist Frederic Chopin and the writer Alfred de Musset.
Ukiyo-e, or ukiyo-ye ('pictures of the floating world'), is a genre of woodblock prints and paintings that flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. It was aimed at the prosperous merchant class in the urbanizing Edo period (1603–1867). Amongst the popular themes were depictions of beautiful women; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica.<br/><br/> Edo (modern Tokyo) became the seat of government for the military dictatorship in the early 17th century. The merchant class at the bottom of the social order found themselves the greatest beneficiaries of the city's rapid economic growth. Many indulged in the entertainments of kabuki theatre, courtesans, and geisha of the pleasure districts. The term ukiyo ('floating world') came to describe this hedonistic lifestyle. Printed or painted 'ukiyo-e' images of this environment emerged in the late 17th century; they were popular with the merchant class, who had become wealthy enough to afford to decorate their homes with such works.
A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines. The balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. As the entire balloon is less dense than its surroundings, it rises, taking along with it a basket, attached underneath, which carries passengers or payload.<br/><br/> Although a balloon has no propulsion system, a degree of directional control is possible through making the balloon rise or sink in altitude to find favorable wind directions.
Katsushika Hokusai (October 31, 1760 – May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei, c. 1831) which includes the internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.<br/><br/> Hokusai created the 'Thirty-Six Views' both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fuji in Clear Weather, that secured Hokusai’s fame both in Japan and overseas.
Hyakki Yagyo, variation: hyakki yako, (lit. 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons') is a concept in Japanese folklore. It is a parade which is composed of a hundred kinds of <i>yokai</i> (supernatural monsters).<br/><br/> Legend has it that every year the yokai Nurarihyon, will lead all of the yokai through the streets of Japan during summer nights. Anyone who comes across the procession will perish or be spirited away by the yokai, unless protected by handwritten scrolls by anti-yokai onmyoji spellcasters.<br/><br/> According to the account in the Shugaisho, a medieval Japanese encyclopedia, the only way to be kept safe from the night parade if it comes by your house is to stay inside on the specific nights associated with the Chinese zodiac or to chant a magic spell.
Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th President of the United States (1853–57). Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation.<br/><br/> His polarizing actions in championing and signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act failed to stem intersectional conflict, setting the stage for Southern secession.
The Ryukyu Kingdom (historical English name: Lewchew, Luchu, or Loochoo) was an independent kingdom that ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th to the 19th century. The kings of Ryukyu unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Sakishima Islands near Taiwan.<br/><br/> Despite its small size, the kingdom played a central role in the maritime trade networks of medieval East and Southeast Asia.
A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines. The balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. As the entire balloon is less dense than its surroundings, it rises, taking along with it a basket, attached underneath, which carries passengers or payload.<br/><br/> Although a balloon has no propulsion system, a degree of directional control is possible through making the balloon rise or sink in altitude to find favorable wind directions.
Totoya Hokkei was a Japanese printmaker and book illustrator. He initially studied painting with Kano Yosen (1735-1808), the head of the Kobikicho branch of the Kano School and <i>okaeshi</i> (official painter) to the Tokugawa shogunate.<br/><br/> Together with Teisai Hokuba (1771-1844), Hokkei was one of Katsushika Hokusai's best students.
Jacob Gottfried Haafner (Halle, May 13, 1754 - Amsterdam, September 4, 1809) lived for nearly twenty years in South Africa, India and Sri Lanka.<br/><br/> Haafner wrote five accounts of his stay in those countries. Haafner abhorred Western colonialism and slavery and upon his return he wrote the first comprehensive treatise against colonialism and missionary work. He had an excellent knowledge of Indian languages, especially Tamil, Hindi and Bengali as well as some Sanskrit.
A balloon is conceptually the simplest of all flying machines. The balloon is a fabric envelope filled with a gas that is lighter than the surrounding atmosphere. As the entire balloon is less dense than its surroundings, it rises, taking along with it a basket, attached underneath, which carries passengers or payload.<br/><br/> Although a balloon has no propulsion system, a degree of directional control is possible through making the balloon rise or sink in altitude to find favorable wind directions.
Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class.<br/><br/> The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as Bushidō. While they numbered less than ten percent of Japan's population, samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in martial arts such as Kendō, meaning the way of the sword.
Attributed to the artist George Henry Mason, this work describes, in graphic detail, the forms of punishment deemed suitable for numerous crimes committed in China.<br/><br/> Each plate illustrates one type of torturous punishment from less severe penalties like 'Torturing the Fingers' and 'Twisting a Man's Ears', to the most serious 'The Manner of Beheading'.
The Javanese script, natively known as Hanacaraka), Carakan, or Aksara Jawa, is a pre-colonial script used to write Javanese and several other native languages of Indonesia. It is closely related to the Balinese script.
(Sayyid) Said bin Sultan Al-Said (Arabic: سعيد بن سلطان‎, Sa‘id bin Sulṭān) (5 June 1797 – 19 October 1856) was Sultan of Muscat and Oman from 20 November 1804 to 4 June 1856. He became joint ruler of the country along with his brother Salim on the death of their father, Sultan bin Ahmad, in 1804. Said deprived his brother of joint rule on 14 September 1806. <br/><br/> In 1834, he agreed to a treaty with the United States on very favorable terms. In 1837, he conquered Mombasa, Kenya. In 1840, Said moved his capital from Muscat, Oman, to Stone Town, Zanzibar and sent a ship to the United States to try to establish a trading relationship.<br/><br/> Upon Said's death in 1856, his realm was divided. His third son, Thuwaini bin Said, became the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, and his sixth son, Sayyid Majid bin Said, became the Sultan of Zanzibar.
The Serat Selarasa is perhaps the earliest finely-illustrated Javanese manuscript extant. The manuscript is dated 1804, and according to a note in the text was once owned by the wife of a Dutch East India Company official in Surabaya.<br/><br/>In this image Prince Selarasa kneels before a holy man, Kiai Nur Sayid, who has stayed in one place for so long, neither eating nor drinking but smelling flowers and praying to God, that a vine has grown up around his body.
The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, of which up to 109 species have been described and belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus's native range extends from as far west as Southern Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, and Iran to the Northwest of China.<br/><br/> The tulip's centre of diversity is in the Pamir, Hindu Kush, and Tien Shan mountains. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, as potted plants, or to display as fresh-cut flowers. Most cultivars of tulip are derived from Tulipa gesneriana.<br/><br/> Sydenham Teast Edwards (1768 – 8 February 1819) was a natural history illustrator born in 1768 in Usk, Monmouthshire, Scotland.
Thailand: Mongkut (18 October 1804 - 1 October 1868), fourth King of Siam. Visit Card by Charles Jacotin (fl. 1863-1895), c. 1863-1868.<br/><br/> Mongkut, also known as Rama IV and full name Phra Bat Somdet Phra Menthora Ramathibodi Sri Sinthara Mahamakut Phra Mongkut Phra Siam Deva Mahamakut Wittaya Maharaj, was the fourth king of Siam of the House of Chakri. Ruling from 1851 till his death in 1868, he is best known internationally as the king in the 1951 musical 'The King and I', based on the 1944 novel about Anna Leonowens' years at his court.
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country. Outside of Thailand, he is best-known as the King in the 1951 play and 1956 film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam – in turn based on the 1944 novel about Anna Leonowens' years at his court, from 1862 to 1867.
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country. Outside of Thailand, he is best-known as the King in the 1951 play and 1956 film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam – in turn based on the 1944 novel about Anna Leonowens' years at his court, from 1862 to 1867.
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country. Outside of Thailand, he is best-known as the King in the 1951 play and 1956 film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam – in turn based on the 1944 novel about Anna Leonowens' years at his court, from 1862 to 1867.
Samuel Dyer (20 February 1804 – 24 October 1843), arrived in Penang in 1827 and with his wife Maria, lived there until 1835. He and his family then moved to Malacca leaving for Singapore in 1842.<br/><br/>He was known as a typographer for creating a steel typeface of Chinese characters for printing to replace traditional wood blocks. Dyer's type was accurate, aesthetically pleasing, durable and practical.
In February 1834, Parker traveled to Canton (now Guangzhou), where he had the distinction of being the first full-time Protestant medical missionary to China. In 1835, he opened the Ophthalmic Hospital, which later became the Guangzhou Boji Hospital (the Canton Hospital). Parker specialized in diseases of the eye, including cataracts, and also resected tumors. Parker also introduced Western anesthesia in the form of sulphuric ether.
The Serat Selarasa is perhaps the earliest finely-illustrated Javanese manuscript extant. The manuscript is dated 1804, and according to a note in the text was once owned by the wife of a Dutch East India Company official in Surabaya.
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country. Outside of Thailand, he is best-known as the King in the 1951 play and 1956 film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam – in turn based on the 1944 novel about Anna Leonowens' years at his court, from 1862 to 1867.
Captain William Story, born August 18, 1774, was one of 18 siblings and the half-brother of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. Under his command, the ship Friendship of Salem anchored at Canton from October 10 through November 5, 1803.<br/><br/> After a pirate attack off the Sumatran coast, Captain Story chose to pursue the life of merchant and ship owner in his hometown of Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Takano Chōei (高野 長英) was born as Gotō Kyōsai, the third son of Gotō Sōsuke who was a middle-ranking samurai in Mizusawa Domain of Mutsu Province which is in present-day Iwate Prefecture. At an early age, however, he was adopted by his uncle Takano Gensai who had studied medicine under Sugita Genpaku and influenced Chōei to follow in the same profession.<br/><br/> He first studied medicine in Tokyo Edo in 1820 after winning money in a lottery so as to pay his own way. There he studied under first Sugita Hakugen, then Yoshida Chōshuku who gave him the name Chōei. After the death of his teacher in 1824 he took over some of the teaching duties in the school.<br/><br/> A year later he left for Nagasaki to study under Philipp Franz von Siebold. There he paid for his education by writing papers about Japanese life for von Siebold, gathering plants and translating books from Dutch to Japanese. After the school was shut down and von Siebold expelled from Japan in 1828 Chōei was forced to flee. He finally settled in Edo in 1830 where he wrote his Fundamentals of Western Medicine.<br/><br/> In 1838 Chōei married and then published The Tale of a Dream, a book critical of the Tokugawa shogunate's handling of the Morrison Incident (1837). Since he was of samurai status he was dealt with harshly and sent to the Kodenmachō prison in Edo where he spent five years of his life sentence in the commoners section. In 1844 he arranged to have a fire started in the prison and made his escape.<br/><br/> He was finally caught by the police in 1850. Rather than return to prison or face execution Chōei resisted. He is said to have killed three police with his bare hands before he was either beaten to death or stabbed himself in the neck.
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country. Outside of Thailand, he is best-known as the King in the 1951 play and 1956 film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam – in turn based on the 1944 novel about Anna Leonowens' years at his court, from 1862 to 1867.
Bedouin (from the Arabic badawī بَدَوِي, pl. badw بَدْو or badawiyyūn بَدَوِيُّون) are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arabian ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes, or clans, known in Arabic as ʿašāʾir (عَشَائِر).The term 'Bedouin' derives from a plural form of the Arabic word badawī, as it is pronounced in colloquial dialects. The Arabic term badawī (بدوي) derives from the word bādiyah (بَادِية), which means semiarid desert (as opposed to ṣaḥarāʾ صَحَرَاء, which means desert).<br/><br/> Starting in the late nineteenth century, many Bedouin under British rule began to transit to a seminomadic life. In the 1950s and 1960s, large numbers of Bedouin throughout Midwest Asia started to leave the traditional, nomadic life to settle in the cities of Midwest Asia, especially as hot ranges have shrunk and populations have grown. For example, in Syria the Bedouin way of life effectively ended during a severe drought from 1958 to 1961, which forced many Bedouin to abandon herding for standard jobs. Similarly, governmental policies in Egypt and Israel, oil production in the Persian Gulf, as well as a desire for improved standards of living, effectively led most Bedouin to become settled citizens of various nations, rather than stateless nomadic herders.
Foot whipping, variously known as bastinado, falanga (phalanga), and falaka (falaqa), is a form of corporal punishment whereby the soles of the feet are beaten with an object such as a cane or rod, a club, a piece of wood, a stout leather bullwhip, or a flexible bat of heavy rubber. It is also sometimes favoured as a form of torture because, although extremely painful, it leaves few physical marks. The prisoner may be immobilised before application of the beating by tying, securing the feet in stocks, locking the legs into an elevated position, or hanging upside-down. The Persian term falaka referred to a wooden plank which was used to secure the feet prior to beating. This punishment has, at various times, been used in China, as well as the Middle East. It was used throughout the Ottoman Empire.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a renowned arist and ukyo-e painter of the late Edo Period. Born in Edo, Hokusai was from an artisan family and bore the childhood name of Tokitaro. As he grew and became an artist, he would use more than thirty names throughout his lifetime, exceeding that of any other major Japanese artist.<br/><br/> His best known work was the series 'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji', which secured his fame not only in Japan but also overseas. Though he had a long career, his most important work was arguably produced after he turned 60, when his work transformed the artwork of ukiyo-e from not just focusing on courtesans and actors to also portraying landscapes, animals and plants.
After a watercolour by William Alexander (1767-1816) of Pingze Men, the Western Gate of Beijing, 1799. Alexander accompanied Lord Macartney on his embassy to the Chinese Emperor Qiang Long.<br/><br/> The Macartney Embassy, also called the Macartney Mission, was a British embassy to China in 1793. The Mission ran from 1792–94. It is named for the first envoy of Great Britain to China, George Macartney, who led the endeavour. The goal of the embassy was to convince Emperor Qianlong of China to ease restrictions on trade between Great Britain and China by allowing Great Britain to have a permanent embassy in Beijing, possession of 'a small unfortified island near Chusan for the residence of British traders, storage of goods, and outfitting of ships', and reduced tariffs on traders in Guangzhou.<br/><br/> The embassy was ultimately not successful. This was not due to Macartney's refusal to kowtow in the presence of the Qianlong Emperor, as is commonly believed. It was also not a result of the Chinese reliance on tradition in dictating foreign policy but rather a result of competing world views which were uncomprehending and incompatible.
Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 - 11 March 1865), was a German-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missions for Great Britain in the Dominican Republic and Thailand.<br/><br/> Schomburgk was born at Freyburg, Prussian Saxony, the son of a Protestant minister. In 1820, while staying with his uncle, he learned botany from a professor.
Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV, better known as King Mongkut (18 October 1804 – 1 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country.<br/><br/> During his reign, the pressure of Western expansionism was felt for the first time in Siam. Mongkut embraced Western innovations and initiated the modernization of Siam, both in technology and culture—earning him the nickname 'The Father of Science and Technology' in Siam.<br/><br/> Mongkut was also known for his appointment of his brother, Prince Chutamani, as vice-king. Prince Chutamani was crowned in 1851 as King Pinklao. Mongkut himself assured the country that Pinklao should be respected with equal honor to himself. Mongkut's reign was also the time when the power of the House of Bunnag reached its zenith and became the most powerful noble family of Siam.