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The Begum's Millions
''The Begum's Fortune'' (, literally "the 500 millions of the begum"), also published as ''The Begum's Millions'', is an 1879 novel by Jules Verne, with some utopian elements and other elements that seem clearly dystopian. Plot summary Two men inherit a vast fortune as descendants of a French soldier who settled in India and married the immensely rich widow of a native prince, the begum of the title. One is a French physician, Doctor Sarrasin. The other is a German scientist, Professor Schultze. Each man decides to establish a utopian model city. The United States government cedes to each heir its sovereignty over a tract of land for the creation of his city. Sarrasin builds Ville-France on the western side of the Cascade Range, with public health as its government's primary concern. Schultze, a militarist and racist, builds Stahlstadt on the east side, a vast industrial and mining complex, devoted to the production of ever more powerful and destructive weapons—and vows to de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Henry Giles Kingston
William Henry Giles Kingston (28 February 1814 – 5 August 1880), often credited as W. H. G. Kingston, was an English writer of boys' adventure novels. Life William Henry Giles Kingston was born in Harley Street, London on 28 February 1814. He was the eldest son of Lucy Henry Kingston (d.1852) and his wife Frances Sophia Rooke (b.1789), daughter of Giles Rooke, Sir Giles Rooke, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas (England), Court of Common Pleas. Kingston's paternal grandfather John Kingston (1736–1820) was a Member of Parliament who staunchly supported the Abolition of the Slave Trade, despite having a plantation in Demerara. His father Lucy entered into the wine business in Porto, and Kingston lived there for many years, making frequent voyages to England and developing a lifelong affection for the sea. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and afterwards entered his father's wine business, but soon indulged in his natural bent for writing. His newspaper articles o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Militarism
Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the military and of the ideals of a professional military class and the "predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state" (see also: stratocracy and military junta). Militarism has been a significant element of the Imperialism, imperialist or Expansionism, expansionist ideologies of many nations throughout history. Notable ancient examples include the Assyria, Assyrian Empire, the Greek city state of Sparta, the Roman Empire, the Aztec nation, and the Mongol Empire. Examples from modern times include the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia/German Empire/Nazi Germany, the British Empire, the House of Habsburg, Habsburg monarchy, the First French Empire, the Zulu Kingdom, the Empire of Japan, the Fascist Italy, Kingd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, political, or historical aspects. It may encompass a set of concepts closely related to nationalism, mostly civic nationalism and sometimes cultural nationalism. Terminology and usage An excess of patriotism is called ''chauvinism''; another related term is ''jingoism''. The English language, English word "patriot" derived from "compatriot", in the 1590s, from Middle French in the 15th century. The French word's and originated directly from Late Latin "fellow-countryman" in the 6th century. From Greek language, Greek "fellow countryman", from "of one's fathers", "fatherland". The term ''patriot'' was "applied to barbarians who were perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive and who had only a common Patris or fatherland." The origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Facing The Flag
''Facing the Flag'' or ''For the Flag'' () is an 1896 patriotic novel by Jules Verne. The book is part of the '' Voyages extraordinaires'' series. Like '' The Begum's Millions'', which Verne published in 1879, it has the theme of France and the entire world threatened by a super-weapon with the threat finally overcome through the force of French patriotism. Plot Thomas Roch, a brilliant French inventor, has designed the Fulgurator, a weapon so powerful that "the state which acquired it would become absolute master of earth and ocean." As larer seen in the plot, a shell shot from the Fulgurator need not hit the target at all - the vibrations in the air when the shell passes over a ship are enough to break the ship into pieces. However, Roch is decided and no one believes his weapon can really work. He first tries the French government, asking for a lot of money, and when turned down by them tries in Britain and United States. Unable to sell his unproven idea, Roch becomes bitter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical Art in Ancient Greece, Greek art, and the Parthenon is considered an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy, and western culture, Western civilization. The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC in thanksgiving for the Greek victory over the Achaemenid Empire, Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon also served as the city treasury. Construction started in 447 BC when the Delian League was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC; work on the artwork and decorations continued until 432 BC. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arrondissement (district or ward) and home to some of the most Western canon, canonical works of Art of Europe, Western art, including the ''Mona Lisa,'' ''Venus de Milo,'' and ''Winged Victory''. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II of France, Philip II. Remnants of the Medieval Louvre fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to urban expansion, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function, and in 1546 Francis I of France, Francis I converted it into the primary residence of the French kings. The building was redesigned and extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his househ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco Art Association
The San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) was an organization that promoted California artists, held art exhibitions, published a periodical, and established the first art school west of Chicago. The SFAA – which, by 1961, completed a long sequence of mission shifts and re-namings to become the San Francisco Art Institute – was the predecessor of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Over its lifetime, the association helped establish a Northern California regional flavor of California Tonalism as differentiated from Southern California American Impressionism. Early history SFAA was founded on March 28, 1871, by a group of some 23–30 artists, primarily landscape artists led by Virgil Macey Williams, with two goals: the forming of an art library, the promotion of art exhibitions, and the eventual establishment of an art school. Painter Juan B. Wandesforde hosted the organizational meeting and was elected its first president. Other early artist members included George Henry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of 2024, San Francisco is the List of California cities by population, fourth-most populous city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population, 17th-most populous in the United States. San Francisco has a land area of at the upper end of the San Francisco Peninsula and is the County statistics of the United States, fifth-most densely populated U.S. county. Among U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2023. San Francisco anchors the Metropolitan statistical area#United States, 13th-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S., with almost 4.6 million residents in 2023. The larger San Francisco Bay Area ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journey To The Center Of The Earth
''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (), also translated with the variant titles ''A Journey to the Centre of the Earth'' and ''A Journey into the Interior of the Earth'', is a classic science fiction novel written by French novelist Jules Verne. It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are Lava tube, volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans abseiling, rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras (the 1867 revised edition inserted additional prehistoric material in Chaps. 37–39). Eventually the three explorers are spewed back to the surface by an active volcano, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, the conflict was caused primarily by France's determination to reassert its dominant position in continental Europe, which appeared in question following the decisive Austro-Prussian War, Prussian victory over Austria in 1866. According to some historians, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked the French into declaring war on Prussia in order to induce four independent southern German states—Grand Duchy of Baden, Baden, Kingdom of Württemberg, Württemberg, Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria and Grand Duchy of Hesse, Hesse-Darmstadt—to join the North German Confederation. Other historians contend that Bismarck exploited the circumstances as they unfolded. All agree that Bismarck recognized the potential for new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming Chancellor of Germany#Nazi Germany (1933–1945), the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of in 1934. His invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 marked the start of the Second World War. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of Holocaust victims, about six million Jews and millions of other victims. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and moved to German Empire, Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in the First World War, receiving the Iron Cross. In 1919 he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalitarianism, totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies of World War II, Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, End of World War II in Europe, ending World War II in Europe. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole ''Führer'' (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
