infamous Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 I think the biggest single turning point was when a certain ape decided that life in the trees suck.Absolutely my friend, and the next greatest moment in history would have been when they learned to speak, allowing the state of constant bickering to manifest itself...........Infy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfiniteNow Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 Absolutely my friend, and the next greatest moment in history would have been when they learned to speak, allowing the state of constant bickering to manifest itself...........InfyWhat about when that first salamander left the puddle and began the path to survival on land? :shrug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkColoredLight Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 Have you ever tried growing grapes for wine in Hannover or in Manchester? I suspect it must have been the Spaniards that brought grapes to sunny California. Well the little ice age wouldn't support wine, so the sober pre-immigrants needed to change with times. Then, after times really started changing, they came to the americas with their new found drunkenness. And of course the methods of making beer. Who says drugs, alcohol being a drug, doesn't ever change the world as we know it. I'd say any natural disaster, whether it be ice age, hurricane, earthquake, flood, etc etc changed the face of america for the recovery time. And as a market to recover. Insurance anyone? Not to mention how it changes the face of the earth. I for one can't wait for the big one to hit the midwest. The earth will quake right in the heart of america. Or so I've heard. edit: I guess the rest of the world has natural disasters also. Whaaaatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclogite Posted June 16, 2006 Report Share Posted June 16, 2006 perhaps a turning point would be the abolishment of slavery probably the best turning point in historyWe abolished it.:cocktail: When did that happen? Why wasn't I told. I shall inform the UN immediately that there concerns over various forms of enslavement and human trafficing are unecessary. Regretably there are probably more humans existing of conditions of effective slavery today than at any time in humanity's history Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 what if the Dutch settled Australia first, before the English!Yes then Australia would be now part of Indonesia like the rest of Dutch east Indies. -If you wanted to or not.(a la timor papua bali etc) Now that would be one big Islamic state! I would prefer The French Please!They are much better cooksThe French (La Pérouse) only missed out by a bit arriving just after Phillip moved the settlement to Sydney( "The British received him courteously, but were unable to help him with food as they had none to spare. La Pérouse sent his journals and letters to Europe with a British ship, obtained wood and fresh water, and left for New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, the Louisiades, and the western and southern coasts of Australia. He nor any of his men was seen again.")http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/perouse.html As it happened the aboriginies were here first Recent estimates are pushsing an incredible c80,000 years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panjandrum Posted June 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 Australia would not have been made part of the DEI, imo. It would have been a colony, akin to the boer settlements in South Africa. In fact, it would probably have been far worse for the Aboriginals had the Dutch and not the English settled Oz. The French would have been better, they have a good record of treating savages well in North America. They would have obliterated Aboriginal culture and 'Frenchified' them, tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted June 18, 2006 Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 Yes, most probably. Perhaps French fried them?:D Could I suggest another historical "Turning Point".Perhaps it even deserves its own thread.It starts when some Poles(?) smuggled the German code machine "Enigma" out of Poland into GB in about 1939-40?. As a result of this the English set up 'Bletchley Park' a code breaking centre that eventually broke the German Army and navy and Air force codes. Without this "Secret War" and the work of people like Stevenson and Alan Turing I don't think the UK would have held against the Nazis. (Churchill was instrumental in starting the spying with Stevenson long before he was PM)- In the process of breaking the very complex code Alan Turing invented the very first computer. And as we know the rest is history. O yes -most important Ian Fleming worked as a spy during the war. Goldfinger is based on an actural WW2 operation. Where would we, and Holliwood, be without 007?:evil: Some linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine http://www.awm.gov.au/Encyclopedia/enigma.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Probable Uncertainty Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 big turning point is world war two, change everything in europa really. all old empire collapses, and all east and middle europa she suffer from russian ruler for all of next 50 years. here in Česká republika, was all kinds of suffering and death under russian ruler, and was all from war. million and million of peoples all killed in this war, some of them very clever and would have done great things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 I do suppose the invention of the printing press turned the world on its head. What with the arrival of cheap, mass-produced books, the proliferation of knowledge, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 I do suppose the invention of the printing press turned the world on its head. What with the arrival of cheap, mass-produced books, the proliferation of knowledge, etc... Yes that's a good one!It certainly changed the world.(Perhaps we should give the Chinese invention of paper a plug here too?) I have been thinking about 'turning points' and it seems to me there are two that are often overlooked.The first is epidemic & other diseases.The second Climate Change.What would have happened if Alexander had not got malaria and died at what 24YO?What happened in the 14th century after the big plague epidemics?Feudalism broke down for one. Many Europeans developed and passed on genes for resisting HIV for another!If Napoleon's troops were not beaten back from Russia (mostly) by disease would we have a French Europe a French 20C Cold War??.I can't think of others but there must be hundreds of examples of history taking a sudden turn because of a little bacteriumClimate[/b]Some historical evens seem to have been assisted or hindered by climate.Hitler at Stalingrad is an obvious example but many expeditions of discovery were helped by good climate (Vikings) and good Harvests helped many a social system survive and prosper. Again I defer to your superior historical knowledge for possible examples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 What happened in the 14th century after the big plague epidemics?Feudalism broke down for one. Many Europeans developed and passed on genes for resisting HIV for another!To the best of my knowledge, is was bubonic plague that struck Europe. I don't think HIV/AIDS featured back in those days...:naughty: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 To the best of my knowledge, is was bubonic plague that struck Europe. I don't think HIV/AIDS featured back in those days...:naughty: Sorry I didn't make myself clear.It seems that having the plague confers some genetic immunity to HIV/AIDS.This immunity is related to a funny-little-locky-thinggy poking out on cells which stop HIV from breaking into the cell. This immunity is best in N. Europe (Norway 20%??) and decreases as you go south to nil % in N. Africa. I guess China must have it to? as they think the plague started there. People who survived the plague have the resistance (funny-little-locky-thinggy) and have passed it on. By the way the plague bacteria is still with us 1,000 to 3,000 people die every year from it- several in USA. 1 in 7 who get the disease (today) die. Nasty bug!Yersinia pestis (plague buggy thing) is widespread on all continents of the world except Australia and Antarctica. (Yea!):) O more good news, there are about another 9 primate AIDS type buggies that haven't made the jump to man YET!(Don't go near the gorillas!)-- Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qfwfq Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 and mostly exclusively north of SF, where the weather is most "Euro-like",Tee hee, perhaps you should make that "more Mediterranean-like" :D :) Buffy I was only telling somebody that beer vs. wine isn't quite America vs. Europe. There's plenty of :eek: around north of the alps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelangelica Posted July 2, 2006 Report Share Posted July 2, 2006 Here is acompetition for "Turning Points" !http://www.amnesty.org.au/resources/hre/nhcI can't find the closing date. "Changing society - human rights turning points through history"National History Challenge 2006 * Your entry * Ideas for topics * Prizes * How to enter * About Amnesty International The theme "turning points" in this year’s National History Challenge gives you a chance to look at some of the most inspiring and important events in history. Topics you could focus on include: * the ending of apartheid in South Africa and the work of people like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu * Gandhi's campaign for human rights in India - eg the salt march * movements for women's rights and the work of people like Vida Goldstein, Louisa Lawson and Jessie Street * the recognition of native title and the work of Eddie Mabo You can choose a situation where people’s rights were abused, explore the challenges people faced in working for change, and investigate what it took to make change possible. "Changing society - human rights turning points through history" is sponsored by Amnesty International Australia.Your entry Your entry needs to focus on * a turning point related to a human rights issue * what abuses of human rights were involved * why these abuses were taking place * how people challenged the situation that they faced and what made change possible * relevant background information * what campaigners for human rights achieved Your entry could also look at: * particular human rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: see simplified version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights * what an individual did to achieve change (eg Nelson Mandela, Eddie Mabo, Jessie Street) * their own personal experience of human rights abuses and how this motivated them to work for change * stages in achieving change * using primary sources * debates about the issues at the time * why this turning point is seen as important today Back to topIdeas for topics The human rights timelines below give you a wide range of human rights-related turning points from different periods in history. * Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission timeline * timeline pre twentieth century - Eleanor Roosevelt website, George Washington University * timeline post twentieth century- Eleanor Roosevelt website, George Washington University * University of Minnesota Peace Resource Centre timeline The site also lists a number of other human rights Turning Points Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panjandrum Posted July 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Not entierly the kind of turning point I had in mind. I would descibe these as the culminations of processes, and therefore more-or-less inevitable, rather than a dynamic event which might have gone either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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