Gold Prospectors

The North American gold rush, specifically the most popular one in California, lasted about seven years, in the middle of the 19th century. It had its good sides and bad sides. Early urban development, town of San Francisco, wealth accumulation, forming of the California state could be listed as a few good sides of the gold rush. On the other hand, clearing out the territory of Native Americans and environmental pollution can be said to be the bad sides of the gold excavations.

Several miners walking around town (Eureka, Colorado; circa 1920s).

On the picture we have a town called Eureka, which used to be a prosperous mining town up until WW2 when their mill was closed down. Today it is a ghost town.

Rome WW2

Soon after WW1 Italy had a rise in fascism, lead by Benito Musollini, who after seizing power and marching to Rome, allied with the Nazi Germany. In the last years of the war, 1944 was launched a great campaign against Italy by the Allies.

Rome Colosseum in WW2.

The Italian campaing lasted a few months, resulting in allied victory. US troops were stationed around Rome, as we can see on the picture. The fall of Rome ushered new times, the German army retreated, enabling more progress in the Allied favor.

20th Century SWAG

WW1 Charge

US Paratroopers WW2

WW2 Charge

WW1 Soldiers Offensive

The first World War, also called the Great War, happened in Europe in a time period from 1914 to 1918. It started off with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and ended up with the Treaty of Versailles. It changed the map of Europe, power balance between countries and way of warfare forever.

Soldiers charging, World War 1.

Probably the greatest symbol of the first World War was trench warfare. A stalemate where two sides are dug into trenches and between them is no-mans land. The flow of battle would usually be artillery fire from one side on the other, followed by an infantry charge (as seen on the picture) which was usually "greeted" by machine gun fire from the other side, leading to heavy losses. The process was repeated over and over again, leading to lands soaked in blood and battles remembered for extremely slow progress.

Asian Longbowmen

The longbow is one of the most used and powerful weapons in the history of warfare. It's characteristic is that it's narrow and long, so it requires a lot of drawback to fire. The advantage of such a system is that it fires far far far much longer than a regular (hunting) bow and arrow. Another characteristic feature of the bow is that it's usually as long as the person who is firing it. It was made by a whole range of different materials throughout history: the European yew, oak, hazel, maple, bamboo.

A small group / unit of archers practicing shooting with the longbow.

When you take a number of skilled archers, group them together and order to unleash hell on an enemy down a field, you are pretty much changing the outcome of the battle. The historic facts behind this happening goes from all over medieval Europe across to Asia, where longbow has maintained it's status as a great weapon used to put down the enemy army in a hail of arrows.