Book ‘Planet Aexus’

Even Germany’s recent history shows they had been struggling for a unified identity for a long time. Prior to this they had been involved in a series of politically and religiously motivated wars, so it wasn’t until 1871 that this disparate set of states and territories became unified by Prussia’s [...]

West Francia became France after expanding its territory under the reign of King Hugh Capet in 987. Wars quickly followed, including The Hundred Years War, which was one of many wars against the English. On the home front, French royal power reached its peak with the reign of Louis XIV [...]

Until the 12th century, Finland was a political vacuum but both its neighbours, Sweden to the west and Russia to the east were interested in taking over. Sweden was the more dominant power as the peace treaty of 1323 shows. This gave only an assigned portion of eastern Finland to [...]

Denmark is known as the home of the Vikings who ruled from about 800 – 1050 AD. The Vikings were excellent sailors and shipbuilders and known for invading other countries. They controlled parts of England and France in the 11th century. During the reign of King Harald Bluetooth, the Danes [...]

Czechoslovakia was formed in 1918 at the end of the First World War from several provinces of the collapsing Austro-Hungarian empire.And, between the wars, it became the most prosperous and politically stable state in eastern Europe until it was occupied by Germany in 1938. After the Second World War, Czechoslovakia [...]

China was ruled by various dynasties for much of its history but the most influential was the Han Dynasty which laid the foundations for the culture we know today. Later famous dynasties, like the Song and the Tang, continued to refine the culture and bring new innovations to the world [...]

Until the arrival of the Europeans, Brazil was settled by stone-age tribes. When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed the land for Portugal and the first settlement was founded in 1532. The primary export was sugar and Brazil continued to expand through wars and battles. The Portuguese [...]

Belgium was originally part of Gaul and like the rest of Europe was conquered and occupied by the Romans. During the late Middle Ages, Flanders’ trading towns (notably Ghent, Bruges and Ypres) exported woollen goods, making the area one of the richest and most urbanised parts of Europe. As a [...]

The Austria we know today only actually started as recently as 1955 when it became the Independent Second Republic of Austria. Don’t let that make you think nothing happened before then though as Austria’s history can be traced as far back as the Stone Age when the region was called [...]