The Ottoman Empire, like its eventual rival the Habsburg Empire, was a dynastic kingdom whose rule encompassed most of the Middle East, most of North Africa, and parts of Europe at its peak in the mid-17th century. Osman I founded the Ottoman Empire in the early 14th century, and subsequent rulers, or Sultans, rapidly expanded the boundaries of the territory. In the 15th and 16th centuries the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, putting an end to the powerful Byzantine Empire and expanded north into Europe, becoming a major player in European politics. At the beginning of the 20th century, the...

The Historical Dictionary of Japan to 1945 spans the entire period from the earliest evidence of human habitation in Japan through to the end of the Pacific War. It includes substantial topics such as cultural and literary history, with entries ranging from aesthetics to various genres of writing. Other branches of history also feature, such as economic history, industrial history, political history, and so forth. And of course there are the makers of Japanese history, ranging from emperors and shoguns to politicians and extremists - as well as foreign arrivals. The early history of Japan is...

For much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Britain was the dominant world power, its strength based in large part on its command of an Empire that, in the years immediately after World War I, encompassed almost one-quarter of the earth's land surface and one-fifth of its population. Writers boasted that the sun never set on British possessions, which provided raw materials that, processed in British factories, could be re-exported as manufactured products to expanding colonial markets. The commercial and political might was not based on any grand strategic plan of territorial...

The crucial period of Chinese history, 168-979, falls naturally into contrasting phases. The first phase, also known as that of 'early medieval China, ' is an age of political decentralization. Following the breakup of the Han empire, China was plunged into civil war and fragmentation and stayed divided for nearly four centuries. The second phase started in 589, during the Sui dynasty, when China was once again brought under a single government. Under the Sui, the bureaucracy was revitalized, the military strengthened, and the taxation system reformed. The fall of the Sui in 618 gave way to...

This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Ancient South America contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and the culture of ancient South America.

This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Hittites contains a chronology, an introduction, an appendix, and a bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important persons, places, essential institutions, and the significant aspects of the society, government, economy, material culture, and warfare.

This second edition contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture.