around: Dictionary Information

Around —adv. 1 on every side; all round; round about. 2 colloq. A in existence; available. B near at hand. 3 here and there (shop around). —prep. 1 on or along the circuit of. 2 on every side of. 3 here and there in or near (chairs around the room). 4 a round (church around the corner). B at a time near to (came around four o-clock).  have been around colloq. Be widely experienced.

around: Geographic Locations

around: Historical Excerpts

Colonial Expansion PHOENICIAN. By 1200, extensive commercial centers developed along the mediterranean, with ports at western Sicily and on coasts of North Africa; Carthage, founded c853, became greatest colony, used exclusively as commercial center, not for settlement of peoples on land; by 6th century trading stations extended to include Sardinia, Balearic Islands, greater part of southern Spain; North Africa became productive region, and Spain was opened as source of silver and copper; domestic animals were introduced, and caravan routes were extended in western Sahara Desert. GREEK. overpopulation and economic discontent caused by lack of arable land stimulated colonization; during 7th and 6th centuries bc, Greek settlements spread around coasts of Black Sea and along northern mediterranean coasts into southern Italy, with largest center Sicily; other colonies at Syracuse, Naxos, Cumae, Tarentum, Massilia (marseilles) , Gyrene (Libya), and Byzantium (658 bc); acquisition of additional territories enabled Greeks to find new sources of food, land for excess population, and profitable trade benefiting colonists and mother country or city. Finance Coinage. Infinite variety of currencies including corn, salt, amber, shells, and cattle; Assyrians used (1400) lumps of lead bearing impression designating value





Asio INDIA. Early Vedic religion polytheistic worship of nature; Brahmanism (Hinduism) developed system of complex ritual, philosophy, and symbolism, retaining much ancient folklore and tradition; belief in karma (fate or destiny) and desire of each human soul, through improvement in successive reincarnations, to reunite with the universal or world soul; Jainism, taught by Mahavira and other sages, and Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Gautama, arose as reforms of Hinduism; emphasized asceticism while accepting most of Hindu faith; new sects gained wide following. CHINA. Shamanism early belief: cult of magic, nature worship, ancestral spirits; shamans, powerful priests, placated demons; female fertility symbols dominated later worship; divination and oracles sought, ancestor and nature worship continued; inquiring thinkers sought to define right way of life.’ Lao-tze. Renowned figure of period; credited with founding mystic philosophy organized as religion; based on concept of Tao as way of heaven or nature; stressed ascetic, simple virtues. Europe CRETE. Individual religion developed from nature worship; chief deity, great mother goddess, symbolized life, death, and fertility; served by priestesses. GREECE. Ideas of Aegean antiquity, influenced by older civilizations, blended with concepts brought by Achaeans and Dorians; vast pantheon created with every object, force, fear, virtue, or vice represented by anthropomorphic deity; rich mythology, based on lives and adventures of family, local, state, and city gods; no dogma or priesthood; theology, little moral content; variety of ritual and festival; superstitution, belief in magic; oracleseeking, Eleusinian and Orphic mystery cults. : ROME. Early religion centered around family; gods of household and fields propitiated; ancestor worship; spirits represented forces of nature.





THEATER Greece Greek tragedy reached height in Sth century Athens as part of Dionysia; drama contest, sponsored by state, gave tliree dramatists opportunity to submit trilogy for all-day performance; prizes awarded winning tragedies; choragus (director or producer) chosen, and actors paid by state; wealthy citizens responsible for trained chorus; actors, all male, wore masks, high-soled shoes; played more titan one role in each drama. Theater. Open-air structure; orchestra, chorus performed around altar to god, Dionysus. Aeschylus. Dramatic-poet; earliest of tliree great tragic poets; of noble birth; devoted life to tvriting, but only seven plays extant; largely responsible for form of tragedy; introduced second actor, increased importance of dialogue, reduced chorus to 12, originated trilog) on single theme: outstanding Work, Oresteia, trilogy based on fate of Agamemnon, leader at Troy; Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, Eumenides; expressed profound religious emotion, powerful dramatic crises, grandeur of characterizations. Sophocles. Tragic poet; considered by many greatest of Greek tragedians; well-born, wealthy, educated; 7, of approximately 123 dramas, survive intact; won 24 contests, gaining first triumph by defeating Aeschylus, 468; added third actor, important innovation; introduced painted scenery, increased size of chorus; abandoned trilogy, making each play separate entity; Antigone, known for superb characterization, unusually tragic tone, suspense; Oedipus the King, greatest and best-known tragedy, expounds irony of fate; powerful motivation, irony seen in inevitability of Oedipus’ doom; Electrai popular play based on. Agamemnon story. Menander. Dramatist; tvriter of New Comedy; set style for Latin imitators and later comedy of manners of northern Europe; arbitration, brilliant; exposed double standard of morality.





Goods may be exchanged through many intermediaries sdtliout the makers and ultimate users meeting, but in the 3000 years that followed, Cretans, phoenicians, and Greeks vo^’aged around the mediterranean and into the western Atlantic. The cartlaaginians sailed as far south as Sierra Leone and nortlt to Britain. Pytlieas the Greek may have touclted Iceland, and ships sent out by Pharaoh Nedio (c600 bc)





Western Europe The period 500-1000 saw the prosperity and civilization achieved in Western Europe under Roman rule all but disappear. Roads and bridges fell in disrepair: trade languished; cities were abandoned; the torch of learning almost flickered out. Society disintegrated into thousands of isolated settlements where people fell back on their meager local resources to keep alive. By 1 000 the worst was over. Amid the inchoate conditions, close to barbarism, into which Western Europe had declined, a new society slowly took form. It was a society shaped around three great institutions. 1) The Catholic Church, headed by the bishops of Rome (popes) gave Western christendom religious unity. The priests and monks preserved the Latin language, the art of witing, and the doctrines of the Christian faith, 2) Feudalism, a system of landholding that involved military and administrative responsibilities for the landlord (nobles) and traditional dues and duties for the peasants (serfs) who w orked the land, developed haphazardly. It was a decentralized systern under which the lord of the manor was tlie virtual ruler of his local domain, and it reflected the fragmentation of medieval society. 3) The Holy Roman Empire. The g;reat Frankish conqueror charlemagne (768-814) was crowned ‘Roman Emperor’ by the pope in 800, The hope of reuniting Western Europe was never realized, but tlie concept of a ‘Holy Roman Empire’ was to survive for a thousand years (8001806).





Europe FRANKS. Adoption of successful vioslem cavalry method of mounted oldiers revolutionized society; solidiled feudal system; established military service as upper class privilege; Charles Martel increased number of horsemen by making land grants; cultivated self-sufficiency around villa or manor; continued through feudal era. NORSEMEN. scandinavian seafarers made daring, far-ranging expeditions in swiftest ships of time; propelled by both sails and oars; established trading settlements at Novgorod, Kiev; given dukedom in France (Normandy); capital at Rouen, one of busiest, most beautiful cities in country; explored, settled Iceland, Greenland; crossed Atlantic under Leif Ericson, 1 0th century. ITALY. Venetian Commerce. flourishing trade with Byzantine Empire; Venice assumed leadership of country; large fleet of armed galleys, powerful aristocracy of mercliants. Byzantine Empire Code of Justinian. Greatest achievement; systematized Roman law; compact form made knowledge and duplication practical; four works, known as Corpus Juris Civilis, compiled by Tribonian and leading jurists; included: Code, brought Roman law up to date; Digest, leading legal opinions of Roman jurists; Institutes, introductoiy textbook and discussion of principles; Supplement, addition of subsequent laws; basis of European and American legal and political systems. Commerce. Under Justinian, famous Byzantine silks, produced in constantinople, superseded Chinese product; for 500 years, Byzantium most prosperous, civilized state of Europe and western Asia; dominated economic life around eastern mediterranean, Black Sea; provided stimulus to European trade; expanded into Africa; with decline in maritime commerce following Moslem conquests, overland trade routes through Asia Minor substituted; merchants from nortlicrn countries used water routes. neOCS TOUOWCu; anu 1.. wo







Western Europe PORTUGAL. ‘Golden Age’ began with period of prosperity and prestige; Henry the Navigator, great patron of cosmography, sent out annual expeditions from 1418 until his death in attempt to open direct communication with Guinea: expeditions carefully planned to find sea route to Ethiopia and India; African coast explored; permanent settlements on islands of Madeira and Azores established; Cape Verde Islands discovered; trade with Guinea coast begun; after Henry s death, explorations continued, culminating in voyage of Vasco da Gama around Cape of Good Hope to Calicut, India: Ordenacoes Affonsinas, first great law code of Portugal, enacted. SPAIN. Royal power restored in Castile: by charter revision towns were made centers of resistance to feudal aggression; confiscation of property of expelled Jews and Moors increased financial power of crown, but injured economy; jealousy at Portuguese enterprise led to Columbus expedition to India which, 1492, reached New World instead, beginning period of exploration and conquest; first public bank of deposit opened in Barcelona, 1401; Valencia, 1407; Libro de Montalvo, first codification of Spanish law (Castile), 1485. FRANCE. Cabochian revolt in Paris, demanding reforms, 1413; permanent tax, the Taille, established by Charles VII, 1439. Jacques Coeur. Merchant prince: founder of French trade in the Levant; used his fortune to aid Charles VII in struggle with England; one of most prosperous capitalists of century. ITALY. Florence, defeated in battles, lost credit, bankruptcies resulting; by 1427, taxation refoTin, catasio, income tax, tended to be more equitable; replaced by progressive income tax, 1440; Lorenzo de Medici forced to debase currency, increase taxation; business depression caused decline in Florentine prosperity; in Milan, Ludovico SEorza beautified city, improved irrigation and agriculture. Tights.Jdllbw^edt:ariaiin^)jiT^^





Portugal. Vasco Da Gama’s second voyage around Gape to India





Columbus discovered America, Da Gama sailed around Africa to India, and Magellan s expedition circumnavigated the globe. These voyages marked the opening of a new age in world history, the Oceanic Age., The map illustrates the basic significance of the European achievement





America During the first half of the 16th century tlxe Spaniards expanded their conquests in the New World without serious competition from any other European nation except the Portuguese. Portugal claimed the coast of Brazil, discovered by Pedro Alvarez Cabral (1500) who swung far westward on a voyage around Africa. For twenty years after columbus’ first voyage Spanish conquest and settlement was limited to the islands of the West Indies and the Isthmus of Panama. In 1519 Hernando Cortds led 600 men into Mexico, readied the Aztec capital at tenochtitlan, and xvas xvelcomed by its ruler, Montezuma. The Spaniards seized the Aztec emperor but were driven from the capital (1520) Returning the following year they conquered the city and made themselves masters of the Aztec realm. Ten years later Francisco Pizarro, with a few hundred men, sailed down the xvest coast from Panama to invade the Inca empire. Marching inland to Cajamarca he was visited by the Inca monarch Atahualpa, made him prisoner by a treacherous attack (1532), and subsequently executed him. Reinforced by furtlier recruits Pizarro occupied the Inca capital at Cuzco (1533). The audacious tactics of the Spanish conquistadors brought the two most cultured and populous regions of the New World under tlieir control. No certain estimates are available but together they probably held two or three times the population of Spain (about six million in 1500)





W HEN Columbus returned from his first voyage (1493) Spain appealed to Pope Alexander VI to delimit Spanish and Portuguese claims. Alexander granted Spain exclusive rights to all non-christian lands beyond a line to run north and south 100 leagues west of the Azores. Such a line would have touched the eastern tip of South America, but the Spaniards did not yet know this. The following year (1494) the Portuguese persuaded the Spaniards to fix the line 270 leagues farther west (roughly at the 46th degree West Longitude by the Greenwich reckoning now commonly used) As Portugal was to have exclusive right to discoveries east of the line this gave it a claim to South America almost as far west as the mouth of the Amazon. It is possible that the Portuguese, who had explored the west coast of Africa for a century, already knew something of the lands to which the extended Line of demarcation entitled them. In 1500 Cabral’s expedition touched Brazil and claimed it before proceeding to India. Cabral s ‘accidental’ discovery of Brazil may have been fortuitous, but it could also have been deliberate. Since ancient times nations had guarded the secrets of their discoveries. The 1494 Line of demarcation, if extended around the globe, bisects Japan and Australia (134 degrees East Longitude) In 1521 magellan’s expedition touched the philippines, giving Spain a claim to these islands. The Spaniards kept and later colonized them, although they lay within the half of the globe assigned to Portuguese enterprise. It was highly improbable that other rising European nations would respect a dispensation that gave Spain and Portugal a title to most of the world. The aggressive activities of the Europeans in the Oceanic Age came to affect all the peoples of the globe and changed the course of their history. It is helpful, therefore, to pause and note the state of culture and the den





America BRITISH COLONIES. With the Peace of Utreclit the British took a long stride towards ultimate domination of North America. recognition of dieir claims to the Hudson Bay region, newfoundland, and Acadia (Nova Scoti.a) endangered New France to which the St. Lawrence River was an essential waterway. Ttventy years later (1733) the establishment of a new British colony (Georgia), in the disputed territory between the Carolinas and Spanish Florida, brought the total to thirteen. In 1754 Georgia became a royal colony. FRENCH COLONIES. Aside from the fur trade Canada proved of little profit to France, and the tvhite population in the French West Indies (guadeloupe, Martinique, western Haiti) exceeded that of New France in tlie early 18th century. Efforts to secure French hold on Louisiana and the mississippi Valley led to the foundation of Mobile (1711) and New Orleans (1718). Farther north the French extended their posts around the Great Lakes and La Wrendrye explored what is now midwestern Canada and the Missouri basin (173142) The indecisive struggle of 174048, in whidi British colonial forces captured Louisbourg, only to see it restored to France in 1748, sharpened the anglo-french rivalry. SPANISH AMERICA. British assaults on Spanish colonies in the conflicts of 1701-13 and 1739-48 had little success. Plans for the capture of La Guaira, Cartagena, Porto Bello, and Saint Augustine all miscarried, and of 6 ships dispatclied around Cape Horn (1740) to attack Spanish commerce and colonies in the Pacific only 1 returned.