K Tempest Tumbles

selchieproductions:

This woman might have been one of the coolest women ever to have ruled Sweden. We’re talking about a teetotal, polyglot, Catholic, lesbian queen.

Not only was Queen Christina, a woman who spoke 10 languages fluently, a supporter of the common people - she stripped the nobility of some of their rights as an effect of a protest initiated by the lower classes - she was very fond of the arts and humanities as well, but sadly her biggest fan Réne Déscartes died shortly after the queen had made him a professor at the University of Uppsala. What is more, she also stopped the witch hunts that her father had initiated, and refused to let any man tell her what to do, or how to rule her country.

Even more interesting - as already mentioned - Queen Christina was a lesbian, and thus refused to marry a man for the sake of keeping the royal family alive, and she was pissed off with the traditional dress codes of her times, and thus often dressed up as a man instead. As a child, she refused to subscribe to a traditional gender system, and consequently refused to learn how to knit, or embroider a pillow, and instead she became a skilled soldier and horse-rider.

And, even more remarkably, considering the fact that the country adored her, when the government told her that she wasn’t allowed to be a Catholic, she told them that she wasn’t going to be untrue to her own heart in order for the country to have a queen, promptly abdicated and moved to Rome in order to become a manager of a royal academy of Italian art. 

(via jhameia)

fyeahasianhistory:

twistedasphyxia:

gunnyoshiaki:

Some sort of scientists believe that if the Library of Alexandria didn’t burn down or the Dark Ages never happened, we would be 300 years advanced in technology. :>

This is depressing. l:

 This isn’t something I would normally reblog on FyeahAsianHistory except this is why this blog exists. This is EXACTLY why this blog exists. Let’s put this in perspective of the very limited knowledge I have on both the Western European Middle Ages/Medieval Period/ quote “Dark Ages”, and Egypt in this time period plus everything I know about Asia as a whole.

This? This is bullshit. There’s no nice way to say it. Was the Library of Alexandria a huge, devastating loss? Absolutely. But it was “lost” more than once, and it was certainly burned before Christianity at least once and there was more than one branch of the library. Take a quick look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria there are sources saying Muslims destroyed it, and sources saying Christians ordered to have the “temple” burned down.

So on that account, it’s a load of crap. On other accounts: As any Medievalist will fervently tell you, the “Dark Ages” is a very misleading term. Loads of cool things happened during the Middle Ages in Europe. But look at Asia. Look at say, Islam which collected new libraries, brought back those “lost” Greek and Roman works, started Universities, invented the astrolabe. Look at the Silk road towards the beginning, and hell, even onwards. WHAT ABOUT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. India’s Chola Dynasty Maritime power. How about China’s first standing navy with “junk” ships? What about moveable type printing invented by the Chinese? Gunpowder warfare? How about a freakin’ odometer? WHAT ABOUT COFFEE? Hospitals? Female Surgeons.

Try looking up “Islamic Golden Age.” Really, just try it.

What was the “Dark Ages” for Europe (which is highly debateable) was the Golden Ages of Islam, the end of the Classical Age in Japan, and a period of awesome invention, innovation, and exploration for China and through several dynasties to boot. Say, there’s a funny little thing called “Pax Mongolica” and it lead to a lot of good things.

Listen, Europe and Christianity may have dun goofed a little, and some of the consequences will never be the same, but while they were on a bit of a downer, the OTHER HALF OF THE EURASIAN CONTINENT WAS DOING PRETTY OKAY. Really.

I run this blog because I want people to know that The West, Christianity, and Europe are not solely responsible for the successes or failures of the human race and innovation. Because I want people to know that before the Bible, there was Gilgamesh. That in the 11th century, a Japanese woman composed the world’s first novel. That people in the Islamic world translated the texts we consider so important in the Western Canon of Greek and Roman literature today. That India, Japan, China, and much of the Islamic empire all had golden/classical periods occuring during this time period. China became the first country in the world to use paper money in their banks.

Listen guys, if I want you to take away one thing, it’s that just because Europe sleeps doesn’t mean the world doesn’t make leaps and bounds.

Love this rant.

The whole Europe = The Whole World thing is super endemic in armchair historians like what dun made this here graph.

(via jhameia)