Learn World History Through Movies. Historical Movies. American History in Movies. European History in Movies. Asian History in Movies. Indian History in Movies. Chinese History in Movies. Prehistoric Times in Movies. Chronological Timeline
Learn World History Through Movies. Historical Movies. American History in Movies. European History in Movies. Asian History in Movies. Indian History in Movies. Chinese History in Movies. Prehistoric Times in Movies. Chronological Timeline.
For Chronological Timeline of Science Fiction movies please check this list of our :- [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031279215[/link]
Disclaimer :- First of all this is not a list for Historical accuracies. This list involves fictional movies that have their story built around historical events. We will also cover movies with Hindu Mythology, Greek Mythology, Egyptian Mythologies, and Abrahamic Religions Mythologies.
For Chronological Timeline of Science Fiction movies please check this list of our :- [link]http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031279215[/link]
Disclaimer :- First of all this is not a list for Historical accuracies. This list involves fictional movies that have their story built around historical events. We will also cover movies with Hindu Mythology, Greek Mythology, Egyptian Mythologies, and Abrahamic Religions Mythologies.
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- DirectorEric LeightonRalph ZondagStarsD.B. SweeneyJulianna MarguliesSamuel E. WrightAn orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs joins an arduous trek to a sanctuary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home.Times of Dinosaurs.
An orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs joins an arduous trek to a sancturary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home.
Sixty-five million years ago the last of the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. So too did the giant mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in the seas and the pterosaurs in the skies. Plankton, the base of the ocean food chain, took a hard hit. Many families of brachiopods and sea sponges disappeared. The remaining hard-shelled ammonites vanished. Shark diversity shriveled. Most vegetation withered. In all, more than half of the world's species were obliterated. - DirectorChris WedgeCarlos SaldanhaStarsDenis LearyJohn LeguizamoRay RomanoThe story revolves around sub-zero heroes: a woolly mammoth, a saber-toothed tiger, a sloth and a prehistoric combination of a squirrel and rat, known as Scrat.Ice Age
During the last Ice Age, there were many large, interesting mammals, like the saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, mastodons, and mammoths. These animals have long since gone extinct and are known mostly from fossils, from frozen, mummified carcasses, and even from ancient cave drawings.
The last Ice Age started about 70,000 years ago. The Earth was much colder than it is now; snow accumulated on much of the land, glaciers and ice sheets extended over large areas and the sea levels were lower. These phenomena changed the surface of the earth, forming lakes, changing the paths of rivers, eroding land, and depositing sand, gravel, and rocks along the glaciers' paths. - DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.Humans still as Apes
It begins with early humans being dominated and controlled by their environment. They huddle in fear at night, they eat plants and are not willing to fight for survival against intruders etc.
Then the monolith comes and sparks some change in the minds of the early humans. They learn aggression and to strike out using simple tools. This aggression allows them to start controling their environment rather than being dominated by it, and they learn to kill in order to eat and survive. - DirectorJean-Jacques AnnaudStarsEverett McGillRon PerlmanNicholas KadiThis story takes place in prehistoric time when three tribesmen search for a new fire source.Prehistoric Humans in Search of fire.
This story takes place in prehistoric time when three prehistoric tribesmen search for a new fire source. - DirectorDon ChaffeyStarsRaquel WelchJohn RichardsonPercy HerbertPrehistoric man Tumak is banished from his savage tribe and meets pretty Loana, who belongs to a gentler coastal tribe, but he must fight caveman Payto to win her favors.One Million Years BC.
Although the most historically inaccurate movie on the list, but still we give points to the movie for atleast trying to create a story in those times. - DirectorRoland EmmerichStarsCamilla BelleSteven StraitMarco KhanIn the prehistoric past, D'Leh is a mammoth hunter who bonds with the beautiful Evolet. When warriors on horseback capture Evolet and the tribesmen, D'Leh must embark on an odyssey to save his true love.10,000 BC
Humans in 10,000 BC. This pyramid building civilization has many similarities to both the ancient Egyptian civilization and also to the civilizations of Mesopotamia (which you probably mean with Persian-like). From those two the latter is/are actually a bit older and marks the beginning of city building. But nevertheless such large buildings as the Egytian pyramids or the Mesopotamian ziggurats didn't emerge before about 3,000 BC (neither did they in other parts of the world, like America) and in the time of the movie people were still wandering around in small tribes, much more like D'leh's tribe and all those he encounters on his way.
It is actually hinted in the movie that this civilization is connected to Atlantis (which we all know was a civilization that was way ahead of time ;)), when it says that The Almighty and his followers come from a realm sunken into the seas and later when you shortly see a map that has a large island next to africa.
So in fact it has a strong link to a civilization that is rumoured (not by serious scientists however) to have existed in that time, but not to a real proved civilization at that time, though strongly influenced by later existing civilizations. And D'leh's tribe and all the other rather primitive tribes are a more accurate depiction of the civilizations at this time. - DirectorGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsBrigitte HelmHeinz KlingenbergTela TchaïTwo French Foreign Legionnaires are lost amid the shifting sands of the Sahara Desert when they stumble across the entrance to an underground world. Searching this new found subterranean passage, our heroes are surprised to find the lost city of Atlantis. Ruling over this fantastic underworld realm, an evil queen sets her sights upon these strangers to her kingdom.9360 BC - Altantis, Atlantic Ocean
The Psuedo-Historic City of Atlantis has been one of the most debated Places that ever submerged in Water. Plato said in 360BC that 9000 years ago Atlantis submerged in the ocean. After that during renaissance and afterwards many a literary figures have mentioned Atlantis in their works. Thats why this finds a place on our list too. Creator of Conan and Kull says that the timeline for drowning of Atlantis was 35,000 to 40,000 B.C., but we will go with our beloved Plato as far and timeline is concerned :)
If you want to go further in Mythological Histories of Lost civilizations related to Atlantis, than :-
Watch Kull the Conquerer 1997 movie, whose timeline predates the drowning of Atlantis.
Watch Conan the Barbarian 1982 movie, whose timeline is some years after the drowning of Atlantis. - DirectorVirgil W. VogelStarsJohn AgarCynthia PatrickHugh BeaumontA party of archaeologists discovers the remnants of a mutant five-millennia-old Sumerian civilization living beneath a glacier atop a mountain in Mesopotamia.3200 BC - Mesopotamia, Current Southern Iraq
Sumerian Civilization. Although this is Sci-fi and shows sumerians civilization somehow survived under the earth in current times, but this is the only movie where Sumerian people and their civilization is shown. - DirectorChuck RussellStarsDwayne JohnsonSteven BrandMichael Clarke DuncanA desert warrior rises up against the evil army that is destroying his homeland. He captures the enemy's key sorcerer, takes her deep into the desert and prepares for a final showdown.3200 to 3000 BC - Egypt
Protodynastic Period of Egypt (Naqada III). Times of Scorpion King 1 and 2.
There are several theories regarding his identity(Scorpion King) and chronological position. Some Egyptologists, such as Bernadette Menu, argue that, because Egyptian kings of the First Dynasty seem to have had multiple names, Scorpion was the same person as Narmer, simply with an alternative name, or additional title. They also argue that the artistic style seen on the macehead of Scorpion II shows conspicuous similarities to that on the famous Narmer macehead. Other scholars, including T.H. Wilkinson, Renée Friedman and Bruce Trigger, have identified king Scorpion II as the 'Gegenkönig' (opponent ruler) of Narmer and Ka (or Sekhen). At the time of Scorpion II, Egypt was divided into several minor kingdoms that were fighting each other. It is likewise conjectured that Narmer simply conquered the realms of Ka and Scorpion II, thus unifying the whole of Egypt for the first time. - DirectorBabubhai MistryStarsAbhi BhattacharyaPradeep KumarPadminiA dynastic struggle between the collateral branches of the Kuru clan, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapur leads to the Kurukshetra War.3139 BC - India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Persia
Times of Krishna and Ancient Aryan Kingdoms.
Attempts to date the events using methods of archaeoastronomy have produced, depending on which passages are chosen and how they are interpreted, estimates ranging from the late 4th to the mid-2nd millennium BCE. The late 4th millennium date has a precedent in the calculation of the Kaliyuga epoch, based on planetary conjunctions, by Aryabhata (6th century). Aryabhatta's date of February 18 3102 BCE for Mahabharata war has become widespread in Indian tradition. Coincidentally, this marks the disppearance of Krishna from earth from many source. The Aihole inscription of Pulikeshi II, dated to Saka 556 = 634 CE, claims that 3735 years have elapsed since the Bharata battle, putting the date of Mahabharata war at 3137 BCE. Another traditional school of astronomers and historians, represented by Vriddha-Garga, Varahamihira (author of the Brhatsamhita) and Kalhana (author of the Rajatarangini), place the Bharata war 653 years after the Kaliyuga epoch, corresponding to 2449 BCE. - DirectorHoward HawksStarsJack HawkinsJoan CollinsDewey MartinA captured architect designs an ingenious plan to ensure the impregnability of the tomb of a self-absorbed Pharaoh, obsessed with the security of his next life.2566 BC - Egypt
Times of Pharaoh Khufu, who ruled in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu was the second pharaoh of the 4th dynasty; he followed his possible father, king Sneferu, on the throne. He is generally accepted as having commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. - DirectorAshutosh GowarikerStarsHrithik RoshanPooja HegdeKabir BediIn 2016 BC, a kind farmer leads an uprising in the city of Mohenjo Daro.2016 AD -- India, Pakistan
Although not historically accurate, but this is the only movie based in Indus Valley Civilization - DirectorMichael CurtizStarsJean SimmonsVictor MatureGene TierneyIn ancient Egypt, a poor orphan becomes a genial physician and is eventually appointed at the Pharaoh's court where he witnesses palace intrigues and learns dangerous royal secrets.1938 to 1756 BC - Egypt
Times of Sinuhe. Its still debatable whether this story actually happened or not, but the times are what we are after. Sinuhe is an official who accompanies prince Senwosret I to Libya. He overhears a conversation connected with the death of King Amenemhet I and as a result flees to Upper Retjenu (Canaan), leaving Egypt behind. He becomes the son-in-law of Chief Ammunenshi and in time his sons grow to become chiefs in their own right. Sinuhe fights rebellious tribes on behalf of Ammunenshi. As an old man, in the aftermath of defeating a powerful opponent in single combat, he prays for a return to his homeland: "May god pity me..may he hearken to the prayer of one far away!..may the King have mercy on me..may I be conducted to the city of eternity!". He then receives an invitation from King Senwosret I of Egypt to return, which he accepts in highly moving terms. Living out the rest of his life in royal favour he is finally laid to rest in the necropolis in a beautiful tomb. - DirectorJohn HustonStarsMichael ParksUlla BergrydRichard HarrisExtravagant production of the first part of the book of Genesis. Its main highlights are the Garden of Eden, the first brothers, Noah and his family obeying God to build an ark for the Flood and Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac.1871 BC
Times of Abraham. Instead of this movie watch Abraham 1994, i.e. a tv movie. IMDB for some reason is not allowing to add that in the list. - StarsBen KingsleyPaul MercurioMartin LandauThe Biblical story of Joseph, who was sold to slavery by his brothers who were jealous of his prophetic abilities to analyze dreams and of his being their father's favorite.1550 to 1525 BC - Egypt
Times of Ahmose I and Joseph. Joseph saved Egypt from the global famine. Genesis 41:57. Ahmose destroyed all records of Joseph when he entered Biblical On (Heliopolis,Egypt). Babylonian Amorites expierienced famine. Amorite king Abi-Eshuh 1710-1684 B.C.(Jacob enters Egypt 1702 B.C. at age 130) dams up the Tigris river to starve out the Sealanders during the global famine. - DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsCharlton HestonYul BrynnerAnne BaxterMoses, raised as a prince of Egypt in the Pharaoh's household, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people from slavery.1391 to 1271 BC - Egypt, Jerusalem
Moses and his journey through time to became a great religious leader. - DirectorFernando CerchioStarsJeanne CrainVincent PriceEdmund PurdomChronicles the rise and fall of the woman who eventually became known as Queen Nefertiti.1370 to 1330 BC - Egypt
The Times of Nefertite, the Egyptian Queen. an Egyptian queen and the Great Royal Wife (chief consort) of Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc. Akhenaten and Nefertiti were responsible for the creation of a whole new religion which changed the ways of religion within Egypt. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of Ancient Egyptian history. Some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as Neferneferuaten after her husband's death and before the accession of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate.
Nefertiti is best known for her painted sandstone bust, which was rediscovered in 1913 and became a global icon of feminine beauty and power. - DirectorRon HowardStarsChris BarnesHans ConriedVic TaybackA lad finds himself magically sent back to ancient Egypt where he and the young King Tut team up to stop their evil and overly ambitious elders.1332 to 1323 BC - Egypt
Times of Tutankhamun
He was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled ca. 1332–1323 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom.
He is possibly also the Nibhurrereya of the Amarna letters, and likely the 18th dynasty king Rathotis who, according to Manetho, an ancient historian, had reigned for nine years—a figure that conforms with Flavius Josephus's version of Manetho's Epitome.
The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon of Tutankhamun's nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage.
The "mysterious" deaths of a few of those who excavated Tutankhamun's tomb has been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs. - DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsBrad PittEric BanaOrlando BloomAn adaptation of Homer's great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces and chronicles the fates of the men involved.1260 to 1180 BC - Greece
The Famous Trojan War.
decade-long Trojan War rather than just the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon in the ninth year. Achilles leads his Myrmidons along with the rest of the Greek army invading the historical city of Troy, defended by Hector's Trojan army. The end of the film (the sacking of Troy) is not taken from the Iliad, but rather from Virgil's Aeneid as the Iliad concludes with Hector's death and funeral. - DirectorJerzy KawalerowiczStarsJerzy ZelnikWieslawa MazurkiewiczBarbara BrylskaYoung Pharaoh Ramses XIII clashes with Egypt's clergy over influence on the affairs of the state and its coffers.1186 to 1155 BC - Egypt
Times of Pharaoh Ramses XIII. He was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. His long reign saw the decline of Egyptian power, linked to a series of invasions and economic problems.
Ramesses III was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. He was probably murdered by an assassin in a conspiracy led by one of his secondary wives, Tiye, and her son Pentaweret. - DirectorBruce BeresfordStarsRichard GereEdward WoodwardAlice KrigeThe Biblical story of Israel's greatest King.1040 to 970 BC - Israel
Times of King David of Israel
King David was, according to the Books of Samuel, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel, and according to the New Testament, an ancestor of Jesus. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040 – 970 BCE, his reign over Judah c. 1010–970 BCE.
Depicted as a valorous warrior of great renown, and a poet and musician credited for composing much of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms, King David is widely viewed as a righteous and effective king in battle and civil justice. - DirectorKing VidorStarsYul BrynnerGina LollobrigidaGeorge SandersAfter becoming king of ancient Israel, Solomon faces threats coming from his jealous dispossessed brother Adonijah, the Egyptian Pharaoh and the scheming Queen of Sheba.1000 BC - Israel, Ethopia, Yemen
Times of King Solomon
He is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, which would break apart into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly after his death. Following the split, his patrilineal descendants ruled over Judah alone.
According to the Talmud, Solomon is one of the 48 prophets. In the Qur'an, he is considered a major prophet, and Muslims generally refer to him by the Arabic variant Sulayman, son of David.
The Hebrew Bible credits him as the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem. It portrays him as great in wisdom, wealth, and power, but ultimately as a king whose sins, including idolatry and turning away from Yahweh, led to the kingdom's being torn in two during the reign of his son Rehoboam. - DirectorRichard PottierStarsRoger MooreMylène DemongeotGiorgia MollThe classic story from the early days of Rome where there are no women. Romulus, the founder of Rome, finds women to be wives from Sabina where there are a lot of women. The Sabine men, of course, attack Rome to get their wives and daughters back.753 BC - Rome
Foundation is laid for the City and Empire of Rome by Romulus and Remus.
The founding of Rome can be investigated through archaeology, but traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth. The most familiar of these, and perhaps the most famous of all, is the story of Romulus and Remus, the twins who were suckled by a she-wolf. This story had to be reconciled with a dual tradition, set earlier in time, the one that had the Trojan refugee Aeneas escape to Italy and found the line of Romans through his son Iulus, the namesake of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. - StarsZar Amir EbrahimiSusan TaslimiFaramarz AslaniAn effort to find the greatest Persians of all times by presenting six of the greatest Persian historical figures and let the public vote on those.576 to 530 BC - Persia, Israel
Times of Cyrus the Great, and Return of Jews to Jerusalem.
No movie covers the life of Cyrus the Great, but this tv miniseries does, hence it is included.
He was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia and the Caucasus. From the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen. Under his successors, the empire eventually stretched from parts of the Balkans (Bulgaria-Pannonia) and Thrace-Macedonia in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east.
Cyrus built his empire by conquering first the Median Empire, then the Lydian Empire and eventually the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Either before or after Babylon, he led an expedition into central Asia, which resulted in major campaigns that were described as having brought "into subjection every nation without exception". Cyrus did not venture into Egypt, as he himself died in battle, fighting the Massagetae along the Syr Darya in December 530 BC.
he is referred to by the Jewish Bible as Messiah (lit. "His anointed one") (Isaiah 45:1), and is the only non-Jew to be called so - DirectorJacques TourneurBruno VailatiMario BavaStarsSteve ReevesMylène DemongeotSergio FantoniA Greek soldier leads the fight against an invading Persian army.550 to 486 BC - Persia, Greece
Times of Persian King Darius the Great, and his attack on Greece.
He ruled the empire at its peak, when it included much of West Asia, the Caucasus, parts of the Balkans (Thrace-Macedonia and Paeonia), most of the Black Sea coastal regions, parts of the North Caucasus, Central Asia, as far as the Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of north and northeast Africa including Egypt (Mudrâya), eastern Libya and coastal Sudan. - DirectorMei HuStarsChow Yun-FatXun ZhouJianbin ChenThe life story of the highly-influential Chinese philosopher, Confucius.551 to 479 BC - China
Times of Confucius. At the age of 56, the Chinese minister of Lu Long Fuzi resigned. He spent the last 12 years of his life wandering China teaching morality, family values and statecraft. Lu Long became known as Confucius and, to this day, remains the most revered Chinese philosopher. - DirectorLekh TandonStarsVyjayanthimalaSunil DuttPremnath MalhotraA victory over neighboring state Vaishai has always eluded Magadh Samrat Ajaatshatru despite being winning and taking control over all neighboring states. He attacks Vaishali only get defeated again. Wounded, lost and on the run, Ajaatshatru dons the guise of a Vaishali soldier and takes shelter with a woman named Amrapali and they fall in love with each other. Ajaatshatru finds an ally in Senapati Balbadhra Singh and both start a plot to gain control of Vaishali. Vaishali Samrat comes to know about Ajaatshatru and Amrapali's liaison with him, he sentences her with a death penalty. Ajaatshatru is enraged at this, he gathers together his armies and storms the unsuspecting Vaishali and virtually burns the city down, killing almost everyone in it. This accomplished, he rushes to free his beloved from the dungeons. He does set her free but it is not the same Amrapali; this Amrapali is quite different. She is not at all thrilled to be in the presence of her conqueror lover. She teaches him what he won in the battle ground but what he lost in reality.500 BC
Times of Buddha and Indian King Ajatshatru
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
Buddha lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. - DirectorZack SnyderStarsGerard ButlerLena HeadeyDavid WenhamIn the ancient battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fight against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. They face insurmountable odds when they are betrayed by a Spartan reject.480 BC - Greece, Persia
Times of Persian King Xerxes I and Spartan in the Battle of Thermopylae.
This battle was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae ("The Hot Gates"). The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Xerxes had amassed a huge army and navy, and set out to conquer all of Greece. The Athenian general Themistocles had proposed that the allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae, and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium.
A Greek force of approximately 7,000 men marched north to block the pass in the summer of 480 BC. The Persian army, alleged by the ancient sources to have numbered over one million but today considered to have been much smaller (various figures are given by scholars ranging between about 100,000 and 150,000), arrived at the pass in late August or early September. The vastly outnumbered Greeks held off the Persians for seven days (including three of battle) before the rear-guard was annihilated in one of history's most famous last stands. During two full days of battle, the small force led by Leonidas blocked the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass. After the second day of battle, a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing that a small path led behind the Greek lines. Leonidas, aware that his force was being outflanked, dismissed the bulk of the Greek army and remained to guard their retreat with 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, and perhaps a few hundred others, most of whom were killed.
After this engagement, the Greek navy—under the command of the Athenian politician Themistocles—at Artemisium received news of the defeat at Thermopylae. Since the Greek strategy required both Thermopylae and Artemisium to be held, and given their losses, it was decided to withdraw to Salamis. The Persians overran Boeotia and then captured the evacuated Athens. The Greek fleet—seeking a decisive victory over the Persian armada—attacked and defeated the invaders at the Battle of Salamis in late 480 BC. Fearful of being trapped in Europe, Xerxes withdrew with much of his army to Asia (losing most to starvation and disease), leaving Mardonius to attempt to complete the conquest of Greece. However, the following year saw a Greek army decisively defeat the Persians at the Battle of Plataea, thereby ending the Persian invasion. - DirectorMichael CacoyannisStarsIrene PapasGiannis FertisAleka KatselliLiving in exile after the death of their father, the grown children of a murdered and usurped king converge to exact eye-for-an-eye revenge.480 BC - Greece
Times after the death of Greek king Agamemnon.
was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra or Laodike (Λαοδίκη), Orestes and Chrysothemis.[2] Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, ran off with Paris of Troy, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War.
Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy, he was murdered (according to the oldest surviving account, Odyssey 11.409–11) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. - DirectorOliver StoneStarsColin FarrellAnthony HopkinsRosario DawsonAlexander, the King of Macedonia and one of the greatest army leaders in the history of warfare, conquers much of the known world.350 to 320 BC - Greece, India, Persia.
The Times of Alexander the Great, Darius III of Persia, and Dhanananda of Magadh, and and their battles.
Alexander spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, and by the age of thirty he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Egypt into northwest India and modern-day Pakistan. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of history's most successful military commanders.
In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Empire, ruled Asia Minor, and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. - DirectorSantosh SivanStarsShah Rukh KhanKareena KapoorDanny DenzongpaThe epic tale of King Asoka's life is recounted.300 to 200 BC - India
One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over a realm that stretched from the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan to the modern state of Bangladesh in the east. It covered the entire Indian subcontinent except parts of present-day Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Asoka conquered the Kalinga and thus extending his control to over two-thirds of the Indian peninsula.
H.G. Wells wrote of Ashoka in his book The Outline of History: "Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Ashoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star." - DirectorXiaowen ZhouStarsWen JiangYou GeQing XuEpic drama about China's first emperor (221 BC) who struggles to make his childhood best friend, now China's greatest composer, succumb to his will and compose a grand anthem to his exploits.221 BC - China
Times of China's first emperor. The great wall of China was built in the same year i.e. 221 BC
He conquered all other Warring States and united China in 221 BC. Rather than maintain the title of king borne by the Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty from 220 to 210 BC.
The Qin fought nomadic tribes to the north and northwest. The Xiongnu tribes were not defeated and subdued, thus the campaign was tiring and unsuccessful, and to prevent the Xiongnu from encroaching on the northern frontier any longer, the emperor ordered the construction of an immense defensive wall. This wall, for whose construction hundreds of thousands of men were mobilized, and an unknown number died, is a precursor to the current Great Wall of China. It connected numerous state walls which had been built during the previous four centuries, a network of small walls linking river defenses to impassable cliffs. - DirectorJayantha ChandrasiriStarsUddika PremarathnaJackson AnthonyKusum RenuDutugamunu also known as Dutthagamani and Gamani Abhaya ("fearless Gamini"), was a Sinhalese king of Sri Lanka who reigned from 161 BC to 137 BC. He is renowned for defeating and overthrowing Elara, the usurping Tamil prince from the Chola Kingdom, who had invaded the Kingdom of Rajarata in 205 BC. Dutugamunu also expanded and beautified the city of Anuradhapura and projected the power of his native Rajarata region across the island of Sri Lanka.161 to 137 BC - Sri Lanka
Times of Sri Lankan King Gemunu, and his battle with Chola Kingdom.
He is renowned for defeating and overthrowing Elara, the usurping Tamil prince from the Chola Kingdom, who had invaded the Kingdom of Rajarata in 205 BC. Dutugamunu also expanded and beautified the city of Anuradhapura and projected the power of his native Rajarata region across the island of Sri Lanka. - DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsLouis CalhernMarlon BrandoJames MasonThe growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.100 BC to 44 BC - Rome
Times of Julius Caesar
He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed a political alliance that was to dominate Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass power through populist tactics were opposed by the conservative ruling class within the Roman Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the frequent support of Cicero.
Caesar's victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, extended Rome's territory to the English Channel and the Rhine. Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both when he built a bridge across the Rhine and conducted the first invasion of Britain.
With the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Caesar refused the order, and instead marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with a legion, leaving his province and illegally entering Roman Italy under arms. Civil war resulted, and Caesar's victory in the war put him in an unrivaled position of power and influence.
But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, and on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC, Caesar was assassinated by a group of rebellious senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus. A new series of civil wars broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar's adopted heir Octavius, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavius set about solidifying his power, and the era of the Roman Empire began. - DirectorStanley KubrickAnthony MannStarsKirk DouglasLaurence OlivierJean SimmonsThe slave Spartacus survives brutal training as a gladiator and leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic, as the ambitious Crassus seeks to gain power by crushing the uprising.73 to 71 BC - Rome, Italy
The Third Servile War
Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who, along with the Gauls Crixus, Oenomaus, Castus and Gannicus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. - DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczRouben MamoulianStarsElizabeth TaylorRichard BurtonRex HarrisonQueen Cleopatra VII of Egypt experiences both triumph and tragedy as she attempts to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.69 to 30 BC
Times of Cleopatra and Antony
Cleopatra was the last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, shortly survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion. After her reign, Egypt became a province of the then-recently established Roman Empire.
Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period.
As pharaoh she consummated a liaison with Julius Caesar that solidified her grip on the throne. She later elevated her son with Caesar, Caesarion, to co-ruler in name.
After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony in opposition to Caesar's legal heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (later known as Augustus). With Antony, she bore the twins Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios, and another son, Ptolemy Philadelphus (her unions with her brothers had produced no children). After losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian's forces, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra followed suit. According to tradition, she killed herself by means of an asp bite on August 12, 30 BC. She was outlived by Caesarion, who was declared pharaoh by his supporters, but soon killed on Octavian's orders. Egypt then became the Roman province of Aegyptus. - DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharlton HestonJack HawkinsStephen BoydAfter a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.4 BC to 33 AD
Times of Jesus
For his first thirty years, Jesus lived a traditional Jewish life, working as a carpenter. During this time, all of Israel was under Caesar's Roman dictatorship, including Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and Nazareth, where he was raised.
In his thirties, Jesus began his public teaching and display of recorded miracles, yet still never travelled more than 200 miles from his birthplace. Over a three year period, despite his efforts to keep a low profile, Jesus' reputation spread nation wide. The Roman governors and rulers of Israel's provinces took note of him.
Jesus' most daring act was that he repeatedly claimed to be God, which was a direct violation of the land's law at that time. In each of several official trials, the Romans found that he was not guilty of breaking any Roman law. Still after several trials, using the argument of political disfavor, Pilate, a Roman governor of the Southern province of Israel was persuaded, to authorize an execution. - DirectorFerdinando BaldiRudolf NussgruberStarsCameron MitchellAntonella LualdiHans von BorsodyIn the first half of the first century A.D., the Teutonic tribes, led by Arminius The Terrible, rebel against the cruel and conquering Roman Empire. In raging torments and blood curdling battles, the barbarian tribes and Roman Legions fight a war of attrition, so brutal and terrible that Arminius becomes a legend throughout the empire. Only Augustus, Emperor of Rome is evil and treacherous enough to enslave the Teuton barbarian and halt his murderous uprisings.9 AD - Germany
The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
20,000 Roman soldiers under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus in Germany are ambushed while in a long convoy line through the Teutoberg Forest. Many years later Emperor Augustus, desperately needing those legions, went around the palace late at night muttering, "Varus, give me back my legions!" - DirectorTinto BrassStarsMalcolm McDowellPeter O'TooleHelen MirrenA dramatization of the ascent to Caesar and subsequent reign of Caligula, one of the most notorious leaders of ancient Rome. We see his ambition, his scheming, his perversion and decadence, his brutality and his lunacy.11 to 54 AD - Rome
Times of Caligula and Claudius
Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most beloved public figures. The young Gaius earned the nickname "Caligula" (meaning "little soldier's boot", the diminutive form of caliga, hob-nailed military boot) from his father's soldiers while accompanying him during his campaigns in Germania.
Claudius was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy. Because he was afflicted with a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young age, his family ostracized him and excluded him from public office until his consulship, shared with his nephew Caligula in 37.
Caligula is described as a noble and moderate ruler during the first six months of his reign. After this, the sources focus upon his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversity, presenting him as an insane tyrant.
In early AD 41, Caligula was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy by officers of the Praetorian Guard, senators, and courtiers. The conspirators' attempt to use the opportunity to restore the Roman Republic was thwarted: on the day of the assassination of Caligula, the Praetorian Guard declared Caligula's uncle, Claudius, the next Roman emperor.
Claudius' infirmity probably saved him from the fate of many other nobles during the purges of Tiberius and Caligula's reigns; potential enemies did not see him as a serious threat. His survival led to his being declared Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last man of his family. - DirectorBill AndersonStarsAlex KingstonSteven WaddingtonEmily BluntBoudica, the Warrior Queen on Britain, leads her tribe into rebellion against the Roman Empire and the mad Emperor of Rome Nero.43 AD - Britain, Rome
Roman invasion of Britain
The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Roman Britain (Latin: Britannia). Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. In common with other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had enjoyed diplomatic and trading links with the Romans in the century since Julius Caesar's expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, and Roman economic and cultural influence was a significant part of the British late pre-Roman Iron Age, especially in the south.
Between 55 BC and the 40s AD, the status quo of tribute, hostages, and client states without direct military occupation, begun by Caesar's invasions of Britain, largely remained intact. Augustus prepared invasions in 34 BC, 27 BC and 25 BC. The first and third were called off due to revolts elsewhere in the empire, the second because the Britons seemed ready to come to terms.
Caligula planned a campaign against the Britons in 40, but its execution was bizarre: according to Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars, he drew up his troops in battle formation facing the English Channel and ordered them to attack the standing water. Afterwards, he had the troops gather seashells, referring to them as "plunder from the ocean due to the Capitol and the Palace" - DirectorMervyn LeRoyAnthony MannStarsRobert TaylorDeborah KerrLeo GennAfter fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.37 to 68 AD - Rome
Times of Nero
Nero was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his grand-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death.
During his reign, the redoubtable general Corbulo conducted a successful war and negotiated peace with the Parthian Empire. His general Suetonius Paulinus crushed a revolt in Britain. Nero annexed the Bosporan Kingdom to the Empire and began the First Roman–Jewish War.
In 64 AD, most of Rome was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome, which many Romans believed Nero himself had started in order to clear land for his planned palatial complex, the Domus Aurea. In 68, the rebellion of Vindex in Gaul and later the acclamation of Galba in Hispania drove Nero from the throne. Facing a false report of being denounced as a public enemy who was to be executed, he committed suicide on 9 June 68 - StarsPeter O'ToolePeter StraussBarbara CarreraAfter the destruction of the Second Temple, nine hundred Jewish zealots hold out against a five thousand man Roman legion on the mountaintop fortress of Masada.73 to 74 AD - Israel, Rome
First Jewish Roman War. The Fortress of Masada, occupied by Jewish zealots opposed to Rome, held out for three years. Masada was located in the Judean Desert near the shores of the Dead Sea. When it became clear that they could hold out no longer, the defenders of Masada committed mass suicide rather then become captives of the Romans. - DirectorPaul W.S. AndersonStarsKit HaringtonEmily BrowningKiefer SutherlandA slave-turned-gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save his true love, who has been betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts, he must fight to save his beloved as Pompeii crumbles around him.79 AD - Rome
In 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius erupted. The eruption destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Most of the cities' populations managed to flee, but 20,000 inhabitants were killed. - DirectorSergiu NicolaescuStarsPierre BriceMarie-José NatGeorges MarchalThe Dacian kingdom lies at the eastern border of the Roman Empire.Only the river Danube separates the two mortal enemies.The Dacian king Decebalus knows that soon the vastly superior Roman legions will cross the river and attack Dacia.87 to 88 AD - Romania, Rome
Domitian's Dacian War
At the end of 85 or the beginning of 86 AD, the Dacian king Duras ordered his troops to attack and liberate the Dacian teritories of Moesia, now invaded by romans and called Roman province of Moesia on the southern course of the Danube river. The Dacian army was led by Diurpaneus, often cited as one and the same with the later king titled Decebalus, although these assumptions remain obscurely founded and problematic. It seems that Romans were caught by surprise, since the governor Oppius Sabinus and a legion, probably the V Alaudae, were annihilated.
Following this attack, the Roman emperor Domitian, accompanied by Cornelius Fuscus, Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, personally arrived in Moesia, splited the province into Moesia Inferior and Moesia Superior, and planned a future attack into Dacia. To replace the lost legion and greatly strengthen the Roman army at this section, the IIII Flavia from Dalmatia and two more legions, the I and II Adiutrix, from western provinces were moved to Moesia. The region of Sirmium was attached to Moesia Superior, in order to have a single command over the endangered Dacian frontier. - DirectorRidley ScottStarsRussell CroweJoaquin PhoenixConnie NielsenA former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.161 to 192 AD
Times of Commodus. The Fall of the Roman Empire
His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded his father since Titus succeeded Vespasian in 79. He was also the first emperor to have both a father and grandfather (who had adopted his father) as the two preceding emperors. Commodus was the first (and until 337, the only) emperor "born in the purple", i.e., during his father's reign.
The first crisis of the reign came in 182, when Lucilla engineered a conspiracy against her brother. Her motive is alleged to have been envy of the Empress Crispina. Her husband, Pompeianus, was not involved, but two men alleged to have been her lovers, Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus (the consul of 167, who was also her first cousin) and Appius Claudius Quintianus, attempted to murder Commodus as he entered a theater. They bungled the job and were seized by the emperor's bodyguard.
Quadratus and Quintianus were executed. Lucilla was exiled to Capri and later killed. Pompeianus retired from public life. One of the two praetorian prefects, Tarrutenius Paternus, had actually been involved in the conspiracy but his involvement was not discovered until later on, and in the aftermath, he and his colleague, Sextus Tigidius Perennis, were able to arrange for the murder of Saoterus, the hated chamberlain.
War broke out in Dacia and it appears two future contenders for the throne, Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, both distinguished themselves in the campaign. Also, in Britain in 184, the governor Ulpius Marcellus re-advanced the Roman frontier northward to the Antonine Wall, but the legionaries revolted against his harsh discipline and acclaimed another legate, Priscus, as emperor.
During 191, the city of Rome was extensively damaged by a fire that raged for several days, during which many public buildings including the Temple of Pax, the Temple of Vesta and parts of the imperial palace were destroyed.
On 31 December Marcia poisoned his food but he vomited up the poison; so the conspirators sent his wrestling partner Narcissus to strangle him in his bath. Upon his death, the Senate declared him a public enemy - DirectorJohn WooStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiTakeshi KaneshiroFengyi ZhangThe first chapter of a two-part story centered on a battle fought in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.).220 to 280 AD - China
China during the Three Kingdoms era. The film chronicles the Battle of Red Cliffs between the forces of Cao Cao and the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei
the period of the Three Kingdoms refers to the period between the foundation of the state of Wei in 220 AD and the conquest of the state of Wu by the Jin dynasty in 280. The middle part of the period, from 220 and 263, was marked by a more militarily stable arrangement between three rival states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. The later part of the era was marked by the conquest of Shu by Wei (263), the overthrow of Wei by the Jin dynasty (265), and the conquest of Wu by the Jin (280).
The Three Kingdoms period is one of the bloodiest in Chinese history. In fact, it is considered the second deadliest period of warfare in history behind World War II. A nationwide census taken in AD 280, following the reunification of the Three Kingdoms under the Jin shows a total of 2,459,840 households and 16,163,863 individuals which was only a fraction of the 10,677,960 households, and 56,486,856 individuals reported during the Han era. While the census may not have been particularly accurate due to a multitude of factors of the times, the Jin in AD 280 did make an attempt to account for all individuals where they could. - DirectorLionello De FeliceIrving RapperStarsCornel WildeBelinda LeeMassimo SeratoBiopic of Constantine the Great, set between 293-312 AD, from his days as Tribune to his accession as Roman Emperor of Gaul under the tetrarchy system and ending with his battle against the usurper Roman Emperor Maxentius in Rome.272 to 337 AD - Rome
Constantine the Great, who was named Caesar by his troops in Britain in 312 A.D., initiated a civil war of succession against his potential rivals for the throne. In a series of engagements that culminated in 324 A.D. at the Battle of Adrianople (in today's Turkey), Constantine defeated all his rivals and became the undisputed emperor of all Rome.
Christianity as a religion saw conception and widespread adoption in these times.
In 330 Constantine the Great dedicated his new capital at Byzantium. The city that became known as Constantinople. It was strategically located in the East dominating the Bosphorus Straits. Constantine spent four years building his new capital.
In 337 A.D., Constantine died. He left his empire to his sons. The empire soon found itself divided with the Western Roman Empire governed from Rome by Constans and the Eastern Roman Empire governed by Constantius II. - StarsPauline LynchSteven BerkoffAndrew PleavinIn 400 AD, the Roman Empire is the greatest power in the world. But to the east a fierce people arose: the Huns. They believe in a prophecy about a great king who will unite the tribes and challenge Rome for control of the world.406 AD to 453 AD - Rome, Pannonia
Times of Attila the Hun
the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. Attila was a leader of the Hunnic Empire, a tribal confederation consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Alans among others, on the territory of Central and Eastern Europe.
During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West.[1] He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans) before being defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans but died in 453. After Attila's death his close adviser Ardaric of the Gepids led a Germanic revolt against Hunnic rule, after which the Hunnic Empire quickly collapsed. - DirectorAntoine FuquaStarsClive OwenStephen DillaneKeira KnightleyA demystified take on the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.465 to 542 AD - Britain
The Times of King Arthur
Considered mostly as a folklore, King Arthur is a legendary British leader who led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD.
Arthur as a king of Britain defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul.
His story is important to history, because he as a character has had an immense impact on society of the area. And many of the historical elements of that area post 400 AD have an impact because of him !!! - DirectorDoug LeflerStarsColin FirthBen KingsleyAishwarya Rai BachchanAs the Roman empire crumbles, young Romulus Augustus flees the city and embarks on a perilous voyage to Britain to track down a legion of supporters.476 AD - Rome
End of Roman Empire as Barbarians overtake last roman Emperor Romulus Augustus
Remaining as emperor after the death of Stilicho in 408, Honorius reigned until his own death in 423. His reign was filled with usurpations and invasions. In 410, Rome was sacked by Alaric's forces. This was the first time since the Gallic invasions of the 4th century BC that the city had fallen to a foreign enemy.
Under Alaric's successors, the Goths then settled in Gaul (412–418), from where they operated as Roman allies against the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi in Spain, and against the usurper Jovinus (413). Meanwhile, another usurper, Constantine (406–411), had stripped Roman Britain of its defenses when he crossed over to Gaul in 407, leaving the Romanized population subject to invasions, first by the Picts and then by the Saxons, Angli, and the Jutes who began to settle permanently from about 440 onwards.
Honorius' death in 423 was followed by turmoil until the Eastern Roman government with the force of arms installed Valentinian III as Western Emperor in Ravenna, with Galla Placidia acting as regent during her son's minority. After a violent struggle with several rivals, and against Placidia's wish, Aetius rose to the rank of magister militum. Aetius was able to stabilize the Western Empire's military situation somewhat, relying heavily on his Hunnic allies. With their help, he defeated the Burgundians, who had occupied part of southern Gaul after 407, and settled them in Savoy as Roman allies (433). Later that century, as Roman power faded away, the Burgundians extended their rule to the Rhone valley.
Meanwhile, pressure from the Visigoths and a rebellion by Bonifacius, the governor of Africa, induced the Vandals under their king Gaiseric to cross over from Spain in 429. They temporarily halted in Numidia (435) before moving eastward and capturing Carthage, from where they established an independent state with a powerful navy (439). The Vandal fleet became a constant danger to Roman sea trade and the coasts and islands of the western and central Mediterranean.
In 444, the Huns, who had been employed as Roman allies by Aetius, were united under their ambitious king Attila. Turning against their former ally, the Huns became a formidable threat to the Empire. Attila then received a plea for help and the ring of Honoria, the Emperor's sister. Threatening war, he claimed half of the Western Empire's territory as his dowry.
Faced with refusal, he invaded Gaul and was only stopped in the battle of the Catalaunian Plains by a combined Roman-Germanic army led by Aetius. The next year, Attila invaded Italy and proceeded to march upon Rome, but an outbreak of disease in his army, Pope Leo's plea for peace, and reports of a campaign of Marcianus directed at his headquarters in Pannonia induced him to halt this campaign. Attila unexpectedly died a year later (453).
Aetius was slain in 454 by Valentinian, who was then himself murdered by the dead general's supporters a year later. With the end of the Theodosian dynasty, a new period of dynastic struggle ensued. The Vandals took advantage of the unrest and sailed up to Rome, which they plundered in 455.
The instability caused by usurpers throughout the Western Empire helped these tribes in their conquests, and by the 450s the Germanic tribes had become usurpers themselves. During the next twenty years, several Western Emperors were installed by Constantinople, but their authority relied upon barbarian commanders (Ricimer (456–472), Gundobad (473–475)). Majorian was the last emperor to campaign in Gaul and Spain in 458-460 before being deposed and murdered by Ricimer. From the 460s onwards, imperial control was effectively restricted to Italy and southern Gaul as the remaining Western provinces refused to accept Ricimer's appointment of Libius Severus in 461.
In 475, Orestes, a former secretary of Attila, drove Emperor Julius Nepos out of Ravenna and proclaimed his own son Romulus Augustus as emperor. In 476, Orestes refused to grant Odoacer and the Heruli federated status, prompting an invasion. Orestes was killed and Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, installed himself as ruler over Italy and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople. Although isolated pockets of Roman rule continued even after 476, the city of Rome itself was under the rule of the barbarians, and the control of Rome over the West had effectively ended.
Three rump states continued under Roman rule in some form or another after 476: Julius Nepos controlled Dalmatia until his murder in 480. Syagrius ruled the Domain of Soissons until his murder in 487. Lastly, a Roman-Moor realm survived in north Africa, resisting Vandal incursions, and becoming a part of the Eastern Roman Empire c.533 when Belisarius defeated the Vandals. - DirectorMoustapha AkkadStarsAnthony QuinnIrene PapasMichael AnsaraThis epic historical drama chronicles the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and serves as an introduction to early Islamic history.570 to 632 AD - Soudi Arab
Times of Muhammad and the Rise of Islam
He had united Arabia into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings, practices, and the Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed to him by God, formed the basis of Islamic religious belief.
Muhammad gained few early followers, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar.
In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent conflict with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. He destroyed 360 pagan idols at the Kaaba. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. Before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. - DirectorNuri AkinciStarsTunç OralNuran AksoySelma VolkanAfter plenty of struggles and countless traps of his enemies, a blacksmith still finds faith in his forbidden love to whom he gifted a fine-made jewelry that holds a sacred relic to build a tunnel inside a glorious mountain to reach her.590 to 680 AD - Persia, Armenia
Times of Last Non Muslim Persian king Khosrow(Ferhat) and his lover Armenian Princess Sirin
Khosrow was the last king of Persia to have a lengthy reign before the Muslim conquest of Iran, which began five years after his death by execution. He lost his throne, then recovered it with Roman help, and, a decade later, went on to emulate the feats of the Achaemenids, conquering the rich Roman provinces of the Middle East; much of his reign was spent in wars with the Byzantine Empire and struggling against usurpers such as Bahram Chobin and Vistahm.
During the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Khosrau expanded deep into western Asia Minor, eventually besieging the very Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 626 alongside Avar and Slavic allies. Following the failure of the siege, Heraclius started a counterattack, undoing all territorial gains by Khosrau in the Levant, most of Anatolia, the western Caucasus, and Egypt, eventually marching into the Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon. This also marked the Byzantine regain of the True Cross, which Khosrau had captured following his conquest of the Levant during the same 602-628 war.
Khosrow is overthrown from his throne by a general named Bahrām Chobin and flees to Armenia. In Armenia, Khosrow finally meets Shirin and is welcomed by her. Shirin, however, does not agree to marry Khosrow; unless Khosrow first claims his country back from Bahram Choobin. Thus, Khosrow leaves Shirin in Armenia and goes to Constantinople. The Caesar agrees to assist him against Bahram Choobin conditioned that he married his daughter Maryam. Khosrow is also forced to promise not to marry as long as Maryam is alive. Khosrow succeeds in defeating his enemy and reclaims his throne. Maryam, due to her jealousy, keeps Khosrow away from Shirin.
Shirin eventually consents to marry Khosrow after several romantic and heroic episodes. Yet, Shiroyeh, Khosrow's son from his wife Maryam, is also in love with Shirin. Shiroy finally murders his father Khosrow and sends a messenger to Shirin conveying that after one week, she would have to marry him. Shirin, in order to avoid marrying Shiroy, kills herself. Khosrow and Shirin were buried together in one grave. - DirectorPietro FrancisciStarsRik BattagliaRosanna SchiaffinoLorella De LucaCharlemagne and Saracen Agramante are at war. Although the Franks are outnumbered by their enemies they succeed in containing them in the Pyrennean foothills. A truce is signed between the two sides, during which Agramante treacherously sends Angélique, a beautiful seductress of his retinue,to the Paladin camp. Meanwhile the emperor has decided to give his daughter Aude to his brave nephew Roland but chance has it that she meets Renaud, Roland's lieutenant, first. The two young people fall in love. Later on, the truce is broken and fight resumes. Betrayed by Ganelon, Roland is momentarily disowned by his uncle.748 to 814 AD - Europe
He united most of Western Europe during the early Middle Ages and laid the foundations for modern France and Germany. He took the Frankish throne in 768 and became King of Italy from 774. From 800 he became the first Holy Roman Emperor — the first recognized emperor in Western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. While Charlemagne already ruled his kingdom without the help of the Pope, recognition from the pontiff granted him divine legitimacy in the eyes of his contemporaries.
Pope declared and Charlemagne became King of the West(Europe). And Preparations for Religious Crusades began. Though the first Crusade finally happened in 1096 AD - DirectorYuriy BataninYuri KulakovStarsSergey BezrukovAleksandr BarinovLev DurovThe film is about those times and events as a result of which the semi-military alliance of the heathen Slavic breeds have become Rus from the Baltic to the Black Sea. This transformation took place under the hand of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, from the clan of militant Rurik. Vladimir's father, Svyatoslav, sacked the khazars and on Equal talked to the powerful Byzantine emperor, Ioann Tsimishiy. Vladimir's grand mother, princess Olga, also was held in respect of the Konstantinople's court and the Patriarchy. With her iron hand she guided retinues from Kiev to Novgorod and in particular she forgot the chains of economic unity in Rus. But their son and grandson Prince Vladimir was at hand the more act: under his rule, the civilization was choice made - Orthodox Christianity became the state religion. This was a choice that made Rus a mighty power. Several hundred churches were built over a period of 10-15 years in Prince Vladimir's rule. None Chrisian power knew such paces of religious convertion. The reasons are returned: there is the richness of Rus throng and consent the people with their power and, it is astonishing, that Orthodox was after Russian people's hearts. But nobody can really know what internal struggle what spiritual efforts and sorrows were experienced by Price Vladimir, the heathen from birth, lived the greater part of his life in the heathenism.958 to 1015 AD - Russia, Ukrain, Belarus
The Times of Vladimir the Great
After the death of his father in 972, Vladimir, who was then prince of Novgorod, was forced to flee to Scandinavia in 976 after his brother Yaropolk had murdered his other brother Oleg and conquered Rus'. In Sweden, with the help from his relative Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, he assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from modern-day Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads. - DirectorDmitriy KorobkinStarsAleksandr IvashkevichSvetlana ChuykinaAleksey KravchenkoYoung Russian Prince Yaroslav fights the robbers, tribes and the invaders. He is the first to unite Russian lands and to create the original Russian state.978 to 1054 AD - Russia, Ukrain
The times of Yaroslav the Wise
A son of the Varangian Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, he was vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Subsequently, his eldest surviving brother, Sviatopolk I of Kiev, killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev. Yaroslav, with the active support of the Novgorodians and the help of Varangian mercenaries, defeated Svyatopolk and became the Grand Prince of Kiev in 1019. Under Yaroslav the codification of legal customs and princely enactments was begun, and this work served as the basis for a law code called the Russkaya Pravda ("Rus Truth [Law]"). During his lengthy reign, Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural flowering and military power. - DirectorJohn McTiernanMichael CrichtonStarsAntonio BanderasDiane VenoraDennis StorhøiA man, having fallen in love with the wrong woman, is sent by the sultan himself on a diplomatic mission to a distant land as an ambassador. Stopping at a Viking village port to restock on supplies, he finds himself unwittingly embroiled in a quest to banish a mysterious threat in a distant Viking land.980 AD - Iraq, Britain
Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan from the Abbasid Caliphet of Iraq goes to the Viking Land as Ambassador.
The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammad's youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes its name. They ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE (132 AH).
Their rule ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. - DirectorPhilipp StölzlStarsTom PayneStellan SkarsgårdOlivier MartinezIn 11th-century Persia, a surgeon's apprentice disguises himself as a Jew to study at a school that does not admit Christians.980 to 1053 AD - Persia, Turkey
Physician Ibn Sina in the times of Persian Samanid Empire and later Mahmud of Ghazni Empire. The Golden period of Islam.
His most famous works are The Book of Healing – a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine – a medical encyclopedia. which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650. - DirectorAnthony MannStarsCharlton HestonSophia LorenRaf ValloneThe fabled Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (a.k.a. El Cid) overcomes a family vendetta and court intrigue to defend Christian Spain against the Moors.1043 to 1099 AD - Spain
Times of Spanish Military leader El Cid
El Cid was brought up at the court of King Ferdinand the Great and served in the household of Ferdinand's son Sancho. He rose to become commander and the royal standard-bearer (armiger regis) of Castile upon Sancho's ascension in 1065. He went on to lead the Castilian military campaigns against Sancho's brothers, the rulers of the kingdoms of Leon and Galicia as well as against the Muslim kingdoms in Al-Andalus. He became famous for his military prowess in these campaigns, and helped enlarge Castilian territory at the expense of the Muslims while driving Sancho's brothers from their thrones. This, however, ended up putting him in a difficult position when suddenly, in 1072, Sancho was murdered and with no legitimate issue leaving his recently ousted brother, Alfonso, as his only heir and ruler of the reunified empire. Although El Cid continued to serve the crown in the person of Alfonso, who was now Emperor of Spain, he lost his status in court and was held in suspicion. Finally, in 1081, he was ordered into exile.
Rodrigo Díaz found work fighting for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza, whom he protected from the domination of Aragon and Barcelona, further bolstering his military record and reputation as a leader. He was also victorious in battles against the Muslim rulers of Lérida and their Christian allies, as well as against a large Christian army under King Sancho Ramírez of Aragon. In 1086, Alfonso was defeated by Almoravids from North Africa, and he overcame his antagonism to talk El Cid into fighting for him again. Over the next several years El Cid set his sights on the kingdom-city of Valencia, operating more or less independently of Alfonso while politically supporting the Banu Hud and other Muslim dynasties opposed to the Almoravids. He gradually increased his control over Valencia; the Islamic ruler, al-Qadir, became his tributary in 1092. However, the Almoravids instigated an uprising that resulted in the death of al-Qadir. He responded by laying siege to the city. Valencia finally fell in 1094 and El Cid established an independent principality in the eastern Mediterranean coast of Spain.
Although El Cid himself remained undefeated in Valencia, he suffered a tragedy when his only son and heir, Diego Rodríguez, died fighting against the Almoravids in the service of Alfonso in 1097. After El Cid's death in 1099, his wife, Jimena Díaz, succeeded him as ruler of Valencia, but she had to surrender the principality to the Almoravids in 1102. - DirectorGilles GrangierSergiu NicolaescuStarsHervé BellonJohn TerryMircea AlbulescuWilliam's government blended elements of the English and Norman systems into a new one that laid the foundations of the later medieval English kingdom.[141] How abrupt and far-reaching the changes were is still a matter of debate among historians, with some such as Richard Southern claiming that the Conquest was the single most radical change in European history between the Fall of Rome and the 20th century.1066 AD - Britain, France
William The conquerer captures Britain
The first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England in 1066. - DirectorRidley ScottStarsOrlando BloomEva GreenLiam NeesonBalian of Ibelin travels to Jerusalem during the Crusades of the 12th century, and there he finds himself as the defender of the city and its people.1137 to 1193 AD - Iraq, Syria, Israel
Times of Saladin and Crusades
Saladin was the first sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of their Ayyubid dynasty, although it was named after his father.
Saladin led the Muslim opposition to the European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa.
Under Saladin's personal leadership, the Ayyubid army defeated the Crusaders at the decisive Battle of Hattin in 1187, leading the way to the Muslims' re-capture of Palestine from the Crusaders who had conquered it 88 years earlier. Though the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem would continue to exist for an extended period, its defeat at Hattin marked a turning point in its conflict with the Muslim powers of the region. - DirectorSergei BodrovStarsTadanobu AsanoAmadu MamadakovKhulan ChuluunThe story recounts the early life of Genghis Khan who was a slave before going on to conquer half the world in 1206.1162 to 1227 AD - Mongolia
Times of Genghis Khan
The founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise.
He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of Northeast Asia. After founding the Mongol Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan", he started the Mongol invasions that resulted in the conquest of most of Eurasia. These included raids or invasions of the Qara Khitai, Caucasus, Khwarezmid Empire, Western Xia and Jin dynasties. These campaigns were often accompanied by wholesale massacres of the civilian populations – especially in the Khwarezmian and Xia controlled lands. By the end of his life, the Mongol Empire occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia and China.
His descendants extended the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia by conquering or creating vassal states out of all of modern-day China, Korea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and substantial portions of modern Eastern Europe, Russia, and Southwest Asia.
Genghis Khan is also credited with bringing the Silk Road under one cohesive political environment. This brought communication and trade from Northeast Asia into Muslim Southwest Asia and Christian Europe, thus expanding the horizons of all three cultural areas. - DirectorAnthony HarveyStarsPeter O'TooleKatharine HepburnAnthony Hopkins1183 A.D.: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. When he allows his imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine out for a Christmas visit, they all variously plot to force him into a decision.1174 AD - Britain, Scotland
Henry became actively involved by the age of 14 in his mother's efforts to claim the throne of England, then occupied by Stephen of Blois, and was made Duke of Normandy at 17. He inherited Anjou in 1151 and shortly afterwards married Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII of France had recently been annulled. Stephen agreed to a peace treaty after Henry's military expedition to England in 1153: Henry inherited the kingdom on Stephen's death a year later.
Henry II defeated William the Lion, King of Scotland at the siege of Alnwick Castle in 1174. William officially accepted Henry as the ruler of Scotland.
Henry's legal changes are generally considered to have laid the basis for the English Common Law - DirectorDenys de La PatellièreRaoul LévyNoël HowardStarsHorst BuchholzGrégoire AslanRobert HosseinYoung Marco Polo travels to China to help Kublai Khan fight against rebels, headed by his own son, with a new invention: gunpowder.1215 to 1294 AD - Whole World
the Times of Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, founded the Yuan dynasty in China. The site of present-day Peking became his capital. Khan completed the conquest of China becoming the first non-Chinese to rule that land. Kublai Khan's empire stretched from China to Arabia and Eastern Europe- the largest the world has ever known.
In 1271, Marco Polo -- accompanied by his father -- set off for China. They arrived in the court of the Great Khan, where Khan took the European visitors into his service.
Polo became intimately acquainted with all parts of China. When he returned to Europe after 15 years of service to the Khan, he wrote the Book of Various Experiences about his time in Asia, that garnered wide readership in Europe.
After conquering most of Asia, Kublai Khan invades Japan with 4,400 ships and 140,000 soldiers, but a Typhoon, a "Divine wind", (Kamikaze) destroys most of the fleet. 70,000 troops die in the storm - the worst naval disaster in history. - DirectorCharles LamontStarsMaureen O'HaraJeff ChandlerMaxwell ReedAn Arabian-nights princess and a Bedouin chief contend over possession of a stallion, but unite to oppose the Corsair Lords.1336 to 1405 AD - Uzbekistan, Iran, India, Afghanistan, Syria, China, Mongolia
Times of Tamerland (Temur Lang). Instead of this movie watch an indian old black and white movie about the Invasion of Delhi by Tamerlane. IMDB doesn't have that movie.
Timur-i Lang (Tamerlane) a Muslim conqueror of Mongol descent, is born. He conquers a huge territory in the middle east and Asia. Some think his feats rival Alexander the Great. 17 million people die from his conquests.
In 1400 the Mongol conqueror Tameralne invaded Syria after devastating Georgia and Russia. The next year he laid waste to Aleppo Damascus and Baghdad. In 1402 Tamerlane then went on to defeat the Ottoman sultan at the battle of Angora.
In 1405 Tamerlane, the leader of the Mongols, died suddenly while preparing to attack Ming China. With his death the Mongol Empire rapidly fell apart. - DirectorLuc BessonStarsMilla JovovichJohn MalkovichRab AffleckA young girl receives a vision that drives her to rid France of its oppressors.1337 to 1453 AD - Britain, France
The Hundred Year War.
The Hundred Years War began in 1337 when Philip VI contested the English claim to Normandy and other northern provinces. At the same time, Edward III contested Philip's legitimacy based on the fact that his mother was the daughter of Philip IV. He demanded the crown of France. Edward won the support of many Flemish towns. He ravaged the French countryside, but at first fought no decisive battles.
In 1340, The French navy was destroyed at the Battle of Sluis which took place off the coast of Flanders. The victory gave England naval supremacy in the English Channel.
In 1356, At the Battle of Poiters, the Black Prince of Wales Edward defeated the French. In the course of the battle, the French king, John II, was taken prisoner and brought to England. This resulted in civil chaos in France.
In 1415, The British decisively defeated the French at the battle of Agincourt on October 25th. The British archers, under the command of Henry V, were the key to the British victory over the French . Five French counts, 90 barons and over 5,000 French knights were killed in the battle and 1,000 were taken prisoner. As a result of the English victory the French nobility was shattered and the feudal system was destroyed. Normandy lay open to English reconquering.
In 1429 AD Joan of Arc Frees Orleans - War between France and England continued on and off, despite various agreements to cease. In 1428 the English began to beseige the Orleans. Joan of Arc a young girl from Lorrain began to have visions and claim to hear voices. She convinced the French dauphin to provide her with a small army and went on to liberate Orleans. This changed the very nature of the conflict giving the French a new sense of confidence in their conflict with England and reinvigorating the French monarchy. Joan convinced the people that the dauphin was the legitimate son of Charles VI and he was crowned King at Reims on July 17, 1429.
In 1431 AD Joan of Arc- Burned Alive- Joan of Arc entered Comiegne outside Paris and was taken prisoner. The British held Joan in prison in a tower in Rouen.Charles VII made no effort to assist her. The English in 1431 turn Joan over to the former bishop of the of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon on the assurance she would be convicted of treason against God. She was convicted and burned to death at the stake on May 30, 1431. - DirectorChristopher SmithStarsEddie RedmayneSean BeanCarice van HoutenSet during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England, a young monk is given the task of learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village.1348 AD - Europe
The Black Death (bubonic plague) that spread throughout Europe between 1347 and 1353 was the worse natural disaster in European history. It is estimated that of a population of 75 million people, between 19 to 35 million died. The plague was spread by rats infested by infected fleas. The plague originated in the East. Ships carrying infected vermin came to the island of Sicily. The disease spread northward throughout Europe. It took two hundred years for Europe's population to recover. One of the most bizarre results of the plague was the large-scale outbreak of anti-semitism. Jews were accused of causing the plague. Over 60 Jewish communities were entirely wiped out in Germany alone. - DirectorFaruk AksoyStarsDevrim EvinIbrahim CelikkolDilek SerbestAfter the death of his father Murat II, Mehmet II ascends to the Ottoman throne. After braving internal and external enemies, he decides to complete what he was destined to do - conquer Constantinople.1453 AD - Turkey, Greece
Fall of Constantinople at the hands of Ottoman Ruler Mehmed the Conqueror. End of the Byzantine Empire and Beginning of the Ottoman Empire's Dominance over the World.
Although the Ottoman Empire was established when the Byzantine fortress of Bursa fell after a nine-year siege to the forces of the Osmali Turks in 1300s, under Osman. The same year, Osman died and was succeeded by his son Orkhan who ruled until 1360. Under Orkahn, the Empire expanded to include central Anatolia and Thrace. But it was the Conquest of Constantinople that made them the Worldwide force.
The Byzantine Empire came to an end when the forces of Muhammad II captured Constantinople. Muhammad's forces had been kept at bay by an iron chain that kept his ship away. He brought 70 small ships overland. In addition Muhammad had 250,000 troops and a 1,200 pound cannon that breached the wall of Constantinople. When the walls were breached on May 29th the city fell and over a thousand years of Byzantine rule ended. - DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMisa UeharaMinoru ChiakiLured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines.1500 to 1573 AD - Japan
Times of The Sengoku warring states period. See it to get yourself right into the middle of 100 years of constant civil war in Japan. Samurai Culture is best depicted in the movie.
Also watch RAN, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, all by Kurosawa, which are also from the same period. - DirectorMel GibsonStarsGerardo TaracenaRaoul Max TrujilloDalia HernándezAs the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, a young man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression.1511 AD - USA, Mexico
First Contact of Spanish Sailors with Mayan Civilization.
The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.
The Postclassic period of Mayan Civilization saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive K'iche' kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of the last Maya city in 1697.
As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice. They developed the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas. - StarsHalit ErgençNur FettahogluSelim BayraktarFrom 1520, follows Suleiman the Magnificent and his relatives from his great conquests to the "Battle of Szigetvár".1520 to 1566 AD - Turkey, Half of the Civilized World
Selim the Ottoman sultan died, he was succeeded by his son Suleiman I. Suleiman became known as Suleiman the Magnificent.
Suleiman became a prominent monarch of 16th-century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman Empire's military, political and economic power. Suleiman personally led Ottoman armies in conquering the Christian strongholds of Belgrade and Rhodes as well as most of Hungary before his conquests were checked at the Siege of Vienna in 1529. He annexed much of the Middle East in his conflict with the Persian Safavids and large areas of North Africa as far west as Algeria. Under his rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and through the Persian Gulf.
Breaking with Ottoman tradition, Suleiman married Roxelana, a former Christian girl converted to Islam from his harem, who became subsequently known and influential as Hürrem Sultan. Their son Selim II succeeded Suleiman following his death in 1566 after 46 years of rule, thus beginning a long state of stagnation and decline during Selim II's reign. - DirectorPavel LunginStarsPyotr MamonovOleg YankovskiyRamilya IskanderA historical film that tells about two years in the life of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, his relationship with Metropolitan Philip of Moscow and the events of the Oprichnina era.1530 to 1584 AD - Russia,
The Times of Ivan the Terrible, 1st Czar of Russia
His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multicontinental state spanning almost one billion acres. Ivan managed countless changes in the progression from a medieval state to an empire and emerging regional power, and became the first ruler to be crowned as Tsar of All the Russias.
He killed his groomed and chosen heir Ivan Ivanovich. This left the Tsardom to be passed to Ivan's younger son, the weak and intellectually disabled Feodor Ivanovich.
The Massacre of Novgorod is regarded as one of the biggest demonstrations of his mental instability and brutality. - DirectorAshutosh GowarikerStarsHrithik RoshanAishwarya Rai BachchanSonu SoodA sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodha.1542 to 1605 AD - India, Afghanistan, Pakistan
Rise and Expansion of Mughal Empire under Akbar. Can Watch Mughle Aazam too, but that covers the later years of Akbar.
During his rule, the Mughal empire tripled in size and wealth. He created a powerful military system and instituted effective political and social reforms. By abolishing the sectarian tax on non-Muslims and appointing them to high civil and military posts, he was the first Mughal ruler to win the trust and loyalty of the native subjects. He had Sanskrit literature translated, participated in native festivals, realizing that a stable empire depended on the co-operation and good-will of his subjects. Thus, the foundations for a multicultural empire under Mughal rule was laid during his reign. Akbar was succeeded as emperor by his son, Jahangir.
Some of his major Military victories in India were against Sikander Shah Suri of Punjab, Hemu of Delhi, Malwa, Gondwana, Mewar, Ajmer, Gujrat, and Bengal.
In Central Asia his victories included Kabul. In 1586, Akbar negotiated a pact with Abdullah Khan in which the Mughals agreed to remain neutral during the Uzbek invasion of Safavid held Khorasan. Despite his pact with the Uzbeks, Akbar nurtured a secret hope of reconquering Central Asia from today's Afghanistan. However, Badakshan and Balkh remained firmly part of the Uzbek dominions. There was only a transient occupation of the two provinces by the Mughals under his grandson, Shah Jahan, in the mid-17th century. Nevertheless, Akbar's stay in the northern frontiers was highly fruitful. The last of the rebellious Afghan tribes were subdued by 1600. The Roshaniyya movement was firmly suppressed. The Afridi and Orakzai tribes, which had risen up under the Roshaniyyas, had been subjugated. The leaders of the movement were captured and driven into exile. Jalaluddin, the son of the Roshaniyya movement's founder, Bayazid, was killed in 1601 in a fight with Mughal troops near Ghazni. Mughal rule over today's Afghanistan was finally secure, particularly after the passing of the Uzbek threat with the death of Abdullah Khan in 1598. - DirectorTerrence MalickStarsColin FarrellQ'orianka KilcherChristopher PlummerThe story of the English exploration of Virginia, and of the changing world and loves of Pocahontas.1607 AD - USA
The Times of Pocahontas and European Battles with Native Americans. Pocahontas marries John Rolfe.
John Rolfe was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.
Rolfe died in 1622 after his plantation was destroyed in a Native American attack. It remains unclear whether Rolfe died in the massacre or whether he died as a result of illness. - DirectorVladimir KhotinenkoStarsPyotr KislovMichal ZebrowskiArtur SmolyaninovThe czar of Russia has died and a power vacuum has developed. This period in late 16th and early 17th century has been called "The Time of Troubles.1612 AD - Russia, Poland
The Czar of Russia is Dead, his only daughter has married a Polish Army General, Now the Poles want to take over Russian Empire. War ensues between the poles and the russians. - StarsPolly DartfordAndrew BuchanTrixiebell HarrowellAn insight into what happened on the night of 2 September 1666, the Great fire of London.1666 AD - Britain
The Great Fire of London ravages the City for three days destroying 80% of the buildings leaving thousands homeless and bankrupt. Afterwards Sir Christopher Wren decrees new buildings will be made of brick and the streets to be widened. Oddly the fire slows the progress of the plague by destroying so many rats. Only 16 people lost their lives in the inferno. - StarsMaximilian SchellVanessa RedgraveOmar SharifBiopic of Peter I, Czar of Russia, from childhood in 1682 to the Great Northern War against Sweden during the 1700s.1672 to 1725 AD - Russia
Rise and Expansion of Russian empire under Peter the Great
ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May (O.S. 27 April) 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. Through a number of successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a much larger empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, westernized, and based on The Enlightenment. Peter's reforms made a lasting impact on Russia and many institutions of Russian government traced their origins to his reign. - DirectorSergei BodrovIvan PasserStarsKuno BeckerJason Scott LeeJay HernandezA historical epic set in 18th-century Kazakhstan, where a young man is destined to unite the country's three warring tribes.1700 AD - Kazakhstan
The Times of Ablai Khan of Kazakhstan
Ablai Khan was a descendant of the 15th century founder of the Kazakh state, Janybek Khan.
Initially, Russia recognized Abul-Mambet Khan as the Khan of Middle jüz, while Ablai was supported by China. Ablai's talent in playing China against Russia gradually made him the unrivaled Khan of the steppe. Unlike Abul Khair Khan of Little jüz, Ablai never submitted to Russian rule. In 1771, at the meeting of the representatives of the three jüzes, Ablai was elected as the Kazakh khan. Russian Empress requested that the title of khan should be recognized and officially approved by Russia. To that end, she sent an official letter to Petropavl, where Ablai was expected to receive the title in 1779. He never showed up at the fort, declining Russia's request to appoint him as the khan of Middle jüz. In contrast to Ablai, other khans and sultans had been competing for the lavish gifts and stipends of the Emperors of Russia in return for their submission.
During Amursana's rebellion against the Qing in 1755-56, Ablai Khan offered him sanctuary at one point and refused to hand him over despite the threat of a raid on his territory. However, by 1757, Ablai Khan had acknowledged Chinese suzerainty.[2] Ablai was then confirmed as Kazakh Khan by both the Chinese and the Russians. He led numerous campaigns against Khanate of Kokand and the Kyrgyz. In the last campaign his troops liberated many cities in Southern Kazakhstan and even captured Tashkent. Then he proceeded to present-day Kyrgyzstan and won a furious battle with troops of local warlords. Upon his death in 1781 he was interred in the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasavi in Hazrat-e Turkestan. - DirectorMarvin J. ChomskyJohn GoldsmithStarsCatherine Zeta-JonesPaul McGannIan RichardsonTrapped in a loveless arranged marriage to the immature future Czar, a young German Princess proves a skillful political infighter and rises to become Catherine the Great.1729 to 1796 AD - Russia, Germany, Britain, Poland
The Times of Catherine the Great
The longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 1762 until her death in 1796 at the age of 67. She was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, and came to power following a coup d'état when her husband, Peter III, was assassinated.
In the south, the Crimean Khanate was crushed following victories over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish wars, and Russia colonised the vast territories of Novorossiya along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas.
In the west, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover, king Stanisław August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share.
In the east, Russia started to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America. - DirectorRobert HarmonStarsJeff DanielsRoger ReesSebastian RochéA dramatization of George Washington's perilous gamble of crossing the Delaware River and attacking the Hessian forces at Trenton.1732 to 1799 AD
Times of George Washington and American War of Independence against Britain.
In 1778, France, eager for revenge after its defeat in the Seven Years' War, signed an alliance with the new American nation. The conflict then expanded into a world war with Britain combating France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Fighting also broke out in India between the British East India Company and the French allied Kingdom of Mysore.
On December 16, 1773, the destruction of a shipment of tea at the Boston Tea Party flamed the whole battle. The British government punished Massachusetts by closing the port of Boston and taking away self-government. The Patriots responded by setting up a shadow government that took control of the province outside of Boston. Twelve other colonies supported Massachusetts, formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and set up committees and conventions that effectively seized power from the royal governments. In April 1775 fighting broke out between Massachusetts militia units and British regulars at Lexington and Concord. The Continental Congress appointed General George Washington to take charge of militia units besieging British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776. Congress supervised the war, giving Washington command of the new Continental Army; he also coordinated state militia units.
America declared Independence on July 4th. Sir William Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, capturing New York City and New Jersey. Washington was able to capture a Hessian detachment at Trenton and drive the British out of most of New Jersey. In 1777 Howe's army launched a campaign against the national capital at Philadelphia, failing to aid Burgoyne's separate invasion force from Canada. Burgoyne's army was trapped, and surrendered after the Battles of Saratoga in October 1777. This American victory encouraged France to enter the war in 1778, followed by its ally Spain in 1779.
In 1778, having failed in the northern states, the British shifted strategy toward the southern colonies, where they planned to enlist many Loyalist regiments. British forces had initial success in bringing Georgia and South Carolina under control in 1779 and 1780, but the Loyalist surge was far weaker than expected. In 1781 British forces moved through Virginia, but their escape was blocked by a French naval victory. Washington took control of a Franco-American siege at Yorktown and captured the entire British force of over 7,000 men. The defeat at Yorktown finally turned the British Parliament against the war, and in early 1782 they voted to end offensive operations in North America. The war against France and Spain continued however, with the British defending Gibraltar against a long running Franco-Spanish siege, while the British navy scored key victories, especially the Battle of the Saintes in 1782. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west. France gained its revenge and little else except a heavy national debt, while Spain acquired Great Britain's Florida colonies. - DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsGérard DepardieuWojciech PszoniakAnne AlvaroIn 1793, as the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people, returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party.1789 to 1799 AD - France
French Revolution and the Times of Georges Danton
was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Many historians describe him as "the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic". A moderating influence on the Jacobins, he was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality and leniency to the enemies of the Revolution. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsDjimon HounsouMatthew McConaugheyAnthony HopkinsIn 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.1800 AD - USA
Talk of Black peoples rights began in USA. Build up the Civil War.
Amistad became renowned in July 1839 as the site of a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been enslaved in Sierra Leone, and were being transported for sale between Havana, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands. The African captives took control of the ship in July 1839, killing some of the crew and ordering the survivors to sail the ship to Africa. The Spanish survivors secretly maneuvered the ship north and La Amistad was captured off the coast of Long Island by the brig USS Washington.[2] The Mende and La Amistad were interned in Connecticut while federal court proceedings were undertaken for their disposition. The owners of the ship and Spanish government claimed the slaves as property; but the US had banned the African trade and argued that the Mende were legally free.
Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention. Known as United States v. The Amistad (1841), the case was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende, restoring their freedom. It became a symbol in the United States in the movement to abolish slavery. - DirectorKing VidorStarsAudrey HepburnHenry FondaMel FerrerNapoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia, including his disastrous 1812 invasion, serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.1812 AD - Russia, France
The Times of Napoleon Bonaparte. His rise and Fall.
On November 9th Napoleon Bonarparte overthrew the failing French Directory. Napoleon had arrived unannounced from Egypt at Frejus. With the help of Sieyes and Roger-Ducos as well his brother Lucien he succeeded in ending the Directory and becoming first consul of France.
Napoleon Occupies Berlin-Defeats Prussians - The Holy Roman Empire ended on July 12th when the confederation of the Rhine was organized under the auspices of the French. This brought most of the German states under French influence. War with Prussia then ensues. On October 14, 1806 the French defeated the Prussians and the Saxons southwest of Berlin at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt. The French went on to a series of additional victories and on October 27th Napoleon occupied Berlin. On November 4, 1806 the remaining Prussian troops surrendered to the French.
Napoleon Occupies Vienna - The Austrians took advantage of Napoleon's preoccupation with the Peninsular War, to make preparations to attack the French. In April 1809 Archduke Charles appealed to the German nation to embark on a war of liberation. His appeal was mostly unheeded, but he continued his invasion of Bavaria with an army of 170,000. Napoleon hurried back from Spain and drove the Austrians back. On May 13th Napoleon occupied Vienna. His initial victory was short-lived and he was soon forced to withdraw across the Danube after his defeats at the battle of Aspern and Essling.
Napoleon Retreats From Moscow - Napoleon maintained his army in the burned capital of Russia for five weeks in the hope of bringing Alexander to terms; finally on October 19th with winter setting in and his armies far from home he ordered a retreat from Moscow. His army was harassed throughout their retreat. Of his army of 600,000 less then 100,000 were left when they straggled across the Niemen River in the middle of December.
Battle of Waterloo - News reached Napoleon at Elba of French discontent with renewed Bourbon rule. Napoleon decided to make another bid for power. On March 1, 1815 Napoleon landed in Cannes with 1,500 men. On March 20th he entered Paris. This began the 100 days. The major European powers united to oppose Napoleon each committing 180,000. The commander of the Allied forces became British General Wellington, who found himself in command of over 1,000, 000 men. On June 18th the Battle of Waterloo took place. Napoleon hurled his army against that of Wellington. The allied lines held, and Wellington received crucial reinforcements from Blucher. Napoleon's forces were defeated and he fled back towards Paris. On June 22nd he surrendered to allied forces. Napoleon spent the rest of his life imprisoned on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic. - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsDaniel Day-LewisSally FieldDavid StrathairnAs the Civil War rages on, U.S President Abraham Lincoln struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on his decision to emancipate the slaves.1809 to 1865 AD - USA
Times of Abraham Lincoln. The Abolition of Slavery. American Civil War.
Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
In 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. With very little support in the slaveholding states of the South, he swept the North and was elected president in 1860. His victory prompted seven southern slave states to form the Confederate States of America before he moved into the White House - no compromise or reconciliation was found regarding slavery and secession. Subsequently, on April 12, 1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union in a declaration of war.
Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the controversial ex parte Merryman decision, and he averted potential British intervention in the war by defusing the Trent Affair in late 1861. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Ulysses S. Grant. He also made major decisions on Union war strategy, including a naval blockade that shut down the South's normal trade, moves to take control of Kentucky and Tennessee, and using gunboats to gain control of the southern river system. Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond; each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his complex moves toward ending slavery began with the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; subsequently, Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraged the border states to outlaw slavery, and pushed through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which permanently outlawed slavery. - DirectorRon MaxwellStarsTom BerengerMartin SheenStephen LangIn 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War.1863 AD - USA
Battle that decided the American Civil War result.
The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war[7] and is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's attempt to invade the North.
After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign.
Elements of the two armies initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brig. Gen. John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south.
On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union right, Confederate demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines.
On the third day of battle, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great loss to the Confederate army.
Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle.
On November 19, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address. - DirectorWolfgang LiebeneinerStarsPaul HartmannFriedrich KayßlerLil DagoverA biographical film of Otto von Bismarck, the Prime Minister of Prussia, and how he and his policies - including aggressive war - helped to unite Germany.1815 to 1898 AD - Germany, Britain, Russia
Times of Bismarck - the greatest politician ever.
In the 1860s he engineered a series of wars that unified the German states (excluding Austria) into a powerful German Empire under Prussian leadership. With that accomplished by 1871 he skillfully used balance of power diplomacy to preserve German hegemony in a Europe which, despite many disputes and war scares, remained at peace.
He provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria, and France, aligning the smaller German states behind Prussia in defeating his arch-enemy France. In 1871 he formed the German Empire with himself as Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia.
He disliked colonialism but reluctantly built an overseas empire when it was demanded by both elite and mass opinion. Juggling a very complex interlocking series of conferences, negotiations and alliances, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain Germany's position and used the balance of power to keep Europe at peace in the 1870s and 1880s.
In 1888, the German Emperor, Wilhelm I, died leaving the throne to his son, Friedrich III. The new monarch was already suffering from an incurable throat cancer and died after reigning for only 99 days. He was succeeded by his son, Wilhelm II, who opposed Bismarck's careful foreign policy, preferring vigorous and rapid expansion to enlarge Germany's "place in the sun".
Bismarck was 16 years older than Friedrich. Before the latter became terminally ill, Bismarck did not expect he would live to see Wilhelm ascend to the throne and thus had no strategy to deal with him. Conflicts between Wilhelm and his chancellor soon poisoned their relationship. Their final split occurred after Bismarck tried to implement far-reaching anti-socialist laws in early 1890. Bismarck resigned at Wilhelm II's insistence on 18 March 1890, at almost 75. - DirectorSylvio BackStarsHermano HenningCarlos Pussineri ScalaDocumentary on 19th-century war between Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.1865 AD - Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay
Paraguay declared war on Argentina after Argentina refused to allow the passage of Paraguan troops across its soil. The war was joined by Brazil and Uruguay. The war continued for 5 years and despite desperate Paraguan resistance, it was conquered. Nearly the complete Paraguayan population was killed, with only 20,000 men and 200,000 woman surviving.
Francisco Solano López is today considered either the bravest leader in Paraguay's history, or a suicidal and misinformed leader. - DirectorEdward ZwickStarsTom CruiseKen WatanabeBilly ConnollyNathan Algren, a US army veteran, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in the modern warfare techniques. Nathan finds himself trapped in a struggle between two eras and two worlds.1876 to 1877 AD - Japan, USA
Times of the infamous Samurai Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. Disgruntled Samurai at the end of their days in a world that no longer has a need for them. The movie best explores death of Old Japan and Birth of new Westernized Japan. - DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsJohn LoneJoan ChenPeter O'TooleBernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-winning dramatisation of the life story of China's last emperor, Pu Yi.1906 to 1967 AD - China
Times of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, Chinese Last Emperor - DirectorJames CameronStarsLeonardo DiCaprioKate WinsletBilly ZaneA seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.1912 AD - Britain, USA
Sinking of Titanic.
The unsinkable Titanic goes down with over 1,500 souls. A steward from the White Star Line is reported as having said, "Not even God Himself can sink this ship". ("Hubris" is what the Greeks called it.) - DirectorPeter WeirStarsMel GibsonMark LeeBill KerrTwo Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.1914 to 1918 AD - Whole World
First world War. The Fall of the Ottoman Empire, and Creation of Republic of Turkey
a campaign of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provided a sea route to the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula, with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The naval attack was repelled and after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt.
The campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history: a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Atatürk) who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli. The campaign is often considered as marking the birth of national consciousness in Australia and New Zealand and the date of the landing, 25 April, is known as "Anzac Day" which is the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in those two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day (Armistice Day). - DirectorDavid LeanStarsOmar SharifJulie ChristieGeraldine ChaplinThe life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.1917 AD - Russia
Russian Revolution and Times of Doctor Zhivago
dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917
In the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) government.
The February Revolution (March 1917) was a revolution focused around Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg). In the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament or Duma assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, resulting in Nicholas' abdication. The Soviets (workers' councils), which were led by more radical socialist factions, initially permitted the Provisional Government to rule, but insisted on a prerogative to influence the government and control various militias. The February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War (1914–18), which left much of the Russian army in a state of mutiny.
A period of dual power ensued, during which the Provisional Government held state power while the national network of Soviets, led by socialists, had the allegiance of the lower classes and the political left. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes. When the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards (later the Red Army) over which they exerted substantial control.
In the October Revolution (November in the Gregorian calendar), the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the workers' Soviets, overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd and established the Russian SFSR, eventually shifting the capital to Moscow in 1918. The Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918.
Civil war erupted among the "Reds" (Bolsheviks), the "Whites" (anti-socialist factions), and non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for several years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922. While many notable historical events occurred in Moscow and Petrograd, there was also a visible movement in cities throughout the state, among national minorities throughout the empire and in the rural areas, where peasants took over and redistributed land. - DirectorRichard AttenboroughStarsBen KingsleyJohn GielgudRohini HattangadiThe life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.1869 to 1948 - India, Britain
Times of Gandhi and Indian Independence Struggle.
Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.
Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942.
Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan. - DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaJane DarwellJohn CarradineAn Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.1929 to 1939 AD - From USA to the Whole World
Times of Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; however, in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century.
The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday). Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. - DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.1939 to 1945 AD - Whole World
Second World war. The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler
It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (in which approximately 11 million people were killed), also the war included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), it resulted in an estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.
The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan.
In June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Axis' military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European territories in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.
he Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, and Germany was defeated in North Africa and then, decisively, at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union.
In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands.
The war in Europe ended with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Hitler Committed Suicide before the fall of berlin.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August respectively.
And hence with millions of lives, the war ended. - DirectorKoreyoshi KuraharaRoger SpottiswoodeStarsLynne AdamsWesley AddyAllen AltmanThe grisly events leading to the first attack with a nuclear weapon.1945 AD - USA, Japan
Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States, with the consent of the United Kingdom as laid down in the Quebec Agreement, dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, during the final stage of the World War II. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. - DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracyBurt LancasterRichard WidmarkIn 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.1945 to 1946 AD - USA, Germany, Britain, France, Russia
Nazi War Criminals were Judged for their crimes in World War 2
The first, and best known of these trials, described as "the greatest trial in history" by Norman Birkett, one of the British judges who presided over it, was the trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). Held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the Tribunal was given the task of trying 23 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich, though one of the defendants, Martin Bormann, was tried in absentia, while another, Robert Ley, committed suicide within a week of the trial's commencement.
The second set of trials of lesser war criminals was conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT), which included the Doctors' Trial and the Judges' Trial. - DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.1950 to 1960 AD - Algeria, France
Battle of Algiers
a war between France and the Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare, maquis fighting, terrorism, the use of torture by both sides, and counter-terrorism operations. The conflict was also a civil war between loyalist Algerians supporting a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian nationalist counterparts. - DirectorPavel ParkhomenkoStarsYaroslav ZhalninMikhail FilippovVladimir SteklovOn April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Gagarin blasted off in a Vostok rocket and he orbited Earth for 106 minutes. He was the cosmonaut who was selected from over three thousand fighter pilots throughout the Soviet Union.1961 AD - Whole World and Universe
Yuri Gagrin, First Person in Space - DirectorAnthony PageStarsWilliam DevaneRalph BellamyHoward Da SilvaIn October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis.1962 AD - USA, Cuba, Russia
Cuban Missile Crisis
In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey against the USSR with Moscow within range, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba. An agreement was reached during a secret meeting between Khrushchev and Fidel Castro in July and construction on a number of missile launch facilities started later that summer.
The United States established a military blockade to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba. It announced that they would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the weapons already in Cuba be dismantled and returned to the USSR.
After a long time of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a U.S. public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba without direct provocation. Secretly, the US also agreed that it would dismantle all U.S.-built Jupiter MRBMs, which were deployed in Turkey and Italy against the Soviet Union but were not known to the public. - DirectorNorberto BarbaStarsCarmen ArgenzianoTuck MilliganDennis LipscombFearful that the Russians would continue their lead in the space race and be the first to put a man on the moon, NASA felt an enormous pressure to push the Apollo Program forward as quickly as possible, though they knew that pushing too hard could lead to the ultimate disaster. This film recreates the tensions that were felt not only by the three astronauts, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, but also by their families and by the teams of technicians training to deal with anything that could go wrong.1969 AD - Whole World, Moon, Universe
Humans Land on the Moon in the form of Neil Armstrong