History Hub: FAQs II Frequently asked questions concerning historical events II Page 2

Q. What is meant by the term "New World Order"?

Ans. The socio-economic political system we currently inhabit has a profound impact on all facets of our lives, despite its imperceptibility. The New World Order, as it is widely known, is an internationally accepted policy that fundamentally goes against the interests of the general populace.

Q. The Cuban Missile Crisis: What is it?

Ans. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. The crisis was unique in several ways, featuring both accurate and inaccurate calculations, as well as direct and indirect communications and miscommunications between the two sides. The dramatic crisis was also characterized by the fact that it was primarily played out at the White House and the Kremlin level, with relatively little input from the respective bureaucracies typically involved in the foreign policy process.

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Q. Who was Sacretice? Why was he punished to death?

Ans. Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher whose way of life, thought process, and character had a profound influence on both ancient and modern philosophy.

For his thoughts, he was sentenced to death by hemlock consumption.

The events of this extraordinary trial in 399 BC saw Socrates fighting for his life and the reputation of philosophy everywhere. The 70-year-old philosopher and ‘gadfly’ passionately defended himself and is alleged to have goaded the jurors to find him guilty.

Socrates Timeline in Chronological Order

c. 470 BCE	Socrates was born in Athens, Greece, to Sophroniscus, a stonemason, and Phaenarete, a midwife.

c. 432 BCE	Socrates serves as a hoplite (heavy infantryman) during the Peloponnesian War, participating in the Battles of Potidaea, Delium, and Amphipolis.

c. 410 BCE	Socrates begins to question Athenians about their beliefs and values, developing his unique style of philosophical inquiry known as the Socratic method.

c. 407-406 BCE	Plato becomes a student of Socrates, and the two form a close philosophical relationship.

c. 404 BCE	Socrates refuses to arrest Leon of Salamis on unjust charges during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants, a group of pro-Spartan oligarchs who briefly ruled Athens.

399 BCE	Socrates is brought to trial on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. He is found guilty by a jury of 500 Athenians. May. Socrates is sentenced to death by drinking a cup of poison hemlock. He accepts his sentence with calmness and dies in the presence of his friends, including Plato.

After 399 BCE	Plato and other students of Socrates wrote dialogues featuring their teacher as the central character, preserving his philosophical ideas and methods for future generations.

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Q. Who is Giordano Bruno? Why was he burnt alive?

Ans. Giordano Bruno was an Italian cosmologist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. In 1600, he was executed by the Roman Inquisition by being burned at the stake. Bruno's execution was a result of his heretical cosmological views, which contradicted the Church's teachings. He proposed an infinite universe with multiple worlds and rejected the geocentric model. He also expressed pantheistic beliefs, suggesting God was in everything. These ideas were considered dangerous by the Church, leading to his trial and condemnation for heresy.

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Q. Who was Joan of Arc? Why was she punished by being burned to death?

Ans. Joan of Arc (1412-31), a peasant girl from France, became a national heroine for her pivotal role in the Hundred Years' War, leading French forces to victory and ultimately being canonized as a saint. Below is a short timeline:

1412 - 1431
Life of Joan of Arc.
1425: Joan of Arc receives visions from God telling her to drive the English from France and bring Charles VII to Rheims to be crowned king.
1428: Joan of Arc's first attempt to meet with Charles the Dauphin fails.

1429:
Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orleans, a major victory for the French in the Hundred Years' War.

1429:
Joan of Arc orchestrates the Loire Campaign to bring Charles VII to Rheims for coronation.
1429:
Joan of Arc succeeds in meeting the dauphin, who accepts her offer to help him.
- 29 Apr 1429
  Joan of Arc prays in the Orleans Cathedral during the Hundred Years' War.
- 1430:
  Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English.
- 1430 - 1431
  Joan of Arc is held as a prisoner of the English at the city of Rouen.
- 1431: Joan of Arc is convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in Rouen.
- 1456: Joan of Arc's conviction is invalidated, and she is declared a martyr for France.
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- Q. What is Gulag?
- Ans. When Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union, a network of forced labor camps known as the Gulag was established. These infamous prisons are said to have housed roughly 18 million inmates over their existence, starting in the 1920s and ending soon after Stalin's death in 1953.
- The name Gulag had been largely unknown in the West until the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956 (1973), whose title likens the labor camps scattered through the Soviet Union to an island chain.
- Q. What is an international trade war after WW II?
- International trade experienced significant expansion and transformation after World War II, driven by globalisation, trade agreements, and changing economic policies.