title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: The sequel adds various assets and tools, including assets and a course theme based on "Super Mario 3D World". This theme is especially different from the four others, with many features and gameplay mechanics unique to it. Due to the difference from this style to the others, the course has to be reset in order to switch to this style. This sequel also brings along the new vertical course feature giving creators the ability to raise the vertical height limit. It also introduces local and online multiplayer modes including co-op course creation, where up to 2 players can locally create stages together at the same time; as well as allowing up to 4 online players to complete user-made courses, cooperatively or competitively.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: The game also features a World Maker mode, where players create their own overworld maps, creating the equivalent of their own Super Mario game, called a Super World. The world style is locked as "Super Mario World," but the courses themselves can be any style. Up to six Super Worlds can be saved but only one can be uploaded. One world can have up to five levels, including a castle, and a single Super World can have up to eight separate worlds. A world can also feature Toad houses, where the player plays minigames for extra lives, and Warp Pipes to get around the world quickly.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: "Super Mario Maker 2" also features a new single player campaign known as Story Mode. The story follows Mario, Toadette, and several other Toads helping to rebuild Princess Peach's Castle, which had accidentally been reset by Undodog, a non-playable character. Players must traverse through over 100 Nintendo-created courses in order to collect enough coins to rebuild the castle. Non-player characters also offer players extra tasks and jobs throughout the mode.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: A Nintendo Switch Online subscription is required in order to access any online functionality in the game, including accessing player-created levels.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: Developed inhouse at Nintendo's Kyoto Development Center, planning for "Super Mario Maker 2" began alongside development of the Nintendo Switch hardware itself. Most of the original development team reprised their roles for this sequel, including producer Hiroyuki Kimura, director Yosuke Oshino, and planner/game designer Shigefumi Hino. Nintendo's producer Takashi Tezuka stated that the theme for the sequel was to expand on what could be done compared to its predecessor and try new things, which took the form of new course elements and new side content in the form of a full-fledged single player campaign. Tezuka also stated that as players continue to upload levels, he and the development staff would use these creations as a reference for adding content after launch, viewing the dynamic as a give-and-take between developers and consumers. Longtime "Super Mario" series composer Koji Kondo served as the game's sound director and composed some music. Additional music was composed by Atsuko Asahi, Toru Minegishi, and Sayako Doi.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: "Super Mario Maker 2" was revealed during a Nintendo Direct presentation on February 13, 2019. It was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on June 28, 2019. Another Nintendo Direct was broadcast on May 15, 2019, which provided more information about new and returning features, gameplay modes, and pre-orders.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: In Europe, a capacitive stylus was included as part of the limited edition bundle of the game for customers who pre-ordered.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: "Super Mario Maker 2" received generally favorable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The online multiplayer feature, however, was criticized for its performance issues. "GameSpot", who gave the game an 8/10, stated that online lag frequently ruined the experience.


title: Super Mario Maker 2

text: It was the best-selling game in Japan during its first two weeks of release, selling 279,357 physical copies. By the end of March 2021, the game had sold over 7.15 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games on the Switch. The 2022 CESA Games White Papers revealed that "Super Mario Maker 2" had sold 7.89 million units, as of December 31, 2021.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: Inspiral Carpets are an English rock band, part of the late-1980s/early-1990s Madchester movement. Formed in Oldham in 1980, the band's most successful lineup featured frontman Tom Hingley, drummer Craig Gill, guitarist Graham Lambert, bassist Martyn Walsh and keyboardist Clint Boon.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: Several line-ups were loosely used from 1980 until Lambert and singer Stephen Holt met at The Moor End indie disco in Oldham 1983. Holt sang on the first two independent singles. Holt departed the band before they signed with Mute Records, Inspiral Carpets was known for using organs and distorted guitars with influences from psychedelic rock. In 2011, Hingley departed the band, though members disagree about the circumstances. The band continued on, reuniting with Holt. The group have been inactive since Gill's death in 2016. On 17 October 2022 the band announced they would be reforming and going on a tour of the UK in March and April 2023.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: Graham Lambert and Stephen Holt, friends from their school days, formed Inspiral Carpets in 1983, originally as a garage rock- and punk-inspired band. Manchester drummer Chris Goodwin and bassist Tony Welsh helped record a demo and play live in and around the Oldham area. Due to Goodwin's commitments the band recruited 14-year-old drummer Craig Gill in 1986. Tony Welsh also had other music commitments and departed in 1986. The band then had a succession of bass players (Rick Garage, Mark Hughes, Scott Carey) before Dave Swift, on bass and organist Clint Boon (at whose Ashton-under-Lyne studio the band had been rehearsing). The band released two albums of demos in the 1980s, "Waiting for Ours" and "Songs of Shallow Intensity", including songs that would later be re-recorded.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: Inspiral Carpets came to prominence along with bands such as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays in the Madchester scene of the late 1980s. The band first appeared on a flexi-disc with "Garage Full of Flowers" that was given free with Manchester's "Debris" magazine in 1987. Their first proper release, the "Cow" cassette, soon followed. The 1988 "Planecrash" EP on the Playtime label received much airplay from Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who asked the band to record a session for his show. The band reworked their single "Find Out Why" as the theme song for the show "".


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: As the band's popularity grew, Playtime's distributor Red Rhino Records went bankrupt, leading Inspiral Carpets to form their own label, Cow Records, in March 1989. The label's first release was the "Trainsurfing" EP. With half of the first album, "Life", written, Holt and Swift departed and formed the Rainkings, so the band recruited Too Much Texas singer Tom Hingley and Martyn "Bungle" Walsh of The Next Step to replace them. Martyn Walsh became the band's 13th bass player. After a handful of singles on their own label, with "Move" nearly reaching the UK top 40, the band signed a deal with Mute Records and soon experienced their first top-40 chart success in the UK with "This Is How It Feels." The single reached No. 14 on the singles chart, and the debut album "Life" reached No. 2 on the albums chart in 1990.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: The following year's "The Beast Inside" was less well received by critics, but still achieved a top-5 album chart ranking. The "Caravan" and "Please be Cruel" singles only reached No. 30 and No. 50 respectively, and an attempt to crack the American market largely failed. However, the band gained a strong following in Portugal, Germany and Argentina, where the 1992 album "Revenge of the Goldfish" became their most successful. The album peaked at number 17 in the UK and spawned four UK hit singles. The next album, "Devil Hopping" (1994), reached number 10 in the album chart, with "Saturn 5" and "I Want You" (featuring Mark E. Smith) as top-20 hits. The next single, "Uniform", stalled at No. 51 and in 1995, after the release of a "Singles" collection, the band were dropped by Mute and split up soon after.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: Hingley formed a new band, the Lovers, along with Jerry Kelly of the Lotus Eaters (which later featured Steve and Paul Hanley of the Fall), while Boon formed the Clint Boon Experience, releasing a string of singles on the Artful label. Gill also formed a new band, Hustler, who eventually changed their name to Proud Mary after a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Proud Mary signed to Noel Gallagher's Big Brother label some years later, while Walsh moved into production, largely working on techno and dance music. Two of the band's roadies enjoyed musical success themselves: van driver Mark Collins joined the Charlatans in 1991 and drum technician Noel Gallagher joined Oasis.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: Inspiral Carpets reunited in 2003, playing to sellout crowds on tour and releasing the single "Come Back Tomorrow" (recorded in 1995) and a number of new compilation records, most notably the "Cool As" box set. The band have toured sporadically since, reuniting again in 2007 to tour in support of an iTunes-exclusive compilation of their B-sides and rarities. They played a tour in 2008 under the banner "Return of the Cow", announcing that their own Cow Records label was to be revived.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: In February 2011, it was revealed that Tom Hingley was no longer part of the band, with the circumstances of his departure unclear. Band members indicated that Hingley had left of his own accord, with Clint Boon contradicting Hingley's suggestion that the band had split up whilst Hingley later claimed that he had been fired by the band at a meeting.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: In August 2011, the band announced a reunion with original singer Stephen Holt. Their website indicated that "Inspirals will be recording their first material in 15 years coupled with concerts in South America & Greece." The band recorded "You're So Good For Me"/"Head for the Sun" for Record Store Day, a 7" single that was released, sold and deleted on 21 April 2012. The accompanying video for the main track was shot at a concert in Buenos Aires in November 2011. In support of the single, the band toured the UK in March 2012 for the first time with Holt in 24 years. In May, the band were special guests on a Happy Mondays tour.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: In the summer of 2012, the band played at several festivals, culminating with a live performance at the Old Trafford cricket ground on 10 September during England's T20I match with South Africa. For Record Store Day in April 2014, Inspiral Carpets released "Dung 4", a previously cassette-only collection of demos from 1987, on vinyl and CD, with the earlier tape "Cow Demo" added as a free 7" with the vinyl version. "Uncut" said of the album: "... the whole package is a fine summation of the Inspirals' enduring appeal".


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: In October 2014, the band released "Inspiral Carpets" on Cherry Red Records. Their first album in 20 years, "Inspiral Carpets" contained two past singles, "You're So Good For Me" and "Spitfire", plus 10 new tracks. The album also included "Let You Down", co-written by and featuring punk poet John Cooper Clarke. Interviewed in "Record Collector," Boon described the album as "Diverse. A couple (of the songs) have an R.E.M. flavour, one nod to the 50s, two to Joy Division, several the Doors, one Northern soul, two the Beach Boys." After several dates in Europe over the summer, the band played 12 UK dates in December 2014 in support of the album's release.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: On 20 November 2016, drummer Craig Gill died at the age of 44. Memorial services were attended by music-industry friends including Inspiral Carpets members, Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, Stone Roses bassist Mani and Happy Mondays singer Rowetta. Soon after his death, Gill's friends began a social-media campaign to make the band's 1994 hit "Saturn 5" the Christmas number-one song for 2016.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: In October 2022 the band announced they would be reforming and performing a live UK tour in March and April 2023.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: The band also announced that longtime bassist Martyn Walsh would not be joining them on their forthcoming tour.


title: Inspiral Carpets

text: It was announced that Jake Fletcher will be touring with Inspiral Carpets in 2023 & Kev Clark from Dub Sex will be on the drums for the tour.


title: Elevenses

text: Elevenses is a short break taken at around 11:00a.m. to consume a drink or snack. The names and details vary among countries.


title: Elevenses

text: In Australia and New Zealand, elevenses is known as "morning tea" and occurs at approximately 10:30am. Many workplaces organize morning teas for staff to welcome new employees, for special occasions such as a birthday, or simply as a regular event. Food will sometimes be provided by the business, but often employees will be expected to bring food to share.


title: Elevenses

text: In Flemish, this kind of snack is called a "tienuurtje", literally a "little (one of) 10 o'clock". A "tienuurtje" typically consists of one or more cookies or some piece of fruit and may be accompanied by fruit juice or chocolate milk. Many parents give their children a "tienuurtje" to eat during the mid-morning school break.


title: Elevenses

text: A similar kind of snack for the afternoon break is called a "vieruurtje", literally "little (one of) 4 o'clock".


title: Elevenses

text: In many Spanish-speaking cultures, elevenses is observed under the name "las once" or "la once" (in Spanish, "once" means 'eleven'). However, in Chile it has shifted to the afternoon, sometimes replacing the traditional dinner.


title: Elevenses

text: In the 2010–2011 National Food Consumption Survey, around 80% of the Chileans reported having "once". This is due to "once" sometimes replacing the traditional dinner in Chile, which only 30% of the population reported having. Here, traditional dinner means a proper meal with vegetables, meat, poultry and fish. "La once" resembles a light version of British High Tea.


title: Elevenses

text: An alternative widespread, but unfounded, popular etymology for the word in Chile is that priests (in other versions, workers or women) used the phrase "tomar las once" (Spanish: "drink the eleven") in reference to the eleven letters of the word "Aguardiente" to conceal the fact that they were drinking during the day.


title: Elevenses

text: In Colombia, it is common to have a snack named "onces". It consists mainly of hot chocolate or coffee with arepa, bread, or crackers, usually taken around 5:00 p.m. In the morning, the snack consist of the same type of food but it is called "medias nueves". It is served generally between 9:00 and 11:00.


title: Elevenses

text: Elevenses in Hungarian is called "Tíz-órai" which translates to "of the 10 o'clock", referring to "the meal of the 10 o'clock". This is a break between breakfast and lunch, when it is time for a light meal or snack. In schools the early lunch break is called a "Tíz-órai" break. Parallel to the word Elevenses, "Tíz-órai" is often called Tenses "Tenzeez" by Hungarian-Americans and Hungarian-Britons.


title: Elevenses

text: In certain parts of rural India, especially in northern states like Punjab, it is a usual practice to take tea break after couple of hours of breakfast. When the practice began, there was no set clock and break is usually between 10-11am, so it was named after 10am, as "Das-Baja" (means 10 o'clock tea).


title: Elevenses

text: This practice is slowly getting obsolete in fast moving world of cities and towns, but rural area breaks for the workers in fields is still very popular.


title: Elevenses

text: In Israel it is called ארוחת עשר ("arukhat eser", Hebrew for "10 o'clock meal"), mostly eaten at schools and kindergartens in the form of homemade sandwiches, often accompanied with a fruit or other snack, after the second hour of the school day and before the so-called "small break". It also occurs in major unionized workplaces, such as factories and customer services reception centres, where workers are handed tea.


title: Elevenses

text: In West Friesland country people had a similar meal called "konkelstik" (served at "konkeltoid", the proper time for "konkelen", a verb denoting "making a visit").


title: Elevenses

text: In Poland the "drugie śniadanie" (lit. "second breakfast") is eaten in the midmorning. Rather than a heavy chunk of sausage or other meat, though, like the German second breakfast, Poles prefer a lighter, dessert-like pastry or sweet with a hot drink, more similar to the American "coffee break".


title: Elevenses

text: In Slovakia, "desiata" (lit. "tenth", from "tenth hour") can be eaten at or around 10 a.m. It usually consists of a small snack, fruit, or a sandwich, i.e. a lighter meal, so as not to fill the stomach before lunch. In schools, the break between classes around 10 a.m. is referred to as "desiatová prestávka" (lit. "tenth break", or "break for the tenth") and may be a few minutes longer than other breaks, to give the students time to eat their "desiata". Note: although the word "desiata" is grammatically an ordinal number, it is treated as a noun in this context.


title: Elevenses

text: In Spain it is not rare to have a short meal break around 11:00a.m., particularly in jobs of intense physical activity; this can range from a hot drink paired with light snacks like pastries to a sandwich, scrambled eggs or a piece of Spanish omelette (also known as a "pincho"). This meal is sometimes known as "almuerzo", although this word is used inconsistently and often just means "lunch". Also note lunch time in Spain can be as late as 3:00 p.m., which conditions mid-morning customs.


title: Elevenses

text: In the Basque Country in particular it is common to have a mid-morning snack consisting of high-protein food like eggs, bacon, or cured meat on bread, called "hamarretako" (literally "10 o'clock (snack)") or "hamaiketako" ("11 o'clock (snack)").


title: Elevenses

text: In Sweden, it's common to drink coffee at 11:00, elvakaffe (lit. coffee at eleven), often with a few biscuits or a light sandwich.


title: Elevenses

text: In Switzerland, there is a "Znüni" ("(Meal) at nine", following the nomenclature of Breakfast ("Zmorge"), Lunch ("Zmittag"), afternoon snack at four ("Zvieri") and Dinner ("Znacht")). The name, despite referring to a specific time, stays the same no matter the actual time of the snack break; especially in schools, it is usually at 10am.


title: Elevenses

text: Elevenses, eaten at 11:00 as the name suggests, typically consists of tea or coffee, often with a few biscuits. Sometimes, cake or other snacks are eaten instead.


title: Elevenses

text: During the first decades of the 19th century, "elevenses" consisted of drinking whiskey. In modern times, hourly workers take a break known as a coffee break, typically around 10:00a.m., or in the first third of a work shift Often, this is done in a break room, and small snacks may be eaten as well.


title: Elevenses

text: It is common for school children to have a short snack break called morning snack. This is offered in the morning before lunch, usually between 9:00 and 11:00.


title: Elevenses

text: For elevenses, Winnie-the-Pooh preferred honey on bread with condensed milk. Paddington Bear often took elevenses at the antique shop on Portobello Road run by his friend Mr Gruber, for which Paddington would buy buns and Mr Gruber would make cocoa (hot chocolate).


title: Elevenses

text: In the Middle-earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien ("The Lord of the Rings"), a party is implied to be particularly lavish in that food was served "continuously from elevenses until six-thirty".


title: Drag Race Italia

text: Drag Race Italia is an Italian reality competition streaming and television series based on the American series "RuPaul's Drag Race," and is the Italian edition of the "Drag Race" franchise, produced by Ballandi Arts Studios. In a similar format to the American version, the show features a crop of Italian drag queens as they compete for the title of "Italia's Next Drag Superstar" and becoming MAC Cosmetics ambassador for one year. The series airs on Discovery+ in Italy, and subsequently free-to-air on Real Time, and worldwide on WOW Presents Plus.


title: Drag Race Italia

text: The series is hosted by Italian drag queen Priscilla, along with actress Chiara Francini and television personality Tommaso Zorzi.


title: Drag Race Italia

text: The first episode of the inaugural season premiered on November 18, 2021. The cast was announced on October 29, 2021. A second season was announced on March 1, 2022 with the premiere confirmed for October 2022.


title: Drag Race Italia

text: Casting occurred in early 2021 with production starting in summer 2021. The inaugural season of six one-hour episodes. Early coverage of the production announcement indicated that the series would be broadcast on the streaming platform Discovery+; followed later by a free-to-air broadcast on Real Time, which premiered on January 9, 2022.


title: Drag Race Italia

text: In the United States the series premiered on WOW Presents Plus, the streaming service of "RuPaul's Drag Race" production company World of Wonder, concurrently with its Italian debut.


title: Drag Race Italia

text: In March 2022, it was announced that the show was renewed for a second season. At the same time, it is announced that all the judges from the first season have also been reconfirmed.


title: Drag Race Italia

text: On June 30, 2021 it was announced that the judging panel for the first season would include Italian drag queen Priscilla, actress Chiara Francini and television personality Tommaso Zorzi.


title: Jordan Romero

text: Jordan Romero (born July 12, 1996) is an American mountain climber who was 13 years old when he reached the summit of Mount Everest. Romero was accompanied by his father, Paul Romero, his step-mother, Karen Lundgren, and three Sherpas, Ang Pasang Sherpa, Lama Dawa Sherpa, and Lama Karma Sherpa. The previous record for youngest to climb Everest was held by Ming Kipa of Nepal who was 15 years old when she reached the summit on May 22, 2003.


title: Jordan Romero

text: Upon successfully hiking the Vinson Massif in December 2011 at the age of 15 years, 5 months, 12 days, Romero became the youngest climber in the world to complete the Seven Summits (the highest mountains on each of the continents), a title previously held by George Atkinson. After this experience, Romero wrote a novel for children called ""No Summit Out Of Sight"".


title: Jordan Romero

text: Romero is now trying to climb the highest point in each of the 50 US states. He had already climbed Denali in June 2008. (see also Peak bagging (Climbing list))


title: Jordan Romero

text: Romero grew up in Big Bear Lake, California, and currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was born to Paul Romero and Leigh Anne Drake.


title: Jordan Romero

text: Prior to climbing Everest, Romero had already climbed five of the seven highest peaks in the world in his desire to scale the tallest peaks on the seven continents (counting two for Oceania). He finished the seven summits with Mount Vinson in Antarctica at age 15. Before climbing Everest, Romero's highest peak was Aconcagua, in elevation. His group chose a northern route out of Tibet and carried a GPS tracking device and satellite phone. Along the way to the top, Romero conducted an interview from an intermediate base camp 18,700 feet above sea level. Upon reaching Mount Everest's summit, a Skype interview was accomplished and Romero also called his mother, who had been following the climb on a map which included GPS coordinates, pictures and video.


title: Jordan Romero

text: Before he climbed Mount Everest, there was some criticism over whether a 13-year-old boy should be allowed to attempt this. David Hillebrandt, medical adviser to the British Mountaineering Council, questioned whether Romero was mentally mature enough and then went on to say, "It is totally against the spirit of true mountaineering. This sounds like it's about mass marketing, money and it's verging on child abuse. Nowadays, people are effectively being winched up (the mountains), using ropes that Sherpas have put in for them. It will all be done for him (Romero). He's a token passenger." Because Nepal does not issue permits to people under 16 years of age, Romero and his team decided to climb from the Tibet side. On June 10, 2010, the Lhasa-based Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), the official channel through which climbers must apply for permission to attempt peaks in Tibet, announced future age restrictions for all those attempting Everest from the north.


title: Jordan Romero

text: After Romero climbed Mount Everest, he and Katherine Blanc wrote a book "The Boy Who Conquered Everest: The Jordan Romero Story". At the end of 2014 Romero with Linda LeBlanc wrote another book "No Summit out of Sight: The True Story of the Youngest Person to Climb the Seven Summits".


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" is a song performed by Journey, recorded for their album "Frontiers" and released as a single on January 5, 1983. It peaked at #8 for six consecutive weeks on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, and spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Top Tracks chart. The song is also well known for its use in the film "" and in season 4 of "Stranger Things".


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: To accompany the song on MTV, the band shot its first concept video. It was a difficult experience for a variety of reasons, and received mixed reviews from critics.


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: The song was written and composed in 1982 during the "Escape" tour. It is not certain exactly when it was first performed live. Some sources will claim that the first live performance of the song was in 1982 at the "Day on the Green" concert, where singer Steve Perry told the crowd, "We just wrote this song about two weeks ago." However, bootleg recordings exist of performances at least a month earlier at Chicago's Rosemont Horizon, where Perry also says the song was two weeks old.


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: There were some minor differences in the lyrics on this live debut compared to the final version found on "Frontiers." In a 2008 interview, guitarist Neal Schon recalled the first time it was played live:


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: "Usually we don't write songs that far in advance of an album," observed Jonathan Cain, the band's keyboardist, as Andy Secher, in his article "Adventures in Frontierland," published in the June 1983 issue of "Hit Parader" Magazine, quoted him. "But on that occasion, Steve [Perry] and I were just working an idea backstage and it all came together. He was working on a bass and I had a guitar, and we just worked out the melody that night and the lyrics the next afternoon. Sometimes you can get lucky and have a song fall together like that."


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: Schon said that the song was, like many other songs by the band, "Motown mixed with R&B and blues ... that's pretty much where 'Separate Ways' is coming from. It's got a heavier guitar than an R&B song, but I think that's what makes it sound like Journey."<br>Cain said the same thing in 1983:


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: The music video for "Separate Ways" was the first single for which the band shot a choreographed video: previous videos were performances that were taped and edited, expanded with "Faithfully" to include a montage of the band on tour shot by a crew from NFL Films. Steve Perry had been very opposed to making a choreographed video. "He'd always say, 'We're performers, we're entertainers, but we're not actors,'" recalled Cain. "And we were "not" a very photogenic band."


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: In the video, which used the shorter single version, the band performs the song while a young woman in a white jacket and black leather skirt walks along the wharf. At some points, Perry and the other members of the band perform right next to her, and seem to be singing to her, but she remains oblivious. In the ending, she is seen in a bed, wearing headphones. John Diaz, the producer, explains that the idea was that she had dreamed the video after falling asleep while listening to the song. "Our concepts were so inane."


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: The video was directed by Tom Buckholtz and featured the band playing at the Louisa Street Wharf in New Orleans.


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: The video is now infamous for the scenes where the band is pretending to play non-existent instruments, although they do also play their real instruments (including Cain playing his Roland Jupiter-8 "up-the-wall"). It features over 50 camera moves with choreography by Columbia Records Art and Creative Services.


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: It was reported that on the first day of shooting, there was a cold breeze coming off the Mississippi River next to the wharf. This made filming all the more difficult on the band and Perry, who was seen retreating to his camper to keep warm. This state of affairs was complicated by the presence of Perry's then-girlfriend, Sherrie Swafford, on the set. Not only had the band been told that they could not bring wives or girlfriends to the shoot, the other members hated Swafford and her effect on Perry, which created considerable tension. She was reportedly very jealous of the young woman in the video, local model Margaret Olmstead. She kept demanding Olmstead be taken out of it. "There was a big kicking and screaming session," Cain recalled later. "Sherrie was giving Steve a very bad time about that girl." Perry had also just gotten his hair cut short, which Cain found inexplicable since the singer's previous hairstyle had been "rockin'."


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: "Here's a band at their commercial peak," says Adam Dubin, director of many well-received videos, "and some idiot decided to film them on a wharf and--here's the worst part--instead of giving them instruments, let them mime playing imaginary instruments. The director should be shot. And the manager should be shot for allowing his band to be put in this position."


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: A decade later, it was heavily criticized by "Beavis and Butt-Head," both voiced by Mike Judge, who opined that the video "sucks" and was "horrible," and ridiculed Perry and Schon's fashion sense. This greatly upset Cain, since he felt Journey's videos had helped make MTV. He called the band's manager repeatedly to ask how they could stop the channel from reairing the segment. In 1999 MTV chose it as 13th on its list of the 25 Worst Videos of All Time.


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: "I'm at a loss to explain that video," said Cain. "I will never live down those air keyboards. No matter what else I've done in my career, sooner or later people find a way to ask me about the 'Separate Ways' video."


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: The video is a popular video to make shot-by-shot recreations of. During the COVID-19 epidemic, a family made a recreation of the Journey video that quickly became popular.


title: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

text: For the fourth season of the TV series "Stranger Things", which has used songs from the 1980s on its soundtrack, Bryce Miller and Alloy Tracks remixed the song. A fan of the show, Steve Perry heard the remix and told Miller and Troy MacCubbin how much he liked it. Perry told "Variety", "I was stunned at how cool it was." Soon after that Perry suggested an extended version which he worked on with Miller.


title: Crystal ball

text: A crystal ball, also known as an orbuculum or crystal sphere, is a crystal or glass ball and common fortune-telling object. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying in particular.


title: Crystal ball

text: In more recent times, the crystal ball has been used for creative photography with the term lensball commonly used to describe a crystal ball used as a photography prop.


title: Crystal ball

text: In the first century CE, Pliny the Elder describes use of crystal balls by soothsayers (""crystallum orbis"", later written in Medieval Latin by scribes as "orbuculum"). By the fifth century CE, scrying was widespread within the Roman Empire and was condemned by the early medieval Christian Church as heretical.


title: Crystal ball

text: Dr. John Dee was a noted British mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy, of which the use of crystal balls was often included.


title: Crystal ball

text: Crystal gazing was a popular pastime in the Victorian era, and was claimed to work best when the Sun is at its northernmost declination. Immediately before the appearance of a vision, the ball was said to mist up from within.


title: Crystal ball

text: The art or process of "seeing" is known as "scrying", whereby images are claimed to be seen in crystals, or other media such as water, and are interpreted as meaningful information. The "information" gleaned then is used to make important decisions in one's life (i.e. love, marriage, finances, travel, business, etc.).


title: Crystal ball

text: When the technique of scrying is used with crystals, or any transparent body, it is known as crystallomancy or crystal gazing.


title: Crystal ball

text: Crystal balls are popular props used in mentalism acts by stage magicians. Such routines, in which the performer answers audience questions by means of various ruses, are known as crystal gazing acts. One of the most famous performers of the 20th century, Claude Alexander, was often billed as "Alexander the Crystal Seer".


title: Crystal ball

text: A crystal ball is essentially a bi-convex spherical lens with a uniform radius of curvature, although without its edges and center material truncated as in a conventional lens construction. Thus the principles of optics may be applied to analyze its imaging characteristics.


title: Crystal ball

text: As a lens, a transparent sphere of any material with refractive index greater than one bends rays of light to a focal point. An image is formed with significant coma, field curvature, and other optical aberrations inherent to spherical lenses. The refractive index of typical materials used for crystal balls (quartz: 1.46, window glass: 1.52), produces a central focal point just outside the surface of the sphere, on the side diametrically opposite to where the rays entered.


title: Crystal ball

text: For materials with refractive index greater than 2, the focus will be located inside the sphere. In this case the image is not directly accessible, while the closest accessible point is on its surface directly opposite the source of light. However, few materials have a refractive index this high. For a refractive index of 2, the image forms on the surface of the sphere, and the image may be viewed on an translucent object or diffusing coating on the imaging side of the sphere.


title: Crystal ball

text: Since a crystal ball has no edges like a conventional lens, the image-forming properties are omnidirectional (independent of the direction being imaged). This effect is exploited in the Campbell–Stokes recorder, a scientific instrument which records the brightness of sunlight by burning the surface of a paper card bent around the sphere. The device, itself fixed, records the apparent motion and intensity of the sun across the sky, burning an image of the sun's motion across the card.


title: Crystal ball

text: The omnidirectional burning glass effect can occur with a crystal ball that is brought into full sunlight. The image of the sun formed by a large crystal ball will burn a hand that is holding it, and can ignite dark-coloured flammable material placed near it.


title: Crystal ball

text: A crystal ball lies in the Sceptre of Scotland that is said to have been originally possessed by pagan druids.


title: Crystal ball

text: Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (also called "Penn Museum" for short) displays the third largest crystal ball as the central object in its Chinese Rotunda. Weighing 49 pounds, the sphere is made of quartz crystal from Burma and was shaped through years of constant rotation in a semi-cylindrical container filled with emery, garnet powder, and water. The ornamental treasure was purportedly made for the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) during the Qing dynasty in the 19th century, but no evidence as to its actual origins exists.


title: Crystal ball

text: In 1988, the crystal ball and an ancient Egyptian statuette which depicted the god Osiris were stolen from the Penn Museum but were recovered three years later with no damage done to either object.


title: Crystal ball

text: A crystal ball was among the grave-goods of the Merovingian King, Childeric I, who lived c. 437 - 481 AD. The grave-goods were discovered in 1653. In 1831, they were stolen from the royal library in France where they were being kept. Few items were ever recovered. The crystal ball was not among them.


title: History of Asia

text: The history of Asia can be seen as the collective history of several distinct peripheral coastal regions such as East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe. See History of the Middle East and History of the Indian Subcontinent for further details.


title: History of Asia

text: The coastal periphery was the home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations and religions, with each of the three regions developing early civilizations around fertile river valleys. These valleys were fertile because the soil there was rich and could bear many root crops. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, India, and China shared many similarities and likely exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other notions such as that of writing likely developed individually in each area. Cities, states, and then empires developed in these lowlands.


title: History of Asia

text: The steppe region had long been inhabited by mounted nomads, and from the central steppes, they could reach all areas of the Asian continent. The northern part of the continent, covering much of Siberia was also inaccessible to the steppe nomads due to the dense forests and the tundra. These areas in Siberia were very sparsely populated.


title: History of Asia

text: The centre and periphery were kept separate by mountains and deserts. The Caucasus, Himalaya, Karakum Desert, and Gobi Desert formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could only cross with difficulty. While technologically and culturally the city dwellers were more advanced, they could do little militarily to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force. Thus the nomads who conquered states in the Middle East were soon forced to adapt to the local societies.


title: History of Asia

text: The spread of Islam waved the Islamic Golden Age and the Timurid Renaissance, which later influenced the age of Islamic gunpowder empires.


title: History of Asia

text: Asia's history features major developments seen in other parts of the world, as well as events that have affected those other regions. These include the trade of the Silk Road, which spread cultures, languages, religions, and diseases throughout Afro-Eurasian trade. Another major advancement was the innovation of gunpowder in medieval China, later developed by the Gunpowder empires, mainly by the Mughals and Safavids, which led to advanced warfare through the use of guns.


title: History of Asia

text: A report by archaeologist Rakesh Tewari on Lahuradewa, India shows new C14 datings that range between 9000 and 8000 BCE associated with rice, making Lahuradewa the earliest Neolithic site in entire South Asia.Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus River alluvium approximately 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE.


title: History of Asia

text: Göbekli Tepe is a Neolithic site in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, between 9500 and 8000 BCE, the site comprises a number of large circular structures supported by massive stone pillars – the world's oldest known megaliths.


title: History of Asia

text: The prehistoric Beifudi site near Yixian in Hebei Province, China, contains relics of a culture contemporaneous with the Cishan and Xinglongwa cultures of about 8000–7000 BCE, neolithic cultures east of the Taihang Mountains, filling in an archaeological gap between the two Northern Chinese cultures. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square meters and the collection of neolithic findings at the site consists of two phases.


title: History of Asia

text: Around 5500 BCE the Halafian culture appeared in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Anatolia, and northern Mesopotamia, based upon dryland agriculture.


title: History of Asia

text: In southern Mesopotamia were the alluvial plains of Sumer and Elam. Since there was little rainfall, irrigation systems were necessary. The Ubaid culture flourished from 5500 BCE.


title: History of Asia

text: The Chalcolithic period (or Copper Age) began about 4500 BCE, then the Bronze Age began about 3500 BCE, replacing the Neolithic cultures.


title: History of Asia

text: The Indus Valley civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) which was centered mostly in the western part of the Indian Subcontinent; it is considered that an early form of Hinduism was performed during this civilization. Some of the great cities of this civilization include Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, which had a high level of town planning and arts. The cause of the destruction of these regions around 1700 BCE is debatable, although evidence suggests it was caused by natural disasters (especially flooding). This era marks Vedic period in India, which lasted from roughly 1500 to 500 BCE. During this period, the Sanskrit language developed and the Vedas were written, epic hymns that told tales of gods and wars. This was the basis for the Vedic religion, which would eventually sophisticate and develop into Hinduism.


title: History of Asia

text: China and Vietnam were also centres of metalworking. Dating back to the Neolithic Age, the first bronze drums, called the Dong Son drums have been uncovered in and around the Red River Delta regions of Vietnam and Southern China. These relate to the prehistoric Dong Son Culture of Vietnam.


title: History of Asia

text: In Nyaunggan, Burma bronze tools have been excavated along with ceramics and stone artifacts. Dating is still currently broad (3500–500 BCE).


title: History of Asia

text: The Iron Age saw the widespread use of iron tools, weaponry, and armor throughout the major civilizations of Asia.


title: History of Asia

text: The Achaemenid dynasty of the Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, ruled an area from Greece and Turkey to the Indus River and Central Asia during the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. Persian politics included a tolerance for other cultures, a highly centralized government, and significant infrastructure developments. Later, in Darius the Great's rule, the territories were integrated, a bureaucracy was developed, nobility were assigned military positions, tax collection was carefully organized, and spies were used to ensure the loyalty of regional officials. The primary religion of Persia at this time was Zoroastrianism, developed by the philosopher Zoroaster. It introduced an early form of monotheism to the area. The religion banned animal sacrifice and the use of intoxicants in rituals; and introduced the concept of spiritual salvation through personal moral action, an end time, and both general and Particular judgment with a heaven or hell. These concepts would heavily influence later emperors and the masses. More importantly, Zoroastrianism would be an important precursor for the Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. The Persian Empire was successful in establishing peace and stability throughout the Middle East and were a major influence in art, politics (affecting Hellenistic leaders), and religion.


title: History of Asia

text: Alexander the Great conquered this dynasty in the 4th century BCE, creating the brief Hellenistic period. He was unable to establish stability and after his death, Persia broke into small, weak dynasties including the Seleucid Empire, followed by the Parthian Empire. By the end of the Classical age, Persia had been reconsolidated into the Sassanid Empire, also known as the second Persian Empire.


title: History of Asia

text: The Roman Empire would later control parts of Western Asia. The Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanid dynasties of Persia dominated Western Asia for centuries.


title: History of Asia

text: The Maurya and Gupta empires are called the Golden Age of India and were marked by extensive inventions and discoveries in science, technology, art, religion, and philosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as Indian culture. The religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, which began in Indian sub-continent, were an important influence on South, East and Southeast Asia.


title: History of Asia

text: By 600 BCE, India had been divided into 17 regional states that would occasionally feud amongst themselves. In 327 BCE, Alexander the Great came to India with a vision of conquering the whole world. He crossed northwestern India and created the province Bactria but could not move further because his army wanted to go back to their family. Shortly prior, the soldier Chandragupta Maurya began to take control of the Ganges river and soon established the Maurya Empire. The Maurya Empire (Sanskrit: मौर्य राजवंश, Maurya Rājavaṃśa) was the geographically extensive and powerful empire in ancient India, ruled by the Mauryan dynasty from 321 to 185 BCE. It was one of the world's largest empires in its time, stretching to the Himalayas in the north, what is now Assam in the east, probably beyond modern Pakistan in the west, and annexing Balochistan and much of what is now Afghanistan, at its greatest extent. South of Mauryan empire was the Tamilakam an independent country dominated by three dynasties, the Pandyans, Cholas and Cheras. The government established by Chandragupta was led by an autocratic king, who primarily relied on the military to assert his power. It also applied the use of a bureaucracy and even sponsored a postal service. Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka, greatly extended the empire by conquering most of modern-day India (save for the southern tip). He eventually converted to Buddhism, though, and began a peaceful life where he promoted the religion as well as humane methods throughout India. The Maurya Empire would disintegrate soon after Ashoka's death and was conquered by the Kushan invaders from the northwest, establishing the Kushan Empire. Their conversion to Buddhism caused the religion to be associated with foreigners and therefore a decline in its popularity occurred.


title: History of Asia

text: The Kushan Empire would fall apart by 220 CE, creating more political turmoil in India. Then in 320, the Gupta Empire (Sanskrit: गुप्त राजवंश, Gupta Rājavanśha) was established and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. Founded by Maharaja Sri-Gupta, the dynasty was the model of a classical civilization. Gupta kings united the area primarily through negotiation of local leaders and families as well as strategical intermarriage. Their rule covered less land than the Maurya Empire, but established the greatest stability. In 535, the empire ended when India was overrun by the Hunas.


title: History of Asia

text: Since 1029 BCE, the Zhou dynasty ( ), had existed in China and it would continue to until 258 BCE. The Zhou dynasty had been using a feudal system by giving power to local nobility and relying on their loyalty in order to control its large territory. As a result, the Chinese government at this time tended to be very decentralized and weak, and there was often little the emperor could do to resolve national issues. Nonetheless, the government was able to retain its position with the creation of the Mandate of Heaven, which could establish an emperor as divinely chosen to rule. The Zhou additionally discouraged the human sacrifice of the preceding eras and unified the Chinese language. Finally, the Zhou government encouraged settlers to move into the Yangtze River valley, thus creating the Chinese Middle Kingdom.


title: History of Asia

text: But by 500 BCE, its political stability began to decline due to repeated nomadic incursions and internal conflict derived from the fighting princes and families. This was lessened by the many philosophical movements, starting with the life of Confucius. His philosophical writings (called Confucianism) concerning the respect of elders and of the state would later be popularly used in the Han dynasty. Additionally, Laozi's concepts of Taoism, including yin and yang and the innate duality and balance of nature and the universe, became popular throughout this period. Nevertheless, the Zhou dynasty eventually disintegrated as the local nobles began to gain more power and their conflict devolved into the Warring States period, from 402 to 201 BCE.


title: History of Asia

text: One leader eventually came on top, Qin Shi Huang (, "Shǐ Huángdì"), who overthrew the last Zhou emperor and established the Qin dynasty. The Qin dynasty (Chinese: 秦朝; pinyin: Qín Cháo) was the first ruling dynasty of Imperial China, lasting from 221 to 207 BCE. The new Emperor abolished the feudal system and directly appointed a bureaucracy that would rely on him for power. Huang's imperial forces crushed any regional resistance, and they furthered the Chinese empire by expanding down to the South China Sea and northern Vietnam. Greater organization brought a uniform tax system, a national census, regulated road building (and cart width), standard measurements, standard coinage, and an official written and spoken language. Further reforms included new irrigation projects, the encouragement of silk manufacturing, and (most famously) the beginning of the construction of the Great Wall of China—designed to keep out the nomadic raiders who'd constantly badger the Chinese people. However, Shi Huang was infamous for his tyranny, forcing laborers to build the Wall, ordering heavy taxes, and severely punishing all who opposed him. He oppressed Confucians and promoted Legalism, the idea that people were inherently evil, and that a strong, forceful government was needed to control them. Legalism was infused with realistic, logical views and rejected the pleasures of educated conversation as frivolous. All of this made Shi Huang extremely unpopular with the people. As the Qin began to weaken, various factions began to fight for control of China.


title: History of Asia

text: The Han dynasty (simplified Chinese: 汉朝; traditional Chinese: 漢朝; pinyin: Hàn Cháo; 206 BCE – 220 CE) was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms (220–265 CE). Spanning over four centuries, the period of the Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history. One of the Han dynasty's greatest emperors, Emperor Wu of Han, established a peace throughout China comparable to the Pax Romana seen in the Mediterranean a hundred years later. To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to itself as the "Han people". The Han dynasty was established when two peasants succeeded in rising up against Shi Huang's significantly weaker successor-son. The new Han government retained the centralization and bureaucracy of the Qin, but greatly reduced the repression seen before. They expanded their territory into Korea, Vietnam, and Central Asia, creating an even larger empire than the Qin.


title: History of Asia

text: The Han developed contacts with the Persian Empire in the Middle East and the Romans, through the Silk Road, with which they were able to trade many commodities—primarily silk. Many ancient civilizations were influenced by the Silk Road, which connected China, India, the Middle East and Europe. Han emperors like Wu also promoted Confucianism as the national "religion" (although it is debated by theologians as to whether it is defined as such or as a philosophy). Shrines devoted to Confucius were built and Confucian philosophy was taught to all scholars who entered the Chinese bureaucracy. The bureaucracy was further improved with the introduction of an examination system that selected scholars of high merit. These bureaucrats were often upper-class people educated in special schools, but whose power was often checked by the lower-class brought into the bureaucracy through their skill. The Chinese imperial bureaucracy was very effective and highly respected by all in the realm and would last over 2,000 years. The Han government was highly organized and it commanded the military, judicial law (which used a system of courts and strict laws), agricultural production, the economy, and the general lives of its people. The government also promoted intellectual philosophy, scientific research, and detailed historical records.


title: History of Asia

text: However, despite all of this impressive stability, central power began to lose control by the turn of the Common Era. As the Han dynasty declined, many factors continued to pummel it into submission until China was left in a state of chaos. By 100 CE, philosophical activity slowed, and corruption ran rampant in the bureaucracy. Local landlords began to take control as the scholars neglected their duties, and this resulted in heavy taxation of the peasantry. Taoists began to gain significant ground and protested the decline. They started to proclaim magical powers and promised to save China with them; the Taoist Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 (led by rebels in yellow scarves) failed but was able to weaken the government. The aforementioned Huns combined with diseases killed up to half of the population and officially ended the Han dynasty by 220. The ensuing period of chaos was so terrible it lasted for three centuries, where many weak regional rulers and dynasties failed to establish order in China. This period of chaos and attempts at order is commonly known as that of the Six Dynasties. The first part of this included the Three Kingdoms which started in 220 and describes the brief and weak successor "dynasties" that followed the Han. In 265, the Jin dynasty of China was started and this soon split into two different empires in control of northwestern and southeastern China. In 420, the conquest and abdication of those two dynasties resulted in the first of the Southern and Northern dynasties. The Northern and Southern dynasties passed through until finally, by 557, the Northern Zhou dynasty ruled the north and the Chen dynasty ruled the south.


title: History of Asia

text: During this period, the Eastern world empires continued to expand through trade, migration and conquests of neighboring areas. Gunpowder was widely used as early as the 11th century and they were using moveable type printing five hundred years before Gutenberg created his press. Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism were the dominant philosophies of the Far East during the Middle Ages. Marco Polo was not the first Westerner to travel to the Orient and return with amazing stories of this different culture, but his accounts published in the late 13th and early 14th centuries were the first to be widely read throughout Europe.


title: History of Asia

text: The Arabian peninsula and the surrounding Middle East and Near East regions saw dramatic change during the Medieval era caused primarily by the spread of Islam and the establishment of the Arabian Empires.


title: History of Asia

text: In the 5th century, the Middle East was separated into small, weak states; the two most prominent were the Sassanian Empire of the Persians in what is now Iran and Iraq, and the Byzantine Empire in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The Byzantines and Sassanians fought with each other continually, a reflection of the rivalry between the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire seen during the previous five hundred years. The fighting weakened both states, leaving the stage open to a new power. Meanwhile, the nomadic Bedouin tribes who dominated the Arabian desert saw a period of tribal stability, greater trade networking and a familiarity with Abrahamic religions or monotheism.


title: History of Asia

text: While the Byzantine Roman and Sassanid Persian empires were both weakened by the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, a new power in the form of Islam grew in the Middle East under Muhammad in Medina. In a series of rapid Muslim conquests, the Rashidun army, led by the Caliphs and skilled military commanders such as Khalid ibn al-Walid, swept through most of the Middle East, taking more than half of Byzantine territory in the Arab–Byzantine wars and completely engulfing Persia in the Muslim conquest of Persia. It would be the Arab Caliphates of the Middle Ages that would first unify the entire Middle East as a distinct region and create the dominant ethnic identity that persists today. These Caliphates included the Rashidun Caliphate, Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, and later the Seljuq Empire.


title: History of Asia

text: After Muhammad introduced Islam, it jump-started Middle Eastern culture into an Islamic Golden Age, inspiring achievements in architecture, the revival of old advances in science and technology, and the formation of a distinct way of life. Muslims saved and spread Greek advances in medicine, algebra, geometry, astronomy, anatomy, and ethics that would later finds it way back to Western Europe.


title: History of Asia

text: The dominance of the Arabs came to a sudden end in the mid-11th century with the arrival of the Seljuq Turks, migrating south from the Turkic homelands in Central Asia. They conquered Persia, Iraq (capturing Baghdad in 1055), Syria, Palestine, and the Hejaz. This was followed by a series of Christian Western Europe invasions. The fragmentation of the Middle East allowed joined forces, mainly from England, France, and the emerging Holy Roman Empire, to enter the region. In 1099 the knights of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and founded the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which survived until 1187, when Saladin retook the city. Smaller crusader fiefdoms survived until 1291. In the early 13th century, a new wave of invaders, the armies of the Mongol Empire, swept through the region, sacking Baghdad in the Siege of Baghdad (1258) and advancing as far south as the border of Egypt in what became known as the Mongol conquests. The Mongols eventually retreated in 1335, but the chaos that ensued throughout the empire deposed the Seljuq Turks. In 1401, the region was further plagued by the Turko-Mongol, Timur, and his ferocious raids. By then, another group of Turks had arisen as well, the Ottomans.


title: History of Asia

text: The Mongol Empire conquered a large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area extending from China to Europe. Medieval Asia was the kingdom of the Khans. Never before had any person controlled as much land as Genghis Khan. He built his power unifying separate Mongol tribes before expanding his kingdom south and west. He and his grandson, Kublai Khan, controlled lands in China, Burma, Central Asia, Russia, Iran, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Genghis Khan was a Khagan who tolerated nearly every religion.


title: History of Asia

text: The Indian early medieval age, 600 to 1200, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity. When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan. When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal. When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south. The Cholas could under the rule of Raja Raja Chola defeat their rivals and rise to a regional power. Cholas expanded northward and defeated Eastern Chalukya, Kalinga and the Pala. Under Rajendra Chola the Cholas created the first notable navy of Indian subcontinent. The Chola navy extended the influence of Chola empire to southeast asia. During this time, pastoral peoples whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes.


title: History of Asia

text: The Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent mainly took place from the 12th century onwards, though earlier Muslim conquests include the limited inroads into modern Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Umayyad campaigns in India, during the time of the Rajput kingdoms in the 8th century.


title: History of Asia

text: Major economic and military powers like the Delhi Sultanate and Bengal Sultanate, were seen to be established. The search of their wealth led the Voyages of Christopher Columbus.


title: History of Asia

text: The Vijayanagara Empire based in the Deccan Plateau region of South India, was established in 1336 by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama dynasty, patronized by saint Vidyaranya, the 12th Shankaracharya of Sringeri in Karnataka. The empire rose to prominence as a result of attempts by the southern powers to resist and ward off Turkic Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. At its peak, it subjugated almost all of South India's rulers and pushed the sultans of the Deccan beyond the Tungabhadra-Krishna river region. After annexing modern day Odisha (ancient Kalinga) from the Gajapati Kingdom, became a notable power. The Kingdome lasted until 1646 after a major military defeat in the Battle of Talikota in 1565 by the combined armies of the Deccan sultanates.


title: History of Asia

text: China saw the rise and fall of the Sui, Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties and therefore improvements in its bureaucracy, the spread of Buddhism, and the advent of Neo-Confucianism. It was an unsurpassed era for Chinese ceramics and painting. Medieval architectural masterpieces the Great South Gate in Todaiji, Japan, and the Tien-ning Temple in Peking, China are some of the surviving constructs from this era.


title: History of Asia

text: A new powerful dynasty began to rise in the 580s, amongst the divided factions of China. This was started when an aristocrat named Yang Jian married his daughter into the Northern Zhou dynasty. He proclaimed himself Emperor Wen of Sui and appeased the nomadic military by abandoning the Confucian scholar-gentry. Emperor Wen soon led the conquest of the southern Chen dynasty and united China once more under the Sui dynasty. The emperor lowered taxes and constructed granaries that he used to prevent famine and control the market. Later Wen's son would murder him for the throne and declare himself Emperor Yang of Sui. Emperor Yang revived the Confucian scholars and the bureaucracy, much to anger of the aristocrats and nomadic military leaders. Yang became an excessive leader who overused China's resources for personal luxury and perpetuated exhaustive attempts to conquer Goguryeo. His military failures and neglect of the empire forced his own ministers to assassinate him in 618, ending the Sui dynasty.


title: History of Asia

text: Fortunately, one of Yang's most respectable advisors, Li Yuan, was able to claim the throne quickly, preventing a chaotic collapse. He proclaimed himself Emperor Gaozu, and established the Tang dynasty in 623. The Tang saw expansion of China through conquest to Tibet in the west, Vietnam in the south, and Manchuria in the north. Tang emperors also improved the education of scholars in the Chinese bureaucracy. A Ministry of Rites was established and the examination system was improved to better qualify scholars for their jobs. In addition, Buddhism became popular in China with two different strains between the peasantry and the elite, the Pure Land and Zen strains, respectively. Greatly supporting the spread of Buddhism was Empress Wu, who additionally claimed an unofficial "Zhou dynasty" and displayed China's tolerance of a woman ruler, which was rare at the time. However, Buddhism would also experience some backlash, especially from Confucianists and Taoists. This would usually involve criticism about how it was costing the state money, since the government was unable to tax Buddhist monasteries, and additionally sent many grants and gifts to them.


title: History of Asia

text: The Tang dynasty began to decline under the rule of Emperor Xuanzong, who began to neglect the economy and military and caused unrest amongst the court officials due to the excessive influence of his concubine, Yang Guifei, and her family. This eventually sparked a revolt in 755. Although the revolt failed, subduing it required involvement with the unruly nomadic tribes outside of China and distributing more power to local leaders—leaving the government and economy in a degraded state. The Tang dynasty officially ended in 907 and various factions led by the aforementioned nomadic tribes and local leaders would fight for control of China in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.


title: History of Asia

text: By 960, most of China proper had been reunited under the Song dynasty, although it lost territories in the north and could not defeat one of the nomadic tribes there—the Liao dynasty of the highly sinicized Khitan people. From then on, the Song would have to pay tribute to avoid invasion and thus set the precedent for other nomadic kingdoms to oppress them. The Song also saw the revival of Confucianism in the form of Neo-Confucianism. This had the effect of putting the Confucian scholars at a higher status than aristocrats or Buddhists and also intensified the reduction of power in women. The infamous practice of foot binding developed in this period as a result. Eventually the Liao dynasty in the north was overthrown by the Jin dynasty of the Manchu-related Jurchen people. The new Jin kingdom invaded northern China, leaving the Song to flee farther south and creating the Southern Song dynasty in 1126. There, cultural life flourished.


title: History of Asia

text: By 1227, the Mongols had conquered the Western Xia kingdom northwest of China. Soon the Mongols incurred upon the Jin empire of the Jurchens. Chinese cities were soon besieged by the Mongol hordes that showed little mercy for those who resisted and the Southern Song Chinese were quickly losing territory. In 1271 the current great khan, Kublai Khan, claimed himself Emperor of China and officially established the Yuan dynasty. By 1290, all of China was under control of the Mongols, marking the first time they were ever completely conquered by a foreign invader; the new capital was established at Khanbaliq (modern-day Beijing). Kublai Khan segregated Mongol culture from Chinese culture by discouraging interactions between the two peoples, separating living spaces and places of worship, and reserving top administrative positions to Mongols, thus preventing Confucian scholars to continue the bureaucratic system. Nevertheless, Kublai remained fascinated with Chinese thinking, surrounding himself with Chinese Buddhist, Taoist, or Confucian advisors.


title: History of Asia

text: Mongol women displayed a contrasting independent nature compared to the Chinese women who continued to be suppressed. Mongol women often rode out on hunts or even to war. Kublai's wife, Chabi, was a perfect example of this; Chabi advised her husband on several political and diplomatic matters; she convinced him that the Chinese were to be respected and well-treated in order to make them easier to rule. However, this was not enough to affect Chinese women's position, and the increasingly Neo-Confucian successors of Kublai further repressed Chinese and even Mongol women.


title: History of Asia

text: The Black Death, which would later ravage Western Europe, had its beginnings in Asia, where it wiped out large populations in China in 1331.


title: History of Asia

text: The three Kingdoms of Korea involves Goguryeo in north, Baekje in southwest, and Silla in southeast Korean peninsula. These three kingdoms act as a bridge of cultures between China and Japan. Thanks to them, Japan was able to accept Chinese splendid cultures. Prince Shōtoku of Japan had been taught by two teachers. One was from Baekje, the other was from Goguryeo. Once Japan invaded Silla, Goguryeo helped Silla to defeat Japan. Baekje met the earliest heyday of them. Its heyday was the 5th century AD. Its capital was Seoul. During its heyday, the kingdom made colonies overseas. Liaodong, China and Kyushu, Japan were the colonies of Baekje during its short heyday. Goguryeo was the strongest kingdom of all. They sometimes called themselves as an Empire. Its heyday was 6th century. King Gwanggaeto widened its territory to north. So Goguryeo dominated from Korean peninsula to Manchuria. And his son, King Jangsu widened its territory to south. He occupied Seoul, and moved its capital to Pyeongyang. Goguryeo almost occupied three quarters of South Korean peninsula thanks to king Jangsu who widened the kingdom's territory to south. Silla met the latest heyday. King Jinheung went north and occupiedSeoul. But it was short. Baekje became stronger and attacked Silla. Baekje occupied more than 40 cities of Silla. So Silla could hardly survive.


title: History of Asia

text: China's Sui dynasty invaded Goguryeo and Goguryeo–Sui War occurred between Korea and China. Goguryeo won against China and Sui dynasty fell. After then, Tang dynasty reinvaded Goguryeo and helped Silla to unify the peninsula. Goguryeo, Baekje, and Japan helped each other against Tang-Silla alliance, but Baekje and Goguryeo fell. Unfortunately, Tang dynasty betrayed Silla and invaded Korean peninsula in order to occupy the whole Korean peninsula (Silla-Tang war). Silla advocated 'Unification of Three Korea', so people of fallen Baekje and Goguryeo helped Silla against Chinese invasion. Eventually Silla could beat China and unified the peninsula. This war helped Korean people to unite mentally.


title: History of Asia

text: The rest of Goguryeo people established Balhae and won the war against Tang in later 7th century AD. Balhae is the north state, and Later Silla was the south state. Balhae was a quite strong kingdom as their ancestor Goguryeo did. Finally, the Emperor of Tang dynasty admits Balhae as 'A strong country in the East'. They liked to trade with Japan, China, and Silla. Balhae and Later Silla sent a lot of international students to China. And Arabian merchants came into Korean peninsula, so Korea became known as 'Silla' in the western countries. Silla improved Korean writing system called Idu letters. Idu affected Katakana of Japan. Liao dynasty invaded Balhae in early 10th century, so Balhae fell.


title: History of Asia

text: The unified Korean kingdom, Later Silla divided into three kingdoms again because of the corrupt central government. It involves Later Goguryeo (also as known as "Taebong"), Later Baekje, and Later Silla. The general of Later Goguryeo, Wang Geon took the throne and changed the name of kingdom into Goryeo, which was derived by the ancient strong kingdom, Goguryeo, and Goryeo reunified the peninsula.


title: History of Asia

text: Goryeo reunited the Korean peninsula during the later three kingdoms period and named itself as 'Empire'. But nowadays, Goryeo is known as a kingdom. The name 'Goryeo' was derived from Goguryeo, and the name Korea was derived from Goryeo. Goryeo adopted people from fallen Balhae. They also widened their territory to north by defending Liao dynasty and attacking the Jurchen people. Goryeo developed a splendid culture. The first metal type printed book Jikji was also from Korea. The Goryeo ware is one of the most famous legacies of this kingdom. Goryeo imported Chinese government system and developed into their own ways.


title: History of Asia

text: During this period, laws were codified and a civil service system was introduced. Buddhism flourished and spread throughout the peninsula. The Tripitaka Koreana is 81,258 books total. It was made to keep Korea safe against the Mongolian invasion. It is now a UNESCO world heritage. Goryeo won the battle against Liao dynasty. Then, the Mongolian Empire invaded Goryeo. Goryeo did not disappear but it had to obey Mongolians. After 80 years, in 14th century, the Mongolian dynasty Yuan lost power, King Gongmin tried to free themselves against Mongol although his wife was also Mongolian. At the 14th century, Ming dynasty wanted Goryeo to obey China. But Goryeo didn't. They decided to invade China. Going to China, the general of Goryeo, Lee Sung-Gae came back and destroyed Goryeo. Then, in 1392, he established new dynasty, Joseon. And he became Taejo of Joseon, which means the first king of Joseon.


title: History of Asia

text: Japan's medieval history began with the Asuka period, from around 600 to 710. The time was characterized by the Taika Reform and imperial centralization, both of which were a direct result of growing Chinese contact and influences. In 603, Prince Shōtoku of the Yamato dynasty began significant political and cultural changes. He issued the Seventeen-article constitution in 604, centralizing power towards the emperor (under the title "tenno", or heavenly sovereign) and removing the power to levy taxes from provincial lords. Shōtoku was also a patron of Buddhism and he encouraged building temples competitively.


title: History of Asia

text: Shōtoku's reforms transitioned Japan to the Nara period (c. 710 to c. 794), with the moving of the Japanese capital to Nara in Honshu. This period saw the culmination of Chinese-style writing, etiquette, and architecture in Japan along with Confucian ideals to supplement the already present Buddhism. Peasants revered both Confucian scholars and Buddhist monks. However, in the wake of the 735–737 Japanese smallpox epidemic, Buddhism gained the status of state religion and the government ordered the construction of numerous Buddhist temples, monasteries, and statues. The lavish spending combined with the fact that many aristocrats did not pay taxes, put a heavy burden on peasantry that caused poverty and famine. Eventually the Buddhist position got out of control, threatening to seize imperial power and causing Emperor Kanmu to move the capital to Heian-kyō to avoid a Buddhist takeover. This marked the beginning of the Heian period and the end of Taika reform.


title: History of Asia

text: With the Heian period (from 794 to 1185) came a decline of imperial power. Chinese influence also declined, as a result of its correlation with imperial centralization and the heavenly mandate, which came to be regarded as ineffective. By 838, the Japanese court discontinued its embassies in China; only traders and Buddhist monks continued to travel to China. Buddhism itself came to be considered more Japanese than Chinese, and persisted to be popular in Japan. Buddhists monks and monasteries continued their attempts to gather personal power in courts, along with aristocrats. One particular noble family that dominated influence in the imperial bureaucracy was the Fujiwara clan. During this time cultural life in the imperial court flourished. There was a focus on beauty and social interaction and writing and literature was considered refined. Noblewomen were cultured the same as noblemen, dabbling in creative works and politics. A prime example of both Japanese literature and women's role in high-class culture at this time was "The Tale of Genji", written by the lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. Popularization of wooden palaces and shōji sliding doors amongst the nobility also occurred.


title: History of Asia

text: Loss of imperial power also led to the rise of provincial warrior elites. Small lords began to function independently. They administered laws, supervised public works projects, and collected revenue for themselves instead of the imperial court. Regional lords also began to build their own armies. These warriors were loyal only their local lords and not the emperor, although the imperial government increasingly called them in to protect the capital. The regional warrior class developed into the samurai, which created its own culture: including specialized weapons such as the katana and a form of chivalry, bushido. The imperial government's loss of control in the second half of the Heian period allowed banditry to grow, requiring both feudal lords and Buddhist monasteries to procure warriors for protection. As imperial control over Japan declined, feudal lords also became more independent and seceded from the empire. These feudal states squandered the peasants living in them, reducing the farmers to an almost serfdom status. Peasants were also rigidly restricted from rising to the samurai class, being physically set off by dress and weapon restrictions. As a result of their oppression, many peasants turned to Buddhism as a hope for reward in the afterlife for upright behavior.


title: History of Asia

text: With the increase of feudalism, families in the imperial court began to depend on alliances with regional lords. The Fujiwara clan declined from power, replaced by a rivalry between the Taira clan and the Minamoto clan. This rivalry grew into the Genpei War in the early 1180s. This war saw the use of both samurai and peasant soldiers. For the samurai, battle was ritual and they often easily cut down the poorly trained peasantry. The Minamoto clan proved successful due to their rural alliances. Once the Taira was destroyed, the Minamoto established a military government called the shogunate (or bakufu), centered in Kamakura.


title: History of Asia

text: The end of the Genpei War and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate marked the end of the Heian period and the beginning of the Kamakura period in 1185, solidifying feudal Japan.


title: History of Asia

text: In 802, Jayavarman II consolidated his rule over neighboring peoples and declared himself chakravartin, or "universal ruler". The Khmer Empire effectively dominated all Mainland Southeast Asia from the early 9th until the 15th century, during which time they developed a sophisticated monumental architecture of most exquisite expression and mastery of composition at Angkor.


title: History of Asia

text: The history of Vietnam can be traced back to around 20,000 years ago, as the first modern humans arrived and settled on this land, known as the Hoabinhians, which can be traced back to the modern-day Negritos. Archaeological findings from 1965, which are still under research, show the remains of two hominins closely related to the Sinanthropus, dating as far back as the Middle Pleistocene era, roughly half a million years ago.[1]


title: History of Asia

text: Pre-historic Vietnam was home to some of the world's earliest civilizations and societies—making them one of the world's first people who had practiced agriculture.[2][3] The Red River valley formed a natural geographic and economic unit, bounded to the north and west by mountains and jungles, to the east by the sea and to the south by the Red River Delta.[4] The need to have a single authority to prevent floods of the Red River, to cooperate in constructing hydraulic systems, trade exchange, and to repel invaders, led to the creation of the first legendary Vietnamese states approximately 2879 BC. While in the later times, ongoing research from archaeologists have suggested that the Vietnamese Đông Sơn culture were traceable back to Northern Vietnam, Guangxi and Laos around 700 BC.[5][6][7]


title: History of Asia

text: Vietnam's long coastal and narrowed lands, rugged mountainous terrains, with two major deltas, were soon home to several different ancient cultures and civilizations. In the north, the Dongsonian culture and its indigenous chiefdoms of Van Lang and Au Lac started to flourish by 500 BC. In Central, Sa Huynh culture of Austronesian Chamic peoples also thrived. Both were swept by the Chinese Han dynasty expansion from the north - the Han conquest of Nanyue brought parts of Vietnam under the Chinese rule in 111 BC. Traditional Chinese became the official language as well as the later developed independent Nôm script of Vietnamese.


title: History of Asia

text: In 40 BC, the Trưng Sisters led the first uprising of indigenous tribes and peoples against Chinese domination. The rebellion was however defeated, but as the Han dynasty began to weaken by late 2nd century and China (中国) started to descend into state of turmoil, the indigenous peoples of Vietnam rose again and some became free. In 192 AD, the Cham of Central Vietnam revolted against the Chinese and subsequently became independent kingdom of Champa, while the Red River Delta saw loosening Northern control. At that time, with the introduction of Buddhism and Hinduism by the second century AD, Vietnam was the first place in Southeast Asia which shared influences of both Indian and Sino cultures, and the rise of first Indianized kingdoms Champa and Funan.


title: History of Asia

text: During these 1,000 years there were many uprisings against Sino domination, and at certain periods Vietnam was independently governed under the Trưng Sisters, Early Lý, Khúc and Dương Đình Nghệ—although their triumphs and reigns were temporary.


title: History of Asia

text: When Ngô Quyền (King of Vietnam, 938–944) restored sovereign power in the country with the victory at the battle of Bach Dang River, the next millennium was advanced by the accomplishments of successive local dynasties: Ngô, Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, Trần, Hồ, Later Trần, Later Lê, Mạc, Trịnh, Nguyễn, Tây Sơn and again Nguyễn. Nôm script of the Vietnamese started to develop and become more sophisticated, with literature being published and written in Nôm. At various points during the imperial dynasties, Vietnam was ravaged and divided by civil wars and witnessed interventions by the Song, Yuan, Cham, Ming, Siamese, Qing, French, and Imperial Japan.


title: History of Asia

text: The Ming Empire conquered the Red River valley for a while before native Vietnamese regained control and the French Empire reduced Vietnam to a French dependency for nearly a century, followed by brief but brutal occupation by the Japanese Empire. During the French period, widespread brutality, inequality and cultural remnants of Hán-Nôm were being destroyed, with the French wishing to rid the Vietnamese of their Confucian legacy from the 1880s. French was the official language during this period. The Vietnamese Latin script, seen to be a Latin transliteration of Hán-Nôm, superseded the Hán-Nôm logographic scripts and became the main mode of written as well as spoken language since the 20th century.


title: History of Asia

text: Japan invaded in 1940, creating deep resentment that fuelled resistance to post-World War II military-political efforts by the returning power of France, and the US who had viewed themselves as fighters for liberty and democracy against the red waves of communism.[8][9] In the Vietnamese Proxy War, the US or the Western Bloc supported South Vietnam and the Soviet Union or the Communist Bloc supported North Vietnam. Political upheaval, a period of intense fighting and war, followed by Communist insurrection and victory further put an end to the monarchy after World War II, and the country was proclaimed a communist Socialist Republic. Vietnam suffered heavy sanctions as well as political and economic isolation following brutal wars with China and Cambodia in the successive years. Following that era, the Đổi Mới (renovation/innovation) reformations were enacted. The forces of market liberalisation and globalisation has shaped Vietnam's economic and political circumstances since.


title: History of Asia

text: The Russian Empire began to expand into Asia from the 17th century, and would eventually take control of all of Siberia and most of Central Asia by the end of the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire controlled Anatolia, the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans from the 16th century onwards. In the 17th century, the Manchu conquered China and established the Qing dynasty. In the 16th century, the Mughal Empire controlled much of India and initiated the second golden age for India. China was the largest economy in the world for much of the time, followed by India until the 18th century.


title: History of Asia

text: By 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang had claimed himself Hongwu Emperor and established the Ming dynasty of China. Immediately, the new emperor and his followers drove the Mongols and their culture out of China and beyond the Great Wall. The new emperor was somewhat suspicious of the scholars that dominated China's bureaucracy, for he had been born a peasant and was uneducated. Nevertheless, Confucian scholars were necessary to China's bureaucracy and were reestablished as well as reforms that would improve the exam systems and make them more important in entering the bureaucracy than ever before. The exams became more rigorous, cut down harshly on cheating, and those who excelled were more highly appraised. Finally, Hongwu also directed more power towards the role of emperor so as to end the corrupt influences of the bureaucrats.


title: History of Asia

text: The Hongwu emperor, perhaps for his sympathy of the common-folk, had built many irrigation systems and other public projects that provided help for the peasant farmers. They were also allowed to cultivate and claim unoccupied land without having to pay any taxes and labor demands were lowered. However, none of this was able to stop the rising landlord class that gained many privileges from the government and slowly gained control of the peasantry. Moneylenders foreclosed on peasant debt in exchange for mortgages and bought up farmer land, forcing them to become the landlords' tenants or to wander elsewhere for work. Also during this time, Neo-Confucianism intensified even more than the previous two dynasties (the Song and Yuan). Focus on the superiority of elders over youth, men over women, and teachers over students resulted in minor discrimination of the "inferior" classes. The fine arts grew in the Ming era, with improved techniques in brush painting that depicted scenes of court, city or country life; people such as scholars or travelers; or the beauty of mountains, lakes, or marshes. The Chinese novel fully developed in this era, with such classics written such as "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", and "Jin Ping Mei".


title: History of Asia

text: Economics grew rapidly in the Ming dynasty as well. The introduction of American crops such as maize, sweet potatoes, and peanuts allowed for cultivation of crops in infertile land and helped prevent famine. The population boom that began in the Song dynasty accelerated until China's population went from 80 or 90 million to 150 million in three centuries, culminating in 1600. This paralleled the market economy that was growing both internally and externally. Silk, tea, ceramics, and lacquer-ware were produced by artisans that traded them in Asia and to Europeans. Westerners began to trade (with some Chinese-assigned limits), primarily in the port-towns of Macau and Canton. Although merchants benefited greatly from this, land remained the primary symbol of wealth in China and traders' riches were often put into acquiring more land. Therefore, little of these riches were used in private enterprises that could've allowed for China to develop the market economy that often accompanied the highly-successful Western countries.


title: History of Asia

text: In the interest of national glory, the Chinese began sending impressive junk ships across the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. From 1403 to 1433, the Yongle Emperor commissioned expeditions led by the admiral Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch from China. Chinese junks carrying hundreds of soldiers, goods, and animals for zoos, traveled to Southeast Asia, Persia, southern Arabia, and east Africa to show off Chinese power. Their prowess exceeded that of current Europeans at the time, and had these expeditions not ended, the world economy may be different from today. In 1433, the Chinese government decided that the cost of a navy was an unnecessary expense. The Chinese navy was slowly dismantled and focus on interior reform and military defense began. It was China's longstanding priority that they protect themselves from nomads and they have accordingly returned to it. The growing limits on the Chinese navy would leave them vulnerable to foreign invasion by sea later on.


title: History of Asia

text: As was inevitable, Westerners arrived on the Chinese east coast, primarily Jesuit missionaries which reached the mainland in 1582. They attempted to convert the Chinese people to Christianity by first converting the top of the social hierarchy and allowing the lower classes to subsequently convert. To further gain support, many Jesuits adopted Chinese dress, customs, and language. Some Chinese scholars were interested in certain Western teachings and especially in Western technology. By the 1580s, Jesuit scholars like Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall amazed the Chinese elite with technological advances such as European clocks, improved calendars and cannons, and the accurate prediction of eclipses. Although some the scholar-gentry converted, many were suspicious of the Westerners whom they called "barbarians" and even resented them for the embarrassment they received at the hand of Western correction. Nevertheless, a small group of Jesuit scholars remained at the court to impress the emperor and his advisors.


title: History of Asia

text: Near the end of the 1500s, the extremely centralized government that gave so much power to the emperor had begun to fail as more incompetent rulers took the mantle. Along with these weak rulers came increasingly corrupt officials who took advantage of the decline. Once more the public projects fell into disrepair due to neglect by the bureaucracy and resulted in floods, drought, and famine that rocked the peasantry. The famine soon became so terrible that some peasants resorted to selling their children to slavery to save them from starvation, or to eating bark, the feces of geese, or other people. Many landlords abused the situation by building large estates where desperate farmers would work and be exploited. In turn, many of these farmers resorted to flight, banditry, and open rebellion.


title: History of Asia

text: All of this corresponded with the usual dynastic decline of China seen before, as well as the growing foreign threats. In the mid-16th century, Japanese and ethnic Chinese pirates began to raid the southern coast, and neither the bureaucracy nor the military were able to stop them. The threat of the northern Manchu people also grew. The Manchu were an already large state north of China, when in the early 17th century a local leader named Nurhaci suddenly united them under the Eight Banners—armies that the opposing families were organized into. The Manchus adopted many Chinese customs, specifically taking after their bureaucracy. Nevertheless, the Manchus still remained a Chinese vassal. In 1644 Chinese administration became so weak, the 16th and last emperor, the Chongzhen Emperor, did not respond to the severity of an ensuing rebellion by local dissenters until the enemy had invaded the Forbidden City (his personal estate). He soon hanged himself in the imperial gardens. For a brief amount of time, the Shun dynasty was claimed, until a loyalist Ming official called support from the Manchus to put down the new dynasty. The Shun dynasty ended within a year and the Manchu were now within the Great Wall. Taking advantage of the situation, the Manchus marched on the Chinese capital of Beijing. Within two decades all of China belonged to the Manchu and the Qing dynasty was established.


title: History of Asia

text: In early-modern Korea, the 500-year-old kingdom, Goryeo fell and new dynasty Joseon rose in August 5, 1392. Taejo of Joseon changed the country's name from Goryeo to Joseon. Sejong the Great created Hangul, the modern Korean alphabet, in 1443; likewise the Joseon dynasty saw several improvements in science and technology, like Sun Clocks, Water Clocks, Rain-Measuring systems, Star Maps, and detailed records of Korean small villages. The ninth king, Seongjong accomplished the first complete Korean law code in 1485. So the culture and people's lives were improved again.


title: History of Asia

text: In 1592, Japan under Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea. That war is Imjin war. Before that war, Joseon was in a long peace like PAX ROMANA. So Joseon was not ready for the war. Joseon had lost again and again. Japanese army conquered Seoul. The whole Korean peninsula was in danger. But Yi Sun-sin, the most renowned general of Korea, defeated Japanese fleet in southern Korea coast even 13 ships VS 133 ships. This incredible battle is called "Battle of Myeongnyang". After that, Ming dynasty helped Joseon, and Japan lost the battle. So Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign in Korea failed, and the Tokugawa Shogunate has later began. Korea was hurt a lot at Imjin war. Not long after, Manchurian people invaded Joseon again. It is called Qing invasion of Joseon. The first invasion was for sake. Because Qing was at war between Ming, so Ming's alliance with Joseon was threatening. And the second invasion was for Joseon to obey Qing. After that, Qing defeated Ming and took the whole Chinese territories. Joseon also had to obey Qing because Joseon lose the second war against Qing.


title: History of Asia

text: After the Qing invasion, the princes of the Joseon dynasty lived their childhood in China. The son of King Injo met Adam Schall in Beijing. So he wanted to introduce western technologies to Korean people when he becomes a king. Unfortunately, he died before he could take the throne. After then, the alternative prince became the 17th king of the Joseon dynasty, Hyojong, trying to revenge for his kingdom and fallen Ming dynasty to Qing. Later kings such as Yeongjo and Jeongjo tried to improve their people's lives and stop the governors' unreasonable competition. From the 17th century to the 18th century, Joseon sent diplomats and artists to Japan more than 10 times. This group was called 'Tongshinsa'. They were sent to Japan to teach Japan about advanced Korean culture. Japanese people liked to receive poems from Korean nobles. At that time, Korea was more powerful than Japan. But that relationship between Joseon and Japan was reversed after the 19th century. Because Japan became more powerful than Korea and China, either. So Joseon sent diplomats called 'Sooshinsa' to learn Japanese advanced technologies. After king Jeongjo's death, some noble families controlled the whole kingdom in the early 19th century. At the end of that period, Western people invaded Joseon. In 1876, Joseon was set free from Qing so they did not have to obey Qing. But Japanese Empire was happy because Joseon became a perfect independent kingdom. So Japan could intervene in the kingdom more. After this, Joseon traded with the United States and sent 'Sooshinsa' to Japan, 'Youngshinsa' to Qing, and 'Bobingsa' to the US and Europe. These groups took many modern things to the Korean peninsula.


title: History of Asia

text: In early-modern Japan following the Sengoku period of "warring states", central government had been largely reestablished by Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Azuchi–Momoyama period. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, central authority fell to Tokugawa Ieyasu who completed this process and received the title of "shōgun" in 1603.


title: History of Asia

text: Society in the Japanese "Tokugawa period" (see Edo society), unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The "daimyōs" (feudal lords) were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers, artisans, and merchants ranking below. The country was strictly closed to foreigners with few exceptions with the "Sakoku" policy. Literacy rose in the two centuries of isolation.


title: History of Asia

text: In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, "daimyōs" and samurai were more or less identical, since "daimyōs" might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.


title: History of Asia

text: In the Indian subcontinent, the Mughal Empire ruled most of India in the early 18th century. During emperor Shah Jahan and his son Aurangzeb's Islamic sharia reigns, the empire reached its architectural and economic zenith, and became the world's largest economy, worth over 25% of world GDP. In the mid-18th century it was a major proto-industrializing region.