Well Commodore Matthew Perry convinced Japan to open its ports
Oral traditions make it possible for a society to pass knowledge across genera-tions without writing. It also helps people make sense of the world and are used to teach children and adults about important aspects of their culture
By the early 6th century B.C. social tensions in Athens had become acute, pitting the poorer citizens against rich and powerful landowners. Many citizens were reduced to the status of share croppers, and others had actually sold themselves into slavery to meet their debts. To resolve the crisis the Athenians appointed Solon as archon (magistrate) to serve as mediator and lawgiver. Plutarch and Aristotle describe in some detail the constitution devised by Solon, who then went into voluntary exile to avoid being pressured into amending this legislation.
Solon canceled most debts and freed those Athenians who had been enslaved, but he refused to redistribute property or to deprive the aristocracy of most of the political power.
The Muslim Empire comprised the timespan in which three different Caliphates ruled:
- The Rashidun Caliphate (632–661) which supposed the start of the Muslim Empire, established after the death of the Profet Muhammad. It was a period characterized by a quick military expansion, which took control over the following territories: the Arabian Peninsula including the Levant, the Transcaucasus region in the North, the Northern Africa area from Egypt to the current territory of Tunisia as the Western border and, finally, the Iranian plateau including parts of Central Asia and South Asia as the Eastern limit.
- The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750). More conquest were achieved, and to the formerly mentioned ones, the following territories were annexed: the Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula (named Al-Andalus).
- The Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258), was the third caliphate and established its central government in Kufa, located in current Iraq. In 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad. The caliphate started to lost authority in the Western regions (Al-Andalus and Maghreb for example) but also reinforced control over territories on the East, for instance, the Mesopotamian domain.