The term "white mans burden" refers to imperialism, Eurocentric racism and Western aspirations to dominate the developing world. However, this phrase did not start as a broad term but was a poem by Rudyard Kipling about the colonization of the Philippines by the United States after taking it from Spain during the Spanish-American War.
The completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 encouraged settlement of the American west by proving easier travel and it took less time.
The Shang had a number of religious practices, one of which was veneration of dead ancestors; Shang people made sacrifices to and asked questions of their ancestors.
Ancient Chinese nobles sought to tell the future by writing on bone fragments or pieces of turtle shell and throwing those bones into a fire; the fortune seekers saw messages about the future in the cracks that formed.
Shang dynasty craftspeople mastered bronze, an alloy of copper and tin; bronze weapons gave Shang foot soldiers and charioteers a tactical advantage in combat.
