I believe that Eleanor Roosevelt's broad participation in political and social issues was because of her strong social conscience and because she strongly supported her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt who is probably the most progressive of all past US presidents in terms of social programs to help the American people during the Great Depression and WWII.
It was Britain, France, and Spain that primarily founded settlements in North America, although the Spanish motivation was slightly different than that of Britain and France in that it purely sought to extract gold and other riches from the area.
The six elections to the consulship of Gaius Marius did not reflect a change in Rome's government. After having been elected as consul for the year 107 BC in 108 BC, Marius was elected consuls five consecutive times (105-100 BC) and was consul for the years 104-100 BC. This was highly unusual and addition to this,technically, unconstitutional. A law passed in 152 BC forbade re-election to the consulship for 10 years. Another very unusual fact was that in 105 BC he waselected in absentia, while he was fighting a war in Africa. This was because there was a military emergency (the Cimbrian War (112-101 BC) Roman territories<span>were being invaded by two migrating Germanic peoples, the Teutones and the Cimbri. They appeared in Austria and then moved around Gaul and northern Hispania.</span>
