The History Cat
The History Cat: Us History: George Washington
A summary of George Washington's term as the first President of the newly formed United States. Presents two of his major accomplishments of his Presidency (the Jay Treaty and the establishment of the first Cabinet), and two major...
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The History Cat: Us History: Election of 1860: Lincoln Elected
Looks at the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and the divisions between North and South that resulted. Shortly after the election, a group of Southern states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. The animosity between...
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The History Cat: Us History: The American Cowboy
Looks at the origins of American cowboy culture, at the lives of cowboys and at the responsibilities they had, such as herding cattle to market.
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The History Cat: Us History: The Buffalo Soldiers
Describes the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, African Americans who served in four Calvary peacetime units in the 19th and 20th centuries. Highlights the experiences of Emanuel Stance, a freed slave who joined the military in 1866.
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The History Cat: The Donner Expedition
Tells the story of the well-known Donner family who attempted to pass over the mountains to California in the winter of 1846-47, but became trapped by heavy snowfall. Many people in the party perished from starvation and cold, and there...
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The History Cat: The Underground Railroad
A detailed look at how the Underground Railroad worked, some of the activists working against slavery, and some of the unique ways slaves managed to escape. Also discusses the economy that existed around the practice of slave tracking...
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The History Cat: Life on an Indian Reservation
Summarizes the experiences of native peoples who were sent to live on reservations as settlers moved onto their homelands, and their distrust towards the white people who cheated them and ignored the negotiated treaties.
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The History Cat: Carlisle Indian School
Explains how Indian boarding schools came to be established, often with good intentions initially, and how native students were expected to dress and behave like white people, and were even punished for using their native language or...
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The History Cat: The Jim Crow Era: The Life and Death of Jim Crow
Looks at how Southerners continued to discriminate against blacks after the Civil War through Black Codes, or Jim Crow laws, which permitted practices such as segregation in public places and requiring literacy tests in order to vote.
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The History Cat: Karl Marx: Father of Communism
Summarizes the capitalist conditions, brought on by the Industrial Revolution, that led to the fostering of the socialist ideas espoused by Karl Marx, and to the writing of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.
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The History Cat: Christianity
Discusses the Christian religion, the province of Judea, the story of Jesus, belief system, persecution by the Romans, the spread of Christianity, and the different Christian sects that have evolved.
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The History Cat: The Beaver Wars
Discusses the wars the Iroquois fought with other tribes and with the French in the last half of the 17th century, in their efforts to win control of the fur trade. A peace treaty was signed in 1701 to end the fighting.
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The History Cat: Vasco De Gama
Vasco da Gama (this is the accepted spelling) was a Portuguese explorer from the 15th and 16th centuries who established the first trade route to India that went around the southern tip of Africa. Read about his life, his...
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The History Cat: The French Revolution: The Reign of Terror
Discusses the awful events that took place during the French Revolution with France's Reign of Terror, when Christianity was banned and even the calendar was rewritten.
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The History Cat: Age of Exploration: Christopher Columbus
The story of Christopher Columbus, of how he became an explorer, his encounter with the Arawak people in the Caribbean, and the exaggerated tales he told the King and Queen of Spain when he returned to Europe.
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The History Cat: Islamic Arts and Literature
An introduction to the art and literature that were produced during the Islamic Golden Age. A brief look at Islamic calligraphy, mosaics, geometric designs, and the story behind the 1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights.
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The History Cat: Japan and the Black Ships: The Meiji Restoration
Explains how Japan isolated itself from contact with Europe and America for two hundred years. This ended when it agreed to sign a treaty of friendship with America that was brought to Tokyo in 1853 by Commodore Matthew Perry and his...
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The History Cat: Great Escapes From East Germany
Describes a variety of unusual methods East Berliners used to try to escape over or through the Berlin Wall into West Germany.
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The History Cat: Johannes Gutenberg
The story of Johnannes Gutenberg (1398-1468), who is credited with inventing the printing press in 1450, although it was actually first invented by the Chinese hundreds of years earlier.
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The History Cat: Galileo on Trial
An explanation of the rationale behind the trial of Galileo by the Roman Catholic Inquisition for his scientific theories of heliocentrism. He was convicted of heresy and placed under house arrest, eventually confessing to his alleged...
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The History Cat: Uncovering Pompeii
It is hard to imagine a day any hotter than 110 degrees, but on August 24, 79 CE some people experienced 570 degrees. Find details of the disaster in Pompeii.
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The History Cat: The Neolithic Revolution
A look at some of the earliest humans and their cultures from the prehistoric era.
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The History Cat: Age of Imperialism: European Imperialism
The White Man's Burden was another name for Imperialism. It was an ethnocentric idea that emerged from Darwin's Theory of Evolution to explain why white people were living in what they believed were more advanced civilizations than...