World History Facts

So terrifying that they could serve as a shorthand for “savage” 1500 years later.

But that impression is based on pretty thin evidence, written by their enemies. So what can we know about the real Huns?

Royal incest:

Hybrid gods:

And striking art:

All this and more in this week's post...

And a louche classical figure in 1879:

Most depictions of the Goths, like this painting from 1890, show them as barbaric, destructive figures:

But who were the real Goths? Check out this week's post...

This is an Etruscan cosmetics container in the shape of a female head. Who was she? Archaeologists speculate that she may have represented Turan, the Etruscan love goddess. Or maybe Lasa, a winged goddess who often accompanied Turan. Perhaps it’s meant to be a portrait of the woman who owned it. We’ll never know for sure.

More about the Etruscans and their modern reception here:

We can see the prevalence of horses in their art:

And, in fact, all sorts of animals:

We can see their interaction with the Greeks, too, in the goods that the two societies exchanged:

For much more on the Scythians as portrayed by others and themselves, read this week's newsletter:

From Dido, the ultimate example of a woman scorned...

to Hannibal, the supposed greatest general in history...

Carthage remained a part of the popular imagination long after it was gone.

But Carthage was much more than a foil for the Romans. It was a fascinating civilization, but, thanks to the Roman destruction, we can only get glimpses of their gods:

Their writing:

And their culture:

Much more about what we know (and don't know) about Carthage here:

There were elaborate tea chests (lockable because the tea inside was so valuable):

Tea caddies:

Sugar tongs:

And snuffboxes:

Much more here:

Some pre-Columbian chocolate vessels were elaborate:

And others simpler:

How chocolate became a stimulant that made the modern world:

How did coffee become a global commodity? Why did some people think it was a "harmless and healing liquor" while others thought it was a "bitter invention of Satan?"

And why did Frederick the Great deploy a legion of “coffee sniffers?”

All this and more, in this week's newsletter!

They saw it and its association with Native American cultures as tantalizingly exotic.

The drug became an important engine of conviviality and contemplation.

This week — how tobacco changed the world:

Then, plantation slavery made sugar common and cheap. Sugar became an affordable stimulant, albeit one with very questionable ethics.

This week, a look at sugar's role as one of the stimulants that made the modern world.

First in the series: tea, which sparked new ideas about mindfulness and civility...

As well as war and espionage:

But it also became a symbol of the limits of that rationality. The people who ran France had evolved beyond medieval-style torture in the name of humanism, but they didn’t think to discard the death penalty altogether.

The guillotine soon became a symbol not of reason but of chaos and disorder.

Yep, I wrote this week about the history of the guillotine in art and culture:

Suddenly, the clergy was an enemy of the people; violence was encouraged against them:

The new government tried to replace them with a cult of reason:

Or vague faith in a Supreme Being:

What happened when the French Revolution attacked one of the central pillars of traditional society? Check it out:

His early enthusiasm for the French Revolution soured as the revolutionaries turned on the royal family and sowed chaos.

When Napoleon took over, Gillray didn’t like him either, considering the new Emperor to be a gauche pretender.

Gillray soon found a line of attack — Napoleon became “Little Boney,” a small, insecure, hyperactive little pest.

The McDonald’s guy thought his burger eating video would be a nice little marketing move, and somehow ended up inviting the ridicule of a gleeful internet mob that wanted to shame him for biting into his burger with insufficient gusto.

Similarly, Marie Antoinette kept trying to appear in certain ways — motherly, fashionable, regal — to the French public, but could never get it right. Every step was a misstep, and she catastrophically lost control of her image. People saw her as a Gorgon, a pantheress, or worse.

This wasn't just a run-of-the-mill PR disaster; it had world-historical consequences: