Three of the four major world religions claim that Abraham is the father of their nation. God promised abraham that his descendants would number the stars. However, Abraham was not willing to wait (his wife Sarah was too old to bear children) he took Sarah's maid slave, Hagar, and she bore Ishmael who is the father of the Arab world. Later, God was true to his promise, and Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to the promised son - Isaac - who is the father of the Jewish nation and, subsequently, the father of the Christian world since Jesus Christ comes from the lineage of Isaac.
http://www.theology.edu/abraham.html
Some claim the dates to be between 1553 BC - 1450 BC. Given that they wandered for 40 years their arrival in the promised land would be between 1513 BC and 1410 BC.
The Jewish Bible and Christian Old Testament book of Genesis states that Abraham's descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not their where they will be slaves and oppressed for 400 years. After Joseph's family reunites with him in Egypt, their people become so large that the Egyptians become fearful. They enslave the Israelites under harsh conditions, until Moses, and Israelite who grew up in the household of the Pharaoh, leads his people out of Egypt. However, because of their lack of faith and disobedience, they are forced to wander in the desert for 40 years before they can conquer and return to the promised land.
http://www.biblediscovered.com/biblical-characters/king-david-kingdom-of-israel/
David's first action as king was to capture what is now the City of David in Jerusalem, fortify it and build himself a palace. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king and was threatening their hegemony over all of Canaan, they attacked, spread out over the Valley of Raphaim and captured Bethlehem. David retaliated and in three battles, forced the Philistines out of Israel. Once David had established his kingdom, he brought the Holy Ark, to Jerusalem. David wanted to build a temple to G-d and consulted Nathan the prophet. Nathan replied to David that God would always be with David, but it would be up to David’s son to build the Temple because David had been a warrior and shed blood.
David encountered wars with Israel’s neighbors on the east bank of the Jordan. These wars began as defensive wars, but ended with the establishment of a Davidic empire that extended over both sides of the Jordan River, as far as the Mediterranean Sea. King David defeated the Moabites, the Edomites, the Ammonites and the Arameans. David enforced justice in his empire and established civil and military administrations in Jerusalem, modeled after those of the Canaanites and Egyptians. He divided the country into twelve districts, each with its own civil, military and religious institutions. He established Jerusalem as the secular and religious center of the country. Each district paid taxes to Jerusalem and the people began to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year on the holidays of Passover, Shavout and Sukkot. David is often called a Man after God's own heart. Yet, David had many human flaws, he had an affair,he lied, he murdered, he was a lousy father, yet despite all his human flaws, God forgave David and created a great nation. And through his lineage, Jesus was born who became the savior of the World.
http://www.penfield.edu/webpages/jgiotto/onlinetextbook.cfm?subpage=1501694
Diaspora is a word used to describe the dispersal of Jews around the world. Some historians put the diaspora of the jews by neo Babylonian Empire at 931 BC. Most date the dispersal of the Jews around the time of King Nebuchadnezzar who ruled from 605 BC - 562 BC.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/israeljudaea/a/BabylonianExile_2.htm
After the death of Kind Solomon, the nation of Israel Split into two – 10 northern tribes called Israel, and the two souther tribes called Judea. It was Judea that was captured by Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, spoiled Jerusalem and took treasures from Solomon’s Temple. Ten thousand of the leading men of Judah were taken into captivity to Babylon. The national leadership in Jerusalem continued to follow their wicked ways until Nebuchadnezzar laid siege of the city and a breach was made into the city wall. King Zedekiah (Mattaniah, 597-586 B.C.) attempted to escape, but was captured and taken to Babylon in chains. The Babylonians killed his sons in his sight and then blinded him. The walls of Jerusalem were destroyed and the temple burned to the ground. All of the city’s treasurers were taken to Babylon. The remaining leaders of Judah were killed and the rest of the people were carried into captivity to Babylon. Only the very poorest people remained in Judah in the hills who later fled to Egypt (2 Kings 25:23-30).n 538 BC. After the fall of Babylon to the Persian king Cyrus the Great, who gave the Jews permission to return home and rebuild the temple.
Important to all three major religions
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/jewishtemple.htm
A Jewish uprising began in 66 AD. The Roman Government destroyed the temple in 70 AD and the uprising was squelched by 73 AD.
http://factsanddetails.com/world.php?itemid=1382&catid=55&subcatid=351
Diaspora is a word used to describe the dispersal of Jews around the world after the destruction of the Jewish temple in A.D. 70. During the Roman period Jews began moving out of Palestinian to places like Alexandria and Rome. Most Jews settled in North Africa and the Mediterranean area. Within a few decades between 3 and 6 million Jews lived outside of Palestine in the Roman Empire and only about half that number lived in Palestine. Jewish people continued to live outside of their "promised land" until the creation of the Nation of Israel in 1948.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/382119/Edict-of-Milan
The Edict of Milan was granted by Emperor Constantine the Great in the West and Licinius Augustus in the East in 313 granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire. In addition, the Edict of Milan ordered the restitution of property confiscated from Christians. Some believe that Constantine had a religious conversions, while most Historian's agree that his "conversion" was not spiritual, but for military gain.
Muhammed is the founder of the religion of Islam. He is accepted by Muslims throughout the world as the last of the prophets of God.
As a young man, Muhammed claimed to receive visions from God and the Angel Gabriel from which he wrote the Quran. He is considered to be the father of Islam
http://www.elbahnasawy.com/author/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48:
Most Historians date the Islamic Golden age between mid 7 - 8th century to around the 1300th century. During this time, Islamic.rulers established one of the largest empires in history. During this period, artists, engineers, scholars, poets, philosophers, geographers and traders in the Islamic world contributed to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, sociology, and technology, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding inventions and innovations of their own.
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid_
EmpireThe Abbasid Empire[1] was the tenth of the ten great Muslim caliphates of the Arab Empire. (caliphates refers to the Islamic for of Governemnt and Rule.) It overthrew the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al-Andalus. It was built by the descendant of Muhammad's youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. It was created in Harran in 750 of the Christian era and shifted its capital in AD 762 from Harran to Baghdad. It flourished for two centuries. Abbasid rule was ended in 1258, when Hulagu Khan, the Mongol conqueror, sacked Baghdad. But they continued to claim authority in religious matters from their base in Egypt.
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/crusades-
The Crusades were a series of Holy Wars launched by the Christian states of Europe against the Saracens. The term 'Saracen' was the word used to describe a Moslem during the time of the Crusades. The first crusade was prompted by the massacre of 3000 Christian Pilgrims in Jerusalem. Termed The People's Crusade - Freeing the Holy Lands. the first crusade led by Count Raymond IV of Toulouse and proclaimed by many wandering preachers, notably Peter the Hermit
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/crusades-
The Third Crusade was caused by the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by Saladin, the sultan of Egypt. The Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Richard I made a truce with Saladin
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/crusades-timeline.htm
4th Crusade led by Fulk of Neuil French/Flemish advanced on Constantinople.The real author of the Fourth Crusade was the famous pope, Innocent III. Young, enthusiastic, and ambitious for the glory of the Papacy, he revived the plans of Pope Urban II and sought once more to unite the forces of Christendom against Islam.
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/crusades-timeline.htm
Considered a minor crusade, it only lasted two years.The Ninth Crusade (1271 - 1272) was also incited by the misfortunes that, towards the close of the thirteenth century, befell the Christian kingdom in Palestine. The leader of this crusade was Prince Edward of England, afterwards King Edward I. The English prince, was, however, more fortunate than the ill-fated King Louis IX. Edward succeeded in capturing Nazareth, and in compelling the sultan of Egypt to agree to a treaty favorable to the Christians in the Last Crusade .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/ottomanempire_1.shtml
It was an empire inspired and sustained by Islam, and Islamic institutions.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/history.html
The Holocaust (also called Ha-Shoah in Hebrew) refers to the period from January 30, 1933 - when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany - to May 8, 1945, when the war in Europe officially ended. During this time, Jews in Europe were subjected to progressively harsher persecution that ultimately led to the murder of 6,000,000 Jews (1.5 million of these being children) and the destruction of 5,000 Jewish communities. These deaths represented two-thirds of European Jewry and one-third of all world Jewry.
The Jews who died were not casualties of the fighting that ravaged Europe during World War II. Rather, they were the victims of Germany's deliberate and systematic attempt to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Europe, a plan Hitler called the “Final Solution” (Endlosung).
http://www.exploringcreation.info/covenant/state.html
Jews date the "Zionist movement" back to God's promise to make Israel a great nation.
http://www.exploringcreation.info/covenant/state.html
In 1967, Egypt ordered the UN to remove it's troops from it's borders. On June 5 - 10, 1967, in what has become known as the Six-day war, Israel attacked and destroyed the Egyptian air force. Israel also hindered the air power of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. In this short time, Israel captured Sinai, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. On June 11, a UN cease fire was put in place. Later that year, the UN Security Council called for Israel to withdraw the armed forces from occupied territories for a just and lasting peace ... again the Arab nations rejected the idea.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100712045328AAVAzSV Afghan Communist Party came into power, the mujaheddin started an uprising against it, the Soviet government sent troops in to back up the Afghan communist government and they failed.
This caused huge dissension within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and also wrecked the Soviet economy, which greatly weakened the hold the Soviet Union had over their satellite countries, which in turn weakened the communist governments in those countries, which caused those governments to start falling.
http://www.history.com/topics/persian-gulf-war
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. After 42 days of relentless attacks by the allied coalition in the air and on the ground, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared a cease-fire on February 28.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2003/04/operation-iraqi-freedom-military-objectives-met
There were 8 main objectives of the war
1.End the regime of Saddam Hussein
2.Eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
3.Capture or drive out terrorists
4.Collect intelligence on terrorist networks
5.Collect intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction activity
6.Secure Iraq's oil fields
7.Deliver humanitarian relief and end sanctions
8.Help Iraq achieve representative self-government and insure its territorial integrity