The sources of the Nile river are the rivers While Nile Blue Nile and the Atbara river. The White Nile comes from Lake Victoria and other smaller lakes south of Egypt. This source is consistent in its flow. The annual flooding of the Nile is caused by the rains in Ethiopia from June to October which cause the Blue Nile and the Atbara to flow with much more water. 20,000 to 12,000 years ago during the last ice Age in Europe was a very dry time in the Sahara and Egypt. Starting about 12,000 years ago the rainfall increased significantly and 10,000 to 8500 years ago the rains were so heavy that it is called the Wild Nile time and it appears that there was no one living in the Nile region due to the dramatic flooding. People at this time were living in the area which is now the Sahara because there were river systems and lakes which are created grasslands. It was not until the massive rains calmed down that agriculture began to appear in the Nile region around 5500 – 4000 BCE.

(The Great Courses – The Origin of Civilization)

(Editors Note: I have often wondered what the reason was for keeping US troops in Europe at great expense to the US budget. Here is an interesting interpretation.) US troops in Europe are hostages. After WWI the United States went into an isolationist mode and stayed there through the first part of WWII. After WWII Europeans demanded that US troops stay in Europe. They were not necessarily assigned to the most strategic points where an invasion from the Soviet Union would occur. But by having US troops in Europe it was guaranteed that the United States would work to defend Europe and it was price the US had to pay for Europe to accept the US as being the major ‘decider’ in world affairs. In the 1960’s European nations purposely did not increase their defensive capabilities because they feared that the United States would decrease their military budget. Europeans also hoped that any nuclear strikes would occur ‘over their heads’ strictly between the United States and the USSR.

(Book – White House Years – Henry Kissinger)

It appears that writing was developed in both the Nile and Mesopotamia regions around 3000 BCE. In Mesopotamia this writing appears with a writing system of symbols called cuneiform. This form of writing was used by many different languages in the Mesopotamian region. There was also a form of proto-cuneiform that existed for several hundred years earlier which is similar and appears to be a type of inventory system. Around 1750 BCE Hammurabi burned down the kingdom of Mari in northern Mesopotamia and one result was the storehouse was buried. The discovery of this storehouse in the 1930’s has provided historians with about 25,000 tablets of diplomatic writings of that kingdom.

(The Great Courses – The Origin of Civilization)

When Columbus made his discovery of the America’s there was no country of Spain. The entire venture was funded by Castille and no other kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula participated or benefited.

(The Great Courses – The Other 1492)

To contemporaries of the Iberian peninsula in 1492 the great event was not the sailing of Christopher Columbus. The surrender of Grenada to the Christians and the eviction of the Jews were the top stories.

(The Great Courses – The Other 1492)

Before he met Josephine, Napoleon was smitten by a 16 year old daughter of a soap merchant . Things did not work out but there is no need to feel sorry for her since she eventually married a general who became the ruler of Sweden. Her descendants are still the royal family in Sweden.

(The Great Courses – Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon)