u/RevolutionarySky4706

-> The Battle of Teutoburg Forest took place in 9 AD in Germania, in modern-day Germany, during the reign of Emperor Augustus.

-> Rome wanted to expand its empire beyond the Rhine River and turn Germania into a Roman province.

-> The Roman army was led by Publius Quinctilius Varus, who commanded three Roman legions.

-> Arminius, a Germanic leader who had served in the Roman army, knew Roman military tactics and understood how the legions fought.

-> Although Arminius appeared to be an ally of Rome, he secretly organised several Germanic tribes to unite against the Romans.

-> Arminius deceived Varus by reporting a supposed local uprising and persuading him to march his army through unfamiliar territory.

-> The Roman army entered the Teutoburg Forest, where thick woodland, narrow paths and muddy ground made it difficult for the soldiers to maintain their usual battle formations.

-> Arminius and his Germanic warriors launched a surprise ambush, attacking the Romans from the surrounding forests.

-> The Romans struggled to defend themselves because their formations broke apart, and their large numbers became a disadvantage in the confined terrain.

-> The Germanic warriors continued attacking over several days, inflicting heavy casualties on the Roman army.

-> Varus realised that the situation was hopeless and, according to ancient accounts, took his own life rather than face capture.

-> The three Roman legions were destroyed, with thousands of Roman soldiers killed. Their legion numbers were later never used again.

-> The defeat shocked Rome and forced the empire to abandon its ambitions of permanently conquering Germania east of the Rhine.

-> The Rhine River became a major frontier of the Roman Empire, although Rome continued military campaigns in Germanic territory.

-> Arminius became a celebrated figure among the Germanic tribes for his victory against one of the most powerful empires in the ancient world.

Augustus was reportedly devastated by the defeat. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, he repeatedly banged his head against walls and cried out, “Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!” Losing three entire legions was an enormous humiliation and a military catastrophe for Rome. The defeat deeply affected Augustus, who had spent much of his reign expanding and securing the empire.

The Ajivika school was an ancient Indian Śramaṇa and nāstika (heterodox) tradition, believed to have been founded in the 5th century BCE by Makkhali Gośāla. Its central doctrine was Niyati (fate/determinism)—the belief that everything that happens is completely predetermined by cosmic forces and that human beings have no free will.

-> Niyati (Absolute Fate): The central doctrine of the Ajivikas was Niyati, meaning fate or destiny. They believed that everything in the universe—past, present and future—is completely predetermined by cosmic forces, leaving no room for genuine human control.

-> No Free Will and Rejection of Karma: Ajivikas rejected the idea of free will and believed that human actions cannot change one's predetermined destiny. Unlike Buddhists and Jains, they rejected karma as a determining force, arguing that happiness, suffering, purity and impurity occur according to fate rather than one's moral actions.

-> Predetermined Rebirth and Liberation: Ajivikas accepted the cycle of birth, death and rebirth (saṃsāra), but believed that every soul must pass through a fixed sequence of existences. Moksha or liberation would eventually occur automatically when this predetermined course was completed, not through personal effort, good deeds or religious practices.

-> Atheism and Cosmic Order: Ajivikas generally rejected the existence of a creator God and explained the universe through impersonal principles such as fate, nature and cosmic necessity. Their philosophy was therefore often described as atheistic or non-theistic, although they appear to have accepted the existence of an ātman (soul/self).

-> Atomism: The Ajivikas believed that the material universe was composed of tiny, indivisible atoms, whose combinations and arrangements produced different objects and qualities. However, these atoms did not move or combine randomly; their behaviour was governed by cosmic laws and Niyati (fate). Thus, even physical changes in nature were predetermined, just like human actions and destiny. This allowed the Ajivikas to explain the universe without a creator God, while extending their doctrine of absolute determinism from human life to the entire physical world.

-> Rejection of Objective Morality: Ajivikas questioned the idea that there are objective moral laws by which actions independently make a person good or bad. Since everything is governed by fate, a person does not become pure simply through good actions or sinful through bad actions; moral outcomes themselves are part of the predetermined cosmic order.

-> Extreme Asceticism: Ajivika ascetics were known for severe austerities, and some accounts describe fasting to the point of death as a form of ascetic practice.

None of the original Ajivika scriptures have survived; their sacred literature is considered lost. Much of what we know about their philosophy comes indirectly from Buddhist, Jain and Hindu texts, which preserved references to Ajivika ideas, often while debating or criticizing them.

Bindusara (c. 320–273 BCE), the second ruler of the Mauryan Empire and father of Ashoka the Great, was a believer in the Ajivika tradition. The Ajivikas reached their peak during the Mauryan period, receiving royal patronage, with Ajivika ascetics being invited to the royal court.

"The first and most important observation is that Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganges to learn geometry, at least about two thousand five hundred years ago, and more than seven hundred years before our common era, which we have adopted only relatively recently.
Certainly Pythagoras would not have undertaken such a strange journey if the reputation of the learning of the Brahmins had not long since become established throughout Europe, little by little, and if several travellers had not although he was, whereas Pythagoras and Zoroaster are among those ancient teachers of mankind who studied with the Brahmins and who brought back to their own countries the small amount of truth and the multitude of errors that they had learned.

We have already established that arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy were taught among the Brahmins. Their twelve signs of the zodiac and their twenty-seven constellations are obvious proof of this.

The Brahmins had known the precession of the equinoxes from time immemorial, and they made a much smaller error in their calculation than the Greeks did: for this apparent movement of the stars was, according to them, and still is, fifty-four seconds per year; consequently, this period was for them twenty-four thousand years, whereas the Greeks made it thirty-six thousand.

Among us it is twenty-five thousand nine hundred and twenty years; thus the Brahmins came closer to the truth than the Greeks, who came long after them.

M. Le Gentil, a learned astronomer who spent some time in Pondicherry, has done justice to the modern Brahmins, who are merely echoes of the first Brahmins. He very ingeniously solved the problem of the duration of the world, which these ancient philosophers of India fixed at four million three hundred and twenty thousand years, of which three million eight hundred and ninety-seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-one had elapsed in the year 1773 of our era.

Thus, according to this calculation, our world would have only four hundred and twenty-two thousand one hundred and nineteen years remaining.

M. Le Gentil very correctly observed that this number, which seems enormous, and which is nothing compared with necessarily eternal time, is merely a combination of the revolutions of the equinox, rather like the Julian period of Julius Scaliger, which is a multiplication of the cycles of the sun by those of the moon and by the indiction.

At the same time, M. Le Gentil recognized with admiration the learning of the Brahmins, and the immense lengths of time it must have taken these Indians to arrive at knowledge that even the Chinese had never conceived, and which had been unknown to Egypt and Chaldea, which taught Egypt. Already taught the route."

~ Voltaire, Fragments historiques sur l’Inde, Article XXI, “De la science des brachmanes."

Voltaire’s writings on India do contain inaccuracies so not everything that Voltaire wrote should be considered fact. The point I was trying to make was the contrast between Ambedkar asking why the Brahmins had not produced a Voltaire, while overlooking the fact that Voltaire himself was deeply appreciative of the intellectual traditions he attributed to the Brahmins, especially in mathematics, philosophy, astronomy and geometry.

-> Nazi Germany annexes Austria (Anschluss) (March, 1938)

-> Nazi Germany annexes the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia (October, 1938)

-> Nazi Germany occupies Bohemia and Moravia; Slovakia becomes a German puppet state (March, 1939)

-> Nazi Germany invades Poland with the help of the USSR and annexes western Poland (September, 1939)

-> Nazi Germany invades Denmark (April, 1940)

-> Nazi Germany invades Norway (April, 1940)

-> Nazi Germany invades Luxembourg (May, 1940)

-> Nazi Germany invades the Netherlands (May, 1940)

-> Nazi Germany invades Belgium and northern France (May, 1940)

-> Nazi Germany defeats France and occupies northern and western France while Vichy France remains nominally independent (June, 1940)

-> Nazi Germany invades Yugoslavia; Croatia becomes a German-Italian puppet state while Serbia is occupied (April, 1941)

-> Nazi Germany invades Greece and occupies the country with Italy and Bulgaria (April, 1941)

-> Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), capturing Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, much of Ukraine, and large parts of western Russia (June–December, 1941)

-> Nazi Germany advances into Crimea and the Caucasus, reaching its greatest territorial extent in the Soviet Union (July–November, 1942)

-> Nazi Germany occupies all of France after ending the independence of Vichy France (November, 1942)

If you notice any errors or inaccuracies, please let me know.

-> 29 November 1947: The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 (Partition Plan for Palestine).
-> Objective: To end the British Mandate in Palestine by creating two independent states—one Jewish and one Arab.
-> Jewish State: Proposed to receive about 55% of the territory, including the coastal plain, eastern Galilee, and most of the Negev Desert.
-> Arab State: Proposed to receive about 45% of the territory, including western Galilee, the central hill region (West Bank), and the Gaza area.
-> Jerusalem: To be placed under United Nations international administration (Corpus Separatum) because of its religious significance.
-> Population: The proposed Jewish state would have about 498,000 Jews and 407,000 Arabs, while the proposed Arab state would have about 725,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews.
-> Economic Union: Both states were to share a customs union, common currency, transport, communications, and water resources.
-> UN Vote: The resolution was passed with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions.
-> Outcome: The plan was never implemented because violence broke out, leading to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Please try to keep the comments civil and respectful.