Sources

On December 7, 1972, the Apollo 17 crew photographed Earth while traveling toward the Moon. NASA identifies the frame as AS17-148-22727. The view runs from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctic ice cap.

Public NASA photograph. The close of this preview repeats the same frame on purpose.

NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer observed the Andromeda galaxy, Messier 31. NASA describes Andromeda as the most massive galaxy in the Local Group, which includes the Milky Way.

This is a GALEX observation, not a Hubble photograph.

The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, released by NASA in 2012, combines about ten years of Hubble Space Telescope photographs of a small patch of sky at the center of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. NASA describes that patch as a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full Moon.

This preview does not add a galaxy count. Credit NASA and ESA as on the image release.

“How small we are” is a caption for those photographs, not a measurement.

No distance, age, or galaxy count is printed. The sentence is a caption for the NASA and ESA photographs.

The Viking Age in Scandinavia is a standard survey topic. This preview does not date a voyage, name a ruler, or show an object.

The panel is a layout, not a dated claim. It is not paired with Egypt as the same century.

Ancient Egypt is a standard survey topic centered on the Nile. This preview does not name a dynasty, a date, or an object.

No artifact photograph is shown, so none is invented.

The history of the Indian subcontinent covers many states and traditions. This preview does not collapse them into one empire, and it does not claim contact with the Norse or Egyptian panels.

Parallel panels are not evidence that the societies knew each other.

Colonialism, in the survey sense, is control by a foreign state over other peoples and territories. European overseas empires are a major modern case. They are not the only empires in the historical record.

A definition, not a case. Any particular colony, year, or border needs its own citation. No named territory is given.

Imperialism is the extension of a state’s power over other territories, including by conquest. It is a general historical category, not the signature of one living people.

Applying the word to a present-day government is interpretation and needs its own source.

Human migration is movement from one place to settle in another. Reference surveys distinguish forms of movement, including movement inside a country, flight from danger, and crossing a border under immigration law. Demographic change can follow migration. That is not, by itself, a conquest.

Categories only. This page does not describe a present-day migration route.

A refugee is a person outside their country who has fled persecution, war, or disaster, as reference works define the term. Refugee movement and legal immigration are different categories.

This preview names the categories. It does not narrate a current crisis.

Sovereignty is the authority of a state over a territory. Who holds it — a monarch, a colonial administration, an elected government, an occupying force — is a question answered with records for that place and year.

The categories are the claim. A named leader or election is not in this preview. No specific state is stated.

Whether war, conquest, or colonial extraction left a place poorer, and whether later institutions reversed that, is disputed. Writers point to institutions, geography, resources, policy, and violence, and they do not agree on the weight of each. This page does not pick a winner and does not indict a people.

Interpretation. More than one side is in the literature. No country or statistic is stated.

Competition among states for power, territory, and resources is a recurring subject of international-relations surveys. Calling that pattern a hidden plot, or the nature of one living people, goes beyond the survey.

Labeled interpretation. No present-day war or mineral claim is stated.

Living humans are one species, Homo sapiens.

Consensus biology. The hopeful close rests on this, not on a ranking of cultures or religions.

Ancient Egypt is a Nile civilization in the standard survey. This portal does not give a unification date or a king list.

The geometric mark is not an artifact.

Calling one Egyptian dynasty the peak is an interpretation. The photograph on this chapter is the Great Sphinx at Giza. It is a picture of the monument, not a dynasty chart.

The Sphinx photograph is credited on the frame. It is not offered as the height of Egypt.

Egypt was conquered and ruled by outside powers across a long survey, including Persian, Macedonian, Roman, and later Ottoman periods. This page does not order the campaigns.

Religions in those centuries are not ranked.

The modern state is the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is a different government from the pharaonic kingdoms, on related land and under a related name.

No constitution or officeholder is stated.

The Viking Age and the forming of a Norwegian kingdom are standard survey topics. This portal sets no year and names no king.

See also the Viking survey.

Norse seafaring is a survey theme. Reach and encounters vary by source. No route is drawn here.

The mark is not a rune inscription.

Christianization and unions with other crowns are part of the Norway survey on the way to a modern kingdom. Causes stay unlabeled until cited.

Belief is descriptive only.

The Kingdom of Norway is the modern state this seal points to. Medieval Norse society and that kingdom are not the same government.

No civic detail is stated.

Early Chinese states are a standard survey, often tied to the Yellow River plain. First-dynasty dates are not fixed on this page.

The chip cites the survey. No further particular is added.

Which Chinese dynasty was the peak depends on the measure. This portal does not choose.

Interpretation. The square mark is not an imperial seal.

Conquest, dynastic collapse, foreign pressure, and twentieth-century regime change are survey themes. No casualty figure is stated.

Contested causes stay open.

The People's Republic of China is the government of mainland China. Judgments about how it rules are disputed and are not settled here.

The name of the state is the fact. The judgment is interpretation. No law is stated.

A single founding story for the whole subcontinent is a frame, not a survey fact. Many regions have their own starts.

No region is stated.

Several wide-ruling states appear in the India survey. This portal names none of them as the height.

The chip cites the survey. No further particular is added.

British colonial rule in India, and the division of British India into separate states, are survey topics. This page does not retell the violence or blame a faith.

No partition year or count is given.

The Republic of India is one modern state on the subcontinent. It is not the only state that came out of that twentieth-century division.

No civic structure is stated. No party line.

The United States formed from British colonies that declared independence and adopted a constitution. Document dates are not printed in this stub.

The chip cites the survey. No further particular is added.

Native American nations were already on the continent when European colonies began. Their histories are not told in this stub.

A placement fact. Particular nations need their own citations.

Whether the height of the United States is territorial, industrial, or something later is an interpretation. This page does not score the country.

Not a pamphlet.

Slavery was legal in the early United States. Civil war, statute immigration, and civil-rights conflict are further survey topics. Forced transport and legal immigration are different histories.

The legality of slavery is the fact stated. Battles and census numbers are not.

The United States is a federal republic. Who holds office is decided by election and is not a museum endorsement.

No current office is stated.

A unified German nation-state is a nineteenth-century survey topic, after a long period of many lands. The date is not printed here.

The chip cites the survey. No further particular is added.

Industrial and intellectual high points are interpretations. The Nazi years are not used on this page as a peak.

The refusal to glorify is a museum rule. The historical record of the dictatorship is the next citation.

The Nazi dictatorship carried out a genocide of Jews and other groups and waged a war of conquest. This portal does not retell it and does not soften it.

No date, place, or count is stated. Also see the Germany survey for division and the 1990 union.

The Federal Republic of Germany is the modern state. Surveys treat 1990 as the union of two German states. The treaty text is not on this page.

No treaty name is stated.

Medieval Rus is a survey subject. Whether modern Russia, Ukraine, or another state inherits that story is contested. This page does not award it.

Multiple sides. No verdict on the Kyiv-centered period is given.

The tsarist empire and the Soviet Union can each be called a height of power. The choice is interpretation.

No border is drawn in this stub.

Revolution, the Soviet state, and that state's end are survey topics. A present-day war is not narrated here.

Conquest in those centuries is a category, not a case file.

The Russian Federation is the modern state named on this seal. Descriptions of how it holds power are contested and not settled as a slogan.

No constitution is stated.

The Mali Empire is a historical state of the western Sudan in the Britannica survey, associated with the upper Niger. This portal does not list founding years.

Survey identification only. No ruler is named.

Surveys often name Mansa Musa when they discuss the Mali Empire's fame. This page does not repeat anecdotes about wealth.

Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art is the museum shelf for objects, none of which are placed.

Later West African states, including Songhai in the same surveys, follow the Mali Empire. No battle is described.

The chip cites the survey. No further particular is added.

The Republic of Mali is a modern West African state. It shares a name with the medieval empire and is not that empire continued. Colonial rule and independence are a separate sequence.

People who live in Mali are not a defendant. Present conflict is omitted.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art titles this ivory figure “Goddess of Upper Egypt” and dates it about 1550–1300 BCE. That date line is the museum’s. Accession 22.9.4. No king list is printed here.

Goddess of Upper Egypt. Ivory. The Met’s date line is about 1550–1300 BCE. Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1922.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes this as a Viking sword of the 10th century, European, probably Scandinavia, in steel, copper, silver, and niello. The place and the century are the museum’s. No voyage is drawn.

Viking sword. 10th century. Probably Scandinavia. Rogers Fund, 1955. The Met’s record.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art places this porcelain vase in China and dates it 1678–88. It is Jingdezhen ware with a peach-bloom glaze. That range is the museum’s. No dynasty is named the peak.

Vase with coiling dragon. China, 1678–88, in the Met’s date line. Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art titles this argillite sculpture “The Goddess Durga Slaying the Demon Buffalo Mahisha,” 12th century, and places it in Bangladesh or India (Bengal). The geography is the museum’s alternative, not a single founding.

Durga and Mahisha. 12th century. Bangladesh or India (Bengal), as the Met states it. Purchase, Diana L. and Arthur G. Altschul Gift, 1993.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art calls this a carved American eagle, 1809–11, wood gessoed and gilded, with cast iron. The years are the museum’s. The bird is not an endorsement of whoever holds office.

Eagle. American, 1809–11, in the Met’s date line. Purchase, Sansbury-Mills Fund and others, 2002.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies this limewood sculpture as a German Palmesel of the 15th century, from The Cloisters. The century is the museum’s. Belief here is descriptive. The Nazi years are not a height.

Palmesel. German, 15th century, in the Met’s date line. The Cloisters Collection, 1955.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art calls this a Russian devotional icon of the 19th century, copper alloy and enamel. The century and the culture line are the museum’s. Medieval Rus is not awarded to one capital on this page.

Devotional icon. Russian, 19th century, in the Met’s date line. Gift of Percy Stickney Grant, 1918.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies this wood figure as Dogon peoples, 14th–17th century. That is the museum’s culture line. It is not an object of the Mali Empire, and it is not the Republic of Mali.

Priest with raised arms. Dogon peoples, 14th–17th century, in the Met’s date line. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1969.

A second ivory in the same 1922 gift is titled “Goddess of Lower Egypt.” The Met dates it about 1550–1300 BCE as well.

Goddess of Lower Egypt. Ivory. The Met’s date line is about 1550–1300 BCE. Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1922.

A second piece is an ax head the Met calls Scandinavian, 11th–12th century, in steel and silver.

Ax head. Scandinavian, 11th–12th century, in the Met’s date line. Gift of Laird Landmann and Kathleen Kinney Landmann.

A second vase, also Jingdezhen ware with peach-bloom glaze, is dated by the Met 1713–22 and placed in China.

Vase. China, 1713–22, in the Met’s date line. Jingdezhen ware. Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913.

A second sculpture is Vishvarupa Vishnu, stone, 6th century. The Met places it in India, in Jammu and Kashmir, the ancient kingdom of Kashmir.

Vishvarupa Vishnu. 6th century. India (Jammu and Kashmir, ancient kingdom of Kashmir), as the Met states it. Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, 1986.

A second eagle in the American Wing is dated by the Met 1800–1830, pine with oil gilding and iron.

Eagle. American, 1800–1830, in the Met’s date line. Purchase, bequest of Ella Morris de Peyster, by exchange, 1959.

A second object is a German stoneware jug the Met dates to the late 1300s or early 1400s.

Jug. German, late 1300s or early 1400s, in the Met’s date line. Partially salt-glazed stoneware. Gift of Anthony and Lois Blumka, 1991.

The opening film shows Earth and a solar array from the International Space Station. It is a NASA public-domain timelapse. It does not date the universe.

Twelve seconds, looped, silent. Not a cosmic age.

The western-hemisphere plate is a NASA Blue Marble composite. It shows land, cloud, and ocean. It is not a political map and not a formation date for Earth.

Credit on the frame: NASA, Reto Stöckli, Robert Simmon.

The countries named on the seals are modern states. The portals treat them as distinct from the older surveys set on related land. That separation is a frame for reading, not a verdict about inheritance.

Officeholders are not named. The fjord photograph is a place, not a state.

Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, with an uncertainty of less than 1 percent.

Narration rounds to four and a half billion.

Homo sapiens have lived since about 300,000 years ago, evolving in Africa.

“From nothing written” is narration: no writing, not no ancestors. The Mali photograph is a present-day landscape, not a fossil site.

The earliest hearths are at least 790,000 years old.

Those hearths predate Homo sapiens. The aurora film is a stand-in for firelight, not an archaeological image.

Farming began in the Neolithic, first in Southwest Asia roughly 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, and arose independently in several regions.

The Nile photograph is from 2025 and stands for river farming in general.

In the Near East, iron came into wide use for tools and weapons from about 1200 BCE; dates differ by region.

The axe on screen is a much later Met object, used to show the material, not the date.

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 18th century. Alexandre Promio filmed the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid in 1897.

Film record: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Pyramides,_1897.webm

People have lived and worked aboard the International Space Station continuously since November 2000.

The film is a NASA station pass over the United States at night.