British Empire trade oceans influence Asia Latin America

Britain held power beyond the lands it ruled

Britain’s control of global trade and the seas gave it influence far beyond the territories it formally ruled. In parts of Asia and Latin America, it could shape economies and enforce its interests without making those places formal parts of its empire.

Hebrew returned as an everyday spoken language

Hebrew stopped being regularly spoken sometime between 200 and 400 CE but remained in literary and religious use. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was revived as an everyday spoken language on a large scale—an exceptionally rare case of a language returning to daily use after centuries.

Earth's first oxygen was swallowed by rocks and oceans

Microbes were producing oxygen hundreds of millions of years before Earth's atmosphere became oxygen-rich. At first, much of that oxygen reacted with dissolved iron and other chemicals instead of accumulating in the air. Only after these chemical sinks could no longer consume oxygen as quickly as it was produced did atmospheric oxygen begin its major rise, around 2.4 billion years ago.

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British Empire trade oceans influence Asia Latin America

Britain held power beyond the lands it ruled

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