Rivers of Empire

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780195078060
Total Pages : 624 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis Rivers of Empire by : Donald Worster

Download or read book Rivers of Empire written by Donald Worster and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American West, blessed with an abundance of earth and sky but cursed with a scarcity of life's most fundamental need, has long dreamed of harnessing all its rivers to produce unlimited wealth and power. In Rivers of Empire, award-winning historian Donald Worster tells the story of this dream and its outcome. He shows how, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Mormons were the first attempting to make that dream a reality, damming and diverting rivers to irrigate their land. He follows this intriguing history through the 1930s, when the federal government built hundreds of dams on every major western river, thereby laying the foundation for the cities and farms, money and power of today's West. Yet while these cities have become paradigms of modern American urban centers, and the farms successful high-tech enterprises, Worster reminds us that the costs have been extremely high. Along with the wealth has come massive ecological damage, a redistribution of power to bureaucratic and economic elites, and a class conflict still on the upswing. As a result, the future of this "hydraulic West" is increasingly uncertain, as water continues to be a scarce resource, inadequate to the demand, and declining in quality.

Rivers of the Sultan

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019754729X
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Rivers of the Sultan by : Faisal H. Husain

Download or read book Rivers of the Sultan written by Faisal H. Husain and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tigris and Euphrates rivers run through the heart of the Middle East and merge in the area of Mesopotamia known as the "cradle of civilization." In their long and volatile political history, the sixteenth century ushered in a rare era of stability and integration. A series of military campaigns between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf brought the entirety of their flow under the institutional control of the Ottoman Empire, then at the peak of its power and wealth. Rivers of the Sultan tells the history of the Tigris and Euphrates during the early modern period. Under the leadership of Sultan Süleyman I, the rivers became Ottoman from mountain to ocean, managed by a political elite that pledged allegiance to a single household, professed a common religion, spoke a lingua franca, and received orders from a central administration based in Istanbul. Faisal Husain details how Ottoman unification institutionalized cooperation among the rivers' dominant users and improved the exploitation of their waters for navigation and food production. Istanbul harnessed the energy and resources of the rivers for its security and economic needs through a complex network of forts, canals, bridges, and shipyards. Above all, the imperial approach to river management rebalanced the natural resource disparity within the Tigris-Euphrates basin. Istanbul regularly organized shipments of grain, metal, and timber from upstream areas of surplus in Anatolia to downstream areas of need in Iraq. Through this policy of natural resource redistribution, the Ottoman Empire strengthened its presence in the eastern borderland region with the Safavid Empire and fended off challenges to its authority. Placing these world historic bodies of water at its center, Rivers of the Sultan reveals intimate bonds between state and society, metropole and periphery, and nature and culture in the early modern world.

Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome

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Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 080786904X
Total Pages : 608 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome by : Brian Campbell

Download or read book Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome written by Brian Campbell and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Figuring in myth, religion, law, the military, commerce, and transportation, rivers were at the heart of Rome's increasing exploitation of the environment of the Mediterranean world. In Rivers and the Power of Ancient Rome, Brian Campbell explores the role and influence of rivers and their surrounding landscape on the society and culture of the Roman Empire. Examining artistic representations of rivers, related architecture, and the work of ancient geographers and topographers, as well as writers who describe rivers, Campbell reveals how Romans defined the geographical areas they conquered and how geography and natural surroundings related to their society and activities. In addition, he illuminates the prominence and value of rivers in the control and expansion of the Roman Empire--through the legal regulation of riverine activities, the exploitation of rivers in military tactics, and the use of rivers as routes of communication and movement. Campbell shows how a technological understanding of--and even mastery over--the forces of the river helped Rome rise to its central place in the ancient world.

By the Rivers of Water

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Author :
Publisher : Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN 13 : 0465002722
Total Pages : 490 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis By the Rivers of Water by : Erskine Clarke

Download or read book By the Rivers of Water written by Erskine Clarke and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a portrait of an early nineteenth-century missionary couple who worked to overturn slavery in Liberia, where conflicts between settlers and natives forced them to return to a war-stricken U.S. and make a tragic decision.

Rivers of Gold

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Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0804152144
Total Pages : 720 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Rivers of Gold by : Hugh Thomas

Download or read book Rivers of Gold written by Hugh Thomas and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain’s early conquests in the Americas. Hugh Thomas’s magisterial narrative of Spain in the New World has all the characteristics of great historical literature: amazing discoveries, ambition, greed, religious fanaticism, court intrigue, and a battle for the soul of humankind. Hugh Thomas shows Spain at the dawn of the sixteenth century as a world power on the brink of greatness. Her monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, had retaken Granada from Islam, thereby completing restoration of the entire Iberian peninsula to Catholic rule. Flush with success, they agreed to sponsor an obscure Genoese sailor’s plan to sail west to the Indies, where, legend purported, gold and spices flowed as if they were rivers. For Spain and for the world, this decision to send Christopher Columbus west was epochal—the dividing line between the medieval and the modern. Spain’s colonial adventures began inauspiciously: Columbus’s meagerly funded expedition cost less than a Spanish princess’s recent wedding. In spite of its small scale, it was a mission of astounding scope: to claim for Spain all the wealth of the Indies. The gold alone, thought Columbus, would fund a grand Crusade to reunite Christendom with its holy city, Jerusalem. The lofty aspirations of the first explorers died hard, as the pursuit of wealth and glory competed with the pursuit of pious impulses. The adventurers from Spain were also, of course, curious about geographical mysteries, and they had a remarkable loyalty to their country. But rather than bridging earth and heaven, Spain’s many conquests bore a bitter fruit. In their search for gold, Spaniards enslaved “Indians” from the Bahamas and the South American mainland. The eloquent protests of Bartolomé de las Casas, here much discussed, began almost immediately. Columbus and other Spanish explorers—Cortés, Ponce de León, and Magellan among them—created an empire for Spain of unsurpassed size and scope. But the door was soon open for other powers, enemies of Spain, to stake their claims. Great men and women dominate these pages: cardinals and bishops, priors and sailors, landowners and warriors, princes and priests, noblemen and their determined wives. Rivers of Gold is a great story brilliantly told. More significant, it is an engrossing history with many profound—often disturbing—echoes in the present.

Between the Rivers

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Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1429914963
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Between the Rivers by : Harry Turtledove

Download or read book Between the Rivers written by Harry Turtledove and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the sun-drenched dawn of human history, in the great plain between the two great rivers, are the cities of men. And each city is ruled by its god. But the god of the city of Gibil is lazy and has let the men of his city develop the habit of thinking for themselves. Now the men of Gibil have begun to devise arithmetic, and commerce, and are sending expeditions to trade with other lands. They're starting to think that perhaps men needn't always be subject to the whims of gods. This has the other god worried. And well they might be...because human cleverness, once awakened, isn't likely to be easily squelched.

Rivers in the Desert

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Author :
Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 1497613779
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (976 download)

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Book Synopsis Rivers in the Desert by : Margaret Leslie Davis

Download or read book Rivers in the Desert written by Margaret Leslie Davis and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise and fall of William Mulholland, and the story of L.A.’s disastrous dam collapse: “A dramatic saga of ambition, politics, money and betrayal” (Los Angeles Daily News). Rivers in the Desert follows the remarkable career of William Mulholland, the visionary who engineered the rise of Los Angeles as the greatest American city west of the Mississippi. He sought to transform the sparse and barren desert into an inhabitable environment by designing the longest aqueduct in the Western Hemisphere, bringing water from the mountains to support a large city. This “fascinating history” chronicles Mulholland’s dramatic ascension to wealth and fame—followed by his tragic downfall after the sudden collapse of the dam he had constructed to safeguard the water supply (Newsweek). The disaster, which killed at least five hundred people, caused his repudiation by allies, friends, and a previously adoring community. Epic in scope, Rivers in the Desert chronicles the history of Los Angeles and examines the tragic fate of the man who rescued it. “An arresting biography of William Mulholland, the visionary Los Angeles Water Department engineer . . . [his] personal and public dramas make for gripping reading.” —Publishers Weekly “A fascinating look at the political maneuvering and engineering marvels that moved the City of Angels into the first rank of American cities.” —Booklist

River of Dark Dreams

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674074882
Total Pages : 561 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis River of Dark Dreams by : Walter Johnson

Download or read book River of Dark Dreams written by Walter Johnson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: River of Dark Dreams places the Cotton Kingdom at the center of worldwide webs of exchange and exploitation that extended across oceans and drove an insatiable hunger for new lands. This bold reaccounting dramatically alters our understanding of American slavery and its role in U.S. expansionism, global capitalism, and the upcoming Civil War.

Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River

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Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393338606
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (933 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River by : Alice Albinia

Download or read book Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River written by Alice Albinia and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Albinia follows the Indus River in Asia, one of the largest rivers in the world, through 2,000 miles of geography and back to a time 5,000 years ago when a string of sophisticated cities grew on its banks. Illustrations.

Cadillac Desert

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9780140178241
Total Pages : 612 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (782 download)

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Book Synopsis Cadillac Desert by : Marc Reisner

Download or read book Cadillac Desert written by Marc Reisner and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1993-06-01 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I’ve been thinking a lot about Cadillac Desert in the past few weeks, as the rain fell and fell and kept falling over California, much of which, despite the pouring heavens, seems likely to remain in the grip of a severe drought. Reisner anticipated this moment. He worried that the West’s success with irrigation could be a mirage — that it took water for granted and didn’t appreciate the precariousness of our capacity to control it.” – Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times, January 20,2023 "The definitive work on the West's water crisis." --Newsweek The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecological and economic disaster. In his landmark book, Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West. Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden--an Eden that may only be a mirage. This edition includes a new postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, that updates Western water issues over the last two decades, including the long-term impact of climate change and how the region can prepare for the future.

Unruly Waters

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465097731
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis Unruly Waters by : Sunil Amrith

Download or read book Unruly Waters written by Sunil Amrith and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a MacArthur "Genius," a bold new perspective on the history of Asia, highlighting the long quest to tame its waters Asia's history has been shaped by her waters. In Unruly Waters, historian Sunil Amrith reimagines Asia's history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, and seas--and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them. Looking out from India, he shows how dreams and fears of water shaped visions of political independence and economic development, provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed powerful tensions within and between nations. Today, Asian nations are racing to construct hundreds of dams in the Himalayas, with dire environmental impacts; hundreds of millions crowd into coastal cities threatened by cyclones and storm surges. In an age of climate change, Unruly Waters is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Asia's past and its future.

Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190253231
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood by : Anthony Kaldellis

Download or read book Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood written by Anthony Kaldellis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-07 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second half of the tenth century, Byzantium embarked on a series of spectacular conquests: first in the southeast against the Arabs, then in Bulgaria, and finally in the Georgian and Armenian lands. By the early eleventh century, the empire was the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. It was also expanding economically, demographically, and, in time, intellectually as well. Yet this imperial project came to a crashing collapse fifty years later, when political disunity, fiscal mismanagement, and defeat at the hands of the Seljuks in the east and the Normans in the west brought an end to Byzantine hegemony. By 1081, not only was its dominance of southern Italy, the Balkans, Caucasus, and northern Mesopotamia over but Byzantium's very existence was threatened. How did this dramatic transformation happen? Based on a close examination of the relevant sources, this history-the first of its kind in over a century-offers a new reconstruction of the key events and crucial reigns as well as a different model for understanding imperial politics and wars, both civil and foreign. In addition to providing a badly needed narrative of this critical period of Byzantine history, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood offers new interpretations of key topics relevant to the medieval era. The narrative unfolds in three parts: the first covers the years 955-1025, a period of imperial conquest and consolidation of authority under the great emperor Basil "the Bulgar-Slayer." The second (1025-1059) examines the dispersal of centralized authority in Constantinople as well as the emergence of new foreign enemies (Pechenegs, Seljuks, and Normans). The last section chronicles the spectacular collapse of the empire during the second half of the eleventh century, concluding with a look at the First Crusade and its consequences for Byzantine relations with the powers of Western Europe. This briskly paced and thoroughly investigated narrative vividly brings to life one of the most exciting and transformative eras of medieval history.

Empires, Nations, and Families

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Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 0803224052
Total Pages : 647 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires, Nations, and Families by : Anne Farrar Hyde

Download or read book Empires, Nations, and Families written by Anne Farrar Hyde and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To most people living in the West, the Louisiana Purchase made little difference: the United States was just another imperial overlord to be assessed and manipulated. This was not, as Empires, Nations, and Families makes clear, virgin wilderness discovered by virtuous Anglo entrepreneurs. Rather, the United States was a newcomer in a place already complicated by vying empires. This book documents the broad family associations that crossed national and ethnic lines and that, along with the river systems of the trans-Mississippi West, formed the basis for a global trade in furs that had operated for hundreds of years before the land became part of the United States. ø Empires, Nations, and Families shows how the world of river and maritime trade effectively shifted political power away from military and diplomatic circles into the hands of local people. Tracing family stories from the Canadian North to the Spanish and Mexican borderlands and from the Pacific Coast to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, Anne F. Hyde?s narrative moves from the earliest years of the Indian trade to the Mexican War and the gold rush era. Her work reveals how, in the 1850s, immigrants to these newest regions of the United States violently wrested control from Native and other powers, and how conquest and competing demands for land and resources brought about a volatile frontier culture?not at all the peace and prosperity that the new power had promised.

Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold

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Author :
Publisher : Grove Press
ISBN 13 : 9780802138019
Total Pages : 452 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold by : Mark Cocker

Download or read book Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold written by Mark Cocker and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the conquest of Mexico, the British onslaught on the Tasmanian Aborigines, the uprooting of the Apaches, and the German campaign against the tribes of southwest Africa, Cocker illuminates the fundamental experiences that underlie colonial expansion around the globe.

The Book of Mountains and Rivers

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Author :
Publisher : Cn Times Books Incorporated
ISBN 13 : 9781627741088
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis The Book of Mountains and Rivers by : Qiuyu Yu

Download or read book The Book of Mountains and Rivers written by Qiuyu Yu and published by Cn Times Books Incorporated. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yu Qiuyu is one of China's greatest modern essayists. Sometimes a prickly commentator, he is above all a storyteller. In this volume he takes his inspiration from China's geography, both human and physical, and brings the culture of his country to life with human characters and historical narrative. The forests of Hainan, the Three Gorges, classical pagodas, ancient remains under modern Shanghai, even the open skies... all have their stories and cultural connections, traced with erudition and wit by an inquisitive mind. "I sought a path across mountains and rivers, plastering my brief life across a rugged corner of this planet," explains Yu Qiuyu. The Book of Rivers and Mountains is another in a series of meditative essays about Chinese culture and history. In this book he returns to the Chinese mainland in contemplation of its people and the natural landscape that has shaped their way of life. He refers to mountains and rivers as the "facial expressions of the land" and the only true way of understanding the history of the country and its people.

Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108681727
Total Pages : 485 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (86 download)

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Book Synopsis Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta by : Debjani Bhattacharyya

Download or read book Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta written by Debjani Bhattacharyya and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-24 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when a distant colonial power tries to tame an unfamiliar terrain in the world's largest tidal delta? This history of dramatic ecological changes in the Bengal Delta from 1760 to 1920 involves land, water and humans, tracing the stories and struggles that link them together. Pushing beyond narratives of environmental decline, Bhattacharyya argues that 'property-thinking', a governing tool critical in making land and water discrete categories of bureaucratic and legal management, was at the heart of colonial urbanization and the technologies behind the draining of Calcutta. The story of ecological change is narrated alongside emergent practices of land speculation and transformation in colonial law. Bhattacharyya demonstrates how this history continues to shape our built environments with devastating consequences, as shown in the Bay of Bengal's receding coastline.

Dividing the Spoils

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199931526
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis Dividing the Spoils by : Robin Waterfield

Download or read book Dividing the Spoils written by Robin Waterfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the wars that led to the break-up of Alexander the Great's vast empire after his death in 323 BC and the brilliant cultural developments which accompanied this birth of a new world.