Snapshot · Empire: World History
At the Battle of Little Bighorn in June 1876, Custer attacked a large Lakota and Cheyenne encampment without reinforcements and his 7th Cavalry was almost completely destroyed; Custer himself was killed.
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At 14:27 · chapter starts 14:20
Custer attempted to surprise a massive Lakota and Northern Cheyenne encampment without waiting for reinforcements — his characteristic recklessness proved fatal. His 7th Cavalry was almost completely wiped out and Custer himself killed. It was an amazingly decisive Lakota military victory, as Davis puts it. But it was also a Pyrrhic one. News of Custer's death reached Philadelphia just as the country was celebrating the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. Americans were irate. Custer was painted as a Christian martyr killed by 'native savages,' and the United States, Davis explains, 'no longer has any interest in treaties, has no interest at all in diplomacy.' The process of seizing the Black Hills began in earnest — with direct implications for the mountain that would become Mount Rushmore.
At Little Bighorn in June 1876, Custer attacked a massive Lakota and Cheyenne encampment without reinforcements and was nearly completely wiped out — a decisive Lakota military victory. But it was a Pyrrhic win: the news enraged a centennial-celebrating America, painted Custer as a martyr, and ended any US interest in diplomacy with the Lakota, accelerating the seizure of the Black Hills.
New York lawyer Charles Rushmore had his name attached to the mountain after a guide jokingly named it after him in 1885; he later paid just $5,000 toward the memorial fund, making it the cheapest naming rights in American history.
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In the 1820s, China accounted for 25% of global economic output, making it the world's largest economic machine — a historical precedent for its current AI superpower ambitions.
66 Americans held hostage at the US Embassy in Iran were released after 444 days, within hours of Reagan's inauguration.
In the first round of the secret arms deal, 508 TOW missiles were transferred from Israel to Iran in exchange for hostage releases.
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