Adam Smith is often referred to as “the father of modern economics” for his writings on laissez-faire and free market capitalism. Smith argued in The Wealth of Nations that the government should try and avoid interfering in the economy and that the economy should be almost completely unregulated. His writings and ideas remain deeply influential.

In economics, a deficit occurs when the amount of money being spent (expenditures) exceeds the amount of money being collected (revenue) over a given period of time.

The Encomienda System was established by the Spanish in the New World chiefly to facilitate the abuse of the Native American population as a source of labor. A Spanish official was granted the right to effectively own a portion of the native population and was free to force them into whichever form of labor was most immediately profitable, at the expense of millions of native lives. In exchange, the Spanish official was supposed to indoctrinate the native population into the Christian faith.

Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors are responsible for overthrowing the Aztec Empire in the early part of the sixteenth century. If you did not know this you might have made a reasonable guess because the name Hernan Cortes sounds Spanish. The Spanish were the first to arrive in the New World en masse and overthrew the great Aztec and Incan Empires with their advanced technology and merciless military tactics. The Mayan Empire died out several hundred years before the arrival of the Spanish. The Portuguese Empire persisted for a long time during the European Age of Colonialism. The Mughal Empire existed in India before the arrival of the British. The Mongolian Empire conquered massive swathes of Europe and Asia before eventually succumbing to the difficulties of administering such a vast empire.

Throughout history, particularly in the twentieth century, there have been numerous attempts by governments to deliberately plan and carry out the complete extermination of ethnic, religious, or cultural groups. Most famous of these is the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany attempted to wipe out the Jewish population of Europe (as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally disabled, and communists). Other famous genocides include the Armenian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Cambodian Genocide.

The major civilizations of early settled human history arose in the land of Mesopotamia (literally "the land between two rivers"). This land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is often called The Fertile Crescent because it was an extremely abundant source of food and agricultural land for the early civilizations, like the Babylonians and Sumerians.

The term, "Bourgeoise," refers to the Middle class. It has its origins in the French Revolution. The term carries connotations suggesting that the members of this class are unusually materialistic or obsessed with money.

The Nile River in East Africa is the longest river in the world; it runs through what is otherwise a relatively dry and barren environment. As such, its importance to early agricultural civilizations cannot be overstated. The civilization of Ancient Egypt sprang up along the banks of the Nile River.

The Code of Hammurabi is one of the earliest known examples of written law in the ancient world. It was written, supposedly, by the Babylonian King, Hammurabi.

The religion of Christianity emerged relatively quickly following the death of Christ. It spread around the Roman Empire at rapid pace, and within a few hundred years was adopted, by the Emperor Constantine, as the official religion of the Roman Empire.