This is based on archives dating back hundreds of years. We really need to spend time and effort on making sure that there will be comparable archives of our time. Databases are neat and all, but how can we make them last for hundreds of years..?
Perspective. A Tudor ocean voyage was a big deal. It cost huge sums both in gold and lives. It was expected that at least some people would die on any long voyage. These were big events that had immediate impact on the societies that launched them. Most required government license, if not direct royal oversight. Today's ocean voyages do not compare. Our closest equivalent might be manned space travel. Those are very well documented.
Alas, people mostly write down the boring stuff like what kings reigned when and what laws they passed. The more interesting everyday stuff tends to be less well preserved in writing. (One of the reasons the cuneiform tablets with commercial and marriage contracts are so interesting.)
"These people really liked shiny aluminum platters and they kept them inside small, metal boxes. We presume it's some kind of ward against evil spirits because several of these were present in every home."
I've worked with customer's on different clustering algorithms but, in all cases so far, they have proven unsatisfactory. We always end up with just a lot of points on the map instead.
'S funny how ships - moving stuff around - generated merchant wealth for quite a few republics, from Athens and Carthage to Venice and the Hanseatic League.
Classical Rome seems exceptional as a republic of landlubbers, who actually cast a beady eye on merchant wealth.
> Aquitaine passed to France in 1137 when the duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine married Louis VII of France, but their marriage was annulled in 1152. When Eleanor's new husband became King Henry II of England in 1154, the area became an English possession, and the cornerstone of the so-called Angevin Empire. Aquitaine remained English until the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453, when it was annexed by France.
