Tutor profile: Thomas M.

Although a defeat, how did the Spartan holdout at Thermopylae eventually led to a Greek victory in the Persian Wars and ultimately change the course of World History?

The last stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae held the Persian advance off long enough for the Athenians to evacuate their city. Although the Persians razed it, the leaders, both civil and military, were safe. Themistokles, the chief of these, would then led the Athenian fleet to victory at the Battle of Salamis, turning the tide of the war. With Athens being the cradle of democracy, if the Persians would taken a populated city and massacred its inhabitants, it is likely the whole idea of democracy would have died with them.

How was the success of the Russian Revolution a cause of the United States entering World War I?

President Woodrow Wilson's whole rationale for assisting the Allied Powers during World War I was to "make the world safe for democracy." The Central Powers were composed of three empires (Austria-Hungary, German, and Ottoman) against a constitutional monarchy (Great Britain) and republic (France). However, Russia was also one of the Allies and ruled by an autocratic absolute monarch called a Czar. The Russian Revolution forced the Czar to abdicate and set up a provisional democratic government in his place. With this development, Wilson could now say involvement in war would "make the world safe for democracy" with a straight face.

How did the Crusades impact Europe and serve as a turning point for the development of Europe out of the Medieval into the Early Modern period?

The Crusades impacted Europe by opening new frontiers on multiple fronts. Crusaders brought back ancient sources on science, mathematics and philosophy that were long thought lost by the West but had been preserved by Muslim scholars. This helped jumpstart the desire by European intellectuals to "return to the fonts" that culminated first in the Renaissance and ultimately in the Scientific Revolution. Moreover, the exposure of Europeans to the cultures of the Near East, and more importantly their spices, sparked a drive to explore the Far East which culminated in the Age of Exploration and "Discovery" of America