"The Empire Never Ended"

George Washington envisioned a wooded area alongside the Potomac River as the new federal city. The highest hill in the area, Jenkins Heights, was then owned by Daniel Carroll. In 1663, the owner of this land had been Francis Pope. Pope's name for the high hill was "Rome", and he called the nearby waterway "the Tiber." [1]

Ancient Rome was a mere city which conquered the world. Although it apparently declined and fell, some say it did not fall but changed its form into the Roman Catholic Church and still dominates the world. Echoing this idea, science fiction writer Philip K. Dick theorized an enormous false memory imposed upon all humanity in which the last 2000 years of "history" never happened. According to Dick, author of the VALIS trilogy, we have been brainwashed by the Roman Empire to think we are living in what is really a totally false world. [2]

Washington's new Rome was surveyed, planned, designed and built largely by members of the secret society of Freemasons. On October 13, 1792 the cornerstone was laid for the President's House (now known as the White House). This cornerstone ceremony was performed by "the Free Masons of George-town and its vicinity," Georgetown Lodge No. 9 of Maryland. A year later, in September of 1793, freemason George Washington and Georgetown Lodge No. 9 performed another cornerstone ceremony, this time for the future Capitol Building. [1]

The name "Capitol" relates to the Latin Capitolium, a temple of Jupiter at Rome on the Capitoline hill. [3]

George Washington was initiated into Freemasonry on November 4, 1752. He was the first Master of the Alexandria Lodge No. 22 between April 1788 and December 1789; he was therefore a Master Mason upon his uncontested inauguration as first U.S. president on April 30, 1789. A lambskin apron with Masonic symbols, given to him by the French general Lafayette, was worn by Washington during the Capitol cornerstone ceremony. When he died, Washington was buried with Masonic honors; all except one of his pallbearers were members of Alexandria Lodge No. 22. [1]

The obelisk-inspired Washington Monument was originally planned as a tomb for the deceased Master Mason Washington. But when Washington's wife Martha died, it became impossible to legally exhume the remains of the first president and rebury them in the Capitoline City.

The original conception for the design of the Washington Monument was a pyramid, 100 feet square at the base. The project was delayed. In 1833, the Washington National Monument Society's first design for the memorial was a truncated pyramid with interior light coming from an apex "oculus" (eye). [1] This design mirrors the Illuminati symbol of pyramid with all-seeing eye at the apex. The finally realized Washington Monument, dedicated on February 21, 1885, combines the Egyptian themes of obelisk and pyramid, with the pyramid being at the top.

Both sides of the Great Seal of the United States appear on the back of the one-dollar Federal Reserve note. The front of the Seal has an eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch. The reverse side of the Seal, showing a truncated pyramid with all-seeing eye at the top, was originally not well known. The front of the Seal was cut in brass as a die in 1780 and was immediately used to authenticate official documents. But the reverse side, despite Congressional order to cut it as a die, was not implemented. Over 100 years after 1780, the reverse had still not been engraved. [1]

At the bottom of the pyramid, the Seal bears the motto "Novus Ordo Seclorum." This motto is adapted from a line in the Roman poet Virgil's "Bucolics": "...magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo" (the great series of ages begins anew). [1] Virgil's line, in turn, was inspired by the secret Sibyline books, said to contain details of the destiny of the Roman Empire. [4]

The Roman legions marched behind the imperial eagle. The U.S. legions march behind the eagle of empire. In at least one sense Philip K. Dick was correct when he wrote, "the Empire never ended."

Amerika
Notes

[1] Ovason, David. The Secret Architecture ofour Nation's Capital. ISBN: 0-06-019537-1.

[2] Dick, Philip K. Summarized in Wilson, Robert Anton. Everything Is Under Control. ISBN: 0-06-273417-2.

[3] Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary.

[4] Howard, Michael. The Occult Conspiracy.ISBN: 1-56731-255-X.

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH Although the Romans were the most level-headed and fearless people the world has ever known, they were obsessed with prophecies and omens. Arguably the most famous prediction in history is the one concerning the fate of Julius Caesar, made by the see Vestricius Spurinna: 'Beware the Ides of March.' This warning was made in 44 BC. That year the oligarchic republic was collapsing, and Pompey, the champion of the Roman nobility had been killed in a battle. Julius Caesar, his father-in-law and conqueror, at the age of 55 had been declared dictator for life, and he dreamed of a Pax Romana stretching from Parthia to the western shores of Spain. Then came a terrible omen which even made Caesar shudder. In the city of Capua, Roman settlers unearthed the tomb of Capys, the city's founder, and discovered a bronze plaque which was inscribed with the chilling warning: 'When once the tomb of Capys is brought to light, then a branch of the Julian house will be slain by the hand of one of his kindred.' It wasn't widely known at the time, but a relative was involved in an assassination plot against Caesar. This person was Marcus Brutus, who was commonly believed to have been a descendant of Lucius Junius Brutus, who had routed an earlier monarchy of Rome. Marcus Brutus was cruelly goaded into joining in the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar by sixty conspirators who scrawled graffiti on the statue of Lucius Brutus which read: 'Your posterity is unworthy of you.' This message to Brutus was ambiguous, because it also intimated that he was the son of Caesar, and many thought that this was so, including Caesar himself. There were more 'omens' which intimated that something dire was in the offing. WIld birds fluttered and roosted in the Forum, and strange vision of fiery human-like figures were seen fighting. Caesar killed a wild animal, and when it was cut open, it was seen to have no heart. The respected augur Vestricius Spurinna told Caesar that a monstrous evil would manifest itself and threaten his life on the Ides (the fifteenth day) of March. Caesar never took the prophecy seriously, but as the 15th of March approached, many strange incidents took place around him. On the evening of 14th March, Caesar remarked to his wife that the best death would be the swiftest one, and no sooner had he ended the sentence when there was a loud unearthly howl somewhere outside. Later that evening while he and his wife Calpurnia were in bed, the couple were awakened by a tremendous howling gale which blasted open the doors and windows. Calpurnia awoke screaming and told Caesar that she had just suffered a vivid bloody nightmare about his fate. In the dream she had seen their home crumble and had been cradling her dead husband in her arms She begged him to postpone tomorrow's Senate meeting, and Calpurnia gave Caesar great cause for concern, because he had never known her to be superstitious. On the following day, Caesar, feeling confident and assuming all the so-called omens were but tricks of his mind, laughingly told his augur: 'Well Spurinna, the Ides of March have come.' 'Yes Caesar, come but not yet gone.' Spurinna replied. It was still only midday after all. Within minutes, Caesar had entered the Senate chambers and was distracted by Tillius Cimber until the other assassins had assembled close by. Then Cimber gave the signal to attack by baring Caesar's neck. The first blood was drawn by Casca, and Caesar grabbed his sword and shouted for help, but none came. The gaggle of assassins closed in, daggers drawn, ready to strike, when Brutus was allowed through. He stepped forward and stabbed Caesar in the groin. Struck with horror and despair, Julius Caesar gasped, 'You too, my child?' He knew by then that there was no hope of escape, and in a final act of pride, he covered his face with his robe and fell at the foot of Pompey's statue, with his blood ebbing away from the 23 stab wounds he'd sustained. Caesar's heir, the Emperor Augustus was another leader who consulted seers. When Augustus built a temple of Peace he asked the famous Oracle at Delphi how long the structure would stand. The answer he received was seemingly nonsensical at the time: 'Until a virgin gives birth to a child and yet remains a virgin.' Augustus interpreted the answer as an indication that the temple would last forever, but at the time of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Temple of Peace suddenly collapsed on its foundations for no apparent reason. Furthermore, shortly before the temple crumbled, Augustus consulted another prominent prophetess known as the Tiburtine Sibyl. He asked her whether he should accept the title of God of Nations which had been conferred on him from the Senate. As the Sibyl muttered an unintelligible phrase in a trance-like state, a meteor flashed across the sky. The seeress suddenly broke out of her trance and stated: 'A Child has just been born who is the true God of the World. He is of humble birth and from an obscure race. He will work miracles but will be persecuted as a result. In the end though, he will be victorious over death itself, rising from where his killers entombed him.'   Roman History Legend has it that Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus about 753 BC. From 753 to 510 BC, Rome was ruled by kings, the Tarquins. From 510 to 27 BC, Rome was a republic divided into freemen called patricians, and lower class plebs. A senate, composed of patricians, selected a king from among themselves; together with the senate, he governed for life. The plebeians rebelled, with some gaining increased wealth and representation in the senate. A new order formed composed of an aristocratic party and a popular party; a dictator could be selected from either party during times of crisis, but in ordinary times the senate ruled Rome. That is until 49 BC when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, marched on Rome and in 48 BC became dictator. By 45 BC he defeated his last opponent and declared himself dictator for life. Two years earlier he had recognized his lover, Cleopatra of the Egyptian royal family, to be queen of Egypt. What made Julius Caesar great was not his military victory alone, in a society built on the principle of foreign conquest, but his capacity to govern by administrative skill rather than the sheer force of terror. In addition to being an unparalleled general, he was a cultured man appreciated for his skill in writing and speaking. Under his competent leadership, corruption in government declined and prosperity increased. After several years in power, it became clear to the members of the senate that Caesar expected them to take his declaration of 45 BC very seriously, and did not intend to vacate the position of dictator as was Roman custom. To remove any uncertainty about his intentions, Caesar began establishing himself as king, even designating Octavius, his great-nephew, to be his successor. Julius Caesar's determination to bring the republican tradition of Rome to an end was strongly opposed by those in the senate. In 44 BC, Cassius, Brutus and other senators assassinated him. In spite of their best efforts at orderly succession, the transition of power was sometimes marked by assassination and civil war. Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew, and Mark Antony joined forces in 42 BC to defeat Brutus, one of the chief architects of Caesar's assassination. Octavian took control of the western portion of the growing empire, and Mark Antony the Middle East...particularly Egypt. It did not take Cleopatra long to gain Mark Antony's affection and support for her own independent empire in the East. When Octavian defeated their forces, Cleopatra and Mark Antony committed suicide. By 29 BC, Octavian was the last man standing. As the sole victor of the civil wars, in 27 BC Octavianus became "Augustus", the first emperor of Rome. Amidst all this turmoil, Rome was at the creative height of its golden age of culture. Like his great-uncle, Augustus brought competence and prosperity to Rome; and it was during this age of Roman glory that Jesus is believed to have been born. But Jesus' remarkably brief life was presided over by Tiberius, whose rule extended from AD 14-37. Rome's good fortune was not limitless. From AD 54, the incompetent and mentally unbalanced Nero ruled Rome, until driven to suicide by the senate in 68 AD. Nero was significant largely because he presided over the historic rise of early Christianity. After some struggle, reasonably capable leaders governed the empire, but none of special consequence until the arrival of the "five good emperors..... who presided over the most majestic days of the Roman Empire." They were: (AD 96-98) the Nerva succession, (98-117) Trajan, (117-138) Hadrian, (138-161) Antoninus Pius, and (161-180) Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius was a noted stoic philosopher who showed uncommon concern for the well being of common Romans and even slaves. He built orphanages, hospitals, and reduced taxes, as well as humanizing the criminal justice system. But there was something else of consequence about this great Roman not often emphasized in school books: "Although he was particularly concerned with public welfare and even sold his personal possessions to alleviate the effects of famine and plague within the empire, he ruthlessly persecuted the Christians, believing them a threat to the imperial system." By the time of his own death from the plague in 180 AD, the Roman Empire was on the defensive, struggling to secure its outer borders and internal security, and not always successfully. At its height, the empire stretched as far north as Britain, and encompassed the entire Mediterranean area. The empire often imported the unrest in its provinces into the heart of Rome itself. By 212 AD, the emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all those born free anywhere in the empire. This gave those in the provinces a sense of being Roman, or at least having mobility throughout the empire; and this mobility was possible because of the extraordinary system of roads built over the centuries by the Roman legions to facilitate troop movement and trade. Not much more than a century after the death of Marcus Aurelius, Constantine joined his co-emperor Licinius in signing the Edict of Milan in 313 AD ending the persecution of Christians. Christianity had spread to every border of the Roman Empire along the relatively safe trade routes protected by Roman soldiers. Sometime between 451-496 AD, St. Patrick was converting the Irish to Roman Catholicism. It was to take more than another five hundred years to convert Russia. The empire had been on the defensive since the days of Marcus Aurelius, about 180 AD. By 410, the Germanic Visigoths were sacking Rome. The Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Huns were to raid Roman territories at will over the coming decades. The last of the Roman emperors, Romulus Augustulus died in 476 AD, and with him the Roman Empire in the West. The Byzantine Empire in the East was to continue for another thousand years, until finally being over-run in 1453 by Muslim Turks. Muslims were to take outright control of half of the former Christian lands under Roman administration. The collapse of the Roman Empire meant that control was lost over its borders and hostile peoples were able to penetrate into the heart of Europe.   THE NEW WORLD ORDER   The Roman Empire   The basic World politics and methods of warfare have not essentially changed since the days of Gaius Julius Caesar [100-44 BCE] and the glorious Roman Empire. During and after his military campaigns against Gaul (today's France) Julius Caesar wrote several books in which he explained his positions on handling the affairs of the World. Julius Caesar was a man of great vision, wisdom and courage. He felt that the only way to stop the countries from fighting one another was to unite the entire world under one rule, the rule that would establish eternal peace. That vision he named the New World Order, and it was to be carried out by Pax Romana (Peace under Roman Terms). Caesar never felt like he was invading countries. He "liberated" them. He "liberated them from the tyranny inflicted upon them by their own rulers". It was Gaius Julius Caesar who coined the term "divide and conquer". He never approved of those ideas which would jeopardize the lives of his legionaries. He avoided sending troops to fight in open battles. Instead, he would first incite a civil war in the targeted country, and then, when both sides have more or less exhausted their fighting potentials, the legionaries would move in and would be welcomed as the "liberators" rather than the "conquerors". Caesar made sure the peace settlements were made in such a way that peace was guaranteed for as long as the Roman legionaries remained in the "liberated" area. The few countries mighty Rome could not conquer, it imposed sanctions on. The Romans would simply build a wall around them. Since they could not conquer the Scotts, for instance, in his attempts to isolate the "barbarians" from the rest of the "civilized" world, the Roman emperor by the name of Hadrian built a wall in the north of England, and the portions of that wall are still there today.   So, what happened with the Roman Empire? Realizing he was losing his hold over the huge Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine [274(?)-337 CE] decided to abandon the old religion, which had exhausted its magick by then, and embrace Christianity, the religion of their enemies, the faith of the oppressed, as the official faith of the Roman Empire. The Romans never seemed to be impressed with the spiritual aspect of the new fast-spreading faith, but saw it as a potent tool for exerting power and influence. The Roman Empire might have collapsed politically, but on the level of power and influence, not only does Rome still exist, it never disappeared. It is still around and stronger than ever.   When the Romans started taking interest in Christianity, it was still looked upon as a sect of Judaism, not as a full-blown religion. They did not seem interested in some of the essential concepts contained in the original teachings of Jesus the Christ, so they took those teachings out of the Christian Scriptures and they persecuted those who still continued to practice them. They falsely introduced their desecrated version of Christianity as the "only true faith" which would replace the "old decadent pagan faith", and this new faith was said to be the "only way to reach God". They went as far as to edit the Bible and leave out those parts of the Scripture that did not suit their doctrine. (Researchers even point out that the Bible as we know it was not written by the original Disciples of Christ -- as the Church would have us believe -- but by the Church, several centuries after the death of Christ.) The Church claimed absolute control over human souls and in such fashion practiced total mind control of the population. It was very simple: whoever does as they are told will go to heaven, and all those who disobey will be excommunicated, and consequently not be saved from the Eternal Furnace. So, Rome changed its name to Vatican, and at the same time the means for establishing and maintaining world dominance switched from the mighty legionaries to the priests. The priests of this Roman church became the new soldiers of Rome. With this "edited" version of the Holy Book, the Church denied some of the essential aspects of Christianity, and labeled these practices as "paganism", "witchcraft", "devil-worshipping" etc., while the original teachings of Jesus - - which were in fact not much different from the faith of the Hindus or the old Egyptians -- became the "secret teachings" or the "lost knowledge"... Instead of teaching the "direct contact" legacy of Christ, the Church introduced the concept of faith as the the cornerstone of worship.   So, Rome became Vatican. Being in line with the original concepts of Julius Caesar and other Roman emperors, it was Vatican's intention to reestablish total control of the World. They made the practice of "direct contact" forbidden under the penalty of excommunication and/or death, regardless of what those practices may have been: meditation, yoga, ritual, anything. Those Christians who still practiced the original teachings were hunted down over the centuries. Regardless of what they called themselves, Bogomils, Cathars, Rosecruscians, Masons, Illuminati, Templars, etc., they were all forced to go underground in order to carry on with the work of God, and in order to survive, they had to organize themselves into the "secret societies". Apparently the same faith was shared by other organized religions to some extent. In order to avoid persecution of established religions, the keepers of the knowledge of the Ancients wrapped themselves up with that religion and hid inside of it. In Hinduism and Buddhism, there are Tantric sects, in Japan there is Zen, in Islam there are the Sufis, and the reason why most of them are so similar to each other is that they are the remnants of the Original Religion, focused on establishing unity with the Universe, rather than converting the whole World and then establishing control over the faithful.   On December 31, 1600, the British East India Company was formed. At that time, the World was divided. Ownership of one half was claimed by Portugal and the other half by Spain. Very soon that was changed. In the mid-19th century he ships of the East India Company were everywhere, they sailed around the Globe, in every direction always full, carrying different cargo to different countries. The company was involved in the starting and waging the Opium Wars with China, it was involved in slave trade. At that time the Great Britain was spread all over the World and regarded the entire World as its subject. The ships carried opium from India to China, tea from India and China to America, tobacco from America to Europe, slaves from Africa to America, etc.   In 1910, while living in Istanbul, Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorf, a self-styled Saxon aristocrat, who was in fact the son of a railroad worker, decided to found his own secret society based on a combination of Sufi mysticism, Freemasonry, alchemy and a right-wing political philosophy which was anti-Bolshevik and anti-Semitic. He fought in the Balkan War of 1912, and as a result of wounds he received, he returned to Germany. In 1916 von Sebottendorf made contact with the German Order. The Thule Society took its name from the mythical hyperborean island which once existed in the north Atlantic between Scandinavia and Greenland. It was believed by the occultists that this island had once been part of Atlantis and was the source of the occult wisdom of the Northern Mystery Tradition. Politically, the Thulists were committed to the establishing of a pan-German state based on the Habsburg dynasty which had abdicated in November, 1918, when faced with a socialist revolution in Austria. With the Communist uprisings in 1919 in defeated Germany the Thule Society went underground. They organized a terrorist network which supplied arms to the rightist counterrevolutionaries and distributed German nationalist and anti-Semitic literature calling upon the people to rise up against the Bolsheviks who had seized power in several German cities. As part of their popular movement against the Communists, the Thulists had started the German Workers Party. He committed suicide in 1945 when he heard the news of the German surrender.   During the First World War an Austrian artist called Adolf Hitler served in the First Company of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. He was awarded the Iron Cross for capturing a French officer and 15 men single-handed and armed only with a Luger pistol.   Adolf Hitler attended Lambach Monastery School and was a choirboy. One of the 19th century monks at this monastery had been Theodor von Hagen, a mystic who spent several years in Asia searching for Agharta, the mythical power centre of the world. His copious writings describing his search were probably available in the district when Hitler was a pupil at Lambach. Still visible today, in the roof and on portals at the monastery, are swastikas which may have been added by Von Hagen at his own expense. Hitler was a classmate of the Jewish philosopher Wittgenstein and it is suggested in a recent book The Jackdaw of Linz that Wittgenstein was the source of many of Hitler's early ideas. Certainly during the period of his military service in the Great War, Hitler was an apostle of the Buddhistic thinker Schopenhauer, could quote verbatim great tracts of his works, and was never without a copy of one or other publication while at the front. Probably the most reliable indications of Hitler's religious beliefs and intentions are to be found in his confidential table talks, from 1941 to 1944. In several of these he stated that the truth of religion is reincarnation: that there is no heaven, this being a Judeo-Christian invention; that Christianity is the worst lie ever foisted upon a suffering humanity; and communism is Christianity without the metaphysical trappings. The inference was that eventually Christianity would have to be disposed of, but this would obviously be a long term objective. One god is not a concept acceptable to fully developed systems based on reincarnation, which either dismiss the idea of a god (Theravada Buddhism), or accept a pantheon of gods and goddesses without limit (Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism). In view of Hitler's stated view of Christianity, it seems absurd that if he had a belief in a Supreme Deity it would be in the tribal god of the Jews. The clearest indication of his belief in Higher Powers was his repeated allusion to Providence in terms which might suggest he saw Providence as a governing figure which intervened in human affairs, including through himself, when appropriate. It has often been suggested that Hitler was the anti-Christ. This is an emotive term meaning a person of the greatest evil, but if he came to destroy Christendom, then Hitler was certainly the anti-Christ in another sense. Hitler was regarded by his fellow soldiers as a rather peculiar character because of his habit of spending the long periods between engagements in silent meditation. After one of those contemplative sessions Hitler surprised his companions by leaping to his feet and shouting that Germany would soon lose the war. He claimed that the German people faced invisible enemies who were a greater danger to the war than the Allied troops. It is impossible to know the source of Hitler's prophecies about German defeat, but he was convinced that the war would end with an Allied victory. He became exposed to the racist and occult theories of Guido von List and was conversant with Nordic and German mythology. It is possible that through this interest Hitler decided to adopt the swastika as the emblem for the German Workers Party. It had already been used by several German nationalist groups, including the German Order and the Thule Society.   One of Hitler's spiritual teachers, Alfred Rosenberg, was convinced that the Aryan race had originated on the lost continent of Atlantis which was the source of all ancient occult beliefs. He claimed that the mythical continent had been destroyed because the Gods condemned Atlantean experiments which mated animals with women to create a hybrid race which was half-animal and half-human and were to be used as slaves. When Atlantis was threatened with cosmic destruction, the priesthood received prior warning and some fled to Asia where they established themselves as rulers of the indigenous aboriginal inhabitants. Rosenberg believed the modern Hindu caste system was a pale imitation of the original racial subdivisions imposed by the Atlanteans on their conquered inferiors.   While Hitler despised Freemasonry as a Jewish invention to take over the control of the World, he used Masonry as a model for the inner circle of the Nazi Party. In 1934 he declared,” We shall form an Order, the Brotherhood of the Templars around the Holy Grail of the pure blood." Through Heinrich Himmler he transformed the SS into an elite unit of crack troops, ruthlessly dedicated to the Nazi ideology. Himmler was a disciple of the occult doctrines which were at the root of the racial policies of the Third Reich. He believed that the SS would become the vehicle through which the racial purity of Germany would be reestablished by scientific breeding programs designed to re-create the master race of supermen that once ruled this planet. Himmler drew on many historical precedents, such as the Jesuits, the Freemasons, the Knights Templars, et. al., when he reformed the SS into a secret society within the German military machine. The headquarters of the SS was established in the castle of Wewelsburg, which had been modeled on the castle in the Arthurian myth of the Holy Grail. In the castle the SS officers were initiated in neo-pagan rites and were given a special ring carved with a skull, runes and the swastika. The SS were destined to become feared throughout occupied Europe and were responsible for controlling the network of special death camps set up in 1942 for extermination of the Jews, the Serbs and the Gypsies. In fact, the real reason for simultaneous ritual executions of thousands of people belonging to those three ethnic groups -- for whom the Nazis believed possessed substantial spiritual powers -- was to provide Hitler and a few "chosen ones" in the inner circles of the SS with enormous psychic power, the power strong enough not just to overtake the planet, but to rule the entire Universe. The official split of the Roman Empire was followed by the split in the Christian Church as well. The Church was divided into the Western Church, with its seat in Vatican, Rome, and the Eastern Church, with its seat in Constantinopolis, today's Istanbul, Turkey. Until the last decade of the 20th century that picture remained practically unchanged. In 1945, right after the end of the WWII, the Western Empire was still in existence. Its name was NATO, and many claim that Vatican was behind it. The name of the Eastern Empire was the Soviet Union. Both Empires are still striving to achieve the same goals as they did thousands of years ago. Both were "liberating" the countries around the World using the same methods Julius Caesar did, and they were keeping each other in check. This time around there was a third player in the game: China. China was basically Eastern, but basically kept to itself. Then in 1991, the things took an unforeseen turn. Because of reasons not exactly clear, the Eastern Empire suddenly collapsed. So, finally, after 2,000 years, the opportunity emerged for Caesar's legacy to work itself out. American President George Bush started talking about the New World Order, a politically correct term meaning Pax Americana (Peace under American Terms), in which the World would become one big market place. With no Eastern Block to keep it in check, the Western Empire, or the United States, launched massive military campaigns on Serbia and Iraq, while issuing serious threats to many other countries to comply with its demands, or else. The United States did not build walls around the countries that did not succumb to the NWO, but it did build economic and political walls around the "punished" countries, such as Serbia, Iraq, Libya, etc... So, the New World Order is finally here. The whole World is being ruled from Washington, DC, the American troops are present in every country on the planet, their spy satellites are all around the Globe, their helicopters patrol the skies, their bombers scatter death from above. This is it. The Tower of Babel has been built. One world, with thousands of different languages spoken and God knows how many religions practiced, but all living under one umbrella. Now how long will it take before the Tower finally collapses...? The first signs are already visible. Extremely cruel and genocidal wars are being fought; tornados and floods are taking many lives away with them, fires, civil wars, earthquakes... Apocalypse is here. Apocalypse Now...!

The American Revolution The American Revolution was a civil war between Loyalists to the British crown (aka Tories, about one fifth of the population), supported by British expeditionary forces, and Patriots (or Whigs) in the 13 colonies that constituted British North America.   About 20-25% of the populace in the colonies - c. 600,000 - were blacks. About one third of the white denizens were non-British. Local patriotism ran high. All adult, white, property-owning, men (about two thirds of the male numbers) were eligible to vote in elections to the lower house of the legislative assembly of the colony they resided in. Each colony also had its governor.   Some colonies (e.g., Rhode Island and Connecticut) were, in effect, incorporated under royal charter as semi-commercial ventures. Others belonged to the descendants of their founders (proprietary colonies such as Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware). Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were royal provinces, under direct British rule.   Some of the colonists - for instance, the New Englanders - were among the wealthiest and best educated people in the world, better off than the British themselves. But, per capita, they paid only 3% of the taxes levied on a typical Briton. The colonies supplied the West Indies with most of their foodstuffs and consumed British finished products - but they were not economically crucial to the British Empire.   In the years leading to the War of Independence (1765-1776), the British actually repealed all the taxes on products imported into the colonies - with the single exception of tea (and even this tax was drastically reduced). The colonists' slogan "no taxation without representation" was, therefore, more about local representation than about foreign taxation. And even this bit ringed hollow. The Encyclopedia Britannica: "The assemblies had the right to tax; to appropriate money for public works and public officials, and to regulate internal trade, religion, and social behavior". The role of British government was confined to foreign affairs and trade.   But both parties to the conflict breached this modus vivendi. During the Seven Years (French and Indian) War (1754-1763), the colonies refused to relinquish control over their militias to the British command and smuggled French goods into British North America (France being Britain's enemy). The British, on the other hand, began interfering in the colonies' internal affairs, notably (but not only) by imposing taxes and customs duties in order to ameliorate Britain's growing national debt and by rendering tax officials financially independent of the local colonial assemblies.   Add to this a severe recession in the colonies brought on by unbridled spending financed with unsustainable personal indebtedness and, not surprisingly, acts of resistance to British taxation - such as the Boston Tea Party - were organized mainly by smugglers, artisans, and shopkeepers. Secret groupings, such as the Sons of Liberty resorted to violence and intimidation to achieve their (mostly economic but disguised as "patriotic") goals. Even women got involved in a "buy American" campaign of boycotting British goods.   Many British merchants, bankers, politicians, intellectuals, and journalists supported the colonies against the crown - each group for its own reasons. The merchants and bankers, for instance, were terrified of a mooted unilateral debt moratorium to be declared by the colonies if and when militarily attacked. Others found it distasteful to kill and maim white British subjects (as the insurgents were). Yet others resisted imperialism, the monarchy, taxes, or all three. Even within the British Army there was strong dissent and the campaign against the rebellious colonies was carried out half-heartedly and lackadaisically. On the other hand, British die-hards, such as Samuel Johnson, demanded blood ("I am willing to love all Mankind, except an American").   The denizens of the colonies tried, till the last moment, to avert a constitutional (and, consequently, military) crisis. They suggested a model of two semi-autonomous nations (the United Kingdom and the colonies), united by the figurehead of the King. But it was too little and way too late. Violent clashes between the citizenry and British units started as early as October 1765 with the First Nonimportation Movement, directed against the Stamp Act. They continued with the Boston Massacre (five dead) in 1770; the attack on the British customs ship, the Gaspée, in Rhode Island, in 1772; and the Boston Tea Party in 1773.   In April 1775, General Gage, governor and military commander of Massachusetts, suffered a humiliating defeat in a skirmish in Concord and Lexington. The Patriots were alerted to his movements by Paul Revere who rode all night to inform them that the "regulars (not the British, as the legend has it) are coming." He was one of many such scouts.   The Loyalists fielded 50-55,000 armed men and the Patriots countered by organizing "militias" - irregular units of ill-trained and undisciplined volunteers. The Continental Army was established only in June 1775, under the command of George Washington, a veteran of the French and Indian War. At their peak, the rebels mastered less than 100,000 men in arms - only 25-30,000 of which were on active duty at any given time.   The Continental Army was, in the words of General Philip Schuyler of New York "weak in numbers, dispirited, naked, destitute of provisions, without camp equipage, with little ammunition, and not a single piece of cannon." Late pay caused frequent mutinies and desertions. In 1783, Washington had to personally intervene to prevent a military coup. Only repeated promises of cash bonuses and land grants kept this mob of youngsters, foreigners, and indentured servants intermittently cohesive.   Still, they outnumbered the British and the "Hessians" - the 30,000 German mercenaries who participated in the 8 years of fighting. In all of North America, the British had 60,000 soldiers as late as 1779. They had to face a growing presence of hostile French, Spanish, and Dutch armies, supplies, and navies. The Native-Americans (Indians) supported mostly the British, especially west of the Appalachians. This provoked numerous massacres by the Patriots.   The War spread to other parts of the world: the Gulf Coast, the Caribbean, India, the Netherlands, the Mediterranean. The US Navy even invaded the British port of Whitehaven in 1778.   The conflict affected the civilian population as well with both sides committing war crimes and atrocities aplenty. With many men gone, women took over traditionally male roles and vocations, such as farming. Hyperinflation - brought on by $500 million in newly minted and printed money - led to mob scenes as storekeepers were attacked and warehouses looted.   The blacks largely sided with the British - but many joined the Patriots and, thus, won their freedom after the war. Virginia planters alone manumitted 10,000 slaves. By 1800, slavery was abolished in all the states north of Delaware.   All told, less than 7000 Patriots died in battle (and 8500 wounded). About 1200 Germans perished, too. No one knows how many British troops, Indians, and other combatants paid with their lives in this protracted conflict. About 100,000 Loyalists emigrated to Canada and thousands others (mainly of African ancestry) went to Sierra Leone and the Bahamas. They were all fully compensated for the property they left behind in what came to be known as the United States of America (USA).