Blog 1 Introduction

            A great war involving millions, a blood oath, rival families, great military leaders, betrayal, carnage and from some people’s perspective, the closest humanity has come to fighting monsters. No this is not what will be on the next season of Game of Thrones. This is not a fantasy story.  This is actually happened in the past.  All the ingredients for an amazing fantasy novel existed in events that happened over two thousand years. This is the Second Punic War .

As the name of this blog suggests, I am going to talking about the Second Punic War  and little about the first. But why am I doing this. Well, for one, I am a history major that honestly loves talking about history. Two, I am doing this for a project for my Historiography class in which this is our final project. I am to make twenty blogs about whatever  subject I want to talk about in order to learn about how to research and write about history .

So why did I choose the Second Punic War specifically . The answer is twofold , firstly this is one of the two most interesting periods of time in my humble opinion; the other is  World War 1 and treaty of Versailles.  Secondly, about a year ago I watched a series of videos about this war. It was by a group of people that specialized in video games and the developing production and theories behind them. The group was Extra Credits and they were sponsored to make four, ten-minute videos about the war. I watched these videos and they oddly inspired me. Even the opening line of this blog is heavily inspired by them Many of the comments were so interested in what happened.  Many claimed, “why couldn't my history class been this interesting?” The best thing was that these videos were quite accurate and informative. Upon further historical research I only found about two things that I didn't find to be quite right. All of this  is to say that I want history to be a fun, engaging, and, most importantly, accurate endeavor.  So this is my first foray into the writing of history for a college level class and writing in history in a less formal way . I hope you will enjoy my writing and explaining of this truly amazing and horrifying time in human history. A time of rises and falls of civilizations.  A time of heroics and betrayal.  A time that basically would have been if the USSR and USA decided to fight a conventional war. The two biggest powers fighting in a winner takes all scenario 

            I hope that at least one person besides my history professor will read this and see history as I see it: as something truly amazing and fascinating.  A truly great pursuit that you can learn so much about the present from. Not learning dates and names, but learning why this is important in context.

If you are curious about the writer of this blog, my name is Daniel and I am a sophomore at Indiana Wesleyan University. 513