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Description

Providing a Religious Justification for the Anglo-American Colonization of the World.

Spectacular, if very odd, timeline of world history as seen by American British Israelite Charles Adiel Lewis Totten at the end of the 19th century.

From a modern point of view, this timeline is based on an abstruse combination of race, nationality, religion, and colonialism, framed in the context of Anglo-American relations at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The sentiments disclosed by the timeline represent an expansion of the American-centric Manifest Destiny to Anglo-American culture in general and can be seen as an attempt to provide Biblical justification for the conquest (or, rather, colonization) of the world by the United States and Great Britain. From this perspective, the growth of this kind of thinking, and perhaps British Israelism in general, can be seen as but one of many attempts to make sense of and justify the state of the world at the end of the 19th century.

Though it has long roots going back at least to the 17th century, British Israelism became a distinct, identifiable movement in the 1880s, beginning in England and soon migrating to the United States. In brief, the core claim of British Israelism is that the Anglo-Saxon peoples are descended from (some would say, the sole descendants of) the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. In support of this British Israelites cite a range of Biblical, archaeological, and linguistic evidence.

Strange and interesting timelines were almost commonplace in the 19th century, however, this example exceeds in its historical eccentricity.

On the y-axis is are the names of "nations": America, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Isaac, Abram, Jacob, Egypt, Babylon I, Persia II, Greece III, Rome and Multitudes IV, and Russia.

Totten essentially writes off Islam, declaring that it will not make it into the 20th century, and that its former territories will be fought over by Britain and Russia. In the context of the gradual fall of the Ottoman Empire, this makes some sense, but the language with which it is delivered is bizarre indeed:

Islam Overflowing Full and Decadent - Collapse - Jerusalem 1899-1903

"The Euphratean Flood" | Mohamedanism | The Last Phase of the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by the Prophets | Yet dominant in the East, but near the end of its times is now the Sick Man of Europe | The carcase [sic] - Holds the "Pleasant Land". Who is to be his successor? England or Russia? This is the "Controversy of Zion" | Neither can be unless one of them be "Israel Regathered"

Totten calls Russia "The Great Northern Bear and Israel's final opponent. God himself will reckon with him."

Totten also provides predictions for the century ahead - the 20th - with the blue and red streams easing away into the ether:

Israel shall possess her possessions | She takes root downward and bears fruit up | The Golden Age Returns

"Royal Jack" "Union Jack" | We'll face the world together" | "This is the house that Jack built"

According to the timeline itself, it was drafted first at Ft. Adams, Newport, Rhode Island, in 1887, and in New Haven, Connecticut in 1898.

Charles Adiel Lewis Totten (February 3, 1851 - April 12, 1908) was an American military officer, honor student at West Point, professor of military tactics, and prolific writer on esoteric subjects, namely British Israelism. He wrote over 180 books and articles, including a 26-volume series entitled "Our Race", which covered British Israelite subjects. The present chart relates to those volumes, as discussed in the lines under the title.

Rarity

Very rare. Not in OCLC nor Rosenberg and Grafton, Cartographies of Time. No other examples traced on the market.

Condition Description
Crack and some small losses. Professionally backed, stabilizing faults. Faint general soiling and some scattered stains.