When Shawn Carter, an aspiring rapper with the stage name Jay-Z, couldn't get his career off the ground at a major record label, he didn't get discouraged.
Today, the basic ideas underpinning democracy--that government exists for the benefit of the people, and that it must have their consent to be legitimate--may seem obvious.
Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China has been a one-party state in which the Chinese Communist Party holds a monopoly of political power.
Over the centuries, Chinese civilization has produced many important inventions and innovations, including paper, printing, porcelain, the magnetic compass, and gunpowder.
China is one of the world's oldest uninterrupted civilizations, and the essential culture and identity of the Chinese people--the Chinese Way--was formed more than 2,000 years ago.
Although graced with picturesque beaches, lush rain forests, and abundant diamond mines, the tiny West African nation of Sierra Leone is a land haunted by tragedy.
Located on the westernmost point of Africa, Senegal is a land of stunning coastlines, semi-desert sands, fertile river valleys, grassland plains, and tropical rainforests.
For centuries the Kingdom of Morocco, located in the northwest corner of Africa, has been a crossroads for trade between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
The name of the Ivory Coast (also known as Cote d'Ivoire) comes from its history; at one time, Europeans came to the region to hunt elephants for their valuable ivory.