A half-dozen of the planet’s most important countries are now infected by the nationalist mosquito. Europe (after the Second War) invented a large country called Yugoslavia…
Category: EU History
Quis? Who was this man?
Here you see an ancient photograph of a very 20th century man who was actually born in the 19th. Can you figure out who he is? Let…
Jean Monnet: turning in his grave?
Monnet (1888 – 1979) was, if not the progenitor, at least the clever uncle of the European Union. He was an able administrator and economist who devised and…
More about Finland
In our last post (No. 300) we took a brief look at the Finnish-Russian War of 1939/40. This war was incalculably important in the history of the twentieth…
The Spanish Road Tax (Rodaje)
I would need to be told what other EU countries do about charging road tax to vehicle owners. In Britain it is simply called Road Tax, and you…
Montenegro: beauty and independence
This place of almost unequalled beauty used to be the smallest of the constituent republics of the former Yugoslavia. It borders on Serbia in the north/east, Abania to…
Andorra & Luxembourg
The first is a co-Principality, and the second a Grand Duchy. Both are tiny, but significant in questions of tourism and politics. Andorra lies between France and Spain,…
Two important Hungarians – Horthy & Károlyi
Miklós Horthy de Nagybanya was born in 1868. He was destined to become an Admiral, and Regent while King Charles of Hungary was in exile. He was a…
Sir Winston Churchill
In other sections of this history blog can be found brief lives of Franklin Roosevelt (All American Presidents) and Joseph Stalin. Joined by Churchill at a number of…
The Siegfried and Maginot Lines: similarities and differences
Both these resounding names refer to a national defence system. They are, respectively, German and French. The principal difference between the two is that the former was erected…