This uprising, which started in 1850 and ended fourteen years later, was the greatest peasant rebellion in China in the 19th century. The 18th had seen a rise…
Category: French History
US President Monroe & his Doctrine
James Monroe was born in Virginia in 1758, and became the 5th President of the United States. He did not shine as a diplomat but he did manage…
The Girondins
In the General History blogsite many posts have appeared dealing with different aspects of the French Revolution; there will have been many references to Jacobins and Girondins, both…
Henry VI of England, sad man and king
Henry was born in 1421, and became King of England at the age of one. He had two reigns, due to the Wars of the Roses. The first…
Some Urban Popes
Three French popes and one Italian, dating from the eleventh century, the thirteenth, fourteenth and finally the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, form up for inspection in this post:…
Some Innocent Popes
From the twelfth century to the eighteenth century several Popes called Innocent stand out: they are:- Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Signi). He was Pope from 1198…
New France & the North American fur trade
The name ‘New France’, which sounds rather arbitrary, was the name given to all the North American territories France claimed to own between 1524 and 1803. In reality,…
A Swedish royal dynasty (1523 – 1818)
The Vasa dynasty provided monarchs for Sweden, with only two exceptions, from the beginning of the sixteenth century to just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars (q.v.)….
François P.G. Guizot
This statesman was born 1787, not a safe time to be born anywhere in France. His father was killed by the guillotine during the Terror (q.v.); somehow François…
Who were ‘the Free French?’
Germany attacked France in May, 1940. 136 German divisions faced 125 British, French and Belgian ones. The Germans had over two thousand tanks, but even their commander admitted…