In February, 1945, the second ‘Big Three’ conference took place at Yalta in the Crimea. The first had been in Teheran in Persia. What was agreed at Yalta…
Category: History in The Balkans
Russia versus Turkey (1787, 1806, 1828, 1853, 1877 etc.)
The only major European power to make war on Turkey in the nineteenth century was Russia – at least five times. Russia intended to increase her territory around…
War in the air Part III: the Pacific
The carrier-based Japanese air force began the war in the air over the Pacific Ocean by attacking without prior warning the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. The…
The Treaty of Trianon (1920) and its effect on Hungary
This treaty is another good example of the collateral damage to be expected when states join in wars with the express intention of gaining territory, though the war…
Appeasement
A bit of a dirty word since 1938 but it shouldn’t be. There is enough appeasement going on now over the disgusting situation in Syria to fill the…
1936: The Remilitarization of the Rhineland
The ill-prepared and unfortunate Treaty of Versailles (q.v.) had left the left bank of the Rhine plus an area 50 kilometres deep on its right bank permanently demilitarized…
Berlin: City, Congress, Airlift & Wall
Berlin was the capital of Germany from 1871, though it was also the capital of Prussia. When the capital moved from Bonn after the Second War, Berlin became…
The character of Franz-Josef (1830 – 1916)
It is difficult not to feel sympathy for Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria/Hungary. A dashing European prince of eighteen, he succeeded to the throne abdicated…
The Final Solution
Researchers have tried to find cogent reasons for Hitler’s pathological hatred of the Jews. Nothing in his childhood in Austria happened which might have sown the…