US History – Page 17 – General History

Two (du Plessis) Richelieus

Armand.Emmanuel du Plessis / retratosdelahistoria.blogspot.com

Cardinal Richelieu has not been treated kindly by journalists, novelists or movie-makers. I suppose it is an honour to have been played on the screen by, in alphabetical order, Mr Tim Curry, Mr Charlton Heston and Mr Vincent Price among others. In Man in the iron mask (Curry), the Cardenal schemes against the future Louis XIV, tries to seduce of the wife of Louis XIII, imprisons a mysterious twin brother, masking his face with a cruel contraption, and forces war against England. In two of the dozens of Three Musketeers Hollywood films, the Cardenal (Heston in one and Price in another) conspires with Milady de Winter to murder both Buckingham and the girl D’Artagnan has fallen for, persuades the King to disband the loyal (and fashionably dressed) Musketeers, sends his lackeys off to murder and rob. Fiction regards Cardinal Richelieu as a baddie. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-09T09:44:26+00:00 March 9th, 2012|French History, Russian history, Spanish History, US History, World History|0 Comments

War Crimes

This subject arouses all kinds of passions in men’s hearts. Historians are right when they say that subjecting leaders defeated in a war or wars to a tribunal accusing them of war crimes is likely to occur only to the winner. The vanquished are an easy target; in custody, defenceless, probably guilty – but no more so than the winners. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2024-01-15T13:14:33+00:00 March 5th, 2012|English History, French History, German History, Russian history, Spanish History, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

Figures in a Revolution: Joseph Fouché – survivor

Joseph Fouché – survivor / commons.wikimedia.org

The French politician was born at Nantes in 1759. As a very young man he was an ardent admirer of Robespierre (q.v.), touring the provinces in 1792/93 shouting the praises of the Jacobins (q.v.), and attracting fair criticism for his cruel treatment of opponents in Lyons.

Leaders of revolutions usually fall out with each other while fomenting rebellion, and Fouché fell out with his former idol – Robespierre – in 1794. It was said at the time that the latter had been suggesting that he, Robespierre, was a ‘Supreme Being’. Fouché found this contemptuous, and said so. No-one was permitted to criticise Robespierre, or judge him anything less than perfect, so Fouché had to maintain a profile so low he was almost underground, while the Revolution raged above. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-02-29T11:13:54+00:00 February 29th, 2012|French History, German History, US History, World History|0 Comments

De Gaulle, a great Frenchman

/ balearoculta.blogspot.com

Charles A.J.M. de Gaulle was born in Lille in 1890. An average schoolboy (apart from his great height), he graduated from the Military Academy at St. Cyr in 1909, and was gazetted lieutenant in the 33^rd Infanty Regiment under the command of Pétain (of whom he was an admirer).

In 1916 he was a captain in the French army fighting at Verdun; he was taken prisoner, but released quickly because by 1919 he was serving in the military mission in Poland. After two years of administrative work he was taken on as a lecturer at the French Staff College, where he was a clear and popular speaker with highly developed theories on the offensive use of tanks and aircraft, two potentially important weapons first seen in action in the First War. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-02-29T09:39:40+00:00 February 29th, 2012|English History, French History, German History, US History, World History|6 Comments

Conscription may not be a relic of the past

Conscription means compulsory enlisting for military service. With several countries engaged in sabe-rattling at the moment, compulsory enlistment may be revived in the present. China, India and Russia are probably right when they claim that any attempt made by the West to contain Assad’s slaughter of his own people in Syria will only invite more radical Muslim attention, as has already happened in Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq. However much technology is used in modern warfare (a very great deal) troops on the ground are as necessary now as they were in the 13^th century, when everybody thought that gunpowder would replace the infantry. Soldiers on the ground can either be volunteers (few on the ground these days) or they must be conscripted. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-02-28T09:47:26+00:00 February 28th, 2012|Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

The Communist Parties

The word itself – ‘Communist’ – was certainly first heard as long ago as the 1840s. Both Karl Marx (q.v.) and his promoter Engels used the word, but it was not until after the Russian Revolution (q.v.) of 1917 that fervid Marxists detached themselves from the more moderate Social Democrat Parties, to form groups (and committees) called Communist Parties. In Russia, Bolsheviks did not officially adopt the term until 1918. When the news of the shooting of the royal family spread, it was considered wise to tone down the ‘Ekaterinburg/Bolshevik’ connection, replacing ‘bolshevik’ by a little-known word. There had been ‘Communes’ in Europe, especially in France, but ‘Communists’ was something new. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-02-27T12:05:00+00:00 February 27th, 2012|Asian History, Czech History, English History, French History, German History, Italian History, Russian history, South American History, Spanish History, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

The US Senate & the House of Lords

The Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress. The first, or lower is called the House of Representatives; both represent all States of the Union. Senators first met officially in 1789, by coincidence at the beginning of the French Revolution. The powers and composition of the Senate are to be found in Article I of the US Constitution. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-02-16T09:58:42+00:00 February 16th, 2012|English History, US History, World History|0 Comments

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 – 1618): a life of frustration

Sir Walter, not a lucky man / biography.com

He was an explorer, courtier, navigator, cartographer and part-time corsair. Young Walter took part in privateering expeditions to the West Indies, an increasingly important staging post between the newly opened-up North America and Britain, hub of the fledgling empire.

He was sent by Queen Elizabeth I to suppress rebellion in Ireland. On his return from this mostly unsuccessful sortie he became a favourite with the Queen, though he had failed in Ireland. The Queen knew her history; all English attempts to sort out the Irish Question had failed, sometimes spectacularly. Always had, always have and always will. So Elizabeth, never lacking in a sense of humour, rewarded Raleigh for what he had done in Ireland with a gift of land – in Ireland. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-02-14T09:27:46+00:00 February 14th, 2012|English History, English Language, US History|0 Comments

Anti-Semitism

My inspiration to write more on this spiny subject came from one of the published Comments on this site. The Comment can easily be found under the subject heading Jewish History. One of my previous posts dealt with statistics connected with The Holocaust. The commentarist restricted himself to using American terminology inviting and requiring intimate oral relations. One assumes that the expression used – “Suck my dick” – indicates a certain disinclination to accept the usual 6-million-dead holocaust statistics. They were I admit wrong, because I had inadvertently left out figures of murdered Jews in Poland and many Soviet satellites, leaving a final figure that lacks substance and does not add up to 6 million. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-02-06T11:28:35+00:00 February 6th, 2012|English History, French History, German History, Jewish History, Philosophy, Russian history, Spanish History, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

The War of 1812 (USA versus Britain)

The British burn the White House, Washington DC, 1812 / nytimes.com

This was a brief war between Britannia and Uncle Sam that many Americans and Britons know nothing about. Still it happened, and it contained at least one significant event: a British army burnt the new city of Washington, DC.

The Americans were greatly annoyed and frustrated in 1812, when the British restricted trade as a retaliation against Bonaparte’s ‘Continental System’. This was nothing more or less than a total blockade of British ports, planned by Napoleon to starve the island kingdom. Not even the Royal Navy was able to do much about the blockade. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-01-29T18:21:28+00:00 January 29th, 2012|English History, US History, World History|3 Comments