World History – Page 14 – General History

What was the Cheka?

Felix Dzerzhinsky / knightsofsolomon.org

This colourful European word in initials stood for ‘The Extraordinary Commission for combatting Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation’ and we will not attempt to put that in Russian. It was the fearsome Soviet secret police.

It was founded in December 1917, because Lenin (q.v.) was opposed by the middle classes, peasant/serfs and even some socialist parties in his attempts to set up a one-party state. Faced otherwise with famine and civil war, Lenin saw the Cheka as essential for the survival of the Soviet regime he was so anxious to establish. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-01-03T11:37:39+00:00 January 3rd, 2014|British History, Russian history, Today, World History|2 Comments

The Trans-Siberian Railway

/ foto8.com

Only six years after the first trans-continental railway (Canadian Pacific q.v.) was opened, Russia followed suit with her very lengthy railroad built between Moscow (actually Chelyabinsk in the Urals) and Vladivostok, a city/port in the northern Pacific. Commencement of construction was in 1891. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-12-29T15:45:13+00:00 December 29th, 2013|Asian History, History of Japan, Russian history, World History|1 Comment

The Canadian Pacific Railway

/ focusedonlight.com

The name of the longest railway in the world may confuse. It is transcontinental, not a railroad running along the western or Pacific coast of Canada. Work began in 1880, under a Conservative government led by Sir John Macdonald. In order to persuade capitalists to invest in it, Macdonald offered potential investors millions of acres of fertile arable land running alongside the proposed tracks. He also offered subsidies and tax exemption. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-12-29T11:36:12+00:00 December 29th, 2013|A History of North America, Commonwealth History, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

New Year’s message from Dean Swift

The book, a compilation of selected articles from three years of General-History.com is keeping us all it, mainly because the website has so many categories. Between bouts of sciatica (don’t try it yourself) and Christmas festivities, I feel a bit exhausted. We have, according to seasonal things like college terms anything between three to fifteen thousand hits per month. Especially pleasing are the thousands of Comments, especially those from those United States of America – far more than from Europe. I very much like the precise, inquisitive and informed comments from the Rhys family.

2014 draws near. I wish the very best of Happy New Years for all the patient (and occasionally impatient) observers of this site, and welcome all rational comment, which make the continuous study and research required for a history site worthwhile.

Dean Swift.

By Dean Swift| 2013-12-26T17:52:12+00:00 December 26th, 2013|English Language, World History|2 Comments

The Enigma of Hirohito

/ pacificwar.org.au

This controversial Emperor of Japan was born in the same year (1901) Queen Victoria died, and the two monarchs shared much the same mystique. The Emperor was the son of Crown Prince Yoshihito (1874-1926), who had been the first Taisho emperor (from 1912 to 1926).

Hirohito was the first member of the Imperial family to be permitted to travel abroad, visiting the United States and Europe. On his return his father had become insane and Hirohito became Regent later Emperor. He was an ascetic, austere, strict, chronic hard-worker and frugal, not all willing to spend either his own money or anyone else’s, except for reasons of war. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-12-25T11:33:39+00:00 December 25th, 2013|British History, German History, History of China, History of Japan, History of the Far East, US History, World History|0 Comments

The Blackshirts

Giacomo Matteotti – a victim of the Blackshirts / hc-blackmilk.xf.cz

This was an early 20th century nickname or expression facilely describing the ‘Action Squads’ or ‘Squadre d’Azione. These were ‘fascist’ paramilitary groups formed in Italy before 1920. They played a real part in the rise of Benito Mussolini (q.v.), recruited from war veterans, rebellious students (most 20^th century students were naturally rebellious; in the 21^st century they formed themselves into ‘trade unions’ – a bit of a misnomer since students either do not want to study, or will work but without sufficient attention to detail; the unions are supposed to be supportive of the wage-earning man or woman).

Recruits were also easily found among working class youth, though ‘working class’ is itself a misnomer, but one is not permitted to use the expression ‘lower-class’ as it might offend sensibilities. ‘Under-class’ is perhaps the best term best invented by the politically correct. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-12-23T12:44:02+00:00 December 23rd, 2013|Italian History, World History|0 Comments

Hiroshima

/ librosyliteratura.es

Nearly seventy years after the dropping of an atomic bomb over this naval port and military base in Japan the debate still rages. Was the action of the United States necessary? How many people died because of the exploded bomb? To what extent were President Truman and General Eisenhower involved in the decision to use the newly invented horror weapon? Would the Japanese have carried on fighting World War II in the Pacific if the bomb had not been used? (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-12-21T12:24:58+00:00 December 21st, 2013|German History, History of Japan, Philosophy, Russian history, US History, World History|0 Comments

Gallipoli

Turkey, a European country once described as ‘the sick man of Europe’, decided to unite with the Central Powers in the First World War; by January, 1915, the Western Powers thought it might be prudent to kick Turkey right out of the War. There would be a combined operation of British and Commonwealth and friendly naval and land forces to do the job. By 19 February the Gallipoli Campaign had started.

Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty at thirty-nine years of age; he was convinced that the military stalemate on the Western Front would not be broken without decisive action somewhere else. Gallipoli is the gateway to the Dardanelles, and therefore far enough away from the hopeless bloodbath in the Flanders mud. British and French battle fleets would destroy the Dardanelles defences; troops would then secure the Gallipoli peninsula. After this was successfully concluded the land forces would move on to Constantinople, later known as Istanbul. It was reckoned that with the fall of Turkey’s capital she would withdraw from the fighting. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:30:04+00:00 December 19th, 2013|A history of Australia, Austrian history, British History, Commonwealth History, French History, German History, History in The Balkans, History of Turkey, World History|0 Comments

Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Viscount Turenne

The name could hardly sound more French, and yet Henri was the grandson of William of Orange ‘The Silent’, which should make him at least a Netherlander. Henri’s grandfather had earned his nickname by keeping his mouth firmly shut about French plans to murder every Protestant in France and the Netherlands. This Hitler-style plot had had success only in Paris in the form of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day (24 August, 1572 q.v.). Henri was born in 1611. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:30:10+00:00 December 13th, 2013|Dutch History, French History, History of the Low Countries, Spanish History, World History|0 Comments

Victoria, the Queen Empress

I am lucky enough to have a wife who found an almost complete collection of early Victorian lithographs in a back street of Lymington. They are dated and signed by the lithographer, and the date is 1840. The series starts with William Duke of Normandy and First of England, and ends with rather a pretty portrait of a sad-looking girl. A guest saw this and exclaimed, “This cannot be Queen Victoria you fool! Much too young; she was an old, fat woman with a disagreeable expression.” So much for the study of history; the lithograph was made just three years after Victoria became queen in 1837 at the age of nineteen. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2014-04-01T13:30:13+00:00 December 11th, 2013|British History, Commonwealth of Nations, English History, German History, History of India, World History|0 Comments