World History – Page 36 – General History

Disasters waiting to happen: Salazar (disaster for some – not all)

Salazar of Portugal / blogoteca.com

Antonio de Oliveira Salazar was one of those Iberian dictators who stayed dictating for a long time. General Franco ruled Spain for nearly forty years, and General Salazar ruled Portugal for thirty-six years.

He was born in 1889 in a peasant family, conservative, devoutly Catholic and certainly reactionary if given the chance. He got his education at a seminary but decided against becoming a priest, perhaps because of his experiences at the seminary. The monks assuredly educated him however, for he became a lecturer at the Coimbra Universityin 1917 when he was twenty-eight years old. He never married and had no reputation as a lady-killer. Nor the opposite either, so he was probably asexual. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-11T10:41:26+00:00 October 11th, 2012|History of Portugal, World History|0 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: General Gordon

Gordon meets his end at Khartoum / dailymail.co.uk

Charles George Gordon was born in 1833. When his father discovered that the boy was wilful, obstinate, brave, selfish and over-fond of himself, he decided to send him to rough schools which would smooth things out a bit. They did not. His qualities seemed to indicate the Army, so to the Army he went.

When the Crimean War started in 1853 Gordon was already a junior field officer, and he distinguished himself at Sebastopol for being brave, wilful, obstinate etc. Later he took part in the second Opium War, and was present at the occupation of Pekin (we must learn to say Beijing) in 1860. As Gordon was annoyed with the ancient Empress of China, who had shown no interest in the murder of European missionaries, and less in the assassination of the German consul, and whose ministers had orchestrated the two opium wars anyway, Gordon decided to burn the Summer Palace to the ground, which he did. This act did not do either Gordon or Britain much good, and was to be remembered by the Chinese. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-10T12:25:39+00:00 October 10th, 2012|British History, English History, History of China, History of Egypt, History of the Cinema, The Arab races, World History|0 Comments

What the English language owes to Shakespeare

One of the very authentic painting of Shakespeare / biografiasyvidas.com

English owes more than you know to William Shakespeare. Yes, that playwright from four hundred years ago now considered so unimportant by British educational authorities that not a single play by Shakespeare is included in ‘O’ or ‘A’ Level examinations. It would be difficult to understand the importance one single playwright has had on the English language as we know it. There are 357 instances where Shakespeare is the only recorded user of a word in one or other of its senses. There are more than a thousand instances where he is the first of several writers to use a word, though later examples occur some 25 years after Shakespeare; therefore it seems likely that he introduced or popularized the word. There are 642 instances where he is the first of several writers to use a word. More importantly, at least 800 of Shakespeare’s words are still used to this day. He brought meaning to existing stems by introducing prefixes such as Dis-, Un-, Im-, and In-, or by adding the suffix –less. Let us take a look at what English owes to the man from Stratford-upon-Avon. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-09T12:20:54+00:00 October 9th, 2012|English History, English Language, Philosophy, Today, World History|0 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: Nuffield

Morris, who became Lord Nuffield / bbc.co.uk

William Richard Morris Nuffield started off well, but ended as the man who almost singlehandedly destroyed the British car industry. I don’t suppose this was his intention, but he did, helped by his opposite number at the Rootes Group.

In the 1950s, Britain had a long line of prosperous carmakers, famous for the typical British design, safety, elegance and comfort. The names of these motor cars filled two columns on a double page spread in Motor Magazine. Now only Morgan, LandRover, Jaguar and Aston-Martin and perhaps Bristol remain British and independent. Rolls-Royce and Bentley are German. The Mini is German. Vauxhall is American, and designed by Opel. Nuffield is solely responsible for the loss of Austin, Morris, Wolseley, Riley, MG & Rover (he started the rot here). Jaguar survived, though it was briefly a Ford. Here is how the disaster happened. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-09T10:04:28+00:00 October 9th, 2012|British History, English History, German History, History of the Cinema, Today, US History, World History|2 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: Huey Long

Huey Long receives an honorary doctorate / inkwell.com

Huey Pierce Long was born in 1893, almost instantly recognised as being energetic, intelligent and with an assured future. For example, he took on a three-year course in Law and passed it in eight months. By the time he was twenty-one he was a practising lawyer.

Perhaps it was all too much too soon: when he became a railway commissioner in the state of Louisiana he proclaimed himself the ‘poor man’s friend’, forcing the railroad companies to reduce their rates. Naturally he made powerful enemies. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-07T20:18:41+00:00 October 7th, 2012|US History, World History|0 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: Leopold II of the Belgians

King Leopold II of the Belgians

Leopold was born in 1835 and was King of the Belgians from 1865 – 1909. We are told that he was lively and energetic practically from birth, and that he was unusually ambitious. Looking around him at countries like near neighbour France, distant Austro-Hungary, just-over-the-sea Britain, he saw empires. He wanted Belgium to have immense overseas territories too. She had some, of course, but in Leopold’s opinion not enough. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-04T11:11:06+00:00 October 4th, 2012|History of the Low Countries, World History|0 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: Edward VIII

The Duke of Windsor (ex-Edward VIII) and the woman he loved / onlinepublishingco.info

Edward (born 1894) was the oldest son of George V and Mary of Teck. He should have become King of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, and Emperor of India. He did become Prince of Wales in 1911, and was popular with the people. As a child and youth he maintained a rigid and distant relationship with his parents, who would not allow him to attend an ordinary school, not even Eton or Harrow. He could never have gone toWinchester because he was not intelligent enough. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-03T09:41:25+00:00 October 3rd, 2012|British History, English History, French History, German History, History of India, US History, World History|0 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: John Calvin Coolidge

The thirtieth President of the United States was born in 1872. No-one knew much about him, except his reputation for long silences broken by periods of terseness, until he became Governor of Massachusetts. He intervened in a strike called by Boston policemen, stating that after the strike was over none of the those involved in it would get their police jobs back. Coolidge broke his customary silence by saying firmly, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime.” He soon earned the nickname, ‘Silent Cal’. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2025-03-06T21:40:40+00:00 October 2nd, 2012|US History, World History|0 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: Count Ciano – not really his fault

Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law / globalsecurity.org

Galeazzo Ciano was born in 1903, the son of an admiral in the Italian navy. After a privileged education he entered the foreign service of his country in 1925, and followed this success by marrying Mussolini’s oldest daughter Edda. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-01T11:49:54+00:00 October 1st, 2012|German History, History in The Balkans, Italian History, World History|0 Comments

Disasters waiting to happen: Charles X of France

Charles X / historywarsweapons.com

Charles was born in 1757 and was King of France for barely six years. He was a younger brother of Louis XVI, guillotined during the French Revolution, and also Louis XVIII, who as the Count of Provence had escaped to Brussels in 1791 at exactly the same time as his ill-fated brother attempted escape to Varennes with his family. Louis XVIII became king after Napoleon’s abdication as Emperor and was persuaded by Talleyrand (q.v.) to accept the Charter of 1814 and therefore recover the throne. It was this Louis who ran from Paris when news of Napoleon’s escape from Elba arrived, and the Hundred Days’ War began. After the Allies dealt at last with the Corsican, Louis became king again, reigning from 1814 to 1824. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-10-01T08:41:45+00:00 October 1st, 2012|French History, World History|0 Comments