The Campaign in Normandy, June & August, 1944
British and Commonwealth soldiers in Caen, 1944 /iwm.org.uk This was the real turning point in the Second World War, although it came much later than it should have done, due mainly to inappropriate [...]
Oregon: boundary dispute & the Trail
Women drivers guarding their wagon on the Oregon Trail, a contemporary photograph / my americanodyssey.com Between 1843 and 1846 the vast Oregon territory in the United States of America became a subject for [...]
Grabbing Africa
Cecil Rhodes / it.wikipedia.org Though some may not believe it, in 1879 little of the vast continent of Africa was in European hands. Colonial administration ruled in the Gold Coast and Senegal in [...]
The Reparations in Germany
J.M. Keynes said the reparations could not be paid / theguardian.com Even if the end of the Great War was, or at least to many people seemed to be, unsatisfactory, the victors still [...]
The Occupation of the Rhur
The 10 million mark note / pjmedia.com The valley of the Rhur, which would become famous enough for a major film to be made of the bombing of its dams during the Second [...]
Russia versus Turkey (1787, 1806, 1828, 1853, 1877 etc.)
Modern Odessa / bbc.com 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 the [...]
The Freemasons
Masons hard at work / lessons-from-history.com Even today, in predominantly Roman Catholic countries the word Mason, or Francmason or Masonería is taboo in polite society. Spanish people assure you that Masons are only [...]
The Lordship of Ireland
Diarmid, King of Leinster, from a contemporary drawing A large part of the island of Ireland, mainly Leinster and Munster was under English rule from the twelfth century for three centuries.The Gaelic King [...]
The United States Constitution (in brief)
/ myfoxphilly.com Among other things, mainly physical or medical, a Constitution embodies the fundamental principles on which a state is governed, especially when considering the rights of its subjects. Therefore the Unites States [...]
The Charter of the (Russian) nobility
Catherine the Great ( gogmsite.net Catherine II, known as the Great, had few illusions about the Russian nobility, but, unlike other rulers supported or hated by the aristocracy, she chose to be chummy, [...]
The Committee for the Liberation of Upper Italy
‘Let’s find some fascists!’ / histomil.com (Comitato di Liberazione nazionale Alta Italia) Rather a mouthful both in English and Italian, this was a committee established in January, 1944 in an attempt to coordinate [...]
Colonization
/ from a painting by Angus McBride – posterlounge.co.uk These days the word strikes a sour note, arousing images of rough settlements, starving ‘piccaninies’, whips, shackles, thoughtless government from a distance of thousdands [...]
The Revolt of Portugal II
Dom Joao VI, an unflattering portrait / algarve-retreat.co.uk This Atlantic, south-western European country is on the western side of the Iberian Peninsula, bounded to north and east by Spain and to the west [...]
Chinese dynasties in antiquity
Glazed Tang Dynasty flask / metmuseum.org Civilization in Europe is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes compared with China’s. The Shang dynasty, for instance, began 1766 years before Christ, according to reliable records, [...]
War in the air Part III: the Pacific
/ pacificwar.org.au 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 damage to American [...]
War in the air Part II: Per Ardua Ad Astra
A scene from the film The Battle of Britain / omfdb.org The Blizkrieg from Nazi Germany that opened the Second War in 1939 showed that apart from tank power, air [...]
War in the air: part I; the early days
Air combat / en.wikipedia.org In the very late nineteenth century hot-air balloons were first used in Europe for observing enemy troop movements. War in the air had started. Later the same balloons were [...]
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