Transportation & the penal Settlements
At the end of the sixteenth century English prisons were showing signs of collapse. Thanks to absolute monarchs like Henry VIII, plus the warring sections of the Church, plus the sheer volume of petty crime [...]
The Official Secrets Act (Gt. Britain, 1911)
One of the strongest inducements to British persons who work for, or have worked for a government department connected with the Foreign Office is the Official Secrets Act, a piece of legislation designed to prevent [...]
The last King of Poland
Poland is one of the European countries whose peoples have suffered terribly throughout the centuries simply because of the country’s geographical position on the map, or because of their religion (strictly Roman Catholic), or because [...]
The Pentagon Papers
More than forty documents detailing United States involvement in the East, with the emphasis on Indochina, starting during the Second World War and finishing around May, 1968. Students who would like to know how and [...]
Quotable quotes from Winston Churchill (1864-1965, edited)
He is one of those orators of whom it was well said, ‘Before they get up, they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they do not know what [...]
The Japanese Peace Constitution (1947)
After the horrific end of World War II in the East, the Japanese decided to replace the draconian Meiji Constitution agreed to in 1889. But the new draft was itself not new; it was based [...]
The United Nations Organisation (based in New York)
The most expensive organisation on this planet started life in October 1945. Its predecessor the League of Nations had proved to be useless, and the founder nations were determined, whatever the cost, to maintain peace [...]
What was the ‘Risorgimento’?
The word means ‘resurgence’ but that will not mean much to students. It was a nineteenth century movement designed to unite Italy, which had not been united since the Roman Empire; even then solidarity had [...]
The Valois of France
The Valois of France France was ruled by the Valois Dynasty from the accession of Philip VI (Count of Valois, 1328) to the death of Henry III in 1589. Two hundred and sixty-one years of [...]
Reformation in England and the Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Reformation in England was the process by which the English Church rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and established a Litany and Doctrine of its own. The reformation in other 16th century [...]
Nicolae Ceausescu
This Romanian politician was born in the last year of the Great War. His was a poor family working mostly on the land, and young Nicolae was pleased to leave the grinding poverty behind and [...]
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 in question has nothing or little to [...]
The struggle for independence: Rhodesia
Ian Smith of Rhodesia, died 2007 / forumparadoxplaza.com It would seem clear that Cataluña will, by one means or another, free herself from Spain, of which she has always been an integral part. [...]
Stephen, the last Norman King of England
Stephen was born in or around 1097; anyway it is safe to assume his birth took place at the end of the 11th century. His mother was Adela, a daughter of William I, a.k.a. ‘The [...]
‘Stadhouder’: what was a ‘stadholder’?
The names in Dutch and English are similar; this was the office of the chief executive of the Dutch Republic when Holland was a republic and not, as it is now, a Monarchy. Once, the [...]
That Special Relationship
This is a favourite (or favorite term) used mainly by British social commentators and diplomats to describe what they like to see as special Anglo-American relations. The term reflects language ties as well as cultural [...]
Switzerland and the Swiss Guards
Originally named Helvetia, this is a landlocked democratic European republic, with boundaries to the east with Liechtenstein and Austria, to the south with Italy; the west by France and finally to the north with Germany. [...]
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