Rise and Fall of Protestantism
A future for the Anglican Church in England / flickriver.com The Anglican (Protestant Church of England) church set in a formerly beautiful park on the cliffs above Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife) is [...]
History of Greece
Most of our bloggers, those who have opened a book in their lives anyway, will know quite a lot about Greece already; cradle of civilization, founders of democracy, one of the great classical languages etc. [...]
History of the English country house
Pastoral view from Blickling Hall, Norfolk / alisonweirtours.com Classic English country houses, mansions, castles etc. have alweays symbolized wealth, and have therefore been vulnerable to socialist assaults, taxation, death duties and poverty. Despite [...]
The Siegfried and Maginot Lines: similarities and differences
Both these resounding names refer to a national defence system. They are, respectively, German and French. The principal difference between the two is that the former was erected in France by the Germans in World [...]
History of Lithuania and Latvia
Vilnius, capital of Lithuania / balticblues-events.com Lithuania is a Baltic country, lying between Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east, and Poland to the south. In the 14th century it was one [...]
History of Romania
Bucharest / bucharestdailyphoto.com Capital: Bucharest. Population: Nearly 23 million. President: Traian Basescu (since 2004) Currency: The Leu. Languages: Romanian (official) Hungarian, Romany. International Organizations: The European Union (since January, 2007), United Nations, CSCE, [...]
History of Estonia
Tallin / sobreturismo.es Capital City: Tallin. Prime Minister: Andrus Ansip. Euro: officially adopted January, 2011. Population: Nearly two million. Currency: the Kroon. Languages: Estonian and Russian. International Organizations: EU (since 2004), United Nations, [...]
Vladimir Ilyich LENIN (1870 – 1924)
V.I. Lenin / elcomercio.com While the present Spanish government is Stalinist in concept, and Leninist in its leaders’ outlook, it might be as well to examine the biography of Lenin, whose actual family [...]
Holy Roman Empire
Francis II, last Holy Roman Emperor / emersonkent.com Someone once said that the odd thing about the Holy Roman Empire is that it was not holy, Roman or an empire. This mostly Germanic [...]
The 2012 London Olympics (what the IOC didn’t want you to know)
London entertains the Olympics / taiwantoday.com Our faithful internauts might want to know that without any help from Mr. Julian Assange, the British weekly The Spectator has just published what they call ‘an [...]
History of the Bible
The Bible is the sacred book of Christianity. There are many Christian churches, but all accept the two sections of it: the Hebrew scriptures, which we know as the Old Testament, and the Christian writings, [...]
The Fabian Society
In modern literature and journalism the reader will often find a mention of the Fabians. It is as well to know exactly to what this name refers. The Fabian Society was a movement of mainly [...]
The Jameson Raid
Artist’s impression of the Jameson Raid / colonialwarfare18901875.dewhub.com One hundred and five years ago something happened in South Africa which has now largely been forgotten. The incident probably arose because of the remorseless [...]
Spanish Airports: Castles in the Air?
When we were very young, we occasionally heard adults sigh and say, “Of course it would be very nice to have a cottage in the country, but I fear it’s just a castle in the [...]
Sir Francis Drake: Pirate or Patriot?
The ‘pirate’ Drake knighted by the Queen after circumnavigating the world / elpaid.com.uy Drake (1540 – 1596) was an English admiral and explorer, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world. He was unpopular, [...]
Winter of discontent followed by glorious summer?
We are now well launched into the year two thousand and eleven – eleven years after a change of century. As the infamous 20th gradually diminishes in our memory, with its two World Wars, the [...]
The Battle of Arnhem 1944
General Browning, husband of novelist Daphne de Maurier / homeusers.brutele.b Arnhem is the sixth largest city in the Netherlands. It was the scene of fierce and remorseless fighting between 17 and 26 September, [...]
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