In Spain, Mr Rajoy and his team are slowly and laboriously edging their country back to sanity and a more stable economy, though the process will be long…
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Almost all our readers have heard of the seven wonders. Some might be able to name them. Fewer will know what the seven wonders of the ‘modern world’…
Georges Boulanger (1837 – 91)
If Georges had been, as his surname suggests, a pastrycook by profession instead of a wholly political general, his patisserie would have been the pride of Paris. Indeed,…
The Spanish Road Tax (Rodaje)
I would need to be told what other EU countries do about charging road tax to vehicle owners. In Britain it is simply called Road Tax, and you…
The Franco-Prussian War (1870/71)
These modern days of a loving relationship between Germany and France force a wry smile. First we watched with a certain quantity of concealed amusement as Frau Merkel…
The Vichy Government (Vichy France)
Three-fifths of France fell to Nazi Germany soon after World War II was declared, though the French army and navy were larger than those of the aggressive Germans….
Philippe II & Felipe II: two successful Philips
There were nearly two hundred years between the births of these two triumphant kings of France and Spain respectively. I shall use the anglicised version of their names….
What was that Eastern Question?
Turkey was known by the unfriendly sobriquet of ‘The Sick Man of Europe’ during most of the 19th century; the Eastern Question is a collective term for the…
What was ‘The Black Hand’?
Often appearing in early spy novels, such as the works of John Buchan, Dornford Yates and Somerset Maugham, the Black Hand was actually a Serbian secret society –…
The Confederate States of America
In a recent post on the General-History blogsite, mention is made of these confederate states. Their importance in history, especially American history, is that they were a direct…