During this current academic year I’ve started completing a part-time MA in History. It’s been great being able to learn new things again, whilst also attempting to write essays; although, I’ve struggled at times juggling the course along with work and other commitments. My current module focuses on German history from 1870 to 1945, and […]
I recently picked up a second-hand copy of Paul Theroux’s The Happy Isles of Oceania in a book-store at a National Trust property. Having really enjoyed several of Theroux’s other travel books, I was happy to plunge into this one in the hope of finding out more of the Pacific, particularly its history and customs. […]
The Elizabethan era of the late 16th century was filled with problems between England and Spain. When Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558 the two kingdoms had enjoyed a few years of alliance due to the ‘Spanish Match’ between Queen Mary I and Philip of Spain. Although the marriage does not appear to […]
The other day whilst browsing Cornish related topics on Reddit, I came across an incredibly long war – perhaps one of the longest in world history. The so-called Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Years War of 1651-1986, which surpasses even the likes of the famous Anglo-French Hundred Years War (which, of course, as we all know […]
This post marks two weeks of uploading a post a day in my “Month of Posts” challenge (outlined in more detail here). Back near the start of April I posted about the end of the War World Cup series, citing the central reason to be my continuing uneasiness at seemingly trivialising wars. But whilst going […]
In terms of conflict between Britain and the United States, everyone has some knowledge of the revolutionary war of the late 1700s (a British defeat), and some may have heard of the “War of 1812” in which the White House was burned down (a draw between both nations); but hardly anyone will have heard of […]
Earlier in the year at the start of lock-down I read a book about one of the USA’s earliest foreign wars: their conflict against the barbary pirates in the first decade of the 1800s. I was interested to learn more about the growth of American imperial power, especially due to covering it on a couple […]
The last post in the War Zone series outlined the three French wars that Henry VIII pursued during his long reign. None of these wars provided him with the triumphant success that he so longed for, with my concluding thoughts noting: In summary, each of the three French wars did not live up to the […]
Is there any inevitability in life? Perhaps the only certainty is death. Everything else we as people experience – marriage, parenthood, mortgage repayments – is chance, the likelihood of each activity varying with each personality. The lessons of history, however, are not so exclusive. The past speaks with more certainty, points to mistakes made and […]
So far in 2019 this series has concerned itself with the wars of Bismarck and the rise of Prussia in the 1860s: from regional power to the unification of Germany by 1871. The three wars – against the Danes in 1864, the Austrians in 1866, and the French in 1870-71 – highlights a phenomenal rise […]
The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 is noted as the second of Bismarck’s “great wars” in what would result in the unification of Germany as a solid nation state within the space of seven years. Its causes are directly rooted in the aftermath of the Second Schleswig War (1864) and in the division of the juicy new territories carved […]
