After leaving Ypres, the Canadian Corps moved to the Somme valley to support the Allied forces, who were sustaining massive losses in their futile attempts to break through German lines. On 15 September 1916, three divisions of the Canadian Corps neutralized the German defences in the ruined French village of... More
The burgeoning population and commerce resulting from the Industrial Revolution placed an immense strain on an internal transport network reliant on rivers, and often ill-maintained roads. While turnpike trusts greatly improved the coverage and quality of roads, more volume was still required, and was met initially by river navigation systems... More
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) founded the Cape Colony in 1652 as a way-station on the route to the Indies. After the colonists almost starved in 1654, the VOC released some colonists from their contracts, and granted them lands to farm. These 'free burghers' rapidly extended the boundaries of... More
Perhaps the most crucial moments of the Gallipoli Offensive were on Beaches X, S and Y on Cape Helles after the Allied troops successfully landed on 25 April. While the other two landings on the head of the Cape were decimated by heavy Ottoman fire, these sites were lightly defended... More
Following James I’s Virginia Charter of 1609, in 1663 (extended 1665) English King Charles II issued the ‘Carolina Charters’ granting rights over a new province bearing his latinized name and comprising the land between the Virginia Colony to the north and Spanish Florida to the south. Eight wealthy English ‘Lords... More
The 1942 German Summer Offensive, known as Case Blue (Fall Blau), aimed to capitalize on momentum on the eastern front, using a two-pronged offensive to push into southern Russia and the Caucasus. Army Group South was split into Army Group A, assigned to the Caucasus, and Army Group B, assigned... More
At the battle of Allia (390 BCE), the Roman army was destroyed by a confederacy of Celtic tribes, led by the Senones under Brennus. The Celts went on to lay waste to Rome, before being routed by the exiled Roman general Camillus. The germ of future greatness can be seen... More
In the 4th century BCE, the Celts moved out of their German heartland south into Italy and east into the Danube basin. The eastern advance was spearheaded by the Boii and Volcae confederacies, who scented richer pickings in the southern Balkans. By the century’s end, the Illyrians, Paionians and Triballi... More
The heartland of the Celtic Hallstatt culture was located around the Upper Danube; the first Celtic migrations were westward. Much of Gaul was occupied during the 6th century BCE, with rapid onward progress into the British Isles and Iberia. At these extremes, the regions of Celtic settlement became spatially isolated... More
The Celts, named Keltoi (barbarians) by the Greeks, were a cultural group that occupied much of Europe north of the Alps. The proto-Celtic Urnfield Culture was located in central Europe until the 8th century BCE, when the first recognizably Celtic Hallstatt culture began to disseminate from a heartland in southern... More
Chechnya, which became part of the Russian Empire in 1859, has a lengthy history of conflict and persecution, most notably under Stalin’s rule post-World War II. With the fall of the Soviet Union minority regions within Russia were offered varying degrees of autonomy; however, Chechnya rejected proposals and pursued full... More
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, (C&O) was the result of the merger of several Virginian railroads. Its major shareholder, Collis Potter Huntington, had already invested in the Central Pacific Railroad and wanted an eastern connection to create a transcontinental railroad. Construction began in 1869–73, with new tracks laid in coal-rich... More