Under the Treaty of Versailles, the newly-formed Poland was given a thin strip of land around the River Vistula which provided access to the Baltic, and vital economic rights to the free port city of Danzig. This resulted in German East Prussia becoming an exclave and meant that large numbers... More
Following the collapse of Mycenaean civilization in c. 1100 the major settlements were abandoned and the Greek population dropped dramatically. People lived in small groups, farming in villages, or adopting a nomadic lifestyle as they followed pasture and livestock, and leaving no written record behind. Weaving, pottery-making and metal-working still... More
The area of David’s kingdom was the battleground of empires in antiquity, where the traditional spheres of influence of Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, met, and frequently, clashed. It was both strategically and commercially important, sitting astride the great land trade routes of the Near East: the Via Maris ran through... More
After exile by Saul, David developed a rebel following and proclaimed himself king of Judah at Hebron. He then captured Jerusalem (which his general, Joab, entered by crawling up a drainage shaft), making it his new capital. Next, he conquered the region of Shepelah from the Philistines who, thereafter, were... More
In 1866 Admiral Charles Henry Davis was commissioned to assess the relative feasibility of different routes for a canal linking the Caribbean and Pacific through Central America. The timing was opportune: the De Lessep’s Suez Canal was nearing completion, as was the US Transcontinental Railroad. A Panama Railroad across the... More
As the man synonymous with the successful construction of the Suez Canal, Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps was considered uniquely qualified to oversee the Panama Canal. Actually, de Lesseps qualifications were less than stellar: he was not trained as an engineer, and his success at Suez owed much to his charm,... More
Operation Fortitude proved key to diverting German forces away from the Normandy landings (Operation Overlord). It aimed to create the illusion of two alternative invasion forces, one targeting Norway (Fortitude North) and one targeting Pas de Calais (Fortitude South). It was a joint venture between numerous Allied military deception agencies,... More
A frequent catalyst for independence movements is the disruption to colonial rule occasioned by protracted conflict. The Napoleonic War was effectively the death-knell for the bulk of Spain’s South American empire; World War I completed Ottoman disintegration. Although France and Britain emerged on the winning side in World War II,... More
Following World War II, people across Europe and Africa began to question the morality of the European colonies created during the scramble for Africa in the latter 19th century. It had become increasingly obvious that the colonies were exploitative in nature. The Atlantic Charter, signed by the Allies in 1941,... More
In December 1944, the Germans launched their surprise Ardennes Offensive, aiming to push towards the port city of Antwerp to deny the Allies an important resupply centre. In what became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans managed to make significant inroads into the Allied defensive line in... More
The forces of the 1st Baltic Front and 3rd Belorussian Front initially surrounded the Prussian city of Königsberg in January 1945 as part of the East Prussian Offensive, which slowly choked off Germany’s overland supply routes, forcing them to depend on access to the Baltic Sea. The citizens of Königsberg... More
As part of the German thrust towards Antwerp in the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, the Belgian Town of St Vith became the site of a battle between the advancing German forces and the Americans who were positioned near the town. The Americans were caught off guard by the surprise... More