Halted by the bad weather, the Allies’ advance northwards did not significantly restart until the spring of 1945, when the British 8th Army advanced up the east coast towards Argenta, which they captured on 17 April. Joined by the 5th Army they then took Bologna and Modena, forcing the Germans... More
The experience of collective subjection under Napoleonic rule awakened a spirit of German nationalism for long dissipated in the dynastic patchwork quilt of the Holy Roman Empire. After liberation, the establishment of a Customs Union (1834) and a common rail network have been described as the ‘Siamese Twins’ facilitating the... More
The Rhine and Danube rivers had become the effective borders between Roman governed territory of Germania and the multiplicity of Teutonic tribes that were dispersed across northern Europe. Over the two centuries that followed the shocking attack by the Cherusci tribe on the Roman army in the Teutoberg Forest (9... More
By the year 500, the Migration Period, in which many Germanic and Slavic peoples moved from the east into western Europe, had caused a significant amount of upheaval as territories became contested by different tribes. The various Germanic tribes made up the main body of migration into new areas. They... More
The eastward settlement (Ostsiedlung) by Germans became pronounced in Medieval times, and was often through invitation of local rulers who valued their industry, skills and martial prowess. Colonies in 12th-century Transylvania and Carpathian Galicia originated in this manner, and Catherine the Great solicited the influx of the Volga Germans. The... More
Germany’s partition occurred through Allied negotiation at the end of World War II. The East came under Soviet control, with further partition of the city of Berlin into Western and Eastern Zones of occupation. From 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced liberalizing policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) designed to avert... More
Overnight on 1–2 July, the remaining infantry of both the Union and Confederate armies reached the embattled troops at Gettysburg. The Union lines were now arrayed in a ‘fish hook’ formation on high ground to the south of Gettysburg, running from Culp’s Hill to Cemetery Ridge. The Confederate attack commenced... More
The fulcrum of the Battle of Gettysburg was the Confederate infantry assault on the Union left flank on the afternoon of 3 July. It was preceded by an artillery bombardment on the Union lines, but the Confederates were by now short of munitions, and Union gunnery was not significantly degraded.... More
In June 1863, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of North Virginia, invaded the North through the Shenandoah after defeating Union forces at Chancellorsville. By doing so, he sought to allow war-ravaged Virginia time to recuperate, while his armies foraged in northern territory, striking towards the cities... More
From its foundation in the 4th century, the Ghana Empire grew into a prosperous regional power, owing its wealth to its position between gold-rich lands to the south and incoming Berber and Arab salt traders. The king imposed taxes on commodities traded within the empire, which grew to incorporate the... More
The sacking of the temple of Somnath (1026), with its ‘56 golden pillars’ was perhaps the most lucrative of Mahmud of Ghazni’s (r. 997–1030) many looting raids into India. The Ghaznavid Empire had been founded by his father, Sebuktigin, a Turkic slave soldier for the Samanid dynasty, who seized a... More
The Franciscan monk, William of Rubruck, travelled to the Great Khan’s court in Karakorum from 1252 to 1255. This was not a ground-breaking journey; several missionaries preceded him, and at the court he encountered a French silversmith, and a woman from Lorraine doing the cooking. Until the 15th century, it... More