A well-known modern artist from Spain, [BLANK-1] experimented with Proto-Cubism and Cubism prior to WWI, and Surrealism after WWI. One of his most famous works, Guernica (1937), was an anti-war work that criticized the war crimes of the fascist nationalists and Nazis during the Spanish Civil War.
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In 1915, British forces tried unsuccessfully to take the Dar…
In 1915, British forces tried unsuccessfully to take the Dardanelles and Constantinople from the Ottomans during [BLANK-1]. Casualties were high on both sides. Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders participated in this conflict.
[BLANK-1] were Nazi death squads during the Holocaust. Histo…
[BLANK-1] were Nazi death squads during the Holocaust. Historians such as Christopher Browning and Timothy Snyder have argued that these death squads were made up of “ordinary men” who were neither ideologically indoctrinated “super Nazis” nor men who came to the Nazi Party early in the 1930s. Instead, they tended to be older or less fit men who were not ideal for fighting on the front lines. These death squads, however, perpetrated the majority of the Holocaust, killing large numbers of undesirables in numerous but relatively small encounters on the eastern front.
What concept in Anglo-Saxon society refers to the reciprocal…
What concept in Anglo-Saxon society refers to the reciprocal relationship between a lord and his warriors?
A series of discoveries beginning around the turn of the cen…
A series of discoveries beginning around the turn of the century challenged the established certainties of Newtonian physics. Building on the discoveries of other scientists, [BLANK-1] showed in 1900 that subatomic energy is emitted in uneven little spurts, which this scientist called “quanta,” rather than in steady streams. This discovery led to the study of Quantum Physics.
While European imperialism in Africa had, on the balance, a…
While European imperialism in Africa had, on the balance, a decidedly negative effect on African populations, there were some positive impacts of Neo-imperialism. For instance, Europeans improved standards of living, brought medical advances and hospitals, improved infrastructure, built schools and universities, and provided paths to citizenship for African subjects. While admittedly few Africans rose through imperial ranks or achieved citizenship, some did. [BLANK-1] was one of the first people to do so. He was a Senegalese French colonial subject who exemplified France’s mission to civilize. He received a French-style education, converted to Christianity, achieved French citizenship, and rose through the ranks of local politics, becoming the mayor of Dakar (the capital of French Senegal). He became the first African-born person to be elected to the French Chamber of Deputies in 1914 and thus held real power within the French Empire.
During the interwar years, capitalism and democracy were thr…
During the interwar years, capitalism and democracy were threatened globally with the rise of authoritarian states, socialists, communists, fascists, and faux democracies. The United States and the United Kingdom were the only world powers that consistently maintained a strong commitment to capitalism and democracy throughout the era. The countries upheld their commitment to those principles when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt secretly met in August of 1941 to sign [BLANK-1]. Their agreement reaffirmed their commitment to capitalism, democracy, and national sovereignty, and it signaled American support for the British war effort prior to the United States’ official involvement in World War II. Many of the principles of their agreement would serve as the foundation for the post-war order; it influenced the creation of the United Nations, NATO, GATT, and others.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, Europeans att…
In the early decades of the twentieth century, Europeans attempted to use their superior technology and modes of transportation to legitimize their rule of Africa. Mobility became intimately linked to modernity, and in the 1920s both the French and the British launched expeditions that sought to traverse the entire continent of Africa with automobiles. As there were many areas without any semblance of roads and there were many river crossings, this was oftentimes a much slower and onerous journey than simply walking across the continent would have been. These expeditions had enormous support staffs and required the use of dozens to hundreds of indigenous guides and porters (at times, local Africans had to carry the cars across rivers and gorges). Nevertheless, the 1924-1925 French expedition led by Louis Audouin-Dubreuil & Georges-Marie Haardt and the 1924 British expedition led by [BLANK-1] successfully crossed the continent.
The latter half of the twentieth century was generally a per…
The latter half of the twentieth century was generally a period of European integration. One aspect of this trend was the creation of [BLANK-1] in 1995 that created a zone that eliminated the need for passport checks and visas among signatory areas. This diplomatic treaty had a significant overlap with the European Union, but was signed independently of it. Since its adoption, some non-members of the EU have joined and it has significantly reduced internal border checks in Europe.
As it contained quinine (a prophylaxis against Malaria), [BL…
As it contained quinine (a prophylaxis against Malaria), [BLANK-1] became the “imperial cocktail” and was widely used by British imperialists in tropical colonies in Africa and Asia. By regularly consuming this cocktail, European colonizers were protected from tropical disease in ways that they had never previously been, which allowed them to expand deeper into the interior of Africa.