Tag: germany
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History of the Second World War. V.
Nazi Germany faced additional setbacks on the southern front, until this advance was stalled until the end of the war. The Italians had been a liability that weakened the German strategic war effort, which only worsen. General Pietro Badoglio began armistice negotiations with the British and the Americans on 4 August 1943, as the…
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History of the Second World War. II.
Plans for the invasion of Britain, which proved to be implausible were scrapped. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder informed Hitler at a military conference on 17 September 1940 that the German navy lacked the sufficient strength and resources for an attempt to secure passage over the English Channel, which the Chief of the General Staff, Franz…
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History of the Second World War. I.
British political decisionmakers eventually suspected that Germany would not cease its aggression, but could do little more than issue an ultimatum, advising Germany that Poland would receive British assistance if Hitler invaded. Nevertheless, Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and forced a collapse in less than a month using a method of warfare known…
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History of the Interwar Years. II.
There were relatively peaceful living conditions and economic stability in Europe until the onset of the Great Depression that was initially triggered by the U.S. stock market crash of 28 October 1929 in the U.S., which was a representative situation of underlying worldwide problems. There were vulnerabilities in the global economy, which were exposed as…
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History of the First World War. III.
The war at sea was mostly low key, apart from a few exceptional incidents. The highly touted and costly German High Seas Fleet remained in port throughout the war while playing a mainly defensive role. Its main strength consisted of battleships and torpedo boats that were meant for naval battles, and a few cruisers…
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History of the First World War. I.
The first years of the twentieth century were characterised by escalating tensions among the European powers, amid relative peace allowing for developing considerable prosperity and technological development. Nevertheless, there was also competition for military supremacy and for resources from colonies abroad were complicated by entangling alliances, which were supposed to make Europe safer, but ultimately…
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History of the Origins of the First World War.
The international power politics competition marked by the new imperialism and the system of alliances continued influencing Europe until the outbreak of the First World War. Bismarck’s dominance on the continent had been facilitated by the fact that the other great powers of Europe were engaged in and distracted by imperialist rivalries overseas, but this…
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History of the Second German Empire and Modern Imperialism.
One of the results of the Franco-Prussian War was the establishment of the Second German Empire, following the first created under Charlemagne. The constitution, adopted on 14 April 1871, was simply a remodeled version of the constitution of the North German Confederation, which had also been a creation of Bismarck. The empire was composed of…
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History of Reaction and Unification. 1848-1871.
The 1848 revolutions caused a realignment of forces in European political life. In Italy, the Sardinian kingdom emerged after 1849 as the one hope for the national unification of Italy. King Victor Immanuel II maintained the constitution, and increasingly more Italian nationalists turned toward Sardinia in much the same way as Germans began to look…
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History of Reaction and Revolution. 1815-1848.
Two important ideologies, nationalism and liberalism, emerged to have a significant effect on Europe during the nineteenth century. The Congress of Vienna and the Concerts of Europe were a conservative response to these ideas. After Napoleon’s fall, most European nations wanted to restore the old order and prevent future revolutionary outbreaks. Great Britain, Austria,…