Category: World War I
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Belgium’s Neutrality was More than a “Scrap of Paper”
On August 3, 1914, Great Britain sent an ultimatum to Germany not to invade Belgium. The next day, German troops were in the neutral country and Great Britain declared war. Great Britain’s reasoning was that Belgium was an independent, neutral state whose existence and sovereignty was guaranteed by Great Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and Germany.…
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Treaty of London, 1839: The Complete Text
The 1839 Treaty of London was the document cited by Britain when they presented Germany with an ultimatum not to invade Belgium on August 3, 1914. I have found several websites which quote the relevant portions of the treaty, but I could not find a website that had the treaty in its entirety. The following…
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“Human Smoke” on Churchill and the Blockade of Germany
Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke was released this year and aimed to be a provocative book containing a series of little-known quotes and events between World War I and World War II. The structure of the book is interesting in the sense that there is no real cohesion from page to page except that it’s all…
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Did Buchanan Plagiarize this Map of Germany After Versailles?
In Patrick J. Buchanan’s Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”, he uses a map to show how Germany was carved up after the Treaty of Versailles, which is similar to another map in Martin Gilbert’s Routledge Atlas of the First World War. Similarities Similar topic: “Germany After Versailles” and “Germany in Defeat” both showing how Germany…
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Did Buchanan Plagiarize this World War I Blockade Map?
Did Buchanan plagiarize a map from Martin Gilbert? In Patrick J. Buchanan’s Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”, he uses a map to show the food riots in Germany during World War I of which he blames Winston Churchill as the cause. There is another map in Martin Gilbert’s Atlas of the First World War that is very similar. Similarities…
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Buchanan is Wrong. Churchill had No “Starvation Blockade”
While reading Patrick J. Buchanan’s new book Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”, I realized that a better title would have been Twisted Highlights from the World Wars that Make Churchill Look the Most Incompetent and Sadistic. While not all of Buchanan’s highlights are twisted, he tends to leave out just enough information to force…
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World War I: Troop Statistics
The following is a breakdown of the number of troops that fought, died, and were wounded in World War I, as recorded in Michael Clodfelter’s Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and other Figures. The number of civilians killed have been counted as well. This article is only a quick analysis of…
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Movie Review: Flyboys
Against all odds, I went to see Flyboys. The critics hated it, my wife refused to go, and all of my friends had better things to do. That is, all of my friends except poor Derek. He was as dumb as me and had nothing to do on a Sunday night. We both left our…