Modern History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Modern History’
Louis XIV picked up the reins of power in France vowing to drive the national economy in the common interest, not his own.
Louis XIV of France (r. 1643-1715) ruled France for seventy-two years, and as Victor Duruy records here, his intentions were good. He aspired to be a father to his subjects, to better their lives by skilfully-crafted legislation, to support their daily needs and to narrow the gap between rich and poor. He also records that the king’s well-meant management of other people’s lives ended as it usually does.
Amy Johnson of Hull had clocked only ninety hours of flying experience before taking off alone for Australia.
On May 5th, 1930, Amy Johnson left Croydon Airport at the controls of her Gipsy Moth biplane, bound for Australia. She reached India in six days, but hopes of breaking more records were dashed by a catalogue of mishaps. The day before she landed at Darwin on May 24th, the first woman to complete the solo flight, Stanley Spooner of Flight International reminded readers what a feat it would be.
On the evening of October 7th, 1777, as fighting on Bemis Heights subsided, Harriet Acland came to General Burgoyne with a startling request.
The British surrender at Saratoga on October 17th, 1777, was a turning point in the American Revolutionary War (1776-1783) because it brought France in on the colonists’ side. In his account of the fighting, the English general John Burgoyne recalled what happened on the night of the 7th — with the contest still in the balance — after Harriet Acland heard that her husband John had been captured.
Charles Darwin was on hand in 1836 to witness the catastrophic effects of a series of earthquakes in Chile.
On March 4th, 1836, HMS Beagle arrived at Talcahuano Bay by the city of Concepcion in Chile. With that instinct that marks out the hero (and the scientist) Captain Robert Fitz-Roy had sailed there as soon as he felt a series of earth tremors disturb his ship, anchored at nearby Mocha. Naturalist Charles Darwin was on board, and left us his impressions of the impact of the earthquake.
When Saint-Mars arrived to take over as warden of the Bastille in 1698, staff at Paris’s most famous prison had eyes only for his prisoner.
When in 1660 King Charles II quitted the French court and returned to England, the parliamentary restraints laid upon him left Louis XIV aghast, and the ‘Sun King’ made sure to radiate his power through a network of chosen ministers, soldiers, civil servants and innumerable spies. Many illustrious names were gaoled without appeal or hope of release, but the most famous prisoner has no name at all.
Peter the Great wanted Russia to join the nations of Western Europe, but the nations of Western Europe refused to make room for him.
On the eve of the Great Northern War (1700-1721), most Europeans saw Russia only as an uncouth land useful as a supplier of wax, hemp and leather goods. Her ambitious new Tsar, Peter I, swore that Germany would soon admire her industry, and France her elegance, and that the Dutch and English would salute her navies; but without a European seaport, all this was an idle dream.