Modern History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Modern History’
Manto Mavrogenous hoped that her fellow women might show more solidarity with Greece than many men had done.
On August 12th, 1824, Manto Mavrogenous wrote an open letter to the Ladies of England, soliciting donations to the cause of Greek independence from Ottoman rule. Above all, she needed funds to take Euboia, and make it into a safe island for children and women displaced by the fighting.
In 1822, a rich and beautiful young woman took the cause of Greek independence into her capable hands.
The Greek war of independence lasted from 1821 to 1827, and resulted in a partial liberation from the oppressive rule of the Ottoman Turks which had begun with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Manto Mavrogenous (1796-1848) was one of the struggle’s most romantic and most tragic figures.
The hero of Waterloo needed all his men to believe in him that day, but none believed in him more than his cook.
Charles Dickens’s ‘Household Words’ for 1851 recounted a summer visit to the site of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, where the Duke of Wellington masterminded the defeat of Emperor Napoleon. Some of the tales told by the guides were of doubtful authenticity, but Dickens liked this one about the Duke’s personal chef.
William Howitt had some advice for Victorian tourists hoping for an authentic experience at the battlefield of Waterloo.
The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 created a tourist attraction for patriotic Englishmen hoping to connect with the Duke of Wellington’s legendary victory. Some tour guides, Charles Dickens cautioned, were inclined to fantasise, but happily an authentic voice was on hand.
Adam Smith could not imagine it would ever happen, but he nevertheless recommended that Britain grant independence to her colonies.
Scottish economist Adam Smith regarded the British Empire as the best of its kind in history, but he still believed that it would be better for everyone if London abandoned her single market and meddlesome governance, and granted her colonies independence.