Modern History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Modern History’
Emmeline Pankhurst recalls how she brought some much-needed reason into the operations at Chorlton workhouse.
Emmeline Pankhurst’s campaign for women’s suffrage was not just about the right to vote: it was about the country’s desperate need for talented women actually in government. Her experiences as the only woman on the Board of the Chorlton-on-Medlock Workhouse in the 1890s rather proved her case.
The German Empire promised wonders to restless, grudging Europe, and not to let common sense wake us from our dreams.
On the eve of the Great War in 1914, Europe was weary of debates over religion, politics and history. Enervated, cynical and envious, her peoples were dreaming of a better world, so long as it brought instant gratification and did not require them to study those boring lessons of history and religion. As John Buchan explained in his History of the Great War, all Germany asked in return was abject obedience.
John Buchan compared how the Germans and the British understood their empires, and saw two very different pictures indeed.
John Buchan explains why the German Empire took the risk of engaging the British Empire in the Great War. The risk did not seem very serious, because the British had let their colonies become so independent and decentralised that London had no way to make them fight. And that was where the Germans made their mistake.
John Buchan was moved by the way the nations of the British Empire volunteered for service in the Great War.
John Buchan, novelist, Governor General of Canada, and leading historian of the Great War, reminds us that the countries of our Commonwealth and Empire played a decisive role in frustrating the ambitions of the German Empire – all without having to be asked.
Arthur Wellesley watches on as one of his soldiers is rescued from a watery grave.
Arthur Wellesley (not yet the Duke of Wellington) spent the years 1797 to 1804 in India, confronting the Maratha Empire that threatened Indian princes and the British alike. Wisely, he learnt to make war as the Maratha did, and acquired a proper respect for the elephant.
The East India Company’s top agent in India was also the man who put Calcutta on the world map.
Calcutta (Kolkata) in West Bengal was the capital of British India from the start of the Raj in 1857 to 1911, when King George V announced a move to Delhi. Calcutta was not the first choice location for British commercial activity in Bengal, but it proved to be the best, and that was to the credit of one man, Job Charnock.