Modern History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Modern History’
The great British public leaves a German tourist speechless during a county match at the Oval in London.
A German tourist spoke to K. S. Ranjitsinhji, the great Indian batsman, about his impressions of the Victorians and their fascination with sport. It was a county cricket match between Surrey and Nottinghamshire at the Oval which truly opened his eyes.
Stylish batting in cricket is about variety, invention and frankly anything that works, and we have Dr W.G. Grace to thank for it.
K. S. Ranjitsinhji, the great Indian batsman, gives his assessment of the significance of Dr W. G. Grace in the history of cricket. For the good Doctor, batting was not about a narrowly perfect style but about getting runs, making batting more inventive and exciting to watch.
The East India Company installed Mir Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, only to find that he had a mind of his own.
Robert Clive’s victory against the Nawab of Bengal at Plassey in 1757 made him and his employers, the East India Company, quite literally kingmakers. But Clive now retired to London, leaving Bengal to the new Nawab, Mir Jafar, and Company policy to Henry Vansittart, Clive’s successor in Calcutta.
It was the opinion of Leo Tolstoy that even Napoleon was never master of his own destiny.
Thomas Carlyle was a famous proponent of the ‘Great Men’ theory of history, which holds that world-changing events are moved by bold, iron-willed men of vision. Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy was not of this brotherhood. In his classic War and Peace, he reminded us that even a man as great as Napoleon is much less in control of his own destiny than we might imagine.
Admiral Lord Howe battered a French fleet far out in the Atlantic, and helped prevent the spread of bloody revolution.
As soon as power had been secured after the Revolution of 1789, France’s new government began invading neighbouring countries in Europe, and seeking to evangelize the world with revolutionary fervour. Happily, the seed of republicanism fell on very stony ground on this side of the Channel.
James Cook describes his first sight of a beloved Australian icon.
James Cook captained ‘Endeavour’ on a round trip to New Zealand and Australia from 1768 to 1771. Between June and August 1770, the ship lay at the mouth of the Endeavour (Wabalumbaal) River in north Queensland, undergoing repairs. Cook kept a meticulous journal, in which he described some of the animals he saw.