History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘History’
Rome’s greedy tax policy in Britain and Gaul left farmers with little to show for their labours but the stripes on their backs.
Admission to the Roman Empire brought an unfamiliar prosperity and ease to the former kingdoms of Britain, but American historian David Montgomery emphasised that much of it was a sham. Behind the facade lay a culture of corruption and exploitation fed by government greed, which was not limited to the miserable slaves labouring in mines or brickworks.
During the Battle of Inkerman in 1854, one of Lord Raglan’s hospital sergeants had a close encounter with a Russian cannonball.
Lord Calthorpe was aide-de-camp to Lord Raglan during the Crimean War of 1853-6 against Russia. The war was a bloody and costly mistake, but the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava on October 24th, 1854, was not the only moment of heroism. A few days after the Battle of Inkerman on November 5th, Calthorpe had this story to share.
Lakshmi and her sister Parvati enlisted the help of the British Resident, Colonel Munro, to steady the Kingdom of Travancore.
At the very moment Napoleon Bonaparte was trying to bring Continental bureaucracy to Britain, Queen Lakshmi brought British commonsense to Travancore (now the State of Kerala). She and her sister Parvati weeded out corruption, promoted education and healthcare, and gave stability to a realm troubled by invasion and bad government.
American historian D. H. Montgomery saw Britain’s ‘isolation’ as the very thing that has made her people more cosmopolitan, and her government more liberal.
Much is said, not all of it complimentary, about Britain’s changeable weather and her isolation from Continental Europe. But American historian D. H. Montgomery believed that wind and wave had helped make Britain into a more stable, more diverse, more harmonious and more liberal country.
American historian David Montgomery credited King Edward VII with bringing peace to Europe, the Empire and the world.
American historian D. H. Montgomery gave this assessment of the reign of King Edward VII in 1912, two years after the king died and two years before war broke out across the world. Whereas some historians like to focus on Edward’s scandals and family quarrels, Montgomery saw quite a different side to the King.
American historian David Montgomery explains why Britain’s Empire Day really was a cause for celebration.
American historian D. H. Montgomery lays out the background to the establishment of Empire Day in 1904. He describes a global Empire which had discovered ever closer union not by more centralisation but by less, a Britain that was no longer a colonial power but the mother of a federation of independent states.