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Click for part 2 Battle of Togbao, 1899 In Central Africa, a punative field force was destroyed in circumstances the French would nonetheless take full advantage of. The long-standing Kanem–Bornu Empire, centred around Lake Chad, was well past its zenith by the turn of the century. It had never been conquored before the swashbuckling warlord... Continue Reading →
Click for Part 1 Battle of Maeva, 1846 Although little is documented of the fighting itself, the French lost a shore party of marines in what has been described as a massacre by some, on the island of Huahine, modern-day French Polynesia. The Leeward Islands were divided between four kingdoms: Tahiti, Huahine, Raiatea and Bora... Continue Reading →
The fraudster and swindler who almost talked his way into becoming king of a tiny mountain realm, armed with a catalogue of lies and a manifesto for modernisation To be a vocational swindler, fraudster, conman, trickster, scam artist, is to be someone typically unconscionable; someone who is successful in one’s lies by telling them with... Continue Reading →
Here are the greatest dynasties of their times based on long eras of dominance which prove their claims to have been the best 19th Century The 'Team of All Talents' takes on Aston Villa, 1894-95 The world’s first official national-level competitive football began in England and Scotland in 1872 and 1873, respectively. As such, the... Continue Reading →
A ranking of every European league to have won international trophies, plus a lowdown on the continent's 'Super Six' ARL Football Success Ranking System The ARL Football Success Ranking System for men’s European club-football establishes for certain which clubs are the most successful of each nation and in the whole of Europe. The football clubs... Continue Reading →
Click for part 3 Battle of Bataan, 1942 With many parallels to Britain's own catastrophic Fall of Malaya & Singapore, the USA lost its final foothold in the western Pacific after US forces fought for and lost the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon island in early April. US Commonwealth forces under the command of General Douglas... Continue Reading →
Click for part 2 Apia Cyclone, 1889 It was during the peak years of Western-state nationalism when countries like the USA, Britain, Germany and Italy strutted around the world with their chests puffed out that a small US Naval squadron was wrecked in rueful circumstances. A storm had been brewing in the Samoan Islands since... Continue Reading →
“History is written by the winners,” quipped Napoleon. Despite France's vast compilation of conquests at home and abroad, historians found space to record the occasions this superpower was mauled also. This four-part article includes the worst military calamity of every decade, from the founding of the First Republic in 1792 until Algeria's independence in the... Continue Reading →
The lowdown on the ten most important Greek cities in the ancient world, their statuses today, and what remains of their archealogical wonders Antioch Antioch may have been a small Greek trading colony before Seleucus I Nicator founded the city shortly after 300 BC. Seleucus was a general of Alexander the Great’s - the Macedonian... Continue Reading →
Part 3 Battle of Spion Kop, 1900 The British, reinforced after the trauma of 'Black Week', were still labouring to relieve Ladysmith after almost three months of siege. General Buller decided on seizing Spion Kop because the hill stood slap-bang in the centre of Boer positions around Ladysmith. 20,000 troops, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill... Continue Reading →
History and Things 