#occupation of the rhineland

[captain-price-unofficially]

US Doughboy poses with two young children in a German studio. The soldier is holding an M1917 rifle and is kitted out with a sidearm, gas mask, bed roll, backpack and a pair of leather gauntlets complete with trigger fingers, Germany, 1918.

[hellearth6]

A mounted unit of the German army is greeted during the occupation of the Rhineland. Cologne, 7 March 1936.

[autodiscipline]

Soldiers outside of Cologne Cathedral, 1945

In the 1790's, during the Rhinelands occupation by French Revolutionary troops, the cathedral was used as a detention center for prisoners of war. The nave's wood furnishings were used by the prisoners for firewood. It wasn't until 1821 that the Archdiocese of Cologne was reestablished, the two towers of the cathedral later being completed in the 1870s. During World War II, The Allies bombed Cologne intensely, 262 times, from October 1942 until March of 1945. The bombing included "Operation Millennium", the first thousand-bomber raid by the RAF, Taking place on 30/31 May 1942 using 1,047 aircraft and over 2 million kg of ordnance. The cathedral suffered 14 hits by arterial bombs and tens of incendiaries. Mass was held by American soldiers in the bombed ruins of the cathedral after Cologne's capture in march of 1945. Its original stained glass windows were removed earlier in the 18th century in the course of a redecoration program, other treasured items were preserved and protected by sandbags.

[darkmaga-retard]

By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

August 19, 2024

The term “revisionism” came into use after World War I, when historians like Harry Elmer Barnes, Sidney Bradshaw Fay, and Charles Austin Beard challenged Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which assigned exclusive guilt to Germany and its Kaiser for the outbreak of the world war, with all its appalling destruction and massacres, It was on the basis of that clause that the Treaty imposed on Germany a Carthaginian peace, memorably condemned by J.M. Keynes in The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

Barnes and Fay felt a sense of betrayal. They had been roped into Woodrow Wilson’s crusade to “make the world safe for democracy” by the Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, and a similar body that coordinated the work of American historians. Now they saw the error of their ways.

World War I and the ensuing “peace” settlement paved the way for Hitler. The German people’s justified resentment over their harsh treatment led to demands to undo the Versailles verdict. The great libertarian historian Ralph Raico provides a horrifying example of Allied atrocities: “During the pre-armistice negotiations, Wilson insisted that the conditions of any armistice had to be such ‘as to make a renewal of hostilities on the part of Germany impossible.’ Accordingly, the Germans surrendered their battle fleet and submarines, some 1,700 airplanes, 5,000 artillery, 30,000 machine guns, and other materiel, while the Allies occupied the Rhineland and the Rhine bridgeheads. Germany was now defenseless, dependent on Wilson and the Allies keeping their word.

Yet the hunger blockade continued, and was even expanded, as the Allies gained control of the German Baltic coast and banned even fishing boats. The point was reached where the commander of the British army of occupation demanded of London that food be sent to the famished Germans. His troops could no longer stand the sight of hungry German children rummaging in the rubbish bins of the British camps for food Still, food was only allowed to enter Germany in March 1919, and the blockade of raw materials continued until the Germans signed the Treaty.”

Let’s look at another example of revisionist history, World War II. The war led to even more appalling massacres than World War I, but we were told at the time that America needed to enter the war to prevent Hitler from invading America. Our lying textbooks and the mass media repeat this lie to this day.

[bootyandgeekeries]

Rhinelander was a derogatory term used in Nazi Germany to describe Afro-Germans, believed fathered by French Army personnel of African descent who were stationed in the Rhineland during its occupation by France after World War I. There is evidence that other Afro-Germans, born from unions between German men and African women in former German colonies in Africa, were also referred to as Rheinlandbastarde.

After 1933, under Nazi racial theories, Afro-Germans deemed to be Rheinlandbastarde were persecuted. They were rounded up in a campaign of compulsory sterilization.

[dan6085]

During World War II, Nazi Germany made several attempts or gestures toward peace with Britain and France, although these were largely driven by self-interest and a desire to secure Germany’s dominance in Europe. Here is a detailed list of notable peace proposals made by the Nazis:

### 1. **Hitler's Pre-War Offer to Britain (1939)**

In 1939, shortly before invading Poland, Hitler sought to reassure Britain by proposing that Germany had no territorial ambitions beyond its existing claims. Hitler believed that Britain and Germany should not be in conflict, and he wanted to divide spheres of influence in Europe. However, Britain remained skeptical of Hitler’s true intentions and rejected any formal agreements.

### 2. **Peace Overtures After the Invasion of Poland (September 1939)**

After Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, sparking World War II, Hitler made another appeal for peace. In a speech on October 6, 1939, after Poland had been conquered, Hitler offered a peace proposal to Britain and France. He suggested that Germany had achieved its territorial goals in Eastern Europe and had no further interest in expanding westward, proposing that Britain and France agree to this new status quo. However, both Britain and France rejected this offer, seeing it as an attempt by Hitler to consolidate Nazi gains.

### 3. **The Fall of France and Hitler’s Peace Offer to Britain (June 1940)**

After France’s defeat and occupation in June 1940, Hitler again sought to make peace with Britain. In a speech on July 19, 1940, after Germany had decisively won the Battle of France, Hitler made a public offer of peace to Britain. He argued that continuing the war would be pointless and harmful to both countries, proposing a German-dominated continental Europe alongside a British empire overseas. However, this proposal was not formal and was mainly a propaganda gesture. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill rejected any notion of peace with Nazi Germany, especially given the Nazi ideology and expansionism. Churchill’s famous line, “We shall never surrender,” embodied Britain’s stance at that point.

### 4. **Rudolf Hess’s Flight to Scotland (May 1941)**

On May 10, 1941, Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s Deputy Führer, made a secret solo flight to Scotland in what is believed to have been an unauthorized and bizarre attempt to negotiate peace with Britain. Hess parachuted into Scotland and was quickly captured. He claimed to have brought peace proposals to the British government, though it remains unclear exactly what terms he offered. Hitler disavowed Hess’s actions, and the British government refused to entertain any proposals. Hess was imprisoned for the rest of his life.

### 5. **Late-War Peace Feelers (1944–1945)**

As the war turned against Nazi Germany, particularly after the Normandy invasion in 1944, various German officials attempted to explore peace possibilities. While not directly from Hitler, these were covert peace feelers involving high-ranking Nazis such as Heinrich Himmler and officials like Joachim von Ribbentrop. There were rumors and backchannel communications through neutral countries, but neither the British nor the Americans were willing to negotiate a separate peace, especially after the Holocaust became widely known and Germany’s atrocities were uncovered.

### Why the Proposals Were Rejected:

- **Distrust of Hitler**: Both Britain and France distrusted Hitler due to his previous violations of international agreements, such as the remilitarization of the Rhineland (1936) and the annexation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1939).

- **Expansionist Goals**: Hitler's offers were seen as part of his larger strategy for a German-dominated Europe, rather than genuine attempts to secure lasting peace.

- **Ideological Conflict**: Hitler’s totalitarian ideology and racial policies, particularly the oppression of Jews and other minorities, made it impossible for the Allies to consider a peace that would leave Nazi Germany in power.

In summary, Nazi Germany made several attempts at peace with Britain and France during World War II, mainly in the form of speeches or diplomatic gestures, but they were all rejected due to the distrust of Hitler’s regime and the ideological divide between the Nazis and the Allies.

[drmonojog]

Historical Insights: Second World War - Causes & Far-Reaching Consequences

The Second World War, spanning from 1939 to 1945, stands as one of the most transformative and devastating events in human history. Fueled by a complex web of political, economic, and ideological factors, the war reshaped the global landscape and left an indelible mark on societies around the world. In this exploration of historical insights, we delve into the causes of the Second World War Causes and Consequences.

Causes of the Second World War:

Treaty of Versailles: The seeds of the Second World War were sown in the aftermath of the First World War with the Treaty of Versailles. The harsh conditions imposed on Germany, including territorial losses and reparations, created a fertile ground for resentment and fueled the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Rise of Totalitarianism: The emergence of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan contributed to the global tensions that led to war. Hitler's expansionist ambitions, Mussolini's imperialist dreams, and Japan's militaristic pursuits converged in a dangerous alliance that sought to reshape the existing world order.

Appeasement Policies: The appeasement policies of the 1930s, particularly by Western powers, inadvertently emboldened aggressive regimes. The failure to confront early acts of aggression, such as the annexation of Austria and the occupation of the Rhineland, allowed totalitarian powers to test the limits of international response.

Invasion of Poland: The spark that ignited the war came with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939. The aggression prompted Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking the formal beginning of the conflict. The invasion demonstrated the failure of diplomatic efforts and set the stage for a global conflict.

Far-Reaching Consequences:

Unprecedented Human Losses: The Second World War resulted in staggering human losses, with an estimated 70-85 million casualties. The horrors of the Holocaust, where six million Jews were systematically murdered, and the widespread civilian casualties underscored the brutality of the conflict.

Global Economic Devastation: The war left economies in ruins, particularly in Europe and Asia. The cost of rebuilding was astronomical, and nations struggled to recover. The United States emerged as a global economic powerhouse, setting the stage for the post-war era.

Formation of the United Nations: The devastation wrought by the war led to a collective global desire to prevent future conflicts. The United Nations (UN) was established in 1945, providing a forum for diplomatic dialogue and conflict resolution. The organization aimed to promote international cooperation and prevent the recurrence of global warfare.

The Cold War: The ideological differences between the Allied powers, particularly the United States and the Soviet Union, fueled the Cold War. The division of Europe into Eastern and Western blocs, the nuclear arms race, and proxy conflicts characterized the geopolitical landscape for decades, shaping international relations until the end of the 20th century.

Decolonization and Shifting Power Dynamics: The war accelerated the process of decolonization as colonial powers weakened. Former colonies in Asia and Africa gained independence, leading to a shift in global power dynamics. The emergence of new nations and the reconfiguration of geopolitical alliances marked the post-war era.

Technological Advancements: The war spurred unprecedented technological advancements. The development of nuclear weapons, jet propulsion, radar, and computing technologies transformed warfare and had profound implications for post-war scientific and industrial progress.

Establishment of Israel: The aftermath of the war witnessed the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Holocaust and international sympathy for the Jewish people contributed to the recognition of Israel as a homeland for Jewish survivors, reshaping the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East.

Conclusion:

The Second World War, with its roots in the aftermath of the First World War and fueled by the rise of totalitarian regimes, had profound and far-reaching consequences that shaped the course of history. From the devastation of human lives and economies to the establishment of international organizations like the United Nations, the war left an enduring impact on the world order. The lessons learned from the war underscore the importance of diplomacy, cooperation, and the collective pursuit of peace to prevent the recurrence of such catastrophic events. As we reflect on the historical insights into the causes and consequences of the Second World War, it serves as a solemn reminder of the need for vigilance in the face of global challenges and a commitment to fostering a more peaceful and just world.

For more details, visit us :

What Are Rocks and Classification

Wbpsc Food Si Syllabus

Wb Primary Tet Syllabus

Wb Primary Tet Question Paper

[myconsultantcanda]

The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) Program

ECONOMIC CLASS•

FEB 07, 2020

•

BY: DONALD CURRY [CICC ID: R535613]

(RNIP) continues the federal government’s strategy of granting more control over immigration to provinces and municipalities, inspired by the success of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot.

The Atlantic Immigration Pilot, which includes Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador launched in March 2017 as a three-year pilot. It has since been extended to December 2021.

The Pilot spurred the federal government to hear out MPs and advocates like myself who argued that what is good for Atlantic Canada should also be good for Northern Ontario. The two regions have much in common: the cities are smaller, spread out and are not attracting newcomers in large numbers; employers complain they can’t find people with the skills they need. Based on this feedback, Ahmed Hussen, the Minister of Immigration at the time, helped move RNIP forward.

RNIP started with a call for communities to express their interest in participating. In June 2019, Minister Hussen announced that 11 communities had been accepted. The communities included Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Timmins in northern Ontario; Brandon and Altona/Rhineland in Manitoba; Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan; Claresholm in Alberta; Vernon and West Kootenay (Trail, Castlegar, Rossland and Nelson) in British Columbia.

What do these communities have to offer?

• A lower stress lifestyle without lengthy commutes

• Much more affordable real estate

• Well-paying jobs for those with the right skills

• Good schools

• Quick access to nature

• Friendly and welcoming residents

Everything is a five to ten-minute drive away—work, lakes or rivers, downtown, shopping malls, colleges, universities, immigrant settlement agencies, golf courses, soccer fields, libraries and so on.

Speaking for myself, I have lived in Canada’s large cities—Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. They are great. However, life is better in smaller cities in my opinion. I moved to North Bay in 1978 and I don’t want to leave. In fact, not all immigrants come from large cities in their native countries. These people may enjoy living in Canada’s smaller centres.

Who can apply?

To be eligible for the pilot, candidates must intend to settle in the community and meet all relevant requirements such as work experience, language, education and so on.

They must have at least one year of continuous work experience in the past three years or have graduated from a publicly funded post-secondary institution in the recommending community. Volunteer work, unpaid internships and self-employment hours do not count. Work experience claimed by the candidates must include most of the main duties and all the essential duties in the occupation in the National Occupation Classification (NOC).

International students are exempt from the work experience criterion if they have a two-year or greater credential from a post-secondary institution. Other requirements include having studied full-time, graduated in the past 18 months or fewer and lived in the community for at least 16 of the last 24 months during their study. Candidates are not eligible to apply as an international student if over half their program was spent studying English or French, half of their program was through distant learning or they were recipients of a scholarship or fellowship that required their return to the home country.

The minimum language requirements are Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 6 for NOC 0 and A; CLB 5 for NOC B; and CLB 4 for NOC C and D.

It is mandatory for candidates to have a Canadian high school diploma or an Educational Credential Assessment report less than five years old showing the equivalent education.

Other than those who are already working legally in Canada when applying, Candidates must demonstrate they have enough funds to support themselves and their family members while they get settled. Candidates must obtain a job offer from the participating community, which is permanent, full-time and non-seasonal with a wage meeting or exceeding the Job Bank’s minimum wage for the NOC. The candidates' experience must show they have the qualifications for the job.

Each community will detail their additional requirements on their websites.

Which communities are ready?

At the time of writing, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Brandon and Altona/Rhineland are accepting applications on their websites. The others will be coming soon, and each will have its own methodology.

North Bay, for instance, is coordinated by the North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce with community partners. Coordinator Patricia Carr, announced on January 3, 2020 that the Chamber would begin by inviting only candidates already working in the area who meet all IRCC and community requirements. She said there was a potential of 20 applicants in that category and she didn’t not know how many meet the requirements. By March or April, applications will be opened to those residing outside the North Bay area, or outside Canada, and move toward the maximum target of 100 by posting jobs and matching NOC codes. The original first-year target was 250 principal applicants and their families, but the IRCC lowered this number.

How to apply

To apply, foreign nationals should read the Instruction Guide (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/application-forms-guides/guide-0118-rural-northern-immigration.html) to first determine their eligibility and then follow the instructions step by step if they are eligible. There are forms to complete for the applicant, the employer and the designated economic development organization in the participating municipality.

Two things for the applicants to note. First, as IRCC staff said in their North Bay training session, this program will not likely be a faster route to permanent residence than existing economic immigration programs. Second, if a foreign national doesn't qualify for the pilot, they still have an opportunity to move to these communities under existing federal and provincial immigration programs.

As for the communities, note that the federal government describes the pilot as a “community-driven program designed to spread the benefits of economic immigration to smaller communities by creating a path to permanent residence for skilled foreign workers who want to work and live in one of the participating communities.” That means the program will not be evaluated on the number of people who come to the community, but by the number of people who stay. Therefore, creating a welcoming community with settlement agencies and other community partners will be a key to success for the communities.

[the-final-straw-blog]

Anti-Coal Struggles in Luzerath, Germany (+ Bad News)

Anti-Coal Struggles in Luzerath, Germany

First up, we share an interview with Fauve, a radical who recently participated in the anti-coal occupation in the village of Lützerath / Luzerath (aka the ZAD of Rhineland) in western Germany against the company RWE. We talk about RWE’s push to break resistance at Luzerath and the currently-calm Hambach Forest, which activists fear will be attacked by RWE and their goons. More info at https://luetzerathlebt.info/en

Transcript

PDF (Unimposed Zine) - pending

Zine (Imposed PDF) - pending

You can find our past interviews on:

the ZADs

Hambach Forest

BAD News

We’ll also be sharing the September 2022 episode of Bad News from the anarchist and anti-authoritarian A-Radio Network. You’ll hear a short update from the 2022 anti-racist football (aka Soccer for you ignorant yankees out there) tournament by A-Radio Berlin, an update from Free Social Radio 1431 on labor strikes by the Malamatina Winery workers in Thessaloniki and the pre-trial release of three prisoners accused of participation in Anarchist Action Organization, which ramped up arsons this year. Finally, Frequenz-A shares an interview with Feral Crust collective in Manilla, Philippines! Check out more Bad News.

Announcements

Support Russian Antifascist Prisoners

There is an article on Avtonom.Org/En calling for support for the 6 prisoners of the Tyumen Case through a fundraiser to cover legal costs and write them letters. There is more info on the case and how to support them linked in our show notes or at https://avtonom.org/en/news/tyumenskoe-delo-sbor-sredstv

Exposing Fascists: Best Practices

Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists just published a short and thoughtful guide to creating doxxes of people on the far right. You can find it at https://cospringsantifa.noblogs.org/best-practices/

Firefund for Revolutionary Prisoners in Greece

From their fundraising page:

After all these years, of the continuous persecutions and imprisonments, we consider the existence of the Solidarity Fund topical and necessary. Being one more stone in a mosaic being built by the multiform struggles against prisons, which urge us to act against one of the major pillars of the system of oppression and exploitation. Against the crime of incarceration that reproduces class inequalities, fear and submission.

Certain Days Calendar

The 2023 Certain Days Freedom For Political Prisoners Calendars are now available for pre-order. There are ordering details in the show notes, including info on bulk orders.

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers across North America and political prisoner Xinachtli (s/n Alvaro Luna Hernandez) in Texas. We were happy to welcome founding members Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes (Rest in Power) home from prison in 2018, and founding member David Gilbert home from prison in 2021. We work from an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer- and trans-liberationist position.

This year features art and writings by Zola, Jeff Monaghan and Andy Crosby, Killjoy, Noelle Hanrahan, Juan Hernandez, Dan Baker, Antiproduct, Upping the Anti, Katy Slininger, David Gilbert, Paul Lacombe, Garrett Felber, Oso Blanco, Mark Tilsen, Terra Poirier, Steve McCain, Lawrence Jenkins, Ed Mead, Windigo Army, Dio Cramer, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Scott Parkin, Seize the Mean and Cindy Barukh Milstein.

Proceeds from the Certain Days 2022 calendar were divided amongst Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), Mutulu Shakur legal support, Sundiata Acoli release fund, Palestinian Youth Movement, Burning Books expansion, Puget Sound Prisoner Support , Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois, Appalachians Against pipelines, Community Resource Initiative- CA, P4W Memorial Collective Prisoners’ Justice Day healing circle, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Fund 2022, Cascadia Forest Defenders and NorCal Resist. Proceeds from the 2023 calendar will go to some of the same grassroots groups and more.

How to order the Certain Days calendar:

U.S via Burning Books (individual and bulk sales) burningbooks.com/products/certain-days-the-2023-freedom-for-political-prisoners-calendar

Your group can buy 10 or more for the rate of $10 each and then sell them for $15, keeping the difference for your organization. Many campaigns, infoshops and projects do this as a way of raising funds and spreading awareness about political prisoners.

 Use the discount code "BULK" to get 10 or more calendars for $10 each. In order to receive the discount, you must enter the discount code "BULK" at check out.

Canada (1-9 copies) via Left Wing Books https://leftwingbooks.net/en-us/products/certain-days-freedom-for-political-prisoners-calendar-2023

Canada (bulk. 10+ copies) certaindays.org/order/

Prisoner copies ($8 & only for people in prison and jail) certaindays.org/order/prisoners/

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. ... . ..

Featured Tracks

Children's Story (instrumental) by Black Star from Black Star Instrumentals

Hip Hop (instrumental) by A Kid Called Roots from Hydra Beats 13

Take Back The Land by Oi Polloi from Fuiama Catha

Farewell To The Crown by Chumbawamba

Her Majesty by Chumbawamba (based on The Beatles)

. ... . ..

  Check out this episode!

[today-in-wwi]

French Occupy Düsseldorf

Allied soldiers on parade in Düsseldorf.

March 8 1921, Düsseldorf--The Treaty of Versailles did not specify the amount Germany would have to pay in war reparations, but deferred the decision on the exact amount until May 1921; in the meantime, Germany would pay 20 billion gold marks and large quantities of coal and chemicals.  With that deadline fast approaching, however, no agreement had been reached, or even seemed close; the Allies had proposed a figure of 226 billion gold marks in January, whle the Germans countered with 30 billion.

To back up their demands, on March 8, 15,000 French and Belgian troops occupied Düsseldorf and Duisburg; the British signed off on the operation but only provided a handful of troops themselves.  The French claimed that the lowball German figure meant that the “German Government does not wish to fulfill the engagements it assumed in signing the treaty.” German President Ebert understandably protested:

Our opponents in the World War imposed upon us unheard-of demands, both in money and in kind, impossible of fulfillment.  Not only ourselves but our children and grandchildren would have become the work-slaves of our adversaries by our signature.  We were called upon to seal a contract which even the work of a generation would not have sufficed to carry out.

We must not and we cannot comply with it.  Our honor and self-respect forbid it.

With an open breach of the Peace Treaty of Versailles, our opponents are advancing to the occupation of more German territory.

We, however, are not in a position to oppose force with force.  We are defenseless....

Fellow-citizens, meet this foreign domination with grave dignity.  Maintain an upright demeanor.  Do not allow yourselves to be driven into committing ill-considered acts.  Be patient and have faith.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“British Peace Guns On The Rhine,” Toronto Star. July 24, 1919. Page 03.  --- Three batteries of the London Division Field Artillery fired 101 guns as a peace salute on the left bank of the Rhine at Cologne on June 28th. A huge crowd of British soldiers and German civilians assembled on the broad embankment.

[mostly-history]

We knew what it was like to feel humiliated after a defeat.  Because we lived on the left bank of the Rhine, which was under Allied occupation, between 1919 and 1926 we saw Canadian, British and then French troops – chiefly drawn from the colonies – march past.  These six years of peacetime occupation were long and burdensome.  For Germans, the situation was incomprehensible: enemy troops had not entered the country on the western frontier, there had been no invasion during the war, and now it was the peace treaty, a treaty considered unjust and designed to ruin the country, that brought about foreign occupation.  A period of occupation, even a tranquil one, is hardly likely to strengthen friendship among peoples.  The occupation of the Ruhr from 1923 to 1926 was accompanied by violence and turmoil, and resulted in 121 summary executions and tens of thousands of expulsions, and it led to a general strike – at the instigation of Chancellor Cuno – and the economic collapse of the industrial heart of Germany, bringing on terrifying inflation.  All that, I think, accentuated the Rhinelanders' already very strong prejudice against the French, who had been seen for centuries as troublesome neighbours. The humiliations inflicted by the occupying forces did not escape my notice when I was a child.  I remember that my parents had been forbidden to attend the burial of my grandmother, on the pretext that my father was a reserve officer.  I also recall how we congratulated Father Seelen, who had dared to sing the German national anthem, which was strictly prohibited on the left bank, in full view of the French troops.  Fortunately Father Seelen was a Dutch citizen, and the French could not arrest him.  That is how, as young men, we practised a kind of resistance that was within our capabilities.

Operation Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler

[dashalbrundezimmer]

theodor-schwann-straße // köln riehl

villa for the british officers built in the twenties

[historyandclassicactors]

Since my plan for an occupation of the Rhineland post didn’t work out as I’d planned (and I tortured everyone with two solid weeks of posts on the Cuban Missile Crisis) have some pictures of the Occupation of the Rhineland! A newer post will hopefully appear later this week!

[petermorwood]

Would love to know more about how Louis XIV caused WW2!

OK, this is the very VERY simplified version (a follow-up to this comment.)

Louis XIV, Catholic king of France, oppressed the Huguenots (French Protestants) because that’s what a Catholic king does. He also grabbed their goods and wealth because being in with God is nice but profit is even nicer; palaces like Versailles don't just build themselves.

Various other Protestant European states (mostly German) worried that Louis might use France's impressive military power to oppress them as well, or at least use their Protestantism and alliances (i.e. potential threats) as an excuse to extend territories granted to France after the Thirty Years War (1618-48).

Louis did exactly that, deciding that France's eastern border would be more easily defended if it was neatened up a bit, so, equipped with various legal pretexts and a rather large army, he invaded and annexed several parts of the German Rhineland - Mainz, Koblenz, Strassburg - which had been making the border look untidy.

Cue the Nine Years War (1688-97) during which the French threw their weight around considerably, invoking a scorched-earth policy to create a Zone of Defence that destroyed numerous towns in western Germany for no better reason than they were The Big Dog and could do what they liked.

Some years later (1792) the French were back in Germany again, this time to bring the benefits of the French Revolution and to re-confirm possession of those parts of the Rhineland that "belonged to France", plus adding a few more.

Some more years later (1803-15) the French were back in Germany again, this time to bring the benefits of Napoleon Bonaparte's empire and to re-re-confirm possession of those parts of the Rhineland that "belonged to France" plus adding a lot more.

After Bonaparte was packed off to St Helena (1815) various parts of Europe that "belonged to France" - not just the Rhineland, Bonaparte had been amazingly grabby - were returned, more or less, to their original owners. However, various German states still held a simmering "ooh, one day, just you wait" resentment against France.

Cue the trouncing of France under Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71), the German annexation of Alsace and Lorraine (French provinces grabbed on grounds not dissimilar to the various parts of Germany that had "belonged to France") and the proclamation of the unified German Empire in no less a place than Louis XIV's palace of Versailles.

This left the French feeling as resentful towards Germany as Germany had felt against France, and if it sounds like the phrase "it'll all end in tears" is going to play a role in this post, yes it is, because Germany's militaristic emperor Wilhelm II was a one-man diplomatic incident with a waxed moustache, and his militaristic nation was - with only a few exceptions - little better.

Cue the Schlieffen Plan, with which Germany - prompted by a “damned stupid incident in the Balkans” that Chancellor Bismarck had warned about years before - planned to defeat France in a hurry by a quick advance through neutral Belgium, before France's ally Russia could mobilise fast enough to do anything about it.

That didn't work, because Belgium treated being invaded as a good reason to stop being neutral, and held up the carefully-timetabled advance long enough that various other alliances kicked in and the Plan fell apart. During this period the Germans threw their weight around considerably, destroying numerous towns in Belgium for no better reason than they were The Big Dog and could do what they liked.

Cue the Great War (1914-18) and four years of unpleasantness after which Germany was beaten and France got Alsace and Lorraine back, as well as occupation of (what a surprise!) the Rhineland as war reparations. France also insisted on the Versailles Treaty being as severe as possible, which left the Germans feeling as resentful towards France as France had felt against Germany... Etcetera, etcetera.

This led to more German militarism, a conviction they hadn’t really been beaten in a fair fight, a resurgence of "ooh, one day, just you wait", Nazis, Hitler, reoccupation of the Rhineland, absorption of Austria, annexation of Czechoslovakia, no further territorial demands in Europe, then blitzkrieg in Poland...

Cue World War Two (1939-45) and a further five or so years of unpleasantness compared to which any previous unpleasantness really couldn’t compare. Alsace and Lorraine weren't officially annexed this time, since they came as part of the complete Fall of France package. This was something which no doubt made everyone feel so much better.

And that’s how Louis XIV caused World War Two.

[southeastasianhistories]

Southeast Asia’s role in World War I is all but lost to history. There was no major invasion of the region by a hostile power, like Japan in World War II. None of the Central Powers – an alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire – had colonial territory in the region, except on the periphery. German New Guinea quickly fell to the Allies after the outbreak of war in July 1914.

Yet the First World War, which ended 100 years ago this month, proved a decisive event for Southeast Asia. For the first time, it severely tested the relationship between the colonial authorities of Britain, France and the Netherlands (neutral in the war) and their colonial subjects in Southeast Asia, for whom sacrifice in the conflict was to be a rallying cry for more civil rights. The burgeoning nationalist movements throughout the region swelled with veterans returning home from democratic and industrial nations, while others, with considerable consequences in later decades, brought home interests in the radical politics at the time, not least communism.

Arguably, the most interesting response to the declaration of war was made by Siam, as Thailand was then known. As the only Southeast Asian nation not colonised by a European power, Siam, under the absolute monarch King Vajiravudh, decided to go to war against the Central Powers in 1917, sending its own troops to fight in Europe. The Siamese Expeditionary Force of more than 1,000 troops arrived in the French port of Marseilles in July 1918. It was led by Major-General Phraya Phya Bhijai Janriddhi, who had received military training in France before the war. At first, the Thai troops were employed by the Allies as rear-guard labour detachments, taking part in the Second Battle of the Marne in August that year. The following month, they saw their first frontline action. They took part in several offences, including the occupation of the German Rhineland. In the end, 19 Thais had lost their lives – none from battle.

King Vajiravudh’s decision to go to war was calculated. Gambling on Allied victory, he believed Siam’s participation would earn it the respect of Britain and France. He was correct. Although it was independent, neighbouring colonisers (the British in Burma and the French in Cambodia) had slowly whittled away Siam’s territory in the preceding decades, with large tracts of land returned to Cambodia in the late 19th century. After WWI, though, Siam’s territory didn’t budge. Equally important, Siam took part in the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference and was a founding member of the League of Nations, a clear indication that Western powers now saw it as a legitimate force on the international stage and in Southeast Asia.

The rulers of independent Siam might have wanted respect and power, but the thoughts of ordinary people from the rest of colonised Southeast Asia are little known. Few first-hand accounts exist for historians. Quite probably, however, many did not want to be thrust unquestionably into the greatest fratricide the world had yet seen, and some no doubt hoped the colonial empires would be destroyed by the whole endeavour. Yet some nationalists, especially those of higher rank who weren’t expected to fight, saw the war effort as a means of gaining more political rights for themselves under the colonial system.

The war, for example, provided the Vietnamese with “an unexpected opportunity to test France’s ability to live up to vaunted self-representations of invincibility”, as Philippe Peycam wrote in 2012’s The Birth of Vietnamese Political Journalism: Saigon, 1916-1930. The prominent Vietnamese nationalist Phan Chu Trinh, who had spent years in jail before the war for his activism and was imprisoned for six months in 1914 on wrongful charges of colluding with the Germans, played a considerable role in recruiting Vietnamese men for the war. Another noted nationalist, Duong Van Giao, published a history of the Vietnamese war effort, 1925’s L’Indochine pendant la guerre de 1914–1918. Because of Vietnam’s sacrifice, he called on the French colonials to adopt a “native policy”: not quite outright independence but radical reform of civil rights for the Vietnamese. It was a similar sentiment as expressed in Claims of the Annamite People, an influential tract cowritten in France in 1919 by a young activist who later became known as Ho Chi Minh, who had spent most of the war working in a London hotel under the famous chef Auguste Escoffier.

As a French colony, Vietnam was expected to provide troops for the war effort, but there were differing views among colonial officers as to what role they should play. Lieutenant-Colonel Théophile Pennequin was a hardliner but also a keen reformer. Before the outbreak of war, Pennequin requested that he be allowed to form a competent military unit that was termed by some as an armée jaune (yellow army), similar to the force noire (black force) popularised by General Charles Mangin in France’s West African colonies. For Pennequin, a national native army would allow Vietnamese to gain “positions of command and provide the French with loyal partners with whom they could build a new and, eventually, independent Indochinese state,” wrote historian Christopher Goscha in 2017’s The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam.

But Pennequin’s designs were rejected by Paris and, instead, most Vietnamese recruits were sent to Europe to work in factories or as supply hands. Yet some did fight. One estimate contends that out of 100,000 Vietnamese conscripts sent to the war in Europe, roughly 12,000 lost their lives. A battalion of Tonkinese Rifles, an elite corps formed in the 1880s, saw action on the Western Front near Verdun. Do Huu Vi, a celebrated pilot from an elite family, became a national hero after his plane was shot down over France.

Despite overt racism by some French nationals and trade unions’ concerns that they were bringing down wages, many of the Vietnamese put to work in munitions factories found it a revelatory experience. Some started relationships with Frenchwomen, unsurprising since other workers in wartime factories were mostly women. Others joined social clubs and reading groups. After the war, wrote Goscha, “a hundred thousand Vietnamese veterans returned to Indochina hoping to start a new life. Some wanted French citizenship; most expected good jobs and upward social mobility. Several hoped to modernise Vietnam along Western lines, despite the barbarity they had just witnessed in Europe.”

It was a similar story for the Philippines, then a United States colony. It declared war on Germany in April 1917, the same time Washington did. At first, the colonial government requested the drafting of 15,000 Filipinos for service, but more than 25,000 enlisted. These troops formed the Philippine National Guard, a militia that was later absorbed into the American military. Most of the recruits, though, would not leave the Philippines during the war. Those who did travelled as part of the American Expeditionary Forces. In June 1918, the first Filipino died in action at the Battle of Château-Thierry, in France: Tomas Mateo Claudio, a former contract labourer on a sugar plantation in Hawaii who had enlisted in the US.

It is not known exactly how many Southeast Asians died during the First World War. Of those active in the European theatre, the number is estimated to be more than 20,000, mostly conscripts from the French colonies. It was a small figure compared to the number of Southeast Asians who perished during the Second World War. And, unlike in that war, there wasn’t a great arena of warfare in Southeast Asia during the First since none of the Central Powers nations had any imperial control in the region.

But Germany did have influence in China and possessed leased territory in Kiautschou Bay, near present-day Jiaozhou. It was invaded by Japanese forces after 1915, and China would later declare war on Germany in August 1917. But in October 1914, the German East Asia Squadron still had its base in the concession – it was from there that a lone light cruiser, the SMS Emden, slipped into Penang Harbour, part of what was then British Malaya. Disguised as a British vessel, the German cruiser launched a surprise attack on a Russian ship and then sank a French destroyer that had given chase. The sole attack on Malaya during the war killed 100 and wounded thousands more.

After the attack, the Emden is thought to have docked in a port in the Dutch East Indies, present-day Indonesia, raising British suspicions that the Dutch weren’t as neutral as they had claimed. Neutrality, moreover, didn’t mean the colony went unscathed. The Dutch East Indies was home to a sizeable German population that worked to “coordinate and finance covert operations designed to undermine British colonial rule and economic interests in Southeast Asia,” as historian Heather Streets-Salter wrote in 2017’s World War One in Southeast Asia: Colonialism and Anticolonialism in an Era of Global Conflict.

The Emden was finally stopped by an Australian cruiser that ran it ashore in Singapore. The surviving crew of the German vessel were interned there, then a part of British Malaya. Also stationed in Singapore was the Indian Army’s Fifth Light Infantry, which unsuccessfully mutinied in January 1915 after they learned they might be sent to fight in Turkey against fellow Muslims (though they were eventually sent to Hong Kong instead). The 309 interned Germans from the Emden joined in the mutiny, which left dead eight British and three Malay soldiers, as well as a dozen Singapore civilians.

A much forgotten history of World War I was a Turco-German plot to promote jihad (holy war) in parts of the Muslim world colonised by the Allies, including Malaya. Using the Dutch East Indies as a base, supporters of the Central Powers produced “pan-Islamic, anti-British propaganda” that was sent to Muslim-majority British Malaya, and also to India. One of the architects of this plan, Max von Oppenheim, wrote in a position paper in 1914: “In the battle against England… Islam will become one of our most important weapons.” The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed V, issued a fatwa against the Allies in November of that year. In British Malaya, the authorities doubled down on censorship by closing many Malay-language newspapers, some of which were considered supportive of the Ottoman Empire.

Pan-Islamic propaganda agitating for independence of Malaya was just as attractive to the Muslim-majority subjects of the Dutch East Indies where it was produced. In the preceding decades, these subjects had been demanding more freedoms, even independence, for themselves. This was a serious cause of concern for the Dutch colonialists, but ultimately the real impact of the war on the Dutch East Indies was economic. The Allies’ blockade of European waters, as well as control of Asian waters, made it difficult for Dutch ships to reach the colony for trade purposes.

“The Netherlands Indies was effectively cordoned off by the British Navy,” wrote Kees Van Dijk in 2008’s The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914-1918. As a result, the war caused price increases and severe food shortages in the Dutch East Indies. By the end of 1916, the export industry was practically destroyed. Around that time, social unrest had gained momentum. Rural protesters burned reserve crops, eventually leading to famine in some parts of the colony. Nationalists and a small contingent of socialists began advocating for revolution. By 1918, unrest was so dire that the governor general called a meeting of the nationalist leaders where he made the so-called “November promises” of more political representation and freedom, but these were empty promises.

Economic problems were a constant throughout the region. To help pay for the war effort, the French and British were reduced to raising taxes in their Southeast Asian colonies. The burden fell mainly on the poor. Small wonder it resulted in unprecedented protests. A failed uprising took place in Kelantan, British Malaya, in April 1915. In Cambodia, the so-called 1916 Affair saw tens of thousands of peasants march into Phnom Penh demanding the king reduce taxes. None of these were exact appeals of “no taxation without representation”, but rather the germinal expressions of self-independence that were to become more forceful across the region in the 1930s, and decisive after World War II. Brian Farrell, a professor of military history at the National University of Singapore, has described the impact of the First World War on Southeast Asia as significant yet delayed.

By the close of the war, many of the colonies returned to some form of pre-war normalcy. Yet the colonial governments, indebted and weakened from the conflict, knew that reforms had to be made in Southeast Asia. In Laos, the French-run administration thought the county “secure enough” in October 1920 to introduce the first of a series of political reforms aimed at decentralising power through local appointees, wrote Martin Stuart-Fox in A History of Laos. The British authorities in Malaya also experimented with decentralisation in the 1920s, which involved placing more power in the hands of the provincial sultans. In 1916, the Jones Act was passed in Washington to begin the process of granting the Philippines a “more autonomous government”, including a parliament, which was built upon until full independence in 1946.

War also transformed the role of local elites, who took on more autonomy and power. In Vietnam, the years after 1919 saw the creation of reformist newspapers, written in the increasingly popular Vietnamese script instead of the Roman alphabet, which the French had imposed. In Cambodia and Laos, such forceful nationalism did not arise until the 1930s. Other reformists in the region grew interested in ideologies brought back from the West. The South Seas Communist Party, a pan-Southeast Asian party, was formed in Burma in 1925 before splitting along national lines in 1930. Ho Chi Minh, who spent the war in London, helped create the Communist Party of Indochina that year. Tan Malaka, who had actually tried enlisting to fight with the German army – without success – became an integral part of the communist movement in the Dutch East Indies, later becoming known as something of a father of the independent Republic of Indonesia.

World War I laid bare the unequal “social contract” that colonial authorities had forced their colonial subjects in Southeast Asia to sign. The contract would only become more obviously threadbare by the 1920s, yet it took the next global conflict, which had a far greater impact on the region than the first, for these anti-colonial movements to grab real political power.