European history

The “Official Verdict Against Y. L. Pyatakov and Associates in the Purge Trial, January 30th, 1937” concerns the actions of a number of people said to be employed by l. Trotsky, considered to be the enemy of the people. This document details a plot that was instituted by those who...

It is ordinary for people to think of the Middle Ages as the “Dark” Ages, and generally as a period of hundreds of years in which Western civilization stagnated. Media representations of the era have long presented it as a time of vast ignorance, lawlessness, and a kind of barbaric...

Over the history, the Western civilization has been under the influence of various religions, with the greatest impact of Christianity on the course of its development. It is hard to evaluate all positive effects that Christianity had on the Western civilization, and yet, the most evident influence was made on...

In essence, war is and has always been a matter of significant importance to a state. It has been an element of the human race throughout history. It is a matter of life or death, a road that can lead to ruin or survival. Therefore, societies ought to study it...

Monasticism was an essential element for the Medieval Europe as it remained one of the few institutes within which civilization, science, and other knowledge was able to survive for posterity so that future generations could use it. Monks were always a relatively stable small group of people that had the...

1. Shock therapy in Russia refers to decisions made by the government to make widespread changes to the control of production and various other economic controls. Specifically, it refers to the sudden dissolution of existing price controls, the ending of state subsidies, and bringing about the liberalization of systems of...

Benitto Mussolini is said to have initiated fascism in Italy in the ancient Europe. This fascism was an ideology than described most of west Europe’s political rights encompassing rights. The fascism that was being advocated by Mussolini was characterized by radicalization but aimed at creating self-sufficiency in economic perspectives. His...

The government Kemal commits to is in the form of a Republic comprised of nationalism, populism, estatist and secular principles and is also revolutionary. It is similar to the American system of government because he establishes Turkey’s independence as a sovereign nation, safeguards liberties, equality and the property of the...

There are several benefits of the tax system that was introduced by Napoleon. This is mainly because the system of laws was hugely disjointed. During this time when the tax laws were introduced, the existing laws were not codified. They were based on the Roman laws, monarchial paternalism and ancient...

As Hugh Trevor-Roper asks as a guiding question of his The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century (1967) how it happened that great power and influence resided in one part of Europe marked by the Catholic religion at the start of the Renaissance had by 1700 power lie in Protestant England,...

In the case of non-European kings creating mechanisms designed to increase their power it is the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese before communism. The Ottoman centralized government and the Chinese monarchies had leaders with absolute rule from a centralized government where no checks and balances existed. Accessing a primary source...

Mongolian tribes, although seen as primitive by the outsiders, had some interesting features that allowed them to succeed in battle and be as efficient as they were. For instance, given the fact they were mostly nomadic, it was impossible to speak about a unified Mongolian army until the arrival of...

When looking at international conflicts, particularly the Cold War, it is interesting to note the strategies that actually brought about an ending to the hostility. Ronald Reagan’s policies that brought about peace were actually a result of realizing that the period of détente ushered in by Richard Nixon was actually...

World War I saw fighting on a scale never before seen in history. The number of casualties was staggering. For all of the fighting, however, there was remarkably little progress made on either side. Massive battles that took months to fight ended with little or no territory changing hands. This...

In the year 1956, the Hungarian Revolution was a historic event that directly followed a speech delivered by leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev (Britannica Online). The speech was a declaration of war against the oppressors led by Joseph Stalin. Upon encouragement from the newly acquired freedom of criticism...

Having defeated the main enemies of Germany—Denmark, Austria, and France—Bismarck decided that the best way to protect Germany was to preserve the peace created after the wars. His plan therefore was to isolate France as much as possible, allying himself with Russia and Austria—both to generate strength as an alliance...

Between the periods 1950 to 1959, the economy of West Germany grew rapidly attaining increases of up to 8% percent in gross domestic product (GDP). It surpassed that of most countries in Europe against the expectations of many, owing to the effects of the First World War. Only countries like...

In essence, the period of relative prosperity and population growth in Germany during the 1870s brought on what has been called overexpansion. Germany had won a war, had been unified, and there was hope that the economy would continue to grow by leaps and bounds. Likewise, the new Reich had...

For Germans living in Hamburg, 1933 marked a profound shift in political, economic, and social conditions when the chaos and uncertainty of the Weimar Republic were replaced by the Third Reich. To begin with, the Nuremberg laws estranged every day the Hamburg people from their Jewish neighbors who were deprived...

Siena, Italy has long been of relevance to researchers from diverse fields such as anthropology to sociology because of the city’s unique and historical “contrade” structure. Whereas the contrade itself can be related to contemporary concepts familiar to urbanists, such as districts or wards, what makes Siena’s contrade structure of...