1.
Armored car (military)
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A military armored car is a lightweight wheeled armored fighting vehicle, historically employed for reconnaissance, internal security, armed escort, and other subordinate battlefield tasks. With the gradual decline of mounted cavalry, armored cars were developed for carrying out duties formerly assigned to horsemen, following the invention of the tank, the armored car remained popular due to its comparatively simplified maintenance and low production cost. It also found favor with several colonial armies as a weapon for use in underdeveloped regions. During World War II, most armored cars were engineered for reconnaissance and passive observation, some equipped with heavier armament could even substitute for tracked combat vehicles in favorable conditions—such as pursuit or flanking maneuvers during the North African Campaign. The Motor Scout was designed and built by British inventor F. R. Simms in 1898 and it was the first armed petrol engine-powered vehicle ever built. The vehicle was a De Dion-Bouton quadricycle with a mounted Maxim machine gun on the front bar, an iron shield in front of the car protected the driver. However, these were not armored cars as the term is understood today and they were also, by virtue of their small capacity engines, less efficient than the cavalry and horse-drawn guns that they were intended to complement. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first military armored vehicles were manufactured, by adding armor and weapons to existing vehicles. The vehicle had Vickers armour 6 mm thick and was powered by a four-cylinder 3. 3-litre 16-hp Cannstatt Daimler engine, the armament, consisting of two Maxim guns, was carried in two turrets with 360° traverse. Simms Motor War Car was presented at the Crystal Palace, London, another early armored car of the period was the French Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902, presented at the Salon de lAutomobile et du cycle in Brussels, on 8 March 1902. The vehicle was equipped with a Hotchkiss machine gun, and with 7 mm armour for the gunner, one of the first operational armoured cars with four wheel drive and fully enclosed rotating turret, was the Austro-Daimler Panzerwagen built by Austro-Daimler in 1904. It was armoured with 3-3.5 mm thick curved plates over the body and had a 4mm thick dome-shaped rotating turret that housed one or two machine-guns and it had a 4-cylinder 35 hp 4.4 litre engine giving it average cross country performance. Of note, both the driver and co-driver had adjustable seats enabling them to them to see out of the roof of the drive compartment as needed. The Italians used armored cars during the Italo-Turkish War, a great variety of armored cars appeared on both sides during World War I and these were used in various ways. Generally, the cars were used by more or less independent car commanders. However, sometimes they were used in units up to squadron size. The cars were armed with light machine guns, but larger units usually employed a few cars with heavier guns. As air power became a factor, armored cars offered a platform for antiaircraft guns
2.
Wojciech Korfanty
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Wojciech Korfanty was a Polish activist, journalist and politician, who served as a member of the German parliaments, the Reichstag and the Prussian Landtag, and later, in the Polish Sejm. Briefly, he also was a leader, known for organizing the Polish Silesian Uprisings in Upper Silesia. Korfanty fought to protect Poles from discrimination and the policies of Germanisation in Upper Silesia before the war, adalbert Korfanty was born the son of a coal miner in Sadzawka, part of Siemianowice, in Prussian Silesia, then German Empire. Korfanty and Sombart remained friends for many years, in 1901, Korfanty became editor-in-chief of the Polish language paper Górnoslązak, in which he appealed to the national consciousness of the regions Polish-speaking population. In 1903, Korfanty was elected to the German Reichstag and in 1904 also to the Prussian Landtag, however, when the Centre Party refused to advocate Polish minority rights, the Poles distanced themselves from it, seeking protection elsewhere. However, Korfanty retained his Christian Democratic convictions and later returned to them in domestic Polish politics, at the end of World War I, in 1918, a Kingdom of Poland was proclaimed by Germany, which was then replaced by an independent Polish state. After the war, during the Great Poland Uprising, Korfanty became a member of the Naczelna Rada Ludowa in Poznań, and a member of the Polish provisional parliament and he was also the head of the Polish plebiscite committee in Upper Silesia. He was one of the leaders of the Second Silesian Uprising in 1920, the German authorities were forced to leave their positions by the League of Nations. Poland was allotted by the League of Nations roughly half of the population and valuable mining districts, Korfanty was accused by Germans of organizing terrorism against German civilians of Upper Silesia. German propaganda newspapers also smeared him with ordering the murder of Silesian politician Theofil Kupka, Korfanty was a member of the national Sejm from 1922 to 1930, and in the Silesian Sejm, where he represented a Christian Democratic view-point. He opposed the autonomy of the Silesian Voivodship, which he saw as an obstacle against its re-integration into Poland. However, Mr. Korfanty defended the rights of the German minority in Upper Silesia and he briefly acted as vice-premier in the government of Wincenty Witos. From 1924, he resumed his journalist activities as editor-in-chief of the papers Rzeczpospolita and he opposed the May Coup of Józef Piłsudski and the subsequent establishment of Sanacja. In 1935, he was forced to leave Poland and emigrated to Czechoslovakia, from where he participated in the center-right Morges Front group formed by émigrés Ignacy Paderewski, after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, Korfanty moved on to France. He was arrested immediately upon arrival, in August, he was released as unfit for prison due to his bad health, and died shortly afterwards, two weeks before World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. Although his cause of death remains unclear, it has claimed that the treatment he received in prison may have caused his health to deteriorate. Today, many streets, places and institutions are named after him, when Opole Silesia became part of Poland in 1945, the town of Friedland in Oberschlesien, inside German Upper Silesia, was renamed Korfantów in his honour. ISBN 3-87466-118-0 Marian Orzechowski, Wojciech Korfanty, Wojciech Korfanty in the German National Library catalogue Biografie Die polnischen Aufstände unter Korfanty
3.
Sejny Uprising
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The Sejny Uprising or Seinai Revolt refers to a Polish uprising against the Lithuanian authorities in August 1919 in the ethnically mixed area surrounding the town of Sejny. When German forces, which occupied the territory during World War I, retreated from the area in May 1919, trying to prevent an armed conflict between Poland and Lithuania, the Entente drew a demarcation line, known as the Foch Line. The line assigned much of the disputed Suwałki Region to Poland, while the Lithuanians retreated from some areas, they refused to leave Sejny. Polish irregular forces began the uprising on August 23,1919, after several military skirmishes, Polish forces secured Sejny and Lithuanians retreated behind the Foch Line. The uprising did not solve the border conflict between Poland and Lithuania over the ethnically mixed Suwałki Region. Both sides complained about each others repressive measures, the conflict intensified in 1920, causing military skirmishes of the Polish–Lithuanian War. Sejny changed hands frequently until the Suwałki Agreement of October 1920 and these hostilities in Sejny further strained the Polish–Lithuanian relations. Eventually, Poland and Lithuania reached an agreement on a new border that left Sejny on the Polish side of the border, the Polish–Lithuanian border in the Suwałki Region has remained the same since then. During the ages, the surrounding the town of Suwałki had been variously part of Lithuanian, Polish. Since 1569, during the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the territory belonged to the Podlaskie Voivodeship and was part of the Kingdom of Poland rather than the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, however, Sejny was a property of Dominican friars from Vilnius. During the 19th century the town was part of Russian-controlled Congress Poland, during World War I the region was captured by the German Empire, which intended to incorporate the area into its province of East Prussia. After the German defeat, the victorious Entente was willing to assign the territory to either the newly independent Poland or Lithuania, the future of the region was discussed at the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919. The Germans, whose former Ober-Ost administration was preparing to evacuate, however, as Poland was becoming an ally of France, German support gradually shifted towards Lithuania. In July 1919, when the German troops began their retreat from the area. Lithuanian officers and troops, who first arrived in the region in May, according to Russian statistics of 1889, there were 57. 8% Lithuanians,19. 1% Poles, and 3. 5% Belarusians in the Suwałki Governorate. It is generally agreed that Lithuanians formed the majority population in the northern Suwałki Governorate, but, Lithuanian and Polish historians and political scientists continued to disagree over the location of the line that separated the Lithuanian from the Polish majorities. Lithuanians claimed that Sejny and the area were inhabited primarily by Lithuanians. The German census of 1916 showed that 51% of Sejny population was Lithuanian, in the closing days of World War I, the Conference of Ambassadors drew the first demarcation line between Poland and Lithuania on June 18,1919
4.
Rebellion
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Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the resistance against the orders of an established authority. The term comes from the Latin verb rebellō, I renew war (from re- + bellō, the rebel is the individual that partakes in rebellion or rebellious activities, particularly when armed. Thus, the rebellion also refers to the ensemble of rebels in a state of revolt. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation, Rebellion can be individual or collective, peaceful or violent In political terms, rebellion and revolt are often distinguished by their different aims. If rebellion generally seeks to evade an oppressive power, a revolt seeks to overthrow and destroy that power, the goal of rebellion is resistance while a revolt seeks a revolution. As power shifts relative to the adversary, or power shifts within a mixed coalition, or positions harden or soften on either side. The following theories broadly build on the Marxist interpretation of rebellion and they explore the causes of rebellion from a wide lens perspective. Marx writes about the structure of society that must be elucidated through an examination of the direct relationship of the owners of the conditions of production to the direct producers. The mismatch, between one mode of production, between the forces and the social ownership of the production, is at the origin of the revolution. The inner imbalance within these modes of production is derived from the modes of organization, such as capitalism within feudalism. The dynamics engineered by these class frictions help class consciousness root itself in the collective imaginary, for example, the development of the bourgeoisie class went from oppressed merchant class to urban independence, eventually gaining enough power to represent the state as a whole. Social movements, thus, are determined by a set of circumstances. The proletariat must also, according to Marx, go through the process of self-determination which can only be achieved by friction against the bourgeoisie. In Marxs theory revolutions are the locomotives of history, it is because rebellion has for ultimate goal to overthrow the ruling class and its antiquated mode of production. Later, rebellion attempts to replace it with a new system of political economy, one that is suited to the new ruling class. The cycle of rebellion, thus, replaces one mode of production by another through the constant class friction, in his book Why Men Rebel, Ted Gurr looks at the roots of political violence itself applied to a rebellion framework. He defines political violence as, all collective attacks within a political community against the political regime, the concept represents a set of events, a common property of which is the actual or threatened use of violence
5.
Poles
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The Poles are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Poland who share a common ancestry, culture, history and are native speakers of the Polish language. The population of Poles in Poland is estimated at 37,394,000 out of a population of 38,538,000. Polands population inhabits several historic regions, including Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Mazovia, Silesia, Pomerania, Kuyavia, Warmia, Masuria, a wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Europe, the Americas and in Australasia. Today the largest urban concentration of Poles is the Katowice urban agglomeration of 2.7 million inhabitants, Poland was also for centuries a refuge for many Jews from all over Europe, a large number emigrated in the twentieth century to Israel. Several prominent Israeli statesmen were born in Poland, including Israels founder David Ben-Gurion, former President of Israel Shimon Peres, the Slavic people have been in the territory of modern Poland for over 1500 years. In the 9th and 10th centuries the tribes gave rise to developed regions along the upper Vistula, the last tribal undertaking resulted in the 10th century in a lasting political structure and state, Poland, one of the West Slavic nations. After 1945 the so-called autochthonous or aboriginal school of Polish prehistory received official backing in Poland, Polish people are the sixth largest national group in the European Union. Estimates vary depending on source, though available data suggest a number of around 60 million people worldwide. There are almost 38 million Poles in Poland alone, there are also Polish minorities in the surrounding countries including Germany, and indigenous minorities in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. There are some smaller indigenous minorities in nearby countries such as Moldova, the term Polonia is usually used in Poland to refer to people of Polish origin who live outside Polish borders, officially estimated at around 10 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States, Brazil, France has a historic relationship with Poland and has a relatively large Polish-descendant population. Poles have lived in France since the 18th century, in the early 20th century, over a million Polish people settled in France, mostly during world wars, among them Polish émigrés fleeing either Nazi occupation or later Soviet rule. In the United States, a significant number of Polish immigrants settled in Chicago, Ohio, Detroit, New York City, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, the highest concentration of Polish Americans in a single New England municipality is in New Britain, Connecticut. The majority of Polish Canadians have arrived in Canada since World War II, the number of Polish immigrants increased between 1945 and 1970, and again after the end of Communism in Poland in 1989. In Brazil the majority of Polish immigrants settled in Paraná State, smaller, but significant numbers settled in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Espírito Santo and São Paulo. The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world and Polish music, dishes and it is estimated that over half a million Polish people have come to work in the United Kingdom from Poland. Since 2011, Poles have been able to work throughout the EU and not just in the United Kingdom, Ireland. The Polish community in Norway has increased substantially and has grown to a number of 120,000
6.
Silesians
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Silesians are the inhabitants of Silesia, a historical region divided by the current national boundaries of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. This central European ethno-linguistic group should not be confused with German Silesians, today, Silesians inhabiting Poland are considered to belong to a Polish ethnographic group, and they speak a dialect of Polish. They are of Slavic descent, but because Germany ruled Silesia for a long time, there have been some debates on whether or not the Silesians constitute a distinct nation. In modern history, they have often been pressured to declare themselves to be German, Polish or Czech, nevertheless,847,000 people declared themselves to be of Silesian nationality in the 2011 Polish national census. However, the era was already over, and these divisions reflected only political subdivisions of the Polish realm. Within Poland, from 1177 onward, Silesia was divided into many smaller duchies, in 1178, parts of the Duchy of Kraków around Bytom, Oświęcim, Chrzanów and Siewierz were transferred to the Silesian Piasts, although their population was of Vistulan and not of Silesian descent. Between 1327 and 1348, duchies of Silesia came under suzerainty of the Crown of Bohemia, beginning in the 13th century, Slavic Silesia began to be settled by Germans. This led to changes in the structure of the province. In the Middle Ages, various German dialects of the new settlers became widely used throughout Lower Silesia, however, after the era of German colonization, the Polish language was still predominant in Upper Silesia and parts of Lower and Middle Silesia north of the Odra river. Germans usually dominated large cities, and Poles mostly lived in rural areas and this required the Prussian authorities to issue official documents in Polish, or in German and Polish. In 1742, most of Silesia was seized in the War of the Austrian Succession by King Frederick the Great of Prussia, the remainder of Silesia, known as Cieszyn Silesia, remained in the Austrian Empire. The Prussian part of Silesia constituted the Province of Silesia until 1918, later, the province was split into the Prussian provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia. At the beginning of the century, the fact that Silesians were part of the Polish nation was not questioned. The language and culture of the self-declared Polish Silesians were put under the pressure of the Prussian Kulturkampf policies, the process of Germanisation was never completely successful. The ethnic situation of the region became more complex as the division of Upper Silesia into Polish, World War II and its aftermath amplified this polarization. Three groups took shape within the Silesian population, the Polish group was the strongest, the German group, which was primarily in central Silesia, was clearly less numerous. A third group supported separatism and an independent Silesian nation-state, the separatists were of marginal importance, finding little support among native Silesians. The reasons for these transitions were boundary shifts and population changes that came after World War II
7.
Upper Silesia
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Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. In 1742 the bulk of Upper Silesia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, after the Second World War it became part of the Republic of Poland, in 1945. Upper Silesia is situated on the upper Oder River, north of the Eastern Sudetes mountain range and the Moravian Gate, within the adjacent Silesian Beskids to the east, the Vistula River rises and turns eastwards, the Biała and Przemsza tributaries mark the eastern border with Lesser Poland. In the north, Upper Silesia borders on Greater Poland, and it is currently split into a larger Polish and the smaller Czech Silesian part, which is located within the Czech regions of Moravia-Silesia and Olomouc. The Polish Upper Silesian territory covers most of the Opole Voivodeship, except for the Lower Silesian counties of Brzeg and Namysłów, divided Cieszyn Silesia as well as former Austrian Silesia are historical parts of Upper Silesia. According to the 9th century Bavarian Geographer, the West Slavic Opolanie tribe had settled on the upper Oder River since the days of the Migration Period, at the time of Prince Svatopluk I, all Silesia was a part of his Great Moravian realm. By 990 the newly installed Piast duke Mieszko I of the Polans had conquered parts of Silesia. Finally in 1137, the Polish prince Bolesław III Wrymouth came to terms with Duke Soběslav I of Bohemia, however, this arrangement fell apart when upon the death of Bolesław III and his testament the fragmentation of Poland began, which decisively enfeebled its central authority. When in 1202 Mieszko Tanglefoot had annexed the Duchy of Opole of his deceased nephew Jarosław, he ruled over all Upper Silesia as Duke of Opole and Racibórz. In the early 13th century the ties of the Silesian Piasts with the neighbouring Holy Roman Empire grew stronger as several dukes married scions of German nobility. The plans to re-unifiy Silesia shattered upon the Mongol invasion of Poland, Upper Silesia further fragmented upon the death of Duke Władysław Opolski in 1281 into the duchies of Bytom, Opole, Racibórz and Cieszyn. About 1269 the Duchy of Opava was established on adjacent Moravian territory, ruled by the Přemyslid duke Nicholas I, as they ruled both duchies in personal union, Opava grew into the Upper Silesian territory. In 1327 the Upper Silesian dukes, like most of their Lower Silesian cousins, had sworn allegiance to King John of Bohemia, by the mid-14th century, the influx of German settlers into Upper Silesia was stopped by the Black Death pandemic. Unlike in Lower Silesia, the Germanization process was halted, still a majority of the population spoke Polish and Silesian as their native language, in the southernmost areas, also Lach dialects were spoken. While Latin, Czech and German language were used as languages in towns and cities. Upper Silesia was hit by the Hussite Wars and in 1469 was conquered by King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, while the Duchies of Oświęcim, upon the death of the Jagiellonian king Louis II in 1526, the Bohemian crown lands were inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg. In the 16th century, large parts of Silesia had turned Protestant, after the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, the Catholic Emperors of the Habsburg dynasty forcibly re-introduced Catholicism, led by the Jesuits. Lower Silesia and most of Upper Silesia were occupied by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1742 during the First Silesian War, a small part south of the Opava River remained within the Habsburg-ruled Bohemian Crown as the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, colloquially called Austrian Silesia
8.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
9.
Second Polish Republic
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The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland and it had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia, the Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west, the Second Republics land area was 388,634 km2, making it, in October 1938, the sixth largest country in Europe. After the annexation of Zaolzie, this grew to 389,720 km2, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, almost a third of population came from minority groups,13. 9% Ukrainians, 10% Jews,3. 1% Belarusians,2. 3% Germans and 3. 4% Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders, Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. By 1939, the Republic had become one of Europes major powers, the victorious Allies of World War I confirmed the rebirth of Poland in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. It was one of the stories of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Poland solidified its independence in a series of wars fought by the newly formed Polish Army from 1918 to 1921. The extent of the half of the interwar territory of Poland was settled diplomatically in 1922. In the course of World War I, Germany gradually gained overall dominance on the Eastern Front as the Imperial Russian Army fell back, German and Austro-Hungarian armies seized the Russian-ruled part of what became Poland. In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State, the Council administered the country under German auspices, pending the election of a king. A month before Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918 and the war ended, the Regency Council had dissolved the Council of State, with the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, most Polish political parties supported this move. On 23 October the Regency Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński, in 1918–1919, over 100 workers councils sprang up on Polish territories, on 5 November 1918, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in Austrian Galicia, the same day the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński, set up a Provisional Peoples Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On Sunday,10 November at 7 a. m, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison in Magdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaws railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski, next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces
10.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
11.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
12.
Province of Upper Silesia
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The Province of Upper Silesia was a province of the Free State of Prussia from 1919 to 1945. It comprised much of the region of Upper Silesia and was divided into two administrative regions called Bezirk Kattowitz, and Oppeln. The provincial capital was Oppeln and Kattowitz, while other towns included Beuthen, Gleiwitz. Between 1938 and 1941 it was reunited with Lower Silesia as the Province of Silesia, perhaps the earliest exact census figures on ethnic or national structure of Regierungsbezirk Oppeln are from year 1819. Within Weimar Germany, the Prussian Province of Silesia was divided into the provinces of Upper Silesia, Silesian Uprisings of Poles against Germans occurred in Upper Silesia from 1919 and 1920. Uproar over the Upper Silesia plebiscite of 1921 led to a third uprising, the territory remaining in Prussian Upper Silesia was administered within Regierungsbezirk Oppeln and - according to Polish sources - had 530,000 Poles within it. After the Nazis takeover in Germany, the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia was signed, among other stipulations, according to the treaty each contractual party guaranteed in its respective part of Upper Silesia equal civil rights for all the inhabitants. The German Upper Silesian Franz Bernheim succeeded in convincing the League of Nations to force Nazi Germany to abide by the Accord, the Province of Upper Silesia was joined to Lower Silesia to form the Province of Silesia in 1938. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, Polish Upper Silesia and this annexed territory, also known as East Upper Silesia, became part of the new Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz. A second wave of arrests happened during October and November in Intelligenzaktion Schlesien, aimed against Polish intellectuals, a third wave of arrests came in April and May 1940 during the AB Aktion. A prison and penal camp were established in the region in which Polish activists from Upper Silesia were held. At the same time, the Polish population was expelled from eastern Upper Silesia, in their place, ethnic Germans from Volhynia and the Baltic countries were settled in Upper Silesias urban areas. Until 1943, about 230,000 ethnic Germans were located on the Polish territories of eastern Upper Silesia and the Wartheland. The death toll of the Polish population in Upper Silesia at the hands of Germans is about 25,000 victims, with 20,000 of them being from urban population. In 1941, the Province of Silesia was again divided into the Provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia, the German province of Upper Silesia was conquered by the Soviet Red Army from February until the end of March 1945 during World War IIs Lower and Upper Silesian Offensives. The post-war Potsdam Agreement granted the provinces territory to the Peoples Republic of Poland. Most Germans remaining in the territory were expelled westward, the Landsmannschaft Schlesien represents German Silesians from Upper and Lower Silesia. Near and in Opole, a German minority remains, Upper Silesia was known to be a poor, but heavily industrialised and polluted area
13.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
14.
Bohemia
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Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech lands in the present-day Czech Republic. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia, later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently a part of the Habsburg Monarchy, after World War I and the establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state, Bohemia became a part of Czechoslovakia. Between 1938 and 1945, border regions with sizeable German-speaking minorities of all three Czech lands were joined to Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland, in 1990, the name was changed to the Czech Republic, which become a separate state in 1993 with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Until 1948, Bohemia was a unit of Czechoslovakia as one of its lands. Bohemia was bordered in the south by Upper and Lower Austria, in the west by Bavaria and in the north by Saxony and Lusatia, in the northeast by Silesia, and in the east by Moravia. In the 2nd century BC, the Romans were competing for dominance in northern Italy, the Romans defeated the Boii at the Battle of Placentia and the Battle of Mutina. After this, many of the Boii retreated north across the Alps, much later Roman authors refer to the area they had once occupied as Boiohaemum. The earliest mention was by Tacitus Germania 28, and later mentions of the name are in Strabo. The name appears to include the tribal name Boi- plus the Germanic element *haimaz home and this Boiohaemum was apparently isolated to the area where King Marobods kingdom was centred, within the Hercynian forest. The Czech name Čechy is derived from the name of the Slavic ethnic group, the Czechs, Bohemia, like neighbouring Bavaria, is named after the Boii, who were a large Celtic nation known to the Romans for their migrations and settlement in northern Italy and other places. Another part of the nation moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, to the south, over the Danube, the Romans extended their empire, and to the southeast in Hungaria, were Sarmatian peoples. In the area of modern Bohemia the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king Marobodus and he took advantage of the natural defenses provided by its mountains and forests. In late classical times and the early Middle Ages, two new Suebic groupings appeared to the west of Bohemia in southern Germany, the Alemanni, many Suebic tribes from the Bohemian region took part in such movements westwards, even settling as far away as Spain and Portugal. With them were also tribes who had pushed from the east, such as the Vandals, other groups pushed southwards towards Pannonia. These are precursors of todays Czechs, though the amount of Slavic immigration is a subject of debate. The Slavic influx was divided into two or three waves, the first wave came from the southeast and east, when the Germanic Lombards left Bohemia. Soon after, from the 630s to 660s, the territory was taken by Samos tribal confederation and his death marked the end of the old Slavonic confederation, the second attempt to establish such a Slavonic union after Carantania in Carinthia. Other sources divide the population of Bohemia at this time into the Merehani, Marharaii, Beheimare, Christianity first appeared in the early 9th century, but only became dominant much later, in the 10th or 11th century
15.
House of Habsburg
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The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
16.
Frederick the Great
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Frederick II was King of Prussia from 1740 until 1786, the longest reign of any Hohenzollern king. Frederick was the last titled King in Prussia and declared himself King of Prussia after achieving full sovereignty for all historical Prussian lands, Prussia had greatly increased its territories and became a leading military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great and was affectionately nicknamed Der Alte Fritz by the Prussian, in his youth, Frederick was more interested in music and philosophy than the art of war. Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked Austria and claimed Silesia during the Silesian Wars, winning acclaim for himself. Near the end of his life, Frederick physically connected most of his realm by conquering Polish territories in the First Partition of Poland and he was an influential military theorist whose analysis emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics. Considering himself the first servant of the state, Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism and he modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the system and made it possible for men not of noble stock to become judges. Frederick also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, some critics, however, point out his oppressive measures against conquered Polish subjects during the First Partition. Frederick supported arts and philosophers he favored, as well as allowing complete freedom of the press, Frederick is buried at his favorite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II, son of his brother, historian Leopold von Ranke was unstinting in his praise of Fredericks Heroic life, inspired by great ideas, filled with feats of arms. Immortalized by the raising of the Prussian state to the rank of a power, Johann Gustav Droysen was even more extolling. However, by the 21st century, a re-evaluation of his legacy as a great warrior, Frederick, the son of Frederick William I and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, was born in Berlin on 24 January 1712. The birth of Frederick was welcomed by his grandfather, Frederick I, with more than usual pleasure, with the death of his father in 1713, Frederick William became King of Prussia, thus making young Frederick the crown prince. The new king wished for his sons and daughters to be educated not as royalty and he had been educated by a Frenchwoman, Madame de Montbail, who later became Madame de Rocoulle, and he wished that she educate his children. However, he possessed a violent temper and ruled Brandenburg-Prussia with absolute authority. As Frederick grew, his preference for music, literature and French culture clashed with his fathers militarism, in contrast, Fredericks mother Sophia was polite, charismatic and learned. Her father, George Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg, succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, Frederick was brought up by Huguenot governesses and tutors and learned French and German simultaneously. Although Frederick William I was raised a Calvinist, he feared he was not of the elect, to avoid the possibility of Frederick being motivated by the same concerns, the king ordered that his heir not be taught about predestination
17.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
18.
Maria Theresa
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Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, by marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress. She started her 40-year reign when her father, Emperor Charles VI, Charles VI paved the way for her accession with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and spent his entire reign securing it. Upon the death of her father, Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, Prussia proceeded to invade the affluent Habsburg province of Silesia, sparking a nine-year conflict known as the War of the Austrian Succession, and subsequently conquered it. Maria Theresa would later try to reconquer Silesia during the Seven Years War. Of the sixteen, ten survived to adulthood and she had eleven daughters and five sons. She criticised and disapproved of many of Josephs actions, Maria Theresa understood the importance of her public persona and was able to simultaneously evoke both esteem and affection from her subjects. However, she refused to allow religious toleration and contemporary travelers thought her regime was bigoted and superstitious. As a young monarch who fought two wars, she believed that her cause should be the cause of her subjects. The dowager empresses, her aunt Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg and grandmother Eleonor Magdalene of the Palatinate-Neuburg, were her godmothers and her father was the only surviving male member of the House of Habsburg and hoped for a son who would prevent the extinction of his dynasty and succeed him. Thus, the birth of Maria Theresa was a disappointment to him. Charles sought the other European powers approval for disinheriting his nieces and they exacted harsh terms, in the Treaty of Vienna, Great Britain demanded that Austria abolish the Ostend Company in return for its recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction. France, Spain, Saxony-Poland, Bavaria and Prussia later reneged, little more than a year after her birth, Maria Theresa was joined by a sister, Maria Anna, and another one, named Maria Amalia, was born in 1724. The portraits of the family show that Maria Theresa resembled Elisabeth Christine. The Prussian ambassador noted that she had blue eyes, fair hair with a slight tinge of red, a wide mouth. Unlike many other members of the House of Habsburg, neither Maria Theresas parents nor her grandparents were closely related to each other, Maria Theresa was a serious and reserved child who enjoyed singing and archery. She was barred from riding by her father, but she would later learn the basics for the sake of her Hungarian coronation ceremony. The imperial family staged opera productions, often conducted by Charles VI and her education was overseen by Jesuits
19.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
20.
Treaty of Versailles
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The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers and it was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I signed separate treaties, although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919 and this article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, in 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently, although it is often referred to as the Versailles Conference, only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. Most of the negotiations were in Paris, with the Big Four meetings taking place generally at the Quai dOrsay, the First World War was fought across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Countries beyond the war zones were also affected by the disruption of trade, finance. In 1917, two revolutions occurred within the Russian Empire, which led to the collapse of the Imperial Government, the American war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions after the Bolshevik disclosure of secret treaties between the Allies. The existence of these treaties tended to discredit Allied claims that Germany was the power with aggressive ambitions. On 8 January 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson issued a statement that became known as the Fourteen Points and this speech outlined a policy of free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. After the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front and this treaty ended the war between Russia and the Central powers and annexed 1,300,000 square miles of territory and 62 million people. During the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse, desertion rates within the German army began to increase, and civilian strikes drastically reduced war production. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive, sailors of the Imperial German Navy at Kiel mutinied, which prompted uprisings in Germany, which became known as the German Revolution. The German government tried to obtain a settlement based on the Fourteen Points. Following negotiations, the Allied powers and Germany signed an armistice, the terms of the armistice called for an immediate evacuation of German troops from occupied Belgium, France, and Luxembourg within fifteen days. In addition, it established that Allied forces would occupy the Rhineland, in late 1918, Allied troops entered Germany and began the occupation. Both the German Empire and Great Britain were dependent on imports of food and raw materials, primarily from the Americas, the Blockade of Germany was a naval operation conducted by the Allied Powers to stop the supply of raw materials and foodstuffs reaching the Central Powers
21.
Allies of World War I
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The Allies of World War I were the countries that opposed the Central Powers in the First World War. The members of the original Triple Entente of 1907 were the French Republic, the British Empire, Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and Romania were affiliated members of the Entente. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres defines the Principal Allied Powers as the British Empire, French Republic, Italy, the Allied Powers comprised, together with the Principal Allied Powers, Armenia, Belgium, Greece, Hejaz, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serb-Croat-Slovene state and Czechoslovakia. The U. S. declaration of war on Germany, on 6th April 1917 was on the grounds that Germany had violated its neutrality by attacking international shipping and it declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917. The U. S. entered the war as a power, rather than as a formal ally of France. Although the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria severed relations with the United States, the Dominion governments did control recruiting, and removed personnel from front-line duties as they saw fit. From early 1917, the War Cabinet was superseded by the Imperial War Cabinet, in April 1918, operational control of all Entente forces on the Western Front passed to the new supreme commander, Ferdinand Foch of France. The Austrian Empire followed with an attack on the Serbian ally Montenegro on 8 August, on the Western Front, the two neutral States of Belgium and Luxembourg were immediately occupied by German troops as part of the German Schlieffen Plan. On 23 August Japan joined the Entente, which then counted seven members, the entrance of the British Empire brought Nepal into the war. In 1916, Montenegro capitulated and left the Entente, and two nations joined, Portugal and Romania, on 6 April 1917, the United States entered the war. Liberia, Siam and Greece also became allies and this was followed by Romanian cessation of hostilities, however the Balkan State declared war on Central Powers again on 10 November 1918. In response to the Germans invasion of neutral Belgium, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, gibraltar, Cyprus and Malta were British dependencies in Europe. The UK held several colonies, protectorates, and semi-autonomous dependencies at the time of World War I, in Eastern Africa the East Africa Protectorate, Nyasaland, both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the Uganda Protectorate, were involved in conflict with German forces in German East Africa. In Western Africa, the colonies of Gold Coast and Nigeria were involved in actions against German forces from Togoland. In Southwestern Africa, the dominion of South Africa was involved in military actions against German forces in German South-West Africa. Canada and Newfoundland were two autonomous dominions during the war that made major contributions to the British war effort. Other British dependent territories in the Americas included, British Honduras, the Falkland Islands, British Guiana, and Jamaica. The UK held large possessions in Asia, including the Indian Empire which was an assortment of British imperial authorities in the territory now defined as India, Bangladesh, Burma, australia and New Zealand were two autonomous dominions of the UK in Oceania during the war
22.
Oder
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The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, the river ultimately flows into the Szczecin Lagoon north of Szczecin and then into three branches that empty into the Gulf of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea. Ptolemy knew the modern Oder as the Συήβος – a name derived from the Suebi. While he also refers to an outlet in the area as the Οὐιαδούα Ouiadoua, the name Suebos may be preserved in the modern name of the Świna river – an outlet from the Szczecin Lagoon to the Baltic. In the Old Church Slavonic language, the name of the river is Vjodr, the Oder is 854 kilometres long,112 km in the Czech Republic,742 km in Poland and is the second longest river in Poland. It drains a basin of 118,861 square kilometres,106,056 km2 of which are in Poland,7,217 km2 in the Czech Republic, channels connect it to the Havel, Spree, Vistula system and Kłodnica. It flows through Silesian, Opole, Lower Silesian, Lubusz, and West Pomeranian voivodeships of Poland, the main branch empties into the Szczecin Lagoon near Police, Poland. The Szczecin Lagoon is bordered on the north by the islands of Usedom, between these two islands, there is only a narrow channel going to the Bay of Pomerania, which forms a part of the Baltic Sea. The largest city on the Oder is Wrocław, in Lower Silesia, the Oder is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as the town of Koźle, where the river connects to the Gliwice Canal. The upstream part of the river is canalized and permits larger barges to navigate between the sites around the Wrocław area. Further downstream the river is flowing, passing the towns of Eisenhüttenstadt. Downstream of Frankfurt the river Warta forms a connection with Poznań. At Hohensaaten the Oder–Havel Canal connects with the Berlin waterways again, near its mouth the Oder reaches the city of Szczecin, a major maritime port. The river finally reaches the Baltic Sea through the Szczecin Lagoon, the river in Germania Magna was known to the Romans as the Viadrus or Viadua in Classical Latin, as it was a branch of the Amber Road from the Baltic Sea to the Roman Empire. In German language it was and is called the Oder, written in older records as Odera or Oddera in Medieval Latin documents and it was mentioned in the Dagome iudex, which described territory of the Duchy of Poland under Mieszko I of Poland ca. 990, as a part of western frontier. Before Slavs settled along its banks, Oder was an important trade route, a document of the Bishopric of Prague mentions Zlasane, Trebovyane, Poborane, and Dedositze in Silesia. In the 13th century, the first dams were built to protect agricultural lands, the Finow Canal, built for the first time in 1605, connects Oder and Havel
23.
Slavs
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Slavs are the largest Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Europe. They are native to Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Northeastern Europe, North Asia, Slavs speak Slavic languages of the Balto-Slavic language group. From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit most of Central, states with Slavic languages comprise over 50% of the territory of Europe, therefore it is the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe by land area. Present-day Slavic people are classified into West Slavs, East Slavs, there are an estimated 360 million Slavs worldwide. The Slavic autonym is reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as *Slověninъ, plural *Slověne, the oldest documents written in Old Church Slavonic and dating from the 9th century attest the autonym as Slověne. The word slovo and the related slava and slukh originate from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱlew-, cognate with Ancient Greek κλῆς, whence comes the name Pericles, Latin clueo, some other theories have limited support. The English term slave eventually derives from the ethnonym Slav, Slavs were captured and enslaved by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD. The Slavs under name of the Antes and the Sclaveni make their first appearance in Byzantine records in the early 6th century. Procopius wrote in 545 that the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a name in the remote past. He described them as barbarians, who lived under democracy, and that believe in one god. They lived in scattered housing, and constantly changed settlement, regarding warfare, they were mainly foot soldiers with small shields and battleaxes, lightly clothed, some entering battle naked with only their genitals covered. And they live a life, giving no heed to bodily comforts. Jordanes described the Sclaveni having swamps and forests for their cities, another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes. Menander Protector mentions a Daurentius that slew an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I. The Avars asked the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars, he declined and is reported as saying, Others do not conquer our land. The relationship between the Slavs and a called the Veneti east of the River Vistula in the Roman period is uncertain. The name may refer both to Balts and Slavs, perhaps some Slavs migrated with the movement of the Vandals to Iberia and north Africa. Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers, the Byzantine records note that grass would not regrow in places where the Slavs had marched through, so great were their numbers
24.
Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
25.
Germanisation
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Germanisation refers to the spread of the German language, people and culture or policies which introduced these changes. It was a plank of German conservative thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries. In linguistics, Germanisation also occurs when a word from the German language is adopted into a foreign language, during the Nazi era, Germanisation turned into a policy of ethnic cleansing and later into genocide of non-Germans. Historically, there are different forms and degrees of the expansion of the German language. There are examples of complete assimilation into German culture, as happened with the pagan Slavs in the Diocese of Bamberg in the 11th century. A perfect example of adoption of German culture is the field of law in Imperial and present-day Japan. Germanisation took place by cultural contact, by decision of the adopting party. Since the flight and expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe however, another form of Germanisation is the forceful imposition of German culture, language and people upon non-German people, Slavs in particular. Early forms of Germanisation were related by German monks in manuscripts like Chronicon Slavorum, a complex process of Germanisation took place in Bohemia after the defeat of Bohemian Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. The German prince and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, elected as king of Bohemia by the Bohemian estates in 1619, was defeated by Catholic forces loyal to the Habsburg Emperor, Ferdinand II. Among the Bohemian lords who were punished and had their lands expropriated after Fredericks defeat in 1620 were German-, thus, this conflict was feudal in nature, not national. This linguistic border remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century, in Tyrol there was a Germanisation of the Ladino-Romantsch of the Venosta Valley promoted by the Austria in the 16th century. There was made for avoiding contact with Protestants of the Graubünden, in the German colonies, the policy of having German as an official language led to the forming of German-based pidgins and German-based creole languages, such as Unserdeutsch. Joseph II, a leader influenced by the Enlightenment, sought to control of the empire. He decreed that German replace Latin as the official language. Hungarians perceived Josephs language reform as German cultural hegemony, and they reacted by insisting on the right to use their own tongue, as a result, Hungarian lesser nobles sparked a renaissance of the Hungarian language and culture. The lesser nobles questioned the loyalty of the magnates, of less than half were ethnic Magyars. The Magyar national revival subsequently triggered similar movements among the Slovak, Romanian, Serbian, following the partitions, the previous Germanisation attempts pursued by Frederick the Great in Silesia were extended to the newly gained Polish territories
26.
Upper Silesia plebiscite
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The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine a section of the border between Weimar Germany and Poland. The region was mixed with both Germans and Poles, according to prewar statistics, ethnic Poles formed 60 percent of the population. Under the previous rule by the German Empire, the Poles had faced discrimination and racism, the period of the plebiscite campaign and interallied occupation was marked by violence. There were two Polish uprisings, and German volunteer paramilitary units came to the region as well, the area was policed by French, British, and Italian troops, and overseen by an Interallied Commission. The Allies planned on a partition the region, but a Polish uprising took control of half the area. The Germans responded with volunteer paramilitary units from all over Germany, in the end, after renewed Allied military intervention, the final position of the opposing forces became, roughly, the new border. The earliest exact census figures on ethnolinguistic or national structure of the Prussian part of Upper Silesia, the last pre-World War I general census figures available, are from 1910. Also the total area in which Polish language was spoken, as well as the land area in which it was spoken by the majority. The Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I placed some formerly German territory in neighboring countries, in the case of the new Polish state, the Treaty of Versailles established some 54,000 square kilometers of formerly German territory as part of newly independent Poland. Many of these areas were ethnically mixed, in three of these ethnically mixed areas on the new German-Polish border, however, the Allied leaders provided for border plebiscites or referenda. The areas would be occupied by Allied forces and governed in some degree by Allied commissions, the most significant of these plebiscites was the one in Upper Silesia, since the region was a principal industrial center. The most important economic asset was the enormous coal-mining industry and its businesses, but the area yielded iron, zinc. The Industrial Triangle on the side of the plebiscite zone—between the cities of Beuthen, Kattowitz. The Upper Silesia plebiscite was therefore a plebiscite for self-determination of Upper Silesia required by the Treaty of Versailles, both Germany and Poland valued this region not only for reasons of national feeling, but for its economic importance as well. The area was occupied by British, French, and Italian forces, the plebiscite was set for 20 March 1921. Both Poles and Germans were allowed to organize campaigns, each side developed secret paramilitary forces—both financed from the opposing capitals, Warsaw and Berlin. The major figure of the campaign was Wojciech Korfanty, a pro-Polish politician, the Poles carried out two uprisings during the campaign, in August 1919 and August 1920. The Allies restored order in case, but the Polish insurrectionists clashed with German volunteers
27.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
28.
Freikorps
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Freikorps were German volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, the members of which effectively fought as mercenaries, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries the first so-called Freikorps free regiments were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades and deserters and these sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry or, more rarely, as artillery. Sometimes in just company strength, sometimes in formations up to several thousand strong, the Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger, dragoons, and hussars. The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons and these units roamed the countryside, killing with impunity. They engaged in confrontations with republican loyalists and engineered some of the more notorious assassinations of the Weimar period. An entire series of Freikorps awards also existed, the very first Freikorps were recruited by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years War. On 15 July 1759, Frederick ordered the creation of a squadron of hussars to be attached to the 1st Regiment of Hussars. He entrusted the creation and command of new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters and this squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first 4 squadrons of dragoons of the Freikorps were organised and they initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig but later recruited deserters. The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used as sentries. Even during the last Kabinettskrieg, the War of the Bavarian Succession, germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians and South Slavs, as well as Turks, Tatars and Cossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained with certainty as the origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs were often referred to as Hungarians or Croats, and Muslim recruits as Turks, for Prussia, the Pandurs, who were made up of Serbs and Croats, were a clear model for the organization of such free troops. They were often used to ward off Maria Theresas Pandurs, in the era of linear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement and reconnaissance duties. Because, with exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard. In the so-called petty wars, the Freikorps interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare, in the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the Freikorps, which Frederick the Great had despised as vermin, were disbanded and their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments
29.
Polish Military Organisation
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Polish Military Organisation, PMO was a secret military organization created by Józef Piłsudski in August 1914, and officially named in November 1914, during World War I. Its tasks were to gather intelligence and sabotage the enemies of the Polish people and it was used by Piłsudski to create a body independent from his cautious Austro-Hungarian supporters, and it was an important, if somewhat lesser known, counterpart to the Polish Legions. Its targets included the Russian Empire in the phase of the war. Its membership rose from a few hundred members in 1914 to over 30,000 in 1918, active in the Russian-held Kingdom of Poland, the PMO served as the intelligence and sabotage arm of Piłsudskis Polish Legions. In fact, many members of the illegal and secret PMO were at the time soldiers of the Austrian-backed Polish Legions. The PMO was commanded militarily by Piłsudski himself, while the command was a secret A Convent headed by Jędrzej Moraczewski. Initially active only in Central Poland, with time the PMO units were formed in all parts of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including modern day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. It was mainly preoccupied with intelligence and sabotage, as well as training of its members. The PMO members were seen as the core of the future Polish Army after Poland regained her independence. In place of Piłsudski, who was sent to a German prison in the fortress in Magdeburg, the commander of the PMO became his friend, Edward Rydz-Śmigły, also future Marshal of Poland. With the collapse of the Central Powers during the stages of the Great War, the PMO command decided to take an active part in the war. In October and November 1918 the revolutions in Germany and Austria-Hungary made the Ober Ost army collapse, the German units were struck by mass desertions of soldiers who simply left their posts and headed for their homes. The main tasks of the PMO during this period was to disarm the withdrawing soldiers, the campaign was successful and gave the new-born Polish state a large quantity of arms and military equipment. By mid-November, most of garrisons in Galicia surrendered to PMO members, the PMO members continued the disarming actions in the former Congress Kingdom as well. Finally, the PMO was the core of Polish defences of the city of Lwów in the Battle of Lwów against the forces of the West Ukrainian Peoples Republic. In December 1918, the members of the PMO were all conscripted into the newly-reborn Polish Army, contrary to the rest of units, the PMO in the Ukraine remained active after the Polish withdrawal from Kiev in July 1920. In February 1918, an organisation was formed in the German-held Greater Poland. It was modelled after the original PMO and maintained contacts with her predecessor and it assumed the name of Polish Military Organisation of the Prussian Partition and its main aim was to liberate the region and attach it to Poland
30.
First Silesian Uprising
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In the latter-day history of Poland after World War II, the insurrections were celebrated as centrepieces of national pride. Much of Silesia had belonged to the Polish Crown in medieval times, frederick the Great of Prussia seized Silesia from Maria Theresa of Austria in 1742 in the War of Austrian Succession, after which it became a part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire. Although the province had by now become overwhelmingly German speaking, a large Polish minority remained in Upper Silesia, Upper Silesia was bountiful in mineral resources and heavy industry, with mines and iron and steel mills. The Silesian mines were responsible for almost a quarter of Germanys annual output of coal,81 percent of its zinc and 34 percent of its lead, the area in Upper Silesia east of the Oder was dominated by ethnic Poles, most of whom were working class. Most spoke a dialect of Polish, but many felt they were a Slavic group of their own called Silesians. In contrast, most of the middle and upper classes – the landowners, businessmen, factory owners, local government, police. There was a division along religious lines. The German Silesians were almost all Protestant, while the Polish Silesians were invariably Roman Catholic, in the German census of 1900, 65% of the population of the eastern part of Silesia was recorded as Polish speaking, which decreased to 57% in 1910. This was partly a result of forced Germanization, but was due to the creation of a bilingual category. The Treaty of Versailles had ordered a plebiscite in Upper Silesia to determine whether the territory should be a part of Germany or Poland. Thus the plebiscite took place in all of Upper Silesia, including the predominantly Polish-speaking areas in the east, the Upper Silesian plebiscite was to be conducted on March 20,1921. In the meantime, the German administration and police remained in place, meanwhile, propaganda and strong arm tactics by both sides led to increasing unrest. The German authorities warned that those voting for Poland might forfeit their jobs, pro-Polish activists argued that, under Polish rule, Silesian Poles would no longer be discriminated against. Poland also promised to honour their German state social benefits, such as the old age pensions, however, many German Army veterans joined the Freikorps, a paramilitary organization whose troops fought any pro-Polish activists. The pro-Poland side employed the Polish Military Organisation – a secret military organisation, eventually, the deteriorating situation resulted in Upper Silesian Uprisings conducted by Poles in 1919 and 1920. The right to vote was granted to all aged 20 and older who either had been born in or lived in the plebiscite area, a result was the mass migration of both Germans and Poles. The German newcomers accounted for 179,910, the Polish newcomers numbering over 10,000, without these new voters, the pro-German vote would have had a majority of 58,336 instead of the final 228,246. The plebiscite took place as arranged on March 20, two days after the signing of the Treaty of Riga, which ended the Polish–Soviet War of 1919/1920, a total of 707,605 votes were cast for Germany and 479,359 for Poland
31.
Second Silesian Uprising
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In the latter-day history of Poland after World War II, the insurrections were celebrated as centrepieces of national pride. Much of Silesia had belonged to the Polish Crown in medieval times, frederick the Great of Prussia seized Silesia from Maria Theresa of Austria in 1742 in the War of Austrian Succession, after which it became a part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire. Although the province had by now become overwhelmingly German speaking, a large Polish minority remained in Upper Silesia, Upper Silesia was bountiful in mineral resources and heavy industry, with mines and iron and steel mills. The Silesian mines were responsible for almost a quarter of Germanys annual output of coal,81 percent of its zinc and 34 percent of its lead, the area in Upper Silesia east of the Oder was dominated by ethnic Poles, most of whom were working class. Most spoke a dialect of Polish, but many felt they were a Slavic group of their own called Silesians. In contrast, most of the middle and upper classes – the landowners, businessmen, factory owners, local government, police. There was a division along religious lines. The German Silesians were almost all Protestant, while the Polish Silesians were invariably Roman Catholic, in the German census of 1900, 65% of the population of the eastern part of Silesia was recorded as Polish speaking, which decreased to 57% in 1910. This was partly a result of forced Germanization, but was due to the creation of a bilingual category. The Treaty of Versailles had ordered a plebiscite in Upper Silesia to determine whether the territory should be a part of Germany or Poland. Thus the plebiscite took place in all of Upper Silesia, including the predominantly Polish-speaking areas in the east, the Upper Silesian plebiscite was to be conducted on March 20,1921. In the meantime, the German administration and police remained in place, meanwhile, propaganda and strong arm tactics by both sides led to increasing unrest. The German authorities warned that those voting for Poland might forfeit their jobs, pro-Polish activists argued that, under Polish rule, Silesian Poles would no longer be discriminated against. Poland also promised to honour their German state social benefits, such as the old age pensions, however, many German Army veterans joined the Freikorps, a paramilitary organization whose troops fought any pro-Polish activists. The pro-Poland side employed the Polish Military Organisation – a secret military organisation, eventually, the deteriorating situation resulted in Upper Silesian Uprisings conducted by Poles in 1919 and 1920. The right to vote was granted to all aged 20 and older who either had been born in or lived in the plebiscite area, a result was the mass migration of both Germans and Poles. The German newcomers accounted for 179,910, the Polish newcomers numbering over 10,000, without these new voters, the pro-German vote would have had a majority of 58,336 instead of the final 228,246. The plebiscite took place as arranged on March 20, two days after the signing of the Treaty of Riga, which ended the Polish–Soviet War of 1919/1920, a total of 707,605 votes were cast for Germany and 479,359 for Poland
32.
Peace of Riga
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The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga, Polish, Traktat Ryski was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, between Poland, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War, the Soviet-Polish borders established by the treaty remained in force until the Second World War. They were later redrawn during the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference, World War I removed former imperial borders across Europe. The Polish-Soviet War ensued, culminating in the Polish victory in the Battle of Warsaw, Peace talks began in Minsk on 17 August 1920, but as the Polish counter-offensive drew near, the talks were moved to Riga, and resumed on 21 September. The Soviets proposed two solutions, the first on 21 September and the second on the 28th, the Polish delegation made a counter-offer on 2 October. Three days later the Soviets offered amendments to the Polish offer, an armistice was signed on 12 October and went into effect on 18 October 1920. The chief negotiators were Jan Dąbski for Poland and Adolph Joffe for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Soviet side insisted, successfully, on excluding non-communist Ukrainian representatives from the negotiations. Due to their military setbacks, the Soviet delegation offered Poland substantial territorial concessions in the border areas. However, to observers, it looked like the Polish side was conducting the Riga talks as if Poland had lost the war. The Polish delegation was dominated by members of the National Democrat movement and this decision was also motivated by political objectives. The National Democrats base of support was among Poles in central. In the east of the country and in the disputed borderlands, so a border too far to the east was not just against the National Democrats ideological objective of minimising the minority population of Poland, but would also be an electoral disadvantage to them. War-weary public opinion in Poland also favoured an end to the negotiations, pressured by the National Democrat ideologue, Stanisław Grabski, the 100 km of extra territory was rejected, a victory for the nationalist doctrine and a stark defeat for Piłsudskis federalism. Regardless, the negotiations dragged on for months due to Soviet reluctance to sign. As a result of this situation, Lenin ordered the Soviet plenipotentiaries to finalise the treaty with Poland. The Peace of Riga was signed on 18 March 1921, partitioning the disputed territories in Belarus, the Treaty consisted of 26 articles. Poland was to receive compensation for its economic input into the Russian Empire during the Partitions of Poland. Under Article 14 Poland was also to receive railway materials with a value of 29 million gold roubles, Russia was to surrender works of art and other Polish national treasures acquired from Polish territories after 1772
33.
League of Nations
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The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, at its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, however, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them, after a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, the onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years, the United Nations replaced it after the end of the Second World War on 20 April 1946 and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League. As historians William H. Harbaugh and Ronald E. Powaski point out, the organisation was international in scope, with a third of the members of parliaments serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve disputes by peaceful means. Annual conferences were held to help refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure consisted of a council headed by a president, which would later be reflected in the structure of the League, at the start of the 20th century, two power blocs emerged from alliances between the European Great Powers. It was these alliances that, at the start of the First World War in 1914 and this was the first major war in Europe between industrialised countries, and the first time in Western Europe that the results of industrialisation had been dedicated to war. By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, the war had had an impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe. Anti-war sentiment rose across the world, the First World War was described as the war to end all wars, the causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, a British political scientist, coined the term League of Nations in 1914, together with Lord Bryce, he played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group, later the League of Nations Union. The group became more influential among the public and as a pressure group within the then governing Liberal Party. In Dickinsons 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his League of Peace as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation
34.
Reichswehr
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The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was united with the new Wehrmacht. At the end of World War I, the forces of the German Empire had mostly split up, many of them joined the Freikorps, a collection of volunteer paramilitary units that were involved in suppressing the German Revolution and border clashes between 1918 and 1923. The Vorläufige Reichswehr was made up of 43 brigades, on 30 September 1919, the army was reorganised as the Übergangsheer, and the force size was reduced to 20 brigades. About 400,000 men served in the armed forces, in May 1920 it was downsized to 200,000 men and restructured again, forming three cavalry divisions and seven infantry divisions. On 1 October 1920 the brigades were replaced by regiments and the manpower was now only 100,000 men as stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles and this lasted until 1 January 1921, when the Reichswehr was officially established according to the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The Reichswehr was an organisation composed of the following, The Reichsheer, an army consisting of, seven infantry divisions. General Command 1 at Berlin supervised 1st Division, 2nd Division, 3rd Division, general Command 2 at Kassel supervised 5,6,7 and 3rd Cavalry divisions. The Reichsmarine, a navy with a number of certain types of ships. The Reichswehr was limited to an army of 100,000 men. The establishment of a staff was prohibited. Heavy weapons such as artillery above the calibre of 105 mm, armoured vehicles, submarines and capital ships were forbidden, compliance with these restrictions was monitored until 1927 by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control. Despite the limitations on its size, their analysis of the loss of World War I, research and development, secret testing abroad and planning for better times went on. In addition, although forbidden to have a staff, the army continued to conduct the typical functions of a general staff under the disguised name of Truppenamt. During this time, many of the leaders of the Wehrmacht — such as Heinz Guderian — first formulated the ideas that they were to use so effectively a few years later. Reflecting this position as a “state within the state”, the Reichswehr created the Ministeramt or Office of the Ministerial Affairs in 1928 under Kurt von Schleicher to lobby the politicians. The biggest influence on the development of the Reichswehr was Hans von Seeckt, after the Kapp Putsch, Hans von Seeckt took over this post. After Seeckt was forced to resign in 1926, Wilhelm Heye took the post, Heye was in 1930 succeeded by Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, who submitted his resignation on December 27,1933. The reduction of the strength of the German army from 780,000 in 1913 to 100,000 enhanced the quality of the Reichsheer because only the best were permitted to join the army
35.
Civilian
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In general, a civilian is a person who is not a member of the military or of a police or firefighting force, as defined by Merriam Websters Dictionary. From the perspective of the U. S, in military and law enforcement slang, the term Civies or Civvies are often used to refer civilian population or civilian clothing. Under the laws of war, a civilian is one not being a member of the services and does not take a direct part of hostilities in times of armed conflict. The term civilian is slightly different from a non-combatant under the laws of war, the privileges that they enjoy under international law depends on whether the conflict is an internal one or an international one. The word civilian goes back to the late 14th century and is from Old French civilien, Civilian is believed to have been used to refer to non-combatants as early as 1829. The term non-combatant now refers to people in general who are not taking part of hostilities, there is no intermediate status, nobody in enemy hands can be outside the law. We feel that this is a satisfactory solution – not only satisfying to the mind, but also, the ICRC has expressed the opinion that If civilians directly engage in hostilities, they are considered unlawful or unprivileged combatants or belligerents. They may be prosecuted under the law of the detaining state for such action. According to Article 50 of the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions,1, a civilian is any person who does not belong to one of the categories of persons referred to in Article 4A, and of the Third Convention and in Article 43 of this Protocol. In case of whether a person is a civilian, that person shall be considered to be a civilian. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians, the presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character. The definition is negative and defines civilians as persons who do not belong to definite categories, the categories of persons mentioned in Article 4A, and of the Third Convention and in Article 43 of the Protocol I are combatants. Therefore, the Commentary to the Protocol pointed that, any one who is not a member of the forces is a civilian. Civilians cannot take part in armed conflict, civilians are given protection under the Geneva Conventions and Protocols thereto. Article 51 describes the protection that must be given to the civilian population, chapter III of Protocol I regulates the targeting of civilian objects. The actual position of the civilian in modern war remains problematical, starting in the 1980s, it was often claimed that 90 percent of the victims of modern wars were civilians. The claim was repeated on Wikipedias Did You Know on 14 December 2010 and these claims, though widely believed, are not supported by detailed examination of the evidence, particularly that relating to wars that are central to the claims. It has lost none of its political, legal and moral salience, although it is often assumed that civilians are essentially passive onlookers of war, sometimes they have active roles in conflicts
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General strike
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A general strike is a strike action in which a substantial proportion of the total labour force in a city, region, or country participates. General strikes are characterised by the participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, General strikes first occurred in the mid-19th century, and have characterised many historically important strikes. An early predecessor of the strike may have been the secessio plebis in ancient Rome. In the Outline Of History, H. G. Wells recorded the general strike of the plebeians, the plebeians seem to have invented the strike, which now makes its first appearance in history. Wells noted that he made a mean use of their political advantages to grow rich through the national conquests at the expense not only of the defeated enemy. The plebeians, who were expected to obey the laws, but were not allowed to know the laws, were successful, in 450 BC. in a concession resulting from the rebellion of the plebeians, the laws of Rome were written for all to peruse. The general strike action became a feature of the political landscape with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. For the first time in history, large numbers of people were members of the working class, they lived in cities. By the 1830s, when the Chartist movement was at its peak, the first theorist to formulate and popularise the idea of a general strike for the purpose of political reform was the radical pamphleteer William Benbow. On 28 January 1832 Benbow published a pamphlet entitled Grand National Holiday, Benbow began to advocate direct and even violent action for political reform, in particular he advanced his idea for a national holiday and national convention. The striking workers were to support themselves with savings and confiscated parish funds, benbows idea of a Grand National Holiday was adopted by the Chartist Congress of 1839, Benbow having spent time in Manchester during 1838-9 promoting his the cause and his pamphlet. In 1842 the demands for wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into the first modern general strike. Instead of being a spontaneous uprising of the masses, the strike was politically motivated and was driven by a hard-headed agenda to win concessions. Probably as much as half of the industrial work force were on strike at its peak - over 500,000 men. The local leadership marshaled a growing working class tradition to politically organise their followers to mount a challenge to the capitalist. The mass abandonment of plantations by black slaves and poor whites during the American Civil War has, controversially, in his classic history Black Reconstruction in America, W. E. B. The trickling streams of fugitives swelled to a flood, once begun, the general strike of black and white went madly and relentlessly on like some great saga. The next large scale strike took place over half a century later in Belgium
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Execution by firing squad
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Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading, is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Execution by shooting is an old practice. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available, a firing squad is normally composed of several military personnel or law enforcement officers. Usually, all members of the group are instructed to fire simultaneously, to avoid the disfigurement of multiple shots to the head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart, sometimes aided by a paper target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded, as well as restrained, executions can be carried out with the condemned either standing or sitting. There is a tradition in some jurisdictions that such executions are carried out at first light, or at sunrise and this gave rise to the phrase shot at dawn. Execution by firing squad is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, however, the single shot by the squads officer with a pistol is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley turns out not to be immediately fatal. The method is often the punishment or disciplinary means employed by military courts for crimes such as cowardice, desertion, espionage, murder, mutiny. For servicemen, the squad is symbolic. The condemned serviceman is executed by a group of his peers indicating that he is found guilty by the entire group. Although a court-martial might be presided over and prosecuted by officers, finally, the group action on one side, with the condemned standing opposite, presents a visual contrast that reinforces to all witnesses that solidarity is an overriding necessity in a military unit. If the condemned prisoner is an ex-officer who is acknowledged to have shown bravery in their past career, an example of this is Marshal of France Michel Ney. In some cases, all but one member of the squad may be issued a weapon containing a blank cartridge. Sometimes all but one member has live rounds, no member of the firing squad is told beforehand if he is using live ammunition. This is believed to reinforce the sense of diffusion of responsibility among the squad members. It also allows each member of the squad to believe afterwards that he did not personally fire a fatal shot—for this reason. According to a Private W. A, the firing squad was then given a short speech by an officer before they fired a volley at the condemned man. He said about the episode, I had the satisfaction of knowing that as soon as I fired, the absence of any recoil, that I had merely fired a blank cartridge
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Refugee
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A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the state or the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations have a second Office for refugees, which is the UNRWA. This however is solely responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees and it refers to shelter or protection from danger or distress, from Latin fugere, to flee, and refugium, a taking refuge, place to flee back to. In Western history, the term was first applied to French Huguenots, after the Edict of Fontainebleau, who again migrated from France after the Edict of Nantes revocation. The word meant one seeking asylum, until around 1914, when it evolved to mean one fleeing home and this legal concept of a refugee was expanded by the Conventions 1967 Protocol. European Unions minimum standards definition of refugee, underlined by Art, in UN parlance, the concept of refugee also includes descendants of refugees but only in the case of two specific groups, viz. Palestinian refugees and Sahrawi refugees. The UN does not consider refugee status to be hereditary for any other group, the UNHCR also protects people in refugee-like situations. It gives credence to the notion that personal individualized ‘fear of being persecuted’ is the reason for needing support. War, upheaval, famine and pestilence do not in the conventional definition make for refugee status. It does not matter that civilian deaths as a proportion of deaths in war escalated to 10% in World War I and it only matters that persons fear the persecution of their state. Furthermore, not all reasons for seeking asylum in another country satisfy the definition of refugee according to article 1A of the 1951 Refugee Convention, fleeing droughts and hunger, fleeing economic hardship, natural disasters and not even war or terror satisfied the definition of 1951. The idea that a person who sought sanctuary in a place could not be harmed without inviting divine retribution was familiar to the ancient Greeks. However, the right to asylum in a church or other holy place was first codified in law by King Æthelberht of Kent in about AD600. Similar laws were implemented throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, the related concept of political exile also has a long history, Ovid was sent to Tomis, Voltaire was sent to England. By the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, nations recognized each others sovereignty, the term refugee is sometimes applied to people who might fit the definition outlined by the 1951 Convention, were it to be applied retroactively. The repeated waves of pogroms that swept Eastern Europe in the 19th, beginning in the 19th century, Muslim people emigrated to Turkey from Europe. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 caused 800,000 people to leave their homes, various groups of people were officially designated refugees beginning in World War I
