1.
Battle of Chapultepec
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The castle, sitting atop a 200-foot tall hill, was an important position for the defense of the city. Its capture paved the way for the fall of Mexico City. On September 8,1847, in the costly Battle of Molino del Rey, however, Army engineers were still interested in the southern causeways to the city. General Winfield Scott held a council of war with his generals, Scott was in favor of attacking Chapultepec and only General David E. Twiggs agreed. Most of Scotts officers favored the attack through the southern gates, a young lieutenant, P. G. T. Beauregard, gave a textbook speech that persuaded General Franklin Pierce to change his vote in favor of the western attack. Antonio López de Santa Anna was in command of the army at Mexico City and he understood that Chapultepec Castle was an important position for the defense of the city. The castle sat atop a 200-foot tall hill which in recent years was being used as the Mexican Military Academy, a gradual slope from the castle down to the Molino del Rey made an inviting attack point. The additional Mexican troops were used in external walled redoubts of the castle to protect a large piece of ground in front of the castle itself. This area was protected by walls and was about three-quarters of a mile long by one-quarter mile deep. Also the source of water for the castle was located within this area, the first party consisted of Captain Samuel Mackenzies 256 men and Gideon Pillows division, who would advance from the Molino east up the hill. The second storming party consisted of Captain Silas Caseys men and John A. Quitmans division, however, Casey was replaced by Major Levi Twiggs. Only Twiggs division and Bennett Rileys brigade were left on the American right flank, the Americans began an artillery barrage against Chapultepec at dawn on September 12. It was halted at dark and resumed at first light on September 13, at 8 AM, the bombardment was halted and General Scott ordered the infantry attack. Pillow was quickly hit in the foot and called for reinforcements, andrewss column cleared the grove of Mexican troops and linked up with Johnston. Yet, the attack by the 9th and 15th Infantry stalled waiting for scaling ladders, Quitman sent Persifor Smiths brigade to his right and brought in James Shields, plus the New York and 2d Pennsylvania Regiments into the assault. At the same time, Newman S. Clarkes brigade arrived on the western slope, the Voltigeurs soon planted their flag on the parapet. By 9 AM, General Bravo surrendered to the New York Regiment, Santa Anna watched the Americans take Chapultepec while an aide exclaimed let the Mexican flag never be touched by a foreign enemy. He also exclaimed, I believe if we were to plant our batteries in Hell the damned Yankees would take them from us
2.
Battle of Shiloh
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The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7,1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union force known as the Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. T. Beauregard, launched an attack on Grants army from its base in Corinth. Johnston was killed in action during the fighting, Beauregard, who succeeded to command of the army. Overnight Grant was reinforced by one of his own divisions stationed further north and was joined by three divisions from another Union army under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell. This allowed them to launch a counterattack the next morning which completely reversed the Confederate gains of the previous day. On April 6, the first day of the battle, the Confederates struck with the intention of driving the Union defenders away from the river, Johnston hoped to defeat Grants army before the anticipated arrival of General Buells Army of the Ohio. The Confederate battle lines became confused during the fighting, and Grants men instead fell back to the northeast. A Union position on a sunken road, nicknamed the Hornets Nest. Benjamin Prentisss and William H. L. Wallaces divisions, provided critical time for the remainder of the Union line to stabilize under the protection of artillery batteries. Wallace was mortally wounded when the position collapsed, while several regiments from the two divisions were surrounded and surrendered. General Johnston was shot in the leg and bled to death while leading an attack. Beauregard, his second in command, acknowledged how tired the army was from the days exertions, Confederate forces were forced to retreat from the area, ending their hopes of blocking the Union advance into northern Mississippi. Smiths orders were to lead raids intended to capture or damage the railroads in southwestern Tennessee, Brig. Gen. William T. Shermans troops arrived from Paducah, Kentucky, to conduct a similar mission to break the railroads near Eastport, Mississippi. Halleck also ordered Grant to advance his Army of West Tennessee on an invasion up the Tennessee River, Grant left Fort Henry and headed upriver, arriving at Savannah, Tennessee, on March 14, and established his headquarters on the east bank of the river. Grants troops set up camp farther upriver, five divisions at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, meanwhile, Hallecks command was enlarged through consolidation of Grants and Buells armies and renamed the Department of the Mississippi. With Buells Army of the Ohio under his command, Halleck ordered Buell to concentrate with Grant at Savannah, Buell began a march with much of his army from Nashville, Tennessee, and headed southwest toward Savannah. The railroad was a supply line connecting the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tennessee to Richmond. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant developed a reputation during the war for being concerned with his own plans than with those of the enemy
3.
Siege of Vicksburg
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The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, therefore, capturing it completed the part of the Northern strategy. When two major assaults against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no reinforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the successful ending of the Vicksburg Campaign significantly degraded the ability of the Confederacy to maintain its war effort, as described in the Aftermath section of the campaign article. Ballard, p. 308—suggest that the battle in the campaign was actually the Battle of Champion Hill. This action yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, attempts to stop the Union advance at Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge were unsuccessful. Pemberton knew that the corps under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman was preparing to flank him from the north, he had no choice but to withdraw or be outflanked. Pemberton burned the bridges over the Big Black River and took everything edible in his path, both animal and plant, as he retreated to the city of Vicksburg. Grant could now receive supplies more directly than by the previous route, large masses of Union troops were on the march to invest the city, repairing the burnt bridges over the Big Black River, which Grants forces crossed on May 18. Johnston sent a note to his general, Pemberton, asking him to sacrifice the city and save his troops, Washburn, XVII Corps, under Maj. Gen. James B. Pembertons Confederate Army of Mississippi inside the Vicksburg line consisted of four divisions, carter L. Stevenson, John H. Forney, Martin L. Smith, John S. Bowen. As the Confederate forces approached Vicksburg, Pemberton could put only 18,500 troops in his lines, Grant had over 35,000, with more on the way. However, Pemberton had the advantage of terrain and fortifications that made his defense nearly impregnable, the defensive line around Vicksburg ran approximately 6.5 miles, based on terrain of varying elevations that included hills and knobs with steep angles for an attacker to ascend under fire. The perimeter included many gun pits, forts, trenches, redoubts, Grant wanted to overwhelm the Confederates before they could fully organize their defenses and ordered an immediate assault against Stockade Redan for May 19. This first attempt was easily repulsed, the assault collapsed in a melee of rifle fire and hand grenades lobbing back and forth. The failed Federal assaults of May 19 damaged Union morale, deflating the confidence the soldiers felt after their string of victories across Mississippi. They were also costly, with casualties of 157 killed,777 wounded, the Confederates, assumed to be demoralized, had regained their fighting edge
4.
Chattanooga Campaign
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The Chattanooga Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863, during the American Civil War. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West, significant reinforcements also began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. On October 19th, Grant removed Rosecrans from command of the Army of the Cumberland, after opening a supply line to feed his starving men and animals, Grants army fought off a Confederate counterattack at the Battle of Wauhatchie on October 28–29,1863. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman maneuvered to launch an attack against Braggs right flank on Missionary Ridge. On November 24, Shermans men crossed the Tennessee River in the morning, the same day, Eastern Theater troops under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker defeated the Confederates in the Battle of Lookout Mountain. The next day began a movement toward Braggs left flank at Rossville. On November 25, Shermans attack on Braggs right flank made little progress, hoping to distract Braggs attention, Grant ordered Thomass army to advance in the center of his line to the base of Missionary Ridge. Braggs defeat eliminated the last significant Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, Chattanooga was a vital rail hub, and an important manufacturing center for the production of iron and coke, located on the navigable Tennessee River. Rosecrans pursued Bragg and the two collided at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19–20. Bragg did not cut off the routes to Chattanooga and did not organize a pursuit that might have seriously damaged the Union army before it could regroup. The Union forces took advantage of previous Confederate works to erect defensive positions in a tight. Bragg had three courses of action and he could outflank Rosecrans by crossing the Tennessee either below or above the city, assault the Union force directly in their fortifications, or starve the Federals by establishing a siege line. A direct assault was too costly against a well-fortified enemy, receiving intelligence that Rosecranss men had only six days of rations, Bragg chose the siege option, while attempting to accumulate sufficient logistical capability to cross the Tennessee. Braggs army besieged the city, threatening to starve the Union forces into surrender, Bragg also had little inclination to take offensive action against the Federal army because he was occupied in leadership quarrels within his army. On September 29, Bragg relieved from command two of his subordinates who had disappointed him in the Chickamauga Campaign, Maj. Gen. Thomas C, hindman and Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk. On October 4, twelve of his most senior generals sent a petition to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Davis personally visited Chattanooga to hear the complaints. After he decided to retain Bragg in command, Bragg retaliated against some of those generals by relieving Lt. Gen. D. H. Hill and Maj. Gen. Simon B. In Chattanooga, Rosecrans was stunned by the defeat of his army, President Abraham Lincoln remarked that Rosecrans seemed confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head
5.
Robert E. Lee
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Robert Edward Lee was an American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865. During this time, he served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican–American War, during the first year of the Civil War, Lee served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Once he took command of the field army in 1862 he soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning most of his battles. Lees strategic foresight was more questionable, and both of his major offensives into Union territory ended in defeat, Lees aggressive tactics, which resulted in high casualties at a time when the Confederacy had a shortage of manpower, have come under criticism in recent years. Lee surrendered his army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9,1865. By this time, Lee had assumed command of the remaining Southern armies. Lee rejected the proposal of an insurgency against the Union. He urged them to rethink their position between the North and the South, and the reintegration of former Confederates into the political life. Lee became the great Southern hero of the War, an icon of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy to some. But his popularity even in the North, especially after his death in 1870. Barracks at West Point built in 1962 are named after him, Robert Edward Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, to Major General Henry Lee III, Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter. His birth date has traditionally been recorded as January 19,1807, one of Lees great grandparents, Henry Lee I, was a prominent Virginian colonist of English descent. Lees family is one of Virginias first families, descended from Richard Lee I, Esq. the Immigrant, Lees mother grew up at Shirley Plantation, one of the most elegant homes in Virginia. Lees father, a planter, suffered severe financial reverses from failed investments. Little is known of Lee as a child, he spoke of his boyhood as an adult. Nothing is known of his relationship with his father who, after leaving his family, mentioned Robert only once in a letter. In 1811, the family, including the newly born child, Mildred, moved to a house on Oronoco Street, still close to the center of town. In 1812, Harry Lee was badly injured in a riot in Baltimore
6.
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park
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The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of original and reconstructed 19th century buildings in Appomattox County, Virginia. The McLean House was the site of the conference. The park was established August 3,1935, the village was made a national monument in 1940 and a national historical park in 1954. It is located three miles east of Appomattox, Virginia, the location of the Appomattox Station and the new Appomattox Court House. It is in the center of the state about 25 miles east of Lynchburg, the antebellum village started out as Clover Hill named after its oldest existing structure, the Clover Hill Tavern. The village was a stop along the Richmond-Lynchburg stage road. The activity in Clover Hill centered around Clover Hill Tavern, the tavern provided lodging to travelers. Fresh horses for the line were also provided at the stop. It was also the site of meetings and so when Appomattox County was established by an Act on February 8,1845. It was parts of Buckingham, Prince Edward, Charlotte, the jurisdiction took its name from the headwaters that emanate there, the Appomattox River. Early Virginians believe the name Appomattox came from an Indian tribe called Apumetec, from about 1842, Hugh Raine basically owned most of the Clover Hill area. He obtained it from his brother John Raine who defaulted on his loans, later, he sold the property to a Colonel Samuel D. McDearmon. Since his acquisition, it became the county seat and he surveyed 30 acres of the hamlet and he designated 2 acres to be used by the new county to build a courthouse and other government buildings. The courthouse was to be built across the Stage Road from the Clover Hill Tavern, the jail was to be built behind the courthouse. McDearmon divided the land surrounding the courthouse into 1-acre lots. He felt that with Clover Hills new status as a county seat he would find professional people ready and his hopes were later dashed in 1854 as the train depot stopped three miles west in Appomattox, Virginia. The American Civil War put the nails in the coffin. The district once known as Clover Hill and later renamed to Appomattox Court House continued to decline as businesses moved to the area of the Appomattox Station, the village contained 30 acres of the original Pattesons Clover Hill Tavern property of some 200 acres
7.
Harper's Magazine
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Harpers Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in June 1850, it is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U. S, the current editor is James Marcus, who replaced Christopher Cox in March 2016. Harpers Magazine has won twenty National Magazine Awards, Harpers Magazine was launched as Harpers New Monthly Magazine in June 1850, by the New York City publisher Harper & Brothers. The company also founded the magazines Harpers Weekly and Harpers Bazaar, the first press run of Harpers Magazine—7,500 copies—sold out almost immediately. Circulation was some 50,000 issues six months later, the early issues reprinted material pirated from English authors such as Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and the Brontë sisters. The magazine soon was publishing the work of American artists and writers, portions of Herman Melvilles novel Moby Dick were first published in the October 1851 issue of Harpers under the title, The Town-Hos Story. In 1962, Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company, in 1965, the magazine was separately incorporated, and became a division of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company, owned by the Cowles Media Company. In the 1970s, Harpers Magazine published Seymour Hershs reporting of the My Lai Massacre by United States forces in Vietnam, robert Shnayerson, a senior editor at Time magazine, was hired to replace Morris as Harpers ninth editor, serving in that position from 1971 until 1976. Lewis H. Lapham served as managing editor from 1976 until 1981, on June 17,1980, the Star Tribune announced it would cease publishing Harpers Magazine after the August 1980 issue. As of the March 2011 issue, contributing editor Zadie Smith, under the Lapham-MacArthur leadership, Harpers Magazine continued publishing literary fiction by John Updike, George Saunders, and others. Politically, Harpers was a vocal critic of U. S. domestic. Editor Laphams monthly Notebook columns have lambasted the Clinton and the George W. Bush administrations. Since 2003, the magazine has concentrated on reportage about U. S. war in Iraq, with articles about the battle for Fallujah. Other reporting has covered abortion issues, cloning, and global warming, in 2007, Harpers added the No Comment blog, by attorney Scott Horton, about legal controversies, Central Asian politics, and German studies. Since that time these two blogs have ceased publication, Lapham left shortly thereafter and launched Laphams Quarterly. The August 2004 issue contained an essay by noted photojournalist Peter Turnley. The eight-page spread in August 2004 showed images of death, grieving, on the U. S. side, Turnley visited the funeral of an Oklahoma National Guard member, Spc. Kyle Brinlee,21, who was killed when his vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, during his funeral, Turnley shot the open casket as it lay in the back of the auditorium and this photo was used in the photo essay
8.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
9.
Swedish Navy
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The Swedish Royal Navy is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet – as well as marine units, in Swedish, vessels of the Swedish Navy are given the prefix HMS, short for Hans/Hennes Majestäts Skepp. In English, this is changed to HSwMS to differentiate Swedish vessels from those of the British Royal Navy. Early Swedish kings organised a Swedish Royal Navy along the coastline through ledungen and this involved combined rowing and sailing ships. This system became obsolete with the development of society and changes in military technology, no later than in the 14th century, the duty to serve in ledungen was replaced by a tax. In 1427, when Sweden was still part of the Kalmar Union and it is unclear how this force was organised and exactly on what basis. The Amphibious Corps dates back to January 1,1902, when a separate Coastal Artillery was established, the last decade of the 20th century saw the abandonment of the coastal fortifications and the force became a more regular marine corps, renamed Amphibious Corps in 2000. For most of the century the Swedish Navy focused on the threat of a full-scale invasion of Sweden via the Baltic. Swedens location on the Scandinavian peninsula makes it highly dependent of maritime trade, in 1972 the government decreed that non-military measures should be used to protect merchant shipping. The resolution led to the de-commissioning of all the destroyers and frigates. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 diminished the threat of an invasion of Sweden over the Baltic. In 1995 Swedish mine-clearance units took the lead in clearing the waters of Estonia, Latvia, the Swedish Navy has four units that are capable of deploying within 30 days. These are a corvette squadron with a ship, a mine countermeasures squadron with a support ship, one submarine. In the near future there will also be a unit on 30 days standby. The navy first participated in a UN-led peacekeeping mission in October 2006 when the corvette HSwMS Gävle began performing coastal surveillance duties for the United Nations Mission in Lebanon, HSwMS Gävle was relieved by HSwMS Sundsvall, which returned to Sweden in September 2007. In 2008 the last of Swedens submarine-hunting helicopters was retired, leaving the country with essentially no ASW capability, HSwMS Malmö, Stockholm, and Trossö took part in the EU-led EUNAVFOR operation off the coast of the Horn of Africa. In 2010, HSwMS Carlskrona was the EUNAVFOR flagship, housing the fleet led by RADM Jan Thörnqvist. Until recently, the Navy was led by the Chief of the Navy and this office has been eliminated, and the highest officer of the Navy is now the Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Jan Thörnqvist, who is the senior representative of the Swedish Navy’s combat forces
10.
French Foreign Legion
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The French Foreign Legion is a military service branch of the French Army established in 1831, unique because it was created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces. Commanded by French officers, it is open to French citizens. This is a way to strengthen them enough to work as a team, although it is part of the French Military, it is the only unit of the military that does not swear allegiance to France, but to the Foreign Legion itself. Consequently, training is described as not only physically challenging. French citizenship may be applied for three years service. Additionally, any soldier who becomes injured during a battle for France immediately becomes a French citizen under a known as Français par le sang versé. As of 2008, members come from 140 countries, the French Foreign Legion was primarily used to protect and expand the French colonial empire during the 19th century. The Foreign Legion was initially stationed only in Algeria, where it took part in the pacification, in World War I, the Foreign Legion fought in many critical battles on the Western Front. It played a role in World War II than in World War I, though having a part in the Norwegian, Syrian. During the First Indochina War, the Foreign Legion saw its numbers swell, the FFL lost a large number of men in the catastrophic Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Notable operations during this period included the Suez Crisis, the Battle of Algiers and various offensives launched by General Maurice Challe including Operations Oranie, in 1990, the Foreign Legion was sent to the Persian Gulf as a part of Opération Daguet. In the 1990s, the Foreign Legion helped with the evacuation of French citizens and foreigners in Rwanda, Gabon, the Foreign Legion was also deployed in Cambodia, Somalia, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the mid- to late-1990s, the Foreign Legion was deployed in the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, many other countries have tried to emulate the French Foreign Legion model. There have been composed of foreign recruits in China, Israel, the Netherlands, Rhodesia, Russia. The French Foreign Legion was created by Louis Philippe, the King of the French, recruits included soldiers from the recently disbanded Swiss and German foreign regiments of the Bourbon monarchy. The Royal Ordinance for the establishment of the new regiment specified that the foreigners recruited could only serve outside France, the French expeditionary force that had occupied Algiers in 1830 was in need of reinforcements and the Legion was accordingly transferred by sea in detachments from Toulon to Algeria. The Foreign Legion was initially divided into six national battalions, smaller national groups, such as the ten Englishmen recorded in December 1832, appear to have been placed randomly. In late 1831, the first legionnaires landed in Algeria, the country that would be the Foreign Legions homeland for 130 years, the Foreign Legions first service in Algeria came to an end after only four years, as it was needed elsewhere
11.
Franco-Prussian War
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The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification and French fears of the shift in the European balance of power that would result if the Prussians succeeded. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on the German Kingdom of Prussia, the German coalition mobilised its troops much more quickly than the French and rapidly invaded northeastern France. The German forces were superior in numbers, had training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railroads. The German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian king Wilhelm I, the Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871 gave Germany most of Alsace and some parts of Lorraine, which became the Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. French determination to regain Alsace-Lorraine and fear of another Franco-German war, along with British apprehension about the balance of power, the causes of the Franco-Prussian War are deeply rooted in the events surrounding the unification of Germany. In the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Prussia had annexed numerous territories and this new power destabilized the European balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. France was strongly opposed to any further alliance of German states, in Prussia, some officials considered a war against France both inevitable and necessary to arouse German nationalism in those states that would allow the unification of a great German empire. Bismarck also knew that France should be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the southern German states to side with Prussia, many Germans also viewed the French as the traditional destabilizer of Europe, and sought to weaken France to prevent further breaches of the peace. The immediate cause of the war resided in the candidacy of Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, France feared encirclement by an alliance between Prussia and Spain. The Hohenzollern princes candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, releasing the Ems Dispatch to the public, Bismarck made it sound as if the king had treated the French envoy in a demeaning fashion, which inflamed public opinion in France. They also argue that he wanted a war to resolve growing domestic political problems, other historians, notably French historian Pierre Milza, dispute this. According to Milza, the Emperor had no need for a war to increase his popularity, the Ems telegram had exactly the effect on French public opinion that Bismarck had intended. This text produced the effect of a red flag on the Gallic bull, gramont, the French foreign minister, declared that he felt he had just received a slap. Napoleons new prime minister, Emile Ollivier, declared that France had done all that it could humanly and honorably do to prevent the war, a crowd of 15–20,000 people, carrying flags and patriotic banners, marched through the streets of Paris, demanding war. On 19 July 1870 a declaration of war was sent to the Prussian government, the southern German states immediately sided with Prussia. The French Army consisted in peacetime of approximately 400,000 soldiers, some of them were veterans of previous French campaigns in the Crimean War, Algeria, the Franco-Austrian War in Italy, and in the Mexican campaign. Under Marshal Adolphe Niel, urgent reforms were made, universal conscription and a shorter period of service gave increased numbers of reservists, who would swell the army to a planned strength of 800,000 on mobilisation. Those who for any reason were not conscripted were to be enrolled in the Garde Mobile, however, the Franco-Prussian War broke out before these reforms could be completely implemented
12.
French colonial empire
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The French colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. The second empire came to an end after the loss of bitter wars in Vietnam and Algeria, competing with Spain, Portugal, the United Provinces, and later Britain, France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century. A series of wars with Great Britain and other European major powers during the 18th century, France rebuilt a new empire mostly after 1850, concentrating chiefly in Africa, as well as Indochina and the South Pacific. Republicans, at first hostile to empire, only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire and it also provided manpower in the World Wars. It became a mission to lift the world up to French standards by bringing Christianity. In 1884 the leading proponent of colonialism, Jules Ferry declared, The higher races have a right over the lower races, full citizenship rights – assimilation – were offered, although in reality assimilation was always receding the colonial populations treated like subjects not citizens. At its apex, it was one of the largest empires in history, including metropolitan France, the total amount of land under French sovereignty reached 11,500,000 km2 in 1920, with a population of 110 million people in 1939. In World War II, Charles de Gaulle and the Free French used the colonies as bases from which they fought to liberate France. However, after 1945 anti-colonial movements began to challenge European authority, the French constitution of October 27,1946, established the French Union which endured until 1958. Newer remnants of the empire were integrated into France as overseas departments. These now total altogether 119,394 km², which amounts to only 1% of the pre-1939 French colonial empires area, by the 1970s, says Robert Aldrich, the last vestiges of empire held little interest for the French. He argues, Except for the decolonization of Algeria, however. During the 16th century, the French colonization of the Americas began, the story of Frances colonial empire truly began on 27 July 1605, with the foundation of Port Royal in the colony of Acadia in North America, in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. A few years later, in 1608, Samuel De Champlain founded Quebec, which was to become the capital of the enormous, New France had a rather small population, which resulted from more emphasis being placed on the fur trade rather than agricultural settlements. Due to this emphasis, the French relied heavily on creating friendly contacts with the local First Nations community and these became the most enduring alliances between the French and the First Nation community. The French were, however, under pressure from religious orders to them to Catholicism. Through alliances with various Native American tribes, the French were able to exert a loose control over much of the North American continent, areas of French settlement were generally limited to the St. Lawrence River Valley. Prior to the establishment of the 1663 Sovereign Council, the territories of New France were developed as mercantile colonies
