He [Wilhelm II] returned to Europe [from his tour of the Holy Land] in autumn to find Britain on the point of war with France over a solitary little fort in the middle of nowhere in southern Sudan called Fashoda. Fashoda was the point where French plans to dominate Africa east to west, from Dakar to Djibouti, intersected with British plans to connect South Africa to Cairo.
A French troop occupied the fort; a British one sat outside it – very politely. The two commanders took tea together.
The quote is taken from George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter.
R.I.P. The 2976 American people that lost their lives on 9/11 and R.I.P. the 48,644 Afghan and 1,690,903 Iraqi and 35000 Pakistani people that paid the ultimate price for a crime they did not commit
this is the only september 11th post I’m reblogging
On the morning of this day in history, September
2nd, in 31 B.C., the Battle of Actium was fought between the combined
forces of Cleopatra VII and her husband, Marc Antony, and those of
Octavian.
The Battle was a decisive victory for Octavian; many of Antony’s
ships were undermanned due to a malaria outbreak among his troops and
one of his generals had defected to the other side before the battle
began and told Octavian his battle strategy.
After their defeat, Antony and Cleopatra retreated to Alexandria with
what was left of their forces. Octavian pursued them there, and many
more of Antony’s men would desert him and join with the forces of Rome.
The couple were ultimately defeated the following year, and both would
then famously take their own lives.
GOP hawks like to ramble on about Obama’s policy of “disengagement” and “passivity.” This is, of course, utter nonsense. He has been a war president through and through, and now he has the official record to prove it.
Marcus Sergius was a Roman general during the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BCE). He is famed in prosthetics circles as the first documented user of a prosthetic hand. In Pliny’s Natural History, published about 250 years after Sergius’ death, he describes the war hero:
Nobody – at least in my opinion – can rightly rank any man above Marcus Sergius, although his great-grandson Catiline shames his name. In his second campaign Sergius lost his right hand. In two campaigns he was wounded twenty-three times, with the result that he had no use in either hand or either foot: only his spirit remained intact. Although disabled, Sergius served in many subsequent campaigns. He was twice captured by Hannibal – no ordinary foe- from whom twice he escaped, although kept in chains and shackles every day for twenty months. He fought four times with only his left hand, while two horses he was riding were stabbed beneath him.
He had a right hand made of iron for him and, going into battle with this bound to his arm, raised the siege of Cremona, saved Placentia and captured twelve enemy camps in Gaul – all of which exploits were confirmed by the speech he made as praetor when his colleagues tried to debar him as infirm from the sacrifices. What piles of wreaths he would have amassed in the face of a different enemy!
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