debor044

Of the many bloody conflicts to befall the various regions of Africa from 1945-2012, the Civil Wars of the continent have been particularly brutal beacuse of the overwhelming loss of human life, mostly non-combatants caught in the crossfire of modern weaponry and geo-political fervor, which often spills into other nations and regions following social and politcal conflict The Liberian Civil Wars, first from 1989-1996, and then from 1999-2003, are an example of the chaos and bloodshed that can arise from Civil War and internal strife in the developing regions of the World. Recently the events in Liberia which were so brutal and horrible have come into the news feed once again following their former president Charles Taylor's conviction of War crimes  for his role in Sierra Leone's Civil War from 1991-2000. The international tribunal who convicted Taylor was significant because it was the first time since World War II that a head of state has been put on tria...

On this day in 1879 the last direct claimant to the throne of France, Napoleon, Prince Imperial was killed in Zululand in an ambush by Zulu warriors. The only child of former emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873) the prince had lived comfortably in exile attending the Royal Military academy Woolwich  and later using his mothers influence with Queen Victoria to earn a commission as a artillery officer. Louis Napeolon, Prince Imperial 1856- June 1st, 1879 By all accounts Louis Napoleon was a charming and well liked 22 year old who received top marks in cavalry and fencing while at Woolwich. Despite the relative scandal of having a Frenchman, no less the last hope for  Napoleonic  succession, as an officer in the British army of engineers and artillery. The Prince Imperial The Prince arrived in Zululand well after the great succession of early battles between the British Army and Zulu warriors of King Cetshwayo, of which in several the Brit...

On this day in 1941 during the early stages of World War II rebel Iraqi forces surrendered Baghdad to Great Britain ending the month long Anglo-Iraqi War. Though it is a short and little know conflict the battles for the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Basra, Fallujah, and Habbaniya were apart of a critical proxy war and anti-insurgent operation won by the British against Iraqi rebel militia armies with the diplomatic support and later military support/intervention of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe squadron  Fliegerführer Irak . German airplane that served in the expedition to Iraq in May 1941 Great Britain's interest diplomatically and militarily in Iraq was definitely a form of neo-cololiasm in the 'Inter War' era following Iraq's League of Nations mandate to Great Britain in 1920. In 1930 a mutual assistance treaty cemented Anglo-Iraqi relations for 25 years, in 1932 Iraq gained its independence but Britain's influence remained strong because of oil interests which domi...

Following their defeat in Ethiopia expansionist & imperialist sentiment was very quiet while Italy recovered in the wake of unrest that rocked most of the free world in the late 1890's and 1900's. Italy would play a major role nevertheless in the inter-state conflicts that preceded the Great War in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans, leading inevitably into buildup of nationalist sentiments that stoked the fires of a great conflict in 1914-1915. Captain Piazza’s Blériot XI during the campaign in Libya 1911 The Italian desire for expansion in North Africa, a more natural region geographically speaking to conquer, or acquire diplomatically than Ethiopia would have been, led the Italians to seek war with Turkey ( and the Ottoman Empire) over control of Libya, known then by the regional states of Tripolitania, Fezzan, & Cyrenaica. The Italians used gunboat diplomacy  successfully  where the German Empire had failed in the Moroccan crisis w...

Following the annexations of coastal territories by the Italians which cut off the growing Ethiopian Empire from the sea to East, Emperor Yohannes IV and one of his most trusted lords, Ras Alula raised armies to combat further Italian incursion, which by early 1887 had slowly begun to move inland. The most significant clash of this early period came at the Battle of Dogali on January 26 1887. Ras Alula Engida, a respected and influential military commander and Ethiopian lord around 1890 Ras Alula and around 10,000 of his men attacked a column of 500 Italian regulars who had set out to relieve forces attacked the previous at Fort Saati. Despite inflicting heavy casualties on the attacking Ethiopians the Italians were routed, loosing 23 officers and 407 enlisted men in the process.  Like most victories over Imperial powers the Ethiopians could only enjoy their success for a time and by the end of year 18,000 Italian troops were in Eritrea. By 1888 these force...

The following three part series seeks to trace the military and diplomatic origins & course of Italian Imperialism in the mid to late 19th century to the early 20th century, especially at it pertains to Ethiopia and Northeastern Africa.  Check out the Mad Monarchists blog post on the Italian Colonial Empire http://italianmonarchist.blogspot.com/2012/03/italian-colonial-empire.html Of the several great Imperial powers worth studying in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Italy always seems to fall short of the standards of conquest, through military and/or diplomatic means, that defined the course of history for Europe but more importantly the developing nations and republics which formed after the retreat of imperialism and colonialism in Africa especially. Like in Germany or even America in the mid to late 19th century, Italy's national identity was fragmented due regional attitudes which eschewed the very idea of a centralized empire controlling all of the natio...

Like Lions They Fought: The Last Zulu War  By: Robert B. Edgerton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1988) 244 pages. Perhaps no other conflict in the pantheon of British (United Kingdom) military history is as surrounded by  mysticism and falsities bore out of legend, like the Zulu War of 1879. Edgerton's Like Lions They Fought fills a very important gap in academic and popular research into the heavily studied and revisited period of British rule in South Africa and their greater military conquests of Africa in the mid to late 19th century. The author does a flawless job bridging the socio-cultural analysis of both the British and Zulu societies of this era with a concise and an engaging narrative of the conflict that became one of the most, if not they most celebrated colonial conflict of the 19th century. British forces arrive under the field command of Colonels Henry Pulleine and Anthony Durnford Unlike almost any other book on the topic of the Zulu War or ...