Quotulatiousness

November 24, 2019

Cracks in the Soviet-Nazi Alliance – WW2 – 065 – November 23, 1940

Filed under: Britain, Germany, Greece, History, Italy, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 23 Nov 2019

As the Greek campaign continues, Hitler points his attention eastwards. While he can’t invade the Soviet Union just yet, his dependence on it is making him nervous.

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Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorisations by:
– Julius Jääskeläinen (https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/)
– Adrien Fillon (https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…)
– Dememorabilia (https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/)

Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

Sources:
– Coal energy by supalerk laipawat, wheat Grain Bag by Symbolon, oil barrel by BomSymbols from the Noun Project
– Portrait of Sir John Salmond courtessy of National Portrait Gallery, London
– Lord Beaverbrook photographed by Yousuf Karash
– IWM: HU 94169, D 1640, D 1556, D 1507, D 1589, D 1513, D 1567, H 12224
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago (edited)
We have been shooting a bunch of new episodes this week. Besides the World War Two and Between Two Wars episodes, which by the way includes some pretty amazing history, we have also been working on some much requested episodes of our War Against Humanity series. We have shot three of those, so you will see the first of those coming in the next few weeks. Additionally, we have shot a very special mini-series that we will be airing during the holidays on the TimeGhost History Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLfMmOriSyPbd5JhHpnj4Ng). We will disclose more about that soon, but it’s going to be pretty cool. So all in all, enough to look forward to!
Cheers, Joram

November 20, 2019

Treaty of Neuilly – A National Catastrophe for Bulgaria? I THE GREAT WAR 1919

Filed under: Europe, Greece, History, Military, WW1 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Great War
Published 19 Nov 2019

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» SOURCES
Borodziej, Wlodzimierz and Maciej Gorny. Der Vergessene Weltkrieg. Europas Osten 1912-1923. Band II – Nationen 1917-1923 (wbg Theiss, 2018).
Ganev, P. “The relations between Bulgaria and the FYR of Macedonia in the context of EU integration,” Master Thesis, 2014.
Gerwarth, Robert. The Vanquished. Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923 (Penguin, 2017).
Khristov, Khristo. “Bulgaria, the Balkans, and the Peace of 1919,” in Pastor, Peter, ed. Revolutions and Interventions in Hungary and its Neighbor States, 1918-1919 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
Lampe, John. “Stamboliiski’s Bulgaria and Revolutionary Change, 1918-1923,” in Pastor, Peter, ed. Revolutions and Interventions in Hungary and its Neighbor States, 1918-1919 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
Leonhard, Jörn. Der überforderte Frieden. Versailles und die Welt 1918-1923 (CH Beck, 2018).
Macmillan, Margaret. The Peacemakers: Six Months that Changed the World (London: John Murray, 2001).
Mihaylovski, Stoyan. “On the Treaty of Neuilly,” in Напред (Forward). Originally published November 4th, 1919. Republished on November 27th, 2018. Retrieved via Dir.bg.
Minkov, Stefan Marinov: “Neuilly-sur-Seine, Treaty of”, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2017-02-20.
Pantev, Andrei. “The Border Line Between Sympathy and Support: the United States and the Bulgarian Territorial Question at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919,” in Southeastern Europe, 8, pts 1-2 (1981): 171-197.
Ristović, Milan: “Occupation during and after the War (South East Europe)”, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08.
Toshev, Stefan. Pobedeni bez da badem biti (Beaten without being defeated), 1924.
Vazov, Vladimir. Zhivotopisni belejki (Lifetime notes). Re-published by Bulgarian History “BI 93 OOD”, 2018.
Yotov, Petko et al. Bulgaria in the First World War (1915-1918), a short encyclopedia (2014).
Documentary film: Българският политик Теодор Теодоров – държавник от първа величина, ISTORIYA.BG, 03.12.2018
Съюз на македонските емигрантски организации в България – “Memoir presented to the governments of the United States of America, of Great Britain and Ireland, of France, of Italy and of Japan”, София, 1919 година (http://strumski.com/biblioteka/?id=1830)

»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Toni Steller
Editing: Toni Steller
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: http://above-zero.com
Maps: Daniel Kogosov (https://www.patreon.com/Zalezsky)
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Alexander Clark
Original Logo: David van Stephold

A Mediakraft Networks Original Channel

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2019

November 19, 2019

Hercules – The Quest for Phat Loot! – Extra Mythology – #1

Filed under: Europe, Greece, History — Tags: — Nicholas @ 04:00

Extra Credits
Published 18 Nov 2019

Hercules (or Herakles in the Greek) needed to atone for killing his entire family so the gods did what the gods do best and gave him a quest: serve his cousin for 12 years. Shouldn’t be too difficult. But his cousin was a terrible DM and created 10 impossible tasks for Hercules to complete. This first part covers the first five of the Herculian tasks (and some of the sick treasures Hercules uncovers along the way)

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November 17, 2019

Britain shows Japan how to Attack Pearl Harbor – WW2 – 064 – November 16, 1940

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Greece, History, Italy, Japan, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 16 Nov 2019

Japan has two wins this week, and one might turn out to be very consequential for the rest of the war. In the meantime, the British RAF fights the Luftwaffe and Italy struggles in their offensive against Greece.

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Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: Eastory

Colorisations by: Julius Jääskeläinen, https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/

Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

Sources:
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
– IWM: CM 164, C 1244
– Destroyed house icon by Gan Khoon Lay, people icon by Gregor Cresnar from the Noun Project

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago
Do you want more World War Two in realtime? We have a great Instagram page, where we make a daily post about what happened in the war on that day. This might be something completely different from what’s covered in these videos, or might add some more details. You can follow it by searching @world_war_two_realtime or by clicking here: https://www.instagram.com/world_war_two_realtime/. See you there!
Cheers, Joram

November 16, 2019

QotD: Millennials as barbarians invading our civilization

Filed under: Greece, History, Humour, Media, Quotations — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

Hannah Arendt is said to have remarked that civilization is always being invaded by barbarians we call “children.” I don’t like to put a dangerously hard-to-trace quotation in the newspaper, but I first heard this half-jest decades ago and its depth has only impressed me more every year. Whoever said it first was obviously pretty learned and subtle, even if it wasn’t Arendt. “Barbarians” is a Greek word for incomprehensible, gibberish-spewing foreigners, but one of the great discoveries of the Greeks is that of the barbarians’ point of view, and the additional idea that this point of view deserved equal esteem.

Every nation believes its own customs and habits are the best, Herodotus said, and you would have to be nuts to dismiss those prejudices as though they were somehow objectively wrong. (I grant that this is a free translation, but he said it, and it is one of the intellectual breakthroughs with which we associate the Greeks.) As with nations, so it is with generations. The formative experiences, inherited expectations, and learned fears of somebody born in 1985 are hardly less different from mine than a foreigner’s would be.

If I say that my attitude toward millennials is that they are barbarians, I am asking for trouble, but I must insist on being understood: it is only that they are persons whose habits, prejudices, and values are foreign, formed by a different set of events and influences — not that they are inferior. In the right mood I can even be persuaded that their actual knowledge is simply of a qualitatively different character, rather than simply being more meagre because they have lived less long.

Colby Cosh, “‘Millennial’ gets used as an insult. But millennials aren’t actually inferior”, National Post, 2017-10-25.

November 15, 2019

“Sparta” – The Battle of Thermopylae – Sabaton History 041 [Official]

Filed under: Europe, Greece, History, Media, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Sabaton History
Published 14 Nov 2019

The Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BCE may be one of the most famous battles in Ancient History. King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans were certainly not as alone in their last stand against the Persians, but are nevertheless remembered as being an underdog who would rather die than lose their freedom.

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Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
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Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Maps by: Eastory
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Sound Editing by: Marek Kaminski

Eastory YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.

Sources:
– Photo of Persian warriors relief by Jakub Hałun from Wikimedia Commons
– Xerxes I by Mbmrock from Wikimedia Commons
– Bayerische State Painting Collections
– Rijksmuseum

An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.

© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.

November 10, 2019

Britain’s First Victory, Germany Plunders Europe & Mussolini’s Folly – WW2 – 063 – November 9, 1940

World War Two
Published 9 Nov 2019

The Battle of Britain is finished, but the war is far from over. New German plans are being made for the Balkans and Greece, where the Italian offensive is not as successful as planned.

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Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/D6D2aYN.
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: Eastory

Colorizations: Julius Jääskeläinen https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
Thumbnail Colorization: Julius Jääskeläinen

Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

Sources:
– Money and factory icons by Adrien Coquet, ship icon by Edward Boatman, all: from the Noun Project
– IWM: HU 1915, ZZZ 1811C, IND 3595, E 1227, E 1107, E 1242, E 1239
– San Demetrio crew by Arranj on Wikimedia Commons
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago (edited)
Now that the new Greek offensive has been launched a week ago, more troops are moving and more terrain is changing hands. We are very lucky to have Eastory make maps for our episodes, allowing us to visualize movements and geographicial locations. Furthermore, Eastory is a historian who is very skilled in researching the exact locations and movements of fighting units. For these episodes, he has had some help from our loyal community member Avalantis. This really shows how much this channel is a team effort and how important our community is to us and our videos. If you want to contribute as well, you can start with supporting us on https://www.patreon.com/timeghosthistory or https://timeghost.tv. Every dollar counts!
Cheers, the TimeGhost team

November 6, 2019

War in 3 Fascist Ways: Slovakia, Spain, and Greece – WW2 – OOTF 005

Filed under: Europe, Greece, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published 5 Nov 2019

What role did Slovakia play during the invasion of Poland? How did Franco view the war in Europe? And did Greece see an invasion coming? We answer all of this in this episode of Out of the Foxholes.

Submit your own question: https://community.timeghost.tv/c/Out-…

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Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/D6D2aYN.
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Rune Vaever Hartvig
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Map animations: Eastory

Colorisations by Norman Stewart and Julius Jääskeläinen https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/

Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

November 3, 2019

Mussolini plays Hitler like a Fiddle – The Invasion of Greece – WW2 – 062 – November 2, 1940

Filed under: Europe, Germany, Greece, History, Italy, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 2 Nov 2019

A new front opens up in Greece as the Italians invade, while the Battle of Britain seems to come to an end.

Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tv

Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/D6D2aYN.
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sources

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Iryna Dulka
Map animations: Eastory

Colorisations by Norman Stewart and Julius Jääskeläinen https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/

Sources:
– IWM: HU 76031, E 15223, E 450, E 6661, A 22111
– killer by Arthur Shlain from the Noun Project
– National Portrait Gallery, London
– Torpedo body icon by Blaise Sewell from the Noun Project
– FDR Presidential Library & Museum

Eastory’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEly…
Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
3 days ago (edited)
This week covers about two major events with effects that will ripple through the remainder of the war. Actually, both have been attributed by historians for being “the one event” that caused the war to end as it did. You’ll have to stick around to find out how and when that will be though. Though I can tell you one thing now. History is rarely that simple. If you like our series and want to enable us to cover the complex web of events, locations, individuals and techniques that changed the outcome of the war, please consider supporting us on https://www.patreon.com/timeghosthistory or on our own website at https://timeghost.tv. If you would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so via PayPal to (paypal@timeghost.tv).
Cheers, Joram

October 30, 2019

Homer, the Trojan War & the Late Bronze Age Collapse

Filed under: Europe, Greece, History, Middle East, Military — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

History Time
Published 20 Mar 2018

This is the first in a new series I will be producing on the Late Bronze Age Collapse.

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October 28, 2019

QotD: Latin versus English

Filed under: Britain, Greece, History, Quotations — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

In a sensible language like English important words are connected and related to one another by other little words. The Romans in that stern antiquity considered such a method weak and unworthy. Nothing would satisfy them but that the structure of every word should be reacted on by its neighbours in accordance with elaborate rules to meet the different conditions in which it might be used. There is no doubt that this method both sounds and looks more impressive than our own. The sentence fits together like a piece of polished machinery. Every phrase can be tensely charged with meaning. It must have been very laborious, even if you were brought up to it; but no doubt it gave the Romans, and the Greeks too, a fine and easy way of establishing their posthumous fame. They were the first comers in the fields of thought and literature. When they arrived at fairly obvious reflections upon life and love, upon war, fate or manners, they coined them into the slogans or epigrams for which their language was so well adapted, and thus preserved the patent rights for all time. Hence their reputation.

Winston Churchill, My Early Life, 1930.

October 9, 2019

The Villa Council Presents: 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed

Filed under: Europe, Greece, History, Middle East, Science — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Getty Museum
14 Jun 2016

Noted historian and archaeologist Eric Cline discusses the themes of his Pulitzer Prize-nominated book 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed and takes a closer look at why Mediterranean societies of the Late Bronze Age — with their complex cosmopolitan and globalized world-systems — came to a dramatic halt. He considers the similarities and parallels of our contemporary civilization, making the chain of interconnected events more than simply a study of ancient history.

Photo: Blink Films

May 22, 2016
The Getty Villa, Malibu, California

Find out what’s on now at the Getty:
http://www.getty.edu/360/
#gettytalks

October 6, 2019

Shieldwalls

Filed under: Greece, History, Military — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Lindybeige
Published on 24 Mar 2011

This may address many of the comments I had for my spears video. Many of my theories are based on the I think fairly reliable notion that people in the past were similar to people today in that they tended towards a desire for self-preservation, and away from reckless bravery.

http://www.LloydianAspects.co.uk

September 24, 2019

QotD: Conditions for the rise of tyrants in the Greek city states

Filed under: Greece, History, Politics, Quotations, Religion — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

The central problem of almost every society before about 1950 has been how to reconcile the great majority to distributions of property in which they are at a disadvantage. Only a minority has even been able to enjoy secure access to abundant food and good clothing and clean water and healthcare and education. Whether actually enslaved or formally free sellers of labour, the majority have always had to look up to a minority of the rich who are often legally privileged. How to keep them quiet?

Force can only ever be part of the answer. The poor have always been the majority, and sometimes the great majority. Armies of mercenaries to protect the rich have not always been available, and they have never by themselves been sufficient to compel obedience on all occasions in every respect.

Force, therefore, has always been joined by religious terrors. In Egypt, the king was a god, and the privileged system of which he was the head was part of a divine order that the common people were enjoined never to challenge. In the other monarchies of the near east, the king might not actually be a god. But all the priests taught that he was part of a divinely ordained order that it was blasphemy to challenge.

In the Greek city states until about a century before the birth of Epicurus, securing the obedience of the poor had not been a serious problem. There had been some class conflict, even in Athens. But most land was occupied by smallholders, and excess population could be decanted into the colonies of Italy and the western Mediterranean. There were rich citizens, but they were usually placed under heavy obligations to contribute to the defence and ornament of their cities.

Then a combination of commercial progress and the disruptions of the war between Athens and Sparta created a steadily widening gulf between rich and poor. There was also a growing problem of how to maintain large but unknown numbers of slaves in peaceful subjection.

The result was a class war that destabilised every Greek state. The sort of democracy seen in Athens could survive in a society where citizens were broadly equal. Once a small class of rich and a much larger class of the poor had emerged, there was a continual tendency for democratic assemblies to be led by demagogues into policies of levelling that could be ended only by the rise of a tyrant, who would secure the wealth of the majority — but who could secure it only so long as the poor could be terrified into submission. Once they could not be terrified by the threat of overwhelming force, they would rise up and dispossess the rich, until a new tyrant could emerge to subdue them again.

Unlike in the monarchies of the near east, no settled order could be maintained in Greece by religious terrors. During the sixth and fifth centuries, the Greek mind had experienced the first enlightenment of which we have record. There had been a growth of philosophy and science that revealed a world governed by laws that could be uncovered and understood by the unaided reason.

Now, enlightenments are always dangerous to an established religion. And the Greek religion was unusually weak as a counterweight to reason. The Greeks had no conception of a single, omnipotent God the Creator. Instead, they had a pantheon of supernatural beings who had not created the world, but were subject to many of its limitations. These were frequently at war with each other, and so they could be set against each other by their human worshippers with timely sacrifices and other bribes. They did not watch continually over human actions, and beyond the occasional punishment and reward to the living, they had no means of compelling observance of any code of human conduct.

And so, when the intellectual disturbance of philosophy and science spilled over into demands for a reconstruction of society in which property would be equalised, there was no religious establishment with the authority to stand by the side of the rich.

Sean Gabb, “Epicurus: Father of the Englightenment”, speaking to the 6/20 Club in London, 2007-09-06.

September 16, 2019

History-Makers: Herodotus

Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published on 13 Sep 2019

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There is much to do, and many unknowns on our horizon! — One of those unknowns is “How did Herodotus become the Father of History” and why is his book so confusingly organized? All that and more on this installment of History-Makers!

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