Looking Back At History

Have you just started your first year of your university degree and feeling a bit bewildered by it all? Or perhaps you have started your second or third year and you want start taking things seriously and need a bit of help with your studies. Maybe, you just want a few tips on how to stay on track throughout your year. If you fit into one of these categories then you have come to the right place. So, you've decided to study History because, hopefully, you love learning about the past and that's great. However, you may have already noticed, it can be a lot of hard work. Every week you're probably loaded with pages and pages of reading to do for seminars, reading for essays and all of that extra reading you should be doing to support your lecture notes. Trust me, you wont be reading for fun for the next three years. There's probably lots of other things you think you should be doing to help yourself throughout your degree, like copying up lecture and seminar notes and...

 ‘Stalin takes care of each of us from the Kremlin’, Viktor Govorkov, 1940, Iskusstvo (Moscow, Leningrad) via Australian National University  In today's post we're going to get close and personal with Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. Here are 10 weird yet wonderful facts you probably didn't know about Stalin. 1. Joseph Stalin was not his real name. He was actually called Josef Dzhugashvili, or Soso to his family. He first used his pseudonym 'Stalin' when writing for the St Petersburg based Bolshevik newspaper, Pravda, in 1912. Many historians believe that he took the name as it was similar to 'Lenin'. The meaning of 'Stalin' is steel or man of steel which I can never get out of my head when I think of the famous Superman movie, Man of Steel .  2. He came from a violent family. Given Stalin's violent nature, it probably wont surprise you that he was beaten by his father as a child.    However, his violent upbringing goes further than t...

Via BBC The final instalment of the British Nuclear Weapons series will of course be focused on the current system in place that is Trident. Origins In 1980, the government made the decision to obtain a Trident C4 missile system to begin replacing Polaris. In 1982, the decision was made to instead obtain a D5 missile which was financially beneficial for Britain since it was the same missile used by the US Navy. The 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement and the 1963 Polaris Sales Agreement allow Britain to procure Trident missiles from the US at a lower  cost whilst retaining British nuclear independence. From 1994, 4 Vanguard-class submarines which carried Trident missiles slowly replaced the Resolution-class submarines, ending the Polaris/Chevaline systems . The Polaris era officially ended on 28 August 1996. Image: Danny Lawson/PA via Telegraph HMS Vigilant  What is Trident? Trident is the nuclear weapons system introduced after the Polaris/Chevaline systems. The D...

Anton von Werner, The Proclamation of the German Empire (January 18, 1871) – Palace Version (1877) © Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz  When we think of German history, we often think of the First and Second World Wars and its division after 1945. This is all for good reason as they are some of the most major events over the last 100 years but what was Germany like before the war? Today we're going to be looking at what was going on with Germany from 1800-1871. Please bear in mind that this is a brief history and if you are looking for more details, I'd recommend checking out the Further Reading section at the end of the post. The Final Moments of the Battle of Waterloo (La Belle Alliance) on June 18, 1815 (19th Century) © Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz  Pre-Unification Before 1871 Germany wasn't much more than a collection of states who all spoke the same language. Each state had a different type of ruler, system of rule as well as differing cultures and c...

© Amy-Lee Haynes Today is 176 years since the launch of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain . Brunel was an innovator and one of the best engineers of the 19th century. His work includes, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the Great Western Railway, the Great Western and Great Eastern. However, today we are going to focus on the SS Great Britain. The ship has been referred to as one of the most important historic ships in the world so here's 10 awesome facts. © Amy-Lee Haynes 1. She Was the First. The SS Great Britain was the first propeller driven passenger ship to be made out of iron. People were very sceptical about this as ships were traditionally made from wood and many presumed that the ship would sink as iron is a heavy material. Brunel also decided against using conventional paddles and gave the ship a screw propeller instead as it was more efficient. 2. She Couldn't Fit Through the Locks! In 1844, the year after the ship's launch, the SS Great B...

© IWM (A 35106) Welcome back! In Part 1 we spoke about the development of the British nuclear programme and the early nuclear weapons used. In this instalment of the series, we are going to focus on two British nuclear programmes: Polaris and Chevaline. Late 1950s In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik which was the world's first satellite. Naturally, this caused increased fear amongst the Western powers. As a result, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan pushed for Britain and the US to share technology and nuclear secrets. At this time, Britain was using the Blue Streak programme which was eventually withdrawn in 1960 for being too slow and inferior to Soviet missiles. Britain then favoured the American Skybolt until this was scrapped in 1962 because of test failures. © Crown copyright. IWM (A 35135) Polaris  In 1962 Macmillan and US President John F. Kennedy met in Nassau in the Bahamas for negotiations. Macmillan demanded that the US should supply their Pola...

 Edward Henry Stantley by Maull and Polybank August 1858 NPG Ax7308 © National Portrait Gallery, London Today we're going to have a look at an individual that you have most likely never heard of. When looking at 19th Century British politics and foreign policy, he certainly isn't the first person that you springs to mind but I personally find him to be an interesting figure. Today we are going to have a look at Edward Henry Stanley (1826 - 1893), the Fifteenth Earl of Derby. When researching Derby, you get the feeling that those around him thought that he was a bit of an odd character. Upon further inspection it appears that Derby acted in his own unique way during his decision, emphasising pragmatism over the prestige of the British Empire. So who is Derby? He was born to Edward Smith Stanley 14th Earl of Derby (of course), who served as a Conservative Prime Minister between 1866-1868 so it's safe to say that Derby was born into politics and foreign affairs. He ...