Military History Archives

“Its Name Synonymous with Barbarism”: The Colonial Narratives that Destroyed Dahomey’s ‘Amazons’

by History Guild | Nov 20, 2024 | Military History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
Tales of Dahomey’s fearsome female fighting force are writ large across the world, rippling from the far-fetched, bewildered accounts of colonizing Frenchmen to modern-day popular culture, in films like Black Panther and The Woman King. Though they were known in their homeland as the Agojie, their combat prowess and defiance of strict 19th-century European gender norms earned them worldwide fame–and infamy–as the Amazons of Dahomey.

The enduring lessons of the Iraq War

by History Guild | Nov 18, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
The US-led overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq marked the beginning of a series of events that reshaped the strategic environment of the Middle East. It also had enduring consequences for Iraqi society, and for Arab societies and Arab governments beyond its borders. There was no reason to doubt that the military defeat of Iraq could be achieved. But there were larger questions involved—including what a successor regime should look like; whether such a regime, initially established and maintained under US protection, would prove sustainable; and if not, what the consequences would be.

Neutral and Nervous – A History of Sweden’s Now Broken 200-Year Streak of Neutrality

by History Guild | Nov 13, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
For over 200 years, Sweden has been one of the few neutral states in Europe. From the Napoleonic Wars and Sweden’s declaration of neutrality in 1812 to today, many conflicts have arisen right on its borders.
Despite this, Sweden (until its joining with NATO in 2024) has successfully navigated neutrality, avoiding two world wars and many other conflicts throughout the 20th Century.
But how did Sweden manage to stay neutral throughout the 1900s with two world wars on its doorstep, and why did it become neutral in the first place?

They Shall Not Grow Old poignantly illuminates the human face of the Great War.

by Michael Vecchio | Nov 7, 2024 | Military History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Although these feelings of remembrance are now used to commemorate the fallen of all global conflict, it was the First World War (1914-1918), or “The War to End all Wars” , that inspired these heartbreakingly eloquent words and forever enshrined the memory of a lost generation for all time; with this spirit of remembrance and in further recognition of the 1918 Armistice comes director Peter Jackson’s, They Shall Not Grow Old, a striking, immersive and emotionally powerful documentary feature unlike anything ever seen before.

Why we don’t hear about the 10,000 French deaths at Gallipoli

by History Guild | Nov 6, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
With almost the same number of soldiers as the Anzacs – 79,000 – and similar death rates – close on 10,000 – French participation in the Gallipoli campaign could not occupy a more different place in national memory. What became a foundation myth in Australia as it also did in the Turkish Republic after 1923 was eventually forgotten in France.

THE 25,000-LI JOURNEY: INSIDE THE LONG MARCH, MODERN CHINA’S FOUNDING MYTH

by History Guild | Oct 31, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 12 minutes
On 21th September 1949, Mao Zedong took to the podium in Huairen Hall, Zhongnanhai, a former royal residence in Beijing, to announce that “the Chinese people, comprising one quarter of humanity, have now stood up.”

These striking words were all too appropriate for the moment: for Mao it represented the end of a quarter-century journey to the pinnacle of his own party and finally his country – a journey which began with the Long March.

History and myth: why the Treaty of Waitangi remains such a ‘bloody difficult subject’

by History Guild | Oct 28, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 10 minutes
The Treaty of Waitangi, the influential historian Ruth Ross (1920-1982) remarked in 1972, is “a bloody difficult subject”. She should have known – she devoted most of her working life to trying to make sense of it, especially the text in te reo Māori. That difficulty persists to this day.

OPERATION PEDESTAL: THE FLEET THAT BATTLED TO MALTA, 1942 – BOOK REVIEW

by History Guild | Oct 17, 2024 | Military History | 0

Renowned historian Max Hastings recreates one of the most thrilling events of World War II in “Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942” – an action-packed tale of courage, fortitude, loss, and triumph against all odds.

Australian pilots in the fight for control over the Mediterranean

by History Guild | Oct 3, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 11 minutes
The Siege of Malta, a two-year ordeal of bombs, heat and dust, was one of the most important battles of the Mediterranean theatre in World War Two. Few of the victories in North Africa and Italy would have been possible had the island fallen to the Axis. In this article, we let Australian pilots who defended Malta tell their stories.

Where are All the Medals? Racial Bias in Military Bravery Awards

by History Guild | Sep 26, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
For service or for gallantry, almost all modern militaries – especially Western militaries, have issued war medals for a very long time.
But who decides who gets these medals and awards, and how?

Recent examination has brought to light a distinct lack of minority soldiers within Western militaries winning bravery awards, across many different countries, all throughout the 20th century and beyond.

In The Fight: Australians and the War in Burma 1942-1945 – One day Conference

by History Guild | Sep 25, 2024 | Military History | 0

The conference tells of the involvement of Australians in what became one of the great sagas of the war against the Japanese in South East Asia, encompassing India, Ceylon, Burma, China, Thailand, Indo-China, Malaya, Singapore and Sumatra.

The legacy of Empire: The Bengal Famine

by History Guild | Sep 23, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 4 minutes
One of the motivations of The Things We Forgot To Remember is as an answer to the question “Why study history?” There are a lot of answers to this, but one important reason is that people are already talking about history, and sometimes, they have got it seriously wrong. One example of this is the widespread ignorance of the Bengal famine. For me, the ‘killer facts’ about the Bengal famine are straightforward. In 1941, when the Battle of the Atlantic was at its height, Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet considered the question of relative priority to give to imports of food, raw materials, and munitions.

Category: Military History