Articles : 1400
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ArticleNew furnishings for the National Museums of the Napoleonic Residences on Elba
The press conference On 26 September, 2010, as part of the European heritage days, new acquisitions to the National Museums of the Napoleonic Residences on Elba were presented to the public. These new furnishings were purchased by the Pisa and Livorno local government heritage departments (Sovrintendenza per i beni architettonici, paesaggistici, storici, artistici e etnoantropologici per […]
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Article"Staging Power – Napoleon, Karl XIV Johan, Czar Alexander"
On 30 September, 2010 the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, will host a “blockbuster” exhibit examining the lives of Napoleon, Karl XIV Johan (French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, whom the Swedish translate into Engish as Charles John), and Czar Alexander I. Featuring a wealth of historical artifacts and fine artisan wares, the exhibition is all about […]
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ArticleBook review: 1809-Thunder on the Danube, Napoleon’s Defeat of the Habsburgs, Vol. III, Wagram and Znaim
In the third volume of his trilogy on the 1809 war between France and Austria, John H. Gill describes step by step the gigantic confrontation at Wagram, which Auguste de Marmont described years later as “the greatest battle of modern times in numbers of men united on the same ground in the view of an […]
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ArticleBook review: The Waterloo Archive, Volume II: German Sources
Although Germans actually constituted the majority of troops that Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington led at Waterloo, their participation and their role in the final victory tended to be overshadowed by the British. One reason, as Nicolaus Furst Blücher von Wahlstaat mentioned in his introductory letter to Glover, was the meaninglessness of Germany as a […]
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ArticleBarbaric destruction or symbolic retribution – the razing of the Yuanming Yuan
Barbaric destruction or symbolic retribution – the razing of the Yuanming Yuan. Hot Indian deserts exhale poisonous miasma, roast worms of sandy gold; Black crows tear flesh from the bones of corpses, peck at the fat, dripping blood; Blood red poppies spring up, for all this, they make a paste of yearning. Greenish smoke arises […]
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ArticleThe Chinese expedition: conditions of the British treaty with China, 1860
The conditions of the new treaty: telegram from H. Raven The following telegram was received at the Foreign office, via Trie-te, at 7.30 p.m., from her Majesty’s agent and consul-general at Alexandria, dated Dec. 18: – Mr. Loch has arrived, with despatches from China, and leaves this day for Malta. The ratification of the Treaty […]
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ArticleThe Chinese expedition: a letter from China
Introduction “The following is an extract of a letter from an officer on board the Zuleika, at present in China, to his friends in Leith, describing the reception they met with from the Chinese on their arrival in Odin Bay: – The letter “When we arrived here the people of the village had taken […]
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ArticleThe Chinese expedition: Victor Hugo on the sack of the Summer Palace
The sack of the Summer Palace “To Captain Butler Hauteville House, 25 November, 1861 You ask my opinion, Sir, about the China expedition. You consider this expedition to be honourable and glorious, and you have the kindness to attach some consideration to my feelings; according to you, the China expedition, carried out jointly under the […]
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ArticleThe Chinese expedition: Sir Harry Parkes on the sack of the Summer Palace
Letter from Sir Harry Parkes to his wife, British Embassy, Peking, 27 October 1860 “We have passed since I last wrote you on the 14th from a state of war to a state of peace, and have signed our Convention, exchanged the ratifications of Embassy the Treaty of 1858, and our people are now walking […]
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ArticleThe Chinese expedition: British account of the Taku Forts incident, June 1859
Waiting for war 1859-1860 “Whilst the Canton Commission was quietly but surely restoring peace and prosperity to the South, a breeze from the North wrecked all hopes of a speedy settlement of the China question. The Emperor had agreed to the Treaty of Tien-tsin in 1858 in order to get the allies out of their […]