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A Review of British History thru an American Lens

10/3/2021

Part 2: Rule Britannia (1820 – 1910)

Written by: Ben Clark

As an American who has spent plenty of free time studying US history, beginning to study British history can be an intimidating task - there's just so much there compared to what we're used to. My solution is to divide and conquer, and use the monarchy timeline. This Part 2 essay extends from the death of King George III to death of King Edward VII – 90 years of rich British history, and includes the famed Victorian Era. What I condense to just a few pages is presented in books that take 500 pages to describe. This is, admittedly, a look from 30,000 feet, but from time to time I zoom in to treetop level for a more detailed review.

During this era that I have sub-titled Rule Britannia, Europeans were incomparably successful at sending ships across oceans; on Round Trips. It’s true that some of the voyagers did not make it back, but over time the success rate steadily increased. Advances in ship building skills and navigation in Europe, combined with geographically precise maps, outpaced the rest of the globe by a huge measure. During the same time, the Europeans became most efficient at operating joint-stock companies and managing empires of unprecedented extension and degree of activity than anyone else. We have all heard the old cliché, “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” The same could have been said about the Spanish, Portuguese, French and Dutch empires during their glory days.

By comparison, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) lacked a single written language out of the thousands to tongues spoken in the vast area. They had no mathematical or musical notations, and inventions were scare to non-existent. The Sub-Saharan Africans had never seen a mechanical clock nor wheel until the European appeared. There were no roads, no law codes except the “Law of the Jungle”. Headhunting and cannibalism was practiced by many primitive African tribes, especially in the Congo. While it is fashionable today to condemn European Colonialism, SSA was clearly 500 years behind the Europeans BEFORE the first colony was established… Why?

Alfred Crosby in his 1997 book, The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250–1600, attempts to sum up this shocking intellectual gap with a practical recipe: Europe’s (the West) distinctive, and unmatched, accomplishment was to bring mathematics and measurement together and to hold them to the task of making sense of … reality. The Europeans increasingly shifted away from mysticism, superstitions and astrology for decision making. This shift made modern science, technology, and business practice possible, and was the driving force behind waves of innovation that swept over Europe. Due to an enlightened British government, the rule of law, respect for private property, and their unique form of free-market capitalism, the British proved to be the best at riding these early “long waves” of innovation to grow the largest, most profitable economy in the entire world.

We begin Part 2 Rule Britannia with the continuation of
the House of Hanover

George IV (1820- 1830) ruled as Prince Regent after 1811 when his father, George III, feel seriously ill. He had a messy private life (he was a bigamist) and few accomplishments. His only daughter died young.

William IV (1830- 1837) was third son of George III. He served in the Royal Navy and fathered ten illegitimate children before taking the crown. In 1833 the Slavery Abolition Law received Royal Assent. Around 800,000 slaves were freed in British colonies – mostly in the Caribbean. The British government compensated the slave owners with a cash payment. The transatlantic slave trade was already outlawed by Britain (1807) and the US (1800), but illegal slave smuggling on foreign flag ships continued due to the high profits. William married Adelaide of Sax-Coburg in 1818 and fathered two daughters. Unfortunately the girls died young, so the king died heirless.

Victoria (1837-1901) was the only child of Edward, fourth son of George III, and Duchess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. She had an unhappy, very isolated childhood, and never knew her father who died when she was only 8 months old. Her mother, the Duchess, devised a complex set of house rules to keep her daughter “safe”. She had to sleep in her mother’s bedroom, and was home schooled with no playmates. Her only friend was a dog. Many years after she became Queen, she was asked by a writer when she actually knew she would become the next Queen. Victoria related the story how her governess, against the Duchess’s rules, had slipped a chart of the House of Hanover family tree into her lesson book. The twelve year old girl studied the chart and traced all the various connections to King George III, her grandfather. It took a while – George and Queen Charlotte had 15 children. Then she worked out the biggest surprise of her young life: not one of her many uncles had sired a single legitimate heir. She understood, at a young age, the British system of male-preference primogeniture. “I see I am nearer to the throne than I thought”, she told herself. Six years later at the age of 18 she became the Queen of the British Empire in June 1837.

Long live the (new) Queen

In 1840 she married Albert of Saxe-Coburg. They had a very happy marriage and the queen gave birth to 9 children. Her kingdom thrived. It was her fairy tale come true. Industrial Revolution continues at a faster pace with multiple British invention and discoveries. English textile mills, steam engines and steel mills were the economic wonders of the business world. The Queen took her first train ride in 1842 on Great Western Railway (GWR) and was thrilled by the soaring cathedral-like train stations, railway tunnels and massive bridges that were the engineering marvel of the world.

Rain, Steam and Speed by Turner – The GWR

Like her grandfather, King George III, Victoria’s reign oversaw big H-istory. During her rule the British Empire increased in size and British world power reached its zenith. In 1845 two important events shaped British-America relations: the Irish Potato Famine and the election of James K. Polk as the 11th President of the United States. The Irish famine lasted four years and triggered a mass migration. As many as one million people left Ireland. Many of them made it to America to start a new life. At the same time America was booming and expanding, so the US government welcomed immigrants. The new Irish settlers found work and cheap land, and quickly assimilated in America. The Irish immigration of the 1840’s is still one of best examples of successful immigration policy in American history.

The British Parliament soon realized in 1845 that they were dealing with America at its most aggressive since 1776. President Polk doubled down on the American claim to the Oregon Country – a giant territory stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Continental Divide between the 42nd and 54th latitudes. The British claim was based on past expeditions up the Columbia River basin, and they considered the Oregon Country part of their Canadian possessions. Polk based the American claim on the Lewis and Clark expedition which had followed the Snake River to the Pacific in 1805.

Soon after Polk took office he ordered the State Department to open negotiations on the Oregon Country with their British counterparts. The Americans offered to split the territory at the 49th latitude, following a projection of the existing border with Canada. The British rejected the offer and countered with an unacceptable offer. The talks stalled. Polk called a special session and addressed Congress. He insisted the American claim was “clear and unquestionable”, but stopped short of claiming the entire territory or threatening war. The Congress passed a resolution to notify England that the joint occupancy of the Oregon Country would end in one year. The risk of war was in the air.

Neither side desired war. The outstanding British Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen, weighed his options, and counseled with his staff members well-informed about American politics. The British sized up Polk – he was born in a log cabin in rural Tennessee, one of ten children. He went from a subsistence farmer to President on merit, high intelligence and an iron will. Polk was not the type of man to bluff and would be a formidable opponent in war. Also a hostile American Navy roaming the globe and attacking English shipping would be a nightmare for the critical British trading business. Aberdeen made a decision; a war over the Oregon Country was not worth the risk. In June 1846 a treaty was signed by both parties recognizing the 49th latitude as the new border. Congress promptly approved the treaty. The land rights of the indigenous Indians were not a factor.

Always wary of a too strong rival, the British Parliament and monarchy watched with mild alarm as Polk next turned his attention to annexing Texas and waging a victorious war with Mexico resulting in enormous American territorial gains. Polk was a one term President but in four years his forceful policies made the US a continental power. America had fulfilled her “Manifest Destiny”. The British did not offer their congratulations.

On May 1, 1851 the Great Exhibition opened at Hyde Park, London in the gigantic Crystal Palace – a sparkling new iron and glass structure filled with attractions from all over the world. The theme was “Works of Industry”. Queen Victoria was especially impressed with the exhibits from America: the first typewriter, the newfangled Singer sewing machine, and mechanical farm equipment. An automated envelope maker was a big hit with Queen Victoria, as it folded paper with the dexterity of delicate fingers. On a return visit to the Exhibit a few weeks later, Queen Victoria was accompanied by the Duke of Wellington, and she asked him for his opinion about ridding the Crystal Palace of a bothersome flock of sparrows. The elderly Duke replied, “Hawks, madam. Sparrow hawks.” It worked.

The Great Exhibition was the pet project of Prince Albert. He guided the project from inception to the finish line in an astonishing fast track timeline of only nine months. The exhibition was an immense success. Millions of paying customers visited the Crystal Palace, easily paying for the project and funding a large surplus that Albert and Victoria used for more civic projects. It was a triumph in showmanship and certainly raised the national spirit.

Crystal Palace interior

The rapid advances in the Industrial Revolution were unfortunately not matched in some other fields. People died often and early in the Victoria Era from a host of killers diseases. Measles, scarlet fever, and smallpox were responsible for the appalling infant mortality rates of 33% of kids under age 5. In some poor neighborhoods, the rate was >50%. Not only the poor people died young. Queen Victoria’s husband, Albert would die in 1861 of typhoid fever – the dreaded disease spread by foul water proving once again the perils of living in an age of poor health care together with meager, or nonexistent, water sanitation standards. He was only age 42. Victoria was devastated and was never really the same lady after Albert’s death. She soldiered on without her husband; the solemn, widowed Queen in the black frock.

The next Anglo-American issue that raised political emotions was the American Civil War (1861-1865). PM Lord Palmerston steered a neutral policy and skillfully managed a couple of minor yet thorny events (the Trent affair and Alabama affair) to keep the British out of the hostilities. The American war, in particular the blockade of Southern ports by the Union Navy, caused quick and negative economic impacts on England. The South provided the bulk of the raw cotton used in the huge British textile industry. The cotton shortage triggered mass unemployment in the urban manufacturing centers. A world-wide scramble for cotton began in earnest. Civil War historian Shelby Foote writes, “Approximately two million [British] people were without means of self-support as a result of the [wartime] cotton famine – the overall economic picture was far from gloomy. [British] munitions manufacturers were profiting handsomely from the quarrel, several cotton mills switched to linen or wool, and the British merchant marine was prospering as never before augmented by over seven hundred American ships transferred to the Union Jack to avoid rebel privateering.”

Many in Parliament and especially in the House of Lords supported the Confederacy. This was not due to any sympathy for slavery, but because many of the upper class British viewed Abe Lincoln and his Yankee armies as the strongest force favoring militant democracy since the French Terror of 1793. Palmerston feared that a hostile, victorious North, armed to the teeth, posed a potential direct threat to British interests in Canada. The English ruling class would have been delighted to see an America nicely divided into hostile states, but the Lords were not willing to go to war again in America. British war hawks had recently had their belly full of war in India (1857-1858) putting down a major rebellion, costing thousands of lives and a huge treasure. Besides it was a long standing British policy not to interfere in foreign conflicts – unless absolutely necessary: the Confederate envoy in London was snubbed and ignored.

Lord Palmerston’s conservative foreign policy is best summed up by one of his most famous quotes, “We [England] have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” In the current age of TV sound bites, the phrase would be shortened to: “England First”. The threat of a militant American faded when the US quickly demilitarized at the conclusion of the Civil War. Anglo-American relations for the rest of the nineteenth century were cordial; business and trade boomed. Soon the British were casting a wary eye on the expansionist Russian Czar as his army pushed into Central Asia and ever closer to India, a prize British colony. Tashkent was taken and soon Samarkand also fell to the Russians. The Russian advance triggered the “Great Game”; a cold war with spies, counter spies and more spies along the Silk Road.

Back in Europe, two traditional and hereditary rivals, France and Prussia, once again began to beat the war drums. In July 1870 France declared war on Prussia, and armies mobilized. England wisely decided to remain neutral in the conflict although public opinion was in favor of Prussia. The war was soon over in January 1871 following a major German victory at Sedan and the capture of French emperor, Napoleon III. The various German states united with Prussia and created the First German Reich under the leadership by the Prussian House of Hohenzollern. British leadership was shocked by the quick defeat of France, the formation of a united Germany, and aggressive German demands at the peace treaty meetings. England insisted on the balance of power approach to the peace treaty and helped temper the German demands.

Historian Byron Farwell writes, “There was not a single year in Queen Victoria’s long reign, from 1837 to 1901, when her soldiers were not fighting and dying [and killing] somewhere in the world [other than Europe].” It is beyond the scope of this article to address all the scrapes and wars of the Victorian Era, besides it is easy for those interested in Victorian Wars to find several excellent history books on the subject.

I have selected one particular Victorian era clash that I consider illustrative, and many modern historians consider to be “decisive”; the battle of Tel El Kebir, Egypt in 1882. A quick review of the backstory is revealing. Since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the British considered the canal a vitally important lifeline to India and other parts of her vast realm. With 80% of her merchant ships passing thru the Suez, the British Embassy in Cairo kept a wary eye on Egypt from the sidelines. Egypt was under the nominal rule by the Ottoman Sultan, but the Egyptian Khedive Ismail and his son Tewfik held power in Cairo. Both men were totally inept and corrupt rulers that squandered the substantial canal fees. Egypt went bankrupt. A military coup, led by Colonel Arabi, ousted the Khedive in September 1881. The colonel proved to be a popular and charismatic leader. He was also very hostile to foreigners. Arabi’s men were careful not to shed French or English blood, but sent them packing home. The London big shots decided that Arabi needed to be taught some proper manners and respect. The British sent the Royal Navy to blast up Arabi’s forts around Alexandria. Rather than surrender, Arabi redoubled his resistance, and the rebel army grew to over 60,000 troops. The British War Ministry decided that troops would have to be committed to tame Arabi, and selected Sir Garnet Wolseley to command the expedition. The French declined to join an invasion of Egypt.

General Wolseley was the victor in many a colonial war, fighting Burmese, Indians, Ashantis, Zulus and Sudanese. He was clearly one of the best battlefield commanders of the era, and was head and shoulders above the rest of the British officer corps in the areas of planning, strategy, logistics, and staffing. Wolseley quickly assembled his handpicked core group of proven and trusted officers. This was no easy task – since the British army was infested with vain aristocrats clamoring for a command in the expedition. On their best days, they were mere Peacock Parade Ground soldiers, and were quickly shunned by Wolseley which created much bitterness and anger in several high born officers. Back biting and sniping at Wolseley was a favorite sport in many London Officer Clubs.

General Garnet Wolseley circa 1874

The Wolseley “Ring” went to work with extraordinary efficiency assembling the largest expedition force in British history: sixty-one ships loaded with 41,000 tons of supplies, 20,000 combat troops with artillery and horses, and another 21,000 sailors and support troops. To deceive the Egyptians, elaborate plans were prepared for an attack at Aboukir Bay in the Nile delta. Huge wall maps of the bay in an unsecured war department conference room were shown “in confidence” to newspaper reporters. Only Wolseley and a few senior navy and army officers knew the real plan. July 1882 the British invasion fleet set sail for Egypt, paused for a provisioning stop at Malta, and arrived off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt on August 20.

After darkness fell, the main British fleet headed for the real target – the Suez Canal. Several Royal Navy vessels remained offshore Alexandria, and demonstrated in Aboukir Bay, successfully keeping almost 40,000 Egyptian troops guarding the Nile delta and away from the Suez Canal. The landings at Port Said and Ismailia were a complete success – the canal was captured with scarcely a shot. In classic Wolseley fashion, a landing party secured the canal telegraph office before the alarm was sent to Cairo. Next a flying column of 2,000 men dashed inland to capture the critical fresh water source at Abu al Mahattah then swept ahead of the main force capturing supplies, ammunition, cannons, and in general creating chaos. The main army moved west with light resistance until halting at the Egyptian main line of defense on a ridge at a whistle stop on the Ismailia-Cairo railway named Tel el Kebir.

Wolseley scouted the Egyptian defensive line for a weakness. He found none. Arabi’s 25,000 man army had dug a four mile long trench connecting strong points for seventy cannons with a clear field of overlapping fire for hundreds of yards. Wolseley probed the Egyptian defense and waited. On August 28 a daring British night patrol discovered that the Egyptians did not man the advance outposts at night. Wolseley called a staff meeting to discuss a night attack. His senior officers were hesitant. A night attack was against British military doctrine and the God of War himself, Wellington, had frowned upon large scale operations at night. Wolseley reminded his staff that in 1759 General Wolfe surprised the French at Quebec with a daring night maneuver on the St. Lawrence River guided by a Royal Navy navigator using his sextant, compass and an accurate map. Wolseley decided to steal a night march on the Egyptians and get close enough to rush their lines at daybreak. He sent an order to the Royal Navy commander to dispatch navigators to his base at Kassassin. That night Wolseley walked outside his tent and looked at a Full Moon; he would wait for the New Moon in two weeks. A lesser man would have jumped the gun.

On the night of September 12, 1882 the British army donned their battle kit, and quietly as possible marched out of their base. Wolseley estimated about six hours to cover the five miles to Tel El Kebir, and get into attack position. It was pitch black dark, there were no landmarks; the three columns followed the navigators. The operation was completed with little trouble. At the first break of daylight, the British found themselves about two hundred yards from the enemy trenches. Bugles called and thousands of Highlanders roared. The British line charged forward, and were into the trenches before the Egyptians could bring their big guns to bear. The Egyptians rallied and fought bravely; often hand-to-hand. The fighting was intense in the center, but on both flanks the British prevailed. Faced with a double envelopment, and no reserves, Colonel Arabi called for a retreat. Not surprisingly, it soon turned into a rout as the Egyptians abandoned every artillery piece. Wolseley turned loose his cavalry to finish them off. It was a bloody mess.

The following day Wolseley entered Cairo and accepted Arabi’s surrender. Wolseley telegraphed the War Office, “The war in Egypt is over. Send no more troops from England.” Military historian Paul Davis writes, “British victory [at Tel El Kebir] placed the British in de facto control of both Egypt and the Suez Canal, and led to British influence throughout the Middle East until 1956.” Back in London, Garnet Wolseley was showered with medals and awards. He deserved every one for his resourcefulness, steady nerves, and wits.

Throughout Victoria's reign, the gradual establishment of a modern constitutional monarchy in Britain continued. Reforms of the voting system increased the power of the House of Commons at the expense of the House of Lords and the monarch. In 1867, Walter Bagehot wrote that the monarch only retained "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn". Social reforms followed liberal political power with response to public demands for public schools, abolition of child labor, and safer factory working conditions. “The Communist Manifesto” written by Marx and Engle in 1848 (and then quickly forgotten) was suddenly very popular in the 1880’s during the social reforms. As Victoria's monarchy became more symbolic than political, she placed a strong emphasis on morality and family values, with which the burgeoning middle classes could identify. Unfortunately her elder son and heir apparent, Albert Edward, rejected her values and would often blunder into sex scandals.

House of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha

Edward VII (1901-1910) was the elder son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was related to royalty throughout Europe, and traveled often during his 60 years of being heir apparent to the British throne. He made a grand tour of America and Canada in 1860 soon after being named Prince of Wales. The New York press loved him for his good humor and confidence. Nicknamed “Bertie” he gained a reputation as a playboy prince which soured relations with his mother and father. He often visited Paris and almost single-handed reversed centuries of anti-British prejudice with his fluent, confident French and cheerful attitude. The French people went from jeering to cheering for the portly, bearded English royal. Over time he adopted an anti-German bias so common among the French, who were scheming for revanche due to the humiliation of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Bertie’s anti-German attitude was compounded by a strong dislike of his nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II. It was a strange mindset for a man who had German parents, dozens of German relatives, and who spoke English with a German accent. And was an about-face for the House of Hanover history of pro-German policy since George I in 1714. Modern historians, puzzled by this odd king, speculate on Edward’s role in Europe stumbling toward the Great War.

The German Kaiser certainly blamed Uncle Edward for war. Wilhelm was enraged by Edward’s support of British naval build up in Europe and especially his part in securing the Triple Entente, the alliance between Britain, France, and Russia which essentially surrounded Germany by land and sea. At a VIP dinner in 1907 Berlin, before three hundred guests the Kaiser went on a rant denouncing his Uncle Edward, “He is Satan. You cannot imagine what a Satan he is.” The wave of anti-German foreign policies and propaganda fed the paranoia of the German Kaiser, who was not the most stable ruler in Europe.

Historian R. K. Ensor dismisses the notion that the King exerted important influence on British foreign policy, and posits that Edward instead spent his time in reckless pursuit of self-indulgence and indiscreet sex scandals. Ensor could be correct, but it is difficult to make a solid case because, by royal decree, all of Edward’s personal papers were burned upon his death.

The two British statesmen who cannot dodge blame for the Triple Entente and the ensuing tragedy of 1914 were Edward Grey (Foreign Secretary 1905-1916) and his predecessor Lansdowne (FS 1900-1905). The two were responsible for the abandonment of conservative foreign policy principles of “Balance of Power” and enlightened self-interest practiced since Pitt, Castlereagh and Liverpool.

Anglo-American relations were cordial during Edward’s reign. Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, 26th President (1901-1909) was most aggressive in the Caribbean and Panama. He was determined to oversee a canal constructed in Panama to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1903 Roosevelt obtained a treaty with the new Panama government ceding the “US owned Canal Zone” for construction of the American design. Work began immediately. To secure the future canal, Teddy invoked the Monroe Doctrine to prevent the establishment of foreign bases in the Caribbean, and denied European powers the right of intervention in Latin America. The Caribbean and Panama were to be squarely in the “sphere of influence” of the United States.

In the past, England had defied the Monroe Doctrine, but in 1901 a clear realization of rising American power put some dangerous teeth into the old Doctrine. England complied and peacefully sailed its Caribbean Sea fleet to the home base at Scapa Flow in the North Sea. In 1902 former PM Salisbury wrote, “It is sad, but I am afraid America is bound to forge ahead and nothing can restore the equality between us.”

The German Kaiser saw this redeployment as a naval build up in the North Sea; hence, yet another threat to Germany. The fact that the redeployment simplified logistics and saved money made perfect sense, but the neurotic German Emperor saw it as a threat.

While the Kaiser rattled his saber, and Edward prowled the fleshpots of Paris, the Scientific Revolution surged ahead with several groundbreaking discoveries and inventions. Albert Einstein, a German born physicist working as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland published four technical papers in 1905 which stunned the scientific world. His work outlined the theory of the photoelectric effect, explained Brownian motion, introduced the theory of relativity, and demonstrated mass-energy equivalence (e=mc2). Shortly before in 1903, the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina achieved powered, controlled flight in the Wright Flyer. Long distance telephone use rapidly expands with the invention of the vacuum diode in 1904. Bakelite was invented in 1907 and launched new field of synthetic polymer chemistry. Steady improvements in steel making processes greatly increased toughness and tensile strength of steel. Techniques were invented to tune the final steel for desired properties such as ductility and corrosion resistance. In 1908 the Ford Motor Company began mass-production of steel body cars (the Model T).

The technical advances were not limited to peaceful uses; modern weaponry of the early 1900’s included reliable, portable, high-caliber machine guns, quick firing artillery delivering high explosive (HE), large-caliber shells, and smokeless gunpowder (cordite). During Edward’s reign a full scale war using modern weapons broke out in Asia – the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The British were shocked to learn of the destruction of both the Russian Pacific and Baltic fleets by the Japanese Imperial Navy. On land, despite heavy casualties, the Japanese managed to capture the key Russian base at Port Arthur on the Liao-Tung Peninsula in Manchuria. American President Theodore Roosevelt mediated a peace treaty to end the war. The British never again considered Russia a threat to her interests in India.

The European powers sent a gaggle of military observers and war correspondents to witness the Russo-Japanese war, and capture some military lessons. Shockingly they all failed to comprehend the most critical lesson of the land war: Huge increases in firepower, together with barbed wire, shifted the battlefield balance overwhelmingly to entrenched and fortified defensive positions. The “gallant” offensive doctrine of all major European powers was obsolete, but they clung tenaciously to the hopelessly optimistic fantasy that “Courage and cunning” by the offense would prevail. It took the tragic slaughter of 1914 -18 WWI for the lesson to finally sink into the military mind.

The philistine but stylish King Edward ruled over a nation in the grip of a liberal renaissance as best symbolized by the Fabian Society led by middle-class socialists including several avant-garde intellectuals, suffragettes and artists. The Fabians started off slow, but by the end of Edward’s reign they had collected thousands of members some of whom were elected to parliament. The resulting Labour Party gave the socialists a measure of respectability in their fight for women’s rights and a more democratic government. The old world of Traditional England was beginning to crack.

King Edward’s funeral in 1910 was a magnificent event. One of Bertie’s unofficial titles was “Uncle of Europe”, so the assemblage of royal mourners was unprecedented. Barbara Tuchman’s 1962 best-seller The Guns of August begins with a description of the funeral procession, and is some of the most colorful and beautiful prose ever found in a history book. Consider this from Chapter 1, page 1, Tuchman writes:

So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.

English Literature

Popular Victorian-era fiction
The three Brontë sisters (Emily, Charlotte and Anne) were upright, passionate, and virginal Romantics. They used male pseudonyms to get published. Anne never married, neither did Emily, they both died young, and when Charlotte finally married, she soon became pregnant and died with her unborn child. Their most popular novels are listed below. Also there are modern film adaptations of each as well, sometimes more than one.

Emily – Wuthering Heights; Charlotte – Jane Eyre; Anne – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) had a remarkable command of the English language and could turn a phrase better than most. A few examples from some of my favorite Dickens novels:

A Tale of Two Cities “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” And “It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done…”

Great Expectations “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching…I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.”

A Christmas Carol “there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humor.” And “You will be visited by the ghosts of Christmas past.”
David Copperfield “Trifles make the sum of life.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is most famous for his creation of the Sherlock Holmes, the eccentric British private detective residing at 221B Baker Street, London. Doyle published 60 Sherlock Holmes tales in the form of short stories and novels beginning with A Study in Scarlet (1887).

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) is most famous for Treasure Island (1883) and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). For the more macabre taste try The Body Snatcher (1884).

Essential Non-fiction Victorian Era

Henry Stanley, Through the Dark Continent (1899) is an exciting first-hand account of his 1870s trip to discover the source of the Nile River. In this remarkable journey Stanley and his men travelled through regions hitherto unexplored by Europeans. They survived through some of the most inhospitable, disease ridden jungles and withstood vicious cannibal attacks.

Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859) – scientific treatise on the theory of evolution.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859) - well written assertion of English individual rights.

Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor (1851) the bible for crusading liberals it provides detailed descriptions of the unfortunate London lower class work force.

Harriet Martineau, Household Education (1848) – a feminist protest on the lack of education and opportunity for women in the Victorian male dominated society.

Author’s note – Full bibliography will be included at end of Part 3.

Part 1: The rise of England to World Power (1485-1820)

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A Review of British History thru an American Lens

7/11/2021

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Part 1: The rise of England to World Power (1485-1820)

Written by Ben Clark

I begin down the lengthy path of English history with a short-cut to the English Renaissance and Age of Exploration. Thus I skip over centuries of ancient and medieval history to focus on the most relevant, and interesting events that shaped and guided the European migration to North America. There is no denying that the political, economic, scientific and cultural influence of the Mother Country on America is important and significant. My wife and I enjoy watching Hollywood and BBC productions of historical dramas set in Merry Olde England. And that could be the real reason I charged down this rabbit hole. One difficulty in composing a narrative covering a huge time span – over five centuries in this case – is to decide how to present the subject matter. For the sake of clear presentation, and format, I used a Monarchy timeline that divides up the various eras into digestible bites, and provides insight into how much and how often the problem of succession-of-power drives British history. Of course, I also include the non-royal players that are well known and sometimes more powerful than the King or Queen. No matter what sovereign sat on the throne, the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions marched ahead; grandma-slow at the beginning then gradually gaining speed and shifting into high gear. Highlights of these two peaceful revolutions are included for a better understanding of the various time periods. Finally to round out the story of each time period, I included some literature highlights for a glance at the cultural influence.

The military component of history cannot be ignored especially in the case of British history. This is not meant to be a military history with detailed battlefield tactics, but rather is more of a strategic overview of the warfare with a close look at the British leadership to gain a more human experience as opposed to weaponry analysis or numbers games of divisions and regiments. I skip over some wars which were not a factor in British-American foreign relations, e.g., I still don’t know what all the fuss was about in the Crimean War.

This essay is spirited by my passion for history which I have studied since childhood. If you are looking for an axe-grinding rant against Imperialism, slavery, capitalism or anything anti-white then you have blundered to the wrong website. To my British readers, I promise not to crow too much about the American Revolutionary War.

The Tudors

Henry VII (1485-1509) ended the bitter War of the Roses. This Warrior-King was crowned on the bloody battlefield of Bosworth Field after the notorious Richard III was killed. Married Elizabeth of York, and so united the two warring houses, York and Lancaster. With social order restored at home and peace with the European Continental powers, England prospered as never before. The King was able to rebuild the royal wealth that was devastated by long, costly wars. He encouraged exploration and sent Cabot and others on expeditions in search of sea trade routes. Henry VII’s court included many exceptional men; chief among them were the likes of Richard Fox and Thomas Lovell. Many historians consider Henry VII the first Renaissance Monarch of England.

Henry VIII (1509-1547) is infamous for having six wives – divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived... English church split from Rome and Henry declared himself head of the Church of England. The controversial decision was radical and sowed the seeds for future religious tensions and instability. On the continent, the Protestant Reformation came to a full boil with Martin Luther and John Calvin leading the reformists. Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church, thus beginning the Reformation. Luther also translated the Latin Bible into German, and together with the Gutenberg printing press, copies were available to the public for the first time. It was really a revolutionary idea, for its day.

Edward VI (1548-1553) and “Bloody” Mary (1553-1558). Edward was the weak, sickly son of Henry 8 who died young and the crown passed to his sister, Mary. She was daughter of Henry 8 and Catherin of Aragon, a devout Catholic. Mary’s marriage to the Catholic prince Philip of Spain, and the execution of Lady Jane Grey, her Protestant cousin, frightened the royal council. Then the burning of heretics began in 1555 at Smithfield. Mary tried to force Catholic faith back on the English using a few Spanish inquisition methods that were very unpopular in England. During her 5-year reign she ordered 280+ Protestants burned at the stake for their sincere beliefs. The fires of Smithfield, England became synonymous with tyranny and cruelty. In 1588 Mary thought she was pregnant. Her imagined baby was actually a tumor. She was dead before year end. Few mourned her passing.

Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She proclaimed the Church of England as the national religion and rejected the Roman Catholic Church. As queen she cooled religious fanaticism; thereby, improving social stability. She also continued her father’s strong financial support for the Royal Navy. Francis Drake sailed around the world in 1580. Spanish-English relations are strained when British buccaneers plundered Spanish treasure ships sailing from the New World. King Philip of Spain plots to overthrow Elizabeth. Elizabeth executed her Spanish-friendly rival Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 for treason. Mary was from the Catholic House of Stuart, so the execution enraged Philip of Spain. He declared war on England and ordered the military to build an invasion Armada. The luckless Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588. The British East India Company chartered 1600 with a monopoly on British trading and governorship of British controlled territory on the Indian subcontinent. The Company would enjoy the monopoly trade and control until 1857.

English literature and theater bloomed. William Shakespeare was at zenith of his popularity. “The Virgin Queen” died childless and unmarried; thereby, triggering a deluge of questionable dynastic claims to the vacant throne. Had she invoked the ancient Roman practice of adopting the most able heir, regardless of family trees, she would have saved her people from several lost decades of strife and bitter fighting. Like her Grandfather Henry VII, her court included a corps of wise and strong advisors: Drake, Raleigh, Hawkins, Essex and the Cecil brothers. Any of these men would have made a sterling king. Crown passed to House of Stuart.

The Stuarts
Pilgrims & Indians at first Thanksgiving. Pilgrim folklore still looms large in American mythology.
James I (1603-1625) is best known for his most famous and lasting legacy: The King James Bible. In 1604 he gathered a committee of 54 translators and revisers made up of the most learned men in the nation to complete a revised English Bible translation from original Latin manuscripts.

By 1610 the King and his scholars agreed on the final translation. The King James Edition of the Bible was published in 1611 by the King’s Printer. The most striking characteristic of the new Bible is its simplicity. It was written with resonance and uplifting rhythms, and easy to remember. The King James Bible has contributed 257 phrases to the English language, more than any other single source, including the works of William Shakespeare. Expressions such as “a Fly in the ointment”, “thorn in the side” and “Do we see eye to eye”, which are still commonly used today, all originated in the King James Bible.

New World migration from England to America increased in pace. In the winter of 1620 the Pilgrims sailed the Mayflower into what is now known as Cape Cod Bay, and established Plymouth Colony, directly south of Boston. Two other important American colonies, Virginia and Carolina, were chartered early in the reign of James. Tobacco farming soon made the new colonies an economic success. Catholic king Charles began suppressing the Protestants and especially Puritans. In 1629 large-scale Puritan migration began to Boston and sprawled into the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Charles I (1625-1649) was an inept king and was failed by senior advisor, the Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham was a belligerent war hawk and stumbled into disastrous attacks on Spain and Holland during the religious bloodbath of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) on the European continent. As was the political custom of the day, when the king needed money in excess of his comfortable allowance and trade tariff fees, Parliament was called into session. To pay for the military fiascos, Charles was forced to summon Parliament over and over. Each time, Parliament became less cooperative and more hostile to an expensive, unbridled royal foreign policy.

Parliament raised an army and rebelled against the Royalists. Civil war broke out in 1642 and lasted four years. The Battle of Naseby in 1645 was a great victory for the Parliament army led by Oliver Cromwell. Charles fled the battlefield and was eventually captured, imprisoned and beheaded in 1649. The unstable society under Stuart rule led to mass migration of Puritans and Scots to America. This wave was followed by a similar exodus of upper class nobles during the Commonwealth period. While the Puritans immigrated to northern colonies and Boston, the majority favored the more central colonies, in particular Virginia which expanded in population and power.

The Commonwealth (1649-1660). Monarchy abolished and Commonwealth declared in 1649. Oliver Cromwell tried and failed to establish a new dynastic monarchy. Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and his son, Richard, lasted 9 months in power before being skidded by the army. The crown was offered to the Stuart line.

The Stuart Restoration

Charles II (1660-1685) was best known for openly keeping 13 (or more?) mistresses. A British noble wrote this popular ditty about him: Restless he rolls from whore to whore. A merry monarch, scandalous and poor. The Merry Monarch’s truly significant, lasting, and surprising legacy was his patronage for science. In 1662 Charles granted a Charter to the Royal Society of London, making it the first national institution devoted to the promotion of science studies using the “Scientific Method” as determine by Francis Bacon. The Bacon Method required planned, well documented and repeatable experiments. Charles in effect planted the seed for British world leadership in the Scientific Revolution for the next two hundred years.

In May 1662 Charles married Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the king of Portugal. As a result of Catherine’s dowry, England acquired a trading post at Bombay, India which would develop into a key base for the future British Empire in India.

In 1664 the English took over the Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island and renamed the colony New York. New Amsterdam was renamed New York City. In return the English agreed to transfer a spice island to Dutch control. New York City, with its excellent deep water harbor and access to the Hudson River basin fur trading business, rapidly expanded in population and wealth.

The years 1665 and 1666 were indeed unlucky for Britain. A nasty plague was followed by the Great Fire of London. Charles is to be commended for hiring top architects Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke to propose rebuilding plans. The king forbid private rebuilding using wood. The city was rebuilt with brick and stone. Wren’s plan was selected, laying out a new street pattern that still exists in London to this day. Wren also designed the building of 50 new churches, including the sublime St. Paul’s Cathedral.

In 1681, King Charles II gave William Penn, a wealthy English Quaker, a large land grant in America to pay off a debt. Penn, who had been jailed multiple times for his Quaker beliefs, went on to found the new colony of Pennsylvania as a sanctuary for religious freedom and tolerance.

King Charles II fathered no legitimate heir to the throne, but of his many illegitimate children he favored the eldest, James, awarding him the dukedom of Monmouth. In 1679 Monmouth was appointed to command an English army sent north to quell a Scottish rebellion. He was ruthless and successful in battle. At age 36 he returned to London as the conquering hero. Needless to say, Monmouth got a big head, which would lead to trouble with Uncle James, the next king.

James II (1685-1688). James, the younger brother of Charles II, was crowned at age fifty-two. The royal transition was marked by widespread acceptance despite the new King remaining openly loyal to the Catholic Church. He promised to rule with restraint and moderation.

Duke Monmouth, the former king’s bastard son, misjudged the popular mood and foolishly launched a rebellion at Dorset, in the West Country, with less than 100 men. The local militia crushed the rebels and captured Monmouth. The duke was hauled to London and executed. James II demanded a commission to root out any threat of uprising in West Country. George Jeffreys was made Chief Justice. He proved to be a butcher. The Jeffreys Commission was responsible for the infamous “Bloody Assizes” in which 480 men and women were executed, 260 whipped and fined, and another 850 banished to the colonies. So much for moderation and restraint. Soon the new Catholic King was hugely unpopular with the overwhelmingly Protestant English people.

Regardless of the political turmoil, the Scientific Revolution marched forward. Isaac Newton published Principia in 1687 therein defining the Laws of Motion and Universal Gravitational force. Principia is now considered the seminal technical paper of the 17th century. Edmund Halley, a peer of Newton’s at the Royal Society, used the Newtonian laws to calculate and predict the course and timing of the comet that would make him famous – Halley’s Comet, which had blazed across the English night sky in 1682.

The Bloodless Revolution of 1688

(or the Mostly Peaceful Invasion of 1688?)

When I studied world history as a kid in America, it was common wisdom that the last time England was successfully invaded was William the Conqueror, sailing from Normandy, in 1066. William’s army defeated the Saxon army and killed King Harold at Hastings. Full stop. Then in 2009 my history book club sent 1688: The First Modern Revolution, by Steve Pincus. To my surprise, I learned that in 1688, the Dutch prince William of Orange sailed from Holland to take the English throne with more than 21,000 men, and a fleet twice the size of the Spanish Armada. Is that not a foreign invasion? Good question; answer – it depends.

The 1688 invasion force included large numbers of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish exiles. There was also a huge amount of financial support from inside Britain to support the invasion. William himself had a royal English wife (Mary was the Protestant daughter of James II) and also an English birth mother, so his deep connections to England made him a sort of Jack Englishman. So rather than seeing it as an invasion, it makes more sense to see it as part of a revolutionary movement from within Britain by military and civilian leaders who wanted to overthrow the regime of James II.

The crown was offered to William of Orange and his wife Mary with the understanding that the British Parliament governed the affairs of England and determined the next monarchy. The crown was handed to William and Mary in 1689. The 1688 Revolution made a strong impression on the political future of America – that being an aversion to dynastic monarchies. Also the freedom of religion became an American core belief since so many of the English migrants to American had their lives disrupted by the persistent social unrest due to religious tensions in England.

William and Mary (1689-1702). William’s army marched on London and easily defeated the weak forces of James II. The ex-king fled to France with a large entourage. Parliament was free to make some long wanted changes. One good example was the creation of the Bank of England in 1694. The Brits used the Bank of Amsterdam as the successful model, with a few important differences: the Bank of England gave interest on deposits, whereas the Bank of Amsterdam didn’t. The other huge difference was that the Bank of England gave low-interest loans to manufacturers, so they could borrow money to get start-up capital to develop manufacturing. The Bank of Amsterdam didn’t do that either. A more modern financial system supporting Laissez-Faire, free-market capitalism was vital for England to ultimately surpass Holland as the leading economic power in Europe.

Colonies of Delaware and New Jersey established 1701. Salem witch trials in Massachusetts 1692-1693; 14 women and 5 men found guilty of witchcraft and hanged. Modern historian and witch trial expert, Marilynne Roach writes, Women who did not conform to the norms of Puritan society were more likely to be the target of witch accusations, especially those who were unmarried or did not have children. Governor Phips defied the Puritan clergy and put an end to the disruptive witch trials. Witch trials were the last thing Phips needed with a war brewing in Maine with the hostile Abenaki tribe.

The College of William and Mary established in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1693. W&M is the second oldest college in America and the first secular college. Harvard (estab. 1636) was more of a Bible college for theology students training for the clergy. While Harvard graduated preachers, W&M graduated three future American Presidents - Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler.

Anne (1702-1714) was the second daughter of James II and a Protestant like her sister Mary. She had children, but none survived. Duke of Marlborough commanded the English-Austrian army in the War of Spanish Succession, winning a series of major battles against France thus ending the Bourbon claim to unite with the Spanish throne. The balance of power in Europe was maintained for the ensuing ~90 years.

The Anglo-Franco conflict on the continent spilled over into North America, and was known in the Colonies as Queen Anne’s War. The war was particularly harsh on the northern American colonies where Indian raiding parties, using New France (Canada and Acadia) as a base and armed with French weapons, butchered and captured thousands of Anglo-Saxon settlers. The hostile Indian tribes practiced a white slave trade on a wide scale. Queen Anne’s War is unique in that it was the last conflict in which the Anglo immigrants faced a true existential threat from the Indian tribes. Open war ended by peace treaty, but high tension remained between England and France, as well as, between the Colonists and warlike Indian tribes.

England and Scotland united 1707. In 1703 Isaac Newton is elected President of the Royal Society. He would hold the position until his death in 1727. In 1704 Newton published another important scientific work, Opticks, based on his observations of refracting white light with a prism. In 1705 he is knighted by Queen Anne, thereafter, he is known as Sir Isaac Newton.

House of Hanover

George I (1714-1727). So how did a 54 year old German-born prince, who did not speak English, become ruler over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland? George was the great-grandson of James I. His mother, Sophia, was daughter of Elizabeth of Bohemia, the only daughter of James I. Sophia was “queen in waiting” after Anne, but died a few weeks before Anne. So the crown passed to her son, George. He never learned English, and left the running of the country to Robert Walpole and parliament. The Stuarts had a stronger legal claim to the throne, but they had fled to France in 1789 rather than face King William’s army. The Stuarts were welcomed in France by the French monarchy. More about the Stuarts later.

Robert Walpole – first Prime Minister (PM). Held power for 21 years – 1721-1742. Walpole received the gift of 10 Downing Street in 1735 from George II, making it the permanent residence of the Prime Minister. Walpole was instrumental in creating a capitalist, conservative society; the fundamental aspects being: freedoms assured by rule of law, social stability, respect for private property, and capacity for growth. The catalyst for growth in the 18th century being the advent of the industrial revolution, hand-in-hand with advances in Western science and technology.

George II (1727-1760) was only son of George I. He was more German than English, and wisely listened to his wife, Queen Caroline, to rely on Robert Walpole and William Pitt to run the country, same as his father had done. English territory in America expanded with the founding of Georgia in 1732. It was the last of the thirteen original American colonies established by England.

In 1745 the Stuart’s went to war to reclaim the English throne. Prince Charles Edward, better known by the Scots as Bonnie Prince Charles, landed in Scotland with a few soldiers. He raised a small force of Highlanders and captured Edinburgh. King George’s son, the Duke of Cumberland, was sent to quell the rebellion. In April 1746 the two armies, 5,000 Scot Highlanders and 9,000 British regulars, faced off across the misty moor of Culloden. The Scots made a wild, frontal assault and were shot to pieces by Redcoat volley musketry and artillery. Charles panicked and fled the battlefield, and that was the bitter end for Stuart Catholic royal line to attain the English throne.

English reprisals against the Scots were harsh, leading to a major increase in Scottish immigration to America. English-French rivalry and antagonism increased to the point that England declared war on France in 1756. The war was the first major conflict that spanned five continents, and could be actually be considered a “World War”.

William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, came to power during the Seven Years War with France aka The French and Indian War (1756-1763). Pitt’s glory years were 1757-1762 when he was war leader and developed the strategy and picked the battlefield commanders that won the war. In 1757 the war spilled into India where a small English army under Robert Clive routed a much larger force of French and Bengal allies at Plassey. The rebellious Bengal Nabob, Suraj-ud-Daula, was captured and executed for murdering British prisoners in the “Black Hole of Calcutta”. A new British friendly Nabob replaced him. The Calcutta trading post and rule of Bengal was secured by the English for the next two hundred years.

Pitt was spectacularly successful in 1759, the “Year of Victories”, in which the French were defeated on land and at sea on five continents: the capture of Quebec, and victories of Minden (Hanover Germany), Quiberon Bay (off coast of France), Guadeloupe (West Indies), Goree (Senegal, W Africa), and Lagos 1759 (off coast of Portugal). Under Pitt’s war leadership, and later as PM for two years 1766-1768, the British Empire greatly expanded, especially in North America with the addition of Canada, Acadia, and the Ohio Territory ceded by France to the British Empire by peace treaty. England was dominate on the high seas and created a highly lucrative trading empire.

George III (1760-1820). The grandson of George II developed into a solid King. This was the age of Revolution and legendary military leaders; George Washington, Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington), Admiral Lord Nelson and, of course, the arch-nemesis of England, Napoleon Bonaparte. Relations with the American Colonies began to fracture mainly due to American anger over taxation – especially stamps and tea taxes. Many Whigs led by Edmund Burke supported the grievances of the American colonies and pleaded for peace. When war did break out he was still sympathetic for “American English”, but stopped short of endorsing Independence. In Burke’s view, “A Germanic king employing German boors and vassals was destroying the liberty of the colonists.” Rebellion and a shooting war started in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts April 1775. Declaration of Independence 1776. Following a key American victory at Saratoga in 1777, the French King allied with the Americans against England. Revolutionary War ended soon after a major British defeat at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. War weary Britain recognized American independence and signed a peace treaty ending hostilities. England ceded the Ohio Territory (aka the Northwest Territory) to the new United States.

Ohio Territory map comprising 5 future states & east Minnesota

French Revolution begins in 1789 with storming of Bastille. 1791 Louis XVI reign ends. France national convention declares France a Republic and the “Reign of Terror” begins. Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette beheaded in 1793. The brutality of 1793 France stunned and frightened the British ruling class. The British were fast and effective in silencing radicals who believed a violent revolt was needed for England.

The new French government ruthlessly purged the nobility from the military, and appointed new officers based on meritocracy and loyalty. War soon broke out in Europe and after a few years of constant war, Napoleon Bonaparte, age 28, was promoted to general and commanded an army in the field.

But let’s not get sidetracked on old Boney, thus I will skip huge stretches of military history and leave it to you to discover on your own. Instead, my focus is on the (often overlooked) British civilian leadership which provided the war strategy, selected Generals and Admirals, and kept the war chest filled with gold. The two most able (non-military) leaders of the era were Castlereagh and PM Lord Liverpool. The two men led England through a life or death struggle, and never wavered until Napoleon was defeated and France was forced to sue for peace. Liverpool handled domestic policy and ran Parliament while leaving the main task of running the war to Castlereagh.

Viscount Castlereagh – A protégé of PM William Pitt, Castlereagh rose quickly up the ranks. At age 35 he was promoted to the key post of Secretary of War and Viceroy of India in 1804, just in time for a major rebellion in India. Castlereagh wisely gave command of the British Indian army to Arthur Wellesley. After a string of English battlefield victories, the rebellious Mahratta chieftains bent the knee and British rule was firmly established over the whole of the Indian subcontinent by 1805.

Back in Europe, Castlereagh surveyed a bleak situation. Napoleon’s army crushed Austrian-Prussian forces in Italy, and occupied Holland; thereby, acquiring the Dutch fleet. France gathered an army on the channel coast and formed a new alliance with Spain. The Spanish put their large fleet under French command giving the French navy an advantage in the triple gun deck Ships-of-the-Line. The scattered French fleet began to gather at Cadiz, an Atlantic seaport in southern Spain. An English blockade fleet spied on the French at Cadiz and sent dispatches to London. Castlereagh was forced to prepare England for a possible French invasion; he ordered Lord Nelson to keep the French navy out of the English Channel, and if opportunity was presented destroy the enemy fleet.

Imagine if you will, Admiral Nelson striding up the gangway of his flagship, Victory, with her black-and-yellow checkered gun decks and pipes singing and the drums beating and flags waving, and the redcoat marines at attention; it was to be his last voyage. When Nelson got word that French Admiral Villeneuve’s fleet had slipped into Cadiz harbor, he sailed his strong squadron south and gathered his forces just over the horizon from Cadiz. The British admiral kept a couple of spy ships roving about Cadiz while he summoned the fleet captains to a war council. Nelson was not surprised to learn his force of ships was outnumbered and out gunned by Villeneuve’s fleet. In fact Nelson had expected it, and had devised new tactics to spring upon the French. Nelson planned to abandon the traditional naval maneuver of lining up parallel to the enemy line and trading broadsides. Instead he proposed breaking his ships into two or three columns and striking the enemy line from the perpendicular. The columns would bust up the French line allowing the British captains to fight ship-to-ship in single combat; thereby, employing their superior seamanship and the magnificent English gun crews to the best effect.

The British force offshore Cadiz waited in prey for over two weeks. On Oct 19 Villeneuve took the main French fleet back into the blue water, and steered south toward Gibraltar. The English fleet sailed in pursuit and closed with the French fleet. On October 21, 1805, off Cape Trafalgar, the British ships cleared the decks for battle and steered hard to port. As they bore down on a perpendicular course on the long line of French ships, Nelson sent his famed signal, “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Nelson’s flagship led one of the two columns of warships that knifed into the heart of the enemy fleet. The four hour slugging match began; the black-and-yellow hull of the Victory disappeared into a thick cloud of gunsmoke as ship after ship engaged. What happened that day is a Legend in naval history. The British victory at Trafalgar was decisive and saved England from any chance of invasion by the French.

Admiral Lord Nelson

On the continent the French army continued to dominate. Napoleon was at the peak of his power and military skills in 1805-6. He surrounded and captured an entire Austrian army at Ulm. Two months later, at Austerlitz, he crushed a combined Austrian-Russian force, thus ending the Russo-Austrian alliance. While the French bargained over a peace treaty with the Czar and Austrians, the next war was brewing against Prussia. Prussian king Frederick rejected French demands and gathered a German army of over 200,000 men. Napoleon’s forces met the Prussians at Jena in October 1806, and destroyed the Prussians with a double envelopment. The Prussian king and queen barely escaped capture and fled to Berlin.

England and France stalemated: the English army alone was no match for Napoleon on land while the Royal Navy ruled the blue water. Tactics changed to blockades and economic boycotts. In 1807 Napoleon turned his military against Spain, dethroned the Spanish king and installed his brother-in-law on the Spanish throne. The Spanish people rebelled against the harsh French rulers. The French next invaded Portugal, leading both Portugal and Spain to call for British support.

In 1808 Castlereagh sensed that Napoleon had finally made a major mistake. He made a convincing argument to Parliament that France could not be defeated by seapower alone, making a Continental strategy essential. Castlereagh proposed sending a force to Portugal to fight the French invaders and support the Spanish rebels. Britain's financial strength and strong navy made it the only member of the Alliance able to operate on multiple fronts against France. Parliament approved sending a 15,000 man army to Portugal to launch the campaign that became known as the Peninsular War. The first troops arrived by sea near Lisbon in June 1808 commanded by Arthur Wellesley, who was by now a friend and protégé of Castlereagh. Wellesley was immediately successful and cleared the French out of Portugal. The British Parliament approved funds to triple the size of Wellesley’s army. In 1809 the Anglo-Spanish forces smashed the French at a major battle in Talavera, Spain – 75 miles from the capitol city of Madrid. Wellesley was awarded title and peerage of Baron and Viscount Wellington by King George III. Victory for England was a long way off, and for the next six years Wellington’s army continued fighting the French across Portugal, Spain and north into southern France.

In the bigger picture, Spain was a sideshow to Napoleon who focused military plans and efforts on Russia. In 1812 Napoleon declared war on Russia and personally led a 600,000 man army across the Niemen River on June 24. Six months later in December 1812 a thoroughly defeated, starving and freezing French army crossed the Niemen and limped back into Poland. Less than 1 man out 6 made it back to France. Historian David Chandler summed up the situation: “It is quite possible that the French retreat from Moscow is the best-known military disaster in recorded human history. The scale is epic, the suffering incalculable, and the outcome catastrophic [for France and Napoleon].” Napoleon hurried back to Paris to build a new army and continue the two-front war.

PM Lord Liverpool reshuffled his ministry and appointed Castlereagh to Foreign Secretary in 1812. With Liverpool focused on domestic policy and running Parliament, Castlereagh, undistracted by the endless domestic politics, would become perhaps the greatest Foreign Secretary in all of British history. He would hold this position until his death in 1822. Castlereagh’s immediate challenge was to organize an alliance to destroy Napoleon, who had finally demonstrated by his Russia fiasco that he was not invincible. In this effort Castlereagh was very successful in engineering the Grand Alliance of 1813 – England partnered with Russia, Prussia and Austria, and finally brought Napoleon to heel with a great military victory at Leipzig and successful invasion of France. By mid-March 1814 Russian Cossacks were watering their horses in the Seine River. Paris fell and on March 31, 1814 Czar Alexander led the Russian army into Paris. The following month Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to a small island in the Mediterranean Sea (Elba). The House of Bourbon was restored to French throne.

Castlereagh next offered the Americans generous terms to settle the War of 1812 which was unpopular in England. A peace treaty was approved at Ghent, Belgium in December 24, 1814. Due to slow communications, the final battle of the war was fought in New Orleans on Jan 8, 1815 and settled nothing except to propel Andrew Jackson, the victorious American general, to national fame. The War of 1812 is remembered in modern America for two songs: the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, and “The Battle of New Orleans”. British general attitude toward US after the war was entirely friendly, and the two nations grew closer together.

With the guns silent, the Grand Alliance and the French convened the Congress of Vienna to hammer out a peace treaty including new borders in Europe. The Congress was interrupted in early 1815 when Napoleon made a dramatic return to power only to be defeated, once and for all time, at Waterloo by the British and Prussian armies on June 15-18, 1815. Wellington received the title Duke of Wellington for his success at Waterloo. A veteran of many battles, Waterloo was his last battle. The battle was also the only time Wellington faced Napoleon on the battlefield. Wellington would continue a long and distinguished career as a statesman, while Napoleon, like a caged lion, was left to patrol the rocky shores of St. Helena, one of the most remote islands on Earth. The Duke was quiet about Waterloo, prompting a few wags to opine that “Wellington had lost his fighting spirt due to the slaughter at Waterloo.” I doubt that. Wellington’s most famous comment about the great battle (comparing it to a ball) could be para-phased thusly, “I cannot explain it. You had to be there to see it.” His attitude perfectly displayed his upper-class distain for busy-body journalist and writers.

My final comment on Napoleon Bonaparte - While Napoleon’s ambition and ruthlessness caused decades of killing and misery in Europe, he will always be remembered fondly in America for selling us the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 comprising over 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. President Jefferson wisely agreed to pay less than 3 cent per acre to double the size of the United States. American negotiators were prepared to pay about $15 million for New Orleans alone, and were astonished when the vast territory was offered together with New Orleans.

With allied victory at Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna went back to business. Castlereagh was up against long odds to achieve a lasting peace treaty. He was most impressive in restraining the victorious Alliance from being too greedy in victory. He alone seemed to understand that stripping France of its dignity would set the stage for more wars. Castlereagh’s “Balance of Power” approach proved successful in keeping the peace in Europe for almost 100 years. Castlereagh continued as the British Foreign Secretary until his death by suicide at his Irish estate. He did not leave a note. His shocking death, of course, generated wild, imaginative theories as to why it happened that way. I consider most of the theories to be malicious garbage; he took his reason to the cold grave. To be generous, I consider the great man to be a belated casualty of war. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, a rare honor.

Historian George Trevelyan argues: “In 1813 and 1814 Castlereagh played the key part in holding together an alliance of jealous, selfish, weak-kneed states and princes, by vigor of character and singleness of purpose that held Metternich [Austria Foreign Minister], the Czar, and the King of Prussia on the common track until the goal was reached. It is quite possible that, but for the lead taken by Castlereagh in the allied counsels, France would never have been reduced to her pre-war borders, nor Napoleon dethroned.” Well-deserved high praise indeed for an outstanding statesman who helped paved the way for decades of peace and prosperity in Europe, and helped make England the lead Lion of Europe.

English Literature
Scene from the movie Persuasion (1995 release)
Daniel Defoe was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. The famous novel inaugurated its own sub-genre of shipwreck fiction.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was a popular fiction writer during the Georgian Era. She is the indisputable queen of all time on the subject of husband-hunting. Her best sellers are still in print, and have made the jump to filmdom successfully. The BBC and Hollywood have both made multiple versions of Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith – published in 1776 was a fundamental work on economics and was hugely influential on the economic policy of the English ruling class. Smith proposed natural laws of economics that formed the basis of Capitalism and helped propel England from a feudal to modern economy.

Mary Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein in 1818, which is considered an early example of science fiction. Hollywood has made several films versions of the story.

END OF PART ONE

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The Hollywood History of China

9/16/2020

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By: Ben Clark

The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of big budget, adventure-historical dramas. Thus, we had Dr. Zhivago, Ben-Hur, Zulu, Lawrence of Arabia, El Cid, The Alamo, The Warlord, Julius Caesar, The Blue Max, Battle of Britain, Khartoum, and Spartacus – to name a few of my favorites. My guess is that if you like some of these movies, you'll like 55 Days at Peking (1963). The movie is based on the true story of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China during the Qing Dynasty. Before this 1963 film, Hollywood mostly ignored Chinese history and culture, and pitifully few round-eye English speaking people took even a casual interest in Chinese history. 55 Days at Peking is the first major film to examine the clash of Western and Chinese cultures, and is still relevant to this day when trade and political tension with China is a prominent, almost daily, American news story. One of my objectives is to determine just how fair and truthful the movie presents the actual events.

With that in mind, I'd like to begin by summarizing the historical arc of the early Chinese/ European / American foreign relations to put the movie into historical context and correct some confused comments I have read on the internet about the setting, or historical background, of the movie – 55 Days at Peking.

Chinese – European trade begins

Europeans did not arrive in China in any real numbers until the 16th century, so let’s begin there. As was so often the case of early sea exploration, it was the 16th century Portuguese explorers and navigators who founded and established the nautical trade routes to India and China. In 1557, the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) leased the territory of Macau to Portugal. The Macau trading post became the accepted model for foreign trade in China. News of the profitable trade with the Orient spread like wildfire, and worldwide trading competition began in earnest. Soon the English, Spaniards, and Dutch discovered new sea routes to Chinese port cities. By 1773 the British East India Company had penetrated the Chinese market and became the leading merchants of the China trade, overtaking the Portuguese. The English East India Company was buying tea, porcelain and silk from China for sale in England and Europe. As tea became a popular English drink, the tea trade became more and more important. In 1785, about 15 million pounds of tea was being imported into England. China, in particular the Qing Dynasty, was getting rich on British silver.

Opium Wars 1839-1842 & 1856–1860

At first, the Manchu Emperors (aka Qing Dynasty) permitted free trade with foreigners, mainly British and other Europeans, so long as the foreigners were kept isolated. No foreigners were permitted in Peking, the seat of the Qing Dynasty. The British were strictly limited to live in a small enclave in the city of Canton, they could not bring their wives, and they were barred from learning Chinese. Canton was a major terminal on the fabled Chinese Silk Road and is about 75 miles north of Hong Kong on the Pearl River. Note: The Chinese changed the name of Canton to Guangzhou, as was the trendy anti-colonial sentiment in the 1960s.

The British merchants (and Britain was the world's greatest trading nation) found the restrictions chafing, irrational, primitive and of course profit-reducing. There was little demand in China for British finished goods, but British merchants soon found a product for which there was enormous Chinese demand – opium. So in order to help balance the trade deficit, the British set up a trade triangle with India and China. India provided abundant, cheap opium for the British to trade in China for silk and tea to sell in Europe at enormous profit. The Manchu Emperors banned opium; however, the ban was not enforced. Opium smoking dens popped up all over China. Many officials turned a blind eye toward the opium trade since they collected heavy import taxes on all foreign trade.

An upper class Chinese opium den 1830

Eventually internal pressure from reformist groups in China caused the Manchu Emperors to act forcefully against the opium trade. In 1839 Chinese warships blockaded Canton and demanded the British hand over 20,000 opium chests for destruction. The British decided to fight instead of complying with Chinese demands. The Manchu rulers were entirely ignorant of how ineffective the primitive Chinese navy and shore batteries would be against the British Navy - who swiftly crushed the Chinese forces and took command of the important coastal regions of China.

British warships smash Chinese blockade at Canton

The First Opium War ended with the Nanjing treaty of 1842 which ceded Hong Kong Island together with its superb deep water harbor to the British. Also the treaty opened up the interior of China for Christian missionaries to travel, proselytize freely and establish missions all over China. A Second Opium War flared up in 1856 and once again the Qing Dynasty was defeated when British and French infantry captured Peking, forcing the Emperor to flee the royal palace and sue for peace. The emperor’s Summer Palace outside Peking was burned to the ground on orders by British commander Lord Elgin, “To punish the [Qing] court while sparing the people.” In the peace treaty of 1860, China ceded the Kowloon Peninsula to the British. Kowloon, being directly adjacent to British ruled Hong Kong Island, further increased British influence in a strategic location. The “Forbidden City” Peking was also opened to foreigners. The rules were relaxed to allow foreign embassies. For the next century, China would be subject to further invasions and “unfair” treaties, which ended only with the termination of special western rights in China in 1943 under Chiang Kai-shek (not under Mao in 1949, as the Chinese Communist propaganda claims).

The peace treaties proved disastrous to China's exclusionary trade policy. China opened up four, and then nine, separate enclaves within key coastal cities (the "Treaty Port or Concessions") for westerners to live with their families, and police themselves within the enclaves under their own laws, and, of course, continue the opium trade with far more access to Chinese cities. Meanwhile, other nations such as the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, and Japan all began to compete with Britain in trading with China. The China trade became one of the great careers for Americans seeking adventure and juicy profits. The "China Clipper" ships built in the U.S. became world-renowned - as did the courage and skill of their crews.

America soon began to out-strip all other nations in sending missionaries to China. Throughout the U.S., churches raised money to support the Chinese missions where the congregants were assured the missionaries were doing God's work. And in fact, millions of Chinese were converted to Christianity and benefited from local charity provided by the missionaries.

THE CHINESE SON OF GOD and
the Taiping (aka Heavenly) Rebellion 1850-1864

While the opium war itself had a direct impact on relatively few Chinese, one of the results of the opening up of China, demanded by the 1842 treaty, was the influx of thousands of Christian missionaries throughout China. The religious impact on China took a tragic turn when a charismatic lunatic, Hong Xiuquan, converted to Christianity and after a series of hallucinations and dreams, became convinced that he was the Chinese Son of God. Hong soon had thousands of followers chanting the 10 Commandments in Chinese. The new converts took up arms and formed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Army to defeat the Demons plaguing China. In 1850 Hong declared that the Demons were in fact the Qing Dynasty. Imperial forces and Hong’s Taiping army clashed in 1851, and the Taiping army was victorious in the first series of battles. Inspired by success, Hong’s forces went on the offense and gained control of the critical Yangzi River Valley. The Taiping army captured Tianjin and also took Nanjing, a major city of 2 million. After an attempt to seize Peking (Beijing) failed, Hong chose to cease conquest and fortify his forces around Nanjing.

For the next 11 years Hong’s army held Nanjing and the surrounding territory. European forces in China decided to aid the Qing Dynasty in seizing back the lands held by the Taiping army. In one of the bloodiest civil wars in world history, Imperial forces, often commanded by British officers, finally beat back the Taiping army to Nanjing. The British Major Charles Gordon won 33 battles in a row and became the Emperor’s Golden Boy. Unlike the Chinese Imperial generals who favored massed frontal assaults, Gordon was highly successful defeating much larger forces using maneuver, steam powered gunboats and surprise. Forever after he was known as “Chinese Gordon” (see photo to the right).

The siege of Nanjing lasted several months until resistance collapsed when Hong was found dead in May 1864. The Imperial Army entered the city and massacred Hong’s followers. Estimates vary but the Taiping Rebellion is believed to have claimed at least 20 million dead, and some estimates range as high as 70 million killed.

Sino–Japanese War 1894–95 &
Russian concessions in Northern China

Above is a famous French political cartoon from 1898. A pastry represents "Chine" (French for China) and is being divided between caricatures of Queen Victoria of the UK, Kaiser William II of Germany (who has planted his knife into the pie), Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the French Marianne, and a Japanese samurai. In the background a Qing official throws up his hands to try and stop them, but is powerless and ignored. It is meant to be a figurative representation of the Imperialist tendencies of these nations towards China during the decade. Noticeably absent from the group is the United States.

By the late 19th century, Russia and Japan sought to carve areas out of the obviously weak Chinese Qing Empire. In 1895, Japan crushed China in a short but fierce war - and seized Chinese Imperial territories of Korea and Taiwan. The Japanese also obtained railroad and industrial licenses in Manchuria. Not to be outdone by the rival Japanese, Russia invaded Outer Mongolia and demanded concessions in northern coastal China, in particular ice-free Port Arthur and Talienwan Bay on the Liao-Tung Peninsula of Manchuria. After a Russian battle fleet appeared in the Port Arthur harbor, the Qing Dynasty reluctantly agreed to a 10 year lease of Port Arthur and adjacent territories in Manchuria. The Russians immediately began building a rail line linking Port Arthur to the Tsar’s military base at Mukden. The Russians also began fortifying Port Arthur, indicating they had no intention of ever leaving and returning the port to China. The British and other European nations failed to object - but the U.S. reacted strongly to the foreign incursions - and Secretary of State John Hay pronounced the "Open Door" policy, insisting that no nation should obtain territorial advantages or further exclusive concessions in China. Popular sentiment in America was fiercely pro-Chinese and against the Japanese and Russian invaders. Japan was finally forced by the American-led western powers to return some of its territorial gains from the war.

Rise of the Boxers

The loss of the wars and foreign domination was obviously a great humiliation to the Chinese people who had always regarded China as the center of the universe (the "Middle Kingdom") and their emperors as appointed by Heaven to rule the earth. The fast growing Western and Japanese influence aroused hostile feelings among many Chinese toward the Christian religion and its missionaries, associating such "foreign" culture with Chinese humiliation at foreign hands and resenting the very implication from the missions' existence that the Chinese were backward and must be taught by the foreigners.

Under these circumstances by the late 1890’s, a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists (nicknamed Boxers) began regular attacks on foreigners and Chinese Christians. The Boxers were a fanatical and murderous semi-religious sect (somewhat like the Mahdi's Dervishes in Sudan or the Wahabbi sect of Islam that bedevils the Saudis today). They swore to kill all the foreigners and to drive them out of the country. They were in no sense a positive force - merely a fierce and frenzied organization of hate for the West and all its ways. Throughout the 1890s the Boxers grew in strength and became more violent. The Boxers' often targeted missionaries and the Chinese Christian converts -- they were defenseless and located throughout the country. The massacres of missionaries and an estimated 30,000 converts aroused outrage back in the U.S. and Britain. Boxers also burned Russian railway stations on the strategic Mukden to Port Arthur line; thereby, giving the Russian Tsar an excuse to send 200,000 troops to Manchuria. The Western legations in Peking began to evacuate as many missionaries as possible and attempted to persuade/threaten the Qing Dynasty to put down the rebellion with the Imperial Army. And so our movie begins!

55 Days at Peking 1963   action adventure history

This movie is based on a true story and is dramatically presented with fairly accurate history, per Hollywood standards. Surprisingly the sets and costumes are all credible even though the movie was filmed in Spain. In 1963, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) was isolated and locked down behind the Iron Curtain. Also keep in mind only ten years past, the US-led UN military force and the PRC fought a bloody, bitter war of attrition in Korea. The studio succeeded in gathering an impressive number of Euro-Oriental actors for the battle scenes, and also managed to obtain some authentic Qing Dynasty wardrobes for the actors playing the royals.

The opening scenes welcome the audience to 1900 Peking (now Beijing), China. In a large walled compound in the heart of Peking, are located the foreign embassies with economic interest in China. The United States, England, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Austria, and Japan are all represented. Next we see the star, Charlton Heston (Major Lewis) riding horseback and leading a company-sized column of US Marines into the city (the western powers were each allowed a small scale military force for security). In a key scene, we are introduced to the Boxers when Major Lewis notices a man being tortured and drowned on a water wheel by Boxer thugs. We later learn that the victim is a British priest. Lewis bargains with the Boxers to release the priest, and pay $20 in gold if the man is still alive. He is dead. A violent exchange follows and one of the armed Boxers is killed by the marines. Major Lewis flips the $20 gold piece to the lead Boxer and defuses the tense situation.

General Jung-Lu warns the Empress

Another key scene introduces Empress Tzu-hsi and the royal Mandarin court. A heated conversation between Chinese Prince Tuan (pro-Boxer) and General Jung-Lu concerning the Boxers displays the split in the Chinese court between those who believed the Boxers are “useful idiots” who could throw out the foreigners and restore China's pride - and those who believed that if they sided with the Boxers and lost, the western nations would themselves take victorious action and the Manchu court would wind up paying a high price in further concessions and reparations.

As depicted in the film, the full scale Boxer Rebellion is sparked by the vicious attack on the German Ambassador as he rides in his carriage, not far from the Embassy Compound. In a shocking scene, he is dragged to the ground and clubbed to death by the Boxer mob (in real life, both the Japanese and German Ambassadors were killed by Boxers in June 1900). Major Lewis is witness to the attack and notices Prince Tuan directing the mob with hand signals. The British Ambassador Sir Arthur, brilliantly played by David Niven, immediately demands an audience with the Chinese Empress to formally protest the murder of the German official. He is joined by Major Lewis. The scene in the throne room is magnificent – all the pomp and ceremony you would expect. Sir Arthur receives a tongue lashing by the Empress as she rejects his protest. The result of the meeting is clear: the Empress has decided to back Prince Tuan and not mobilize the Imperial army against the Boxers. She will not protect the foreign compound and urges them to leave the city within 24 hours.

Of course the foreigners do not leave (or else there is no reason for the movie). In the critical scene discussing “leave or stay” David Niven (Sir Arthur) steals the show as a true Big-Picture leader who rises to the occasion with a steady hand and precise risk analysis of a very tense and dangerous situation. He convinces the other Ambassadors to stay and band together. Actual history proved Sir Arthur to be correct. It would have been suicide to leave the walled compound. Sir Arthur sends for a military relief force, and makes plans with Major Lewis to defend the compound. The British relief force will have to march 70 miles through hostile territory to reach Peking. No one knows how long they will have to hold out (hint: 55 days is a good guess). The battle scenes that follow are spectacular, and some of the best ever filmed. I can’t understand why this film didn’t do better at the box office and awards season; it’s one of the most ambitious, visually stunning, well done historical epics I’ve ever seen.

The film is not without critics who are quick to point out some problems with the casting and the not-so-subtle pro-colonial message. Without treading too far into the dreadful PC minefield, it is fair to say the casting was somewhat marred by the absence of actual Chinese actors in the main characters. Instead we see British and Aussie Anglos dressed in Chinese gowns. This imparts a Euro-centric flavor to the film that was very common for the era. But back in 1963, given the lack of Chinese-American box office stars and Cold War hostility, this cast is the best we can hope to get.

Prince Tuan (Robert Helpmann) & Qing Empress Tzu-Hsi (Flora Robson)

The movie has a decided European perspective, and while it justly celebrates the heroism of the vastly outnumbered western defenders, there is an overall willing amnesia about the negatives of imperialism and the opium trade. Compared to the violent Boxer mobs, the imperialists depicted in the movie are quite noble and courteous, not to mention that Heston, Eva Gardner and David Niven were all glamourous Hollywood stars and just had to be the “Good guys”. And this movie has a typical “Good vs bad” theme.

C. Heston, Ava Gardner, and David Niven

The official viewpoint by the Chinese communist party of the Boxer Rebellion has a completely opposite twist. For example consider this quote by Mao Tse-tung: “Was it the Boxers organized by the Chinese people that went to stage rebellion in the Imperialist countries of Europe and America, and Imperialist Japan to commit murder and arson? Or was it the Imperialist countries that invaded our country to oppress and exploit the Chinese people?” To put it another way, the Boxer Rebellion was an organic uprising by the common Chinese people who are excused from any violence because they can respond, “we live here.”

What Chairman Mao glosses over here is the tens of thousands of innocent Chinese slaughtered at the hands of the Boxers. Of course, why would this upset the Chairman? He slaughtered innocent Chinese by the MILLIONS. To quote John Derbyshire, an old China expert, “If there is a prize awarded in hell for murdering Chinese people, the easy winner for the 20th century division is Mao Tse-tung. All this is forgotten in the fixation on foreign wickedness. A well-adjusted Chinese citizen is expected to have "moved on" from the horrors of Maoism (1949-76) but to be fuming with indignation at the Opium War (1839-42).”

And so we leave 19th century China, drenched in blood and pyscho-active drugs, and still ruled by the backward, confused Manchu Qing dynasty. The Qing stumbled along for another decade before a (mostly peaceful) transfer of power to the Chinese Republic in 1911. Perhaps the only positive spin about the Boxer vs Western clash is that it hastened the demise of a chaotic, fossilized form of government (the dynastic monarchy) to be replaced by a Chinese Republic. In 1788 after the American constitution was ratified, someone asked Mr. Ben Franklin what type of government do we have now? Franklin, one of the key founders, replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Wiser words were never spoken. Unfortunately a Chinese Ben Franklin did not exist.

One final comment – I recently bought the 55 Days at Peking DVD. It is of superior quality – both picture and sound. The colors are vivid and the Dolby digital 4.0 surround sound is great. I doubt that Criterion could have done a better job. Language spoken is English, with optional Korean and Japanese subtitles. My copy was made in Korea by DVD Video. I have been disappointed by many vintage film transfers to DVD, but not this one.

Source material for this article &
Recommended reading list on Chinese history.

Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker – includes the incontrovertible conclusions how the Maoist policies on agriculture reform resulted in severe famine and 30 million Chinese peasant farmers starved to death.

The Chairman's New Clothes & Chinese Shadows by Simon Leys – reveals the horror that was the Mao-driven Cultural Revolution and describes in detail the vast destruction of all that was good and beautiful in China in 1972.

The Dragon and the Foreign Devils by Harry Gelber – a scholarly work on the ebb and flow of foreign trade with China extending back to the ancient Silk Road.

The Chinese Looking Glass by Dennis Bloodworth - The author, a British journalist who married into an old Chinese family, interweaves his personal experiences in Asia (mostly Hong Kong and Singapore) with a discussion of the history, culture, and present situation of the Chinese people and the factors that have formed the Chinese character.

China in Convulsion by Arthur Smith – the author was an American missionary to China during the Boxer Rebellion and altogether spent over 50 years living mostly in small villages in China. This is his detailed eye witness account of the event as he, his wife and 22 other missionaries took refuge in the Peking foreign legation compound in June–August 1900 during the famous siege. Same author also wrote – Chinese Characteristics in 1894, and this became his most famous work. Modern day expats still consider this to the bible for better understanding the Chinese mindset.

What’s Wrong with China by Rodney Gilbert – written in 1926 by a Victorian Brit expat, this is the most un-PC account of Chinese characteristics and viewpoint of life in China. Available on Internet Archive.

The Opium War by Peter Ward Fay – A detailed narrative of the India-China-England opium trade triangle, and the military campaigns to settle disputes.

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The Year in Travel – My Top Stories of 2019

12/9/2019

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By Ben Clark

This article is about the Travel lowlights and highlights of the year. My sincere wish is that you may find some valuable info herein to assist in your personal trip planning, e.g., airlines, travel agencies, and cruise lines to avoid; fatal islands of the Caribbean Sea, ways to fake a vacation and save money, some choice side trips, illegal ways to obtain an American passport, and FFS stay the hell away from Mount Everest. Keep on Traveling!

The Boeing 737 Max 8 grounded worldwide after two fatal crashes with eerie parallels

March 13, 2019 – via wsj Staff (WSJ has a paywall, sometimes)

Update August 16, 2019 – The Boeing 737 Max 8 is still grounded after five months. Read an impressive, detailed recap of the “Fatal battle between man and machine” in the WSJ here.

Update August 31, 2019 – As reported by Bloomberg news, Boeing outsourced the faulty Max 8 MCAS code to India in order to save money. Do the math on that genius business decision. Airlines are making plans to keep the Max 8 grounded until 2020.

Viking cruise ship narrowly misses major maritime disaster
“In Search of the Northern Lights” becomes a PR nightmare for Viking

March 23, 2019 via the Independent

The Viking Sky cruise ship lost [all] power as it sailed toward Stavanger, Norway in heavy seas and wind today. The cruise ship issued a mayday call and many passengers were evacuated from the cruise ship via helicopter as the ship rocked back and forth in stormy weather.

Viking Sky dropped anchors to keep from smashing into rugged shoreline

Passengers were reportedly being hoisted by rescue helicopters from the stranded cruise ship as strong winds pushed the ship toward the Hustadvika coast of Norway, which is considered one of the most dangerous parts of the Norwegian coast, with many shipwrecks in this area during rough weather.

“It was very nearly a disaster. The ship drifted to within 100 meters of running aground before they were able to restart one of the engines,” stated police chief Hans Vik, who heads the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway, according to Reuters. Around 1,300 passengers and crew were originally on the ship.

Rescue helicopters arrive at Viking Sky

Large North Sea workboat towing the crippled Viking Sky

Update March 24, 2019:  According to the Independent, the two year old Viking Sky was sailing on a two-week “In Search of the Northern Lights” voyage. .. Viking Cruises says: Currently we understand 20 people suffered injuries as a result of this incident, and they are all receiving care at the relevant medical centers in Norway, with some already having been discharged. Viking Sky will stay in port in Molde [Norway] while repairs are carried out. Her next voyage to Scandinavia…has been cancelled.”

Viking Sky cruise ship engines failed because of low oil levels, maritime official says

The investigation has figured out the reason for the engines shutting down, but that is only half the problem. A mechanical mishap is to be expected now and then, so it is up the Captain and his/her crew to react promptly and efficiently to a failure in order to maintain the safety of the ship. It is a matter of training and knowledge – in this case the Viking crew reacted with the speed of a land tortoise. The crew was pathetically slow pokey in getting those engines back on line. Was this because of a design flaw, or inadequate crew training (or both)? Get back to work Lars.

Update March 27, 2019 via USA Today staff

The Viking Sky cruise ship that had to be evacuated off the coast of Norway over the weekend had low oil levels that led to engine failure, according to the Norwegian Maritime Authority, which has been investigating the incident…to identify why the cruise ship suffered a power blackout Saturday. Lars Alvestad, the head of Norway's Maritime Authority, said Wednesday that low oil levels were the "direct cause" of the engine failure that stranded the Viking Sky on Saturday. The NMA indicated in a press release that while oil in the tanks was relatively low, it was within set limits. But as the ship crossed rocky seas, movement of oil in the tanks triggered an alarm. Norwegian media reported gusts up to 43 mph and waves over 26 feet. "The heavy seas in Hustadvika probably caused movements in the tanks so large that the supply to the lubricating oil pumps stopped," Alvestad said. "This triggered an alarm indicating a low level of lubrication oil, which in turn shortly thereafter caused an automatic shutdown of the engines."

Fire at famed Notre Dame Cathedral

Centuries old wooden roof destroyed

April 16, 2019 via AP staff & HouseClark

Paris, France – The nearly 900-year-old cathedral has endured the French Revolution, Prussian invaders, and the Nazi occupation, but the Paris landmark suffered a truly unlucky day today. As can be seen in the photo below, a huge fire engulfed the roof and the massive spire. City officials say the cause of the fire was an accident by construction workers doing restoration work.

I toured the ND Cathedral in 2016 and will never forget the grandeur of the towering arches and stained glass windows. No worries, the Europeans have medieval building restoration down to a science due to the many, many projects done post-WW2. I’ll bet you one French omelet the basilica will be rebuilt and look better than ever, and safer too, with a fireproof roof. As we approach year end, the French are still squabbling about the new ND design and are wasting time. I have plans to visit France in 2020 and will hop on a train to see the Chartres Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic church in a quaint French town not far from Paris.

Photo courtesy of AP

28 Dead after River Tour Boat Sinks in Danube River, Hungary

Only 7 people rescued

This story really captured my interest because I had just returned from a Danube riverboat cruise when this story broke. I too, had sailed past the impressive Hungarian Parliament building, under the Margrit Bridge and then returned to our dock in Budapest. Below is a photo I took from the top deck of the Avalon Impression. Do not let this incident scare you away – The Danube river cruise is safe, fun, and filled with scenic areas.

May 30, 2019 via bbnews Staff - BUDAPEST, Hungary – Rescue workers scoured the Danube River in downtown Budapest Thursday for 21 people missing after a sightseeing boat, identified as the Hableany (Mermaid – 89 ft), carrying South Korean tourists sank in a matter of seconds after colliding with a much larger Viking riverboat (440 ft) during an evening cruise. Seven people are confirmed dead and seven were rescued, all of them South Koreans, Hungarian officials said. Police launched a criminal investigation into the incident. Nineteen South Koreans and two Hungarian crew members – the captain and his assistant – are reported missing.

The sunken boat was located early Thursday near the Margit Bridge, not far from the neo-Gothic Parliament building on the riverbank. Video displayed by Hungarian police showed the sightseeing boat, traveling closely side by side and in the same direction as the Viking cruise ship as they approached the bridge Wednesday night.

The Hableany then appeared to steer slightly to its left, into the path of the 440+ ft Viking Sigyn cruise ship, which continued to sail on the same course. The two collided and the sightseeing boat was then seen tipping on its side between the bridge’s two supports. “As the Viking comes into contact with (the Hableany), the smaller boat overturns and in about seven seconds, it sinks,” Police Col. Adrian Pal said.

The river, which is 450 meters (500 yards) wide at the point of the accident, was fast-flowing and rising as heavy rain continued in the city. Water temperatures were about 10 to 12 degrees Celsius (50-53 Fahrenheit).

UPDATE – June 12, 2019 AFP — Hungarian rescue teams recovered more bodies on Tuesday as they recovered the sightseeing boat (Hableany) that sank in the river Danube in Budapest last month. Only seven of the 35 people on board survived the accident. The captain of the river cruise boat, the Viking Sigyn, has been arrested by Budapest police on suspicion of “endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths”. On Monday the Sigyn was again searched by Hungarian police. According to a popular cruise blog, the captain has been identified as Yurily Chaplinsky from Odessa, Ukraine.

It is never a good sign when the cops show up to arrest your riverboat skipper

2019 USA tourist death count at Dominican Republic resorts rises to 11

The DR was in the news often this summer – all bad news. They have a major PR wreck. Americans are cancelling trips by the thousands.

July 15, 2019 – via abc7chicago – A Georgia man died in the Dominican Republic in March, the State Department confirmed Friday. ABC News has confirmed 31-year-old Tracy Jerome Jester, Jr., of Forsyth, Georgia, died on March 17. Jester is the 11th American confirmed to have died in the country since June 2018…

June 22, 2019 – By NYPost Staff – Vito Caruso, 56 of NY, died suddenly on June 17 while staying at the Boca Chica Resort in DR. Caruso is among three tourists in the past month and at least 11 in 2019 who died while vacationing in the DR. Dozens more have reported illnesses.

June 17, 2019 – AVENEL, New Jersey. Via 6abc.com – A State Department official confirms the death of another American tourist in the Dominican Republic last week, the ninth to die while on vacation in that country this year. Joseph Allen, 55, of Avenel, New Jersey, was found dead on the floor of his hotel room at Terra Linda in Sosua on the morning of June 13, his sister, Jamie Reed, confirmed to ABC on a phone interview.

Leyla Cox, 53, died June 10 in her hotel room, Excellence Resorts in Punta Cana confirmed to CNN on Sunday. Officials in the Dominican Republic have called the deaths isolated events.

Updated Jun 17 2019 – PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – About half the members of a Jimmy Buffett fan club from Oklahoma who traveled to the Dominican Republic in April got sick, the group’s travel agent confirmed. Dana Flowers, the group’s travel agent, said about 54 out of the 114 visitors who stayed at the Hotel Riu Palace Macao in Punta Cana fell ill during the trip.

June 17 2019 – PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – A group of Oklahoma teens’ senior trip to the Dominican Republic was ruined when they fell sick with a mysterious illness. The recent Deer Creek High School graduates flew on June 8 to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, where at least two Americans have died and others have fallen ill this year.

June 2019 – A couple more unrelated yet disturbing incidents; a Delaware woman claims she was beaten senseless by a man on the Punta Cuna staff, and retired MLB star David Ortiz was shot and wounded Sunday at a club in the Dominican Republic, reports said. Ortiz is in serious but stable condition at a local hospital.

Company will superimpose your photo into fake vacation destinations

If you are one of the many thousands of Americans who canceled their DR vacation, then I suggest you consider using this company’s services. This is also perfect for the Facebook posers who absolutely love posting bullshitty photos.

April 24th, 2019 via 6abc Staff

You’ve heard of stay-cations, but how about fake-cations? A business called Fake a Vacation is allowing people to do just that. The Nebraska-based company will superimpose pictures of you on backdrops of Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, and other popular places. The company says people do it because they want to make their social media accounts look like they’re leading way more interesting lives. Some do it because their actual vacation was canceled. It may seem silly, but one survey of 4,000 people found 10 percent had posted fake vacation pictures. Now, there is a 72-hour turnaround on the Fake a Vacation website. It also costs money, anywhere from $17 to $80. Below are some ads from the website.

Floatplanes carrying cruise ship passengers on sightseeing trips collide in midair near Ketchikan, Alaska – 6 Killed

Talk about it being your unlucky day. Maybe certain attractions are just too popular. Alaska has suffered a rash of small plane crashes and is in the process of revamping and improving the local air control systems.

Updated: May 14, 2019 via Anchorage Daily News Staff

Six people died when two floatplanes carrying passengers from the same cruise ship collided in midair over George Inlet near Ketchikan. A total of 16 people were on the two planes and 10 people were rescued, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios said… All Fourteen of the passengers involved [in the mid-air collision] came off the Royal Princess, a Carnival Corp megaship on its inaugural Alaska cruise.

Floatplane crash in Alaska

Eleven climbers have died this season on Mount Everest

Overcrowding a factor as human traffic jams form near summit

Climber queues near the summit of Mount Everest are putting lives on the line. Photo courtesy of Raja Gupta

May 27, 2019 via kdvr.com Fox 31 news

Boulder, Colorado attorney Christopher Kulish, 62, picked an expensive way to die. He was found dead near the 29,035 foot summit on Monday. This follows three climbers that died after summiting the world’s tallest mountain last Thursday. That makes eleven fatalities on the famed Himalayan mountain this season, including American Donald Lynn Cash, 55, from Utah, who collapsed from altitude sickness on his way down the mountain last week.

Also this week, Indian climber Anjali Kulkarni, 55, died on her journey back down last Thursday. Her son told CNN that she became stuck in the “traffic jam” above Camp 4 (the final camp before the summit at 26,247 feet). And a climber with Swiss outfitter Kobler was the third fatality that day, also dying while descending the mountain.

Crowds are believed to have contributed to several of these recent deaths, as the congestion leaves climbers exposed longer to the dangerous wind, cold and lack of oxygen at the highest natural point in the world. (In fact, so many people have been climbing that piles of garbage and human waste are becoming an issue.)

Raja Gupta took one of the several viral photos showing a long line of climbers winding along the ridge up to the Everest summit. He wrote on Facebook that he was among roughly 320 people attempting the “summit push” last Wednesday. "It was very crowded," Gupta said. "I have guided trips for five years, and I've never seen such a year. We lost about three hours waiting at the most difficult part of the rock." Climbers call the area above 26,000 feet the "death zone," because the air is so thin that supplemental oxygen is critical. "And that's very dangerous if you run out of oxygen, you can die within a couple of hours," Gupta explained.

More than 200 people have died on Mount Everest’s peak since 1922. And due in part to the difficulty and expense of retrieval, most bodies are left on the mountain, and are believed to be buried beneath the snow.

American Airlines mechanic charged with aircraft sabotage

Thank God for security cameras. Due to several bad business decisions, I expect American Airlines to be the next major carrier to fail.

September 6, 2019 via Yahoo news

New York (AFP) - An American Airlines mechanic on Friday was due to appear in court on charges he tampered with an aircraft over stalled union negotiations that he said harmed him financially. US prosecutors have charged Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani with interfering with part of an aircraft fight data system, causing the grounding of a July flight from Miami to the Bahamas, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in Miami. Alani is due to appear before a judge later Friday. The maximum possible penalty for the violation is 20 years in jail, said a spokeswoman for the US Attorney's Office in Miami.

The plane carrying 150 passengers and crew was taken out of service before takeoff due to an error in the air data module system. Alani was identified in surveillance footage as having entered the aircraft earlier in the morning. Alani admitted to the FBI that he had inserted a piece of foam into the ADM inlet and applied super glue to prevent the foam from coming off, according to an FBI affidavit...

Bail denied in aircraft sabotage case
American Airlines mechanic suspected of being sympathetic with Islamic terrorists

Update September 18, 2019 via APnews.com

MIAMI (AP) — A mechanic accused of sabotaging an American Airlines jetliner had expressed a desire for Allah to hurt non-Muslims, stored violent Islamic State videos on his cellphone and has a brother in Iraq involved with the extremist group ISIS, according to new evidence unveiled at his bail hearing Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley cited those revelations from prosecutors in ordering pretrial detention for Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani at the hearing in Miami federal court. Alani is accused of disabling a critical navigation component on the Boeing 737, which had 150 passengers and crew aboard.

Other evidence revealed Wednesday including that Alani recently sent a $700 wire transfer to someone in Iraq — where he has extended family — and that he traveled to Iraq in March but did not disclose that to authorities after his arrest.

Alani also previously worked for Alaska Airlines. Business Insider reported that Alani worked for both American and Alaska from 1998 until 2008. He was fired from Alaska Airlines following a series of maintenance mistakes, and Alani was also accused of clocking into both jobs at the same time.

Chinese Woman Admits to Running a ‘Birth Tourism’ Scheme

How did she get caught? No mention in the article. Allow me to explain (hint- read the last paragraph). She got too flashy and greedy- someone in the know got jealous and tipped off the feds.

September 17, 2019 via ktla5 staff

Los Angeles - A Chinese woman living in Irvine, California pleaded guilty Tuesday to running a business that charged pregnant Chinese women upwards of $40,000 for coaching on getting into the U.S. to give birth and secure American citizenship for their children. Dongyuan Li, 41, is the first to be convicted in the broad scheme in which 19 others are also accused, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Santa Ana said.

Li (see photo at left) admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and one count of visa fraud, prosecutors said. Within two years, Li's firm - You Win USA Vacation Services — based in Orange County — was able to rake in millions by catering to wealthy pregnant women and Chinese government officials, instructing them on how to circumvent visa requirements and avoid detection, according to the federal indictment.

The so-called "birth tourism" scheme charged each client between $40,000 and $80,000, and the expectant mothers would be lodged in one of 20 apartments around Irvine that Li controlled, authorities said. Prosecutors say You Win claimed to have served more than 500 customers, and Li received $3 million in international wire transfers over the course of the scheme.

To get into the U.S., the company allegedly told clients to provide false information on visa applications and to immigration agents. Li also admitted to coaching customers on how to pass their consulate interview, including lying about how long they planned to stay in America, officials said. Customers would book two flights, stopping in Hawaii before continuing to Los Angeles, because the company thought clearing customs would be easier on the island, according to the plea agreement. Authorities say the women were also taught to conceal their pregnancies while traveling.

In entering her plea, Li agreed to forfeit more than $850,000, a Murrieta residence worth more than $500,000 and several Mercedes-Benz vehicles, officials said. Li is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16, when she'll face a maximum possible sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

Giant Tapestry immortalizes ‘Game of Thrones'

I plan to visit France in 2020 and catch this exhibit while in Bayeux

September 20, 2019 via NYpost.com

BAYEUX, France — Fans who have flocked in their thousands to see the embroidered artwork are giving it a thumbs-up…At 87 meters (285 feet), the tapestry is longer than the width of a soccer field and longer than the famous 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry that recounts the Norman invasion of England in 1066. That tapestry served as an inspiration for the “Game of Thrones” (GOT) lookalike.

Obvious parallels between the two tapestries include the embroidery styles, colors and structures. Both are divided into three segments, with their central storylines running through the middle bordered by smaller panels displaying motifs like winged beasts or weaponry. The two works evoke similar themes of violent conquest and feudal loyalties.

The Bayeux Tapestry is thought to have been commissioned by William the Conqueror’s brother. It tells the story of William’s conquest of England with vivid scenes of battle and palace intrigue. It attracts nearly 400,000 visitors annually and Bayeux officials hope the “Game of Thrones” exhibit will grow that number.

The tapestry begins with fictional King Robert Baratheon visiting the Stark family in Winterfell and ends with the final scenes from the eighth and last season. It took a 30-strong team of volunteer embroiderers in Northern Ireland nearly four months to stitch the tapestry in 2017, adding final scenes after “Games of Thrones” finished airing in May… Scenes depicting Daenerys Targaryen with her dragons, and Jaime Lannister getting his hand chopped off have proved particularly popular with the exhibit visitors.

For your convenience, I inserted a GOT character guide - see below.

UK's Thomas Cook Collapses After Rescue Talks Fail - 150,000+ Travelers Stranded

Beware of this outfit. It will go into receivership and continue to operate, probably under a new brand.

September 23, 2019 via ZH

Becoming the latest European travel company to fail and leave its customers stranded, 178-year-old Thomas Cook collapsed [into bankruptcy] after failing to secure a deal with its creditors, leaving the British government to step in and rescue the as many as 150,000 customers who are reportedly now looking for a ride home.

Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser apologized to customers "following a decision of the board late last night, a British government receiver has been appointed early this morning...we have not been able to secure a deal to save our business...I know that this outcome will cause a lot of anxiety, stress and disruption." The company, weighed down by debt, said Friday that it was looking for $369 million in financing over the weekend to avoid going under on Monday. [The deal failed to happen.] All bookings made through the company have been invalidated, the company said [nobody knows exactly the number of cancelations – could be as high as 500,000]. Thomas Cook typically runs hotels, resorts, airlines and cruises for 19 million customers a year in 16 countries.

Sex assaults on cruise ships up 67% this summer

Beware the toxic combination of alcohol + seawater

November 30, 2019 via NYPost Staff -- Cruise liners experienced an unprecedented crime wave this summer, with 35 sex assaults, two disappearances and five thefts of $10,000-plus reported to the FBI during the third quarter of this year. Sex assaults were by far the most frequently reported crime. In 2019, cruise ship chaos has become viral social media moments and major national news stories — from tragedies like the July death of an Indiana toddler whose grandfather accidentally dropped her into the Caribbean, to violence and plain stupidity, like the woman caught balancing on the edge of a Royal Caribbean boat’s balcony in October while posing for Instagram.

Note: The [cruise line] companies are required by the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act to report alleged homicides, suspicious deaths, missing persons, assaults, theft over $10,000, and incidents of people tampering with the ship to the FBI. There were no homicides and no suspicious deaths reported in 2019.

Carnival Cruises, the world’s largest cruise company, reported the most incidents with 28, including 20 sex assaults; two missing people; two serious assaults and two thefts. That marks a 47 percent uptick from the same quarter last year, when there were 19 reported Carnival incidents. The two missing persons were “intentional man over boards” [suicides] who couldn’t be saved, Carnival claimed. In addition to Royal Caribbean and Carnival, Norwegian, Disney, Celebrity and MSC Cruises also reported incidents during the reporting period (see bar graph below).

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Manhunt Monday - Community Leader Killed in AR

11/11/2019

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Community leader shot to death during armed robbery in Midtown Memphis

Jack Hammer, Crime Reporter – I hate to say it, but sometimes killers really do get away with murder. This case is getting cold. I hope the police can get a lead.

Memphis, Tenn. June 8, 2019 via wreg.com

Victim ID is Glenn Cofield, 57. Cofield was a financial advisor for Barnes Pettey, on the board of directors at Paragon Bank and a deacon at Independent Presbyterian Church. He was also a past President of Carnival Memphis, member of the FedEx St. Jude Golf Tournament Committee, and a board member of the Institute of Management Accountants.

Update – June 11: A $26k Reward has been offered to catch the killer, a young black male (see police composite sketch below).

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Manhunt Monday - I-40 Shooter in Memphis

11/4/2019

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Suspect in I-40 Triple shooting killed by Police

Jack Hammer, Crime Reporter – Another Manhunt ends in perfect fashion, and justice is served. Don’t tell me we have a “gun problem”; American has a “felon in possession of a firearm” crisis.

October 17, 2019 via news3

MEMPHIS, Tenn. —The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has identified the deceased person following a deputy-involved shooting early Wednesday morning. The suspect was identified by a TBI spokesperson as Keyshon Parham [mugshot below], who was wanted on multiple felony warrants. One of those was issued just last week by the Memphis Police Department following a car-to-car triple shooting on I-40 on October 9.

Early Wednesday morning law enforcement officers were executing an arrest warrant when Parham fled through another exit. A chase ensued. At some point, two law enforcement officers fired their weapons and Parham was shot and killed. A deputy who did not fire his weapon was also shot in the leg and rushed to the Regional Medical Center in critical condition.

WREG news 3 discovered Parham has been arrested multiple times for various driving offenses, theft and assault. Back in March Memphis Police released surveillance video taken at a southeast Memphis gas station of a black male stealing a car. Records show officers connected Parham to the crime after receiving a tip and when they showed up to his listed address they found the car’s key in his pocket.

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Manhunt Monday - Manhunt Underway in the Shooting of Chicago Police Officer

10/21/2019

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Manhunt underway in the shooting of Chicago police officer
Felon in possession of a firearm

Jack Hammer, Crime Reporter – Updated Sept 22 – Despite being wounded several times, Blackman remained at large for several hours after shooting a Police officer on Saturday morning… Authorities later identified private surveillance video following his movements, and tracked the wounded fugitive to a rail yard where he was arrested.

September 21, 2019 via abc7chicago

Chicago - A Chicago police officer who was shot Saturday morning in West Englewood is recovering from surgery in a local hospital. [The wounded officer is in serious yet stable condition]. He was shot while officers… were serving a warrant at a home near 65th Street and Winchester. The warrant was for Michael Blackman [see mugshot below] accused of a random shooting of a woman… in the Fulton River District on Wednesday.

"When the fugitive unit went to knock on the door, he heard the knocks and ran out the back and that's when he ran into the officer and his partner [covering the rear exit]," said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Authorities are actively searching for Blackman who is considered armed and dangerous. The wounded officer along with his partner, were able to return fire, but it's not known if Blackman was injured in the exchange of gunshots, according to police.

Blackman has an extensive arrest history dating back to 1991. His charges include from burglary, battery domestic battery, criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, driving on a suspended license criminal possession of a controlled substance. "We think that he shot the young lady Wednesday, now today he shot a police officer so obviously this is a person that shouldn't be walking around the streets of Chicago," said Supt. Johnson [No shit, Sherlock!].

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Manhunt Monday - Kansas City Manhunt for Mass Shooter

10/14/2019

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The killer was free on probation instead of in Jail

Jack Hammer, Crime Reporter – This pair of Mass Shooters do not fit the pathology of the FBI Mass (or Active) Shooter profile. The shooting may have stemmed from an argument that occurred inside the bar hours earlier, police said. A bartender, Jose Valdez, said the problem started when he refused to serve a man who'd caused problems months earlier. The man threw a glass at him and was thrown out of the club, Valdez said. A few hours later that man and a second man came through the back door armed with pistols and began shooting, he said. Sadly this is the new normal in rough bars across the country – arguments escalating into late night gun fights. If a person keeps his/her wits, they know better than to be caught in these dangerous bar/clubs. This event is also another example of the shambolic American Legal system – pokey, porous, and pathetic.

October 10, 2019 via Fox4kc

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Both suspects in the October 6 Tequila KC Bar shooting that killed four people and injured five others were scheduled to be in court today. The two were both awaiting court dates scheduled for Oct. 10 for other cases when the shooting happened. Javier Alatorre, who is in custody, was indicted for possession of a controlled substance. He also has other court cases involving stolen cars and a robbery.

Police are still looking for Hugo Villanueva-Morales, the second suspect. He has served time before, and he pleaded guilty to trafficking contraband while in custody at Leavenworth Prison. The Leavenworth County Prosecutor asked that Villanueva-Morales serve nine years, but a judge gave him two years probation. He was still on probation when the Tequila KC bar shooting happened. On Thursday, a Leavenworth judge issued an additional warrant for his arrest because he didn't show up for court at a hearing to revoke his probation. "We asked for a prison sentence… Instead, he’s still doing crime." Todd Thompson, Leavenworth County Attorney said.

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Manhunt Monday - Beware of the Lonely Hearts Clubs

9/30/2019

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Man arrested after using social media to set up, rob & murder 18-year-old

Jack Hammer, Crime & Justice Reporter – Take my advice and beware of those online Lonely Hearts Clubs. Criminals are baiting victims into a trap using cell phone apps and online dating sites. This is part of a new development that I labeled Techno-Crime. The murder occurred on September 2, 2019, so this manhunt took roughly two weeks to trace the electronic trail and ID the killer.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 via abc3memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis man who was wanted on first-degree murder charges was captured Tuesday after police say he set up, robbed and killed an 18-year-old earlier this month. Talas Bonds [see mugshot at left] was arrested after giving police a foot chase… Police say Bonds robbed and murdered 18-year-old Jack Luibel [white male] on Sept. 2 on Clifton Avenue in Frayser. According to court records, Luibel drove to an abandoned house to meet with someone, who he thought was a girl, who he met on a texting app, Text Now.

When Luibel got to the house, he was shot and robbed. Police found him unresponsive at the scene. After securing search warrants, police were able to trace communication between the victim and the suspect with the app, which lead them to Bonds on Tuesday. Police said Bonds admitted to his role in the crime. In addition to this first-degree murder in perpetration of robbery charge, Bonds was also already wanted on aggravated robbery charges.

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Manhunt Monday - Shootout In West Virginia

9/16/2019

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Fugitive wanted for shooting Virginia police officer killed in shootout with U.S. Marshals in Morgantown, W.Va
Donquale Gray via Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Jack Hammer, Crime & Justice Reporter – When old school U.S. Marshals (think Raylan Givens, Justified) are gunning for you, I suggest you surrender and take your chances in the shambolic American legal system. You always have the chance of getting a shitlib judge. But obviously Donquale has a low IQ and thought he could outshoot a couple of well-trained gun fighters. He won’t be missed.

Mar 7, 2019 via wtkr.com & WTVR

The man wanted for shooting a Virginia police officer was killed during a shootout with U.S. Marshals on Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement sources confirm to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Donquale Maurice Gray, 25, was killed in Morgantown, West Virginia after firing at law officers who were trying to apprehend him.

According to WTVR, the incident started after officers responded to a report of shots fired and an armed fugitive in the area of Falling Run Road and College Avenue. Police say the suspect, armed with a handgun, fired shots at Marshals during a foot pursuit. At least one U.S. Marshal returned fire at Gray, who was found dead at the scene.

Gray was wanted by the Virginia State Police for attempted capital murder of a police officer after he shot a police officer on February 16 in Bluefield, Virginia during a routine traffic stop.

The wounded officer suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries. A manhunt for Gray led to a $25,000 reward for information which led to his apprehension [dead or alive].

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