The Syrian Civil War, as of September 11, 2015
The Partition of
Africa:
The Marginal
European
presence in 1878
and the colonial
empires of 1914
Monument to Captain Marchand in Paris, showing the route
he took from the French Congo to the Nile in 1896/98,
with 20 French officers and 130 Senegalese troops
“Captain Marchand
Across Africa!”
(illustrated book,
Paris, 1898)
Marchand and his African troops defend Fashoda from Mahdist
gunboats (image published in L’Illustration, August 1898)
The Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898:
Lord Kitchener defeated the Mahdists with 8,000 British and
17,000 Egyptian troops and then arrived at Fashoda
Captain Marchand
rows out from
Fashoda to parley
with Lord Kitchener,
19 September 1898;
the French
government ordered
Marchand to
evacuate on
November 3
“Commandant
Marchand at
Fashoda,”
portrait commissioned
in 1898 by the French
Army Museum in Paris
The “Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway” in 1914
(see Joll, 236-41)
The Young Turks
displayed special
interest in the
employment of
German military
trainers
(cartoon from
Punch, October 5,
1910)
French pacifist rally outside Paris, May 25, 1913
The “National Socialist” Maurice Barrès presides
over a Joan of Arc festival in Compiègne, June 13, 1913
“The Kiss of the
Alsatian”
(anonymous colorized
postcard from 1914)
Citizens of Paris rejoice on August 2, 1914
Some troops in Paris may have had second thoughts...
Soldiers in Berlin, 2 August 1914
German troop train, August 1914: “Holiday Outing to Paris”
Munich’s Odeon Square, August 1, 1914: “I fell down on my
knees and thanked Heaven for granting me the good fortune
of being permitted to live at this time.” (Mein Kampf, p. 161)
Tsar Nicholas II greets Russian soldiers
departing for the front in August 1914