Thursday, December 20, 2018

World Wars

battle of diu 1509
- https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-war-that-changed-the-history-of-world-completely The Battle of Diu (1509), was the culmination of a global trade war. On one side were allied forces of the Sultanate of Gujarat, the Zamorin of Calicut, the Egyptians, and the Venetians, the ‘old’ order and on the other, the Portuguese. The decisive victory of the Portuguese in this naval battle, heralded the end of the old trading giants and led to centuries of European naval and trade dominance, that shaped the modern world.

The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between Louis XIV of France and a European coalition of the Holy Roman Empire (led by Austria), the Dutch Republic, Spain, England, and Savoy. It was fought in Europe and the surrounding seas, in North America, and in India. It is sometimes considered the first global war. The conflict encompassed the Williamite war in Ireland and Jacobite risings in Scotland, where William III and James II struggled for control of England and Ireland, and a campaign in colonial North America between French and English settlers and their respective Indigenous allies, today called King William's War by Americans. Louis XIV of France had emerged from the Franco-Dutch War in 1678 as the most powerful monarch in Europe, an absolute ruler who had won numerous military victories. Using a combination of aggression, annexation, and quasi-legal means, Louis XIV set about extending his gains to stabilize and strengthen France's frontiers, culminating in the brief War of the Reunions (1683–1684). The Truce of Ratisbon guaranteed France's new borders for twenty years, but Louis XIV's subsequent actions—notably his Edict of Fontainebleau (the revocation of the Edict of Nantes) in 1685—led to the deterioration of his military and political dominance. Louis XIV's decision to cross the Rhine in September 1688 was designed to extend his influence and pressure the Holy Roman Empire into accepting his territorial and dynastic claims. Leopold I and many German princes resolved to resist, and when the States General and William III brought the Dutch and the English into the war against France, the French king faced a powerful coalition aimed at curtailing his ambitions.The main fighting took place around France's borders in the Spanish Netherlands, the Rhineland, the Duchy of Savoy and Catalonia. The fighting generally favoured Louis XIV's armies, but by 1696 his country was in the grip of an economic crisis. The Maritime Powers (England and the Dutch Republic) were also financially exhausted, and when Savoy defected from the Alliance, all parties were keen to negotiate a settlement. By the terms of the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) Louis XIV retained the whole of Alsace but was forced to return Lorraine to its ruler and give up any gains on the right bank of the Rhine. Louis XIV also accepted William III as the rightful King of England, while the Dutch acquired a Barrier fortress system in the Spanish Netherlands to help secure their borders. With the ailing and childless Charles II of Spain approaching his end, a new conflict over the inheritance of the Spanish Empire embroiled Louis XIV and the Grand Alliance in the War of the Spanish Succession.
- [ochsle] described event as war of palatinate succession 1688-92

1770s
- Spain agreed with France to attack Portugal which remained neutral, but which was an important economic ally of Great Britain. France hoped that this new front would draw away British forces, now directed against France. The triple Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal in Europe (main theater of the war, which absorbed the lion's share of the Spanish war effort),[28][29] on 5 May 1762, was followed by a Spanish invasion of Portuguese territories in South America (a secondary theater of the war). While the first ended in humiliating defeat, the second represented a stalemate: Portuguese victory in Northern and Western Brazil; Spanish victory in Southern Brazil and Uruguay.In the Treaty of Paris the pre-war status quo between Spain and Portugal was restored.
- The Spanish-Portuguese War, or named as the Second Cevallos expedition, was fought between 1776 and 1777 over the border between Spanish and Portuguese South America.On 24 February 1777 King Joseph I died and his daughter and successor Maria I dismissed Pombal and concluded on 1 October the First Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spain.Spain returned the island of Santa Catarina to Portugal and recognized Rio Grande de São Pedro as Portuguese territory, but kept Colonia del Sacramento, which the Portuguese had founded in 1680,[1], with the rest of the Banda Oriental (Uruguay), and also kept the Misiones Orientales. In return, Spain acknowledged that the Portuguese territories in Brazil extended far west of the line that had been set in the Treaty of Tordesillas.In the Treaty of El Pardo, signed on 11 March 1778, Spain won Spanish Guinea[3] (Equatorial Guinea), which would be administered from Buenos Aires from 1778 to 1810.One of the results of the war was that the Portuguese remained neutral when the American War of Independence became a global war in 1778 with the entry of the French. The Portuguese were bound to the British by treaty but disappointed by the lack of British support against Spain, Portugal did not itself enter the war. Instead Portugal joined the First League of Armed Neutrality in 1781, to resist British seizures of cargo from neutral ships.
- [1776 chron] in 1779 spain joined france in siding with america, declaring war on britain on 16thjun. 5 days later communication between spain and gibraltar was closed and onn16jul spanish ships began a blockade of peninsula which would last until 1783

Before ww1
- austria-hungary
  •  https://www.quora.com/Would-Francis-Ferdinands-plans-to-reorganise-Austria-Hungary-have-worked-or-would-he-have-ended-up-being-Austria-Hungarys-Gorbachev
- armaments race

  • late 19th C to early 20th C, brazil, argentina and chile (competing for interests in patagonia) engaging in armament race 

- submarine cable telegraph

  • British companies controlled 190000 miles
  • France 19000
  • Germany 2000
  • In 1899, lay north atlantic cable;
  • firm of felten and guilleaume with assistance of deutsche atlantic, founded norddeutsche seekabelwerke for making and laying of submarine cables. This company played a great part in execution of the german cable policy 
  • deutsch-sudamerikanische telegraphengesellschaft was founded in 1908 for laying south american cables
  • In 1901 the deutsch niederlandische telegraphengesellschaft was founded for laying cable with yap as a centre
  • Osteuropaische telegraphengesellschaft (subsidized by germanyband roumania) by was founded in 1899 for laying constanza constantinople cable 
  • Japan 1250
- navies
  • uk
  •  The three Invincible-class battlecruisers were built for the Royal Navy and entered service in 1908 as the world's first battlecruisers. They were the brainchild of Admiral Sir John ("Jacky") Fisher, the man who had sponsored the construction of the world's first "all-big-gun" warship, HMS Dreadnought. He visualised a new breed of warship, somewhere between the armoured cruiser and battleship; it would have the armament of the latter, but the high speed of the former. This combination would allow it to chase down most ships, while allowing it to run from more powerful designs.


  • germany
  • The Moltke class was a class of two "all-big-gun" battlecruisers[a] of the German Imperial Navy built between 1909–1911. Named SMS Moltke and SMS Goeben,[b] they were similar to the previous Von der Tann unique battlecruiser, but the newer design featured several incremental improvements.
  • ******** Prior to the French revolution people were okay enough being Germans under Polish kings or Slavs or whatever. There was no move to forcibly change the language and culture of peoples. But that changed with the French revolution. in the 1800s you had nations rising feeling that “this space” was exclusively theirs and everyone should be forcibly made to speak the same language and have the same culture. The French, English, Germans, Russians did it and the smaller nations tried the same. This would inevitably lead to war as everyone’s cultural space overlapped with everyone else’s.https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-still-so-hard-to-determine-who-gets-the-most-blame-for-starting-WW1


World War I
- battles
  • The Siege of Tsingtao, sometimes Siege of Tsingtau, was the attack on the German port of Tsingtao (Qingdao) in China during World War I by Japan and the United Kingdom. The siege took place between 31 October and 7 November 1914 against Imperial Germany. The siege was the first encounter between Japanese and German forces and also the first Anglo-Japanese operation of the war.Japanese casualties numbered 733 killed and 1,282 wounded; the British had 12 killed and 53 wounded. The German defenders lost 199 dead and 504 wounded. The German dead were buried at Tsingtao, while the remaining soldiers were transported to prisoner of war camps in Japan. The 4,700 German prisoners were treated well and with respect in Japan, such as in Bandō prisoner-of-war camp. The German troops were interned in Japan until the formal signature of the Versailles peace treaty in 1919, but due to technical questions, the troops were not repatriated before 1920. 170 prisoners chose to remain in Japan after the end of the war.
  • The Battle of Belleau Wood (1–26 June 1918) occurred during the German Spring Offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France. The battle was fought between the U.S. 2nd (under the command of Major General Omar Bundy) and 3rd Divisions along with French and British forces against an assortment of German units including elements from the 237th, 10th, 197th, 87th, and 28th Divisions. The battle has become a key component of the lore of the United States Marine Corps.
- usa

  • RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner and briefly the world's largest passenger ship. The ship was sunk on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland. The sinking presaged the United States declaration of war on Germany (1917). The sinking caused a storm of protest in the United States because 128 American citizens were among the dead. The sinking helped shift public opinion in the United States against Germany and was one of the factors in the United States' declaration of war nearly two years later. After the First World War, successive British governments maintained that there were no munitions on board Lusitania, and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel. In 1982, the head of the British Foreign Office's North America department finally admitted that there is a large amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous and poses a safety risk to salvage teams.[

- russia

  • Concentration camp set up in russia shortly before the ending of war
- france

  • french army recruited over 600,000 soldiers from its colonies, of which nearly 300,000 were from north africa - algeria, tunisia and morocco. The majority of these were sent to fight on the western front.
  • By the end of the First World War, a third of working-age French citizens were dead or wounded with over 1,700,000 dead and over 4,000,000 wounded as well as countless landscapes and entire cities were destroyed—even today, huge areas in Northern France are fenced off due to the danger of thousands of unexploded shells.https://www.quora.com/For-which-countries-was-the-First-World-War-more-devastating-than-the-Second-World-War
- germany

  • https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-German-Empires-plan-for-carving-up-Europe-if-they-have-won-WW1
  • https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Germany-repeat-the-same-mistake-of-fighting-at-two-fronts-in-the-world-wars

- portugal

  • Went to war with germany in 1916
- italy
  • The London Pact (Italian: Patto di Londra), or more correctly, the Treaty of London, 1915, was a secret pact between the Triple Entente and the Kingdom of Italy. The treaty was signed in London on 26 April 1915 by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the French Republic, the Russian Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy.[1] Its intent was to have Italy break away from its existing 33-year-old Triple Alliance with the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, the core of the Central Powersfighting the war, and switch its allegiance to the Triple Entente, the core of the Allied Powers fighting the war. The main lure was a promise of large swaths of Austria-Hungary to the north of Italy and to the east across the Adriatic. Britain also promised funding. Italy, which had remained neutral during the first nine months of the war, promised to enter the war the next month. The previous alliance with Italy's old enemy Austria had never been popular with the population of 36 million Italians, and had more recently been promoted by some politicians as a realpolitik move. Many provisions of the pact were meant to be kept secret, until the conclusion of the war, but were published by the Bolsheviks when they came to power in Russia in late 1917.After the war, British and French leaders refused to fulfil the pact, giving rise to a belief in a so-called "mutilated victory" within Italy, which played a role in determining Italian inter-war expansion. It fueled the rhetoric of Italian irredentism and Italian nationalism before World War II and was a key point in the rise of fascism.
- brazil

  • Broke off relations with germany on 11apr1917 and declared war on 26oct1917
- carribean

  • The British West Indies Regiment was a unit of the British Army during the First World War, formed from volunteers from British colonies in the West Indies. In 1915 the British Army formed a second West Indies regiment from Caribbean volunteers who had made their way to Britain. Initially, these volunteers were drafted into a variety of units within the army, but in 1915 it was decided to group them together into a single regiment, named the British West Indies Regiment. The similarity of titles has sometimes led to confusion between this war-time unit and the long established West India Regiment. Both were recruited from black Caribbean volunteers and a number of officers from the WIR were transferred to the BWIR. The 1st Battalion was formed in September 1915 at Seaford, Sussex, England. It was made up of men from: British Guiana—A Company. Trinidad—B Company. Trinidad and St Vincent—C Company. Grenada and Barbados—D Company.


- cuba
  • Declared war on germany on 7apr1917
- blacks/negro

  • As the United States prepared to enter World War I in 1917, Du Bois's colleague in the NAACP, Joel Spingarn, established a camp to train African Americans to serve as officers in the United States military. The camp was controversial, because some whites felt that blacks were not qualified to be officers, and some blacks felt that African Americans should not participate in what they considered a white man's war.[131] Du Bois supported Spingarn's training camp, but was disappointed when the Army forcibly retired one of its few black officers, Charles Young, on a pretense of ill health.[132] The Army agreed to create 1,000 officer positions for blacks, but insisted that 250 come from enlisted men, conditioned to taking orders from whites, rather than from independent-minded blacks that came from the camp. Over 700,000 blacks enlisted on the first day of the draft, but were subject to discriminatory conditions which prompted vocal protests from Du Bois. After the East St. Louis riots occurred in the summer of 1917, Du Bois traveled to St. Louis to report on the riots. Between 40 and 250 African Americans were massacred by whites, primarily due to resentment caused by St. Louis industry hiring blacks to replace striking white workers. Federal officials, concerned about subversive viewpoints expressed by NAACP leaders, attempted to frighten the NAACP by threatening it with investigations.[141] Du Bois was not intimidated, and in 1918 he predicted that World War I would lead to an overthrow of the European colonial system and to the "liberation" of colored people worldwide – in China, in India, and especially in America.A further ten battalions were formed afterwards. High wastage led to further drafts being required from Jamaica, British Honduras and Barbados before the regiment was able to begin training. In total 15,600 men served in the British West Indies Regiment. Jamaica contributed two-thirds of these volunteers, while others came from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas, British Honduras (now Belize), Grenada, British Guiana (now Guyana), the Leeward Islands, Saint Luciaand St Vincent. Nearly 5,000 more subsequently volunteered.

- anzac

  • https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3007399/not-substantially-european-chinese-anzacs-who-fought The first world war was raging in Europe, and Australian greengrocer Fred Goon, son of Louey Fong Goon and Elizabeth Johnson, wanted to fight. Desperately. But to do so he would have to defy a Defence Act that banned men “not substantially of European origin or descent”. Australia was in the grip of the White Australia Policy, used for decades to exclude Chinese immigrants; the recruitment rules reflected similarly racist intent. Eight times Goon tried to sign up, and eight times he was rejected. But on his ninth try, on January 12, 1917, he succeeded. The medical officer noted the 23-year-old recruit’s dark complexion and hair, but not his Chinese heritage. A little over a year later, Goon was gulping down German drift gas in the trenches of the Western Front, and he was hospitalised for months. He returned to the Belgian front in time to take part in the last battle of the war involving Australian troops. The persistence of Goon, my great-uncle, may be some kind of record.
  • Of more than 200 men of Chinese descent who fought with the AIF during World War I, 46 were killed in action or died of wounds or sickness, and about 20 were awarded medals. Sing was wounded in action several times after being transferred to the Western Front in France in January 1917. Not long afterwards, he received the highest foreign commendation awarded to any Anzac of Chinese descent, the Croix de Guerre, awarded by the Belgian government for service with distinction. Sing was also entitled to wear an “A” over his battalion patch – which stood for Anzac – and the medal abbreviation DCM after his name.https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3081385/chinese-australian-war-hero-who-shot-dead-over-200-enemies

- nz

- fiji
  • https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205245029 Fiji Labour Company 
- japan
  • 歷史學家過去一般相信， 日本軍方在 1930年代開始計劃「南進」，但新加 坡國家圖書館高級研究員渡邊洋介指出，日軍軍官 其實早於 1910年，已就進攻東南亞草擬名為「南 寶行動」(Nanpo Operation)的方案，計劃掠奪婆羅 洲的石油資源，內容有日後日軍侵略的影子。http://pdf.wenweipo.com/2019/06/10/a18-0610.pdf
  • sided with allirs in 1914
  • ??? http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_571641ee0102uznm.html  第一次世界大战在亚洲的唯一战争在中国——日德战争（青岛）。1914.8.日本对德国宣战，至11月以德国战败告终。德军俘虏4700人。 1914年11月，日本在国内设13个战俘营，从青岛移送4400名战俘。
    習志野俘虜收容所 靜岡俘虜收容所 名古屋俘虜收容所
    大阪俘虜收容所 似島俘虜收容所 靑野原俘虜收容所
    德島俘虜收容所 丸龜俘虜收容所 松山俘虜收容所
    板東俘虜收容所 大分俘虜收容所 福岡俘虜收容所
    久留米俘虜收容所
    板東俘虜収容所 - Wikipedia
    http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/板東俘虜収容所
  • 習志野俘虜收容所（平假名:ならしのふりょしゅうようじょ）為第一次世界大戰時間日本千葉縣習志野市（千葉縣津田沼町）的俘虜收容所，收容所長為西鄉隆盛的嫡子西鄉寅太郎上校。日本於第一次世界大戰時於中國青島的德國租界俘虜德軍4,715名，其中約1,000 名於1915年（大正4年）至1920年（大正9年）收容於此地。建設費用為43,000日圓，包含1,300坪的收容所與廚房、倉庫等幾百坪的相關設施。並不同於日俄戰爭時俄國俘虜的收容所。德國俘虜大半是徵兵入伍者，於其母國擁有各自的職業技術。除了日方設置的收容大樓外，德國俘虜中具有土木經驗者還興建了被稱為Laube的休閒小屋與可以舉行演奏會、話劇表演的戶外舞台。除了俘虜組成劇團演出亨利克·易卜生的劇作、由俘虜擔任講師的俘虜大學、電影放映等活動，俘虜還進行足球、網球等運動與組織習志野俘虜樂團表演貝多芬、莫札特、舒曼和小約翰·史特勞斯的《藍色多瑙河》。建築間並開闢菜園，並釀造啤酒與葡萄酒。定期亦會前往稻毛海岸等觀光地遠足。除了在收容所印刷室製作日本風情的畫作外，德軍中對於日本文化感興趣者則進行日本民間故事的翻譯。另外有與地方進行交流的記錄，來欣賞演奏會的當地小孩可以拿到彈珠汽水，來參觀收容所的小學生則得到瓶中船作為禮物。這樣的交流包括肥皂與蛋黃醬等的做法，千葉市新設立的農商務省畜產試驗場則請本所的香腸專家教導製造香腸的專業技術，並透過農商務省的推廣傳至全國，因此習志野為日本香腸製造的發源地。 收容所也有人前往房總的牧場指導煉乳製法或是到東京銀座的咖啡廳教導西點製作。而在戰前山梨的葡萄園（現在的三得利山梨葡萄酒廠）僱用的德國葡萄酒技師亦收容於此。習志野俘虜收容所四年半的運作裏最大的事件為大正7年秋天開始於世界大流行的西班牙型流行性感冒，共有25名德國俘虜與西鄉所長本人因此病逝。於該年12月首位死者出現後，第二位病逝者為西鄉所長。1919年1月1日，早上起便開始發燒的西鄉所長不聽醫師的勸告，騎馬前往收容所慰問因敗戰消息而深受打擊的德國俘虜，並表示這個新年將是他們歸國之年。而根據德國俘虜的記錄，所長於該日下午四時病逝。包含因西班牙感冒與其他疾病逝世者，共計30名德軍俘虜的墓碑設立於習志野陸軍墓地（現在的船橋市習志野靈園），至今德國駐日大使館的武官在每年11月皆會前往該地舉行慰靈祭。
  • no english or deutsch versions 

- siam
  • Declaredcwar on germany and austria on 22jul1917
- china

  • Declared war on germany and austria on 14aug1917

- Chinese

  • The Chinese Labour Corps (CLC; Corps de Travailleurs Chinois) was a force of workers recruited by the British government in World War I to free troops for front line duty by performing support work and manual labour. The French government also recruited a significant number of Chinese labourers, and although those labourers working for the French were recruited separately and not part of the CLC, they are often considered to be so. In all, some 140,000 men served for both British and French forces before the war ended and most of the men were repatriated to China between 1918 and 1920.
  •  Le corps de travailleurs chinois est une force de travailleurs recrutés par le gouvernement britannique pendant la Première Guerre mondiale pour apporter une aide — non combattante — aux forces armées du Royaume-Uni.Ces Chinois, appelés « Célestes », sont des volontaires. Le contrat de ces coolies stipule qu'ils s'engagent pendant trois ans à travailler dans l'industrie et l'agriculture, dix heures par jour, sept jours sur sept, en échange d'un bon salaire.
  • chinese laborers were recruited by Allied Forces as Chinese Labor Corps (known colloquially as the Coolie Corps).  The laborers were recruited from Shandong, ironically the province Germany had regarded as her own special sphere of influence.  The men were recruited by British and Canadian missionaries working in the province. (source: Diana Lary Chinese Migration)
  • french and british armies both recruited large numbers of chinese labourers to do heavy work of road building and maintenace necessary to transport troops, munitions and supplies to the front. They were also valuedcas competent trench diggers and mechanics, maintening vehicles and tanks. 
  • https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3081749/how-chinese-labour-corps-was-painted-out-world-war-i-their Davies’ first sighting of the Chinese graves was in Noyelles-sur-Mer in France in 2012. “These Chinese graves were the same size, the same shape. I’d always wondered who these guys were,” he says.The book analyses the trade in silver, jewellery, tea and opium between China and foreign nations leading up to World War I, and the relationships China had with the rest of the world. The main focus is the largely untold story of the men, mainly from China’s coastal Shandong province, who were recruited by the Allied forces and travelled to the Western Front.After 
     Britain declared war on Germany
      on August 6, 1914, two major events unfolded over the two subsequent days. Australia and New Zealand followed Britain into the conflict, and set about establishing the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, the now revered Anzacs, and China declared its neutrality.Although China had wanted to stay out of the war, it later saw an opportunity to improve its reputation and gain a seat at the international table of diplomatic relations. Chinese minister Liang Shiyi suggested the country provide labour to aid the Allies. “By sending manual labour, China could show support for the Allied cause without violating her neutrality,” writes Davies.China’s initial offers were ignored, but opinions changed towards the end of 1914, when the French lost as many as 300,000 men in battle and “barely saved Paris”, writes Davies.With the need for logistics and support suddenly outweighing the Allies’ concern about dependency on Chinese labour, discussions between China and Britain began in early March 1915, and with the French in June. The talks initially stalled, but resumed as the Allies saw how undermanned their forces were.By contracting Chinese manpower through ostensibly “private” companies or agents, China could support the Allied war effort, yet stand above accusations it had contravened its declared neutrality. In return for the labourers, the Chinese government negotiated a deal with Britain for the country’s support in peace agreements or conferences when the war ended, an increase in taxes on Chinese goods, and a suspension for 50 years of reparations, imposed after the Boxer Rebellion, a violent campaign launched in 1900 to expel all foreigners from China. The British then began recruiting labourers, and rejected as many as 60 per cent of the applicants. Men were hired based on military criteria: they had to be aged 20 to 40, and without venereal disease, poor teeth, eye problems or physical impairments.The French were gentler in their handling of the Chinese Labour Corps men, whom they recruited on five-year contracts for “national defence”, not “military action”.Some corpsmen would later disappear from British camps only to reappear in the French facilities, writes Davies. French law protected the rights of the Chinese recruits, allowed them to practise their religion, and provided for health care and holidays.According to official records, Davies writes, 3,000 to 5,000 Chinese labourers died during the Great War, including as many as 800 lost at sea to sickness and German submarine attacks. At least 543 Chinese Labour Corps men made the ultimate sacrifice when the French passenger ship SS Athos, which was carrying them to war, was sunk by a German torpedo near Malta.Many of the Chinese men had roles similar to those of an Australian combat engineer: a labourer on the front line providing mobility to soldiers by clearing minefields and enemy ordnance, transport by boat, bridge building and general construction, including defensive pits.And much like an engineer, whose role is first in and last out, “when the war ended, they didn’t allow them to go home”, says Davies.While many Allied soldiers, including the Anzacs from Australia and New Zealand, returned home to be greeted as heroes, the men of the Chinese Labour Corps remained to clear the battlefield, fill trenches, clear ordnance and bury the dead.“These men worked until 1920 in the British areas and until 1922 in French areas, and the CLC men were the very last British forces to leave France,” Davies writes.By chance, the historian met Hong Kong-born private investor Albert Wong through a mutual friend, former Wallabies rugby union captain Nick Farr Jones. The history of the Chinese Labour Corps fascinated Wong, who told the story to his mother, Kaye Wong (née Shiu Kee Mui), 92, a former teacher at St Stephen’s College in Stanley, Hong Kong. She also had previously not heard of the corps.

  •  徐國琦始終認為，從過往認真研究華工赴歐洲戰爭工作到寫下專著《為文明出征》，都是為了讓今人能夠更加明白華工在滄桑變幻歷史中的獨特角色和位置。一戰華工是中國全面走向世界的非常重要步驟。一戰爆發代表西方文明遇到強烈挑戰。當時，既存的國際秩序正在崩潰，新的秩序尚未建立。例如，德國試圖「分享 陽光下的一片地盤」，對英法俄等國得天下之先非常憤怒。開戰之後，範圍上不僅是一場世界大戰，就西方自身而言也是一場極其殘忍、極其不人道的內戰，如細菌 戰等形式的出現均在一戰時期，可以說是不擇手段，超過了人類文明所能容忍的極限，結果是西方內部兩敗俱傷。同時，戰爭令西方失去了道德上對其他文明的優越 感。所以一戰結束之後，西方開始有靈魂的反省。一戰後不少人認為西方不再代表世界優秀文明。印度詩人泰戈爾就持有這樣的觀點。原本傾向崇拜西方文明的梁啟 超、蔣百里等一批中國名流在戰後到歐洲遊歷，發現西方文明不少致命傷，認為東西方文明都有問題，呼籲東西方文明對話和互補。顯然，「文明」一詞成為一戰期 間和戰後的關鍵字。 在中國的歷史語境中，一戰華工八成以上是文盲，在離開中國之前沒有走出過自己的縣城，他們到法國去工作，並沒有宏大的理想，大多只是為了謀生。例如 不少華工來自山東，當時的山東饑民很多，民不聊生。不過，華工雖然主觀上不是濟世救民，但客觀上他們的歐洲旅程對於拯救東西方文明，均發揮了重要影響和積 極作用。首先，一戰華工出國是當時的中國精英提出的「以工代兵」政策的結果。從1895年甲午戰爭開始到1919年，這是中國文明和歷史進程巨大轉 折時期。在這期間，中國拋棄了儒家文明和帝制，取消了延續千年的科舉考試，並在1912年宣佈成為亞洲第一個真正意義上的共和國。共和制在當時的世界上是 一個激進的政治制度，只有極少數國家如法國和美國是真正意義上的共和國。中國就是在新舊更替的這個時期，一心要變成共和制、要改良文字，發起新文化運動、 五四運動，目標都是在尋找成為世界民族之林平等一員的途徑，是在世界秩序更替的過程中籌謀強國的道路。一戰爆發時，袁世凱早期力圖派遣軍隊向青島的德軍宣 戰，但是被英國拒絕。因為英國擔心中國會成為印度的榜樣。所以在1915年初日本向中國提出的旨在滅亡中國的「二十一條」之後，梁士詒等人旋即提出送華工 去歐洲，支援英國和法國的戰爭。梁士詒最早提議乃是輸出帶槍的工人，被英國拒絕。但是法國人後來接受了非武裝的華工進入法國工作。因此，「以工代兵」是中 國救亡圖存和參加國際事務的重要一環。http://pdf.wenweipo.com/2017/08/28/a18-0828.pdf
  •  第一次世界大戰期間，約有14萬中國勞工遠赴重洋來到歐洲戰場協助英法軍隊，但他們的故事卻一直被西方國家所忽略。本月11日，英國首次舉行活動正式紀念 參與一戰的中國勞工，以及他們為恢復世界和平作出的重要貢獻。當天，30多名華人在倫敦唐寧街前的陣亡烈士紀念碑敬獻花環，這是英國首次在正式活動中紀念 參與一戰的中國勞工。歷史上，中國雖然宣佈了參加第一次世界大戰，但並沒有真正派出軍隊。而真正參與戰爭的是14萬中國勞工，他們前往歐洲為協約國西線戰 場提供了重要的勞動力。http://pdf.wenweipo.com/2017/11/13/a16-1113.pdf
  • 比利時政府紀念一戰華工的三尊雕像周三正式揭幕，政府人員及英國駐比利時大使，一起到訪與法國接壤的波佩林格市，向雕像獻花致敬。在一九一六年至一九一八年間，數以十萬計華工面臨炮火，在比利時主戰場負責修理及救護等工作。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20171117/00180_033.html
  • http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2017-12/19/content_35330262.htm Author and musician Clive Harvey wanted to bring the images and stories of the Chinese Labor Corps to life in his first work of fiction.
  • 今年是第一次世界大戰結束100周年。法國當地時間4月8日，來自中國、法國和英國等多國的各方人士齊聚在歐洲最大的一戰華工墓園--法國北部的諾萊特華工墓園，舉行祭奠活動。http://pdf.wenweipo.com/2018/04/10/a16-0410.pdf
  • https://www.la-croix.com/Monde/Asie-et-Oceanie/Guerre-14-18-memoire-oubliee-ouvriers-chinois-France-2018-11-05-1200980850 Près de 40 000 Chinois ont été recrutés en France à partir de 1916 à cause du manque de main-d’œuvre. Une réalité méconnue en Chine.
  • appledaily 21oct19 feature article on canadian chinese in ww1 written by chip tsao

The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson. Europeans generally welcomed Wilson's points, but his main Allied colleagues (Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy) were skeptical of the applicability of Wilsonian idealism. The United States had joined the Allied Powers in fighting the Central Powers on April 6, 1917. Its entry into the war had in part been due to Germany's resumption of submarine warfare against merchant ships trading with France and Britain and also the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram. However, Wilson wanted to avoid the United States' involvement in the long-standing European tensions between the great powers; if America was going to fight, he wanted to try to separate that participation in the war from nationalistic disputes or ambitions. The need for moral aims was made more important, when after the fall of the Russian government, the Bolsheviks disclosed secret treaties made between the Allies. Wilson's speech also responded to Vladimir Lenin's Decree on Peace of November 1917, immediately after the October Revolution in 1917. The speech made by Wilson took many domestic progressive ideas and translated them into foreign policy (free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination). Three days earlier United Kingdom Prime Minister Lloyd George had made a speech setting out Britain's war aims which bore some similarity to Wilson's speech but which proposed reparations be paid by the Central Powers and which was more vague in its promises to the non-Turkish subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The Fourteen Points in the speech were based on the research of the Inquiry, a team of about 150 advisers led by foreign-policy adviser Edward M. House, into the topics likely to arise in the anticipated peace conference.
- hkej 29oct18 shum article 

The Treaty of Sèvres (French: Traité de Sèvres) was one of a series of treaties[3] that the Central Powers signed after their defeat in World War I. Hostilities had already ended with the Armistice of Mudros. The treaty was signed on 10 August 1920, in an exhibition room at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres porcelain factory in Sèvres, France. The Sèvres treaty marked the beginning of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, and its dismemberment. The terms it stipulated included the renunciation of all non-Turkish territory and its cession to the Allied administration.[6] Notably, the ceding of Eastern Mediterranean lands allowed the creation of new forms of government, including the Mandate for Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. The terms of the treaty stirred hostility and nationalist feeling amongst Turks. The signatories of the treaty were stripped of their citizenship by the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,[8] and this ignited the Turkish War of Independence. In that war, Atatürk led the Turkish nationalists to defeat the combined armies of the signatories of the Treaty of Sèvres, including the remnants of the Ottoman Empire while implementing the Greek and Armenian Genocide. In a new treaty, that of Lausanne in 1923, Turkish sovereignty was preserved through the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.
- If the Treaty of Sèvres had remained in place, Turkey would be a much, much smaller country than it is today and it would own no European territories whatsoever. Under the Treaty of Sèvres, East Thrace and the District of Smyrna would have been ceded to Greece, the region around Istanbul would have been made an international zone known as the “Zone of the Straits,” southwestern Anatolia would have been made an Italian sphere of influence, a large portion of eastern Turkey would have been given to Armenia, and southeastern Turkey would have been divided into French and British spheres of influence. Only the central northern portion of Anatolia around Ankara would have remained fully in Turkish hands.https://www.quora.com/What-would-Turkey-and-its-neighbors-Greece-Georgia-Armenia-etc-look-like-today-if-the-Treaty-of-Sevres-remained-in-place
- https://www.quora.com/Why-wasnt-Constantinople-returned-to-Greece-after-the-Ottoman-Empire-lost-WW1 note the maps


Central european union
- https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:19343441 enigmatic map illustrates a complex utopian scheme for radically-restructured European unification after World War I. It was produced by "P.A.M.," an elusive figure, to accompany a 24-page pamphlet ("The Central European Union! A Guide to Lasting Peace") 

The Paris Peace Conference, also known as Versailles Peace Conference, was the meeting of the victorious Allied Powers following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. Involving diplomats from 32 countries and nationalities, the major or main decisions were the creation of the League of Nations, as well as the five peace treaties with the defeated states; the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as "mandates", chiefly to Britain and France; reparations imposed on Germany; and the drawing of new national boundaries (sometimes with plebiscites) to better reflect ethnic boundaries.
- china
  •  [mayfourth exhibition at central library]  全權代表：陆徵祥,施肇基, 王正廷

League of nations
- covenant
  • Article X of the Covenant of the League of Nations is the section calling for assistance to be given to a member that experiences external aggression. It was signed by the major Peacemakers (Allied Forces) following the First World War, most notably Britain and France. Due to the nature of the Article, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was unable to ratify his obligation to join the League of Nations, as a result of strong objection from U.S. politicians. Although Wilson had secured his proposal for a League of Nations in the final draft of theTreaty of Versailles, the U.S. Senate refused to consent to the ratification of the Treaty. For many Republicans in the Senate, Article X was the most objectionable provision. Their objections were based on the fact that, by ratifying such a document, the United States would be bound by international contract to defend a League of Nations member if it was attacked.Henry Cabot Lodge from Massachusetts and Frank B. Brandegee from Connecticut led the fight in the U.S. Senate against ratification, believing that it was best not to become involved in international conflicts. Under the United States Constitution, the President of the United States may not ratify a treaty unless the Senate, by a two-thirds vote, gives its advice and consent.
- dutch, swiss, scandinavian and german scheme for a league of nations (more nearly akin to that adopted at locarno), conciliation traeties concluded in 1920 and 3rd assembly of the league in 1922 unanimously adopted
- economic and financial organisation 

  • activities of the organisation split european continent into four economic structures
  • uk and france - order providing core
  • germany
  • communist russia and later soviet union
  • newly emerged countries in eastern europe, most of these countries faced severe economic difficulties and needed economic assistance, which was provided through the institutional setup of league of nations. 

development of countries between the two wars
- spain

- germany

- italy

  • promoted from uncertain status of the least of great powers to a full fledged great power (prove to be a great illusion).  Italian rights (over the mediterranean as a whole was recognised and expansion in the N and E africa accepted - objective to curtail both french and british presence in mediterranean. 
  • "mediterranean dream" evaporated in face of italian collapse of sept 1943
- poland

  • https://www.quora.com/Did-Winston-Churchill-really-say-Poland-is-a-greedy-hyena-of-Europe-In-what-context

- constantinople

  • In the Constantinople Agreement (1915), the Entente (France and Britain) promised to give Constantinople and the Straits to the Russians once they won the war.Russia had always claimed Constantinople, which was the spiritual capital of the Orthodox Church, and it was of great strategic value to control the Straits and trade from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Russia could then claim to be the Third Rome.But sure, logically it would have been better to promise Greece the city of Constantinople, given that 40% of Constantinople was Greek and Constantinople used to be the former Byzantine capital, but any Orthodox country would make do with controlling the city.And even after WW1, Constantinople was not given to Greece in the Treaty of Sevres (1920), and was instead made into an international de-militarized zone.Why?Greece was just not strong enough to control Constantinople, and the Entente did not really care about creating a ‘Greater Greece’.https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Constantinople-promised-to-the-Russians-and-not-to-the-Greeks-after-World-War-One


- china

  • The Shandong Problem (山東問題) refers to the dispute over Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which dealt with the concession of the Shandong Peninsula. During the First World War, China supported the Allies on condition that the Kiautschou Bay concession, Imperial Germany's concession on the Shandong peninsula, would be returned to China. However, in 1915, China, forced by Japanese ultimatum, reluctantly agreed to a reduced set of "Thirteen Demands" from Japan's original Twenty-One Demands which, among other things, acknowledged Japanese control of former German holdings. Britain and France promised Japan it could keep these holdings. In late 1918, China reaffirmed the transfer to Germany and accepted payments from Japan. Article 156 in 1919 officially transferred the concessions in Shandong to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China. Despite its formal agreement to Japan's terms (in 1915 and 1918), China at Paris in 1919 now denounced the transfer of German holdings, and won the strong support of President Wilson. The Chinese ambassador to France, Wellington Koo, stated that China could never relinquish Shandong, which was the birthplace of Confucius, the central Chinese philosopher, as much as Christians could not concede Jerusalem. He demanded the promised return of sovereignty over Shandong, to no avail. Japan was adamant and prevailed. Chinese popular outrage over this provision led to demonstrations and a cultural movement known as the May Fourth Movement and influenced Wellington Koo not to sign the treaty. China's refusal to sign the Versailles Treaty necessitated a separate treaty with Germany in 1921. The Shandong dispute was mediated by the United States in 1922 during the Washington Naval Conference. In a victory for China, the sovereignty of Shandong was returned to China. However Japan maintained its economic dominance of the railway and the province as a whole.
  • according to 溫州基督教編年史, 温州自立會於1919年9月組織救國團, 救火會旗號白布藍十字 



armaments race
- The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, the Four-Power Treaty, and the Nine-Power Treaty, was a treaty among the major nations that had won World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference, held in Washington, D.C., from November 1921 to February 1922, and it was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriersby the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement.Later naval arms limitation conferences sought additional limitations of warship building. The terms of the Washington treaty were modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. By the mid-1930s, Japan and Italy renounced the treaties while Germany had renounced the Treaty of Versailles[2], making naval arms limitation an increasingly untenable position for the other signatories.


The Treaty of Guarantee was an agreement in which Britain and the United States guaranteed the French frontier against German aggression. It came out of a proposal byLloyd George, the British Prime Minister, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, followingWorld War I, as a compromise to Marshal Ferdinand Foch's insistence that the Franco-German border be pushed back to the Rhine. Foch felt that the new border would prevent another German invasion into France. (France had been invaded from across the Rhine five times within a century: in 1814, 1815, 1870, 1914, and 1918.)Lloyd George suggested a compromise. If France relinquished its claims on the Rhine, Britain and the United States would guarantee France's boundary against future German aggression. In return for abandoning the Rhine, Clemenceau accepted solemn guarantees of his country's frontier from his two great allies. Both houses of the British parliament approved the Treaty of Guarantee in July 1919 if the United States also ratified it. The US Senate refused to approve it or the Versailles Treaty. That nullified the British assent.
- treatment of submarine cables
  • those connected with shantung
  • art 156 - germany renounced in favour of japan, particularly those concerning the territory of kiaochow, railways, mines and submarine cables (which she acquired by virtue of treaty with china on 6mar1898; submarine cables from tsingtao to shanghai and from tsingtao to chefoo acquired by japan
  • china was dissatisfied and declined to ratify the treaty. As a result of washington conference 1921-22, a treaty between japan and china was signed on 4feb 1922 , agreeing that kiaochow be restored to china; japan only acquire rights of cable between tsingtao and sasebo which she laid
  • other cables in which germany had interests in various parts of the world
  • art 244 of treaty of versailles
  • note the set of cables centred at island of yap which is of particular concern to usa, was administered by japan subject to certain conditions according to treaty signed by usa and japan on 11feb1922 following washington conference 
- 
The Free City of Danzig (German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920. In accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I. The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and settlements that had been primarily inhabited by ethnic Germans. As the Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Germany (the Weimar Republic) and from the newly independent nation of the Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent state. The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding customs union with Poland. Poland was given full rights to develop and maintain transportation, communication, and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport. While the city's population was majority-German, it had a significant Polish minority as well. The German population deeply resented being separated from Germany, and  subjected the Polish minority to discrimination and ethnically based harassment. This was especially true after the Nazi Party gained political control in 1935-36. Since Poland still was not in complete control of the seaport, especially regarding military equipment, a new seaport was built in nearby Gdynia, beginning 1921. In 1933, the City's government was taken over by the local Nazi Party which suppressed the democratic opposition. Due to anti-Semitic persecution and oppression, many Jews fled. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia. The Nazis classified the Poles and Jews living in the city as subhumans, subjecting them to discrimination, forced labor, and extermination. Many were sent to death at Nazi concentration camps, including nearby Stutthof (now Sztutowo, Poland). During the city's conquest by the Soviet Army in the early months of 1945, many citizens fled or were killed. After the war, many surviving ethnic Germans were expelled and deported to the West when members of the pre-war Polish minority started returning. The city subsequently became part of Poland, as a consequence of the Potsdam Agreement. Polish settlers replaced the German population.
  • citizens of dantzig lost german nationality immediately the treaty of versailles came into operation



The Treaty of Lausanne (French: Traité de Lausanne) was a peace treaty signed in Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. It officially settled the conflict that had originally existed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied French Republic, British Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan, Kingdom of Greece, and the Kingdom of Romania since the onset of World War I. The original text of the treaty is in French. It was the result of a second attempt at peace after the failed Treaty of Sèvres, which was signed by all previous parties, except the Kingdom of Greece, but later rejected by the Turkish national movement who fought against the previous terms and significant loss of territory. The Treaty of Lausanne ended the conflict and defined the borders of the modern Turkish Republic. In the treaty, Turkey gave up all claims to the remainder of the Ottoman Empire and in return the Allies recognized Turkish sovereignty within its new borders. The treaty was ratified by Turkey on 23 August 1923, Greece on 25 August 1923, Italy on 12 March 1924, Japan on 15 May 1924, Great Britain on 16 July 1924. The treaty came into force on 6 August 1924, when the instruments of ratification had been officially deposited in Paris, France.
- hkej 11dec17 shum article


The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno,Switzerland, on 5–16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December, in which the First World War Western European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and return normalizing relations with defeated Germany (which was, by this time, the Weimar Republic). Ratifications for the Locarno treaties were exchanged in Geneva on 14 September 1926, and on the same day they became effective. The treaties were also registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on the same day. It also stated that Germany would never go to war with the other countries. Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories: western, which were guaranteed by Locarno treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland, which were open for revision, thus leading to Germany's renewed claims to the German-populated Free City of Danzig and mixed ethnic Polish territories approved by the League of Nations including the Polish Corridor, and Upper Silesia.
- background

  • germany protest against the occupation of ruhr by france under the poincare government
  • a memorandum from Chancellor Luther was put forward in february 1925
  • October 1925 delegates from great britain, france, germany, italy, belgium, poland and czechoslavokia
- final protocol - five treaties annexed
  • security pact/treaty of mutual gaurantee (between GB, France, germany, italy, belgium)
  • 4 arbitration treaties between germany and belgium; france; poland and czechoslavokia respectively
  • all these interdependent
  • there are two treaties made between france and poland and czechoslovakia respectively providing mutual assistance in case of unprovoked attack by germany.
  • Note that there were no undertakings in polish and czech treaties to guarantee of rhineland settlement and not to attack each other 
  • Note none of the british empire dominions and india acceded to the treaties.
- positions
  • Polish corridor, silesian boundary not acceptable to germany
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, also known as the Nazi–Soviet Pact, the German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact or the Nazi German-Soviet Pact of Aggression (officially: Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), was a neutrality pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov, respectively. The pact delineated the spheres of interest between the two powers, confirmed by the supplementary protocol of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty amended after the joint invasion of Poland. It remained in force for nearly two years, until the German government of Adolf Hitler ended the pact by launching an attack on the Soviet positions in Eastern Poland during Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941. The clauses of the Nazi-Soviet Pact provided a written guarantee of non-belligerence by each party towards the other, and a declared commitment that neither government would ally itself to, or aid, an enemy of the other party. In addition to stipulations of non-aggression, the treaty included a secret protocol that divided territories of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania, into German and Soviet "spheres of influence", anticipating "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries. Thereafter, Germany invadedPoland on 1 September 1939. Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin ordered the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September, one day after a Soviet-Japanese ceasefire at the Khalkhin Gol came into effect.[9] In November, parts of the Karelia and Salla regions in Finland were annexed by the Soviet Union after the Winter War. This was followed by Soviet annexations of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and parts of Romania (Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertza region). Advertised concern about ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians had been proffered as justification for the Soviet invasion of Poland. Stalin's invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the pact, as it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence agreed with the Axis.
- hkej 17aug17 shum article

Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones, clearing the way for the incarceration of Japanese Americans, German Americans, and Italian Americans to American concentration camps.
- https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/02/17/national/trump-immigration-policies-deja-vu-descendants-wwii-internees/



World war II
- concentration camps
  •  https://www.quora.com/What-effects-did-concentration-camps-have-on-its-guards
- usa
  •  The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Commission and ship allocation under the WSA to Army, Navy or civilian needs were closely coordinated though Vice Admiral Emory S. Land who continued as head of the Maritime Commission while also heading the WSA.
  • The Lend-Lease policy, formally titled An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States(enacted March 11, 1941), was a program under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom (and British Commonwealth), Free France, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, and ended in September 1945. In general the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war. Canada operated a similar smaller program called Mutual Aid.
  • ???the Flyer Tigers were one of two groups of foreign citizens* who left their lives and careers to contribute to the Chinese war effort against the Imperial Japanese Military. In 1941, a young pilot named Don McBride left his native United States to travel halfway around the world to help defend people he'd never met. Leaving his civilian job as a flight instructor he joined the newly formed First American Volunteer Group or AVG in their new mission in Asia. All those years ago Captain McBride kept a diary of his time in China and India during the war. His diary stands as an amazing artifact that corresponds with his time as a pilot for the CNAC. (China National Aviation Corporation 國航集團).https://www.meetup.com/Hong-Kong-Sacred-Spaces/events/273030765/
- canada
  • role and commemoration in hk hkej 21dec18 shum article
- panama

  • https://www.quora.com/Was-the-Panama-canal-ever-a-target-during-WW2-Did-it-ever-come-under-attack
- soviet union

  • https://www.quora.com/Would-the-Soviet-Union-have-survived-German-invasion-without-American-military-aid
  • https://www.rbth.com/history/332140-moscow-during-wwii
- finland
  • https://www.quora.com/What-small-nations-in-history-were-surprisingly-difficult-to-conquer-by-larger-nations
- uk

  • The Burma Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for award to subjects of the British Commonwealth who served in the Second World War, specifically in the Burma Campaign from 1941 to 1945. Army and Navy personnel and Air Force ground crew serving ashore qualified through entry into operational service in Burma between 11 December 1941 and 2 September 1945. Airborne troops of the Armies who took part in airborne operations in a qualifying area for land operations qualified by entry into operational service. Air crew who flew over the qualifying land and sea areas within the specified dates qualified by an operational sortie, while air crew on transport or ferrying duties qualified by at least three landings in any of the qualifying land areas. The medal was also awarded for service during certain specified periods in China, Hong Kong, India, Malaya and Sumatra, all dates inclusive: Bengal and Assam in India from 1 May 1942 to 31 December 1943. Bengal and Assam, east of the Brahmaputra and Dihang Rivers, from 1 January 1941 to 2 September 1945. China from 16 February 1942 to 2 September 1945. Hong Kong from 26 December 1941 to 2 September 1945. Malaya from 16 February 1942 to 2 September 1945. Sumatra from 24 March 1942 to 2 September 1945. Service in China, Hong Kong, Malaya and Sumatra after 8 December 1941 but prior to the start dates listed above was recognised by the award of the Pacific Star.
  • re germany
  • ??????? Eisenhower stopped at the Elbe river and on his own communicated to Stalin he would not got further. He wanted to have a river between allied forces and the Russians. He felt the clash would be unavoidable and he feared the Red Army bulk of arms and overwhelming forces and momentum will defeat the allied forces and overcome the whole West Europe.
    Eisenhower gave three reasons for standing on the Elbe: His armies were already well beyond the line of the western occupation zones that had been agreed to with the Soviets. Why take casualties for land that would have to be handed over? He had always worried about his troops meeting Soviets on the run around a corner. He thought it safer to meet them with a broad river between. And, finally, ''Berlin is only a political objective, not a military objective.'' The decision to stand on the Elbe was Ike's, the most controversial decision of his public career. At the time, Britain's Winston Churchill was furious. He wanted every effort made to reach Berlin before the Soviets. And he protested to Roosevelt that Ike had informed Stalin of this decision without consulting Churchill or Roosevelt.https://www.quora.com/What-would-have-happened-if-America-decided-to-go-with-Operation-Unthinkable-in-1945-who-would-have-won-the-Allies-or-the-Soviet-Union
  • re austria hungary
  • https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Great-Britain-agree-with-the-dissolution-of-Austria-Hungary-during-WWI
  • re israel
  • ?! https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-British-not-tell-the-Arabs-in-Palestine-and-neighboring-countries-that-they-want-to-create-the-state-of-Israel

- germany
  • In 1937 (I think) Germany tried to emit debt on the US financial market. Luckily for the US, an accomplished former financial swindler, Joseph Kennedy (father of JFK) was running and developing the US Securities and Exchange Commission before. Kennedy set up SEC to recognize and fight cons he himself knew too well. SEC said “fine, but Germany will have to publish it’s economy data, and we will audit those”. Germans quietly withdrew from that debt sale attempt. They did not want advertise to everyone that they are broke. They annexed Austria instead, with it’s nice bank reserves, which allowed them to pay bills for some months. Then Germany had to take the Czechs, and then food from Poland. The latter case, they also had to reduce the amount of people to feed. Partly “business, not personal”, though there were some well known personal factors as well.https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-claim-Nazi-Germany-was-bankrupt-in-1938-if-the-debt-was-only-about-40-of-GNP-and-the-economic-growth-was-8-10
  • *************https://www.quora.com/What-did-the-average-German-soldier-believe-he-was-fighting-for-in-World-War-II
  • ***********https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-Adolf-Hitler-foresaw-a-surrender-on-the-Western-front-in-the-last-week-of-April-1945 In an interview with Albert Speer in the 1970s, Speer stated that in late April, Hitler one day became very jovial and made an announcement in the command bunker that he had made one of the most important decisions of the war. He said German forces were to no longer fight in the west and that all military forces would now fight solely against the advancing Russian army in the east. Speer also said that Hitler was pretty far gone by this point and, regardless of what his true intentions were, no such orders were transmitted to the west. The major surrenders there would happen a few weeks later after Donitz had taken over the government.Post war analysis has suggested that Hitler actually didn’t want to surrender in the west, but was hoping the west would join with him in fighting the Russians. It was his dream that German soldiers would simply “turn around”, with Americans and British helping them, and push the Communists out of Europe. Ironically, there were a small number of Allied commanders who probably wouldn’t have had a problem with that (like Patton) but as official policy the Allied governments would never have done such a thing.So, we think today that Hitler knew the west was lost in April 1945 and wanted to simply fight the Russians, going out in a blaze of glory in his ideological war of Nazism against Communism. In that regard, he did get his wish at least in Berlin.
  • This map shows Nazi controlled territory on May 1st 1945 - the day AFTER Hitler committed suicide. The white parts - are under Nazi control and would remain so until the various commanders of those areas surrendered. You'll notice that much of the Netherlands and all of Denmark were no yet liberated. Nor was (although you can’t see it on the map) much of Norway. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Germany-wait-until-the-country-was-utterly-destroyed-and-occupied-until-surrendering-during-WW2
  • pow
  • https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-the-captured-Wehrmacht-soldiers-never-considered-trying-to-escape-from-Allied-POW-camps
- france
  • Military administration http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/11744014
  • Note the zone d'occupation italienne, include menton, nice, toulon, corsica https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:France_map_Lambert-93_with_regions_and_departments-occupation-fr.svg, and post in simon basilica on sardinia 27aug17
  • https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-the-French-make-a-last-stand-in-Paris-during-WW2
  • The French Resistance (French: La Résistance) was the collection of French movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime during the Second World War. Resistance cells were small groups of armed men and women (called the Maquis in rural areas),[2][3] who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines. The men and women of the Resistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society, including émigrés, academics, students, aristocrats, conservative Roman Catholics(including priests), and also citizens from the ranks of liberals, anarchists and communists.   The French Resistance played a significant role in facilitating the Allies' rapid advance through France following the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, and the lesser-known invasion of Provence on 15 August, by providing military intelligence on the German defences known as the Atlantic Wall and on Wehrmacht deployments and orders of battle. The Resistance also planned, coordinated, and executed acts of sabotage on the electrical power grid, transport facilities, and telecommunications networks.
  • Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French entertainer, activist, and French Resistance agent. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. During her early career she was renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in the revue Un vent de folie in 1927 caused a sensation in Paris. Her costume, consisting of only a girdle of artificial bananas, became her most iconic image and a symbol of the Jazz Age and the 1920s.[citation needed] Baker was celebrated by artists and intellectuals of the era, who variously dubbed her the “Black Venus”, the "Black Pearl", the "Bronze Venus", and the "Creole Goddess". Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she renounced her U.S. citizenship and became a French national after her marriage to French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937.[2] She raised her children in France. "I have two loves, my country and Paris." the artist once said, and sang: «J'ai deux amours, mon pays et Paris».
  • there is a hermes scarf featuring her dancing 
- monaco

  • https://www.quora.com/What-was-Monaco-s-fate-during-WW2-Did-the-Germans-need-to-capture-it-while-they-were-in-France-or-was-it-not-important Since the beginning of the war, dozens of German companies had set up shop; Nazi financing flowed into the principality. After a period of financial scarcity, since the end of its gambling monopoly on the Côte d'Azur in 1933, the Principality of Monaco has returned to a financially prosperous period. In March 1942, Dr. Schaefer, Chairman of the Reich Control Department at the Banque de France, was welcomed as a prince in Monaco with a view to setting up a German subsidiary bank on the Rock, rather than a branch of the Reichsbank or Deutsche Bank. Since then, Monaco has become a capital of all trafficking, black markets and fraud, not just tax fraud.The businessman Michel Szkolnikoff, who made a quick and colossal fortune trading with the German army and the SS, acquired 7 hotels including the Windsor and the Louvre, several buildings and villas, becoming the Principality's first landowner. It will also conduct a large part of its activities and trafficking through Monegasque companies. During the Second World War, the Germans trading with Vichy made a large number of investments in Monaco, to such an extent that in 1945, when German money was confiscated, a sum was discovered on the principality that would today correspond to 500 million Swiss francs (about 300 million euros), an amount equivalent to that seized on the entire French territory.

- italy

  • https://www.quora.com/If-Italy-never-joined-WWII-on-Hitler-s-side-how-would-WWII-have-been-different
  • https://www.quora.com/Why-do-many-historians-say-that-the-invasion-of-Italy-in-WW-II-was-useless-and-did-not-give-the-Allies-any-strategic-advantage
  • South Tyrol as an administrative entity originated during the First World War. The Allies promised the area to Italy in the Treaty of London of 1915 as an incentive to enter the war on their side. Until 1918 it was part of the Austro-Hungarian princely County of Tyrol, but this almost completely German-speaking territory was occupied by Italy at the end of the war in November 1918 and was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1919. The province as it exists today was created in 1926 after an administrative reorganization of the Kingdom of Italy, and was incorporated together with the province of Trento into the newly created region of Venezia Tridentina ("Trentine Venetia"). With the rise of Italian Fascism, the new regime made efforts to bring forward the Italianization of South Tyrol. The German language was banished from public service, German teaching was officially forbidden, and German newspapers were censored (with the exception of the fascistic Alpenzeitung). The regime also favored immigration from other Italian regions.The subsequent alliance between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini declared that South Tyrol would not follow the destiny of Austria, which had been annexed to the Third Reich. Instead the dictators agreed that the German-speaking population be transferred to German-ruled territory or dispersed around Italy, but the outbreak of the Second World War prevented them from fully carrying out their intention. Every single citizen had the free choice to give up his German cultural identity and stay in fascist Italy, or to leave his homeland and move to Nazi Germany to retain this cultural identity. The result was that in these difficult times of fascism, the individual South Tyrolean families were divided and separated. In 1943, when the Italian government signed an armistice with the Allies, the region was occupied by Germany, which reorganised it as the Operation Zone of the Alpine Foothills and put it under the administration of Gauleiter Franz Hofer. The region was de facto annexed to the German Reich (with the addition of the province of Belluno) until the end of the war. This status ended along with the Nazi regime, and Italian rule was restored in 1945.
- spain and portugal

  • https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-the-US-and-the-Allies-just-invade-Spain-and-Portugal-for-an-easy-foothold-on-the-European-continent-during-World-War-2-even-though-they-were-neutral-since-they-wouldnt-be-able-to-resist-anyway

- spain

  • https://www.quora.com/How-would-WWII-have-played-out-if-Spain-had-officially-joined-the-Axis
- ireland

  • https://www.quora.com/Which-side-did-Ireland-help-more-in-WW2 If you could think of a country that did not partake in any action during the Second World War, that would be Ireland. There are many reasons for that, and the main one was that Winston Churchill did not think of Ireland as a potential ally or enemy during the Great War. Eamon De Valera ( Prime Minister) has opted for neutrality. Things were not as simple though and there are a few points of Irish involvment in the war that can be underlined. Eamon De Valera had a good relationship with Hitler. This being said, 5000 Irish men died during WW2. All of these soliders were fighting for the British army where 50000 Irish men enrolled. They most notoriously fought in the Royal Air Force for the Battle of Britain. Once it was won, Churchill used Ireland for plane bases and ports.
  • https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-Ireland-join-WW2-Was-there-any-pressure-from-any-side-to-have-Ireland-join-in-Was-there-any-pro-German-sentiment-in-the-country-at-the-time

- switzerland

  • 瑞士是「永久中立國」，也是在兩次世界大戰都能免受侵略的小國，背後的原因之一，除了國際關係的角力、大國對緩衝國的需要，也和瑞士人的勇武有關。二戰爆發後，瑞士立刻進行全國武裝動員，迅速湊成了一支85萬人軍隊，對納粹德國的入侵，有一定阻嚇作用。雖然納粹曾有不少入侵瑞士的計劃，但在瑞士政府的外交＋軍事努力下，始終未有行動；瑞士雖然一方面作為納粹融資地方，但也保護了不少被逼害的各國人士。這樣的角色，在國際關係上，實在不可多得。雖然圖中是Cinderella stamp, 但也已經成為經典。https://www.facebook.com/SimonStamps/photos/a.674143542975908.1073742013.393581457698786/672976833092579/?type=3
- poland

- hungary

  • https://www.quora.com/Which-Axis-partner-of-Nazi-Germany-was-the-most-dependable-during-the-fighting-on-the-Eastern-Front-during-World-War-Two I guess the correct answer would be Hungary. They helped us with the Russians and the pro-German Hungarians fought hard with the Germans to the bitter end resulting in the Siege of Budapest.

- bulgaria

  • https://www.quora.com/Which-country-s-contribution-to-WW2-often-goes-unrecognized their reward for being the largest roadblock in the Reich's operations in the Balkans was the return of Southern Dobruja from Romania. The only country of all the Axis powers to grow in size after the war's end.Bulgaria sadly fell to Communism due to the Soviet invasion, and the Royal Family did flee the country in the war's aftermath.But Bulgaria's total lack of contribution to the war effort outside of their occupations saved not just the country itself, but probably helped keep the Axis from becoming stronger.

- hk
  • 由于日军侵略中国已有相当时日，远在香港的华商有鉴日本的行径，早于三十年代中期已预料内地随时爆发战事，且以形势推算，战事可能持续经年，对全国经济民生必有重大影响。有见及此，香港绅商等率先组办“港侨自卫团”，以防战事蔓延或难民涌港时仍能维繫地区安全。“七七事变”爆发，中国全面抗战，军政人事固然肩负前线抗敌的重责，而普罗阶层亦有共赴国难的义务，香港虽为英属殖民地，且远离战区，但各界人士皆自发成立各种社团，旨在利用香港的特殊地位与交通等便利作为长期抗战的后援。在1941年香港沦陷以前，香港分别为内地医疗、军需、赈灾等提供物资，同时协助前线作救伤、掩埋、看顾、秩序等服务，充分体现同仇敌忾，共赴国难的精神。http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20180323/PDF/b17_screen.pdf
  • 第二次世界大戰期間，日軍在中國設立多個細菌部隊，進行細菌戰的研究。中國民間收藏家張廣勝近日指出，據他在日本發現的文獻記載，得悉原來日軍亦曾在香港設立一間「香港細菌研究所」，進行反人類細菌實驗，為相關歷史研究一次重大發現。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20190331/00184_009.html
  • 香港退伍軍人聯會昨於社交媒體專頁指，二次世界大戰退役軍人會的永遠榮譽會長蔡彼得（Peter Choi、原名蔡炳堯），於上周四晚在醫院安詳去世，享年九十八歲。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/news/20200809/00176_053.html
  • 馬克．懷倫斯是一位英國演員，曾經在舞台上演繹無數莎士比亞筆下的角色，並曾獲得西方劇壇奧利花獎、東尼獎等重要獎項。馬克亦參與電影演出，二○一七年叫好叫座的荷里活電影《鄧寇克大行動》，馬克飾演以小船接送逃難士兵的船長。　最近我觀看了一個紀錄片節目《歷史二三事》，馬克並不擔任演員，而是以真實個人身份，追尋他已去世的外公奧斯蒙．史堅拿，在二次大戰期間於香港成為日軍戰俘的事跡。　奧斯蒙原是英國平民，他在二次大戰初期，遠道來到香港上海滙豐銀行工作。然而，戰火不久便蔓延至東亞，日本帝國主義的軍隊開始侵略香港。其時本來在銀行從事文職的奧斯蒙，從沒接受過任何軍事訓練，卻毅然加入了當時的香港義勇防衛軍，與其他駐港英軍以及在新界的東江游擊隊，一起抵抗日軍的攻擊。http://www.takungpao.com.hk/culture/237141/2020/0826/490745.html
  • 東江縱隊港九大隊的傳奇歷史http://www.takungpao.com.hk/culture/237146/2020/0826/490523.html

- 太平洋戦争（たいへいようせんそう、 Pacific War）は第二次世界大戦の局面の一つで、大日本帝国など枢軸国と、連合国（主にアメリカ合衆国、イギリス帝国、オランダなど）の戦争である。日本側の名称は1941年（昭和16年）12月12日に東条内閣が閣議で「大東亜戦争」と決定し、支那事変も含めるとされた。アメリカ西海岸、アラスカからオーストラリアを含む太平洋のほぼ全域から東南アジア、インド洋のアフリカ沿岸までを舞台に、枢軸国と連合国とが戦闘を行ったほか、日本と米英蘭の開戦を機に蒋介石の中華民国政府が日本に対して正式に宣戦布告し、日中戦争（支那事変）も包括する戦争となった。米英などの連合国においては主戦場がアメリカ側から見て太平洋地域であったことから「Pacific Theater（太平洋戦域）」が使用され[2]、「the War in the Pacific (Theater)」「WW II-Pacific Theatre」「the Pacific Theatre in the Second World War」など第二次世界大戦の戦線・戦域名が用いられた[3]。戦時中は太平洋戦争という名称が使われたことはなかった[2]。太平洋戦争の開戦を知らせるNHKラジオ放送で1941年12月8日午前6時に日本艦隊（帝国艦隊）が、英国、米国を相手に宣戦布告と変わらない宣言をした後、ロッジの大空襲を実施すると発表した。なお、英語・スペイン語圏では、1865年のチリ・ペルーとスペインの戦争や1879年 - 1884年のチリとボリビア・ペルーとの「太平洋戦争」は The War of the Pacificと呼ぶが、対日戦争は The Pacific Warと表記され区別されている[3]。また日本でも両戦争を「太平洋戦争」と表記するので国際的に「太平洋戦争」呼称は誤解を招くという指摘がある。

  • Lisbon Maru (りすぼん丸) was a Japanese freighter, an armed troopship that transported prisoners-of-war between China and Japan. When she was sunk by USS Grouper (SS-214) on 1 October 1942, she was carrying, in addition to Japanese Army personnel, 1,816 British and Canadian prisoners of war captured after the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941. The British government insisted that over 800 of these men died either directly as a result of the sinking, or were shot or otherwise killed by the Japanese while swimming away from the wreck. The ship was not marked to alert Allied forces to the nature of its passengers. However, over 1,000 Allied prisoners were rescued by the Japanese military. The Japanese Government insisted that British prisoners were in fact not deliberately killed by Japanese soldiers and chastised the British Government. 
  •  Torpedoed off Dongfushan in the ZhoushanArchipelago 1 October, and sank on 2 October 1942 
  • A reunion of survivors was held on board HMS Belfast on 2 October 2007 to mark the 65th anniversary of their escape. Six former prisoners attended, alongside many bereaved families of the escapees. 
  •  A memorial was placed in the chapel of Stanley Fort, Hong Kong, which was moved to the chapel of St. Stephen's College, Hong Kong, due to Hong Kong's change in sovereignty.
  •  美籍華裔製片人方勵五年前得知慘案後，不但造訪事件中生還者及遇難者後人，還出資打撈里斯本丸，希望將此段幾乎被遺忘的歷史重現在世人面前http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20180705/00178_013.html

- The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, followed shortly thereafter in September by the invasion of the Italian mainland and the campaign on Italian soil until the surrender of the German Armed Forces in Italy in May 1945. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican, both surrounded by Italian territory, also suffered damage during the campaign.
- The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II was fought primarily between the forces of the British Empire and China, with support from the United States, against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. British Empire forces peaked at around 1,000,000 land, naval and air forces, and were drawn primarily from British India, with British Army forces (equivalent to 8 regular infantry divisions and 6 tank regiments),[29] 100,000 East and West African colonial troops, and smaller numbers of land and air forces from several other Dominions and Colonies. The Burmese Independence Army was trained by the Japanese and spearheaded the initial attacks against British Empire forces. The campaign had a number of notable features. The geographical characteristics of the region meant that factors like weather, disease and terrain had a major effect on operations. The lack of transport infrastructure placed an emphasis on military engineering and air transport to move and supply troops, and evacuate wounded. The campaign was also politically complex, with the British, the United States and the Chinese all having different strategic priorities. It was also the only land campaign by the Western Allies in the Pacific Theatre which proceeded continuously from the start of hostilities to the end of the war. This was due to its geographical location. By extending from Southeast Asia to India, its area included some lands which the British lost at the outset of the war, but also included areas of India wherein the Japanese advance was eventually stopped. The climate of the region is dominated by the seasonal monsoon rains, which allowed effective campaigning for only just over half of each year. This, together with other factors such as famine and disorder in British India and the priority given by the Allies to the defeat of Nazi Germany, prolonged the campaign and divided it into four phases: the Japanese invasion which led to the expulsion of British, Indian and Chinese forces in 1942; failed attempts by the Allies to mount offensives into Burma, from late 1942 to early 1944; the 1944 Japanese invasion of India which ultimately failed following the battles of Imphal and Kohima; and, finally, the successful Allied offensive which reoccupied Burma from late-1944 to mid-1945.
-  The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first of the World War II conferences of the "Big Three" Allied leaders (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom). It closely followed the Cairo Conference which had taken place on 22–26 November 1943, and preceded the 1945 Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies' commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the Allies' relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, and the envisaged post-war settlement. A separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three to recognize Iran's independence.
-  The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. (In some older documents it is also referred to as the Berlin Conference of the Three Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and UK.) Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. The three powers were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and, later, Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman.
Stalin, Churchill, and Truman—as well as Attlee, who participated alongside Churchill while awaiting the outcome of the 1945 general election, and then replaced Churchill as Prime Minister after the Labour Party's defeat of the Conservatives—gathered to decide how to administer the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier, on 8 May (V-E Day). The goals of the conference also included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war.
-  The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held from February 4 to 11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea. The meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent, Yalta became a subject of intense controversy. To a degree, it has remained controversial. Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three. It had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943, and was followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, which was attended by Stalin, Churchill (who was replaced halfway through by the newly elected British Prime Minister Clement Attlee) and Harry S. Truman, Roosevelt's successor. The Yalta conference was a crucial turning point in the Cold War.

  • hkej 24apr18 shum article

- india

  • http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40724861 Yasmin Khan, historian and author of The Raj at War: A People's History of India's Second World War, says she has often wondered why there is very little factual data on their role in the battle, which many say cost Germany the war. What is well known, she told me, is that four companies of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, including a unit of the Bikaner State forces, served in France during the campaign on the Western Front, and some were evacuated from Dunkirk. Among them were three contingents of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps. One contingent was taken prisoner by German forces. According to one account, India also provided more than 2,500 mules - shipped from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Marseilles - to the war effort as the British animal transport companies had been phased out. An Indian soldier, Jemadar Maula Dad Khan, was feted for showing "magnificent courage, coolness and decision" in protecting his men and animals when they were shelled from the ground and strafed from the air by the enemy.
- china
  • After WWII, Whitaker's division was dispatched to Qingdao in East China's Shandong province to work on repatriating Japanese forces from North China. "We were there for six months. I will never forget the welcome I received. The Chinese are fine people," he said. "The Japanese soldiers we rounded up and sent back to Japan knew we were Marines and would take no nonsense," Whitaker said. "They were very aware of our reputation and our hatred of them. They were docile and seldom made eye contact." http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2017-08/16/content_30684258.htm
  •  http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-08/25/content_31089915.htm A new project aims to build a database to acknowledge and honor Sino-US World War II combatants, as Dong Leshuo reports from Washington.
  • "himalayan task" china daily 19mar18 a veteran's account
  • 日本共同社報道，三菱綜合材料公司與中國二戰苦工談判團今年內將設立基金，向受害苦工及家屬作出經濟補償，並展開最後協調。若達成共識，三菱將向三千七百六十五名受害者每人支付約十一萬五千港元，是日企戰後賠償人數最多的一次。三菱將出資在日本建紀念碑。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20181105/00178_018.html
  • 江蘇南京棲霞區的江南水泥廠，在日軍侵華期間成為民眾的避難所，使三萬多人免被屠殺。水泥廠於一二年被列為市文物保護單位，卻未有得到妥善保護，近日更被發現廠房嚴重失修，瀕臨倒塌。當地文物局解釋，文物修繕存在諸多掣肘，經費是最大問題。江南水泥廠建於一九三五年，是當時國內最大的水泥廠。一九三七年底南京淪陷，丹麥人辛德貝格和德國人京特，在廠內分別豎立兩國的國旗，保護逃入廠內的中國民眾。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190412/00178_018.html


- film
  • Diplomatie
- propaganda?

  • https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3074920/chinas-plight-under-japanese-occupation-how
- map
  • https://www.quora.com/What-would-have-happened-if-the-Nazis-had-won-World-War-II


The Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany (German: Vertrag über die abschließende Regelung in Bezug auf Deutschland), or the Two Plus Four Agreement (German: Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag; short: German Treaty), was negotiated in 1990 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (the eponymous "Two"), and the Four Powers which occupied Germany at the end of World War II in Europe: France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the treaty the Four Powers renounced all rights they held in Germany, allowing a united Germany to become fully sovereign the following year.The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed in Moscow, Soviet Union, on 12 September 1990,[1]:363 and paved the way for German reunification on 3 October 1990. Under the terms of the treaty, the Four Powers renounced all rights they formerly held in Germany, including those regarding the city of Berlin. Upon deposit of the last instrument of ratification, united Germany became fully sovereign on 15 March 1991. The treaty allows Germany to make and belong to alliances, without any foreign influence in its politics. All Soviet forces were to leave Germany by the end of 1994. Before the Soviets withdrew, Germany would only deploy territorial defense units not integrated into the alliance structures. German forces in the rest of Germany were assigned to areas where Soviet troops were stationed. After the Soviets withdrew, the Germans could freely deploy troops in those areas, with the exception of nuclear weapons. For the duration of the Soviet presence, Allied troops would remain stationed in Berlin upon Germany's request.
- hkej 13dec17 shum article

The Treaty of Friendship and Alliance (中蘇友好同盟條約) was a treatysigned by the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China and the Soviet Union on 14 August 1945. At the time, Soviet and Mongolian troops were occupying Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, having seized it from the Japanese during World War II. In a declaration made in connection with the treaty, China accepted the independence of Outer Mongolia within its previous borders (disavowing any Pan-Mongolist intentions of the occupiers), provided that a referendum on the issue be held and that the Soviet Union ceased aiding the Chinese Communist Party and Ili National Army (who were rebelling in Xinjiang).[1] Furthermore, the two nations agreed upon joint control of the Chinese Eastern Railway and to facilitate its eventual return to full Chinese sovereignty.However, China noticed that the Soviet Union secretly and continuously supported Chinese Communist Party and People's Liberation Army which were opposed to the ruling Kuomintang and the government of Republic of China. The relation collapsed when Chinese Communist Party proclaimed the People's Republic of Chinain Beijing on 1 October 1949 and the Soviet Union recognized it. The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 505 on 1 February 1952, which confirmed that the Soviet Union had violated the terms of the treaty by assisting the Chinese Communist Party during the Chinese Civil War. On 24 February 1953, the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China voted to officially terminate its commitments to the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance as well, thereby rescinding its recognition of the independence of the Mongolian People's Republic.


中蘇商務條約
- negotiated by 孫科 in 1945, to get more details


After WWII
- In 1950, the countries of Europe were still suffering from post-war conditions. Argentina was still making a lot of money supplying food to Europe. Once Western Europe and the nations of other regions rebuilt, and the effects of Peronism and counter-Peronism began to be felt in Argentina, that country went into decline when compared to a recovering Western Europe. By 1951, inflation in Argentina reached about 50 percent annually, setting a trend that would be periodically emulated for years to come, eventually making Argentina the poster-child of economic mismanagement and hyperinflation. In the early 1950s, a drop in world commodity prices knocked the bottom out of Argentina’s income. Peronism and its anti-business environment discouraged foreign investment, and domestic investment as well. Labour unions, accustomed to getting more and more benefits, went on more and more strikes, handicapping productivity. What followed for several years were coups and low economic growth, along with the usual Latin American practices of political massacres, mass arrests, bombing of the presidential palace, left-wing guerrilla movements, right-wing death squadrons, Catholic liberation-theology activists, and lots of bodies being found in odd places. Not exactly conducive to economic growth. https://www.quora.com/In-1950-Argentina-and-Venezuela-were-two-of-the-richest-countries-in-the-world-with-a-GDP-per-capita-on-par-with-Western-Europe-How-have-they-suffered-such-sharp-economic-declines-since-then
- In redrawing the after-WW2 map of Europe, Stalin demonstrated deep strategic thinking.
He did not just compensate Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania for territories annexed from them by the USSR at the expense of Germany and Hungary. The Soviet Union also ensured their eternal loyalty as a guarantor that these lands wouldn’t be reclaimed by the previous masters. The same logic was behind giving former territories of Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Romania to ethnic Soviet republics of Moldavia, Ukraine, Belorussia and Lithuania. They were supposed to be forever thankful to Moscow for the big territorial additions.How deep this thinking was, truly manifested itself first in the 21st century. A recurring theme in our nationalist narrative nowadays is the “ungrateful East and Central Europeans” who keep dismantling our monuments, memorials and other marks of Soviet dominance over their countries, as well as rejecting our peace-seeking and cooperation-oriented foreign policy, despite having been bestowed with new lands by the USSR.The highest mark of bloody ungratefulness has been awarded to Ukraine. They got Novorossiya from the House of Romanov, a few districts in the east from Lenin, Northern Bukovina and Eastern Poland from Stalin during WW2, Zakarpattia Oblast after WW2, and Crimea in the 1950s. Despite all this, they focus on their past grievances under Czars and the Bolsheviks, instead of embracing us in gratitude. President Putin even suggested once to the Americans that Ukraine wasn’t a “proper state”. Our radical nationalists still can’t decide if they prefer partitioning Ukraine between Russia and its neighbors to the west, or only annexing the southern and eastern half of it while leaving the rest to their own devices—because “they didn’t earn any of it anyway”.https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Joseph-Stalin-return-Northern-Transylvania-to-Romania-after-the-end-of-World-War-II
- https://www.quora.com/Did-Stalin-violate-the-percentages-agreement-with-Eastern-Europe-following-WWII
usa
- https://www.quora.com/Why-was-General-Charles-de-Gaulle-not-allowed-to-attend-either-the-Yalta-or-Potsdam-conferences-How-much-of-this-was-due-to-the-U-S-and-how-much-to-the-Soviets Roosevelt didn’t like the French since the twenties when they refused to pay war debts to America, claiming that America help first for the Germans to pay their WW1 debts (the amount of which was ludicrous.) Then he was shocked by the 1940 French defeat. Then he was against any general becoming Head of State, which was for him equivalent to Fascism (he had a point, but it didn’t apply to De Gaulle). He expected that De Gaulle would not be popular enough to play a political role in France. which was a grandiose mistake. He was so pissed by his mistake that he very reluctantly accepted to recognize De Gaulle’s government as legitimate only in July 1944. Then he was horrified to discover that the French, having successfully invaded Southern Germany after the Battle of the Bulge, controlled a nice part of it after the war, and he was compelled accepting that they would become a permanent member of the UN Security Council. You could not expect him, on top of that, to invite De Gaulle to these conferences… Stalin was against participation in Yalta but didn’t insist to it because he also knew that De Gaulle would become a wild card, independent of US hegemony as much as he could.
- https://www.quora.com/Why-was-America-so-biased-against-Britain-after-WW2

uk
- https://www.quora.com/Following-WW2-the-U-K-had-crippling-debts-with-the-economy-in-tatters-was-no-longer-the-world-superpower-and-the-Empire-was-crumbling-In-what-ways-was-the-war-actually-a-success-apart-from-Germany-being-defeated The UK debts were due in the main to being obliged to pay the US for their help as an ally. Every bullet eagerly recorded and charged by faceless US pen pushers who failed to give any credit for the items freely given to the Yanks to help win the war- Radar, the atomic bomb, better engines for aircraft, jet engines, the various anti-aircraft guns we provided to defend the US fleet, Asdic, sonar, etc . without which the Americans would have been still trying to win the conflict.
- https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-USA-make-the-UK-pay-back-all-the-war-loans-yet-take-nothing-from-other-European-countries-and-also-Japan

Germany
- https://www.rbth.com/history/332031-photos-berlin-1945
- https://www.quora.com/What-are-German-kids-taught-about-WW1-and-WW2/answer/Falk-Petersen-1
- https://www.quora.com/What-happened-to-the-common-low-ranking-German-soldiers-after-they-lost-WW2 In the East, many soldiers were kept as slave labor, some into the mid 1950s. The Soviets had lost so much manpower, they needed labor in every sector of the economy. Under brutal conditions, German prisoners were used as slave labor to produce everything. As far as the Soviets were concerned, that was the absolute LEAST the Germans could do after what they had done. Indeed, it is counter intuitive, but Stalin wanted as many German prisoners as possible; he needed the labor. The East had been wrecked by the war too. In the West, German prisoners, many very young, were assigned unpleasant tasks such as removal of explosives, mines, etc.For the Western Allies, the issue was how many prisoners to allocate to keeping Germany alive and how many to devote to nasty tasks such as mine clearance.


poland
- https://www.quora.com/Was-it-a-mistake-to-recreate-Poland-after-World-War-I The restoration of Polish independence after WW1 only angered Germany and the USSR. (Lithuania was also angered but only because Vilnius became part of Poland, and the Czechoslovaks over border disputes)
The Germans disliked Poland because former lands of the German Empire were ceded to the new Polish state. The Nazis also envisioned expanding Eastward into the Soviet Union/Russia (Lebensraum), and Poland was a roadblock. The Soviets disliked Poland because Poland won the 1919–21 Polish-Soviet War and annexed majority Ukrainian and Belorussian areas in the Treaty of Riga. The Soviets also saw Poland as a roadblock to spreading Communism westward into Germany. Before WW1, Poland was a stateless nation, so the Polish had every right to restore Polish independence in 1918. Polish independence was taken in the 18th century from the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the Prussian, Russian, and Austrian Empires.

east asia
- The Soviet Union did not sign the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1951. On October 19, 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration providing for the end of the state of war, and for restoration of diplomatic relations between USSR and Japan.[1][2] The two parties also agreed to continue negotiations for a peace treaty, including territorial issues. In addition, the Soviet Union pledged to support Japan for the UN membership and waive all World War II reparations claims. The joint declaration was accompanied by a trade protocol that granted reciprocal most-favored-nation treatment and provided for the development of trade. Japan derived few apparent gains from the normalization of diplomatic relations. The second half of the 1950s saw an increase in cultural exchanges.

japan
- https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3012683/return-iwo-jima-75-years-after-us-japan-battle-what-island
- https://www.quora.com/What-are-Japanese-children-taught-about-Pearl-Harbor
- [ken saito] apres-guerre 年輕人快閃罪行, including 金閣寺arson, bar mecca killing incident

The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states) and powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine, a U.S. foreign policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism, was announced, and either 1989, when communism fell in Eastern Europe, or 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, but they each supported major regional wars known as proxy wars. The Cold War split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union and the United States as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state led by its Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which in turn was dominated by a leader with different titles over time, and a small committee called the Politburo. The Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and many organizations. It also controlled the other states in the Eastern Bloc, and funded Communist parties around the world, sometimes in competition with Communist China, particularly following the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s. In opposition stood the capitalist West, led by the United States, a federal republic with a two-party presidential system. The First World nations of the Western Bloc were generally liberal democratic with a free press and independent organizations, but were economically and politically entwined with a network of banana republics and other authoritarian regimes throughout the Third World, most of which were the Western Bloc's former colonies.[1][2] Some major Cold War frontlines such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Congo were still Western colonies in 1947. A small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement; it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were heavily armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. Each side had a nuclear strategy that discouraged an attack by the other side, on the basis that such an attack would lead to the total destruction of the attacker—the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD). Aside from the development of the two sides' nuclear arsenals, and their deployment of conventional military forces, the struggle for dominance was expressed via proxy wars around the globe, psychological warfare, massive propaganda campaigns and espionage, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945. The USSR consolidated its control over the states of the Eastern Bloc, while the United States began a strategy of global containment to challenge Soviet power, extending military and financial aid to the countries of Western Europe (for example, supporting the anti-communist side in the Greek Civil War) and creating the NATO alliance. The Berlin Blockade (1948–49) was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–53), the conflict expanded. The USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets. The expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis (1956), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, a new phase began that saw the Sino-Soviet split complicate relations within the communist sphere, while US allies, particularly France, demonstrated greater independence of action. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, and the Vietnam War (1955–75) ended with the defeat of the US-backed Republic of Vietnam, prompting further adjustments.
By the 1970s, both sides had become interested in making allowances in order to create a more stable and predictable international system, ushering in a period of détente that saw Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the US opening relations with the People's Republic of China as a strategic counterweight to the Soviet Union. Détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983), and the "Able Archer" NATO military exercises (1983). The United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the liberalizing reforms of perestroika ("reorganization", 1987) and glasnost ("openness", c. 1985) and ended Soviet involvement in Afghanistan. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland. Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully (with the exception of the Romanian Revolution) overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the formal dissolution of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse of communist regimes in other countries such as Mongolia, Cambodia and South Yemen. The United States remained as the world's only superpower.
The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy. It is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage (e.g., the internationally successful James Bond movie franchise) and the threat of nuclear warfare.
-  The Helsinki Accords, Helsinki Final Act, or Helsinki Declaration was the final act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Finlandia Hall of Helsinki, Finland, during July and August 1, 1975. Thirty-five states, including the US, Canada, and all European states except Albania and Andorra, signed the declaration in an attempt to improve relations between the Communist bloc and the West. The Helsinki Accords, however, were not binding as they did not have treaty status.
  • hkej 24jan18 shum article
- The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Russian: Сове́т Экономи́ческой Взаимопо́мощи, tr. Sovét Ekonomícheskoy Vzaimopómoshchi, Russian: СЭВ, tr. SEV; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world. The descriptive term was often applied to all multilateral activities involving members of the organization, rather than being restricted to the direct functions of Comecon and its organs.[2] This usage was sometimes extended as well to bilateral relations among members, because in the system of socialist international economic relations, multilateral accords – typically of a general nature – tended to be implemented through a set of more detailed, bilateral agreements. Moscow was concerned about the Marshall Plan. Comecon was meant to prevent countries in the Soviets' sphere of influence from moving towards that of the Americans and South-East Asia. Comecon was the Eastern Bloc's reply to the formation in Western Europe of the Organization for European Economic Co-Operation (OEEC), a prelude to the European Economic Community (founded in 1957) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) (founded in 1961). 
  • yugoslavia (already established relatively strong ties with the western part of the continent) and albania remained a less integrated periphery.
- The International Geophysical Year (IGY; French: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 opened the way for this new era of collaboration. Sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects, although one notable exception was the mainland People's Republic of China, which was protesting against the participation of the Republic of China (Taiwan). East and West agreed to nominate the Belgian Marcel Nicolet as secretary general of the associated international organization. The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping), meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity.[2] The timing of IGY was particularly suited to some of these phenomena, since it covered the peak of solar cycle 19. Both the Soviet Union and the U.S. launched artificial satellites for this event; the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, launched on October 4, 1957, was the first successful artificial satellite.[3] Other significant achievements of the IGY included the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts by Explorer 1 and the defining of mid-ocean submarine ridges, an important confirmation of plate tectonics.[4] Also detected was the rare occurrence of hard solar corpuscular radiation that could be highly dangerous for manned space flight.
  •  In April 1957, just three months before the IGY began, scientists representing the various disciplines of the IGY established the World Data Center system. The United States hosted World Data Center "A" and the Soviet Union hosted World Data Center "B." World Data Center "C" was subdivided among countries in Western Europe, Australia, and Japan. Today, NOAA hosts seven of the fifteen World Data Centers in the United States. Each World Data Center would eventually archive a complete set of IGY data to deter losses prevalent during the International Polar Year of 1932. Each World Data Center was equipped to handle many different data formats, including computer punch cards and tape—the original computer media. In addition, each host country agreed to abide by the organizing committee’s resolution that there should be a free and open exchange of data among nations. [14] [15] [16] ICSU-WDS goals are to preserve quality assured scientific data and information, to facilitate open access, and promote the adoption of standards. ICSU World Data System created in 2008 superseded the World Data Centeres (WDCs) and Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical data analysis Services (FAGS) created by ICSU to manage data generated by the International Geophysical Year
- The Malta Summit comprised a meeting between US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, taking place on December 2–3, 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was their second meeting following a meeting that included Ronald Reagan, in New York in December 1988. During the summit, Bush and Gorbachev would declare an end to the Cold War although whether it was truly such is a matter of debate. 

  • hkej 24apr18 shum article
- usa

  • The Committee on the Present Danger (CPD) is the name used by a succession of American neoconservative[1] and anti-communist foreign policy interest groups. Throughout its four iterations—in the 1950s, the 1970s, the 2000s, and 2019, it has tried to influence all the presidential administrations since Harry Truman,[2] achieving notable success during the Reagan administration.
  • 「當危委」的首次出現就是1950年冷戰伊始，旨在支持杜魯門政府遏制蘇聯的戰略，它在80年代達到巔峰時刻，里根政府核心層有33人為「當危委」成員。在蘇聯解體後，這一組織退出歷史舞台，只在2004年短暫活躍，渲染伊斯蘭恐怖分子的威脅。到了2019年3月25日，中美關係日趨緊張之際，這一委員會又粉墨登場，並直接將名字改成「當前危險委員會：中國」，赤裸裸地將矛頭指向中國。http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/232111/2020/0812/485689.html

  • 美國時任國務卿杜勒斯於一九五一年冷戰時首次提出島鏈概念，作用是圍堵亞洲東岸，震懾前蘇聯及中國。第一島鏈北起日本，中接台灣，南至菲律賓；第二島鏈北起日本伊豆群島，南至關島及帛琉等島嶼；第三島鏈北起美國阿拉斯加，經夏威夷延伸至澳洲及新西蘭。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200905/00180_002.html

worth a read
- https://www.quora.com/What-countries-existed-in-Europe-in-1914-or-in-1935-but-no-longer-do

in popular culture
- *** The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse (Spanish: Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis) is a novel by the Spanish author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, first published in 1916, which tells a tangled tale of the French and German sons-in-law of an Argentinian land-owner who find themselves fighting on opposite sides in the First World War. 
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