Where have I been, what have I done?

My personal life has been put upside down since last year and this had, and has, a major impact on what I do and can do. I will not bore you all with my personal details but will tell you a little about what I’ve been doing on the Military Historical matter.

VON MOLTKE
My website is online, www.vonmoltke.nl, it’s not much yet but it’s something. I’ve put an agenda there but unfortunately I was not able to attend any of the mentioned events due to personal reasons. I hope for better after the summer of this year.
Besides the website I’ve opened an online bookstore at www.boekwinkeltjes.nl. Please have a look at my books, maybe there’s something you’ll like. Of course, what is being presented there is only a part of my collection and I will be adding new titles in the next few months.
I hope to be able to do more for this book fling of mine in the second half of this year.

Hobby
Speaking of books, I started to read again and add some books to my personal collections. I’ve ordered Kissinger’s Diplomacy, that’s a lot of pages to read, so I’m saving that one for later. Currently I’m reading a Dutch translation of Napoleon by Wheeler. An old book but a good read into the personal life of Old Boney.

And… I’ve finally started informing myself about picking up my oldest hobby: miniature figures and wargaming. I started in the 80’s, stopped in the 90’s. Back then it was all about 1:72 Napoleonics with rules I developed myself and I only played solo or with one particular friend. Now, I realize there is very much more to it if I really want to start this hobby. If I want to do wargaming I need to know if there is a club nearby and this will have it’s impact on which rules, what size of figures, which period and even which army. My local club for instance plays 28mm and they said it’s best to do Brunswick if I really want to play Napoleonics because no-one else has Brunswick yet. There is much more to it than I initially thought. On the other hand, if I really want to start painting figures and the rest doesn’t really matter: I have a few thousand of my old plastic fellows stored, maybe I should pay them tribute to start with them.

Translating Waterloo sources
In the meanwhile I’m also translating Dutch primary sources about the Battle of Waterloo from Dutch to English. This is part of a project by Gareth Glover (author of over 40 books), who already has collected a lot of sources and turned them into books, The Waterloo Archive. Please visit his website Gareth Glover Collection
It’s very interesting to do and it really brings me close to the battle itself. I love to read personal records.
The idea of the project is to create books with sources to make them easily accessible for researchers, saving them time and money to travel through Europe for their primary sources research.
Since my time and energy are limited, I’m happy Mr. Glover puts no pressure on this project and I can work on it whenever suits me best.

This blog
Then we have, of course, this blog. I had no time. No time at all to spend on this. I have some draft posts waiting for completion, but it takes a lot of time and energy to complete these. I lack both. Maybe I’m asking to much from myself regarding the type of posts I want to publish. I want to create a source of information on Military History 1789 – 1919 but I also try not to become a second Wikipedia and want my articles to add something. But maybe I shouldn’t be to strict on myself and just write whatever I want. We’ll see, hopefully I can pick up the pen again soon.

 

Quest: The Soldier

A few months ago I bought some pictures online. I believe there were seven or so and they were very different in type and style but they all had military history as a common subject. They were all printed except for one: a picture showing a soldier smoking and drinking.

The drawing is undated and unsigned. I have no idea how old it exactly is, where it is from and who drew it. The latter question is probably unsolvable but I think it should be possible to locate and date the drawing.

The Ems dispatch of 1870

I was reading about the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and wanted to find out more about the reasons why the war started. I then came across one of the events that helped to spark it off: the Ems dispatch. This is a very interesting moment in history. First because it looks like it is just a footnote in the events leading to the Franco-Prussian War, but it was enough to drive France to war. Secondly, because Otto von Bismarck had a plan and it worked exactly as he thought it would. And thirdly because it shows the sometimes disastrous influence of media, faulty translations and diplomacy on highly inflammable situations.

After the Glorious Revolution (1868) in Spain, the Spanish throne was vacant. One of the candidates was the Prussian Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The French were afraid that, if Leopold would ascend the throne, they would become sandwiched between Hohenzollern powers, with the North German Confederation, led by Prussia, on one side and Spain on the other.

Confederation of the Rhine 1806 – 1813

After the Treaty of Pressburg, which was a result of the Battle of Austerlitz and was signed on 26 December 1805, Napoleon decided to create a satellite body of states from several German nations under a confederation which was called the Confederation of the Rhine. Before, these territories were part of the Holy Roman Empire but after his defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz the Holy Roman Emporer was forced to cede various parts of his territory and recognize some monarchs (the kings of Bavaria and Württemberg) which previously were his legal subordinates because kings within the Empire were legally not allowed.

Napoleon merged 16 states into the Confederation of the Rhine which was officially formed with the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine which was signed on 12 July 1806. Initially the following 16 states joined the Confederation of the Rhine:

1. Grand Duchy of Baden
2. Kingdom of Bavaria
3. Grand Duchy of Berg
4. Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt
5. Principality of Regensburg
6. Kingdom of Württemberg
7. Duchy of Arenberg
8. Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
9. Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
10. Principality of Isenburg
11. Principality of Leyen
12. Principality of Liechtenstein
13. Nassau-Usingen  (forms the Duchy of Nassau  with Nassau-Weilburg)
14. Nassau-Weilburg (forms the Duchy of Nassau  with Nassau-Usingen)
15. Salm-Salm (forms the Principality of Salm with Salm-Kyrburg)
16. Salm-Kyrburg (forms the Principality of Salm with Salm-Salm)

Confederation of the Rhine (1806)

The Battle of Verdun started today 100 years ago

On 21 February 1916 the Battle of Verdun started. It was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the First World War in which about 300.000 soldiers lost their lives. The Germans were commanded by Erich von Falkenhayn. His plan was to draw as much French soldiers to the Verdun sector as possible in order to kill as many as the Germans could. He knew the French, under Joseph Joffre, would do as much as possible to defend Verdun, it turned out to be very important to them in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and Von Falkenhayn correctly assumed the French would defend it with their last drop of blood. However, the Germans eventually lost the battle, which lasted for nine months, three weeks and six days and in which both armies fielded over one million soldiers.

Below a great documentary about this battle (which can also be found in the Video menu).

 

Video: “The Earliest Combat Photographs: 1863-1915”

While I was searching for some videos for my “Video” menu (see the homepage on the left side, still in development), I came across this YouTube clip called “The Earliest Combat Photographs: 1863-1915”. This video shows a fine collection of combat photo’s from various conflicts like the Boer War, the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Philippine Insurrection, Tagalog War, Philippine-American War, Italo-Turkish War, the Balkan War, the Russo-Japanese War, World War One and others.

Too bad the music isn’t playing all the time but it is still a great video to watch.

You might also check out the uploaders profile (“Chubachus“) on YouTube. He has a really fine collection of these types of clips.

The Holy Roman Empire …1789 – 1806

 

In 1789 the lands of Germany had been know as the Holy Roman Empire for over 800 years.  It was spread all across central Europe and was home to various modern nations, such as Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, parts of Italy, Croatia, Czech, Slovakia and Poland. The most notably member of the Holy Roman Empire were the Habsburg Empire, the Austrian branch which was ruled by Joseph II who also happened to be the elected Holy Roman Emperor. The Kingdom of Prussia had a personal union with the Margraviate of Brandenburg which was situated within the boundries of the Holy Roman Empire.

But the Empire was is its final stage. In neighbouring France the revolution against its king, Louis XVI, led to war with the Holy Roman Empire in 1792. France declared war on Habsburg monarchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia joined Austria’s side. This war is known as the War of the First Coalition, in which also Britain, Spain (which switched sides in 1796), Portugal, Sardinia and Naples and Sicily fought the French and their allies (Batavian Republic after 1795 and immigrant Poles, known as the Polish Legion). France was invaded from several sides, but the initial success of these actions were reversed by the French who imposed the levée en masse and were able to draft a big army and counter-attacked. On several fronts the Austrians and Prussians were pushed back into their own territory and the French conquered various parts of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1795 Prussia stopped fighting and made peace with France at the Treaty of Basel and Austria followed in 1797 with the Treaty of Campo Formio. France gained a lot of territory, the Holy Roman Empire ceded the Austrian Netherlands and parts of Northern Italy and the Rhineland to France, and made the Batavian Republic a satellite state.

Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli, 14 – 15 January 1797

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace