jgo
jgo's JournalOn This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Sack of Rome (1527)
The Sack of Rome, then part of the Papal States, followed the capture of the city on 6 May 1527 by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during his war with the League of Cognac, known as the War of the League of Cognac.
[Looting, slaying, ...]
Despite being ordered not to storm the city, with Charles V intending to only use the threat of military action to make Pope Clement VII come to his terms, a largely unpaid Imperial army formed by 14,000 Germans, many of them Lutheran, 6,000 Spaniards and some Italian contingents occupied the scarcely defended Rome and began looting, slaying and holding citizens for ransom in excess without any restraint.
Swiss Guard annihilated
Clement VII took refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo after the Swiss Guard were annihilated in a delaying rearguard action; he remained there until a ransom was paid to the pillagers.
Benvenuto Cellini, eyewitness to the events, described the sack in his works. It was not until February 1528 that the spread of a plague and the approach of the League forces under Odet de Foix forced the army to withdraw towards Naples from the city. Rome's population had dropped from 55,000 to 10,000 due to the atrocities, famine, an outbreak of plague and flight from the city. The subsequent loss of the League army during the Siege of Naples secured a victory in the War of the League of Cognac for Charles V. The Emperor denied responsibility for the sack and came to terms again with Clement VII. On the other hand, the Sack of Rome further exacerbated religious hatred and antagonism between Catholics and Lutherans.
[Defenses]
The troops defending Rome were not very numerous: only 5,000 militiamen led by Renzo da Ceri and 189 Papal Swiss Guards. The city's defenses included the massive Aurelian Walls, and substantial artillery, which the Imperial army lacked. Duke Charles needed to conquer the city swiftly to avoid the risk of being trapped between the besieged city and the League's army.
On 6 May, the Imperial army attacked the walls at the Gianicolo and Vatican hills. Duke Charles was fatally wounded in the assault, allegedly shot by Benvenuto Cellini. The Duke was wearing his famous white cloak to mark him out to his troops, but it also had the unintended consequence of pointing him out as the leader to his enemies. The death of the last respected commander of authority among the Imperial army caused any restraint in the soldiers to disappear, and they easily stormed the walls of Rome the same day. Philibert of Châlon took command of the troops, but he was not as popular or feared, leaving him with little authority.
In the event known as the Stand of the Swiss Guard, the Swiss, alongside the garrison's remnant, made their last stand in the Teutonic Cemetery within the Vatican. Their captain, Kaspar Röist, was wounded and later sought refuge in his house, where he was killed by Spanish soldiers in front of his wife. The Swiss fought bitterly, but were hopelessly outnumbered and almost annihilated. Some survivors, accompanied by a band of refugees, fell back to the steps of St. Peter's Basilica. Those who went toward the Basilica were massacred, and only 42 survived. This group of 42, under the command of Hercules Goldli, managed to stave off the Habsburg troops pursuing the Pope's entourage as it made its way across the Passetto di Borgo, a secure elevated passage that connects the Vatican City to Castel Sant'Angelo.
[Pillaging]
After the execution of some 1,000 defenders of the Papal capital and shrines, the pillage began. Churches and monasteries, as well as the palaces of prelates and cardinals, were looted and destroyed. Even pro-Imperial cardinals had to pay to save their properties from the rampaging soldiers. On 8 May, Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, a personal enemy of Clement VII, entered the city. He was followed by peasants from his fiefs, who had come to avenge the sacks they had suffered at the hands of the Papal armies. Colonna was touched by the pitiful conditions in the city and gave refuge to some Roman citizens in his palace.
[Vatican Library saved]
The Vatican Library was saved because Philibert had set up his headquarters there. After three days of ravages, Philibert ordered the sack to cease, but few obeyed. In the meantime, Clement remained a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo. Francesco Maria I della Rovere and Michele Antonio of Saluzzo arrived with troops on 1 June in Monterosi, north of the city. Their cautious behaviour prevented them from obtaining an easy victory against the now totally undisciplined imperial troops.
On 6 June, Clement VII surrendered, and agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000 ducati in exchange for his life; conditions included the cession of Parma, Piacenza, Civitavecchia, and Modena to the Holy Roman Empire (however, only the last would change hands).
[Venice makes it moves]
At the same time Venice took advantage of this situation to capture Cervia and Ravenna, while Sigismondo Malatesta returned to Rimini.
[End of Italian High Renaissance]
Often cited as the end of the Italian High Renaissance, the Sack of Rome impacted the histories of Europe, Italy, and Christianity, creating lasting ripple effects throughout European culture and politics.
Before the sack, Pope Clement VII opposed the ambitions of Emperor Charles V. Afterward, he no longer had the military or financial resources to do so. To avert more warfare, Clement adopted a conciliatory policy toward Charles.
The sack had major repercussions for Italian society and culture, and in particular, for Rome. Clement's War of the League of Cognac would be the last fight of some of the Italian city-states for independence until the nineteenth century. Rome, which had been a center of Italian High Renaissance culture and patronage and the main destination for any European artist eager for fame and wealth, for the prestigious commissions of the papal court before the sack, suffered depopulation and economic collapse, causing artists and thinkers to scatter.
The city's population dropped from over 55,000 before the attack to 10,000 afterward. An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people were murdered.
Many Imperial soldiers also died in the aftermath, largely from diseases caused by masses of unburied corpses in the streets. Pillaging finally ended in February 1528, eight months after the initial attack, when the city's food supply ran out, there was no one left to ransom, and plague appeared. Clement would continue artistic patronage and building projects in Rome, but a perceived Medicean golden age had passed. The city did not recover its population losses until approximately 1560.
A power shift – away from the Pope, toward the Emperor – also produced lasting consequences for Catholicism. After learning of the sack, Emperor Charles professed great embarrassment that his troops had imprisoned Pope Clement; however, he had ordered troops to Italy to bring Clement under his control, though he wanted to avoid destruction within the city of Rome, which would be damaging to his reputation.
Charles eventually came to terms with the Pope with the Treaty of Barcelona (1529) and the coronation of Bologna. This done, Charles molded the Church in his own image. Clement, never again to directly oppose the Emperor, rubber-stamped Charles' demands – among them naming cardinals nominated by the latter; crowning Charles Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy at Bologna in 1530 and refusing to annul the marriage of Charles' beloved aunt, Catherine of Aragon, to King Henry VIII of England, prompting the English Reformation.
[From free thought to orthodoxy]
Cumulatively, these actions changed the complexion of the Catholic Church, steering it away from Renaissance free thought personified by the Medici Popes, toward the religious orthodoxy exemplified by the Counter reformation. After Clement's death in 1534, under the influence of Charles and later his son King Philip II of Spain (1556–1598), the Inquisition became pervasive, and the humanism encouraged by Renaissance culture came to be viewed as contrary to the teachings of the Church.
The sack also contributed to making permanent the split between Catholics and Protestants.
Previously, Charles and Clement had disagreed over how to address Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, which was spreading throughout Germany. Charles advocated for calling a Church Council to settle the matter. Clement opposed this, believing that monarchs shouldn't dictate Church policy; and also fearing a revival of conciliarism, which had exacerbated the Western Schism during the 14th–15th centuries, and deposed numerous Popes.
Clement advocated for fighting a Holy War to unite Christendom. Charles opposed this because his armies and treasury were occupied in fighting other wars. After the sack, Clement acceded to Charles' wishes, agreeing to call a Church Council and naming the city of Trent, Italy as its site. He did not convene the Council of Trent during his lifetime, fearing that the event would be a dangerous power play. In 1545, eleven years after Clement's death, his successor Pope Paul III convened the Council of Trent. As Charles predicted, it reformed the corruption present in certain orders of the Catholic Church.
However, by 1545, the moment for reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants – arguably a possibility during the 1520s, given cooperation between the Pope and Emperor – had passed. In assessing the effects of the Sack of Rome, Martin Luther commented: "Christ reigns in such a way that the Emperor who persecutes Luther for the Pope is forced to destroy the Pope for Luther" (LW 49:169).
In commemoration of the Swiss Guard's bravery in defending Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome, recruits to the Swiss Guard are sworn in on 6 May every year.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(1527)
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On This Day: 6 fatalities from Axis action in continental U.S. during WW2 - May 5, 1944
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377037
On This Day: Tiananmen Square protests (not 1989) spur shift in Chinese history - May 4, 1919
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376997
On This Day: Irregular army from U.S. conquers Nicaragua, re-institutes slavery - May 3, 1855
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376965
On This Day: Combat swimmers sink U.S. ship - back in service 7 months later - May 2, 1964
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376954
On This Day: Normans invade Ireland, many merging with native Gaels, now with common surnames - May 1, 1169
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376899
On This Day: 6 fatalities from Axis action in continental U.S. during WW2 - May 5, 1944
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Fu-Go Balloon Bomb
Fu-Go was an incendiary balloon weapon deployed by Japan against the United States during World War II. It consisted of a hydrogen-filled paper balloon 33 feet in diameter, with a payload of four 11-pound incendiary devices and one 33-pound high-explosive anti-personnel bomb. The uncontrolled balloons were carried over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to North America by fast, high-altitude air currents, today known as the jet stream, and used a sophisticated sandbag ballast system to maintain their altitude. The bombs were intended to ignite large-scale forest fires and spread panic.
[About 300 cross the ocean]
Between November 1944 and April 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army launched about 9,300 balloons from sites on coastal Honshu, of which about 300 were found or observed in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The bombs were ineffective as fire starters due to damp seasonal conditions, with no forest fires being attributed to the offensive.
[Six civilians killed in Oregon]
A U.S. media censorship campaign prevented the Imperial Army from learning of the offensive's results. On May 5, 1945, six civilians were killed by one of the bombs near Bly, Oregon, becoming the war's only fatalities in the continental U.S. The Fu-Go balloon bomb was the first weapon system with intercontinental range, predating the intercontinental ballistic missile.
[How the balloons made it so far]
Changing pressure levels in a fixed-volume balloon posed technical challenges. During the day, heat from the sun increased pressure, risking the balloon rising above the air currents or bursting. A relief valve was added to allow gas to escape when the envelope's internal pressure rose above a set level. At night, cool temperatures risked the balloon falling below the currents, an issue that worsened as gas was released. To resolve this, engineers developed a sophisticated ballast system with 32 sandbags mounted around a cast aluminum wheel, with each sandbag connected to gunpowder blowout plugs.
The plugs were connected to three redundant aneroid barometers calibrated for an altitude between 25,000 and 27,000 feet, below which one sandbag was released; the next plug was armed two minutes after the previous plug was blown. A separate altimeter set between 13,000 and 20,000 feet controlled the later release of the bombs. A one-hour activating fuse for the altimeters was ignited at launch, allowing the balloon time to ascend above these two thresholds.
A self-destruct system was added; a three-minute fuse triggered by the release of the last bomb would detonate a block of picric acid and destroy the carriage, followed by an 82-minute fuse that would ignite the hydrogen and destroy the envelope.
Offensive
A balloon launch organization of three battalions was formed. The first battalion included headquarters and three squadrons, totaling 1,500 men, at nine launch stations at Otsu in Ibaraki Prefecture. The second battalion of 700 men in three squadrons operated six launch stations at Ichinomiya, Chiba, and the third battalion of 600 men in two squadrons operated six launch stations at Nakoso, Fukushima. The Otsu site featured its own hydrogen plant, while the second and third battalions used hydrogen gas transported from factories around Tokyo. The combined launching capacity of the sites was about 200 balloons per day, with 15,000 launches planned through March. The Army estimated that only 10 percent of the balloons would survive the journey across the Pacific Ocean.
The first balloons were launched on November 3, 1944. Two weeks after the discovery of the B-Type balloon off San Pedro, an A-Type balloon was found in the ocean off Kailua, Hawaii, on November 14. More were found near Thermopolis, Wyoming, on December 6 (with an explosion heard by witnesses, and a crater later located) and near Kalispell, Montana, on December 11, followed by finds near Marshall and Holy Cross, Alaska, and Estacada, Oregon, later in the month.
Authorities were placed on heightened alert, and forest rangers were ordered to report landings and recoveries. The balloons continued to be discovered across North America, with sightings and partial or full recoveries in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan (where an incendiary bomb was found at Farmington in the easternmost incident), Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; in Canada in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest and Yukon Territories; in Mexico in Baja California Norte and Sonora; and at sea. By August 1945, the U.S. Army had recorded 285 balloon incidents.
[Wildfires defense]
Most U.S. defense plans were only fully implemented after the offensive ended in April 1945. In response to the threat of wildfires in the Pacific Northwest during the summer months, the Army's Western Defense Command (WDC), Fourth Air Force, and Ninth Service Command organized the "Firefly Project" with a number of Stinson L-5 Sentinel and Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft and 2,700 troops, including 200 paratroopers from the all-black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, who were deployed in 36 firefighting missions between May and October 1945.
The Army used the U.S. Forest Service as a proxy agency, unifying fire suppression communications between federal and state agencies and modernizing the service through an influx of military personnel, equipment, and tactics.
[Countermeasures for biological warfare]
In the WDC's "Lightning Project", health and agricultural officers, veterinarians, and 4-H clubs were instructed to report any new diseases of crops or livestock caused by potential biological warfare. Stocks of decontamination chemicals, ultimately unused, were shipped to key points in the western states. Although biological warfare had been a concern for months, the WDC's plan was not formalized and fully implemented until July 1945. A sub-section of the project, "Arrow", provided for rapid air transportation of all balloon remains to the Technical Air Intelligence Center laboratory in Washington, D.C., for biological analysis.[30] A U.S. investigation after the war concluded there had not been plans for chemical or biological payloads.
[Some balloons shot down]
Army Air Forces and Navy fighter planes were scrambled on several occasions to intercept balloons, but they had little success due to inaccurate sighting reports, bad weather, and the very high altitude at which they traveled. In all, only about 20 balloons were shot down by U.S. and Canadian pilots.
[Where did the balloons come from?]
Few American officials believed at first that the balloons could have come directly from Japan. Statistical analysis of valve serial numbers suggested that tens of thousands of balloons had been produced. The mineral and diatom composition of sand from the sandbags was studied by the Military Geology Unit of the United States Geological Survey, which assessed its origin as Shiogama, Miyagi, or less likely, Ichinomiya, Chiba, only the latter being correct.
Censorship campaign
On January 4, 1945, the U.S. Office of Censorship sent a confidential memo to newspaper editors and radio broadcasters asking that they give no publicity to balloon incidents; this proved highly effective, with the agency sending another memo three months later stating that cooperation had been "excellent" and that "there is no question that your refusal to publish or broadcast information about these balloons has baffled the Japanese, annoyed and hindered them, and has been an important contribution to security."
Starting in mid-February 1945, Japanese propaganda broadcasts falsely announced numerous fires and a panicked American public, further claiming casualties in the hundreds or thousands.
One breach occurred in late February, when Representative Arthur L. Miller mentioned the balloons in a weekly column he sent to all 91 newspapers in his Nebraska district. In response, intelligence officers at the Seventh Service Command in Omaha contacted the editors at all 91 papers, requesting censorship; this was largely successful.
In late March, the United Press (UP) wrote a detailed article on the balloons intended for its national distributors. Censors contacted the UP, which replied that the article had not yet been teletyped; all five copies were retrieved and destroyed. Investigators determined the information originated from a briefing to Colorado state legislators, which had been leaked in an open session.
In [two] cases, the Office of Censorship deemed it unnecessary to censor the Sunday comics, [which depicted balloon attacks].
[Widespread fires don't happen]
As predicted by Imperial Army officials, the winter and spring launch dates had limited the chances of the incendiaries starting fires due to the high levels of precipitation in the Pacific Northwest; forests were generally snow-covered or too damp to catch fire easily. Furthermore, much of the western U.S. received disproportionately more precipitation in 1945 than in any other year in the decade, with some areas receiving 4 to 10 inches of precipitation more than other years.
[Irony - site of plutonium used for Nagasaki]
The most damaging attack occurred on March 10, 1945, when a balloon descended near Toppenish, Washington, and collided with electric transmission lines, causing a short circuit which cut off power to the Manhattan Project's production facility at the state's Hanford Engineer Works. Backup devices restored power to the site, but it took three days for its plutonium-producing nuclear reactors to be restored to full capacity; the plutonium was later used in Fat Man, the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Single lethal attack
On May 5, 1945, six civilians were killed near Bly, Oregon, when they discovered one of the balloon bombs in Fremont National Forest, becoming the only fatalities from Axis action in the continental U.S. during the war. Reverend Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife Elsie (age 26) drove up Gearhart Mountain that day with five of their Sunday school students for a picnic. While Archie was parking the car, Elsie and the children discovered a balloon and carriage, loaded with an anti-personnel bomb, on the ground. A large explosion occurred; the four boys were killed instantly, while Elsie and Joan Patzke died from their wounds shortly afterwards. An Army investigation concluded that the bomb had likely been kicked or dropped, and that it had lain undisturbed for about one month before the incident. The U.S. press blackout was lifted on May 22 so the public could be warned of the balloon threat.
In 1987, a group of Japanese women involved in Fu-Go production as schoolgirls delivered 1,000 paper cranes to the victims' families as a symbol of peace and healing, and six cherry trees were planted at the site on the incident's 50th anniversary in 1995.
[Remains of balloons, live bomb, continued to be discovered - 2014 and 2019]
The remains of balloons have continued to be discovered after the war. At least eight were found in the 1940s, three in the 1950s, two in the 1960s, and one in the 1970s. A carriage with a live bomb was found near Lumby, British Columbia, in 2014 and detonated by a Royal Canadian Navy ordnance disposal team.
Remains of another balloon were found near McBride, British Columbia, in 2019. Many war museums in the U.S. and Canada hold Fu-Go fragments, including the National Air and Space Museum and Canadian War Museum.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb
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On This Day: Tiananmen Square protests (not 1989) spur shift in Chinese history - May 4, 1919
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376997
On This Day: Irregular army from U.S. conquers Nicaragua, re-institutes slavery - May 3, 1855
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376965
On This Day: Combat swimmers sink U.S. ship - back in service 7 months later - May 2, 1964
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376954
On This Day: Normans invade Ireland, many merging with native Gaels, now with common surnames - May 1, 1169
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376899
On This Day: French lose signature battle during invasion of Mexico, while US fights Civil War - Apr. 30, 1863
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376849
On This Day: Tiananmen Square protests (not 1989) spur shift in Chinese history - May 4, 1919
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
May Fourth Movement
The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles decision to allow Japan to retain territories in Shandong that had been surrendered by Germany after the Siege of Tsingtao in 1914. The demonstrations sparked nation-wide protests and spurred an upsurge in Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization away from cultural activities, and a move towards a populist base, away from traditional intellectual and political elites.
[CCP trajectory]
The May Fourth demonstrations marked a turning point in a broader anti-traditional New Culture Movement (1915–1921) that sought to replace traditional Confucian values and was itself a continuation of late Qing reforms. Even after 1919, these educated "new youths" still defined their role with a traditional model in which the educated elite took responsibility for both cultural and political affairs.
They opposed traditional culture but looked abroad for cosmopolitan inspiration in the name of nationalism and were an overwhelmingly urban movement that espoused populism in an overwhelmingly rural country. Many political and social leaders of the next five decades emerged at this time, including those of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Background
"The atmosphere and political mood that emerged around 1919," in the words of Oxford University historian Rana Mitter, "are at the center of a set of ideas that has shaped China's momentous twentieth century."
The Qing dynasty had disintegrated in 1911, marking the end of thousands of years of imperial rule in China, and theoretically ushered a new era in which political power rested nominally with the people. After the death of President Yuan Shikai in 1916, China became a fragmented nation dominated by warlords more concerned with political power and rival regional armies. The government in Beijing focused on suppressing internal dissent and could do little to counter foreign influence and control.
Chinese Premier Duan Qirui's signing of the secret Sino-Japanese Joint Defence Agreement in 1918 enraged the Chinese public when it was leaked to the press, and sparked a student protest movement that laid the groundwork for the May Fourth Movement. The March 1st Movement in Korea in 1919, the Russian Revolution of 1917, continued defeats by foreign powers and the presence of spheres of influence further inflamed Chinese nationalism among the emerging middle class and cultural leaders.
["Mr. Science" and "Mr. Democracy"]
Leaders of the New Culture Movement believed that traditional Confucian values were responsible for the political weakness of the nation. Chinese nationalists called for a rejection of traditional values and the adoption of Western ideals of "Mr. Science" and "Mr. Democracy" in place of "Mr. Confucius" in order to strengthen the new nation. These iconoclastic and anti-traditional views and programs have shaped China's politics and culture through to the present day.
Shandong Problem
China had entered World War I on the side of the Triple Entente in 1917. Although that year, 140,000 Chinese laborers were sent to the Western Front as a part of the Chinese Labor Corps, the Treaty of Versailles ratified in April 1919 awarded rights to the German territories in Shandong to Japan.
[U.S. policy not adopted]
The Western allies dominated the meeting at Versailles, and paid little heed to Chinese demands. The European delegations were primarily interested in punishing Germany. Although the American delegation promoted Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and the ideals of self-determination, they were unable to advance these ideals in the face of stubborn resistance by David Lloyd George and Clemenceau.
American advocacy of self-determination at the League of Nations was attractive to Chinese intellectuals, but their failure to follow through was seen as a betrayal. This diplomatic failure at the Paris Peace Conference created what became known as the "Shandong Problem".
Participants
On May 4, 1919, the May Fourth Movement, as a student patriotic movement, was initiated by a group of Chinese students protesting the contents of the Paris Peace Conference. Under the pressure of the May Fourth Movement, the Chinese delegation refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
Later, some advanced students in Shanghai and Guangzhou joined the protest movement, gradually forming a wave of mass student strikes across China.
Until June 1919, the Beijing government carried out the "June 3" arrests, arresting nearly 1,000 students one after another, but this did not suppress the patriotic student movement but angered the whole Chinese people, leading to a greater revolutionary storm. Shanghai workers went on strike, and businessmen went on strike to support students' patriotic movement across the country. The Chinese working class entered the political arena through the May Fourth Movement.
[Strike of unprecedented scale]
With the emergence of working-class support, the May Fourth Movement developed to a new stage. The center of the movement shifted from Beijing to Shanghai, and the working class replaced students as the main force of the movement. The Shanghai working class staged a strike of an unprecedented scale.
[Country paralyzed]
The growing scale of the national strike and the increasing number of its participants led to a paralysis of the country's economic life and posed a serious threat to the government in Beijing. The working class took the place of the students to stand up and resist. The support for this movement throughout the country reflected the enthusiasm for nationalism and national rejuvenation, which was also the foundation for the development and expansion of the May Fourth Movement.
Newspapers, magazines, citizen societies, and chambers of commerce offered support for the students. Merchants threatened to withhold tax payments if China's government remained obstinate. In Shanghai, a general strike of merchants and workers nearly devastated the entire Chinese economy.
Chinese representatives in Paris refused to sign the Versailles Treaty: the May Fourth Movement won an initial victory which was primarily symbolic, since Japan for the moment retained control of the Shandong Peninsula and the islands in the Pacific. Even the partial success of the movement exhibited the ability of China's social classes across the country to successfully collaborate given proper motivation and leadership.
Historical significance
Scholars rank the New Culture and May Fourth Movements as significant turning points, as David Der-wei Wang said, "it was the turning point in China's search for literary modernity", along with the abolition of the civil service system in 1905 and the overthrow of the monarchy in 1911.
The challenge to traditional Chinese values, however, was also met with strong opposition, especially from the Kuomintang. From their perspective, the movement destroyed the positive elements of Chinese tradition and placed a heavy emphasis on direct political actions and radical attitudes, characteristics associated with the emerging Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In its broader sense, the May Fourth Movement led to the establishment of radical intellectuals who went on to mobilize peasants and workers into the CCP and gain the organizational strength that would solidify the success of the Chinese Communist Revolution.
[Chinese Communism]
In 1939, CCP senior leader Mao Zedong claimed that the May Fourth Movement was a stage leading toward the fulfillment of the Chinese Communist Revolution.
Paul French argues that the only victor of the Treaty of Versailles in China was communism, as rising public anger led directly to the formation of the CCP. The Treaty also led to Japan pursuing its conquests with greater boldness, which Wellington Koo had predicted in 1919 would lead to the outbreak of war between China and Japan.
Western-style liberal democracy had previously had a degree of traction amongst Chinese intellectuals. Still, after Versailles, which was viewed as a betrayal of China's interests, it lost much of its attractiveness. Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, despite being rooted in moralism, were also seen as Western-centric and hypocritical.
Many Chinese intellectuals believed that the United States had done little to convince the other nations to adhere to the Fourteen Points and observed that the United States had declined to join the League of Nations. As a result, they turned away from the Western liberal democratic model. With victory of the Russian October Revolution in 1917, Marxism began to take hold in Chinese intellectual thought, particularly among those already on the Left. Chinese intellectuals such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao began serious study of Marxist doctrine.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement
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On This Day: Irregular army from U.S. conquers Nicaragua, re-institutes slavery - May 3, 1855
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376965
On This Day: Combat swimmers sink U.S. ship - back in service 7 months later - May 2, 1964
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376954
On This Day: Normans invade Ireland, many merging with native Gaels, now with common surnames - May 1, 1169
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376899
On This Day: French lose signature battle during invasion of Mexico, while US fights Civil War - Apr. 30, 1863
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376849
On This Day: Ali loses boxing title. Later conscientious objector conviction overturned by SC - Apr. 29, 1967
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376759
On This Day: Irregular army from U.S. conquers Nicaragua, re-institutes slavery - May 3, 1855
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
[Filibuster War and William Walker]
The Filibuster War or Walker affair was a military conflict between filibustering multinational troops stationed in Nicaragua and a coalition of Central American armies. An American mercenary, William Walker, invaded Nicaragua in 1855 with a small private army. He seized control of the country by 1856, but was ousted the following year.
Walker declared himself president, re-instituted slavery, and made English the official language.
[Nicaragua in flux]
Nicaragua's independence from Spain, Mexico, and then from the United Provinces of Central America in 1838, did not free it from foreign interference.
[Gold rush leads to canal fever]
The 1850s California Gold Rush created interest in the United States in finding a quicker route between the American east and west coasts. However, Great Britain had long been present on the coast of Nicaragua, which created tension between the two countries. The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty was signed in 1850, in which both sides "agreed that neither would claim exclusive power over a future canal in Central America nor gain exclusive control over any part of the region." Many Nicaraguans originally welcomed this treaty because of the potential financial benefits a canal could bring.
Following Nicaraguan independence from Spain, a conflict over power developed between the liberal party, based in León, and the conservative party, based in Granada.
In 1854, a civil war erupted in Nicaragua between the Legitimist Party (also called the 'Conservative party'), and the Democratic Party (also called the 'Liberal party'). The liberal elite of León was losing the struggle to unseat the conservative elite of Granada and turned for help to a San Francisco-based soldier of fortune named William Walker. Walker was known as an adventurer who sought to take control of Latin American countries with the purpose of making them a part of the United States.
[Private army departs San Francisco - May 3, 1855]
To circumvent American neutrality laws, Walker obtained a contract from Democratic president Francisco Castellón to bring as many as three hundred "colonists" to Nicaragua. Walker sailed from San Francisco on 3 May 1855, with approximately 60 men. Upon landing, the force was reinforced by 170 locals and about 100 Americans.
Establishment of Walker
With Castellón's consent, Walker attacked the Legitimists in the town of Rivas, near the trans-isthmian route. He was driven off, but not without inflicting heavy casualties. On 4 September, during the Battle of La Virgen, Walker defeated the Legitimist army. On 13 October, he conquered the Legitimist capital of Granada and took effective control of the country. Initially, as commander of the army, Walker ruled Nicaragua through puppet President Patricio Rivas. U.S. President Franklin Pierce recognized Walker's regime as the legitimate government of Nicaragua on 20 May 1856.
Central American counterattack
Walker had scared his neighbors with talk of further military conquests in Central America. Juan Rafael Mora, President of Costa Rica, rejected Walker's diplomatic overtures and instead declared war on his regime. Walker sent Colonel Schlessinger to invade Costa Rica in a preemptive action, but his forces were defeated at the Battle of Santa Rosa in March 1856.
In April 1856, Costa Rican troops penetrated into Nicaraguan territory and inflicted a defeat on Walker's men at the Second Battle of Rivas, in which Juan Santamaría, later to be recognized as one of Costa Rica's national heroes, sacrificed himself to burn down the place where the Filibusters were staying.
Walker set himself up as President of Nicaragua, after conducting an uncontested election. He was inaugurated on 12 July 1856, and soon launched an Americanization program, reinstating slavery, declaring English an official language and reorganizing currency and fiscal policy to encourage immigration from the United States of America.
Meanwhile, government representatives from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala signed in the City of Guatemala a Treaty of Alliance on 18 July 1856, for "defense of its sovereignty and independence". On 14 September, Septentrión Army (as the allied army was called) forces managed the first victory of the patriotic Nicaraguans in the so-called Battle of San Jacinto.
By the end of 1856, Walker ordered the destruction [burning] of Granada.
[Cornelius Vanderbilt becomes involved]
The Costa Rican government resumed action in late 1856, and developed plans to take over the San Juan River in order to cut Walker's supply of weapons and new recruits. Cornelius Vanderbilt sent one of his agents, Sylvanus Spencer, to collaborate with the Costa Rican army in order to recover the possession of the Transit Company he had lost to Walker. Spencer arrived to San Jose in November 1856 and was assigned to a company under Major Maximo Blanco to take over the steamers of the Transit Company. By January 1857, the Costa Rican army was in control of the San Juan River and all the steamers of the Transit Company.
Meanwhile, Walker was expelled from Granada by the rest of the allied armies.
Walker's surrender
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and other Central American countries united to drive Walker out in 1857. During this time, Granada was burned and thousands of Central Americans lost their lives. The final battle of what Nicaraguans called the "National War" (1856–1857) took place in the spring of 1857 in the town of Rivas, Nicaragua. Walker beat off the attacks, but the effort diminished the strength and morale of his forces and he soon succumbed.
The National War made for the cooperation between the Liberal and Conservative parties, which had brought Walker to Nicaragua. On 1 May 1857, Walker surrendered to Commander Charles Henry Davis of the United States Navy and was repatriated. Upon disembarking in New York City, he was greeted as a hero, but he alienated public opinion when he blamed his defeat on the U.S. Navy.
Filibuster (military)
A filibuster (from the Spanish filibustero), also known as a freebooter, is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession. The term is usually applied to United States citizens who incited insurrections across Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century, usually with the goal of establishing an American-loyal regime that could later be annexed into, or serve the interests of, the United States. Probably the most notable example is the Filibuster War initiated by William Walker in Nicaragua in the 1850s.
Filibusters are irregular soldiers who act without official authorization from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. Unlike mercenaries, filibusters are independently motivated and work for themselves, whilst a mercenary leader operates on behalf of others. The freewheeling actions of the filibusters of the 1850s led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the United States Congress.
History
The Spanish [derived term] entered the English language in the 1850s, as applied to military adventurers from the United States then operating in Central America and the Spanish West Indies.
In 1806, the general Francisco de Miranda launched an unsuccessful expedition to liberate Venezuela from Spanish rule with volunteers from the United States recruited in New York City. The three most prominent filibusters of that era were Narciso López and John Quitman in Cuba and William Walker in Baja California, Sonora, Costa Rica and lastly Nicaragua. The term returned to American parlance to refer to López's 1851 Cuban expedition.
Other filibusters include the Americans Aaron Burr, William Blount (West Florida), Augustus W. Magee (Texas), George Mathews (East Florida), George Rogers Clark (Louisiana and Mississippi), William S. Smith (Venezuela), Ira Allen (Canada), William A. Chanler (Cuba and Venezuela), Samuel Brannan (Hawaii), Joseph C. Morehead and Henry Alexander Crabb (Sonora) and James Long (Texas).
Although the American public often enjoyed reading about the thrilling adventures of filibusters, Americans involved in filibustering expeditions were usually in violation of the Neutrality Act of 1794 that made it illegal for a citizen to wage war against another country at peace with the United States. For example, the journalist John L. O'Sullivan, who coined the related phrase "manifest destiny", was put on trial for raising money for López's failed filibustering expedition in Cuba.
The Neutrality Act of 1818 became of great frustration for American filibusters. Article 6 stated anyone engaged in filibustering could receive a maximum three years imprisonment and three thousand dollars in fines. However, it was not uncommon for early Republic politicians to "overlook" and sometimes "assist" some filibuster missions in the hopes to add to U.S. territory. This conflict meant the army were reluctant to arrest filibusters who broke the terms of this legislation. Officers were worried that without permission from the U.S. district court to make these arrests, they could face arrest themselves.
Filibusters and the press
There was widespread support in the press for filibusters' missions. A number of journalists were sympathetic towards filibusters.
However, filibustering was not universally praised in the press. Papers backing the Republican party's position of being anti-filibuster would use the term to denounce not just actors such as William Walker but also the abolitionist filibuster John Brown.
Connection to slavery
The mid-nineteenth century (1848–1860) saw Southern planters raise private armies for expeditions to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America to acquire territories that could be annexed to the Union as slave states. Despite not being authorized by their government, Southern elites often held considerable sway over U.S. foreign policy and national politics. Despite widespread opposition from Northerners, filibustering thrust slavery into American foreign policy.
Historians have noted that filibustering was not a common practice and was carried out by "the most radical proslavery expansionists". Hardline defenders of slavery saw its preservation as their "top priority", leading to support for filibusters and their campaigns abroad. At the height of filibustering, pro-slavery politicians wanted to expand the United States further into Latin America, as far as Paraguay and Peru. However, these attempts were quickly withdrawn when military and diplomatic retaliation was pursued.
Many future Confederate officers and soldiers obtained valuable military experience from filibuster expeditions.
[Historical debate]
In the traditional historiography in both the United States and Latin America, Walker's filibustering represented the high tide of antebellum American imperialism. His brief seizure of Nicaragua in 1855 is typically called a representative expression of manifest destiny with the added factor of trying to expand slavery into Central America. Historian Michel Gobat, however, presents a strongly revisionist interpretation. He argues that Walker was invited in by Nicaraguan liberals who were trying to force economic modernization and political liberalism, and that thus it was not an attempted projection of American power.
Masculinity and filibustering
Historians such as Gail Bederman and Amy Greenburg have noted the influence of masculinity of filibustering, particularly the form of 'martial manhood' that many filibusterers adopted during the period. Many men in antebellum America sought a return to the type of masculinity displayed on the frontier – one supposedly of strength, violence and self reliance. Greenburg uses primary sources to examine the appeal to masculinity in the recruitment campaigns of filibuster missions, focusing on how the deteriorating working class conditions enabled locations such as Nicaragua to be advertised as a space for men to celebrate their strength.
Bederman, meanwhile, emphasises the importance of nostalgia for the American frontier, and draws together notions of race, masculinity and gender to display how people felt insecure in their identities so reverted back to the typical ideal of what it meant to be a white man.
Women's involvement with filibustering
Women often participated in filibustering, taking active roles such as planning, propaganda, participation, and popularization. Women also composed songs, arranged balls and concerts on behalf of the filibusters. Most of the interest came from women in the Gulf and Mid-Atlantic states as they were closer to the events. Correspondingly those in the Northern states tended not to take much interest in what was going on further south. Many women attended the filibuster expeditions as settlers, to help with casualties and to aid the expeditions in any way they could. Many women were at the front line experiencing first hand the armed engagements. A few even took up arms and used them to defend their men and property.
Filibusters and freemasonry
Several well-known figures in filibusterism were also Freemasons and this organization played a major role within the hierarchy of the filibusters.
[Opposition discourse and Latin American identity]
Historians such as Aims McGuinness promote the view that Filibustering catalysed an opposition discourse, that Manifest Destiny had spawned. In doing so this discourse in addition to the trauma and collective memory of the Filibuster War (caused by events such as the burning of Granada) is theorised to have created the original sense of widespread Latin American identity and Costa-Rican national identity.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_(military)
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On This Day: Combat swimmers sink U.S. ship - back in service 7 months later - May 2, 1964
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376954
On This Day: Normans invade Ireland, many merging with native Gaels, now with common surnames - May 1, 1169
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376899
On This Day: French lose signature battle during invasion of Mexico, while US fights Civil War - Apr. 30, 1863
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376849
On This Day: Ali loses boxing title. Later conscientious objector conviction overturned by SC - Apr. 29, 1967
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376759
On This Day: Bismarck backs down from threat of war with France - Apr. 28, 1887
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376697
On This Day: Combat swimmers sink U.S. ship - back in service 7 months later - May 2, 1964
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Attack on USNS Card
The attack on USNS Card was a Viet Cong (VC) operation during the Vietnam War. It took place in the port of Saigon in the early hours of 2 May 1964, and was mounted by commandos from the 65th Special Operations Group.
Card was first commissioned into the United States Navy during World War II. Decommissioned in 1946, Card was reactivated in 1958 and reentered service with the Military Sea Transport Service, transporting military equipment to South Vietnam as part of the United States military commitment to that country.
As a regular visitor to the port, Card became a target for local VC commando units. Shortly after midnight on 2 May 1964, two Viet Cong commandos climbed out of the sewer tunnel near the area where Card was anchored, and they attached two loads of explosives to the ship's hull. The attack was a success and Card sank in 48 feet of water. Five civilian crew members were killed by the explosions. The ship was refloated 17 days later and towed to the Philippines for repairs.
Background
With the escalation of the Vietnam War, the United States government stepped up military support for South Vietnam's fight against the Viet Cong. On 15 December 1961, USNS Card left Quonset Point, Rhode Island, with a cargo of H-21 Shawnee helicopters and U.S. soldiers from Fort Devens, Massachusetts, bound for Vietnam. At Subic Bay in the Philippines, the cargo and troops were transferred to USS Princeton, which arrived and unloaded off the coast of Đà Nẵng the following month.
From 1961 onwards, Card and USNS Core regularly docked in Saigon to unload heavy artillery, M113 armored personnel carriers, aircraft, helicopters and ammunition for the South Vietnamese government. To facilitate the arrival of Card and other American ships which pulled into Saigon, the South Vietnamese military often deployed navy vessels to conduct patrols around the port, while the surrounding shores were protected by an elite Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Airborne battalion.
The port itself was guarded round the clock by Republic of Vietnam National Police, as undercover South Vietnamese agents operated across the river in the Thủ Thiêm area to disrupt VC activities there. Undeterred by the level of protection which the South Vietnamese government normally afforded to American ships, Trần Hải Phụng—commander of the Viet Cong's Saigon-Gia Dinh Military District [vi]—ordered the 65th Special Operations Group to attack USNS Card.
[Prelude to sinking of USNS Card]
Lâm Sơn Náo, a commando of the 65th Special Operations Group, was also an electrician at the port facility.
As his unit was assigned with the mission to attack the carrier, Náo took advantage of his position as an employee at the port facility, to reconnoitre Card to design the best strategy to sabotage the ship and all the military hardware on board. Náo's father had previously worked at the port facility as a tradesman, so he memorized all the tunnels and sewage systems at the facility. He advised Náo that the best way to enter the area where American ships normally anchored was through the sewer tunnel opposite Thủ Thiêm.
While bathing in the Saigon River, Náo inspected the sewer tunnel, which his father had advised him to use. Náo concluded that the tunnel would provide the best access to the American area, but it also presented challenges. The sewage tunnel contained waste and toxic oils which could cause blindness, so Náo and his men would have to close their eyes as they moved through it to avoid blindness.
Náo and his men had to bathe to purge deadly odours to avoid detection, and probably arrest, by South Vietnamese authorities. After Náo had surveyed the tunnels leading to the port, he presented his plan to the Saigon-Gia Dinh Military District Headquarters. Nao decided to utilise high explosives, enough to sink a ship, and to detonate them using a timer so that his men could get away safely. Náo's superiors approved the plan and they ordered him to launch the attack before sunrise to avoid killing local Vietnamese civilians.
Náo returned to Saigon and began assembling the equipment required for the attack, which included C4 plastic explosives, TNT, wire, mine detonators and batteries. Náo trained new commandos, namely Nguyễn Phú Hùng (an electrician) and Nguyễn Văn Cậy (a mason), to support his operation. To ensure success, Náo measured the height, length and width of the sewer tunnel to assemble the bomb devices to the right size, to be carried through the tunnel unhindered.
Towards the end of 1963, Náo received news that Card had arrived in Saigon with another load of armored personnel carriers, artillery and aircraft. But the carrier turned out to be her sister ship, USNS Core. On the evening of 29 December 1963, Náo and Cậy carried their bomb devices, which had about 180 lb of explosives, through the sewer tunnel. They attached the explosives to Core's hull, set the timer and retreated into the sewer to await the outcome.
The bombs failed to explode because the battery had expired due to protracted storage. Determined the operation would remain a secret, the commandos snuck back to Core and retrieved the explosive devices. Soon, Core and its crew sailed from Saigon without any damage. Náo reported the mission failure to the Saigon-Gia Dinh Military District Headquarters. His superiors did not express disappointment in the failure, but they encouraged Náo and his men to destroy Card at all costs.
Successful attack
When Náo received news Card had arrived in Saigon, he inspected the equipment which included a new battery and a redesigned bomb. Náo decided to set off the bombs during the early hours of 2 May, so that he and his fellow operative could escape safely and avoid inflicting casualties on the local population. Due to illness, Cậy declined to take part in the operation, so Hùng had to replace him.
At around 09:00 on 1 May, Náo went to Hùng's home, where the latter was given a hand grenade and was notified of an upcoming operation without much detail. At 18:00, after Náo had finished loading the bombs onto one canoe, he and Hùng traveled down the Saigon River in two separate canoes, toward the commercial port district. They pulled over in the Thủ Thiêm area.
Shortly after 18:30 as both men headed toward Warehouse Number 0 at the commercial port, a police patrol boat spotted them and gave chase. Náo ordered Hùng to throw away the hand grenade and both men would retreat toward the local village if their bombs were discovered by police. The police patrol stopped about 66 ft away from Náo's canoe, and the patrol boat commander questioned both men about their activities during that evening.
Náo claimed that he and Hùng intended to go to the other side of the river to buy new clothes at the market. To avoid delaying the operation, Náo bribed the patrol boat commander 1000 Vietnamese dong. When the patrol boat commander received the bribe, he gave both Náo and Hùng permission to move on but demanded another bribe when they return. When the commandos arrived at the sewer tunnel, they assembled the bomb device with each man carrying 88 lb of explosives through the tunnel.
When the commandos emerged from the tunnel, they swam toward the broadside of Card which anchored near the sewer opening. Náo and Hùng attached two bombs to the ship, with one near the bilge and one at the engine compartment, just above the waterline.
At 01:10, the bombs were completed and both commandos retreated to the sewer tunnel, boarded their canoes on the other side and rowed back to Thủ Thiêm. Again, the police patrol boat was waiting for Náo and Hùng to arrive, because the commander wanted another bribe. As Náo and Hùng approached the patrol boat, an explosion was heard and a bright light could be seen in the commercial port area. The South Vietnamese police patrol boat then started its engine and raced towards Card, instead of extracting another bribe.
Aftermath
For the VC commandos of the 65th Special Operations Group, the explosion on Card signalled a successful mission. By sunrise, Card had settled 48 feet into the river with its engine compartment completely flooded. Five American civilians who worked on the ship died as a result of the attack. Due to rapid response from the ship's crew and local authorities, flooding inside the ship was quickly stopped and it was stabilized. An inspection revealed that the explosion had torn a hole 12 feet long and 3 feet high, on the starboard side of the ship.
The US Navy refused to admit Card had been sunk even for a brief period of time, instead stating Card was damaged and quickly repaired.
For the remainder of 1964, the VC launched further attacks on US targets such as the Brinks Hotel and Bien Hoa Air Base, but there were no significant responses from the US military. Card returned to service on 11 December 1964 and remained in service until 1970, when it was placed in the Reserve Fleet.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_USNS_Card
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On This Day: Normans invade Ireland, many merging with native Gaels, now with common surnames - May 1, 1169
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376899
On This Day: French lose signature battle during invasion of Mexico, while US fights Civil War - Apr. 30, 1863
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376849
On This Day: Ali loses boxing title. Later conscientious objector conviction overturned by SC - Apr. 29, 1967
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376759
On This Day: Bismarck backs down from threat of war with France - Apr. 28, 1887
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376697
On This Day: Lincoln suspends habeas corpus during war. Now, SC diminishes it permanently. - Apr. 27, 1861
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376608
On This Day: Normans invade Ireland, many merging with native Gaels, now with common surnames - May 1, 1169
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland
The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the kings of England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly sanctioned by the papal bull Laudabiliter. At the time, Gaelic Ireland was made up of several kingdoms, with a High King claiming lordship over most of the other kings. The Anglo-Norman invasion was a watershed in Ireland's history, marking the beginning of more than 800 years of direct English and, later, British, conquest and colonialism in Ireland.
In May 1169, Anglo-Norman mercenaries landed in Ireland at the request of Diarmait mac Murchada (Dermot MacMurragh), the deposed King of Leinster, who sought their help in regaining his kingship. They achieved this within weeks and raided neighbouring kingdoms. This military intervention was sanctioned by King Henry II of England. In return, Diarmait had sworn loyalty to Henry and promised land to the Normans.
In 1170, there were further Norman landings, led by the Earl of Pembroke, Richard "Strongbow" de Clare. They seized the important Norse-Irish towns of Dublin and Waterford, and Strongbow married Diarmait's daughter Aoífe. Diarmait died in May 1171 and Strongbow claimed Leinster, which Diarmait had promised him. Led by High King Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (Rory O'Conor), a coalition of most of the Irish kingdoms besieged Dublin, while Norman-held Waterford and Wexford were also attacked. However, the Normans managed to hold most of their territory.
In October 1171, King Henry landed with a large army to assert control over both the Anglo-Normans and the Irish. This intervention was supported by the Roman Catholic Church, who saw it as a means of ensuring Irish religious reform, and a source of taxes. At the time, Irish marriage laws conflicted with those of the broader Church, and the Gregorian Reform had not been fully implemented. Henry granted Strongbow Leinster as a fiefdom, declared the Norse-Irish towns to be crown land, and arranged the synod of Cashel to reform the Irish church. Many Irish kings also submitted to him, likely in the hope that he would curb Norman expansion, but Henry granted the unconquered kingdom of Meath to Hugh de Lacy. After Henry's departure in 1172, fighting between the Normans and Irish continued.
[Norman success]
The 1175 Treaty of Windsor acknowledged Henry as overlord of the conquered territory and Ruaidrí as overlord of the remainder of Ireland, with Ruaidrí also swearing fealty to Henry. The Treaty soon collapsed: Norman lords continued to invade Irish kingdoms and the Irish continued to attack the Normans. In 1177, Henry adopted a new policy. He declared his son John to be the "Lord of Ireland" (i.e. claiming the whole island) and authorised the Norman lords to conquer more land. The territory they held became the Lordship of Ireland, part of the Angevin Empire. The Normans' success has been attributed to military superiority and castle-building, the lack of a unified opposition from the Irish and the support of the church for Henry's intervention.
[Invasion of May 1, 1169]
On 1 May 1169, Robert FitzStephen and Maurice de Prendergast landed at Bannow Bay, on the south coast of County Wexford, with a force of at least 40 knights, 60 men-at-arms and 360 archers. This force merged with about 500 men led by Diarmait. They set about conquering Leinster and the territories Diarmait had claimed sovereignty over. First they besieged the Norse-Irish seaport of Wexford, which surrendered after two days. They then raided and plundered the territories of north Leinster, which had refused to submit to Diarmait. They also raided the neighbouring kingdom of Ossory, defeating the forces of king Donnchad Mac Gilla Patraic (Donagh MacGillapatrick) in the battle of Achad Úr. However, Donnchad withdrew his forces to safety. Prendergast then announced he was withdrawing from Ireland with his 200 men, but Diarmait would not let them set sail from Wexford. In response, Prendergast offered his men as mercenaries to Donnchad of Ossory, which Donnchad accepted. He used these mercenaries to temporarily subdue Loígis. However, Prendergast refused to fight his former companions, and he soon left Ireland with his men.
In response, High King Ruaidrí led an army into Leinster to confront Diarmait and the Normans. The army included contingents from Connacht, Breffny, Meath, and Dublin, each led by their respective kings. An agreement was reached at Ferns: Diarmait was acknowledged as king of Leinster, in return for acknowledging Ruaidrí as his overlord and agreeing to send his foreign allies away permanently. To ensure compliance, Diarmait agreed to give Ruaidrí hostages, one of whom was his son. However, Diarmait apparently sought to use his Anglo-Norman allies to make himself High King. Shortly after the Ferns agreement, Maurice FitzGerald landed at Wexford with at least 10 knights, 30 mounted archers and 100-foot archers. In a show of strength, Maurice and Diarmait marched an army north and laid waste to the hinterland of Dublin.
Normans in Ireland
Hiberno-Normans, or Norman Irish refer to Irish families descended from Norman settlers who arrived during the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century, mainly from England and Wales. During the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages, the Hiberno-Normans constituted a feudal aristocracy and merchant oligarchy, known as the Lordship of Ireland. The Hiberno-Normans were also closely associated with the Gregorian Reform of the Catholic Church in Ireland and were responsible for the emergence of Hiberno-English.
[Burkes, Butlers, FitzGeralds, Walsh]
Some of the most prominent Hiberno-Norman families were the Burkes (de Burghs), Butlers, and FitzGeralds who over time were said to have become "more Irish than the Irish themselves" by merging culturally and intermarrying with the Gaels. One of the most common Irish surnames, Walsh, derives from Welsh Normans who arrived in Ireland as part of this group.
The dominance of the Hiberno-Normans declined during the 16th century after the Anglican "New English" elite settled in Ireland from the end of the Tudor period; and they came to be known as Seanghaill (Old English) at this time. Many Roman Catholic Norman-Irish families spread throughout the world as part of the Irish diaspora ceasing, in most cases, to identify as Norman, whether originally Anglo-Norman, Cambro-Norman, or Scoto-Norman. Other Old English families, like the Dillons, merged with the New English elite after the Henrician Reformation. Following the Glorious Revolution, many of these Old English families promoted unity with the Gaels under the denominator of "Irish Catholic", while others were assimilated into a new Irish Protestant identity, which also included later settler groups such as the Ulster Scots and Huguenots.
Normans in medieval Ireland
Traditionally, London-based Anglo-Norman governments expected the Normans in the Lordship of Ireland to promote the interests of the Kingdom of England, through the use of the English language (despite the fact that they spoke Norman French rather than English), law, trade, currency, social customs, and farming methods. The Norman community in Ireland was, however, never monolithic. In some areas, especially in the Pale around Dublin, and in relatively urbanised communities in Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork and south Wexford, people spoke the English language (though sometimes in arcane local dialects such as Yola and Fingallian), used English law, and in some respects lived in a manner similar to that found in England.
However, in the provinces, the Normans in Ireland (Irish: Gaill meaning "foreigners " ) were at times indistinguishable from the surrounding Gaelic lords and chieftains. Dynasties such as the Fitzgeralds, Butlers, Burkes, and Walls adopted the native language, legal system, and other customs such as fostering and intermarriage with the Gaelic Irish and the patronage of Irish poetry and music. Such people became regarded as "more Irish than the Irish themselves" as a result of this process (see also History of Ireland (1169–1536)). The most accurate name for the Gaelicised Anglo-Irish throughout the late medieval period was Hiberno-Norman, a name which captures the distinctive blended culture which this community created and within which it operated until the Tudor conquest. In an effort to halt the ongoing Gaelicisation of the Anglo-Irish community, the Irish Parliament passed the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1367, which among other things banned the use of the Irish language, the wearing of Irish clothes, as well as prohibiting the Gaelic Irish from living within walled towns.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman_invasion_of_Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans_in_Ireland
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On This Day: French lose signature battle during invasion of Mexico, while US fights Civil War - Apr. 30, 1863
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376849
On This Day: Ali loses boxing title. Later conscientious objector conviction overturned by SC - Apr. 29, 1967
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376759
On This Day: Bismarck backs down from threat of war with France - Apr. 28, 1887
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376697
On This Day: Lincoln suspends habeas corpus during war. Now, SC diminishes it permanently. - Apr. 27, 1861
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376608
On This Day: Giuliano Medici killed during High Mass, leads to greater Medici power - Apr. 26, 1478
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376504
On This Day: French lose signature battle during invasion of Mexico, while US fights Civil War - Apr. 30, 1863
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
[French invasion of Mexico]
The second French intervention in Mexico, also known as the Second Franco-Mexican War (1861–1867), was a military invasion of the Republic of Mexico by the French Empire of Napoleon III, purportedly to force the collection of Mexican debts in conjunction with Great Britain and Spain.
Mexican conservatives supported the invasion, since they had been defeated by the liberal government of Benito Juárez in a three-year civil war. Defeated on the battlefield, conservatives sought the aid of France to effect regime change and establish a monarchy in Mexico, a plan that meshed with Napoleon III's plans to re-establish the presence of the French Empire in the Americas.
Although the French invasion displaced Juárez's Republican government from the Mexican capital and the monarchy of Archduke Maximilian was established, the Second Mexican Empire collapsed within a few years. Material aid from the United States, whose four-year civil war ended in 1865, invigorated the Republican fight against the regime of Maximilian, and the 1866 decision of Napoleon III to withdraw military support for Maximilian's regime accelerated the monarchy's collapse. Maximilian and two Mexican generals were executed by firing squad on 19 June 1867, ending this period of Mexican history.
The intervention came as a civil war, the Reform War, had just concluded, and the intervention allowed the Conservative opposition against the liberal social and economic reforms of President Juárez to take up their cause once again. The Mexican Catholic Church, Mexican conservatives, much of the upper-class and Mexican nobility, and some Native Mexican communities invited, welcomed and collaborated with the French empire's help to install Maximilian of Habsburg as Emperor of Mexico. The emperor himself, however proved to be of liberal inclination and continued some of the Juárez government's most notable liberal measures. Some liberal generals defected to the Empire, including the powerful, northern governor Santiago Vidaurri, who had fought on the side of Juárez during the Reform War.
[French army lands in Mexico]
The French army landed in 1861, aiming to rapidly take the capital of Mexico City, but Mexican republican forces defeated them in the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862, Cinco de Mayo, delaying their taking the capital for a year. The French and Mexican Imperial Army captured much of Mexican territory, including major cities, but guerrilla warfare by supporters of the republic remained a significant factor and Juárez himself never left the national territory.
[French depart in 1867]
The intervention was increasingly using up troops and money at a time when the recent Prussian victory over Austria was inclining France to give greater military priority to European affairs. The liberals also never lost the official recognition of the United States of America in spite of their ongoing civil war, and following the defeat and surrender of the Confederate States of America in April 1865 the reunited country began providing materiel support to the republican forces. Invoking the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. government asserted that it would not tolerate a lasting French presence on the continent. Facing defeats and mounting pressure both at home and abroad, the French army began to redeploy to Europe in 1866, and the French empire in Mexico collapsed in 1867.
[French Foreign legion fight-to-the-death legacy]
The Battle of Camarón which occurred over ten hours on 30 April 1863 between the Foreign Legion of the French Army and the Mexican Army, is regarded as a defining moment in the Foreign Legion's history.
A small infantry patrol, led by Captain Jean Danjou and Lieutenants Clément Maudet and Jean Vilain, numbering just 65 men was attacked and besieged by a force that may have eventually reached 3,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry, and was forced to make a defensive stand at the nearby Hacienda Camarón, in Camarón de Tejeda, Veracruz, Mexico.
The conduct of the Légionnaires who, overwhelmingly outnumbered, refused to surrender, killing and injuring hundreds of enemy troops before finally succumbing, led to a certain mystique, and the battle of Camarón became synonymous with bravery and a fight-to-the-death attitude.
[Memorials]
In 1892, a monument commemorating the battle was erected on the battlefield containing a plaque with the following inscription in French:
(English: "Here there were less than sixty opposed to a whole army. Its numbers crushed them. Life rather than courage abandoned these French soldiers on April 30, 1863. In their memory, the fatherland has erected this monument " )
The site of the battle can be visited at the village of Camarón de Tejeda, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. This village was formerly known as El Camarón, and later as Adalberto Tejeda, Villa Tejeda or Camarón de Tejeda.
In the village is a monument erected by the Mexican government in 1964, honoring the Mexican soldiers who fought in the battle. There is also a memorial site and parade ground on the outskirts of the village. The memorial has a raised platform, which covers the resting place of the remains of French and Mexican soldiers disinterred in the 1960s. The surface of the platform has a plaque in Latin. Diligent search of the area has failed to locate the plaque with the oft-quoted 1892 French-language inscription referred to above.
Every year, on 30 April, the Mexican government holds annual ceremonies at the memorial site, with political speakers and a parade of various Mexican military units. The village holds a fiesta on the same day. The ceremonies are sometimes attended by representatives of the French military, and the site is also visited by retired veterans of the French Foreign Legion. It is also tradition that any Mexican soldiers passing by the area turn towards the monument and offer a salute.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_French_intervention_in_Mexico
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camar%C3%B3n
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On This Day: Ali loses boxing title. Later conscientious objector conviction overturned by SC - Apr. 29, 1967
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376759
On This Day: Bismarck backs down from threat of war with France - Apr. 28, 1887
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376697
On This Day: Lincoln suspends habeas corpus during war. Now, SC diminishes it permanently. - Apr. 27, 1861
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376608
On This Day: Giuliano Medici killed during High Mass, leads to greater Medici power - Apr. 26, 1478
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376504
On This Day: Flint water crisis. Now, criminal action vs gov't officials closed; modest payouts agreed - Apr. 25, 2014
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376456
On This Day: Ali loses boxing title. Later conscientious objector conviction overturned by SC - Apr. 29, 1967
(edited from article)
"
Muhammad Ali refuses to fight in Vietnam war
Champion heavyweight boxer is stripped of world title after refusing US Army draft
From the archive, 29 April 1967
Boxing authorities in America today stripped Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) of his world heavyweight title and suspended his boxing licence after he had refused to be inducted into the United States Army.
Clay had stood in line with 11 other men being called up in a room in the old Post Office building in Houston, Texas, and heard his Black Muslim name called by the officer administering the oath. Clay did not move. Another officer walked up to him and said: "Mr Ali, will you accompany me, please ?" Clay did not speak, but followed him out of the room to be given a warning of the consequences of his refusal.
He was taken back into the room and given a second chance to take the oath, but he again refused. He then signed a statement to that effect.
Clay issued a statement saying: "It is in the light of my consciousness as a Muslim minister and my own personal convictions that I take my stand in rejecting the call to be inducted. I do so with the full realisation of its implications. I have searched my conscience.
"
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/apr/29/muhammad-ali-refuses-to-fight-in-vietnam-war-1967
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Draft resistance
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia.
(He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest! " ) By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers".
He also said, "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and the World Boxing Association stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit.
["Cleveland Summit"]
Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes including Jim Brown, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as well as one political leader, Carl Stokes, assembled with Ali at the Negro Industrial Economic Union in Cleveland for what became known as the "Cleveland Summit" or the "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
[Ali found guilty]
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21 minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
[Supreme Court overturns]
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
In a 1974 interview, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that [the Vietnam War] wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
For the heavyweight champion of the world, who had achieved the highest level of athletic celebrity, to put all of that on the line—the money, the ability to get endorsements—to sacrifice all of that for a cause, gave a whole sense of legitimacy to the movement and the causes with young people that nothing else could have done. Even those who were assassinated, certainly lost their lives, but they didn't voluntarily do that. He knew he was going to jail and did it anyway. That's another level of leadership and sacrifice.
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists". Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity".
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years." Ali's promoter Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time, but in 2016 Arum stated: "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world. ... He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
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On This Day: Bismarck backs down from threat of war with France - Apr. 28, 1887
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376697
On This Day: Lincoln suspends habeas corpus during war. Now, SC diminishes it permanently. - Apr. 27, 1861
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376608
On This Day: Giuliano Medici killed during High Mass, leads to greater Medici power - Apr. 26, 1478
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376504
On This Day: Flint water crisis. Now, criminal action vs gov't officials closed; modest payouts agreed - Apr. 25, 2014
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376456
On This Day: Quantum experiment "transformed our understanding of the world" - Apr. 24, 1914
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376411
On This Day: Bismarck backs down from threat of war with France - Apr. 28, 1887
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Schnaebele Affair
Guillaume Schnaebelé (1831–1900) was a French official from Alsace, best known for being arrested by Germans in the April 1887 Schnaebele incident (or Affair) which nearly led to war between France and Germany.
Who caused the incident and why remains speculative, but it has been suggested that German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was its instigator, for a number of possible reasons: inciting France into starting a war, gauging the extent of French support for Boulangism, or creating tensions with France to force the renewal of a Russian-German alliance of neutrality that was under debate at the Russian court.
Others see it as simply a series of unintended consequences, notable for the role played by France's General Georges Ernest Boulanger. This and a number of other incidents involving General Boulanger are elements of what is known as the Boulanger Affair, a series of embarrassments for the newly formed government of the French Third Republic that some consider to have nearly led to a coup d'état.
On 21 April 1887 the French Havas news agency published a dispatch to the effect that Schnaebelé, a mid-level and obscure French police inspector, had been arrested by two agents of the German secret police on the Franco-German frontier near Pagny-sur-Moselle as he was on his way to Ars an der Mosel (now Ars-sur-Moselle) for a meeting with the German police inspector there, at the latter's request.
[A spy?]
A dispute followed as to whether the arrest had taken place on French or German territory; but regardless, the French claimed that under the circumstances Schnaebelé was entitled to immunity even if on German territory since he had been invited to a conference by German officials. The reason given by the German authorities for the arrest was that in a previous inquiry into charges of treasonable practices against a number of Alsatians, evidence had been produced that Schnaebelé had been involved in transmitting to Paris information as to German fortresses, furnished by Alsatians in the pay of the French Government, and that an order had been issued to arrest him if ever he should be found on German soil. In other words, the Germans believed Schnaebelé to be a spy.
[Release on April 28]
Within a week of his arrest, on 28 April, Schnaebelé was released by order of the German Emperor, William I. In a dispatch of the same date to the French ambassador at Berlin, Bismarck explained that, although the German Government considered, in view of the proofs of guilt, the arrest to be fully justified, it was deemed expedient to release Schnaebelé on the ground that business meetings between frontier officials "must always be regarded as protected by a mutually-assured safe conduct." Thus ended the Schnaebelé incident.
[Concern of war]
The week-long incident, between 21 and 28 April, generated such threatening and provocative language from both sides as to cause serious concern of war. A large section of the German press demanded that Germany make no concession. In France, the Cabinet voted 6 to 5 against an ultimatum demanding the release of Schnaebelé with an apology, which would almost certainly have meant war, as had happened with the Ems Dispatch in 1870. The proposed ultimatum had been put forward by French war hawk and Minister of War Georges Ernest Boulanger, who also brought in a bill to mobilise an army corps.
[Boulanger admirers]
After Schnaebelé's release and Bismarck's letter, many in the French public thought Bismarck backed down because he was afraid of Boulanger, which increased Boulanger's rising star as a national hero and bolstered his image as a "Revenger" for France against Germany. However, he was, in truth, an embarrassment to the Republican government, who knew well that the French army was no better off than in 1870, when Germany quickly defeated it in the Franco-Prussian War. Boulanger's antagonism against Germany during the week-long crisis was indeed a danger to the Republic. For this and other reasons, on 7 July 1887 Boulanger was released as Minister of War and dispatched by the government to a provincial post to be hopefully forgotten, but not before admiring throngs tried to stop his train from leaving Paris: loyal to his military orders, he was smuggled out in a switch engine.
Cause
The reasons for the arrest and release of Schnaebelé have never been entirely explained, but there are theories, both contemporary and modern.
Bismarck might have been trying to agitate conflict with France before Germany's treaty of neutrality with Russia expired that year – Germany knew from experience that it could not afford a war with France without a neutral or allied Russia. Russia would only remain neutral if the responsibility for war was cast on the French, as happened in 1870. When the French government stood its ground and presented an irrefutable case, failing to throw the responsibility on the French, Bismarck knew, from previous experience, that he could not count on Russia's neutrality if conflict came, and he had to back down: Schnaebelé was therefore set free. Related to the Russians, Bismarck may have wanted to create a strained situation with France, to counteract the Panslavist party in Russia, which, at the time, was lobbying the cabinet of the Russian Emperor not to renew the Russian-German alliance.
Modern (1989) research suggests a simpler explanation. Schnaebelé was, in fact, engaged in espionage, working under the express request of Boulanger. However, Schnaebelé had been invited onto German territory by his German counterpart, which was a guarantee of safe-conduct, and thus his arrest, whilst on German territory, was legally irregular, which is why Bismarck agreed to his release. Bismarck had backed down, exclusively, because of the circumstances surrounding the arrest.
Account
According to one account, the incident occurred as follows: It was a cool day and Schnaebelé was wearing a coat and top hat. He walked briskly on the road leading from Nancy (France) to Metz (then in Lothringen, German Empire). Gautsch, his German colleague of Ars an der Mosel who he is supposed to meet, is not in sight. Schnaebelé wonders if Gautsch has reneged on the meeting. Schnaebelé is waiting impatiently, a few steps from the German side. Suddenly, a man in a gray blouse appears from the German side, hails Schnaebelé, then rushes at him, trying to lead him into Germany. Schnaebelé successfully resists but then a second man in a gray blouse appears.
Returning a few steps into French territory, Schnaebelé exclaims (in German): "What do you want from me? I'm Guillaume Schnaebele Commissioner Special Pagny. I am here at home! This is the border." His two attackers do not listen and continue to grapple him across the border. The two French farmers do not intervene, but the six German rail workers on hearing the cries for help come into view. But what they see deters action: the two assailants remove their blouses and are shown to be wearing uniforms of the German police. Everything is then perfectly clear. They handcuff Schnaebelé by the wrist and lead him on foot to the village of Novéant and then by train to Metz. There he is thrown into prison and held incommunicado.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Schnaebel%C3%A9
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On This Day: Lincoln suspends habeas corpus during war. Now, SC diminishes it permanently. - Apr. 27, 1861
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376608
On This Day: Giuliano Medici killed during High Mass, leads to greater Medici power - Apr. 26, 1478
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376504
On This Day: Flint water crisis. Now, criminal action vs gov't officials closed; modest payouts agreed - Apr. 25, 2014
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376456
On This Day: Quantum experiment "transformed our understanding of the world" - Apr. 24, 1914
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376411
On This Day: Romans double-up on temples to Venus to promote harmony and cooperation - Apr. 23, 181 BC
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376365
On This Day: Lincoln suspends habeas corpus during war. Now, SC diminishes it permanently. - Apr. 27, 1861
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Habeas corpus in the United States
In United States law, habeas corpus is a recourse challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's confinement under color of law. A petition for habeas corpus is filed with a court that has jurisdiction over the custodian, and if granted, a writ is issued directing the custodian to bring the confined person before the court for examination into those reasons or conditions.
The Suspension Clause of the United States Constitution specifically included the English common law procedure in Article One, Section 9, clause 2, which demands that "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."
United States law affords persons the right to petition the federal courts for a writ of habeas corpus. Individual states also afford persons the ability to petition their own state court systems for habeas corpus pursuant to their respective constitutions and laws when held or sentenced by state authorities.
Federal habeas review did not extend to those in state custody until almost a century after the nation's founding. During the Civil War and Reconstruction, as later during the War on Terrorism, the right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus was substantially curtailed for persons accused of engaging in certain conduct.
The right of habeas corpus is not a right against unlawful arrest, but rather a right to be released from imprisonment after such arrest. If one believes the arrest is without legal merit and subsequently refuses to come willingly, he still may be guilty of resisting arrest, which can sometimes be a crime in and of itself (even if the initial arrest itself was illegal) depending on the state.
Presidential suspension of habeas corpus - [Lincoln's actions]
On April 27, 1861, the right of habeas corpus was unilaterally suspended by President Abraham Lincoln in Maryland during the American Civil War. Lincoln had received word that anti-war Maryland officials intended to destroy the railroad tracks between Annapolis and Philadelphia, which was a vital supply line for the army preparing to fight the South.
Indeed, soon after, the Maryland legislature would simultaneously vote to stay in the Union and to close these rail lines, in an apparent effort to prevent war between its northern and southern neighbors.
Lincoln did not issue a sweeping order; it only applied to the Maryland route. Lincoln chose to suspend the writ over a proposal to bombard Baltimore, favored by his General-in-Chief Winfield Scott.
Lincoln was also motivated by requests by generals to set up military courts to rein in his political opponents, "Copperheads", or Peace Democrats, so named because they did not want to resort to war to force the southern states back into the Union, as well as to intimidate those in the Union who supported the Confederate cause. Congress was not yet in session to consider a suspension of the writs; however, when it came into session it failed to pass a bill favored by Lincoln to sanction his suspensions. During this period one sitting U.S. Congressman from the opposing party, as well as the mayor, police chief, entire Board of Police, and the city council of Baltimore were arrested without charge and imprisoned indefinitely without trial.
Lincoln's action was rapidly challenged in court and overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Maryland (led by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney) in Ex parte Merryman. Chief Justice Taney ruled the suspension unconstitutional, stating that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus. Lincoln and his Attorney General Edward Bates not only ignored the Chief Justice's order, but when Lincoln's dismissal of the ruling was criticized in an editorial by prominent Baltimore newspaper editor Frank Key Howard, they had the editor also arrested by federal troops without charge or trial.
The troops imprisoned Howard, who was Francis Scott Key's grandson, in Fort McHenry, which, as he noted, was the same fort where the Star Spangled Banner had been waving "o'er the land of the free" in his grandfather's song. In 1863, Howard wrote about his experience as a "political prisoner" at Fort McHenry in the book Fourteen Months in the American Bastille; two of the publishers selling the book were then arrested.
When Congress convened in July 1861 it failed to support Lincoln's unilateral suspension of habeas corpus. A joint resolution was introduced into the Senate to approve of the president's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, but filibustering by Senate Democrats, who did not support it, and opposition to its imprecise wording by Senator Lyman Trumbull prevented a vote on the resolution before the end of the first session, and the resolution was not taken up again. Trumbull himself introduced a bill to suspend habeas corpus, but failed on getting a vote before the end of the first session.
Shortly thereafter, on September 17, 1861, the day the Maryland legislature was to reconvene, Lincoln imprisoned pro-Confederate members of the Maryland General Assembly without charges or hearings in further defiance of the Chief Justice's ruling. Thus, the legislative session had to be cancelled.
On February 14, 1862, the war was firmly in progress and Lincoln ordered most prisoners released, putting an end to court challenges for the time being. He again suspended habeas corpus on his own authority in September that same year, however, in response to resistance to his calling up of the militia.
2020s
According to the American Bar Association Journal, habeas corpus was "effectively eliminated" in 2022 after a 6-3 majority led by Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled in Brown v. Davenport that it could only be used to challenge convictions made in which the court did not hold jurisdiction, and that it "could not use it to challenge a final judgment of conviction issued by a court of competent jurisdiction". This was built upon in 2023 when a 6-3 majority led by Clarence Thomas ruled in Jones v. Hendrix that a prisoner being convicted of an act which is not a crime, and thus being legally innocent, is not sufficient cause to file an appeal under habeas corpus.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus_in_the_United_States
(edited from article)
"
Supreme Court imposes further restrictions on habeas corpus
June 2, 2022
Over the last half-century, the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress have significantly restricted the availability of habeas corpus. The Warren Court expanded the ability of those convicted in state court to raise constitutional issues in federal court on habeas corpus, but since then, the court has created numerous restrictions. These have included imposing strict exhaustion requirements, limiting habeas corpus to already existing constitutional rights, preventing Fourth Amendment claims from being relitigated on habeas corpus and precluding raising issues that were not litigated in state court.
Two recent Supreme Court decisions—both, not surprisingly, 6-3 rulings divided along ideological lines—impose new restrictions on habeas corpus. And one of them suggests that the court might go even further in limiting habeas corpus. Indeed, if Justice Neil Gorsuch’s reasoning in Brown v. Davenport is followed, it will almost eliminate the ability of those convicted to ever bring a habeas corpus petition.
"
https://www.abajournal.com/columns/article/chemerinsky-court-imposes-further-restrictions-on-habeas-corpus
(edited from article)
"
SCOTUS CONVICTION RULING ALREADY HARMING INNOCENT PEOPLE, LAWYERS SAY
July 20, 2023
“People who are legally innocent of a crime—or legally innocent of a sentencing enhancement—are now destined to serve the entirety of their sentence in prison,” Alison Guernsey, the director of the Federal Criminal Defense Clinic at the University of Iowa College of Law, told The Appeal.
The Court ruled that if a person has already filed for post-conviction relief, they cannot file another petition based on a change in how courts interpret a statute. This restriction applies even if a person is imprisoned for conduct that is no longer considered a crime or if a person received a much longer sentence than they would if they committed the crime today.
“A prisoner who is actually innocent, imprisoned for conduct that Congress did not criminalize, is forever barred…from raising that claim, merely because he previously sought post-conviction relief,” Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in their dissent. “By challenging his conviction once before, he forfeited his freedom.”
“If you have filed [a post-conviction challenge] already, then you’re out of luck,” Kamens said. “So you are actually statutorily innocent of your alleged crime, but the Supreme Court said, ‘Too bad for you. You were convicted at a time when we hadn’t recognized that.’”
"
https://theappeal.org/supreme-court-jones-v-hendrix-hurting-innocent-people/
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On This Day: Giuliano Medici killed during High Mass, leads to greater Medici power - Apr. 26, 1478
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On This Day: Flint water crisis. Now, criminal action vs gov't officials closed; modest payouts agreed - Apr. 25, 2014
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On This Day: Quantum experiment "transformed our understanding of the world" - Apr. 24, 1914
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On This Day: Romans double-up on temples to Venus to promote harmony and cooperation - Apr. 23, 181 BC
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On This Day: German Army releases 168 tons of chlorine gas - Apr. 22, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376343
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