A sticky situation: The Christmas pudding palaver of 1952 – The National Archives blog

With an array of different Christmas puddings now available, you probably didn’t have any problem getting hold of one this year. However, 60 years ago, you might have had a problem getting the ‘correct’ Christmas pudding, files in The National Archives reveal …

Source: A sticky situation: The Christmas pudding palaver of 1952 – The National Archives blog

1948: After the Windrush — Retronaut

Above: Men and women gather in the bows of their tender prior to stepping ashore at Southampton to undergo routine checks by Passport and Customs officials, 1954. A one-way ticket cost £100, and the original press caption for this image ran: “Their assets are a few pounds in their pockets and a touching faith in Great Britain.”

Despite having paid £100 for a one-way ticket on the Empire Windrush – and the other vessels that were to follow in its metaphorical wake – the 492 people arriving at Tilbury, England were to find their journey had yet to be concluded.

They had come to England at the invitation of a British Government eager to replenish its national workforce – more than 380,000 United Kingdom’s population had been killed during the Second World War. In 1948, in order for mass immigration from…

via 1948: After the Windrush — Retronaut

When will Britain face up to its crimes against humanity? | News | The Guardian

On 3 August 1835, somewhere in the City of London, two of Europe’s most famous bankers came to an agreement with the chancellor of the exchequer. Two years earlier, the British government had passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which outlawed slavery in most parts of the empire. Now it was taking out one of the largest loans in history, to finance the slave compensation package required by the 1833 act. Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his brother-in-law Moses Montefiore agreed to…

via When will Britain face up to its crimes against humanity? | News | The Guardian

Uncovering the brutal truth about the British empire | Marc Parry | News | The Guardian

British soldiers assist police searching for Mau Mau members, Karoibangi, Kenya, 1954. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

The Long Read: The Harvard historian Caroline Elkins stirred controversy with her work on the crushing of the Mau Mau uprising. But it laid the ground for a legal case that has transformed our view of Britain’s past…

Source: Uncovering the brutal truth about the British empire | Marc Parry | News | The Guardian

When Australian women were accidentally given the vote. | In Times Gone By…

Australian suffragettes in London in 1911

In the nineteenth century, in the state of Victoria in Australia, the Electoral Act 1863 was passed. According to the act, “all persons” who ow…

Source: When Australian women were accidentally given the vote. | In Times Gone By…

In Defence of Empire | The York Historian

The British Empire often conjures some terrible national memories. This article instead explores the positive, constructive impact of the Empire…

Source: In Defence of Empire | The York Historian

The Evacuation of Dunkirk, The Evacuation That Saved The British Empire?

The Withdrawal from Dunkirk, June 1940. (1940) (Art.IWM ART LD 305)

The events of May and early June 1940 were equal parts disaster and Miracle. For France, it was a complete disaster – a total military defeat by…

Source: The Evacuation of Dunkirk, The Evacuation That Saved The British Empire?

Was the Ottoman Empire really history’s longest-lasting empire? | Byzantine Blog

The majesty of Istanbul’s ‘Blue Mosque’ (Tetra Images/Getty Images)

It was one of the most resilient empires in world history, but how did it start? And why did it end?

This article was first published in the May 2016 issue of History Revealed

Was the Ottoman Empire really history’s longest-lasting empire?

That’s a debate that is hard to fit into a nutshell. But, the ever-changing world power – an Islāmic network of countries comprising much of the Mediterranean coast (besides Italy) – began in 1299 and did not conclude until 1922.

This means that it certainly outstripped the British Empire in terms of…

Source: Was the Ottoman Empire really history’s longest-lasting empire? | Byzantine Blog

On this day: Dublin in ruins

These photographs of Dublin were taken on the 11th of May, 1916. They show ruins in Dublin after the Easter Rising of 24-29 April. The Easter Rising was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland.…

Source: On this day: Dublin in ruins

Maori Protests and the Treaty of Waitangi | W.U Hstry

History of the British Empire’s involvement and subsequent negative and detrimental impacts on indigenous people and societies of the lands they colonised in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is well known. Those effects today are highly prevalent even in now developed and Westernised countries  of the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with indigenous populations having faced depleting numbers, inequalities in welfare and health care and mistreatment from the government, and ongoing disputes concerning land rights. But focus has slid from the perspective of Maori people, and their history outside of New Zealand is…

Source: Maori Protests and the Treaty of Waitangi | W.U Hstry

Seriously, though, was the American Revolution a Civil War? « The Junto

On February 18, 2014, Tom Cutterham asked, “Was the American Revolution a Civil War?” According to Cutterham, understanding the Revolution that way might be useful. If we did, he suggested, “we’d better understand the way the modern world—the nexus of state, citizen, and property—was born in and determined by violence.”[1]

Understanding the American Revolution as a civil war is an accepted concept. In 1975, John Shy argued that the Revolution was a civil war. Since then, a number of historians have made similar propositions. More recently, in 2012, Alan Taylor delivered a talk, in New Mexico, titled “The First American Civil War: The Revolution.” There are other instances, too, and they are not hard to find or engage with. I don’t think historians will jettison the civil war framework, either. Indeed, we will be understanding the Revolution as a civil war indefinitely.[2]

Was the American Revolution a “civil war,” though? I mean, seriously? Or, is framing the Revolution as a…

Source: Seriously, though, was the American Revolution a Civil War? « The Junto.

The First Fleet | In Times Gone By…

A 1938 image depicting the First Fleet arriving in Australia on the 26th of January, 1788. This was the beginning of European colonisation of the continent, and the 26th is now called Australia Day.From the collection of the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

Source: The First Fleet | In Times Gone By…

Ireland’s Dirty War… | historywithatwist

Members of The Squad (from left) Mick McDonnell, Liam Tobin, Vinny Byrne, Paddy Daly and Jim Slattery

Right now, Ireland is gearing up to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising. Events will be held throughout the country to mark the moment when a brave few hundred stood up against the British Empire and sowed the seeds of a nationwide rebellion that would come to fruition just a few years later in the Irish War of Independence . . . at least that’s one narrative doing the rounds. Another narrative berates the irresponsibility of the rebels and the destruction their actions brought upon the country.

Whichever version you choose, rest assured that there will be much basking in a green national glow. The 1916 Rising was pivotal, as was the War of Independence. Both are momentous occasions in the history of this State. However, there is one other huge moment when arms were taken up to fight for a cause . . .Ireland’s Civil War, which ran from June 1922 to May of 1923.

It was 11 months of bloody struggle in which atrocities occurred far worse than…

Source: Ireland’s Dirty War… | historywithatwist

Book Review: Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand | Enough of this Tomfoolery!

The release of the film Suffragette late in 2015 brought the spotlight back on the efforts of several British women during the late 19th and early 20th centuries for women to have the same voting rights as men. Leaving aside the various shortcomings of the film, its biggest limitations were its inability to tackle all aspects of the movement or even subject it to in-depth analysis. For that, we will have to turn to other means such as books, articles, biographies, etc to obtain a more rounded picture of the struggles women faced in order to obtain the right to vote.

One of these is Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by BBC journalist Anita Anand: an admirable attempt to bring to the forefront a life that has been pushed to the shadows and more or less forgotten. Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was born and lived in a time when the British Empire was at its height and lived to see it gradually dismantled. Her eventful life also saw her caught up with the winds of change that were to sweep Britain during the twentieth century and as the book’s title suggest, she would…

Source: Book Review: Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand | Enough of this Tomfoolery!

On this day: the disappearance of Harold Holt | In Times Gone By…

On the 17th of December, 1967, Australia’s Prime Minister went swimming in the sea and was never seen again.

Harold Holt, who had been in office for twenty-two months at the time, was a strong swimmer. However, he ignored warnings not to swim in the rough surf and dangerous currents of Cheviot Beach and went out anyway. When he disappeared from view his friends…

Source: On this day: the disappearance of Harold Holt | In Times Gone By…