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In the mid 1950s, Anthony Eden and Guy Mollet, Britain and France’s respective prime ministers initially showed little determination to overthrow Colonel Nasser of Egypt. However, mounting French problems in Algeria and Britain’s dependence on ‘holding out’ in Egypt against further imperial decline, and the small and conspiratorial groups of ministers, intelligence chiefs and senior military figures that surrounded both governments began to shift thinking towards war. Explaining History helps yo
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At the allied wartime conferences it was agreed by the big three that the Poles, Czechs and Hungarians could remove German civilians who had occupied lands now in newly recognised nation states, in some cases for generations. This decision was taken in large part because national governments and vigilante bands had already started the expulsions. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If y
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In the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution, European governments looked nervously at the poor and dispossessed, the peasants, workers and soldiers whose conditions were frequently intolerable. The spectre of communism, both real and imagined hung over Europe, but in Spain, France and Britain, strikes and protests had more to do with the harsh economic realities that the poor felt, than the desire for a Bolshevik style uprising. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century t
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When Britain, France and Russia secretly planned to carve up the Ottoman Empire in 1915, France made a claim on Ottoman Syria and acquired it as a mandate during the Paris Peace Conference. Brutality, colonial mendacity and a refusal to acknowledge the demands of Druze leaders and Syrian nationalists led to an explosion of anti colonial violence in 1925, along with an equally brutal response from the French occupiers. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical con
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Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, class based terror and repression of social and political enemies became central to the party’s attempts to establish itself. In addition to this, the savagery of the civil war and Lenin’s belief that a parallel class war needed to be waged saw the earliest improvised camps, of which there were 107 by 1920. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to
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In 1956 the British Government, led by Anthony Eden, embarked on a disastrous military adventure with France and Israel that divided the country, split both political parties and was conducted despite the misgivings of the navy and air force. The agreement to attack Egypt was decided by the three main powers at a villa at Sevres weeks before the invasion. Britain wished to removed an irritant in the form of Colonel Nasser, the nationalist leader of Egypt who had nationalised the Suez Canal, the
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Following the shock of the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Vienna, Sarajevo, and other parts of the German and non German speaking empire saw outbreaks of public anger and mourning. However, it was the popular press that falsely presented the assassination as part of a wider conspiracy and created fear and anxiety among German Austrians, leading to police raids and persecution of Serb and non Serb Slavs across the empire. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th
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By the end of the First World War, the British, French and American Armies were using gas more effectively than Germany, and the German Army’s ability to resist gas attacks was crumbling. After the war, the view in Britain that gas had been a uniquely German crime persisted, as did the fear of gas use in future conflicts, particularly against civilians. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the presen
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In the 1970s and 1980s two political figures came to define the polarisation of British politics and society and the end of political consensus between the Conservative and Labour Parties. This podcast explores the ideological worlds of Thatcher and Benn and their impact on the trajectory of both parties. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and sh
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In all totalitarian societies, individuals instinctively find ways of navigating and interacting with a repressive state. In the USSR, rumours, jokes and anonymous letters to the authorities, were often ways of expressing deep seated anger with the Stalinist state, whilst trying to avoid the most severe punishments. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subsc