-
In 1947 US President Harry Truman was forced to commit to the defence of Greece and Turkey against the possibility of communist victories in the Greek civil war and the threat of Soviet pressure on Turkey. The British had been forced to end their commitments to both countries, placing the eastern Mediterranean in danger and as a result the flow of Middle Eastern oil to Europe and America. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interview
-
In 1945 a Labour Government swept to power at the end of the Second World War, it had an agenda of domestic social reform but considerable foreign policy commitments. Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin was an advocate of National Service to meet Britain’s military manpower needs. 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 share.▸ Support the Show & Get E
-
In the aftermath of the Second World War the British gave assistance and support to the French in their attempts to recolonise Vietnam. French colonialists deliberately sabotaged negotiations with Ho Chi Minh and led to the outbreak of war in December 1946. 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 share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBec
-
What did ordinary Austrians and Germans think, feel and believe during the July Crisis of 1914? This podcast explores how the murder of a widely disliked archduke who was assassinated in 1914 presents largely apathetic populations in both countries with the pretext for war. 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 share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exc
-
In 1941, despite believing that thee USSR could not last against a Nazi invasion for more than a month, Churchill and his cabinet rejoiced at the news that they were no longer fighting the war alone and planned to offer the USSR whatever assistance they could. 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 share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content
-
How did everyone from German citizens to concentration camp survivors, war ravaged citizens of Poland and partisans across eastern Europe encounter the Red Army in 1945? In some cases violent conquerors and in others as liberators. 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 share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/
-
By 1927 the situation of the Soviet peasantry had just about stabilised from the famine years of the Russian Civil War. However, both Lenin and Stalin looked upon the peasantry and especially the wealthier peasants with barely concealed disgust and suspicion. In Bolshevik thinking, the peasants represented an existential threat to the revolution and would be subsequently broken by Stalin after 1928. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and exper
-
Following the end of a bloody civil war in China, the communist party began to rapidly seize the levers of power and create class categorisations for the population. Control of the police and a network of communist spies and informers began a wave of repression which was but a foretaste of catastrophes and horrors to come. 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, pleas
-
By 1946 America’s political class, it’s intellectuals and opinion formers and the population as a whole was broadly anti Soviet but had not committed to any major confrontation with the USSR. It would take changes in world circumstances in 1947 to bring about this commitment in the guise of the Truman doctrine. 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
-
After three years of fixed positions, trenches and deadlock, the First World War became a conflict of rapid movement again in 1918. This podcast explores how military innovation made this possible, focusing on artillery and intelligence. 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 share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreo