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At the height of the Third Reich’s war production there were nearly five million additional German and foreign workers in the war economy. Despite the efforts made by Albert Speer to rationalise the war economy and make it more efficient, there was still too few workers to compete with the combined military production of the allied powers. Workers from Germany, from occupied western countries and from allied countries like Italy and Hungary were recruited though non German workers were paid less
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In the first weeks of the outbreak of the First World War, the outdated Schlieffen Plan required the German Army to rapidly cross Belgium to attack northern France. Instead of the anticipated 6-8,000 troops, the Belgians fielded 32,000 men and defended the fortress town of Liege vigorously. German atrocities in Liege afterwards were the product of an imagined belief in guerrilla fighters amongst the civilian population.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also
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Romania was, in territorial terms, one of the unlikely beneficiaries of the Paris Peace Conference. It acquired land from the disintegrated Austro Hungarian and Russian Empires and from new states like Hungary itself. the core Romanian lands, the Regat, found it challenging to absorb new territories, even when they were majority ethnically Romanian, and the strong desire for a more federalist state was resisted by those elites and power structures who had chiefly benefitted from a strong, centra
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When Europe was rapidly subjugated by the Nazi regime, unprecedented economic opportunities arose and these were exploited by Germany’s great industrial conglomerates and cartels such as chemicals giant IG Farben. This podcast explores how the Nazi regime imposed a new economic order on conquered states in western Europe.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, pl
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In 1936 after the election of a Popular Front Government and a social revolution that spread across Spain, the general’s counter revolution began with the help of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The delivery of Franco’s army from Morocco to southern Spain by German and Italian aircraft resulted in a bloody campaign of terror across the country.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to hel
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The British right wing print media has enjoyed extraordinary power to shape politics and public affairs in the UK in the past half century. They have influenced the outcome of elections, their owners invited to meet with British Prime Ministers regularly and they have been largely free of regulation. This podcast explores the liberal ideas that have failed to constrain their power, in the context of Prince Harry’s record settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers.Help the podcast to
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This episode is the second in our isms and ologies series on Anarchism and gives a concise overview on the history of anarchist thought and politics from the 1848 revolutions onwards. Anarchism shaped countries as diverse as Mexico, Russia, Spain and China and both capitalist and Stalinist regimes sought to destroy it. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, plea
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At the end of the First World War the Ottoman Empire was carved up between the British and the French, with Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq being taken as mandates by Britain and Syria and Lebanon being occupied by France. The British originally secured Syria for France, but the French then overthrew the new king of the country, Faisal, the son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of c
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The most significant European fascist since Franco, Jean Marie Le Pen, died this week aged 96. This podcast explores the context of the rise of Le Front Nationale, and explores his role within it. Part two will examine how Le Pen used the failings of Mitterand’s government in the 1980s to his advantage. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider sup
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The Battle of Stalingrad was the greatest German defeat of the war, consuming the entire German 6th Army and dealing a catastrophic blow to German morale on the home front as the illusion of a possible victory vanished for millions of German civilians. This is the third of a series of Christmas podcasts on the siege and its bloody aftermath:Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help t