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Before the First World War, Munich was the home of Germany’s avante garde, with vibrant socialist and anarchist parties, whereas Berlin was the home of militarism and conservatism. By the mid 1920s, this had reversed, with Munich producing Nazism and Berlin seeing radical political, cultural and social liberation. This inversion would have profound implications for the fate of Germany in the 1930s. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert
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Between August and October 1914, the Ottoman Empire attempted to play both sides in the First World War off against the other. The empire pledged to Germany that it would go to war against Russia and its allies, while offering reassurances to the Russians that it would not. Eventually, Germany would force the Ottoman’s hand and ensure that the empire joined the war on Germany’s side. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. W
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In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Britain’s wartime policy of national service continued as a result of Britain’s acute need for military manpower around the world. This podcast explores the politics of national service and its origins. 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
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The devastating humiliation of defeat and occupation during the Second World War meant that for the new Gaullist Fourth Republic, regaining world status through empire was vital. However, the failure to stamp out independence movements in Lebanon and Syria meant that France’s dreams of a new post war empire were fatally undermined. 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 sh
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When the Viceroy of India, Lord Linlithgow, declared war on India’s behalf unilaterally there was considerable anger. This was replaced by concern and growing support for fighting a war against fascist aggression following Hitler’s devastating successes in France in the summer of 1940.Explaining History is funded through advertising and donations. For more content, journalism and ideas, visit the Explaining History Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=763386 Explaining History helps
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Comprised mainly of teenagers in the late 1930s, the Death’s Head Division guarded the camps and brutalised prisoners, but many believed they had been recruited for more active military service in the name of the Fuhrer.Explaining History is funded through advertising and donations. For more content, journalism and ideas, visit the Explaining History Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=763386 Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations an
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By the winter of 1941 the Japanese public, military planners and government were in broad agreement about the necessity of war against America, Britain, France and the Netherlands. However, the war was based on a number of strategic assumptions that would in time devastate the Japanese.Explaining History is funded through advertising and donations. For more content, journalism and ideas, visit the Explaining History Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=763386 Explaining History help
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When Russia left the First World War in 1918, the generals and politicians of the Central Powers were convinced that victory was in sight. Germany’s determination to end the war quickly resulted in the Ludendorff Spring Offensives that failed disastrously and within months the final cost of the war led to collapse not of Britain and France but of Germany and its allies.Explaining History is funded through advertising and donations. For more content, journalism and ideas, visit the Explaining His
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While the German Army prepared to seize Moscow, the longest siege of the war began at Leningrad on the Gulf of Finland. It would result in the deaths of over a million citizens and see the city completely cut off from Stalin’s control for much of the 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 Exclusive ContentBecom
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Britain had a very limited internal security and overseas intelligence capability before the Boer War. However, a government and public obsessed with fears of subversion led to pressures to create a series of agencies that resulted in MI5, Britain’s domestic security service.For more content, journalism and ideas, visit the Explaining History Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=763386 Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert