Author: Andrew Wright
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Chapter 3: The First Years of the Second Sino-Japanese War
December 17, 2023 “How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we are marching into battle against an enemy.” -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche The Marco Polo Bridge Incident (July 1937) Despite the often Eurocentric historiography of World War 2 the conflict arguably started in Asia; specifically via the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937. …
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Chapter 2 from A Brief Military History of the Japanese Empire: World War 1 to the Outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War
December 6, 2023 “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” -Du Mu Japan and the First World War Japan’s next phase of imperial expansion occurred during World War 1. With the European powers distracted by the massive conflagration in Europe from 1914 onwards, and using its alliance with Britain, Japan took advantage of the situation to…
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The Preface and Chapter 1 from A Brief Military History of the Japanese Empire
November 20, 2023 Preface Unlike similar empires created by the British, French, and Spanish the Japanese Empire was a relatively recent, short endeavor. However, the impact it had upon Asia and the Pacific cannot be overstated. The rise and fall of the Japanese Empire significantly influenced the end of western colonialism in Asia, the rise…
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Why the Soviet Union Couldn’t have Won World War 2 Without the Western Allies
December 1, 2023 The Soviet Union did more than any power to defeat Nazi Germany in World War 2. It fought the majority of the German army, with its European allies, for most of the conflict while the Western Allies faced smaller numbers of Axis forces in Europe. The Soviets destroyed 80% of Germany’s armed…
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Why Napoleon Lost the Napoleonic Wars
December 13, 2023 “Virtue is to be admired and praised, even in one’s enemies.” -Niccolò Machiavelli Napoleon Bonaparte was a military genius and the best general of his time. In the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars he turned France from a declining state into a continental empire that dominated Europe. Napoleon fought 60 battles (winning…
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The Battle of France was the Most Influential Battle of the 20th Century
December 23, 2023 The fall of France in 1940 is often seen as inevitable. But at the time it shocked most people, even the French and Germans themselves. Most experts thought the French Army was the best in Europe. Churchill, Stalin and most leaders had confidence in it, and many of Hitler’s generals thought invading…