The Unlikely Conquistadora: Catalina de Erauso’s Defiant Journey In 1603, a young Basque woman named Catalina de Erauso disguised herself […]
The Puzzle of Spanish Success In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors achieved what seemed impossible: small bands of adventurers overthrew […]
Introduction: The Unrewarded Veterans of Empire The aging conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo poured his heart into a letter to […]
The Lure of New Worlds and the Seeds of Conquest When Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean in 1492, […]
A Lawyer’s Ambition in the Age of Conquest In 1536, as Hernán Cortés solidified Spanish control over Mexico and Francisco […]
The Gathering Storm: Europe in the Aftermath of World War I When the Allied statesmen convened in Paris in January […]
The Precarious Balance of Early 1918 As 1918 dawned, the Allied and Central Powers found themselves locked in a deadly […]
The Strategic Dilemma of 1917 As 1917 dawned, the Allied powers faced a critical juncture in World War I. The […]
The Crumbling Foundations of Central Powers By early 1917, the Central Powers—particularly Russia and Austria-Hungary—faced unbearable domestic strains that threatened […]
The Illusion of a Short War and the Reality of Prolonged Conflict When World War I began in August 1914, […]
From Limited War to Total War: The Transformation of Conflict What began as a regional dispute between Austria-Hungary and Russia […]
The Summer of 1914: A Continent Embraces War When war erupted in August 1914, Europe’s major cities erupted in patriotic […]
The Powder Keg of Europe The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, initially appeared no […]
The Powder Keg of Early 20th Century Europe When the guns of August 1914 began firing across Europe, they unleashed […]
The Myth and Reality of Napoleonic Glory In 1839, François-René de Chateaubriand, a French royalist and diplomat, penned a sobering […]
The Dawn of Total War: A New Era of Conflict The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) marked a pivotal shift in European […]
The Romantic Nightmare: Goya’s Disasters of War Between 1810 and 1820, Spanish artist Francisco Goya etched a series of 82 […]
The Birth of Revolutionary Warfare The decree issued by France’s National Convention on August 23, 1793, marked a radical departure […]
The Fragile Truce of 1802 The Peace of Amiens in 1802 was never destined to last. Though it temporarily halted […]
The Powder Keg of Revolution and War The French declaration of war against Austria in April 1792 was no sober […]
The Fragile Balance of 18th-Century Europe The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815) erupted from a continent already scarred by […]
The Unlikely Rise of a Military Thinker Carl von Clausewitz harbored a modest ambition—to write a work that “would not […]
