1848 residue

 While reading various chapters of a book on the revolutions that occurred in Europe in 1848, I came across these comments from Carlo Cattaneo in an address to the Hungarian Diet. For centuries Poland, Hungary, and Venice had stood together against the Turks. Now the same nations should stand shoulder to shoulder against the new common enemy Russia, who sent troops into Hungary, Romania and other places.  

Earlier blog  eastern europe next

Cattaneo's reference to Venice, rather than Italy, was due to Venice being nearly an Austrian zone at the time.

Nicholas1 got in over his head during the 1848-time frame. The money Russia loaned Austria for his intervention in Hungary, was never repaid.

July 21, 2022

 While reading a recap of the repercussions of 1848, particularly in Germany, I came across this Bismarck comment uttered in 1862: "the great questions of the age are not decided by speeches and majority decisions - that was the big mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by blood and iron."

Aug, 13, 2022

Forest of Bayonets is a powerful chapter title for the story of Alexander Herzen, a Russian embarking on a European journey in January1847 through Russia's frontier with Prussia. 

Sept 17, 2022

 Wilhelm Wichmann spoke for many Protestant liberals who admired constitutional and free-trading Prussia when he blasted: "Austria is the only state capable of placing real obstacles in the path of German unification and, in fact, has already done so."

Nov 13, 2022

A historical reminder: From 1835-48 the Emperor of the Hapsburg Empire was the mentally disabled Ferdinand who once yelled at his courtiers, ‘I am the Emperor and I want dumplings!’ and was loved by many of his subjects, who referred to him as ‘Ferdy the Loony’. Metternich was the mover and shaker. 

Dec 26, 2022

I began reading a book on the history of Denmark and am surprised at how big it was around the Middle Ages. Also, The Danish absolute monarchy which was introduced by Frederik III with a coup in 1660, was abolished in 1848 with a peaceful revolution after the death of Christian VIII.  By June 5, 1849 it had its first free constitution.

March 12, 2023

A reminder of reactions to protests:  Since Austria’s Italian provinces were among its most lucrative sources of taxation, the Italian nobility organized a boycott of tobacco on January 1,1848 to reduce the Viennese treasury's revenue. And they knew that the tobacco tax was a source of resentment among Lombardy’s lower income citizens. In response, the Austrian garrison encouraged by their officers took up smoking, waving their cigars in the faces of the citizens.

March 26, 2023

  Prince William, the supreme commander of the Prussian forces and also known as the ‘grapeshot prince’ because he was rumored to have given the order to fire on the Berliners on March 18,1848, was intent on punishing Rastatt, the location of the final resistance of the German revolution of 1848-9. Karl Schurz was one of the rebels who escaped and a few years later made his way to the USA. He fought as an officer in the Union army in the Civil War, served as Senator from Missouri, and later became Secretary of the Interior under President Hayes.

July 16, 2023

  In 1848 in Banat, a mixed Serb, Romanian, and German region in southern Hungary, the Serbs and the Romanians nearly came to blows since the Romanian contingent wanted a separate Orthodox Church from the Serbs.

Aug 3, 2023

Lessons from 1848: Some counter- revolution proponents felt Germany and Austria had a mission to spread German culture, language, etc, along the Danube to the Black Sea.

Sept 12, 2023

1849: Napoleon III forestalled an Austrian invasion, by intervening to restore Papal authority to Rome.

Oct 10, 2023

 Metternich was ‘intolerably loose and giddy with women". Diplomatic chatter from the 1800s.

Oct 26, 2023

 Rome 1848: Accusations of Mazzini being a ‘communist’ or a latter-day Robespierre.  However, Mazzini worked hard to show Catholic sensibilities by attending Easter Mass at Saint Peter's.

Dec 1, 2023

 Radetzky was born in Bohemia and was 82 in 1948 when he served as Field Marshal and one of the saviors of the Habsburg Empire.

Jan 1, 2024

 Five great powers in 1848 - Austria, Prussia, Russia, France and Britain.

  Magyars' resentment against what they saw as German dominance and overbearing Habsburg authority was brewing in the empire.

Feb 6, 2024

Tsar Nicholas I who feared the1848 revolutionary virus would contaminate Russia, proclaimed: "Saddle your horses gentlemen! A Republic has been declared in France"

March 28, 2024

Reading 1848 Austria- Habsburg Empire, a polyglot assembly of territories containing eleven different nationalities.

 

"Eastern " Europe next

 Lithuania’s Defense Ministry advised consumers to throw away their Chinese phones and avoid buying new Chinese produced phones because one version of Xiaomi phone has built-in censorship tools whilea Huawei model has security flaws.

Communist China remains angry that Taiwan  missions in Lithuania are called the Taiwanese Representative Office. Here is a link to an earlier blog with related information on Eastern Europe

oct 12

The Czech Communist party, whose support helped PM Babis keep his majority, failed to enter parliament for the first time since WW2.  Babis, also lost to a center-right coalition fronted by Petr Fiala.

Dec 16, 2021

Belarus gets worse. Sergei Tikhanovsky, a one-time presidential hopeful who was arrested several months before last year’s disputed presidential election, was sentenced to 18 years for organizing mass riots, etc. His wife Svetlana ran in his place, and many said she beat the crowned winner Lukashenko. She fled to Lithuania almost immediately after the election.

Dec 27, 2021

This should make things more interesting with Russia. Ukraine will be able to import 8 million cubic meters of gas from the European market daily via Hungary beginning January 2022.

Jan 4, 2022

While Joe Biden and Germany consider bowing down to Putin, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto argued proposals that Russia gave to the United States and NATO in December to ensure that the alliance did not expand eastward or place mid-range nuclear weapons on its border were "in conflict with the European security order" and challenged Finland's sovereignty.

Jan 20, 2022

 US State Department gave the go-ahead to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to send American made missiles and other weapons to Ukraine. Are we using the side door instead of getting directly in Putin's face?

Jan 24, 2022

If you're keeping score on the Ukraine situation:

Germany won't allow Estonia to send German made arms to Ukraine

Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach stepped down as the head of the German Navy after  stating that Crimea was lost to Ukraine, and we should show Putin more respect

 US State Dept told dependents of staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine that they must leave the country but claimed it wasn't an evacuation. That's Biden-speak 101.

Feb 17, 2022

The US Embassy in Bulgaria blamed supply chain disruptions for the delay in the delivery of the new F-16 fighters, and claimed the USA remains committed to the modernization of Bulgaria's armed forces. Something is fishy about the timing of this statement and "supply chain" remains a convenient alibi these days whether it's valid or not.

Feb 18, 2022

I'm trying to get some background on the Ukraine situation and Putin's push to return to one Russia.  Some Ukrainian and Belarusian historians view Rus from the 11th and 12th centuries as no more than a ‘union of monarchs’, a loose collection of warring principalities.

Feb 26, 2022

History: The sack of Kiev in 1169 by the ‘northern’ party was a deeply symbolic act, deliberately designed to undermine the city’s sacred status.

March 12, 2022

I'm trying to catch up on Ukraine, particularly Kiev. The Mongols sacked Kiev in 1240 and remained a force there until the 15th century.  

Most Russians consider the idea of Kiev as the ‘mother of Russian cities’ as central to their understanding of their origins as a nation.

March 19, 2022

Meanwhile, residents of northern Greece travel en masse to Bulgaria for gasoline and groceries, because they can't stand the prices at home.

May 1, 2022

Solzhenitsyn(1918-2008) became Putin's buddy in the 2000s.  He criticized Alexander I for failing to press home Russia’s decisive advantage after the defeat of Napoleon in 1812, and regain Galicia, which is now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine.

June 18, 2022

Russia's war in the Ukraine has leaders exploring eastern Europe for answers. Macron sees little chance of an agreement with Russia to get grain out the Ukrainian port of Odessa, but plans are in the works to regenerate rail routes linking Odessa to the Danube River in Romania as an alternative.

June 23, 2022

Finland did not abolish military conscription for males as many other western nations did after the end of the Cold War and claims it 's prepared to fight Russia. Ain't the first time! They fought two wars in the 1940s against its eastern neighbor, with which it shares an 810-mile border. 

June 26, 2022

 Toblerone can no longer call its chocolate bar Swiss because it's adding a plant in Slovakia, and it will not be exclusively made in Switzerland. It's changing its design to say originated in Switzerland.

July 20, 2022

Belgium has gone through many phases, including periods of neutrality, since 1830 when it declared independence from Netherlands.  USA State Department green-lighted the potential sale of F-16 sustainment and related equipment worth $127 million to Belgium.

July 26, 2022

"The Russian troops who were in Belarus in February under the guise of a so-called 'training exercise' have not left our territory." Max, is a member a network of Belarusian opposition activists in Ukraine, who view their temporary new home as the perfect base to continue the fight against Putin and Lukashenko.

Aug 20, 2022

 USA will give the Czech Republic eight Bell military helicopters for free, and the Czech defense minister said it was recognition of the NATO country's aid to Ukraine. I know the world has changed since my youth during the cold war days, but it's a headline I'd never thought I'd see.

Sept 18, 2022

Poland’s top leaders celebrated the opening yesterday of a new canal that will mean ships no longer must secure Russia’s permission to sail from the Baltic Sea to the ports of the Vistula Lagoon. The canal is not quite finished but should give Poland full sovereignty in the northeastern region and encourage development of a region that borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

The intersystem gas connection Greece-Bulgaria will begin operation on October 1, and the planned initial capacity of the interconnector is 3 billion cubic meters per year.

Oct 7, 2022

In the recent parliamentary elections in Bulgaria 87,378 voters chose "I do not support anyone".

Nov 17, 2022

Austria and Hungary pledged to help Serbia organize deportations by plane of people who come to the Balkan nation from so-called safe countries of origin and aren't eligible for asylum in the EU or in Serbia. The migrants come into Serbia from North Macedonia and Bulgaria after arriving there from Turkey and Greece. 

Dec 28, 2022

Not surprising but noteworthy: A Minsk court sentenced in absentia former Olympic swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia to 12 years in prison for public calls to commit actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of Belarus. And it also ordered the seizure of Herasimenia's apartment, her car, and $48,700 in her bank accounts.

Jan 15, 2023

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Surva, a festival held every January in the village of Kosharevo, Bulgaria, is a mixture of Christian and pagan rituals that can be traced back to Thracian times. Revellers dress in red, some wearing huge masks and belts strung with large copper bells, dance around a fire on the main square to drive away evil spirits and bring in good health and crops for the New Year.  

Jan 30, 2023

After the Soviet-Yugoslavia split in the late 1940s, Albania and Bulgaria were the main conduits the USSR used to funnel funds to the communists in Greece.

Feb 19, 2023

In April 2022 in response to the massacre of civilians by Russian troops in Ukraine, the Lithuanian Art Creators' Association called for an embargo on Russian culture and art in Lithuania until the end of the war in Ukraine. I get the anger but don't see how it's made you safer and rejecting the existence of Russian art doesn't mean it vanishes from the planet.

March 2, 2023

Someone painted the Russian flag on the base of the Little Mermaid sculpture which is displayed on a rock by the waterside at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen, Denmark. How did no one witness the vandal at play?

April 3, 2023

In Finland the Conservative National Coalition party emerged victorious with 20.7 percent, In second place the nationalist Finns party with 20.1 percent, and PM Sanna Marin's Social Democrats garnered 19.9 percent. All of this as Finland prepares to join NATO.

April 7, 2023

Azerbaijan expelled four Iranian diplomats this week. Back in January Azerbaijan closed its embassy in Tehran after its head of security was killed in an attack and then last week opened an embassy in Israel.

April 16, 2023

Western Bosnia was called Ottoman Croatia in the 1600s.

April 22, 2023

I missed this story from late 2022. American combat drones are deployed at the air base in the Greek city of Larissa. The base is used for training NATO pilots. 

May 3, 2023

Just a reminder of why Denmark is important: It controls the entrance to the Baltic Sea, and will likely play an important strategic role in a potential military conflict with Russia as a transit point for NATO reinforcements.  Hence, Denmark's intelligence service expects Russia to recruit civilians and use journalists, business executives, etc, to spy on the country as an alternative to Russian diplomats who were expelled last year. Will headlines be borrowing from Shakespeare? "There's something rotten in the state of Denmark."

May 27, 2023

I've been reading a history of Romania book and am shaking my head at this ruling. ECHR ruled Romania must legalize same-sex civil unions. Orthodox religions in Romania survived decades of Communism, let's see how they handle extreme secularists.

 Increasing signs of jihadist groups plotting possible attacks in Europe, including in the Netherlands.  Let's not get too consumed with the Ukraine.

June 15, 2023

UDMR's ethnic Hungarian party is quitting Romania's governing coalition in a row over cabinet posts. It has served as a bridge between the coalition's main two parties, the leftist Social Democrats and the center-right Liberals. Hungarians have a long, sometimes testy history in Romania.

June 29, 2023

Morocco and Turkey are upset that a Swedish court gave an Iraqi refugee permission to burn some pages of the Koran outside Stockholm's central mosque. It's a part of freedom which ain't always pretty.

Sept 19, 2023

Bulgarian Beekeepers are pissed: Ukrainian and Chinese honey are marketed as Bulgarian honey.

Oct 16, 2023

Romania is moving its air defense closer to its Danube border due to Russian drone parts landing there.

Also, the deployment of four additional US F-16 fighter jets and an expanded no-fly zone, are signs of growing concern in Romania that the war in Ukraine could spill over into its territory.

Oct 21, 2023

Germany pushed Bulgaria to declare a token war on the USA and UK in December 1941, and Sofia was bombed by the Allies in January 1944.

Jan 9, 2024

Bulgaria and Romania will enter the Schengen via Air and Sea in 2024 - no additional refugee-related conditions from Syria and Afghanistan.

The goal is to ease travel for citizens and the strengthened internal markets within the Schengen area.

Jan 21, 2024

Shakespeare's comment on rot in Demark resonates a little more while reading about the Vikings: Norway-Demark-England battles.

Sure feels like being King was the main reason for living.

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Greenland to Graceland

 Is #Trump serious about purchasing Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark? In 1946, the USA flirted with paying #Denmark 100 million dollars for #Greenland .
#Graceland - 42 years since Elvis died on 8/16/77. Weekend long vigil is in full force.

Aug 17

 In 1946 William C. Trimble, assistant chief of the State Department’s division of northern European affairs, suggested that the United States offer $100 million in gold for the purchase of Greenland which would give the USA ″valuable bases from which to launch an air counteroffensive over the Arctic area in the event of attack.″.
 The U.S. Air Force maintains two bases in Greenland, Thule and Sondestrom.

August 24

Never thought #trump would have me wondering about #Shakespeare
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

Sept 24

Maybe #trump can buy #adria ,  a continent the size of Greenland found underwater in the Mediterranean. Scrapings of the land mass's sedimentary pieces make up European mountain belts, including parts of the Alps, Greece and Turkey.

dec 21,2019

 Huawei Technologies lost to #Ericsson in a bid to supply 5G equipment to TELE Greenland A/S

feb 1, 2020

USA has a history of land deals with #Denmark.  The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915  spurred the USA into buying the Danish West Indies (currently US Virgin Islands) from Denmark in 1917. We feared Germany would annex Denmark during WW1 and make the West Indies a Naval Base.

april 2

  Greenland's capital #Nuuk banned the sale of alcohol  in a bid to reduce violence against children during the period of confinement over the spread of the COVID-19. Have they considered that some of those boozers will get angrier with their supply cut?  Or that there are many sober violent folks? The rise of the nanny statists rolls on.

april 24

 A US official in Washington said the aid package of millions to Greenland  was not "designed to pave the way to purchase Greenland". It's more likely about gaining access to Arctic resources and  countering Russia's military moves in the area. We have the Thule Air  base in Greenland.

may 20, 2020

 #CarstenHønge, a member Socialist People’s party, comment on US Aid projects in Greenland: “We must draw a line in the ice cap.”

May 21

  Graceland re-opens today with new Covid-19 safety measures including limiting

 attendance to 25% capacity. No word on "Rubbernecking" guidelines.

June 13, 2020

 A day after Trump signed a memorandum to acquire a polar security ice-breaking fleet by 2029, Pompeo announced the re-opening of a U.S. consulate in #Nuuk , the capital of Greenland.

The USA had a consulate in Nuuk from 1940 to 1953.

july 17, 2020

Citizens in Greenland are voting on whether to keep a statue of Hans-Egede, a Danish-Norwegian missionary, viewed by some as a  symbol of Danish colonialism. Last month red paint was daubed on the statue, with the word "decolonize". Egede  received royal backing, in what was then the united kingdom of Denmark-Norway, to explore Greenland

july 23, 2020

Greenland is included on both the UK and the Republic of Ireland's green lists, which means people can travel from/ to w/o the need to quarantine for two weeks There are no direct flights to Greenland from Belfast or Dublin.

The USA and UK didn't make the Rof I green list.

aug 24, 2020

I doubt if newly found letters that #MichaelJackson wrote in 1987 will  be  featured at Graceland. Here's a a tidbit from MJ: "I will rule as the King,' and added that Elvis is 'not King'. BTW, Graceland is open for business.

Sept 7

While reading an article on Rear Adm. Edward “Iceberg” Smith on  his time with the Greenland Patrol during his nearly 40 years (1910-1950) in the Coast Guard, that he attended classes on board the Revenue Cutter Itasca at Arundel Cove, Maryland in 1910. USCG operates a shipyard in  the Anne Arundel County part of Curtis Bay, which is south of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. I'm familiar with Curtis Bay but had never seen the area referred to as Arundel Cove.

oct 13

The burial of #georgekeough 's, lisa marie's son, was the first in Graceland in 40 years since Elvis’ grandmother died in 1980.  GK committed suicide using a gun in Calabasas, Calif.

Nov 19

I had no idea this was going on during a pandemic year. Hawaii's Ki'ilani Arruda was crowned Miss Teen USA 2020 during the pageant at Graceland. The contestants were mostly confined to the Graceland campus.

Dec 27, 2020

I'm reading a concise history of Finland and re-learning how active the Danes were as colonists, particularly close to home. They battled against and worked with the Swedes for a few centuries to control the area that later became Finland.

March 9, 2021

Maybe this is why Trump wanted the USA to buy Greenland? It has abundant mineral deposits including Tungsten, Titanium, Uranium, Nickel, and Aluminum.

March 10, 2021

Norway has suspended the sale of Bergen Engines, a Norwegian engine maker owned by Rolls-Royce Holdings, to a Russian-controlled company while it assesses the security implications for the country’s navy and the civilian sector. Bergen Engines’ has ongoing commercial relations with Norway’s navy.

April 7, 2021

The left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit, which opposes a mining project in the south of Greenland, secured 37% of votes and may try to shut down the Kvanefjeld mine, which has the potential to become a significant producer of rare earths, a group of 17 elements used to manufacture electronics and weapons.

April 28, 2021

 Elvis Presley’s Graceland will be lit in red, white and blue for All-American 4th of July Weekend 2021. Will there be a re-enactment of Nixon giving Presley an honorary Narc badge? Just kidding!!

Aug 22, 2021

It's amazing how long this story has stayed around: USA Secretary of State Blinken confirmed that it's “correct” that the USA no longer wants to buy Greenland during a press conference alongside Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod, Greenland’s premier Mute Egede, and its foreign minister Pele Broberg.

Nov 5, 2021

Employees at Jimmy’s Bar found the missing Elvis bust Thursday night sitting on a porch outside the West Peoria, Illinois saloon, after requests were made to return it with no questions asked.  The bar owner's niece bought the bust about 15 years ago at a garage sale for $20, and it became the bar's  mascot.

  dec 3, 2021

 North Pole, the northernmost spot on earth, is giant sheet of thick ice in the Arctic, near Greenland (Denmark) and Nunavut (Canada). How did we get the notion that Santa Claus lives there? One possibility is from a Thomas Nast cartoon with images of Santa that were captioned ‘Santa Claussville, N.P.’

Feb 6, 2022

 The Four Chaplains Memorial of York County, PA honors the memory of four York area clergymen: George Fox, a Methodist minister from Lewistown, Alexander Goode, a Jewish rabbi, John Washington, a Catholic priest, and Clark Poling, a reformed church minister, who died on Feb. 3,1943 when the S.S. Dorchester was hit and sunk by the Germans during WW2. The ship was transporting American. troops from New York to Greenland. Only 230 of the 902 people on board lived. 

June 2, 2022

Jokes about how Greenlanders drink heavily prevail in Denmark. I wonder what the Danes say about the Irish.

June 14, 2022

 Denmark and Canada will divide the small, uninhabited island in the Arctic known as Hans Island, situated at equal distance between Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island.

They've engaged in a mostly good-natured squabble over the island, since 1971, and it has become a tradition for visitors to leave a bottle of either Canadian whisky or Danish schnapps for their rivals to find on their next visit.

Aug 17, 2022

I got a few chuckles watching Elvis in GI Blues last night. Juliet Prowse was stunning and wore some cool outfits.

Nov 8, 2022

 199 of 200 projects to find economic ore, raw materials for batteries, etc, in Greenland fail

Dec 5, 2022

An Arctic sub-sea data cable, which will run from the Nordics to Japan via Greenland, Canada, and Alaska, received its first investment. It will cut delays in data transmission between Frankfurt and Tokyo by around 30%.

July 11, 2023

Canada Jetlines plans to expand charter flights to Greenland. Is there a demand?

August 16, 2023

Elvis died on 8/16/77.  "Kentucky Rain" remains by fave tune by him.

March 4, 2024

A group of women from Greenland, a semi-sovereign territory of Denmark, is seeking compensation from Denmark in court over an involuntary birth control campaign launched in the 1960s.

In 2022 Danish broadcaster DR reported records showed that, between 1966 and 1970, 4,500 intrauterine devices were fitted into women and girls as young as 13, without their consent.