Italy’s Fiasco

The Ethiopian war as a Tar baby

Part II

The Cost of the War

Mountains of Ethiopia

In a previous essay I discussed the Italian-Ethiopian war of 1935-1941 and further discussed the question of whether or not the negative reaction of Britain and France drove Mussolini into Hitler’s arms. This is so because many modern commentators state that the economic boycott along with other measures destroyed Mussolini’s willingness to be part of alliance aimed at thwarting Hitler and in fact forced him to be Hitler’s ally. This is quite simply nonsense. Mussolini was not “forced” to be Hitler’s ally by any stretch of reality or imagination. He became Hitler’s ally because of his own ambitions were blocked by France and Britain.1

Here I will discuss the cost of the Ethiopian war for Italy. For the bottom line is that the Ethiopian war cost far more than Mussolini anticipated and played a very large role in preventing Italy from becoming a true great power.

The Consummate Hypocrite

Thomas Jefferson

A Very Brief Note

Thomas Jefferson

One of the best books I have ever read about Thomas Jefferson is The Wolf By the Ears.1 The book however contains some of the most risible and absurd statements regarding Thomas Jefferson. This is because our author is an abject worshipper at the shrine of St. Thomas of Jefferson. That so many Americans and others fall down on their knees and grovel before the images of the “Founding Fathers” is of course a well-known fact. But in the case of Thomas Jefferson this idolatry is past the point of rationality into the stratosphere of groveling worship.

The Surge

English Lee Family c. 1800 C.E.

Population history is one of the most interesting and yet unexplored aspect of human history. Although demographic information is often provided in standard text books; little use is made of such things in terms of explaining historical phenomena.

A classic example is the remarkable surge in the population of England that began in the late 17^th century, and that proceeded with only a few hiccups for a little over 2 centuries. In fact it can be argued that the population surge in fact began earlier at around 1600 C.E. This is in fact debatable given that the English population experienced significant setbacks during this time.

“Witch Hunters” Manual

Book Cover

More than 500 years ago Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger wrote and published the Malleus Maleficarum which became the most popular manual for the ferreting out and prosecution of witches during Europe’s Witchcraze. During the Witchcraze in Europe at least 100,000 and possibly more than 200,000 alleged witches were killed. The craze possessed most of Europe and brought in its wake untold misery.1

The Stoned Nailmaker’s

“Jump the Shark Page” Post Part IV 

 

Cast of Full House

31,       Full House.  Michelle has played by the Olson Twins was a crime against humanity for which the parents deserve to be tied up and forced to watch episodes until their brains leak out  through their ears.  After Michele was no longer so “cute” (another word for vomitus and vile) they introduced “cute” twins to further torture the audience of this “entertainment”.  People involved in Full House went on to do America’s Funniest Home Videos, and other abominations.  This show didn’t just jump the shark from day one it was a maggot ridden, fungi infested Hollywood bowel movement product from the moment it was conceived of.

The Empire of “Corruption”

A Note

The Late Byzantine Empire
c. 1280 C.E.

The Byzantine Empire is one of those historical oddities that defy easy explanation and in the end refute simplistic notions about how societies work. Traditionally portrayed in much of literature has hopelessly corrupt, weak and ineffectual its very longevity refutes indeed confounds the naysayers.

Over-Rated Military “Geniuses”

Part II

Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph (Hinmatóowyalahtq’it) (1840 – 1905 C.E.) is best known for being the leader of the Nez-Perce Indians during their war with the U.S. in 1877.

An Historical Screw Up

Map of Mesopotamia

In the early part of the third century B.C.E., two priests of local long established civilizations attempted to introduce to the Greeks the culture and history of their respective civilizations. They were the Egyptian Priest Manetho and the Babylonian Priest Berossus. Both wrote short books giving an outline of the histories of their respective cultures going back to mythological times. In the case of Manetho, who I have discussed in an earlier posting,1 despite the apparent lack of interest by most Greco-Romans in his book enough survived, mainly because Christian writers preserved large sections of Manetho’s chronology. This gave to modern Egyptologists the familiar outline Egyptian history has a series of dynasties and it turned out to be reasonably accurate.2 Despite the fact that Manetho’s account used Ancient Egyptian records his short book was generally ignored by the Greco-Romans and in fact what was preserved by the later Christian writers, i.e., Manetho’s dynastic list was from summaries. It appears that the actual book had swiftly become a rarity and disappeared fairly rapidly. It appears for their history of Ancient Egypt the Greeks and the Romans preferred the mess of Herodotus or the fantasies preserved by Diodorus. So what the pagan writers preserved were cute stories and interesting anecdotes; only later Christian writers with a different mindset preserved much of the dynastic list provided by Manetho.3

With Berossus it is much, much worst. What we have is summaries of summaries of summaries etc., and the information is even more garbled than that of Manetho.