Category: Overseas
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An Officially Independent Afghanistan
100 years ago, in 1921, Afghanistan gained its independence from Great Britain. A New York Times Magazine article that year portrayed the newly-independent nation as something akin to Atlantis, a land of mystery, as so few Americans had ever set foot there. Not more than one American in ten years has ever gone up the […]
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Gandhi and British India
By 1921, a New York Times Magazine profile article about Gandhi already described him as a living legend: “In point of personal following, he is far and away the greatest man living in the world today.” Though he’s now primarily pictured bald, as in his later years, at the time the 52-year-old had a full head […]
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The Germans of Tomorrow
A 1921 article by Charles J. Rosebault predicted German youth would depart from their “obedience and reverence” of the past and could very well pave the pathway to world peace. Hate to break it to you… The German youth, trained and drilled in obedience and reverence, has finally revolted against the mismanagement of the seignors. As might […]
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How Germany Will Pay
This 1921 article questioned how Germany would ever pay off its World War I debts. The answer: very, very slowly. They only finished paying those debts in 2010. Some day Germany will pay. How much and when are problems still to be decided. Cotinuance of divided councils among the Allies, more particularly within France, may […]
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China Chief Problem in Maintaining World Peace
This 1920 article named China as the country most threatening world peace. As the Chinese-originated COVID-19 disease shuts down life and economies across the globe, that prophecy appears prescient. Indeed, President Trump has increasingly and controversially taken to calling it “the Chinese virus.” However, many medical experts including the World Health Organization have called on him […]
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France’s New President
When Paul Deschanel was elected president of France in January 1920, this article predicted great things. Instead, his behavior proved so erratic that he resigned after seven months and entered a mental institution. Now if Paul Deschanel is to tread carefully in the footsteps of his excellent predecessors of the Third Republic, he has received […]
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Channel Tunnel After a Hundred Years of Talk
In 1919, a tunnel under the English Channel “has been brought much nearer to practical realization.” It wouldn’t be opened until 1994. Supposedly early 1919 had all the elements going for construction, now that World War I had recently ended: Generally speaking, however, it is taken as an accepted fact that opposition to the tunnel […]
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Is the Czar Dead?
Was the czar dead? It was February 1919 and seven months had elapsed since anyone had heard from Russia’s Czar Nicholas II. Turns out, yes: he was executed. The tsar abdicated the throne in March 1917 after the February Revolution, then he and his family were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House. More than a year later […]
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Stars and Stripes on Many English Homes
During WWI, millions of British people actually met Americans for the first time as they were stationed overseas. The result was America and England became as close as they’d ever been: One of the incidentals of the war is the fact that great masses of American troops pass through England or are temporarily stationed there. […]
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Kaiser’s Heir, Prince of Failure
His father was Wilhelm II, the last kaiser of the German empire. As the oldest son, Crown Prince Wilhelm became crown prince at age six and held the title for three decades until the fall of the German Empire in November 1918, three months after this article was originally published. During WWI, he was one […]
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