March of the Titans

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 23: The Third Great Race War - The Moors Invade Europe

[B]The invasion of Western Europe by a non-White Muslim army after 711 AD, very nearly extinguished modern White Europe - certainly the threat was no less serious than the Hunnish invasion which had earlier created so much chaos. While the Huns were Asiatics, the Moors were a mixed race invasion - part Arabic, part Black and part mixed race, always easily distinguishable from the Visigothic Whites of Spain.

Although the Muslim armies were collectively known as the Moors or Saracens, they were in fact divided up into their own factions. Nonetheless, together they very nearly conquered all of Spain, and were only turned back from occupying all of Western Europe by a desperate White counter attack in France. The story of this seven hundred year long race war is without doubt one of the most arduous ever fought by the Whites in defense of their continent.

By 709 AD, the Muslim armies had conquered all of Northern Africa and stood on the southern side of the Straits of Gibraltar, with only the Visigothic fortress of Ceuta, situated on the African side of the straits of Gibraltar, still remaining in White hands.

Above: The Muslims driven out of Spain: the black portions indicate the extent of non-White Moorish rule.

WHITE SPAIN INVADED

In 711 AD, Ceuta fell to the Moors and immediately a Moorish fleet sailed across the strait and seized a beachhead on Andalusia in Spain, their first territory on the European mainland.

The Spanish Gothic king of the time, Roderic, rushed an army south and engaged the Moors in a three day battle at Xeres. The Moors won, and the Gothic Spaniards were forced to retreat, giving the Moors time to land a seemingly inexhaustible supply of soldiers from the population wells of North Africa.

Soon the Moors had assembled a massive army and within a few months had conquered most of Gothic Spain.


THE TRIBUTE OF 100 WHITE VIRGINS PER YEAR

Only isolated pockets of Gothic resistance held out. In the north an enclave only secured its existence by being forced to enter a treaty with the Moors in terms of which the Goths had to hand over 100 White Gothic virgins a year to the Moorish leaders for use in their harems - a painful tribute which continued until 791 AD, when the Goths once enough became strong enough to break the terms of the treaty.

Above: A dramatic painting - based on actual events - showing Moors celebrating the fall of a White Spanish town, with White females captured alive. For several years the Moors demanded - and received - a yearly tribute of young White girls for use in their harems after the great Moorish victory of 711. This yearly tribute continued until 791 AD when the Whites had recovered their strength enough to break the terms of a treaty with the non-Whites.

THE MOORS ATTACK FRANCE

The Moors did however not rest with the conquest of Spain. Their Holy War, or Jihad, forced them ever on, and in 722, they crossed the Pyrenees and invaded Gothic Gaul (France), seizing several towns in the south of that country.

Ten years later, in 732, they launched what was to be their final bid to overcome all of Western Europe when a massive army under the command of the Moorish governor of Spain, Abd arRahman, began laying waste to large parts of Frankish and Gothic France.

The Goths in Aquitaine, under their leader Eudes, were defeated at Garonne, and they were forced back into central France, carrying with them news of the frightful and merciless Moorish invasion.


CHARLES MARTEL SAVES EUROPE - 732 AD

France had, since the fall of the Roman Empire, been consolidated under a leading Celtic/Indo-European tribe called the Franks, who were based in the region surrounding present day Paris. The Frankish king at the time of the Moorish invasion, Charles Martel, (Charles the Hammer) immediately mobilized a White counter attack.

The armies of Charles Martel and Abd arRahman met in battle between the towns of Tours and Potiers in Central France in October 732. The battle was one of the most momentous in the history of the White race. Defeat would have meant that all of Western Europe might have fallen under the sway of Islam, and the mixed races from the East would have poured into continental Europe.

Left: The non-White Moorish advance into Europe seemed unstoppable when in 732 AD they launched a massive invasion of present day France. The king of the leading White tribe in that country, Charles Martel of the Franks (who had their headquarters in present day Paris) mobilized a counter attack. A great race battle took place between the towns of Tours and Potiers in central France in October 732 AD. The battle was one of the most momentous in the history of the White race. Defeat would have meant that all of Western Europe might have fallen under the sway of Islam, and the mixed races from the East would have poured into continental Europe. Accounts have it that 375,000 Moors were killed - the White army was utterly victorious over the non-White army and the Moorish invasion of Europe was halted in its tracks. Charles Martel earned his name -Martel means 'hammer' - at this battle - he personally bludgeoned to death a large number of non-Whites with his favorite weapon, a mighty hammer.

An epic seven day battle for Europe followed. One medieval account states that 375,000 Moors were killed. Although this is probably an exaggeration, it does indicate the way the battle went - the non-White army was utterly defeated by the White army.

In the first six days of the battle, the archers and cavalry of the Moors seemed to have the advantage, but on the seventh day, the main body of fighting closed to hand to hand combat. Here the greater physical stature of the Germanics counted for more - with the Frankish King Charles earning the name "hammer" at this battle in recognition of the mighty and fatal strokes with which he personally killed dozens, if not hundreds, of Moors.

Having failed to break the Germanic lines in the hand to hand combat, the Moorish alliance retreated, and their multi-racial and ethnic origin showed up its weakest point - the units, comprising men made up from Arabia, Africa, and parts of Asia, were stunned by their first major defeat and broke up in disarray, each blaming the other, giving victory to the Germanics who never actually pierced the Moorish lines.

The Moors fled south of the Pyrenees back into Spain, and awaited the Frankish drive south which would drive them back into Africa.

This did not come - Charles Martel had exhausted the wealth of the Frankish empire in drawing together an army big enough to defeat the Moors. He was forced to seize a portion of the Church's wealth, an act for which the Christians condemned him strongly, even though if he had failed, Christianity would have been replaced by Islam.

Charles Martel's greatest achievement was the defeat of the Muslim invasion of France. This single act prevented the mixed race Arabs and North Africans from penetrating right into Western Europe and turning it into another Middle East - Charles Martel can truly be credited with saving the Whites of Western Europe from destruction at that point in history.


FURTHER FRANKISH CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE MOORS

In 755, a local invasion by Franks conquered the town of Narbonne from the Moors, and after a further six years the last Moors were driven out of all of modern France.

In 778, Charles the Great (also known as Charlemagne, Charles Martel's grandson), undertook a campaign in Northern Spain which recaptured much of the territory north of the Ebo river.

It was during the withdrawal of the Frankish army at the successful conclusion of this campaign that a rear guard unit of Franks under the command of Charlemagne's nephew, Roland, was ambushed and slaughtered by the Basques (who opposed the Arabs, Goths and Franks with equal vigor).


The desperate fight to the death became part of French folklore, today reflected in the famous Chanson de Roland - the Song of Roland.


THE WHITE RECONQUEST

During the period of Muslim dominance in Spain, a few regions managed to hold out against the Arabs even at their height. In this way Barcelona was never occupied by the Arabs, as were some northern regions.

These regions banded together in a broad anti-Muslim alliance, and began pushing south, slowly but surely driving the Muslims back.

This was a painfully slow process and lasted many hundreds of years - more than enough time for a certain amount of mixing between parts of the White population and the Arab rulers to have taken place, helping to create the "dark" Spanish look which can be seen amongst many inhabitants of Spain today.

This mixing process in Spain was, as in Greece and Rome, not as complete as in the regions of North Africa or the Middle East, and large numbers of Whites remained intact on the European side of the Mediterranean.

However, enough Arabic blood was mixed with the locals in the southernmost parts of Europe that the distinctive dark look, which is today mistakenly called the "Mediterranean" look, is the lasting evidence of the Muslim invasion.


ISABELLA AND FERDINAND - VANQUISHED THE MOORS

The White reconquest of Spain had however only been carried on in fits and starts. In a great battle fought on the plains of Toledo in July 1212, the non-Whites were defeated by a great White army, and the Moors were then restricted to the southern parts of Spain. The north was given time to recuperate and rebuild its strength.

It was only with the rise of two great leaders - the red-haired Isabella I (1451-1504), Queen of Castile, and Ferdinand V, King of Aragon, that the Moors were finally driven from Europe. Castile was one of the territories never occupied by the Moors, and Aragon had been liberated in one of the localized wars between the Visigoths and the Moors.

Isabella, who won renown for not only liberating Spain from the last of the Moors, but for being one of the main sponsors of the voyages of discoveries of Christopher Columbus, was the product of a marriage between Spanish and Portuguese nobility who had, along with a substantial amount of Spaniards, avoided the mixing caused by centuries of Moorish rule. In 1469, Isabella married Ferdinand - due to intertwining royal family connections and personal conquest, he was not only King of Aragon, but also was king of Sicily (1468-1516); and king of Naples (1504-1516).

Above: The great White King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, who drove the non-White Muslims out of Spain, expelled the Jews and started the exploration of America by financing Christopher Columbus - all in the same year, 1492.

When Isabella's brother died, she and her husband jointly succeeded (1474) to the throne of Castile. This union of the two main Spanish kingdoms laid the foundation of Spain's future greatness. Isabella became Queen of Castile when she was 23 years old. No sooner had she become queen when her kingdom was invaded by Alfonso V, King of Portugal, who was hoping to capitalize upon the weakness of the Spaniards in the confusion following the Moorish invasion. Castile was very nearly overrun, and it was only with a near superhuman effort that Isabella and Ferdinand were able to raise a strong enough army to defeat Alfonso in 1475. With the Portuguese threat settled, Isabella and Ferdinand then turned their attention to their real enemy - the Moors.


THE MOORS RENEW THEIR ATTACK UPON EUROPE

In the interim, the Muslims were renewing their assault on Europe. In 1479, Mohammed II, the Grand Turk, attacked the Island of Rhodes off Greece, only being repulsed by a White invasion under the Knights of St. John in 1480.

THE HILL OF MARTYRS - ITALY INVADED

Undeterred, Mohammed II then invaded Italy itself, seizing the city of Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples. Of the 22,000 inhabitants the Muslims captured, 12,000 were bound with ropes and tortured to death outside the city walls. The Muslims also killed all the Christian priests they could find. On a hill outside the city, known to this day as Martyr's Hill, they killed many captives who refused to convert to Islam.


THE TEN YEARS WAR - ISABELLA SELLS HER JEWELRY

It was not long before the Muslims renewed their assault on Spain. On 25 December 1482, the Muslims from Granada seized the town of Zahara, only 15 miles from Seville. The Ten Years War had started.

Isabella and Ferdinand then used a substantial amount of the money and riches they had confiscated from Spain's Jewish population (many of whom had become falsely converted to Christianity in order to avoid rising anti-Jewish feeling resulting from the Moorish occupation) and bought large quantities of new cannons and weapons from France, Germany and Northern Italy.

Even this was not enough, and finally Isabella sold all her own royal and personal gold, silver, pearls and jewels, to raise money for the liberation of her country from the non-Whites.

Supported by the new armaments obtained from elsewhere in Europe, Isabella and Ferdinand waged a demanding and extremely costly - in terms of lives and material - war to drive the Moors out of Europe for once and for all.


THE WHITE RECONQUEST STARTS

The reconquest of Spain from the Moors started with the seizure of Alhama in 1482, here described by an eyewitness, the Castilian Diego of Valera:

"While Count Rodrigo Ponce of Leon, Marquis of Cadiz, was in Marchena, several leaders came to him and they said that , if the Marquis wanted, they could tell him of a way in which the city of Alhama could be taken without any risk. . . .this was because the Moors took their safety for granted, as their city was so strong and situated so deep within their kingdom, on top of a high summit, completely surrounded by a river and accessible only by a single route up a very rough and steep hill.

"Before dawn, on Tuesday 10 February 1482, the Marquis' troops arrived outside the city of Alhama, Those who carried the scaling equipment quietly set it up.

"They were not seen until they were well inside the city. As daylight was breaking, a commotion arose and the Christians who lived in the city, as well as the other inhabitants, came running.

"When the Moors heard this . . .they gathered in the square and divided up among the men all the places from which they could best defend their walls. The Marquis of Cadiz and the other knights entered the city through the back gate on order to force the Moors to come out to fight.

"As the street was very narrow it did not allow for more than two men abreast to go through the gate, while the square where the Moors stood was very wide. So when the Marquis' men entered the square the Moors killed them as they came in two by two, and began to shoot so many cannon and arrows and stones that no one else dared to enter through the narrow street.

"Although the Christians received many blows in the narrow alleyways, they finally, by the grace of our Lord, drove the Moors fleeing from the square down towards the gates to Granada: there stood a mosque, very secure, where the Moors were surrounded: many were left dead or wounded.

"Then the Marquis of Cadiz ordered that the city gates be opened; his men entered killing and taking prisoner any enemies they found. They took many Moors . . . one soldier took thirty heads . . .

"The Moors stayed in the Mosque all day on Wednesday, defending it bravely. They were still there on Thursday, so the Marquis ordered his men to set fire to it. So many Moors were hurt that finally out of fear they told the Marquis that they would do as he wished; the Marquis then divided them up amongst his knights (as prisoners).

"On the morning of the following day, 13 February 1482, the Muslim king of Grenada, Abul Hassan, arrived near Alhama with a powerful army, seven thousand on horseback and one hundred thousand on foot and surrounded the city. The siege lasted several days, and since it took place during Lent, the Christians ate nothing but boiled wheat, chick-peas and beans. When the Moors saw that the Christians were not weakening, they worked to redirect the water supply away from the city; a few times the Marquis waded into the water up to his knees to cut down and burn the barricades the Moors had set up. When the Moors saw the great effort of the Christians to defend the city, they decided to break camp (giving the marquis the city)."

Between 1483 and 1486, the Spanish drove the Moors out of the western half of the kingdom of Granada. With the capture of the city of Malaga in 1487, followed in quick succession by the fall of the towns of Baza, Almeria and Gaudix in campaigns during 1488 to 1489, the White noose tightened round the last non-White stronghold - the citadel of Grenada.


THE FALL OF GRENADA

The White armies gathered their strength for one last mighty push against the Moors. Isabella hired, at her own expense, 40,000 mules to carry the provisions needed by the army which she and Ferdinand had gathered together.

At last, by July 1491, the great White army stood outside the gates of the city of Granada itself. The Moors took refuge in the fort known as the Alhambra. Outside Ferdinand and Isabella personally took command of the siege army.

July, August, September, October, November and December passed. The besieged Moors became desperate, their food supplies ran low and disease started to spread within the closed walls.

Finally on 30 December 1491, the Moorish king, Abu Abd-Allah, opened negotiations for surrender. The final surrender was recorded by an eyewitness, the priest Bernaldez, who was the chaplain of the archbishop of Seville:

"On Monday 2 January (1492) they (Isabella and Ferdinand) left the camp with their army duly drawn up. As they came near to the Alhambra, Abu Abd-Allah rode out, accompanied by many of his knights, with the keys of the city in his hand. He tried to dismount in order to kiss the king's hand, but the king would not allow it.

"The Moor kissed Ferdinand on the arm and gave him the keys, saying 'Take the keys of your city, for I, and the men who are within, are your vassals.' King Ferdinand took the keys and gave them to the queen . . ."

The surrender of Granada in 1492 was the first time in 770 years the White Goths once again ruled all of Spain.

Above: Monday 2 January 1492: The last non-White stronghold in Spain, the citadel of Grenada, surrenders to the victorious White army, led personally by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It was the first time in 770 years that all of Spain was once again under White control.

FURTHER CAMPAIGNS

Ferdinand became involved in an internal dispute in Italy, and was part of a force which conquered the Republic of Venice in 1508. This force went on in 1509 to conquer Oran and Tripoli on the North African coast from the Moors. Finally Ferdinand annexed the kingdom of Navarre in 1512. These conquests extended the borders of Spain to the Straits of Gibraltar, a border it has kept to this day.

This was however not the end of Spanish wars against Islam. In 1535, the Spanish King Charles V mounted expeditions against Muslim held Tunis and Algiers in 1541, preventing another incipient Muslim invasion of Europe from North Africa, and in 1571, Spain played a leading role in putting together a powerful White navy which defeated the non-White Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto, permanently weakening Turkish maritime power.


EXPULSION OF 250,000 MIXED RACE MOORS

Finally in 1609, the Spanish king Philip III ordered the physical expulsion of some 250,000 "Moriscos" or Christianized Moors from the country. The Moriscos were in fact of mixed White/Moorish ancestry and in this way a large number of mixed race inhabitants of Southern Spain were forcibly expelled from that country.


THE EXPULSION OF THE JEWS

The Spanish Jews were amongst the first to feel the full effects of the fall of the Moors from power in Spain. In 1492 Isabella and Ferdinand formally expelled all Jews from that country, punishing the Spanish Jews for having actively collaborated with the Moors during their 780 year long occupation. The victorious Moors (who, because of their common Semitic ancestry with the Spanish Jews and the already poor relations between the Jews and the Goths) employed several Spanish Jews in their administration of Spain in some of the highest posts, even though there were occasional outbursts of anti-Jewish feeling amongst the Arabs themselves.

In the city of Grenada, the last to fall to the White armies, the Spanish were enraged to learn that the Moorish king's prime minister and most of his leading advisors were Jews. A massacre of Jews in the city followed that discovery. This alliance between a number of Spanish Jews and the Moors inflamed the anti-Semitic feeling amongst the subdued Goths even further; a sentiment which would later flare up in the form of the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.


THE INQUISITION

When Spain was finally liberated from the non-White Moors, the long suppressed anti-Jewish sentiment broke out in full fury. In that year all unbaptized Jews were expelled en masse from Spain, and the infamous Spanish Inquisition, set up to enforce Christendom, was used to persecute Jews, who, because of their collaboration with the Moors, were regarded as the implacable enemies of White Spain.

Earlier Isabella had obtained from the Pope in Rome a dispensation to establish the Inquisition in Spain, which soon turned into a fully fledged anti-Jewish campaign under the name of Christianity. The first hearings against the Conversos were held in February 1481 in Castile - it combined with the outbreak of the "Black Plague" - bubonic plague. Many Christian fanatics linked the outbreak of the plague to the start of proceedings against the Conversos, and the Jews were blamed for the plague as well as their other real or imagined crimes, which included accusations that they had betrayed the city of Toledo to the invading Moors by opening the city gates at a crucial junction in the siege of that city.

The leading Conversos held a secret meeting to resist the Inquisition with force. Isabella's spies however found out about the planned rebellion and arrested the ringleaders, most prominent amongst them a rabbi named Diego de Susan. He, along with six other Jews, was tried for subversion, found guilty and executed by burning at the stake in late 1481.

The Conversos then broke rank in panic, and starting fleeing Spain in large numbers, some going to Italy, but many going to Muslim held Turkey, where they once again enjoyed special status. Much property belonging to the Converso Jews - who by some estimates made up as much as 20 per cent of Spain's pre-Inquisition population - was seized by Isabella and added to the state treasury.

Above: Captured White prisoners about to be decapitated by Saracens: note how the Spaniards are depicted with blond hair.

SPAIN'S GOLDEN AGE

After the expulsion of the Moors and the Jews, Spain entered its Golden Age. It created a huge empire, and along with Portugal, became one of the most powerful nations in Europe. Unfortunately for Spain and Portugal, both countries declined soon afterwards due to a change in their population make-up, as detailed in the previous chapter.

Nonetheless, the liberation of Spain from Moorish rule saved Western Europe from complete Arabic domination, and as a result the Visigothic warriors who undertook this 700 year war, will always be remembered for their great feat of arms.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 24: The Nordic Reservoir - Scandinavia - Part I

Scandinavia became the very first settling areas for the Indo-European tribes in Europe - in fact they were settled so long in this region that the scientific name for their racial type, Nordic, came to be associated with the region itself, hence the oft used term "Nordic countries."

The history of the Scandinavian countries; Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland; are intertwined. For long periods these countries ruled each other, while in Finland's case, war with Russia dominated its history for a millennium.

The ability of all these countries to survive the trepidations to which they were subjected once again lays to rest the "environmental" theory of the creation and longevity of civilizations, with plagues, warfare and economic turmoil, all failing to destroy the Nordic countries.

There have been three major contributions of the Scandinavian region to White history: the first Germans swept south into Germany out of the reservoir of Indo-European peoples in the north; then the Vikings swept through Europe and colonized England and parts of the continent itself; and then lastly waves of Scandinavians settled large stretches of modern America.

For these reasons alone, an overview of the Scandinavian countries is crucial to an understanding of European history; although the Vikings as a phenomenon deserve special mention by themselves, and are dealt with in the next chapter.

DENMARK

Denmark has some of the finest megalith and other stone age structures in Northern Europe outside of Stonehenge itself, indicators of an advanced early Neolithic civilization in the region thousands of years old.

This society continued uninterrupted until the arrival of the Indo-European invaders of around 2000 BC - the invaders ushered in the Iron Age and by 400 AD advanced fixed settlements had been in existence for several hundred years.

Settled by other Scandinavians who crossed the Baltic Sea, these early inhabitants of Denmark built a number of impressive structures, the remains of which are still to be seen today.

These include a canal, a long bridge and huge ramparts across the neck of Jutland now called the Danevirke. Some of these structures date from at least two hundred years before the age of the Vikings, which is officially deemed to have started around the year 750 AD.

Above: A silver cauldron recovered from
Gundestrup, North Jutland, Denmark,
from the year 100 BC. The panels round
the cauldron are molded with relief half
length figures of Celtic gods and
goddesses, some holding human figures
and others holding beasts. This is an
exquisite example of early Scandinavian
artwork, quite apart from being a
marvelous presentation of early racial
types in the region.

INVASION OF ENGLAND

Within 100 years of the first Danish Viking raids having taken place, enough Danes had settled in England to ensure that an entire section of that island fell under their rule (the region was known as the Danelaw), sparking off a long running conflict with the Britons who had been without Roman protection for over 350 years. The Danish king Sweyn I finally conquered all of England in 1013 and 1014, and his son, Canute II, who ruled England from 1016 to 1035, was the character who according to legend, tried to hold back the sea on the English coast.


CHRISTIANITY SPREADS TO DENMARK

Under King Harold Bluetooth in the 10th Century, the Christianization of the Danes was begun, to be completed by Canute II before the end of his reign in 1035. As was the case with many of the first Christians, the new religion was spread more by fear than by actual genuine conversion: after a generation or two of forced conversion however, the culture became established enough to be genuine only because other alternatives were ruthlessly suppressed.


FURTHER EXPANSION

During the late 1100s and early 1200s, the Danes also expanded to the East, conquering their racial cousins, the Balts, and settling the greater part of the southern coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, establishing an empire twice the size of Denmark itself.


CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS

The Scandinavian countries generally were the first Northern European countries to start constitutional reforms in the direction of a more representative form of government and have long been regarded as amongst the most enlightened governments in the world.

In 1282, the Danish King, Eric V, signed a charter making the Danish crown subordinate to law with an assembly of lords, called the Danehof, forming an important part of the administration of the country. Although by modern standards this hardly meant democracy, for 13th Century Europe it was virtually revolutionary.


UNION WITH SWEDEN AND NORWAY

In 1380, Denmark and Norway were joined under one king, Olaf II, and after his early death in 1387, his mother, Margaret I, ruled, helping to create the Union of Kalmar, consisting of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The addition of Norway to the union meant that Iceland and the Faroe Islands - discovered and settled by Viking adventurers - fell under effective Danish control.

From the first union with Denmark, a number of Swedish aristocrats worked ceaselessly for greater independence for Sweden, something which was finally achieved with the breaking of the union 1523.

That year proved particularly traumatic for Denmark: not only was the Danish King, Christian II, driven from the throne, but the country was subject to a large amount of interference from some North German towns, led by Lubeck.

With help from the newly independent Swedes, the Danes drove the Germans out and re-established their own king, the new Christian III. During his reign (1534-1559) Denmark quite peaceably became a Protestant nation.

The Christian Wars which destroyed Germany did not affect Denmark anywhere nearly as badly, despite Christian III's active participation in the Thirty Years War on the side of the Protestants against the Catholics.


SCANDINAVIAN CIVIL WAR

The Scandinavians did however manage to trim their own numbers during the Seven Years' War (1563-1570) and the War of Kalmar (1611-1613), both fought between Denmark and Sweden, mainly over commercial and related political rivalry in the region. Neither of these two wars exacted massive tolls from the belligerents, and ended with Denmark abdicating control of all its Baltic sea possessions except for Norway.


AUTOCRATIC RULE

The Danish defeat after the War of Kalmar caused the country to lose some major markets to Sweden: the nobility, who in terms of the early constitution, formed the administrative corps in Denmark, were blamed. In 1660, the Danish king, Frederick III, with the support of the merchant and middle classes, led a coup against the aristocratic Council of the Realm, resulting in the establishment of a hereditary and absolute monarchy in 1661. More importantly, commoners replaced nobles in the administrative structure.


COLONIAL EXPANSION INTO GREENLAND - 11th AND 18th CENTURIES

Greenland was originally colonized by Icelanders and Norwegians in the 11th Century, but contact with the settlements was lost during the 15th Century. During the 18th Century, the Danes, driven by commercial interests and a desire to convert the local non-Whites of Greenland, the Inuits, to Christianity, re-settled the island. Greenland remains part of Denmark to this day.


TRADE AND EMIGRATION TO THE NEW WORLD

Danish trade in East Asia expanded; and trading companies were established in the West Indies, where Denmark acquired several islands including the Virgin Islands.

Large numbers of Danes - hundreds of thousands - also eventually emigrated to the new lands in America: whole swathes of the then opening Midwest of America were settled by hardy Danes and other Scandinavians and Germans, groups who would form the core of the American Midwest farming communities.


NAPOLEONIC WARS - BRITISH NAVY BOMBARDS COPENHAGEN

During the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark became involved in the conflict after attempts to blockade the port of Copenhagen (to prevent trading with France) led to the British twice bombarding Copenhagen itself, in 1801 and 1807.

The English navy also successfully destroyed the Danish navy in a few short encounters - all these events caused Denmark to side with Napoleon - a bad choice as it turned out: when the wars ended in 1814 with Napoleon's defeat, Denmark was forced to cede Helgoland to the British and Norway to Sweden.


CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY

When the liberal revolutions of 1840 spread across Europe, the Danish king acceded to many of the demands before serious revolution could brew in his country: in 1849, a new constitution was introduced in terms of which Denmark became a constitutional monarchy with a two chamber parliament.

In 1864, Denmark lost the last of its European continental possessions: the German states of Schleswig-Holstein which were hereditary titles held by the King of Denmark, were taken by Prussia after a war between Prussia, Austria and Denmark.

Denmark settled down to a period of prosperity and peace, with a new constitution being introduced in 1901 which carried all the hallmarks of a modern democracy.

Wisely remaining neutral during the First World War (1914- 1918) Denmark avoided any great loss of life or population which dealt serious blows to other continental European countries such as France, Russia and Germany.

In 1917, the Danish West Indian possession of the Virgin Islands was sold to the United States of America, and the independence of Iceland - which had been substantially settled by Scandinavians - was recognized, although full independence would only come to that island in 1944 after a referendum there produced a majority in favor of independence.

In 1920, North Schleswig was incorporated into Denmark as a result of a plebiscite carried out in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles; the southern part of Schleswig had voted to remain in Germany.

WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)

Denmark also tried to stay out of World War Two, but was overrun in April 1940 by the Germans who passed through the country in their haste to invade Norway. Germany did not treat Denmark as a belligerent country, and allowed the vast majority of the country's legal and domestic administration to carry on as before the German invasion.

Britain occupied the Faroe Islands, and in 1941 the United States established a temporary protectorate over Greenland, which was returned to Danish rule after the end of the war. Greenland was granted home rule by the Danes in 1979. The German occupiers of Denmark were never militarily challenged: they were ordered to surrender at the time of the conclusion of the war in Europe.


IMMIGRATION

Along with her Scandinavian neighbors, Denmark became the focus for substantial amounts of non-White immigration in the last quarter of the 20th Century. This development and its implications are discussed in a separate chapter.

SWEDEN

Sweden had, like the rest of Scandinavia, became an Indo-European Nordic heartland soon after those tribes had entered Europe during their great migrations. In Northern Europe, and in Scandinavia particularly, the Indo-Europeans found mostly the Proto-Nordic sub-racial types, and soon absorbed these peoples, leaving only scattered traces of this original sub-race to be found today in isolated regions.

The most famous of these Indo-European tribes to settle in what was to become Southern Sweden were a sub-branch of the Goths, who determined much of the character of that country. The names of many settlements in Sweden reveal the Gothic influence, with the aptly named town of Gothenburg being one of the most prominent examples.

Above: On the Swedish island of Oland are the remains of sixteen ancient Scandinavian stone built forts. These forts had place for living quarters, storage facilities and livestock - evidently they must have been prepared for the occasional siege. Such wars were a feature of early Scandinavian life, caused partially by the geographic isolation of the communities and the individualistic nature of the people themselves.

VIKING EXPANSION

The Swedes were to produce their own set of feared Vikings, who from around 800 AD onwards, established major colonies in what became Russia (the Scandinavian tribe called the Rus gave their name to that country) and other regions in Eastern Europe, playing a not insignificant role in populating vast regions of the Eastern European continent with Nordic racial sub-types.


CHRISTIANITY

By 850 AD, the first Christian Frankish missionaries had arrived in Sweden to convert the pagan Swedes to the new Jewish originated religion, Christianity. They achieved some success with the conversion of the Swedish King Olaf, and slowly the religion filtered down, displacing the long established Odinism which was the original religion of all the Scandinavians.

During the reign of Eric IX, from 1150 to 1160, the newly Christianized Swedes invaded Finland and forced Christianity onto the stubbornly pagan Indo-European tribes in that country. The Swedes were to rule Finland for two centuries as a result.

Eric himself was to die in a Christian setting: he was assassinated by a Danish claimant to his throne while he was attending mass. He was later deified by the church and made patron saint of Sweden.


THE UNION OF KALMAR

By 1389, Swedish nobles had forced the then reigning king to renounce his throne and unify the country with Denmark. Sweden then joined the Union of Kalmar, ruled over by Margaret of Denmark, which incorporated Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The Danes and the Swedes however never co-existed well: continual skirmishes, mostly of a minor nature, plagued the life of the Union of Kalmar, and in 1520, when it became clear that a rebellion was brewing in Sweden, King Christian II invaded that country and had many of his opponents executed. The large number of executions provoked an uprising: in 1521, a rebellion led by one Gustav Vasa, succeeded and the Union of Kalmar was broken, although Denmark retained the southern part of Sweden. Vasa became King of the Swedes in 1523 as Gustav I and the country officially converted to Protestantism during the 1520s.


EXPANSION

A series of wars and minor conquests saw Sweden steadily expand its territorial size: the Reval district of Estonia voluntarily put itself under Swedish protection in 1561; and in 1582, all of Estonia was added to the Swedish crown after a local Baltic war with Poland.

Sweden's expansion reached a height under Gustav II Adolph, who is still considered by many Swedes to be their greatest king. A war with Russia which ended in 1617, saw Gustav II obtain for Sweden the lands of eastern Karelia and Ingria; a war with Poland from 1621 to 1629, saw Sweden annex all of Livonia and in 1630, Gustav entered the Christian Thirty Year's War on the side of the Protestants in Germany.

At the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, Sweden acquired further territories in the Baltic, making it the foremost power in that region.


SWEDEN UNITED

The Swedish king, Charles X Gustav, launched a series of wars with Poland (1655 to 1660) which saw that country completely overrun by the Swedes, forcing the Poles to accept as final the annexation of the territory of Livonia. Charles X also invaded Denmark twice in 1658, resulting in the expulsion of the Danes from Southern Sweden. The next Swedish king, Charles XI, made that country an ally of France in the wars of the late 1600s on the continent: as a result the Swedes were beaten by a German army from the state of Brandenburg in 1675.


THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR

The very next Swedish king, Charles XII, at the age of 15, led his country to war against a coalition consisting of Russia, Poland, and Denmark in 1700, in the first phase of what became know as the Great Northern War which lasted for another 21 years.

The Swedes, under Charles XII, successfully invaded Northwestern Russia and decisively defeated the Poles in 1706. The small Sweden could not hope to resist the relative giant of Russia, and by 1709 the Swedes were routed by the Russians under Peter the Great. This defeat marked the replacement of Sweden by Russia - ironically a state which had for the greatest part been founded by Scandinavians - as the dominant power in the Baltic.

By the treaties of Stockholm and Nystad in 1721, Sweden lost much of its German territory and ceded Livonia, Estonia, Ingria, part of Karelia, and several important Baltic islands to Russia.

Above: The capture of the town of Malmo by Count Magnus Stenbock. The distinguished Swedish general, Count Magnus Stenbock, took part in the earlier campaigns of the Swedish King Charles XII, and was instrumental in many of the victories, such as this one in 1709 where the Swedes captured the city of Malmo. The Swedes had however, overreached themselves - they could not hope to ward off the relative giant of Russia, and a coalition consisting of Russians, Danes and Saxons, beat the Swedes that same year. Stenbock himself died as a prisoner of war in a Danish prison.

NAPOLEONIC WARS

Sweden joined the Third Coalition (1805) against Napoleon, an alliance which fell apart after Russia deserted it and invaded Finland, forcing Sweden to cede most of that country. The Swedish king of the time, Charles XIII, was childless, and the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, chose Marshal Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's generals, as the crown prince in an attempt to placate Napoleon. The marshal duly became king and established the Bernadotte dynasty, a royal house which Sweden has kept to this day.

Bernadotte however withdrew his allegiance from Napoleon and Sweden fought against France in 1813 and 1814. In terms of the settlement following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden. Norway was to be ruled by Sweden until 1905, when it declared itself independent with Sweden's assent.


EMIGRATION

Despite a benevolent rule under the Bernadottes which saw many constitutional reforms, between 1867 and 1886, nearly half a million Swedes emigrated to America in search of greater liberty and the promise of farming land in the American Midwest.


NEUTRALITY

Sweden retained a strict policy of neutrality right through the major conflicts of the twentieth century, refusing to be drawn into the First or Second World Wars and the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

This image of neutrality was tarnished somewhat by a leftward lurch in Swedish politics in the 1960s; Swedish opposition to the Vietnam War saw that country offering political asylum to many young Americans opposed to that war.


IMMIGRATION

In common with all its Nordic neighbors, Sweden started allowing significant numbers of non-Whites into its borders during the last quarter of the 20th Century. These changes and their implications are discussed under a separate chapter.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 24: The Nordic Reservoir - Scandinavia - Part II


SWEDEN

Sweden had, like the rest of Scandinavia, became an Indo-European Nordic heartland soon after those tribes had entered Europe during their great migrations. In Northern Europe, and in Scandinavia particularly, the Indo-Europeans found mostly the Proto-Nordic sub-racial types, and soon absorbed these peoples, leaving only scattered traces of this original sub-race to be found today in isolated regions.

The most famous of these Indo-European tribes to settle in what was to become Southern Sweden were a sub-branch of the Goths, who determined much of the character of that country. The names of many settlements in Sweden reveal the Gothic influence, with the aptly named town of Gothenburg being one of the most prominent examples.

Above: On the Swedish island of Oland are the remains of sixteen ancient Scandinavian stone built forts. These forts had place for living quarters, storage facilities and livestock - evidently they must have been prepared for the occasional siege. Such wars were a feature of early Scandinavian life, caused partially by the geographic isolation of the communities and the individualistic nature of the people themselves.

VIKING EXPANSION

The Swedes were to produce their own set of feared Vikings, who from around 800 AD onwards, established major colonies in what became Russia (the Scandinavian tribe called the Rus gave their name to that country) and other regions in Eastern Europe, playing a not insignificant role in populating vast regions of the Eastern European continent with Nordic racial sub-types.


CHRISTIANITY

By 850 AD, the first Christian Frankish missionaries had arrived in Sweden to convert the pagan Swedes to the new Jewish originated religion, Christianity. They achieved some success with the conversion of the Swedish King Olaf, and slowly the religion filtered down, displacing the long established Odinism which was the original religion of all the Scandinavians.

During the reign of Eric IX, from 1150 to 1160, the newly Christianized Swedes invaded Finland and forced Christianity onto the stubbornly pagan Indo-European tribes in that country. The Swedes were to rule Finland for two centuries as a result.

Eric himself was to die in a Christian setting: he was assassinated by a Danish claimant to his throne while he was attending mass. He was later deified by the church and made patron saint of Sweden.


THE UNION OF KALMAR

By 1389, Swedish nobles had forced the then reigning king to renounce his throne and unify the country with Denmark. Sweden then joined the Union of Kalmar, ruled over by Margaret of Denmark, which incorporated Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The Danes and the Swedes however never co-existed well: continual skirmishes, mostly of a minor nature, plagued the life of the Union of Kalmar, and in 1520, when it became clear that a rebellion was brewing in Sweden, King Christian II invaded that country and had many of his opponents executed. The large number of executions provoked an uprising: in 1521, a rebellion led by one Gustav Vasa, succeeded and the Union of Kalmar was broken, although Denmark retained the southern part of Sweden. Vasa became King of the Swedes in 1523 as Gustav I and the country officially converted to Protestantism during the 1520s.


EXPANSION

A series of wars and minor conquests saw Sweden steadily expand its territorial size: the Reval district of Estonia voluntarily put itself under Swedish protection in 1561; and in 1582, all of Estonia was added to the Swedish crown after a local Baltic war with Poland.

Sweden's expansion reached a height under Gustav II Adolph, who is still considered by many Swedes to be their greatest king. A war with Russia which ended in 1617, saw Gustav II obtain for Sweden the lands of eastern Karelia and Ingria; a war with Poland from 1621 to 1629, saw Sweden annex all of Livonia and in 1630, Gustav entered the Christian Thirty Year's War on the side of the Protestants in Germany.

At the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, Sweden acquired further territories in the Baltic, making it the foremost power in that region.


SWEDEN UNITED

The Swedish king, Charles X Gustav, launched a series of wars with Poland (1655 to 1660) which saw that country completely overrun by the Swedes, forcing the Poles to accept as final the annexation of the territory of Livonia. Charles X also invaded Denmark twice in 1658, resulting in the expulsion of the Danes from Southern Sweden. The next Swedish king, Charles XI, made that country an ally of France in the wars of the late 1600s on the continent: as a result the Swedes were beaten by a German army from the state of Brandenburg in 1675.


THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR

The very next Swedish king, Charles XII, at the age of 15, led his country to war against a coalition consisting of Russia, Poland, and Denmark in 1700, in the first phase of what became know as the Great Northern War which lasted for another 21 years.

The Swedes, under Charles XII, successfully invaded Northwestern Russia and decisively defeated the Poles in 1706. The small Sweden could not hope to resist the relative giant of Russia, and by 1709 the Swedes were routed by the Russians under Peter the Great. This defeat marked the replacement of Sweden by Russia - ironically a state which had for the greatest part been founded by Scandinavians - as the dominant power in the Baltic.

By the treaties of Stockholm and Nystad in 1721, Sweden lost much of its German territory and ceded Livonia, Estonia, Ingria, part of Karelia, and several important Baltic islands to Russia.

Above: The capture of the town of Malmo by Count Magnus Stenbock. The distinguished Swedish general, Count Magnus Stenbock, took part in the earlier campaigns of the Swedish King Charles XII, and was instrumental in many of the victories, such as this one in 1709 where the Swedes captured the city of Malmo. The Swedes had however, overreached themselves - they could not hope to ward off the relative giant of Russia, and a coalition consisting of Russians, Danes and Saxons, beat the Swedes that same year. Stenbock himself died as a prisoner of war in a Danish prison.

NAPOLEONIC WARS

Sweden joined the Third Coalition (1805) against Napoleon, an alliance which fell apart after Russia deserted it and invaded Finland, forcing Sweden to cede most of that country. The Swedish king of the time, Charles XIII, was childless, and the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, chose Marshal Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's generals, as the crown prince in an attempt to placate Napoleon. The marshal duly became king and established the Bernadotte dynasty, a royal house which Sweden has kept to this day.

Bernadotte however withdrew his allegiance from Napoleon and Sweden fought against France in 1813 and 1814. In terms of the settlement following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden. Norway was to be ruled by Sweden until 1905, when it declared itself independent with Sweden's assent.


EMIGRATION

Despite a benevolent rule under the Bernadottes which saw many constitutional reforms, between 1867 and 1886, nearly half a million Swedes emigrated to America in search of greater liberty and the promise of farming land in the American Midwest.


NEUTRALITY

Sweden retained a strict policy of neutrality right through the major conflicts of the twentieth century, refusing to be drawn into the First or Second World Wars and the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.

This image of neutrality was tarnished somewhat by a leftward lurch in Swedish politics in the 1960s; Swedish opposition to the Vietnam War saw that country offering political asylum to many young Americans opposed to that war.


IMMIGRATION

In common with all its Nordic neighbors, Sweden started allowing significant numbers of non-Whites into its borders during the last quarter of the 20th Century. These changes and their implications are discussed under a separate chapter.

NORWAY

Norway contains some of the oldest White settlement sites in Scandinavia: traces of late Paleolithic settlements dating from 14,000 BC, have been discovered in this region.

The Indo-European invasions of centuries later saw the country being dominated by Nordic sub-racial types, which along with the Proto-Nordics already present in the region, created the "typical Norwegian" blue-eyed and blond look.

By the year 700 AD, some 29 separate tribal kingdoms existed in Norway, with the physical geography of mountains, fjords and rivers encouraging territorial division amongst the tribes.


VIKINGS

The proximity of the sea also encouraged sailing: around 750 AD, Viking raiders were to emerge from Norway and spread out all over Northern Europe, raiding and settling Ireland, Britain, Iceland and the Orkney, Faroe, and Shetland islands. Further expeditions were undertaken which led to the discovery of Greenland and North America.

Equally importantly, bands of Vikings sailed up the major rivers in what was to become Russia, playing a major role in creating that country. Still others settled in France, where they became known as Normans, from "Norse-man."


UNITED NORWAY

Eventually one of the local Norwegian tribal chieftains, King Harold I, called Fairhair, of Vestfold in Southeast Norway, united the other kingdoms of Norway through diplomacy and conquest. Upon his death in 940 AD, his sons once again divided up the country with (the ghastly named) Eric Bloodaxe as overall king.

The heirs to Harold Fairhair soon set to squabbling amongst themselves and the unity was broken: the Danes and Swedes took advantage of the disunity to make land grabs in Norway itself.


CHRISTIANITY INTRODUCED

Into the dissension of Norway a new ingredient was added: Christianity. In 995, Olaf I, a great-grandson of Harold Fairhair I, became king. Before his accession, Olaf had lived in England, where he had been converted to Christianity. He took the throne with the firm purpose of forcing Christianity on Norway and was partially successful, with his divine mission being interrupted when he was killed in battle with the Danes under King Sweyn I.

Norway was then ruled by Olaf II from 1015, who continued the evangelism of his predecessor, only this time taking the sword to all the pagans who refused to convert to Christianity.

By about 1025, Olaf was more powerful than any previous Norwegian king had been, thereby arousing the hatred of many petty princes who conspired with the Danish/English King, Canute the Great, who, in 1028, managed to drive Olaf into exile into Russia. Two years later Olaf returned and was killed in battle: he was subsequently deified and made into the patron saint of Norway, his bloodthirsty activities on behalf of Christianity in that country being ignored.


ICELAND

Upon Canute's death in 1035, his successors united Denmark and Norway through occupation, leading to three centuries of relatively stable home rule for Norway. Iceland was officially added to Norway's territory in 1262, and Norway enjoyed a period of growth and prosperity unequaled in its previous eras, interrupted only by the appearance of the bubonic plague, or Black Death, in the mid-13th Century, a result of which as much as 20 per cent of the population was killed.

The Union of Kalmar was created in 1389 when Norway, Sweden and Denmark were made into a single administrative unit. Norway remained under Danish and Swedish domination for centuries thereafter, although it was granted wide autonomy, particularly after a rebellion brewed in 1815.


INDEPENDENCE

In 1821, the still existing Danish peerage was abolished in Norway and in 1839, the country was granted the right to have its own flag. By 1905, the Norwegians had advanced constitutionally to the point where they declared themselves an independent nation with Sweden's consent.


NEUTRALITY AND OCCUPATION

During the First World War, Norway followed a strict policy of neutrality, a policy which was enforced at the start of the Second World War as well.

However, in April 1940, Britain and France announced that they had mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent their use by German supply ships. British and German forces then simultaneously invaded the country in an attempt to outflank each other.

Right: An election poster for Vidkun Quisling, leader of the pro-Nazi National Union party in Norway. Quisling served in the Norwegian embassy in Moscow. Upon his return to Norway he entered politics and became known as a strong anti-Communist, based on what he had seen in the Soviet Union. He was appointed to the Norwegian cabinet in 1931 as Minister of Defense, and in 1933 formed the National Union, with principles based on those of the National Socialists in Germany. After Norway was occupied by Germany in 1940, the National Union was declared the only legal party, and Quisling was appointed prime minister in 1943 - a position he held until the defeat of Germany in 1945. He was executed by the pro-Allied government in October 1945.

There was considerable support for the German occupation amongst the Norwegians, and several Norwegian army units actively helped the Germans occupy the major ports. The leader of the pro-German forces, Vidkun Quisling, was eventually appointed governor of Norway in 1943.

Norway remained under German rule until 1945, the armed units there never seeing battle again, being ordered to surrender once the conflict on the continent had been ended. Quisling, who (along with 25 other Norwegians) was executed for his part in the occupational government and a further 50,000 Norwegians were tried for collaboration with the Germans.


MODERN NORWAY

The country recovered well from the trepidations of the war and once again became one of the most economically progressive countries in Europe.

In common with her neighbors, Norway allowed a number of non-Whites to settle in that country during the last quarter of the 20th Century. The significance of this shift in policy is discussed under a later chapter.

FINLAND

The earliest traces of settlements in Finland date from approximately 8000 BC, the Neolithic Age. These Old Europeans and Proto-Nordics did not make any significant advances until the arrival of the first wave of Indo-European Nordic invaders around 2000 BC, who ushered in the Iron Age and the first large agricultural settlements.

Due to the relatively large numbers of Old Europeans resident in the region - large compared to the rest of Scandinavia, at least - the resulting mix between Indo-European Nordics and Old European Mediterraneans created a sub-racial type which is not as uniformly Nordic in appearance as was the case in Norway or Sweden: to this day there are a far larger proportion of dark-haired Finns than what there are dark-haired Swedes or Norwegians.


THE LAPPS - A MIXED RACIAL TYPE IN SCANDINAVIA

At the same time as the Indo-European invaders, a small tribe of originally Asiatic Finno-Ugric peoples made their way into the country, possibly driven on by the invading Indo-Europeans. These Finno-Ugrics formed the Lapp people, nomads of the Arctic circle. Through the addition of large quantities of Indo-European ancestry, many Lapps now display Nordic racial features.

The Laps, also called the Sami, were an originally Asiatic racial group who have traditionally lived a nomadic existence in the far north of Sweden, Norway and Finland. They are called the indigenous people of Scandinavia although they probably arrived simultaneously or even after the European elements of those countries.	A group of overtly Asiatic Lapps photographed in the early 20th Century outside their primitive mud and stone hut. Mixing with Whites has produced a wide variety of physical types amongst the Lapps, as can be seen in the picture, above, of a modern Lapp woman in traditional dress. She is to all intents indistinguishable from other White Scandinavians, in stark contrast to many other Lapps.

THE SWEDISH CONQUEST

It is difficult to pin down any final proof of Viking raiders having originated in Finland - however, swords have been found in that region with inscriptions on them indicating that their owners served in the Varangian Guard of the Eastern Roman Emperor at Constantinople in the 9th and 10th Centuries - indications that some Finns took part in the Viking expeditions of that era.

Finland did not form any sort of early unified state: it was only with the Christianizing efforts of the Swedes from around 1050 AD that any form of central organization came into being.

The Swedish king, Eric, invaded what was still the unorganized territory of Finland in 1155 with the express aim of converting the Finns to Christianity. Easily defeating the scattered Finnish tribes, Eric then made his evangelical mission - carried out with the by now usual combination of preaching and execution of those unwilling to be converted - into a permanent colony, adding Finland to the Swedish state.

A Christian missionary from England, Henry, who had been preaching at Uppsala in Sweden, also took part in this evangelical mission to Finland: the pagans however killed him in 1156. Henry was later deified by the church and became the patron saint of Finland.


WARS WITH RUSSIA

The rise of the state of Russia on the Finns' eastern border dominated Finnish history for more than one thousand years: the first Russian invasions were carried out by local Russian princes in the late 1200s. When the ruler of Novgorod in Russia invaded Finland for the second time in 1292, the Swedes sent a force into Karelia as far as the Neva River. A treaty of 1323 divided Karelia between Sweden and Novgorod.

When the Union of Kalmar was established in 1397, Finland, as a vassal of Sweden, was automatically drawn into the three way administrative unit. For the next two hundred years Finland remained under effective Swedish control, and many thousands of Swedes settled in that country.

Apart from a running series of wars with Russia, a series of crop failures from in 1695 to 1697 reduced the Finnish population by one fourth. This was followed by the Great Northern War (1700-1721), during which the Russians occupied Finland; at the Peace of Nystadt (1721) it lost large areas in the east, with Russia gobbling up yet more Finnish land after another war in 1741 to 1743.


RUSSIAN RULE, 1809 TO 1917

In 1808, the Russian Tsar, Alexander I, launched an all out assault on Finland, overrunning that country completely by 1809, the year in which it was formally proclaimed as a grand duchy of the Russian Empire. The country was ruled by a Russian governor-general in an already existing city chosen as the new capital by the Russian Czar, Helsinki. During the period of Russian rule, much material and cultural progress was made.

Finland was not directly involved in the First World War, even though Russia was. The Finns, their incipient nationalism awakened during the cultural progress under Russian rule, seized the opportunity afforded by the collapse of Russia after the Communist revolution of 1917 in that country to declare themselves independent in December of that year. Soviet Russia was too weak to resist and Finland became properly independent for the first time.


THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION CRUSHED

The Finns were however sharply divided along political lines: communists and conservatives faced each other down and formed their own armies, the Red Guards and the White Guards, in imitation of the groupings which were then waging a civil war in Soviet Russia itself. The formation of politically motivated armed units spilled over into violence: the Red Guards reacted violently to a government order to expel all Russian troops, and attempted to launch a Communist revolution in Finland in January 1918, during which Helsinki was seized and a red reign of terror against anti-Communists was launched, during the course of which many civilians were killed.

Backed by German troops, the anti-Communist White Guards, under the leadership of General Carl Mannerheim, recaptured Helsinki and exacted a bitter revenge against the Communists, shooting many out of hand. The Finnish Communist Party was then banned. A republican constitution was implemented and the government was dominated by conservatives.


FRIENDSHIP WITH NAZI GERMANY AGAINST COMMUNISTS

The rise of the Nazi government in Germany and its strong anti-Communist stance was looked on favorably by the Finns. This was reflected by the fact that the Swedish air force had kept one of its emblems a blue colored swastika.

Left: Marshal Carl Mannerheim, one of Finland's modern heroes. Born in 1867 in Russian occupied Finland, he joined the Russian army and reached the rank of Lieutenant-General before taking command of the Finnish forces in that country's war of independence against Soviet Russia in 1918. He was instrumental in suppressing the Communist revolution in Finland in 1918, and was regent of that country for seven months in that year. Mannerheim was forced out of retirement to command his country's army in its amazingly successful defense against the Communist Soviet invasion of 1939/40. He was made President of Finland in 1944, and died in 1951.

Although this emblem had been given to the Finnish air force by a Finnish nobleman who had donated the first Swedish air force aircraft (with the traditional Indo-European good luck emblem painted on it), the decision to keep the swastika after it had become so strongly associated with the political ideology of Adolf Hitler spoke volumes. Its significance was not lost on the Finns either - in 1945 they hastily did away with the prominent version of that emblem after Germany's defeat. (Unknown to many, the Swedish air force keeps the swastika as an emblem on its flags and shoulder straps to this very day).


WORLD WAR II

Although Finland declared its neutrality at the start of the Second World War, the Soviet Union lost no time in invading Finland in November 1939, partly to seize territory, and party as punishment for the suppression of the Finnish communist revolution of 1919.

A bitter winter war followed, with the Finns exacting a disproportionately heavy toll against the Soviet invaders. The Finns, led by General Mannerheim in a new anti-Communist battle, held on grimly in the face of overwhelming odds, but were forced to sue for peace and ceded strips of territory on the border with the Soviet Union.

Above: A British built Gloster Gladiator, serving in the Finnish Air force in 1940, with a Finnish emblem of the time: a swastika. Colored blue, the emblem was given to the Finnish air force in 1919, before the Nazi Party's ascendancy. The decision to keep the emblem after it had become so strongly associated with National Socialism and Adolf Hitler was however an indication of the political leanings of the Finns at the time - indeed they were at that stage involved in a life and death struggle with the Communist Soviet Union, as the Germans would be a short while later.

When the great Soviet-German conflict broke out in 1941, the Soviets bombed Finnish cities due the presence of a small number of German troops in that country. Finland then declared war against the Soviet Union, seizing the advantages gained by the massive German advances into Russia, although it was careful to emphasize that it was not a formal ally of Germany.

In December 1941, Britain then declared war on Finland and the United States broke off diplomatic relations that same month. This move displayed a shocking lack of consistency: Britain and America did not declare war on the Soviet Union when it, without cause, invaded Finland in 1939. After almost three years of exhausting war which saw only minor territorial gains, the Finns dropped out of the war in 1944, ceding further territories to the Soviets in exchange for peace.


MODERN FINLAND

Mainly due to the duplicitous treatment at the hands of the West during the Second World War, Finland maintained a strict policy of neutrality, refusing to be drawn into any post war ideological conflict, only agreeing to participate in, but not join, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1992, after Communism had crumbled of its own accord.

In common with the other Scandinavian countries, Finland opened its borders to a significant number of non-Whites during the last quarter of the 20th Century. The importance and implications of this development is discussed in another chapter.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 25: The Fury of the Men of the North - The Vikings

The origins of the Vikings lie, like all original Indo-European peoples, in the ancient Nordic homeland between the Black and Caspian Seas in southern Russia. Part of the earliest wave of Indo-European settlers, the Vikings were originally one of the Germanic tribes who settled in southern Scandinavia and Denmark, and who gave rise to the Goths and the Anglo-Saxons in later times.

Above: One of the earliest representations
of raiding Vikings is to be found in
Lindisfarne, on the British coast.
Lindisfarne was an early Christian
settlement which suffered a particularly
severe Viking raid in 793AD. An
engraving made by victims of the raid to
mark the event depicts the invaders. It
was as raiders that the Vikings first
landed in Britain - later they made their
settlements permanent.

What made the Vikings unique was that they, of all the original Indo-European tribes, retained their original nature in all aspects longer than any other such tribe - culturally, linguistically and militarily. The Vikings clung to the original Indo-European religions longer than anyone else - they clung to their language longer than anyone else, and kept their warlike countenance longer than any others.

These traits were evidenced well into the 12th Century, and their direct descendants, still unaltered genetically, reside in large parts of Scandinavia and Iceland. In the latter country the language of the Vikings is still the official language.


RACIAL MAKE-UP

As with all Indo-European settlers in Europe, the ancestors of the Vikings mixed with a certain amount of Old European elements they either found in the areas they settled, or who they encountered on their way to these settled areas. In this way there were Vikings who did not fit the tall blond Nordic type so often associated with Vikings - a significant minority were clearly round headed Alpine types, although it is true that the vast majority of Vikings and Scandinavians to this day are Nordic.


CULTURE - INDIVIDUALIZATION A CHARACTERISTIC TRAIT

The Vikings lived in Scandinavia by agriculture, cattle breeding and trade and metal working - some artifacts found in Viking sites are evidence that they were skilled craftsmen. They also developed a tradition for piracy which went back to the time they first settled in Scandinavia - indeed the very word Viking comes from the Old Norse word meaning piracy.

This tradition created a strong sense of loyalty amongst their own particular family or group of families; but there was certainly no sense of national identity, as was the case with many other Indo-European tribes (such as the Goths or Franks, who could usually be counted on to come to fellow tribesmen's aid). The individualism of the Viking was an important feature of their way of living.

Above: Intricate Viking carving:
an animal head from the
Oseberg ship burial, circa 825
AD. Universitetets
Oldsaksamling, Oslo.

POLYGAMY AS A TOOL FOR POPULATION INCREASE

Another trait which set the Vikings aside from their racial cousins was the practice of polygamy - it was not uncommon for these Norsemen to have three wives, and their chieftains very often had far more than this. This practice led to a population growth rate in excess of other Indo-European tribes, and may have been a major factor in the sudden expansion of the Vikings from the 8th Century onwards.

Although the Viking men were known as womanizers - the image of the Viking raider carrying away women as part of his booty had an unfortunately all too accurate origin about it - Viking women were however amongst the most liberated in the world at the time, their status being elevated by the fact that they were forced to take charge of society while their men were away for extended periods at a time.


FIERCENESS - ORIGIN OF "BERSERK"

What caused the Vikings to start their extensive raiding parties when they did, remains a matter of conjecture: speculation has ranged from a reaction against the Christianizing efforts of missionaries, or the perfection of sailing techniques combined with a growth in population.

Although the Vikings had a fierce reputation - deservedly - even the word "berserk" derives from the name of a clan of particularly frenzied warriors - within a few hundred years of their first raids the large majority had been converted to Christianity and had settled in the lands they had formerly raided.


THE EDDA - FIRST COLLECTION OF VIKING SAGAS

Very few written records of the Vikings, before they first came into contact with their literate victims, exist. The Christian Church in this era kept to itself the skills of literacy, so what is known about the Vikings in their pre-raiding days is based on the accounts set down by the Church. As a result, much of this detail cannot be taken as objective.

The Vikings did establish a large body of at first spoken, but then very soon written, series of stories and sagas which made up the basis of their world view. The most accurate version of these was taken down by the poet Snorri Sturluson, credited with establishing the Edda, or first comprehensive collection of Viking sagas.

The Vikings are also credited with the oldest parliament in the world - the open air Althing of Iceland, where free men came to resolve feuds and establish laws for the community.


RELIGION - VALHALLA FOR HEROES

Viking religion followed a similar pattern to that of other pre-Christian Germanics. They worshiped Odin, the leader of the gods and god of war; his son Thor, the god of thunder who possessed the mighty war hammer, and Baldur, the god of light. These gods were opposed by a race of evil giants led by Loki. Vikings also believed that if they died heroically in battle they would be called by Odin to stay in Valhalla, the former's home. The Vikings also believed in the Ragnarok, the end of the world in a mighty battle between the gods and Loki's giants, and the destruction of men and Valhalla in this battle but that a new and better world would be created as a result.


RAIDS - ACROSS EUROPE AND INTO RUSSIA

Their plundering raids, up and down the length and breadth of Europe right into the Mediterranean and western Russia, filled the Christians with dread and fear, leading to the development of the famous prayer of protection (which did not seem to help) muttered by Christians when they saw the signs of the approaching Vikings: "Lord protect us from the fury of the men of the North."

Between 800 and 850 AD, Ireland was particularly badly mauled by Viking invaders, who found the Celtic descendants on the island easy prey because of their weakness created by their constant infighting with one another. On the European continent itself, the now famous Viking boats sailed up all the navigable rivers of Europe, raiding and looting at will, only very infrequently being turned back or defeated.


SETTLEMENTS

The Viking raids started off as hit and run attacks, but gradually became more organized with raiders erecting temporary camps for raids lasting several weeks at a time. Soon the raiders began to be away for months at a time, depending on the location of the quarry, or depending upon discoveries which they might make upon their journeys.


DIGGINGS IN VIKING BURIAL SITES BELIE THE IMAGE OF WILD SAVAGE BARBARIANS

The Vikings were amongst the most skilled people in Europe in the manufacture of arms and jewelry. The Viking habit of burying their chiefs in large burial chambers along with all their swords, axes, carts and even in some cases with their boats, has provided a large number of such artifacts.

Skilled carvings of animals which held special attraction to the Vikings: horses, snakes, swans and dragons, are plentiful. Gold and silver work was also commonplace.


THE DRAGON BOAT

The other Viking development which was crucial to their fame was the development of the dragon boat. Despite its apparent simplicity, the Viking boat was a fine work of engineering - in its time far and away the most advanced seafaring craft available. Ideally suited for transporting anywhere between 20 and 100 fully armed warriors (and often their horses), the Viking boat could sail equally at ease in the open sea and in shallow rivers.

The engineering of Viking ships was adopted by many others, including the English under Alfred the Great, whose kingdom endured the power of these vessels first hand.

A Viking long boat, circa 800 AD. In these superb ships the White men of Scandinavia sailed rivers and seas, even crossing the Atlantic ocean to North America. The design was so perfect that it was adopted by King Alfred of England and used as a basic design for the very first English navy.	An original Viking long boat toolbox, containing over 150 items including rasps, nail making tools, planes, chisels, hammers and shears for clipping metal. Recovered from Mastermyr, Sweden.

RUSSIA - SAILED THE VOLGA - COMPOSED VARANGIAN GUARD

Vikings, or Norsemen, as they were also known, emerged from their northern homeland in two directions: east down into Russia, where they founded the modern state of Russia and in the west as raiders and looters from the Mediterranean to Britain.

The Vikings who turned east traveled through Russia on their boats, cruising the Volga and Dnieper rivers to Constantinople (the Varangian Guard, the personal bodyguards of the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople, was composed entirely of tall blond Vikings, a rare sight in the darkening world of the Byzantine Empire) and Baghdad. Along with the Slav peoples, the Swedish Vikings laid the basis of the modern state of Russia.


ENGLAND - VIKING KINGDOM AROUND YORK

According to Anglo-Saxon records, the Vikings first raided England in 787 AD and continued intermittent raids until around 830 AD, when finally they started settling in northern England instead of just raiding and departing. The Vikings also settled in Ireland, founding the towns of Dublin and Limerick amongst others. In England, the Vikings soon established themselves in an area big enough to proclaim a kingdom - a large part of England south of Scotland and north of present day Birmingham became a Viking Kingdom centered in York. (As a result thereof, one of the largest Viking museums in the world is to be found in Leeds in northern England).

The Saxon king of England, Alfred the Great, who ruled from 871 to 899 AD, managed to militarily halt the Viking advance and entered into an agreement with the Vikings to halt the fighting which had marked the latter's presence in the island from the time of their first settlement. In effect Alfred accepted the permanence of the Viking kingdom in the North of England. This Viking English kingdom was to later be the source of a Scandinavian claim to the English throne.


RAIDING CHURCHES FOR THEIR WEALTH

On the continent, the Vikings established for themselves a reputation as fierce pirates - their favorite targets were Christian churches and monasteries. It is unlikely that they targeted these places for any anti-Christian ideological reason, but rather for the fact that any wealth in any Christian territory was more than likely to have been drawn into the local church as a tax. The Vikings knew that the wealthiest place in any town would be the church, and always made straight for this building during any raid.

Left: Tricking the Christians - Viking raiders always knew that the riches of society would be found hoarded in the church of any town. One of the most interesting stories from this time is that of the Viking raider Hasting, who plundered France for several years and then went to Italy with the intention of sacking Rome itself. Driven ashore by a storm near the town of Sarzana on the Magra River, the Viking mistook the town for Rome. Pretending to be on a peaceful mission, he was admitted into the town and baptized a Christian at the hands of the local bishop. During the following night, loud wailing was heard from the Viking ship, and it was announced that Hasting had died. He was taken ashore for a burial service - in the rich Christian church. It was an elaborate trick. As the Bishop was about to conduct the service for what he thought was his latest convert, Hasting sprang from the coffin, and, with the assistance of his armed followers, first dispatched the Bishop and the governor, and then attacked the town, capturing it after a bloody battle.


FRANCE - PARIS RAIDED 840 AD

It was not too long before the Vikings began looking to settle in other parts of Europe as well - the emerging French capital of Paris was raided in 840 AD by a particularly adventurous Viking band. In the early 900s, a Viking settlement was established with force of arms in northwestern France. In 911, the Frankish king, a great grandson of Charlemagne, granted formal recognition to this Viking settlement and in somewhat of a post factum manner made the settlement a vassal of the Frankish state.

Above: The extent of the Viking power was visibly demonstrated in 840 AD, when they besieged and raided the fortified city of Paris, then already the most powerful center in all of France. Here Viking boats approach the walls of the city on the Seine River.

The leader of this particular band of Vikings, called Gang-Hrolf by his own people (Ralph the Walker - as he was allegedly too large for any horse to carry him comfortably) was known to the Franks as Rollo, reciprocated the Frankish recognition by being baptized as a Christian and becoming the first Duke of Normandy - the name Normandy deriving from the word Norse-man. Rollo and his Normans did indeed become loyal vassals, pledging to protect their piece of coastline against other Viking invaders.

Before 1100, the Norman (and thus Viking) soldier Robert Guiscard sailed for Sicily, then partly under the occupation of the Muslim invasion which had accompanied the invasion of Spain. Guiscard fought his way into the Muslim controlled area, and proceeded to establish a Norman principality on Sicily, known as the Norman kingdom of Sicily. Normans from Sicily also took part in another great racial war, that of the Crusades against the Muslims in the Middle East.


NORTH AMERICA - VIKINGS LAND 500 YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS

Other settlements established by Viking bands included outposts on the Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland and Faroe islands. In 861 AD, a Viking discovered Iceland and soon the island was settled by other bands of Vikings. Around 950 AD, one of these Icelandic settlers, Eric the Red, sailed to Greenland, where another short lived Viking outpost was established.

In the year 986 AD, another Viking, Bjarni Herjulfsson, sailing from Norway to Greenland, missed his destination and by accident sighted the North American coast. He did not land, instead returning on his path, he told others in Greenland of his discovery. The son of Eric the Red, Leif, then took an expedition to the new land, landing on present day Newfoundland and living there just under one year before returning to Greenland.

Above: A fine representation of Erik the Red's expedition discovering Greenland.

VINLAND

A few years later, another Greenland Viking, Thorfinn Karlsefni, launched a major expedition to the new land. Using three ships and 160 men and women, he set out to establish a Viking colony in North America. They built a settlement in Newfoundland (the remains of which were excavated in 1962) and in 1004, Thorfinn's wife Gudrid bore him a son named Snorri. Leif called the North American land Vinland, or Wineland, because of the grapes he found there. However, the American natives, called Skraelings, constantly subjected Thorfinn's settlement to attacks, and overwhelmed by numbers, the Vikings were forced to abandon their settlement after three years.

Above: Archeological evidence of a Viking settlement (the Way Station) at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. Left: This copper alloy ring headed pin of Norse design was found at the L'Anse Meadows site. Pins such as these were used to close the outer garments of both men and women. Right: A wooden ship repair piece found at the L'Anse Meadow site. Identical pieces have been found in excavations of Viking founded Dublin in Ireland.

THE HEAVENER RUNESTONES - VIKINGS IN OKLAHOMA CIRCA 900 AD

Precisely how far the Vikings penetrated into the mainland of North America is revealed by the existence of four runestones inscribed with symbols from the Viking language which can be found in the present day state of Oklahoma, USA.

The largest of the runestones is known as the Heavener Runestone. It is a sandstone slab, 12 feet high, ten feet wide, and 16 inches thick. It was first noticed in the modern era by bear hunters before 1874. This stone is carved with 8 letters from the oldest Viking language, the 24 rune Futhark, used from 300 until 800 AD, in Scandinavia.

Above: Evidence of just how far the Vikings progressed into North America. A close-up of the runes on the Heavener Runestone, present day Oklahoma, USA. The runes are circa 900 AD.

In the immediate area, three other runestones have also been found: and at a small hill at of Cavanal Mountain, 14 miles away, another smaller inscription of eight runes is to be found.

In 1986, the runes on the largest stone were deciphered as meaning G-L-O-M-E-D-A-L, meaning Glome's Valley, a land claim. The other runestones also refer to Glome, saying "Magic or protection to Gloie (his nickname)". One of the smaller runestones appears to have been a gravestone. The other two runestones do not have enough runes for a translation, but the four stones were placed in a straight line, miles apart.

In order to enter Oklahoma, Vikings would probably have rounded the tip of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico, found the Mississippi River, and sailed into its tributaries, the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers, around 750 AD. This date is indicated by the grammar used on the Runestones.


MINNESOTA VIKINGS - ILL FATED EXPEDITION IN 1362

In November 1898, a further runestone was discovered near Kensington in the present day state of Minnesota. When deciphered, these runes revealed the story of an ill-fated Viking expedition to the area which occurred in 1362.

Above: Still the source of much controversy, the Kensington Runestone, recounting the saga of an ill fated Viking expedition to present day Minnesota in 1362.

A translation of the runestone makes fascinating reading:

[on the front of the stone] "8 Goths and 22 Norwegians on discovery voyage from Vinland over (the) west we had camp by 2 skerries one days journey north from this stone we were and fishe(ed) one day after we came home found 10 men red with blood and dead A(ve) V(irgo) M(aria) preserve from evil"

[on the side of the stone] "have 10 men by the seas to see after our ship(s) 14 day-journeys from this island year 1362."

The stone has been the source of a fair amount of controversy. During the late 1940s, it was overwhelmingly considered authentic and was displayed in the halls of the Smithsonian Institution. The fate of the intrepid Vikings remains unknown.


THE NEWPORT TOWER

In Touro Park, Newport, Rhode Island, a stone tower, called the Newport Tower, may be the oldest fully existing Norse building in North America, probably built in the 12th Century.

It has been claimed that the tower - most often referred to as Governor Arnold's Mill - was built by Governor Arnold around the year it is mentioned in his will - 1677. However, the shape of the structure is most unsuited to that of a mill.

The top of the building is obviously meant to be used as a lookout tower over the bay; and the inside as an early church, complete with a place for an altar and a fireplace (all of which are incompatible with the inside of a mill). The structure's design closely resembles other early Norse style churches which can be found in Europe.

Above: The Newport Tower, Rhode Island, USA. Often thought to have been built as a mill around 1670, compelling evidence - including a runic inscription inside the tower and the style and design (most unsuited to that of a mill) indicates that it is the oldest intact Viking structure on the North American continent.

The first mention of the existence of the tower comes in the account of the Italian explorer Giovanni de Verrazano, who, while in the service of the French, was the first 16th Century European to enter New York Bay in 1524. Verrazano noted the tower on his map of the area, calling it a "Norman villa" because of its obvious Norse design and construction.

The most compelling evidence of the Norse construction of Newport Tower is however the existence of a Runic inscription on one of the walls, which has been translated to read HINKIRS or Henrikus - a Norse name.

The explorer Verrazano also noted that the natives with whom he came into contact around the Newport area were "polite, cultured and of fair complexion". Bernardo Carli, one of Verrazano's men, wrote "This is the most beautiful and the most civilized people that we have found in our navigation. They excel us in size, are of a bronze color, some inclined to whiteness." These physical characteristics are all clear evidence of Norse ancestry.

Numerous American Indian words are also of clear Norse origin. Mallery compiled a huge list of Iroquois words with Norse origins in his book mentioned above. Others which are of interest are:

In New England, the Indian name of the port of Halifax was "Chebuct" - in Norse a 'Sjobukt" is a sea bay.

• In Martha's Vineyard a pond called "Mennemsha" lies between Gay's Head and Chilmark. In Norse the word "Mellemsjo" means in-between pond, or body of water.
• Near Pemaquid, Maine, a tribal branch of the Abnaki was called "Norridgewok": "Norrewg's Folk", or the people of Norway.
• A hill in New Jersey was called "Espating" by the Indians; "Asp", the Norse name for the Asp tree, has come into English unchanged; while the Norse word for a meeting place, a "ting" is the clear origin of the rest of the word Espating.

VIKING SETTLEMENT ENDS IN GREENLAND

The encroaching ice of Greenland eventually proved too much even for the hardy Vikings, and the last survivors died in 1740 AD during the interglacial freeze of the 18th Century. Today the inhabitants of Iceland, because of the geographic isolation, are the most pure descendants of the Vikings in the world, speaking a virtually identical language and having the distinction of being the last European nation to recognize Christianity as a legitimate religion, well into the 1100s.


POLITICAL UNITY - FAILED

In Scandinavia itself, several Viking leaders tried to establish some form of unity, most notably Harald Fairhair who beat the Viking chieftains of western Norway in 872; and Harald Bluetooth who in 965, after being baptized as a Christian, tried to convert the Danes to Christianity. Both these attempts at unity failed, and Harald Bluetooth, despite being a legitimate descendent of a leading Viking chief, was exiled.


THE SAGA OF HARALD HARDRAADA - HOW A VIKING RULED ENGLAND

It was from this struggle for unity amongst the Vikings that one of the most colorful characters in Viking history was to emerge: Harald Hardraada.

Harald's tale begins with the attempts by a great grandson of Harald Fairhair, one Olaf Tryggvason, being baptized as a Christian as part of a settlement arranged with the English, whom Olaf's Vikings had been subjecting to a particularly pulverizing series of raids. Olaf however not only was acknowledged as leader of the Vikings in northern England, but he also managed to quell enough dissent in Norway to become that country's first king around 995 AD.

As a result of this, the throne of King of Norway was then linked to the leadership of at least half of England: when Harald Hardraada (the "hard ruler") finally ascended to the throne, this sparked off one of the final battles between the Vikings and the English.

Harald was the half brother of King Olaf the Stout, a king of Norway who was chased out of his country while trying to violently convert his countrymen to Christianity. Olaf fled to the Viking settlements in Russia, which had become Christianized, and raised an army to stage a comeback in Norway. Olaf returned to Norway in 1030, with his 15 year old half brother, Harald, at his side. Together they fought their pagan countrymen but were defeated. Olaf was killed (he was later made a saint by the Christian Church and is to this day patron saint of Norway) and Harald severely wounded.

The young Harald fled back to Russia, stopping in Kiev to enlist in the army of King Yaroslav, winning great prestige as a soldier. From there he went to Constantinople where he enlisted in the emperor's Varangian guard, an elite army unit made up exclusively of Vikings and Rus recruited from the Norse settlements in Christian Russia. For a decade Harald fought for the Eastern Roman Empire, winning not only great fame but also great wealth.

In 1044, he went back to Kiev and married the daughter of King Yaroslav. By 1047, he had worked his way back to Norway where he claimed the Norwegian throne, his royal family tie combined with his by now legendary exploits being enough to silence opposition to his becoming king.

During the next nineteen years, Harald continued trying to Christianize his countrymen, earning for himself the name of "hard ruler".

Harald's last great exploit came in 1066. Upon the death of the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, Harald claimed the English crown for himself on the basis of the shared sovereignty of Norway and northern England. However, another claimant to the English throne also put in his bid - William, Duke of Normandy, ironically the descendant of Vikings just like Harald himself.

Harald first formed an alliance with Earl Tostig, the disaffected brother of the English king who had succeeded Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson. Then Harald sailed for England and seized the town of York as a base for his operations against Harold Godwinson. The Viking and English armies clashed at the battle of Stamford Bridge, where Harald was killed.

Above: Norman cavalrymen from the Bayuex Tapestry, celebrating the Norman invasion of England, 1066. The Norsemen all still wore the traditional Viking dress, and Harold Hardraada would have been similarly clad in his adventures across the known world.

The damage he inflicted upon Harold Godwinson's army was however such that it was unable to ward off the invasion by William of Normandy at Hastings a few days later. Harold Godwinson was killed and William became William the Conqueror - a Norman Viking descendant became king of England.

The death of Harald Hardraada at Stamford Bridge marked the final disappearance of the true adventurer Scandinavian spirit: after him there would be no more Vikings and their raids.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 26: Flamboyance and Ferment - France - Part I

The history of France is bathed in blood. Millions of White Frenchmen have been slaughtered in what seems like an endless array of wars, military adventures and natural disasters.

The story of this powerful European nation reads like a roller coaster ride and shows how a civilization can survive even the most dramatic vicissitudes of destiny, if it keeps its population homogeneous. The ability of France to survive centuries of dramatic events is proof that the "environmental" theory of the rise and fall of civilizations is false. If a nation can survive what the French have endured, then no social "environmental" change can destroy them.


THE FRANKS - CLOVIS I INTRODUCES CHRISTIANITY

Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the region now known as France was occupied by a Germanic tribe called the Franks. Originally a pagan tribe, the fate of Western Civilization was changed when the Frankish king, Clovis I, converted to Christianity in 496 AD. Clovis invaded the Visigoth Empire in 507 AD, causing them to abandon that part of France they had occupied after the fall of Rome and retreat to Spain.

Clovis I died in 511, and his successor expanded the Frankish kingdom to include the Burgundinians (who held the only piece of modern day France not then held by the Franks), Belgium and crossed the Rhine into Germany itself.

The founder of the Frankish Empire,
Clovis 1, rose to prominence in 481
AD. His most significant deed was
his conversion to Christianity in 496
AD - without this conversion it is
doubtful that Christianity would ever
have taken hold on the European
mainland. He initiated the practice
of converting White pagans by the
sword when he invaded the Visigoth
Empire in 507 AD, causing them to
flee south into Spain.

The principal deficiency in Clovis' political legacy was the practice of dividing the Frankish kingdom up amongst all the sons of the kings: soon infighting over inheritance and territory size became the order of the day and the Frankish empire was weakened as a result. The division amongst the Franks was finally put to an end by the Lord of Paris, one Charles Martel, ("Charles the Hammer") who by force of arms and will power became sole leader of the Franks - just in time to ward off a new threat which surged up from the south - the Muslim invasion which expanded across from North Africa into Spain and northern France.

Charles Martel was succeeded by his son, Pepin the Short, who reigned from 741 to 768 AD. Pepin received from the Bishop of Rome sanction to be the sole ruler of France - the first of many times that the Pope would see fit to approve leaders of states in the name of the Christian God. Pepin was crowned by the English missionary, St. Boniface, acting on behalf of the Pope, in 752 AD.

The real reason for the Pope's friendliness to Pepin was that the Christian bishop felt in need of some allies, as the Germanic Lombards were by this stage pouring into Italy, threatening Rome itself. In 756 AD, the Pope's maneuvering paid off. A Frankish army attacked the Lombards (who had firmly established themselves in northern Italy and had settlements in central and southern Italy) and forced them to cede Rome and parts of central Italy directly to the Pope.

In 768, Pepin's son, Charlemagne (Charles the Great), inherited the Frankish kingdom. Taking advantage of feuding amongst the Moors in Spain, Charlemagne's first act was to create a buffer state between the Moors and France - an objective which was achieved in 778 AD.


CHARLEMAGNE AND THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE SAXONS

After fighting off the non-White Muslim invaders to the south, Charlemagne then proceeded to launch a bloody war of extermination against the Saxon and other pagan German tribes under his control. The full story of this process - which saw the last paganism on the western part of the continent of Europe exterminated - has already been recounted in chapter 17 of this book which deals with Christianity. Suffice to say here that after killing thousands of pagans, Charlemagne managed to create a virtually uniform Christian kingdom - even if many of his subjects only paid lip service to the new religion.

The Palatine Chapel of
Charlemagne, Aachen, 792 AD.
The city of Aachen - known in
France as Aix-La-Chapelle -
would be the center of centuries
of conflict between the Germans
and French, lying as it does in the
long disputed region of Alsace
Lorraine.

In this way Charlemagne built up an empire which consisted of much of today's modern France and Germany, establishing as his court the centrally located city Aix-La-Chapelle, or Aachen, as it was known in Germany.


CHARLEMAGNE INVADES LOMBARDY - CROWNED "HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR" IN 800 AD

After expanding Christianity amongst the western Germans in a violent manner, Charlemagne turned his attention to the troublesome Germans in Italy - the Lombards. Charlemagne invaded the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy in 774, and proceeded to swiftly defeat their army. He then proclaimed himself king of the Lombards for good measure.

Charlemagne's exploits in re-uniting what had been almost all of the lands of the old western Roman Empire (with the exception of Britain and Muslim occupied Spain), was celebrated by the Frankish king being crowned emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire" on 25 December 800, in Rome by the Pope himself. The use of the title of "Holy Roman Emperor" was an attempt by Christianity to ally itself with the past glory of Rome.

In reality what had happened was that the White Germanic tribes had managed to restore order out of the chaos left behind by the collapse of the multi-racial Roman state.

The occupation of Austria, much of Germany and northern Italy by the Franks did not introduce any major changes to the racial composition of these territories - they were all of the same Germanic stock, but the wholesale slaughter of those Whites who were not Christians, or refused to become Christians, unquestionably had an impact upon White numbers and quality in these regions.

This was particularly the case with the leadership element of these Germanic tribes. Usually the biggest, bravest and strongest members of these tribes (the original Germanics actually voted for their chiefs), were the first to be targeted for execution by the Christian "missionaries". As such the Germanics lost entire generations of their best sorts to the Christian sword.


CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE DIVIDED - ORIGIN OF MODERN GERMANY AND FRANCE

In 814, Charlemagne died at his capital, Aix-La-Chapelle. His son, Louis the Pious, was crowned emperor but he lacked the iron will of his father to keep the Holy Roman Empire united. There was no central infrastructure and Louis soon found that he as one person could not control all the territories, and divided the empire up amongst his three sons, Charles, Lothar and Louis.

This division of land amongst the three children was the cause of the centuries long struggle between their heirs. Charles' territory became France, Louis' territory became western Germany and Lothar's territory became the disputed land of Alsace Lorraine, over which the Germans and French fought many wars - the last of which occurred 1,000 years after Charlemagne's death, in 1940.

The political divisions between the emerging French and Germans were sealed at the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which ended infighting amongst the three brothers and mapped each one's territory. This treaty gave political recognition to the cultural and linguistic division taking place with the Rhine River as the border - to the west, French was developing, while to the east, German was developing.


THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN FRANCE - ELECTION OF FIRST NON-ITALIAN POPE

The reign of Charlemagne's successor, King Louis I (crowned in 813 AD) was marked by the first Viking raids into France and the final separation of France from Germany. By 990 AD, the Franks had elected a new king- Hugh Capet, who established the Capetian dynasty, under whose direction the French state began taking shape.

In 1214, France added Normandy and Anjou to its territory by defeating the combined armies of England and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Bouvines.

This was followed shortly thereafter by occupation of the provinces of Provence and Languedoc. King Philip III, who reigned from 1270 to 1285, once more launched an attack on the Moors in Spain: the adventure ended in disaster when he was killed in battle. In the late 13th Century, Philip IV, last of the great Capetian kings, annexed Franche-Comte, Lyon, and parts of Lorraine.

In 1305, Philip managed to arrange for a French Pope, Clement V, to be elected - the first non-Italian Pope since the Church had been founded. Clement V immediately moved the papal court from Rome to Avignon in France, provoking a major split and crisis in the Church.

A scene from the Hundred Years
War - a knight cuts his opponent
clean in half with one mighty blow.
The illustration is accurate -
excavation of graves from this era
show that such a blow could easily
split a man from shoulder to thigh.

THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR - BATTLES OF CRECY AND AGINCOURT

In 1337, England and France went to war after English king Edward III issued a claim on the French throne. The war, which became known as the Hundred Years' War, lasted from 1337 to 1453. The Hundred Years War started with the English defeating a French fleet off the coast of the Netherlands, at the Battle of Sluis, and then landing in France itself. The first major land battle took place at Crecy-en-Ponthieu in 1346 - and was again won by the English, who then launched a two year long siege of Calais, which finally fell in 1348.

In 1415, the English king, Henry V, launched a new invasion of France and defeated the French at the famous Battle of Agincourt in that year, won by a new secret weapon: the longbow, which gave the English archers a vastly superior range for their weapons. With the longbow, the English were able to rain down a torrent of arrows upon the French before the latter could reply in kind.

THE BLACK DEATH KILLS A THIRD OF THE FRENCH POPULATION

In the midst of the defeats suffered at the hands of the English, France was also badly affected by the outbreak of the Black Death - the bubonic plague - in 1438, which killed an estimated one-third of France's population. The plague returned in 1361, 1362, 1369, 1372, 1382, 1388, and 1398. Children born after an outbreak were especially vulnerable in a new outbreak, which further affected the already great decline in population.


[LEFT]JOAN OF ARC AND VICTORY OVER THE ENGLISH - ONLY CALAIS REMAINS IN ENGLISH HANDS[/I]

France's revival under Charles VII (1422-1461) was begun by a peasant, Joan of Arc, whose leadership inspired the French. After presenting herself to the king as a volunteer for France, Joan personally played a major part in the lifting of the siege of Orleans. Captured by the English, Joan was burned at the stake upon the insistence of French vassals of the English. The war continued for another 20 years after Joan's death, but the French never lost the initiative and in 1453, they entered Bordeaux. The English were forced to surrender, having lost the Hundred Years' War. They surrendered all their territory in France with the exception of Calais.

Right: The statue of Joan of Arc in modern Paris: The farm girl, a mere 18 years old when she led a French army against the English in 1430, wanted to go home after the capture of Rheims, but the French monarchy refused to grant her permission to leave. All accounts of Joan have it that she was not only an inspiring leader, but also - rare amongst military leaders of her time - compassionate with captives. Two recorded incidents are that she helped a seriously wounded English soldier in the middle of one battle, and that she broke down and wept when several English soldiers were drowned in a moat while attempting to escape the French. Joan was eventually captured and, at the insistence of French vassals of the English, put on trial and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431. She was canonized as a saint in 1920, and is to this day the national heroine of France.

THE RENAISSANCE AND COLONIAL EXPANSION - AMERICA, ASIA, AFRICA

The peace which followed the end of the Hundred Years War was marked by a time of increasing prosperity and growth. Under king Francis I (1515-1547), the French Renaissance took hold, producing some of the finest works of that period.

At the same time France also started a period of colonial expansion, occupying large parts of northern America, Asia and northwest Africa. Like Portugal and Spain, these colonies were for the greatest part exploited economically, and no conscious effort was made to populate them with any large White French populations, with the only exception being the colony of Algeria and one region in North America, which later became the Canadian province of Quebec.


THE REFORMATION - ENLIGHTENED HENRY VI

The advent of the Protestant rebellion against Catholicism spread to France as well, provoking a series of Christian Wars fought between Roman Catholics and French Protestants, known as Huguenots.

Hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen, like their Christian compatriots in almost every country of Europe, started attacking each other with intemperate cruelty and bloodlust, slaying one another over mere interpretations of the Bible.

The most infamous of these Christian outrages came in 1572, when 20,000 Protestants were killed in what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

The wars ended in 1598, when the French King of the time, Henry IV, issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted freedom of religion in France. The reign of Henry IV after 1598 was for France a period of recovery from the devastation and disruption of the Wars of Religion and the beginning of renewed economic growth.

Greatly aiding the ordinary White peasantry, Henry canceled arrears in land taxes, forbade seizure of livestock or tools by creditors, made public lands available for purchase below market price, and restricted nobles' hunting rights over cultivated fields. By the close of the 17th Century's first decade, the economy was thriving and royal authority was again firmly established.


THE THIRTY YEARS WAR - EXHAUSTED FRANCE FINANCIALLY

The next French King, Louis XIII, became famous only for appointing a more famous prime minister, Armand du Plessis, also known as Cardinal de Richelieu, who became the de facto ruler of France for 18 years. Richelieu was an adept statesman, firmly entrenching the power of the king's office through the breaking down of the feudal system and the power of the regional nobility.

However, Richelieu's efforts were largely undone by the outbreak of the Thirty Years War which started in 1618 and only ended in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia. The Thirty Years War started out as a peasant revolt in Bohemia related to the Catholic/Protestant divide and spread to involve almost all European countries, fighting either on the Catholic or Protestant sides. The French took the opportunity to simultaneously try and eliminate their growing rivals, the royal house of Habsburg in Germany, an aim in which they failed.

The war financially exhausted France, and the country was teetering on economic collapse when the five year old Louis XIV inherited the throne upon his father's death in 1643.


THE SUN KING - LOUIS XIV - COMPETENT RULER

Louis XIV grew into a competent ruler who ran a tight ship of state. He engaged in many great building works, including the famous Palace of Versailles outside Paris, which can still be viewed in its original setting to this day.

However, Louis XIV once again engaged France in four different wars against the by now traditional foes, the Germans, and also in 1685, revoked the Edict of Nantes, declaring France to be a Catholic state once again. Quite apart from the thousands of Frenchmen killed in the wars, over 200,000 of some of the most educated and skilled White Frenchmen - who tended to form the majority of the Protestants - fled the country, settling in North America, South Africa and other European countries.


THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION - FRANCE INHERITS SPAIN

France became entangled in a war with a number of European states called the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714. This war started when the childless king of Spain, Charles II, willed his kingdom and its empire to France on his deathbed. Holland, Austria and the other smaller states making up the Holy Roman Empire reacted with shock, as did England - the addition of Spain to France's already significant strength would make her the most powerful country in Europe, and together these nations formed the Grand Alliance and made war on France to prevent the union of Spain and that country.

Though the decisive battles were fought in Europe, the war extended to the colonies, where the British and French settlements in North America became involved in a war which involved the Native American population, known as the French and Indian Wars.

The English Duke of Marlborough and the (originally French, but fighting for the Austrians) Prince Eugene of Savoy, beat French armies in Europe at the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706) and Malplaquet, but no knockout blow could be delivered by any of the White nations against each other, and the war dragged on inconclusively. Finally the Spanish solved the problem by electing themselves a new king, and the war ended in 1714 with the Peace of Utrecht.


SLIDE INTO REVOLUTION - LOSES COLONIES

France continued to be a powerful nation, and although engaging in the slave trade along with some other European nations, did not follow the path of Spain and especially Portugal in importing non-White slaves into France itself. Only a very small number of Black slaves were ever taken back into France, but they were so rare that they were of curiosity value only.

However, the French nobility and kings after Louis XIV became ever more despotic and mismanaged the economy, leading to a large degree of impoverishment.

The French kings also became increasingly anti-Jewish, in line with other fanatical Catholic nations, and restrictions on Jews and their activities became ever tighter. In particular the accusation was made that the Jews engaged in exploitative financial practices (their pre-eminence in the banking world fueled these allegations).

France also continued to engage in yet more European wars:

• the War of the Austrian Succession, fought from 1740 to 1748, over the right of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria to rule over Austrian lands inherited from her father; and
• the Seven Years' War, fought from 1756 to 1763, a conflict between Austria and Prussia which involved all the major European powers who took the opportunity to settle scores of their own with each other - in France's case they formed part of the colonial wars with the English in North America. At the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War by 1763, France had lost virtually all of its colonial empire in America and in India.

All of these wars further strained the French economy and when Louis XVI ascended to the throne in 1774, the country was in urgent need of economic and social reform. Louis XVI refused to attend to the problems, giving the anarchists in French society the chance to capitalize upon the growing dissent with royal rule.

Finally the involvement of a significant number of Frenchmen in the American War of Independence (the Revolutionary War as it became known in America) inspired a number of Frenchmen with the principles of the American Declaration of Independence - republicanism and democracy.


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION - LOUIS XVI BEHEADED

In 1789, a convocation of the (till then long dormant) meeting of the people of France, called the estates general, was held. Although meant to discuss the growing social and economic crises in France, the "third estate" at the meeting, who represented the large masses of common French people, ended up turning to open revolt, which included the seizure of a virtually empty prison in Paris, the Bastille.

The popular uprising resulted in the creation of a constitutional monarchy with a parliament elected indirectly by taxpaying citizens. This state lasted just over a year, but started to collapse when the King and his family were captured trying to flee France.

In the interim, the other nations of Europe, concerned that the anti-monarchical ideals would spread, declared war on France. The Prussians invaded, very nearly capturing Paris itself, while the English besieged Toulon. The Austrian Emperor responding to a personal appeal for help from his blood relation, Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, also invaded. In the west, Spain also invaded. Predictably, the military situation became critical for France.

A number of military defeats, climaxing in April 1792, caused the launching of another popular insurrection in August 1792. The Royal family was seized at the palace of Versailles (the damaged door which was broken down by an incensed mob can still be seen at that palace) and, charged with treason, Louis XVI was publicly beheaded in January 1793. His Austrian wife, Marie Antoinette, suffered the same fate in October of that year.

1793 - the King of France is beheaded in Paris on the square now known as the Place de la Concorde. His head was displayed to waiting mob after his execution. Often it was enough for a person just to have had blond hair to be accused of being a nobleman - even though this was of course not always true, the French Revolution severely reduced the number of blond haired Whites in France.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 26: Flamboyance and Ferment - France - Part II

THE REIGN OF TERROR - NORDICS TARGETED

The French Revolution soon took a sub-racial undertone - often it was enough to have blond hair to be declared a noble and be beheaded. This was taken to an extreme under a bloodthirsty period known as the "reign of terror" and led to civil and foreign wars for ten years.

During this period, revolutionary tribunals and commissions beheaded close on 17,000 people - when the numbers of Frenchmen who died in prison or who were shot out of hand is added in, the victims of the Reign of Terror totaled approximately 40,000.

Of those executed, approximately 8 percent were nobles, 6 percent were members of the clergy, 14 percent belonged to the middle class, and 70 percent were workers or peasants charged with draft dodging, desertion, hoarding, rebellion, and various other "anti-revolutionary" crimes.

One step taken by the new French Republic was the official emancipation of the French Jews, and for the first time they were allowed to participate fully in public office in France. For this reason French and European Jewry became outspoken supporters of the revolution.


ANTI-CHRISTIAN OUTBURST - CHURCHES ACCUSED OF HOARDING AND CORRUPTION

Striving to establish a "Republic of Virtue," the leaders of the revolution stressed devotion to the republic and instituted measures against corruption and hoarding - two trademarks of the Church. This led directly to the November 1793 closing of all churches in the Commune of Paris, a measure soon copied by authorities elsewhere in France. A non-Christian cult was established, known as the Cult of Reason, with its main center being the then desanctified Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE - CRUSHES ROYALIST UPRISING

With a superhuman effort, France turned the military front around - at the end of 1794 French forces overran the Austrian Netherlands, occupied the United Netherlands (which they reorganized as the Batavia Republic - later to become the Netherlands), and routed the allied Prussian - Austrian armies on the Rhine River border.

These defeats caused the collapse of the anti-French coalition and in April 1795, the Treaty of Basle saw Prussia and a number of smaller German states end hostilities. In July, Spain also withdrew from the war against the French Republic, leaving Britain, and Austria as the only large powers still formally at war with France - the Austrians still being incensed at the execution of Marie Antoinette. However, a stalemate was reached, and relative peace resulted for more than a year.

In Paris, a new constitution creating a republic had been drafted, containing strong clauses preventing the return of any monarchy. Parisian Royalists objected to these clauses and on October 1795, launched their own uprising in Paris.

The royalist uprising was crushed by troops under the command of a then little known French general, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Insurrection and chaos continued. The new constitution was battered by a succession of mostly unsuccessful coups and intrigues - finally in 1799, Bonaparte and a group of supporters seized control of the French government and re-established autocratic rule, known as the Consulate.

French infantry in action in Saxony
in 1813, from a contemporary print.
The soldier on the left is biting off
the end of a cartridge before
loading his musket.

THE NAPOLEONIC WARS - DRASTIC CONSEQUENCES

The wars unleashed as a result of the French Revolution became known as the Napoleonic Wars: they were to engulf Europe for nearly 16 years and had a number of significant consequences, the most important of which was a severe depopulation of France itself, with over a million Frenchmen being killed during the period of these wars.

The history of the wars and Napoleon's career is a staggering story of exertion and suffering - the events are reviewed in full in the next chapter.

Apart from his military campaigns, Napoleon also became famous for this codification of French Law, which to this day remains the basis for that country's legal system. Despite the Law Code guaranteeing freedom of association and political expression, it was apparent that Napoleon himself did not take the wording seriously, and in 1809, he established a French Empire, declaring himself Emperor by literally crowning himself.

Napoleon then went to war with most of the rest of Europe, and through a stunning feat of arms, managed to defeat almost everybody. His invasion of Germany and Russia in 1813, was to lead to his downfall - he was defeated at the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and France was invaded. Napoleon then abdicated and was exiled to the island of Elba. The French royalty was then restored, with the younger brother of the executed Louis XVI being made king.

The power of Napoleon's personality was revealed when he dramatically escaped from Elba, landed in France and in a triumphant march on Paris, once again raised a French army. In 1815, he re-established his empire, but a coalition of European powers defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo that same year, and he was exiled to the island of St. Helena, where he died (possibly poisoned) in 1821.

The allied victors occupied nearly two thirds of France after the Battle of Waterloo and held it for five years, imposing heavy fines upon the hapless French for having once again supported Napoleon.


RACIAL EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEONIC WARS

Although the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars did not result in the importation of any large numbers of non-Whites into France, huge numbers of White Frenchmen, both nobles and commoners, lost their lives in the period from 1789 to 1815, with the Napoleonic Wars alone resulting in the deaths of over a million White Frenchmen - a huge slice of the population at that time, possibly as much as 35 per cent of all able bodied Frenchmen of all ages. The French Revolution itself had dealt a serious blow to the Nordic element of French society, as Nordic features were associated with nobility and made immediate targets for the revolutionary mobs. This led to a denordicization of the French population which is still evident today in the relatively small number of blonds amongst the modern French population.


THE MONARCH RESTORED - FRANCHISE LIMITED TO 100,000

With the expulsion of Napoleon, the French monarchy was once again restored in the person of Louis XVIII, in terms of a new constitution which created a new parliamentary democracy - with the right to vote being limited to less than 100,000 property owners.

In 1830, Charles V, the then ruling French king, after conflicting with the elected parliament on a number of domestic issues, dissolved the parliament, reduced the number of voters and issued restrictions on the freedom of the press.

Another popular uprising took place, and after three days of heavy street fighting in Paris, the royal forces were driven from the capital, and Charles abdicated.

The parliament reconvened and called to the throne Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, head of the younger branch of the Bourbon family. Under the new rule, a period of peace and progress ensued. A School Law in 1833 required every region to set up and run a primary school for boys, free to those who could not afford to pay tuition and in 1842, a Railway Law set in motion the creation of the French national railway network. After 1849, the industrial revolution took root in France, transforming it within a few decades into one of the leading industrial states of Europe.


THE 1848 REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON III

In 1848, a number of mini-French revolutions spread across Europe as the populations became increasingly desirous of greater reforms from their monarchical rulers.

Louis Philippe consistently refused requests to extend the franchise, and a clash between troops and pro-republic demonstrators in Paris in February 1848, led to a full scale revolution which saw the king abdicate (obviously not wanting to wait until he was beheaded like the last French king caught up in a revolution) and a republic declared - the Second French Republic.

Louis Napoleon, or Napoleon III of
France. Trading upon the name of
his famous uncle, Louis Napoleon
became an elected monarch of
France after seizing power
unconstitutionally. He was a fairly
effective leader and relatively
popular - until his army was
defeated by the Prussians during
the Franco-Prussian war of 1871.
Captured by the Prussians, Louis
Napoleon was to hear from the
Germans that the French had
deposed him in his absence and
had declared the Third French
Republic.

THE SECOND REPUBLIC AND SECOND EMPIRE - NEPHEW OF BONAPARTE RULES

The Second Republic's constitution created a presidential republic with a parliament elected by universal male suffrage. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, won the presidency by an overwhelming vote.

Although the elections had produced a two thirds majority of conservatives, it appeared that the radical republicans would win the 1852 election. Louis Napoleon, posing as the savior of society from radical revolution, seized power in a coup in December 1851, restoring the empire and giving himself the title of Napoleon III (Napoleon I's son, Napoleon II, never reigned).

Initially, Napoleon III governed France as autocrat. As the economy improved, he introduced a program of reforms and by 1870, he had created a parliamentary monarchy system of government.


THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR AND THE THIRD REPUBLIC

In 1870, a crisis over the succession to the Spanish throne led to a war between France and the growing power of Prussia, which was then engaged in a program of unification of the German states.

The French troops were decimated by the far better equipped and trained Prussians, and in September 1870, Napoleon III and his largest army surrendered at Sedan.

When this news reached Paris, republicans declared the Third Republic and vowed to carry on the war. The Germans then advanced to Paris and besieged the city for four months - by January 1871, starved of food and supplies, the French capitulated.

In terms of the treaty which ended the war, France ceded to Germany the Alsace Lorraine region and undertook to pay indemnity to the Germans for damage caused during the war. The Germans also took the opportunity to crown the Prussian king, Wilhelm I, as King of Germany, in the Palace of Versailles.


CONTINUED UPHEAVAL - FIRST COMMUNIST UPRISING IN WORLD

The new French government had no sooner ended the war with Germany than it was faced with civil war. In March 1871, radical republicans - calling themselves Communists - in Paris went into open revolt and set up an independent city government, the Commune of Paris. They held the capital for two months before being crushed in a week of bloody street fighting that left more than 20,000 dead - the first Communist revolution in the world.

The last three decades of the nineteenth century were marked by a period of economic growth once again, with France rebuilding an extensive colonial empire in Africa and Asia.

In Europe however, war was once again looming, with France, Britain, and Russia united in the Triple Entente, facing the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

The world's first Communist Revolution. France's troubles did not end with the defeat of her army by the Prussians in 1871 - following the downfall of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, communists declared a 'Communistic Republic' in Paris on 28 March 1871. The French army moved to suppress the revolution and attacked Paris, but for two months the Parisians, armed with the weapons they had been issued with during the Franco-Prussian War and which they had been allowed to keep, resisted. After a series of street fights in some of the city's most well known thoroughfares, the Communists were defeated. A few stragglers however took their revenge by burning down some of the city's most famous landmarks - and they made a good job of the Tuileries Palace (the city residence of the former Kings of France, which was razed to the ground.) Here the Tuileries burns, along with other buildings in Paris, during the last hours of the world's first Communist state.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR - ONE QUARTER OF ALL YOUNG FRENCHMEN KILLED

The outbreak of the First World War saw parts of Eastern France occupied by the Germans for most of the duration of the war: at the closing stages of the conflict, the Germans penetrated to within 60 miles of Paris itself, with the city coming under barrage from the massive German artillery pieces.

However, Germany and Austria were defeated, and France regained her occupied lands and occupied pieces of Germany as part of a reparations program.

Although France emerged as a victor at the end of the war, the cost in racial terms was devastating: 1.3 million men, a quarter of all White Frenchmen between the ages of 18 and 30, had been killed.

A French national hero - Marshall
Henri Petain (left) poses with his
fellow Generals just before the
Battle of Verdun in 1916. Petain
managed to rally the French forces
in 1917 and stave off what seemed
like certain defeat by the Germans.

THE FIRST POPULATION SHIFT

By 1919, the French population had been battered by more than two centuries of major wars, and had started to go into a serious decline. The French government then started allowing French speaking Black Africans and non-White Algerians into France, mainly for use as labor, but also as army troops, in order to make up population shortfalls.

In this way the German territory of the Rhineland was occupied by Black French troops, creating much anger amongst the Germans and becoming a political issue in the latter country.

According to official French statistics, some three million North African Arabic mixed race and African Blacks, all from the French colonies, immigrated into France itself during the period 1919 to 1927. (This figure is probably an underestimation, as it does not take into account illegal immigration, which probably accounted for a least half a million more).

Although the majority of Frenchmen did not integrate with this non-White influx, a significant minority did, creating the inappropriately named "Mediterranean" look associated with the French in certain areas. This integration process did not however reach anywhere near the level of the Spanish, and was certainly nowhere near the Portuguese example.

Nonetheless, it is possible to see the traces of the large Black influx in a minority of modern Frenchmen to this day.


THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The rise of Nazi Germany during the 1930s saw a surge in support for French right wing parties espousing similar politics. In reaction to this, the Radical-Socialist, Socialist, and Communist parties formed an alliance in 1934, called the "Popular Front to Defend the Republic." By combining their votes the Popular Front managed to win a majority in the French parliament, and under the French Jewish prime minister, Leon Blum, instituted many anti-democratic policies - he outlawed and dissolved the right wing parties - ironically mirroring Adolf Hitler's dissolution of opposition parties in Germany.

The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw France beaten by the revitalized German army in only six weeks in 1940. Although a small number of Free French fought on under their dynamic leader Charles de Gaulle, French armies played only a minor role in the subsequent defeat of Germany.

One of the 92,000 dead the French
suffered during the invasion of that
country by the Germans in May 1940.
Together with the dead of the First
World War, France suffered a total
loss of some 1.6 million people in
both wars.

For a period, nearly half of France remained unoccupied by Germany and ruled itself. This area, known as Vichy France, actively co-operated with the Germans and enacted its own anti-Jewish laws and generally establishing pro-German policies. Vichy France was led by one of the most decorated French generals of the First World War, Philipe Petain (who had rallied France when it was on the point of collapse in 1917.)

Vichy France was occupied by the Germans in 1942, and the whole country remained under German occupation until 1944, when the Germans were driven out by an Allied invasion.


THE FOURTH REPUBLIC AND THE COLONIAL WARS

In 1945, the Free French leader, Charles de Gaulle, established a provisional government in France, stepping down in 1946, when a democratic constitution was established and the Fourth Republic was established.

The Fourth Republic engaged in a series of social and economic reforms, but its colonial policy ultimately led to its downfall: as the de-colonization fervor swept through the Third World after the end of the Second World War, the French government found itself fighting a number of bitter regional conflicts.

A nine year war against native guerrillas in French Indo-China (Vietnam) which cost France 92,000 dead, was ended in 1955, when the French withdrew. Algerian nationalists began a guerrilla war in 1954. In May 1958, militant army officers and White settlers, concerned that the French government was going to hand over control of the colony to the non-Whites, seized control of Algiers. The army command supported them, and the spread of the military coup to France itself seemed imminent.


THE FIFTH REPUBLIC

As chaos threatened to engulf France as well, General de Gaulle, who had been living in political retirement, was called by the French parliament to restore order, voting him full powers to govern the country for six months and to prepare a new constitution.

De Gaulle redrafted the constitution to grant the president greater powers - this constitution was approved in 1959 and the Fifth Republic was declared.

In 1960, the constitution was once again amended to allow the French colonies to be declared independent. From that time on, France began dispossessing itself of its colonies, granting independence to a number of states in Africa. De Gaulle pressed ahead with negotiations to hand Algeria over to Arab rule, a process which sparked off White riots in Algiers. Nonetheless, Algeria became independent in 1961.


CONCERN OVER NON-WHITE IMMIGRATION

In 1969, de Gaulle resigned amidst countrywide strikes and a student riot in Paris the previous year. Since then France has been ruled alternatively by Socialist or Conservative governments. Since the 1980s, an ever increasing number of non-White immigrants into France has led to the establishment of a party dedicated to clamping down on immigration, the Front National, which in the mid 1990s was polling nearly 17 per cent (or around 4.5 million votes) of the total vote cast.

left: Concern in France about the high level of non-White immigration during the last quarter of the Century saw the growth in anti-immigration movements such as the Front National, here seen demonstrating with its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Alongside: A Front National poster reading 'Immigration: Open your eyes.

FRANCE'S LESSON

So it was that France survived the most extreme natural (the plague) and man made (war) disasters, on a scale almost without comparison, and yet still managed to recuperate each time without sinking into oblivion.

The question arises: why could France withstand all these tribulations and still survive, while the Sumerians, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans all collapsed? None of these great civilizations were put under any greater environmentally caused pressure than that to which France has been subjected.

The crucial reason for the survival of France (and the crumbling into ruins of the old civilizations) was that the White French people themselves did not disappear nor become a minority in their own country, and were thus able to keep their society functioning - unlike the populations of each of the aforementioned ancient civilizations.

Only at the start of the 20th Century, and with the trend speeding up dramatically in the last quarter, has the French racial mix started to shift significantly. This process, and that of other similar cases, is discussed in a later chapter.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 27 : Destiny and Destruction - Napoleon

White history has very often been shaped by the intelligence, character, strength of will of a single individual. Examples include the first Egyptian king, Menes - Alexander the Great - Julius Caesar - Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon Bonaparte ranks with the giants of White history. His appearance on the European landscape changed not only the course of modern Western Europe but also impacted heavily upon France itself.

Napoleon Bonaparte, a Nordic racial
type, born on the island of Corsica in
the Mediterranean. Like all but the
most extreme Nordics, his hair
darkened as he got older. (Picture
detail from Baron Antonie Gros' 1796
portrait of Napoleon at the Bridge of
the Arcole, currently on display in the
Louvre, Paris.)

NAPOLEON - FRANCE'S MOST FAMOUS ITALIAN

Although regarded as the typical Frenchman, Napoleon was in fact Italian - originally Genoese to be exact. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, was a Corsican nobleman who had taken part in a Corsican uprising against the Genoans. Unable to quell the uprising, the Genoans sold the island to France only 15 months before Napoleon was born. To his last days, whenever Napoleon was angry, he would lapse into his native Corsican.

When the French took possession of the island, Carlo Buonaparte became a loyal French supporter - and the French King, Louis XV, rewarded the loyal Corsican nobility by granting them financial aid. This enabled Carlo to send his son Napoleon to a school in Autun, France, to improve his French in 1779. Later the same year, Napoleon then entered a French military school, and gained a commission as a lieutenant in the French army.

Recognized by his commanding officers as a soldier of exceptional ability, he was, by the time of the French Revolution, a general who had worked his way up through the ranks by merit.

The wars which have become known as the Napoleonic Wars were essentially a continuation of the wars resulting from the Revolution, through which the Habsburgs of Austria and other royal houses in Europe combined in an effort to overthrow the revolutionary government of France and restore the French monarchy.

In the path of Hannibal - Napoleon
crossing the Alps to do battle in
northern Italy, against the First
Coalition, 1799.

FIRST COALITION

In the War of the First Coalition, fought from 1793 to 1797, France fought against an alliance consisting of Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

In 1796, Napoleon was appointed in charge of conducting the war against Austrian forces in northern Italy. In less than a year, Napoleon had led his troops to victory over the larger Austrian army.

In 1798, Napoleon was entrusted with an expedition sent to conquer Egypt for use as a base to attack the British possession of India.

The invasion was unsuccessful, and Napoleon returned to France. (It was at this time that the French troops discovered the Rosetta Stone, which led to the Egyptian writing of hieroglyphics being deciphered). Although the Austrian and Egyptian campaigns took place before Napoleon took power in France, they are regarded as the first of the Napoleonic Wars.


SECOND COALITION - RUSSIA PULLS OUT AFTER REVERSES

A Second Coalition, consisting of Russia, Great Britain, Austria, the Kingdom of Naples, Portugal and the Ottoman Empire was formed to fight France in December 1798.

The principal fighting of the War of the Second Coalition took place in northern Italy and Switzerland during 1799. The Austrians and Russians defeated French forces in northern Italy (Napoleon was in Egypt at this time) and captured Milan (putting an end to a French inspired republic established there in 1797) and Turin.

The French fared better in Switzerland. After an initial Austrian victory in Zurich, French forces defeated a Russian army and destroyed a new Russian army sent as reinforcements. The new Russian army was forced to take refuge in the mountains of Grisons, where it was devastated by cold and starvation. This was enough for the Russians, who, complaining of a lack of Austrian co-operation, withdrew from the Second Coalition in October 1799.


THE AUSTRIAN CAMPAIGN

Upon his return to France, Napoleon drew up a new army of 40,000 men and in the year 1800, crossed the Alps and attacked the Austrians, defeating them at the Battle of Marengo in June. Simultaneously, another French army crossed the Rhine and captured the city of Munich, pushing on to capture Linz in Austria.

Faced with these catastrophic defeats, the Austrians surrendered. In terms of the January 1801 Treaty of Luneville, Austria and its German allies ceded the left bank of the Rhine River to France, recognized the Batavian (Netherlands); Helvetian (Switzerland), Cisalpine and Ligurian (Italian) Republics.


THE THIRD COALITION - BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ

The defeat of the Austrians meant that only Britain remained at war with France. After an unsuccessful expedition into the recently declared Dutch republic of Batavia in 1799, they too made peace with France with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802.

This peace was, however, only a truce. A dispute over the sovereignty of the island of Malta flared up into a new war in 1803. In 1805, Britain was joined in its new war by Austria, Russia and Sweden, into what became known as the Third Coalition.

This time, however, France attracted a number of allies - Spain and the German states of Bavaria, Wurttemberg, and Baden all formally declared themselves on France's side.

Napoleon moved against Austria first, defeating them at Ulm, marching along the Danube River and capturing Vienna itself. Russian armies reinforced the Austrians, but Napoleon crushed the combined Austro-Russian forces in the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805. Austria again capitulated, signing the Treaty of Pressburg in that same month, ceding to France territory in northern Italy and to Bavaria of territory in Austria itself. In addition, Austria recognized the Duchies of Wurttemberg and Baden as independent kingdoms.

The 'Battle of the Three Emperors' - Austerlitz, 2 December 1805. This contemporary engraving of the famous battle gives an excellent idea of the scale of the battle which saw the French under Napoleon rout a combined Austro-Russian army in a day long battle.

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

In Italy, Napoleon made his elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte, king of Naples in 1806. He made his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland (the former Batavian Republic); and on July 12, he established the Confederation of the Rhine, which eventually consisted of all the states of Germany except Austria, Prussia, Brunswick, and Hessen. The formation of the Confederation put an end to the Holy Roman Empire and brought most of Germany under Napoleon's control.


BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR - NAPOLEON LOSES HIS NAVY

Although utterly victorious on land, Napoleon's navy was crushed by the superior English navy at the October 1805 battle off Cape Trafalgar, where the English Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet, although Nelson himself was killed at the height of the battle.


ECONOMIC BLOCKADE

Deprived of the ability to launch a seaborne invasion, Napoleon then in 1806 started what became known as the Continental System, forbidding British trade with all European nations. Great Britain retaliated with the Orders of Council, which in effect prohibited neutrals from trading between the ports of any nations obeying Napoleon's decrees. British mastery of the sea made it difficult for Napoleon to enforce the Continental System and resulted eventually in the failure of his economic policy for Europe.


FOURTH COALITION

In 1806, Prussia, aroused by Napoleon's growing strength in Germany, joined in a Fourth Coalition with Great Britain, Russia, and Sweden. Napoleon crushed a Prussian army at the October 1806 Battle of Jena and followed this up by capturing Berlin itself.

Turning on the Russians, Napoleon then defeated the Russian army in the Battle of Friedland, forcing them to make peace by the Treaty of Tilsit. In terms of this treaty Russia gave up its Polish possessions and became an ally of France. Prussia was deprived of half its territory and crippled by heavy indemnity payments and severe restrictions on the size of its standing army.


THE SPANISH ULCER

By 1808, Napoleon was master of all Europe except Russia and Great Britain. However, the rise of European nationalism - which he himself had helped to generate by the creation of the states which he established through his wars - were to ultimately prove his downfall.

The first outbreak of this nationalism occurred in Spain. In 1808, after dethroning King Charles IV of Spain, Napoleon made his brother Joseph Bonaparte king of the country. The Spanish, however, rose up and drove Joseph out of Madrid. A war between the French and the Spanish then took place, known as the Peninsular War (fought from 1808 to 1814) which saw English troops land on the Iberian mainland.

The French were eventually defeated, suffering huge losses which severely dented the size of Napoleon's army in other theaters.


THE FIFTH COALITION

The British, safe from Napoleon's armies because of their mastery of the sea, organized yet another alliance against France, known as the Fifth Coalition. The first result of this coalition was a war with Austria. In July 1809 Napoleon was forced to put down an Austrian army at the battle of Wagram and settled the war with the Treaty of Vienna, in terms of which Austria lost Salzburg, part of Galicia, and a large part of its southern European territory.

Napoleon also divorced his first wife, Josephine, and married the daughter of Francis II of Austria in the vain hope of keeping Austria out of further coalitions against him.


DISASTER: THE CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA

In 1812, war again broke out between France and Russia because of the Russian refusal to enforce the Continental System. With one large army already tied down by the "Spanish ulcer," Napoleon invaded Russia with an army of 422,000 men.

The Russians were defeated at Borodino and the French army marched into Moscow on 14 September 1812, suffering frightful losses along the way - of the original army of 422,000, only 100,000 men were left to occupy Moscow.

The Russians had however burned the city, making it impossible for Napoleon's troops to establish winter quarters there. Forced to retreat in temperatures dropping to -30 degrees below zero, the French army was destroyed, with a shattered 10,000 men reaching their jumping off point at the end of the campaign.

Losing 412,000 men during the campaign for no gain whatsoever had severe consequences for not only Napoleon, but France as well. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, France had lost approximately one million men, severely diminishing the population as a whole.

Napoleon's defeat in Russia: only 10,000
out of 422,000 French soldiers survived
the campaign. Here Napoleon and his
troops retreat under freezing conditions.

DEFEAT - BATTLE OF LEIPZIG

Sensing that Napoleon had badly overplayed his hand, the Fifth Coalition drew up its forces - Russia, Prussia and Sweden then joined the Fifth Coalition.

In 1813, Prussia renewed hostilities against Napoleon, who, despite his army being weakened, managed to pull off the last military victory of his career, defeating the Prussians at the Battle of Dresden in August 1813. Here, Napoleon's last great army, scraped together from France's last reserves and consisting of some 100,000 men (a quarter of the size of his army at the beginning of the Russian campaign) defeated a combined Austrian, Prussian, and Russian force of about 150,000. The overwhelming numbers of the enemy combined with Napoleon's shrinking capacity could not hold off the inevitable - in October 1814, he was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig and forced to leave all of Germany.

In 1814, France itself was invaded, and in March of that year a combined Russian, Austrian and Prussian force took Paris. Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.


WATERLOO - WELLINGTON'S HIRED ARMY DEFEATS NAPOLEON

While the victors of the Fifth Coalition assembled at the Congress of Vienna to restore the monarchies Napoleon had overthrown, Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed in France, where, despite the defeats he had suffered and the staggering population losses his wars had caused, he was welcomed back.

Through the sheer power of his personality he raised yet another French army and marched into Belgium to do battle with the stunned British, Prussians, Russians and Austrians.

Initially, Napoleon defeated the combined allied armies at the Battle of Ligny, but was then defeated twice in succession at Quatre-Bras and then in June 1815 at the famous Battle of Waterloo. Captured, Napoleon was exiled to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic where he died in 1821, most likely as a result of poisoning.

The Battle of Waterloo, 1815. Anglo-centric histories portray the final defeat of Napoleon as an English victory. In fact approximately 20,000 of General Arthur Wellington's army of 44,000 men were German mercenaries, excluding the 70,000 strong Prussian army under Marshall Blucher, who also fought at the momentous battle.

VENERATED REBURIAL IN 1840

Napoleon's remains were exhumed and returned to France in 1840. He was reburied in the Les Invalides in Paris, a setting which must be one of the most lavish tombs in all Europe. Napoleon's tomb continues to be a major focus of adulation and is, along with other Parisian landmarks, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Paris.


NAPOLEON'S LEGACY

The legacy left by Napoleon for Europe was considerable. As a direct result of his wars the nation of the Netherlands came into existence, as well as a number of German and Italian states, as well as Switzerland.

Napoleon was not only a military genius, but also a statesman of considerable ability. In France the state administration was reorganized, the court system was simplified, and all schools were put under centralized control. French law was standardized in the Code Napoleon and six other codes, guaranteeing equality before the law and freedom of religion.

Napoleon's own personal goal for Europe was to found a single European state like the United States of America, what he called a "federation of free peoples."

In all the lands occupied by Napoleon, the Code Napoleon was established as law. Feudalism and serfdom were abolished. Each state had a constitution with universal male suffrage and a parliament containing a bill of rights. French-style administrative and judicial systems were required.

Schools were put under centralized administration, and free public schools were envisioned. Higher education was opened to all who qualified, regardless of class or religion. Every state had an academy or institute for the promotion of the arts and sciences. Incomes were provided for eminent scholars, especially scientists.

However, his greatest legacy to France was a severe depopulation and reduction in the numbers of Whites in that country due to the losses inflicted during the wars. Because of the exponential nature of 19th Century European population demographics, the loss of a million Frenchmen in their prime seriously retarded France in the world population stakes.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 28 : The Isle of Influence - England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom

Part I : Ancient Britain

Even its most vehement detractors will admit that the nation of Great Britain has been one of the foremost countries of modern Western Civilization. Its achievements are legion - at one stage its empire existed on all the continents of the world except Antarctica. Its language became the second most widely spoken language on earth (after Chinese) - its writers, poets and playwrights were the greatest the world has ever seen since the days of the Greek classics - and its history and culture has become ingrained in the traditions of many people on earth.

Britain was also directly responsible for the initial mass settlement of the North American continent that, together with immigrants from the rest of Europe, created the giant that became America. The industrial revolution, which it spearheaded, shaped the infrastructure of the current world.

Yet it is a small island, barely over half the size of France. The history of this island of kings and queens is remarkable one and worthy of an overview. Unfortunately much of English history is also filled with incessant petty squabbling and infighting.

Although this was no more so than in any other European nation in the forming, these squabbles were, just as often as not, to have international repercussions because of Britain's pre-eminent position in the world. To tell the story of Britain without becoming involved in the minutiae of (at best irrelevant, and at worst downright boring) historical detail, is a delicate art.


ANCIENT BRITAIN

Ancient Britain was originally populated with the Old European peoples - Mediterraneans and Proto-Nordic types. By 3000 BC, the Old Europeans had established farms in southern England and by 2500 BC, another early White tribe, known as the Beaker folk (because of an abundance of beakers and other vessels found in their grave sites) had made their appearance in that land.

Middle Bronze Age Europeans. Every
detail on this reconstruction of the
dress and equipment of a man and
a woman of 2,000 BC is based upon
contemporary material remains.

Then had come the Nordic Indo-European invaders, the Celts, who arrived before 2,000 BC. When the Celts overran Britain they brought iron working, iron ploughs and metal swords, horses, wheels and chariots - all these things gave them an instant superiority over the native tribes. The latter were soon overwhelmed and absorbed into the Celtic population, only retaining their original sub-racial characteristics in somewhat diluted form in the far west of the island.

Next came the Romans, who at their height stationed about 100,000 men in army units at York, Chester, Colchester and Carlisle.

Many of these Roman soldiers intermarried amongst the local Celts, but no substantial racial make-up change was achieved by this intermarriage - unlike in other parts of the Empire, where the White Romans intermarried with all manner of locals, in many cases non-Whites, precipitating the downfall of the Empire itself.

Many of the Romans then settled in Britain once their period of army service was over (usually twenty years) and formed the core of the Romanized Briton population. Along with the rest of the Empire, these Roman settlers also brought Christianity to Britain once that religion had been adopted as the official state cult by the Emperors.


UNTAMED CELTS

However, the Celts in the far north of the country - particularly a tribe of Celts called the Picts - continued to be troublesome for the Roman Britons. The Emperor Hadrian finally built a wall in 122/123 AD across northern Britain to try and keep the Picts out. This border was once moved slightly northwards, but was soon moved south again. Scotland never fell under Roman rule, and the Picts continued to be a thorn in the side of the Romans until the very end of Roman rule in Britain.


GERMAN INVASIONS

Throughout the fourth century, Roman Britain was subjected to ever increasing raids from Saxons and other pagan Germanics. In 367 AD, a possibly co-ordinated offensive by Saxons from the mainland of Europe, Scots from Scotland and Irish Celts, very nearly displaced the Romans: another Roman army had to be rushed to the island from Roman Europe. It took three years before the invasion was beaten off.

As time went on however, the Saxon and pagan Germanic raiders from northern Europe began to become an even more serious problem. After Rome was forced to withdraw the last of its formal army from Britain in 406 AD, the island lay open to further incursions.

The Roman legacy to Britain was huge. Apart from an infrastructure of roads and the basis of several great cities including York, Colchester and London, the Romans substantially improved the standards of education and learning. Most importantly, they left behind in the children born of unions between Roman soldiers and local Britons, original Roman genes which were taken up in large numbers into the population.


DANISH CONQUEST - ENGLAND NAMED AFTER GERMAN ANGLES

In 425, a Roman British aristocrat, Vortigern, became leader of the British, and took a decision which was to change the future of Britain - he formally invited into Britain a group of Germanics from Denmark, known as the Jutes, under their chief Hengist. Vortigern hoped to gain the Jutes as allies in his wars against the by then constant attacks by the Pictish Celts from across the northern border.

In return for their military aid, Vortigern told the Jutes, he would give them land in what is now Kent in southeastern England. The offer was accepted - but the Jutes brought with them a horde of their racial cousins, including the dreaded Saxons and a number of other Germanic tribes - the Angles from Denmark, some Franks, Frisians and other Germans from the Lower Rhine area. In an act of extreme irony, large numbers of Saxons were allowed to settle unmolested in Britain - Vortigern got a lot more Germans than he had bargained on.

The Danish conquest of England. Danish
Viking style ships sailing up the Humber
River. For a period of nearly 500 years
from 400 AD, waves of Germanics and
northern Europeans swept into England,
pushing the Romanized Britons into the
westernmost reaches of that country.

The long standing enmity between the Romanized Britons and the Germans, who were now in far larger numbers than Vortigern had wanted, soon flared up into open war. In 442 the first clashes took place, and ten years later Vortigern was defeated by Hengist. The Germanics then started to occupy and subjugate large areas in Britain, eventually displacing virtually all the Romanized Britons.

The Angles and Saxons gave their name to the country they had won (Angle-land, or England) and to this day the White people there are known as Anglo-Saxons, although they are of course a mixture of all the White peoples who had settled the island during the course of history before the arrival of the Angles and the Saxons.


GERMANICS FLOOD ENGLAND

For the next 500 years, sporadic waves of new Germanic settlers moved into Britain, while the original Britons were either pushed into the western reaches of the country, Cornwall and Wales ('welsch' being the name the invading Germans applied to the Romanized Britons.) Some Britons fled across the English channel to France, settling in what became known as Brittany for that reason.


ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE

Towards the end of the fifth century, Briton resistance against the Germans flared up, and it is from this time that the legends surrounding a Celtic king, later called Arthur, date.

Recent historical research points to Arthur as having been a Welshman Owain DDantgwyn, but much of the exploits of his Round Table appear to have been built up as a result of story telling, rather than any basis in historical events. Whatever resistance occurred, was however suppressed and by 600 AD, most of the former Roman Britain (that is, modern England) had been colonized by the Angles and Saxons and their Germanic cousins. The Romano-Celtic culture - which included Christianity - was driven into the far corners of the land, and eight major kingdoms had been established, along with a host of smaller principalities.

It became customary for one of these major kingdoms to be designated a supreme king, or bretwalda (or Britain Wielder) and to have primacy as leader of Britain.


DRUIDS CHALLENGED BY CHRISTIANITY

Before the Romans brought Christianity to Britain, the dominant religion had been a variant of the Celtic religions - nature worship and the existence of holy men, or druids, were the dominant characteristics. The druids had, by some accounts, less than savory practices, although the full nature of their activities have been lost in the passage of time.

With the invasion of the British Isles by the Germanic tribes, Christianity, which was the trademark of the Romanized Britons of the era, was pushed out of mainland England and corralled in the outer reaches of the land, to where the defeated Romano-Celtic peoples had been pushed - Wales, Cornwall, southern Scotland and Ireland. The Germanics brought with them their own nature worshipping religions, distant religious cousins of the original Celts.

It was only some 150 years after the last Germanic invasions, that the Christian Church dared to send any large numbers of missionaries back into Germanic occupied England. This occurred after one of the bretwaldas, King Ethelbert of the kingdom of Kent, married a Frankish Christian princess from France, and she persuaded him to allow missionaries from Rome back into Britain.

Ethelbert himself, no doubt under pressure from his wife, converted to Christianity in 597 AD and by 664 AD, the last Germanic kingdom, in Northumbria under King Oswy became Christian. By the 7th Century, the Germanic kingdoms included Northumbria, Bernicia, Deira, Lindsay, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Wessex, Sussex, and Kent.

At this stage then the lands which were later to become Britain were still formalized into three distinct units - England, Wales and Scotland, each developing their own traditions and distinctive characteristics.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 28 : The Isle of Influence - England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom

Part II - England

ALFRED THE GREAT

In 871, Alfred became king of Wessex, becoming what many regard as England's greatest king. At the time he became king, the Danes and Vikings were busy with large scale invasions of England. In 878, Alfred inflicted a severe defeat on a large army of invading Danes, forcing the invaders to accept a division of England into two parts - the kingdom of Wessex and the region known as the Danelaw (Essex, East Anglia, and Northumbria).

Alfred also created a large number of schools and did much to uplift his people. He also created the first English navy and with a re-organized army, started the conquering of the Danelaw. Alfred managed to capture the city of London from the Danes, but the final conquest of the Danes was only completed by his grandson in 991.

Right: King Alfred, King of Wessex, 871 AD. He is still regarded as one of England's greatest kings ever, managing to defeat the Danish/Viking invasions of his land, and capturing the city of London from the Scandinavians. He also instituted a large number of far reaching reforms, including some schools and the creation of the first English navy.

The conquest of the Danelaw saw the creation of the first united kingdom in England. The king of Wessex became the most powerful component state of the new kingdom, whose king ruled with the assistance of the witenagemot, a council of princes and nobles.


THE END OF ANGLO-SAXON RULE

After conquering the Danes, a special tax, called the Danegeld was introduced as a punishment on the now defeated Danish invaders by one of the new kings named Ethelred II - who also came up with the idea of trying to kill all the Danes who had not assimilated into the Anglo-Saxon tribes.

This policy provoked a furious response, and Ethelred was caught completely off guard by a renewed Danish invasion. Driven from the throne by the Danish king Sweyn I (who responded to appeals of help from Danes in England), Ethelred was given the name "Ethelred the Unready" as a result.

Although he was unready, Ethelred was however lucky - driven from the throne in 1014 by Sweyn's invasion, he returned a few months later when the Danish king died. When Ethelred died in 1016, his son, Edmund Ironside, was defeated by Sweyn's son, Canute II, and all of England came under Danish rule in a combined kingdom consisting of Denmark, England and Norway.

Canute's sons were however unpopular rulers. Eventually another of Ethelred's sons, Edward, was called by the princes in England from his exile in Normandy and peacefully retook the crown.


WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR - DRAMATIC SHIFT IN ENGLISH HISTORY

Edward however died heirless. The witenagemot chose Harold, Earl of Wessex, as the new king, although his only claim to the throne was his availability. Other claimants were the last Viking King Harold Hardraada (the Hard Ruler) of Norway, and Duke William of Normandy.

Harold Hardraada invaded but was defeated and killed by Harold of Essex at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in September 1066. Harold of Essex marched south to meet the Norman invasion in Kent, and was defeated by William at the Battle of Hastings in October that same year. William, called the Conqueror as a result, established a new kingdom in England, being crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas day, 1066.

The invasion of England by the Normans marked a dramatic shift in English history: from then on the focus of English society switched from Scandinavia to France, and relations with the French became the dominant theme of English history for the next 600 years.

The Normans invade England in their Viking longboats, 1066. From the Bayeux Tapestry, France. Originally Vikings ('Norse-men' which then became 'Norman') who had settled in France (in 'Normandy'), under their leader, the 7th Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, they invaded England, linking that country to France.

The history of England from the time of the Norman invasion till the final union with Scotland in 1707, which created the "United Kingdom", was one of gradual technological and cultural development, combined with a series of foreign and domestic wars, with the only major population shifts being between the mainland of France and England. Never again would England be the subject of an invasion on the scale of the Danes or Angles and Saxons, at least not until the 20th Century, but then in a different form.

Right: William of Normandy in action at the Battle of Hastings, 1066. William was a direct descendant of Rollo the Viking, who settled in France at the invitation of the French in an attempt to stave off further Viking attacks. Due to a series of family links, William ended up being a claimant for the English throne when the reigning English King Edward, died heiress. Leading a Norman, French speaking, army across the English channel, he landed in southeast England and at the battle of Hastings, defeated the English claimant to the throne, Harold of Essex. In this way a Viking descendant became King of England. The depiction of the battle scene follows the accurate detail of the Normans having long shields, as opposed to the round ones the Britons carried.


PROGRESSIVE NORMAN RULE

The first undertaking of the new Norman ruler, William, was to institute a survey of England: this produced the famous Domesday Book which was a full account of all property and wealth in England at the beginning of the 11th Century, a document which has proven invaluable for the study of English history.

The occupation of England by the Normans created a joint kingdom of Normandy and England: a situation which would last until the Hundred Years War between France and England, at the end of which England lost virtually all of its territories on the continent.


THE FIRST CIVIL WAR - IRELAND INVADED

The first of three major English civil wars broke out in 1135 over secession to the English throne: this war lasted until 1154, when the first king from one of leading royal families, the Plantagenets - Henry, who took the throne and crushed all dissenters, including the leading Christian churchman in England, Thomas O Becket (the Archbishop of Canterbury) who was murdered in 1170.

It was during Henry Plantagenet's reign that Ireland was first occupied by the English. This conquest was to extend over the entire island in 1603, opening a festering political sore which has plagued the English right into the 20th Century.

In addition to Ireland, English control over parts of France was extended. Henry was succeeded by his son, the famous Richard Lionheart, who won renown for spending most of his time outside of England fighting foreign wars, including undertaking an important crusade.

In 1189, the first anti-Jewish riot took place in London, which soon spread to York, where 150 Jews were killed by a mob after they took refuge in a local building, Clifford's Tower, the ruins of which still stand to the present day.


ROBIN HOOD - CHARMING ENGLISH MYTH

It was during one of the absences of Richard that the events surrounding Robin Hood took place. Robin Hood himself did not exist, and although the stories around him are for the largest part made up, it is true that in some areas, bands of criminals combined with political dissenters did engage in a period of localized rebellion in central England against despotic rule which took place in Richard's absence.


THE MAGNA CARTA - FIRST ATTEMPT AT EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW

Richard was succeeded by his brother John, who promptly lost Normandy to the French in 1204 and who, against his will, gained renown for signing the Magna Carta in 1215, a decree whereby the monarchs of England undertook to be subject to English laws, equal to all citizens of the realm. John, who was known as John the Bad, only signed the Magna Carta under duress - he knew full well that the English nobles of the time would have overthrown him had he not given his assent to the provisions of the decree. Amongst other things, the Magna Carta also guaranteed an accused person the right to a trial - a new concept at that time.

The nobles then created what was at first an informal committee to ensure that the king did not go back on his word and to ensure that the decree was enforced. This committee later became the progenitor of the House of Lords and Parliament itself in Britain.


CULTURAL GROWTH

The 13th Century saw England prospering. Agriculture and trade increased, with London expanding in size, soon to become the largest city in Europe. The advances in society were reflected in the establishment of the great university colleges at Oxford and then later at Cambridge. The total English population increased from an estimated 1.5 million to about 3 million at this time.

However, the infighting so characteristic of all the early European countries also plagued England - a short civil war in 1264 saw the English king expelled, only to return after a year.

Anti-Jewish sentiment also grew: finally in 1290, all the Jews of England were expelled from the country, accused of exploitative financial practices related to their dominance of the banking business.


THE FIRST ENGLISH PARLIAMENT

A new king, Edward I, established the first English parliament in 1295, largely as a result of the 1264-1265 civil war. This parliament was essentially the old king's council expanded to include a number of barons, bishops, abbots, and representatives of counties and towns.


WALES CONQUERED

Edward also conquered northwest Wales, adding this region to the English realm. After adopting the superior Welsh longbow as a weapon in the English army, Edward tried to pacify the Welsh by naming his son, the crown prince, as the Prince of Wales, a title which has persisted to the present day.

Although Edward tried to conquer Scotland as well, the wily men of the north put up stiff resistance: Edward's son, Edward II, finally gave up campaigning in the north after the 1314 Battle of Bannockburn, when the Scottish king Robert the Bruce decisively defeated an English army.


THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR

In 1337, the English king Edward III initiated the Hundred Year's War with France over the long running issue of English territory in France and the English monarch's claim to the royal throne in France.

Initially the English achieved victories at the battles of Crecy in 1346 and Potiers in 1356, where they used their secret weapon, the Welsh longbow, to devastating effect. By 1396, however, the French had retaken virtually all of the territory they had lost.

Above left: The secret weapon which enabled England to win at least two important battles with France - the longbow. Developed in Wales, the longbow was capable of firing an arrow over a much greater distance than conventional bows. This illustration above purports to be that of the Battle of Crecy in 1346, where the English defeated the French with the use of the Longbow. English longbow archers on the right, face the French crossbow archers on the left. About 5,000 English longbow men took part in the battle of Crecy - a good bowman could fire seven arrows per minute. This meant that the French were showered with 35,000 arrows per minute, cutting down men, horses and traveling with enough velocity to pierce all but the heaviest armor. Contemporary accounts have it that 'arrow flights darkened the sky' and this must have been very close to the truth. Only with the rise of firearms was the longbow finally made obsolescent. Above right: An accurate depiction of the receiving end of the longbow - this illustration of French ranks at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, shows the slaughter inflicted upon the hapless French knights, long before they could close to combat.

In the midst of the war, the bubonic plague struck England in 1349, killing off as much as a third of the entire population.

The Hundred Years War then dragged on: the English king Henry V won a famous victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, again using the longbow to rain down arrows upon the French, decimating their ranks before actual hand combat could be joined. The war nearly ended with English victory by the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, but the French, inspired by the sacrifices of Joan of Arc, fought back and finally cornered the last English army in Calais.


THE WARS OF THE ROSES

The desperate military situation and growing discontent with the inability of the youthful new king, Henry VI, to rule effectively, led directly to the largest and most devastating English Civil War of all: the War of the Roses which ran from 1455 to 1485.

The Wars of the Roses were fought between two branches of the royal family, the Lancastrians and the Yorkists. Finally, after the powerful Earl of Warwick switched sides, the Lancastrians won, and Henry VI was re-installed as king after a period in exile.

The Yorkists however staged a comeback, and overthrew Henry VI, replacing him with their own man - who in turn was deposed by Henry Tudor, asserting a weak Lancastrian claim, finally ending the Wars of the Roses at a battle known as Bosworth Field in 1485. Henry Tudor, as Henry VII, started the Tudor dynasty, whose best known member was Henry VIII.


THE WIVES OF HENRY VIII AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH

Henry VIII is most often remembered for his wives and the break with the Catholic Church - the two were directly related. His first wife, the Spanish Catherine of Aragon, daughter of the famous Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, bore him six children, only one of whom, Mary, survived infancy.

Henry decided to divorce Catherine, and marry a young lady in waiting to the queen, Anne Boleyn. When the Catholic Church refused to grant him a divorce, Henry simply abolished the power of the Catholic Church and set up the Anglican church, with himself as spiritual head. Although regarded as a Protestant church, the establishment of the Anglican church actually had nothing to do with Protestantism and everything to do with Henry's desire to get divorced.

Henry then married Anne Boleyn in 1533, but she bore him another daughter, Elizabeth. Enraged, the King had Anne beheaded for alleged adultery, and then married Jane Seymour, who died giving birth to Edward, his only surviving son. Three later wives, one of whom he divorced and another of whom was beheaded, had no children.

Henry VIII (1491-1547). The refusal
by the Pope to grant Henry a divorce
led to Henry breaking with the
Catholic Church and starting what
became the Church of England. Henry
married six times in all, in an attempt
to produce a male heir. His only son,
Edward, died at the age of 16. The
daughter of his first marriage, Mary,
later became Queen.

BLOODY MARY : THE CATHOLICS COME BACK

Henry VIII was succeeded by his son Edward VI, but when the new king died at the age of 16, Henry's half-sister, Mary I, the daughter of the Spanish Catholic Queen Catherine of Aragon, inherited the throne through the rules of succession.

A fervent Catholic, Mary I restored the Roman Catholic church in England, violently suppressing the Anglicans, ordering 300 leading members of that church burned at the stake. Mary's marriage to her cousin, Philip II of Spain, was interpreted by the French as an attempt to create an alliance against France, and war broke out - the French quickly captured the last English outpost on the continent, Calais.

Mary's bloodthirsty revenge upon the Anglicans earned her the title of Bloody Mary - her death in 1558 was greeted with acclaim in England. Her half sister, Elizabeth I, ascended to the throne, although Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, was regarded by the Catholics as the only legitimate monarch as she was the product of the only (Catholic viewed) legal marriage of her father.

A Spanish plot against Elizabeth's life was uncovered, which included putting Mary Stuart on the throne once Elizabeth had been killed. This resulted in Mary Stuart being executed in 1587, leaving behind a son, James. Despite never being made Queen of England, Mary is still remembered in the English speaking word through the rhyme "Mary, Mary quite contrary. . ."


THE ELIZABETHAN AGE - ENGLISH ASCENDANCY

The age of Elizabeth I was marked by the ascendancy of England. She re-established Anglicanism and dominated the Scots by assisting the Protestant and pro-English faction in Scotland. She also assisted the Protestant rebels in the Spanish Netherlands. This led to war with Spain, and the famous attempted invasion of England by a combined French and Spanish fleet known as the Spanish Armada.


THE SPANISH ARMADA DEFEATED

In 1588, the English navy, under the able command of Sir Francis Drake, decisively defeated the Spanish fleet in the English channel.

The Spanish strategy was to have the Spanish fleet join a large Spanish army in the Netherlands and land this force on the coast of England. The first part of the plan went awry when the Protestant Dutch - who were fighting a war of independence against the Spanish - blocked the rendezvous of the two Spanish forces by blockading the ports of Holland.

The Spanish fleet was then set upon by the far better trained English navy which benefited from better designed battleships. After three days of battle, the English dispersed the Spanish Armada by launching flaming drone ships into the center of the Spanish fleet. The Spanish fleet broke up in confusion, and the swifter English ships were able to piecemeal utterly destroy the invasion fleet.

William Shakespeare, the Nordic
genius of the written word, was
born in England in 1564 and died
in 1616 - and is still an icon of the
theatrical and literary world.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - WORLD'S FOREMOST PLAYWRIGHT

Elizabeth I's age was also the time of the greatest playwright and writer the world has ever seen. William Shakespeare's works were written and first performed during this Golden Age, never to be bettered by any playwright or poet since. Shakespeare's works remain to the present day some of the most widely read and studied literature in the world, and his works are certainly the most translated plays in history.


THE AGE OF EXPLORATION

Elizabeth I also presided over England's rise to glory abroad and the start of a massive colonization drive which would not only create wealth in Britain, but would ultimately lead to the establishment of the United States of America.

The exploits of the voyages of discovery - explorers who discovered and mapped virtually the entire globe - are detailed in a later chapter.

Elizabeth 1, Queen of England, who
ordered the deportation of all Blacks
from London in 1601, after objecting
to the presence of approximately
20,000 Black slaves in the capital city.
This single act ensured that Britain
had no large scale Black presence
until the late 20th Century.

BLACKS IMPORTED - AND EXPELLED

The expansion into new territory also opened the slave trade: in 1555, the first Black slaves were imported into England itself, with the towns of Liverpool and Bristol becoming the major English slave trading ports. By 1601, there were officially 20,000 Blacks in London - too many for Queen Elizabeth 1, who ordered every single last one expelled from England back to the colonies in that year. This single act - a remarkable but little known incident - meant that there was never again a significant Black presence in England until the late 20th Century.


ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND

Elizabeth I was succeeded by James I, the son of Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Stuart, also known as Mary Queen of Scots. This act saw England and Scotland retaining separate Parliaments although agreeing to have one monarch.

This system was subjected to stresses throughout its life time due to religious disputes between Catholics and Protestants. The reign of James I in particular was marked by an increase in the Catholic/Anglican conflict in England, with extreme Protestants wanting to distance the country still further from Catholicism.

James 1, the only son of Mary
Queen of Scots, was proclaimed
King of Scotland as James VI in
1567, at the age of one. In 1603
he ascended to the English
throne, thereby uniting the
crowns of the two countries and
establishing the country today
known as the United Kingdom.

GUY FAWKES AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

Both Catholics and Anglicans used violence against each other. In 1605, a Catholic plot to blow up the English (Anglican dominated) Parliament with a massive gunpowder bomb at the Hall of Westminster in London, was foiled at the last moment when one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was arrested as he was setting the charges.

The Gunpowder Plot - which saw Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators tortured and hanged - is still celebrated in many countries as Guy Fawkes or Fireworks night, although the meaning of the fireworks and the bonfire is lost on most.


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE ENGLISH REPUBLIC - CHARLES BEHEADED

The growing dissent between Catholics, Anglicans and extremist Protestants, combined with the attempts by Charles I, the son of James, to rule without Parliament from 1629 to 1640, led to the next English Civil War and the English Revolution. After conflicts over laws in Parliament which aimed to limit the power of the Anglican church, Charles withdrew all his supporters from Parliament, known as the Cavaliers.

The Puritan (or extremist Protestant) remainder of Parliament, called Roundheads, then declared war on the royalist forces. In 1642 the first battle of the Great English Civil War was fought.

The Roundheads, or parliamentarians, eventually defeated the royalists after much of the country was laid waste in the resulting conflict between the two sides. The Roundhead victory was mainly due to the military ability of the Roundhead leader, Oliver Cromwell.

Charles was captured and beheaded in the main street of Whitehall in London in 1649, the only English monarch to meet such a public end. The English Parliament then declared England a "commonwealth" and abolished the monarchy.


OLIVER CROMWELL'S INFLUENCE

The dominating personality of the time of the English "commonwealth" was Oliver Cromwell. From 1649 to 1651, Cromwell acted like an imperial king himself. He conquered all of Scotland and Ireland, bringing then into the "commonwealth". England also expanded its colonial possessions, seizing the island of Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655.

After a deputation of Dutch Jews came to see him in 1655, Cromwell also ruled that Jews could be allowed back into England in 1656, the first time since their expulsion in 1290.

The death mask of Oliver Cromwell, the commoner who rose to become the head of the English state after the abolition of the monarchy in that country in 1649. He was offered the crown, but turned it down, preferring to keep England as a "commonwealth". After his death the monarchy was restored.


THE RESTORATION

After Cromwell's death the commonwealth collapsed. A period of constitutional confusion followed until Charles II, the son of the executed king, was recalled to the throne in 1660, and England once again became a monarchy.

The restoration of the monarchy saw English culture and influence expand still further. This period produced great writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Pepys, John Milton and John Bunyan.

The destruction of London in the Great Fire of 1666, gave the scientist and architect Christopher Wren the chance to rebuild many parts of that city with buildings which became known world wide, the most famous being St. Paul's cathedral.


WILLIAM OF ORANGE - INVITED TO BOLSTER PROTESTANTS

In 1688, the English king James II issued a Declaration of Indulgence, allowing Dissenters and Catholics to worship freely. The Anglican dominated Parliament, fearful of the return of Catholicism once again, invited William of Orange, a Protestant from the Netherlands and husband of the king's elder daughter, Mary, to come to help bolster the Protestant camp.

When William landed, James fled, his army having deserted to William, who was then given temporary control of the government. In 1689 the Parliament gave him and Mary the crown jointly. The ascension of William and Mary saw the position of the Protestants entrenched. War with the French and the Spanish followed, mostly in an attempt to check the territorial ambitions of the French King Louis XIV but also related to the prevention of any possibility of return to Catholic rule in England.


ISAAC NEWTON - INTELLECTUAL GIANT

Around this time one of the greatest scientists of the age was unraveling the mysteries of science. Isaac Newton, (1642-1726) became the most prestigious natural philosopher and mathematician of modern times, inventing the mathematical system known as Calculus (although a German mathematician, Leibniz, also developed the system at the same time, quite independently of Newton) and author of the laws of motion and of gravitation.

Newton's works, combined with the efforts of philosophers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and others, saw England dominate the world's stage with scientific and intellectual thought - a situation of eminence which contributed greatly to the domination of the physical world by the British.


THE UNITED KINGDOM - PROTESTANTS BOLSTER POWER

In 1707, England and Scotland were finally formally united by an Act of Union: this was done to prevent the possibility of a Scottish Catholic ever becoming king or queen, with preference being given to the closest Protestant family members: who were in Germany.

The Act of Union between the kingdoms of Scotland and England created the "United Kingdom" of Great Britain.

[Stefanus]

March of the Titans
A History Of The White Race

Chapter 28 : The Isle of Influence - England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom

Part III : SCOTLAND AND WALES

ANCIENT SCOTLAND

The region now known as Scotland was occupied by a tribe of Indo-European Celts, called the Picts, around the year 1100 BC. This tribe quickly assimilated or destroyed the original Old European inhabitants of the north of the British island - there were few in the region in the first place - and settled down to a typical rural Celtic existence. The arrival of the Romans aroused the Pictish tribes into armed warfare, and the savageness of their resistance - echoing that of their German cousins on the continent - ensured that the Romans never penetrated into Scotland for any length of time.

The Romans finally built a wall across England, Hadrian's Wall, in 122/123 AD, in an attempt to keep the Picts out of southern England.


THE PICTISH RAIDS - DANES INVITED FOR PROTECTION

The withdrawal of the last Roman legions after 406 AD, opened the way for waves of Pictish raiders to swoop down on the now largely Romanized Britons in the south.

These raids grew so severe that eventually the Britons invited Danish settlers into the island to help stem the Pictish tide.

The Danes brought with them a number of other Germanic tribes, and the arrival of Angles, Saxons and others finally put an end to the Pictish raids. The lands north of the old Roman border remained however independent.


THE IRISH CELTS INVADE AND FOUND SCOTLAND

Around the end of 6th Century, a wave of Irish Celts, called the Scots, invaded the territory from across the Irish Sea.

This new wave of Celts soon dominated the entire region to the point where they became synonymous with the land to which they gave their name - Scotland. The Picts were pushed to one side, although in many regions the Picts and Scots merged into one, being of virtually identical sub-racial stock.


NORTHUMBRIA - GERMANICS INVADE CIRCA 560 AD

Soon after the arrival of the Angles and the Saxons, the southern most part of the Pictish lands was overrun by the new invaders: it became the kingdom of Northumbria.

The arrival of the Germanic tribes also saw a great revival in paganism, something which drew the attention of the Christians. By 563, Irish Christian missionaries were hard at work in Northumbria, supplemented between 655 and 664 by Scottish missionaries.


THE UNIFICATION OF SCOTLAND

The kingdom of Northumbria then took the offensive against the Picts. In 685, Pictish lands north of the Firth of Forth sea inlet were invaded by a large Northumbrian army. The invaders were however dramatically defeated, leading to a weakening of the kingdom of Northumbria from which they never recovered. As a result, even larger areas of northern England were occupied by the Picts.


VIKING RAIDS - MACALPINE DRIVES OFF NORSEMEN

Pictish rule was just becoming settled in Northumbria when the next wave of Indo-European invaders arrived - Viking raids started in earnest around the end of the 8th Century, severely disrupting all of the British Isles.

In 844, Kenneth MacAlpine, a nobleman from the region of Dalriada, and a descendant of the Pictish royal family, was declared king and united the disparate tribes of the north into the first united kingdom, officially known as the Alban. With the aid of the Northumbrians, the Albans managed to bring an end to the Viking raids - in later times the rulers of England claimed Scotland on the basis of the aid their forebears had given to the Alban.

Once the Vikings had been halted, the war between the Picts (who were rapidly becoming absorbed by the Scots, both being of identical sub-racial stock) resumed: the Northumbrians were finally defeated at the Battle of Carham in 1018, and the borders of Scotland were established under the Scottish king Duncan the First.


MACBETH - THE REAL KING

Duncan I's reign, a period of disastrous wars and internal strife, was ended in 1040 with his assassination by Macbeth, steward of Ross and Moray, who then became king of Scotland. Macbeth was actually a successful king and held the throne until 1057, when he was defeated and killed by Duncan's son Malcolm Canmore.

The story of Macbeth was later taken as the basis of a play by the great English playwright, William Shakespeare, and as a result Macbeth is possibly the best known Scottish king, although not the most important one.


WAR WITH ENGLAND

The period from 1138 to 1237 was marked by a series of border conflicts with the English over the disputed region of Northumbria. These clashes went disastrously for Scotland and finally their claims on the land were renounced - thereafter followed a period of relatively friendly relations between the two nations.

In 1286, however, the Scottish king, Alexander III, died, leaving as his only heir the infant Margaret. Thirteen distant family members claimed the crown. Finally in 1292, the English King, Edward I, invaded Scotland and placed one of them, John de Baliol, on the throne.

The English intervention sparked off bitter resentment amongst the Scots: giving in to popular demand to an end to outright English control, Baliol, in 1295, formed an alliance with France, which was then at war with England, and called on the Scots to rebel. The English however easily defeated the Scots and after the Battle of Dunbar in 1296, Baliol was deposed and all of Scotland placed under English military occupation.

WILLIAM WALLACE - NATIONAL HERO OF SCOTLAND

In 1297, the Scottish nobleman William Wallace recruited a fresh Scottish army and led a new revolt against the English, defeating a major English army at the Battle of Stirling in that same year. The English struck back and in 1298, defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk.

The Scots were forced back onto guerrilla warfare against the occupying English - in 1304 Wallace was declared an outlaw by the English occupiers. He was betrayed by some fellow Scots in 1305 and handed over to the English, who executed him.

Right: William Wallace, the national hero of Scotland. This colossal bronze statue stands in the two hundred feet high Wallace Monument at Stirling, Scotland - where the great Scotsman's sword is also kept. Waging a guerrilla war against the English who had occupied Scotland, Wallace was captured and executed in 1305.


KING ROBERT THE BRUCE DEFEATS THE ENGLISH

Robert Bruce, a descendent of an early Scottish King, became leader of the Scottish resistance and was formally crowned Robert I, King of Scotland, in 1306. Despite relaunching the Scottish war for independence, Robert was defeated several times, and only saved from a final decisive defeat by the decision of a new English king, Edward II, to abandon the attempt to subjugate the Scots.

Bruce then began a guerrilla campaign against the pro-English section of the Scottish nobility and against the remaining English garrisons in Scotland. Between 1307 and 1314 several English reverses led to Bruce invading northern England itself.

The English king then personally led a punitive expedition into Scotland in 1314, but was routed at the Battle of Bannockburn that year, when the Scots inflicted one the worst defeats ever suffered by any English army in history. The conflict then continued at varying levels of intensity for more than a decade, ending only in 1328, when the Treaty of Northampton recognized Scottish independence.

Above: A statue of Scotland's deliverer, King Robert the Bruce, at Stirling. This memorial of Scotland's great king stands at Stirling Castle. The figure looks towards the battlefield of Bannockburn, scene of his greatest triumph over the English. The crossed spikes at the base of the statue symbolize the spikes used to break the English heavy cavalry charge at the battle. The English believed that they had the advantage with the presence of their heavy horse cavalry. The wily Scottish had however prepared long thick wooden spikes which they kept concealed until the last minute. As the English cavalry charge was almost upon them, the Scottish suddenly raised the spikes, and bloodily broke the English attack. The Battle of Bannockburn turned out to be one of the greatest defeats ever for any English army.

200 YEARS OF STRIFE - SCOTLAND OCCUPIED BY THE ENGLISH

This was however not to be the end of the wars with England: for more than 200 years Scotland was wracked by internal dissension over secession to the throne and several English invasions, leading to the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1333.

The English then occupied a large part of southeastern Scotland, but the outbreak of the Hundred Years War with France saw the English sufficiently distracted to allow the Scots to seize back large parts of the occupied territory, including the symbolically important city of Edinburgh.

These gains were negated by a new English invasion of 1346, which followed an alliance between the Scots and France - virtually all of southern Scotland was reoccupied by the English.

The remaining northern Scottish kingdom was wracked by further internal dissent with kings and pretenders to the crown being killed or killing their opponents in an endless circle of violent factionalism.

Finally one Scottish king, James IV, managed to subdue the infighting, and, still in alliance with France, by 1460 managed to once again drive out the English from southern Scotland.

James IV overplayed his hand - in 1513, after Henry VIII invaded France, James led an army into England. The Scots and English met at Flodden Field, where James was killed and his army routed.


MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS - LAST CATHOLIC QUEEN

The granddaughter of James IV, Mary, had as a child been sent to France, as her mother was of French royal blood. She then married the French crown prince and reigned for a short while as queen of France. Her husband however died after less than two years on the throne.

By this time the Anglican and Protestant revolution had begin to take hold in Scotland. Mary's upbringing was strictly Catholic, and her marriage to the Catholic future king of France caused considerable anxiety amongst the increasingly Protestant Scottish nobility. This was further inflamed by the Scottish Protestant leader, John Knox.

Mary, Queen of Scots. A Catholic, she
attempted to re-establish that religion
by force. Raising a Catholic army, she
met the Protestants in battle in 1561,
but was defeated. She fled to England
where she was imprisoned and later
executed by Queen Elizabeth I. Her
Protestant son was to the first
monarch of the United Kingdom.

In 1559, following a denunciation of Protestants as heretics by Mary's French mother, Knox and his followers resorted to open rebellion. Elizabeth I of England, seized the opportunity to provide aid to the rebels and in 1560, the Catholic Church was officially abolished in Scotland and replaced with a Calvinistic Protestant version.

In 1561, Mary, now formally Queen of Scotland, returned to her native land. Raising an army, she met the Protestants in battle and was defeated, being forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son, James VI. Mary was captured, but escaped and fled to England, where she was imprisoned and later executed by Elizabeth I.

James VI was raised as a Protestant and took the throne in 1587. In 1586, he had concluded a military alliance with Elizabeth I, and heartlessly refused to intercede on behalf of his mother, who was executed the following year.

On the death of Elizabeth, in March 1603, James VI inherited the crown of England as James I. Despite sharing a monarch, the two kingdoms remained separate administrative units. This arrangement was abolished by Oliver Cromwell during the period of the English Revolution, but was restored when the monarchy was restored in 1660.


SCOTLAND IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

In 1707, the Scottish Parliament voted itself out of existence, and Scotland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Some Highland Scots refused to acknowledge the union, and rebellions broke out in 1708, 1715, 1745 and 1746, all of which were suppressed.


THE SCOTTISH CONTRIBUTION - DISPROPORTIONATELY HIGH

During all this time the Scots remained almost completely racially homogeneous: they produced a disproportionately large number of the greatest men of the British scientific, cultural and intellectual revolution which put Great Britain on the road to world dominance: men such as the economist Adam Smith; the philosopher David Hume and the writers James Boswell and Robert Burns; and the author Sir Walter Scott to name a few. Scotland's textile, steel, and shipbuilding industries contributed largely to Britain's dominance during the days of the Empire, and Scottish soldiers played significant roles in almost every military campaign of the Empire.

WALES

ANCIENT WALES

The Old European Mediterranean peoples were the first inhabitants of the region of Wales, and traces of their descendants can still be seen amongst the White Welsh people of the present day.

The Indo-European Celtic invasions of Britain, during the first millennium BC, saw the Old Europeans absorbed into the new wave of Nordics, and by the time of the Romans, the two sub-racial types had virtually completely assimilated each other and were speaking the Celtic Gaelic tongue, calling themselves the Cymry.

Offa's Dike, still standing, remains a silent
testimony to the power and resources of
the Germanic Anglo-Saxon invaders of
England. Built by the Saxon King of Mercia,
Offa (759-796 AD), as a defense against
the Welsh, the dike was a fortified ditch
which ran virtually the length of that
kingdom's border with Wales.

RESISTANCE TO THE ROMANS

Many Celts fled from the Roman occupation of southern England, entering the Welsh mountains which the Romans never succeeded in subduing. Wales was then divided up into several tribal areas, including Gwynedd, Gwent, Dyved and Powys.

After the Angles and Saxons came to dominate England, one of the new Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercia, built a earthwork rampart along virtually the entire length of the Welsh border to isolate the Welsh from the rest of England. Parts of this rampart, called Offa's dyke (after the Mercian King who had it built) can still be seen today.


SUBJUGATION BY ENGLAND

In 1064, an English army under Harold Godwinson overran Wales - this English sovereignty was reinforced by William the Conqueror.

The Welsh continued however to launch occasional raids on the English - this forced the latter to establish a number of castles manned by Norman lords and their vassals, along the Welsh border, called the lords of the marches.

Of all the castles built by the English in their attempts to subdue the Welsh, Conway in North Wales was the most vital. Situated in the center of the Welsh guerrilla territory, its garrisons were on constant alert. Two English kings, Edward I and Richard II, were nearly captured there by the hardy Welshmen. Today the castle is empty, symbolic of the Welsh inclusion into Britain.

An armed Welsh rebellion in 1136, saw the English under Henry I defeated, but a renewed English invasion soon thereafter once again subdued the western reaches of Britain. Continued unrest and rebellion continued under the leadership of the Prince of North Wales, Llewellyn ap Gruffydd. This led directly to the 1276 invasion of Wales by the English king Edward I.

Llewellyn rebelled again in 1282 before his death by natural causes - his brother David ap Gruffydd carried on the struggle, but was captured in 1283 and beheaded.

In 1284, Edward I completed the conquest of Wales and, by the terms of the Statute of Rhuddlan, it became an English principality.

Right: The first Prince of Wales - the independence of Wales came to an end when Edward 1 led an army into that land. Summoning the representatives of the subdued people, the king promised them a prince who was a Welshman by birth and who could speak no other language. Then he showed them his infant son Edward, who had been born at Carnarvon. From then on, all heirs to the British throne have held the title of the Prince of Wales.


LAST REBELLION - ORIGIN OF THE "PRINCE OF WALES"

In 1301, Edward I played a master stroke - his eldest son, who had been born in Wales, was given the title of Prince of Wales, thereby satisfying to a great degree Welsh aspirations for recognition. Only one further rebellion was to take place - in 1402, under the leadership of Owen Glendower, large numbers of Welsh tried once again to attain independence. Despite several English campaigns in Wales, the revolt was not suppressed until the death of Glendower in 1416.

In 1536, Wales was formally absorbed into a union with England. The Welsh were however not keen to convert to the Puritanism of Oliver Cromwell, who had to send armed expeditions to keep the Welsh in line.

Nonetheless the Welsh remained loyal subjects, and have produced a number of famous British leaders, including the famous Liberal Party leader, David Lloyd George.