September 21, 2016 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Hans Bethe and the story of Germany
Hans Bethe if you recall who was made the second author of the famous Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper really had nothing to do with the paper.
Though later on he made a tremendous contribution to get it right what was incorrect in that paper.
Hans was born in Strasbourg, Germany when the country was actually the German Colonial Empire (1884-1918).
Those days in late 1800s most "developed" nations of Europe, Russia, Japan and even the United States considered acquisition of colonies (forcefully occupying a foreign country and subduing/ exploiting its people) a hallmark of a mighty and successful nation.
Just like owning many servants is a sign of wealth and prosperity in India.
Germany as history shows always played catch-up relative to the other European powers.
This is so because before the 1871 unification of small German states under Otto von Bismarck, Germany was unsure about its own identity in Europe.
In the 1800s and before, Central Europe where Germany was spoken comprised of more than 300 entities.
These entities ranges from small cities to large kingdoms such as the Holy Roman Empire, Hapsburg Empire, Kingdom of Bavaria, Kingdom of Prussia and so on.
Those days the French Empire of the aggressive and ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte was a constant threat to other European nations.
In fact, if Napoleon had not spread our thinly with his warring exigencies over Poland, Iberian Peninsula and eventually the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, it very well may have turned out that today's Germany would have been a part of France.
This is yet another example that so much of our present is a result of succession of historical, evolutionary and cosmology random chance events that are way beyond anyone's control.
Anyway, once under the chancellorship of Otto von Bismarck and King Wilhelm I the Germans were united and their "European Problem"solved, their imperialistic lust took off.
A nation needs resources and wealth to become powerful which was lacking in tiny Europe but abundant in Asia, Africa and Pacific which were busy fighting their own internal wars.
This was exactly the case with South Asia or the Indian subcontinent.
1881 saw the "Scramble for Africa" which was the era of New Imperialism.
Its chief perpetrators were the European powers, the United States (which itself was a colony just a century ago) and the Empire of Japan.
It was in the Berlin Conference of 1884 that the powerful nations set out formally to cut open the African pie.
For them Africa was an open-for-all territory that was ripe for exploration, trade, settlement and plunder.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Bedtime Story
Hans Bethe and the story of Germany
Hans Bethe if you recall who was made the second author of the famous Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper really had nothing to do with the paper.
Though later on he made a tremendous contribution to get it right what was incorrect in that paper.
Hans was born in Strasbourg, Germany when the country was actually the German Colonial Empire (1884-1918).
Those days in late 1800s most "developed" nations of Europe, Russia, Japan and even the United States considered acquisition of colonies (forcefully occupying a foreign country and subduing/ exploiting its people) a hallmark of a mighty and successful nation.
Just like owning many servants is a sign of wealth and prosperity in India.
Germany as history shows always played catch-up relative to the other European powers.
This is so because before the 1871 unification of small German states under Otto von Bismarck, Germany was unsure about its own identity in Europe.
In the 1800s and before, Central Europe where Germany was spoken comprised of more than 300 entities.
These entities ranges from small cities to large kingdoms such as the Holy Roman Empire, Hapsburg Empire, Kingdom of Bavaria, Kingdom of Prussia and so on.
Those days the French Empire of the aggressive and ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte was a constant threat to other European nations.
In fact, if Napoleon had not spread our thinly with his warring exigencies over Poland, Iberian Peninsula and eventually the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, it very well may have turned out that today's Germany would have been a part of France.
This is yet another example that so much of our present is a result of succession of historical, evolutionary and cosmology random chance events that are way beyond anyone's control.
Anyway, once under the chancellorship of Otto von Bismarck and King Wilhelm I the Germans were united and their "European Problem"solved, their imperialistic lust took off.
A nation needs resources and wealth to become powerful which was lacking in tiny Europe but abundant in Asia, Africa and Pacific which were busy fighting their own internal wars.
This was exactly the case with South Asia or the Indian subcontinent.
1881 saw the "Scramble for Africa" which was the era of New Imperialism.
Its chief perpetrators were the European powers, the United States (which itself was a colony just a century ago) and the Empire of Japan.
It was in the Berlin Conference of 1884 that the powerful nations set out formally to cut open the African pie.
For them Africa was an open-for-all territory that was ripe for exploration, trade, settlement and plunder.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
The Scramble for Africa began systematically and with great earnest after The Berlin Conference 1884-85
The Berlin Conference was organized by Otto von Bismarck on November 15, 1884 where head of 14 countries were invited.
United States
United Kingdom
Russian Empire
Ottoman Empire
German Empire
Austria-Hungary
Sweden-Norway
France
Belgium
Denmark
Italy
Portugal
Spain
Netherlands
The idea of the conference was to distribute the pie with minimum mutual damage and retribution as the German imperial ambitions frightened both France and British
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