West European Studies

Introduction The Black Death is an important pandemic that hit the United Kingdom in the middle ages. The pandemic entered the United Kingdom in the years 1348 and is estimated to have killed over half of the British population. The Black Death originated from Asia and spread to the European countries including the United Kingdom. It was first reported in the mid 1348 at the Port of Weymouth. By the end of 1348, the disease had reached London and within a very short time, it had spread all over...

Introduction You wait in line to buy tickets for a movie and right next to you are posters for upcoming films that will be shown next summer. One poster catches your eye a summer blockbuster with its bright colors, dark curvy lines that are reminiscent of graphic novels particular style. The line moves forward and, reminding yourself to watch it when it shows, you follow suit. You dont know that when you look at that poster, you are in fact looking at a vestige of the past, a reminder of a formerly...

The Beginnings of Suffrage Movement In the early 1900s, the womans movement had come to a standstill. Women activists had been campaigning for womens rights for over half a century, and many people in the United States already agreed that women deserved the right to vote. The activities of the National Womans Party (NWP) and the narrowed focus on suffrage came at the end of the early womens movement when many activists and supporters were trying to decide how they could re-energize the effort to...

On February 19, 1945, the United States invaded the island of Iwo Jima to capture the islands airfields. The battle was one of the fiercest battles of the Second World War. The Japanese Army was tasked to defend the island to the death. A month prior to the American invasion, the Japanese constructed bunkers, artillery positions, underground tunnels, and heavy fortifications around the island. Thousands of Japanese soldiers dug up on predefined positions, awaiting the American invasion. The American...

After the Czar abdicated in 1917, Russia was ripe for revolution. The Provisional Government failed to fulfill its promises to the people. The Russian army was on the verge of collapse. The countryside was in total chaos after the famine of 1917. Provision for the Russian army had dwindled. In urban centers, mass unemployment was a reality. In October 1917, the countrys foreign debt tripled. Kerenskys unpopularity with the Soviet councils triggered mass strikes. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the...