jgo
jgo's JournalOn This Day: Queen proclaims neutrality, but UK provides some support for the Confederacy - May 13, 1861
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May 13th – Proclamation of Neutrality
May 13, 2019
It was 158 years ago today, May 13, 1861, that Queen Victoria signed the “Proclamation of Neutrality”, which not only recognized the Confederacy’s right to oppose the United States, but also stated that it would not “interfere” in the ongoing Civil War. Though the English never officially recognized the Confederacy as a separate nation, it did, however; provide support, and in many forms.
Confederate ships often docked in English ports, where they traded their goods and were protected from the Union Navy. Several Confederate raiders were built by the British, including Ironclads that were never delivered, because there was fear of spreading the conflict to English shores. The famed raider C.S.S. Alabama, which was hunted down and sunk off the French coast by the U.S.S. Kearsarge, was crewed mainly by British sailors, and she was not the only ship to have such a complement.
War almost broke out after the Union seized two Confederate emissaries on the English ship H.M.S. Trent off the shores of Cuba. The Parliament protested, and prepared for war, but cooler heads prevailed and the anger subsided. Though the Queen signed a nice, fancy document 158 years ago, it’s frightening to think that at that time, the United States was all alone, except for support from one other country, Russia, let that seep in for a little bit.
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https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/this-day-in-history-may-13th-proclamation-of-neutrality/
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DECLARATION OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.; BY THE QUEEN A PROCLAMATION. VICTORIA R.
... And whereas hostilities have unhappily commenced between the Government of the United States of America and certain States styling themselves "the Confederate States of America."
And whereas we, being at peace with the Government of the United States, have declared our Royal determination to maintain a strict and impartial neutrality in the contest between the said contending parties:
"We, therefore, have thought fit, by and with the advice of our Privy Council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation:
And we do hereby strictly charge and command all our loving subjects to observe a strict neutrality in and during the aforesaid hostilities, and to abstain from violating or contravening either the laws and statutes of the realm in this behalf, or the law of nations in relation thereto, as they will answer to the contrary at their peril.
...
Given at our Court at the White Lodge, Richmond Park, this 13th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861, and in the 24th year of our reign.
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https://www.nytimes.com/1861/05/29/archives/declaration-of-the-british-government-by-the-queen-a-proclamation.html
(edited from Wikipedia)
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United Kingdom and the American Civil War
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland remained officially neutral throughout the American Civil War (1861–1865). It legally recognized the belligerent status of the Confederate States of America (CSA) but never recognized it as a nation and neither signed a treaty with it nor ever exchanged ambassadors.
Lancashire Cotton Famine
Over 90 percent of Confederate trade with Britain ended, causing a severe shortage of cotton by 1862. Private British blockade runners sent munitions and luxuries to Confederate ports in return for cotton and tobacco. In Manchester, the massive reduction of available American cotton caused an economic disaster referred to as the Lancashire Cotton Famine. Despite the high unemployment, some Manchester cotton workers refused out of principle to process any cotton from America, leading to direct praise from President Lincoln, whose statue in Manchester bears a plaque which quotes his appreciation for the textile workers in "helping abolish slavery". Top British officials debated offering to mediate in the first 18 months, which the Confederacy wanted but the United States strongly rejected.
[Trade with Confederacy fell over 90% ]
Large-scale trade continued between Britain and the US. The US shipped grain to Britain, and Britain sold manufactured items and munitions to the US. British trade with the Confederacy fell over 90% from the prewar period, with a small amount of cotton going to Britain and hundreds of thousands of munitions and luxury goods slipped in by numerous small blockade runners operated and funded by British private interests.
[Confederate sought military intervention by Britain and France]
The Confederate strategy for securing independence was based largely on the hope of military intervention by Britain and France. A serious diplomatic dispute erupted over the "Trent Affair" in late 1861 but was resolved peacefully after five weeks.
British intervention was likely only in co-operation with France, which had an imperialistic venture underway in Mexico. By early 1863, intervention was no longer seriously considered, as Britain turned its attention elsewhere, especially toward Russia and Greece.
In addition, at the outbreak of the American conflict, for both the United Kingdom and France the costly and controversial Crimean War (October 1853 to February 1856) was in the still-recent past, the United Kingdom had major commitments in British India in the wake of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and France had major imperial ambitions outside of the Western Hemisphere, and was considering or had already commenced military ventures in Morocco, China, Vietnam, North Africa, and Italy.
[UK supplies arms and two warships to Confederacy]
A long-term issue was the sales of arms and warships to the Confederacy. Despite vehement protests from the US, Britain did not stop the sales of its arms and its shipyard (John Laird and Sons) from building two warships for the Confederacy, including the CSS Alabama. Known as the Alabama Claims, the controversy was partially resolved peacefully after the Civil War when the US was awarded $15.5 million in arbitration by an international tribunal only for damages caused by the warships.
In the end, British involvement did not significantly affect the outcome of the war. The US diplomatic mission, headed by Minister Charles Francis Adams Sr., proved to be much more successful than the Confederate missions, which were never officially recognized by Britain.
Long-term impact
The Union victory emboldened the forces in Britain that demanded more democracy and public input into the political system. The resulting Reform Act 1867 enfranchised the urban male working class in England and Wales and weakened the upper-class landed gentry, who identified more with the Southern planters. Influential commentators included Walter Bagehot, Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and Anthony Trollope. Additionally, many British and Irish men saw service in both the Union and Confederate State Army.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_and_the_American_Civil_War
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On This Day: Govt pays farmers not to farm, destroy crops, cull animals during depression, shocking many - May 12, 1933
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377400
On This Day: Labor organizer and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez begins hunger strike - May 11, 1972
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377361
On This Day: REDUCTION of tea price does not allay colonists' hate of Tea Act - "Tea Party" follows - May 10, 1773
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377283
On This Day: FDA approves "the pill", providing greater reproductive freedom to American women - May 9, 1960
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377219
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377185
On This Day: Govt pays farmers not to farm, destroy crops, cull animals during depression, shocking many - May 12, 1933
(edited from article)
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AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ACT
As a means of bringing direct and effective help to farmers, the law sought to reduce production of the huge agricultural surpluses that depressed market prices. The AAA provided for cash benefit payments for cutting the production of seven major farm commodities. The most important of these for Oklahoma farmers were payments to cut wheat and cotton acreage and to reduce hog numbers. In addition to the higher prices that might follow reduced production, farmers who cooperated with the program and signed the required contracts received cash in the form of so-called "benefit payments." At first, money for these payments to farmers came from special taxes on food processors, and later, after that portion of the law was declared unconstitutional in 1936, from the federal treasury.
Because Oklahoma cotton farmers had already planted their crop before the AAA became law, they had to plow up a portion of the growing cotton to qualify for benefit payments. Some farmers and farm leaders strongly objected to destroying such an important and useful crop as cotton. John A. Simpson, a prominent Oklahoma farm leader and president of the National Farmers' Union, was among the severest critics of acreage and production controls. However, 87,794 Oklahoma cotton farmers signed contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and plowed under the required acres to qualify for payments that amounted to $15,792,287 in 1933.
Under the corn-hog program Oklahoma farmers received $4,058,000 in 1934 in return for reducing hog numbers. This program, which involved killing brood sows and little pigs, brought cries of protest from many critics. However, the useable meat was distributed through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. A similar cattle-purchasing program was also important to Oklahoma farmers.
Tens of millions of dollars were distributed to Oklahoma farmers who participated in AAA programs between 1933 and 1936 when a major part of the law was declared unconstitutional. Prices rose and production and market needs were in better balance. Yet, thousands of Oklahoma farmers still struggled to survive. The benefit payments did not bring much help to farmers on small acreages, and many of these families with only a few acres eventually left the farm and sought opportunities elsewhere. The AAA was important, however, because it set a pattern for making direct payments to farmers under a wide variety of programs during the remainder of the twentieth century.
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https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=AG002
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[AAA and the New Deal]
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) [signed on May 12, 1933] was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land. The money for these subsidies was generated through an exclusive tax on companies that processed farm products. The Act created a new agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, also called "AAA" (1933–1942), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies. The Agriculture Marketing Act, which established the Federal Farm Board in 1929, was seen as an important precursor to this act. The AAA, along with other New Deal programs, represented the federal government's first substantial effort to address economic welfare in the United States.
Background
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933, the United States was in the midst of the Great Depression. "Farmers faced the most severe economic situation and lowest agricultural prices since the 1890s." "Overproduction and a shrinking international market had driven down agricultural prices." Soon after his inauguration, Roosevelt called the Hundred Days Congress into session to address the crumbling economy. From this Congress came the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, to replace the Federal Farm Board. The Roosevelt Administration was tasked with decreasing agricultural surpluses. Wheat, cotton, field corn, hogs, rice, tobacco, and milk and its products were designated as basic commodities in the original legislation. Subsequent amendments in 1934 and 1935 expanded the list of basic commodities to include rye, flax, barley, grain sorghum, cattle, peanuts, sugar beets, sugar cane, and potatoes.
[Many shocked]
The juxtaposition of huge agricultural surpluses and the many deaths due to insufficient food shocked many, as well as some of the administrative decisions that happened under the Agricultural Adjustment Act. For example, in an effort to reduce agricultural surpluses, the government paid farmers to reduce crop production and to sell pregnant sows as well as young pigs. Oranges were being soaked with kerosene to prevent their consumption and corn was being burned as fuel because it was so cheap.
There were many people, however, as well as livestock in different places starving to death. Farmers slaughtered livestock because feed prices were rising, and they could not afford to feed their own animals. Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act, "plowing under" of pigs was also common to prevent them reaching a reproductive age, as well as donating pigs to the Red Cross.
In 1935, the income generated by farms was 50 percent higher than it was in 1932, which was partly due to farm programs such as the AAA.
[Tenant farmers and small farmers]
Tenant farming characterized the cotton and tobacco production in the post-Civil War South. As the agricultural economy plummeted in the early 1930s, all farmers were badly hurt but the tenant farmers and sharecroppers experienced the worst of it.
Although the Act stimulated American agriculture, it was not without its faults. For example, it disproportionately benefited large farmers and food processors, with lesser benefits to small farmers and sharecroppers. With the spread of cotton-picking machinery after 1945, there was an exodus of small farmers and croppers to the city.
Ruled unconstitutional
On January 6, 1936, the Supreme Court decided in United States v. Butler that the act was unconstitutional for levying this tax on the processors only to have it paid back to the farmers. Regulation of agriculture was deemed a state power. As such, the federal government could not force states to adopt the Agricultural Adjustment Act due to lack of jurisdiction. However, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 remedied these technical issues and the farm program continued.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Adjustment_Act
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On This Day: Labor organizer and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez begins hunger strike - May 11, 1972
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377361
On This Day: REDUCTION of tea price does not allay colonists' hate of Tea Act - "Tea Party" follows - May 10, 1773
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377283
On This Day: FDA approves "the pill", providing greater reproductive freedom to American women - May 9, 1960
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377219
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377185
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377157
On This Day: Labor organizer and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez begins hunger strike - May 11, 1972
(edited from article)
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Chavez's fast for farmworkers
Chavez started a 24-day fast on May 11, 1972, the same day the Arizona Legislature and then-representative Jack Williams passed a bill outlawing tactics that unionized farmworkers used to demand fair working conditions.
The bill prohibited collective bargaining, secondary boycotts and strikes at times of harvest, all of which were used by Chavez and were essential to his non-violent and self-sacrifice-based protesting principles.
"Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union hoped that governor Jack Williams would veto House Bill 2134. But, he didn't," Christine Marin, historian and professor emeritus of Arizona State University, wrote in an article for barriozona.
Eventually, Chavez's efforts resulted in the government granting farmworkers the right to negotiate with their employers for fair wages, benefits and protections.
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https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2022/05/14/cplc-honors-cesar-chavez-50th-anniversary-historic-phoenix-fast/9732970002/
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Phoenix-Santa Rita Hall-1962
This is the historic Santa Rita Center (also called Santa Rita Hall) building located between 10th street and place and Hadley street. It was where Arizona native Cesar Chavez started his 24-day hunger strike on May 11, 1972, to draw attention to the inhumane conditions farm workers endured in the fields. Coretta King met Chavez in the hall during his fast. For a while, the hall became the headquarters of what became the United Farm Workers of America Union. The structure was built in 1962 and is list as historical in the Phoenix Register of Historical Places.
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Places of César Chávez
While African Americans were fighting for their Civil Rights in the 1960s, César Chávez organized Latino and Filipino farm workers to do the same. Using similar tactics, including marches and boycotts, Chávez and his team brought crucial awareness to the working conditions and precarious living of the people who grow and harvest our food.
César Chávez was born March 31, 1927, on his family’s small farm outside of Yuma, Arizona. His family lost their land in the Great Depression. Chávez joined them as a migrant farm worker after completing the 8th grade. He worked on farms throughout California, experiencing the challenging working conditions.
He first worked in political organizing with Fred Ross and a Latino Civil Rights group, the Community Service Organization (CSO). Chávez helped organize voter registration drives and anti-discrimination campaigns. In the CSO, he learned organizing principles. But Chávez wanted to focus on the rights of farm workers.
Despite widespread skepticism, he resigned from CSO and founded the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers. Their first major action in 1966 was to join Filipino organizers like Larry Itliong for the Delano grape strike. The strike lasted five years, as workers demanded higher pay, safer working conditions, and the recognition of their union. This would be followed by other national actions, like the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento, California in 1966 and an international grape boycott. Chávez would go on three 25-36 day fasts to further raise awareness, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Chávez passed away in Yuma, Arizona in 1993, while visiting to support local farm workers being sued by big agriculture.
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https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/places-of-c%C3%A9sar-ch%C3%A1vez.htm
(edited from Wikipedia)
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Cesar Chavez
Cesario Estrada Chavez (ˈ1927– 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. Ideologically, his worldview combined leftist politics with Catholic social teachings.
Born in Yuma, Arizona, to a Mexican-American family, Chavez began his working life as a manual laborer before spending two years in the U.S. Navy. Relocating to California, where he married, he got involved in the Community Service Organization (CSO), through which he helped laborers register to vote. In 1959, he became the CSO's national director, a position based in Los Angeles. In 1962, he left the CSO to co-found the NFWA, based in Delano, California, through which he launched an insurance scheme, a credit union, and the El Malcriado newspaper for farmworkers. Later that decade he began organizing strikes among farmworkers, most notably the successful Delano grape strike of 1965–1970. Amid the grape strike his NFWA merged with Larry Itliong's AWOC to form the UFW in 1967. Influenced by the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, Chavez emphasized direct nonviolent tactics, including pickets and boycotts, to pressure farm owners into granting strikers' demands. He imbued his campaigns with Roman Catholic symbolism, including public processions, Masses, and fasts. He received much support from labor and leftist groups but was monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In the early 1970s, Chavez sought to expand the UFW's influence outside California by opening branches in other U.S. states. Viewing illegal immigrants as a major source of strike-breakers, he also pushed a campaign against illegal immigration into the U.S., which generated violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and caused schisms with many of the UFW's allies. Interested in co-operatives as a form of organization, he established a remote commune at Keene. His increased isolation and emphasis on unrelenting campaigning alienated many California farmworkers who had previously supported him and by 1973 the UFW had lost most of the contracts and membership it won during the late 1960s. His alliance with California Governor Jerry Brown helped ensure the passing of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, although the UFW's campaign to get its measures enshrined in California's constitution failed. Influenced by the Synanon religious organization, Chavez re-emphasized communal living and purged perceived opponents. Membership of the UFW dwindled in the 1980s, with Chavez refocusing on anti-pesticide campaigns and moving into real-estate development, generating controversy for his use of non-unionized laborers.
A controversial figure, UFW critics raised concerns about Chavez's autocratic control of the union, the purges of those he deemed disloyal, and the personality cult built around him, while farm owners considered him a communist subversive. He became an icon for organized labor and leftist groups in the U.S. His reception by Maria Elena Lucas on his October, 1981 visit to dedicate the first Farm Worker Service Center in the Midwest evidences his continuing appeal to migrant farm worker activists. Posthumously he became a "folk saint" among Mexican Americans. His birthday is a federal commemorative holiday in several U.S. states, while many places are named after him, and in 1994 he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez
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On This Day: REDUCTION of tea price does not allay colonists' hate of Tea Act - "Tea Party" follows - May 10, 1773
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377283
On This Day: FDA approves "the pill", providing greater reproductive freedom to American women - May 9, 1960
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377219
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377185
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377157
On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377104
On This Day: REDUCTION of tea price does not allay colonists' hate of Tea Act - "Tea Party" follows - May 10, 1773
(edited from Wikipedia)
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Tea Act of 1773
The [Indemnity Act of 1767] restored the tea taxes within Britain that had been repealed in 1767, and left in place the three pence Townshend duty in the colonies, equal to £1.61 today. With this new tax burden driving up the price of British tea, sales plummeted. The company continued to import tea into Great Britain, however, amassing a huge surplus of product that no one would buy. For these and other reasons, by late 1772 the East India Company, one of Britain's most important commercial institutions, was in a serious financial crisis.
The best market for the East India Company's surplus tea, so it seemed, was the American colonies, if a way could be found to make it cheaper than the smuggled Dutch tea.
The North Ministry's solution was the Tea Act, which received the assent of King George on May 10, 1773. This act restored the East India Company's full refund on the duty for importing tea into Britain, and also permitted the company, for the first time, to export tea to the colonies on its own account. This would allow the company to reduce costs by eliminating the middlemen who bought the tea at wholesale auctions in London.
In 1772, legally imported Bohea, the most common variety of tea, sold for about 3 shillings per pound, equal to £24.22 today. After the Tea Act, colonial consignees would be able to sell it for 2 shillings per pound, just under the smugglers' price of 2 shillings and 1 penny.
Realizing that the payment of the Townshend duty was politically sensitive, the company hoped to conceal the tax by making arrangements to have it paid either in London once the tea was landed in the colonies, or have the consignees quietly pay the duties after the tea was sold. This effort to hide the tax from the colonists was unsuccessful.
Resisting the Tea Act
In September and October 1773, seven ships carrying East India Company tea were sent to the colonies: four were bound for Boston, and one each for New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. In the ships were more than 2,000 chests containing nearly 600,000 pounds of tea. Americans learned the details of the Tea Act while the ships were en route, and opposition began to mount. Whigs, sometimes calling themselves Sons of Liberty, began a campaign to raise awareness and to convince or compel the consignees to resign, in the same way that stamp distributors had been forced to resign in the 1765 Stamp Act crisis.
The protest movement that culminated with the Boston Tea Party was not a dispute about high taxes. The price of legally imported tea was actually reduced by the Tea Act of 1773. Protesters were instead concerned with a variety of other issues. The familiar "no taxation without representation" argument, along with the question of the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies, remained prominent. Samuel Adams considered the British tea monopoly to be "equal to a tax" and to raise the same representation issue whether or not a tax was applied to it. Some regarded the purpose of the tax program—to make leading officials independent of colonial influence—as a dangerous infringement of colonial rights. This was especially true in Massachusetts, the only colony where the Townshend program had been fully implemented.
Colonial merchants, some of them smugglers, played a significant role in the protests. Because the Tea Act made legally imported tea cheaper, it threatened to put smugglers of Dutch tea out of business.
Legitimate tea importers who had not been named as consignees by the East India Company were also threatened with financial ruin by the Tea Act. Another major concern for merchants was that the Tea Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on the tea trade, and it was feared that this government-created monopoly might be extended in the future to include other goods.
In New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston protesters compelled the tea consignees to resign. In Charleston, the consignees had been forced to resign by early December, and the unclaimed tea was seized by customs officials. There were mass protest meetings in Philadelphia. Benjamin Rush urged his fellow countrymen to oppose the landing of the tea, because the cargo contained "the seeds of slavery". By early December, the Philadelphia consignees had resigned, and in late December the tea ship returned to England with its cargo following a confrontation with the ship's captain. The tea ship bound for New York City was delayed by bad weather; by the time it arrived, the consignees had resigned, and the ship returned to England with the tea.
Standoff in Boston
In every colony except Massachusetts, protesters were able to force the tea consignees to resign or to return the tea to England.
In Boston, however, Governor Hutchinson was determined to hold his ground. He convinced the tea consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down.
When the tea ship Dartmouth arrived in the Boston Harbor in late November, Whig leader Samuel Adams called for a mass meeting to be held at Faneuil Hall on November 29, 1773. Thousands of people arrived, so many that the meeting was moved to the larger Old South Meeting House.
British law required Dartmouth to unload and pay the duties within twenty days or customs officials could confiscate the cargo (i.e. unload it onto American soil). The mass meeting passed a resolution, introduced by Adams and based on a similar set of resolutions promulgated earlier in Philadelphia, urging the captain of Dartmouth to send the ship back without paying the import duty. Meanwhile, the meeting assigned twenty-five men to watch the ship and prevent the tea – including a number of chests from Davison, Newman and Co. of London – from being unloaded.
The colonial governor of Massachusetts, Governor Hutchinson, refused to grant permission for the Dartmouth to leave without paying the duty. Two more tea ships, Eleanor and Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor. On December 16 – the last day of Dartmouth's deadline – approximately 5,000–7,000 people out of an estimated population of 16,000 had gathered around the Old South Meeting House. After receiving a report that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams announced that "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country." According to a popular story, Adams's statement was a prearranged signal for the "tea party" to begin.
However, this claim did not appear in print until nearly a century after the event, in a biography of Adams written by his great-grandson, who apparently misinterpreted the evidence. According to eyewitness accounts, people did not leave the meeting until 10–15 minutes after Adams's alleged "signal", and Adams in fact tried to stop people from leaving because the meeting was not yet over.
Destruction of the tea
While Samuel Adams tried to reassert control of the meeting, people poured out of the Old South Meeting House to prepare to take action. In some cases, this involved donning what may have been elaborately prepared Mohawk costumes. While disguising their individual faces was imperative, because of the illegality of their protest, dressing as Mohawk warriors was a specific and symbolic choice. It showed that the Sons of Liberty identified with America, over their official status as subjects of Great Britain.
That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. The precise location of the Griffin's Wharf site of the Tea Party has been subject to prolonged uncertainty. The property damage amounted to the destruction of 92,000 pounds or 340 chests of tea, reported by the British East India Company worth £9,659 (roughly $1,700,000 in today's money).
Another tea ship intended for Boston, the William, ran aground at Cape Cod in December 1773, and its tea was taxed and sold to private parties. In March 1774, the Sons of Liberty received information that this tea was being held in a warehouse in Boston, entered the warehouse and destroyed all they could find. Some of it had already been sold to Davison, Newman and Co. and was being held in their shop. On March 7, Sons of Liberty once again dressed as Mohawks, broke into the shop, and dumped the last remaining tea into the harbor.
Reaction
Whether or not Samuel Adams helped plan the Boston Tea Party is disputed, but he immediately worked to publicize and defend it. He argued that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights.
John Adams, Samuel's second cousin and likewise a Founding Father, wrote in his diary on December 17, 1773, that the Boston Tea Party proved a historical moment in the American Revolution, writing:
This is the most magnificent Movement of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity, in this last Effort of the Patriots, that I greatly admire. The People should never rise, without doing something to be remembered—something notable And striking. This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences, and so lasting, that I cant but consider it as an Epocha in History.
In Great Britain, even those politicians considered friends of the colonies were appalled and this act united all parties there against the colonies. The Prime Minister Lord North said, "Whatever may be the consequence, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over". The British government felt this action could not remain unpunished, and responded by closing the port of Boston and putting in place other laws known as the "Intolerable Acts."
These were intended to punish Boston for the destruction of private property, restore British authority in Massachusetts, and otherwise reform colonial government in America. Although the first three, the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act and the Administration of Justice Act, applied only to Massachusetts, colonists outside that colony feared that their governments could now also be changed by legislative fiat in England. The Intolerable Acts were viewed as a violation of constitutional rights, natural rights, and colonial charters, and united many colonists throughout America.
A number of colonists were inspired by the Boston Tea Party to carry out similar acts, such as the burning of Peggy Stewart. The Boston Tea Party eventually proved to be one of the many reactions that led to the American Revolutionary War. In February 1775, Britain passed the Conciliatory Resolution, which ended taxation for any colony that satisfactorily provided for the imperial defense and the upkeep of imperial officers. The tax on tea was repealed with the Taxation of Colonies Act 1778, part of another Parliamentary attempt at conciliation that failed.
Legacy
John Adams and many other Americans considered tea drinking to be unpatriotic following the Boston Tea Party. Tea drinking declined during and after the Revolution, resulting in a shift to coffee as the preferred hot drink.
According to historian Alfred Young, the term "Boston Tea Party" did not appear in print until 1834. Before that time, the event was usually referred to as the "destruction of the tea". According to Young, American writers were for many years apparently reluctant to celebrate the destruction of property, and so the event was usually ignored in histories of the American Revolution. This began to change in the 1830s, however, especially with the publication of biographies of George Robert Twelves Hewes, one of the few still-living participants of the "tea party", as it then became known.
American activists from a variety of political viewpoints have invoked the Tea Party as a symbol of protest. In 1973, on the 200th anniversary of the Tea Party, a mass meeting at Faneuil Hall called for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon and protested oil companies in the ongoing oil crisis. Afterwards, protesters boarded a replica ship in Boston Harbor, hanged Nixon in effigy, and dumped several empty oil drums into the harbor. In 1998, two conservative US Congressmen put the federal tax code into a chest marked "tea" and dumped it into the harbor.
In 2006, a libertarian political party called the "Boston Tea Party" was founded. In 2007, the Ron Paul "Tea Party" money bomb, held on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, broke the one-day fund-raising record by raising $6.04 million in 24 hours. Subsequently, these fund-raising "Tea parties" grew into the Tea Party movement, which dominated conservative American politics for the next two years, reaching its peak with a voter victory for the Republicans in 2010 who were widely elected to seats in the United States House of Representatives.
Actual tea
The American Antiquarian Society holds in its collection a vial of actual tea-infused harbor water from 1773.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party
---------------------------------------------------------
On This Day: FDA approves "the pill", providing greater reproductive freedom to American women - May 9, 1960
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377219
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377185
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377157
On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377104
On This Day: 6 fatalities from Axis action in continental U.S. during WW2 - May 5, 1944
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377037
On This Day: FDA approves "the pill", providing greater reproductive freedom to American women - May 9, 1960
(edited from article)
"
FDA approves “the pill”
On May 9, 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the world’s first commercially produced birth-control pill—Enovid-10, made by the G.D. Searle Company of Chicago, Illinois.
Development of “the pill,” as it became popularly known, was initially commissioned by birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katherine McCormick. Sanger, who opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States in 1916, hoped to encourage the development of a more practical and effective alternative to contraceptives that were in use at the time.
In the early 1950s, Gregory Pincus, a biochemist at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, and John Rock, a gynecologist at Harvard Medical School, began work on a birth-control pill. Clinical tests of the pill, which used synthetic progesterone and estrogen to repress ovulation in women, were initiated in 1954. On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved the pill, granting greater reproductive freedom to American women.
"
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fda-approves-the-pill
(edited from article)
"
How The Approval Of The Birth Control Pill 60 Years Ago Helped Change Lives
MAY 9, 2020
Ross, now 66, said by the time she came of age around 1970, the pill was giving young women more control over their fertility than previous generations had enjoyed.
"We could talk about having sex – not without consequences, because there were still STDs ... but at the same time, with more freedom than our foremothers had," Ross said. "So it changed the world."
For Pat Fishback, now 80 and living in Richmond, Va., the newly available pill allowed her to delay having children in her early 20s until she'd been married for a couple of years.
"It also made having children a positive experience," Fishback said. "Because we had actually, emotionally and intellectually, gotten to the point where we really desired to have children."
"
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/852807455/how-the-approval-of-the-birth-control-pill-60-years-ago-helped-change-lives
(edited from article)
"
The FDA Approves the Pill
["Modern woman is at last free as a man"]
The famous journalist and playwright Clare Boothe Luce echoed the thoughts of many when she declared, "Modern woman is at last free as a man is free to dispose of her own body."
The FDA sat on the application, and months went by without any word. Safety wasn't the issue clogging up the review process. It was the revolutionary nature of the Pill itself. Oral contraceptives would be the first drugs whose purpose was not to cure a medical ailment. Instead, the Pill would be given to healthy women for long-term use for a social purpose, and the FDA was uncomfortable with the concept.
The agency was comfortable with short-term usage of Enovid for therapeutic purposes, but the reviewers were anxious about the safety of long-term usage for contraceptive purposes. Eventually, the FDA avoided the question of long-term safety by approving contraceptive usage of Enovid for no more than two years at a time.
"
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-us-food-and-drug-administration-approves-pill/
(edited from article)
"
Celebrating the first-ever Free the Pill Day
MAY 2019 | STATEMENT
On May 9, 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration first approved the birth control pill, which helped give people the freedom to determine their own life path. Nearly 60 years later, it’s past time to make the pill truly accessible. The pill is safe and effective, but one in three women who have tried to get prescription birth control have faced obstacles. We need contraceptive options that better meet ALL of our needs. That includes a birth control pill that’s available over the counter (OTC), covered by insurance, and affordable and accessible to people of all ages.
Today, as part of the first-ever Free the Pill Day, we are calling attention to the barriers too many people still face in accessing the birth control pill and demonstrating the widespread support for bringing the pill over the counter in the United States.
People know what’s best for themselves, their bodies, and their futures. Everyone should have full control over their sexual and reproductive lives, and birth control is critical to making that happen.
[Fighting for the future]
“Freedom to access, freedom to control, freedom to thrive. That’s the future we’re fighting for.”
"
https://www.ibisreproductivehealth.org/news/celebrating-first-ever-free-pill-day
---------------------------------------------------------
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377185
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377157
On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377104
On This Day: 6 fatalities from Axis action in continental U.S. during WW2 - May 5, 1944
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377037
On This Day: Tiananmen Square protests (not 1989) spur shift in Chinese history - May 4, 1919
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376997
On This Day: FDA approves "the pill", providing greater reproductive freedom to American women - May 9, 1960
(edited from article)
"
FDA approves “the pill”
On May 9, 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the world’s first commercially produced birth-control pill—Enovid-10, made by the G.D. Searle Company of Chicago, Illinois.
Development of “the pill,” as it became popularly known, was initially commissioned by birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katherine McCormick. Sanger, who opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States in 1916, hoped to encourage the development of a more practical and effective alternative to contraceptives that were in use at the time.
In the early 1950s, Gregory Pincus, a biochemist at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, and John Rock, a gynecologist at Harvard Medical School, began work on a birth-control pill. Clinical tests of the pill, which used synthetic progesterone and estrogen to repress ovulation in women, were initiated in 1954. On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved the pill, granting greater reproductive freedom to American women.
"
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fda-approves-the-pill
(edited from article)
"
How The Approval Of The Birth Control Pill 60 Years Ago Helped Change Lives
MAY 9, 2020
Ross, now 66, said by the time she came of age around 1970, the pill was giving young women more control over their fertility than previous generations had enjoyed.
"We could talk about having sex – not without consequences, because there were still STDs ... but at the same time, with more freedom than our foremothers had," Ross said. "So it changed the world."
For Pat Fishback, now 80 and living in Richmond, Va., the newly available pill allowed her to delay having children in her early 20s until she'd been married for a couple of years.
"It also made having children a positive experience," Fishback said. "Because we had actually, emotionally and intellectually, gotten to the point where we really desired to have children."
"
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/852807455/how-the-approval-of-the-birth-control-pill-60-years-ago-helped-change-lives
(edited from article)
"
The FDA Approves the Pill
["Modern woman is at last free as a man"]
The famous journalist and playwright Clare Boothe Luce echoed the thoughts of many when she declared, "Modern woman is at last free as a man is free to dispose of her own body."
The FDA sat on the application, and months went by without any word. Safety wasn't the issue clogging up the review process. It was the revolutionary nature of the Pill itself. Oral contraceptives would be the first drugs whose purpose was not to cure a medical ailment. Instead, the Pill would be given to healthy women for long-term use for a social purpose, and the FDA was uncomfortable with the concept.
The agency was comfortable with short-term usage of Enovid for therapeutic purposes, but the reviewers were anxious about the safety of long-term usage for contraceptive purposes. Eventually, the FDA avoided the question of long-term safety by approving contraceptive usage of Enovid for no more than two years at a time.
"
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-us-food-and-drug-administration-approves-pill/
(edited from article)
"
Celebrating the first-ever Free the Pill Day
MAY 2019 | STATEMENT
On May 9, 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration first approved the birth control pill, which helped give people the freedom to determine their own life path. Nearly 60 years later, it’s past time to make the pill truly accessible. The pill is safe and effective, but one in three women who have tried to get prescription birth control have faced obstacles. We need contraceptive options that better meet ALL of our needs. That includes a birth control pill that’s available over the counter (OTC), covered by insurance, and affordable and accessible to people of all ages.
Today, as part of the first-ever Free the Pill Day, we are calling attention to the barriers too many people still face in accessing the birth control pill and demonstrating the widespread support for bringing the pill over the counter in the United States.
People know what’s best for themselves, their bodies, and their futures. Everyone should have full control over their sexual and reproductive lives, and birth control is critical to making that happen.
[Fighting for the future]
“Freedom to access, freedom to control, freedom to thrive. That’s the future we’re fighting for.”
"
https://www.ibisreproductivehealth.org/news/celebrating-first-ever-free-pill-day
---------------------------------------------------------
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377185
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377157
On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377104
On This Day: 6 fatalities from Axis action in continental U.S. during WW2 - May 5, 1944
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377037
On This Day: Tiananmen Square protests (not 1989) spur shift in Chinese history - May 4, 1919
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376997
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) was a significant conflict in the Middle Ages. During the war, five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of France, which was then the dominant kingdom in Western Europe. The war had a lasting effect on European history: both sides produced innovations in military technology and tactics, including professional standing armies and artillery, that permanently changed European warfare. Stronger national identities took root in both kingdoms, which became more centralized and gradually emerged as global powers.
The war is commonly divided into three phases separated by truces: the Edwardian War (1337–1360), the Caroline War (1369–1389), and the Lancastrian War (1415–1453). Each side drew many allies into the conflict, with English forces initially prevailing; however, the French forces under the House of Valois ultimately retained control over the Kingdom of France.
Lancastrian Phase and after
Overwhelming victories at Agincourt (1415) and Verneuil (1424), as well as an alliance with the Burgundians raised the prospects of an ultimate English triumph and persuaded the English to continue the war over many decades. A variety of factors prevented this, however, [including] the emergence of Joan of Arc (which boosted French morale).
The Siege of Orléans (1429) made English aspirations for conquest all but infeasible. Despite Joan's capture by the Burgundians and her subsequent execution (1431), a series of crushing French victories concluded the siege, favoring the Valois dynasty. Notably, Patay (1429), Formigny (1450), and Castillon (1453) proved decisive in ending the war. England permanently lost most of its continental possessions, with only the Pale of Calais remaining under its control on the continent until the Siege of Calais (1558).
Joan of Arc and French revival
The appearance of Joan of Arc at the siege of Orléans sparked a revival of French spirit, and the tide began to turn against the English. The English laid siege to Orléans in 1428, but their force was insufficient to fully invest the city. In 1429 Joan persuaded the Dauphin to send her to the siege, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English. She raised the morale of the troops, and they attacked the English redoubts, forcing the English to lift the siege. Inspired by Joan, the French took several English strongholds on the Loire.
Siege of Orléans
The siege of Orléans (12 October 1428 – 8 May 1429) marked a turning point of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. The siege took place at the pinnacle of English power during the later stages of the war, but was repulsed by French forces inspired by the arrival of Joan of Arc. The French would then regain the initiative in the conflict and began to recapture territories previously occupied by the English.
The city held strategic and symbolic significance to both sides of the conflict. The consensus among contemporaries was that the English regent, John of Lancaster, would have succeeded in realising his brother the English king Henry V's dream of conquering all of France if Orléans fell. For half a year the English and their French allies appeared to be on the verge of capturing the city, but the siege collapsed nine days after Joan of Arc arrived.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (1412 -1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War. Claiming to be acting under divine guidance, she became a military leader who transcended gender roles and gained recognition as a savior of France.
[Joan and French victories]
Joan was born to a propertied peasant family at Domrémy in northeast France. In 1428, she requested to be taken to Charles, later testifying that she was guided by visions from the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine to help him save France from English domination. Convinced of her devotion and purity, Charles sent Joan, who was about seventeen years old, to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief army. She arrived at the city in April 1429, wielding her banner and bringing hope to the demoralized French army.
Nine days after her arrival, the English abandoned the siege. Joan encouraged the French to aggressively pursue the English during the Loire Campaign, which culminated in another decisive victory at Patay, opening the way for the French army to advance on Reims unopposed, where Charles was crowned as the King of France with Joan at his side. These victories boosted French morale, paving the way for their final triumph in the Hundred Years' War several decades later.
[Burned at the stake]
After Charles's coronation, Joan participated in the unsuccessful siege of Paris in September 1429 and the failed siege of La Charité in November. Her role in these defeats reduced the court's faith in her. In early 1430, Joan organized a company of volunteers to relieve Compiègne, which had been besieged by the Burgundians—French allies of the English. She was captured by Burgundian troops on 23 May. After trying unsuccessfully to escape, she was handed to the English in November. She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.
[An early feminist]
In 1456, an inquisitorial court reinvestigated Joan's trial and overturned the verdict, declaring that it was tainted by deceit and procedural errors. Joan has been revered as a martyr, and viewed as an obedient daughter of the Roman Catholic Church, an early feminist, and a symbol of freedom and independence. After the French Revolution, she became a national symbol of France. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and, two years later, was declared one of the patron saints of France. She is portrayed in numerous cultural works, including literature, music, paintings, sculptures, and theater.
Orléans
Orléans is a city in north-central France, 74 miles southwest of Paris.
It was the capital of the Kingdom of France during the Merovingian period and played an important role in the Hundred Years' War, particularly known for the role of Joan of Arc during the siege of Orléans. Every first week of May since 1432, the city pays homage to the "Maid of Orléans" during the Johannic Holidays which has been listed in the inventory of intangible cultural heritage in France.
On the south bank the "châtelet des Tourelles" ... was the site of the battle on 8 May 1429 which allowed Joan of Arc to enter and lift the siege of the Plantagenets during the Hundred Years' War, with the help of the royal generals Dunois and Florent d'Illiers. The city's inhabitants have continued to remain faithful and grateful to her to this day, calling her "la pucelle d'Orléans" (the maid of Orléans), offering her a middle-class house in the city, and contributing to her ransom when she was taken prisoner.
Legacy
The city of Orléans commemorates the lifting of the siege with an annual festival, including both modern and medieval elements and a woman representing Joan of Arc in full armor atop a horse.
On 8 May Orléans simultaneously celebrates the lifting of the siege and V-E Day (Victory in Europe, the day that Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies to end World War II in Europe.)
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Orl%C3%A9ans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orl%C3%A9ans
---------------------------------------------------------
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377157
On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377104
On This Day: 6 fatalities from Axis action in continental U.S. during WW2 - May 5, 1944
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377037
On This Day: Tiananmen Square protests (not 1989) spur shift in Chinese history - May 4, 1919
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376997
On This Day: Irregular army from U.S. conquers Nicaragua, re-institutes slavery - May 3, 1855
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376965
On This Day: Joan of Arc transcends gender roles at Orleans, gaining recognition as savior of France - May 8, 1429
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) was a significant conflict in the Middle Ages. During the war, five generations of kings from two rival dynasties fought for the throne of France, which was then the dominant kingdom in Western Europe. The war had a lasting effect on European history: both sides produced innovations in military technology and tactics, including professional standing armies and artillery, that permanently changed European warfare. Stronger national identities took root in both kingdoms, which became more centralized and gradually emerged as global powers.
The war is commonly divided into three phases separated by truces: the Edwardian War (1337–1360), the Caroline War (1369–1389), and the Lancastrian War (1415–1453). Each side drew many allies into the conflict, with English forces initially prevailing; however, the French forces under the House of Valois ultimately retained control over the Kingdom of France.
Lancastrian Phase and after
Overwhelming victories at Agincourt (1415) and Verneuil (1424), as well as an alliance with the Burgundians raised the prospects of an ultimate English triumph and persuaded the English to continue the war over many decades. A variety of factors prevented this, however, [including] the emergence of Joan of Arc (which boosted French morale).
The Siege of Orléans (1429) made English aspirations for conquest all but infeasible. Despite Joan's capture by the Burgundians and her subsequent execution (1431), a series of crushing French victories concluded the siege, favoring the Valois dynasty. Notably, Patay (1429), Formigny (1450), and Castillon (1453) proved decisive in ending the war. England permanently lost most of its continental possessions, with only the Pale of Calais remaining under its control on the continent until the Siege of Calais (1558).
Joan of Arc and French revival
The appearance of Joan of Arc at the siege of Orléans sparked a revival of French spirit, and the tide began to turn against the English. The English laid siege to Orléans in 1428, but their force was insufficient to fully invest the city. In 1429 Joan persuaded the Dauphin to send her to the siege, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English. She raised the morale of the troops, and they attacked the English redoubts, forcing the English to lift the siege. Inspired by Joan, the French took several English strongholds on the Loire.
Siege of Orléans
The siege of Orléans (12 October 1428 – 8 May 1429) marked a turning point of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. The siege took place at the pinnacle of English power during the later stages of the war, but was repulsed by French forces inspired by the arrival of Joan of Arc. The French would then regain the initiative in the conflict and began to recapture territories previously occupied by the English.
The city held strategic and symbolic significance to both sides of the conflict. The consensus among contemporaries was that the English regent, John of Lancaster, would have succeeded in realising his brother the English king Henry V's dream of conquering all of France if Orléans fell. For half a year the English and their French allies appeared to be on the verge of capturing the city, but the siege collapsed nine days after Joan of Arc arrived.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (1412 -1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War. Claiming to be acting under divine guidance, she became a military leader who transcended gender roles and gained recognition as a savior of France.
[Joan and French victories]
Joan was born to a propertied peasant family at Domrémy in northeast France. In 1428, she requested to be taken to Charles, later testifying that she was guided by visions from the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine to help him save France from English domination. Convinced of her devotion and purity, Charles sent Joan, who was about seventeen years old, to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief army. She arrived at the city in April 1429, wielding her banner and bringing hope to the demoralized French army.
Nine days after her arrival, the English abandoned the siege. Joan encouraged the French to aggressively pursue the English during the Loire Campaign, which culminated in another decisive victory at Patay, opening the way for the French army to advance on Reims unopposed, where Charles was crowned as the King of France with Joan at his side. These victories boosted French morale, paving the way for their final triumph in the Hundred Years' War several decades later.
[Burned at the stake]
After Charles's coronation, Joan participated in the unsuccessful siege of Paris in September 1429 and the failed siege of La Charité in November. Her role in these defeats reduced the court's faith in her. In early 1430, Joan organized a company of volunteers to relieve Compiègne, which had been besieged by the Burgundians—French allies of the English. She was captured by Burgundian troops on 23 May. After trying unsuccessfully to escape, she was handed to the English in November. She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.
[An early feminist]
In 1456, an inquisitorial court reinvestigated Joan's trial and overturned the verdict, declaring that it was tainted by deceit and procedural errors. Joan has been revered as a martyr, and viewed as an obedient daughter of the Roman Catholic Church, an early feminist, and a symbol of freedom and independence. After the French Revolution, she became a national symbol of France. In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church and, two years later, was declared one of the patron saints of France. She is portrayed in numerous cultural works, including literature, music, paintings, sculptures, and theater.
Orléans
Orléans is a city in north-central France, 74 miles southwest of Paris.
It was the capital of the Kingdom of France during the Merovingian period and played an important role in the Hundred Years' War, particularly known for the role of Joan of Arc during the siege of Orléans. Every first week of May since 1432, the city pays homage to the "Maid of Orléans" during the Johannic Holidays which has been listed in the inventory of intangible cultural heritage in France.
On the south bank the "châtelet des Tourelles" ... was the site of the battle on 8 May 1429 which allowed Joan of Arc to enter and lift the siege of the Plantagenets during the Hundred Years' War, with the help of the royal generals Dunois and Florent d'Illiers. The city's inhabitants have continued to remain faithful and grateful to her to this day, calling her "la pucelle d'Orléans" (the maid of Orléans), offering her a middle-class house in the city, and contributing to her ransom when she was taken prisoner.
Legacy
The city of Orléans commemorates the lifting of the siege with an annual festival, including both modern and medieval elements and a woman representing Joan of Arc in full armor atop a horse.
On 8 May Orléans simultaneously celebrates the lifting of the siege and V-E Day (Victory in Europe, the day that Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies to end World War II in Europe.)
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Orl%C3%A9ans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orl%C3%A9ans
---------------------------------------------------------
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377157
On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377104
On This Day: 6 fatalities from Axis action in continental U.S. during WW2 - May 5, 1944
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016377037
On This Day: Tiananmen Square protests (not 1989) spur shift in Chinese history - May 4, 1919
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376997
On This Day: Irregular army from U.S. conquers Nicaragua, re-institutes slavery - May 3, 1855
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016376965
On This Day: Sinking of passenger ship Lusitania switches the position of many U.S. pro-Germany supporters - May 7, 1915
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania (named after the Roman province corresponding to modern Portugal) was an ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. She was the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of the Mauretania three months later and was awarded the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing in 1908. The Lusitania was sunk on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing, on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat 11 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, killing 1,197 passengers, crew and stowaways. The sinking occurred about two years before the United States declaration of war on Germany but significantly increased public support in the US for entering the war.
The attack took place in the declared maritime war-zone around the UK, three months after unrestricted submarine warfare against the ships of the United Kingdom had been announced by Germany following the Allied powers' implementation of a naval blockade against it and the other Central Powers.
[Torpedo strike]
The passengers had been notified before departing New York of the general danger of voyaging into the area in a British ship, but the attack itself came without warning. From a submerged position 700m to starboard, U-20 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger launched a single torpedo at the Cunard liner.
After the torpedo struck, a second explosion occurred inside the ship, which then sank in only 18 minutes. The U-20's mission was to torpedo warships and liners in the Lusitania’s area. In the end, there were only 763 survivors out of the 1,960 passengers, crew and stowaways aboard, and ~128 of the dead were American citizens.
[American entry in WWI]
The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany. It also contributed to the American entry into the War two years later; images of the stricken liner were used heavily in US propaganda and military recruiting campaigns.
[Legitimate or not]
The contemporary investigations in both the United Kingdom and the United States into the precise causes of the ship's loss were obstructed by the needs of wartime secrecy and a propaganda campaign to ensure all blame fell upon Germany. At time of her sinking the primarily passenger-carrying vessel had in her hold around 173 tons of war supplies, comprising 4.2 million rounds of rifle ammunition, almost 5,000 shrapnel-filled artillery shell casings and 3,240 brass percussion fuses. Argument over whether the ship could be legitimately attacked the way that it was has raged back and forth throughout the war and beyond.
[Background]
A series of tit-for-tat moves intensified the naval portion of World War I. The Royal Navy had blockaded Germany at the start of the war; as a reprisal to German naval mining efforts, the UK then declared the North Sea a military area in the autumn of 1914 and mined the approaches. As their own reprisal, Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone, wherein all allied ships would be liable to be sunk without warning. Britain then declared all food imports for Germany were declared contraband.
When submarines failed to sink many ships, the German authorities loosened U-boat rules of engagement. The German embassy in the United States also placed fifty newspaper advertisements warning people of the dangers of sailing on a British ship in the area, which happened to appear just as RMS Lusitania left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915. Objections were made by the British and Americans that threatening to torpedo all ships indiscriminately was wrong, whether it was announced in advance or not.
[German justifications]
The German government attempted to find justifications for sinking Lusitania. Special justifications focused on the small declared cargo of 173 tons of war materiels on board the 44,000 ton displacement ship, and false claims that she was an armed warship and carried Canadian troops. In defense of indiscriminately sinking ships without warning, they asserted that cruiser rules were obsolete, as British merchant ships could be armed and had been instructed to evade or ram U-boats if the opportunity arises, and that the general warning given to all ships in the war zone was sufficient.
After the First World War, successive British governments maintained that there were no "munitions" (apart from small arms ammunition) on board Lusitania, and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel.
But the most important protests at the time came from the US. Under neutrality inspections, the US was aware the ship was not armed, was acting in accordance with American law, and was chiefly a passenger vessel carrying almost two thousand civilian passengers and crew, including over a hundred American citizens (including many celebrities) among the dead.
[US position]
The US government argued that whatever the circumstances, nothing could justify the killing of large numbers of un-resisting civilians, and that America had a responsibility to protect the lives of law-abiding Americans. The Americans had already warned the Germans repeatedly about their actions, and the Germans had also demonstrated that submarines were able to sink merchant ships under cruiser rules.
The sinking shifted public and leadership opinion in the United States against Germany. US and internal German pressure led to a suspension of German Admiralty policy of deliberately targeting passenger ships, as well as later stronger restrictions. War was eventually declared in 1917 after the German Government chose to violate these restrictions, deliberately attacking American shipping and preparing the way for conflict with the Zimmermann Telegram.
[Warning issued]
In the middle of April, German ambassador Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, who had long had concerns about the legality of the February submarine campaign, and believing the Americans to be underestimating the dangers, consulted a group of representatives of other German administrative departments, and decided to issue a general warning to the American press. This notice was to appear in 50 American newspapers, including those in New York:
NOTICE!
TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY
Washington, D.C. 22 April 1915
The notice was intended to appear on the Saturdays of April 24, May 1, and May 8, but due to technical difficulties did not appear until 30 April, the day before the Lusitania sailed, appearing in some cases adjacent to an advertisement for the return voyage. The juxtaposition was a coincidence, but the warning led to some agitation in the press, annoyance from the American government, and worried the ship's passengers and crew.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_RMS_Lusitania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania
(edited from article)
"
One of the US’s richest men among victims of Lusitania
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt
He inherited the family fortune, invested wisely in real estate and lived the life of a rakish playboy. His affair with the wife of a Cuban diplomat was one of the scandals of the age.
Yet he showed himself willing to sacrifice his own life for the sake of others.
He was on the Lusitania, going to Britain to conduct a meeting of the International Horse Breeders' Association and travelling with his valet.
When a German U-boat fired a torpedo and struck the ship 12 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Co Cork, on May 7th, 1915, he refused to save himself. He gave his lifejacket away and used the critical moments as the ship was sinking to put children into the lifeboats. He showed, according to a report in the New York Times, "gallantry which no words of mine can describe". His body was never found.
"
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/one-of-the-us-s-richest-men-among-victims-of-lusitania-1.2198792
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On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
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On This Day: Pop. of Rome falls to 10,000 after sacking, atrocities, famine, plague, flight - May 6, 1527
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
Sack of Rome (1527)
The Sack of Rome, then part of the Papal States, followed the capture of the city on 6 May 1527 by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during his war with the League of Cognac, known as the War of the League of Cognac.
[Looting, slaying, ...]
Despite being ordered not to storm the city, with Charles V intending to only use the threat of military action to make Pope Clement VII come to his terms, a largely unpaid Imperial army formed by 14,000 Germans, many of them Lutheran, 6,000 Spaniards and some Italian contingents occupied the scarcely defended Rome and began looting, slaying and holding citizens for ransom in excess without any restraint.
Swiss Guard annihilated
Clement VII took refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo after the Swiss Guard were annihilated in a delaying rearguard action; he remained there until a ransom was paid to the pillagers.
Benvenuto Cellini, eyewitness to the events, described the sack in his works. It was not until February 1528 that the spread of a plague and the approach of the League forces under Odet de Foix forced the army to withdraw towards Naples from the city. Rome's population had dropped from 55,000 to 10,000 due to the atrocities, famine, an outbreak of plague and flight from the city. The subsequent loss of the League army during the Siege of Naples secured a victory in the War of the League of Cognac for Charles V. The Emperor denied responsibility for the sack and came to terms again with Clement VII. On the other hand, the Sack of Rome further exacerbated religious hatred and antagonism between Catholics and Lutherans.
[Defenses]
The troops defending Rome were not very numerous: only 5,000 militiamen led by Renzo da Ceri and 189 Papal Swiss Guards. The city's defenses included the massive Aurelian Walls, and substantial artillery, which the Imperial army lacked. Duke Charles needed to conquer the city swiftly to avoid the risk of being trapped between the besieged city and the League's army.
On 6 May, the Imperial army attacked the walls at the Gianicolo and Vatican hills. Duke Charles was fatally wounded in the assault, allegedly shot by Benvenuto Cellini. The Duke was wearing his famous white cloak to mark him out to his troops, but it also had the unintended consequence of pointing him out as the leader to his enemies. The death of the last respected commander of authority among the Imperial army caused any restraint in the soldiers to disappear, and they easily stormed the walls of Rome the same day. Philibert of Châlon took command of the troops, but he was not as popular or feared, leaving him with little authority.
In the event known as the Stand of the Swiss Guard, the Swiss, alongside the garrison's remnant, made their last stand in the Teutonic Cemetery within the Vatican. Their captain, Kaspar Röist, was wounded and later sought refuge in his house, where he was killed by Spanish soldiers in front of his wife. The Swiss fought bitterly, but were hopelessly outnumbered and almost annihilated. Some survivors, accompanied by a band of refugees, fell back to the steps of St. Peter's Basilica. Those who went toward the Basilica were massacred, and only 42 survived. This group of 42, under the command of Hercules Goldli, managed to stave off the Habsburg troops pursuing the Pope's entourage as it made its way across the Passetto di Borgo, a secure elevated passage that connects the Vatican City to Castel Sant'Angelo.
[Pillaging]
After the execution of some 1,000 defenders of the Papal capital and shrines, the pillage began. Churches and monasteries, as well as the palaces of prelates and cardinals, were looted and destroyed. Even pro-Imperial cardinals had to pay to save their properties from the rampaging soldiers. On 8 May, Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, a personal enemy of Clement VII, entered the city. He was followed by peasants from his fiefs, who had come to avenge the sacks they had suffered at the hands of the Papal armies. Colonna was touched by the pitiful conditions in the city and gave refuge to some Roman citizens in his palace.
[Vatican Library saved]
The Vatican Library was saved because Philibert had set up his headquarters there. After three days of ravages, Philibert ordered the sack to cease, but few obeyed. In the meantime, Clement remained a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo. Francesco Maria I della Rovere and Michele Antonio of Saluzzo arrived with troops on 1 June in Monterosi, north of the city. Their cautious behaviour prevented them from obtaining an easy victory against the now totally undisciplined imperial troops.
On 6 June, Clement VII surrendered, and agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000 ducati in exchange for his life; conditions included the cession of Parma, Piacenza, Civitavecchia, and Modena to the Holy Roman Empire (however, only the last would change hands).
[Venice makes it moves]
At the same time Venice took advantage of this situation to capture Cervia and Ravenna, while Sigismondo Malatesta returned to Rimini.
[End of Italian High Renaissance]
Often cited as the end of the Italian High Renaissance, the Sack of Rome impacted the histories of Europe, Italy, and Christianity, creating lasting ripple effects throughout European culture and politics.
Before the sack, Pope Clement VII opposed the ambitions of Emperor Charles V. Afterward, he no longer had the military or financial resources to do so. To avert more warfare, Clement adopted a conciliatory policy toward Charles.
The sack had major repercussions for Italian society and culture, and in particular, for Rome. Clement's War of the League of Cognac would be the last fight of some of the Italian city-states for independence until the nineteenth century. Rome, which had been a center of Italian High Renaissance culture and patronage and the main destination for any European artist eager for fame and wealth, for the prestigious commissions of the papal court before the sack, suffered depopulation and economic collapse, causing artists and thinkers to scatter.
The city's population dropped from over 55,000 before the attack to 10,000 afterward. An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people were murdered.
Many Imperial soldiers also died in the aftermath, largely from diseases caused by masses of unburied corpses in the streets. Pillaging finally ended in February 1528, eight months after the initial attack, when the city's food supply ran out, there was no one left to ransom, and plague appeared. Clement would continue artistic patronage and building projects in Rome, but a perceived Medicean golden age had passed. The city did not recover its population losses until approximately 1560.
A power shift – away from the Pope, toward the Emperor – also produced lasting consequences for Catholicism. After learning of the sack, Emperor Charles professed great embarrassment that his troops had imprisoned Pope Clement; however, he had ordered troops to Italy to bring Clement under his control, though he wanted to avoid destruction within the city of Rome, which would be damaging to his reputation.
Charles eventually came to terms with the Pope with the Treaty of Barcelona (1529) and the coronation of Bologna. This done, Charles molded the Church in his own image. Clement, never again to directly oppose the Emperor, rubber-stamped Charles' demands – among them naming cardinals nominated by the latter; crowning Charles Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy at Bologna in 1530 and refusing to annul the marriage of Charles' beloved aunt, Catherine of Aragon, to King Henry VIII of England, prompting the English Reformation.
[From free thought to orthodoxy]
Cumulatively, these actions changed the complexion of the Catholic Church, steering it away from Renaissance free thought personified by the Medici Popes, toward the religious orthodoxy exemplified by the Counter reformation. After Clement's death in 1534, under the influence of Charles and later his son King Philip II of Spain (1556–1598), the Inquisition became pervasive, and the humanism encouraged by Renaissance culture came to be viewed as contrary to the teachings of the Church.
The sack also contributed to making permanent the split between Catholics and Protestants.
Previously, Charles and Clement had disagreed over how to address Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, which was spreading throughout Germany. Charles advocated for calling a Church Council to settle the matter. Clement opposed this, believing that monarchs shouldn't dictate Church policy; and also fearing a revival of conciliarism, which had exacerbated the Western Schism during the 14th–15th centuries, and deposed numerous Popes.
Clement advocated for fighting a Holy War to unite Christendom. Charles opposed this because his armies and treasury were occupied in fighting other wars. After the sack, Clement acceded to Charles' wishes, agreeing to call a Church Council and naming the city of Trent, Italy as its site. He did not convene the Council of Trent during his lifetime, fearing that the event would be a dangerous power play. In 1545, eleven years after Clement's death, his successor Pope Paul III convened the Council of Trent. As Charles predicted, it reformed the corruption present in certain orders of the Catholic Church.
However, by 1545, the moment for reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants – arguably a possibility during the 1520s, given cooperation between the Pope and Emperor – had passed. In assessing the effects of the Sack of Rome, Martin Luther commented: "Christ reigns in such a way that the Emperor who persecutes Luther for the Pope is forced to destroy the Pope for Luther" (LW 49:169).
In commemoration of the Swiss Guard's bravery in defending Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome, recruits to the Swiss Guard are sworn in on 6 May every year.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(1527)
---------------------------------------------------------
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