bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Selim I (“the Grim”) (1465–1520)
Authors: Baumgartner Frederic J.
Published: November 2011

Ninth Ottoman sultan of the Turks. Born on October 10, 1465 (possibly 1466), he was the third son of Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512) and Ayse Hatun, a Greek woman known as Gülbahar Sultan after her marriage. Bayezid was the least aggressive among the sultans in the first two centuries of Ottoman rule, but his son was the most, earning him the tag “the Grim.” Selim was described as tall and broad shouldered with an impressive moustache. Fond of poetry, he wrote poems in Turkish and Persian, and he respected intellectuals more than generals and bureaucrats. He married Ayse Hafsa Sultan, a Christian who was probably from Georgia; they had one son and four daughters.
Shaka kaSenzangakhona Zulu (ca. 1787–1828)
Authors: Laband John
Published: November 2011

The Zulu people revere King Shaka as the founder of their nation and internationally he is celebrated as a military genius. Yet remarkably little is known for certain about his life, or even his appearance. As an iconic figure he has spawned many legends which popular biographies and television series have uncritically recycled as apparent fact (Faure 1986). The conventional historical evidence we do possess is limited and problematic. Self‐serving eyewitness accounts of white adventurers in Zululand, who portrayed Shaka as a savage, pathological mass‐killer, while also being seduced by his powerful personality, are one category of source (Stuart and Malcolm 1969; Isaacs 1970; MacLean 1992). The other comprises Zulu oral histories recorded several generations after Shaka's death that present conflicting and partisan information (Webb and Wright 1976–2001).
Sherman, General William T. (1820–1891)
Authors: Crosswell D. K. R.
Published: November 2011

With his friend Ulysses S. Grant, Sherman emerged as the outstanding general of the American Civil War. Never winning much success as a tactical commander—at First Bull Run in command of a brigade; at Shiloh a division; at Chickasaw Bluffs a corps; at Chattanooga an army—Sherman excelled at the operational, strategic, and conceptual levels of war. A master of maneuver warfare, Sherman's taking Atlanta provided the decisive turning point in the war.
Siberian Intervention
Authors: Isitt Benjamin
Published: November 2011

Between 1917 and 1922 approximately 125,000 soldiers belonging to armies from ten states deployed to Siberia and the Russian Far East, part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Aimed at replacing V. I. Lenin's Bolshevik government with a White Russian administration more sympathetic to Allied interests, the operation failed. This reflected domestic opposition in Allied capitals, divisions among the Allies and the White Russians, and a robust partizan guerilla insurgency. The Siberian Intervention, like Allied operations in other Russian theaters, revealed the hot origins of the Cold War, demonstrating tensions between Soviet Russia and the West that shaped the course of twentieth‐century world history.
Singapore, Fall of (1942)
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: November 2011

Singapore was conquered by the armed forces of Imperial Japan on February 15, 1942, after a seventy day campaign in which the Japanese 25th Army advanced from southern Thailand, through Malaya, onto Singapore island. Prime Minister Winston Churchill forever labeled the defeat by calling it “the worst disaster in British military history” (Churchill 1950: 81). Churchill's rhetoric did not match the military facts. Defeat at Singapore was painful and consequential, but the Allies defeated Japan and won the Pacific War. From another point of view, British defeat in North America in 1781 led to far greater consequences for world history. But Churchill nevertheless identified an important point. Japanese victory at Singapore not only made World War II longer and more difficult, it was also a devastating psychological and political blow to British power and empire, with lasting consequences. The main reason was not the fact but the manner of the fall of Singapore. And the main cause was the way Britain tried to defend its empire after World War I.
Slim, Field Marshal William, 1st Viscount Slim (1891–1970)
Authors: Mackenzie S. P.
Published: November 2011

The military reputation of “Uncle Bill” Slim rests on his command of 14th Army during the struggle for control of Burma in World War II. In marked contrast to previous British senior commanders facing the Japanese, he managed in 1944–1945 to defeat enemy offensives and launch ones of his own that led to the destruction of the opposing forces. Physically robust and mentally adaptable, Slim was humane enough to inspire great affection among those who served under him.
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: November 2011

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was a military alliance created to defend Southeast Asia against communist aggression and subversion during the Cold War. SEATO was the organization formed in 1955 to implement the Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty, also known as the Manila Pact, signed in Manila in September 1954. Signatory members included Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States of America (US). The roots of SEATO can be found in one of the main events of the Cold War: communist victory in the civil war in China, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in October 1949. SEATO's declared purpose was to organize collective security to deter, or if necessary defeat, Chinese communist aggression in the region. The treaty and the organization it produced were the direct response to the military victory won by the communistled Vietminh in their war to expel French power from Vietnam. The struggle to contain communism in Vietnam defined SEATO from start to finish; massive American military intervention sidelined SEATO in 1965. This led many scholars to dismiss SEATO as an abject failure. This is hasty, but it does stem from something central: the relationship between the nature of the alliance and the problems it confronted.
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
Authors: Herrera José María
Published: November 2011

The Spanish Civil War was a prelude to the coming conflict of World War II. The hard ideological differences between the combatants, the heavy loss of life, and the extent of material destruction would mirror that which Europe would experience only a few months after the war's conclusion.
Special Operations Executive (SOE)
Authors: Murphy Christopher J.
Published: November 2011

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was created in July 1940, bringing together three existing bodies that had been developed to deal with covert operations: Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6); MI (R), a research unit at the War Office; and Electra House, a propaganda unit within the Foreign Office. Under the Minister of Economic Warfare (initially Dr. Hugh Dalton, later Lord Selborne), SOE's role was to encourage and develop resistance movements throughout Axis‐occupied Europe, both to prepare to support eventual Allied landings and, in the meantime, to carry out specific, targeted acts of sabotage that would hinder the Axis war effort. SOE's reach also extended beyond Europe, with a mission in Algiers and regional headquarters in Cairo and New Delhi (where SOE was known as Force 136). SOE was divided into geographical “country” sections that took responsibility for operations in a given area. These were supported by a number of ancillary sections that dealt with such matters as false documents and special devices.
Standard, Battle of the (1138)
Authors: Stewart Bachrach David
Published: November 2011

In 1138, King David of Scotland (1124–1153) and his military commanders undertook three campaigns into northern England in an effort to secure territorial gains south of the border in Northumberland. David also sought to aid Mathilda (d. 1167), the mother of King Henry II (1154–1189) and David's niece, in her struggle against King Stephen (1135–1154). In the first campaign, David marched into Northumberland, where he captured the strategically important castle at Norham on Tweed, which was held by a garrison provided by Bishop Geoffrey Rufus of Durham (1133–1140). King Stephen marched north in February and drove off the Scottish army, but failed to engage King David in battle.
Submarine warfare
Authors: Sturma Michael
Published: November 2011

While underwater craft were the subject of fantasy and experimentation for centuries, submarine warfare only became a reality in the twentieth century. Although some designers promoted their commercial potential, submarines were conceived primarily as weapons. With the ability to attack from beneath the sea, they created a new dimension in naval warfare. During both world wars, submarines posed a huge threat to both warships and commerce shipping. In more recent years, submarines are capable of missile attacks on both targets at sea and on land.
Suez Crisis (1956)
Authors: Witty David M.
Published: November 2011

On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the internationally controlled Suez Canal. The resulting war was an attempt by Anglo‐French and Israeli forces to take control of the canal and remove Nasser from power. Pressure from the United States and the United Nations (UN) forced a ceasefire in the conflict and the withdrawal of the attacking forces. The crisis was an important milestone in the anti‐colonial movement. Great Britain suffered a diplomatic defeat and was permanently weakened, while Nasser emerged as the leader of the Arab world.
Sun Zi (Sun Tzu) (ca. fourth century BCE)
Authors: Morillo Stephen
Published: November 2011

Sun Zi is the name of the purported author of
The Art of Warfare
, a classic Chinese text from the Warring States Era (476–221
BCE
). Historical information about Sun Zi (“Master Sun,” whose given name is Wu according to the tradition about him) is scarce enough that many scholars doubt that such a person really existed, especially as early as the Spring and Autumn period (722–476
BCE
) to which the tradition ascribes his life: he is supposed to have been a general serving under the king of the state of Wu around 500
BCE
. But details of style, anachronisms in content, and the later existence of a thriving genre of military treatises more fully revealed by recent archaeological discoveries make a date of composition in the 300s
BCE
much more likely. And “compilation” may be more accurate than “composition,” even for the core text and certainly for the heavily annotated full text that is known to history. Whatever the details about its authorship, there is no question as to the historical significance and influence of the
Art of Warfare
, or the
Sunzi
, as it is sometimes called.
Taira Masakado insurrection (939)
Authors: Karl Friday
Published: November 2011

In the eleventh month of 939, the very middle of the Heian period (794–1185) — the self‐professed era of “Peaceful Tranquility”—the imperial court's gentle self‐complacence was ripped by reports of a warrior rebellion in the eastern provinces: Taira Masakado (?–940) had seized control of the government offices in Hitachi province. This incident, and the events that followed, rank among the most dramatic episodes in the early history of the samurai. Coinciding with earthquakes, rainbows, and lunar eclipses in the capital, uprisings in the north, and pirate disturbances in the west, it threw the court and the capital into a panic and earned Masakado the worst sort of moralizing opprobrium. And it climaxed, according to most versions of the story, with the protagonist's claiming for himself the title “New Emperor.”
Tanks
Authors: Kenneth Estes w.
Published: November 2011

A tank is a fully armored and enclosed tracked vehicle, capable of operating in various forms of rough terrain and using multiple weapons of varying caliber to destroy most types of targets found on the land battlefield. Through most decades of the twentieth century, the tank served as an icon for the increasingly lethal and impersonal mechanization of warfare, reflecting as well the more costly industrial and human requirements of total warfare.
Targeted killing
Authors: Miller Seumas
Published: November 2011

Targeted killings and assassinations are closely related, but not identical, phenomena; moreover, neither has a precise and accepted definition. While this article is principally concerned with targeted killings, it is useful to begin by briefly considering assassinations.
Terrorism, War against
Authors: Miller Seumas
Published: November 2011

The phenomenon of terrorism is not new: any authoritative history of terrorism (e.g., Laqueur 1977) would include, for example, references to anti‐state terrorism of groups such as the Narodniki (Populists) in nineteenth‐century Russia (e.g., assassination attempts on the tsars), the state terrorism of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security during the so‐called Reign of Terror in the late eighteenth‐century French Revolution, and anti‐colonialist terrorism in Africa (e.g., Algeria) and elsewhere in the post‐World War II period (Whittaker 2003). Moreover, counterterrorism, including police and military counterterrorism strategies, is a well‐developed field of study (Hewitt 1984). However, the idea of a war against terrorism is quite recent. It has come into vogue primarily, it seems, as a consequence of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC by al‐Qaeda operatives. The person most famously associated with prosecuting what he called a “war against terrorism” was US President George Bush in the aftermath of 9/11 (Coady and O'Keefe 2002). The idea brings together two prior notions, that of war and that of terrorism, both of which are somewhat vague and subject to ideological manipulation.
Teutoburg Forest, Battle of (9CE)
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: November 2011

This battle annihilated the main Roman army occupying Roman Germany beyond the Rhine and effectively ended Roman rule there. After 90 years of intermittent hostilities, the emperor Augustus had begun a sustained drive to subjugate Germany beyond the Rhine in 15bce. By 7cethe lands between the Rhine and Elbe were under military occupation, although the main Roman armies always returned to winter in their Rhineland camps, with garrisons left behind in forts. These were chiefly along the line of the Lippe River in northwest Germany and the Main River further south: the best known is at Haltern on the Lippe, 50 km east of the Rhine. Augustus' able stepsons Tiberius and Drusus, and other generals, were the military governors (officially titled “legates of Augustus”) who achieved this. Around 3bcethere was even a tentative advance beyond the Elbe.
Togo Heihachiro, Admiral (1848–1934)
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: November 2011

Togo Heihachiro began his naval career in 1866 in a fleet raised by the Satsuma daimyo, or samurai clan. He retired in 1913 as a national icon, the most celebrated commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Western journalists called him “the Nelson of the East.” The nickname captures a career, a navy, and a nation during an era in which the transformation of Japan was defined by comparison to, and through its relationships with, the Great Powers of the West.
Togo Shigenori (1882–1950)
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: November 2011

Togo Shigenori served as foreign minister of Japan from 1941 to 1942 and again in 1945. A career diplomat, Shigenori was heavily involved in the controversial decisions to go to war against the Western Powers in December 1941 and to surrender unconditionally in August 1945. Togo's career reflected the character of the government of imperial Japan—and the confusion that led it to disaster.
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616)
Authors: Boyd James
Published: November 2011

Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of the most politically astute samurai commanders of the late sixteenth century. While not always victorious in battle, he was a patient man who learned from his mistakes and was gifted when it came to choosing his allies. His greatest achievement was the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate that unified Japan and oversaw two and a half centuries of peace.
Tondibi, Battle of (1591)
Authors: Reid Richard
Published: November 2011

The Battle of Tondibi, fought in March 1591 on the northeast bend of the Niger River, is regarded as a pivotal moment in the political and military history of western Africa. It was fought between a Moroccan force of cavalrymen and musketeers and the horsemen and infantry of the Songhay empire, then the major power of the western savannah. The clash brought about a significant shift in the balance of power across the region, as Songhay's defeat meant the end of the era of the great savannah empires, dominant for close to a thousand years. Nonetheless, recent revisionism has suggested that the military impact of the Moroccan invasion — in particular, the impact of the introduction of firearms — has been exaggerated, and that the Moroccan victory was far from total, as previously believed.
Touré , Samori (ca. 1830–1900)
Authors: Bruce Vandervort
Published: November 2011

A famous West African soldier and empirebuilder of the late nineteenth century, Samori was known to his French enemies as “The Bonaparte of the Sudan.” French soldiers considered him the most formidable military opponent they faced in West Africa, while historians have also stressed his role as a force for dynamic political and social change in the region, as progenitor of what has been called the “Dyula Revolution,” seen by some as an African equivalent to the “bourgeois revolution” that had transformed European politics and society.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536/7–1598)
Authors: Swope Kenneth M.
Published: November 2011

Japanese warlord; best known as the second of the Three Unifiers of sixteenth‐century Japan. Considered by many to have been the most significant figure in Japanese history, Hideyoshi was born of humble origins in Owari province. Although the accounts vary, most suggest that his father was a very low‐ranking soldier in the service of the Oda clan. He was in fact so poor that he most likely did not have a surname and Hideyoshi would actually adopt several names over the course of his long career, not assuming the moniker by which he is best known until it was bestowed upon him by the imperial court in 1586. Very little is known of his early career, but it appears that Hideyoshi began around the age of 15 as a page in the service of Imagawa Yoshimoto. Within a few years, however, he transferred his allegiance to Yoshimoto's rival, Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582), and most likely participated in the latter's dramatic victory over the Imagawa at Okehazama in 1560. He then rose through the Oda ranks over the next several years, emerging most notably in 1567 when he allegedly facilitated the conquest of the Saito clan at Inabayama by virtue of his construction of the fortress of Sunomata in a single night. Three years later he led one of Nobunaga's columns against another rival, the Asai, eventually receiving a fief in Omi province when the Asai were finally crushed. During these years Hideyoshi gained an appreciation for forceful, surprising strikes into enemy territory and for the efficacy of firearms in battle.
Troupes
de
Marine
Authors: Vandervort Bruce
Published: November 2011

A popular British encyclopedia informs us that marines are “Soldiers raised and trained for service on board warships and to provide landing parties for offensive operations.” This being the case, the only genuine marines are Britain's Royal Marines and the US Marine Corps. The marine corps of other countries, we learn, are only “so‐called marines” because their real functions are colonial warfare or coastal defense.
Truceless War, the (241–237
BCE
)
Authors: Hoyos Dexter
Published: November 2011

The Truceless War, or Mercenaries' War, pitted Carthage against her own mutinous mercenaries and North African (“Libyan”) subjects when the First Punic War with Rome ended in a Carthaginian defeat. The only complete narrative is Polybius' short account in Greek some eighty years later, which is disappointingly sparse with names and even more so with dates.
Túpac AmaruII(1742–1781)
Authors: England Shawn
Published: November 2011

Túpac Amaru II (b. March 19, 1742) was the adopted name of José Gabriel Condorcanqui Noguera, a Peruvianmestizoof mixed Quechua–Spanish ancestry. He could trace his lineage back to Túpac Amaru I, the near‐legendary “last Inca” executed by Spanish authorities after the 1572 defeat of his mountainous Vilcabamba stronghold. Two centuries later, in 1780, José Gabriel resurrected his ancestor's name and initiated a widespread rebellion in the central highlands of Peru. Although Túpac Amaru II was captured and executed in 1781, his brother Diego Túpac Amaru continued the insurrection until his own death, and their examples helped inspire similar revolts elsewhere in the Andes.
Turco‐Italian War (1911–1912)
Authors: Vandervort Bruce
Published: November 2011

The Italian invasion of Ottoman‐ruled Libya, which comprised the provinces of Tripolitania, with its capital at Tripoli, and Cyrenaica, with its capital at Benghazi, in October 1911 was, in the words of Italian historian Angelo del Boca, “a project nurtured for 30 years.” Although Italian designs on Libya can be traced back to the early years of the nineteenth century, actual planning for the conquest of the region only began in earnest in November 1884, when the Italian government came to believe that the French, who had just established a protectorate over Tunisia, were about to seize Morocco, which would have given them control over all of North Africa, save for Egypt and Libya. Rome feared both for Italy's maritime security, as the Mediterranean risked becoming a French lake, and for Italy's future as an imperial power, a future already darkened by the French occupation of Tunisia, where many Italians lived and Italy had played a leading economic role for decades. Some Italians also cast covetous eyes on what they believed, quite erroneously as it turned out, was a rich caravan trade across the desert from sub‐Saharan Africa to the Libyan port of Tripoli and feared its diversion to entrepots in Tunisia or Algeria controlled by France.
Ulster Volunteer Force
Authors: Boyce George
Published: November 2011

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was one of the most remarkable organizations in British and Irish military history. Its origins lie in the crisis precipitated by the Liberal government's Home Rule Bill of April 1912, which granted Ireland a measure of devolved government under the sovereignty of the Westminster parliament. Ulster Protestants bitterly opposed this policy, claiming that it placed them under the rule of Roman Catholic Irish Nationalists, the irreconcilable enemies of Protestantism, Great Britain, and the British Empire. When confronted with this possibility in 1886 and 1893, Ulster Unionists had talked of armed resistance, but it was not until 1912 that they began drilling in Orange Lodge halls and Unionist clubs. In January 1913 the Ulster Unionist Council decided that the various volunteering units should be united into a single body, to be known as the Ulster Volunteer Force, with recruitment set at 100,000 men who had signed the “Ulster Covenant” in September 1912 vowing to resist Irish Home Rule by all means available. General Sir George Richardson, a retired officer who had served in India, became commander in chief of the UVF.
Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation or
MK
)
Authors: Stapleton Timothy J.
Published: November 2011

Threatened by black advancement, South Africa's white electorate voted in a National Party government in 1948 that initiated thorough racial segregation called apartheid. During the 1950s the African National Congress (ANC), evolved from moderate elite group to mass movement, embarked on passive resistance. In March 1960 Sharpeville police killed 69 by shooting into a crowd of protesters. For the ANC nonviolent civil disobedience seemed futile against a state responding with deadly force. Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu introduced the armed option to the ANC national executive and in July 1961, after some opposition, they received permission to establish a separate military organization to engage in controlled violence and avoid injury. Named “Umkhonto we Sizwe” (Spear of the Nation or MK), it was led by a high command made up of Mandela, Sisulu, Joe Slovo, and Raymond Mhlaba and regional commands based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban.
United Nations
Authors: Macqueen Norrie
Published: November 2011

The United Nations (UN) was formally established in April 1945 in the last months of World War II when its Charter was opened for signature in San Francisco. Fifty‐one states comprised the founding membership of the organization's General Assembly. By the turn of the twenty‐first century, membership stood at 192. The UN represented the second attempt in the twentieth century to create a global organization that would provide a comprehensive system of collective security. Its predecessor, the League of Nations, had similarly emerged from the trauma of world war, but after some initial promise it had failed to meet the overwhelming security challenges of the international system of the 1930s. The United Nations was therefore designed to succeed where the League had failed. It sought to do so by placing clear and far‐reaching obligations on member states.
Unlawful Combatants
Authors: Kretzmer David
Published: November 2011

The term “unlawful” or “unprivileged” combatant does not appear in international conventions on the law of war. It does not denote a recognized status of persons involved in war or armed conflict. Nevertheless, the term is widely used to describe persons who lack combatant status under international law but take an active part in hostilities in an international armed conflict.
Vietcong and Vietminh
Authors: Farrell Brian P.
Published: November 2011

The Vietminh and Vietcong are remembered as Vietnamese peasants wearing black pyjamas, waging guerilla warfare to drive first the French and then the Americans out of their country. That is not wrong, but there is much more to their story. Both were political instruments organized and directed by the nation‐wide institution that drove military conflict in Vietnam from 1946 to 1975: the Communist Party.
Vietnam War (1959–1975)
Authors: Möise Edwin
Published: November 2011

The Vietnam War was primarily a struggle for control of South Vietnam, which began gradually in 1959 and 1960, and ended in 1975. It pitted Vietnamese communist forces, both southern and northern, against the Republic of Vietnam and the United States.
Vikings
Authors: Hudson Benjamin
Published: November 2011

In the history of warfare a special place must be reserved for the Vikings. Better known to their contemporaries as “Northmen” or “pagans,” their name became synonymous with “warrior.” These raiders from Scandinavia revolutionized combat in northern Europe using an improved ship design and developed the amphibious assault, made more lethal by the excellence of their arms and armour. They raided and established colonies from the north Atlantic to the Mediterranean; their settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Canada is now acknowledged as the earliest European colony in North America.
War and Technology
Authors: Zimmerman David
Published: November 2011

Kranzberg and Pursell state that “in its simplest terms technology is human beings' effort to cope with the physical environment—both that provided by nature and that created by man's own technological deeds, such as cities—and our attempts to subdue or control that environment by means of our imagination and ingenuity in the use of available resources” (1967, vol. 1: 5). This definition fails to account for the fact that war is one of humanity's main technological activities. McNeill argues that war is the principal macroparasite faced by humanity. Inevitably, a study of this macroparasitism “turns into a study of the organization of armed forces with special attention to changes in the kind of equipment warriors use” (1983: vii). McNeill equates changes in armaments to genetic mutations of microorganisms.
War and Cinema
Authors: Chapman James
Published: November 2011

Cinema has been the dominant mass medium of the twentieth century and has played a vital role in shaping popular perceptions of war. Cinema has been employed both as a medium of war propaganda to mobilize popular support for particular conflicts and as a commentary on the “horrors” of war in films such as
All Quiet on the Western Front
(dir. Lewis Milestone, 1930) and
Apocalypse Now
(dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979). It has served both as a vehicle for recruitment to the armed services and as a means of showing the “reality” of war to those who have not experienced it at first hand. It has popularized the romantic idea of war as an adventure and has promoted the cult of heroism. But it has also examined the dehumanizing effects of war on combatants and has aided in the social and psychological rehabilitation of ex‐servicemen. It has documented the genocidal conduct of “total war” and has been a key medium for exploring the historical memory of the Holocaust. And, while cinema has done much to influence attitudes toward war, the medium itself has also been shaped by war.
Warfare in pre‐colonialAfrica
Authors: Reid Richard
Published: November 2011

War has been profoundly important in shaping Africa's past; it has been both outcome and driver of broader political, social, and economic change. Throughout the continent's recorded history, organized violence has been the product of the perennial struggle to maximize population—particularly critical in the context of Africa's historical underpopulation. As a relatively land‐rich continent, African political and social development has been characterized by continual fission and reformation, involving migratory movements and regional rivalries that have often been violent by their very nature. A common theme across much of the continent in the pre‐colonial era was the constant creation and recreation of unifying, and often coercive, ideologies aimed at the maximization of productive and reproductive labor. The struggle, moreover, to domesticate hostile physical and climatic environments has been a crucial driver of warfare, leading to the violent quest to control resources (water, arable land, healthy pasture). Environmental and climatic change has both caused and been caused by warfare in certain regions. In terms of external influences, finally, Islam would have an ideological, cultural, and tactical impact, while the slave trades (most dramatically in Atlantic Africa but also on the eastern side of the continent have driven forward warfare, heightening levels of violence and leading to innovation in the organization of violence—in part because of the adoption of new technologies acquired through such trade, notably firearms. Ultimately, the multitude of European invasions of Africa in the late nineteenth century led to widespread violence, as well as ushering in a new phase in the continent's military history.
W
ashington,
G
eorge (1732–1799)
Authors: Massey Gregory D.
Published: November 2011

George Washington, commander of the Continental Army during the American War of Independence and first president of the United States, was called the father of his country. Washington earned the label. His republican ideals, public integrity, and indomitable will made him the best possible military and political leader for the young nation.
Wellesley, Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852)
Authors: Green Dominic
Published: November 2011

Called by his officers “The Beau” for his uniforms, by his men “Old Nosey” for his physiognomy, and by the British public the “Iron Duke” for his resistance to opinion, Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), was Napoleon's nemesis at Waterloo, the battle that determined Europe's balance of power for a century. After Waterloo, Wellington entered politics, aiding the restoration of Europe's monarchic order, and twice serving as prime minister. However, his aloofness and anachronistic attitudes ill suited the increasingly democratic tone of British politics. Thus Wellington achieved the singular feat of simultaneously being Britain's most beloved soldier and least popular premier.
Women and war
Authors: Mathers Jennifer Gayle
Published: November 2011

Women have played vital and sometimes pivotal roles in wars throughout recorded history, although societies tend to be selective in their memories of the extent and significance of women's participation in war. Most societies—and many women as well—are comfortable with the notion that women are inherently peace‐loving and that they only come into contact with war either when they oppose it or become its victims. Women's relationships with war are far more complex, however. Women perform a wide range of roles in relation to war, from providing various forms of support for war economies, militaries, and militias to serving as combatants and war leaders. It would not be possible to wage war without the active involvement of women, but women's contributions to war are often viewed as fundamentally different from the wartime actions and responsibilities of men. This is the main reason why women's involvement in war has been relatively neglected by those who study wars and why it tends to be overlooked or downplayed by political leaders, popular culture, and ordinary citizens, especially in times of peace. The home and the family are often regarded as the appropriate and natural sphere of women's activities and the place where they make their contribution to society, through bearing and raising children and supporting their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons when they go to war. Wars and militaries, in the same way, are usually seen as the places where men demonstrate their masculinity by fighting to protect and defend their homeland and their families. When wars break out, however, societies often undergo a process of rediscovering and recognizing women's past wartime achievements. This serves the dual purpose of identifying those roles that might be appropriate for women to adopt in the current or coming conflict, as well as giving women permission to step outside their everyday activities and take on less conventional roles for the duration of the war.
World War I: Eastern Front
Authors: Dinardo Richard L.
Published: November 2011

World War I was fought on many fronts, none more enormous than the Eastern Front. The geographic scale alone was mammoth, and the casualties inflicted and losses in equipment were equally immense. In its conduct, the war on the Eastern Front was quite different from the Western Front; while operations on the Western Front assumed a stationary character between the mobile campaigns of 1914 and the return of mobility in 1918, the Eastern Front was different. In the East, the war remained mobile throughout, with large swaths of territory (and the people inhabiting them) changing hands on a regular basis. Finally, in a political sense, the war on the Eastern Front was far more destructive than the Western Front. Of the three political regimes that went to war on the Eastern Front in 1914, none remained by the end of 1918.
World War
II
: Eastern Front
Authors: Glantz David M.
Published: November 2011

The Eastern Front of World War II—called the Great Patriotic War by Russians—refers to the Soviet–German War during which Hitler's Third German Reich attempted to defeat and subjugate Stalin's Soviet Union. The war began on June 22, 1941, when Germany's Wehrmacht (armed forces) invaded the Soviet Union in accordance with Plan Barbarossa, a military operation designed to defeat the Soviet Union's Red Army, overthrow its communist government, and dismember and exploit its territories for the benefit of Germany. The war resulted from political and ideological competition between Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union.
World War II: War in
A
sia
Authors: Kuehn John T.
Published: November 2011

Relations between the United States and the Empire of Japan had been strained for a long time, principally over the issue of Japan's policies in China. At the Washington Naval Conference in 1922 the two nations signed a naval treaty in order to end an incipient arms race that had developed after World War I. This treaty established capital ship ratio between the United States, Great Britain, and Japan as 5–5–3. Japan's “inferior” position with respect to the United States caused considerable resentment by some officers in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). As the prosperous 1920s gave way to worldwide depression, militant elements inside Japan began to undermine the basis for peace in the Far East. After the signing of a second naval treaty in London in 1930, insubordinate Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) officers stationed in southern Manchuria invaded the rest of that Chinese province and then established a Japanese puppet state (Manchukuo). Japan subsequently withdrew from the League of Nations in 1932. After another armyengineered “incident” in 1937, Japan became involved in open conflict in China against Chiang Kai‐shek's Nationalists and Communist forces under Mao Zedong. Although victorious on the battlefield, Japan found China simply too big to conquer. Incidents such as the Rape of Nanking further alienated Japan from world opinion. War was narrowly averted with the United States after Japanese aircraft sank the
USS Panay
in the Yangtze River. The United States instituted a policy of material support for the Nationalists using the “Burma Road” through the Himalayas. This included the “loan” of officers like Claire Chennault to help establish a Chinese air force.
Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso‐lin) (1875–1928)
Authors: Waldron Arthur
Published: November 2011

Zhang Zuolin, a general traditionally known as the “Old Marshal,” played a pivotal role in the military politics of 1920s China owing to his control of the strategically vital area of Manchuria (today called the “three provinces of the Northeast”), which commands the Chinese capital region and has repeatedly served as a base for the conquest of China. From this power base Zhang twice played a role that shifted China's political trajectory.
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla)
Authors: Stapleton Timothy J.
Published: November 2011

The British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes conquered what is now Zimbabwe during the 1890s and a small number of white settlers took most of the best land. With responsible government in 1923, the white minority gained internal political control over the colony of Southern Rhodesia. In the late 1950s and early 1960s a series of banned and then reformed African nationalist organizations staged mass demonstrations against Southern Rhodesia's inclusion in the supposedly multi‐racial but white‐dominated Central African Federation, a union of Southern and Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and the territory's own white minority ruled state. These groups included the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC), National Democratic Party (NDP), and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), all of which had been led by Joshua Nkomo. In 1963 the federation broke up with the two northern territories of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland becoming the independent African‐ruled states of Zambia and Malawi, respectively. A blatantly white supremacist Rhodesian Front government under Ian Smith came to power in Southern Rhodesia and when refused dominion status by Britain it unilaterally declared independence (UDI) in 1965. As the federation was breaking up, ZAPU leaders split over strategy, with those wishing to mobilize international support against white Rhodesia remaining loyal to Nkomo and the more militant who wanted to lead mass protests at home hiving off to form the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) under Ndabaningi Sithole and later Robert Mugabe. These organizations were banned and African nationalist leaders, including Nkomo, Sithole, and Mugabe, were arrested and imprisoned, and others went underground or fled the country.
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA)
Authors: Stapleton Timothy J.
Published: November 2011

What is now Zimbabwe, during the 1890s, was conquered by the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes. Subsequently, a small number of white settlers seized the best land and in 1923 acquired internal control of the colony of Southern Rhodesia. In the late 1950s and early 1960s a series of increasingly radical African nationalist organizations staged street protests against Southern Rhodesia's inclusion in the white‐dominated Central African Federation, which united the territory with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. These groups, which were banned by the state and then reformed, included the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC), National Democratic Party (NDP), and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), all of which had been led by Joshua Nkomo. In 1963 the federation broke up, with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland becoming the independent African‐ruled states of Zambia and Malawi, respectively. At the end of the federal period, ZAPU leaders split over strategy, with those wishing to mobilize international support against white Rhodesia remaining loyal to Nkomo and the more militant who wanted to lead mass protests at home hiving off to form the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Subsequently, African nationalist leaders of both ZAPU and ZANU, including Nkomo, were arrested and imprisoned, and others went underground or fled the country. In 1965 Salisbury's Rhodesian Front government under Ian Smith, determined to maintain settler dominance, unilaterally declared independence (UDI) as Britain had refused to grant dominion status without the prospect of future majority rule.
Microwave‐Assisted Synthesis, Hypolipidemic and Hypoglycemic Activity of Some Novel 2‐(4‐(2‐Amino‐6‐(4‐substituted phenyl)‐pyrimidin‐4‐yl)‐phenoxy)‐2‐methyl Propanoic Acid Derivatives
Authors: Mokale Santosh N. , Elgire Rupali D. , Sakle Nikhil S. , Shinde Devanand B.
Published: November 2011

A novel series of aminopyrimidines containing the phenoxy isobutyric acid group as a pharmacophore was synthesized using conventional and microwave assisted methods of synthesis. The compounds were synthesized in good yields (70–89%) by the microwave‐assisted one‐pot protocol in much shorter reaction times. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic activity by high‐fat diet‐induced hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia in male Sprague‐Dawley rats. The present investigation showed significant antihyperlipidemic and antihyperglycemic activity for all compounds of the series when compared with the standard drug. Structure‐activity relationship (SAR) for the series were developed by comparing total lipid profile data of synthesized compounds with fenofibrate as standard drug.
Microfabricated particulate drug‐delivery systems
Authors: Pan Jing , Chan Sui Yung , Lee Won Gu , Kang Lifeng
Published: November 2011

Micro‐ and nanoparticulate drug‐delivery systems (DDSs) play a significant role in formulation sciences. Most particulate DDSs are scaffold‐free, although some particles are encapsulated inside other biomaterials for controlled release. Despite rapid progress in recent years, challenges still remain in controlling the homogenicity of micro‐/nanoparticles, especially for two crucial factors in particulate DDSs: the size and shape of the particles. Recent approaches make use of microfabrication techniques to generate micro‐/nanoparticles with highly controllable architectures free of scaffolds. This review presents an overview of a burgeoning field of DDSs, which can potentially overcome some drawbacks of conventional techniques for particle fabrication and offer better control of particulate DDSs.
Histidine affinity tags affect MSP142 structural stability and immunodominance in mice
Authors: Khan Farhat , Legler Patricia M. , Mease Ryan M. , Duncan Elizabeth H. , Bergmann‐Leitner Elke S. , Angov Evelina
Published: November 2011

Inclusion of affinity tags has greatly facilitated process development for protein antigens, primarily for their recovery from complex mixtures. Although generally viewed as supportive of product development, affinity tags may have unintended consequences on protein solubility, susceptibility to aggregation, and immunogenicity. Merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1), an erythrocytic stage protein of Plasmodium falciparum and a candidate malaria vaccine, was used to evaluate the impact of a metal ion affinity‐tag on both protein structure and the induction of immunity. To this end, codon harmonized gene sequences from the P. falciparum MSP142 of FVO and 3D7 parasites were cloned and purified with and without a histidine (His) tag. We report on the influence of His‐affinity tags on protein expression levels, solubility, secondary structure, thermal denaturation, aggregation and the impact on humoral and cellular immune responses in mice. While the overall immunogenicity induced by His‐tagged MSP142 proteins is greater, the fine specificity of the humoral and cellular immune responses is altered relative to anti‐parasitic antibody activity and the breadth of T‐cell responses. Thus, the usefulness of protein tags may be outweighed by their potential impact on structure and function, stressing the need for caution in their use.

See accompanying commentary by Randolph DOI: 10.1002/biot.201100459
An exercise in molecular epidemiology: Human rhinovirus prevalence and genetics
Authors: Albright Catherine J. , Hall David J.
Published: November 2011

Human rhinovirus (HRV) is one of the most common human respiratory pathogens and is responsible for the majority of upper respiratory illnesses. Recently, a phylogeny was constructed from all known American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) HRV sequences. From this study, three HRV classifications (HRVA, HRVB, and HRVC) were determined and techniques for classifying new isolates of HRV were reported. The genetic change of this virus in specific populations over time is of great interest to understand the evolution and epidemiology of viruses. To facilitate the collections of HRV sequences over a number of years, a virology experiment was designed in which students test nasal lavage samples to look for HRV infection. Students will learn a variety of techniques including RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis, qPCR, and agarose gel electrophoresis as well as bioinformatic skills though examination of sequences from the HRV‐field isolates. Furthermore, students can look at symptom data from subjects to investigate correlations between symptom severity and factors such as stress and sleep patterns. Such information can be used to examine hypotheses regarding HRV mutation, symptom severity and epidemiology. BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 457–458, 2011
Synthesis of Platinum–Ruthenium Nanoparticles under Supercritical CO2 and their Confinement in Carbon Nanotubes: Hydrogenation Applications
Authors: Castillejos Eva , Jahjah Mohamad , Favier Isabelle , Orejón Arantxa , Pradel Christian , Teuma Emmanuelle , Masdeu‐Bultó Anna M. , Serp Philippe , Gómez Montserrat
Published: November 2011

Bimetallic platinum–ruthenium nanoparticles stabilised by pyridine‐ and monophosphine‐based ligands were prepared either in supercritical CO2 or in THF. TEM analyses evidenced a tendency of the nanoparticles prepared in supercritical CO2 to agglomerate. Both types of bimetallic nanoparticles were further confined into functionalised multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Upon confinement, PtRu nanoparticles stabilised by phosphine ligands appeared more agglomerated than those stabilised by the pyridine ligand. These materials were applied to cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation. Confined PtRu nanoparticles showed higher catalytic activity and selectivity than unsupported nanoparticles.