bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Plataea
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The town of Plataea was unfortunately situated-in the ancient Greek province of Boeotia at the opening of two passes from southern Greece, one of which led toward the Peloponnese (home of Sparta) and one toward Attica (home of Athens). While this was an excellent location for trade, it was a crossroads for war as well, and any neighboring aggressor had to control Plataea to expand or defend its territory. Two powerful neighbors to the south was bad enough, but the occasional expansionary desires of Thebes, 9 miles to the north, also was a consideration. Thebes was also the most regular aggressor, and Plataea was often obliged to seek aid from one of her powerful southern neighbors. In 519 B.C. that aid came from Athens when Thebes attempted to force the creation of a Boeotian League, with itself as the leader. Thirty years later Plataeans fought alongside Athenians against the Persian army at Marathon. A decade later, Plataea was the site of the final Persian army defeat in Greece. In the 460s----450s B.C., Plataea also aided Sparta in suppressing a peasant revolt. In the 450s, Plataea aided Athens in establishing control over Boeotia; when Boeotia successfully revolted in 447, Plataea remained an Athenian ally. Thus, when Athens and Sparta fell out in 432/431 B.C., Plataea had friendly relations with both sides and no real desire to fight either of them.
Tyre
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
On 31 July he threw in his crack troops, and when their commander was killed Alexander charged in himself. He led forces along the battlements while his ships broke through into the harbor, landing more troops within the city. Rather than be caught between two forces, the soldiers withdrew into the city center and made a last stand at the shrine of Agenor. After such a long and arduous siege, Alexander did nothing to restrain his troops in their moment of victory. Pillage, loot, rape, and murder were the order of the day. The only saving grace for any of the citizens came from Alexander’s allied troops from Sidon, who took pity on the inhabitants and smuggled about 15,000 of them out of the city. Tyre’s King Azimilik with his advisers sought refuge in the temple of Melkart, and Alexander spared them. When the blood lust finally paled, 30,000 citizens survived only to be sold into slavery. Beforehand, however, Alexander crucified 2,000 men of fighting age. He then proceeded to sacrifice to Melkart as he had originally requested, following the service with a massive feast, games, and naval review.
Paris
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The Danes sailed up the Seine River and threatened Paris in 845; in the 860s there were three attacks that achieved limited results for the invaders, who did little more than pillage on a large scale. The acquisition of either loot or bribes led to their withdrawal each time, but no serious military opposition arose to face them. Thus, they returned to France regularly for loot and bribes. A quick succession of Frankish rulers did nothing to enhance the region’s security. Charles the Bald died in 877, his son Louis the Stammerer a year and a half later, Louis’ two successors died by 884. In the wake of these short-term reigns, the three provinces into which Charlemagne’s kingdom had been divided once again saw a single king: Charles the Fat. Charles had shown no talent for leading men in battle, but he was of the proper bloodline. Neustria, as the westernmost province was called, was ruled by Charles’ appointed subordinates. The Duchy of France, the region that lay between the Seine and Loire rivers, came under the rule of Count Odo, whose brother Robert was grandfather of Hugh Capet, who initiated the French Capetian dynasty. Odo’s father, Robert the Strong, had driven back Viking raiders and begun to fortify Paris, so Odo inherited a fairly strong position. It was soon tested.
Acre
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Acre is the best natural harbor on the coast of Palestine. As such it is of viral concern to anyone wishing to control trade and travel into and out of Palestine. European forces during the First Crusade initially captured it in 1104 and the city eventually became of more importance to the Latin kingdom the crusaders established than Jerusalem itself. It remained under European control throughout the crusading period, except for the years from 1187 to 1191. In 1187 the crusaders suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Saladin at the Horns of Hattin. After this battle, almost all major crusader-held cities rapidly fell to Saladin’s army, including Acre and Jerusalem. Saladin visited Acre several times over the next two years, strengthening the walls and fortifications and stationing his best troops there. The only major Christian city to withstand the Muslim onslaught was Tyre, which provided a refuge for crusaders fleeing the Arab army. It was from here, in August 1189, that Guy de Lusignan led a small force to recapture Acre. Although they could easily have been destroyed, they were virtually ignored by the Muslim forces that were currently occupied with their siege of Beaufort. It was not until they had become entrenched in front of the city that Saladin took notice and moved his headquarters to the Plain of Acre.
Tenochtitlan
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Until their mysterious disappearance about A.O. 1200 the Toltecs dominated much of Central America. Their fall was coincident with the arrival of nomadic tribes from the north. One of them, the Aztecs (People from Aztlan) drifted into the valley of central Mexico and became subject to whatever power achieved temporary hegemony. The Aztecs settled on the western side of Lake Texcoco, adapting themselves to the practice of building “floating gardens” of built-up silt. Here they established Tenochtitlan in the mid-fourteenth century. A second Aztec faction built a second city, Tlatelolco. The two cities placed themselves under the protection of rival powers-Tenochtitlan under Culhuacan, Tlatelolco under the Tepanecs. In the late fourteenth century the Tepanecs dominated the valley and expanded their power across the mountains to the west to encompass an area of peThaps 20,000 square miles. This consolidation was accomplished under King Tezozomoc, but after his death in 1423 the various city-states he had dominated began rebelling. Three powers joined together into a Triple Alliance to replace the Tepanecs, one being the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan. Despite an occasional disagreement, the three worked fairly well together and dominated central Mexico for ninety years. They consolidated their hold over the former Tepanec domain, then in 1465 began to expand. The Aztecs became the dominant partner in the triumvirate, but the three tribes collectively spread the empire from the Atlantic to the Pacific and as far southward as the modern-day border between Mexico and Guatemala. Only two tribes remained recalcitrant, the Tlaxaltecs and the Tarascans. The Aztecs established garrisons along disputed borders and occasionally warred against but never subjugated them.
Malta
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
For the Knights of St. John, the victory reaffirmed the order as the primary shield of Christianity against the forces of Islam. European monarchs contributed heavily to the rebuilding of their headquarters on Malta, built on the site of the modern city of Valetta on the Sciberras peninsula and named for the commander during the siege. A defeat and the loss of Malta would almost certainly have spelled their doom, but instead the “fame of 1565 was to make the Knights of Malta the acknowledged paragons of Christian chivalry for as long as that idea held sway in Europe” (Sire, The Knights of Malta, p. 72). The timely arrival of Spanish troops from Sicily, which saved the day, reaffirmed the predominance of Spain as the champion of Catholicism in Europe. The Spanish would have been obliged to undertake the task of recapturing Malta in order to deny it to the Muslims had they taken the island, and the commitment of manpower to that enterprise would probably have weakened their concurrent efforts to battle the Protestant Netherlands and amass the Spanish Armada invasion force that attempted to take control of England in 1588. The subsequent rise of Protestantism could well have been established decades sooner than it was.
Magdeburg
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Ever since Martin Luther had nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg in 1517, violence between northern European Protestants and the champions of the Catholic Church was inevitable. Through the sixteenth century Spain’s armies battled for the faith against the heretics, then late in the 1500s the Holy Roman Empire assumed the cause. The immediate causes of the Thirty Years War originated in Prague in 1618, where a struggle over succession between Catholic and Protestant pretenders focused the attention of both faiths. Rather than submit to the rule of a ten-man administration (seven of whom were Catholic), rebels led by Count Matthias von Thurn threw them out of a window of the palace in Prague. The Protestant Union raised an army to aid the new Protestant administration in the city, while the Holy Roman Empire dispatched troops to restore order. The imperial forces were defeated. After that initial setback, however, they won a series of victories, culminating in the reestablishment of Catholic rule in Bohemia in 1623. The hero of the imperial cause was Jan Tserkales, Baron von Tilly. In 1625 the war flared again owing to the initiative of King Christian IV of Denmark, who hoped to make himself both religious and political leader of northern Europe. Baron von Tilly continued to have regular success against Protestant forces, as did Albert von Wallen-stein, the duke of Friedland, who had raised an army to fight for the empire. In 1629 the Catholic Church issued the Edict of Restitution, effectively banning most Protestant worship. Failing in his goals, King Christian signed the Treaty of Lubeck and returned to Denmark. Wallenstein had made himself into a powerful commander, so much so that many Catholic princes feared his ambition and convinced the Holy Roman Emperor to dismiss him once the fighting ended.
Vienna
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Since the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks regularly attempted to extend their influence as far westward into Europe as possible. Their best chance of doing so came in 1524, when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent tried but was turned back at Vienna. After that, a long series of ineffective sultans had ruled the empire with big dreams but little talent. In 1664, another foray into central Europe was turned back at St. Gotthard Pass in Switzerland. That campaign ended with the signing of the Treaty of Vasvar, mandating a twenty-year truce between the Turks and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1672 the Holy Roman Empire, based in Austria, went to war with King Louis XIV of France over possession of the United Provinces of Holland. At the same time, the Turks were fighting the Poles. This seemed a propitious time for a nationalist rising in Hungary. The Magyars of the region had been most recently under the control of the Holy Roman Empire, while other parts of the region had been under occasional Turkish domination. With both overlords otherwise occupied, Emmerich Toki.iii in 1674 led a Magyar independence movement. For no other reason than to bother his enemy Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis XIV asked the Ottoman government to assist Toki.iii. The grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, responded that he would aid the uprising as soon as his war with Poland was over, but it was immediately followed by a war with Russia. When that ended in 1682, the Turks were able to fulfill their pledge.
Louisbourg
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Throughout the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth, Britain and France both colonized in North America. Britain, arriving first, occupied territory stretching along the eastern coast of the continent, while France was obliged to accept the less productive area of modern Canada. The northern territory had its economic benefits, however, and the French made large profits on furs and fishing. The British American colonists, however, also claimed the waters that the French fished, so not only the fishing rights but also the resulting supply of dried fish to European markets resulted in intense colonial rivalry. European wars had their North American aspects. After the War of the Spanish Succession ended with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France’s King Louis XIV decided to build a strong fort on the Ile Royale (modern Cape Breton Island) to act as a base for French shipping and protection for the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Thus was Louisbourg conceived and born. Construction began in 1720 and went on in a haphazard fashion for the next twenty years. At its completion, it was hailed as the Gibraltar of North America, but it suffered in the years immediately following from poor maintenance, insufficient artillery, and a less than enthusiastic population. The garrison was made up of French marines and Swiss mercenaries, neither possessing high morale.
Havana
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
All of Europe was jealous of Spain, whose looting of the Americas had brought them untold wealth since the conquistadors in the early sixteenth century conquered the Aztec and Inca empires. After the Spanish Armada was badly beaten in 1588, however, Spain’s iron grasp on the Americas began to weaken. England was quick to plant colonies in North America, but there was no gold. English pirates plundered Spanish treasure ships, but occupation of lands Cuba remained a Spanish possession until finally forfeited in 1898 in the wake of the Spanish-American War. Havana, however, remained the commercial center of both Cuba and the Caribbean and later became the political capital of the island as well.
Fort Stanwix
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
the rebel effort, as Washington’s victories at Trenton and Princeton had done the previous year, it also convinced the French to recognize American independence and provide massive amounts of aid. The garrison at Fort Stanwix, by stalling and ultimately deflecting St. Leger’s offensive, doomed Burgoyne and by extension the entire British effort to reestablish control of their American colonies. References: Hoffman Nickerson, The Turning Point of the Revolution, vol. 1 (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat, 1967 [1928]);John Pancake, 1777, the Year of the Hangman (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1977); Christopher Ward, The Wtir of the Revolution, vol. 2 (New York: Macmillan, 1952).
Pensacola
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years/French and Indian War in 1763, had sweeping implications for European colonialism in North America. France lost virtually everything on the continent, retaining only fishing rights off Canada and a handful of Caribbean islands. Left with only unexplored and mostly inaccessible territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, France gave up most of her imperial dreams and ceded that land, known as Louisiana, to her ally Spain. Spain gladly received it, for she had lost Florida to Britain as a result of the treaty and was glad to control the strategic port of New Orleans in compensation. Still, the defeat rankled French and Spanish alike, and both looked forward to the day they could exact a measure of revenge. Such an opportunity arose in 1775 when Britain’s thirteen American colonies began a revolution. Spain and France were both quick to funnel illicit arms and money to the Americans, but their support remained under the table until the American victory at Saratoga in October 1777. The decisiveness of the victory impressed the government in Paris, which signed a treaty of recognition and mutual defense in February 1778. Spain hesitated to openly support the Americans, however, fearing to aid a cause that their own colonists might emulate. When Britain rebuffed Spain’s attempt to act as mediator, however, Madrid allied with France (although not with the United States) and went to war in May 1779. She hoped not only to regain Florida but also to seize the opportunity to capture Gibraltar, which the British had occupied for decades.
Toulon
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
England as a hero and went on to redeem himself in an outstanding performance in India soon afterward. The English public was tired of the war by this time. When the news of Yorktown reached London, The government was unable to survive. In the spring of 1782 the newly elected leadership offered to negotiate a peace and talks began in Paris in September. They went on for a year before the Treaty of Paris of 1783 was signed. In this the London government recognized American independence, established The borders of the United States as the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes to The northern border of Florida. In return for assistance rendered the Revolution by the Spanish (particularly their governor in New Orleans Bernardo De Galvez) the Spanish received Florida, which They had surrendered to The English in the Treaty of Paris 1763 at the end of the French and Indian/Seven Years War.
Athens (Acropolis)
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
For much of Europe, Napoleon left a legacy of nationalism that the Concert of Europe suppressed only with the greatest difficulty. Although he never occupied Greece (but for a few Ionian islands), much of Napoleon’s influence arrived there via western Europeans who visited as part of their Grand Tour, diverted southward because of the wars of the previous two decades. Wealthy Greeks traveled to western Europe or sent their sons there for education, and the stirring of nationalist feeling followed in their train. Three and a half centuries of Turkish rule had been restrictive on the Greeks, but in many cases the upper classes and landowners found the Ottoman rule profitable. The Orthodox Church had also been given fairly free rein and had little reason to seek independence, but the modern tides were flowing. The seeds of revolt grew in two major Greek factions, the merchant class and the Phanariotes. The first traveled internationally and introduced foreign influences; further, they saw reduced taxation and regulation away from the Ottoman system. “Nothing was easier than for communication following the natural trade-routes to lead to conspiracy, financed and supplied from abroad” (Woodhouse, Short History of Modern Greece, p. 130). The Phanariotes were Greeks raised in Constantinople who first made their way into the bureaucracy as translators, gradually becoming the bulk of the Ottoman diplomatic corps. Their international contacts could be used to muster financial, political, and hopefully military support for a revolution.
Gaeta
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The garrison was granted the honors of war and at the end of hostilities were demobilized and sent home. Francis and Maria Sophia left the city on a French corvette that Napoleon had ordered to remain behind after the rest of his fleet departed. The Neapolitan troops paraded for their monarchs, who boarded the ship to the strains of Naples’ national anthem. They stayed for a time in Rome, then went into permanent exile in Paris. Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of Italy in March 1861, with the province of Veneto breaking away from Austrian rule and joining the rest of Italy in 1866. But a unified Italy did not translate into a stronger one, at least economically. The more industrialized north disdained the agricultural south. Although the king ruled under the auspices of a constitution, the parliamentary government proved unstable. Further, the pope increasingly felt himself more prisoner than pontiff as the political leadership became increasingly anti-clerical. That put the government and the Catholic population of Italy regularly at odds. Political instability and an unbalanced economy remain problems in Italy to this day.
Liege
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In retrospect, World War I seemed almost inevitable in the wake of France’s humiliating defeat at Prussian hands in 1870. Multiple other factors contributed to the war, including nationalism, imperialism, naval and arms races, aggressive political leaders, and so on, but by early 1914 Europe had divided into rival camps and seemed merely to be waiting for an excuse to start fighting. Possession of the harbor also allowed Japanese warships to undergo refitting and repair on site, rather than having to return to Japan. It also gave them a superior harbor to Dalmy, which they had been using up to this point, through which to bring in more manpower and supplies. Also, by freeing the remains of the Japanese Third Army, they were able to march north and join with the rest of the army facing a sizable Russian force at the ciry of Mukden. The additional troops that the Third Army provided proved key in the Japanese victory there in February 1905.
Imphal
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
War came to Burma in January 1942, when Japanese forces invaded from French Indochina. British forces in Burma were rapidly over-whelmed and fled for India, which they reached in May. Had the Japanese kept pushing, India lay open, but their unexpectedly quick occupation of Burma, coupled with the oncoming monsoon, convinced them to stop and consolidate first. That consolidation, owing to the drain on Imperial Japanese Army resources in other theaters, lasted eighteen months. The British Indian Army had not been lax in taking advantage of their respite and had been reinforcing Lieutenant General William Slim’s forces along the Burma-India frontier. The primary concentration of forces was at Imphal, capital of the Manipur Province of India, located some 400 miles east-northeast of Calcutta. The city of lmphal lay on the Imphal plain, a plateau some 2,500 feet above sea level and surrounded by mountains. The Indian Army 4th Corps was based there, commanded by Lieutenant General Geoffrey Scoones. The 4th Corps consisted of the 17th, 20th, and 23rd Divisions. Imphal at the outset was served by but one improved road and a few unimproved roads, but since 1942 Slim and Scoones had thousands of laborers working to pave two more roads in order to flood Imphal with all supplies necessary for the troops to either beat back a Japanese offensive or launch one of their own. By March 1944, Slim had to decide for which of those options to prepare.