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

Abstract
In A.D. 711 Muslim forces in modern Morocco crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. This was another in a series of conquests over the previous millennium: Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, and Visigoths. The Visigothic kingdom was too weak and fragmented to stop the onslaught. Not until 732 did the Muslim forces suffer a defeat at Tours in central France, following which they stayed south of the Pyrenees. In spite of overwhelming numbers and motivation, the Muslims failed to conquer all of Spain, and isolated pockets of Christians remained to harry them. The Christian kings and princes in northern Spain were rarely unified, but neither were the Moors, as the Muslims were known in Spain. Various Moorish factions made up the occupying population: Arabs in Andalusia and Aragon to the east; Berbers from just across the Straits in the mountainous country and high plains of central Spain, territory most like their homeland; Syrians in the south in the region that came to be called Granada. There an exiled heir of the Ummayad dynasty established a caliphate in Cordova to rival the recently established Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad. Over the succeeding centuries the two populations absorbed some of each other’s cultures and military methods, with activity waxing or waning depending on such actions as the Crusades or a jihad launched by the militant Almoravids or Almohads in North Africa.
Rhodes
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John (also known as the Knights Hospitalers) were organized during the First Crusade and operated a hospital in Jerusalem. These were Christian knights dedicated to spreading and protecting their faith. When the forces of lslam recaptured the city, the Knights withdrew to the port city of Acre. When Muslim forces captured that city after a six-week siege in 1291, a handful of Hospitalers escaped and returned to Italy to rebuild their forces. When, in 1307, the French King Philip IV arrested all members of another military order, the Knights Templar, in an attempt to weaken the military power of the Catholic Church, the Knights Hospitalers fled to avoid the same fate. The Knights of St. John chose the island of Thodes as their headquarters. Since their expulsion from the Holy Land they had concentrated on enhancing their naval as well as military power and owning an island so near their hated Muslim enemy would allow them to harass Muslim shipping and trade in the eastern Mediterranean. The Knights captured the island, and Pope Clement V confirmed their possession of it in 1309. For the next two centuries the Knights were a continuous thorn in the side of Muslim merchant and naval fleets.
Pavia
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
France’s King Louis XII was intent on expanding his country’s borders into the Italian peninsula, but he met with only mixed success. When his son Francis I came to the throne in 1515, he followed in his father’s footsteps. Although a war with England had just been concluded, Francis immediately allied himself to England’s Henry VIII and the city-state of Venice, arraying themselves against Spain, Milan, Florence, Switzerland, the Papal States, and the Holy Roman Empire. Francis’ capture of Milan in September 1515 was sufficient to break the alliance against him and he ended the war in possession of most of northern Italy. Five years later he was at war with Charles I of Spain, soon to assume the position of Holy Roman Emperor Charles Vas well. Francis’ invasion through the Pyrenees in 1521 sparked renewed fighting in Italy as well, but Francis was defeated at Milan and marched back home in 1523. In the spring of 524 the forces of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies recaptured northern Italy, then invaded Provence in southern France. A short siege of Marseilles ended when Francis marched a new army down the Thone River Valley, and imperial troops under Spanish General Charles de Lannoy withdrew across the Alps. French troops marched through the Argentiere Pass in October 1524. Lannoy, finding Milan in the grip of a plague, retreated farther south toward Lodi. Francis had no qualms about capturing the ailing city and left a force of 4,000 infantry and 600 men-at-arms as a garrison.
Famagusta
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
When the crusaders lost Acre to the Muslims in 1291, the forward port for European trade became Famagusta, on the western end of Cyprus. Between 1300 and 1370 the city prospered and became internationally known for its opulence. That changed in 1372, when Genoa captured the city in a surprise attack. They looted and pillaged the city in a style that would do credit to the worst of the barbarians, and slaughtered a huge segment of the population. Genoese control lasted until 1464, during which time the city’s depths matched its previous heights. Occasional attempts by Cypriot kings to recapture the city failed. In 1489 the Cypriot Queen Catarina Cornaro (of the Norman Lusignan family) ceded the island to Venice in return for a hand-some pension. Famagusta at that point became a Venetian possession, and they attempted to restore the city’s defenses if not its fabulous placed there exploded with such force that 1,000 Turks were killed. The tower was so completely destroyed there was nothing for either army to occupy. Through the rest of the month the Turks pounded the wall and arsenal tower with their artillery while exploding the occasional mine. Each breach was assaulted, but defenders behind a second defensive line built of sandbags held the attackers at bay. It was brave, but hopeless. The Turks received regular reinforcement and resupply while the defenders began starving. On 1 August they sent envoys to Lala Mustapha to discuss surrender terms.
La Rochelle
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The Huguenots (French Protestants) had existed in France since the 1520s, but had had an uneasy relationship with predominantly Catholic France. Between 1562 and 1597 eight religious wars were fought between the two factions, the Catholics primarily being represented by the monarchy. That changed when Henry of Navarre became King Henry IV, founder of the Bourbon dynasty. Although raised a Protestant, he accepted Catholicism in order to be more acceptable to his people; however, in 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted religious freedom throughout the country. All was well until Henry was assassinated and his son Louis XIII came to the throne. In the years since Henry’s accession the Huguenots had been granted prominent positions in the royal court and were given greater local autonomy than were Catholic regions. Strong in their faith and in their independent attitudes, the Huguenots ultimately drew the envy and the wrath of French Catholics. Under the influence of his prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu, Louis came to the conclusion that he could never be the absolute monarch he intended to be unless the Huguenots lost their political privileges. The main Huguenot leaders were Duke Henri de Rohan and his younger brother Soubise. It was Soubise who first acted in defiance of King Louis’s new policy. In January 1625 he raised a small force in the province of Poitou and temporarily occupied the island of The, just off the Huguenot port city of La Rochelle. He then stole ten ships and captured the nearby island of Oleron, defeating the royal garrison there. His brother Henri began raising troops in the strongly Protestant southeastern province of Languedoc. Richelieu rightly feared that with many nobles supporting the Huguenots, England and possibly the Netherlands would come to their aid, if not for religious reasons then for political ones.
Maastricht
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The Netherlands in the seventeenth century were a disjointed group of provinces. The northern area was known as the United Provinces and was controlled by the Dutch, whereas the southern provinces (modern Belgium) were under the control of the Spanish Habsburg monarchy, which had ruled all the Netherlands prior to the successful Dutch rebellion in the sixteenth century. It was the southern provinces that first attracted French interest when King Louis XIV decided to establish a more secure northern border at the expense of the Spanish, perennial French rivals. Louis believed that the Scheidt River should serve as a natural northern boundary for France, and in 1667 he set about to make it so. Louis developed an extremely tenuous legal claim to that territory by way of his marriage to Princess Maria Theresa, who was the daughter of Spain’s Philip IV by his first marriage. Although Charles II came to the Spanish throne, he was the son of Philip’s second marriage; Louis claimed that Maria Theresa’s inheritance should outrank that of the progeny of Philip’s second marriage and that the Netherlands were hers. It was an incredibly weak claim, but almost no one was in a position to challenge it. Louis had created one of the largest European armies ever, numbering some 120,000 men, and he entered the Spanish Netherlands on 24 May 1667. He enjoyed early success against the unprepared Spanish. By October Louis’ Marshal Henri Turenne captured a vast number of towns and forts and controlled the entire region. Having accomplished such easy victories in the north, Louis then turned eastward in 1668 to occupy the Habsburg province of Franche-Comte, on the Swiss frontier.
Londonderry
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
After the death of Oliver Cromwell and the short, unhappy rule of his son, King Charles II assumed the English throne in 1660. The restoration of the monarchy to the house of Stuart after the English Civil War brought a Catholic back to the throne of the predominantly Protestant nation. Although his reign was relatively uneventful, the accession of his son, Charles, duke of York, to the throne as James II in 1685 was a cause of some disquiet. James was intensely Catholic and began a campaign to increase the authority of the Church throughout the nation. When James fathered a son in 1688, the prospect of a continued Catholic dynasty was more than many Protestants could face. Parliament invited King William of Orange in the Netherlands to assume the throne. When he arrived the English army put up no resistance; James fled for France. In Ireland, the most powerful leader was the earl of Tyrconnel, named lord deputy of Ireland during James’ reign. Since 1685 he had been purging the Irish military of Protestants, which resulted in their replacement by Catholics of irregular military qualiry.
Lille
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Failure to break into the city combined with Eugene’s proximity convinced some of la Feuillade’s subordinates to advise abandoning the siege and turning their 60,000 men against the reliefforce. The French commander refused and continued his artillery bombardment. As he did so, Eugene’s forces arrived and occupied the Mount of Capuchins. From there, he looked down on the flank of The French entrenchments, with their guns pointing at the city. On the morning of 7 September, Eugene ordered his Prussian cavalry to strike the weakest point of the French lines, their right flank northwest of the city. Both Eugene and Victor Amadeus fought with their troops and were instrumental in rallying them against French counterattacks. Once inside the trench lines, the Savoyards turned French artillery on their former owners, forcing them to break. On the far lefi: flank, la Feuillade was able to withdraw his men in a more orderly fashion, until von Daun led a sally out of Turin that broke the French spirit and turned their retreat into a rout.
Arcot
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Eighteenth-century India was an active place. The Moghul Empire was falling apart as the breach was there any sign of French/Indian success, but when the commander of the assault force was killed his men fell back; the other breach was not seriously attacked. After but an hour’s fighting, Raza Sahib’s men broke off the attack. After some fire was exchanged, a truce was called to bury the dead. As Clive had but four dead and two wounded, his men spent the truce gathering up the dead attackers’ weapons. Early the next morning Clive learned that Raza’s army had fled Arcot, abandoning most of their artillery. The relief force from Madras arrived later that day. Clive’s force had achieved an amazing feat in the face of the numeric odds against them, but in India numbers were not always the telling factor. The death of the assault commander in the final charge broke his force’s spirit. Whatever the combination of circumstances that brought about Clive’s victory, the siege of Arcot marked a sea change in the British experience in India. “It may have been luck, it may have been bungling on the part of the enemy, but it created the legend of English courage and invincibility which was to carry English arms in India from one success to another” (Bence-Jones, Clive, p. 48). Many in southern India, including some of the attacking soldiers, joined the army of the East India Company. When the British began to seriously recruit and train the men from the armies and provinces they conquered, they ended up with a top-notch army of sepoys leavened with a sprinkling of British Army units assigned to India. France lost status, and the dip in her fortunes in India was made worse by French losses a few years later in the Seven Years War.
Gibraltar
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Gibraltar (an anglicized adaptation of Jebel Tariq, named for the Muslim conquetor of Spain) has been the site of at least fourteen sieges since the Muslims built a fort atop the Rock, also known as Ape’s Hill. It was the occupation of the site by Great Britain in 1704, however, that established that island nation as a major player in the Mediterranean Sea and a major thorn in Spain’s side (or bottom, as the case may be). A mere three days’ siege brought the British possession of the peninsula during the War of the Spanish Succession, and they beat back two later attempts to dislodge them in 1705 and 1726. In the late 1770s the British were deeply involved in trying to suppress the rebellion in their North American colonies. After the Americans’ victory over British forces at Saratoga in October 1777, the French decided to throw their lot in with the revolutionaries in February 1778. Spain followed suit the following year, and the Dutch declared war on Britain in 1780. While all three countries provided supplies for the Americans, Spain was most interested in regaining Gibraltar. With the British focused on North America and having to watch the French and Dutch as well, the Spanish government hoped that British resources would be stretched too thinly to stop them from regaining the peninsula.
Yorktown
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
After the American victory at Saratoga in the autumn of 1777, the fledgling United States was finally recognized by France, followed soon thereafter by Spain and the Netherlands. This recognition, and the alliance that came with it, gave the American rebels the material resources necessary to match the moral resources displayed by such leaders as George Washington. In the summer of 1778, Washington’s forces reoccupied Philadelphia after British forces under General William Howe were ordered back to New York City. Howe’s removal from command soon thereafter brought his subordinate, General Henry Clinton, into power. Clinton had to this point shown no indication that he would aggressively pursue the war against the Americans. Instead, he spent most of his time fortifying New York City against the attack he was convinced Washington was going to launch. Thus, for the two years following the rebels’ reoccupation of Philadelphia, the war remained rather low-key. In the summer of 1780 Clinton attempted to conspire with disaffected American General Benedict Arnold to acquire the major American fort at West Point on the Hudson River. That effort failed and Clinton spent his time improving his defenses. In the meantime, Washington spent his time trying to improve the caliber of the Continental Army, equip it with the supplies arriving from Europe, and begin planning with the French forces arriving under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau.
Delhi
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In the summer of 1757, the young and aggressive Robert Clive defeated a major Moghul force at Plassey, near Calcutta, and in doing so made Great Britain the primary power in India. A century later that power received its most dangerous challenge, not from foreign aggression but from the men the British had trained to serve in the Indian Army. The century of British rule had been a mixed blessing to the Indian population. While no foreign domination is popular with the indigenous people, the British did bring security to the person on the street and a much fairer administration than had existed under the declining Moghul dynasty. British power was exercised through “John Company,” the British East India Company, which, with its own “private” army, had grown into the largest trading company in the world. It had originally operated with a security force raised locally but trained and commanded by British troops and, since the company was financed in large part through the British government, over time British units were stationed in India as well.
Vicksburg
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Soon after the army of the Confederate States of America opened the American Civil War on 12 April 1861 by firing on the Union-held Fort Sumter in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to suppress the rebellion. They failed to do so, being soundly defeated in the opening battle at Manassas Junction, Virginia, three months later. While Major General troops occupying Vicksburg took possession of 172 cannon and more than 60,000 muskets and rifles, many of high quality. The battle cost the attackers more than 4,900 casualties, most of them lost in the opening assaults in May. Aside from the human cost, the Confederacy lost much more dearly. The fall of Vicksburg, coupled with the Confederate surrender of the besieged Port Hudson downriver in Louisiana, brought the length of the river into Union hands. Supplies and manpower available in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas were now unobtainable. As the Confederacy had been able to gain some materiel through Texas by way of Mexico, the last avenue of outside aid disappeared. Fighting continued in those three western states through the remainder of the war, but it became little more than a sideshow.
Manila
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In the late nineteenth century the United States was beginning to take on the duty of spreading the blessings of civilization and the American way to “lesser” peoples around the world. This, according to a famous poem that British poet Rudyard Kipling addressed to the United States, was the “white man’s burden,” which the British had been exercising in India, Asia, and Africa for decades. One of Americas first opportunities to aid “our little brown brothers” was in Cuba, an island the United States had long coveted
Peking
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Throughout the nineteenth century the ruling Manchu dynasty in China grew progressively weaker. This coincided with European colonial efforts in the Far East, and resulted in first British then other European powers forcing concessions from the Chinese government. Not only were trade treaties forced on the Chinese, but port cities were virtually assigned to each power as they carved out economic spheres of influence in various parts of China. Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan all had territory in which they held exclusive trade rights. While the Chinese did profit from this trade, there were serious negative side effects. The traditionally xenophobic Chinese believed that their culture, as the oldest in the world, was therefore the best. Having foreigners dictate policy, profit on their own terms, and introduce alien ideas all offended Chinese sensibilities. By the 1890s many Chinese could no longer stand being treated as inferiors in their own country and began organizing themselves to do something about it.
Kut-Al-Amara
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Kur was the longest unrelieved siege of any British force in history, and its loss brought about a major change in British military and political arenas in mid-World War I. Britain sent Indian Expeditionary Force D into the Persian Gulf in November 1914 just after the Ottoman Empire had entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. Ostensibly the force was to protect British oil interests in the region, but in actuality Force D’s mission was to overawe any potential Muslim uprising that might spread to India. The invading British and Indian troops of the 6th Indian Division occupied Basra after minimal shelling, then proceeded slowly up the Shatt-al-Arab to capture Kurna, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. A brief but intense fight south of Kurna at Shaiba cleared any Turkish troops out of the immediate Gulf region and brought innumerable protestations of loyalty from Arab tribes in the neighboThood.
Malta
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Franco ordered that only limited numbers of troops enter the city. Previously, when his forces had captured the southern city of Malaga, there had been widespread pillage; he wanted to avoid a repetition. The victory was complete, however. As Hugh Thomas wrote, “the fall of Bilbao marked the end of Basque independence. The conquerors made every effort to extinguish Basque separatist feeling. All schoolmasters were dismissed unless they could prove their political negativism. The Basque tongue was officially forbidden” (Thomas, Spanish Civil Wttr, pp. 447-448). Although the Anarchist faction among the defenders favored destroying the university and the church of St. Nicolas, Minister of the Interior Leizaola forbade it. The town itself was badly damaged, of course, from the heavy bombardment, but the mines and factories were untouched by either attacker or retreating defender. Both resources proved invaluable to the Nationalist war effort.
Leningrad
Authors: Davis Paul K 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany and its allies, commenced on 22 June 1941 and would, according to the Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hider, “shake the world.” Leningrad was a major objective of the original Barbarossa order to the senior officers and staff of the German army Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH). Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb’s Army Group North had been given the task of destroying the enemy forces fighting in the Baltic theater by occupying the Baltic ports, Leningrad, and Kronstadt. The Russian fleet would be deprived of its bases. As the invasion of the Soviet Union progressed, the bulk of the Wehrmacht was pulled to the south in pursuit of the mass of the surviving Russian forces under Marshal Budenny. Despite being listed as a major objective in the Barbarossa order, Leningrad was not of the same priority as Moscow or points south. As a result, OKH had kept Army Group North relatively weak and planned to reinforce it after the capture of Moscow. In August 1941, as the Army Group approached Leningrad, the broken terrain made up of forests, lakes, streams, and rivers slowed its advance and lessened the effectiveness of its armored formations. The land now began to favor the defense. The advantage that the Panzers enjoyed on the wide-open plains of Poland and along the frontiers of the Soviet Union was gradually disappearing as the Army Group approached Leningrad. Conventional infantry and pioneers (engineers) now became more important.