Ancien Regime: Did you mean...?

The Anschluss ('fusion') of 12 March 1938 was the annexation and formal union of Austria with Germany. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the Nazi leader of Germany, dreamed of an empire which enclosed all German speakers, his 'Greater Germany'. Hitler's...

Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) was a lieutenant-general in the Nazi SS organisation, Gestapo chief, and head of Reich security. A favourite of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Heydrich controlled all police activity in the Third Reich and was instrumental...

The Renkioi Hospital, was a complex of innovative prefabricated buildings designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for use during the Crimean War (1853-56). Brunel had been moved by the heavy casualties and even higher deaths via disease during...

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen) is a human rights document adopted in the early stages of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Inspired by Enlightenment Age principles...

The involvement of France in the American War of Independence (1775-1783) was not only significant in the progress of the war itself but also as a critical moment for France. Whereas French intervention in the war would help turn the tide...

The affair of the diamond necklace (1784-86) was a scandal that centered around Queen Marie Antoinette of France (l. 1755-1793). Although the queen was innocent of any involvement in a plot to steal a luxurious diamond necklace, the scandal...

The Battle of Hondschoote, fought on 6-8 September 1793, was a major turning point in the Flanders Campaign of 1792-1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802). An army of the First French Republic defeated an Anglo-Hanoverian force...

The long-term goal of the Bolsheviks, who took power by force in Russia in November 1917, was a fairer society where workers and peasants were not exploited by wealthy capitalists. The more immediate consequences, though, of the Bolshevik...

The Mensheviks ('Minoritarians') and Bolsheviks ('Majoritarians') were two rival factions within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP). The split occurred in...

Women actively participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the two revolutions of 1917, which deposed the tsar and established a Bolshevik government. Women worked both within the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) and in...