Colonial Revolutions

The European empires in the New World lasted in most cases for a little more than 300 years. By the early nineteenth century most European colonies had frown off their Old World masters and had became independent nations. All that remained of the great New World empires were Britain’s colony in Canada and a scattering of island colonies in the Caribbean Sea.

The first revolution by the thirteen British colonies resulted in the eventual formation of the United States. These colonies were chafing under rule by the Parliament in Britain with no American representation. They felt handicapped by British prohibitions on expanding west into Native American territories, and they disliked laws that gave advantages to British traders and shippers at the colonists’ expense. When revolution broke out, lead by General George Washington, the British were unable to win the war militarily, and made peace with France, Spain, and the Netherlands sided with the colonists.

The French occupation of Spain and Portugal in the early nineteenth century cut off those countries from their colonies in South America and set off the wars of independence. The success of these revolutions was assured when the United States stated its Monroe Doctrine, forbidding any power from further conquests or colony placement in the Americas, and Great Britain made it clear that it’s navy would not allow such action either.

Story of Titanic

Birth of a Great Lady

Construction of the RMS Titanic began on March 31, 1909 at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was one of three large transatlantic liners commissioned at the time by the White Star Line and were intended to be the biggest and most luxurious ships ever built. On May 31, 1911, her hull was launched and the outfitting completed on March 31, 1912. Carrying the RMS (Royal Mail Service) title, she began her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 at Southampton, England, bound for New York under the command of Captain Edward J. Smith.

A Fateful Maiden Voyage

After stops at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland to pick up more passengers and mail, she continued towards New York with 2,077 people aboard. The first-class section boasted 324 passengers including some of the most prominent and wealthy people in the world. These names included industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, U.S. presidential aide Archibald Butt, Macy’s department store owner Isidor Strauss and his wife Ide, journalist William Thomas Stead, silent film actress Dorothy Gibson and many others, including Thomas Andrews one of Harland & Wolff’s Managing Directors (and nephew of Harland & Wolff’s chairman William J. Pirrie) and White Star managing director J. Bruce Ismay. 277 second-class passengers, 708 third-class passengers, 885 crew members and 13 postal clerks and musicians filled cabins on the lower decks.

Tragedy in the Atlantic

At 11:40 PM on the freezing cold, calm and clear night of April 14, lookouts Reginald Lee and Fredrick Fleet spotted an iceberg directly in Titanic’s path. Captain Smith had received several iceberg warnings over the wireless the last few days, and altered her course slightly to the south, thereby stirring Titanic directly in the iceberg’s path, though now it was clear that the course had not been shifted enough, First Officer Murdoch immediately ordered a turn to starboard and then a stop on all engines. However, large ships like Titanic weren’t designed to turn rapidly, and she was not able to clear the iceberg so it scraped along the hull on the starboard side. 

After she stopped Captain Smith ordered an inspection below decks, and just before midnight it became apparent the Titanic would sink within two hours or more. Shortly after a distress call was sent out and lifeboats were readied. Many passengers were initially reluctant to leave Titanic, as she was alleged to be unsinkable. This reluctance was compounded by the “women and children first” policy that the crew were enforcing (men were generally allowed aboard lifeboats only as crew or oarsmen.) By the point that most of the lifeboats had left, the trim of Titanic became more pronounced and panic began to ensue. Sadly, Titanic only had 20 lifeboats – more than the British Board of Regulations called for at the time, yet with a total capacity of 1,178 persons – well below the number of people aboard. Due to the location of staircases on A through D decks that led directly to the Boat Deck, first- and second-class passengers found it easy to make it to the lifeboats, while the more isolated third-class passengers and sleeping crew members on the lower decks found access more difficult; this difficulty was added to by crew members waiting for instructions to let people from the lower decks go up to the Boat Deck. Moreover, compounding the tragedy, due to the ensuring confusion, not all of the lifeboats departed with a full complement of passengers. As an example, one of the boats designed to hold 40 people left the ship with only 12 aboard.

At 2:05 AM, all lifeboats save two had been launched and the entire bow was submerged. By 2:10 AM, the stern rose from the water (possibly after the keel broke apart amidships) and the Boat Deck sank up to the waterline. At this point, the large number of people still on the deck were scrambling towards the highest point afloat – the stern section. As the stern rose straight up in the air, the ship broke in two pieces, and the bow sank. This was followed a few seconds later, at 2:20 AM, by the stern, which descended vertically into the sea. In all, 1495 perished, many of dying of hypothermia in the freezing water after failing to reach a lifeboat. Among the victims were 123 first-class passengers, 159 second-class passengers, all the postmen and musicians, 673 crew members, and 527 third class passengers, many of whom were still below in the lower decks.

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD; I shall not what. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters; he restores my soul; he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death; I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff; they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen!!!

Psalm 23:1-6

And God shall wipe away all their tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Revelations 21:4

The Aftermath

Despite the fact that many of the lifeboats were well below capacity, only one returned to search for survivors, well after most people in the water had succumbed to the freezing temperatures; only five survivors were found with two eventually perishing in the lifeboat. The closest ship to respond to Titanic’s distress signal was the RMS Carpathia, which was 58 miles away at the time and took four hours to reach Titanic at daybreak. The Carpathia picked up the lifeboats with a total of 712 people and took them to New York, while the SS Californian, SS Virginian, and the SS Minia steamed to the site of the sinking to look for any additional survivors. None were found. Instead, they found light flotsam from the ship such as paper, pillows, and linens, plus scores of bodies floating in the frigid waters. Most of these were identified and taken to Nova Scotia for burial. The last survivor of the Titanic disaster was British resident Millvina Dean, who was two months old at the time of the sinking and who passed away in 2010 at the age of 98.

The Discovery

Due to an error in the initial distress report of the latitude and longitude of which the Titanic sank, the remains of the wreck remained lost for over seven decades as legends surrounding her grew in the popular consciousness. In 1985, explorers and oceanographers Jean-Louis Michel and Dr. Robert Ballad the wreck 22 miles from its originally reported location. Until this time, it was not known for certain if she broke in half; her discovery uncovered that fact as well as allowing for sonar studies that showed she did not suffer a large gash on her starboard side from the iceberg as originally believed, but instead suffered damage from the steel plates of the hull buckling, popping rivets, and separating along a narrow line from the effects of the sideswipe. In the decades since her discovery, most of the non-structural artifacts in the debris field and items lying loose on the hull have been removed from the wreck site by salvagers, primarily RMS Titanic Inc. (a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc.), who were awarded salvor-in-possession of the wreck by a US District Court in 1994 and have kept the rights despite several court challenges since. Calls for Titanic’s preservation have been sounded since shortly after her discovery, but submersible tourism and salvage operations (which have experienced a significant jump since the release of the international blockbuster TITANIC in 1997) continue up to the present. Today the Titanic is being slowly eaten away by underwater bacteria called rustics.

Though that Titanic is not going to last much longer; she shall never be forgotten; she will go on. There are three things that will make sure of that: first, that tragic night; second, the film and third, the song.

The Titanic disaster was a story of heroes: Captain Smith, even though he made mistakes with the Titanic he made it up by sticking to his duty as captain. The wireless operators, Harold Bride and Jack Philips, sent distress calls all night, without breaks. The musicians,  I Salonisti, who continued to play as Titanic sank to try and instill a sense of calm. The postmen who tried to save the mail, unconcerned about themselves, unfortunately the water overwhelmed them. Molly Brown, helping people into a lifeboat, having no intention of getting in the boat. Thomas Andrews, assisting and advising passengers to lifeboats. The disaster was also a story of villains: J. Bruce Ismay, for making Titanic an idol then being a coward by climbing into a lifeboat. Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon, who were in the lifeboat with only 12 people, bribed the officers to row away from Titanic, despite being ordered to return to the ship to get more passengers. Fortunately, all these villains were highly criticized by the press.

The only explanation for this tragedy is that an object was once again used to test God and He had to teach people a lesson through nature’s wrath.

Thanks to Google for photos.

The Battle of Britain

In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself.

For the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war. Over and over again we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies. But it has been in vain. We have been forced into a conflict. For we are called, with our allies, to meet the challenge of a principle which, if it were to prevail, would be fatal to any civilized order in the world.  It is the principle which permits a state, in the selfish pursuit of power, to disregard its treaties and its solemn pledges; which sanctions the use of force, or threat of force, against the sovereignty and independence of other states.

Such a principle, stripped of all disguise, is surely the mere primitive doctrine that might is right; and if this principle were established throughout the world, the freedom of our own country and of the whole British Commonwealth of Nations would be in danger. But far more than this – the peoples of the world would be kept in the bondage of fear, and all hopes of settled peace and of the security of justice and liberty among nations would be ended.

This is the ultimate issue which confronts us. For the sake of all that we ourselves hold dear, and of the world’s order and peace, it is unthinkable that we should refuse to meet the challenge.

It is to this high purpose that I now call my people at home and my peoples across the seas, who will make our cause their own. I ask them to stand calm, firm, and united in this time of trial. The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead, and war can no longer be confined to the battlefield. But we can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God. If one and all we keep resolutely faithful to it, ready for whatever service or sacrifice it may demand, then, with God’s help, we shall prevail.

May He bless and keep us all.

King George VI’s Wartime Speech

3 September 1939

Turning once again, and this time more generally, to the question of invasion, I would observe that there has never been a period in all these long centuries of which we boast when an absolute guarantee against invasion, still less against serious raids, could have been given to our people. In the days of Napoleon, of which I was speaking just now, the same wind which would have carried his transports across the Channel might have driven away the blockading fleet. There was always the chance, and it is that chance which has excited and befouled the imaginations of many Continental tyrants. Many are the tales that are told. We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver. I think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye. We must never forget the solid assurances of sea power and those which belong to air power if it can be locally exercised.

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once more able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government – every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Winston Churchill’s ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech

4 June 1940

The Battle of Britain is about to begin… The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitlers knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of prevented science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’

Winston Churchill’s ‘This was their finest hour’ speech

18 June 1940

The gratitude of every home in our island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of guilt, goes out to the British airmen, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers, who will play on invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Speech to the House of Commons on 20 August 1940

‘Their Finest Hour’

The Battle of Britain raged from June to October 1940, a short but concentrated conflict which, had the outcome been different, might have seen a successful invasion by Germany, and a Nazi regime ruling Britain. The road to this brief but intense battle began when the appeasement policy of Neville Chamberlain’s government towards the aggression of the Hitler regime finally failed in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany.

By the time Winston Churchill stepped into the position of Prime Minister on 10 May 1940, Germany had occupied Norway and Denmark, invaded the Netherlands and was well on the way to turning back the British Expeditionary Force in France; soon it would bring France to submission. The gravity of the British situation was brought home in the incredible rescue, ‘Operation Dynamo’, of over 330,000 Allied troops in the evacuation from Dunkirk during the nine days from 26 May to 4 June.

The success of the operation camouflaged the real losses to the British Army and the Royal Air Force in France, but the resolve of Fighter Command’s Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding ensured that Britain retained a reserve of fighter aircraft, even though the Hurricane squadrons in France lost 200 machines – a significant proportion of the RAF total fighter strength. At this low point in Britain’s fortunes, Churchill electrified and boosted the nation with his speech to the Commons on 4 June: ‘We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender.’

Hitler and his Blitzkrieg commanders were understandably confident about their war machine but Nazi hubris bred false assumptions that would lead to Germany’s unexpected defeat in the Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe had dominated the skies of Western Europe during the Blitzkrieg; its task now was to crush the RAF and disable its aircraft production. Field Marshal Hermann Goering, the Luftwaffe commander, boasted that the RAF would be broken in four days and its production capability wiped out in four weeks. However, the RAF were not to succumb to Goering’s plan. The Battle of Britain was to have four clear phases and on 18 June, Churchill predicted Britain’s struggle for survival with his famous ‘Finest Hour’ speech.

The first phase of the German offensive, dubbed ‘Kanalkampf’ (translated ‘Channel battles’), targeted Britain’s shipping and coastal defences to bring home the country’s vulnerability, isolation and dependence on sea transport. Traditional shipping routes made extensive use of the English Channel and the North Sea, placing convoys of ships within striking distance of German fighters and bombers, as well as heavy coastal guns sited close by in France. Early in the phase of the Battle, Britain’s Radio Direction Finding (RDF) Chain (a prototype radar developed as an early warning system in the 1930s), proved effective in anticipating Luftwaffe raids, scrambling the fighter squadrons of Coastal Command to meet the Luftwaffe before they reached their targets. However, the German raiders employed teasing tactics, feinting raids to spook RAF aircraft into the air, calculating their flying time and the need to return to base to refuel. These same tactics kept the civilian population on constant alert, fearful that an air raid was imminent.

On 12 August, the pace and spread of German attacks stepped up as Goering set in motion preparations for the September invasion of the British Isles, code-named ‘Operation Sealion’. This phase of the Battle was called ‘Adlerangriff’ or ‘Eagle Attack’ and was launched with massed attacks by hundreds of bombers and fighters on 13 August, ‘Adlertag’ (‘Eagle Day’). By mid-August, fine weather meant the Luftwaffe had clear skies for their daylight raids and a series of attacks were raised on Britain’s RDF Chain with the intention of permanently disabling it. The speed with which the RDF was restored caused the Luftwaffe to draw incorrect conclusions about the robustness of the system; if they had persevered with their plan, Britain would have been much more vulnerable. In fact the Luftwaffe failed to destroy the RAF’s fleet on the ground and although the Messerschmitt Bf-109 was superior to the RAF’s main defensive aircraft, the Hurricane and its glamorous cousin the Supermarine Spitfire, the Luftwaffe was unable to get the better of Fighter Command in the air, paying a heavy price in machines and pilots. The 15 August brought serious losses to the Luftwaffe – they named it ‘Black Thursday’; on 18 August – ‘the Hardest Day’ – losses on both sides were equally high.

The next phase of the Battle, which began on 24 August, concentrated on the destruction of RAF airfields. Although the Luftwaffe killed many ground personnel and damaged airfields with monotonous regularity, they still did not succeed in destroying Fighter Command’s defensive capability. Much of this failure must be attributed to the tactical skills of Fighter Command had to calculate their response to German raids with the greatest care: scrambling squadrons too soon might lead to their running out of fuel just as German raiders were approaching their targets. Luftwaffe Command knew that RDF would alert Fighter Command and often set traps for the hard-pressed RAF, which quickly realised the cat-and-mouse element to German attacks and responding too soon or too late or with too few or too many aircraft could have disastrous results. Dowding’s conservative approach, emulated by Air Vice Marshal Keith Park, in charge of 11 Group, kept up a continuous response to Luftwaffe attack, despite the exhaustion of pilots and the loss of aircraft.

At the beginning of September 1940, the RAF Fighter Command was at breaking point: the RAF had lost 300 pilots in August alone, and had only been able to replace 260 of them; in the 14 days leading up to 4 September, 295 fighters were destroyed, with 171 badly damaged; and in 11 Group, which bore the brunt of Luftwaffe raids, 6 out of 7 sector stations were almost out of action. Nevertheless, despite being on the brink of collapse, Fighter Command had succeeded in convincing the Luftwaffe that its strategy to destroy British fighter capability had failed. Alongside this state of affairs, in late August, German bombers had dropped bombs on civilians in London; in response, Bomber Command launched a night raid on Berlin on 25 August. Inexplicably, this enraged Hitler, who had given strict instructions that the Luftwaffe should not bomb civilian targets unless he specifically ordered it, and led to a change in the German’s line of attack when, on 4 September, his response was the escalated bombing of British cities. Just at the point where Fighter Command was on its knees with a shortage of planes and pilots, as well as its airfields being at breaking point, the Luftwaffe halted their effective strategy for a change in tactics.

On 7 September, the new German approach ushered in the fourth and final phase of the Battle of Britain with the beginning of the Blitz, as 950 German aircraft attacked London in the first and last massed daylight raid on the capital; 300 civilians were killed and 1,300 seriously wounded. For the next 57 consecutive days, London was remorselessly bombed in night raids. Fighter Command was amazed at this development, which perversely saved it from destruction, allowing its forces to recuperate and airfields to be restored. It was a terrible price for Londoners to pay, the death toll rose to 2,000 by 10 September. However, 15 September marked the heaviest bombardment of the capital so far – but at a loss to the Luftwaffe of 56 planes. This date, originally designated as the launch for ‘Operation Sealion’, would prove a turning point in the Battle of Britain, as the German High Command realised that their invasion of Britain would be at an unsustainable cost. Thus, 15 September became Battle of Britain Day. On 17 September, Hitler abandoned ‘Operation Sealion’ but not until 29 October could Britain breathe a little easier as the stream of German raiding aircraft subsided.

At the start of the Battle of Britain, Fighter Command was outnumbered four to one by the Luftwaffe and faced a better-equipped German force that was battle-hardened and had superior aerial tactics. Both sides revealed, in almost equal measure, gaps in their knowledge and understanding of the opposition. The Germans under-estimated Britain’s will to defend her shores and over-estimated the RAF’s defensive capability. Additionally, German intelligence was inferior to British, which began to experience the benefit of ULTRA – the British code name for the breaking of the German Enigma decoding system. On its part, RAF Fighter Command over-estimated the Luftwaffe strength and will, but it is easy to understand why this happened, when the attrition of such huge numbers of aircraft continued for so long. In reality, however, the Luftwaffe was also close to exhaustion by September 1940.

The milestone date for the end of the Battle of Britain – 29 October – was arbitrary to some extent, as Britain would continue to experience the German Blitz until early summer of 1941. Nevertheless, at this point in the war, it was possible to begin counting the cost of this decisive battle: during the Battle of Britain from 10 July to 31 October, Britain lost 1,065 aircraft (including 1,004 fighters) and 544 pilots; German losses numbered 1,922 aircraft (including 879 fighters, 80 Stukas and 881 bombers). British civilian losses in the Blitz that ended in May 1941 soared to over 40,000 killed and 50,000 injured. German Luftwaffe losses from August 1940 until March 1941 were nearly 3,000 aircraft lost and 3,363 aircrews killed, with 2,117 wounded and 2,641 taken prisoner.

Decisive Battles of England since 1066

The Battle of Hastings

In 1066, William Duke of Normandy (c. 1028-87) defeated Harold Godwinson (c. 1022-66), the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. England had fallen into the Norman orbit earlier, with Edward the Confessor spending his youth in exile at the Norman court while Cnut ruled England. William claimed that Edward promised him the English crown, but when Edward died, in 1066, Harold was elected king. He marched north to defeat a Norse invasion, before dashing south to Hastings to face William, where he was killed and his army shattered. William the Conqueror quickly took southeast England, then the southwest, and suppressed a great uprising in the north in 1069. In 1066, the England that we know today was born.

The Wars of the Roses & Bosworth

In 1483, the Wars of the Roses flared up again. Fought between Lancastrians and the Yorkists – rival Plantagenet claimants to the English throne – it had appeared to have been settled for good in 1471. In 1470, the Yorkist Edward IV, who had seized the throne from the hapless Lancastrian Henry VI in 1461, had been forced from it by a group of vengeful magnates. In 1471, with Burgundian support from Charles the Bold, Edward retook the throne. Henry was murdered, probably on Edward’s orders.

Edward, now grossly corpulent, died in 1483. Instantly, the conflict reignited, albeit in a different form. The problem was that the new king, Edward VI, was only 12 and that his mother’s family, the Woodvilles, saw the boy-king as an obvious opportunity to proclaim themselves regents – in effect, to seize the throne themselves, undoing Edward IV’s legacy. This at least was the view of the dead king’s most consistent champion, his brother the Duke of Gloucester, who was competent, intelligent and loyal. Gloucester characteristically pre-empted the Woodvilles by seizing the throne himself, as Richard III, executing the leading Woodvilles and imprisoning Edward V with his younger brother in the Tower of London where both were then murdered. If no definitive proof has ever been offered that Richard III was responsible for the deaths of his nephews, the overwhelming probability is that he ordered their killings; his hold on the throne was too shaky to permit any rivals to survive in he could eliminate them. Richard III was vilified in later Tudor propaganda. But given the turbulent treachery of late-medieval England, Richard’s actions seem fairly rational. Sooner or later the Woodvilles would have sought an excuse for his death.

But there was a further Lancastrian claimant, Henry Tudor. His right to the throne was a tenuous at best, but critically he had the support of the French king, Charles VIII. In August 1485, Henry led an invasion from France. By the end of the month, Richard was dead, killed at the Battle of Bosworth, his superiority in numbers undone by the ineptitude of many of his commanders. Henry Tudor, in turn, crowned on the field of the battle, had become Henry VII. The Tudor monarch’s seizure of the throne might easily have provoked yet another round in this destabilizing infighting. But Henry VII would prove among the most pragmatic, capable and far-sighted of kings. Under the Tudors, England was significantly strengthened, its magnates tamed and its government comprehensively overhauled.

Battle of Gravelines 1588 (Spanish Armada)

The small port of Gravelines was then part of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, close to the border with France and the closest Spanish territory to England. Medina Sidonia tried to re-form his fleet there and was reluctant to sail further east knowing the danger from the shoals off Flanders, from which his Dutch enemies had removed the sea marks.

The English had learned more of the Armada’s strengths and weaknesses during the skirmishes in the English Channel and had concluded it was necessary to close within 100 yards to penetrate the oak hulls of the Spanish ships. They had spent most of their gunpowder in the first engagements, and had after the Isle of Wight been forced to conserve their heavy shot and powder for a final attack near Gravelines. During all the engagements, the Spanish heavy guns could not easily be run in for reloading because of their close spacing and the quantities of supplies stowed between decks, as Francis Drake had discovered on capturing the damaged Rosario in the Channel. Instead the gunners fired once and then jumped to the rigging to attend to their main task as marines ready to board enemy ships, as had been the practice in naval warfare at the time. In fact, evidence from Armada wrecks in Ireland shows that much of the fleet’s ammunition was never spent. Their determination to fight by boarding, rather than cannon fire at a distance, proved a weakness for the Spanish; it had been effective on occasions such as the battles of Lepanto and Ponta Delgada (1582), but the English were aware of this strength and sought to avoid it by keeping their distance.

With its superior maneuverability, the English fleet provoked Spanish fire while staying out of range. The English then closed, firing repeated and damaging broadsides into the enemy ships. This also enabled them to maintain a position to windward so that the heeling Armada hulls were exposed to damage below the water line. Many of the gunners were killed or wounded, and the task of manning the cannon often fell to the regular foot soldiers on board, who did not know how to operate the guns. The ships were close enough for sailors on the upper decks of the English and Spanish ships to exchange musket fire. After eight hours, the English ships began to run out of ammunition, and some gunners began loading objects such as chains into cannons. Around 4:00 pm, the English fired their last shots and were forced to pull back.

Five Spanish ships were lost. The galleass San Lorenzo ran aground at Calais and was taken by Howard after murderous fighting between the crew, the galley slaves, the English, and the French, who ultimately took possession of the wreck. The galleons San Mateo and San Felipe drifted away in a sinking condition, ran aground on the island of Walcheren the next day, and were taken by the Dutch. One carrack ran aground near Blankenberge; another foundered. Many other Spanish ships were severely damaged, especially the Spanish and Portuguese Atlantic-class galleons which had to bear the brunt of the fighting during the early hours of the battle in desperate individual actions against groups of English ships. The Spanish plan to join with Parma’s army had been defeated and the English had gained some breathing space, but the Armada’s presence in northern waters still posed a great threat to England.

Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech to the Troops at Tilbury 1588

My loving people,

         We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the meantime, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people. 

In September 1588 the Armada sailed around Scotland and Ireland into the North Atlantic. The ships were beginning to show wear from the long voyage, and some were kept together by having their hulls bundled up with cables. Supplies of food and water ran short, and the cavalry horses were cast overboard into the sea. The intention would have been to keep well to the west of the coast of Scotland and Ireland, in the relative safety of the open sea. However, there being at that time no way of accurately measuring longitude, the Spanish were not aware that the Gulf Stream was carrying them north and east as they tried to move west, and they eventually turned south much further to the east than planned, a devastating navigational error. Off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland the fleet ran into a series of powerful westerly winds, which drove many of the damaged ships further towards the lee shore. Because so many anchors had been abandoned during the escape from the English fireships off Calais, many of the ships were incapable of securing shelter as they reached the coast of Ireland and were driven onto the rocks. The late 16th century, and especially 1588, was marked by unusually strong North Atlantic storms, perhaps associated with a high accumulation of polar ice off the coast of Greenland, a characteristic phenomenon of the “Little Ice Age.” As a result, more ships and sailors were lost to cold and stormy weather than in direct combat.

Following the gales it is reckoned that 5,000 men died, by drowning, starvation and slaughter at the hands of English forces after they were driven ashore in Ireland; only half of the Spanish Armada fleet returned home to Spain. Reports of the passage around Ireland abound with strange accounts of brutality and survival. Some survivors were concealed by Irish people, but few shipwrecked Spaniards survived to be taken into Irish service, fewer still to return home.

In the end, 67 ships and less than 10,000 men survived. Many of the men were near death from disease, as the conditions were very cramped and most of the ships ran out of food and water. Many more died in Spain, or on hospital ships in Spanish harbours, from diseases contracted during the voyage. It was reported that, when Philip II learned of the result of the expedition, he declared, “I sent the Armada against men, not God’s winds and waves”.

English losses stood at 50–100 dead and 400 wounded, and none of their ships had been sunk. But after the victory, typhus, dysentery and hunger killed a number of sailors and troops as they were discharged without pay: a demoralising dispute occasioned by the government’s fiscal shortfalls left many of the English defenders unpaid for months, which was in contrast to the assistance given by the Spanish government to its few surviving men.

The English fleet was still cautious of the remaining Armada after the Battle of Gravelines, requiring it to remain on duty even as some of its sailors died. The following year Elizabeth I launched the Counter Armada, under Sir Francis Drake, but it was unsuccessful in its goals, resulting in Phillip II retaining some naval superiority.

Twentieth Century History (1939 – 1945)

The Second World War

Blitzkrieg in Poland

The Second World War began when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France had pledged to defend Poland. On 3 September the French and the British governments declared war on Germany. The French and the British could do very little to stop a German victory in Poland. By the end of the month, Polish resistance had collapsed. On 17 September Soviet forces crossed the Polish frontier and took control of part of eastern Poland. This was part of the deal Hitler had struck with Stalin before the war in the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Stalin also moved his troops into the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

In Poland and each of the following campaigns Hitler’s methods became known as ‘Blitzkrieg’ or lightning war. Blitzkrieg involved the use of overwhelming force, in as short a time as possible, in order to crush the enemy. Extensive use was made of tanks and other armoured vehicles. The Germans had much success with this technique.

The Phoney War

Having succeeded in the east, Hitler’s thoughts turned west. He began to make plans for an attack on France. Meanwhile, the British and the French tried to weaken Germany by stopping German trade by sea. In particular they tried to cut off the supply of iron ore from Scandinavia. From October 1939 to April 1940 there was little fighting between Britain, France and Germany. This period became known as the phoney war.

Fighting did take place in the winter of 1939-40 between the USSR and the small Baltic state of Finland. The Finnish army fought with great skill and ferocity and it took from October 1939 to March 1940 for the USSR to defeat her small neighbour. Eventually, Finland was defeated and forced to give territory and a naval base to the USSR. The Soviet struggle to defeat Finland convinced Hitler that the Red Army could easily be beaten by Germany. His secret long-term plan was to turn against the Soviet Union and set up a new German empire in the east.

In April 1940 the French and the British started mining Norwegian waters to stop the trade in iron ore. Germany responded by invading Norway and Denmark. The fall of Finland, Norway and Denmark led to a political crisis in Britain and France. Both prime ministers were forced to resign. In Britain, Winston Churchill came to power in May 1940.

The Fall of France

After months of waiting Hitler struck west in May 1940. The Netherlands, Belgium and France were invaded and rapidly defeated by German forces. A British army was forced to flee from the continent back to Britain from the port of Dunkirk. Germany took direct control of much of France, leaving part of the south and south-east of the country under a puppet French government, with its capital in the town of Vichy. At this point it seemed that Hitler had virtually won the war. France was beaten and much of Europe was occupied. Only Britain remained to fight Germany. Sensing that the war was nearly over Mussolini joined forces with Germany in June 1940. He wanted Italy to get some of the rewards of victory.

Having defeated France, Hitler prepared for a German invasion of Britain. However, before invading Britain, German forces invaded a small group of islands just off the northern coast of France known as the Channel Islands on 30 June 1940 until 9 May 1945. The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by Germany. The German air force, the Luftwaffe, set out to win control of the air over Britain. This was the first stage of the invasion plan. German planes bombed military sites, factories and the capital city, London, in August and September 1940. The British air force, the RAF, fought back and clash of the two air forces became known as the Battle of Britain. Although there were heavy losses on both sides, the RAF got the upper hand in the Battle of Britain and as a result Hitler was forced to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain.

The Italian attempt to share in Hitler’s victory went disastrously wrong. An Italian army was defeated by Britain in North Africa and Greece successfully stopped an Italian attempt to invade. Hitler was obliged to send German forces to North Africa and to Greece in order to assist his ally.

Hitler turns east

One of the great turning points of the war took place on 22 June 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in an operation known to the German leaders as Barbarossa. At first the blitzkrieg approach was successful for Germany. An army of over 3 million men stormed into the USSR, armed with over 3,000 tanks and 5,000 aircraft. Stalin was taken completely by surprise. German forces penetrated deep inside the Soviet Union capturing key cities such as Smolensk and Kiev. By mid-October over 3 million Soviet troops had been captured and the Germans were moving in on Moscow. At this point the campaign began to go wrong for Hitler. The German army reached the suburbs of the Soviet capital but met with fierce resistance and failed to capture the city. German troops weren’t equipped for the freezing Russian winter because Hitler thought that the war would be over in three months.

America joins the war: the attack on Pearl Harbor

While the battle for Moscow raged, the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America, became involved in the war. On 7 December 1941 the Japanese went to war against the United States with a surprise attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbor. The result of this was that the United States joined forces with Britain and the USSR to fight Germany, Japan and Italy. In the end this was to swing the balance of the war decisively against Germany. At first Japan was all-conquering and in the early months of 1942 Japanese forces seized control of much of Eastern Asia and the islands of the Pacific.

The tide turns

In the summer of 1942 the Germans renewed their attack on the USSR. They concentrated their forces in the south and tried to capture the southern city of Stalingrad. A fierce battle for the control of the city was fought in the autumn of 1942. The Soviet force launched a counter-attack in November and the German army eventually surrendered. At the end of January 1943 the German army at Stalingrad surrendered. The battle for Stalingrad was a crucial event. It proved that the Red Army could beat the German army. After Stalingrad Germany was on the defensive and the war began to go against Hitler.

There were further decisive battles in 1942. In June the United States stopped the tide of Japanese conquest at the Battle of Midway Island. After Midway, American forces began a slow process of capturing the islands of the Pacific from the Japanese. In October 1942 the German army in North Africa was defeated by British forces at the Battle of El Alamein. By May 1943 the Germans and Italians had been completely driven out of North Africa.

The Holocaust

Both the Germans and the Japanese treated many of their prisoners with extreme brutality. The most horrific atrocity of the war was the way millions of Jewish civilians were systematically murdered in Europe. This act is now known as the Holocaust. As German forces captured territory in Eastern Europe special army units massacred local Jews and other groups disliked by the Nazi Germans. In July 1941, the German leadership decided on a ‘Final Solution’ to the question of how Jewish people should be treated by the Nazi authorities. Death camps were set up to exterminate the Jewish population. Many were gassed to death; others were used as slave labour until they died. There can be no doubt that Hitler personally approved the decision.

The end game

After the decisive battles of 1942 the war went against Hitler and his allies. However, progress was slow:

–          British and American forces landed in Italy in 1943. The Germans put up stiff resistance to the liberation of Italy. Rome was taken in June 1944 but it wasn’t until 1945 that the whole of Italy was under British and American control.

–          In January 1944, the Germans abandoned the siege of Leningrad, which had been going on for over two years. By the summer of 1944, the Germans were in retreat across the Soviet Union.

–          France was invaded on 6 June 1944. This was known as ‘D-Day’. By 25 August, the British and American forces had reached Paris. The Germans launched a counter-attack in December 1944 in the Ardennes area of Belgium during Operation Market Garden. After some early success the German attack was turned back.

–          The United States liberated territories in the Pacific taken by Japan. The Japanese forces put up ferocious resistance at every stage. In October 1944 the Americans invaded the Philippines. Over 170,000 Japanese soldiers were killed before the capital, Manila, was taken.

German power in Europe finally collapsed in April 1945. Soviet forces captured Berlin and Hitler committed suicide. The German forces finally surrendered on 8 May 1945 but the war continued against Japan. The American government was very concerned at the level of Japanese resistance. The Americans expected a huge loss of life if they invaded and tried to conquer the islands of Japan. American scientists had been for some years on the development of a new kind of weapon – the immensely powerful Atomic Bomb. In August 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The devastation caused by these bombs forced the Japanese government to surrender on 14 August 1945. The Second World War was over.

Twentieth Century History (1945 – 1991)

The Start of the Cold War

The wartime allies become enemies

Soon after the end of the war the USA and the USSR became hostiles towards each other. A period of hostility known as the Cold War lasted until the late 1980s.

Yalta and Potsdam

The leaders of the USA, USSR and Britain met twice in 1945 to discuss the world after the war. They had met once before in Tehran, 1943.

Yalta, February 1945
Leaders present:	Roosevelt (USA), Stalin (USSR), Churchill (Britain)
Discussed:	Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe
Agreed:	Non-communists to be part of emergency governments Free elections as soon as possible
Outcome:	Soviet Union did not allow democracy in PolandGreat bitterness caused in the USA
Potsdam, July 1945
Leaders present:	Truman (USA), Stalin (USSR), Churchill, replaced by Attlee (Britain)
Discussed:	The future running of Germany
Agreed:	Borders between Germany and Poland wiping out Nazi influence arrangements for reparations
Outcome:	USA prevented Soviet Union involvement in the rich Ruhr area of Germany and occupied JapanThe Soviet Union blocked American involvement in Eastern Europe

Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech in March 1946

From Stettin to the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient cities of Central and Eastern Europe: Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia. All these famous cities lie in the Soviet sphere and all are subject to a high and increasing control from Moscow. The Russian-dominated Polish government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany and mass expulsions of millions of Germans are now taking place. The Communist Parties, which were very small in all of these Eastern States, are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control.

The Soviet take-over

In 1946, Churchill described now an ‘iron curtain’ was put across Europe; the iron curtain divided Soviet-styled states in Eastern Europe from democratic, capitalist states in Western Europe. Between 1945 and 1948 the Soviet Union imposed communist governments on several East European countries:

• Poland
• Bulgaria
• Romania
• Hungary
• Czechoslovakia

The communist coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948 particularly angered people in the West.

For the Soviet leader, Stalin, the take-over was a defensive move: an attempt to build up a friendly buffer between the USSR and the Western capitalist states.

For the American leader, Truman, the take-over was an offensive move: the first step in a Soviet attempt to impose communism on all the countries of the world.

The American response

Between 1945 and 1949, the Americans developed a policy called ‘containment’. This involved using the power and wealth of the USA to try to stop or ‘contain’ the spread of communism, first of all in Europe and later throughout the world.

Containment in Europe

1947: The Truman Doctrine

The American President Truman said that the world was being divided into free, democratic countries and undemocratic communist states. Truman promised help for any people who wanted to resist communism and immediate help to anti-communist governments in Greece and Turkey.

1947: The Marshall Plan

The economy of Europe was in ruins at the end of the war. The Marshall Plan, named after General George Marshall, the US Secretary of State, aimed to re-build the European economy so that it could resist communism. In theory, East European countries could join but the American made it clear that communist states were not welcome.

1949: the founding of NATO

The USA took the lead in organising a military alliance of non-communist countries in Europe and North America. It called the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. All members agreed to defend each other in case of Soviet attack.

1949: the setting up of West Germany

At the end of the war, Germany was divided into the British, French, American and Soviet zones. The city of Berlin was also divided into four zones. At first both the USA and the USSR wanted a unified Germany. When the Soviet Union took control of much of Eastern Europe, America moved towards the setting up of pro-Western state in the British, French and American zones. West Germany, officially known as the Federal Republic of Germany, was established in May 1949.

The Soviet Reaction to Containment

Stalin, in turn, saw American actions after 1945 as aggressive and a threat to the Soviet Union. The Soviet response was as follows:

1948-1949: the Berlin Blockade

West Berlin was an island of democracy and capitalism in the Soviet zone. Stalin was worried by the possibility of a strong West German state. In June 1948, Stalin blocked all road and rail transport with West Berlin. This was a failure. Britain and the USA organised an unprecedented airlift to stop West Berliners from being starved out. The Blockade was ended in May 1949. The blockade accelerated moves towards a separate West Germany and the NATO alliance.

1949: COMECON

In January 1949, the Soviet Union tried to answer the Marshall Plan by setting up a trading bloc of communist countries. It was called the Council for Mutual Economic Aid or COMECON.

1949: the setting of East Germany

After the official establishment of West Germany, the Soviet zone of Germany was turned into a separate communist state, officially known as the German Democratic Republic.

1949: the Soviet atom bomb

The USA had a monopoly of atomic weapons after 1945. Stalin ordered Soviet scientists to produce an atomic bomb and in 1949 they succeed.

1955: the Warsaw Pact

In 1955, NATO was expanded to include West Germany. The Soviet Union created a military alliance of communist countries known as the Warsaw Pact.

Containing Communism

After the communist take-over of Eastern Europe, US governments were preoccupied with the need to stop the spread of communism. This policy was called containment.

The Fall of China: 1949

Led by Mao Zedong, communists took power in China in 1949. Communist success in China convinced American leaders they needed to be more energetic in a worldwide struggle against communism. This led to a huge increase in American spending on defence.

The Korean War: 1950-3

At the end of the Second World War, Korea was divided in two at the 38^th parallel – North Korea was communist and South Korea was anti-communist. North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950. The Americans won UN support for a war against the invading North Koreans. General MacArthur led a fight-back that drove the North Koreans out of South Korea. MacArthur then continued deep into North Korean territory. This was going beyond ‘containment’ and became an attempt to ‘roll back’ communism.

A massive Chinese army invaded to help the North Koreans in November 1950. The US army was driven back close to the original border in early 1951. There was then a military stalemate. MacArthur wanted to widen the war by attacking China itself. President Truman disagreed and dismissed MacArthur. Peace talks dragged on for two years. The war finally ended in July 1953.

The Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962

Led by Fidel Castro, there was a revolution in Cuba in 1959. Castro introduced communist ideas to Cuba. The US attempted to invade and overthrow Castro, but this ended in disaster at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

In 1962 Khrushchev, the Soviet leader placed nuclear missiles on Cuba. American spy planes discovered them and the American President, Kennedy, insisted that the missiles be removed. There was a real possibility of a nuclear war. Eventually, Khrushchev gave way and agreed to remove the missiles in return for a US promise to remove missiles in Turkey. The ending of the crisis was seen as a victory for Kennedy and a defeat for Khrushchev.

Restricting Soviet influence in the Middle East

Both the United States and the Soviet Union tied to influence states in the Middle East. The US encouraged the new Jewish state of Israel, set up in 1928. Some Arabs, including the governments of Egypt and Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), looked for Soviet help in their conflict with Israel. With American money and weapons, Israel was able to defeat its Arab enemies in a series of wars (1948-9, 1967, and 1973). These defeats convinced the Egyptian president, Sadat, to break with the USSR. The US government enabled Israel and Egypt to sign a peace treaty in 1979.

The Vietnam War: 1965–1975

Vietnam had been a French colony before the Second World War. The French pulled out in 1954 and Vietnam was divided between the communist state in the North and an anti-communist state in South Vietnam. The leader of North Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh.

After 1958 communist guerrillas, known as Vietcong, helped by troops of the regular army of North Vietnam, tried to overthrow the government of South Vietnam. At first the Americans supplied the South with money and weapons and in March 1965 President Johnson sent US combat troops to Vietnam. Eventually there were 540,000 Americans fighting in Vietnam.

The defeat of the United States

The United States was unable to defeat the Vietcong. Many people in the United States were opposed to the war. In January 1968 the Vietcong launched a massive series of attacks called the Tet Offensive. This was not a military success but it convinced American leaders that they would never win in Vietnam. President Johnson was replaced by Richard Nixon, who was determined to pull out of Vietnam. Nixon tried ‘Vietnamisation’ – a policy of reducing American troops and trying to strengthen the forces of South Vietnam. In 1973 the US signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam and American troops left the country. Vietnamisation did not work – without American forces the government of South Vietnam was overthrown by communist forces in 1975. Vietnam became a single, communist state. After the fall of Vietnam several neighbouring countries also became communist. 

After Vietnam: détente

The US presidents of the 1970s – Nixon, Ford and Carter – pursued a policy of ‘détente’. This involved establishing peaceful relationships with the two great communist powers: the USSR and China.

Defeat in Vietnam reduced American self-confidence.

Further disasters followed:

• The pro-American government in Iran was overthrown in a revolution in 1978. American diplomats were taken prisoner and were held hostage from 1979-81.
• A Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support its new communist government.

The End of Détente

The new US President, Ronald Reagan, restored some of America’s self-confidence in the 1980s. He ended détente. He aggressively challenged the Soviet Union and began a new arms race. This period has been called the Second Cold War. Reagan invested in ‘Star Wars’ (officially known as Strategic Defence Initiative). This was intended to be a system for shooting down Soviet missiles in space. The Soviet Union could not compete. Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union and established good relations with Reagan. The arms race came to an end and the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan in 1988-9.

The Soviet Empire 1948-91

The split with Tito

The Yugoslav communist leader, Tito, liberated Yugoslavia from German control without help from Moscow. He argued with Stalin and refused to take orders from Moscow. In 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from Cominform, the international grouping of communist parties. The Soviet Union opposed a trade ban on Yugoslavia but they survived due to support from the United States. Stalin dealt ruthlessly with other East European countries between 1949 and 1953. He was worried that they might try copy Tito. Leading communists with independent ideas were imprisoned or executed.

Turmoil in the Communist World after Stalin

• After Stalin’s death in 1953 people in Eastern Europe hoped for more freedom from Soviet control.
• The new Soviet leader, Khrushchev, established friendly relations with Yugoslavia in 1955. Hungarians hoped to copy Yugoslavia independence.
• In 1956 unrest in Poland led to reforms and concessions by the communist government. This encouraged Hungarians to demand reforms.

The Hungarian Uprising

In October 1956 unrest in Hungary led to the appointment of a new Prime Minister, the communist reformer, Imre Nagy. People demanded that Hungary should leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral. Nagy agreed but in November 1956 Soviet troops invaded Hungary and imposed a new pro-Soviet government. There was fierce street fighting in which thousands of people were killed. Nagy was arrested and later executed. The United States did nothing to help the Hungarians: people in the West were preoccupied with the Suez crisis.

The Prague Spring

Economic problems caused unrest in Czechoslovakia in 1967. A new communist leader, Dubcek, took power in January 1968. He introduced democratic reforms while remaining communist. In August 1968 Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to end the reforms. Dubcek lost his job in 1969 a pro-Soviet government was put in place. Afterwards the Soviet leader, Brezhnev, announced the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’: the Soviet Union would use force to keep communists in power in any country.

1956 and 1968 compared

• In both cases the Soviet Union used force to end reforms in East European countries. New pro-Soviet governments were imposed.
• The Hungarian government wanted to break with the Soviet Union, leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral. The Czechoslovak government wanted much more democracy at home but promised to stay in the Warsaw Pact.
• In both cases the United States did nothing to help. The West was preoccupied with Suez in 1956 and Vietnam in 1968.
• The Hungarians fought against the Soviet invasion – thousands were killed. The Czechoslovak people offered non-violent resistance. The Hungarian leader, Nagy, was executed; the Czechoslovak leader, Dubcek, lost his job but alive and free.

The Berlin War

Between 1958 and 1961 there was a dispute between the Soviet Union and the United States over Berlin. The Soviet leader, Khrushchev, said Western forces should leave the city and that it should become neutral. The US president, Eisenhower, was prepared to compromise but he was replaced by President Kennedy. Kennedy refused to compromise and both leaders publicly threatened war over Berlin. In 1961 the crisis was resolved and the threat of immediate war disappeared, when a wall was built around West Berlin to stop East Germans fleeing the communist state.

Poland and the rise of Solidarity

Shipyard workers in Gdansk went on strike in 1980 in protest against rising prices. They were led by Lech Walesa and formed a new non-communist trade union called Solidarity. Millions of workers joined Solidarity. The Soviet government considered invading Poland in order to crush the union. To avoid this, the Polish communist leader, Jaruzelski, banned Solidarity in December 1981. He declared martial law and imprisoned Solidarity’s leaders without trial but failed to destroy the union. Solidarity did well in elections in 1989 and formed a non-communist government.

Soviet Communism in decline

The Soviet Union was in crisis by the early 1980s:

• The economy had failed to match the economies of America and Western Europe.
• The arms race further reduced living standards.
• There was widespread corruption.
• The Soviet Union was fighting a disastrous war in Afghanistan.

The second Cold War

After the Vietnam War the United States pursued a policy of détente with the Soviet Union. This involved peaceful co-existence and some arms reductions. Ronald Reagan became president of the United States in 1981 and he ended détente and became a new arms race with the USSR.

Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, a reformist communist, took control of the Soviet Union in 1985. He wanted to improve the Soviet Union by ‘perestroika’ – ‘restructuring’ or reforming the economy – and ‘glasnost’ – greater ‘openness’ and freedom of speech. His reforms undermined the positions of old-style pro-Soviet leaders in other countries. He renounced the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’ of interference in other countries.

The whole of communist Europe was swept with revolution in 1989. One by one, the communist authorities were overthrown. The Soviet Union led by Gorbachev did nothing to stop this process. The Berlin War was torn down in November 1989. In 1991 the Soviet Union fell apart. After a failed communist coup in August, the republics that made up by the USSR declared their independence. Gorbachev resigned. Russia became separate state ruled by Boris Yeltsin.

Twentieth Century History – United Nations

The United Nations was set up in 1945 by the victors of the Second World War.

Structure of the United Nations

The United Nations consists of six principle organs:

• The General Assembly;
• The Security Council;
• The Economic and Social Council;
• The Trusteeship Council (not in operation today);
• The International Court of Justice;
• The Secretariat.

Organisation of the United Nations

Purpose of the United Nations

The purpose of the United Nations is to bring all nations of the world together to work for peace and development, based on the principles of justice, human dignity and the well-being of all people. It affords the opportunity for countries to balance global interdependence and national interests when addressing international problems.

Aims of the United Nations

The aims of the United Nations were stated in the United Nations Charter of June 1945:

• To keep peace throughout the world;
• To develop friendly relations between nations;
• To work together to help people live better lives, to eliminate poverty, disease and illiteracy in the world, to stop environmental destruction and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms.
• To be a centre for helping nations achieve these aims.

Principles of the United Nations

• All Member States have sovereign equality;
• All Member States must obey the Charter;
• Countries must try to settle their differences by peaceful means;
• Countries must avoid using force or threatening to use force;
• The UN may not interfere in the domestic affairs of any country;
• Countries should try to assist the United Nations.

The UN has not been very successful in peace-keeping. The Security Council has been stopped from taking firm action because of the right of veto held by permanent members and the Cold War conflict between the United States and the USSR.

Power of General Assembly

Functions and powers of the General Assembly:

• Consider and make recommendations on the general principles of cooperation for maintaining international peace and security, including disarmament;
• Discuss any question relating to international peace and security and except where a dispute or situation is currently being discussed by the Security Council, make recommendations on it;
• Discuss, with the same exception and make recommendations on any questions within the scope of the Charter or affecting the powers and functions of any organ of the United Nations;
• Initiate studies make recommendations to promote international political cooperation, the development and codification of international law, the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms and international collaboration in the economic, social, humanitarian, cultural educational and health fields;
• Make recommendations for the peaceful settlement of any situation that might impair friendly relations among nations;
• Receive and consider reports from the Security Council and other United Nations organs;
• Consider and approve the United Nations budget and establish the financial assessments of Member States;
• Elect the non-permanent members of the Security Council and the members of other United Nations councils and organs and on the recommendation of the Security Council, appoint the Secretary-General.

Power of Security Council

When the Security Council is paralysed on a decision by veto, the General Assembly can take charge of the decision.

The functions and powers of the Security Council are:

• To maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations;
• To investigate any dispute or situation with might lead to international friction;
• To recommend methods of adjusting such disputes or the terms of settlement;
• To formulate plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments;
• To determine the existence of a treat to the peace or act of aggression and to recommend what action should be taken;
• To call on Members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression;
• To take military action against an aggressor;
• To recommend the admission of new Members;
• To exercise the trusteeship functions of the United Nations in “strategic areas”;
• To recommend to the General Assembly the appointment of the Secretary General and, together with the Assembly, to elect the Judges of the International Court of Justice.

Role of Superpowers

The permanent powers of the United Nations are:

• United States (Superpower);
• United Kingdom;
• France;
• Russia;
• China.

United States’ role:

The United Nations was formed in the United States and was placed in New York City and the United States is the leading member.

Veto right

Veto power is wielded solely by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China), enabling them to prevent the adoption of any “substantive” draft Council resolution, regardless of the level of international support for the draft. The veto does not apply to procedural votes, which is significant in that the Security Council’s permanent membership can vote against a “procedural” draft resolution, without necessarily blocking its adoption by the Council.

Collective Security

This was the improvement of the original League of Nations ‘Collective Security’.

Basic assumptions:

• In an armed conflict, member nation-states will be able to agree on which nation is the aggressor;
• All member nation-states are equally committed to contain and constrain the aggression, irrespective of its source or origin;
• All member nation-states have identical freedom of action and ability to join I proceedings against the aggressor;
• The cumulative power of the cooperating members of the alliance for collective security will be adequate and sufficient to overpower the might of the aggressor;
• In the light of the threat posed by the collective might of the nations of a collective security coalition, the aggressor nation will modify its policies or if unwilling to do so, will be defeated.

Peace Making, Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement

UN peace-making brings hostile parties to agreement through diplomatic means. The Security Council sets up UN peacekeeping operations and defines their scope and mandate in its efforts to maintain international peace and security. Most operations involve military duties, such as observing a ceasefire or establishing a buffer zone while negotiators seek a long-term solution. Others may require civilian police or other civilian personnel to help organize elections or monitor human rights. Peace enforcement is a practice of ensuring peace in an area or region. Part of the three part scale between peacekeeping and peace-making, it is sometimes considered to be the midpoint.

Role of Secretary-General

Responsibilities:

• Administrative;
• Human Resources;
• Peacekeeping;
• Meditation.

United Nations Agencies

In addition to peacekeeping, the United Nations has run a number of organisations to ensure economic and deal with a whole range of global problems. This aspect of the work of the United Nations has been more successful than its peacekeeping activities. Organisations include:

• UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation;
• UNICEF – the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund;
• ILO – the International Labour Organisation;
• WHO – the World Health Organisation;
• UNHCR – the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

History

The changing face of the United Nations

In the late 1940s and 1950s, the General Assembly was dominated by the United States. This began to change in the 1950s as more African and Asian colonies became independent and joined the United Nations. In 1945, there were 51 members, by 1965 there were 118. Some of the new states were sympathetic to the USSR; many others were ‘non-aligned’. It became much more difficult of the United States to dominate the General Assembly. The influence of the non-aligned countries increased in 1971 when Communist China joined the United Nations. Non-aligned countries played an increasing role in the agencies of the United Nations. In the late 1980s, the US government claimed that these agencies were anti-American.

The United Nations in Korea and the Congo

A UN army, led by the United Nations, fought the Korean War, 1950-53, against communist North Korea and Communist China. UN support for the war was only possible because the USSR was boycotting the Security Council in 1950. The UN forces drove the communists out of South Korea but were unable to conquer North Korea.

The African state of Congo (modern Zaire) was a Belgian colony. After independence in 1960, it was torn apart by civil war. A UN force was sent to bring peace to the Congo. The leader of the breakaway province of Katanga, Tshombe, defied the United Nations. The United Nations was criticized by the USSR for not doing enough. In 1961, the United Nations took a tougher line with Katanga and finally reunited the Congo in 1963.

Twentieth Century History (1919 – 1939)

International Relations since 1919

The peace treaties of 1919-23

The Big Three

The winners gathered in Paris in 1919 to decide on the future of Europe. The leaders of the victorious countries each had different objectives:

–          Woodrow Wilson, the US President, wanted a fair peace. During the war he called for a fair settlement in his famous Fourteen Points speech (January 1918). The USA had suffered much less than her allies in loss of life and economic damage. He accepted that Germany must be punished but he did not want to be too harsh. He believed in self-determination – that every nation should have its own government.

–          Clemenceau, the French Premier, called for harsh treatment of Germany. Much of the war was fought in France and the level of damage was enormous. His aim was to weaken Germany so much that she would never again try to dominate Europe.

–         Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, wanted a middle ground between the French and American positions. He was more interested in the British Empire than events in Europe.

The Treaty of Versailles 1919

This dealt with the future of Germany.

–          Germany was forced to disarm. The army was limited to 100,000. Tanks were banned and the navy was limited to six warships. German troops were banned from the Rhineland area, bordering France.

–          The territory of Germany was reduced. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France. Poland gained West Prussia, Posen and part of Upper Silesia; Danzig was to be controlled by the League of Nations. A ‘corridor’ of Polish territory separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Small territories were given to Belgium, Denmark and Lithuania. The coal-rich Saarland was put under League of Nations control for 15 years and the coal mines were handed over to France for this period. Germany was forbidden from ever uniting with Austria. German colonies were confiscated.

–          Germany was ordered to pay huge compensation or ‘reparations’ to the winning powers. These payments were justified on the grounds that Germany was guilty of starting the war. A war guilt clause was included in this treaty.

The Other Peace Treaties

Other treaties signed at the end of the First World War:

–          The Treaty of St Germain 1919 with Austria;

–          The Treaty of Neuilly 1919 with Bulgaria;

–          The Treaty of Trianon 1920 with Hungary;

–          The Treaty of Sèvres 1920 with Turkey. This was revised in 1923 and replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne.

League of Nations

Structure of the League of Nations

The League had three principle organs:

• General Assembly;
• The Council;
• The Secretariat.

Principal Organs

Chronology of the League of Nations

The main organs of the League of Nations were the General Assembly, the Council and the Secretariat. The General Assembly, which met once a year, consisted of representatives of all the member states and decided on the organization’s policy. The Council included four permanent members (Britain, France, Italy and Japan) and four (later nine) others elected by the General Assembly every three years. The Secretariat prepared the agenda and published reports of meetings.

The Assembly was the annual conference of League member states. The Proceedings of the Assembly appeared as a separate publication for the first three sessions, the first of which was held in Paris on January 16, 1920. Thereafter, until 1938, they were issued as a Special Supplement to the Official Journal. Resolutions passed in the Plenary Sessions were also published in Special Supplements. These supplements were numbered consecutively over the years. Dates for Assemblies and links to list of members of each country’s delegation.

The Council’s main function was to settle international disputes. The numbers of permanent and non-permanent members varied. Council meetings were held in ordinary session four times a year and as often as needed in extraordinary sessions. 107 public sessions were held between 1920 and 1939. From 1922 onwards, the minutes appeared in the Official Journal. Records for meetings held before 1922 were published separately. The resolutions can only be found in the minutes of the meetings. Aufricht’s Guide lists Assembly and Council meeting records.

The Secretariat carried out the day-to-day work of the League, under the direction of the Secretary-General. The three Secretaries-General were Sir Eric Drummond, 1919-1933; Joseph Avenol, 1933-1940; and Sean Lester, 1940-1946. The Secretary-General wrote annual reports on the work of the League. These are listed in Aufricht’s Guide.

The rise and fall of the League of Nations

The Establishment of the League

–         The idea of the League of Nations was discussed by American, British and French politicians during the First World War, as an organisation that would prevent future war.

–           The American President, Woodrow Wilson, was very keen on the idea of the League. He was very realistic but not very practical about how the League should work.

–      The League was set up as part of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919. It began work in 1920. Its headquarters was in Geneva, Switzerland.

–          The plan was that the League would bring peace to the world through a system called ‘collective security’. Collective security meant that the members of the League would act together to punish and stop any country that attacked another state. This punishment could be either economic sanction: a ban on trade with an aggressor country; or military action: the use of force.

The Organisation of the League

–          Decisions were taken by the Council. This small group was dominated by a few powerful countries who were permanent members. At first the permanent members were Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Other countries took it in turns to have temporary membership of the Council.

–          At first it was expected that the USA would be a leading member of the League. President Wilson had a disagreement with US Senate about the League. In 1920 the Senate refused to let the USA join the League.

–          Any decisions taken by the Council had to be unanimous: every member of the Council had to agree before any action could be taken.

–          All member states could send representatives to the Assembly. This was a place to discuss the problems of the world. It had little real power.

The Work of the League

The League was responsible of several organisations that did good work in a number of fields. These organisations still exist today as part of the United Nations and included:

–          The Refugee Organisation which helped the victims of war;

–          The International Labour Organisation which tried to improve working conditions;

–          The Health Organisation which encouraged schemes to improve healthcare.

Successes in Peace-keeping

The League made some progress in solving arguments between states during the 1920s. Often the success stories involved arguments between smaller countries:

1920:	An argument was settled between Finland and Sweden about the Åland Islands;
1922:	The League rescued Austria from a financial crisis;
1925:	Action by the League stopped war from breaking out between Greece and Bulgaria;
1926:	Germany joined the League as part of the Locarno settlement;
1934:	The Soviet Union became a member of the League.

Failures in Peace-keeping

From the beginning, the League found it difficult to stop powerful countries from attacking other states. The weakness of the League became clear to the world in the 1930s:

1923:	Italy seized the Greek islands of Corfu. The League could not agree on any action;
1931:	Japan attacked the Chinese province of Manchuria. The League did little and Japan remained in Manchuria. Japan did not like been criticised by the League and left the organisation in 1933;
1934:	Hitler despised the League since it was set up. A year after he took power, Germany left the League;
1935:	Italy invaded Abyssinia. The League tried to stop Italy through use of economic sanctions. This did not include the ban on the sale of oil and they failed. After this the League wasn’t taken seriously.

Why did the League fail?

Some powerful countries were not members

The League was greatly weakened by the refusal of the USA to join. If America had joined, the League would have had more power and authority. Other powerful countries were either excluded or chose to leave. Germany did not join until 1926. The USSR was excluded until 1934, by which time Germany had left the League.

Britain and France could not always agree

In the absence of the USA the most powerful states in the League were Britain and France. They did not trust each other and often disagreed about how the League should work. The rule that Council decisions had to be unanimous made it even more difficult for the League to make decisions.

The League lacked teeth

Collective security did not work. France, Britain and other member states were more concerned about their own interests than the authority of the League. As a result they were reluctant to get involved in collective security. The League could not make powerful countries obey its rulings.

The Depression undermined the League

The League was weakened by the Great Depression that swept the world after 1929. At a time of economic crisis governments were less interested in what happened in faraway places. Japan and Italy were able to invade other countries without being punished effectively by the League.

The 1930s: the road to war

The Impact of the Depression

After Locarno in 1925 it seemed that the world was entering a new period of peace. The years of optimism ended with the Wall Street Crash in October 1929. Many American investors were ruined when millions of dollars were wiped off the value of shares. This led to a great economic crisis that swept the whole world. Most governments made matters worse by ‘protectionism’: putting up taxes on imports.

The Depression had serious political consequences that made war more likely:

–          The USA became more isolated. Roosevelt was elected US President in 1932. At first, he was more concerned with rebuilding the American economy than foreign affairs.

–          The Depression encouraged extreme politics in Germany. The fanatical nationalist, Adolf Hitler, became Chancellor in 1933.

–          In Italy and Japan, leaders were keen to win new territory to offset the effect of the economic crisis.

–          Both Britain and France went through political turmoil and felt less able to take a firm line against aggressive nationalists.

A Catalogue of Aggression

Japan, Italy and Germany went on the offensive in the 1930s. In each country the leaders believed in aggressive nationalism. They challenged the peace by seizing land from other countries. At first, other powerful countries did virtually nothing to stop them.

1931: Japan seized the Chinese province of Manchuria.

Japan was criticised by the League of Nations but no action was taken to stop Japanese aggression.

1932-3: A major disarmament conference ended in failure.

The new leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, took Germany out of the conference. Germany also left the League of Nations.

1935-6: Italy conquered the African state of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia).

The League of Nations imposed a ban on trade with Italy but this did not include restrictions on the sale of petrol. The trade ban did not stop Italy from conquering Abyssinia.

1936: Hitler marched German troops into the Rhineland.

The positioning of German forces in this border area was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. The government of France considered sending troops to stop the Germans but they decided to take no action.

1938: In March Germany annexed Austria.

The unification of Germany and Austria was called the ‘Anschluss’. In September Germany annexed the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France agreed to the takeover of the Sudetenland.

1939: Germany invaded the remaining part of Czechoslovakia in March.

Hitler then threatened Poland and demanded control of the City of Danzig.

The Collapse of the Locarno Settlement

–          In 1925 Britain, France and Germany accepted the borders of Western Europe established in the Treaty of Versailles. Agreement between these powerful countries ended in the 1930s.

–          Germany left the League of Nations in 1933.

–          In 1935 an anti-German grouping in Britain, France and Italy was established called the Stresa Front.

–          In 1936, after Abyssinia, the Stresa Front fell apart.

–          Italy, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936; they pledged to fight against communism.

Appeasement

In every international crisis between 1931 to 1938 Britain and France refused to use force to stop aggression. Often they tried to negotiate a deal and to give away to the aggressor states. This was called ‘appeasement’. It was the policy of the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. The climax of appeasement came at the Munich Conference in 1938. Here Britain and France agreed to the carving-up of Czechoslovakia: the Sudetenland area was handed over to Hitler.

Appeasement has been widely criticised as a weak response to aggression. Some critics say that appeasement encouraged more aggression. Recently historians have been more sympathetic and have tried to understand why Chamberlain believed in appeasement.

–          Appeasement was based on the idea that Mussolini and Hitler were reasonable men who had just grievances.

–          The richest country in the world was the USA. Its policy was ‘isolationist’ – Americans wanted nothing to do with foreign problems. Without American support it was hard for Britain and France to take action against aggression.

–          British leaders were very worried about the defence of the British Empire. They avoided conflict in Europe in order to protect the Empire.

–          Under Chamberlain, appeasement went hand in hand with rearmament. He wanted to make sure that Britain was properly armed before risking war in Europe.

The End of Appeasement

Having been successful in the Rhineland, Austria and the Sudetenland, Hitler continued his aggressive foreign policy. In March 1939 he seized the remaining parts of Czechoslovakia.

In the early summer of 1939 Hitler prepared for a war against Poland. He created a crisis over the city of Danzig. He did not believe that Britain or France would help Poland.

The complete take-over of Czechoslovakia led to an abandonment of appeasement in Britain and France. They got ready for war with Germany. Hitler thought they were bluffing.

Both sides tried to win the support of Stalin, the Soviet leader. Hitler was successful. A German-Soviet Pact was signed in August 1939. Hitler felt without Soviet support Britain and France would not risk war.

On 1 September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland. To his surprise Britain and France responded by declaring war on 3 September 1939. The Second World War had begun.

September 11 Attacks

9/11

A date that changed America forever

The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11^th or 9/11) were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. area on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Four passenger airliners were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists so they could be flown into buildings in suicide attacks. Two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Centre complex in New York City. Within two hours, both towers collapsed with debris and the resulting fires causing partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the WTC complex, as well as major damage to ten other large surrounding structures. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense) , leading to a partial collapse in its western side. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was targeted at Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after its passengers tried to overcome the hijackers. In total, almost 3,000 people died in the attacks, including 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes. It was also the deadliest incident for fire-fighters in the history of the United States.

Suspicion quickly fell on al-Qaeda. Although the group’s leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, in 2004 he claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and sanctions against Iraq as motives for the attacks. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harboured al-Qaeda. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. Having evaded capture for years, bin Laden was located and killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan in May 2011.

The destruction of the Twin Towers and other properties caused serious damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan and had a significant effect on global markets. Clean-up of the World Trade Centre site was completed in May 2002 and the Pentagon was repaired within a year. Numerous memorials have been constructed, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, the Pentagon Memorial and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. After a lengthy delay, the 1,776-foot-tall (541 m) One World Trade Centre was completed at the World Trade Centre site in New York City in 2013.

Attacks

Early on the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers took control of four commercial airliners (two Boeing 757s and two Boeing 767s) bound for California (three bounded for LAX in Los Angeles and one for San Francisco) after take-offs from Boston, Massachusetts; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C. Large planes with long flights were intentionally selected for hijacking because they would be heavily fueled.

The four flights were:

• American Airlines Flight 11: Left Boston’s Logan Airport at 7:59 am bound for Los Angeles, with a crew of 11 and 76 passengers, not including the five hijackers.
• United Airlines Flight 175: Left Logan Airport at 8:14 am bound for Los Angeles, with a crew of 9 and 51 passengers, not including the five hijackers.
• American Airlines Flight 77: Left Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia at 8:20 am bound for Los Angeles, with a crew of 6 and 53 passengers, not including the five hijackers.
• United Airlines Flight 93: Left Newark International Airport at 8:42 am bound for San Francisco, with a crew of 7 and 33 passengers, not including the four hijackers.

Events

At 8:46 am, the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the World Trade Centre’s North Tower (Tower 1) and at 9:03 am, the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 flew into the South Tower (Tower 2). The hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 flew into the Pentagon at 9:37 am.

A fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, under the control of four hijackers, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh, at 10:03 am after the passengers fought the hijackers. Flight 93’s target is believed to have been either the Capitol or the White House. Flight 93’s cockpit voice recorder revealed crew and passengers tried to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. Once it became evident to the hijackers that the passengers might regain control of the plane, the hijackers rolled the plane and intentionally crashed it.

Some passengers and crew members who called from the aircraft using the cabin air-phone service and mobile phones provided details: several hijackers were aboard each plane; they used mace, tear gas or pepper spray to overcome attendants; and some people aboard had been stabbed. Reports indicated hijackers stabbed and killed pilots, flight attendants and one or more passengers. In their final report, the 9/11 Commission found the hijackers had recently purchased multi-function hand tools and assorted knives and blades. A flight attendant on Flight 11, a passenger on Flight 175 and passengers on Flight 93 said the hijackers had bombs, but one of the passengers said he thought the bombs were fake. The FBI found no traces of explosives at the crash sites and the 9/11 Commission concluded that the bombs were probably fake.

Three buildings in the World Trade Centre complex collapsed due to fire-induced structural failure. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175 and the explosion of its fuel. The North Tower collapsed at 10:28 am after burning for 102 minutes. When the North Tower collapsed, debris fell on the nearby Tower 7, damaging it and starting fires. These fires burned for hours, compromising the building’s structural integrity and Tower 7 collapsed at 5:21 pm. The Pentagon sustained major damage.

At 9:40 am, the FAA grounded all aircraft within the continental U.S. and aircraft already in flight were told to land immediately. All international civilian aircraft were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada and Mexico and all international flights were banned from landing on U.S. soil for three days. The only aircraft allowed in the air were the fighter jets and Air Force One. The attacks created widespread confusion among news organisations and air traffic controllers. Among the unconfirmed and often contradictory news reports aired throughout the day, one of the most prevalent said a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Another jet – Delta Air Lines Flight 1989 – was suspected of having been hijacked, but the aircraft responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.

In a September 2002 interview, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who are believed to have organised the attacks, said Flight 93’s intended target was the United States Capitol, not the White House. During the planning stage of the attacks, Mohamed Atta, the hijacker and pilot of Flight 11, thought the White House might be too tough a target and sought an assessment from Hani Hanjour, who would later hijack and a pilot Flight 77. Mohammed said al-Qaeda initially planned to target nuclear installations rather than the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, but decided against it, fearing things could “get out of control.” Final decisions on targets, according to Mohammed, were left in the hands of the pilots.

Casualties

The attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers and 2,977 victims. The victims included 246 on the four planes (from which there were no survivors), 2,606 in New York City in the towers and on the ground and 125 at the Pentagon. Nearly all of the victims were civilians; 55 military personnel were among those killed at the Pentagon.

More than 90% of the workers and visitors who died in the towers had been at or above the points of impact. In the North Tower 1,355 people at or above the point of impact were trapped and died of smoke inhalation, fell or jumped from the tower to escape the smoke and flames or were killed in the building’s eventual collapse. The destruction of all three staircases in the tower when Flight 11 hit made it impossible for anyone above the impact zone to escape. 107 people below the point of impact died as well.

In the South Tower, one stairwell (A), was left intact after Flight 175 hit, allowing 14 people located on the floors of impact (including one man who saw the plane coming at him) and four more from the floors above to escape. 911 operators who received calls from individuals inside the tower were not well informed of the situation as it rapidly unfolded and as a result, told callers not to descend the tower on their own. 630 people died in that tower, fewer than half the number killed in the North Tower. Casualties in the South Tower were significantly reduced by some occupants deciding to start evacuating as soon as the North Tower was struck.

At least 200 people fell or jumped to their deaths from the burning towers, landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below. Some occupants of each tower above the point of impact made their way toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, but roof access doors were locked. No plan existed for helicopter rescues and the combination of roof equipment and thick smoke and intense heat prevented helicopters from approaching. A total of 411 emergency workers died as they tried to rescue people and fight fires. The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) lost 340 fire-fighters, a chaplain and two paramedics. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) lost 23 officers. The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers. 8 emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics from private emergency medical services units were killed.

Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101^st-105^th floors of the North Tower, lost 653 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93-100, lost 358 employees and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were also killed. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) estimated that about 17,400 civilians were in the World Trade Centre complex at the time of the attacks. Turnstile counts from the Port Authority suggest 14,154 people were typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 am. The vast majority of people below the impact zone safely evacuated the buildings.

After New York, New Jersey lost the most state citizens, with the city of Hoboken sustaining the most deaths. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Centre. Two people were added to the official death toll after dying from health conditions linked to exposure to dust from the collapse of the World trade Centre.

Deaths (+ hijackers)
New York City	World Trade Centre	2,606
	AA Flight 11	87 + 5
	UA Flight 175	60 + 5
Arlington	Pentagon	125
	AA Flight 77	59 + 5
Shanksville	UA Flight 93	40 + 4
Total		2,977 + 19

Weeks after the attack, the death toll was estimated to be over 6,000, more than twice the number of deaths eventually confirmed. The city was only able to identify remains for about 1,600 of the World Trade Centre victims. The medical examiner’s office collected “about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead”. Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 by workers who were preparing to demolish the damaged Deutsche Bank Building. In 2010, a team of anthropologists and archaeologists searched for human remains and personal items at the Fresh Kills Landfill, where seventy-two more human remains were recovered, bringing the total found to 1,845. DNA profiling continues in an attempt to identify additional victims. As of August 2011, 1,631 victims have been identified, while 1,122 (41%) of the victims remained unidentified. The remains are being held in storage in Memorial Park, outside the New York City Medical Examiner’s facilities. It is expected that the remains will be moved in 2013 to a repository behind a wall at the 9/11 museum. As of July 2011, a team of scientists at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner continues to try to identify remains, in the hope that improved technology will allow them to identify other victims.

Damage

Along with the 110-floor Twin Towers, numerous other buildings at the World Trade Centre site were destroyed or badly damaged, including WTC buildings 3 through 7 and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.The North Tower, South Tower, the Marriott Hotel (3 WTC) and 7 WTC were completely destroyed. The U.S. Customs House (6 World Trade Centre), 4 World Trade Centre, 5 World Trade Centre, and both pedestrian bridges connecting buildings were severely damaged. The Deutsche Bank Building on 130 Liberty Street was partially damaged and demolished later. The two buildings of the World Financial Centre also suffered damage.

The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Centre complex was later condemned as uninhabitable because of toxic conditions inside the office tower, and was deconstructed. The Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway was condemned due to extensive damage in the attacks, and is being rebuilt. Other neighbouring buildings including 90 West Street and the Verizon Building suffered major damage but have been restored. World Financial Center buildings, One Liberty Plaza, the Millennium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate damage and have since been restored. Communications equipment on top of the North Tower was also destroyed, but media stations were quickly able to reroute signals and resume broadcasts.

The Pentagon was severely damaged by the impact of American Airlines Flight 77 and ensuing fires, causing one section of the building to collapse. As it approached the Pentagon, the airplane’s wings knocked over light poles and its right engine smashed into a power generator before crashing into the western side of the building, killing all 53 passengers, 5 hijackers, and 6 crew. The plane hit the Pentagon at the first-floor level. The front part of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, while the mid and tail sections kept moving for another fraction of a second.Debris from the tail section penetrated furthest into the building, breaking through 310 feet (94 m) of the three outermost of the building’s five rings.

Rescue and recovery

The New York City Fire Department deployed 200 units (half of the department) to the site. Their efforts were supplemented by numerous off-duty firefighters and emergency medical technicians. The New York City Police Department sent Emergency Service Units and other police personnel, and deployed its aviation unit. Once on the scene, the FDNY, NYPD, and Port Authority police did not coordinate efforts and performed redundant searches for civilians. As conditions deteriorated, the NYPD aviation unit relayed information to police commanders, who issued orders for its personnel to evacuate the towers; most NYPD officers were able to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed. With separate command posts set up and incompatible radio communications between the agencies, warnings were not passed along to FDNY commanders.

After the first tower collapsed, FDNY commanders issued evacuation warnings; however, due to technical difficulties with malfunctioning radio repeater systems, many firefighters never heard the evacuation orders. 911 dispatchers also received information from callers that was not passed along to commanders on the scene. Within hours of the attack, a substantial search and rescue operation was launched. After months of around-the-clock operations the World Trade Centre site was cleared by the end of May 2002.

Events before the attacks

Planning of the attacks

The idea for the attacks came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who first presented it to Osama bin Laden in 1996. At that time, bin Laden and al-Qaeda were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan. The 1998 African Embassy bombings and bin Laden’s 1998 fatwā marked a turning point, as bin Laden became intent on attacking the United States.

In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot. A series of meetings occurred in early 1999, involving Mohammed; bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef. Atef provided operational support for the plot, including target selections and helping arrange travel for the hijackers. Bin Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting some potential targets such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles because, “there was not enough time to prepare for such an operation”.

Bin Laden provided leadership and financial support for the plot, and was involved in selecting participants. Bin Laden initially selected Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, both experienced jihadists who had fought in Bosnia. Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in the United States in mid-January 2000. In spring 2000, Hazmi and Mihdhar took flying lessons in San Diego, California, but both spoke little English, did poorly with flying lessons, and eventually served as secondary – or “muscle” – hijackers.

In late 1999, a group of men from Hamburg, Germany, arrived in Afghanistan, including Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Bin Laden selected these men because they were educated, could speak English, and had experience living in the west. New recruits were routinely screened for special skills and al-Qaeda leaders consequently discovered that Hani Hanjour already had a commercial pilot’s license.

Hanjour arrived in San Diego on December 8, 2000, joining Hazmi. They soon left for Arizona, where Hanjour took refresher training. Marwan al-Shehhi arrived at the end of May 2000, while Atta arrived on June 3, 2000, and Jarrah arrived on June 27, 2000. Bin al-Shibh applied several times for a visa to the United States, but as a Yemeni, he was rejected out of concerns he would overstay his visa and remain as an illegal immigrant. Bin al-Shibh stayed in Hamburg, providing coordination between Atta and Mohammed. The three Hamburg cell members all took pilot training in South Florida.

In spring 2001, the secondary hijackers began arriving in the United States. In July 2001, Atta met with bin al-Shibh in Spain, where they coordinated details of the plot, including final target selection. Bin al-Shibh also passed along bin Laden’s wish for the attacks to be carried out as soon as possible.

Aftermath

Immediate response

At 8:32 am, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials were notified Flight 11 had been hijacked and they in turn notified the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD). NORAD scrambled two F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts and they were airborne by 8:53 am. Because of slow and confused communication from FAA officials, NORAD had 9 minutes’ notice that Flight 11 had been hijacked and no notice about any of the other flights before they crashed. After both of the Twin Towers had already been hit, more fighters were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:30 am. At 10:20 am Vice President Dick Cheney issued orders to shoot down any commercial aircraft that could be positively identified as being hijacked. However, these instructions were not relayed in time for the fighters to take action. Some fighters took to the air without live ammunition, knowing that to prevent the hijackers from striking their intended targets, the pilots might have to intercept and crash their fighters into the hijacked planes, possibly ejecting at the last moment.

For the first time in U.S. history, SCATANA was invoked, closing all airspace and immediately grounding all non-emergency civilian aircraft in the United States, Canada, and several other countries, thus stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the world. The Federal Aviation Administration closed American airspace to all international flights, causing about five hundred flights to be turned back or redirected to other countries. Canada received 226 of the diverted flights and launched Operation Yellow Ribbon to deal with the large numbers of grounded planes and stranded passengers.

The 9/11 attacks had immediate effects upon the American people. Police and rescue workers from around the country took leaves of absence, traveling to New York City to help recover bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin Towers. Blood donations across the U.S. surged in the weeks after 9/11.

The deaths of adults who were killed in the attacks or died in rescue operations resulted in over 3,000 children losing a parent. Subsequent studies documented children’s reactions to these actual losses and to feared losses of life, the protective environment in the aftermath of the attacks, and effects on surviving caregivers.

Military operations following the attacks

At 2:40 pm in the afternoon of September 11, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement. According to notes taken by senior policy official Stephen Cambone, Rumsfeld asked for, “Best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H.” (Saddam Hussein) “At same time. Not only UBL” (Osama bin Laden).Cambone’s notes quoted Rumsfeld as saying, “Need to move swiftly – Near term target needs – go massive – sweep it all up. Things related and not.”

The NATO council declared the attacks on the United States were an attack on all NATO nations which satisfied Article 5 of the NATO charter. This marked the first invocation of Article 5, which had been written during the Cold War with an attack by the Soviet Union in mind. Australian Prime Minister John Howard who was in Washington D.C. during the attacks invoked Article IV of the ANZUS treaty. The Bush administration announced a War on Terror, with the stated goals of bringing bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished by imposing economic and military sanctions against states perceived as harbouring terrorists, and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing.

On September 14, 2001, the U.S. Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists. Still in effect, it grants the President the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11^th attacks, or who harboured said persons or groups.

On October 7, 2001, the War in Afghanistan began when U.S. and British forces initiated aerial bombing campaigns targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda camps and then later invaded Afghanistan with ground troops of the Special Forces. The overthrow of the Taliban rule of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition was the second-biggest operation of the U.S. Global War on Terrorism outside of the United States, and the largest directly connected to terrorism. Conflict in Afghanistan between the Taliban insurgency and the International Security Assistance Force is on-going. The Philippines and Indonesia, among other nations with their own internal conflicts with Islamic terrorism, also increased their military readiness.

American response

Following the attacks, President Bush’s approval rating soared to 90%. On September 20, 2001 he addressed the nation and a joint session of the United States Congress regarding the events of September 11 and the subsequent nine days of rescue and recovery efforts, and described his intended response to the attacks. New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s highly visible role won him high praise in New York and nationally.

Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist victims of the attacks, with the task of providing financial assistance to the survivors of the attacks and to the families of victims. By the deadline for victim’s compensation on September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those who were killed.

Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders were implemented almost immediately after the attacks. However, Congress was not told that the United States had been under a continuity of government status until February 2002.

In the largest restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary history, the United States enacted the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating the Department of Homeland Security. Congress also passed the USA PATRIOT Act, saying it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes. Civil liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT Act, saying it allows law enforcement to invade the privacy of citizens and that it eliminates judicial oversight of law enforcement and domestic intelligence. In an effort to effectively combat future acts of terrorism, the National Security Agency (NSA) was given broad powers. NSA commenced warrantless surveillance of telecommunications which was sometimes criticized since it permitted the agency “to eavesdrop on telephone and email communications between the United States and people overseas without a warrant”.

Hate crimes

Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes against Muslims and South Asians were reported in the days following the 9/11 attacks. Sikhs were also targeted because Sikh males usually wear turbans, which are stereo-typically associated with Muslims. There were reports of attacks on mosques and other religious buildings (including the firebombing of a Hindu temple), and assaults on people, including one murder: Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh mistaken for a Muslim, was fatally shot on September 15, 2001 in Mesa, Arizona.

According to an academic study, people perceived to be Middle Eastern were as likely to be victims of hate crimes as followers of Islam during this time. The study also found a similar increase in hate crimes against people who may have been perceived as Muslims, Arabs and others thought to be of Middle Eastern origin. A report by the South Asian American advocacy group known as South Asian Americans Leading Together, documented media coverage of 645 bias incidents against Americans of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent between September 11 and 17. Various crimes such as vandalism, arson, assault, shootings, harassment, and threats in numerous places were documented.

Muslim American response

Muslim organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks and called “upon Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and resources to help alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and their families”. These organizations included the Islamic Society of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Circle of North America, and the Shari’a Scholars Association of North America. Along with monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood drives and provided medical assistance, food, and shelter for victims.

International response

The attacks were denounced by mass media and governments worldwide. Across the globe, nations offered pro-American support and solidarity.Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, and Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with an immediate official statement that, “the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity”. While the government of Saudi Arabia officially condemned the attacks, privately many Saudis favoured bin Laden’s cause. As in the United States, the aftermath of the attacks saw tensions increase in other countries between Muslims and non-Muslims.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368 condemned the attacks, and expressed readiness to take all necessary steps to respond and combat all forms of terrorism in accordance with their Charter. Numerous countries introduced anti-terrorism legislation and froze bank accounts they suspected of al-Qaeda ties. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries arrested alleged terrorists.

Tens of thousands of people attempted to flee Afghanistan following the attacks, fearing a response by the United States. Pakistan, already home to many Afghan refugees from previous conflicts, closed its border with Afghanistan on September 17, 2001. Approximately one month after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of international forces to overthrow the Taliban regime from Afghanistan for their harbouring of al-Qaeda.Though Pakistani authorities were initially reluctant to align themselves with the United States against the Taliban, they permitted the coalition access to their military bases, and arrested and handed over to the U.S. over 600 suspected al-Qaeda members.

The U.S. set up the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to hold inmates they defined as “illegal enemy combatants”. The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned by the European Union and human rights organizations.

Rebuilding and revitalization

On the day of the attacks, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani proclaimed, “We will rebuild. We’re going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, and economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again.”

The damaged section of the Pentagon was rebuilt and occupied within a year of the attacks. The temporary World Trade Centre PATH station opened in late 2003 and construction of the new 7 World Trade Centre was completed in 2006. Work on rebuilding the main World Trade Centre site was delayed until late 2006 when leaseholder Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed on financing. One World Trade Centre is currently under construction at the site and on May 20^th 2013, One World Trade Centre became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 1,776 ft. (541 m) with the installation of the spire that rests atop the building. 

On the World Trade Centre site, three more office towers are expected to be built one block east of where the original towers stood. Construction has begun on all three of these towers; they are expected to be completed after One World Trade Centre.

Memorials

In the days immediately following the attacks, many memorials and vigils were held around the world. In addition, people posted photographs of the dead and missing all around Ground Zero. A witness described being unable to “get away from faces of innocent victims who were killed. Their pictures are everywhere, on phone booths, street lights, walls of subway stations. Everything reminded me of a huge funeral, people quiet and sad, but also very nice. Before, New York gave me a cold feeling; now people were reaching out to help each other.”

One of the first memorials was the Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights at the footprints of the World Trade Centre towers. In New York, the World Trade Centre Site Memorial Competition was held to design an appropriate memorial on the site. The winning design, Reflecting Absence, was selected in August 2006, and consists of a pair of reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a list of the victims’ names in an underground memorial space. Plans for a museum on the site have been put on hold, following the abandonment of the International Freedom Centre in reaction to complaints from the families of many victims.

The Pentagon Memorial was completed and opened to the public on the seventh anniversary of the attacks in 2008. It consists of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon. When the Pentagon was repaired in 2001–2002, a private chapel and indoor memorial were included, located at the spot where Flight 77 crashed into the building.

In Shanksville, a permanent Flight 93 National Memorial is planned to include a sculpted grove of trees forming a circle around the crash site, bisected by the plane’s path, while wind chimes will bear the names of the victims. A temporary memorial is located 500 yards (457 m) from the crash site. New York City firefighters donated a cross made of steel from the World Trade Centre and mounted on top of a platform shaped like the Pentagon. It was installed outside the firehouse on August 25, 2008. Many other permanent memorials are elsewhere. Scholarships and charities have been established by the victims’ families, and by many other organizations and private figures.

On every anniversary, in New York City, the names of the victims who died there are read out against a background of sombre music. The President of the United States attends a memorial service at the Pentagon and asks Americans to observe Patriot Day with a moment of silence. Smaller services are held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which are usually attended by the President’s spouse.

Summary of 9/11 Events

7:59 – American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, takes off from Boston Logan, bound for Los Angeles, CA;

8:14 – United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, takes off from Boston Logan, bound for Los Angeles, CA;

8:20 – American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, takes off from Washington Dulles, bound for Los Angeles, CA;

8:42 – United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757, takes off from Newark, bound for San Francisco, CA;

8:47 – Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center;

9:03 – Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center;

9:37 – Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon;

9:59 – The South Tower collapses;

10:03 – Flight 93 crashes into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania;

10:28 – The North Tower collapses.

 Images thanks to Wikipedia.