#triple entente

[dolline]

I have just found out that Wilfred Owen was killed 1 week before ww1 ended and I will not recover

[biblioflyer]

Cruelty is an Unreliable Weapon

The internet has been irritating me of late. This is in some sense, nothing new, but it has been irritating me very specifically in what I view as extremely wrongheaded thinking about the absence of any presence for morality in conflict. You can read between the lines if you so choose to infer what I'm discussing obliquely, but if you'd prefer, assume this is about people who are constantly whining that the Federation isn't tough or militaristic enough, or Galactic Empire apologists.

Settle in, get a beverage, because I got a bit wound up. This will take more than a minute. It clocked in at about 8 pages & 3600 words in Google docs.

Theories of Power and Victory

Two contentions are often made in discussions of war and conflict:

That the capacity to resist equals bargaining power without taking into consideration the manner of resistance i.e. committing atrocities.

The second is that suffering hastens the end of conflict.

Let's examine this. I’m going to primarily lean on case studies from World War 1 because they allow me to speak about modern conflicts via allegory. Allegory by necessity obfuscates the real message the reader is expected to take away from this. 

I am at peace with this. If I tell you what to think about the conflict between the United Federation of Dave Filoni Truthers and the Galactic Republic of Rian Johnson Apologists, you will be more inclined to be combative. 

If I engage in a bit of obfuscation, then you’ll be more inclined to take these case studies as they are intended. These are thought experiments and frameworks. My hope is you use them to think through modern conflicts where you may be more inclined to fully dehumanize the evildoer or wave off complaints about the behavior of the righteous as “regrettable but necessary.”

Loosening Rules of Engagement: Almost Always a Bad Idea

In World War 1, there was a continual escalation as all sides sought new innovations to break the deadlock. This took the form of both new weapon systems but also new strategies.

Technically commerce raiding is arguably as old as the idea of putting trade goods on a boat, but the usage of submarines definitely represents an escalation and innovation on that idea. In theory we were beyond the days of letters of marque. Assaulting civilian shipping would be considered atrocious and ungentlemanly in normal times. 

However, in an era of total national mobilization, it is the very foundations of the nation that are supposedly necessary to be chipped away at in order to try to obtain the defeat of the enemy. In the arguments made under conditions of total war, there may be non-combatants but there are no persons who are truly uninvolved because in a total mobilization, everyone is contributing to the war effort whether with their sweat or their blood. 

Even children, especially in the late Victorian era, are net contributors because they take on responsibilities formerly held by adults and, if the struggle is prolonged, will grow into adults who can be drafted or more fully contribute to the industrial effort.

Yet the enemy doesn’t stop thinking of their children as children. The enemy doesn’t stop thinking of their non-combatants as civilians, even as the enemy rationalizes their way into killing the children and non-combatants of their opponents.

So what happens when Germany expands its commerce raiding to include civilian liners suspected of carrying arms ought to be very predictable. The story of the US entry into WW1, if it's told at all - and that’s another bag of badgers - often centers on the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania.

Arguably the sinking of the Lusitania does hasten the end of the war, but not even remotely in the way that Germany anticipated and definitely not in its favor. It's important to note that the story is not so neat and tidy. The Lusitania is often held up as an inciting event, but the US doesn’t enter the war for another two years when Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare.

Rather than say “my bad, you’re right, we shouldn’t have tried to play silly games with sending weapons on passenger liners” the US entered the war in an official capacity. The US entry into the war wasn't decisive right away, it was arguably even more bumbling and horrific as the first year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it makes the endgame that much more inevitable for the Central Powers.

Don’t blur the lines between military and civilian.

Germany essentially walked into the trap that Britain baited with international civilians. There are no objectively correct moral actors in this situation but we can certainly dissect the consequences, especially for Germany, of having elected to not take the high road.

When it comes to the US entrance into the war, this story is complicated by the fact that there was a strong contingent of Manifest Destiny true believers who didn’t look at the Western front and feel appalled at how far honor, nationalism, hate, and sunk cost would drive people. Rather instead they saw an opportunity for the US to take her rightful place as a key player in The Great Game. 

So it's easy to argue that absent the sinking of the Lusitania, the US would have been dragged in anyway. It was, after all, the biggest creditor of the Entente and were Britain, France and friends to lose, it's quite likely that repaying the Americans would come second to compensating the Central Powers for the inconvenience of having to send millions of people into what amounts to a wood chipper.

However, the sinking of the Lusitania definitely moved up the timeline of the US entry into the war. A thing that could have been delayed, and perhaps even prevented if one or more Black Swans had scrambled US domestic politics. Because the Germans failed to practice a stricter set of rules of engagement, a new player takes the field, the US is able to arm Britain and France more prolifically and openly, and Germany’s goose is pretty well cooked. The only question being how long it was going to take to cook that goose.

While there was certainly malice, pride, and national chauvinism involved in creating conditions in which Germany would be tempted to escalate by striking ships with Americans onboard, there’s no ironclad law of physics or human behavior that dictates the US was going to enter the war. 

Had the United States wanted to stay out of the war it could have made a range of different choices, some of which arguably were against the prevailing understanding of its “national interest” and some could be read as rewarding German threats of “terrorism” against civilians, but “bad” options are still options:

Forbid mixed use Entente ships from using US ports.

Forbid American passengers from booking passage on Entente ships carrying weapons.

Warn Americans that their personal security is their responsibility and if they do enter contested waters on a ship that might be considered a legitimate target, they’re on their own.

The British own part of this too: it was their choice to comingle arms shipments and civilian passengers.

It goes without saying that the Germans also weren’t obligated to sink Lusitania.

Of course this choice is complicated by a whole host of contextual factors: British ships had been instructed to try to ram German submarines instead of submitting to boarding and inspection, and some British civilian ships had been armed. 

Allowing Lusitania to go along her way peacefully also rewards the British for using human shields.

I don’t find the Germans morally praiseworthy here, but the British deserve heaps of scorn for intentionally putting civilians in danger in order to prioritize winning a war that was anything but existential for it and then daring the Germans to kill civilians to disrupt the British war effort. 

What happens if the Germans don’t take the bait? Well, the war definitely goes on and is that much harder for the Germans but they retain a measure of the moral high ground. 

Could this win them useful allies in the court of global public opinion? 

Or at least keep certain disruptive players like the US out of the war?

The US was the last great power to not take a side as of when Germany and the UK began their nautical shenanigans with tragic consequences. It's doubtful the US could be compelled to enter the war on the side of Germany, hence why Germany could have understood its situation as necessitating unrestricted warfare against not merely the Entente militaries but the Entente people themselves.

However, again there is nothing inevitable here. There are a lot of reasons why the US staying out of the war was unlikely, but it's far from impossible - I don’t believe in historical inevitability, just higher or lower probability.

Because of this lack of inevitability, it is worth restating the moral proposition Britain cast aside:

Don’t comingle military and civilian.

You ignore this advice at your own peril. The consequences are entirely predictable.

The US may very well have not come charging in to bail out the Entente. It could have sat on the sidelines and cut support for the Entente to punish the UK for putting foreign civilians at risk. I think it would have been VERY morally defensible to do so.

There are scenarios, such as insurgency, where the camouflage of being civilian in appearance is necessary if armed struggle is to be at all viable, but again the consequences for “real” civilians are very predictable. 

That doesn’t mean the party that winds up killing civilians, intentionally or unintentionally, is morally blameless: it's a choice to loosen rules of engagement or to not exercise even greater care when dealing with ambiguity. There is no mandate to kill civilians through recklessness, indifference, cruelty, or to deny the enemy an advantage.

Everything is a choice.

Immoral choices are rarely unavoidable. Accidents truly happen and are tragic, but caution isn’t a frivolous thing to be cast aside for convenience or galaxy brained theories about psychological warfare as Germany’s fate demonstrates.

Yet, to beat a dead horse, to say that those who blur the lines between combatant and noncombatant have no responsibility for what happens to noncombatants is also deeply disingenuous.

Suffering is an Inconsistent Weapon at Best.

There’s a deeply felt conviction among some that hardness wins wars faster. As near as I can tell the premise usually comes from one of two sentiments.

The first is that the enemy, being a rational actor, is capable of “doing the math.” Once they understand what the aggressor is willing to do to win. How far they’ll go, then every day that surrender is deferred is just more rapes, homes burned, prisoners tortured, more famine, more suffering: pick your poison. Therefore the reasonable and moral thing to do is to just get it over with.

The Romans are probably the most famous example of a people who practiced unmitigated savagery when a city didn’t surrender promptly in order to induce others to not resist in the expectation of gentler treatment. This is a practice that preceded the Romans and I’d argue that it's unlikely that there is any corner of the world where there was no close parallel at some point in time. 

While we can’t know for certain until and unless Russian archives are made available at some point in the future, it's tempting to ponder whether or not this mindset has influenced Russian atrocities such as in Bucha. The Romans were also guilty of not always being able to prevent their legions from going berserk even when a city was compliant. 

Inflicting cruelty to try to induce surrender is almost definitely one motive behind the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, especially electrical equipment during winter time. Which informs us that this mindset does continue into the present day, just expressed in different forms and contexts.

The second assumption is that sufficiently intense or broadly inflicted suffering would shatter the will to resist on a psychological level: creating panic, terror, disorder etc. We see this in its most straightforward form on ancient battlefields when armies rout after an understanding filters through the ranks that things are starting to go pear-shaped.

Whether or not this model can apply to something on the scale of a region or a nation is disputed and the answer probably is more about worldviews than objectivity.

If panic on the scale of a nation is possible, then panic doesn’t always achieve the desired result.

One might argue for instance that Western and especially US Islamophobia drove the US and allies to make a series of unforced errors with a human cost in the millions and still counting as the ripple effects are still rippling even after all this time. Calm and collected people may have been drawing lines on maps and debating the “get in and get out” or “if you break it, you bought it” models of war, but in the background is a subtler, longer term, persistent panic and existential dread induced by 9/11.

Of course it could have just been some mix of racism and imperialism. If that were the case then ascribing fear to the motives of Bush, Cheney, and the alumni of The Project for a New American Century incorrectly offers the villains the opportunity to plea bargain the charges down from War and Failed Occupation in the 1st degree to War and Failed Occupation in the 2nd degree. 

For whatever it's worth the excellent podcast series Slow Burn: The Road to the Iraq War persuaded me that the primary, conscious motive was rooted in a broken epistemology about how to combat terrorism, the threat posed by Iraq, American capacities, and further sabotaged by philosophical infighting over to what degree and how to nation build that manifested in real world consequences for how resources were allocated, rules of engagement written, and which personnel got key jobs.

Let's return to World War 1, because it has probably more than just the two illustrations that are relevant here but I’m just going to limit it to two. 

However, it's worth revisiting poor but possibly perfidious Lusitania, whose souls aboard needlessly died because the Germans decided to be edgy and declare the waters around the UK to be a free fire zone. Then the UK responded with “I dare you to enforce that” and put arms on civilian liners anyway.

Harshness did not, in fact, have the desired outcome for Germany. It failed to deter Britain from using dual purpose shipping and then following through with their threats ultimately escalated the conflict. Ultimately it's unclear if Britain’s will to continue the fight was impeded in any way and the popular narrative is that it galvanized resistance. 

Although information warfare may have played a role too: the British government denied any violation of any of its obligations under pre war treaties or any violation of general decency: i.e. putting civilians at risk without their knowing consent. Messaging and the possible absence of knowing consent on the part of civilians is also worth holding in our heads when weighing the morality of ensuring the homefront is made to feel pain too.

Bringing the War to the Homefront

The British blockade of Germany in World War 1 has two rationales. One is that in total war, as discussed previously the civilian population is playing a very active part in sustaining combat operations. Attritional war is an effort to ensure that your side is not the first to run out of people or stuff. The average person is a lot more aware of this due in no small part to the way the Russian invasion of Ukraine in its second year has calcified into heavily fortified battlelines with much, much less in the way of dramatic maneuvers than in 2022. 

The introduction of various destabilizing weapon systems: Javelin, Excalibur rounds, HIMARS, Stormshadow etc. has at each step momentarily unsettled the balance of power but Russia continues to be able to field enough people and material to absorb the losses and then adapt while Ukraine is, unfortunately, reliant on the patronage of allies and what industrial capacity it can scrape together and protect from Russia: no small feat in an era of satellite surveillance, rampant hacking, and cruise missiles.

Notably Ukraine or Russian partisans acting on their own accord or with assistance, have struck at various bits of Russian infrastructure and industrial sites. 

This has made some commentators uncomfortable whether because of natural anxiety at seeing the homefront of a nuclear power get hit or a certain amount of hesitancy to label these as legitimate targets. Something Russia is not even a little squeamish about, nor (more controversially) was the US squeamish about during the first Gulf War.

Saddam Hussein notably would continue to be the ruler of Iraq, even under sanctions and bombing campaigns of varying intensity until the US led invasion in 2003.

Which brings us to the second rationale for the British blockade of Germany: punishment with the expectation that it would eventually break the German people. This included food. While this didn’t completely cut off Germany from food imports, the necessity of neutral ships to be inspected and escorted to Germany at minimum had a chilling effect that clawed back 55% of imports of all types and cut the average German down to 1,000 calories a day by 1917. 

That’s one large McDonalds meal per person per day and that’s about it. I once had a salad, A SALAD, from Applebees that wound up having over a thousand calories.

Now of course, the success or failure of the blockade is disputed by historians. I have a lot of respect for the profession, but it’s also not hard to imagine that there is some motivated reasoning involved.

When a nation does something that is controversial in its own time, as the blockade was, and winds up killing between 400,000 and 800,000 people through among the cruelest of means: famine, if it turns out that these actions didn’t directly contribute to ending the war sooner, the nation who inflicted this on their fellow human beings is not exactly the hero of the story now are they?

So of course the desire is going to be very strong to gesture at problems with disorder, looting, and the increasing poor health of the military and civilian labor force as having made strong contributions to ensuring the war didn’t last longer and claim even more lives.

On the other hand, average caloric intake fell to a Special Value Meal per day (and probably much worse if you look at essential vitamins and protein) and the Germans kept going for five years. It's possible that absent the blockade, the war lasts even longer but that’s a counterfactual we simply cannot realistically examine because life isn’t an Excel sheet. 

Duration also doesn’t necessarily directly map to intensity. If the war is not perceived as an existential struggle because both sides are attempting to collapse one another’s very societies to set conditions for peace on their terms, how does this change the tactics used in the field and the overall strategy? 

Because if there is one point I want to hammer home it's that the perception of a war as being existential is intensely radicalizing. People will endure suffering that is unimaginable to people sitting in comfort and safety if they are operating under the belief that if the war isn’t won, the nation and its people will experience even greater suffering than they are experiencing under conditions of war, or even that the nation may cease to exist, its people scattered or massacred.

It's even harder for us to imagine that concepts like the German or British Empires might be worth “going over the top” for, or sitting around never knowing if a poison gas attack is going to be launched in your sleep. Or more nightmarishly: that you might feel so deeply that the fate of your nation is at risk, that it might be worth executing your subordinates for cowardice if they don’t attack enemy fortifications.

Of course there is also the example of modern Ukraine. It is rather clear that the people of Ukraine have taken very seriously the statements of Russian high level people that “Ukrainian” is an invalid identity that must be made to be subsumed into the Russian identity. One does not have to be an ardent nationalist, and I am not, to find this to be more than a little concerning.

It's not hard to imagine that extremely bellicose rhetoric from an opponent, when combined with growing suffering on the homefront and no doubt plenty of propaganda proclaiming the enemy to have an exterminationist agenda, would radicalize even people who are ambivalent to their government.

In 2002, it was widely expected that mounting casualties and a worsening economic outlook due to the war in Ukraine would seal Vladimir Putin’s fate. At the close of 2003, with nearly two years of fighting and one half baked mutiny in the books, Putin remains and is seemingly even more secure in power. 

This is a more problematic example because it's hard to conceive of any strategy Ukraine or its allies can undertake that would preserve Ukraine’s autonomy while not generating at least some evidence to support Putin’s “Big Lie” about Russia being a victim pursuing legitimate security interests. Yet, in spite of this, great effort appears to have made to avoid feeding that Big Lie unnecessarily.

As of this writing, Ukraine has not pursued targeting Russian civilians directly either as an explicit policy nor is there much if any evidence it is doing so implicitly. Some in the amateur punditry of the fever swamps of social media have proposed Ukraine pursue payback against Russia for Bucha and other atrocities, but I think history shows this would be deeply, deeply mistaken.

Intellectual honesty compels me to hold up this example: sometimes a nation (Russia) (or just its political elite) can be responsible for the vast majority of the suffering its people have experienced and yet this too can be contextualized to fit a narrative that casts a struggle as existential, centers the chief provocateur as victim, and some critical mass of people will go along with it, rather than reject it and collapse the war effort from within.

Notably, while World War 1 shattered the Russian Empire, the various transitional governments between the end of Czarist rule and the eventual takeover by the Bolsheviks did not exit the war.

Consider all of these case studies, all ye who would dismiss rules of engagement as unworthy of dishonorable foes or inefficient, and would dismiss concerns about excessive cruelty or collective punishment as soft and defeatist.

[mapsontheweb]

Europe in 1914, at the beginning of the World War 1.

In 1914, Europe was on the brink of World War I. The major powers included the German Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, and the Monarchy of Russia. Tensions were high due to complex alliances, nationalism, and militarization. The Triple Entente (France, Russia, and the United Kingdom) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy initially) were key alliances, but political dynamics were shifting. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo triggered a chain reaction, leading to the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.

by danmaps_org

[spiderrrling]

Guts to say anything (Eddie Munson x F! Reader)

Pairing - Eddie Munson x F!Reader

Summary - Two idiots in love finally being able to admit their feelings to each other, middle school best friends to lovers

Warnings - None! Just the slightest amount of angst 

Word count - 3433

A/N - This fic is based on the song Guts by All Time Low, give it a listen while you read!! Another fic I’ve managed to bang out during work, I’m really happy with this one just because I think its super cute :) have fun!

Requests are open and feedback is always appreciated! Remember to leave a like and comment/reblog to support your local fic writers

The trailer was quiet this time of night, but the soft voice of Eddie Munson. Wayne had left a couple of hours ago for his shift at the plant. Eddie's uncle always insisted she just call him Wayne, or Uncle Wayne, insisting that she was practically family so there was no need for a Sir or Mr when speaking with him.

Fall had come to Hawkins and the happy feeling of summer had subsided as the season shifted and a new semester at Hawkins High started.

It was an ordinary Tuesday evening. She had promised Eddie she would come over and help him write his paper for Ms. Click's class, determined to help him finally graduate high school two years late so they could graduate together. 

Papers laid strewn around his bed, and their countless history books laid among them along with pens and highlighters. Eddie was reading aloud a passage for his paper for her to hear.

She was laid out on his bed, her head laid along the side of the bed close to where Eddie was sitting on the floor, his back against the bed with his paper in his hands. Her handwriting intertwined his on the paper.

"From this perspective it may be considered that the allied forces were rescued by the Americans joining the war efforts during the first world war, helping to turn the tide against the Germans." 

"Don't say Germans, it was the Triple Entente." She corrected him, nabbing the paper from his hand and underlining the word, indicating he should fix it.

"And this is exactly why I keep you around." Eddie joked and took back his paper before he started reading again, this time with his narration voice that he used for Dungeons and Dragons, making his very ordinary paper on World War One a much more enjoyable experience and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Come on, you know I can't focus when you do that." She whined and kicked his shoulder with her foot. "It's too late to focus anyway." Eddie rubbed his face, trying to keep the sleepiness at bay.

She had been helping Eddie with his essays for what seemed like forever. They had been friends since middle school, and their friendship had started with her hating every single ounce of his being. Ever since Eddie had checked out every single Dungeons and Dragons book he could find in the library, and not caring to return them by their due date.

The librarian had gotten so tired of her constant asking about the books being returned that she told who had checked them out. That day at lunch, she sat next to Eddie for the first time and demanded to see the books, since he was keeping her from learning about the fantastical world of Dungeons and Dragons, it only seemed fair.

And that had been the start of their friendship. He had been older, which sucked because it meant they never shared their library period together, and he went to high school before her. But ever since the club started there had always been a spot for her in Hellfire. "It's only fair after I kept you from the game for so long." He'd joke and say.

Ever since that day they had been thick as thieves, practically joined at the hips and everyone knew that. When Eddie was a senior and got his first note that he would be held back she had joked he'd failed just to stay with her, it may not have been that far from the truth if you asked him.

"You know, I'm convinced you just can't leave me here all by my lonesome."

"Yeah, you're right someone's gotta keep an eye on you, because we all know I am the voice of reason in this friendship." He would jab right back at her. "Besides, I can't have you find a new prank partner if I'm not around."

"I could never." She meant it, there was no one that could ever replace Eddie, his place in her life.

Eddie bought her books, all sorts of them. Fantasy, science fiction, classical literature. Just to be able to see her reaction to reading them. In return she would supply him and subsequently the Hellfire club with baked goods.

They fit so well together, there was never any pressure to be anyone else but themselves when they were around each other. Being with Eddie was easy, it was natural and it was perfect.

Which is what made it so difficult to tell when these feelings had started. Eddie had always been cute, even when his hair was buzzed in middle school. But as he got older, and his hair got longer, there was a different sort of charm to him. And she had started picking up on it.

The way he started dressing, finding his classic rock inspired style with his rings and chains. The leather jacket he absolutely refused to go without. Deciding one day to cut his own bangs, which ended up in her having to help him.

Her eyes would be lingering for a little too long on his face, finding her eyes wandering during class to where he was sitting just so she could look at him. Or her mind going completely crazy with thoughts of him.

Before she really knew what had happened she found herself in the scenario having the biggest crush, on her longest and best friend. She had tried pushing the feelings away, but that just made them come by stronger. She would come home from school, or from his trailer and just scream into her pillow.

Butterflies kept appearing in her stomach whenever she was around him and she found herself stuttering and falling over her words more and more frequently.

Some part of her heart had slowly been falling in love with Eddie Munson, until she was head over heels without noticing before it was too late.

Eddie had continued reading aloud his essay but she wasn't listening to what he was saying. She was too focused on his voice to be able to listen to what he was saying.

She had been in his room more times than she could count. Granted it had changed a lot over the years. She had helped him hang at least half of the posters that decorated the walls, even helped him install his precious guitar stand. His room was messy, but in a lived in sort of messy charming way. It felt like crawling inside a part of Eddie’s brain and she could spend hours in here studying every inch of the room.

Books that couldn't fit on his small shelf were stacked on the floor in between the heaps of clothes that were spilling out of his closet. It permanently smelled of weed in there, but she didn't mind. In her mind the smell of weed was so closely linked to Eddie by that point.

Her hands ran over the blanket on his bed, the one she had knitted for him when she had her knitting phase years ago. It was worn out and practically falling apart but he had still hung onto it. Same with the one in the living room that laid on the couch.

Some part of Eddie couldn't bring himself to get rid of anything she made. There was a box, shoved to the way back beneath his bed filled to the brim with everything she had ever made him. From failed knitting projects, to every birthday card and even every note she passed him during school.

She was the most solid part of his life beside his uncle. There was never a moment where he felt as if she wasn't there for him. Of course they had fought, they were teenagers who sometimes got too caught up in their own mess to not have had small fights.

But they always found their way back to each other eventually. He would write her a song, or she would bake something and bring to him at the trailer park late at night, and he would let her in and they would eat and laugh about whatever stupid argument they had had.

Eddie had always loved her, deep down no matter the kind he had always loved her since that first day in the cafeteria. The feeling grew and changed with the year, and he realized that she felt like home. His home.

He wasn't sure when his feelings had shifted from platonic companionship into romantic longing, but he adored her. Every part of her, even the ones that sometimes drove him crazy.

It was difficult having her around without the feelings threatening to spill over, but he tried his best to keep them at bay. Convinced she did not feel the same way about him that he felt about her.

Besides, she was already getting flack at school for being best friends with the freak, he couldn't imagine what might happen if they became something more.

"You paying attention up there?" Eddie turned his head to look up at where she was laying. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing slowly. Eddie played with the rings on his fingers, a habit he had picked up when he felt the urge to touch her.

The intense want to brush stray pieces of hair out of her face, or to hold her hand. And the worst thing was that he had done all of those things countless times before. But that was when he wasn't aware of the feelings brewing inside of him and he knew that touching her could send him spiraling.

"Falling asleep?" He asked softly and she only hummed in return. 

"Need me to drive you home? Or you could stay if you want."

She scrunched her nose, knowing her parents didn't care too much but they wouldn't be happy she stayed the night at Eddie's on a school night. She had stayed over at his place more times than she could count, but on a school night?

Her parents thought their friendship in middle school had been cute, but they got more and more suspicious as they both got older.

"You know if you like him that is ok!"

"Mom no gross, it's Eddie I could never think of him that way." 

It had been a lie and she knew it, in fact it was one of the only things she thought about these days. In fact it was one of the things she struggled not to think about.

"You do know it's only ten minutes to walk right?" She pushed herself up so she was resting on her elbows and could look down at where he was seated on the floor.

"And? Hawkins is dangerous this time of the night." It was true, more and more strange things kept happening in the small town they used to think was so dull the most dangerous thing that could happen was someone dying of boredom.

She only laughed him off, grabbing her bag and stuffing all her school materials into it. Not worried about leaving anything because Eddie would just bring it the next day.

"Well, if something happens you'll get to say I told you so at my funeral."

Her parents weren't the only ones suspicious of their relationship. Eddie's uncle would occasionally cast them a couple of quick looks. And their friends were convinced it was only a matter of time before they got together. They would never say it directly, but they teased it a lot.

Everyone else but them seemed to have picked up on the feelings they both had towards each other. The two of them were completely oblivious to it.

Eddie stayed seated at the floor as she packed up. "Well if you don't hurry your funeral will be from dying in your room after your parents ground you after breaking curfew again."

"Wait, what time is it?" Her blood ran cold, she had already broken curfew twice already this month because of Eddie and even though her parents seemed to like Eddie, they did not appreciate his ability to make her late home.

"Just about to be eleven." Eddie turned his wrist to read the watch face that was strapped to it. "Shit." She cursed under her breath and hurried her movement, shoving the last of her stuff into the bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She leaned down and pressed a kiss to Eddie's lips without realizing what she had done, she walked out of his room. Just as she had stepped outside and replayed the last thirty seconds in her mind she realized what she had done.

Her limbs went completely numb and practically went into shock. Deciding it was best to not look back at the mess she created she kept walking starting her trail back home.

Eddie on the other hand was completely stunned, unable to form a coherent thought. His fingertips gently grazed his lips where hers had been just a moment before.

His body acted before he could think and suddenly he was on his feet running out of the trailer. His boots crunching against the gravel road leading out of the trailer park as he ran after her.

Now Eddie hadn't actually thought about what he would say when he caught up with her, just that he couldn't let her leave just yet. "Hey! Hey wait up!" He shouted after her, and she stopped for a moment turning to look at him.

His cheeks were flushed pink, but it wasn't from the run or from the early fall temperatures. She felt her chest clench and mouth going dry as he approached, terrified that what she had just done had ruined their friendship.

"You- you can't leave." Eddie simply said he was a little out of breath and his hand had grabbed onto her wrist keeping her from leaving. He was only holding it loosely and she could easily have pulled it out of his grasp, but it suggested he wanted her to stay. "Not after that you can't leave."

There was a sincerity in his voice as he spoke and she could see his eyes were softer than normal.

"Eddie I'm sorry I don't know why I did that it was stupid and I didn't think-"

"You walk to school every morning, which is ridiculous because I've offered to drive you a million times. And you're a reckless pedestrian and I've probably almost hit you more times than I can count." Eddie blurted out, neither of them were sure of what he was saying. "And I know exactly what you bring for lunch every day because it's always the same, except for on Fridays because then you bring your homemade banana bread and you always let me have a piece."

She could see his face was slowly turning more and more red as he spoke. 

"Because that is just who you are, you're kind. So kind in fact that you still help me with my homework, and you show up to Hellfire early every single week without fail to help me set up. You've never forgotten my birthday, and I know that because I've saved every single card you've ever made me. You refuse to learn how to drive because it terrifies you."

Eddie was full on rambling now, it was as if his brain couldn't keep up with the words coming out of his mouth. A part of her found it adorable, but she was also utterly confused.

"Why are you-" Eddie cut her off again, still not letting her speak. "Let me finish please because if I don't finally say it I feel like I might explode."

"I don't care that you're my best friend, that you're a part of my life, my family. I don't care that you're also a mess." She could feel her own cheeks heating up as he spoke. "And I don't care what happened in there, why you did it. I love you, I've loved you every single day since we first met. And I don't care if you don't feel the same way but you have to know that I love you."

She finally managed to meet his gaze and look him in the eye. His dark brown eyes shining in the dimly lit night.

"Are you done?" He nodded in response, biting his bottom lip. A thousand thoughts were racing through both of their heads as they stood there in the night looking at each other. And for a couple of moments she was unable to speak, slowly processing what he had just said.

Those words that she had only imagined in his wildest dreams that he would say. Was this really real? Did he actually say these things? Or was this just another dream and in reality she was tucked into her bed sleeping peacefully.

But no, he was there, standing in front of her. His hand was still around her wrist proving that this was really happening. She could feel the cold metal of his rings against her skin and it helped her focus on what was really happening here.

"You're a mess too." She finally said after what felt like an eternity. "And you're my best friend." She pulled her wrist from his grip and she swore she could see something break in his eyes. "And I love you too."

She barely managed to get out the last words before Eddie's hand cupped her face, practically crashing his lips against hers so hard she struggled to breathe. But she didn't care. Her hands threw themselves around his shoulders to steady herself as he kissed her.

The kiss was intense, needy, desperate. No matter how many times she could have imagined their first kiss, she never could have imagined it would be like this. That it would be as magical as this. Eddie kissed her like he was dying and she was the only life line he had left, it didn’t matter how close he could get because it would never be close enough for him.

Finally it was the overwhelming need of oxygen that forced them to pull away from each other. Arms still holding one another tight. Nothing was said between them, the only sound was the two of them breathing heavily. She was dizzy from the kiss, from the intensity of it.

And she was totally and utterly overcome with her feelings for him.

"Shit..." Eddie cursed under his breath as he pulled her even closer, squeezing her in his arms. "If I knew it would feel that good to kiss you I would have admitted my feelings forever ago."

"Forever?" She looked up at him and found his brown eyes meeting hers. "That's at least how long it has felt." Eddie chuckled at her as he hugged her tight. And for a moment they could just stand there, wrapped in each other not saying anything surrounded by the quiet of the trailer park.

"Can I kiss you again?" Eddie asked and she nodded in return, longing for the feeling of his lips against hers again. He leaned down and captured her lips with his, this time it was slower, tender. He was focused on savoring her, drowning in the feeling of her lips, her taste.

Eddie was totally gone, kissing her felt heavenly and he never wanted to stop. Pulling away he rested his lips against her forehead for a moment.

"Changed your mind about that ride?" He asked slyly before pressing a quick kiss to her lips, quickly becoming addicted to the feeling of her lips against his own. "Or maybe staying?" He said before giving her another kiss.

“Only if you call my parents and tell them why I won’t be coming home tonight.”

Eddie paused for a second and she swore she could have seen the gears turning in his head as he was weighing his options. “If it means if I get to spend the night with you, it’ll be worth it.” He pulled her close, letting her rest her head against his shoulder and they simply stood there for a moment. Needing time to process what had just happened.

“Is this weird?” She finally said, peeking up at him from where she stood.

“Totally weird.” He agreed and laughed. She could feel the vibrations of his laugh from deep within his chest. “But in a good way, in a very good way.” 

“Ok, good.” She breathed out a sigh of relief. “Just making sure.”

Tags for mutuals - @uglypastels @naturallytom @anaaaispunk @hey-its-grey  @shadowfae1878 @munsonlover

Please let me know if you’d like to be included on my tag list!

[lewis-winters]

Made-up fic title:

When Birds Attack

do you know the book series Leviathan by Scott Westerfield? it's World War 1 set in a steampunk alternate universe, where the Central Powers (known in-universe as "Clankers") use mechanized war machines and the Triple Entente (referred in text as "Darwinists") fabricate living creatures genetically for use in battle?

anyway, that but make it WW2 and Masters of the Air, with the Allies being Darwinists, and the planes being massive genetically modified eagles of some sort, and the MotA boys as their riders!! there would most definitely be a joke amongst the 100th about their massive genetically modified war birds being pigeons, especially from Biddick.

[5ducksinatrenchcoat]

eep i have a test on all of ww1 and ww2 (and the interwar period! yay!) tmrw and i'm not very ready!! anyways i'm going to summarize most of what i know ABOUT WW1 under the cut. mostly for my studying but if you want to see you're welcome to read it. BEWARE IT IS LONG

BACKGROUND

scene opens on Germany, a young nation eager to prove itself as strong to the other European powers, namely Britain, who has lots and lots of colonies at this point. (the sun never sets on the British empire!). Britain also has the strongest navy. Germany believes in "Weltpolitik", meaning aggressive expansion.

Germany has recently beaten France in the Franco-Prussian War and acquired the territory Alsace-Lorraine. France is angry and embarrassed. It went from being the biggest European power under the rule of Napoleon to this!! France hates Germany.

Russia is poor but MASSIVE and has a HUGE POLULATION. if it is awaken, it will do serious damage. luckily it is "sleeping" for now.

The Austria-Hungarian empire is made up of many different nations along the Balkan Peninsula who hate being part of the empire. The Balkan Peninsula is known as the powder keg of Europe because a single spark could make it blow up.

There was also the Moroccan Crisis where Britain decided to support France (against Germany) in Egypt and the Suez canal. There is more here, but basically it solidified the hard feelings between Germany and France/Britain.

Everyone starts beefing up their military because conflict is coming!

ALLIANCES FORM

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy ally themselves to form the Triple Alliance. Germany organized this to try to isolate France.

Britain, France, and Russia ally to form the Triple Entente because they were a bit worried about Germany (especially France).

THE SPARK

Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, goes to visit Sarajevo with his wife. He thinks the people will love him! He doesn't know that he is visiting during a parade for Slavic independence. They don't like him. Gavrilo Princip, a member of a nationalist group called Black Hand, kills Francis and his wife.

Austria-Hungary is ANGRY. It blames the government (who didn't organize the assassination, but who weren't sad about it either) and makes unreasonable demands to Serbia, who refuses.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

Russia mobilized troops to protect Serbia.

Germany declared war on Russia for mobilizing its troops. Germany was aligned with A-H, so it was at war with Serbia too. Germany also declared war on France because it was allied with Russia (and Germany just didn't like France).

Germany marched through Belgium to get to France quickly so it could defeat France before Russia "woke up". This was called the Schlieffen plan.

Britain declared war on Germany because it had secretly agreed to help Belgium remain sovereign. Now that Britain is at war, so are its many colonies. The war has breached European confinement.

WAR WAS LONG. NO SIDE MOVED OR GAINED MUCH TERRITORY. MANY DIED.

CANADA'S INVOLVEMENT

Men had the idea that war would be quick and glorious so lots signed up!

Germans and Ukrainians were forced to register with authorities and many were sent to internment camps.

Black and Indigenous men faced obstacles trying to enlist because of racism.

French Canadians enlisted less because they had, for the most part, been in Canada longer than British Canadians, so they didn't feel as emotionally attached to France. They also didn't appreciate being encouraged to go fight for Britain because they weren't British.

Women's suffrage and prohibition became two large issues across the country.

Conscription - Borden had promised not to have conscription, but then he took it back. People were angry. He gave women with husbands overseas the right to vote because they would want to send help to the war to bring their husbands back. Yay?

THE BATTLE OF YPRES: Germany introduced poison gas and created a gaping hole in the defences. Canada remained strong and closed the gap. It was the first European battle Canada fought in and it established itself as a powerful country. yippee.

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME: one of the bloodiest battles in history for all sides. 68 of almost 800 Newfoundland soldiers survived the first few days.

BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE: seen as a symbol of ww1's senseless slaughter as thousands died on the field (either killed, drowned in the mud because it was super rainy, or got trenchfoot (don't google it. yucky.))

VIMY RIDGE: this becomes a source of national pride to this day. Canada was able to take a ridge held by Germany that nobody else had succeeded in taking. Ultimately it gave Canada its own seat in post-war discussions and made it recognized as a country. HOW DID WE DO IT? They build a system of caves and tunnels and a railway to transport explosives. During the attack, a creeping barrage of soldiers made its way up the hill, in between heavy artillery fire (in front of and behind them) that was also making its way up the hill. This way, when they stopped firing, the Canadians were on top of the German soldiers. This is called the Vimy Glide. ARTHUR CURRIE was the general who came up with it.

TURNING POINTS:

Not really a turning point but i don't have another section: GALLIPOLI: Australia was a British colony so it had to fight for Britain. Britain threw Australians at the Ottomans as a feint. It was a slaughter.

ITALY CHANGED SIDES due to a secret treaty granting it territories that Italian people lived in. (After the war, they weren't given this territory, leading to the rise of Mussolini).

THE US ENTERED THE WAR: Americans had wanted to stay neutral, but they hated Germany thanks to British propaganda. A German U-boat sunk the Lusitania, which contained American civilians. THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM was from Germany to Mexico saying to attack the southern states to the US was busy fighting and couldn't join the war. The US intercepted this, got angrier at Germany, and joined the war. This helped wear down the Triple Alliance (now down to 2 because of Italy).

PEACE TREATY WAS SIGNED ON NOVEMBER 11 1918

there was then a revolt against the German government because German people had believed they were winning.

[viktor-danilov]

Notable moustaches - Individuals

The longest moustache measures 4.29 metres (14.1 ft) and belongs to Ram Singh Chauhan of India. It was measured on the set of Lo Show dei Record in Rome, Italy, on 4 March 2010.[17]

In some cases, the moustache is so prominently identified with a single individual that it could identify him without any further identifying traits.

For example, Kaiser Wilhelm II's moustache, grossly exaggerated, featured prominently in Triple Entente propaganda. Other notable individuals include: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Hulk Hogan, Don Frye, Dan Severn, Freddie Mercury, Salvador Dalí, Frank Zappa, Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, Borat and Steve Harvey.

In other cases, such as those of Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx, the moustache in question was artificial for most of the wearer's life.

Following a moped accident that left him with a scar on his upper lip, Paul McCartney decided to grow a moustache in order to hide it. The other members of the Beatles decided to do the same.

They were first seen with this new look on the cover of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This marked the return of young men wearing moustaches in the 1960s

[sane-person]

how's italy? heard you weren't doing too cool either at the moment

Although the majority of the cabinet (including former Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti) was firmly against intervention, numerous intellectuals, including Socialist (after 18 October 1914, Benito Mussolini) declared in favour of intervention, which was then mostly supported by the Nationalist and the Liberal parties. Pro-interventionist socialists believed that, once that weapons had been distributed to the people, they could have transformed the war into a revolution.

Later on members of the Cabinet and the King will open discussions with both sides in secret to choose the “best one”, A big mess will come out of it as the King did have the power to declare war , but it was the Parlament that needed to impose taxes to pay said war…

(the Parlament will be forced to agree in the end and Italy will join the war with the Triple Entente with the secret London Pact signed in 26 April 1915)

Apart from the economical and industry being very weak compared to the other European countries , there was also the Pope!

The pope went against the War (Benedict XV declared the neutrality of the Holy See and attempted from that perspective to mediate peace in 1916 and 1917. Both sides rejected his initiatives. German Protestants rejected any "Papal Peace" as insulting.)

Also since the Italian unification and the capture of Rome in 1870, the pope saw himself as a Prisoner in the Vatican, which I find funny

(this pope drama will be solved in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty done by Mussolini)

[switching-beats]

So, while we wait for him To get done...

Funk! How's the triple-entente treating you?

"The what? What's an entente?"

[dysrope]

Hosts to Host, Stone to Stone

[turn 19: (4+3)+(4+4)=15, 15-1(avatar)-3(order)=11]

Syfos travels through Siktun's subterrannean territory, all the way to the gates of Erland's realm. It holds a last concert for its followers before disappearing where none of them can follow. They return with a newfound understanding of the presence (and proximity) of the divine. The Potters' Guild exploit the opportunity to tighten the bands of the Triple Entente, and align Pai, Vorond, and the rest of the eastern peninsula, creating the Hamtarian League.

For years, Syfos slowly rolled around the streets of Siktun, and through the tunnels surrounding it - all the while accompanied by great crowds of tiktik and humans, and even some Kautaila, and people from even further afield. Wherever it went, and endless festival followed, and it would not have been wrong to say the incessant adoration somewhat went to Syfos' head (had it had one).

But not even Syfos' own enjoyment could hold it up indefinitely, and eventually the stone passed out of the urbanized areas, into the wild underground. Here only the most dedicated fans followed it, but it remained a great group. And though its songs attracted many predators during the long and slow journey, they too were pacified by them and none in the entourage was harmed. The passage through these lands took years, and many went home eventually, though some new people joined too - both those tracking after them from behind, and the occasional group of Ayidyid living beyond the frontier of civilization. Still, it was a slowly shrinking group, and they only numbered in their hundreds when they at last reached their destination.

In the dark depths of the underworld, not far from the place where Aelmd bridges the barrier of the ground, there stands a great gate. It is made of unmarked black basalt, and stands eternally open, but only few find their way here - and those that do know not to abuse its inhabitant's hospitality. This is where Syfos travelled, and this is where its entourage followed, and when they crossed the threshold, they were welcomed, like many before them, into Erland's wondrous halls. They were served a meal fit for queens, and permitted to listen as Syfos recounted all of its adventures and all the parts of the world it had visited. And it was a song that surpassed any Syfos had sung before; transcendant and beautiful beyond compare - and all that listened, though they did not know the tongue of stones, felt they profoundly understood it.

And Erland was pleased, and welcomed Syfos deeper into his realm, those warm depths of the earth it had not known since the cruel whim of a Giant had tore it up through the cool ocean. But its followers were not permitted to accompany it, and were instead turned back, to return to the lands of mortals.

Though many were disappointed that their journey was at an end, they returned with a great deal of knowledge of the world, and a deep understanding of the power of the gods. And though many had before circadians, or celebrants, or traveller-worshippers, or followed some other faith, when they returned they all were devoted to the Stone Muse and the Fire Within the Earth.

As they told everyone of their journey, many repeated their pilgrimage, and though many never found it Erland was visited by a great many people in the following years. As ever, the god of hospitality invited every visitor to a meal at least once, though they were never permitted to stay for long, and only those deemed exceptional were welcomed back for a second time.

Hamtari is that peninsula in eastern Incarien BTW.

On the surface, word of the divine halls, so close beneath them quickly spread across all the plains of Nak. As they heard this, and knew part of their ancient secret had been exposed, the venerable Potters' Guild called to a grand meeting in Unimaa. A great number of people from all the settlements in the area came there; they were glass-workers and bankers, farmers and traders, miners and politicians, soldiers and priests. Most were humans, but many hewn also appeared, and even quite a few Tiktik. Only a select few knew the deepest secrets, and many were even unaware of the connection to Erland, but at this great meeting, they all gathered to discuss the future of the Guild.

In fact, there were two meetings taking place at once; the great public one, helped along with plenty of food and drink, and the small secret one, with cool sobriety. But as the mood of the grand festivities turn to universal brotherhood and peace between cities, the secret council of Grandmasters too determines that the time is right to use their considerable influence to promote such unity, and egg them on, and they intimated to key people how they could be helpful in bringing this glorious future about. Thus, when the revelry was over, and the members retrned home, many were carrying instructions, and over the next few years, they each played their small part in aligning the cities of east Incarien economically, militarily, and politically.

And soon enough, the cities of the area, one after the other, entered into defensive agreements with the Triple Entente, until that became too much of a misnomer, and it instead came to be called the Hamtarian League. The cities within the league were still independent (except in the cases where they were vassals of one another) but became ever more closely aligned. And though their only formal bonds were through treaties, and they lacked official interstate institutions, the regular meetings of the Potters' Guild grew more important too in their age-old function as an informal forum for peace and cooperation.

[greekroyalfamily]

In the 14th of June was 153 years since the birth of HM Queen Sofia of Hellenes Princess of Prussia

Sophia of Prussia (Sophie Dorothea Ulrike Alice, )(14 June 1870 – 13 January 1932) was Queen of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922 as the wife of King Constantine I.

A member of the House of Hohenzollern and child of Frederick III, German Emperor, Sophia received a liberal and Anglophile education, under the supervision of her mother Victoria, Princess Royal. In 1889, less than a year after the death of her father, she married her third cousin Constantine, heir apparent to the Greek throne. After a difficult period of adaptation in her new country, Sophia gave birth to six children and became involved in the assistance to the poor, following in the footsteps of her mother-in-law, Queen Olga. However, it was during the wars which Greece faced during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that Sophia showed the most social activity: she founded field hospitals, oversaw the training of Greek nurses, and treated wounded soldiers.

However, Sophia was hardly rewarded for her actions, even after her grandmother Queen Victoria decorated her with the Royal Red Cross after the Thirty Days' War: the Greeks criticized her links with Germany. Her eldest brother, German Emperor William II, was indeed an ally of the Ottoman Empire and openly opposed the construction of the Megali Idea, which could establish a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas. During World War I, the blood ties between Sophia and the Emperor also aroused the suspicion of the Triple Entente, which criticized Constantine I for his neutrality in the conflict.

After imposing a blockade of Greece and supporting the rebel government of Eleftherios Venizelos, causing the National Schism, France and its allies deposed Constantine in June 1917. Sophia and her family then went into exile in Switzerland. Sophia's second son, Alexander, replaced his father on the throne. At the same time, Greece entered the war alongside the Triple Entente, which allowed it to grow considerably. After the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1919 and the untimely death of Alexander the following year, the Venizelists abandoned power, allowing the royal family to return to Athens. However, the defeat of the Greek army against the Turkish troops of Mustafa Kemal forced Constantine to abdicate in 1922, at which point his eldest son became King George II. Sophia and her family were then forced to a new exile, and settled in Italy, where Constantine died one year later, in 1923. With the proclamation of the Republic in Athens the following year, Sophia spent her last years alongside her family, before dying of cancer in Germany in 1932 at the age of 61.

Sophia's body was transferred to the castle of Friedrichshof, where she rested a few days before being sent to the Russian Church in Florence, where she was buried alongside her husband and mother-in-law. They stayed there for four years until the restoration of George II on the Greek throne in 1935.

After his restoration on the Greek throne, George II organized the repatriation of the remains of members of his family who died in exile. An important religious ceremony that brought together, for six days in November 1936, all members of the royal family still alive. Sophia's body was buried at the royal burial ground at Tatoi Palace, where she still rests today

Στης 14 Ιουνίου συμπληρώθηκαν 153 χρόνια από τη γέννηση της Α.Μ. Βασίλισσας Σοφίας των Ελλήνων Πριγκίπισσα της Πρωσίας

Η Σοφία της Πρωσίας (Sophie Dorothea Ulrike Alice, ) (14 Ιουνίου 1870 – 13 Ιανουαρίου 1932) ήταν βασίλισσα της Ελλάδας από το 1913 έως το 1917 και από το 1920 έως το 1922 ως σύζυγος του βασιλιά Κωνσταντίνου Α΄.

Μέλος του Οίκου των Χοεντσόλερν και παιδί του Φρειδερίκου Γ', Γερμανού Αυτοκράτορα, η Σοφία έλαβε φιλελεύθερη και αγγλόφιλη εκπαίδευση, υπό την επίβλεψη της μητέρας της Βικτώριας,

Βασιλικης Πριγκίπισσας(Τίτλος που κατέχει η μεγαλύτερη κόρη του εκάστοτε Βρετανού Μονάρχη εκτός αν αυτή είναι η Διάδοχος πχ Βασίλισσα Ελισσαβετ Β´) .

Το 1889, λιγότερο από ένα χρόνο μετά τον θάνατο του πατέρα της, παντρεύτηκε τον τρίτο ξάδερφό της Κωνσταντίνο, προφανή διάδοχο του ελληνικού θρόνου. Μετά από μια δύσκολη περίοδο προσαρμογής στη νέα της χώρα, η Σοφία γέννησε έξι παιδιά και ασχολήθηκε με τη βοήθεια προς τους φτωχούς, ακολουθώντας τα βήματα της πεθεράς της, βασίλισσας Όλγας. Ωστόσο, κατά τη διάρκεια των πολέμων που αντιμετώπισε η Ελλάδα στα τέλη του 19ου και στις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα, η Σοφία έδειξε την πιο κοινωνική δραστηριότητα: ίδρυσε νοσοκομεία υπαίθρου, επέβλεπε την εκπαίδευση των Ελλήνων νοσοκόμων και περιέθαλψε τραυματίες στρατιώτες.

Ωστόσο, η Σοφία δύσκολα ανταμείφθηκε για τις ενέργειές της, ακόμη και όταν η γιαγιά της Βασίλισσα Βικτώρια τη στόλισε με τον Βασιλικό Ερυθρό Σταυρό μετά τον Τριακονταήμερο Πόλεμο: οι Έλληνες επέκριναν τους δεσμούς της με τη Γερμανία. Ο μεγαλύτερος αδελφός της, ο Γερμανός Αυτοκράτορας Γουλιέλμος Β', ήταν πράγματι σύμμαχος της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας και αντιτάχθηκε ανοιχτά στην οικοδόμηση της Μεγάλης Ιδέας, η οποία θα μπορούσε να ιδρύσει ένα ελληνικό κράτος που θα περιλάμβανε όλες τις εθνικές ελληνοκατοικημένες περιοχές. Κατά τον Α' Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο, οι δεσμοί αίματος μεταξύ της Σοφίας και του Αυτοκράτορα προκάλεσαν επίσης την υποψία της Τριπλής Αντάντ, η οποία επέκρινε τον Κωνσταντίνο Α' για την ουδετερότητά του στη σύγκρουση.

Αφού επέβαλε αποκλεισμό της Ελλάδας και στήριξε την ανταρτική κυβέρνηση του Ελευθέριου Βενιζέλου, προκαλώντας το Εθνικό Σχίσμα, η Γαλλία και οι σύμμαχοί της καθαίρεσαν τον Κωνσταντίνο τον Ιούνιο του 1917. Η Σοφία και η οικογένειά της στη συνέχεια εξορίστηκαν στην Ελβετία. Ο δεύτερος γιος της Σοφίας, ο Αλέξανδρος, αντικατέστησε τον πατέρα του στο θρόνο. Ταυτόχρονα, η Ελλάδα μπήκε στον πόλεμο δίπλα στην Τριπλή Αντάντ, γεγονός που της επέτρεψε να αναπτυχθεί αρκετά. Μετά το ξέσπασμα του ελληνοτουρκικού πολέμου το 1919 και τον πρόωρο θάνατο του Αλέξανδρου τον επόμενο χρόνο, οι βενιζελικοί εγκατέλειψαν την εξουσία, επιτρέποντας στη βασιλική οικογένεια να επιστρέψει στην Αθήνα. Ωστόσο, η ήττα του ελληνικού στρατού έναντι των τουρκικών στρατευμάτων του Μουσταφά Κεμάλ ανάγκασε τον Κωνσταντίνο να παραιτηθεί το 1922, οπότε ο μεγαλύτερος γιος του έγινε βασιλιάς Γεώργιος Β'. Στη συνέχεια, η Σοφία και η οικογένειά της αναγκάστηκαν σε νέα εξορία και εγκαταστάθηκαν στην Ιταλία, όπου ο Κωνσταντίνος πέθανε ένα χρόνο αργότερα, το 1923. Με την ανακήρυξη της Δημοκρατίας στην Αθήνα τον επόμενο χρόνο, η Σοφία πέρασε τα τελευταία της χρόνια δίπλα στην οικογένειά της, πριν πεθάνει του καρκίνου στη Γερμανία το 1932 σε ηλικία 61 ετών.

Η σορός της Σοφίας μεταφέρθηκε στο κάστρο Friedrichshof, όπου αναπαύθηκε λίγες μέρες πριν σταλεί στη Ρωσική Εκκλησία στη Φλωρεντία, όπου τάφηκε δίπλα στον σύζυγο και την πεθερά της. Έμειναν εκεί για τέσσερα χρόνια μέχρι την αποκατάσταση του Γεωργίου Β΄ στον ελληνικό θρόνο το 1935.

Μετά την αποκατάστασή του στον ελληνικό θρόνο, ο Γεώργιος Β' οργάνωσε τον επαναπατρισμό των λειψάνων των μελών της οικογένειάς του που πέθαναν στην εξορία. Μια σημαντική θρησκευτική τελετή που συγκέντρωσε, για έξι ημέρες τον Νοέμβριο του 1936, όλα τα μέλη της βασιλικής οικογένειας εν ζωή. Η σορός της Σοφίας ετάφη στο βασιλικό ταφικό μνημείο στο Τατόι, όπου αναπαύεται μέχρι σήμερα.

[library-mother]

ID: “Triple Entente”. (Click for better quality)

Date of Entry: VARIOUS

Description: Three Mothers, their idiosyncrasies and brief explanations of their mechanisms. A Mother should very well always have herself, a Sanctuary and her Handmaidens. A Mother’s Sanctuary may be a small place in her own World, and she sees little reason to abandon its solace. Still, the pervasive tendency allows her shelter to expand and influence other Worlds, converting them to a facsimile of a home.

Rumour: It is said that Mothers had not always existed, but rather, the unfortunate product of a tragedy long ago.

[trans-corvo]

Currently fighting with myself over my thesis topic. I was 95% committed to looking at 'deviant' sexuality in Weimar film but I talked with a prof today and they suggested I could get around the language barrier for Hungarian history by focusing on another country's interactions with Hungary, and like, I would LOVE to write about the effect the triple entente's refusal to recognize Károlyi's government had on further destabilizing the country and giving the communists an opening to take over. The British have exceptionally good records of all of it too, I'd just have to start a bit early because apparently it can take the national archives a long time send you the stuff you're asking for.

[mapsontheweb]

At the dawn of the First World War, France, Russia and the United Kingdom formed the Triple Entente. Facing it, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy have formed the Triple Alliance (or Triplice) since 1882.

by @LegendesCarto

[agente606]

— Es 1914 europa es el centro militar y económico del mundo! hay muchas cosas buenas pero también muchos conflictos ya que todos quieren demostrar que son los más fuertes.

Pero para entender mejor esto tenemos que retroceder a 1881, las potencias europeas se estuvieron "repartiendo" África sin el permiso de África...ya que ahí habían muchos recursos y rutas.

En ese momento Alemania no era tan fuerte y además no le habían tocado tantos territorios cómo ellos querían, pero después de haberles ganado a Francia en la guerra "Franco Prusiana" se habían convertido en un gran imperio el cuál estaba a cargo de "Guillermo segundo".

Alemania estaba celoso! ya que las grandes potencias tienen mucho territorio en África y Francia estaba súper molesta también porque en esa guerra Alemania le quito un pedazo de territorio.

En otro lado Austria - Hungría se había agregado un pedazo del territorio de serbia sin su permiso, obviamente esto molesto a Serbia y por ende Rusia ya que Rusia y Serbia eran amiguis.

La cosa esque todos tenían roses con todos Así que tomaron bandos e hicieron dos alianzas.

1) La triple entente:

Francia, reunió Unido y Rusia.

2) Triple alianza:

Italia, Alemania y Austria - Hungría.

Aunque en ese tiempo había paz...solo por si acaso todos comenzaron a fabricar e invertir en mejores armas, todo de forma discreta a esta etapa la llamamos "Paz armada"

Todo iba más o menos bien hasta que el príncipe de Austria (Francisco Fernando) y su esposa tuvieron la brillante idea de visitar "Sarajevo"

El problema era que justamente ese era territorio que Austria - Hungría le quitó a Serbia y en su paseo el príncipe y su esposa fueron asesinados.

Esto hizo creer que Austria - Hungría que Serbia había matado a su príncipe por el conflicto del territorio y eso.

Así que Austria - Hungría le declaró la guerra a Serbia, pero Serbia le dijo a rusia, haciendo que Austria - Hungría se enojara más.

Austria - Hungría le pidió ayudaba a Alemania, y este le dijo que si.

Alemania le dijo a rusia que no se metería en esa guerra o le declaraba la guerra y a rusia no le importo.

Francia también se metió pero apoyando a Rusia.

Reino Unido se mantuvo neutral hasta que Alemania le pidió ayuda bélgica (el cuál estaba neutral) si lo podían dejar pasar así rodeaba a los franceses a lo que bélgica le dijo que no y Alemania invadió bélgica cosa que le molestó mucho a reino Unido porque Alemania andaba invadiendo paises neutrales asi que les declaró la guerra.

NOTA: los uniformes militares de los alemanes eran modernos y tenían unos cascos con un pincho muy intimidante pero los protegían y eso les daba ventaja....por otro lado los franceses tenían un uniforme con colores que los delataban fácilmente y ni siquiera tenían cascos.

Las batallas en las trincheras eran brutales y los soldados de ambos bandos tenían que lidiar con ratas, enfermedades y poca comida una muerte segura, ahí los alemanes usaron gas venenoso por priemra ves a pesar que todos habían prometido no usarlo, así que demás también lo usaron.

Italia por un momento fue de la triple alianza peor reino unido convenció a Italia de volverse de la triple entente.

Bulgaria apoyaba a Alemania ya que les prometieron muchas cosas bonitas y gracias a eso lograron invadir a Serbia rápidamente.

El imperio otomano no sabía si entrar a la guerra o no pero alguno de sus líderes que si querían atacaron una flota de barcos rusos sin el permiso del emperador y así entraron también a la guerra.

Y otros países más entraron a la guerra, básicamente todos peleaban contra todos

Así hasta llegar a 1917 los países estaban cansados y algunos civiles morían de hambre.

Alemania derribo un barco en EE.UU haciendo que EE.UU se molestara pero mantuvo la calma y le dijo a Alemania que no lo volviera hacer

pero... Alemania volvió hacerlo, y este como sabía que había metido la pata le mando un telegrama a México para que fueran aliados si esque había guerra con EE.UU, cosa que salió mal ya que reino unido lo interceptó el mensaje y se lo mostró a EEUU, haciendo que EE.UU se enojara y entrará a la guerra.

Alemania entro un poquito en pánico ya que EE.UU tenia mucho dinero para fabricar armas.

Mientras tanto el emperador ruso murió y fue reemplazado por un gobierno débil así que Rusia no podía seguir apoyando la triple entente porque tenía sus propios problemas

Alemania quería aprovecharse de la situación para acabar con las fuerzas occidentales pero la entente logro aguantar sus ataques y los obligaron a retirarse.

Kaiser (el emperador de Alemania) se retiró haciendo que Alemania se rindiera.

Luego se firmó un tratado de paz en Versalles, Alemania tuvo que devolver un montón de territorios que había conquistado, lo obligaron a reducir a su poder militar, también tuvo que pagar millones de dólares y aceptar que la guerra había sido totalmente su culpa.

[froggi-mushroom]

I love researching the triple entente it’s like wow…none of these people have anything in common, how are they allies?