Page 92 - All About History - Issue 19-14

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What was the
The Maginot Line was an
expensive military mistake
Ghost Dance?
Edward Johnstone, Carlisle
Originating in Nevada, the Ghost Dance
was a Native-American spiritual movement
that peaked in the final years of the
American Indian Wars. Foretold by religious
leader Wovoka, the dance was meant to
bring back the old Native-American way of
life before the white settlers came west.
It also promised to return dead relatives
who had fallen at the hands of the new
colonists. The dance spread throughout
many tribes including the Cheyenne,
Arapaho and Apache, and involved the
dancer going into a trance-like state.
Despite the massacre at Wounded Knee
in 1890, the dance continued, in a vain
attempt to restore peace, as the remaining
ANDRE MAGINOT
French, 1877-1932 tribes were rounded up into reservations
and their way of life was gradually eroded.
A high-ranking
What was the Brief French statesman
and then-minister
Bio
of war, Maginot
demanded that his
Maginot Line? country construct a line of
defensive fortifications against
the perceived threat of German
invasion. As well as the famous
Alex Yates, Gloucester The huge cost of the defences led battlements, Maginot served
in World War I and helped
Even after World War I had ended to several other areas of the French reorganise his country’s army
the French elite were still wary of military being poorly financed though after the conflict.
the threat from the East, despite the and, although the Maginot Line did
Treaty of Versailles stripping away stop a direct German attack, the
most of Germany’s power. As a result Nazis simply invaded France though
of these fears they constructed huge Belgium in 1940 and thus avoided
defences over their eastern border most of the defences. The French
from Luxembourg in the north to had left their Belgian border sparsely
Switzerland in the south. Filled defended, so the Germans simply
with heavy weapon instalments, outflanked the line, blitzing through
the defences were designed to be the Ardennes. When Allied forces
almost impenetrable to any advancing invaded Nazi-occupied France in
German force. They were designed by 1944 they too mostly bypassed the
Andre Maginot and built for a cost of wall, further highlighting what an The Ghost Dance was popular
about 3 billion French francs. expensive mistake it was. throughout many of the Native-
American tribes

Thisdayinhistory 13 November

1002 1642 1715 1789
St Brice’s Day Massacre English Civil War begins TheBattleofSheriffmuir O “Nothing is certain but death
Ordered by King Ethelred the Tensions between Charles I A key battle of the Jacobite and taxes”
Unready, this slaughter of many and Parliament reach fever Rebellion,thetwoarmiesclash This immortal phrase is uttered
Viking men is issued after Danish pitch and civil war breaks out. at Sheriffmuir near Dunblane. byBenjaminFranklininaletter
raids had frequently ravaged It rages until 1649, with Charles Afterthebattle,government to France’s Jean-Baptiste Le Roy
England in the preceding years. beheaded and Oliver Cromwell forces manage to halt the describing the new US Constitution.
It is believed the massacre led to later establishing himself as advanceoftheJacobitearmy Since then, the quote has been
future Viking raids and Danelaw. Lord Protector. as they retreat to Perth. frequently used in popular culture.

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