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| Episode af træfningen ved Sankelmark Niels Simonsen (Source) |
Politicians in Copenhagen decided that that was not a good thing. They decided that Schleswig should become part of Denmark proper.
Germans, and more importantly Prussians, didn't agree.
War was fought from 1848 to 1852, which the Danes won.
War came again in 1864, things did not go so well for the Danes this time.
I would write more but I'm binge watching a most excellent Danish mini-series on the Second Schleswig War, it's called (as the post title suggests), 1864.
It shows the effects of war on the common folk and the soldiers, and it illustrates, very nicely I thought, the absolute arrogance of politicians if left unchecked by reality.
I highly recommend 1864. Some European history that perhaps you didn't know about.
The events there led to the Franco-Prussian War and to the unification of Germany under the Prussian Kaiser.
Things rather went downhill after that ...
Do watch it.
I saw the title & thought about the US & 1864, turns out it was a piece of history I'd never heard of before... I'll bet there is a lot of that history I never heard of before out there.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
There is so much history, I'd like to know it all but ...
DeleteNot enough hours in a day.
Interesting history, thanks for sharing. Seems all around this old world folks that will almost never see battle, make decisions to send you and I off to war.
ReplyDeleteA sad thought is nobody goes to war PLANNING on losing. Most don't bother wondering just what will be lost-destroyed or ruined (as in lives, families and such) even in a "Short Victorious War".
Or as yesterday, I asked some Military Sports Ball fellow about Ukraine and the middle east troubles. Do you actually know of a successful war America has been in since WW2? Silly words like Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq (in the process of evicting us "liberators") and soon Ukraine seems never to bother the Military Sports Ball folks chanting America always wins.
War is expensive, ask way too many dead empires. CONgress (Spelling intentional) AGAIN passed a "Continuing Resolution" to keep our broke by any reasonable business model "Empire" rolling for 6 MOAR weeks. Seems nobody needs to budget anything anymore.
Got a deep larder, winter isn't coming, its freezing breath is here.
Has anyone really "won" a war since 1945? Guess you'd first have to define "winning."
DeleteWell, at the risk of being pedantic (second definition per websters) we know what "Winning a War" is given we count WW2 as won.
DeleteFolks here I am quite sure can define what a woman is. We might differ a bit in detail but unlike a recent Supreme Court "Judge" we can define it.
But then again, on second thought we do *still* have troops in both Japan and Germany, don't we? Is winning when you have to keep a garrison there? I was looking at a map of the world this morning while I was warming up after morning chores. I was startled we had camps and bases just about everywhere aside from Russia and China.
Snip: The US controls about 750 bases in at least 80 countries worldwide and spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined.
Maybe we are winning? I'm pretty sure our trillion-dollar extra debt every 8-9 months has something to do with that spending habit.
BTW what happened to my normal sign in? This is Michael, posted this am as Michael, now I'm anonymous?
Blogger has been very strange with sign-ins as of late. If you stay "logged on" to Google (which runs Blogger, you might see your name "in lights" or you might not. As I said, Blogger has been "weird" for over a year now. I'm sure it has something to do with being "woke" or tracking people for "the gubmint." I'm too old and too cynical to dig too deeply into the phenomenon.
DeleteBut yeah as to defining "winning." WWII is still costing us money and lives, even though it officially ended some years ago.
Technically the US has not had a Declared War since WW2 & they gave up so we did "win".
DeleteSince then? It's hasn't been a declared war but it has been war.... turning into a way of life.
A way of "life," rather ironic, don't you think?
Deletehas anyone won a war since 1945?
Deletelet me shower you with examples
Israel, three times at least , 1948 war of indeoendence, 1967 six day blitz and 1973 war for survival
UK, Falklands 1982
Russians, second Chechen. Making a graveyard can be a win too.
India, 1971 vs Pakistan. The reason we have nmow state called Bangladesh.
US: Grenada, Panama, Kuwait. Yeah first two were against pushovers but still it counts.
Azarbaijan vs Armenia, lately. Nagorno-Karabakh taken back.
Chad vs Libya, Toyota war 1980s.
Vietnam versus French and later US: independent unified under North.
Vietnam vs China 1979 dont mess with Vietnam.
Korea: I count it as UN side win, if only because we can always contrast 2 koreas to show people difference in living standards between communism and democracy/capitalism combo.
Ah, but winning can be as disastrous as losing in some cases.
DeleteRead this post's title and saw that painting and thought "Those aren't US uniforms". Now to scrounge up that mini-series, a different time in Denmark's history from the one portrayed in Seaside Hotel Sarge.
ReplyDeleteIt's very good.
DeleteSarge - I am only familiar with the name of the War itself, not the actual details (odd to think of Denmark as being a military power these days). Thanks for the recommendation; I will definitely give it a look.
ReplyDeleteIf you are look for something else Danish and good, look up Flame and Citron (Flammen & Citronen). It is the story (based on historical events) from the Danish Resistance of World War II.
I did watch that, very good! Another very good film regarding Denmark is April 9th. Covers the German invasion of Denmark in April 1940, stars Pilou Asbæk who is in 1864 as well. (He was in Game of Thrones also, he's a very good actor. A Dane, no surprise there.)
DeleteI knew about some of the Wars of Denmark.... against Sweden, against Russia, against Sweden, against the Lithuania-Polish alliance/league/confederation, against Sweden, against various Germanic principalities (powers, dominios, thrones.... sorry, sorry), against Sweden.... almost seems as if Denmark is the Turkey of northern Europe.
ReplyDeleteOf course, before about 1900, almost everybody was at war with someone else all the time, other than short breaks to rearm and raise a new generation of pike-fodder.
Of.... did I mention Denmark against Sweden?
Good post, causes lots of thought. And opens up a new rabbit hole. Well.... sleep is overrated anyway.
Denmark's history is interesting indeed.
DeleteThanks, Sarge! History I didn't know anything about.
ReplyDeleteBoat Guy
I worked with a Danish senior NCO in NATO, a very good, very humorous fellow, made me want to know more about Denmark.
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. Funny thing, I was just reading last night about the Seven Weeks War in an old high school textbook from 1953. No, not mine, I am not THAT old! I picked this book up long ago, it's "Modern and Contemporary European History (1815-1952)" by J. Salwyn Schapiro, published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
ReplyDeleteStrange thing, even though the book is copyrighted 1952, some of the observations made by the author were a bit more "progressive" than I would have thought, especially for a book "Discarded" from the Canadian, TX HS library. Be that as it may, he starts the section on the Seven Weeks War thusly:
"The weapon was now forged with which to strike those who stood in the way of German unity. An army appeared which was to give a great account of itself on the battle-fields of Europe. At its head was the greatest soldier since Napoleon, General Helmuth von Moltke, the first of the modern scientific warriors. ...Three wars were to be fought before German unity was accomplished: with Denmark in 1864, with Austria in 1866, and with France in 1870."
If you can find a copy of this old book somewhere, it does seem to have decent factual historical data in it from the period mentioned.
One more interesting note. The last check-out date stamp in the back is November 23, 1998, so some HS kid was reading this book in Canadian, TX 25 years ago.
You can still find copies of this, Amazon lists one for under 3 dollars, have to wonder at its condition!
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech again. It appears to have been a popular HS textbook, then. Oh, and another note on the book, it has some really excellent color fold-out maps, something one does nto see much in modern books. That alone makes it worth finding a good copy.
DeleteMaps! Many history books don't have nearly enough maps, let alone good maps.
DeleteInteresting. I've read a lot about military affairs of the 19th century, but almost all American, so I know nearly nothing about the events above.
ReplyDeleteI did learn something about 1860s naval warfare, a story I need to scribble about sometime.
All of this reinforces several grim realities:
- Humans have a propensity toward engaging in war
- National borders, and indeed nations themselves are in a constant state of flux, and always have been, and always will be. Those who think they can freeze lines of demarcation on a map for all eternity are as foolish as King Kanute who decreed that the tide would not rise and flood him from his seaside throne.
With those facts in mind, I seriously question the wisdom of American insistence on sacrificing the blood of our progeny, and wealth borrowed from others to insanely try to halt border changes in far corners of the world, such as Taiwan or Ukraine. Especially when we are so assiduously diminishing our own national sovereignty and power.
Humans are strange creatures, indeed. It is sad that so many end up suffering for so little of permanent value to the individuals or their families.
John Blackshoe
We seem to abrogate our responsibilities to our species to those with the loudest voices and the most greed. Much to our detriment.
DeleteA sad state of affairs.
Canute did that to show his people that, no, he could not control everything. Wish more English monarchs would have remembered that (looking at you, Tudors...)
DeleteMore monarchs ...
DeletePeriod.
https://youtu.be/lk7GyNhE2Aw?si=-XRGCjmlyttuBIvL
ReplyDeleteProbably best outtake Ive found on YT
Taken straight out of the mini-series. A good look at that battle.
DeleteNote: that's THE Goeben that certain famous WW 1 ship was named after.
DeleteInteresting.
Delete