From Belgian and French paratroops to Che Guevara and CIA funded Cuban B-26 pilots, the Congo has been a hotbed of African conflict in the late 20th century.
When the colonial powers began retreating from Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, the Belgian Congo/Zaire became the bloodiest, most chaotic example of 'how not to do it', and has remained so ever since. A vast region with huge mineral wealth, abandoned in 1960 with virtually no infrastructure or functioning government, it was immediately torn by civil wars.

Many whites remained in-country, both as missionaries and to exploit...

The armies of Scandinavia and the Low Countries bore the first crushing impact of Hitler's mighty Blitzkrieg war machine in Western Europe, in campaigns that astonished and terrified the world.

The German Wehrmacht was millions strong, equipped with the latest guns, tanks and aircraft, and had the priceless advantage of having learned the realities of modern warfare in Poland the previous September. The defenders of Scandinavia and the Low Countries were raised from small populations, and were inadequately funded, trained, equipped and armed. Their modest numbers, inexperience, and...

The 80 Years' War (also known as the Dutch War of Independence) was the foundation of Dutch nationhood, and during the course of the conflict one of its main leaders--Maurice of Orange-Nassau--created an army and a tactical system that became a model throughout Europe.

This study, the first of a two-part series, focuses on the Dutch infantry. It examines how Maurice of Orange-Nassau attracted volunteers and students from across Europe, introduced innovative new training methods such as common drill movements, and standardized the organization and payment system of the army to make...

The famous but largely unchronicled Hanseatic League (or simple "the Hanse/Hansa") was a Tuetonic German commercial and defensive federation of merchant guilds based in harbor towns along the North Sea and Baltic coasts of what are now Germany and her neighbors, which eventually dominated maritime trade in Northern Europe and spread its influence much further afield. The League was formed to protect the economic and political interests of member cities throughout a vast and complex trading network. While most members remained basically subject to the local rulers who profited from their...

For those interested in the actual appearance of the Prussian soldiers who fought at Ligny, Wavre and Waterloo in 1815, this colorful study combines the latest findings and expert analysis to cast new light on the fateful Waterloo campaign.

The Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine, led by Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher in 1815, played a - possibly the - vital part in the Allied victory at Waterloo, forcing Napoleon to divide his forces when Blucher's leading elements arrived to offer Wellington crucial support at a time when his Anglo-Netherlands army was doing no...

Featuring specially commissioned full-color artwork, this engaging study explains and illustrates the armies that fought in the epic struggle for the rebirth of the independent Polish nation, in the bitter aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

In 1917 Poland was recognized as a state by Russia, but the Bolshevik coup threatened this. The Polish leader Marshal Pilsudski hurried to build an army around Polish World War I veterans, and in 1918 war broke out for Poland's independence, involving the the Poles, the Red and White Russian armies, at least two different...

This book offers an extensive overview of the myriad Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. The conflict was the curtain-raiser to World War II, and the major international event of the 1930s. The study illustrates, textually and visually, how the Republican forces were initially varied in appearance and character. Loyal elements of the Spanish army that rejected the appeal of the rebel generals were supported by a wide range of volunteer regional units and political militias, and by volunteers from many other countries.
These disparate forces were later...

Between 1864 and 1870 four nations fought in an extraordinarily bloody war - the largest in the history of South America. The powerhouses Argentina and Brazil alongside tiny Uruguay on one side, and the small but increasingly-powerful Paraguay on the other, fought a conflict that was almost contemporary with the American Civil War and Franco-Prussian War, and rivalled their very high casualty rates. The aftermath of the war saw defeated Paraguay's territory diminished, its total population reduced by a staggering 70 per cent, and its economy ruined for generations, while victorious Brazil...

Armies of Castile and Aragon depicts the fighting men whose skill and tactical flexibility made Spain into a world power at the close of the Middle Ages, carving out empires from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. Much has been written of the men who fought in the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses. But meanwhile, on the Iberian peninsula, the foundations of Spain's military 'Golden Age' were being laid as the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon under the Trastamara dynasty grew in power, ambition and success.

This book features spectacular...