History in Focus: Taiwan in the early 20th Century

Taiwan is an island state situated in East Asia and for the much of the early half of the 20th century, the island was controlled by Japan. Following the end of World War II, the island eventually came into the control of China (though officially, the details are murky, with Japan still exercising sovereignty over the island until 1952. See here). As a result of the Communist takeover of mainland China, the previous government relocated to Taipei in Taiwan and continue to stay there since.

During the latter half of the 20th century, Taiwan has experienced rapid economic growth and industrialization and is now an advanced industrial economy.

 In the 1980s and early 1990s, Taiwan evolved into a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage. Taiwan is one of the Four Asian Tigers and a member of the WTO and APEC. The 19th-largest economy in the world,its advanced technology industry plays a key role in the global economy.

 Taiwan is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, and human development.

Here are some photos from TaiPics.com, which is an archive of over 7000 historical Taiwan pictures collected and organized by taipeimarc, an American expat in Taiwan. All images are believed to be in the public domain. I recommend you visit the website!

Overview of Taipei, Taiwan's capital, in the early 20th century

School session in Japanese-held Taiwan, prior to 1945

The Governor General's house and East Gate , circa 1920s.

School gathering

Farmers working

1945 bombing of Taipei

Taipai in the early 20th century

Taiwanese farmers on the field. Date unknown

Girls' school in Taiwan

Aborigines of Taiwan (historically called Formosa). Date unknown

Missionary school, date unknown.

Rice planting. Workers often worked till sunset. Date unknown

Opium den in Taiwan

Sugar manufacturing factory and plantation. The site is now a museum.

Sugarcane farming. Date unknown

Sugar bags from the 1940s.

Sun Moon Lake.

Aborigines canoeing in the Sun Moon Lake.

Unknown building in Taipai

History in Focus: The Austro-Hungarian Empire

Well, it's been a while since we had a maps/photo-only post so here it goes!

In case you don't know, the Austro-Hungarian empire was a constitutional monarchist union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe. The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, under which the House of Habsburg agreed to share power with the separate Hungarian government, dividing the territory of the former Austrian Empire between them.

The Austrian and the Hungarian lands became independent entities enjoying equal status. Austria-Hungary was a multinational realm and one of the world's great powers at the time. The dual monarchy existed for 51 years until it dissolved on 31 October 1918 at end of World War I. Three decades after its dissolution, most of former Austria-Hungary became part of the Soviet Union or the East Bloc countries.

Extremely detailed Ethnic, Transport, and Physical map of the Austrian Empire from 1855

The realm comprised modern-day Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, large parts of Serbia and Romania and smaller parts of Italy, Montenegro, Poland and Ukraine.

Austrian troops marching up Mt. Zion, Jerusalem, 1916

Austro-Hungarian WW1 POW's in Russia, 1915

Pavilion of the Austro-hungarian Llyod at the world's fair, Vienna, 1873

1892 protests in Bucharest for equal rights for Romanians in Austria-Hungary-ruled Transylvania

Emperor Franz Joseph and Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 1908.

 Austrian officers and a dog

Autro-Hungarian dragoons

Abbazia in 1911

Thousands more photos are present on Flickr. I highly recommend it.

History in Focus: The Iran-Iraq War

(Note: History in Focus is a new post style where I discuss a topic simply by posting photos [and if applicable, videos] of the event in question. I often found that this helps the reader to understand a topic much more thoroughly).

The Iran-Iraq war was a devastating eight-year war fought between the two countries between September 1980 and August 1988. The war started with a simultaneous air and land Iraqi offensive onto Iran which caught the Iranians off guard (with Iran still reeling from the chaos caused via their revolution).

Iraqi gains (between 1980-82) and Iranian gains (1982-88)

The Iraqis made early gains, capturing the strategic border city of Khorramshar after a lengthy and bloody siege (The city was nicknamed "Khunistan" [City of Blood] by both sides during the conflict) and initiated the siege of Abadan. Much of the city of Abadan, including the oil refinery which was one of the world's largest refinery with capacity of 680,000 barrels per day, was badly damaged and almost destroyed by the siege.

Armed Iranian woman in Khorramshar during the siege

Oil wells on fire, outside Abadan, Iran.

Iraqi artillery battalion.

Iraqi soldiers posing after a victory

Trench warfare was common, as in WWI.

For much of 1981 and 1982, the Iraqi offensive halted in a stalemate. In 1982, Iraqi soldiers were repelled from Iranian territory and it seemed that the conflict would end with Iraq suing for peace. It did not, Iran was later on the offensive, dragging the war on for another six years.

Iraqi army and militia positions in the war (from HealingIraq.blogspot.com)

The war saw the mass recruitment of child soldiers

Child soldiers on the Iranian frontier

Sudanese volunteers marching. They joined the Iraqi Army in 1983.

Iraqi tank and soldiers cross beyond the Karun river

Iraqi soldiers in combat.

The Iranian offensive was slowed down and eventually halted by the deployment of chemical weapons, mainly mustard gas, by the Iraqi army. Iraq would later use these weapons for the remainder of the war, most notably in the gassing of the Kurdish village of Halabja.

Iranian soldier wears a gas mask and takes cover in a trench

Locations of the use of chemical weapons

Iranian soldiers equipped with gas masks. It helped them survive.

Victims of the gas attack at the Kurdish village of Halabja, Iraq. 5,000 died at least.

The war saw the constant bombardment, by both sides, of the other's cities and towns. Missiles and air raids were launched to bomb each other into submission. This was later dubbed as the "War of the Cities".

Kuwait was attacked by Iran in an airstrike over their support for Iraq

Iranian Revolutionary Guard mounting an Anti-Air gun in Iran

Iranian children lie dead after a school was bombed in 1987

Tanker Wars:

The conflict spilled into the Persian Gulf; both countries produced large amounts of oil and it was viewed that attacking and disabling oil installations in the combatant's country would damage their economy and eventually bankrupt them. However, this mini-war caused the US navy (a navy stronger than both Iran's and Iraq's combined) to escort Gulf oil tankers; there were still incidents. Iraq 'accidentally' bombed a US warship and Iran's practice of laying mines in the sea (which had damaged a US frigate) caused an American strike on the Iranian navy, taking out five Iranian naval vessels.

Oil tanker scuttled in the Shatt al Arab waterway on Saddam's orders to prevent sea access to southern Iraq

The USS Stark after being hit by an Iraqi fighter plane

Iranian boats like these littered the Gulf.

Oil tanker in flames after being hit by an Iranian missile.

After the USS Stark incident, American naval vessels were on high alert. In July 1988, the cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 passengers and crew on board. The American government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat, and that the Vincennes was operating in international waters at the time and feared that it was under attack, which later appeared to be untrue.The Iranians, however, maintain that the Vincennes was in fact in Iranian territorial waters, and that the Iranian passenger jet was turning away and increasing altitude after take-off. U.S. Admiral William J. Crowe also admitted on Nightline that the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles. The issue remains a controversial point in Iranian-American relations to this day.

Home Front:
As in WWI and WWII, the war brought in the massive pouring of military volunteers and aid to each country's armed forces.

Iranian children offer their spare savings to the war-front.

Military volunteers en route to the front-lines.

Most were never seen of again.

Iranian volunteers took up arms by the busloads (literally)

Iranian volunteers marching to the front-line.

Iranians from across the country joined the army

Civilians stock up supplies in a mosque along the frontline in Iran

Iran's first president, Banisadr, visiting an injured soldier.

Azadi sports stadium in Tehran was a focal recruitment area

International Reactions:

The UN deployed several observers to Iran to assess if chemical weapons were used and to report on how much were used.

UN weapons inspectors at work.

Taking photos of artillery shells

And of children... (???)

UN observers assess the level of chemicals used.

Casualties (graphic):

The war left a million dead, and hundreds of thousands injured.

Peace:

Peace was achieved in 1988. 100,000+ civilians killed on both sides, 320,000–720,000 Iraqi soldiers and militia killed and 150,000–375,000 Iranian soldiers and militia killed. Over a trillion dollars in damages occurred. This was the longest conventional war of the 20th century and one of the most brutal.

Iraq erected  101 statues with pointing fingers towards Iran, six miles away from the border, in memory of Iraqis killed during the Iran-Iraq War. The statues were destroyed by the British on March 31, 2003.