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Established in 1935, Unit 731 was officially known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army. Under the Imperial Japanese government, the unit worked to develop biological and chemical weapons and performed cruel and frequently fatal tests on detainees throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War (19371945) and World War II. These experiments are thought to be among the most inhumanewar crimes ever carried out.Formation of Unit 731Man looks at figures showing vivisection tests at the exhibition hall of historical Japanese germ warfare located in the south of Harbin, by Jason Lee, 2005. Source: NewsweekJapan began pursuing an aggressive, expansionist, and imperialist foreign policy in the early 1930s. In September 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria in northeastern China, established control over the region, and created the Manchukuo puppet state. Sino-Japanese relations began to crumble, resulting in the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.Despite the 1925 Geneva Protocol ban on the development of chemical and biological weapons (entered into force in 1928; Japan was one of the signatories of the protocol), the Japanese Imperial government envisioned that in order to achieve its foreign policy goals in Asia and establish itself as a dominant power, the Japanese Imperial Army required aggressive modernization and innovation.Following this goal, Unit 731 was established in 1935 near the Pingfang district of the Manchurian capital, Harbin, under Japanese occupation. With the stated goal of promoting public health, it became known as the Kwantung Armys Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department.In reality, the departments goals included finding out how the human body might resist various illnesses and starvation, as well as testing and researching the impacts of recently discovered biological weapons on the human body.A recent photo of a fog-shrouded building on the site of the Unit 731 bioweapon facility at Ping Fang. Source: Warfare History NetworkAt its initial stage, Unit 731 gathered volunteers to participate in the experiments. However, as the war intensified and the experiments expanded, the Japanese Imperial Army ultimately approved the use of prisoners of war for these experiments. The majority of the victims were Russian and Chinese. A small portion of Koreans and Mongolians were also included in the experiments.The ideological justification for establishing Unit 731 was based on the assumption that the Chinese and Koreans were racially inferior to the Japanese. Centuries of conflict and rivalry with China and Korea in order to acquire dominance in East Asia contributed to the rise of Japanese nationalism. The Meiji Restoration from 1868 and the subsequent rapid industrialization and modernization of Japan further cemented the perception that Japanese advancement was the result of its racial and cultural superiority.Thus, in the mid-20th century, Japan actively pursued the aim of establishing itself as a dominant power. The need to develop biological warfare was based on racial superiority: By weakening and eliminating racially inferior people in the region, Japan sought territorial expansion and regional dominance.The Leadership of Unit 731Portrait of Dr. Ishii Shiro. Source: Pacific AtrocitiesIshii Shiro, widely known as the [Josef] Mengele of the East, is considered the founding father of biological warfare in Japan.Drawing inspiration from the 1925 Geneva Protocol, he deduced that biological warfare must be an effective instrument touphold Japans dominance, given how much it was feared and opposed.Ishii Shiro began his career as an army doctor, finished medical school at Kyoto Imperial University, and was appointed head of the biological warfare research program established by the Japanese government in 1931. Ishii was able to advocate for his ideas to the Imperial Armys higher authorities byarguing thatthe conventional military forces were more costly to maintain, while lethal pathogens and chemical weapons were alternatively inexpensive to develop and utilize.According to Ishii, biological warfare research could be categorized into two pillars: assault research and defense research. Initially, Ishii and his team of researchers focused on the development of defense research,which meant creating new vaccines to safeguard the Japanese army from infectious diseases during the war efforts.To conduct assault research, Ishii saw the need to establish a research site outside of Japanese territory. In doing so, Ishii implied that his experiments would not be ethically justified to conduct on racially superior Japanese citizens but would be acceptable with supposedly lower races.When Japan invaded Manchuria in China in 1931 and occupied the whole territory in 1932, Ishii acquired the site abroad he needed.Japanese soldiers guard Chinese prisoners during the invasion of Manchuria, September 1931. Source: Warfare History NetworkIn 1936, Japanese Emperor Hirohito ordered the creation of a network of biological weapons research units all over Asia. Unit 731, built in the Ping Fang district of Harbin, Manchuria, became the headquarters. It had 3,000 personnel, 150 buildings, and the capacity to allocate 600 prisoners at a time for experimental use.The Japanese government supplied Dr. Ishii with leading scientists and physicians. Those who refused to participate were labeled Hikokumin (traitors). However, working with Dr. Ishii was held in such high esteem that most medical professionals saw it as a noble service to their country.Unit 731 received almost unlimited equipment and funds from the Japanese government and had affiliated locations in Nanking (Unit 1644), Beijing (Unit 1855), and Changchun (Unit 100). The total number of personnel involved reached 20,000.Human Experimentation at Unit 731A group of statues in Harbin, Northeast Chinas Heilongjiang, showing the brutal crimes conducted by Unit 731. Source: Global TimesThe intense construction of the Unit 731 buildings in Manchuria caused an interest in the local population. When asked what the building was meant for, ironically, the answer was a lumber mill, and the people are the logs. From this point, log, or maruta in Japanese, was widely used in reference to prisoners of Unit 731.In practice, the researchers at Unit 731 investigated the effects of various infections on the human body, such as syphilis. Researchers actively studied the symptoms, ways of onset of the disease, and its treatment. They forcibly infected male prisoners with the pathogens and observed the transmission process of these pathogens among female prisoners through coerced sexual interactions.Special gas chambers were set up to investigate test subjects reactions and durability against blister gas and nerve gas. The effects of high G-forces and prolonged X-ray exposure on the human body were also examined.One of Unit 731s physiologists, Yoshimura Hisato, was particularly interested in hypothermia. Hisatos inhumane experiments included submerging prisoners limbs in ice-cold water until they became frozen and a coat of ice formed over them. Hisato recorded the length of time it took for frostbites to appear on human bodies and used a variety of techniques to quickly thaw the frozen limbs (hot water, fire, or leaving the subject untreated).At Unit 731, active vivisectionthe practice of performing surgery on living organisms for research or experimental purposeswas carried out without the use of anesthesia. Prisoners were infected with deadly diseases (such as cholera and plague) and vivisected to study the effects of the diseases on human organs.Unit 731 in PracticeIJN Special Naval Landing Forces troops in gas masks prepare for an advance in the rubble of Shanghai. Chemical weapons were utilized against the Chinese during the battle. Source: Imperial Japanese Navy photo from Brent Jones collectionThe Japanese Imperial Army first utilized the results of the inhumane experiments at Unit 731 in October 1940 against the inhabitants of Kaiming Street in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. Japanese planes dropped wheat, corn, and cotton infected with the bubonic plague in targeted areas. Just days following the attack, more than 100 people died of the disease.Ningbo authorities erected a four-meter isolation wall around the area, but unable to contain the spread of the disease, Kaiming Street was eventually burned. The Ningbo region remained closed until the 1960s and is widely known as the plague field.Another instance of attempted Japanese biological warfare is the siege of Bataan in the Philippines in March 1942. Japan intended to unleash 200 pounds, or almost 150 million insects, of fleas that spread the plague. However, the plan never came to reality. The battle was over by the time the assault was prepared.Visitors look at a scene depicting human experiments at the Unit 731 museum in Harbin in northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province. Source: The IndependentThe Battle of Iwo Jima, which took place against the United States in February and March 1945, was another botched biological siege. Two gliders carrying pathogens were to be towed over the battlefield and released, but the gliders did not reach their destination.By 1945, Japan was struggling to advance against the Allied Powers of World War II. Operation PX, also known as Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night, was the Japanese plan for a biological attack on cities in southern California. The plan was scheduled to be executed on September 22, 1945. According to the operation, aircraft were to be launched from I-400-class submarines. They were ordered to drop bombs containing the plague-infested fleas. Operation PX failed due to the opposition of Army Chief of Staff General Yoshijiro Umezu.The Legacy of Unit 731Experiments at Unit 731. Source: US Naval InstituteJapan was defeated in World War II. As the Allied forces entered Japan, they began to investigate war crimes and atrocities committed by researchers at Unit 731. The information became available to the US intelligence agencies and military personnel through interrogation of the Japanese political and military officials involved in the establishment and functioning of Unit 731.Lt. Col. Murray Sanders of the US Army recommended to US President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur in 1945 that Unit 731 should be kept secret and used to further the United States scientific endeavors in the context of the Cold War. President Truman accepted. Thus, Dr. Ishi and his subordinates received immunity from prosecution as war criminals.Both the experimental locations and the subsequent documents were destroyed. The primary explanation for how the United States and Japan managed to keep the history of Unit 731 secret during the Cold War was the fact that no victim who entered the facility survived.Despite the inhumane nature of the experiments, medical researchers and leaders of the units continued to live without the legal consequences of their brutal actions. They kept working in medical facilities, institutions, and different industries. Dr. Shiro Ishii returned to private practice. He passed away in 1959 from throat cancer.Members of Unit 731. Source: Pacific AtrocitiesUp until the 1990s and the end of the Cold War, Japans biological and chemical weapons program was mainly kept in theshadows.Regarding the matter, historian and Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Sheldon Harris, in his authoritative history of the Japanese biological warfare program, argues:The questions of ethics and morality as they affected scientists in Japan and in the United States never once entered into a single discussion In all the considerable documentation that has survived not one individual is chronicled as having said [biological warfare] human experiments were an abomination and that their perpetrators should be prosecuted. The only concern voiced was that of the possibility of exposure that would cause the United States some embarrassment should word of the bargain ever become public knowledge.Only in the late 1990s did Japan acknowledge the existence of Unit 731 by disclosing testimonies from former members, photographs, and documentary evidence.The history and legacy of Unit 731 are both violent and cruel, corresponding to sadistic indulgence in the name of science, without producing any meaningful results for Japan militarily or politically during World War II. Much like the acquired research results had no significant implications on the scientific advancements of the United States during the Cold War.

Few kings of France faced a more daunting prospect than Henri Bourbon in 1589. France was decades into the Wars of Religion, a conflict between Catholic and Protestant factions that had torn the country apart and drained the Crown of much power and prestige. His predecessor Henri III had been the first French king to be murdered by his own subject. The Bourbon Dynasty replaced the Valois atop the throne amidst this bleakest of backdrops. Over the next 200 years, they would take the French kingship to unknown heights of power, prestige, and opulence. Yet this came at a sensational cost for the Bourbons became the victims of the most famous revolution in world history.Healing the RealmHenri IV of France, from a mid-17th century engraving. Source: National Portrait Gallery, LondonHenri IV was, by blood, the legitimate heir to the French throne after the death of Henri III. Yet his claim posed grave problems to the unity of the realm. Henri was a Calvinist Protestant, and as king of Navarre, his power base was firmly in the south of the country, an area that, by 1589, was acting as a Protestant polity almost totally independent from the north. The Catholic Leaguean association of powerful and radical Catholic interests that dominated much of Francehad made it an expressed purpose to remove Henri of Navarre from his position as heir to the throne.Yet Henri was not a confessional hardliner he had moved between adherence to Protestantism and Catholicism in his life as his surroundings changed. What remained constant was his commitment to his destiny to unite and rule France. He wanted an end to religious extremism and the damage it had done to the realm, and a restoration of monarchic authority.In trying to gather support for his accession, the protestant Henri was asking his subjects to choose between the traditional laws of inheritance that governed the throne and the divine order that supported that throne. He was helped by the pressure France faced from Catholic Spain, and he presented himself as a national champion against the Catholic universalists of the Catholic League.Portrait of Henri IV, by Phillippe Champaigne, 17th century. Source: MeisterdruckeIn 1593, Henri made the momentous decision to convert to the Catholic faith. By doing so he was able to show the monarch as a protector of the realm, as an individual willing and able to transcend religious divides in order to do what was best to defend the kingdom. This was a different monarch from the pre-Reformation model, whose unquestioned defense of the Catholic faith was never thought to come second to his duties to the realm. Within a year after his conversion, most resistance to Henris rule had faded and he was able to enter Paris in 1594 to hear mass in Notre Dame Cathedral and begin his quest to unite a shattered kingdom.Henri first eliminated the last vestiges of opposition by declaring war on Spain and Spains allies which included the Catholic League. The future of his reign, and indeed of the French kingdom, would depend however on his handling of the Protestant problem.In 1598, Henri put forward the Edict of Nantes, which sought to bring peace to the country by affirming Catholicism as the state religion whilst allowing religious freedom for Protestants, as well as affirming their hold of numerous fortresses. Henri allowed regional Parlements the freedom to enact the edict, though he brought royal pressure to bear on those who were hesitant. His appeal sought to emphasize loyalty to France and to the French Crown as superseding religious attachments. In doing so he made the Crown into a secular guardian of the realm, whose authority derived from its relationship to France rather than to God.Monarch of the PeopleThe Murder of Henri IV, Charles-Gustave Housez, 1859. Source: MeisterdruckeFollowing the acceptance of the edict, the King and his chief minister Sully set about rebuilding the state. Reforms to offices and taxation replenished the state treasury and restored order and efficiency to the workings of the Crown authority. A new breed of bureaucratic nobility evolved to hold offices of the state and provide stability to the government. These nobles of the robe would remain vital allies of the monarchy for centuries.Henri IV was a monarch of the people and his down-to-earth manner and accessible court made him widely popular. His kingship was not one surrounded by a sacred aura like the medieval monarchs. Yet this was ultimately his downfall. Though popular with a great many of his subjects, the person of the monarch was newly vulnerable, as the fate of Henri III had demonstrated. It was May 1610 on a busy afternoon in Paris when the kings carriage was caught in traffic in a street. A lone Catholic extremist named Francois Ravaillac, seemingly acting alone, murdered the king in his carriage.Despite his ignominious end, Henri IV was a momentous monarch, whose reign saved the French monarchy, state, and nation from the disaster that had engulfed it for decades. In so doing he reshaped the role of the Crown and the concept of France itself creating a vision of a secular state to which loyalty was owed above and beyond all religious affiliation. Henri was in many ways a very modern ruler. Yet the peeling away of the sacred mystique that had for so long protected the kings of France was causing serious problems. Two successive occupants of the throne of Saint Louis had been murdered by their own Catholic subjects.Louis XIII and Cardinal RichelieuMarie de Medici, mother of Louis XIII and Queen Regent, by Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1616. Source: Art Institute ChicagoThe murder of Henri IV led to the formation of another regency headed by another Medici Marie, the mother of the young king Louis XIII. This regency was unpopular and dominated by Maries Italian allies. In 1617, Louis forcefully entered his majority by dismissing the regency council.The commencement of his reign successfully established the line of Bourbon as the legitimate successors to the Capetians and Valois. However, he was forced to begin his reign by waging a successful campaign against a rebellion raised by his own discontented mother, and then in 1622, he put down a Huguenot rebellion in southern France.Richelieu on the Sea Wall of La Rochelle, by Henri-Paul Motte, 1881. Source: AlienorLouiss reign was dominated by a man whom he admitted to his council in 1624 Armand-Jean du Plessis, more commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu. Louis and Richelieu shared a belief that loyalty to a religious confession must be subordinated to the interests of the French state. This was a deeply disputed concept at the time, yet it would prove vital to Frances conduct in the titanic struggle of the Thirty Years War and to the way in which royal power was concentrated and expressed.Louis and Richelieu saw the Habsburg rulers of Spain and central Europe, though they were Catholic, as posing a strategic threat to French security through their ability to surround the realm on three sides. It was their belief that Frances position in Europe would become less secure should the Catholic Habsburgs crush their Protestant opponents in Germany and the Low Countries.The idea that the kings public duty as a defender of the country should come before his personal aura as a defender of the faith was novel in France, in that it foregrounded the political responsibilities of the Crown over the personal authority of the king himself. Indeed, the very prominence of Richelieu in Louiss reign demonstrates the extent to which the Crown as an office and a bureaucratic entity was replacing the personal mystique of medieval kingship.Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIIIs Chief Minister, by Philippe de Champaigne, 17th century. Source: National Portrait Gallery, LondonFrom 1635 France was deeply involved in the Thirty Years War, and the royal administration gradually developed in reach and complexity to harvest the necessary taxation. This bureaucracy was staffed by the aforementioned nobles of the robe. These men were to a great extent creatures of the Crown and loyal to it. But their influence perturbed the traditional nobles of the sword, the upper nobility whose vocation was as warriors rather than administrators, and helped generate alienation from the Crown on their part. This was heightened by Louiss abolition of traditional martial offices held by the high nobility that of constable and admiral. Louis embodied a traditional French monarch in one respect, however, he was the last French king to regularly lead his soldiers into battle and to campaign alongside them.Upon the deaths of Richelieu in 1642 and his monarch a year later, France was seeing increasing success against the armies of Spain. Ultimately the intervention in the Thirty Years War would see the French Crown begin to emerge ahead of the Habsburg monarchies in Austria and Spain as the premier power on the continent. Whilst the Spanish king and Holy Roman Emperor battled to maintain their rule over unwieldy empires with very little unity, the French king was presiding over a realm that was increasingly coherent and state-like.Regency and RebellionThe violence of the Noble Fronde, 17th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLouis XIIIs wife Anne of Austria had to endure over 20 years of failed pregnancies before giving birth to a son and heir in 1638. This young Louis was just four years old when his father died, and thus a regency council was instituted. Yet if there is one consistency in the history of Frances monarchy, it is that regency councils bred instability and conflict among the high nobility. The young Louis would grow to dominate his nobility, his realm, and indeed the European continent. Yet the Crown had another storm of noble strife to weather first.Trouble began with conflict between the regency government of Anne of Austria and her first minister Cardinal Mazarin and the Parlement of Paris, the highest judicial body of senior nobles. The latter would not challenge the authority of an anointed monarch but strenuously resisted what it saw as a tyrannical government led by the foreign Mazarin.No sooner had the revolt of the Parlement been quelled than the regency faced a revolt by the most senior of Frances high nobility, including the Crowns foremost military leaders Louis of Cond and the Viscount Turenne. Factionalism prevented this revolt from posing a mortal danger to the regency, though the nobles were only pacified by the accession of Louis XIV to his majority in 1651.Anne of Austria, after Peter Paul Rubens, 1625. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThese revoltsknown as the Frondewere deeply formative for Louis XIV and his reign was in many ways characterized as a response to the challenges laid down by these rebellions. The core of this challenge was the question of whether a bureaucratic state presided over by an impersonal Crown and operated by nobles of the robe and a chief minister was to well and truly replace the medieval model of kingship, in which personal ties of family and tradition underpinned the realm.Louis XIVs audacity was to accept the former and yet avoid the diminution in the personal aura of the king that it implied. He would elevate administrative nobles to expand the tentacles of the state, yet forgo a chief minister and instead recapture the medieval aura of the Crown through the spectacular glorification of his person.Rise of the Sun KingLouis XIV at the siege of Maastricht, by Pierre Mignard, 17th century. Source: Chateau VersaillesLouiss most important minister for the first half of his long reign was Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who oversaw the Crowns finances whilst also taking responsibility for buildings, arts, and academies. Louis and Colbert oversaw a flourishing of the arts, with painters, architects, playwrights, and craftspeople taking their fields to new heights and all this was channeled into the service of glorifying the monarch.The Crown walked a fine line in ensuring that artistic creativity was bent towards exalting the image of the monarch, yet not instituting so severe a censorship regime that such creativity was muffled altogether.By far the most famous artistic legacy of Louis XIVs reign was the Palace of Versailles. This is due not only to its incredible scale and magnificence but also because the project itself was steeped in ideological significance. The palace was initially a modest hunting lodge, yet in this boggy marshland, Louis XIV demonstrated his triumph over nature itself by overseeing the construction of a vast palace and garden complex which was meticulously ordered. This man-made paradise would be the kings stage, upon which he would dazzle an enormous court with his performance of power and magnificence, and through which he attempted to concentrate all authority in his realm.While men of the new nobility like Colbert governed the realm, Louis embraced the high nobility by giving them exclusive access to senior positions within his household and by placing them at the center of his routine at the Versailles palace (which was completed in 1682).The French army crossing the Rhine during the Franco-Dutch War, by Adam Frans van der Meulen, 1690. Source: The RijksmuseumAnd yet the sheer scale of the opulence betrays how the nature of the monarchs power had changed since the High Medieval Period. The aura of the divine that had once clung to the kings person had not required grandiose surroundings or opulent images to make it manifest. The assassination of his predecessors and the frequent bouts of noble revolt had perhaps created a sense of insecurity in Louis, one that he sought to banish through a manufactured aura in which he cloaked himself.Louis was determined to pursue an expansionist foreign policy, in pursuit of renown for himself and for his realm. While his immediate predecessors had sought to carve out a concept of the interests of state and lead foreign policies divorced from personal and familial interests, Louis XIV took a direct lead on matters of foreign policy. Louis did not dissolve the notion of a French state with interests, rather he saw himself as guided ultimately by the interests of the state such that royal and state concerns molded into one in his person.With the Habsburg powers seemingly in steep decline following the Thirty Years War, the first half of the reign saw him lead an aggressive campaign along Frances borders, including invasions of the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic. By the middle of the 1680s, France had attained a level of power, and fear, on the continent such that the latter half of Louiss reign would see mighty coalitions formed with the express desire of containing the Sun King.Fountain, Versailles Palace, photo by Rafael Garcin. Source: UnsplashThis near-continuous state of warfare placed an incredible strain on the French treasury. Yet an essential plank of centralized royal power was the entrenchment of noble privilege, and a vital part of this privilege was freedom from royal taxation. Thus the Crowns tax base was not deep, and the royal treasury existed in a near-perpetual state of financial crisis.Religion, War, and DeclineA cartoon depicting the forced conversion of Huguenots in the reign of Louis XIV, 17th century. Source: Le Mans UniversityLouiss enormous reign (still the longest in European history) is nearly impossible to summarize without missing some vital developments in the evolution of royal power and prestige. Yet one factor that must not go unmentioned is the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes when Louiss desire to reclaim the medieval mystique of the French King crashed into the complex realities of the late 17th century.Louis (and many of his French contemporaries) never regarded Henri IVs 1589 edict as anything more than a temporary concession, a regrettable measure implemented by a Crown that was in a place of desperation and weakness. Louis had restored the monarchy to a place of unrivaled ascendancy over the realm. From this position of power, he could set about creating perfect unity, and nothing was more offensive to the Most Christian Kings (a title given to the French monarchy by the Pope in the 15th century) rule than the gaping confessional split in France. The Revocation was met with jubilation by French Catholics, with Louis hailed as the new Charlemagne.However, the persecution of the Huguenots followed by the 1685 revocation of the Nantes Edict would weaken the realm in a number of ways. A disproportionate section of the Huguenot population were skilled laborers, and hundreds of thousands emigrated from France to take their skills to the Protestant enemies of Louis XIV, particularly Holland and England. Many of those who stayed led fierce rebellions in the south of France that placed great strain on an already burdened military.It was the protestant polities of Holland and England that would lead the coalitions against France that inflicted many defeats on Louis in the latter part of his reign, and at the core of their propaganda was the tyranny that Louis had demonstrated in his treatment of the Huguenots.Louis XIV proclaiming his grandson Philip of Anjou as Philip V of Spain before his court, by Franoois Gerard, 19th century. Source: French Ministry for CultureThe final war of Louiss reign was a titanic conflict known as the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701-14. It saw an alliance of England, the Netherlands, and the Habsburgs come together to deny Louiss heir the Spanish throne, fearing as they did a Bourbon ruler of the realm of France and the Spanish Empire combined. The conflict saw the French army suffer heavy defeats in the opening years of the war at the hands of the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy, and by the harsh winter of 1709 Louis XIV was considering a humiliating peace. French fortunes revived somewhat after 1709, and the 1715 Treaty of Utrecht confirmed Philip de Bourbon as king of Spain, though it excluded him from ascending to the French throne.Not only did this war shatter the French kings aura of invincibility, which had been cultivated since the Thirty Years War, but the realms finances which had been teetering on the edge of the abyss were by 1715 in a truly desperate state. It was in this year that Louis XIV died. His 72-year reign had seen the French Crown propelled to new heights of power and influence both within and beyond France. Yet in doing so Louis had pushed the realm to its limit, and the monarchy now stood atop an increasingly unstable social, governmental, and financial foundation.Louiss system of rule required a monarch of supreme energy, drive, and charisma. To play the role of the universal king at Versailles, to hold the nobility under the kings aura, and to personally lead and oversee all aspects of rule was no simple task. It was unfortunate for the Crown that Louiss great-grandson and successor, Louis XV, was not up to this challenge.Louis XV and the Tarnished MonarchyLouis XV, 1710-74. Source: Palace of VersaillesThe reign began with yet another minority for the five-year-old Louis, guided by his grand uncle Phillipe, Duke of Orleans. However, the latters death in 1723 left the 13-year-old Louis dauntingly isolated as he began his personal rule.Louiss early reign resembled that of Louis XIVs minority, in that the government was dominated by a chief minister in this case, it was the young kings tutor Cardinal Fleury. Until his death in 1743, Fleury maintained a steady hand on the tiller of government. Louis XV understood that the kings role was by this time far more about the performance of power than the exercise of it for the latter was carried out largely by the Crowns ever-growing bureaucracy.However, Louis went about his public performance at Versailles in a somewhat grudging manner and without the enthusiasm and dazzle of his predecessor. And where Louis XIV was symbolically without a chief minister and maintained great interest and influence in affairs of state, Louis XV did not. Nor did Louis continue to employ the minor nobles of the robe to run the bureaucracy as his Bourbon predecessors had done so effectively. Instead, his reign saw factions dominate, with the nobles in conflict to gain influence over the government.Madame de Pompadour, the highly influential mistress to the king, by Franois Bucher, 1756. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLouis XV was also notorious for his infidelity. This did not mark a change from his predecessor. What was different however was the extent to which Louiss mistresses gained prominence at court and came to influence the king and his reign. Madame de Pompadour in particular dominated Versailles from 1745 until her death in 1764, influencing the Kings views and controlling access to the monarch. This did little to endear the Crown to the French people, who were suspicious of the influence wielded by Louiss mistresses. Following Pompadours death, the king became more secretive and secluded seemingly adrift in a sea of faction and apathy.Though the court of the French King remained the center of European culture and art, there was an unmistakable decline in the prestige of the Crown throughout the 18th century. Particularly following the Seven Years War from 1756 to 1763, after which defeats to Britain left the latter the dominant world colonial power. Social divisions and financial struggles at home were just about manageable for a Crown that retained luster from international successes, but problems at home and defeats at the hands of European neighbors were a toxic combination for the Bourbons.This was compounded by the fissures that began to emerge between the Crown and the regional Parlements as the nobility became increasingly frustrated by the internal and external problems bearing down on the nation, and their lack of any real say in the government of the realm. As enlightenment ideas of society, nation, and self-determination filtered through the intellectual world of France via philosophes like Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, the nobles of the Parlements mobilized these ideas to challenge the way that the Crown ruled.The Twilight of the MonarchyPortrait of Louis XVI, by Antoine-Franois Callet, 1779. Source: French Ministry for CultureAt the death of Louis XV in 1774 the Crown upheld a fragile facade of glory. The Versailles court and its members maintained a lifestyle of the most extravagant opulence. The French throne remained the most powerful and revered in Europe. Yet France was a country of immense potential that was stifled and frustrated by a social system that was rigid and antiquated.A century of frequent warfare had left the country financially exhausted and on the verge of bankruptcy. Louis XV had failed to live up to the glory of his absolutist predecessor, yet neither did he make any meaningful attempt to reform the monarchy. Thus the Crown sailed on rudderless failing to live up to the glories of its past or to make any attempt to embrace the future.It would have taken a monarch of vision, energy, charisma, and flexibility to bring the realm back to its feet and maintain the monarchys vitality. Louis XVI was not this man. Though he was thoughtful and astute, he did not take a strong interest in engaging with the problems faced by the realm and was very much reactive rather than proactive.The British Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, by John Trumbull, 18th-19th century. Source: Yale Art GalleryThe decision of him and his ministers, just two years into his reign in 1776, to lend substantial military and financial support to the American colonists in their fight for independence from Britain was deeply consequential. It caused the Crown to enter a state of indebtedness from which there could be no recovery.Louis XVI struggled to comprehend the scope of the crisis for some years, but by 1786 it was clear that drastic action would have to be taken. And though Louis XVI was loath to engage with noble assemblies, he had little choice but to appeal to them for support in generating taxation, though he knew this would come at the cost of pressure from the nobles to implement governmental reforms.In being forced to consult with the noble assemblies to solve its debt crisis, the Crown was effectively lifting the lid on tensions that had been simmering for many decades and now threatened to boil over. Nobles mobilized the language of the philosophers to denounce a system that was ineffective, excluded them from any real influence, and was trying to infringe on the ancient right of the French nobility to be free from taxation.The Crown was caught in a bind, whereby it had relied for centuries upon the noble estate to uphold the traditional power structures of the realm, but it now found that one of the conditions of this relationshipfreedom from direct taxationwas impossible to maintain with the financial demands of a modern state.The Estates General of 1789, by Auguste Couder, 1839. Source: French Ministry for CultureThe assembly of notables that had gathered to discuss the Crowns debt crisis in 1787 was thus soon dissolved, with the assembly suggesting that only the formation of an Estates General could resolve the impasse.Though opinions differ among historians as to when the French Revolution began, from the perspective of the French Crown the convocation of the Estates General in 1789 was truly an event horizon. Once such an assembly was convened the French monarchy could never have escaped immense change, for the initiative was snatched away from the monarch and invested in the representatives of the French people.The opening of the Estates General on May 5, 1789, would mark the first step toward the seizure of power by the Third Estate of France and the sidelining of the monarchy as the Revolution unfolded. Over the next four years, Louis XVI would be at times paralyzed by fear and indecision, before making a bold attempt to escape the country and join counter-revolutionary forces beyond Frances borders in 1792. This would be a fatal act for the capture of the royal family and their ignominious return to Paris marked them out as traitors to the Revolution. On January 21, 1793, Louis Capet, formerly Louis XVI of France, was executed by guillotine, after the National Assembly decided upon his death by just a single vote.The execution of Louis Capet, formerly King Louis XVI, in January 1793, c. 1862. Source: Wikimedia CommonsWhat happened to the king during the French Revolution is worthy of a separate article, but what matters here is the extent to which the monarchys prestige declined so steeply in the decades and even centuries prior to 1789.The French monarchy, so draped in spiritual power and legitimacy throughout the Middle Ages, never entirely recovered from the damage done by the French Wars of Religion. Attempts were made by Henri IV to alter the kingship into an impersonal, bureaucratic role, with the interests of the state as its sole concern. But his murder and the long reign of the Sun King saw a grandiose reverence of the kings image come to the fore, coupled with an absolutist form of government that alienated much of the French nobility. This system just about worked for the remarkable Louis XIV, but neither of his successors could make this system their own, nor did they possess the will to reform the monarchy or the system it upheld in any meaningful way.Ultimately it was the Crowns inability to deal with its debt problems that forced it to face the reforming zest of the country it ruled. The fact that the monarch could not raise tax from the noble class meant it could not raise sufficient funds to manage its debts, yet to tax the nobility would have to entail allowing the nobles a greater role in the governance of the realm, and this was a deal that the monarchy was never able, or willing, to make.

Achieving independence from Great Britain was a triumphant moment for the United States of America. Consequently, independence resulted in American shipping losing protection from the mighty Royal Navy. As a result, merchant ships were soon set upon by marauding pirates from the North African Barbary states. In response, President George Washington ordered the establishment of the United States Navy. After the new ships had been constructed, they would sail across the Atlantic Ocean and attempt to end the tyranny of the Barbary pirates.Who Were the Barbary Pirates?Famed pirate Hayreddin Barbarossa, admiral of the Ottoman Navy and ruler of Algiers during the 16th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsBetween the 16th and 19th centuries, those traveling Mediterranean waters were preyed upon by daring pirates from North Africa. Today, encompassing Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco, this region was named the Barbary states by the Europeans. Due to its lack of resources and agricultural potential, the inhabitants of the Barbary states soon realized the prospective bounty they could reap from the cargo-laden vessels sailing off their coast.The Barbary states would gain the favor and protection of the powerful Ottoman Empire, which would encourage piracy against their Christian rivals in Europe. Becoming increasingly audacious in their attacks, the Barbary pirates would spread their operations from the west coast of Africa to as far north as Iceland.As well as attacking ships and pillaging their cargo, the Barbary pirates began capturing sailors and even raiding coastal towns throughout Europe to take captives. Approximately 1,250,000 Europeans were captured and sold in slave markets across the Barbary states and the Ottoman Empire, and subjected to a life of cruelty and squalor.The United States of America Gains IndependenceDepiction of Alfred, a ship of the US Continental Navy from 1775 to 1778, by W. Nowland Van Powell, 1974. Source: Naval History and Heritage CommandThe Barbary pirates were a great menace to the European imperial powers. The Europeans, however, were increasingly distracted by fighting each other, notably during the Napoleonic Wars. Instead, many nations signed treaties with the Barbary states and agreed to pay tribute to the pirates in return for free passage for their ships.As part of the British Empire, American ships enjoyed protection through Britains treaty with the pirates as well as the protection of the formidable Royal Navy. However, upon the United States declaration of independence in 1776, this protection was lost, and Britain was quick to inform the Barbary states that American ships were now free for them to attack.During the War of Independence, the United States had the Continental Navy, which was a relatively small fleet compared with the might of the British Royal Navy. In 1775, the United States Congress authorized the construction of 13 new frigates. However, by 1781, almost all of these new ships had been sunk or captured by the far superior Royal Navy. By the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, very few of the Continental Navys ships remained in service. Two years later, the Continental Navy was disbanded, and the few remaining ships were sold.Algerian Attacks on US ShippingThe Moroccan-American Treaty of Peace and Friendship bearing the signatures of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, 1786. Source: Wikimedia CommonsWithout a recognized navy or British protection, American ships were exceptionally vulnerable to attacks from pirates. In 1785, Dey Muhammad declared war on all maritime nations that did not pay the customary tribute fee in return for safe passage. Almost immediately, American ships fell prey to pirate attacks, with two being attacked within the month of July. A merchant ship named the Rambler almost became a third when it was approached by pirates. However, the ships captain cunningly raised a British flag and thus evaded capture.Despite the United States suffering increasing attacks from Algiers, the newly founded nation fostered friendly relations with another Barbary stateMorocco. The North African country was one of the first nations to recognize the United States independence and wanted to enter into an international trade relationship. Signed in 1786, the Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship was the first treaty signed by the US with an African and Muslim nation. Today, it remains the longest unbroken diplomatic relationship between the US and another nation.The Treaty of Peace and Amity signed by the Pasha of Algiers and President George Washington in 1795. Source: Wikimedia CommonsAlgerian attacks on US shipping continued for a decade until 1795. Facing no alternative, the United States dispatched diplomats to Algiers to negotiate a peace treaty. The Treaty of Peace and Amity was signed in 1795. It ensured the safe passage of US ships and the release of American sailors being held captive in Algiers. In return, the US agreed to pay an annual tribute of $21,600 for safe passage and a fee of $642,500 for the release of captives.Establishment of the US NavyThe USS Constitution, one of the original six frigates of the US Navy, is still in commission, 2006. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe Algerian attacks illustrated the alarming vulnerability of US merchant ships. Thomas Jefferson urgently advocated for the creation of a naval force. The Naval Act of 1794 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George Washington. Six frigates were authorized to be constructed, which together would form the start of the US Navy.The six frigates consisted of three 44-gun ships, the USS Constitution, the USS President, and the USS United States, as well as three 38-gun ships, the USS Congress, the USS Constellation, and the USS Chesapeake. All six ships were launched between 1797 and 1800.A painting of the USS Constellation engaging the French ship Insurgente in 1799 by Rear Admiral John W. Schmidt. Source: Naval History and Heritage CommandAccompanying these ships was the USS Philadelphia. The citizens of the city, from which the ship was named, funded the vessel themselves, raising approximately $100,000 in a single week. During this period, the United States was fighting the Quasi-War against the First French Republic. Inspired by a newfound sense of patriotism, the people of Philadelphia wanted to help increase their countrys naval power and protect trade, which was important to the city.With a steadily growing navy and thus a greater presence at sea, the United States government became increasingly disinterested in appeasing the Barbary pirates demands.Declaration of WarCaptain William Bainbridge of the USS George Washington, c. 1814. Source: Wikimedia CommonsDespite the treaties between the US and the Barbary states, the North African pirates continuously increased their tributary demands. Believing they were being extorted, the United States Congress opposed continuing such payments.Tensions rose when, in 1800, the USS George Washington arrived in Algiers to deliver tribute. Once docked, the Dey of Algiers insisted that the American ship transport Algerian goods to Constantinople. Surrounded by Algerian ships, Captain William Bainbridge was compelled to comply, fearing capture and imprisonment should he refuse. The Algerian flag was raised upon the USS George Washington, and the crew subsequently sailed the ship to Constantinople. Many in the United States considered the incident a staggering humiliation, which greatly deteriorated the relations between the US and Algiers.The following year, the Pasha of Tripoli demanded greater tribute from the US, but the recently elected president, Thomas Jefferson, a long-time critic of US tribute payments, refused. Infuriated, the Pasha of Tripoli expelled the US consul from the city and declared war on the United States.Naval Blockade and the USS PhiladelphiaCommodore Stephen Decatur Jr. by Richard Norris Brooke, c. 1902. Source: The Army and Navy Club Library TrustThomas Jefferson immediately dispatched two naval squadrons to Tripoli. The American ships were accompanied by a flotilla of Swedish ships, who, like the Americans, were at war with the Barbary states over tribute payments. Together, the American and Swedish ships attempted to enforce a naval blockade of Tripoli. However, the blockade proved futile as the smaller pirate ships were able to sneak through.During October 1803, the USS Philadelphia, while attempting to pursue a Barbary ship, ran aground upon a reef. Captain William Bainbridge (the former captain of the USS George Washington) attempted to refloat the ship. However, under fire from four Barbary gunboats, he was ultimately forced to surrender.Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804, by Edward Moran, 1897. Source: Naval History and Heritage CommandAlarmingly for the US, the pirates were able to refloat the Philadelphia and sail it to Tripolis port. If the captured Philadelphia was repaired, it could turn the tides of the war against the United States.In February 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur captured a small Barbary ship. Renaming it the USS Intrepid, Decatur and his crew infiltrated the Port of Tripoli while disguising the Intrepid as a merchant ship from Malta. Attempting to recapture the Philadelphia, however, proved impossible. Therefore, the decision was made to plant explosives in the ships hull. As Decatur and his men escaped the harbor, the USS Philadelphia was destroyed.The Battle of DernaThe Assault on Derna by Charles H. Waterhouse. Source: US Naval Institute / National Museum of the Marine CorpsAlthough the naval blockade of Tripoli continued, it did not inflict enough harm to the Barbary state to force its submission. Instead, the US government hatched a plan to defeat Tripoli. Yusuf Karamanli, the Pasha of Tripoli, had gained his throne by deposing his brother, Hamet. William Eaton, the Naval Agent to the Barbary states, was permitted by the US government to restore Hamet to the throne. Supported by seven US Marines under the command of First Lieutenant Stephen OBannon, Eaton requisitioned the assistance of 400 mercenaries. In March 1805, Eaton and his small force crossed from Egypt into the Libyan desert.After an arduous journey, Eaton reached the city of Derna. With the support of the USS Argus stationed off the coast, Eaton and his force attacked the city. Split into two forces, Eaton and his men assaulted the citys defensive fort while Hamet led an attack on the governors palace. In just over an hour, the city was captured. A few weeks later, Barbary forces attempted to retake the city but were repelled.Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States. Source: The White HouseThe Battle of Derna was the first land battle fought by the United States on foreign soil. Threatened with his potential deposal, Yusuf Karamanli agreed to enter peace negotiations.President Thomas Jefferson agreed to pay $60,000 for the release of American prisoners. However, the US abandoned its promise to Hamet Karamanli of returning him to power, which greatly angered William Eaton.Commencement of the Second Barbary WarPainting of the USS Constitution engaging the HMS Java during the War of 1812 by Anton Otto Fischer, c. 1960. Source: Naval History and Heritage CommandDespite achieving victory during the First Barbary War, Tripolis defeat did little to dispel pirate attacks on American shipping. While attacks continued, US attention was averted due to the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom.The same year, the new leader of Algiers, Hajji Ali, rejected the previously agreed tribute payments from the US. Meanwhile, relations between Algiers and the United Kingdom had greatly improved. As a result, Algiers declared war on the US, coinciding with the War of 1812. Throughout the war, Algerian pirates attacked and terrorized American shipping.It was not until three years later that Congress authorized President James Madison to use force against Algiers. By 1815, the US Navy had vastly improved, allowing President Madison to dispatch an entire squadron of ten ships under the command of Commodore Stephen Decatur, who commanded the flagship, the USS Guerriere.Battle of Cape Gata and PeaceThe USS Constellation engaging the Algerian ship Meshuda at Cape Gata by Arthur Disney Sr. Source: Naval History and Heritage CommandBy June 1815, Decatur and his squadron reached the Mediterranean Sea. While pursuing Algerian ships, the Americans encountered the Algerian flagship, the Meshuda. Under the command of Admiral Rais Hamidou, the Meshuda was one of Algiers most powerful ships.Overwhelmingly outnumbered, Hamidou attempted to flee back to Algiers before attempting to seek refuge in a neutral Spanish Port. However, the US squadron caught the Meshuda at Cape Gata along the Spanish coastline. The US squadron engaged the Meshuda, inflicting substantial damage to the ship and killing Admiral Hamidou. Fearing total destruction, the remaining Algerians surrendered.Depiction of the USS Enterprise attacking the Barbary ship, the Tripoli, by Captain William Bainbridge, c. 1878. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLosing the Meshuda and Admiral Hamidou was a devastating blow to Algiers. The leader of Algiers agreed to enter negotiations with the US. Aboard the USS Guerriere, the US and Algiers signed a treaty that granted US shipping free passage through the Mediterranean without tribute payments. Decatur would later sail to Tripoli and Tunis and sign similar treaties with the other Barbary states.USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group in 2020. Source: US Naval InstituteWhile the US had successfully ensured its protection against Barbary piracy, pirate attacks would continue for another two decades until the French invasion of Algeria would finally end the pirate scourge.The Barbary Wars were the first wars the newly independent United States fought on foreign soil. Both victories were indicative of the United States emergence as a new global power, showcasing the nations naval capabilities and its ability to wage war far from its shores. Barbary attacks on US shipping also directly led to the establishment of the US Navy, which today stands as the most powerful naval force in the world, symbolic of the countrys ability to project power throughout the worlds oceans.

What are the best Black Ops 6 loadouts? In theory, youre on a level playing field with everyone you come across in Call of Duty Black Ops 6; you all have access to the same weapons, attachments, and perks. It might not always feel that way, though, with weapons flowing in and out of the meta with each new patch. Weve done the research, put in the hard yards, and figured out the best Black Ops 6 loadouts.A new entry in the Call of Duty series bringsnewBlack Ops 6 weapons anda revamped movement system in Omnimovement. Skill expression has never been more prevalent in the FPS game, and while movement can be king, the best loadouts will put you in great stead to dominate every match you enter. Continue reading Best BO6 loadouts for the current metaMORE FROM PCGAMESN: Black Ops 6 guns, Black Ops 6 review, Black Ops 6 loadouts