Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the USSR and had a major impact on the path that Russia took at the end of the 20th century. He was a somewhat controversial figure, known in the West as the man who ended the Cold War while being one of the least popular 20th century leaders in Russia. This is understandable, as Gorbachev...
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a military and political leader and Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814. He steered France through a time of intense internal and external conflict and took part in decisive military engagements such as the Battle of Austerlitz. Besides his military campaigns throughout Europe, he also established civil institutions which exist in France to this day, such...
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The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, followed the end of the First World War and imposed harsh terms on Germany, which had been defeated by the Allies and was judged responsible for the bloody four-year conflict. The Allied leaders Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Vittorio Orlando drew up the treaty with no input from the vanquished party and struggled to...
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The final years of the First World War were a very uncertain time; it seemed that victory could go either way. The French and British had been beaten back at the Second Battle of the Aisne and at Flanders Fields, the Italians had been defeated at the Battle of Caporetto, and Russia had just signed a peace treaty with Germany. However, Germany's...
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