Charles River

*Includes pictures *Details Hitler's rise to the head of the Nazi party before the putsch *Explains how the putsch transpired and failed *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "You can see that what motivates us is neither self-conceit or self-interest, but only a burning desire to join the battle in this grave eleventh hour for our German Fatherland ... One last thing I can tell you. Either the German revolution begins tonight or we will all be dead by dawn " - Hitler "I cannot remember in my entire life such a change in the attitude of a crowd in a few minutes, almost a few seconds ... Hitler had turned them inside out, as one turns a glove inside out, with a few sentences. It had almost something of hocus-pocus, or magic about it." - Dr. Karl Alexander von Mueller It is often claimed that Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany through democratic means, and while that is a stretch, it is true that he managed to become an absolute dictator as Chancellor of Germany in the 1930s through a mixture of politics and intimidation. Ironically, he had set such a course only because of the failure of an outright coup attempt known as the Beer Hall Putsch about a decade earlier. At the close of World War I, Hitler was an impoverished young artist who scrapped by through selling souvenir paintings, but within a few years, his powerful oratory brought him to the forefront of the Nazi party in Munich and helped make the party much more popular. A smattering of followers in the hundreds quickly became a party of thousands, with paramilitary forces like the SA backing them, and at the head of it all was a man whose fiery orations denounced Jews, communists and other "traitors" for bringing upon the German nation the Treaty of Versailles, which had led to hyperinflation and a wrecked economy. During the first few years of the decade, the government in Munich had actually supported the fledgling Nazi party as a counterweight against the communists, which had attempted a coup years earlier, but it would nearly come back to haunt the authorities on November 8, 1923, when Hitler and his forces attempted to start a revolution and take over the city. Backed by men like Rudolf Hess, Hermann Goering, and Ernst R hm, Hitler and the Nazis came perilously close to succeeding, and they may have been undone only because of the SA's refusal to initiate violence against German police and Army members. By the following day, the police and Army put down the putsch, which climaxed with a short firefight in which the man standing next to Hitler was killed by a shot through the lungs, a bullet that came close to striking the future Fuhrer in the torso. However, despite being the instigator and being arrested in its aftermath as a traitor, the political atmosphere not only saved Hitler from a potential death sentence but practically made him a sympathetic figure. He would end up serving less than a year in prison (during which he dictated Mein Kampf to Hess), and as soon as he was released he went back to working with the Nazis, now convinced that the path to power lay through peaceful means. The Beer Hall Putsch chronicles the history of the Nazis' failed coup attempt. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Beer Hall Putsch like never before, in no time at all.

*Includes pictures *Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading "My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourself to armed multitudes for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people ... I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm." - Queen Elizabeth I On July 12, 1588, the legendary Armada started for the English channel. The Spanish plan was to take this invasion, led by the Duke of Parma, to the coast of southeast England, where they would be released to conquer Elizabethan England for the Spanish monarch and Catholic Christendom. The Armada included over 150 ships, 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers, and it boasted a firepower of 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns. Just leaving port itself took the entire Armada two days. As everyone who has been taught history now knows, the Armada was one of the most famous military debacles in history. Now whether it was simple mathematical miscalculation or plain bad luck, coupled with English fire ships assailing the Spanish ships, the Armada was decisively defeated. The Armada ultimately found its reluctant way home in awful conditions, having permanently lost over one third of the ships, and on the Irish coast, the Armada had suffered further losses. Not yet knowing what had happened to the Armada, internal English gentry and militias sought to secure and protect England. This is when Elizabeth I consolidated her image as mother-protector of her people; inspecting her troops, long and to this day a regal tradition, at Tilbury on August 8, 1588, Elizabeth adorned herself in honor and rallied her people to fight the Spanish. When the Armada was indeed defeated, Elizabeth was hailed as a great savior of England, one who was willing to risk her own life to protect her children and her kingdom. In actuality, Elizabeth's luck had not been insignificant, but her preparations had also been immaculate, and indeed her pageantry had paid off. The monarch's procession to a service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral further solidified public support, and the vanquishing of the Armada became an unbelievably potent propaganda tool to warn away other sovereigns and kingdoms looking at England with desire. Rightly or wrongly, the English people including many of Elizabeth's Catholic subjects who did not relish the idea of Spanish rule interpreted this victory as a manifestation of divine favor and of England's sacrosanct status under its virgin ruler. What was ignored in the middle of the celebrations was that the Anglo-Spanish War did continue and would continue until 1604. In reality, on the facts it seems that this conflict often did favor Spain. After all, the Spanish retained the Netherlands, thus hanging the scepter of possible invasion from that side. The Spanish Armada looks at the ill-fated expedition from its origins to its demise. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Armada like never before, in no time at all.