People and places that changed history

By Amal Hewavissenti

Certain regions and cities in Europe have exerted a substantial influence over the events that reshaped the history of the continent. Most importantly these places have provided ground for fierce battles, conspiracies and organisations which have brought about complete reversal of trends of the time.

For instance, the life of Napoleon Bonaparte is inextricably interwoven with the island of Corsica where he was born and was brought up. In 1765, Voisoul the then Minister of Finance in France made arrangements to purchase the island for France. Having received a military training in France, Napoleon launched a struggle to liberate the island from the State of France but his attempts proved to be futile.

However, the island of Corsica was of paramount importance to Napoleon whose links made the island a prominent place in history. Later, Germany conquered Corsica during the World War II.

Alzes and Lorence, two regions situated between Germany and France to the west of the river Rhine were a bone of contention among several parties. These areas with lots of mineral resources frequently witnessed conflicts on account of their location on the isthmus of Germany. These were crucial terrains during the 30-year war against terrorism.

Invade

King Louis XIV and successive French rulers made every possible attempt to invade and annex Alzes and Lorence.

However, Germany succeeded in annexing these two regions to her in spite of a strong resistance from France. During this period, important part of France's foreign policy was to recover the two areas. Accordingly, the Versailles Peace Accord that was signed at the final stage of the World War I transferred the areas to the ownership of France. Subsequently Adolf Hitler recaptured the areas and annexed them to Germany during World War II.

Paris, the capital of France had been the central city for emperors such as Napoleon and King Louis XIV. The city of Paris is well noted as the place where several peace accords were signed to call a halt to wars and conflicts that had broken out in Europe. The pact to end up the seven years' war and Versailles Peace accord to cancel out the World War I were signed in Paris.

Paris was the centre of France's culture and the city was crucial to most important incidents throughout the duration of French Revolution. The sole struggle of the French during this period was to safeguard the city from German invaders who stayed poised to recapture Paris and to annex it to Germany.

The island of Sardinia too was a place central to important development in the history of Italy. This island, previously ruled by a foreign dynasty, later came under the reign of Sardinian dynasty which played a decisive role in the unification of Italy.

Sardinian King Victor Emmanuel unified Italy with the support of Quintah Capver the chief minister who acted tactfully and diplomatically in the process. Yet they failed in most instances to include Rome because most Italians protested Italy being unified under Sardinia. In 1871, Victor Emmanuel became sovereign in the independent Italy.

History

Sarajevo, a city situated to the south of the Balkan Peninsula played a key role not only in the history of Europe, but likewise in the history of the world. The city which had earlier belonged to the Roman empire and then to the Turk empire witnessed important events. Later the city became the capital of Bosnia.

During the youth revolution in Turkey, the city of Sarajevo became the centre of national independence movements which caused turbulence and conflicts around the city.

Here, Austrians and Germans jointly attempted to capture power of this city yet their efforts ended in failure. In 1914, Prince Franc Ferdinal the crown Prince to Austria was assassinated by two Serbians while he was on a personal tour to Sarajevo. This tragedy contributed to the outbreak of World War I.

As a capital, a harbour and a centre of international trade, Lisbon too achieved prominence in European history. Most rulers of Portugal who were immensely interested in marine explorations centred their activities round this city. Lisbon became the centre for geographical discoveries by Europeans and international commerce. The commercial operations commenced in this city brought Portugal to economic prosperity.

Prince Henry, who was deeply involved in marine affairs, made Lisbon the centre of government in the Portuguese empire, In 1580, King Phillip 11 of Spain annexed Portugal to Spain - a move which provoked a widespread rebellion among Portuguese people. Here Lisbon became an important city where the rebels organised their protests and activities. The Portuguese struggle went on uncontrolled until Portugal was declared an independent country in 1640.

St Petersburg of Russia (also known as Leningrad) was the western door for Russia as the city served as the gateway to establish links with the western countries. As the ruler of Russia, king Peter the Great battled with the Turkish forces to open the way to establish trade and cultural relationships with the countries of Europe.

Yet he failed in his endeavour. Subsequently he waged war with Sweden and captured a number of cities and regions including Inniya which belonged to Sweden.

King Peter the Great established a city in Inniya which later became St Petersburg ("The western door"). Almost all the construction work in the city was carried out by the military captives from Sweden.