98. World War I

An archduke was shot.

The new shot heard around the world.

Weapons were built.

A new war sparked.

Alliances formed.

Germany, Austria, Italy

Russia, France, Britain,

They stood against each other.

Pushed each other.

Never gaining ground.

Monsters rumbled over land

Bringing destruction to lives and property.

The Wright Brothers’ innocent invention turned to war as well.

People lived, fought and died in the trenches.

Both sides bravely faced their bloody stalemate.

Europe became a black hole of war.

Americans preached isolationism

But war came to them anyway.

Lusitania opened the door to America.

A solution finally came.

Mr. Wilson’s pipe dream,

The bubble from his head

Of a perfect world

Happy and peaceful

here nations could bring their problems to a league.

The Treaty of Versailles

Turned the league into reality.

Peace reigned supreme.

The war seemed to be over

For now.

97. The March toward the Twentieth Century

In France a new Napoleon came along after the pear king left.
A word of advice to the people of France,
A pear should never be king.
Another experiment failed
A new empire ruined the balance of power.
The new Napoleon went to Mexico
Bringing his glorious champions
The third Napoleon was eventually kicked out.
The Mexicans had their French champions in their victory meals.
The wars and turmoil in Europe took root in America as well.
The country split.
“Freedom for all or none,” the man from the log cabin said.
Thus began the bloody Civil War.
While Europe dealt with France,
The Confederacy and Union fought for five years.
Vying for outside attention.
The log cabin man’s final sacrifice came on Good Friday in the theater.
He died and was buried.
In a few days he was taken from his grave.
“Do not search for him here”
They said to the mourners.
He died to unify the nation.
Unification became the word that ended the century.
Germany tried and failed once.
Throwing out their king
Reinstating him again.
They succeeded their second time.
Italy, with the impressive Garibaldi,
Came together valiantly in her struggles as well.
Nations settled as the century ended.
Freedoms and rights were given slowly.
The rough-rider,
Teddy Roosevelt,
Came in on his white horse
To save the people of America
From a few small wars abroad
Then cleaned the muck of corporate greed.
His Great White Fleet sailed the world
As he extended a policeman’s arm across the sea.
Ireland got tired of British rule
Britain’s sun started its descent
Following the unsinkable ship
Beneath ice cold Atlantic waters.

90. Napoleon

A new man came.
Napoleon!
A new Caesar.
Napoleon!
To some a great leader.
Napoleon!
To others the scourge of Europe.
Napoleon!
Born of Corsica.
Napoleon!
Joining the army of France.
Napoleon!
Rising through the ranks.
Napoleon!
To shed the short robes for long ones.
Napoleon!
Napoleon!
Napoleon!
From the terrors of the burning revolutions
With fire in his eyes
The deep, calculating general
Moved out and declared war on Europe.
Eastward!
Eastward!
East he marched
Taking land from Austria
With the dream of Rome in his heart.
He went through Spain and Portugal.
To the ends of the European world!
Napoleon found it hard to resist Russia’s calling
So he crossed the border.
The icy blast of the Russian winter drove him back.
He lost the fight.
He was dethroned and forced into exile.
He escaped and rebuilt his army.
Waterloo was his final defeat.
Napoleon only lived on as a person three more times
But his name and memory will last forever.
He joined the graveyard of dead empires and powerful rulers.
Crossing Hades’ mighty river.

89. The Revolution

Russia built its empire.

Revolution rumors flowed in Europe.

Newton,

Hobbes,

Locke,

Milton,

Many others looked at the world, thinking of it in different ways.

The American colonies got rich.

New agriculture increased food production.

Music reached its height as Mozart played.

Beethoven, Hayden and many others.

New ideas.

New art.

New thoughts

Caused the flames to rise.

From the ancient past

Athens with its small flame.

The flame of freedom.

It split and spread into Rome.

Stayed hidden in the Dark Ages.

Resurrected and grew.

It reached across the sea to the colonies of the New World.

Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams,

Many other disciples of freedom

Fanned the flames of descent.

The flames of revolution.

The fires grew

To the drumbeat of war.

Swiftly, the fire spread

Through Europe

Into the other colonies.

They took their destiny from their brutish king.

Breaking the chains of taxation

Making themselves representatives.

The eagle flew from the nest.

Others wanted the chance to fly.

The fires of freedom spread across the world

Burning out of control.

It spread through the minds and hearts of people

Many got burned

Meeting the scorching blade of the guillotine.

A French republic was formed

But, as with the first European Republic,

It didn’t last.

85. The Renaissance

Intellectual horizons slowly widened.
Humans became important with rediscoveries of the old Greek writings.
Information exploded with the printing press.
Books became more available.
Dante wrote his great work.
Shakespeare wrote his plays.
The Globe was founded.
The structure of the universe was changed and challenged.
Copernicus developed the sun-centered solar system.
Galileo agreed
Was sentenced to house arrest.
Artists learned new tricks.
Realistic images with color and brush were made.
Perspective expanded.
No longer were pictures flat and lifeless.
No longer were statues trapped in their dais.
They were free to walk about
They were free to be experienced.
New nobles emerged.
To make their way in the world of trade and banking.
The Medici became rich.
They commissioned paintings.
Lived like royalty.
Italy broke into republics.
Burgundy expanded.
Civil war broke out in England.
Isabella and Ferdinand ended division in Spain.
France was not well after the war of a hundred years
But managed to slowly dress their wounds.
The horizons of the known world started to expand.

82. Joan of Arc

All felt lost

In this tragic war.

France needed a hero.

A noble knight to save France from England’s tyranny.

A young lady

Waiting to be married,

In her thirteenth year,

Received a call from God.

“Go,” he said,

“England is not meant to have French land.”

The maiden of Orleans

Was terrified at first

But came around eventually.

She went to the Dolphin court

Presenting her plan to save France.

The Dolphin was impressed

She was dressed

In armor and given a horse.

At the battle of Orleans

She proved her mettle

With the long fought victory.

She persuaded her Dolphin

To march to their enemy Burgandy

Receiving the crown of the seventh Charles.

She promised to capture Paris

But Burgandy’s and England’s forces

Were way too strong.

They captured her

Accused her of witchcraft

Burning her at the stake.

Her passion lived on

As symbol for France

Driving them to win the war

Ridding England from the continent.

81. Agincourt

The fifth Henry came along

To continue the war.

Under failure of relations and peace.

Through his grandfather

He made a claim to France.

He demanded tribute for John

Along with lost continental lands.

France refused

Offering the hand of his daughter and a dowry.

The fifth Henry was insulted

Breaking the second peace.

He spread the word to his people

Promising glory.

Promising victories and plunder.

Messages sent all over the island

Brought people poor and rich alike

Across the English Channel.

Harfleur resisted

But was defeated in the end.

Henry’s army weakened

They bade him go back

As the snows of winter came in.

“We will push on my brethren!”

He said,

“I have a claim here!”

“Its not just on paper!”

“Disease,”

“Cold,”

“Bloody fighting”

“Has killed many of my men”

“But I must push onward.”

He moved eastward to Calais

But found his supplies running low.

At Agincourt he made his stand

With the Dolphin constable.

The French tried to stall

They pleaded with him

The fifth Henry didn’t listen.

“Your words mean nothing to me!”

He said,

“My paper claim to your continent”

“Will be honored.”

Henry and the Dolphin met in the gorge

But for three hours there was no fight.

France thought they’d run away.

They held their ground.

To march would be suicide.

Henry forced himself to step forward

Though weak from hunger.

France’s cavalry charged unsuccessfully

Then the army of five thousand men

Walking through an arrow hail.

Henry was pushed back for a time

But the Dolphin constable

Was no match for Henry’s men.

80. The Hundred Years War

Through politics and marriage,

France came to serve England

As vassal to the king.

France reorganized

Centralized.

They had enough of the English

Lording over them

So they took Aquitaine away.

The third Edward,

Wanting that land back,

Claimed the seat where France sat.

Propaganda

Promising plunder and victories

Flowed through the English countryside.

The people mobilized

Crossing the Channel

To start the War of a Hundred Years.

For a time England triumphed

Gaining ground in the continent.

A victory by England’s king

In the land of Crecy

Then at Poitiers

Where the old king was captured.

They crowned the Dolphin man

To bring control to the continent.

Mad kings of France and England

Held the fighting at bay.

In the short lived first peace,

Small raids were made

While France and others

Fought their Levantine crusades.