The Laufmaschine of Karl Drais (Germany, Switzerland)

Karl Drais was born in 1785. He was a member of an influential family and his godfather was Grand Duke Karl-Friedrich of Baden. Actually he had a job in forest administration, but in 1811 he went off duty from active service to concentrate on inventions while still continuing to collect his salary. The most famous invention of Drais is the Laufmaschine or Draisine, the earliest form of the bicycle. His first reported ride took place in Mannheim on 12th June 1817. Although being of noble birth he was a fervent liberal and supported a revolution in Baden. During the Baden Revolution in 1848 he even gave up his title of Baron. After the revolution collapsed, he was in a very bad position and his pension was confiscated. Karl Drais died penniless in 1851 in Karlsruhe.

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Laufmaschine in 2017 special stamps were issued in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Croatian Post), Germany and Switzerland. 

The Meiji Period (Japan, Russia)

The era of Emperor Meiji from 1868 to 1912 became known as Meiji Period. During the Meiji Period Japan underwent major changes in its social structure, internal politics, economy, military and foreign relations. Japan changed from an isolated feudal state to a modern great power. Important events during the Meiji Period were the restoration of the practical imperial rule, the abolition of the feudal order, the introduction of the compulsory education, the abolition of the treaty ports, the industrialisation, the constitution of 1889, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 and the expansion of Japan to Korea, the Okinawa Islands, southern Sakhalin and Taiwan. The Meiji Period was followed by the Taisho Period.

The Tomioka Silk Mill was established in 1872 by the Japanese Government with machines from France. It marks Japan's entry into the modern and industrialised era and also illustrates Japan's desire to quickly start a mass production of silk. Since 2014 is the Tomioka Silk Mill with its Related Sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution are since 2015 on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They bear testimony to the rapid industrialisation of the country during the Meiji Period, through the development of the iron and steel industry, shipbuilding and coal mining. In this period Japan sought technology transfer from Europe and America and adapted this technology to the country’s needs and social traditions. Japan is considered to be the first country where the transfer of Western industrialisation to a non-Western nation was successful.

The Glover's Residence was built by the Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover. It is the oldest Western style house surviving in Japan and known as setting of the opera Madama Butterfly.

Not everyone in Japan was pleased with the direction the nation had taken. The Saga Rebellion was an uprising of former samurais in Kyushu in 1874 against the Meiji Government, which was led by Etō Shimpei and Shima Yoshitake. It ended with a victory of the government and an end of the rebellion. The issues which led to the uprising remained unresolved.

The Saga Castle was burned down during the Saga Rebellion and was rebuilt between 2001 and 2004. It is the largest wooden castle reconstruction in Japan and was listed as one of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan. It houses the Saga Castle History Museum.

The Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent kingdom on the Okinawa Islands in East Asia. It was founded in the 15th century and soon played an important role in maritime trade. It was in a tributary relationship with China. Already since 1609 it was a Japanese vassal and in 1879 the kingdom was officially annexed by Japan. Today the Okinawa Islands form the Japanese Prefecture of Okinawa.

The Shuri Castle is a gusuku, a Ryukyuan castle, and was the royal palace and capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom. In the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 it was almost completely destroyed, but beginning in 1992 it was rebuilt involving photographs, historical records and memory. Since 2000 it is together with the other Gusuku Sites and the Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Russo-Japanese War was fought between February 1904 and September 1905. It started because of rival urges of territorial expansion of the Russian Empire and Japan in Manchuria and Korea. During the war Japan demonstrated its power in various won battles and thus surprised international observers. The war ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth, which was mediated by the USA. Japan gained the territory leased by Russia in China and the southern half of Sakhalin, Russia left Manchuria and Korea remained in the Japanese sphere of influence. It was the first important victory of an Asian power over an European great power for centuries.

Monument of Vsevolod Rudnev, a Russian naval officer during the war

Conquering the Alps on Trains (Austria, Germany, Switzerland)

The Semmering Railway was built between 1848 and 1854 under Carl von Ghega and is the first mountain railway in Europe built with a standard gauge track. On the 41km long line there are 14 tunnels, 16 viaducts and more than 100 bridges. Today it is still in use as part of the Southern Railway of the Austrian Federal Railways. Since 1998 is the Semmering Railway on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Brenner Railway was opened in 1867, 150 years ago. It was built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and crosses the Brenner Pass. Although it has insufficient capacity and the travel speed is low, it is still considered to be a fundamental railway.

The Rhaetian Railway is a railway operator in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden and the largest private railway operator in Switzerland. It features an impressive set of structures, which were all built in perfect harmony with the landscapes through which they pass. Its construction had a major and lasting socio-economic impact on life in the mountains. The Rhaetian Railway in the Albula and Bernina Landscapes is since 2008 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Landwasser Viaduct - built between 1901 and 1902, signature structure of
the Albula Railway

Brusio Spiral Viaduct - in use since 1908, signature structure of the Bernina Railway

The Mittenwald Railway connects Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria with Innsbruck in Tyrol. It was built as an electric local railway from 1910 to 1912 and had a substantial impact on the development of standards for electric railway operations in Central Europe. When it was opened in 1912 it was operated jointly by the Austrian Federal Railways and the Royal Bavarian State Railways.

The Other Reformations (Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom)

The Reformation-themed posts on this Blog were until now focused on the person and the ideas of Martin Luther and his supporters, but he was neither the first one nor the last one whose ideas and doings reformed. This post is about the other Reformations.

Jan Hus (1372-1415) is considered to be the first church reformer. His teachings had a strong influence on the states of Western Europe and on Martin Luther. During the Council of Constance he was burned at the stake for heresy. After his death the followers of his religious teachings, the Hussites, rebelled against their Roman Catholic rulers and defeated five consecutive papal crusades during the the Hussite Wars between 1420 and 1431.

Hus Memorial in Prague

Huldrych Zwingli was born in 1484 in the Canton of St Gall in Switzerland. He later studied theology in Vienna and Basel and became pastor. Around 1514 he first encountered the humanist writings of Erasmus of Rotterdam and started to search a deeper approach to the New Testament. In 1522 he wrote a paper against the Lent, which marked the beginning of his conflict with the Church. In 1523 the city council of Zürich organised two disputations and at the end the Reformation according to Zwingli was introduced. The doctrine of Zwingli has many similarities with the one of Luther. The main differences are the missing distinction of secular and religious power and the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. Zwingli's Reformation spread in northern Switzerland and southwest Germany. When Zwingli tried to introduce the Reformation to other parts of Switzerland, a war between Zürich and other Catholic Cantons began. Huldrych Zwingli died during the Battle of Kappel in 1531 and the Reformation in Switzerland came to a standstill for the moment.

This is not a postcard, but a picture from the Internet.

The Church of England was separated from Rome by King Henry VIII in 1534. Although a theological separation had been foreshadowed by various movements within the English Church, the main reason became the monarch himself, although he was actually theologically opposed to Protestantism. Henry's motive was that Pope Clement VII refused the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. So Henry took the position of Supreme Head of the Church of England to ensure the annulment and was later excommunicated by Pope Paul III. Between 1536 and 1540 Henry VIII engaged in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Henry maintained a strong preference for traditional Catholic practises and just under his son, King Edward VI, more Protestant-influenced forms of worship were adopted. Queen Mary I, who succeeded Edward, returned England again to the authority of the papacy for a short time, thereby ending the first attempt at an independent Church of England. The Elizabethan Settlement from 1558 developed the middle way character of the Church of England, a church moderately Reformed in doctrine and also emphasising continuity with the Catholic and Apostolic traditions of the Church Fathers.

The Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England. It was built in the 11th century and is considered to be a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. In 1170 Thomas Becket had been murdered in the cathedral, starting a constant flow of pilgrims. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer tell the story of such a pilgrimage in the 14th century. Since 1988 is the Canterbury Cathedral on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Johannes Calvin was born in 1509 in northern France and later studied law and theology. After he acknowledged the Reformation in 1533, he had to leave France. In Basel in 1535 he finished his main work, Institutio Christianae Religionis. Between autumn 1535 and 1538 and again from 1540 onwards he lived in Geneva, where he established a community according to his ideas. In 1541 the city council of Geneva accepted a church order written by Calvin. Together with Luther he is considered to be one of the most important figures of the Reformation. The Calvinism spread to many parts of Europe including France (Huguenots), Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Scotland. Johannes Calvin died in 1564.

The North German Confederation (Germany)

The defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 resulted in a shift in power among the German states away from Austrian hegemony and the abolition of the German Confederation. Prussia, the new sole hegemonic power, subsequently founded the North German Confederation, the first federal state in Germany, which united 22 free cities, small and middle states north of the river Main under Prussian dominance. The new constitution became effective on 1st July 1867, after a draft constitution was presented by Bismarck which was altered by a konstituierender Reichstag. Bismarck planned to make the federal state attractive to southern German states which might later join. The North German Constitution created a national parliament, the Reichstag, and the Bundesrat, the council of the representatives of the allied governments. During the Franco-Prussian War Baden, Bavaria, Württemberg and the North German Confederation united to form a new nation state, which later got the name German Empire. The King of Prussia became German Emperor and the constitution of the Empire was nearly identical to that of the North German Confederation.

The member states of the North German Confederation were 

the Kingdoms of Prussia and Saxony, 

the Grand Duchies of Hesse (only the northern part), Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg and Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, 

the Duchies of Anhalt, Brunswick, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen, 

the Principalities of Lippe, Reuss-Gera, Reuss-Greiz, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and Waldeck and Pyrmont and 

the Free and Hanseatic Cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck.

Sun Yat-sen and the Revolution in China (China, Hong Kong)

Sun Yat-sen was born in Cuiheng in 1866. In 1878 he went to a school in Honolulu and in 1886 he started to study medicine in Hong Kong, where he afterwards worked as doctor. The time he spent in the West nurtured his dissatisfaction with the government of the Qing dynasty and so he started to be active in politics. After he failed riot in 1895 he went into exile in Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan for 16 years. After he heard of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 he convinced the Western Powers to stop their credit payment for the Qing and returned to China. The Wuchang Uprising became the catalyst to the Xinhai Revolution, which ended the Qing Dynasty and two millennia of imperial rule in China. In 1912 he became the first president of the Republic of China and founded the Nationalist Party, which preceded the Kuomintang. Due to inner conflicts he had to leave China again in 1913 and only returned in 1917. In 1923 he delivered a speech in which he proclaimed his Three Principles of the People. Sun Yat-sen died in Beijing in 1925 and left China in a unfavourable situation.

Today Sun Yat-sen is admired as Father of the Nation in the Republic of China on Taiwan and as Forerunner of the Revolution in the People's Republic of China.

Hong Kong, Macau and the PR China issued a joint stamp
for his 150th birthday on 12th November 2016. 

The Sun Yat-sen Residence Memorial Museum was opened in 1956 next to his former residence in Cuiheng. It is a nationally protected cultural site.

The card is a maxicard with one of the joint stamps from the PR China.

The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum in Hong Kong was opened in 2006 in the Kom Tong Hall. It shows various relics of Sun Yat-sen and focuses on the years he spent in Hong Kong.

Genoa's seafaring past (Italy, Turkey)

Genoa was in the Middle Ages the capital of the Republic of Genoa, a powerful maritime republic and colonial power. In 1451 Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa. The Republic of Genoa was an independent state until it was replaced by the Ligurian Republic in 1797, when it became a client state of the Napoleonic France. 

Via Garibaldi (Strade Nuove) and the Palazzo Doria-Tursi

Palazzo Doria Tursi - Palazzo Reale -
 Palazzo Pantaleo Spinola - Palazzo Rosso

In the middle of 13th century the Republic of Genoa was actively trading all over the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It was one of the most important trading nations in the Middle Ages and made its fortunes by maritime trade. The Treaty of Nymphaeum, signed with the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261, helped the Genoese to virtually monopolize the trade in the Black Sea. 

The communities of Genoese merchants were located at key points of trade and communication in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. One of their trading posts was the Galata Tower in Istanbul, their main hub in Anatolia. The Trading Posts and Fortifications on Genoese Trade Routes from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea are currently on Turkey's Tentative List, as they are considered to be exceptional structures which reflect trading and international relationships of the medieval era.

20.05.2016