Primary Sources for AP World History Review Project

Period 1 - 1200-1450
●​ Writings of Marco Polo -1299
●​ Ibn Battuta
●​ Mongols and Religion
●​ Plague Source
●​ Baghdad c.1000

Period 2 - 1450-1750
●​ Columbus
●​ Treaty of Tordesillas
●​ Bartolome de las Casas
●​ Slavery Source
●​ Mughal Emperor
●​ Suliman the Magnificent
●​ Selim 1

Period 3 - 1750-1914
●​ Enlightenment Philosopher
●​ Industrial Workers
●​ Capitalist POV
●​ Friedrich Engels
●​ Adam Smith
●​ Cecil Rhodes
●​ Jules Ferry
●​ White Man’s Burden
●​ Civilizing Mission

Period 4 - 1914-Present
●​ World War Diary Entries
●​ Interwar Period
●​ Speeches from WWII Leaders
●​ Cold War Sources
●​ Globalization Sources
Period 1 - 1200-1450

Safe Conduct Pass (Paiza) with Inscription in Phakpa Script, Yuan dynasty
(1271–1368),China, Iron with silver inlay, Metalwork

Source: Abu Ubaydallah Al-Bakri, Muslim scholar living in Córdoba, Spain, 1067.

The king of Ghana, when he calls up his army, can put 200,000 men in the field. The city of Ghana
consists of two towns situated on a plain. One of these towns, which is inhabited by Muslims, is large
and possesses twelve mosques. When they assemble for the Friday prayer the king adorns himself like
a woman, wearing necklaces round his neck and bracelets on his forearms, and he puts on a high cap
decorated with gold and wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. Their religion is paganism and the worship
of idols. They make sacrifices to their dead and make offerings of intoxicating drinks.
On the opposite bank of the Niger River is another great kingdom, the king of which has the title of
Daw. The king had as his guest a Muslim who read the Quran and was acquainted with the Sunna* to
him. To this man the king complained of the calamities that assailed him and his people. The man said,
“if you accepted all the religious laws of Islam, I would pray for your deliverance from your plight and
that God’s mercy would envelop all the people of your country.” Thus he continued to press the king
and the latter accepted Islam and became a sincere Muslim.

*Sunna - The traditional portion of Muslim law based on Muhammad’s words or acts, accepted
(together with the Quran) as authoritative by Muslims.
Source: Marco Polo, Venetian merchant and minor administrator in Khubilai Khan’s
court, The Travels of Marco Polo, 1299 C.E.

Section 1
Inside the city there is a Lake . . . and all round it are erected beautiful palaces and mansions,
of the richest and most exquisite structure that you can imagine, belonging to the nobles of
the city. There are also on its shores many abbeys and churches of the Idolaters [Buddhists].
In the middle of the Lake are two Islands, on each of which stands a rich, beautiful, and
spacious edifice, furnished in such style as to seem fit for the palace of an Emperor. And
when any one of the citizens desired to hold a marriage feast, or to give any other
entertainment, it used to be done at one of these palaces. And everything would be found
there ready to order, such as silver plate, trenchers, and dishes, napkins and table-cloths,
and whatever else was needful. . . .

Section 4
Other streets are occupied by the Physicians, and by the Astrologers, who are also teachers
of reading and writing; and an infinity of other professions have their places round about those
squares. In each of the squares there are two great palaces facing one another, in which are
established the officers appointed by the King to decide differences arising between
merchants, or other inhabitants of the quarter. . . .

The natives of the city are men of peaceful character, both from education and from the
example of their kings, whose disposition was the same. They know nothing of handling arms,
and keep none in their houses. You hear of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissensions of any
kind among them. Both in their commercial dealings and in their manufactures they are
thoroughly honest and truthful, and there is such a degree of good will and neighborly
attachment among both men and women that you would take the people who live in the same
street to be all one family.
Mongols AND Religion

Source: Drogön Phagpa, Tibetan Buddhist monk and spiritual advisor to the Mongol
Yuan ruler Khubilai Khan,* instructions to the khan, late thirteenth century.

Secular and spiritual salvation are something that all human beings try to win. Spiritual
salvation consists in complete deliverance from suffering, and worldly welfare is secular
salvation. Both depend on a dual order, the order of religion and the order of the state. The
order of religion is presided over by the Lama [Tibetan religious leader], and the order of the
state is presided over by the khan. The priest has to teach religion, the khan must guarantee
a rule that enables everyone to live in peace. The heads of the religion
and of the state are equal, though with different functions.

*Khubilai Khan converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the thirteenth century after he led the
Mongol conquest of Tibet.

Source: Rashid al-Din Hamadani, Persian Muslim historian and advisor to the Ilkhanid
Mongol ruler, Ghazan Khan, universal history written for the Ilkhanid court, early
fourteenth century.

Hülegü Khan’s chief wife was Doquz Khatun who had great influence in his family. Since her
tribe had been Nestorian Christian* since the eleventh century, she constantly favored
Christians. For her sake, Hülegü Khan favored them and held them in honor, so much so that
they built churches throughout the realm. A church was always made at the gate to Doquz
Khatun’s palace tent.

*a Christian group whose followers live in communities across Central and Eastern Asia
​Source: Emperor John VI of Byzantium, Historarum, Mid- to Late Fourteenth Century

“Upon arrival in Byzantium, she [the empress Irene] found Andronikos, the youngest
born, dead from the invading plague... [It has] spread throughout almost the entire world.
There was no help from anywhere; if someone brought to another a remedy useful to
himself, this became poison to the other patient. Some, by treating others, became infected
with the disease.

It caused great destruction and many homes were deserted by their inhabitants. Domestic
animals died together with their masters. Most terrible was the discouragement. Whenever
people felt sick there was hope left for recovery, but by turning to despair, adding to their
prostration and severely aggravating their sickness, they died at once.

No words could express the nature of the disease. All that can be pointed out is that it had
nothing in common with the everyday evils to which the nature of man is subject, but was
something else sent by God to restore chastity. Many of the sick... also those who overcame
the disease... abandoned from all vice during that time and they lived virtuously; many divided
their property among the poor....”

Source: Yakut, “Baghdad under the Abbasids,” c. 1000, translated from Arabic

“The city of Baghdad formed two vast semi-circles on the right and left banks of the Tigris,
twelve miles in diameter. The numerous suburbs, covered with parks, gardens, villas and
beautiful promenades, and plentifully supplied with rich bazaars, and finely built mosques and
baths, stretched for a considerable distance on both sides of the river. In the days of its
prosperity the population of Baghdad and its suburbs amounted to over two millions! The
palace of the Caliph stood in the midst of a vast park several hours in circumference which
beside a menagerie and aviary comprised an inclosure for wild animals reserved for the
chase. The palace grounds were laid out with gardens, and adorned with
exquisite taste with plants, flowers, and trees, reservoirs and fountains, surrounded by
sculptured figures. On this side of the river stood the palaces of the great nobles. Immense
streets, none less than forty cubits wide, traversed the city from one end to the other, dividing
it into blocks or quarters, each under the control of an overseer or supervisor, who looked
after the cleanliness, sanitation and the comfort of the inhabitants...

Baghdad was a veritable City of Palaces, not made of stucco and mortar, but of marble. The
buildings were usually of several stories. The palaces and mansions were lavishly gilded and
decorated, and hung with beautiful tapestry and hangings of brocade or silk. The rooms were
lightly and tastefully furnished with luxurious divans, costly tables, unique Chinese vases and
gold and silver ornaments… The mosques of the city were at once vast in size and
remarkably beautiful. There were also in Baghdad numerous colleges of learning, hospitals,
infirmaries for both sexes, and lunatic asylums.”
Period 2 - 1450-1750

Source: Letter from Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella

“These people [the inhabitants of the islands] practice no kind of idolatry; on the contrary they
firmly believe that all strength and power, and in fact all good things are in heaven, and that I
had come down from thence with these ships and sailors; and in this belief I was received
there after they had put aside fear. Nor are they slow or unskilled, but of excellent and acute
understanding; and the men who have navigated that sea give an account of everything in an
admirable manner; but they never saw people clothed, nor these kind of ships. As soon as I
reached that sea, I seized by force several Indians on the first island, in order that they might
learn from us, and in like manner tell us about those things in these lands of which they
themselves had knowledge; and the plan succeeded, for in a short time we understood them
and they us, sometimes by gestures and signs, sometimes by words; and it was a great
advantage to us. They are coming with me now, yet always believing that I descended from
heaven, although they have been living with us for a long time, and are living with us to-day.”

- Christopher Columbus

Source: Treaty of Tordesillas - 1494

The 1502 Cantino World Map, acquired by Alberto Cantino from a Portuguese original in
Lisbon. The map shows the world as then known to Europeans and indicates the line decided
by the 1494 treaty of Tordesillas which demarcated two spheres of global influence for Spain
and Portugal.
Source: Bartolomé de Las Casas, "A Right with Roots in the Bible" Conquistador
turned Catholic priest.

It had been nineteen years now since the inhabitants of the so-called Indies had begun to
suffer foreign occupation, with its attendant abuse, exploitation, and death at the hands of the
"discoverers" (from the European viewpoint) of these lands. The natives were treated "as if
they had been useless animals," and the colonists "mourned their deaths only for reason of
the inconvenience that now they would no longer be able to work the gold mines and
plantations for them," since the Europeans only sought "to grow rich on the blood of those
wretches." Sorrowfully the friars asked: "How can so very many people that there had been on
this island, according to what we have been told, in such a brief time, a space of fifteen or
sixteen years, have so cruelly perished?" The allusion is to the horrible decimation of the
population of the island, which we have seen. . .

Source: King Afonso I of Kongo, Letter to King Jao of Portugal, 1526.

Our country is being completely depopulated, and your Highness should not agree with this
nor accept it as in your service. And to avoid it we need from (you) no more than some priests
and a few people to teach in the schools, and no other goods except wine and flour for the
holy sacrament. That is why we beg of Your Highness to assist us in this matter, commanding
your factors that they should not send here either merchants or wares, because it is our will
that in these Kingdoms there should not be any trade of slaves nor outlet for them…
Moreover, Sir, in our Kingdoms there is another great inconvenience which is of little service
to God, and this is that many of our people, keenly desirous as they are of the wares and
things of your Kingdoms, which are brought here by your people, and in order to satisfy their
voracious appetite, seize many of our people, free and exempt men; and very often it
happens that they kidnap even noblemen and sons of noblemen, and our relatives, and take
them to be sold to the white men who are in our Kingdoms…
Source: Muhammad El-Halaby, “The Liberation of Constantinople,” ϭκρϯ, translated
from Ottoman Turkish
​
The historian Ismail Hami Danshbund, a contemporary of the sultan Muhammad Alfateh
narrates: "The sultan would spend long hours every night since ascending the throne,
studying the plans of the city, looking for strategic points of defence and attempting to find
weak points which he could benefit from and to work on the appropriate plan to attack these
points. In addition to this, the Sultan had committed to memory all the previous attempts to
liberate the city, the names of their leaders, and the reasons for their failure... He would
continue to discuss with his lieutenants and generals what is required for the final attack. He
also ordered the engineers to build what is required to facilitate the liberation. They built
large cannons which would traject numerous heavy metal balls and bombs weighing as much
as three tonnes. In addition to the other heavy artillery which the sultan built himself which
were used for the first time in the attack on Constantinople; which had a great effect in the
liberation of the city. That was from the material end, however, on the morale end, he took
with him many contemporary scholars and Imams who held authority such as Sheikh
Alqourany, and Sheikh Khisrawi, who would motivate the soldiers and drive them towards
Jihad... As for his enemies, as soon as he reached the walls of the Constantinople, he
ordered the call of Azan for Jum`a and commenced prayer. When the Byzantines saw
the hundred and fifty thousand Muslims praying behind their leader and the sound of their
takbir breaking the horizon, they began to tremble in fear and worry, and their minds were
defeated before their bodies.

Source: Michael Kritovoulos, Byzantine noble, History of Mehmet the Conqueror,

written in the 1460s

“When the initial siege failed to take the city,* [the Ottoman] Sultan Mehmet II summoned the
cannon-makers and spoke to them about what cannon could be used to demolish the
northern wall of the city, along the bay of the Golden Horn.

They assured him it would be easy to demolish that wall if they could construct another
massive cannon. The Sultan immediately provided them with everything they needed. So they
constructed the cannon, a thing most fearsome to see and altogether unbelievable. With an
astounding thunder and a flame that lit up all the surroundings, the canon hurled stones that
hit the wall with tremendous force and velocity and immediately knocked it down.

After a long and bitter struggle, the Ottomans prevailed and their entire army poured into the
city through the breach in the walls. They robbed and plundered, and the whole city was
despoiled and blackened as if by fire. The Sultan then entered the city and saw its great size,
grandeur, and beauty. When he saw what a large number had been killed and the
wholesale ruin and destruction of the city, he was filled with compassion. Tears fell from his
eyes as he groaned: ‘What a great city we have given over to plunder and destruction!’”

*The Byzantine capital Constantinople, which was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453
and renamed Istanbul
Source: Francois Bernier, “An Account of India and the Great Mogul,” 1ςρρ, translated
from French

My lord, you may have seen before this, by the maps of Asia, how great every way is the
extent of the empire of the Great Mogul, which is commonly called India or Indostan. I have
not measured it mathematically; but to speak of it according to the ordinary journeys of the
country, after the rate of three whole months' march, traversing from the frontiers of the
kingdom of Golconda as far as beyond Kazni near Kandahar, which is the first town of Persia,
I cannot but persuade myself otherwise but that it is at least five times as far as from Paris to
Lyons, ---that is, about five hundred common leagues...

Of the like sort are more than an hundred rajahs, or considerable heathen sovereigns,
dispersed through the whole empire, some near to, others remote from, Agra and Delhi;
amongst whom there are about fifteen or sixteen that are very rich and puissant…

The Mogul is obliged to keep these rajahs in his service for sundry reasons: the first, because
the militia of the rajahs is very good (as was said above) and because there are rajahs (as
was intimated also) any one of whom can bring into the field above twenty-five thousand men;
the second, the better to bridle the other rajahs and to reduce them to reason, when they
cantonize, or when they refuse to pay tribute, or when, out of fear or other cause, they will not
leave their country to serve in the army when the Mogul requires it; the third, the better to
nourish jealousies and keenness among them, by favoring and caressing one more than the
other, which is done to that degree that they proceed to fight with one another very frequently.

Source: Letter by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I to the Safavid Shah Ismail I, circa 1514

“In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The Holy Qur’an says, “Rise not up
against me, but come to me in surrender.”

This letter has been graciously issued by me Sultan Selim, the most glorious sovereign, the Caliph
of God Most High in this world, haloed in victory, slayer of the wicked and of the infidel, guardian of
the noble and the pious, the warrior in the path of God, the defender of the Faith, the
standard-bearer of justice and righteousness—and is addressed to you, prince Ismail, the ruler of
the kingdom of the Persians, the possessor of the land of tyranny and wickedness, the captain of
the vicious, the chief of the malicious, the usurper of the throne of the ancient Persian kings.

I have heard repeatedly that you have subjected the upright Muslims under your rule to your
devious will, that you have undermined the firm foundation of the Faith, and that you no longer
uphold the commandments and prohibitions of the Divine Law, but have incited your heretical
faction to commit abominable deeds in the lands that you possess.

Be informed, then, that both the opinion of the learned Islamic scholars and the consensus of the
Sunni community agree that it is my obligation to extinguish and extirpate the evil heresy that you
represent.

But should you take up a course of repentance, become like one blameless, and return to the
sublime straight path of Muhammad (Prayers and salutations be upon him), and should you
proclaim your lands and their people part of my Ottoman state, then you shall be granted my royal
favor and imperial protection and patronage.”
Period 3 - 1750-1914

Source: Montesquieu, “Of the Constitution of England,” The Spirit of the Laws, 1748,
translated from French

In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; the executive, in respect to
things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on
the civil law.

By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends
or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war,
sends or receives embassies; establishes public security, and protects against invasions. By
the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals.
The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other simply the executive power of the
state.

The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind, arising from the opinion each person
has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite for the government to be so
constituted as one man need not be afraid of another. When the legislative and executive
powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no
liberty; because apprehensions may anse, lest the same monarch or senate should enact
tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. Again, there is no liberty, if the power
of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers. Were it joined with the
legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for the
judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might
behave with all the violence of an oppressor.

There would be an end of every thing were the same man, or the same body, whether of the
nobles or of the people to exercise those three powers that of enacting laws, that of executing
the public resolutions, and that of judging the crimes or differences of individuals.

Source: Cloth Merchants of Leeds, “Letter Defending the Use of Machines,” 1791

At a time when the People, engaged in every other Manufacture in the Kingdom, are exerting
themselves to bring their Work to Market at reduced Prices, which can alone be effected by
the Aid ofMachinery, it certainly is not necessary that the Cloth Merchants of Leeds, who
depend chiefly on aForeign Demand, where they have for Competitors the Manufacturers of
other Nations, whose Taxes are few, and whose manual Labour is only Half the Price it bears
here, should have Occasion to defend a Conduct, which has for its Aim the Advantage of the
Kingdom in general, and of the Cloth Trade in particular; yet anxious to prevent
Misrepresentations, which have usually attended the Introduction of
the most useful Machines, they wish to remind the Inhabitants of this Town, of the Advantages
derived to every flourishing Manufacture from the Application of Machinery; they instance that
of Cotton in particular, which in its internal and foreign Demand is nearly alike to our own, and
has in a few Years by the Means of Machinery advanced to its present Importance, and is still
increasing.
Source: Adam Smith, Excerpt from “The Wealth of Nations”, 1776

THOUGH the encouragement of exportation, and the discouragement of importation, are the
two great engines by which the mercantile system proposes to enrich every country, yet with
regard to some particular commodities, it seems to follow an opposite plan: to discourage
exportation and to encourage importation. Its ultimate object, however, it pretends, is always
the same, to enrich the country by an advantageous balance of trade. It discourages the
exportation of the materials of manufacture, and of the instruments of trade, in order to give
our own workmen an advantage, and to enable them to undersell those of other nations in all
foreign markets; and by restraining, in this manner, the exportation of a few commodities, of
no great price, it proposes to occasion a much greater and more valuable exportation of
others. It encourages the importation of the materials of manufacture, in order that our own
people may be enabled to work them up more cheaply, and thereby prevent a greater and
more valuable importation of the manufactured commodities….

Source: Friedrich Engels, (Cowriter to the Communist Manifesto) “Industrial

Manchester,” 1844

The view from this bridge, mercifully concealed from mortals of small stature by a parapet as
high as a man, is characteristic for the whole district. At the bottom flows, or rather stagnates,
the Irk, a narrow, coal-black, foul-smelling stream, full of debris and refuse, which it deposits
on the shallower right bank. In dry weather, a long string of the most disgusting,
blackish-green, slime pools are left standing on this bank, from the depths of which bubbles of
miasmatic gas constantly arise and give forth a stench unendurable even on the bridge forty
or fifty feet above the surface of the stream. But besides this, the stream itself is checked
every few paces by high weirs, behind which slime and refuse accumulate and rot in thick
masses. Above the bridge are tanneries, bone mills, and gasworks, from which all drains and
refuse find their way into the Irk, which receives further the contents of all the neighbouring
sewers and privies. It may be easily imagined, therefore, what sort of residue the stream
deposits. Below the bridge you look upon the piles of debris, the refuse, filth, and offal from
the courts on the steep left bank; here each house is packed close behind its neighbour and a
piece of each is visible, all black, smoky,crumbling, ancient, with broken panes and window
frames. The background is furnished by old barrack-like factory buildings...

Source: Cecil Rhodes (English Imperialist), “Confession of Faith”, 1877

I contend that we are the finest race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the
better it is for the human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most
despicable specimens of human beings – what an alteration there would be if they were brought
under Anglo-Saxon influence, look again at the extra employment a new country added to our
dominions gives. I contend that every acre added to our territory means in the future birth to some
more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence. Added to this the
absorption of the greater portion of the world under our rule simply means the end of all wars, at
this moment had we not lost America I believe we could have stopped the Russian-Turkish war by
merely refusing money and supplies. Having these ideas what scheme could we think of to
forward this object.
Source: Jules Ferry (1832-1893) Ferry was twice prime minister of France, from
[1880-1881, 1883-1885]: On French Colonial Expansion

The policy of colonial expansion is a political and economic system ... that can be connected
to three sets of ideas: economic ideas; the most far-reaching ideas of civilization; and ideas of
a political and patriotic sort...

Gentlemen, we must speak more loudly and more honestly! We must say openly that indeed
the higher races have a right over the lower races ....

I repeat, that the superior races have a right because they have a duty. They have the duty to
civilize the inferior races .... In the history of earlier centuries these duties, gentlemen, have
often been misunderstood; and certainly when the Spanish soldiers and explorers introduced
slavery into Central America, they did not fulfill their duty as men of a higher race .... But, in
our time, I maintain that European nations acquit themselves with generosity, with grandeur,
and with sincerity of this superior civilizing duty.

I say that French colonial policy, the policy of colonial expansion, the policy that has taken us
under the Empire, to Saigon, to Indochina [Vietnam], that has led us to Tunisia, to
Madagascar-I say that this policy of colonial expansion was inspired by... the fact that a navy
such as ours cannot do without safe harbors, defenses, supply centers on the high seas ....
Are you unaware of this? Look at a map of the world.

Gentlemen, these are considerations that merit the full attention of patriots. The conditions of
naval warfare have greatly changed .... At present, as you know, a warship, however perfect
its design, cannot carry more than two weeks' supply of coal; and a vessel without coal is a
wreck on the high seas, abandoned to the first occupier. Hence the need to have places of
supply, shelters, ports for defense and provisioning.... And that is why we needed Tunisia; that
is why we needed Saigon and Indochina; that is why we need Madagascar... and why we
shall never leave them! ... Gentlemen, in Europe such as it is today, in this competition of the
many rivals we see rising up around us, some by military or naval improvements, others by
the prodigious development of a constantly growing population; in a Europe, or rather in a
universe thus constituted, a policy of withdrawal or abstention is simply the high road to
decadence! In our time nations are great only through the activity they deploy; it is not by
spreading the peaceable light of their institutions ... that they are great, in the present day.

Spreading light without acting, without taking part in the affairs of the world, keeping out of all
European alliances and seeing as a trap, an adventure, all expansion into Africa or the
Orient-for a great nation to live this way, believe me, is to abdicate and, in less time than you
may think, to sink from the first rank to the third and fourth.
Source: Rudyard Kipling, (Excerpt from) White Man’s Burden, written in response to
the US imperialism in Philippines, 1899
Take up the White Man’s burden–
Send forth the best ye breed–
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild–
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
The savage wars of peace–
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Source: Judge was a weekly satirical magazine published in the United States from 1881 to 1947.
Period 4 - 1914-Present
Source: Ella Jane Osborn, Allied Nurse working in France close to fighting lines, Diary
Entries, 1918

May 11 Sat. Slept poorly. Had a hard thunder shower.

The Germans sent over Gas. 36 dead & 90 in Field Hosp. 104. Many of them are badly
gased. . .

Mon. May 20. Nearly died last night for want of sleep. Major Lufbery[1] of the flying Corps was
buried today with all military honors, he was considered our best flyer. The Aviators flew over
& drop flowers over his grave. The german who shot him was afterwards caught by the
French. When the French got wind that Lufbery (whom they were very fond of) had been
killed they started out and said they would get the german if they had to go into germany. The
Frenchman caught him & ramed right into him with his machine. There were three in the
German machine.
There is great activity in the air tonight. . .

June 27. After work Miss Lent & I started over to the woods to write letters & saw a lot of
troops passing, so we rushed over to the main road & saw thousands of boys go by, some on
trains, some walking looking very tired & some in camions & some on horse back. They were
the 82 Div going up to relieve the 26th Div. We had just gotten nicely settled in bed when we
heard the machine guns & out we jumped & there was an air battle going on right over us The
serch light from St Micheal hill was wonderful we could see the black smoke of the german
shells in the air. They dropped bombs which struck quite near the Hosp. and shook our house,
It was the nearest battle we have had the areoplane went right over us. The serch light turned
their light on the plane & the germans shot right down the light at the serch light.

Source: Winston Churchil, Letter to US President Roosevelt, December 8, 1940

My dear Mr. President,

As we reach the end of this year, I feel you will expect me to lay before you the prospects for
1941. I do so with candour and confidence, because it seems to me that the vast majority of
American citizens have recorded their conviction that the safety of the United States as well
as the future of our two democracies and the kind of civilization for which they stand, are
bound up with the survival and independence of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Only
thus can those bastions of sea power, upon which the control of the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans depend, be preserved in faithful and friendly hands. The control of the Pacific by the
United States Navy and of the Atlantic by the British Navy, is indispensable to the security and
the trade routes of both our countries, and the surest means of preventing war from reaching
the shores of the United States.
…
17. Last of all, I come to the question of Finance. The more rapid and abundant the flow of
munitions and ships which you are able to send us, the sooner will our dollar credits be
exhausted. They are already, as you know, very heavily drawn upon by the payments we have
made to date…

…The moment approaches when we shall no longer be able to pay cash for shipping and
other supplies.”

Source: Franklin D Roosevelt, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Volume Four, The Court Disapproves, 1935, (Writings about Social Security), (New York:
Random House, 1938), pp. 43 – 46

In addressing you on June 8, 1934, I summarized the main objectives of our American program.
Among these was, and is, the security of the men, women, and children of the Nation against certain
hazards and vicissitudes of life. This purpose is an essential part of our task. In my annual message to
you I promised to submit a definite program of action. This I do in the form of a report to me by a
Committee on Economic Security, appointed by me for the purpose of surveying the field and of
recommending the basis of legislation. . . .

It is my best judgment that this legislation should be brought forward with a minimum of delay. Federal
action is necessary to, and conditioned upon, the action of States. Forty-four legislatures are meeting
or will meet soon. In order that the necessary State action may be taken promptly it is important that the
Federal Government proceed speedily.

At this time, I recommend the following types of legislation looking to economic security:

1. Unemployment compensation.

2. Old-age benefits, including compulsory and voluntary annuities.

3. Federal aid to dependent children through grants to States for the support of existing mothers’
pension systems and for services for the protection and care of homeless, neglected, dependent, and
crippled children.
Source: Winston Churchill: War Speech, House of Commons, Sep. 3rd, 1939 BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS (the
US/Canadian edition of INTO BATTLE) and WINSTON S. CHURCHILL: HIS COMPLETE SPEECHES 1897-1963,
Robert Rhodes James, editor, NY: Bowker, 1974, vol. 6.

In this solemn hour it is a consolation to recall and to dwell upon our repeated efforts for peace. All have been
ill-starred, but all have been faithful and sincere. This is of the highest moral value–and not only moral value,
but practical value–at the present time, because the wholehearted concurrence of scores of millions of men and
women, whose co-operation is indispensable and whose comradeship and brotherhood are indispensable, is the
only foundation upon which the trial and tribulation of modern war can be endured and surmounted. This moral
conviction alone affords that ever-fresh resilience which renews the strength and energy of people in long,
doubtful and dark days. Outside, the storms of war may blow and the lands may be lashed with the fury of its
gales, but in our own hearts this Sunday morning there is peace. Our hands may be active, but our consciences
are at rest.

We must not underrate the gravity of the task which lies before us or the temerity of the ordeal, to which we
shall not be found unequal. We must expect many disappointments, and many unpleasant surprises, but we may
be sure that the task which we have freely accepted is one not beyond the compass and the strength of the
British Empire and the French Republic. The Prime Minister said it was a sad day, and that is indeed true, but at
the present time there is another note which may be present, and that is a feeling of thankfulness that, if these
great trials were to come upon our Island, there is a generation of Britons here now ready to prove itself not
unworthy of the days of yore and not unworthy of those great men, the fathers of our land, who laid the
foundations of our laws and shaped the greatness of our country.

This is not a question of fighting for Danzig or fighting for Poland. We are fighting to save the whole world from
the pestilence of Nazi tyranny and in defense of all that is most sacred to man. This is no war of domination or
imperial aggrandizement or material gain; no war to shut any country out of its sunlight and means of progress.
It is a war, viewed in its inherent quality, to establish, on impregnable rocks, the rights of the individual, and it is
a war to establish and revive the stature of man. Perhaps it might seem a paradox that a war undertaken in the
name of liberty and right should require, as a necessary part of its processes, the surrender for the time being of
so many of the dearly valued liberties and rights. In these last few days the House of Commons has been voting
dozens of Bills which hand over to the executive our most dearly valued traditional liberties. We are sure that
these liberties will be in hands which will not abuse them, which will use them for no class or party interests,
which will cherish and guard them, and we look forward to the day, surely and confidently we look forward to the
day, when our liberties and rights will be restored to us, and when we shall be able to share them with the
peoples to whom such blessings are unknown.

Source: Courtesy of The Churchill Centre

[Link]
Source: Edward Duncan Cameron, US Soldier, “D-Day”, Poem about the invasion of
Normandy, 1944

I VIII
The invasion had finally started, The air reeked of death all o’er.
we were off on a cruise of doom. The water a blood-dyed red.
a mask of a smile on lips parted, For a minute our heads seemed to lower,
But a heart beneath full of gloom. a silent prayer for the dead.

II ​ IV
We knew it a big undertaking- Our craft didn’t make it the first go.
We all understood the job. She maneuvered to try it again.
a beach-head was in the making, The minutes seemed like ages though,
a showdown with Hitler’s mob. Ere the prow of the boat hit the sand.

III X
Sam was thinking of England, So into the icy waters we jumped
Johnnie, his wife at home. as the shells whizzed overhead.
a joker put on a swing-band; Many a pack on rifle dumped;
my thoughts began to roam. It was either that or be dead.
…

VII XI
Thru smoke we saw many sunken ships, The beach was a literally graveyard.
Proud in their ghost-like hue.​ The ferries had taken their toll.
For they had scored their winning hits- For the lads before us the road had been hard,
what more could you ask them to do? But they had continued to roll.

Source: PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN'S ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS,

MARCH 12, 1947

At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of
life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is
distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual
liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies
upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of
personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
SOURCE: Benito Mussolini, My Autobiography, 1928

My labor had not been easy or light… When, in Parliament, I delivered my first speech of
November 16, 1922, after the Fascist revolution, I concluded by invoking the assistance of
God in my difficult task. Well, this sentence of mine seemed to be out of place! In the Italian
parliament…the name of God had been banned for a long time. Not even the popular party -
the so-called Catholic party - had ever thought of speaking of God.
In Italy, a political man did not even turn his thoughts to the Divinity. And, even if they even
thought of doing so, political opportunism and cowardice would have deterred him, particularly
in a legislative assembly. It remained for me to make this bold innovation! And in an intense
period of revolution! What is the truth? It is that a faith openly professed is a sign of strength.
I have seen the religious spirit bloom again; churches once more are crowded, the ministers
of God are themselves invested with new respect. Fascism…is doing it’s duty.
“Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away
in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and
transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in
Drenthe to which they're sending all the Jews … If it's that bad in
Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilized places
where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of
them are being murdered. The English radio says they're being
gassed."

-Diary of Anne Frank

"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted
submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to
keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of
this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal or

alliance on the following basis: make war together, make

peace together, generous financial support and an

understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the

lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The

settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the
President [of Mexico] of the above most secretly as soon as
the outbreak of war with the United States of America is
certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own
initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the
same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please
call the [Mexican] President's attention to the fact that the
ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the
prospect of compelling England in a few months to make
peace."
Signed,

German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman

January 1917