Military Circumstances Research Articles

Nicholas Copernicus and the Inception of Bread-Buttering

Historians have classically emphasized social, economic, and cultural factors as having the greatest impact upon the development of dietary habits. While their basic assumptions have doubtless been correct, they have unfortunately tended to ignore other significant factors. This essay will elaborate upon certain political and military circumstances and their relevance to the inception of buttered bread. During the first quarter of the 16th century, Ermland was the scene of frequent and terrible devastation. Bordering upon the Gulf of Danzig, Ermland was one of the four dioceses into which Prussia had been divided for purposes of ecclesiastical government. Its bishop, Fabian von Lossainen, was both temporal and spiritual ruler, and his secular responsibilities were the more burdensome. A vassal of the King of Poland, the Bishop was frequently engaged in conflict with the Order of Teutonic Knights. The Order had formerly ruled Ermland and periodically launched military expeditions to regain supremacy.

ARCHBISHOP STEPINAC, THE INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA AND WESTERN ALLIES

There are various doubts and ambiguities regarding the dispatch of the memorandum by the Government of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) to the Western Allies asking for military intervention in early May 1945, giving rise to different interpretations in historiography. These varying interpretations are related to the circumstances of the dispatch of the memorandum, its text, the actions of prominent representatives of the Ustasha government, relations between the new Yugoslav authorities and Western allies, especially the British and the role of Archbishop Stepinac and the Holy See in the ISC. In order to understand the memorandum, it is necessary to consider the most important political and military circumstances at the end of World War II in Yugoslavia, especially the politics of the new Yugoslavia and the Western powers, primarily the British. The representatives of the Holy See in the ISC and the Archbishop of Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac, played an important role in efforts to preserve the Ustasha state. This paper was written based on unpublished and published archival sources and relevant historiographical literature.