Fringes of an Empire (1848, #3)

The revolutions of 1848 were a truly European event. We’ve seen how the spark from Paris also set Germany ablaze. Part of that Germany was Austria, the German-speaking part of the Habsburg monarchy. Yet the Habsburgs also ruled over vast non-German territories: Their rich holdings in northern Italy provided a third of the total tax income. Hungary had been essential for Habsburg power projections into the Balkans for centuries. Both the Italians and the Hungarians – and also Czechs and Galicians – yearned to shake off Habsburg domination and chart their own national destinies.

Black-Red-Gold (1848, #2)

When news of the February Revolution in Paris reached Germany, the liberals, nationalists, and radicals which had chafed under the post-Napoleonic restauration of the old order were ecstatic. They quickly set out to make their own revolutions. Soon, they reached complicated and interlocking questions of statehood and nationhood which needed answers – and, as the military interventions in Baden, Denmark, and Poland showed, the defenders of the old order still had an ace up their sleeves.

The Spark of Revolution (1848, #1)

Popular protest is a classic tool to bring about political change. Sometimes the protests are successful – like the revolutions against Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989. Sometimes they are put down (like the Prague Spring had been in 1968). Sometimes, the result is mixed – the Euromaidan protests in Kiev during the winter of 2013/14 strengthened democracy in the country by removing its autocratic president Viktor Yanukovych, but the Ukrainians paid a steep price for their freedoms as Vladimir Putin took the removal of his vassal Yanukovych unkindly and has been attempting to dismantle Ukraine since then. And sometimes, the success of revolution is still in the air – like in Iran, where large crowds have been protesting for the last months against their fundamentalist government’s meddling in private affairs.

As these examples show, success and failure are sometimes not so easy to assess. They also demonstrate that protest is often limited to a few cities or one country. Only rarely does revolution leap from one place to another. The closest Europe has ever come to a revolutionary conflagration was 175 years ago, in 1848. This post traces the roots of these revolutions to the French Revolution, takes a look at the restaurationist interlude and the mounting political pressures before 1848, and then looks at the outbreak of revolution in the Paris of February 1848. With that, the stage is set for the 1848 series of posts on this blog!

The Expansion (Early Islam, #3)

Welcome back to the third and last part of our exploration of early Islam in history and (this time, more) board games! We’ve already seen the power of Muhammad’s revelation and his shrewd statecraft. Now, at Muhammad’s death, we find Arabia united under the banner of Islam. Today, we’ll look at the succession of Muhammad in Arabia, the campaigns for Syria and Iraq, and finally, Islamic expansion into the wider world.

A “Third-Rate Burglary Attempt” (Watergate, #1)

Watergate. The most famous of all political scandals. A salacious mix of illicit surveillance, dubious finance, and open felonies. And the president of the United States embroiled in it. Of course, the topic is not only fascinating to politicos, journalists, gossips, and everyone out for a quick buck – but also to the designers and players of board games. Thus, here’s the first half of a two-part piece on Watergate in history and board games – from the mood at the Nixon White House in the early 1970s over the break-in at the Watergate complex itself to Nixon’s irregular campaign finance.

Most Anticipated Historical Board Game Releases in 2023

Happy new year, everybody! I hope it will bring you much joy. I also hope it will bring you board games (which is basically the same thing). The question is, however: Which games? – Here are a few 2023 releases which look most intriguing to me.

As always, don’t take this as a shopping list (neither for you nor for me). Over the course of 2022, I bought one single game. That was all. (More entered the collection as gifts, though.) Your taste in games and your discretion how many new games you want to chase decide what will end up in your shelf (and, hopefully, on your table)!

After that reminder, on to the games. As all of them are set in human history, they are ordered from most ancient to most recent.

Farewell 2022 – The Best on the Blog!

Now the year truly comes to a close. I’ve celebrated the fifth anniversary of this blog this year.

Some things don’t change: Slightly over 40% of my blog’s visitors come from the United States, followed mostly by other countries of the Anglosphere (the UK, Canada, Australia, and Ireland make up well over 20%) and the large European board gaming countries (Spain, Germany, France, and Italy account for another ~15%). By sheer clicks per population, no country might be more into Clio’s Board Games than Luxembourg – 0.008 % of the global population, but 0.5% of my page views. Whoever reads this from Luxembourg – get in touch. I’d love to get to know you!

Farewell 2022 – Historical Games!

Games + History = Life.

Here are the three that gave me most life this year!

You can read the other Farewell 2022 posts here:

New-to-Me Games

Historical Fiction

Non-Historical Games

Historical Non-Fiction

The Best on the Blog

Farewell 2022 – Historical Non-Fiction!

For the first time in forever, I read more works of fiction than non-fiction this year. History books only made up 32% of my total reads. What’s happening to me? Am I becoming a normal, functional member of society, living fully in the present instead of hopelessly searching for meaning in the past? – No, I think it was just a fluke. At least some of the works of historical non-fiction were so enlightening that I want to share them with you as well.

You can read the other Farewell 2022 posts here:

New-to-Me Games

Historical Fiction

Non-Historical Games

Historical Games

The Best on the Blog

Farewell 2022 – Non-Historical Games!

My non-historical gaming mostly treaded on well-known ground – all the more testament to the quality of these games that I keep coming back to them. Here are the three I enjoyed most this year:

You can read the other Farewell 2022 posts here:

New-to-Me Games

Historical Fiction

Historical Non-Fiction

Historical Games

The Best on the Blog