48
votes
Normandy: Why did the landing craft open on the front?
The LCVP or Higgins boat was designed with one primary goal: to land a large number of troops quickly. Therefore it was important that:
Troops can disembark as quickly as possible
LCVPs can land ...
- 14.4k
44
votes
Accepted
Normandy: Why did the landing craft open on the front?
They still do it that way:
LCU Replacement in Preliminary Design, Anticipating 2022 Fleet Debut
If the beaches are heavily defended, the Navy is supposed to bombard them prior to the landing. ...
- 6,761
38
votes
Accepted
Why did China annex Tibet?
The other two answers speak in terms of Tibet's legal status; and these answers, while correct, don't properly explain why Tibet is important to China. This answer relates entirely to geography. The ...
- 7,491
32
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
Yes. Romania celebrates on December 1 (Great Union Day) the annexation of Transylvania from Austria-Hungary.
- 586
30
votes
What are the primary sources for the Mongol sack of Baghdad?
The source containing the most detail is probably al-Ḥawādit̠
al-ğāmiʿa wa-l-tağārib al-nāfiʿa fī l-miʾa l-sābiʿa, a local history of Baghdad under Mongol rule. It was previously attributed to the ...
- 108k
22
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
On 6 November every year, Morocco celebrates the Green March, which led to the claimed annexation of Western Sahara (which had been held by the Spanish until that time) by Morocco.
- 431
20
votes
Accepted
Why didn't invaders of India ever cross into Myanmar and beyond (east)?
The region to east of Bengal is Myanmar. In between them, the Himalayan foothills taper off rather abruptly into the Bay of Bengal. They still form quite a formidable obstacle. Southeast Asia itself ...
- 3,338
17
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
In the current form of the question, I'd suggest Germany, Italy. Caveats apply.
Germany
One question in the comments below the original question that arose displays nicely how flawed the concept ...
- 80.7k
15
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
Not a complete country, but a faction within the country.
William III invaded Britain, with popular support from the majority-Protestant population. Northern Irish Protestants still celebrate the ...
- 2,547
15
votes
Why did China annex Tibet?
tl;dr
Why invade?
Because government, in order to be legitimate (I'm using the term "legitimate" in the same sense as Fukyama - that the citizens perceive the government's actions as ...
MCW♦
- 33.8k
13
votes
Why did China annex Tibet?
The short version is that to the minds of a lot of Chinese, that was historically Chinese territory. They were just reclaiming what was theirs.
A lot of modern Chinese territorial claims go back to ...
- 121k
12
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
A lot of polities or part of them have been founded as result of the conquest of their territory. Therefore, commemorating the conquest mixes with commemorating the founding of the polity.
Istanbul ...
- 3,801
8
votes
Why didn't invaders of India ever cross into Myanmar and beyond (east)?
It's mainly because of terrain. Between Bengal and Burma there are Himalayan foothills. Hundred of Kilometer long dense forest and high hills made it virtually impossible to mobilize troops in large ...
- 217
8
votes
Accepted
Interpreting two recent studies on Aryan Invasion/Migration theory?
The first paper basically says that genetically, some remains dated around 2500BCE from an Indus Valley Civilization individual show no central Asian (presumably Indo-European) component.
The second ...
- 121k
7
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
Spain's National Day is celebrated on October 12th, the day Columbus (re)discovered the American continent in 1492.
Given that every discovered territory was subsequently claimed by the Spanish Crown ...
- 381
7
votes
Accepted
Why did the US invade Cuba in such a weak manner?
An invasion by US armed forces would have worked, but would also have been deeply illegal, since it would have been a war of aggression. It would also likely have precipitated a war with the Soviet ...
- 31.9k
7
votes
Has there been a war whose declared goal was a mere land grab without any attempts to ethically justify it?
The problem with your question is that you only have to go back a few hundred years to find that an invasion for purposes of a "land grab" did not have an "evil, criminal character&...
- 1,458
4
votes
Who is the most recent (non Bush) father son pair who have invaded the Middle East?
I have an example of three generations of a European family invading the Middle East.
Fredrick I Barbarossa, Emperor of the Romans, lead a large army in the Third Crusade but drowned when crossing a ...
- 19.3k
4
votes
Who is the most recent (non Bush) father son pair who have invaded the Middle East?
If we're allowed to expand the definition of the "Middle East" (and possibly also "invasion") a little, Russian Tsar Nicholas I died on March 2, 1855 in the middle of the Crimean War, and his son ...
- 5,390
4
votes
Accepted
How were the invasions of Korea by the Mongols and the Manchus similar?
Really the only strategic similarity you've pointed out is the value of an island fortress. Looking into it deeper, I'm not sure there's much more to it than that.
The core of the Mongol army was ...
- 121k
4
votes
Could Romania have remained neutral in WWII?
Based in historical facts, we might say that Romania was not neutral by then.
Russia occupied Bessarabia and Bukovina from Romania early in the war. Hence, Romania neutrality was already violated. It ...
- 4,819
4
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
Israel – Jerusalem Day
Another instance would be Jerusalem day:
Jerusalem Day (Hebrew: יום ירושלים, Yom Yerushalayim) is an Israeli national holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem ...
- 80.7k
4
votes
Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
Italy also has a (not too much celebrated, not a bank holiday) official celebration for its unification, after Piedmont had "liberated" most of the peninsula. But a man's unification/liberation is ...
- 222
3
votes
Which, if any, successful invasions have been planned by one person without relying on specialized experts?
Your criteria is an entirely unreasonable scale for judging success. The appropriate scale would be in the approximate range of Company to Battalion scale: one to five hundred men against a similarly ...
- 72.4k
3
votes
Has there been a war whose declared goal was a mere land grab without any attempts to ethically justify it?
It has long been trendy for nation leaders to come up with some sort
of ethical justification when starting a military invasion to a
neighboring country.
That has always been the case. The Romans ...
- 22.5k
3
votes
How much oil was Germany able to secure after invasion of France?
Hayward (1995) says that the amount of oil products captured in the 1940 campaigns overall was something greater than the 12 million barrels consumed by them, including "250,000 tons of aviation ...
- 22k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible