Here’s a collection of color photos from around the world taken by French banker Albert Khan as he toured the world — in 1909!
20th Century
Resistance In The Desert Site
Ian Croxall has created an amazingly comprehensive site on France’s colonial adventures in North Africa (Morocco) at the turn of the century. There are maps, period illustrations, descriptions of actions, overviews of the native tribes, orders of battle and painting guides.
Ian writes:
At the dawn of the 20th century, an influential party of colonialists was obsessed with carving a colonial empire out of the barren wastes of the North African desert for their personal glory in the name of France. This was achieved through political manipulation and subtle subterfuge on the part of a handful of ambitious army officers. This activity led to a series of small unit actions in North Africa culminating in a full-scale invasion of Morocco in 1907. These actions are eminently suitable for colonial skirmishing on the wargames table.
Chinese Visual Sourcebook
I like to make my wargaming terrain as authenthic as possible. I found the Chinese Visual Sourcebook to be useful when I was working on my 25mm Boxer Rebellion project.
La Guerre Infernale
La Guerre Infernale is a 30 issue illustrated magazine published in 1908 about a future war between France and Germany.
Even if you don’t read French, the Victorian Science Fiction illustrations are terrific. Lots of inspiration for your VSF games.
Ten Days That Shook The World – Free EBook
Available for free from Amazon, Ten Days That Shook The World is John Reed’s first hand account of the October 1917 Russian Revolution. It was the basis of the movie, Reds. Reed was a socialist American journalist who is buried at the Kremlin.
It is, as you might expect, politically explosive and the target of praise or criticism, depending upon which side of the spectrum you sit.