When Presidents Lost the Popular Vote but won the Electoral College vote (and other peculiarities with the College)

2016's Electoral College result

While I am writing this it has been just over a week since the controversial election of Donald Trump. A big part of this controversy centers around the fact that more people voted for Hillary Clinton than Trump, but thanks to the Electoral College Trump will now be president. As of writing this is the fifth time the Electoral College has allowed someone who lost the popular vote to become president. This blog post is neither a call for the abolition of the Electoral College, nor a post supporting the College. Instead it is to show the peculiar scenarios in the past when the College has given people the presidency when they lost the popular vote, (and two other peculiarities which I thought would be fun to mention). First off though we have to know what the Electoral College actually is, and why the United States has it.

The What and Why

The Electoral College is somewhat unique to the United States. In most other countries when you vote in an election you vote for which party you want in power, and the party with the most votes, (and for the most part seats in the parliament, diet, Bundestag etc,), gets to chose the next leader of the country; normally this is the Head of the Party. In contrast, in the United States you directly vote for who you want to be president, (and vice-president), who so happens to represent a party whether it be Democrat, Republican, Libertarian etc. However, that is not entirely accurate. In the United States when you cast a vote you are not saying 'I want x to be president and y to be vice-president', but rather saying 'I want my elector in the Electoral College to vote for x to be president and y to be vice-president'. The Electoral College has 538 electors representing the 435 representatives, 100 senators, and 3 electors for the District of Columbia. These electors are spread across every state based on population and each state has a minimum of three electors. Currently California has 55 electors, Alaska has 3, Michigan has 16, and so on and so forth. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska in each state all the electors have to vote the same way. Say for example in Ohio 60% of the population votes for X and 40% votes for Y all 18 of Ohio's electors have to vote for X. Meanwhile, in Maine if 75% vote for X and 25% vote for Y then 3 of Maine's electors will vote for X, and one will vote for Y. To become president a candidate requires a minimum of 270 electoral college votes. You may be wondering, why was this implemented? For that we have to go back to the eighteenth-century.

Despite winning independence in 1783 the United States did not create the constitution we have today until 1787. It is here where the Electoral College was born. From the outset the plan was for the new republic to be a democracy. However, there was an issue with this. In days prior to the Industrial Revolution it could take days to communicate across an area the size of Great Britain nevermind the eastern coast of the United States. As a result it was difficult to count votes across a wide area using direct voting. Hence, the Electoral College was a quicker solution; people vote for electors who could easily find out who they should vote for. It was also done to limit both autocracy and democracy. Some Founding Fathers believed that direct democracy would lead to anarchy, (and the French Revolution a few years later would support their fears), so figures, like Alexander Hamilton, believed that voting directly for the president could lead to mob rule. On the other hand, there was a general fear that denying popular vote would lead the new republic to become the same autocracy which they had fought to free themselves from. Why fight against one autocracy on the other side of the Atlantic to install one at your doorstep? Hence, the Electoral College seemed a fitting compromise. To top it all off each state had a minimum of three electors so large states like New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, (today's West Virginia and Virginia), could not dominate the smaller ones like Rhode Island. In later years this would become an issue as votes in some less populated states started to be worth more than states with larger populations. Like all other institutes making up the United States government the Electoral College would evolve, (to an extent), over time. Now to discuss the main topic of this post. I shall skip over the 2016 election due to the fact it is on the news everywhere currently so we can focus on the last time the Electoral College allowed someone who lost the popular vote to win the presidency: the 2000 election.

The 2000 Election

Bush and Gore

The most recent time that the Electoral College, (prior to 2016 that is), allowed someone to lose the popular vote but win the College vote was in 2000. For the Democrat party Vice-President Al Gore ran, and for the Republicans George W. Bush, the son of former president George H.W. Bush, ran. Voter apathy meant that there was a low turnout, (quite similar to the most recent election), The race for the White House was somewhat close; Gore had a narrow lead in both the popular vote, and the College vote. The election rested on one state: Florida. Gore had 266 seats in the College so if he won Florida he would have got the popular vote, (by a small margin), and the College vote, (a large margin). Florida was the last state to count all the votes and Bush was in the lead by the time 85% of Florida's votes had been counted. Thanks to this many news broadcasters declared that Bush had won the presidency. However, Bush's lead dwindled rapidly when the rest of the votes started to come in, so much so that the news switched and declared that Gore won Florida. Then it was declared 'too close to call', and then Bush had won Florida. After heated debates the Supreme Court of Florida ordered a recount. As the recount was underway Bush took the matter to the federal Supreme Court asking for a stay of the recount as he argued it was unconstitutional. In Bush v. Gore the Supreme Court, (in a 5-4 decision), decided to stay the recount. As a result Florida's electors in the College gave Bush their vote, and the presidency by a very narrow margin, (he got 271 seats). Gore had narrowly won the popular vote but lost the College vote by a somewhat large margin. However, it is difficult to say if the recount would have swung the election: it could have either given Bush the popular vote or Gore the presidency.

Although there is some debate if JFK lost the popular vote in 1960 it is very ambiguous, and it is quite possible that he did win the popular vote so for that reason we shall move to the third time when the College swung the election. In was all the way back in the nineteenth century...

The Election of 1888

Cleveland v. Harrison

The third time the Electoral College allowed someone who lost the popular vote to become president was in the 1888 election. In this election incumbent Democrat President Grover Cleveland ran for re-election against Republican Benjamin Harrison. On a side note Harrison was the grandson of ninth president William Henry Harrison who, when elected, was the oldest president aged 68 until Reagan, (and now Trump). He also is the president to have had the shortest time in office serving thirty-two days before dying of pneumonia which he caught during his inaugural address. Back to 1888. Grover Cleveland was unfortunate enough to lose several swing states, including his home state of New York, which meant that Cleveland narrowly lost the popular vote but lost the College vote by a large margin. Also, when I mention popular vote I mean votes cast by people eligible to vote: in 1888 most states only allowed solely white men to vote, and even then some states only propertied white men could vote. In 1892 Cleveland had his own back on Harrison: he won both popular, and College votes becoming the only person so far to be president for two non-consecutive terms.

The second time which the College let someone to be president despite losing the popular vote was in 1876.

The Election of 1876

The Compromise of 1877

The election of 1876 came during a time of fracture, attempted reconciliation, and change in the United States. Following the end of the Civil War in 1865 the Republicans in the North wished to reconcile with the South, reconstruct the South's economy so it no longer required slavery, and somewhat improve the conditions for former slaves. This was called Reconstruction. It was a noble idea which for the most part failed miserably. Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized, murdered, and mutilated African-Americans and white Southerners who helped them (as well as Northerners); Black Codes in various states stripped the legal rights of African-Americans; opposition from Lincoln's successor, Andrew Jackson, prevented the dismantling of the plantation system; and opposition from Democrats and some Republicans caused many setbacks. Redemption governments sprang up in the South to oppose the new order, and the acts passed to help former slaves, (such as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments), would only help northern African-Americans or civil rights campaigners in the future. Former Union general Ulysses E. Grant since coming to office in 1868 had vainly tried to enforce Reconstruction, (although he did successfully cause the Ku Klux Klan to go into decline), but it was in vain. The South disliked the Republicans, (how times have changed), and they were losing support in the North thanks to Grant failing to deal with corruption. The Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes was not in a good position, and his Democrat opponent Samuel Tilden managed to win the popular vote by over 200,000. However, Florida (again), South Carolina and Louisiana had both parties claim they won, and through a peculiar incident there was one seat available in Oregon. The Republicans made a deal with the Democrats in what has since been called 'The Compromise of 1877': the Democrats would let Hayes be president if the North removes their troops from the South, (ending Reconstruction), policies to be passed to industrialize the South, a Democrat to be in Hayes's cabinet, and transcontinental railroad to be built in the South. The Democrats let Hayes be president; legislation was passed removing all rights from African-Americans in the South (later called Jim Crow laws); and Reconstruction came to an end.

The first time the College let someone who lost the popular vote become president is peculiar. The person lost both the popular and College votes but still became president. This was the 1824 election.

The Election of 1824

Andrew Jackson

1824 was very different to the United States of 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. For one, most of the USA at this time was under Mexican rule. Also, party politics had basically ceased to exist. The Founding Fathers believed that parties were signs of rot in a democracy, and following the 1816 election politics had gone back to how the Founding Fathers envisioned: people, not parties, running for election. I should also point out that political parties in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were not like the parties of today; instead they were more loose affiliations with loosely defined ideas. In 1824 John Quincy Adams, son of former president John Adams, the Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and war hero Andrew Jackson all ran for the presidency. The contest, however, was mainly between Adams and Jackson. When the election results came in Jackson won around 40,000 more votes than Adams, (it may not seem much but in 1824 the number of people who voted was around half the population of Washington D.C.), and he had the most seats in the College. He had more popular and College votes than Adams, Clay, and Crawford. However, he only had 99 seats when 131 was needed to win. As the person with the highest amount in the College did not have enough votes to become president the 12th amendment stipulated that the House of Representatives had to who would become president out of the top three candidates. The House had to decide between Adams, Jackson, and Crawford. Clay, who was left out, loathed Jackson saying 'I cannot believe that killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various, difficult, and complicated duties of the Chief Magistracy', (Jackson was famous for his victory over the British following the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. Although the battle actually took place after the war ended). Clay was vocal in his support for Adams who won the support from the House and John Quincy Adams became president. As a reward Clay was made Secretary of State causing Jackson supporters to accuse them of a 'corrupt bargain'. The next election saw Jackson roundly trounce Adams and after he led a government which caused the ethnic cleansing of thousands of Native Americans.

These were the times when the Electoral College inadvertently let the loser of the popular vote become president. However, there are two other peculiar elections, both involving the College, which I wish to discuss, and both were crazier than the 2016 election. The first take us back to 1800...

The Election of 1800

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams

In this election Vice-President, former Secretary of State, former French ambassador, and Founding Father Thomas Jefferson ran against incumbent president and George Washington's vice-president John Adams. This was the second time these two had ran against one another, 1796 being the first, and prior to the 1800 election whoever lost the election became vice-president. 1796 itself was a heated election: France threatened to invade, parties had emerged, and it was the first contested election (no one had ran against Washington). There were the Federalists, who Adams represented, who wanted a strong federal government, and another confusingly named party who Jefferson represented. Contemporaries, (and historians), have called them Anti-Federalists, Democrats, Republicans, and Democratic-Republicans, (they were neither the antecedents of the Democrats nor the Republicans). To avoid confusion we shall refer to them as Anti-Federalists, and they wanted increased state autonomy. In 1796 Adams won but in 1800 Jefferson fought hard. His campaign accused Adams of having 'hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman' so Adams responded saying that Jefferson was 'a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father'. Jefferson was painted as an atheist under the spell of Satan and France, while Adams was accused of being a warmonger, an autocrat, and of even being dead. When elections came around Jefferson chose Aaron Burr of New York to run with him and be his vice-president. This would in theory get both Northern and Southern votes. Jefferson easily beat Adams, but the first crisis of the Electoral College emerged from this. In 1800 electors had two votes so instead of voting for one person to become president they had to vote for two. The Anti-Federalists had planned for their electors to vote for Jefferson, and one or two to abstain from voting for Burr. What really happened was every Anti-Federalist elector voted for both Jefferson and Burr. Jefferson and Burr had equal seats in the College.

Initially if this was to happen the plan was for Burr to concede defeat and become vice-president, as planned. However, Burr decided that he would actually like to become president and refused to concede. What happened then was for the House of Representatives to decide who should be president. The new Anti-Federalist filled House would not convene until January/February of 1801 so Federalists, who hated both Jefferson and Burr, had to decide on the president. The House had to pick the candidate which they hated the least. Although he was not a Representative (despite what the musical says) Alexander Hamilton was an influential figure in deciding the president and although he disliked Jefferson he loathed Burr. As a result the House made Jefferson president, Burr vice-president, and passed the 12th amendment in 1804 to stop this from happening again. Needless to say Jefferson's and Burr's time together was not very warm. In 1804 Jefferson was re-elected easily and Burr shot Hamilton in an illegal duel. 

There is one last election which I wish to talk about. It was an election which fractured a nation but brought to power Trump's, Obama's, and Reagan's favorite president.

The Election of 1860

1860 the USA was in crisis over slavery. North and South were at each other's throats over the issue. The Democrats could not decide over a candidate and had split on North/South lines. Northern Democrats chose Stephen Douglas while Southern Democrats chose John Breckinridge. There was a newly formed party called the Constitutional Union party, represented by John Bell, whose stance on the major issue of the day, (slavery), was to consult the Constitution. Bearing in mind the Constitution mentions slavery twice: the first time never says 'slaves' but instead 'other Persons' and the other time is the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery. Finally there was another newly formed party called the Republicans who had a certain figure representing them: Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln

Lincoln was a political misnomer in 1860. He was little known outside his state of Illinois, he seemed to come from nowhere, and his views on slavery were not known. In fact historians are still debating his views on slavery in 1860. The Republican party in 1860 was made up of abolitionist, and those who merely wished to limit slavery's spread. Although historians debate his views on slavery at this moment in time the Deep South, where slavery was the backbone of society and the economy, viewed Lincoln as either an abolitionist, or as a tool of abolitionists. As a result in the 1860 election the Republican candidate never appeared on the ballot. When the results came in the Southern Democrats received virtually every vote in the Deep South, the Northern Democrats received Missouri, the Constitutional Unionists got the Upper South votes, and Lincoln got the votes from the Northern and two Pacific states. However, although Lincoln received only 40% of the vote he won both the popular and College vote. This infuriated the Deep South who believed that a possible abolitionist was now in prime position to abolish slavery. Starting with South Carolina the Southern slave states seceded one by one to form the Confederate States of America. Thus began the American Civil War, and by the end of 1865 four million slaves became free.

Thank you for reading and the sources I have used are as follows:

-Give me Liberty!: An American History by Eric Foner

-The Penguin History of the United States by Hugh Brogan

-The Civil War and Reconstruction by David Herbert Donald, Jean Harvey Baker, and Michael F. Holt

-America: A Narrative History by George Tindall and David Shi

World History: Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire

Charlemagne

Throughout European history there was a desire to replicate the former Roman Empire. The Byzantines, (rightly), viewed themselves as Romans; the Russian emperors styled themselves as Tsars, (from Caesar); the Renaissance heavily involved 'rediscovering' Latin and Roman knowledge; and we saw in western Europe an empire which almost resurrected the western half of the Empire. Today we shall look at this metaphorical successor of the Western Roman Empire: Charlemagne. Often called the 'Father of Europe' Charlemagne is often seen as someone who almost reformed the Western Roman Empire, and his legacy formed the Holy Roman Empire. Today we shall look at Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire.

Europe before Charlemagne

Charles the Great, Charlemagne, who became king in 768, was born within the boundaries of Francia, and was the eldest son of Pepin the Short. Francia was one of the many kingdoms which slowly emerged to prominence following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476. Politics, society, and religion was very different in this world compared to the Europe of today, and the Europe which Rome ruled over. Unlike the moderately centralized Roman Empire these kingdoms were very decentralized and feudalism was widespread. Feudalism is a system of governance where a king rules over many landowning nobles who would allow people, (vassals), to live and work on their land, (fiefs). The vassals would offer some service to the noble or lord in return for living on the fief and for military protection. The nobles were subservient to the ruling monarch who offered the lords military protection in return for their taxes and loyalty. This feudal system was universally applied across Europe, (it did not exist in some areas), and the feudal system could look very different in different areas. 

Religion was extremely important during this time period. The primary religion was Christianity although many Jews and pagans could be found throughout Europe. As an example, the Saxons, from modern day Germany, remained polytheistic until the seventh century. For many people religion was the most important aspect of their life in many ways other than the obvious ones. The Church collected alms to be given to the poor, the Church was a center for learning, (literacy was highest in monasteries etc.), bishops helped educate the nobility, and women had the chance to rise in the Church through becoming nuns. Christianity was a blessing and a bane for rulers as well. The Divine Right of Kings, (where it was God's will for kings to rule), helped greatly secure their position, but the authority of the Church acted as a counterweight to the Crown's authority. In the eighth century Islam spread to western Europe under the Umayyad Caliphate and rapidly spread across Iberia. Only at the Battle of Tours in 733/4 did the Umayyads fail to spread further into Europe. In 751 Pippin III usurped the Merovingian throne in Francia and almost twenty years later his son Charles came to power, something which we shall now focus on.

The Reign of Charlemagne- Conquests

Bust of Charlemagne at Aachen

Pippin III died leaving his sons, Charles and Carloman, an area consisting of most of modern day France, Belgium, the southern Netherlands, and parts of Germany. In Francian custom Charles and Carloman split the empire between the two of them to rule as co-emperors: the older Charles got the more important northern half, while the younger Carloman got the southern half. At times relations between the two brothers broke down and only through intervention from their mother Bertrada, who became a nun after Pippin's death, prevented relations from collapsing. When Charles broke off his marriage with a Lombard princess, Desiderata, in 770 the Lombards almost made an alliance with Carloman. The alliance failed due to the fact that Carloman died in 771 of natural causes, (often cited as a nosebleed). When Carloman's wife and son fled to the Lombard court Charles was granted rule over his brother's kingdom uniting Francia again. After Charles started his wars of conquest earning him the title Charles the Great, or Charlemagne.

The first conquest was Lombardy. In 772 the newly crowned pope, Adrian I, demanded the Lombard king to return several cities; in response the Lombard king took over several Papal cities and marched to Rome. Adrian sent a message to Charlemagne for help and eager for a boost in legitimacy from aiding the pope he went to war against Lombardy. By 774 Lombardy's capital of Pavia was under siege, and later the same year the capital fell. The Lombardy royal family, and his brother's family who had been residing there, were then sent to religious institutes. Throughout the rest of his reign he would lead wars to conquer land, or create dependencies. Bavaria was conquered in 782, Saxony between 772 and 798 (which we shall get to later), and northern Netherlands between 784 and 785. Despite a serious defeat at Rancesvalles in 778 against the Spanish Muslims he managed to establish the Spanish March in 795, which he expanded in 812. In the east he made dependencies in Croatia, Friuli, Dalmatia, and in present day Bosnia. By the time of his death in 814 the Carolingian Empire, (his empire), and its dependencies stretched from northern Spain to Bosnia, to northern Denmark to southern Italy. In a lifetime he had conquered most of western Europe.

The Reign of Charlemagne- Saxon Wars

Conversion during the Wars

Charlemagne is referred to as the 'Father of Europe'. One thing that Charlemagne did do which continued throughout European history was brutal, bloody conquest. The Saxon Wars were a serious of brutal, protracted wars from 772 to 798. Saxony is an area in north-west Germany, and during the eighth century it was made up of various Saxon tribes, (also showing how feudalism did not exist in all parts of Europe), who were Germanic pagan. In January 772 Saxons burnt a church in Deventer which gave Charlemagne the opportunity to invade. Before he fought Lombardy he fought the Saxons and periodically he would return to crush Saxon resistance. During the wars he started forcibly converting the Saxon tribes from Germanic paganism to Christianity. One of his first acts in Saxony was to burn the sacred symbol of Irminsul. He imposed capital punishment on those who refused to convert, issued decrees to break Saxon resistance, and had shrines destroyed. His harsh actions earned him the title 'Butcher of Saxons'. His religious advisers, such as Alcuin of York, urged him to be more tolerant saying that you could not forcibly convert someone through the point of a sword, but he did not listen. In 779 a Saxon leader called Widukind started leading resistance to Frankish rule including wiping out an entire army in the early 780s. In response Charlemagne in 782 had 4,500 Saxon pagans executed in what has since been called the Massacre of Verden. Saxon resistance started to drop when Widunkind was baptized, and slowly through exile and force Saxon resistance ended.

The Reign of Charlemagne- Rule, Empire, and Renaissance

Charlemagne crowned emperor

Charlemagne's rule saw strong ties with the Church. Early on as king he fought for the Papacy, in the Lombardy war, and he gave clerics key roles in administration. Being deeply pious he ensured that Christians in his kingdom had sufficient welfare and support. There were many reforms under his rule which included strengthening the orthodoxy of the Church, something which pleased the clergy as it ensured that the people were more pious. Corrected canon laws, Bible text and ecclesiastical laws were made, and monasticism was supported. Charlemagne was a deep admirer of the liberal arts and had his family become well-educated as a result. Starting under Charlemagne's reign we have the Carolingian Renaissance bringing information from the Muslim world, Germany, Italy, England, and Francia together, (his court had figures from all across Europe). Without Charlemagne's revival and expansion of the arts the later, more famous, Renaissance may not have been able to happen.  His capital of Aachen became the center of western European culture. Surprisingly, despite his hostility to Germanic pagans he was tolerant to Jews believing they would be an economic benefit. His currency reform created a standard currency throughout the empire. Many of the things made possible in today's Europe had their roots in Charlemagne's reign.

Christmas Day, 800 saw a revolutionary event in European history. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of Rome while he was praying. The story that Charlemagne had no idea of this is very unlikely but it is still important. Charlemagne was perceived to be the successor of Rome. For all intensive purposes Charlemagne had reformed the western half of the empire. However, this event deeply upset the Byzantine who viewed themselves as the emperors of Rome, (which they were). The East/West divide between Rome and the Byzantines had started to germinate again. The next fourteen years of his life was not too drastically different from his pre-imperial days. He had stopped campaigning, and had to defend against Viking raids, (something for another World History post). Two of his sons died before he did so by his death in 814 his last remaining son, Louis the Pious, inherited a united empire and the title of emperor. However, Louis would later divide the empire as in traditional fashion.

The Holy Roman Empire

The flag used through most of its history

Some historians see Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor. Following the death of Charles the Fat in 888 East Francia splintered into several duchies, and all who were crowned emperor only ruled in Italy. That is until 962. In 936 Otto of Saxony was elected King of Aachen and he started winning battles against those who opposed him. Eventually he managed to marry Adelaide of Italy allowing him to become king of Italy. In 962 the pope crowned Otto Emperor of Rome and Adelaide Empress of Rome. The Holy Roman Empire had been born truly. Over the next centuries the Holy Roman Empire would cease to be the Holy Roman Empire in everything but name. Instead of being hereditary the position of emperor would become elected by the Imperial Diet, (although it would later become hereditary once more), power shifted from Rome to Germany, and the piousness of Charlemagne would be a long distant memory. It is key to note that the Protestant Reformation originated in the Holy Roman Empire. Instead of being one standardized, state it was instead a collection of free cities, kingdoms, duchies, and various other states with various cultures, languages, currencies, and religions. It did survive for a long time though. The Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist only in 1806 with the invasion of Napoleon.

Conclusion

Charlemagne was integral in forming the institutions of today. Creating a standard government, administration, and currency over large tracts of disparate land helped shape European states in the future. Looking at the Carolingian and the Holy Roman Empires also shows us how potent ideas of history are to society. There was a clear desire to become the new Romans; something which never really went away throughout European history. The division of Charlemagne's empire under his son would greatly shape Germany and France: West Francia remained unified and would become the Kingdom of France, while divided East Francia became a conglomeration of states often referred to as the First Reich. Thank you for reading and the next World History will take us to the other side of the world to look at Japan during the Taika reforms, Heian period, and the rise of the samurai.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 2, c.700-c.900 edited by Rosamond McKitterick

-Charlemagne by Roger Collins

-The Penguin History of the World by John Roberts

-The Times History of the World by Richard Overy

For a list of other World History posts please see here

Comics Explained: V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta

November 5 in the United Kingdom is Bonfire Night marking the anniversary on a failed plot to assassinate King James I and VI, and blow up Parliament. It is also the opening of Alan Moore's and David Lloyd's fantastic graphic novel V for Vendetta. V for Vendetta was published in the late 1980s by an imprint of DC Comics called Vertigo, and it happens to be my second favorite comic by Alan Moore, (the first being Watchmen). The novel is set in a dystopian England in a 1990s where the UK managed to avoid annihilation during the Third World War, but at the cost of a fascist regime monitoring the public in an Orwellian way. Unfortunately the film adaptation, (although good in of itself), changed the idea that Moore wished to get across making the protagonists fight for liberty which has made many people get the wrong end of the stick in what V for Vendetta is truly about. Let's though first delve into the story of V for Vendetta.

Book 1: Europe After the Reign

November 5 1997 in London two figures get ready to go out at night. One is a dingy apartment while the other is in a room covered in film posters and book shelves. As they get ready the government radio, The Voice of Fate, informs the public that a heatwave is on the way, meat rationing may come to an end, a terrorist ring had been discovered in Birmingham, and that the census forms have to be filled in. Financially strapped sixteen year old Evey Hammond goes out and solicits a group of men for sex only to find out they are Fingermen, a Gestapo like organization. They inform Evey that prostitution is illegal and then proceed to molest her until a figure steps out of the darkness wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, a cloak, and a hat speaking strangely. Quickly he grabs Evey and takes her away but leaves a bomb behind which kills one of the Fingermen. Upon a rooftop Evey thanks the figure for rescuing her. He tells her it is a special night saying: Remember, remember the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I have no reason why the Gunpowder Treason...should ever be forgot. Big Ben and Parliament then explode as fireworks shoot up in forming a V in the sky.

A new Gunpowder Treason

The government meanwhile meets to discuss what happened. The Leader, Adam Susan 'The Head', has branches of government surveillance, (the Eyes, the Ears and the Nose), tell him who did the bombing but they have no answers. Derek Almond, head of the Finger police force, visits Roger Dascombe, head of The Mouth (propaganda), to oversee covering up the destruction of Parliament. While there he sees Lewis Prothero, the Voice of Fate. Fate is the computer system which rules the country for Susan and the government uses Prothero to pretend to be the computer, and is so good that people honestly believe him to Fate's actual voice. While this is happening the figure takes Evey to the 'Shadow Gallery' full of contraband items. On his shelves are banned books like Frankenstein, The Iliad, I am Legend and The Divine Comedy while Evey is in wonder of a duke box playing 'Dancing in the Streets'. The scene then cuts to a train where Lewis Prothero is regaling some old stories to his bodyguards. Suddenly the train stops and the power goes out. When Prothero turns on his lighter he finds his bodyguards dead and a man in a Guy Fawkes mask sitting in the carriage. Eric Finch of the Nose investigates this and finds that the guards were choked to death, and a V in a circle had been carved on the carriage wall with a single rose left behind.

We go back to the Shadow Gallery where Evey is crying as the figure left suddenly. They have a formal introduction and the figure turns out to be called V. Evey tells V about her childhood. She lived in London and lived through the Third World War. We learn more about what happened to the world: Africa was wiped out, Britain survived as it had American missiles removed, weather fluctuations caused by the bombs led to the Thames Barrier bursting, Evey's mum died from poisoning when the sewers flooded and floods destroyed Britain's crops, and riots broke out as the government fell. Then a far-right group called Norsefire took over and restored order, but established a totalitarian regime. As Evey's dad had been in a socialist group when he was younger he was arrested and Evey was sent to a workhouse. V tells her that she is safe with him; safe from government cruelty. Meanwhile, Prothero wakes up in prison uniform outside a mock Larkhill Resettlement Camp. V arrives to give him a tour and marches him past Prothero's collection of dolls, (all in prison uniform), and they pass the medical wing with numbers on the doors. Prothero once worked at Larkhill and realizes V was the man behind door five. V then takes Prothero to a oven with some of his dolls inside and proceeds to burn them despite Prothero's wails. As the daily broadcast seems strange to the public Prothero is found with his face painted like a doll, and muttering the word mama. Later, V arrives at the Old Bailey where he talks to the statue of justice, (not wearing a cloth over her eyes), saying that she is a harlot and he has a new mistress: anarchy. He then blows up the Old Bailey.

V and Justice

When he returns to the Gallery Evey begs V to take her with him on his next outing. We then cut to Westminster Abbey where Bishop Anthony Lilliman is giving a sermon denouncing the terrorism. However, it turns out he is a pedophile and has been having girls come to his room. Today it transpires that Evey is the girl. As V is killing Lilliman's guards Evey smashes a lamp across Lilliman's face as he tries to grope her. V then arrives. Eric Finch and Derek Almond later arrive at Lilliman's residence finding a rose, a V carved on the wall, and Lilliman dead by ingesting sacramental bread laced with cyanide. At the Shadow Gallery Evey is distraught that he used her to kill Lilliman which he consoles her on while at his home Derek Almond hits his wife when she disturbed him looking at evidence. We then cut to Dr Delia Surridge who had worked at Larkhill and is friends with Finch who has flashbacks to a man standing in fire. In the night Dr Surridge wakes to see V standing in her room and she thanks God that he's come for her expressing remorse about her medical experiments at Larkhill. V informs her that he had injected her with cyanide as she slept and as a last request she asks to see his face; something which she remarks as being beautiful. Almond, meanwhile, realizes that Surridge is the next target, and after drunkenly abusing his wife leaves to get V but upon arrival he is quickly killed by V. Finch finds Delia's diary revealing a horrific tale of medical experiments on ethnic minorities, homosexuals, and political opponents at Larkhill which kills all but five patients. In the diary she expresses both hatred for Lilliman and Prothero, but also fondness for the patient in room five who is allowed to keep a garden. However, she notes his tendency to pile certain chemicals, fertilizers and powders together is odd. One night there is a massive explosion and, we find out that the patient had been making mustard gas and napalm to escape. 

Book 2: The Vicious Cabaret

Book Two opens with V performing magic tricks for Evey and then dancing with her. Evey even starts to wonder if V is actually her father. He takes her to the surface, reveals he is not her father, and vanishes leaving her alone. Rose Almond, Derek Almond's wife, starts going into depression as she realizes how alone she is now that her abusive husband is no longer there. Later, V infiltrates the headquarters of the Mouth and plays a video both revealing himself to the world, and chastising the public for allowing Norsefire to go unchallenged for so long. Armed police fire on V, but it turns out to just be a costume. In reality V had dressed Dascombe as himself and let the police shoot him. At the scene Finch meets the new head of The Finger, Peter Creedy, whom he punches when Creedy makes a remark about his friendship with Delia. Finch is then given forced vacation. 

V and Dascombe

The day after V's broadcast we find out that Evey had become romantically involved with an older man called Gordon who she is living with. As they regularly attend a cabaret they come into contact with Creedy, (where we find out the government uses retirement homes to murder pensioners), Scottish gangster Alistair 'Ally' Harper, (where we also find out that Scotland declared its independence and now Norsefire is leading a brutal war of conquest against it), and Rose Almond. Rose had been pressured into a relationship with Dascombe after Derek's death but with Dascombe killed she wad forced to work as a dancer at the cabaret. Thanks to Gordon's bootlegging he comes afoul of Ally Harper who kills him. Furious she goes to kill Harper but is kidnapped. After waking up from a surreal dream she finds out she is in a government cell with only a rat for company. She is shaved, tortured and waterboarded. However, in a crack she finds a letter from an actress called Valerie Page who gives details of her tragic story. Valerie was born in Nottingham and fell in love with a girl. When she came out to her parents was forced to move to London where she became an actress meeting the love of her life, Ruth, on the set of The Salt Flats. Ruth was kidnapped by Norsefire and later they came for Valerie. 

One day the guards tell Evey that they'll execute her if she doesn't tell them who V is, and where he is. She refuses. Instead of being killed she is given freedom. Her guards turn out to be mannequins with radios, the rat was in a cage, and the entire prison was in the Shadow Gallery. She launches a tirade against V calling him evil and sadistic. In response he told her that he set her free; England was the true prison, Gordon was simply stabbed by another inmate, and that by refusing to talk she had freed herself. V also tells her that Valerie was a real inmate of Larkhill. Evey slowly forgives V. We then find out that V has hacked Fate and has been slowly driving Leader Adam Susan insane. 

Book 3: The Land of Do-As-You-Please

Book 3 opens up with an insane Susan begging Fate to say that it loves him again. As this is happening V is conducting over the skyline of London. Suddenly the Post Office Tower, (home of the Ear), and Jordan Tower, (home of the Mouth and Eyes), both blow up killing the head of The Ear, Brian Etheridge. Before the government can respond V is on the radio telling the people that the people will not be watched for three days. Riots break out all over Britain. V tells Evey that it is chaos and not anarchism, the Land of Take-What-You-Want not the Land of Do-As-You-Please. As this is happening the leader of the Eye, Conrad Heyer, is being convinced by his abusive wife, Helen, to use the discord to become Leader. Creedy and Ally Harper instead are using their street thugs to suppress revolutionary protests in the hope that this would give them good standing to lead a coup. However, Helen Heyer is also meeting with Harper to use him to propel Conrad Heyer to power. Meanwhile, Finch visits Larkhill and takes LSD to relieve his lost past and put him in the place of a Larkhill prisoner. He breaks down in anguish about the genocide of ethnic minorities and homosexuals that Norsefire did, and finally realizes what V is about. His assistant, meanwhile, realizes that all along V had been hacking Fate giving him forewarning about Norsefire's actions, as well as slowly destroying Susan's mind. V stacks of dominoes knowing that end is soon near...

Dominoes

Finch realizes that V's hideout is in the abandoned Victoria Station. Helen Heyer starts having an affair with Ally Harper to get his allegiance in the upcoming power play which V manages to record, and send to Conrad. As part of Heyer's plan Harper's thugs then kill Creedy. Susan decides to actually go out and meet the people realizing that if he wants to be a stern leader he has to show himself. At first he loves it being greeted from his car by rapturous applause from the public. Rose Almond, however, is in the audience and has broken down from the life under the regime. When Susan goes to shake her hand she pulls out a gun she had bought to kill herself with and fires. Finch goes down into Victoria Station seeing a carriage lined with roses...and V. He fires but sees no blood. V then replies in possibly my favorite ever comic book quote: Did you think to kill me? There's no flesh or blood within this cloak to kill. There's only an idea. Ideas are bulletproof. 

Evey and V

V leaves but Finch spots a trail of blood realizing that he had mortally wounded V. Finch resigns from the Nose as a power play following Susan's death starts. In anger Conrad Heyer manages to murder Ally Harper but is badly cut by Harper's razor. Angry Helen leaves her husband to bleed to death. In the Shadow Gallery V dies asking for Evey to place his body in the carriage for a Viking Funeral. After debating whether to look under his mask she places his body on the carriage. Evey dresses up as V and addresses the public as Downing Street blows up. Evey manages to rescue Finch's assistant from the explosion and introduces him to the Shadow Gallery...

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

Review: Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Trick 'R Treat

As we come to the end of 2016's 'Month of Horror' I thought it would be a good idea to review a severely underrated horror movie. Trick 'r Treat never got a widespread showing when it was released instead having it shown in a select few cinemas. The only reason why I know about the film is because James Rolfe of Cinemassacre.com reviewed it two years ago. Trick 'r Treat is also one of the few movies which truly embraces the premise of Halloween; even the Halloween movies, with the exception of the third one, merely had the holiday as a backdrop. Halloween is my favorite holiday, I love horror, I'm interested in pre-Christian belief systems, and I am not religious holidays like Easter and Christmas never had the same effect which Halloween had. As a result I was very eager to see this film, so let's begin the review.

Plot

It is not easy to explain the plot of Trick 'r Treat. It is an anthology movie where instead of one story finishing another begins all four stories, (roughly), occurs at the same time. If you look out at times you can hear or see characters from another story in the background. One story, the first and shortest one, revolves around a couple coming back from a costume party. The girlfriend is very dismissive of the traditions of Halloween whereas the boyfriend fully embraces and loves them. It soon turns out that it is a wise idea to respect the traditions. Another story deals with a murderous principal, (played by Dylan Baker), who takes the traditions of Halloween. The third revolves around a virgin student, (played by Anna Paquin), whose friends and older sister are trying to get her to lose her 'virginity' but there is a twist to it. My favorite story deals with a group of kids pranking an unpopular girl from their school at the site where a bus full of mentally ill children crashed into a lake, and it happens to go brutally wrong. The final story deals with the neighbor of the homicidal, Halloween-loving principal, (played by Brian Cox), who loathes Halloween and comes afoul of a figure seen in all the other stories. Seen in every story is a child wearing a burlap sack called Sam who acts as the enforcer of the Halloween traditions.

The overlapping plots of Trick 'r Treat are done really well. They do not get confusing and it is quite interesting to see how each scene fits into the chronology of the story. Each story even has a twist which fits extremely well in the overall narrative. Despite going from cruel pranks, to werewolves, to demonic pumpkin children, to vampires it seems natural. The way the story is structured allows it not to seem overly far-fetched. Director and screenwriter Michael Dougherty did a fantastic job. Surprisingly the murderous principal story is extremely tense which was very effective. My only criticism for the plot is with the prank story, and the virgin story twists it does seem somewhat predictable. I managed to correctly guess from the outset the prank story twist and I almost did correctly guess the virgin story twist, (without giving too much away I guessed it would involve a creature of the night but guessed the incorrect creature).

Acting

The acting varies in quality throughout the movie. The more well-known actors like Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox did fantastic jobs in their various roles. Surprisingly event the child actors did really good jobs which I was surprised about. Leslie Bibb who plays the girlfriend in the first story is somewhat stale although she is not in the film for too long so it's not a major issue. Similarly Anna Paquin's friends, although not the sister character, do seem overly cliche and boring but they are side characters which again is just me being pedantic.

Effects

Sam unmasked

The effects are stunning. I am a huge fan of practical effects which the movie heavily relies on. At only one part could I identify something as CGI, and even then it was not overly bad CGI. The mask for Sam when he's unmasked is fantastic. It genuinely looks creepy and the effect is enhanced through the lighting in that scene. The costumes and makeup for the zombie children are extremely realistic as well and at times were quite unnerving to look at. By far though my favorite effects involved the werewolves. It was a very unique transformation scene which was quite captivating to watch. I would say it was one of the best werewolf transformation scenes in cinema after The Howling and An American Werewolf in London.

Final Points

Trick 'r Treat truly embraces the idea of Halloween. It brings together the modern idea of Halloween, and the ancient idea of Samhein. We have parties and festivals, and then we have sacrificial rituals. We have urban legends, and we have spirits attacking people for removing their wards against evil. Trick 'r Treat embraces the old and the new. Quite literally as well due to the fact that there is a scene which I thought was referencing the fantastic vampire movie The Lost Boys. The demonic child character Sam also appeared in director Michael Dougherty's 1996 animated short Season's Greetings. It just shows that early ideas can be left to evolve and become something better.

Conclusion

For fantastic effects, creating a perfect Halloween atmosphere, with a few mediocre performances I would give Trick 'r Treat a 7.5/10. Thank you for reading and have a happy Halloween!

What If: The 1938 War of the Worlds Actually Happened?

The Martian Tripods

Continuing 2016's 'Month of Horror' we're going to look at an alternate history scenario which I've been planning to do since the very first 'Month of Horror' in 2014. Released in 1898 H.G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds became a momentous landmark in the history of science-fiction. It also made people scared: an alien force landing on Earth wiping out everything in their path. In 1938 while working with The Mercury Theater on Air Orson Welles on October 30, 1938 aired an adaption of the novel. He changed the setting from Victorian England to contemporary America, and spliced news of a Martian invasion through regular broadcasts. Reports later came back that people believed that Earth had been invaded by Mars causing instances of mass hysteria. Although the mass hysteria has been over-exaggerated, only 27% of people writing to the Theater believed it to be real, the idea of an alien invasion terrified people. For that reason the alternate history scenario for 2016's 'Month of Horror' will be if Martians actually did invade in 1938. First though, we have to see what the world was like on 30 October, 1938.

The World in 1938

In 1938 the United States had been slowly recovering from the Great Depression which had ravaged the world economy over the previous nine years. Under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, (FDR), the economy of the United States had slowly started to recover thanks to his New Deal program. These were a series of acts and presidential executive orders which had the aim to reduce unemployment, provide relief for those in poverty, recover the economy, and reform the economy and banking system to avoid another Great Depression. These reforms had mixed success. By 1938 the economy had not recovered but, bar the 1937 recession, the economy had steadily started to improve. In 1932, the year before FDR was sworn is as president, unemployment was at 23.6% while in 1938 it had dropped to 19%. Today FDR is regarded as one of the greatest presidents as a result of his actions. However, race relations were appalling in the 1930s. Although membership of the Ku Klux Klan plummeted during the 1930s this was more to do with economic downturn rather than better race relations. Jim Crow laws barred African-Americans, Native Americans and Asians in various states caused widespread discrimination, and in states with no Jim Crow laws ethnic minorities were forced into ghettos. Lynching was perfectly legal. Although FDR was sympathetic to the plight of African-Americans he was forced not to pass legislation to help them due to the fact that he would have lost the support of racists in the Senate who he needed to pass his New Deal bills.

Other areas of the world the situation was grim. World exports dropped rapidly which decimated Chile's economy, 80% of the economy was reliant on foreign exports. In the UK the industrial North, Wales, and Scotland saw widespread unemployment causing several hunger marches, in Thailand (then called Siam), a revolution ousted the king, the Peruvian economy was destroyed, and in France riots broke out. China started to crumble thanks to civil war and foreign invasion. The Soviet Union was hardly hit by the Depression but Stalin's forced industrialization caused widespread famine where in Ukraine up to 7.5 million starved to death in what has been described as a genocide. Around the world militarism and far-right politics took root. In the early 1930s Japan invaded northern China forming a puppet government there, and following the assassination of the prime minister Japan started becoming extremely ultra-nationalist. In 1937 this escalated into the Sino-Japanese war. Across Europe the democracies which survived the 1920s, (not a booming decade for them), started to fall. Both Britain and France avoided falling to far-left or far-right politics but both countries faced challenges from these parties; in Britain Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists obtained large amounts of votes. In 1936 the weak Spanish Republic descended into civil war as right wing authoritarianism in the military tried to oust the government, succeeding in 1939. 1936 also saw Mussolini's Italy annex Ethiopia in a particularly bloody war which ended one of the last independent African countries. In 1933 German democracy permanently fell as Adolf Hitler became chancellor. In the September of 1938 Hitler almost plunged Europe into war over his attempts to annex the steel rich 'Sudetenland' of Czechoslovakia which his faltering economy desperately needed, (using the pretext of defending 'Germans' who lived in the region). The world was expecting a war. This scenario they will get a war but not the one they expected.

The Invasion

The Martians Invade

For the purpose of this scenario the Martian invasion will carry out in the same way as the radio drama broadcasted it. On October 30 1938 regular radio broadcasting is interrupted by a newsflash saying that strange explosions have happened on Mars. Shortly afterwards something lands in Grover's Mill, New Jersey which transpires to be a metallic cylinder. The cylinder opens revealing a tentacled being who then proceeds to incinerates the crowd at the scene with a heat ray. The New Jersey National Guard is sent to fight the Martian only to be met with a giant tripod constructed by the Martian. The tripod then manages to wipe out the National Guard. A state of emergency is declared by the state, and reports emerge that other cylinders have landed in New Jersey, Buffalo, Chicago, and St Louis. More and more tripods rise from their craters and the United States army proves to be ineffectual against the invaders. As they go they destroy bridges, railroads, roads, and power stations. The only time the army succeeds in damaging one of the tripods it releases a toxic black cloud which kills all life which it touches. The New Jersey tripods march through Newark and with ease cross the Hudson to invade New York City. Manhattan bears the brunt of the attack with the black smoke descending on the island in accompaniment to the tripod heat rays. As they move through city after city they capture humans in order for them to harvest their blood.

Just as all hope is lost the tripods start collapsing. One by one they fall until none are left. It is quickly learnt that common human diseases proved fatal for the Martians. Within a few hours humanity learnt they were not alone in the universe, was invaded by another lifeform, and survived only thanks to microorganisms.

Aftermath
Despite victory over the Martians the country is not celebrating. Millions would have been killed as the Martians across the land. Chicago, St Louis, Buffalo, Newark, and New York City are either destroyed or are partially destroyed. Manhattan is no longer in existence. The radio drama focuses largely on the New Jersey Martians but we can estimate the direction which the other Martians went in. The Chicago Martians would have headed to the nearest large city which would likely be Naperville, while the St Louis Martians would have headed to Springfield, Illinois. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Martians would be the only ones to cross international boundaries by crossing the Niagara Falls and into Canada. From there their devastation would take them to Hamilton, and then to Toronto. Each city would either be utterly destroyed or would be partially destroyed. Rural areas would also be devastated thanks to the Martian black smoke. Both Canada and the United States would be plunged into crisis. There would be a refugee crisis thanks to the millions of people displaced thanks to the Martians. In 1940 New York City had a population of just over 7 million people. If even three-quarters of this population was killed by the Martians there would be over one million people displaced.

The economies of the United States and Canada would go into rapid decline. The New York Stock Exchange was located in Manhattan, an area destroyed by the Martians. Thousands more would still die through starvation, illness, and exposure. Thanks to Illinois being attacked meat production drops in the United States, and the use of the black smoke along the Mississippi would poison a huge chunk of the river for months. Agriculture along the Mississippi would be decimated as the black smoke's poison is inadvertently used to water crops. Just as seriously thousands would drink the water and grow ill with many dying as a result. Although filtration is quickly adjusted to prevent poisoning the damage is still done. For farmers the 1920s was a decade of depression, and FDR did try to help them. The Martian invasion virtually destroys mid-western farming so much that to actually feed itself the USA has to mass import food from abroad. Those displaced are hardest hit. Thanks to the Martians tearing up bridges, roads and railroads it is increasingly difficult to get aid to refugee camps, (named 'Martianvilles'), and with a food shortage this exacerbates an already perilous situation. In the first days all aid has to be airlifted in. During the broadcast it was reported that opportunistic militiamen were planning to use Martian technology to dominate the region. Following the invasion these militiamen become local warlords, (although due to the sheer advancement of Martian technology they cannot use the weapons), and often confiscate aid for themselves. Quickly aid has to be distributed with army aid.

FDR

In the United States at least there is a quick government response to the crisis. FDR was known for involving himself with the public, and would personally try and get to areas devastated by the Martians. A 'Third New Deal' would be put into place with the express aims of dealing with the refugee crisis, defending the United States from another attack, and rebuilding the destroyed cities. His quick implementation of bills to take unemployed laborers, or displaced laborers, to rebuild the cities, and quick actions to deal with the farming crisis would keep some people supporting him. However, his popularity would soon drop. The sheer size of the crisis and the over reliance on foreign imports means that the country remains extremely weak. Race riots would break out in mid-western refugee camps, and quite likely northern refugee camps, as prejudices boil over. A fear of anything unknown is amplified and immigrants get heavily discriminated against. Only thanks to policies to prevent further poisoning on the Mississippi, and the gradual repopulation of the cities does FDR retain any popularity. Emigration could even be encouraged with Americans and Canadians being encouraged to return to their ancestors homes of the UK, Ireland and France to alleviate some of the population pressure. Likewise, the UK and France would likely be the biggest contributors of aid to the United States and Canada, as well as possibly the USSR. Far-left and far-right politics would rage in the United States which the USSR would eagerly capitalize on, Hitler viewed the USA and Canada with disdain in contrast. Philadelphia and San Francisco now becomes the main centers of commerce.

The World
The world would look on in horror at what happened in the USA and Canada. Canada would easily get aid from the UK due to it being a member of the Commonwealth, but due to the fact that the UK was facing its own problems aid would be limited. Most of the food aid would be taken from India in turn causing food shortages there, and increasing tension between the British and Indians. However, for the first time the world would feel somewhat united. Throughout history people have been united by foreign invasion, (such as how Italian and German nationalism grew following Napoleon's invasion). Quite likely governments would work more closely together in fear that the next Martian invasion would be of their lands. This would not be a true unity though. Nations would still heavily distrust each other despite the fact that there is a chance of a second invasion. During the Second World War when the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia different ethnic groups allied with the Nazis to massacre other groups, and Winston Churchill even made plans to go to war against the USSR as they were fighting the Nazis. Governments rearming to defend themselves were not only preparing to war against Martians. Quite possibly wars start with the pretext to defend themselves against the Martians. Despite initial economic growth by 1939 Hitler had caused unfettered inflation thanks to rearmament which was crippling the economy, so he had to go to war to solve this. Hitler could either threaten war with Poland or invade with the pretext of securing land to protect Germany during an invasion. Likewise Japan could argue its continued occupation of China was to secure Chinese political stability and resources to protect themselves from invasion. If a Second World War does break out the USA would not take part; still crippled from invasion it would be too weak to even consider taking part.

Technology
A big issue would be Martian technology. Two nations would actively adapt Martian technology salvaged from the tripods: the USA and the UK. The USA has two reasons for this: a possible answer for the black smoke and to use Martian technology against them. Meanwhile, the UK would simply want to use it in case war with Germany occurs. Quite likely spies from France, Germany, the USSR, and possibly Japan would also find these blueprints to make their own weapons. Canada, and later other Commonwealth countries, would receive Martian technology after complaints.

The Second War

The Next Wave

A second invasion would be inevitable. After improving their technology, including flying machines, and defending themselves from illness the Martians launch a full scale invasion. In 55 and 54 BCE Julius Caesar invaded Britain with a small force but a century later Rome would properly invade Britain and conquer it. The first wave was Caesar's invasion, the second would be a full scale invasion. The Martians land all across the world near heavily populated areas: London, Paris, Philadelphia, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong etc. Still crippled since the last invasion the USA struggles to fight the war. How humanity does it is hard to imagine, but now it becomes a true war of the worlds.

Thank you for reading and the sources I have used are as follows:
-http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104719.html
-http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation
-Give Me Liberty!: An American History by Eric Foner
-The Penguin History of the United States by Hugh Brogan
-Europe: 1880-1945 by John Roberts
-A History of Japan by R.H.P. Mason and J.G. Caiger

The Real Life Dracula

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Continuing 2016's 'Month of Horror' we'll look at possibly one of the most famous horror icons of all time: Count Dracula. Dracula came to life in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and is recognized as being one of the most influential vampire novels of all time, (another one possibly being Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla). Stoker's novel has heavily influenced the world's perception of vampires, and so has the many adaptations. The second adaptation Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror, (the first adaption was a Soviet film entitled Drakula which has unfortunately been lost), created the ideas of vampires dying in sunlight. However, Bela Lugosi's performance as Dracula in Universal Studio's 1931 classic is the adaptation which heavily inspired all other perceptions of Count Dracula. The cape, his hypnotic stare, and the thick Romanian accent that are all associated with Dracula came from Lugosi's performance. Dracula, though, is not entirely a work of fiction. Count Dracula is based off of a real person; a real person even mentioned in the novel as possibly being Dracula himself. A real person whose name influenced Stoker to change the name of his antagonist from Count Wampyr to Dracula. This person was Vlad III, voivode (prince) of Wallachia/Walachia, better known as Vlad the Impaler.

The Land of Dracula

Walachia c.1390

Walachia was a principality located in what is now Romania. At the start of the fifteenth century Walachia became a puppet state of the far larger and more powerful Ottoman Empire to the south. Vlad Tepes, (Vlad Dracula), was born between 1428 and 1431 in Transylvania to the voivode, Vlad Dracul, who would seize Walachia when his half-brother died in 1436 becoming Vlad II. Several years prior to this Vlad had joined an order called the Order of the Dragon which was a fellowship of Christian knights designed to resist the Muslim Ottoman Empire from conquering Christian Eastern Europe. It was his membership of this fellowship that Vlad gained his surname 'Dracul', Romanian for 'devil' or 'dragon', so as a result his son was called Vlad Dracula, 'son of the dragon'. When Vlad Tepes was born Transylvania and Walachia were trapped in constant warfare with the Kingdom of Hungary to the north constantly warring against the Ottoman Empire to the south. In 1442 the voivode of Transylvania, John Hunyadi, managed to route the Ottoman Empire in Walachia Vlad was forced to flee to the Ottomans. The Ottomans promised to restore Vlad but, in return, he would have to give them annual tribute and, leave his sons, Vlad and Radu, as hostages at Tokat. During this period of captivity he tried to escape leading to him being beaten, possibly sexually assaulted, and generated a deep loathing of the Ottomans.

Vlad the Impaler

Vlad the Impaler

In 1447 Vlad II and his son, and Vlad Dracula's oldest brother, Mircea, were killed fighting against John Hunyadi and his puppet voivode who then invaded the Ottoman Empire. With the Ottomans invading Walachia Vlad quickly broke into Walachia and declared himself voivode. However, this was short lived and he had to return to exile in the Ottoman Empire. He returned in 1456 and reigned until 1462 when he was imprisoned by the Hungarians. He would remain captive until 1476 and would continue his reign for a short period until his death either in the December of 1476 or the January of 1477.

During his time in power he would often war against the Ottomans, and brutally suppress opposition to his rule. His cruelty is what has made him famous. A papal legate in 1462 wrote to the pope to inform him of the stories of Vlad's cruelty, and in 1463 a poem was performed for the Holy Roman Emperor entitled Von ainem wutrich der heis Trakle waida von der Walachei (Story of a Bloodthirsty Madman Called Dracula of Wallachia). Among the brutalities that Vlad has reportedly committed included having people who performed homosexual acts to boiled in oil, mass executions of boyars at the start of his second reign, and of course impalement. Vlad has refined this method of execution so much that it could take up to three days for a person to die, but it was not a simple stake through the heart as we would imagine killing a vampire would be like. The stakes he impaled people on were very large. A good example is this 1499 German woodcut below of Vlad having people impaled.

The woodcut

After refinement he would have some people impaled through the anus until it went through another part of the body, (there is a woodcut depicting this but due to Google's policies it is too gory and disturbing for me to show you). Even the unrefined method of impalement did not bring a quick death. Victims could be still be left for days until they died through exposure. Some of the most gruesome accounts say that Vlad would dine among the impaled bodies, (as depicted in the woodcut), and dip his bread in blood. On the banks of the Danube it is believed that he had around 20,000 people impaled! Fifteenth century sources also claim that he regularly had people boiled alive, skinned alive, disemboweled or decapitated. Historia Pannonica, written around 1495, even says he had the turbans of some Ottoman messengers nailed to their heads as it was against their custom to take them off while greeting someone. Vlad III Dracula's legacy after his death remained a bloody one with Europe naming him Vlad the Impaler.

How much is true?

Most of the sources of Vlad's atrocities come from either German or Russian sources; most of these originate after his death. The Holy Roman Empire was not allied with Walachia so had reason to portray him negatively, and the Russian paint him negatively as he converted to Catholicism. A combination of most of our depictions being after his lifetime, and from people who were actively against him could indicate that the atrocities were overblown. However, this does not whitewash his infamy. However, outside of Walachia Vlad was known for his cruelty which does show that he did have a reputation. Even Romanian historians and oral tradition, which usually shows Vlad more positively, reports on his cruelty. Constantin Rădulescu-Codin, an early twentieth century Romanian teacher, compiled local legends of Vlad and, some are just as disturbing as the German and Slavic sources, including Vlad burning the lazy, poor and lame. From here Vlad's penchant for sadism and cruelty can be corroborated. Although it is likely that the number of Vlad's victims were exaggerated his infamy is still well justified.

Count Dracula is regarded as one of the greatest villains of both literature and cinema. Even when he is the 'hero', such as in the manga and anime Hellsing, he is still cold, ruthless and sadistic. Something similar to his real life counterpart. Vlad the Impaler may have been unable to turn into a bat or cloud of fog, or could sleep outside a coffin, but he did share the sadism and ruthlessness of the vampire which he inspired.

Thank you for reading and the sources I have used are as follows:

-One Bloody Thing After Another by Jacob Field

-http://history-behind-game-of-thrones.com/historical-periods/draculaimpale#identifier_1_2300

-http://www.history.com/news/draculas-dungeon-unearthed-in-turkey

-http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/was-dracula-a-real-person

Comics Explained: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

Long time readers of this blog will know that every October I do the 'Month of Horror' where each week I do a blog post relating to the horror genre. This week we'll look at a comic story arc dealing with demons and monsters: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. Hellboy is one of the most overlooked great comic book character and comes from one of the most overlooked comic book company (Dark Horse). Seed of Destruction is one of the best known of Hellboy's comics with it serving as the biggest influence by Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy. Mike Magnolia and John Byrne produced a dark and gripping tale which we shall go over today.

Chapter One

Hellboy against a Frog Monster

Seed of Destruction opens in 1944 as a group of US commandos go on a mission accompanied by a superhero called The Torch of Liberty; England's top medium, Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones; Professor Malcolm Frost of the Blackfriar's College; and a paranormal expert, Trevor Bruttenholm. On Tarmagant Island, a fictional small island off of the Scottish coast, Lady Cynthia predicted the apocalypse would start thanks to a Nazi project. They find the Nazis have started some ritual in a stone circle being led by a fabled mystic: Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin promised Hitler to use mysticism to win him the war with Project Ragna Rok. Using magical gauntlets he plans to bring the Ogdru Jahad, powerful Lovecraftian-esque demonic gods, from their magical prison and into the mortal world. Rasputin fails to summon the Ogdru-Jahad but he does summon a different being; a devil-like child the size of a monkey with a stone gauntlet for a hand. The Trevor Bruttenholm and the commandos take a photo of the new arrival naming him Hellboy.

The photo

Over the next fifty years Trevor Bruttenholm raises Hellboy as his son who ages at a slower rate than humans. Bruttenholm had himself and Hellboy working for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) fighting paranormal disturbances. In 1992 Bruttenholm had vanished on a mission in the Arctic circle. With three other people he investigated a cave at the north pole where they find a tentacled statue with a figure meditating at the bottom that seems almost alive. Upon touching the the statue he blanked out. Upon telling Hellboy this a plague of frogs from nowhere descends on them causing Bruttenholm to yell 'Save Yourself!' at his adopted son. Something suddenly kills Bruttenholm leaving hole-like markings on his dried out corpse. It soon transpires that a frog-humanoid monster had killed Hellboy's adopted father which Hellboy soon kills. Hellboy later rings the BPRD Director, Tom Manning, to inform him of what happened just as in a stately home a frog jumps into an old woman's teacup...

Chapter Two

Chapter 2

Searching for clues about his father's death Hellboy travels to the mansion of Lady Cavendish with his friends, (and BPRD members), Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien. Liz Sherman has pyrokinetic abilities who was taken in by the BPRD when, as a child, she lost control of her powers and, incinerated her parents, brother and pet dog. Meanwhile, Abe Sapien was originally a Victorian society who dabbled in the arcane arts. This caused him to become a fish-human hybrid and he was sealed away by his fellow cult members. With no memory of his old life the BPRD found him and named him 'Abe' as the date on his chamber was the date which Lincoln was assassinated on. With these two agents he starts to question Lady Cavendish. She reveals that she is the final heir of the Cavendish family after her two sons went with Bruttenholm on his polar expedition. It transpires that it is almost a curse for the Cavendish family to search for the temple as for the last nine generations all the Cavendish family members who searched for the temple went missing. The agents leave to their rooms as a shadowy figure says to Lady Cavendish: Children, come kiss your mother goodnight.

The three are escorted to their rooms by the Cavendish butler who Hellboy remarks that he looks exactly like the final person to search for the temple with Bruttenholm, Sven Olafsson. When free Abe jumps out of the window into the nearby lake to search for clues, (being able to breathe like a fish underwater), as Hellboy and Liz discuss the butler through a phone. Suddenly frogs enter Liz's room causing Hellboy to scream for her to get out. Upon finding her room empty he bumps into the butler and starts demanding answers only to see the butler transform into a frog monster. After a fight he apparently kills the frog.

Fighting the Frog

 Hellboy then finds Lady Cavendish dead with the same dried body, and hole marks than Bruttenholm had. As he laments the fact that he could not save her the dark figure from earlier makes himself know. The figure is revealed to be Rasputin who orders Hellboy to kneel before him. When he refuses tentacles burst from the floorboards and drags him underground. Meanwhile, Abe's searching in the lake makes him realize that the area is a place of death...

Chapter Three

Hellboy awakes under the manor realizing that he is in an Aztec temple. Rasputin informs him that the temple was built for the Ogdru-Jahad who the Aztecs thought could be appeased by blood sacrifice. He then informs Hellboy that he brought him into the world to act as a tool to unleash the Ogdru-Jahad; fifty years prior he had used the Nazis to achieve his own purpose of summoning the Ogdru-Jahad. Hellboy quickly shoots Rasputin in the face only to see that it did nothing causing Rasputin to send him flying across the room with a single curse, despite all the talismans that Hellboy had on him. Angry at Hellboy's defiance he orders Sven Olafsson, now transformed into a powerful frog monster, to attack Hellboy. As this is happening Abe discovers a tunnel to a series of subterranean caves where the two Cavendish boys, now frog monsters, were nursing the body of their mother who Rasputin ordered them to kill. Abe then discovers the body of the first Cavendish to search for the temple, (Elihu Cavendish).

As Hellboy is beaten by the Olafsson monster Rasputin begins lecturing him on his own backstory. After being shot, poisoned, stabbed, and thrown into a river by the Russian nobility he was resurrected by the Ogdru-Jahad as they saw him as the person to free them. For twenty years he lived in Italy until found by Heinrich Himmler. Himmler gave him to Hitler who wanted Rasputin to use magic to win him the war in Project Ragna Rok. After handpicking a select group he began preparations to free the Ogdru-Jahad, (not to help the Nazis but to bring about a new Eden). After summoning Hellboy, (something which he did not know about), and the fall of the Third Reich he went to the Arctic temple on the orders of the Ogdru-Jahad where he started meditating with the statue, (really a creature called Sadu-Hem). Trevor Bruttenholm's touch awakened him and searched through his memories where he learnt of Hellboy's existence. He manipulated Bruttenholm to bring Hellboy to Cavendish Hall where he planned to use him to release the Ogdru-Jahad. However, Liz's pyrokinetic powers could also be used. Rasputin had Olafsson kidnap Liz so he could channel her powers through himself and into a reawakened Sadu-Hem who would release the Ogdru-Jahad from their crystal prisons.

Sadu-Hem

Chapter Four

The Ogdru-Jahad begin to awaken from their prisons as Liz's powers flow through Sadu-Hem and into the prisons. As this is happening an alien race watches the crystal prisons shake as they fear that once the Ogdru-Jahad destroy Earth they will turn their attention on the rest of the universe. Hellboy manages to force a concussion grenade down the throat of the Olafsson monster just as Rasputin starts the same spell that he used fifty years prior to release the Ogdru-Jahad. Suddenly, Abe appears possessed by a vengeful Elihu Cavendish and throws a spear at Rasputin piercing his chest. Rasputin's lapse in concentration causes an uncontrolled surge of Liz's powers which fries Sadu-Hem. Cavendish stops possessing Abe long enough for him to pull Liz from the power surge so she would not suffer the same fate as Sadu-Hem. The surge in energy starts to cause the cavern's collapse. Furious about being thwarted Rasputin tries to kill only to find he has spent too much of his energy. After failing to blackmail Hellboy by saying if he kills him Hellboy would never know his true purpose Hellboy crushes the monk's head with his stone right hand. As the BPRD agents wonder what Rasputin meant by Hellboy's true purpose a frozen castle's machines start to turn back on. A ice sheet cracks with Rasputin's disciples standing behind it...