Constantine the Great or Constantine I (7 February  272 – 22 May 337) was the Roman Emperor best known for the elevation of Christianity. During his reign he made it legal to be a Christian and officially ended the Christian Persecutions with the Edict of Milan.

He convened a council of Christian bishops called The Council of Nicaea that met from May until the end of July 325. The goal of this first meeting and those that followed was to take the various Christian teachings and arrive at a consensus. They strove to create a unified Church with a single doctrine. The result was semi successful. Two churches arose from these meetings; the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Constantine made his capital Constantinople (Istanbul) in the Eastern Empire and was baptized shortly before his death by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia. Arianism does not follow the Holy Trinity doctrine, instead believing God and Jesus to be distinct from one another (see Arian Controversy). He died in 337.

The Eastern part of the Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire that survived until 1453 when Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmed II. The Western Roman Empire meanwhile fell. Economics, poor leadership, disease and encroaching and invading Goths (Gothic War). are normally cited for the Wests demise. The Goth King and Arian Christian Odoacer’s conquest of Italy and deposition of Romulus Augustulus marks the official Fall of Rome. Odoacer ruled with the support of Constantinople and the Roman Senate. Visigoths established a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, Alans and Germanic tribes crossed the Danube and defeated the Roman garrisons to settle in Gaul.

It is to the advantage of giants to destroy empires they leave behind, thus destroying the memories of their rule.

On January 7, 2025 president elect Donald Trump stated he sympathizes with Russian President for Life Vladimir Putin‘s opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine (Reuters). People laughed at Trump’s inquiry on buying Greenland from Denmark during his first term. This time people are taking his rhetoric more seriously, particularly Denmark (CNN). Meanwhile other European allies are trying to Trump proof the alliance before his term begins (BBC). His antagonistic stance toward the NATO alliance who’s primary membership is geographically loosely the region formerly conquered by the Third Reich is troubling. The NATO alliance maintained democracy and liberal society in the face of Communism through the Cold War.

Related:

• 20 Years of Putin: Tracing his rise from KGB to Kremlin Axios
• A Common Thread

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Sometimes there is less to a war than all the historians, theorists, psychologists and politicians understand. Take Vlad Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine with the assistance of Alexander Lukashenko‘s Belarus. It all really started in 2014 when Alexander Yanukovich was ousted by Ukraine’s parliament.

It is also easier to invade and take over a neighboring country when one has allies in positions of power and influence in the target country. A military commander or politician of high status can sabotage the nation from within. Have you considered the Third Reich’s invasion of France in 1940 was almost too easy? The British beat feet realizing the French were simply giving up.

After the French German Armistice was signed the government of the Vichy French was set up. They collaborated with the Nazis and even fought a naval battle against the US near Casablanca. The president of this puppet government was Philippe Petain. Here is the result of his reincarnation case study.

Hermann von Boyen (20 June 1771 – 15 February 1848) was a Prussian military officer who fought in many wars and battles. He retied for 21 years and studied history. He was called back into active service by King Frederick William IV in 1841 appointing him War Minister. He received the rank of Field Marshall in 1847. A fortress in Lotzen was named after him.

von Boyen wrote several books, among them were;

• Contributions to the knowledge of General von Scharnhorst 1833
• Memories from the life of Lieutenant General v. Günthe 1844
• Forward!: a hussar diary and campaign letters by Gebhardt Leberecht von Blüche; (printed in 1914)

Phillipe Petain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951) was a hero of France for his command of the French 2nd Army during the battle of Verdun. He served as Marshal of the French military during the interwar period. During this time he wrote with General Marie-Eugène Debeney, the new army manual entitled Provisional Instruction on the Tactical Employment of Large Units. This became the standard for French military doctrine. After the French surrender to Germany (the Fall of France) in 1940 he became the head of the new Vichy French government.

Petain dissolved the French Congress and the office of President. He gave himself the right to choose his successor. Pétain transformed French society from a “Republic” to a “State”. He stated the new France would be “a social hierarchy… rejecting the false idea of the natural equality of men.” He promptly passed anti Semitic laws, imposed censorship and arrested political opponents. He supported the formation of The Milice, a French force focused on crushing the French Resistance under Joseph Darnand and Pierre Laval (Case Study 70).

Petain was tried and convicted of treason after WWII. His sentence was commuted in June 1951 due to age and advanced illness. He died about a month later on July 23.

It’s easier to get an opponent nation to surrender when it’s leaders work for you. See Case Study 56

This man was Harold Covington (September 14, 1953 – July 14, 2018), a white supremacist and Neo Nazi writer. Covington is best known for the idea of the Northwest Territorial Imperative (see this post); creating an all white ethno state in the Pacific NW states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and western Montana.

Covington became a member of the now defunct National Socialist White People’s Party (PennStateU.edu) in 1971, the same year he joined the US Army. After his discharge in 1973 he moved to South Africa and then to Rhodesia. There he helped found the Rhodesian White People’s Army. He was expelled from the country for his racist and anti Semitic stance.

In 1980 he became the leader of the National Socialist Party of America. Covington resigned the following year after losing a bid for the Republican Party nomination for Attorney General of North Carolina. He lived in the United Kingdom for several years, where he made contact with British far-right groups and was involved in setting up the neo-Nazi terrorist organization Combat 18 or C18. C18 openly promotes violence and antisemitism.

In 1994, Covington started an organization called the National Socialist White People’s Party, using the same name of the successor to the American Nazi Party under Matt Koehl, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He launched a website in 1996; using the pseudonym “Winston Smith” (ironically taken from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four), Covington became one of the first neo-Nazi presences on the Internet. Covington used the website and the Winston Smith pseudonym to disseminate Holocaust-denial material.

Harold Covington wrote several novels about Northwest Independence (Northwest Territorial Imperative).

• A Distant Thunder
• A Mighty Fortress
• The Hill of the Ravens
• The Brigade
• Freedom’s Sons

Covington died in Bremerton, Washington, on July 14, 2018