Even for a self-confessed modern history geek like me, a first glance at events a century ago often seems quite uninspiring. It’s not every month, after all, that a war breaks out or a president is assassinated. However, I’ve soon discovered that you can find something interesting relating to practically everything if you’re willing to look hard enough. Take December 1911, for example. While the big stories of the month were certainly of enormous public interest at the time, my initial reaction was one of disappointment…yet, as I did a little more research, I soon found that there was a lot more to them than met the eye.
We’ll begin with one of the century’s biggest achievements in the field of exploration. On December 14th, a Norwegian explorer by the name of Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating out the expedition led by Captain Scott of Great Britain by just over a month. A major achievement in the world of exploration, certainly, but one that wasn’t without controversy. Amundsen had originally begun fundraising for an attempt to conquer the North Pole; however, when this plan was foiled by a pair of American explorers in 1909, he decided to change focus towards the South Pole. The problem? Worried about a downturn in funds and support, he didn’t tell anyone of this plan. This meant that, despite previous cooperation between himself and Scott, he effectively misled his fellow explorer in order to reach the Pole first…leading to a rather frosty (frosty! Get it? Frosty, like the South…ok, yeah, there’s a reason I don’t write comedy) backlash when news came through months later of Scott’s death returning from the Pole. The brilliant achievement of Amundsen and his team (four other men and 52 dogs), a journey of almost 2000 miles made in 99 days, was almost forgotten in large sections of the world as his methods were judged to be underhand and sneaky compared to the tragic hero Scott. In fact, it took the better part of the last century for perspective to shift and for the brilliance of Amundsen to finally be properly honoured. It would appear, therefore, that the power and influence within the written press (especially with regards to their ability to create heroes and villains) was just as strong a hundred years ago as it is today.
Moving onto another area of discovery…at the end of the month, Marie Curie was presented with her second Nobel Prize (her first as an independent figure), this time for her discovery and study of the elements radium and polonium and the advancement of chemistry brought about by these services. Now, I am admittedly totally ignorant when it comes to anything science-related and those words mean just about nothing to me…but hey, it won Madame Curie the Nobel Prize so we can assume this was a fairly big achievement. What is interesting to me though, is the juxtaposition of this story with another in December; that of the British suffragettes’ new tactic of gaining attention by setting fire to mailboxes. Such a strange contradiction of the era…a woman can win two Nobel Prizes for brilliant intellectual achievements, and yet women as a group still can’t be trusted with such a thing as voting. Curie herself would never be allowed to vote in her adopted country; she died in 1934, ten years before women got the vote in France. Quite incredible, really, and shows just how much the European attitude to women’s rights and equality has been transformed within the past century.
