Many historians have often asked the question of whether or not World War II could have been avoided. Some scholars of military history point to the British led policy of appeasement that existed just before the war and culminated with the Munich Agreement on September 29, 1938, as one way in which the allies failed to realize the threat of Hitler’s regime.

Europe in the aftermath of the First World War was a place full of debt, indignation and upset. Many felt Germany had unfairly taken the blame for a global war; other countries were bankrupt having put everything into the four year war that had killed millions and millions of soldiers and civilians. Many countries, their leaders and their people were sick and tired of violence and death and wanted anything but more war.

Germany for its part was living under the economic pressures of paying for a war they did not start and frustrated at the outcome of the Versailles Treaty which included the payment of reparations, the demilitarization of the Rhineland and the clause that Germany could not build up her army for the foreseeable future.

Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 and immediately set about reversing all the conditions of the Versailles Treaty. Neighboring nations complained but did not take military action against Hitler when he began to build the new German, remilitarize the Rhineland or even annex Austria (Anschluss) in March of 1938.

Every time the powers in Europe drew the line and told Hitler not to cross he ignored them and they ended up drawing a new line. This police became known as “appeasement” and was a way a continent financially weak and morally exhausted could avoid war. And anyway, Hitler promised he would not attack, invade or occupy any other countries. He wrote a friendly note to then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain assuring him of his good intentions.

On September 29, 1938, Hitler met with British leader Neville Chamberlain and French leader Edouard Daladier. The meeting was mediated by Italian leader Benito Mussolini and ended in an agreement which Hitler drafted and the other leaders simply agreed to. The treaty stated that the German people of Czechoslovakia in an area known as the Sudetenland would be annexed to Germany in stages during October of the same year. This was in line with Hitler’s policy of Lebensraum and uniting all German peoples every where.

The treaty stated that Czechoslovakia would hand the land over to Hitler despite the fact that the Czech leader was not invited to the discussion and treaty signing but was told of their responsibilities by their allies. The land exchange would occur with Czechoslovakia’s help or they alone would be left to fight Hitler. They had little choice.

Six months after the signing of the Munich Agreement, Hitler had taken the Sudetenland and divided Czechoslovakia between Germany, Poland and Hungary. The country had no strength to fight and within a year, Europe was at war once again. The Munich Agreement was the last stance in a failed appeasement policy and the nations of Europe would take six years to get Hitler’s Germany under control.

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Long before it became ingrained in the cultural lexicon as America’s first “escape proof” prison, Alcatraz Island was “White Rock” to the native Ohlone tribe, due the pelican droppings that littered its surface. With the exception of occasional outings to scout for Murre eggs, they largely avoided the rocky 22-acre islet — the belief being that it was a lair of evil spirits and a portal to the next world. Foreshadowing its future use as a penitentiary, especially pernicious violators of tribal law would we be banished to the island, where they would most certainly die of exposure.

The Spanish first reached the island in the 1769, naming it “La Isla de los Alcatraces” or “Island of the Pelicans,” but assigned little importance to it. The Mexican governor eventually sold it to one Julian Workman in 1849, who, within months, had hawked for it $5000 to a new owner. The United States government sued for ownership, realizing its potential as strategic outpost in the Golden Gate strait and began devising plans for a lighthouse, and later, a fort at Alcatraz.

Work on the $15,000 lighthouse began in 1854, but planners and workers soon found themselves confronted with horrendous conditions, rough terrain and no fresh water supply. Compounding matters were the turbulent waters of the Golden Gate, which made provisions from mainland difficult to obtain at a regular rate. Nevertheless, a wooden shantytown sprung up around the construction site, though death among workers on Alcatraz from starvation, disease and on-site accidents were not uncommon.

The island’s fort was completed in 1859 and with it came a squadron of 200 men – and Alcatraz’s first four prisoners, military offenders all. Two years later, the Department of the Pacific designated Alcatraz their official disciplinary barracks and, for the whole of the Civil War, a separate wing would be used to keep Confederate prisoners and sympathizers under lock and key – including one group of that had attempted a raid on Alcatraz with stolen schooner in March 1863 before being apprehended.

The fort on Alcatraz remained in continuous use through the turn of the century. In the 1870s, it housed Indian prisoners and, after the 1906 earthquake, many of San Francisco’s civilian prisoners were transferred to island for safekeeping. A three-story cellhouse was built on the island in 1912, which, at the time, ranked as the world’s largest concrete structure. In October 1933, the Department of Justice took over the fort and barracks, officially setting “The Rock” on its course to become America’s most notorious federal penitentiary.

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We are all familiar with Batman whether it is through movies, comic books, television shows, or cartoons. We know the look of the character and the various actors that have portrayed him over the years but the history of the character is not common knowledge. Batman did not start out resembling anything like the costumed hero we all know. Batman was the creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger in 1938 which was published by D.C. Comics. Kane’s original Batman sketches looked more like a Superman type of character with reddish tights, a domino mask, and some stiff wings that resembled those of a bat. Refinements of the character led to giving him a cowl and a cape, removed the red portions, and giving him gloves. The character’s personality was shaped by movies of the day and characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, and the Shadow. The main difference in costuming is that most other Superheroes have colorful costumes but Batman has a darker more ominous look which was by design. The Bruce Wayne personality was developed by Bill Finger based on a combination of Scottish legend Robert Bruce and U.S. Revolutionary General “Mad Anthony” Wayne.

Kane signed away rights to the character for, among other compensation, a byline on all Batman comic books which eventually had the line “Created by Bob Kane” for all of Batman’s stories. Bill Finger never received credit as a co-creator of Batman and Kane was criticized by some for not sharing the credit, and after Finger’s death in 1974 Kane regretted letting his ego get the best of him and not officially recognizing him as a co-creator of Batman as well as other characters and villains. Finger was credited as the creator of the Riddler by Julius Schwartz in 1965 in an acknowledgement of his work. The character has been recreated of the years as times and audiences change and Frank Miller’s epic 1986 comic series Batman: The Dark Knight Returns redefined the character for a generation and brought the character back into popularity. This is the version of Batman many of us are familiar with and spawned a series of movies which introduced him and many other characters to a new set of fans. Batman has had a long history of ups and downs but the character has had a large resurgence in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down.

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History Collectors: We offer a wide selection of museum quality replicas and authentic items representing nearly every century of the Common Era and the most significant civilizations of ancient history. Once you browse through our online catalogue, we are certain you’ll find the perfect gift for yourself or a loved one with an interest in history.

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Lying on the Konya plain in the south of modern day Turkey, Çatalhöyük is the world’s earliest known town. Founded roughly 9500 years ago, the settlement covered 35 acres — making it larger than the ancient city of Jericho, founded some 500 years later. Archaeological evidence unearthed at Çatalhöyük suggests that the town’s 5000 to 8000 residents lived in a society with no class system or gender barriers. They subsisted on cereal farming, the raising of livestock and, most importantly, the trading in black obsidian mined from the mountain Hasan Dag, located 87 miles to the east.

Most interesting still was the town’s configuration. All homes in Çatalhöyük were built from sun-dried brick and entered through the roof. There were no streets, alleyways or plazas in the town — each house was built wall-to-wall to its neighbor. The result was a large cube, and eventually a mound, whose outer most walls formed a defensive boundary around the edge of the settlement.

The town’s unique construction has allowed its contents to remain remarkably well protected over thousands of years. The 1961 excavation of Çatalhöyük, covering just one square acre, yielded 139 intact rooms. Of those, roughly 40 were classified as “shrines” by British archaeologist James Mellaart for their unique revelations about the religious beliefs of Neolithic man.

One wall of each supposed shrine were adorned with reliefs of the heads of bulls and rams, while others offered murals of birth and death scenes. Cattle horns, effigies of goddess figures and animals, and mounted human skulls were found in great number along with couches, textile fragments and other invaluable insights discovered within the ancient holy sites.

There were other equally startling finds in other chambers. Some rooms proved to be mortuaries, where striking murals portrayed vultures picking the bones of human corpses. Skeletons later discovered buried in the same rooms indicate that this was how the dead were prepared for burial in Çatalhöyük.

After flourishing for ten centuries, the town was abandoned around 5700 BC, as the greater population of the area begin to shift towards Mesopotamia. It would be there where originally Neolithic clans, such as the one at Çatalhöyük, would evolve into the world’s first kingdoms and states over the next two thousand years. To date, however, the ruins of Çatalhöyük remain one of Asia Minor’s most valuable archaeological finds and the most well preserved Neolithic site in the world.

History Collectors: We offer a wide selection of museum quality replicas and authentic items representing nearly every century of the Common Era and the most significant civilizations of ancient history. Once you browse through our online catalogue, we are certain you’ll find the perfect gift for yourself or a loved one with an interest in history.

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