The Red Sea is of strategic importance…

From 1802, the country today known as Vietnam -- which had been known variously as Vietnam and Annam, depending on who controlled it -- had been a Chinese tributary state ruled by emperors.

That title had been diminished to king, however, by the French government, which had taken control of the region in the late 19th century and split it into three areas: the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin and the colony of Cochinchina.

The Nguyen Dynasty had been given nominal rule of Annam.

At the age of nine, Prince Nguyen Phúc Vĩnh Thụy, the son of King Khai Định of Annam and his second wife, Tu Cung, who was renamed Doan Huy upon her 1913 marriage, had been sent to France to be educated at the Lycée Condorcet and, later, the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

In 1926, at age 13, he becomes king following his father's death and takes the name Bảo Đại.

He does not ascend to the throne due to his age and returns to France to continue his studies.

He is subject to control by the French of his government, Annam at this time being part of the Union of French Indochina.

Throughout the 20th century, Bảo Đại will be widely perceived to be a puppet ruler for French colonial interests.

The alliance between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party is questioned after the Zhongshan Warship Incident in March 1926, and the following events have effectively made Chiang Kai-shek the paramount military leader of the KMT.

Although Chiang doubts Sun Yat-sen's policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the CCP, he still needs aid from the Soviet Union, so he cannot break up the alliance at this time.

Above all, Chiang needs a stage to display his military talent and his role of paramount leader.

On the other hand, the Soviet Union and the CCP cherish the alliance more than Chiang, as they require a platform to display their friendship to the KMT.

Thus, all three parties agree to launch the Northern Expedition to solve their own problems.

The main targets of this expedition are three notorious and powerful warlords: Zhang Zuolin, who governs Manchuria, Wu Peifu in the Central Plain, and Sun Chuanfang in the eastern coastal region.

Advised by the famous Russian general Vasily Blyukher, using the pseudonym Galen, the expedition’s command headquarters decides to use all its power to defeat these warlords one by one: first Wu, then Sun, and finally Zhang.

On July 9, 1926, Chiang delivers a lecture to one hundred thoiusand soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army, which has been set up by the students trained in the Whampoa Military Academy and equipped with a Russian arsenal in the opening ceremony, which is the official commencement of Northern Expedition.

NRA soldiers are far better organized than the warlord armies which they face, for they have good military advisors, better weapons, and commissars from CCP to inspire the soldiers.

In addition, the NRA is regarded as a progressive force on behalf of ordinary people persecuted by warlords, for which it receives warm welcome and strong support from peasants and workers.

The NRA is thus able to march from the Zhu River area to

the Yangtze River in less than half a year and annihilate the main force of Wu and Sun, and strengthen its force from 100,000 to 250,000.

Beneath the Leadership Corps are the Nazi party's regional leaders, the Gauleiter, each of whom commanda the party in his Gau ("region").

There are 98 Gaue for Germany and an additional seven for Austria, the Sudetenland (in Czechoslovakia), Danzig, and the Saarland (currently under French occupation).

Joseph Goebbels begins his ascent through the party hierarchy as Gauleiter of Berlin-Brandenburg in 1926.

Streicher is Gauleiter of Franconia, where he publishes his anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer.

Beneath the Gauleiter are lower-level officials, the Kreisleiter ("county leaders"), Zellenleiter ("cell leaders") and Blockleiter ("block leaders").

This is a strictly hierarchical structure in which orders flow from the top and unquestioning loyalty is given to superiors.

Only the SA retains some autonomy.

The SA is composed largely of unemployed workers, and many SA men take the Nazis' socialist rhetoric seriously.

At this time the Nazi salute (borrowed from the Italian fascists) and the greeting "Heil Hitler!"

are adopted throughout the party.

In 1926, the team of Noddack, Noddack, and Berg prepare the first gram of the new metal, rhenium, from 660,000 grams of molybdenite ore.

Tel Hai, resettled in 1921, iis absorbed into the kibbutz of Kefar Gil'adi in 1926.

Its eight defenders (including two killed earlier in 1919 and 1920) were buried on an adjoining hill overlooking the Hula Valley; a monumental memorial statue of the Lion of Judah marks the site.

Joseph Trumpeldor's last words ("It is good to die for our country") are inscribed on its base.

Tel Aviv's population has reached thirty-eight thousand by 1926, and the town has become a thriving business center.

Intense combat has persisted for ten months, but eventually Petain’s combined French and Spanish armies — using, among other weapons, mustard gas against the population — defeats the forces of Abd el-Krim.

On May 26, 1926 Abd el-Krim surrenders to the French at his then headquarters of Targuist.

As a consequence, he is exiled to the island of Réunion (a French territory in the Indian Ocean), where he is "given a comfortable estate and generous annual subsidiary."

Miguel Primo de Rivera's Spanish government has supported labor arbitration, constructed public works, and stimulated commerce industry, and tourism.

Modeling his government after that set up in Italy by Mussolini, Primo de Rivera attempts to substitute order and prosperity for democracy.

Made dictator of Spain by the military in September 1923, Primo de Rivera’s regime has enjoyed several successes, chief among these Morocco, which had been festering since the turn of the century.

Primo de Rivera had spoke of abandoning the colony altogether, unless sufficient resources were available to defeat the rebellion, and had begun withdrawing Spanish forces.

But when the Moroccans attacked the French sector, they had driven the French and Spanish to unite to crush the defiance in 1925.

Primo de Rivera himself had gone to Africa to help lead the troops, and 1927 has brought victory to the Franco-Spanish forces.

Grateful Spaniards rejoice to think that decades of North African bloodletting and recriminations are over.

Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer Luigi Pirandello, anticipating Absurdist theater, explores mutual incomprehension, his plays reflecting the spiritual confusion of the postwar era.

With the help of Mussolini, Pirandello had in 1925 assumed the artistic direction and ownership of the Teatro d'Arte di Roma, founded by the Gruppo degli Undici.

Mussolini's support brings him international fame and a worldwide tour, introducing his work to London, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Germany, Argentina, and Brazil.

Pirandello's conception of the theater undergoes a significant change at this point.

The conception of the actor as an inevitable betrayer of the text, as in the Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author) of 1921, has given way to the identification of the actor with the character that he plays.

The company takes their act throughout the major cities of Europe and the Pirandellian repertoire becomes increasingly known.

Between 1925 and 1926, Pirandello's last, and perhaps greatest, novel Uno, Nessuno e Centomila (One, No one and One Hundred Thousand) is published in episodes in the magazine Fiera Letteraria.