u/miscakarza

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/150301449

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/61345305

Context: During WW2, it is estimated that the Swiss National Bank had received $440 million (equivalent to $8.5 billion in 2024) of Nazi gold.

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/112377749

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/57601268

Context: The Chanson de l'Oignon is a French marching song from around 1800. According to legend, it originated among the grenadiers of Napoleon's Imperial Guard. Before the Battle of Marengo, Napoleon found some grenadiers rubbing an onion on their bread. "Very good," he said, "there is nothing better than an onion for marching on the road to glory."

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/122957983

Context: Yugoslavia had one of the highest death tolls relative to its population in WWII, and the total is usually estimated at around one million, about half of whom were civilians. The German occupiers enacted a policy of executing 100 hostages for every German soldier killed and 50 hostages for every German soldier wounded, most notoriously during the massacres of Kraljevo and Kragujevac. The policy backfired, driving more people to join the Yugoslav Partisans. Many of those executed in reprisal killings in Kraljevo and Kragujevac were also factory workers (Kragujevac was home to Yugoslavia's largest armaments factory) so the executions further hampered the German war effort.

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/101517866

The original post has been deleted. The artwork can still be found here: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/48075111

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/128944946

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/100555514

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/121158437

Context: France sold Louisiana to the U.S. for $15 million in 1803, while Russia sold Alaska for $7.2 million in 1867. Both sales were partly motivated by the countries’ inability to effectively defend those territories against potential British invasion.

Original: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/57241453