Questions tagged [19th-century]
The 19th century began on January 1, 1801, and ended on December 31, 1900.
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Why did the Party “Deutschkonservative” vote against renewing the “Sozialistengesetze” in 1890?
The German conservative Party "Deutschkonservative" voted in 1890 against the annual renewal of the "Sozialistengesetze" ("Laws against the revolutionary machinations of social democracy"). This ...
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3answers
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What is the average travel speed for railways between European capitals in the late 19th century?
Most sources I checked only present how the maximum train speed developed over time. For example, the top speed for a passenger train in 1854 was around 130 km/h. This record was set by a steam-...
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Which languages would be most useful in Europe at the end of the 19th century?
If I were a tourist planning to visit all the major cities in Europe, which languages would be most beneficial for me to know? Nowadays, the answer would be straightforward, as many people in Europe ...
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1answer
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To what extent has the United States become (in 1870) the nation that it originally set out to be? [closed]
I was thinking about this for a while. I know that the US never intended to abolish slavery at that time, but it still happened. Is that even relevant?
Some of the things I thought that they ...
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1answer
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Could a jeweler in 1800 AD tell a synthetic gem stone is fake?
Say I traveled back in time to 1800 and took a bag of synthetic rubies with me. Could a jeweler of the time period tell that the stones are "fake", even though at that time synthetic gems aren't yet ...
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9answers
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Why were helmets and other body armour not commonplace in the 1800s?
Before the widespread use of firearms, various kinds of plate armour were in widespread use. As muskets (and later, rifles) became widespread, full plate became less effective and fell out of use.
...
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2answers
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Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
Was there any punishment for killing slaves, and what punishment was given for it, and was it enforced?
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How did a student grant work in 18th/19th century Western Europe
I am making research for a book, and I need details about grants/scholarships in Western Europe around the beginning of the 19th century, ideally for a teenager living far away from the applied school....
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What percentage of first births were illegitimate in 19th century England?
One peculiarity of Victorian England is the rather very high number of illegitimate births and premarital conceptions relative to the periods before it. Illegitimate births and premarital conceptions ...
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Why didn’t the U.S. annex the entire Spanish East Indies at the end of the Spanish-American War?
The Spanish East Indies were a large territory comprising mainly the Philippines,1 plus a large scattering of Micronesian islands in four main groups (the Marianas, the Carolines, the Marshalls,2 and ...
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Was the Times of London available for sale in 19th century Singapore?
Were copies of The Times of London generally available for sale in 19th century Singapore? If so, how much did a copy cost? And how many days would the newspaper take to arrive in Singapore?
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4answers
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What was this slender hooked rod thing that John Wilkes Booth posed with?
In this photo (¿daguerreotype?):
John Wilkes Booth is posing with some kind of hooked rod. It does not seem to be a pipe, cane, umbrella, or writing instrument.
What is it?
Here ...
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2answers
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How did laborers travel from China to Malaya in the early 19th century?
There was a wave of Chinese emigration to Malaya beginning in the early 19th century. Those who emigrated were mostly laborers seeking to work in tin mines, rubber plantations, and other agricultural ...
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2answers
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Virginia's response to Harper's Ferry, compared to the US response to 9/11
9/11 is now far enough in the past that I feel more able to analyze it as history. For most of the last 18 years, my rough mental model has been something like this. The US was subject to horrific ...
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3answers
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What (else) happened July 1st 1858 in London?
I'm looking for sources of information freely available online about happenings in London the day July 1st 1858 (besides the famous Darwin-Wallace presentation, that is.)
I have found copies of the ...
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1answer
142 views
How was library classification done in English-speaking libraries prior to the 19th century?
I was reading about major library classification systems. The major one in English-speaking lands seems to be the Dewey Decimal Classification system, which was invented in 1876. Several other ...
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1answer
68 views
Does anyone have information about a pre-1859 church in Villers-Bretonneux?
The current church of Villers-Bretonneux, Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Villers-Bretonneux was built after WWI. Before this was a church built in 1859; here is an historic photo. There was a church ...
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2answers
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Why was fellatio considered so horrible during the XIX century in Europe?
The mentioned sexual practice was extremely frowned upon during that period, basically only prostitutes were to do them and even in this case, only with huge amounts of received money, that, in the ...
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2answers
205 views
How did Qing China keep in contact with other places?
Imperial China received diplomatic missions from other places whenever those places decide to send a mission (for example: Japanese missions to Imperial China). These missions were irregular, and were ...
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2answers
361 views
Is this wrench from 1881, or is it just a serial number?
One of my facebook group's member posted these pictures, he found them in their garden buried. He made cleaning, and they look old, but are they from 1880's? If the location helps: it is in Hungary, ...
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0answers
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How much would it cost to bribe a prison warden in New England in the year 1800?
The value of money from one decade to another is a very confusing topic - in my opinion, anyway.
For instance, something called the CPI Inflation Calculator states that $1 in 1800 was the equivalent ...
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1answer
201 views
What was the rate of premarital conceptions in England from 1850 to 1890?
Much research has been done on the topic of prenuptially conceived births within England from the 1540s to 1830s, but I have yet to come across anything resembling a statistic for the period from ...
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2answers
635 views
Why did Russia set up so many cities in Siberia and Far East?
If one takes a casual glance at the Russian population census data, he or she would be astonished to find that a significant part of the Russian population is actually not concentrated west of the ...
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2answers
325 views
What were the legal and societal conditions concerning “interracial love” during 1870s?
For the timeframe 1850–1880 I have a question related to the slave trade and love, specifically so-called "interracial love".
Was it possible in any way for a slave woman to marry a white man who had ...
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3answers
628 views
Were slave plantations economically superior or inferior to plantations with paid labor?
According to certain Marxist authors (Mostly Georgi Plekhanov (and some others), but I'm afraid I cannot quote because the text is not in electronic form and not in English.), slavery in US and latter ...
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1answer
144 views
Range of sailors' ages on a typical Pacific trading ship in 1810
This question is about crew ages on trading voyages in the North Pacific around 1810. The number of crew members on these voyages was often in the low dozens. Funding could come at least in part from ...
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1answer
142 views
For U.S. history 1800-1830, what was GDP by sector and industry?
The U.S. Census Bureau's Historical Statistics of the United States does not appear to break GDP down.
I'm aware that the terminology is imprecise:
GDP is a modern term, but is much shorter than the ...
5
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1answer
287 views
How can I understand the effect of the Sonderweg on the Revolution of 1848?
I'm trying to understand the effect that the German 'Sonderweg' had on the Revolution of 1848 in Germany. Are there authoritative/canonical references that would help?
PS: Since I also speak German ...
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2answers
226 views
Where was the first European electric tramway operated?
Many sources agree that the tramway Vevey-Montreux-Chillon, built in 1888 was Switzerland's first and Europe's second electric tramway. However, sources are contradictory on which was the first ...
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2answers
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Which “Walker” is Thoreau referring to in “A Plea for Captain John Brown”?
“If Walker may be considered the representative of the South, I wish I could say that Brown was the representative of the North. He was a superior man.”
Excerpt From: Henry David Thoreau. A Plea ...
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Where in San Francisco did the Land Commission meet?
After taking California, the U.S. needed a way to sort through land claims and established a Public Land Commission. This operated from 1852 to 1856, principally in San Francisco but also briefly in ...
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After Antarctica was discovered, did 19th or early 20th century map makers give any estimates on the % of the earth's surface covered by water?
According to the U.S. Geological Survey's article How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth?,
About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered
Wikipedia's Earth article also ...
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1answer
120 views
When did *wooden* 'nails' (pegs) for clay roof tiles go out of fashion?
Judging by Google searches, wooden 'nails' for fixing roof tiles are definitely a thing of the past. However almost all the searches I have attempted (in an area I don't know my way around) have only ...
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0answers
61 views
Which ship took Tolman to Kamchatka?
William Tolman was reportedly a mechanic from New England who got to Petropavlovsk on a whaling ship in 1813. Somehow he stayed behind and lived his whole long life in Kamchatka.
None of the sources ...
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1answer
639 views
Why did the British take Hong Kong instead of any other of the later treaty ports?
The aftermath of the first Opium War declared that Hong Kong and the island of Kowloon should be ceded to the UK as a port for refitting ships and storing cargo. It also meant there was easy access ...
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When (and where) did public polling start taking place on topics other than elections?
Image Source: The Roper Center on Cornell.edu
Question
When did public opinion polling on topics other than elections begin? Are there examples prior to the 1930's when Gallup and Roper began ...
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1answer
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Who conducted the first “straw poll” in U.S. election politics, and when was it conducted?
Prior to Gallup and Roper et al in the 1930's and The Literary Digest in 1916, what was the first election straw poll in US elections? Three sources that I found cite three different answers (though ...
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1answer
142 views
Were “The People's Will” referred to as “terrorist” by their contemporaries?
Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will) was the organization responsible for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in in March 1881. Is there any evidence (preferably online sources) which point to the ...
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1answer
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When did the last (non-tourist) commercial stagecoach line run in the USA?
Stagecoach at Holladay Express Office, Boise City, Idaho, circa mid-1860s. Source: A Stamp a Day- National Stamp Collecting Month: The Mail Coach
Background
Across from my office is a small Wells ...
10
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1answer
323 views
Could Thomas Jefferson have ever heard Mozart's Symphony No. 40, KV. 550?
The third president of the United States was a lifelong admirer of W. A. Mozart. Or rather, of Mozart's music; he arranged to meet Mozart in Paris when he was Minister to France (August 1784–September ...
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0answers
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What was the troop ratio between the red and white army in the Russian revolution?
I am making a game over the Russian Revolution for English class. I want to make this game a somewhat accurate representation of the Russian Revolution. I have been able find the answers to all of my ...
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1answer
318 views
Was there any genuine debate in the pre-1860 United States regarding Native American sovereignty?
The United States treated Native American tribes as sovereign states. Relations with various tribes were governed by a series of (often broken) treaties.
At the same time, however, general ...
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1answer
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Where was the site of Mary Seacole's store in Aldershot?
Mary Seacole is best known for running a boarding-house for officers and their families during the Crimean War. I have found a few reliable sources suggesting that on her return to England she briefly ...
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0answers
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Making bread at home: daily or weekly
My grandmother used to tell me about the life of field workers in her (and her grandmother's) time, going from the 1950s backwards to the 19th century (in Portugal). This often included baking bread ...
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What is this old dual-disc metal object with a spindle? [more pictures added]
[Updated: There are now pictures of both top and side views. Scroll to bottom of post to see the side views.]
While sorting through family artifacts, I found a black metal two-layer disc with a long ...
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1answer
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What is the approximate date of this photo?
The photo below is of an (as yet) unidentified (English) family member and is from the London studio of Hermann Ernst. There is nothing printed on the back. The photo is part of a collection, the ...
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1answer
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What epithet would John Quincy Adams use?
In his journal for 1824, John Quincy Adams records an incident where he was informed that a William King was telling people that he [Adams] should be nominated for vice-president under Crawford, one ...
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2answers
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Why was France's birth rate low from 1800 to WWII?
Inspired by this lemma on Wikipedia as well as a few paragraphs here and there in Piketty's Capital in the 21st century I'm asking the question how the low birth rate in France between 1800 and WWII ...
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1answer
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Who is in this c.1866 photo?
This photo was found with (but not in) an envelope containing seven photos of European royals, all but two of which have been positively identified (one of them here by Evargalo).
Below is a photo of ...
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1answer
751 views
Who is this, probably royal, teenager?
This photo was found in the same envelope as a photo of the Prince Imperial, Louis Napoleon, (recently identified on this site by Evargalo). The photos (seven in all) were recently handed down on the ...
