32
votes
Why was Panama Railroad in poor condition when US decided to build Panama Canal in 1904?
I have a book at home, The Path Between the Seas (also from McCullough), that talks about that railroad extensively. I'll try to consult it when I get home to polish this answer up, but my memory of ...
- 121k
15
votes
Why was Panama Railroad in poor condition when US decided to build Panama Canal in 1904?
It lost its appeal after 1867, and, after bankruptcy of the French, deteriorated quickly.
Remember that is a railroad built across the jungle (just its construction took 5,000 to 10,000 deaths for 76 ...
- 1,045
12
votes
Accepted
Bismarck urged not to hinder Russia from going deeper into the "oriental dead end." What did he mean by "oriental dead end?"
The quoted letter includes a written dispute between Bismarck and Crown Prince Wilhelm. Wilhelm annotated the sentence about Russia walking into the "dead end":
Es hat aber leider die ...
- 6,167
7
votes
Accepted
What was Iceland officially & commonly called before 1918 (1874~)?
There is no significant difference between English/Icelandic/Latin naming (In Latin it's Islandia).
We can read here that: "Oldest among the maps on which Iceland is shown is the Anglo-Saxon map, ...
- 2,364
5
votes
What kept the idea of a "German question" or unification in 19th Century Europe?
German disunity was tied into autocracy and backwardness of many smaller German principalities, and the drive for unity was tied into the drive for democracy. Unity was also tied to a power grab by ...
- 17.3k
4
votes
What percentage of Andrew Carnegie's steel workers died on the job annually?
The quote from The Economist is at the wrong end of a game of Telephone. If you follow it back through Krass (2002, p. 218, n. 26) to Kleinberg (1989, p. 31), it turns out that 20%-30% of male deaths ...
- 22k
3
votes
How did they build tall and heavy stone buildings in the 19th century?
Be careful of just what you see that makes buildings "seem to be much, much older than claimed". Prior to about 1870, large buildings could be built only with very thick masonry bearing ...
- 72.4k
2
votes
Was Prussia afraid of German unity during the first Schleswig War?
The whole article should probably be read somewhat tongue in cheek. Or at least one would hope so, given sentences like "apart from Holberg, Danish literature is a poor imitation of that of ...
- 9,316
1
vote
Did the US gov't pay the Cherokee for their lands in Georgia?
As of 1906, a portion of the withheld payment was due and outstanding. Here is the Supreme Court Case in which the Court ordered that portion paid, with interest from 1835, on a per capita basis:
...
- 11
1
vote
Does anyone have information about a pre-1859 church in Villers-Bretonneux?
The Wikipedia article indicates the location of the pre-1859 church:
L'existence d'une église dans la commune est attestée depuis le Moyen Âge, en 12191. Elle était située à l'emplacement du monument ...
- 4,120
1
vote
Is there any record of the premature obituary of Alfred Nobel?
The accepted answer is very good and solid, I agree that it is an urban legend, but I would like to shed some light on the origin of the legend itself.
The first attestation of "The Merchant of ...
- 375
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