Hot answers tagged

81 votes

Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?

I don't believe the answer to this is known objectively. However, it may be worth looking at the different settlement histories of the two areas you are comparing. Most of the American possessions, ...
  • 114k
53 votes
Accepted

Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?

T.E.D.'s answer is very good, and points to the most important issue: the difference between colonisation methods in North America vs Latin America. There are a few missing nexus that I feel could be ...
48 votes

When did Canada become truly independent?

There have been several stages in the history of Canadian independence. Canada became a self-governing dominion within the British empire on 1 July 1867 when the British North America Act was passed ...
  • 76.9k
38 votes

Why are the USA and Canada's states border so straight?

States Borders First off, most Canadian or American states' borders are not particularly straight. Even when they are supposed to be straight, there are often nooks and crannies. But indeed there's ...
  • 96.6k
36 votes
Accepted

How much materiel was shipped to Continental Europe per month, after D-Day?

In the second volume of his series Logistical Support of the Armies, Roland Ruppenthal provides a table of materials shipped into Europe from June 1944 to April 1945, broken down by port (including ...
  • 76.9k
32 votes

Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?

A large factor in the advancement/financial disparity between the U.S./Canada and its neighbors to the south is the difficulty of colonizing areas in tropical/subtropical climates vs. colonizing ...
31 votes
Accepted

Why are the USA and Canada's states border so straight?

Natural borders such as bodies of water prevailed where there were PEOPLE living around them. For instance, much of the eastern end of the U.S. Canadian border was defined by the Great Lakes and the ...
  • 104k
31 votes

Why did Loyalists go to Canada during the American Revolution

Loyalists who lived in the 13 colonies fled to Canada because Canada was part of the British Empire. In Canada they could still be British. If they stayed in the colonies they would be traitors to ...
  • 31.7k
24 votes
Accepted

Who was Chief Poking Fire?

Chief Poking Fire's main claims to fame are probably owning and running an Indian museum, and founding and running a tourist village. He also apparently presented Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie ...
23 votes
Accepted

Why did Canada retain the rank of Brigadier General? But not Australia, New Zealand, or UK?

TL;DR: The Canadians did not retain that rank, but re-created it in 1968. The difference between use of "Brigadier" and "Brigadier-General" in armies seems to depend on the way ...
  • 30.4k
21 votes
Accepted

Why does Sugar Island belong to USA?

In short, the British agreed to the US having Sugar Island in exchange for the right of British subjects to have access to certain American waters. They felt that land, which was abundant at the time, ...
19 votes

Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?

Of course there were many factors. But the Spanish/Portugal scheme was a rural patron/peon arrangement that had not reached the bourgeoisie stage, i.e. an educated third estate. The British and ...
  • 199
19 votes

In World War 1, why were the Australian and Canadian troops so good?

The Australian historian and journalist LA Carlyon in his book Gallipoli reports Australian troops, a higher proportion of whom at that date had grown up in a rural, outdoor life (the same was ...
  • 5,611
18 votes

When did Canada become truly independent?

The subject isn't nearly as simple as it is for the USA. The event in the 1980s was Patriation of the Canadian constitution, which removed the power of the UK parliament to amend the Canadian ...
  • 30.4k
16 votes
Accepted

What, if anything, did Hitler think of the Canadian government's treatment of the Native Americans?

That source is pretty dubious, given that it's a wiki about TV tropes, and that the page no longer contains the content you quote, for starters. For finishers, Germans speak German, rather than [...
  • 1,485
13 votes
Accepted

Did Britain send convicts to Canada during the colonial era?

Yes. In 1730 and again in 1789, Britain sent convict ships to Newfoundland. However, neither experiment was successful as they found that St. John's could not incorporate the scores of new residents. ...
  • 18.1k
12 votes

Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?

TED's answer is fantastic; it covers the root causes of the problems. I'd like to add one more cause, specifically, US military and economic intervention in Central and South America have acted to ...
12 votes

Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?

The most important reasons go back to the differences between the English colonial heritage in North America, and the Spanish/Portuguese colonial heritage in South America. Although England, Spain ...
  • 104k
11 votes
Accepted

In Canada, is it true that when Mormons first arrived (1887) they weren't allowed to settle within 50km of Lethbridge?

If the restriction was applicable only to Lethbridge and not the surrounding communities, then any official action would have been a community by-law or ordinance. But according to Wikipedia, ...
  • 380
11 votes
Accepted

Who sold this book in London in the 1930s?

The position of "Limited" in relation to "Smallman &" does resemble the "Smallman and Ingram" logo, for example on their catalog. While John Smallman and Lemuel Ingram started their retail store ...
10 votes
Accepted

The US founding fathers and Canada

From the Declaration of Independence: He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of ...
9 votes

Were discrepancies from the 45th parallel in the US-Canadian border ratified?

CGPGrey covered this in his video Canada & The United States (Bizarre Borders Part 2). You're basically correct. There's been a series of treaties about the US-Canada border. Rather than go into ...
  • 54.4k
9 votes
Accepted

Why did the maple leaf become associated with Canada?

According to this research the symbolism was developed by Canadiens living along the St Lawrence River by the early 1700s. The coats of arms for Quebec and Ontario (est. 1867) each feature a triple ...
  • 106
9 votes

Is it legit to say that allied forces in Market Garden were: USA, British and Polish?

It was often the case that Canadian forces during WWII were included in formations described as "British," because they were under British command. However, there don't seem to have been any ...
  • 30.4k
8 votes
Accepted

Why is/was the world's expo 1967 so important to Montreal, Canada?

Being from Montreal but born in the seventies, I have not visited Expo 67, but I’ve heard a lot about it. Yes, my parents and their peers have always talked about this event with great pleasure and it ...
  • 196
8 votes

When did the American War of 1812 actually end?

The War of 1812 had six official endings: one for at land and five for at sea. The Treaty of Ghent states: "All hostilities both by sea and land shall cease as soon as this Treaty shall have been ...
  • 18.1k
8 votes

Why did North America economically prosper, and maintain stable government and South/Central America didn't?

I think this discussion must involve Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber argued that Protestantism induces a mindset in its followers which aligns well with and ...
8 votes

In World War 1, why were the Australian and Canadian troops so good?

One can make much of the prairie and frontier background of the Canadian troops - and one should, as they were 8 cm (3") taller, 5'7" (178cm) at age 21 compared to just 5'4" (170cm) for Brits of the ...

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible