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The French made a first big attempt at building a canal in Panama in the 1880's It didn't work because Lesseps insisted on doing a "flat" canal like in Suez rather than one with locks, which would have better suited the terrain. To be fair, he was no engineer and had been told in Suez that a...

Hi all, A question popped in my head. A Fascist state is defined by dilution of individual identities in the State, with glorification of the State as THE force and the identifying factor above everything else. It is also defined by a focus on the military, a strong state apparatus and an...

After Versailles, a sick man of Europe which had a long history of being a multi ethnic empire was torn apart in the name of people determination and conveniently being on the losing side. Its lands were given as Mandates to the winners. Could something similar happen in the Balkan?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Monnerville Gaston Monnerville was president of the French Senate for 11 years from 1958. That means he was to take the role of president in case the president was incapacitated. He was black. If de Gaulle gets killed or injured in one of the many attacks...

So, today Pdt Macron praised the rôle of Pétain during WWI which caused a wave of outrage. His role in WWII is beyond divisive for reasons well known, mainly his orders of deportation and murder of French and foreign citizens beyond German orders. My question is first the subjective: was he...

Hi all, So, we know that Germany got crushed under the weight of the war, and that it could not sustain it anymore. Now, I've never heard much about the state of France at that point. Sure, there was a lot of debt and destruction, but could it have gone for one more year? This is not a France...

The tin and all that. The more I read, the more it seems the Qing society was actually quite developed financially and culturally. They seemed well integrated at local levels with world trade, at least on the coast. It should have been able to adapt and innovate, as it seems they had all the...

Hi folks, The Makhnovchtchina was an anarchist army that appeared during the Russian Revolution and was initially successful enough before being double crossed by the communists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Insurrectionary_Army_of_Ukraine It lasted a good few years and, being...

Hi all, It is easy to find accounts of the conquest of China or of colonial administrators in Vietnam. It can be possible to find post-facto East Asian analysis (Cat Country by Lao She comes to mind) but what I have not been able to find is how the conquests were seen from a Chinese/Vietnamese...

Hello all, Looked in search, couldn't find anything In WWI, the US had a symbolic impact by showing the CP they couldn't hold any longer before being submerged by bodies and material. Situation got disastrous, especially after a failed Spring Offensive. So, my question is, if the US stay as a...

So, in discussions about the Industrial Revolution, it's often between Europe (competition, Americas, ideas...) and China (cohesive, rich...) But there is another zone which could work. India was a divided continent for most of its history, with a split between large nations and mercantile city...

Hi y'all, I was wondering what would have happened if there had been no Poblachd na Gàidhlig. As you know, after the miners strikes went semi-insurrectionary, that the UK only won the Falklands war through very heavy US support and that Tchatcher was assassinated by an Irish Republican...

Haha, you thought it was about the Chinese in America didn't you? Psych! My question is actually about his real voyages. One of his goal was to seek tribute and impress other countries, but he was not afraid of military intervention if needed, overthrowing a king or two if memory serves right...

Hi all, Turkey got it pretty bad after the war, losing most of its territory but ultimately keeping Anatolia and Constantinople. So what's the best and worst case for them? PoD is October 1918 (so no CP victory)

So, I was looking at a map of Russia, being astounded by two things. One was how big it is, and second how absolutely empty it is. So here's a small challenge: get Russia as populated as China by now. I imagine if you seed the steppes with potatoes you could carry that many people. Imagine...

Hi y'all! Like all dynasties, the Ming ended up declining with less central control and a more important role for the eunuch. My question, when can we say it started? Can we say they were already in decline in the 1520's when the Portuguese arrived or was it later? What would you say were the...

Hi y'all, When did we start using standardized dog tags and what were we using to identify the dead before then? Bonus point for answers on the French army!

Hello there, In 1881, there was a French expedition to Madagascar to establish a protectorate. It was nicknamed the "Fantom Protectorate" until the 1890's. It seems there was some light fighting in 1881 with a coupl naval bombardment but nothing too heavy. But what if the French had gone...

Yo, Question, what was the status of slave laborers in the late republic? Not teachers or administrators but in the fields and mines?

Hi all, Was trying to think about similarities, if there were any between XIXth century colonialism and Roman colonialism. We can see some similarities in the tactics of the very late XIXth century with the likes of Lyautey or Gallieni, but it seems roman colonialism was much more inclusive of...