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Do we want to bring up the fact that Wilhelm Hohenzollern volunteered for the performance on the spur of the moment? I know that we already brought out the old "manslaughter" piece, but I want to know if you think that Wilhelm was in on his own assassination. I'm going to recommend that no one...

Huh. That seems to create a political division between moderate Federalists, who are opposed to war and a strong military, and radical Hamiltonian, who are hawkish and concerned about national defense. I'm not sure how long an alliance between Adams and Jefferson could last, but it's an...

I was operating off of memory and cannot find an example that explicitly pertains to the John Tyler example. I may have been misremembering. More generally, many Framers believed that "no one who had not been elected to the Presidency should serve as President any longer than necessary to...

I agree with you about stability. I cannot imagine Adams handling the Whiskey Rebellion well. Adams not running for re-election is an interesting thought, one I had not considered. If he made his intentions clear early, it would vastly improve his popularity and could stave off some early...

Despite there being only eight U.S. Presidents who have died in office, there are dozens of cases of officeholders being placed in severe danger. Lyndon Johnson was almost shot by his bodyguard the night after the Kennedy assassination. Grover Cleveland had a tumor removed in the dead of night...

That's just going to unify the British under the Norse. The Holy Roman Empire was a uniquely German phenomenon. There is no reason for the Pope to crown any Englishman as successor to the Roman Empire. He could not live up to the title. Hardly a "balkanization" by any stretch of the imagination.

Historically, England was divided into about seven kingdoms from 500 to 850 CE. The Heptarchy ended when England suffered outside attacks from the Vikings. The English united behind a common cause and the superficial divisions gradually fell away. It would be difficult to keep England divided...

All that is necessary to throw the election to the House is one defection. The Republicans have a very short time period to ensure the vote for Wheeler. Hayes' death is going to throw some chaos into the Electoral College meetings.

I foresee a massive crisis if the assassination happens before 6 December, when the Electoral College meets. Hayes was not yet made President-Elect by the Electoral College. There is a risk of the Republican vote falling apart into several different candidates like the Democratic vote did 4...

No interest?

I think it is important to remember that Hayes' election wasn't an assumed fact until March 1877 when the details of the Corrupt Bargain were worked out. Hayes' assassination would inflame a lot of Republican voters but it might also give Democrats greater incentive to push for Tilden. After...

For the 1876 Presidential Election, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were expected to vote for Tilden. The state electoral commissions, which had been set up during Reconstruction, realized that if all these states flipped in Tilden's favor then the Democrats would win and they would...

Just one bump.

You need severe flooding up north. The reason the scour holes opened up in 1973 is because of debris that dug into the bottom of the riverbed. The Mississippi is at risk whenever the North has a particularly bad winter. All the levees and anti-flood designs around the former path of the...

What do you mean by this? The course of the river would change suddenly and without warning.

For about a century and a half, the United States Army Corps has been engaged in a slow motion battle with Mother Nature. The Mississippi River with its sand and silt has created most of Louisiana. It could not have done so by remaining in one channel. Instead, for most its history, the river...

Just one bump.

From my understanding, the scholarly-mandarin class was preserved by Kublai Khan and his successors. Their power grew toward the end of the Yuan dynasty to the point where the emperor became little more than a figurehead. I think it would be an interesting innovation to bring back but would the...

The conquest of Jerusalem is far from a given. While his conversion may give Kublai more incentive to attack, it will not remove the logistics issue or the general lack of interest by the European powers. The Khanates were already periodically invading the Islamic Emirates with mixed...

Here lies the problem for Kublai's (presumably Christian) heirs. The Great Khan is chosen from among Genghis Khan's descendants by a grand council of all subordinate Mongol states. This is known as the Kurultai. While Kublai's base of supporters in China would likely support his descendents, a...