How long did prussia last

How are justices to the US Supreme Court elected Is this a good or a bad thing How did ounce come to be abbreviated as oz.? Why did Cromwell dissolve the first Protectorate parliament? What place did the underworld have in Egyptian mythology? Can you explain Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in words that a teen can understand? Who was the most famous mathematician? Where did Christopher Columbus land when he reached the Americas? How did Zeus become ruler of the Greek gods?

What is antidisestablishmentarianism? What is Leningrad known as today? Who were the leading figures in the Classical period of music? Who wrote, A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still"? What was the cause of the War of Spanish Succession? What is the song Yankee Doodle Dandy" really about? How does history reflect what people were thinking at the time?

My teacher says there's more than one kind of history. How can that be? What were the turning points in World War II? We just started studying Spanish exploration in North America. What makes it so important today? What was it like for women in the s?

Have Americans always been big on sports? Who invented baseball? What did American Indians have to give up for pioneers? How did imperialism spread around the world? How did Imperialism in India come about? What's the big deal about Manifest Destiny?

How did the Tet Offensive affect public opinion about the Vietnam War? Where do the four suits in a deck of cards originate? What do they represent? What was the Roe v. Wade trial? Who is Constantine? I need to know some info on the Monroe Doctrine. I have looked everywhere but I still can't find any information. Where did the chair originate from? I was sitting on one the other day and it said Made in China," but where did it first come from? Everyone talks about how enlightened the Mayans were, but what did they really do?

What caused the fall of the Roman Empire? Did Christianity play a role? What was the reason for the downfall of the Russian Empire in ? What prompted slavery? Why were the Africans chosen for enslavement?

How did World War I start and end? What is The Palestinian Conflict? I don't really understand the French Revolution. What started it, and what stopped it? What was the doctor's diagnosis of Helen Keller when she was a baby?

What is the Trail of Tears? When speaking about Native Americans, what is the difference between an Indian tribe and an Indian Nation? What happened during the Boston Massacre? What was sectionalism in America before the Civil War?

How did the U. What is Ronald Reagan's Tear down this wall" speech about? How many countries are there in the world? What did Columbus do besides sail to the New World? My history teacher said that if your religious denomination isn't Catholic, than you are a Protestant. Is she right? Do you think that Mormons are Christians? What is the full name of the Mormon Church?

What is the size of Europe in square miles? How were the Crusades a turning point in Western history? I know that the verb pluck means to pull out or pull at, but what's the definition when used as a noun?

Which novels would you recommend to year-olds on the theme of places and forms of power? In The Pearl, why didn't John Steinbeck give the pearl buyers identifying names? What is perfidy from Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser? Is being pedantic a good or bad thing? Is a termagant a type of seabird? What is ichor from The Iliad?

Is a rivulet really a river, only smaller? Charles Dickens has this person called the beadle" in lots of his books. Is that like a nickname for a man with buggy eyes or something?

What is the main tenet of stoicism? What's the meaning of obsequious from Theodore Dreiser's urban novel Sister Carrie? Where are the Antipodes from Much Ado about Nothing? What is a truckle bed from Romeo and Juliet? What does truculent from Great Expectations mean?

If someone inculcates you, should you feel insulted? Nice or mean? What does laconic mean? At a restaurant famous for its rude servers, a waitress told me to lump it" when I asked for another napkin.

Can you tell me about that phrase? I thought necro had something to do with being dead. So, what's a necromancer? Sounds creepy. In Orwell's , what does the opening sentence suggest about the book? Understanding the literary genre Magical Realism What's a prig? I asked my granddad if he liked his new apartment and he said, It's all hunky-dory, kiddo.

I hate finding typos in books. Here's one I've seen several times: jalousies instead of jealousies. On the second week of my summer job at a bookstore, my boss handed me an envelope with what she called my emoluments.

Looked like a paycheck to me, though. In To Kill a Mockingbird, what are some examples of the characters having courage? What's cud? I was once told to stop chewing my cud and get back to work. What can you tell me about the word patois from The Awakening? What are thews from Ivanhoe? What does pot-shop from The Pickwick Papers mean? Are all dowagers women?

If someone is the titular head of a political party, does it mean they have all the power? The word flummox confuses me. What does it mean? Somebody told me I looked pasty. Does that mean I've eaten too many sweets? I started taking private bassoon lessons. Is anomalous the same as anonymous?

I know that a fathom is a unit of measure used by sailors, but how long is a fathom? What is a joss from Victory, by Joseph Conrad? What does eschew from The Pickwick Papers mean? What does excrescence from The Call of the Wild mean? What does the word covert mean? In Shakespeare's Sonnet , what is an oblation? In Moby-Dick , what does vitiate mean?

In War and Peace , what does bane mean? In Jane Eyre , what are chilblains? Does mendacious refer to something that is fixable mendable? Is kickshawses one of those weird words that Shakespeare coined? What is renege , in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra? What is maxim? I think it's a female name but I'm not sure.

Last Valentine's Day, this guy I barely know gave me a rose and said something about ardent love. What does ardent mean? What kind of literature is a picaresque novel? What does culpable mean? What's a cenotaph? What does gallimaufry mean in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? My vocabulary is pretty good, but that one has me stumped!

What does it mean to genuflect? Someone told me I was looking wistful. What is wistful? In David Copperfield, what does superannuated mean? Does the word syllogism have something to do with biology? I see the word benefactor a lot in my reading assignments. Is that somebody who benefits from something?

I found a funny word in The Glass Castle. Where did skedaddle come from and what does it mean? Does sinuous mean something like full of sin"? I saw the word in The Devil in the White City.

What are characteristics of Modernist literature, fiction in particular? What does my brother mean when he says he's too ensconced in his studies to look for a girlfriend? My grandpa complained about a bunch of politicians making what he called chin music. Did he mean they were in a loud band? What is melodrama? In Dracula, what's a missal? In the terms abject poverty and abject misery, what does abject mean? In Moby-Dick, what does craven mean? What does cicatrize mean?

What is a noisome smell" in Tolstoy's War and Peace? In Jane Eyre, what's syncope? I just read Dracula.

What's the forcemeat in Jonathan Harker's journal? Can the word stern mean more than one thing? Where is Yoknapatawpha county? What does smouch mean? How do you pronounce quay? And what does it mean, anyway? What are some examples of paradox in the novel Frankenstein?

In Ivanhoe, what does mammock mean? What does rummage mean? Is a mummer some type of religious person? Some guy I don't like told his friend I was acting all demure. When I complained about our cafeteria food, my biology teacher told me he wished they'd serve agarics.

Was he talking about some kind of dessert? Where did the name Of Mice and Men come from? What genre would you consider the book, The Outsiders? In Fahrenheit , why would a society make being a pedestrian a crime? What does the phrase, a worn-out man of fashion" mean from Jane Eyre? My teacher told me I was being obdurate. Was that a compliment? What motives inspired Iago to plot revenge against Othello? Who was the first king of Rome? What does enervate mean?

What is a parvenu? Is salubrity somehow related to being famous? Do capers have something to do with cops?

What's the difference between a soliloquy and a monologue? What's a pandybat? Does the word inexorable have something to do with driving demons out of a person? Do people who prognosticate have some sort of special power? What is a hegemony, from James Joyce's Ulysses?

What are fallow fields? I'm a city gal who heard the term at a 4-H fair and just read it in Anna Karenina. What's the difference between parody and satire? Lord of the Flies uses the word inimical. I saw vertiginous in Madame Bovary. What does mean the word mean? What does overweening mean, in Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes? Can you hear a dirge anyplace but a funeral? Does imperturbable refer to something you can't break through? What are the seven ages of man? What's dross?

What is an injunction? For school I had to make a Napoleon hat, which called for a cockade. What is that? If someone studies assiduously, does it mean they're working really hard or really slowly? Define mood as it relates to a work of fiction. Distinguish mood from effect. My sister calls me the Princess of Prevarication. This biography I'm reading about Queen Victoria says that she refused to remove the hatchment she had for her husband Prince Albert.

What does that word mean? What does sine qua non mean? What's lugubrious mean? What's impugn mean, from Ivanhoe? What does postprandial mean? I love reading fashion magazines and occasionally come across the word atelier. What does King Lear mean when he says that ingratitude is a marble-hearted fiend"? In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , what are disquisitions? What's shrive? My neighbor said she's been unshriven for years, but I think her skin looks quite shriveled.

What's a dobbin? What's polemic? Over winter break, my uncle told me I was polemic and asked if I was on the debate team at school. I came across a list of homonyms: mu, moo, moue. I know mu is Greek for the letter m , and moo is the sound cows make, but what's a moue? What does trow mean? In Far from the Madding Crowd , what does cavil mean? Where can I find the word naught in The Scarlet Letter?

I found an old diary from the s where the writer describes how he almost died but was saved by a sinapism. I know what mulch is, but what's mulct?

When our teacher was introducing the next reading assignment, he said we'll be using the unexpurgated version. What did he mean? For some reason, the word dingle sticks in my head after having read Treasure Island years ago. I never did discover what it meant. How about it, Cliff? In Dracula , what's stertorous breathing? What does philippic mean? I'm usually pretty good at guessing what words mean, but have no clue about exigence.

What is it? What's doughty? How do you pronounce it? What's sharecropping? I'm kind of embarrassed to ask, because it's one of those words everyone assumes you know what it means. I'm working on my summer reading list with Kafka's The Trial. The very first sentence uses traduce , and I don't know what that means. What does the cormorant bird symbolize in mythology?

I saw the word badinage in the book Uncle Tom's Cabin. Do you think that's a typo that really should be bandage? On a TV modeling contest, a judge said, Her simian walk is unbelievable.

In Oliver Twist , Dodger refers to Oliver as flash companion. Can't find a definition of this anywhere. Do elocutionists kill people? For my English homework, I have to write a love poem.

I'm only 13 and I haven't had my first love yet. How would I go about writing about feelings that I haven't felt yet? Where on the body would I find my sarcophagus?

What's stolid? It sounds like someone who's stupid and built solid like a wall. What's a wonton person? In which play did William Shakespeare state that misery loves company?

What's comfit? Is it a different way of saying comfort? Where did the story Frankenstein by Mary Shelley take place? What kind of person would a shallow-pate be? What are myrmidons of Justice" in Great Expectations? What did I do? In The Red Badge of Courage , what's an imprecation? The word portmanteau shows up in a lot of the literature I read for school assignments. It sounds French. I did something really stupid yesterday, and my grandfather told me I was hoist with my own petard.

And what's a petard? What's a bourse? I read it in my finance class. In The House of Mirth, what are oubliettes? In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, what are thimble-riggers? In Wuthering Heights , what's a thible? Which Hemingway story references the running of the bulls" in Spain? My dad mentioned that his granddad was there for a long time during World War I. If somebody is toady," does it mean they're ugly?

In the movie Failure to Launch , there's a line that goes, Well, she certainly is yar," in reference to a yacht. What's yar? I got detention because a teacher said I was being contumacious. What's that? What are encomiums? What are billets in The Three Musketeers? In Orwell's , what is doublethink? What are orts? That's a weird word that reminds me of orcs from The Lord of the Rings. What are alliteration and assonance?

What's quinsy? What is New Historicism? I found the word unwonted in a book I'm reading. Is that a typo, you think? In Heart of Darkness , what does cipher mean?

In the play The Glass Menagerie, would you describe Tom as selfish? What does Kantian mean, from a philosophical perspective? What's a colonnade? My girlfriend is freaking me out with stories of her dream wedding where she walks down a colonnade. I know this is the least of my problems, but I'm curious. My grandma says she knows how I feel when I knit my brows. Is she crazy? I know bier has something to do with dead people, but what is it exactly? My brainy brother owns a Harley and says his girlfriend is the pillion.

Is he insulting her or just showing off? I ran across the word mien in a book. Is it a typo? Is a younker a person or a place?

Does precipitancy have something to do with the weather? Any suggestions? A friend says she suffers from ineffable sadness. What's ineffable? What's a scow? Is a maelstrom some kind of dangerous weather? What is the meaning of this saying, The cat will mew and dog will have his day"? The Picture of Dorian Gray mentions a panegyric on youth.

In Madame Bovary , what's a mairie? In The Kite Runner, what's palliative mean? So what's oligarchy? In government class, my teacher mentioned that word when we were talking about the Blagojevich scandal in Illinois. Is intrepidity a good thing or a bad thing? My grandmother told me that she thinks grandpa should see an alienist. Does she think he's from another planet or what? Do you have to have licentiousness to get your driver's license?

I ran across the word hardihood in something I read the other day. Is it some kind of clothing? I saw mention of haversack in my history book. I'm guessing the word quadroon is four of something. But what's a roon? I'm trying to understand Shakespeare's play, King Lear. Can you explain these quotes from Act 1, Scene 1? In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment , what's a samovar?

I came across a music channel that featured tejano," and then I saw the same word when I was reading Bless Me, Ultima. But what the heck is prunella? Is it a purplish color like prunes? In Chapter 2 of Jane Eyre , what are divers parchments? A friend of mine said she hopes to get a counterpane for Christmas. In Wuthering Heights, what does munificent mean? The other day, my dad called my friends a motley crew. Is that his way of saying I should hang out with a different crowd?

Why is there an authorship problem with Shakespeare? What is it called when something is out of place in time, like a jet stream in a movie about ancient Rome?

In , does Winston die from a bullet at the end of the book or is he in a dream-state? I saw some old guy in a soldier's uniform selling fake red flowers. He said it was for Veterans Day. What's the connection? In consequence, the French army lacked the ability to 'scale-up' by calling on a mass of reservists.

The Prussian army, in contrast, drew upon the entire male population, producing a substantial body of trained reservists upon mobilisation.

Prussian military planning, conducted by the famed General Staff headed by Helmuth von Moltke, made best use of the resulting numerical advantage, not least through the clever exploitation of railways.

Many military observers nonetheless preferred the French system, which produced an essentially professional force that was far better-suited to the near-continuous overseas deployments that Napoleon III's global ambitions demanded. Most damaging of all, despite its elitist pretensions, the French army was socially rather low-status.

This was because the rich were allowed to pay for replacements to serve instead of their sons, should they be unlucky enough to be called up. No such facility existed in Prussia, with the result that its army more fairly approximated the nation-in-arms. The consequence in was a French rout.

General Philip Sheridan, American Civil War veteran, observed the Franco-German conflict at first hand, and his summary of the reasons for the outcome can hardly be bettered:. The French never recovered from the swift Prussian mobilisation, which included the direction of vast forces by rail towards and then across the frontier before the other side could adequately respond.

Political reasons on the French side precluded the option of trading space for time, with the result that successive French armies were pushed forward into a series of encirclements and defeats. Sedan became something of a symbolic, foundational moment in the creation of the new German Empire that soon followed.

Indeed, Sedantag or 'Sedan Day' , became an unofficial holiday for the new nation state. This conveniently overlooked the far lengthier, messier and bloodier post-Sedan phase of the War, that ended only with the ceasefire at the end of January Features of this second phase included the German siege of Paris, efforts by French irregulars known as Francs-tireurs to disrupt Moltke's supply lines, and a brutal counter-insurgency campaign to stop them.

Yet, as Sheridan noted, this form of resistance on the French side could only delay, not prevent, the final outcome. Geo-politically the outcome of the Franco-Prussian War was massive. It led directly to the creation of the German Empire, Continental Europe's most powerful state with Berlin replacing Paris as the focal point of global politics. In the military domain, several lessons were learned. The first was the advantage of a system of conscription that was genuinely universal, for men, and that produced a large pool of reservists.

The second was the importance of fast mobilisation, and planning to insure that the vast forces now available arrived at the right point, at the right time. When the United States announced its independence from Great Britain in , Central Europe was a fragmented area of roughly sovereign, independent states kingdoms, duchies, principalities, free cities, etc.

The German states were bound together in a loose political entity known as the Holy Roman Empire, which dated to the era of Charlemagne in the s. Traditionally Austria was the dominant German state, and as such the Habsburg king was elected as the Holy Roman Emperor.

Consul at Trieste , a city then under the jurisdiction of the Habsburg Empire. In the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and when the Congress of Vienna met in , a major question was what to do with Central Europe. The solution was to consolidate the German states and to create the German Confederation, a conglomeration of 39 states, including Austria and Prussia.

The members of the German Confederation pledged to come to the aid of any member who was attacked by a foreign power; however, the confederation fell short of any economic or national unity.

The first effort at striking some form of economic unification between the members of the German Confederation came with the establishment of the Zollverein customs union. During this time there was increased emigration by Germans to the United States in search of greater economic opportunities as well as political, religious, and personal freedom. The combination of these two events propelled the first official acts of recognition between the United States and various smaller German states as they negotiated and signed treaties, conventions, and agreements to regulate trade, commerce, navigation, naturalization, and inheritance rights.

The first effort at unifying the German states came in the revolutionary year Once news of the February revolution in Paris spread, many felt that the time was finally at hand for German unification. Rural riots broke out in the weeks after February and spread to the urban areas.

Throughout the German states revolutionaries advocated for freedom of the press, a national militia, a national German parliament, and trial by jury. Other ideas that were championed during the heady days of were the abolition of privilege of the aristocracy, the creation of constitutions in several of the German states, a more fair system of taxation, and freedom of religion.

On May 18, , the German National Assembly met at Frankfurt am Main, representing the first assembly to be freely elected by the German people.

Yet, despite the election of an imperial vice regent Reichsverweser , the government was flawed from the beginning by its lack of a strong executive power. By the autumn of the revolution disintegrated and hope of fully unifying the German states was extinguished for the time being. The next attempt at German unification, a successful one, was undertaken by Otto von Bismarc k, the Prime Minister of Prussia. German unification was achieved by the force of Prussia, and enforced from the top-down, meaning that it was not an organic movement that was fully supported and spread by the popular classes but instead was a product of Prussian royal policies.

The first war of German unification was the Danish War, begun over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Bismarck allied with Austria to fight the Danes in a war to protect the interests of Holstein, a member of the German Confederation. This brief war fought over the course of mere weeks pitted Prussia and her allies against Austria and other German states.

Prussia won and directly annexed some of the German states that had sided with Austria such as Hanover and Nassau.