Alex is a developer, a drummer and an amateur historian. He enjoys being on the stage in front of a large crowd, but also sitting in a room alone, programming something or writing about history.
I read something really interesting in the news today that I thought I would share here. According to the British newspaper, Telegraph, the First World War is finally coming to an end today. This past weekend, Germany made it’s final payment for the war and thereby finally cleared the debt given to Germany by the … more →
This is a very interesting video about a mining town called Dawson City. The film itself is historic as it was created in the 1950s it appears. I found the video through a post on Soapy Smith’s Soap Box.
Germany in the nineteenth century was a place of unimaginable political unrest. The collapse of the Holy Roman Empire at the beginning of the century set the precedent for how the political scene of most of the rest of the century would play out. It would be chaotic, unnavigable and yet somehow the German people … more →
By midcentury a fairly clear picture was beginning to emerge that unification of the German states was going to be inevitable in one form or another. One of the largest and more pressing hurdles yet to overcome, however, was which state was going to dominate and lead this unified Germany. The key players in this … more →
By the end of the fifth decade of the nineteenth century, the prevailing atmosphere in Germany was that of extreme change. The people were tired of oppression, censorship and of the ruling class thinking of themselves as immune to these issues. Hans Joachim Hahn sums it up nicely when he writes that “a general feeling … more →
Part 1 of “Consequences of the Fall of the Holy Roman Empire (1806-1848)” Less than ten years after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire and after Napoleon was sent into exile after his defeat by the British, a congregation of monarchs and statesmen gathered together in Vienna in order to restructure Europe. This congregation … more →
The fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 had drastic consequences for nineteenth century German history. For about a millennium a loose conglomeration of several different semi-autonomous German-speaking kingdoms under the Latin name of Sacrum Romanum Imperium 1 had controlled a vast region in Central Europe which is now composed of Germany, the Netherlands, … more →
No century has played quite a role in modern Germany history like the nineteenth century. It was during this time which the area now known as Germany went from being the Holy Roman Empire which it had been for almost a millennium to what we consider to be more or less the modern boundaries of … more →
Despite having just begun another series, I am going to be embarking on a second multi-part series which has to do with nineteenth century German history. The goal of the project will be to give a survey of nineteenth century German history. You may ask why I am going to be pursuing such a project … more →
One of my biggest fascinations with the Old West is with what life in a Rocky Mountain mining town in nineteenth century would have been like. It would have been a life full of filth, rough characters and hard work combined with drinking, fighting and gambling as pastimes. Of course these are stereotypes of any … more →