Building the Canadian Pacific Railway: Part 2 - The Pacific Scandal

I don't know what's happening, but...
yeah, it shows that things were bad.

While this isn't a true "part 2" as it doesn't follow in chronological order, I thought the Pacific Scandal warranted its own entry all to itself. Imagine the situation: Canada just becomes a country, and already the very first leader is thrown into a massive corruption scandal and is kicked out of office. While I can't seem to find any information about it, I can only imagine how heavily the anti-Confederationists were gloating - "Ha-ha, good show, old sport! Surely our Dominion will be as long lasting as my fifth cup of tea prior to dining!". Bear in mind we were still very much British at the time. That's why the tea thing made sense. Ahem.

To set the scene: Americans were interested in buying the contract for the railroad, many with the idea in mind that Canada would eventually be left open to annexation as the U.S. would effectively control the land west of the Great Lakes through the monopoly on transportation. That, and a lot of the money would naturally funnel back to America. As well, the Yankees were hoping to have the railroad also swing through the States, further Americanizing what is meant to be a massive Canadian endeavour. Obviously, every true Canadian wanted to oppose this with every maple syruped covered first they had. Keep in mind, especially at the time, anti-American sentiments were pretty well engrained in Canadians. If they had made the flag then, it would likely have a middle finger pointed towards the south.

His political dealings were as wild as his hairstyle.

So in walks Hugh Allan, a Canadian known to have a great number of American economic backers. The government most certainly knew this, but strapped for cash and seeing an opportunity to build the darn railroad that was seemingly working harder to work towards crushing Macdonald's soul than actually getting built, they had to take a look at every option that came forward. Allan had the means and the capital, but it was the American aspect of it that really threw a wrench in the works.

Now, obviously, dealing with Americans isn't a crime - at least not something you can be convicted of in court. The criminal aspect came in when Allan started to throw a few dollars Macdonald's way, and that money was in turn spent on campaigning. Except it wasn't just a few dollars - it was $300,000. In exchange for the capital, Macdonald hinted he would provide Allan (and thus his American backers) with the contract to build the CPR. If you're thinking this sounds familiar, it's because the Chretien government actually did something rather similar, with taking funds from a program meant to quiet Quebec separatism by advocating Canada and using it to fund their political campaigns. When it came out, it worked to pretty much kill the Liberals in Quebec for many, many years to come. Whoops.

Apparently, the $300,000 was spent
on making cool posters like this.
Money well spent.

Anyways, Macdonald eventually backed out of the deal, which pissed off the Americans just about as much as you would imagine. All of it came out in the press eventually, and Macdonald was quite literally sick with worry. His health started to deteriorate heavily knowing he will most certainly be kicked out of office and his legacy would be severely damaged. This is all in addition to the fact that Macdonald was a high functioning alcoholic. A few tidbits about John A. - he once was at a debate in which he was so drunk he puked during the thing. His response when he got up to speak was his opposition's words made his stomach turn. He was a great speaker, undoubtedly. While he was in the senate defending himself, he was so drunk when he gave his speech in his own defence he had to be helped up in order to speak - and then gave a rousing, fantastic speech the likes of which Canada has yet to hear. In fact, during that time, it was said that he had two people filling his drinks; one was giving him water, the other gin. However, it may have been that both were giving him gin thinking the other was providing the water. Whoops.

Macdonald was actually so stressed during this time, he got up and left. Yes. He left. For weeks. He may have simply gone fishing, but people didn't know. Picture this in nowadays time - a Prime Minister is caught up in a massive scandal, and it stresses him out so he decides to leave the public eye for a few weeks, nowhere to be found. It would be world-wide news, absolutely. The problem for Macdonald is he was without question guilty, and there wasn't really so much they could do about it but delay - and delay they most certainly did. It sure took quite some time, most certainly taking more time to break down poor Macdonalds fragile mind at this point, but eventually he was kicked out and the Liberals moved in shortly after. He then came back a few years later to once again take up the role of Prime Minister, demonstrating that people have a very short memory of political dealings in both modern day and at the time of Confederation.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. The government "trafficked with foreigners in Canada's most precious interests in order to debauch the constituents of the Dominion with the gold obtained at the price of their treachery!" Words spoken by Lord Dufferin. People sure did hate things more eloquently back then.
2. "[Macdonald is the] greatest corruptionist America had produced." 
3. After hearing words that the government shall rise again... "Rise again! But that resurrection shall not be until the last trump shall sound - when the graves shall give up their dead an death and hell shall give up the dead that are in them!" Well, actually, it would be a few years down the line, but either one.

Building the Canadian Pacific Railroad: Part 1 - "Insane Recklessness"

The logo for the CPR. The
beaver is such a nobel animal; a
beautiful furry rodent-thing.

People say Canadian history isn't interesting, and quite frankly, a fair few times they're correct. I place most of the blame on the manner in which it's taught in schools and how that breeds total disregard for the mixed bag of interesting and mind numbingly boring Canadian facts as if they're all the latter and none of the former. There's plenty of absolutely insane stuff that happens in our past, much of which is covered by Canada's own Pierre Berton, a leading historical author that has been praised for making the subject matter almost as if it's a story, making it readable and lively. He's also been criticized for making the subject matter almost as if it's a story, playing a touch fast and loose with the facts. Regardless of opinions, I read what turned out to be a fairly arduous journey through The National Dream, Berton's book on the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway and all the politics leading up to it. It wasn't a a bad read, but it did have the tendency of many passionate historians to overwhelm you with facts that are only relevant if you're reading so in depth on the topic as to base your life around it. What I'm trying to say is I found little interest in the colour of the wagon that crossed the street on July 14th, 1869 - it was likely just brown, anyways.

Regardless of being perhaps a touch too well researched, falling much the way of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, the subject matter in and of itself is actually fascinating. Canada decided it was going to build the greatest railroad of all time when the country is only four - a mere toddler learning to walk and crawl, we should have practised building a few models first. In addition to that, it's not like it was linking a massive amount of people - Canada was only holding three and a half million at the time, and for comparisons sake, the U.S. was sitting with well over ten times that amount. They had just finished their largest railroad undertaking, one that was a thousand miles shorter than the would-be CPR. Nevertheless, the railway was to be built as it was a political promise to some of the provinces to join Confederation, thus linking the country together. Fortunately, never once has a politician been known to break their word.

A CPR train with a few of the workers. Those darn kids,
always using their filters on their photographs...

Unfortunately for Canada, building the rail wasn't exactly just a little bit of elbow grease and olde-timey work ethic. It required several pantloads of money - one hundred million to be exact, which is certainly a great number of pantloads. To put that in perspective, a dollar a day was a decent wage at the time. So where was Canada going to snatch up all this money? John A. Macdonald, the man largely behind the idea in the first place, decided that it was a great idea to go against every Canadian ideal ever and get in bed with the Yankees. He took a great deal of money from an American backer for funding his political campaigns and in turn he was meant to give the man the contract for the railway. Naturally this is comically corrupt, and was later named the Pacific Scandal. I will be detailing this in the exciting part two of this blog.

What you need to know is he was kicked out of office pretty quick, and replaced by Alexander Mackenzie and the Liberal party. During this great political mess, surveyors were sent out to find the right trail for the railway. It's difficult to express just how tough these poor guys had it. They would be traversing land never before seen by white dudes, plowing through ridiculously cold winters, moving through clouds of mosquitoes so thick they would look simply like a black mass of intense frustration and all the while they don't really have all that great an idea of where they are or where they're going. One of the most famous crews was out on the trail for one hundred and sixteen days and travelled 1,887 miles. Of those, 932 were on show-shoes and 332 of them with all their goods on their backs. Their dogs had died sometime back, presumedly from consciously deciding that death was a much more enjoyable alternative. Honestly, I would have sided with the dogs.

Some of the engineers that worked on the
railway. The mutton chops on the guy
at the top left represent the majesty
of the grand, Canadian rail.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the surveyors, they had somewhat of a plan as to where they wanted the railway to move. However, the issue of how they'd pay for the darn thing was yet unsolved. They began selling contracts to builders, but even that was rife with political corruption, a problem that apparently was a cornerstone of early Canada. Keep in mind secret ballots weren't introduced until 1874, and the previous way of voting was to publicly call out who you wanted in. Voter intimidation and bribery was about as prominent as you'd believe, as you can clearly see if the dude you bought a sandwich for actually voted the way you wanted him to. What I don't get is how secret ballots weren't introduced earlier, as folding a sheet of paper and putting it in a box was not groundbreaking technology... but anyway, I digress. The corruption with the contracts was related to the Liberals giving the contracts to, well, Liberals. $5,257,336 worth of contracts were sold, and $4,986,659 went to prominent Liberals, a number of which would later have spots in government.

Running on a hilariously hypocritical platform of accusing the Liberals of corruption, John A. returns to office with 133 seats to 73. How a man who had so clearly screwed the voters got voted back in so quickly is almost as baffling as Rob Ford still being allowed to be in office. You have to hand it to Macdonald - he had a way with speeches. This time, to his credit, he changed his ways and brought in a much more effective way of moving the railway forward. Instead of paying the lowest bidder on the contract to build the section, (in and of itself creating a number of problems with shoddy worksmanship) he changed it to promising the builders land according to how much they've built. This lowered the cost to the government substantially and promoted building the western provinces that would build up shortly after. Way to go, John.

So the building of the railway begins. In addition to the obvious problems (massive expense, vast territory, tons of work, Irish workers, etc.) they had to deal with a whole pantload (a different unit of measurement than the previous usage of pantload) of muskegs and sinkholes. The terrain was absolutely brutal. That, and they'd have to blow up large chunks of mountains in order to build the railway through them using nitroglycerin. Unfortunately, they didn't have the same safety precautions as we would nowadays. There were small spills, meaning there would be little black spots you'd have to keep your eye out for while walking the trail or you very well might lose a leg in a small explosion. They also put the nitroglycerin in their backpacks, meaning it would shake around and occasionally, well... explode. It was pretty brutal work.

What ended up being the saving grace for the railway was a group of Montreal men that decided to purchase a vast amount of the railway, much of the expense coming through subsidies of the government. It was a massive risk for the men that would soon be called the Syndicate, as they were actually boring money form a bank they owned in order to finance the expedition. If it fell through, it would essentially ruin them all. However, it worked out just fine and the people of Canada sure were happy for it because of one main fact - these guys weren't American. True north strong and free!

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "If ever our bones will be discovered, when and by whom. If our friends will mourn long for us or do as is often done, forget us as soon as possible. In short, I have been looking death in the face..." A quote from one of the surveyors, written down in his journal. Seriously, things got bleak.
2. "Until this great work is completed, our Dominion is nothing more than a 'geographical expression'. We have as much interest in British Columbia as in Australia, and no more. The railway, once finished, we become one great united country with a large interprovincial trade and a common interest." Governor of the HBC, Sir Stafford Northcote

The Battle of Stalingrad

It's dangerous talking about the World Wars. Generally speaking it's relatively safe to talk about relatively obscure historical topics (the Dionne Quintuplets, The Plains of Abraham, Louis Riel... well, anything Canadian really) because it's rare that you're going to bump into anyone who knows them well enough to correct you on anything. However, the World Wars are popular enough of a topic to not quite be able to sneak past a mistake or two - not saying that there will be any here... but I'm also certainly not saying there won't be. Because of this, I'm going to be really throwing a full fledged statistic barrage in this blog, because the numbers at the very least will tell the truth. I guess I'm saying something about this blog in that I clearly fear being corrected more than being wrong, but I digress.

A street fight much more intimidating
than those in West Side Story.

The book I read on the topic was Stalingrad: The Battle That Shattered Hitler's Dreams of World Domination. It was well worth the five dollars I spent on it at Chapters while killing time until my birthday in which I would inevitably receive a book or two (you're up next, Canada's national dream of building a transcontinental railway!).

Here's the funny thing about Stalingrad. As far as priority targets go, this one was pretty far down the list. The Germans didn't really need it, and it was more of a "take it if you get the chance" type mission for the generals. There's a good chance they wanted it to prevent reinforcements from Stalingrad to disrupt their forces, sure, but it certainly wasn't a be-all-end-all type city for Russia. A possible reason for the mistakenly high priority was the name itself - defeating Stalingrad would serve as a moral blow to the Russian forces (hint: the name Stalin is in the name Stalingrad). Regardless, they thought it was a good idea to sack the city, but when their first attempt failed, they sent in reinforcements... which failed. Naturally, they would - guess what? - send in more reinforcements. The Russians would in turn respond with more troops, which the other side required more troops to kill those ones. You can see how this builds on each other. All in all, the end result was two kids playing Bloody Knuckles in junior high with both parties being too full of pride to quit and let the other win - except this time the stakes were the lives of millions in what would be one of the most horrible places to be in the entire world.

Russians defending what are already absolutely
annihilated buildings - or it's just how Russia looks.

On one side there was the big Russian kid who wouldn't let the German one on his playground. Stalin instituted the "Not One Step Back" policy for the defenders of Stalingrad, meaning you don't retreat, you don't surrender, and if you're giving an inch of grounds to the Germans you had best be dead, or else they would help you get there. How they managed to put this into action was having a full line of Russian soldiers on the perimeter with a roving, smaller set of men behind them armed with machine guns. If the Russians attempted to retreat - or deemed not fighting hard enough, I kid you not - they would fire on their own men, mowing them down with machine gun fire. Those that survived would be put into "Punishment Companies", which were basically impossible suicide missions that would earn you back your pride. This included high risk areas or walking through minefields to set off the explosives - again, I am quite serious. 422,000 soldiers were placed in these companies in what was the single most vicious form of quality control of all time.

I forgot to mention, they also bombed the place into oblivion.

Inside the city the civilians didn't fare much better. Stalin wanted to keep up appearances, and the idea of having civilians evacuate meant that they were accepting that there was a chance that Stalingrad might fall. This meant that the majority of men, women and children were not allowed to exit, and those that did were shot. The civilians would have to dig tank trenches, build defensive fortifications, or join the Worker Militia Battalion, a poorly equipped force that didn't have enough guns to properly supply their numbers. The logic was they would be sent at the Germans, sometimes two people to a gun. If the man you're following dies, you pick his gun up and shoot things with it, preferably a German.

Regardless of all the extra forces, extreme tactics or tough-as-nails Russian women and children digging trenches, the Germans were still advancing and making their way into the city itself. This meant that the Germans were moving house to house in an unfamiliar urban warfare style. They called it "Rattenkreig", meaning "rat warfare". Death was quite literally around the corner - they would toss a grenade into a room, move in, check if it's clear, and move out. Rinse and repeat. It was terrifying, nervy work.

The Germans were under the impression they were basically going to roll through Russia pretty well unopposed, and for the most part that is how the war on the eastern front began. They would capture so many prisoners and win so many battles, but the Russian forces would resupply and send in more men from what was seemingly an endless supply. Massive losses were irrelevant. They were essentially the "zerg" from the Starcraft franchise. The reason why the superior numbers were not instantly winning was mostly due to inferior tactics and decision making, as well as having technology that was behind the German capabilities. So naturally, when you're getting kicked around by a superior fighter, you adopt his tactics. The Russians decided they were to turn a German warfare staple into their own, and shock the Nazis with a massive force. With tanks moving past the infantry and destined to penetrate deep into enemy lines, they intended to attack with speed - lightning speed. The Russians were going to Blitzkrieg the Nazis.

A modern day picture of "Pavlov's House",
a fortified apartment in which the
Russian forces defended mightily. It
says "We will rebuild you, dear
Stalingrad!"... and they did, just forgetting
to paint it the same colour.

The Russians started forming a massive force; 13,000 guns, 894 tanks, 1,150 aircraft and a million infantry men. They bombarded the German line suddenly, tearing through them and placing them so quickly on the defensive they did not have the time to react. The result of the Blitzkrieg was a massive amount of trapped German troops - 220,000 to be exact. The Russians encircled them, cut off their supply, and waited. Supplies were brought in from the Luftwaffe, but flying past the Russians made it a hugely dangerous and often ineffective mission. The Germans were low on ammunition, didn't have enough fuel for their tanks, and were hungry, cold and fearful in the Russian winter. Conditions became about as bad as you could imagine, and an outbreak of sudden, inexplicable deaths occurred. Men that would be fine - well, at least relatively fine, considering - would die on the spot just a few hours later. Moral dropped as they awaited rescue that would be almost impossible.

The Russians offered surrender, to which the Germans refused. They began to be cut down, although held out surprisingly well considering the situation. A second offer of surrender was taken, but being a German prisoner to a bunch of Russians that you were previously attacking is arguably worse. The 111,465 men that were taken were put to work rebuilding Stalingrad, only half of them surviving to spring. Only 5,000 of them would ever see Germany again. The Russians were incredibly vengeful, and understandably so.

So the battle is over, the Germans defeated after an incredible Blitzkrieg maneuver by the Russians, but the victory is difficult to claim. 200,000 Russian civilians died, with another 13,541 being executed by the Russians themselves for conspiracy to help the Germans. The Red Army fared no better; 478,471 were killed, with another 650,878 injured. On the German side, 750,000 were killed, wounded or taken prisoner, effectively ruining a massive part of the Nazi force in attempting to take just one rather insignificant city.

It makes you wonder how the war would have gone if it was still named Tsaritsyn, having changed it's name to Stalingrad in 1925. Oh, and it's called Volgograd now by the way. Russians just can't keep city names.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "From above, it was very well visible to the pilots, that civilians were waiting on the shore. Many times we saw enemy pilots acting as professional assassins. They opened fire on the unarmed women and children and selected targets so as to maximize the number of people killed. The pilots dropped bombs in a crowd at the moment they were beginning to board a boat, fired at the decks of the boats, and bombed islands on which hundreds of wounded had accumulated. The people crossed the river not only on boats and barges. They sailed on overcrowded boats, even on logs, barrels, and boards bound with wire. And the Fascists opened fire from the air on each floating target. They were massacring people." A quote on the atrocities committed by the Nazis on the Russian civilian population. It went both ways.
2. "The 6th Army is temporarily surrounded by Russian forces. I know the 6th Army and your commander in chief and have no doubt that in this difficult situation it will hold on bravely. The 6th Army must know that I am doing everything to relieve them. I will issue my orders in good time." - Hitler's message to the trapped 6th Army.
3. "The bitter frost, the cold biting winds and the snowstorms have yet to come. Your men have not been supplied with winter uniforms, and live in appalling unhygienic conditions. You as the commander must realize full well that you have no real chance of breaking out of the ring of encirclement. Your situation is hopeless and further resistance is useless." A Russian message sent to the trapped German forces, suggesting surrender. 

Red River Rebellion and Louis Riel

I'm about to teach a unit on the Metis, so naturally Louis Riel is going to come into play. He's an interesting player in Canadian history; he appears appears as number 11 on the list of the "100 Greatest Canadians" (a television special on CBC some time ago), three spots below John A. MacDonald, the man who chose to allow his execution for treason. At least he ranked higher than Avril Lavigne and Pamela Anderson... *sigh*. I wish I was joking, but yes, they appeared on the list. That's the problem with internet and call-in polls, huh?

The information I'm getting this from is, hold the laughter please, predominantly from a grade seven textbook. Now, I know that sounds silly, but lets be honest here - how many of you can really, honestly give a full, detailed explanation of the events of the Red River Rebellion(s)? Can you tell me why he was executed? How about what the rebellions were even about? I know a fair few would, and honestly anyone interested enough to read an internet history blog would likely already know, but... screw it, I'm doing it anyways. Now without further ado...

A modern depiction of Winnipeg.

Riel was born into a time of the first significant Metis population. Situated mostly in and around Red River Valley, close to where Winnipeg is today, the Metis were mostly of French and Native birth, meaning they weren't really a part of either group. Neither really wanted them as they weren't really pure, leaving them in some sort of weird cultural limbo. Nevertheless, they had a significant population in and around the area, and were starting to form their own way of life that took pieces of both parent cultures and morphing it into a new breed of their own, much like some sort of beautiful child, representing the whole idea of Canada as a whole. But don't forget, they were still pretty unwanted.

Meanwhile in Scotland, for one reason or another one Lord Selkirk was booted off his farm. Having no place to go, he set shore for Canada and purchased a great plot of land for him and his neighbouring displaced countrymen from the Hudson's Bay Company, the ones heading this whole "Canada" thing that was all the rage. Unfortunately for Selkirk, and, well, the Metis also, he purchased land that was most definitely already in use. The Metis had already quite settled in, but Selkirk had quite legally purchased the land. They both had a claim, and naturally, tempers ran high - just high enough to cause a bit of a kerfuffle in the Battle of the Seven Oaks. A fair few settlers were killed in the skirmish, as well as a couple of Metis on a battlefield that we can only assume was dotted with a few trees now and then.

Eventually tempers settled down, but it certainly didn't cure the problem much. The result was a fairly large Metis migration west, but their population was still fairly high. Meanwhile, Canada was looking to move out west, and they set their sights on Red River Valley. This idea led to a few notable problems; it caused the Metis to worry they were going to be assimilated into a British way of life, Canada knew they needed to step in and take the land, as the United States were keeping their eye on it as well and they have a tendency to take things. As well, the U.S. had been really amping up the trade, with the fact that a number of Americans were immigrating north as well adding fuel to the fire. Canada had to move quickly, and they sent a few surveyors to take a gander at the land, see if it's hospitable, see the people already on it, and declare it empty.

The man had hair as wild as his ideas.

The Metis were understandably worried. They were worried about the influence the government would have on their livelihood - they would likely have to change the manner in which their farms were planted (abolishing the distinctly French seigneurial system), they may be displaced, and possibly lose their newly created, distinct Metis language. It was a time of uncertainty; they had no idea how they'd even be seen in the government, as being neither fully white nor fully native. So when these surveyors arrived, here enters Louis Riel. Riel was one of few who spoke English, and he promptly told them to get off his lawn, Grand Turino style. For all his courage and determination, he was elected as the leader of a provisional government over the area. Suddenly it has appeared that the Metis have had just enough of being displaced and lorded over, and would really just like to settle in and have their own place. It was an honourable stand which out of context sounds hilariously akin to the plight of a sixteen year old rebelling against their parents. As a metaphor, it holds up - they are a newly born population rebelling against the fathering culture. Neat.

With his newly found power, Riel issued a Metis Bill of Rights and sent his demands to the Canadian government. However, this wasn't a fully backed by the entirety of the populace, and a schism occurred between the pro-Metis rights side and the newly created anti-provisional government "Canada Party." The Canada Party turned violent, and a number of them were thrown in jail, most notably Thomas Scott. Scott became belligerent, and either through a direct order from Riel or an unfortunate misunderstanding, he was executed. Shortly after, the government responded to the Bill of Rights and accepted a pretty fair deal; they would be able to have French and English classes in schools, a two school system for Catholics and Protestants, the Metis would be awarded a great chunk of land, they would send representative to the House of Commons, and Riel would be pardoned for the death of Thomas Scott. So there's some pretty swell stuff going on, and both sides seem to be pretty happy. Naturally, that's when the crap hits the fan - and it hits it with a vengeance.

John A. Macdonald - in what was probably an honest and reasonable move, I would bet - sends 1,200  troops to keep the peace and protect the newly situated frontier from American takeover. Unfortunately, a number of these soldiers were under the impression they were on a mission to beat the crap out of Riel and any Metis that happened to get in the way. A number of Metis are beaten quite badly, others sent to jail. Riel manages to escape to the States temporarily, but in a show of support, the provisional government continues to elect him as leader despite his obvious absence. After the smoke cleared, Riel returned, and set up his own government, issuing another Bill of Rights. This one went largely unanswered, and really set Riel off. General Dumont, a Metis General, worked with Riel to rally the outnumbered Metis into the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, a violent but brief uprising that focussed on attacking police stations. The army, in retaliation, sent thousands on the newly constructed Canadian Pacific Railroad to quell the insurrection, and after just three days, 200-300 Metis and their native allies surrendered. Fifty three from Ontario and thirty five native or Metis died.

Kind of an awkward looking execution of Scott. At least
put him against a wall or something, sheesh.

Here's where the story of Riel becomes somewhat polarizing. Riel was tried for treason, and sentenced to hang. Since the Metis have always been much closer to the French than the English (having many of the same customs, sharing a religion, language, etc.) the Francophone population desperately hoped for Riel to survive. The English, however, were naturally quite upset over the deaths of their men as well as the death of Thomas Scott from earlier. It became a rather politically charged decision, Macdonald having the ability to stop the execution. The fight for another term literally became of life and death. Having more votes coming from the English side of Canada, Macdonald chose to hang him as a traitor, much to the dismay of the French.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "Riel shall hang though every dog in Quebec shall bark." Macdonald's fears of French Canada's reaction to Riel's execution. 
2. "I am more convinced everyday that without a single exception I did right. And I have always believed that, as I have acted honestly, the time will come when the people of Canada will see and acknowledge it." The words of Riel himself. As it turns out, he was right - perceptions have changed drastically on Riel, likely due to the change of attitude on individual civil rights and tolerance that has marked the past several decades. 
3. "I have nothing but my heart and I have given it long ago to my country." This is an important quote in that Riel did not hate Canada - he just wanted change. He may have went about it in a way that got a whole wack of people killed, but... when maintaining his identity as a national hero that many people wish to do, that can get glossed over. 

Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" stories. Here we have a successful soldier who doesn't exist, used for a plot by men that worked with the creator of James Bond, a corpse-spy that fooled Hitler and his best men, and a British plot that saved countless lives by misinforming the Nazis to pave the way for one of the largest invasions of all time. If it were a movie and not a true story, it would be deemed too unrealistic. It's a tale of sheer luck, expert planning and dressing up the corpse of some poor Welshman. 

Now, for the background. The Allies wanted to attack Germany through initially landing in an invasion in Sicily, believing it to be what they called the "soft underbelly" of the Axis forces. However, the Nazis had this nasty tendency of defending their positions and killing everyone, a frustrating issue for the Brits. Obviously the borders to defend are massive, but that was largely a non-issue. Between any number of spies, wire-tapping and all sorts of espionage, it was darn near impossible to send a full invading force without the enemy finding out about it prior to the landing, giving them time to set up defences, move troops, and go all 300 on the attackers and hold the line. To trick the enemy, there had to be a plan of absolute sheer genius. Aaaaand enter Operation Mincemeat. 

The ID card of Major Martin. He lived by the motto
"live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse
...that can be used to trick Nazis".

Two men spearheaded an idea of tricking the Nazis into believing the attacks would not land in Sicily, but elsewhere close by, likely in Greece. Their plan was an audacious one - find a corpse, plant enough important (although faked) documents to make an enemy spy wet himself with glee, and hope it gets passed up the chain of command until it becomes fact, causing the enemy to move his pieces in all the wrong places. While on paper it sounds like a sound plan, there are an almost endless number of ways the plan would fail; the corpse wouldn't wash up on shore, it wouldn't be believable, it wouldn't be passed up the ranks, or worst of all, the Germans would read it, see it as a ruse, and prepare all the more in the Sicily believing it to be a faint. And then of course there's the matter of finding a corpse... that's not as easy as it sounds, unfortunately.

The dead man that was chosen was a poor Welsh guy with little family to speak of, meaning they could slip past the awkward "would you be so kind as to let us borrow the corpse of your son" conversation. As for the man, he died from accidentally killing himself with rat poison. He lived an uninspired life, with not much to make note of - in a way it's rather sad how his accomplishments in death, through no choice or decision of his own, far surpassed what he had done in life; heck, they blew out of the water the accomplishments of what most people would do with theirs, so maybe it's not depressing at all but morbidly inspiring. That or the most likely conclusion, being it's simply an interesting anecdote and I should continue on with the story.

Charles Chomondeley, a man who
from this picture alone you can tell put on
a quality, British, cracking good show.

Unfortunately for the masterminds behind the operation (Ewan Montagu and Charles Chomondeley) getting the body was only half the battle. If they simply put the corpse in the water with a number of battle plans the Nazis would pick it up as a fake faster than a blitzkrieg through Poland. Their job was to create a life for a dead man; they had to falsify documents, make up a personality, give him family, friends, an attitude, a rank in the military, bank dept, and every number of things that can not only be used to make him look like just an everyday military man but also things that can be completely verified. Montagu and Chomondeley slaved over letters to fill his pockets, trying to make him sound like a real man without forcing an air of honesty that would come across as unrealistic. After countless attempts and interference from higher-ups, they came to their finale - Major Martin was born from the corpse of an Welshman. The newly created Major was placed in obituary papers, had a sweetheart back home, money issues with his wealthy father, and an ID card with his photo taken (the photo was actually a separate man as the corpse was not particularly cooperative in the act of looking alive). He was also fitted for military dress, which involved the unseemly task of temporarily unfreezing his feet (he was frozen to prevent rotting) in order to remove his shoes to put on the tight military boots he needed to look authentic. I sincerely doubt Montagu had that particular moment on any future resume.

The New York Times listed him in their list of casualties.
The book noted it was the only time a fake man was listed in the
obituary pages of the newspaper. I thought this was an unnecessary thing to mention.

Now that the body was prepared (as well as a capsule to transport the corpse that was so notoriously difficult to sink and took so many gunshots when trying to dispose of the evidence it almost ruined the mission) they had to drop the body off in a place where they knew it would get picked up with the documents read and sent up the chain of command. The chosen location was neutral Spain - in particular, a part of Spain that had a large number of German sympathizers, as well as a prominent and high quality German spy. The hope was they would pick up the body, delay the attempts of the British to recover it, pass along the documents and return them untouched. Britain's plan would be to feign casual interest in retrieving the documents (too much interest would be showing their hand too much in the importance of the body, too little would mean it's obviously a fake) and eventually get them back to continue with their plans. The documents themselves stated an attack on Greece was imminent, 

with a feint to distract the Germans through an attack on Sicily - of course, it was entirely the opposite. 

Through a series of chance, the ideal people on the German side to pick up the documents and believe them (namely an expert spy to get them and an incompetent official to believe them so willingly), and absolutely ingenious planning from the Brits back home, the plan worked perfectly. The faked invasion plans made it all the way up the line to Hitler himself. On landing on the shores of Sicily some weeks later, they were met with just a fraction of the defences they had anticipated, the German army set up far, far away unable to reinforce. The Allied army crushed through the weakened line in an absolutely massive military campaign, with so much of the thanks going to a poor Welsh lad who killed himself while trying to bump off a few rats. 

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "The German in Sicily is doomed. Absolutely doomed. He won't get away." Words from British WW2 General Montgomery upon the successful invasion of Sicily. 
2. "Joy of joys to anyone, and particularly a Jew, the satisfaction of knowing that they had directly and specifically fooled that monster." Ewan Montagu, one of the leading ideas men of Operation Mincemeat.
3. "In that case, we shall have to get the body back and give it another swim." Winston Churchill on the worries of the corpse not making it to the shoreline in Spain.
4. "Glyndwr Michael served as Major William Martin." The words on the gravestone for the created agent, buried in Huelva. 

The Dionne Quintuplets

They made the cover of Time. I told
you they were a big deal.

I was initially going to argue that the Dionne Quintuplets lived one of the few truly unique lives in all of history. In a remote town in Ontario these five identical twins were born, and equally shocking, managed to survive, defying math and medicine all the same. However, that only scrapes the surface on their one of a kind lives; they were taken from their parents by the government, put on display, and became one of the greatest tourist attractions of the world as the closest thing to a freak show without actually being, you know, freakish looking. What a unique life, yes? It made sense in my mind to say so, until I realized the one obvious flaw. 

There were five, so... it's inherently not unique. Really freaking rare, yes, and I guess if you judge them as one entity... ah, whatever.

Having quintuplets is kind of like winning the lottery, except the prize is crippling financial debt in place of extreme, sudden wealth. Having them born all the same gender is like also winning some sort of bonus "play again for free!" prize at the bottom of the same ticket. Having them all survive is like taking your replay and winning all over again. The statistics on this really are mind boggling; at the time the book was written (1970-something) there had been only a handful of cases of this kind of birth in recorded history. A quick wikipedia search shows a lengthy list of multiple births which would seemingly nullify the idea that this is such an anomaly, but note the dates - they're almost exclusively after 1960, the vast majority being post-1970. The reason is fertility drugs really messed with nature, so these births are considerably more common. The Dionne Quintuplets? They were well before - 1934 to be exact. 

Then there's the fact that they survived. These babies were so shockingly tiny that the altruistic work-for-often-nothing country physician, one Dr. Dafoe, that delivered them described them as "rats" in the media due to how inhuman their size was. Immediately they were put under incredibly intensive care; a change of only a few degrees would cause their lips to turn blue or their cheeks to flush, and in such a fragile infant, that could very easily spell death. They were miracle babies, through and through, but what happened afterwards is where the story goes from a stoke of incredible chance to absolutely bizarre. And kind of tragic. There's a touch of tragic in there.

I'm wondering just how many pictures were taken
of them individually throughout their lives... their entire
family photo album must be full of pictures of them
lined up as if to say "no, seriously, they're the same looking!"

The quintuplets - Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie and Marie, in order from barely oldest to barely youngest -  quickly became one of the largest tourist attractions in the world, right here in Canada. Because of this, naturally, money was going to play a huge role in their lives. The government quite quickly snatched them up from their parents, claiming it as an attempt to save their lives from germs and kidnapping. Their solution was to hold them in, as the author described it, a "plush jail" where they spent the entirety of their young lives. They saw no other children, did not leave the facility, and were under the supervision of doctors and nurses exclusively, with almost no intervention from their parents. They were not to be close to anyone that had the possibility of making them sick. They were, however, seen by massive numbers of people. Tourists would flock to this middle-of-nowhere town to see the kids, waiting an hour and a half in line just to see these five identical twins frolic around and play with toys. It was essentially a zoo, and the province was pulling in tourism dollars left right and centre. They weren't the only ones either; that country doctor that frequently would work for no pay? He toured all over the States talking about the Quints, making thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, their fame rose. Dolls were made with their likeness, they endorsed products, and all the while having thousands stream through the "human zoo". Their height was, oddly enough, during the depression, and they served as a message of hope and good news amongst frequently nothing but bad. People would leave their viewing with tears streaming down their eyes, apparently quite easily moved as they were born before the days of television. Their main doctor became one of the most well known general practitioners in the world. Honestly, they were about as big of a celebrity as you could be in that time. They were everywhere.

At the age of eighteen, they were returned to their parents. This was where I expected the book to take a turn for the better (the name of the book being The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama) but if anything it got considerably worse. They had a terrible relationship with their parents, understandably as they would surely have no social skills whatsoever. The father was incredibly protective and stifled the girls, but he had no real choice in the matter; they needed protection. When the girls would go out together, and they typically would as they were all they knew, they would be ogled (but not in the stereotypical construction worker way when he sees a woman pass by on the street) and stared at, which didn't help the fact that the girls were, understandably again, tremendously shy. Eventually they separated almost entirely from their parents.

Here they are a little older, where you can see that
they really are identical and not just similar looking babies.

Social issues were not the only ones, either; financial problems plagued the sisters as well. They were gifted large sums of money from the government but they often squandered them on gifts, failed business ventures or otherwise. Eventually they took simple jobs, sometimes as clerks at a food store. This they did separately, and fell into obscurity. They went from being watched nearly all the time to being a faceless member of the crowd. The psychological toll their childhood must have taken surely would have left them completely unable to fend for themselves. 

The first quintuplet too pass away, Emilie, died in her twenties. She had a condition that caused the occasional seizure, which required her to be under constant supervision. She was working in a nunnery at the time, and when the nun she was with went to mass she had one of these episodes and all alone she died suffocated by her pillow. Marie died of a blood clot during a heavy episode of drinking, as she was in a terrible mental state. Yvonne, the eldest, passed away from cancer in her sixties. The two remaining survivors live together still. 

I can't tell what this story is meant to be. It began as a miracle turned world-wide sensation. Then somewhere along the way it became messy, fuelled with greed, and ultimately disastrous. The result was five girls incapable of living a normal life after having seen nothing of the sort. Regardless, I put their story in this blog because it was a major event of the 1930s in North America. Plus, it was really freaking interesting, for good or for bad.

The Dionne Quintuplets were often told they would form a relatively effective indoor soccer lineup if they could find a proper keeper.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. It's a shame I returned the book to the library as it was riddled with interesting quotations. I snagged this one from CBC's website, and it's the best I can do. The government said they would care for "all their normal needs for the rest of their lives." I just have to wonder what they would consider to be normal.

European Expansion

It's a real book. Barely any
pictures, I promise.

First off, I want to clarify that this is not a wikipedia entry. Contrary to popular belief, I'm capable of reading articles greater than a few pages in length, and have recently read the acclaimed Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. It was the most well researched book I've ever read, packed with such a sheer volume of information from a number of disciplines that each point was provided with enough evidence to warrant a book itself. In fact, it was actually researched to the point of a fault - the book had the tendency to drag on from providing so much evidence that it was easy to lose interest; you can only read on so many varieties of plant life that possess the attributes to be adequately farmed before you find yourself kind of nodding off. Fortunately I'm here, and I'm all about summaries, and if ever there's a book that can be summarized, it's this one.

Diamond's book is based off a question a man in New Guinea posed to him way back when. He asked why European countries were the ones to colonize the rest of the world while native New Guineans (spelling?) were left so far in the dust, technologically speaking. The answer comes down to a number of factors that lead to what is essentially geographical luck. Europe holds basically all the positives that are possible, while everywhere else is pretty much boned for one reason or another. The following is why Europe was good for building these cultures. If you want full details on why these are true through the evidence provided, read the darn book - otherwise, take my word for it. 

The first reason is Europe traditionally goes east/west  geographically rather than north/youth. Look at the Americas (for my friends from the U.S.A., I mean North, Central and South America, not your specific country). The land is not particularly wide. Yes, Canada may be that way, but Canada wasn't a thing back then. The continents are what's important here. North/south alignments means the trade goes across differing climates; think about it this way - Mexico is going to have a vastly different average temperature than Canada. That means they'll have difficulties trading crops and technologies as they'll be suited for completely different needs. What may grow even in the U.S. may not grow in Canada, even though the distance is relatively short. This leads to isolated groups that don't trade as frequently or as effectively. Europe on the other hand is very short and wide, meaning they can easily trade crops and technologies that link together quite well as their climate is at least relatively similar on the mainland. 

Another reason is one I've passed by on occasion throughout this blog thus far. The major crops are almost all Eurocentric, but that's not because they were the ones to decide that they're to be used, but rather because they're the most effective for mass farming. The vast majority of these crops that are prime for farming were originally European crops that have been brought to other countries and domesticated. The way farming begins, and therefore hunkering down and building societies rather than nomadic tribes, is through having crops that will provide enough food to survive with less effort than the hunter/gatherer style. These crops were good enough to provide that level of food with perhaps some supplementary meat to begin to settle down. Once that begins, cultures can begin to grow to great sizes, and when the sizes are large all of a sudden you don't need everyone working on food as that job can be taken by only a percentage of the population. The rest can begin to specialize into rulers, metalworkers, labourers, or very importantly, soldiers. That's when things begin to start sounding like modern day.

Diamond, pictured here looking perplexed.

In addition to the crops, the animals are far superior in Europe as well. The reason behind this is the "Anna Karenina principle" as Diamond calls it. The idea is that even though an animal can be nearly perfect for domestication, if it has one flaw that works against it it's fatal and cannot be used. The principle's name is based off a book where a man is looking for broads but they're all not quite perfect and thus he can't marry them... or something. I may summarize Guns, Germs and Steel but I'm not doing anything for that. Anyways, there's a number of factors that have to be in play. One, the animals have to be large, which is a difficulty right off the bat. There's not that many really big animals around, save for Africa. However, when you take a look there, they have hardly anything that works for domestication. Picture it this way - try to domesticate a rhino. You'll at least not have to worry about running out of food as everyone would surely be gored to death within a week. Gazelles, the prancing fairies of Africa, may be something a little easier. No again. Apparently, when you put them into a pen they'll try to escape so hard they'll kill themselves on the fence. Even modern-day technology hasn't been able to properly domesticate any African large animals for the purposes of food with any real success. However, up a little farther north, you have cows, pigs and sheep. The reason this is important is the same reason as the plants; you can settle down and make a home around these things as long as you can grow them nice and close. Sooner or later, you're going to have a population.

Well, there's another reason for that being important, actually... if you domesticate animals you'll be forced to live amongst their crap. Somehow - somehow - this worked out to be a plus. Living among the animals means you're going to pick up a whole pant-load of diseases over the course of the centuries living with them. Eventually, immunities are built up and it's suddenly very reasonable to live with all these animals that previously killed you just by forgetting to wash yourself. However, when the Europeans brought these over to, say, North America, the Natives did not have this same immunity. Numbers as high as 95% in certain areas were wiped out due to disease. The Natives, not having domesticated any animals of their own, did not have their brand of disease to throw back. The Natives may have traded furs, but the germ trade was completely one sided. Fun fact; when domestication first started happening in Europe, people had to be imported to the cities from the rural areas because the death total was so freaking high.

Now these are the major reasons the book listed, and I'll readily admit that I probably forgot a few here and there. After reading that book, I can honestly say I'm convinced this is truth to the point that I can't picture much else being reasonable. So there you have it. That's why the world is like it is today, and I'm sitting here in Canada as a white dude typing on my MacBook about it instead of living on some coast in France. Makes you think.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." This is the main idea of the book. The first three chapters should have been titled "seriously guys, I'm not a racist."
2. "With the rise of chiefdoms around 7,500 years ago, people had to learn, for the first time in history, how to encounter strangers regularly without attempting to kill them." Yeah... that may have not gone so well though. It worked here and there.
3. “Not until the beginning of the 20th century did Europe's urban populations finally become self-sustaining: before then, constant immigration of healthy peasants from the countryside was necessary to make up for the constant deaths of city dwellers from crowd diseases.” Just in case you were wondering why the Europeans themselves survived all the diseases from the animals in the first place - they didn't. 

Genghis Khan

(Note: The information in this one I learned mostly from the book "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World".)

Genghis didn't allow paintings
or drawings of himself, so
the depictions of him were done
after his death. Personally, I like to believe
he looked a lot cooler than this.

You hear the name Genghis Khan and typically the first idea that comes up is a bloodthirsty, vicious barbarian. Well, that's a half truth. He certainly had his moments of savagery, and under his rule countless thousands of people died, but he wasn't as barbaric as some would think. In fact, he was one of the greatest rulers the world has ever seen, and he came from about as low on the totem pole as you could go. He was truly an absolutely brilliant strategist, political mind and forward thinker, eventually becoming one of the most powerful men who has ever lived. His story is filled with victory after victory and consistent quality of life improvements for his people. In Mongolia, Genghis Khan's memory is treated practically like a god, and heck, they really have every reason to do so.

 Genghis Khan's name was Temujin, finding his title he will be better known for much later in his life. He was born into at the time what was a typical Mongolian story - he was part of a nomadic tribe constantly warring with other tribes (although by that I mean mostly just hit and run attacks that steal some women and goods). Friends with another tribe, he was set to marry Borte, a childhood friend of his who would stick with him the rest of his life. He was also the son of the chieftain, an important position but one that would cause great turmoil in his life. His father died at an early age, leaving Temujin to take over his role - unfortunately, this happened pretty early in his life. His tribe could hold no respect or take orders from someone as young as he was, and he and his mother, along with his older siblings, were banished. Now, banishment is pretty rough back in the day. His mother was forced to feed off berries and rats and whatever she could forage for her and her kin. She had no tribe to fall back on, no support, and living in constant fear of some tribe deciding that this banished woman would be useful target practice. Nevertheless, she persevered and kept the family running. However, Temujin wasn't overly fond of the family dynamic. Older siblings in Mongolian culture basically run the show of the younger ones; if he says jump, they jump. Unfortunately for his older brother, he did not know he was dealing with what would one day be someone considered kind of a big (and terrifying) deal. Temujin murdered his brother, presumedly making for a very awkward family brunch the next morning.

That's better. He looks way cooler now.

With the older brother out of the way, things were looking up for our would-be murderous leader. He met with a tribe living close by and befriended Jamukha, a man whom he became intensely close with and they would be exceptionally good friends right up until the time they became fierce and bitter rivals wanting to kill each other. But that didn't happen for a while, as Temujin had his next trial coming right at him... literally, in the form of raiding horsemen. Temujin was captured and forced to live in slavery for most likely what is close to about a decade. A man eventually released him against the orders of his tribe, causing Temujin to make a harrowing escape and returning back to his family once again. He then sought out Borte, neither of whom forgetting about the other despite the length of time between their last visit (long distance relationships were also difficult at the time). He then married Borte, solidifying a relationship between his and her tribe.

He then participated in what was typical Mongolian life at the time - raiding enemy tribes, stealing items and taking their possessions, both goods and women. It was basically an endless system - they would rarely fight and the men would typically just flee on horseback, and eventually the attacked tribe would counterattack and break somewhat even. It was endless; no one really grew to be any great power, and life was stagnant. Temujin didn't approve of this system and sought to change it for the better. Instead of killing enemy tribes, he integrated them. He would take orphans from tribes he defeated as his sons, and would show some degree of mercy towards them, offering them to join under his rule. He would give position to men based not on family ties or by which tribe they were born into but instead through merit and loyalty. His family traditionally did not receive the best treatment, but instead were regular people in his forces with maybe a slight nod to the bloodline now and then. Through integrating with the tribes, he began to grow in power.

Jamukha (if you're too lazy to scroll up, this was his childhood buddy) became displeased with his newfound power and method of ruling. He and Temujin fought a number of small skirmishes and outright wars between them, with Temujin eventually coming out on top. In an early showing of his cunning military strategy, he would sometimes have his men create multiple fires when setting up camp in sight of the enemy, making them believe they had many more men than they actually did. This caused some men to defect to their side, bolstering their forces while weakening the enemy. After defeating Jamukha, he offered peace between them, saying there was still a kinship between them. Jamukha agreed, but said that there was only to be one ruler, and he then could not live as it would be disruptive to that rule. Temujin, with heavy heart, killed Jamukha.

Just look at how much he took over. This is his territory at
the time of his death. It makes Hitler and the Roman
Empire both look like chumps.

...Not so heavy as to slow down his growing power, though. With the defeat of his old friend, Temujin had done the impossible, and united the warring tribes of Mongolia under one banner. He now had a powerful army, and one that would be trained incredibly well using a series of maneuvers that would be performed exclusively on horseback. He carried no infantry in his army, and had an incredibly mobile and fast attack force. They had such a high volume of horses that he often would have his men bring multiple to switch them out at times of warfare to keep them from getting tired. He also brought no supply train, a unique idea, but instead had the live animals follow his army, once again allowing for speed and mobility.

With a force of well trained horsemen at his side, he set his sights to the south and southwest of his territory, a number of cities along the silk road that had numerous luxury goods that Mongolia simply did not have. These cities, however, posed a new, previously unseen problem for the Mongol horde. Walls. The Mongols were not really big on buildings, being a nomadic people, and were completely new to siege warfare. Regardless, Temujin (now given the title of Genghis Khan, basically meaning 'strong ruler') quickly adapted to the new challenge. For one city, he actually diverted the river to flood the city and its inhabitants. For another, he began to build and utilize siege weapons he had discovered from previous attacks. During one assault, he used the brilliant tactic of feigning a hasty retreat leaving a number of the supplies and goods of the Mongols behind. The city guards then went to take the spoils, but were surprise attacked by flanking Mongol horsemen who eagerly ran into the newly opened city walls. He was proving to be an unstoppable, brilliant tactician.

Traditionally, Genghis would enter a city and slaughter the soldiers that stood against him, along with members of the aristocracies that he believed may attempt to rise up against him. The ones he would keep, however, were the men and women who provided some variety of useful service - scholars, engineers, miners and the like that the Mongols had few of. They were integrated into the culture and treated as equals. His raids were wildly successful and his losses very low. There were proving to be few that could stand in his way.

He's on their $1000 bill. Or whatever they call
dollars there. I'm not really sure. Either way,
it's a big number and his face is on it.

Setting his eyes westward to the Khwarezmian Dynasty, he approached with trade in mind. You see, Genghis would not likely attack a city completely by surprise. He would offer their surrender in which he would (honestly) not kill a soul. Problems arose if they didn't take their offer as they would never really get a second one - once you deny the terms, you're done. This time he sent an envoy with a number of costly trade goods to the king of the Khwarezmian Dynasty. Unfortunately for the dynasty (and the envoy) they separated their heads from their body and their goods from the Mongols. Naturally, Genghis Khan was quite upset, which traditionally did not work out very well for those that caused that feeling in him. He then annihilated the cities, allowing some citizens to escape to spread fear of the Mongols to other cities. Genghis Khan effectively used this as propaganda, encouraging stories of atrocities by their armies to weaken the resolve of the enemy cities. However, the Mongols never tortured or caused any unnecessary, excess pain. There was a lot of death, but the deaths were swift. His victories were swift and effective, making him and his empire so incredibly rich that he literally had too many goods to spread around. In a first for him and his culture, they built permanent buildings to house the many spoils of war. Suddenly, Genghis Khan has territory, an unstoppable army, and the love of his people. And he was freaking loaded.

Next up on the chopping block was Russia, a country he sent 20,000 soldiers led by two trusted generals to take. They sent word to a number of Russian princes who knew little of the Mongolian prowess in warfare. The European armies, along with Russia, mostly were composed of foot soldiers and knights that were loaded up in heavy armour. Once again, the Mongols used the retreating tactics and mobility to lure the Russians towards them. Thinking they had them defeated, the Russians chased the Mongols. Genghis Khan allowed them to close but never within striking distance. The fastest Russians were soon separated, and once the forces were spread, the Mongols let loose with a volley of arrows that had greater range than the European bows. On foot and lower in numbers, with their cavalry now exhausted from the horses carrying the heavy armour, they were forced into retreat - running headlong into the advancing, slower forces from before, causing tremendous confusion. Hardly any Mongolians were killed and the Russians were absolutely destroyed, hunted down easily one by one.

Sometime after, Genghis Khan attempted to lay down the law in regards to succession to his throne. By now, he was exceptionally old. This was an issue that was put off for quite some time, as the Mongols, oddly enough, didn't really like to chat about death. Naming an heir to the throne meant the death of the ruler, and that discussion was somewhat taboo. He attempted to set up which of his sons would take his role, but there was intense disagreement within his family and ultimately the cause of the end of the Mongolian empire. They just couldn't last without him. Nowadays, he's an absolute hero for his incredible reign in Mongolia and the numerous outlying areas he took over with ease.

He had a Khan do attitude.

Famous Historical Figures Say the Darndest Things!

1. "I am the punishment of God... If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you." Genghis Khan was actually really big on religious freedom. His homeland was filled with Christians, Muslims and others. When raiding some of the European countries, he was seen as a punishment for the sins they had committed.
2. "The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters." I like this quote because he most likely didn't say it. It was attributed to him long after his death, and goes to show just how varied the interpretations on his rule were (and are).