building_description_texts_long_description_prest_maratha_ajinkyatara \n\nIt is located on top of an imposing mountain, making any attempt to take it difficult indeed. Even a long siege would be a difficult proposition, as the fort is well supplied with water. The fort itself controls the surrounding countryside completely: no foe can move in southern Maharashtra without being observed.\n\nThe fort was taken by Shrimant Shahu Sambhaji Raje Bhonsle Chhatrapati Maharaj (1682-1749), the fourth ruler of the Maratha Empire. Shahu Chhatrapati was a survivor, of both Mughal captivity and a Maratha civil war. He was freed at the end of the War of 27 years (1681-1707) and managed to bring stability and careful expansion to the Marathas. Given that he had spent most of his childhood as an honoured prisoner of the Mughals, his efforts are creditable indeed. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_maratha_shaniwarwada \n\nThe palace name reflects the auspicious day Shaniwar (Saturday), 10 January 1730 when the foundation stones were placed by the prime minister, Baji Rao, of the Maratha Empire. This wada (or residential complex) was never intended for the king, but to be an official residence for prime ministers and his administration of the Maratha Empire. No expense was spared in its construction: every door in the building was hand-carved from the finest teak; every floor was the finest marble available. The palace took two years to complete, and later prime ministers made it grander still, adding bastions, and magnificent gardens.\n\nWhen designed, the Shaniwar Wada was as much a fortress as palace. An army attempting to breach its gates faced formidable defences.\n\nThe building still exists, although it is much reduced from its former grandeur. A fire in 1828 destroyed much of the original, leaving only the granite structures undamaged. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_ottomans_naval_engineering_school \n\nThe Naval Engineers’ School began as a training school at the Golden Horn shipyards, and was put on a formal footing by Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha (1713-90), the Grand Vizier of Sultan Mustafa III, and a Franco-Hungarian military adviser, François Baron de Tott. It was a part of Mustafa’s efforts to modernise the Turkish military and naval system in the face of considerable resistance from the janissaries and their leadership. The teaching given was extremely good, and produced fine officers.\n\nHasan Pasha is actually almost more interesting than the school, as he started life as a slave in eastern Turkey and rose through the ranks of the military. He even spent time with the Barbary Pirates of Algiers and, while there, domesticated a lion as a pet! Despite being on the losing side at Battle of Chesma in 1770 his ship, the 84-gun Real Mustafa, was one of the few on the Turkish side to emerge with any credit. His record certainly helped when it came to driving through the (limited) reforms that Mustafa managed to achieve. Baron de Tott’s other achievement was the establishment of a new cannon foundry. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_ottomans_nur-u_osmaniye_mosque \n\nIt is designed in a style that was extremely popular in the Ottoman Empire of the 1700s, and was ordered by Sultan Mahmud I in 1748. Unfortunately for him, it was only completed in the reign of Sultan Osman III in 1755, and is probably the most significant achievement of that particular sultan. The name of the mosque, “Light of Osman” commemorates his efforts in financing this superb, light, airy building with its many windows.\n\nBy most standards (even those of an 18th Century absolute monarch) Osman was a little odd. He was notably intolerant towards non-Muslims and generally regarded as a bit insignificant before he took the throne. He had lived much of his life within the palace as a prisoner. He loathed music, and banished every musician from his court. He also found the company of women extremely distasteful, having been imprisoned within the harem section of the palace. When he became Sultan he took to wearing iron shoes so that his approach would always be audible. Any women in the vicinity were expected to hear him coming, and then find somewhere to hide while he passed by. He was succeeded by Mustafa III, a better fellow and ruler by far. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_poland_akademia \n\nHistorically, the Akademia, or Szkoła Rycerska, was the Knights’ School or the Nobles’ Academy of Cadets. It was the first state school in Poland, established by King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the last elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1765. King Stanislaw had an abiding belief in the worth of education, both to the individual and the state. Surrounded by enemies, he did his best to advance Polish interests.\n\nOne of the more interesting officer cadets was Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817). Benjamin Franklin recruited him to serve in the Continental Army, and he was appointed as head (military) engineer. His contributions at Ticonderoga and Saratoga, among other occasions, eventually lead to his promotion to brigadier general. He was also given citizenship, land and a large cash grant. To his eternal credit, he used his reward money to help black slaves achieve their freedom. Not satisfied with that, he returned home to Poland and organised a rising against the occupying Russians, although this ended in failure. Tsar Paul I, however, obviously thought him important and influential: in return for an oath of loyalty, 20,000 Polish prisoners of war were freed. Before his death in exile in 1815, Kościuszko had also freed all his serfs in Poland. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_poland_lazienki_park \n\nThe Park and its gardens were acquired by Stanislaw II August Poniatowski, the last King and Grand Duke of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, after his election. Although already impressive, he set about remodelling them, and made the gardens his life’s work, building his “Palace on the Water” in a suitably magnificent setting by the Lake. This watery connection was how the park got its name of Lazienki or “Royal Baths” Park, after the bathing pavilion that was constructed in the gardens.\n\nThe garden was also a magnificent setting for Stanislaw’s regular dinner parties with leading artists, writers and politicians. While Stanislaw was something of an autocrat, he was also a believer in education and the ideas of the Enlightenment, using the dinners to engage with leading thinkers.\n\nThe park and palaces were lucky to survive the Warsaw Rising in 1944. They were mined for destruction, but the German occupiers never completed their demolition works, although the Lazienki Palace was burned. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_prussia_berlin_academy \n\nWhile the Academy was a pet project of Prince Frederick III, the Elector of Brandenburg, he did not fund it from royal or state treasuries. Instead, he rather cleverly granted the academy a monopoly on producing and selling calendars in his domain, giving it a steady, but not substantial, income. When Frederick was crowned as “King in Prussia”, the Academy was granted royal patronage.\n\nUnder Frederick the Great, a man normally regarded as a warrior-king, the academy merged with Prussian Nouvelle Société Littéraire (French being a primary language of literature and culture in the 18th Century) and the Royal Academy of Sciences. He also offered cash prizes as incentives to the members to investigate and solve the scientific conundrums of the day. The Academy had its own laboratories, an observatory, libraries, an operating theatre (for public demonstrations of surgery), and gardens for plant specimens. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_prussia_brandenburg_gate \n\nSited on one of the original city gates of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate stands at the end of the Unter den Linden, the original approach to the city palace of Frederick II, the King of Prussia. The monumental entrance was always intended to overawe and dwarf anyone going to the palace, making clear Prussian greatness before they had even begun their audience with the monarch.\n\nThe choice of a Classical style was quite deliberate, as it was intended to echo the achievements of Rome and Greece. The decoration of a Quadriga of Victory, or four-horse chariot, is also intended to evoke ancient connotations of triumph, specifically the quadriga from the Hippodrome of Constantinople. It was definitely a symbol of peace through strength, which is almost certainly one of the reasons that it was looted and taken to Paris by Napoleon in 1806 after his victory at Jena-Auerstedt. The quadriga was returned in 1814, when Napoleon went into exile on Elba, and given the Iron Cross symbol that it currently carries. Subsequently, the Brandenburg Gate managed to survive two World Wars and the Cold War in a relatively undamaged state. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_russia_kunstkamara \n\nThe museum was the idea of Peter the Great, and was built facing his magnificent Winter Palace in the purpose-built “window on the west” of St. Petersburg. The collection has a morbid, even prurient air to it, as it features a huge number of “natural curiosities” in the form of human and animal foetuses and still-births, all carefully preserved so that their details can be studied. The point, however, wasn’t simply to collect odd items for the sake of collecting oddities. Peter the Great wished to debunk the superstitions and fears of Russia which, even though he was the tsar, he regarded as backwards and ignorant.\n\nHe had little interest in collecting man-made objects, unlike the hunters and collectors of antiquities at other great museums of the time. Major collections of minerals, rocks and scientific instruments were added to the Kunstkamera (a word derived from Dutch). The museum survived as a single collection for around a century, then its collections were despatched to a variety of Imperial museums. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_russia_winter_palace \n\nIt did so magnificently. The location in St. Petersburg was part of Peter’s policy of opening up to western ideas, where they were suitable for Russia, and his adoption of western architecture, culture and technology. The Tsar wanted his Palace to be the centrepiece of a “Third Rome” on the River Neva, and a new Imperial seat of government for all the Russias. It was deliberately built to be a palace rather than a fortress like the Kremlin in Moscow, although the wide prospects and avenues of St. Petersburg certainly made it entirely defensible by musket-armed troops.\n\nThe Palace remained as the official home of the Tsars for the next two centuries. It continued to play an important part in Imperial affairs until the end of Tsarist Russia and beyond. The 1905 “Bloody Sunday” massacre of unarmed protestors publicly demonstrated that the Tsar, for all the propaganda about being the “Little Father” of his people, had scant regard for the needs of ordinary folk. The storming of the Winter Palace in 1917 is an iconic moment in Russian history, the defining moment in the establishment of the Soviet state. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_spain_academia \n\nThe Academy received royal approval in 1744, but it was not until the reign of Carlos III that it found a proper home in a former Baroque palace. This is somewhat surprising given that Carlos was a benevolent despot and rather fond of hunting. He was, however, also much given to public works and, more significantly for the advancement of the arts, had had a serious falling out with the anti-Enlightenment Jesuits. He suppressed the order in Spain and rendered the Spanish Inquisition largely ineffective.\n\nThe Academy included many artists of note, but surely its most distinguished master was Francisco Goya (1746-1828). Goya was supremely talented, and became the painter of choice in the Spanish court. His work marks a transition between the work of the “Old Masters” and the modern world to come: his painting “La maja desnuda” has been described as the first non-symbolic nude painting in the Western world. Sadly, he was tortured by deafness and illness in later life, and his painting took on a grimmer, darker feel.\n\nThe Academy is now home to a fine collection of paintings from the 15th Century onwards. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_spain_palacio_real_de_madrid \n\nOriginally a Moorish fortress when Madrid was ruled by the Islamic emir of Cordoba, and then a castle under the stewardship of the Christian kings of Castile, the site was not regularly used as a royal residence. The Antiguo Alcázar or Old Castle dated back to the 16th Century, but this burned down on Christmas Eve, 1734.\n\nKing Philip V, the first of the Bourbon rulers of Spain, ordered a new palace to be constructed. Perhaps he had it in mind to create a rival to Versailles, the palace of his grandfather, Louis XIV of France. In the event, he died before the construction work was complete and never lived in the New Palace, as it was only in 1764 that Carlos III occupied the building. As a setting for a monarchy, however, the palace had been well worth waiting for! It is vast: with 2800 rooms it is far bigger than any other European palace. \n\nIt is still the official residence of the Spanish monarchy, although it is only used for state occasions. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_sweden_konglig_museum \n\nThe Royal Museum was founded in 1792 by King Gustav III, and gave a home to his exquisite artwork collection. It now forms the core of the Swedish Nationalmuseum. \n\nGustav was an absolutist, as might be expected of a nephew of Frederick the Great of Prussia. He objected to parliamentary reforms, sought to distract everyone’s attention with an unsuccessful war against Russia and ignored public opinion. Although he was a playwright and a patron of music, the arts and sciences, and spent liberally on all of them, he did so without gaining much popularity among the people or nobles. His museum was the result of his free spending ways: where art was concerned, he was rather liberal with his money.\n\nIn the end, Gustav was assassinated by a conspiracy of noblemen at the Royal Opera House, an event that itself was turned into an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, Un ballo in maschera (The Masked Ball). Verdi had to change many of the details due to government censorship, as the assassination of a monarch was felt to be a bit too controversial in Italy of the 1850s. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_sweden_slott \n\nBuilt on the site of an older fortress called the Three Crowns, the current Palace is actually its second incarnation as the first building was destroyed in fire in 1697. The current version was designed by Count Nicodemus Tessin (the Younger), an able Baroque architect and city planner, and took the best part of 50 years to complete in brick and sandstone. Much of the surrounding city was also re-laid as moats and the like were filled in.\n\nThe Palace is still in use as the official residence of the Swedish monarchy, and houses significant museum collections, including the Livrustkammaren, or Royal Armoury within its 609 rooms. This is the oldest museum in Sweden, established by the great Gustavus Adolphus in 1628 when he decided to keep and display his equipment from his Polish campaigns. The various departments of the royal court and household are also still based in the palace, as are the Högvakten, the Royal Guard of the Svea Livgarde (Lifeguards), who have been a part of Palace life since the 1750s. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_unitedprovinces_kweekschool \n\nThe Dutch Navy owes its existence to the arming of Dutch trading ships in the 16th Century and earlier, often in direct contravention of orders from their Spanish overlords. The independently-minded Dutch were not minded to take much notice of such instructions. A centralised navy, dedicated solely to warfare, could trace its origins back to 1488, and had managed to dominate the seas for much of that time.\n\nA formal training system for officers, however, had to wait until 1785 when this land-based training establishment was opened. Before that, officers had learned their trade at sea, in a very practical way. The whole business was formalised under the short-live Republic of Batavia (1795-1806), although by this time maritime supremacy had passed to the British Royal Navy. Nevertheless, the Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart was one of the most prestigious naval schools, and produced fine officers. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_unitedprovinces_teylers_museum \n\nPieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702–1778) left his fortune to the furthering of science and culture, as befitted a part-Scottish follower of the Scottish Enlightenment. He also left money for some almshouses for the poor folk of Haarlem. Before his death he had established various learned societies in the town and, like many gentlemen of the period, had a “cabinet of curiosities”: a large collection of objects of interest or antiquarian value. His fortune, made from the cloth trade, was certainly large enough to let him indulge in his passions for science and collecting.\n\nThe museum was a reflection of his interests, and was added to over the years so that it now has a fine collection of fossils, scientific instruments (and making them was something of a Dutch speciality), coins, paintings, prints and drawings. Pieter Teyler left a charitable and worthy legacy of a “Christian gentleman” in the museum and the almshouses. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_usa_independence_hall \n\n Independence Hall in Philadelphia was actually built by the Pennsylvania colonial legislature as their State House, and so for the first two decades after completion it was home to part of the British administration in America. It is a practical, red brick building in a grand colonial style and has an architectural honesty and pleasing, human proportion to it that is sometimes lacking in grander neo-Classical structures.\n\nFrom 1775, the building was the home to the Second Continental Congress, the representatives of the Thirteen Colonies who approved the Declaration of Independence. The romantic view is that the “Liberty Bell” was rung to bring citizens to hear the reading of the Declaration in July 1776. Unfortunately, for romantics, historians now believe that the steeple of Independence Hall was in too bad a state to allow the ringing of any bells from the Hall. That hasn’t stopped the romantics believing the story for a minute! Independence Hall was abandoned by Congress when the British occupied Philadelphia from 1777-78. The government eventually moved to a specially created federal district (later to become Washington DC) when a mutiny by the Continental Army drove them out of Philadelphia in 1783. But for the actions of the mutineers, Philadelphia would probably still be the capital of the United States. False
building_description_texts_long_description_prest_usa_smithsonian \n\nThe Smithsonian is not like other major museums, established to show off the collections of wealthy patrons or as an exercise in national glory. Instead, it is the legacy of a man who was neither an American nor visited the country. James Smithson (1765–1829) stipulated that his fortune was to be used for the “increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men” if his nephew died without leaving an heir. With over pre-inflationary $500,000 in the fund, it took Congress nearly a decade to decide how to spend the money and the Smithsonian “Castle” in Washington was only completed in 1855.\n\nSince then, the Smithsonian has become one of the world’s leading repositories for historical objects and archives, funded by the US government and private donations. It now has 20 different branches, specialising in everything from ethnic art and objects to aerospace exhibits, and helping to manage the Smithsonian is one of the (very few) official duties of the Vice President of the United States. False
building_description_texts_long_description_pTrade1_trading_port_european \n\nMost roads are simply terrible, and bulky cargoes must go by ship: it is the only way of moving goods cheaply and relatively quickly. Trading ports improve a country's export capacity and increase trade value. They also make the whole world a marketplace, by allowing sea trade routes to be established.\n\nSometimes, the customers are not sure what to make of the goods they are being sent: British merchants insisted on exporting heavy woollen cloth to India for years, even though there was no market for it! Coastal trade was also an easy way to turn a profit in Britain, the leading trade nation. A “cheese fleet” did nothing but sail back and forth between London and the northwest of England, bringing Cheshire cheeses to the London market. By a happy accident of geology, Cheshire had rock salt mines that provided the preservative needed for the local cheese to make the sea journey to London. Although salty, this was undoubtedly healthier than most food on a gentleman’s table! False
building_description_texts_long_description_pTrade2_commercial_port_european \n\nA commercial basin opens up new opportunities for trade, as agents now put together cargoes and charter vessels for merchants who would otherwise be unable to trade. This significantly improves not only the town’s wealth, but the entire regions and opens up a number of new sea trade routes that had previously been inaccessible. This commercial advance does have one disadvantage however, the lower classes resent their harsh working conditions and their happiness is affected.\n\nThe infamous triangle of trade between Bristol and Liverpool, in England, and Africa was a staggeringly profitable business. Manufactured goods, guns, cloth and trinkets went to Africa, where they were traded to the local warlords. Slaves, carried in horrendous conditions, made up the cargo for the middle run, across the Atlantic. In the Caribbean and America, the survivors were sold, and the ships loaded with sugar and rum bound for Britain. There was a handsome profit in each stage. The moral foulness of the trade, however, eventually trumped its profitability and, in 1807, the abolitionists finally succeeded in having the slave trade banned throughout the British Empire. Existing slaves, however, were not freed in British territories until 1833. False
building_description_texts_long_description_pTrade2_commercial_port_european \n\nA commercial basin opens up new opportunities for trade, as agents now put together cargoes and charter vessels for merchants who would otherwise be unable to trade. This significantly improves not only the town’s wealth, but the entire region's and opens up a number of new sea trade routes that had previously been inaccessible. This commercial advance does have one disadvantage however, the lower classes resent their harsh working conditions and their happiness is affected.\n\nThe infamous triangle of trade between Bristol and Liverpool, in England, and Africa was a staggeringly profitable business. Manufactured goods, guns, cloth and trinkets went to Africa, where they were traded to the local warlords. Slaves, carried in horrendous conditions, made up the cargo for the middle run, across the Atlantic. In the Caribbean and America, the survivors were sold, and the ships loaded with sugar and rum bound for Britain. There was a handsome profit in each stage. The moral foulness of the trade, however, eventually trumped its profitability and, in 1807, the abolitionists finally succeeded in having the slave trade banned throughout the British Empire. Existing slaves, however, were not freed in British territories until 1833. False
building_description_texts_long_description_pTrade3_trading_company_european \n\nTrading companies can be enormous, with fleets of armed merchant ships carrying all manner of cargoes. An enterprise of this size greatly improves export capacity and increases trade value; it also improves the wealth of town and region each turn. The improved ship building capacity provided by this port also increases the number of sea trade routes that can be utilised. Unfortunately, the happiness of the lower classes is greatly affected by their unpleasant working conditions in the company enterprises.\n\nHistorically, the great East India companies of Britain, France and the Netherlands were armed, quasi-independent mercantile states. The British East India Company was wealthy almost beyond imagining: its trade represented about one-sixth of the British national income. Like the French “Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales” and Dutch “Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie”, the “John Company” had its own fleet and army. In India it fought wars and had its own foreign policy, giving the British government little choice but to support its actions. In modern times only petrochemical, mining and arms companies have commanded comparable power over developing nations. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rFarm1_farms_european \n\nTenanted farms primarily produce cash crops. The landlord expects his rent to be paid, but successful tenants who develop the land can become quietly wealthy men. They may be able to buy their farms.\n\nHistorically, tenanted farms made a good profit but, like all farming, were subject to the vagaries of the weather. Crops failed with terrible regularity, forcing up food prices and causing social unrest.\n\nTenancies could be, and were, passed down the generations of families, something that allow tenants to see a point in developing “their” land with their cash surplus. For a landlord the main benefit of tenanted farms was the income. Landlords could live the high life in a city and rarely needed to trouble themselves with the mud and muck of the countryside, at least as long as they had trustworthy agents and tenants! A leisured class of “gentlemen farmers” and rentiers therefore arose, all thanks to the efforts of tenant farmers. As a class, landowners suffered terribly in the French Revolution as the peasants who actually did all the work took bloody revenge for years of ill treatment. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rFarm2_clearances_european \n\nTenanted farms can only generate so much income from rents. With an increase in town size, and an increased demand from industry for agricultural products, it is more profitable to have herds of animals, not a gaggle of tenants. Clearances add to the agricultural wealth of a region, as demand for meat and wool increases rapidly. Apart from any other considerations, moving people off land also creates large areas where landowners can indulge a passion for hunting.\n\nThe “Highland Clearances” are probably the most famous example of a forced change to land usage on a large scale. Despite popular legend, it was Highland clan leaders who carried out most of the Scottish clearances, driving their own kinsmen and clansmen into exile. The chieftains wanted to pay for the sophisticated life that they could have in Edinburgh and London by reinventing themselves as Scottish gentry. Sheep simply earned more money than the crofters did. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rFarm3_great_estates_european \n\nLarge estates are a statement of wealth, complete with dazzling palace-sized grand houses built without thought to the expense. Landowners and the great nobility vie with each other to produce not just houses, but also idealized landscapes around them. Where the terrain is not dramatic enough, it is ruthlessly reorganised to suit the owner’s tastes, and to the misery of the lower classes who are forced leave their homes to make way for deer parks and Classical follies.\n\nHistorically, a group of landscape architects in Europe completely remodelled many country estates into idyllically perfect vistas for their clients. They created the fantasy of a natural landscape, improving on what was there to make entirely “artificial” (and this was not a term of disapproval at the time) parkland dotted with romantic ruins and follies. In the process, men like Lancelot “Capability” Brown remade hills, flooded valleys, moved rivers, destroyed entire villages and displaced people without mercy. Many of these amazing houses and gardens still exist today as tourist attractions. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rGold1_gold_mine_european \n\nNo one, however, cares about those, as the greed of men for gold seems to know no limits; even townsfolk uninvolved in the mine feel the benefit of the wealth produced. It is a dirty, dangerous business and the miners risk everything for the sake of the owner’s profits.\n\nHistorically, profits for owners were the only consideration in mines. Accidents were seen as inevitable and annoying, because they slowed down extraction. Miners were expected to work in terrible conditions, and paid piece rates for their work. Because safety work and shoring up tunnels did not earn money, the tasks were skipped. What point is there in working if you are not going to be paid? Pit props may stop tunnels collapsing, but putting them in is not paid work, and the miners may even be charged for the materials! Owners were quite willing to charge them for candles, tools and gunpowder. They were also willing to pay lower rates to women and child labourers too: women often pull carts to the surface and children need less space and air than adults. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rGold2_steam-pumped_gold_mine_european \n\nA steam beam engine, linked to a pump, can lift enough water in a short time to keep a mine open, and make it sensible to dig deep shafts. Older workings can be kept going even after shallow gold deposits have been plundered. Who is to say how much more money can be made, deep beneath the ground? A steam-pumped gold mine makes an impressive contribution to the mining wealth of its region, and improves the town wealth too. However, even by the standards of the time, conditions for the workers are unpleasant and this makes the lower classes unhappy.\n\nBy the time of the Napoleonic Wars, beam engines were over 80 years old, and the engineering behind them was well understood. Cornishman Thomas Newcomen’s original “atmospheric” engine, first used in tin mines, had been made obsolete by newer condensing steam engines. Designs pioneered by James Watt, efficient as they were, did not always persuade mine owners to spend money on replacing old machinery when it was still profitable! False
building_description_texts_long_description_rGold3_industrial_gold_mining_complex_european \n\nOnce gold-bearing rock has been dug up, the real work can start: processing and smelting everything that comes up to extract every last troy ounce of gold. Entire hillsides can be ripped apart by men’s labour, and then more men hunt work night and day around hellish furnaces. The result is that this mine is a massive addition to the wealth of the region and surrounding towns. The process, however, involves a great deal of work in very unpleasant circumstances, and the lower classes in the whole region are made unhappy by this building.\n\nA mine owner, on the other hand, can be enriched beyond the dreams of Croesus, despite the cost in human terms. In addition to deaths in the mines, there are deaths in the processing sheds too: dust is ever present, and the fumes from smelting works are often poisonous. A large mine can poisons land and water for miles around, and turn pleasant countryside into a wasteland of spoil heaps and toxic ponds. This does not matter, as long as profit continues. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rHorse1_stables_european \n\nA cavalryman is only as good as his horse, so the care of these animals should be first and foremost in his mind. Stables add to the agricultural wealth of a region, although producing draft animals is not their primary purpose.\n\nHistorically, the national stud farms of France were closed during the Revolution because they were seen as a symbol of the decadent aristocracy. When Napoleon came to power he re-opened them and proceeded to recreate France’s breeding stock, taking stallions from conquered enemies. He kept a personal stable of about eighty horses, most of which were good-tempered and gentle gallopers. Growing up in Corsica, Napoleon never received any formal training in the equestrian arts and many reported that his riding style was practical, but lacking in refinement. It is also worth noting that a general has better things to do in battle than worry about controlling his horse. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rHorse2_stud_farm_european \n\nAdvances in animal husbandry allow horse breeders to become more selective about the traits they wish to cultivate, thus improving the military worth of their horses. With better breeding schemes the recruitment of cavalry units becomes significantly cheaper, as less effort has to be expended in finding good quality mounts. A stud farm also adds significantly to the agricultural wealth of a region.\n\nHistorically, the Tarbes Stud Farm near Lourdes in the Midi-Pyrénées region of France was one of the most famous of the Napoleonic era. Established in 1806, it was created to provide hussar regiments with horses. It took pure-bred horses from many sources, including the pure-blooded English, pure-blooded Arab, as favoured by Napoleon himself, along with French saddle, Merens, and Clydesdales from Brittany and Franche-Comté. The Anglo-Arab cross was first produced at Tarbes. The stud farm remains open to this day. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rHorse3_equestrian_estate_european \n\nThis large, palatial estate specialises in the breeding and training of horses and helps to make the recruitment of cavalry units a great deal cheaper. Its main purpose is to provide mounts for cavalry regiments, thus allowing new units to be raised. As well as improving the cavalry regiments of an army, an equestrian estate will add substantially to the agricultural wealth of a region.\n\nHistorically, Napoleon favoured white or grey Arabian horses over the more traditional thoroughbreds. These animals were put through an incredibly rigorous training regime before they were ridden by Napoleon. Trained by his riding master, they were subjected to gunfire, swords and flags being waved in front of them, drums, trumpets and other instruments being played without warning, and they even had animals driven between their legs. These horses had to be ready for any eventuality on and off the battlefield. Napoleon enjoyed riding for pleasure and was almost killed when a horse bolted and threw him against a tree. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rIron1_iron_mine_european \n\nLit only by candles or lamps, most miners work in hellish conditions. In some mines firedamp, or methane, produces a constant risk of explosion thanks to the naked lights. The risk of a slow death is there too: stone dust and poisonous minerals such as arsenic ruin a man as surely as any blast.\n\n Historically, mining accidents were very common. Miners were paid only for the valuable minerals that they extracted, so there was little incentive to carry out safety work. Pit props will prevent a roof from collapsing, but putting them in did not earn any payment. Indeed, mine owners were known to charge for the wood needed to make them. It was not just men who laboured below the ground. Women often pulled carts from the work face to the surface. Children needed less space and air than adults, which made them ideal support workers, clearing tunnels and taking food and water to the miners. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rIron2_steam-pumped_iron_mine_european \n\nAs soon as a mine shaft drops below the water table, flooding is a constant danger to life and profits. Pumping or lifting the water allows the miners to reach richer, deeper mineral seams. A stationary steam beam engine can lift enough water to make it economically sensible to dig deep shafts. The greater availability of iron also makes the recruitment of all land units significantly cheaper. However these new inventions are not welcome among the lower classes. They quite rightly fear being replaced with machines, and are unhappy as a result.\n\nHistorically, Thomas Newcomen was the first to develop a practical “atmospheric” engine for draining deep mines sometime around 1710. His design had some problems and was inefficient, but it worked well enough to be widely adopted where coal was easy to obtain. James Watt’s beam engine design was altogether more efficient, and it formed the basis of all steam engines built afterwards. He was also lucky in his choice of working partner: Matthew Boulton proved to be an astute business manager and lobbyist. Boulton even persuaded the British Parliament to extend the steam engine patent, guaranteeing the pair further profit! False
building_description_texts_long_description_rIron3_industrial_iron_mining_complex_european \n\nMining is only part of the process of extracting wealth from the ground. On the surface the ore must be processed and smelted. Because iron production is easier, a mining complex also makes the recruitment of all land units a good deal cheaper.\n\nFor a mine owner to make as much money as possible from his investment, the ore has to have every scrap of usable metal taken out of it. This meant that a large number of processes had to be carried out on an industrial scale: the ore had to be washed, sorted by hand to extract worthless spoil, then crushed, and finally smelted and ingots cast. All of these tasks required a large number of workers, and women and children did some of the lighter work while their men laboured in the mine. Even away from the shafts, the work was dangerous and deaths and injuries were not uncommon. It was unhealthy work too: dust was ever-present and the fumes from smelting works were often poisonous. Pouring molten metal with little care for safety killed men in all kinds of horrible ways. False
building_description_texts_long_description_roads_basic \n\nConstructing roads allows local goods to reach nearby markets, and gives some useful work to paupers and work-shy individuals who would otherwise be moved on or require expensive charity. At the very least, the larger rocks have been moved out of the road, pounded to pieces and the resulting rubble used as a roadbed. Drainage ditches mean the road ceases to be a convenient gutter for rainwater, and a muddy hell for anyone trying to use it.\n\nHistorically, there was often a military imperative for building roads. Troops and artillery require good roads for strategic redeployments and rapid reaction. In Scotland, General Wade completed a network of roads to “Roman” standards during the 1720s so that armies could quickly move into the rebellious Highlands – the Jacobite supporters of the ousted Stuart dynasty were a constant threat. His achievement was celebrated in a (now defunct) verse of the then-new British anthem:\n\nLord, grant that Marshal Wade\nMay, by thy mighty aid,\nVictory bring.\nMay he sedition hush\nAnd, like a torrent, rush\nRebellious Scots to crush.\nGod save the King. False
building_description_texts_long_description_roads_cobbled \n\nBuilding a cobbled road is an incredibly laborious business. Each small paving stone must be shaped, placed and mortared into position. If done properly, the road also requires foundations, a careful camber to carry away rain water, and extensive drainage on either side. The end result is a fine road that is extremely durable, but not entirely comfortable for carts, carriages or foot traffic: cobbles can be hellishly bumpy!\n\nHistorically, the expense of cobbles, and the fine-looking result of cobbling a street, meant that they were often only used in or near towns or for high-status routes where the great and the good could not be expected to wallow in the mud like poor people. Cobbles, however, did serve the poor in another way: they were the perfect size for rioters! Levered out of place, they were the ideal thrown weapon (along with the half-house brick or “brickbat”) for a bit of informal remonstrating with any nearby unwelcome representatives of law and order. False
building_description_texts_long_description_roads_dust_tracks \n\nAs a means of travel, the main benefit of a track is that it leads somewhere, probably – without local knowledge, it can be difficult to tell! Without signposts or markers, there is little to distinguish one path from another. Even local knowledge of a route can be limited, because locals rarely travel further than the nearest market town and possibly not even that far. The actual going is a little better than across open ground because at least large rocks and bushes have been removed. In wet weather, however, it may be considerably worse as the track turns to a muddy streambed.\n\nHistorically, these roads were often little more than drover’s tracks or country lanes that have been worn into the landscape by centuries of use. While perfectly adequate to local needs, they were not suitable for military purposes: heavy cannons in particular require solid going if they are to be moved at more than a snail’s pace, or at all! False
building_description_texts_long_description_roads_metalled \n\nThe road is actually constructed in layers of increasingly large stones (going down through a cross-section), with each layer being compressed by rolling. The end result is a solid path that can drain cleanly. This method is often used for the key strategic and commercial routes between cities and defence points. Tolls are often charged to private users of such excellent roads and turnpikes.\n\nHistorically, “metalled roads” were only covered in “tarmac” after 1820, when the idea of using tar to stabilise the top layer of stones was tried by John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), although “tarmac” itself was not called that until 1901!\n\nRoad building produced some other interesting characters, such as Blind Jack of Knaresborough, Yorkshire. Although completely sightless thanks to childhood smallpox, John “Jack” Metcalf (1717-1810) was, at various times, a fiddle player, an army recruiter, and a haulier. When a turnpike was built near his birthplace he used his local experience to create a masterpiece of a road, including a section on a raft of logs across a bog. His blindness was no handicap in bringing road projects in on time and to cost, although he was always at a loss to explain to others how he managed his finances so well. False
building_description_texts_long_description_roads_metalled_indian \n\nThe small stones form only the top layer: beneath are further layers of compacted stones and rubble, each compressed by both design and continuing traffic. The roadbed itself drains well, and can support large volumes of traffic and individually heavy items such as cannons.\n\nHistorically, the most famous and effective land route in world was probably the collection of toll roads and turnpikes known as the “Grand Trunk” in India. Much of it was little more than compacted dirt (mud in the rainy season) but large parts were well constructed. Trade, the lifeblood of the continent, and many armies, passed up and down the Grand Trunk over the centuries, from the wilds of the mountainous borders with Afghanistan to the rich provinces of the South. The Grand Trunk was also the murderous hunting ground of members of the Thuggee cult. These followers of the Hindu goddess Kali would befriend unsuspecting travellers, put them at their ease and then murder and rob them as an act of sacrament. Oddly, not all Thugs were Hindu; Muslims and Sikhs were found in their ranks, probably for the loot. False
building_description_texts_long_description_royal_academy_european_gov_absolute_monarchy \n\nAcademies concern themselves with all aspects of national cultural and scientific life. From the most abstract of mathematical conundrums to the collections of natural wonders and the study of languages and lexicography, nothing is outside the interests of academicians. The members are, by and large, selected by their peers, although individual governments do use their influence to secure places for worthy men – and these learned societies are not above granting membership to royalty in the hope of securing patronage!\n\nLarge projects were matters of national prestige. The Académie Française, was charged with the collation of an official French dictionary. The epic voyage of Captain Cook, RN, in 1768–71 was partly influenced by the desire of the British Royal Society to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun from Tahiti. Other nations sent observers to, among other places, Canada and Siberia – Cook got the nicest destination! By observing the event from different sides of the Earth, parallax made it possible to calculate the size of the solar system and establish the astronomical unit. False
building_description_texts_long_description_royal_observatory_european_gov_absolute_monarchy \n\nThe study of the heavens leads to advances in mathematics, and improvements in scientific instrument making, horology and, perhaps most importantly of all, navigation and surveying. Accurate star charts and lunar tables (showing the phases of the moon) enable sailors to determine their position at sea, and a navy that can navigate accurately is one that can carry out its duties effectively. An observatory is also a centre for national prestige, as discoveries made and published reflect well on the institute and the nation that funds its work.\n\nHistorically, observatories were vital in the development of navigation and accurate clocks. This is why the zero-degree longitude line passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London (until 1884 most states used their own nationalistic reference points). Indeed, the nationalism of astronomy often leads to ignorance of the observations and deductions of non-European astronomers.\n\nAstronomers could also be outrageous flatterers. After he discovered what he thought was a new planet, Sir William Herschel chose the name “Georgium Sidus”, or George’s Star, in a transparent bit of sucking up to his patron, King George III. Other astronomers flirted with the name “Herschel” then settled on “Uranus” for the new planet. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rTimber1_timber_logging_camp_european \n\nBuildings require large amounts of wood both in the structure and during the building process as scaffolding. Logging camps reduces the cost of other construction work, as timbers are cut and prepared centrally with great precision and speed. This building also makes an important contribution to the industrial wealth of the region.\n\nApart from its obvious uses in construction and as fuel, timber is also vital for shipbuilding. All vessels of the period are entirely wooden, and need hundreds of tons and many kinds of good quality timber each; building a logging camp should make the construction of all ships marginally cheaper.\n\nHistorically, the forests around the Baltic were an extremely useful strategic resource, as they became an excellent source of the trees needed for masts and yards for the British Royal Navy. By their nature, masts need tall trees! This need meant that the British interfered, almost constantly, in Baltic affairs. Other types of timber became important cash crops, such as the mahogany found in the Far East, prized for its strength and beauty. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rTimber2_timber_lumber_mill_european \n\nA water-powered lumber mill produces logs and sawn timber from nearby forests. Its semi-finished products increase the industrial wealth of a region because it is more profitable to ship half-finished planks than tree trunks.\n\nIt has always been possible for logging to denude a forest of all of its profitable trees, in the process causing terrible damage to the land. Without the trees the soil is soon gone, washed away in the first strong rains. It then becomes almost impossible for any kind of trees to re-establish themselves. This worried hardly anyone at the end of the 18th Century, although there were honourable exceptions: some men did go out of their way to plant trees so that navies would never be without supplies. The world had been given to men by God for them to subdue, and there were always more trees in the next valley, and the next. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rTimber3_steam_powered_sawmill_european \n\nThe advent of steam power means that sawmills are no longer tied to watercourses for their power and they can be built anywhere, thus improving productivity. A sawmill also makes a considerable contribution to the industrial wealth of a region. However, working conditions are not very good, and the lower classes are unhappy as a result.\n\nThe invention of machine tools greatly improved the productivity of sawmills. The invention of the circular saw and gang saws meant that a tree could be turned into planks in one easy step. Both of these inventions were prone to breaking down: the circular saw was easily damaged by overheating or dirty logs. The expensive nature of this equipment led to the creation of a new sawmill technician known as a saw filer. These men were highly skilled in metalwork and their primary task was to keep the saws in perfect working order. High speed saws are not the safest pieces of industrial equipment to work near, and deaths and injuries were common. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rWine1_vineyards_european \n\nA vineyard is a farm dedicated to the growing of grapes and the production of wine. Thanks to poor quality water supplies in towns and cities, wine, along with ale, is the standard drink of many Europeans, and one of life's little pleasures. Alcohol provides a welcome distraction from life's anxieties, for the lowliest revolutionary serf to the richest nobleman. Building a vineyard will result in a small improvement in happiness, while also slightly improving town wealth.\n\nThe patterns of growth and consumption of wine in the 18th Century often had some odd roots. The British taste for “claret" or Bordeaux wine, dates back to the Middle Ages when the English monarchy controlled the region. Napoleon’s Continental System of denying trade to English merchants also damaged the claret producing areas of France and probably helped make English drinkers very angry when they sobered up! There were many more local grape varieties under cultivation, because pests accidentally imported from America in the 19th Century wiped out older varieties. Wines would have tasted very different from each other, even within the same region than is the case today. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rWine2_winery_european \n\nA winery takes the product of several vineyards and produces wine on a large scale, shipping much of it in casks to distant markets. A winery improves the happiness of all classes and increases town wealth in a region.\n\nGlass bottles are expensive, and it is better to ship wine in casks to market and then have the consignment bottled by wine merchants to suit local tastes. The casks can then be broken down for easy shipment back for refilling. The maturing process that happens in the casks is a happy accident that improves the flavour of the wine!\n\nThe 18th Century was a period when food adulteration was common; whitening flour with chalk was a common practice. Wine was no exception, and watering was the least offensive and probably safest practice, as alcohol would kill infectious parasites and germs in the water. Also common was the practice of sweetening wine by adding various chemicals, including lead. Lead was known to be poisonous, but without laws to protect customers, there was nothing that could be done to stop vintners and food merchants adding anything they wanted to everyone’s food and drink. False
building_description_texts_long_description_rWine3_wine_estates_european \n\nA wine estate represents a substantial investment in vines, land, and time. Wine is lovingly produced, carefully aged, and sold on at a premium. Hic!\n\n Wine production is still subject to the vagaries of weather, soil, and time. It is quite possible for an estate to produce a truly great wine one year and a foul one the next because, while standards are improving, there are still a great many variables that are only dimly understood.\n\nBy the late 18th Century, the “age of prodigious boozing” was still going strong in Europe. In England, the Prince Regent set the standards for gluttony and excess, and was widely emulated by his subjects. Georgian Englishmen had bottomless gullets, even by contemporary standards, as the available water was not always fit to drink. Despite what everyone thought at the time, drink was not the cause of gout, an agonising inflammation of the joints. Gout is triggered by a high-protein diet, as favoured by the wealthier classes of the period; the liberal use of poisonous lead compounds to sweeten wine and food probably did little to help matters! False
building_description_texts_long_description_sAdmin1_tax_office_european \n\nA tax office is never a welcome sight, and adds slightly to the repression of the region where it is found. It does, however, allow for more efficient tax collection and aids in the recruitment of military units. It is a necessary evil for government: no matter what the national constitution may be, or the political beliefs of the ruling classes, no government can do anything unless it has money.\n\nTaxation has always been the most resented part of government. Tax collectors often had quite draconian powers, and could call upon the services of the military to encourage the people to pay. This was often necessary, as taxes did not fall fairly on every part of the community: the poor often paid far more in relative and absolute terms, than the wealthy. The worst case was probably to be found in Spain, where the nobility, the landed gentry and the wealthy simply never bothered to pay taxes at all. The Napoleonic period also saw income tax levied for the first time in Great Britain in 1798. It was abolished in 1802, but governments tend to remember good ways of getting money out of the people! False
building_description_texts_long_description_sAdmin2_magistrate_european \n\nLaw, order, and taxes are the basis of government. A magistrate is the government embodied in one person: his duties mean that he can help collect taxes, repress the people, and take their sons into the army, all at the same time. He is an administrator, tax collector, thief-taker, instigator of charitable works, military recruiter and father figure.\n\nA magistrate usually represents the state and the landed classes, even in a republic. Liberty and equality are all very well, but the rich need to be sure their wealth is secure. Under Napoleon, magistrates in every district were carefully selected and monitored by a Ministry of Justice, and used to keep an eye on disloyalty to the new regime. Often, magistrates were sent to distant provinces, so that they had no local sympathies. In Britain, the opposite tended to be the case: magistrates were selected from among the local gentry, who knew their neighbours and tenants intimately. Magistrates also had the power to call out troops to put down any civil disturbances, and to send convicted men off to the military as punishment. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sAdmin3_court_justice_european \n\nAs such, this building adds significantly to the repression of the people in the region where it stands. Further, because the forces of law and order are in intimate partnership with the government’s tax gatherers, a law court gives their demands for money even more force. The tax gathered in a region also increases thanks to the court. Finally, the judges here have the power to use civil law to help the military’s authority and this means that they can aid military recruitment, if only by the simple expedient of sentencing wrongdoers to the ranks!\n\nSocial order is often more important than any amount of so-called liberty to the smooth running of a nation. To modern eyes, a court of justice was surprisingly parsimonious with the justice it dispensed: its purpose was to enforce laws that protected the status quo, which did not have to be the same thing as “justice”. Receiving justice depended more upon the social class of the defendant or plaintiff, and less upon clever legal argument or the law itself. Even in countries that prided themselves on “liberty”, such as Britain, the law courts were more interested in protecting the rights of property rather than the rights of common and poor men. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sAdmin4_court_appeals_european \n\nThe court is the power of the state rendered in magnificent fashion and, even if appeals are successful, it helps keep order by greatly adding to the repression in the region. Given that the state acts as prosecutor and pays the judges, who understand where their duty lies, it is also an effective way of punishing those who choose not to support the state. Legal sanctions back demands for tax, and there may be little point in a man arguing against them. The courts also have the power to enforce military demands for recruits.\n\nWithout an appeals procedure, courts of law had no means of self-correction or review: the decision of the judge was absolute and final. Appeals to a king, consul or president were sometimes possible, but executive mercy was often whimsical and based on social position or political expediency. In theory, an appeals court removed politics and social standing from the application of law, although in practice this was rarely the case. Simply put: a gentleman or merchant had the money to pay for an appeal, while a poor man did not. This one fact alone made the courts a subtle tool of social repression and control. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sAdmin5_court_supreme_european \n\nAnd those laws may have a great deal to do with keeping the people in order, rather than granting them life and liberty. This building adds greatly to the repression of the people and, because of the sanctions that judgements here can impose, it also makes the job of tax collection much more efficient. An errant taxpayer dragged before this court should be in fear of losing more than just his purse! The threat of law is also the sanction that is required for recruiting soldiery.\n\nIn addition to his military genius, Napoleon is also well known for his code of laws, the Code Civil, that established an easily understood legal framework in 1805. This was not the only law code that the Revolution produced. The Penal Code of 1791 simplified the criminal justice system too. Despite being codes of justice, the codes were not all that fair to everyone concerned: the accused in a criminal case, for example, was not necessarily allowed a defence lawyer. By not being bound by precedent, cases were argued on their apparent merits, not on whether previous legal judgements could be used to sway the judge with the power of tradition. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sArmy1_cantonment_european \n\nIt is extremely useful for all governments to be able to keep a visible military presence in the country, a reminder that “the rod and the axe” are available, should they be needed. This is true even in countries where liberty and freedom are trumpeted loudly: too much liberty, especially among the lower orders of society, is a dangerous thing. It is equally important to keep soldiers apart from the common folk; disorder and crime nearly always follow when they are allowed to mix.\n\nHistorically, most military cantonments or encampments had a distinctly non-military appearance. Most armies had a huge train of sutlers to provide food and drink, wagon masters for transport, armourers and smiths for weapons and gear, pioneers, holy men, hangers-on, hawkers and officers’ servants. Alongside these was another army of wives, children, and the inevitable prostitutes plying their trade to officers and men alike. States recognised that these people were necessary to the smooth running of armies, but that did not mean that they made life easy for them, or looked after them in any way. On campaign, units had an allowance of wives, but those women left behind would have to shift for themselves and hope for a portion of their men’s pay. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sArmy2_barracks_european \n\nBarracks provide housing, armouries, and stabling for most kinds of soldiers and their mounts, along with the space necessary for them to be trained in the basics of military life. Sensibly, they are usually also designed to be defensible, even if there are town walls, and an imposing symbol of government solidity and power. The barracks are a bulwark for the power of the ruling classes: the local authorities can send men to deal with all enemies, foreign and domestic. The place can even serve as a prison, should the locals prove troublesome!\n\nMany governments at the start of the 19th Century were still using troops for domestic policing duties, particularly against troublemakers in the new industrial factory towns that were appearing. Soldiers were there to keep order and, in doing so, protect the property of the wealthy middle and upper classes. This did not mean that having troops barracked in a town was popular, even among those they were defending. While it might be acceptable to invite a captain of dragoons to dine, soldiers were a group apart and considered a necessary, sometimes very necessary, evil. The popularity of soldiers was always tied to the perceived threats from foreign nations. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sArmy3_drill_school_european \n\nDrill is not simply a means of keeping soldiers busy by having them march up and down. On the battlefield all manoeuvres must be performed exactly, at the correct time, if a unit is not to be shot down or cut to pieces. Every man must be drilled to perform his part correctly when a unit moves from a line formation to square, else confusion will result. Obedience to orders must be second nature: a soldier who is concentrating on not attracting the attention of his sergeant will also be too busy to worry about the enemy! Long hours of drill do have another, inadvertent benefit: men on a parade ground are not in the local tavern.\n\nDrill, for all its boredom for the men, was a vital practice for all armies of the Napoleonic period. Even the armies of France realised that revolutionary zeal was not enough, and some order had to be brought to battle. Many armies, however, were late in adopting a single drill manual for their forces; for a few fortunate and literate officers, this was a godsend. They could earn quite handsome additional funds by producing privately written drill books. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sArmy4_military_academy_european \n\nIn most countries military command, especially in peacetime, is usually limited to the sons of the ruling and propertied classes: only those with a significant stake in the survival of a nation will defend it properly. However, the counter-argument is that military matters are complicated, and “gentleman amateurs”, even if extremely well bred, may not be good enough. Military academies take in those who have talent, and teach the theory and practice of the military art. The graduates, however, are sometimes regarded as tradesmen because of this vulgar professionalism.\n\nThe French were the pre-eminent military power of Western Europe, and led the way in military teaching with the creation of a “École Militaire” in 1751 to educate promising cadets from poorer backgrounds. It was later re-organised and re-named as the “École des Cadets-gentilshommes” or “School of Young Gentlemen”, which neatly subverted the original intent, although Napoleon Bonaparte was a graduate of the new school. On the other hand, the United Kingdom’s military schools mostly provided for the orphans of officers, with no more than a vague hope that the pupils would follow their fathers into the army. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sArmy5_staff_college_european \n\nTactics win battles, but running an army requires far more from the officers in charge. It is not enough to get men to a battlefield: they must be armed, supplied, fed, shod, and trained before any general can turn them into a victorious tool of the state.\n\nIn practice, this meant that officers were taught a wide range of skills, beyond being able to organise a regiment. Apart from an understanding of strategy, officers were taught military illustration, a vital skill of producing accurate sketch maps and diagrams, some surveying, military law, horsemanship, weapons handling, and given character-building instruction. This last item included instruction, when regrettably necessary, in how to behave like a proper gentleman. In many countries, students were expected to pay their own fees, partly to ensure that only the best families sent their sons to the colleges. By all accounts, Napoleon Bonaparte did not listen to many lessons in being a gentleman, or chose to behave like a parvenu boor on occasion in order to annoy as many stuck-up dignitaries as possible! False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCannon1_cannon_foundry_european \n\nA cannon foundry allows artillery units to be recruited. Cannon production has improved greatly since 1700, as the invention of machine tools and better methods of casting have made producing cannons a much safer occupation. The changes also mean that the guns themselves are far more reliable. Their range and accuracy are vastly better than early 18th century pieces, which were usually made using the same technique as bell founding.\n\nBefore the 19th century advances in cannon production making guns, like any casting work, was a dangerous business. If the sand moulds were even slightly damp then a steam explosion could occur. Anyone nearby was likely to be killed or maimed by hot or molten metal and pieces of the mould. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCannon2_ordnance_factory_european \n\nThe large-scale manufacturing of cannons is a monopoly retained by the state, even in a republic. The creation of large guns is also a difficult business, and the state is the only body that can afford to do it. The number of guns available is therefore a measure of national prestige, and the ability to produce guns, rather than buy them from foreigners, is equally prestigious. An ordnance factory allows artillery units to be recruited.\n\nHistorically, most ordnance factories began in royal ownerships, giving the monarch a guaranteed access to heavy cannons. These were needed for destroying the castles of recalcitrant barons! Even though politics moved on, the state control of cannon production remained. In Britain, for example, the Master of the Ordnance was often a member of the cabinet, and many royal households across Europe included a post of Master Gunner. Even the Ottoman Turks, who had a strong tradition of heavy artillery production, were careful to make sure the Sublime Porte had master gunners on staff. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCannon3_great_arsenal_european \n\nThe development of new cannons is an expensive and sometimes risky business, and is one that the state likes to keep under its immediate control. No government likes to contemplate rebellion, and central control of heavy artillery is a wise policy. Large guns are necessary for armies (and navies, for that matter) to operate effectively and advances in this field allow new artillery units to be recruited. The ability of a nation to project its power in war is, in large part, measured by the size and variety of its artillery.\n\nHistorically, the arsenals of many states were peacetime stores for cannons, shot, and powder. Domestic peacekeeping by an army rarely required artillery to be deployed. Once cast, a cannon barrel could spend decades in storage before being mounted on an appropriate carriage and used in anger. The gun carriage used for a barrel would determine its use; a gun for use in fortifications did not need to be dragged across open country. Gunpowder, too, could spend neglected years in storage, and this caused all kinds of problems when it was finally issued to gunners: dried out or damp powder would not burn evenly and could cause gun barrels to burst when fired. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCannon4_ordnance_board_european \n\nThe board is in charge of the design, development, casting, and storage of artillery pieces for the armed forces. The members are also in charge of powder production for the army and navy too, an attempt to limit bureaucratic muddle and rivalry between services. The Ordnance is an important national asset because artillery is very expensive and a measure of state power.\n\nHistorically, great guns and siege weapons always required specialists to operate them, men quite separate from common soldiery. In charge was a Master of Ordnance, a man of some importance in medieval royal households. Looking after the monarch’s artillery train required a large staff of gunners, founders, powder makers, mathematicians, surveyors, and even wagon drivers. In time, all of these men came under the control of the Board or Council of Ordnance. As with all government departments, they made sure that their power increased over time, and they eventually controlled the management of fortresses and, in some cases, the manufacture of all weapons for the state. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCannon5_engineer_school_european \n\nThe school teaches all the specialised skills that an officer of engineers will require, such as surveying, the use of explosives, military architecture, construction, the arts of siege warfare, military illustration to create maps, and much else besides. Some tactical skills are taught as well, but engineers are not usually expected to command armies and issue orders to gentlemen of quality. However, this hard-won knowledge helps create better officers and improves the recruitment of military units.\n\nSappers and miners, like artillery experts, had a long history of being permanent retainers in royal armies of the medieval and Renaissance periods. Thanks to the likes of the French Marshal Vauban (1633-1707) and his magnificent fortifications, the need for military engineers to create, or break into, defences grew, not lessened, during the 18th Century. The elaborate and layered defences that he and his successors developed required skilled architects and builders. Engineer officers became a corps of highly educated experts, while leaving the hard, mucky work of digging to the rank-and-file sappers and common pioneers! False
building_description_texts_long_description_school_european \n\nEducation is not a right or even considered much of a privilege in many societies. The skills of reading (a little), hunting, and beating recalcitrant servants are the only worthwhile accomplishments of “proper gentlemen”. A smattering of religious education puts a veneer of civilization on top.\n\nThe emerging middle and mercantile classes value education a good deal more highly, and pay for it to be drummed into their children! A few schools, mostly the work of charities and religious bodies, exist to teach the children of the deserving poor, or give orphans some kind of start in life.\n\nThe British system of state education and “public schools” (which are actually non-state, private schools) owes its confusing terminology to this period. Public schools were open to the public – the public who could pay – while private schools took pupils as they saw fit. British mass “state education” would have to wait for another century. State education existed in some countries, but always ran the risk of creating an imbalance between learning and obedient loyalty if it was extended much beyond those with a real stake in society. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture1_Theatre_european \n\nA night at the theatre is a bawdy, rambunctious, rowdy, exciting and novel experience. It improves the happiness of all social classes and actually increases the town’s wealth slightly. Audiences are aggressively critical and show little respect: heckling is an art, and performers play to their claques rather than follow the text. The chattering classes eagerly await each new performance, each great actor-manager, and each new work.\n\nHistorically, theatres could mean a great deal of trouble for the authorities. Riots were not uncommon if unpopular or provocative plays were staged, and David Garrick, the leading light of the London stage, was once forced to kneel before a fickle audience. They were in the process of completely wrecking his theatre and his livelihood! Because of this public excitability, and the potential for subversive propaganda, in the interests of “public morality” all governments closely monitored theatre performances. Indeed, Great Britain only scrapped formal censorship of plays in 1968 when the Lord Chancellor’s Office no longer required London theatres to have its approval for every production. The censorious instinct still runs deep in some countries and some governments to this day. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture2_opera_house_european \n\nAn opera house is a sumptuous theatre for the performance of highly stylized musical plays. The self-important and the genuinely important often attend to be seen rather than for amusement, but the “lower orders” are often genuinely entertained and distracted from the difficulties of life. No expense is spared on making an opera house a grand venue. They rival many great palaces with the luxury of their fixtures and fittings, as the public areas for the audience are at least as important as what is happening on stage. Having a prestigious opera house will improve town wealth as it draws crowds from far and wide.\n\nIn the 18th Century opera was done in the Italian “serious” style, a musical form that influenced many non-Italian composers including Mozart. The plots were intentionally simple, based on Classical themes, usually tragic and often had a highly conservative bent – as befitted the tastes of the patrons paying for the music. Many are still performed today. One fashion that mercifully ended before the Napoleonic period was the use of castrati: young men gelded so that their voices did not break and remained in the soprano range. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture2_opera_house_middle_east \n\nThe styles and hidden allegorical meanings of poems take much time to master, and there is a rich set of traditions to draw on from all three languages. A school of poetry teaches all of the subtle nuances of poetry, and provides a good basis for those who wish to become court poets throughout the Empire, a rewarding position for those who have talent. The presence of these talented artists, capable of spinning tales to distract and amaze brings inner peace and happiness to all classes and improves the town wealth of a region.\n\nHistorically, Ottoman “divan” poetry used Persian forms and many borrowed words, as Turkish did not suit the Persian rhyming schemes. Arab poetry generally could be a great many styles, some of which needed careful handling if they were to avoid offending religious sensibilities. Members of the Ottoman court were expected to be fluent in all three languages, Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, as well as having a good grasp of court etiquette and a masterful skill at calligraphy. These delicate art forms set the educated upper classes apart from the lower, who had their own spoken storytelling and poetic traditions. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture3_grand_opera_house_european \n\nThis impressive setting for musical performances allows the audience to delight in novel entertainments, and admire the good taste of the house’s patrons. Music is open to everyone and as a result the happiness of all classes is improved, although only the upper classes can afford the best seats and boxes. Little expense is spared on a grand opera house, particularly in the public areas visited by the important members of the audience. This prestigious building markedly improves the town wealth in its region.\n\nMany rulers in the 18th Century acted as a patron of the arts, and opera in particular. Apart from being fabulously and famously expensive (therefore demonstrating the patron’s wealth), the musical form was also growing in popularity and quality. Music advanced tremendously, with works from composers of genius such as Mozart, Handel and Scarlatti. Composers dedicated their works to great men, carried away by admiration or in the hope of patronage. The ideals of the French Revolution inspired Beethoven when he was writing his third symphony, the “Eroica”, but after Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, Beethoven furiously scratched out the dedication to him. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture3_grand_opera_house_middle_east \n\nThe tulip is a native flower of, among other places, Anatolia, and the flower has long been prized by the Ottomans. Planted in formal gardens, the design of which owes much to the Persian “paradise garden”, they are a spectacular display of shape and colour. The layout of the gardens is intended to reflect the layout of paradise, and perfect blooms are a part of that, bringing peace, tranquillity and happiness to all citizens, regardless of social class.\n\nDespite the insane financial speculation of “tulip mania” in Holland during the 17th Century, the tulip was not a native plant; it had arrived from the Ottoman Empire. The Dutch, however, were quite innovative when they indulged in the lunacy of tulip speculation, trading individual bulbs at ridiculously inflated prices. They even operated a “tulip futures” market on bulbs! Dishonesty was rife and eventually the tulip market collapsed, like all financial bubbles, leaving many shocked and penniless. The Ottomans, altogether more sensible folk, simply enjoyed the tulip for its beauty, which they regarded as a gift from Allah, the Merciful. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture4_great_museum_european \n\nSome objects in the collection are the spoils of war, others are gifts from travellers, items collected on the whims of past rulers, and intriguing curios from around the world. The other purpose of the collection is a clear demonstration of national prowess in all fields, be that a piece of intricate machinery, a work of superlative craftsmanship, the largest cannon in the world, and so on. It is understandable if chauvinism creeps into the enterprise: it is an exercise in national status! Pride in the nation improves the happiness of everyone, regardless of class and the revenue collected from this building significantly improved town wealth.\n\nHistorically, private museums and displays had developed from the collections in “cabinets of curiosities”, and some of these had ended up as government or royal property. The world-famous British Museum began in just this way, when Sir Hans Sloane’s collection was left to George II so that it could be preserved for the nation. Now a wonderful collection of antiquities, the Museum was intended to be a universal collection, and had natural history, geology, and science exhibits. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture5_Austrian_Theater \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nThis theatre in the heart of Vienna was built thanks to the efforts of Emanuel Schikander. Although he started as an actor he was soon leading his own company and performing plays set to the music of Mozart. It was the Magic Flute, set to music by Mozart, that propelled Schikander to the height of his fame. The play also helped in the building of the Theater an der Wien: Schikander’s lavish productions had outgrown the smaller Theater auf de Wieden and required a more sumptuous setting. This need for grandeur proved to be the downfall of Schikander, who eventually died penniless and insane on the streets of Vienna. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture5_British_National_Gallery \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nHistorically, the British National Gallery came into being when the government bought the art collection of English banker, John Julius Angerstein. The collection was originally housed in Angerstein’s home in Pall Mall in central London, but this was seen as far too small in comparison with other national galleries. The government agreed to fund the construction of a new building and Trafalgar Square was chosen as the best location. The construction of the National Gallery was completed in 1838 and the amazing collection remains open to the public. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture5_French_Musée_Napoléon \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nHistorically, the Musee Napoleon was originally built as a fortress to protect France from the Anglo-Norman threat in medieval times. The fortress was converted and renamed several times, eventually becoming a museum called the “Louvre”. This name remained with the building until the reign of Napoleon, when it was renamed in his honour. A bust of Napoleon by Bartolini was installed over the entrance. Napoleon went on to expand the collections during his campaigns by looting, although most countries claimed their treasures back following the fall of the Empire in 1815. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture5_Prussian_Universität \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nWilhelm von Humboldt, the Prussian minister for education, founded Germany’s oldest university, the Universität zu Berlin, in 1810. Originally named for Fredrick William III, the university quickly became Germany’s biggest education facility. It was so successful that it became the model for several other European universities, thanks to its modern curriculum and specialist scientific research institutes, the like of which the world had never seen. The university went on to nurture some of the greatest minds of the last two centuries, and can boast an amazing 29 Nobel Prize winners amongst its alumni. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sCulture5_Russian_Kremlin_Armoury \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nThere has been a museum in the Kremlin Armoury since 1806. Tsar Alexander I declared it the first public museum in Russia, although the collection wasn’t actually opened to the public for a further seven years. Some of the items that grace the Kremlin Armoury were gathered together in the 15th century, but the building as it stands today was completed in the 1850s. The museum houses Russia’s finest historical artefacts including the ivory throne of Ivan the Terrible, along with the sabres of the famous saviours of Russia, Minin and Pozharsky. False
building_description_texts_long_description_settlement_fortifications \n\nSettlement defences are seldom allowed to be truly impregnable defences. Practical matters such as cost, or the need to house a growing population, often stop city fathers from investing fully in their own defences. Instead, their defences are good enough to deter a casual attack, and good enough to hold up an enemy’s advance. Interlocking fields of fire can sweep attackers off the glacis as the defenders reap a terrible toll. It takes a disciplined approach to reduce a settlement’s fortifications to the point where a breach is “practicable” and the town can be taken.\n\nHistorically, town garrisons were often offered the “honours of war” and allowed to march away with their weapons, but only if they gave up without a fight. The townsfolk were likely to be spared any indignity. Once, however, the attackers had launched an assault then the town, its inhabitants and the garrison were fair game for any amount of pillaging and looting. The assault was a dangerous business, and a lawless orgy afterwards was often the soldiers’ reward. False
building_description_texts_long_description_settlement_fortifications_improved \n\nExtensive fortifications cost huge sums of money and much effort. There is little point in constructing them unless they are maintained and needed for the future survival and prosperity of a town. A defensive wall is good for a sense of security, but it does not feed a hungry family after a poor local harvest! As a practical matter, then, these fortifications are erected along borders and around towns of real strategic significance.\n\nThe defences are laid out according to the latest military fashions, and as well built as any purely military fortifications. This can cause local problems, as prime building land is either used for the forts themselves, or must be kept clear to provide excellent fields of fire. During long periods of peace, the city fathers must resist the temptation to cover the killing zones with houses and commercial properties!\n\nHistorically, fortresses created by Marshal Vauban of France dominated their towns for centuries. The defences of Strasbourg, in Alsace, are typical of his work, and were a clear geographical boundary until the end of the 19th Century. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sFortifications1_settlement_fortifications_euro \n\nThese fortifications cover the city approaches with artillery forts, protecting it from assault. The defences allow a settlement to hold out a little longer when under siege. The star shape evolved so that no part of the defences would be “blind” to fire from somewhere within the fort. The layout of projecting bastions in a star fort creates interlocking fields of fire to destroy attackers as they approach over the sloping glacis. Anyone approaching the fort can be shot at from several directions; no attacker should reach the wall without coming under sustained and murderous attack from the defenders. The whole structure is, in fact, one massive killing zone for artillery weapons and defensive musketry.\n\nHistorically, the most notable creator of star forts was the French military engineering genius, Marshal Vauban (1633-1707); his name is virtually synonymous with the design. Despite his designs being over 100 years old by the time of Napoleon, they were still fearsomely hard to take. His defences at Verdun were still considered good enough to be used by the French army during the epic siege in 1916, during the First World War. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sFortifications2_improved_settlement_fort_euro \n\nThese fortifications surround a town’s approaches, protecting it from assault. The scale of the defences allows a settlement to hold out for longer when under siege. The star-shaped plan of the fort means fire should cover every part of the defence and the approaches to the fort. The attackers face an uphill struggle across the fort’s glacis, with no cover at all, with a counterscarp, or ditch, waiting for them.\n\nHistorically, and providing that money was no object, a star fort could become a baroque and complex maze of artillery fire and death. An assiduous military engineer could add additional ravelins, or detached triangular bastions, in front of the fort’s own walls; and hornworks and crownworks, both elaborations of the basic bastion design, to the fort as well. The only limit to the defences was a practical one of artillery and musket range: no wall could be longer than a flanking musket volley range, or blind spots in the defences might be created. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sheep_clearances_european \n\nTenanted farms can only generate so much income from rents. With an increase in town size, and an increased demand from industry for agricultural products, it is more profitable to have herds of animals, not a gaggle of tenants. Meat and wool demand increases rapidly as towns grow. Apart from any other considerations, moving people off land also creates large areas where landowners can indulge a passion for hunting. While this generates little income, it does give social status.\n\nThe “Highland Clearances” are probably the most famous example of a forced change to land usage on a large scale. Contrary to popular belief, Highland clan leaders carried out most of the Scottish clearances, driving their own kinsmen and clans into exile. The chieftains needed to pay for the sophisticated life that they could have in Edinburgh and London by reinventing themselves as Scottish gentry. Sheep simply earned more money than the crofters did. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sheep_great_estates_european \n\nThe largest estates are a statement of wealth, complete with dazzling palace-like grand houses in the latest styles and built without thought to the expense. Landowners and the great nobility vie with each other to produce not just houses, but idealized landscapes around them. Where the terrain is not dramatic enough, it is ruthlessly reorganised to suit the owner’s tastes. In the interests of art and beauty the workers, their homes, and their farms are removed from the land.\n\nHistorically, a group of landscape architects in Europe completely remodelled many country estates into idyllically perfect vistas for their clients. They created the fantasy of a natural landscape, improving on what was there to make entirely “artificial” (and this was not a term of disapproval at the time) parkland dotted with romantic ruins and gothic follies. In the process, men like Lancelot “Capability” Brown remade hills, flooded valleys, moved rivers, destroyed entire villages and displaced people without mercy. Many of these amazing houses and gardens still exist today, if only as tourist attractions. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sheep_peasant_farms_european \n\nDay-to-day life for a peasant farmer has barely changed in a thousand years. It is a short, hard life of abject poverty and backbreaking labour. He can expect nothing better than to work and die in the same village, tilling the same fields, his life bounded by the same horizon. Peasant farms are not terribly efficient: the landowners have little interest in anything beyond their rents and tithes. The problem for them is that peasant economies are, by their very nature, cash poor and most income is in kind, and there is a limit to where you can spend a goat!\n\nHistorically, life for a peasant was pretty much the same all over the world: work from dawn to dusk. In Russia, the peasants were serfs tied to the land and the property of the landowner as much as any cow or goat. In India, peasants were a caste locked into their social position by hallowed custom. The system eventually broke down in Western Europe thanks to industrialization needing a constant supply of workers and changes in land usage. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sheep_tenanted_farms_european \n\nTenanted farms primarily produce cash crops. The landlord expects his rent to be paid, so subsistence farming is a waste of time, as it will not generate any income. Successful tenants, who develop the land, can become quietly wealthy men and may be able to buy their farms. \n\nFor a landlord the main benefit of tenanted farms is that income from them is in cash, not kind. Absentee landlords can therefore live the high life in a city; they rarely need trouble themselves with the mud and muck of the countryside – as long as they have trustworthy agents and tenants! A leisured class of “gentlemen farmers” and rentiers therefore arises, all thanks to the efforts of tenant farmers.\n\nHistorically, tenanted farms made good profit but, like all farming, were subject to the vagaries of the weather. Tenancies could be, and were, passed down the generations of families, something that allow tenants to see a point in developing “their” land with their cash surplus. False
building_description_texts_long_description_shipyard_european \n\nThe services of a smithy within the yard are also very useful, as most ships use a surprising amount of bespoke ironwork in their construction, not to mention hundreds of nails! A shipyard can produce smaller vessels and carry out repairs and maintenance too. Careening is a regular chore for wooden vessels: hulls become fouled with weeds and barnacles that cause drag and slow the vessel. A shipyard has all the gear necessary to empty a ship, then haul it onto a beach or slipway so that it can be scraped clean and washed by the tides.\n\nHistorically, shipyards needed a good source of timber close by, or were on the estuaries of navigable rivers (so that wood could be shipped from further inland to the yard). Buckler’s Hard on the Beaulieu River in the New Forest in southern England is a typical shipyard in where it was constructed. However, it is larger than many, and had an extensive staff of artisans and could handle two ships at once. The shipwrights of Buckler’s Hard built HMS Agamemnon, Admiral Horatio Nelson’s favourite ship, in 1781; many of the crew were equally attached to their captain, and followed him to later commands. False
building_description_texts_long_description_small_arms_factory_european \n\nCentralising the provision of weapons is a sensible thing to do when raising large armies: equipping recruits with standardised items standardises weapons drill and unit tactics, and makes supply issues easier to manage. It also cuts down on the chances of manufacturers supplying shoddy or downright dangerous firearms, something that is always a temptation for profit-minded contractors.\n\nA small arms factory does not replace private arms manufacturers. While the soldiers make do with government-made weapons, it is usual for officers to purchase their own equipment. Many craft-based armaments firms can thrive by making bespoke items for wealthy gentlemen.\n\nHistorically, the French Charville and British “Brown Bess Land Pattern” muskets were outstandingly successful designs, and remained in service for over a century each, with minor modifications. This standardisation was a major step forward in tactical and, more importantly, logistical terms. Armies could no longer entirely live off the land; ammunition and powder had to be made and sent to the troops. With standard designs, it also became possible to “cannibalise” damaged weapons for spare parts, something that was impossible if weapons were locally bought by individual regiments. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sPrest_Austrian_Heldenplatz \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nThe Heldenplatz, or Heroes Square, in Vienna faces the famous Hofburg Imperial Palace, the seat of the Hapsburg dynasty who ruled Austria. The palace itself was originally a fortified castle and the Heldenplatz was added to the front of this ancient structure during the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph. It was intended to be the centre piece of the new Kaiserforum, a complex that was never completed. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sPrest_British_Nelson's_Column \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nNelson’s Column was built to commemorate the death of the much-loved hero Admiral Horatio Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar. The column took three years to construct and is an impressive 185 feet tall. Atop the column stands a beautifully carved statue of Nelson himself, facing south towards the Admiralty and, very distantly, his ship HMS Victory, which is now docked in Portsmouth. Decorative acanthus leaves adorn Nelson’s feet, all cast in bronze from British cannons, and his most impressive victories over France are depicted on four decorative plates, each cast in gunmetal from captured French cannons. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sPrest_French_Arc_de_Triomphe \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nThe Arc de Triomphe was the brainchild of Napoleon, and was intended as a grand celebration of the victories of his Imperial armies. He did not live to see its completion, and King Louis-Philippe formally inaugurated it in 1836. The arch was fashioned after the monuments of Imperial Rome, and it stands at an impressive 162 feet tall, making it the tallest triumphal arch in the world. It has been used to commemorate the French dead of both World Wars, and is the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Buried there in 1921, this unidentified body acts as a symbolic representation of all those unknown French soldiers who died in the Great War. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sPrest_Prussian_Siegessäule \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nThe Siegessäule, or Victory Column, was built to commemorate Prussia’s victory in the Danish-Prussian War of 1864. However, it took so long to build that when it was eventually finished in 1873 Prussia had succeeded in winning two more wars! These later victories, against France and Austria, were the reason why a statue of the goddess Victoria was added to the top of the sandstone pillar. The base of the pillar was decorated with four bronze reliefs that depict the three victories and the glorious return of Prussian troops to Berlin. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sPrest_Russian_Monument \n\nPride in one’s nation is a powerful thing, and what better way to instil national pride than to build a structure that celebrates the great achievements of the country? Be it past victories, advances in education and technology, or a collection of treasures, such structures provide a stage to display achievements to the world. National standing compared to other nations is vastly important in matters of diplomacy, so a public demonstration of national power will improve prestige.\n\nThis monument was commissioned to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the end of the “Time of Troubles” and the ejection of the Poles from the Moscow Kremlin by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin. Funds for the statue were gathered from the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, the birth place of Kuzma Minin. The statue was given to Nizhny Novgorod but the sculptor, Ivan Martos, insisted that the best place for his creation was Moscow. There it remains to this day, even though the Communists considered it an obstruction to their parades. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sRoads1_basic_roads_european \n\nSome effort is put into maintaining the main roads, improving the carriageway and providing working drainage for rainwater. If nothing else, the building of roads is a useful way of getting some value from the feckless, workshy, and undeserving poor. Honest men who pay their taxes expect some return for their support of the naturally indolent and the unfortunates who have been thrown out of work.\n\nHistorically, there was also a military imperative to improve roads, even if the change was from a rutted cart track to a smooth cart track. Troops and artillery require good roads for strategic redeployments and rapid responses to enemy or rebellious activity. It is far easier to haul artillery pieces along any kind of road rather than across country. With the Enlightenment’s conscious harking back to the Classical era, there was also a desire to emulate the achievements of Rome, even in something as small as roadways. False
building_description_texts_long_description_sRoads2_improved_roads_european \n\nMaking a cobbled road is an incredibly laborious business. Each small paving stone must be shaped, placed and mortared into position. If done properly, the road also requires foundations, a carefully judged camber to carry away rainwater, and drainage. The end result is a fine road that is extremely durable, but not very comfortable: cobbles can be hellishly bumpy!\n\nIn practice the expense of cobbling a road, and the attractive finish that cobbles produced, meant that the surface was only used where the nobility or propertied classes were likely to see or use it. The great and the good could hardly be expected to wallow along in the mud and horse dung like common folk! The poor did, however, find a use for cobbles: lifted from the road, they were a perfect fist-sized lump of rock for hurling at the unpopular representatives of law and order. In his later years, the Duke of Wellington, by then the British Prime Minister, was not called the “Iron Duke” for his military qualities, but thanks to his carriage’s iron shutters, there to protect him from the many rocks that were chucked in his direction! False
building_description_texts_long_description_sRoads3_tarmac_roads_european \n\nThe road is actually constructed in layers of differently sized stones, starting with large rocks as the foundation, and layers of smaller stones on top. Each layer is compressed when it is laid with a heavy roller. The end result is a solid path that can drain cleanly, as there are always small gaps for rainwater to trickle through. This method is often used for the key strategic and commercial routes between cities and defence points. Tolls are often charged to users of such excellent roads and turnpikes, as they are often constructed for profit. Metalled roads in a region allow military forces to travel with great speed.\n\nTechnically, “metalled roads” do not require a tarmac surface to be termed “metalled”: a concrete surface is also a metalled road. Roads were only covered in “tarmac” after 1820, when the idea of using tar to stabilise the top layer of stones was tried by John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836). His idea was a success, although a “McAdamised” finish was not called “tarmac” until 1901! False
building_description_texts_long_description_star_fort_earthworks_european \n\nThe basic concept of a star fort is that at least one, and preferably many, field of fire should cover every part of the defence and the approaches to the fort. These killing zones can be extended and made even more deadly by, at the very least, a long sloping glacis around the fort for the attackers to scale. The glacis need not be very steep at all, but the attackers face an uphill struggle with no cover at all, under murderous fire ever step of the way. The glacis also acts as a passive defence, a sloping armoured earthwork for the fort proper. Beyond the glacis a hidden counterscarp awaits: a retaining wall (sometimes with firing positions for the defenders) that drops down deep ditch that must be crossed before the actual approaches to the fort are even reached!\n\nAll of these defences are before the military architects add additional ravelins (detached triangular bastions or gun positions) in front of the fort’s own walls and hornworks and crownworks (both elaborations on the basic bastion design). The whole effect, when viewed in plan form, is baroque in its complexity, each projection of the central star giving the defence another firing position towards any attacking force. Wall length is limited to that which can be covered by flanking musket fire, as experience showed that a fort with only cannons in its defence could be taken when the cannons were knocked out. False
building_description_texts_long_description_star_fort_earthworks_indian \n\nBy European standards, this fortress looks like something of a relic from an earlier age, but to underestimate the defences would be very foolish. Packed earth ramparts behind the thick, high walls not only give extra fighting space to the defenders, but also deaden enemy cannon fire, absorbing the impact of shot and shell. Any attacker attempting to breach the defences must be prepared for a long siege, followed by a bloody and dangerous assault.\n\nHistorically, some of the most impressive fortifications ever constructed were the product of the Ottoman and Mughal empires. The quality of workmanship demanded was extremely high, even palatial in its luxurious attention to detail. The Red Fort at Agra remains an outstanding example of Mughal architecture, a fusion of native Indian, Persian and Islamic styles that remains impressive even today. Over 3000 people lived within its walls at one point, and the defences were certainly capable of protecting many more. False
building_description_texts_long_description_star_fort_european \n\nIn the Medieval period, castles had relied on high walls to make them impregnable and to give them a sense of overwhelming grandeur – part of their purpose was simply to intimidate lesser men. With the advent of gunpowder artillery, a different defensive scheme was required. Fortifications sank into the ground, protected by enormously thick walls, deep counterscarps and a sloping bank or glacis that would, hopefully, cause cannon shots to ricochet over the defences rather than penetrate.\n\nPassive defence, however, is not enough. The layout of projecting bastions in a star fort creates interlocking fields of flanking fire to destroy attackers as they approach over the sloping glacis. In theory, no attacker should reach the wall without coming under sustained and murderous attack from the defenders. The star shape evolved so that no part of the defences would be “blind” to fire from somewhere within the fort. The whole structure is, in fact, one massive killing zone for artillery weapons and defensive musketry. \n\nHistorically, the most notable creator of star forts was the French military engineering genius, Marshall Vauban (1633-1707); his name is virtually synonymous with the design. His defences at Verdun were still in use during the battle there in 1916 during the First World War. False
building_description_texts_long_description_star_fort_indian \n\nWith thick, high walls, impressive towers and many gun positions, the impression created by a fort for any attacker is of overwhelming strength. It will take time and effort to invest such a fort, break its walls with cannon fire and then organise an attack. All the while, the attackers will be prey to disease, starvation and the climate! The defenders may only have to wait for the attackers’ will to fail.\n\nBeyond Europe, the fortification ideas of Vauban and others did not really take root until the arrival of European powers and armies. Traditional fort designs continued in use because they were good enough for their purpose: they intimidated local rebels, and were difficult for them to assault because, as noted, they were unlikely to have substantial artillery siege trains. The “old fashioned” designs were therefore good enough when it took a courageous commander, or a lucky one, to mount a successful attack. There are, however, accounts of an Able Seaman Strahan single-handedly (!) capturing the “fort” (the size is not specified) at Baj-Baj on the Hooghly River in Bengal during Robert Clive’s 1756 campaign. False
building_description_texts_long_description_steam_drydock_european \n\nThe kind of beam engines used to pump water around a canal system (and drain mines) can drain a drydock efficiently. Using steam to power these engines is an obvious step, but once steam engines are in a dockyard their use goes far beyond pumping seawater around. \n\nThey can be used to drive sawmills, lathes, even block-making machines and as the lifting power for dockside cranes. The efficiency gains – admittedly with some new risk of fire, as the main shipbuilding material is wood – are impressive! \n\nThe scale of the military-naval industry could be huge in maritime nations, even discounting civilian yards. The British Royal Navy dockyards were the largest industrial organisation in the world during the 18th Century, and could make every part of a warship from a mast to a nail; guns were the exception, as they came from the Board of Ordnance. The ropewalk at Chatham, Kent, produced anchor ropes and was the longest brick building in Europe when constructed. It is still producing high quality ropes for ships today. The dockyards were so important that damaging them by fire or explosion carried the death penalty – something not actually repealed until 1971 (two years after the UK death penalty was finally abolished for murder). False
building_description_texts_long_description_steam-pumped_gold_mine_european \n\nPumping or lifting the water allows the miners to reach richer, deeper mineral seams. A steam beam engine, linked to a pump, can lift enough water to make it economically sensible to dig deep shafts. \n\nHistorically, Thomas Newcomen was the first to develop a practical “atmospheric” engine for draining deep mines sometime around 1710. His design had problems and was very inefficient, but it worked well enough to be widely adopted where coal was cheap. It was an atmospheric engine because the steam was never under pressure, and relied on a partial vacuum forming when the steam cooled, thus sucking the piston down the cylinder. The need to repeatedly warm and then cool the machine made it wasteful. \n\nJames Watt’s beam engine design was altogether more efficient. He had a separate steam condenser, and kept the cylinder at a constant temperature. He was also lucky in his choice of working partner, Matthew Boulton, who proved to be an astute business manager and lobbyist: he even persuaded the British Parliament to extend their patent, guaranteeing them further profit! False
building_description_texts_long_description_stockade_european \n\nThe walls are logs driven vertically into the ground and sharpened at the top to make a crude, thick fence. When defended properly this is enough to keep out most attackers.\n\nThis is the reason why a firing step for troops is usually constructed inside using either banked turf or earth rammed up against the logs. This banking has the additional benefit of giving some resilience against light artillery fire. A stockade cannot be expected to stand up to a serious pounding by cannons.\n\nHistorically, they were common on the American frontier where they were used as patrolling bases for contingents of light troops and local levies. Often in North America a crude stockade and the European flag fluttering above it were the only indication that you had arrived in “civilized” territory. False
building_description_texts_long_description_stockade_tribal \n\nStockades can be used for a wide variety of purposes and are simple enough to construct and take down with haste, if needs be. Typically made on areas of cleared woodland a stockade is constructed using the trees felled in the area. These are bedded in a trench and then sharpened to a point around the defended area. False
building_description_texts_long_description_tCommerce1_market_european \n\nThe sights, sounds, and smells of a modern market differ somewhat to the days of old. Now they team with goods from all over the world, coffee from the Ottoman Turks, wool from Britain, furs from the United States, and spices from India. This wide variety of commodities helps to increase industrial wealth as well as town wealth.\n\nNapoleon attempted to use trade and the restriction thereof to cripple the British war effort. He correctly understood that money was the basis of British power. His attack on Egypt, as well as serving his own interests, was intended to destroy, eventually, Britain’s trade in India. When Napoleon took control of France he continued his attempted strangulation of Britain’s trade by issuing a number of decrees against trade with Britain. The first of these was the Berlin Decree of 1806. The British government responded with a blockade of French-controlled Europe and ordered Royal Navy vessels to seize any ships, hostile or neutral, violating the blockade. False
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