The dog that didn’t bark –oftentimes what appears small in the history book was on its way to being large had not some force acted to keep it small –”I walked across the street” would not be much of an entry in your book, but “I was walking across the street when the bus hit me” would be a whole chapter if not the last one.

how circular, the story of Mexico,Texas, and France in the Civil War –that the ‘collapse of the Second Empire in 1870′ (Marty mentions above) was at the hands of the Prussians, proximate cause being a Spanish royal succession (almost a replay of the early 18th century War of the Spanish Succession –which due to the victory at Blenheim by direct ancestor John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, inspired Winston to come out of retirement to fight Hitler).

Spain, which had ruled Mexico for 300 years until Mexico revolted and brought forth the government that wrote the Constitution of 1828, which the breaking of by Santa Anna set off the Texas war of independence (the Alamo war) in 1836, which led to Texas’ entry into USA in 1846 for all of 15 years until its attempt to get back out of that deal brought Maximilian to Mexico!