House of Hapsburg and Inbreeding
Inbreeding when it is thought of in terms of humans is always a taboo, it is seen as a gross, low-class activity that leads to birth defects. In reality it is much more than that. Inbreeding in its most boiled down form is actually a science that when used with animals can produce purebred, prototypical animals with an ideal genetic makeup. Inbreeding as defined in The World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary is; "Breeding from closely related persons, animals or plants, so as to preserve certain characteristics." (Thorndike 993). "Inbreeding in humans may produce such hidden characteristics as weakness, albinism, or feeble-mindedness." (World Book Encyclopedia I, 78). This was not however the reason why the House of Hapsburg chose to inbreed so extremely. The Hapsburgs inbred for one reason, they had to gain and then maintain the power and the land that the family had worked so hard for. Although at that time little was known about the problems......
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