texts: Why are some cultures historically more modest than others?

texts:
Ancient Greeks, for example, were obviously very comfortable with nudity, as reflected in a lot of their art. On the other hand, Islamic cultures value modesty much more. And of course there are countless other cultures that range in between.
Why does this happen? One of my guesses would be temperatures, that if it's warmer in a place they would be more comfortable wearing less clothing, but isn't it warmer in the middle east than in Greece?
Another factor that I thought about was religion, as Greek mythology was often more crude than the Islamic stories. But are the cultures more modest because their stories are more modest or is it vice versa? Are there other factors that weigh in that I didn't mention?
I suppose by "modesty" I mean the extent that the culture is comfortable with exposed bodies. Greeks, for example, made plenty of statues and pieces of art of naked people, but Islamic cultures emphasize more modest, concealing clothing and dress.
I chose the examples of Greek and Islamic cultures because they were the first ones that came to mind. Sorry if I said something incorrect. I'm very curious about this topic and eager to hear what you have to say.


texts: Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?

texts: The various cultures of the Ancient Near East spoke a wide array of languages and we know that there was plenty of communication between cultures. We even have a language like Akkadian that served as a lingua franca between many different cultures. Diplomats, and others, must have received training in foreign languages. Do we have any written grammars from the Ancient Near East used for such teaching? Dictionaries? Explanations of points of grammar? Even exercises used by students?


texts: How were the British and French Mandates in the Levantine area involved in WWII?

texts: We all know the role of Egypt as a British protectorate at the time in WWII and the many battles fought in there. My question is, what is the role of the other British and French possessions in the Levantine and Middle East? Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. I know that many Iraqi's sided with Nazi Germany and were open in that matter. They wanted independence from the British and so did the Palestinians, many of whom supported Hitler in his plans against the Jews (Haj Amin al-Husseini)?


texts: Why was nude male art so acceptable, popular and officially supported in Germany?

texts:
The origin of today's question is cracked.com.

In the article, 2 independent examples of naked male art (sculpture) is present:

Sculptures in the "Third Reich Art" exhibition (plus this and this)
Pin-up art on one of V- rockets at Peenemünde

What gives?

This definitely wasn't the trend in German art during Bismark time. Nor did Hitler claim to be philosophically/spiritually descendent from classical Greeks or Renaissance Italians.

Why were the Nazis so supportive of this? (by comparison, Soviets would never be so open to what they would consider "pornography"). How did this official level of acceptance come about?


texts: What is the significance of roof charms outside of the Forbidden City?

texts:
I've been travelling around Asia for a few months and one recurring theme is that in important places in China and Taiwan the buildings have "Roof Charms" on them. When I first encountered them in the Forbidden City the audio guide explained that they signify which buildings are more important (the more charms, the more important the building is). After that, I encountered roof charms in a few places, most lately in the Chiang Kai-shek memorial area which is pretty modern but the buildings have variable number of roof charms, including multiple sets on the same building but on different roof floors. My experience in other location is also a pretty random number on each roof.

My question is whether the number of roof charms has any meaning and if so what is it?

(Searching google didn't give me a sufficiently good answer)


texts: How did Porfirio Diaz leave Mexico for Europe?

texts: As I understand it, Porfirio Diaz departed Mexico for Europe soon after surrendering the presidency, sometime around 1911. I seem to remember that he departed on a German passenger liner. Can that be confirmed, and a name of the liner and destination be provided?


texts: What is a "Schwedenschanze" on an 1830's map of Eastern Bavaria?

texts:
The modern translation by BING is Swedish ski jump or Swedish hill, depending on whether or not I insert a space, but this seems very unlikely in that time period. The structure is clearly man-made, and about the size of a small football stadium, but seems to be much simpler in structure.

The object can be found 3 or 4 km north-east of Landshut (and 1 km south-east of Ergolding) on this map and appears like this at 1:50000 scale:


texts:
You hear all the time in ancient history about cities or fortresses being besieged for a year, or two years, or even many years such as the sieges of Tripoli or Carthage or Drepana.  I'm wondering, what would the attacking armies do that whole time?  Did they just set up shop, built a little town and wait the defenders out, or were there usually active efforts to break in going throughout that whole time?

I know it's a tough challenge to break through a fortified city, and there's always the option of just starving them out, but it seems strange to have an army at your disposal and not be actively using it to try to win, whether through attacking head-on or infiltrating or tunneling or bribing or even just throwing flaming arrows and stones over the wall to make life hell for the citizens all day every day.

But on the other hand, it's also hard to imagine that active, daily efforts like that could be resisted for years at a time.  Even an army without major siege equipment could set fire to the city with arrows or flaming debris shot over the wall, or even build a ramp up to the wall itself, like at Masada or Tyre.  Hell, it seems like just lobbing a big rock once or twice every couple of hours would knock down a gate or a wall in less than a year...  Obviously, that kind of thing would be difficult and expensive, but surely it wouldn't compare to the expense of keeping an army in the field indefinitely?

So were multi-year sieges characterized by long periods of inactivity, where the attacking army basically just loitered outside the city?  Or were most sieges characterized by consistent activity throughout, and the length merely speaks to just how tough it is to break through city walls?


texts: What were Yamamoto's intentions when the Japanese Navy attacked Colombo, Sri Lanka, in1942?

texts:
During Easter 1942, the Japanese navy headed west into the Indian Ocean, and attacked Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).The Wikipedia article suggests that Yamamoto's main goal was to control the Indian Ocean and prevent British shipping to and from say, Calcutta. The British might still use Bombay (Mumbai) or even Karachi, (now part of Pakistan).

But in "Roosevelt, Soldier of Freedom," historian James MacGregor Burns makes the point that Churchill, at least, feared that Yamamoto's plans were more far reaching. That is, Churchill feared that Yamamoto might "leapfrog" around India, capturing Bombay and/or Karachi, and cutting off India altogether. Worse, he might head for a landing in the Persian Gulf to link up with the Germans in Iran. The book, "Marching Orders" also cites Japan's Baron Oshima (a diplomat) as making this point.

What do other historians, or Japanese military archives have to say about the scope of Yamamoto's intentions regarding Sri Lanka?


texts: Which misdeeds of F. Reineke was J.B.B. de Lesseps "obliged to suppress"?

texts:
F. Reineke was commandant of Kamchatka from about 1780 to 1784. According to Витер's История символов как история административного деления государства he was responsible for moving the territorial administration from Bolsheretesk to Nizhnekamchatsk. According to J.B.B. de Lesseps, Reineke resigned in 1784 "for reasons which I am obliged to suppress".

It was common for Siberian administrators to be venal. According to Forsyth's A history of the peoples of Siberia, the very first governor of Siberia, Matvei Gagarin, was hanged for fraud, nepotism, and selling offices; another governor in Irkutsk was relieved from office for gross corruption and replaced with his second, who was "vicious" and "ruthless".

Was Reineke guilty of the same old corruption and exploitation, or something worse? I'm skeptical that de Lesseps, a Frenchman, had any reason to suppress a story of Russian corruption.


texts: What made William Pitt beleive that it was in England's "interest of England to govern Ireland" when Ireland and England were unified?

texts: William Pitt, the Prime Minister of Britain when the Union of Ireland and England was formed in 1801, said that it was in the "interest of England to govern Ireland". In what aspect of Ireland and its relationship with England was it in the interest of England to do so? What was the exact dynamic of the relationship between the countries @ that time? Was trade and profit a part of it? In what way?


texts: How would British counterfeiting efforts in the revolutionary war have inflated the American currency?

texts:
During the revolutionary war one of the British's espionage tactics was to flood the American market with counterfeit currency to cause mass runaway inflation.

But how would that have worked? I don't believe anyone back in that day had a real handle on how much currency was moving in the market due to limited communication abilities. So how would people know that all of a sudden there was a lot more currency out there and thus their currency was worth less?


texts: Can anyone identify this military uniform?

texts: Can anyone identify this uniform? I'm not sure it is military or scouts? I'm guessing this is WWII era or earlier in the United States.


texts: Why were there no Internment camps for German-American Citizens in USA during WW2?

texts:
I am certainly aware of  Japanese-americans being detained in Internment camps , after the attack on Pearl Harbor , and subsequent declaration of war on United States , by the empire of Japan.
About 110,000+ Japanese-American residents of the pacific coast were , forced into relocating  into areas designated as "War Relocation Camps".

My question is why did the United states government, not carry out the same policy , against German-Americans ?

Another add-on question might be , how were German born newly emigrated(naturalized) citizen treated ? Were they just ignored , or was any measure taken to have a close watch over them , if not downright throw them in detainment camps ?

--EDIT--

To make my point clear that Executive Order 9066 , was targeted mainly the japanese , here is a quote from this reference , which echoes the proclamation made by President Gerald R. Ford in regard to executive order 9066.

  February 19th is the anniversary of a sad day in American history. It
  was on that date in 1942, in the midst of the response to the
  hostilities that began on December 7, 1941, that Executive Order 9066
  was issued, subsequently enforced by the criminal penalties of a
  statute enacted March 21, 1942, resulting in the uprooting of loyal
  Americans. Over one hundred thousand persons of Japanese ancestry were
  removed from their homes, detained in special camps, and eventually
  relocated.


texts: Did the Austrians win a "great victory" at Belgrade in 1738?

texts:
While researching the history of the Taaffe family (see also this question) I realized that a lot of the information about it in the wikipedia comes from a 1833 English noble almanach. Among other interesting facts this book also says that the 6th Viscout Taaffe, an Austrian general

  achieved great renown during the war with the Turks, in 1738, and
  achieved the victory of Belgrade with high honour.

Since I could not readily recall a Battle of Belgrade, 1738, I consulted wikipedia and this is what I found:

  In July 1737, Austria entered the war against Ottoman Empire, but was
  defeated a number of times, among others in the Battle of Banja Luka
  on August 4, 1737, Battle of Grocka at 18, 21–22 July 1739, and then
  lost Belgrade after an Ottoman siege from July 18 to September 1739.

Something is fishy here, isn't it? Are we witnessing a 1833 spin on the events of 1738 or was there an Austrian success at Belgrade that got left out of the wiki entry on the Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–39)?

UPDT: Yannis's link to the DBN does clear up things:

  He was given the command of a brigade in the main army under Wallis,
  and distinguished himself in the operations round Belgrade.

Looks like the 1833 book did over-enthuse for no good reason. I'll guess I'll stop here and forego a proper Quellenforschung at this stage.


texts: What was the church's attitude to "magic" prior to the 15th century?

texts:
According to Google the earliest witch trials were in the 15th century. Belief in magic, however, is obviously much older.

What was the church's attitude to supposed witches prior to the 15th century? What drove the change toward intolerance and persecution?


texts: Has any country, other than Britain, given away its empire?

texts:
King Mithridates VI of Pontus started a fashion when he left his country to Rome in his will.

One can argue (very weakly, but it helps this narrative ;-)) that Britain began to emerge as a country (England first) by uniting against Roman invasion, which became stronger after Prasutagus of the Iceni died and left half of his kingdom to Rome and the other half to his wife Boudica. Rome wanted it all, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Fast forward about MCM years and Britain had an empire upon which the sun never set.

After the end of the second world war, Britain began systematically dismantling this empire, freeing its countries from their relationship (I won’t use the word “subjugation”) towards her.

Question: does this have any historical precedent or parallel? Has any other country, peacefully and uncoerced, divested itself of so much territory and income?


texts: Did any leader say "We may have lost the battle, but not the war"?

texts:
I'm wondering if any leader from any era said the phrase "We may have lost the battle, but not the war" that can be backed up with reputable sources.

The meaning of the phrase (by my interpretation) is:

  You've have a few failures recently but there's a lot more to go, so focus on winning the next opportunities.

But, this can be taken literally too.

I'm not asking for the origin of the phrase, but rather if it was used by any leaders to maybe boost morale of their troops after seeing half their army dead, most injured, woman and children taken, villages on fire, etc.


texts: Which recent revolutions resulted in a major redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor?

texts: What are some of the recent examples of a violent large-scale redistribution of wealth?


texts: How did ancient mystery religions impact Christianity?

texts:
I recently learned about the existence of mystery religions while listening to lectures by Robert Garland about Daily Life in the Ancient World. Wikipedia seems to imply that the mystery religions influenced Christianity, but it's a little difficult for me to understand exactly how.

  Through the 1st to 4th century, Christianity stood in direct competition for adherents with the mystery cults, insofar as the "mystery cults too [were] an intrinsic element of the non-Jewish horizon of the reception of the Christian message". They too were "embraced by the process of the inculturation of Christianity in its initial phase", and they made "their own contribution to this process". In Klauck and McNeil's opinion, "the Christian doctrine of the sacraments, in the form in which we know it, would not have arisen without this interaction; and Christology too understood how to 'take up' the mythical inheritance, purifying it and elevating it".

What impact did these mystery religions have on Christianity?


texts: Do we know of other examples of modern Utilitarian/Poltical 'cannibalism' (as defined by Carlyle), besides the French Revolutionaries and the Nazis?

texts:
Thomas Carlyle - The French Revolution, A History: Chapter 3.5.VII:

  One other thing, or rather two other things, we will still mention;
  and no more: The Blond Perukes; the Tannery at Meudon. Great talk is
  of these Perruques blondes: O Reader,they are made from the Heads of
  Guillotined women...'At Meudon,’ says Montgaillard with considerable
  calmness, ‘there was a Tannery of Human Skins; such of the Guillotined
  as seemed worth flaying: of which perfectly good wash-leather was
  made:’ for breeches, and other uses. Montgaillard, iv. 290.) History,
  looking back over Cannibalism, through Purchas’s Pilgrims and all
  early and late Records, will perhaps find no terrestrial Cannibalism
  of a sort on the whole so detestable.

(Carlyle uses the term cannibalism to refer not only to humans consuming the flesh of other humans, but to any form of humans consuming their human victims: Using the victim's body parts as a wash-cloth or clothing or a wig is also consumption of humans by other humans: Thus "Cannibalism".)

Carlyle's account was written in the 1840's, before WW2. There are also numerous allegations and anecdotal evidence that the Nazis  used their victims' remains for similar purposes - soap, leather, etc - although I'm not sure how much of that has been historically verified.

What other examples do we have of such Utilitarian/Political 'Cannibalism' in the modern (post Renaissance) world? By "Utilitarian/Political" I mean cannibalism not born out of necessity, i.e starvation.

(I use the term "political" because there is symbolic significance here, as was the case in ancient times: such behavior demonstrates complete and utter dominance and victory over one's opponents. That is the root of most ancient cannibalism (or shamanic/mystical reasons) - it was not because they were hungry.)


texts: Did Lisa Chester (Xiola Blue) miss her father's funeral?

texts:
In or about 1987 Lisa Chester, Casey Niccoli, and Perry Farrell enjoyed a three-day orgy of sex and heroin. Farrell commemorated the event in his ten-minute song "Three Days" and album cover artwork for his band Jane's Addiction (then censored and replaced with a white "1st Amendment" cover). He called Chester "Xiola".

She was supposedly a trust-funder visiting Los Angeles at the time to attend her father's funeral (source, source). I haven't found out his name using the obituary search tool of the LA Times nor keyword searching (Chester is much more common as a given name). Lisa Chester herself overdosed and died in New York on June 6, 1987.

Did she miss her father's funeral?


texts: When and how did the term "Nazi" start replacing the term "Germans" in the context of WW2?

texts:
Have been browsing through newspapers from September 1939 and hardly any of them mention the term Nazi.
Instead, the overwhelming majority of them use the term Germans.

Clearly, today in most textbooks, the term Nazi dominates and most likely no Germans held the authors of these textbook at gunpoint to use Nazi instead of Germans.

(sources: 1, 2)

Even in the actual documentation of the Nuremberg Trials at Harvard, the term "Germany" occurs roughly a few times more than the terms "Nazi".

So, putting aside who potentially benefits on delegating from Germans to Nazis syntactic associations with one of the most barbaric war in the history of the mankind (That clearly would be Germans), how did it happen that we no longer use the term Germans that was commonly being used during the war?

That pertains to facets of WW2, not only Holocaust or Death Camps.

So how did it happen that we no longer refer to activities conducted by German State and German ordinary folks during the period of 1939-1945 by the adjective "Germans" but we use "Nazi" instead?


texts:
There seems to be a discernable common (although not universal) style to a lot of the art produced by the WPA during its history (1935-1943). I'd characterize it as more simplistic than realistic, with pastel colors and socialistic themes (usually depicting working men and women, rather than famous people or leaders).

Examples (from Connecticut, Ohio, and New York):

However, I've looked through Wikipedia's entire list of art "periods", and can't find one that seems to specifically designate it. Is there an accepted name for this art style? If so, what is it?


texts: Is the concern about automation costing jobs a recent one only, or are there other examples from the past?

texts:
Jobs always have been replaced. Were people in the past concerned about how technology might deprive them of their jobs?

To make the question less broad: Were people at the time of the industrial revolution in Europe as apprehensive about automation as they are today?

Example from NY times (April 1963):

  Fallacies and Facts About Automation; Like 'abolition,' like
  'prohibition,' the word is one that sparks great controversy. An
  expert tries to sort out the truth about it. Automation: Fallacies And
  Facts


texts: How come the British did not notify the Poles about the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret protocol?

texts: I have just read this answer and would like to know if there is a known reason why the British did not inform the Poles. Or is the whole thing wrong?


texts: Were high wages the root cause of the industrial revolution?

texts:
I was listening to a (German-language) podcast where this argument was made (translation into English courtesy of Google translate):

  The decisive change came in [...] 1760 in England. And that is the
  moment that everyone in their textbooks knows, namely that textile
  manufacturers came up with the idea of mechanizing looms and
  spinning mills, replacing the workforce with machines that were then
  powered by hydropower and then steam. And of course, the crucial
  question is - and tons of books have been written about that - why
  England, why 1760, why not, for example, Cologne around 1500? [...]
  The best theory that exists at the moment, and probably also true, is
  that from historic coincidences it was such that in England in the
  eighteenth century wages were twice as high as on the European
  continent So, textile manufacturers in England were no longer
  competitive because their labor was so expensive, and just when people
  were expensive - for the first time in history - it was worth using
  machines.

I usually encounter high wages as being presented as one reason in a whole bundle for the industrial revolution having started where and when it did historically, i.e. in England around 1760. But here this one reason is singled out as the root cause and a reference to a specific theory is made.

Which theory could that be and by which author? Is there a book-length account available perhaps from that author?


texts: What happened at the Battle (or not?) of Luding Bridge, during the Long March of Chinese Communists in 1935?

texts:
I've just finished reading Mao: The Unknown Story by Chang and Halliday.  She seems very biased against Mao and revels in accusing him of lying and manipulating.  If this were to be taken as a serious historical study, rather than a biography, I'd say that her lack of objectivity is a serious failing.

Doesn't necessarily mean she's wrong about Mao however.

One particular item she mentions was the Battle of Luding Bridge, supposedly happening in May 1935.

On one side:

the bridge is heavily defended and brave soldiers of the Red army battle a Nationalist regiment to cross a burning bridge under heavy machine gun fire.

Wikipedia Red Army sources agree that the members of the force crawled over the bare iron chains of the bridge while under heavy Nationalist machine-gun fire from the opposite side.

Chang's claims:

nothing very much happened.  The bridge was undefended.  Or might have been very lightly defended, as some of the Wikipedia details indicate.

This is the Wikepedia entry wiki/Battle_of_Luding_Bridge#The_battle_at_the_bridge and here's an image of the bridge.  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Luding_Bridge_June_07_350D_127.jpg

Some things that smell off to me:

in May the river would have been swollen by spring melts.  That doesn't look at all like a fordable river.  I can understand a bridge getting captured by a quick assault on inattentive or insufficient troops.  I can't see any chance for success against machine gun fire on this bridge.

Quoting Wikipedia The controversial anti-Mao British-Chinese writer Jung Chang and her revisionist historian husband.

Now, I don't have a problem with calling out Chang for being controversial.  But revisionist is a term often used in Communist terminology, so it sticks out as a sore thumb regarding the objectivity of that particular paragraph criticizing Jung Chang.

Any idea of what actually happened on that day?


texts: What happened where in 1541? (Portuguese in the Horn of Africa)

texts:
Was trying to check the following description from the introduction to a board game:

In 1541, Portuguese soldiers [...] slipped into the port of Massawa
[and] join[ed] the Christian forces. At the walled desert town of
Kassala on the river Gash, in what is now Sudan, the forces of Emperor
Galawdewos are believed to have made their climactic stand [and] the
surviving Moslem forces withdrew to the safety of Khartoum, about two
hundred fifty miles to the west.
For two years following the battle, the emperor recruited troops.
Then, with a force of eight thousand infantry and five hundred
cavalry, he attacked the Moslems at Waina Rega. After sixteen years in
Ethiopia, Ahmed Gran fell to a Christian musket ball. Although Emperor
Galawdewos died two years later in a minor engagement, he had turned
the Moslem tide for good at Kassala.

And also have this note (unknown source, perhaps some encyclopedia):

1541-1543 Eastern Africa: Ethiopia: Portuguese intervention to aid the
Ethiopians against the Muslims, A Portuguese force under Cristovao da
Gama lands at Massawa to support the Ethiopians against the Muslims.
After helping end the Muslim siege of Kassala, da Gama goes on to
defeat the Muslim forees led by Ahmed Gran in the Battle of Waim Dega
on February 21, 1543. Gran is killed in the battle.

But when googling, I find a rather different chronology:

At Massawa, governor Estevão da Gama responded to an appeal by the
Bahr Negus to assist the Christian Ethiopian Empire against invading
Adalite forces. [...] On February, 1542, the Portuguese were able to
capture an important Adalite stronghold at the Battle of Baçente. The
Portuguese were again victorious at the Battle of Jarte [...] However,
the Gragn then requested aid from the Ottoman governor of Yemen in
Aden [...] In the Battle of Wofla, Somali and Turkish forces defeated
the Portuguese, Gama was captured and killed by Gragn himself upon
refusing to convert to Islam.
Gelawdewos was eventually able to reorganize his forces and absorb the
remaining Portuguese soldiers and defeated Gragn (who was killed) at
the Battle of Wayna Daga [...]

All these places (Jarte, Wofla, Wayna Daga/Waim Dega/Wainadega) seem to be far south of Kassala. Based on the descriptions of the battle, Wayna Daga appears to be most similar to the one portrayed in the game (minus the town of Kassala).
Was there never a siege or battle at Kassala in the 16th c.? Which information are the earlier descriptions based on?


texts: Why did helmets have this metal thing between the eyes?

texts:
I have seen many medieval helmets that looked like this:

Why did they have that metal thingy between the eyes? What is the point? To me, it would be harder to see if I had something like that there. It would block my field of vision.


texts:
My question is about why Ernst Röhm (along with several other heads of the SA) was murdered by Hitler on 1st July 1934?

Two days before he alledgedly agreed to a go to a health resort for one month (during which time the SA was freed from duty), proposed by Hitler during an internal SA event in Berlin in summer 1934 (where Hitler actually appeared - as the only invited NSDAP head - with an entire posse of the SS).

Apparently there were rumours about an imminent putsch by Röhm, but there are no proofs for this as far as I'm aware. So what was it that Hitler so much could not tolerate in view of the fact that he actually came along with him quite well before (not to call him a friend).


texts: Why is such big density of churches in medieval towns?

texts:
If we look at Old Towns of European cities, we can see that there are many churches in them. Of course, it is reasonable as religion was very important in lives of the medieval people. However, comparing to old towns size, there are lots of them, sometimes one neighbouring another.

I prepared a map on Google https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zsvLKN5jAEmk.kVuQ07itOqG4 (I hope it works, in case not, try this link) showing churches in Old Town of Cracow.

This was the capital city of Poland in medieval times, one of largest and richest in Europe. The green lane around the Old Town is called "Planty" and marks the medieval border of the city (city walls). I tried to mark all churches there, but I'm pretty sure some are missing. These are only Catholic churches, but Protestant and Orthodox do also exist. Some of them might be a bit newer (Renaissance), some of them are churches of Orders.

In Polish Wikipedia there are statistics of demography of Cracow. Until 19th century there were ca. 20 thousand inhabitants, reaching maximum in 1530 (30000). Of course these people did not live only inside city walls.

Today in the Stare Miasto district live 40545 people (source). The District area is however about 3-4 times larger than the Old Town itself, so let us assume that inside the City Walls lived about ten thousand people.

I marked 18 churches inside the city walls, which gives about 500 people per parish. This number is reasonable, however not when you realize that St. Mary church can hold about 3000 people at once (my own observation).

I assume that other cities in Europe have similar numbers.

What was the reason of building such large churches with such density? Was it only ad maiorem Dei gloriam?


texts: Where and why were capital letters first used in English headlines?

texts:
The words in headlines are capitalized. I'm interested in the history of this.

Where and why were capital letters first used in headlines? Where is this practice of capitalization of words in English titles derived from? Is it derived from German?


texts: How could it be that 80% of townspeople were farmers during the Edo period in Japan?

texts:
I've read in the book "A modern history of Japan" by Andrew Gordon and other articles, that most of the Japanese townspeople were farmers(about 80% I suppose) during the Edo period. But according to the Wikipedia article Agriculture, forestry, and fishing in Japan and some satellite maps, only about one-fifth of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation.

I'm a bit confused, how is this possible? 80% of townspeople worked on only 20% of the whole land?


texts: Losses in reserve units during battles in Napoleonic wars

texts:
Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace famously contains a fictional account of the Battle of Borodino in 1812. In it, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky's regiment suffers losses from hostile artillery fire while still being held in reserve behind the battle's front lines.

  Toward two o'clock the regiment,  having already lost more than two
  hundred  men, was moved forward [...]
  Without moving from that spot or firing a  single shot the regiment
  here lost another third of its men.

If one assumes that such a regiment consisted of perhaps 2,000 to 4,000 soldiers this would amount to several hundred dead soldiers in a "safe" reserve unit. Is this a realistic order of magnitude, or does Tolstoy perhaps depict an extreme event in relation to what typically occurred during battles in that period?


texts: Who were the Bishops of Irkutsk after St. Innocent?

texts: The Irkutsk Orthodox diocese once administered a huge territory. Its founding bishop was St. Innocent, succeeded by Innocent (Nerunovich). Who else held the office before 1800?


texts: How were medieval castles built in swamps or marshes without draining them?

texts:
By this, I mean a castle built without terraforming or draining the swamp; a castle that was built while keeping the swamp intact.

Inspired by Monty Python Since apparently, castles built in marshes were a real thing and common thing, I would appreciate information on the construction techniques used to built these.


texts: When did homosexuality become unacceptable in Europe?

texts: In the ancient greek world male homosexuality was common and didn't attract the same scorn as it did even 100 years ago. So 2,000 years ago, it was acceptable, and 100 years ago it was unacceptable. When did it change? Why did it change?


texts: What determined the order of letters in the alphabet

texts: I'm sure that we can trace the order of letters in the modern Latin alphabet to precursors (the Greek alphabet, various Semitic writing systems). But at some point an order had to be chosen for letters without reference to a predecessor, since none existed. What determined the order of letters at that point? Was an order chosen arbitrarily?


texts: MLK used "negro" several times in his "I have a dream"-address. Could white "liberals" at the time also use "negro" as a neutral word for blacks?

texts:
According to this transcription of Martin Luther King's I have a dream-address, he used negro 15 times in his speech, as a neutral word for black people.
Did/could "leading", documented non-racist, white people use negro in the same way around this time, as a neutral word for black Americans?
With "leading" I mean top politicians like LBJ and JFK, their ministers, governors and similar. With "documented non-racist" I mean for example LBJ and his support for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It is hard to pin down "documented non-racist" in a good way, but I am referring to people who no "reasonable" person ever would suspect having some dubious views regarding this matter.
An answer that includes references to specific speeches, interviews, articles and similar sources is appreciated.
I am curious about the historical usage of the word negro in different groups in society, hence my question.


texts: How is it that King Philips War devastated the colonists so much, but the Colonists were not driven out?

texts:
King Philips War, or Metacom's War if you will, was pretty devastating to the Northeast Colonies in the pre-United States - yet even after this the tribes that could have realized that the English and other colonists were a threat never retaliated in any significant way.  I know many of the local tribes in the Northeast were already decimated from previous contact with other Europeans but there were plenty of tribes nearby that could have moved in after the peace was settled.  Considering that many tribes took land and spoils from others who were weak, a new tribe could have come in and then fought the remaining colonists and probably done significant damage.

This seemed like a great time to take back what was theirs and I often wonder why not.  If there are local sources to check please note them, I do live in the Northeast US so I can check but this is something that I have never seem much written on and often interested me.


texts: Were any Californios able to hold on to their ranchos?

texts:
Despite the clarity of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on this topic, Mexican land grants in Alta California were subject to drawn-out legal battles in the American period. Most Californios lost their ranchos owing to factors like a lack of detail in old official records, aggressive squatting by newcomers they could not afford to eject, and loan sharking. English speakers with close connections to the newly dominant Americans, like grantees Timothy Murphy and Joseph Majors, were relatively better prepared to defend their land interests.

Did any of the Californio families succeed in holding on to their rancho until, say, 1900?


texts: How did the Medici originally get into finance?

texts:
I'm trying to find out how the Medici family rose to power. Most sites simply say, "Banking and finance." I'm trying to figure out a bit more specific. How did Cosimo de Medici originally get into banking and finance? Was he born already somewhat wealthy and if so where did that money come from?

For example in The Medici - Secrets of the most powerful family in the world at 5 minutes in it just glances right over this and says,

  the father, Cosimo de Medici through a series of shrewd moves in 1540 had made himself absolute ruler of Florence

Great, but what were those moves? Who was he before he achieved this?


texts: In Dutch history two people are referred to as "William III"; are there any more cases where this happens?

texts:
William of Orange was also called William the third, one of the descendants in the same family was again called William the third.

Is this common in history? are there any more cases where this happens?


texts: Request for ancient history video lecture references

texts:
I just read a page on the Math Stack Exchange linking pages with videos of Math lectures and would love to have a similar thing for History--hopefully that's an acceptable "question" to ask here.  Also audio lectures would probably be good too.

The topic is a little huge, though, so since my current interests are in ancient history I'll restrict this post to resources for ancient history.

I'll provide the ones I already know about.

Video

History of the World to 1500

Everything from Crash Course, which I  believe is the same that Khan Academy uses.

Ancient Greek History

And of course there's everything you can get through open coursewares like EdX and Coursera.

Audio only

Scott Chesworth's The Ancient World Podcast

A couple classes from Tara Carter at UCSD, hopefully the links hold up: Prehistory and World History


texts: What historical evidence is there for the existence of Jesus Christ? What do we know about him?

texts:
How do historians study the events of Jesus' life, and the person he was? I read a book on the topic, and it held the position that the gospels were revised to appease the Romans - especially the passion narrative. If that is the case and they were completely rewritten, I'm not sure how we got ANY historical information on the topic.

I am not talking about the Gospels. I am not talking about any of the New Testament; it was written after Jesus' death anyway. The crucial detail that makes this question relevant to history lies in that I want to know what primary source documents, etc. say about Jesus and the person he was, not what the Bible says about him. The biblical version isn't very accurate anyway, as after the massacre of the Jews in 66 C.E., Jews and Christians alike both altered their beliefs about Jesus to appease the Roman empire and stifle any religious based revolution.

Assuming that there is a disconnect between a strictly theological interpretation of the life of Jesus and a historical interpretation, how do historians approach the topic?  What sort of historical methods can be applied to differentiate between these two interpretations?


texts: Did the leaflets from the US to Hiroshima/Nagasaki civilians on bombing cities reduce the civilian casualties of the two nuclear bombs in August 1945?

texts:
I read on Wikipedia

Various leaflets were dropped on Japan, three versions showing the names of 11 or 12 Japanese cities targeted for destruction by firebombing. The other side contained text stating "...we cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked.
In general, the Japanese regarded the leaflet messages as truthful, with many Japanese choosing to leave major cities.

To what extent did the requests/recommendations from the Americans to the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to leave the city help reduce the number of civilian casualties of the two nuclear bombs in August 1945?


texts: Why are most of the world's oldest buildings in Europe and not in the Fertile Crescent?

texts:
Looking at the list of  the world's ten oldest surviving human constructed buildings, many are in Europe while the oldest building in what (with a generous interpretation of the concept) could be called the Fertile Crescent (FC) is at place 21, and 1650 years younger than the oldest entry on the list. There is even an American entry on the list above (at position 11) the first FC entry

Why is this odd? Let me quote another Wikipedia page: The region [FC] has been called the "cradle of civilization", because it is where settled farming first began to emerge as people started the process of clearance and modification of natural vegetation in order to grow newly domesticated plants as crops. Early human civilizations such as Sumer flourished as a result.

Civilizations, that could construct complex buildings, cities and similar appeared in this area several millenniums before they appeared in Europe and even if it might have been hunter-gather stone age cultures that built several of the European constructions on the list, similar stone age cultures existed in the FC tens of thousands of years before they did in Europe.

Furthermore, generally the FC is arid and dry compared to France and other parts of Europe where you can find old buildings (admittedly, most of these buildings are constructed using rocks which isn't very affected by weather but, ceteris paribus, the FC should be more favourable for preserving buildings).

Finally, according to Wikipedia the population density of the Middle East (as an approximation of the FC) is around 50 people/km2 while France and Western/Southern Europe is around 100/km2 so "wear-and-tear" due to high population doesn't speak to the FC's "advantage" either.

I haven't looked into war or migration but intuitively I don't think the FC are significantly worse of than Europe in these respects.

Considering all this, the oldest buildings "should" be found in the FC rather than in Europe. Why isn't this so?

(Compare to how it looks "internally" in Europe: the oldest buildings are approximately in the locations that have been populated for the longest time while e.g., the oldest buildings in Northern Europe, that became populated far later than France, are much younger, which makes a lot of sense!).


texts: What were the names of the weapon manufacturers in France in the late 1700's

texts: What were the names of the companies that manufactured hand weapons in France in the late 1700's and who were the most productive.


texts: Why were there so many suffect consuls during the Principate?

texts:
As quoted from this wikipedia article, it states:

  If a consul died during his term (not uncommon when consuls were in
  the forefront of battle) or was removed from office, another would be
  elected by the Comitia Centuriata to serve the remainder of the term
  as consul suffectus, or suffect consul.

In the book 'Augustan Rome 44 BC to AD 14: The Restoration of the Republic and the Establishment of the Empire (The Edinburgh History of Ancient Rome)' by J. S. Richardson - he quotes Suetonius as saying:

  The reason he held the consulship now was, so Suetonius tells us, for
  the introduction into public life of Gaius Caesar, and, given the
  celebrations that attended this, this is no doubt correct; but it is
  worth noting that the same year also saw the reintroduction of the
  election of suffect consuls taking office after the elected consuls
  stood down, a practice that had last been used in 12 BC, The year that
  Agrippa died.

He also says:

  From now until the end of Augustus' reign the election of suffect
  consuls was to be the norm, with exceptions only in 3 BC and AD 14.

This would suggest that quite often during the Principate consuls either died, stood down or were removed from office.

Why is it that there were so many suffect consuls during the Principate?

You can find a list of Roman consuls here.


texts: Tolstoy's view of history as propounded in his book "War and Peace" is that the forces that shape historical events are infinitely many and unknowable. He posits that a leader is in no ways more special then any other person in having a role in shaping history, and hence the correct historical method is not to focus on leaders, which is usually done. What evidence is there of this theory besides the evidence given by Tolstoy himself in his analysis of the French invasion?


texts: Did Joseph Stalin kill anyone personally?

texts:
I read "Stalin: Triumph and tragedy" by Dmitri Volkogonov and (I believe) it said that Stalin didn't kill anyone with his own hands. He signed a lot of "death lists", but those are just pieces of paper.

Did he kill anyone with his own hands or watch any executions?


texts: Need song or quote from Christmas Truce of 1914

texts:
I need an emblematic, inspiring, not-too-long quote or image from the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914.  It should be historically accurate, but (in an appropriate context) it should be fairly easy for a reader to recognize it for what it is.

For example, it could be a quote in broken English from a German solder or officer.  It could be a quote in any of the three languages.  It could be the lyrics of a song that was sung, in the language the song was actually sung.  It could be a short sentence about lighting of candles or about playing soccer.

I see things on the web, but I have no way of judging if what I see is historically accurate, so I thought I would ask the people who would know!

It would be helpful to know the geographical location of the majority of the "Christmas Truce" activities that occurred in 1914.  (I realize that they didn't all happen on Christmas itself, that's okay.)

Edit:
So what I need is song lyrics or a quote, either from the time, or something emblematic that was written later; and the primary geographic locations, e.g. "Belgium."


texts: Did some Nazi death camp guards use Lee Enfield rifles?

texts:
I was watching the Netflix series The Devil Next Door and there was was video footage of a Nazi death camp. What was strange was that one of the guards appeared to be wielding a Lee Enfield No4 rifle with it's spike style bayonet.

From Episode 3 at about the 11 minutes 17 seconds mark:

Is there some German rifle that I could be mixing it up with? Any idea how and why they would be wielding a British rifle?


texts: What is this strange symbol painted on basement floor?

texts:
Given the layers of dirt this symbol and the walkway were found under, I assume it was painted before the 1960s. The house was likely built between 1900-1913, with the basement being dug at the same time. But the concrete used for the floor in each room of the two-room basement is different, with the backroom where the symbol was found having more layers of dirt and what appears to be an older style of concrete. As shown in the illustrations, there is a trapdoor to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs under the dirt a painted path was found (red and green colors as indicated) which led to the back room of the basement.

The path ends at the doorway to the back room, and does not connect directly to the symbol although it shares the same colors.

I did trace the history of the home and did not find any notable family names that could have given easy clues as to the origin of the symbol. The house is one of eight roughly identical one-story brick homes on the block, all built at the same time with similar basements, but winding up with different layouts and materials today. This house was the only one with the symbol. None of the other houses use a trapdoor for internal basement access, but they do have the stairs in a similar location.

The house is located in the Austinburg neighborhood of Covington, Kentucky.

I can provide additional neighborhood history information if you think it would help. I've run this online in the past and have gotten a number of suggestions, usually focusing on a venus symbol or a half anchor. I'm curious whether anyone here can identify the symbol with a credible source.


texts: Is there any documented criticism of the brutality of the Colosseum from citizens at the time?

texts:
I recently watched a documentary on the Roman Colosseum that described some of the brutal and cruel violence that took place.

The documentary explained that for the citizenry, the violence was justified and acceptable through their relationship with the violence associated with Rome's imperialism.

However were there any notable critics at the time?


texts: Did the Truman Doctrine contribute to the Cuban Missile Crisis?

texts: I have heard that the brinkmanship foreign policy of Eisenhower and Kennedy lead, in part, to the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, I am curious: did the Truman Doctrine also contribute, in part, to the Cuban Missile Crisis?


texts: Was Rome exporting its trash to Egypt as an early example of recycling?

texts:
During the time that Egypt was a Roman province, it shipped large quantities of grain to Rome until 330 AD. The article Trade Routes and Commercial Products of Roman Pompeii says:

  Egypt was supplying the city of Rome with almost a third of its
  annual grain needs by the mid first century A.D.

This required a large number of grain ships which, once they had unloaded the grain, presumably made their way back to Egypt. Researching what cargo they carried on the return journey has proven quite challenging. They carried wine and other items in amphorae, and then I came across this in Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome:

  On their return journey, these boats often carried refuse (such as
  rubble from the fire of Rome in 64).

Aside from the economic desirability of not having ships return to Egypt with no cargo, why was Rome exporting its trash to Egypt? Presumably it had some economic value and was perhaps being recycled in some way, or was it simply being used as ballast (as suggested by pluckedkiwi's comment)?

A talk at a workshop, Repair, Recycling and Rubbish in the Roman Economy, given on 23.2.2018 in Berlin mentions "an emphasis on Egypt" but no paper seems to be available yet relating to this potentially useful source.


texts: How many hours per day did a Sumerian farmer sleep?

texts: I wonder about the life-styles of the inhabitants of ancient civilizations. As a particular case, if we consider the era of Sumer, what are the significant diversities compared to rural life today?


texts: What exactly happened with beer and Leeuwarden in 1487?

texts:
On the history page for the day July 24th at Wikipedia, one of the events listed as happening that day is:

1487 – Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands strike against a ban on foreign beer.

This claim isn't cited, and googling it revealed basically no reliable attributions (in English) about this event.
So:  Is this claim accurate?  What were the details and causes of this strike, and how was it resolved? What sources do we have for this?


texts:
In a book titled America's Providential History it states on page 84 that

  The major Puritan weakness was their holding to the idea of a State
  Church. They saw nothing wrong with a National church.

But it doesn't give any evidence.  I personally don't think that they would want a State Church, since they knew that England's church had started out good and eventually became rotten (in their minds).  Is there any evidence out there that supports this idea?


texts: Broad and deep historical causes of gang violence in Mexico and El Salvador

texts:
Rigth now, both Mexico and El Salvador seem to be either failed states or on the slippery slope toward becoming failed states. Some areas of Mexico are prosperous and orderly, but the US State Department has listed the states of Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero as "do not travel areas," which puts them in the same class as Yemen and Syria. Although El Salvador's civil war is over, and it displays the forms of a multiparty democracy, they lose 0.5% of their population by emigration every year, an exodus demonstrating the extent to which society has broken down at the hands of gangs.
If you ask most people to name the historical causes of these breakdowns of social order, I think they would probably say that in Mexico, the cause of the problem is gangs supplying the US narcotics markets, while in El Salvador it's an outgrowth unhealed wounds from decades of left-right political polarization and civil war.
Is this accurate, or are there deeper causes?
El Salvador is one of the most overpopulated countries in the world, and this article says:

Trull blames the out-migration of so many young Salvadorans on the usual suspects: poverty, unemployment, gangs, violence and the long shadow of a brutal civil war in the 1980s. But not a word about overpopulation, which even back at the time of 1969’s short-lived “soccer war” between El Salvador and Honduras, more astute observers realized, was a contributing cause to the tensions between these two small republics that burst into warfare.
Tiny El Salvador had five times the population density as Honduras. And for years, land-poor Salvadorans had been illegally migrating into Honduras and occupying Honduran lands; in other words, Honduras was serving as a safety valve for El Salvador, much as the U.S. does for both nations today.
I have yet to see even one reporter in the mainstream media acknowledge rapid, unsustainable population growth in these Central American countries as an underlying cause of the mass migration taking place today.

However, if you look at the population data, El Salvador's population growth rate these days is comparable to that of the US. Although part of this is because there is so much emigration, the fertility rate seems to be at or below replacement. I don't know if this is the kind of normal reduction in fertility that often accompanies modernization and the education of women, or if it's the kind of reduction that we see in places like Russia, due to despair and economic hardship.
In Mexico, if you look at the map of violence and compare it to the map of population density, you actually seem to get somewhat of an anticorrelation. E.g., Puebla state is a lovely and peaceful place that I've enjoyed visiting recently, and it's also very densely populated, while a lot of the most violence-plagued areas in the north have low population densities. However, what may be more relevant is the population in proportion to resources and wealth, and the employment prospects of young men. Perhaps the map of violence is really a map of proximity to US drug markets.
How accurate would it be to assign blame to the following historical causes of the violence in these countries? --

overpopulation
history of poorly functioning political institutions (including very negative US historical actions in El Salvador)
US drug market and drug prohibition policies, and the power of the narcotics trade to corrupt police and government
low education and literacy

Are gangs like MS13 in El Salvador fundamentally drug gangs supplying the US market, or do they function mainly as the institutions of warlordism within El Salvador?


texts: What is the earliest instance of a celebrity endorsement of a commercial product?

texts:
Celebrity endorsements of various products, such as perfumes, soft drinks, or cars, are commonplace today. What is the earliest instance of such an occurrence? I’m considering a celebrity endorsement to be for a commercial product that

Was not created by the celebrity
Uses their name and/or testimony to promote sales
Isn’t part of an exclusive contract involving the celebrity (e.g. it’s not a celebrity endorsement for a government official to commission guns for an army and then encourage its use)

If I missed any loopholes, assume I mean the clear definition of “celebrity X thinks this product is great, and so you should get it too.” What is the earliest instance of such an endorsement?


texts: Under feudal primogeniture, did second+ sons ever eye the land holdings of their father's vassals?

texts:
Kings had the power to grant power and privileges their non-first born sons. The lesser vassals second, third, ect sons were more less out of luck, having to resign themselves to pursuits other than landownership.

But what about the non-firstborn sons of middling lords? It seems that a third born son of lord might be tempted to try to conquer the lands of vassal (or ask for the support of their family in doing so)?

Were their ever conflicts between a lord (or their family) and their vassal in order to secure land for their non-first born sons?


texts: Was slavery really on the way out in the antebellum USA?

texts:
Gail Jarvis, in an encomium to the Dunning School writes:

  William A. Dunning fervently opposed slavery but his reading of the
  trends of the times led him to the conclusion that the institution was
  coming to an end. The slave trade itself ended in 1808, so for more
  than 50 years before Fort Sumter was fired on, no new slaves had been
  imported. Southern slaves began obtaining their freedom in the 1700s
  by saving money to purchase their freedom; by performing services for
  the state or the local community (some were freed for assisting in the
  Revolutionary War) and many were manumitted by the last will and
  testament of their owners for "faithful service."

However, I have received a different impression from my reading so far. In particular, if slavery was really fizzing out by itself, how to explain the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Dredd Scott decision which are usually understood as the slavers' onslaught?

Are there objective statistical studies on this issue? Jarvis' words sound like fine rhetoric but I find it suspicious that he carefully eschews quoting any figures.

UPDATE
Another influential historian who espoused similar views was Ulrich Phillips:

  He concluded that plantation slavery was not very profitable, had
  about reached its geographical limits in 1860, and would probably have
  faded away without the American Civil War, which he considered
  needless conflict.


texts:
Crusaders were called "Latins" by some narrative sources and Mediaeval historians.

Medieval sources: Albertus Aquensis, Willermus Tyrensis

Why was this descriptive term used?


texts: What did Winston Churchill mean by this quote?

texts:
What did Winston Churchill mean by the quote below?

  The Almighty in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to create
  Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen.


texts:
Debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. As recently as the mid 19th century, it was a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe. Debtors' prison started to disappear since the start of the 20th century. Today, none of the major economies practise it anymore.

What were the factors that caused debtors' prison to disappear in most parts of the world in the 20th century?


texts: How did opinions of France and Britain affect American foreign policy up to 1820?

texts:
I'm doing some research on this topic for my American Studies class, and I'm having a little trouble with this.

I would appreciate a brief overview of this, or possibly some primary sources for me to look through.


texts: Why did the southern states secede from the U.S.?

texts: Lincoln's election precipitated the secession, but didn't they have enough congressional power to continue things much as they were?  It seems in the preceding two decades the slave states had managed well enough extracting concessions from the free states such as the Missouri compromise and the fugitive slave act.  Wouldn't it have made more sense to continue as part of the U.S. and ignore the abolitionist sentiment of many in the North?


texts: At which point did election in a large country become feasible?

texts:
According to this answer by Anixx

  In the ancient world, democracy or oligarchical republics existed only
  in city-states because it was unfeasible to conduct elections in a
  large country and potentially could lead to a civil war between the
  cities.

At what point in history did it first become logistically feasible for a large country (e.g. an empire, kingdom, or a nation-state, not just a city-state) to conduct a universal election to choose a government? What was the specific technology or development that allowed it?

I am not referring to the date universal suffrage was first extended. I believe some nation chose not to extend the right to vote to people of certain race/gender, despite universal election was technically feasible.


texts: When did we know the color/appearance of all the planets in our solar system?

texts: When did we discover the color/appearance of all the planets in our solar system? Was this process spread out over a long period of time?


texts: Which United States cities started getting electricity in the 1920s?

texts: In the 1920s, electricity was starting to expand to rural and urban communities. What exact cities got electricity during that decade (more specifically, 1920-1929)


texts: Was the reign of Galba covered in the missing books of Tacitus' Annals?

texts:
The surviving books of Tacitus' Annals end off midway through the year AD 66 (during Nero's principate). Had the rest of the work survived, would the Annals have ended in June 68 (Nero's death) or December 68 (six months into Galba's reign)?

Bearing in mind that Tacitus explicitly states that his companion work, the Histories, begins in January 69 (Hist. I.1) rather than from Nero's death.


texts: Are there any British peers whose surname matches their title?

texts:
Is it possible for a British peer to have the same surname and title? As in William Podunk, Duke of Podunk?

I had been quite sure of the thing's impossibility till I thought of a counterexample: there was a Richard (of) York, Duke of York.

On the other hand, is "of York" even a proper surname? I feel I am a bit out of my depth here.

EDIT

As @Pieter pointed out, the counterexample is wrong. It's Richard Plantagenet.


texts: What were untreated gangrene survival rates before 1860?

texts:
During the Civil War, Middleton Goldsmith revolutionized the treatment of gangrene, bringing mortality rates (presumably of wounded soldiers) from 45% to 3%, according to Wikipedia.

Do we have any data to suggest what mortality rates would have been at the time without treatment by doctors? I'm most interested in whether or not the number is above or below 45%--the root question is whether or not surgical treatment of gangrene helped or harmed, but I would much rather try to answer that with statistics than observations about medical practice. (For example, I know that al-Kharzawi recommended amputation, and thus it was standard practice in the West, but that doesn't tell me that it actually helped.)


texts: Did the PLO coordinate with Arab armies during the Six Day War?

texts:
In general, the PLO did some raiding before and after the Six Day War but I noticed this facebook post (and also wikipedia) that listed the PLO among the contributors to the Arab's strength.

It would make sense that the PLO would want to be involved in some action but I cannot find any source that describes what they did.

1) Did the PLO (or other Palestinian militant group) do some action during the Six Day War?

2) Was this coordinated with the Arab States?

3) Were they aware of Egypt/Syria's plan beforehand?


texts: What was World War 1 called before World War 2?

texts:
Today it seems common to refer to both World Wars with the terms "World War 1" and "World War 2" pretty much everywhere. (in the respective translation of course)

But I recently realized that this kind of notation only makes sense when there is more than one WW to refer to. Surely WW1 was not used before WW2, as nobody was hoping for another event like this.

What was the common name for WW1 during the war and in the period before WW2? If there were different names used by the different parties, what were they?


texts: What are some examples of King George III "protecting [the British] from punishment"?

texts: In the Declaration of Independence, it says that King George III "protect[ed] [the British]... from punishment for any Murders which they committ[ed] on the Inhabitants of these States.” What are some examples of this? I searched for it but all I found was the Boston Massacre. Besides that (and even that one is debatable), are there any other cases of the king protecting the British from punishment?


texts: Was there Nazi Collaboration at an Institutional level in Poland?

texts:
Following recent legal regulations in Poland prohibiting any association of Polish culpability with the Holocaust and concentration camps, the question that arises is whether there was any Polish collaboration with the Nazi regime at a national or at any institutional level?

Is there evidence of the government, bureaucrats or public sector institutions in Poland actively collaborating with the Nazis, and of them conspiring against their Jewish population and, if so, in what way and to what extent was it carried out willingly?


texts: Are submarine launched ballistic missiles still inaccurate?

texts:
In the early 1980s documentary First Strike, one of the arguments made for the development of the MX missile program was that in the event of a massive Soviet attack on the land-based missile and bomber forces of the United States, the SLBM force would be "too inaccurate" to effectively target the Soviet strategic missile force.  This inaccuracy would mean that the SLBM force would be restricted to targeting "soft targets" such as cities, air bases, and ports.

What was the cause of the inaccuracy of the SLBM force compared to the land-based ICBM force, and does this difference still exist today?


texts: Possible history behind photograph related to 1962 Sino-Indian War

texts:
I came across the following image in an archive of photographs related to the 1962 Sino-Indian War:

I have posted a question for identification of the aircraft.

The text in the archive seems to suggest the photo depicts evacuation of Tibetan refugees by the USAF. However, the location of the photograph and the destination, is not stated.

Google search for "US evacuation tibet" and other combinations, do not yield any related results.

Google Image search for the image has also not yielded any positive results.

Observations:

There seems to be a military person (wearing a beret and appearing to be dressed in uniform, slightly away from the lineup of the kids, and also holding a child) who appears to be of Indian origin and thus most probably Indian Army.
The source of the archive seems to suggest very strongly that the photograph was taken in India.

What is the history behind this photograph?


texts: Was Murud-Janjira independent until it became part of India?

texts:
I read up on Murud-Janjira, a fort off the coast of mainland India. It appears that the Siddis managed to hold onto the fort despite Dutch, Maratha, and British East India Company attacks. In the Wikipedia article (no citation):

  ... Janjira remained unconquered until it became part of Indian
  territory after independence from the British in 1947.

Questions:

Was this fort really independent from the European powers (in particular, the British Raj)?
If so, how did it manage to be independent for so long? Surely aircraft, naval, artillery, and mechanized infantry technology would have been advanced enough in the first half of the 20th century to capture the fort.
Why did it join India?


texts: What are legitimate methods and sources?

texts: How does a historian or an amateur determine what legitimate methods can be used and what legitimate sources are?  Obviously there are many methods to read texts and speculate about political, social, cultural and individual past experiences; but how are legitimate and illegitimate methods marked?  Some sources are obviously very good and very useful, others very bad but very useful, yet others are very good or very bad but not at all useful.  How is this differentiation made in historiography?


texts: How did people and goods move between East Pakistan and West Pakistan?

texts:
Prior to Bangladeshi independence in 1971, what routes did people and goods take to move between East Pakistan and West Pakistan? Obviously, they couldn't have gone straight through India. I imagine much of the travel would have been done by sailing around India and Sri Lanka; but was any of the travel done via land (through East Pakistan's border with Burma)?

Also, what about travel by air? I figure air travel must have been very limited at the time, but when people did travel by air between the two parts of Pakistan, what would their flight paths have looked like? Did they have to avoid Indian airspace?


texts: Why is 26th January India's Republic Day?

texts:
I read on Wikipedia that 26 January celebrated as India's Republic Day because it is on this day in the year 1929 that the Indian National Congress proclaimed the declaration of independence as opposed dominion status offered by the British.

I recall my history teacher asking us that why 26th January was chosen and not some other day by the Indian National Congress. We couldn't answer and she told us that she herself had researched for a long time to only find out one probable answer that is she found a research paper which said that it was decided in the Indian National Congress meeting that the last Sunday of January would be marked as Republic Day. I want to verify that is there any truth to this and if yes can someone please cite the research paper.


texts: When did flogging and other corporal punishments get abolished in Europe?

texts:
Where were the first and last countries that abolished flogging as a punishment?

Edit: I hadn't seen the wiki articles below. Very interesting much don't go into much detail about non-Anglophone countries.


texts: What's the significance of "Splashware"?

texts:
I've found at Wikimedia Commons a few dishes labeled as "Splashware". Imitation Splashware in fact. It seems to be related to archaeology, so I hope this is the right place to ask the question (instead of English SE).

What is splashware, who used it, and when?

 -


texts: Louis XIV of France, "L'État, c'est moi", and the royal 'we'

texts:
(Maybe should be in the French Language community instead.)
Louis XIV famously allegedly said "L'État, c'est moi". But wouldn't he (at least hypothetically) have used the royal 'we', i.e., "L'État, c'est nous"?

(I ask partly because, if the use of the royal 'we' would be correct, it could be taken as evidence he never said "L'État...".)

I'm aware of a related question (Did Louis XIV actually say "The State? I am the State."? Could he have said it?) but that doesn't address the specific wording.


texts: Can anyone find an image of Henry Bolingbroke's Sovereygne Feather Seal?

texts:
Henry IV of England used a "remarkable seal" with two tall feathers (around the shield, helm and crest), each entwined with a garter which had his "favorite and significant" motto "SOVEREYGNE" written on it, which he is said to have used "a short time before his accession", as Duke of Lancaster. (Sources: English Heraldry, by Ch. Boutell, pg. 242. A Complete Guide to Heraldry, by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies)

A modern depiction of this feather can be seen here, by "Sodacan" on wikicommons.

Can anyone find a photo or even illustration of this image? I can't for the life of me find one. I can find double ostrich feathers for the Duchy of Lancaster, just not entwined with "SOVEREYGNE".

I came across this Seal of John, Duke of Bedford, which looks like it has the ostrich feathers entwined with writing. John of Lancaster was the third son of Henry IV, but I can't find any other higher resolution photos of this to confirm if this is the same symbol


texts: How were city government and law enforcement authorities organized in Northern Italy in the 17th century?

texts:
How was it all actually working there, in the dark 16xx-s?
 Who was the major of a town, what was his duties and capabilities?
 How were laws issued?
 How was organized the analog of police: a city guard, or something like that, if there were any, who obeyed they and how were they working?
For example, if some crime happens, somebody get murdered, what would be their action? was it really possible for them to solve cases if someone get shoot down or poisoned?
Yeah, i know, its hard questions, i d be thankful for any help.


texts: We have a worksheet for history, where we need to guess an ancient Roman person's class depending on their point of view in a piece of text they wrote. I have searched the internet for help in one of the pieces of text, about a son of a freed slave, but I found nothing. My question is- Is the biological or adopted son of an ancient Roman Freedman a Freedman or a Freeborn? Thanks!


texts: What’s this odd hat/crown and is it related to Baal?

texts:
So I was looking at a history book and it was set in ancient Egypt, in the temple of karnak. They were talking about how their were doors only the pharaohs and priests were allowed in, and how they decorate the temple during festivals. They would paint pictures of the gods and hieroglyphics, and I saw one of them had this odd strange cone hat/crown.

This looked odd, and also the ancient god of fertility in latter day Syria and Israel, Ba’al, had a very similar looking hat, and a hieroglyphic of the ancient Egyptian god Osiris:

This is an early statue of Ba’al: I

And the hielogryphic;

I believe Baal was worshipped during the 2nd millennium BC which was when tablets of his story were recovered.

Anything similar? Same hat? What is it?


texts: What is the origin of the Arabs in pre-Islamic Yemen and Arabia?

texts: Genetically speaking, who are the pre-Islamic Arab tribes who lived in Yemen and Arabia in many centuries B.C. closest to? Where did the first Arab settlers in Yemen come from? I know that Arabs claim to be descendants of Abraham, is their any proof to that claim, and if so, how did they come to live in Yemen and Arabia?


texts: What is the Balboa Park in San Francisco named after?

texts:
Although I would think San Francisco's Balboa Park is named after Núñez de Balboa who is the first European to see the Pacific Ocean I cannot find any historic evidence in Internet.

In this document(pdf) there is a long history of the Park, but neither Núñez de Balboa nor San Diego City are mentioned


texts: Does any of John Sutter's tin money survive?

texts:
John Sutter was a Swiss settler and investor in the late Mexican era of California. I have only seen secondary sources on the matter, but apparently his colony New Helvetia had bespoke coinage:

... to his other activities he had added the coinage of money, even if it was tin money; pieces of that metal stamped with figures denoting its value and which he accepted in trade at his Fort. -- Watson, The Life of Johann August Sutter
A tin disc with a star inscribed on it...was used as a form of exchange. -- Pierson, Roughing it in Gold Country: Tales from the Mother Lode
Sutter paid the Indians with tin cans, stamped with stars to be used at the company store. -- Ironton Tribute
... he minted tin coins with stars stamped into them for payment to the Indians for work performed and the coins could be redeemed later for food or dry goods in Sutter's store. -- Wells, nevadacounty.com

Does any of these tin coins still exist?


texts: Provinces and Dioceses in the late roman empire contrasted with those of the church

texts:
I have been frustrated by the following issue.

In the structure of the late roman empire, provinces were grouped into diocese, which were in turn grouped into praetorian prefectures.

The civilian and military administration of these units were separate, and
followed the hierarchy.

land :    province  < diocese  < praetorian prefecture < empire

civilian: corrector < vicarius < praetorian prefect (< emperor)

military: Dux       < m. militum/c. r. militaris < emperor

I have read that the geographic divisions of the catholic church are leftovers from this system.  For example, ecclesiastical provinces and diocese started off as their secular roman counterparts.

But in the church, diocese are grouped into provinces, not the other way around as used to be the case.

It seems to go like this:

parish priest < bishop < metropolitan bishop < patriarch < emperor

My intuition would suggest that bishops oversaw provinces, not diocese.  And that metropolitan bishops governed the church from diocesan capitals, not provincial capitals as I have seen written.

It seems clear that the church was not organized in a way directly corresponding to the rest of the state.  For example, the patriarchates do not correspond to praetorian prefectures, despite their similar number and hierarchical place.

So anyway, what exactly is going on here?


texts: Has a state ever "attacked" another one by printing fake money?

texts:
Has any state ever performed an "economic attack" against another state, by printing fake money of the victim's currency?

Or, is it known if someone ever considered doing it, and which were the supposed pros and cons?


texts: What anti-Japanese guerrilla units were active in Manchuria from 1944-1945?

texts:
I am writing a historical fiction novel with a North Korean protagonist joining anti-Japanese guerrilla forces in Manchuria in 1944.

I understand that major anti-Japanese resistance in Manchuria was eradicated in 1941 and Kim il sung retired to the border of the USSR.

What anti-Japanese guerrilla groups were still active during this time?


texts: What effect did the Mafia have during World War 2?

texts: I have heard that the Mafia cooperated with different governments in WW2.   How extensive was this cooperation and was it effective?


texts: Are Americans More Obsessed With the Military Aspect of History? If so, why?

texts:
If there is anything in my mind that has been particularly pronounced about American historical interests it has been an overriding interest in the military aspects of history.  This can be viewed in the curriculum of American schools, where the conquests of the Greco-Romman empires and European/American wars are given a lion's share of attention.  In the "history channel" where before the channel's devolving into a series of reality shows and alien/biblical nonsense was virtually monopolized by commentary and analysis of the civil war and world war II. It can even be seen on this forum where many of the posts seem to focus on military history, tactics, and culture.

I think it is very important for America (and given its power, the rest of the world as well) to determine if (and if so, why) Americans have become so focused on the military aspects of history.  Are there examples of other empires (such as England, the Netherlands, Spain, etc.) having similar cultural fixations on the military?  Or is this a unique aspect of American culture?  If this is a trend, what in American history has lead to the development of our military veneration?

While I believe this question may stray from the forum's Q&A format somewhat, I do believe that it neither deviates too strongly from said format or is phrased in such a way that it is impossible to provide analysis of trends which can be backed up by solid research.


texts:
The Czech Legion was allied with the Russian Tsars just prior to the Russian revolution. After the Bolsheviks took power, they were unable to return via Europe. So they crossed the whole of Eurasia over a period of years, and eventually exited the country via Vladivostok. In the process, they played an important part in the Russian Revolution.

The question is simple: How did they get home?

In the article above, they say this:

  The troops dispersed aboard a series of ships that carried them back
  to Europe via the Indian Ocean, others sailed across the Pacific and
  through the Panama Canal. Eventually, all were repatriated.

I find this to be kind of a tease; of course they crossed oceans on boats to get home.

Were these Czech ships? British ships? Were they just passenger ships? What kind of ships were having Vladivostok as a port of call at this time? Who paid for them to get home?

(Here's the link to the Wikipedia Page for Czech Legion )

( Previous SE History Mention of Czech Legion )


texts:
Why did the term "Byzantine Empire" enter common usage instead of "Eastern Roman Empire" or "Roman Empire"? (or Imperium Graecorum?)

Wikipedia says that the term Byzantine wasn't used until 1557, and that pope Leo around 800 AD named Charlemagne "Roman Emperor" for political reasons. Note that the Eastern Roman Empire fell to the Turks in 1453, so this name change comes more than 100 years later, during the protestant reformation.

Wikipedia also says:

  in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more
  straightforwardly seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the
  Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm.[21] The
  name millet-i Rûm, or "Roman nation," was used by the Ottomans through
  the 20th century to refer to the former subjects of the Byzantine
  Empire, that is, the Orthodox Christian community within Ottoman
  realms.

How and why did the term Byzantine supplant other western European words for the Eastern Roman Empire? Did the Historians who did this have ulterior motives?

Was it Gibbon in particular who is responsible for this? What were his motives?


texts: Who was the richest person in the world at the start and end of WW2?

texts: Who was the richest person in the world when the World war II started and when it ended? Was it the same person? If so, how did the war years affect his wealth?


texts: In WW2, why did Germany sink allied supply convoys instead of capturing them?

texts:
When reading about naval warfare in WW2, it suddenly struck me that sinking supply convoys was a huge waste of resources, especially in the later years when Germany was desperate for oil and other supplies. Why didn't the German navy try to capture them instead?

Would love if anyone knows of actual military or government discussions on this topic, weighing the pros and cons of each method.

My guess:

The main goal is to deny the enemy of the supply rather than to supply your own nation.
It requires a bigger force to actually capture a convoy and lead it to safety in your nation's docks.


texts: Has the drought also revealed ancient structures in France as it did in Ireland?

texts:
I was wondering whether the drought has also revealed ancient structures in France as it did in Ireland (see the BBC article Dry weather reveals ancient site in Meath's Boyne Valley).

I searched the net but couldn't find anything (maybe due to my limited knowledge of French).


texts: Was there a period in history predating the 15th century where being bald was not looked upon negatively?

texts:
I know that ancient Egyptians shaved their heads, but they usually wore wigs. Was there any culture where head shaving was seen in a positive light and hair loss was looked upon in a positive light? I know that Roman men valued their hair, and hair loss was seen as a negative thing, for example.
I find it weird that shaved heads were never common in history since  there are advantages to having a shaved head compared to a balding head in the 21st century.
The only instance I have found so far is ancient Mesopotamia.


texts: What's the connection between the pub name "The Black Bull" and Northumberland? It seems like every other town here has one with the name!


texts: Was there a trade link between the medieval Hungarian Kingdom and the Mali Empire?

texts:
This is very much a cold question as I have found no writings on any link. However, I do know that there was West African and European trade links long before colonialism and quite a bit of Mali gold found it's way to Europe. I also know the early Hungarian Kingdom did also control a substantial amount of gold mines in Europe but most of them had been quite depleted in antiquity.

I'm asking this based on legends, myself, of Magyar decent had heard passed down. It goes; As Magyar gold dwindled down in the second half of the middle ages the Kingdom began trading with the Mali empire at it's height providing cash crops like Hemp (still Hungary's largest cash crop) as well as textiles, paprika and lumber for Mali gold and some advanced iron worked products.

I don't know if there is any truth to this but it seems to specific and random for a story passed down through folk for it to not have something to it. If Anyone can answer or provide any information supporting or debunking the story I would be very appreciative. Thanks.


texts: What forces/incentives drove the Mongols to conquer a much larger territory than they could comfortably settle or rule?

texts:
Internet resources on the Mongol Empire usually dwell on the Mongol conquests of a huge mass of territory. Unfortunately, seldom are the reasons behind the conquests explained. One gets the impression that the Mongols were conquering for the sake of conquering to satisfy their ego of becoming the biggest land-based conquerors in world history in the Guinness Book of Records. However, this is seldom so because of the huge costs of war.

Given the relatively small population of the Mongols (less than 3m today), even Mongolia itself should be enough. Surely, after conquering significant parts of China, it should be more than enough. Why did the Mongols still want to move on to conquer the other parts of Asia, Russia, Europe? What purpose did these territories serve them? Even if they managed to conquer successfully, it was doubtful if the Mongol population was large enough to spread throughout the conquered territories to rule and preserve their power on a long-term basis.

What reasons drove the Mongols to want to conquer such a huge territory?


texts: When Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 45 BC, why didn't he add any days to February?

texts: In the creation of the Julian calendar, Julius increased the length of the months that weren't already 31 days long, except for February. Why?


texts:
I am writing a story about a soldier who survived an ambush and he hid several days. Then he walked to a village. While he was on the way (walking on a road) he saw a caravan ...

So my question is: in the Roman era, did the caravans or passing people riding horses simply give strangers a ride if they had the same destination? (generally speaking)

I mean, in our modern era auto-stop is common in general. Many trucks would stop for strangers. At least that's what we see on TV. In ancient times bandits were everywhere but also in our modern era, a criminal can hijack a truck that contains a lot of food.

Anyway, would someone stop for this soldier? Or didn't people give lifts in Roman times?


texts: Did the French Resistance kill civilians?

texts: During the second world war, did the French Resistance kill civilian or paramilitary targets?  And if so, how often did this happen?  Additionally, were there any murders of collaborators after the war?


texts: Can anyone find the Cartier designs for the unmade Baroda Crown of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III?

texts:
This video, The Great Indian Crowns, featuring Jewellery Historian and Author Rene Brus, mentions a 'Crown Project' at the 14:23 mark. It was a 1930s project to make a crown for Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda State, and it is said that the project - although never completed - did last for several years, with Cartier making a number of designs. They also provide this image with the caption that it is one of the designs for the 'Baroda Crown', although it looks like a turban headpiece so common to the era, raising the question whether he was seeking a crown or a turban with headpiece. I'm wondering if anyone can find the design images that Cartier drew up.

The project is briefly mentioned in the book Cartier, by Hans Nadelhoffer, but focuses more on the 'Nassak' diamond that Jacques Cartier suggested the Prince buy for "the central stone in the turban ornament". The paragraph also says the project was for a "crown and a turban," making me wonder exactly what the order was, for a crown or a turban with ornament or both.

This article with Radhikaraje Gaekwad, a member of erstwhile Baroda royal family, mentions 14 sketches having been made by Cartier for a project that was never realized.


texts: Why did the Hungarians protest and react so much about Khrushchevs secret speech?

texts:
I know that Khrushchev made a secret speech but I don't really understand what the speech was about and why it made the Hungarians so angry to protest.

I know that the protest was about the lack of political freedom and food shortages but I really just don't understand what this has to do with Khrushchev's secret speech. What did he say to make them protest about these things.

I have searched and looked up lots of different answers but I still can not understand.


texts:
Was violent or nonviolent protest more effective in the context of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement? It seems like a simple question, but on further examination it is a challenge to discern. The nonviolent work of Martin Luther King unarguably made significant strides in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but later legislative change may have been caused by the mass rioting after his death.

So which was more effective at achieving the movement's goals, such as laws protecting civil rights and the repeal of segregation ordinances? Similarly, either form of protest might be seen as ineffective if it provokes significant backlash, such that communities lost more than they gained.


texts: What was the extent of France's material support during the American Revolution?

texts:
Though it is a recognised fact that French support for the American revolutionaries was vital for their success against the British empire, the exact details are less clear.
The most obvious source is Wikipedia's article on the French contribution. Though specific details are mentioned, the problem is that they are divorced from meaningful context.  For example:

As a cost of participation in the war, France accumulated over 1
billion livres in debt.
Estimates place the percentage of French
supplied arms to the Americans in the Saratoga campaign at up to 90%.
By 1777, over five million livres of aid had been sent to the American
rebels.

We have no way of understanding the value of these facts without putting them in a broader context. So...
I would like to understand the context of France's material contribution, with an overview of what was provided in terms of manpower, materiel, finance, and naval support during the revolutionary war.


texts: Is the term "chainmail" historically accurate, or a modern invention?

texts:
I've heard the claim that the armour widely known today as "chainmail" or "chain mail" was never historically never called by that name in the era when it was used in Europe, rather known as "mail" or "maille". It's also been supposed that the term "chainmail" was popularized by Dungeons & Dragons (first released in 1974) following the release of Gary Gygax's miniature wargame Chainmail in 1971.

Was the term "chainmail" or "chain mail" used during the era of its use, or is that name a modern invention?


texts: Why did the United States not seriously develop Anti Aircraft Missiles?

texts:
During the Cold War, the United States did not seem to actively develop anti-aircraft missiles
(I know that Wikipedia is not an exhaustive source for lists, but just as a rough estimate, they list seven American systems and around 12 Soviet/Russian systems).

They seem to be cheaper, safer and easier to deploy than fighters for defensive purposes. Why did the US not develop them?


texts: Was sexual abuse/assault a unique feature of American Slavery or was there similar abuse in previous slave systems?

texts:
In reading about Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings I learned how he basically took her on as a concubine when they lived in Paris.  It seems that this sort of thing was commonplace in the antebellum south.

I wonder if institutionalized sexual abuse was a feature of previous slave systems.

Did slaves in Ancient Rome suffer as much sexual abuse?  How about in Athens?  Were the Spartans sexually abusive to the Helots?


texts: What were the Japanese defenses for an allied invasion of Kyushu?

texts:
At Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other island bases of the Japanese forces, the Japanese created a network of deep tunnels and bunkers that made US attempts to evict Japanese forces extremely difficult, time consuming and expensive in terms of loss of lives.  Based on these experiences, U.S. military planners anticipated that the human cost of invading Japan would be severe. See Giangreco, D.M., "Casualty Projections for the U.S. Invasion of Japan, 1945-1946: Planning and Policy Implications," Journal of Military History, 61 (July 1997), pp. 521-582, at pp. 534-35.

Given that MacArthur planned an amphibious assault against the Japanese homeland at Kyushu, an obvious choice that the Japanese expected, did the Japanese create defense positions similar to those at Iwo Jima at Kyushu, and if so, when did they begin work how much progress had they made on these defenses by the time the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima?


texts: When did the  tag come about, and in what web browser?

texts: I realize that the <isindex> tag came first, but which browser was the first to support the <input> tag and when?


texts: How did Shang & Zhou Dynasty China use incense?

texts:
According to Wikipedia's Incense and Incense in China articles "At around 2000 BCE, Ancient China began the use of incense in the religious sense, namely for worship. Incense was used by Chinese cultures from Neolithic times and became more widespread in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. The earliest documented use of incense comes from the ancient Chinese, who employed incense composed of herbs and plant products (such as cassia, cinnamon, styrax, and sandalwood) as a component of numerous formalized ceremonial rites."
According to Wikipedia's Chinese ritual bronze article, there was a "Lú (鑪): A brazier. These are a nebulously classified group of bronze vessels and there are a number of forms: A. It may similar to a dǐng (鼎) with very short legs sitting on a pán (盤); or B., a duì (敦) on a pán (盤); or C., like a dòu (豆) on a pán (盤)."
But according to Ben Janssens Oriental Art, "According to the Ge Gu Yao Lun (‘Essential Criteria of Antiquities’), which was compiled by Cao Zhao in 1388, archaic bronze vessels were never used as incense burners."
I can find various bronze Ding vessels from the Shang-Zhou period, but can never confirm which vessels if any were used as braziers or censers for incense, since they are considered food vessels. I have come across this pottery burner said to be Shang Dynasty, as well as this absolutely amazing bronze said to be a Shang Dynasty Royal Imperial Court Room Incense Burner. There is plenty of stuff on eBay and other sites claiming to be Shang Dynasty incense vessels, but one can not trust such sources, obviously.
I would like to know more about the Shang & Zhou incense rituals, specifically if bronze vessels were used for incense or if the Ming Dynasty ‘Essential Criteria of Antiquities’ of Cao Zhao is correct in saying no bronze vessels were used for incense in the archaic period. And I'd be glad for any links to scholarly articles dealing with the specifics of this subject.


texts: What types of jobs did upper class Romans do?

texts: I am working on a book based on the first century, I need to know the types of jobs you'd need to be in the upper class, as well as the poor.


texts: Is there a historical example of two neutral armies meeting in the field?

texts:
Usually, when two armies of different nations are in close proximity to each other, it is for good reason. For example,

They are at war with each other;
There are tensions between their nations and they are massing at their borders in case of war with each other;
They are allied with one another (perhaps they are at war with a common enemy; perhaps they are exercising together, etc.); or
Even if they are not allied, they are at war with a common enemy.

I'm curious to hear about historical instances where, by contrast, two armies just happened to be near each other by coincidence, especially if they were each at war with different enemies.


texts: Did a capital ship ever hit anything with a torpedo?

texts:
It seems WWI and inter-war ship designers went a bit torpedo mad, both in their fear of them and in their use, finally coming to their senses in the harsh realities of WWII.  I've seen many examples of capital ships using extensive space and machinery to mount multiple torpedo tubes.  Given the long range of their guns (20,000m and up) compared to the short range of the torpedo (an optimistic 5,000m), this doesn't seem to make sense.

Did a torpedo fired from a capital ship (which I'm defining as a heavy cruiser, battlecruiser or battleship) ever hit anything?  How many were ever fired in anger?  Was it all just a costly boondoggle?

Some examples actually built...

Tegetthoff dreadnaught
Deutschland cruiser
Admiral_Hipper cruiser
Scharnhorst class battleship
Nagato class battleship
Colorado class battleship