texts:
My American Revolutionary War research has led to an investigation of the Sons of Liberty (SAR). This organization was known to erect Liberty Poles (see picture) as a way of angering Britain in a show of independence, but also when they called meetings.

They were wooden poles with a "Liberty Hat" or ribbon on top. They were also a way of replacing the then famous "Liberty Trees" for meetings if no large tree was available.

The most notable one was erected after the repeal of the Stamp Act in New York City in 1766.

I am curious if any are still standing today or exist in commemorative places (or even museums) in the US?


texts: During WW2, how dependent on Swedish Ball Bearings was Britain?

texts:
A slightly related question spawned this one. Sweden made a lot of ball bearings during WW2, which it exported to Britain and Germany. How many tons of ball bearings were imported from Sweden to Britain per year? How many tons was Britain manufacturing itself, and how many tons was imported from America?

I found this pdf and looked through it, but does not provide a full answer. It only speaks in relative terms and financial terms. It even seems to contradicts itself, saying 31% of British ball bearings were from Sweden in the first page, but later down says "Direct wartime imports from Sweden provided about 15% of all British ball bearings."

What we really need to know is how many tons of ball bearings were made in America and Britain. America was already convoying much stuff to Britain, and I suspect that if Sweden was totally cut off, American production could step up.


texts: Did Joseph Stalin ever attempt to assassinate or launch a coup against Josip Broz Tito? If so, which of these coup or assassination attempts almost succeeded? How did Tito respond to Stalin's pressures?


texts: Why were Upper and Lower Egypt consolidated into a single kingdom?

texts: The Narmer Palette depicts the Pharaoh Narmer bearing the Red Crown for Lower Egypt  and then the White Crown for Upper Egypt. Were there any social, political or economic factors that necessitated the joining of the two separate regions?


texts: Has an heir ever made the country believe the current ruler died in order to take over the throne?

texts:
Before the invention of the semaphore and the telegraph, a message couldn't travel faster than the speed of a horse (or maybe a messenger pigeon or something along those lines - still pretty slow).

Has there ever been a situation in history where a ruler of a country left for war/attended foreign business far from their country, and an heir made the citizens believe the ruler was dead in order to take over the throne? Maybe he paid a messenger to pretend to carry the message of death?

These would be instances of taking over the country by using misinformation, not assassination.


texts: What was the name of the torpedo boat with mechanical problems accompanying the Wilhelm Gustloff?

texts:
The Wilhelm Gustloff was a German cruise ship that was used as part as a means of evacuating refugees from Gotenhafen (today Gdynia) in January 1945.

The Wikipedia article reads:

  The ship left Danzig at 12:30 pm on 30 January 1945, accompanied by the passenger liner Hansa, also filled with civilians and military personnel, and two torpedo boats. Hansa and one torpedo boat developed mechanical problems and could not continue, leaving Wilhelm Gustloff with one torpedo boat escort, Löwe.

I am trying to find the name of the torpedo boat that developed mechanical problems and stayed behind with the Hansa, while the Löwe and the Wilhelm Gustloff headed off to their demise.

Can anyone help me?


texts: What happened first? The law that authorized the Cuban government to nationalize US firms or Eisenhower's Cuban sugar quota?

texts:
I'm asking these because both things happened the same day (6 July 1960) and the sources contradict each other about what happened first. Some Cuban sources says that Castro passed the law because of the US's sugar quota, but other says it was backwards.

Can someone tell me what really happened first?


texts: Looking for a (preferably digital) collection of McCarthy speeches (transcripts)

texts:
I am analysing the history of demagogy and it's rhetoric using modern data science. I have acquired some collections of speeches dating back to George Washington, but unfortunately I have not been able to find anything beyond "Enemies from Within" from McCarthy.

I know that there are transcripts from Senate hearings in which he appeared, but he doesn't say very much in those so they are of no big help.

He was known for his extreme anti-communist public speeches, so it seems odd that there are not transcripts of those. Maybe this community can help me out?


texts: Why didn't Sir John Kerr just call an election?

texts:
During the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, the Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed the sitting Prime Minister and appointed the Leader of the Opposition as PM in order to trigger an election.
Why did he need to remove the PM to trigger an election?
My understanding is that traditionally the PM 'requests' the GG to call an election, i.e. the ultimate authority of calling the election is in the monarch, represented by the GG. Does the GG theoretically have the constitutional power to call an election without being officially requested by the sitting PM?


texts: Were British officers able to return home after the American Revolution?

texts: Were defeated British officers able to return home after England lost the war or were they taken prisoner? I am writing a novel set in the aftermath of the American Revolution. What happened to the British officers still in the colonies after the war?


texts: Did the Soviets have an alternate source of oil in Iran during World War II?

texts:
Much has been made of the fact that the area around the Caspian Sea was oil rich. Specifically, west of the Caspian Sea, with Soviet oilfields at Maikop, Grozny, and Baku, which were threatened by the Germans, but not captured, except for Maikop.

There was also oil (in Iran) south and east of the Caspian Sea, that was less threatened, and the Soviet Union occupied northern Iran. This oil could have been transported on the eastern bank of the Caspian Sea.

What was the state of Iranian oil production/supplies at the time? Were there alternate sources of oil from Iran available to the Soviet Union in the event that that Germans occupied, or at least interdicted production from the Caucasus, but went no further than that?


texts: How densely populated were the Americas prior to European colonization?

texts:
I had a conversation with an individual recently about how unusual it was that there were so few individuals who appeared to be Native American in North America today. (I say appear since no doubt many people have at least a small percentage of native American DNA if their families are not recent immigrants.)

Anyway, part of the conversation went into European colonization and how many Native Americans there were relative to Europeans during the colonization and manifest destiny time periods.

This individual claimed that the North Americas were not heavily populated, relative to standards of Europe at that time, and therefore the European settlers made up a more significant percentage of North America's population then I would have presumed.  I'm wondering how accurate this claim was.  Can anyone give me an idea of the actual density and general population of North America immediately prior to colonization, as well as what these numbers looked like after the first major deaths from diseases like smallpox and gonorrhoea?

I'd also be curious about how those numbers compared to number of colonists sent from Europe, but that's a harder number to define and articulate since it happened over a long length of time. It's not as important to me as simply understanding the population density of the Americas and how that compared to that of Europe.


texts:
The reign of Charles I of England can be summarized to a large degree as a continued attempt to raise revenue without authorization from Parliament. As is well known, Charles and his advisers had to resort to ever more vexatious expedients to do this and ultimately were not successful.

What puzzles me is that they apparently made little or no use of foreign loans. While repayment would not have been trivial, at least this way the English government would have had access to ready money, solving many of its problems.

  So, why did Charles I not borrow abroad?

My guess is that the main European banking houses which could have provided such loans would have been aligned with (Catholic) Spain and so not able to help out (Protestant) England. On the other hand, Charles was on pretty good terms with Spain for most of his rule so I am not sure this is really the right explanation.


texts: When exactly did nudity become uncomfortable?

texts:
In the present society, there's a certain discomfort associated with nudity. And the reason for the discomfort is obviously not just the untimely and unwelcome sexual arousal it might lead to.

If we go back in history long enough, we will reach an era where this was not the case. For example, when clothes weren't even invented, of course nudity was completely normal.

Somewhere in the middle, this transition happened. When exactly did nudity become uncomfortable and why?

My hypothesis:

Clothes were invented for the practical reason of protecting oneself from severe weather. But then people with more resources started wearing more and more sophisticated clothes until it become a means of signalling high status. Thus no clothes started being associated with very low status and hence the discomfort.


texts: Why did Yamamoto reprimand Nagumo after Pearl Harbor?

texts: I am reading the book "Shattered Sword" and it states that Yamamoto "rebuked" Nagumo after Pearl Harbor. I thought Pearl Harbor was considered a great success? Anyone know why Yamamoto thought it necessary to reprimand Nagumo? TIA


texts: When did navies stop giving out a drink ration to their sailors?

texts: I seem to remember that the British Navy, and the US Navy maybe, used to give out a ration of alcohol to sailors each day. When did this practice stop, and why?


texts: Why did Kabila discard the name and flag of Zaire?

texts:
Early in Mobutu's long spell in power he instituted a policy of Authenticité, promoting African names over colonial ones. As part of that policy the name of the country was changed from Congo to Zaire. Additionally, the flag was changed radically, from the pre-1971 blue background/yellow star flag (influenced by the earlier Belgian Congo flag) to a predominantly green one.

Flag to 1971 | Mobutu's flag 1971 to 1997 | post-Mobutu 1997 flag

In 1997, Laurent Kabila's AFDL overthrew President Mobuto of Zaire and Kabila was named president.

The name of the country was swiftly changed back from Zaire to Congo and the flag also reverted from Mobutu's authenticity policy flag to a version of the old blue and yellow one.

I assume the reason this happened was that it underscored the break with Mobutu's rule and was intended both domestically and internationally to make exactly that statement.

However, it still seems a curious set of decisions. Horrific and disastrous though Mobutu's rule was, the Zaire name and the updated flag, both of which had been in place years for 26 years aren't obviously terrible. And Mobutu's names for Kinshasa and Kisangani were left alone.

Especially curious is that the Congo name and the reverted flag both hark back to the even more horrific period of Belgian rule.

Simply renaming country and flag isn't the norm, even in Africa, when a terrible dictator is overthrown. Zambia didn't when Kaunda was ousted and Zimbabwe won't when Mugabe goes.

Is there an explanation that goes beyond "breaking with Mobutu"?


texts: What percentage of the population were serfs by region/year?

texts: Where can I find statistics on the percentage of the population that were serfs, ideally broken down by country/region and by year? Even very rough estimates would be helpful, but unfortunately I've found even these to be hard to find.


texts: Did ancient Chinese and/or Japanese scholars speculate about what lay across the Pacific?

texts: Before the age of exploration, a good number European scholars speculated about the Atlantic beyond the Iberian peninsula, whether it was the location of Atlantis, or whether or not Japan could be reached by sailing west. Was there any analogous discussion in China and/or Japan about what lay across the Pacific Ocean?


texts: Cryptography used by Red Army in Polish-Bolshevik war

texts:
In a film "Bitwa Warszawska 1920" which tells the story of the Polish-Bolshevik war there is a scene with two cryptographers that are able to break the cipher used by Red Army. Turns out it was a simple Caesar cipher and the only problem was, that Bolsheviks used transliteration to Latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic (if I understand the scene correctly).

Myself I find it rather hard to believe that a major european army in the twentieth century used such a simple and easy to break cipher. I failed however to find any sources that would either confirm or deny that.

So what do we know about the cryptographical methods used by Soviet Union in that time?


texts: How did Napoleon evade the British fleet and return to France?

texts:
After the defeat of the French fleet off the coast of Egypt in 1798, Napoleon's army was cut off in a far away and hostile country.

One year later, after eluding the British fleet, he made it safely to France.

Some argue that he bought some British commanders, while others discount this hypothesis and acknowledge a mix of luck and courage on Napoleon's behalf.

In order to judge the likelihood of different scenarios, it seems to me that we must know what level of surveillance he had to elude in his sail.

So, what countermeasures did the British - and their allies - employ to prevent Napoleon from leaving the Middle East?


texts: Were there any German operations to destroy supply routes in the Persian corridor in WWII?

texts: Germany used its naval fleet to stop allied arctic supply route to the USSR. Were there any German operations, in Iran and Iraq (who were pro-German) to throttle allied supply routes through the Persian corridor? They could have easily found operatives to work for them there.


texts: When did the "Great War" become "World War 1"?

texts:
That's the question, when did "The Great War" get named "World War I"?

I'm assuming it must have been at least after WWII started.


texts:
I realize this is a little before history and therefore interpretive. I recall reading something about a shift that took place in Gaul, some time before the Romans came there. It may have been around 350 B.C. It involved a major tribe in central Gaul which was more or less dominant. Their capitol was sacred to the Celts, so much so that it was spared in major wars. I believe it may have been the capitol of druidry. Then there was a shift and another people, i think they were from the north, overtook them. I'm sure La Tene was involved in this somehow, where they the newcomers? the dispossed people may have formed a part of the celtic invasion of Italy. Maybe it was the Averni? Am I making this all up?

Added: The biturgies were influential in druidry, and Avaricum (Bourges) was the city that Vercingterox did not burn. I'm not talking about his era, but highlighting the importance of the city. Did the Biturgies displace an earlier people from Avaricum?


texts: Why did the Ming treasure fleet voyages end?

texts:
Have we come to know more reasons,  on why the Treasure Fleet Voyages of the Ming Dynasty ceased, other than  eunuch-to-civil power shift? Wikipedia says

  However, in 1433, the voyages ceased and Ming China turned away from the seas. It is not exactly known why the voyages completely ended in 1433. Duyvendak suggested that the complete cessation of the expeditions was partly due to the considerable expenses. Whatever it may be, the costs for undertaking the voyages had not overburden the Ming treasury. The trade was still flourishing long after the voyages had ceased.Chinese ships continued to control the Eastern Asian maritime trade. They also continued trading around India and East Africa.


texts: Would a WW2 submarine have any way to fake death, how, and would it be useful?

texts:
I would like to know if there were any ways for WW2 submarine to fake death/explosion/wreckage in the event where they are spotted and attacked from beyond.

Would this require specific tools ? Like for example, it is easy to imagine a way to release some floating debris, oil, and bubbles of air, while you stop your engines and play dead.

I am interested specifically in WW2, but if you have specific answers from other periods of time, please share them as well.


texts: In 1800s era one-room houses, how public was sex? Would parents try to find a place away from the kids or was it acceptable to simply do it in front of everyone? In what era did the idea of sex being a private affair begin?


texts: How long does it take to craft the kinds of armour worn by typical medieval warriors in europe?

texts:
In various fantasy roleplaying games I've seen different estimations on how long it takes to craft various armour (largely different forms of plate armour, and chain armour).

Do we have a credible resource I can check against? Estimates in games go from months to weeks (and in some cases years), do we have any idea of how long 'typical' armour for say, a 10-12th century English knight, would take to make?

From what I can tell that would be anything from a hauberk, scale mail, or even full plate armour.

How long does it take to make those armours?


texts: Can anyone identify the uniforms in these pics, dated 1903 - 1904, Calcutta?

texts: A little background... his father was a merchant with offices in Bremen and Calcutta; his mother tutored the children of the Viceroy of India. In later documents he states he was a member of the Royal Guard.


texts: Were there occasions when a sovereign country voluntarily joined another country?

texts:
Did it happen that a sovereign country voluntarily decided to become territory of another country? By voluntarily I mean it could have had the choice to say no. Even better if the joining country was the one who initiated the process.

The Anschluss of Austria did include a vote where the Austrians voted to join Germany, but I wouldn't really count it, as Germany was applying a huge pressure and Hitler would have been unlikely to take "no" as an answer.
The unification of Germany and Italy in the late 19th century would be better examples, but they also have their issues: in both cases it was one stronger country conquering the others, even if by diplomatic pressure instead of military force in many cases.
The closest I could find was the Republic of Texas, but there are some issues. It was just a very short-lived temporary country which just broke away from a country, and soon joined another one. It was diplomatically recognized by quite few countries.

Were there examples with more established countries who voluntarily choosed to become part of another country, or even better, initiated this by themselves without an imminent threat of being invaded?


texts: How did Egypt become a protectorate of the British empire?

texts:
How did Egypt become a protectorate of the British empire in 1914?

(Feel free to add more content to this question)


texts: My sister has been saying this quote for about a month and says it has historical significance. After searching I can't find anything. What famous person said "Lafayette we are here!"?


texts: Relatively modern phantom islands or similar entities

texts:
(Not sure whether to ask it here or at Travel.SE; feel free to migrate my question if others think differently)

I recently came across the concept of Phantom island. I guess there aren't any phantom islands left in the 21st century, but my questions are:

when did phantom islands stop disappearing on maps
which phantom islands were the ones that survived longest into the
modern age?
is there any modern parallel to the classic phantom island; maybe extra-terrestrial, e.g. erroneously confirmed discoveries of small solar system objects?


texts: Where can I find a map of Ice Age Berengia?

texts:
I need your help to find out more information about how to find map that is relate  about Ice Age mammoth hunters who lived on Beringia, the ancient land bridge that inter-connected Alaska and Siberia that prehistoric Asian people crossed into North America as ancestors of the Native peoples of the Americas

I have a friend that has his draw hand paper map that he would like me to do digitize it into ArcGIS Pro. I am going to have to scan it and georeference it and overlay where it is and into black and white map for his historical fiction novel book ?

Is there a map that can you point me and it is to help me to take a look at the map and their local names for that area ? Do you have a suggest for me to find it.  I am not really familiar with this but yes I am aware of the history that the Native American that came across the Beringia sea ?


texts: How did a 12 year old Sardinian slave girl factor into America's First Barbary War?

texts:
Late 1798 a pirate raid near Sardinia, captured roughly 1000 people, mostly women and children.  What role did one of these newly acquired slaves a 12 year old girl, play in America's first Foreign War?   The First Barbary War.

Secretary of State James Madison refers to her twice in correspondence.

To James Madison from Jacob Wagner, 7 September 1801

  It is of a singular texture. I hope we shall not be obliged also to pay the ransom of the Grandaughter of the Sicilian Count, the history of whom is given in his letter of the 20th.

From James Madison to George Davis, 26 December 1803

  Whatsoever may be Mr. Eaton’s individual claims upon the Sardinian Lady he ransomed,4 you will carefully abstain from representing either to the Regency of Tunis, or otherwise, that the United States possess any right or claim to hold her in the condition of a Slave. It has not been considered how far Mr. Eaton, could charge her ransom to the public, nor is it known that he intends to do so: but it is certain that if they are chargable with it, it would neither comport with their sentiments nor those of their Government to enforce any claim involving the disposal of her person. It therefore depends upon your own judgement how far as an individual the friend of Mr. Eaton, or his Agent, you will take any steps, and what they may be for securing his reimbursement.


texts: Roman aristocrat with slave assassins named after him?

texts:
I remember reading a few years back that there was a particular Roman strongman who had a very intense way of dealing with enemies.

He had dozens of either slaves or former slaves (freedmen), but I can not remember which, who all shared his name, who he used as enforcers and death squads to intimidate and kill political rivals.  The really intimidating thing was that they all named themselves after their (former?) master, so, say if his name was Gaius Lucius, then you had 20 slaves showing up at your door named Gaius Lucius and you knew exactly what was about to happen.

The problem is I can not remember the name of this Roman politician, or even when he was around.  I tried googling for about an hour yesterday and still could not remember who it was.

Anyone familiar with this guy that could tell me who it was?


texts: What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)

texts:
According to the Google Ngram Viewer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ngram_Viewer) the English word "airplane" was practically unused before the year 1900.  Given that paper is credited with having been invented over two centuries before what we know as the airplane; any paper-based flyers throughout the ages would have had to be called something other than "paper airplanes".
Is there documented evidence of the use of alternative names, in any language, and what were they?
Note: By paper airplane I'm referring to any invention mostly or exclusively made of flat paper (parchment, etc.) that when thrown stays aloft for longer than the same paper compressed into a ball would.


texts: How did people apply for university in the 18th century?

texts:
Universities have been around for a while.

I am reading a book called Frankenstein.

One of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein, attends the University of Ingolstadt in Germany.

Now, it makes me wonder how people applied for universities in Europe back then in the 18th century.

Who were eligible to attend university?

Did they pay the tuition directly to the professors?

In today's society, one usually graduates high school to get into a university. How was it done back then?

It doesn't have to be Germany. I would just like to know how universities worked in Western Europe in general.


texts:
So, I've been doing some research on knitting, and I became curious as to what was the earliest recorded knitted jumper/sweater?

As far as I can tell there's no particular technological barrier to creating one - you just need wool, needles, the skill and time. Arguably they're just as warm, but significantly more practical than a cloak.

So, the some of the earliest records of knitting are from the 11th century, but there's another form of needle-and-thread weaving called Nalebinding which has been around for thousands of years apparently. It only uses a single needle, and smaller sections of thread, but produces results extremely similar to knitting and crochet.

Various knitted caps have been around for centuries, as well as socks and gloves. But I'm specifically interested in any references to something that resembles a modern jumper/sweater.

Thanks!


texts: Did France actually intend to colonise West Australia and were any resources assigned to this objective prior to 1829?

texts:
The Wikipedia article about the History of Western Australia mentions that the British set up a military garrison at King George Sound in 1826 and established a colony on the Swan River in 1829 in order to discourage the French from settling the west coast. If they had, Australian history would have been very different due to sharing the desert continent*. So I wonder how likely was the colonisation of Western Australia by France.

Or specifically: Did France actually intend to colonise West Australia; and were any resources assigned to this objective prior to 1829?

French sources one way or the other would be excellent.

 * A land army for one coast to conquer the other would have been suicidal due to the deadly expanse of the Nullarbor Plain. No prosaic land war in the style of 1812.


texts: How much did the Chinese Summer Palace cost to build?

texts: According to Wikipedia, Empress Cixi embezzled 30 million taels of silver from the modernization of Qing Navy to build the Summer Palace.  What is 30 million taels of silver equivalent to in modern USD?  Was the Summer Palace funded entirely by navy funds, or did it cost even more?


texts: What does this Swedish sonar image depict?

texts:
I am wondering what conclusions can be drawn from this sonar image.

The object is sunk in a river, of unknown age, and not examined.
Width   5,5 m
Length 15,6 m
Depth 9,7-9,2 m

The image was taken on a survey by this boat.
Apparently the river bottom is generally very hard clay—though not sure about this particular location.
Is it a boat as the link says? Could it be a bronze gun barrel from 500 years ago?
The gun Skiegge, big enough "for a cobbler to sit in its mouth", went through the ice while being transported across the river somewhere around that area in the 15th century. It's possible that Skiegge was bigger than any bronze gun that still exists. Also, I don't think we know the exact size and weight either.


texts: Can you tell me the name and location of post war camp in the Netherlands

texts:
My father was a young Dutchman who was sent to Berlin to work for AEG as forced labour. According to my fathers account after the end of the war on  his return in Holland he was put in a camp in Harlem for about 3–6 weeks.   It was in a historic stone and cement building that possibly used to be an old military barracks.

He was there for about 3–4 weeks while he was investigated if he was a collaborator. He was freed after that time.

Would anybody know the name and location of the camp?


texts: Did Antoine de Saint-Exupery have any offspring?

texts:
Looking through the wikipedia > Antoine de Saint-Exupery, I see he had a number of partners, one of them was Consuelo de Saint Exupéry (the character who probably inspired the rose in The Little Prince). Consuelo had a child but with another French man (namely, Jean de Vogüé).

Overall, by absence of obvious mention, it looks to me like Antoine de Saint-Exupery never had offspring. Does it seem accurate to you?


texts: What uniform is this probably either Lithuanian or Italian man wearing?

texts:
I have one piece of information: a grandmother of a 20-year-old had this photo in her house. I'm told the grandmother was born and raised in the US, but that her roots are in Italy and Lithuania.

What kind of uniform is it?


texts: Are "swirlies" really a thing in schools, or were they ever?

texts:
A school prank involving holding a person upside down over a toilet bowl, submerging their head, then flushing water.  Wiktionary

If I had ever had my head/face go anywhere near a toilet bowl, I would never recover from that. It sounds absolutely surreal. I cannot believe that this is actually a thing done routinely or often or even sometimes in schools.

Wouldn't any kids involved in such a "prank" (extreme torture and jeopardizing somebody's life, I'd call it) face criminal charges and their parents would get involved and they would go to some kind of court and possibly jail/juvie?

Isn't this just a myth created and perpetuated by movies? A gross over-exaggeration of reality? I know that there exist bullies, and even violent such, but even getting punched in the face sounds less horrible than being held upside-down and have your face inside a toilet bowl, with everything that entails from a hygiene perspective and the real risk of them dropping your legs so you fall down and snap your neck, not to mention drowning from it.

I refuse to believe that this particular "prank" was/is really a thing. It sounds too improbable, dangerous and plain disgusting to possibly be real.


texts: How did early colonial Australia deal with its gender imbalance?

texts:
Australia was a penal colony, so since there are more male criminals than female, it stands to reason that Australia would have a large gender imbalance with more men than women. Indeed, Wikipedia's article on the history of Australia illustrates as much:

  The British colony of New South Wales was established with the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 vessels under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip in January 1788. It consisted of over a thousand settlers, including 778 convicts (192 women and 586 men).

and

  Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 161,700 convicts (of whom 25,000 were women) were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Van Diemen's land and Western Australia.

This indicates there was a massive gender imbalance. The imbalance is so large it doesn't appear sustainable. How did Australia cope with it?


texts: Was Italian production after August 1944 significant in the German war effort?

texts:
This is related to Did France & Italy continue to develop and manufacture..., but I'm after more detail.

I'm doing a bit of counterfactual: trying to work out how the German war effort would have been affected if Operation Olive had succeeded in breaking the Gothic Line in August/September 1944. If that happened, much of the north Italian plain would probably be taken by the Allied forces fairly quickly, and its industries thus lost to the Germans. I'm trying to work out what those industries were producing for the war effort, and how the loss of that production would have affected the wider course of the war?

Suggestions for canonical English-language sources where I can research this would be most welcome: I haven't found much so far.


texts: What's paradoxical about British free trade in 20th century partitioning of Africa?

texts:
I'm having trouble understanding the following passage. What is the paradox/contradiction in Britain advocating for free trade, then emerging with greatest gains in the partitioning of Africa by European powers?

  It was paradoxical that Britain, the staunch advocate of free trade, emerged in 1914 with not only the largest overseas empire thanks to its long-standing presence in India, but also the greatest gains in the "scramble for Africa", reflecting its advantageous position at its inception.

Via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scramble_for_Africa

I may need to do further reading on that partitioning and Britain's position at the time; please include (preferably summarized) reading recommendations on the subject if it helps answer this question.


texts: What was the equivalent of "Shoulder Arms, Fire!" for archers in Ancient Rome?

texts:
Up until firearms were invented, armies used archers for similar purposes. A well-timed volley, when one can't see the sky for the flying arrows, can have a demoralizing effect on the enemy in addition to the physical damage it is likely to cause.

In order for a volley to be well-timed, the archers had to take aim and shoot simultaneously, following a single order given by a single commander. Ever since the advent of firearms that order has been "Fire!"

Now imagine, say, a Roman centurion, his back to the archers standing in formation, waiting for his signal. He's watching the enemy's movements. Now he raises his hand. He waits. At last he judges that the right moment has come. He shouts a single word, sonorously enough to be heard by every single one of his archers ... What is that word?


texts: Did Christopher Columbus stay at a Lodge in Cordoba?

texts:
In the United States, we have many Inns where it is said that "George Washington slept here".  Washington's stays at various Inns across the Northeastern United States are likely to be historically accurate and verifiable since Washington lived 200 plus years ago and the availability of such documents regarding Washington's lodgings across the Northeast, are probably in moderate-heavy supply-(due to the short chronological distance of Washington's time when compared with our time).

However, in the case of Christopher Columbus, we are talking about a person who lived 500 plus years ago and so the chronological distance is longer when compared with our time-(and even compared with Washington's time). Since the chronological distance is longer and greater, the task of verifying aspects of Columbus' biography is increasingly complex and challenging.

As part of Andalusian lore, it is widely believed that Christopher Columbus stayed at an existing Hotel in the city of Cordoba called, "Hacienda Posada De Vallina"-(specifically, in Rm. # 204), which is also footsteps from the city's most famous structure, the Mezquita/Cathedral. The Hotel was originally the Home of a Moorish Nobleman, though it was converted into a Lodge/"Posada", shortly after Cordoba fell to the Reconquista Christian Armies in the Late Middle Ages.  Part of the Hotel's History includes the claim Christopher Columbus lodged here-(a type of Andalusian version of, "George Washington slept here"), though for exactly how long.......that remains unknown.

Is there any genuine historical evidence-(besides Hotel tourism/promotional sites) which actually prove that Columbus stayed at this particular Hotel? Are there any historical records that can be accessed affirming Columbus' temporary residence at this existing and historic Andalusian Lodge?  There appears to be enough historical evidence proving that Columbus did have a House in the Spanish Canary Islands, which exists to this day; but can the same be said for this particular Hotel?


texts: How did life change for the average American as a result of the end of World War 1?

texts:
Every year, the Daughters of the American Revolution host an essay contest concerning American History.  I'll disclose that I'm not a student seeking internet help with the essay, but rather just asking out of curiosity, since the topic this year has me stumped.

For the 2017-2018 contest, the prompt concerns the end of the Great War and its effects on the average American.  Here is the prompt verbatim:

  The end of World War I was the beginning of a new age.  This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War.  Imagine you are living in 1918.  State where you are living and how the end of the war will impact your daily life.  Discuss the pros and cons of the changes this War introduced to society and how you imagine those changes will impact the US in the years to come.

I freely admit my knowledge of WWI is not as thorough as I'd like, but as far as I know not a lot would have immediately changed for the average American. I realize technology and society in the 1920s took off like crazy, but I'm not sure how much of that was actually directly related to the war or to the "end" of the war specifically.

How did the average American's life change as a result of the war?


texts: How was financial profit viewed in Medieval Europe?

texts: What was the attitude of people in Medieval Europe towards earning money, making a profit etc. I know that in some places Jews were well established as merchants because, from the point of the view of Christians, it was not moral to deal with money in speculative way.


texts: Why did General Dupont surrender in the Battle of Bailén?

texts:
General Dupont's had, from my inexpert view, quite a superior army when he fought the Spanish forces at the Battle of Bailén. This battle was in fact the first defeat in open field of the Napoleonic army.

It is true that the Spanish were better provisioned by the population of the city of Bailén and that the lack of communication with his other battlions got Dupont surrounded by Spanish forces. But still, he counted with a much more experienced army and could have, again in my view, attempted a retreat even at the cost of loosing part of his army.

I had the suspicion that perhaps he was trying to save his own life. This view is now somewhat confirmed by the fact that when he came back to France he was deprived of all his privileges and put into jail. I suspect that this process was carried out by the suspicion that he did not do all he could to resist the trap he was in.

So, why did General Dupont's surrender at Bailén, marking probably the begin of the end of the I French Empire?


texts: Were Great Britain and France better prepared for war in 1939 than in 1938?

texts:
With regard to the Munich Agreement of 1938, there are some voices that defend Chamberlain's appeasement policy, arguing that the year before the war actually began benefited Britain because it was able to rearm.

  As for Hitler, he later said that September 1938 would have been the best time for Germany to go to war. To that extent Munich was a defeat for him; he felt cheated of the war he had wanted at the time of his choosing.

  the British Chiefs of Staff reckoned they wouldn’t be ready for war until 1940. In 1938 the RAF had only one squadron of Spitfires—twenty planes. Over the next year 50 percent of U.K. government spending went to rearmament. 1940 was the earliest Britain could win the war in the air and prevent a German invasion.

On the other hand, I understand that Germany also made progress in its war preparations between 1938 and 1939.

Compared to Germany, were great Britain and France better prepared for war in 1939 than in 1938?

I would appreciate a response that included military, economic and social aspects.


texts: Was "Via Regia" the original name of the "Via Nova Traiana"?

texts:
This is a quote from Wikipedia:

The Via Traiana Nova or Via Nova Traiana (Latin for 'Trajan's New
Road'), previously known as the Via Regia or King's Highway, was an
ancient Roman road built by Emperor Trajan in the province of Arabia
Petraea, from Aqaba on the Red Sea to Bostra.

Unfortunately no references are given, so I cannot verify the claim that the Via Nova Traiana was previously known as the Via Regia. Can anyone help me find evidence or historical sources that verify this claim?


texts: How high the death rate on the Berlin Wall compared to other borders?

texts:
I read today on the Wikipedia's main page:

  There were numerous deaths at the Berlin Wall, which stood as a
  barrier between West Berlin and East Germany from 13 August 1961 until
  9 November 1989. Before erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, 3.5
  million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration
  restrictions, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into
  West Berlin, from where they could then travel to West Germany and
  other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall
  prevented almost all such emigration. The state-funded Centre for
  Contemporary History in Potsdam has given the official figure of 136
  deaths, including people attempting to escape, border guards, and
  innocent parties.

This makes overall impression that the number of deaths on the East-West Germany border was unusually high (note that there is even a museum dedicated to the victims).

But the number cited (136 people) looks negligible. So how this number compares to the number of deaths due to incidents and illegal crossings in other inter-state borders, such as Israel - Egypt, India - Pakistan, the USSR - China, United States - Mexico, North Africa - Europe?


texts:
My understanding of telegraphs is that you can only send one message at a time over one cable, if that is not accurate then this question is pointless.

I am curious how telegraph communication was run when the cables were first laid on the bottom of the ocean (E.g. Britain to India).  Did they lay multiple cables or just one? How did they keep other organizations from cutting them where they came up from the water, and if someone did how long did it take them to find the damaged spot and repair it? Was the government and business competing over availability of telegraph lines? If so how did this play out?


texts: What do historians mean when they say "divinity" in the context of Ancient Greece?

texts: I was going to find sources for the Wikipedia article on Thales of Miletus, since the section on divinity has almost none, I was wondering what "divinity" even means in the context of Ancient Greece. Does it mean Arche? Or does it mean the Greek Gods we were taught in school?


texts:
What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?

My question is about, not cultural differences, but conceptual differences." Wikipedia doesn't compare them. I find no link on the internet making a critical comparison, they never talk about concepts, they enounce facts. A religion is not only a collection of facts (This god is called like this, he dressed like this...), it's based on philsophical concepts.

Both are often confused such that the Roman one seems a copycat of the Greek one.
 I've read recently on the Internet a defense of Roman ancient religion, saying it was very different from the Greek one, but no further explanations sadly.


texts: How and why did Aleksotas became part of the Russian Empire in 1864?

texts: I am interested in Hermann Minkowski and, according to Wikipedia, he “was born in Aleksotas, a village in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire” in 1864. Wikipedia also says that Aleksotas “became part of the Russian Empire” that same year. How did that happen? A city doesn't become part of another country just like that. I suppose that this is somehow connected with the January Uprising of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but I was unable to find a link between these events. Does anyone know more about how did this happen?


texts: What sort of Cardinals were Richelieu and Mazarin?

texts:
Cardinals can belong to one of three orders:

Cardinal-deacon
Cardinal-bishop
Cardinal-priest.

What were the ranks of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin?


texts:
Where is the Nemesis today? Is it simply 'lost at sea', at a museum somewhere, or more likely (as it was an EIC vessel), was it sold for scrap?

I did a brief search (of the web), but couldnt find it. I would very much like to find it!

Because everyone likes visual stimulation:


texts: Eastern and Southern Europe in the medieval time period?

texts: What were Eastern and Southern Europe like in the medieval period? Did Southern and Eastern Europe have knights and castles like Western Europe? I've never heard for example of Italian knights in the crusades. All I know that eastern Europe was under Byzantine influence for a long time. Specifically I'm looking for information on Romania in the 15th and 16th centuries?


texts: What is the difference between Anatolia and Asia Minor?

texts: Is there a strict geographical definition on those names from a historian's point of view? Are there differences between the geographic definition e.g. is upper Mesopotamia included/excluded? I have the impression (not really sure) that while "Anatolia" includes eastern Turkey, Asia Minor doesn't extend that far. Strabo (2.5.24; 12.1.3) speaks of the region from Taurus and westwards.


texts: Why are the "Three Musketeers" called musketeers?

texts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers_%281987_TV_series%29

They fight with sabres all the time. No musket. So why?


texts: Novgorod means "New city". Given such name, what were the old cities in the region?

texts: "Novgorod" means "New city". Given such name, what were the old cities in the region at the time of its foundation?


texts: How did France balance the budget by 1738?

texts: I recently read (Citizens by Simon Schama) that France had a per capita debt of two-thirds of the annual income of a carpenter or tailor in 1714. By 1738 France had managed to balance the budget (more-or-less) despite the failure of John Laws' bank managed loan system. Given the failure of Banque Generale, what were the other strategies or predicaments that lead to France balancing the budget by 1738?


texts: Is there an historical name, or an example "character" from history, that encompases a sycophant?

texts:
I'm trying to see if there's a noun for a type of person that exemplifies a sycophant, and particular if there's a good example of such a person from history.

In Lord of The Rings, Gruma Wormtongue could be described as a sycophant (amongst many other things). Is there anyone from history that might fit this mold, and as a bonus, is there another name to refer to such people (instead of just a sycophant)?

Much like we refer to Icarus to describe a person with over-ambition.


texts: What was the first emergency management agency in the world?

texts: Given the impending landfall of Hurricane Sandy I wondered what was the first established emergency management agency akin to the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency?


texts: Who is this person depicted on a wall in Estonia?

texts: Took this photo in Estonia... anybody know who the person pictured is?


texts:
When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?

We all know the declaration was made on July 4th, 1776. But when did news reach Buckingham Palace and do we have records of their reaction to it?


texts: Which ship sank and made the news for its chaotic evacuation around the year 1912?

texts:
A Romanian newspaper from April 1912 covers the Titanic's sinking, and mentions, in contrast to the orderly evacuation of the ship, the not so orderly evacuation of another (Note that the date is the 6th of April 1912, due to Romania using a different calendar back then. By the new calendar rules it should be the 19th of April 1912. The article in question is the one below "1400 de morti!" i.e. "1400 dead!", on the front page).

It says the ship sank "a few years ago". It highlights the chaotic behavior of the passengers, explicitly mentioning them using knives to make their way (through other passengers) to the lifeboats.

Which ship could the article be referring to?


texts: Why did the United States want to "make Europe prosperous once more" with the Marshall Plan?

texts: Was it purely a matter of self-interest, or were there wider economic (or other) reasons that made the United States feel that it had to "make Europe prosperous once more" with the Marshall Plan?


texts: Who were the Hermotybians and Calascirians mentioned as making up the warrior caste of Egypt by Herodotus

texts:
I was reading this wikipedia article about an elite military force in Egypt which began as an ethnic tribe from the deserts of the eastern Sudan. This tribe was called Medjay. It was mentioned  that some of the Medjay had Egyptian names and were depicted as such in wall paintings. Egyptologists say that this was due to the influx of ethnic Egyptians into this group.

While researching on this, I encountered something curious in page 164 of Herodotus' Histories book II.

  [164]  The  Egyptians  are  divided  into  seven  distinct  classes  -
  these are,  the  priests,  the  warriors,  the  cowherds,  the
  swineherds,  the tradesmen,  the  interpreters,  and  the  boatmen.
  Their  titles  indicate their  occupations.  The  warriors  consist
  of  Hermotybians  and Calascirians,  who  come  from  different
  cantons,  the  whole  of  Egypt being  parcelled  out  into  districts
  bearing  this  name.

He also expanded on the warrior caste in page 168

  [168] The  warrior  class  in  Egypt  had  certain  special  privileges  in
  which  none  of  the  rest  of  the  Egyptians  participated,  except
  the priests.  In  the  first  place  each  man  had  twelve  arurae
  of  land assigned  him  free  from  tax.  (The  arura  is  a  square
  of  a  hundred Egyptian  cubits,  the  Egyptian  cubit  being  of  the
  same  length  as  the Samian.)  All  the  warriors enjoyed  this
  privilege  together,  but  there were  other  advantages  which  came
  to  each  in  rotation,  the  same man  never  obtaining  them  twice.
  A  thousand  Calascirians,  and  the same  number  of  Hermotybians,
  formed  in  alternate  years  the  bodyguard  of  the  king;  and
  during  their  year  of  service  these  persons, besides  their
  arurae,  received  a  daily  portion  of  meat  and  drink, consisting
  of  five  pounds  of  baked  bread,  two  pounds  of  beef,  and four
  cups  of  wine.

He described them as Hermotybians and Calascirians. What are the meanings of these names in the greek language?

Are these groups the same as the Medjay?

As for the Medjay, I want to know if it has become possible for archeologists to locate their modern descendants.


texts: Do there exist or have there ever existed "gang war referees"?

texts:
In the game, "Assassin's Creed Syndicate", a gang war mission starts with a man in a top hat telling you that a gang war has been declared, and seemingly acting as a neutral referee.
Similarly, in "The Raid 2: Redemption", An old man seeming to be an overseer oversaw the negotiations between the Yakuza and Banggun.
Do these kind of referees between Gangs actually exist?


texts: Why did many US military designs start with letter M?

texts: Many US military design start with M, e.g tank m1, rifle m1, helmet m1, m16,...? It seems no other country has such a thing


texts: What Roman institutions were obsolete by the end of the Republic?

texts:
Background: Recently I've been reading about the Roman Republic, specifically about its last century of civil war and disorder, and I've noticed that some historians say that the Republic fell because its institutions were prepared to handle only a small territory, not the big empire that the Romans conquered throughout the centuries. The most recent book where I found this line of thought was Mary Beard's SPQR, but I've seen it in other places before.

The problem is that when these books talk about the end of the Republic, they in general just list events concerning the Gracchus brothers' fight for redistribution of land, Marius' and Sulla's civil wars, and events concerning the First Triumvirate — they never tackle the issues of obsolete institutions directly. Even the article in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic pertaining to the topic only mentions this obsolescence and says the idea is correct, but doesn't elaborate on it. From these works I've gathered that Roman institutions were obsolete precisely because they permitted the existence of this kind of conflict, but I still don't understand why that's the case, which institutions were obsolete and why.

Question: What institutions were so obsolete as to cause the fall of the Republic, and why did they function properly only with a small territory?


texts: Were discrepancies from the 45th parallel in the US-Canadian border ratified?

texts:
The treaty of 1783 between the United States and Britain said that the boundary separating Quebec from the states of Vermont and New York was to be at the 45th parallel of north latitude. (The state of New York adamantly insisted that Vermont was a part of New York, and thus this line put Vermont within the U.S., although Vermont's government at the time took the position that it was not a part of the U.S., but in light of later events in 1790 and '91, that need not concern us here.)  But Google Maps shows some locations along the boundary more than a quarter mile north of the 45th parallel and some as much as a half mile north of there. (I think the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, deliberately constructed to have the international boundary passing through the building, is something like a half mile north of the 45th parallel.) I am not simply trusting Google Maps; rather, I looked at locations of official border crossings and at the Haskell Free Library.

I surmise that the discrepancy resulted from the inability of 18th-century land surveyors to be more precise than that. But my question is: Did later treaties ratify the details of 18th-century measurement errors? What are the specifics of those later agreements? Were they between the U.S. and Britain, or between the U.S. and Canada, or some of each? (Here I do not have in mind the agreement rectifying the mistakes in 1783 concerning the relative locations of the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi River; that's quite a different story.)


texts:
World War I still featured a lot of trench warfare due do a lack of mobility that placed an advantage upon the defender. When the British managed to invent the first tank, that seemed like an important advance in warfare:

The British developed the tank in response to the trench warfare of
World War I.
By 1916, this armored vehicle was deemed ready for battle and made
its debut at the First Battle of the Somme near Courcelette, France,
on September 15 of that year.

However, the Germans seem to have reacted quite slow to this change:

Following the appearance of the first British tanks on the Western
Front, in September 1916, the German War Ministry formed a committee
(..)
The first pre-production A7V was produced in September 1917, followed
by the first production model in October 1917. The tanks were given to
Assault Tank Units 1 and 2, founded on 20 September 1917.

Indeed the British tank did not reach the maturity until 1917, but there is still about 1 year gap between the first used tank by British and Germans.
Question: Why did it take so long for the Germans to develop the first tank model in World War I?


texts: Did Lenin order the execution of the Romanovs?

texts:
Oddly, the Wikipedia page about the Executions has the soviet leadership saying that Lenin didn't have a part in it:

  They acknowledged the murders in 1926 following the publication of an investigation by a White émigré, but maintained that the bodies were destroyed and that Lenin's Cabinet was not responsible.

On the other hand, the article mentions Yakov Yurovsky who, I remembered from research I did a few years ago, kept a diary in which he captured the events of that night.

So I looked up his Wikipedia page where it specifically implicates Lenin in the executions:

  It has been documented that the order to assassinate the Imperial family came from Yakov Sverdlov in Moscow and had been initiated by Lenin himself.

So this is what Wikipedia says. I've not managed to find anything conclusive about Lenin's involvement (or possible lack thereof) so I'm here to ask what History says.

Did he order the execution or not?


texts: Were the ancient Israelites a caste society?

texts:
I understand some were priests...etc. from one tribe, but was there a hierarchy to the whole thing?

That is, were certain groups assigned to certain jobs as part of a "caste" system?


texts: Can anyone identify my great grandfather's military uniform?

texts: Can anyone identify this uniform? It is a photo of my great grandfather that a relative came across. I know he was in the US Army during WW1. He moved to the US from Italy sometime before that. Nobody is really sure what he was wearing in this photo. Thanks for any information you can provide.


texts: Why was a convicted Nazi war criminal buried with military honours?

texts:
[Source 1:] Erich von Manstein died of a stroke on the night of 9 June 1973 at the age of 85. As the last but one[a] surviving German field marshal, he was buried with full military honours, his funeral attended by hundreds of soldiers of all ranks.
[Source 2] [Gerd von ] Rundstedt was buried, in full uniform, in Hannover-Stöcken Cemetery. The ceremony was attended by over 2,000 people, mainly Army veterans. The German and Lower Saxony governments paid no official attention to his death. (Had he lived longer, this might not have been so. Manstein was buried with full state and military honours in 1973, despite being a convicted war criminal.)

I ask about Erich von Manstein here and entitle my question as such, due the bolded above.


texts: Looking for a symbol for Southern USA communism

texts:
For a novel I'm writing I'm looking for a symbol, akin to hammer and sickle, that would represent a socialist republic created in Florida plus a but of Alabama and surrounding states. The hammer in the communist symbol represents industrial workers, while the sickle represents peasants so I don't know if at the beginning of the XX century they would mean much in that area. What do you think could be the right symbol? A gun and a scythe? Any help will be appreciated and obviously acknowledged in the novel when published.

Update: To make the question more general, how do in general revolutionary countries adapt symbols to their peculiarities, given that the hammer and sickle are a symbol of the Russian revolution and have as origin the two worker classes (factory and farm) that joined to take the revolution to vistory?

Update+1: I finally adapted the West Florida flag adding an Angolan machete in maroon (which accounts for the cimarrón origin of many of the natives). Check it out here Thanks a lot for the contributions, it will duly be acknowledged in the book.


texts:
There is a story about Alexander the Great visiting Jerusalem. This story is not supported by other sources, as far as I know, and so is probably not literally true (it may well reflect some interaction short of a visit). I also recall reading (in an old Cambridge volume, I think) about a Greek city (possibly on the shores of the Black Sea) which had a legend about Alexander visiting it and reforming its laws - once again, the visit being practically impossible given what we know about Alexander's itinerary and schedule.

Are there other examples? I am asking about legends recorded in antiquity, not the numerous highly imaginative medieval stories about Alexander.


texts: What were the population demographics in the South during the Hayes/Tilden election?

texts:
The most contentious election is US History was the 1876 election of the Republican Rutheford B. Hayes over his Democratic rival Samuel Tilden.  Tilden won the reported popular vote but eventually Hayes triumphed in the Electoral College.  There was reported to be much vote fraud on both sides.  One of the most egregious voter suppression schemes in history was the disenfranchisement of the black vote in the South both by things like poll taxes and "reading" tests and by outright violence against polling places in black areas and against voters.
My question is, were there enough black voters in the South (i.e. men of appropriate age) to have given Hayes the popular vote if they had voted at a rate similar to white voters?


texts: How many illegitimate children did King Henry VIII have?

texts: I am aware of Henry FitzRoy, his illegitimate son that he acknowledged whom he had with Bessie Blount. Are there any other confirmed illegitimate children?


texts: What is the reason for Burma/Myanmar's recent reforms?

texts:
In the last couple of days, the press has been granted much greater freedoms in Burma. They held elections last year and even released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest (only a year or 2 after they extended it because some nutjob broke in uninvited).

What (or who) prompted the sudden wave of reforms? The Wikipedia page on said reforms doesn't really say much about the motivations of the ruling junta, or even their current status. And they were happy carrying out repression for 50 years previously


texts: Did ancient people regularly suffer from colds?

texts: It seems that most people suffer some kind flu or a cold each year, particularly throughout winter. Did ancient people tend to regularly suffer seasonal sickness such as colds and the flu?


texts: Was there a "literate class" outside the Shi in Zhou-dynasty China?

texts:
According to wikipedia, during Zhou dynasty China's ...

  distinct class system, which lacked an organized clergy but saw the Shang Zi-clan yeomen become masters of ritual and ceremony known as Shi (士). When a dukedom was centralized, these people would find employment as government officials or officers. These hereditary classes were similar to Western knights in status and breeding, but like Western clergy were expected to be something of a scholar instead of a warrior. Being appointed, they could move from one state to another. Some would travel from state to state peddling schemes of administrative or military reform. Those who could not find employment would often end up teaching young men who aspired to official status. The most famous of these was Confucius ...

My question is if there where other broader societal classes where people might have a similar scholarly training, or might even work as advisors or teachers. Possible literate classes could be merchants, clergy, or even slaves or servants if those served as teachers or scribes.


texts: What did the sympathies lie of the US Navy around the time of the American Civil War?

texts:
Around the time of the American Civil War the land military (that is the Army) had its sympathies on the cause of the Confederacy, in my opinion, due to the make up of the military officers of the time being mostly from the American South.  Many of the leaders and military commanders were from Southern states and their sympathies tended to be towards their home states.  The US Navy around the same time must have had an officer core that came in a majority from somewhere, but I've not seen any written materials that have investigated this.

What was the composition of the US Navy around this time?  Were they in a majority from Northern states that already had a naval culture?  Granted the US Navy was relatively small at this time but those people had to come from somewhere and I am interested in knowing where to sort of gauge where their sympathies might have lie.


texts: Was every man compelled to follow his father's occupation in ancient Egypt?

texts:
Adam Smith wrote that in ancient Egypt:

  every man was bound by a principle of religion to follow the occupation of his father, and was supposed to commit the most horrid sacrilege if he changed it for another.

I don't know much about ancient Egypt but presumably we now know more than Adam Smith. So I was wondering to what degree is the above quote true?

This page for example says its wasn't a "rigid inheritance".


texts: Can anyone find a picture of NSDAP & KPD Workers eating lunch together in 1932 during Berlin Transit Workers Strike?

texts:
A few months back I saw a picture on the web of NSDAP and KPD strikers eating lunch together during the November, 1932, Berlin Transit Workers strike. The picture showed strikers of both parties around an outdoor table (like a picnic table) in party  uniforms,

The strike was organized by the NSDAP to steal working-class votes from the KPD - which it successfully accomplished the following year. The KPD was unable to oppose this move without (presumably) alienating even more of its supporters.

Does anyone know of a link to this photograph?

I would also be interested in a picture clearly showing members of the two parties picketing together, though I don't know that any exist.


texts: What was the available level of agricultural technology in late 2nd century China?

texts: How would you characterize the situation of the agricultural technology around the time of the Yellow Turban rebellion (A.D. 184-205), when technological breakthroughs were yet about to come?


texts: Was it common to address politicians by their first names / nicknames in the past?

texts:
To me, it seems like politicians are increasingly more frequently being called by their first name (Bernie, Hillary, Donald) or they're being reffered to in the name's more familiar form (Jo Swinson, Joe Biden).

Is this just my feeling or was this truly less common in journalism in the past (say before the age of social media)?

I wasn't able to find any sources that would deal with this phenomenon.


texts: Was it ever deemed illegal to translate the Qu'ran?

texts:
In England it was illegal to translate the Bible from Latin into English until the 14C when when John Wycliffe campaigned to have this situation changed.

I have often heard that the Qu'ran is untranslatable; or rather a great deal is lost when this is done; has there ever been a country or a period when it was illegal to translate the Qu'ran from Arabic?


texts: Are there any theories about what health problems would a man of the past suffer in the current age?

texts:
Thinking about the problems which the natives of the Americas suffered when they met the Europeans, I wondered how a man of the past could survive in the modern age. Problems could be caused by pollution, different viruses/bacteria, different food (I wouldn't consider social/mental problems, only physical ones).

Of course we can't know it for sure, due to obvious lack of specimens, what I'm asking if there has been any well-thought theory about that, educated guesses, anything based of facts we know and what we can safely assume.

The "past" is left vague on purpose: as long as it's at least 100-200 years old it would be fine — though I can safely guess people from before the Industrial age would suffer much more than those who came after.


texts: How was the Free Czech Army formed in World War 2?

texts: I am researching my family's history in World War 2. I know that my grandfather joined the "Free Czech Army" and was evacuated from Sete France after France fell. I have found several online resources: (e.g. geocities) but they do not give me much information regarding exactly how the "Free Czech Army" was formed. Anybody have any ideas?


texts:
Gengis Khan conquered more land than anyone else but after looking at a map of the Mongolian empire I noticed he never invaded India

Why might he have chosen not to do so?


texts: How many German expellees returned to the Hungarian People's Republic?

texts:
During and immediately after World War II, millions of ethnic Germans were forcibly expelled from the countries of eastern and central Europe.  Hungary was a somewhat reluctant participant in this process, starting only at the behest of the occupying Soviet forces and continuing only under pressure by the Allied Control Council.  After expelling some 180,000 ethnic Germans (mostly to West Germany) the Hungarian government halted the process in 1948. In 1950 they actually rescinded the expulsion orders, opening the door for the expellees to repatriate. [1]

How many expelled ethnic Germans availed themselves of the opportunity to return to Hungary?  I understand that, for ideological and economic reasons, the number is not likely to be very high, but it was almost certainly non-zero. (For comparison, the CIA estimated that over 90,000 people migrated from West Germany to East Germany from 1952 to 1954.) [2]

[1] Balázs Apor. The Expulsion of the German Speaking Population from Hungary. In: S. Prauser and A. Rees (eds.), The Expulsion of the 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War. EUI Working Paper HEC No. 2004/1, European University Institute, Florence, Department of History and Civilization, 2004.

[2] Central Intelligence Agency. Migration from West Germany to East Germany 1952–54. Provisional Intelligence Report CIA/RR PR-150, 1956.


texts: Range of sailors' ages on a typical Pacific trading ship in 1810

texts:
This question is about crew ages on trading voyages in the North Pacific around 1810. The number of crew members on these voyages was often in the low dozens. Funding could come at least in part from captains like Barkley, Dobell, or Gyzelaar, but often the backer was a corporation like the East India Company, the Russian-American Company, Bryant & Sturgis, or the North West Company. Let's disregard the unique case of the Manila Galleon system, which wound down around this time.

It goes without saying that the captains preferred to hire skilled, reliable, affordable candidates for their crew. The skill and reliance criteria could rule out very old and very young applicants (but note the role of cabin boy).

Local conditions affected crew age distribution. A sponsored mission of exploration could hire a whole cohort of sailors in the prime of life, while a frontier transport beset by scurvy might be forced to hire whatever manpower was available in some remote port. All else equal, a vessel with a larger crew would tend to have a slightly larger spread of ages. Every crew had one youngest and one oldest sailor.

Typically, how old were the youngest and oldest sailors aboard?

Probably this question can only be answered obliquely, so I'm open to extrapolations based on other places and times.


texts: What was the worst economic crisis of all time?

texts: I am interested in reading about the worst economic crisis of all time. By that I mean the largest reduction in GDP over a period of at least a year. The economic crisis should not have been caused by war nor natural catastrophe, but events that could arise arise in a stable society today, like a financial crisis, economic mismanagement or similar.


texts: What is the source of the error regarding the origin of the number zero?

texts: What is the source of the historical error that the zero was from the Middle East and not where it is really from, namely India?


texts: Is the Alexandria, Va. "Republican shooting" the first mass shooting of its kind in the USA?

texts:
If you are unaware, Republican members and lawmakers of the United States were recently the target of a mass shooting in Alexandria, Virginia. It seems that the gunman's target was specifically their political affiliation: he was hoping to kill Republicans.

I find myself noting this as a very strange event, despite the uneasy reality that mass shootings are nearly a monthly event now. Mass murderers of the past seem to have targeted by race, sexual orientation, religion, or government in general (e.g. Timothy McVeigh). There have been, of course, just plain old crazy mass killings with no particular target.

Is this the first time in U.S. history that a mass shooting/killing targeted political affiliation? I would suspect that some of this happened during the Civil War, but that was a war, a very different thing. So outside of military organized action, has there ever been a mass shooting/killing in the United States that targeted a political party?


texts:
The Economist claims

  Italy was created by a small elite at a time when more than 90% of the peninsula’s inhabitants did not speak Italian. (Source: Special Report on Italy, June 11th, 2011, p. 3)

And Wikipedia states

  Only 2.5% of Italy’s population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when the nation unified in 1861.

Are the above claims true and if so, what evidence is there for them?


texts: How did the crusaders "know" that they found the Holy Blood?

texts:
The Basilica of the Holy Blood, a church in Bruges, claims they hold the Holy Blood and the main thesis is that it was brought to Bruges by the Second Crusade. Note that in 1964, Nicolas Huyghebaert published a study in which he claims that the Holy Blood was brought to Bruges later.

My question is not whether it is indeed the Holy Bood. My question is more whether something is known about what made the Crusaders believe that it was indeed the Holy Blood (and how they "convinced" the locals that they indeed brought back the Holy Blood). Of course the odds are high this is the blood of some knight who participated in the Crusade, but in that case he still had to convince his fellow Crusaders that it was the blood of Christ.


texts: Are there any records of Foreign investments or Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in history from pre-medieval or medieval period?

texts:
A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. If we look at the articles about the history of FDI or Foreign investments over the web, we find that authors are only covering the part of the history of FDI     from the last two decades. For e.g. in this PDF " Concept and Historical Background of Foreign Direct Investment" the first phase starts from 1870-1914.

Now we know the empires like the Roman empire did build roads or religious structures in regions they conquered, this could be an example of Foreign investment. But that was in the plan of their territorial expansion and keep those regions under their rule and was not part of Mutual Collaboration.

Also I am not asking about FDI  or Foreign investments made during the Colonial period by British, Spanish, Portuguese multinational enterprises etc. Like The East India Company and such. But records of earlier forms of FDI  mostly from the medieval period or earlier.

Do we have any records of any individual kings, nations, guilds making an  FDI / Mutual collaborative projects in another region or country, not as a conqueror but for mutual business benefits? like improving the roads,  construction works, shipbuilding, construction of ports etc. in treaties from the pre-medieval or medieval era. ?


texts: How historically accurate was the movie "Charlie Wilson's War"?

texts:
I am watching, and really enjoying, the movie, "Charlie Wilson's War".

How historically accurate is this movie?

Did Charlie Wilson play as big as role as is portrayed?
Is the movie accurate regarding Russia's activities in Afghanistan?

Thanks


texts: Why did the Kingdom of Hawaii remain stagnant during an invasion?

texts:
Back in 1893, the Marshal of the Kingdom of Hawaii was tipped that an imminent coup was coming, therefore the Marshal requested the Kingdom to be put under martial law. The queen denied the request and was soon after deposed because nothing major was done to stop the invasion.

Why exactly wasn't the Kingdom put under martial law, if that would've considerably raised the chances of the Kingdom's survival?


texts:
In the Battle of Pharsalus, Caesar's infantry won by throwing their spears at the horsemen's faces.

So how come in Battle of Zama and many other battles, including the battle where Khalid ibn al-Walid captured Syria from Byzantine the infantry didn't just use the same tactic?

Also what advantage does being mounted carry against infantry? You can thrust lances? That's all?


texts:
Yoga has been accepted as a way of life by so many people around the world irrespective of the religion and country. There is world wide promotion for Yoga and June 21 is going to be celebrate as International Yoga day.

As wikipedia says,

  Yoga (/ˈjoʊɡə/; Sanskrit: योग, Listen) is an Indian physical, mental,
  and spiritual practice or discipline.The word Yoga comes from the
  Sanskrit root “Yuj” which means “to join.”Yoga is
  Chitta-vritti-nirodhah, restraint of the mind-stuff or the
  psychological apparatus inside, generally known as the mind. The
  different ways of controlling the mind or restraining the Chitta
  constitute the whole procedure of Yoga.

There are many religious aspects and sects in yoga but the the famous one Ashtanga Yoga was introduced by Yogacharya (teacher) Patañjali in India.

The yogis in India has been following the practice thousands of years ago as a part of their spiritual tradition. As a part of their religion both buddhist and Jains was also familiar with their style of meditation and yoga. When comparing the practice of Yoga with eastern countries, the west just started the practice (as a widely accepted exercise or as a spiritual practice)recently.

So my question is, who carried the major role in introducing the Yoga to the west? When did people in these countries started to follow Yoga as a major practice in their daily life? Is there any references for the same in past 100 or 200 years?


texts: How did people in Athens 500 BCE refer to Homer's era?

texts:
I know that there is probably not just one answer, so let's restrict the question to the golden era of 4th/5th century BC, in Athens.
If they wanted to refer to Homer's time, who lived 300 years before them, how would they have done it?


texts: 1985 magazine cover about Strategic Defense Initiative - Who is Darth Vader?

texts:
Here is a the cover of the French magazine "Science&Vie", dated February 1985.
The lead article, "La Paix des Étoiles" (Star Peace) is obviously about the Strategic Defense Initiative. February 1985 is about two years after President Reagan's announcement of 23 March 1983 whereby the SDI program was officially announced. At that point, the immense technological hurdles to a successful missile defense were becoming evident (a critical article came out in Scientific American in October 1984), so the article is likely laying out why success is not going to come quickly.

It is unclear to me who the gentleman in the Darth Vader costume is supposed to be. It is not one of the usual suspects, George Schultz, Edward Teller,  Daniel O. Graham, Caspar Weinberger, William Buckley. Who could it be?


texts: Why China government used military and tanks against students on Tienanmen Square in 64 incident?

texts:
Refer to Tienanmen Square protests of 1989 that happened on 1989 June the 4th.

The students at the Tienanmen Square were just a bunch of confused kids, mired in internal bickering, rapidly loosing steam and unsure of what to do next when the massacre was about to happened. They certainly didn't look like a group of people capable to overthrowing the government, or incited others to do that.

Why then, the China government still used military and tanks to crush them, resulted in many loss of lives and world-wide condemnation? Can it not just use tear gas to do the job? Or maybe the point of the massacre is not about the students, but rather to send a message to the opposite warring party in an internal power struggle?


texts: Did battle results prompt the retirement of metal armour in any European army?

texts:
Everyone has heard the conventional wisdom, that metal armour became obsolete, as guns improved. It should be fundamentally correct, but I am interested in understanding the process in more detail, especially key moments/battles.

Wikipedia gives the impression that metal armour did go away very slowly and part by part.

  Back and breast plates continued to be used throughout the entire period of the 18th century and through Napoleonic times, in many European (heavy) cavalry units, until the early 20th century.

Further on:

  At the start of World War I, thousands of the French Cuirassiers rode out to engage the German Cavalry.[...] Their armour was meant to protect only against sabres and light lances. The cavalry had to beware of high velocity rifles and machine guns, unlike the foot soldiers, who at least had a trench to protect them.

Still, even given gradual replacement, there should be experiences and deliberations that drove the replacement. Does anyone know specific battles that contributed to discarding elements of armour? Even some arguments between generals who argued pro and contra? We know that armour from light materials is still around.

Using the example of Lars Bosteen in the comments:

  I am looking for cases where (for example), after a battle, a country's military assessed what happened and decided 'those cuirasses/helmets/greaves didn't do any good, let's not use them anymore


texts: Did Germany's role in WW2 affect the historical perception of its role in WW1?

texts:
In the recent Wonder Woman movie (which I know is not an historical essay) I understand that the Germans are treated as the bad guys, almost like nazis although I am pretty sure that Germans in WW1 were nothing like nazis and there were scenarios in which the USA might have supported the Germans, maybe? Groucho Marx says that he supported Germany in WW1.

So is it possible that the history of WW1 as taught after WW2 was strongly colored by WW2? I realize this is sort of a meta-history question.


texts: In the 19th century were paintings and collectibles worth, inflation adjusted, anything like today's prices?

texts: My sense is that collectibles in general, including coins and comic books (not sure the analog of comic books existed in the 19th century) are worth far more by any measure, even taking inflation into account, than they were in the past. I recall seeing prices from a 1940s coin book (the red book that i would guess is still being printed) and prices of even the top coins were remarkably low. I know that railroad tycoons would buy old masters on trips to Europe and my sense was that 100k was probably the top end but it might have been much, much lower. 300 million dollars, for like a Da Vinci or a Van Gogh, is still, reduced for inflation, 10 million or so in the 19th century and I suspect that kind of money was never spent on paintings then.


texts: Is there any archaeological evidence for the Dorian Invasion of Greece?

texts:
My books on ancient Greece are pretty old. And they have have the same explanation for Doric vs. Ionic ethnicity/history.

Is there any archaeological evidence for a Dorian invasion?


texts:
The Russian-American Company's directors were in St. Petersburg while its Chief Manager lived and worked in Sitka. The library there held "more than 1,200 books, valued at some 7,500 rubles. More than 600 of these are in Russian, about 300 in French, 130 in German, 35 in English, 30 in Latin and the rest in Swedish, Dutch, Spanish and Italian." The books were collected from the elite of St. Petersburg by Active Chancellor Rezanov prior to sailing to the Pacific in 1803. In 1810, this rich library had no peer anywhere nearby.

As the crow flies, what was the nearest bigger library ?

My reading suggests that it could be in New York (closer by geodesic distance than Guadalajara, Mexico City, or Irkutsk).


texts: How many people died in the British Isles from religious persecution between 1532 and 1791?

texts:
The English Reformation was "a series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church". It involved the killings of many religious individuals (mostly Catholic, but also Protestants, during Mary I's reign), by official order of the state/crown (some other might have died from related sectarian violence, but that is surely hard to quantify so we can omit these). All denominations other than Anglican were forbidden.

A parallel reformation and persecution process (although with it's own idiosyncrasies) happened in the Kingdom of Scotland.

The Kingdom of Ireland, being under the subjection of the Tudor dynasty since Henry VIII, also saw its own violence and persecution, exemplified by the Penal Laws.

It wasn't until the English Toleration Act 1689, when freedom of worship was granted to "nonconformists who had pledged to the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and rejected transubstantiation" (i.e. to non-Catholics). Finally, it was in 1791 that freedom of worship was allowed for Catholics across Great Britain.

The question is "simple". How many people died in Great Britain (England + Scotland) and Ireland from state-directed religious persecution during all the above period (starting around 1532-1534)? Ideally, it would be great to have an idea of numbers by denomination.

PS: here, for instance, there is a list of people considered "martyrs" by the Catholic Church as part of the English Reformation. Yet, not all killed were considered martyrs. So the list is incomplete.


texts:
What were the circumstances of the construction of the various buildings through which the boundary between Vermont and Quebec passes?  In particular, what were the laws affecting construction on the boundary when they were built?

What I know includes this:

From Matthew Farfan's book The Vermont–Quebec Border I learned that these are called "line houses". Having learned that term from reading excerpts on Google books, I found it used in precisely that sense in three Wikipedia articles (one of which referred to a building on the boundary between Maine and either Quebec or New Brunswick), so I created links to a non-existent Wikipedia article titled "line house" and then I created that article.
At some point in the early 20th century, the International Boundary Commission was created, headed by two commissioners – one Canadian and one American. By treaty, no one can build within three meters (a bit less than ten feet) of the boundary without the Commission's permission. (That includes pipelines or electric power lines that cross the boundary, retaining walls, and of course, houses.)
The most famous border-straddling building is the Haskell Free Library and Opera house, intentionally built so that the boundary passes through the building. This was built in the first decade of the 20th century. Just east of it is what appears to be an ordinary-looking single-family residential house whose front door is in Vermont and whose back door is in Quebec. The border runs through a bunch of other buildings in that vicinity some of which look like industrial buildings.
The Joint Report upon the Survey and Demarcation of the Boundary between the United States and Canada from the Source of the St. Croix River to the St. Lawrence River, published by the International Boundary Commission in 1924, mentions "line houses", using that term, more than a dozen times.
In 1771–2, that part of the boundary was surveyed and marked with survey monuments by Collins and Valentine. In 1842 the Webster–Ashburton treaty said the measurement errors of Collins and Valentine would not be corrected, but rather the boundary would remain where they marked it. The aformentioned report published in 1924 said some of those markers were still intact.

Were the buildings through which the boundary passes

built before any law required authorization from the Commission or like permission, or
built in disregard of the requirement, or
built by permission, or
other (specify)?


texts: What evidence is there of Asians and Africans in medieval Britain other than Moors in the 7th century?

texts:
According to the National Archives website:

  ..in the Middle Ages,  Moors arrived in Britain. They probably came,
  directly or indirectly, from Spain, which had been conquered by
  Muslims from North and Northwest Africa in the 8th century.

Is it known why these Moors came to Britain and what they did there?

The Wikipedia page Black British also has a reference to an African in Britain, perhaps someone who was one of the many slaves in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman conquest:

  In 2013, a skeleton was discovered in Fairford, Gloucestershire, which
  forensic anthropology revealed to be that of a sub-Saharan African
  woman thought to be an unpaid bonded servant or slave, who
  died between the years 896 and 1025.

I also found this Rainbow Roundtable site with several references to Africans in Britain and around Britain but am wondering as to its credibility.

There are quite a number of references to Africans in Britain during Roman times and from the early modern period onwards (e.g. Moors in the court of James IV of Scotland, Elizabeth I of England expelling Moors), but I am curious about the period in between (i.e. the middle ages).

Are there any references in medieval chronicles, or is there any other evidence of Africans or Asians living in (or just visiting) medieval Britain?

I’m especially interested in Asians and Africans who were in Britain not as slaves but for other reasons.


texts: What are the flags in this Yellow Peril Cartoon from Italy?

texts: Can somebody help me to identify the different flags in this Italian Cartoon from 1900?


texts: Did Roman unmarried men have a preferred hand and finger for wearing their seal ring?

texts:
I have read that, generally, Roman men during the Empire would wear only one ring at a time. For instance here:
http://m.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-clothing/roman-jewelry.htm

An unmarried one would wear a seal, but was there a standard for which hand and which finger to wear it on?
It is my impression that when it was about marriage or religion, they went for the fourth finger of the left hand, as they believed the "vena amoris" (a term coined in the 17th century, they were actually thinking of a nerve) was the only vessel that connected fingers to the heart. For example Tiberius, who was after all left-handed according to Suetonius, thus displays a ring in his bronze portrait as the Pontifex Maximus:

I couldn't find sources for how seal rings were worn.
I would guess the hand depended on your left- or right-handedness (or maybe shaking hands with the right one had implications), and perhaps the finger was the index or middle one.

Or perhaps there was no standard?


texts:
In June 1890, the South Atlantic (African) Land and Exploration Company advertised its prospectus in a number of English papers including the Brighton Gazette. I am endeavouring to find out as much as I can about the fate of this company, but I can find very little.
The Truth magazine, for July 3 1890, reports on the prospectus sceptically.

"I am really at a loss to understand what sort of person (assuming him to be of sane mind) would pay £ 125,000 for the privilege to expend £ 25,000in exploring and prospecting the territories of Hendricks, chief of the Veldschoendragers."

But that's about it. Matters are made more difficult by the number of companies of similar name and avowed aim that existed in this period.
Where can I research this further?


texts: Why are many African-Americans in Mississippi concentrated in the northwestern area?

texts:
I was looking at a 2016 election map of Mississippi. I saw a that most of it was red, but the western part looked very blue. I looked up one of those counties, and not surprisingly for an American deep South county, it had a high percentage of African-Americans, with most if not all blue counties in the state having a African-American majority or at least a African-American plurality. I am not saying that this is necessarily an indicator of a high nonwhite population, but in this case it is. That was only being used to say how I knew this.

Is there a historical reason that to this day there's a higher concentration of African-American people in the Northwest area than in the South? I suspect there was a large slave operation in that area.


texts: What was the reason for inflation in Britain after the Black Death?

texts:
According to the Wikipedia article Ordinance of Labourers 1349

During this outbreak [of Black Death], an estimated 30-40% of the population died. The decline in population left surviving workers in great demand in the agricultural economy of Britain.
Landowners had to face the choice of raising wages to compete for workers or letting their lands go unused. Wages for labourers rose and translated into inflation across the economy as goods became more expensive to produce. The wealthy elites suffered under the sudden economic shift. Difficulties in hiring labour created frustration. John Gower commented on post-plague labourers: "they are sluggish, they are scarce, and they are grasping. For the very little they do they demand the highest pay."

If the number of labourers and landowners was reduced by the same factor, it could only improve the life quality of everyone since more land was available per person. The only scenario I can conceive of which would be disadvantageous for the nobility, is that they were hit less hard by the plague than the workers. Thus there would be less workers per noble, which would be advantageous for the former and disadvantageous for the later. Is that indeed the case? If so, why were the nobles spared?


texts: Looking for a people where the “traditional” gender roles are shifted

texts:
Quite some time ago, I read about a people —I think it was a people of islanders in the Pacific Ocean— where women were displaying what is considered in Western societies as a masculine behaviour, and, in reverse, where men were “effeminate”.

I do not know where I heard about this people and even if it does exist at all.

Do you have any recollection of such a people and which one it may be?

N.B. There is no sociology nor anthropology Stack Exchange and I thought this post made more sense in the history website. Please move it to another forum if I was mistaken.


texts: Which historical developments led to mankind becoming ingenious towards todays exponential growth?

texts:
I want to ask pretty much the question in the title with some side notes/hints for the context:

I don't mean first tools created by homo sapiens, I mean which societal or geographical developments led to first significant exponential growth of inventions (plausible are for instance wars between different tribes, tribal rivalry often creates/pressures technological advances)
Is there a steady exponential growth of inventions or was there after a first period of many inventions a decline or only linear growth. I don't know since when patent exists and are tracked/indexed.

The background of my question is that I would like to understand what actually thrives human ingenuity or humans to become ingenious, especially in the pre-industrial times and with existing larger tribes or societies, rather necessity, pressure, spare time, identification of geological sources or catalytic key technologies (nuclear fission)...

Do historians have a list/time of catalytic events in medieval history that led to sudden increased growth. One example


texts: What was the name of this medieval philosophical idea?

texts:
I remember learning once years ago about a medieval philosophical idea (although I suspect it would be older) that the state of the King was reflected in his lands. A sickly or evil king would have lands with dry cows and few crops. A good king, or a strong one, this was a king who would rule over thriving lands.

What was this idea called?


texts: During the time of the British Mandate, who opposed the term "Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine" and who if any were OK with it being called that?

texts:
During the time of the British Mandate, who in the British Government opposed the term "Hashemite Kingdom Of Palestine"?

" the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine. This was the name that King Abdullah (the first) wanted to call his Kingdom after it was
separated......The British had given the Jewish authorities an
ultimatum — either accept the loss of the East Bank to the Hashemites
or risk losing the rights to a homeland (a state) on any of the
territory west of the river. The Zionist leadership relented. Thus,
the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine was created. However the British
had one caveat for the Hashemite ruler. They advised him not to name
his kingdom with the designation of Palestine. Instead, they advised
him to call his new kingdom with the purely geographic designation of
Transjordan — later to be shortened to simply Jordan.
]The British didn’t want the Hashemites to be challenged by Arabs living west of the river. These Arabs (to the west of the river) had
no particular rights under international law other than to live under
eventual Jewish sovereignty. In other words, under the revised Mandate
for Palestine, there was to be a Jewish state west of the river and a
Hashemite Kingdom east of the river." TimesOfIsrael


texts: Animosity between Mandarin-speaking and Cantonese-speaking Chinese?

texts:
The PRC-ROC schism aside, has there historically been (or is there today) any animosity or feelings of cultural or racial superiority between Mandarin-speaking Chinese and Cantonese-speaking Chinese?

If not... don't mean to sound rude, but why not? (Few nations with multiple languages escape some degree of animosity or prejudice.)

If it used to be a factor but is not so much any more, when and how was it tamped down... under Communism?


texts: Why did Abraham Lincoln choose Andrew Johnson as a vice presidential running mate?

texts: Given the two were from different parties, I was curious as to why Lincoln would choose a man like Johnson from the opposing party when running for reelection. In addition, I'm curious as to why Lincoln would choose Johnson out of all available Democrats.


texts: Black & white marriage in the US in the past?

texts:
I have just watched the film "Loving" (A film depicting an interracial couple in the late 1950s in the US state of Virginia.).

I wondered why black & white married couples in the US in the past had to put the marriage certificate on the top of their bed while sleeping?