texts: When did cavalry soldiers unsheathe swords?

texts:
Most movies depict cavalry's unsheathing of swords before a cavalry charge, far before their swords can ever be used. Is this authentic?

The Young Winston (1972) exemplifies the above, but bizarrely. It depicts the young Winston Churchill unsheathing his sword before his charge, then charging, but once he approaches the enemy, Churchill replaces his sword, and instead produces his Mauser C96 pistol (at the 1 minute 17 seconds juncture of this clip), with which he fights the enemy.


texts: Identify Olympic Coin with USA and Japan flags

texts:
A friend has found a coin which has been a hassle to identify. It is a silver coin, which on one side has a Japanese flag and an USA flag crossed. On the reverse side is the Olympic Rings and some writing in what I’m assuming is Japanese.

Edit:
It weighs in at just around 5 grams.
Diameter is a little less than an inch, or the exact size of a US quarter, minus the ridges on the edge


texts: Did James Monroe and James Madison ever disagree?

texts:
I can't seem to find anything that they did butt heads about.

Did they ever have any public disagreements that were recorded by history?


texts: Was merchant Hugh McCulloch the first Scotsman to set foot in California?

texts: In June 1822 the Scottish merchant Hugh McCulloch landed at San Diego from the brig John Begg. He was the founding partner of the business McCulloch Hartnell & Co which for three years from 1 January 1823 had a monopoly of the Hide and Tallow Trade with the Californian missions. His story is told here https://durnesstocalifornia.blogspot.com. Was he the first Scotsman to ever set foot in California?


texts: Is there an example of 19th century non-believer who fluently alludes to Scripture?

texts:
I am curious whether there is an example of a 19th century historical figure who 1) did not consider himself/herself a Christian, but 2) alluded to or quoted Bible passages fluently in his/her speech or writing.

Recently I was reading a biography of a 19th century person who made extensive references to Scripture (explicit and casual) in his writings. I found myself evaluating his faith commitment on that basis, since in the 21st century I don't think a non-believer would bother to do that (except perhaps a politician, and in a stilted fashion). So in this question I am looking for a counter-example to my 21st century bias/expectation.


texts: What kind of impact did ancient armies have on civilians and the environments outside of combat?

texts:
Are there any notable studies of the impacts of ancient battles on civilian populations and the environment outside warfare?

What happened to farms and villages that lie in the path of ancient armies? Were they simply pillaged and burned? Ancient armies must have killed tremendous numbers of wild game.

I know there's no universal policy regarding slash-and-burn tactics, but is much known about the overall impact of ancient military adventures on the environment?


texts: Did two unquestionably democratic states ever engage in war?

texts:
I was just reading A.fm.'s comment on this question.

  [...] and history shows democratic states don't fight one another.

At first I thought this statement was wrong, but thinking further I couldn't find any example of two unquestionably democratic states engagint a war with eachother. I can only find examples of democracy declaring war to a dictatorship (USA invading Irak in 2003) or a dictatorship invading a democracy (for example Germany invading Czechoslovakia in 1938). Cases of two dictatorship attacking eachother are unfortunately too common so that no example is needed...

The best counter-example to A.fm.'s claim I can find is Austria-Hungary declaring war to Serbia in 1914... but both of those countries were more hybrid regimes than full democraties it seems.

France declaring war to Prussia in 1870 is also borderline making it, but both countries were kind of hybrid/half-democraties at this point of time.


texts: How significant were government-linked enterprises as a source of revenue for the United States between 1790 and 1846?

texts:
What proportion of US government (federal,state,local) revenue came from profits or debt issuance of government-linked enterprises between 1790 and 1846?
I chose 1846 as the breakpoint because of the Walker Tariff; feel free to critique that choice.
Related questions: What were the sources of US government revenue from 1790 to 1846?
Background:
I have found sources sufficient to establish that government-linked enterprises were significant; these are listed below. However, I have not found enough to give me an idea of the magnitude.

(h/t to Brian Z) This paper ("CRS Report") attempts to break down overall federal revenue; since it purports to be comprehensive, it can potentially rule out a lot of things. For the period prior to 1863, it says that excise (up to ~1816) and customs (after ~1816), along with public land sales, contributed most of the federal revenue. This paper, in turn (table 1 on p6), helps estimate the percentage of US revenue that went to the federal government versus state versus local. However, I have not done the necessary work to determine whether I can reasonably "glue together" these sources. I'm also not certain that "CRS Report" intends to include things like tolls in its accounting.
This survey ("Wallis 1") motivates the question (p3 of the pdf) by identifying infrastructure investment as an important source of government income for the period 1790 and 1842. It also gives a partial indirect answer by estimating the relative share of property taxes for state governments from 1835 through the end of my period (p8 of the pdf).
This paper ("GWS") goes into more detail for individual states toward the end of my period and takes a close look at financing. I have not assimilated it yet.


texts: Heads of state convicted in international court

texts:
From this BBC News article:

  Taylor became the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazis after World War II.

What former head of state was convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, if any?


texts: Did the Confederate States of America ever officially adopt William T. Thompson's descriptions of the CSA national flag?

texts:
William Tappan Thompson is not infrequently referenced as the "creator" and "designer" of the Confederate States of America (CSA) national flag in popular media, see William Thompson Designed the Confederate Flag Explicitly as a Racist Symbol by Daniel Miessler, William Thompson, The Confederate Cause, And The White Man’s Flag.

It appears that Thompson was able to convey his opinion as to the design and purpose of the CSA national flag to the public due to his position as editor of the newspaper Daily Morning News (Savannah, Georgia) which later became the Savannah Morning News.

The idea of Confederacy was expressed unequivocally by CSA Vice-President Alexander Stephens

  Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its
  foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that
  the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination
  to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.

Thompson's ideas were in accord with Stephens', as can be found in Thompson's writings as to the purpose of the CSA national flag. Although there is some historical debate as to the significance of Thompson's role in actually designing one or more of the national flags which the CSA adopted, his published works relevant to the CSA national flag survive.

It should be noted here that the practical purpose of the (re)design of the flag appears to be the issue of the prominence of the color white being mistaken for the sign of surrender by the army

  Our idea is simply to combine the present battle-flag with a pure
  white standard sheet; our Southern Cross, blue on a red field, to take
  the place on the white flag that is occupied by the blue union in the
  old United States flag, or the St. George’s cross in the British flag.
  As a people,we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy
  of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would
  thus be emblematical of our cause.

Savannah Daily Morning News, Apr. 23,
1863

  While we consider the flag which has been adopted by the Senate as a
  very decided improvement of the old United States flag, we still think
  the battle-flag on a pure white field would be more appropriate and
  handsome. Such a flag would be a suitable emblem of our young
  confederacy, and, sustained by the brave hearts and strong arms of the
  South, it would soon take rank among the proudest ensigns of the
  nations, and be hailed by the civilized world as THE WHITE MAN’S FLAG.

Savannah Daily Morning News, Apr. 28, 1863

  As a national emblem, it is significant of our higher cause, – the
  cause of a superior race, and a higher civilization contending against
  ignorance, infidelity, and barbarism. Another merit in the new flag
  is, that it bears no resemblance to the now infamous banner of the
  Yankee vandals.

Savannah Daily Morning News, May 4, 1863

If disambiguation is necessary to distinguish between the "Rebel" flag or other terms used to describe the contemporary "Confederate" flag, kindly do so within the text of the answer.

Did the Confederate States of America ever officially adopt any of the descriptions of William Tappan Thompson as to the national flag of the CSA?


texts: Were there crewmen from other USN ships on USS Missouri when the Japanese surrendered?

texts: I have tried finding a list of the crewmen on the USS Missouri at the time of the signing of the  Japanese Instrument of Surrender, or at least some general information about who was on the ship at that time, but nothing that I've found is really helpful. I'm wondering if, aside from some dignitaries and high-level officers from other militarizes or branches of the US military, if any non-Missouri crew were present on the ship? If some said they were present at the signing of the JIS, is there a way to verify this?


texts: In the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was there any secret agreement on the timetable, if any, of taking the spheres of influence?

texts:
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact included a secret agreement to divide Europe between Germany and USSR. I'm wondering if this secret agreement included timetables for those takeovers, or if they were allowed at any time they wanted.

Hitler invaded West Poland 1939 Sep 01. Stalin invaded East Poland 1939 Sep 17, then Finland 1939 Nov 30, then Lithuania 1940 Jun 15 followed by the remaining Baltics.

Was this timetable agreed upon? Was the general order of invasion agreed upon? Or was it just left up to whenever they wanted?


texts: Completeness of Old Parish Registers in the 1700s

texts: In England, local churches were required to keep registers of all baptisms, marriages and burials. Are there any studies that show how complete these records generally were, in particular in relation to the 1700s.


texts: Fatality Rate, in Andrew Carnegie's Steel Mills?

texts:
Between 1885 and 1900, what percentage of Andrew Carnegie's steel workers died on the job annually?

  the Economist.
  Fatal accidents in the steel mills, he calculates, accounted for 20% of all male deaths in Pittsburgh in the 1880s. Newspaper lists of men killed and wounded each year were as long as a casualty list for a small battle in the American civil war.

-

  "Labor and Steel".
  In 1920 the mortality rate in iron and steel was nearly twice the rate in general manufacturing, according to the Prudential Insurance
  Co. of America.

  for laborers
  the most important occupation aumerically it is more than
  twice the average.*

  The sickness risk in steel is bigger than the accident risk.
  Excess deaths from pneumonia alone were nearly as numer-
  ous in the industry in 1929 as all deaths from accidents ; and
  the severity rate for non-fatal cases of sickness has been
  higher than the severity rate for non- fatal accidents in the
  only steel plant which is known to compile sickness severity
  rates, Middletown plant of the American Rolling Mill Co. 18

What percentage of their work force did they lose annually?

( I chose those dates because they represented to my mind the most dangerous period in one of the most dangerous industries.  As labor was loosing what little influence they had and before modest reforms began after 1907. )


texts: Did World War II-era bombs actually whistle?

texts:
In WWII-era films and newsreels, aerial bombs are often shown making a whistling sound as they fall; starting high pitched, then decreasing as the bomb approaches the Earth (example here, starting at about 0:50). I also remember it being mimicked in WWII-era Looney Tunes and the like that I saw as a kid (okay, and as an adult).

Did WWII-era bombs actually whistle like this? Why did they do so? Was it by design? I presume the bombs were falling slower than the speed of sound, so was the whistling audible from the ground - and soon enough to seek shelter?


texts:
If I recall correctly, back in the Dutch golden age, a law was pressed on merchants forcing them to add an extra coin to their prices which they would have to later pay to the government.

I believe this law was called something along the lines of "The 11th coin", yet I can't seem to recall its exact name.

What was this law called?


texts: Historical Examples of Child Exchange between cultures or nations

texts: Are there historical examples of a noble or other representative of a nation-state exchanging his own child or other children from his nation-state with those of an enemy, in order to solidify a friendship or peace treaty between those nations?


texts:
This question may come up as a bit strange, but rest assured, it is about culture and symbolism.

During the first few minutes of Batman Begins (at 06:25), there is a scene of Bruce Wayne wandering to the top of the mountain (location unknown to me, but it is mountainous and it does have some Asian flavor to it). In this particular scene, Bruce reaches a plateau filled with a lot of flags (see the attached image):

Flags

My question is: what do these flags represent? I.e. is there a function to them, a cultural background, a custom, etc?

As a Europe-centeric historian, I'm completely clueless about these. Therefore, some explanation (and a few external links) would come in handy.


texts:
Question 1: The death of Socrates is usually said to have happened in 399 BC, but I've sometimes seen a question mark after the date. Is there actually a possible uncertainty about the exact year? What sources is the date based on? Xenophon? Plato? What is the chain that connects this to the modern calendar?

Question 2: It sounds like his death happened early in the month of Skirophorion, so maybe June or July. Is this about as accurate as we can be, June/July? As far as I can tell, the Attic calendar had vaguely defined months, and there may be no way of matching a particular month in a particular year to the Gregorian calendar.

The clearest discussion I've found is in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

  In the month of Thargelion [May-June 399 Apology] a month or two after Meletus's initial summons, Socrates's trial occurred. On the day before, the Athenians had launched a ship to Delos, dedicated to Apollo and commemorating Theseus's legendary victory over the Minotaur (Phaedo 58a-b). [...] Although the duration of the annual voyage varied with conditions, Xenophon says it took thirty-one days in 399 (Memorabilia 4.8.2); if so, Socrates lived thirty days beyond his trial, into the month of Skirophorion.

Would the ship have been launched on the 6th or 7th of Thargelion, which were the days of the Thargelia purification ritual?


texts: What is/was the correct pronunciation of Byzantine?

texts:
When I first came across the Byzantine Empire in books I assumed that it was pronounced as it was spelled (i.e. bih-zan-tin or baɪ zən tɪn in IPA). However I have since heard many people, including history academics, choosing to exclusively pronounce it quite differently: as biz-in-teen.

This doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me, as the capital (Constantinople) has often been referred to as Byzantium (such as in the famous WB Yeats Poem). How would this even be pronounced? biz-in-te-e-um?

Looking at the etymology of the word sheds little light for me: bȳzantīnus. I am assuming this is Geek (but I'm afraid Greek is Greek to me)

Any sources I could find which describe how to pronounce Byzantine list both methods (usually placing baɪ-zən-tɪn second).

Notwithstanding common contemporary parlance, which method is likely to be the most historically accurate reflection of how denizens of the Byzantine Empire would have referred to themselves (other than as Romans of course)?


texts: How rich were carpenters in Roman Galilee in the 1st century AD?

texts:
According to the Biblical account, Jesus was the son of a carpenter, Joseph of Nazareth (Matthew 13,55).

How rich could a carpenter become in the Roman province of Galilee in 1st century AD? What exactly would the social position of a Jewish carpenter's family be?


texts: Is there evidence that communists supplied drugs to West Berlin?

texts:
I've read an interview with Nick Cave, who lived in West Berlin in the 1980s and was a drug addict. He said that the "stuff" was very cheap and good - by that he probably meant very pure. And he said that the word on the street was that the drugs must have been supplied by communists to undermine western capitalists. Has this been researched?

Also, from various media I got the impression that West Berlin had a high number of drug addicts. Was that really much above European average?

EDIT: google search yields a few articles from the 1970s and 1980s that seem to support the view that heroin was in fact very available in West Berlin at that time.


texts: How historically accurate is Age of Empires III?

texts:
Probably not the best place to post this question, but after all, I am interested in history and while cleaning up some stuff I came across the Age of Empires III game which I had bought a while ago.
The game -in case you haven't it played it yourself- lists  the spanish, british, french, portuguese, dutch, russian, german & ottoman civilizations but oddly enough, the website never states how accurate is the information portrayed in the game (apparently it's more important the 3d engine it's using) and Wikipedia also fails to say anything on the matter except for this quote:

  Game Revolution said that it is "as detailed as a history book, and about as much fun;"

Which frankly doesn't make the cut either...
I do understand there definitely was some historical research and an aim to make it accurate, yet it is more than often that history sometimes get skewed a bit just to produce a marketable product.
If anyone has played the game and spot historical errors, what's the overall percentage of historical accuracy of the game or are there any studies/links as of to know how much of the game is based in historical facts?


texts: Have any opinions by Fanny Allen of her father's book on theology survived?

texts:
Fanny Allen was a daughter of Colonel Ethan Allen of the Continental Army, noted for taking Fort Ticonderoga from the British by surprising them while they slept. (Or General Ethan Allen if you like; he was a colonel in the Continental Army and a general in the Vermont militia.)

Ethan Allen wrote a book on theology and was considered a Deist; he was avowedly not a Christian.

Fanny Allen was four years old when her father died. She relocated to Quebec from her native Vermont and became a Catholic nun.

Did she express any opinions of her father's book, or of her father, that survive today?


texts: When did enscribing messages on bombs first happen?

texts: I would like to know when and why, messages written on bombs appeared for the first time. In particular if only US crew members used it during the operations in war.


texts: Was it militarily possible to "island hop" the Philippines if not for MacArthur?

texts:
The battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines led to the destruction of half of what remained of the Japanese navy. It also "sucked in" all the troops that Japanese could spare from elsewhere, leading to their deploying about half a million men in the Philippines, a disproportionate number, that could not be transferred after the Japanese naval defeat. So far so good.

With the above accomplished, was it militarily possible for the Americans to "island hop" the archipelago, capture only a few islands, "strand" the remaining Japanese, and "switch gears" to larger but now less-well-defended targets such as the modern Indonesia and Indochina, leaving the Japanese in the Philippines to wither on the vine, as had been the case in the Pacific Islands? (MacArthur was all for recapturing the Philippines but other military men disagreed with him.)

Did the Philippines actually have the strategic military or political importance that MacArthur attached to them, and need to be recaptured even if the Japanese had garrisoned them with a million men? Or was it even the case that the Americans had underestimated the transfer of Japanese troops to the islands, so that they thought they were facing X soldiers, when in fact, there was "a multiple of X" on the Philippines?

I know that a number of others argued for alternate plans, but were those plans soundly based on information known in the fall of 1944, or were they "after the fact" critiques or second guesses of MacArthur?


texts: How did the English Civil War affect the American Colonies policy-wise?

texts: How did the English Civil War and the following reign of Oliver Cromwell affect policies towards and in the American Colonies? I don't see anything Wikipedia that covers this topic (I can only see mainly the militaristic aspects of it there).


texts: Did Ben-Gurion attend a lecture by Trotsky in New York in 1917?

texts:
I came across this statement:

  1917 B-G (at 30) meets Russian-born Paula Munweis at Trotsky lecture,
  who works with B-G on political articles. In Dec. they marry in City
  Hall.

The author of the website seems to be very knowledgeable but he does not give references and my efforts to corroborate the above quote have not been successful.

To begin with, Wikipedia gives a different chronology for Ben-Gurion's marriage (but again, no citation!):

  Settling in New York City in 1915, he [Ben-Gurion] met Russian-born Paula Munweis.
  They were married in 1917.

Apparently Trotsky was in New York in January-March 1917 but not in 1915 (from the wiki article on him). So the original quote is in some doubt.

Does anyone have conclusive sources for this?

EDIT: A bit of circumstantial evidence is provided by a letter written to Khrushchev by a Soviet professor of medicine, Graschenkov, who visited Israel in 1964 and met with Ben-Gurion and his wife. In the letter he writes that Ben-Gurion spoke highly of Lenin but dismissed Trotsky "whom we had known personally" as a "fanfaron". This suggests that the meeting did take place in 1917 (that's the position the publicator of the letter at the link I gave takes). However, there are arguments against such an interpretation:

I am not 100% sure the letter is real. It looks like the real McCoy but I can't discount the possibility it's apocryphal.
Assuming the letter is real, the bit about Lenin and Trotsky could have been embellished or made up altogether by the author to make the rest of it more palatable to Khrushchev.
Assuming the letter is real and the Trotsky reference is accurately reported in it, the acquaintance between Ben-Gurion and Trotsky could date to the former's 1923 visit to the Soviet Union instead of 1917.

So I'm still looking for conclusive evidence.


texts: What other courts were similar to Louis XIV of France's court in Versailles?

texts:
After reading about feudalism in the Middle Ages it became apparent that lords lived on their lands far away from the king and provided military services themselves in exchange for said lands. However, on many occasions they were more powerful than the king himself and held courts of their own.

But in 17th century France, Louis XIV wanted to centralize power in an absolute monarchy, and so lords were obliged to live in the Palace of Versailles or in the area for at least part of every year.

My question is, are there any other courts where lords lived in the palace with the king in a similar fashion in Europe? Was this the first example of such practice? My other question is, did these lords not go to war themselves? Which is to say did they stop providing military service themselves in favor of the kingdom's armies? Also, were these nobles connected to lands (like in feudal times) and their houses, presenting problems of the area and politics to the king?


texts: Was there any conflict/interaction between the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam?

texts:
In the late 60s to early 70s, the groups had a fairly similar ideology. They were both black nationalist. NOI had religious overtones, whereas the BPP didn't.

Did they have strength in the same cities? Were they allies or opponents?


texts: Why did Britain not purchase Alaska when Russia had it up for sale?

texts: One thing that comes up often when discussing "what-ifs" with family or friends is why the British government never nabbed Alaska when Russia had placed it up for sale and made it into Canada's fourth territory. Was it bad timing (Canada gained self-governance that year), lack of money (hard to believe with an Empire of that size), or lack of interest? Or indeed another reason that I haven't thought of?


texts: Aside from Saint Francis of Assisi, were there other famous figures-(distant or near) who walked along the Camino Del Santiago in Northern Spain?

texts: The Camino Del Santiago/"Road of Saint James" has been a popular destination for peripatetic and religious pilgrims since the 800's AD/CE-(though it declined in popularity during much the Early Modern age). Saint Francis of Assisi was reported to have walked the entire Camino. However, are there any other historical figures-(distant or near) who have also walked all or part of the famed Roadway in Northern Spain?


texts: What is the number of slaves imported from Africa to the Americas by non-British countries?

texts:
From 1526 to approximately 1870, slave ships from various countries loaded slaves from Africa and took them to somewhere in the Americas.

(Note, in this question, I use "America" and "Americas" to refer to either North or South America, or both.)

When I search for how many, almost always I either find a giant lump sum, or the number of slaves imported by British slave ships. So what I'm looking for now is non-British slave ships. How many African slaves were imported by Portugal, Spain, France, etc.?

Do these numbers exist? Surely logs must exist for these countries' ships just as they do for Britain's.

Wikipedia says

  Current estimates are that about 12 to 12.8 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic over a span of 400 years.

I'm just pointing this one out to illustrate that, presumably someone did tally up all the slaves from the individual nations' slave ships, or else the sales purchases at American ports. If the latter, then hopefully those purchases have a record of who sold them.

The same article also says

  The major Atlantic slave trading nations, ordered by trade volume, were: the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch Empires.

But this sentence has no source, and it does not even give any numbers for the volume. Nor does it give a date range. Date range is important because I'm pretty sure Britain was the number 1 importer from roughly 1700 - 1830, but later was surpassed by Portugal. I gleaned this from another website, abolition.e2bn.org, saying

  In the 1660s, the number of slaves taken from Africa in British ships averaged 6,700 per year. By the 1760s, Britain was the foremost European country engaged in the Slave Trade. Of the 80,000 Africans chained and shackled and transported across to the Americas each year, 42,000 were carried by British slave ships.

That's more along the lines of the info I'm searching for, except it only gives a number for Britain. I would really like to know how many slaves were transported by each European country.

Note: This question is only asking about slave trade from Africa to the Americas. I'm aware that slave trade also existed from Africa to Asia, that many new slaves were the result of births in America, and many other slaveries existed all over the world. For this question I am only interested in slaves loaded onto ships at Africa going to the Americas.


texts: Was red associated with "stop" or "danger" before railroads?

texts:
The automobile street signal colors of red and green were adopted because those colors were already in use by the railroads. Was the color red associated with "stop" before railroads? Was it ever associated with "Danger"?

Edit: The association with blood has always seemed like a backwards rationalization to me; we don't see a lady in a red dress, or watch the Chiefs play, and think "Blood! Danger!". But yes, I should have phrased it better, to ask about pre-stoplight associations. I probably didn't google with the right terms, but I seemed to run into sites that said things like "Red is the color of extremes. It’s the color of passionate love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the color of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces – and most of red’s symbolism today arises from its powerful associations in the past.".


texts: What was the German perspective on Stalingrad?

texts:
I'm quite interested in Stalingrad and have started reading a bit regarding the battle itself and have seen that weather had played quite a significant factor in halting the German advance. (Reading Stalingrad by Beevor at the moment)

I'm quite keen on seeing the German perspective regarding their difficulties with Stalingrad but I'm afraid I haven't found any. A quick search on Wikipedia (sorry!) yields: "... The next day he made a six page situation report to the general staff...", with the citation as Kehrig, Manfred Stalingrad, Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags Anstalt, 1974 pages 279,311-312,575 but I'm afraid I can't read German so I can't peruse that.

I was hoping someone from History SE could help me on this.


texts: What is the origin of the rampant lion herald?

texts:
We often see the image of the rampant lion used as a symbol in heraldry and other places. I understand the significance of the lion, and I am aware that ancient art often incorporated the lion, but the rampant lion as mentioned is a very specific representation of the animal.

Today we call the different lion poses by different names and ascribe to each of them different meaning, but at some time in the past these names and associated meanings did not exist. I therefore would see no issue with any one entity using a rampant lion as a symbol, but its perseverance is so common that I wonder where the copy-cat idea started.


texts: Were Pope John Paul I's views anything that could imply a support for contraception?

texts:
Pope John Paul I was a short lived pope (only 33 days). There are rumours that he was assasinated.

Someone told me that he was quite liberal (as catholic popes can go), and some of his teachings/views could eventually have led the Catholic Church to support contraception.

Is there any basis to this hypothesis? Is there anything Pope John Paul I did, before or after becoming pope, which would imply contraception might be OK? Did he downplay the 'evils' of contraception?


texts: Why were submarines not made sound proof?

texts:
Regardless which films and also reports I'm looking at, it is indicated that too loud sounds from inside a submarine could tip an enemy destroyer off to its whereabouts.

What intrigued me there the whole time is if it was thought about and what was the reason against just soundproofing the interior of submarines?
(you can do it with rooms so not sure what stops one from doing the same for submarines there).


texts:
The term Manifest Destiny is defined as an outlook of the United States.

However, the other two major nations on the North American continent also grew from port settlements and trading posts; so I wonder if at some point in their history they also felt and articulated an explicit expansion-orientated imperative.

Did Canada or Mexico have an equivalent of Manifest Destiny at some stage in their development?

If so, what explicit Acts of the Canadian or Mexican legislatures were passed to that end?


texts: What are some important female names who participated in the first human genome sequencing project?

texts: Specifically, females involved in the human sequencing project, from between 1990 and early 2000s (I'm especially interested in medical doctors, but tech experts or of other branches of science are very much appreciated as well). Thank you to whoever answers.


texts: Why didn't Henry A. Wallace become President in 1945?

texts:
Henry A. Wallace was Roosevelt's vice-president during WWII. Shortly before Roosevelt's death (82 days) following a slow decline in health, the Conservative wing of the Democratic Party started an anti-Wallace Movement to nominate anyone else as vice-president for Roosevelt's third term, thus selecting the unlikely Truman as the next president of the US.

Was this movement related to Wallace being too soft on the new Communist threat? Being too close to labor? Caused by his eccentric personality or political scandals?

What about Wallace caused such a backlash against him?


texts: In what contexts did male friends kiss in Europe in the 1700s?

texts:
In Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon, there's an scene where the title character's mentor, Captain Grogan, is gunned down by French troops. As he lies dying he asks Barry to "kiss me, my boy, for we shall never meet again." The scene is all the more affecting for its empathetic recognition of the historical gulf between modern and 18th century notions of male friendship, which prompted me to wonder how these notions differed. (Notably, in the same movie, there's also a scene where two unnamed British officers bathe naked in a river together and declare their love for each other without implication of a romantic connection.)

This article (a PDF download) states that friendship was elevated to a higher ideal, in part to compensate for the partial breakdown of class and customary relationships, as well as to take up the emotional slack in societies where upper-class marriages were defined by expediency. As such, male friendships in the upper classes could incorporate emotional declarations we moderns might associate with passionate romance (or Romanticism), and practices we might otherwise perceive as frankly homoerotic. (The article is on the German states in particular, I'm primarily interested in Britain and France but am assuming for now that there's a continuity.)

But apparently there were limits. In the same article a pair is mentioned who shared "too many kisses to escape slander, suspicion and mockery." Considering this, and contemporary legal and religious practices, it seems clear that a strict line was drawn between ebullient male friendship and romantic or sexual attachment.

My question is, basically, where was that line drawn?

In 1700s Europe, what practices were considered acceptable among male friends that today we would probably consider homoerotic? In what contexts were such practices (in particular kissing) considered appropriate, or even obligatory, and when were they proscribed? And what role, if any, did class, education, or social allegiance play in all of this?

EDIT: A little research has turned up mixed but mostly negative information. This (frankly delightful) history of kissing claims that social kisses between friends were popular up to the 1750s, but soon fell out of use in Germany at least. It also, under "the kiss of peace" recounts a dramatic social kiss-fest among the French revolutionaries. I've still only skimmed it. A guardian article claims it fell out of fashion in Britain by the 1700s. The article on Germany remains an outlier, and this history Reddit claims kissing remained common, but it may turn out the depiction in the movie was anachronistic.


texts: What was the population within the Aurelian Walls of Rome during it's peak?

texts: I've done some research, but population figures have been unspecific. I've seen the 1 million figure around, though I'm unsure if it refers only to the population within the Aurelian Walls, or the population inside and outside of them (if anyone even lived outside them). Could anyone give me a reliable figure or maybe point me in the right direction?


texts: Was it possible to travel between Riverdale and Midtown Manhattan via taxi during the 1940s?

texts:
I'm writing a book that takes place in New York City in 1943. I have a character that lives in Riverdale, but works in midtown Manhattan.

If one needed to travel quickly, could you take a taxi from Midtown to Riverdale and vice-versa in 1943? Is it true that taxis had territories and would not take a passenger that far?


texts: Why is the Aztec/Nahuatl Syllabary incomplete?

texts:
I am looking at this:

Why is it not complete? Obviously they must not be able to find these glyphs, but what exactly does that mean? Where did they find these existing glyphs anyways? Are they scattered around? Basically wondering if one could piece together the puzzle to show how this was constructed (just a quick intro). Do they know if the glyphs are out there somewhere on one of the digitized photographs of stone carvings or other inscriptions, and they just haven't been deciphered? Or are they completely lost and we have little to no hope of completing this thing?

Thank you.


texts: Are there photos/footage of the Titanic sinking?

texts:
I know there are drawings and paintings from witnesses depicting the sinking of RMS Titanic, but are there any actual photographs or footage of the event happening?

This video claims to be footage of the Titanic sinking, but I am inclined not to believe it, because there have been many films made on the event. And not just the famous one from 1997, but there were also movies made on it from 1943 and 1953 as well. This "footage" could just be from one of those movies and the YouTuber took advantage of the old looking film to fool people (or perhaps he was misguided himself).

My question is, are there any photographs or footage of the RMS Titanic sinking? I am not interested in simulations or CGI interpretations, but real "on-sight" footage of the event.


texts: What is a "Johnsonian world of clubs and coffee houses" in the context of 18th century England?

texts:
I was reading the biography of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Richard Holmes and came across this line:

  [Coleridge had his] first unforgettable taste of the great talking-shop of London, the Johnsonian world of clubs and coffee-houses, with its last echoes of the elegant, rakish Augustan society of Steele and Addison.

This is around 1790.

I assume that 'Johnsonian' refers to Samuel Johnson, but I'm not sure? What's meant by a 'Johnsonian world of clubs of coffee-houses'?

If it does relate to Dr Johnson, what was the author trying to evoke by this description? How are Spectator magazine founders (I assume that's who he means) Steele and Addison related? And what is Augustan about them?


texts: This phrase is known from post-WWII Germany, written on boundary markers between the various sectors. Does anyone know if this was the first usage, or if the phrase was used in some earlier context? It may not have been originally in English, it's worth bearing in mind.


texts: Did French Seamen Join the US Merchant Marine in WWII?

texts: I've heard that my father, a Frenchman who served in the French Navy during WWII, joined the US Merchant Marine after the Germans occupied France. He died when I was a child, and I can't find much information on this topic - actually I haven't found any. Am eager to learn more about this.


texts: What were the Jurchen tribes/confederations in the 11th-12th centuries?

texts:
I couldn't find anything about them other than vague geographical localization.
Basically, I'm looking for the highest tribal organizations (no need to cite every single clan), akin to the five Mongol Khanligs to the west.


texts: What was the first school in Santa Cruz, California?

texts: Schools were established in and around Santa Cruz, California, as it became more populous in the mid-1800s. Which school, public or private, in or near the city, was first?


texts: Was an adobe fort or a palisade fort more defensible?

texts:
All else equal, when these types of forts were in use, was an adobe fort or a palisade fort more defensible?

A bit of what-if led to this question. Russians ostrogs such as Nizhnekamchatsk and Fort Ross had palisade perimeters while Spanish presidios such as Tubac and Santa Barbara had adobe perimeters. The two empires never battled (at least in the Americas) even though their most remote forts fell within about 100km of each other. Sample (not necessarily representative) images follow:


texts: What evidence exists to say whether or not FDR was planning to use the Atomic Bomb just as Truman did?

texts:
Are there any letters, autobiographies, or testimony from FDR's administration to say that he was definitely planning to use the Atomic Bomb against Japan?

Conversely, is there any evidence that he was not planning this? For example, as Germany was collapsing, was he reconsidering things? (My understanding of the Manhattan Project was that it was initiated on fear that the Germans would get the Bomb first, so they would have to use it on Germany.)

I'm trying to ask the question in a concrete form by asking for evidence either way.


texts: Which were the (militarily) strongest countries of the Holy Roman Empire?

texts: The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, Roman or an empire, but it was still a strong power despite its infighting. What were the strongest countries towards the end of the "empire"?


texts: Did they really have individual telephone wires going from a central tower to each customer in Sweden in the late 1800s?

texts:
In 1887, they built this relatively high (45 meters) "telephone tower" in Stockholm. It was apparently built to hold the wires for all the telephone subscribers/customers in Stockholm. (On the photo, it looks much higher than that to me...)

Photo from around 1890:

Even though this was in 19th century, I still cannot believe that they opted for this idiotic design. Being a Swede myself, I know very well of the embarrassing "Wasa ship" from a couple of hundred years prior to this, which barely got anywhere before it just sank, so I'm aware that we've not always made the best engineering decisions, but this is a bit too much even for Swedes.

Why on Earth would you have individual telephone wires going directly from the tower into the homes of every single subscribers? You don't build a huge tower if there are only two subscribers, so clearly they expected to have quite a few. Then, why ruin the entire "air space"/skyline of the city with these ugly wires, which look like a massive safety hazard other than just being an eyesore? Why not have them bundles together where possible, attached to telephone poles of some kind?

The first time I saw the photo linked to above, I thought it was faked or a joke. I'm still not sure. It seem unfathomable to me how they could think this was a good idea, even briefly. It doesn't matter if the public soon started raising voices against this structure -- anything else would be very strange -- since, after all, they did build it like this in the first place, and it was a thing for at least a few years.

If this isn't a hoax, I wish somebody could give a reasonable explanation as to how intelligent people could come up with this design of having a central tower with wires strung directly into the telephones of each customer. Is it possible that it could have actually been a "status symbol", as in:

  Yeah... Check it out, neighbour! What's that wire going into my window? From that huge tower? That's right... I've got a *telephone!

That's just about the only guess I could offer myself, but it's rather silly.


texts: After doing my own research I found that the apple pie was invented in England in the 1300's. With that being the case, why do we often hear the saying "It's as American as the apple pie"? Because I had always thought the saying came from America inventing a very tasty desert, but apparently America didn't even invent it. Why do Americans claim it? Is there something I am missing?


texts: When did monogamy become the norm in Ancient Greece?

texts:
This article says

  The case for an automatic association between Christianity and
  monogamy is weakened further by the fact that socially imposed
  monogamy was first established in ancient Greece and Rome, centuries
  before Christianity even existed. Greco-Roman laws prohibited any man
  from having more than one official wife at a time. It's true that
  forms of de-facto polygamy (e.g. concubinage, sex with slaves)
  continued to be tolerated in these societies. Nevertheless,
  anti-polygamy laws made Greco-Roman society relatively sexually
  egalitarian (Scheidel, 2009), because by preventing elite men from
  legally acquiring multiple wives, they improved the ability of
  lower-ranking men to acquire wives of their own.  So by the time
  Christianity began spreading through the Roman Empire in the first
  centuries AD, monogamy was already well-established. But even though
  Christianity did not introduce socially imposed monogamy to the West,
  it did fully embrace this institution, and as noted above, it was this
  embracement that ultimately led to monogamy's spread throughout the
  Western world
  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/darwin-eternity/201109/why-we-think-monogamy-is-normal

That article says that Roman and Greek laws prohibited polygamy hundreds of years before Christianity. I want exact dates, and exact laws, and well, exact history on how that happens. I mean, as exact as possible.

I asked this question in political stackexchange

https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/8571/are-democracy-strongly-linked-to-monogamy/8573#8573

The idea is that monogamy happened due to democracy.

Democracy started in Athens. At what date?

Then, after (or before) that, are there any laws in Athens that declare polygamy illegal? If so, at what date?

I know that polygamy was already illegal in Rome and Greece far before Christianity. However, I want to know exactly when.


texts: Barbarian Army sizes and how they compare to Medieval times

texts:
There're many questions about why armies of antiquity were bigger than those of medieval times, but most of the answers revolve around empires like Roman or Parthian where the explanation is pretty obvious: different government structure and logistical capabilities.

But what about "Barbarian" cultures? Celtic and Germanic people in specific that had clan structured soceity. I was always under the impression that they managed to match and outdo Romans in terms of numbers most of the time.

Is my statement true or false? If yes, how comes they were able to field such big armies and medieval nations could not. Population wise I'd expect a fiefdom to be equal to the clan.


texts: Were there any top Nazi generals who opposed the idea to invade the USSR?

texts:
Did any one of the top Wehrmacht generals, who was a war-monger and agreed with Hitler's doctrine of expansion by force, ever attempt to dissuade him from the idea to invade the USSR in principle (not just postpone attacking until some conditions are met)? If yes, what was his (their) vision on how to continue the German war campaign that had been so successful?

I presume Hitler's top generals were not accustomed to vehemently oppose his decisions. However, it does not mean some of them could not try to persuade him to abandon some specific idea. Given the vast territory and impressive human resources of the Soviets, going into war with them was very risky business after all.


texts: In view of the widespread use of the term "Semitic", which groups of people are classified as being of Hamitic ethnicity?

texts:
I am aware of the curse of Ham.  It is a myth deriving from Abrahamic religions. It was used as moral justification by European and Arab slave traders.

The etymology of the word Ham is associated with blackness i.e Ham  is a latinized form of the Hebrew word Kham. The Arabic equivalent is Chamam, while the Egyptians equivalent is K'mt. I learnt that this word is the root of what the Greeks called "Chemia" and what the arabs called "Al-kimiya".

All transliterations of this word have closely related meanings. The K'mt of the Egyptians meant "black", the Kham of the Hebrews meant "hot", "burnt" while the Chamam of the arabs meant "burnt", "black".

With the above in mind, I became increasingly curious because I have constantly heard scholars, and even friends describing various groups of people as being of Semitic origin.

The Ancient and modern Egyptians, the Berbers, the Abyssinians of the modern Ethiopian state, Himyarites, Arabs e.t.c. all are described as Semites.

In view of this, I would like to know what set of parameters delineate Semites, Hamites, Japhetites as ethnic or linguistic groupings.

I would also like to know how the Nubians, Fulani, Tuareg, Somali, Bantus and other peoples of subsaharan Africa are grouped based on these classifications.


texts:
How effective was child labor legislation in Victorian Europe?

Effectiveness being counted in 'percent of working environments that actually complied', with 'Effective' being... 50% compliance? Or would the children just have went working somewhere else, if the workplace complied, as they needed the money?

Wikipedia for Child Labor Legislation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_Acts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_childhood#Children.27s_rights_under_the_law


texts: Could invocation and revocation of bastardry be used to manipulate primogeniture?

texts:
Primogeniture: The legal custom for the firstborn and only the firstborn to inherit the bulk of the estate, especially indivisible property.

Bastard: An illegitimate child without the right to inherit.

In which countries and periods of history, if any, could the order of primogeniture be adjusted by acknowledging a bastard? And could a previously legitimate heir be disinherited by "converting" them into a bastard?


texts: Monotheism/Atheism in Polytheistic societies

texts:
I would like to know if there are any documents telling us how common (or if it even existed) among people in polytheistic societies (like ancient Greece, Rome, etc.) it was to believe that there is only one, or no god.

In a few so-called historic movies I've seen situations in which character states that there are no gods. I'd like to know if that's just a fiction or people in the past really weren't that sure about gods' existence as I thought so far.


texts: What were medieval, Viking-Era, Scandinavian laws regarding rape?

texts:
Since the vikings have a reputation for their "rape and pillage" tactics, I thought it interesting to look in depth at their legal system and learn a bit more for myself. However, viking-era legal information is difficult to come by except the knowledge that they had Things, which were essentially early courts. Prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, it doesn't seem like any of the laws were written down and everything was rule of thumb.

Saying that, can we make any reasonable approximation regarding the legality of rape both in viking culture and when done abroad? They certainly seemed progressive in their enabling of women to own property.


texts: How effective were siege guns and gun boats compared to field artillery in the 19th century?

texts:
On the first day of the Battle of Shiloh, some 45,000 Confederates under General Albert Sydney Johnston caught 33,000 men of Union General Ulysees S. Grant by surprise. They overran (and captured) one of Grant's five divisions, and pushed the rest toward the Tennessee River.

Grant saved the day by massing all of his artillery--field artillery, siege guns, and gunboats--at Pittsburg Landing, and reforming the Union army in front of it for a last stand. There was a letup in Confederate pressure when General Johnston was mortally wounded.

If the Confederates had massed for an all out attack against Grant's remaining troops. How would the usefulness of  the siege and gunboat guns compare to field artillery in bringing about "mutually assured destruction?"

Put another way, if x is the number of pieces of field artillery, y being the number of siege guns, and z being the number of gunboat guns, is there something approaching a 1- to 1- correspondence between the value of siege artillery and gunboat guns compared to field artillery?  Does the value of x +y+ z of "mixed" guns approximate the value of x+y+z of field guns? Or could it be that e.g. gunboat guns are even more valuable than field guns because they are immune to capture?


texts: So I am sitting in a musical right now (The Pirate Queen, by an amateur theatre group)  and it is about Ireland in the 16th century. They showed a marriage where they got something like a probation time. They were allowed to divorce in the first three years. Was this really a thing?


texts: Why were Germanic languages able to spread over much of northern Europe after 500BC? Did they mostly replace Celtic?

texts:
I understand it is usually believed (see Germanic peoples (Wikipedia)) that up till roughly 500 BC the common ancestor of the Germanic languages (which today include English, Dutch, German, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian plus smaller languages) was probably spoken manly in what are now Denmark and Southern Sweden, but that thereafter they spread out and by around 400 AD dominated modern Germany, Holland, Flanders, Austria, Switzerland and also areas since lost to Slavic speakers in modern day Eastern Europe.

Why did this expansion take place? Was it mainly into previously Celtic speaking areas? If so, what enabled the Germans to defeat and/or assimilate the (Celtic?) speaking tribes previously in those areas during this period, when they were presumably not strong enough to do so earlier?

I know written sources are thin indeed from northern Europe in this period and more extensive Greek and Roman writings will be mainly based on second or third hand information, so it may not be easy to explain, but is there any evidence?

The expansion of Germanic speaking peoples into the crumbling former Western Roman Empire after c400 AD is better documented and while of course important (it explains among other things why you are reading this question in a Germanic language that originated in Britain after 400 AD) but is a different topic and not part of this question.

not necessarily "tied up with the "why" of the fall of the (western) Roman Empire" as this question relates to events before or contemporaneous with the Roman Empire c500 BC - 400 AD. My last paragraph was intended to explain that the expansion of Goths, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Sueves etc. into what had been Roman provinces after c 400 AD is, while important, too large a topic in its own right to include in this one question


texts: What was the range of people's social lives like, before the technology for long distance communications developed?

texts:
We know a lot about some famous people from letters they have written and received. It seems that a lot more communication with people who were important in their lives was written instead of face-to-face, as it generally is today thanks to technology, i.e. because of video communication we can now talk face-to-face with someone on the other side of the world via the internet.

I think most of us have heard concerned people complaining that computers, smart phones, etc. have made us less sociable but I'm wondering if we were artificially sociable previously due to advanced transportation (cars and high-speed trains) before real-time, affordable long-distance communication?

So between the 15th and 19th centuries in Europe and England, did people who did not live in close proximity (lets say middle class people) write to each other as their primary form of communication because travel was prohibitively difficult/expensive or did they often meet face-to-face and reserve writing to each other for special occasions? Was socialising mostly done with people in the immediate neighbourhood or did people frequently travel for a long time to meet their friends, family and acquaintances? (e.g. it might take me between half an hour to one and a half hours to visit my friends and family or travel to work).


texts: What can be said about conditions of slaves owned by George Washington?

texts: I remember hearing a PBS documentary make a claim that the babies of slaves on George Washington's Mount Vernon went naked in winter. I have been trying to verify, or even get a good citation, for this fact. (Any web reference to conditions of slaves owned by the Founding Fathers is also of interest.)


texts:
Identification of Aircraft, Weimar, Germany, May, 1945.

ck.imgur.com/S83TI.jpg


texts: At the start of the Second Punic War, why didn't Hannibal engage Publius Scipio in Hispania, but crossed the alps instead?

texts:
Sorry, I forgot exactly where I remember this from but as Hannibal moved towards the Alps with around 50,000 troops, he was pursued by Scipio with fewer troops  (actually, if anyone can find a source with better details I would appreciate it).

Since Hannibal's immediate goal wasn't to lay siege to Rome, but rather to inflict defeat upon the Romans to prevent the war from coming to Carthage, and also to convince Italy to join him, why not engage Scipio in battle?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe only the battle of Lake Trisemine required him to be on Roman soil and Cannae really only required flat ground to deploy is cavalry. So why not attempt one of his signature victories against Scipio and then proceed to enter Italy via the coast?

(also I clearly don't mean scipio africanus idk why there was that confusion last time I posted ) I do understand that some kind of invasion of italy would be necessary to end the 2nd punic war, I'm merely arguing (or asking why) that trying to win a victory here when he had more men and then entering italy via the coast would serve the purpose of having to fight fewer men when he later invaded italy ( and possibly demoralize the Romans) rather than losing men in the alps for no return. I'm not sure exactly how Hannibal intended to win the war I assume he would "win" for a short period then march on Rome and hope it would collapse? @PieterGeerkens how does this misunderstand Hannibal's strategy? as I said Hannibal had to win victories in or at least enter Italy battling scipio here would mean fewer Romans to fight in future victories. @Brasidas @sempaiscuba I had tried to address the points made by people downvoting my post, got no response and the downvotes stuck so idk like can you guys just answer my question


texts: What were the reasons for the Federal Art Project?

texts:
From August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943 United States promote what they called Federal Art Project.

  Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists
  created posters, murals and paintings. Some works still stand among
  the most-significant pieces of public art in the country.[Wiki]

I think this is one of the most interesting  maneuvers of the New Deal it seems such forward-looking and philanthropic. I wonder what were the best benefits that they supposed they would have by this maneuver.


texts: Why was California admitted as one big state rather than split up?

texts:
In this answer, Mark points out that when California was admitted to the Union as a free state, that changed the balance between free and slave states, leading to the Compromise of 1850.

Why indeed, then, didn't they just split it into two or three states, and declare the southern part slave and the northern part free? It's certainly big enough in area to comprise several states. (Or was it that the population wasn't large enough?)


texts: Free states and slave states - how did that work?

texts:
Accounts of the build-up to the American Civil War put a lot of weight on the concept of balance between the number of free states and slave states in the union, and various complicated wrangling that was necessary to preserve parity between them, deciding whether newly organized states would be "admitted as slave states" or "admitted as free states".

If I understand correctly, whether slavery was allowed in a particular state was not up to the state legislature but decided centrally by Congress. This was somehow tied to a wish to maintain a strict balance between proponents and opponents of slavery in the federal senate. Apparently there seems to have been an assumption that a senator elected in a state where Congress had allowed slavery would (must?) be a proponent of slavery, and a senator elected in a state where Congress had forbidden it would (must?) oppose it.

Was there any mechanism to ensure that each senator's views matched the particular rules that Congress had decided on for the state they represented?

It seems to me that the idea that the federal institutions rather than states themselves decided where slavery would be legal, would have been illusory as long as Congress was in complete balance. If, say, the population of a free state wanted to become a slave state, or vice versa, all they had to do would be to elect one senator who supported the new status, and there would then be a majority in the senate for changing the slave/free assignment of the state anyway.

So why did politicians care, when admitting a new state, whether initially to classify it as a slave state or a free state, if the population of that new state would in practical terms have the power to undo that decision anyway?


texts: Did NATO ever make plans for an unprovoked attack at the Soviet Union?

texts:
The Warsaw Pact is known to have made plans for an aggressive, unprovoked invasion of NATO. Are there any known serious NATO plans for an aggressive, all-out attack on the Soviet Union? I am sure both sides had extensive plans for an all-out war when provoked, but did NATO ever seriously consider starting a war unilaterally?

If yes, were such plans backed up by practical preparations? For example, in Poland, maps of Western Europe were produced, with names polonised for soldiers to follow more easily. I believe Polish fleet was regularly practicing invading Denmark from the sea.

EDIT: I researched the topic a little, but I haven't found much. There is plenty of material on either side's "aggressive defence" plans, mutually-assured destruction etc. I also know of serious plans made by the Soviet Union - for example those leaked to NATO by col. Kuklinski. I never came across plans for an unprovoked attack from the NATO side.


texts: How effectively did Romans rotate/relieve lines with the cohort system?

texts:
There is a similar question on Reddit and the original poster of the question uses a YouTube video to demonstrate the point. That video showcases a rotation of Roman infantry in a cohort.
According to the answers on Reddit, there were rotations of exhausted and fresh troops when gaps among friendly cohorts appears themselves in the frontline, or so it suggests in the answers.
My question is even if descriptions exist in text about the rotation, how effective was that system on the battlefield and at the frontline? Those answers on reddit suggested that the rotation existed. I was however asking the effectiveness of the rotation if it existed. Roman legionaries were very successful but did that success involved the rotation?
My imagination would suggest that the Roman cohorts would hold the enemy in combat and cavalry attack on the flanks... a variation of the hammer and anvil tactic.


texts: Has the accounting services industry ever been disrupted in the U.S.?

texts:
What is the most-radical example of a disrupting service / model in the accounting business services industry?

What I mean by disrupted is that someone has at some point taken such a radically different approach, to deliver the same service that the old way of doing things was abandoned.

One comparable example (though not a business service):

  The invention of the electric light bulb. This was a technology, which
  completely disrupted the lighting market. However, I assume that if
  Thomas Edison would have walked around from house to house to and
  attempted selling a light-bulb together with some sort of membership
  in the local grid, then his marketing efforts would have failed
  because they would not have believed that it was possible. His
  advantage was that he could show people that it worked and thereby
  immediately gaining trust.

Was there any time in U.S. history in which accounting/finance/banking took a sharp turn? Did this occur, for instance, during or as a result of the Great Depression? Was the collapse of the "Big Eight" accounting firms into the "Big Four" following the demise of Arthur Andersen such a watershed event?


texts: How historically accurate was the Queen's trip to Ghana portrayed in Episode 8 of The Crown?

texts:
OK let me be more specific. In episode 8 of The Crown (Netflix), it is implied that Queen Elizabeth II went to Ghana (because she heard a sly comment from JFK's wife) to prevent the country from going into the arms of the USSR despite the warning of her PM. It is portrayed in the show that the Queen pulled off a diplomatic victory for the west by dancing with PM Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.

First, I don't fully comprehend the significant of the dance and why her PM was shocked. And second, did the event happen like the show illustrates? I know that she did dance with Nkrumah, but was it in the context shown on the show?


texts: Was Hitler hostile to anglo-saxons before he became hostile to Jews?

texts:
The German daily FAZ recently ran a positive review of Irish historian Brendan Simms' article Against a ,World of Enemies‘: The Impact of the First World War on the Development of Hitler’s Ideology in the journal International Affairs. The article is said to contain an early summary of Simms' next scholarly book.

According to the review Simms argues that World War I and other experiences caused Hitler to turn hostile to the anglo-saxon world first. His hatred of international capitalism and even his antisemitism broke through only at a later time as secondary effects from this primary cause.

Some of the comments on the FAZ site are quite skeptical about this thesis: they e.g. argue that Hitler was initially friendly to Britain and that a large portrait of Henry Ford hung in Hitler's office at party headquarters. The review author, German historian Thomas Weber judges that while the thesis must be further sketched out before publication of the book it is bound to modify the way we think about Hitler in a dramatic and seminal way.

Since the book is not yet out and the reviewed article is behind a paywall I a wondering what else is currently known about this thesis. Is it a new one or is Simms building on other established work? Is there any reason to believe that the particular reviewer could be biased e.g. because of close academic ties?


texts: Katabami mon (Japanese crests of wood sorrel) Crest family identity

texts:
I am hoping to narrow my search for this family crest from two caskets A pair of Edo Period Hokai Kaiawase Lacquer Chests. I have found (with the help of History Stack) a Mon which may be the one. Maruni Katabami is close to my version.
Edo period Family Mon]1


texts: I would like to know who Nachmanides married. What was her name and how old was he when he married her? I asked everyone I knew and googled it a thousand times but I could not find an answer. Thanks!


texts: What was Pope Innocent VIII's reaction to the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews in 1492?

texts:
What was the reaction of the Pope of the Catholic Church to the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews of Spain on March 31, 1492?

Did Pope Innocent VIII (d. July 25, 1492) condemn publicly Spain's decree? Was there any papal bull or any other document issued at the moment by the Catholic Church?

EDIT: I've only looked at the Wikipedia pages of the Alhambra Decree, Pope Innocent VIII and Pope Alexander VI. This last pages says that Pope Alexander VI which papacy began in 1492 welcomed in Rome Jews expelled from Spain. This last move made me wonder what was the reaction from the Popes at the moment and if they reacted publicly.


texts: Why didn't Aboriginal Australians invent agriculture?

texts:
From what I've gathered at a glance, Aborigine Australians have about 50000 years of history on their continent, roughly equivalent to that of people on other continents. Yet from what I can gather, aborigine civilizations had less advanced technology than their Old World counterparts.

While Jared Diamond argues that agriculture was not as easily possible, a cursory Wikipedia search at Agriculture in Australia suggests that the temperate and subtropical climate areas are plentiful in the country.

I'm not much of a geography expert, but if I were to apply the concept of a "hot, dry" climate, then the Arab world comes to mind, and the Arab world had plenty of ancient civilizations that were able to develop agriculture.

Were there any other sources of troubles for Aborigines that prevented their discovering other technologies? Isolation might've certainly been a factor, but even then, if we were to take ancient Japan, civilization developed at a more rapid pace there even before seafaring was discovered.


texts: Why did English adopt Kamikaze (神風) as a loanword instead of Tokko (特攻) during/after WWII?

texts:
Kamikaze (you know, the 'crash plane into boat' thing) is, for Japanese learners like myself, initially a very confusing word. In Japanese it's 神風, 神 meaning god, gods, divinity, etc. And 風 means wind, or things related to wind (it can also mean 'style' but that's not important.)

Thus, you get 神風, or 'Divine Wind', referring to the two typhoons that twice saved Japan from Mongol invasion. The Japanese saw America and friends as 'invaders' (despite Japan having attacked first...), and thus the kamikaze pilots saw themselves as performing an act symbolically similar to the aforementioned typhoons.

That said, it's not called 神風 in Japanese, it's called 特攻 or Tokkō (special attack), with a squad of pilots being called a 特攻隊 or Tokkōtai (special attack squad).

So ya, why exactly did the more English speaking ally powers pick up kamikaze as a loanword rather then tokko, when that's what it was actually called?


texts: The US and Soviet Soldiers story related to Normandy

texts:
This is from President Obama’s speech, and I have no idea what it means. It seems like a historical story, but I could not find anything on Google. Why did he think of it when he visited Normandy? And could you please explain the story of men from Boston and the Soviet soldiers?
Please help me.

  To begin with, let me be clear: America wants a strong, peaceful, and prosperous Russia. This belief is rooted in our respect for the Russian people, and a shared history between our nations that goes beyond competition. Despite our past rivalry, our people were allies in the greatest struggle of the last century.  Recently, I noted this when I was in Normandy -- for just as men from Boston and Birmingham risked all that they had to storm those beaches and scale those cliffs, Soviet soldiers from places like Kazan and Kiev endured unimaginable hardships to repeal -- to repel an invasion, and turn the tide in the east. As President John Kennedy said, "No nation in history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union in the Second World War."


texts: How were the first American citizens granted citizenship?

texts: When the US declared itself independent in 1776, did it simply consider all people (of a certain demographic) already living in the US citizens? Or did these people have to apply to become citizens somehow? For example, did Benjamin Franklin become a US citizen as soon as the US began existing?


texts: Evidence of Iron Age migrations into India (1000-600)

texts:
I was reading a History of India by Michael Edwardes. It says that by 600 B.C., the northwest had been closed off to invaders. It made me wonder about migrations up to this period. I only know about the Aryan migrations c. 1100. I've read about a few non vedic people in Northwestern and Western India, but didn't keep track. Some might have been located along the edge of the Himalayas, as if they squeezed in along this path. Witzel and a few others questioned if the Sakya of Guatama Buddah were Saka. This was due to their cousin marriage, which Hindus didn't do, their location and their large mounds. What do we know about later iron age migrations into India? Let's say from 1000-600, with an emphasis on the later period.

Edit: I found one of the references to a non vedic tribe. I'm not implying they were newcomers, but it is interesting: "The Kurus declined after being defeated by the non-Vedic Salva tribe, and the center of Vedic culture shifted east, into the Panchala realm, in Uttar Pradesh (Witzel, 1995)." Kuru Kingdom, Wikipedia

I found out that the Kambojas made it all the way to Cambodia, which is named after them. This was in a different time period, though.


texts: What was the exact time of announcement of Indian independence?

texts:
Unanimously, India achieved its independence on 15th August 1947. Of course, to say the exact time would be, a bit difficult. However, what time did they begin to address the nation to announce its independence?

What was the time of its announcement?


texts: Who lived on Golden Square in London in the 18th century?

texts:
Is there a database or an archive where I could find a list of the inhabitants of Golden Square in London in the 18th century?

I know that a famous musician of that time was living on that square, and I'm trying to find in which house exactly and at what time he was there. I know he was in London from 1729 and died in 1750.


texts: When is the last time a trebuchet was used in combat?

texts:
When was a trebeuchet or any similar weapons (such as an onager, mangonel, catapult) last used in combat?

My guess is that they were replaced by the cannon in the gunpowder age. But I know the cannon was not adopted by everyone at the same time.

So how long exactly was the trebuchet still in use in military warfare?

I'm speaking specifically in terms of military combat, and not its uses in commercial or industrial activities.


texts: Language in German cloisters during the High Middle Ages

texts: I would like to know which was the spoken and literary language in German cloisters during the High Middle Ages. Is it possible to differentiate between social groups in the cloister (monks, laymen, etc.)? I would also be thankful for any further information.


texts: Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?

texts:
In a book, Land of the Seven Rivers by Sanjeev Sanyal, I saw a claim made by the author which says that Cleopatra and her son Caesarion wanted to flee to India to evade Roman arrest. Sanjeev Sanyal goes on to say that Cleopatra famously poisoned herself and Caesarion was persuaded by traders to not go.

Is there any evidence, archaeological or liturgical, that Cleopatra and her son had planned to escape to India?


texts: Why did the form Baron OF Somewhere drop out of use?

texts:
The Question

In the various British peerages - i.e. the peerages of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom - one finds titles of the form Duke of X, Marquess of X and Earl of X. There are, of course, a great many baron-tier titles, but these are almost always of the form Baron X, Baron Y or Baron X of Y, and not Baron of Y. Why is this?

Extra Details

The only exception to the above that I've been able to unearth is the title of Baron of Dunsany. This exception seems to have occurred because said title is so very ancient. This makes me think that, in the earlier part of the Middle Ages, the form Baron of X was more common. Is that right?
The title of viscount also tends to have been bestowed in the form Viscount X rather than Viscount of X. This makes some sense to me, since a viscount was intended to be, in the distant past, one of an earl's deputies, and so the title would naturally be more personal than territorial. Is this connected to the form baronial titles?
Scottish feudal barons are always styled Baron of X. English feudal baronies were abolished by Charles II, and so records are patchier, but I can't imagine that English feudal barons were styled all that differently to their Scottish counterparts. The feudal baronage, both sides of the border, is an older institution than the peerage, hence my intuition the form Baron of X is older than Baron X.


texts: Why are the USA and Canada's states border so straight?

texts:
Many states within the USA and Canada have straight lines as a border, completely ignoring natural borders like mountains or rivers. Many American states and Canadian provinces are just rectangle-shaped, and a good half of the US/Canada border is made of two straight lines (one vertical and one horizontal).

Why was it decided to make it like this? I understand the colonizers made arbitrary decisions initially, by why didn't they pick more natural borders, for example following rivers and mountains?


texts: Did it make sense to bring along infantry to reinforce attacking cavalry before the introduction of firearms?

texts:
At the Civil War battle of Brandy Station, the attacking Union cavalry general Alfred Pleasanton brought along some 3,000 infantry to even the odds, because his cavalry was outnumbered 9,500 to 8,000 by that of Confederate commander J.E.B. Stuart. During the battle, both sides were forced to dismount (with one quarter of the cavalrymen holding the horses of three others), so the 3,000 infantry was actually worth 4,000 cavalry when this happened. (The Confederates won a tactical victory, but the Union troops gained valuable fighting experience.)

Brandy Station showed what infantry could do against cavalry in an era of "repeating" weapons such as Colt revolvers and breech-loading rifles. But did it make sense for a qualitatively and quantitatively inferior cavalry force to reinforce itself in this way using infantry to increase your numbers in attacking enemy cavalry before the introduction of fireams? That is to say, in the ancient period or Middle Ages, when your infantry was likely to be inferior to your cavalry in fighting enemy cavalry? I'm not talking about situations in say the 100 Years' war at Crecy or Poitiers when English infantry and cavalry fought on the defensive, while archers did the damage. A better example would be at Alesia: Should Vercingetorix have sent infantry along with his cavalry to try to disrupt the Roman circumvallation process (which was fended off by Caesar's German cavalry)?

Some other potential applications: Are there times when attacking cavalry can use infantry to defend key points such as passes? Can infantry be used profitably to "flush out" enemy cavalry from defensive ground such as trees and bushes, and into the open field? Can infantry be used as a rear guard against enemy cavalry while your cavalry regroups for a counterattack?

Or were the disadvantages of infantry against cavalry before the days of firearms so great as to preclude such uses?


texts: How much were builders of Colosseum paid?

texts:
I am currently doing a project on Ancient Rome and was wondering how much the builders of the Colosseum got paid?

I understand they were mostly slaves, but were they given anything?

Did they also receive much training?


texts: What Are the Dynamics of A "Forced March?"

texts:
In the "Art of War," Sun Tzu opined that if you put your army on a forced march of a certain speed, you will lose one-third of your troops along the way. A rough rule of thumb was that an army would start to disintegrate after losing about one third of its strength.

At what point do armies tend to break?

Were the advantages to be gained by a forced march usually enough to compensate for such a diminution of an army's strength?  Or did an army on a forced march lose significantly LESS than one-third its strength because it sloughed off (by definition) its weakest members?


texts: Inflation After Executive Order 6102 (FDR Leaving GoldStandard)

texts: I'm looking at this image which implies that the US leaving the Gold Standard started revival after the Great Depression. I'm thinking that it could all be explained with rapid inflation due to the dollar not being linked to gold. Am I off on this?


texts: Who captured Kaifeng from the Jin during the war between Jin and the Sung Mongol alliance?

texts:
I've heard that the Jin are the first people that used cannon to defend Kaifeng when attacked by the Mongols.

However, I've also heard that one of the disputes between Kubilai Khan and Sung is that Kaifeng was captured by Sung.

So did the cannon successfully repel the Mongols?


texts: Who flew the T-38 "Missing Man" formation at the Challenger Memorial service at JSC, 31 January 1986?

texts:
President Ronald Reagan at Memorial Service for Challenger Crew.
Photo courtesy of NASA

On January 31, 1986 I attended the memorial service at Johnson Space Center for the STS-51-L Challenger crew. I vividly recall the moment when President Reagan ended his remarks and a formation of NASA T-38 Jets flew over the assembly, with one pilot pulling back on the stick at just the right moment to scream straight up out of sight to form the Missing Man formation. There is a catch in my throat now just recalling the memory of that powerfully emotional moment.

Question: Who piloted the T-38's that day? I know it was members of the Astronaut Corps, but who? At the time, I knew.  But I have since forgotten, and I have been unable to identify the pilots so far, having searched the following sources:

Wiki Challenger Disaster article;
NY Times archived article on the memorial service, 1 Feb 1986;
NASA's Challenger STS 51-L Accident Resource Page;
Space Shuttle Memorial;

No luck so far.  This may not have great historical significance for many. I understand that.  For me, it's personal.

NASA T-38's performing Missing Man Formation.
Photo courtesy of NASA


texts: What proportion of US government revenue came from taxes on slaves, between 1790 and 1846?

texts:
What proportion of US government revenue (federal,state,local) came from taxes on slaves between 1790 and 1846?
I chose 1846 as the breakpoint because of the Walker Tariff; feel free to critique that choice.
Background:
Based on this paper (h/t to Brian Z), taxes on slaves did not seem to be important for the federal government during this period (unless they were subject to excise?).
This paper discusses "disputes about the taxation of slaves" and seems to imply that they were often taxed as property in southern states. It does not discuss relative magnitudes, but it is what motivated the question.


texts: The influence of the second catilinarian conspiracy on the fall of the Roman Republic?

texts: When studying Roman history during the first century BC, one of the prominent events mentioned is the second Catilinarian conspiracy, wherein Catiline seeks to overthrow the Roman Republic through a scheme but is prevented by Cicero, who denounced Catiline through his four orations and eventually executes five members of Catiline's conspiracy without due process. Was this event a symptom of the political instability during the 60s BC in Rome, or was this an event a cause of political instability (cause vs symptom)? How influential was this event in the fall of the Roman Republic?


texts: What did the Soviets know about the Hunger Plan during WWII?

texts:
The Hunger plan was a plan of the Nazis to feed their army and population at the expense of the population of the occupied territories in the east. From the minutes of a meeting in May '42:

  1) The war can only be continued if the entire Wehrmacht is fed from Russia in the third year of the war.
  2) If we take what we need out of the country, there can be no doubt that tens of millions of people will die of starvation.

A commonly named figure is that the Nazis planned the death of 30 million people in this context.

In keeping with the hunger plan, the Nazis starved soviet POW and Jews in concentration camps and Getthos. They also attempted to isolate the cities from the countryside  in the occupied territories, but ultimately lacked the manpower to do so. Another aspect of the hunger plan was the Siege of Leningrad/Petrograd, here the Nazis attempted to cut off the city. Between 700,000 and  one million people died during the Siege of Leningrad. This city was also a target for the Nazis, as it had been a hotbed of the Russian Revolutions.

The soviets certainly knew about the blockade against Leningrad (and did what they could to alleviate its effects). It seems likely that they knew how the Nazis treated their POW, and about the death of two million POW in less than a year. It also seems likely that they knew about the attempts to cut of the cities from the countryside in the occupied areas, as they likely had contact to partisans there. They could also have had other intelligence (orders to Wehrmacht staff to feed themselves off the land etc.).

Did the Soviet Union know, from inferring or other intelligence, that the Nazis wanted to starve tens of millions? Are there soviet sources that clearly state what they knew?

Other Sources:
Götz Aly: Vordenker der Vernichtung (I think Aly draws a few unwarranted conclusions, but this book introduced me to the Hunger Plan a few years back)
Felix Wemheuer: Der große Hunger - Hungerkatastrophen unter Stalin und Mao, an excerpt (in German) on the Hunger Plan can be found here.


texts: How long was a coach journey from Coburg to St Peterburg in 1790s?

texts:
If someone had to get from Coburg to St Petersburg in the 1790s?  Would they travel overland by stagecoach or go up to the north German coast and get a boat round to the Gulf of Finland and enter Russia that way?

If they went by coach how long would it take to cover the 2,039 kilometers to get there?

Assume that the traveler was wealthy and was going to the court of Catherine the Great.


texts: Protected Merchant Ships in WWII used for the relocation of Prisoners of War

texts: What Merchanht ships were declared as "protected" in WWII for the transferred of Prisoners of War, between warring nations


texts: Are these two images of Juan Diez Porlier or Francisco Espoz y Mina?

texts:
This sketch

and this miniature clearly derived from it

occur on the web in several places as both an image of Francisco Espoz y Mina and Juan Diaz Porlier. Both were well known and recognized Guerrilla leaders in Spain from 1808 to 1813. There is enough facial similarity between the two that I cannot make a certain determination who it is actually of.

Can anyone make a certain determination of the correct subject?


texts: Post English Civil War history books/novels

texts:
I'm looking for some post English Civil War history textbooks or novels aimed at the young-teenage (13) are range. My aim is to help my son improve his critical writing history homework. Are there any that people would suggest?

Thanks

Angus


texts: Was there anyone involved in the negotiations of New Territories (Hong Kong) lease still alive at the time of the negotiations of its return to China?

texts:
As well explained by this answer, I know the usual confusion among the previous cession in perpetuity of Hong Kong versus the lease of the neighboring New Territories.

For all effects, China got the return of both of them as established by the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory of 1898. So, despite the series of unequal treaties, put in perspective this one could be considered at least a visionary deal as it has given a dated timeline for the devolution not just of the New Territories, but of Hong Kong as a whole. (That is, in effect this treaty not just was better, but also helped China to peacefully revoke the "perpetuity" of the two previous unfair treaties).

It is almost impossible that someone alive at 1898 (and grown up enough to influence in the sign of the treaty) could be still alive 99 years later, at 1997.

But the negotiations between China and the United Kingdom started way before the actual return/handover of Hong Kong (at least since 1971, when PRC obtained its seat in the United Nations).

It is also unlikely that anyone exerting any influence at that Convention of 1898 would still be alive at the 70s, but there was such a person? (In any side, British or Chinese)

In positive case, who and what did he/she/they said about it?


texts: How did people in the desert stay cool in the past?

texts:
Putting on layers of clothing, building insulated shelters or simply lighting a fire are some simple yet effective ways of staying warm. Humans have shown they are quite adept at keeping themselves warm, even surviving through the last major ice age some 11,700 years ago.

Eventually, the Earth started to warm up and humans found themselves nearly everywhere. When you think of the hottest places on Earth, you would picture a desert. The largest of the hot deserts is the Sahara with average temperatures reaching around 45°C or 113°F. The Sahara is so large it covers 10 countries, one of the most ancient being Egypt which has been around since 3000 BC. As seen below, there are depictions of servants wielding fans, though most likely only the nobility would have this luxury. Undoubtedly Egypt was warm and it would be a few thousand years before the invention of electric fans and air condition. So how did everyone in those times fight the heat and stay cool?


texts: If SS Californian were within 5 miles of Titanic, could she have saved more passengers?

texts:
At 8:11 in this Oct 22 1962 BBC interview, Fourth Officer Boxhall of the RMS Titanic contended:

  When I heard the crow's nest reported a light on the starboard bow,  I went
  on the bridge right away, found this light with my own glasses. But I wanted
  the telescope to define what it was, and I realized then that it was two masts
  headlights of a steamer below the horizon and lights were very close. And
  I'd went back and told the captain there's a steamer in sight very nearly
  ahead but slightly on the starboard bow and if she continues in a course she'll
  pass it close to us down the port side. I asked the captain, "Shall I send up some distress rockets, Sir?"
  Then we started sending
  off these distress rockets, the
  quartermaster and I on the bridge, but I
  never knew how many I had fired. I knew
  very well that there was some in the box.
  A box holds a dozen and when I told the captain I said there are still some in
  there Sir, but I don't know how many I fired.
  I didn't see any reply. Some of the
  passengers that was on the bridge said
  that they did see a reply. We also called
  up the ship as she drew closer with a
   Morse lamp, a very powerful Morse
  lamp that we had. And eventually this
  steamer approached and approached until
  you could see all our lights with a
  naked eye, and I should say that she must
  have been within five miles off [emboldening mine]. You could not only see her lights with the naked eye, but you could see the lights in her portholes. So I reckon that she must have been within five miles and
  then eventually she turned away and showed a stern light. And about that time, the Captain came across the bridge and said, "Mr. Boxhall: you go away in that
  boat", pointing to the port emergency boat
  number two, and he said, "hurry up mister" [unaudible], while waiting to lower it. So I said, "You
  see that white light over there, Sir?", pointing it out to him. He said "yes". I
  said, "that is the stern light of that ship."

However, Boxhall might've remembered. As the RMS Carpathia never rescued Sixth Officer Moody, Boxhall was wrong to contend at 18:00 of the same interview:

  So we Titanic officers, the juniors that was Moody and Moody and Pitman and I we went on watch, as we took soundings because we got fog all the way into New York.

I know the SS Californian stopped amid ice, but I don't know if the official inquiries  ever assumed that another ship was only 5 miles away. Hence assume that Boxhall is right. In how much time would the Californian have arrived at the Titanic, at reasonable speed in icy waters?
What does Boxhall's contention change, if anything? Would more passengers have been saved, or would they have died from the cold by the time the Californian arrived?


texts: What were the required conditions to be accepted by a university in Medieval times?

texts: What were the conditions to be fulfilled for a free man in the (LATE) Medieval ages, to be accepted by a university as a student?


texts: Did any Native Americans make tomahawks from metal?

texts:
I'm curious about the evolution of the tomahawk among (North American) Native American peoples like the Algonquin. I assume early versions of the tomahawk had the head made from stone (please correct me if I am wrong) but most tomahawks you see today are made from metal. I would like to know when such a transition took place and what factors played a role in it.

Was that transition made fairly late, such as by European adoption of the tomahawk which they perhaps sold to/traded with Native Americans, or did Native Americans make their own metal tomahawks? If the latter is indeed the case, around what time did they begin using metal?

One StackExchange answer to a question about metallurgy among Native Americans mentions that "The Incas were known to arm their soldiers with bronze axes and iron knives to the tens of thousands", but that doesn't necessarily mean other Native American peoples had the same resources for metal weapons and tools.

Edit: I still have not found the first two answers below entirely satisfactory, either due to focus (South America instead of North America) or the sources not being very up-to-date (sources approximately a century old cited for copper production), despite awarding the bounty. So I have left this question marked as unanswered in hopes of additional and clearer answers based on literature more current than the early 20th century.


texts: Which people resisted Russian expansion most fiercely?

texts: The Russian Empire's expansion towards the east and south meant conquering lots of local tribes along the way (Buryats, Yakuts, etc.). These peoples unwillingly became ethnic minorities in Russia. Which group put up the best fight defending its territory from Russian incursion, in terms of the time or cost taken to subjugate it?


texts:
How and when did gold achieve its cultural role? My assumption is that before some point there is no evidence for a human affinity for gold— and then there is. What happened?

Do any other species demonstrate an analogous affinity for this element?

I am not asking why gold had value to ancient or prehistoric peoples.


texts: Why were diamond mining plots 31-foot squares?

texts:
The Kimberley diamond mine, one of the richest in the world, was discovered in 1871, setting off a rush by hopeful miners. In The South African Diamond Fields, and a Journey to the Mines the author describes the process of claiming plots of land by individual miners:

The Diggers' Committee, an influential elective body, had made it a rule that when such a rush occurred, each individual might mark out for himself with stakes a "claim" of 31 feet square...

(Note that this is 31 feet square, not 31 square feet.)
That looks like an odd number, both literally and figuratively. How was it decided? Did this Diggers' Committee (where did they come from?) give any reason for it, or was it derived from some older tradition?


texts: When did man understand the science of hail?

texts: I am asking this question intrigued by the fact that in certain religious books (mostly Arabic) it is stated that rain and hail comes from the sky (heaven) and not from Earth. They probably did not know that rain and hail comes from clouds. My question is when did many understand this fact?


texts: Size of Viking armies and raiding parties in 9th-10th centuries?

texts:
I am watching the Vikings series, and although I don't consider it a historically accurate series, I noticed somethings that I am curious about.

The series takes place in the late 8th century, documenting the first Viking raids against England.
What I noticed was that, the raiding parties were so small, mostly one or two longships carrying 100 men at most. Yet, their raids were successful and they didn't encounter a strong enough forces to fight them off.

Now my question is, what happened in reality ? How large were the raiding parties in that time and why the entire England couldn't raise an army large enough to fight them ?

Any figures for the population of Scandinavians during this time would also help.


texts: Did Emperor Gaozu of Han allow people he conquered to keep their cultural identities?

texts: Did he force them to assimilate with his people or did he allow open practice of the conqueree's culture?


texts: How long did it take to buy a house in 1870?

texts:
I'm interested in how long it took to carry out major transactions in the nineteenth century compared to today. On the one hand, I expect there was less formality; on the other hand, less information technology to assist with such formality; which factor wins?

Perhaps the most common/important major transaction is buying a house. According to https://www.reallymoving.com/first-time-buyers/guides/timeline-for-buying-a-house it takes (leaving out the time spent selecting the house – I'm just interested in the commercial part of the transaction) 45-90 days today. Was it faster or slower than that in the nineteenth century?

So for a specific question:

How long did it take to buy a house (excluding search/selection time) in New York in 1870?


texts: Size of army and battle in Napoleon's invasion of Russia

texts: I am finding conflicting information when searching online for 1) The size of Napoleon's army when he invaded Russia and 2) The number of casualties in the Battle of Borodino. There are many books on this topic, but not in my library. I would really appreciate if someone could suggest a reliable source and would be delighted if they could mention page numbers.