texts: Before ww2, why did Japan allow Chinese students to study military science?

texts: In 1917, Cheng Fangwu and his friends were openly anti-Japan; yet in Japan they were free to elect whatever major they liked. Cheng studied steel making, guns, ballistics and torpedoes but later decided that military science was not going to save his country because his countrymen were still in "a deep slumber" - indifferent to military defeat and territorial loss. Cheng and his friends later abandoned their pursuits in science and embarked on the new culture movement.


texts: Why did the musket become the standard infantry combat weapon in European armies around 1700?

texts:
Could it have been because of the introduction of the bayonet, particularly in "socket" form?

This question goes (well) beyond a related question. Until the introduction of a bayonet, musketeers (unless guarded by e.g. pikemen) were very vulnerable to attacks by men carrying blade weapons such as swords or spears. And they had little or no clear advantage over archers.

But the bayonet gave the musketeer a dual-purpose firearm AND blade weapon which might have tipped the balance. Was this in fact the case?

Sub-questions:

Did the bayonet make it possible for musketeers to successfully "charge" equal-sized formations of archers without blade weapons that had been weakened by musket fire?
Could a group of men armed only with bayonets sufficiently defend themselves against equal numbers of  men armed with blade weapons or was it the firepower afforded by muskets that made the difference?


texts: When did the Romans begin using the sword, as opposed to the axe, for decapitation?

texts:
According to this article, the Romans first used the axe for decapitation, and then moved to using the sword later. The article states:

  [B]eheading, a mode of executing capital punishment by which the head is
  severed from the body. The ancient Greeks and Romans regarded it as a
  most honourable form of death. ... In early times an ax was used, but
  later a sword, which was considered a more honourable instrument of
  death, was used for Roman citizens.

My question is this: When exactly was this switch made? How quickly did it become standard practice? Was there ever a distinction based on class made regarding which instrument was chosen? The article states that the sword was used for Roman citizens. Did the use of the axe continue for non-citizens?


texts:
The Turks were technologically more advanced than the Europeans during the Middle Ages. One major reason behind the Europeans backwardness was that their freedom of thought was stifled by dogmatic Christianity. The Christian leaders had strong political power and it was dangerous to disobey them. The Ottoman empire also had their politics mixed with religion but to a different degree. Why did religion mixed with politics hold back progress of Europeans but not the Turks?

One underlying assumption behind this question is that religion mixed with politics tends to be bad for progress. Medieval Christian Europe was a good example.


texts: How was real estate from Germans expelled after WWII redistributed?

texts: After World War II, tens of millions of ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe were forcibly expelled into Allied-occupied Germany and Austria.  What happened to all the homes they left behind?  That is, to whom was ownership transferred—were the expelees given the opportunity to sell their real estate on the private market, or were they obliged to transfer ownership to the newly installed or restored governments, or was the property simply abandoned with no legal formalities?  If the properties were typically nationalized or abandoned, then how were homes reallocated?  Did the governments systematically survey the evacuated properties and try to match them up with locally displaced citizens, or was the process more haphazard?  Were there any less war-torn countries that ended up with a housing surplus?


texts: Earliest examples of "pop culture" in history

texts: What is the earliest evidence of pop culture/viral trends throughout history? By pop culture I mean music, theater etc... Basically "gangam style" of the olden days. I understand that any sort of trends would be much more localized than nowadays, but does anyone have any good examples of this sort of pop culture?


texts: How much gunpowder could the average Napoleonic ship of the line carry?

texts:
I've run across a few references to a ship's magazine detonating during combat, and by all accounts the explosions were massive. I'm trying to put them into context a bit by figuring out how much gunpowder these ships had. The explosion of l'Orient in the battle of the Nile would be a fantastic example.

The only reference I could find was a story in a book called Astoria by Peter Stark, describing the Tonquin incident where, after a battle with the Tla-o-qui-aht tribe, five men were left alive aboard the ship. Four elected to abandon the ship aboard the longboat, while one remained aboard. He waited for the tribe to attempt to board the ship, then detonated the ship's magazine of 9,000 pounds of gunpowder.

This was a fairly small ship, though, with only ten cannon. How much could a ship-of-the-line such as l'Orient or the Victory carry in comparison?


texts:
Our English teacher gave us an exercise to do: We got different texts what people could have said and our task now is to find out: Who said it and when?

Our current topic is "The early years of the US", so I think it should be between 1750 and 1770. But I really have no idea what this text could refer to. I already found out 5/6 of the texts, but I can't solve this one. Can you give me a hint, please?

Cite:
Have you heard about it yet? Five people! No wonder everyone is angry!

Could it be one of the British colonists? But why is he so angry? And who could this "five people" be?

P.S.: Yes, this is a homework question, sorry. The thing is, I really have no idea and also already had a look at the book if I could find any information, but that's not the case.


texts: Were there military operations that targeted individual enemy commanders?

texts:
Operation Vengeance  (1943) was a US military operation aimed specifically to kill Japanese Admiral Yamamoto.
It looks like something weird in contemporary era: are there any similar military operations (conducted by regular military services, I mean) which were uniquely targeting a single enemy commander (of an internationally recognized country) in the last century, or in present day warfare, furthermore?


texts: Looking for information on "Schwartz Toy Mfg. Corp." and products

texts:
I found a stuffed animal in my attic of a masked mouse with a label having "Schwartz Toy Mfg. Corp." on it.  The spelling differs from FAO Schwarz, and I can't find much on Google except a few sites selling vintage toys.  Is "Schwartz Toy Mfg. Corp." the same company as FAO Schwarz, or perhaps a knock-off?  The item looks pretty old and feels like it's stuffed with a harder material than today's plush stuffing. I'd like to find out more about it, but definitely interested in the company if it's not FAO Schwarz. See images below.

 (click to enlarge)

UPDATE 1:

I contacted the Astoria Historical Society, as suggested, and here is their response.  The search continues!

  First thing is that it has a zip code so the toy was made after 1963.
  today would be zip code 11106 which would be the area called
  Ravenswood.

  I quick look up shows that the company was made in Brooklyn 32, which
  today is 11232 - the Bush Terminal area.

  I have no further information - there are old phone books in libraries
  that could help you find an address, but I would suggest discussing on
  on one of those forums that have sprung up on the internet which
  discusses just about anything. There must be a 100 discussion groups
  on toys, and they generally welcome inquiries and help searches.

  Good luck! You find anything do share it with us.

  Bob S. Astoria Historical Society

Here is a map of that area:


texts:
This is on a chair that has been in my family in Sweden for several generations, but it looks to be of British origin rather than Scandinavian.
I am still new to heraldry but the terms martlet, crosslet, and roundlet might be used to describe some of the imagery in the shield.
Might anyone be able to help me further identify the coat of arms. It is possible that the coat is just decorative and never belonged to a family - if this is so, is there any way to know when it was made?
Thank you


texts: Is there a record of the times the nuclear brief case or its Russian counterpart have ever been actually opened?

texts:
So, it's a pretty simple question. When, and how many times has the nuclear brief-case or it's Russian counterpart ever been opened with the intent of use for a nuclear launch? Are there records of such things? Obviously, they've never been used to completion, but I'd be interested to know if any sitting president or premier has felt it was necessary to do so.

Inspired by this question


texts: Madness in the early modern era (pre-enlightenment, Habsburg monarchy)

texts:
I'd very much like to look deep into the history of mental ilnesses and the surrounding mentalities - i.e. how did the sane people interpret, treat, approach and deal with the mentally insane?

To be more specific, my focus period is the pre-elightenment early modern era (lets put that on a timeline ranging from 1526 to 1713, to enclose the era with some quite important years), and the focus location is Europe, Habsburg monarchy in the central Europe (i.e. Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, The Holy Roman Empire).

Yes indeed, there is a book by Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization. I have not read the book yet, I'll do that in the near future. But still, the the key focus of the book is the enlightenment era and I'd like to go a bit farther into the earlier years, as already specified.

To pinpoint some specifics of the question:

Were there any institutions for the mentally insane, or just elimination?
What about the emergence of some buildings taking on the functions of the first mental asylums in the early modern era?
How many categories for the mentally insane (schizophrenic, depressed, etc.) were there?
What is the co-rellation in between witchery accusations and mentally ill?
Who did treat the mentally insane? What were the treatment procedures like?
What were the differences of the reception of the sane people when faced with the insane from different social groups (villagers, citizens, the nobility)?

Be a nice historian - provide some literature and primary sources on the subject - that's, what I'm ultimately looking for (a starting point).


texts: Did Leon Trotsky get stopped by authorities in Halifax?

texts:
In Antony C. Sutton's book Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution he argues that Leon Trotsky was given $10,000 in New York.

http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/bolshevik_revolution/chapter_02.htm

He also says Trotsky was stopped in Halifax, Canada by authorities, on his way from New York back to Europe.

Can anyone confirm that Trotsky was stopped in Halifax?


texts: Was the grooming ritual of clipping one's toe/fingernails common practice in the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean/Mesopotamia?

texts: In most societies today, keeping one's nails trimmed within a few mms of the top of the nail plate is the grooming standard. Do we have evidence that clipping nails when they reached a certain length was a regular grooming ritual in ancient societies? By "ancient societies", I'm referring to the societies that popularly come to mind: Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, and the successive Mesopotamian empires of the Biblical Old Testament. Would nail clipping have been performed with some type of crude file or a knife perhaps?


texts: Who invented and marketed the first "clip on" headphones?

texts:
Headphone style terminology seems dodgy at best, but I'm trying to determine what company first sold this style of headphone in the US:

I've seen them variously described as "on the ear," "clip on" and "behind the ear." But note that this is not an in-ear sport headphone like they sell in this style now a days. The speaker was half the size of your ear and sat on the outside of your ear, not in it.

These would have been sold for fairly cheap around the turn of the 21st century in the US. I thought it was Philips, but I have yet to find anything online to confirm. In their marketing whatever company it was pushed the fact that it used a new type of magnet which allowed it to be so flat/thin but still have decent bass.


texts: What economic incentives (if any) did France have to aid the American army during the revolution?

texts: Most history texts only state France had a desire to seek revenge for their defeat in the 7 Years War and that a Treaty of Alliance (1778) was signed. I'm having a hard time convincing myself that France was willing to bankroll a war they didn't need to fight that could have easily gone the other way... all in the name of revenge and liberty of a fledgling nation. What economic incentives did France have that most texts aren't talking about?


texts: How did Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor come to control part of Spain?

texts:
My history book is cited below. My book says that when Charles V abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor,  he gave control of his territories in Spain to his son, Philip II. However, what territories did Charles V have in Spain, and how did he gain them? I thought Spain was a powerful kingdom ruled by Ferdinand and Isabella (or their descendants) at that time.

McKay, John, Bennett Hill, John Buckler, Clare Crownston, Merry Wiesner-Hanks, and Joe Perry. A History of Western Society. 10th ed. Print.


texts: Did Roundheads have opinions on early leaders of the Reformation (e.g., Martin Luther) during the Civil War?

texts:
We know that Henry VIII had been against Luther, even after Henry broke with Rome. So the Reformation in England developed differently to the one in Europe at that point. But were later Protestants in England such as the Roundheads more approving of Luther? Did they move the Church of England closer to Lutheranism while they were in power?
Edit: Thomas Cromwell was sympathetic to some Luther's ideas, so Luther had a high profile at that point in England... it's not like Oliver Cromwell (related to Thomas) could have only heard of Calvin!


texts: Is there a link between national debt/trade deficit and starting a war?

texts:
I saw in an article mentioning that there is a link between national debt and starting wars I don't recall where I've seen it mentioned to look for further references on the matter.

Are there known historical studies or academic papers that examined historical data to find a causation link between national debt/trade deficits and starting wars?

Mention: When I say national debt I refer to both external debt and internal debt (both to internal debtors and through fiat currency).


texts: Why hasn't Sub-Sahan African developed as fast as other regions between the beginning of civilisation and European colonialism?

texts:
First I asked the following question:
How much contact did Sub-Saharan Africa actually have with the rest of the world since the beginning of civilization?
I was expecting answers such as 'not much contact' because to me that actually explained why Sub-Saharan Africa hasn't develop as fast as Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
But I was wrong, Sub-Sarahan Africa wasn't isolated from the developments that led to centralised societies, to civilisations. So now my question is the following: why hasn't Sub-Saharan Africa developed in the same pace as its "neighbouring regions" between the beginning of civilisation and European colonialism?
Why hasn't the knowledge from for example Egypt, Ancient Greece, Romans, the Arab World reached Sub-Saharan Africa and if it indeed reached Sub-Saharan Africa, why didn't it catalysed higher levels of organisation and technological development there? And why didn't it spread?
Edits to this question are more than welcome!


texts: Has any country ever 'sold' a part of it's territory voluntarily to another?

texts: I assume it can happen in a few extreme situations such as dire monetary or military needs, for example. Has it ever happened, or been proposed, in modern history?


texts: What was the extent of Japanese control after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and before surrender?

texts: What was the extent of Japanese control after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I am talking about before their surrender. A map would be extremely preferred for better understanding.


texts: Why were pre-missile era cruisers often attached to fleet battlegroups?

texts: The purpose of the Cruiser was to roam the high seas, picking off merchant vessels, troopships or stragglers of a group. So then why were heavy and light cruisers often attached to Battleship or Carrier groups, and how was their purpose different to the attached Destroyers?


texts: Which Catholic priests were given diplomatic missions?

texts:
Fernández de San Vicente was a high-ranking priest appointed by Mexico's government for a diplomatic mission to the Californias in 1822. Despite being nominally in the same country¸ the isolation of Alta California made the mission a delicate one. Fernández arrived with administrative powers somewhat like a visitador ("inspector general"), but a big part of his job was getting the Californians on board and familiar with Mexican independence, somewhat like a diplomat.

How much precedent there was for this appointment? It could make sense to send a clergyman as visitador or diplomat if the person is considered to be a conciliator that will treat and be treated with respect. I've done some searching online, expecting to find more examples, but as yet haven't -- except for every diplomatic post filled by the Vatican.

Are there prior cases of Catholic priests tasked to travel on secular diplomatic or administrative missions?


texts: How much is known about the Punic language (of classical Carthage)?

texts: How much is known of the Carthaginian language, which as I understand it is called Punic and descended from Phoenician?  Google searches show some sketches of alphabet characters and such, but do we know enough to be able to learn it as a viable language today, the way we can with Latin?  Are there many samples and fragments available for study?  If not, is there a specific reason why the language of such a powerful empire has been lost (e.g. did the Romans try to purge it or something), or was it just the ravages of time?


texts: Impact of theoretical physics on the Nazi regime and vice versa

texts:
I am currently investigating the impact of the theoretical physics community and its developments on the progression of the second world war and the Nazi regime. I have read Cornwell's book on Hitler's scientists, and other texts on the Manhattan Project. My question is can you recommend any other resources (preferably books) which are relevant to my investigation? I stress:

Resources which present personal accounts or otherwise of the physics community under the Nazi regime are not what I am asking for. Rather I require resources which assess the impact of theoretical physics on the progression of the war so that I am analyze them.


texts: Was Caligula popular with the general Roman population?

texts: Was Caligula, the Roman Emperor, popular with the general Roman population after his illness a few months into his reign?


texts: Were any congressmen or senators concerned that women’s suffrage would result in anti-war votes?

texts:
Suffragist organizations at the onset of WWI held varying views on the war. Carrie Chapman Catt of NAWSA felt that women would be viewed as reliable and patriotic if they supported the war effort. But Alice Paul of the NWP picketed outside the White House and publicly criticized Woodrow Wilson. Her actions were seen as unpatriotic and her picketers were often thrown in jail.  The first female member of congress, Jeanette Rankin, voted against the declaration of war on Germany in 1917.

Are there instances (such as speeches or letters) where congressmen and senators expressed concern that, if enfranchised, women would vote in accordance with Alice Paul and Jeanette Rankin’s anti-war views?

To find likely answers, I’ve been comparing a list of those members who voted in favor of the war, to those who voted against ratifying the 19th amendment in 1918. But it has been very slow going so I’m wondering if anyone happens to know this, or knows a better way to search for it.

There is a tally sheet for the House of Representatives, showing who voted in favor of the war declaration. But as of yet I have not found a similar list for the Senate, which voted 82-6 on April 4, 1917.


texts: What happened to Caesar's hostages in Gaul?

texts:
I am reading Caesar's Gallic wars, and there is a repetitive pattern to much of it.

Caesar shows up
The natives either sue for peace and surrender their weapons and give hostages, or

The natives fight and lose, and Caesar takes their weapons and takes hostages

Caesar moves on, or returns to Rome for the winter, leaving behind a garrison
The natives revolt and attack the garrison
Caesar returns and defeats them

Rinse and repeat.

Nowhere does Caesar state what he did with the hostages. Do other sources cast any light?


texts: Can anyone explain why the Scottish flag on this map from 1504 has a red cross on a white background?

texts:
The section of the map below is from a nautical chart by the Portuguese cartographer Pedro Reinel (c.1462 – c.1542). On it, Scotland is shown with a red St. Andrew's Cross on a white background.

Upon checking various sites (including Wiki, National flag of Scotland and Two Flags of Scotland), I found no reference to this ever having been used.

Further googling led me to the Cross of Burgundy, shown below,

and this reference to Scottish soldiers:

  Pedro de Ayala, writing in the 1490s, claims it was first adopted by a previous Duke of Burgundy to honour his Scottish soldiers....However, earlier chronicle accounts and archaeological finds of heraldic badges from Paris indicate... its origins are more likely to relate to the fact that St. Andrew was the patron saint of the dukes of Burgundy.

I have found references to a white cross on various backgrounds (red, sky blue, sage green) but nothing (other than Reinel's map and the apparently mistaken reference to Scottish soldiers above) relating to a red cross on a white background.

I'm wondering if this red on white representation is based on any evidence of actual use in Scotland, or if it is an error made by Pedro Reinel. Did he perhaps get it mixed up with the flag of St. George?


texts: Did the Taaffe family maintain an actual connection with Ireland during the 19th century?

texts:
The Taaffe family is rather remarkable for having held both an Irish/UK and Austrian peerage. However, it is not clear from the wiki pages whether they (for example, Count Eduard, who was Austrian prime-minister for a while) really maintained tangible ties to Ireland. Some questions for example:

Did they have Irish estates?
Did members of the family visit Ireland?
Did they have strongly held and/or publicized views on issues of Irish politics? (like Home Rule)


texts:
I was looking over a map of where the Nazis invaded and they never attacked Sweden.

I was wondering why since it seems like a much better strategic move than invading Russia. Why might they have chosen not to do so?


texts: Was the Taiping Rebellion the deadliest war of the 19th Century?

texts:
According to Wikipedia:

  With no reliable census at the time, estimates are necessarily based
  on projections, but the most widely cited sources put the total number
  of deaths during the 15 years of the rebellion at about 20–30 million
  civilians and soldiers. Most of the deaths were attributed to
  plague and famine.


texts: What was the prevalence of ethnic minorities in 15th century Bohemia?

texts: What was the prevalence of what we in contemporary western culture would consider "ethnic minorities" (Africans, East Asians, South Asians, Latinos, etc) in the population of early 15th century Bohemia? I have heard various conflicting reports on this topic; general consensus seems to be that there were none of what we today would consider minorities in that region during that period, but some people who disagree are citing this article as proof of the contrary.  I am not sure whether this source is credible and would like some clarification on the actual facts.


texts:
The wikipedia page about Muhammad bin Qasim says:

  According to Al-Baladhuri, a 9th-century Persian historian, Qasim was
  killed due to a family feud with the governor of Iraq. After the death
  of the caliph Al-Walid I, his brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik became
  the new caliph. Sulayman became hostile against Qasim because
  apparently he had followed the order of Hajjaj to declare Sulayman's
  right of succession void in all territories conquered by him. When
  Qasim received the news of the death of Hajjaj he returned to Aror.
  Qasim was later arrested under the orders of the caliph by the
  successor governor of Sindh, Yazid ibn Kabsha as-Sasaki, who worked
  under the new governor of Iraq, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab, and the new
  fiscal manager, Salih ibn Abd ar-Rahman. Salih, whose brother was
  executed by Hajjaj, tortured Qasim and his relatives to death. The
  account of his death by Al-Baladhuri is very brief compared to the one
  in Chachanama.[4][23][24]

  The Chachnama narrates a tale in which Qasim's demise is attributed to
  the daughters of King Dahir who had been taken captive during the
  campaign. Upon capture they had been sent on as presents to the
  Khalifa for his harem in the capital. The account relates that they
  then tricked the caliph into believing that Muhammad bin Qasim had
  violated them before sending them on and as a result of this
  subterfuge, Muhammad bin Qasim was wrapped and stitched in oxen
  hides,[25] and returned to Syria, which resulted in his death en route
  from suffocation.[26] This narrative attributes their motive for this
  subterfuge to securing vengeance for their father's death. Upon
  discovering this subterfuge, the Khalifa is recorded to have been
  filled with remorse and ordered the sisters buried alive in a wall.

Wikipedia presents two different accounts of his death. Both can't be correct. Which of these accounts is more accurate?


texts: What was the average size of a guild in 13th century Europe?

texts:
Guilds were a big deal. How many people would make up a guild, on average?

I'm assuming a guild could include master, journeyman, and apprentice craftsmen, as well as clerks,  warehousers, enforcers, and other aides.

I'm specifically looking for information on larger towns and cities in the area of modern Italy, but I would accept information over Europe in general.


texts: When and how did the British Monarchy stop claiming Divine Right

texts:
Traditionally most royal families justify their rule by "divine right". When and how did this stop being the case for the British royal family?

(This question evolved a lot, check edits to get a better picture and understand the context of the first two answers better)


texts: Did Aetius or Attila fight in the Battle of Worms (436)?

texts:
I'm looking for information on the Battle of Worms (436). Specifically, did Flavius Aetius and/or Attila command or fight there?
The Wikipedia page on Aetius, under the "Battles/wars" column, mentions only a "Sack of Worms" without any further link, and the main article about Aetius is vague about it:

In 436, the Burgundians of King Gundacar were defeated and obliged to
accept peace by Aetius and Avitus; however, the following year he sent
Hunnic foederati to destroy them.

Wiki on Worms city is more explicit:

Provoked by Burgundian raids against Roman settlements, the combined
Romano-Hunnic army destroyed the Burgundian army at the Battle of
Worms (436), killing King Gunther.

Wikipedia article on King Gunther:

Burgundian raids into Roman upper Gallia Belgica became intolerable
and were ruthlessly brought to an end in 436, when the Roman general
Flavius Aetius called in Hun mercenaries who overwhelmed the Rhineland
kingdom (with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of
Borbetomagus, now called Worms) in 437.

436 year article on Wikipedia:

Flavius Aetius, Roman general (magister militum), attended to put an
end to Burgundian raids in Gaul. He called in Hun mercenaries under
command of Attila and his brother Bleda, which plunder Augusta
Vangionum, killing some 20,000 Burgundians. The Kingdom of the
Burgundians is destroyed, king Gunther and his family are killed.

Attila's article (again on Wikipedia) doesn't mention anything like that, only his link with Etzel character in the Nibelungenlied.
Searching for more information on the Internet, I found every possible version of the battle: Both Aetius and Attila were present, only one, neither, or there was no battle at all.
I'm interested in this because supposedly it's the basis of the Nibelungenlied.
SUMMING-UP:
Was there a battle at Worms around 436 between Burgundians and Romans (or Huns)? Did Flavius Aetius or Attila fight in it?


texts: Tong Yangu khagan finished his reign on 628. Who ruled the Khazars between Tong Yabgu to Irbis, if not Irbis himself?


texts: How does Louise Bryant's assessment of how the Soviet Union would fall hold up at the beginning of the 21st century?

texts:
Louise Bryant, an American bohemian spent six months in Russia during the turbulent times that presaged the October Revolution - and which she wrote up as Six Red Months in Russia. In her conclusion she wrote:

  "The Great War could not leave an unchanged world in its wake — certain movements of society were bound to be pushed forward, and others retarded. I speak particularly of Socialism... Socialism is here, whether we like it or not — just as woman suffrage is here — and it spreads with the years. In Russia the socialist state is an accomplished fact. We can never again call it an idle dream of long-haired philosophers.

then

  And if that growth has resembled the sudden upshooting of a mushroom, if it must fall because it is premature, it is nevertheless real and must have tremendous effect on all that follows. Everything considered, there is just as much reason to believe that the Soviet Republic of Russia will stand as that it will fall. The most significant fact is that it will not fall from inside pressure. Only outside, foreign, hostile intervention can destroy it.”

How does Bryant's assessment stand at the beginning of the twenty-first century, thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of communism? Is it even possible now to make a fair assessment how and why the USSR collapsed? I appreciate this question might be too broad and perhaps too current to answer but some pointers to the literature would be welcome, ones which don't merely announce from the beginning that communism would fail as it doesn't work (which one fine book did).


texts: What date does a 1738 British author intend by "soon after the revolution"?

texts:
In the February 1738 The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume XIII at page 80:

It is stated:

  A manuscript writen by a great Uncle of mine, who dy'd soon after the Revolution came lately into my hands.

What does "soon after the Revolution" mean?

The Wikipedia page for English Revolution makes it sound like there is more than one possibility.


texts: What compelled Benjamin Disraeli to label 1857 revolt as a "National Revolt"?

texts:
It is still debated whether the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in British India was  just a soldiers' mutiny or a National revolt for the independence.

But in July 1857, in House of Commons,  Benjamin Disraeli labeled it as a national revolt.

So, what compelled him to do so?


texts: Did Martin Luther King's political outlook change during the civil rights movement?

texts: From the Montgomery bus boycott to his death in 1968, Martin Luther King always used nonviolence as a strategy. Did his political outlook change (and why) throughout the civil right movement until 1968?


texts: The squirrel which could cross an entire realm jumping from branch to branch

texts:
The metaphor (or meme) of the squirrel that could cross an entire territory without touching the ground is very old and, as far as the Iberian Peninsula is concerned, is attributed (maybe wrongly) to Strabo.

I have just learned that this meme was also used to describe the ancient North America, and by googling, I found references of the squirrel crossing ancient Gaul and Britain.

What is the first documented use of this meme? To what territory was it applied the first time?


texts: In which banking institute was Soren Kierkegaard a customer?

texts:
Is there any information about which bank the danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) used in Copenhagen?

I might think it is 'Sparekassen for Kjøbenhavn og Omegn', literally 'The Savings Bank for Copenhagen and Its Vicinity', which can be traced to the big nordic bank 'Nordea' in our time.

I can see that some of the board members of that bank were Jonas Collin and
dr. theol. J. P. Mynster, and they have a relation to Kierkegaard. External link


texts: How effective were archers/ slingers / skirmishers in Greek, Roman and Medieval Period?

texts: So it seemed that  from the accounts of Thermopelea,  Roman military strategy of waiting out an arrow storm,  and Knights holding out for hours behind a shield wall during the first crusade  it suggests that arrows were not effective weapons until later on, however it seems that archers and skirmishers  were a staple part of armies early on in Greece, why?


texts: Was Nicholas II Romanov the last king of Poland?

texts:
Nicholas II Romanov, the last Emperor of All-Russia, used also (among many others) titles: Grand Prince of Lithuania, and King of Poland.

The Wikipedia states he was "a titular" King of Poland. In the reference it is written:

  In 1831, the Russian tsars were deposed from the Polish throne, but they soon took control of the country, ruling it as part of Russia, and abolished the separate monarchy. However, they continued to use this title. See November Uprising.

It is also noticeable that there were no "Poland" in Russia as result of January Uprising in 1863, but Vistula Province.

In traditional education in Poland children are thought that the last king of Poland was Stanisław August Poniatowski and Wikipedia also says he was the last king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (ended his reign in 1795, and Nicholas II in 1917), however, in the table in the very ending of the article, he was succeeded by three Emperors (Russian Tsar as King of Poland).

During the WW1, on November 5th, 1916, when all (Russian) Poland was conquered by Central Powers, the German and Austrian Emperors declared that they will grant Poland some autonomy. As this event is hardly known in Poland, this was probably the main factor that made the independent Poland two years later. However, a Kingdom of Poland was to be (re)created and as there was no king (so Tsar was not legal to Germans), but a Regency Council.

This Regency Council took power from German governor Hans von Beseler on October 6th, 1918, making thus independent Poland after 123 years. At this time the Tsar was already dead.

My questions are:

Was Nicholas II the real king of Poland, or was he king of Poland the same way as Henry VIII was King of France?
If Regency council passed all power to Józef Piłsudski, and the 2nd Polish Republic was created on basis of German-Austrian Kingdom of Poland, was in some way Nicholas overthrown? (The Kingdom of Poland was created from conquered Russian lands)
Who should be considered as the last king of Poland: Stanisław August Poniatowski, Nicholas II Romanov or sede vacante, represented by Regency Council?


texts: Are there any historical sources that support the claim that ancient high-speed archers held multiple arrows in their hand?

texts:
Lars Andersen was able to fire off 10 arrows in 4.9 seconds by holding several arrows in his right hand. As a comparison, medieval archers were expected to shoot 12-20 arrows per minute, or 0.98 to 1.63 arrows per 4.9 seconds.

This technique allows him to fire off the arrows using fewer movements, and it allowed him to break a world record by firing off 11 arrows before the first arrow hit the ground.

A picture of him demonstrating this technique can be seen here.
A video of him performing the aforementioned feats can be viewed here.

According to him, this was an ancient technique used by Saracen, Chinese and Native American archers.

However, I am unable to find any sources that depict them using the bow in such a manner.


texts: When did husbands & wives start sharing bedrooms?

texts:
In a lot of period movies the husband & wife are shown to be retiring to different bedrooms at night. e.g. most movies about 1800's Britain  or even pre WW-II. Or even War & Peace or Pride & Prejudice. Or The Count of Monte Cristo.

How & when did that change to them sleeping in the same room /  same bed? Was the separate room custom only among the nobles & intelligentsia? Or did the commoners sleep in separate rooms too?


texts:
Mao Anying, the eldest son of Mao Zedong, was killed in action by an air strike during the Korean War.

There is the abstract from wikipedia:

  Mao was Peng Dehuai's secretary and Russian translator in the Chinese People's Volunteer Army at the time of his death.[4] He was stationed in the army headquarters with Peng Dehuai in caves near an old gold mining settlement, which offered excellent protection from American air attacks. The evening of 24 November 1950, two P-61 Black Widows were spotted on a photo reconnaissance mission by the Chinese on the ground near the location.[5] The next day on 25 November at around noon, a South African Air Force A-26 bomber dropped four napalm bombs,[6] one of which hit a makeshift house near the cave, killing Mao Anying and another officer who were cooking their lunch in violation of war-time regulations of Chinese Army.1[5][7]

However, the reference article 6 does neither mention about South Africa Air Force nor A-26 bomber, the article just say UN army's B-26 killed Mao Anying.

1. Was Mao Anying killed by South African or by some other air force from other countries (within UN army)?

2. Who commanded the air strike and who took part in the attack?


texts: Does the ancient Egyptian religion still have followers?

texts:
The Ancient Egyptian religion was 3000 years old, and one of the oldest religion in the world. The religion had numerous gods and practices and flourished until the spread of Christianity in 4th century AD.

My question is:

Did all the followers of that religion convert?
Are there any who still follow the Ancient Egyptian religion today, in an unbroken tradition?

reference - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_religion


texts: Why didn't the Khalkh Mongols support the Dzungars in their fight against China?

texts:
Khalkha Mongol khans fought for China against the Dzungars. What was the reason for that? Why did the Dzungars become enemies of the Khalkh Mongols?

See: Dzungar Genocide & Dzungar–Qing Wars


texts: When else has an incumbent president alleged election fraud by a challenger?

texts:
I know this is a hot issue these days, but I am trying to keep my question factual here.
When fraud is alleged in an election, I am usually familiar with one of two cases:

One or more challengers allege that the incumbent carried out fraud (the assumption being that the incumbent was sufficiently powerful to manipulate the administration of the election); or
Both the incumbent and the challengers accuse each other of fraud (while none admits guilt, in such cases, international observers often decry fraud by all sides).

My hypothesis is that for fraud to be so widespread to affect the results of an election, the more powerful party (presumably the incumbent) would be the one who could allow such a situation in their favour. I consider it unlikely that an incumbent who has the executive power over institutions (including election commissions) would sit by and allow such widespread fraud that it would unseat them. They would usually be in the position to prevent such fraud from occurring.
In contrast, I found it rather odd in the 2020 United States election that Donald Trump, the incumbent, strongly alleged fraud by his leading challenger, Joe Biden, whereas the challenger did not accuse the incumbent of any election fraud. I am by no means any kind of expert in history, but as a general reader of the news and some light history, I do not recall having encountered such a scenario. (I am fully aware that in this case, the independent courts in that country uniformly rejected the accusations of fraud, but I am interested in other situations where such a claim has been made, especially so strongly, whether or not the accusations were substantiated.)
When else has this happened, that is, the incumbent accusing a challenger of election fraud whereas the challenger did not make any such accusation against the incumbent? I am mainly looking for national-level elections in any country of the world at any time period (where democracy has been practiced), but lower-level elections would also be welcome.


texts: What level of knowledge was required to enter medieval universities?

texts:
According to this answer, students at university in the medieval period were generally paying their own way and were independently rich or were selected by the crown or the church, the latter making up the majority of students.

What academic expectations were there of these students? Did these expectations vary between the different types of students?


texts:
I recently learned about the War of Knives, but one thing I haven't been able to figure out is why its actually called the War of Knives. The war happened well after guns were in popular use, and both sides of the war were well stocked and equipped.

So why is it called the War of Knives?


texts: What was the average tooth to tail ratio of medieval armies

texts:
The tooth to tail ratio is the ratio between the fighting force (tooth) and the non-fighting force in an army. In other words, how many non-combatants directly supported and supplied an army.

I'm wondering specifically about the late Middle Ages in western Europe, such as the Hundred Years' War. But other periods and regions are welcome if data is/isn't available.


texts: What fueled the street lights in 13th-century Cordoba?

texts:
Córdoba, Spain is often said to have had street lights in its Muslim period, which ended in 1236. How did those street lights work?
In Lawrence of Arabia, Prince Faisal was dramatized as having said to Lawrence: "You know, Lieutenant, in the Arab city of Córdoba were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village." Similarly, Ibn Said is said to have reported that "the streets were well paved and lighted, the lights being attached to the outer doors and corners of the houses", as quoted in a link from this answer.
Can anyone provide details on this? In particular, what fueled those street lamps -- was it olive oil?


texts: Did German aircraft operate off Lebanon in 1941?

texts:
During the Syro-Lebanon War in 1941, French forces fought British forces both on the ground, in the air and at sea. French airplanes attacked the British fleet multiple times.
But according to Roald Dahl in its book No 80th Squadron, some Junkers 88 daily joined the fight against British Hurricanes. They were based at Rhodes.
So I have three questions:

Do any other sources support this claim of German air intervention? I found nothing on the internet nor in my books
Where were those German planes based, and what squadrons did they belong to?
Were they escorted during the raids and why didn't British forces in Cyprus intercept them?

EDIT:
Timeframe:  8 June – 14 July 1941
Locations of the attack: only Syria and Lebanon


texts: How would one muzzle a full grown polar bear in the 13th century?

texts:
In his answer to a recent question on whether there had been a Viking Exchange between Europe and the Americas, LangLangC brings up that the King of Norway offered a polar bear to Henry the 3rd in 1252 (1251?), and that another such polar bear made its way to the Sultan of Egypt via Emperor Frederik earlier that century.
The official Historic Royal Palaces website adds this nugget:

Although it was kept muzzled and chained, the bear was allowed to swim and hunt for fish in the Thames.
A collar and a ‘stout cord’ were attached to the bear to keep it from escaping.

Insofar as I understand, male polar bears range from 350-700kg and measure 2.4-3m, and females are about half that size, and I'm not aware of any reason why that might have changed much in the past thousand years. Its medieval zookeepers would have been about an inch shorter on average than we are today.
Even in the best of scenarios (a small female) polar bear is comparable in size and weight to a typical adult male black bear, so I'd imagine they were captured and tamed while still cubs. Still, I'm somewhat struggling to make any sense of how one would go about with muzzling an adult polar bear without tranquilizer, except perhaps one (dead or injured) zookeeper at a time.
Is there any documentation anywhere on how they were handling the beasts? More specifically, on how they'd get the muzzle on without anyone getting injured or worse?


texts: Could Thomas Jefferson have ever heard Mozart's Symphony No. 40, KV. 550?

texts:
The third president of the United States was a lifelong admirer of W. A. Mozart. Or rather, of Mozart's music; he arranged to meet Mozart in Paris when he was Minister to France (August 1784–September 1789)—purportedly with the intention of commissioning a work in honor of his wife—but was so disenamored with the man's demeanor in person that he dropped these plans. Jefferson was still able to separate his appreciation of the music from the man: long after this unpleasant meeting, Jefferson would write of Mozart's "heavenly music".

I've been reading some of Jefferson's writing on music theory, and given his perspective and his love for Mozart's music, I think the Symphony No. 40, KV. 550 would be so astounding to him—particularly in its use of modulation—that he would have had to write about it if he'd heard it—but the contemporaneous naming conventions (or lack thereof) make it difficult to search online archives of his writing for such mention. I feel as if this gap could itself constitute circumstantial evidence he never read the music or heard the work performed.

But absence of evidence is not evidence for the absence, so I've been trying to research the question.

Exactly when the work was first performed anywhere is subject to great dispute; it's reasonably attested to have been composed in 1788, and had concert revisions in 1791, so one can probably assume it was first performed some time within that period. In fact, there's good reason to believe its first Vienna performance was in 1791, conducted by Antonio Salieri. (It's sometimes been asserted that Mozart never heard his symphony performed, but this appears to be aprocryphal.)

In any case, it seems that Jefferson almost certainly could not have heard the work performed in concert while he was in Europe. But could he have ever heard it in America?

As far as I can find, there were no standing symphony orchestras in the United States until the 1840's (long after Jefferson's death in 1826), but there were chamber orchestras and orchestras performing opera in the two decades bookending the 18th and 19th Centuries. (In 1803, with the Louisiana Purchase, the country acquired at least two orchestras already operating in New Orleans, including the opera Théâtre St. Philippe. But President Jefferson never visited New Orleans, or anywhere in the Louisiana Purchase as far as I can tell.)

I can find references to symphonic works being performed in America in the time period between Jefferson's inauguration and his death, but I haven't found any mentioning Mozart specifically until the 1830's, and none specifically mentioning this particular piece until 1850 (when it was performed in Boston).

Concerts in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Charleston in the 1840's–1860's each are claimed to be the first to perform the work in their respective cities. If that is true, since all four were after Jefferson's death, it seems unlikely that Jefferson ever heard this piece in symphonic form.

(But perhaps he heard it in the form of a reduced arrangement, maybe even played on one of his several keyboard instruments he kept at Monticello or at one of the chamber recitals he arranged at the White House or at Monticello.)

I'm curious if anyone else knows of any historical evidence one way or the other.


texts: How many aircraft participated in each of the three waves against the Yamato?

texts:
I have been looking into Operation Ten-Go and noted something curious - nearly all online sources only list the number of planes for the first wave (280).

But none really the makeup of the subsequent waves.

How many aircraft in total attacked the Yamato and her escorts and what was the makeup of planes?


texts: What are the symbols on the Tomb of the Priestess of Isis along Via Appia

texts:
A couple of years ago, I had the good fortune to ride along the Appian Way and admire the old tombstones still standing along the old Roman road. (Highly recommended for any Roman history buff!).

I noticed that on the Tomb of the Priestess of Isis, referring to one of those interred, Usia Prima, there are two symbols beside her head.

What are they? The closest I've found is when they were mentioned in one of recent BBC documentaries as "symbols of the cult of Isis", but that is pretty vague. It was either Alastair Sooke in Treasures of Ancient Rome or Mary Beard in Meet The Romans.

Do we know precisely what these are and what their meaning and use was? One looks like a ratchet and the other like a wreath, but that is a totally wild guess on my part.


texts: When did England stop being a Papal fief?

texts:
In 1213, King John surrendered England to the papacy making it a Papal fief where the Pope would be paid annual tribute. However King Edward I did not act as a vassal to the Pope because he got into conflict with Pope Boniface VIII when he taxed the clergy and defied the Pope’s orders to end the war in Scotland.

Did England formally stop being a Papal fief by that time?


texts: How long did Jews in hiding take to reveal themselves at the end of WW2? What was their reception?

texts:
When Jews found out about news of Allied victory, were hiding Jews able to simply come out openly in safety? Why might that not be the case?
How did they know that this, or other information, wasn’t just a ploy to root them out?


texts: What were the other steps on the execution checklist during Neptune Spear aka the killing of Bin Laden

texts:
According to Wikipedia, capturing Bin Laden was step 7 on the execution checklist - what were the steps before? And were there any afterwards?

The words of the commander on the ground were, "For God and country,
Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo."[283] Officials subsequently explained
that each step of the mission was labelled alphabetically in an
"Execution Checklist", which is used to ensure all participants in a
large operation are kept synchronized with a minimum of radio traffic.
"Geronimo" indicated the raiders had reached step "G", the capture or
killing of bin Laden.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden

I assume, securing the data would be one, but that's just a speculation.


texts: How big were the two German pockets at the end of the battle of Stalingrad?

texts: I've often read about Stalingrad, but one piece of info eludes me. At the time of their surrender, the Germans were reduced to 2 'pockets'. How big were they in terms of area?


texts: Why were the Allies so much better cryptanalysts?

texts:
When I read about World War II, more specifically about the use of cryptography in that war, I get the impression that the Allies were much more successful in breaking the enemy codes than the Axis Powers. Two such successes are particulary important: the breaking of the Enigma code by the Polish and the British and the breaking of the Purple code by the British and the Americans.
My question is: why were the Allies so much better here? Of course, a possibility is that they had a larger pool of highly skilled people. But is that all? Or is it also because their governments decided to bet more on that than the governments of the Axis Powers?
Edit: Thanks to the comments, I am now aware of some successes of the German code breaking and also of the fact that the Germans never had a central cryptography agency. But why is that? And what about Japan?


texts: Were there revolts in or escapes from the Austrofascist camps?

texts:
During Austrofascism there were
internment camps (Anhaltelager, see German Wikipedia), in which
political prisoners were kept (National Socialists, Socialists, Communists).

Have there been any

attempts of the prisoners to escape or
attempts from the outside to get some of the prisoners out

?


texts: Could someone identify this uniform? The photograph is a tintype

texts:
I am trying to identify the uniform worn by this confident young man. Is it a military dress uniform? The photograph is a tintype, so I think that the probable date is ca. 1860-1880.
The photograph was one of a group of family photographs given by the descendant to the local historical society; the family lived in Vermont. I am fairly sure that the young man was a member of this family; it is unlikely, in other words, that he was English, for instance. Other photos in this group can be dated to the 1870s.


texts: Did Britain look into taking California?

texts:
The Spanish colonized California in part to forestall the expansion of other empires. The territory was in danger of invasion throughout the Spanish and Mexican eras (1769-1846). Visitors and residents alike noted how easily it could be conquered; the privateer Bouchard, sailing for Argentina, demonstrated such in 1818 by sacking and burning the capital, Monterey. The states thought capable of posing a threat to the territory were Russia, England, and the United States, which eventually did the job.
Despite the presence of Fort Ross, it would have been tough for Imperial Russia to pacify and administer California. Britain on the other hand demonstrably had the resources to run overseas colonies, and already had major business interests nearby in what is now British Columbia. Around 1830, as its business connections in mainland Mexico developed, Britain appointed a consul in California, William Hartnell.
What, if any, proposals were raised in the British government or military to take California, and how far did they get?


texts: Comparing Percentage Of Spanish Nobility Migrating To Latin America To Percentage Of Pan-European Nobility Migrating To USA And Canada

texts:
My question is whether the percentage of nobility migrating from Spain to Latin America is higher than the percentage of nobility migrating from Pan-European nations to the USA and Canada.  The time frame for my question is the formative years for Latin America, and the formative years for the United States and Canada.

Defining "nobility" is challenging.  One way that I am looking at this is through the lens of whether or not families can trace their family tree back to Europe and then possibly to great European figures.  The assumption is that nobility take greater pains to do this, and can do this more easily.  And conversely, the impoverished have a harder time doing this.

In the various forms of media, we see various clichés.  We see European migrants entering Ellis Island penniless (and likely sans-family-tree).  And then we see Spanish conquistadors and their noble wives.  Basically, in the media, we tend to not really see the face of impoverished Spanish migrants moving to Latin America for a new start and because they have no better option.  It's just not a cliché we see a lot in the media.

Were the Spanish migrants to Latin America filled with more nobility?  Were the Pan-European migrants to USA and Canada comprised, to a greater degree, of "huddled masses"?  This seems like a difficult question, and I'm not sure what resources could be used to approximate an answer.


texts: Correlation between Mesoamerican and South Asian calendar systems

texts:
The Mayan and Hindu calendars both divide history into eras, and the epochs (start date) of their current eras lie extremely closely together: August 11, 3114 BCE (Mayan) vs. 18 February, 3102 BCE (Hindu), a difference of only 12 years.

Are there any scientific theories that attempt to explain this as anything other than a coincidence? In particular, are either of the following thought possible:

Both epochs represent the date of a global event (natural disaster) witnessed by ancestors to both civilizations
The civilizations were in direct contact with each other (seems unlikely)
The founders of the Mayan civilization migrated to the Americas from Asia at a time when the Hindu calendar was already in use (seems extremely unlikely)

I want to emphasize that I am not asking about random speculations here, which are of course easy to find on the Internet, especially in connection with the Mayan calendar. But surely, the close correlation must have been noticed before and I am interested in what others have made of it.


texts: In XIXth century lower classes families, was it common for kids to witness their parent's intercourse?

texts:
It was common for lower classes families in the XIX century to have families of 6-10 children living in an extremely small flat, having only one bedroom for the whole family, and usually only one bed for many kids, if not one bed for the whole family.

Was it also common for kids to witness intercourse of their parents? If not, I do not see how the parents could do that discretely without anyone noticing.


texts: Chemical Evidence for Ancient Trans-Atlantic Trade

texts:
I remember reading a book some years ago that claimed there was chemical evidence of trans-Atlantic trade in ancient times from traces of cocaine being found in Egyptian mummies.  I cannot remember what book this was, or if it was a respected source or a pseudo-historical pack of lies.

Is there an actual scientific study that conducted such an analysis, or is it just another fantasy dreamed up by a hack to mislead the masses?


texts: Was the Dutch State independent when the Dutch East India Company was founded?

texts:
How were The Dutch able to build a successful trading empire by 1602 (with The Dutch East India Company) if the Dutch State gained independence after the Thirty Year's War in 1648?

The war ends in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia and the German States along with the Dutch gained independence. But if the company was founded in 1602, does that mean that in 1602 the Dutch were already an independent trading state?


texts: Are there primary sources that record the pre-conquest decoration/mosaic of the Hagia Sophia?

texts: Are there primary sources that record what the mosaics looked like in the Hagia Sophia before the Turkish conquest in 1453?


texts: Were Shakespeare's plays written for "high culture" or "entertain the bawdy masses" during his time?

texts:
Currently, the plays of William Shakespeare are viewed as great English literature, and viewed as "high culture". However I heard someone say that Shakespeare was writing "bawdy, violence filled plays written to entertain a mostly drunken and illiterate rabble". Indeed, I've heard that Shakespeare's plays are full of vulgarity and references to sex, which would back up this idea.

So what was it during Shakespeare's time? High Culture (like the opera would be today?) or the 15th century equivalent of the film "The Hangover"? Or somewhere in between? What sort of people went to Shakespeare's plays when he was alive? Kings and Bishops? Or middle class and working classes folks? What did the snooty people at the time say about Shakespeare? "Down with this sort of thing?" or "Marvelous!"?


texts: A comparison between the reforms of Athens and Rome

texts:
Question: What made it possible that, during the times of Solon, Athens underwent reforms characterized by isonomia, — that is, equality among citizens, — whereas their approximately contemporary Roman reforms did not grant the lower classes much power?

Background:

Jean-Pierre Vernant wrote in his «Origins of Greek Thought» that the
aforementioned Athenian reforms gave equal power to every citizen,
including the right to access the Ecclesia that happened originally
every month, regardless of the will of the elites.
In contrast, Mikhail Rostovtzeff argued in his «History of Rome» that
Roman reforms during this general period conceded much more power to
individual members of the elite than to individual plebeians: the
First Class had 98 out of 193 total votes, while the other classes
combined amounted only to 95 votes. Moreover, if the First Class voters were unanimous, the votes of the other classes were not even
counted. To add insult to injury, meetings only happened when the
First Class so desired.

So, while in one city the people were powerful enough to exert the pressure necessary for the creation of isonomia, in the other the lower classes remained relatively powerless. What were the main differences between them that lead to such starkly distinct outcomes?


texts: I read that red hair originates in Scandanavia, and not in Britain. That before the Viking conquests of Britain and Ireland in the 8th-10th centuries those islands were populated mainly by dark-haired people. The Vikings mated with the indigenous women of Britain and Ireland (and other lands they conquered), and so that's why we find red heads in Britain and Ireland today. Is this true?


texts: What do these terms in Caesar's Gallic Wars mean?

texts:
In his Comentarii de bello Gallico, Caesar writes this on first page:

The Belgae rises  from the extreme frontier  of Gaul, extend  to  the lower part of the river  Rhine; and  look toward  the north and  the rising sun. Aquitania  extends from  the river  Garonne  to the Pyrenaean mountains and to  that  part of the ocean which is  near  Spain:  it looks  between  the  setting of  the sun, and the north star.

How to interpret rising/setting sun and North star, they don't make sense as East/West and North?
What does 'look towards' mean?


texts: Is there any way to historically consider the cultural severity on a disease or impairment? (specifically during the Roman Empire)

texts:
I'm looking to find how certain diseases or impairments were viewed during the Roman Empire (circa ~50AD) by the Roman culture prior, during, and after that time.

I'm mainly looking for physical disorders starting with blindness, and then psychological disorders starting with Tourette's syndrome (verbal tics) and ranging to full breakdowns.

I've found some articles on living conditions, treatment, etc. etc.  But what I really want to know is how these impairments were viewed by the culture.

Here's a start on mental illness!


texts: What's the reason for wider streets in East Germany?

texts:
I heard* that in the GDR towns were planned so that most streets were wide enough for tanks to get through - in order to be able to fight the people more easily if they should rebel (even though it was never done (the fighting with tanks, not the revolts)).

Is that true? Can you point me to sources (English or German)? If you have sources not about eastern Germany but the East Block in general (or parts of it), I'd be happy as well.

*  I do not remember who told me that and when; if I could cite it I would.  I'm asking the question to try to prove or disprove an unexamined assumption.


texts:
A co-worker of mine came in wearing a shirt with this image on it:

This looks like a movie poster, but I'd never heard of that particular Bruce Lee movie, so I tried looking it up. As near as I can tell, there is no such movie in his Filmography.

So what exactly is the story behind this poster?


texts: Why is Thailand considered an Axis power in WWII?

texts:
I read a Wikipedia article about military history of Thailand and it left me a taste of anti-Thai bias.

It is known that Thailand in 1940 (after the fall of Paris and establishment of Vichy government) assaulted nearby French colonial possessions in an attempt to restore own sovereignty.

This event described in Wikipedia as a "war of aggression". Yet it is difficult for me to see it as an aggression rather than an anti-colonial war, especially given that Thailand was returning the previously-lost territories. The assault on France is described as an attack on an Allied country, but it seems to me very much doubtful as Vichy France can be equally well considered a part of the Axis.

Furthermore, Wikipedia discribes the Thai government of Plaek Phibunsongkhram who was in office at the time as "fascist" which claim also looks quite doubtful (for example I never saw a definitely pro-Axis government of Japan being called "fascist"). The Thai government at the time kept good relations with the Great Britain and other allied powers.

Later, in 1941 Thailand was invaded by Japan in an attack, coordinated with the attack on Perl Harbor. Although the resistance of Thai army was minimal (even though there were some points of fierce fighting), this definitely puts Thailand in the set of countries attacked by the Axis.

After the invasion Thailand surrendered and joined the Axis as a puppet state (with Japanese occupation continuing).

Yet there was quite successful and numerous underground resistance movement.
Wikipedia says that this resistance movement is the only reason for rehabilitation of Thailand. I am still curious why Thailand being a conquered country needs "rehabilitation" at all?


texts: Why does Romanian culture have Latin influences?

texts:
Romania is located between Bulgaria, Serbia on one side and Ukraine/many Slavic countries on the other. Romanian is however a Romance (Latin) language, and not Slavic. They don't use the Cyrillic alphabet. My impression is also that Romanian culture is more Latin than that of some other countries in the region. (Romanians are mostly Othodox Christians,  though.)

Why is Romania more "Latin" than it's neigbors north and south?


texts: Was either side legally in the right in the Hundred Years War?

texts:
Legalistically speaking which side was right in the Hundred Years War. My view is that the Salic law combined with the principle that nobody can transmit a right greater than he himself can possess (nemo plus iuris transfere ad alium potest quam ipse habet) should settle the matter in favor of the French.

At the time both England and France recognized the authority of the Church. Were there any attempt at having the Pope invited to adjudicate the succession amiably?


texts: Why did Germany not join the United Nations until 1973?

texts: I am bit shocked to see that Germany joined United Nations - UN in 1973, what was political reason for postponing membership in that important organisation, if we see that for example Italy joined UN in 1955 and Japan joined UN in 1956?


texts:
Shandong, a Chinese province, is sometimes known as Qilu, after the Zhou dynasty states of Qi and Lu.

However, its name is further shortened as Lu. For example, Shandong cuisine is known in Chinese as Lu cuisine. Why use Lu, and not Qi?

Out of its namesakes, Qi seems to be the more important one. It was a major state throughout the Zhou dynasty:

Duke Huan of Qi was one of the Five Hegemons
it was one of the Seven Warring States
it lasted longer than any other Zhou state, being the last to fall to Qin

Compared to Qi, Lu was always a minor state. The only advantages it has over Qi are:

Its rulers descended from a cadet branch of the royal House of Ji. Qi's rulers descended from the Zhou Prime Minister Jiang Ziya, although both states were equal in noble rank, that of Duke (公).
It was the home of Confucius, and thus had outsized cultural significance

Wikipedia claims the last point was the reason for choosing Lu, although this statement is unsupported. Or was it for another reason? Is it more common in Chinese to abbreviate using the second character?


texts: Which side of the Atlantic does the jack-o'-lantern come from?

texts:
There is an often-repeated 'fact' that although the pumpkin is an American plant, the Jack-o-Lantern tradition is an older Irish tradition (e.g., in today's Washington Post) in which turnips were carved rather than pumpkins.

I was surprised that the Wikipedia article seems to treat this as a popular myth! While it recognizes that there are old reports (and museum specimens) of carved turnips (mid 1800s), it seems that there is even older evidence of carven pumpkins in the Americas (early 1800s, cf. Legend of Sleepy Hollow).

These are relatively recent dates and it seems like there should be lots of written records! So is the Halloween tradition of carving a face into a vegetable and illuminating it from within by a candle something that went from Ireland to America, or America to Ireland?


texts: What would the Royal Sussex Regiment have been doing in South Africa between 1900-1902?

texts:
My 2x Great Grandfather, James Walter Juden, served in the Royal Sussex Regiment from 1889 to 1902. I have a copy of his service records. Which I have downloaded from FindMyPast, the images can be found at the bottom of this question.

He spent two years in South Africa between 1900-1902, I know this would have been during The Second Boer Wars, what might he or his unit have been doing there around this time?

A related question. The reason I've split it in to two, is because I'd like two complete answers and users might be experts in one field rather than both.

Source:

Imgur Album of Records - http://imgur.com/a/ZsOcu

(Can also be found on FindMyPast searching 'James Walter Juden', in British Army Service Records 1760-1915)


texts: Did anyone in Europe predict the existence of the Americas?

texts:
According to the answer of this question, Columbus was pretty much unique in his belief that the world was small enough and Asia was big enough to make sailing west to Asia possible.  Everyone else expected (correctly) that it was WAY too far away to be a practical option.

Of course, it ended up being moot, because there was a completely new landmass in between Europe and Asia: the Americas.  Columbus landed there instead, and the rest was history.

But if the Europeans had anything even approaching an accurate idea of how far away Asia was to the west, they must have realized that that would be a COLOSSAL ocean.  (About 11,000 miles, we can now estimate.)   Did anyone propose the idea that there was more than water out there?  That an ocean that big might hold a whole new continent, or even more than one, before you got back around to "India"?

Especially given the Viking discoveries of America (and of Iceland and Greenland), were there rumors or discussions of other lands to the West?  Or did the European powers just assume it was empty ocean all the way to Asia, right up until they discovered an enormous landmass blocking their way?


texts: Did the queen have any say in the king's council of Mauryan empire?

texts: I wonder if women had any say in Mauryan empire or they were just objectified


texts: Could any Habsburg kings of Hungary speak Hungarian?

texts:
From 1526 to 1918, Hungary was ruled by the Habsburgs.  Could any of the Habsburg kings speak Hungarian, and if so, to what degree?

I know that Sissi, the consort of Franz Joseph I, was particularly popular among the Hungarian people for having learned Hungarian.  This suggests that, at the time, fluency in Hungarian by the royal family was highly unusual.  But was it always unusual, or did any of Franz Joseph's predecessors or successors, like Sissi, make an effort to learn and use the language?


texts: What was Lenin's major criticism of or differences with Marx?

texts: I'm interested in what specific differences in Lenin's writing might address what he perceived to be the shortcomings of Marx's work. Wikipedia is weak on this topic.


texts: Were the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs ever discovered really found in Qustul in Ancient Nubia?

texts:
In a comment posted on an answer to the question, 'Does modern scholarship accept an Ethiopian origin for Egyptian hieroglyphs?', the user that posted the question wrote:

  "The oldest kingdom in Africa was located in Ta seti. The area is
  called Qutsul [sic!], "The land of the bow". It had the earliest
  hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found, and guess what, this kingdom was
  located in Sudan."

The claim that the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found originated at Qustul (and that Egyptian civilisation therefore "must have originated in Ancient Nubia, and spread from South to North") is frequently repeated by others on the Internet (for example, in 'They Hail From the South: The Qustul Censer', and in this post from the forum on GrahamHancock.com, Re:3800-3100 B.C. Qustul.

Is this claim true?  Specifically, when and where were the earliest hieroglyphs yet discovered found?

If they were not found in Qustul in Ancient Nubia, why do so many people claim that they were?


texts: Has a hostile submarine transitted the Bosphorus submerged?

texts:
In WW1, the British submarine E-11 entered the Golden Horn, but apparently not the Bosphorus, and in this old thread on Usenet there are references to WW1 and fiction.

According to a recent article in World Neurosurgery, the American submarine Robert E. Lee passed through the Bosphorus submerged in 1969:

  patrols based out of Holy Loch, Scotland, that involved clandestine
  courses that required passage through the Straits of Gibraltar,
  Mediterranean Sea, Dardanelles, and Bosphorus. Each of these
  accomplishments was achieved submerged [...] The Bosphorus passage was
  particularly treacherous and irregular, with complex positioning and
  course changes that were affected by currents and the presence of
  Soviet submarine traffic and planned impediments.

(We ignore that the map shows a route straight through Perekop isthmus. The Bosphorus is what interests us here.)

The reference to "Soviet submarine traffic" seems to suggest this was not regulated traffic. The Montreux convention says that "submarines must travel by day and on the surface". On the other hand, surely NATO/Turkey would have been able to detect submarines in the Bosphorus in 1969?

Am not sure it would have been practical to do it with the technology available in WW 1/2.

So the question is: are there any records of any submarines not friendly to Turkey passing through the Bosphorus submerged?


texts: In 1700-1900 England, how were 'manners an end in themselves and not merely a means to achieve propriety by conformity'?

texts:
What does 1 mean: 'manners were [...] by conformity'?  I know little about English history.
How does 1 justify or mitigate 2; because to Anglophones in 2016, 1700-1900 English (e.g. Sheridan's opening below) appears grandiloquent and exaggerated?

Source: p 195, The Art of the Advocate (1993) by Richard Du Cann QC (called to the Bar of England and Wales).

    This was a period in English history when Lord Chesterfield
  could advise his son to speak well not because of what people
  would think of him if he did not, but because it was foolish to
  neglect an accomplishment which would serve him well in later
  life. [1.] Manners were an end in themselves and not merely a means
  to achieve propriety by conformity. [End of 1.] [2.] It is not surprising that a
  deliberate cultivation of language should have taken place at the
  same time. [End of 2.] This is part of Sheridan's opening on the impeachment
  of Warren Hastings:

    The coolness and reflection with which this act was managed ... proves
    the prisoner to be that monster in nature, a deliberate and reasoning
    tyrant; other tyrants of whom we read ... were urged on to their
    crimes by the impetuosity of passion. High rank disqualified them
    from advice, and perhaps, equally prevented reflection. But in the
    prisoner we have a man born in a state of mediocrity; bred to a
    mercantile life; used to system, and accustomed to regularity; who was
    accountable to his masters and therefore was compelled to think and
    deliberate on every part of his conduct. It is this cool deliberation I
    say, which renders his crimes the more horrible and his character the
    more atrocious.

    The studied perfection of this language falls unseasonably on
  modern ears. It is some measure of the unreasonableness of the
  age that the greater the care with which a speech appears to be
  fashioned the greater the distrust it arouses in the audience. The
  era of the common man invites common speech. Of course, words
  are the cheapest commodity on the market. Spoken words are
  also the most ephemeral. It is not surprising that less and less
  attention is paid to the construction of speeches or to the choice
  individual words from which they are built.


texts: Perception of the state by an average person in pre-modern times

texts:
I would like to better understand the experience of being governed and interaction with the centralized state (or lack thereof) in pre-modern times.

A cursory search did not return anything interesting: a starting point or keywords to look for would be greatly appreciated.

To elaborate, in modern developed countries most people interact with some sort of government institution on a daily basis. Virtually every transaction is taxed, in urban areas one can see police cars, most of economic activities require permits, it is assumed that basic healthcare services will be promptly provided to whoever needs it.

This must be starkly different to how people interacted with and perceived the government in pre-modern times. Even in comparatively centralized states such as the Roman empire or the Chinese dynasties, an average person must have felt a much weaker presence of the government in their lives and perceived it completely differently.

Some more specific questions that come to mind:

Were most people even aware that they were part of something larger than their immediate social environment (ie, state vs village)?
Would they care which government to live under given that there was no strong state-related (eg, national) identity?
Would they notice the change of government if territory they lived in was conquered? How fast?
Can anything general be said on this issue, or does it strongly depend on the exact period and geographical location?

Are there books/articles/podcasts/reddit threads discussing this subject in more detail? Which keywords should I look for?


texts: Why does Brazil have many more Italian descendants than the U.S. or Argentina when the latter two received more Italian immigrants?

texts:
According to the wikipedia page about Italian emigration (in Portuguese, but the table with immigrants to each country is very easy to read) the U.S. received 5.6 million Italians between 1870 and 1970, Argentina received 2.9 million and Brazil received 1.5 million.
From the same wikipedia page in English:

Italian Brazilians are the largest number of people with full or partial Italian ancestry outside of Italy, with São Paulo being the most populous city with Italian ancestry in the world. Nowadays, it's possible to find millions of descendants of Italians, from the southeastern state of Minas Gerais to the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, with the majority living in the São Paulo state[36] and the highest percentage in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo (60-75%). Small southern Brazilian towns, such as Nova Veneza, have as much as 95% of their population of Italian descent.

From the same wikipedia page in Italian, the number of descendants (also easy to read table):

Brasile      = 27 200 000
Argentina    = 19 700 000
Stati Uniti" = 17 250 000

The page about American Italians (in English) confirms 5.5 million Italian immigrants to the U.S.


texts: Did Watt or another inventor have a dream about ball bearings?

texts:
I have put in a fair amount of searching for this but have come up empty.  I specifically remember the story printed from my childhood like 30-40 years ago, but I wanted to see if there's any source transcribed on the internet.

The printed account states that (I thought it was James Watt) was trying to figure out how (at that time) to make perfectly round ball bearings.  He had a dream supposedly of an iron woman (no relation to Iron Maiden) crying metal tears and it was raining or some such similar detail.

Watt or whatever inventor then dropped molten iron of a specific quantity into a high vertical tank of water, and the resulting bearings came out perfectly or near perfectly round at the bottom.

Can anyone corroborate any portion of this?  And give a reference?  Thanks!

--- EDIT ---

I have found a book online, but it provides no further reference.

Here is another reference, but it states that he was walking in the rain but it was raining iron.


texts: How was the lower chamber of the Japanese Imperial Diet elected under the Meiji constitution?

texts:
During the period 1868-1945, Japan was ruled under the "constitution of the empire of Japan" better known as the "Meiji constitution". Under this constitution, the Imperial Diet was the legislature and primarily dictated domestic policy matters." The diet consisted of two chambers, the House of Peers consisting of the Emperor's family, nobles, and people nominated by the Emperor, and the House of Representatives, elected by the people. My question is:

  How was the lower chamber elected? Who voted? Under which system?

I haven't found the answer in the wikipedia article, nor in the constitution itself (the text of which is easily found on the internet), as it just states that the modality of election of the lower chamber will be fixed by a law, and as I haven not been able to find this law.

I am also interested in knowing the results of the elections during that period. Any reference would be welcome.


texts: How democratic was the ancient republic of Rome?

texts:
So in ancient Rome Republic elections where done every year and two consuls were elected, however I see sometimes the same consuls elected again and again, same seems to happen with the senators.

Was the Republic democratic as we understand it in modern terms or was it a little bit corrupt and open only to certain families (that is, only rich families may had access to become senators, not any regular citizen)?


texts: Why did Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia remain loyal to France during and after World War II?

texts:
During WW II Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia did not revolt against either Vichy France or Free France. Not only did they not take advantage of the initial French defeat and its occupation by Axis powers, soldiers from these lands even fought with the French Army to liberate France. 300,000 North African Arabs fought in the ranks of the Free French, according to Wikipedia. They also did not declare independence in the aftermath of World War II - they would become independent much later.

This is different from a lot of other major colonies of European countries which declared independence during and immediately after WW II. For example India and Pakistan in 1947, Philippines in 1946, Indonesia and Vietnam in 1945, Syria and Lebanon in 1943.


texts: How widespread was the use of red ochre by sapiens in prehistory?

texts:
It appears that red ochre, color based on iron oxide, has been used very abundantly by prehistoric peoples, especially sapiens (Homo sapiens sapiens), but also to a lesser extent, Neanderthals. Examples include the 70k year old ochre processing workshop in Bloombos cave in South Africa, the Lake Mungo burials in Australia 45k years before present, the 33k year old Paviland skeleton in Britain, and in the Americas the Moorehead burial tradition.

It seems striking, how widespread this was in prehistoric sapiens population, so much so that it might be a common cultural trait that was retained for thousands of years from the migration out of Africa and across all continents. There is an old discussion piece from 1980 in the journal "Current Anthropology" with an article by Ernst Wreschner and several comments by various scholars. The article is on the journal's website behind a paywall or free on the website of one of the authors of one of the comments. While the article points out that red ochre usage was not universal (and only found in a minority of sites except in the Magdalenian and North American Archaic) and some comments are critical with regard to misinterpretation of evidence, you get the impression that this was extraordinarily common in prehistory, until it ceased with the neolithic or bronze or iron age (see Malinowski's comment on p.638). The discussion touches on whether and how this is a common human cultural trait, but also details problems with the collection of evidence and then ventures into the psychology of color perception and interpretation etc.

I was wondering to what extent this is true and this is a remarkable common cultural trait of prehistoric sapiens, common across all continents and times, even though it was clearly not universal. And whether any new evidence or insights have emerged since this discussion was published in 1980.

To explain: It would be much less impressive, if the abundance of evidence for red ochre is spurious (either because of misinterpretation of naturally occurring red ochre or because of the discussion is based on cherrypicked evidence and ochre was actually not found in almost all prehistoric sites). It would also be less impressive if red ochre is simply the only abundant dye that is available to humans with prehistoric technology (then the common cultural practice would only be the use of paint, which is, I guess, not controversial). But it would be impressive if we are actually looking at a piece of culture that had been retained since the migration out of Africa.


texts: Why did not UK assist Greece in 1919 war?

texts:
Why did not UK assist Greece against Turks in 1919 war?

Greece had historical ties with UK. But no significant assistance by UK was provided to Greece during the war. As far as I know British Armies had already taken Istanbul and were close to the battle front.

It seems UK deliberately and indirectly left the country for Turks. What might be the reason behind this decision? Why did not UK help its Christian ally to obtain the West Anatolia?


texts: What does a "wage" mean in the time of 'The Odyssey'?

texts:
In Book 10 of The Odyssey, there's the following sentence (English translation):

  A sleepless man could earn a double wage by herding cows, then pasturing sheep - the paths of day and night are close together.

What does "wage" mean here? Does it refer to currency being paid per time/amount of work, and if so what kind of currency, or is there a different interpretation based on the original Greek? What sort of "wage" would most make sense given the time period?

This is probably difficult to answer given that we don't know exactly what period these stories took place in or when exactly the Odyssey was written. But still, I am looking for a deeper sense of what "wage" could have possibly meant here, compared to the modern notion of being paid per unit of time spent.


texts: Identify the circa 1920 uniform in this photo

texts:
The photo is dated 1920. Quality isn't brilliant, but we need the uniform information for the family tree. The lady would have been 22 in 1920. Birthplace was London. Nationality: British. Traveled extensively later so we thought she may have been in the forces. Settled in Australia.
The writing at the bottom is sending the photo from Grace (lady in photo) with best wishes to her sister Lizzie. 1920. Full name is GRACE HALL. Do not confuse with famous American woman pilot.
Photo taken in the Daniels Studio, 38 Tachbrook Street, Westminster.
Probably too early, 1920, for a lady pilot in the UK but likely to be for a motorcycle.
For the visually impaired or thing like search engines, I am going to try to describe what we visually see:

black and white photo, which has been identified by the querent as from the 1920 time frame
it is a portrait of a young lady, appearing to be late teens or early twenties in age, with short, dark, curly hair falling a few inches above the neckline in a 'bob' cut
the picture has been cropped to show the person from the upper abdomen/lower chest and up, at a slight left angle
the person is wearing what appears to be a wool overcoat, of a style reminiscent of English military (flight or motorcycle corps), collar is fur-lined, coat appears to button up in the female, or right hand over left fashion
person is wearing a brimmed hat, which appears to match the style worn by members of the British WAAF forces
the cap has an RFC, or Royal Flying Corp badge sewn to the peak
around the cap, the person has what appears to be a WWI-style fur-lined aviator's goggles
the person is wearing a white, or very light colored button-down shirt, with a black, or dark-colored tie, and a tie-tack, holding the collar closed under the tie's knot
finally, there is something in the over-coat's outer left breast pocket, but it is too blurry to make out any details


texts: What factors explain Indian territorial restraint towards Pakistani occupied Kashmir despite military success against Pakistan?

texts:
It would seem that the Indian army managed on three separate occasions to beat its Pakistani opposite, but did not press these advantages by occupying the Pakistani portion of Kashmir.

The three separate occasions:

In the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947, over Kashmir, the Indian army managed to repulse the Pakistani backed infiltrators from Srinagar and the valley proper. However,they then did not press ahead with the offensive to wrest the remaining part of Kashmir from Pakistan. India instead took the matter to the UN, a move that allowed Pakistan to settle down in the part of Kashmir it had managed to salvage.

In the 1971 war, India, despite having routed Pakistani forces and captured tens of thousands of Pakistanis as prisoners of war (PoW), entered into the 1972-Simla Agreement with Pakistan instead of pressing Pakistan to pull out its troops from Kashmir, a precondition in the UN resolutions of 1948-49 which had given India (rather than Pakistan) a kind of legitimacy in Kashmir of holding the plebiscite (under UN supervision).

Finally, again, in the 1999-Kargil stand-off, India, after forcing Pakistan to vacate their positions in the strategic mountains just didn't press Pakistan into "doing more".

Resulting question:

In light of these events. I wonder, is this version of history correct? If so, then my question is, why is it that India in each one of the above three episodes relented and allowed Pakistan to retain the part of Kashmir it seized control of in 1947-48 despite having had a clear military upper hand over Pakistan?

Is it possible that a reason for this restraint is that, similar to the Pakistani military establishment, the Indian military establishment does not wish the Kashmir issue to go away so it can continue to be of significance in the country?


texts:
After World War II, plenty of radar aimed guns were developed for the purpose of targeting the guns of anti-aircraft vehicles.

Why hasn't this same technology been applied to tanks? A 900 MHz radar unit would operate on a wavelength of 33.3 cm. This seems like it would be more than accurate enough to aim the main tank of a gun.

I would also think that a tank would be an excellent target with lots of strong radar returns. Some tanks have rounded turrets, but there is usually something flat with hard edges that should show up on radar.

The output would need to be fed into a gun computer to calculate an aiming solution, but those have been around for quite some time.


texts:
It's said that the unemployment was virtually non-existent in Nazi Germany. What factors led to such a drastic reduction of unemployment?

Are there comparable examples of other industrial nations achieving similar rates or is this an anomaly?


texts: What is known about the Tings in 10th century Norway?

texts:
There is quite a lot known about the Icelandic assemblies, but what about the Norwegian ones?
Were Gulating, Borgarting, Eidsivating and Frostating also held in summer?
Can we assume, that the procedure there was similar to the Icelandic Althing?
Did they also have a lawspeaker (how was he chosen), or did the attending chieftains (or all the attending free farmers) function as a jury?
What was the role of all the attending free people?
Were there other assemblies, which were held ad hoc or did every case have to wait for those big regional assemblies (or did they resolve some cases if possible within the local community and if, was in that case the chieftain of the affected settlement the judge)? What if a legal decision was very urgent, but couldn't be resolved in a small assembly? What if, the prosecutor belonged to a different region and therefore different assemblies, than the defendant?
Sorry for all these questions. Most of them probably won't have any concrete answers, but every information on the topic is welcome. But please don't just send links to Wikipedia, because the information there is insufficient for me and doesn't answer any of my questions.


texts: What criteria are used to determine the popularity of Medieval European rulers?

texts:
It is relatively common to see certain monarchs described as "popular" while others are "unpopular". It confounds me as to what specific evidence has been used to determine this, because (obviously) there were no such things as opinion polls at the time. It would seem to me that surviving evidence is strongly biased in favour of a few classes at the expense of the other(s). What does the specific description "popular" mean when applied to a Medieval Western European monarch (or their actions)? How is this determined (including if there is no 'standard' to determine this)?
As best I can see, the surviving documentation will stem from a number (from as few as one to hundreds) of chroniclers, foreign dignitaries who visited the state, archaeological findings, tax ledgers, and accounts of unrest/civil strife. Yet, any or even all of these factors are strongly biased towards the nobility and unrepresentative of the peasantry.
I have not made this location-specific as I don't envision there to be many differences across the Medieval period given the paucity of evidence should be more or less similar. If you do note that there would be location-specificity that would apply, I will modify this.
A few examples:

Alison Weir often describes Elizabeth of York, Henry VII's queen, as "popular" in her 'Elizabeth of York' (this originally made me think about the topic given how often Weir laments the lack of evidence for that biography);
John I Lackland is generally described as "unpopular":

John may have been motivated by the potential of the royal legal process to raise fees, rather than a desire to deliver simple justice; his legal system also applied only to free men, rather than to all of the population. Nonetheless, these changes were popular with many free tenants, who acquired a more reliable legal system that could bypass the barons, against whom such cases were often brought. John's reforms were less popular with the barons themselves, especially as they remained subject to arbitrary and frequently vindictive royal justice. [Wikipedia]

Marc Morris generally describes Edward I as "popular" in 'A Great and Terrible King', but this seems to have come about mostly because of Edward's long life while nearly all of the King's taxation measures were still disliked (unsurprisingly) (the below example does actually show what it bases itself on):

When Edward landed at Dover on 2 August 1274 it was clearly to a tremendous sense of popular excitement. 'Behold, he shines like a new Richard!' enthused one Londoner in a song written shortly before the new king's arrival...

In a way, this could be rephrased as 'how many chroniclers have to write ill of a monarch for us to consider it "popular" opinion?' but that sounded too incendiary, especially as the concept (if not the specific term) does seem to be thrown around narrative histories with relative frequency.


texts:
This question links to a blog article of dubious quality about the life of Nero. One sentence however got me thinking (emphasis mine):

  Though many historical accounts of Nero describe him as weak and frail, one may know merely by looking at a bust that he had a noble face from which blue eyes burned fiercely.

My first reaction was to reject the argument outright, but it made me think about the accuracy of the busts carved during ancient history, such at these: Julius Caesar, Nero, Plato, Shapur II.

I found a forum post asking the same question. One of the answer refers to verism, which is an artistic movement advocating realism, hence producing accurate representation of historical figures. However, it is a movement that was happening only in the Roman Empire, and not consistently during its reign.

How can historian assess the accuracy of busts and statues of ancient history? Has there been research about this?