texts: I am looking for historical airport schedules from the US and Canada from after WWII. For example, I would really like to see a flight schedule (or schedules) from New York from around 1948. Any ideas where I might find this data either on the internet or in an old publication?


texts: Who actually paid for the American State Visit Brooch?

texts:
Headlines this week in major media outlets this week are musing if Queen Elizabeth might have been 'trolling' President Trump by wearing the American State Visit Brooch gifted to her on a visit by President and First Lady Obama some years back.

My question is: Was this actually a personal gift from the Obamas, paid for by them, or was it a gift from the American people, paid for from federal tax revenues, merely presented to Her Majesty by the Obamas?

I ask because, to my mind, it would be entirely expected that Her Majesty would wear a gift from the American people when the President of the American people visits; even when it might be a different person than that who originally delivered the gift.

If on the other hand it was a gift personally paid for by President and First Lady Obama, that sends an entirely different signal to President Trump.


texts: Did any country threaten war on the US because they didn't pay their debt after the Revolutionary War?

texts:
Ok, I am in 8th grade and we had a history test. One of the questions on the test was:
Why did Hamilton want to pay off war debt?

a) If he didn't, other countries might not want to do business with the US anymore.

b) Other countries threatened to declare war if debts were not paid.

c) All of the above.

I put a but my teacher put c. I looked in my textbook and it didn't say anything about threatening war so, to be sure, did any country threaten war on the US because they didn't pay their debt after the Revolutionary War?


texts: Is there a field of study which attempts to document historic experiences of ordinary individuals?

texts:
One of my interests is attempting to understand what human experiences were like for individuals in the past. I want to learn about their day-to-day lives, their fears, their aspirations and what their world view was.

Does a field of study which attempts to document and convey human experiences across periods and demographics exist, and what is the name of this field? The closest I have been able to find is social geography, but that seems to be a rather poorly defined field with little emphasis on historic experiences.


texts: What are specific parts of this 19th century dress called?

texts:
Src: Portrait of Nadezhda Polovtseva

So this a the Portrait of Nadezhda Polovtseva in which she is wearing a white and green gown. I just need a really simple explaination of what the separate pieces of the dress are called, specifically the green top, white skirt and green bust, in fashion terms. I've read somewhere that it might be a taille, suit and garniture but I feel like that might be wrong lol. Also, is it all one garment, or are they all separate pieces put together?


texts: History of the Ruins near Chagyl in Turkmenistan

texts:
In the Balkan Region of Turkmenistan, there is a small (possibly abandoned) modern village built on top of what looks to be some sort of ancient ruins near the remote town of Chagyl. (Some of the contemporary houses at the site even appear to be using the raised walls of the ruins as fencing.)

You can see a satellite picture of the complex here: https://binged.it/2E9tk3L

(Bing calls this area Tuar, although Google Maps labels it Tüwer.)

Is there any information on the history of said ruins or what the area may have been known for before they were, well, ruined?

It's interesting that the site appears near the path of the fabled Silk Road.

It's also interesting that there look like what appear to be man-made path lines criss-crossing the desert in this general region as well.

(In more recent satellite pictures, you can see a modern railroad being built through some of these pathways to the north of the Garabogazköl lagoon at the Kazakhstan border.)


texts: What Was the US Debt-To-GDP Before Jackson Was President

texts:
Andrew Jackson is the only president in US history to pay off the national debt.  Sounds great, but what was the debt-to-GDP then, as he may have been helped by the president who came before him?

(Don't get me wrong, it was a huge accomplishment for his team considering that they were the ONLY presidential team to pull this off.)


texts: I bought this from an antique shop in Japan. Beside the price tag it said it was 120 years old. The shop owner didn't speak much English. All he kept saying was "boat" and kept making a motion like raking leaves. I'm not sure if it would be used to pull boats in, pull fishing nets, or what. It has a spike on one end and two angled prongs with wire lashings on the other end.


texts:
A 1997 czech movie Knoflíkáři depicts a "Fat Man" atomic bomb that should have been dropped on Kokura town, but the target has been changed to Nagasaki for a bad weather conditions (which is historically correct).

The image of the bomb itself is not so accurate. What interests me is the triangular symbol on the bomb. I can't find its meaning anywhere. Is the symbol purely fictitious or does it have any meaning?


texts: Can someone help explain this floor plan of a mid 20th century apartment?

texts:
I was watching 12 Angry Men, which was made in 1957; and they show this floor plan of an apartment:

My main question is, what's the opening in the wall between the hallway and the main room?  It looks like it ought to be a door, but it's shown using a window symbol.  Why?

(Edit:  I didn't emphasize enough - that opening really, really ought to be a door.  If it's not, then I want to know why an apartment would be designed with the front door opening into the bedroom.)

(This is shown as an exhibit in a murder case, and they spend a fair amount of time discussing how long it would take a man to get from the bed in the upper right to the front door in the lower left.  They all assume that he uses the bedroom door in the lower right and runs all the way down the hall.  Going through the living room would involve more doors but be a straighter line, but no one mentions the possibility.  Normally I'd attribute that to lazy writing, but with the way it's drawn it made me wonder.)

I'm also curious about two other things:

1) The double wall between the bedroom and the living room.  I guess the space in between is used as closets, but they would be very oddly shaped; about 5' deep and 3' wide.  That would be very difficult to use - a normal closet is about 2' deep, while a walk-in closet needs to be at least 4.5' wide.  A more normal design, today at least, would be to make the closets open into the bedroom.

2)  Why the hallway extends all the way to the right.  It's not providing access to anything but the man's bedroom (ie there aren't any other apartments), so why wouldn't the bedroom go down all the way to the bottom wall?  It'd be four feet wider that way, and could still open into the hallway.

The answers to those two questions could be structural.  You can see I've already done a fair amount of speculating here - I'm hoping someone who knows something about midcentury architecture can give me a more definitive answer, especially about the mystery opening in the living room.

(Edit:  So, one of two questions has to be answered:

Why is a door drawn as a window?  I don't buy plain blundering, because even someone who doesn't know anything about architecture could tell the difference between the door and window symbols.
OR why would anyone, ever, design an apartment with the front door opening into the bedroom?  Such a bizarre layout would reduce the amount of rent you could charge by so much that the trivial cost of turning the hallway window into a door would pay for itself within a couple of months.)


texts: Did Bill Gates steal the GUI concept from Steve Jobs?

texts: The Jobs movie alleged that Bill Gates swiped the idea of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on a personal computer (PC) from Steve Jobs. Can anyone explain to me the exact story on what happened in a more clear way? I had surfed google about it, but none of it seemed to be convincing and complete.


texts:
AnswersInGenesis suggests:

  However, the result of recent research is that the chronology of the ancient world is being redated. Hammurabi now appears to be a near contemporary of Moses instead of Abraham. In Egyptian chronological studies, the patriarchs are dated earlier than ever before.

EarlthlyCovenant claims:

  beam of evidence suggesting that the Mesopotamian overlord with whom Abraham made a covenant was the great law giver of Babylon, king Hammurabi (1790-1752 BCE).

My question is: Is there evidence to suggest that Abraham and Hammurabi influenced one another?


texts: Were there any "retaliation" anti-tank weapons widely used by infantry in World War II?

texts:
"Standard" anti-tank weapons used by infantry included bazookas and anti-tank rifles (the latter being heavier than infantry rifles, and requiring special shells). In a "pinch," infantry used "Molotov cocktails," made of gasoline in glass bottles with lighted fuses.

But these weapons were used by "active" infantry who were braver, or at least more aggressive than most, and who sought out fights with tanks. Many studies have shown that "average" soldiers will "fight when fought" and fire when fired upon, but otherwise not seek combat. Such soldiers often took refuge from tanks in trenches, where tanks could run them over.

Was there a weapon, such as an explosive attached to the end of a club that entrenched soldiers could stick into the bottom of tanks, thereby almost assuring the destruction of the tank as well as the weapon? (This would be for "retaliation" when their own lives were directly threatened.) Were such weapons considered too dangerous to issue to soldiers in trenches? Or did armies prefer other anti-tank measures? (For instance, Soviet commanders would have tanks "iron" entrenched soldiers in practice to teach them to dig deep enough to avoid tanks.)

I would expect such weapons, if they existed, would more likely be used by Soviet or Japanese soldiers, with their fatalistic view of the world.


texts: Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?

texts:
I read an article about how anthropologists have discovered artifacts from an ancient Arctic culture known as the Dorset that disappeared centuries ago and were the precursors to the Inuit in the Arctic.

The people came about 1000 years ago and there is no information on how they disappeared, but I want to know if there are any viable hypotheses on what led to their disappearance.


texts: This question asked whether we know the list of patricians from who was consuls. I don't think that is it because I always read that there were originally 100 individuals who were the head of patrician households. How do we know who the Roman patricians were? Do we know all of the first 100 patricians?


texts:
Indians believe that Prithviraj Chauhan killed The Muhammed of Ghouri, but according to history Muhammed of Ghouri died after the death of Prithviraj Chauhan. Prithviraj's tomb is disrespected in Afghanistan as the Afghas also believe that he killed their emperor. So what is the truth?

The story which is believed about Muhammed of Ghouri's death.


texts: When did Nuremberg adopt the Gregorian Calendar?

texts:
A similar question has been posed on this site in the past, "When did Frankfurt am Main adopt the Gregorian Calendar?. I'm trying to discern exactly when the city of Nuremberg adopted the Gregorian Calendar but haven't found a definitive answer yet.

Bavaria as a whole has a tradition of Catholic faith. Can we assume that Nuremberg adopted the Gregorian Calendar at 1583 along with the other Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire? I would like to base my answer upon facts and not the assumptions I've made above if possible.


texts: Why did the UK allow India to be a republic rather than a democratic parliament under the British Monarch?

texts: In the UK, there is a democratically elected prime minister but the Monarch is the Head of State,  although the latter is not (directly) involved in government. Likewise, the UK could have done the same in India, establishing an Indian-run Government but with the British Monarch as its head. Why did the UK not choose this option when granting independence to India?


texts: What is the source for this quote from the French Revolution?

texts:
I have read that, during the French Revolution, a Girondin once said about Marat: "give this man a glass of blood, he is thirsty!"

Is there a source for this?


texts: How did the British Army unit size and structure in WWI change from 1915 to 1918?

texts:
Preface:  For obvious reasons, we will assume ideal conditions for the purposes of this question.  For convenience's sake, we will also ignore the original British Expeditionary Force that was almost wiped out by early 1915, and instead,  limit the scope of the question to the "New Army" (AKA "Kitchener's Army") that took to the field from mid- 1915 onwards. And I know that some units were unique, sometimes drastically different from the norm, so answers will, of necessity, be general and not universally applicable.
I'm curious as to how the size and structure of British Army changed from 1915 to 1918.  As I understand it, in 1914 the theoretical ideal was as follows:
Division:
Roughly 18,000 men, including 4 infantry brigades plus other units like engineers, medical personnel, artillerymen, signallers, HQ staff, etc)
Brigade:
Roughly 4,000 men, in 4 infantry battalions plus other units
Battalion:
Roughly 1,000 men, in 3 companies plus other units
Company:
Roughly 230 men, in 4 platoons plus other units
Platoon:
Roughly 50 men
This changed over time - the cavalry was drastically reduced, stokes mortar teams were added, more machine gun teams were created, etc.
Starting in 1915, excluding special cases, and assuming ideal conditions,  how did these numbers change - including the number of men per unit (e.g., ~1,000 per battalion) and the number of subsidiary units per larger formation (e.g., 4 battalions per brigade)?


texts: What were John Profumo's responsibilities as the Secretary of State for War in Macmillan's government?

texts: Although I've found that "Profumo's responsibility was the Army, and his principal preoccupation was helping to recruit and establish a regular volunteer Army after the abolition of conscription" (The telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1512656/John-Profumo.html), it seems to me that his duties included more than this.


texts: When did Greek historians stop believing Greek mythology to be historical fact?

texts:
In Greek mythology, there are all kinds of historical stories. Fire from Mount Olympus, founding of Thebes, not to mention actions of the gods.

First, is it safe to assume that there was a time in history when Greeks tended to believe Greek mythology as historical fact?

Second, if so, when did the overwhelming majority of Greek historians realize that it was not true?


texts:
I have heard from people and read on the internet that Armenia is considered to be the first country to adopt Christianity as state religion (the exact date is widely disputed, though 301 AD is the traditional date).

How well-established is this whole claim among modern historians?

I am interested in the core claim, the exact date of conversion does not matter to me, though it would be nice if the answer included information about the date too.

I can't find any definitive answer on the current state of this claim among modern historians, which is why I'm asking this question here on History SE.


texts: Were Mandela's documents on violence vindicated after the ANC came to power?

texts: This is because on the issue of violence that Mandela try to explain in his document did not reach at point that we can say are succeeded. For example racial segregation still exists in South Africa..  So did the ANC government do anything that concern with violence that has been explained by Nelson Mandela in his document?


texts: Who was Mathilda von Merckens and which was her castle?

texts:
I am reading “The Magic Lantern”, the autobiography of Ingmar Bergman. In it, he describes a castle of a musicians' patron:

Every summer before the war [World war II], they were invited close to Stuttgart, in a castle, situated in an area with exceptional beauty, with a superb view to the mountain and the river. The owner of the castle, Mathilda von Merckens, an elderly woman, […] was an industrial magnate's widow. Time was not kind to the castle or to its lady.
Despite this, she continued gathering in her home the most prominent musicians in Europe: Casals, Rubinstein, Fischer, Kreisler, Furtwängler, Menuchin, Vogler.

This caught my interest. Which castle is being described here, what is its history, does it still exist? Who owns it now, is it a private individual or the local/state/federal government? Who was Mathilda, and what was her story?
I tried an online search, but didn't find anything, also not for alternative spellings.
He says that Vogler's wife's stories from this castle inspired the film “All these women”, but apparently the film itself was shot in Sweden.


texts: How many defensive lines did China build for the Second Sino-Japanese War?

texts:
Lots of famous defensive lines were built up to and during WWII, like the Maginot Line or Atlantic Wall. China did the same for the Second Sino-Japanese war, two lines they built were part of the so-called "Chinese Hindenburg Line" - Wufu Line and the Xicheng Line - built before the war, and blocked the path from Shanghai to Nanking in anticipation of the eventual fall of Shanghai and defense of Nanking.

Were there any more defensive lines built prior to or during the war? If so which were they, and what did they defend against?


texts: What was Pizarro's route between Spain and Peru?

texts:
What was the sea route generally used by Francisco Pizarro and his contemporaries to go from Spain to Peru (and back)?

Was it:

Sea route 1.: Through Panama Isthmus (with a passage in the land)
Sea route 2.: Through the Strait of Magellan (Southern tip of S. America)

I know that the first route was used the first time they went to Peru and that the second was feared by navigators at the time.
I also noticed that the second route is not mentioned in the "Spanish treasure fleet" Wikipedia.


texts: Was a copy of Bobadilla's report on Christopher Columbus really found in a Spanish archive in 2006?

texts:
As claimed in The Guardian

A transcription of the document is apparently available on JSTOR here, the section "Pesquisa Del Comendador Francisco de Bobadilla".

I cannot read Spanish and otherwise lack expertise to form any opinion on whether the document seems genuine.

Does anyone here know if the document is genuine? Or can you form any kind of impression or opinion based on the JSTOR source?


texts: How did the different regions' cultures in colonial America eventually begin to unify?

texts:
There were a myriad of differences between the Northern and Southern regions, but I still don't understand how or why they grew similarities and united over time.

Does it have something to do with Enlightenment/Great Awakening? I know that both the North and South were hugely affected by it, but in what ways did they unite as a whole?

Sorry if it's a broad question, but please help me out the best way you can.


texts: What was the civil weapons legislation under Hitler?

texts: Was possession of weapons prohibited, encouraged, allowed to members of some organizations, or what?


texts: Greek Revolution: Where did the Greeks look for descendants of the Byzantine dynasties?

texts:
I recall reading in a few books that during the early to mid 19th century, the Greeks where trying to find European nobles who had genealogies linked to the dynasties of the old Byzantine Empire (Paleologus, Laskaris, Doukas etc). The idea being that they could be potentially persuaded to join the cause of the Greeks in their plight to create a Christian empire centered in Constantinople.

My question was, Where they ever able to find any? if so, who where these people? if not, are there any details on where they tried to look?

Edit: To the best of my knowledge the most recent person to claim to be a descendant of the Paleologos dynasty (the last Byzantine Dynasty) was a man named Ferdinando Paleologos who died in 1678, Barbados


texts: What is the evidence supporting the story of Padmavati saving her honour by self-immolation?

texts:
Rani Padmini aka Padmavati is a very popular historical character, but her story's authenticity has been put to question several times.

As per legend she was famous for her beauty.  Alauddin Khalji heard about it and laid siege on Chittor to obtain her. But Padmavati and her companions performed Jauhar* to protect their honour from the invaders.

What is the historical evidence to support this story being authentic?

*Jauhar - Hindu custom of mass self-immolation by women


texts: Why do people not talk about Tokyo fire bombing during WW2?

texts:
I was wondering why Hiroshima and Nagasaki are remembered as some of the most devastating attacks during WW2; but, the Tokyo firebombing March 9, 1945—which caused more casualties and was a really devastating blow on the nations capital—has been largely forgotten in modern times.

Why does popular history remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but not Tokyo?

please keep in mind I am not an expert on the subject and I'm not sure about the exact number of casualties and injuries caused by the fire bombings.


texts: Has there ever been anything like the oil boom we see today?

texts:
Since the discovery of oil, there have been entire nations that have literally been built from the ground up almost completely with oil money. This has been done, and is still being done, in relatively short spans of time. Has this ever occurred in history at such a magnitude (relative to those times)? If so, what were the consequences? What parallels can we draw to today’s oil boom and its inevitable end?

I am familiar with the gold rushes of the 1800s, but they do not appear comparable to that of today’s oil boom.


texts:
According an article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

  The fall in nutritional standards between 1880 and 1900 was so marked
  that the generations were visibly and progressively shrinking.

The authors of this article (Paul Clayton & Judith Rowbotham), How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died, assert that poor nutrition after 1870 in urban areas meant that the British Army (infantry) had to lower the minimum height requirement for recruits from 5ft 6 inches (170.7 cm) to 5ft 3 inches (161.5 cm) in 1883, and that it was then later lowered again to 5ftm (152.4 cm).

However, data compiled by Professor Tim Hatton et al shows that the average height of British men at the age of 21 increased from 167 cm in 1871-5 to almost 170 cm in 1896-1900. Also, this Economist article shows a graph of the Mean Height of Men (source: Hatton & Gray, 2010) with very similar figures to Hatton et al.

Between 1880 and 1900, the size of the British (regular) Army increased from 165,000 to 275,000. Might not this significant increase in recruitment explain why the minimum height for recruits was lowered? Also, the Cardwell reforms Army Enlistment Act of 1870 reduced the normal period of service from 21 years to 12 years.

On the issue of nutrition, Professor Anthony S. Wohl's article What the Poor Ate would seem to contradict Clayton & Rowbotham:

  It was not until the last quarter of the century that the working
  man's diet improved significantly. Between 1877 and 1889 the cost of
  the average national weekly food basket of butter, bread, tea, milk
  and meat fell by some 30 per cent, and it was in this period that the
  first really appreciable nutritional improvement (aided by a greater
  variety of foods and new methods of retailing), occurred.

Did the average height of men in late Victorian England decline due to poor nutrition? Or is Clayton & Rowbotham's statement "the generations were visibly and progressively shrinking" without evidence?


texts: When did "skipping" grades become common and when did it stop in USA?

texts:
I know, for example, that Tom Lehrer (the comedian) went to Harvard at 15 and he said that during WW2 especially, this was not particularly unusual. It is my impression that in the 1930s and 1940s, this was how academically-gifted kids were dealt with although it was largely discontinued because of the obvious social issues that would arise although if enough kids were skipped they would have company. Even today this seems to happen occasionally but I am wondering if the practice predated the 1930s and when it was phased out.

EDIT: Very interested in non-USA information also.


texts: What do historians infer about the world view of the ancient Egyptians based on the prophecy of Neferty?

texts:
Here are some excerpts of Neferty's prophecy

  Papyrus Hermitage 1116B, lines 17- to 21

  Utterly destroyed are those times of happiness at those basin lakes,
  with men set to slitting fish, overflowing with fish and fowl. All
  happiness has departed, flung down in the land of hardship, from those
  (weights) of supplies of the Asiatics who are throughout the land. Men
  of violence have emerged in the East, Asiatics are coming down into
  Egypt, The confines are lost, another is beside, who will not be
  heard. The ladder will be blocked in the night, the camps will be
  entered, the bleary-eyed will be overpowered, as the sleeper says 'I
  am awake'.

  Papyrus Hermitage 1116B, lines 21- to 23

  Do not tire: look at it
  before you, Stand up to what is in front of you, Look, now, the great
  are in the condition of the land, what was made is become unmade, Ra
  (must) begin his creation. the land is destroyed entirely, nothing is
  left overm there is not a trace of the fingernail in its fixed place.

  13 (Papyrus Hermitage 1116B, lines 57 to 61)

  “There is a king who will
  come from the south Ameny true of voice is his name. He is the
  son of a woman of the Land of the Bow, he is a child of the Heartland of Nekhen. He will take up the White Crown, he will raise up
  the Red Crown, he will unite the Two Mighty Goddesses, he will appease
  the Two Lord Gods, with what they desire. The field circuit is in his
  grasp, the oar in the jump.”

  14 (Papyrus Hermitage 1116B, lines 61 to 65)

  Rejoice O people of his time The son of a man will make his name for
  eternity and everlasting time. Those who fall into evil, or plan
  treason, they will be overthrown on themselves for fear of him, the
  Asiatics will fall at his slaughter, the Libyans will fall at his fire, the rebels at his force, the evil-hearted at his majesty.
  The rising cobra who is in the palace will overpower the evil-hearted
  for him.

  15 (Papyrus Hermitage 1116B, lines 65 to 71)

  They will build the Walls of the Ruler may he live, prosper, and be
  well,
  to prevent the Asiatics from coming down into Egypt if they request water in the proper manner, to let their flocks drink. Right
  is returned to its place, and evil is expelled. rejoice whoever will
  see, whoever will live in the following of the king. The wise man will
  pour water for me, when he sees what I have said come to pass.

Where was the heartland of Nekhen located?
Who were these Asiatics who the Egyptians despised so deeply?
Who was referred to as Ameny true of voice?
Where is the land of the Bow located?
How does this prophecy fit with the dynastic race theory along with other theories that claim a Semitic, West Asian or middle Eastern origin of the ancient Egyptians?

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature/nefertytransl.html


texts: Was it possible for a message from Paris to reach London within 48 hours in 1782?

texts:
I used to have a paperback copy of Diplomacy of the American Revolution by Samuel Flagg Bemis, but now I can't find it. I seem to recall that American diplomats in Paris in 1782 (Franklin, Adams, Jay) told a British diplomat that his credentials were unacceptable because they empowered him to negotiate with representatives of the "colonies" rather than of the "United States of America", and that he wrote to Parliament to request a revision of his credentials, and the message reached London in less than 48 hours.

Is that true? Or is some variant of that true? How would the message have been transported? I imagine it might go from Paris to Calais by horse, from Calais to Dover by sailing ship, and then horses carried it from there to London. Were there businesses that would have accommodated an exchange of horses so that when one was exhausted, it could immediately be exchanged for the next at all hours? Could a ship have been chartered at a moment's notice if there was enough money? Would the money have been carried in the form of silver or gold coins? What sort of bodyguard would have accompanied the messenger? Would he and the bodyguard have had diplomatic immunity?


texts: Who was the first military force to use teppo (guns) in mass battles during the Sengoku-jidai?

texts: Oda clan used guns to great efficency against the Takeda clan but which warlord (or faction) used them for the first time?  I seem to recall that some of the sohei order had access to firearms and that is where Oda got the idea to use them en mass but I cannot find the source.


texts: Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?

texts:
My understanding (which could be wrong) is that armies in the U.S. civil war were "bloody" in the sense that soldiers did not retreat or were sent directly into fire, until one side was wiped out. If I'm wrong about that please correct me.

I'm just curious why the North and South didn't use guerrilla fighting techniques, by which I mean taking cover, spreading out, etc. if these techniques were helpful in the Revolutionary War.

It might be that my understanding of battle history is wrong, but in general I'm interested in the historical context by which the Revolutionary War was called "England's Vietnam" due to England's army's inflexibility compared to colonist soldiers, while somehow 90 years later these inflexible fighting techniques were used.


texts: Why did non prosecuted craftsmen go to the new world in the Roanoke era?

texts: I've just been reading The Rise & Fall Of The British Empire by Lawrence James. In this book, James said that craftsmen, who were not prosecuted for their religion, went to the New World because it was just what was done back then; It was quite normal for a blacksmith from Sussex village to travel from village to village across England. James seems to say that the reason for traveling to the New World despite its dangers was because of tradition. Does this explanation make any sense?


texts: What is the equivalent buying power of one 1945 Reichsmark in 2016 Euros?

texts: Inspired by this question How much is one 1945 German Mark to one 2016 Euro?, for example how many Reichsmark would I need to buy a loaf of bread and how many Euros compared to that?


texts: How many tons of diamonds did European colonies take from Africa?

texts: Last night I watched a movie & it said a London Diamond Company in 60s had more than 3 tons of diamonds.  Are those all from Africa? What is the total amount of diamonds that Europeans took from Africa in the colonial period?


texts: Which party did early trade unions identify with in the antebellum USA?

texts:
According to wikipedia, the first unions in the USA date to before the American Civil War.

Were these organisations, and their members, more likely to side with the Democrats or with their opponents? Which party, if either, was less unfavourable to early unions?


texts: Pre-1900s advertising methods targeting a sub-population stratified by demography/social classification

texts:
In my view, the term "Millennial" (insert air quotes) now defines the current young (< 40 years of age) generation. It also possibly provides some sort of identity to a generation who are disillusioned with life. At the same time people who connect with the term also tend to romanticise life.

Entire bodies of academic study seek to answer "Millennial" problems which trickles down into  much hyped Millennial articles. This becomes a positive feedback loop feeding the same cycle. I also have encountered individuals who quote random studies saying this study says millennials like me have the same problems I have.

Therefore, it is clear to me that this particular term is a product of the current era's consumerism culture.

After suggestions

The coin was initially coined by Strauss and Howe in 1987 and also other such categories are there for other generations.

Proponents of consumerist culture generally borrow such terms from the Strauss and Howe generational theory for targeting people in search for an identity.

Therefore my question is,

Are there any records of another such term/s being used in the pre-1900s for advertising? Wherein a part of the population can be identified by demographic/social stratification?

And what terms were generally used?

I would hope not, since people were a bit more busy avoiding diseases and wars.


texts: Did Hannibal start the Second Punic War prematurely?

texts:
IN 221 BC, Hamilcar, Hannibal's father, made a peace with Rome that divided Spain north and south between Rome and Carthage. The latter got the larger "piece," the area shaded in green on the map below.

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

Hannibal broke the peace only three years later, with disastrous consequences for Carthage.

Are there any comparative statistics for population, taxation, or military enrollment for Rome, Carthage, and Carhaginian Spain that suggest that if Hannibal had deferred war for another generation (till the early 200s BC), that the growth of Carthagian Spain would have put Carthage in a better position than she actually enjoyed in 218 BC? That is, should Hannibal have spent a generation "consolidating" instead of attacking?

On the other hand, the causus belli was the Roman protection of Sagentum in the Carthaginian "sphere of influence." Could this have plausibly threatened a "rollback" of Carthagian power that made it imperative for Carthage to strike at the level of her maximum power?


texts: What caused the long lasting of peace in during the Heian Period?

texts:
I see the Heian Period of Japan described as being an era of long lasting peace. For example, the Met Museum says:

  In Kyoto, the court enjoyed a relatively long period of peace and political strength lasting nearly 400 years, until 1185

I've looked all over the internet and can't find the reasoning to this. What legally and culturally led to the prolonged era of peace in Heian Japan?


texts: If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?

texts: This chart (public domain from Wikimedia Commons) illustrates the question. Is there an explanation for why the Union Jack have a darker shade of blue than the original Scottish flag that it's based on?


texts: What was the medieval attitude to wartime rape?

texts:
I doubt it is necessary to quote examples to prove that, (as in other periods of history, unfortunately), conquering armies in Medieval and Early Modern times, say circa 500 AD – 1700, sometimes committed rape. This question is not when wartime rape actually happened but about writings of the time showing society’s attitudes to it, so fictional literature of the time as well as historical and other factual works are relevant.

In Shakespeare’s play ‘Henry V’, written in the sixteenth century depicting historical events from the fifteenth century. In Act 3, Scene 3, King Henry, who is supposed to be the hero of the play, so his attitude is probably meant to be acceptable for the time, pursuing a claim to the Crown of France, is besieging the town of Harfleur. He warns the citizens to surrender while his army is still under his discipline. Otherwise, if his men have to go through the dangers of fighting their way into the fortified town they will no longer be in any mood to be controlled and Henry cannot be responsible for what they do:

  What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
  If your pure maidens fall into the hand
  Of hot and forcing violation?
  What rein can hold licentious wickedness
  When down the hill he holds his fierce career?

  … in a moment look to see
  The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
  Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters…

At this, the citizens surrender, and Henry orders ‘Use mercy to them all’

I take this to show Henry (and presumably therefore Shakespeare and his audience):

do not approve of it, but regard it as impossible to prevent, that the English army, forced to capture the town by storm, and probably having been away from women for a long time, will run amok and among other crimes rape many of the French girls there.
would if militarily necessary order the storming of Harfleur knowing that this will happen, and to use the threat of it to make the townsmen surrender.

-Henry suggests that if that happens it will not be his fault but the leading citizens’, for not having the sense to surrender. However, probably even by the standards of those days, it would be a very rough justice for Harfleur’s virgins to suffer rape as punishment for the folly of their fathers.

Were these the general attitudes? Did other Medieval / Early Modern writers  e.g. condemning wartime rape, calling for it to be prevented / punished, even condoning or excusing it?


texts: Why was the Ottoman empire not seen as an Arabic empire?

texts:
Here is the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire (circa 1590):

Here is the propagation of Arabic culture, prior to the modern era:

As you can see there is quite an overlap.

However, while these territories were considered Arabic during the time of the Caliphates and are generally considered Arabic in the modern post-Ottoman era - for the Ottoman Empire they were not considered Arabic territories or a singular Arab empire; despite retaining the same religion, language and culture of the earlier Caliphate era.

So why was the Ottoman empire not seen as an Arabic empire?


texts: What have been the advantages/disadvantages of NOAA and the USPHS having uniformed services?

texts:
Most Americans (and likely many folks around the world) think of the US military as comprising the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. However, there are also the United States Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Commissioned Officer Corps. Wikipedia explains that these two services have their roots working closely with or being part of the rest of the US military, but that their missions and structure have diverged considerably from the other five branches.

Given these considerations, what have been the advantages or disadvantages of having the NOAA and PHS corps be commissioned and uniformed versus structuring them as civilian functions? Are there any specific historical instances that could illustrate these advantages or disadvantages?

Note that I have asked a similar question on Politics about the present-day considerations.


texts: Has the training of Russian troops improved since 1989?

texts:
Recently, USA has excluded Pakistan from military training list. On the flip side, Pakistan has signed an agreement with Russian Federation for the training of its officers. My personal assessment is, this is a degradation of Pakistan's prevalent status. Pakistan army played a key role in Soviet-Afghan War of 1989 and helped the USA to defeat (arguably) Soviets. Pakistan military has a history of obtaining a large number of Sword of Honors from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Pakistan military officers were also providing training in the same academy.

Did USSR's defeat in the 1989 Soviet Afghan War have anything to do with the quality of training of soldiers and/or officers?

If yes, has there been any relative improvement in the area of training and strategic planning as compared to NATO since then?  Has Russian Federation been able to fill relative the gap?


texts: When did the Roman Forum fall into disuse?

texts: The Roman Forum is reported to have already been falling apart in 8th century by a anonymous traveler, according to Wikipedia. The question is, with the Visigothic and Byzantine conquests of Italy, when did the forum cease to play any political role or otherwise when did it start to fall into disuse and disrepair? I expect this to be a process rather than a point in time, so please provide as many details as possible.


texts: Did any carriage manufacturers make the transition to automobile building?

texts:
I remember hearing a story many years ago that went something like this:

  When Henry Ford invented the mass-production of automobiles, it threw the transportation world into chaos.  There was a well-established transportation vehicle industry which made carriages, horse accessories, whips, and the like, that just couldn't compete.  Instead, many of them tried to hold back progress by various means, including inducing Congress to pass laws that would put horseless carriages at a disadvantage.  But none of it worked, and today these Luddites all languish in obscurity.  You wouldn't even recognize any of their names... except for one.

  One man had the foresight to see which way the wind was blowing and actually adapt to the changing technology.  He understood that he was in the transportation business rather than the carriage business, so he revamped his company and began building automobiles.  His name was Louis Chevrolet.

This is a very interesting morality tale, with obvious implications for modern times.  There's only one problem: it isn't true.  Louis Chevrolet wasn't a carriage builder before he started building cars; he was a race car driver.  But I can't help but wonder if there is any truth to it and the person who told the story just got the name wrong.

Were there any carriage manufacturers who switched to building cars and had any success with the pivot?


texts: What authority did the US Army have in Egypt between 1945 and 1950?

texts:
I am trying to research a brief period of time in Egypt immediately after Britain's withdrawal in 1945, specifically the presence and authority of the US military there (if any) before 1950.

Was there a physical presence, a military base? Did the US military have any authority, like for instance providing defense or security-related intelligence?


texts: Why did the maple leaf become associated with Canada?

texts: One of the national symbols of Canada is the maple leaf, it is even on our flag, yet, unlike the Moose or the Beaver, Maple trees are more common in the states than in Canada. Which made me wonder, why is the maple leaf associated with Canada when the tree is found is more common in the states?


texts: How did thieves get into Egyptian pyramids?

texts:
I've heard that most of the treasures in the pyramids are supposed to have been stolen by later thieves. I wonder what was their method of getting in?

Wasn't the pyramid sealed after the Pharaoh's death? Did they break the stones to get inside, or did they use ventilation shafts to get in? Could they have some kind of construction scheme of the pyramid? Did anybody guard pyramids?

Are there any sources covering that?


texts: Is there any evidence of Edward VIII trying to influence the UK Government?

texts:
Edward VIII was King of the UK, however he abdicated because he wanted to marry a divorced woman.

Someone told me that the "real reason" was that he was trying to influence the UK government and/or civil service. The various organs of the UK government are all nominally "His Majesty's Something-or-other", so it's a tricky situation if the monarch tries to interfere. However, in practice, the monarch has no real power. The rumour is that he was pushed out by the government due to this interference. I've heard that the current Prince of Wales (Prince Charles), has likewise tried to influence the government, e.g. in favour of homeopaths, etc.


texts: Do we know what ancient Roman music sounded like?

texts:
I have to admit that I'm a bit of a Simon Scarrow addict, and I admire the books dedication to historical accuracy (within the confines of fiction).

Something that's mentioned in the books is music. We know that the Romans had musical instruments and that musicians are portrayed in art and literature.

However, I have no real inkling of what the music actually sounded like.  Are there any transcriptions of music that we can use to replicate what was actually played, or do we simply infer the style of music from the range of instruments that we've found?


texts: Why didn't the US produce stamped weapons like the Germans during WW2?

texts:
It is my understanding that the MP40 and STG44 were successful stamped weapons used and mass produced by the Germans in WW2 that gave them an advantage in some battles.

Background: Stamping is simply the act of hydraulic pressing a metal sheet into a useful form (in this case, the 2 sides of a gun).

With the aggressive pace of innovation in the US/Britain to keep up with the war, why didn't they produce an effective stamped weapon to counter the stamped weapons of the Germans?


texts: A question about the definition of heresy (13th. C)

texts:
I write considering a definition of heresy, given by Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (fl. 1235), who's words are widely cited in regards to the history of the inquisition:

An opinion created by human reason. founded on the Scriptures, contrary to the teachings of Christ, publicly avowed and obstinately held.

You will find this definition often cited in both scholarly and popular works on the history of the Inquisition (which, incidentally, Grossetesse wasn't part of.)

It is an accurate definition, too.

However, almost every source that I find using that English cites either nothing, other English works, or Paris's Chronica maiora (ca. 1250), in particularly, the authoritative version of Henry Luard of 1872. All well and good. The context there is only moderately illuminating, but rather alarmingly it has Grosseteste saying something rather different, and more than a little significantly so--

Heresias est sententia humano sensu electa, Scriptura Sacrae contraria, palam edocta, pertinaciter defensa.

(This is the primary source. Roughly, "heresy is an idea arrived at by human reason [that is] contrary to Sacred Scripture, taught openly and obstinately defended." Similar in form but quite different, although not exactly contradictory, in meaning.)

I suspect that the English sources are circularly quoting one another, rather than bothering to read their Latin; why bother, I'd imagine? I probably wouldn't have if not for my current specific interest in this specific quote. But the quote is quite everywhere, particularly in sources dealing the early Inquisition. And the distinction is very much one with a difference.

A sententia...Scritupra Sacrae contrariae versus ex/derivate a/etc. Scriptura Sacrae are clearly two different things. Most significantly, the latter allows for the fact that non-Christians are not heretics, and that heresy is only a misinterpretation of Christianity, but the former would subsume all non-Christian thought into the idea of "heresy" (which is not what is generally meant or has historically meant to be the case.)

The English translation I can't source seems to provide a better definition than the Latin original than I can, cf. Matthew Paris  --- but what's going on here? Is there a different quote from Grossetesse that I have missed? (Feels doubtful.) Has someone editorialized a definition on top of Grossetesse's?
Probably a better one, certainly in line with the later definition of Aquinas and the eventual Catechism, see below: Jews and Muslims are not heretics, although some have called Islam a heretical offshoot of Christianity, notably the late-19th c. Reformed scholar Schaff, but he wasn't very familiar with it beyond secondary sources at best. In today's religious landscape, for instance, the Arianistic Jehovah's Witnesses would be heretics, founding their heresy, as they do, on Scripture; the Mormons are arguably not because they are an entirely different religion with their own texts and teachings even if given a Christian gloss.

Context: Grossetesse was too early and too English to be involved with the Holy Office, but he was a highly influential churchman and perhaps one of the smartest men in England in the time. One of his priorities was church reform, and one of his ideas was to establish a (small-'i') "inquisition" into the Church in England, as far as clergy education, abuses, heresies, etc.

Any thoughts would be most welcome.


texts: Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?

texts:
It was virtually impossible for citizens of Soviet Union to move or travel abroad. Only some ethnic minorities (e.g. Jewish) with family members abroad could move out, yet with great difficulty.

Why did Soviet Union impose such strong restrictions on travelling outside its borders?
Was it possible for residents of Soviet Union to move/travel to other communist countries, such as China?
Were there any move/travel restrictions in Western countries' in regards to the Soviet Union?


texts: Could German citizens visit Japan during the Nazi era? And if so what would the locals think of them?

texts:
Germany and Japan in WWII were BFF's, with Japan continuing to fight to the bitter, nuke-filled, end.

Now, let's say a German citizen wanted to check out Japan, for whatever reason:

Firstly, could they do so at a time when both countries were otherwise suspicious of foreigners? If so, how would they get there, and would they have been restricted to some formal travel program? And if not, what about the two nations relationship would prevent this trip from happening and why?

Secondly, if Germans did manage to get to Japan in a legal way, what would the locals be like? What would they have thought of this gaijin having come to their country? Would their open or (more likely) quiet natural distrust of foreigners be overcome by the fact that their two peoples were brothesr in arms against their nations common enemies?

I've been studying Japan recently, so I'm vary curious as to if/how something like this would play out.


texts: When and where is this probably silver cross with a hollow from?

texts:
Someone in my family came across a cross of unknown origin. We thought the material might be silver and looked for a stamp / mark. We found something... but we are not able to identify it.

Please take a look at the following photos.

Maybe some of you good people are able to tell us more about the origin and/or the material. Online sources where we might be able to find something ourselves are also appreciated.

Thanks : )


texts: Were scientists in Ancient Egypt Egyptian, or were they from other regions?

texts: Do we have knowledge of any scientists of Ancient Egypt? If yes, were they originally from Egypt, or were they from other regions such as Europe, North Africa or Asia? Any examples?


texts: How much do we know about Emperor Ashoka?

texts:
A recent Indian television series is showing a detailed life characteristic of Ashoka's childhood. Though its a work of fiction, I would like to know how much of the show is based on fact. Furthermore, how much do we know about Emperor Ashoka?

Was Chanakya alive and so active during Ashoka's childhood, that he was able to play a second king-making game?
Was Bindusar's mother (the Greek Helena) so cruel and hatched a plot to kill him?
Did a Persian friend called Mir Khurasan really came to Bindusar all the way from Persia and decided to stay on in Magadha? (Was Persian language even invented at ~300BC?)
Did Mir Khorasan and Helena really hatch a plot to get hold of the Magadha empire? If so, how come they didn't succeed?


texts: Was ambition considered a character flaw in medieval times or Renaissance?

texts:
In Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar", ambition is an undesirable trait:
 "The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault".
Was ambition widely considered a flaw or a sin, or is just a poetic licence?


texts: Name of the ancient law that forbade naming/publicising the name of a criminal?

texts: I think it was a Roman law, and it said that when a horrific crime was committed, the criminal could not be named, and anyone who disobeyed would suffer capital punishment. I can't remember the name, although I think it may have started with an 'H'/


texts:
I have came into possession of a double barrel firearm, apparently for hunting. The only inscription it has is Gottfried Juch Ferlach. It is quite interesting, since it has some really beautiful engravings, like those in the picture below (they are not the same though).

What can I learn of the history of the firearm and its manufacturer?


texts: Why did the Mafia respect Jimmy Hoffa so much?

texts:
The information that I have about Jimmy Hoffa has come (the impetus,I must say honestly, came from Scorsese's The Irishman) from here.

Jimmy Hoffa was a man with wealth and political connections and his work in Detroit attracted Mafias, well it was Hoffa's need too to join hands with Mafias. But as it comes to that wealth of Hoffa controlled the Mafias  it seems a little counter-logical with the other facts, like Lucky Luciano's idea of forming The Commission was a solely for earning money with the help of gun, the setting up of numerous Casinos by Bugsy Siegel and all the investments of Meyer Lansky were the great sources of money, so why Mafias went on respecting Hoffa? I have found this As Attorney General from 1961, Kennedy pursued the strongest attack on organized crime the country had ever seen,[citation needed] and he carried on with a so-called "Get Hoffa" squad of prosecutors and investigators on wikipedia in the section Criminal Charges first paragraph, last two lines. I need a explanation for this, I mean how attack on Hoffa made the Mafia so vulnerable?

Jimmy Hoffa was a man who could control the mobs, could order them to kill anyone (someone not protected by the Mafias, for example  Anthony Provenzano, also known as Tony Pro, a capo for the Genovese crime family), it is even suspected that he had his hands in the assassination of President Kennedy , why would mobsters follow his orders to go for President only for money (and even they didn't have lack of it)? He used to threaten the Mafias and they were afraid of him for too long, he kept them, paid them and made them to do what he wanted just by paying them the money from his Detroit business and sometimes using his political connections to protect them.

So, finally let me restate my question clearly Why did the Mafias respect Jimmy Hoffa too much when respect is the thing that they wanted all their life?  This question is equivalent to What was the relationship between Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafias? or it is even equivalent to What was the relationship between the Mafias and the businessmen?

If the reason is just the money then I request you to please cite some other histories where something like this happened.

Thank you.

EDIT: In the book I Heard You Paint Houses Brandt's wrote “was that if something happened to Bobby, Jack would unleash the dogs. But if something happened to Jack, Vice President Lyndon Johnson would become the president, and it was no secret that Lyndon hated Bobby. Lyndon, it was agreed, definitely would get rid of Bobby as attorney general... Jimmy Hoffa said, ‘Damn right he would. He hates him as much as I do.”. Doesn't it tell us something?


texts: Source of the Napoleon "God/Devil/immortal" quote

texts:
I heard in a history lecture (I don't know who the lecturer was) the following quote about Napoleon:

  Some say he's God (an angel?), some say he's the Devil, but everyone agrees he
  isn't mortal.

The above is not necessarily the exact words of the quote – it might have been simpler, e.g. "He was either God or the Devil, but definitely not mortal", or it might have used the word "man" instead of mortal. The exact words are immaterial, but the point was that it was discussing Napoleon's goodness and greatness – he was either very good or very bad but he was certainly exceptionally great. The contrast was made using the terminology of humans and divine beings.

I am wondering if anyone has heard such a quote before. I have not been able to find it written anywhere. Does anyone have a historical source for this?

(It is of course possible that the lecturer made it up).


texts:
I've seen numerous articles claiming that WWII affected the beer bottling industry which caused a change (reversion) from it being sold in brown glass bottles to green.
Sometimes the articles, such as here, say that brown glass was needed during the war which caused the shift.
Sometimes, such as here, the claim is that after the war there was a shortage of brown glass and that is when the change was made.
My question first of all is which of these is true? Was the change made during or after the war?
Second of all, unassuming the change was made during the war, why would brown glass be needed during the war leaving the private industry with only green?
And on the flip side, if the change was made post war, why was there only a shortage of brown glass?


texts: Why do Afro-Caribbeans have English names whereas Indo-Caribbeans still have Indian(ish) names?

texts:
Why don't Afro-Caribbeans have African names or Indo-Caribbeans have English names? Did colonizers find it difficult to pronounce African names but not Indian names?
Further to this question, if this was due to Africans being slaves and Indians being contract workers, why were only Africans used as slaves in the Caribbean and not Indians?


texts: Why did Shirer omit information from The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich?

texts:
In The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in the section on the early life of Adolf Hitler, William Shirer brings some memos from the teachers of Adolf Hitler as a recollection from the time he was their student at Linz.

William Shirer wrote that the history professor Dr. Leopold Poetsch was the only professor Hitler liked and that was mentioned in his book Mein Kampf.

  It was perhaps decisive for my whole later life that good fortune gave me a history teacher who understood, as few others did, this principle …—of retaining the essential and forgetting the nonessential … In my teacher. Dr. Leopold Poetsch of the high school in Linz, this requirement was fulfilled in a truly ideal manner. An old gentleman, kind but at the same time firm, he was able not only to hold our attention by his dazzling eloquence but to carry us away with him. Even today I haired man who, by the fire of his words, sometimes made us forget the present; who, as if by magic, transported us into times past and, out of the millennium mists of time, transformed dry historical facts into vivid reality. There we sat, often aflame with enthusiasm, sometimes even moved to tears … He used our budding national fanaticism as a means of educating us, frequently appealing to our sense of national honor.
  This teacher made history my favorite subject.
  And indeed, though he had no such intention, it was then that I became a young revolutionary.

Why did Shirer omit some info in lines 3 4 and 14. Is that how they were mentioned in Mein Kampf?  Or was it unrecoverable pages from back then ?


texts: Why did Robert F. Kennedy loathe Lyndon B. Johnson?

texts:
Robert Kennedy despised Lyndon Johnson but it's not clear to me why.

Johnson was a dutiful vice-president and honored JFK's legacy by passing the civil rights act that Kennedy would likely have been incapable of passing himself.

One may say it was Vietnam, but the hostilities seem to have begun far earlier than that. Not to mention that it was the Kennedy administration which got the US into that quagmire and LBJ was pretty much just left holding the bag with an impossible situation beyond his control

So, why did RFK hate LBJ?


texts: Was 18th century Prussia really so militarily obsessed?

texts:
I'm reading A Military History of Germany by Martin Kitchen, and I was surprised at the description of 18th century Prussia.

The country is described as a North-Korea like military obsessed nation, with the following characteristics:

Kings were obsessed with the Army, and 80% of the budget was spent on the Army
Men were conscripted to be part of the Army at the age of 20, and the obligation never ended, so basically they were definitely taken from their homes at age 20
Many people injured themselves to try to escape conscription, this didn't always work as even some disabled people were made soldiers
Soldiers were treated so brutally and so inhumanly that everyone wanted to desert the army even at the cost of their lives
Any man wandering around was considered to be a deserter, so there was absolutely no freedom of movement within the Kingdom - If they were caught wandering around they'd be arrested.
Farmers had to give about 19 kg of each 20 kg of cereal they produced to the army as taxes, creating situations of extreme poverty
Nobody had any genuine loyalty to the King, actually everyone despised him
Many people wanted to desert, so this seriously restricted the Army, as it could only do very simple and inefficient manoeuvres in the open where it was possible to look over all soldiers constantly.

The problem with this description is that it creates a few paradoxes, such as:

How could Prussia generate great intellectuals such as Immanuel Kant, when all men's lives were supposed to be devoted to the army, and only the army?
How could people still work on farms and provide the army with food if all men were taken away from their homes?
How could men find wives and reproduce, if they had to spend their entire life in the army?

Considering that such paradoxes aren't explained, I seriously doubt the description made in the book, and that makes the whole book suspicious. So, how accurate is 18th century Prussia's description in that book?


texts: What did sectionalism have to do with the American civil war?

texts: I've been writing an essay for school and I've been wondering what did sectionalism have to do with the American Civil War? Does sectionalism include the Missouri Compromise and the breaking away of the South? If not, what are some other examples?


texts:
A report from 1894 describes the Musha'a land tenure system in the Arab villages of Palestine: the agricultural lands of the village are considered common property, and they are divided each year among the villagers, by drawing lots.

Land division by lots was already described in the Bible (Numbers 26, Joshua 18), however, this was a one-time division, after which each citizen kept his lot for good.

What are the earliest known accounts of the Musha'a system? How did this system originate?


texts: How did silk manufacturing become a major industry in medieval Europe?

texts: In the beginning of the Middle Ages, silk in Europe was known only as the expensive fabric imported from Asia. But by the end of The Middle Ages, silk had become one of Europe's major industries. How did this change occur?


texts: What evidence do we have that historical accounts we've found of ancient civilizations weren't fictional?

texts: How do we know that the accounts we've found of civilizations (E.g.Egypt) weren't actually fictional literature in the way that Plato's Timaeus and Critias mentioned the island of atlantis as an allegory for pride being a downfall of nations, and some people believed that it was a real island.


texts: Why did the Social Gospel movement of the early 1900's fail to reach the working class?

texts: I've been reading about the Social Gospel movement and it seemed that the movement failed overall because it never reached it's target audience, the working class. Instead, it had a flare of movement in the middle class and then died out. Why is this?


texts: What was the significance of changing the name of "Persia" to "Iran"?

texts: As best as I understand it, the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 was when Persia became Iran.   What was the motivation for changing the name?


texts: What were the differences between mortars and other artilleries in world war I?

texts:
Artillery just means missiles today.

In WWI did artillery and mortars worked the same way only difference being the angle its being fired at, and how big the projectile is.


texts: Was there any imperial nation whose home country was conquered but was able to retain its colonies?

texts: Has an imperial nation been conquered and the forces of the imperial nation then mainly came to their colonies. Even after the home nation gets captured the colonies are ruled and they don't revolt. Then the imperial nation re-conquers the home nation back with help from the immensely helpful colonies and then is able to re-establish itself?


texts: How true is the Soviet killing quota under Stalin?

texts:
In The Soviet Story from 1:37:54 to 1:38:54, killing quotas of Soviet citizens are talked about. I could not find any concrete reason, evidence, or documentation suggesting that such "killing quotas " existed inflicted by the Soviet government on its own people and find it to make very little sense.
Can someone verify the claims made in this video and back them up with some evidence as they seem exaggerated to me off the bat.


texts:
What are the causes of the 1773 Boston Tea Party?
I have read the article on Wikipedia already but I couldn't understand it. I was also taught that one of the causes that lead to the 1773 Boston Tea Party was the reduction of tea taxes, but wouldn't that actually made the Americans happier, creating the exact opposite effect?


texts: Legal grounds of functioning of Third Reich concentration camps

texts:
I know for sure that repressions in the USSR at thirties had been en masse illegal in the sense that the laws existed at that period of time there's no word about, say, executing people without any judgement - and there have been thousands of such executions.

Today I've realized that I don't know almost nothing about the legal grounds of mass killings of jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other oppressed social groups.

There's an article on Nuremberg Laws in wikipedia.
As far as I understand, jews were deprived of citizenship and there were described
some actions prohibited for non-citizens - for example, one can not "display the Reich and national flag or the national colors". Breaches of these rules were punished by imprisonment.

But what for the things that had actually happened? Did there existed laws on, say, sending children to concentration camps? Had the procedure of mass execution formulated, stated or regulated by any legislative act? If such acts existed, had the Parliament voted for them?


texts: Is the Visigoth cultural and historical influence within Spain rarely acknowledged?

texts: When looking at Spain's early history, cultures, such as the Phoenicians, the Romans and the Moors are often discussed in great detail.  Though the Visigoths were also a historical presence within Spain shortly after the collapse of the Roman Empire, as well as throughout the Middle Ages.  Many of Spain's massive Cathedrals were designed in the Gothic architectural style; even some Moorish buildings within Spain have a subtle Gothic architectural influence.  So has the Visigoth/Germanic cultural and historical influence within Spain been rarely or parenthetically acknowledged?


texts: Were any tactical missiles used during the 1971 Indo Pakistan war?

texts:
During the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, some Sidewinder and Atoll missiles were used in the air. The SA 2 guidline was used by the Indian side as SAM, and on sea the Indian navy struck Pakistani bases with Styx anti-ship missiles.

However, I could not find any record on the internet of the use of land tactical missiles. I especially think about antitank missiles, like the SS 10, the TOW, the Sagger or the Kobra missiles. I suppose some of them should have been in both armies' inventories, so were any tactical land missiles used?


texts: Why didn't Japanese attack Soviet Union simultaneously as the Germans?

texts: As everyone knows, the Japanese went south, conquering most of the Pacific and attacking Pearl Harbour. But why didn't the Japanese wait until Hitler went on the eastern campaign (attacking the Soviet Union in 1941) and then attack the SU from their side? They must have known Hitler's plans of going east, since minimal diplomatic relations between the two existed? I know the two were allies more on paper then in reality, but still. Also I am aware of various Soviet Union and Japanese border skirmishes, like Khalkhin Got and etc.


texts: How was security on the Silk Road between China and the West maintained?

texts: From the 2nd century BC to the beginning of the 15th century the Silk Road (or more correctly roads, as there were alternative routes) was the primary trade route between China and the West.  One would think that a trade route would invite highwaymen and substantially raise the cost of shipping valuables. How then was security of the merchants traveling on the Silk Road assured?  Did they have to ride in large caravans, convoy-style?  Pay "protection" fees to tribes along the way?  Or did the major powers along these roads provide a police presence?  Were there checkpoints or fortresses along the road?  The latter seems possible to me because with the fragmentation of the Mongols and the rise of the Ottomans in Asia Minor the silk road came into disuse and a motivation factor for the Portuguese and others (e.g. Columbus) to look for a sea route to China in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.


texts: How much damage did Farragut do to Confederate supplies in spring/summer 1863?

texts:
In March 1863 Farragut ran the batteries at Port Hudson and began disrupting Confederate operations between Vicksburg and Port Hudson.

Shelby Foote seems to suggest that it was this operation that really cut off western food supplies. And that Grant's eventual capture of Vicksburg is what opened the “father of waters” to Union shipping.

So how effective were Farragut’s operations prior to the fall of Vicksburg?  Did it make Grant's siege easier?  Did it effect the rest of the Confederacy?


texts: What did the post world war two civilian food ration consist of in the UK?

texts:
I can see rationing ended in 1954 and I can see some indication of what was being rationed per person during the war but what exactly did the post-war ration consist of?

i.e. food items and quantities per month per person, be in 1950?

(P.S. I'm thinking of reliving a month living off of this diet).


texts: Have any big events happened during DST changeover?

texts:
The alt-text for the XKCD comic published on 2017-08-30 notes:

  Someday, some big historical event will happen during the DST changeover, and all the tick-tock articles chronicling how it unfolded will have to include a really annoying explanation next to their timelines.

here, Randall Munroe refers to minute-by-minute — or even second-by-second — timelines / reconstructions that one can find in newspapers or on websites, such as Wikipedia.

Have there been any big events that happened during DST changeover?  By big event, I mean any event big enough such that it was covered with a detailed timeline (at least down to the minute) in major news media.


texts: Did knights in medieval Europe wear the colors of their own arms, those of the lord they were serving, or some combination?  Was this significantly different in different parts of the continent, or time periods?  In peacetime vs when at war?


texts: What is the basis of Russian criticism of Antony Beevor's work?

texts:
Some Russian sources make claims to the effect of "Beevor is revisionist and anti-Soviet propagandist".

What is the basis for this criticism?

For the antecedents of the question, see here.


texts: What is the Macedonian naming dispute really about?

texts: I was reading the wikipedia article on Macedonia naming dispute. As a reasonable human being, I can't believe that just by debating how a territory should be called, these people hindered economic and trade relations, potentially reducing the living standard for their populations (20 million people). Still Greece is blocking Macedonia's EU accession. Why is it so important to name something so that millions of people have to suffer the negative consequences? It kind of reminds me of kindergarten when we were arguing about what we should call our superheros. But at the international level? What can't they just simply come up with a new name?


texts: Which floating-point representation did Konrad Zuse's Z1 use?

texts:
Wikipedia notes: "The Z1 was a 22-bit floating point value adder and subtracter".

But the specific format used is nowhere to be seen.


texts: What was the military strength of the participants in the Falklands conflict?

texts:
The Wikipedia entry for Falklands War does not specify the strength of the belligerents, i.e., the size of the military of each size.

Are there details of the military size of the two countries at that time and how much of the respective armies committed to the conflict? How many ships and aircraft were part of the British task force?
Was the British army actually larger/better equipped/better trained?
I read that a British submarine was shadowing the ARA General Belgrano for two days before striking. Were the Argentinians not using sonar to detect submarines they knew the enemy had?

I find it interesting that in the 1980's the UK had a more capable army than Argentina, the UK being a peacetime European country (albeit with considerable offshore possessions) compared to Argentina with a ruling military Junta and various ongoing local conflicts with neighboring countries.


texts: Was Russia the only country in WWII that succeeded in expansionist war aims?

texts:
Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan all initiated combat against peaceful countries for the clear purpose of territorial expansion. Of these only Russia ended the war with more territory than it started with. Were there any other countries that did so and were successful?

Edit: I guess I wasn't clear enough. By "initiated combat" I was trying to say that they created a war where there wasn't already one.


texts: Did foreign countries respond to the Munich Putsch?

texts:
Did the Munich Putsch put Hitler in the spotlight on an international level? If so why didn't the league of nations act – or any other country for that matter?

  On the surface the Beer-Hall Putsch seemed to be a failure, but actually it was a brilliant achievement for a political nobody. In a few hours Hitler catapulted his scarcely known, unimportant movement into headlines throughout Germany and the world.
  Louis L. Snyder: "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich" (1998), p21.

They would be worried about Hitler's megalomania – which could, and did, cause a world war.
Not to mention his willingness to stop Versailles reparations.

I am not saying 'oh but it's Hitler. He should be locked up'. The Putsch itself surely must have advertised the party a bit more- I care not for a political party to be extreme- but have them performing a coup on their government- I'd be worried


texts: How were the Bulgarians regarded by the Nazis during World War II?

texts:
On one hand, the Bulgarians "signed on," with Nazi Germany when the latter was looking for Balkan allies against Russia. So did Hungary and Romania.

Hungary had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I, and also had an alliance with Italy (against Yugoslavia). Romania had been pro-Allied during World War I, but sided with Germany for roughly the same reasons as Finland; the Soviet Union had annexed parts of Romania (Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina) in 1940. Bulgaria had aided the Central Powers against the Serbs during World War I, and did somewhat the same for the Axis against Yugoslavia in 1941 when that country (originally an Axis signatory) "backed out."

But unlike the other two Balkan states, Bulgaria did not willingly send troops to Russia to assist Germany. Also, Bulgarians resisted Nazi efforts to round up the country's Jews, unlike the others. Finally, the Bulgarians were (south) Slavs, whom Hitler, at least, disliked.

In this regard, they might have been considered similar to the treacherous (Yugo)slavs. Or were they seen as a Turkic people that some scholars consider them to be? (Turkey had also been a German ally in World War I.)

Did the Nazis have similar views of the Bulgarians as the other (non-Slavic) Axis signatories after 1941? Or were they considered a "necessary evil" to be dealt with after the war more harshly than the others?


texts:
Medieval longbows seem now to have been only marginally effective against armoured knights of early fifteenth century although Henry Fifth was wounded in the face at Shrewsbury in 1403 with a limited penetration possibly caused by an arrow through the breathing holes of a bascinet. He still chose mostly archers for his army 12 years later so he must have had good reason to do so even if his own injury was relatively unlucky.
Was this the vulnerabilty of the horses ? or the multi-role fighting modes the archers were capable of. Is there any evidence of horse casualty rates?
At Poitiers the French chose to attack dismounted and in several battles the archers were seemingly arraigned to effect arrow storms into the sides of the attack. was this more effective on horses or riders ?


texts: Can anyone identify the country, rank, and unit of this WWI Uniform?

texts: A photograph of my grandfather, Stephen Peter Barbustiak (sp of last name changed during immigration process). DOB 20 August 1895 in Odorin, present day Slovakia. Married September 3, 1917. I know he served in Eastern Europe during World War One.


texts: How did British queens get power over kings despite a male-dominant society?

texts: I am not a history guy. But, from what I have collected from movies, TV shows and people, I see that old British society was male-dominant and there were female rights issues too. But, I also see some powerful queens in the history and the "for Queen and the Country" thing. Where's the catch? These two things don't look compatible.


texts: What happened to Marcus Licinius Crassus' Gold?

texts: Marcus Licinius Crassus (from the First Triumvirate) was considered to be richest man ever. After his death however, what happened to his immense fortune? It seems like a treasure like that would be noted in the annals, but I haven't seen anything Plutarch about this. Are there any other records?


texts: Did personnel from the "Aktion T4" ("euthanasia" murders) kill severely wounded Wehrmacht soldiers on the eastern front?

texts:
In Jonathan Littell's novel Les Bienveillantes (English title: The Kindly Ones) the fictional protagonist meets, in 1943, a man employed with the Aktion T4, the organization behind the "euthanasia" murders. In the novel, this person claims that he had killed disabled German soldiers on the eastern front in '41 & '42 (IIRC using a gas van). I'm not sure if the book specifically mentions wether the victims needed psychatric hospitalization, care for physical diabilities or both.

Until 1941, around 70.000 people where murdered in the Aktion T4*. Around 5.000 of these where traumatized Veterans of WWI (Doctors would claim their condition was in same way inherited, german link) Then the murders were officially discontinued, but in reality continued using different means. Many of the key personnel where sent to the newly occupied areas to aid the in the Shoa. So far Littell's version fits the facts known to me. However I had never heard of the Nazi regime killing it's own in this way.

In general, Jonathan Littell seems to have put a huge amount of research into his novel and I'm not aware of criticisms that he got major facts wrong. However, if true it would underscore points made by Browning and Aly in books I've read so it's surprising to me that I never heard about it.

Did the Nazis murder disabled, maimed or heavily traumatized soldiers on the eastern front, using personnel and methods from the Aktion T4?
When and How did this project start and end?

*AFAIK the name Aktion T4 was not used during the war.


texts: What does the phrase "Vietnam, the mixture of up and down" mean?

texts: I bought this lighter today and it's supposed to be in the style of what soldiers fighting in Vietnam carried. I don't understand the quote on the back, though.


texts: What kind of armor did the soldiers use in pre-gunpowder Southeast Asia?

texts:
The tropical Southeast Asia (especially the Malay world, e.g. Malaysia/Indonesia) are very hot, and apparently wearing European-style full armor is very uncomfortable in hot climates.

What kind of armor, if any, did the heavy infantry/heavy cavalry soldiers in the region use before the introduction of gunpowder (or other developments which renders armour obsolete)? I think they must have not encountered European armoured soldiers, and due to the heat they might have less reason to develop heavily armoured soldiers.

Do we have any records of how they were armoured before the European's arrival? Maybe during the 14th-15th century?


texts: What native tribe used to give much food as a gift. The people ate too much and then vomited so they could eat more. What is the name for this custom?


texts: When penicillin was initially introduced, was it effective against all gram positives?

texts: I'm trying to investigate the history of resistance. Just how good was penicillin when it first emerged? Were there any gram positives it couldn't get?


texts: Is the swastika in The Great Gatsby anti-semitic?

texts:
In the Great Gatsby, in Chapter 9 Fitzgerald writes that Nick visited Meyer Wolfsheim and that he was in an office with a door marked "Swastika Holding Company."

The Great Gatsby was written between 1923 and 1925.  I looked online and found that when Hitler was put in charge of his party's propaganda machine in 1920 he chose the swastika specifically because he felt that it was Aryan and anti-Semitic.

I'm interested to know the following:

1) Was the swastika a symbol that would have been used by a Jewish business owner in 1923 (or the approximate time of the novel)?

2) Would a reader in 1925 have associated this symbol with the National Socialist Party or was the party still relatively unknown such that it's main symbol would not have been known to people until later?


texts: !Kung: what is the rules of the !Gu!na partnership? Does it follow the "Hxaro" partnership (what to give, delay of return...)?

texts:
I found a lot of information concerning the Hxaro relationship (eg: Wiessner 1982), but very little concerning !gu!na relationship. Marshall talks about it but doesn't compare it with the Hxaro.
Marcus & Flannery, K. (2012) talk about it:

Hxaro was not the only system used by the !Kung to create networks of
partners. There were also networks of !gu!na, “namesakes,” built on
the premise that names were magic. [...] Arriving at a distant camp, a
visitor needed only to give his shared name to be welcomed by the
family of his !gu!na.

Lorna Marshall (1957) talks specifically about the !gu!na. She provides the only example I found about what it concretely means :

Gao, the brother of /U, went on an errand for us to Khadum.[...] He
had never been to Khadum before, and the /Kung Bushmen who lived there
at once called him ju dole [(strangers)]. He was in haste to say that
he had heard that the father of one of the people at Khadum had the
same name as his father and that another had a brother named Gao.
'Oh,' said the Khadum people, in effect, 'so you are Gao's !gu!na ',
and they took him to their fire and gave him a present of edible gum.
[...] The /Kung who live in this region are not ju dole to each other.
The name-relationship makes them feel they are one people.

I suppose !gu!na is a very light version of Xharo since the partners don't know each other, and thus don't know if the other will give back. What is the rule of !gu!na partnership (eg. what should they do, for how long, in what condition...)?
Any idea?


texts: Why did Americans stop calling the Olympic basketball team the "Dream Team"?

texts:
Was it because of the decline of the popularity of the NBA or the retirement of Michael Jordan, the living legend the GOAT? I am just curious.

Since the "prior research" was requited, I would like to show.

Dream Team 1 ( Nickname ) ( Youtube )

Dream Team 2 ( dido )

Dream Team 3 ( dido )


texts: Why did Bavaria join Prussia/Germany instead of Austria?

texts:
I am curious about why kingdom of Bavaria was assimilated by Prussia instead of Austria-Hungary

If I consider following facts in 1854

Bavaria is Catholic country (same as majority of Austria-Hungary), Prussia is Protestant
The royal family of Austria is connected with Bavaria nobles. Moreover in this year Franz Joseph marries Elizabeth of Bavaria
Bavaria is a strong ally of Austria that proved its loyalty in past decades. Moreover this alliance is oriented mainly against Prussia.
Bavaria is geographically and economically strongly connected with Austria-Hungary (Alps, Danube river,...)
Bavarians share similar cultural origins with Austrians and Western Bohemians

then something happened and in 1871 Bavaria joins Germany forever. Why?


texts: What does this 1960 West German political cartoon mean?

texts: I have recently seen a [caricature][1] in which a blindfolded man goes along a cliff. The caption was "The German citizen in the 1960's". I thought it may have something to do with the economy, but in the 50's the economy in Germany was actually very good, so, any ideas?  Why is it exactly in the year 1960 and what is the background?


texts: What are the text and subtext of this 1949 Soviet cartoon?

texts:
Over on Wikipedia, we find this cover from the March 1949 issue of Soviet satire mag Krokodil:

The person who uploaded it to Wikipedia captioned it "Antisemitic caricature of rootless cosmopolitan." On the talk page, someone asks:

  How is this image "antisemitic"? Does anyone mind explaining this to me?

That's my question too. Sure I bet it is, but, can an expert explain it like I'm five?

It doesn't help that I can't read Russian and the image is so low-quality that I can't even transcribe or OCR it. I can make out the suitcase stickers that say "САРТР" ("Sartre") and "ЛИППМАН [sic]" ("Lippmann"), and the caption "Беспачпортныя Бродяга" which I gloss as Passportless vagabond. I can't make out the other stickers; nor the scraps of paper sticking out of the tramp's backpack; nor the presumably significant quotation below the caption which probably clarifies the whole thing; can someone transcribe and translate these for me?

I also suspect that there is significance in the mismatched patterns of our vagabond's jacket and pants; his weird little black-and-white embroidered bib; and the knife in his belt. (Both the knife and the walking-stick have been turned into pen-nibs by the cartoonist.) And possibly the hat and the overstuffed valise, for that matter. What would a Russian in 1949 have understood these symbols to mean?


texts: What accounts exist of blowpipe vs machine gun and rifle in World War 2?

texts:
If you check this documentary, you'll see that Borneo natives used blowpipes vs Japanese during 1944-1945. I find this sort of engagement fascinating, since the poison used in the blowpipe dart must have been fast-acting to prevent retaliation by a firearm-wielding soldier. What accounts/sources exist about these skirmishes? What kind of poison was used? What were the outcomes of the skirmishes?

EDIT:
Another documentary.


texts: What was the commandant of Okhotsk's involvement in Russian-American Company hiring?

texts:
The Russian-American Company was a privately funded concern which obtained a royal monopoly on exploration and settlement in America. It sponsored and managed the Russian presence from the Aleutians to the Farallon Islands. The Company had agents in several Russian cities and hired most of its promyshlenniks in the port town of Okhotsk. Many of them were unskilled, indebted, or drunkards; all were willing or forced to sign a seven-year contract.

Chief Manager Baranov mentioned in two letters [Tikhmenev in Pierce's edition, II: Documents, pp. 104 and 124] that the company's hires had signed up "in the Commandant's office in Okhotsk" and had "given a pledge to the Commandant of Okhotsk before they were shipped here to obey my orders".

The port commandant was a military officer (sometimes a corrupt one like the notorious Bukharin, who according to Davydov in the same volume, imprisoned a ship's crew so that he could overcharge the company for the use of his own oarsmen). Baranov's emphasis and repetition suggests that the Commandant's presence was by design and not just Bukharin taking advantage. Venality aside, the commandant's official responsibility must have been to a superior far away in Yakutsk or Irkutsk.

Could the Company's salaried agents hire new employees, or was the Okhotsk commandant for some reason the only one who could convey their passports for the colonies?


texts: What happened to railroad workers whose jobs became redundant?

texts:
In the early 20th century, the steam locomotive was the king of land transportation. The railroad industry was one of the largest employers in the US, employing massive numbers of workers to build and maintain rails, operate and repair trains, and so on. Huge businesses and entire towns sprang up to meet the needs of the railroads and their workers and passengers.

But since then, American railroads have lost almost all of their passenger business and a significant portion of their freight business to highways or airlines. Technologies have also reduced the amount of labor needed to keep the trains running. Steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives that required smaller crews, didn't have to stop for water, were more operationally flexible, and required much less maintenance (this documentary says 1,000,000 miles between major overhauls for diesels compared to 75,000 for steam). Instead of large crews of gandy dancers maintaining tracks with hand tools, heavy machinery allowed fewer workers to maintain much more track. Passenger services were severely cut back, especially luxuries like sleeping cars and dining cars which were also labor-intensive.

Overall, we can say that railroads shifted from employing large numbers of unskilled manual laborers to smaller numbers of more skilled workers (and at the same time as the demand for rail transport went down). It seems like we may see something similar in the near future with technologies like self-driving vehicles. What I'm wondering is, what happened to those railroad workers whose jobs became redundant? Did the railroad companies or unions give them other jobs? Did they receive pensions? Or were they simply fired and left to find whatever work they could? If so, did most of them find jobs (and what kind of jobs), or did many fall into poverty? What happened to towns that depended on railroads for their economy? Were there protests or strikes or other conflicts caused by these changes?

Edit to add some statistics: Page 15 of this document lists railroad employment statistics 1890-1957 and this page has 1947-2014. There are fewer people employed by railroads today (only 212,000) than there were even during the Great Depression (991,000 in 1933). Between 1951 and 1972, railroads lost an average of 40,000 jobs a year.


texts: Did war chariots ever actually have blades on the wheel hubs?

texts:
Several movies depict Greek and Roman war chariots with sharp, sword like blades protruding from the hub in the centre of the wheels. Was such a design just theatre on the part of the movies or is there evidence for it.

Additionally, if it was used, how effective were they in a battle situation. Did the blades on the wheels actually inflict damage or not.


texts: Who was the first female ruler to be given the suffix, "the great"?

texts:
Down through the ages exceptional elite leaders have been referred to with the suffix, the great.  Cyrus the Great of Persia, Alexander the Great of Macedonia, and perhaps Alaric the Great of the Visigoths who sacked Rome or Peter the Great of Russia.

  Question:
  Who was the first woman ruler to be referred too as "the Great"?

I know:

Kathrine the Great Ruler of Russia (1762 – 1796)

Perhaps Hatshepsut of Egypt 1478-1458 B.C. (18th Dynasty) might fit the bill,  she is regarded as one of the most successful rulers of Egypt, with a reign lasting for at least twenty years. She expanded trade and undertook ambitious building projects.   But I don't see her referred to as "Hatshepsut the Great" in literature.

Related Question:

Who was the first woman ruler?

Sources:

Catherine the Great
Hatshepsut
Cyrus the Great
Alexander the Great
Alaric the Goth and Attila the Hun
Peter the Great


texts: Origin/reason for reversed flag on right shoulder?

texts:
Virtually any time the American flag is depicted or flown, it has the orientation seen in the following image, with the stars in the upper hoist (left) quarter of the flag:

However, when the flag is displayed as a patch on the right shoulder of a military, police, or fire uniform, it's orientation is right-left reversed, as shown here:

When did this reversal originate, and what is the reason for it?


texts: What was the role of Nikita Khrushchev during the battle of Stalingrad?

texts:
In the movie Enemy at the Gates there is a moment when Nikita Khrushchev comes to take control over the Soviet forces defending Stalingrad, even making previous commander commit suicide (is this true?).

As I am not much interested in WW2, and I didn't know about his role in the battle. I did some research, and citing Wikipedia article about Khrushchev:

  Khrushchev reached the Stalingrad Front in August 1942(...). His role in the Stalingrad defense was not major — General Vasily Chuikov, who led the city's defense, mentions Khrushchev only briefly in a memoir published while Khrushchev was premier — but to the end of his life, he was proud of his role. Though he visited Stalin in Moscow on occasion, he remained in Stalingrad for much of the battle, and was nearly killed at least once. He proposed a counterattack, only to find that Zhukov and other generals had already planned Operation Uranus, a plan to break out from Soviet positions and encircle and destroy the Germans; it was being kept secret. Before Uranus was launched, Khrushchev spent much time checking on troop readiness and morale, interrogating Nazi prisoners, and recruiting some for propaganda reasons.

his role seems to be rather minor.

In the Stalingrad battle article he is mentioned only once

  Yeryomenko and Commissar Nikita Khrushchev were tasked with planning the defense of Stalingrad.

and "planning the defence of Stalingrad", well, it can mean everything.

The "Goofs" page of the IMDb does not say anything important about any false in depicted events.

The other sources I could find state that he was a commissar.

I would like to ask: are the events from the movie, depicting Khrushchev as in fact supreme commander of the defence of Stalingrad true? If I remember correctly, Vasily Chuikov, who is usually credited as winning commander of the defence, is not even mentioned in the movie.


texts: When was the concept of "weekly day off" first introduced in Indian Subcontinent?

texts:
Did ancient & medieval indians have a weekly day off? Or was there even a generally recognized day as public holiday?
Or did the concept get introduced with Arabs or Europeans?


texts: When did the Hudson Bay get its current name in French?

texts:
In French, the Hudson Bay is called "La baie d'Hudson". Apparently it was originally called "mer du Nord" (North Sea) in the 1600's, the according to its french wiki page.

Now obviously, Henry Hudson was an Englishmen and there was some serious competition between English and French back then. So it is not surprising that they were known by different names.

What I want to know is, when did the Hudson Bay became known as La baie d'Hudson in the French Language?


texts: Is there any evidence of racism from the US Supreme Court Justices who decided Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?

texts:
I am trying to know more about the personal lives of the 8 Justices engaged in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and whether personal opinions (e.g. racism) might have affected their decision.

I did discover the following evidence of racism for 2 of the Justices:

Edward Douglass White, Jr.  had joined two white supremacy organisations,
and
Justice John Marshall Harlan I revealed his opposition to the Chinese directly in his dissent.

But what of the other 6?


texts: Why did the Moors invade the Iberian peninsula?

texts: Almost all of the information that I can find with regards to the Moorish invasion of the Iberian Peninsula simply states when the Moors invaded. There seems to be very little on what the motivation of the Moors was to invade the Iberian Peninsula. Is this just a little studied area of history? I'm hoping someone can provide some academic sources supporting a reason why they invaded, and not just stating that they did invade.


texts: What is the manifestation of the Holy Roman Emperor reign in Italy?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, The Holy Roman Emperor was also called "King of italy", and it says there that he ruled over a big part of Italy.

But I have also read that throughout the Middle Ages, many cities in Northern and Central Italy were autonomous city-states.

So what was the King's role in Italy?