texts: Was WW1's extended static slaughter caused by bad leadership?

texts:
Reading through the accounts of the Somme, Verdun, French generals insisting on parade ground blue uniforms, Nivelle's troops rebelling, the Isonzo battles, I often have the impression that the top generals were wasteful of their men, incompetent and generally unable to do anything right.  The opposite of Sun Tzu's "defeat your enemy without fighting" axioms, really.

But, is that really fair?  Even if the Ludendorff offensives in 1918 generally seemed like they achieved a lot, and came up just short, was that not partially because both sides were so punch drunk by that time?

Yes, there was a tremendous amount of incompetent fools running the show, but was anything else than a bloody grind going to happen, once the front settled in late 1914 and switched to static warfare?

A big part of that was that defense was momentarily way above offense with the machine gun + trench + barbed wire combination.

But, beyond the tactical defensive advantages, what would any tactical breakthrough really achieve in any case?  Once you smashed through a gap you created in the enemy trenches, how could you exploit it and derive strategic advantage?  The enemy had reserves and could move them in quickly by train, while the attacker would have had to move troops and supplies through a chewed no-man's land.  And their troops, would have been unable to move quicker than walking speed, except for cavalry which doesn't do well against modern weapons.  Western front was also too narrow - unlike the Civil War - to just pivot elsewhere.

Adding trains/trucks to MG+trench+barbed wire was what really caused the stalemate.

Sometimes you do read things about penetrating 5-10 km, which must have been a considerable achievement, but I've never really gotten a feel for what the next step would have been at that point.  The enemy would just destroy any train tracks and keep a massive edge in logistics.

If you did push through enough troops, but through a narrow front and with limited mobility, seems you were putting yourself at a massive risk of encirclement.

The real killer now seems to me to have been the lack of exploitation potential, rather than only tactical leadership shortcomings.  So lacking that, the war was fought by attrition.  Better assault tactics, less waste of your troops would have helped, but it would just be copied by the enemy in time.

i.e. it's easy to look at any other period in history, esp WW2, and find WW1's leadership wanting.

But, on the land component of it at least, what could possibly have been done much better until the advent of tanks in 1918?

This is mostly a Western Front question - better Russian leadership would have made the 2 front war untenable for Germany - as per Schlieffen's original calculation.


texts: In a library of President Yeltsyn the originals of the diaries could be found. But they only cover the time until 1906. The printed editions of his diary cover his records until his last days in 1918. So, where are the originals of the diaries for the 1907-1918 period?


texts:
In Chapter 3 of the Prince Machiavelli offers this advice to the prince who would hold a newly acquired territory:

  [T]o send colonies to one or two places, which may be as keys to that
  state, for it necessary either to do this or else to keep there a
  great number of cavalry and infantry. A prince does not spend much on
  colonies, for with little or no expense he can send them out and keep
  them there, and he offends a minority only of the citizens from whom
  he takes lands and houses to give them to the new inhabitants; and
  those whom he offends, remaining poor and scattered, are never able to
  injure him; whilst the rest being uninjured are easily kept quiet, and
  at the same time are anxious not to err for fear it should happen to
  them as it has to those who have been despoiled.

Unless I am very much mistaken, he has his favourite ancient Romans in mind and their method of holding and policing territory by veterans' colonies.

However, I do not recall any instances of medieval or Renaissance colonies of this kind which Machiavelli might have had in mind. Indeed, he gives no illustration of his colonies advice, while he copiously illustrates other advice with contemporary examples.

So I wonder if I missed some cases - or perhaps Machiavelli was being here more of bit of an antiquarian? (like he is a lot of times in his Art of War)

P.S.
My wife suggested one great example - the Ulster Plantation. But probably Machiavelli was not sufficiently clairvoyant to know about it.


texts: Did Aurangzeb issue a farman promising 4 Rs for all males that convert and 2 Rs for females?

texts:
I found a reference to this farman here (first link)

But I can't find the source of the author (or if its authentic). Is it from an akhbar or from a biography of Aurangzeb? Its mentioned as a farman here, but I'm told that the site is not very trustworthy.

Jadunath Sarkar mentions some akhbar related to inducements for conversion, but I can't verify whether this farman is among those akhbarat (text version)


texts: Why was the Imre Nagy government deported to Romania?

texts: After the 1956 Hungarian upgrising, the KGB briefly deported Imre Nagy and his closest followers (Donáth, Lukács, etc.) to Romania.  I understand that the Soviet Union would have wanted to remove Nagy and his government from anywhere they could influence or be rescued by Hungarian sympathizers.  But why was Romania in particular chosen as their place of internment?  Was this done at the invitation of Gheorghiu-Dej, or was the decision imposed upon him?  Why were Nagy and his supporters not taken to the Soviet Union (which at the time bordered Hungary)?  Is the rationale for the decision recorded anywhere?


texts: How besieged was Leningrad after Operation Iskra?

texts:
Wikipedia's timeline for the siege of Leningrad is a little puzzling. It has:

12–30 January 1943: Operation Iskra penetrates the siege by opening a
land corridor along the coast of Lake Ladoga into the city.
The blockade is broken.

27 January 1944: Siege of Leningrad ends. Germans forces pushed 60–100 km
away from the city

What was the difference between having the blockade broken in 1943 and lifting the siege in 1944?


texts: Who, if any, in JFK's inner circle argued against the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion?

texts:
Political discussions leading up to the Bay of Pigs invasion are a notorious example of 'groupthink' and the failure of a committee in coming to a well-informed decision. Accounts of the decision-making process of JFK's inner circle include poor communication and various group pressures/fumbles on the part of the committee.

Given this, of JFK's critical advisers, did anyone speak out (publicly or privately) against the planned Bay of Pigs invasion either in principle or out of tactical concern?


texts: What was the role of the Catholic church with regard to the Holocaust?

texts:
I'm wondering how historians look at the role of the Catholic church during world war II with regard to the Holocaust. I've tried to look for reliable sources on the subject but I can't find much. The sources that I have found thus far contradict each other. In this debate, Christopher Hitchens says that the Catholic church helped the Germans with the final solution. However, Wikipedia says that the pope of the time, pope Pius XII, used diplomacy to help many victims of the Nazis.

Question: What was the role of the church in the Holocaust during world war II? Could anyone point me to reliable sources about the subject?


texts: After Jesus was executed what became of Pontius Pilate

texts: After all of the unrest in the area did Pontius Pilate resolve the issue by the death of Jesus Christ. Historically what became of Pontius Pilate.


texts: What was the significance of Bitchu-Takamatsu Castle from a military/political perspective?

texts:
What was a strategic intention for building Bitchu-Takamatsu Castle?

Its placement in a swamp, in a basin surrounded by mountains might on three sides made the castle impregnable, but also quite inconvenient for any offensive use or territorial defense. Or am I wrong?

My only idea is the nearby Matsuyama Road, but still it doesn't look like the castle protected it.

Why the castle was built in a way that seemingly seems to allow cutting it off by a small contingent?

If not military was there any political significance then?


texts: Which battle enabled Andrew Jackson to become the President of USA?

texts: Which significant battle enabled Andrew Jackson to become the President of the USA? Considering his leadership and contribution to this war he was catapulted to the White House.


texts:
I was recently reading a translation of "The debate between Sheep and Grain" Babylonian creation myth. It mentioned the following in lines 130-142:

  Every night your count is made and your tally-stick put into the
  ground, so your herdsman can tell people how many ewes there are and
  how many young lambs, and how many goats and how many young kids.

What was the purpose of the tally-stick? Why did the shepherds not simply remember the count? Why did it need to be driven into the ground?


texts: For U.S. history 1800-1830, what was GDP by sector and industry?

texts:
The U.S. Census Bureau's Historical Statistics of the United States does not appear to break GDP down.

I'm aware that the terminology is imprecise:

GDP is a modern term, but is much shorter than the contemporary understanding, "What was the total value of goods and services produced by sector?"
"Industry" is also an imprecise term, but is much clearer than "what was the total value of goods and services produced in agriculture, craft, finance, and other sectors including nascent industrial activity".


texts: WWI : odds to cross the man's land alive

texts:
During the first world war, what where the odds to cross the no man's land alive ?

Not to mention staying alive once in the enemy's trench, just the odds to still be alive to either retreat or reach the other side's trench ?

Thanks.


texts: How many rapes did the Wehrmacht commit in the Soviet Union during World War II?

texts:
German Wikipedia says that until 1944 5394 German soldiers were convicted for "moral crimes", but

the Wehrmacht leadership regarded that sexual crimes in accordance with the racial ideology (ideologically, the purpose of German invasion of the Soviet Union was the extinction of racially "inferior" peoples, incl. but not limited to Russians and Jews; sexual violence humiliated the enemy, hence helped achieve the goals of the war) and
on July 5th, 1940, an order was issued according to which rapes to Soviet citizens had to be punished in the mildest possible way (if this is true, we may assume that those 5000+ are the worst offenders, not regular ones).

Are there any estimates?


texts: Why didn't Great Britain give the colonies voting rights?

texts:
The thirteen colonies rebelled after "No Taxation without Representation", and Great Britain probably could have appeased them for quite some time the same way they did Canada (who stayed with Great Britain against America).

Why didn't Great Britain give the Colonies seats in Parliament? In contrast to British rule over India, where a small country occupied a larger and foreign cultured country, Americans at the time were mostly the same British citizens who spoke English and were only a few generations "off the boat"


texts: What was the political consciousness of a 15th century English peasant?

texts: How did they feel about the monarchy and living under lords? Were they are aware of alternative political structures? Did they believe their lives were fair?


texts: How historical are early Chinese (Shang dynasty and earlier) dynastic records?

texts:
Early Chinese dynastic records look like actual history in some places (in particular the exact dating of reigns, back to and including the Yellow Emperor). Elsewhere, there is clearly a lot of myth and legend involved, such as claims of divine descent and lifespans of several centuries.

What is the current "state of the art" for telling the two apart? In particular, I'm interested in what the current scientific consensus is regarding the historicity of the Xia dynasty and the early family tree of Confucius.


texts: What can you tell about a society from its architecture?

texts:
I thought buildings just kind of exists throughout history, and is not very important either But in my world history class, architecture is a subtheme that is discussed a lot in the textbook.

What does architectural styles tell us about a society? What kind of knowledge has historians gained from studying the buildings of a historical society?


texts: What were the rights and statuses of different types of Roman colonies?

texts:
I was reading SPQR by Mary Beard and in the book (pg 200) she mentions the a Roman colony in Hispania called Carteia, which was populated by legion veterans.  They married local women and had children who were not Roman citizens (because there were no right of marriage for a Roman and non-Roman.)  Their children petitioned the Senate for clarification of their (and their cities) legal status.  The Senators decided to grant the colony status as

  "...a colony of ex-slaves. How many hours of discussion it took to
  decide on the bizarre combination of 'ex-slave' and 'Latin' offered
  the closest match available for civil status of the technically
  illegitimate Roman soldier's sons."

I have heard of different colonies, each with differing rights, some had Latin rights, some had full Roman rights just like a citizen in Rome, some had full legal rights except for the right to vote, while some had extremely limited rights. And from the above quote it seems that the Senate would choose the type of colony depending on the rights they wanted to give the citizens, as obviously a colony of legion veteran's children was hardly a colony a ex-slaves.

I am very curious what where the different types of colonies and what were the rights that went with them.

And just for clarification we are talking in the time period before the edict of Caracalla.


texts: How did religions interpret rainbows before science explained it?

texts:
A rainbow this morning to work made me think of how religions used to interpret these colorful appearances.

Signs from the gods? Repent for your sins? A gift?

I want to know how different religions interpreted rainbows before science explained it.


texts: How was the transfer of personnel from British women's military services managed?

texts: In the 1990's,the former women's services -  WRNS, WRAC, and WRAF - were disbanded and women absorbed into the regular services.  Whilst women still cannot serve in combat roles, they are armed and undergo the same training as their male counterparts. However, the original transferees would not have had the same training as men - particularly  weapons training - and I am wondering how this disparity in skill sets was managed? Also, did women have the option to leave rather than be amalgamated?


texts: What is the name of the Egyptian temple which had a secret / fake voice projection chamber?

texts:
I've been touring Egypt a few years ago, and visited many temples. In one of them, I was shown a chamber, and a little passage which apparently went behind the chamber and allowed the priest to project their voice in the chamber, tricking the pilgrim into believing they are talking to their deity.
I'm trying to write a short article about modern technology and use the reference to this temple or the practice in general.
Did ancient Egyptians use this kind of "voice projection" trick in any of their temples?
Was this widespread, or a local "innovation"?
I believe it might have been a temple of Bast. If I remember correctly, the chamber was ruined and its remains were yellow waist or knee high wall. Does anyone know the name of this temple?


texts:
This was my great great grandfather. He arrived at the port of Tampico in Mexico in the second half of the 19th century. Identifying his military uniform would help me a lot knowing where I come from.

EDIT (from comment)

The uniform looks kinda blue or grey, the mustache blonde, the cap shows a more prominent number 12.


texts:
What were the demographics of New Orleans in the 1890s? Population, race, born overseas vs born in the US, that sort of thing.

And what would be the best source to do more research about New Orleans in the 1890s?


texts: What happened to all the French guillotines?

texts:
Quoting Wikipedia on Guillotine:

  The guillotine remained the official method of execution in France until the death penalty was abolished in 1981. The last guillotining in France was that of torture-murderer Hamida Djandoubi on September 10, 1977.

What happened next? Have they been dismounted? This does not seem really plausible because of their importance in French history. I suppose a couple of them are in history museum, but what about the others?


texts: What factors contributed to the popularity of Eastern cultures in the USA in late 20th century?

texts: Question says mostly all. To be more concrete, I am talking about the popularity of Krishna and Buddhism on the religious side, and stuff like yoga on the more practical side. Some other things might be the popularity of "gurus" etc.


texts: Did the United States ever impose any trade embargoes on the basis of health related concerns?

texts: Did the United States (particularly in the 20th century) ever impose any trade embargoes on the basis of health related concerns? Are there instances where the U.S. said that if Country X doesn't meet particular health standards, it will limit trade with said country?


texts: Did the Founding Fathers believe that states had the right to secede?

texts:
This question is a  follow-up to the Founding Fathers and the Civil War question.

Although the Constitution dictates how a state may join the Union, there is no written provision for secession.  Did the Founding Fathers, or even some, ever discuss whether states had the right to secede if they wanted?  Did they ever discuss whether the national government or the other states had the duty or power to prevent states from seceding?

If the Founding Fathers did not discuss this, when do we first see political debate in the United States on these questions?


texts: What is the contemporary knowledge of the theoretical history?

texts:
I have noticed, that posts here do not use in their argumentation the terminology and thoughts of the theories that attempted to make history more scientific, tried to put a base under it. I mean mainly theories of Arthur Toynbee( theory of civilizations) and Lev Gumilev (ethnogenesis), as these I know more or less, but neither have I met a mention of Jaspers, psychohistorians, or somebody else.

Are these theories "outlaws" now?  Are out there some people at least interested in the laws of history?


texts: How close did the US come to removing the Electoral College in 1970?

texts:
A NY Times opinion article mentioned a failed 1970 bill that would have introduced a potential constitutional amendment removing the electoral college.
It had passed the House of Representatives, but this bill was then held up and ultimately defeated by a Senate filibuster:

When the amendment resolution finally came to the floor of the Senate
in September 1970, thanks to the prodigious efforts of an Indiana
senator, Birch Bayh, it was greeted by a filibuster led by
segregationists Sam Ervin and Strom Thurmond (with an assist from the
Nebraska Republican Roman Hruska). Although things were changing in
the South, its political leaders remained steeped in the values and
perspectives that had informed their hostility to the civil rights
movement and the Voting Rights Act. “The Electoral College,” wrote
Senator James Allen of Alabama in 1969, “is one of the South’s few
remaining political safeguards. Let’s keep it.”
The filibuster succeeded, dooming the proposal: attempts to invoke
cloture — to end the debate and vote on the amendment itself — fell a
few votes short of the two-thirds majority then needed to break a
filibuster. The regional lineups in the crucial cloture votes (there
were two) were starkly visible. More than 75 percent of Southern
senators voted against cloture; a similar proportion of senators from
outside the South voted favorably.

But the article doesn't discuss what the chances were for this bill otherwise. Presumably the filibuster was used because without it the bill would have passed the Senate (or at least had a very good chance of doing so) and gone on to the President for consideration.
Assuming Congress had passed the bill, can we gauge from other hallmarks of the time whether it would have been successful? For instance, did President Nixon make any statements about the bill? Similarly, what were the chances it could have been ratified by the States?


texts: Was the tide of war ever turned by a wonder weapon?

texts:
There seems to be a repeating topos in history, where powers on the loosing side of a war try to turn its tide by inventing new, secret and/or super weapons. The misguided hope seems to be that these new wonder weapons will be enough to totally surprise their enemies, dominate the battlefield and/or shock the enemy into submission – and thus bring by victory in short order.
The examples I know of, however, all failed rather miserably. To my (unscholarly) eye a plausible reason for this appears to be because wars seem to be, more often than not, won through logistics and economics – and powers on the loosing end of a conflict seem to be operating on already stretched resource/logistics budgets, and will therefore be doubly taxed by the R&D efforts for new "super weapons", even given that those weapons would actually prove effective in the field.
Some examples that were (quite) unsuccessful:

Japan building submarine aircraft carriers towards the end of WW2.
Hitlers ambitious (or rather: illusionary) Wunderwaffen programs, such as the Maus Panzer, Landkreuzer Ratte and many many more…
The Paris Guns from WW1

There seem to be examples where the side already winning the war was able to expedite its course by bringing new weapons to the table: a prominent example being the Manhattan Project which culminated in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus essentially ending the war with Japan. But I would disregard this: since the US were already in a clearly favourable position to win the war the atomic bomb was hardly a complete game changer.
Are there examples of wonder weapons which were actually able to turn the tide of a war for the loosing side?


texts: Were the republican legati pro praetores appointed by the governors?

texts:
I am not referring to the Legati Augusti pro praetores of the Empire.

In republican Rome, provincial governors chose their own legates quite freely.

I found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legatus :

a legate could be invested with propraetorian imperium (legatus pro praetore) in his own right

An example of such rank is T. Labienus, legatus pro praetore for Caesar.

My understanding of the wikipedia quote is that the legatus pro praetore is both a legate, acting as a lieutenant for the proconsul, and a fully-empowered provincial magistrate, because he had his own imperium and not just a delegation of the proconsul's.

So could we say the legatus pro praetore is more like the quaestor, a (pro)magistrate under the command of an other promagistrate, or more like the regular legati ?

Could the proconsul "promote" a simple legate by granting him an imperium (I believe he can't) or was the senate involved (the same way it created proconsuls) ?

In the second option, did the senate have a say in the name of the future legatus pro praetore ?

Bonus question : is there any record of a legatus pro praetore serving several governors without returning to civilian life in between, or of a republican legatus pro praetore serving under no governor/consul at all ?


texts: Credible historic description of how the daily life was for the middle-class during the financial crisis of 1929

texts: I am trying to find out how life could change for the middle-class today if we had a high-impact financial crisis. Please help-me / let me know if this question could be rephrased better.


texts: Why was Spanish Fascist dictatorship left in power after World War II?

texts:
Throughout the Second World War, many people in Spain were under the hope that the victory of the Allies would trigger an invasion of Spain to defeat the dictatorship of Franco, a fascist who won the Civil War in 1939 thanks to the help of Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany.

It is a known fact that Britain bribed Spain to stay out of Second World War. There are other reasons that are very well detailed in Why were Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?.

Despite all of this, there were quite a lot of volunteers, even many sent to Russia by the government itself (the División Azul to Russia).

Throughout the war, Spain's government moved from supporting the Axis Powers to calling themselves neutral. As it was fearing the defeat of the Axis Powers, things changed:

by 1942-1943, executions of former Republicans decreased
when Mussolini was captured in july 1943, Franco moved his position towards neutrality.
general Franco was pressured to stop selling tungsten to Germany (references in this page from Wikipedia in Spanish)

By February 1945, the Yalta Conference got an agreement that would be important to Spain:

  The Big Three further agreed that democracies would be established, all liberated European and former Axis satellite countries would hold free elections and that order would be restored

However, the only thing that really happened was a gathering of volunteers for a guerrilla-like invasion:

  Following the Spanish Civil War, many supporters of the former Republican government decided to start a movement to overthrow Franco; these members were called the Spanish Maquis. Several guerrilla raids occurred during the timeline of World War II, with most of them happening in 1944. One major confrontation happened in the Vale de Arán valley where a large group of rebels attacked and briefly occupied the north-western border of the Pyrenees. The government of France along with the Soviet Union organised, trained and armed a large group of Spaniards earlier liberated from the concentration camps where Spanish republicans had been held by the Front Populaire since they crossed the Spanish-French border at the end of the Spanish civil war in 1939. The battle lasted four days. The better trained and motivated Spanish Army under the command of the experienced General Moscardó immediately maneuvered to control the main strategic points of the valley and engaged the invaders, pushing them back across the border. The communists had underestimated popular support for the Francoist Regime, and no revolution began as they supposed.

Source: Spain during World War II

All in all, Spain got isolated, many war criminals got shelter in the country and the dictatorship managed to survive many years, until the death of Franco in 1975. This happened to the surprise of Republicans, who had already faced the coldness during the Civil War, when they suffered from the Non-intervention of the democracies.

Then, it was only by mid 1950s when Spain was on the focus again, when required to host some UNO's headquarters during the Cold War.

Why was this? What caused this coldness towards Spain despite being a Fascist regime? Were there any plans to force the fall of the regime?


texts:
Throughout history, humans have made many subtle and many substantial scientific advancements.  Humans have explored, examined, learned, applied and at times seemingly "forgotten" and/or were unable to pass on the scientific knowledge they had acquired.

What are some of the most evident examples of scientific regression in human history?

NOTE: By presenting the question it is implied that what knowledge may have once been "lost" has eventually been rediscovered in some way.

I don't want the words "scientific" or "lost" to be misunderstood. In regards to "scientific" I am referring to advancement in knowledge. This advancement may have been later viewed as Alchemy/Protoscience/Pseudoscience/Empirical Science/etc. In regards to the word "lost" I am referring to said knowledge no longer being used for whatever reason. Perhaps due to oppression, repression, catastrophe etc...


texts: Was Romania under German command during WWII?

texts: At the beginning of WWII, Romania was independent, but then the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact came and parts of the country were invaded by Russians. This pact triggered Romania to join the war on the German side, but there is something interesting when looking at the dates. As part of the Axis, Romania joins the "Eastern Front War" on June 22, 1941, and regained Bessarabia on July 1st, 1941. Basically, Romania could have stopped there and kept the troops around the lost territories (including Transilvania), but instead, Antonescu continued to send lots of troops to Stalingrad for manslaughter. This raises the question: was Antonescu following Hitler's orders? Or was he just in a spree to get more territories?


texts: Is there any evidence of STD's in ancient times?

texts:
Are there any ancient texts that show or imply that their authors knew that certain diseases were spread through sexual activity?  It seems like sexual contagion was recognized in the 16th century during the height of the syphilis epidemic. I have even read that it contributed to closing of some brothels and the rise of Puritanism.

I am more interested if anyone in Rome, Greece, or the Middle East realized a connection between sex and disease during the Bronze Age or the Classical period.  There were plenty of commercial brothels in the Roman Empire and plenty of temple prostitutes in the ancient Middle East.  Is there any evidence of STD epidemics from then?

I realize that germ theory would not be around until the nineteenth century, but a ancient historian or philosopher still could have noticed a correlation.


texts: Why is the term "Ancestral Puebloans" used and not simply "Puebloans"?

texts:
I have seen various history textbooks use the term "Ancestral Puebloans" in referring to the a group who lived in the American Southwest prior to circa 1500.

Most books say hese people dispersed and relocated to various newer settlements, such as Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, where many live to this day, with a collective title of "Puebloans".

When referring to other cultures, I haven't seen one attach "Ancestral" to the beginning. For instance, if studying Japan's history, I haven't seen books use the word "Ancestral Japanese".

So why do scholars affix the word "Ancestral" when referring to Puebloans prior to 1500?


texts:
I recall reading that there was an unwritten rule to the effect that Roman Senators under the Empire were forbidden to visit Egypt without an express permission from the Emperor, on pain of death.

Is my memory correct? If yes, can you supply a reference?
If yes, is it known when this rule was rescinded?


texts: Were Tipu Sultan and his father sultans or prime ministers?

texts:
From his title, I thought Tipu Sultan was a sultan (king). However, I've read a little about Mysore Kingdom, found that it was ruled by Wodeyar family and once upon a time the kings were puppet kings under Haider Ali and then Tipu Sultan.

Were Tipu Sultan and his father kings or just chief ministers?
Did Tipu Sultan or his father rebel against the king of Mysore and throne him/themselves?


texts: With most historians saying the Crusades stopped in 1291, and the disappearance of the Crusader states (Outremer), I'm left to wonder: what happened to the Europeans who had built a life there? Did they go back? Did they stay?


texts: Were American mortars better than Soviet ones during WWII?

texts:
In this question, the OP says that the American mortars where better than the Soviet ones. Nobody went further on that point. But I am surprised:

It appears from my research that the Soviets had mortars heavier and with an upper hand in range compared to Americans ones. The Soviet mortars were used with an artillery-like role: it consists mainly in reinforcing the number of shells sent to the front rather than supporting at short range the infantry.

On the other hand, the mortar in US Army was used by small platoons to defend against infantry attacks, so it was lighter but had a smaller range.

Am I right? Are there criteria of comparison between the two ?


texts: What are some primary sources for Chinese restaurants?

texts:
I am currently working on a research paper on the history and development of Americanized Chinese food and restaurants, but finding primary sources has been a challenge.

I currently have a few cookbooks, restaurant menus, and Youtube videos with interviews to work with, but I really need numerical data. I would like to know the number of Chinese cuisine restaurants from between the 1870's to the 1950's or so in someplace in California. The records on census.gov don't go to that time and I have tried everything from the Smithsonian research website to ancestry.com but can't seem to find small business data from that time era.

A secondary piece of interest is that one of my cookbook sources appears to be written for an American living in China and spares no pity on instructing the reader how to avoid the filth of China when they cook. This book must have been written for a market, but I can't find anything about Americans migrating to China anywhere. Thoughts?


texts: Is there any history magazine like "Foreign Policy" for politics?

texts: I'm a college student. I'd like to read a history magazine (online preferred) that relates to History in the same way that "Foreign Policy" relates to Politics or "The Economist" relates to Economics. Are there any?


texts: What caused the imposition of strict celibacy for Catholic priests during the 11th century?

texts:
At the Second Lateran Council in 1139, the Catholic Church implemented a rule requiring all priests to remain celibate. Although the Church has already talked about being celibate for the previous 1000 years or so, it was not a required or enforced rule for everyone. What caused this to change in 1139? To clarify, I am looking for reasons outside of scriptural reasons, as the scriptural reasons are fairly cut and dry, that would influence the catholic church to re-address/solidify the rules on celibacy.

Some things I've seen from just googling are ideas that the priests were favoring there children in church appointments, or that the churches land was being given out to priests children, but I cant find any reliable sources on these matters.


texts:
Who are these people in this satirical cartoon of the Congress of Verona?

Alternative images, click for details:

Three men in military dress sit around a rectangular table - a fourth man has stood up so suddenly that he has knocked his chair over. His sword is half-drawn. A fifth man watches though a window and gives a warning:

Take care of that Bear, he has set his Mind on Blood, & his voracious appetite will gorge both East, & West, and he is only making you his Fools, to Cut each others Throat that he may devour you all the more easily.
You had better not – garde a Toi

There are two small men behind the rightmost seated man on his chair. There is a man under the table in a rocking cradle with "Pruſsia" (Prussia) written on it. The leftmost seated man has one foot on the bottom of the cradle, presumably rocking it. There is a prostrate man in blue beneath the leftmost man. The label is too small to be read. There are two prostrate men beneath the feet of the rightmost man, one in green, one in orange. Both labels are too small to be read.
Who are all these people?
Wikipedia mentions many people present at the Congress:

The Quintuple Alliance was represented by the following persons:

Russia: Emperor Alexander I and Count Karl Robert Nesselrode (minister of foreign affairs). Count George Mocenigo (Ambassador of Russia in Torino), was also present;
Austria: Prince Metternich;
Prussia: Prince Hardenberg and Count Christian Gunther von Bernstorff;
France: The duc de Montmorency-Laval (minister of Foreign Affairs) and François-René de Chateaubriand;
United Kingdom: The Duke of Wellington, who was taking the place of Viscount Castlereagh after the latter's suicide on the eve of the congress.

I'm guessing that the man in the window is the Duke of Wellington, the standing man is Emperor Alexander I of Russia and the seated man saying "garde a toi" is the duc de Montmorency-Laval of France.
Who are the other two seated men? Who are the six small men?


texts: To what degree did women participate in the air war during WW2?

texts:
I read that Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak and Katya Budanova, the latter is in the above picture, were fighter pilots in the Soviet Air Force during World War II.

Since I cannot find other fighter female pilots during World War II, neither among USAF and RAF nor among Luftwaffe, I wonder if they are existed and, more generally, what their role in air war was.

Therefore, question is: To what degree did women participate in the air war during World War 2?


texts: Were communists opposed to Jews in France?

texts:
After reading the very insightful question to what extent were the Jewish persecuted during the Soviet Union and its first two answers reminded me my high school History classes to the extent that the demonstration of rs.29, which has been accepted, goes against my memories of Communist anti-Semitism, at least in France. Indeed I remember hearing that the Communists and the left in general were opposed to the Jews assimilating the Jews to money and capitalism ...

I know that the Dreyfus affair was an important changepoint for the communists and the Left for them to stand with the Jews to the extent that it was about defending human rights. But I also know from this article on L'Antisémitisme à gauche. Histoire d'un paradoxe, de 1830 à nos jours, written by Michel Dreyfus that several figures from the left were openly anti semitic. Like revolutionary Auguste Blanqui and his disciples, the disappointed of Dreyfusism, the pacifist socialists hostile to Leon Blum and other, the ultra-left ferment of negationism, the antiparliamentary left, stood against the Jews. But this is generally speaking about the left. I only know Paul Rassinier, former communist then socialist, and founder of negationism that has exported so well to the Muslim world, is now well known. Or Robert Louzon (1882-1976), one of the animators of The proletarian revolution, magazine "syndicalist" founded in 1925 by revolutionary militants precociously excluded from the PCF. So I don't know what to say about the communist position from its cradle to WW2

I imagine that WW2 was another changing point as far as being Communist was a reason to be arrested in France as it was for being Jewish. Yet the French Communist Party only turns to resistance in 1941 after the German-Soviet Pact was broken by Germany invasion and the USSR, leader of the communists parties thanks to the Kominform until it was disbanded in 1956, quickly stood with the Arab countries against Israel. From this period to nowadays it starts to be quite hard to figure out for me for a lack of historical knowledge.

As a result were communists opposed to the Jews in France ?


texts: When was the tactic of chaining ships together last used in a major naval battle?

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At the Battle of Sluys in 1340, the French fleet operated:

  in accordance with the usual medieval tactics of a fleet fighting on the defensive. Quiéret and Béhuchet formed their forces into three or four lines chained together, with a few of the largest stationed in front as outposts.

The limitations of this tactic seem fairly obvious – severely restricted manoeuvrability – but, according this article on Medieval Maritime Warfare,

  There are multiple contemporary accounts of ships being linked
  together with chains or cables in order to ensure formation integrity

Tying ships together was also used by, for example, the Vikings, to create a fighting platform (i.e. naval battles were often actually land battles fought at sea).

I’m thinking that one reason this tactic of tying ships together died out was the increasing use of cannons on ships, the first use in Europe believed to have been at the Battle of Arnemuiden in 1338.

When was the last battle in which ships were tied together?

The answer could be for anywhere in the world but it should be a battle involving at least 20 ships tied together. Note that this question refers only to ships of the same fleet being tied together – the use of grappling irons for boarding does not count.

As a supplementary question, were ships always tied together side by side or were they sometimes (for defensive purposes) tied bow to stern?


texts: Did Stukas support Schmalz Panzer corps and what about air interdiction?

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During the campaign of Sicily, mid-summer 1943, British forces of the 8th army fought along the East coast of Sicily against Axis forces. Mid-July, the 5th British division encountered an opposing tank force under commandant Schmalz: the "Schmalz Panzer group".
The 5th division was moving from Syracusa, in the South, to the city of Augusta, in the North. It encountered Schmalz's group at Priolo, which operated a defensive action against British forces until they reached Augusta. The next day, he counterattacked them near Augusta, before falling back.

According to Peter Kemp, during those two days of fight, "Stukas" had supported the action of Schmalz. "Stukas" means "dive bomber" in German, but it was mainly used for the Junkers 87. What I am doubting of is that Junkers 87 were quite vulnerable in mid-1943, on the Eastern front and even more on the Western Front against a very important Allied air force. So was it really Junkers 87 "Stuka" which supported Schmalz group, and of which unit, or is "Stuka" in this context a generic term for Close Air Support aircrafts such as the Focke Wulf 190?


texts: Is there any precedent to Duterte's "Shoot them dead" call for policy violators in a Democracy?

texts:
Quoting Reuters:

“My orders to the police and military ... if there is trouble and there’s an occasion that they fight back and your lives are in danger, shoot them dead.”
“Is that understood? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, I will bury you.”

Reading between the lines and from having watched the video, this seems to be more of a warning aimed at the opposition and those who might join demonstrations.
Are there historical precedents for this in (however imperfect or failed) democracies? This, as in, public calls by those in power for police to shoot protestors and opposition leaders dead. (Apart from Duterte's own precedent on prompting police to kill drug dealers and drug users.)
There arguably are plenty of precedents prior to democracies becoming the norm, with insofar as I'm aware orders given in private to commanders or commanders taking that initiative by themselves. The Paris Commune in 1871 springs to mind for instance, as do the 1848-49 repressions in Germany, Austria, Czechia, or Hungary.
There are also police mishaps and other clusterfucks. This is about explicit, stated policy.
This question is about countries that, at least on paper, are democracies. And to set the time frame, this is for after the advent of police forces, which arose in the late 19th century.


texts: How did the Allies locate, identify and process Nazi War criminals?

texts:
Original Question:
I am seeking information on the identifying, locating and detaining of suspected Nazi war criminals and SS officials near and shortly after the end of WWII in Europe.  Specifically, was there an organized or coordinated effort charged with this task similar to the effort to locate and return stolen art by the officers and men of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFA&A) program?

If so, how was this unit(s) organized, what were their standing orders, when were they commissioned and decommissioned for this task,  and who commanded the unit(s)?

Update
I have been reading Operation Paperclip - The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen (Bay Back Books / Little, Brown and Company, 2014).  Jacobsen's research and sources are outstanding - this is a five star book, I highly recommend it.  However, since its focus is Operation Paperclip, it deals with the effort that was frankly at cross purposes with finding, detaining and processing suspected Nazi war criminals.  But to better illustrate the questionable policies of Paperclip, Jacobsen does refer in part to at least one Allied unit of seven officers (all American except for one Dutch officer, William J. Aalmans) that was tasked to go to various liberated sites and question freed prisoners and slave laborers about their Nazi and SS captors for the purpose of gathering evidence for eventual war crimes proceedings.  One such incident at Nordhausen in April '45 (before the war in Europe ended) is mentioned on pp 46-47...

  Following along behind the soldiers [of the U.S. 104th Infantry Division, which had just liberated Nordhausen] was a team of seven war crimes investigators. Among them was a young Dutch officer working for the U.S. Army, William J. Aalmans... Aalmans and his team [of war crimes investigators] began taking witness statements from [Nordhausen liberated] prisoners... The job facing the war crimes investigators was overwhelming, and their schedule was intense. After five days at Nordhausen they were ordered to move on...

Later, on pp 69-70 Jacobsen refers to a search for IG Farben board members who were "wanted for war crimes" (this implies a list of suspected war criminals who were being sought, prior to war's end).  Jacobsen mentions a house-to-house search in Heidelberg for IG Farben CEO Hermann Schmitz in May '45 (specific date not given, but either just before, at, or just after Germany's surrender).

These details from Jacobsen's book point to an office or command in charge of investigating war crimes (perhaps in response to JCS 1067, but possibly preceding it) with at least one field unit of seven officers that was dispatched from place to place for gathering evidence, along with searches conducted for suspected war criminals (both civilian and military) - which does indeed sound similar to the MFA&A program I referenced in my original question.

Being inspired by Jacobsen's references, I just Googled "SHAEF War Crimes Office" and found some useful information.  One link in particular pointed me to another book that I have just this minute ordered.  I believe it will answer my original question.  The book is Prelude to Nuremberg: Allied War Crimes Policy and the Question of Punishment (Arieh J. Kochavi, The University of North Carolina Press, 2000, 2005).

If anyone already has this book (or a similar source) and can supply additional information here, that would be appreciated (yes, I'm asking for spoilers - I will read the book when I get it but if anyone can answer now, I would receive such an answer gladly).


texts: Why did the USSR support the PRC entry into the UN?

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In 1971, the USSR (and satellites) voted in favor of UN Resolution 2758, which recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) as "the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations" (voting).
Why did the USSR do so, given the hostilities between them and the PRC?


texts: How much resemblance did the industrialization of the Soviet Union bear to those of the rest of the world?

texts: I was thinking about the industrialization of the Soviet Union, most notably the death toll involved. The policies (such as forced-labour, prison camps for those who under performed, extremely poor living conditions etc) of the government are commonly regarded as inhumane and tragic, but how much resemblance did this bear to the respective industrial revolutions in other countries, to give an example (as it is the closest to home for me), Britain's in the 18th/19th century. In terms of casualties (the death toll in the USSR was very high, but was this a result of the totalitarian government or the industrialization process, and how similar was the British casualty list?) products and success. Could this have been because of the speed of their industrialization or as a result of the Communist ideology that resulted in different/worse/better results?


texts: What was the purpose of the "strange crow mask" during the Black Death?

texts:
I looked at the Costumes which the doctors used during the Plague and saw that they wore a strange crow mask what is the reason for this? The mask does not provide any special protection as far as I see and the face itself serves no special purpose maybe apart from identification.
The Wiki also has not special information about the mask.


texts: Are there any historical examples of (non government-approved) fake news having a strong effect?

texts:
Right now there is great concern about "fake news", with calls to regulate journalists and social media to prevent people from seeing or propagating fake news stories. I would like to know what kind of historical examples there are of fake news causing major negative outcomes, bad enough that they could potentially justify using regulations to prevent them.

By "fake news" I mean:

A "news story" containing purported information about events that happened recently (relative to the time of publication) and in the real world.
Those creating the story (the "authors") know it to be false, and intend that the readers / listeners / viewers (the "audience") should believe it to be true.
The intended audience is the general public. (This excludes, for example, fake documents intended to mislead foreign intelligence services, or bureaucratic underlings reporting falsified numbers to their superiors.)
The authors are not already part of, or allied with, the "Establishment" in the society of the intended audience - they should either be a foreign power or internal dissidents / subversives. I want examples of "Manufacturing Dissent", not Manufacturing Consent.
The authors have a political motive (rather than just making something up as a prank).

By a "major negative outcome" I mean that:

Large numbers of "audience" members (or possibly just a few people with a lot of power) believe the fake news.
Because of this belief, they collectively do something which they would not otherwise have done (or do not do something which they otherwise would).
Because of this decision, thousands of people die or millions of people experience economic hardship.


texts: Did Roman women wear underwear? How did it look?

texts:
I must admit I have no expertise in history. My question is inspired by "Rome" TV series (the authors claim that everyday life was shown with relative historical accuracy) and it's about Roman panties.

The wikipedia article says:

  it is unclear whether Greek women wore undergarments

It also says that, if they did, it would be a loincloth:

A scene from the first episode:

Could women from ancient Rome  (circa 560 BCE) really wear an undergarment such as this?


texts: Was Casablanca a "safe" place for the Allies to hold a global conference in January, 1943?

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In January 1943, America's President Roosevelt and Britain's Winston Churchill held a conference in Casablanca, Morocco. Russia's Stalin declined to attend (citing the fighting at Stalingrad). One "real" reason may be that there was no totally safe, clear, path from Moscow to Morocco. (Stalin attended a later conference in Tehran, Iran, in November 1943, with the two others, at a place and time that was probably safer than Casablanca in January, 1943.)

This was at a time when there was a German army (and air force) at large in Tunisia, and German submarines were operating through most of the Atlantic Ocean (although their level of activity around North Africa was unexpectedly low). In February, 1943, the Germans under Rommel launched a counterattack through Kasesrine Pass, which, had it succeeded, might have driven the Anglo-American armies back across Algeria, toward Morocco.

Was it possible, under the circumstances, for the Allied armies, fleet and air force to "guarantee" the safety of the two world leaders? Or did Roosevelt and Churchill deliberately hold a conference in a "dangerous" place to (quite literally) "rally the troops?"


texts: Did NATO promise Gorbachev not to accept membership applications from former Warsaw Pact nations?

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There have been several claims that there was an agreement between NATO and USSR at the end of the Cold War. This agreement supposedly required NATO to reject any membership applications from the nations formerly part of the Warsaw Pact. If this agreement really did exist, it was violated already in 1990 by the inclusion of East Germany and again in 1999 by the inclusion of Poland, Hungary and Czech republic. However I have failed to find a reliable source for this agreement. Was this agreement never in writing and reached only by oral communication and then broken or misinterpreted entirely? Did this agreement exist at all?

EDIT: East Germany did not enter NATO as a nation. Instead East German territories were incorporated to West Germany.


texts:
In the decades since the Cuban revolutions the country's medical doctors famously served on many semi-official missions abroad. For instance, it has been reported that Venezuela under Hugo Chavez provided cheap oil to the island, while the Castros sent their doctors (as well as sports instructors) in return. Cuban physicians effectively became an important export article.

Was this special national ability the result of deliberate planning or tradition on the island (an earlier versions of some emerging countries' current efforts on providing offshore medical services or an upscale version of nurses from the Philippines, perhaps) or did it just emerge as a by-product of a socialist state's common tendency to put relatively much effort on basic services such as medical care? The Wikipedia article on Cuban medical internationalism goes into many details, but is relatively light on the phenomenon's early history and ultimate causes.

So I am looking for sources more reliable than Michael Moore and I would be esp. interested in any memoirs that may exist from Cuban doctors having served in African countries during the Cold War period: Che Guevara, M.D. does not count :)


texts: When did the Knights Templar dissolve and why?

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The Knights Templar were a medieval chivalric organization within the Roman Catholic Church.

When did they dissolve, and what ultimately led to the dissolution of the Templars?


texts: What's the correlation between an excessive unmarried male population and a big war breaking out?

texts:
I recently heard a commentator talking about the effects of the one-child policy in China.  It went basically like this:

  For various economic and cultural reasons, it's considered better to have a son than a daughter in China.  For the last few decades, with parents only having one shot at it, they've been using techniques such as selective abortion to try to maximize the chance of having a son.  It's skewed the boy-to-girl birth ratio to about 1.2 to 1.  Of course, that makes for some real trouble down the line.  Some guys who looked at the numbers said that right now, there are 30 million Chinese guys who'll never find a wife.  Not "someone they like", but simply there aren't enough women to go around at all, on the order of 30 million!  And if history is any guide, that's a major war just waiting to happen.

I can follow most of that, but that last bit I'm not so sure about.  Is there any truth to the claim that historically, having a large sub-population of unmarried men is "a war waiting to happen"?


texts: What is the history of the "root" user in Unix computing?

texts: It might be more relevant to the audiences of StackOverflow, ServerFault, or Programmers, but none of their FAQs covered this type of question. What is the origin of the "root" user in Unix-like operating systems? Specifically, why is it "root" and not "admin", or "deity", or another term synonymous with power? Was it an arbitrary decision, or did it have something to do with the architecture of earlier systems, much the way "production environment" was inspired by the ancient (in computing terms) job of "production scheduler?"


texts: What is origins of antique gold medallion (or may be pendant, or seal, or coin)? It is one sided and hammered lion holding sword and heading to right. The lion has sun behind. There is no inscription and crown on medallion.


texts: How is it known that Xenophon saw the ruins of Nineveh?

texts:
It seems commonly accepted that Xenophon saw the ruins of Nineveh during the Ten Thousand Retreat.

  In the days of the Greek historians Ctesias and Herodotus, 400 BC, Nineveh had become a thing of the past; and when Xenophon the historian passed the place in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand the very memory of its name had been lost. It was buried out of sight (Wiki)

But why is it assumed that what he saw was Nineveh specifically? Is it really that unambiguous from Xenophon's text?

  From this place they marched one stage, six parasangs, to a great stronghold, deserted and lying in ruins. The name of this city was Mespila and it was once inhabited by the Medes. The foundation of its wall was made of polished stone full of shells, and was fifty feet in breadth and fifty in height.  Upon this foundation was built a wall of brick, fifty feet in breadth and a hundred in height; and the circuit of the wall was six parasangs. Here, as the story goes, Medea, the king's wife, took refuge at the time when the Medes were deprived of their empire by the Persians.  To this city also the king of the Persians laid siege, but he was unable to capture it either by length of siege or by storm; Zeus, however, terrified the inhabitants with thunder, and thus the city was taken.


texts: Is the rise and dominance of analytic philosophy around the world associated with the dominance of the British empire and the United States?

texts:
Analytic Philosophy largely originated from the Anglo-American tradition of philosophy. It is arguably the dominant type of philosophy practiced today in most major universities, even in non English-speaking countries.
What accounts for the popularity of analytical philosophy? For instance, do any of the leading scholars on this matter make the claim that this is historically related to (caused by) the dominance of the British Empire and the United States?


texts: Was there a particular area of Victorian London in which bookshops were concentrated?

texts: I see that there were many booksellers in Victorian London. Was there a particular area that hosted "respectable bookshops", in the manner that Petticoat Lane was a centre for Victorian clothing?


texts: Examples of internment or deportation of enemy aliens in the US after WW2?

texts:
The internment of Japanese Americans during the 2nd world war is widely known. The US has participated in several wars since then.  Are there examples of similar events after the 2nd world war?

Did it happen again that people who were living in the US, but had connections with countries that the US went to war with (e.g. they or their parents being citizens of that country), were either detained or deported en masse?  Perhaps they had their green cards revoked or otherwise suffered serious consequences due to their origins?

I am only interested in actions by the government, not any actions or discrimination by the general population.


texts:
I found this attached to a rock, on a beach in Western Australia a number of years ago.
I cannot identify the Coat of Arms although have looked in numerous sites.
The reverse appears to be a Lion Rampant. Could be silver but highly corroded.


texts: What are the themes of post-WW2 Polish immigration to the United States? What was life like for this immigrant community?


texts: Why did Pre-Columbian Americans not build city walls?

texts:
The question

At the time of the European invasions after 1492, the most technologically advanced cultures in the Americas had progressed to about the same stage as the Bronze Age in the old world. However, among other significant differences, the cities in Pre-Columbian American cultures generally lacked city walls while city walls were the defining feature of Old World cities at this technological stage. Why is this?

The states

The relevant Pre-Columbian American cultures are Inca, Maya, Muisca, Mound-builder, Aztec and related cultures that each possessed (many or almost all of:) writing, large-scale empires, extensive agriculture, street and waterway infrastructure, trade networks, bronze, wide range melee and projectile weapons, huge cities, large scale military campaigns and public works.

Comparable cultures in the old world would have been the old and middle kingdom in Egypt, the late Sumerian, Akkadian, early Babylonian empires in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization in India, the Minoan and Mykenean civilizations in Greece, the Hittites in Anatolia, as well as China up to the Zhou dynasty.

The walls

All (?) the mentioned Old World cultures relied heavily on city walls as defensive features. This is reflected in the histories and myths of the time. Pre-Columbian America lacks this feature in spite of ample conflict including conquest and sacking of cities. What little seems to have been written about this (see Gat 2002, especially p.9 and following) hypothesizes that city walls only develop slowly over time and would not be expected to be present in the early Bronze age. They are, so the article, mainly found in later stages, around well-planned highly populated late urban centres. In the light of the facts that some pre-Columbian cultures had an urban history of more than 1000 years (in the area) and were both well-planned and highly populated (Tenochtitlan being among the largest cities on earth at the time), this does not appear entirely convincing.

It seems that in many Pre-Columbian conflicts, the last stand of the defending side did not take place around the city (on the city wall) but on the city's pyramid-temples (providing high ground and naturally defendable positions). See this account of the conquest of Tlatelolco by the Tenochca's (freely available here); the defeated king/tlatoani Moquihuix took his last stand on the Templo Mayor (the great pyramid) and died falling from it. Pyramid-temples were present in many pre-Columbian cultures (including Aztec, Maya, Muisca, Chimu, Mound-builder etc. etc.)

Explanations?

Are there other explanations? Did the two disconnected societies just develop along different paths with pyramid-temples being present in Pre-Columbian American bronze age cultures but not in Old World pronze age? Did the presence or horses and mounted warfare in the Old World play a part (it seems difficult to efficiently make use of superior mobility against extensively fortified positions)?

Has this problem been considered by historians? Is there a debate about this? Is there more evidence or other crucial facts? Where can I read about this?


texts: Were there any abolitionists imprisoned for being critical of the Congress or the President during the American Civil War?

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It's been said that some 14K civilians were imprisoned without trial and that some 300 newspapers were temporarily shut down by the executive branch over the course of the Civil War. I'm wondering if any of those imprisoned were abolitionists.

I know of at least one abolitionist that was openly critical of government, Lysander Spooner. He was an individualist-anarchist and an abolitionist who wrote a series of essays (collectively entitled No Treason) that were highly critical of both the government and the motivations behind the war. I've found no evidence that he was ever imprisoned for his public statements though I have found plenty of cases of non-abolitionists imprisoned for far less scathing criticisms.

Are there any abolitionists that were caught up in the government's attempts to silence dissension?


texts: Scholar-farmer-artisan-merchant social ordering in ancient/medieval China

texts:
The phrase scholar-farmer-artisan-merchant (士農工商, shi-nong-gong-shang) is well-known in China and other Confucian countries. These were the four broad classes of people in ancient/medieval China.

The ordering of the phrase is popularly taken to mean that the four classes were ranked in the following order:

Scholars/gentry
Farmers
Artisans/craftsmen
Merchants/traders

One book asserts:

  In ancient times, traders and bankers—indeed, all who avowed the profit motive—were universally despised. In ancient China merchants were hardly recognized as men, living at the very bottom of the social hierarchy.

Another:

  The official social hierarchy of China from ancient times placed merchants on the very bottom rung, and at the top of the pyramid the Confucian scholar-officials scorned them as materialistic, unconcerned with ethics, and a destabilizing social element.

Another:

  Kept at the bottom and suppressed by deliberate government policy, the merchants and artisans found it very difficult to accumulate wealth. The majority of the merchants, like the craftsmen, were people who lived at the very margin of subsistence.

Are the above assertions correct? Were merchants "hardly men" and "on the very bottom rung" of the social hierarchy? Were they "kept at the bottom and suppressed by deliberate government policy"? Did they live "at the very margin of subsistence"?

How was the scholar-farmer-artisan-merchant ordering manifested economically, socially, and politically? For example, were merchants generally much poorer, much more ostracized, and much more politically repressed than farmers? How so?

In contrast, English Wikipedia claims

  The system did not figure in all other social groups present in premodern Chinese society, and its broad categories were more an idealization than a practical reality [no citation] ... the classification of "four occupations" can be viewed as a mere rhetorical device that had no effect on government policy [cites one Barbieri-Low (2007)].

Chinese Wikipedia writes that different authors gave different orderings. (Examples: scholar-merchant-farmer-artisan in 春秋穀梁傳·成公元年 and farmer-scholar-artisan-merchant in 荀子·王制篇.) It then claims without citation that

  some writers believe the ordering means nothing with regard to social hierarchy.


texts: Was the Protectorate's Instrument of Government influenced by other near-contemporary European constitutions?

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John Lambert drafted the Instrument of Government, the constitution of the Protectorate, in 1653. How much was Lambert influenced by—or even aware of—the relatively recent near-contemporary European constitutions that had been published in Sweden (1634 Instrument of Government) and the Netherlands (1581 Act of Abjuration) which had similar purposes?

This English Instrument of Government is a document based on "Heads of Proposals" which would have limited the power of Charles I if he had accepted it. Charles didn't. The limitation of powers seems very similar in principle to what the Swedish 1634 Instrument of Goverment was designed to do. The Dutch also used the Act of Abjuration and the Treaty of Utrecht to design a constitutional system that was specific to themselves.
The Swedish document is also noted to have "regulated some of the administration, judiciary and the military" though Wikipedia doesn't go into details as to how this would have been achieved. Despite the Protectorate persevering due to the Army, they did aim to regulate law and parliaments (as well as get financial support to the Army). Hence, the Swedish principles are quite similar to the English constitution's:

...[the Instrument of Government] formed the basis of government for the short-lived republic from 1653 to 1657 by providing a legal rationale for the increasing power of Cromwell after Parliament consistently failed to govern effectively. Most of the concepts and ideas embedded into modern constitutional theory, especially bicameralism, separation of powers, the written constitution, and judicial review, can be traced back to the experiments of that period.

While the "increasing power of Cromwell" doesn't really work with "limiting the power of the King" as in the "Heads of Proposals", this was an inherent contradiction in the Protectorate where Cromwell was the unifying factor.
Paul Lay in 'Providence Lost' describes Lambert's Instrument of Government as having been inspired by God (Lambert's supposed words). However, Lay also mentions Venetian practice for choosing a successor to have impacted the Instrument of Government. Lay doesn't mention the guidance from "Heads of Proposals" that Wikipedia denotes—but it's also not the main subject of his book.


texts:
Alternatively: why and when did others switch away from MM/DD/YY, if they ever used it?

I always write out the month name to avoid ambiguity.

Update: Since it came up in the comments, I'm asking about humans, not computers.

Note: There's already a question which includes this, but the answers focused on the metric system. The normal reason for the US hanging onto the Imperial measurement system, an install base untouched by WWII, don't seem to apply to a date format.


texts: How do the Cambodians and the rest of the world feel about the Vietnamese invasion (1975-1978)?

texts:
Despite the genocide happening in Cambodia, the world seems to be against the Vietnamese invasion. Even ignoring the genocide, Vietnam seems well within their right to retaliate against Cambodia given the repeated border clashing between the countries. Even China, a communist country, was not on Vietnam's side. This is very strange to me. Why was virtually everyone (including the Soviets who aided Vietnam) against the invasion?

Are Cambodians back then and today supportive of the invasion?

My research have not revealed much rationale for the overwhelming anger against the Vietnamese invasion. It appears that Cambodia was China's ally (surprisingly, given that it was not communist) and yet Vietnam was not. Given the circumstances (genocide), it was odd that relatively free countries would join the USA (who was in support of the dictatorship) in condemning the invasion. Wikipedia seems to have plenty of description of what happened but not much about the reason.

From what I have read in a recent news article, one of Cambodia's ministers denies that Vietnam 'invaded', but instead 'saved' them - but also emphasized that Cambodia is not subservient to Vietnam. But I couldn't find another source and this is clearly someone who has the potential to be biased. I'm not sure if the common Cambodians would think the same. –


texts: Perceptions and relationships of 14-15th century Spaniards / Romani / Moors

texts: What perceptions of the Romani people were held by the Moors who occupied Granada around the time of the Reconquista? What were the relationships like between the Moors, Romani and the Sephardic Jews who lived during the 14th-15th century?


texts: What were the policies of the Sammarinese communist party?

texts:
I've heard of things not going very well for many socialist countries in the 20th and 21st centuries with problems such as famine, civil war and genocide. However in contrast to states like the USSR or China, San Marino had a democratically elected communist government and is one of the smallest countries in the world. So what were the policies of the Sammarinese communist party and how well did San Marino do in general relative to before and after its communist government?

I have consulted Wikipedia, the article for the communist party only goes into detail about its history. The article for the history of San Marino only mentions universal suffrage being achieved. I was going to write implemented but I'm more interested in how the country did in general relative to how well it did before or after the communist government.


texts: Did John F. Kennedy know about his judicial nominee's racism?

texts:
[Source:] On June 20, 1961, Cox was nominated by President John F. Kennedy to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi created by 75 Stat. 80. [...]
[Harold] Cox was known as a segregationist and referred to blacks as "baboons" from the bench.[1] [...]

However, it is unclear to me whether President Kennedy knew about this nominee's racism.


texts: The end of swords as infantrymen sidearms

texts:
When did infantrymen of Western armies cease to be issued of swords as sidearms (and backup weapons), on a general basis?

PS, Swords were rather common stuff for infantrymen even in 19th century (the briquets). See, for instance: this website. I recently saw (at the NYC Frick Collection) a video titled "Watteau Soldiers", whose pictures are easy to find. That artist clearly depicted (ordinary private) infantrymen carrying both bayonets and swords hanging from their belts.


texts: What was Hitler's attitude towards the Aryans of India?

texts: Considering some of the questions/questioners that have cropped up recently on this site, what was the Nazi attitude towards India and specifically the Aryans of India? Did Hitler consider them to be just as superior as the Nordic race? Did this perhaps motivate his support of the Indian National Army during WW2?


texts: Did General Morillo unwittingly allude to a cause of Spain's decline in 1816?

texts:
In ordering the execution of a famous scientist, Francisco de Caldas, during the war for South American independence, Spain's General Pablo Morillo was quoted as saying "Spain does not need wise men" (in the English translation).

Some questions follow:

Could Morillo have been misquoted or misunderstood?
Wikipedia (not the most reliable source) claims that Morillo's contemporaries shared his views, such as they were. Did 18th and 19th century Spanish leaders generally feel that "Spain does not need wise men."?
If "yes" to question 2, has any historian comparable to Edward Gibbon (perhaps not Gibbon himself, who might have been too old) cited such attitudes as a reason for Spain's decline in the 18th and 19th centuries?


texts:
As we know, the Greeks and later also the Romans built street networks to connect their settlements to each other. For me, this fact raised an issue: How did the Greeks and Romans move between their destinations? Did most people use one horse per man? Did they use chariots? Did they have some kind of "public transportation" systems like horses with big wagons for multiple persons?

And yes, I am aware, that travelling per ship was a very common way to travel in the Mediterranean world. But what about travelling for example from Rome to Mediolanum?


texts: Where Can I Find Historical Candidate Photos of U.S. Elections (both winners and losers)?

texts:
I am looking to do a research project involving photos of United States political candidates (probably gubernatorial, but potentially Senate and/or Congressional). I would like photos from the 1920s or 1930s until about the 1980s. Digital would be wonderful, but print is also fine.

I think that these would exist in many different newspapers (The League of Women Voters possibly published this as well). A central database would obviously be ideal, but I am doubtful that one of these exists (with both winning and losing candidates). But for only winning candidates, it would still be helpful.

I have poked around some and have not had great success yet.

Any suggestions of where I should look?


texts: Why did Iturbide choose Fernández for the mission to California?

texts:
After Mexican independence, Emperor Agustín I took power. During his short reign he understandably sent a representative to the Californias to procure and check on their loyalty. The representative, a priest named Agustín Fernández, accompanied by a report and an entourage of Californians and Russians, had not yet returned to Mexico City when Iturbide was forced to abdicate. When he arrived, he was charged with treason. This may have been Fernández's only foray into national politics.

Fernández was a drunken gambler dandy who happened to be the uncle that raised Mexico's orphaned first President, Guadalupe Victoria. Despite their collaboration in the Army of the Three Guarantees, Iturbide quickly imprisoned Victoria, giving him little influence. (While in jail Victoria was elected deputy from Durango, along with Fernández's boss, the Marqués de Castañiza, Bishop of Durango.)

Why did Iturbide choose Fernández for this sensitive role? How did he justify sending this wild character with no diplomatic experience as his representative?


texts: How were the hides of wild beasts cured and tanned back in the 11th century?

texts: I am currently running a roleplaying game where my player wants to work as a tanner but being honest i have no clue about how tanning and curing worked back when modern chemicals or equipment didn't exist. Can someone explain to me how it worked or point me to a source that explains how it is done?


texts: How did the Roman state verify citizenship?

texts: How were ancient Roman citizens identified, and how did officials make sure that their identity wasn't fake? I.e., did they maintain some kind of citizens registry, or did they have some kind of identity papers (analog of modern ID card, driver's license, passport, etc.)?


texts: Are there any examples of localized micro-conflicts in Mexican history?

texts:
Are there any examples of localized micro-conflicts in Mexican history that led to small scale wars and intervention from federal forces to stop it?

To get a better idea of what I am talking about, I will provide examples of localized conflicts in American history. One example is the Lincoln County War of 1878, where competing business interests in Lincoln County, New Mexico decided to use partisan violence to suppress the activities of their rivals,culminating in the battle of Lincoln. Federal troops intervened to stop the fighting. Another such conflict occurred in Johnson County, Wyoming, where a large scale cattle grazing interest tried to muscle out the smaller ranchers in the county, leading to two ranch sieges before the US 6th Cavalry intervened to stop the violence.

Were there similar examples of localized micro-conflicts escalating to open warfare in Mexican history?

Brian Ghilliotti


texts: What do historians do when there are no sources?

texts:
Historians rapidly come up against absence sources: the documentary record of the past is by its nature fragmentary, selective, partial and obtuse.

What strategies do historians use when there are absences:

in solid consistent record series with diverse bases
in diverse bases with inconsistent series
in consistent series with serious selectivity or partiality issues
in inconsistent and partial series
with singular textual evidence
with singular evidence which is obviously textual but which cannot be read
when there are no documentary records of the past


texts: Who was the train conductor who threw Gandhi from a first class train coach in South Africa?

texts:
A pivotal moment in history, which catalyzed Gandhi's subsequent actions was his ejection from a first-class train carriage in South Africa by the train conductor, a story which is recounted in his autobiography: "My Experiments with Truth".

Was it ever identified who this South African train conductor was, who unintentionally laid the seeds of many a freedom struggle. Thanks.


texts: Is a "buckle plate" the same thing as a "buckle chape"?

texts: Many archaeological items are labeled as "buckle plate" - is that the same thing as a "buckle chape" (the last photo in this article)?


texts: During World War II, in the U.S., were diapers available?

texts:
As is well known, during World War II many consumer goods became difficult to find and with regard to the situation in the United States, after some searches, I observed that, among others:

U.S. officials imposed a short-lived ban on sliced bread as a wartime conservation measure (→);
production of whiskey was banned again during World War II, from 1942 to 1946 (→);
ice cream was unavailable during World War Two due to rationing (→).

However, despite further research I did, I could not find information on diapers, and I began wondering whether they were unavailable at that time. Were they?

Or, rather than not available, were they just hard to find and, if anything, only available through the black market?


texts: What's the etymology of the name of the Schengen village?

texts:
The Luxembourg village of Schengen is noted for being the site where European leaders signed the historic Schengen Agreement. The village is named for its 1390 castle.

Where does the name "Schengen" originally come from? Does "Schengen" means anything in German or Luxembourgish?


texts: When were weapons banned at the Thing assemblies in Norway?

texts:
First the attendants of the assemblies used the clashing of their swords and shields as an expression of their agreement, but later on weapons at the Thing assemblies were banned and the meaning of "vápnatak" shifted to the attendants taking their weapons back up after the negotiations.
Is it known, when this change happened in Norway?
Edit: The information above stems from a German website about the medieval ages, but I couldn't find any information answering my question by googling.


texts: What was British spy Greville Wynne supposed to be selling?

texts: I'm researching a history of the British hippy movement. I've interviewed an old hippy who claimed that he travelled to India along the hippy trail in a vehicle that had been converted for British spy Greville Wynne, who used the vehicle in trade shows in the Soviet bloc. Wynne used these occassions to collect information from Oleg Penkovsky, 'the spy who saved the world.'But what I can't seem to find out is what Wynne was actually purporting to sell. I'd be grateful for any information.


texts: What were the most controversial thesis' of the Scholastics?

texts:
What actual theses were controversial and caused a stir at the time (not today) in the sense of having the most amount of written response? What specific questions were defended in actual theses by scholars at the time, along the line of:

What is the order of the outer heavens?
Jesus had no possessions
How many angels fit on a pinhead? (though I doubt this was a real thesis!)

The Scholastics date from approximately the 13th to the 15th centuries, during which time the early European philosophers such as Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, etc., made their mark. Their philosophy is still hotly discussed today.

I have done research, but my research is complicated by a form of historical survivor bias. Today we get the impression that the most important topic in medieval universities was nominalism, but I'm certain the questions were much more theological. My goal is to understand the topics they discussed, not just the ones that are most interesting to the modern mind.


texts:
I've been looking around on the web for information about prostitutes in japan in the 1940s. I am unable to find anything helpful, as all that is mentioned are "Comfort Women". I need information about Japanese prostitutes.

Here is my question.

Were young girls sometimes sold into prostitution to pay off family debt? And if so, what were they called?


texts: Why did the US insist on invading Japan instead of blockading it in WWII?

texts:
One of the reasons often used to justify the use of nuclear weapons is that the alternative strategy, firebombing and invasion of Japan, would have caused much more death and destruction for both Americans and the Japanese. But I wonder, why was an invasion the necessary alternative?

As I understand, Japan was running low on resources such as oil, rubber, and steel, even from the beginning of the war. If the invasion of the homeland looked so costly for both sides, why was it deemed necessary?

I'm not aware of any allies Japan could have counted on to supply it; why not maintain a blockade and wait them out? It seems that that would have cost less in terms of American casualties.


texts: Are there any accounts written by torturers on their actions?

texts:
Often, in antiquity, rulers would order some horrific things to happen like extreme torture, flaying and so forth. The Hongwu Emperor ordered 5000 women flayed alive for instance.
Obviously the rulers themselves didn't carry out these things so ordinary people had to and I would assume that it would have a very serious effect on their mental state.
Are there any written accounts from people who carried out these kinds of things detailing how it affected them? I'm not talking about basic execution or war, but acts of extreme sadism.


texts: I know that The Great Game was between UK & Russia and done through parts of Asia, Middle East & Europe. I was wondering if the Great Game was basically two empires trying fighting each other with politics and espionage. I guess I'm trying to ask if the Great Game is a war or not; or even on a technical scale?


texts: Is there any evidence in history to suggest that there was a Melanchro (dark-skinned) population in Colchis as claimed by Herodotus?

texts:
On Quora, I encountered a variety of unsourced claims on this subject which I will list below

There are accounts of Black Colchians:
In 522-443, a Greek poet named Pindar described the Colchians as
being "dark skinned with woolly hair".
Apollonius of Rhodes states that the Egyptians of Colchis preserved as
heirlooms a number of wooden tablets, which show, with considerable
accuracy, seas and highways.
According to Pliny the Elder : The Colchians were governed by their
own kings in the earliest ages, that Sesostris king of Egypt was
overcome in Scythia , and put to fight, by the king of Colchis, which
if true, that the Colchians not only had kings in those times, but
were a very powerful people.
Then around
350 to 400 AD, Church father St. Jerome and Sophronius
referred to Colchis as the "second Ethiopia" because of its black
population.  [From: Patrick T. English, Cushites, Colchians, and
Khazars, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol 18, Jaunuary - October
1959, p. 53. ]
And, a black Colchian writer, historian, and ethnographer, Dmitri
Gulia (1874-1960) asserted that his heritage originated from
Sesostris. He published a book called, History of Abkhazia, which
shows that the black Colchian people of Southern Russia were really an
Abyssinaian people of Egypt. He shows putting together a vast array of
Abkhazian words that matched that of ancient Egypts is more proof for
it. (Poe, 58)

Pindar, Apollonius, Pliny, Jerome etc. Did these men really write these things as quoted above?
Is Herodotus disproved or validated on his claims about a dark skinned and woolly haired people living in Colchis?


texts: Luftwaffe Operations from Syria/Iraq in 1942

texts:
I recall reading somewhere that prior to the destruction of Vichy French forces in Syria the Luftwaffe operated at least one Staffel of He-111 bombers from either Syria or Iraq.

Please can anyone provide further information and identify the unit please?

In a similar vein I understand other Luftwaffe units operated as far south as West Africa or Nigeria.

Please could anybody help with either issues?


texts: Did Moscow have natural gas in the early era of the Soviet Union (1917 - 1930)?

texts:
Did apartments in Moscow have natural gas in the years 1917 to 1930? If so, were they supplied by utility pipelines underground?

I am curious because underground utility pipes are expensive to build and maintain. I'm not even sure there were any long-range gas pipelines back in the early 1900's Russia. However, in all my reading, I don't think I've ever heard of electric stoves/ovens in Moscow. Natural gas seems ubiquitous and Russia seems very fond of it. Therefore I wanted to ask this explicit question.


texts: Where can I find a list of students expelled from university in Nazi Germany?

texts:
I'm looking for a place to research the names of students expelled from university in Nazi Germany, from 1933 to 1936.

The reasons for expulsion would be being under suspicion of some anti-Nazi criterion: communist, possible foreign spy, racial, etc.

Where can I start my research? Are there any sources in English about this topic? Thank you all.


texts: Books on development of collective identities (tribal, ethnic, national etc) and people's identification as part of the collective through time?

texts: What are some good books on how common people identified throughout history in the sense of them belonging to a collective, from tribal to ethnic and national collective, and generally how those concepts emerged and evolved through time?


texts: What have been the major milestones in the creation of state literacy policies?

texts:
There have been times as literacy was not obligatory. So, many people were not able to read/write in their mother tongue, but it was just normal.

Today, most people are literate, and this is a result of mandatory state policies as far as I know in most countries on planet Earth.

The state alone has not created literacy, but today it's a state policy.

What are the milestones in the creation of state literacy policies?

From what I can read on Wikipedia, it addresses the history of literacy itself but I do not see there references to state policies.


texts: What are some of the influences of the Black Plague and its aftermath on the period of Renaissance?

texts: The period of Renaissance in Europe kicked off after the Black Plague started disappearing. How did the the plague help in igniting the fire of rebirth?


texts: To what extent did the medieval European peasantry know their extended family?

texts:
It may not be possible to find a definitive answer to this question, as I know the answer to this would have varied from family to family and culture to culture, but I am curious to know to what extent peasants in the middle ages would have had an understanding of or relationship with cousins, second cousins, and even more distant kinship.

Since the peasantry did not keep as meticulous a set of written records (parish records only being introduced in most nations in the 1500s) I imagine their knowledge of genealogy would be scant, so would have to rely on oral tradition. Do we have sources to suggest how well families kept an oral family history?


texts:
My question embraces history, cosmology and astronomy, I hope this is an appropriate forum to ask it, if not I apologise and hope to be re-directed.

I have read, but lost the reference, that when the remnant of Magellan's expedition returned in September 1522, their log showed a date the day before that of the inhabitants of the port where they landed. This is important evidence that the Earth orbits the Sun, but it is not mentioned in any reference to the voyage that I can find. Please, does anyone have more details, and where I can find out more about it?

Edited to correct an error , it was a day lost, not gained


texts: When Great Britain brought its land and naval forces to the American shores to enforce its rule there, before and after the American's declaration of independence, Great Britain's motives seem clear:  if it allowed dissent by the Americans, other colonists elsewhere might be emboldened to consider breaking ties with the King. However, in dedicating troops and ships to the Americas, Britain left gaps in its imperial defenses that other nations and their navies could take advantage.  Ultimately numerous challengers to British naval supremacy used the American distraction to pile on with their own attacks on British ships and assets, essentially becoming a world war, continuing even after the War of 1812.  Is there any record that this risk was evaluated?


texts: What percentage of relocated Armenians died?

texts: What percentage of those forced to relocate actually died as a result of the relocation?


texts: What is the oldest excavated/discovered piece of silk textile made for clothing or writing?

texts:
Chu manuscript dating back to circa 300 B.C., middle of the Warring States era.

Mawangdui robe's dating back to ~ 200..150 B.C., beginning of the Western Han.

Do you know any older examples of silk writings and/or silk clothes? Can you provide sources, places of discovery and photos?

Thank you!


texts: Was Marcus Marcellus faced with Viridomarus or Britomartus?

texts:
I seem to have come to a discrepancy, as I'm sure a lot have, concerning the event in which Marcus Claudius Marcellus is supposedly meant to have slain the King of the Insubres in 222 B.C.E.

Plutarch tells us in his book 'Life of Marcellus' p. 449 - 451

  "From thence Britomartus the king, taking with him ten thousand of the
  Gaesatae, ravaged the country about the Po." - p.449

  "Meanwhile the king of the Gauls [Britomartus] espied him, and judging
  from his insignia that he was the commander, rode far out in front of
  the rest and confronted him, shouting challenges and brandishing his
  spear. His stature exceeded that of the other Gauls, and he was
  conspicuous for a suit of armour which was set off with gold and
  silver and bright colours and all sorts of broideries; it gleamed like
  lightning. 2 Accordingly, as Marcellus surveyed the ranks of the
  enemy, this seemed to him to be the most beautiful armour, and he
  concluded that it was this which he had vowed to the god. He therefore
  rushed upon the man, and by a thrust of his spear which pierced his
  adversary's breastplate, and by the impact of his horse in full
  career, threw him, still living, upon the ground, where, with a second
  and third blow, he promptly killed him." -p.451

  "The first [to win the Spolia Opima] was Romulus, who despoiled Acron
  the Caeninensian the second was Cornelius Cossus, who despoiled
  Tolumnius the Tuscan; and after them Marcellus, who despoiled
  Britomartus, king of the Gauls; but after Marcellus, no man." - p.455

Florus tells us in his writings 'Epitome of Roman History' Chap. IV.

Although apparently sourced mainly from Livy - Florus tells us that:

  "When Viridomarus was their king, they vowed the arms of the Romans to
  Vulcan; but their vows had a very different result; for Marcellus,
  having killed their king, hung up his arms to Jupiter Feretrius, being
  the third spolia opima since those of Romulus, the father of the
  city."

Livy Tells us in an excerpt of Book XX - The History of Rome 'Periochae'

He claims:

  "Gauls from across the Alps invaded Italy and were defeated. It is
  said that during this war, the Roman people and its Latin allies
  employed 800,000 soldiers. For the first time, Roman armies crossed
  the Po and the Gallic Insubres, defeated in battle, were defeated in a
  series of battles. They surrendered. Consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus
  killed the leader of the Gallic Insubres, Vertomarus, and returned
  with the supreme booty."

Adrian Goldsworthy seems to source Plutarch, suggesting that his argument might be more reliable.

Has there been any recent conclusive evidence, or is this chiefly a mix up of name as opposed to character?


texts: How did the US military "put the 'go slow'" on the use of force in the Vietnam War since the Tet Offensive?

texts:
In the recent CNN News video Retired general reacts to Trump's military comments after 00:50 Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark (ret) says (my transcription from the video):

First of all, the historical record shows that it’s the military that usually is advocating against the use of force.
If you go back and look at all the examples; going back even into the Vietnam War, it was the military that put the “go slow” on it, since the Tet Offensive at least.
And so if you look at the ’90s, the ‘00s, the military has always said “can’t you use diplomacy first?”, “please don’t put us in there”, “do you understand what may happen if it doesn’t work the way you think it does?”.
So it’s the military that puts the breaks on.

Clark is certainly a scholar of military history and a short video interview doesn't allow them to cite sources, but I would like to read further.
What examples are there of military advisors "putting the 'go slow'" on the use of force in the Vietnam War "since the Tet Offensive"? Are there specific individuals who are noted for cautioning US presidents Johnson or Nixon to "go slow", and records of what they said or wrote to the president to this effect?
An answer primarily citing sources with short quotes will allow me to read further.


texts: Why did Europeans (and not people in other regions) dominate oceans?

texts:
Having a brief look at civilization history, I find that Europeans have a significant dominance over other regions when it comes to sailing. This becomes more obvious after the 15th century when Europeans started to explore the "new world" and to colonize regions in Africa, Asia, America etc. Among other factors, their navy technology has a major role here.

I have thought about this, and I wonder how Europeans developed their sailing skills so much compared to other civilizations in the world?

Example

Almost always, at least since the beginning of the common era as far as I know, China had had a higher population than Europe. If there were a lack of resources because of the overpopulation, and this would then lead to the need for new territories, China should have been the first region interested in exploring (correct me if I'm wrong). As Europeans did, they also had access to the open sea.

In my perspective, Chinese and Europeans were in the same conditions:

Wide access to the ocean.
Enough human resources (China more).

In these circumstances, China should have been more favored to sail and to colonize other regions (ex. India, southeastern Asia etc.).

So, what is that particular reason that I'm probably missing, that made Europeans more capable in sailing?


texts: During the French Revolution, how did the French address non-citizens?

texts:
I've read in multiple books and articles that during the French Revolution the address of monsieur / madame (my lord / my lady) was suspended in favor of the more égalité-friendly citoyen / citoyenne (citizen). The change of address is usually mentioned and then quickly passed by.

But, assuming my understanding is correct, the above raises an obvious issue to me: how was a good Republican supposed to address someone who was not a French citizen? There were many foreigners in France during the time of the revolution, and presumably not all of them were granted honorary citizenship. And of course the French Republic continued to deal with foreign nations, albeit often on unfriendly terms.

How was a citizen of the revolutionary government supposed to address those who fell outside the bounds of the citizenry?