texts: Has there been talk of a post-work economy before?

texts:
In recent years there has been a lot of talk about the topic of a post-work economy. This includes conversations, news articles, and professional studies.
Take for example this LA Times article, that reports

in the U.S., 38% of jobs could be at risk of automation, compared with 30% in Britain, 35% in Germany and 21% in Japan.

It further reports

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that he wasn’t worried about artificial intelligence taking over American jobs.
“I think we’re so far away from that that it’s not even on my radar screen,” he told Axios Media. “I think it’s 50 or 100 more years.”

That Mnuchin is not the most reliable source on this topic aside, 50 or 100 more years is not exactly a long time. Regardless, that Mnuchin was asked about this demonstrates how the idea of robots taking over work is very much on society’s mind.
Whether or not we are headed for a post work economy is up for debate (yes, no — I cant speak for these websites’ credibility), but, while it is fascinating, its viability is not what this question is about.
This question is more historical (and rightfully so): has there in the past been such discussion or philosophizing on a post-work economy?


texts: Cultures of the image and cultures of the word

texts:
Steven Weinberg's 2002 review of Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science contains the following:

  In this, Wolfram is allying himself with one side in the ancient
  struggle between what (with much oversimplification) one might call
  cultures of the image and cultures of the word. In our own time it has
  surfaced in the competition between television and newspapers and
  between graphical user interfaces and command line interfaces in
  computer operating systems.

  The culture of images has had the better of it lately. For a while the
  culture of the word had seemed to have scored a victory with the
  introduction of sound into motion pictures. In Sunset Boulevard, Norma
  Desmond recalls that in silent films, “We didn’t need dialogue. We had
  faces.” But now movies can go on for long stretches with no words,
  only the thunk of cars running into each other and the sizzle of light
  sabers. The ascendancy of the culture of the image has been abetted by
  computers and the study of complexity, which have made possible the
  simulation of complex visual images.

  I am an unreconstructed believer in the importance of the word, or its
  mathematical analogue, the equation.

The crucial phrase here is "with much oversimplification". I am wondering what could be the larger trend manifesting in the history of ideas that Weinberg is referring to: his observation of "the ascendancy of the culture of the image" seems obvious enough in our time, and one could conjecture that the culture of the word had scored an earlier victory with the invention of the printing press, say. The dichotomy also seems to relate to a contrast between exact/more intuitive modes of thinking and expression that is sometimes attributed to West/East (or modernism/postmodernism, or even Wittgenstein I/II :).

If the trend has been observed (and named) by historians of ideas, do they describe it as a back-and-forth between (suitable generalizations of) the cultures of the image and the word respectively across times and cultures, or is it more of a uniform ascendancy of the culture of images perhaps facilitated by progress in technology and the factoid that everything might have been said (but not by everyone) in certain areas? Or is there no larger trend in history and these are just sentimental words from an elder (and wise) individual of a kind that is perhaps constant across generations?


texts: During the American Civil War, were cavalry units issued horses?

texts: When a cavalry unit was raised during the Civil War, were the men issued with horses or did they use their personal horse? For example, 1st Arkansas cavalry (Union) was a western unit made up predominantly of farmers.


texts: Constantine the Great created the Chi-Rho from the Greek word for "Christ". Why choose Greek over Latin, even though he was Roman?

texts:
Upon emerging victorious after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine the Great created the Chi-Rho from the first two letters of the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ meaning "Christ".

Given that Constantine the Great was a Roman emperor, whose "mother tongue" was Latin, and that the sign that appeared before him on the eve of battle was also in Latin ( In hoc signo vinces ), why on earth did he choose to create a Christogram out of a Greek word? What could've possibly influenced him in this regard?


texts: Was the U.S. Civil War unique regarding its relation to slavery? (people fighting for the freedom of a goup they were not part of)

texts:
Although the U.S. Civil War had multiple and complex causes, the question of slavery was a very important factor.

As slavery was part of most civilizations on all continents (especially before the last couple of centuries), and in many cases the slave class had a different ethnic makeup than the privileged class, it occurred to me that I know about many slave revolts from different eras and locations, but all of them involve the slave class fighting against the privileged class.

In the US Civil War the overwhelming majority of the fighters of the anti-slavery side were not members of the slave class. Was this unique in history? I never heard about an army of Ottomans or Mongols or Romans or Almohads etc. to fight for the freedom of the very ethnic groups who served them (or at least people from the same group as them) as slaves.

Members of a privileged group fighting (as in risking their lives in battle, not just making speeches) for the freedom of a group they are not part of. Was this thing unique for the US civil War? If not, was it the first case?

I wouldn't count a few sympathizers who join a slave revolt despite being of higher social standing. For an example to count, the anti-slavery fight has to be started and led mainly by people who are (or could be if they wanted) members of the slave-owning class.


texts: Why did United Kingdom not keep the colonies after Napoleon's defeat?

texts:
During the Napoleonic Wars the British occupied some French, Dutch and Danish colonies mainly in the Caribbean like: Dutch Surinam, Danish West Indies, French Martinique.

I have 2 questions:

Why did the British not occupied Dutch Curaçao ?
Why did the British not keep their occupations after the Napoleonic Wars? I know that they keept Malta (1800), Cape Town (1795), Trinidad (1795) and Ceylon (1795). Since United Kingdom was the 'winner' of the Napoleonic Wars I simply don't understand why they gave away these occupations to the 'losers' like France and Denmark.


texts: Historical information about dustmen in Edwardian England

texts:
I'm helping a middle schooler who was assigned Shaw's Pygmalion. I found a nice write-up about flower girls but now I need something about dustmen. For example, why does Alfred Doolittle, dustman, wear leather? I'm not looking for that question to be answered here -- this is just an example of the sort of information that should be included in the write-up I seek.

This is the closest I've gotten so far, but that text is confusing.

The other study guides I've tried have character analysis of Doolittle. I'm looking for straight historical information about the trade of dustman.


texts:
If you divided the Earth into plots of (say) 1 square mile each, and looked at the history of each one over (e.g.) the last 2000 years, which one would have seen the most years with war? If there is a methodological way to answer this, that would be cool. If not, educated opinions would also be interesting. Where would you look for evidence?

EDIT for clarity:

To be more exact: For each square mile, for each year, give a "Yes" if that plot of land had warfare on it and a "No" if it did not.

Of all the plots of land, which one had the most "Yes"s?

So, e.g., the square mile where I live (New York City, but upper west side) might have only a few "Yes"s or even none - I am not sure if any battle of the American Revolution was fought near here and I am also not sure if any war amongst native American tribes was fought here.


texts: How were ancient Indian mathematical texts found to modern scholarship?

texts:
Unlike e.g. Greco-Roman or Chinese texts, which were written on relatively durable writing material, most ancient Indian literature was done on palm-leaf manuscripts, which typically don't survive more than a few decades. Which means that manuscripts known today are (to my knowledge) known from either:

Regularly copied versions, found in e.g. temples, libraries or personal homes
Persian and Arabic translations
Oral traditions

But when I google stuff about specific Indian academic treatises, I usually don't find any information about how these treatises were first discovered by modern scholarship -- what are the most "basic" primary sources on which their modern historical reading are based on?

I can get that religious and grammatical texts survived in the first and third forms, and I'm aware the Arthashastra was found as a copy in a personal collection, but what about mathematical treatises? The mathematical tradition of ancient India is certainly not an unbroken tradition.

E.g. the Chandaḥśāstra, the Aryabhatiya, the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, the Siddhānta Shiromani, the Gaṇitasārasan̄graha, the various works of the Kerala school, etc. Were they also found in someone's home like the Arthashastra? Were they maintained in temples/libraries?

Note: I'm aware that the original forms of the treatises are not available. I'm asking for the known copies on which our modern readings are based. E.g. if we know the Aryabhatiya (c. 500 AD) from a 1700 copy written in 1700, I want to know which copy this was, where it was found, etc.


texts: Downloadable/Printable 3D Model of Cylinder Seal

texts: My son's high school has some 3D printers and I thought it might be interesting to see if they could print out a cylinder seal. Does anyone know of any 3D models online of real historical cylinder seals? My searching hasn't turned up anything.


texts: What resources did the Nahua value most at the time of Spanish conquest?

texts: I am doing research on how the Spaniards and Nahua felt about gold and wealth (their differences) during the conquest.  The Spanish were very open about their thoughts on gold & wealth. But what about the indigenous people? What did they consider as treasures? Certainly they were interested in more things than cultivation. I have not had much success looking elsewhere online, so I thought I would look here.


texts: Are there any historically significant volcanic eruptions that predate Akrotiri?

texts: Specifically, any that occurred after the first civilizations developed, but before the Minoan eruption on Santorini (Thera/Akrotiri). (Approx. 3500 – 1600 B.C.)


texts: Were groups (or 'companies') of dogs used to attack enemy armies in medieval battles?

texts:
In  Dogs in warfare and The Dogs of War, a number of examples are given where dogs were used in battle in ancient times. Polyaenus, in ‘Stratagems’, also gives a clear example (late 7th century BC):

  The Cimmerians, a people of great bodily size, made war on Alyattes.
  He marched against them, and ordered his men to take into battle with
  them a number of large fierce dogs. When the dogs were released, they
  fell on the barbarians, as they would on a herd of wild beasts. They
  injured many of them, so as to disable them from action, and put the
  others to flight.

The Romans both faced and used dogs in battle. According to Wikipedia, ‘The Roman attack dogs were given metal armour covered in razor-sharp spikes, designed to force the enemy out of formation.’ Another source states that ‘...the Roman Army would routinely deploy its own War Dogs, with whole companies composed entirely of dogs’.

For the Middle Ages in Europe, there is much less information. Leaving aside  the use of dogs by the conquistatores as it is the Early Modern period and outside Europe, the only citations I've found are in Jared Eglan's Beasts of War, which says

  Mastiffs, as well as Great Danes, were used in England during the
  Middle Ages, where their large size was used to scare horses to throw
  off their riders or to pounce on knights on horseback, disabling them
  until their master delivered the final blow.

The same source also says:

  The British used dogs when they attacked the Irish and the Irish in
  turn used Irish Wolfhounds to attack invading Norman knights on
  horseback.

What is not clear is whether these two references concern groups of dogs, or dogs which accompanied their masters into battle (i.e. the dogs fought individually, not as a group). Also, do these references relate to use in battle or just skirmishes?

That dogs were presented as gifts among nobles, and used for guard duty, hunting, scouting and chasing down fugitives is clear enough from various sources. There are also cases of individuals bringing their dogs to battle (e.g. Sir Piers Legh at Agincourt in 1415), but what I am interested in is groups (or ‘companies’ as cited above for Romans) of dogs in battle.

Were groups (or ‘companies’) of dogs used to attack enemy soldiers in battle in the Middle Ages in Europe?

Is it possible to cite any specific battles where this happened?

Or was it more a case of some nobles bringing their dogs into battle and these dogs fighting alongside their masters rather than as part of a group?


texts: How did schoolgirls dress in Japan in the 1930s/40s?

texts:
I'm writing a graphic novel with a segment in 1930's and 40's Japan.
I've looked around but haven't been able to find any specific answers.

How would teenage schoolgirls have dressed at that time?


texts: What model was used to explain stellar energy before nuclear fusion was discovered?

texts: The idea of nuclear fusion was suggested in the early 1900s to explain stellar energy. What was/were the earlier model(s) explaining how sun produced light/energy?


texts: How did they number the months when the year started on March 25th?

texts:
I've read that Great Britain and its colonies used March 25th as the beginning of the numbered year until 1752. I am wondering what this meant in terms of numbering the months (e.g. January is 1 and December is 12, and today is 3/10/2017, or March 10th, 2017).

With March 25th as the first day of the year, would March 25th be 1/25 and March 24th (at the end of the year) be 13/24?

Maybe they did not associate the months with numbers as we do now. In that case, when did we start doing this?


texts: What was Rousseau' point in "The Social Contract "?

texts: What point was Rousseau trying to make in "The Social Contract"? I know that it has to do with a contract between the people. I have read The Social Contract. It is very hard for me to understand. I have tried to research on the Internet using both scholarly sources and things such as Wikipedia and so forth. But I'm still not understanding.  I have found that it may be an unwritten contract between the people and the government stating that the people will decide/vote on the laws that are fit for their society.


texts: When was the first time lower-class people had a reasonable chance of having a fair trial?

texts:
When was the first time in recorded history where the juridical system provided for protecting the rights of the general population, including the lower classes, so that a person of lower class could have a realistic chance to win a trial / legal battle, even against an opponent of higher social status.

To make this question answerable, I'll include a list of constraints.

it doesn't have to be a perfectly equal or perfectly fair chance. Even today, even in the most egalitarian countries, someone who can afford a better lawyer or knows a lot of important people has at least somewhat increased chances. The point is having any realistic chance at all.
if it was only de jure, but never practiced, it doesn't count. For it to count, there have to be at least some recorded cases of normal trials where it happened.
Special occasions (the king on his birthday or on a national holiday providing justice for a poor beggar, or otherwise a highly notorious and very individual case) don't count if those people couldn't have had any chance at all at a regular trial.
A formerly oppressed group gaining power in a revolution and therefore securing the rights doesn't count, unless they provide fair trial for the newly subjugated class. (For the sake of this question, the winners of the revolution no longer count as the lower class)

Note: if the underlying societies would prove to be so different that the very terms of "trial" , "law", or "lower class" would have vastly different meanings to decide a "winner", one could list other, possibly later cases from a different continent / completely different civilization.


texts: How many people were affected by the Holodomor [Famine-Genocide in Ukraine]

texts: How many people were affected during the famine? Are there any sources for  Soviet records on the Holodomor?


texts: How did Turkey achieve such a quick military rebound after World War I?

texts:
The Ottoman military had a very weak performance in World War I (1914-1918), completely defeated in the Middle Eastern theatre and ended up losing almost all of its non-Anatolia possession. This was also the case shortly before WW I, for example the Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912) and the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). However, shortly after World War I, it fought pretty succesfully against its former WW I enemies, including Greece, the United Kingdom, France and Italy (see Greco-Turkish War and Turkish War of independence, 1919-1922)

I understand that during this time the Ottoman Empire was abolished and replaced by the Republic of Turkey, but other than this, how was such rebound in military performance achieved? For example, did Turkey significantly improve its military equipment? Did it replace the officers and by chance the new ones were much better?


texts: How did Victorian British conservatives resolve the tension between valuing tradition and spreading empire?

texts:
I've started reading about British Victorian politics, and I have a question about an apparent tension in Victorian conservatism. I'd like to get a better understanding of it so I can have a framework in place as I read more.

In short, conservatives value tradition. Edmund Burke expressed this in Reflections on the Revolution in France, when he asserted that even arbitrary social traditions and hierarchies can be valuable, because they have a stabilizing or even ennobling influence on society as a whole. At the same time, conservatives also value religion, and nationalism. The logic seems to follow, if British traditions are important, then that includes the English church, crown, and national destiny. But as the British Empire expanded they came into ever closer contact with very different cultural and political traditions in China, India, Africa, and elsewhere.

This appears to invite a contradiction. If British traditions are best, they should be exported, and if the Christian religion is true, then it should be proselytized. But if all tradition is important for its own sake, and national or ethnic character is thought to be resistant to change, then it follows that local customs ought to be respected. In fact, Burke himself condemned the East India Company for their disruptive influence in British India, which he said "began in commerce, and ended in empire."

And yet by the late Victorian era the conservative party appears to have been the one most closely identified with British nationalism and imperial expansion. So I'm very curious how, along they way, they resolved this (apparent) tension between valuing tradition and exporting British culture and religion, how that resolution translated into their theory and policy, and whether it was ever the source of debate or disagreement in conservative ranks.

Thanks for your time.


texts:
How popular was the name Imhotep in Ancient Egypt, and what other great personages bore this name?

His name is said to mean "the one who comes in peace", and there are similar names like Amenhotep, Ptahhotep, etc., all of which contain Hotep which roughly translates to "to be at peace".

Yet while there's four Amenhoteps, I can only find the one very famous Imhotep and no other.

PS. Could a name like Imhotep be adopted by the rest of the nobility and by the common classes? Perhaps there were hoards of Imhoteps, all of them bakers and butchers and painters and soldiers, and just that one Imhotep got super famous and deified and remembered?


texts: Which names are correct? Mala vs Malka Zimetbaum and Edward vs Eduard Galinski?

texts:
I was deeply affected by the story of Mala Zimetbaum and Edward Galinski in Auschwitz.

However, the telegram informing about the escape of Mala mentions her name as Malka Zimetbaum.

The telegram informing about their capture also refers to Edward as Eduard.

Which of the two names is more accurate? How can both be correct? What names should I remember them by?


texts: What were Hiroshima and Nagasaki known for prior to World War II?

texts: Prior to becoming the first (and so far only) military targets of atomic bombs, how well-known were Hiroshima and Nagasaki outside of Japan, and (if at all) for what?


texts: What is this ancient Egyptian material called "maklalu"?

texts:
I read this passage in a book,

  "A coloured linen maklalu-material, for one royal dress for the king. A total of 12 linen garments...”

It was a gift from Queen Nefertari of Egypt to the Queen of the Hittites.

Maklalu-material.. what is that?


texts: Was Pawiak prison in Warsaw originally for political or general prisoners?

texts: I was reading about Pawiak prison in Warsaw and the general consensus appears to be that it was built between 1829 and 1835 during a time of Russian occupation. It seems clear that after the January uprising of 1863 the prison was used for insurrectionists bound for Siberia but can it be assumed that when it was first built (from 1835) that it was mainly for political prisoners? Or was it initially for 'general' prisoners with the focus turning to political prisoners after 1863?


texts: Early counterparts of scholarly journals

texts:
If I'm not mistaken, universities in Europe originated in the middle ages.

Today, the way of making new discoveries known to the learned community is publication in scholarly journals, or more recently, things like the arXiv (which is only lightly refereed, so scholarly journals are still the main thing).

What means of making new findings known to learned people in general were used in the middle ages?

(I have wondered whether the reason why medieval Norsemen who visited North American were not credited with its "discovery" is that they did not avail themselves of such means.)


texts: Why didn't the zeal of social change brought by ending slavery continue after the US civil-war ended?

texts:
After the US civil war when slavery was (kinda) ended, is there a argument to be made that with the zeal of anti-slavery social change people must have been feeling that they, at least in the north, would have been more willing to embrace further social changes for black people, riding the momentum of the large, civil-war level changes that were happening.

I ask this as you often see movements for large social changes like in the 60s, and maybe even now; ether fizzle away soon after success, or march on, demanding more. The best example of this social march is in my opinion the French Revolution. It was a mess, but you can't say it wasn't also histories greatest example of this kind of marching social liberalism.

So ya, was the post-civil war treatment of blacks, where they were free, but not accepted, (in the north,) an example of a wave of social liberalism fizzling, or were there other forces at play that could explain why more progress wasn't pursued after the Civil War?


texts: Has scurvy occurred on land outside the Russian Far East?

texts:
James Gibson's "Feeding the Russian Fur Trade" mentions episodes of scurvy occurring during the expansion into the Russian Far East (Northern Siberia and Okhostk Seaboard). These lands were inhabited, but population growth outpaced the ability to provide vegetables. I previously thought scurvy had only occurred on sailing voyages and possibly in castaways.

Did scurvy occur among any other landborne human population?


texts: Why has the American cowboy fashion/culture persisted until our current decade?

texts: How and why has the American cowboy fashion/culture persisted for so long up until our current decade? Every decade has a fashion and culture that later we come to our senses about. But not the cowboy apparently.


texts: Where were they ecoshapping and were condemned by the UN

texts: I remember an article about an North American Indian tribe that sank an iron rich ship in their lake or inlet to the ocean in order to increase the amount of fish. I think the UN sanctioned them or condemned or something. I tried to find what was going on with that and how they were treated by the UN and I was unable.


texts: Why didn't the Cathars speak a language influenced by the East?

texts:
According to Ancient History Encyclopedia:

  "Cathar beliefs ultimately derived from the Persian religion of Manichaeism but directly from another earlier religious sect from Bulgaria known as the Bogomils who blended Manichaeism with Christianity."

How is it that an influence is seen from the east regarding religion but not in other aspects such as language for the Cathars?

When I first thought about the term "languedoc" I thought about "langue d'occidental" but this is apparently not a valid connection.


texts: Did non-Indians go into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)?

texts:
From 1854 to 1907 there was a territory reserved for American Indians (aptly named "Indian Territory") in what is now the state of Oklahoma.

How exclusive was this territory?  Did non-Indians go there at all?  Did they settle there?  Did they travel through?  Or did the US treat it as a no-go region where the various tribes held authority?


texts: Why did ramming reappear then disappear in 1800s shipborn warfare?

texts:
This question is twofold. First, why the resurgence of naval ramming and return of rams to naval designs in the second half of the 1800s? Second, why the end to ramming in the 1900s?

Can one attribute the resurgence of ramming and of ram designs in the mid 1800s to the increased protection that more modern ships had been designed and equipped with during this period and the lack of sufficiently powerful naval artillery that could defeat the new armour?

Now, having read about the Battle of Lissa (1866), I was made aware that it was the last time deliberate and coordinated ramming was attempted and successful. I am aware of later incidents in which naval ramming occurred in times of war, HMS Dreadnought, HMS Glowworm and HMNZSs Kiwi and Moa, for example. However, what I would like to ascertain is: that the end of ramming as an accepted naval tactic by navies from the early 1900s onwards was due to improved gunnery and possibly the introduction of the torpedo as an offensive weapon. Furthermore, I wholly grasp that once the aircraft carrier became the dominant ship of a navy and aero-naval tactics were refined to a point where enemy vessels could be engaged well over the horizon, well, ramming between ships was not going to be effective due to the distances involved.


texts: Why is there a difference in ordinal numbers of UK General Elections and Parliaments? Was a UK Parliament ever formed without an election?

texts:
I heard on the radio that the current 56th General Election of the United Kingdom will elect the 57th Parliament. Assuming this is correct, surely the first election would elect the first parliament, the second elect the second parliament, and so on, so what explains the difference in current number of elections and number of parliaments?

Has there been a UK Parliament formed without an election? What caused this difference?


texts: Why did people stop building square-rigged ships?

texts:
Sailing ships are still being built, but square riggers are a thing of the past. Why?

Did fore-and-aft rigging prove superior? If so, why not earlier?

Does it have to do with the disappearance of large sailing ships as opposed to small pleasure craft? If so, why is style of rigging related to size?

Are square riggers inherently labor-intensive? If so, could a square rigger be practical today with automation?


texts: Where to find a list of participants in The Crusades?

texts:
I am curious as to where a compiled list of participants in The Crusades exist and how would one access this, particularly of European Crusaders but would find it interesting of any records of both sides of The Crusades as well.

I have always been under the assumption that due to the time period, the chaos, lack of literacy, record keeping, printing press, and decay and destruction of records that not much would exist.

Then I came across this article "Who Went on the Albigensian Crusade?" in the English Historical Review (Powers, English Historical Review, 2013) and it stating "Many deeds recorded grants, pledges or leases of property that were directly related to the crusade" and it got me wondering what other records would exist for each of the crusades.

I would expect there would at minimum be some records or organizers of groups and perhaps something like "John Smith and 3 swordsmen joined the campaign of so and so.." in addition to the records above as well.

So what I am looking for is a ** research resource(s) of an electronic compiled list of 'known' participants** (not expecting a list of every participant) of The Crusades and any other individual participant information.

As from the article above it implies such as list is definitely possible and there are already sites like Medieval Soldiers and Medieval Genealogy though the Crusades basically predate the sites but they do have some information from them.

Does anyone know where such compiled list is available?


texts: Which historian suggested that not building a navy would have enabled Germany to win WW1?

texts:
It seems that a writer named "Nickadie" or "Nipadie" (I did not quite understand the pronunciation) suggested that had the German Empire never built such a navy to challenge the British, and focused more of their economy on the land army instead, they would, or could, have won the First World War.

Did any historian ever publish such a theory, and if so, who?


texts: What was the significance of the BEF moving into the gap between German forces in First Battle of the Marne?

texts:
The German troops fighting in the Battle of the Marne were exhausted and their commanders seemed to communicate very little.  After the Marne they retreated to the river Aisne and more or less began four years of digging trenches. But there was one significant move by the BEF that seems to have been the true catalyst for this retreat.

  On 9 September Bülow learned that the British Expeditionary Force
  (BEF) was advancing into the gap between his 2nd Army and Kluck. He
  ordered a retreat, obliging Kluck to do the same. The counterattack of
  the French 5th and 6th Armies and the BEF developed into the First
  Battle of the Marne. BBC

  It was the report of their columns advancing into the gap which led
  Bülow to order the retreat of his Second Army on September 9. The
  temporary advantage which the German First Army had gained over
  Maunoury was thereby nullified, and it fell back the same day. Brittanica

The wording here seems to imply that the slow, cautious advance by the BEF was what set off the full retreat to the river Aisne. It might have been the final nail in the Schlieffen plan’s coffin. But surely, Bülow saw many other problems that factored into his decision.  Was anyone considering a retreat regardless of the BEF? What is the actual significance of this event to the war’s outcome?


texts: What was the life expectancy of a Medieval European monarch?

texts:
Inspired by Who is the longest lived European monarch of the middle ages?. What was the life expectancy of monarchs during the middle ages in Europe?
Preliminary research showed

According to Wikipedia: Life expectancy variation over time. Life expectancy at birth was 30 among "Late medieval English peerage" and 35+ in the "Medieval Islamic Caliphate"
According to What was the life expectancy in Medieval Britain? in history.SE, the life expectancy was ~30 at birth, but can range between 45 and 60 (depending on sources) once you become adult.

I expect monarchs would have longer life expectancy, due to being wealthy and having better access to physicians, medicine, bodyguards, etc. By middle ages, I mean about around 500 AD to around 1500 AD. Independent or semi-independent monarch (e.g. vassals of the HRE) count, and I accept reasonable approximations and/or simplifying assumptions.


texts: How do we know baroque art depicted obese ladies because of a different ideal of beauty?

texts: I've often heard that the obesity of women in baroque art signs that such women were the ideal of beauty. How could we know that? And how could we know it wasn't just "cultural rationalization" of a standard physical appearance of higher classes?


texts: In which situation is the broadside more preferable than every gun firing on their own time?

texts: Mathematically, a ship should be able to fire more shots if each of the cannons fire at their fastest speed, instead of waiting for everyone to be ready, but it seems that a broadside is sometimes more preferable during the age of sail, despite sacrificing the efficiency. Why is it the case? And is there any guideline on when this is preferable? (e.g. when firing from long distance, short distance, against smaller ship?)


texts: How Did Modern Weapons Change the Dynamics of City Fighting?

texts:
In medieval times, an attacking army that had breached the walls/outer defense of a city, could enter it and overrun the defenders at relatively little cost.

A major modern exception was the battle of Stalingrad. The city was "invaded" and largely overrrun, but the defenders were able to conduct a successful house-to-house, street-to-street defense in the remainder for two months until the Germans were surrounded by a counterattack.

A similar thing occurred with the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Polish rebels were able to hold parts of the city against greatly superior forces for two months, basically until their food and ammunition ran out.

These battles constrasted greatly with other, less successful city defenses such as those of Rostov and Kharkov earlier in the same war. Why was that?


texts: How were servants to the Kaiser of Imperial Germany treated and where may I find more information on them?

texts:
I'd like to know how the Kaisers treated the servants in their palace, along with where I can find more information on this subject.

In "The Kaiser and His Court: Wilhelm II and the Government of Germany" by John Röhl, an essay claims that Wilhelm II was prone to fits of rage and that he would beat, or even stab, his own servants.

However, I have been unable to find this anecdote anywhere else, leading me to wonder if it is true. I am also unable to find any information about servants to the royal family of Germany anywhere.


texts:
In our parish church we have a clock with an engraving on it that says 'The Gift of the Hon. Edward Trelawny the Bond Major 1737'. Does anybody know what a Bond Major was/is?
Unfortunately I have no picture and the question was originally posed in the 1930s by Looe Old Cornwall Society, a scrap book of which I am working my way through. I am not even sure which of the two church's that serve East and West Looe the clock is in, and as access is very limited at this time, I am not able to find out, or get a picture.


texts: Which German cities does this article in The Economist allege that Britain destroyed?

texts:
The Wikipedia article about the Nuremberg trials (section Criticism) contains the following text (source: 'The Nuremberg Judgment' editorial, ' The Economist (London), 5 October 1946, p. 532.; see also: J. McMillan, Five Men at Nuremberg, pp. 67, 173–174, 380, 414 f.; my emphasis):

  Can the Americans who dropped the atom bomb and the British who destroyed the cities of western Germany plead 'not guilty' on this count?

What cities does the highlighted part refer to?

The only thing I could find was the bombing of Dresden conducted by the British and American Air Forces. But that's only one city and the quote speaks of several.

The Wikipedia article on the bombing of Dresden notes that some historians have argued that the raids constituted a war crime. Is this an example of what the article in The Economist is talking about?


texts: What were the personal tax rates in the Byzantine Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries?

texts:
What were the tax rates per person in the Byzantine Empire during the 6th and 7th centuries?

My findings:

wikipedia: Byzantine Economy (has no information regarding the tax rate per person of the Byzantine Empire.)
Slate article about Byzantine tax code


texts: What is the difference between an extensive revolution and an intensive revolution?

texts: I have tried Google, my textbook, and I just can't seem to find the difference between these two types of revolutions.


texts: Did the communication lag become a problem for the ever expanding Roman Empire?

texts:
There is a dispute among historians over whether the Roman Empire collapsed because of its increasing size and system-imminent flaws which were not suited for this size. The bigger the territory, the harder to govern it efficiently. It is possible this factor could also be viewed in regards to today's large Russia and very large companies where the communication lag within a system increases.

This brought me to the question: How was communication in the Roman Empire set up, and did it exist in a holistic way at all? How were orders and information (feedback from marginal regions) transported or brought to important decision makers? Did the Romans use horsemen, runners, carrier pigeons, or a form of postal service? How reliable was this and on what time schedules did a person-to-person exchange happen (letter and reply letter)?

Can anyone here shed some light on this process and its limitations, or implications for a consistently increasing Roman Empire? Is it safe to assume it must have played an important role when analyzing the success and then the demise of the Roman Empire?


texts: Were ancient Egyptians secretly monotheistic?

texts:
In The Cat of Bubastes, Victorian era author G. A. Henty asserts that all of the gods of the Egyptian Pantheon originally described individual attributes of a single god.  Over time, common people came to worship these symbols as gods in their own right, but the high priesthood always maintained a belief in a single god who had all of the attributes represented by the various other "gods".

I realize that this book is historical fiction, but all of his other books (he was rather a prolific author) have been praised as well researched and historically accurate.  According to his contemporary (and modern) critics, his descriptions of major events, cultural practices, behaviors, and beliefs are considered accurate.

Is there some basis for the belief that the high priesthood, at least, was monotheistic?


texts: Why did the jews leave Israel and spread out through the world?

texts: When and what lead jews to leave Israel after the Roman conquest and spread out through out the world?


texts: If adultery was a felony during Hamilton era, why isn't he prosecuted?

texts:
Wikipedia says that Hamilton confessed to adultery.

However, adultery is a crime, and a felony.

Why isn't he charged?

Statue of limitations?


texts: Why has the 18th and not the 19th century come to be called „the age of reason“?

texts:
Not withstanding the romantic counter movement, nothing communicates to me the sense of belief in rationality and associated progress more than 19th century works. If I was to cite an emblematic book, it might be Jules Vernes‘ „Mysterious Isle“, where I get the sense that the resident engineers and botanists are able to solve just about any problem through their „modern“ scientific knowledge and empiricism.

If I were to compare this with Robinson Crusoe from the 18th century, he seems to me a great deal less capable and more reliant upon god.

It is true that great forebears of rationalism such as Hume and Locke and Kant all lived before the 19th century. But might it stand to reason that their works from the 17th and 18th century laid the groundwork for rationalism, which flourished in the 19th century? So much so that it produced a counter movement?

In the comments the example of economics was raised. Perhaps it’s a good analogy for what I suspect. Free trade ideas are very old and effectively defended by Adam Smith (died 1790). But my impression is that the 19th century is when these ideas came to gain wider acceptance and lead to abolition of the Corn Laws (1846) for instance. America can be said to have responded earlier (1776?).

  if we take as the criterion not the first proponents, but the time when rationalism gained wide appeal and political consequence, isn’t the 19th century as good a candidate for the „Age of Reason“ as any?

I am aware that these are just sketchy thoughts. Perhaps not even substantial enough for a question. It so, could you please direct me to some literature which elucidates the relationship of the centuries as regards to rationalism?


texts: How modern is the current paradigm of parenting?

texts:
Currently there is a parenting paradigm of emotionally involved, caring, loving parent-child relationships. This can be reflected in activities like reading to children, spending time in the park, playing with them, singing to them, buying toys and clothe to them, etc.
How modern is this paradigm of parenting? Has research shown some general conclusion about whether the current paradigm is "modern"? (e.g. fostered by the same forces that gave rise to the human rights, officially stamped by the UN in 1948, and the more direct children human rights, stamped by the UN in 1959). I am aware of anecdotal evidence of some upper classes (including nobility and royalty, particularly female) fostering loving parent-child relationships (mostly through literature and history). More broadly, I found this review of a 1976 book on the topic covering "western culture" from Roman times to XIX century, concluding that

the picture revealed here is one of unloving handling of children in the past, when abuse of them far exceeded devoted care.

I have no idea if this +45 years old image still holds (review called this an under-researched area). It would be interesting to know of other cultures and specific historical settings (e.g. ancient Asian cultures, classical antiquity, medieval ages, Mayan empire, tribal societies, ...). Still, anything that helps gets an idea of modern view of the question is welcome.


texts: What are the best primary textual sources I could point to regarding the existence of Julius Caesar?

texts:
I recently got in a discussion with a man claiming that there is more reliable historical proof of the existence of Jesus Christ than of Julius Caesar.
On face value, this claim seems ridiculous — ignoring everything else, one would think that an emperor, politician, general, etc. of one of the most powerful nations in the world living around the same time would have left tremendously more reliable proof of his existence than a leader of, at the time, a minor religious group.
His main argument was that the oldest copy of a text talking about Jesus we have was older than the oldest copy of a document we have about the famous emperor, and that ones about Jesus are more consistent.
The unfortunate thing about trying to find the answer to this question by myself is that, when I search for proof of Caesar etc. on Google, the results page is covered by heavily religious websites, seemingly repeating this argument, but without good sources (apart from references to other religious books), and most of them look as if they were from mid-2000.  (My guess would be it was a popular argument at some point?)
Wikipedia has a list of primary sources, but, according to this person, they don't count because the oldest copy of, for example, Julius' works about his conquest of Gaul were copied 600 years after his death, so they are more likely a fabrication/fake than the Bible, so seemingly only "old" manuscripts count.
Side note: Finding information on how old the oldest manuscripts of the Bible are is very easy, finding the same information about any books in the primary sources list on Wikipedia is the opposite.
So my question is, what are the best primary sources I could point to regarding the existence of Julius Caesar, where only manuscripts/objects from the period "count" (so, if a historian who wrote about him was a contemporary, but the oldest copy of the work we have is from 500 years after, it doesn't count, also coins with his face don't count apparently).
I just found the topic interesting. I would also be grateful for hints on how to best find this type of information in the future.


texts: What incentives are in place for American soldiers to go fight in Iraq?

texts: I am from Brazil, a country that has not fought any war since WW2. If you join the army, go fight in Iraq and then return, what will the USA pay you? Is there a health plan for life, a pension, or nothing? Being a soldier is just a temporary job. You earn a good sum of money while you are a soldier, but nothing more than this.


texts: How did women's roles and rights change during the early Republican period in China?

texts: How did attitudes towards women and their role within the family unit and greater society change under the Chinese Republican government? What rights did they gain? Did they generally benefit from the Republican era?


texts: What was the city of El Mirador called in Mayan?

texts: El Mirador was a major city in the Yucatan during the Preclassic Mayan era.  The name is obviously Spanish.  What was it called by the ancient Maya?


texts: I didn't find any info online. I'd imagine it was made by grinding up the nut, then mixing it with water. But how would they strain it then? Cloth was all hand made back when almond milk was first made, so did they just drink it without straining it, or did they skim from the top?


texts: Why did the Ottomans 'never' enter wars during Napoleon's invasions?

texts:
Without knowing about the subject, why Turkey never entered the fray during the Napoleonic wars?
It is true that they fought against the Russians around 1800's, but as far as I know, the engagement was on individual disputes between Russia and Turkey.
It seems strange that one of the main (although sick) empires never participated in the major battles of the Napoleonic wars. It is also weird that they neither gave material support to one of the parties, as was England's case.


texts: Why weren't North American Indians considered to be property yet to be acquired (slaves)?

texts:
When White men came to mainland North America, there were an indigenous population already here. I will refer to that population as North American Indians.

Africans were brought to the Americas (eventually) as slaves. Talk to an average White man in the South, point at a group of Black men (African Americans, Negros) and he could be expected to think "slaves".

Why didn't America (or the English before the American Revolution) think of (or write laws to the effect that) the indigenous North American Indian population as slaves?

NOTE: I'm not asking why didn't they enslave American Indians, just why didn't they view them as (think of them as) slaves.


texts: What is the oldest state/nation that has abolished the death penalty?

texts:
In 1846 the state of Michigan became the first state in the United States to abolish the use of the death penalty, which still stands today.

Is there any country (or state/province/etc.) elsewhere that has had the death penalty abolished for longer and still has it abolished?


texts: Context for this 1871 humorous map of Europe?

texts:
The following map is from (circa) 1871, according to this source, and it was published in Bologna, Italy. Could you please provide some context for it? Parts of the map are self evident, as for example the reference to the Alabama Claims, but others not so much (the fashionable crocodile in Turkey, for example).

Larger version, from this blog post (a few other interesting maps there).


texts: Was John Cabot the first European to reach Newfoundland since (arguably) the Vikings?

texts:
Recently I read Cod, by Mark Kurlansky, a poorly written yet amazingly informative book on the history of cod fishing.

Among other fascinating things in that book, the Basques are mentioned as pioneers in cod fishing (and drying) in the Atlantic.

John Cabot's voyage to Newfoundland is also mentioned, for this purpose:

It appears (according to the author) that John Cabot, an Italian navigator and explorer sponsored by Henry VII of England, left an account of what he found containing a detailed description of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in which he mentioned the appearance of the flora, fauna, weather conditions, as well as about 1000 Basque ships.

The author of the book theorizes that the Basques landed in North America long before Columbus' first voyage but kept the information secret in order to maintain their near-monopoly on the cod market in Europe.

Does this claim have any validity?


texts: Why was Japan not worried about Soviet invasion during WWII?

texts: I just visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra during my break. When I was walking in the WWII section, showing portraits of Australia battling against Japanese troops, I wondered why Japan decided to invade Southeast Asia and the Solomon Islands even if there was risk of potential Soviet invasion to Manchuria and the Japanese Archipelago? I will be grateful if anyone could answer that.


texts: Why were the Scandinavians not as expansive as other Europeans in global colonization?

texts:
By expansive, I mean in terms of land area.
On the Wikipedia pages of Norway's, Sweden's, and Denmark's colonies, it shows they had very few parcels of land around the globe, compared to the colonies of the Spanish, Portuguese, French, British, and even nearby Dutch. And the few small lands they did colonize were very quickly taken over by the British or French (i.e. Porto Novo lost in a month).
Why was Scandinavian colonization less expansive?


texts: When did the practice of formally "declaring war" cease and why?

texts:
Here's a detailed description of ambassador Neville Henderson being received by the foreign ministry in Berlin in 1939. Perhaps the most famous example.

He came in looking very serious, shook hands, but declined my invitation to be seated, remaining solemnly standing in the middle of the room.
'I regret that on the instructions of my Government I have to hand you an ultimatum for the German Government,' he said with deep emotion

This site has a description of Ciano handing out Italy's declarations of war on June 10th 1940:

On 10 June, dressed as a major in the Regia Aeronautica, he handed the Allied ambassadors Italy's declaration of war

When did this formal (slightly awkward) practice of making an official "declaration of war" via an ambassador or foreign minister cease?
It seems as if it stopped in 1945 but am I right? Thinking of the major conflicts initiated by individual sovereign states since WW2, such as Iran-Iraq in the 1980s, China & India, India & Pakistan, the Six Day War, the Falklands, in those examples I am nearly certain there were no formal declarations of war of the kind Neville Henderson or Galeazzo Ciano delivered.


texts:
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel in antebellum America and the second best-selling book overall. The Bible, of course, was number one. Here's an insanely detailed rundown of UTC's sales figures: 300,000 copies in its first year.

This made me curious because I've never heard any mention of what the third-best selling book would be. I'd like to know what other publishing phenomena there were in the antebellum US, in part so I can understand how exceptional Uncle Tom's Cabin was, in part so I can better understand the era's literary culture.

What was the third best-selling book in the antebellum US?

PS - The third-best selling book in the US in the 19th century is probably Ben-Hur, followed by Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward.


texts: What did contemporary countries in Europe call the Ottoman Empire?

texts:
In present texts, it is common to call it "the Ottoman Empire", although the name refers to the ruling dynasty rather than the nation, people or the region. This is not the case with other contemporary empires in Europe, e.g. Russian Empire, Austrian Empire, French Empire.

Were they also contemporarily called "the Ottoman Empire" in diplomacy and official writing, or by other name like "Turkey" or "Turkish Empire"?


texts: Why hasn't Russia maintained significant numbers of aircraft carriers?

texts:
The United States has 11 aircraft carriers in total. Russia has only one. This is reflective of the past, in which we saw that the USSR also didn't put much importance on constructing aircraft carriers and putting them into operation.

Why hasn't Russia bothered to keep a larger inventory of aircraft carriers? Why hasn't it wanted to project its power through carriers? Why has the United States wanted to project its power through carriers?

What is the main point of difference in these two strategies?


texts:
History is inevitably written by the victors, and while the golden age of piracy and pirates have been romanticised in recent years it is still clearly framed as villainous. Modern piracy is not viewed in nearly the same light.

My question, however, is did pirates call themselves pirates? Was it a title they were happy with? Did they take pride in it? Or was there something else they prefered?

I guess as a secondary question, this could be extended to privateers. Where did they stand in regards to pirates, what did they call themselves?


texts: Where do archaeological layers keep accumulating from?

texts:
People always seem to be digging up stuff from below the ground - artifacts, buildings and entire cities. Often they are below a current city.

My question is - where do the layers covering the stuff keep coming from? Once upon a time the city was at the ground level and people were walling the streets, and now it is buried underground. Did the ground sink slowly? How did the old stuff get covered by new stuff? Where did the new stuff come from, considering it would take a lot of material to cover an entire city!

How come these ruins are never seem to be at the top? Has anyone done a study of this?


texts: What was the Hundred Years' War called at the time?

texts:
Similar to this question — What was the Seven Years War called at first? — but for yet a different war.

According to Wikipedia, the Hundred Years' War is divided by historians into three smaller "phases" (the Edwardian, Caroline, and Lancastrian phases); but these names are also neologisms. What did people back then call the war(s) they were fighting?

And once the fighting actually had been going on for a hundred years or so, did they generally start calling it the Hundred Years' War, or when did that name show up in the historical record?


texts: What share of refugees crossed borders during WW2 and its aftermath?

texts:
The Geneva convention of 1951 gives refugees from foreign countries certain rights.

One might think that it was a response to the tens of millions of displaced persons from the second world war. But how many refugees actually crossed borders to foreign countries during and just after the second world war? Tens of millions of Germans moved from Germany to... Germany! About 400,000 Fins moved from Finland to... Finland!

Did the Geneva convention refer as its ideal to the experience of South America which did receive some European refugees fleeing from death penalty for war crimes?


texts: How were the borders of small European principalities maintained or secured?

texts: With shifting boundaries, enclaves, exclaves, and alliances, how were the territorial extents of small principalities or duchies maintained, for example in the Holy Roman Empire or German Confederation? Was travel restricted? Were there checkpoints? Did the average Johannes in the village feel any particular loyalty to whomever was given control over his region in the latest treaty?


texts: Which Roman general was killed by his own soldiers for not letting them to loot a newly conquered city?

texts:
I read about a Roman king/general who was killed by his own soldiers for not letting them to plunder/loot a newly conquered city.

I think, he allowed them to plunder a city in his previous conquest, and the soldiers expected him to do the same during a latter conquest. But, he didn't agree.

I completely forgot his name.

Who was he?


texts: What is the difference between the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages?

texts: Is there any difference between the "Middle Ages" and the "Dark Ages"?


texts: Is there footage of Valery Legasov's report at the IAEA Conference in Vienna?

texts:
There is a pdf of the report, I could not find any video footage except for brief mentions. However there were lots of cameras there during the report. How to find the full video?

Valery Legasov's report to the IAEA


texts: Did Churchill and Roosevelt know about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or the following secret pacts between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?

texts:
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany prior to, and during WWII. It seems that the actions of the two countries after the invasion of Poland would confirm suspicions that they were working in concert in some fashion, but that doesn't mean that the specific secret agreements were known to the Allied powers.

My question is did Churchill, Roosevelt, or their administrations, know at any point prior to entering into an alliance with the Soviet Union that there were explicit agreements between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?


texts: Looking for a documentary on history of communication

texts:
I am looking for a documentary on the history of communication technologies.

I found one particular documentary but I'm trying to figure out its title.

The actual video is in French and appears to be a translation of a discovery channel documentary. The title is translated as "Histoire d'inventions", but I wasn't able to find anything while searching for this (or the corresponding English translation in google). I speak French, but hearing the French voice on top of the original version is quite annoying and I was hoping to find if this is part of a bigger series.

Any other good documentary on the subject will be appreciated.


texts: Was Mein Kampf prohibited in occupied France?

texts: Because the Nazis did not want the French to know about the anti-French attitude of Hitler?


texts: Pennsylvania is not a state, it is a Commonwealth. Why?

texts: Why is Pennsylvania a Commonwealth and not a state?


texts: What are some of the Egyptian pyramid building theories?

texts: What were some of the theories of how the Egyptian pyramids were built? I know about the one about placing logs under the stones to move them into place, but what are some other theories? Will there be back fire to those theories like if the logs were placed under the stone blocks they might sink into the sand?


texts: What caused the shift from racially-motivated violence to segregation in the Reconstruction era?

texts: There seems to have been a shift from racially motivated violence (lynchings, etc) right after the Civil War to more subtle and insidious forms of legal oppression (Jim Crowe laws, segregation). Is it accurate to say that, for some reason, violence became less socially acceptable after a period of time? If so, what was the impetus for the shift?


texts: Why was there a sharp decline in the number of municipalities in West Germany in the 1970s?

texts:
According to a graph on wikimedia, and the corresponding wikipedia page merging of municipalities applied to an extreme scale in western germany between 1972 and 1979. Most states had less than 1/3 municipalities they had at the start of the decade. Even the two states who resisted this trend, Schleswig-Holstein & Rheineland/Pflatz, still had a rapid decrease, but only by 20%.

Why did this happen so sudently ?


texts:
The Mughal power began to decline after death of Aurangzeb.

Within 30 years of his death, Mughals lost most of their South Indian possesions.
New states were established by 3 prime nobles, Sadat Ali Khan, Murshid ul Kuli Khan and Qamar ud Din Khan, even when the throne saw 8 rulers in 12 years. But all pronounced themselves,   to be allegiant to the Mughal throne, though, each individually was stronger than the throne in Delhi.

Shahuji's Army under treaty with Sayyid brothers, simply walked into Mughal capital,  and deposed Farrukhsiyar, the ruling emperor. But the Treaty was not about sharing spoils. Shahuji, in the treaty, agreed to accept rule of Mughal throne in Deccan, and in return was guaranteed Swaraj, self rule, and rights to revenue, in the same Mughal Deccan.

The Marathas had the effective control of more than 70 % of the Indian subcontinent by 1758. The had sacked Delhi several times. The Mughal empire, was not a stakeholder, in the power dynamics at all.

Then why were they held on throne as puppet rulers?  Even after the Third Battle of Panipat, Ahmed Durrani after victory, before leaving back for Afghanistan,  installed Shah Alam II as Mughal emperor, and issued firman to all indian chiefs, to recognise him as the ruler.

In 1772, Mahadji escorted the then deposed , and even blind Shah Alam II,  from Allahabad to Delhi to crown him as king again. And then, he got royal titles in court, and ruled the state, in Emperor's name.

And many more instances. In 1857, sepoys of the mutiny, stormed into Delhi, and the Emperor was nearly forced to accept being the leader of mutiny, and from there, sepoys again proclaimed him Emperor of India. The question I have, is, why was the Mughal throne,  used as a token to rule in India. Why wasn't it simply abolished, and ended.  Why did powers not rule in their own name?
Why wasn't the Mughal throne,  simply abolished long ago and fade into oblivion?


texts: How many Britons lived in India during the British Raj (1858 - 1947)?

texts:
How many Britons lived (not just visited shortly) in India during the British Raj (1858 - 1947)?

There might be two answers, both of them interesting:

The amount of Britons in India over time - something like a chart (x = time, y = amount of Britons).
How many individual Britons lived in India in total during the whole period?

I asked a different question on biology stack exchange and I realized I had not an idea of even the order of magnitude of the amount - were it millions, or much less/more?


texts: Did Mesopotamia have coins to represent Gerahs & Minas?

texts: I am doing a project on Mesopotamia and have stumbled upon their currency system. They have Gerahs, Shekels and Minas. These units of currency are referred to by their laws, yet I can only find pictures of the Shekel on google images. The other coins only come from other civilizations. So my question is did Mesopotamia have physical coins to represent Gerahs and Minas or were they just measure of weight?


texts: Were there any westerners who entered the soviet bloc to escape capitalism?

texts:
It is a well known fact that many people from the soviet bloc fled to the west to escape communism, and that during the entire soviet time frame, from the beginning of the Russian civil war in 1918 until the last years of communism in 1990.

While it's true communism was a terrible thing, capitalism wasn't exactly free of problems either, and because of intense soviet propaganda, it could be tempting for low-class workers and/or unemployed people to flee to the soviet bloc in order to have a guaranteed job, especially after the death of Stalin when the situation of the soviet block was much improved.

Did people flee in this direction, too ?

People that would not count are :

People spying for any western government
People who originate from a soviet block country returning back home
People moving there temporary for any non politically motivated reason (scientific research, humanitarian, etc...) - if they do so permanently then it counts, as we cannot know if there was a political reason behind that or not.


texts: What was the exact path of the Doolittle Raid?

texts:
I'm trying to find the exact path that the Doolittle Raid took from its rendezvous point near Hawaii to the launch point near Japan. I would like to be able to see this path on a map so I can understand it better.

What I've found so far is incomplete information. Wikipedia says that Task Forces 16 and 18 met "in the mid-Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii." It also says that this happened "a few days later" than Apr 02, when Hornet and TF18 departed San Francisco. It only had a cite for that last part. But later it at least gives a coordinate for the launch point: 35°N 154°E , and a time, Apr 18 07:38 (though it did not say if this was local time or some other time). However, there is apparently another point in the path where "On the afternoon of 17 April, the slow oilers refueled the task force, then withdrew with the destroyers to the east while the carriers and cruisers dashed west at 20 knots." It did not give a coordinate for this nor an exact timestamp.

I found another source that said a different rendezvous point "just east of Pearl Harbor" on Apr 10. However, I find that source unreliable because it said a Japanese I-Boat unsuccessfully attacked the Task Forces while on the way to Japan, which I have never heard of before, plus it said at the end the "Task Force arrived at the planned launch point without obstruction." which is just plain wrong. The Task Force launched a few hundred miles short of the planned launch point precisely because they were obstructed by a Japanese fishing boat that radioed a warning. I could not find any citations from that website. It appears to be a personal blog.

I could not find more data on the details of the path, such as dates/times of rendezvous points. I searched a few youtube docs too, but those are notorious for being 95% worthless recreations and 5% actual data, so I did not find the answer on youtube either.


texts: How do we know that this decree was written by Cixi?

texts:
In another, extremely helpful answer  we found the handwritten text underlying many claims about Empress Dowager Cixi’s illiteracy (see aforementioned answer for example of such claim). But how do we know, this is actually written in Cixi’s own hand?

TLDR

There are also very beautiful calligraphies attributed to Cixi, such as the following one (found here) bearing a seal „慈禧皇太后御筆“. My goal is to find out whether one of the documents is falsely attributed. It is also conceivable that her writing was bad in 1865, but very good around 1903, when Katherine Carl and others described her as highly skilled with the large brush.


texts: Why was the Håndfæstning forced on Erik V of Denmark?

texts:
Håndfæstning was the name for charters forced upon the Scandinavian kings by their nobility, not unlike Magna Carta in Britain. Erik V of Denmark was the first to sign such a document. What were the events leading to the noble's "insurrection" in his case?

In England Magna Carta resulted in the First Barons' War. Was there something similar in Denmark? In England we know the leader of the rebellion was Robert Fitzwalter and much is known about his life. Do we have similar information in this case?


texts: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, how many of each aircraft did the USSR receive?

texts:
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed 1939 Aug 23, and lasted till 1941 Jun 22.

During that time, how many aircraft were delivered to the Soviet Union, and what types were they? I'm especially interested in the bf 109s and what exact version they were.

Surprisingly difficult to track this down online. Surely someone must have made an inventory of this somewhere, but I cannot find it. Only general data is available such as Wikipedia's "thirty of Germany's latest warplanes, including the Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters and Ju 88 bomber." That's the closest I've found to an answer.


texts: Are there historic examples of slave emancipation leading to mass starvation?

texts: I was reading this article about "1 Million New Afrikan / Blacks Died From Starvation & Disease When Slavery Ended & Reconstruction Period ( Largest Biological Crisis of 19th Century)" and I was wondering if this is unique to the case of the civil war in US or if it ever happened in another country? I mean where freeing slaves with one decision led to tragedy?


texts: How well did Lenin and Hitler knew each other? Were they some sort of friends?

texts:
I read a couple of short articles about Lenin and Hitler met each other, and there is a picture, a drawing from Emma Lowenstramm - which's by the historians' opinion is most probably authentic - where they played chess in Austria in 1909. Here is a link to the article of the mentioned picture, thanks to neubau.

By historical timeline it could be possible since by then Hitler wasn't famous at all, he was in Austria, later after the WW1 he joined to DAP (Workers Party of Germany), by Lenin's side, then he was in exile from Russia because of failed 1905 revolution and he spent some time in Austria and Switzerland as well, and he attended to various communist congresses all around Europe.

Ideologically Lenin and Hitler had many common points. They both were socialist, they both were autocratic persons, they were both interested in politics.

Were they friends at any level? It seems from the articles I found by simple google search that at least they most probably met a few times.


texts: What literature explains life in Han dynasty tomb towns?

texts:
I've read in the book, The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han by Mark Edward Lewis, that ancient Chinese Emperors, upon their death, would have massive tomb hills/temples erected for their bodies to reside in.

The elite classes such as the aristocrats, and possibly academic elite, were routinely culled upon death of an Emperor and forced to live at the site of the deceased Emperor's tomb. Their duties for the rest of their lives were to tend to the Imperial tomb. What fascinates me is that there were whole communities apparently based around these Imperial tomb cities.

So, my question is what literature exists explaining life in said cities?
Also, is there a formal term or definition for these Imperial tombs in Mandarin Chinese?


texts: Who was the first Russian woman to live in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky?

texts:
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is a port city on the Pacific Ocean. The indigenes in its location were Itelmen (Kamchadals). Today its population was dominated by ethnic Russians, but in the mid-18th century only men arrived from Russia, such as Cossacks, soldiers, and monks. If any of the Russian men had children there, it was with women of native or mixed heritage.

Petropavlovsk wasn't an ostrog, but the place was more of an army outpost than a town. There weren't enough townspeople to support a church [Витер: Петропавловск (историческая справка)], as there were barely any families in town [Krusenstern, Voyage Autour Du Monde, II:519]. By 1804 two dozen women of unspecified ethnicity were living in Petropavlovsk. [Moessner: The First Russian Voyage Around the World, pp. 325].

Who was the first ethnically Russian woman to live in Petropavlovsk?


texts: Did De Gaulle really say "I am France" (Je suis la France)?

texts:
My great grandpa always told me WWII stories and he always told me De Gaulle said that, however, I can't find any reliable source for it.

I have a book stating that supposedly he wrote that in a letter to Churchill, but my great grandpa says De Gaulle said it in public.

Perhaps there's something in French about that?


texts: How did Saudi Arabia become and remain strongly Wahhabi?

texts:
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia staunchly follow Wahhabism, a very conservative and strict brand of Islamism that probably is the major factor of Saudi's strict policy and harsh implementation of Sharia. How did it become so? According to Wikipedia, it began by an alliance between theologian Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (the father of Wahhabism) and Muhammad ibn Saud (the founder of the Saudi dynasty), when ibn Saud tried to fight the Ottoman Empire and found the First Saudi State in the 18th centuries.

However, it's been centuries (and generations of rulers) since then, and also Wahhabism isn't very popular in most of the rest of Muslim world, but it is interesting to see that they remain strong in Saudi Arabia, supposedly influencing the decisions and policies of its absolute rulers. How did it become so?


texts: What is the historical basis for the Exodus?

texts:
As a sideline to the question How Long Did the Belief in the Egyptian Sun God Ra Last?, the comments have become a long discussion on the historicity of the Exodus. Rather than have pages of comments going back and forth, I have converted the sideline into the following question: what is the historical basis for the Exodus?

I admit, I never thought there was any question about the Exodus having taken place, but apparently in recent years the idea has arisen that it is just a myth or fable and did not actually occur. Some scholars have apparently felt impelled to weigh in defending the Exodus as history, for example Professor James Hoffmeier's Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (1999). Books like 2002's "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Isreal and the Origin of Sacred Texts" present the case that the Exodus is a myth of some kind. The basic argument is that archaeological remains in ancient Israel do not show evidence of Egyptian culture, therefore, the Israelites could not have been of Egyptian origin.

The three major sources of the Exodus I know of: Bible, Manetho and Josephus, all seem to agree on the basic story. Also, it is a fact that Jerusalem underwent a large expansion around the time in question. Also, it is fact that Avaris existed and that it was abandoned around the time in question. Not conclusive, obviously, but the circumstantial evidence would seem to be strong. Also, my own experience with Manetho is that some of the data is garbled, but that archaeology has tended to ROUGHLY agree with it, so the idea that he just fabricated the Exodus, which is extensively described, seems unlikely to me. Also, Manetho was not Hebrew, so he would not have had any incentive to start fabricating origin myths for a "Canaanite" people.


texts: How realistic is the food consumption in Astrid Lindgrens 'Emil of Lönneberga' books?

texts:
The books take place on a small rural farm in Smaland in Sweden. I don't think it is spelled out exactly what time period it takes place but I would put it around 1830 to 1850. If someone has some clues from the book that pinpoint this more accurately that would also be interesting.
In general I feel the book is fairly historically accurate, although it shows less misery that there was. It is a childrens book after all. But there are a lot of scenes involving food and they seem to eat meat for almost every meal which looks unrealistic to me. What did the typical diet of a person living on a farm in Sweden at that time period look like? Was it really that meat heavy?


texts: The history of US land grant universities and interpreting the Morrill Act

texts:
As a student at a large land grant university, I'm curious about the history of the academic climate I live in.

Section 4 of the Morrill Act of 1862 states the following:

  ...each State which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the
  endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the
  leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and
  classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such
  branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic
  arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may
  respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical
  education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and
  professions in life.

In my mind, this translates to "This act is established for establishing a traditonal university (one which focuses on science and classical studies), with a particular focus teaching practical industrial classes in Ag and mechanics, which incorporates military teaching."

However, can someone tell me what the context and motivation for these aims were at this time in 1862?


texts: Does Winckler's explanation of Semitic migrations have any merit?

texts:
Hugo Winckler's 1907 History of Babylon and Assyria, says something along these lines: Semitic people originated in the Arabian Peninsula. All Semitic migrations were caused by overpopulation. Syria was the only place for them to migrate to, so they always appeared here. This included Kish, Amorites, and Aramaeans. He also describes a "last phase" of migrations, continuing from the 7th century B.C. to Islam.

How wrong was he? Could all these people have come from Arabia?


texts: What was the significance of the Mississipi River on the Civil War and Westward Expansion?

texts:
I have a friend who has been given an assignment to write a paper arguing persuasively which river in the world is the "largest". Obviously, some people argue it is the Nile and some, the Amazon (most argue the Nile). However, the professor specified that cultural impact and rhetoric should be used as opposed to actual facts (or in addition to actual facts).

Apparently, this teacher is pretty slick and tricky and seems to enjoy the smart-aleck kinds of answers to things, because when I said, "you see that if I got an assignment like that, I'd write something like that the Mississippi is the biggest".

She got really excited about the idea and ran with it asking me why I would say that and what kinds of arguments would I make.  I talked about the "breadbasket" of the country getting its water from it and how the US produces a HUGE amount of the world's grain stores, how it drains 31 of the 50 states and how the French explores the Missippi River Valley quite a bit BECAUSE the river was there.  It is also an extremely important fly-way for North American migrating birds.

She said, "Okay, what about history?"

I pointed out Chicago and how it probably wouldn't be the city it is today if not for the canal and locks that connect it to the Illinois river and the Mississippi beyond.

I also know the Miss. was a major dividing line between Illinois, a free state and Missouri a slave state - but I couldn't really say the river played a role in the outcome of the civil war.

So, what role did the river play in the outcome of the Civil War AND What role did it play in expansion into the west (or moderation and delay of expansion into the west?)


texts: How did Western leaders justify NATO's eastwards expansion after promising the Soviet leadership it won't happen?

texts:
Western leaders apparently promised Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastwards and threaten Soviet security interests. Leaders named include Baker, Bush, Genscher, Kohl, Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner. Of course, today's NATO goes all the way to Russia's border.

I'm wondering how these leaders justified NATO's expansion. Even if they are no longer their country's leaders, many of them are still alive (or was alive when NATO expanded). Surely someone would have asked them why they are breaking their promises. How did they respond? I'm asking about these named leaders who made the promises only.

There is some sporadic discussion of this in Wikipedia's History of NATO page, but I didn't see anything that explicitly addresses NATO expansion in the context of the promises made.


texts: What evidence is there that Jesus went to India?

texts: Do we have any historical evidence that Jesus visited India? What is the evidence and the source for the belief held by many people in India that the Roza Bal shrine is the tomb of Jesus?


texts: How was Ivaylo's Bulgarian peasant army able to repel the Mongols?

texts: So this peasant in Bulgaria named Ivaylo says he's tired of all these Mongols and gets together a peasant army. How was this roughshod force able to repel the Mongols when so many others have failed?


texts: How was the border between Vichy and German Occupied France decided?

texts: The border between Vichy France and German-Occupied France strike me as exceptionally strange. The stated intent for Germany separating the two was to give Germany exclusive control of all areas bordering both the Channel and the Bay of Biscay to formulate a defense against the other Allies, but the actual border still strikes me as oddly jagged and haphazard, does anyone have any sources that outline Germany's intention for creating the border like that?


texts: Is there any evidence of the miracles of Tulsidas?

texts: Several miracles are attributed to the great medieval poet and philosopher Tulsidas, among them reviving the dead, and one of the ones that most caught my attention was his arrest by Emperor Akbar. Tulsidas was released from the jail by an army of angry monkeys. Is there any evidence of this particular event, that Tulsidas was arrested by Akbar and then released by monkeys? Undoubtedly, an event of such magnitude must have been documented by the sources of the time, especially those of the Mughal government.


texts: Why was the Treaty of Versailles so harsh?

texts:
When Germany signed the armistice in the first world war, they were still (technically) in a decent bargaining position.

Germany still had troops in France and Belgium
There were no enemy forces in German territory
Germany had already won the war on the eastern front
German forces were still in relatively good condition
Great Britain and France were not motivated for an invasion of Germany, due to pure exhaustion (although the influx of fresh American resources and manpower may have made it technically possible)

Now, I'm not here to argue that Germany could have emerged victorious. They had lost allies, they were starting losing ground, and they were no longer able to reinforce adequately. Had the war been allowed to go on, they would most likely have faced total defeat sooner than the allied powers perhaps expected.

However, considering the points made above, I wonder why the allied powers demanded such harsh peace terms.

Germany was not allowed a place at the bargaining table, and aside from huge war reparations, territorial losses, demilitarisation, and other terms, they were even forced to cede the territories they had already gained in the peace treaty on the eastern front.

Many of you will probably note that this led to the conspiracy theory, Dolchstoßlegende, which concludes that Germany did not lose military, but rather to traitorous elements at home.

Some also argue that the treaty was meant to permanently render Germany useless as a military might, but that it ultimately had the opposite effect (justification to take back what was theirs).


texts: Did the Soviet Union's successful northern campaign have an impact on Swedish iron ore shipments to Germany?

texts:
Late in World War II, the Soviet Union successfully invaded Finland and forced her to disassociate herself from Nazi Germany. This happened to the point where the Finns were forced to allow Soviet passage to chase German forces out of Finland into Norway in the fall of 1944.
Given this success, did the Soviets make any overt threats to interdict exports of e.g. Swedish iron ore to Germany, or did they merely contribute to the "dimmer switch" of Swedish iron ore shipments falling over time?
I am a bit confused by possibly contradictory accounts in differing Wikipedia posts on this subject. This post suggests that after the Allies started winning in 1943, Sweden submitted to progressively more "preemptive buying" by the Allies (at world prices or slightly higher), leaving only small amounts to be "smuggled" to Germany. This account suggests that Sweden made a more definitive end to sales to Germany by November, 1944. But in either case, were these results produced by Anglo-American economic and diplomatic pressure from 1943 onward. or is there documentation of the Swedish government's being confronted with, or dealing with Soviet military pressure?


texts: Where was human history first purposely recorded?

texts:
I recently read about ancient cave paintings in France.  Would this be an example of the first purposely recorded human events?  If not, what was?  When did it happen and where?

I am not much of an academic or history buff, but am curious about this.


texts: Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?

texts:
In the Americas, there is La Danta Temple (built c300 BC, 230 ft / 70.10m) in modern-day Guatemala. In Asia (Far East and South Asia), there is the Ruwanwelisaya (built c300 BC, 300 ft / 91.44m) in Sri Lanka. What is there in Europe?

The Wikipedia page History of the world's tallest buildings makes no mention of anything between the Great Pyramids and Lincoln Cathedral (1300). The List of Greek and Roman architectural records doesn't come up with anything more than the Pont du Gard at 160 ft / 48.77m (or 155 ft / 47.24m, depending on which Wiki article you believe). The Colosseum is another possible candidate at 157 ft / 47.85m (or 159 ft / 48.46m according to The Colosseum.net)

The Pont du Gard and the Colosseum.

To clarify, by 'ancient times' I mean any time up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. However, I'd also be interested in anything taller than the examples above which was built before 1000 AD i.e. Early Medieval.

I'm only interested in man-made structures which are still standing, even if not in their entirety.


texts: Why was Archbishop of Carthage, Cyriacus, arrested?

texts:
In Life and Letters in Roman Africa page 117, it is mentioned that Cyriacus, the Archbishop of Carthage was arrested by Arab rulers on complaints by his own Roman Catholic followers.

I find it very odd that Christians complained to Muslim Arab rulers about their own Archbishop. He was of course not teaching something heretical as Pope Gregory VII took his side which means he wasn't doing anything considered thoelogically wrong.

What were those complaints which lead to his arrest by the Arab authorities?


texts: Why did the line infantry not use shields in the 18th century?

texts:
Why did soldiers in the line infantry in the 18th century not used shield as protection against the fire from the other line infantry ?

I have seen that line infantry was used this way where the one line are shooting against the other line and vice versa in wars like these: Seven Years War, American Independence War and the Napoleonic Wars.


texts: Before 1800, were there major schools of Islamic thought that relaxed behavior rules for women on the Hajj?

texts:
It is my understanding that most comprehensive works of Islamic thought (past and present) do the following:

(a) Give rules or guidelines for behavior, some of them specific to women;
(b) Give rules or guidelines for behavior of pilgrims on the Hajj.

I am interested in the interaction of (a) and (b) before 1800: Did any major works (or connected sets of works or documented attitudes) of Islamic thought promulgate rules or guidelines for women's behavior that might be different for women making the Hajj?

If so, can you point me to any (primary or secondary) sources that focus on this?


texts: What was the political context of the Japanese "North Ezo" explorations?

texts:
Mamiya Rinzō explored Sakhalin in 1808. This seems to have been the culmination of a series of explorations, which started in the 1770's, and in which the Japanese discovered much of the northern territories or "North Ezo". It seems that these trips had to do (were possibly motivated by?) with increasing Russian influence in the region. However, extant sources don't describe how these explorers (specifically Mamiya Rinzō) related to the shogunate, i.e. whether this was a specific policy of the shogunate or whether a domain had asked for permission for these activities—which is all the more surprising given the general isolation of the country, as well as the ban to travel outside Japan.
In general, there seem to be very few mentions relating to these Japanese explorations. This article seems promising but I don't have access.
A great answer would also specify whether the explorations consulted the Westerners (i.e., the Dutch) at Nagasaki to better prepare.


texts: What happened to Hitler's personal possessions and real estate?

texts: When World War II ended and Hitler committed suicide, what happened to his personal possessions and real estate? I presume that given his defeat, any will he might have had wasn't honored. Did certain parties seize control of them? Were they looted? Something else?


texts:
In Robert Temple's 1 book "Egyptian Dawn", the author exposes a series of problems with Egyptology that he found while exploring Egyptian temples and ruins. When he applied a technique called surface luminescence dating 2 to date stones of Menkaure's pyramid he found that they are too old; the pyramid couldn't have been built in Menkaure's lifetime.

Also when comparing the tomb of the last king of the Second Dynasty (which has impressively low technology applied to it) with the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid, built by the first king of the Third Dynasty), there is a clear difference in technology. Such technology couldn't have evolved in the span of 20-30 years that separates them, says Temple.

I couldn't find any direct criticisms of this specific book, so my question is: are these real problems? Or is Temple speculating here? And if a respected dating technique indicates that some monuments and temples are too old, and if there are problems with the progression of technology from one dynasty to another, how come I can't find sources talking about it besides Temple?

1 Yes, he is the same guy who wrote a book about aliens coming from Sirius and bringing knowledge unavailable to normal humans, although Egyptian Dawn seems to be a more sober book.
2 First applied to ancient monuments by prof. Ioannis Liritzis, a Greek scientist.


texts: Chiang's allies were "a kidnapper, a hooligan and a bully" but which was which?

texts:
Chiang Kai-shek complained bitterly about his allies Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union (the latter admittedly not at war with Japan till the very end).

But when he stated that China's relationship with the other three was like "a weak man meeting a kidnapper, a hooligan and a bully" did he have a specific ally in mind for each role (Britain, for example, perhaps viewed by the Chinese as the "kidnapper" who had stolen Hong Kong) or did he just mean they were all three dangerous and overbearing?


texts: Has Catholic excommunication ever caused the dethronement of any king?

texts:
Wikipedia has a list of people excommunicated by the Catholic Church, with a little explanation of the causes for each case, but (understandably) none of the effects.

I'm curious if this measure has caused the downfall of any ruler, specially in the Middle Ages, when the power and influence of the Catholic Church was most strong.


texts: Mass distribution of the Macedonian Sarissa pike

texts:
As a physics student, I am currently writing an independent assignment about applications of continuum mechanics (the study of waves, deformation, and stress in objects), in this assignment, I have chosen to look at the deformation of the ancient Macedonian Sarissa pike due to gravity.

To describe this system I do, however, need to have some idea about how the mass of the Sarrisa was distributed along the length of the pike.

There are in particular two things I need to know – which I have not been able to find satisfying answers to:

Firstly; in this article (page 20) I have found that the diameter of the Sarissa at the spear-head and spear-butt was 4 to 5 cm, but I do still not know if this diameter was constant along the entire length of the weapon, or if the shaft was thicker at points, and – if yes – how the radius varied along the length of the shaft

Secondly; in some – but not all – images of reconstructed Sarissae or diagrams, the shaft is depicted as being made of two pieces of wood joined together by a metal cylinder; this cylinder can be seen on this image:

but is absent from these historical images:

I, therefore, want to know if this metal cylinder is historically accurate, if it was always used, and -- if it existed -- where along the length of the pike it was placed and what mass it had.

If at all possible, I would very much prefer if you in your answers either refer to studies, historical documents or archaeological findings.


texts: How would a 16-year-old girl from Cleopatra's era curse?

texts:
For one of my novels, I need to learn how Egyptian 16 year old teenagers spoke to each other on a daily basis. I did some research online but I have trouble to understand what languages peoples were speaking in Alexandria in Cleopatra's era, and more importantly: how they cursed.

Can someone give me some clues about how to get more information about this?

Please note that English is not my first language and maybe I'm not using "Curse" in the good way. What I'm looking for is words like "F**k off" or "Sh*t". Like when a kids talk to another and tell him is an idiot in a fun / friendly way.

Why do I need this? / How will it be used?

At some point in my novel, people from different eras are regrouped in one point in history and become friends. Two of those people, a 16 year old  girl from Ancient Egypt and a 40 year old Viking male develop some father-daughter relationship. And I really would like to add sometimes in their dialog a few words from their original language.
For example, the girl at some point is pissed off, and calls the Viking dad an "ergi". She calls him that because she know it will be really offensive to him.

What I am looking for is really something like this, or another "teasing" insults or bad words for them to call themselves.

What did I find so far?

For the Viking language, it's a little easier. Insulting and cursing is a lot more documented. And some great author wrote some interesting articles

But for Ancient Egypt "trash talk", I really can't find anything interesting. But I'm sure it's because I'm bad at searching. Some books seems to have some stuffs, and some websites too, but they feel a lot less "academic", if this make any sense.


texts: Did the Celts come to England from France and Belgium?

texts:
I apologize for this ridiculous question. I have little knowledge of European history. The following is a passage from Charles Dickens' A Child's History of England:
"But the Phoenicians, sailing over to the opposite coasts of France and Belgium, and saying to the people there, ‘We have been to those white cliffs across the water, which you can see in fine weather, and from that country, which is called Britain, we bring this tin and lead,’ tempted some of the French and Belgians to come over also. These people settled themselves on the south  coast of England, which is now called Kent; and, although they were a rough people too, they taught the savage Britons some useful arts, and improved that part of the Islands. It is probable that other people came over from Spain to Ireland, and settled there.
Thus, by little and little, strangers became mixed with the Islanders, and the savage Britons grew into a wild, bold people; almost savage, still, especially in the interior of the country away from the sea where the foreign settlers seldom went; but hardy, brave, and strong."
Are the strange people mentioned here Celts? The book goes on to describe the people of Britain after the migrations mentioned above and how they loved horses. Aren't horses associated with the Celts?
The book makes no mention of the Celts by name.