texts: How many hours a week did the Tolpuddle Martyrs work?

texts: I can find lots of references to the pay rate of the Tolpuddle Martyrs (originally 10 shillings a week, then reduced to seven shillings and were due to be further reduced to six) but how many hours a week were they expected to work for it?


texts: Where did Roman senators mostly live in the time of Tiberius or Caligula?

texts: My understanding is that under the Republic the Palatine was the most popular place for senators and their families, but from the time of Nero the Imperial family more-or-less took over the Palatine.  In her book SPQR Mary Beard says that the elite families tended to move to the Aventine once pushed off the Palatine, but until the time of Nero were they mostly still based on the Palatine or were they spread out throughout Rome by this time?


texts: Is "losing around 100 000 men" and "100 000 casualties" the same thing?

texts:
I wanted to know if "losing around 100 000 men" and "100 000 casualties" is the same thing. Or does "losing around 100 000 men" correspond to the death of 100 000 soldiers?

More generally are "losses" and "casualties" the same thing? Or are "losses" "deaths"?


texts: At what point were the numbers of slaves transported by the British to America first recorded? How many people were transported as slaves from Africa to America by the British? How many of them died on the way?


texts: Did Europe experience forest deficits prior to 19th century?

texts:
I would like to understand if there were issues with forests in Europe prior to 19th century and, if so, what were the reasons behind them?

Two versions that I have are overusing forests as the energy source (sounds questionable due to availability of coal) and eradicating forests for cultivation areas.

Both options seems viable due to high population density in Europe and low temperatures in the winter, at least in the north.


texts: Did Tirol annex land (right flank of Val d'Avigna) from Switzerland between 1859 and 1869?

texts:
Map from 1859:

The river in the middle of Val d'Avigna is described as the border between Switzerland and Austria.

An earlier map from 1853 shows the same border:

On a map from 1869 the border is different:

It seems the right flank of the river has been annexed by Tirol from Switzerland, on the oldest map the border follows the river and as such the valley is spit in two, from 1869 on, the border follows the summits and the valley is entierely Austrian.

Modern map of the eara :
http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/46.6649/10.3987

(Notice that since WW1 the land in question is part of Italian South Tirol)


texts: Can anyone tell me more about this ... sword?

texts:
I am new here. I came here to ask about this small sword I found a couple of years ago. I think it used to belong to my father.
The scabbard seems to be made of lead and the sword is currently stuck in it.
Can anybody tell me something about this sword? I keep wondering what it might be. Perhaps it was used for decoration?
Thank you :)

EDIT:
The sword is about 55 centimeter while in the scabbard. I am from Belgium, perhaps this is usefull information.
I tried taking closer pictures of the blade (both sides)


texts: How did laborers travel from China to Malaya in the early 19th century?

texts:
There was a wave of Chinese emigration to Malaya beginning in the early 19th century. Those who emigrated were mostly laborers seeking to work in tin mines, rubber plantations, and other agricultural enterprises. How did these people travel from China to Malaya?

In particular:

The Qing did not officially allow emigration, so how did people evade the authorities?
Which Chinese ports (Guangzhou? Xiamen?) would the people start their journey from?
What was the type of ship used?
What was the duration of the journey, and how much did the ticket cost?

In particular, I am interested in the period from 1800 to 1850.


texts: Where is Havillah, the land of gold, described in Genesis?

texts:
Genesis 2:11-12 describes a land called Havillah, where there is very good gold.

Were there historical attempts made to locate this land, and what do we know about such expeditions if they did exist?


texts: What caused women to lose their access to resources and become a part of men's possessions with the start of the agriculture era?

texts:
I'm reading the book SEX AT DAWN: the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality, the book suggests that in prehistoric times, when homo sapiens were just foraging on the earth, the relation between men and women was like the relation between male and female bonobos and the society was more like a matriarchy in which women had the most respectable position.
But when people learned agriculture and began to settle down and the concept of individual property formed, women's position converted to man's property and men restricted women more and more in order to be sure that their possessions will be inherited by their actual heirs.

On page 17 we read:

  when people began living in settled agricultural communities, social
  reality shifted deeply and irrevocably. Suddenly it became crucially
  important to know where your field ended and your neighbor’s began.
  Remember the Tenth Commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s
  house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant,
  nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is]
  thy neighbour’s.” Clearly, the biggest loser (aside from slaves,
  perhaps) in the agricultural revolution was the human female, who went
  from occupying a central, respected role in foraging societies to
  becoming another possession for a man to earn and defend, along with
  his house, slaves, and livestock.

My question is that why does it say clearly?
Why didn't women earn possessions like men in the agricultural
revolution?
What intrinsic feature in women makes it clear that they shall lose
their position in the agricultural revolution?

Edit:

By high rank of female bonobos, I don't mean only sexual relationship but also the higher position in the society in which  A male derives his status from the status of his mother


texts: What is the historical name(s) for area between Syria and Mesopotamia?

texts:
Apologies if this is "really" a geographical question, but I suspect it must have been addressed by scholars of the past millenium of Middle Eastern history, not least because it is so central to a long-running conflict (current as of early 2015):

Historically, Mesopotamia has been recognized as a coherent spatial concept. Its core is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; its periphery has extended into and out of adjacent lands stretching from the Gulf in the southeast, the Zagros Mountains (and historic Persia) to the north and east, the Taurus Mountains (and historic Anatolia) to the far north, and a vast (and growing) desert to the west and south.

Syria has (IIUC) historically been rather more mutable, yet also remains conceptually distinct. Its most generally-agreed bounds are the Mediterranean to the west, the Taurus to the north, and those deserts to the east. Where one separates Syria from its southern neighbors, and what one calls the latter (e.g., Arabia, Egypt, the Levant, Palestine), seems to be endlessly contested.

But it seems pretty clear (ICBW) that, historically, populations and their attendant states have tended to settle in Mesopotamia or Syria, while the arid area "in between" has traditionally been a much less densely populated (and much poorer) borderland. So what has that mostly-desert area between Syria and Mesopotamia historically been called?

The only term I've found much used in English is the "Syrian desert," but mostly (like so many deserts) this area seems to be ignored by everyone except the people who live there ... at least until they attract the attention of outside powers.


texts: Are there records of US slaves who practiced Islam following their import from Africa?

texts:
Islam has historically been prevalent in many regions of Africa, such as in the Songhai Empire, which was based around Sharia law. It seems plausible to me that some Africans were practitioners of Islam and then were sold as slaves and later imported to the United States.

Are there any records of Islamic slaves from Africa imported into the United States who continued to practice Islam as slaves, either as individuals or in communities?


texts: Why did Christianity disappear in North-Western Africa?

texts:
During Roman times North-Western Africa had a thriving Christian community, giving birth to Saint Augustine and a long lasting heresy. This is similar to many Christian communities of the time, from Egypt to Syria.

Today, Christianity disappeared so thoroughly from the region as to leave no traces, while it still exists in Egypt and Syria.

When and why did Christianity disappear from North-Western Africa?
What were the differences leading to its demise as compared to Christianity in Egypt and Syria?

[Edited as the original framing was clearly misleading]


texts: What do these lines on the origins of Hindu/Muslim communal consciousness mean?

texts:
From The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India by Paul R. Brass:

Historical analysis of Hindu-Muslim communal conflict, its causes and preconditions, has been highly contentious in character. Contemporary historians of India do not even agree on whether or not there existed before the nineteenth century anything that could be called Hindu or Muslim communal identities, and, a fortiori, on whether or not Hindu-Muslim conflict was endemic. On one side are those who argue that Hindu-Muslim consciousness and conflict are largely modern constructions, in which the British colonial rulers played a major role, either through deliberate "divide and rule" policies or through the ways in which they categorized, classified, and counted the various peoples of India. Historians who accept this point of view also tend to see Hindu and/or Muslim communal consciousness or communalism as forms of ideology or discourse connected to class, group, and elite political interests. In this perspective, the creation or development of communal consciousness is an instrument of struggle, either against the British or between Hindus and Muslims for political advantage or supremacy. In the course of struggle, communal violence could be and often was the result of conflicts framed within a communal discourse.

I do not understand the lines in bold. What are class and group political interests, and how are they different from each other? How was the creation of communal consciousness an instrument of struggle against the British?


texts: Did the Pope's crossbow and archery bans have any effect?

texts:
One of the more famous and certainly curious decisions at the Second Council of the Lateran in 1139 was a ban on using missile troops against Christians. Specifically, Canon 29 states that:

  We prohibit under anathema that murderous art of crossbowmen and archers, which is hateful to God, to be employed against Christians and Catholics from now on.

  Papal Encyclicals Online

This is frequently misrepresented as a crossbow only ban, usually accompanied by far fetched claims such as likening the crossbow to "weapons of a mass destruction" (more likely, it was an attempt by the Church to take the moral high road). In any case, it seems similar bans were issued by Pope Urban II in 1097 and repeated again towards the end of the century by Pope Innocent III, but I cannot locate definitive sources or texts for either.

Obviously, the bans didn't last. Archers and crossbowmen continued to feature in European battles everywhere. For example, the famed Genoese crossbowmen dueled English Longbowmen at the Battle of Crécy. I even found references claiming Pope Gregory IX employed "Provençal mounted crossbowmen" against the Lombard League in 1239 (but that seems a bit dubious since AFAIK they were allied against the Holy Roman Emperor that year).

What I am curious about, is whether the ban had any actual effect on European warfare (or diplomacy!) at all. Did any feudal lords ever take the ban seriously, or had it been unenforced right from the start? Was there any outrage when the ban was violated, or was it always ignored by the secular world?

Did any contemporaries actually take note of the ruling?


texts: Why does Hungary not follow the "usual Western naming system"?

texts:
In the "usual western system" (I'm not sure if there's a more formal name for this), we have given names first, then family names last. In contrast, in the "eastern system", the order is reversed.

Hungary follows the "eastern system". Why? What is the historical explanation for this anomaly?


texts: Did a mob of men dressed in skirts threaten the life of Anne Boleyn?

texts:
I am reading The Favored Queen by Carolly Erickson. The author describes the book as 'historical entertainment' which appears to be a euphemism for 'highly inaccurate'.

The author describes an event in which an armed mob stirred up by the 'Nun of Kent' marches on Anne Boleyn and her retinue forcing them to flee.  The event is undated and occurs in the home of William Skeffington. In the book, the mob are made up of "men dressed as women"... "all in skirts, many with kerchieves covering their heads".

Is this a historical event?
If so, why would men have been dressed as women?  Was this something that occurred often in these times?  If so, in what circumstances? Was it specifically in reference to a woman caught in adultery perhaps, or is it due to suspicions of witchcraft?

I have been unable to find a reference to this event and I have never heard of it but I am not a scholar of the Tudor period.  The writer appears to have taken many liberties and I would like to know if this is one of them.


texts: Do historians have a method to synthesize evidence and conclusions from multiple fields?

texts:
Modern historians when trying to understand some specific aspect of the past often have to draw on multiple types of evidence, such as historical documents, literature, epigraphy, numismatics, linguistics, and  archaeology.
Each of these types of evidence have their own specialists, theories, methodology, and opinions. If we're looking at a specific topic, such as religion, the number of specialties involved can increase to include religious studies, philosophy, and even folklore studies.
How do historians synthesize all this evidence and the different specialist ways of understanding the evidence and/or society, given that these fields may come to different conflicting conclusions which are yet methodologically sound in their own field?
I'm aware of some attempts at this such as Meta-Ethnography: Synthesizing Qualitative Studies 1988, Narrative Synthesis
Considerations and challenges 2016.
As well as attempts at understanding the relationship between these bodies of thoughts from within others such as Archaeology and Folklore (Theoretical Archaeology Group S.) 1999 and Religion, Material Culture and Archaeology 2012 .
But how successful or widespread these ideas have become? I don't know.


texts:
After loosing a large part of its land on the Balkans and in the Middle East the newly found in 1923 successor of the Ottoman Empire had every reason to  try and take back some of the lost nearby lands.

I understand that there were a series of conflicts and wars in the region: uprisings and revolts related to Greek Independence 1821 and Bulgarian Independence 1878(1908), Greco-Turkish War 1897 , First and Second Balkan Wars 1912-1913, WWI1914-1918.

However, the much smaller neighbouring countries participated in WWII, while Turkey remained neutral.

What were (could be) the reasons for the Turkish neutrality during the Second World War?


texts: Prisons and prison laws in Old Testament times?

texts:
Prisons where evidently known to Israelites quite early (see the story of Joseph). Nevertheless, I could find no legislation in the Torah on imprisonment - it seems that this form of punishment was not used at all. I guess the reason for that is that prisons require a more centralized government and are not suited for a nomadic or rural society.

Later we find that Jeremiah was imprisoned, but it seems like an exception rather than some regular form of punishment.

My question: which countries in the ancient world had prisons, and how were they used? Were there regular laws concerning imprisonment (conditions, length of detainment)? Where were prisons invented?


texts: Was early marriage of queens not considered pedophilia?

texts:
Joan of the Tower was married on 17 July 1328 to David II of Scotland at Berwick-upon-Tweed. She was seven years old, he was only four.
Isabella of Valois married Richard II at the age of six and was widowed three years later.

Were these not considered pedophilia?


texts: Have any spies ever managed to keep their identity secret from their handlers?

texts:
Having just started reading up on spies throughout history, I've just realized a new risk I hadn't thought of before, namely that once you've started spying you're at risk of being blackmailed into continuing to spy by your new masters even if you start to get cold feet and want to quit.

Has any spy managed to remain anonymous to their own handlers?

I'm aware that many spies want to be paid for their efforts, and that handlers want to pass on orders, both of which require 2-way communication, but even those challenges could be overcome with some imaginative thinking.

A spy who just wants to anonymously drop secret reports into the mail box should be a lot safer than one who has to surreptitiously loiter in foggy back alleys (or however they meet up)

I'm aware that many members of the 'Lucy' spy ring (WW2, Switzerland) are anonymous to this day, and I know that initial intelligence on the location and purpose of Peenemünde (a V2 rocket base) was passed to the British anonymously.

Are there other examples?

UPDATE - I'm aware that most agencies would like to verify the identity of their spies, but I'm also sure that if they receive the anonymous message "the enemy will attack at dawn" and the enemy does attack then the 2nd message will be taken more seriously.


texts: Physical meaning of the phrase "Beijing-Tianjing corridor" in the context of Sino-Japanese war?

texts:
Describing the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war, especially the events following skirmishes after the incident at the Marco Polo bridge in 1937, my textbook stresses

  Soon the Beijing-Tianjing corridor had fallen to the Japanese.

This phrase is found repeated in the summaries of two different professors, hence I suspect it must be of great strategic significance. I examined three different maps of China for any feature of geostrategic importance and found none. Hence, I suspect it refers to a railway or other kind of supply line. The significance of such supply line would be clear, as Tianjin is Beijing's main maritime gateway.

  So, could someone explain what kind of "corridor" was present in 1937 between Beijing and Tianjin, that the Japanese took?

Or was it simply that they conquered everything north of and including Shandong Peninsula, thus isolating Beijing from the sea?

EDIT:
Although I sincerely appreciate the elaborations on the significance of the Beijing-Tianjin connection, my original inquiry was, what kind of link there was present, which is called "corridor". In other words, did the Japanese capture a single railway, a whole area, fortifications rendering the railway useless... Presumably, due to my inferior language skills, the question was edited to suggest a different meaning.


texts:
Is it true that in Medieval Times kings used to invite other king for a feast and poison other king's drink? this became so prevelant that the guest king would clink his glass with the host king's glass so that some of the liquid in his glass spills into the guest's glass, or did pirates do it?

When, where and why the tradition of clinking glasses and saying cheers started?


texts: Was the title "Prince of Wales" originally claimed for the English crown prince via a trick?

texts:
As the son of a proud Welsh woman, as a child I was told the origin story of the title "Prince of Wales" was that after Edward I beat Llywelyn ap Gruffudd at the Battle of Orewin Bridge, as part of the peace settlement Edward agreed that the new Prince of Wales would not be able to speak English.  The assumption was that this meant he would be a Welsh speaker, and therefore sympathetic to the needs of the Welsh people.  Edward I choose to appoint his infant child, abiding by the letter but not the spirit of the agreement.
Looking at wikipedia and a previous quite comprehensive answer there is no mention of this agreement.  Also it appears Edward II (the first of the English royal family to hold the title) was not born until 2 years after the battle and not invested until his 16th year.  Is there any evidence to support the interpretation I learnt, or is it a nationalistic myth?


texts: Did American slave holders typically give their slaves the names of Roman nobility?

texts:
'Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God, and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me.'

As is well known, Cassius was originally an ancient Roman family name (↑), but Muhammad Ali, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history, recognized his name as a "slave name".

After some reflection, I began wondering whether naming slaves using names of Roman nobility was common. Was it?

If so, why did slave holders used to name their slaves with the name of the Roman gens?

If not, why did Muhammad Ali affirmed that his name was a "slave name"?


texts: Queen Victoria and the Tsar’s faberge egg

texts:
In the movie Victoria and Abdul Queen Victoria say’s she regrets shattering the Tsars faberge egg.
Which Tsar was it and why did she shatter it?


texts: What was the role of Indian princes and aristocratic landowners under British colonial rule?

texts:
I am currently reading Ludwig von Mises' Human Action and find it rewarding in various ways. For instance, von Mises points out the following about volunteers' roles even around autocratic rulers:

  Of course, it is possible to establish a government upon the violent
  oppression of reluctant people. It is the characteristic mark of state
  and government that they apply violent coercion or the threat of it
  against those not prepared to yield voluntarily. Yet such violent
  oppression is no less founded upon ideological might. He who wants to
  apply violence needs the voluntary cooperation of some people.

He alludes to the British rule in India by way of example of governing ideologies (the book was first published in 1949):

  A comparatively insignificant number of Britons could rule many
  hundred millions of Indians because the Indian princes and
  aristocratic landowners looked upon British rule as a means for the
  preservation of their privileges and supplied it with the support
  which the generally acknowledged ideology of India gave to their own
  supremacy. England's Indian empire was firm as long as public opinion
  approved of the traditional social order. The Pax Britannica
  safeguarded the princes' and the landlords' privileges and protected
  the masses against the agonies of war between the principalities and
  of succession wars within them. In our day the infiltration of
  subversive ideas from abroad has undermined British rule and at the
  same time threatens the preservation of the country's age-old social
  order.

Now my question is this: Do we have evidence that British colonial politics opposite Indian maharajas was indeed shaped by such dynamics and whether colonial decision makers subscribed to similar ideas towards the beginning and end of British rule in India? (For instance, I am aware that Douglas MacArthur supported a continued role for the Japanese Tenno after World War II for partly similar reasons, but I was not aware so far that the Maharajas continued-if-somewhat-diminished influence e.g. in the 19th century should be mainly attributed to anything else but their families' political maneuverings in what from their perspective must have appeared as a struggle for survival.)


texts: Why was the water in roman fountains cold?

texts: Why was the water from some aqueducts that fed the water to ancient Roman fountains(nasoni) cold?


texts: What was the largest place to be named after a specific, individual animal (i.e. not a species)?

texts:
Not so many individual, non-human animals have been immortalized in place names. Often those were about animals known only as remains, as in Dead Horse Glen, but some living animals, named or unnamed, have become toponyms:

Arundel Castle, West Sussex, England (named for Bevis of Hampton's warhorse)
Barnabe Mountain, Marin County, California (named for Samuel P. Taylor's pet mule)
Bucephala, Pakistan (named for Alexander the Great's horse)
Grizzly Mountain, Trinity County, California (named for a charging bear)
Jackass Flat, Shasta County, California (named for a jackass run over by a train)
Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo, California (named for a lame, dark horse)
Sam's Neck, Siskiyou County, California (named for a white stallion)
Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina (named for a marauding jaguar)

Which historical animal's name was applied to the largest place? Is there anything bigger than a mountain or a city that was named for an individual animal?


texts: How many trucks did Russia and Germany have at the start of Barbarossa?

texts:
I've seen many times the lend-lease help cited for Russia, about 450,000 trucks (actually they were "jeeps and trucks" so it's hard to know trucks exactly). However, what I've never seen is citing how many trucks Russia already had, vs how many Germany had. Without these numbers, the lend-lease stuff cannot be compared to anything.

How many trucks did Russia have at the start of Barbarossa (1941 Jun 22)? How many did Germany have?

I googled around with various phrases, but it's hard to find something not talking about lend-lease. I did find the wiki page for Soviet automotive industry which has some things:

  In 1937, the Soviet Union produced over 200,000 vehicles, mostly trucks, putting the country in second place worldwide by production of trucks.

But wikipedia contradicts itself here, because according to its chart...

...it was not 1937, but 1938. Maybe it was a typo?

Also note that this is for all automobiles, not just trucks. It really annoys me when it says things like "cars were only a small share of all vehicles produced in the early years of Soviet production." How small is small? What is the number? How do they know it's small unless they had the actual numbers to look at and judge it small? Why would anyone then omit the numbers?

Another thing I could not find was the weight of these trucks. I seem to remember the lend-lease trucks were 2.5 tons each, but I went looking for a source and couldn't find it. How many tons were the American and Soviet and German trucks?

As for the Wermacht, all I can remember off the top of my head is that 80% of the army was horse-drawn. But that is just a relative percent and I have no way of translating it into an absolute number of trucks.

The Wermacht stuff seems to have more info, or maybe just chat, on the web. I found this website which has entries 32,558 , 53,348 , and 51,085 for 1939 to 1941 for "military trucks and lorries". So if you take half the 1941 number, it would appear that Germany had about 112,000 trucks by Barbarossa. However, this is just production for those years. It does not say how many already existed beforehand. It does not say how many were lost between 1939 and 1941. And also, I could not find any source citation on that website.

I also tried to tackle this question from another angle: How many trucks did the USSR lose in Barbarossa? That could give us an idea of how many they had. But no luck there either.


texts: What are the modern names of the nations mentioned in Ystoria Mongalorum?

texts:
Giovanni Carpini in his Ystoria Mongalorum lists as factions under the dominion of the Mongol Empire:

Nations that have been subjugated:

Meniti
Colona-Thorati
Sassi
Thoas
Sarthi

It has been narrowed down to these 5 nations.


texts: Did any of the US States ever attempt to secede, aside from American Civil War times?

texts:
Reading about the non-governmental organizations in support of the Texas secession movement, I've started to think if there were any States where such movements achieved something more.

My questions does not concern the American Civil War (which is too obvious), but instead, was there any situation in US history when one or more of the States announced they would secede? Was there an official way for states to secede?

By "on the official way" I mean that the local State government started any official actions in order to make their attempted secession from the USA legitimate.


texts: When did it become popular to drop the A.D. in dates?

texts: Since when did it become popular to shorthand years from 2020 A.D. to 2020? I haven't seen anything after a google search, and in fact I wonder if it was even popular to use A.D., ever. I don't recall a time I ever used it.


texts:
The Russian-American Company and the Russian Imperial Navy, deeply connected shipbuilding and seafaring organizations, both employed lots of foreign captains.

In Richard A. Pierce's translation, K.T. Khlebnikov wrote in "Baranov" that the Company's chief manager hired "the American Vozdvit [?] giving the latter command of the Il'mena". In "Colonial Russian America" Khlebnikov tells nearly the same story though the translators here render the name  "Vosdwit". He reports that the Il'mena sailed to Hawaii after visiting California. Pierce, apparently following the historian Okun, suggests an original spelling of "Wadsworth", but I can't find his given name or origin.

Captain Vodzvit is not named in the 1818 "Correspondence of the Governors" nor in "the Khlebnikov Archive", so he may not have stayed in Company employ for very long. Who was Vozdvit's real name and where was he from?


texts: Why are milk and beer the only food item that are still measured in imperial units?

texts:
Apologies if this is in the wrong stack site, I couldn't think of a more appropriate place for it.
I live in the UK. We're known for having mostly switched to the metric system  except for a few specific applications here and there. When it comes to food, the only two food items I can think of that are still measured using the imperial system are milk and beer, both measured in pints.
It seems that the government could have easily mandated both of those industries to start using metric as with every other food manufacturer, so I'm wondering for what reasons this was never done.


texts: What were the Ethiopians doing in Xerxes' army?

texts:
What were the Ethiopians doing at Thermopylae?
From Book III, paragraph XXV:

Having viewed all, the spies departed back again. When they reported all this, Cambyses was angry, and marched forthwith against the Ethiopians, neither giving command for any provision of food nor considering that he was about to lead his army to the ends of the earth; and being not in his right mind but mad, he marched at once on hearing from the Fish-eaters, setting the Greeks who were with him to await him where they were, and taking with him all his land army. When he came in his march to Thebes, he parted about fifty thousand men from his army, and charged them to enslave the Ammonians and burn the oracle of Zeus; and he himself went on towards Ethiopia with the rest of his host. But before his army had accomplished the fifth part of their journey they had come to an end of all there was in the way of provision, and after the food was gone they ate the beasts of burden till there was none of these left also. Now had Cambyses, when he perceived this, changed his mind and led his army back again, he had been a wise man at least after his first fault; but as it was, he went ever forward, nothing recking. While his soldiers could get anything from the earth, they kept themselves alive by eating grass; but when they came to the sandy desert, certain of them did a terrible deed, taking by lot one man out of ten and eating him. Hearing this, Cambyses feared their becoming cannibals, and so gave up his expedition against the Ethiopians and marched back to Thebes, with the loss of many of his army; from Thebes he came down to Memphis, and sent the Greeks to sail away.

And a little later on in
Book VII, paragraph LXIX and LXX:

The Arabians wore mantles girded up, and carried at their right side long bows curving backwards. The Ethiopians were wrapt in skins of leopards and lions, and carried bows made of palm-wood strips, full four cubits long, and short arrows therewith, pointed not with iron but with a sharpened stone, that stone wherewith seals are carved; moreover they had spears pointed with a gazelle's horn sharpened to the likeness of a lance, and studded clubs withal. When they went into battle they painted half their bodies with gypsum and the other half with vermilion. The Arabians, and the Ethiopians who dwell above Egypt, had for commander Arsames son of Darius and Artystone daughter of Cyrus, whom Darius loved best of his wives, and had an image made of her of hammered gold.
The Ethiopians above Egypt and the Arabians had Arsames for commander, and the Ethiopians of the east (for there were two kinds of them in the army) served with the Indians; they differed nothing in appearance from the others, but only in speech and hair; for the Ethiopians from the east are straight-haired, but they of Libya have of all men the woolliest hair. These Ethiopians of Asia were for the most part armed like the Indians; but they wore on their heads the skins of horses' foreheads, stripped from the head with ears and mane; the mane served them for a crest, and they wore the horses' ears stiff and upright; for shields they had bucklers of cranes' skin.

If it's not contained in books IV-VI, which I don't think it is, having read books I - halfway of VII in their entirety, the only possibility being that I somehow missed a quick reference to Ethiopia being subjected a second time, maybe could at least someone comment on the significance of Ethiopians being present in the midst of Xerxes' army?
I realize that Herodotus sometimes (maybe even deliberately?) confuses names of certain tribes… could he actually somehow be slyly referencing another tribe?  This seems unlikely being that the mentioned Ethiopians are carrying bows 4 cubits long, the same as earlier mentioned.


texts: Why couldn't soldiers sight their own weapons without officers' orders?

texts:
The 4th bullet here contends

  Gen. Joubert viewed the aftermath of the battle and noted that the British rifles were sighted at 400-600 yards when the battle raged at about 50-100 yards, as the British officers had not told the troops to alter their weapons and, as a result, they were shooting downhill over the heads of the enemy, who had scant shelter.

Why would British officers dictate range, and so micromanage, the enlisted? Why not simply dictate a broader, vaguer command such as "Adjust or check your sights"?


texts: What were the insignia of the Western Roman Empire and what happened to them?

texts: When Romulus Augustus was deposed by Odoacer, it is said that the "Imperial Insignia" was sent to Constantinople. I always wondered what kind of object(s) this was and if it survived in any form. If it did, where is it now?


texts: What machine technology did the Egyptians have to build the great pyramids?

texts:
Reading the "Account of Egypt" by Herodotus, it says of the great pyramid of "Cheops" (Macauley translation):

  This pyramid was made after the manner of steps which some called
  "rows" and others "bases": and when they had first made it thus, they
  raised the remaining stones with machines made of short pieces of
  timber, raising them first from the ground to the first stage of the
  steps, and when the stone got up to this it was placed upon another
  machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to
  the second upon another machine; for as many as were the courses of
  the steps, so many machines there were also, or perhaps they
  transferred one and the same machine, made so as easily to be carried,
  to each stage successively, in order that they might take up the
  stones; for let it be told in both ways, according as it is reported.

This may just be a Greek or late Egyptian technology being anachronistically supposed to have been used in the past, but nevertheless, it is interesting to ponder what kind of machines the Egyptians could have had that fit this description. Some of the larger stones in the pyramid weight 10 metric tonnes, so the machines would have to have that capacity.

The only machines I have found depicted in ancient Egyptian wall reliefs and paintings have been chariots and balances. I have not been able to find any examples of cranes.

One book I found is called "Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture" by Somers and Engelbach (1930) which seems to describe some of their technology for construction. Another book is "Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology" by Nicholson and Shaw.


texts: What did the Edo samurai bureaucracy actually look like?

texts:
While researching the Japanese Edo period, the Samurai class are frequently described as bureaucrats and the government is described as a "sophisticated bureaucracy", often with detailed descriptions of the kind of information collected.
What did the Samurai bureaucracy/paperwork physically look like? I've had trouble finding any details like what I'm looking for. What form did the paperwork take? Were there memorized "forms", prepared stationery, signatures (or chops like in China)? Did the bureaucrats do all the paperwork, or did they also manage paperwork received form ordinary folk (farmers and artisans)? What kind of writing was used?
For example: 90s style Western bureaucracy revolved around flat sheets of paper pre-printed with standard blank, labelled fields to collect data, as well as contracts, which recorded stated legal agreements. These were organized by form type or alphabetically and often stored in colorful folders, then placed in large blocky filing cabinets.


texts: Which philosopher said that taking notes is good?

texts:
He said something like, that this is a good way to learn, because writing it down in the own words helps one to understand it.

I think it was Aristotle, but I dont know exactly any more.


texts: Did ninjas ever use a costume like the one we usually see in films?

texts:
I know that ninjas wearing that type of all black clothes with hood and the like is an absolutely ridiculous idea; they usually dressed as it were common in the area to go unnoticed.

Anyway, I think that using those clothes for a night infiltration wouldn't be that horrible, maybe they would allow them to go more easily unnoticed in the darkness and maybe even in the case they were spotted by someone they could escape more easily. But even in this case such strange clothes would immediately draw the attention of anyone who were to see them.

Is there any historical evidence that clothes similar to these ones were used by any ninja?


texts: Has anyone written a history centered on predictions/expectations about the future?

texts:
I think the way men represent to themselves the future ( I mean here what is about to arrive within a period of say, half a century) is part of their present. The anticipations ( positive or negative) of the next historical period are , somewhat, part of a given historical period.

( In the same way as our anticipations about what we are about to see are part of what we see while discovering a city for example, which explains that a city never has the same charm as the first time we saw it; in the same way as our anticipations about what our life was going to be were part of our youth , and made this youth so beautiful).

Has a history of these anticipations ever been written? I mean a history of the alledged " trends" and " tendencies" men thought ( often misleadingly) were operating " in the depth" during the period they were presently living?

Note : I'm not thinking specially of anticipations regarding technology; rather of anticipations regarding politics, religion, society.


texts: Can you please help identify this military uniform (1700's)?

texts: I came into possession of this painting recently.  It was displayed at the Winterthur museum in the 1800's...and was owned by Henry Francis Du Pont.  There is paper taped to the back that says this work was painted around 1730.  I'd like to identify the war and the uniform.


texts:
This question Why do the Japanese sing Ode to Joy during the Japanese New Year?

brings another similar one. I live in a small US Midwest town, and every year they celebrate the Independence day (4th of July) by open air performance of
Tchaikovsky's Overture "1812". My question is "why"? What is the story behind this? Local residents whom I asked could not answer.

Some Americans might think that it has a relation to their last war with England (1812). But it has none. It was written to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon in the same year, has motives of the partiotic song "God save the Tsar", and it uses a unique "musical instrument" a real cannon salute in the end (performed by the local National Guard howitzer battery).

EDIT. Besides "God save the Tsar", there is an additional irony: Tchaikovsky celebrates the defeat of the French, who were American allies in the Independence war. La Marseillaise is also cited in this Overture, but "God save the Tsar" wins in the end, of course.


texts: I have read that before the invention of monotheism, the Jews worshipped multiple gods of which traces remain in various texts. So I wonder whether it is possible to reconstruct it and what the gods there were.


texts: Which of the Nuremberg defendants spoke English, French, or Russian?

texts:
At the first Nuremberg trial, twenty-one defendants were tried in person: Karl Dönitz, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Hans Fritzsche, Walther Funk, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Konstantin von Neurath, Franz von Papen, Erich Raeder, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Sauckel, Hjalmar Schacht, Baldur von Schirach, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Albert Speer, and Julius Streicher.

The official trial languages were English, German, French, and Russian.  The participants (including the German-speaking defendants) were provided with headphones for simultaneous translation.  However, in many photographs of the proceedings, not all of the defendants are wearing headphones.  While it may be the case that these defendants simply weren't paying attention, or that they had removed their headphones during a lull in the proceedings, it may also be the case that they already had a sufficient command of the foreign language(s) being spoken.

Which of the Nuremberg defendants could already speak English, French, or Russian at the time of the trial?  And of those who survived the trial, did any of them later learn English, French, or Russian?

I know only part of the answer already: there are video recordings of Karl Dönitz speaking English, and Albert Speer speaking French and English.  However, these were made long after the war, so I don't know whether they understood these languages during their trial.


texts: Why was Zabrze renamed Hindenburg O.S in 1915?

texts:
Through history, many towns got renamed, often by totalitarian, ultra-nationalistic or communist regimes. Most of this renaming happened past 1918 under the influence of Wilsonian self-determination, where people would eliminate traces of "foreign" imperialism.

As far as I know Zabrze is unique in that it was renamed Hindenburg in 1915 (after Paul von Hindenburg). Back when renaming towns was something almost unheard of; I do not believe Germany renamed any other towns before the nazis took power. St. Petersburg being renamed into Petrograd is the only other example I can find in pre-1918 modern history, but that was in Russia.

I believe the name "Zabrze" couldn't easily be correctly pronounced by a non-local German person, however many other Silesian names (hem, hem, Chrzumczütz) couldn't either and those weren't renamed at the time. Is there a particular reason why they renamed Zabrze ?


texts: Why did Peter the Great tie particular expenditures to particular revenue sources?

texts:
Peter the Great founded the Russian Academy in 1724. In his decree, he says the Academy will be supported by an annual grant of 25,000 rubles drawn from the custom tolls of Baltic Sea ports. (source)

As a matter of statecraft, why would Peter have tied particular expenditures to a particular revenue source? The variability of any given revenue source is much higher than the variability of a state's total revenues. With a system of earmarks like this, one year the Academy might be fully funded while another institution has a deficit, and the next year the reverse. That seems like it would wreak havoc on the orderly functions of the state.

Also, as exceptions like these multiply, it becomes that much harder to keep track of the overall health of the economy and the nation's budget. The state becomes "illegible" to Peter and his ministers. Why not have a single centralized treasury and a single centralized budget to avoid this unnecessary confusion?

I imagine Peter wasn't the only early modern monarch/autocrat who managed budgetary affairs like this, so I'm open to answers for other countries if they illustrate the issue at hand well.


texts: Who is the latest famous person to have no known likeness?

texts:
Among historically famous people of Western Civilization which one is most lately born who has no known likeness?

By "historically famous" I mean some person who is mentioned as being historically significant in an English-language history textbook used widely in American or British secondary schools.

If there is some question as to whether a person is "famous" then apply the criteria that they must merit their own entry in the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and be a historically significant actor. By an "actor" I mean someone famous for their own actions on history, thus people like Robert Jenkins do not count because he became famous as an accidental victim, and actors and writers do not count because they are famous for their works, not their historical actions.

For example, there is Christopher Columbus, born in 1451, for whom there is no known authentic likeness.


texts: By what right/legitimacy did the Republic of Indonesia come to rule the country?

texts:
Before the Dutch rule, Indonesia consists of various sovereign kingdoms and sultanates. The Dutch left after armed fighting, so it was not like they peacefully left the sovereignty to a designated successor government (like the case of India or Malaysia). The only previous state that approximates the present Indonesia was Majapahit, but the territories were different, it was long before the Dutch rule, and Indonesia also does not claim to be its successor.

So, when the Dutch left, by what legitimacy did the government of the "Republic of Indonesia" in Jakarta claim sovereignty over everyone else?


texts:
Japan in the last 80 years has earned nearly 30 Nobel Prizes, which is more than any other Asian country (at least two of which dwarf it in terms of population). In the 21'st century, only the United States has more (with 3 times the population).

How did this relatively small nation achieve this? Was there some kind of concerted effort specifically to get Nobel Prizes, or has there been something special about that country that has caused it to organically get that many?


texts: What does a wife call her husband when addressing him in their household in 1600s England if he is a member of the peerage?

texts:
I am writing a novel that takes place in 1600s England during the time of the English Civil War, and the main characters are aristocracy with fairly vast land holdings in York.

If the husband and land owner is known as something like Lord Richard Whitby, would his wife address him as "Milord"? "Sir"? "Lord Whiteley"? "Sir Richard"? "Richard"?

I have searched the web but can't seem to find anything on what husbands and wives might call each other in their own households, specifically in front of servants, or in privacy having a heated conversation such as when she tries to be somewhat reverent in pleading with him. One example might be if she is entreating him not to take part in the civil war against the king (she is a Royalist and he is for Cromwell). Another instance might be when she is begging him not to take their sickly daughter to the village when it is likely to rain.

I'm not entirely sure what his rank should be in society---he is not nobility I don't think -- very distant if anything, but his family has owned the land for decades if not for a hundred years or more... I realize ownerships and allegiances changed with Henry VIII's proclamations, so Whitby's land might not have been owned for many hundreds of years. Nevertheless, in my story, he is quite powerful and owns a great deal of land and is able to raise forces for Cromwell.

Any help as to the answer or how I can find the information on the aristocracy and their lives while in their own homes would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


texts: Why was Colonel Bill Eddy kneeling in front of FDR and King Saud?

texts:
Amidst the WW2, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Saudi King Ibn Saud met aboard USS Quincy after the Yalta conference.

Colonel Bill Eddy played the role of interpreter.

It however strikes as something very odd that in the photograph of meeting, Colonel Bill is kneeling before the two leaders.

Why is a commissioned officer of US Military doing such a thing? Was it some sort of a diplomatic custom back then that only a King or a ruler may sit with a King while others have to stand or kneel (A medieval custom that existed at least as late as reign of King Louis XIV of France in some form).

But we are talking about 20th century here. For example for current customs, see this meeting of Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin:

The interpreters here are accorded full respect of sitting with the leaders they were accompanying.

So TL;DR, why did Colonel Eddy kneel? Wasn't it considered an insult to the uniform? Was it a matter of diplomatic etiquette of that time?

Or could it be just a coincidence like the colonel dropping something and when he knelt to pick it up, the photographer took the picture?

Let me know if this would be better served at Politics SE instead of here (Though I think while Politics SE can guide me on Diplomatic etiquette, they won't provide me information regarding this specific historical moment so it might be better served here).


texts: Why didn't British colonists in Canada join the American revolution?

texts: Many of the British colonists living in Quebec and Nova Scotia had the same complaints as the American British colonists. Why they did not join in the American Revolution?


texts:
What do medals say about a sailor, diver or serviceman? This picture is all my grandfather's medals. He was in the U.S. Navy from 1945 - 73. I know a lot of his story. He started out an E1 and went as far as an enlisted rank and I remember seeing all his diving pictures.

He was a Diver, and I know about some of the medals but others I do not. He passed away in 2010.

Does anyone know what all of these medals are?

Update
I remember when he was buried, he had a full naval funeral. I remember the hash marks on his on his uniform. He had 7 red hash marks. What is the difference between Red and Gold? This is Adam F Bragg Jr. In the dive suit.

Here is his headstone if it gives any


texts: Why are there so few twins in political history?

texts:
In Joan Oates' book Babylon, particularly the part about Sargon and his successors,¹ it is said that Sargon's son Rimush was killed in a palace conspiracy, possibly with the participation of his brother Manishtushu. The author says that this name, meaning 'who is with him?', perhaps indicated that they were twins. This made me think about twins in general and how they seem pretty rare among prominent historical figures.
Some sources say that the likelihood of having twins is 3%, while others seem to indicate that the number might be 1% in non-developed countries. As there seems to be a lot of fluctuation, I will use 1% as the real chance. With this number, we should expect to find at least some twins in history, as there are more than 100 known historical figures. But this doesn't seem to be the case.
A quick Google and Wikipedia search didn't give me any results; I can't seem to find historical political figures with twins, even non-famous twins — unless I include mythological twins in my search; in this case, there are the pairs Romulus and Remus, and Apollo and Artemis. As I am interested in people that really existed, though, these pairs don't answer my question. Also, as I don't want this question closed, I will divide it into two sub-questions — the first, a straightforward one; the second, a question that might generate some debate, which is not the objective here (if this is considered a violation of this website's rules, feel free to edit out the second question):
1) Can someone remember any historical figure with a twin, besides Rimush and Manishtushu (on which there still seems to be an ongoing debate)?
2) Why is this the case, why are twins so rare among historical political figures?
¹ Revised edition, p. 35.


texts: Did any UK declaration of war extend automatically to Australia?

texts:
On 1939-09-03, the UK declared war on Germany and Australia did the same.

A New Zealand government website claims:

  In contrast to its entry into the First World War, New Zealand acted in its own right by formally declaring war on Germany (unlike Australia, which held that the King’s declaration, as in 1914, automatically extended to all his Dominions).

The Australian Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 ratified the Statute of Westminster 1931 and was made retroactive to 1939-09-03. This Adoption Act ensured that going forward, it would not be the case that any UK declaration of war extended automatically to Australia. It also allowed for the legal fiction that Australia had in fact independently declared war on Germany on 1939-09-03, rather than being automatically forced to do so.

So, prior to passing that 1942 Act, was it legally the case that any declaration of war by the King extended also to Australia?


texts: How did Britain and Russia block the railway in Iran?

texts:
Karen Armstrong (2000):

[...] both Britain and Russia promoted only the technology that furthered their own interests and blocked such inventions as the railway, which might have benefited the Iranian people, in case it endangered their own strategic positions.

Did Britain and Russia block the introduction/construction of the railway in Iran? How did they do so?
Did the railway arrive later in Iran than would've been expected in the absence of British and Russian influence?


texts: What is the earliest known "one arrow is easily broken but a bundle of arrows is not" story?

texts:
The "parable of the arrow/sticks", as described in the title, is frequently repeated amongst many nations and civilisations, even though many of them have not come into contact with each other.

One version of the story that was quoted from Iroquois folk legends by John Hancock goes:

  “…They have frequently taken a single arrow and said, children, see how easy it is broken, then they have tied twelve together with strong cords – and our strongest men could not break them. See, said they, this is what the Six Nations mean. Divided a single man may destroy you – united, you are a match for the whole world.”

This story has also been attributed to the Mongols, the Bulgarians, in Aesop's Fables, and is thought to be the origin of the Roman fasces.

What is the oldest known reference to this story?


texts: What does "two ells within the selvages" mean in the Magna Carta?

texts:
Clause 35 of the Magna Carta defines some standard weights and measures to be used throughout the realm. The first part is straightforward: the standard weight/mass used for wine, ale and corn is the London quarter. But I don't understand the second half about the lengths to use for cloth.
Here are two English translations I've found:

Let there be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm; and one measure of ale; and one measure of corn, to wit, "the London quarter;" and one width of cloth (whether dyed, or russet, or "halberget"), to wit, two ells within the selvages; of weights also let it be as of measures.
There shall be standard measures of wine, ale, and corn (the London quarter), throughout the kingdom. There shall also be a standard width of dyed cloth, russett, and haberject, namely two ells within the selvedges. Weights are to be standardised similarly.

What does "two ells within the selvedges" mean? What's an ell? What's a selvedge?


texts: What were the causes of decline of Babylonian numeric system?

texts:
Babylonia developed a numeric system advanced far ahead of its neighbors, and some might say even superior to our contemporary decimal. It was a 60-base system with convenient composition of factors for lower numbers and positional for larger numbers, vastly superior to horribly unwieldy, non-positional Roman and Egyptian.

All signs point to it being widely spread; it survives in more or less niche applications nowadays - our time system (2x12,60,60), 'dozen', 'gross', is quite prevalent in US cooking units and so on.

Still, currently the Arabic system (0..9) is prevalent throughout the world, after a period when other systems (like Roman) were dominant.

What were the causes for Babylonian system to die out?


texts:
This is a follow up to my previous question. In all the examples given there was some other advantage that decided the battle and not encirclement. For example at Narva

  They attacked inexperienced Russian regiments and crumbled them one by one.

Also Finnish Motti tactics in the winter war, Teutoburg etc are a type of divide and conquer ambush tactic and not simply an encirclement. At Alesia there are no historical details but I have not seen evidence Rome had less cavalry than the enemy.

I cant find any examples where the encircler didn't have have a superior local number of motivated cavalry.

Has an encirclement ever succeeded with numerically inferior cavalry?


texts: Why did the Mongols destroy the library during the siege of Baghdad in 1258?

texts:
For all what we know the Mongolian Empire was not simply a collection of brainless brutes, but they had intense knowledge of their opponents: descriptions, maps, information about the technology, culture and especially competing groups of people which can be used to their advantage. Also their military leadership was efficient, knowledgable and adaptable. Khublai Khan was very interested in adapting and fostering Chinese and Muslim knowledge.

So why did the Mongols destroy the libraries when they raided Baghdad in 1258? Shouldn't the vast knowledge available about the lands in the West, Europe and Africa and the available technology have tempted them to plunder and evaluate the scriptures for their own purposes?


texts: Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscate gold from the American people during the Great Depression?

texts:
FDR outlawed ownership of gold in 1934 with the Gold Reserve Act. It was a very courageous act by a democratic government because nobody will elect a government which takes money from them. Gold was money then.

Why was such a drastic measure taken? It implies that gold ownership by the people was damaging the country's interest. Why was that so during that time and why is ownership of gold allowed today?


texts: Were there any non-Mischling Jews in the Nazi party or military?

texts:
It's known that a number of people of Jewish descent served in the German armed forces or other aspects of the Nazi apparatus, despite the policy of systematic Nazi exclusion and later extermination of Jews.

Most of these individuals seem to have been whom the Nazis characterized as "Mischlings": that is, not of entirely Jewish descent. Under the Nuremburg race laws, this would basically mean having no more than two Jewish grandparents. However, was this the case for all of them?

Were any of these soldiers, or any governmental employees (who would be, by definition, members of the Nazi party) non-Mischlings? That is, they had three or more Jewish grandparents?  Presumably they'd have attained their position through either hiding their ancestry or special dispensation.
If so, what is the highest position that such an individual attained?


texts: How did the white minority in South Africa see their situation in the apartheid times?

texts:
How did the white minority in South Africa see their situation in the apartheid times, let's say in 1970?
For example, how did their mass media explain the black and coloured people being unhappy with the situation, the international sanctions, and other apartheid-related problems in the country?
How did the state leaders plan to keep the white rule regime further on, what were they hoping for?

I am asking here, because all sources on this issue that I have seen look too much ideologically biased.


texts: Were debts owed or outstanding debts factored into the Roman census?

texts: In the Roman Republic were debts and loans taken into account by the Censors when calculating the worth of a citizen's property? If yes, how were these checked?


texts: How well did King Harald V of Norway know FDR's dog Fala?

texts:
My question:  How long did the Norwegian prince and his mother stay at the White House?  I've found online sources that detail he spent the war in Washington DC, but no dates for staying at the White House.  The White House residential quarters aren't that large,  were they really there for the entire war?

In April 1940 the Norwegian royal family was forced to flee Oslo when the Germans invaded.
The Doris Kearns Goodwin book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Home Front in World War II; contains this picture of the current King (then Prince) Harald V. playing with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's(FDR's) dog, Fala, on the North Lawn of the White House in 1944.

In the book it says that the young(second grader) and his mother lived at the White House with Eleanor and FDR throughout the war.   They originally went to Sweden but even though she was a Swedish Princess they were denied a VISA and left for fear of being sent back to occupied Norway.  The young Prince Harald V - 7 years old in the picture- and mother then went to Finland and eventually came to the United States.  The crowned prince and father stayed in London with the government in exile.  The book goes so far to say FDR arranged for the King of Norway to fly across the Atlantic on Christmas to celebrate with his wife and son on several occasions.

Princess Märtha following an invitation by President Roosevelt, she went to the United States on United States Army transport American Legion, via the then Finnish port city of Petsamo. In the U.S., she and her children initially stayed in the White House. Crown Prince Olav, however, had gone with his father to the United Kingdom, where he worked with the Norwegian government-in-exile. Thus, the crown couple, as were many couples during the time, were separated for much of the war.

Vital mission to Petsamo

President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed that American Legion leave New York immediately and proceed to Petsamo in northern Finland. There, she was to embark the Crown Princess Märtha of Norway and her party and bring them to the United States, their homeland having fallen to the Germans the previous spring. Further, as Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles reported to the United States Minister in Sweden, the President also desired that Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, the former American Minister to Norway, return in the same vessel. The transport would "likewise bring back to this country such Americans in Scandinavian countries as can be accommodated and as may not be able to return safely in any other way."

American Legion — her neutrality shown clearly by the U.S. flags painted prominently on her sides — sailed for Finland on 25 July, and reached Petsamo on 6 August, as scheduled. On the 15th, she embarked Crown Princess Märtha, and her three children, the Princesses Ragnhild and Astrid, and Crown Prince Harald. The Army troopship also embarked a host of American nationals and refugees from a variety of countries: Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, the total number of people being 897.

In August 1941, Crown Princess Märtha traveled with President Roosevelt aboard the presidential yacht, USS Potomac, and sailed to Newfoundland and Atlantic Charter with Winston Churchill.

Crown Princess Martha of Norway with her three children reportedly arriving in New York City in 1940.

Even though she was a former Swedish princess, some in Sweden believed her and her children compromised the country’s neutrality by being in Sweden. The four royals and three staff members then traveled to Finland.
At some point President Roosevelt invited Martha and her children to stay at the White House. The United States was also neutral at the time.

Crown Princess Märtha with her husband, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas J. Watson and Princess Juliana of the Netherlands in 1944

Current Picture.


texts:
I was talking to a random former USA Vietnam war soldier - I don't know what branch - who said he got out of Vietnam on a "blue tag".

What did he mean? I missed the opportunity to ask for clarification.

Wikipedia mentions a Blue Discharge (neither honorable nor dishorable), for discharging people for reasons like PTSD, homosexuality, and black skin, but that program was shut down prior to Vietnam.

What could this white male, presumably straight, former Vietnam veteran have meant? Is 'blue tag' a military slang term?


texts: Is there a database of ancient/current names of cities?

texts:
I am working on map of Ancient Etruscan civilization and I can't identify the exact location of Spica city. Based on minimap from Wikipedia page about Etruscan civilization, the city should lie about 80 km south of Padova.

First, does anybody know the current name of this city?
Second - even more helpful - is there any online database of ancient city names?


texts: Are big states more likely to cause wars?

texts:
Over the course of history most bloody wars were caused by big Kingdoms and Empires, or so it seems?
I know a lot of history, especially European and it appears to me that most bloody and horrible wars were fought between (and caused by) big nations such as England, France, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, etc. while it appears that small nation often rather stayed peaceful / on the defensive, such as Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, Croatia, etc.

I can see some logic to this because, the bigger your state, the more likely you are to want even more. Also, the more people your state has the less you are attached to them and the more likely you treat your soldiers just like toys, rather than actual human beings?

The question is, are these assumptions true? Is there a correlation between the size of the state and the devastation they caused? Or do we simply just hear more about big wars such as the Punic, English-French and Roman-Anybody wars?

Bonus: I am playing games like EUIV or CKII. When I first start out as small state, I'm scared to attack my neighbors, try to care about my soldiers and be a crafty diplomat. Later on when I'm a strong country I just stomp everybody and expand as fast as I can. 10K soldiers perished in that battle? Oh well, I still have another 40K laying around somewhere. This makes me believe that it wouldn't have been much different for a ruler back in the day.

Edit: After people asked for clarification, the question is if there is historical evidence for the hypothesis that rulers are going more "mad with power", the bigger of a country (by population) they rule. By that I mean, are they more likely to engage in more wars and are more likely to make them bloodier than they need to be?

Edit2: I am aware that there are a few examples which show that a small state attacks a big one and wins, but what I want to know is the average.

Edit3: Definition of "big nation" in this context: Nation which is bigger by population than most of their neighbors.


texts: Can the German success on the Eastern front be largely explained by superior air power?

texts:
My understanding is that the Russians were mostly superior on the ground to the Germans (except for armor, in the early stages of the war), and the main German advantage was in the air.

The encirclement battles of 1941 were made possible, because the German air force disrupted Russian communications and troop concentrations, making possible the armored "Blitzkrieg." But the Russians won that battle of Moscow during the winter, when the Germans had no air support.

Likewise, in 1942, German airpower was a deciding factor in the battles for Voronezh, Rostov, and the early (summer) part of the Caucasus campaign. But the encirclement of Stalingrad took place starting in November, just when the German planes were (mostly) grounded. At any rate, they couldn't fly in sufficient supplies to prevent the capture of the 6th Army.

Air power was close to parity at the battle of Kursk in 1943. After that, Russian ground superiority carried the day.

Was German success and failure "explainable" by the waxing and waning of their air power superiority.


texts: Was it possible for one medieval warrior to defeat several opponents?

texts:
I think that an experienced and equipped warrior (mercenary, for example) had no chance against two or more equal opponents in fight. But what if his opponents were three peasants?

I heard a theory that three peasants could overcome a warrior with a little cooperation:

First would grab his legs and drop him on the ground.
Second would grab his weapon hand.
Third would kill him, while incapacitated by the others.

I'm not sure if it's a plausible theory.

Did a warrior have a fair chance to defeat several opponents (less experienced and badly armed) in combat?

References to resources about this topic are appreciated.


texts: How did people dress at the Jesuit missions to the Hurons?

texts:
The Jesuits established a number of missions among the Huron people of what is today Ontario during the 1600s.  Unlike many other proselytizing groups of that era, the Jesuits were known for permitting and incorporating much of the local culture of the group they ministered to.

How did people dress at the Jesuit missions among the Huron, both the Jesuit missionaries and the Huron neophytes?


texts: How accurate and detailed were geographical maps created and updated by the Romans?

texts:
Knowledge is power, and having superior geographical knowledge vs. your imperialistic enemies and competitors was probably a big advantage in the middle ages. Some specific examples would be knowledge of fast and easy ways for traveling long distances, knowledge of water sources, places for animal hunting, agriculture, etc.

What techniques did the Romans use to measure geographical distances/topography, and how detailed were their maps from a qualitative and quantitative point of view? Could they use this knowledge to quantify how much provisions and men they needed for distant conquests and travels?


texts: How do we know the oldest New Testament manuscripts are copies?

texts:
Wikipedia claims over and over in different ways that we have no autographs of New Testament manuscripts, but we have lots of copies written by hand by various persons. Do we believe these manuscripts are copies because they are too new to be originals based on our belief about when N.T. events actually happened, or is there some more direct evidence that they are all copies?

Of course, some of them must be copies, but it seems to me that most of our knowledge about the lifetimes of the N.T. persons comes from the N.T. manuscripts, so are we just "taking their word for it" that they are describing events that happened at least 100 years prior, or am I missing some facts?


texts: Does Patonce Cross symbol have any record of use in Hungary?

texts:
Hungary introduced new 10000 HUF notes that contain a symbol I couldn't relate to Hungary's history. There were no official notes known to me why they use Patonce Cross on Hungarian notes.

And here is the symbol in question:

I found a few appearances of the same symbol in heraldry. These are from English coat of arms and Canada. I see no relation to Hungary, but I would assume if a symbol is used in the very middle of the note it should have some important meaning.


texts: Does anyone know of a source regarding which finger 'daktylos' refers to (in regards to greek measurments) - the thumb / middle finger / etc.


texts: Why does Northern Ireland not include the counties Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan?

texts: Did not the entire province of Ulster vote to stay in the Union? If so, why was it partitioned? Esepecially Donegal which relied heavily on Belfast for its economy, I don't see a good reason why they'd want to split from Ulster itself.


texts: What were the typical arguments against women's higher education in XIX century Germany?

texts:
I have been reading about the life of Emmy Noether. A problem that she was faced with in her youth was that, at that time in Germany, women were not allowed to study at universities.

At that time, Heirich von Treitschke (an historian) wrote

  “Many sensible men these days are talking about surrendering our universities to the invasion of women, and thereby falsifying their entire character. This is a shameful display of moral weakness. They are only giving way to the noisy demands of the press. The intellectual weakness of their position is unbelievable. […] The universities are surely more than mere institutions for teaching science and scholarship. The small universities offer a comradeship which in the freedom of its nature is of inestimable value for the building of a young man's character.”

I was baffled by these remarks, since the arguments that I expected to find against higher education for women were along one or both of these lines:

Women don't have the intellectual capabilities for higher education.
The role of women in society is such that they don't need higher education.

My question is: is von Treitschke's argument a typical one from that epoch? Or was he an oddball as far as this subject is concerned?

Note: The von Treitschke quotation was taken from Emmy Noether: A tribute to her life and work, pp. 9–10, edited by J. W. Brewer and M. K. Smith; more precisely, it was taken from the chapter Emmy Noether and her influences, by Clark Kimberling, who, concerning these words from von Treitschke, quotes The Feminist Movement in Germany 1894–1933, by R. J. Evans, a book that I don't have access to.


texts: What are all fantastic creatures on The Nile mosaic of Palestrina?

texts:
The Nile mosaic of Palestrina is a mosaic originally constructed in the ancient Roman age, in Palestrina in Italia.  It depicts an imaginary scene from Egypt, showing various fantastical animals, such as a snake with multiple heads, an animal with an ungulate's body but a crocodile's head, a hippopotamus, and a person with a human body but the head of a Set animal rowing a canoe.
Can you identify all the creatures that appear on the mosaic?
To make it easier to refer to specific creatures, I include a picture of the mosaic with a superimposed coordinate grid.  The picture comes from Antike Bildmosaiken. von Zabern, Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-8053-3156-8, p. 78, its scan shared by Wikimedia Commons user WolfgangRieger. Find additional images of the mosaic in the Commons category
(In case you want to know what inspired this question, I saw a picture reproduction of this mosaic in the Allan Pierson Museum in Amsterdam in 2019.)
(I'm reposting the question here to give a home to Gareth's well-researched answer after it has been found off-topic on Sci Fi SE and on Literature SE.)


texts: Did the British somehow imitate the Greek colonizers in India?

texts:
First of all I wonder whether the British headdress in India was somehow designed to resemble the headdress of the Indo-Greeks and Greco-Bactrians? For example, this is the image of Eucratides I, the Greco-Bactrian king minted on a coin (Indo-Greeks wore similar helms):

To me it bears resemblance to a typical British helm of the time:

I also read a point of view that the British monarch was declared emperor of India because the Indo-Greek kings called themselves "Basileos of India". I wonder whether it is true and whether there were other parallels?


texts: Were the Roman Empire provinces Alpes Poeninae and Alpes Graiae different provinces or the same?

texts:
There's a map I've seen that shows four separate provinces for the Alpes, including Alpes Poeninae and Alpes Graiae. However, everywhere else I've looked, I haven't been able to find any information that corroborates the map. Everything else has seemed to imply that they were the same province.

My question is: was there ever a point where they were separate provinces like the map shows? What were the years of their existence? Or is the map incorrect and were they always the same province?


texts:
A journalist by the name of Bob Benson is cited by Bill Rowe in at least one of his books. As I've read all of his political books, none of them have an ebook preview, and the index in none of these books refers to Bob Benson, I'm not sure in which one of these books I first came across the name. However, the gist of it was that Bob Benson was a gifted journalist, primarily covering Newfoundland's provincial politics. Specifically, Bill Rowe suggested that Benson be used as a primary source in understanding the development of N&L's provincial politics.

Are Bob Benson's collected political articles accessible in either print or online?

I've searched on the St John's 'Telegram', Wikipedia (no mention of Bob Benson in general), Google, and Google Books without any luck. The St John's 'Telegram' does not seem to have an online archive. Also, while, presumably, the articles still exist in individual copies of daily papers, that is not an 'accessible' source as it would entail ordering all of the copies for each newspaper issue for someone without direct access to a library which stocked the newspaper—if indeed any does which I've also been unable to prove).

Nevertheless, Google comes up with a few references to Benson and some uses of his articles as sources, e.g., here, here, and here, primarily from the 1980's and 1990's.

PS. The Meta case for a question such as this is hopefully made here. Please note that despite my research, I've not been able to prove whether a singular answer exists as asked by that answer in the topic.


texts: Why did Latin disappear so completely in Britain after the Romans left?

texts:
My impression, wholly prone to error, is that despite centuries of Roman occupation, after the Anglo-Saxon invasions, Latin virtually became a dead language in Britain.

Other parts of the Roman Empire — such as Gaul (France), Hispania (Spain and Portugal), the Italian Peninsula and Dacia — also saw the retreat of the Romans and were invaded by tribes in their wake, yet the 'Romance' languages of all these countries are in important ways modern versions of Latin.

What made the British experience so different?


texts: Did the Glaswegian tobacco lords help precipitate the American war of independence?

texts:
I am in Glasgow for the first time tonight and reading up on the history. Tobacco lords cannily hooked their west coast planters on cheap credit before gutting them with low prices - very reminiscent of drug lords or the Default credit swaps that led to the GFC. T Jefferson and G Washington were among the tobacco planters enmeshed in this clever Glaswegian scheme.

Is it possible that the fortune seeking of these tobacco lords was one of the factors that tipped the balance in the Americans tolerance of the mercantilism and colonialism of their Imperial masters resulting in the rebellion?


texts: What is the origin of this pre-industrial naval depiction

texts:
I'm neither a history buff not an artist, so I apologise in advance for my poor descriptions.

I have recently come into possession of a painting depicting some naval ships, perhaps 19th century, sailing towards a coastal settlement.

My late grandfather, through whom the painting came into our family, was a member of the German Luftwaffe, stationed in Bavaria and Italy for most of the war, until 1943. I suspect he would have acquired the painting before then, but I can't really be sure. I believe the painting was gifted to him some time in the 1930s-1940s, likely during the war.

I would like to be able to;

Identify the scene being depicted
Identify its painter, and
Identify or guess at its origins, and return it to the decedents of its previous owners if it came into our family by unethical means.

The painting is inside a 100x70cm frame. I can't make out the  signature, but have taken a photo of it:

The first word might be Rudi or Rud, but I can't identify the surname. After the name is a number that looks like XXII.

Can anyone identify this painting, or the scene or artist?


texts: Reasons for transfer of leadership in computing from Britain to US after WWII

texts:
Great advances were made in field of computing until end of WWII. Many of them happened in Britain. However, by about 1960 it can be safely said that US became home of computer science.

Why didn't Britain maintain its leadership status in this field? And how did US gain its leadership status?


texts: What epithet would John Quincy Adams use?

texts:
In his journal for 1824, John Quincy Adams records an incident where he was informed that a William King was telling people that he [Adams] should be nominated for vice-president under Crawford, one of his [Adams'] opponents. He "applied an epithet to King" that he refuses to commit to paper.

The full quote (emphasis mine):

  Dr. Watkins told me that William King had assured him that my friends had agreed that I should be nominated in caucus as Vice-President, with a nomination of Crawford as President. I applied an epithet to King for saying this, which I will not commit to paper-- adding that it was impossible any friends of mine should have undertaken thus to dispose of me without consulting me first.

source Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, comprising portions of his diary from 1795 to 1848, Volume 6

In 1824, what epithet would it be likely for Adams to have used?


texts: What does MLK mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean"?

texts:
In the speech, "I have a dream", M.L. King says the following:

  One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

What does he mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean", what is he referring to here?

EDIT:

I am assuming that by "lonely island" he refers to the part of the country which the negro lived in and the "vast ocean" is the white people who ignore them.


texts: What is a good introduction into (western) civilization?

texts:
I recently asked this question:

How can we be certain of customs in the primitive age?

Here it was stated that the Durants' work is flawed and outdated to a certain extent.

Is there a more modern alternative to this broad series, which also serves as an introduction to (western) civilization?
I am especially interested in ancient Greek and Rome, but I like the fact that the Durants's work builds a base first.


texts: How true to the originals are Che Guevara's published diaries?

texts:
I've been reading a few recently. They all have prologues that mention editing by his widow/daughter/Fidel, so I was wondering do we know how true they are to their original? Could it have been changed for political reasons (i.e. improve his relationship with Fidel)?

It seems in his Congo diary him and Fidel had major disagreements from almost the beginning of the mission, but their relationship seems to not be just cordial, but incredibly intimate/friendly. So are the originals public or do we only have access to the published versions?


texts: What's this coin? IMP CAES M IVL PHILPPVS OVBOVS; Rev: IOMH COL HEL

texts:
What's this coin?

My father kept this coin for a long time.


texts: Have governments or combatants marked the houses of groups to be persecuted?

texts:
I came across a claim on Skeptics about marking the houses of those to be killed by the government.

The idea appeared to me as pretty silly - "Why would the government make it that obvious?", but I have a vague recollection that governments, or maybe combatants in an ugly civil war, have marked houses of people in the wrong ethnic or religious group. And it wasn't the drawing of yellow star of Davids on Jewish shops, either.

Have government or combatants engaged in this kind of behaviour?


texts: What went wrong with India's scientific development as a society?

texts:
India had been among the "leaders" in scientific research spanning Mathematics, Medicine, Chemistry and others.

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

Controversial theories of nuclear technology in 1000 BC aside, India's leadership role is true when we talk about the "BC" era and maybe up to 1000 AD.

What went wrong after that? Is the colonization the only reason for India's seeming downfall in scientific advancements?


texts: Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?

texts:
Hitler's ideal Aryan / Nordic appearance was: tall, blond, blue eyed, broad shouldered.

Hitler's own appearance was: short, dark haired, brown eyed, slight and slumpy shoulders.

And most of the Nazi leadership came up pretty short on Aryan / Nordic features.  Did they ever address this?  Did anyone else ever bring it up or point a finger about it?


texts:
I recently came across this picture (removed now, look at wiki article instead), saying that it is a scaffolding erected during WW2 over Taj Mahal to protect it from Japanese Air Force.

Even the Wikipedia article on Taj Mahal seems to support this claim. That article also has picture of scaffolding from a slightly different angle.

However, it seems very odd to me. My primary question is: What was the main intention of this covering: was it to protect the Taj Mahal from potential air-bombing, or was it to hide it from enemy airplanes?

In both pictures, the scaffolding seems to cover only the top dome of the Taj Mahal. The rest of the structure and the surrounding minarets are clearly uncovered and thus are exposed.

If the intention is hiding it from enemy airplanes, I think the rest of the structure would be clearly visible from air to (enemy) airplanes that come near enough.

If the intention is to protect it from bombing, then any bomb that is dropped on the rest of the exposed part would damage and result in similar kind of destruction. Why protect just the main dome?

Or is it just a coincidence that both of these images were taken when the construction was going on, and ultimately the whole structure was covered?


texts: How come Incas believed that the Spanish were the incarnation of their “thunder god”?

texts:
I have recently been studying Francisco Pizarro and his domination over the Incas. I watched a clip called "Guns, Germs, and Steel". It was quite interesting, how Pizarro dominated the Incas with only five hundred men. However, what puzzles me was that the Incas were not hostile to the Spaniards, because they thought that the Spaniards were incarnations of their former gods. Therefore, my question is:

How come the Incas believed that the Spanish were the incarnation of their “thunder god”?


texts: What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union

texts:
I can imagine that after World War 2 the ratio of women versus men changed drastically.

During World War 2, Soviet casualties amounted to over 20,000,000, and as military casualties were almost all men I would think there were a lot more women in the Soviet Union than men.

Is there any recorded information on this subject? If not, is there any other country that has data available on this subject, e.g. Germany?


texts: What is the etymology of the word "slave"? I have been studying Russian history for some time and I am connecting it with the Slavs.


texts:
Who was responsible for the correct production of a Mesopotamian 'cubit rod' and whose fingers where used as the standard?
Wikipedia notes that the standards changed but gives no source of these claims.

Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement originated in the loosely
organized city-states of Early Dynastic Sumer. Each city, kingdom and
trade guild had its own standards until the formation of the Akkadian
Empire when Sargon of Akkad issued a common standard. This standard
was improved by Naram-Sin, but fell into disuse after the Akkadian
Empire dissolved. The standard of Naram-Sin was readopted in the Ur
III period by the Nanše Hymn which reduced a plethora of multiple
standards to a few agreed upon common groupings. Wiki page on Cubit

The cubit rod was basically a measure stick, and Ancient Sumer certainly was not the only culture to utilize one. But I did find that it was important enough that Inanna (also known as the goddess Ishtar) carried a Lapis Lazuli measurement rod:

She placed twin egg-shaped beads on her breast. She covered her body with a pala dress, the garment of ladyship. She placed mascara which is called "Let a man come, let him come" on her eyes. She pulled the pectoral which is called "Come, man, come" over her breast. She placed a golden ring on her hand. She held the lapis-lazuli measuring rod and measuring line in her hand. 26-27. Inana travelled towards the underworld. Her minister Ninšubur travelled behind her.Inana's descent to the nether world

A lot of tablets have been preserved but not translated. I am wondering if there is any written record on whose fingers where the standard and who was ultimately responsible for the production of these measurement sticks. I'm having a hard time finding any sources. If this question is too broad I'm willing to narrow it down too how Sargon implemented his measurements and who or what was the source of the measurements.


texts: After America achieved independence, did George Washington continue to wear a military uniform?

texts: After the American Revolution, the founding fathers seem to have adapted their 'costumes' from similar European ones. Like the Europeans, their uniforms often had orders, medallions and 'golden-like'-coloured-epaulet. But some of these symbols were only about civil respect, not about their military descent. So what about George Washington?


texts: Was Baker Island ever claimed by the United Kingdom?

texts:
The Wikipedia article and Encyclopedia Britannica article for Baker Island agree that the United States claimed Baker Island in 1857, under the Guano Islands Act. The Wikipedia article also makes an unsourced assertion that the United Kingdom claimed the island between 1897 and 1936. (The page's edit history and talk page show that this isn't a new assertion.)

Did the United Kingdom claim Baker Island during that time? If so, how were the competing claims to sovereignty resolved?


texts: Why would Japanese people be in China during the 1920s?

texts:
I'm writing a historical fiction novel set in the second World War. One of the characters is a Japanese person who has lived in China since childhood. However, as I attempt to flesh out this backstory, I'm finding it difficult to gather information on how/why a Japanese family & kids could have found themselves in China during the 1920s.
I've read about the Japanese push to have their people immigrate to Manchukuo from 1931-45. This seemed like a perfect explanation, except the time frame is a little too late to work in my plot. What are some other reasons Japanese people would have come to China (a little earlier) like in the 1920s?


texts: Other than Mr. Putin, has there been occassion of an ex-secret agent becoming the primary executive power holder?

texts:
In the modern era, are there people who were secret agents before they started to play politics and get elected as the primary executive power holder such, as but not limited to, the position of president/prime minister? Or is Mr. Putin the only ex-secret agent ever do so in modern history?

Answer Parameters:

By modern era I mean starting from 1800 until today.
By real secret agents I mean someone like Mr. Putin. He was a real
secret agent because he joined the KGB and was on a mission as a
KGB agent.
People who just got assigned head of the intelligence department
without serving as a spy prior to this don't count.
As for diplomats, I'm sure plenty if not all of diplomats do spy on
the country they are assigned to, at least to a certain degree. If
he was known to be a secret agent disguised as a diplomat then he
can be counted.


texts: Is the "youth bulge" hypothesis an evident explanation for imperialistic/rebellious historic movements and genocides?

texts:
The "youth bulge" hypothesis says that whenever the proportion of young men in the population was very high, their unhappiness with their future prospects - i.e., their inability to get jobs and sustain a family and their future - often ended in imperialistic or rebellious movements & endeavours, such as the crusades, genocides, and terrorism.

Historians seems split about this hypothesis as a mono-causal explanation and red thread for human history. I'm partly convinced that the youth bulge might be a necessary, though insufficient condition for imperialistic movements. However, it's hard to build an opinion without historical demographic information.

According to acknowledged historians, what were the main arguments for and against the youth bulge hypothesis? I would appreciate an in-depth explanation of those arguments.


texts: Was the 18th century Russian peasant braver; or simply more afraid of Cossacks?

texts:
Frederick the Great famously noted after the Battle of Zorndorf that "It's easier to kill the Russians than to win over them."

For that same battle the Russian commander (William Fermor) is noted as having drawn up his forces in front of a swamp, allegedly to deter his young conscripts from retreating away from Frederick's famous oblique attack.

Other contemporary sources note the frequency with which Russian infantry was drawn up with Cossacks so close behind that "the breath of the horses warmed the hair on the back of their necks".

Is there any consensus on the relative extent to which cultural, tactical, psychological and other factors contributed to the observed willingness of Russian soldiers to stand and die in exceptional numbers? The time period of interest would run from 1756 to 1815.


texts: What is the altitude record for manned unpressurised balloon flight without oxygen?

texts:
On 5th September 1862 James Glaisher, a meteorologist, and Henry Coxwell, a balloonist, ascended to about seven miles, and came close to dying from frostbite and asphyxiation, in an open wicker basket, lifted by a balloon filled with coal gas, without oxygen. The fight was a pioneering scientific expedition to study the atmosphere, whose properties at that time were known only from observations on or near the ground.

My question is: how long did their height record, unpressurised and without oxygen, last, and who broke it, if at all?

I have tagged this "spaceflight", of course it is not really (and there is no tag for balloon or flight) but their near death experience, and the heroic efforts of Coxwell to untangle the vent line to allow them to descend, was a 19thC forerunner of Apollo 13 one hundred years later.


texts: Chronological plausibility of "liars don’t make good martyrs?"

texts:
When I attempt, as a non-Christian, to evaluate the historicity of various historical claims in the New Testament, I come across various things that come across to me as obvious falsifications and propaganda. Examples:

The story of Ananias and Sapphira reads to me as a propagandized version of what was actually a double murder by a scary, violent religious cult.
The claim of Jesus's birth at Bethlehem seems an obvious fabrication.

Believers sometimes argue to the contrary that "liars don't make good martyrs." So for example, if skeptics suggest that the miraculous disappearance of Jesus from his tomb may have been the result of fraud by Jesus's followers, a believer might argue that it doesn't make sense for his followers to have concocted this fraud, but then died for their faith.

Can anyone clarify the chronological plausibility of this argument? There was an apostolic period, and there was a period when Christians were being thrown to the lions. But was there enough of a generational overlap between these two periods to make the liars/martyrs argument valid? It seems likely to me that there was essentially a full generation of early Christians that was born after the crucifixion, participated in the myth-making and theology-making of the early church, was not continually afraid of persecution, and intentionally or unintentionally molded their oral retelling of the events of their parents' generation to suit their own purposes in building a new religious cult.


texts: How many different countries could a person alive today have lived in without leaving their hometown?

texts:
For example, a centenarian who has spent her entire life in Rijeka would have lived in five:

The Austro-Hungarian Empire (until 1920)
The Free State of Fiume (1920-1924)
Italy (1924-1947)
Yugoslavia (1947-1991)
Croatia (1991-present)

Is there any piece of land in the world which has been in more hands than that since March 5, 1898 (the birthdate of the oldest living person)?  If so, where?