texts: What differences led to Technicolor becoming the dominant color filming technology in Hollywood?

texts: Apparently another technology, Kinemacolor, was invented first in the UK, but it never caught on in Hollywood. Kinemacolor was expensive, and had some other glitches involved, but the fact that it was first on the color movie scene doesn't seem to have saved it. What are some of the differences between the two that might have contributed to Technicolor prvailing over Kinemacolor? Was Technicolor that much better, and easier to use?


texts:
The corpse of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler lying on the floor of British 2nd Army HQ, May 23, 1945. Source: Rare Historical Photos

Background - I'm intrigued by Martin Allen's theory that Himmler did not commit suicide, but rather was killed by British Intelligence upon his capture to keep him quiet about Churchill's Political Warfare Executive (PWE), which included operations that stood in stark contrast to public pronouncements (and Allied policy) that nothing less than Germany's unconditional surrender would be acceptable, and no separate peace negotiations with any individual Allied power would be allowed or pursued.

Question - is there any historical documentation which could lend support to this theory?


texts:
A footnote on page 30 of this document says that the date of Virginia's ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment (which abolished slavery) was on the 9th of February, 1865. (If I recall correctly, that makes it nine days after Congress proposed the amendment.)

On February 9, 1865, the war was still underway. Of whom did the legislature that passed the ratification consist?  Surely not Confederates?


texts: What were normal bathing habits in Cairo in 1798?

texts:
In the old western world we did not bath much after the fall of the Roman Empire. I was wondering if that is the same for the population in Egypt in around 1798. This leads me to 2 questions

1) Did the people in Cairo cultivated bath in the same way as the Romans and did they had big swimming pools as the Romans ?

2) I read that the population in Cairo was about 350 000. Is it fair to say that Cairo was the biggest city in the Arab World at that time and even today? I can't find an Arab city with a larger number of population.


texts: During WW2, Did Great Britain have any forced workers in the English coal mines

texts:
During WW2, coal was one of the most needed ressource for the war effort. To ensure a regular supply of the ressource, did Great Britain forced its workers in the coal mine ?

I ask this here because I remenber they did, but i can't find any source, or no one talking to this. I remenber more or less of 500 000 workers for a period from 1940 - 1948


texts: When and how did the presidents of states became governors in the U.S.A?

texts:
In the earliest days of the U.S.A., the heads of the governments of some of the states were called governors and those of some states were called presidents (hence the U.S. Constitution refers to the "executive authority" of a state rather than to the "governor") but today all are called governors. (Meshech Weare was the president of New Hampshire and Samuel Adams was the president of Massachusetts.)

What is the history of the terminology?  When and how were the decisions made about these titles?


texts: What was the attitude toward homosexuality of the Mughals? Was it different between the ruling class and the common people? Was homosexuality, officially or unofficially, permissible during the reign of any Mughal ruler, or was it illegal throughout the period?


texts: What defenses did Lee leave behind when the Army of Northern Virginia left for Gettysburg?

texts:
When Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia marched northwest to the Shenandoah Valley in June 1863, how strong (how many men, cannons, etc.) was the force they left opposing the Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock? Were there any significant additional layers of defense between Fredericksburg and Richmond?

The Wikipedia article on the Gettsyburg campaign indicates that Lee left "A.P. Hill's Corps in fortifications above Fredericksburg to cover the departure of the army, protect Richmond from any Union incursion across the Rappahannock, and pursue the enemy if Hill thought it advantageous." However, General Hill and Third Corps apparently followed the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia to Pennsylvania on June 15th, and obviously participated in the battle of Gettysburg in July, so most of Hill's troops couldn't have been near Fredericksburg at that time.

I've done a lot of Googling, but haven't found a good source indicating how many men (presumably from the Third Corps) were left behind to hold the line at the Rappahannock.


texts: Have map projections and distortions ever affected treaties?

texts: Has there ever been a case of an unfair treaty occur anytime through history due to use of biased map projections, either accidentally or deliberately?


texts: Why does clock time start in the middle of the night?

texts:
Loosely related: Why of all units is Time standard?

It's pretty obvious why 0:00/12:00am is called "midnight". What is the history behind setting the 0 time in the middle of the night as opposed any other "time" of the day?


texts: How did the Greeks keep a prytaneum alight in storms?

texts:
In ancient Greece, prytaneums were present in every city, village and state. They were lit with fire from the place in which the people settling came from. It was tended to by a leader of the establishment and was never allowed to be fully extinguished. And if the sacred fire was allowed to die, the city, village or state had to rekindle the fire from the prytaneum of the mother or parent city, state or village.

In a storm, how did the Greeks keep the fire lit?


texts: Can anyone tell me what this coin was used for, an approximate date and possibly what it’s worth?

texts: It says 'Play coins of the world' with a 50 in the center on one side and on the other side it says Reis Brazil.


texts: What was the reason behind the death of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?

texts:
There are many novels about King Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Nobody knows the exact reason of his death. It has been written tentatively in those novels. Somebody says he died due to Tuberculosis, someone says his death was due to poison intake.

What was the real reason of his death?


texts:
Citizens of Lusatia are claimed to have been made to take an oath in 1422, starting with the following words

  Die Ketzer und in dem christlichen Glauben irresame Leute zu tilgen und zu verderben

What's the full text of the oath?


texts: In what sense is Socrates considered as the father of Western philosophy?

texts: Socrates is known as the father of western philosophy. But in what sense? Is it because there wasn't any other philosopher who preceded him? Or perhaps that their philosophies were completely different from that of Socrates?


texts: Why was Nixon never tried for treason for allegedly sabotaging the 1968 Peace Talks?

texts:
On November 2, 1968, the Government of South Vietnam pulled out of the proposed talks in Paris to try to find an end to the Vietnam War.

It is alleged that Richard Nixon, through an intermediary, was the reason this happened, urging the South Vietnamese President to stay away from the talks, promising Saigon that, if elected, he would drive a harder bargain with Hanoi.

It is a fact that this “manipulation” was secretly bugged by the CIA in Saigon (in the President’s office) as well as by the FBI who had the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam also bugged!

Lyndon Johnson also knew of this but chose not to reveal the truth due the way the information was obtained. He knew Nixon was lying.

Nixon’s interference

I understand that speaking to a foreign power whilst at war with that country is treason.

Why was Nixon never trialled for treason? Or LBJ, as a matter of fact?


texts: What laws did the king "refuse to pass... unless those people would relinquish the right of representation"?

texts:
In reviewing the Declaration of Independence, I note that it states that that King George III

"refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts
of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
representation in the legislature".

What laws did he not pass unless the people relinquished their right of representation?


texts: Was Lampsacus a Phocaean or Milesian colony?

texts:
Lampsacus was an ancient Greek polis situated on the eastern side of the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) . The English Wikipedia page describes the city as of Milesian AND Phocaean foundation, hinting at a joint colonial enterprise by the two Ionian cities. Other pages (such as the German, French, and Greek entries), however, mention only its Phocaean origin.

Jean-Paul Morel, in his article "Phocaean Colonisation" in Tsetskhladze, Gocha R. 2006. Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas. 1 1. Leiden: Brill. (Official site on Brill, a PDF is available on Academia) listed Lampsacus as a Phocaean colony:

  The first Phocaean colony appears to have been Lampsacus
  (Lapseki), established in Asia Minor on the Hellespont in the territory
  of the Bebryces, a Thracian people (about 615 B.C.?)7. What little is known about it seems to conform to the ‘structures’ of Phocaean colonisation
  (see below)8. Its history, until its submission by Rome in 80 B.C., consists of a long series of conflicts with the Thracians, the Persians or other Greek cities (Miletus, Athens, etc.).9

  7 Roebuck, C. 1959: Ionian Trade and Colonization (New York), 113.
  8 Lepore, E. 1970: ‘Strutture della colonizzazione focea in Occidente’. PP 25, 22-4.
   9 In general on Lampsacus, see Bürchner, L. 1924: ‘Lampsakos’. RE XII.1, 590–2.; Brugnone, A. 1995: ‘In margine alle tradizioni ecistiche di Massalia’. PP fasc.
  CCLXXX, 57–66.

In his references, both Roebuck (1959) and Brugnone (1995) identified Lampsacus as of Phocaean foundation only, which corresponds to the classification of Lampsacus in RE/New Pauly:

  L. was founded (Eus. chronikoi kanones 95d) in 654/3 BC by Phocaeans
  [2. 107f.], not by Milesians (Str. 13,1,19).

Yet this rejection of Strabo's account of Milesian origin is not shared by The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (1976), which stated that Lampsacus was:

  City of the Troad (Mysia) originally called Pityussa, on the S shore
  of the Hellespont opposite Kallipolis. It had a good harbor (Strab.
  13.1.18), and was said to have been founded by the Milesians or the Phokaians.

It seems that all references to a Milesian foundation ultimately trace back to Strabo 13.1.19:

  κατέσπασται δ᾽ ἡ πόλις, οἱ δὲ Παισηνοὶ μετῴκησαν εἰς Λάμψακον, Μιλησίων ὄντες ἄποικοι καὶ αὐτοί, καθάπερ καὶ οἱ Λαμψακηνοί.

  but the city is in ruins. The Paeseni changed their abode to Lampsacus, they too being colonists from the Milesians, like the Lampsaceni.

Hence there appears to be 3 stances on the colonial origin of Lampsacus:

Joint Phocaean-Milesian foundation, as hinted by English Wikipedia.
Sole Phocaean foundation without Milesian involvements, which seems to be the most widely accepted interpretation among scholars.
Either Phocaean or Milesian foundation, with no definitive conclusion.

So which one should we accept as closer to truth? Was Lampsacus Phocaean, Milesian, or a combination of the two?

Lastly, I should add that given that joint foundation, relocation and repopulation of Greek overseas settlements were not uncommon (see, for example, Parion, Sybaris, Pyxous, Kaulonia, Kardia, etc.), the possibility that Lampsacus received influxes of Milesian settlers can't be ruled out, especially considering its proximity to other Milesian colonies such as Kyzikos and Abydos; and this might well be the reason why Strabo, writing more than 500 years after its foundation, thought the city to be Milesian in origin. Still, these are merely my speculations.

Additional Sources

Pityoussa/Lampsacus on Pleiades.
Lampsacus on ToposText with 248 entries of ancient references.


texts: How long would it take a Victorian to travel from central Germany to the UK?

texts: Specifically from Lauscha in 1862, does anyone know how extensive railways were then?


texts:
There's a well-known story about Andrey Kolmogorov. As a student his first choice of major was not Mathematics but History, and he wrote a serious paper on taxation of Russian serfs. He notices that the amount of taxes gathered from each village was always a whole number of roubles, but each individual household paid a fractional number. So Kolmogorov concluded that the taxes were levied by the landlord on the entire village as a unit, and then the villages would divide among themselves how much each household would pay. The landlord wouldn't bother himself with fractions, therefore each village's payment was always a whole number, but the individual households' contributions weren't.

When Kolmogorov showed his calculations the advisor was not convinced about the conclusions replied: "In History we need five different proofs for every assertion." After that Kolmogorov changed his major to Mathematics "because in Mathematics you only need one proof" and went on to develop modern Probability Theory and many other contributions to the subject.

Therefore the question: How many proofs are required for an assertion about a historic fact or trend would become generally accepted? What are the modern criteria for veracity of a historic fact?


texts:
Bad-Tibira is one of the oldest recorded cities in the world.  The Sumerians believed it was the second city to exercise kingship (after the more famous Eridu).  I can't find the Sumerian spelling of the name anywhere.  I'm looking for two things:

the Sumerian cuneiform spelling of Bad-Tibira
a Romanized transcription of the Sumerian

I think this is probably on-topic for here, but if not, that's a shame, since there's probably never going to be a sumerian.stackexchange.com to ask it on.


texts: Why were there so few American deaths in the Bataan Death March?

texts:
There was estimated to be 500-650 American deaths during the Bataan death march while there was estimated to be 5,000 to 18,000 Filipino deaths, according to Wikipedia. I can't wrap my head around why there is such a huge difference! Both Americans and Filipinos surely would have had their supplies taken from them, and so the amount of supplies would not account for this difference.

Did the Japanese exercise more caution when hurting American POW's?


texts:
In part six, "Song," of section thirty-six, "Food & Drink," of Endymion Wilkinson's Chinese History: A New Manual, Fifth Edition (2018) there is the  following excerpt:

  Sitting on chairs to eat from shared dishes (heshi 合食) at a table became the norm in the Song, replacing the old practice of sitting or kneeling on mats and eating from individual servings (fencan 分餐).

But it lacks an explanation.

Nowadays it is hard to imagine individual servings being eaten in a Chinese group setting. Why where individual servings replaced with shared dishes during the Song dynasty?


texts: What is the original German version of Bismarck's phrase about intentions and capabilities?

texts:
UPDATE: It turns out that even Russia's president Vladimir Putin himself quoted Bismarck as saying that phrase! (Source1, Source2).
It thus seems unlikely to be a made-up quotation, because it is unthinkable that the Russian president will use made-up quotations. I am very much curious to find the original German phrase and its context and spent a few more hours searching, but found nothing. That's a real mystery...

Reading an article for my Russian classes, I saw a quotation from Otto von Bismarck:

Но еще Отто фон Бисмарк сказал: "Меня не интересуют их намерения, меня интересуют их возможности". (Source)

The quotation as it stands in Russian is so ruthless, cynical, and thought-stimulating that I got really curious what Bismarck actually said in German and whether he said anything like that at all.
Let me translate the above Russian sentence to English and German as precisely as I can:

But already Otto von Bismarck said, "I am not interested to know their intentions. I am interested to know their capabilities."
Aber schon Otto von Bismarck hat gesagt: "Mich interessieren ihre Absichten nicht. Mich interressieren ihre Möglichkeiten."

Trying to find the German original, I made a lot of search requests in Google by combining the surname Bismarck with various German words and expressions that might be constituents of the original phrase, but found no trace whatsoever.
Trying to find a trace from the Russian end, I googled the above Russian phrase attributed to Bismarck and found hundreds of Russian websites quoting it as Bismarck's phrase, but was unable to find the German original or any trace to it.
My attempts to find an English or Japanese version have also been fruitless.
In Russian articles, the quotation is often used to support the idea that it does not matter what is or seems to be on people's minds. The supported idea is that what really matters is the actual balance of power. I even saw rephrasings with indirect speech like, "Bismarck said that capabilities give rise to intentions."
It does not seem very likely to be a made-up quotation, as there are quite a few hits in Google Books and even a hit in minutes of the Russian Parliament. Moreover, the idea expressed in the quotation resonates well with Bismark's views as I can see in this history article.
The quotation might be, however, somewhat altered, as I saw a somewhat different version in an article by a popular Russian analyst. He quotes, in Russian, Bismarck as saying, "What matters in politics is capabilities, not intentions. Intentions change, capabilities remain."
I humbly hope that history fans and experts of this SE could help me resolve the mystery.
My question is this: Exactly what did Bismarck actually say in German? I would also like to know the context in which he said that phrase.


texts: Why does the parish register show more baptisms than burials?

texts:
The parish registers from Eversholt, Bedfordshire, are published for the period 1602-1812. They seem mostly complete.

They contain records of 2074 burials, 2792 baptisms and 571 marriages.

I can understand the low number of marriages - one marriage for two baptisms, plus many people died while still children, before having an opportunity to marry. But why are there more baptisms than burials?

A chart of the numbers in each 5-year interval over this period shows that baptisms exceeded burials in 34 of the 43 intervals. One period with low baptisms registered was around 1650, during the commonwealth, when the church was in some chaos. The other with low baptisms was around 1735, when there is some evidence that the parish rector was in jail.

The parish population is not known to have changed substantially during this time. It was 715 in 1801. The parish is rural and agriculture was the major employment.

What factors might lead more baptisms to be registered than burials over a 200 year period? Was the parish exporting excess population?
Is this a common feature of many parishes?

Update: There does seem to be a gender bias. Guessing from the given names,

1438 males and 1350 females were baptised. (4 unknown.)
1045 females and 994 males were buried. (35 unknown.)

This would suggest that the parish might have been exporting excess males.

I note Completeness of Old Parish Registers in the 1700s and have looked at The Parish Registers of England, by John Charles Cox, Methuen, 1910 and The parish registers and records in the diocese of Rochester : a summary of information collected by the Ecclesiatical Records Committee of the Rochester Diocesan Conference, W E Buckland, Kent Archaeological Society, 1912 but find no solution. I considered posting this at https://genealogy.stackexchange.com/ but tried here first.


texts: Where and when were air guns used in a major battle?

texts:
In the 18th century some European armies had air guns at their disposal.
I remember that during some major battle sharpshooters from Tirol used air guns to deadly effect on the troops of the opposing side. Where and when was that battle fought?

One example of air gun is the Girandoni.


texts: How many USA men dodged the draft in Vietnam, and how?

texts: During the Vietnam war,  men who should serve just didn't, hiding or something else. Are there any numbers as to how many men should have served but didn't? Also, is there some information about what were the most common ways to avoid it? Lastly, what was the supposed punishment for these cases, and are there any statistics as to how many were actually punished in that way?


texts: Interpretation of a WWII badge of rank(?) / medal

texts:
I found this badge of rank from WWII (probably German/Italian):

How to interpret the stripes and the star? Which meaning do they have?


texts: Are there examples of pre-industrial cruise ship?

texts: A writing site I frequent is running a month-long contest in which the prompt involves a maiden voyage of any sort. The idea I've generated in response to this is one about an ancient-era (e.g. classical Greek or Roman) cruise liner. It would be basically a big galley powered by oars and sail, but as big as those gigantic junks the Chinese used to build. However, when looking up the history of cruise ships, apparently their history begins not much earlier than the 19th century. I find that rather strange since I would think any culture with the capacity to build huge boats would employ some of them for the more affluent individuals' cruising entertainment. Were there any constraints in pre-industrial cultures that would have prevented the development of primitive cruise ships?


texts:
It is well known that Edo-era Japan had many fires, but I want to focus on something else.
I cannot seem to find much information on fires in Japan before Edo. For example, when I google "feudal Japan fires," the first result is about fires in Edo, which is not feudal Japan.
What I found is that in Miyagi, a "Fire Prevention Tiger Dance" exists and it was invented over 650 years ago. The dance originates from a Chinese belief that the wind would obey tigers.


texts:
I was just debating with a Catholic acquaintance. He ascribed merit to the Catholic crusades and said that many historians agreed with him.

Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?

His chief comments were that the crusades protected Europe from invaders. I was taught that the crusades were a distraction from problems in Rome and the Pope. What was the multifold motivation for the crusades?


texts: Can a country only have one indigenous population?

texts:
I recently came across the Kalash people of Pakistan and Afghanistan (thanks to this amazing music, if anyone's interested). As far as I can tell, studies seem to suggest the Kalash are indigenous to the areas they migrated to in those respective countries, from Central Asia. I then looked at the definition of indigenous people, which says they are:

  ...ethnic groups who are the original inhabitants of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently.

This made me wonder; if historians/anthropologists define an indigenous population as the first peoples or original people of a given area, such as a country, then can said country have only one such indigenous population - the one that got there first?

In the case of the Kalash of Chitral, Pakistan - who are Pakistan's smallest ethnoreligious community at a relatively decimated population of just 3000, and one of its most remote in the mountainous valleys of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa - if we assume they migrated to Pakistan before any other ethnic group, would this make them Pakistan's only indigenous population? How are these things actually defined?


texts: Was the treatment of US diplomats in Germany after the declaration of war during WW2 typical?

texts: Wikipedia describes the way the US ambassador and other members of the diplomatic corps were treated. Ultimately they were exchanged for German prisoners. Is that usual to exchange diplomats for other prisoners? Why were they not immediately sent to a neutral country or put on a neutral ship? I understand that after Pearl Harbor Japanese diplomats were sent home.


texts: What are the historical reasons for the conventional map orientation?

texts:
North is traditionally shown upwards in maps, although there isn't any physical reason for it - compass needles point parallel to magnetic field lines. Showing south as up would be just as legitimate.

Are there any historical reasons for the conventional map orientation?


texts: When Israel won the Six Day War, did they consider expelling all Arabs from the annexed territories?

texts: Did Israel consider doing this and if so, would that have been in violation of international law?


texts: Why didn't Turkish become an official language in former Ottoman colonies in the Middle-East and North Africa?

texts:
The main language in the Middle East is Arabic, however English and French considered as a secondary language.
Especially in Algeria, Morocco and Lebanon (there are other countries..) people still use French daily and as a secondary language.

The main question is: When the Ottoman Empire 'conquered' several countries why didn't they force use of their language? The occupation period was long enough, comparable to English and French occupation.

Was the Ottoman colonization different in this relation from French? Or the territory was in some way different than other African territories?


texts: What were women doing at the Battle of Dorylaeum during the First Crusade?

texts:
I have just been watching The Crusades
Dr Thomas Asbridge BBC 2012, in which he states that "... girls, delicate and noble...", went into their tents to put on their best clothes, in the hope of winning "pity" from the Turks - involving, presumably, rape and/or slavery.

I have heard this claim before (possibly from the same source!) but can find no corroboration for it. I do not claim it did not happen, but have some difficulties with it.

Wikipedia makes no mention of it. Indeed, it states:

  To protect the unarmoured foot and noncombatants, Bohemond ordered his knights to dismount and form a defensive line, and with some trouble gathered the foot soldiers and the noncombatants into the centre of the camp; the women acted as water-carriers throughout the battle. (emphases mine)

I do query

A) What "delicate and noble" girls were doing in the middle of a battle, considering such women would hardly have stirred a step at home without an escort.

B) In traditional Catholic theology, it was preferable for a woman to take her own life than submit to rape, which brought with it both spiritual and social death. (This was still the teaching when I grew up in the 1950s, one of the few occasions where suicide was not a mortal sin.)

I do not imagine that every crusader, pilgrim or camp-follower would, in the event, have preferred death as a martyr to life as a slave - many did not. But I still puzzle over these "noble" girls' eagerness not to die for Christ and their virtue - not to mention their presence on a battlefield, complete with tents and fine clothes.


texts: Which peace offer did Hitler give to Great Britain in 1940?

texts:
A few days ago, I finished reading John Lukacs' Five days in London: May 1940. I am puzzled by a passage of that book:

  When Hitler made his grand peace offer to England in his speech of 19 July, Churchill chose not to answer, asking Halifax to do so instead, which the foreign secretary calmly and coolly did.

My question is: which peace offer? The closest thing to a peace offer that I was able to find there was:

  In this hour I feel it to be my duty before my own conscience to appeal once more to reason and common sense in Great Britain as much as elsewhere. I consider myself in a position to make this appeal, since I am not the vanquished, begging favors, but the victor speaking in the name of reason. I can see no reason why this war must go on.

Is this the peace offer? Or did I miss something?

Also, what was Lord Halifax's reply?


texts:
In a very interesting document written by an American woman in 1939, she mentions a number of times "such great Jews as Einstein, Epstein, Freud."

Well - who is this great Epstein? Unlike the other two, his name is no longer a household one in our times? Is it Jean Epstein?


texts: What were the indigenous populations of California before American settlement began to peak?

texts:
When studying Native American history, California's indigenous peoples are always noted as being far more diverse than the rest of the nation. While the number of distinct languages is generally given, very little about the tribes themselves is added.

Does anyone know of any good sources for, or have any knowledge of, the various tribes that inhabited California before American settlement began to peak?


texts: Has anyone ever got more than a 21 Gun Salute?

texts:
The 21 gun salute is given at the funeral for US military personnel. Has there ever been someone who got more than 21 rounds fired?
Primarily for the US but not limited to I am looking for instances where someone got more than the 21 solute? I would like a 21001 50 cal gun solute, but for the price I might have to settle for bb guns.


texts: What happened to the cavalry corps of Simon Boudienny?

texts:
According to this question, there was a campaign led by the Russians in Ukraine where they engaged a cavalry unit. I imagine it was in 1941, and according to Wikipedia research, it might be the cavalry corps of Simon Boudienny.

Do you have details on his action? Why did he fail in repelling the advancing Germans, and was it because of lack of efficiency of the cavalry tactics?


texts: Why were proconsular appointments so staggered under the Principate?

texts:
Ronald Mellor, in an article about the new Flavian elite (Mellor, Ronald. "The New Aristocracy of Power." In: Flavian Rome: culture, image, text (2003) edited by Boyle and Dominik: 69-91.) rather casually says:

  Consuls had to wait at least a decade before a proconsular
  appointment, and those were anxious years for Vespasian. (p. 72)

Why did they have to wait, actually?

Obviously under the Republic the system was different - a consul who finished his term became proconsul somewhere. Why the change?

Some possible hypotheses:

There were many more candidates, now that suffect consuls were in vogue (see here).
There were less provinces to go around (since the Senate only governed a few of them).
Some kind of probationary term.

(1) might be wrong because I am not sure that suffect consulship really qualified one to be a governor, I think that one had to be a "real" consul to qualify. (2) is indubitable, but was it enough to create a queue of 10 years?

UPDATE:
Looks like my hypothesis that suffect consuls could not become governors on the stength of the suffect consulship only was probably wrong (at least, Mellor's detailed prosopography includes several counter-examples to it).


texts: Why did the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company have a banking company?

texts: I am reading newspapers from Savannah, GA 1842 (Oct. & Nov.) and they often mention the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company (originally called Georgia Railroad Company). I am not understanding quite completely the issues with the Georgia Central Bank and if they apply to why or why not the Railroad company had its own banking company. Can I get an explanation if the two are related or not and most importantly why did the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company have its own bank part?


texts:
I embarrassingly don't know much about the history of the Vietnam War.

I would like to learn more about the war, but I can't figure out when exactly the war started and ended. World War 2 was from 1939 to 1945. When did the Vietnam War start and end? What defines the beginning and what defines the end? I would be interested in the US involvement.

(As a sidequestion: I have tried to find a good documentary online, but I can't find anything that describes the beginning of the war. So I would also like a recommendation of a good documentary (free online would be nice) that describes how the whole thing got started)


texts: What's the difference between Kosovo's & the Confederate States of America's declaration of independence?

texts:
In reading the Wikipedia article on Kosovo independence precedent, one thing I noticed is that it treats the Kosovo situation as a precedent. This is surprising to me because there's obviously a precedent-to-the-precedent in the Confederate States of America (CSA), which also attempted to declare independence against the will of the original country. Funkily enough as well, the CSA's declaration met a very different fate internationally from Kosovo's declaration.

Did anyone of the era cite the CSA as an example for why Kosovo should not be allowed to become an independent country? Alternatively, did anyone cite reasons why the CSA's declaration of independence should not be taken as a precedent for the Kosovo situation?

I'm looking for something similar to the multiple comparisons I've found for Kosovo's declaration of independence and Crimea's declaration of independence (e.g. this). I couldn't find anything from a simple search.


texts: Why were the Marines so badly outnumbered at the critical point at Guadalcanal?

texts:
Prior to the battle of Guadalcanal,, the Americans had landed 11,000 men on the island in August, 1942. This compares to the 5,000 or so men that the Japanese had on the island by the first week of September.
But the main body of 3,000 Japanese confronted only 800 Marines on the so-called Bloody Ridge, which shielded Henderson Field, the airbase that was the main point of interest on the island.
Where were the other 10,000 American Marines? Were a lot of them sick, so that their true numbers were in the low thousands, rather than in the five figures? Were a lot of them on Henderson Field itself so that if Edson's battalion was overwhelmed, there would have been a second, last-ditch defense of the airfield? Or was it a case where the available American strength was scattered between several comparably important positions, and the Japanese had surprised the Americans by concentrating on Bloody Ridge, bypassing the other defenses? (The remaining Japanese forces did launch "holding attacks" elsewhere.)
Also, it was a two day battle. After Bloody Ridge had been identified as the target, Edson told his men to hold out a second day, assuming that reinforcements would arrive the third. Why weren't they available sooner?


texts: Who owned Franz Josef islands between 1918-1926?

texts:
Franz Josef land was discovered and claimed by Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1873. Previously Norway discovered it, but they never reported the discovery.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire dissoluted in 1918. Which country owned Franz Josef land until the 1926 annexation by USSR? I guess the trivial answer would be Austria or independence, I couldn't find definite answer.

UPDATE
By some google search I managed to find a short sentence about Italian claims, but doesn't lead anywere since it is referring "late 20's", hereby you can read it


texts: What was the cost of the 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire

texts:
Wikipedia says, The Celebration of the Persian Empire

  The Ministry of the Court placed the cost at $17 million (at that time); Ansari, one of the organizers, puts it at $22 million (at that time).[7] The actual figure is difficult to calculate exactly and is a partisan issue, but may have exceeded $200 million.[citation needed]

What was the cost of the party? I see the celebration often cited as a source of discord at the time.


texts: What is the likely ethnic origin of the Minoans?

texts: Ever since the discovering and unearthing of the Knossos Palace in Northern Crete over 100 years ago, Archaeology and History have learned a great deal about "The Minoans"-(or Ancient Cretans).  However, we are still unsure as to what their ethnicity was. The Linear A tablets are still a cryptic challenge for the most advanced Linguists and we are still unsure as to the ethnic origins of the Ancient Cretans.  Could the Ancient Cretans have been a distant Pre-Mycenaean Greek civilization, a greater Egyptian civilization who ventured beyond the Nile Valley or perhaps a civilization and people who were lost to history due to the massive Tsunami which destroyed up to 80% of the island's native population 3600 years ago?


texts: Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch? By peaceful I mean without assassination, military coup, major violent protests, killing of civilians, war, etc. The closest thing I can think of is during the Glorious Revolution of England, but there were still some lives lost.


texts: Did Stalin have full control of the government in 1936?

texts:
I know that Stalin was only one of several successors to Lenin (and not a favored one at that) when Lenin died. However, Stalin was able to quickly forge alliances within the Party to oust his most powerful rivals (Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev) and establish control of the USSR. Even Bukharin - a former ally - was expelled in 1929. Stalin banned Party factions, removing official voices of dissent.

And yet he still felt the need to have all his disgraced and defeated opponents put on trial and murdered. He then proceeded to purge other prominent Communists (as well as many ordinary people).

Did Stalin face any resistance to the Purge politically? Was there anyone powerful enough left after Stalin's rise to power but before the Purge began, or was Stalin completely "punching down"? I am interested in the political figures, so while "such and such general controlled so many million troops" is potentially interesting, the general would also need to be somewhat politically active to merit a mention.


texts: In England in 1700, would defending property with lethal force be illegal at all?

texts:
My limited understanding is that without an extensive police force and good communications, much of what modern people would leave to police was handled directly. If so, were any questions asked of a land owner who killed a poacher or robber or thief? Or was it not only in practice but by law allowed for someone to kill any trespasser?

EDIT: Let us say, England in 1700. Almost modern but no police force yet in London and we read in Newton and the Counterfeiter that traveling twixt Cambridge and London was dangerous, just as it was in Chaucer's time: travelers sought protection by waiting at an inn until enough were in the their party to help fight off brigands.

EDIT: Let's ask if killing a trespasser was actually illegal or if not, whether in practice the killing was punished at all. Of course, robbers and other invaders are also at least trespassing.


texts: U.S. weapon restrictions during 19th century

texts:
Prior to the 20th century, I'm curious as to how the 2nd amendment was understood:

  A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

There doesn't seem to be any (serious) controversy in the US about whether a person should able to own heavy military weaponry (mortars, grenade launchers, chemical weapons, artillery, mines, nuclear bombs, etc.)  The only (serious) disagreement is around weapons that a person can carry on his or her person.

This seems a little arbitrary to me as I think the term 'Arms' referred to more than carried weapons at the time the constitution was written.  Obviously, many of the weapons listed above did not exist at that time but there were at least cannon and mortars.  Was the right to "keep and bear Arms" considered to extend to any form of weaponry in the early 19th century?  If it was, when did this understanding change?

On determining a Google search that I felt wouldn't cause the ATF to knock on my door, it seems that these weapons fall under the category of "destructive device" per the National Firearms Act.  I read on a non-authoritative site that a permit is required to own such a device and not all states allow them to be owned at all.

Prior to that law being passed were there weapons regulations at the state level anywhere in the US?

Please refrain from discussing the current politics around firearms.  Answers should only address historical understanding and precedents.  Thanks.


texts: Was there anything in common between the War of 1812 between Britain and America and the War of 1812 between Napoleon and Russia?

texts: Were the War of 1812 between Britain and America and the War of 1812 between Napoleon and Russia at all related? They were not only fought in the same year but also over the same general reason, trade between nations when Napoleon wanted to monopolize world trade. But were the two wars ACTUALLY related in any way?


texts: Why did Ethiopia not fight with Eritrea over coastal territory when giving them independence?

texts: To me, it is kind of crazy to me that Ethiopia wouldn't just take a slither of Eritrea to connect them to the coast. They were bigger and could easily have done it when giving Eritreans their independence? I ask this because, with Eritrean independence, Ethiopia became the world’s most populous landlocked country.


texts: How did the early settlers of Australia settle the continent?

texts: A simple question that is not so simple to answer. What technologies did they use on their journey? Can we trace the settlers lineage using dna sequencing now, or will we ever?


texts: What would a small-scale merchant in Renaissance Italy consider a necessity at home?

texts:
Presume we have a small-scale merchant in Renaissance Italy.  By "small scale" I mean someone who has a shop and a house but isn't big enough to be a "rich merchant".  I believe that something like this existed in Elizabethan England, where a merchant might have his family dwelling above and shop below in a small, two-story house.  I'm presuming that something equivalent existed in Renaissance Italy, but I could be wrong, so I'm happy to know that as well.

I'd like to know which household items such a family would see as non-negotiable.  That is, every merchant might have different things just due to what they sell and/or make, but perhaps every single such family would have a collection of pots for their own personal use.  I'm using the "small scale merchant" as an economic class, not necessarily because I'm interested in merchants themselves.  I'm just trying to distinguish them from farmers, and am expecting them to be in a city of the time.


texts: Is there any Scottish population still present in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India?

texts:
During the late 1800s, the Scottish missionaries set up a large number of schools and churches in Kalimpong (present day in West Bengal, India).

Is there any Scottish population that is still there, who maintains their separate identity?


texts: When did people understand where children come from?

texts:
What is the oldest source that people knew for sure what makes a woman pregnant?

For such a source I understand that that the author knew what a man and a woman did 9 months before giving birth and that this act was the direct reason for a child. It is enough it is said "they slept together". Pornography would be accepted, if the connection between the act and insemination is said. It is not acceptable if child was some "divine gift", "blessing of Zeus" etc.

I think it would be very old as shepherds would know how to make their herds larger.

The oldest I could find is a Holy Bible, in Genesis Chapter 4 verse 1 and then 17:

  And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. (...) And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch (...)

If somebody could explain if "knew his wife" means "had a sexual relationship with her". If not, we can go further (Chapter 6 verse 4):

  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

(Chapter 19:)

  And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father." And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, "Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father." And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

The Wikipedia says that the Book of Genesis is ca. 6-5 century BC:

  This leaves the question of when these works were created. Scholars in the first half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that the Yahwist was produced in the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, and the Priestly work in the middle of the 5th century BC (the author was even identified as Ezra), but more recent thinking is that the Yahwist was written either just before or during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century, and the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exilic period or soon after.

Are there any other, older sources confirming that people knew where children did come from?

(all Bible citations from KJV)


texts: How were British personnel employed in the colonies after independence

texts:
A lot of colonies continued to employ British citizens in their government even after attaining independence. But how were these employees paid (in local currency, or in pounds)? Was it not considered a threat by the military, especially since many of them were employed by the air force and the army? In case of some military action against the wishes of the British, on which side would the loyalty of those officers expected to lie?

As an example of the huge trust placed on the British officers, the Indian Air Force  continued to have a British head till 1954, before the Indian Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee took over[1]. The Indian Navy also had British heads until 1958, as mentioned in wikipedia[2]. While I have only examples from India, I am assuming that this was true also for other British colonies.


texts:
In a discussion with a friend, we came up with this topic. We know that Indians, Carthaginians and Persians were famous for their use of war elephants in ancient warfare. But the games like Age of Empires and Age of Mythology, which are fairly historically accurate (apart from mythological bits, of course), depict Egyptians with war elephants.

However, the Wikipedia page on the war elephant says that the Ptolemies started using war elephants. If this is true, then pre-Alexander era Egypt didn't use elephants in war, which kind of undermines the usage of elephants in the games (Egypt in those games mostly represents Pharaoh era).

So, tl;dr, my question is: What is the earliest recorded use of war elephants by Egyptians?


texts: Were major foreign films allowed in the USSR?

texts:
I'm thinking of really major films that came from Hollywood, like Star Wars, Back to the Future, Planet of the Apes, etc.

Were these allowed to be shown in the USSR? Did they have to wait for Glasnost? How were tickets priced and how were profits shared among the USSR and Hollywood?


texts: Why did the Soviet Union out-pace the US during the space-race?

texts:
At the end of World War II, the US Government's Operation Paperclip plucked rocket scientists from Germany and brought them to the U.S. to work on military weapons. Most famous among these scientists was Wernher von Braun.
Given this, why did Russia get the first artificial earth satellite (Sputnik), the first animals to successful orbit the earth (Belka and Strelka), the first probe to reach the moon (Luna 2, September 14, 1959), the first photographs of the far side of the moon (Luna 3), the first soft landing on the moon (Luna 9, 1966), the first unmanned craft to return soil samples from the moon (Luna 16, 1970).
(I only discovered the Luna accomplishments in writing this, as they were surprisingly absent from my US education. These facts come from this article on history.com.)
Given that the U.S. was ahead of the initial space race with the experiments of Goddard at Roswell, and given that the U.S. picked up talent from Germany, how is it that the Soviet Union was able to out-pace the US in all of these major space-race accomplishments?  Did the US squander its lead?


texts: Why did the French concede Mosul to British Iraq?

texts:
Blogger Andrew Sullivan writing about Syria today notes:

  Syria as we now know it was created by one Brit, Mark Sykes, and one Frenchman, Francois Georges-Picot in 1920. Originally, it included a chunk of Iraq (another non-country), but when oil was discovered there (in Mosul), the Brits wanted and got it.

Similarly Wikipedia's article on Mosul states:

  discoveries of oil in the region just before the end of the war
  (1918), pushed the British government to yet another negotiation with
  the French; to include the region of Mosul into the southern zone (or
  the British zone)

Britain and France were allies and equal partners in shaping the post-WW1 settlements, and French interests in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East were powerful and historic. Presumably, also, France was just as interested in oil as Britain was.

How was Britain suddenly able to gobble up Mosul simply because oil had been discovered there? Did Britain concede territory to France somewhere else as part of the negotiations?


texts: Scientists who became major political leaders

texts:
What examples can you find of these? I want the list to include people who satisfy two criteria:
(a) Major political leader = king, president, prime-minister, very senior cabinet minister, mayor of capital, something in this league.
(b) Scientist = someone who has actively worked in science (published papers or books) or at the very least had an impressive career in industrial R&D (with technical accomplishments, not just as a bureuacrat).

One example: Chaim Weizmann. Another, less obvious one which makes the cut nevertheless: Yury Luzhkov

EDIT: Adding from answers: Angela Merkel, Tony Tan.


texts: What were the incentives for war during the Warring States Period?

texts:
I've been reading about the Warring States Period in Li Feng's 'Early China', and I don't know if I missed a passage but I can't seem to figure out why the period was so violent.

I've been searching via Google but still I seem to be getting a lot of information on the dynamics of war, but not exactly why the wars happened in the first place. So a few questions about that:

why was there so much conflict during the period, and what were the incentives that each state had for being at war
is there a reason why the region couldn't have been peaceful during the period?


texts: In the past were there gifts on the days leading up to Christmas instead of them all being on the one day?

texts:
Sometimes I'm tempted to give my kids gifts in a spread out way, instead of all at once, so they can appreciate each gift.

In the song The 12 Days of Christmas the author describes getting gifts on each day leading up to Christmas.

In Advent Calendars - there appear to be lollies(candies) that you open out each day leading up to Christmas.

My question is: Were there [in times past] gifts on the days leading up to Christmas instead of them all being on the one day? Is it a recent thing that we open gifts all on the one day?


texts: How has hearing loss been avoided in war?

texts: Guns are very loud, even in an open field. In a trench or inside a city, I can only imagine they would be louder, and quite capable of causing hearing loss. How have armies ensured that their troops weren't all deaf by the end of the first battle or even bootcamp? I'd imagine cotton balls would help but I've never seen that mentioned in books or other media.


texts: Did the Confederate States use a plain oval CS buckle during the Civil War?

texts:
The discussion at treasurenet.com has some well informed people on it.  But one point it raises is not confirmed by anyone who seems to know.  (The link comes from Why were US "Cavalry" belt buckle backs filled with lead?.)

That is that an expert on Pawn Stars apparently said the Confederate States never used a plain oval CS buckle (like the common plain oval US "cavalry belt buckle") during the Civil War.

Many established sutlers sell such plain oval CS buckles, and call them "exact reproductions."  But so far none that I have found claim any source for such a buckle's original, unlike the US oval where they often say it is a reproduction of one found on this or that battlefield.

Can anyone find a clear confirmation or refutation of the Pawn Stars expert's claim?

Now I see Parsley's Brass has one found at Watt House Hill, Virginia, where there was (at least) a battle in 1862.  The answer by @Steve Bird establishes, as he says, that such a buckle was not regulation in 1864 (or maybe just not used on sword belts but I'll go with not regulation).  But I also understand that CS uniforms were a bit chaotic throughout the war.  So I am not sure what to think.

Was it regulation at some other time?  Conversely do other authorities besides on Pawn Stars say such buckles were not used?

The book cited by Steve Bird in a comment has at least one plain oval CS buckle on its cover (plus some ovals that may be box plates--but persuasive sources say the CS had no resources to waste on brass box plates).  But I do not know if the book concludes they are genuine.  I am trying to find the book on interlibrary loan but it is not going quickly.

Following that lead I found Fakes reproductions replicas with an extensive discussion of how many honest and dishonest ways non-genuine materials get on the market as genuine.  It gives dozens of examples of non-genuine CS ovals but describes many of them as copies---as if there were genuine originals to copy.  It is not clear about that.


texts: Why did the British not introduce the sterling in India?

texts:
The question is about the adoption of currency during imperialist rule.

Why did the British persist with the local currency, the rupee?
What impediments did the British face in implementing the pound-sterling system in India?
Were these impediments overcome in other colonies, and if yes, how?


texts: What other one word responses have been made to military ultimatums besides "Nuts!", "Mokusatsu" and "If"?

texts:
I am aware of three well known circumstances where a one word response was given to a military ultimatum:

The Japanese government responded “mokusatsu” to the Potsdam Declaration prior to the Hiroshima bomb being dropped.

(Then Brigadier) General McAuliffe, commanding the 101st Airborne at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, famously replied "Nuts!" to the German demand for surrender.

The city of Sparta laconically replied "If!" to Philip of Macedon's demand:

"You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city."

There is absolutely no confusion about the meaning of the latter two instances I describe. Both can clearly be paraphrased by the childhood taunt:

Yeah! You and whose other army?

However there has long been doubt, perhaps even controversy, about the true intended meaning of mokusatsu.
In seeking other examples where a one word answer was provided (in the language of correspondence), perhaps a historical precedent can be established: that laconic one word answers intuitively always carry the baggage of the taunt above. SO in addition to other examples, commentary on how they fit or don't fit the thesis here would be on interest.

Update
Thanks to @semaphore my reference for mokusatsu is much improved. The quote is from a press conference where Suzuki Kantaro first discusses the background of the Potsdam Declaration, and then explicitly states that the response "mokusatsu-suru". Then he discusses what is seen as the only alternative.
To my mind, this does not really alter my position above. The only content that Kantaro is giving to the Allies on behalf of the government, as a response to the Declaration, is "mokusatsu-suru. All the related meta-content, to me, only says that other alternatives were unacceptable or identical. They are rationale for the response, not part of the response. Your mileage may vary, but that is my take.
Here is additional informed commentary on "mokusatsu":

@Semaphore - I read that WP article. It did say that "mokusatsu" is represented by two ideograms ("silence" and "killing"). First thought that hit my head was "doesn't that mean its two words"? (FWIW, second thought was this seems kind of like it would be their translation for "pocket veto", and third was that actually saying it in response would defeat the whole purpose of it). – T.E.D. ♦
@T.E.D. My understanding is Japanese ideograms represent syllables. Hence Haiku are 17 syllables long. It would be like saying "firetruck" is two words because it is composed of the two words fire and truck. – Pieter Geerkens
@T.E.D. I believe it was claimed that they wanted to say "no comment", but did not know what a better translation was. Pieter: You're thinking about kana, which represent sounds; the kanjo characters, like the two that makes up mokusatsu, primarily represent ideas, and each ideograms can have complex or context-dependent pronunciations. Of course, analysing the meaning of a phrase from individual ideograms is the kind of brilliant (/s) linguistics that brought us "the Chinese word for 'crisis' is 'danger opportunity'!" – Semaphore ♦
@andejons: Excellent! I had forgotten that one. – Pieter Geerkens
@PieterGeerkens - "firetruck" is a compound word, which is very different than two random syllables slammed together. Ideograms by definition do not represent syllables. If that happens, what you have is called a syllabary. Looking it up....Kanji is logographic, however they have a syllabary called "kana" (which is itself actually two syllabaries), and apparently typical Japanese writing mixes both (all 3?) at their convenience. Man, I thought English was a PITA... – T.E.D. ♦


texts: Why was the area now known as Liberia chosen as the location for repatriation of African slaves in the US?

texts: The American Colonization Society thought that colonizing Africa for the purpose of returning US slaves to Africa was the solution to slavery problems. Why, and how, did they come to decide that the area now known as Liberia was the ideal choice for such an endeavor? Was it because most US slaves came from west Africa?


texts: Did Frederick Douglass affect British policy during the American Civil War?

texts:
In his recent biography of Douglass, David Blight talks about Douglass’s trips to England prior to the war.  He explains the Douglass was well received, but doesn’t give insight into any effect this has on Parliament.  The trip right after John Brown’s raid seemed like it might have been propitious for maximum effect.

I tried to find out if Douglass ever met with or corresponded with British politicians.  This article  http://www.baas.ac.uk/usso/frederick-douglass-in-britain/ Doesn’t give any insight.

Did Douglass ever meet with British leaders leading up to or during the war?  Is there any way to know if Britain’s decision to not interfere was at all a function of Douglas?


texts: Which forts did the British keep in the Northwest Territory after the American Revolution?

texts:
At the end of the American Revolution, Britain ceded the Northwest Territory to the US as one of the terms of the Treaty of Paris.

I stumbled across a very interesting statement on Wikipedia that says:

  Despite the treaty, the British kept forts and policies there that supported the Natives in the Northwest Territories. President George Washington directed the United States Army to halt the hostilities between the Natives and settlers and enforce U.S. sovereignty over the territory.

What forts did the British keep in the Northwest Territory?

(And did the United States then seize British-controlled forts by force of arms?)


texts: Did Christians ever use crucifixion as punishment?

texts:
I've been watching the show Vikings on the History Channel and on the latest episode Christians capture an alleged apostate. As punishment they decide to crucify him.

Of course this is just a show but it got me wondering, did any Christians anywhere at any time ever use crucifixion as means of punishment?


texts: Why did Britain, not the Netherlands, create the greatest overseas empire?

texts:
The usual answer is that control of the sea trade was wrestled by Britain in a sequence of fierce Anglo-Dutch wars 1652-84. However, one can easily make the case that the Dutch won in this conflict. In 1688 they made a large scale invasion of England, and installed their own prince on the British throne.
(It is true, that the British prefer to call this the "Glorious revolution", rather than a foreign invasion. But this only confirms the success of the invasion). But by all criteria, Netherlands won. So why did it happen that in 18-19 centuries Netherlands evolved to a second rate power, while British cleated the greatest overseas empire?


texts: Why did India choose August 15th as its Independence Day?

texts: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were independent from the British rule on August 15th, 1947. Why is it that India celebrates the nation's Independence Day on August 15th  while Pakistan celebrates it on August 14th?


texts: Did Catherine Howard use some form of birth control?

texts:
Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's 5th wife was sexually experienced before marrying the king.  She was also accused of having an affair with the king's groom while married to the king.  She obviously had sexual relations with the king himself.

Why did she not conceive at least one time with all of her sexual activity?

Did she have a recorded pregnancy at some point during her marriage to the king?


texts: Did Jefferson really say this quote about patriotism?

texts:
Who said this quote?

  Patriotism is not a short frenzied burst of emotion, but the long and steady dedication of a lifetime.

I've seen some sources claiming it was Thomas Jefferson and others claiming it was Adlai Stevenson.  It could be that Stevenson was quoting Jefferson, but I haven't found any credible-looking sources for this being a Jefferson quote.

Ideally, I'd like to know who said this, when they said it, and where.


texts: Is there an edition of Gibbon's *Decline and Fall* that has been annotated by a modern historian?

texts:
I like reading old history texts. I also like knowing accurate history (to the degree that we know it). Is there an edition (abridged or not) of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that includes notes on what Gibbon got wrong, or information he didn't have access to?

Alternately, is there a separate text that would accomplish the same end?


texts: Before the advent of agriculture, was the whole world covered with forest?

texts:
When there was no clearing done by humans, were all the areas providing "tree-friendly" conditions coated by vast expanses of forest, or were there any naturally occurring grassy plains as there are nowadays (that is resulting from wood cutting, like those in Britain - I reckon that until the logging activities throughout the middle ages, forests there were not scarce either)?

By what means could forest be naturally prevented from spreading wherever there are favorable conditions?


texts: What was the US Navy's "fleet marine force" in 1944-45?

texts: My dad joined the navy in 1944.  After he pissed off his Navy chief in boot camp, he was assigned to what he called the Fleet Marines.  Whenever I try and look up fleet marines it always tries to give me info on the regular marines.  He said his fleet marine force was involved in doing diversionary attacks during invasions of several pacific islands. On his service record for the time period it says NSO Navy 926.  Any info out there on Naval Fleet Marines or NSO Navy 926?


texts: What's the meaning of the title of Manstein's book, 'Lost victories' - missed victories or victories won in vain?

texts:
I recently shot through Manstein's Lost victories in its English translation and am curious as to what is the precise or intended meaning of its title. The original German title is Verlorene Siege, and I can't exclude any of the following two interpretations:

Victories that could have been won, but were let to slip away as a result of mistakes.

Victories that were won in vain, with their spoils being later lost as a result of subsequent defeats.

Both interpretations seem to make sense in the historical context and in view of what the narrative is about. For example, Manstein wrote that Hitler had halted the attack at Kursk prematurely, a decision Manstein called "tantamount to throwing away a victory." And, on the other hand, we all know that Nazi Germany won remarkable victories in the initial stages of WWII, but those victories were later lost.
I looked on the Internet as to what is the mainstream interpretation of the title, but got conflicting results. On the one hand, in his book about Manstein, Marcel Stein has a chapter entitled The break-off of 'Citadel' - another 'lost victory'? We all know that the Operation Citadel wasn't a victory for the Germans. On the other hand, an article in Spiegel seems to interpret verlorene Siege in the second way:

"Verlorene Siege" heißen die Nachkriegserinnerungen des deutschen Generalfeldmarschalls Erich von Manstein, ein Buch voller Rechthaberei, ohne tiefere Einsichten in den verbrecherischen Charakter der Hitlerschen Ostexpansion. "Verlorene Siege" - unter dieser Überschrift ließe sich aber auch die Geschichte der sowjetischen Sieger nach 1945 beschreiben: die Ukraine, das Baltikum, Polen, die Tschechoslowakei, Ostdeutschland - alle diese 1944/45 mit gewaltigen Opfern eroberten Länder hat Russland aus seinem Machtbereich verloren.

In this excerpt, the article's author refers to Ukraine, Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany as verlorene Siege of the USSR, pointing out that those states have slipped out of the Russian sphere.
My question: Is there any evidence as to what is the intended meaning of the title? Did Manstein say or write anything about that?


texts: What is / are the specific reason(s) for Vyacheslav Molotov's fall from grace with Joseph Stalin?

texts:
From the 1930's through World War 2, Vyacheslav Molotov seemed to be the face of the Soviet Union in most diplomatic circles. Sometime after the war he lost favor with Stalin. Some reports say to the point of being marked for death had the dictator not died himself in 1953.

Other than being married to a woman of Jewish decent whom Stalin made it obvious he did not like, are there other reasons given for his dramatic fall?


texts: How can scholarly non-historians locate and properly use scholarly histories?

texts: Non-historian scholars regularly have a need for dependable accounts of particular moments in the past.  How can a non-historian locate and then best use scholarly histories?


texts: What was the technology in pre-war traffic recorders?

texts:
In 1936, Nevada was using an automated traffic recorder, a device that counts the number of passing vehicles:

The device must have included a vehicle detector and a recording mechanism. Today it might be implemented with a reflected infrared beam and a processor running a controller program which writes out an event log. Lots of variations are possible.

How did the traffic recorders of 1936 work? In what form were their reports stored and received?

Kudos to justCal for bringing the NDOT site to our attention.


texts: How did the increase in the birthrate and marriage impact on US homefront during WW2 (1939-1945)?

texts:
I tried to research the increase of birthrate and marriage of the US during WW2 (1939-1945), but the result just shows statistics after the war and the baby boom. Thus, they make me confused. I really need help!

I found this on WIKI, I need more information about the birthrate and marriage during the war, not after.

Baby boom[edit]

  Marriage and motherhood came back as prosperity empowered couples who
  had postponed marriage. The birth rate started shooting up in 1941,
  paused in 1944–45 as 12 million men were in uniform, then continued to
  soar until reaching a peak in the late 1950s. This was the "Baby Boom.

  In a New Deal-like move, the federal government set up the "EMIC"
  program that provided free prenatal and natal care for the wives of
  servicemen below the rank of sergeant. Housing shortages, especially
  in the munitions centers, forced millions of couples to live with
  parents or in makeshift facilities. Little housing had been built in
  the Depression years, so the shortages grew steadily worse until about
  1949, when a massive housing boom finally caught up with demand.
  (After 1944 much of the new housing was supported by the G.I. Bill.)
  Federal law made it difficult to divorce absent servicemen, so the
  number of divorces peaked when they returned in 1946. In long-range
  terms, divorce rates changed little.


texts: What language(s) were spoken in 11th century Romania?

texts: Curious to know what languages would've been spoken and used in correspondences during this time, specifically in Transylvania.


texts: What were the reasons behind Allen W. Dulles resignation?

texts: Can someone please explain why Allen Dulles, former CIA director, was forced to resign? I'm reading one of his books but haven't found any meaningful information on this.


texts: Did the ancient Chinese use an ink covered finger to sign documents?

texts:
I saw some film that in imperial China, Chinese who doesn't know read and write often push his/her finger in ink then apply it in the document instead of signing.

Is that true in history? Because I see no reason to do so, as ancient Chinese did not have tech to recognize finger print or discriminate between fingers


texts: How did the US government manage to enforce the 1980 boycott of the Olympic Games in Russia?

texts:
The 1980 Olympics was famously boycotted by the US and a sixty five other countries. However it's not clear to me how the US government was able to prevent their athletes from participating, given that the US is a democracy and doesn't have direct control over neither the US Olympic Committee nor any individual athletes.

So how did the US government manage to make the boycott a success? Was there a law that banned participation in the Olympics?


texts: Did the Eastern Romans also use roman concrete?

texts: When I read about Roman concrete I understand its use was forgotten after the fall of the Roman empire. But what about the Eastern Roman empire, the Byzantine Empire? Did they still make buildings with Roman concrete? This Wikipedia page, for example, does not refer to the use of concrete.


texts: Were taiko drums used to determine village sizes?

texts:
Were taiko drums used to determine village size? If so, when was this practice in use?
In 'Full Circle', Michael Palin says that the taiko drums were used to determine village sizes in pre-industrial Japan. I took this to mean the Tokugawa Shogunate, but the Wikipedia article on Edo-period villages came up empty. I don't have a direct quote as Google Books doesn't do a preview of it, and I'm listening to the audiobook.
I then searched more and found the claim also in this old New York Times article from 1986 in this wording:

In ancient Japan, folklore has it, a village's boundaries were determined by the farthest point from which the villagers could hear the sound of the taiko - a big drum.
Listening to the taiko today, one imagines those villages must have been awfully big because, if sound has size, taiko music is enormous.

This takes the context away from the Tokugawa and linked instead with ancient Japan, probably pre-Heian given the reference to "folklore". Yet, this more detailed article focussing on the drums has no information regarding whether they were used for village size determination or what period this may have happened in. However, New World Encyclopedia repeats the claim and references this site which also makes the claim but doesn't reference or cite this.


texts: Can you identify this possibly Austro-Hungarian military uniform from either WW1 or before?

texts:
My Great Grandfather died in 1929 at age 50, putting his possible year of birth at 1879. He was born and died in Istria, now modern-day Croatia. During his lifetime, however, this part of the world was under Austro-Hungarian (AH) rule, as the Austrian Littoral. AH's K.U.K Kriegsmarine was based there, and I wondered if his uniform had anything to do with that.

Can you help me identify my Great Grandfather's uniform pictured below?

2


texts: Has US ever unpegged USD from another country?

texts:
I know countries can still buy USD on open forex market. But has US ever officially de-coupled USD with another country?
Hong Kong’s dollar peg faces new scrutiny as security law looms | Financial Times

Washington’s decision to strip the territory of its special trading privileges, in retaliation for China’s controversial new security law, has raised fears in some quarters that Hong Kong’s currency peg with the dollar could be abandoned.
That would, according to UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Tuesday, threaten “what has long been the jewel in [China’s] economic crown”.

I skip some paras.

Hong Kong’s dollar was pegged to its US counterpart in 1983 to stop the currency’s free fall as London and Beijing thrashed out the then British colony’s return to China.

Hong Kong Dollar Peg: How vulnerable is it and if it breaks, how will it happen? Explained

The risk for the peg is that the US would limit Hong Kong banks from accessing greenbacks, severing links, and triggering chaos.


texts: What is the history of the check mark / tick mark?

texts:
Wikipedia has an interesting article on the meaning of the check mark "✓" in different cultures. In the English-speaking world, "✓" generally has a positive connotation — "yes, OK, correct, acknowledged" — perhaps to be contrasted with "✗" — "no, wrong, bad."

However, Wikipedia has no information on the history of how the mark came to mean what it means, or how far back we can trace its use in the West. What they do have is some disputed folk etymologies, such as "maybe ✓ evolved from V as in Vrai or Veritas" and "maybe ✓ evolved from r as in right or richtig." Quora adds: "Maybe ✓ evolved from ν as in νίκη."

Can History StackExchange do better?

What's the origin of the English/American check mark?  If "origin" is too hard: how far back in history can it be traced?


texts: Did the division between East and West Germany coincide with cultural boundaries?

texts:
I understand that at the conclusion of World War II, Germany was divided into East Germany (under the Soviet Union) and West Germany (under the Western powers).

Prior to the division, was there any major cultural difference between eastern Germany and western Germany which made the eastern side more inclined toward or tolerant of the Soviet Union, communism, and totalitarianism?

Another way of asking the question:  In 1989, we found a modernized, industrialized, and economically vibrant West Germany, and a East Germany impoverished, decaying, and paranoid under the Stasi.  Was this due entirely to the two different systems which were imposed upon them, or was there some innate difference between the eastern and western culture?


texts: Why did Peter the Great change his daughters' title to Tsesarevna?

texts:
Having won the Great Northern War in 1721, Peter the Great promoted himself from Tsar to Emperor. At the same time, he seems to have changed the title used by his daughters from Tsarevna to Tsesarevna. (By symmetry, it seems that he would have changed the title used by any son of his from Tsarevich to Tsesarevich, although by this point he had already had his last surviving son, Alexei, tortured to death.) What was his rationale for doing this?
My own best guess is that the change in his daughters' titles reflected the change in his own title; Tsarevna meant something like royal princess, whereas Tsesarevna meant something like imperial princess, at least in Peter's mind. According to this theory, the Tsesar- corresponds to the English/Latin Caesar, i.e. Emperor, and the -evna suffix, of course, means daughter. However, I can see two problems with this point of view:

The word Tsar is itself derived from the title of Caesar.
The Russian transliteration of Caesar is Цезарь, whereas the Russian spelling of Tsesarevna is Цесаревна; note that the former uses the letter з where the latter uses the letter с.

Can anyone shed any light on this?


texts: How did the conquering Mongols and Manchus of China end up becoming part of China?

texts:
The Mongols conquered China and established the Yuan dynasty. The Manchus conquered China and established the Qing dynasty. Why is it in both cases, the conquering countries became part of China at the end of their dynasty?

Today, the Manchus do not even have a separate nation of their own, unlike the Mongolians. The Manchu nation simply disappeared into part of China.

How/why did the conquering foreign Mongols and Manchus of China end up becoming part of China?


texts: What would have been the signal that Pontiac would have given to attack in Fort Detroit?

texts:
In the Siege of Detroit, Pontiac had 300 warriors but did not give the "signal" to attack (07 MAY 1763 before the actual siege started). I have found references that a wampum belt was involved in the signal; however, I've been unable to find what the signal was.  Knowing a bit about the cultural rituals, I suspect that the signal would have been subtle.
Does anyone have a reference for this signal?


texts: What uniform is my Cossack great great grandfather wearing?

texts:
The man bellow with the medals and the beard is my great great grandfather. He was a Cossack in the Urals, I have been looking for ages but I can not find what Cossack uniform he is wearing.
I really want to know because that could help me find out more about him. I know by looking on his medals that he fought for the Russo-Japanese war, and on the back of the photo it says this photo was taken in 1906, so before the Great War and the Revolution.
I just had the photo colorised so it would help more.


texts: When was the first recorded use of hospital readmissions as a summary statistic?

texts:
When was the first recorded use, or the first recorded intention of use of hospital readmissions as a summary statistic?

A hospital readmission (also called a rehospitalization) is defined as a hospital admission that is unplanned, but related to a recent hospital discharge. For example, a person who returns to a hospital (and is readmitted) after surgery with an infection would be considered a hospital readmission.

The earliest reference I can find to the collection of a hospital readmission statistic is from Pearl, R. (1921) Modern methods in handling hospital statistics. The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin 32: 185, in which he describes collecting readmissions with a punched card system (shown and described below). I'm not sure if Pearl ever implemented his system while working at Hopkins, but he at least intended to do so.

  The fourteenth is a split single column field It records the following
  information... (c) Whether this case represents the first admission of
  the patient to the hospital, or whether it is a readmission.

Despite this early reference, I strongly suspect that others have collected these data in previous work. I have investigated a few publications from the likely suspects, including Florence Nightingale, William Farr, and Major Greenwood, all of whom were pioneers in collecting hospital statistics, but I have yet to find anything that specifically mentions hospital readmissions.

Note that when I say "statistic" I don't mean a test statistic in particular, even a simple count would suffice. Even the term "hospital" I am very loosely defining here: if anyone found a clinic or any other place of medical care that measured something similar to hospital readmissions, I would be interested, even if the source was ancient.


texts: Which crown features on the Japanese Order of the Precious Crown?

texts:
The Order of the Precious Crown features a crown on its badge. I cannot determine which crown this is.

The order was founded in 1888 by Emperor Meiji, who I cannot find depicted wearing or with any such crown.

Indeed, the crown looks similar to that worn by Emperor Kammu (735-806), but I cannot find any confirmation of which exact crown it depicts.


texts: How many traps did mountain men typically use?

texts:
The term "mountain men" refers to men(and a very few really tough women) who roamed the Rocky Mountains in the US and Canada in search of beaver.

Mountain men were active from approx. 1810 to 1870 with the apex of Rocky Mountain beaver trapping  from the 1830's thru the 1840's.

How many beaver traps did the "typical" mountain man use?

Bonus Question:  In a good year, how many beavers could our "typical" mountain main trap each year and what was the average price of each beaver pelt?


texts: How are historical epidemiological studies done?

texts:
While growing up we were told in school that plagues, carried over by the Europeans, decimated the Native American population. We were also taught about the black plague in Europe and a few other historical epidemics.

My question is threefold.

First, what are some of the main methods that historians use to determine that an epidemic really did in fact occur?

Second, why do we believe that Europeans carried diseases to the Americas and those decimated the native population.

Third, is there a specific name for the field of study which attempts to uncover the fact that epidemics occurred in history and study them in detail?


texts: Why did serfdom disappear gradually in England?

texts: Why did serfdom gradually die out in England? Why was its abolition not the locus of explosive and acute social conflict, like in Russia or France?


texts: How would a king's servants prove that they are on a task given by the king?

texts:
How would servants of kings, lords or so on, prove that they are on some task given by their lord if someone were to question them?

I imagine a letter written by a ruler would be enough for those who could read, but what about the illiterate people? And even letters could be counterfeit.

My main interest is in middle ages Europe (15-16th century). Signet rings are what I first had in mind as the Wikipedia article states they are "used to attest the authority of it's bearer..." I was looking for objects beyond letters, that could prove a person has the authority of someone higher than themselves. Signet rings are basically what I am looking for but I believe they were very personal, and not handed out as sign of given authority.


texts: Why did Western democracies sign the Munich Agreement?

texts:
Why did Western democracies sign the Munich Agreement with Nazi
Germany when they knew the nature of Nazi regime? What did they want to obtain by signing this agreement?
In 1938/1939, two pacts/agreements shocked the world and disappointed many European countries:

the Munich Agreement with Western democracies that's to say, England and France in 1938,  and;
Molotov_Ribbentrop non aggression pact with Stalin in 1939.

The motive of the pact with Stalin is easy to understand, because they wanted to share Eastern Europe, but I cannot understand the reason behind France's and England's concessions to Hitler. Especially when we know that this agreement was signed after the annexation of Austria and Hitler's expansionist ambitions were revealed.


texts: What was the international (not American) opinion of the 1984 Nicaraguan Election?

texts:
The Reagan administration obviously condemned it as a "Soviet sham," which ramped up tensions and aid to the Contras.

What were the opinions of the international community? What did human rights organizations and the United Nations think about the legitimacy of the election?

Was the majority opinion that it was a free and open election or that it was hostile and rigged?


texts: Can you identify the ship in this picture?

texts: Unidentified ship possibly numbered 545, aircraft carrier in background, maybe San Francisco or Washington State?


texts: How was the Lanfang Republic set up if emigration from China was illegal?

texts: The Lanfang Republic (蘭芳共和國) was founded in 1777. The Qing Dynasty banned people from leaving China, so how did the republic get its founding citizens? How did it become a tributary state of China if the population broke Chinese law?


texts: It is supposed that at some point in Vatican history an event took place commonly referred to as the banquet of chestnuts. However this story is doubted and discounted in many quarters. Is there any archival evidence which may allow one to study this occurrence further?


texts: Who discovered cancer in Egyptian mummies?

texts: Who was it that was responsible for the discovery that there are mummies found with cancer as the stated cause of death? And which Pharaoh or Pharaohs was it found in?


texts: What did Lord Carnarvon study at Trinity College Cambridge?

texts: This question is about the famous Egyptologist. I read that he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, but cannot find information about his time at Cambridge - in particular what degree he obtained.


texts:
Wondering if there is an origin of the "3 meals a day" concept. For example, in English we have specific words for them:

Breakfast.
Lunch.
Dinner.

But we have a few more for other meals in the day (I can only think of one actually):

Brunch.

According to this we can add:

Elevenses.
Tea.
Supper.

And then we have many special occasion (time independent) ones:

BBQ.
Feast.
...

But the main ones are Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. We don't have many other specific names for meal times in the day.

Wondering if it's like this in all cultures currently, and if not, how variable it is (I know nothing about this). And then wondering where it got started if it's not universal.

The paleo diet has a lot of experimentation with meal times. Some even suggest a 8-12 meals a day. But it's too early to have names for those. Then they speculate about hunter-gatherer societies potentially eating at most 1-time in a day, maybe not for several days in a row. So wonder what kind of concepts they had for meals.


texts: When was the term for WW2 first used and was it more popular in, say, US before Europe?

texts: I never thought about this but perhaps Germans did not see it as a world war or preferred not to think of it as such. Or, maybe WW2 only became a popular term in most places after the war was over?


texts: Name of Kingdom that was formed after marriage refusal?

texts:
A while back, I read that in the middle ages, or even thousands of years ago, in Europe (I think around Netherlands), someone asked for a lady's hand in marriage (I think she was daughter of some King minister).

The lady refused. Then the man began conquering nearby lands and formed a Kingdom (I'm not sure if it's modern-day Norway), then went back and asked for lady's hand in marriage, and she said yes.

I am not able to find any reference to it on Internet, but I know it happened in history.

Kindly point me in the right direction.


texts: What was the main diet of pre-agricultural Asians?

texts:
The modern Asian diet is based mostly around rice. Was rice a major part of the paleolithic Asian diet? Did they know how to process and eat rice before agriculture?

Aside from meats, what were other major parts of their diet? What kind of fruits were common?

I'm looking mainly at East Asian (China/Korean/Japan) kind of diets, but alternative diets for other rice eaters (like Southeast Asian, Indian) would also be helpful.


texts: Is there any history of a government/ruling party refusing to accept a Supreme Court order?

texts:
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said they accept the decision. What does it mean? Do they have any other choice? How? Please explain.

Speaker of the parliament refuses to disqualify PM.

Earlier, the PM refused to open the corruption cases against the president.

How is it possible to refuse the order of a federal court? What can happen in UK or India in similar cases? Please explain.

What happens if a Government refuses Supreme Court order?


texts: Historical, academic explanations for the near-universal second-class citizenship of women?

texts:
I just heard on the news that, in 70 countries, girls face risks by simply going to school and being girls.

How did women come to be second-class citizens throughout the world? Are there any relatively non-controversial historical explanations for the origins of gender inequality?


texts: 1920s French uniform - Anyone know what kind of uniform?

texts: Anyone know what kind of uniform this is? The picture was taken in Versailles around 1921, and it looks like his cap has a number on it - maybe 58?


texts: How prevalent were recreational drugs in the ancient world?

texts:
A recent discussion about the Queen Mab Speech in Romeo and Juliet, prompted us to wonder whether Mercutio was on drugs.

Which then led to the question of how prevalent recreational drugs where throughout history, very specifically through the ancient and medieval world. Are drugs a (relatively) new phenomenon? Did  any ancient kingdoms (not including the Opium Wars) have problems with the citizens abusing drugs? What sort of drugs, and are they still popular today?

Preferably answers should focus on History before 1500 C.E


texts: Can you identify these military tunes (17th-century)?

texts:
Would anyone happen to know the names of two historic tunes (fifth and drum) in the Revolutionary War? I linked the descriptions below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPbn_uipW10&loop=0&start=01:22&end=01:29
https://youtu.be/UoVCFt0HN9w?t=3431
Many thanks.


texts: Were Russians less racist than I thought?

texts:
I recently found out that Alexander Pushkin's great grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, came from Africa and was black. Apparently he was abducted as a slave and given to Peter the great as a gift, who released him. He also became member of the Russian nobility.
This surprised me because I thought the vast majority of European nobility (or of all Europeans for that matter) were extremely prejudiced against black people at that time. I can't find any source describing if he faced any kind of discrimination. According to Wikipedia his first wife hated him, but it doesn't say if this had to do with his race (and his second wife didn't hate him).
So were Russians/Europeans at that time not as racist as I thought? Or did he and/or his descendants face considerable racism? I would appreciate good sources on this matter.


texts: Did Hitler and Hirohito consider themselves as close allies?

texts: I have heard that Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, and Mussolini, prime minister of Italy, met personally to discuss strategy and seemed to be pretty close allies. I have not heard much about Hitler and Hirohito's relationship however. Did they consider themselves as allies? Did they discuss strategy together?


texts: What was the name of the Ottoman-Spanish truce in 1580?

texts:
As I'm reading the history of the Western Mediterranean about this period, I found many references to a truce between the Ottomans and Habsburg Spain in 1580.

For example, Wikipedia - Habsburg Spain:

  Philip lacked the resources to fight both the Netherlands and the
  Ottoman Empire at the same time, and the stalemate in the
  Mediterranean continued until Spain agreed to a truce in 1580.

Ottoman Algeria

  After Spain had sent an embassy to Constantinople in 1578 to negotiate
  a truce, leading to a formal peace in August 1580, the Regency of
  Algiers was a formal Ottoman territory, rather than just a military
  base in the war against Spain

Looking at this box, it seems that the truce was  observed. There is no major engagement in the Mediterannean until 1613, despite a lot of battles listed before 1580. Coincidentally, at this time the Ottomans were busy with Persia and Spain with the Dutch and England, so this truce must have been convenient for them.

However I can't find any details about this truce. Is there a formal name for it? At what level was it agreed, e.g. was it agreed between the monarchs? What are the terms of the truce, were there any territorial exchange or delineation? Are there other arrangement (e.g. payments, promise to support or not support other powers)? And how long did it eventually last?


texts: Why is King Henry V regarded as such a great King?

texts:
In History magazine it says:

  King Henry V is well-known as a great man - charming, wooing, gracious, triumphant and an English hero.

However, in a battle he ordered every male over 12 years old to be killed.
Also, in 1415, he had 200 archers cut the throats of many French prisoners. He repeated this kind of action in France in 1419, 1420, 1421 and 1422 as well, among many other things.

Why is he portrayed as such a man among the public?


texts:
I was rereading Winston Churchill's "Their Finest Hour" speech, and came across this passage in reference to the threat from bombing attacks:

  I do not at all underrate the severity of the ordeal which lies before
  us; but I believe our countrymen will show themselves capable of
  standing up to it, like the brave men of Barcelona, and will be able
  to stand up to it, and carry on in spite of it, at least as well as
  any other people in the world.

(emphasis mine).

Spain of course was a neutral country at the time. So what incident involving Barcelona is he referring to here?


texts: Contact between the Inca, Maya and Aztecs?

texts: Were these three cultures aware of each others existence? Did they trade with one another?


texts: What were the requirements for Iron Cross first and second class?

texts:
What were the prerequisites for being awarded an Iron Cross first or second class?

Were there stricter requrements for getting an Iron Cross 1st class than an Iron Cross 2nd class?

What happened when a soldier, already having the Iron Cross 2nd class, performed an act that would give him another one?

Could the Iron Cross be awarded multiply?

What I gathered up to now:

The Iron Cross was awarded regardless of rank, i.e. from enlisted men up to officers
Having already Iron Cross 2nd class was required for being able to be awarded the Iron Cross 1st class
There were much less Iron Crosses 1st class awarded than Iron Cross 2nd class
The Iron Cross was awarded for bravery


texts: What is my ancestor wearing, and what is the purpose?

texts: This is a photo of my ancestor from Donegal, Ireland, sometime in the 1800's. What is she wearing, and what is the significance, especially of the headpiece?


texts: How accurate is the quip: "Mongols, having already conquered half of Europe, decided the other half wasn't worth it"?

texts:
Erik Flint, writing in the voice of a heroine who is a professional historian, quipped:

  Mongols, having already conquered half of Europe, decided the other half wasn't worth it
  (emphasis added)

How historically accurate is that quip, specifically the bolded second part?

Is there evidence that Mongols justified their own stopping their conquest of Europe after winning the battles of Legnica and Mohi by assessing that further conquest was possible but "wasn't worth it"?
Is there a historical consensus that this was the main or at least one of the main reasons, as opposed to some others?

Link to quote


texts: What is the oldest known international sporting event?

texts:
We know that modern Olympics are very popular international sporting events. What is the earliest known (documented) instance of an international sporting event?

Let us define an international sports event as an event where teams or participants from different empires, countries, or far off regions within the same empire or country competed against each other.

"Far off" is subjective but let's define it to mean a distance large enough to prevent systematic movement of people on a regular basis --more regular than the event itself. So, Gaul and Italy would be far off regions in the same empire under the Roman period.


texts: Placard with 3 red crosses - probably WW1

texts: I found a placard in my great-grandfather's scrapbook, it's with some other WW1 items so I'm guessing it's related to the war.  But what is it?


texts: Was the name "War of the League of Augsburg" or "War of the Grand Alliance" used within the Alliance?

texts:
The recent question "Has anyone ever named a war after their own country or faction?" led me to mention that The War of the Grand Alliance (also known as "The War of the League of Augsburg" or "The Nine Years' War") might be a possibility. However, after some quick searching, I didn't see anything that said definitively whether anyone within the Grand Alliance / League of Augsburg actually used the name "War of the Grand Alliance" or "War of the League of Augsburg" or not.

For reference as to which countries / areas would count as having used the name, the Wiki article on the Grand Alliance says the following regarding its membership:

  The Grand Alliance was a European coalition, consisting (at various times) of Austria, Bavaria, Brandenburg, the Dutch Republic, England, the Holy Roman Empire, Ireland, the Palatinate of the Rhine, Portugal, Savoy, Saxony, Scotland, Spain and Sweden. The organization, which was founded in 1686 as the League of Augsburg, was known as the "Grand Alliance" after England and Scotland joined the League (in 1689).

So, my question is: Did anyone within the League of Augsburg / Grand Alliance refer to the war in question as "The War of the League of Augsburg" or "The War of the Grand Alliance" or were these names just used later?