texts: When did Sultan Saif ad-Din Qutuz escape from Mongol swords?

texts:
In Wikipedia, it is mentioned that Hulagu Khan sent the following letter to Sultan of Egypt, Saif ad-Din Qutuz in 1260:

  From the King of Kings of the East and West, the Great Khan. To
  Qutuz the Mamluk, who fled to escape our swords. You should think of
  what happened to other countries and submit to us. You have heard how
  we have conquered a vast empire and have purified the earth of the
  disorders that tainted it. We have conquered vast areas, massacring
  all the people. You cannot escape from the terror of our armies. Where
  can you flee? What road will you use to escape us? Our horses are
  swift, our arrows sharp, our swords like thunderbolts, our hearts as
  hard as the mountains, our soldiers as numerous as the sand.
  Fortresses will not detain us, nor armies stop us. Your prayers to God
  will not avail against us. We are not moved by tears nor touched by
  lamentations. Only those who beg our protection will be safe. Hasten
  your reply before the fire of war is kindled. Resist and you will
  suffer the most terrible catastrophes. We will shatter your mosques
  and reveal the weakness of your God and then will kill your children
  and your old men together. At present you are the only enemy against
  whom we have to march.

Sultan killed the envoys who brought that letter in rage.

I read the page on the Sultan's life but I can't find any mention of the Sultan meeting the Mongols in battle before Battle of Ain-Jalut so It doesn't make any sense for Hulagu to claim that the Sultan had fled before to escape from Mongol swords (Unless of course Wikipedia is incomplete, that's why I am here).

In Sultan's life account however it is mentioned that he was captured and sold as a slave by Mongols when he was a child:

  Qutuz was of Turkic origin. Captured by the Mongols and sold as a
  slave, he traveled to Syria where he was sold to an Egyptian slave
  merchant who then sold him to Aybak, the Mamluk sultan in Cairo.
  According to some sources, Qutuz claimed that his original name was
  Mahmud ibn Mamdud and he was descended from Ala ad-Din Muhammad II, a
  ruler of the Khwarezmian Empire.

Is this what Hulagu's insult was referring to? If yes, How can he accuse Qutuz of fleeing when it was the Mongols who sold him in the first place? If no, Which armed confrontation did Qutuz take part in against Mongols before the above mentioned letter and subsequent Battle of Ain Jalut?


texts: What were General Johnston's options during the Atlanta campaign?

texts:
A Confederate death knell in the Civil War was the capture of Atlanta by the North's General William T. Sherman. Arguably the turning point of the Atlanta campaign was when Confederate President Jefferson Davis replaced General Joseph Johnston, regarded by his opponents Grant and Sherman as the South's best defensive general, with the more offensively-minded John Bell Hood.

Johnston had started the Atlanta campaign outnumbered nearly 2 to 1 by the Northerners. After a "fighting retreat" from the Tennessee border, through northern Georgia, Johnston arrived in Atlanta outnumbered less than 5 to 4, because his policy of defensive attrition had cost the South fewer casualties than the North had suffered, and because Sherman had to detach troops to guard his lengthening supply lines (Johnston picked up a few thousand troops on his way back to Atlanta.)

Do other historical examples suggest that Johnston was "winning" or at least "doing well" when he arrived in Atlanta with an army nearly as large as his opponents', meaning that President Davis snatched "defeat from the jaws of victory" in replacing him? Or did Johnston miss better opportunities to stop Sherman further north? Or do other historical examples suggest that Hood's policy of attacking against odds of 4 to 5 was a better strategy than trying to defend against those odds?


texts: How old was Murasaki Shikibu when she married her second cousin? And why did she marry him?

texts:
From Wikipedia:

Aristocratic Heian women lived restricted and secluded lives, allowed to speak to men only when they were close relatives or household members. Murasaki's autobiographical poetry shows that she socialized with women but had limited contact with men other than her father and brother; she often exchanged poetry with women but never with men. Unlike most noblewomen of her status, however, she did not marry on reaching puberty; instead she stayed in her father's household until her mid-twenties or perhaps even to her early thirties.

Donald Keene in his essay The Tale of Genji says:

In 996 she violated custom by
accompanying her father to his post in Echizen, apparently in order to avoid
marriage with a second cousin, the governor of Chikuzen. The suitor,
Fujiwara no Nobutaka, was in his middle forties, had several wives and
concubines, and a number of children, the oldest a son of twenty-six. The
difference in age and these family circumstances, more than the personality
of the man, may have occasioned Murasaki Shikibu’s reluctance to marry
him; however, life in the unfamiliar, depressing surroundings of Echizen
seems to have changed her mind: in the spring of 998, before her father
completed his term of office, she returned alone to the capital, and that
autumn she and Nobutaka were married.

Her birth year is undetermined, but Wikipedia indicates 973 or 978. In that case she couldn't have remained unmarried into her thirties. So where did that number come from? Can we get more accurate information on that from scholarly works that examine her early poems and letters?
Also why did she marry her cousin Nobutaka if she was so reluctant to do so just a few years earlier? Any more information on her change of heart? What were the circumstances?


texts: Was it worthwhile for Britain to side with the USA in the Canada-Alaska border dispute?

texts: In 1903 the Canada-Alaska border dispute was decided by a tribunal of 3 American members, 2 Canadian members, and 1 British member. The British member sided with the Americans with the stated goal of improving relations with the USA. Was this a needless concession or a gift vital to maintaining friendly relations with the USA?


texts: How were settlers' houses in Kamchatka built?

texts: As Imperial Russia settled Kamchatka, how did the new arrivals build their houses? Was construction identical to that of Siberia or were local adaptations made?


texts: Why did Allied invasion of France occur only in 1944 and not earlier?

texts: Stalin (quite understandably) had demanded that the Allies open a Second Front as early as 1942, yet this did not happen till June 1944. Why did it have to wait till so late?


texts: Why aren't there major cities on the Atlantic coast of France?

texts: I see Bordeaux and Nantes, but they are a short ways inland.   The U.S. has several like New York, Boston, Miami, Charleston.


texts: How did pre-Columbian Americans shear their alpacas?

texts: What tool did they use to separate wool from the animals?


texts: Did Marcus Aurelius ever deliberate about his son's succession?

texts:
I did some research on Google, and found this Reddit response, which provides some evidence for the idea that Marcus Aurelius was fond of his children and even doted on them. But nowhere in the response do we see evidence of whether M. Aurelius ever deliberated over the decision to pass on the empire to Commodus.1 I do know that they ruled jointly for a time. Do we have any primary sources (writings by Aurelius himself, or members of his court whom he trusted) which indicate any deliberation over this decision, any doubt or skepticism about Commodus's ability to rule?

1 As a practicing Stoic, it seems unlikely that M. Aurelius would leave this most important decision up to anything but reason. Hence my curiosity.


texts:
She was a Spanish princess by birth. So why is she called "of Austria"? Is it because her mother was an Austrian princess? But presumably, it should be the person's place of birth that gives them their sobriquet, not their parents'.

Come to think of it, is the name "Anne of Austria" even contemporarily attested? Or is it a later appellation, not used during her lifetime?

UPDATE
As @Semaphore has now convincingly showed, Anne really had the title of Austrian Archduchess (something baldl asserted in wikipedia, but not sourced there). Still, we need to find out why the "of Austria" became her standard sobriquet.


texts: Why is it called the "Ottoman" Empire in English language?

texts:
I don't get why in English language it is called the "Ottoman" Empire.
The name of the state derives from its founder, Osman I., however how can "Osman" be transformed to "Ottoman"? For me this doesn't make any sense.

In my mother tongue, which is German, it is called "Osmanisches Reich", hence "Osmanic Empire" appears to me as a more logical English version in my opinion.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmanisches_Reich


texts:
In this article "Does Putin really need Nobel Peace Prize", it is claimed that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari had the following conversation with Serbian president Miloshevich during the Miloshevich-Ahtisaari-Chernomyrdin meeting (my translation from Russian):

  Ahtisaari: We met here totally not for any discussions or
  negotiations.

  Miloshevich (after reading the document): What will happen if we will
  not sign?

  Ahtisaari (moves hand over the table surface): Belgrade will be like
  this table. We at once will start carpet bombing of Belgrade.

  Ahtisaari (again moves the hand over the table): We will do it to
  Belgrade. In less than a week there will be half a million dead.

Was it really like that?


texts: How thick was Late Medieval horse armor?

texts:
Is it known how thick Late Medieval horse plate armor (for field of battle) was? Was it as thick as its rider's armor?

Good horses were expensive and valuable, especially during a battle, so it makes sense to protect them. I would imagine it would be a disaster for a knight if his horse got injured during a fight. He would be very immobile on foot.

As a side note, did longbowmen shoot at the horses? It would make sense if they are less protected.


texts: In Francoist Spain, what steps were required for non-Catholics to marry?

texts:
In Francoist Spain, if I understand correctly, the Roman Catholic Church had significant authority over many religious aspects of life, including marriage.  On Wikipedia, I read:

  Civil marriages that had taken place in Republican Spain were declared null and void unless they had been validated by the Church. (source)

This makes it sound like the Church had some sort of "final say" with respect to marriages.  Based on this, I think it's a fair assumption that this validation would also have had to occur on any marriages between non-Catholics that took place during Franco's rule.  But it's not clear to me what that process would have been.

Thus, my question: what was required for non-Catholics to marry in Francoist Spain?  Imagine, for example, that two Protestants want to marry in Spain in 1950.  What were the high-level steps that they needed to take, particularly with respect to the Roman Catholic Church, to get married?  Did it make a difference if one or both were not citizens of Spain?  Was there significant monetary cost or time required to complete the process?


texts: "Year without a summer" 1816 effects on Africa

texts:
I have found quite a bit of information on the farming and societal effects of the volcanic eruption of Mt Tambora in 1815, but they all talk about North America, Europe and Asia.

I wondered if there were effects of temperature changes in Africa as well, but could not find any information. I am mainly interested in eye witness reports and just out of curiosity. From a map which I found on wikipedia it seems that Northern Africa was affected.


texts: Why did Emperor Constantine believe he was a instrument of God?

texts:
I recently watched a lecture by a professor at Yale who mentioned Constantine's belief that he was a instrument of God, but the academic doesn't really explain why Constantine believed he was an instrument of God.

My question is did the belief that the emperor was a divine instrument stem from Constantine's predecessor's pagan beliefs?  For example, Julius Caesar was worshiped as a God after he died.


texts: What is the strongest alcoholic drink that existed during the Middle Ages in Europe?

texts: What is the strongest alcoholic drink that was drank within the European nations during the Middle Ages (5th to the 15th century)?


texts: From how far away could an experienced and skilled archer hit a man?

texts: So I'm not asking about shooting into the enemy formation without specific target but targeting a single individual with a reasonable chance of success.


texts: Have gun rights ever increased without a revolution?

texts:
I've been debating with some friends on gun rights in the US.  One standard argument therein is the slippery slope argument that once we start taking away gun rights, it will never stop until they are all taken away.  The rational answer I've seen is to point out that the slippery slope is a fallacy, not an argument.

Challenging my own position: is there any example of gun rights being increased in a population without a corresponding revolution (e.g., the US Revolutionary War)?

Examples might be a nation or state which relaxed a magazine capacity limit or permitted a new class of sales.  This would exclude rights that were a trivial product of things like technological advancement (e.g. it was impossible to own a machine gun before they were first invented).  A lack thereof would be strong evidence for the slippery slope.


texts: Has there ever been a truly bilingual country prior to the contemporary period?

texts:
What I mean by this is: has there ever been a country where the bulk of the population spoke two different languages as a matter of course?

This question is somewhat inspired by this video in which Simone Giertz says that "everyone in Sweden learns English from when they are eight."  To my American ears, she speaks nearly flawless, unaccented English to the point where I don't, as a native speaker, think I'd even realize she was not one as well.  It also brought to mind a scene in the Norwegian film Trollhunter in which some Norwegians run into some Polish plumbers.  The subitled conversation is confused at first, then both parties switch to English to understand each other.  Again, the Norwegians speak English with only a mild accent.

This has also been my experience professionally, working for a company that has a high Swedish representation due to past mergers.  Now obviously there's some bias as to who would be working in the US, but again, often I don't even realize someone is Swedish until they start using the language.  This is in contrast to many other foreign-born people I work with where, even when their English is quite good, there's still a clear accent.  I've been told by a couple of Swedish coworkers that "well, everyone in Sweden knows English."  (I also have some Belgian colleagues and the situation there is similar.)

So it seems that in that area of the world, there's a situation where one "native" language is used internally while another language is used to talk to people outside the country.  It got me to wondering if this is a sustainable thing.  If we go one hundred years in the future, will Scandinavia have become an English speaking territory, or will languages like Swedish, Norwegian, etc. persist.  In other words, is what we see today in Scandinavia a transient situation on the road to English dominance, or a move to something different, with native languages and a "common tongue".  So I was curious about historical precedents.

Now I know that this has not been unusual for the elites.  For instance, in Roman times, most literate Romans spoke Greek, and in many periods in Europe, the elites would speak French to each other rather than their native tongue.  But I'm more interested in the bulk of the population.

Have there been periods before the modern era where the bulk of the population in some region would know two languages at near fluency. For this purpose, we can define "before modern era" as "before World War II".


texts: What percent of the US Federal Budget was spent on WW2?

texts: From 1941 Dec 7 to 1945 May 8, what percent of the US Federal Budget was spent on the war? I would like to compare this to today's military spending, which according to this paragraph in wikipedia, is 28 - 38%.


texts: How did the British and French train their troops during the colonial eras?

texts: From what I saw in movies, during many battles throughout the 1700s to early 1800s involving the French or British armies, rows of troops from both sides would fire volleys of bullets into each other and many soldiers would get hit and fall, but the rest of the soldiers would hold their ground or advance without flinching, and I was wondering how were these soldiers trained to be so disciplined and why would anyone sign up for war, as they would likely die.


texts: Where does George Buchanan say in “The History of Scotland” that Macbeth used (specifically) Belladonna to poison the Danes?

texts:
In reading this passage on page 196 on Belladonna from The farmer's Encyclopædia, and Dictionary of Rural Affairs By Cuthbert William Johnson on Google books:

http://books.google.com/books?id=pFe9R-w7yH4C&pg=PA196&lpg=PA196&dq=macbeth+and+belladonna&source=bl&ots=e5CGzSSuKs&sig=o6UxYETjhWjtXRpoM_8x9fcPx_g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ss-GU9uoGce-oQT6nYGQBw&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=macbeth%20and%20belladonna&f=false

Johnson says that according to Buchanan, Macbeth poisoned the Danes with Belladona. I have been trying to find where Buchanan actually says the poison was Belladona, but the closest I've found is this reference in the General Index of Buchanan's "History of Scotland" on Google books, page 667-668.

Which can be found here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=kxFIAAAAMAAJ&q=belladonna#v=onepage&q=macbeth&f=false

It seems to indicate that the reference is to page 330 or 332 but those pages do not seem to be speaking of Macbeth at all.

What I'm looking for is a direct reference from George Buchanan's "The History of Scotland" where he says that Macbeth specifically used Belladonna to poison the Danes.

Edit: I have also found reference to Macbeth using Belladonna here:

...I see I can't post more that two links... It was a link to a Google book of the following:

From page 193 of The Naturalist: Illustrative of the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Kingdoms..., Volumes 4-5 by Neville Wood, Esq. with the source attribution given again to Buchanan.


texts: Did the dramatic improvement in survival rates of scurvy in the Royal Navy significantly affect British port cities?

texts:
I've been reading about James Lind and scurvy in the Royal Navy, and how, through the efforts of Lind and others, survival rates improved dramatically after the introduction of orange/lemon juice, watercress, etc. into sailors' rations. I realize this is an oversimplification (PDF), of course, but this begs the question in the title:

Were British port cities, e.g. Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton, London, etc. and other cities that provided the bulk of the sailors to the Royal Navy significantly affected by this? I might be overstating the number of sailors in the Royal Navy relative to the population of these cities as a whole, but my naive intuition says that many more sailors actually returning to port must have had some effect.


texts: What was life like in the 1920s to 1930s in Bruno, Saskatchewan?

texts:
What was the population, demographics, and types of services that they would have had?

Looking for an overview of that whole area during the 1920s and '30s.

Would most babies been born at a hospital or at home?


texts: Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon for the crimes he committed during his presidency was quite an unpopular and controversial move. Why did he make this decision?


texts: What animals did South East Asians ride in the Middle Ages?

texts: I just got curious, what animals were used by Asians (peasants and rich people) for riding in the Middle Ages? In the west region of the Earth people rode horses, but I guess horses were not common in Asia, or am I wrong? Thailand/Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia... this region interests me most.


texts: How were taxes collected for traveling merchants in the middle ages?

texts:
I've done research on taxation in the middle ages. I found this answer particularly helpful. (What was the average percentage of taxes in Europe during the Middle Ages?). It mentions that merchants were taxed on murage, pavage, pontage, stallage. The first 3 sound like tolls. Stallage appears to be a fee to set up a stall. Clearly the most common tax, the land tax, rarely applied to traveling merchants.
My question is not what taxes were used, but how they were collected. As I understand, tax collection was generally outsourced and done in a haphazard way. Was there always a tax collector at city gates and bridges to collect tolls? Was there a tax collector at the townsquare every morning to collect stallage fees? Were merchants often able to avoid taxes while traveling through a country if they didn't stay long?
In as functional a way as possible, what would paying taxes be like for a traveling merchant?
I'm specifically asking about 1100-1500 Europe, but additional information about Middle East merchants is welcome as well.


texts: Why doesn't Eusebius of Caesarea mention Julian calendar in his Chronicle?

texts:
Why doesn't Eusebius of Caesarea even mention the Julian calendar in his Chronicle? Chronicle by Eusebius of Caesarea covers period till A.D. 325. Armenian translation of Chronicle ends with the following passage:

Now it is appropriate for us to append a list of the emperors of the Romans, starting from Julius Caesar. We shall mention the consuls for each year, equating [these dates] with the Olympiads.

Not that the Julian calendar

. . . . became the predominant calendar in the Roman Empire and subsequently most of the Western world for more than 1,600 years until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated a minor modification to reduce the length of the average year from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days and thus corrected the Julian calendar's drift against the solar year. Wikipedia:JulianCalendar

I found it very strange that Eusebius names Julius Caesar but does not mention his calendar which is supposed to be in a wide use at the time of Eusebius' writings.


texts: We hear a lot about millionaires or even billionaires during the Age ov Industry in America. But these were all men. Who was the first American woman to become a millionaire?


texts: Why was the US table tennis team sent to communist China even after a difference in ideology?

texts: The USA had an embargo in place with China, due to having fought the Chinese in Korea during the Korean war. For 20 years no American set foot in PRC territory. At last though, the American table tennis team was sent to China. How was this possible? Was this a private initiative or part of U.S. foreign policy.


texts: How did the Japanese populace view the emperor during the Edo Period?

texts:
What was the context behind the Sonnō Jōi (尊皇攘夷, "revere the emperor and repel the barbarians") movement?
To my understanding, the Edo Shogunate was a typical feudal society with strict societal structures (class system from Neo-Confucianism and all the autonomous Hans). Ideally this should keep the people loyal only to their direct overlords, in the sense that a serf would be loyal only to his/her local lord/daimyo instead of the king/shogun/emperor. So how did the Sonnō Jōi movement gain popularity? My assumption is that this (the respect for the emperor) could be rooted in nationalism as reflected through the Jōi ("repel the barbarians") part of the phrase as well as the Kokugaku (國學, "national/domestic studies") school that gained popularity in the same period. But where did this sense of nationalism in turn come from then, as the notion of nationalism is also alien to a typical feudal society? The "Japanese Nationalism" entry of Wikipedia only traced it back to the Meiji period. (Maybe I should create an individual question for Japanese nationalism?)
Edit from comment: I looked up the Wikipedia entry for Sonnō Jōi but it didn't really explain how the movement gained popularity other than stating that the idea came from Neo-Confucianism and listing several significant figures in promoting it. Besides, wouldn't the Neo-Confucians be more inclined to promoting the Shogunate since the shogun was the actual person in charge and that the shogunate itself promoted Neo-Confucianism? To me it would make sense if the participants of the movement used the emperor only as a figurehead against the shogunate but they were proven to be quite genuinely loyal during and after the Meiji Restoration.


texts: Italian History from 1870-1913: Why did Italy have such a hard time becoming a "Great Power" like Germany?

texts:
Both Italy and Prussia-Germany became united from the years 1870-1871. Instead of small provinces, the country became united under one political leadership. Their unification received the help of France and from the Austro-Hungarians backing off their claims. Italy formed a Royal Navy, and increased industrial output and worked towards internal reforms.

The internal improvements failed to raise them to the status of a world power. Relative to the other world powers like Germany and Great Britain, Italy lacked a strong and efficient navy and a standing army. Although Italy had iron and steel industries, they were dwarfed by that of their neighboring countries.

Why did Italy's development lag so far behind that of Germany, or other European powers?


texts: How did various Islamic polities incentivise conversion?

texts:
I have read the Wikipedia article spread of Islam.

The claim is made that conversion at swordpoint was rare

  It is now apparent that conversion by force, while not unknown in Muslim countries, was, in fact, rare.

And that non-Muslims had to pay a special tax, the Jizya

  They paid a special tax; they were not supposed to wear certain colors; [...]

The wikipedia article about this tax, however, claims that

  [it does] not constitute sufficient economic motive for conversion

and that it may have been smaller than another tax (the Zakat), which Muslims had to pay. (further reading suggests that maybe the Jizya had to be paid in addition to, not instead of, the Zakat)

This answer suggests that maybe social exclusion was used

  those Dhimmi's have been living separate from Muslims, or were required to wear special clothes, in order to distinguish them from Muslims

but that only works after Muslims are already a majority.

It is my impression that spontaneous mass conversion is historically rare (or even non-existent). For example, places under Roman rule retained their original religions (they did not convert to the Roman religion) until the Christianisation of the Roman empire, which was imposed by force.

So if it wasn't by force, and it wasn't by economic incentives, how did the Islamic Empire incentivise conversion?


texts: Please identify this WW1 Italian Uniform

texts: Can you tell me anything about the uniform in the picture? I believe the picture was taken around the time of the first WW in Sicily. The insignia on the hat, the hat itself, the boots and sword makes me suspect cavalry. The boy looks young though so I'm thinking military school. If someone could ID time and place, rank division etc. Thank you so much


texts:
I have asked this question on Chinese Stack Exchange but received no satisfactory answer there so far. I think it is relevant to the History Stack Exchange and will link these two questions together.

There are at least 33 types of ancient sacrificial, wine, food and water ritual bronze vessels of ancient China, none of which are named 壺 (pot), but some of which may fall under the category of being a 壺 (pot).

According to my research the ancient Tang 壺 was a wine vessel (12 types of wine vessels listed above). But seeing as there are so many very precise different kind of ancient vessels, I want to know exactly which wine vessels would fall under the category of being a 壺 (pot) during the Tang dynasty and what it would look like.

NOTE:

For example, I came across this Pot titled 鎏金银嵌宝仿唐壶:

This imitation 唐壶 is very different from the regular spout and handle pots someone suggested on the Chinese Stack Exchange, and on the link I provided above I see that the long spout was a later addition to the pot that was not common previously. So I don't know the EXACT range of styles that the word 壺 encompasses in the Tang Dynasty era.

Also, whereas I want to know the full range of what a 壺 encompasses in the Tang era, I'm particularly interested in the finer 壺 made of jade or gold or etc.

NOTE:

This is a picture of a late 11th century BC altar set of wine vessels (Western Zhou Dynasty, long before the Tang Dynasty, kept at "the Met"). The central vessel is a Zun (尊/樽/鐏), and there are many different kinds of wine vessels including the Jiǎ 斝 and Jue 爵 here pictured. Would all these classify as “壺”, or would some of them only be 杯 (cup)? I need to know which ones would classify under the “壺” category and which ones wouldn't. Certainly the Zun was still in use during the Tang Dynasty until at least the Song, but would it count as a “壺”?


texts: Were there any high-ranking female soldiers during the Middle ages?

texts:
There are several fictional works describing female knights in a fantasy world, but do they have any real world counterpart? For example, a knight or a high-ranking female military officer during the middle ages.

EDIT: As others have informed, I originally defined my question too strictly - knight is an honorary title given by a high-ranking leader, such as a king or queen.


texts: What kind of canoes were used in 19th century Yucatán?

texts: I’m specifically curious about seagoing canoes along the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the mid-1800’s. Were they still typically of the dugout variety, or had they evolved to canvas on a wood frame or some other construction? What size would they typically be? Were they fitted with outriggers?


texts: Identifying a sword engraved with "66. A. E. 1. 61"

texts:
Found this sword in my father's basement but need help with ID.
Can’t find any info on sword or its markings. The blade itself is 18”
from tip to top of hilt and 25” overall.


texts: What factors made success a possibility for the South in the American Civil War?

texts:
I'm curious to know whether or not the southern States had a realistic chance of winning the Civil War.

I understand they had a large slave force, but I doubt those slaves could've been forced to fight effectively against their own freedom. Also the South likely had very low if any manufacturing capabilities.

Did they have a fighting chance?

If so, at what junctures was the South closest to prevailing and what factors made success a possibility?


texts: Did some African-Americans in the 90s really shoot up movie screens per Chris Rock's infamous rant? If so, how commonplace was this?

texts:
Comedian Chris Rock's infamous rant about the differences between different sections of the African-American population from his 1996 "Bring the Pain" performance has become an iconic moment in modern American comedy, and contains the following famous line:
"You can't go to a movie the first time it come out - why?  Because n****** is shooting at the screen.  What kind of ingorant s*** is that?! 'Oh this a real good movie - it's so good I gotta bust a cap in here!"
I've done some research, but can't find any references to this actually happening.  Did some African-American "gangsta" types really shoot up cinema screens in 90s America?  If so, how commonplace was this?  Was it a one-off incident that provoked media anger, or was it a sustained low-culture phenomenon like "happy slapping" in the 2000s UK?
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PJF0YE-x4&t=55s


texts: Why was there a surge of writings about the Illuminati in America in the late 1910's?

texts:
I came across this interesting graph on Google's Ngram Viewer service:

It looks like there was a massive spike in the occurrence of "Illuminati" in American literature starting around 1915 and ending around 1921. Why did this occur? Was their an event in American history that caused an increase in interest about the Illuminati?


texts: Why didn't horse-mounted archers dominate the world until Genghis Khan?

texts:
Genghis Khan's military dominance was due largely to the horse and the Mongolian composite bow.

So I was surprised to learn that Inner Asian horsemen were using composite bows more than 1,500 years before Genghis was born. In fact, Alexander the Great incorporated horse-mounted archers from the Asian steppe into his military force.

So, if Genghis Khan's military was so superior to European knights and China's military, why weren't earlier powers, like Rome, crushed by similar weapons and tactics?

One possible reason is that Genghis Khan was simply the first to unite the steppe tribes. Still, it's hard to understand why western powers (e.g. Rome) wouldn't borrow their tactics.


texts: What would have been the carrying capacity for 11th-13th century backpacks?

texts: After this question was closed over at RPG Stack Exchange, I'm still left wanting a comprehensive answer.  My question, again, is this: What is a realistic estimate of the weight an 11th to 13th century backpack could have held without breaking?


texts: Where and when was the shortest calendar day in history, due to DST and calendar changes, etc?

texts:
I'm not asking about the length of daylight for the winter solstice. I'm asking about whole days that are shorter than 24 hours. For example, anywhere that observes Daylight Saving Time has one day each year that is 23 hours long. Any location that decides to change time zones can also experience a longer or shorter day, that day. Given all such factors, where and when was the shortest day? You can ignore days that were skipped entirely.

PS: I'd love to know the longest day, too.

EDIT: Imagine a person with a desktop calendar, one page per day. Every "day" he flips one page of his calendar, or more pages at once if he is changing calendar systems. I want to know how close together two such separate flipping events would have occurred.


texts: What were Egyptian rulers called before the honorific title "Pharaoh"?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, the title "Pharaoh" is a New Kingdom one:

Pharaoh is the common title of the monarchs of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BCE) until the Macedonian conquest in 305 BCE, although the actual term "Pharaoh" was not used contemporaneously for a ruler until circa 1200 BCE.
Pharaoh. (2017, March 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:25, March 16, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pharaoh&oldid=770486002

What title did the Egyptians use for their rulers before the title "Pharaoh" came into use?


texts: Is there any footage and/or photos of Germans surrendering towns and cities in the Western Front?

texts:
I heard that unlike the surrender ceremonies in the Eastern front, those on the western front were arranged to be solemn, festive and pompous, especially when the cities were conceded without fighting.

Thus I would be glad for pointing at any footage and/or photos showing German surrender ceremonies in 1944-1945 in the West.


texts: How did the Mongol Nomads' System of Raiding and Trading Work?

texts:
I've read (in a source I no longer remember) that the Mongol tribes of the Steppe, like some other cultures, had this habit of raiding each other without it being seen as an act of war. More specifically, that despite those jerks coming and raiding you last winter, you're still willing to trade with them later.

Is this accurate? And if so, how does this work culturally and practically? It's difficult to understand a system where people just accept it as a part of life to raid each other from time to time.


texts: Where did British troops fight during the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War?

texts:
In particular, did they fight in the territories of modern-day Belarus or Lithuania?
Online sources such as Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War,  National Archives UK, and  saving the war or killing bolshevism in the cradle state that troops were deployed in North Russia, the Caucasus and Siberia. Furthermore there was a British naval force in the Baltic as mentioned by @JohnDallman.
However, I've not yet found clear sources indicating the precise actions and movements of British forces (which are typically described as 'muddled and half-hearted'), and in particular, whether the British presence ever extended to the Southern Front.


texts:
In this episode of Planet America, the former House of Representatives member Barney Frank made the statement:

Sanders has one proposal, enact an 80 year old law, re-enacted called Glass Steagall.
Had Glass-Stegall been in effect, well Glass-Steagal was in effect, people may have seen The Big Short,  [movie The Big Short] Glass Steagal was fully in effect for almost all of that period. All of the abuses the mortgages being granted to people who shouldn't get them, the leveraging of derivatives,  Glass Steagal did not touch on those things.

My question is: Did the historic events behind the film The Big Short happen under Glass Steagall?


texts:
The Gallic Rooster is widely used as a symbol of France. However, there are a number of conflicting sources on how it originated.

The French embassy in the USA states that the rooster originated from a wordplay for "Gaul" and "rooster" in Latin:

  It is the symbol of the French people because of the play on words of
  the Latin gallus meaning Gaul and gallus meaning coq, or rooster.

However, the source cited by Wikipedia (in French) further expands on this claim:

  ... association with France dates back from the Middle Age and is due
  to the play on words in Latin between Gallus, meaning an inhabitant of
  Gaul, and gallus, meaning rooster, or cockerel. Its use, by the
  enemies of France, dates to this period, originally a pun to make fun
  of the French, the association between the rooster and the
  Gauls/French was developed by the kings of France for the strong
  Christian symbol that the rooster represents : prior to being
  arrested, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before
  the rooster crowed on the following morning. At the rooster's crowing,
  Peter remembered Jesus's words.

The French governmental website doesn't state a definitive origin for the symbol, but notes the wordplay and states that the rooster was used as a religious symbol, as well as a symbol of opposition to Germany's eagle:

  In the Middle Ages, the Gallic Rooster was widely used as a religious
  symbol, the sign of hope and faith. It was during the Renaissance that
  the rooster began to be associated with the emerging French nation.
  ...

  During the First World War, rising patriotic feeling made the Gallic
  rooster the symbol of France’s resistance and bravery in the face of
  the Prussian eagle. Use of this Manichean representation, in
  particular by political cartoonists, gained ground, and the rooster
  became the symbol of a France sprung from peasant origins, proud,
  opinionated, courageous and prolific.

A Reddit comment (which started off this search) claims the symbol originated because the rooster is seen as gallant:

  In France, the Rooster is seen as a symbol of gallantry. This is
  because, (supposedly,) if the Rooster finds a food source he will call
  his hens over to eat before having any himself.

Are there any reliable sources on the true origin of the rooster as a French national symbol?


texts: Did temples in ancient Greece contain treasure?

texts:
Was it common for temples in ancient Greece to contain treasure like gold and silver?
Did any famous temples contain treasure rooms?


texts:
What is the nature of questions that can be answered by historical sources and methods?

Pay attention to the qualities of sources that inspire the nature of
valid historical questions.
Pay attention to the qualities of methods
that inspire the nature of valid historical questions.

Are there third fonts for the nature of valid historical questions?


texts: Did a US Territory Gaining Statehood by Itself Bestow Citizenship to Anyone Who Was Present?

texts:
Heinrich Schliemann wrote in his Autobiography (p.18):

  Ich befand mich noch in Californien, als dasselbe am 4. Juli 1850 zum Staate erhoben wurde, und da alle an jenem Tage im Lande Verweilenden ipso facto naturalisirte Amerikaner wurden

In short, he based his claim to US citizenship on being in California on the same day that it attained statehood. Granted that a lot of things Schliemann said or wrote are plain falsehood, I wonder if there was a law that bestowed citizenship to anyone who was present when a US territory became a state.

Thanks in advance.


texts: What were the traveling practices of merchants, roughly between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?

texts:
How did salespersons of the aforementioned period(s), whether affluent merchants or peddlers, tend to travel? I'm familiar with caravansaries/caravanserais, but how did this concept translate to vendors staying within city limits? Would a merchant who planned to be "at market" for more than one day have his goods and means of transport stored within the city, and how? Was this common?
Were goods typically sold off the wagon, or was it more common for wares to be sold to a retailing vendor in town, the traveling merchant then acting more as a courier? What manner of merchant could afford a guard? What were some of the implications of traveling with other groups to achieve safety in numbers?
Inquiry is prompted by a writing project (fiction) in which two capital cities, each bordering a body of water, have no viable waterway between.


texts: Was there regular contact by the general population between the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic during the second half of the 17th Century?

texts:
Was there commercial or social interactions between the general populations of the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands after the Eighty Years War?
Would a person living in Aardenburg, Netherlands (location indicated on the Google map)
more likely visit the cities of Bruges, Ghent, or Antwerp than the Dutch cities much further away, in the north, like Amsterdam? Map depicting the geography during Dutch Golden Age, source, Frick Collection-Exhibitions


texts: Border between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires

texts:
After crisis of the 3rd century the Roman Empire was subdivided several times ending with its division into the western and the eastern parts. Though operated by separate administrations from what I know about the subject it seems that at least ideologically these two parts were considered as subdivisions of one single empire until the very end of the western imperial office.

That raises the question - what was happening on the borders between different subdivisions of the Roman Empire? Would someone travelling between two parts experience more difficulties and have to pay extra tariffs compared to the travel within one part? How that would compare to the external border?

Examples from specific sources would be highly appreciated.


texts: How did lower classes with aspirations to high social standing greet each other in the Paris of the 1630's?

texts: I am running a game of En Garde over on the RPG Stack Exchange. For purposes of verisimilitude, we're wondering about station-specific greetings in Paris in the 1630's. What would be an appropriate greeting between two low-class males with aspirations of climbing the social ladder? What would be a greeting from a low-class to a high-class (but non-titled) male? And what would be a greeting between two high-class gentlemen?


texts: Why was Belgium created as opposed to grouping the Fracophone Walloons and the Dutch-Speaking Flemish with their respective linguistically similar neighbor countries; France and the Netherlands?


texts: Has the American Civil War led to any significant innovations in 19th-century warfare?

texts:
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a major conflict with a long string of battles. Has it led to any innovations in 19th-century warfare? It has been pointed out that it may have been the first war to include significant strings of multi-day battles. Did any actual significant inventions occur and if so, were those taken up in later conflicts e.g. on other continents?

For instance, were there any significant special circumstances arising from a long campaign season in the South, from the fact that the conflict split loyalties in some countries, that you had somebody with Lincoln's intellect often meddling with details of the war, or that generals on both sides had been trained in the same pre-war institutions: in terms of an analogy from biology esp. the latter situation — in combination with the contingencies or war and the size of the almost continent-scale conflict — would have provided ample breeding ground for tactical and strategic "cross-over", "mutations", and "progress".

And there was also recent technological change that may have had a special impact. The following pertinent quote is from Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West:

  In Jefferson's day, it took six weeks to move information from the
  Mississippi River to Washington, D.C. In Lincoln's, information moved
  over the same route by telegraph all but instantaneously. Time and
  distance, mountains and rivers meant something entirely different to
  Thomas Jefferson from what they meant to Abraham Lincoln. Rivers
  dominated Jefferson's thinking about North America.


texts: Why don't the Americas use ISO paper sizes?

texts:
In the mid-sixties, most countries standardized on ISO paper sizes (A-series, B-series, etc.). The Americas didn't. Why not?

(Around the same time there was a failed push in the US to switch to metric, but this seems like a different issue.)


texts: Why did sailing ships so often employ Chinese cooks?

texts:
During the age of sail, it was common for Western ships to employ Chinese cooks. I don't have any numbers except that there are pages and pages of relevant results from search queries including "Chinese cook", "cocinero chino", and so on.

As of 1882, "there are many [Chinese men] in the coasting trade as cooks and stewards" (from "Chinese Sailors: America's Invisible Merchant Marine 1876-1905").

Insofar as all cultures produce professional cooks, what explains the shipboard prominence of Chinese ones? Chinese food is delicious, but surely other factors were in play as well: possibly lower wages, an ability to cook in more styles, etc.


texts: Can anyone help me identify my grandfather's uniform?

texts:
Can anyone help me identify my paternal grandfather's uniform?  I never knew him and he died when my father was 8 years old and my father has passed too.  No living family members who can tell me if he served. He was born 13 DEC 1905. He died on 14 AUG 1942 (not military related). Born and lived in Franklin, TN and is buried there (no military info on headstone)

I don't have addition information about him. I know he was a 'day laborer' when he died (killed in an accident in Illinois(a got a copy of the death certificate). No living family members who could tell me anything. Just took a shot in the dark with StackExchange. My father was in the Air Force in Korea and it sort of looks a lot like his uniform.
Bottom photo is my Father. Top photo is his father(my paternal grandfather). I only included the photo of my father (who served in the Air Force in Korea) because the uniforms look similar.


texts: Is there any record of ancient Israelite contact with Indo-Europeans?

texts:
It is well-documented that the ancient Israelite tribes came into contact with Indo-European groups in Canaan such as the Philistines (P'lishtim) (most likely migrants from Crete), and later the Greeks (Yavanim) after the invasion of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE.

But were there contacts prior to these examples? The Israelites are recorded as dealing with Hittites in Canaan as early as Abraham (Genesis 23), even involving intermarriage by Esau and Solomon (26:34, 27:46, 36:2; 1 Kings 11:1), later on Ezekiel even describes the Israelites as descending from a Hittite progenitress (16:3, 45)! They were employed as mercenaries (1 Samuel 26:6, 2 Samuel 11:6; 2 Kings 7:6) and are described as residing in the hill-country of central Canaan (Exodus 3:8, 17, 13:5, 23:23, 28, Numbers 13:29) and between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean (Joshua 1:4; Judges 1:26). What sort of impact did this have on society?

Is there any evidence of contact with other groups, such as the Indo-European elements of Mitanni, or with the Indo-Iranians (e.g., in language, pottery, customs, weaponry, etc)?


texts: What would the Vietcong do to the Southern Vietnamese that didn't want to join them?

texts: I have been trying to find out what the North Vietnamese would do to the Southern Vietnamese at the end of the Vietnam War. Everything I search for only talks about the PoWs, not the South Vietnamese.


texts: Historically, when (and why) did Ganga become a holy river? Is it after Sarasvati dried up?

texts:
According to the Nadistuti Sukta (Sanskrit: नदिस्तुति सूक्त), "hymn of praise of rivers", which is hymn 10.75 of the Rigveda:

There were 25 rivers and the most important was the Sindhu river and the sacred river was the Sarasvati since the Vedic people were living in the valleys of the Sindhu river (Sapthsandhav Pradesh) and near the Sarasvati river; and later, the Mahabharata mentions that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert.

So my question is:

Is the reason that the Aryans started calling the Ganga a holy river that they moved to the Ganga valley and that the Ganga is the biggest river of Magadh/North India?


texts: Piece of cloth in bullets in pistols around the pirate age

texts: While seeing the series Black sails, there's an episode where two guys face each other in a pistol duel. While preparing the weapons, it is clearly seen that the assistants put a piece of cloth wrapping the bullets. Why is it done?


texts: Did the Portuguese and the Spanish have slaves on European soil working for them?

texts: I know the Portuguese and the Spanish had slaves working for them on the overseas colonies, but what about on their own soil in Europe?


texts:
I was wondering about this for quite a while:

Antisemitism is something that is quite unbelievable for us nowadays, so: on what was this antisemitism actually based? I also know that there has always been antisemitism in the European countries. Despite, I don't understand how this antisemitism could grow that strong in Germany? Cause I think there are good reasons why antisemitism is restricted to become a strong force in Germany: For example, it is almost impossible to distinguish a Jew from an ordinary German citizen and they are a high developed minority in this country. This is something that is quite extraordinary for racism, I think.

Therefore, I am very sure that there must have been very recent reason why this haitred and anger could grow that strong? Unfortunately, I am not aware of any of them. The only thing I could imagine is that the financial situation in Germany (which was pretty bad after Versailles) was considered to be related to the Jewish people.

I would be interested to know whether any of these accusations were just polemical rubbish or whether even some of them are based on actual facts?


texts: Why was the Records of the Three Kingdoms composed before that of the Later Han?

texts: Our professor taught that the Chinese historiographic tradition demanded each dynasty compose the history of the previous one, using the 'veritible records' (實錄) or court diaries (起居注) provided by said dynasty. Browsing the Wikipedia article for the Twenty-Four Histories I noticed that the Book of Han (漢書) ends with the fall of the former Han and the next book to be completed does not concern the later Han, but rather the Three Kingdoms, which is then followed by the book of the later Han. Is there a reason for this irregularity or was my professor simply generalising? She made it sound like a sacrosanct tradition, so I assume one wouldn't break it for trivial reasons! Or is it simply that, while institutionalisation of the Historian's office began in Qin times, it wasn't complete until Tang?


texts:
To be more specific:

Who said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in 2003?

By "weapons of mass destruction", I mean atomic, biological, or chemical weapons.

I'm looking for official government people -- presidents, prime ministers, secretaries of state, etc.


texts: Are a fief and a vassal state the same thing?

texts:
Definition of a fief:

An estate of land, especially one held on condition of feudal service; a fee.

Definition of a vassal state:

A vassal state is any state that is subordinate to another. The vassal in these cases is the ruler, rather than the state itself. Being a vassal most commonly implies providing military assistance to the dominant state when requested to do so.

These definitions appear to be describing the same thing. Is there any distinction or are they completely synonymous? Is the distinction that a vassal state has some power as a political entity but a fief does not?


texts:
From what I gather it was some sort of idea for an amicable settlement between Jews and Arabs in Palestine and somehow involved Ibn Saud. Weizmann and Churchill apparently supported it but Ibn Saud shot it down.

But this is very vague and Wikipedia is absolutely unclear on this.


texts:
What ancient Roman(s) wished houses were made of transparent walls?

source:St. Joseph Cafasso's The Priest: The Man of God: His Dignity and Duties p. 50:

  a Roman of ancient times wished his house to be made—with transparent walls, so that everyone outside can see what is being done inside.


texts: Why did human and civil rights gain a foothold at the time they did?

texts:
Even though the idea of human equal rights has a rather long history, it wasn't a reality up until the late 18th century. Nobles still had more or less absolute power over the lower classes. The lower your caste was, the harder it was to enjoy a fair and just legal system.

Throughout history there have been several rebellions where the common man tries to stand up against his oppressors but it has always been quelled and things have gone back to status quo. Perhaps a king or two was replaced but the system as it was remained pretty much intact - nobles at the top, commoners at the bottom.

The French Revolution marked a turning point. Not only were the rulers overthrown for real but this time the revolutionaries managed to keep it that way. And although the revolution sparked a few years of terror, it planted a seed of equal rights that would spread to the rest of Europe and large part of the world.

Several other countries, like Sweden imposed more equality for the common man around the same time. The king of Sweden, Gustav III (1746-1792), created several laws that gave commoners more rights and nobility less so. He also abolished the death penalty and torture for all but the most severe crimes and he allowed Jews and Muslims to practice their religion openly. All in all, a rather humane ruler at the time.

So why did all this happen at this particular time in human history? There must have been several times where the revolutionaries were fed up with their rulers the same way as the French were. Was society simply not ready for equal rights? Or is this one of those questions that is really not possible to answer?


texts: Did Portuguese fisherman visit New England prior to 1492?

texts:
This might blow your mind a little bit, but one thing I notice, living in New England as I do, that there are the remnants of a tiny Portuguese community here going way, way back. For example, there is a well-known chess master by the name of John Curdo (a Portuguese name). The funny thing is even though they have Portuguese names, they are real old-timey yankees, almost like Puritans, and they have Mayflower-esque genealogies.

So, there is this rumor that this people originally came not after the Mayflower, but before it. In Newburyport there is a long barrier beach, now called Plum Island, and the legend up there is that the Portuguese fisherman would sail across the Atlantic, fish George's bank and then dry their catch of cod on Plum Island, before sailing back to Portugal at the end of the season. Now, of course, this could have been happening after Columbus, but before the Mayflower, but it is even more interesting if it was happening before Columbus.

One would think that old notices on the cod trade would have evidence of this activity, if it occurred, so I am wondering if they rumors have a basis in fact, or if they are just idle rumors.


texts: Why did the communist party lose in Telangana in India's first general elections?

texts:
The communist party played a key role in ending feudalism in telangana, then lost in the first general elections against Congress. How did the party deteriorate within 1 or 2 years after the end of Nizam rule and feudalism?

Did the Telangana people lose faith in the communist party at that time or did Congress have better policies and leaders or was it the Nehru effect?


texts: When did western medical certification start?

texts: When did medical certification start being a 'thing' in western cultures, ex. among US denizens, the British, etc.? In particular, who (organization, person, etc.) came up with the first standards when?


texts: Were ordinary people aware of the US Constitution when it all started?

texts:
I read somewhere long ago that even ordinary people knew the content of the US Constitution well enough when it was adopted. Many people, not only rich and well-educated, knew what it was about. Now I want to find anything supporting this thesis for I collect data of establishing democratic governments. If you can throw me any link on this subject, I would be very grateful.
upd. I did only basic web search on the subject with queries like "United States Constitution a lot of people understood" and so on. I also read the Wiki article but there's no words about how the Constitution was understood in society. As I'm not a historian nor English speaker, I don't have and don't know any special literature.


texts: Why have we never found any elephant skeletons in the Western Alps?

texts: It is widely assumed that the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca crossed the Western Alps some 2200 Years ago with an army of men, horses and elephants in direction of Italy and the Roman Republic. But sadly, we have not found many evidence of that event and thus don't even know the exact route. What we also know is that Hannibal's elephants died during that route. It was more than 30 elephants and also we know that elephants are not really typical fauna of the Alps. That leads me to the question - how is it possible that we never found any elephant fossils in the Western Alps yet? Is it possible that the story of Hannibal crossing the Alps was made up? Did he just take the shortcut via Massalia and Liguria in the south? Did he use the Carthaginian fleet to invade northern Italy?


texts: Is it true that Winston Churchill said 'I bet my head on Crete' (or a similar statement)?

texts:
Long ago, I saw a Nazi propaganda caricature showing a headless Churchill serving his own severed head on a plate, the joke being that he foolishly claimed the Germans would be unable to take Crete. I also vaguely remember seeing a quote in which he makes such a statement, but when I looked it up today the only results I got were completely unrelated.

So did he really say that?


texts: Were any of the early settlements in America attacked from the sea?

texts: I have a textbook which describes various considerations colonists made in selecting sights for settlements. For example, it says that Jamestown was too swampy, so there were many mosquitoes and diseases and the water was not suitable for drinking. Among the various considerations, it says that settlers avoided placing their colonies near the coastline, because this would increase the danger of being attacked from the sea. Prior to 1730, were there any actual situations in which a colony, being near the ocean, was attacked from the sea? Did coastal locations benefit from being easier to defend against attacks carried over land?


texts: What is the source of this Ambedkar quote on freedom of thought in Hinduism?

texts:
From here, the Indian social reformer B. R. Ambedkar is supposed to have said:

  In the Hindu religion, one can[not] have freedom of speech. A Hindu must surrender his freedom of speech. He must act according to the Vedas. If the Vedas do not support the actions, instructions must be sought from the Smritis, and if the Smritis fail to provide any such instructions, he must follow in the footsteps of the great men. He is not supposed to reason. Hence, so long as you are in the Hindu religion, you cannot expect to have freedom of thought.

Is the quote authentic? Did he say this in a speech or in one of his books?


texts:
I have a pretty specific question.

How did European monarchies become nation states?

Can someone give me some good examples? My history book is kind of vague.


texts: What was the geopolitical status of Newfoundland prior to 1949?

texts:
Newfoundland "only" became part of Canada on March 31, 1949.
What was the geopolitical status of Newfoundland prior to its annexation to Canada (or however it fused with the rest of Canada, if "annexation" is the improper word here)?

I've read the Wiki page (linked above), yet I'm still a little confused with regards to the various different statuses N&L had before merging with Canada.  I gather it was a completely different autonomous region completely distinct and separate from Canada.

Can anyone point to political maps from prior to 1949?  How were Newfoundland and Labrador labeled? Er, at least to demarcate and differentiate them from the rest of Canada?


texts: Is there any truth to the story of a British general breaking down in tears upon seeing the battlefield conditions at Passchendaele?

texts:
An oft-repeated anecdote about World War I (and the lack of understanding among high ranking officers) claims that, after the Third Battle of Ypres (aka Passchendaele), a British general visited the front lines for the first time, and upon seeing the appalling conditions of the battlefield - essentially a sea of impassable mud - breaking down in tears, falling to his knees, and crying:

  "Dear god, did we really send men out to fight in this?"

While this story conforms to  the popular conception of high command being hopelessly detached from the situation at the front, and therefore clueless as to what the soldiers were forced to endure in combat, it almost sounds too good to be true.

Did this episode actually take place, and if so, who was the general in question?  Or was the story an invention?


texts: Why were the Irish exempt from conscription during WWI?

texts:
During the first world war all of Ireland was within the United Kingdom.

In C. S. Lewis's autobiographical book Surprised by Joy he says that as an Irishman (from Belfast) he was exempt from conscription during the first world war.

(He joined the army and was wounded in combat, and many of his schoolmates were killed.)

I am guessing that attempts to conscript Irishmen at that time might have been resisted with widespread violence, but that's just a guess.

Why were they exempt?


texts: When did it become customary to address the King/Queen of England as Majesty?

texts: In written sources I've read of Henry VIII's time the King is referred to as Grace (as nowadays a duke is) so it's probable that the Majesty appellation became current. But when exactly? And why?


texts: Where was the Turkish Navy based in July 1914?

texts:
I'm trying to figure out whether, if not for the July crisis, Russia could have tried an amphibious invasion of Turkey in 1914, and what the outcome would have been if so.
It seems to me the answer could depend at least somewhat on where Turkey's warships are located. In particular, if they are not already in the Black Sea, then the Russians could try laying mines at the exit from the Bosphorus, to prevent the Turkish Navy sailing out to interdict the Russian transports.
Where were the Ottoman warships based, in July 1914?


texts:
I read this in a comment to a newspaper article:

  By far the largest British empire human loss in the Second World War was the three million Bengalis who perished in a famine in 1943 that Churchill expressly refused to alleviate with food aid, after years of draining India of food and raw materials. "Winston seems content to let India starve while usi8ng it as amilitary base" remarked Alanbrooke, his chief military adviser. Churchill vetoed Us and Australian offers to send food

Is there any evidence to substantiate this?


texts: What was the effect of the Disannexation Act of 1784?

texts: I am trying to find more specific information on the effect of the Disannexation Act of 1784 which provided means for those whose property had been confiscated after the ‘45 to regain it after paying debts. I am curious for specific examples of Scotsmen who were able to get their estates back, which estates were eligible, and for how long they were able to take advantage of the act (for instance, if someone affected had left to fight for the Crown and returned years after the act’s passing, could they still take advantage of it?)


texts: What English king died from water intoxication?

texts:
I vaguely remember reading a story about an English king that died from drinking too much water after a hunt. I'm sorry to say that all parts of this story may be untrue…I'm not sure whether it was a king or other royalty, whether it was England or somewhere else, or whether it was actually after returning from a hunt or some other event. I also don't remember the source of the story.

Despite all the uncertainty: does someone recognise this story? Did it actually happen, or is it a historical urban myth?


texts: Why did the Government of India Act create separate electorates for the depressed classes?

texts: The Communal Award, in 1932, conceded to the demands of B.R. Ambedkar and the ilk to have separate electorates for depressed classes. But Gandhji held fast unto death to undo this. So, Poona Pact  resulted in joint electorates for depressed classes with some reserved seats. So, then, why, in the Government of India Act 1935, did the government include separate electorates for depressed classes?


texts:
Till now I had the view that Third Estate was of  mostly peasants and small tradesman and consequently had low economy but today I found these lines in Interpreting the French Revolution by Francois Furet

Was the French Revolution indeed inevitable? In order to view it as such, all one has to do is reconstitute the flow of the movement toward it and that of the resistance it encountered and then set up, precisely in 1789, the shock that resolved the contradiction.
On one side one places a stupid monarchy and an egotistical nobility, linked by common interests as well as by reactionary policies and ideologies. One the other, the rest of civil society, led, indeed carried along, by a rich, ambitious and frustrated bourgeoisie.

I have assumed that by “bourgeoise“ he meant the Third Estate, but were those people rich?


texts: Why did the expelled Sudeten Germans and Danube Germans go to Germany, as opposed to Austria?

texts:
After the second world war, Germans that used to live in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary, part of long-existent minorities there fled and/were expelled, mostly to Germany. Before 1918, they used to be citizens of Austria-Hungary, whose successor state is Austria.

Between 1938 and the end of the war Austria was annexed to Germany and ceased to exist, yet after the war it was re-created again, so those people could have been considered Austrian again. Why did the expelled go to Germany, when it would have made as much sense to reach Austria instead ?

I know Austria technically did accept some refugees, however the numbers are very marginal compared to Germany (both FRG and GDR).


texts: When was drinking water recognized as crucial in marathon running?

texts:
The winner, John Hayes, of the first modern marathon in 1908 said that he thought drinking water during a marathon was a grave mistake, saying: "I merely bathed my face with florida water, and gargled my throat with brandy". Quote can be found here and is also in "The 1908 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events, With Commentary" by Bill Mallon  and Ian Buchanan.

Current research shows male elite runners today drink on average half a liter of water during a race. Raceorganizers will also set up aid stations throughout the race for contestants to get water. When did drinking water during a marathon become common practice?


texts: Why didn't the British Grand Fleet force an engagement with the German Imperial Navy in WW1?

texts:
I'm watching the channel The Great War on YouTube, which documents the goings on of the First World War week by week (careful, it's addictive and there are literally hundreds of episodes).

It is my understanding that the British Grand Fleet was, in size and strength, pretty much unchallenged during most/all of the First World War (and beyond). While the German Imperial Navy did a bunch of damage to the Allies/Brits, it was mostly stealthy hit-and-run tactics employing u-boats and alike against (mostly) unarmed trading ships and transports.

So my question is:

Couldn't the British Grand Fleet force an engagement with the Imperial German Navy to bring to bear their greater number of ships in a decisive battle?

Why didn't the Grand Fleet for example attack German North Sea ports and/or cities from sea? I'm sure that would have forced the Imperial Navy to intervene, leading to the big battle the Grand Fleet was longing for all along...


texts: Hotel de Ville during Women's March on Versailles

texts: What is the present location of the Hotel de Ville where women congregated just before the March on Versailles to take the king to Paris? Specifically, where they met with Mirabeau, Robespierre, etc


texts: What Was the Political Condition of the Region that Encompasses the Modern Russian State in the time of the Roman empire?

texts: What was the political system of the peoples living in what is presently the Russian state during the time of the Roman empire?  Also, was there any communication between these peoples and the Roman empire? I know its a wide time period but if someone could shine light on this topic that would be great.


texts: How can a diamond shape be a reference to Napoleon?

texts:
The green and yellow on the Brazilian flag are references to the Houses of Bragança and Lorraine (of Francis I and II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine), respectively. It seems that the diamond shape on the flag of the Empire of Brazil — which, like the background green and yellow, still remain in the present flag of the country — is a reference to Napoleon.

In the book Brasil: Uma Biografia (Brazil, a biography) of Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, they say that the diamond shape in the flag was a 'stubborn tribute' to Napoleon made by Dom Pedro I of Brazil. The flag was made by Jean-Baptiste Debret, a French artist that worked for Napoleon and went to Brazil after the fall of Napoleon.

Even though the book says the reference was made by the Emperor, by citing the background of the creator of the flag I want to show that this reference isn't far-fetched at all. The tribute to Napoleon in the flag of the Empire was made (probably) because of the relocation of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil, which was caused because Napoleon invaded Portugal. Hence, Napoleon was the reason why Dom Pedro I of Brazil was in Brazil in the first place, having to declare independence. I can't see any other reason for a tribute.

As a curiosity, regarding the independence, Portugal wanted to undermine the political power Brazil got after it was elevated to part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves (rather than a colony of Portugal) and Brazilians didn't accept it so they pressed Dom Pedro I to declare independence, if I'm not wrong, to avoid political instability. Actually if you think about it, it was only because of the monarchy that Brazil stayed together and didn't split into tiny republics, like it was the case with our not-so-tiny neighbours.

A question remains: in what way is a diamond shape a reference to Napoleon?


texts: What was the age to ascend to the throne as Khan/Khagan?

texts:
I have recently played EU4 (a Strategy game) and noticed that if you play as one of the remnants of the Mongol Empire which still has Khans/Khagans, your heir can't rule until their 15th birthday and will instead be replaced by a random clan-member.

I searched the internet and couldn't really dig anything up on the topic, so I'd like to know whether this has any historical background or if the developers just invented that mechanism for the game.

TL;DR: What was the age requirement to rule a Khanate/Khaganate? Or was there even any?

Thanks in advance!


texts: Were mattress labels inspired by public outcry?

texts:
If you're an American consumer, you likely know the "mattress tag", labels attached to mattresses, pillows, stuffed animals, and pet beds, which often begin "This tag may not be removed under penalty of law except by the consumer". The tags indicate manufactures used no recycled material to produce the item. The regulation itself is Title 15, Section 70c of the US code, which can be cloned from github:

  After shipment of a textile fiber product in commerce it shall be
      unlawful, except as provided in this subchapter, to remove or
      mutilate, or cause or participate in the removal or mutilation of,
      prior to the time any textile fiber product is sold and delivered
      to the ultimate consumer, any stamp, tag, label, or other
      identification required by this subchapter to be affixed to such
      textile fiber product, and any person violating this section shall
      be guilty of an unfair method of competition, and an unfair or
      deceptive act or practice, under the Federal Trade Commission Act
      [15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.].

This is quite a regulation when you consider it. US mattress manufacturers made $6.4 billion in revenue in 2008 by selling more than 35 million units. Each of those mattresses came with a tag, although all the examples I can find in my own home have three or four tags, often in multiple languages. These figures don't include pet beds, stuffed animals, pillows, or any of other qualifying textile fiber products.

Wikipedia mentions public outcry but doesn't cite sources. It also claims the law passed in the early 1900s, much like regulations about the purity of food. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?), mattress production isn't a jungle, and I can find no evidence Teddy Roosevelt threw his lice-ridden, recycled mattress onto the Whitehouse lawn the way he allegedly did his breakfast sausage.

Just how angry were American consumers about recycled bedding?


texts: What triggered the acceleration in human advancement?

texts:
If you look back 100,000+ years humans were living in caves. They lived in caves for millennia. They used the same stone tools for millennia. They painted the same wall paintings for millennia.

The Stone Age was over 3 million years ago. And then nothing for millions of years and then things started to accelerate. Suddenly the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and things accelerated from there too.

And now we see changes every year or less.

What was the trigger for these advances? Or (conversely) what was the reason for the long (tens/hundreds of lifetimes) periods of stagnation?

I know it’s theoretical as we can’t know for certain but are there any theories as to why it is this way?


texts:
Was public transportation free in the Soviet Union? I'm interested in the metros and buses. If not, what did they cost?

I'm most interested in the period around the late 1950's, early 1960's, but it would be interesting to know if the situation changed at any time during the USSR's lifespan.


texts: Disqualifications in the ancient olympics

texts:
What are the recorded cases of disqualification in the ancient olympics and what was the reason for each case?

PS: Don't get into the details about the Hellanodikai, I am very well aware of their function.


texts: What was the impetus behind the British Empire's acquisition of what is now Canada?

texts:
What led the British to Canada as part of a plan to colonise  North America?

There are no good natural resources in Canada and, from what I can see, there was no point in getting a military stronghold there at the time.


texts: How was President Andrew Jackson able to eliminate U.S national debt in 1835?


texts: Was the IMF complicit in destroying the Romanian economy?

texts:
Wikipedia claims that despite the unprecedented growth of Romanian industry and food and production at the rate of 22% per year, Romania experienced serious shortage of food and petrol in the late 80s which led to the collapse of the government. It also claims that it was due to the necessity of repaying the heavy debt to the IMF and in general, due to Ceaușescu's policy of collaboration with the IMF and the World Bank.

I want to know to what extent cooperation with the IMF was complicit in the collapse of the consumer sector of the Romanian economy in the 1980s.


texts: Pre-1950s views of West European Socialist parties on the welfare state

texts:
The eminent Robert Paxton writes in a recent article, somewhat in passing:

  Continental European Marxists opposed piecemeal welfare measures as
  likely to dilute worker militancy without changing anything
  fundamental about the distribution of wealth and power. It was only
  after World War II, when they abandoned Marxism (in 1959 in West
  Germany, for example), that continental European socialist parties and
  unions fully accepted the welfare state as their ultimate goal.

I am interested in corroboration and amplification of this statement.


texts: Are there alternatives to tripartite periodisation of history?

texts:
Human history is usually divided in three parts, ancient history, medieval (or post-classical) history and modern history (sometimes divided in early and late modern), as can be seen in the wikipedia entry for human history.
During school this division was explained to me in terms of accompanying modes of production; asiatic/ancient mode for ancient history, feudal mode for the middle ages and capitalist mode for modern age. But recently I've encountered criticisms to the concept of feudalism ad of the rupture brought by the renaissance, such as the medieval renaissances.
Given that, are there alternative proposals for the periodisation of history that span the duration covered by ancient, medieval and modern periods? At least the idea of medieval period seems contested, so I wondered if anyone proposed different schemes, at least for pedagogical purposes.
A partial example could be Jacques Le Goff's work, in particular the book "Must we divide history in periods", where he argues that the medieval period only ended with the industrial revolution. It is partial because he does not break from three periods, only redraws borders, but if he got his way would have the 17th century part of medieval history courses. I'm searching for someone who did away with the entirety of ancient/medieval/modern division.


texts: Were there any elections in the First French Empire?

texts: I know Napoleon's senate was appointed, but what about the lower house? Were there political factions like in the first republic?


texts: How were slave girls usually dressed in Arabia in early Islamic societies?

texts:
After slave girls were purchased by their owners and brought to the owners' Islamic hometowns, was it acceptable for these girls to be topless in public?

Abdullah Sameer  quotes Sheikh Hamza Yusuf's speech in which he said this was indeed the case:

  Sheikh Hamza Yusuf says,

    In an Islamic system in Medina there were women walking around bare
    breasted, and that is a fact, that is a historical fact and you can
    read it and look it up in the books.**  Umar did not allow the ima
    (slave girl) to wear the hijab.
    Source: Video on Youtube at 1min 16seconds

I found a couple of sources which briefly mention the presence of topless slave women in public spaces in cities. The following is stated by this resource:

  And the practice of the slave-women going around bare-breasted,
  although it was common, was however strongly disapproved of by the
  'ulama. Read this quote from "Kitab al-Jami'" of al-Imam Ibn Abi Zayd
  al-Qayrawani al-Maliki (died 386 AH):

  "He (i.e. al-Imam Malik ibn Anas) strongly disapproved of the
  behaviour of the slave women of al-Madinah in going out uncovered
  above the lower garment. He said: "I have spoken to the sultan about
  it, but I have not received a reply." He said: "Beat slave women if
  they do that."

The following has been stated on this web page:

  Anas bin Malik said: "The slave-girls of Umar (may Allah be pleased
  with him) were serving us with uncovered hair, their breasts (were)
  shaking [their hair hits (reaches) their breasts (in length)]."

This leads one to believe it was not taboo for slave girls to be topless even in the presence of men who were strangers to them (i.e. not their owners).

This web page also states that slave women used to be topless in public in some Islamic societies:

  Jurists in the following centuries allowed Muslim slave women to pray
  without a head covering, and walk topless in public.

The information above, though useful, lacks thoroughness and confirmation by additional historical sources.

Are there more detailed accounts of how slave women were dressed in early Islamic societies?


texts: Are stories passed down from generation to generation considered primary sources?

texts:
I much prepare a lesson differentiating primary/secondary sources, and their functions, and usually this is clear cut, but I ran into a case that challenges me, and also is relevant to the course subject.
I was on a tour of a Native American site and the tour guide explained how her ancestors passed down stories that they estimate took place 30 generations ago, prior to written language, and 300 years prior to the arrival of any Europeans. These are stories the grandparents tell to the children often. The specific story told where they used to live, their story of abandoning their old home, and creating their new home, which is the location of their current reservation.
Would such a story be considered within the real of history, even though it is not written down? And would that be considered a primary source or a secondary source?


texts: Photo was found in a trunk belonging to my great grandmother, grandparents, passed on to uncle.


texts: What restrictions were placed on embedded journalists during the Persian Gulf War?

texts:
I am currently researching the effect of the 24-hour news cycle on U.S. Foreign policy during the Gulf War and am looking for primary sources from the U.S. and/or British military pertaining to embedded journalism. Specifically, restrictions and guidelines placed on the press and independent journalists. Some of the sources I've read so far mention restrictions, but don't cite any specific documents. What are these documents and where can I find them? (I imagine they're declassified at this point).

Edit: These are the sources I have read so far: The Media and the Gulf War - Stewart Purvis and Operation Desert Cloud: The Media and the Gulf War  - Marie Gottschalk. Both mention censorship by the American government and that it was a factor in how the war was covered.

By Gulf War, I mean Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, starting from the invasion of Kuwait.


texts: Was Col. John K. Waters (Gen. Patton's son-in-law) wounded in the buttocks or the stomach during Patton's raid on Oflag XIII-B near Hammelburg?

texts:
Background:
I have researched Patton's raid on Oflag XIII-B near Hammelburg March 26-28, 1945 using the following four sources:

Wiki Article on Task Force Baum
War History
Online's article: The Real Fury: Patton's Disastrous 1945 Raid to
Rescue His Son-in-Law
Warfare History Network's article: Top Secret Missions:
Liberating General George S. Patton's Son-in-Law
Don Moore's War Tales: Harry Long was a POW with Patton's
son-in-law

Summary:
In late March 1945, claiming he was worried about the Germans executing American POWs (ostensibly in the wake of the Malmedy massacre), General George S. Patton ordered a raid on Hammelburg's Oflag XIII-B POW camp to liberate the American officers imprisoned there.  However, his real intent (based in part on letters to his family) was likely to rescue his son-in-law, Col. John K. Waters, who was a POW there.  The assignment was given to Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams (whom the American M1 Abrams tank is now named after) of Combat Command B in the 4th Armored Division.  Abrams wanted to proceed with a batallion or regimental sized force but Patton granted only a much smaller force for the rescue mission.  Abrams could not go himself due to illness, so Capt. Abraham Baum was given the assignment and about a company of medium and light tanks and 300 infantry to penetrate deep behind enemy lines, liberate the camp, and return the POWs to safety.

Task Force Baum encountered heavy fighting on the way and suffered many casualties and lost several tanks and vehicles, but made it to the POW camp.  During the confusion of the battle at the camp, Col. John K. Waters (Patton's son-in-law) was seriously wounded when shot by a German guard, and could not be evacuated with the rest of the POWs when the camp was finally liberated.  The nature of the wound gives rise to my question below.  (The initial liberation of the camp is not the end of the story, there was worse to come for Task Force Baum and the POWs, but to get to my question…)

Question:
Was Col. Waters wounded in the buttocks, or in the stomach?  The first two sources above indicate the buttocks.  The second two sources indicate the stomach.  I cannot find a source that indicates multiple wounds (or a single hit with separate entry and exit wounds) so I don't think it is a case of both being true (though I grant that it is a possibility).  Is there a superior information source which could clear up this discrepancy?  I know it's only a minor detail in the larger picture of this incident, but I would like to know which account (if any) is accurate regarding the nature of Col. Waters' wound(s) in the raid.

Spoiler (for the curious):
Most of the POWs and Baum's task force were recaptured within a day following the raid, and taken back to Oflag XIII-B.  Patton, who had not received permission from his superiors in Army Group 12 for the raid, was in trouble and faced Eisenhower's wrath.  Patton deftly softened the blow of the tactically botched raid by pointing to the strategic success it offered through diverting large German forces away from the main body of Third Army, thus allowing an easier progression toward their more strategically important objectives. Ike was evidently mollified enough to not officially reprimand Patton for the incident.

Gen. George S. Patton visits his son-in-law Col. John K. Waters April 7, 1945 in Frankfurt hospital. Source: Wiki Commons


texts: Who did Murasaki Shikibu fall in love with?

texts:
A line from Donald Keene's introductory text about The Tale of Genji piqued my curiosity:

We know little else about Murasaki’s early years, though her poems suggest that she fell in love at least once.

Keene goes on to talk about Murasaki Shikibu's marriage. It is clear that Murasaki Shikibu didn't like her second cousin and would-be husband Fujiwara no Nobutaka at first, so much so she accompanied her father to Echizen in order to escape the marriage. She did eventually come back to the capital and marry her cousin, but apparently her cousin was not her first love described in her own writings. So who was it? Do we know from her early work?


texts: How was the first official geographical border established in Europe?

texts:
In this moment of history, geographic state borders are defined in official treaties between countries. These treaties determine where the territory of certain state ends and where the territory of the other one starts, by using e.g. certain latitude or following the course of a river. I suppose this type of official attestation was developed around the 18th or 19th centuries.

I want to know how did the border came to be, specifically in Europe, and I'm particularly interested in knowing how (if at all) was the concept of the border treated during the Middle Ages.

EDIT: Changed the question to be specifically about borders (as that was what I originally wanted to know).


texts: Is šns the correct term for "loaf of bread" in Kemetic Ancient Egyptian?

texts: I am looking for the term "loaf of bread" that was used in ancient Egypt. This is a long timeframe, so I am looking for the term used in the middle period of ancient Egypt. I have found šns used in my research as the term, along with šn, as the term for loaf of bread. I've also seen /t/ used for just the word bread, but also claims that there are 40 words for bread. Any help in clearing up the correct Kemetic words for bread and loaf of bread would be greatly appreciated.


texts: How many people were needed to build a country house?

texts:
After visiting the Wimpole Estate in England, I'm wondering how many people would have been needed to make such a project viable.

The country house on the site today started construction in 1640, and the first version of it was finished ten years later. I'm ignoring future modifications to try and make things simpler.

There would have needed to be available labour for ten years, supporting agriculture, nearby settlements, presumably also people supplying building materials.

Are there any estimates of the number of people who would be directly involved in a country house's construction? Or the size of community needed to support the endeavour indirectly?


texts: Did the Soviet army intentionally send troops (e.g. penal battalions) running over minefields?

texts:
You can hear this story/claim stated in various way, from just regular troops doing it, to just penal battalions, to strenuous denial nobody ever did this in the Soviet army. (Just look at a Quora thread.)

So what sources do we have (besides that story Zhukov supposedly told Eisenhower) on this issue?

I suspect sources covering Soviet penal battalions are closest to being relevant, because Wikipedia's article on the latter says

  the penal battalions usually advanced in a frenzy, running forwards until they were killed by enemy minefields, artillery, or heavy machine-gun fire.

It does cite a book for this (Suvorov, Viktor, Inside The Soviet Army, Hamish Hamilton (1982), ISBN 0-241-10889-6), but not a precise page therein. Given the general scope of the book, I'm not convinced it has more details on this issue.


texts: What major Native American tribes were around Santa Fe during the late 1850s?

texts: This question is rather basic and self-explanatory, yet I can't find answers to it when I look it up. I would appreciate if someone could give me at least 2-3 tribes which were around the Santa Fe area during 1856-1859.


texts: Is there any information about Soshandukht or her father?

texts:
This is mentioned on Wiki's page about the Sassanid dynasty

Yazdegerd I's successor was his son Bahram V (421–438), one of the most well-known Sassanid kings and the hero of many myths. Bahram V's mother was Soshandukht (or Shushandukht), the daughter of the Jewish Exilarch.

Is there any information about her or her father on a personal or national level? Jewish and nonjewish sources welcome.  Wikipedia has only a stub containing very little detail.

I have found that she is said to have settled a colony of Jews in the suburb of Yahūdiyyeh.


texts: Why was old Shanghai called "Whore of the Orient"?

texts:
I've been doing research on Old Shanghai, during the 19th Century and early 20th Century. I know all about the Opium Wars and the Opium trade and their effect on the country. But I'm still not sure why one would call it "Whore of the Orient." Was it because of the country's addiction to opium during the time, the flood of European refugees, or just the city's popularity?

The easiest answer would be that the city was called a "whore" because of it's opium addiction, as though it's a "whore" for opium. But I want to make sure that this is the reason, and the term doesn't come from something unrelated.


texts: What are some annotated sources to guide me through the Federalist Papers and other early American historical documents?

texts:
As a STEM guy I could very easily read the Federalist Papers and never understand the historical context or the significance of each paper.
Can you recommend a source (audio book, video series, or book) that can "take me gently" through the Federalist Papers and any other early American founding documents?


texts: How did the Soviet Union officially justify the need for foreign travel and emigration restrictions?

texts:
As discussed on this question the Soviet Union heavily regulated the travel and emigration of its citizens to foreign countries, with the border heavily fortified with machine guns in some areas to prevent unauthorised citizens from escaping the country.

But what was the official rationale for this policy, either in internal or external media? Did the Soviet propaganda somehow explain why one cannot simply leave the country?


texts: How could I determine the value of a a 1921 Yuan Shikai Chinese silver dollar?

texts: I have a 1921 Yuan Shikai Chinese silver dollar. What is the history of this coin, and how could I determine the worth/value of my coin?


texts: How many customs houses were there in 1850 California?

texts:
Mexican California's customs house was in Monterey. When the territory became part of the U.S. in 1846, San Francisco was the emergent port city. Despite the territory's political commitment to continue operating under Mexican law, William Richardson was customs officer at San Francisco by 1847; he was named in a published announcement also mentioning "Collectors of the Customs at the different Ports of California". In 1851, Dr. T. O. Andrews was appointed "surveyor of the port of Santa Cruz". (I suspect that "surveyor" and "collector" are equivalent titles in U.S. ports.)

Around 1850, where in California besides San Francisco were there customs officers or houses?


texts:
Copied from OP's comment:

  I believe he stayed in the Aachen area.

It is a photo of my G.G.Grandfather who was born in Aachen, Germany in 1841 and died 13 Nov 1890. Thanks in advance.


texts: Did Hongwu Emperor flay 5000 women, and why?

texts:
On Wikipedia, there is a snippet that reads:

  The Hongwu Emperor flayed many servants, officials and rebels.[5][6] In 1396 he ordered the flaying of 5000 women.[7]

The problem is that the second sentence is the only information I can find about such an episode; the single citation is to a Chinese book:

  陈学霖(2001). 史林漫识. China Friendship Publishing Company.

I don't have access to this book (by Hok-lam Chan), and the only English results online go right back to the reference on flaying, so none explain why the execution was performed. Although the lack of references suggests this may be a hoax, it is not out-of-character, as Hongwu and his successor Yongle were both noted for paranoia and cruelty, with the latter torturing 2800 ladies-in-waiting to death.

Can someone with access to the sources check whether this really did happen, and if so what the reason was?


texts: How did agricultural productivity change in Italy with the fall of the Roman Empire and through the early Middle Ages?

texts:
I have heard that overall agricultural productivity decreased with the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. In part at least it must be in relation to a general decrease of population - less people require less food and are able to produce less food as well.

But considering that the very form of organization of labour in society was changing  with the disappearance of the Roman Empire and with the development of feudalism I expect that the economic productivity per unit of arable land (or some other specific unit, like household) would also change.

One related issue that complicates things is that along with the fall of the Roman Empire, trade connections between Italy and other parts of the Empire (first of all - Africa and Egypt) began to deteriorate. I guess that separation (at least partial) from agriculturally rich regions somehow encouraged local production of food in Italy, but I do not how significant that was as a factor.


texts: Was King Henry VIII, mid-late in his reformation campaign, motivated more by theology or absolutist drive?

texts:
King Henry VIII expended much of his rule pursuing religious reformation of England. The six articles, proposed by the Duke of Norfolk and signed by the King, essentially (not in totality but more so than before) realigned English theology with the main tenets of Catholicism. Nonetheless, King Henry VIII doubled-down on reforming the Abbeys, religious houses and opposing friends of the papacy.

Because the key theological differences between Henry VIII and the Catholics were subtle at heart, was the primary motivation for the King's antipathy of Rome resistance to bowing to the Pope?
In a broader sense, was this a matter of Henry's absolutist nature and power drive more than theological principles?


texts: Is this alphabet from tawantinsuyu or is it a modern invention (from the latter centuries)?

texts:
I am asking about tawa. When I studied quichua as language, I was told that quichua was not written. However here, in Ecuador, I found many sources (the main one is a magazine delivered by Amawtay Wasi school of andean cultures) talking about this alphabet.

My question is: Is this alphabet real (in the sense of being used by tawantinsuyu people) or was a new-age invention? Is there any reliable source about its social context (i.e. when and how was it used)?

I'm sorry. I'm not a historian and I'm tired of finding new-age-tainted material.