texts: Where exactly were the British occupations in the Egypt Campaign?

texts:
Wikipedia says that Murad Bey would accept the British occupations in Alexandria Damietta and Rosetta.

Murad had reportedly offered money to the French forces to leave Egypt and offered to ally himself with the British in exchange for allowing the British to occupy Alexandria, Damietta and Rosetta.1

Britain did have an interest in having a colony in Egypt, which was also one of the goals of the British Egyptian Campaign in 1807. The Wikipedia page also says that Murad Bey would accept the British occupations in Alexandria and Rosetta.
It's hard for me to find a map that shows exactly how the British - French and Ottoman territories were organized in that region.
The actual quote from Wikipedia's linked source is:

... and later offered to ally himself with the British, whom he would have allowed to occupy Alexandria, Damietta, and Rosetta. .... He died of the plague before he could conclude this agreement ....


texts: What were the global economic consequences of the 1918 flu pandemic?

texts:
What were the global economic (and societal) consequences, assuming there were any, of the 1918 flu pandemic?

I'm just not finding a lot of information out there talking about this particular question. If I were to speculate, I'd take a look at the 1920-1921 economic depression in the United States. The historical sources I've found tend to attribute the 1920-1921 depression to the aftermath of WWI, but it seems to me like the 1918 flu could have been a contributing factor as well.


texts: Did people 'go to the beach' for pleasure during classical antiquity?

texts:
Swimming in the sea was necessary for many in ancient Rome or Greece, but did they do it for recreation?

Re:

I have seen a picture of a Roman pool created from the sea made for relaxation and swimming. I think it was at Baiae or maybe Capri. I will have to look it up when i get chance.

That might have been at the Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum. A pool near the beach rises the question if they preferred this to the sea though, rather than demonstrating a preference to the beach.
Re:

There are two (sourced) Quora posts and a reddit post on this which cite Pliny, Cicero, Suetonius and others.

What they describe and reference is that rich Romans liked the seaside, and often had beaches near their villas. That could well be the landing grounds for boats though, since you might prefer to come to your villa by the sea rather than land travel. Pools near the beach in e.g. Herculaneum do not seem to favor the beach either. Swimming is mentioned by Pliny for North Africa, which hints to it being peculiar to Romans rather than it being common.


texts: Explain the symbols in the relief of Thoth raising Seti I in the Temple of Seti I at Abydos

texts:
Please can someone help me understand this relief. I want to know:

What the symbols are
What they symbolise
What the hieroglyphs say.

I am very intrigued by the two Wadjet-papyrus staffs and what they symbolise. Are they only symbols of political power? Or do they have a deeper religious significance?


texts: Why wasn't Stalin deposed? How did he keep power for so long?

texts:
Stalin's two next successors, Malenkov and Khrushchev, were both ousted.

Why wasn't Stalin? Note that the cult of personality around Stalin was not so much directly tied to the man and his vanity, but various state projects.

So how did Stalin manage to control USSR so absolutely, even when total loyalty to him was never rewarded long term?

User "kieslowskifan" wrote on r/AskHistorians

  But being on the Team always carried with it an element of risk. Displeasing Stalin or creating some sort of pretext for removal was an ever-present threat during the Purges. Genrikh Yagoda's fall exemplified that no one was immune from the process. Yagoda, as head of the NKVD, was notoriously corrupt and inefficient and enemies within the Team and the NKVD used this against him. His successor, the much younger Nikolai Yezhov, conducted his duties with far greater probity and thoroughness than the venal Yagoda. But although Yezhov was a more efficient executor, that very status painted a target on Yezhov's back. Like many intelligence chiefs, Yezhov actively sought out intelligence on his political rivals. Such files were dangerous in the collective paranoia of the Great Purges as trivial biographical details and missteps could become treason. Stalin's habit of simultaneously delegating and then micromanaging the Team gave Yezhov plenty of evidence on the Teams' activities that could be spun into a charge. Not surprisingly, Yezhov was the most powerful member of the inner circle to be purged. Even here, the purging process was quite different and staged with a gradual stripping of his power before his arrest, show-trial, and execution. A similar fate befell Yezhov's successor Beria after Stalin's death, illustrating the occupational hazards of being Stalin's chief of secret police.


texts: Were there more robberies of "commercial" or "personal" nature in 19th century in USA?

texts:
Is there any statistics showing which trips on highways were statistically safer from being robbed in 19th century USA?

the "commercial" ones (e.g. banks or government moving money) which offered more booty but correspondingly present more risks due to better guarding
or personal trips.


texts: When did China start thinking 8 was lucky and 4 unlucky?

texts: I'm familiar with the reasons for these superstitions, but I can't find any estimate of how old they are. Is one older than the other?


texts: How was reconnaissance performed in medieval warfare?

texts:
During the middle ages reconnaissance played at least a minor part in a tactician's plans. As evidenced by this question Irish Hobelars would be used to scout ahead in terrain that was too difficult for heavy cavalry to traverse. But apart from this type of light cavalry I have not heard of any implementation of scout troops beyond seeing that occasional reports were returned by scouting forces.
How was reconnaissance performed during medieval marches? Did scouts ride ahead far enough to set camp and wait for their army to catch up to them, or would they perform scouting missions and return to the main force in one full outing? Similarly, what were their main tasks? Identify the opposing force, identify advantageous terrain, or perform other operations?
For the purposes of the question I'm curious about how scouting was performed during the period of the Hundred Year's war as I am interested to determine if that predates modern scouting techniques or if the it has remained relatively consistent over time.


texts: Is it fair to say that the USSR has technical parity over NATO on land and air over much of the cold war?

texts:
I was always under the impression that the USSR had the advantage over NATO for much of the cold war until the 80's, when the stagnating Soviet economy hurt their weapons programs whist Reagan's militarization programs (M1 Abrams, Apache helicopters, Bradleys, Humvees, etc.) started getting deployed in Europe. However, reading this thread, especially posts by a user called 'ikalugin', suggests to me that the USSR has parity over NATO in pure technical terms anyway. Are there any truth to his claims, or is it just the almost universal Russian superiority complex?

Some examples of superiority of USSR equipment outlined in the thread:

-Late T-80 models being superior to M1A1 tanks and, by extension, other NATO MBT's

-Late model T-64 being the same as T-80's therefore by extension they're better than NATO MBT's as well

-Superiority of MIG-29 and SU-27 over F-15 as well as the Soviet pioneering of data links


texts: What is the source for this Leonardo Da Vinci quote?

texts:
"Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world."

Where exactly does this Leonardo Da Vinci quote come from? Was it part of a larger paragraph - if so what was it? And what exactly does it mean?

  [Someone asked a similar question on Yahoo but the answers were of no great use.]

UPDATE:

Thank you everyone for your contributions. In the answer of Pieter Geerkens The DaVinci Globe is mentioned where on pg. 120, indeed, the author uses this quote. But, according to its footnote (6), the quote comes from Nora Hamerman, “Leonardo da Vinci and The Scientific Revolution of Renaissance Visual Arts,” in Fidelio, Volume 2, Number 4, Winter 1993, pg. 30-42. But reading this entire article I do not see the Leonardo Da Vinci quote or anything resembling it in the slightest.

I cannot see any way to contact the author Stefaan Missinne regarding this anomaly.


texts: Did a kamikaze ever impact the hull of a ship, as opposed to the deck?

texts:
All kamikaze videos I've seen show the plane dive bombing into the deck of a ship. The photos I've seen also appear to always show a burning deck or tower.

What I want to know is, did any kamikaze ever impact the side or hull of a ship?

It seems like that would sink the thing much faster. Also, correct me if I'm wrong but the heavy AA guns appear like they can't point down over the deck. They can only point upwards or parallel to the surface, but not down at the surface.

This makes me wonder why kamikazes apparently always go for dive bombing instead of a low-level run for the broadside.

EDIT: Oldcat explained the situation with carriers, but what about other large ships? Wouldn't their hulls make better targets for sinking than their decks?


texts: Pushkin's daguerreotype and catalogues of early 19th century photographs

texts:
I recently came across of "Pushkin's daguerreotype", and was naturally awed by that. The daguerreotype bares strong resemblance to known portraits of Pushkin, but is it real or a hoax?

The first thing one would look into is whether the timeframe of daguerreotype invention make it possible. It "sort of" does: daguerreotypes we invented no later than 1835, and Pushkin died in 1837. However, the quality of earliest daguerreotypes, and the demands on exposure times, make the reality of this one highly doubtful. For example, "the earliest daguerreotype of a person" according to Wikipedia, the bottom picture here, is dated 1838, a year after Pushkin's death. Also, the existence of a photograph of a person as famous as Pushkin would've been famous as well.

Thus, with the deepest sigh of regret, I have to assume that this one is a hoax.

Which brings me to the question I'd like to ask here: is there a publicly available catalog of known early 19th century daguerreotypes?

In case of Pushkin it didn't take me too long to conclude it was a hoax because the timeframe didn't quite match the quality, but what would one do with a daguerreotype allegedly taken in, say, 1845? There couldn't have been too many of those.

[]

]


texts: How much did Shah Jahan spend on Taj Mahal?

texts:
I have watched(on TV) that the spending on Taj Mahal was so huge that it brought misery to the kingdom.

So how much did Shah Jahan actually spend?(in whichever monetary unit you think is appropriate).


texts: How much did the western world know about the Soviet Union pre-WWII?

texts:
This question is inspired by being surprised at the insight of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

For some reason, I had the impression that the western world was in the dark about the horribleness of the Soviet Union, and things only came into public knowledge with the publication of Gulag Archipelego.

Am I just ignorant, or did George Orwell have privileged knowledge that the general population didn't?


texts: Why is Crispus Attucks the one who gets all the attention?

texts:
The only name most people from the Boston Massacre is Crispus Attucks, when in fact there were five

  Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr

So what distinguished Crispus Attucks from the rest of the 4?


texts: How did Egyptian Pharaohs get their title?

texts:
I recently watched a presentation where the presenter said there was a man named "Rikayon" who became wealthy from charging people a death tax to bury their dead. After an ancient king (Nimrod) realized this, he changed his name to "Pharaoh" which apparently has a meaning related to what Rikayon did, and he was subsequently the first "Pharaoh"...
Is there any evidence of this in historical records? Where can I look for find out more?


texts: Did the Vikings practice voluntary human sacrifice?

texts:
In the TV series Vikings there's a scene at the Norse temple Upsalla where a Viking warrior quite willingly agrees to be sacrificed in exchange for the goodwill & protection of the Norse gods for his friends and family.
I was wondering how accurate this scene was & if this voluntary form of human sacrifice  really occurred. I always thought Viking human sacrifices were of slaves or people  they'd conquered in battle.


texts: What happened in Southeast Asia in these years?

texts:
Im interesting to know what happened in the GDP growth in those years. I think that the 1964 and 1978 decline was because of the fall in oil prices, but im not sure. And in 1970 i really don't know what happened, maybe it was because of the high oil prices, but a lot of countries in the southeast asia export oil.
Thank you.


texts:
What is the meaning of “handbags” that Babylonian gods are often depicted carrying ?
![god with handbag]


texts:
Today, an infection isn't usually too serious of a problem, with so many kinds of antibiotics available.

Was there any way to deal with infections in pre-modern times?  Let's say before 1700.


texts: Did the Thracian Rhomphaia ever clash with a Roman Gladius?

texts:
From what I understand, the Odrysian kingdom became a client state of Rome after the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC).

Did the Thracians (Odrysian or otherwise) ever clash with the Romans in a pitched battle? And if so, did the Thracians use the Rhomphaia weapon against them? Or did they make use of phalanx unit formations?


texts: What size was the most widely distributed version of Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book"?

texts: Quotations From Chairman Mao, known in the West as "the Little Red Book", was printed in China in several different sizes, of which the most popular was a small size that according to many accounts allowed it to be carried about with ease and to fit into a shirt pocket. What actually was this size?


texts: How did Poland fare under "personal unions?"

texts:
On at least two occasions, Poland appointed as kings, rulers of other countries. Once was in the fourteenth century, when the king was Lajos of Hungary. Another was in the eighteenth century when the king was Augustus the Strong of Saxony.

In NEITHER case did Poland merge with the king's other country, so these "personal unions" did not end by uniting the two countries. On the other hand, Poland did form a partnership with Lithuania by marrying off its "king," Jadwiga (Lajos' daughter), to Jogaila, Lithuania's Grand Duke (king), although the partnership wasn't fully consummated until the mid-16th century (a century and half later.)

How would Lajos, for instance, have ruled Poland, while personally governing Hungary from Budapest. Did he appoint a viceroy? Or did he have a council of Polish nobles reporting "loosely" to him while they mostly did what they pleased?

Did Poland gain any advantage from having these kings with commitments elsewhere? Did the country do better or worse with Lajos, Augustus (and others, if applicable), in comparison with kings that did not have these conflicts of interest?

And are the two sets of questions in the two paragraphs related, that is, does HOW this kind of government worked affect HOW WELL the government worked?


texts: How did pumps work during the Age of Sail?

texts:
During the 17th and 18th century, sailing ships were equipped with pumps to avoid flooding. This can be seen during the opening battle of master and commander: the far side of the world. Part of the crew act on cranks, then water is thrown overboard and other part of the crew try to repair the hull. Yet, there is no clue about how the pump work, what pieces pumps are composed of, what kind of hydraulic pump it is.

How did pumps used to avoid flooding work on those ship? What kind of pump was it? What materials were they composed of?


texts: To what extent was the US government financed by land expropriations between 1790 and 1846?

texts:
How significant was land expropriation as a source of US federal, state, and local government revenue between 1790 and 1846?
I chose 1846 as the breakpoint because of the Walker Tariff; feel free to critique that choice.
Related questions: What were the sources of US government revenue from 1790 to 1846?
Background:
I have found sources sufficient to establish that public land sales and the exercise of eminent domain were significant; these are listed below. However, I have not found enough to give me an idea of their relative magnitudes.

(h/t to Brian Z) This article says that public land sales contributed about 14% of federal revenue prior to 1863. This paper, in turn (table 1 on p6), helps estimate the percentage of US revenue that went to the federal government versus state versus local. However, I have not done the necessary work to determine whether I can reasonably "glue together" these sources. If we accept that US government units obtained some of their public land by expropriating it from indigenous people, this suggests that expropriations contributed substantially to government revenues.

This survey (which I will call "Wallis 1") motivates the question in two ways (p3 of the pdf):
a. It identifies public lands as an important source of government income.
b. It identifies infrastructure investment as an important source of government income. This infrastructure depended in part on eminent domain; see, e.g., this paper (p1, not paywalled). To the extent that some exercises of eminent domain power can be interpreted as land expropriations, this agains suggests that expropriations contributed.
Wallis 1 makes the above two statements in discussing state government finance between about 1790 and 1842, which lines up pretty well with my period of 1790-1846.
Wallis 1 also gives a partial indirect answer by estimating the relative share of property taxes for state governments from 1835 through the end of my period (p8 of the pdf).

According to wikipedia, US government units continued confiscating British property until the Jay Treaty of 1795. Maybe some of it was land?


texts: Where can I find an explanation of the variations in style of Egyptian hieroglyphs?

texts:
I've seen that Egyptian hieroglyphs are not always written or drawn identically.

Long time ago I made a trip in Egypt and saw, in the Valley of the Kings, a tomb with hieroglyphs on the walls that were just drawn, in black I think, not engraved. The style of these hieroglyphs was very simple, and looked 'modern' to me. I didn't make a photo of them (it was not allowed), and I can't find a image on the web for these particular hieroglyphs...

Is there any reference online for the evolution of the shape of hieroglyphs?


texts: Did Vietnam have to pay back the Soviets / China?

texts:
According to this article, estimates of the total cost of the Soviet Union's support to the North Vietnam government range from $3.6 billion to $8 billion.

China too lent its support

  The Chinese government, under the administration of Mao Zedong, took an active role in the First Indochina War. In April 1950, Viet Minh formally requested military aid including equipment, advisors, and training for the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The PRC began to send their advisors and later form the Chinese Military Advisory Group (CMAG) to assist the North Vietnamese forces in return, led by General Wei Guoqing, along with Senior General Chen Geng. This is the beginning of China’s assistance.

Seeing as how the Cold War was more of a clash of Ideology between two world powers, arms deals made or military support given would not have had the primary objective of profit or commercial gain.
After the Vietnam war, aside from an ideological and military victory over the west; did the Soviets and China (for their support during the IndoChina war as well) expect anything in return monetarily?


texts: What is the earliest reference to "space aliens"?

texts:
If we go back sufficiently far in human history we will most likely see that any descriptions of (supposed) "aliens" are described solely in religious terms.

So in the distant past, any weird or "unexplainable" (considering the level of knowledge or willingness to search for answers in religion) events were probably more often (or always?) attributed to Gods or "spirit beings" (of one sort or another).

Anyway, somewhere along the (history)line the human mentality changed and the concept of space aliens started to be used for some of these events.

What is the earliest mention of space aliens (as non-religious beings) in literature?


texts: Where to find Cixi‘s 1865 decree dismissing Prince Gong?

texts:
Zhang Rong‘s Cixi biography titled »EMPRESS DOWAGER CIXI: THE CONCUBINE WHO LAUNCHED MODERN CHINA«, Chapter 6, Loc 1365 on kindle claims:

  Without the rigid etiquette, she realised, Prince Gong was too relaxed with her and was treating her in the patronising way he tended to treat all women, especially as she was young–still in her twenties. His behaviour irritated and angered her for some time, until one day in 1865 she exploded and in tremendous agitation fired him. She wrote a decree by hand, accusing him of ‘having too high an opinion of himself’, ‘strutting about and giving himself airs’ and, simply, being ‘full of rubbish’. This was one of the few decrees Cixi wrote in her own hand. Her writing was still poor, and her text was littered with solecisms.

In her typical style, Zhang Rong offers no references. I am certainly no good judge of literary Chinese, let alone the variant used in edicts. Yet I have seen many claims pro and contra Cixi‘s supposed lack of education. I would like to have access to the text, so as to be able to ask Chinese Professors about it.

So, how to get the text of this edict?


texts:
In general we think of Corporations as not acting on nations with force, simply with legal power. (Perhaps they maintain a fleet of security guards). We generally think of Corporations as leaving the military work to the government.

(Not to say that the Corporations can't influence the government strongly for a particular military outcome - but the idea was they'd leave it to the government armed forces to take this action.)

Yet when we read the history of the British East India Company, we read about the Presidency Armies. It does appear that a private Corporation in that period of history maintained an armed force for interacting with nations.

In fact we read:

  The Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective term for units of the current British Army that are composed of Nepalese soldiers. The brigade, which is 3,640 strong, draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the Indian Army prior to Indian independence, and prior to that of the East India Company.

My question is: Is there a precedent for private companies maintaining a military force?


texts: How did the "weather conditions" for an invasion at Pas de Calais compare to those of Normandy?

texts:
During World War II, Normandy was chosen as the northern France invasion site over the Pas de Calais.
This was in spite of the fact that "weather" made a landing at Normandy a very iffy proposition in 1944. The weather was "barely" good enough for a landing on D-Day, meaning that it was a 50-50 proposition. The weather was horrible at the next full moon in July, and at no later time in 1944 was the weather more suitable for a landing at Normandy
The chances of a successful landing might be described as 1) the chances of getting troops ashore times 2) the chances of maintaining a beachhead once landed. I assume that Normandy was chosen as the landing site because Allied estimates of 2), maintaining a beachhead, were much higher for Normandy. But my question relates to the role of the weather (at Pas de Calais) on the first part of the equation, the ability to get troops ashore.
Were weather conditions at Pas de Calais better, worse, or about the same as at Normandy for most of 1944?


texts: Looking for source(s) on cuisine and humorism theory for how they've changed over time

texts:
Just to preface: no, I do not believe in humorism.

I was watching a show a few years ago where the hosts ate food from different time periods. They remarked how pork and applesauce  were an odd combination (though delicious) which came about because of humorism, where apples and pork represented two different humors.

Intrigued, I have repeatedly attempted to look up more information on the various humors associated with foods. I have found lists in places, with no sources to back them up (which makes me suspicious). I have spoken with historians and museum curators who say that such books exist, but they haven't the foggiest where to find them.

As near as I can find, it is generally agreed that food was associated with specific humors. But I can not find any scholarly texts on the subject, nor can I find lists of foods associated with the various humors which actually can date itself back to when humorism was still in vogue.

What intrigues me is how the associations for foodstuffs may have changed over the centuries, and how assignments were made for new foodstuffs. Food-associated humorism was a very long running theory, how did it change over time, specifically with how the foods themselves were perceived?


texts: In what incident did a resistance press leak cause a concentration camp commander demotion?

texts:
I recall reading about an atrocity in a concentration camp in the Occupied Netherlands.  The atrocity is notable (perhaps even unique) because news leaked out via the underground resistance press, and the commander was demoted as a result.  That makes it one of the very few cases where the resistance press had an (indirect) role in a concentration camp commander facing consequences for his actions, even if senior nazis were probably more concerned about the news leaking than about the atrocity itself, without the atrocity the commander might not have been demoted.

When and where did this incident occur?  From what I remember, it involved pressing as many women as they physically could into a tiny room and leaving them there for many hours.  Many, perhaps most, did not survive the incident.  I tried to search on Google about this incident, but I'm not finding any relevant results (for example, "nazi incident pressing women into small room" does not yield any articles about the incident at present, nor does "nazi incident women pressed into cell commander demoted").


texts: When was the last time the Catholic Church excommunicated a government official for political reasons?

texts:
The Roman Catholic Church has a long history of excommunicating people.
These days it is mostly constrained to excommunicating bishops who break with doctrine.
The Pope regularly sends letters to political figures touching on political matters. (Russian President, Australian Prime-minister, UN Secretary General). How long has it been since the Church "threw its weight around" and actually excommunicated someone, because of what they wanted to happen, in terms of national policy?
I'm looking for the most recent case of the Roman Catholic Church excommunicating a politician or government (eg a head of state/government, a chief bureaucrat), as part of "Meddling in national politics".
I'm only interested in the excommunication of clergymen, if they were both government officials (outside of the Holy See), and the political reason was related to national politics (Eg declaring war on another country).
With the explicit exclusion of excommunicating someone who practiced outright warfare against the Church, or the Holy See.
This should also implicitly exclude Automatic Excommunication.
Also excluding anyone that had the excommunication revoked/reversed, shortly after. If the excommunication wasn't revoked til over a decade later than that would be applicable (though I'ld expect an answer to mark as such).
Best I can find is King James IV of Scotland in 1513 (by Pope Leo X) for breaking the Treaty of Perpetual Peace.
However, is not entirely clear to me as to if this was done for political reasons, or if it was done for religious reasons -- he violated a sworn oath before God.


texts: Was Isserson a good commander on the field?

texts:
Isserson is one of the fathers of the deep battle doctrine and was one of the most brilliant minds of the Soviet Army. (According to Joukov's memoir)

However, Isserson was also described as an awful leader on the field. He lost many exercises during the 30's (Also when Joukov was the CO of an armored division) and he was supposed to have some issue with interpersonal relationships.
Is there any report of his experience on the field to prove his unability to lead men ?


texts: Why has Hatutu's population never returned to the island?

texts:
Any info on this topic is scarce and hard to find.

Hatutu is an island in French Polynesia, part of the Marquesas Islands group. The population was evacuated (I believe) prior to the underwater nuclear tests the French conducted in that region. Today the only way to get there, apparently, is by joining a group of tourists on a diving excursion.

No population. Why?


texts: Besides the US in 1958, has there been a post-WWII show of force by any military in the Taiwan Strait (excluding Taiwan and China)?

texts:
CNN's article US Vice President Pence set to inflame China tensions: 'We will not be intimidated' describes an upcoming speech by US VP Pence and the existence of a proposed military exercise in November.

  The US Navy's Pacific Fleet has drawn up a classified proposal to carry out a global show of force as a warning to China and to demonstrate the US is prepared to deter and counter their military actions, according to several US defense officials.

  The draft proposal from the Navy is recommending the US Pacific Fleet conduct a series of operations during a single week in November.

  The goal is to carry out a highly focused and concentrated set of exercises involving US warships, combat aircraft and troops to demonstrate that the US can counter potential adversaries quickly on several fronts.

CNN's article US Navy proposing major show of force to warn China describes the existence of a proposal, and an upcoming speech by US VP Pence.

  The plan suggests sailing ships and flying aircraft near China's territorial waters in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait in freedom of navigation operations to demonstrate the right of free passage in international waters. The proposal means US ships and aircraft would operate close to Chinese forces.
  The defense officials emphasized that there is no intention to engage in combat with the Chinese.

  While the US military carries out these types of operations throughout the year, the proposal being circulated calls for several missions to take place in just a few days.

  While one official described it as "just an idea," it is far enough along that there is a classified operational name attached to the proposal, which is circulating at several levels of the military. Officials would not confirm the name of the potential operation.

Here I would like to ask for some background. I believe that a US aircraft carrier and associated ships passed through the Taiwan Strait in 1958. Besides that, has there been any overt military activity in the strait excluding anything by Taiwan or China?


texts:
I was trying to search for an article on the Web but cannot find from an authentic source.

I want to know when and which language was first formalized and its grammar specified.


texts: Security of war documents/letters during revolutionary war?

texts:
I was wondering the security of such documents. Documents like letters written by the British generals to each other communicating about their next battle tactic against the Americans. See this link.

My question is, how advanced were the encoding methods back then used to send important information so it doesn't get into the wrong hands? Also, sometimes a message may be sent as a trap with the intentions of purposely fooling the enemy into thinking something else. How would one today figure out if that was true or not looking at them today? What about the intelligence back then? They relied solely on these documents to figure out stuff.


texts: What did General McAuliffe actually say at Bastogne?

texts:
Well documented during the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 was McAuliffe's response to the German demand for surrender: Nuts!

Many years ago, an ex-101st Airborne trooper who said he was in the command post when the surrender demand came in, told me an interesting story about how this came to be. When the demand first came in, McAuliffe's initial response was something along the lines of telling the Germans to perform quaint anatomical impossibilities on themselves.

Surrender was out of the question - they were holding up a major offensive by blocking a critical crossroads. They had repulsed several attacks so far. They knew 4th Armored was racing towards them. And they had some idea that the bad weather would clear, which would bring in the tactical air P47's to wreak havoc on the German forces... which did happen a few days later.

Come the time to send some sort of response, someone suggested to McAuliffe - why not your original remark? Supposedly, that was vetoed on the grounds that this incident would probably make the history books, so they had to keep it a bit clean, and the alternate 'nuts' was sent instead.

Has anyone come across any valid documentation on this story? Just trying to figure out if that is true, or was the guy just embellishing, which has been known to happen with war stories.


texts: When was the british rail strike when the workers fought by following the regulations?

texts:
I once heard about a strike in british railways. The workers decided to follow strictly the law regulations and that created chaos and that's how they proved the law was wrong.

I can't find any information about it now. Anyone knows any dates or resources? Maybe I remember it wrong and it wasn't in Great Britain?


texts: Did the Designers of Teotihucan have an advanced understanding of Acoustics?

texts:
Teotihucan was one of the most impressively built and planned cities in ancient and world history. It is approximately 30 miles South of Mexico City and was founded around 200 BC/BCE-(though its preeminence dates from 150 BC/BCE to 750 AD/CE, around the same time as The Maya. However, it should be noted that the Maya were not the Original Founders of Teotihucan).  The city is comprised of nearly perfect geometric pyramidal structures, the most famous being the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun. Like the Maya, the Founders and later residents of Teotihucan were skilled Astronomers and Timekeepers,as well as brilliantly skilled Architects and Urban Planners.

However, the city of Teotihucan, (according to those who visit), is also said to have a uniquely all encompassing echo effect, especially when clapping-(both individually and in unison). Did the Ancient Teotihucan Urban Planners deliberately design an acoustically advanced city? If so, did these early Urban Planners in Teotihucan have a deep understanding and pioneering knowledge  regarding the mathematics of sound?-(similar to the Ancient Greeks and Romans).


texts: Why did American Abolitionists believe slavery to be immoral?

texts: Someone already asked when and how people began to consider slavery immoral on stack exchange, but no one has asked why. Why did American abolitionists believe slavery was immoral before 1860? I know the economies of states that would later form the Confederate States of America depended on slave labor, so I understand why it was convenient for confederates to believe slavery was morally acceptable. But why were the northern, more industrialized states against it? Couldn't they have used slaves in their factories?


texts: What social relationships existed between the popular mobility and the political elites in the revolutionary American colonies?

texts:
What social relationships existed between the popular mobility and the political elites in the revolutionary and potentially revolutionary British American colonies?

For those unfamiliar with 18th century social jargon, the mobility was what we know as "the mob," it was a new urban phenomena occurring in public spaces. It involved concerted drunken commoners engaging in politics of heckling, abuse, petty violence, execution spectating, public speaking, violent attacking of public voting. London returned radical commons members less due to voters visibly and publicly casting ballots, than to the mobility's intimidation of those few with a franchise to vote in the mobs interests. The mobility was popular: it was "the people," in the sense of the sans culottes and enrages and Roux and the Nore mutiny and the Boston mob. It preceded Peterloo, the charter, Jacksonian demos-cracy and "the working class" as a concept. In the United States it is most commonly (haha) associated with Boston and New York, where not only mob violence but the percolation of ideas in public space movement was of significance: business was conducted in the eyes of the public, before the people in the street. "The mobility" is a combination of riot, bazaar, street life, coffee shop, the stoop and if protesting actually mattered (because at the time it was generally illegal).

Please consider revolutionary, loyalist and indifferently aligned British Americans particularly. If particular schisms or qualifications of the elites or popular mobilities dictated their conducts this would be essential to the answer, geography, race, religion and generation of settlement seem potential?  Were Whig and Tory mentalities of significance within the mobs?

I am less interested in the rural yeomanry, however so populist; as I am more interested in the general mobility of close settlement and towns or cities.

I am interested in both interpersonal interactions such as subordination and deference; as well as mass phenomena.


texts: Between the 7 Years War and 1776, was there any effort to have the colonies represented in Parliament?

texts:
I've now read a couple books about the American Revolution and the founding fathers.  I don't think, however, I read anything about colonial assemblies or the continental congresses pushing for representation in the British Parliament. It seems like it might have been a way to have taxation WITH representation without separating from the mother country.

Was this ever considered by either side?  We already have answers for why it wasn't ultimately done, but what proposals were made when, and by whom?

I don't think this is a duplicate as I'm asking if there were specific proposals or evidence of them and their context.  Also, the answer of the suggested duplicate seems to focus on the causes of the war and not the issue I'm asking about.


texts: Where does Edmund Burke explain aristocratic eccentricity as a reaction to the influx of non-titled country gentlemen?

texts: I am looking for the source of a notion of Edmund Burke’s that the English aristocracy turned to eccentric behavior in order to distinguish themselves from the “new men” who were acquiring estates in the country and aping the aristocrats’ lifestyle and deportment. It struck me as a strikingly modern psychological-sociological observation, especially in the way that it teeters on the cusp between perceptive and outlandish. (I am quite sure the theory was Burke’s, but not 100% sure – likely from the “Reflections” or from one of his speeches on Warren Hastings.)


texts: How did communist authorities decide who is "German" and who is "Polish" when expelling Germans from recovered territories?

texts:
It is a well known fact that Poland won a lot of territory over Germany after WWII, and that German people were expelled, and the place was re-settled with ethnically Poles. What is less known is how they decided who counts as a German and who counts as a Pole.

The region being originally Polish but having gone through years of germanisation, especially during the XIXth century, many people living there would have a multicultural German/Polish identity. In the region a variety of dialects were spoken, and it was not clear if a dialect would be a Slavic influenced German dialect or a German influenced Slavic dialect, neededless to say the debate is more political than ethno-linguistical

Wikipedia says:

  Historian John Kulczycki argues that the Communist authorities
  discovered that forging an ethnically homogenous Poland in the
  Recovered Territories was quite complicated, for it was difficult to
  differentiate German speakers who were "really" Polish and those who
  were not. The government used criteria that involved explicit links to
  Polish ethnicity, as well the person's conduct. Local verification
  commissions had wide latitude in determining who was or was not Polish
  and should remain.

However it would be nice to have more/better info about how they decided whenever a particular bunch of individuals are "Poles" or "Germans".

Side question: Names could play a major role in such a settlement, but what about polonized German names (for example, Szuter), or germanized slavic names (for example, Lukasewitz)? Or people having a German given name and a Slavic family name, or vice-versa?


texts: What operations were carried out by the partisans of the Chernihiv junction in the Great Patriotic War?

texts:
I am interested in finding out more about the Chernihiv partisan junction which was an important force throughout the Great Patriotic War, and their leader Alexei Fyodorovich Fyodorov.
Unfortunately, I am not educated enough to do some organized search as I do not have much clue which other forces throughout the war might've collided with the junction. I didn't have much luck online. I found an interesting article about the junction's operations in Bryanskaya and Orlovskaya oblasts from the autumn of 1942 to the winter of 1943 (it is in Russian, sorry).
Does anyone have any other material to study to organize one's understanding of operations carried out by the junction throughout the Great Patriotic War?


texts: Was Robert McNamara present at Los Alamos, 1945?

texts:
In this photo, a group of important people involved in the Manhattan Project can be seen at an award ceremony in 1945. The description says

  Presentation of Army-Navy E Award at Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos, NM. J Robert Oppenheimer is at left. Colonel Nichols, commander of the MED is in the center, wearing glasses. To the right is Major General Leslie Groves, commander of the Manhattan Project; Robert Gordon Sproul, the President of the University of California; and Commodore W. S. Parsons

The fourth man on the left is strikingly similar to Robert McNamara, among other things Secretary of Defense of the USA, although to an older McNamara, he was only 29 at the time.

Is that possible? Is it only a resemblance?


texts: What were the rules or conventions for choosing the name of a new dynasty chosen? Was there a single method for naming all of the Chinese dynasties?


texts: Was the British Empire financially capable of maintaining India as a colony after WW2?

texts:
In India, it is generally accepted that Indian Independence from the British was the culmination of the 190 year long freedom struggle; from the armed conflicts of the mid-1800s to the more peaceful protests of the early 20th century; with Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders of the Indian National Congress being the heroes of the struggle.

I recently found this article which I'm skeptical of. Here, the author posits that it was, infact, the second world war and the UN's anti-colonization mood that caused the British to leave India. I can agree with the decolonization bit but I don't buy the financial angle. Wouldn't keeping India under the crown have been more beneficial (financially) for the British?

Update: Previously, the question read -

  What is the generally accepted reason as to why the British left India?

But I changed it because I'm more interested in knowing that, was the British Empire financially capable of maintaining its colonies (not only India) after the second world war? Wouldn't the profits from the colonies out weight the costs? Wasn't it the whole point of colonization?


texts: What advantages have motorized infantry enjoyed over standard infantry besides speed?

texts:
My understanding is that motorized infantry have greater combat value than "standard" infantry (foot soldiers armed with rifles, or perhaps machine guns), over and above their greater mobility.

Do the vehicles give motorized infantry better protection? Do the vehicles carry firepower over and above what their soldiers are carrying? Or do the soldiers carry heavier weapons because they are being transported?


texts: Battles where baits are overlooked by the enemy in expense of the baiter

texts:
In battles, often military deception is used to bait the enemy into thinking that a certain move will be made, forcing them to act accordingly and attack from an unexpected angle. Intuitively, I would think that there is a fine line between being too obvious of a bait and being too subtle to be noticed.

Operation mincemeat from WW II is an example of a successful bait along with other examples in pretty much every war ever but I am having a hard time finding examples of failures. Particularly if there is ever a case of an attempted bait so subtle that it was entirely overlooked by the enemy hence not causing enemy to move in the anticipated manner

Edit: another similar but almost opposite example is Battle of Long Island, where Washington believes incoming British soldiers to be a ruse and doesn't react, but there is no ruse and he ends up letting the main force in


texts: I know that duels (in the form popular in Europe of XIX and early XX century) didn't always end in death (dueling to death was even prohibited by some code e.g. Boziewicz code). I would like to know however if we have any statistics about how exactly dangerous duels were. How high were the odds of being killed when entering a duel. Also it would be good to know which type of duel (fencing or shooting) was more dangerous.


texts: Evidence of cross contamination between Japanese and Western sword fighting styles?

texts:
Are there any documented cases of cross pollination between western sword fighting techniques and Japanese ones?  Such cross contamination could have happened during the Sengoku-jidai.  This period would focus more on the practical aspect of swordsmanship.  While during the Meiji restoration, guns were already more popular for battle.  However, both western fencing and Japanese ken-jutsu may have had more opportunity to mix.

Note: I am really not interested in which style is superior or better or could slash more arse.


texts: Which regions/dynasties do the flags in this Fresco about Byzantine-Persian war represent?

texts:
Piero Della Francesca painted the following Fresco to depict battle between Heraclius of Byzantine Empire and Khosrou II of Persian Empire.

Which regions or dynasties do the flags represent?

From what I can guess:

Black Eagle on Golden field represents the Emperor of Eastern Roman Empire, Heraclius. (As the single headed Roman Eagle remained in use in ERE, albeit rarely. This is attested by presence of Eagle Bearers (Aquilifers/ὀρνιθόβορας) in ERE).
Golden lion on Red field probably represents Macedonia. Pictured below, Coat of Arms of Macedonia from 16th century which represents the ancient Lion of Macedonia:

It might also be  a flag from Armenia as Armenians also used a lion emblem occasionally. Pictured below, a flag of King of Armenia (German Caption on top reads "Der Konig von der Hindern Armenia" and the image also appears in this 16th century book):

The Black head with white Bandanna represents Corsica (even though the flag was adopted centuries after the battle or the painting  and I am not sure if Corsica was part of ERE back then but it was a part of ERE back then). Pictured below, flag of Corsica:

The White Cross on Red field seems to be flag of Duchy of Savoy but that can't be right as Savoy was never a part of ERE. Pictured below flag of Savoy:

The white duck on red green field is harder to guess. Maybe it is a swan? If yes, it could be flag of Malta as Pieta, Malta's coat of arms are a white swan on a black field.

So which regions do these flags represent? Or did the artist just made them up in his head?

P.S. Pardon me if I am mistaking between red and green color here.


texts: What title did the merchants permitted to deal with Canton's 13 Factories carry?

texts:
What I know:
During the period leading up to the Opium Wars, trade into China from Europe was locked down to 13 buildings in Canton known as the 13 factories. European merchants were only permitted to do business in the 13 factories.

What I want to know:
What title were the merchants who had authorization to deal with the europeans in the 13 factories called? Was there a title for these merchants who were allowed to deal with the outsiders? Was this even a special privilege, or could anyone walk into the 13 factories and strike a deal?

While we're at it, what's a better name than "the period leading up to the Opium Wars" for this period in Chinese history? That's obviously a eurocentric way to specify the time period, and I'd rather not do that.

I'm shamelessly crossposting this with the Chinese Language Stack Exchange, because I can't figure out which one is the "right" place to put this question. If there's a clear policy on which one I should have used, please accept my apologies in advance and educate me.


texts: What is the reason for the selections of gun caliber size in history?

texts:
After being a fan of diverse WW2-games, I was wondering why and how the gun caliber sizes were designed, from the view of history. Is there an explanation why for example the German army choose to step up from 50 mm via 75 mm to 88 mm, and not to 90 mm in caliber? Why did they choose that "uneven" (imho) gun diameter? Furthermore, the guns increase from 105 mm (reasonable) to 128 mm. Again: Why not an even value, such as 130 mm? Similar approaches can be done for the US tanks (76 mm for example, even though that is close to 3 inches).

Thus, is there a historical reason for such odd caliber sizes, or rather a physical reason?


texts:
How motivated were the Australian, Canadian and NZ soldiers in the British army during the two world wars? Did they feel that their homeland was under threat or did they have problem understanding why they were fighting a war oceans away?

There must also have been some people with German ancestry or ethnicity that could be conscripted, what happened to them?


texts: First evidence of intercontinental or cross-cultural trade?

texts: Probably this happened several times and maybe even failed and broke up in different regions. What hints and proofs do we have of the earliest succesful intercontinental trade relations? I assume there didn't yet exist a common currency system and it was pure barter trade.


texts: What was the largest land area that Germany has ever controlled?

texts: Question is pretty much in the title. What is the greatest area that Germany (including das Deutsche Reich) ever covered. I'd expect it to be either during the World Wars or during the colonial era, but I couldn't find the numbers. Yet I might be wrong and there might be another answer.


texts: Why is the Queen Anne flintlock pistol named after Queen Anne? She didn't reign until the early 1700's, and the pistol was created about 50 years before?


texts: What is the earliest known writing associating the number three with the dimension of the world?

texts:
Euclid's elements say:

  A solid is that which has length, breadth, and depth.

This sentence recognizes that there are three dimensions in the world, and it was written in 300 BC. Are there any known earlier references to 3 spatial dimensions?


texts: What sources do we have on the 5th Century AD in the Gauls and Roman Empire?

texts: While the most famous writer about this period is Grégoire de Tours, who a century later, wrote 'Historia Francorum', Grégoire is subjective about history as he tried to please the new masters of the Gauls.


texts: When the king was away, did their queens sign Acts of Parliament on their behalf?

texts:
I'm actually referring to a circumstance in the event that they are joint sovereigns. Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, Mary I of England and Philip II of Spain, and William III and Mary II of England, Scotland, and Ireland are my examples. All three pairs apparently had a system set for them that required both of their signatures on royal documents and Acts of Parliament...but what happened when one was overseas or in another country/realm of the many they ruled over (Ferdinand, Phillip, and William seemed like they were traveling often while their wives stayed behind)?

Was it good enough for only one spouse to sign?


texts: Was the Persian conquest of Tyre particularly easy, uneventful, or do we lack sources?

texts:
I'm reading the history of Tyre on Wikipedia, and noticing how some sieges were very difficult and get great details, giving the impression that Tyre was a really difficult to conquer city, whereas the Persian conquest barely skims over it; e.g. the Neo-Babylonian siege attempt ...

  In 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II started a siege of Tyre in that went on for thirteen years. It failed, but the weakened city eventually
  conceded to pay a tribute.[36] Due to the long siege, Tyre had
  suffered economically, as its commercial activities were greatly
  damaged by the instability. Numismatic sources suggest that as a
  consequence Tyre lost grounds in its traditional rivalry with
  neighbouring Sidon, which gained back the upper hand.

... or Alexander's successful siege ...

  Angered by this rejection and the city's loyalty to Darius, Alexander
  started the Siege of Tyre despite its reputation as being
  impregnable.[15] However, the Macedonian conqueror succeeded after
  seven months by demolishing the old city on the mainland and using its
  stones to construct a causeway to the island. The tallest siege towers
  ever used in the history of war were moved via this man-made land
  bridge to overcome the walls of the city, which was running low on
  supplies.

..., while of the Persian conquest, all we get is ...

  The Achaemenid Empire of the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered the city in 539 B.C.

To what reason do we owe this surprising brevity? Was the Persian conquest particularly easy and swift -- and was this due to Cyrus' brilliance or due to Tyre not being very strong at the time? Or do we lack historical sources for this particular siege? Or is Wikipedia lacking for no good reason?


texts: Is Benedict XVI the first pope emeritus?

texts:
I have read in a newspaper that Benedict XVI is the first pope emeritus.

Is he really the first pope in history to resign? Or does the title pope emeritus have more specific meaning than just a "pope who has resigned"?


texts: Did the Babylonian priesthood flee to Pergamum?

texts:
I'm reading Brent Winters' The Excellence of the Common Law right now, which relies heavily on the idea that the priesthood of Babylon fled to Pergamum when Babylon was conquered in 539 BC. The authority of this priesthood was then inherited by Rome when Attalus III willed the kingdom to Rome in the second century BC.
I'm trying to fact check this idea, and find some ancient source or other that backs it up, but I'm only able to find this idea repeated on conspiracy-theory type websites. Can anyone point me to a reputable source for this information, either confirming or debunking it?
Winters quotes William Burckhardt Barker's book Lares and Penates in establishing this idea, as well as Donald Grey Barnhouses' The Invisible War:

The king of Babylon [Nimrod] built a bridge across the Euphrates River and gave himself the title of the great bridge builder. The title was transferred, centuries later, to a king of Asia Minor [Attalus of Pergamos], was taken by the Caesars, and finally fell to the popes who boast in it today, Pontifex Maximus.


texts: Why were US "Cavalry" belt buckle backs filled with lead?

texts:
Growing up I heard it was so if need be you could swing them as a weapon at the end of the belt.  I even heard soldiers would melt bullets to add more lead to their buckle to make it a better weapon.

A weight on a short cord, called a Slung Shot was a familiar weapon in the US at the time.  Abraham Lincoln's most famous trial was defending a man against a charge of murdering another with a slungshot.

To clarify: the idea was not that the Cavalry, at the start of a battle, would fling aside their guns and swords, strip off their belts and charge in swinging belts over their heads.  It was that Cavalry and Infantry both can find themselves fighting hand to hand with ammunition gone, rifle stock or sword shattered, and no bayonet in sight---and no longer having a live horse.  There was a very common idea among draft age men in the Vietnam war era that in hand to hand combat you will use anything that would hurt if it hit someone.  And I can tell you that getting hit in the head with a fast moving lead weighted US belt buckle would hurt--though I do not know if it ever actually was a practical battle field last resort.

I have changed the title to reflect the fact that these were not only Cavalry equipment.  To judge by pictures on line today they were not even primarily Cavalry.  You see them far more often on Infantry.

@AllInOne asked for links showing they were filled with lead.  A Google search of

  cavalry plate "filled with lead"

will show it is common knowledge.  Dealers routinely say things like

  The reverse has 100% of the lead fill with both arrow hooks and tongue

to show the item is in good condition and to argue for authenticity.  This comes from  Military Accoutrements.

But in case you only trust Congressional documents from the era you can see

  sword belt plates (brass, filled with lead)

Listed in the Kansas Veteran Association and many similar inventories.

The discussion at Reenactor's Forum and FC Sutler convinces me that  @user2448131 is right.  The lead was was a quick cheap way to hold the attachment hooks on.  It is not for strength: thick sheet brass is plenty strong for a belt buckle let alone a box plate, and lead is not strong.

As to whether soldiers ever did swing it as a weapon -- or thought they might do that -- I'll wait for historic evidence or at least someone who knows what hand to hand fighting is.


texts: In Spain after 1492 what were relations like between converted Jews and converted Muslims?

texts: Is it possible that there was a closeness between the two communities of new Christians or conversely, did they deliberately avoid each other to dispel any concerns Spain might have had about the converted?


texts: Which military first mandated After-Action Review?

texts: According to Gong Chu's Memoir, both CPC and KMT army officers wrote detailed reports after every and each battle. This kind of activity is called After-Action Review (AAR) in today's military jargon. Since both KMT and CPC officers were trained in the same school, the question that follows is this: which military, German, French, Russian or English, started this tradition and explicitly put AAR in their army doctrine?


texts: What is the name of the theory opposite to the Great Man theory?

texts:
The Great Man theory is a 19th-century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of "great men", or heroes; highly influential individuals.

In nearly every lecture on historical sociology I've heard, this idea was disputed. What is the name of the opposing theory, that states the leaders are usually only an outcome of actual trends in society and that if they weren't here, there would be other "great men" on their place?


texts:
In the book “All Hell Let Loose” by Max Hastings, the writer mentions about the condition of British farmers during WWII:

  "Wiltshire farmer Arthur Street ploughed up his grassland as the government ordered, and sent away his beloved hunter to be trained for harness work. Many riding horses took badly to this humble duty, but Street’s ‘Jorrocks’ ‘trotted home like a gentleman.”

What does "Street's Jorrocks" mean?


texts: Why didn't the steppe bow spread further?

texts:
So, this question was triggered by my reading Stephen Turnbull's book on the Gempei War, when he says that he thinks that the yumi, or Japanese longbow, had an effective range of 10 meters against armor, 20 unarmored. Which seemed horrifyingly low to me.

I mentioned this to a friend who knows a good deal about the Crusades, and he said that, yes, he thought war bows in the middle east at the start of the Crusades were also very weak, and they didn't become dominant in the region until the fourteenth century.

And a second friend mentioned the weakness of the bow in the classical mediterranean area, with slings being superior for military purposes.

But the wood-horn-sinew composite bow - the 'Hunnish Bow,' as I've heard it called, or 'steppe bow' - dates back to, according to Wikipedia, at least the second century BC, and some versions apparently more than a millennium further back. It was certainly terrifying Europe in the 5th century CE when the Huns arrived, and I assume that when the Seljuk Turks came off the steppe to take over Persia, they were using it, too. And it was, by all accounts I've read, a terrifyingly powerful, long-range, armor penetrating weapon of marvelous efficiency, with people claiming it can penetrate armor at a hundred meters and hit an unarmored target at four hundred meters or more.

So why wasn't the rest of the world, the world off the steppe, using it? I mean, maybe it didn't reach the classical world until the Huns brought it there, but why weren't the Japanese and the Ayyubids and the Byzantines and everyone else in the faintest contact with the steppe using steppe bows, instead of their apparently-inferior weapons? In particular, even if the common soldiers couldn't afford them, why weren't their aristocracies using them, if they were using bows anyway and the steppe bow was so much better?

References with regards to quality:

Yumi
Composite Bow

Vegetius, writing in the 4th century:

  A third or fourth of the youngest and fittest soldiers should also be exercised at the post with bows and arrows made for that purpose only..." and, later, "Soldiers, notwithstanding their defensive armor, are often more annoyed by the round stones from the sling than by all the arrows of the enemy.

But Maurice, writing in the 6th century, after the Hunnish wars:

  Apart from the foreigners, all the younger Romans up to the age of forty must be required to possess bow and quiver, whether they be expert archers or just average... unskilled men should use lighter bows. Given enough time, even those who do not know how to shoot will learn, for it is essential that they do so.

Quoting Stephen Turnbull, "The Gempei War 1180-85: The Great Samurai Civil War", location 353 on my Kindle:

  For all its length the Japanese longbow had nothing like the power of the bows wielded by the mounted warriors from the steppes of Central Asia. The maximum effective range of a Japanese arrow was unlikely to be more than about 20m, and the preferred distance for inflicting a wound or killing an opponent through a weak point in his armour was little more than 10m.


texts: Why was East Asia more religiously tolerant than Europe in medieval time?

texts:
In medieval time, different religions coexisted in China, Japan and Korea, but only Christianity was allowed in Europe.
What factors made medieval East Asia more religiously tolerant than medieval Europe?


texts: How was titanium transported from Soviet Union to Area 51 for Oxcart?

texts:
Oxcart was one of its kind, a sophisticated aircraft designed during the Cold-War era. Its body was made up of titanium. Titanium was only found in substantial quantities in the then Soviet Union. The USA brought huge amounts of titanium from the Soviets (as told in Net Geo's documentary: Inside: Area 51's secret)

Now, how did the USA get the titanium from the Soviets? Didn't the Soviets know about it? If it knew, why were no actions implemented?


texts: How were diplomats and their staffs treated when World War II was declared?

texts:
This could be a large and varied subject so I will restrict it to the 20th century and give two instances.

In Sept 39, after Poland was invaded, the British diplomat in Berlin handed a note to the German government stating that if they, the Germans, did not cease hostilities against Poland a state of war would exist and a deadline was given. So post that deadline the countries were at war and so the diplomats were, I suppose, enemy belligerents. What happened to them and indeed the German diplomats in the UK? I presume they were allowed to pack up and leave?

The second case is the Japanese delegation which was translating the Japanese demands which were a virtual declaration of war but because of lack of staff etc. they failed to deliver the note until Pearl Harbour and a de-facto declaration of war had been made. Again, here I presume they were allowed to pack up and leave, but as the diplomatic niceties had not been adhered to there could have been problems.

I presume that there were rules and that also the two side acted rather like hostages for the others. In this case I suppose timing of your diplomats leaving etc. was important?


texts: Military capacity of Turkey during the Cuban missile crisis (1962)?

texts:
I am doing a Model United Nations Security Council, as the head of Turkey with the agenda Cuban Missile Crisis; or simply put I am playing the role of Turkey in reshaping world history during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I need to know about the military prowess of Turkey in regard to the following points:

Equipment, weaponry and general.
Strength of the standing army.
Tanks, Anti-Tanks and other heavy artillery or armed vehicles
Air force (carriers, fighters, reconnaissance and such

and other general information that I should know in case I am planning to join a full scale war against another country. I searched a lot on the internet but was unable to find many relevant details or links. Any details and links would be welcome. Thank you so much.


texts: Was Mark Twain's book 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' banned in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany)?

texts: I am currently studying the film Barbara directed by Christian Petzold for my undergraduate dissertation. This film is based in the former German Democratic Republic=GDR (East Germany). The protagonist Barbara reads Mark Twain's book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to a young girl called Stella. It is possible that this plot point is symbolic if the book was banned in the GDR. Therefore, I'm trying to ascertain if the book was in fact banned. I have Google searched for a list of banned books in the GDR but cannot find anything. It would be much appreciated if anyone could shed some light on the matter.


texts: Who was part of the Raznochintsy class in 1800s Russia?

texts:
In the system of social estates of Imperial Russia, someone "of miscellaneous rank" was a member of the raznochintsy, at least until the category was abolished. В.Н.Разгон says this happened at the time of the third imperial revision, in the 1760s. However, Shalkop's "Wreck of the Neva" mentions men of this class in 1812, and Russian Wikipedia notes one kind of membership that only ended in 1818.

In the Soviet context the term raznochintsy is tied to membership in the intelligentsia and being a revolutionary thinker. Lenin used the term to describe the late 1800s.

Who became raznochintsy in the century and a half between the class being abolished and the adoption of the revolutionary sense of the word? Did the old legal meaning continue in informal use, or was the abolition never implemented, or was the concept steadily mutating towards the new sense all along?


texts: Why did British Gen. Frank Messervy oppose the invasion of Kashmir?

texts:
According to Wikipedia:

In October 1947, Messervy had become aware of the mobilization of Pashtun tribesmen in the North-West Frontier Province for the invasion of Kashmir. The governor George Cunningham informed him of the efforts by the Chief Minister Abdul Qayyum Khan in the mobilization. Messervy advised Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan against such a course. Eventually, the tribal invasion was launched on 20 October 1947 when Messervy was away in London.[22] Nevertheless, Messervy came in for criticism by the Indian leadership for not informing the Indian officers regarding the invasion.[23]

I have two questions in this regard:

Why was Gen. Frank Messervy against the invasion of Kashmir?
Which officer was leading Pashtun tribesmen toward the invasion of Kashmir in the absence of Messervy?


texts: Why would staff officers carry swords during combat, in World War II?

texts:
I realise one purpose as ceremonial, as depicted in     Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi's surrender (eg this picture), but when Isoroku Yamamoto was killed,

  his white-gloved hand [was still] grasping the hilt of his katana.

1. I understand the necessity to possess some kind of combat knife during combat, but why a sword?

2. I should also like to know if any modern soldier still carries a sword during combat.

Footnote: Adachi's surrender seems ironic, given his previous rebuke of the Takenaga incident, which I was reading when I encountered this picture.


texts: Did a German Jew in the US Army save his home district from bombing?

texts: While visiting the Old Town of Düsseldorf, the guide told us that this district (now one of the most expensive places in Germany) was saved from WW2 bombings by a Jewish man who used to live there. He had escaped from Hitler's Germany to America and joined the US Army, then he became some kind of commander and was able to order that part of town not to be bombed. I couldn't find anything online about this story. Is it documented anywhere?


texts: Which year in history had the highest ratio of non-natural deaths?

texts:
I was wondering which year in history was the bloodiest? Is it one of the last two years of WWII? Or are there any other such bloody time in history?

I only wish to include non-natural deaths such as from war, disease, or even from accidents.

The number alone is not helpful, so I am looking for a ratio of total number of such deaths to the total human population of given year.


texts: What were conditions like for Chinese men subject to recruitment by the army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War?

texts:
In several accounts, it is claimed that conditions of men being recruited by the Chinese army were comparable to those in Nazi death camps. Are such accounts hyperbolic or largely accurate?

Thunder out of China by White and Jacoby (1947):

  The week that the stories of Belsen and Buchenwald broke in Europe
  coincided with the height of the conscription drive in China; the
  doctors who dealt with the recruit camp about Chengtu refused to be
  excited about German horrors, for descriptions of the Nazi camps, they
  said, read almost exactly like the recruit centres in which they were
  working. Near Chengtu one camp had received some 40,000 men for
  induction. Many had already died on the way; only 8000 were still
  alive at the camp at the end of the drive. One batch of 1000 inductees
  was reported to have lost 800 recruits through the negligence of its
  officers.

China's Bloody Century by Rummel (1991):

  Then there was the process of conscription. This was a deadly affair
  in which men were kidnapped for the army, rounded up indiscriminately
  by press-gangs or army units among those on the roads or in the towns
  and villages, or otherwise gathered together. Many men, some the very
  young and old, were killed resisting or trying to escape. Once
  collected, they would be roped or chained together and marched, with
  little food or water, long distances to camp. They often died or were
  killed along the way, sometimes less than 50 percent reaching camp
  alive. Then recruit camp was no better, with hospitals resembling Nazi
  concentration camps like Buchenwald. Probably 3,081,000 died during
  the Sino-Japanese War; likely another 1,131,000 during the Civil
  War--4,212,000 dead in total. Just during conscription.

China in Disintegration by Sheridan (1975):

  Many recruits died before they reached training camp. Many of those
  who did manage to get to camp were sent to "hospitals," described in
  Wedemeyer's report as similar to German extermination camps at
  Buchenwald.


texts: Did the Byzantines forget using the caltrops?

texts:
Many of the Muslim conquests against the Byzantine empire (both Arab and Turkic) came down to clever use of cavalry. But the Romans had a handy helper against cavalry charges, the caltrop.

Did the Byzantines forget to use them in all their defeats vs. the Arabs and later the Turks? I know they would not be effective against horse archers, but stationary archers usually outperform the mounted ones, while caltrops would protect them against the usual cavalry charges.


texts: Why is Richard I (The Lion-heart) considered to be a good king and Jean I a bad one?

texts:
I've been rereading "The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England" by Dan Jones and there is something I don't get. Richard I is praised for basically everything he did in his reign, even taxing his people. Jean I (or John I guess) inherited a quite bad England to rule, and was blamed for it, massive debts everywhere, aggressive neighbors, rebellious vassals and the like...

Which actually was also the case for Richard I, who waged wars far away for a long time. He's even listed among the other great Plantagenets kings, but what has he done that was THAT good for his people? He was a good crusader but that's basically it, what did I miss ?

Also, on the many things that were blamed on Jean during his early reign, were his losses on the continent. Richard couldn't hold more than Jean did since, well, it happened after his death but not long after, Richard's army was defeated, he was besieging a castle when he died, but his army was close to deserting beforehand (can't find again the reason, but the morale was just very very low, that's why he went to the frontline in the first place).

I'm not saying Jean I was a good king, but he's far from incompetent, and he really isn't the worst of the Plantagenets. So why is he so hated ?


texts: Why was an SS commander dismissed and charged for the mistreatment of Jewish prisoners?

texts:
Amon Göth was relieved from his position at the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp and also charged for mistreating and killing Jews, along with the fact that he stole some of their property which belonged to the Nazis.

But this was in 1944, long after the Nazis had begun their extermination policy towards the Jews. So why did they particularly care that they were being mistreated in a concentration camp?


texts: In the 19th century, what brought on a general election in the United Kingdom?

texts:
A quick scan of a list of British governments in the 19th century quickly reveals that, while terms of office were limited to seven years, most parliaments did not last so long. Instead the prorogation (dissolution) of a parliament by the monarch, acting under the advisement of the prime minister, often initiated new elections.

I'm read about several instances of this happening, such as over the Corn Laws, but haven't yet learned enough to make the leap from instances to general principles with any great clarity.

Under what circumstances were 19th Century parliaments dissolved, and what motivated the principle actors? Between the prime minister, parliament, monarch, electorate, etc., who was able to exert influence to force a change?


texts: How did people travel to remote islands like Easter Island?

texts: Easter Island is extremely remote, being thousands of kilometers from its nearest neighbor. How did people get there safely, and how did they even know it was there?


texts: How can I understand the effect of the Sonderweg on the Revolution of 1848?

texts:
I'm trying to understand the effect that the German 'Sonderweg' had on the Revolution of 1848 in Germany.  Are there authoritative/canonical references that would help?
PS: Since I also speak German and Spanish, any article/book in English, German or Spanish is also accepted ;)


texts: Does some branch of history as a science specialized in dates (in the sense of time, not romantic involvement)? Or is it a task too small and too important for not being everybody's business?


texts: Why didn't Justice Robert Jackson just finish his 2-year law degree, when he already completed his first year?

texts:
Philip Halpern. Stanford Law Review, Dec., 1955, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Dec 1955), pp. 3-8. JSTOR.
p 3.

Robert Jackson was born February I3, 1892, on a small farm near Spring Creek in Warren County, Pennsylvania. At an early age he moved with his family across the state line to Frews- burg, New York, a small village in Chautauqua County near the city of Jamestown. He attended high school in Frewsburg and in Jamestown and there showed a marked flair for public speaking and debating and the qualities of quickness of mind and wit which later brought him fame. After graduation from the Jamestown High School in I91O, he began the study of law in the office of Frank H. Mott, a well-known local lawyer. Young Jackson at- tended the Albany Law School for one year (a two-year course was then prescribed for a law degree), then returned to Jamestown and resumed his studies in Mr. Mott's office. He passed the New York State bar examination and was admitted to the Bar in 19I3 at the age of twenty-one.

Why didn't Jackson finish his second and last year at Albany Law School? I'm assuming that his academic year was (less than) from Sept to June, or just 10 months?

Why not graduate with his LLB, then study at Frank Mott's office? Doesn't earning the LLB afford you more credit and prestige even back in the early 1900's when law degrees were optional?


texts: Why didn't Soviet Jews flee east ahead of the advancing Nazis?

texts:
As the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, incorporated conquered territories into Reichskommisariat Ostland, Reichskommissariat Ukraine, and military administration, they went on to implement the Holocaust and exterminate most of the Jews in Belarus, Lithuania, and elsewhere.  Already during the Soviet invasion of Poland, many Jews reportedly welcomed the invading troops, apparently expecting to be better off under the Soviet Union than under Nazi Germany.  Despite Stalinist oppression and antisemitism, Jews must have been less bad off under Stalin than under Hitler.

In Western European countries, there was little time for Jews to flee to neutral or Allied countries; it took the Nazis only five days to occupy The Netherlands, for example; and the logistics of fleeing to the United Kingdom were complicated by the North Sea.  But in the Soviet Union, it took the Nazis three months to take over the Baltic States, Belarus, and part of Ukraine.  There would have been enough time to flee east.  Why was there no massive wave of Jewish refugees, fleeing the advancing Nazi army by retreating deeper into the Soviet Union?  Apparently, around 300,000 Polish Jews escaped to Soviet-occupied territories at the beginning of World War II.


texts:
Can someone help me identifying these two old coins found in India? They are made of copper. They are very thick and weigh around 10 grams.

Both the coins have a diameter of 1.5cm and thickness of 0.5cm. They aren't perfectly round as you can see in the images. These are 2 of around 300 coins found in Aravali hills in Haryana, India. Mining was being done in mountains and they were found in a pot inside the mountain at a large distance from surface of mountain. They were found when 50 trolleys of rocks had been removed from mountain.


texts: What was the first overland road from Sweden to Finland?

texts:
The Swedish post road from Norway, through Sweden, used the Åland archipelago to pass into Sweden, and this is easily found (evidence of) in the south of Finland to the present day. When (and where) was the first overland route constructed overland from Sweden into (Swedish) Finland?
The only (poor) evidence I have for roads existing in the north is by the War of 1808–9 where Russian forces were planning to advance overland into Sweden (along with an army group advancing across the Gulf of Bothnia). One of the WP article's references does say "In addition, several new good roads had been built into Finland greatly reducing the earlier dependency on naval support for any large operation in Finland." but it doesn't specify where these roads were.
I looked through all articles on Swedish and Finnish road networks on the English Wikipedia, and the most I found was a reference to a 'Finnmark path' which was meant to have gone from Finnish Lapland to Finnmark in the 16th century. The Finnish WP article for the same page does not mention the Finnmark path at all, and I couldn't find anything else on a road of that name.
I understand—from the comments—that the term "road" can be meaningless without further definition for a period much longer than a few centuries ago. For clarity, I'm defining road as purpose-built (or purpose-developed) and used regionally for that purpose, such as the post road mentioned above. This would mean hunting tracks that slowly developed don't count, while a merchant-led endeavour to expand (and maintain) the tracks between two townships would.


texts: Is there any evidence for dual-wielding in the 12th Century?

texts:
To settle an office debate - I was wondering if there was any evidence for any soldier or knight in the 12th Century using two weapons at once - for instance, if a shield was dropped or wasn't available.

Is there anything that could confirm this? A lot of searching hasn't turned anything up yet.


texts: Why did England consistently adopt red as their primary colour for insignia and uniform?

texts: Throughout the last 1000 years red has become a consistent motif for military clothing and heraldic imagery in England. What are the reasons for this? Are there economic, environmental (eg. dyes used in wool trade), social or political reasons for the primacy of this colour?


texts: Were bricks instead of bombs occasionally thrown out of war planes in WWI?

texts:
I remember reading in a school textbook or perhaps hearing my history teacher tell the story of how bricks instead of bombs were occasionally thrown out of war planes in WWI, perhaps because of shortage of bombs.

Is this a fact?
Could anyone please supply a reference?

I was only able to find some references to air-to-air fights with pilots throwing bricks at each other (rather than using bricks as bombs for attacking ground objects), e.g. in "Dogfight" on Wikipedia, "Unarmed aeroplane pilots in WW1 occasionally threw bricks at each other" and "Unusual aerial weapons used in World War One", but I have no idea how reliable these sources are (except perhaps for Wikipedia).


texts: How did Aztec armor and weaponry match up to the Spaniards?

texts:
If you discount the germs and the gunpowder, how did the average Aztec warrior match up against the average Spaniard facing him?  As I understand it European metallurgy was considerably more advanced, but was it decisive or did it just give them an advantage?  Were the Aztecs able to pierce Spanish armor?  Were their weapons effective against Spanish tactics?

A vital part of Cortez's battle plan included rallying local tribes to his cause, but then again even a few dozen Navy SEALS wouldn't be able to stand up to a continent's-worth of angry locals, so needing allies in the New World is kind of a given.  But facing off against a similarly-sized group of Aztec warriors, how likely would a Spanish victory be?


texts: What Roman Republican legal structures lasted into the Empire and which ones didn't?

texts:
I've been reading about Roman political system in the late Roman Republic directly prior to Caesar being declared dictator.  A question occurred to me which I cannot seem to find an answer to.

What legal structures survived the transition from republic to empire and which ones were disposed of by Augustus and his successors?

I'm aware that the senate remained (although I'd appreciate details on exactly which of its powers were curtailed).  But I cannot seem to find information on which ministries persisted or whether the college of Pontiffs retained any power, and why they lost at least some of their influence.

Thanks,

-J


texts:
Is there a name for the style of the 'superhero' Russian statues?
I can only find one example which is a statue of Yuri Gagarin  But I have seen similar statues in documentaries and movies.


texts: How many illegal aliens were deported under "Operation Wetback"?

texts: There are all kinds of numbers surrounding Operation Wetback. My understanding is the vast majority left voluntarily. Is there any official number on the amount of illegal aliens that were actually removed, with force, from America?


texts: Who first said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."?

texts:
I was trying to remember the origination of the phrase "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  I'm aware president John F. Kennedy famously said it, but I thought he wasn't the first, despite that that (sadly) comprises most of an Internet search's results.

And before you state that JFK heard it from his school's headmaster (which I read somewhere), I'll tell you that I was surprised to see it spoken years ago when shown on a very old and grainy, black-and-white film on PBS TV by (if I recall) a president in front of the White House, perhaps of the WWI era.  Can anyone confirm my recollection and name the speaker?

I am embarrassed to say that I may have confused the quote with another famous presidential quote, FDR's "The only thing we have to fear..." However, I am not too embarrassed to tell the truth here. Thank you all for your sincere answers.


texts: Where does Marsilio Ficino write that all nations worship a God whose name is spelled with four letters?

texts:
I have seen quoted in the name of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), also spelled Marcellus Ficin, that all nations of the world worship a God whose name is spelled with four letters. Does anybody know where this might occur in Ficino's writings and if there has been any discussion of Ficino's assertion?
The source where I saw this quoted was in The Concilliator by Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam (1604-1657), see here on Google Books.


texts: Were Allied high commanders that bad at the end of WW2?

texts:
I have heard by some friends, speaking of military history, that Allied commanders were well known for being, at best, mediocre in their performance of fight. They were not able to give precise sources, such as an historian or contemporary people of those generals.

However I got the details below:

The usual period for this saying is 1944-1945, so at a time when the Allies were close to victory.
Those generals did not hamper the victory, however they managed poorly the campaign for liberating Europa, and lost time and efforts in vain actions such as the battle of Eselborn Ridge, the attack on Arnehm or the closing to the German border.
Those generals are usually American and British, mainly army commanders: Montgomery, Patton, Bradley, etc...
Those generals got advantage from the huge logistics and the tactical capacities of their armies to avoid defeat or heavy losses.

From my own research, I can't sustain those assumptions:

The Allied progression in France during Autumn 1944 was very fast, encircle or killed a lot of German in Falaise and in the North of France.
The fights on the german border were overall hampered by logistics issues, and some great moves such as the Arracourt battles were done.

So the question:
Does anyone have any information on those assumptions, especially:

Arguments in favour of those assumptions?
Any link to an author who defends this theory?


texts: Why was Hamilton's idea of women and children working in factories so controversial?

texts: I've been reading through Hamilton's Report on Manufactures recently, and he suggests that women and children work in factories to help ease the labor competition between the North and South. However, this was highly controversial and people hated it. However, it was normal in Great Britain and it wasn't quite as contested. Why was Hamilton's idea so controversial and not Great Britain's?


texts: Why didn't the Chinese repeating crossbow dominate?

texts: Why didn't this devastating machine gun dominate the world? This fires faster than early musketeers.


texts: What were the major ethnic / cultural / politcal divisions of pre-conquest Mesoamerica?

texts:
Background: I've started a bit of side reading on Mesoamerica immediately prior to the Spanish conquest. The Maya, the Aztecs, and (to the south) the Inca all seem very straightforward to me, but (as I'm new to the region and period) once I start getting into Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Mixe, etc, I admit that I start having trouble keeping things straight. I'd like to get a firmer idea of who the other peoples surrounding the Aztec and Mayan states were so I can start to get a more complete political and cultural picture of the region.

Question: Could someone please give a breakdown of the major cultural and political differences between the lesser known peoples / politcal groups that were active in Mesoamerica, c. 1520?


texts:
I wouldn't be naming the specific examples as that might (will) needlessly divert the attention away from the question itself.

Let us say I am trying to research about historical events in a region. That events have multiple narratives given by parties that are stake holders. Some vehemently deny accusations while others make repeated accusations. I know it is really about tracking the evidences as one might find in documented/published material, but this is where the problem lies.

Most of the documented instances come from one of the parties involved, which makes it hard to consider. Furthermore, the narrative of a party is consistent with the published material, which must not be surprising.

There are very few so called "neutral" parties that have published anything substantial.

How should I proceed now?

I am a student of neither history nor journalism, so it would be helpful if additional information is provided regards methodology.


texts: What factors contributed to the U.S economy flourishing during the early cold war period?

texts:
Wars, cold or otherwise, are bad for economies, right? So why did the American economy flourish during the early Cold War period (shortly after World War II)?

I think there are several positive effects:

Economic expansion, growth
Wide-ranging improvements in living standards
Breadth of access to a better life
Low unemployment
Decline in poverty rate
Industrial supremacy around the world

How could all this happen while a cold war was going on?

Could anyone help me identify some contributing factors?


texts: What is the meaning of this samurai crest?

texts:
From User Jordan Miles Hamanaka Kaplowit's comment to this question: Meaning of samurai crest / symbol

What is the meaning of the sixth crest symbol?


texts: How close would a peasant from middle ages England ever come to interacting with the king?

texts:
Presuming we have a peasant who works on land owned by a "common" lord (sorry, here I don't know the terminology.  I mean a landowner who is not a royal), how close would that person ever get to speaking to the king?

I'm interested in two types of answers:

How possible would it be that this person gets to have an audience with the king directly? That is, was there a route for this, and how hard was it to follow?
I assume that most peasants never met the king even if it were possible.  However, the king had a hierarchy around him.  How high up the hierarchy would the peasant be in common contact with?


texts: Why was Charles I not pressed by *peine forte et dure* to force him to plead to treason in front of the High Court?

texts:
Why was Charles I not pressed by peine forte et dure to force him to plead to treason in front of the High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I?

Under  English common law, peine forte et dure was an ancient punishment compelling an accused to enter a plea. Refusal to do so could stop the court from proceeding.  An accused might not enter a plea to avoid having his property (inheritance) forfeited upon conviction. In order that the court could proceed, the court will try to compel an accused to do so on pain of peine forte et dure, i.e. the accused was weighed down with stones pressing on their body until the torture forced a plea or they died. Source: Parliamentary Debates (1828)

Charles I was aware of this.  Additionally, aristocrats accused of crimes other than treason used the refusal to plea to die before conviction, such that their property could be passed on.  Brittanica and other sources claim that standing mute on treason was considered a guilty plea, but without explanation.

Additionally, the innovation of trying a king with a newly created court indicated the capacity for innovative law in the majority faction of the rump of the commons.  This means that regardless of the common law on treason pleas (which without explanation is difficult to ascertain whether it would have applied to Charles), that innovation could have occurred.

George Smith Green (1752) Oliver Cromwell an historical play seems to be under a similar delusion to me, in that he proposes that the King be pressed in his action.  Richard Lee Bradshaw (2010) God’s Battleaxe: The Life of Lord President John Bradshawe 205-6 makes the claim that this is incorrect as treason accusations took standing mute as guilty.  Again, without explanation of the emergence of this reading of standing mute.  Nor does it address the innovative law making of the rump / commission / High Court.

Why was Charles I not pressed to plea or death?


texts: Roman Taxes: how did taxes collected in the provinces get to Rome?

texts:
The Wikipedia article on Caracalla says:

  Dio maintains that one purpose for Caracalla issuing the edict was the
  desire to increase state revenue; at the time Rome was in a difficult
  financial situation and needed to pay for the new pay raises and
  benefits conferred on the military. The edict widened the obligation
  for public service and gave increased revenue through the inheritance
  and emancipation taxes which, at the time, only had to be paid by
  Roman citizens.

I've been told that the resulting revenue was then stored in the Temple of Saturn.

How did it get there? What was the procedure? Did the Emperor or Senate send agents to the provinces to collect the inheritance tax, or was it part of the general system of tax farming, or what? How was the collected revenue transported? Were special guards appointed to protect the wagons (?) filled with gold and silver on their way to Rome?


texts: What activity would convey the Burma railway & Hanoi Hilton POW project?

texts:
I am a junior in high school, and I have to give a large history exhibition at the end of the year. As my topic, I chose to compare the POW camps following the construction of the Burma railway during WWII and the Hanoi Hilton, specifically the Alcatraz gang during Vietnam. I turned in my paper a week ago, I don't know if there is a way that I could attach it, so that you can read all 13 pages of it to get the idea of what I was going with. The dean of my school graded the paper, so hopefully it was well written and factual.

I took kind of a muckrakers approach, talking about the most scandalous treatment of POWs in both camps. I chose to talk about disease within the Japanese camp, and the torture techniques in Vietnam.

I have to present my project on June 6, to a panel of judges. I am allowed to invite more panelists as I see fit, but right now I think 6 will be present.
The presentation is a maximum of 15 minutes. You have to branch off of the main topics of your paper to use as inspiration, so I want to go more in depth with facts about disease, working conditions on the railway, and torture. You then have to include a visual of some type, and close with an interactive activity that encourages discussion with the panelists.  I want to make my presentation better than the other candidates, because we will be marked against a curve. I want to avoid using electronic mediums to present, because the panelists that I have talked to so far say that power points etc; all start to blur together. I want to use a lot of pictures for a visual, and then talk freely from my own knowledge. But I need help coming up with an activity. I had originally planned to just have a free flowing conversation with the panelist, but I want them to understand just how terrible these camps were. Perhaps something that made them feel like a POW would be interesting, but I'm not sure how to go about this. I don't know if sticking with the discussion plan is too boring, or if both activity ideas are completely worthless, and I need to start over with a new one. I have done no work on this thus far, so it doesn't matter what your answer is!


texts: Why did civilisation/city states never take root in Australia and North America?

texts:
I recently read that the Australian Aborigines numbered close to a million during the time of Botany Bay and comprised of ~250 tribes/nations. The Native Americans of North America also boasted impressive numbers of between 5 and 20 million people. Given these numbers, I wonder why their societies did not evolve up from hunter-gatherers to establish civilisation as we know it.

Could it be because of the size of their respective continents? While the Indigenous Australians were isolated, the Native (North) Americans were not. Civilisation sprung up not too far away in Central and South America. [I'm assuming - perhaps naïvely - that the Mayans, Toltecs, Aztecs, and Incas were decidedly distinct from the Native American tribes with limited contact between the two. Even if they are related, it still begs the question as to why only some nations decided to establish cities etc.]

Thank you for your time!