texts: Does east-west/north-south orientation also impact large islands development?

texts:
According to Guns, Germs, and Steel, east-west vs north-south orientation has a lot of impact on a continental landmass' technological development. A landmass in east-west orientation (such as Eurasia) develop technologies and civilizations better because there is less variation in climate, which means that people, trade, inventions, plants and animals spread more easily, as opposed to north-south orientation such as the Americas and Africa.

I wonder, does such logic apply to large islands as well, where there is of course much less variation in climate? For example, Indonesia's two main islands are Java and Sumatra. Java is the 13th largest island worldwide, and the most populous and lies from the west to the east. Sumatra is the 6th largest island by area, and 5th by population and lies mostly north-south.

Despite Sumatra's larger area, Java has bigger population, more power and influence (the capital, Jakarta is in Java, and most of Indonesia's political leaders have been from Java) and is better economically. Does the orientation have some impact to this?


texts: What was the role of the Russian Orthodox church in Soviet Russia?

texts:
Considering that Soviet Union was officially atheistic and Bibles and most "Christian" denominations were banned, it is interesting to me that the government left the Russian Orthodox churches standing. It also seems that the Russian Orthodox priesthood did not have to "recuperate" and "re-establish" themselves after the collapse of Soviet Union in early 1990s.

Considering that the communist plan was probably not something like "let's leave them here in case we ever stop being communists", so was it because the Russian Orthodox religion was not banned in Soviet Union?


texts: Was there a serious effort by the Muslims of East Africa to spread Islam into the Central Regions of Africa?

texts: Was there a serious effort by the Muslims of East Africa to spread Islam into the Central Regions of Africa (Congo, Uganda, Zambia, etc)? Or was their primary interest in Central Africa nothing more than just an area to make slave raids?


texts: What are the differences between the "line ahead" and "line abreast" formations in naval warfare? Which is more likely to lead to the (advantageous) of "crossing the opponents' T" (or being crossed)?


texts: Is there art or written evidence of crescent shaped arrows being used for bird-hunting in Medieval Europe?

texts:
I have heard it said that crescent arrows were used for hunting birds in medieval Europe. I could not find any art or literary evidence for it, though. The art I found for bird hunting generally showed pointed arrows.
Is there any evidence for hunting with crescent arrows?


texts:
Cojo Creek (Cañada del cojo) is the boundary between the Rancho Punta de la Concepción and the Rancho Nuestra Señora del Refugio. The anchorage at the mouth of this creek was a prime smuggling spot in the Spanish era.

Cojo means lame, in the sense of having a bum leg or being an amputee.

For who or what was the creek named?


texts: How did New York become the financial hub of America?

texts: Why did New York become the financial hub of America, rather than one of the other big cities?


texts: Ethnic composition of antebellum Massachusetts

texts:
What was the ethnic composition of Massachusetts in the decades before the Civil War? I am particularly interested in knowing what percentage of the population claimed English, Scottish, North Irish, and Irish descent (but information on other groups is welcome). The only good source I've found is the 1790 Census, but obviously the ethnic makeup of Massachusetts was very different only a few decades later.

Ideally, someone knows of a table that updates these figures every decade, but I'd still really appreciate any solid, empirically grounded estimates at any point between 1790 and 1860. I might use these figures in calculations for an academic article, so good answers will be sourced.


texts: Are these two the same? I was thinking that Serfdom will always exist on your feudalism but not vice versa. For example Peter the Great of Russia employed serfdom however these service were not part of the feudal structure because it was an absolute rule. Am I correct what do you guys think?


texts:
As I understand it, there were two types of sieges. One was where the attacking army would "camp," surrounding the city, and let the defenders run out of food. An example was Ulysses S. Grant's siege of Vicksburg.

The other kind was where the attacking army would try to invade the city by breaching the walls, scaling them, or by tunneling under them (e.g. Grant's forces at St. Petersburg, Virginia, or Santa Anna at the Alamo).

What considerations would cause an attacking army to choose one kind of siege over the other?

Was one easier to defend against than the other?


texts: Did the people of the past consider plants alive? If so, how did they come to the idea that plants have something in common with animals?


texts: Did the U.S economy flourish after national debt was eliminated by President Andrew Jackson in 1835?

texts: President Andrew Jackson totally eliminated U.S national debt in 1835. Did the U.S economy boom in the aftermath of debt elimination as a result of not being shackled by debt? Was it good economic policy for a country to have zero debt based on U.S historical experience?


texts: What happened to the French soldiers evacuated at Dunkirk and elsewhere in 1940?

texts: How many of them fought on in the Free French Forces and how many of them simply repatriated back to France?


texts: Where were the British Forces located during Napoleon's Egypt Campaign?

texts:
During Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt 1798-1803, the British destroyed the French fleet near the Abu-Qir bay and had a fleet blockade there. Where did the men on the British fleet get supply from in all this time?

Furthermore the British had not only naval combat with the French but also land battle. Already in the Siege of Acre in 1799, the British had land troops in the area. Where did they come from?

Later in the Egypt Campaign, the British were said to occupy Alexandria and Rosetta. How many region was under the British at that time?
Note I use the word occupy because here it says

  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

Lastly the company SEGA (the inventor of the PC GAME Napoleon Total War) claim in their game that Cyprus was British in 1798 - is this true?


texts: To what degree has the historical effectiveness of non-violent resistance movements been impacted by parallel violent resistance movements?

texts:
Martin Luther King had Malcolm X.  Gandhi had Bhagat Singh.

I've lately been involved in a pretty radical movement in which there are many people arguing against the movement being only non-violent.  Their point is that no non-violent movement has ever succeeded in a vacuum.  There have always been parallel violent movements that essentially scared the powers that be into negotiating with the more moderate non-violent movement.

To what degree is this supported by the historical record?  Are there other examples of non-violent movements succeeding in a vacuum?  Are there examples of a violent movement causing a non-violent movement to fail?  What's history say about this?


texts:
This post makes the claim that American political divisions today have their roots in English political divisions from the 1600's.

For example:

East Anglians, the core of the Parliamentarian (blue, progressive) army, moved to Massachusetts (and promptly formed Harvard University in 1636…right during the era of Personal Rule before the Short Parliament )
Midlanders with out strong political opinions moved to the (US Midlantic states, which today generate mild democrats and Christie RINOs)
Minor nobility from the royal families (red, conservative) moved to Virginia (although it took them a bit longer to establish VMI)
The Scots Irish armies loyal to the nobility (remember? The ones that the Parliamentarians were so worried that Wentworth was stirring up?) moved to the American South (although the minor royalty, being minor royalty, was used to eating high on the hog: they took the best farmland and gave the Scots Irish the scraps: crappy hill land and "hollas".

My question is: What evidence is there that English Political divisions from the 1600s are replicated in American politics today?


texts: How does one return "war booty" to their rightful original owners?

texts:
I honestly don't know where to ask this question, so here goes.

My grandfather served on the Communist side during the Vietnam War. He shot down an F-104 (or an F-4) and removed a piece of flight instrument from its wreckage.

I would like to return this instrument to the USAF/US government, but I don't know how.

How should I proceed?


texts: Why does the USA only have two political parties?

texts:
This question sounds naive at first, but let me explain:

In most sources it is argued that the "first past the post" system of voting favours the existence of just two (relevant) political parties. While I understand the argument, this is not true everywhere. Take e.g. Great Britain, which has strong regional parties, not only in Northern Ireland, but also in Scotland and Wales. Even in some parts of England, the Liberal Democrats win seats. As far as I know, the same is true for Canada.

Also in France, Macron created his own party and won the elections, while there where still some other parties winning seats.

So, why does the USA not have an important third party, e.g. a regional party? Why, in its history of more than 200 years, with a lot of changes, with parties being founded and parties changing there attitude towards important topics (like the Democrats towards civil rights), there was never a third party that survived?


texts: How did Bedouins exercise tribal governance?

texts: According to the Wikipedia article Bedouins travel together in groups of 1-2 family units however in the same article it mentions the presence of a tribe who share common descent and are led by a Shaikh, given that they are nomads and don't travel as an entire tribe, how would they have exercised tribal governance before the advent of widely-available communications technology? For example: how would they locate a specific member if such a need arose? Or how would they all gather if the Shaikh had need for them (war for example)?


texts: When did pilots experience blackouts and redouts for the first time?

texts:
I'm working on a semi-historical novel right now. There's an interesting dogfight inside, between two 1914-era planes.

While writing it I wondered if at the time, planes were fast enough for pilots to suffer from blackouts when diving, or from redouts when gaining heights very fast. It then led me to ask myself when these two phenomena were first experienced and if pilots of that time knew about it.

I remember Stuka pilots had a device to make their bomber regain altitude should they lose consciousness when diving, so at least in the 1930's it was a well known phenomena.

When did pilots experienced for the first time blackouts and redouts?


texts: Exactly when was the country of Andorra founded?

texts: Founding origin myths of Andorra claim that Charlemagne the Great (King of France and Holy Roman Emperor) granted the people of Andorra independence in 800 AD. I'm doubtful of this claim as no written historical evidence or references mention it. If Andorra was an ancient county of the Marca Hispania, I don't see it referenced in any historical documents. In fact, it possibly appears as a region in around 988 AD but it is unclear if there was any sovereignty of Andorra at not at least until around 1275 AD which it becomes a co-principality.


texts: Were crosses frequently used as communication while exploring?

texts:
Were big crosses/little crosses a common method of communication during the Age of Exploration?
I have read some sources, such as this, Robert and Roberts' book A History of New Mexico, and other similar sources that describe Mendoza's expedition into New Mexico. According to the sources, Mendoza hired Esteban, since he was familiar with the territory, having been part of the Narváez expedition. Esteban led a small group north, and communicated back of his discoveries using crosses. He sent back small crosses to indicate small discoveries, while he planned to send large crosses back to indicate a large discovery...which would lead Mendoza to send forward a larger expedition.
This system of communication seems to be very inefficient, from a number of standpoints, the least of which asking someone to build and lug around the heavy crosses...at the end of the story they send one back the size of a man...and it still didn't help them locate any treasure. If I understand it, little information is communicated and it seems so inefficient.
My prior research is having read dozens of other books about other expeditions, such as by Cortez, Coronado, Agustin Rodriguez, Gaspar Castano de Sosa, Fransciso Levya de Bonilla, Juan de Onate, etc. yet never having heard about crosses used as communication. But me having not heard of another case doesn't mean this wasn't widespread outside those histories I have studied.
Was this system isolated to this expedition or was that used in other expeditions or situations to communicate?


texts: How come Week days in India match with Western system?

texts: How come Week days in India synchronize with the week days in Western countries? When did this happen?


texts: Why did Germany take so long to consolidate into a single nation?

texts:
To the casual observer, the Holy Roman Empire seems locked in time, continuing its almost feudal tradition even while every other part of Europe was consolidating into nations and empires.  By the time Prussia conquered the rest of what we now call Germany, Britain and France and Spain had been (at least nominally) unified under single heads of state for the better part of a millennium.

What took so long?  Why didn't Germany get consolidated alongside her neighbors into a single empire?  And what kept the other major powers of Europe from gobbling the pieces of the Holy Roman Empire up amongst themselves?


texts: What's a major 19th Century history of the American Revolution from a British perspective?

texts:
I recently read McCaulay's History of England, which he initially projected to cover in detail events up to the reign of Queen Victoria.  I was excited to see his take on the American revolution, particularly in light of his highly detailed recounting of Parliamentary interplay and court politics.  However, McCaulay only lived long enough to complete his work through the final years of William of Orange.
Undaunted, I picked up Dickens' Child's History of England, hoping by the end to get at least a taste of the 19th Century British perspective on the American Revolution.  However, flipping ahead, I found that Dickens will be cutting out at around the same point.
Is there a history which covers the American Revolution, written by a (relatively) high-profile 19th Century British author, preferably on the order of a Dickens, McCaulay, or Carlyle?


texts: What are some examples of famous people in history who made big mistakes that they learnt from and this then led them to succeed?

texts:
I’m a primary school teacher in an inner London school in England. I’ve been talking with my class about how important it is to make mistakes and how we can learn from our mistakes to reach our goal. As part if this, the children have asked me for examples of famous people in history who made mistakes that helped them to get things right/succeed.
I’ve been looking online to find something and so far I can find a lot of great quotes about not being afraid to make mistakes but not a lot of examples of people/groups who made mistakes that they learnt from to get to their end goal. I’ve found Thomas Edison with the lightbulb and how it took him 1000 attempts and each attempt brought him closer.
Can you think of anyone else that I could use as an example that would be exciting/relevant for young children. Ideally I want to put together as many examples as possible of famous people in History who got things wrong but then learnt from those mistakes and it helped them to succeed. Are there any leaders who made mistakes to lose a battle but then learnt from those mistakes which then led to them winning the war? I am particularly keen to get some good diversity in there so if you know of any good examples of women and/or people of colour as well that would be super helpful.
Response to questions for clarification:
Thanks for your advice below that is already helpful and thanks for your patience with me figuring out the best way to respond.
Mark, I definitely understand what you were saying about the example anti-pattern. I guess rather than looking for a definitive answer of just one example I am more looking for a variety of examples which may offer differing qualities/insights (I am acutely aware how subjective a question it is that I am asking). The main things for me are:
Is it historically accurate and provable through historical evidence as opposed to conjecture/here-say.
There is a specific example of a particular mistake they made rather than a generalised notion of them making mistakes over time.
Will it be an example from world history that a child of 5-7yrs old can access and there is a clear connection between the mistake they made and learnt from and the eventual success it led to. An ideal example would be something like an ancient historical leader who made a strategic error that led to them losing a battle but they learnt their lesson and so next time did something different that led to them winning.
Sorry to ask such a subjective question. I guess what I’m hoping is that although it may be personal opinion for why certain famous figures would make good examples of learning from their own mistakes, hopefully there would be enough general agreement for those people being acceptable that I would feel comfortable using them.
Lars- if you think this is not the right place to ask such an open ended question I totally respect that and can look to try on a more appropriate forum. Thanks for the advice
Thanks
Matt


texts: When did Ireland become majority English-speaking

texts:
It seems to me it was around the time of the Famine of the 1840s, given that it was particularly deadly to poorer, more rural Gaelic-speaking areas. But the best I can find are vague statements like "in the early 17th century, Ireland was overwhelmingly Gaelic-speaking" and "English had become the majority language by a significant margin by the time the Irish Free State was formed."

Can anyone find any demographic data from within, say, 1840-80 to confirm if this is in fact true?


texts: What do the four castles on the flag of Ibiza represent?

texts:
The flag of Ibiza consists of four horizontal, red stripes on a yellow background. Each corner of the flag contains a seven-tower castle above a wave.

What is the significance of the four castles? Were there four famous strongholds in the history of Ibiza?


texts:
One of the more iconic photos of the Prague Spring is this:

A high Res version is on wikimedia, who took it first from a CIA flicker post. It is labeled there as "1968. During the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovaks carry their national flag past a burning Soviet tank in Prague."
Historical background
After reformation attempts in Czechoslovakia spearheaded by the KPČ under Dubček to attempt a "socialismus s lidskou tváří" (Socialism with human face), the Warsaw Pact troops marched in on  21st of August 1968 after pressure by DDR, PRL, HPR and PRB on the USSR. The troops in action were coming from the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria, DDR troops stood in waiting at the border but never crossed.
Most of these armies were armed with several tank models designed in Russia, though sometimes modified.
Question
I have trouble identifying the two armored vehicles - the one in the background left with the text on the side and the burning one on the right.
Which model of (supposedly Russian) tank is this?


texts: Murder rate in the last years of Weimar Republic 1927-1933

texts:
I am writing a paper about mortality during the last years of Weimar Republic, namely 1928-1933. Presenting the data in Berlin, scholars wondered about the reason why the figures about people dead by murder and manslaughter (Mord und Totschlag in German) were that high. During the period 1927-1937, homicide rate has its peak at 1.9 every 100,000 people in 1932, which reported to Germany entire population of that year is around 1249 murders in a year.

I made a Google search about crime in Weimar Republic and I actually found out that high level of crimes were mostly perceived rather than actual. Indeed, there has been three serial killers during that period and a bunch of political murders but nobody consider the numbers particularly astonishing. References: "Rethinking the Weimar Republic: Authority and Authoritarianism, 1916-1936" by Anthony McElligott and "A short History of the Weimar Republic", Colin Storer

EDIT: I found this graph from Pinker (2011), which actually shows that Germany, even murder rate is low in absolute has the second highest value after Italy in 1920s-1930s

Still wandering why anyway.

Is anybody aware of the reason why murder rates were that high in Germany in that period? Or does anybody know sources, which may give an explanation?


texts: Why did the Phoenicians let the Hebrews (Jews) settle in Canaan?

texts:
I know the Hebrews (Jews) started traveling from shumor and Mesopotamia before entering Canaan (Today it is Israel).

The Phoenicians were located at the time in Lebanon and Israel area.

The Phoenicians lived in Canaan, they were a lost civilization that disappeared by Alexander the Great and his conquests.

Why did the Phoenicians let the Hebrews enter Canaan and stay there?

For clarification:

When I refer to the Hebrews, I mean Jews and not any other ancient people who lived in Canaan.
I’m not referring to any Exodus; the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan.


texts: Why did Italian immigration to the US decrease from 1900s to 1920s?

texts:
Excluding the start of WWI and the later Immigration Act of 1924, what is the reason for this decrease especially from the Italian side.
See ncdemography.org


texts: What factors led to the US government issuing nutrition guidelines in 1916?

texts: This timeline from the Washington Post says that the United States Department of Agriculture issued its first food guidelines in 1916 for children, and then did one in 1920 for adults. My question is, what were the surrounding conditions that led to the federal government deciding it need to tell people what to eat?


texts: When did $10,000 banknotes become available to the public in the British colonies of South East Asia?

texts:
When did $10,000 banknotes start to circulate publicly in the British colonies (colonies, crown colonies, "protected states", "protectorates") of South East Asia?
The Straits dollar was probably the first to have $10,000 banknotes in 1922. However, it was only used for inter-bank transactions. I was not able to find information about the Malayan dollar (which succeeded the Straits dollar). If not mistaken, the successor of the Malayan dollar, the Malaya and British Borneo dollar, had $10,000 banknotes that were publicly circulated. Two successors of the Malaya and British Borneo dollar — the Singapore dollar and the Brunei dollar — had and still have publicly circulating $10,000 banknotes.
Using Google Image search, I was able to confirm that all the currencies mentioned above had $10,000 banknotes. The only issue is: which was the first series to have publicly-circulated $10,000 banknotes? When did public circulation start?


texts: How many Romans would use an average-sized balneum every day?

texts:
How many Romans would use an average-sized balneum every day, if the people coming to the balneum only went to that balneum once a day?

I have already tried researching about this question using different wording, but each time I just get insufficient or irrelevant links, so that is why I used SE.

I apologise in advance if my question is incorrectly worded...


texts: Under primogenture in 12th century France, if the eldest son predeceases his father, did the grandson or an younger son inherit?

texts:
Okay so I'm not sure how to word this eloquently, I'm sorry, but please bear with me. Let's say that a lord, eg. a Duke had two sons. The older one got married, had a male heir, and then died while his father, the duke, was still alive and ruling the lands that were meant to be passed down to him.
Would they then still follow the rule of primogeniture and, after the duke's death, pass the lands down to the older son's son, as his father was meant to get them and pass them down to him, or would those lands have be given to the younger brother, as the Duke's oldest living heir? I'm interested in France, sometime in the High Middle Ages, but all answers are welcome.


texts: Can anyone identify this uniform? Time period is 1841

texts: This is a charcoal drawing of my great great grandfather.  He was born in 1819 and I was told he served for 7 years.  It looks like in the lower right hand corner it shows 1841. I heard he served for 7 years, so probably from around 1837 to 1844.    Also, the headware is particularly interesting.  Any help will be appreciated.  Thanks, Martha


texts: Was Erich Ludendorff any form of nobility?

texts:
Erich Ludendorff was the most powerful German general at the end of the First World War, achieving practically dictator status from 1916 on.

A very common mistake is to posthumously nobilitate Erich Ludendorff unjustly to the apparently expected "Erich von Ludendorff".

  Source: Lexikon Erster Weltkrieg

"Expected" here as most of the military officers were indeed members of the aristocracy and carrying a nobiliary particle in their names like the most frequent von or zu etc. His nominally senior partner in OHL leadership Paul von Hindenburg being just the next best example.

Ludendorff never had that von as part of his name. But he was born right into a family that had vast connections into the nobility. Quite a few members were indeed nobility.

Now looking at Ludendorff's genealogy:

  Ludendorff was born on 9 April 1865 in Kruszewnia near Posen, Province of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia (now Poznań County, Poland), the third of six children of August Wilhelm Ludendorff (1833–1905). His father was descended from Pomeranian merchants who had achieved the prestigious status of Junker.
  Erich's mother, Klara Jeanette Henriette von Tempelhoff (1840–1914), was the daughter of the noble but impoverished Friedrich August Napoleon von Tempelhoff (1804–1868) and his wife Jeannette Wilhelmine von Dziembowska (1816–1854), who came from a Germanized Polish landed family on the side of her father Stephan von Dziembowski (1779–1859). Through Dziembowski's wife Johanna Wilhelmine von Unruh (1793–1862), Erich was a remote descendant of the Counts of Dönhoff, the Dukes of Duchy of Liegnitz and Duchy of Brieg and the Marquesses and Electors of Brandenburg.

He later even married Mathilde von Kemnitz and while the above excerpt mainly lists his maternal lines of nobility, his merchant father also had ties going back to a king of Sweden.

That should make him a (distant?) member or at least descendent of the houses of Vasa and Jagiello.

In a forum someone claims to be a family member and shares the detail that Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted to ennoble Ludendorff, invited him to an audience to discuss the proceedings, but Ludendorff is said to have declined the offer. (War Ludendorff adelig?)

The Encyclopaedia says:

  Erich Ludendorff was born to be a soldier: Both his father and maternal grandfather had been officers in the Prussian cavalry. But Erich Ludendorff was not born to be a general. In Prussia (the dominant state in the cluster of Germanic states that would unify into the nation of Germany in 1871) generals came from the nobility. A person of noble birth was marked by the designation "von" before his last name. Ludendorff, born on April 9, 1865, was a commoner, raised in a struggling family that lived in the province of Posen. To reach the top of the German armed forces, he would have to work unrelentingly—and that is what he did.

This is confusing. Now, the von is not strictly necessary for being nobility, just incredibly "common" in those circles (excuse the pun).

Was he not nobility from birth? If not: why not, given the genealogy? Did he have the "title" of Junker, designating a very low rank within the nobility?


texts: Why did European people settle in America and later create another nation of their own?

texts:
Now, in North America, mostly white people live. They are not the real natives—it's the American Indians. They are mostly from England and other powerful European nations at that time who were bent on gaining more power and wealth from colonization.

They brought black Africans to America to work as slaves, and gradually settled down themselves. But, why on earth did they go on to create a separate nation for their own? Why did they fight their own people? Why did the Americans so decidedly hate England that they even went on to make a different version of English?

I want a simple explanation in general terms. I only need the summary—I don't really need to know every single detail. I'm no historian, just a 13-year-old from the East who likes learning about the West.


texts: How would a Spartan have held his shield?

texts:
I am astonished at the weight of a Spartan shield, which I have read would have weighed 30 lbs (13.5 kg). This is, of course, extremely heavy for most people.

Ergo, it raised the question for me: would those shields have to have been held for the length of a battle (all day) or would there have been periods of rest whereby a soldier could put their heavy shield down?

How long would a Spartan have had to endure holding a shield for?


texts: Has the resignation of a political leader in a Westminster style parliament ever forced an election call?

texts:
So reading about the premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty abruptly quitting his post, and there's many people wondering if there will have to be an election to replace him. While there is some precedent against it (see Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell), I wonder if it's the exception to the rule, or if there's no law that forces such a change if this occurs.

Anyone shed some light on the matter?


texts: Has there ever been a cold war other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?

texts:
At any time in world history, has there ever been two nations involved in a "cold war" similar to the one between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., and notably including proxy wars?

My thanks to Lars Bosteen, who pointed out that Wikipedia defines a "cold war" as follows:

  A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates.

That article, while defining a cold war to include proxy wars waged by surrogates, includes references to other "cold wars" that are merely defined by the existence of tension between nations.  In short, it appears journalists and analysts are co-opting the term despite insufficient conditions to warrant its use.  It's only my opinion (and if you'll forgive a bit of exaggeration), but based on that use of the term, the U.S. is in a state of cold war with quite a number of nations and the Middle East has been in a state of perpetual cold war.

Another way of thinking about this: has there ever been a cold war, fought through means including proxies, that wasn't defined by the U.S., U.S.S.R., or their proxies?

Clarification: I apologize that the preceding statements weren't clear.  The Wikipedia link provided by Lars Bosteen identify other "cold wars," but their definition appears to be more marketing than an appropriate use of the term as it's being used to simply identify high tension between nations.  The definition provided by the link, that a cold war "does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates." is generally satisfactory for me, but to make the question clear, I am requiring proxy wars.  Are there any known conditions of cold war using that definition other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?


texts:
Is there a record or estimate of the Muslim population count in Iberia (Spain/Portugal) during the peak of Islamic rule? Probably 10th or 11th century?

And how big was this in percent of all Iberian population or percent of Iberian population under Islamic rule? Were they mostly from native population, or immigrants from other parts of the Islamic world such as North Africa?


texts: In 2018 US Dollars, how much was Picasso's painting sold for in 1912?

texts:
I just watched Chapter 7 of Genius: Picasso on NatGeo, and it said that in 1912 "Pablo's Family of Saltimbanques becomes the most expensive painting in history, selling for 12,650 francs."

The episode implied that that was a huge amount of money, and I'm curious to put it into perspective in modern life to get a sense of it for myself.

Here is how I've attempted to calculate the equivalent:

WolframAlpha says that 1 USD in 1912 is equivalent to 26.72 USD in 2018 because of inflation. (And OfficialData.org says "$1 in 1912 → $25.03 in 2018", so $26 seems like a reasonable estimate.)

That's a helpful starting point, so then the question is "What was the exchange rate between FRF and USD in 1912?"

http://www.historicalstatistics.org/Currencyconverter.html says:

  1 French franc [1795-1960] in year 1912 could buy 0.2904245694156011 gram gold. The price of 0.2904245694156011 gram gold in year 1912 was 0.19280860722030124 US dollar [1791-2015].

But since that site is labeled "(test version 1.0)" and the way that that site pulls in data with date ranges leads me to believe that it's imprecise.

Any suggestions?


texts: How/when did the halo shift from being a solid disk behind the head to being a floating ring above the head?

texts:
In almost all older religious paintings that I've seen, holy figures with halos have gold/glowing disks behind their heads, like this:

or sometimes more pronounced, but still clearly behind the head:

However, halos in modern times are almost always portrayed as a yellow ring floating above the head, like this:

How, when, and why did this change happen? Was there a specific reason for the change, or did the symbol just shift over time? I could not find any information online, so any help is greatly appreciated.


texts:
Do we know where the first Visa documents were issued? The history of passports is old with Wikipedia dating them back to 450 BC. But when did Visas come into the picture? The etymology suggests a Latin connection but that does not necessarily prove it.

The Wikipedia page for Visa only alludes to their increased popularity and does not shed much light on where the concept evolved.


texts:
What happened to the US Army Camel Corps?
Did the Camel Corps fight in the civil war?
If it was closed down, what happened to the camels?


texts: Why was Mexico's former ruling party named the *Institutional* Revolutionary Party?

texts:
The party was founded in 1929, but its current name was given in 1946. What does the word institutional mean in its name?

Does it mean 'revolutionise the institutions'? Or does it mean 'the institutions are the revolution'? Or what?


texts: Were the Huns and Mongols at one point rivals?

texts: I recently read an article that suggests that perhaps the Huns invading Rome had once been a foe and eventually conquered and forced to migrate by the Mongol empire,this interesting idea completely changed my concept of the Huns and their war tactics,but is it actually fact?


texts: What was the last landmass on Earth to be settled by human beings?

texts:
As the abstract of this article claims,

  Madagascar was one of the last landmasses to be reached by people ... Madagascar was settled approximately 1200 years ago by a very small group of women (approx. 30), most of Indonesian descent (approx. 93%).

So is Madagascar the most-recently settled landmass in the world?

(I do not know what a good definition of "settle" is, but I might suggest this: Multiple generations living and reproducing continuously. This is to exclude places like Antarctica.)


texts: During the Chola dynasty how extensive was the use of Sanskrit in government and by the people?

texts:
David Shulman in his book "Tamil" notes:

  One thing, however, is certain: the Cholas were happy to use Tamil as
  an official state language, along with Sanskrit; and they, or the
  poets they patronized, created a courtly milieu in which several of
  the great Tamil masterpieces were composed.

There is archaeological evidence that the Cholas used some Sanskrit for their inscriptions. Further, several names of the Chola dynasty used Sanskrit letters and sounds (such as "Rajendra Chola").

That said, we know that the principal language of the Chola dynasty was Tamil. The question is, to what degree was Sanskrit used during the times of the Chola empire? Was it used extensively by the public?


texts: In the past, why was timezone change based on year?

texts:
Some years ago I discovered that in Unix time system, the place where I live in changes the zone!
For example:
>> Time.new.strftime('%z')
=> "+0530"

This means that today the timezone in Asia/Kolkata (+5:30) the zone is +5:30.
But if I change the year:
# In year 1941, timezone was +5:30
>> Time.new(1941).strftime('%z')
=> "+0530"

# In year 1942, timezone changed to +6:30
>> Time.new(1942).strftime('%z')
=> "+0630"
>> Time.new(1943).strftime('%z')
=> "+0630"
>> Time.new(1944).strftime('%z')
=> "+0630"
>> Time.new(1945).strftime('%z')
=> "+0630"
>> Time.new(1946).strftime('%z')
=> "+0530"

>> Time.new(1900).strftime('%z')
=> "+0521"
>> Time.new(1800).strftime('%z')
=> "+0553"

[ this is in Ruby programming language, only works on systems where TZ is natively set to Asia/Kolkata, so prepend TZ=Asia/Kolkata to irb/ruby/python/perl/date etc. to launch the program in Asia/Kolkata TZ ]
Here's a site that lets you do that graphically from any country
As you can see, I get different timezone back.
This is true for my computer, other computers, and even any single programming language capable of showing timezones.
Is it true that in the past timezone used to change based on the year? And what was the impact of that on the country?


texts: Why did many scientists spy for the Soviet Union and contribute to their atomic program?

texts:
I want to understand why some scientists collaborated with the Soviet Union and its atomic program during and after the WWII. What I want to know is if there were some specific characteristics or events that made them more willing to contribute.

Some people have pointed out to ideological sympathy to the Soviets, but I find this hard to believe since not all scientists with socialist ideas helped them. Moreover, some of them feared what the Soviets might do with an atomic bomb.

Why did scientists join the network of Soviet atomic spies?

P.S. Any references that deeply analyzes this or the Rosenberg case, is welcomed!


texts: Which book about risk of war over time draws conclusions contrary to Pinker?

texts:
I thought I recently read about a book arguing that trends in warfare, when you use the right statistics on the right timescales, do not show a clear decline over time. The book was characterized as effectively a rebuttal to Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature. Now I cannot remember where I read about it and Google is not helping me find it. Is there such a book?

The recollection I have is that the source was talking about a book, published in the past year or two, written by an author I wasn't familiar with, which rules out a paper by Taleb and Cirillo. If no positive answers are forthcoming, though, then that paper combined with my inaccurate recollection is the way to bet.

For what it's worth, I am a fan of Pinker's book, but I think a serious contrary response that goes beyond critiquing Pinker's analysis would be interesting.


texts: Was Jesus unique from the point of view of contemporaries?

texts:
Was in the time and place when Jesus preached, common for someone to do so in the manner Jesus did it?

(Of course, Jesus was unique, even from the point of view of someone who completely disbelieves everything about the religious views about being the Messiah. He played a very important role in defining our culture, society and value systems. This question tries to limit itself only to the aspects of the local culture and customs of that era from a secular point of view)

So, let's reconstruct the image of a man, not too old (so not conforming to the "wise old mentor" archetype), who moves from town to town, has a very small group of loyal disciples always traveling with him, who holds religious sermons but is not part of (and does not respond to) the priestly hierarchy, but still seen by most people as having a vast and correct knowledge of the religious law. He gathers hundreds, and sometimes thousands of listeners while holding speeches. They do not gather any worldly possessions (land, buildings, infrastructure) besides what is strictly needed for day-to-day survival. He spends a lot of time helping the poor or at least comforting them. Many people start viewing him as a prophet, or even as the fulfiller of an old prophecy.

The above is just a small summary, take further descriptions about Jesus and the disciples strictly as presented in the canonical Gospels. Having done that, let's look at the non-biblical sources and what we know about the customs and culture of that time and place. Was it common or very uncommon for such preachers to be active there? Do we have sources about other people living like that and preaching like that, besides Jesus and maybe John the Baptist?

What I would like to take a look at, is that from the perspective of a man who lived in that place and time, listened to one or a few public speeches of Jesus (but was not a disciple or a closer associate), and later, after Pentecost, might have joined this new movement which later developed into Christianity, how would this person have viewed what he saw and heard? Was it likely that he listened to many similar preachers before, who were leading a similar lifestyle, preaching, traveling etc. by similar means and it was just Jesus whom he had seen as much more convincing than the other ones, or was it very likely for Jesus to be the first such person in his life?

Please note, again, that this question is not about whether it is true or not what specific religions teach. It's solely about whether we have any sources about other contemporary people having similar lifestyles and activities as Jesus is described to have had.


texts: How big was the IMF loan Britain received in the 1970's?

texts:
During the turbulent times of the 1970's, the United Kingdom had to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan to meet its obligations. The National Archives state that in September 1976, a loan of $3.9 billion was requested. However, it goes on to say,

  Following the agreement with the IMF, the overall economic and
  financial picture improved. Interest rates were soon reduced and the
  pound quickly appreciated in value. By the end of 1977, partly as a
  result of new oil revenues, there were improvements in the balance of
  trade. Britain did not need to draw the full loan from the IMF.

How much did Britain actually receive from the IMF, and how long did it take to pay back?


texts: Was the population of Moscow wildly overstated during the Cold War?

texts:
The science fiction author Robert Heinlein was a socialist in his youth, but became a strident anticommunist during the Cold War. In 1960, he and his wife Virginia went as tourists to the USSR, and he wrote a magazine article about the experience, titled "Inside Intourist." He depicts the trip as interesting, but filthy, overpriced, and highly restricted by the presence of official minders. Virginia spoke fluent Russian, Robert just a little. They made a game out of evading control and seeing things they weren't supposed to see (like slums), and they made attempts to gather reality-check information on things like how much money people made and what their standard of living was.

The article was anthologized twenty years later, with an afterword in which Heinlein discusses at some length his theory that official figures on the population of Moscow were wildly overstated.

  At that time the USSR claimed a population of 225,000,000 and claimed a population for Moskva of 5,000,000+... For many days we prowled Moskva--by car, by taxi when we did not want Intourist with us, by subway, by bus, and on foot. In the meantime, Mrs. Heinlein, in her fluent Russian, got acquainted with many people... she is a warm person. But, buried in the chitchat, she always learned these things: How old are you? Are you married? How many children do you have?

Meanwhile, Robert was looking at traffic on the river and comparing with shipping on the Rhine or the Panama Canal. He told Virginia that he thought the city felt to him like it had a population of 600,000 to 800,000, not five million. Virginia agreed:

  "It's a lie. Unless they are breeding like flies everywhere outside Moscow, they have lost population since the War--not gained. I haven't found even one family with more than three children. The average is less than two. And they marry late. Robert, they aren't even replacing themselves."

Robert then says:

  About a year later I had a chance to discuss it with an old shipmate, an admiral now retired...I asked him how many people there were in Moscow... "Make a guess. You must have some idea." ... He closed his eyes and kept quiet for several minutes. "Seven hundred and fifty thousand, not over that... I simply worked it as a logistics problem, War College style. But I had to stop and visualize the map first. Roads, rivers, railroads, size of marshalling yards, and so forth... The city just doesn't have the transportation facilities to be any bigger than that."

Is it possible that the USSR's official statements about the population of Moscow in that era were really inflated by an order of magnitude? It seems like modern demographers ought easily to have been able to notice such a huge discrepancy. Even a very crude post-Soviet census should have been able to detect it, e.g., by simply checking the number of old people in 1995 and seeing whether there were enough of them to account for the cohorts 35 years younger in 1960.


texts: Why did the church attack Mainz for printing books?

texts:
A history of Gutenberg recounts:

  The invention of the printing press was received with opposition from the Catholic Church. The printers of Mainz fled after an attack from soldiers of the archbishop of Nassau in 1462.

Is this represenation accurate? If so why had the Catholic church a problem with books getting printed?


texts: Where can I find examples of fiefs that are not land?

texts:
In the Wikipedia article it is written that fiefs were not necessarily lands:

However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing, monopolies in trade, and tax farms.

Can anybody recommend me some reading about this? A book or an article where these details are discussed. (In Wikipedia they don't give references on this. Actually, an article in an encyclopedia with some examples will also do.)
EDIT 18.08.2020. From people's reaction I see that there is no common agreement about the meaning of the term "fief", so perhaps it will be reasonable to clarify how I understand it. From what I read about this I got an impression (people can correct me) that

a fief is a source of income (not necessarily, land, this as well can be a permission to trade somewhere, or a monopoly on the production of something, etc.) with the following three distinguishing features:

this source of income is granted to a person (called a "vassal" in Europe, but of course the concrete words are not important), by another person (called a "seigneur" in Europe) under a certain treaty (which is a part of the tradition),
in this treaty it is supposed that (in gratitude for this gift) the vassal is obliged to provide certain services to the seigneur (again, the content of these services can be very different, it can be regular payments to the seigneur, or military service, or service at the seigneur's court, or, as far as I understand, even something unclarified), and
the seigneur has a formal right to cancel this treaty if he decides that the vassal does not fulfill his obligations (of course, the possibility to do this depends very strongly on the tradition and on the concrete situation, but in this culture everyone recognizes the formal right of the seigneur to cancel the treaty).

My question is where all these details are described? I see many books about fiefs understood as lands, but only fragmentary mentionings of fiefs understood as other sources of income. I cannot find a text where these things are discussed in detail (or even simply explicitly formulated as I did here). Does anybody know such a text?
EDIT 29.08.2020. I've added a reference request to the Wikipedia page.


texts:
I recently visited my friend in Guernsey and explored a German gun placement in his garden.
On the walls there was writing and I am curious if anyone is able to translate it. Unfortunately a lot of the text is faded - but any clues on what it could say would be awesome


texts: Did anyone in ancient times want to abolish slavery?

texts:
Did anyone in ancient times (let's say, up to 500 AD) want to abolish slavery, or even acknowledge the possibility that society could somehow work without it?

I remember hearing once that Aristotle imagined a future in which there was no slavery because all their work was done by machines. Anyone?

I'm asking about people who were not slaves themselves wanting to abolish slavery. There were at least three major slave revolts in ancient Rome, so it's not like people didn't know that slaves didn't like being slaves.


texts: When was corporal punishment last lawfully practised in state schools?

texts:
Apparently (wiki) corporal punishment was legal in schools until rather shockingly late. 1986 for English and Welsh state schools, 1998 for private schools, 2000 in all Scottish schools and 2003 in Northern Ireland schools.

The wiki article refers to an incident where someone was slippered in a private school in 1993 and the teacher won the court case alleging that they had used degrading punishment. But this was a private school, not a state school.

Apparently before 1986, it was up to the headteacher whether to allow corporal punishment in state schools. Was it still actually being practiced in state schools at that point? When was the last time it was?


texts: Has any society normally accepted a marriage where someone married unwittingly?

texts:
I recently saw in a movie, "Jeremiah Johnson" (the one from 1972, with Robert Redford), in which Johnson marries a woman unintentionally by sipping from a bowl that she offered. The tribe considered this as evidence that he accepted the woman as his wife.

Has one been able marry unintentionally in any society?

Is it at all likely that such event happened, based on any records of such an event that may exist?

Or is it valid to assume, that such thing likely not happened, because cultures take the ceremony of marriage seriously?

Would such cultures normally recognize and excuse such an error?

P.S. I am not a native English speaker; I want to explicitly declare, that I do not intend to offend anyone. If I do, I beg your pardon.


texts: How long did it take to repair wooden war ships after battle in the 1600's to 1800's?

texts: How long did it take to repair wooden war ships (like the galleon) in the 1600's to 1800's?  I'm interested mainly in repairs needed due to cannon fire (hull damage, mast damage, etc), or even if it mast damage was even repairable at all.


texts: What restrictions were in place after WWII on the German aircraft industry?

texts:
A question on Aviation.StackExchange asked why the German aircraft industry is smaller than other countries in Europe. I know that the Allies did not want German rearmament after the war and had restrictions on industries that could manufacture war materials. In addition, since many of the rocket engineers went to the US or the USSR, I suspect that many of the aircraft designers did as well.

What were the restrictions on Germany, (and Austria and Italy) after the war and when were they lifted?

East Germany was controlled by the USSR and I imagine that they also restricted aircraft manufacturing since most of the East Bloc used Russian military equipment. Did they have the same restrictions on their military?


texts: Had the Chinese leadership considered the famine in Soviet Union in 1930s before starting the Great Leap Forward?

texts:
It was strange that the collectivization in the Soviet Union led to the Soviet famine of 1932-33 and the history repeated itself in 1959-61 in China.
So far as I know the Soviet Union helped the Communists create their party and Stalin played a big role in the Communist Victory in China by supporting Mao in Manchuria in the civil war. Mao and his party had a close connection with Stalin and the Soviet Union.
Did Chairman Mao and his cult know about the Soviet famine before starting the collectivization in China? If he did why he followed in Stalin's footsteps? If he didn't know that, why?


texts: How did the pincer movement at the Battle of Cannae work?

texts:
In an effort to understand both the Battle of Cannae and its early use of double envelopment (Pincer movement) in 216 BC, I came across the following diagram:

The diagram doesn't seem particularly well labelled. I take it from context that Hannibal's forces are in blue and the Romans are red, but I am left with the following questions:

What are the red squares that enclose small red squares?
Am I correct to think that the sold blue semi-circle means that forces were left in the center of the front line, in addition to flanking on both sides, as opposed to other Pincer movements I've seen where 100% of forces are split between the right and left envelopments?
How did the Roman cavalry become separated and does their movement away from the battle indicate a retreat with pursuit by the Numidian cavalry?
Do we know if it was 215 or 216 BC? The diagram says 215 but the article says 216.

Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement


texts: Do we have enough Titanic references for full reconstruction?

texts:
There are some projects that try to reconstruct Titanic. A replica would be made and launched in 2018. A videogame, Titanic : Honour and Glory would let us explore the ship in virtual reality. The question is- are there enough references ?

References could be:
1. Old Photos
    There were taken old photos, from various angles. Did the old photos capture all or there are zones never seen by the camera.
2. New Wreck photos

Nowdays, Titanic has most of its organic materials like wood gone. Could the wreck photos offer information that


texts: Difference between acts of "merit" and acts of "valor" in military decorations? (e.g. V device)

texts: I used to think valor is for combat and merit is non-combat. Then I realize Purple heart, a successor of Badge of Military Merit, is awarded for "being wounded or killed in any action against an enemy", which I understand as combat. However, I also see medal citation using phrases like "extraordinary fidelity" or "exemplary conduct" to describe recipient of non-valor bronze star medal, which I understand as non-combat. So, is merit combat or non-combat?


texts: What was the average day like for a 15th century English peasant or agricultural Labourer?

texts:
Because I live in a major urban American city of nearly 500,000 (Colorado Springs), I am finding it difficult to wrap my head around the idea of medieval subsistence agriculture. I am particularly interested in how life was before modern technologies and techniques were developed. I was told that a great amount about agriculture changed after the two halves of the world rejoined, so I am specifically interested in Europeans engaged in subsistence agriculture before Columbus's voyages. There doesn't really seem to be any major breakthroughs in European farming until according to Robinson Library, between the 1400's and 1500's:

  Explorers introduced plants and agricultural products from Asia and the Americas into Europe. Coffee, tea, and indigo were carried back from Asia. Potatoes, tomatoes, corn (maize), and beans were among the plants brought from the Americas. Some of these plants expanded people's diets in parts of Europe.

Then there really wasn't any new breakthroughs until the early 1700's when according to the same site:

  New crop rotation methods evolved in Europe's Low Countries and in England, improving previous systems. Charles Townshend popularized a four-field system in Norfolk County, England. He found that turnips could be rotated with wheat, barley, clover, and ryegrass to make soil more fertile and increase yields.

These websites echo that:

[could someone please neaten up these links so it just says "here, here, etc." but links to each page; I'd appreciate that.]

Timeline of Agriculture & Food Technology
TimeToast
AgClassroom
FarmEquipment.com

I also understand that prior to the 1700s in Southern England that agriculture was conducted primarily in open fields based on shares of fields farmed in personally possessed strips, mostly by peasants but partly by labourers for traditional wages. That before the “enclosure” of private fenced fields that agriculture was a collective endeavour of open fields divided into private rights over individual groups of arable furrows.

This leads me to believe life was relatively similar for Europeans engaged in agriculture for awhile. So, pre-Columbus, what was their life like?

I don't know how well they could preserve food, so, I would think they would plant in cycles to where different fruits and veggies ripen maybe monthly? Quarterly? And what about hunting? Were most people good with a bow or trapping? How did they get their meat. I guess:
1) How did they obtain their food (harvest, gather wild, livestock and what kind, hunt, purchase, barter for, etc)
2) How much time was spent in obtaining this food (how much time was spent harvesting crops, hunting)
3) Bonus question, how prone to starvation were these subsistence agricultural producers vs. someone like myself who has never been prone starvation in my 31 years on Earth or even my mom in her 59 years on Earth. When I look back, due to the lack of technologies and techniques, I think that these people would be prone to frequent food shortages. Maybe not to where they die, but to where it affects their health negatively.

To be honest my view of the past comes from TV and movie portrayals of the Middle Ages. It's always dirty. People are always sick. People are always afraid of something, whether it's legitimate fears like the Catholic Church trying to execute you or something due to ignorance, like a comet in the sky. People seem to be frequently maimed. People are always begging and starving.

Now, I know this is TV and movies, but when I think about all of the advancements since then, I don't find it hard to make the leap that much of these shows are correct. Life seemed to be hard. I have never worked on any kind of a farm. I have seen shows about industrial farms, but I have to imagine subsistence agriculture was different, AT LEAST in the crop variation.


texts: What was the program of the Mensheviks in their later years? How did they hope to achieve it?

texts:
The Mensheviks were an important force in Russia during the February Revolution of 1917. Within Russia proper, they were gradually sidelined after the Bolshevik October Revolution. The Menshevik government of Georgia was defeated in 1921, and its government in exile limped on until 1954 (!).

The Mensheviks moved to New York and owned a Russian language newspaper called Socialist Messenger, which was published until 1965. Apparently the Menshevik Centre persisted until the late 60s or early 70s.

Did the Mensheviks still adhere to their stream of pre-Lenin Orthodox Marxism? What was their perspective on the developments of Soviet history? (answers could include the rise of Stalin, the purges, the Nazi Soviet pact, the murder of Trotdky, World War 2, de-Stalinization, the Sino-Soviet split, the fall of Khrushchev, and so on)

And what was their goal, other than continuing to exist?


texts: Please suggest a book that contains a historical (factual) account of Jesus' life

texts: Can someone suggest a book about Jesus that contains only aspects that can be corroborated by scientific and historical evidence? In other words, I don't want to read about so-called miracles or other embellishments about his life.


texts: Was Greece the only thing stopping a Persian invasion of Europe?

texts:
During the Greco-Persian war, it is of course well documented that the Greeks managed to hold off the Persians in numerous conflicts including the Battle of Thermopylae (not strictly a victory, I know, but it did its job).

My question is if the Greeks had fallen and were taken under Persian rule would there have been any force in Europe capable of preventing a complete annexation of Europe or was Greece the one and only stand?


texts: Were there any attempts at a federation or commonwealth to save Austria-Hungary from breaking up after ww1?

texts:
As known, the population of Austria-Hungary was made up of 11 major ethnic identities.. When the war ended, A-H broke up as it was instead of forming a new federation of Austria, Hungary with an exclave in Romania, Slovakia, Czechia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia with land ceded to Italy, Sudantenland to Germany, part of Galicia to Poland and another part to Ukraine. Also major part of Transylvania to Romania.
At least Hungary would not feel bitter about the Treaty of Trianon through which Hungary lost lands.
Were there, in fact, any attempts to create such a federation after World War I?
(FWIW, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine could form another commonwealth on their own (PLU). With an access to the Baltic Sea through Lithuania, the importance of Danzig to this PLU would be diminished. There would be less pretexts for the N-Germany later on to intervene and invade lands outside of Germany.)


texts: What were the first local currency systems in history?

texts: What were the first local currency systems in history we have detailed information on? I don't think it was gold/silver or other hard to produce materials. Probably these became more important currencies after intercontinental and intercultural trade was more common.


texts: What was the societal wealth demographics when the major pyramids were built?

texts:
All this talk about wealth distribution (1% of US Citizens etc. etc.) got me wondering about the wealth distribution in other periods of history when - let's call them - great edifices were built.

E.g. when the major pyramids were built, did '1% of the population' control as much wealth as the 'bottom 90%'?  Was the ratio even more exaggerated?

I suppose the question could be answered with the most accurate demographics from any civilization / empire period, where a major edifice was created (great wonder, 'multi-national infrastructure', etc).

Personally, I'm curious to understand the relationship between cultural projects and wealth distribution.


texts: Women collaborators within China during the Second Sino-Japanese War?

texts: There are several reports of women collaborators in Europe during the Nazi occupation. I am wondering if there is any reports of this occurring in China, and what possibly happened to these women after the war?


texts:
Why did shock therapy fail during perestroika? Has shock therapy ever worked in other situations?

Was it responsible for the creation of the nomenclature and oligarchs?

Are there any authors who have written extensively about the economic changes during this period?


texts: Were early US citizens ever able to get reparations for the Revolutionary War?

texts:
In looking into the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War I ran across a list of citizens applying for reparations to the new government:
Reparation Requests
The state of New Jersey even provides a database of claims:
Revolutionary War Damage Claims
I had run across sources which say a number of people who helped fund the war, including some of the original founders went bankrupt in the aftermath. Did the US Government ever get around to honoring any of those claims either before or after the creation of the constitution? Was there any successful legal recourse for the patriots affected?


texts: If there is a database or online collection of images of ceramics, coins, carvings, tools, or other "artifacts" in the public domain

texts:
I just asked this on Quora after realizing that the British Museum (or Library, not sure if they're different) released public domain images from books, like sketches on Flickr. I remember it being a big headline in the news, "British Library/Museum releases 1 million images into the public domain".

However, checking the British Museum website for things like ceramics, every image is released under CC BY-NC-SA (Non-Commercial, attribution only). This is hugely restrictive, you couldn't use these images for a book, for example. But they are such good references!

My question is if there is anything like the British Museum collection but that is in the public domain. Something that includes various artifacts of different kinds, such as coins, ceramics, paintings, carvings, tools, fabrics, clothings, etc. I would like to find these public domain resources so I can use them in creating textbook material without.


texts:
The battle resulted in a Greek victory and the surrender of Porus.

Wikipedia says Alexander won the battle.

Porus’ defeat of Alexander at the Battle of Hydaspes (Jhelum) – N.S.
Rajaram

But voice of India says Porus won the battle in the title.
Who actually won Battle of the Hydaspes?


texts: What kind of training did Imperial military officers receive?

texts:
In the early modern period, European empires maintained their faraway colonies with great armies and navies. Many enlisted soldiers and sailors were barely trained; imperial officers were often literate, multilingual, or noble.

Let's say the year is 1800. Apart from any professional experience (and many had none), what kind of training or education did the military officers have?


texts: Which myths do these wooden carvings depict?

texts:
I found these wooden tableaux in my grandfather's storage basement after he died. He was an interior decorator in Los Angeles who bought and sold a lot of Asian art pieces, principally Chinese and Japanese ones. These by contrast seem to me to be Indian or Southeast Asian, but I can't perceive the cultural references that would explain them, nor do they have any inscriptions. Some of the characters are in formal poses, some are partying, and some are monkeys, whose presence makes me think there may be Hindu significance. The seven heads at top are reminiscent of the demon Ravana, but he seems to always have ten. For scale, the carvings are each about a meter long. Unfortunately I have no information at all on their age or origins.

What characters, stories, or events are depicted here?


texts: Were the North Vietnamese close to collapse in 1972?

texts: I have seen snippets (first in Jeremiah Denton's book "When Hell was in Session" ) of information from recent scholarship that the North Vietnamese may have been ready to give up in 1972.  I have scoured recent books on the Vietnam War and have not found any that address the question of this theory.  Does anyone know of any publication(s) that addresses this? Any studies, papers, or books that have recently explored the inner deliberations of the North Vietnamese.


texts: Inflation rates in Spain and Portugal during the 16th century

texts:
What were the monthly or yearly inflation rates in Spain and Portugal during the 16th century?

Is there data for the amount of silver or gold possessed by the crowns during that period? How much did it increase?


texts: What was the reason behind total transition towards wide screen displays by the manufacturers?

texts:
I often hear complains by users who are not satisfied by the wide-screen monitors and prefer traditional screen ratios of 4:3 and 5:4. Unfortunately such monitors now are quite rare and the laptops with such screens are completely wiped.

Most of people to whom I spoke and I myself do not use their laptops to watch TV broadcasts or HD films because they have TVs and computers with much bigger screens and thus better suitable for the purpose.

I heard several theories proposed by the disappointed users to explain such overwhelming transition by all manufacturers to the wide screens without leaving the users any options.

Use of TV matrices. According to this theory, the producers of computer monitors switched to use wide screens because of the availability of a lot of of cheap matrices which being mass produced for new generation HD TVs. Producing one kind of a matrix for all devices is cheaper than producing one kind for TVs and the other for computers.

This theory does not explain why the laptop producers also switched to wide-screen, because small-sized matrices are not widely used in TV design. Other objections include that it also does not explain why initially the ratios 16:10 became popular insted of 16:9 used in the TVs. It also does not explain the fact why TVs mostly use BGR pixel ordering while the computers mostly use RGB (although some matrices probably can be turned 180 degrees).

Cheating. Since the monitors were sold for price per inch of diagonal size, so the manufacturers after transition to wide screens could sell a monitor with smaller matrix area for better price.

This theory does not explain how wide screen became popular on devices where "per inch" pricing has no sense (i.e. portable devices) as well as the fact that now it is cheaper to buy a 1920x1200 monitor than that with resolution 1600x1200, so a person who wants a 4:3 monitor is forced to by a wide screen one, because it is cheaper and then use it with resolution 1600x1200.

Small vertical viewing angles. This theory suggests that the cheaper TN matrix types used in modern monitors have small vertical viewing angles while horizontal angles are much better. So when using a monitor with high vertical size the image at the top and bottom of the screen looks with wrong colors.

This theory does not explain why if a vertical a viewing angle is good for 1920x1200, it is bad for 1600x1200. It also does not explain why high-end medicine and industrial monitors such as Eizo RadiForce who always used matrices with high viewing angles in all directions also undergoing slow transition towards wide screens.

So what were the actual reasons behind such total transition in all areas without leaving a possibility of choice?


texts:
In the summer of 1915, a wireless telegraph station in Sayville, Long Island owned by the German company Telefunken was caught sending covert commands to U-Boats patrolling the Atlantic Ocean. The transmission device was recovered, but it still isn't clear what it is or how the messages were sent. The mystery box is in the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, and though they haven't been able to identify the specific properties of the item, it seems like it should be possible based on the specifics of the machine itself.

The details that are available, plus pictures, are all here, and our site (including details about the project) can be found on the project page. We're hoping a specific identification of the object's mechanism can be determined based on the following clues (from the description pages, above): it is a "light-tight wooden box containing a neon yellow, paper tape reel. When the Museum’s conservation department initially opened the box, the paper tape began fading to a near-white pale yellow, leading them to believe that the tape was treated with cyanide. Kristen Gallerneaux, Curator of Communication and IT at the Henry Ford Museum, first thought of the cyanotype process. But her search for evidence of cyanotype paper-tape devices in radio and wireless history came up with nothing."

Does anyone know of other analogous processes used historicaly similar to the setup described? Are there precedents in the history of covert communications in WWI for non-cyanotype communications methods that might apply to this object?


texts: Why did Archelaus move the capitol of Macedon to Pella?

texts: Archelaus transferred the capitol of Macedon from Aegae to Pella in the early 4th century B.C. What could have been the reason for this?


texts: Prior to the Age of Exploration, Did Slavery Endure Anywhere in Europe?

texts:
Could someone tell me if there was a period in European history prior to the age of exploration where institutionalized slavery existed nowhere? If so, who was the last (European) nation to end the institution of slavery in post-classical eras and when was it?

Edit: I mean Slavery as institutions where it is clear that humans are owned as property. I don't believe serfdom had all of those qualities in the fullest sense like New World slavery or the slavery of ancient Rome.


texts: Why did some ancient societies make human sacrifices but others did not?

texts:
Why did some ancient societies like the Mayans and Aztecs make human sacrifices whereas others such as the Romans did not? Was this just chance or was there some environmental difference that made this more likely? Or have I got this wrong did all ancient civilizations carry out human sacrifice?

Is it possible that greater instability in the Mesoamerican climate compared to Europe focused extreme pressure on those responsible for “controlling” the weather and appeasing the Gods? Leading to a more extensive use of sacrifice?


texts:
I used to work for a company and we would go around doing gladiator reenactments. It was great and fun; however, one thing that the boss always said was that if I could find a reference to any gladiator having used an axe, I would be allowed to use one in the fight.

Now I have been drawn to fight a Hoplomachus as a Murmillo of a Thracian, but the offer still stands if I can find a reference to using an axe. We like to try and keep it as historically accurate as possible. I am bored of fighting with a gladius - it's not as fun.

I know that Spartacus (the recent TV adaptation) had their Secutors use axes; however, I cannot find anywhere any kind of historical reference to this and wonder if it was just for entertainment purposes.

I know that it is traditionally a sword for a gladiator, but does anyone have anything at all?


texts: What did ex-Gladiators do after being freed? Did they stay near to what they knew or chose completely unrelated professions and prospered?


texts: What are the top 5 bloodiest battles in terms of British casualties?

texts:
I have done a bit of research and it seems the Somme, Towton and maybe Bannockburn are up there? Any more to throw into the mix?

Great site by the way!


texts: Gaulish logistics during Caesar's invasion

texts:
How much, if anything, do we know about how the Gauls camped and marched when facing Caesar?

Did they have tents, mules, wagons, camp followers?

Can we infer anything about their rate of march? Was it faster or slower than the legions?


texts: How was law enforcement handled in large US cities before professional police?

texts:
In the news lately in the USA there has been a lot of talk about defunding or abolishing police. Its been claimed by some that US police forces have their root in slave-catching, and are thus irredeemably racist at their core. Others are horrified at the implication of there suddenly being nobody trying to enforce laws or investigate crimes.

There's also right now a question on the Politics site about what this might mean practically (Can society function without police?), but that site (understandably) isn't doing a super job of providing a historical perspective. They are instead concentrating on clearing up the political policy theories behind that movement, which is what a Politics site should be doing. However the history of the matter, that's a thing I'd think we should be able to get into well here.

We know that modern professional police forces are a relatively new phenomenon, starting in the 18th and 19th centuries. So the question is, how was law enforcement and crime investigation carried out in large US cities like New York prior to the institution of their professional uniformed police forces?

(I just want to make clear that I'm not claiming anyone is currently promoting rewinding the clock to the 1700's. I'm just interested in getting down the facts of what life w/o modern police used to look like, for those who can't imagine it)


texts: How historically accurate is Les Miserables?

texts: In essence, I'm asking about whether there are any historical inaccuracies in the movies/plays themselves. I'm pretty sure the book would have very few, due to the fact that it was written in a similar time, but what about in the movies/plays?


texts: Did it matter that the Red Army clung on to Stalingrad's West bank in 1942?

texts:
All histories of the Stalingrad battle emphasize the heroic defense of the west bank of the Volga by the Red Army in 1942. It implies that if the German 6th Army had just managed to oust the last desperate defenders then by controlling the west bank they would have controlled the city and been able to declare some kind of victory at Stalingrad and change the course of the war.

No doubt the Russians holding on were fighting incredibly bravely. And presumably their prolonged defence of the west bank bogged the 6th Army down in a war of attrition which damaged the Germans' cause.

But what if anything would have changed if the Germans had taken the whole of the west bank? Other than a small morale boost?

They would still have only held "half" the city (my knowledge of the geography of Stalingrad is hazy but most cities which straddle a river have a substantial portion on either side). They would still have had over-extended supply lines and been exhausted and under constant attack from the opposite bank.

Most importantly Operation Uranus would surely have gone ahead in just the same way with the same final outcome.

So did it matter that the Red Army clung on to that small part of the city and, if not, why is such a big deal made of it?


texts:
I recently found this knife/dagger, have no clue what type it is and what it was used for, there is a thumb hole I suspect on the spine as well as it looks to be “IMT” or “IMI” logo stamped on the side. It is also not very sharp at all I’m not sure because of intention or because of old age? Any ideas on what type of knife this is and what it could have been used for would help!

Thanks


texts: Why didn't the Greek language survive in Egypt?

texts:
During antiquity, there were multiple Greek colonies in today's Egypt. Later Alexander the Great conquered these territories and then the Ptolemaic Kingdom was established. Some of today's Egypt was also part of the Roman Empires for a long period so I'd assume Greek was spoken at that period as well.

What happened to the Greek language in Egypt after that? Why hasn't it survived to our days?


texts: How were improvised masks used to defend gas attacks in World War One?

texts:
During the battle for Ypres in April 1915 the attacking Germans used chlorine gas to great effect, nearly annihilating the 1,100 defending French. The French had moved closer to the gas cloud, assuming it was a veil of smoke, and sustained near total casualties - leaving a kilometer wide gap in their defensive trenchworks. After the French had perished the attackers failed to fully capitalize on the gap and Canadian troops were able to fend off the approaching Germans, using urine-soaked rags as makeshift gas masks. (source - 1:40)
The chlorine gas dissolves in water, and any cloth soaked in water, coffee, or urine would have provided defense against the new weapon. Of course, the Canadian soldiers couldn't have known this at the time - they thought the ammonia in urine would dissolve the chemical agent. After the use of gas at Ypres how quickly were gas masks made into a standard part of a soldier's kit, and before that point how was the use of improvised masks enforced? Did soldiers keep a supply of urine or were other fluids perceived as safe in the event of a chlorine gas attack?


texts: Was it ever possible for Germany to win WWII?

texts:
Hitler's plans were very ambitious and he favored extreme expansionism.

He is said to have said (not exact):

  Some countries are spread over continents and some are mere cities

However, in his conquest of Europe (and maybe beyond?) he was sure to face opposition from Britain and other world powers which he did eventually. My question is, would it ever have been possible to win the war? Even if Britain had fallen, it would have fought on through it's colonies. America couldn't have been kept out of the war if the entire world was falling.

Could have Germany ever fought against and defeated the entire world?


texts: Trying to identify what military service, war and rank by the uniform

texts:
I have been searching google images, tried a reverse search and found nothing. I have looked on many sites and cannot identify the service. I do know he has 9 buttons on his coat, 3 on the cuffs, red under the gold on the collar but I cannot find anything about the hat with the white pom pom. I am thinking he may be before 1815. There is a name on the back burned into the wood frame John/Joan R Byrne and this series co 4.26 or zg.9228 . There is also writing I cannot make out but it appears to be a name Hxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx and then grandfather.

Is he from the United States or could he possibly be from England? I am leaning towards a US Naval officer.


texts: How many keys to the French Bastille are still in existence?

texts:
France's national day on July 14th is called Bastille Day in English.

The day commemorates when a mob of people on July 14 1789 took a medieval castle, a symbol of Bourbon Royalty, in the opening action of the French Revolution.

My Question is: how many keys to the Bastille are still in existence today and where are they?

I know General Lafayette came into the possession of one of the keys and sent it to his friend and superior officer in the American Revolution, George Washington. That key is on display at Washington's home in Alexandria Virginia, Mount Vernon, to this day, when it's not out on loan touring France.
I found a second key at the Alexandria Virginia Masonic Lodge, also presented by General Lafayette a few decades after Washington's death.
I found a third key at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, where Madame Tussaud brought the key with her when she fled France due to the revolution

Sources:

How the Key to the Bastille Ended Up in George Washington’s Possession
11 Remnants of the Bastille You Can Still See Today
Scottish Journal, Marquis de LaFayette and Two Keys to the Bastille
BBC, Bastille Key Found, 1999


texts: Was Germany's "Fall Blau" plan in the Soviet Union partly aimed at Mediterranean neutrals or Japan (a neutral vis-vis the Soviets)?

texts:
In 1942, Germany adopted Fall Blau, a plan for a southward push in the Soviet Union toward the Caucasus, and the borders of Turkey and Iran. (Stalingrad was added to the plan later.)

Decrypts by "Ultra" ("Marching Orders" p.64) quoted Japan's Foreign Minister Togo as saying

  Germany has put her all in the mortal battle with Russia. Her success or failure will determine the attitude and relations with all the neutral countries.

Togo was referring to countries like Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and even Egypt (technically "independent," but a de facto British protectorate).

The Japanese then speculate that with the "neutrals" and the non-Russian Soviet Union under their belt, the Axis could make peace with "Russia," and limit the war to one against Britain and the United States.

Question:

Did other diplomats and politicians contemporaneously, or historians retroactively, make the case that the prioritization of "economic" rather than "political" objectives in the Soviet Union (such as Moscow), was actually aimed at winning over neutral nations in the Mediterranean region?


texts: What was Rhodesia like before independence?

texts:
I have heard a lot about Robert Mugabe in my time, and he mostly seemed like a good example of how not to run a country. Now that he's died, I'm seeing a lot of articles talking about his supposed "heroic" side. He fought for the country's independence, and I understand how that must have been seen as a heroic and noble achievement, but I have a hard time believing that the country and it's people were in a worse place before his rise to power.

From what I can tell he ran the country into the ground, even if his initial goal may have been a good one.

So I've been wondering, what was Rhodesia like before independence? And what kind of oppression was the country suffering from before independence? How bad was colonial rule in 1980 before independence?


texts: What was the role of a 'Tidy Man' and what might their duties have been?

texts:
In Hawthorne's 'Main Street' I came across the following passage:

  there goes the tithingman, lugging in a couple ot small boys, whom he has caught at play beneath God's blessed sunshine, in a back lane. What native of Naumkeag, whose recollections go back more than thirty years, does not still shudder at that dark ogre of his infancy, who perhaps had long ceased to have an actual existence, but still lived in his childish belief; in a horrible idea, and in the nurse's threat, as the Tidy Man!

I've worked out that a 'tithingman' had something to do with a system of 'frankpledge'

I've also found an obscure reference to practices in New England that mentions a 'Tidy Man' in a negative sense whereas all the other references in an ngram search for the period come up with positive connotations.

What exactly was a Tidy Man? How were tithings and frankpledge systems organised? Why would Tidy Men be seen as equivalents of what we would know as Bogey Men? And how might they all connect?


texts: During the Berlin Blockade, why didn't the people in West Berlin just go over to buy food in East Berlin?

texts: It wasn't until 1961 that the Berlin Wall that was set up, what was to prevent the West Berliners from going over to the east?


texts: What allowed the British to be able to burn Washington D.C. in the war of 1812?

texts: The reason I'm asking is because of Washington D.C.'s location. It wasn't easily accessible by land and it wasn't easily traveled to by waterways. In what battles were the British able to get to Washington D.C. to burn down the White House?


texts: WW1 trying to identify squadron and aircrew

texts:
Recently discovered photo belonging to my grandfather. I was told he took this but not so sure...
He was connected with 57 Squadron but I can find no info about it.
Keen to be able to identify anyone in this photo but no idea where to start. The plane is a DH4, I believe.


texts: Why were Japanese Americans forced to move, while German Americans and Italian Americans did not generally suffer the same consequences?

texts:
Question from the memoir "Farewell to Manzanar".

Why were majority of Japanese-Americans forced to move? Why didn't the German-Americans share the same fate?


texts: What's the history of the source of the slogan "power to the people"?

texts:
I can't find any detailed information on this phrase from a reasonable amount of internet searching. The current version of the wikipedia article about this slogan is light on details and very undersourced (the first source article from greenleft.org.au is a broken link that is not in the Internet Archive), but does have this to say:

  During the 1960s in the United States, young people began speaking and writing this phrase as a form of rebellion against what they perceived as the oppression by the older generation, especially The Establishment. The Black Panthers used the slogan "All Power to the People" to protest the rich, ruling class domination of society. Pro-democracy students used it to protest America's military campaign in Vietnam.


texts: What was the context of Queen Juliana's "I can't understand it" quote?

texts:
I came across a quotation in that piqued my interest.

  I can't understand it.  I can't even understand the people who can understand it.

  — Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.

I'd like to know the context of this quote. What was she talking about? Was it in a personal interview? A written memoir? Is it a translation from, say, Dutch? Is there, in fact, any serious evidence she said or wrote such a thing?

What I've found so far

The earliest mention I can find of the quote is from 1987. Juliana of the Netherlands abdicated in 1980, age 71, but the quotation is attributed to "Queen" which suggests that the utterance occurred while she was still on the throne.

Quote databases

The influential Unix fortune cookie program, and the databases that accompanied it, have been particularly popular among the science and technology crowd, although the topics of the quotes are certainly not restricted to those topics.

The quote in question appears to have entered the Unix fortune cookie database around somewhere between 1988 and 1995. Specifically, it was not in Berkeley Unix BSD4.3 (1988) but was in BSD4.4 (1995). I also found evidence that the quote was being passed around online as far back as 1987. The filename was different then, but the wording and punctuation seem to be an exact match for the modern version.

It seems to have originated from the same Berkeley sources that would later become BSD4.4. The first part of that 1987 archive begins with a note:

  [This is the latest and most uptodate version of Ken Arnold/
       Berkeley's fortune program and data base.  Thanks to Ken
       Arnold for sending this to me.   -br]

Another quotation database, QuotationsPage.com, contains an entry for this quote. The site describes Michael Moncur's (Cynical) Quotations, the relevant collection as "a collection of quotes which I (Michael) have been adding to since 1985."

Outside quote databases

The most formal reference I've found is an essay in a 1988 policy advice book (Schmitt, p. 309). In this case the quote is said to be spoken, and also specifically about computers.

  ... many politicians ... undoubtedly feel sympathy for Queen Juliana of Holland, who was heard to exclaim, "I don't understand computers. I don't even understand the people who understand computers."

Next steps

I don't speak Dutch, but I wonder if I might have more luck searching Dutch books and newspapers for reports of Juliana alongside words like begrijp and mensen (which apparently mean 'understand' and 'people', respectively).

Then again, I'm not used to historical research, so it's possible I've missed an obvious approach.

Help me, History.SE! What did Juliana not understand?

References

Schmitt, R. W. (1988). Federal policies for academic research. In Golden, William T. (Ed.), Science and Technology Advice to the President, Congress, and Judiciary. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.
[Google books]


texts: Why did Native Americans originally migrate to the Americas?

texts:
Native Americans migrated to America around 13000 or 15000 years ago just around the last ice age. I read that during the first wave of migration, they used the Beringia strait to travel across from Asia. However, considering there was little to no knowledge of the new world I wonder why would the tribes risk travelling so far?

Correct me if I am wrong but the global temperatures around that time were around -5 degrees Celsius. It seems unreasonable for humans at the time to take the risk to migrate towards the north in search for a place that may or may not exist. Also to consider is the fact that they wouldn't have the best clothing for the weather, making them more susceptible to succumbing to the cold. Since humans still migrated under those conditions, there must be a very strong reason why they did so. Tribal conflicts, unfit weather and the human tendency to migrate doesn't seem valid reasons to migrate under such extreme conditions.


texts: What was the name of the region, Somalia, British Somalia or British Somaliland?

texts:
Somalia was created in 1960 by joining two regions: British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland.

References in Wikipedia keep toggling between British Somaliland and Italian Somalia, note the use of Somalia for one and Somaliland for the other.

I found a text from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, from 1961, where they mention:

  (...)  And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. (...)

This makes me wonder what was the canonical naming to the region: when was Somalia first used? Would people use Somaliland alone to call British Somaliland?

Also, was Somaliland also the name for the geographical region, independently of the political borders?


texts: Was arson prominent in the Kingdom of Hawaii?

texts:
Gast and Conrad's book about Francisco de Paula Marin's life in Hawaii contains entries from his journal. Several mention incidents and fears of arson, never ascribing responsibility:

30th Jany [1810]. Fear that all the houses will be burned on account of the marriage of "Querua" [Kaluaikonahale, i.e., Kuakini] with the daughter of the King.
2 January [1818]. This night 3 houses of the Russians were burnt.
24 March [1819]. This night the house of Mr. Prince was burnt.
7th November [1819]. This day all the women ate pork and they burnt all the churches [i.e., heiaus] on the island.

Without assuming that these cases share the same explanations, what factors or concerns in native Hawaiian culture could help to explain all these references to arson?


texts: Difference between V-5 and V-12 Navy programs during WWII

texts:
I was curious if there was a difference between the V-5 and V-12 Navy programs during World War II. I have found a lot of information on V-12 program specifically but I haven't been able to find to much information on the V-5 navy training program. Was V-5 a subset of the V-12 program? I know Purdue, Notre Dame and many other schools had V-12 programs but haven't heard anything about V-5. Any insight would be very helpful!

EDIT: Finally found something:

Navy V-12, Volume 12 By Henry C. Herge

Looks as if the V-5 program was for naval aviation cadets that was later absorded into the V12 program and those students were given a special designation of (a) for Aviation.


texts: Was it possible to "aim for the epaulette boys" during the Middle Ages?

texts:
During the American Revolution, American troops were often told to "aim for the epaulette boys,"* that is, to first shoot at officers wearing epaulettes, on the theory that killing an officer would disorganize many men. This was considered "unsporting" by the British.

My understanding is that epaulettes (as we understand them today) first appeared on officers in the 17th century, that is after the Middle Ages.

But during the Middle Ages, peasant infantry was often forced to fight "knights" on horseback, that is men of higher social standing than themselves. Arguably, even the lowest ranking these knights were "officers" or at least "non-coms." So weapons and horses were one mark of rank.

But even within "officer" ranks, there is a difference between second lieutenants and generals. Did any medieval knights (or other soldiers) carry distinguishing badges, clothing, flags or other items that marked them as higher ranking than others? Would common soldiers on the other side prioritize them as targets?

*Accoridng to "Generations" by William Strauss and Neil Howe, this command was given for the first time (of many) at Bunker Hill. After "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."


texts: Are there thirteenth century sources linking the Fifth Crusade to the Book Of Daniel?

texts:
Are there any thirteenth century sources (Christian, Islamic, or Jewish) linking (the timing of) the fifth crusade to a possibly self-fulfilling prophecy1 from (the eighth chapter2 of) the Book of Daniel ?

I was wondering for some time now whether a certain apocalyptic fervor might have been exploited, by any of the two warring sides, in the hopes of inspiring (more of) their respective coreligionists to take up arms, and join their politico-religious struggle over control of the holy land.

1 Due to the high regard in which the text in question, along with its purported author, are held among the adherents of the two main (belligerent) civilizations involved in the aforementioned (armed) conflict.

2 Specifically, the 2,300 mornings-and-evenings, when interpreted as 2,300 / 2 = 1,150 years, and counted from the (second) destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE, yield a result approximating the relevant date (1,217-1,221 CE).


texts: Was Buddhism the dominant religion of India for 1 thousand years?

texts:
I read in the book 'The Argumentative Indian' by Amartya Sen, that Buddhism was the dominant religion of India for about a 1000 years, and that foreigners referred to India as a Buddhist kingdom.

Amartya Sen asserts this several times. In one instance he states:

  Buddhism and Jainism had both emerged by the sixth century BCE.
  Buddhism, the practice of which is now rather sparse in India, was the
  dominant religion of the country for nearly a thousand years. Jainism,
  on the other hand, born at the same time as Buddhism, has survived as
  a powerful Indian religion over two and a half millennia.

Is this true?

This map from Wikipedia shows that Buddhism was influential only in a small part of North-East India, and not at all in the southern or western part. Kindly provide online references, if possible.

I think there is a difference between the rulers being Buddhist, and the religion being dominant in India. Kindly clarify.