texts: Was the Second Industrial Revolution directly related to the first?

texts:
Was the Second Industrial Revolution merely a continuation of the first, or did it happen based on separate and unrelated means?

First Industrial Revolution: 1760 - 1830

Started in England, spread to the rest of Europe and America
Start of of new technologies

Development of steam engines
New cotton factories
Increased iron production

More goods being shipped and produced
The society can interact more due to faster and further travel (train)

New foods spread (fresh fish and produce)
People became aware of current politics

Second Industrial Revolution: 1870 - 1915

Started in England, spread to the rest of the world, including Russia and Japan
Development of new forms of energy

Electricity (major)
Gas and oil

Allowed for widespread communications

Early electrical devices

So these two revolutions are in a way different, The first was mainly about steam, the second was mainly about electricity. However, were these two every connected in a way? Or is this just the course of human nature?


texts: What percentage of men, ages 18 to 35, from the northern states served in the Union Army?

texts: In my genealogy research, I can assume with some certainty that if a white southern family had sons born between 1835 and 1846 there is a pretty good chance that all of them will have served in the Confederate armed forces.  However, this is not so true as to families in the north.  Are there any statistics regarding what percentage of white men, of appropriate age, served in the Union armed forces?


texts: Who was Krusenstern's scandalous priest?

texts:
Krusenstern, captain of the first Russian circumnavigation, wrote a refined book on the voyage. He visited Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in about 1804 and remarked without any further detail that "The priest of St. Peter and St. Paul was a scandal to his profession".

One of Krusenstern's officers, Löwenstern, noted in his journal that the captain was disappointed that the priest did not perform a vespers service on board.

Petropavlovsk had no church from 1767 to about 1800. The parish returned to its original seat after the typhus epidemic of 1799 killed off a lot of (Krusenstern says all) the population in nearby Paratunka. According to I. V. Viter, the "Salvation" church was being rebuilt in 1800.

Who was the scandalous priest?


texts: Why wasn't England/Britain officially an empire (as a form of monarchy)?

texts:
An overwhelming article does not answer my question: Why perhaps since Elizabeth I was England not officially an empire and its head of state an emperor/empress?

I mean, it is said that the British Empire has always been a colonial one (I remember that Victoria, for example, was called Empress of India, but Queen of England), but was never officially called empire? Was this simply tradition?

Does anyone know why the English stuck to kingdom as an official form of state, even though they were de facto an empire?

For example, after Prussia completed the German unification, its king had no problem proclaiming the German Empire and himself as an emperor as the new form of state.


texts: Are there known completely sealed chambers in Egyptian pyramids?

texts:
According to new measurements, there likely is a large hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid (Paper). There is already speculation about its contents, with people looking at religious sources the chamber may be based on. What bothers me about this is that I was under the impression that the interior decoration was done without suspending the rest of the building work, using using oil lamps as evidenced by soot. To achieve this, they would need access tunnels which connect all the chambers.

The newly discovered chamber would either need to have some other way of access or couldn't be decorated, making a religious purpose unlikely which leads me to think it might simply be stress relief for the chambers beneath it.

Are there any known chambers that are completely sealed off and do not have any external access?


texts: Did the Yuan Dynasty ever occupy Hainan?

texts: And if so who occupied Hainan before them and after them?


texts: Why do the pyramids show less erosion than the Sphinx?

texts:
Traditional Egyptology maintains that the Great Sphinx was carved around the same time that the Great Pyramid was constructed. I am relatively new to Egyptology but it seems clear that the base of the Sphinx (beneath the restoration masonry), the enclosure walls, and the blocks of the Sphinx temple are notably more eroded than the blocks of the pyramids. What explanation is given for this assuming these structures are made of the same type of stone? Especially as the pyramids are much taller, shouldn't they be exposed to more wind erosion, not less?

Is the Sphinx carved of softer stone? Is it because the pyramids were once covered by harder cover stones which protected them for much of their history?


texts:
What's the use of studying the country's history where we come from? My country used to be one and every one studied the same history. Then it broke apart. Now students from the new countries only study history that is relevant to their new country. Sometimes, they even study something contrary to what we study, because their historians analyze events in a different way. For example, was there independence or was there oppression, and who conquered who. It's quite meaningless, to be honest.

What's the use of making little children study historical events strictly the way their own country interprets them? It seems to me that when I was little, I wasn't really studying history, I was instead memorizing my own country's propaganda.

I find it kind of funny that we have to study the great poet of our country and memorize every event of his life, but if said poet had been born 20 km to the other side of the border, then he wouldn't even be included in the curriculum!?

Anyway, so if the purpose of studying history is to learn from our own mistakes, then why doesn't everyone study world history solely? This way, we could collectively learn from everyone else's mistake, and not just from the mistakes our own country has made.


texts: Did early northern Europeans drink alcohol?

texts:
Before the Roman empire brought alcohol to areas of Northern Europe around two thousand years ago, do we know if the native people of Britain and Scandinavia drank alcohol?

My preliminary search is showing up Nada.


texts: Is there an example of Egypt recording defeat?

texts:
Some defenders of the Torah's historical accuracy respond to a lack of evidence for the exodus from Egypt with the claim that Egypt simply didn't make records of its negative events. For example, Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb from Ohr Somayach (a yeshiva) says: (emphasis is theirs)

  Why is it that no ancient Egyptian records mention the Exodus? The answer is that the Egyptians never recorded their defeats.

Is this claim true? Can anyone cite an example of the Ancient (let's say from the era of 2000-500 BCE)? recording defeat suffered in battle? Are the only records of Egyptian losss from non-Egyptian records ?


texts: How long would the average sword last in the middle ages?

texts: Assuming normal wear and tear, how long before a knight had to replace his sword?


texts: Does O Henry's story "Georgia's Ruling" describe history?

texts:
O. Henry's 1900 story, "Georgia's Ruling", http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/ohenry/bl-ohenry-georgia.htm describes a dire social problem related to the USA land laws and the "land sharks":

  When the state was young, she felt the need of attract- ing newcomers,
  and of rewarding those pioneers already within her borders. Year after
  year she issued land scrip -- Headrights, Bounties, Veteran Donations,
  Confeder- ates; and to railroads, irrigation companies, colonies, and
  tillers of the soil galore. All required of the grantee was that he or
  it should have the scrip properly surveyed upon the public domain by
  the county or district surveyor, and the land thus appropriated became
  the property of him or it, or his or its heirs and assigns, forever.

  In those days -- and here is where the trouble began - the state's
  domain was practically inexhaustible, and the old surveyors, with
  princely -- yea, even Western American -- liberality, gave good
  measure and over- flowing. Often the jovial man of metes and bounds
  would dispense altogether with the tripod and chain. Mounted on a pony
  that could cover something near a "vara" at a step, with a pocket
  compass to direct his course, he would trot out a survey by counting
  the beat of his pony's hoofs, mark his corners, and write out his
  field notes with the complacency produced by an act of duty well
  performed. Sometimes -- and who could blame the surveyor? -- when the
  pony was "feeling his oats," he might step a little higher and
  farther, and in that case the beneficiary of the scrip might get a
  thousand or two more acres in his survey than the scrip called for.
  But look at the boundless leagues the state had to spare! However, no
  one ever had to complain of the pony under- stepping. Nearly every old
  survey in the state con- tained an excess of land.

  In later years, when the state became more populous, and land values
  increased, this careless work entailed incalculable trouble, endless
  litigation, a period of riotous land-grabbing, and no little
  bloodshed. The land- sharks voraciously attacked these excesses in the
  old surveys, and filed upon such portions with new scrip as
  unappropriated public domain. Wherever the identi- fications of the
  old tracts were vague, and the corners were not to be clearly
  established, the Land Office would recognize the newer locations as
  valid, and issue title to the locators. Here was the greatest hardship
  to be found. These old surveys, taken from the pick of the land, were
  already nearly all occupied by unsuspecting and peaceful settlers, and
  thus their titles were demolished, and the choice was placed before
  them either to buy their land over at a double price or to vacate it,
  with their families and personal belongings, immediately. Land
  locators sprang up by hundreds. The country was held up and searched
  for "vacancies" at the point of a compass. Hundreds of thousands of
  dollars' worth of splendid acres were wrested from their innocent
  purchasers and holders. There began a vast hegira of evicted settlers
  in tattered wagons; going nowhere, cursing injustice, stunned,
  purposeless, homeless, hopeless. Their children began to look up to
  them for bread, and cry.

Does this actually describe the historic reality?

On one hand, it is known that O. Henry worked as a draftsman in the general land office in Texas, so he probably had profound knowledge about the USA land laws.

On the other hand, the situation he describes is so convoluted, that I find it hard to believe it really existed.

Any information on this subject will be appreciated!


texts: Is there a written history on the Sonderkommando Elbe?

texts: I was watching a program called Dogfights where they were talking about the Sonderkommando Elbe and their tactic of ramming Messerschmitt Bf 109's into American bombers is a sort of suicide attack.  This reminded me of the kamikaze attacks of the Japanese air force, but this didn't seem like a long living tactic for the Germans - I can only find one reference to a mission flown on April 7, 1945; and the show only noted this one in the program but I forgot many of the details.  I was hoping there might be a book on this that someone can recommend on what this unit was, how it came to be and the small success it seemed to have.


texts: Until 1600, was it legal to counterfeit money?

texts:
Forging money or currency is more often called counterfeiting and, as is well known, the counterfeiting of money is usually attacked aggressively by today's governments.

But, generally speaking, was it the same during the medieval era? And during the Roman Empire?

I ask because an Italian daily newspaper has claimed that "fino al '600 riprodurre monete altrui fu considerato legale", i.e., until 1600, counterfeiting money belonging to an emperor or reign was considered legal.


texts: I’m having difficulty of reading what this fancy signature or fancy writing says on my great grandfather’s ring?


texts: Modern scientific racism became wide spread during the age of enlightenment. Is there a single person that could be labeled as the 'father' of modern scientific racism?


texts: Just watched a few documentaries about cave paintings. While I acknowledge the importance of discovery, I can't help but question one simple thing - why are there so few paintings in those caves? Paintings ranging from 40K to 20K years old, placed a few feet apart. Does this mean the cave was occupied by countless generations of people, who all kept on painting? Shouldn't literally every inch of the wall surface be covered in paintings after that many years? Even if one person discovered how to paint say "negative hands", wouldn't that person paint hundreds of them all over the place, considering that painting must have been among the few available free time activities?


texts: How similar were Finnish and Lenape slash-and-burn agriculture?

texts:
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a technique where farmers cut down woodland and burn the debris to form farmland.  This farmland is usually used for a few years until it loses its fertility, then the farmers move on to new land.

Bernard Bailyn (in The Barbarous Years) posits that in the 1600s, both the Finns and the Lenapes practiced nearly the same kind of slash-and-burn agriculture.

How similar were they?  Apart from one small line in Bailyn's book, I haven't been able to determine what similarities/differences there were between Finnish and Lenape farming techniques.


texts: Given their reputation for fighting to the last man in the Pacific, why did 700,000 Japanese troops surrender in Manchuria?

texts:
I just read this. It says:

  On August 8, 1945 ... the Soviet Union launched the invasion of Manchuria, a massive military operation mobilizing 1.5 million soldiers against one million Kwantung Army troops, the last remaining Japanese military presence. Soviet forces won a decisive victory while the Kwantung suffered massive casualties, with 700,000 having surrendered.

I bolded that last part. (But note there is no citation for it. Could it be incorrect?)

In the Pacific Theater where Americans were fighting the Japanese, there were very few Japanese surrenderers. Such was their reputation, fighting almost to the last man.

So why did 700,000 out of 1 million Japanese surrender in Manchuria?

Just to be clear, Manchuria was an industrial center that supplied massive amounts of material to Japan, such as iron and coal. This seems a thundering motherload more important than, say, a small remote island like Iwo Jima (no offense to anyone there). It just seems to me like the Japanese gave up a hugely strategic region so easily. Why did they do this?


texts: What were the duties of a scullery maid in the early 1900's?

texts: I would like to know the jobs of a Scullery Maid in the early 1900s and if they had jobs outside the kitchen? Were they even allowed to leave the kitchen?


texts: How did medieval peasants decide where to build their houses?

texts: When a person moved out of their parents' house, they needed a house. How was it decided where this house would be located? For example, did they just pick the next available spot on a path? Were there peasant level political considerations? Were there coveted house locations? If so how were these conflicts resolved?


texts: Were there any British traitors during the American revolutionary war?

texts: I'm looking for any instances where a British soldier voluntarily changed sides mid conflict and fought for the colonies. People who were as infamous as Benedict Arnold but for the British.


texts: How did the educational curriculum (books) flow from grade to grade in the 1800s?

texts:
I'd like to understand how educational curriculum (book choice/material) progression worked during the 19th century within the United States and perhaps even abroad.

We frequently hear of people only obtaining a 3rd or 4th grade education during this time for various extenuating circumstances, however it would be interesting to understand the material that the students studied during each grade.

For example, there are books that seem to float around such as those found here in this 19th Century Schoolbooks list, but there's no direct delineation of which books might be used for each grade level.

Would a "Third Reader" be equivalent to the 3rd grade's general curriculum of some time period? Is there a list of books that would have been used during these different periods and at different locales within the US and elsewhere?

Here's an example of an interesting book:

"The Fourth Reader of the School and Family Series" (1863) by Marcius Willson

What grade would this be designed for? The topics in this book are somewhat advanced as one can readily see.

Another thought: the more I see here, the more I realize that perhaps the verbiage of "grade" in my title is not really appropriate since, perhaps, there wasn't a direct mapping due to the structure of schools of that time. Perhaps it's more about the age of students and yearly progression. It definitely seems as though education was largely dependent upon personal drive and circumstance in that time while simultaneously some content creators/teachers were working to standardize curriculum for more cohesive teaching and a societal knowledge base. Hmm. This topic is becoming more and more interesting.


texts: I am trying to chart my family's history with a spotlight on growing up on a farming homestead out west in Alberta. I have a picture with a tractor and some sort of machine to bundle wheat I guess. I would like to know exactly what kind of contraption it was. Unfortunately, I do not know when the picture was taken.


texts: Who is the banished Scottish King? (before 1560)

texts:
I've done some genealogy research in my family and found a man named "Simon Skragge".

I've been searching information about this "Simon Skragge" online, and found this: Adl. ätten Skraggensköld (swedish) (Noble family Skraggensköld), this chapter says:

  In the history of the Skragge-family, there is a story, that a King of Scotland was banished by his enemies and by ship arrived on an uninhabited island, on which there were nothing more present than wild goats. The King, in need of food, promised a reward to the one, that first caught a goat. This is what the progenitor of this family is rumored to have done, and by doing so, been given the name "Skragge", meaning "male goat" or "buck" in Scottish. /.../ His offspring had a male goat in their seal, and arrived with time first in Norway, and then in Wermland, Sweden.

Sorry if the translation is a bit bad

Does anyone happen to know who this king might be? The man "Simon Skragge" came to Sweden from Norway in the late years of Gustav Vasa's time as king, approx. 1560. So it must be before that, possibly a few generations back too?

Thanks in advance!


texts: Is there any evidence that Assyrian or Babylonian kings ate their enemies?

texts:
Is there any evidence that Assyrian or Babylonian kings took their captive/conquered enemies and actually ate their bodies (dead or alive)?

EDIT I apologize for not explaining where I am coming from with this question. There is a Rabbinic tradition (see Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2, Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (ch. 43) and others) which states that when Manasseh, the king of Judah, was captured by the Assyrian king (a story cited in the Biblical book of Chronicles), he was put into a pot in order to be cooked, ostensibly to be eaten. Similarly, a Midrashic tradition (cited in Yalkut Shimoni to Ezekiel, §367) relates that when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Tyre, he captured Hiram, the king Tyre and would cut off the size of two-fingers of Hiram's skin every day and dip it into vinegar and eat it until Hiram died. These sources suggest that the kings of Assyria and Babylonia practiced some form of cannibalism against their victims and I was wondering if there is any historical or archeological/epigraphical evidence to back up these assertions. Thank you!


texts: Did American colonists object to the protections of Catholicism in the Quebec Act?

texts:
One of the acts which helped precipitate the American Revolutionary War was  the Quebec Act.  This act was passed in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War (aka the French & Indian War), after the bulk of France's possessions in North America passed into British hands.  It had three major effects:

It assigned large swaths of territory in what is now the US Midwest to the province of Quebec.
It allowed the French code civil to govern civil law in Quebec, rather than the English common law.
It guaranteed freedom of religion to Catholics, and dropped Protestant language from the oath of allegiance.

I know that the Americans viewed the Quebec Act as a Bad Thing™, but to what extent did they view item #3 (the religious protections of Catholics) as objectionable?

I ask because I've been listening to a recent In Our Time episode about the Gordon Riots, a series of anti-Catholic riots in London only a few years later (1780).  It certainly seems like anti-Catholic sentiment was running high in England at the time.  Since the American colonists did largely see themselves as English, it wouldn't be surprising if there was substantial anti-Catholic sentiment in America as well, and granting rights to Catholics under English rule might not have been well-received.

On the other hand, the only references to the Quebec Act in the grievances in the Declaration of Independence are to items #1 and #2 above, and there weren't any anti-Papist acts passed in the United States after it gained its independence (I don't think.)

So did the American colonists object to the Catholic protections?  And if so, was it a major undercurrent, or was it a minor quibble in their eyes?


texts: How controversial were "updates" of churches in the past?

texts:
Following the disastrous fire of Notre Dame de Paris, heated discussions are taking place in France to decide on how to restore our cathedral.

There are many ideas, with two rough camps: the ones who want an exact replica (or something aligned with the style of the bygone part), and the ones who want a contemporary addition (a glass tower for instance).

When listening to the discussion, people in the latter camp mention that every time there was an update of a church (following an accident (fire, construction), or when making it bigger) the changes were contemporary for that time, and raised controversies because traditions were not kept.

Was that indeed the case? I would mostly be interested in major West European churches first (for the sake of the Notre Dame discussion), but any similar building (that is something which holds a traditional symbol, such as a university for instance) would be fine too.


texts: What is the meaning of this phrase in chapter 64 of the Book of the Dead?

texts:
In the aforementioned chapter, one can find the next sentence:

"Come! Look! The leg is adhered to the neck, the buttock is over the head of the Western."

(I'm sorry if this is not a precise translation, English is not my primary language and my book is in Spanish.)
In the footnotes to this chapter, this specific part is deemed as obscure, suggesting it might be related to astronomical positions of certain objects, or to a representation of the dawn. However, because my version was printed in the eighties, I was wondering if this passage was clarified in the years following my edition. However, as this is more like a hobby for me, I don't really know anyone who can answer this kind of queries, and I could not find much on my own. Any reference to this chapter (or other abstruse passages of the book, also) would be greatly appreciated.
(edit: I'm really sorry i didn't post my source. My book is El libro de los Muertos. Edición preparada por José María Blázquez Martínez y Federico Lara Peinado. Editora Nacional, 1984. About the quality of the translation itself, i must say that (as far as my little knowledge on the matter let's me speak) the translation seems to be at least pretty decent: in the footnotes, the editors discuss different translations, mentioning alternative readings also (given by different versions of the chapters), and usually explain very clearly passages that would otherwise be unintelligible for people like me (the book contains a total of around 1400 footnotes, and a 80 page introduction to the subject).
I appreciate the answer already posted, but i'm afraid that version must be an abridged version, because the chapter in my book is 4 pages long. I found  on the internet a version that contains the passage, after posting the question (although the chapter itself seems to be abridged), but the translation does not seem to be EXACTLY the same as in my book. The passage can be found in the link https://erenow.net/ancient/the-egyptian-book-of-the-dead/5.php. Specifically, "“things which are said by him, the thigh [of the sacri-” fice] is tied to the neck, and the buttocks [are laid] upon “the head of Åmentet." (For Amentet i assume it means the Theban god, right? Just to be sure, because right now I don't recall that specific compound for Amun. This would suggest that the explanation as dawn would be possible. However, some details make me dubious of this explanation: First of all, even if this explanation is correct, the part of the thighs and the buttocks does not seem totally clear. But, there is something else: according to the Book of the Dead, this chapter was "found" in Hermopolis during the reign of Menkaure (IV dinasty), but i think i read somewhere (lewis Spence' book Egypt) that the identification of Amun and Ra happened mainly during the rise of Thebes , so the identification of Amun and the sun in the IV dinasty would be weird i think. Also, Amun had originally the epithet "Hidden", which is not exactly characteristic of the sun) .As far as the translation i gave, it corresponds to my version.
(In case someone knows sources regarding other obscure parts of the Book of the Dead, i would also appreciate those, everything helps)
I will also leave photos of my chapter, in case anyone speaks Spanish, in order to show that the translation I first gave corresponds to the one in my book (the passage is in the second photograph, in the last lines):


texts: Could medieval European merchants travel through the Islamic world?

texts: I've heard that the Islamic world was closed to European merchants in the Middle Ages.  Is this true?  If so, when did it close and when did it open again?


texts: What was the origin of the caste system in India and how did it proliferate?

texts:
What was the first society/civilisation which started caste system in India and when did they start, and why was it even introduced into the society? What was that benefit or advantage of this system that it spread to the whole sub-continent?
Also, it is said that in initial times caste system wasn't very rigid, and it was possible for a person to change his/her caste then when did it become so rigid that changing of caste became almost impossible?

From author's comments:
The Wikipedia article 'Caste system in India' can be a good start but does not help in knowing anything about the time when it originated and society which came up first with this system. There is a huge possibility that it must have originated in different parts of the sub-continent or even continent in different forms and then eventually everything came together but the Wikipedia link gives very little idea of anything. The only thing substantial which can be extracted from it is that there was a huge role of manusmriti book in perfecting it the way we know it today


texts: Nomination of candidates in 1824 election

texts: The traditional method of nominating candidates before 1824 in America was "King Caucus", informal congressional caucus. For the 1824 election, William Crawford was nominated by Caucus and four other candidates (three of which stayed in the race) were nominated by other means. By exactly what means were they nominated? More generally, what is the procedure for determining who is on the presidential ballot? Is there some office that the list is submitted to or some committee that puts their stamp on it or what?


texts: Why did Spain not participate in World War I?

texts:
Spain was losing influence in America for the previous 100 years, and there was a recent Spanish-American war. So how could have Spain remained neutral?

Why could Spain not find a place in the Central Powers?


texts: Why was the Cornish Militia stationed in Devon in late 18th Century?

texts:
On Genealogy & Family History SE, I asked a question about Finding late 18th Century service record of Francis Green in Cornish Militia?, and it looks like it will need a degree of luck to find out anything more about his military service apart from that he was part of the Cornish Militia based in Totnes (Devon) at the time of his marriage in 1798.

For the Marriage Banns there were three other men from the Cornish Militia getting married on the same page as Francis Green (the page had five Marriage Banns on it in total), and on the next page there was a man from the Berks Militia.

Does anyone know why the Cornish Militia were based in the County of Devon, instead of their own County of Cornwall, at that time?

I suspect that it may have been related to The Defense of Great Britain: 1798.


texts: My understanding is that wearing hats of various kinds was much more widespread historically (e.g. in the late 1800's and early 1900's) than it is today, with sometimes complicated etiquette with regard to when the hats should be removed. When I wear a hat for a long period, I get "hat hair" and I am loathe to remove the hat at all until I arrive back home and can fix it. Historically, did people have hat hair more or less all the time? Were hats designed to mitigate hat hair? Am I just wearing them wrong?


texts: Have there been any attempted bans on cryptography in the past?

texts:
As you probably know, many governments are planning on banning strong encryption, not heeding the advice of security experts.

My question is, has this ever been tried in the past, and were they successful or not?

Looking around, there's the forced disclosure of encryption keys in the UK, the ban on cryptographic export in the US, and various failed key-escrow systems like the clipper chip. But I'm interested in if there was ever an authority that explicitly and actively banned cryptography, and the rationale and context behind it. I'm particularly interested in things further back than recent history, but for the sake of people reading this question later, please don't exclude relatively recent events.


texts: Homo Sapiens Sapiens: Are genetic studies to be trusted?

texts:
Bryan Sykes, an Oxford scientist, wrote a book called "The Seven Daughters of Eve" in which, using studies of mitochondrial DNA, he had claimed to be able to trace nearly all living Europeans back to a founding population of just seven women—the 'daughters of Eve' of the title—who lived during the Palaeolithic. To each of these women Sykes given a name—Ursula, Xenia, Jasmine and so on—and even a detailed personal history.

Is there consensus among historians and palaeontologists about these findings? If not, what are the (historians and palaeontologists)'s arguments to confute these findings?


texts: How many deaths resulted from the Wars of the Diadochi?

texts:
Alexander the Great invaded the Achaemenid Empire in 334 BC, successfully conquering it and dying in 323 BC. After his death, his Empire fell apart starting a series of wars called the Wars of the Diadochi. Considering that all of Alexanders generals had a portion of the largest Empire in human history up to that point to call upon, it seems likely that the casualties from such a war would be massive.
Are there any sources on the total casualties of this war? Are they in the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? More? Was it anywhere near, say, the Warring States period in China?


texts: What was the effective sight radius of World War II naval reconnaissance aircraft?

texts:
At the battle of Midway, the Japanese launched eight reconnaissance aircraft, which failed to find the American fleet in time to take effective action.

I'm not sure what altitude they were operating at, but e.g. the Zero had a service ceiling of 10km, which seems to have been quite typical of contemporary military aircraft. According to http://www.ringbell.co.uk/info/hdist.htm that gives a horizon distance of slightly over 350km. If several aircraft are searching the ocean, each capable of observing a 700km-wide strip, it seems surprising that they failed to find the Americans. But maybe for some reason, the effective visibility radius is less than the mathematical horizon distance.

What was the effective visibility radius?


texts: When was the last bull & bear fight in California?

texts:
In 1700s and 1800s California, a popular form of entertainment was a fight to the death between a bull and a grizzly bear, either tied together or tied to a post. (This practice may have been Horace Greeley's inspiration for naming bull and bear markets.) The California Grizzly went extinct in the 1920s.

The last such fight in the town of Branciforte apparently took place in July, 1867. The San Mateo County Times-Gazette reported on one held in Castroville in September of the same year. Which fights, if any, came later?


texts:
Which is the documented first military (officially issued) sidecar?

Which is the last service sidecar?


texts: Are there any sound historical proofs that soma contained cannabis?

texts:
Michael Wood says in his documentary The Story of India first episode:

  Soma is still used as a medicine in Central Asia. The active element in
  the plant is ephedrine, and the effect that it has, according to the
  Rig Veda is, well, if you take too much of it, it can cause nausea, it
  can be frightening, it can give you vertigo, sickness, vomiting. If
  you take it in the right measure, it enlivens the senses, sharpens you
  up, keeps you awake. The poets in the Rig Veda compose their songs
  often at night having drunk Soma, and, of course, Indra, King of the
  Gods, drinks vast quantities of this perhaps because it's thought to
  be an aphrodisiac as well. [...] But Soma's not an Indian plant.It
  doesn't grow in the humid plains. And today, it's no longer part of
  Hindu religion. It came from outside.

And then afterward in the documentary someone suggested that it can contain also cannabis. Someone on the PBS site asks a similar question:

   What exactly was in 'soma'. First you said it was a leafless plant. Then later another man said it was a mixture of poppy, cannabis and ephedra. I am confused.

Is there any historical proof either primary or secondary other than the above mentioned that the Vedic Soma might have contained cannabis or even ephedrine?


texts: How was South African infrastructure before 1994?

texts:
So we all know that 1994 was a good year for the social side of South African life. Apartheid was over, the government was now elected by the majority of the people and Nelson Mandela was in charge with the help of the ANC.

However, the other day I was watching a vlog from a South-African YouTuber who briefly mentioned that since the ANC took power, the infrastructure started to get worse. According to him, pot-holes started forming in the streets, education started to lose its quality as did the police force... And it was only after 1994 that corruption became a major issue.

Now I have been trying to research these statistics but there is next to no data on the internet, other than the GDP growth from 1994-onward which appears okay, but still below the world average.

What was the infrastructure like in SA before 1994? was it good? Mediocre? Better or worse?

Today, it's obvious that South Africa is not very-well run by the government, i.e. the crime rates are sky-high especially with violent crime and the police force is inadequate to deal with the situation so most people turn to private security instead. I'm curious to know if the situation was better in the past, was South Africa once considered a developed nation?

Needless to say, it would be nice to get a statement from someone who lived in SA through the 70s or 80s. Thank you.


texts: Why did Franklin Roosevelt promote Nazi sympathizer/eugenicist Frederick Osborn to high levels of office?

texts:
Many civil rights leaders alleged that, even after the revelation of genocide in World War II, eugenic influences remained strong in the United States because of Osborn and others of the Population Society (including John D. Rockefeller, Lewis Strauss, Karl Compton, and Detlev Bronk). He also encouraged and endorsed programs in Nazi Germany that sterilized Jews, Poles, and others deemed "unsuitable" to breed.[5] Although Hitler's genocidal tactics and acts caused revulsion in the United States, he continued to promote eugenic ideals.[6]
In 1940, Osborn was selected by Franklin Roosevelt to chair the Civilian Advisory Committee on Selective Service. Five months later, he took over as Chair of the Army Committee on Welfare and Recreation, responsible for information and education services for military personnel. In September 1941, he was commissioned as Brigadier General and appointed Chief of the Morale Branch of the War Department (later called the Information and Education Division of Special Services). By the war's end, he had earned promotion to Major General and had been awarded a bronze star in Paris, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Selective Service Medal, and he was made Honorary Commander in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Osborn
Rather curious as to why a man who seemed sympathetic to the Nazi cause was promoted in America at a time when America was both physically and ideologically battling Nazi Germany. While Osborn liked to describe himself as a "positive" eugenicist, his writings and propensity for advocating duplicity seemed to suggest far different story.


texts: What was the ideological and philosophical underpinnings of World War II? How does imperialism fit into the causes of the war?


texts: In the medieval/renaissance era what is the title of a person who runs a city in his king's kingdom? Like he isn't the king but he serves him by running the city. I think they could be called a chancellor, but I'm not sure.


texts: Why did Latin take root so deeply in Italy, Gaul, and the Iberian Peninsula, but not Greece or beyond?

texts:
I was just reflecting on the fact that Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French all evolved from Latin, the language spread across that area by the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. (Romanian too, I suppose.)

Yet although Greece was firmly a part of the Roman Empire, Latin never took root there, it seems, as the Greek language is quite distinct from the Romance languages. The same is true for the territories above Greece-- that whole region east of the Adriatic aside from Romania.

Why is this so?


texts: Why Sulla general slaughtered inhabitants of Praeneste?

texts:
The citizen doesn't seem to be against Sulla. In fact they disallow Marius from coming in.

Its citizens were offered Roman citizenship in 90 BC in the Social War, when concessions had to be made by Rome to cement necessary alliances. In Sulla's second civil war, Gaius Marius the Younger was blockaded in the town by the forces of Sulla (82 BC). When the city was captured, Marius slew himself, the male inhabitants were massacred in cold blood, and a military colony was settled on part of its territory. From an inscription it appears that Sulla delegated the foundation of the new colony to Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, who was consul in 73 BC. Within a decade the lands of the colonia had been assembled by a few large landowners.


texts: Does anyone have an example of the Tamil elephant symbol?

texts:
The elephant was the royal emblem of the Ay Dynasty and flag of their kingdom, and that the symbol was taken over by the Chera dynasty after their conquest of the Ay Kingdom.

Does anyone have an examples of the elephant symbol as uses by the Ays and Cheras?


texts: In history there have been many accounts of plague, either from disease, famine, or war. When was the first ever plague? I'm writing a paper on the history of medicines and I'm trying to figure out the earliest forms of plague.


texts: Were there any pharaohs who believed in any of the Abrahamic religions?

texts:
There are many stories in religious books about Abraham meeting the pharaoh of Egypt.
Also Jacob, Josef, Moses, etc.
Did any of these pharaohs believe in Abrahamic religions?
Was there any proof from the hieroglyphic writings that pharaohs believed in these religions?
Was there any proof from the hieroglyphic writings that the prophets met the pharaohs or existed in these eras?


texts: Did drawbacks of egalitarianism or mismanagement cause the rural famine in the Great Leap Forward?

texts:
In China "大锅饭" (communal dining in English) implies egalitarianism and slack of people, which is the premise of the statement that the famine is partly due to the laziness of the people. As we can see from the previous link (from
China's Baidupedia):

大锅饭（mess together）是对分配方面存在的平均主义现象的一种形象比喻，大锅饭的概念，最早可追溯到1958年人民公社的出现，同样是与大跃进加速工业积累密切相关的。弊端: 压抑人们的积极性

But I notice that the following two pieces of evidence conflict with that premise.
First, I read the following statement from Wikipedia:

The communes exercised management and control of all rural resources such as labor and land. Because of governmental mismanagement of resources and bad weather from 1958 to 1960 the Great Chinese Famine spread over the countryside, with much food being exported to urban areas.

I thought most researchers would attribute the famine to mismanagement rather than the people's laziness.
Second, people's workload was increased in that period as we can see in China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed by Andrew G. Walder:

This work was largely uncompensated and was in no way voluntary. If you refused to work, you had no right to eat in the collective mess hall, the only source of food. ... Farmers were expected to obey strict rules of discipline: obey the leader and follow orders; work actively; do not arrive late or depart early; ... Farmers were required to work at least twenty-eight days each month. ... Prior to the great Leap, labor on collective farms had a rhythm that was determined by the seasons. Planting and harvesting were the busiest periods, and winter was slack time. The Great Leap obliterated this rhythm with constant and seemingly ceaseless demands for hard labor, not only in the fields but also on massive irrigation projects, road building, and terracing of hillsides.

I cannot imagine how would there be any slackers under the pressure of more and more inflated targets.
I thought the provenance of the meaning of "大锅饭" in Baidupedia was manipulated in order to cover the mismanagement problem caused by the mutual deception and self-deception. Am I right？


texts: Historical/legendary/mythological accounts that turned out to be true

texts:
Reading Herodotus' Histories, one is often baffled by passages like (3.102):

  {102} [...] Indians [..., of the North] make expeditions for the gold. For in the parts where they live it is desert on account of the sand; and in this desert and sandy tract are produced ants, which are in size smaller than dogs but larger than foxes, for there are some of them kept at the residence of the king of Persia, which are caught here. These ants then make their dwelling under ground and carry up the sand just in the same manner as the ants found in the land of the Hellenes, which they themselves also very much resemble in form; and the sand which is brought up contains gold. [...] {105} When the Indians have come to the place with bags, they fill them with the sand and ride away back as quickly as they can [...]

This has long been considered just a legend, until Peissel [A] observed the existence of a species of marmot, the Himalayan marmot, in the gold rich Deosai Plateau in Northern Pakistan. The local people confirmed that they have been collecting the gold dust that the marmots bring to the surface when they are digging their underground burrows. Peissel also observes that the old Persian word for "marmot" was quite similar to that for "mountain ant", so Herodotus might have confused the two words.

A similar revision must have happened at some point, about the famous passage (4.42):

  [...] as they sailed on a westerly course round the southern end of [Africa], they had the sun on their right - to northward of them.

But let's change book. In the logbook of the Carthaginian suffete Hanno, we read:

  {18} In this gulf was an island, resembling the first, with a lagoon, within which was another island, full of savages. Most of them were women with hairy bodies, whom our interpreters called 'gorillas'. Although we chased them, we could not catch any males: they all escaped, being good climbers who defended themselves with stones. However, we caught three women, who refused to follow those who carried them off, biting and clawing them. So we killed and flayed them and brought their skins back to Carthage. For we did not sail any further, because our provisions were running short.

The account of these hairy women sounded unbelievable. But when the Europeans (re)discovered the giant apes in XIX century (this is 2500 year later), they called them "gorillas" after the account of Hanno.

The question: do you know any other historical/legendary/mythological account, that was believed implausible at first, but turned out to be plausible or even true? I know a few myself, but let's make a list!
Please include a source/excerpt of the account, and described what changed its perception.

[A] Pessiel M., The Ants' Gold: The Discovery of the Greek El Dorado in the Himalayas, Collins, 1984


texts: Historically, why did the US station their nuclear weapons in Germany for delivery through German pilots?

texts:
Recently, somewhat controversially, Germany considers ordering 45 F-18 fighter jets for replacement of the old Tornado bombers, in order to still have jets capable of delivering US nuclear bombs.

How did Germany get into this position?

In particular I'm interested in

Why were US nuclear weapons stationed in Germany for delivery by German fighter pilots using German aircraft but still only after clearance by the USA? This seems particularly strange given that the US has their own air force bases on German soil which did also hold nuclear weapons and presumably could also somewhat easily hold planes capable of delivering them.
Why were US nuclear weapons chosen in the first place as opposed to, e.g., French or British ones for this task?

If "why" questions like the above are too hard / impossible to answer, please replace the "why" with "what are possible reasons to do X".


texts:
In the 1957 film Bombers B-52 an instructor says of the then-new B-52 Stratofortress:

  “On a single mission one of these airplanes, just one, can carry greater destructive force than that of all the bombs dropped by the Allied Air Forces during the whole of World War II”.

Is there a sense in which this statement can possibly be true? At what I find, the B-52 could carry up to 32,000 kg of weapons, while “between 1939 and 1945, Allied planes dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs on Axis powers” (source), that is, five orders of magnitude more. Of course a part (how large?) of the B-52 payload could consist of nuclear devices: would this balance the account? Was that sentence just a hyperbole?


texts: I found this in my Grandfather’s basement. He served in World War 2, in the Pacific Theater. He sadly passed away and we have no idea if this is safe. Can anyone help with identifying this? It is 13 inches tall, and 3 inches in diameter. The only markings I found on it are T Z. Thanks


texts: What is the source for the Arabic name of the penguin and when it is first used?

texts:
During Vasco da Gama's trip to the south of Africa, they discovered birds never seen by European eyes before which became named as penguins in most of the European languages. But in the Arabic language, the penguin called al-batriq. If you search for the source of this word, you will find that it is historically used for naming the Christian patriarch.

So my question is when and why this name was used for naming the penguin and had Arabs even seen penguins before the Europeans?


texts: What were common outcomes for white 17 year olds charged with attempted rape around 1982?

texts:
When United States Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh was publicly accused of a 1982 attempted rape at age 17, his defenders noted that the accuser Dr. Blasey Ford had not obtained redress by pressing charges at the time. Maryland had two relevant charges then on the books: attempted rape (a misdemeanor) and assault with attempt to rape (a felony). This episode motivates the following question about events of the early 1980s in the United States.

What were common outcomes when white 17 year olds did face a charge like this around 1982?

Doing keyword searches to link some starter precedents, I only found tangentially related cases, nothing seeming similar enough to mention. Someone that has access to a faceted legal search engine may more readily perceive the trends in juvenile attempted rape cases. By all means broaden the search in terms of location, charges, and year, but I'm only interested in U.S. cases where the defendant was both white and a juvenile. I left defendants' families' capital and influence off the list of criteria because getting that data seems impractical.


texts: Whereabouts of the ancient Korean cannon in Kamchatka

texts:
... [Davidov and Chvostov] fell with glee upon two junks and burned them to the water's edge. Finally they found a ten-pounder brass cannon which seemed a fitting trophy to take home. It was, by some curious chance, an old Korean gun captured in 1597 by Hideyoshi's invading force, but it was hauled away in triumph to be taken to Kamchatka as a memorial. [Wildes's "Aliens in the East", pp. 147]
[Khvostov and Davydov] appropriated the rich cargo, and destroyed the ships. In the booty there was allegedly a ten-pounder bronze cannon, captured by Toyotomi Hideyoshi from the Koreans in the closing years of the sixteenth century. [Lensen's "Russian Push Toward Japan", pp. 171]

If Khvostov and Davydov really brought a centuries-old Korean cannon back from Japan to Kamchatka in 1807, "as a memorial", what happened to it?


texts:
I am a first period history student in Brazil, and have been studying the formation of American colonial societies during the 16th and 17th centuries. We have only now started studying the formation of North American societies and the 13 colonies. Our next class will be on how slavery developed in the USA and how it shaped its society.

But I've noticed that the available texts and materials are somewhat limited: the only available text is Slavery and Freedom: the American Paradox,  a publication in the Journal of American History by professor Edmund S. Morgan.

So I got curious: what publications or books are used as references in the US, when studying the subject? As in, what do American history students first read on the subject of slavery and the trans-atlantic slave traffic?


texts: Was any city/town/place named "Washington" prior to 1790?

texts:
It is pretty common knowledge that Washington, DC was named after the United States' first President, George Washington, and founded in 1791.

However, is there any other place, in the United States, that held this name prior to that time?

Inspired by this question on another Stack Exchange.


texts: When and where did praying with eyes closed originate?

texts:
I understand closing eyes for prayer as something done as a matter of course by Western Christians, and possibly also by other religions practicing in the West and/or by Christians practicing elsewhere. (That said, I did read one thread that suggests that Orthodox Christians find it odd...)

My attempts at Googling this yield a frustratingly uniform plethora of threads on why this is done rather than on its origins.

The Bible has a few mentions of people "lifting up their eyes" to heaven when they pray, both Old and New Testament. It also mentions falling "face to the ground", which I guess might have given rise to the more convenient closing of eyes — who knows.

A few short articles I read and longer articles I skimmed discuss the history of prayer, but either focus on the theological significance of prayer or, if they do discuss posture, zero in on uplifted hands or falling prostrate, but don't seem to discuss closing eyes.

To get any further I guess I'd need to know something about researching history, or else ask here. :)


texts:
During World War 2 Rome was declared to be an "open city" but I do not know what this means. What rules are there in an open city? Who controls it or is it neutral?
I want to know what happens when a city is declared an "open city".


texts: When did banishment/exile cease to be enforceable, if it ever was?

texts:
Reading historical accounts, it is not infrequent to read about exiled persons, from Trotsky to the Puritans leaving England.  And, nowadays, some look wistfully to legal ways to get rid of their undesirables, for example, Shamina Begum in the UK.  While it is legally possible to expel a resident alien from your territory, my understanding is that countries can neither ban their citizens from return nor make them stateless which effectively prohibits exile of people who don't hold a dual nationality.
However, again back to history, there have been many cases of exile.  When did the last "real exile" take place?

The exiled person is forced out of their own country.  They do not choose to leave and aren't deported off to another country they are a citizen of.  It is also not choosing not to return to avoid prosecution at home.

The exile is official, i.e. the person does not "leave for their own health" before they get arrested or the like.  They are condemned and banned from entering their country and border officials could be expected to refuse entry.  The expulsion is also despite recognition of their citizenship (Myanmar pretends Rohinga are not citizens).

To be clear, the recognition of citizenship also implies that the exile is not a deportation for immigration fraud, whether mistaken or not.  Some countries have automatic retroactive processes to deny immigration, even citizenship, to people who participated in crimes against humanity, chiefly the Holocaust.  To me, that's an immigration issue.

So, for example, when Baby Doc Duvalier flees Haiti and goes to live in France that is not so much an official exile as the simple recognition that he would face prosecution by authorities in his homeland.  France took him in, less out of sympathy, than to give him an escape route so that he would not seek to prolong his dictatorship.  Presumably Haiti let him leave to get rid of him.
On the contrary, Rome did have a legal system for removing its own citizens.  And Wiki's entry on Trotsky does seem to indicate an actual exile, also indicated here.
Who last met both those criteria for a formal exile, mostly in democratic countries?  It is still practiced somewhere?


texts: What is the earliest depiction of a crane?

texts:
Various sources on the internet - such as Crane (machine), A History Of The Crane and The sky is the limit: human powered cranes and lifting devices -  state that the Ancient Greeks were the inventors of the crane sometime during the 6th century BC.

Cranes were adopted and improved upon by the Romans; the image below is the earliest depiction of a crane I've been able to find.

"...part of the rich decoration of the tomb of the Haterii, a family of builders who built their own tomb along the ancient via Labicana in the early years of the 2nd century A.D." (my highlighting) Source: museivaticani

This appears to be a treadwheel crane and the it's the only depiction of crane from ancient times I've found - more than 600 years after the crane was invented.

Are there any earlier depictions, for example in reliefs or vases or murals? If not, are there any other pre-medieval depictions of cranes?


texts: What led to election violence in Kenya in 2007?

texts: What were the historical circumstances that led to the violence in 2007? Do any of those circumstances still exist today, and if so, is there a possibility for the violence to happen again?


texts: Why hasn't this revised translation of Atra-Hasis gained traction?

texts:
I am an enthusiast with no background in Assyriology. I hope you would be willing to answer a small question for me.

A few years ago, I had the joy of stumbling onto Irving Finkel's book about the new flood tablet he had translated. While I had always been interested in cuneiform, there are only so many hours in the day to study anything, and I ended up going to chemistry instead. I have been reading up on the Epic of Atra-Hasis, specifically (MAH 16064) Tablet III, i, 23-24:

ma-ak-ku-ra ze-e-er-ma
na-pi-is-ta bu-ul-li-it

Most translations of this are a variation of Wilfred and Lambert's original translation:

  Spurn Property, Preserve Life.

I was trying to dig into this a little bit, because I had a number of questions about this, not least of which whether the beginning of Line 24 was broken off (I have subsequently seen it questioned if it should not be ma- rather than na-).

Trying to do a translation (which, again, not my field at all), it seems like spurn property, preserve life are line 23, and kind of also line 24. Which is also confusing.

Then I stumbled onto Alter Orient und Altes Testament (1976). There is a short chapter by Harry A. Hoffner, Jr. of Chicago. He posits that there is confusion and that the line reads

  makkura szern

not

  ma-ak-ku-ra,

and that the translation should actually be

  Construct an ark

rather than spurn property.

I think he makes some interesting points. What I am curious about is that I continue to see the original translation. That means that either the translation was never noticed or that it was ultimately dismissed. The book pops up again and again, so I do not think it was not noticed. That means that this interpretation was dismissed.

This might be reaching back, but I am curious if you might know why this translation disagreement was not adopted?

And, of course, the obvious question given Dr. Finkel's book- might ma-ak-ku-ra be build a coracle rather than generic boat/ark?


texts: How did Moldova and Romania become separate in the first place?

texts:
I've read this question about why Romania and Moldova don't unite.

How did they become separate in the first place?

Since they are two adjacent countries with basically the same language and ethnicity*, I assume they were once a part of the same nation? If yes, what nation were they united under? For what period of time were they united before splitting? How did the split occur?

I'm aware that they were unified between 1918 and 1940. However, surely that relatively recent, short union is not the answer. There must have been some period further back in history where the two nations were one?

* = In this assumption I consider (perhaps simplistically) Moldavians and Romanians to be a single ethnic group since they speak the same language and share common ancestry and culture. While there are probably differences between the two groups, they do seem to have a lot in common, more than other pairs of groups that are considered to be one ethnicity do.

I am also aware that the minority populations differ in the two countries. Moldova seems to have more people descending from former Soviet republics, while Romania seems to have more Hungarians and Romani people. However, my assumption is regarding the majority ethnic group, the Moldavians/Romanians.


texts: Is there any record of the Ebionites outside of the antiheretical polemics of the church fathers?

texts:
The Ebionites were a sect of Jewish Christians in the early centuries of Christianity.  Little is known about them, and it appears that most or all of their texts were destroyed or lost, possibly as a result of efforts by the proto-Orthodox faction to marginalize and eliminate their movement.

The vast majority of what we do know about them is based on the extremely biased accounts of proto-Orthodox Christians, who labeled the Ebionites as heretics and were inclined to paint a very bleak picture of the sect.  These sources are dubious at best, and can only tell us what outsiders thought about the Ebionites;  they are of little or no use in trying to discover what the Ebionites themselves believed, how they worshipped, and what their religion stood for.

Do we have any accounts of the Ebionites from sources less biased than the church fathers?


texts: What is the first example of a nation where the first railroad network system was somebody's master plan?

texts:
The background is that I try to understand how complex socioeconomic systems based on a technology mix came in place and how they evolve today.

So I thought of an example, and picked railroads. If I think of railroads, there is actually no "railroad technology", it is rather a complex mix of technological components and services, but still they play together very well as a system.

There had been lots of different approaches, e.g. putting traditional cabs on rails, and all the bits were put together.
But, can we track back a moment where some entity established a strategic development plan before the commercial success of technology (or rather technology mix) was clear? Any type of MVP welcome. But consider who has built the first connection between two cities, might have had and pursued that master plan - or not?

For sure there will be a lot of literature on railroads history, but I do not know whether specifically this aspect has been adressed somewhere.


texts: Why were Elizabethan English concerned about vagabonds?

texts:
I have an assessment soon, and part of my revision is on poverty in Elizabethan England. This includes Explaining why Elizabethans were worried about Vagabonds. I am unsure on this topic, but I have researched some possible reasons:

The Mass groups worried Elizabethans due to the peasants revolts becoming a possibility.
They were worried about the spreading of disease.

However to answer the question I must provide a third reason and also back each point up with evidence. Furthermore, I am familiar with the reasons for Poverty, and the existing help that was there, and I also understand that the Vagabonds act of 1572 persecuted these 'rogues' but I am still unsure of why they persecuted beggars without a licence or vagabonds, and what it was that worried them, particularly the gentry and nobility in the Early years of Elizabeth's reign (1558-1588). I would be grateful for any help that can be offered.


texts: Why didn't the Persians make and use ballistas and other kinds of artillery?

texts:
In 1980 E.P.Thompson published an interesting paper called *Barbarian Invaders and Roman Collaborators *. Among other subjects he consdiers there the leakage from Rome to its enemies of technical knowledge needed to construct and deploy ancient artillery pieces:

  But soldiers and others might also give the enemy technical knowledge
  which had not previously been available to them, especially knowledge
  of how to construct and use the dreaded Roman artillery, the ballistae
  of various kinds. When Septimius Severus defeated one of his rivals
  in 194 numbers of the defeated troops fled to Persia; and some of
  these men were technicians. They settled down in Persia and not only
  taught the Persians how to use weapons which they had not used before
  but also showed them how to make these weapons for themselves. The
  result was that the Persians had higher hopes of victory now than
  formerly when they engaged the solid ranks of a Roman army; and the
  historian who reports this matter looks upon it with grave concern.

However, quite puzzlingly, artillery just didn't quite catch on with the Persians or others, as Thompson himself notes a bit later:

  But although we hear of deserters and prisoners handing on this
  knowledge to the Persians and others, we never hear that the Persians
  and the others absorbed this skill into their general military
  techniques, so as to be able to apply it on their own account when
  there were no obliging prisoners and deserters with them to give them
  instruction. In spite of what had happened in 194 we never hear in
  later ages that the Persians could make and use ballistae on their own
  account. I do not know why this should have been so. Not all ballistae
  can have been very difficult to make and use, for we possess a letter
  in which a bishop tells us that he was engaged in making one and
  proposed to use it. If a bishop could do so, why not Alaric or Attila
  or their henchmen?

Perhaps with the Huns and other tribes artillery didn't fit into their notions of warfare, but it does seem very strange that the Persians neglected this arm. So I am still puzzled.

Maybe the Persians had a warrior code that precluded widespread use of artillery? (Hard to believe, as they had set so much store by arrows). Or maybe a prosaic lack of good wood is the crux of the matter?

Has the issue been studied by later historians?


texts: Did the Persian Immortals instill fear in their Greek adversaries?

texts:
The Persian Immortals were an elite combat unit during the First Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire.

They were known for being at ten thousand strong at all times for which they actually seemed to be technically immortal.

From Hdt. 7.83.2

  These were the generals of the whole infantry, except the Ten
  Thousand. Hydarnes son of Hydarnes was general of these picked ten
  thousand Persians, who were called Immortals for this reason: when any
  one of them was forced to fall out of the number by death or sickness,
  another was chosen so that they were never more or fewer than ten thousand.

Translation from Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.

However it seems that modern historians do no think too highly of them during the Persian-Greek Wars of the 5th century B.C.

From Kleist, Joseph. "The Battle of Thermopylae: Principles of War on the Ancient Battlefield." Studia Antiqua 6.1 (2008): 14, p84., and based on Hdt. 7.211:

  Whatever tactics the Immortals tried on the Greeks, Leonidas’ forces
  proved that they were the experts and that they were fighting against
  amateurs. Perhaps the next day would see a change in fortune for the
  god king to crush the seemingly weakened and fatigued Greek defenders
  after the first full day of battle.

And from Foster, Edith. "Thermopylae and Pylos, with Reference to the Homeric Background." Thucydides and Herodotus (2012): 185-215. p198

This quote points to a more general dismissal of the Persian troops.

  This economical narrative has so far shown that the Persian forces
  could not prevail because their training and weapons are inferior; in
  addition their Spartan adversaries are better organized and protected
  by the narrow pass. Xerxes, who believes he is the centre of Persian
  strength, is a liability, and is ultimately reduced to helplessness.
  Leonidas has been entirely absent from the initial battle description;
  sentence-length explanations of each successive day have been the
  building blocks of a vivid story

And a quote pointing more to the Immortals' level of skill.

  On the next day the Persian Immortals take over from the Medes; Xerxes
  is confident that these troops will easily finish off the Spartans
  (7.211.1). This expectation seems justified: these men are Persians,
  and trained, and there are 10,000 of them opposing the 4,000 Greeks.28
  However, they fare ‘no better . . . but rather [experience] the same
  things’ as the Medes. Herodotus explains why the Persians can make no
  headway: the narrow pass protects the Spartans against the Persians,
  who cannot use their numbers and also have shorter spears (7.211.3).
  But the Spartans (on whom Herodotus focuses his account) also contrast
  to the Persians in skill (‘the Spartans showed that they knew how to
  make war among those who do not [know how to make war]’ 7.211.3).

The question: The Immortals had a reputation in the Persian empire, but were they also feared by the Greeks because of their so-called "immortal" status?


texts:
This is about the Sino-Sikh War
The Wikipedia article says

  He had extended his communication and supply line over 450 miles of inhospitable terrain by building small forts and pickets along the way. The fort Chi-T’ang was built near Taklakot, where Mehta Basti Ram was put in command of 500 men, with 8 or 9 cannon. With the onset of winter all the passes were blocked and roads snowed in. The supplies for the Dogra army over such a long distance failed despite Zorawar’s meticulous preparations.

As the intense cold, coupled with the rain, snow and lightning continued for weeks upon weeks, many of the soldiers lost their fingers and toes to frostbite. Others starved to death, while some burnt the wooden stock of their muskets to warm themselves. The Tibetans and their Chinese allies regrouped and advanced to give battle, bypassing the Dogra fort of Chi-T’ang.

Is there more knowledge, on how their supplies failed, even  after preparing? Besides,  Nepal was only 15 miles from Taklakot, and they had had friendly relations with Sikh Empire, then why were they not helped?


texts: Most recently settled area habitable without modern technology

texts:
Among islands or archipelagos with a size, climate, and ecology suitable to sustain a healthy population of stone age technology humans, which one was settled most recently?

Among "large" landmasses this is apparently New Zealand (no evidence before 1200 CE), but many islands and archipelagos were settled later.  For example, those were empty when first encountered by Europeans:

Source: Radical Cartography

Many of those could have sustained a stone age technology population of humans if they had reached it and stayed.  They need to have an accommodating climate, ecology, and be large enough to sustain a genetically healthy population.  Thus it excludes islands like Rockall or Laysan, but would include the Galápagos islands (7,880 km²).  For this question, let's discard boundary cases such as Pitcairn (47 km²) which are probably too small, and count the earliest certain date for islands/archipelago's settled multiple times.

Were any such islands first settled in the 19th or even 20th century?


texts: What goods were traded in the medieval Indian Ocean?

texts:
The Periplus of the Erythrian Sea has detailed reports of trade ports of the Eastern Indian Ocean in the first century AD. There are also plenty of archaeological reports, summaries, and books from that period in English.

Similarly, there is profuse evidence (in English) for trade after Vasco de Gama. However, for the Middle Ages, there are some first hand details from Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, and not much else.

What trade goods were commonly traded in the Eastern Indian Ocean, between the Swahili coast, the Middle East, and India? Where were the sources of supply, and where was the demand for these goods?


texts: Can the Largest Infantry Polearms be Wielded by Cavalry?

texts:
Someone was telling me that cavalry can use any polearm infantry can use. Including the largest halberds and pikes that were ever used.

I would like to ask if this is feasible and true. I only know of cavalry wielding polearms about six feet long, aside from lances which could get up to 20 feet (but the 20 foot ones were hollow).


texts: Did Anza record exactly who came along on his expedition?

texts: The first Anza Expedition of 1775 brought some of the first Spanish-speaking colonists into Alta California. At least one baby was born en route. Did Anza or anyone else in his party write down everyone's names?


texts: At what age did samurai children start going into battles in the Sengoku era?

texts: Exactly as the title says, from what age did a child of a samurai start to join his father in battles? I suspect it is when the child was considered an adult, but what age was considered an adult during that era? The Wikipedia page of Sengoku Jidai did state the phrase "came of age" but didn't explain at what age one is considered adult.


texts: Why was the duration of territorial contracts often 99 years?

texts:
This is based on this Reddit question, but I rectified its mistakes.

For example, some European colonies in China were leased for 99 years, like German Kiautschou and the New Territories (but not Kowloon and Hong Kong Island).

When Germany forced Lithuania to give back the Memel territory in 1939, Lithuania got the rights to use the harbors and of free trade and way for 99 years. Why was such an uneven number used?


texts:
(all Bible citations are from KJV)

[Leviticus, chapter 11]

  Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. (...) And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.

Then we are dozen hundreds later and there is:

[Matthew, chapter 8]

  And when [Jesus] was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.

The Wikipedia article of Gergesenes says the city lies "to the east of the Sea of Galilee" and inhabited by people who "were culturally more Greek than Semitic" and "this would account for the pigs in the biblical account".

As this article is marked (since 2009) as lacking of sources and requiring improvement, what could be a reason to breed pigs in Israel? Or it really was not Israeli city? (sources are welcome).


texts: What was the goal behind the 9 state approval of the United States constitution?

texts:
My US History textbook states the following:

  But since absent Rhode Island was certain to veto the Constitution, the delegates boldly adopted a different scheme. They stipulated that when nine states had registered their approval through specially elected conventions, the Constitution would become the supreme law of the land in those states ratifying.

I know the goal was to ratify the Constitution without the approval of Rhode Island, which would cause the Constitutional Convention to be a waste, along with the document itself. But wasn't a primary goal of the constitution to keep all the states within the Union? My book also goes on, a few sentences later, to say:

  In this way the framers could claim greater popular sanction for their handiwork.

Either this concept is not clear in my head or this is worded bad but wouldn't there be no population sanction if Rhode Island had not approved the constitution in the first place? So why would they use the word greater here?

Thank you very much, if there is any way I could make this question any more clear please let me know.


texts: Why did Suleiman build walls around Jerusalem?

texts:
The Old City of Jerusalem is surrounded by pretty impressive walls built by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1535–1542. The question is: why? Why build  walls around a city which is not on a border and did not have, as far as I can tell, any military significance for the Ottomans?
Or was some sort of Mameluk resurgence feared? Persian invasion?
Was this purely a vanity project?
Were there other similar projects of walling cities in the hinterland in the Ottoman empire?


texts: Has anyone written Australian history from the perspective of the original inhabitants - the aborigines?

texts:
I once read that an aboriginal man from Australia in an ironic gesture planted a flag on English soul and proclaimed it now was a part of the aboriginal empire.

I’m curious as to whether there have been books written on Australian history by Aborigines. I’m curious about their perspective about the English policy of dumping convicts on their land and the subsequent history of their dispossession to the point of not being recognised as a people, despite having lived there for 50,000 years.


texts:
When India took its independence, the socioeconomic scenario of the world had already been changed. Britain did not have the resources left to keep control of India any more, Britain was in need of a cooperative government. India could have had movements or even fight to realize their rights. They could have formed parties that could participate in British national elections. Indian people could have moved to have recognition as a federal state and seats in the British parliament. It was an opportunity for India to start to dominate the British from within. The result of these efforts may not be obvious readily but they could have tried.

Just think of Indian people traveling with a British passport, fighting in Iraq-Afghanistan under British flag, etc. That would have been cool.

What options India had other than getting its independence from Britain?


texts: The poem on this gravestone in RI refers to "Mary's part." What does this phrase mean?


texts: In the biography of Turing by Hodges an ancient Celtic tradition is mentioned of killing the last to arrive

texts: According to Hodges, Turing compared some modern custom to the torture and killing of the last to arrive at Celtic councils. I can find no other mention of this elsewhere; can anyone expand upon or at least substantiate this?


texts: Why is the writing on the Vindolanda plates changing when exposed to air?

texts:
"In the case of Papyri [...]deterioration of the fibre and fading of the writing occurs, if at all, only over a very considerable period of time. This is not true of the writing-tablets which have survived in damp, anaerobic conditions. There is a marked tendency for the writing to fade on exposure to the air and for the wood to disintegrate, though this is not uniform (we do not know why)." (http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/tablets/TVI-1-2.shtml)

The suggestion appears to be that the ink will oxidize once exposed to air, after thousands of years, thus change in appearence. However, it has been exposed to oxygen already before it was buried/waterlogged. Furthermore, at this shallow deph, groundwater does contain oxygen. Pretty much every metal artefact found in waterlogged soil was very oxidized.

What kind of process may explain the changes to some of those finds (and not to others) once exposed to air?


texts: Did the Socialist and the Fascist party share the electoral programme in Italy?

texts:
I was taught that in the early twenties the Socialist and the Fascist parties programmes were more or less identical, except for just one nationalist clause in the Fascist party's programme.

Despite those parties being rivals, it actually made sense, since the Fascist party was born out of Social origins; strangely, though, I wasn't able to find those programmes.

Did such a thing really happen, or was I mis-taught?


texts: Is there an example of 2 opposing military forces both attempting pincer movements on each other?

texts:
Pincer movements (double envelopment) seem to be a ubiquitous and effective theme throughout (what I know of) military history.
Since the idea is far from new, it seems to me like you'd find both sides of a conflict always trying to use this tactic on one another. If so, I would expect that sometimes one side would begin earlier and execute it effectively on the other side - but are there also cases of 2 roughly equal forces both attempting a Pincer movement on each other roughly simultaneously?
If so, what are some examples and how does it usually play out?


texts:
I'm looking for evidence that the Prince George, Duke of Cambridge - Queen Victoria's cousin and the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army - enhanced his complexion by the judicious and semi-discreet use of the rouge pot.
Several men of standing in the nineteenth century were known for their attempts to hold back the hands of time, either through corsetry, hair dye or cosmetics (or a combination of the three). Most of them were elderly roués and/or remnants from the Regency period. Lord Ranelagh was one; Lords Palmerston, Lyndhurst and Malmesbury were three more (from The life of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield, Volume 6):

I know (or at least I think I know) that I read a long time ago that the Duke of Cambridge was another but I can't for the life of me remember now where I read it.
At least three Wilkie Collins novels include such a figure. WC pretty much had a finger on the pulse of contemporary culture so it's safe to assume that this was a recognised phenomenon of his day.


texts: Did Perry's Black Ships attack Edo harbour during his expedition to Japan?

texts:
Matthew C. Perry commanded the U.S. Navy expedition that forced Japan to abandon its policy of isolation, triggering the eventual overthrow of the Shogunate's and the Meiji Restoration. Perry arrived in Edo Bay in 1853 to deliver a letter from President Fillmore, and returned the next year to receive Japan's answer. By demonstrating the overwhelming superiority of Western technology, he forced the Japanese delegates to agree to his demands.

In the English Wikipedia article for Commodore Perry, it is mentioned that, when the Japanese tried to turn him away during the first visit, Perry ordered his ships to attack the habour with highly destructive guns. That article cites as a source Arthur Walworth's book, the Black Ships Off Japan: The Story of Commodore Perry's Expedition.

  Perry ordered some buildings in the harbor shelled. (Walworth,Arthur; Black Ships Off Japan p. 21) Perry's ships were equipped with new Paixhans shell guns, cannons capable of wreaking great explosive destruction with every shell.

  - Matthew_C._Perry - Threat of force and negotiation

In contrast, the Japanese article says the cannons fired blanks and did not result in any deaths. This seems to match what the Naval History and Heritage Command says, hich seems to suggest (based on the wording of "implied") that the guns weren't actually used on the Japanese.

  During this period, the Commodore remained out of sight in his cabin, stating that he would consult personally only with direct representatives of the Emperor. The Japanese procrastinated and equivocated. The Commodore stood firm, supported by the implied threat of the squadron's guns. He refused to move his ships to Nagasaki. He rejected gifts and compromises. He forbade indiscriminate visiting by natives. He herded their guard boats away from the anchorage. Always alert to the possibility of treachery, he exercised his crew at battle stations daily.

  - A brief Summary of the Perry Expedition to Japan, 1853

The two versions seem to be contradictory. Moreover, although the English wiki mentioned no deaths, it followed the sentence by saying Perry's ships were equipped with devastating gun, which seems like they would have easily killed people had they fired.

So my question is, is it definitively known whether Perry attacked the harbour to forcibly open Japan?


texts: Based on historical experience what would happen if/when the USA/EU fell?

texts:
In this video the guy talking mentions that when empires fall. Governance tends to become more local and smallscale(warlords, feudal lords etc) because threats tend to become smallscale and local. And local lords can protect the pesants better. We can also see that all Empires fall.

Looking at what's going on in the EU and US right now, I can't help wondering, would this trend apply to the EU or USA? Can we make any other assumptions of what would happen based on historical data?


texts: How was occupied France governed during World War II?

texts: During the occupation of France during World War II, how was the area governed?  Specifically, were local governments still allowed and who handled normal police activities?  If local Frenchmen did police work, were they allowed to have arms?


texts: Is there a way to find who died and what American plane crashed over a spot in Romania in 1942/1943?

texts:
My grandparents told me, that in the nearby forest, there was an American plane crash when American planes got back from bombing Ploiești.
This is the place on Google Maps.

To put things in a bit of context, I am quoting from book Historical Dictionary of the Petroleum Industry  By M. S. Vassiliou:

  Germany invaded Romania in 1916, during World War I, to gain control
  of its oil resources and processing facilities, most of which were
  located around Ploiești. The Allies managed to sabotage the oil fields
  and facilities, seriously crippling production for a time. In World
  War II, Winston Churchill labeled Ploiești the "taproot of German
  might." The area supplied Germany with about 60 percent of its crude
  oil. Ploiești boasted some 40 refineries, producing nearly 3.5 Mmb of
  refined fuel annually. The Soviet Union bombed Ploiești on 23 June
  1941, and the United States did so on 12 June 1942.

  The major air raid, however, took place on 1 August 1943. Code named 'Tidal Wave," it involved 178 bombers of the U.S. Army Air Force
  (USAAF) taking off from Benghazi, Libya. The bombers flew 1,350 miles
  to reach their target, the farthest air raid ever attempted up to that
  time. The attackers used new low-flying tactics. But the Germans, who
  had been intercepting and decoding USAAF communications, were ready.
  The United States lost 54 bombers, and more than 500 crew members were
  killed, wounded, or captured. About 42 percent of Ploiești's
  production capacity was destroyed, but not all capacity was being
  used. Within a few weeks, Ploiești was producing more than it had
  before the raid. In April 1944, the USAAF began raiding Ploiești from
  Italy, ultimately destroying most of its facilities.

More details about Tidal Wave Operation on Wikipedia.

I don't know if it was in the 1942 or 1943 attack, but I know the approximate coordinates of the spot. Is there a way to find who died and what American plane crashed over this spot in Romania in the 1942 or 1943 attack on Ploiești?


texts: What was the ancient Greeks view on people of African descent?

texts:
I am interested in sources (reference author, work, paragraph/fragment) describing the view ancient Greeks held about people of African descent.

By that I mean those whom they called Αιθίοπες (Aithíopes), not the Egyptians or other North-Africans.

Are there attestations of racism (strictly because of skin color) or admiration in ancient Greek works?

Regarding admiration we have one account from Herodotos (3.20) who
states the following:

  These Ethiopians, to whom Cambyses sent them, are said to be the
  tallest and most handsome of all men. Their way of choosing kings is
  different from that of all others, as (it is said) are all their laws;
  they consider that man worthy to be their king whom they judge to be
  tallest and to have strength proportional to his stature.

  http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=3:chapter=20


texts: Did Peter the Great introduce the potato to Russia?

texts:
The essay "Tuber or not Tuber" claims with no citation:

  Introduction of the tuber to Russia is usually credited to Peter the Great, who became familiar with potatoes while learning the shipbuilding trade in the Netherlands, bringing back with him seeds with which to grow the plant in St. Petersburg.

Can a more authoritative claim be made about Peter's role? Is any part of the story true?


texts: What made Cicero so fascinating to Petrarch?

texts:
Petrarch was apparently fascinated throughout his whole life by Cicero, in a way that his contemporaries apparently weren't. He even wrote letters to Cicero. But these letters don't mean much to me, other than displaying Petrarch's incomparable obsession.

In Petrarch's time intellectuals had many letters to read from great men past and present, and mountains of Christian theology to devour in pursuit of divine truth. So what made Petrarch so disinterested in the mainstream of medieval thought, and fascinated by Cicero in particular?

I'm completely clueless about secondary literature, so if you have any books to recommend that would help clarify this, I'd be just as happy to read them as a standalone answer.


texts: What name was given to Victorian era of confidence?

texts:
When considering the Victorian era there is a typical reference to the zeitgeist that thought that human society and technology were inevitably progressing for the better, a sort of manifest destiny that was seemingly confirmed by the ongoing industrial revolution. This was promoted by the peace and relative stability experienced in Europe at that time, and strength of the British Empire, which had at this time reached its zenith.

What name is given to this strain of thought (either within the United Kingdom or Europe generally)?


texts: I got it from a friend who said their brother got it in Japan, but I'm not sure. I'm also not sure if this is a old sword or just made to look that way. I would love to know where it is from and what time period. Any information or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks Anna.


texts:
This link gives the definition of Two-nation theory:

  The two-nation theory is the basis of the creation of Pakistan. It
  states that Muslims and Hindus are two separate nations from every
  definition; therefore Muslims should have a separate homeland in the
  Muslim majority areas of India, where they can spend their lives
  according to the glorious teachings of Islam.

This link says that
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the first individual to come up with "Two Nation Theory".

But, some are saying that Veer Savarkar proposed it.

Veer Savarkar proposed two-nation theory, Jinnah implemented it: Bhupesh Baghel
Savarkar Laid Foundation of Two-Nation Theory, Congress Tells Amit Shah After Partition Swipe

Who was the first to conceive the "Two Nation Theory"?


texts: What is the current location of the "Cauldron of Trun and Chambios" from August 1944?

texts:
I am trying to document my grandfather's participation in World War II, and have come across a letter written by a German military official informing my grandfather's parents that their son is missing in action.

The letter refers to the location of his last known whereabouts as "Kessel von Trun und Chambios" on the 18th of August, 1944. I can only assume that this was in the vicinity of the western front at the time. My grandfather's next correspondence was from a POW camp in the UK, but I don't know whether he encountered US or British forces (or other, for that matter).

I would like to know, as precisely as possible, where this took place.

Kessel von Trun und Chambios translates to the Cauldron of Trun and Chambios, presumably in reference to an encirclement by allied forces at the time (although I don't know this for sure).

Here is the contents of the letter verbatim, with the names of my grandfather and his father replaced with XX and YY respectively, and with notations in parentheses. The letter is dated 2nd of December, 1944:

Sehr geehrter Herr YY!

Bezugnehmend auf Ihr Schreiben v. 18.11.1944 teilt die Dienst-
stelle mit, dass Ihr Sohn Oblt.XX am 18.8.1944 im Kessel
vonTrum (sic) und Chamios vermißt ist. Er befand sich auf einer 2 cm Selbst-
fahrlafette und versuchte mit dieser den feindlichen Einschließungsring
zu durchbrechen. Dabei fuhr er ohne beschossen zu werden an die gegne-
rischen Linien. Soldaten eines nachfolfenden (sic) LKW wurden dagegen beschossen
und hierdurch gewarnt. Es gelang ihnen sich zur Batterie durchzuschlagen
und haben vorstehende Meldung überbracht. Sonst ist bei der Batterie
über das Schicksal Ihres Sohnes nichts bekannt.

Heil Hitler!
(name illegible)
Oblt.u.Battr.-Führer

Here's my best attempt at a translation:

  Regarding your correspondence on the 18th of November, 1944, the
  department informs you that your son, First Lieutenant XX was reported
  missing on the 18th of August, 1994 in the Cauldron of Trun and
  Chambios. He was located on a 2cm self-driving lafette (I don't know
  what this is...) and attempted to use it to break through an enemy
  containment (flank?). In this attempt he drove without taking enemy
  fire into the enemy lines. Soldiers in a truck behind him took enemy
  fire and were herewith warned (?). They were able to break through to
  the battery and conveyed the current message. Other than this
  information there is no further information known to us about the fate
  of your son.

I can find a city by the name of Trun in France, but I can't find Chambios, let alone where this "Cauldron" took place. I was really hoping to narrow this down to a particular address or field, but I have no experience with this kind of thing and understand that this might be a bit optimistic.


texts: Why the six hour gap between British and French declarations of war?

texts:
In Britain the story (and the audio) of the events of 3rd September 1939 are so well known and Neville Chamberlain's moving broadcast so cherished that the it's strange that the French declaration of war some hours later is so often relegated to a footnote.

The schoolboy histories that I grew up with typically manage to imply that the timing of the French declaration speaks both of their junior role in the Anglo-French alliance and their reluctance to prosecute the war (of a piece with their collapse less than a year later).

It seems unlikely those British histories are doing much more than point scoring with the benefit of hindsight so what is the true story behind the French delay? Was there a technical reason? Was France really the junior partner, unable to move first? Why didn't the two allies ensure their declarations of war were timed together?


texts: Transatlantic Zeppelin trips usually took > 100 hours. How did they stock enough food, and where did they sleep?

texts:
I never fail to be bewildered with the Zeppelins. Apart from the arduous and boring journey - how did the passengers rest - I don't see pics of any rooms or beds - how did they sleep at all?

Transatlantic flights could take more than 100 hours (for example, the final flight left Frankfurt on the evening of 3 May 1937, and arrived late in the evening of 6 May). How on earth could they stock up on food for so many days?


texts: For whom would this priest write a long geographical report on his parish?

texts:
In 1777, the assistant pastor of Tamazula, Nueva Vizcaya composed a detailed report on the local geography, climate, natural history, and mineralogy, listing the many plants and animals and few artisans that were present in his rural parish. The overall presentation is frank and rigorous, more like a scientific report than any kind of propaganda appeal. There is no mention of the local church (San Ignacio de Tamazula) nor its diocese (Durango). The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas has an eight page long typescript copy of an original from the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

The author of the report, Agustín Fernández, labelled each section as "according to the instruction" (con arreglo a la instrucción), "conforming to the instruction" (conforme a la instrucción), "conforming to the instructions" (conforme a las instrucciones), or "conforming to the model" (conforme a la física) of the señor Don Antonio de Ulloa, a prominent naturalist and naval officer. Ulloa was briefly in Mexico in 1777-1778 to command the voyage of the imperial treasure fleet from Veracruz to Cádiz, but it seems more likely that the "instruction" in question was a model of Ulloa's for geographical writing, than a command Ulloa gave anyone.

What reason did assistant pastor Fernández have for writing this sizeable report, and to whom would he have sent it?


texts: Why did the United States decide to cross over the 38th parallel to North Korea after they attacked South Korea?

texts: Why did the United States decide to invade North Korea (going across the 38TH parallel) during the Korean War? What did this decision mean to the Americans/ President Truman?


texts: What was the UK Constitution in 1776, regarding taxation and representation?

texts: I've been researching, and I've found that American colonists argued against taxation without representation because it violated the UK Constitution. However, when searching for the UK Constitution in 1776, I've not found anything. I know there was one though, what was the UK constitutional rule about taxation and representation in 1776?


texts: Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?

texts:
In modern times, it is not unusual for people to wonder what, if anything, will archeologists of the future (human or otherwise) will learn about our civilization from various artifacts we leave behind.

Some even take steps to preserve modern objects in a way that they're findable and interpretable tens of thousands of years in the future (e.g. nuclear waste warnings). In some ways, this might be considered a sophisticated form of geocaching or letterboxing.

Question: What is the earliest evidence of such 'preserve-objects-for-distant-future-discovery' behavior?

I am mostly curious about the earliest conception of the idea that civilizations have finite lifespans, are potentially discovered later, and that the inhabitants of such civilizations might be able to leave messages among the civilization ruins for future discoverers.


texts: How were Soviet nuclear weapons controlled?

texts: Gobrachev said that the reason he allowed the Soviet Union to collapse was to prevent a civil war involving nuclear weapons.  I think Kazakhastan returned the nukes in its territory, well after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In this context, what was the control and command structure of the Soviet nuclear forces, and what effect did it have on history if any?