texts: After the end of slavery at the closure of the US civil war, what percentage of former slaves stayed at their previous workplaces?

texts:
Upon the abolition of slavery in the USA, there were suddenly millions of former slaves set free.  But they were left without an obvious workplace. On the other side, millions of jobs done previously by slaves were now without manpower.

I would guess that at least some slaves stayed as – now paid – employees of their former owners, while those who were brutally mistreated, or who hoped they could find better employment elsewhere, just left.

However, I don't know about the statistics. There are many detailed articles about the end of slavery in the US, discussing different futures of freed slaves (some getting their own farms, some migrating North, even a very few migrating to Africa), but no statistics are given.

Were those who stayed an insignificant number, the majority, or somewhere in-between?

Are there detailed statistics? Or if there aren't, can at least rough estimates be inferred? I'm referring to former slaves being in the direct employ of their former owners, so cases of getting the land they worked on as their own, don't count.


texts: Have truces for the duration of Ramadan ever been customary/mandatory?

texts: I know that you are exempt from fasting during Ramadan if a war is on (and also for other various reasons). But - has it ever been customary (or even - required) for Muslim fighting forces to offer truces, or to refrain from going on the offensive, during the month of Ramadan?


texts: Who is the person sitting to the left of corporal Hitler?

texts:
My son, in my opinion, looks like the person sitting next to corporal Hitler in this photograph.

Does anyone know who this is or any information about where the photo was taken?


texts: Why was cricket's popularity in USA a casualty of Civil War?

texts:
"Cricket was by far the biggest sport [in the USA] in this period," Tim Lockley, an expert in American history at Warwick University, told the Guardian in 1999. "Then the civil war started in 1861, just when it was reaching its peak of popularity. The sport became a victim of that war." (source: History.SE answer)

Why exactly did Civil War have this negative effect on cricket's popularity in USA?


texts:
Is there a consensus among historians on when the  regarding when the French Revolution ended? Google results including Wikipedia names Napoleon's coup d'etat in 1799 as the end of the French Revolution. Is this is the consensus opinion among historians?

If that is indeed the commonly accepted date, how did Napoleon end it? As I understand it, he established a fairly stable government, but so did the Directory. What is so special or different about Napoleon's establishment of the Consulate that it is considered the end?

Background: My friend and I have a disagreement. She says the French Revolution ended with the Reign of Terror and the establishment of the Directory. I tried to persuade her that it ended with Napoleon Bonaparte's coup d'etat. I even Googled "When did the French Revolution end?", but she ignored Google's result because it was drawn from Wikipedia, whom she doesn't trust.


texts: Uniform identification: c20th male, General, mid/light green double breasted, red facing, red neck tags, blue/green shoulder boards

texts: Can anyone tell what uniform this man is wearing and what is his rank?


texts: WW1 Uniform - Which country does this uniform belong to?

texts: Please help me identify this ww1 uniform.


texts: What was the status of specialized workers during the Roman times?

texts: It's obvious that people in the Senate or people with political power would be considered of higher status, while ordinary plebs, such as farmers, would have a lower status. However, where exactly would specialized workers, such as blacksmiths, jewelers etc. have fit in society? Would they have had more/less privileges or around the same as another social class?


texts: Did the ancient Egyptians dress living cats in jewelry?

texts: Ancient Egyptians worshiped animals, and cats were one of the most popular objects  of said worship. I know that they would dress up cat statues in jewelry, but did they dress their cats in jewelry while they were still alive? Or other animals for that matter? If so, what jewelry?


texts: Why did the United States not invade North Vietnam?

texts:
The United States was fighting in Vietnam two battles:

The "conventional" NVA (North Vietnamese Army)
An insurgency "guerrilla" organization.

The US tried desperately to stop both, and spend huge amount of effort bombing North Vietnam trying to stop weapon manufacture and logistics to both.

Vietnam is a thin country, and the US had the advantage in terms of Air power and men.

Why didn't America just land around Hanoi, capture it, remove the NVA from the picture, and focus on the counterinsurgancy?


texts: How did the Allies achieve air superiority on Sicily?

texts:
The Allies had freed all of Africa by the start of 1943. Afterwards, they landed in Sicily with a huge air force and fleet. How did they manage to land with the opposition of the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica?

Did they fight an air battle over the Mediterranean?

Or did they send aircraft carriers to fight the Axis aviation close to their bases?

I am interested in how they fought, but also why did they win the fight.


texts: Has the United States ever been formally condemned by the United Nations?

texts:
Presumably, due to its veto power, the United States has never been condemned by the UN Security Council, but has it has it ever been formally condemned by another UN governing body, like the General Assembly?

If so, what was it for? How did the US government react to the condemnation?


texts: How did the primary means of communication between the British government in Delhi and UK change during WW2?

texts:
During WW2, India faced a lot of violence from the side of the Japanese. During the Burma campaign, the British would have (sometimes I suppose) asked the British government what was actually going or what the condition of the empire was. All I want to know is what was the means of communication between British India and the UK.

Even if the primary means of communications was the cable telegraph, as was usually the case, was this ever disrupted or threatened with disruption? Were any alternative systems actually used, or at least contemplated?


texts:
In 2014, it is 2000 years ago that Emperor Augustus died. To celebrate this, we are doing a huge project (Historical Walking Dinner) in which we re-enact certain groups of the Roman population in that era. Since foreign traders were quite prominent in Rome, we were thinking of incorporating them in the project.

The only problem is, we can't seem to find any historically accurate representations of how these traders would have looked (We are looking at the clothing more specifically). We are still looking for an Egyptian trader and a Phoenician/Carthaginian trader. Also, a historical source for a slave trader in Rome and how he would have looked are quite welcome.

Thanks in advance!


texts: Who said "against the soul, lies; against the body, violence" and where?

texts:
First of all apologies if there is one community site more appropriate for this.
I have been reading today on a lot of Spanish right wing sites a quote attributed to Lenin: "Contra las almas la mentira, contra los cuerpos la violencia". Also in reverse: "Contra los cuerpos, la violencia; contra las almas, la mentira." My modest translation would be "against the souls, lies; against the bodies, violence".
The quote appeared on one site as "Contra los cuerpos, la violencia. Contra las almas, la mentira y la calumnia. Contra los muertos, el silencio", that is "Against the bodies, violence. Against the souls, lies and slander. Against the dead, silence".
None of the sites stays where Lenin supposedly wrote that.
On a couple of other sites, they attribute it to Serguéi Necháyev, on his Catechism of a Revolutionary. But I have found a document with it and the quote doesn't appear anywhere.
I'd like to know who said that quote first, where, and if possible, who caused a possible misattribution.


texts: What was the significance of the Schleswig-Holstein question in the 19th century?

texts: As the title states, what was the specific significance of the Schleswig-Holstein question (Denmark and Prussia arguing over contested lands bordering the two nations) as it directly relates to German unification in 1871 and the concept of German identity that existed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries?


texts: Why did the USSR preserve the national republics?

texts:
Ever since the inception of the Soviet Union, the central government continued to maintain the existence of national republics such as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.

What was the reason behind that decision? Why didn't they attempt to completely assimilate the local peoples?


texts: What was the staple food of the natives of South East Asia before rice?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, history of rice, rice was first brought to South East Asia region across the caravan routes of the central Asian steppes. Now many of the subcontinental people of South East Asia, like people of Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, many Indians, Pakistanis, have rice as a staple food. Though many other staple foods in different regions and ethnic groups exist, but mainly rice dominates the scene as staple.

My question is, what was the staple food of natives of South East Asia before rice became the staple?


texts:
In the west, sausages have a lengthy history. According to Wikipedia:

  Evidence suggests that sausages were already popular both among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and most likely with the various tribes occupying the larger part of Europe.

A similar food in the east is known as the Chinese sausages. There's many varieties in both East and West, though generally I'd say there's a reasonably distinctive difference (Chinese sausages are typically made with a much higher fat content; the Cantonese variety is akin to a sweet thin roll of pepperoni).

But at the same time, they are all similar enough to be recognised as sausages. For instance, they typically (or traditionally, anyway) both use intestines as casing for stuffing meat into. Unfortunately the wikipedia article doesn't talk about the history of Chinese sausages.

So my question is, did the Chinese independently discover sausage making? Or was it spread to the Far East, possibly via merchants or sailing ships?


texts: Are there any examples of California gold rush prospectors becoming exceedingly wealthy due to their claim(s)?

texts:
Thousands of people tried to find their fortune in the California gold rush. However, it's often reported that the people who became wealthy from this event were the ones that were selling supplies to the miners, and not the miners themselves.
I don't know how accurate a source it is, but I read an article on sparticus-educational.com about the California gold rush. It mentioned that "only a minority of miners made much money", but did not give any details on who they might have been, though it does go into more detail on some of the suppliers who made a lot of money, such as Sam Brannan and Josiah Belden.
Are there any examples of miners and prospectors, and not suppliers, who became wealthy due to the California gold rush?


texts: Was Otto Carius fair in his assessment of American forces vs. Russians?

texts:
In his book "Tigers in the Mud", Otto Carius talks about his experiences in the western front (mostly spent inside the Ruhr Pocket) with great disdain. Some quotes:

  We were used to an opponent the stature of the Russians; we were
  amazed at the contrast. During the war, I have never saw soldiers
  disperse head over heels even though virtually nothing was happening.

  Tigers in the Mud, p214

-

  Five Russians were more dangerous than Thirty Americans. We already noticed that in our few days in the western front.

  p210

-

  Again the pace of the war surprised me, the Russians would never have let us have so much time! The Americans took so long to close the pocket, especially given that nobody around wanted to fight anymore. A well organized German corps could have closed the pocket in a week.

There are other disparaging remarks on the effectiveness of the American troops as well, in addition to sarcastic quotations of how fearful the American troops were. My question is, is this assessment fair?

Was Otto's experience of Americans due to the fact that the units around the Ruhr pocket 1) did not expect much resistance due to the aforementioned "nobody was fighting anymore" and so was very casual with their pace, and 2) were of a lower quality as Bradley sent his crack units to race to the Elbe and Austria?


texts: What is the origin of Kula Devata or Family Deity?

texts: In India, every house has something called Kula Devata or Family Deity. What is the historical reason for having such Family deity, and on what basis are family deities assigned to families? Is there any historical, ancestral or political connection between the Deity and the family that worships it? Does it have any relation to the region in which the Deity resides? As I see, there is no strict caste specific restriction on having a particular Deity as your Kula Devata. Can anyone here shed light on this, or mention similar practices being followed elsewhere in the world/other religions?


texts:
They could mine copper and silver, but not iron. Was there a reason to not use such materials to build advanced mining tools to work with Iron? What was their main limitation? Couldn't they build something like a big Tumi but... pike-shaped as a tool suitable for mining iron?

Edit: Tumi is a parallel of any sharp tool, e.g. knives. They had pretty good primitive metallurgy to develop that, to the extent of even using them as currency in pacific sea regions. So my question is what was their limitation to work with iron.

Edit 2: In particular when bronze and copper were used to non-religious purposes (to this extent, Iron could have been used as well, but was not the case).

Edit 3: I fixed the question title a bit since stuff about former civilizations was wrong, and being wrong is what makes me ask even more this question.

The claim is from wikipedia.

Tumis had many shapes and purposes.

These were used as currency.


texts: Is there any evidence that people in the late Pleistocene understood that their environment was changing?

texts:
Of all the periods of geographic and climactic transformation our planet has undergone, the late Pleistocene is of particular interest to historians, since it was the first to be witnessed by human beings. This era saw several interlocking changes which would have had a monumental impact on human life, among them:

The loss of large territories to rising sea levels, most notably Doggerland;
The loss of land bridges, such as the those connecting Indonesia to mainland south-east Asia;
The retreat of the great ice sheets;
The extinction of many species of megafauna, most iconically the wooly mammoth;
The desertification of large territories, most prominently the Sahara.

Massive as they were, these changes would have happened over many centuries. Therefore, it's quite plausible that ancient humans, gazing across the English Channel, would have been totally unaware that their ancestors could have travelled from Dover to Calais on foot. But is there any evidence that any ancient humans were aware of such things?

I suppose my question could be generalised a bit further. Paleolithic humans are not known to have developed any true writing systems. But did they have a history - in the form of oral tradition, art, etc - such that they could detect changes over the course of multiple lifetimes? One comes across theories that myths and legends such as Lyonesse, Atlantis and Noah's Ark contain echoes of late Pleistocene cataclysms. I've never heard anything close to a convincing argument for such a theory, but are there any good arguments for anything of that ilk?
I'm not remotely qualified to have an opinion on this, but one piece of literature that strikes me as containing distant memories of the Paleolithic is the story of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The primordial couple are described as enjoying, if not a hunting, then certainly a gathering lifetyle - 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden' - but, having followed some bad advice from an anonymous reptile, are forced to make a living tilling the earth - 'In the sweat of your brow shall you eat' - and thereafter all the familiar woes of humanity ensue. This has long struck me as fitting rather well with our current picture of the transition to agriculture at the start of the Neolithic, and the enormous suffering, at least initially, that said transition brought about. Is there any mileage in my intuition? And, if so, is that perhaps evidence that memories can be preserved from the very distant past?


texts: Did Constantine I of Cilician Armenia usurp the throne or did he rule legitimately?

texts:
The accounts concerning four brothers who became Kings of Cilician Armenia towards the end of the 13th century tell a tale of murder, usurpation and treachery, but who betrayed who and when is far from clear from the Wikipedia pages. Cilician Armenia was a key ally of Christian crusaders but surrounded by Muslim states (see map below).

The four brothers were Hethum II (reigned 1289–1293, 1295–1296, 1299–1303), Thoros III (reigned 1293 to 1296?), Sempad (reigned 1296 to 1298) and Constantine I (reigned 1298 to 1299). Although it is clear that Hethum and Thoros were 'allies' and that Sempad was their 'enemy', the role of Constantine is unclear.

This much seems consistent:

1293 Hethum abdicates in favour of Thoros
1295 Thoros invites Hethum to return (maybe as co-King - this not
clear)
1296 Hethum and Thoros journey to Constantinople, apparently leaving
Sempad as regent.
1296 Sempad usurps the throne with Constantine's help and imprisons his brothers upon their return. Hethum is then blinded while Thoros is killed.

So, Sempad rules for two years. Then, in 1298, it gets confusing. The article on Hethum II says:

  Constantine turned against Sempad, usurped the throne for himself,
  imprisoned Sempad and freed Hethum

  In 1299, Hethum, recovered at least partially from his blindness,
  ousted Constantine and once again resumed the crown.

The article on Constantine has a different version, saying Constantine

  turned against him [Sempad] two years later in 1298 to restore his
  older brother Hethum II. He assumed the throne for a year while Hethum
  recovered from his imprisonment.

The article on Sempad says:

  Constantine turned traitor again and helped Hethum overthrow Sempad,
  assuming the throne while Hethum's blindness healed.

In short, the first account basically says Constantine usurped the usurper (Sempad) as well as Hethum while the other two accounts imply Constantine was simply looking after the throne for Hethum. Also, the page on Constantine says nothing about him being a usurper while the page on Hethum clearly states that he was.

As Hethum had already abdicated once (and was to do so again in 1303), the latter two accounts seem plausible. On the other hand, Constantine changed sides again in 1299 in an attempt to restore Sempad (it failed and they were imprisoned). Mack Chahin's book The Kingdom of Armenia: New Edition might clear this up but a key page is not available for viewing.

Did Constantine rule as a usurper or was ruling legitimately in Hethum's place, with the latter's consent?


texts: Was there risk of revolution in France at end of World War I?

texts:
Germany was forced to finish World War I with signing peace treaty on very humiliating conditions for them. That's because in 1918 in Germany there was active fifth column of communists who were threat for stability of country, so Germany had to finish war fast to overcome that internal problem. Similar fate met Russia one year earlier.

My question is why the same problem didn't occur in France or maybe in Great Britain? Especially in the former - as far as I know in France there existed in that time plenty of communist adherents. So was there no risk that there would be also communist revolution in France? After all, all countries were exhausted with the war. Why wasn't France forced to finish war fast as Germany?


texts: Why were Soviet losses consistently so high?

texts:
The combat losses of Soviet Union were always higher than Nazi Germany, regardless of whether they won or lost. Even in Stalingrad or at the siege of Berlin the losses of Soviet Union were higher. In addition they lost 200,000 souls in the wars against the Finns!
The Wikipedia page for Soviet Casualties mostly talks about civilian losses, and German POW mistreatment but that doesn't explain why this effect seems so consistent with actual battle losses throughout the war, regardless of the front or enemy faced.
What were the reasons for this?


texts: Was the Native American population already decimated before settlers and conquistadors arrived in America?

texts:
My understanding (which I am stating in case you find it errant) is that while there were no domesticable animals in the Americas, the East had a history of many plagues received from livestock coupled with their terrible hygiene.  Thus while Europeans already had herd immunity from centuries of diseases, when they came to the Americas the natives were hit with them all at once, subsequently being all but wiped out.
On Reanimated History it is stated that the vast majority of the native population (like 95%) died after very early explorers came to the new world (sorry I could only find the first half of the skit where Adam says this) and that the following plagues were mere outbreaks in a post-apocalyptic society.  Other sources such as Quora give mixed answers to this; however, I don't trust Adam Ruins Everything or Quora.  I trust Stack Exchange.
Furthermore, why didn't the Europeans realize that they were spreading disease?  A couple of other web pages talk about Europeans who did know that they were spreading disease, and actually used it as an act of war; however, all of these happened 200 years after 1492, leaving the question of how people before and after responding.
I think it matters to know both when the Native Americans died, and how much the Easterners knew about what was happening, and if they could have helped.


texts: Why didn't Saudi unification include the coastal states of Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Yemen, and Kuwait?

texts:
Why are the following states independent and not a part of Saudi Arabia:
Qatar, UAE, Oman, Yemen, and Kuwait?
While their annexation might be difficult in our current time period, it should have been much less politically dangerous during the Saudi Unification wars.


texts: Why was galena used as a black pigment, when soot is more black and also more abundant?

texts:
Throughout centuries, starting in antiquity at least, galena (PbS) is reported as a black pigment. This is for painting but also (in Egypt and Rome) as a cosmetic.
Soot is a more effective pigment though. And while Galena is common for a mineral, it was certainly less trivial than soot was in cultures that always had oil lamps around. Why did they choose galena?


texts:
I'm looking at a chart of world population from 10,000 BCE to modern times. It appears the world population rate rose sharply somewhere around the 1700's (and maybe a tad bit earlier):

I'm confused because it is earlier then expected (as I understand things). First, efficient fertilizer production did not occur until the early 1900s, so food production was mostly constant (confer, Haber process). Second, preventative and curative medicine is rather modern and seems to be dated somewhere after the 1800's, and penicillin debuted the early 1900's (confer, History of medicine).

What caused the increase in world population rate around 1700's?


texts: Who was the Ottoman who started as a slave boy and eventually became Grand Vizier by the time he was 80?

texts: I seem to remember he lived around the 16th century.


texts: What were the rights of various classes of people in the Roman Republic?

texts: Ancient Rome is often cited as a republic/democracy, and one of the earliest examples of a civilisation enforcing some degree of human rights. However, it's no secret that slavery was present in Rome. So, I want to know the rights that various classes of people held during the Republican era (c. 500 - 27 B.C.), e.g. slaves, women, artisans, etc.


texts: Unlike the Hastati and Principe, the Triarii were spear based and they also the oldest veteran elite troops. So did they initially fight with the sword and then go to the spear (and if so why) or were they always trained in the spear and were not deployed until they were old?


texts: Eohric of East Anglia and the usage of lion heads on banners

texts:
I was reading a historical novel by Bernard Cornwell (The Pagan Lord), when I came to this:

  Eohric, who had been King of East Anglia before we killed him, had a lion on his banner and his animal had only four legs and one horn, but I doubted Eohric had ever seen a lion so I suppose Mehrasa was right.

Eohric of East Anglia was a real person, so I was curious to know if this is true, that is, if he really used a lion on his banner, if the lion on the banner had a horn and what's the history behind lions with horns.

It would be nice to see Eohric's banner, too bad that Cornwell doesn't put illustrations on his books for this kind of things.


texts: Why did the Levee en Masse call for children to make lint?

texts:
The 1789 decree calling for general conscription begins,

  Henceforth, until the enemies have been driven from the territory of the republic, the French people are in permanent requisition for army service. The young men shall go to battle; the married men shall forge arms and transport provision; the women shall make tents and clothes, and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn old linen into lint; the old men shall repair to the public places, to stimulate the courage of the warriors and preach the unity of the Republic and hatred of kings

Straightforward enough, but what's with the lint? I can't think of any military purpose for it, unless maybe you were making guncotton, but (a) that wasn't used in the revolutionary era and (b) you usually use cotton to make guncotton, not old linen.


texts: What would be a textbook example of Germans attacking a small defending force in the rubble of a village?

texts:
While reading this The Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia I ran into:

  One of the most heavily criticized scenes in the film, the Battle of Ramelle is not a textbook example of how a German unit would attack a small defending force in the rubble of a village. The closing battle is designed to support the plot and the drama, and not represent a history lesson on German tactics. A good example is the belltower that Jackson and Parker set themselves up in. Although the structure had obviously already been hit before, the tower itself was still intact and made a perfect sniper's nest. Before entering the village the Germans should have leveled that tower in order to deny their defender's a place from which to fire on them.

But they do not give an example of a textbook example of how a German unit would attack a small defending force in the rubble of a village.

Can anyone give one? The best would be from Operation Overlord or at least from West European Campaign.

Notice: When I'm asking about a textbook example, I'm not willing to get how it should look in theory, but a real life example of implementing that theory.


texts: Was Henry II's ". . . turbulent priest. . . " quote accurate?

texts:
I remember reading somewhere (might have been Simon Schama) that Henry II's famous quote of:

  Who will rid me of this turbulent priest

Was inaccurate, and he actually said something much stronger.  However, try as I might, I can't find a reference for it.  What was the actual quote, and how do we know?


texts: Why was Oslo I Accord so harsh or controversial?

texts:
The Oslo I Accord was an attempt in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It was the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). (Wikipedia).

As we know, this is one of the significant causes that led to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Israel was full of incitement towards Rabin at that time. Many people claim that the assassination led so the Oslo Accord would not be executed.

I have learned about this assassination fact, what happened and where it happened.
 In addition, I have tried to search in Internet what happened in this Oslo accord. Nevertheless, I don't understand besides of peace, what did say the accord. I would want to know why were people against the accord by each side. What were the consequences? What did the assassination stop of happening?


texts: How could a theatre be heated in 1808 Vienna?

texts:
Beethoven's concert of 22 December 1808 was held in an extremely cold theatre. How could it have been heated at the time?

The date is too early for central heating to have been commonplace. Braziers or other space headers could have been used, but ventilation would be a problem. Am I missing something obvious?


texts: Effects of the Berlin Wall on modern-day Germany

texts:
The Berlin Wall had pretty strong effects on the German states at the time it was built, and right after it fell, but what are its continuing economic effects on contemporary Germany? I know there are some cultural differences between East and West Germany, and that East Germany has higher unemployment, but beyond that, what did the Berlin Wall obviously change economically? What are the economic differences between East and West Germany today because of the Berlin Wall?

In this question I'm most specifically asking about the wall that separated and surrounded Berlin, however, since this wall also was part of the larger network of wall separating East and West Germany, I understand that the two walls would probably both play into the answer.


texts: Can you identify this Empire flagged c1913 single stack ocean liner?

texts:
I believe my great-grandparents arrived on this ship in 1913. I cannot find the name of the ship.
The family immigrated to Canada in 1913 from Belgium. They may have arrived in Quebec, or Saint John, or Halifax, not certain. However they did make a return trip to Belgium in 1923, and I wonder if this photo dates from that time. There is nothing written on the back of the photo unfortunately.
Can anyone help to ID it?

Image: Ship. Single stack two masted ocean liner. UK Empire ensign (only union flag quarter identifiable, detailed ensign information unidentifiable: some member of UK Empire’s ensign). Four superstructure decks. Hull decks unidentifiable as portholes below resolution. Length estimated ~170 m.


texts: Was von Manstein's Lack of Success at Leningrad (and later Stalingrad) due to the failure of German military intelligence?

texts:
Arguably the high water mark of the German eastern front campaign was the capture of Sevastopol by General Erich von Manstein, who was arguably Germany's best general. After this victory, he and his 11th Army were transferred to the Leningrad front where he was expected to earn similar success.

His plan for an assault on Leningrad was forestalled by an unexpected Soviet "spoiling" attack at Sinyavino by nearly 200,000 troops that had escaped the attention of German military intelligence. The effect of one extra army for each side was a draw, rather than a victory for one side or another.

William L. Shirer in the "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and Walter Kerr in "The Secret of Stalingrad" allege that Germany military intelligence underestimated the available 1942 Soviet troop strength by 1-2 million men. Some of these men perhaps formed part of the Sinyavino force, and many of them found their way to Stalingrad (during the siege) or the Caucasus.

Questions:

Do historians believe that the Germans were badly informed about Soviet force strength around Leningrad, and that only the "fortuitous" transfer of Manstein's 11th army allowed for a German "draw" rather than a loss (the breaking of the Leningrad siege and the rolling back of Army Group North)?
Are there historians who argue that the Germans underestimated Soviet strength in the south to such a degree that even if Manstein's 12 divisions had been sent to the Caucasus (or to relieve Stalingrad) that they would have been a "drop in the bucket" against the actual Soviet forces (as opposed to the ones that the Germans had identified)?


texts: French revolution: the source of the conflict in the meeting of the Estates General

texts:
In the article on the French Revolution Wikipedia says:

  "The Estates-General convened in the Grands Salles des Menus-Plaisirs
  in Versailles on 5 May 1789 and opened with a three-hour speech by
  Necker. The Third Estate demanded that the credentials of deputies
  should be verified by all deputies, rather than each estate
  verifying the credentials of its own members; but negotiations with
  the other estates failed to achieve this. The commoners appealed to
  the clergy, who asked for more time. Necker then stated that each
  estate should verify its own members' credentials and that the king
  should act as arbitrator."

This conflict, as far as I can see, is the very beginning of the French revolution. However, I don't understand what that process of verification of deputies credentials was all about. What exactly were the deputies verifying? What kind of credentials were to be verified then? Why were they not verified prior to the meeting? And why was it so important for The Third Estate that the credentials be verified by all deputies?


texts: In WWII, why did people not run away from executions?

texts:
In several videos and photos you see people getting round up. In the photo below they're at the site of a mass grave and can clearly see they're going to die.

Why does nobody try to run away?

Same goes with firing squads. You pretty much know you're dead, why not try to escape?
I understand that if you're there with your family, you're afraid they will hurt them on purpose, but in other situations..

I can't seem to grasp that idea, but maybe I'm too influenced by Hollywood and want to be a hero.


texts: Were single-sex house parties illegal in mid-20th century Canada?

texts:
At around the 47 minute mark of Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives, one of the women interviewed, Carol Ritchie-MacKintosh, talks about the persecution of gay men in the mid-20th century:

CRM: Well, at that time, it was illegal to have a house party with only one sex. So you at least had to have two women. Now, you could have 45 men and two women. And as long as the women were discreet and could sit in the library, and let the boys do what they liked, and simply answer the door, there was no problem.
Interviewer: What happened if there weren't women there?
CRM: They would raid it. They would absolutely raid it. They would level it, the police.

I was curious about this and tried to do some internet research on Canadian law during this period but did not find anything. This also reminded me of an oft-circulated myth about laws restricting the number of unrelated women living together, on the premise that a residence with too many such women would constitute a brothel, which made me suspicious.
I believe what is being said here, but was there actually such a law, and if so, could a reference be provided for it? I can imagine that the police might want to raid a single-sex party if they suspected that it was really a gathering for homosexuals, but that is different from saying that all single-sex house parties were unequivocally illegal. (Moreover, I would think that very traditionally-minded people might have accepted or even preferred single-sex parties, for the same reasons for which they might have been supportive of sex-segregated in social or educational settings.)


texts: Why did Thomas Jefferson almost lose the 1800 presidential election to Aaron Burr?

texts:
As the question asks, why did Thomas Jefferson struggle to win the 1800 presidential election against somebody like Aaron Burr?

I would think that, even in his time, Jefferson would have been greatly looked up to by society and would not have such trouble winning the election.


texts: Did armored cavalry have an advantage over unarmored cavalry in 18th/19th century?

texts:
Armor was being phased out during the 1500's as muskets capable of penetrating armor proliferated. By the 18th century, hardly any units on the European battlefields wore armor. Except for one - the Cuirassiers. Yet, Cuirassiers do not appear to be common in armies - the British do not have one for example. Common sense however would imply that a cavalryman wearing pistol bullet-stopping armor would obviously be harder to kill than one without.

Is there any information, accounts or otherwise, relating to the advantages/disadvantages a cuirassier has? If the advantages are as heavy, why did armies not use cuirassiers more?


texts: When, where and why did ascribing insanity to cannabis use begin?

texts:
When reading about the historical perceptions of cannabis, especially those of the elite, cannabis is often said to cause insanity. I'm pretty sure there was a point when British elites were talking about the hashish insanity within Indian asylums. To give a concrete example of this being mentioned, here's a quote from Liat Kozma's article Cannabis Prohibition in Egypt,
1880–1939: From Local Ban to League
of Nations Diplomacy

It was also colonial medical doctors’ reports
regarding the connection between cannabis and insanity that convinced the
Egyptians that hashish was indeed dangerous.

(page 444).
According to this same article, John Warnock's article Insanity from Hasheesh was a significant factor behind Egypt's prohibitionist policies and stance against hashish (page 450).
So my question is; what is the first mention of cannabis-related insanity, and what caused its ascription? Why and how did it catch on and become so popular?
Source:
Liat Kozma (2011): Cannabis Prohibition in Egypt,
1880–1939: From Local Ban to League
of Nations Diplomacy, Middle Eastern Studies, 47:3, 443-460


texts: Was any Church dispensation granted to Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s marriage?

texts:
They were 3rd cousins and therefore related within the seventh degree since consanguinity was determined by counting up to the nearest common ancestor. I read sources that said that they did not bother with a Papal dispensation or "ecclesiastical approval". However this source says otherwise. I am not sure how accurate it is.

  “According to Meade [@ 150], Eleanor and the Duke of Normandy sought
  and received a Church dispensation so that this new marriage could not
  be voided on the grounds of consanguinity, because -- like most of the
  royals of the 12th century -- Eleanor and her new husband also shared
  ancestors within seven degrees.”

This is important because if a dispensation was not granted it means that the marriage was null and void, and Henry II’s children were illegitimate.


texts: Earning a living from teaching chess in 18-19th century England

texts: Would it be possible for a common class person to teach chess or sciences to nobles during the Industrial Revolution? I think higher classes would be disgusted by the idea of a commoner teaching them, but my history knowledge is rusty. Was there a known precedent for this (i.e. lower-class instructors for the wealthy)? Would such a person have a chance to speak as equals with the noble in rare occasions?


texts: What is the most advanced nonliterate society?

texts:
I got to thinking some more recently about the interrelation of societal advancement and information availability. That got me wondering about the limits.

In short, what is the most advanced society that has been shown to exist with no writing?

Yes, I know "advanced" is way too subjective. So for the purposes of this question, let's replace that with largest in terms of human members of the society. So what was the largest known population of an nonliterate political unit in history?

I'm not interested in parasitic societies like the medieval Mongols, who get what they have only by conquering more advanced literate states (also, the Mongols technically weren't nonliterate after 1204, but hopefully you get the idea).

Also, I'm not concerned here about cause and effect. Perhaps large organized societies naturally create writing when they need it, or perhaps they just can't get past a certain size without it. Either way, I want to know what the biggest was.

At first I thought the Aztecs might qualify, but no they had codexes. The Inca had Quipu. The pre-contact Tongans might be a candidate at around 20k(?), as might Cahokia if they indeed had no writing. Some of the New Guineans might be in the running too, but I don't know how large any of their pre-contact political units ever got.


texts: How could Plato know 9,000 year old stories about Atlantis?

texts:
Atlantis "island of Atlas" is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC.

(Seleucid Empire 323-360 BC)

According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune"
9600-360=9240 B.C

how Plato knows  9,240 years!!! before himself!?

(It may be that he has exaggerated history)


texts: Does the world become more prosperous when divided?

texts:
Matt Ridley in Rational Optimist says that countries are prosperous when divided due to competition among government. Countries are backward when united.
According to this theory, China advanced after dividing. Sung is after chaos that followed the Tang dinasty.

During the Ming dynasty, the Chinese send one big freakin fleet. After some reasonable success of the fleet, the one government unilaterally stopped the  expedition and prohibit all ships production to prevent private enterprise from sailing ahead.

These stupid decisions can't be made collectively by Europeans. Europeans consist of many countries and no one idiotic emperor can prevent the whole civilization from exploring.

This explains why Europe became far more advanced than the Chinese.

Yet, Europeans do not seem to prosper when the Roman Empire fell and they got divided into many smaller tribes fighting each other.

So what's the catch?

Does Mr. Ridley's theory stand up when examined across history? Are there counterexamples or alternative compelling theories?


texts: Why did the Spanish take the island of Annobon in the Treaty of El Pardo in 1778?

texts:
The conditions of the Treaty of El Pardo (1778) have always been a mystery to me. From Wikipedia:

  The Treaty of El Pardo was signed on March 11, 1778 between Queen Maria I of Portugal and King Charles III of Spain. The treaty aimed at resolving long-standing territorial disputes arising from non-observance of the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas and subsequent treaties to resolve the matter. Most recently, was the continued strife at the southern tip of Portuguese advance into region of the Misiones Orientales and present-day Uruguay and parts of Paraguay, the Spanish–Portuguese War, 1761–1763 and the Spanish–Portuguese War, 1776–1777.
  The main issue was the penetration by Portuguese Bandeirantes deep into the South American hinterland, in violation of the division imposed by the treaty of Tordesillas. The new treaty recognised the principle of uti possidetis, already followed in earlier treaties. However, doing so recognised Portuguese dominion over vast swathes of present-day Brazil, whereas the Spanish had stayed out of Africa in observance of the Treaty of Tordesillas.
  To compensate for this imbalance, Queen Maria agreed to cede the islands of Annobón and Bioko (Fernão Pó) to King Charles, as well as the Guinea coast between the Niger River and the Ogoue River. The island of Formosa (named Fernão do Pó during Portuguese rule) was officially renamed and recognized as Fernando Poo.

Now, this all sounds fine, except, looking at a map, it starts to make less sense:

The Spanish decided to take Annobon instead of, say, Principe. Why? I understand they may have had a limited offer (maybe the Portuguese preferred to keep Principe, it was more valuable) but is this the only reason behind it?

It even led to Annobon being in a state of virtual anarchy for some time (due to rejecting the Spanish colonization and being hard to manage from such a large distance from the Rio Muni and Fernando Po colonies).

Can anyone shed some light on this subject?


texts: Christmas trees - real or fake? When did the U.S. Christmas tree consumer begin preferring artificial trees to real trees?

texts:
Source: National Christmas Tree Association via Statista.
Background
Our family was watching (again) A Christmas Story last night, and during the scene where the Old Man is bargaining to purchase a Christmas tree, he starts haggling with the salesman:

You know the neighbors bought one of those brand new plastic trees... the thing looks like it was made of...green pipe cleaners!

Obviously in the 1940's, artificial trees were still rather new (and not very realistic). But over the decades since then they have improved. In fact, from the data I have been able to find thus far, since at least 2013 (perhaps even further back than that), anywhere from 75% to 80% of Americans who display Christmas trees in their homes use artificial instead of real trees. This may seem counter-intuitive when looking at the annual purchase breakdowns in the info graphic above, but the key is that artificial trees are kept and used from year to year anywhere for four to eight (or more) years, whereas real trees last only one holiday season and must be purchased fresh again the following year.
I have been looking for annual tree preference trends, and I'm sure I'm close with the sources I have searched included below - but so far I have been unable to find trend data that would reveal what I am looking for in the question, namely:
Question
At what point in American history did annual artificial Christmas tree usage (not purchases) exceed 50%, thus eclipsing the use of real trees in American homes during the holiday season?
Sources:

Treetopia - Christmas Tree Statistics
The Times News - By the numbers: Real vs fake Christmas trees;
Statista;
American Christmas Tree Association - Most American households will celebrate Christmas with a Christmas tree;
On the House - Choosing a real Christmas, or artificial, tree and the History of the festive tree;
Bradenton Herald - Christmas tree farmers combat popularity of artificial trees;
How Stuff Works - Christmas Tree Trends;
Wikipedia - Christmas tree - Artificial trees;
Wikipedia - Christmas tree production.


texts: Were women the property of men prior to 1919 in the UK?

texts:
It was suggested in a TV interview that I saw that prior to 1919 in the UK, women were owned by men. An example to solidify this, was women taking on their husbands last name.
My question is:

Were women not been able to own property, mean that they were in
fact, property themselves? As in, they could not own land, but could
they just not leave their husband and go back to their families if
they wished?
Was it not the case that people who owned land in
general, were the aristocracy? Meaning that the vast majority of
both men and women in the UK did not have land to own? (Similar to
the TV show Poldark and Jane Austen novels.)

The video in question is a thirteen minute excerpt from the interview of Jordan Peterson recently by Helen Lewis.

0:48: Lewis states:

You had a system where one set of people owned another set of people. Until women got full legal rights, [where] they could own property themselves, [and] they could work, essentially they were owned by their fathers and then by their husbands.


texts: Did Richard II of England willingly abdicate the throne to Henry of Bolingbroke?

texts:
The Wikipedia article for Richard II explains that there are contradictory accounts of what happened when Henry of Bolingbroke usurped Richard II's throne in 1399.

According to the official record (read by Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, during an assembly of lords and commons at Westminster Hall on Tuesday 30 September), Richard gave up his crown willingly and ratified his deposition citing as a reason his own unworthiness as a monarch. On the other hand, the Traison et Mort Chronicle suggests otherwise. It describes a meeting between Richard and Henry that took place one day before the parliament's session. The king succumbed to blind rage, ordered his release from the Tower, called his cousin a traitor, demanded to see his wife and swore revenge throwing down his bonnet, while the duke refused to do anything without parliamentary approval.

Which account is more accurate?


texts: Was lying morally wrong in Medieval Europe?

texts:
It is my understanding that in medieval Europe, practical jokes were popular, tales from distant lands were often greatly exaggerated, and deception was common in the market place (baking stones in bread, covering rotten grain with fresh grain to hide it, making pots out of soft metal and coating them with harder metal... the list goes on).

These behaviors, if seen today, are/would be seen as morally wrong.

Was lying and deception considered as morally wrong in the middle ages as it is now, or was it more acceptable?


texts: Is there any evidence of arachnophobia in ancient history?

texts: Are there any sources that would tell us whether (any) ancient Greeks or Romans were afraid of spiders?


texts: Names in England during the Tudor period

texts: While watching the Tudors, one thing I noticed was that most male first names were either Thomas, Charles or Edward. Is that historically accurate and if so, is there a reason behind this lack of name variety? (Like a religious reason for instance)


texts: How serious was the initiative to create "One World Airline"?

texts:
I came across this in the provenance of a map of airmail routes in 1940:

  Lloyd Welch Pogue (October 21, 1899 – May 10, 2003) American aviation lawyer and chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Pogue, a native of Grant, Iowa, was instrumental in forming the policy structure that led civil aviation through World War II and into the booming Post-War Period. He was appointed Chairman of the CAB by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he served as Chairman until 1946. During his tenure Pogue helped strike down a plan for a single world airline.

(Italics mine)
United States Air Mail Service Post Office Department.

I can find references to the 1944 Chicago Conference, in which Pogue was a major contributor, but I can only find mention of the results, the "Five Freedoms of the Air".

Was there a serious effort by any country or party to create "one world airline" in this period?  If so, how instrumental was Pogue in defeating this idea and implementing the system that emerged?  The issue (and its resolution) seems to me to be terrifically indicative of how the post-war order was envisioned.


texts:
I'm studying Thomas Cole's "Course of Empire" paintings, but despite what is implied through the artwork itself, I cannot find any references from Cole himself regarding his political motivations.

For example, this article essentially implies that he "harbored deep suspicions of democratic virtue."  I can understand why that conclusion is drawn, but cannot find actual source material where Cole makes these claims.

And if he never did, is it theoretically ok from a historical perspective to make assumptions such as that, based on his artwork alone and the frame of reference to the era he was active?


texts: How frequently did the KMT use telegrams to communicate; from where (roughly) and to whom?

texts:
This answer to the Chinese Language SE question Historical: How was Chinese written in telegrams and early computers? says (in part):

  Following is a telegram code "dictionary" used by Japan military that already decoded the Chiang Kai-shek KMT army telegram code during World war 2. Even USA military know about such "open code", but USA never notify Chiang Kai-shek about the issue of leaking military secret, because USA itself want to know KMT army movement.

and contains the image below.

Question: How frequently did the KMT used telegrams to communicate, from where (roughly) and to whom?

As pointed out in comments (1, 2) the data may never have been considered particularly "secret" as the code book in the image was used primarily to change Chinese characters encoded as numbers (a form transmittable via telegram; a method of endoding) into Japanese. See also Ciphers vs. Codes.


texts: How did the Dred Scott Decision contribute to the Civil War?

texts:
I have read numerous times that the Dred Scott Decision led to the Civil War in the United States, but I have been unable to find sources to support this. It seems that the Dred Scott Decision chiefly led to other contributing factors such as the split in the Democratic Party and the rise of Lincoln.

I was wondering how, therefore, the decision actually acted as a catalyst to the Civil War, and if there were any books or reputable sources that provide a clear story.


texts: Was there any urbanisation in ancient South India?

texts:
R.Champakalakshmi in her book Trade, ideology, and urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300 describes two urbanisation phases in Tamil Nadu. One is during early period (which she believes was stimulated by external trade), and the other was during the medieval Chola period (9th-13th Centuries):

  The major periods of urbanization  can be recognized in Tamil Nadu,
  the first coinciding with the  early centuries of the Christian era,
  i.e. the Sangam period, and  the second with the period of Colas, i.e.
  from the ninth to the  thirteenth centuries ad. The intervening
  period provides through  fairly large-scale agrarian expansion the
  basis tor the growth of  urban centres in the Cola period. (pp 205)

Apart from these two periods, do we know of any other Urbanisation phases in South India (say during the Pallava period or the Vijayanagar period)?


texts: What is the difference between "diallektes" and "aesymnetes"?

texts:
The terms "diallektes" and "aesymnetes" were there in Ancient Greece as tyrant-like positions. An aesymnetes or diallektes was chosen by a group of people or somehow by entire population in order to overcome a polis' (city-state's) troublesome times.

But I wonder, were there any difference between these two positions or were they identical? I searched for it but could not find anything.

As requested, edit; I searched it on google, stackexchange and quora. Frankly, I couldn't find anything, besides that people seem to me using these terms interchangeably, so I have wondered whether there is a difference or not.


texts: Did the Gallic army besieged in Alesia conduct itself well when expecting relief?

texts:
During a Gallic revolution against Rome, a Gallic army of some 80,000 men took shelter in the fortress town of Alesia, where they were besieged by some 50,000 Romans under Julius Caesar. (His army may also have included some non-combatants such as builders, wagon drivers, etc. that brought the total to 60,000 or 70,000.) Thus the Roman army was numerically inferior but qualitatively superior, having beaten the Gauls in a pitched battle at Gergovia.

Vercingetorix managed to send some cavalry through the Roman lines to seek help, (which was forthcoming), but otherwise did little to arrest the progress of the siege. Because of that fact, the Romans were able to complete a line of "circumvallation" fortifications between their lines and Alesia, and then another set of lines of "contravallation" between the OUTSIDE of their armies and the relieving forces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_%28military%29

One line of defense against the "mining" of a besieged city is "countermining." In this case, it would have consisted of constructing one or more trenches from Alesia perpendicular to the "circumvallation" fortifications. This would have allowed the Gauls to approach the Roman lines for hand-to-hand combat under the protection of their own trenches.

Would it have made sense for the Gauls to engage in an all-out war of attrition to disrupt the circumvallation process? They were no match for the Romans in open field, but might they have been more successful in a confined area, particularly in say, night attacks?

The purpose would NOT to break out, but to weaken the Romans vis a vis the relieving Gallic forces (of over 100,000), perhaps by trading casualties at a 2 to 1 ratio (40,000 Gauls for 20,000 Romans). And if they could set back the Romans' timetable so they could build only the inner wall but not the outer wall, might it have been worth it?

Given that the besieged Gauls were short of food other implications were 1) battlefield casualties would have meant fewer mouths to feed, and 2) the opportunity to capture some supplies from the Romans (most soldiers carried some of their own food).

Or was Vercingetorix's "better" option to wait for a battle on the "last day" before his besieged army ran out of food (as he did), even though he lost?


texts: When was the first time that concrete was used in Indian Subcontinent?


texts: What is the earliest known occurrence of woven rope mats / art?

texts:
I am curious as to the earliest recorded occurrence of woven rope mats such as the one below:

Similar patterns can be seen in Celtic knotwork and the Insular art style in the 600's+. But I was wondering about the crossover to fiber art.
Obviously rope isn't the best material for preservation, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
The practice is most commonly known for its use in the 1700's+.


texts: How many Samurai killed themselves compared to the actual number of Samurai and how many Samurai were dishonored but did not kill themselves?


texts: For instance, let's take the Younger Futhark alphabet. How do you build a word? By just getting the first letter or phoneme of the name of each rune? Or do they have a contextual meaning?


texts:
It is generally acknowledged that the Roman Empire reached its geographical zenith during Trajan's reign.  Listening to the highly interesting History of Rome podcast I didn't notice any major territorial losses at least until Severus who seemed in fact to have enlarged the empire.

How does the extent of the Roman empire under Trajan compare to that under Severus?  What territories were lost or abandoned after Trajan?


texts:
In ancient Rome, wine was drunk diluted with water, as discussed in this question.

When did it become common practice not to dilute wine, but to drink it as is?

I tried to look, and found nothing much on diluting after the Roman Empire. I know monasteries made wine, but I don't know if they drank it diluted or not. There's a scene in The Three Musketeers where Porthos is a guest at a house, and is disgusted to be served diluted wine. So by that point, (or by the time Dumas was writing,) diluting wine with water was associated with poverty/stinginess, and wine was commonly drunk undiluted. But I have nothing in between those two points in time.

(Note this question is specifically about wine, rather than other alcoholic drinks, such as absinthe.)


texts: Did the local population in North Africa resent the presence of the Germans during the Second World War?

texts: During the Second World War, did the Arabs of North Africa care at all that the Germans were invading their countries, or did they think that there was no difference between the Germans and France and Britain?


texts: What are the circumstances that lead to Kondou being the sole Shinsengumi leader?

texts:
After the assassination of Serizawa Kamo, this left Kondou and Tonouchi as the remaining faction leaders. From what I understand, Tonouchi knew or even helped Kondou get rid of Serizawa but, then, Kondou killed Tonouchi at Yojou bridge to become the sole Shinsengumi leader. Was this an assassination or was it some sort of duel that was agreed upon?

Either way, what did Tonouchi expect would happen after Serizawa's faction was wiped out?

Was Matsudaira Katamori involved, at all, in this? Did he expect Kondou to kill Tonouchi?


texts: Was there a policy of preemptive attack on foreign fleets in the British Empire?

texts: I heard many times that the British Empire had an official policy to attack anyone who was close to having a great flotilla able to challenge their sea dominance. I cannot find any sources about who declared this and when, how long it stood, and if it ever was an official policy.


texts: How did ancient Dravidians tell the time?

texts: Before the invention of clocks people used devices such as sundials, sandclock etc to know the time. Wikipedia gives you the measurements once used by south Indians (time,area, weight). My doubt is what is the ancient thamizh people used to know time. Are there any references stating they used devices to know time.


texts: Did early nineteenth century commoners know their royalty?

texts: I'm wondering if European commoners in the early nineteenth century knew who their royalty was.  I'm sure not all of them would have recognized them face to face because there may have been little interaction, but would, say, a teenage girl (a commoner) know the name of the monarch running her country?


texts: What were the six Mubarak assassination attempts?

texts: Today there's a story about Mubarak in the hospital. He ruled Egypt since 1981 but was overthrown in 2011. Wikipedia says he survived six assassination attempts during that 30-year period, however it mentions only a couple and the references given don't provide much detail.  What were those attempts and how were they thwarted or failed, and who was behind them?


texts: How have they traditionally handled safety on submarines in regards to "surface cruising"?

texts:
Ever since I was a kid, I've always had this fear/phobia that I would at some point end up on a submarine, and, while it's not under water, I would for whatever reason be standing on top of it, as is often seen in movies and which they clearly did from time to time for numerous reasons.

That in itself may not be the scariest thing in the world, as they seem to have a rail to hold on to.

However, the scary part comes with the fact that, at any given point, they can just close the hatch (or even have it closed while I'm still up there), forgetting that I'm up there (or not knowing it in the first place) and consequently submerge the submarine while I'm helplessly standing there, unable to make myself heard, and soon, I have nothing to stand on and I'm swimming around in the middle of the ocean, with certain death following unless they very quickly realize their mistake.

Do they have some kind of rigorous safety measure for this? Maybe that nobody can ever "shut the lid" from the inside unless they have carefully verified that they were the last person on the surface?

Do they have some kind of dedicated person keeping track of anyone going up on the surface and counting them as they go down, preventing the submarine from submerging unless that count matches up perfectly?

Even with those things in place, I just feel fundamentally freaked out about the idea of standing on a vehicle that is literally meant to primarily be underwater, and which can almost instantly go there at any point. Especially since I associate submarines with warfare, when quick decisions had to be made in order to not lose the entire crew and the submarine itself. What if they reasoned:

  That guy isn't crucial to our mission. Screw him! We can't wait for him to come down or the enemy will see us! Let's sacrifice him! And that's an ORDER! COMMENCE SUBMERGING PROCEDURE!


texts: Why were the Hecatomnid rulers of Caria permitted to marry their siblings?

texts:
Hecatomnus of Caria had three sons and two daughters. The elder two sons married a daughter each, and all five children would rule, successively, the state which their father founded.

Why was this allowed? Why did the nobles, soldiers, merchants and ordinary citizens of the realm - on whose good will any crown depends - not object to institutional incest? The culture of Caria in this period, as I understand things, was thoroughly Greek. I know that Greek mythology features some high-profile incest, but there seems to have been a strong current of revulsion towards incest all the same: see, for instance, Oedipus Rex.

The only comparable instance of royal incest which I know of is the Ptolemaic Dynasty. There the explanation is obvious: the common people were Egyptian, not Greek, and the Ptolemaic kings were simply restoring a very ancient Egyptian practice in marrying their sisters.

I have heard that Zoroastrianism - the religion practiced by the Achaemenid kings to whom the Hecatomnids pledged fealty - has endorsed incest as certain points in its history. But this seems to be a pretty murky issue and, as I understand things, the Achaemenid Dynasty itself never practised incest. (I'm genuinely happy to be contradicted on that last point.)


texts: Did the Russian Empire have a claim to Sweden? Was there ever a time where they could have pursued it?

texts: Consider that Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and the one that all Russian emperors after Catherine were descended from, would have been king of Sweden had his aunt not stolen the throne from him. Was there ever a time when the Tsars could have either attempted to take the Swedish throne or at the very least put a Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov on it?


texts: Are there any Ancient Greek texts showing concern for the fate of their slaves?

texts:
Augustus famously punished Vedius Pollio for being cruel to a slave. Do we know such stories showing concern for the slave in ancient Greece?

(I read, and listen to, several books/conference about Ancient Greece. I did not find anything about it. It might be because there is nothing to find).


texts: Number of humans that are killed by Alexander and Genghis Khan?

texts:
Is there any estimate of the number of people that were killed during the invasions and conquests of Alexander and Genghis Khan?

At least can tell me which one killed more people?
What percent of them were military vs civilian?


texts: How historically accurate is "Life is Beautiful" when it comes to Jewish extermination?

texts:
I want to ask about the movie Life is Beautiful

It is portrayed, in the movie, how that protagonist Jew is sent to extermination camp in Italy.

I thought Jews in Italy were not usually sent to concentration camps. Those who were usually survived. I thought Italians were not as anti-semitic as Hitler (something I do not know).

So I wonder if the story is historically accurate, or how accurate it is?


texts: Is there an explanation for the disproportionally small head of the Great Sphinx of Giza?

texts:
While I don't subscribe to the Orion correlation theory or the related water erosion theory, the head of the Great Sphinx of Giza is disproportionally small compared to its body. The fringe theories mentioned explain that by having the Sphinx be a statue of a lion, much older, which had its head reshaped to resemble that of a Pharaoh much later.

Is there a widely accepted explanation for its disproportionally small head?

Or is the head just not that small?


texts: What was the official position of China during the Sino-Soviet border clashes in the 1960s?

texts:
As I know, there was no mobilization, nor public alarm in the USSR. Also Sino-Soviet friendship treaty continued to function as well as all trade agreements throughout the whole period of clashes.

How this was possible? Did Chinese government made it clear that the conflict will not escalate and all the treaties remain in force? What was the official version of the clashes?

I suspect two variants

Chinese claimed that they were attacked themselves by the USSR but really wanted peace
Chinese claimed that the attacks on Russian territory were by uncontrolled units or groups.

Maybe there could be other explanation. Who knows what was the official Chinese position in reality?


texts: Why didn't Spain and Portugal become industrial powerhouses in the 20th century?

texts: Although Spain experienced a gruesome civil war, neither Spain nor Portugal participated in either the first or the second world wars. Despite their losses of millions of people, widespread destructionist of infrastructure and industry and -in some cases- even hefty reparation payments, other European countries have largely been more populous and prosperous than either Portugal and republican/nationalist Spain throughout most of the 20th century. Why?


texts: Is it true that Mussolini agreed to implement anti-Jewish laws in exchange for expulsion of Germans from Northern Italy?

texts:
I once read that Mussolini was reluctant to implement anti-Jewish legislation despite German pressure but agreed to do so in exchange for the expulsion of Germans from Northern Italy (including South Tyrol).

The claim is that Northern Italy had a dense German population and, given the territorial demands of Germany to adjacent states such as Poland and Czechoslovakia to cede the areas populated with Germans, Mussolini had good reason to be afraid of the possibility of similar demands to Italy.

After the deal was done, the Germans were forcibly expelled to Germany while a minority had to sign declarations that they were in fact Italians.

Germany did not resist the expulsion because, for Hitler, anti-Jewish measures were more important than protecting Germans.

I wonder how much truth there is in this story.

Update

A relevant Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tyrol_Option_Agreement


texts: Ratio of population to military size throughout European history?

texts: I realise that this is a fairly broad question, but I am trying to get a sense of the ratio between the total population and the size of the military that societies could support at different times and places throughout European history. My main interest would be comparing ancient Rome to dark ages Britain and Scandinavia (Vikings) and then to medieval and late medieval Britain and France. I'd be interested in how the social structure and economic setup of different societies effects the 'efficiency' through which they are able to support the largest military for a given population size.


texts: What role (if any) did lend-lease equipment play in the Second Battle of El-Alamein?

texts: I'm specifically thinking military materiel and its significance in the outcome of the Allied victory.


texts: What does CONOB mean on ancient Roman coins?

texts: I have stumbled across many depictions of Roman coins with the abbreviation CONOB on it, such as this one. What does it stand for?


texts: Who was the Englishman working in 1818 at Mission San Carlos?

texts:
Vasili Golovnin wrote in "Around the World on the Kamchatka":

  In the morning many of our officers and I went to the San Carlos Mission which is about five miles from Monterey on a small river and bay called Carmel.... The whole structure... also houses the storerooms and a workshop for making woolen blankets, which was started by an Englishman who is still managing it.

Who was the Englishman?


texts: Were deaf or blind people ever denied voting rights in the United States?

texts: I had never thought of this before. I know that some states do not allow people with intellectual disability to vote. Interestingly, it was not until 1964 that deaf women were allowed to vote it appears in elections within their own organization for the National Association of the Deaf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_history. I can find no indication that deaf adult males were ever prevented in voting in US elections but that may be false. As far as blind people, I wonder if literacy exams were used against them even if they could read braille.


texts: What was the purpose behind Charles II's charter for Connecticut squatter settlements?

texts:
In my US History book, the text reads the following:

  As a slap at Massachusetts, Charles II gave rival Connecticut in 1662 a sea-to-sea charter grant, which legalized the squatter settlements.

I don't understand why expanding Connecticut land would give Connecticut a cutting edge in the competitiveness between the colonies. My simple question is what was the purpose of this action? What could squatter settlements offer to the colony of Connecticut that was so important for Charles II to act as he did?

Thank you!


texts: How did medieval manors handle population growth? Was there room for more fields to be ploughed?

texts: Most villeins were bound to the manor and not allowed to move elsewhere. But what happened when the population grew? The size of the manor remained the same didn't it, so how did they keep up with the increased food requirement for all the people? As more people get born, new houses needed to get built and the village grew or perhaps a separate village was built on the manor, but there would have to be a need for more and more fields to grow food on, and more animals and pastures. So how did they solve this problem? Was overpopulation a big problem during the Middle Ages (at least before the Black Death)?


texts: Did Truman really believe that Hiroshima was a military base?

texts:
Harry Truman claimed, in his July 25, 1945 diary entry, that:

I have told [Stimson] to use [the first nuclear bomb] so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children.  Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old Capitol or the new.
He & I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives.

And in his August 9 radio address, he said:

The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians.

Supposedly he only found out it was a city when they got reports from Japanese of 200,000 dead.
In "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb," Harper's, 1947, Stimson says that he decided to use a "dual target plant surrounded by or adjacent to houses and other buildings most susceptible to damage," and to use it "without prior warning." He also that, on some unspecified date between July 16 and August 9,  "I approved four other targets including the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Could Truman really have been ignorant of the fact that Hiroshima was a city? Is there evidence as to whether he was misled on this point by Stimson? Is there evidence that he was lying in these statements? Or that he was engaging in self-deception to salve his conscience?


texts: Where did Germany get their oil during WW2?

texts: I understand some came from Romania, but that could have provided only a small portion of the oil needed.


texts: How could a black woman be transported directly from Africa to Britain in 1760s?

texts:
I am a screenwriter. Currently started developing a screenplay for a feature film with the story happening in Western Africa and Britain in 1770 (+/-).

I know that in Atlantic slave trade scheme ships were coming to Africa from Britain with goods, then slaves were taken and ships were going to America and coming back to Britain with goods from plantations.

My character is taken in Gold Coast, becomes a slave, but I would be happy to find any excuse for her not to be shipped to America, but to be taken straight to Britain.

I have found some links to trading ships, but all of them are going from Africa to America. I still try to find any evidence of any ships going from Africa to Britain directly.


texts: How likely it is that a nobleman of the eighteenth century would give written instructions to his maids?

texts:
This question is about a detail in the biography of one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, Henry Cavendish. The Wikipedia article about him states that

He communicated with his female servants only by notes.

It seems that this passage of the article is based upon the article Brownian motion, Loschmidt's number, and the laws of utter chaos, by Willy Ley (Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1966, pp. 94–106), where it is written that

Later in life he refused even to be in the same room with a woman and
gave his instructions to his maids in writing.

I have known this for years, but lately I have been having doubts about how likely is this to be true. Were London maids able to read in the eighteenth century? Or is it possible that those notes were only meant to be read by his housekeeper?


texts: When and where was the first naval gunnery school/college established?

texts: While I have found that the first naval battle including ship mounted cannon occurred in 1338. It would seem that the use of such weapons did not turn the tide of the battle. Further reading brought me to the assertion that the 16th century saw the change to gunpowder enabled naval artillery and not hand to hand tactics. Understandably, this change in weaponry would require a change in tactics and in skill for the combatants. Now, where and when were these changes pioneered by the formation of specialized schools, colleges or centers of research and learning? Or was this new technology handed down in an apprenticeship type fashion by those who hadn't blown their limbs off learning how to do it?


texts: At the Battle of Augusta, how did the French learn that de Ruyter was mortally wounded?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, in the Battle of Augusta (1676)

  The battle was a short but intense affair and ended abruptly when
  Duquesne, after hearing that De Ruyter had been mortally wounded,
  retreated.

Abraham Duquesne was the commander of the French fleet and Michiel de Ruyter the Dutch fleet. How did the French learn about the condition of the Dutch admiral, given that they are in different ships? For example, did they visually observe how badly he was wounded, or did the opposing ships communicate in some way?


texts:
We all know that the Iberian Peninsula is separated between two major countries Spain and Portugal. When and how was the country now known as Portugal formed?

Portuguese is very similar to the Galician language in northwestern Spain and not that much far from the official Castilian (Castellano), as I speak a bit and could understand a few words of Portuguese.

According to Wikipedia, Portugal was a part of the Roman Empire and mostly divided in two Roman provinces: Galicia and Lusitania. Which were then invaded by Germanic tribes and later by the Muslims. The article states that during the 9th century, the County of Portugal was created. Did it have at that time the same language? In the Iberian Peninsula there are many languages — Castilian, Galician, Catalan and Portuguese just to note some of them. I mean if the people felt they are Portuguese, how could they accept kings with Asturian origins?

My question is when exactly did Portugal became an independent country with its current language?

My focus is, was 9th century Portugal created by an "Asturian King" and was the dominant language there Portuguese?


texts: What factors made Austria adhere to "Diplomacy through marriage" doctrine?

texts:
Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube – ‘Let others wage war: thou, happy Austria, marry’.

Wikipedia doesn't say too much on the topic; but it's a frequently repeated historical anecdotal phrase.

What exactly was the origin of this foreign policy in Austria; and why was Austria special among other European powers (including other Hapsburgs) that they both tried and succeeded in it?


texts: Any information about the photo with Army Uniforms

texts: Found an old photo and want to identify which period does it belong to and where it could have been taken or which country are these soldiers from. Found word "Brattig" on the other side, maybe someone can tell me what it means?


texts: Which calendar to use in English for non-European countries?

texts:
When a modern historian is writing about European history in the English language, I know it is customary to use either the Julian or Gregorian calendar, whichever was in force in the time and place being written about.

But what about non-European countries that went directly from an indigenous calendar to the Gregorian calendar, and never used the Julian calendar? For example, Japan switched from a traditional luni-solar calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1873. So if an English-speaking historian were writing about Japan, would she use the Gregorian calendar for events as recent as 15 October 1582, and the Julian calendar before that? Would the Gregorian calendar be used even before it was officially created when writing about events in Japan?

Any references to accepted sources on how historians should write would be appreciated.


texts:
Historians reconstruct pantheons to better understand their role in society (see below for examples of reconstruction as a historical method).  Has there been any attempt to apply this historical method to the Semitic pantheon?

Please consider some of these reported findings of Biblical archaeology and Biblical criticism, from:

Kuntillet Ajrud
Khirbet el-Qom
Edomite culture archaeology
The synthesis of the Hebrew Bible as presenting Yahweh as "appearing" from Paran, "coming" from Sinai and Teman, "shining" and "exiting" from Seir with holy hosts and "Ashdat from his right, for them" and "marching" in storm from Edom field – along with the above findings.
The idea of an early Israelite approach according to which other gods exist (or can exist) and can be worshiped by non Israelites but shouldn't be worshiped by Israelites because they should only worship Yahweh → contrasted with a late Israelite approach according to which, Yahweh is the only god that ever existed, hence he was the god of this reality (or this cosmos), and worshiping other gods is a great sin.

An example for a reconstruction theory I look for:

A wide historical examination of Biblical archaeology and Biblical criticism, politics of the ancient near east (including the religious aspect of 'city states'), climate changes in the ancient near east, migrations inside the ancient near east and "religious innovation" in the ancient near east (Akhenaten and Yahwism), all can bring one to assume a discourse around several Canaanite polytheistic pantheons coexisting differently in different time periods, and I would like to learn more of it. For example:

Northern polytheistic Canaanite pantheon: Gods of Akkad, Phoenicia and Ugarit
Eastern polytheistic Canaanite pantheon: Gods of Aram-Damascus, Amon and Moab
Middle polytheistic Canaanite Pantheon: Gods of Judah, Israel, Edom and possibly Midianites and Nabataeans (might include El, Yahweh, Asherah Qos, Astarte, Anat, Baal and possibly also Ashdat)
Western polytheistic Canaanite pantheon: Gods of North Sinaitic nomads and Amalekites
Southern polytheistic Canaanite Pantheon: Gods of the Arabs and Habeshis.

The Yahwism sect rejected any such pantheon, of course.

My question

Have historians attempted to reconstruct the polytheistic Semitic pantheon, dividing it into sub pantheons?


texts: The original Lord Haw Haw's life in exile (Ireland)

texts:
I am writing a biography about my great uncle "Capt Tom Smith" who fought in WW1, WW2 and the Spanish Civil War

During recent interviews the name Norman Baillie Stewart (wiki link) keeps cropping up as a close associate during his time in Ireland.

Background

Norman Baillie-Stewart (15 January 1909 – 7 June 1966) was a British army officer known as The Officer in the Tower when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. An active sympathizer of Nazi Germany, he took part in German-produced propaganda broadcasts and is known as one of the people associated with the nickname Lord Haw-Haw.

Question

Stewart's biography "The Officer in the Tower" shares a lot of detail about his life but very little about his last 16 years exiled in Ireland.  It's probably a long shot to ask this here, but I would really be keen to understand anything about his life in Ireland, or see serious suggestions where I can carry out additional research.


texts: Stalin cultivated a "Friend of the Children" image: Why? Did other communist/socialist leaders do the same?

texts:
Part of Stalin's cult of personality was his promulgation of a "Friend of the children" image.

What was the reason for this?

What other communist or socialist leaders also used this tactic?

(I know that the first Prime Minister of India, JawaharLal Nehru, tried to create a persona of 'Chacha Nehru'.)


texts: Why did the Austrofascists fight with the National Socialists and vice versa?

texts: In another question I mentioned that the Austrofascists fought the National Socialists. Why? Did they have any important ideological differences?


texts: Why was a civilian chosen over two military officers to be mission commander of Apollo 11?

texts:
Neil Armstrong was a civilian when he joined NASA's astronaut corps. He became the first civilian in space.

Buzz Aldrin was on active duty in the US Air Force during his astronaut training for NASA. He retired as a colonel on March 1, 1972.

Michael Collins was also on active duty in the US Air Force when he was selected for astronaut training by NASA. He eventually retired as a major general.

Why did NASA select a civilian to lead the first mission to put humans on the moon?

Almost all other Apollo astronauts were military officers in the Navy or Air Force. The only other civilian was the geologist, Harrison Schmitt.


texts:
Wikipedia has this to say about it:

  Arabic (Arabic: العَرَبِيَّة, Al-ʻarabiyyah [ʔalʕaraˈbijːah] (
  listen) or Arabic: عَرَبِيّ ʻarabiyy [ʕaraˈbijː] ( listen)) is the
  Classical Arabic language of the 6th century and its modern
  descendants, excluding Maltese.

However, let's consider Vabalathus, the son of Zenobia, empress of the Palmyrene Empire, who lived in the 3rd century:

From Wikipedia:

  Lucius Iulius (Julius) Aurelius Septimius Vabalathus Athenodorus
  (259-273) was a king of the Palmyrene Empire. Vabalathus is the
  Latinized form of his name in the Arabic language, Wahb Allat or gift
  of the Goddess.

The important part is "Latinized form of his name in the Arabic Language."

What form of the Arabic Language was spoken in the mid-3rd century?


texts: How strong a land force did Germany need for a conquest of the British Isles in the summer of 1940?

texts:
In 1942, America's General Eisenhower summed up his gloomy assessment of an invasion of Nazi-held Europe in the "reverse" direction as 50-50 to get one division ashore, and one chance in five (20 per cent) to maintain a five division bridgehead. While this may have been a "guess," it certainly qualified as an "expert" opinion.

I'm going to assume that the German naval and air forces would play their roles as described below.

The German navy feared that it could get only "so many" men across the English Channel before losing every ship. Then the air force would have to re-supply and reinforce the landed men (in the manner of Crete) before the Germans could finally accumulate enough men to overwhelm the British army and occupy the British Isles:

What did either contemporary German or British strategists or planners, or recognized historians in hindsight, have to say about any of the following questions:

How large a force X, was necessary to establish and maintain a beachhead that could only be resupplied and reinforced by air?
How large an additional force, Y, would be necessary to complete the occupation? Put another way, what was the necessary sum of X+Y to defeat the British army?
How strong were the British land forces available in Britain in the summer of 1940?


texts: Were there any wars in ancient Greece where religion played a major part?

texts:
I know that the Greeks had a god of war and many other deities associated with warfare in some respect. I also know that the Greeks would consult the oracles for advice prior to their military endeavours. But what i am unsure of is whether there where any conflicts in the ancient Greek world which resembled closely the crusades of medieval times in terms of ideology and propaganda?

The only example i know of the top of my head is Alexander the Great's war against the Persians where he "exacted revenge" for their burning of the Greek temples:

  "He also set the Persian palace on fire against the advice of Parmenion, who argued that it was ignoble to destroy what was now his own property and that the peoples of Asia would not pay heed to him in the same way if they assumed he had no intention of governing Asia but would merely conquer and move on. [12]But Alexander declared that he wanted to pay back the Persians, who, when they invaded Greece, had razed Athens and burned the temples, and to exact retribution for all the other wrongs they had committed against the Greeks. It seems to me, however, that in doing this Alexander was not acting sensibly, nor do I think there could be any punishment for Persians of a bygone era."

-Arrian: 3.18.11-12


texts:
I have a quote in my commonplace book attributed to Aristotle but I cannot find the source. Googling the quote verbatim or substrings of it has not turned up neither the quote itself nor any variation thereof.

I was hoping to get some help, maybe someone else has come across the same quote and where and who actually said it.

The quote is,

  Wear the mask of a good man long enough and you become that good man


texts: What were the factors that caused the world to move away from the Gold Standard in the 20th century?

texts:
For most of the world's history for thousands of years, gold was used as the medium of exchange for money. The world gradually moved off the gold standard in the 20th century.

What were the factors that caused the Gold Standard to be less workable in the 20th century than historically?


texts: What was the official policy of British administration about the integration of Indian Princely States in 1947?

texts:
What direction was given in Indian Independence Act, 1947 about the political integration of Princely States during the partition of India?

What policy was introduced by the British authority about the political integration of princely states of India in 1947 during the partition of India?

Was that policy official?


texts: Did Arabs actually raise a red flag on the dome of their commander's marquee during the Haraam months?

texts:
This answer to the question What is the purpose of putting a red flag on the dome of Hussain ibn Ali(as)'s shrine? states that if Arabs were at war with each other, during the Haraam months there would be a ceasefire (temporarily). To notify the opponent about it they would raise a red flag on the dome of their commander's marquee, and would resume thereafter.

Is that correct?

If so, how, when and why was this custom adopted?


texts: What is this decorative metal object with overlapping squares?

texts:
Can anyone identify this object?
Found in a rockpool, exposed at low tide, just East of the entrance to Plymouth Sound, South West UK.
It feels like it's made of metal. There's a square in the centre with a square hole in it, with smaller squares on each corner, each with a circular hole in their centres.
The four smaller squares each have small circular depressions that appear to have been stamped into the top face on each of their corners. The outer squares might be shaped to curve slightly around the depressions, possibly making the shape of flower petals.
The bottom is plain with no decoration.
None of the markings or holes are uniform, suggesting it wasn't mass produced or made by a machine. It might be wear from being in the sea, but it appears handmade.
The corners have been bent upwards, more on one side than the other.
The sides are about 3cm long.
It's a few mm thick and weighs about 8 grams.
There's a green/grey tarnishing over most of it, on the edges where this appears to have worn through the metal has a gold/bronze colour.
I've looked through the British Museum collection for anything square and metal and tried reverse image searches and some generic keywords but I haven't seen anything similar enough to narrow my search yet.
Any hints as to its age, purpose and/or where to start looking for more information are appreciated.
Images below:


texts: Which ranks of concubine resided in the gong and yuan respectively?

texts:
Background/ TLDR
Having at long last gained access to this source by a certain Mr. Woo and with the support of the answers to my previous question I can finally gather some statistics on successions in the different dynasties. But there are still some things left unclear.
The rule of succession expounded on page 629 (in my opinion he actually states two different rules, so the second, that he seems to focus on), says (to my understanding) the following:

If there are 嫡子 (sons of the Empress) pick the eldest
Else pick the eldest from among the sons of the 36 consorts (Woo uses “wives”) residing in the palaces gong（宫）。
Failing even that, pick a son of the remaining 72 consorts (Woo: “concubines”) from the subpalaces yuan (院）

Note that Woo believes this rule to have remained in function between the end of Zhou and the beginning of Qing with a small change (number of empresses) in the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
Difficulty
Even if the record of consorts’ promotions and demotions in the dynastic histories is not gapless, the information therein concerns promotions to particular ranks. Never have I seen consorts assigned to 宮 or 院。As a result, I must find the correspondence between ranks in the body of consorts and 宮 or 院。
I first hoped it might be enough to identify the 36 most high ranking court ladies below the empress. This can be done for example here. But the results are very doubtful.
Instead of 36+72 =108 ladies below rank of empress, the early Tang
have 40 + 81 = 121 ladies (I have now confirmed this arrangement from 新唐書 here ) .If I take the first 36, the cut would fall within 5th rank. Later Tang has but 82 in total. On the Ming the information on the site is incomplete.
Another piece ostensibly from the Zhou Rites (周禮) (but actually, I think from a commentary thereof) that mentions 宮, but not 院 is cited here. It appears though, that ALL 121 consort are classified into 宮, the higher their rank, the fewer per 宮：

六宫即前一宫，后五宫。后五宫指后一宫；三夫人一宫；九嫔一宫；二十七世妇一宫；八十一御妻一宫。后正位宫闱，体同天王；夫人坐论妇礼；九嫔掌教四德；世妇主知丧祭宾客；女御序王燕寝。

Question
Can anyone provide clear information about which ranks of consort resided in the 宮 and 院 respectively?
In case Woo‘s Information is contradicted, additional pointers as to the role of these in succession would be appreciated, but can also be posted under the more specialised question.


texts: What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Hitler died?

texts:
What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Adolf Hitler died? I see that after Hitler's suicide in April 1945, Joseph Goebbels succeeded as Chancellor of Germany for a single day before committing suicide himself, and best I can tell, nobody succeeded Goebbels before Nazi Germany was dissolved.

Did Joseph Goebbels' historical succession match the Nazi Party's planned line of succession (i.e. would he have succeeded Hitler at an earlier date of, say, 1939 or 1942)? If both Hitler and Goebbels were to have been killed together at an earlier date, who would have been next in line to lead the country?


texts: To what uniform these shoulder straps belong?


texts: When did Canada become truly independent?

texts: I see that Canada became independent in 1867. But someone told me it wasn't truly independent until the 1980s. Is that true? In what sense is it true? I don't see anything about it in that article or in the See Also section.


texts: What advantage did Napoleon gain by attacking and antagonizing the Catholic Church?

texts:
In 1796, Napoleon invaded Italy and defeated the papal army. The French troops took Pope VI prisoner and he died in captivity seven months later.

The risks to a politician in antagonizing such a powerful entity as the Vatican are enormous while the tangible benefits are little. Unlike other colonized countries, the Vatican does not have much natural resources or workers to exploit. However, being a major religion in Europe, the support it holds in the European population is mighty. Even today when the political power of Christian leaders has waned compared to hundreds of years ago, very few(or zero) Western leaders dare to offend the Church. It does not look like a smart move by Napoleon to antagonize the all-powerful Catholic Church unless there are huge advantages to be gained.

What advantages did Napoleon gain by attacking and antagonizing the Catholic Church?

This question assumes that Napoleon was a shrewd politician who made calculated moves and not a hot-tempered person who makes decisions on his whims (I don't like you, so I attack).