texts: What was Higo domain's relevance with respect to the Meiji Restoration and later (internal) politics?

texts:
Normally, when the Meiji Restoration is considered, the "victors" are listed as Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa. This materialised in Satsuma and Choshu leading Imperial Japan's Army while Satsuma and Tosa commanded the Navy, with the three sharing political power.

I was, therefore, surprised to see Ryōtarō Shiba mention a fourth "victorious" domain, Higo:

  ... the four victorious domains at the time of the Restoration—Satsuma, Chōshū, Tosa, and Higo—...

  —Shiba, 'Clouds above the Hill, Vol. 1'

What was Higo domain's relevance with respect to the Restoration and later (internal) politics?

There are no other specific mentions to the Higo domain (WP offers an alternative name as Kumamoto domain) in that series except for one, described below. WP doesn't mention anything useful on Higo or Kumamoto regarding the Restoration in the domain's article, nor in the article regarding the Restoration, nor in the one on the Bakumatsu. I tried some Google searches and those also came empty on this domain in general.

The only other hint that Shiba offers with respect to the Higo domain was when Matsunaga Masatoshi, from Higo, was assigned as Nogi Maresuke's Chief of Staff (a pretty important post) without any official training and despite advanced age:

  Matsunaga was from Kumamoto Prefecture. The other fresh major generals were still in their mid-forties, but Matsunaga was already fifty-five and had no official staff training; however, he was known for his skill in combat.

  —Shiba, 'Clouds above the Hill, Vol. 3'

Matsunaga fell ill and died soon after so he doesn't feature in the story for long. Yet, an (academically) unsupported rise to chief of staff cannot be the only link that a domain had to being 'victorious' in the Restoration (and there's no specific proof of this link in that quotation). So, what else is there (if anything)?

While Shiba was a writer of fiction, his works were exceptionally well researched though there are some minor errors.

  As a writer of historical novels, Shiba felt obliged to respect historical
  facts, which were, after all, “the common property of a country’s people.”
  Since his novel dealt with events that many could still remember, he was at
  pains to make sure that he made no mistakes. “I couldn’t write anything
  perfunctory,” he later recalled, “so I was very nervous—it was exhausting.
  A novel is fundamentally fiction, but I decided absolutely not to write
  anything fictional about the war. . . . I could not make a mistake about the
  day or hour when a naval vessel or an army unit was in a particular place.
  It just would not do.”

  Although Shiba described the novel as “historical fiction,” none of the
  characters is fictional, that is, entirely imagined. The book is based on
  extensive, and probably exhausting, research in the voluminous archives of
  published private memoirs, personal diaries, military and naval histories, and
  diplomatic records about the Russo-Japanese War. As the twenty thousand
  volumes in his personal library attest, Shiba was a voracious consumer of
  research material, sometimes spending millions of yen on his projects. It
  was said that once he began collecting books on a subject he quickly
  cornered the market. The playwright Inoue Hisashi, who was writing a play
  about the Russo-Japanese War while Shiba was gathering research material,
  discovered that none of the stores in the famous Jimbōchō used-bookstore
  district in Tokyo had anything left.

  —Duus, 'Clouds above the Hill, Vol. 1', Introduction


texts: Was there a German re-urbanization plan for after WWII?

texts:
Was there a Germany-wide re-urbanization plan for after the WWII? I don't mean a hypothetical Nazi re-building plan, but a real implemented plan.
All these things would get intense resistance in normal times, but since many big cities were destroyed anyway, wouldn't that be the perfect opportunity to re-think them: get parks, broad avenues, ring roads, bigger downtown train stations and so on?


texts: Does Hitler's "Mein Kampf" contain hints that he wanted to exterminate Jews on the scale that actually happened?

texts:
Imagine I live in 1933-1934 and read Hitler's "Mein Kampf". Is there anything in this book that would make me think the Nazis seriously intend to kill between 6 and 17 million Jews?

I haven't read the book. On Wikipedia I read that

this book contains the idea of forcing the Jews to emigrate to Madagascar,
extermination of "international poisoners" (however, it's not clear whether he meant all Jews or only influential ones),
he claims that killing of 12000-15000 Jews at the start of World War I would be beneficial for Germany (however, 12000-15000 people is very different from 6-17 million people),
he dislikes Soviet Bolshevism (however, only a tiny proporition of Soviet Jews were actually members of Bolshevik government; if he wanted to eradicate Bolshevism, he needed to kill only that tiny fraction).

None of this suggests that at the time of writing Hitler intended to kill millions of people.


texts: How many javelins would a Thracian Peltast carry into battle?

texts: According to the Wikipedia page on Thracian Peltasts, they carried several javelins with them. I am just wondering how many could they realistically carry into battle. Also, would they run back to their supplies to carry more? How would the battle play out for a peltast as the battle wore on?


texts: Why didn't the Roman maniple make a comeback in the Renaissance?

texts:
In the late Medieval/Renaissance period, the concept of the Greek phalanx reappeared in the shape of the pike square.

But, while the maniple system was by no means a straight counter of the phalanx, the Romans managed to defeat it and conquer Greece.

So, in an Europe studying the classics and the spiritual successor of the phalanx proving its effectiveness, did anyone try to adapt the Roman tactics?


texts: Is there evidence of people moving east to Europe?

texts:
We know that the Inuits moved from present-day Alaska to Greenland, but did they move any farther east? At least to Iceland or the other Nordic countries?

They would have to cross the Atlantic which wouldn't be the easiest, but the fact that they moved so quickly from Alaska to Greenland, makes me wonder whether they expanded any further.


texts: Why didn't Tiberius Gracchus seek the consulship?

texts:
Tiberius Gracchus tried to push through his reforms programme while holding the magistracy of a tribune of the plebs.

I wonder, though, why he did not try to get elected as consul (very likely given his family connections and personal distinction) and to enact his reforms then. This would have taken more time but wouldn't it have a better prima facie chance of working out?

Or was he afraid of getting saddled with a veto-wielding conservative colleague in the consulship?

Are there ancient or modern sources discussing this angle?


texts: Why wasn't San Marino unified with Italy?

texts: Why wasn't San Marino unified with the Kindom of Italy during the unification process? Were there plans or efforts at the time to unify the two states? Did either government at any time try to annex the other state?


texts:
Applying the Doppler Effect to the breaking of the sound barrier would have allowed scientists to predict that a shockwave (a "boom") would be created before pilots began actually breaking the sound barrier. The Doppler Effect was discovered in 1842, long before planes could break the sound barrier.

When pilots began to break the sound barrier and create those booms, where scientist baffled and confused? Or, were they expecting that boom / shockwave?

Before Chuck Yeager, planes were breaking the sound barrier and creating booms but they then were crashing because the airframe / wings could not withstand the force of supersonic flight. So, no one knows when the first booms were noted by scientists. I just wonder how long it took for this very unexpected phenomenon to be figured-out. Or, was it even predicted because of the Doppler Effect?


texts: What alternate north-south supply routes did the Soviet Union have when the Volga and Stalingrad were under attack?

texts:
During World War II, an important route for getting supplies to Russia was the Persian Corridor. After landing on the south coast of Iran, Lend Lease supplies could be transported north across the country, to the Caspian Sea. From there, they could be shipped along or across the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan, and from there, up the Volga River, past Stalingrad, to northern Russia. Ditto for Russian supplies, oil and minerals, from the Caucasus. Ammunition and other industrial goods could be sent in a reverse direction from north to south.
During Fall Blau in the second half of 1942, the Germans captured about 90% of Stalingrad, and were able to use air and artillery interdiction to interrupt the flow of supplies north and south along the Volga. My understanding was that the Russians fell back on a number of railroads east of the Caspian Sea, and parallel to the Volga.
How far "east" were these alternate routes, and how "defendable" were they against German air and artillery attack? Did the Russians in 1942 have, or create, further "back up" north-south routes (roads, railroads, canals) even further east that were reasonably secure?


texts:
I don't know if this question belongs precisely at History.SE, but I can't think of a more fitting alternative.

I've heard the estimate several times that about 100 billion humans have existed throughout human history. (I guess this depends somewhat arbitrarily on when you start counting our ancestors as human, but let's say we've settled on a fixed beginning moment and work with that for the rest of this question.)

When had half of all humans who have ever existed (until today) been born already? If the 100 billion number is correct, then I'm asking when the 50 billionth person was born.

Note that whatever the answer is, we can say that most of the humans who have ever existed were born after that date (or since slightly before that date).


texts: Was Alexander the Great undefeated in every battle?

texts: I have heard people refer to Alexander the Great as one of the greatest military commanders of all time because he was "undefeated in battle" during his lifetime. Is this true? I can imagine him winning every war that he fought but to win every battle seems like an incredible feat. Do we know of any individual battles that he outright lost?


texts: How did the king give land to new barons without taking it from the old ones?

texts:
I'm curious on how feudalism (in medieval England primarily) worked in practice. It's pretty straight forward on paper. This is my trail of thoughts, trying to wrap my head around it.

I have just conquered a new land and declared myself the king. I have 99 loyal barons, so I give them one manor each, dividing the land into 100 parts, keeping the largest piece for my self (of course!), in exchange for their continued loyalty and 40 days of military service every year. But they don't want to fight themselves so they decides to divide their manors into smaller manors and give them to their knights, let's say they get three knights each, so now there are 99 * 4 + 1 = 397 manors (99 manors, divided into 4 smaller ones, plus my own big manor). This all works out fine for me, because I still get to collect taxes as well as I now have 99 * 3 = 297 knights in my army rather then just 99 - great! But now I get three sons, and I want to give them some land as well, what do I do? I guess I could divide my own manor into four parts and give them one manor each, but then I would loose wealth myself, wouldn't I since my manor is now smaller, or doesn't that matter, they are still paying taxes to me I guess? Or should I give my sons someone else's manor, but that would leave me with some rather disappointed barons, and that doesn't sound good. England has got quite a lot of civil wars through history though, perhaps that's the reason? Or was it that those first 100 manors I divided the country in wasn't in fact all land in the country, and up until now there have been "unused" land that no one was managing, but now that I have tree sons I can give them parts of that land?

I think that the Domesday book list something like 9000 manors, or at least I think that there are around 10000 shires in England today, that roughly corresponds to the old manors. But how many manors were there in the beginning (around 1066)? Did William the Conqueror sit down directly after the battle of Hastings and divided his new country into 10000 manors just like that, or did they pop up one by one as the years went by?

To clarify the question, it is the continues division of the land over centuries to come that I'm curious about, how did they do it without stepping one someone toes and stealing land from someone else?


texts: What sovereign Jewish polities have existed outside of Palestine?

texts: Which sovereign Jewish polities have existed outside of Palestine, and when did they exist?  Off the top of my head, I can think of the Himyarites in Yemen, but I seem to recall there being others.


texts: Why did Sweden and Norway become the vassals of Denmark?

texts: In what area was Denmark more superior to those countries, so that it dominated them, such as military, trade, dynastic matters, political culture? How strong was the leadership of Denmark, and was it formal to the point that they were able to lead the country into wars, or enhance development, etc.? How long did this last?


texts: What happened to foreign investments of enemy citizens during WW2?

texts: Were property rights of foreigners respected when war broke out and did they lose their foreign investments?


texts: Was feudalism a necessary step on the path to modern political and economic systems?

texts:
There is no one commonly accepted definition of Feudalism, but we can broadly define it as a system of reciprocal obligations between landowners and serfs. It was the dominant system of politics and economics in medieval Europe.

However, as far as I can tell most major civilizations passed through a similar stage, often before adopting something we'd regard as a recognizable modern political settlement. It is common to hear of a feudal period in Shogunate Japan, for example. A little research suggests that the Zhou Dynasty in China, Moghul India and the early Ottoman Empire could all be described as "feudal" under our rough definition.

The reasons for feudalism to arise in all these cases differs in the detail but does seem to be linked to the total or partial collapse of a single, stable ruling power.

So my question is: can we mark Feudalism as a necessary stage in the development of modern democratic or dictatorial government? If so, why? And if not, are there any examples of advanced societies that have not passed though this stage?


texts: Early modern vs late modern vs post modern?

texts:
I frequently come across these three terms, but I haven't been able to find a source that explains the difference between all three of them precisely.

Here's what I think I know now:

The early modern period is roughly around the 1500s - 1800s. It
begins with European exploration and ends around the period of the
French Revolution.
The late modern period follows the early modern period and ends
around World War 2.

Now, here's where I'm lost:

1) Is the modern period defined by both the early modern period and late modern period?

2) How does "post modern" period fit into to the picture? It should logically follow the late modern period, but some sources refer to this period as the "modern era" as well. Which doesn't make sense to me because it's not the "modern era", it's "post modern".


texts: How widespread was the notion that space travel was impossible prior to the successful launch of Sputnik 1?

texts:
Prior to the successful launch of Sputnik 1, there were some who believed that space travel was impossible. I would like to know how widespread this notion was, particularly "in scientific and engineering circles" (as Goddard said) but also throughout academia and in the public (if record exists).

I'm primarily interested in three time periods: 1945 (when Goddard said the subject was still to be avoided) to 1957 (the launch of Sputnik 1), 1923 (when Oberth first proposed space travel with rockets) to 1945, and 1865 (the publication of From the Earth to the Moon) to 1923.

Before 1865, I'm pretty sure most people perceived space travel to be a fanciful notion, at best.


texts: Why was gold so popular and valuable back when it did not have many real world uses?

texts: I'm talking about back when it was first starting to get discovered, like 2000 B.C. (roughly). Gold was being used for coins, jewellery and more. It was a very well known commodity and accepted generally everywhere. Gold by itself had no real world uses back then; so why did gold become so popular and valuable?


texts: Is this anecdote about Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill true?

texts:
The first time I heard the story about the plans for German officers once the surrender happened was that Stalin wanted to summarily execute 50 thousand of them, Churchill was very angry about this idea and Roosevelt jokingly tried to diffuse the situation by saying, "Okay, how about 25 thousand?"

But I have now read that it wasn't Stalin who wanted the executions; it was Churchill. Frankly, the idea that Stalin wanted to do it makes a lot more sense from various standpoints.

I would like to know what is the generally accepted story among historians.


texts: What role did British cartoonists play in the early 1800?

texts: Can anybody explain the historical context and the reasons for which the comic below, preserved to the British Museum, was painted? What is its meaning? Why is Napoleon so little?  And, more generally, what role did British cartoonists play in the early 1800 in reference to communicate ideas to public opinion?


texts: Please help me identify it. I assume it's 1941.


texts: Did the North give the South its debt after Civil War ended?

texts:
In discussions with a colleague of mine many years ago, concerning the American Civil War (aka the War Between the States), he mentioned that “... the North left/gave all the [financial] debt to the South”.

He has since passed on but I’ve often wondered what he meant by that statement.
Has anyone a clue to this reference? To its meaning and validity?

I believe this is what my colleague was referring to. But there’s no exact quote I could find.


texts: How old does an event have to be to be considered 'History'?

texts:
As I grew up, I advanced in my History classes until I graduated from high school in the year 2013. The problem is, I was only taught about events that happened until one or two years after World War Two. The Cold War was covered in Geography classes more like it was something new, or not yet deeply studied and comprehended by historians. But, when I had classes on the History of the United States, they stopped at Obama's first election. Also, when I had classes about my own country's History, they stopped in the late 1990s. Some other books I've read about various historical subjects always stop at some point between 1960 and 1990. I've noticed a trend in them: they usually stop two or three decades before their writing time. So is that the threshold between History and non-History?

Also, on a somewhat related topic, how much time do historians generally need to be able to write about a topic without politics being involved in it, or at least involved only to a small extent?


texts: Why might one think that Australia gained independence from the UK in December 1920?

texts:
I'm looking at a dataset claims that Australia gained independence from the UK in December 1920.†

I found this puzzling and this could very well just be a mistake. But I'm wondering if there's any reason at all why one might make this claim.

†Correlates of War Project, Territorial Change Data v6, "Territorial Change Data, 1816-2018.xls", number = 525.

900 = Australia, 200 = UK (COW country codes).

I emailed the current authors in charge. One of them replied stating that they simply inherited this from earlier authors (possibly from before 1976) and they do not know why this is coded as such.


texts: Did the ancient Greeks ban the gastraphetes?

texts:
From what I remember, Galántai Zoltán once claimed in a lecture (at Budapest University of Technology and Economics) that in ancient Greek times, some people  mutually agreed to outlaw the use of the gastraphetes (large crossbow) in wars against each other.  According to him, this ranged weapon was very efficient in killing, yet it could be used by soldiers with very little training compared to other similar weapons like bows.  It had turned the wars too deadly, which is why such an agreement was made.
What is the truth in this?  Was there ever such a treaty?  If so, who agreed to it, and when?


texts: Isn't the current trend of young, unmarried, women living at home merely a reversion to older practices?

texts:
The trend of Millenials "boomeranging" home, or never leaving in the first place is much-reported-upon, and much lamented, here, for example.

Is this a new trend, or merely a reversion to pre-WWII customs (the link cites 1940 as a comparable circumstance)? I agree that delaying marriage, per se, was not part of the practice, but wasn't it typical for unmarried women (I'm peeling off young men from this question) to live with their families?

As a user noted below, obviously the article confirms the statistical fact here; I'm looking for a broader historical context.


texts: What was the name for the region before it was "the Balkans"?

texts:
I'm working on a project set in the 15th century as the Ottoman Turks made forays into the West.

I'm looking for an appropriate term for the region bordered by Anatolia, Romania and Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, the Adriatic Sea on the west, and Hungary to the north. Bonus points for the region now occupied by Romania and Bulgaria. The year is 1478. Ignore the land which was a part of the Republic of Venice.


texts: Were Americans concerned about "Overlord" code words in Daily Telegraph crosswords?

texts:
The attached Wikipedia article describes how key D-Day Code words - Gold, Juno, Sword, Omaha, Utah, Mulberry, Overlord suddenly appeared in the Daily Telegraph crosswords in the weeks prior to the Normandy invasion in June 1944.

It would seem that soldiers from a US base close to a boys' boarding school used to mix with the kids and were reasonably free with these kinds of words.

MI5 were deeply concerned about a possible security breach. Were the American authorities similarly concerned, and was anyone disciplined?


texts: Can you help identify this European military uniform and medals?

texts:
My husband and I moved into a house that was built in 1900 in Wisconsin. We found some old pictures down in the basement, and I'm curious if I can figure out who the couple is? I thought I could narrow it down by the military outfit and two medals the gentleman is wearing. I was told it was most likely European military based on the uniform. I know the medals are blurry, but any ideas what the two might be? No markings on the back of the picture.
Tried to do some research, and I have no idea if these relate the couple, but we did find another picture down in the basement in a similar frame. It was a picture of the last supper with words in Polish. The original owner of our house was Archie Bloodsworth (parents from Canada) who married Alice May Evans in 1889 (mother born in New York, father born in Wales).


texts: Nuremberg Laws - Did they affect existing marriages between Jews and Non-Jews?

texts:
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor states:

  Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden.

  Sexual relations between Jews and citizens of German blood are forbidden.

Assume that a Jewish husband (does not practice the Jewish religion but is classified as a Jew by parents/grandparents) and a non-Jewish wife (Protestant) are married and have kids, before the Nuremberg Laws have come out.

Did these new Nuremberg Laws preventing marriages/sexual relations between Jews and "citizens of German or related blood" (wife) split up existing marriages between Jews and non-Jews?


texts: Robert Hookes Diary - Why would he have bought and drunk Vomit?

texts:
I have been reading extracts from Robert Hookes diary located here between the dates 1672-1680, on at least eight occasions he describes taking vomit and sometimes even using a feather to induce vomiting.

The specific dates:

22nd April 1674
24th May 1674
30th May 1674
31st May 1674
18th August 1675
19 August 1675
2nd September 1675
16th December 1675

If you visit the site, you can just search for the word "vomit" and the entries under the dates will be listed in that order.

I can only presume that this is a treatment for something sold by the quacks of the time. I would like to know if it would really have been someone else's vomit (yuk) and for what purposes they would have prescribed it? Was this a common thing to do back then?


texts: When did humans develop the ability to sail any direction regardless of wind direction?

texts:
When did humans develop the sail technology and skills to be able to use the wind to sail in any direction, including using techniques such as beating to effectively sail into the wind?

I checked Wikipedia and did a search using DuckDuckGo. I learned that the Mesopotamians had fixed sails that made their ships subject to the winds, but I wasn't able to find any other very good websites. I got a lot of noise but not much signal.


texts: When did the Taxi become associated with the checkered pattern?

texts: Taxi cabs tend to be linked to various colors or symbols, one I have noticed repeated over and over is the checkered pattern of alternating white and black.  Is there an origin of this and how it became linked to taxi cabs or services?  While it seems to be used in some countries, not all, and in some companies, not all, there has to be some kind of association between the two for it be a sort of global symbol (as much as many things are) for taxi services.


texts: What is the earliest archaeological evidence of silk presence in Ancient Rome?

texts: And are there any archaeological data about silk in pre-Imperial Rome?


texts: Why did towns became ghost towns after the mines dried up?

texts:
It seems that the gold rushes on every country produced a number of ghost mining towns, when the mines that supported said towns produced no more ore, or it was too expensive to continue mining.

My question is probably obvious, but I'm really surprised that towns in the thousands (or dozens of thousands, even) just disappeared when the miners left. Was mining the only job that generated wealth in those gold rush towns? What about all the other thousands of employed people? Were they only at the service of said miners? Also, I've read that almost no miners became rich, but the people offering them services did. Does this mean that all their wealth was "invested" in the town, but it was then gone somewhere else?

I'd also be interested on reading about the subject if there is any (simple) book about it, specifically about some kind of census related to jobs. Maybe seeing the numbers of saloons versus bakeries will help me understand better :).


texts: Is there a story about Benjamin Franklin inviting a business competitor into his home to show how meager he is willing to live in order to win?

texts:
All my life I have had this distinct memory of writing a paper on Benjamin Franklin back in grade school, and a story where he had brought some business competitor of his into his home and showed him a blanket next to the hearth with water and bread... and said something to the effect of: "I can live quite happily on just this... can you/are you willing to subsist on less? That will be the only way to beat me"
I've been trying to figure out how to google this for years... and I've never been successful. It's probably not even Franklin.. it probably has nothing to do with anything I wrote/read in grade school... but I cannot for the life of me figure out where I got that memory.
Can anyone help?


texts:
I am somewhat familiar with history of telescope in the scientific context however didn't find much info about history of its use for practical purposes beyond general statements. I'm more interested in the nautical context.

AFAIK the first mentions of a telescope dates to 1608 and its nautical use was definetely widespread towards the second half of the 18th century.

What is the earliest mention of use of spyglass by seafarers? How fast it became a commonly used nautical instrument?

UPDATE: The most interesting thing I've found so far is in

E. Sluiter, The first known telescopes carried to America, Asia and the Arctic, 1614-39 // Journal for the History of Astronomy, 28:2 (1997) p.141

There several mentions of the early spyglass use are presented,

1). 19 November 1614 during the battle between Portuguese and French it is said that one of the Portuguse officers was looking through the porthole with a "hum oculo de longa vista" ("a glass for seeing at the distance")

2). 17 July 1615 in the battle between Spanish and Dutch fleets, it is said that the Dutch "sighted a vessel through some tubes they carry, by means of which they can see more than six leagues"

3). 14 December 1619: it is said about Frederik de Houtman, commander of a fleet of Dutch East Indiamen,that he stood on the quarter deck looking through "kijker of brill" which is translated in the article as "telescope or spyglass"

and also two instances from 1620s and from 1630s. This shows that spyglass was used already few years after its invention, however it also shows that for Spanish sailors in 1615 it was something they were not particularly familiar with. The paper says the same thing I've read again and again about quick spread of spyglass citing the paper by Albert Van Helden, but I can't get access to it right now and not familiar by books by this author.


texts: How successfull were Albert Einstein's PhD mentees or children?

texts:
I'm curious if there has been any study in the success of the children, PhD students, or people that Einstein trained?

Does history show that direct frequent access to an extraordinary mind provide a continuing line of extraordinary people?

I would imagine that passing along the meta-cognitive tools used to think of extraordinary  things would be difficult to communicate pass down to someone. But maybe that skill comes with the package.


texts: What do I ask myself/ teach my child to ask herself when looking for translations/adaptations of historical/epic works for her?

texts:
I hope I am asking this question on the right site as it may be a cross-over question, or too specific - if that is the case I understand.  However, I'm hoping that a bunch of History buffs would want to share their knowledge with the kids in their lives and would have already thought this through.  It may look as though I am asking for a recommendation, but while that would be nice, I'm also wondering about considerations for similar future "epics encounters" as well.

A little background:  I homeschool my daughter and she LOVES history!  So I am doing my best to learn as much as I can (I am a former science teacher) as quickly as I can in a subject I know very little about.  I am constantly striving to find great resources to challenge her as well as broaden her exposure in this category at a level right for her.  We are currently using, "The Story of the World" as a jumping off place, but only as a place to start.  My kid can handle a lot more depth than SOW offers.  Since we are religious (but very liberaly so) I'm not afraid to speak with her about things from a more scientific standpoint (like I believe in evolution and I see the Bible as more of a collection of stories on ethics and living than I do as a historical document) which means some of the SOW stuff is not as accurate as I would like it to be (Like presenting the story of Joseph and his coat or even the exodus as though it is actually history supported with cooroberating evidence - for example).

Right now, we are studying mesopotamia with her cooperative and ran into the story of Gilgamesh meeting Enkidu and the story of Gilgamesh and his efforts to become immortal.  While the epic of Gilgamesh is more of a literary piece than pure history, obviously, Gilgamesh was an important cultural component (if not King) to the Sumerians and must have remained important to succeeding cultures in some degree or another as well.  I thought it would be fun if there was a good translation for kids to read it with her and have her sort out the "myth" and legend from the real history as a research project.  She is seven, but has a 12th grade vocabulary and reads at an eighth grade level.  We actually studied ancient civilizations in a briefer way when she was five as well (and then ancient Rome and the Early Middle Ages when she was six, so the stuff covered by her class is old hat to her.

As a response to comments, I'll clarify that in general, as we study history we also use videos (mostly from the BBC, National Geographic etc. - The History Channel is overly dramatic and not all that accurate all the time either), elementary and middle school books, she reads related books from the Magic Tree house series and other similar fictions as well as Non-fiction from National Geographic, Eyewitness books by DK Publishing etc.  But she enjoyed reading Black Ships before Troy (a child-minded and modernized version of the Iliad) and has really enjoyed what little of Gilgamesh we did encounter through SOW.  We build models, she does claymation animations of different events and processes, we've even had feasts (Roman, Egyptian and Pre-European Contact Nez Perce) where we make the foods as authentic to the time period we are studying as we are able in a modern kitchen.

As someone reletively new to getting serious with studying history, I am really wondering how to go about finding translations and how to weed out the "good" from the "bad" if and when I do find them.  I'm hoping for some ideas that can apply not only to our current Gilgamesh search, but also to future searches (such as an appropriate translation of the Aenid and/or the Odyssey or even Beowulf when the time comes for her as examples).

What should we consider from a Historian's standpoint, when choosing translations to study of great epic pieces that represent a culture from history?

AND

What kinds of questions should we ask as we read to best use these epic pieces as a way to understand the culture that created the story/stories?


texts: What was the actual value of tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party?

texts:
I'd like to know 2 or 3  of the following 3 metrics:

Actual value in the currency of the time (yes I realize that there were local currencies and in general FX concept was... hard to do).
NPV (inflation adjusted) value, however such values are calculated for economy of the time.
Value relative to some useful comparison figure, e.g. total budget of the Colonies/Mass or total taxes levied or total value passing through Boston port in a period of time or something similar.


texts: More honorable to plunder than to work for Germanic tribes in antiquity

texts:
Quite a few years ago, I watched a documentary about Germanic tribes which claimed that for some tribes, "plundering was more honorable than working", or something to that extent.

Is this true? Especially, has this been recorded by any Roman or Greek historian?


texts: Did Karl Marx Fight in the Second Schleswig War?

texts:
I have recently seen the Danish made series (1864) which is about two brothers fighting in the Second Schleswig War between Prussia and Denmark. It's a really gory and "raw" series about how brutal war was back then, but a very short scene in this series which really made me think a lot is that you at one point see the Prussian army match and some of the soldiers are speaking and one of them is really against this war and he felt it was unfair that the leaders of each country abused the people and stole their wealth and also used them as tool for wars only they wanted, you know all that kind of stuff, another soldiers questions it and asks if he is afraid of having this views of these things, but he also asks for his name which he replies "Karl Marx" and I have been digging a little, but I'm not the best at finding info like this, but I can't find any info about Karl Marx actually fighting in this war, to me it would make sense if he did and this is why he got his view to write the communist manifesto and then creating communism, which had a big impact on modern history.

I just felt it was a interesting that the ideology there had a big impact of the second world war and it almost started ww3 was created in a conflict which was started by little Denmark which in modern history has really always been a push over.


texts: This one is for the coin collectors, have any of you folks come across forgeries that were made before the fall of the Empire. I know that after the fall of the Empire , a lot of the smaller kingdoms made copies in the Roman style.


texts: Economic effects of the Cuban Revolution

texts: What were the economic effects of the Cuban Revolution? Were living conditions improved for the average Cuban? I'm looking for objective criteria like average income, wealth distribution, life expectancy, literacy and similar.


texts: Why have the northern plains states voted consistently Republican in Presidential elections since 1940?

texts:
Beginning in 1940 (with Wendell Wilkie), the four northern plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska have voted Republican in all but one Presidential election (the Johnson landslide of 1964). That is a more consistent record than just about any other group of four U.S. states.
Why was that?
(In answer to some comments, 1940 was long before the Republicans became the "conservative" party in the 1970s and 1980s, and only four years after FDR swept all four states in 1936, including the home state of his opponent, Alf Landon (Kansas). I would expect the answer to be along the lines of party differences in agricultural policies (tariffs, price supports), over long periods of time, but I don't know enough about these matters to answer the question myself. The answer might even hinge on the difference in policies vis-a-vis e.g. wheat vs. corn, because nearby Iowa doesn't exhibit this consistency.)


texts: Why did the Athenian expedition to Sicily fail?

texts: Was the Athenian expedition to Sicily during the Peloponnesian war a strategic failure, a tactical failure or both?


texts:
Speaking of metropolitan France (the 'Hexagone' + Corsica), when was France fully liberated of German occupying forces at the end of World War II?

We all know of the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944, the liberation of Paris in August 1944. There is also the lesser known Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France also in August. Then comes the Battle of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) and the crossing of the Rhine somewhere in early 1945.

But I am vaguely aware of some pockets of German resistance in some French cities, which held for quite a few months.

At what precise date, if known, was France fully liberated? For the last few months of the war, month by month, which pockets of German fighting forces remained in France?

The question is mainly about metropolitan France. If we include France's colonial empire in Africa and Asia, what would the picture be?

I couldn't find any wikipedia article which provides a clear timeline of the liberation of France.

[Edit: following the first answer to this question, excluding the pockets of German resistance on the Atlantic, I wonder at what date the German army was last pushed back beyond France's eastern border, i.e. beyond the current borders between France and, from North to South: Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany itself.]


texts: Why was the Bay of Pigs invasion unsuccessful?

texts: Goal of The Bay of Pigs invasion in April,1961. was to overthrow Cuba's president Castro. It was totally unsuccesful and counter-revolutionary military, trained by CIA was defeated in just two days. As wikipedia says, Dwight Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the CIA in order to plan Castro's overthrow. Also, they were supplied good and had good armament.My question is what is the reason why was the Bay of Pigs invasion unsuccessful? I  mean all the reasons above lead that USA could overthrow Castro. Thanks in advance.


texts: Why didn't USSR "bust a move" to veto the Korean War?

texts:
In 1950, the USSR boycotted the UN over the Chinese Nationalists, rather than the Chinese Communists being represented there. During their absence, North Korea invaded the South and the UN voted on whether to invade.

Had USSR been present, they could have vetoed the resolution to go to war.

Was the ambassador simply unable to get Stalin on the phone and ask for permission to break the boycott to perform the veto?

OR

Did Stalin want the war to go on as an opportunity to defeat the west?


texts: Why was the FSSF (Devil's Brigade) multinational?

texts:
During WWII, the US and Canada formed a unit together called the First Special Service Force. But why? Especially considering that Canada fought under British leadership for nearly all other aspects of the war, why make a multinational force with the Americans?

Is there an historical event or some occurrence that prompted this partnership?


texts: Is there a relationship between Portugal and Spain being able to discover the New World and the Moor occupation?

texts:
This documentary circa 01:07:20 discusses the Renaissance in Toledo. To me that seems plausible. The knowledge and culture brought by the Moors seems a much better catalyzer to escape the dark ages' mindset than whatever happened in Italy that's said to have triggered the Renaissance. I've heard once even that the knowledge of ancient Greece came into Europe through the Moors, actually translated from Arab. The word 'alchemy' is a sign this might have been the case.

The fall of Granada - the last Islamic state in the Iberian Peninsula - dates 1492, the same year that Christopher Columbus reached the New World and 8 years before Brazil was discovered. Interestingly I don't remember my Brazilian history teachers saying anything about Muslims in Europe, and God forbid they had nothing to do with the discovery of a whole new continent...

How much of the success in the Spanish and Portuguese colonization can be attributed to the Moorish occupation and what they brought (culture and knowledge) to the Iberian Peninsula?


texts: Did Amadeo Bordiga tell off Stalin this way?

texts:
I read somewhere that Amadeo Bordiga, Italian Communist, said something along these lines to Stalin's face:

  If the Soviet Union is the homeland of all proletarians and the revolution, then let it be governed by a joint committee of international communist parties!

This is from memory and I'm sure the wording is wrong. I thought I read the quote a few years back in this text by Loren Goldner - "Communism is the Material Human Community", however, all I find is this:

  Bordiga was the last Western revolutionary who told off Stalin to his face (in 1926) as the gravedigger of the revolution and lived to tell the tale. He was ousted from the PCI in the same year and took several thousand "Bordigists" with him.

German wikipedia, Bordiga also only mentions that he called Stalin a traitor to the revolution (in 1925).

It is of course possible that the quote I remember was in an earlier version of the text and was removed because it was wrong/inaccurate. The quote is kinda awesome though and I want to know if he really said it, and in what context.


texts: Did Archery evolve independently on separate continents?

texts: Is there evidence that early civilizations across the world discovered archery independently from one another (like Native Americans, Europeans and Africans)? Or can the technology be traced back to a certain time period/region before humans spread out from Africa?


texts: Why do more historians state Rome was a superpower, than Persia?

texts: Persian Empire was older and larger (I am not sure about this) than the Roman Empire. However, when it comes to the title of Superpower, many historians say Rome was the world first true superpower. Why is that?


texts: What does BPE/PE in some archaeology journals stand for?

texts:
Apparently, this is an acronym for reckoning time period instead of using the usual BC-AD or BCE-CE.

The journal I am referring to is archeo sciences. Here's a snippet of the article:

I've looked up "Mauryan Empire" and it appears to be dated at the same time in BCE, making BPE=BCE. But what does the acronym stand for? And why do some journals use this instead of a more familiar acronym?


texts: What is the etymology of the word "Mehrgarh", one of the earliest Neolithic site in South Asia?

texts:
Mehrgarh is a Neolithic site near the Bolan Pass in Pakistan.

I am wondering if the Neolithic site has simply been dubbed "Mehrgarh" or was it the actual name of the Neolithic culture itself?
If it is dubbed "Mehrgarh", then what is the reason behind and when was it named so?
Assyrian sources of the 7th century BC mention a certain "Mehranian" language in the western part of historical province of Media. If Mehrgarh is the actual name of the Neolithic culture itself, are there historians who relate the Mehranian language to it?


texts: Was a direct telegraph line between America and Australia ever created?

texts:
After reviewing a source about American-Australian relations pre-WW2, there are a couple of troubles the Americans had with their relationship with Australia (see the excerpt of the source below).  My question is was a direct telegraph line from Australia to America ever actually created and, if so, when?

Source:

  A direct radio telephone service between the United States and Australia was inaugurated on December 20, 1938.  There is, however, no direct telegraph service between the two countries.  Telegrams either go by radio via Canada or by cable via Canada or Great Britain...Should the United States become involved in war, particularly the Far East, instantaneous communication with Australia would be of the utmost importance.It has been almost three years since the Department first took up with Australia the desire of RCA to establish a direct radiotelegraphic service between the United States and Australia.  It is believed the principle objection to the establishment of the about service comes from London.

Excerpts from a memorandum from the Department of State (USA), Division of European Affairs, 8 May 1941 (Source: JCPML/00266/2/34; Presidential Secretary's File-Diplomatic-Australia at Roosevelt Presidential Library):


texts: Why did US Navy WW2 torpedoes detonate at the end of their run?

texts:
I'm listening to James Scott's "The War Below".  In World War II, US Navy torpedoes detonated at the end of their range if they hadn't hit anything.  So if a torpedo was fired and went its maximum range (4500y for the Mark 14) without otherwise detonating, it would self-detonate.

I'm curious why that is advantageous?  Wouldn't it make more sense for a missed shot to be allowed to silently sink to the bottom?  I'd think there would be many tactical situations where a commander would prefer that if his shots missed, the enemy remained unaware until he could shoot again.

There are numerous scenes in the book where commanders hear detonations that are long after the calculations showed they should have exploded if they'd hit, etc. so it was apparently standard.

To be clear, I'm not talking about any of the malfunctions or problems the US Navy had with its torpedoes in WWII.  The torpedoes of that era were designed to explode at end of run.

A few related questions:

(1) Was that true only of the US Navy or did the torpedoes of the Germans, Japanese, etc. behave the same way?

(2) When the USN switched from steam-powered to electric-powered torpedoes, was this design carried forward?

(3) Do torpedoes still behave that way?  I realize nowadays they seek their own targets in some cases but what if a torpedo is fired and runs out of power...self-detonate or sink to the bottom?


texts: When did Germany pay the full amount of reparations of the Versailles treaty?

texts: I remember it was recently, but I do not know the exact year.


texts: Could an eight-year-old child be eligible to stand trial as a witness and provide testimony in an 18th-century American courtroom?

texts:
I'm doing research for a historical fiction set in a small fictional town in America between the year 1778  and 1779. Let's say I have two characters, John and Jack. John is an officer in the Continental Army and (at the time of the story) a POW/prisoner of the state. He is relatively unpopular among the town people because the majority of the people in town are Tories and because he displays signs of PTSD, which is interpreted by some people of the town as insanity. Jack is a eight-year-old local of the town. Jack is tricked by his friends into believing he is cursed by John and only has a few days to live before John would come to him and brutally kill him. Thus, he decides to commit suicide before John can touch him, by drowning himself in a lake, drawing inspiration from a suicide he witnessed earlier. Just as Jack jumps into the lake, John gets to the lake and successfully saves him. There is no one around to witness John saving Jack, except for one woman who reports seeing John chasing after Jack.
Because of the lack of evidence and John's reputation in the town, some people who hold grudge against John are able to put pressure to have John arrested and put on trial. The reasoning behind this is that John intentionally chased after Jack to drown him. After John is arrested, Jack realizes he is lied to by his friends and wants to tell the truth of what really happened to save John. So my question is: in this scenario and setting, can Jack be eligible to tell his side of the story in court to save John?
I just can't find any good answer for my question. The closest answer to my question comes from this article, which states that England accepted child witnesses as early as 1778. However, I'm aware that during this time in America, there was a very strong anti-British sentiment and people basically rejected anything British-related. Plus, according to the timeline of my story, the decision of child witnesses would be a very new concept, and it might not come into effect in America during the same time period. So in the scenario that Jack is unable to testify in court, could there be any way that he can get the truth across to help John? (my story's goal is to have John walk free after the trial)


texts: Was the king of England able to execute a high rank noble and his family between 1216 and 1688?

texts: After signing the Magna Carta, was the king of England able to execute a noble and his family and escheat their property to the crown by his own will up to 1688? For example in the cases such as Lèse-majesté, was the king able to kill a high rank noble (e.g. a duke) by his direct order? Or it needed to run a judicial procedure in a court? If there were any cases such as I said, could you introduce me some of them?


texts: Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?

texts:
There were several crises in the “late” Roman Empire.

For once, the crisis of the Republic, which resulted in the creation of Principat and later Dominat. This crisis may be related to the fact that due to an end of territorial expansion, the constant stream of slaves ran dry. By then, slavery had by large replaced traditional farmers, who had been the backbone of the Roman army. This crisis resulted in a population drop from about 50 million to about 30 million. (source: Kautsky)

Then, there was the crisis of the third century which almost caused the collapse of the Roman Empire. Usurper states were formed in the West and the East. This crisis was eventually overcome, and both the Gallic Empire and the Empire of Palmyra were re-integrated in the Roman Empire, but in the Western half, this success did not last for long. By 500, the Western Empire had vanished, while the Eastern Empire remained intact for almost 1000 years.

Now there are several factors in which the Western and the Eastern Empires were different. I believe that in the Eastern empire, slavery never played a role as important as in the Western empire, i.e. there were no huge latifundia with hundreds of slaves, so the end of slavery did not mean that much of a catastrophy in the Eastern half.

Furthermore, the Eastern empire is often said to have been technologically further advanced, had more population and was richer, but I am not sure if or why this would be true.

What are your thoughts?

Edit I cannot help but wonder why most answers claim military circumstances as reason for the decline of the Western Empire. The Roman Empire constantly fought wars with its neighbors, which before never caused to major crises, and the most ferocious enemy, i.e. the Persians, were faced by the Eastern Empire, which did not collapse around 500. This wikipedia site lists several theories about the decline of the (Western?) Roman Empire, the vast majority of which do not boil down to military circumstances.


texts: How many languages did Zhang Shenfu speak?

texts: Zhang Shenfu (Chinese: 张申府; 1893–1986) was a founder and quitter of the Chinese Communist Party, a philosopher, and a political activist.


texts: Who started/popularized the department store perfume gauntlet?

texts:
Anybody with functional olfactory senses who has been to a department store knows that nearly every one places the perfume counter right at the front of the store, where every patron is forced to walk through the stench to get to the rest of the store.

This may be pleasant for some, but if you aren't partial to the odor of hundreds of different perfumes mixed together randomly, it seems downright abusive. So if you are like me, you may have wondered why the heck they all do this.

My wife watched the show Mr. Selfridge on TV, which ascribed this practice to Harry Selfridge, as a way to drown out the stench of "horse pollution" from the streets in the days before automobiles. However, I can't find anything about that on any web page.

So how much basis in fact is there for this story? Before I start cursing him by name every time I enter a store, I'd like to be sure I'm calling down heavenly wrath on the responsible party.


texts: Did the Axis engage in trade with other countries during the war?

texts:
In Europe, Germany had occupied several countries while actively being at war with the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States while Japan had been expanding through most the neighbouring countries in Asia; the United States being the most active in the Pacific was Japan's biggest enemy.
Being at war with the most powerful allied nations and having no real allies except each other, was the rest of the world restricted from trading with the Axis countries? Did Germany and Japan engage or even had the need to engage in trade as they were collecting from the countries they had occupied?
Stated here from the Wikipedia page on War reparations

World War II Germany
During World War II, Nazi Germany extracted payments from occupied
countries and compelled loans. In addition, countries were obliged to
provide resources, and forced labour.
Japan
Sino-Japanese War of 1895
The Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed on April 17, 1895, obliged China to pay an indemnity of 200 million silver taels (¥3.61 billion) to Japan; and to open the ports of Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou and Hangzhou to Japanese trade.


texts: How come all the major WW1 rifles were bolt action?

texts:
The main disadvantage of bolt action is that one has to remove the right hand from the trigger which leads to slower rate of fire.
Neither lever nor pump have this problem.
Rate of fire was viewed as an important military issue which lead to development of repeating rifles in the first place.
Nevertheless, all major WW1 rifles (Mauser, Lee-Enfield, Mosin-Nagant, Springfield, tube(!) magazine Lebel) were bolt action. WHY?

The lever action mechanism does look "flimsy" (not "military-grade strong") when opened, this, I guess, might be the reason not to use it (although the Russians used Winchester Model 1895 - but they were generally starved for weapons).

When firing from a trench (with the rifle lying on the breastwork), the advantage of pump action obviously disappears (and could even be a liability due to dirt getting under the slider) - but no army planned to fight from trenches before the WW1.

The bolt action rifles were using more powerful center-fire cartridges (in box magazines) than the rim-fire cartridges (in tubular magazines) usually used with lever- and pump-action guns.
This does not sound like a good reason - I don't see why the slider in pump action gun cannot operate the same magazine as the bolt-action.

So, how come all the major WW1 rifles were bolt action?

Why didn't they try to make a pump action rifle with a powerful long-range cartridge? (it's not impossible, e.g., Remington Model 7600)


texts: New Latin American navies raiding Spanish interests

texts:
The newly formed navies of the Latin American wars of independence sometimes raided or blockaded Spanish interests in other parts of the Americas. Consider the Liberating Expedition of Peru, the Expedición corsaria de Brown al Pacífico, Cochrane's raids in Baja California, and Bouchard's raids in Alta California, which were all northbound operations with foreign captains in charge.

Did only Rio de la Plata and Chile fund these operations in the other disintegrating viceroyalties, or did Nueva Granada, Peru, or Mexico ever do so too? Under what circumstances did the revolutionary American states seek to project naval power abroad?


texts:
I am having trouble distinguishing History from Mythology, especially in the context of Greek Mythology.

The internet sources have a narrative that intermixes both. After reading for a few minutes I easily lose track of whether I am reading history or mythology.

I understand that it is not easy to identify ancient history and find credible sources. But can you recommend a few sources where there is at least a decent attempt to discern history from mythology?


texts: Why was there a reference to the Battle of Hastings in Harper Lee's novel?

texts:
I am unfamiliar with details of European history; how is the Battle of Hastings relevant to the historical background in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird?

Chapter 1, Paragraph 4:

  Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings.

This passage is quite difficult for me to understand. How does the Battle of Hastings connect to the Southern American identity in Alabama during the 20th Century?


texts: It seems like European nations are all establishing colonies, but I don't understand why China would be any different. It seems like it has the power and resources to do so numerous times throughout history, but they never do. Why is this?


texts: Is there a reconstruction for whom and when were the peoples of the ancient Levant just before Israel, Judea and Edom?

texts:
Primarily from viewing lectures and interviews about the ancient history of the Levant, I understand that before Israel, Judea and perhaps also Edom states were created, their area included groups such as:

Shasu tribes (one of them in north Arabia - Shasu Yaho)
Jacobelites
Kenites
Habiru
Mitanni refugees which fled from Shalmaneser I (suggested by Knohl in his book מאין באנו)
Hyksos
Amalekites
The "seven peoples" the "Israelites" fought with when "conquering" Canaan (Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites) ; I recall Yigal Bin-Nun said something like it is unclear what these "Jebusites" were in one of his recent lectures.

The era I mean to early Levant Bronze age until the rise of Israelite-Juedan-Edomite society and the whereabouts I mean to are primarily north Sinai peninsula, to north Arabian peninsula including the vicinity of modern day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and perhaps parts of Syria.

  'Jacob-el in the Land of Esau and the Roots of Biblical Religion', VT
  67 [2017] 481-484 by Israel Knohl, PhD.

My problem

I don't have access to many if not most academic peer reviewed journals and I don't know where to look for for an article which contains a table that tries to make an historical "sorting" reconstruction of essential data about these peoples.

My question

Is there a reconstruction for whom and when were the peoples of the ancient Levant just before Israel, Judea and Edom (especially one that is presented in a  table categorizing these people in a table by at least Era BC, Geographical location/s and Gods worshiped)?


texts: How long would it take to travel from England to the colonies in the early 1700s?

texts: I am working on a history project for school and cannot seem to find information on the length of a journey on a ship from England to the Charleston area of South Carolina in the early 1700s (1730-1740). Additionally, would the upper class travelers face different conditions from the middle class?


texts: Who were Dalits and Brahmins in ancient India before law of Manusmriti was imposed on Indian society?

texts:
From thousands of year Indian society was run by the law of "Manusmriti". Indian society is based on caste system in which Brahmins are at the top most position where dalits are at the least position citizens of the society.

But who were Dalits and Brahmins in ancient India before law of Manusmriti was imposed on Indian society?


texts: Can the new testament be a valid historical record on the real life of Jesus?

texts:
I was reading this article and assuming the data provided by the website correct I came to my mind as to how historically valid is the testimony of the life of Jesus in the new testament is as the following statement was made in the conclusion:

  FOR MORE THAN THREE CENTURIES THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH HAD NO NEW
  TESTAMENT.
  Not until the Muratoriun Canon (350 A.D.) did the Christian
  church begin to compile a New Testament that resembles the one we have
  today. This canon did not include the letter to the Hebrews or those
  we know as James, 3 John, and 1 and 2 Peter (EXHIBIT A). It did
  include the Wisdom of Solomon (now part of the Catholic Old Testament)
  and the Apocalypse of Peter (no longer used).

The historical evolution of Gospels is described in detail here and the detailed information about the New Testament papyri is tabulated here

Thus can these Gospel faithfully record the actual life of Jesus in the way he lived and the things he claimed and believed?

P.S : This question is different from previously asked question since this question asks whether the Gospels provide the exact glimpse on the life of Jesus the way he lived as against the prior question which only questioned the authenticity of the Gospel.


texts: Did firing trials of pre-WW1 British dreadnoughts involve actually firing at them?

texts:
On the Wikipedia page of HMS Dreadnought it is mentioned that during firing trials against HMS Hero there were some vulnerabilities of its fire control systems revealed: namely, wiring and voice tubes were cut by splinters, and key positions hit.

  Firing trials against HMS Hero in 1907 revealed this system's [ie fire control] vulnerability to gunfire, as its spotting top was hit twice and a large splinter severed the voice pipe and all wiring running along the mast.

This strikes me as very odd. Were RN ships supposed to actually fire at each other during trials? Were they using some sort of practice shells? (Even without explosive load, these would do serious damage) Or had they some other method of simulating hits?


texts: How is it known that Phidias used the golden ratio in the Parthenon?

texts: I can see it is widely accepted he did, so there must be some source backing this up, since no work of his has survived (except for a vase in Olympia with the inscription "I belong to Phidias"). What are these sources?


texts:
Slings were a common weapon in history. Cheap to construct and with ammo plentiful, they were very cost effective to field in great numbers.

What I want to know is if there is any historical evidence for slings being used in melee. (with a rock wedged in the cup and used like a flail or sap.)

Note that I'm not asking if there is evidence of them being effective in melee combat, merely if they were used as such. (Obviously, a knife or short sword would likely be better)


texts: How successful was Odessa GubCheKa against criminal gangs in the 1920s?

texts:
If you use the lens of popular culture (books and especially folk songs), one may come out with the impression that the criminal culture basically ran Odessa around 1920s, with Law Enforcement (GubCheKa) being a boogaboo but largely unimpactful threat to them.

What is the picture like from the point of view of historical documents?

Objectively speaking, how effective was GubCheKa - and law enforcement in general - at fighting crime during its heyday in Odessa? (judging by numbers - crime statistics, convictions, arrests, high level criminal testimony if deemed reliable etc...)


texts: What kind of evidence (if any) could be used to identify a large conquest in the time before writing?

texts: From what I understand, writing wasn't completely developed during the Bronze Age. So, if there was an Alexander-the-Great-style conquest that united the known world for a short period of time, what kind of evidence would historians be able to find. Would it even be possible to know of such an event beyond just hearsay?


texts: Did iron age Britons still use the "ritual" sites built by their neolithic predecessors?

texts:
Pre-Roman sites in Britain get lumped together as "ancient", but in reality they span a good couple of thousand years between the neolithic and the iron age.

That made me wonder whether there was any evidence to support the assumption that things like stone circles, megalithic burial chambers, hill forts and the like existed in a similar "cultural continuity".

To put it another way: is there any evidence that iron age people were still raising or using similar circles and burial moments to their neolithic counterparts? Or that anything like hill forts, roundhouses and stone dykes were being built in the late stone age?


texts: Why didn't Britain's nuclear weapons deter Argentina from invading the Falklands?

texts:
The United Kingdom has nuclear weapons. All the [major] political parties support this policy. A common justification heard is that they are a deterrent against foreign aggression. For example:

  UK nuclear deterrence policy consists of 5 main principles:

  preventing attack - the UK’s nuclear weapons are not designed for military use during conflict but instead to deter and prevent nuclear blackmail and acts of aggression against our vital interests that cannot be countered by other means

Yet in 1982, Argentina (without nuclear weapons) invaded the Falkland Islands. Clearly, they weren't deterred. Why not?


texts: How was the first carpenter's square made?

texts:
A "square" is a tool, typically L or triangle shaped, that gives a craftsperson a quick and accurate 90° angle to use as a baseline in many important trades.

It's easy to find a right angle if you already have a square, but how was the first square made?  How can someone create a right angle tool "from scratch"?


texts: Any advice on my thesis for a history paper on the issue of illegal immigration in 20th Century America?

texts:
Here is the prompt:

  Prompt: In Impossible Subjects, historian Mae Ngai provides a sociolegal history of illegal immigration to the United States in the
  twentieth century. Law and policy are the centers of her book, and she
  examines them at three levels: “in the legislative and political
  discourses of restriction; in judicial decisions that sought to square
  competing demands of sovereignty and individual rights; and in the
  practical articulation of the law, the everyday meanings and
  consequences of law that are provided by the bureaucratic state’s
  interactions with migrants and with other social actors (p. 12).”

  By using Impossible Subjects, examine how these three levels of law and policy shaped the issues of illegal immigration in
  twentieth-century America.

  You are strictly prohibited from using any other external sources. Violators will be penalized. You can use factual information provided
  by the lectures, but I would discourage you from relying on them. The
  point of the assignment is that you should fill the paper with your
  analysis of information and arguments provided in the Ngai’s book.

Here is my introduction:

The notion of illegal aliens emerged in America under the Immigration Act of 1924. Previously, immigrants who were in America unofficially were given no title, and therefore were indistinguishable from the immigrants who had gone through the processes necessary for citizenship.The advent of this new class of people, illegal immigrants, ushered in a new subject for political and social discourse and judicial decisions, and created and empowered government entities to enforce any new legislation. In twentieth-century America, the political legislation and discourse legitimized racist ideas about illegal immigrants, the judicial decisions reinforced the perceived validity of these racist ideas, and ground level enforcement and social debate dispersed these ideas among the population.

-I know "racist ideas" may not be specific enough so if anyone has any advice regarding that specifically that would be awesome.


texts: What were the limitations on possession of wealth in Soviet Russia and how were they enforced?

texts:
Specifically:

How were workers compensated, was wage equal everywhere? If not - what affected the variations?
What were the limitations of possession of money and/or assets? How were they enforced?
How would one create a new business or company? Could you own a company?


texts: What was the largest empire in terms of time of communication between its two ends?

texts: What was the largest empire in human history in terms of the time required to deliver a message from one end of the empire to the other? How long was this time?


texts: Did Ben Franklin actually make any tofu?

texts: It is well documented that Franklin was interested in tofu, which he called a sort of cheese made from beans, and he got a recipe for making it that he sent on to others. But no source that I have found gives any reason to believe he or any of the others ever made any tofu.  Does anyone here know of evidence on the question?


texts: Exactly what time of the day was the UN charter official?

texts:
I have been searching for information about the creation of the United Nations.
The UN website says that the official date of creation was October 24, 1945.
The same information can be found in Wikipedia.
However I cannot find information for the exact time of the event.
Do you know at what exact time of the day the UN charter became official?
Can you provide some journal or official document giving that detail?


texts: What was the nature of the Japanese cabinet crisis after the Battle of Taierzhuang?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, after the Japanese defeat in the Battle of Taierzhuang, "It was reported in the world's newspapers, however, and by mid-April had provoked a Cabinet crisis in Tokyo". What was the nature of this cabinet crisis, and was it ultimately eventless or did it have effects, such as cabinet reshuffle or change in troop mobilisation?
I did find one contemporary newspaper report, from the front page of The New York Times (April 15, 1938):

JAPANESE DEFEAT A MAJOR DISASTER; CRISIS IN CABINET

...
But meanwhile the defeat has had its repercussions in Tokyo, where Prince Konoye's Cabinet was said to be facing a crisis on the issue of mobilizing the nation's full strength for the China warfare. [Page 3.]

There should be more detail on page 3 but that may be behind a paywall. But according to the front page summary and subheadings, it seems that the crisis was about whether to fully mobilise for the war with China; if so what changes were made in troop mobilisations, as a result of this battle?


texts: Did the Roman Empire have penal colonies?

texts: I've been searching for an answer for a question on Christianity Stack Exchange about the fate of St. John the Apostle.  Tradition says he found himself exiled to a Roman penal colony on Patmos. However, when I try to find what the conditions of Roman penal colonies were, I find Patmos as the only referenced penal colony. So, I know Rome had jails and stuff like that, but did they employ actual penal colonies?


texts: Why doesn’t Cuba's flag have any communist symbolism?

texts:
The wikipedia page on the flag of Cuba says:-

  It is one of the two flags of a currently socialist country (the other being Laos) that does not use any Communist Symbolism.

The symbolism is (from the same page):-

  The three blue stripes represent the three departments in which Cuba was divided at that time, the white purity of ideals, the light; the red triangle, originating from the French Revolution – and the three ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity: red for the blood and the courage; the star was the new state that should be added to the United States.

The flag was adopted in 1902 but the Cuban Revolution happened fifty to sixty years later! Why didn't the new regime do away with the flag or add any communist symbolism (same goes for aforementioned Laos) to it to distinguish it from say, Puerto Rico (the design is the exact same but the colours are flipped)?
Some of the symbolism is also quite surprisingly contradictory to communism!

Side note:- The current flag was adopted in 1902 but dropped again in 1906 for a flag that is the same, just with a lighter turquoise-ish shade of blue. The current flag was reinstated after the revolution.


texts:
When one speaks of a horde, one usually thinks of an overwhelming number of people.  However, the word horde comes from the Mongol Golden Horde, which I heard was frequently outnumbered in its conflicts.  What was the typical size of a Mongol army relative to its opponents?

How did the name Golden Horde come about, anyway, to refer the Mongols, or at least a certain subset of them?


texts: What concessions did Hitler demand from the Poles before 1939?

texts:
On Wikipedia, it is stated that:

  Earlier, Hitler's foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland
  and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern
  Pact, forming a cooperative front against the Soviet Union.

  Poland would be granted territory to its northeast in Ukraine and
  Belarus if it agreed to wage war against the Soviet Union, but the
  concessions the Poles were expected to make meant that their homeland
  would become largely dependent on Germany, functioning as little
  more than a client state.

  The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be
  threatened altogether.

But I can't find the exact demands the Nazis had during this period. I am assuming that the demands were return of the City of Danzig and East-Prussian territories? This would have effectively turned Poland into a landlocked country and dependent on Germany for naval passage and transit port. (Unless the Poles succeeded in getting the Germans to carve them a corridor through Ukraine all the way to the Black Sea).

But that doesn't explain why Poland thought it would threaten their independence. There are many landlocked countries who are independent. If Poles didn't trust Germans with transit pact, they could have made a similar one with Lithuania or Latvia (Poland tried to restore ties with Lithuania but Soviet Union had warned the Baltic States to not to get too friendly with Poland), both of whom had naval access and shared borders with Poland. Occupation of Baltic states by Soviet Union hadn't occurred at that time. Or could it be that they were concerned that without a maritime access to the Baltic sea, in event of a German invasion, French and British expeditionary forces would face troubles in landing to relieve Poland? (Although I doubt Allies would have done that, they could always open a Western front on French-German border which eventually they did).

Are the exact demands known?


texts: What did the English people during the Peasants' Revolt know about the Ciompi Revolt?

texts:
The Ciompi revolt started in Florence in June 1378 and the Peasants' Revolt started in England in May 1381, just three years later.

Did the news about Ciompi Revolt reach England in three years?

Did the ruling class in England gain some advantages over the rebels due to a previous knowledge about the Ciompi Revolt?

And what about the rebels? Did they know something about their Florentine mates (I would say "comrades")?

Research (from OP's comment):

I had a look at wikipedia page for Peasants' Revolt and searched for the word "Ciompi" with no result. I was thinking that Simon Sudbury (the Archbishop of Canterbury during the Peasants' Revolt) could know something since he was member of the Catholic Church.


texts: When were Liu Hui's mathematical works first translated into English?

texts:
I'm researching Liu Hui who lived circa 220 AD to 260 AD. He independently solved many challenging mathematical problems, and was an amazing mathematician previously unknown to me. I came across this line from the Wikipedia page about him:

  "Although translated into English long beforehand, Liu's work was translated into French by Guo Shuchun, a professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who began in 1985 and took twenty years to complete his translation."

I'm curious from a standpoint of when would his works definitively begin influencing Western math and science?

I can find little on the dates of an original translation; in fact, the only mention of translation dates I found at all was on the Wikipedia page I referenced.


texts:
There is a very interesting article on wikipedia on Welsh Law. Though it defines the structure of the Court in Wales in the late medieval period, it says nothing of the status of other nobles and notable personages compared to those in the king's household.

In addition to that I read that both Ireland and Wales consisted (pre-Normanisation) of petty kingdoms. What was the way these kingdoms worked? Did they have a common social structure and laws? Were they classic fiefdoms with the king appointing the power to the Nobles and they in turn to other minor ones? Was there a reason why these two nations have so much in common (common ancestry maybe?) or is it far-fetched to even propose that. Even their laws seem to have been of the same philosophy.


texts: What treatment did Allied Jewish POWs get when captured by the Germans?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, there were about 500,000 American Jews serving in the US forces during World War II, and another 500,000 Jews served other Allied nations.

Some of these servicemen would have been captured by the Germans. What treatment would they have received? Would the Germans have treated Jewish POWs differently?

Note - this is similar to, but not the same as, How did the Nazis justify the differences in the way they treated Jews v. POWs?


texts: How did Nansen plan to get home from the Fram expedition?

texts:
In 1893, the famed explorer Fridtjof Nansen set out on an expedition to reach the North Pole.  The plan was to sail a sturdy wooden ship, the Fram, into the ice north of Siberia, then drift, frozen in the sea ice, across the North Pole, coming out years later in the North Atlantic.

After almost two years in the ice, Nansen could see they weren't drifting far enough north to reach the Pole, so he and a single companion (Hjalmar Johansen) set out on skis.  After a month of skiing north, Nansen realized they weren't going to make it, so they turned around and headed south.

Since there was no way for them to find the Fram, they had to get home on their own.  It looks like their plan was to ski all the way to Svalbard, then board a ship headed for Norway.

But here's the problem -- there were no settlements in Svalbard in 1893, and no ships making regular trips to the archipelago that I could find.  What exactly was Nansen's plan for getting home?

As always, actual evidence makes for a better answer than guesswork.

The way he actually got home is as absurd as the expedition itself.  After nearly a year in the desolate and uninhabited Franz Josef Land, an unexplored archipelago the size of Serbia, the two men just happened to bump into someone -- and it was even someone Nansen knew personally, Frederick Jackson leading an unrelated expedition.  They got a ride back on Jackson's supply ship.


texts: Special name for two rows of knights with raised swords?

texts:
Is there a special name to describe the formation of knights that form a row of arches with their swords (for a special person to walk through)?
Was such a formation historically accurate, or only something depicted in movies and art?
If real, which countries/cultures, time periods, and circumstances would it have been used in?


texts: What did early humans do with their long hair?

texts:
What did early humans do with their hair? Surely once it got too long it would've become a hindrance, obscuring vision as well as getting caught in plants.

Did they do anything to manage it or not?


texts: How, if at all, is published pseudohistory publicly addressed by scholars and academia?

texts:
To start of I would like to make it clear that I am not a historian or academian of any kind. I'm only interested in history as a hobby.

I was just browsing to buy an audiobook in area of Ancient Middle Eastern History. Hopefully, something that would cover Sumer, Egypt, Akkadia, Babylon, etc. Once I came across revisionist material and material based solely on Bible as evidence I realized that this search would be much harder than what I might be capable.

So my primary question is, “How, if at all, is published revisionist history publicly addressed by scholars and academia?”.

I am trying to understand, if popular books sold to an average reader are based on unvetted and speculative sources how are they to find genuine information to learn from.


texts: How was money transferred in early 1900s' Russia?

texts:
I'm reading Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. The book frequently quotes letters between him and fellow revolutionaries, often when he was in internal exile in some obscure corner of Siberia.

The letters make frequent references to sending money to each other.

How would this work? Would they literally insert a few banknotes into the envelope and risk it going astray somewhere in the intervening 1000s of miles the letter would travel (also, bare in mind that as an exiled revolutionary all his mail would be subject to censorship) or was there some form of travelers cheque or postal order that only had value to the named recipient? He seems to have been sent to some pretty desolate and obscure hell-holes in the middle of nowhere, so my guess is he didn't have access to normal banking services.


texts: How did Islamic finance under the early Caliphates profit or take loans if charging interest wasn't legal?

texts: Under Islamic Law, any type of interest is considered usury and therefore illegal (in the religious context). How did lenders make money under this restriction? I am asking in the time frame from Rashidun Caliphate to about the Fatimad Caliphate and in the middle east.


texts:
In the movie U-571 (IMDB) there's a scene where two U-boats fire torpedoes at each other, at close range, while both submerged.

I always imagined U-boats would fight one another while on the surface, with their deck guns. Use of torpedoes underwater adds the problem of the third dimension, thus hitting an underwater target would be very improbable and a waste of ammunition.

I am sure modern submarines have no problem firing at each other in 3D space, but I'm not convinced that the scenario I describe has never happened with their WW2 predecessors, however unlikely.

Are there any references to this tactic?


texts: When was unleaded gasoline introduced in California?

texts: When did unleaded gasoline become available for sale (as an option, not mandatory) in California? That is, suppose you were a driver a few decades ago, who wanted to drive without pumping lead into the air. In what year would it have become possible to do so?


texts: How can we be sure that a certain historical claim is true and accurate?

texts:
The study of history heavily relies on textual records, which are, to some extent, value-laden or subjective. Worse still, since peer-review was not a strict practice in the past, it is fairly possible that some historical claims, however convincing, might have been deliberately fabricated or distorted. This is especially possible in cases where there were very few people who witnessed a certain event, making it easy for them to exaggerate or deny what they saw.

Historians consult many primary sources to verify the historicity of certain event. But what if there's only one or very few primary sources? How can they make sure that these sources are true and accurate? Or can they?


texts: Why didn't Europeans before Gutenberg print with woodblocks?

texts:
Before the invention of the printing press and movable type (and some related innovations) by Johannes Gutenberg, books in Europe were generally only reproduced if someone copied them by hand.

In China, woodblock printing had existed for hundreds of years at that time. There was a flourishing industry of printed books, most of which did not use movable type.

Woodblock printing was known in Europe, and examples of pictures made with that technique exist from before Gutenberg's time. Books became widespread after Gutenberg, so there was a market for them.

Why didn't Europeans create books with woodblocks? If some examples of such books exist, why didn't they become widespread?

Addendum: Some commenters have expressed doubt that woodblock printing was a large industry in China. Here is a short encyclopedia entry that gives an overview of the history of commercial print publishing in China. While the great boom happened in and after the 16th century, commercial printing was common before that. And woodblock printing was the most common technique used until the 20th century.
While woodblock printing is arguably more suitable for the Chinese writing system than the scripts used in Europe, this shows that it is clearly possible to use woodblocks for book printing on a large scale. Saying "woodblock printing is impractical" is not a very good explanation.


texts: What's the historical basis for Water Margin / 108 Heroes of Liangshan?

texts:
Chronicle of the Water Margin (alternatively known as Outlaws of the Marsh and All Men are Brothers), one of the Four Great Famous Works of Chinese literature, is a novel attributed to Shi Nai'an (施耐庵, ca. 1296–1372).

Apart from being a great read, it's obviously based on a historical background, eg. the campaigns against the Kithan Da Liao to the north are part of the plot.

Without entering into much details, what are the historical basis for Water Margin? What historical documents allude to the facts portrayed in the history? From the main characters (108 outlaws, Imperial forces and other outlaws), which ones are attested historically? If there's any example (apart from the supernatural), which aspect of the history is considered the most fictitious?


texts:
I'm reading Alison Weir's 'Elizabeth of York', and she makes claims as to why Elizabeth of York couldn't succeed to the throne after Richard III which are not supported by evidence. Legally, there doesn't seem to have existed any impediments for her succession, so it comes down to 'public opinion' against having a Queen Regnant. Please note I am not interested in whether the 'real' situation on the ground would have allowed for such a succession.
Are there 15th or 16th century English sources that exemplify Empress Matilda as an impediment to having a Queen Regnant?

[p1] In the wake of legislation to give women the same rights in the order of succession as male heirs, it is interesting to reflect that England's Elizabeth I would not have been the celebrated Virgin Queen but Elizabeth of York. But in the fifteenth century it would have been unthinkable for a woman to succeed to the throne. Elizabeth lived in a world in which females were regarded as inferor to men physically, intellectually and morally. It was seen as against the laws of God and Nature for a woman to wield dominion over men: it was an affront to the perceived order of the world. ...
[p170] ...no one seriously considered that a woman, even the legitimate, rightful heiress of the House of York, could actually rule alone as queen regnant. ... Traditionally women could transmit the crown—the royal houses of Plantagenet, York and Tudor derived their claim through the female line—but not wield sovereign power. Even Margaret Beaufort, with all her astute capabilities, had never been regarded—or regarded herself—as a contender for the throne.
[p171] There was no Salic law in England barring women from the throne, as there was in France, so there was nothing to prevent a woman from ruling, but memories of female misrule were long. People remembered how, in the twelfth century, the haughty, overbearing Empress Matilda's attempt to pursue her lawful claim to the throne had resulted in a civil war so bloody that it had been said that 'God and His saints slept'. That experience had left the English with an enduring prejudice against female rulers.
[p171] ... As Buckingham had bluntly put it, 'It was not women's place to govern the kingdom, but men's.'
—Weir, 'Elizabeth of York'

The above arguments start by making sweeping generalisations, but then say that there was no legal impediment (though possibly a religious one is implied at with those arguments?). The primary obstacle, other than realpolitik, which is described is the example of Matilda in the 12th century—though this is not referenced to a primary source. Also, this claim is made despite other neighbouring kingdoms having had successful Queens Regnant since Matilda: Margrethe I, Joanna I, Joanna II, Joan I, and Joan II to name some. Further, less than one hundred years after this statement, England will have been ruled by three Queens Regnant: Jane, Mary I, and Elizabeth I; two of whom married but whose husbands did not rule in the Queens' stead.


texts:
I am researching my family tree to create a Christmas present for my dad. I ordered my grandad's birth certificate and his father's occupation is listed as 'wine gauger of 48 Cheetham Street Manchester'. The year is 1916.
I have undertaken some research into what a wine gauger is - something to do with customs charges.
Is anybody able to provide any more detail about what this job entails? Would it have been seen as a good job to have?


texts: Did any plantation/hacienda/fazenda owner free all his slaves?

texts: The North and South American masters that kept slaves are today criticized for it. Their income of course depended on slave labor. Anywhere in the Americas, did any of them free their slaves -- not at death like Thomas Jefferson tried to do, but all at once, perhaps following a moral epiphany?


texts: Did Thomas Aquinas's correspondent James of Tonengo become bishop of Vercelli?

texts:
Thomas Aquinas wrote the long letter/short treatise De Sortibus at the request of his friend James / Jacobus / Giacomo of Tonengo.  James was a candidate to be bishop of Vercelli (Northwest Italy) but the electors were deadlocked. They wondered if it was appropriate to cast lots to make the decision and wrote Aquinas for advice.  Aquinas's careful and thoughtful response (recently translated into English by my friend Peter Carey, Cascade Books, 2021) is a nice read, but one wonders

what the electors did with Aquinas's advice

and

whether James became the bishop.

Perusing the internet, (see below) it seems that James died in 1273 and one of the incomplete lists of Vercelli bishops indicates that Aime de Chantel was appointed to the position at the end of 1273.  Was there no bishop from 1268 to 1273, or was James appointed and just not mentioned in the lists I found?  Both the Wikipedia and Catholic Hierarchy lists have many (different) gaps.
(Edit: The first place I found James's year of death was a page at the Bodleian Libraries; one can find others, mostly in relation to Aquinas's correspondence. The two answers both include links about the date of Aime de Chantel's appointment.)


texts: Who first precisely measured the length of the year?

texts: In the past people measured the length of a year according to the moon's 28-day cycle but this obviously left a few days out, so I was wondering which civilization first realized this and fixed the problem?


texts: How have military orders evolved in the information era?

texts:
The different sizes of military structures have stood the test of time.  The nature of combat has changed perhaps, but the people stay the same.  At any given time in history, I presume there was a standard for what kind of orders might be given to a team.  Just to make one up, perhaps a squad (8-12 people) may be asked to secure a small area like a building.   I'm interested in what kinds of orders these might be, and how they may have changed over time as combat evolved, particularly in the information era where, from what I understand, individual soldiers have become much more active in the decision making process as we dealt with the deluge of information available.
I'm more interested in the smaller structures (platoon and smaller), so a focus on those would be useful if capturing what kind of orders are issued to all structures, from fireteams to army groups, is too large of a scale for a question.  I'm not looking for drill orders, unless they demonstrate an aspect of issuing orders which would appear on the battlefield.


texts: How many people were killed by Protestant Inquisition style tribunals? Asking for references/estimates

texts:
It's relatively easy to find estimates for the number of people killed by the Catholic Inquisition; one just needs to check the Wikipedia page, regardless of the doubts on the true numbers.
However, there are several historical references of Protestant Inquisition-style tribunals, e.g. in Scotland. Furthermore, there are also historical references showing that even among different Protestant currents, Protestants were killed.
I'm looking for estimates of how many Christians (Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, etc.) were killed in newly Protestant countries.
Any help would be appreciated.


texts: This question is prompted by an earlier question on Roman law, which seemed to suggest that only treason was punishable by death for citizens. I did ask this as comment, but have got intrigued. I am ashamed to name my "source", as it was a murder mystery set in Rome, where it states specifically that the penalty for patricide - being considered a particularly impious crime - was to be flogged, tied in a sack with various unpleasant animals, including a snake, and rolled into the Tiber! Is this arrant nonsense? I'm quite prepared for the answer "Yes!" grin


texts: When the 'speedy trial' amendment was written, how long did trials usually take?

texts:
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution promises "the right to a speedy and public trial," to prevent the accused from being held without a conviction for a long pretrial period. What would have been considered a reasonable length of time for a trial in the early United States at the time this amendment was written?

Also, how long did appeals and civil cases take?


texts: Was the issue of women's suffrage debated during the drafting of the 1809 Instruments of Government?

texts:
The Kingdom of Sweden had a limited vote for women between 1718 and 1772, during the Age of Liberty, which was based on the 1719 Instruments of Government. This was only the case in two of the four Estates of Riksdag (the Burghers and Peasants). After the re-establishment of absolutism in 1772, the 1719 Instruments of Government were superseded until Gustav IV Adolf was overthrown in 1809. When the 1809 Instruments of Government were implemented, these no longer included a mention to female suffrage in any of the estates. Was the question of women's suffrage debated (by the people who drafted the 1809 Instruments of Government) in the drawing up of the 1809 Instruments of Government, and, if so, what arguments were used?
Other sources specify that the burghers took away their women's right to vote in 1771 while the peasantry confirmed theirs (primarily because they emphasised the ownership of property over gender):

In 1771, the burger estate decided to exclude 'burger widows' from voting as for members of the estate. ... the estate of peasantry had to decide whether women should be allowed to vote in Riksdag elections. It is interesting in this context to compare the different decisions of the burgher estate with those of the peasant estate. At the same Riksdag meeting in 1771, the estate of peasantry decided that farm-owning widows 'could not be refused permission to participate in the election'.
—Simonton, 'The Routledge History Handbook of Gender and the Urban Experience'

But that ended with the return of absolutism (much like my preview of that book which stopped with Gustav III's coup d'état and continues in the 1840's so it doesn't answer my question). I've also not seen this question answered in the WP links or other books which primarily only mention the period between 1719 and 1772 that the limited women's vote existed in.


texts: What was the Constitutional Basis for Gaius Julius Caesar's Dictatorship

texts:
In the early republic, a dictator was usually appointed for a reason such as presiding over an election or defending the city against a foreign invasion.

I remember reading somewhere that Sulla's dictatorship was based on the agreement (which he obviously forced the Senate into) that he would see the Republic and its constitution restored to its proper form.

What was the constitutional basis for Caesar's dictatorship?