texts: Which 'march across the ice' had comparatively the most casualties?

texts:
I'm wondering whether a 'march across the ice' has ever ended in a catastrophe. These events are typically described as "risky", "daring", "bold", and "exceptional" (various sources), and yet all the examples I know of (noted below) were successful. This success seems to have been a direct consequence of the planning that went into these events, so it is perhaps not unsurprising that the events succeeded. Therefore, instead of wondering whether a 'march across the ice' has failed, I'd like to know which one ended in the worst results: which 'march across the ice' had comparatively the most casualties due to the nature of the endeavour?

Definitions
'March across the ice': an endeavour where a military force decides to cross a frozen body of water.(1)
Comparative casualties: percentage-wise of the whole force involved in the crossing (as these may be very problematic, descriptive answers are welcome without specific casualty counts).
Nature of the endeavour: Something that can only have happened because of the march happening on a frozen body of water, either related to natural causes, such as ice breaking up or a snowstorm, or human-devised causes which take advantage of the natural environment, e.g. by causing the ice to break up.(2)

Examples
The examples I know of (but it is likely there are more such events, especially in non-European places):

De La Gardie's crossing of the Gulf of Finland in 1580 against the Russians in Wesenberg and Tolsburg—detail is lacking;
The March Across the Belts in 1658 where Karl X Gustav sent Dahlberg to check the ice who confirmed that the cavalry and artillery could pass, after which the Swedish crossed the frozen sea and forced the Danish surrender—mention is made that the army actually marched through water (that
must have been... scary);
Washington's Third Crossing of the Delaware in 1777 which seems to have gone very well despite adverse weather;
De Tolly's march against Umeå in 1808 was part of a three-pronged Russian advance against Sweden in which de Tolly crossed the frozen Gulf of Bothnia and took Swedish Umeå—a source I've been unable to track down qualified this as 'very harsh' with several problems;
Kulnev's march against Stockholm was another part of the three-pronged Russian advance, but was cut short—no specific detail is given.

There is an example of a Swedish force being scattered and destroyed in a regular winter storm—the Carolean Death March—but that was an on-land retreat so it doesn't count.
To compare these frozen marches with desert crossings, for all the successful ones there's Herodotus' narrative of the Persian army lost in a desert (at 100% casualty rate in Herodotus' book), which, even if apocryphal, is a good warning.

(1) We should have sources that indicate the march actually took place across the ice, so that I'm reluctant to consider the Lithuanian force which engaged its opponents on the frozen Moon Sound as we don't know where they started out from.
(2)However, merely having two armies meet and slaughter each other on a frozen sea is not sufficient.


texts: How and when did the surname "Apibus" become "de Apapis"?

texts:
The Maltese surname Apap derives from "De Apapis", and the family crest features bees. Family lore tells that the surname originates from a person who kept bees.

In Latin, Apis is bee, and the most likely version of the word that yielded Apapis is "apibus", the ablative or dative case plural meaning "from the bees".

However, I am struggling to figure out when the shift could have occurred as the Maltese language doesn't descend directly from Latin, but rather Siculo-Arabic, hence it seems hard to see how the surname could have "morphed" into its current form in Malta itself, but rather in Italy or France and been brought over to Malta in the Apapis form.

Could someone with more knowledge of Maltese history or Romance language morphology give a suggestion?

EDIT:

Here is a genealogy source that shows the surname morphing from Apapis to Apap through the records:

https://maltagenealogy.com/de-chiaromonte

Here is a source for the family crest showing bees (Apis/Ape):


texts: How did the First French Empire and allies differ from the other European monarchies at that time?

texts:
During the Napoleonic Wars (especially towards the end), France and most of its allies (e.g. Kingdom of Italy, Duchy of Warsaw, Kingdom of Spain) are absolute monarchies. However, they seemed to genuinely claim that they were revolutionary forces fighting a revolutionary wars.

How did the governmental or societal structure in the First French Empire and its allied states significantly differ from their enemies, that allows them to claim to be revolutionary?


texts: Why did the Indian National Congress fail to convince Indian minorities to support united India

texts: While much has been discussed about the British policy of divide-and-rule while governing India (and other colonies), another fact that has not received the same attention is the enormous support received by the Muslim League from India's Muslims. Why was the Congress not able to convince India's Muslim population that they would be better off in united India?


texts: What is the origin of the myth of St. Valentine?

texts:
There seems to be a story floating around about St. Valentine being martyred for performing weddings. Here's a representative version:

  Valentine became famous for marrying couples who were in love but
  couldn’t get legally married in Rome during the reign of Emperor
  Claudius II, who outlawed weddings. Claudius wanted to recruit lots of
  men to be soldiers in his army and thought that marriage would be an
  obstacle to recruiting new soldiers; he also wanted to prevent his
  existing soldiers from getting married because he thought that
  marriage would distract them from their work.

The thing is, St. Valentine's Wikipedia page clearly labels this as a legend. However, it seems to be prevalent (and reported as fact) on a lot of sites I consider of dubious quality, like ask.com and CBN. Even there, their stories don't agree.

One would think that if Claudius passed such a law, there would be a record of it somewhere. All I could find was Lex Papia Poppaea, which encouraged marriage. Claudius's page does indicate that he tried to get his soldiers to prevent him from marrying. Perhaps that's the germ of truth at the bottom of this story?

So I'm curious about two things here: How likely is this legend, and when did it first appear?


texts: German private property and homes returned after founding of republic?

texts:
During the occupation of defeated Germany in 1945 the allied forces, including those of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, seized and occupied thousands of private homes and other private property. A typical example of this was the private home of General Gerd Rundstedt in Kassel, which American troops seized, occupied and looted. This was just one of thousands of such homes that American troops treated the same way, the house of Rommel being another example. In Rommel's case, his wife was expelled from the house by soldiers and it was turned over to French-African soldiers who looted it.

Was this type of property eventually returned to the original owners of the homes after the founding of the Republic of Germany? I would be interested also specifically in whether the Rundstedts ever got their home back.


texts: Why did Charlemagne retreat after the Battle of Pamplona?

texts:
After Charlemagne defeated the Christian Basques in Pamplona, why did he retreat through Roncevaux Pass (thereby setting himself up for ambush) instead of going on to conquer more of Iberia?

  "After the negotiation at Zaragoza, Charlemagne heard news of a Saxon revolt in the North, which forced him to retreat back to his kingdom. But before leaving Spain he decided to further secure his hold on the Vascone territory. Charlemagne first eliminated any possible opposition from the natives of the region (including the Basque tribes), believing that many of them were allied with the Moors. He gave orders to tear down the walls of the Basque capital Pamplona, possibly fearing that it could be used for future conflicts. Some primary sources suggest that he destroyed the city altogether, and many towns in the region were also razed. Garrisons and military outposts were placed throughout the territory, and there were accounts of the Franks' harsh treatment of the Basques during their occupation. After securing the region, Charlemagne marched for the Pyrenees mountain pass in hopes of returning to France." Wikipedia

My reason for questioning this is that the Saxon Wars had been going on for seven years before Charlemagne's invasion of Iberia. Logically, why didn't he simply go on and capture some more of Spain, instead of leaving and fighting the Saxons? Did he expect to gain more territory by battling the Saxons than by battling the Basques and Moors, or what?


texts: Which 1848 German revolutionaries became key players in the US Republican party?

texts:
Gillian Brockell wrote in an article at the WP:

In 1860, two major factors helped to propel Lincoln — a one-term
congressman and country lawyer most known for losing a Senate campaign
— to the Republican nomination for the presidency. First, the support
of former German revolutionaries who had become key players in the
Republican Party; and second, the support of the party’s newspaper,
the Tribune.

So, who were these former German revolutionaries? A quick search did not locate names.


texts: If a merchant ship captain joined the Royal Navy during the age of sail, would they be put in command?

texts: If the captain/former captain of a merchant ship joined the navy or was press ganged into the the navy would they be put in command of a ship or would they have to work they way up through the ranks? I would appreciate any information  or references on this topic as I have failed to find anything myself.


texts: Real-life examples of finding long-lost treasure?

texts:
Whether it's Indiana Jones, National Treasure, or the latest Dan Brown novel, popular culture has fallen in love with the idea of finding long-lost treasure, preferably in some elaborate underground vault forgotten by the passage of time. The hero typically has to find clues and solve puzzles in order to find out where the treasure is, or to open the hidden vault it's contained within.

Of course, those are just movies, but I'm wondering: are there some real-life examples of long-lost treasure being found? Are there any cases where the discoverer had to solve a series of puzzles or riddles in order to find or access the treasure?


texts: What are other obvious samples in history where political/religious leaders try to shape religion to their need

texts:
This question is inspired by What were Hitler's religious beliefs?

So they have well documented records on how Hitler actually tried to change/replace christianity.

What other similar records that are like that but for other leaders or other religions?

Basically records where:

The religious leaders pretend to have one position
His position is actually significantly different
He wanted to change things not based on actual metaphysical belief (Hitler seems to be an atheist) but based on political consideration

I think I've heard that King of England established Anglican church so he can divorce his wife. I've heard filiolog is added to justify attacking constantinople. Then Shiah develops out of hatred of Yazid that slaughtered Muhammad's decendants. The last one was at least partially honest. So what's the rest? And how well documented the records are?


texts: How did medieval cities get rid of waste?

texts:
What I am trying to get to is that many video games have a sewers level. To my understanding, these aren't as realistic as we'd like to think (too big or sewerage wouldn't exist yet in the settings timeframe; you name it). I know of the idea of cesspits, but modern cesspits don't tend to be in cities, and are well regulated by laws.
If you were to think of a medieval (anything from 12th century to 15th century) city, with quite a high population; how did the major cities handle waste disposal? Did they use a cesspit? Because if so, I am already filled with a bunch of questions:

Where were the cesspits located? Were they located away from civilian life, or still within city boundaries?
How did the waste get into the pits; was there a primitive sewer system taking waste from latrines to the pits, or were there shared latrines at the location of the pits?
How were the pits emptied? Would they have multiple pits rotate use, and once one is full it gets emptied by hand to be used as fertilizer?

Basically, I can't picture what waste disposal and going to the toilet is like in those times... And I dislike the idea of giant tunnels called sewers where you can walk among the turds. Correct me if I am wrong, but that seems like a game design to me rather than an actual historical practice.
(ps. I do understand that they might not have entirely known what we'd consider best practices. There is a reason why we've had the Black Death and the like: people wouldn't have known what we know about hygiene.)


texts: Who was the last US president who did not start a war?


texts: Diplomatic relationships between China and Japan during the Beiyang Goverment

texts:
How were the diplomats from Japan treated in the areas controlled by the Beiyang government?

Edit: During the Beiyang goverment were diplomats and families from Japan, treated the same as other diplomats would be or was there just to much animosity occuring between the two cultures?


texts:
Today, I heard about seven deaths attributed to an explosion of a bomb from World War 2: Seven dead as war bomb explodes in Bangkok scrap yard

Hopefully, the last death or deaths that can be reasonably regarded as caused by World War 1 has already happened. What was it, and when did it happen?


texts: Why are Vorarlberg and Tirol part of Austria, when they are only connected to it by high mountains?

texts:
The western lands of Vorarlberg and Tirol are part of Austria, but they are only connected to Austria by mountainous pass which is not very practicable (Tirol and Vorarlberg among themselves are also themselves connected only through such a pass). Including the nowadays Italian South-Tirol in the equation doesn't change this fact, either.

The simplest/fastest way to reach mainland Austria from Vorarlberg is to go north and through Bavaria. From Tirol the simplest way is also to follow the Inn and to go right through Bavaria.

Both Austria and Bavaria are very old countries, and when they formed in the Middle-Ages, it was definitely not practical to go all the way to the mountains to carry messages, transport goods and troops from mainland Austria to it's western parts. So I do not understand why those western lands could be part of Austria, especially back then when transport and communication was much more difficult than today.


texts: In the Medieval period, how long would an average swordsmith need to forge an average sword?

texts: Based on this question over in RPG, I'm trying to figure out how long it took to forge a sword in the Medieval/Renaissance smith to make swords.  I am recalling a figure of about 9-12 months per sword, some other references indicate that Katanas would be made quicker.  My google-fu is bringing up tons on the individual steps "hammer until it's the right shape", "grind until sharp", etc. but no real estimates of how long these steps individually take or how long the whole process is.


texts: Were there any Jewish members of the Roman Senate?

texts:
A Jewish presence in Ancient Rome has been attested to from even before the Roman conquest of Judea. It was possible for prominent individuals to acquire Roman citizenship and at least under the Empire it was possible to acquire Senatorial rank through actions of the Emperor. Thus there appears to be a path by which a Jewish person could potentially enter the Senate.
However, there were some religious rituals associated with the Senate, for instance a sacrifice was made before each meeting, which may have made it incompatible (from an individual perspective) with Jewish observances (i.e. idolatry).
Were there any members of the Roman Senate who followed the Jewish faith?
Current Research: In addition to my general knowledge about Ancient Rome, I have read up a number of Wikipedia articles about the Roman Senate, and Jews in Ancient Rome, and I cannot find an answer to this question, nor can I find it by searching the web for related phrases.


texts: Why did the Germans use the Enigma machine rather than the far superior "Lorenz" cipher machine?

texts:
Basically, the only good thing about the "Enigma" cipher machine was its name. Other than that, it was grossly inferior to the "Lorenz" one, apparently only used by some of the main, top-ranking persons.

If they did have a much stronger cipher machine than Enigma, why did they use the inferior Enigma for such critical and important communication? Some say that breaking the Enigma contributed heavily to Germany's defeat, so why would they risk it by not using the best machines they had?

Was it purely a matter of costs? They didn't have the time and/or money to make a ton of Lorenz ones?

The Enigma was commercially used prior to the war, making it even more bizarre that they would pick this for use in the war. It's as if somebody today would fight a war using PGP encryption -- essentially a toy created by "some person" and in wide use by normal (well, at least geeks) people today. Obviously, they would come up with some completely new encryption method and not rely on off-the-shelf products.

So why did they back then? This is something which has puzzled me for many years, ever since I learned about the existence of "Lorenz". I always used to think that the Enigma was the only and the best cipher machine they had -- probably because the winning side has bragged so much about defeating it, and the great name which suggests that it's some kind of magical "mystery box".

As far as I can tell, they never managed to break the Lorenz machine.


texts: Was the Kara-Khanid Khanate founded by Karluks or Uyghurs?

texts:
I've seen both the Karluks and the Uyghurs referred as the founders of the Kara-Khanid Khanate (sometimes in the same source).
In this online guide created by Ulrich Theobald (Universität Tübingen) we find both:

Chinaknowledge.de: Qaraqans claims it was founded by Qarluqs.
Chinaknowledge.de: Uighurs claims it was founded by Uyghurs (see The Uyghurs of Kašgar).
Of course, I'm not discussing the ethnos of the population or its later leaders, only the founding members of the dynasty.

Is there a consensus about the matter or am I missing something?


texts: Tomb for Charles V (of france) and Jeanne de Bourbon in Saint Denis?

texts:
Can someone provide me with the location of the tomb for Charles V and Jeanne de Bourbon in Saint Denis ?

To be specific: I know that the tomb was located in the chapel of the virgin, but after it was destroyed the remaining figure of Charles was relocated. Where is it now ?


texts: What factors contributed to the United States having a larger proportion of Jews than other British colonies?

texts:
Related but more broad question: Why is such a large percentage of Jewish population worldwide in USA

According to Wikipedia, the United States has a higher proportion of Jews than Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

All of these countries have a very large proportion of people descended from people who immigrated in the past couple of centuries. All have a plurality or even majority of Europeans plus people descended from Europeans. All have had prejudice against Jews and Europeans from countries outside of the western part of Europe (I'm not using "Western Europe" as these prejudices pre-date the Iron Curtain), and government actions that reflected those prejudices.


texts: Do Columbus' letters reveal that he was a Marrano?

texts:
In this popular CNN article, the author raises many arguments to prove that Columbus was a Marrano (hidden Jew), I found none to be very compelling besides for the following one:

  At the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written
  by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters
  bet-hei, meaning b'ezrat Hashem (with God's help). Observant Jews have
  for centuries customarily added this blessing to their letters. No
  letters to outsiders bear this mark, and the one letter to Diego in
  which this was omitted was one meant for King Ferdinand.

This article is lacking citations, so I tried searching for other sources to corroborate this claim but I wasn't able to. The reason I'm doubting this claim is because if Columbus really wrote these Hebrew letters (an exclusive Hebrew practice) then why are scholars still debating whether Columbus was indeed a Jew, I mean doesn't this prove ipso facto that he was indeed one? How else can we explain the existence of two Hebrew letters on his letters? Why is it brought as a sidenote to the other five non-compelling arguments in the article cited above? Are his letters still in existence today (or at least images of them), is it possible to verify this claim? I mean if I would see those two Hebrew letters with my own eyes, to me that would more than enough proof he was of Jewish origin.


texts: What examples are of French and Arab cultural integration?

texts:
In the last centuries there were very close tights between the French Empire and its colonies in the Maghreb before and the immigrants and citizens of France after the decolonisation.

What are the most prominent examples of Arab writers who wrote in French or French writers writing about culture and history of Arab countries?

Can we compare this situation with Indian writers who write in English?


texts: What was the ratio of German to Soviet losses on Eastern front during different stages of the war?

texts: I've read somewhere that the ratio of Soviet to German casualties on the Eastern front was 1.4 for the whole war. But what about data for different stages of the war? (this ratio wasn't constant after all) Is there an analysis which explains the fluctuations in that ratio in terms of major battles, offensive/defensive tactics, weapon developments etc.?


texts: This is my great-grandfather. I would like to know what he did in the Army. Can you identify whether he was infantry or cavalry?


texts: Was Frisbee criticized in the Soviet Union?

texts:
In the U.S. of the 1950s, the Space Age and molded plastic flying discs (Frisbees) were both novel. New materials and a supposed resemblance to UFOs made this linkage irresistible for early disc marketers, who named products "Flyin-Saucer" and "Pluto Platter". Colors and designs were exuberant. Early cross-branded discs promoted Buck Rogers, Li'l Abner, and Disneyland. The same firm, Wham-O, also produced the Hula Hoop and Super Ball.

Outside of games and sports, the Space Age was inextricably linked with the the philosophical and military contention of the Cold War. Frisbee products were quintessentially American, potentially affecting their desirability or reception in the Soviet Union. Almost certainly some small number were imported. Russian Wikipedia says without citation that "in the Soviet Union, the [Hula] hoop appeared in the early sixties, although at first it was not welcomed here, being called a symbol of the emptiness of American culture."

In the late 1970s, molded plastic was no longer new technology and flying discs had been available in the U.S. for thirty years. Domestic disc production began in the Ukrainian S.S.R. at the Ivano-Frankivsk Valve Plant. Discs with "Летающей тарелки" (flying saucer) printed around the edge, at least one model promoting the 1980 Moscow Olympics, became available. Towards the end of the decade the "Frisbee Diplomat" Ron Kaufman used discs in citizen diplomacy.

As the U.S.S.R. didn't generally import consumer goods from the U.S., going thirty years without local production hints that official and critical interpretations of Frisbees may have changed during this period. Were they initially stigmatized in the Soviet Union, as the Hula Hoop was reported to be?


texts: Why did Mexico encourage the settlement of Texas by Americans?

texts: Beginning in the 1820's, Mexico encouraged Americans (such as Moses and Stephen Austin) to settle in their territory of Texas. It was this that led to Texas becoming independent of Mexico—something the government very definitely did not want. So why did Mexico encourage Americans to settle Texas — why not simply bring more native Mexicans into their territory of Texas?


texts: Were the dates of saints days moved as part of the Gregorian calendar reforms?

texts:
I understand that if one were to go back in time and ask a participant at the battle of Agincourt what the date was, he would (if he knew) say that it was the 16th of October, he would also (more likely) say that it was — famously — St Crispin's Day:

  This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
  He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
  Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
  And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

Currently, of course, we celebrate the anniversary of the event today, on the 25th of October — but we also call this day St Crispin's Day.

Did the dates of Saints Days move with the Gregorian calendar reforms? If so was this move done consistently, and at the time of the reforms or later?


texts: Did the Soviet Union need both prongs to succeed at the Battle of Stalingrad?

texts:
In November, 1942, three months after the battle of Stalingrad began, the Soviet Union, launched Operation Uranus, a counterencirclement of the German forces in and around the city, in two prongs.

The larger, northern prong debouched from the south bend of the Don heading southeast, and four days later reached the appointed rendezvous point at Kalach, 40 miles west of Stalingrad, which contained the main German line of communications.

A day or so later, the smaller, southern prong of the attack was launched from the west bank of the Volga, on a northwesterly course with Kalach three days distant. About one day into the advance, it was counterattacked, and briefly halted by the German 29th Motorized Division, before this division was redeployed to resist the northern thrust. But had the Germans known what was going on, they might have reinforced the 29th Motorized, and at least stopped the southern thrust from arriving at Kalach to complete the encirclement.

Suppose this had happened. Was the capture of Kalach by the northern group sufficient by itself to isolate the Germans? Is there reason to believe that the northern thrust would have been able to complete the encirclement on its own by marching past Kalach to the Volga if this were not the case? Or would the Germans have been able to escape from Stalingrad if they had managed to stop the southern thrust from reaching Kalach?


texts: Which King or Kingdom first introduced the coins in India for trading (internal or external)?


texts: Can world systems theory apply to empires?

texts:
World systems theory categorizes the economic relationships of  countries by placing them in a core or a periphery. In this model, core countries exploit resources in the peripheral countries. This follows on Johann von Thünen's model of land use, which differentiates regions in the same economic system according to the costs of land and transport. However, what I have read about world systems pertains to whole countries, not regions.

What about cases where a core and a periphery are both part of the same nation? Colonies that were once fringes of empire (e.g., Chile and Yakutia) were definitely peripheral and attached to a metropolitan core (i.e., Madrid and St. Petersburg).

What explains the economic relationships inside an empire? Is there an "empire systems theory"?


texts:
I was wonder who this woman was.
It isn't Nefertiti, so I was wondering if this was Isis or Cleopatra or perhaps anyone else, I'm unsure.

The symbol on her head is a snake and she's just holding a decoration lamp.

I added a picture of the inscription too (Click image to enlarge)

EDIT: For people who misunderstand: I know it's not authentic nor am I asking if it is or not. I just want to know who the woman is.


texts:
I've read many textbooks and talked to plenty of people who explained to me that making thousands of rings, then interlocking them is terribly expensive.

This confuses me because history had Vikings covered in mail, Romans using mail until they managed to make interlocking strips work, and it wasn't uncommon for even Muslim warriors to use mail. Mail seems no more expensive than a sword, shield, and helmet.

So what is the price of mail compared to other items of that time? Was it really as common as I think it is?


texts: What is the context of the use of injustice/unrightousness (不義/fugi) in WW2 era Japanese propaganda?

texts:
The Imperial Japanese military song Nihon Rikugun (日本陸軍) begins with the line "天に代わりて不義を討つ" ("defeat injustice in place of righteousness").
What exactly did they consider 不義/fugi in Imperial Japan? Did it simply refer to opposing ideologies? Or is there a greater context distinct from the modern sense of "injustice" (especially considering that Imperial Japanese actions are considered unjust today).


texts:
There have always been professional soldiers however during the world wards there were vast conscription to encourage young men to join up for "King and Country".

Presumably there was some sort of financial remuneration for these men? Even if they were kept and fed while they fought they were the primary wage earners for their families. Were (and if so how were) soldiers in the great wars paid?


texts: Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic development programs such as the autobahn when the German economy was in a depression?

texts: Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic revitalization programs such as the autobahn and weapons' production when the German economy was in a depression?


texts:
Scandinavian airline SAS released a controversial advertising video titled What is truly Scandinavian?

It claims that many things considered traditional in Scandinavian countries are actually borrowed from elsewhere. Particularly, at 0:48 it says

  What about rye bread? It’s Turkish.

What is this claim based on? I always thought that rye is more typical for Northern European countries, while Southern Europe preferred wheat.


texts: Was COMECON involved in economic imperialism and if so, to what extent?

texts:
Disclaimer: I am not 100% sure if it was COMECON, it might be another Soviet apparatus.

I recall reading about how the Soviet Union forced her Eastern European satellites into very lucrative and favourable trade deals, essentially stunting the growth of her supposed allies especially in the case of Poland and Hungary. Was this true and if so, how extensive was the scheme? Did the Soviets then contribute back to the satellite state's economies or is the the reason they are still resented in many Eastern European states to this day?

EDIT: Sorry I did not mean if it was their INTENTION to do so or not, just if they did through favourable economic policies and if so, by how much.


texts: What good came from the Great Leap Forward?

texts:
I'm currently reading the book "Mao's Great Famine" by Frank Dikötter. It's a very harrowing book covering the unimaginable waste and destruction of resources, environment and life that occurred during the Great Leap Forward. The outright callousness, even stupidity of some the decisions from the top levels boggles the mind (I'm thinking of exporting grain while people were starving and the steel drive).

Perhaps I'm being naive, wanting to see a silver lining however slim it may be, but for all this waste, were there any positive outcomes at any level for the Chinese people attributable to the Great Leap Forward?

Are there any reliable resources detailing these outcomes?


texts: Alfred the Great was ill with  (possibly) Crohn's disease. Despite this he managed to wage war very successfully. Is there any possibility he could have know of the benefits of taking Frankincense? He seems to have had a lot of it.


texts: What can we deduce about the expected career of a US Navy "lifer" in 1972?

texts:
In 1972, a member of the U.S. Navy who's already accumulated several years of service mentions that he's expecting to spend his entire working life in the USN. What does that imply about his expectations for career success?

I realise the answer will depend on whether he's an enlistee or an officer; I'm interested in both cases, but for the sake of discussion we can assume that if he's an officer, he's not a specialist.

Background: in a lightly fictionalised 1973 work, William M. Joel refers to a 1972 encounter with "Davy", who at that time had already been in the U.S. Navy for some time (not stated whether officer or enlistee) and expects to stay there for life. In context, WMJ apparently intends this to indicate that Davy's life and career are going nowhere.

However, my understanding of things is that at least in the modern era, "Davy" could only expect to spend his whole working life in the Navy if he was expecting significant career success in that time. For instance, if Davy is an officer then 1980's DOPMA appears to imply that he would've needed to make Captain to stay in that long.

From googling, I found that the real-life "Davy" (David Heintz) sadly died quite young, in 2003, but neither that nor the 1980 DOPMA rules would've been known at the time of writing. I am interested in what Davy could reasonably have expected as of 1972.

By googling on variations of "us navy up or out history", I found plenty of information about the current situation and possible changes to that, but I couldn't figure out what it would've looked like from a 1972 viewpoint.


texts: When was General Douglas MacArthur made aware of the Manhattan Project?

texts:
Considering the US government's low opinion of General MacArthur* even before he almost performed a military coup in the 1950s:

Was Douglas MacArthur ever made aware of the Manhattan Project before Little Boy was dropped Hiroshima?

And if so, when?

 * And frankly my own low opinion of the guy as possibly the most incompetent career general in a position of power that America has had this side of the Civil War.


texts: Looking around the world, Christianity has spread to practically every corner. Christians are everywhere from South America to Australia to Korea. Even with Christian missionaries going all over the place, did people just pick it up and believe?


texts:
What part of England did the Baptist colonists come from to North America?
As in the regions of England, Wales or Scotland.


texts: Why did the attempts to keep Africa colonized after World War II fail?

texts: After World War II, though the Attlee-led British government decided to give freedom to India, they held on to much of Africa. But why did this attempt at colonization fail? Wikipedia explains that the economy of Africa did not improve. But what were the reasons behind this? As in any history of colonization, I expect resistance of the local people to be an important reason. But Africa had, at the time of British rule, a very small middle class and thus few political leaders. So why did the British (and other European powers) fail to continue their rule?


texts: When has a sovereign state last given territory to another as a gift?

texts:
There is a very popular ongoing Norwegian petition to give Finland a mountaintop for the 100th anniversary of its independence (6 December 2017), by moving the border a short distance.  The barren northern rock is of no particular interest to Norway, but to Finland it would be a new highest peak.  I find this improbable but fascinating.

When has a sovereign state most recently organised a voluntary and friendly concession?

Voluntarily merging the entire country with another doesn't count.  Both must exist independently afterward for it to have been a gift!


texts: Why is Papadopoulos such a common surname in Greece?

texts:
Papadopoulos is the most common Greek surname. It means "son of a priest". The female version is Papadopoulou.

I wonder why.

As far as I know, priests don't marry and are celibate, meaning they can't father a child. So, how did this become a common surname?

Does the expression "son of a priest" carry another meaning that I'm missing?


texts: Who said: "Armies prepare to fight their last war, rather than their next war"?

texts:
There is a famous quote which I've seen phrased in several different ways.

"Armies prepare to fight their last war, rather than their next war"
"Generals prepare to fight their father's war"
"Soldiers...."

I've seen this quote in many books and news stories; my question is who is credited with saying it first?
comments:

Eric Duminil
I don't think I understand the quote. Could you please explain?

At different periods in history, weapons and tactics have given significant advantages to forces on offense or defense. Over time, new innovations flip these advantages to the other side.  When this has occurred militaries are often caught unprepared, focused on their last experience rather than alert to how emerging innovations are changing the properties of war.
At first, fortifications like castles and walled cities yielded advantages to defenders.  It's why investments were made in hugely expensive fortifications and  networks of castles throughout Europe.
Gunpowder and cannons flipped that and made castles and fortified cities irrelevant. For centuries with firearms, offenses held the advantage.  A "Cult of offense" existed among military theorists which professed any effort made towards defense or protection of one's troops was a wasted effort. That troops on the offensive held such an advantage that all defensive efforts were counter productive.  Would ultimately cause more casualties and contribute to defeat.
During WWI, the machine gun paired with barbed wire flipped that back again. The cult of offense still held by the generals dictated that hundreds of thousands of men would die in battles on the Western Front. As the defensive advantages demonstrated themselves.  The Western Front ground to a stalemate.   Major battles fought barely changed the fronts lines. Generals on both sides would order massive frontal assaults believing there troops on offense still held an advantage, while in reality machine guns behind fortified lines cut the offensive troops to ribbons.
In WWII, tanks and new tank tactics would again flip the advantages. Infantry behind massed armor destroyed or simply bypassed fortifications built at great expense by generals who had learned the now outdated lessons of early WWI.  See Maginot Line.
The soldiers who best learn the lessons of the wars they fight advance to become the generals of future wars. They prepare to refight the wars they know. Only the nature of warfare changes. In modern times, these changes affecting war tactics have accelerated.  Where once these changes occurred over centuries or even millennia, in more modern times they have occurred over decades.


texts: Which lost historical documents, when uncovered, led to the most substantial revisions in historiography?

texts:
I have this romantic idea about the lost writings of Epicurus that perhaps somewhere at the bottom of the Aegean Sea there still lies a ship sunken in Ancient Greek times with  copies of the philosopher's writings stored in some waterproof amphorae (or something like that). Maybe one day they will resurface as was the case with the Antikythera wreck and mechanism, or maybe they won't and the ship and its remaining contents will just dissolve into enlarging entropy. Personally, I would certainly welcome their discovery most dearly ...

Now my question is along similar lines but more concrete in terms of known history: What were important instances of historic documents (or other artifacts) that were thought lost (e.g. with the library of Alexandria) or that were inaccessible at the time (e.g. in Soviet Russian archives) and that led to significant new historic understanding when new developments occurred and copies became available (perhaps surprisingly)?

And are there trends over time that perhaps show that new such discoveries get rarer as possible sites become more fully explored (or more frequent as historians' technical ability to explore them enhances)?


texts: What is the object moving across the ceiling in this stock footage?

texts:
It's a large cuboid box, looks to be around 2 feet by 1 by 1, tapered/bevelled at the edges, moving across an office ceiling at roughly 1 metre per second on a rail. The narration accompanying the footage talks about federal investigators looking into dodgy accounting in 1975 so it could be the FBI or SEC, or just random office stock footage not related to the date or subject.

It can be seen in this short clip on twitter

Screencap from the clip, object is between the heads of the two men:

Having moved to the right below the light fitting:

This clip is from the Barbie episode of The Toys that Made Us, first season, second episode.

It appears to be stock footage, and the documentary gives the following credits at the end:


texts: What was the mortality rate of gladiators?

texts:
What proportion of fights ended in deaths? What proportion of gladiators who have fought retire to a safer life?

As a theoretical extreme, all fights end in death and all gladiators die in battle. Was there a regular process of pardons? And a high proportion of gladiator retirees?

Did free gladiators have a better deal than slaves? At what point can they have a family that is financially safe when they die?

So many myths float around: all media portrays that almost all fights ended in deaths; then I read that they cannot afford such a high attrition rate. So they could have 10 fights before dying under Augustus.

Losing gladiators were pardoned/healed so they can fight again. And they bulked up on fat to protect themselves.

And they were commodities for speculation. So I guess the owners try to pull strings to safeguard their lives.

Wealthy people did it for adulation. Free people did it to pay off debts. Surely they expected to live?


texts: Why did the United States not resort to nuclear weapons in Vietnam?

texts:
Before getting into this note that I am NOT saying this would have been a good idea, nor am I advocating this as being a correct approach, not at all, it would surely have been horrific and very hard to justify, and likely counterproductive in many ways, but I'm asking this from a military point of view, in the interest of "winning" at war.

It seems the north would never abandon their goal to unite the country under communist rule. So the only way I could see to "win", to prevent the north from succeeding, would be to simply annihilate them. Otherwise you could stay there forever and not change a thing. It seems odd to be losing a war and yet not use your biggest weapon to turn the tide, to continue to lose troops and territory, yet restrain your military.

Did they not do it because they just didn't want to kill that many civilians?

Were they afraid the Soviets and Chinese would retaliate in kind?


texts: Were myopic slaves more valuable in ancient Greece?

texts:
When reading on nearsightedness I came across the following passage:

  We only have to remember how valuable a myopic slave was in ancient Greece, as a rare person who preserved his ability to read and do near work far longer than the majority of the population.

Are there any sources that would confirm or deny this? Intuitively it would make sense, but I have trouble searching about the subject because of the multiple meanings of the word "myopia".


texts: Knights relieving vows and deeds of arms

texts:
I've been doing a lot of reading lately of books like Ivanhoe, The White Company, etc. that take place in medieval times. Frequently, I see a knight in one of those books asking another knight if he can relieve the other knight of a vow.

What does that mean? What kind of vows do they relieve each other of?

Also, knights ask each other in these books if they are willing to perform some small deed of arms. Did they really march around looking for excuses to fight?

Although I am reading fiction, I am asking for information on about real world history.


texts: In the photo below, my grandfather is photographed center with another 29th Division soldier during World War I and a person on the left whose uniform I cannot identify.  Is it French?  My grandfather told his wife and daughter (for years) that he never left Alabama during the war (Camp McLellan), but unless French soldiers came to Camp McLellan to train, I'm guessing that he really went to France with his division.


texts:
Over time human cultures tend to naturally migrate, influenced by various push and pull factors. According to the gravity model of migration and specifically the concept of distance decay, very few of these displacements are over long distances. This theory helps explain why we have dominant regional cultures instead of a completely entropic mixture.

Like Athabaskan peoples shown on the map above, some cultural identities have survived treks of thousands of miles. Linguistic evidence shows that the Navajo and Mexica have roots far to to the north of their modern homelands. Certainly they blended with neighboring peoples along the way, but their languages still reflect those particularly far-away kinships. To indulge in a little survivorship bias, not many cultures succeeded at making such epic treks while maintaining their identities.

Critical masses of each group apparently had reason to keep going even while crossing entire climate zones. I'm curious about this behavior, since it's hard for me to imagine that getting away from enemies and finding new sources of food would take quite so much travel.

How could push or pull factors persist across such great distances?


texts: How did Hitler behave towards all those whom he knew in his childhood and youth after he rose to power?

texts: What do we know of Hitler's acts and attitudes towards those people he knew in his childhood and youth after he rose to power? For example, his World War One comrades? Did they receive and attention or rise to serve as high ranking officials in the army? What about those who denied him admission to the arts school, did he take vengeance on them? What about his family? Did they receive any special status?


texts: What happened to the Imperial Byzantine Family after the collapse of the empire?

texts: After the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, what happened to the Imperial Byzantine family? Did they later establish other smaller kingdoms? Do any European Royal family trace their ancestry to them (Especially in eastern Europe). Is there anyone in this time who holds the claim to throne of the empire (as in the case of many dissolved monarchies)?


texts: Why weren't German V-2 weapons used against the Russians?

texts:
Late in World War II, the Nazis deployed the V-2 weapons against Britain. That is, early missiles were launched against mainly British cities from bases in France, as "strategic" strikes. Apparently, some missiles were launched against Antwerp, Belgium, as tactical strikes, to disrupt the shipment of supplies through that port.

Yet, few, if any such rockets were launched against the Soviet Union. Perhaps one reason was the range; that by September, 1944, when the missiles were available, the Germans were out of range of most Russian cities. Still, weren't there "staging" targets in Soviet-occupied Poland, e.g. Warsaw in 1945, equivalent to Antwerp, that might have drawn missile fire?

Or were the V-2 weapons intended for other purposes, such as revenge for Anglo-American bombings that the Soviets did not participate in?


texts: Why did so many countries agree to the Non-Proliferation Treaty?

texts:
The Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 contains (among others) provisions that amount to the following:

There are five countries (the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China) that possess, and are permitted to possess, nuclear weapons
No other countries are permitted to possess or develop nuclear weapons

Given that these provisions put the non-nuclear signatories of the treaty at a significant disadvantage compared to the nuclear-weapon states one should expect that countries would be very reluctant to accede to it, but actually, the treaty was signed and ratified by the majority of the world's nations within the first decade of its existence already, with all but four of the rest following in the years since, making the NPT one of the most successful arms-limitation treaties in history:

  "More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement [...]"

  United Nations office for Disarmament Affairs

Additionally, only one country (North Korea) ever withdrew from the treaty, and all other non-nuclear signatories are believed to have complied with the nuclear weapons ban, despite all five of the nuclear powers having failed to (completely) fulfill the disarmament provision, one of the "three pillars" of the treaty, for over forty years.

What explains the continued success of the NPT, and what originally enticed (or compelled) the world's non-nuclear states to sign it?


texts: Execution at the scene of the crime under Australian law

texts:
The Criminal Law Consolidation Act Amendment Act 1971 (South Australia) removed the ability for Aboriginal murderers to be executed at the scene of the crime as allowed by the Criminal Law Consolidation Act of 1876 (SA).

Did this punishment ever apply to murderers of other ethnic origins in Australia? If so, in what states and territories was it applicable and when was it abolished for non-Aborigines?


texts: Why did the Streltsy in Russia have no summer uniform?

texts:
As noted in this answer, the typical well-know-from-paintings red coats and hats uniform of Russian Streltsy guard was both a winter and summer uniform.

Is there any reason why an (obviously warm, to survive Russian winter) clothing was also used as summer uniform? It must have strongly reduced the military efficacy of the troops, who'd be sweltering in Moscow heat in summer in the same cloths required to survive Moscow winter.

Was it cost? Rarity of uniform clothing pre-textile-industry? Logistic issues? Or the fact that the uniform wasn't actually all that warm and winter warmth was instead achieved by layers of cloths worn under the red coats?


texts: Did Serb nationalism play an outsized role in the breakup of Yugoslavia?

texts:
Every few years, I rewatch a five hour BBC documentary about the breakup of Yugoslavia.  The documentary begins with Milosevic's rise to power and his assertion of Serb rights in Kosovo.  The video only alludes to "reforms" he promotes there.  The next episode deals with the election of the nationalist Tudgman in Croatia and also refers to nationalist "reforms" he instituted in his own republic, reforms resisted by the minority Serb population.  I've had a hard time tracking down info on the actual content of these reforms.  Although the documentary and the general western narrative pin the blame for the breakup on Milosevic, on the face of it and without knowing what these reforms actually were, both men's actions seem pretty divisive.  Milosevic, for instance, did seem to be trying to hold things together even if he was way more assertive than his predecessors.  Whereas Tudgman explicitly called for confederation.

Does Milosevic really deserve so much blame or is this just general western, NATO country bias?


texts: What was horse population & growth in Northern UK 1500 to 1850?

texts:
I would like any statistics or estimates of horse population growth in Europe after 1500. I am especially interested in the northern UK and areas that industrialized first. I have a hypothesis that horses caused the industrial revolution. More horses meant more grain, which meant more horses. Once a sufficient population density was reached other forms of transport such as trucks and trains took over.

Since I don't see any other way self sustaining industrial growth can occur it is just an empirical question.


texts: Has anyone ever been punished for Project MK-ULTRA?

texts: So I've been looking into what MK-ULTRA is, and recently a scary question has came to mind. That question being, has anyone been punished for the events of MK-ULTRA? By punished, I don't mean a slap on the wrist or the loss of a job. I mean more on the sense of legal ramifications. If not, was there any real reason they weren't?


texts: How did the European public school system originate?

texts:
Are there any good sources for learning about the history of education in Europe?
I am particularly interested in learning about the origins of the public schooling system, as it seems they should likely have had a huge impact on society as a whole and I have no real idea of where it came from.
I tried to do a little searching, although most results I could find online seemed very America-centric.


texts: Which city has been captured most frequently?

texts:
According to Wiki, Jerusalem has been captured and re-captured 44 times in History.

I found this number to be quite high (as one would expect with Jerusalem) and it got me wondering if any other cities have changed hands more times than that?

Which city would hold the title of most captured city in history?

NB: By capture, this could be any duration, even if the victor only held it for a day before loosing it again. As long as the captor was effectively in control of it for any period of time I would count it.


texts: Did Boris Tarasov return from Mexico to Russia?

texts:
Boris Tarasov, employee of the Russian-American Company, was arrested in San Pedro, California in 1815. As a prisoner of some political value, in 1816 he was sent from Monterey to San Blas and then Tepic. He requested to stay in Mexico or else be sent to Europe (I bet he was from Siberia, though). In 1820 the Commandant of San Blas reported that Tarasov had fled to Panama.

The documents translated by Michael Mathes in The Russian-Mexican Frontier, which contain most of the above, and the other sources I have consulted reveal nothing more about Tarasov's journey. Did he make it back to Russia?


texts: To what extent were religious groups persecuted in the Soviet Union?

texts: I understand that many churches were destroyed and even many priests arrested and executed, but how widespread was the violence across the entirety of the Soviet Union?


texts: What happened to Justice, Nelson Mandela's cousin (or stepbrother)?

texts: Reading Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela ran away from his guardian, Jogintaba the regent of Transkei, with the regent's son who was called Justice. Then Justice simply drops out of the story. What happened to Justice?


texts: Was the Stock Market Crash of 1929 a cause or result of the Great Depression?

texts:
Did the Stock Market Crash of 1929 effectively cause the Great Depression, or were there economic factors already in place at that time such that the Greet Depression would have happened anyway, and the Stock Market Crash was just a result of those factors (and made things worse)?

What do "contemporary" (to 1929) economic writers such as Milton Friedman and John Kenneth Galbraith have to say about the connection between the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression? Or modern "Depressionists" such as Nouriel Roubini or Jim Grant?


texts: Has women's suffrage ever decided an election?

texts:
I'm curious whether women's suffrage has ever changed the direction of an election. Polls often show differences between men and women, but they are often fairly highly correlated, so I wonder if women's suffrage has ever proved decisive in an election.

Since this is a matter of curiosity I'd welcome responses from anywhere in the world; or for more narrow focus: federal and gubernatorial elections in the United States following the adoption of the 19th amendment in 1920.

(The question is not whether or not women's suffrage confers political power on women. Candidates have to appeal to the populace long before the final election, and suffrage certainly affects that political calculus.)


texts: Who uses a pre-"Gregorian" calendar and why?

texts:
Here's a "day job" question that apparently has its roots in history.

A person with one of our (overseas) suppliers declined to work this week, because it's his Christmas holiday. He's Orthodox, and is using an "old" calendar some days behind the current (Gregorian) one.

My understanding was that the current calendar came into being, when Pope Gregory decreed that too many days (relative to e.g., the winter solstice) had passed since the birth of Christ. To compensate, he "jumped" the calendar ten days forward in the 16th century, and thereafter, there would be no leap year in three "centennial" years out of four. (There WAS a leap year in 2000, but not in 1900 or 2100).

Apparently, the Protestant countries took over a century (until the early 18th century), before making the switch. More to the point are still a few holdouts, even today.

Which group of Orthodox Christians (or others) are still on the old calendar? Why did they fail to switch to the new one, (unlike the Protestants)?


texts:
Holodomor (Голодомор) is a part of the Soviet famine of 1932–33.
The events in Ukraine were called "Holodomor", but when did the word appear?

Google Books Ngram Viewer shows no mentions of Holodomor before 1990s,
and while it shows a couple of mentions of Cyrillic word Голодомор as early as 1938,
I couldn't find anything relevant on the Google Books search proper.


texts: Why was language not used to establish dominance throughout England 1066 AD–1360s CE?

texts:
Why didn’t the Normans enforce the use of their native tongue throughout the whole of England after William the Conqueror (of Normandy) became king of England? During William’s reign as king he discouraged the use of Old English in his court, and promoted the use of the French (Norman) language amongst his vassals as the feudal system was implemented. Also, it seems that Old English writing was essentially non-existent for nearly 300 years after 1066 CE and was replaced by “French” writing (Latin was still being used). However, was the spoken language of Old English still permitted throughout this time period? Was there no political ambition to remove the language from general use? If not, why not?

Note: It seems that Alfred the Great (King of the West Saxons 849 – 899 CE) understood the power of language and thus promoted the writing and speaking of Old English throughout his reign.


texts: Average ages of US Army officers at the turn of the 20th century

texts:
What would be the average rate of promotion for US Army officers beginning their career in the mid 1890's as a 2nd Lieutenant?  By what age could they expect to be promoted to each successive rank?

From looking at Pershing's career it seems that promotions were few and far between.  He didn't make the permanent rank of Captain until he was 41. But Patton starting 23 years later made Captain by the age of 32 (helped along by the start of WWI?).  What would someone starting their career between them expect for promotion?  What was the career arc of an Army officer at that time?


texts: What was the maneuver called when an infantry co. fired in two different directions while advancing?

texts: When a Napoleonic-era infantry company was taking fire from front and rear, what is the maneuver called where they covered their rear while advancing forward?


texts: Why was there a 2nd version of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that gave Lithuania to USSR?

texts:
I was shocked to read this at Wikipedia's article on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact:

  Lithuania, adjacent to East Prussia, would be in the German sphere of influence, although a second secret protocol agreed to in September 1939 reassigned the majority of Lithuania to the USSR.

Emphasis mine. The article has a cite for it too.

So the first version was agreed to 1939 Aug 24. This version had Lithuania assigned to Germany. Then the second version was agreed to in September, with Lithuania assigned to USSR.

Why the revision? Why so quickly? What prompted this change and why was it agreed to?

I'll also note that this was before the Winter War (Soviet invasion of Finland, begun 1939 Nov 30) that proved so disastrous, so it's not like they traded Finland for Lithuania.


texts: Which college president nearly finished a book in 1914 that argued that there would be no more wars?

texts:
In 1954, Presbyterian theologian Gordon Clark published a brief essay in which he criticized the moral optimism of the pre-WWI era.  He included the following intriguing tidbit:

  In the summer of 1914 a college president and Presbyterian elder had almost finished a book to prove there would be no more war. (source)

I'm trying to identify who exactly this author was.  Wikipedia has turned up two possibilities—Woodrow Wilson (though I'm not sure he was an elder?) and E. D. Warfield—but I haven't been able to confirm the existence of a book similar to what Clark describes.

It's certainly possible that Clark has his details wrong; I've already noticed one historical error in a related essay by him.  But the reference seems clear, almost as if he expects his audience to immediately know who he's talking about.

Who wrote the book that Clark is referring to?


texts: 1850s steel technology advance before the Bessemer converter

texts:
The Bessemer converter is often cited as the critical invention causing a breakout in the production of cheap steel and enabling the industrial revolution. However, I just put together this chart today from data in "The Chemistry of Iron & Steel Making" by Williams which suggests another cause:

So, if this chart is right we see the Bessemer converter being invented in the middle of the breakout, not at the beginning. In the 1851 data point we see a large increase in the production of steel, yet the Bessemer converter had not come into use yet.

Is there some key technology advance that preceded the Bessemer converter that could have enabled this increase in production?

Note that I am just guessing that there was some key advance that led to the increase in production. It is entirely possible that there was no technological advance, and that the number of factories and workers simply increased.

(Just as an aside, some may wonder why there was a decline in the 1870s. The reason for that is a scrap effect. Much of the iron produced in the boom of the 1850s rusted and turned into scrap by the 1870s. By recycling all this scrap, the need for new production declined. A secondary cause was an increase in American production at that time.)


texts: What was the role of U.S. involvement in World War II?

texts:
I recently read the book 1945 by Newt Gingrich and Harry Turtledove, where the premise is that Hitler got injured, and his advisers chose to wait to attack Russia until winning on the western front, meanwhile the US fought and defeated Japan without ever getting involved in the war in Europe (due to various political issues that are mentioned in the book). Because of this, the Nazis won the war, and now control almost all of Europe, excepting Britain.
What I'm asking is are there any indicators of what would've happened without US involvement (which was far from guaranteed in the first place)?

What were the actual U.S. contributions to the Allies in World War II, and how did they compare with the hypothesized U.S. contributions in the 1945 book that featured a the Nazis getting a "Cold War" (rather than total domination) against the United States.
Note that I'm not asking for speculation, rather for historical facts of any kind that might shed light on the subject.


texts: Who were the Athenian tributes in the 434/433 and 430/29 periods?


texts: What was the attitude of Mongols to conquered peoples?

texts: Muslim historians recorded the Mongol conquest of Baghdad.  In order to evaluate potential bias in these records, it would be useful to compare them to other records of Mongol conquests. Since the Mongols didn't record their side of the story, do we have any other, more neutral records of Mongol conquest and their behavior towards conquered peoples?


texts: Who wrote that Americans believe their values are universal values?

texts:
I remember reading this statement (or something very close) years ago:

  Americans believe their values are universal values, which is the most
  American value of all.

Who wrote this?
I want to say it was Walter McDougall in Promised Land, Crusader State, however I don't own the book, and can't find the quote in on-line searches (of that book, or otherwise).  In any case it's very possible I'm wrong and saw the quote elsewhere.

I realize the above point has probably been made many times, thus a related question: is there a particular author/speaker who is most often credited?


texts: Why did European writers and artists continue to depict the Moors as being black skinned, even though they were mostly Berbers and Arabs

texts:
The Moors were foot soldiers of the Ummayad dynasties of Syria who crossed the straits of Gibraltar into the Iberian peninsula.
Later in that period, two new dynasties emerged: the Almoravids and the Almohads. They are said to have come from the Senegal river valley of West Africa.

What surprises me is that even though the Moors were largely Arabs and Berbers, the Europeans seem to have imagined them in a somewhat contradictory and unflattering way. There is a book by John V. Tolan which explains what I'm trying to say. It is titled  Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination.

The Song of Roland is an epic poem based on the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, during the reign of Charlemagne. It is the oldest surviving major of French literature. Below are some excepts that demonstrate the contradictions I'm talking about.

  CXXV

  ....
  Then canters forth with all his great army.

  Canters before a Sarrazin, Abisme,

  More felon none was in that company;

  Cankered with guile and every felony,

  He fears not God, the Son of Saint Mary;

  Black is that man as molten pitch that seethes;

  Better he loves murder and treachery

  Than to have all the gold of Galicie;...

  CXLIII

  ...
  And Ethiope, a cursed land indeed;

  The blackamoors from there are in his keep,

  Broad in the nose they are and flat in the ear,

  Fifty thousand and more in company.

  These canter forth with arrogance and heat,

  Then they cry out the pagans’ rallying-cheer....

  Such discipline of Sarrazins he’ll see,

  For one of ours he’ll find them dead fifteen;

  CXLIV

  When Rollant sees those misbegotten men,

  Who are more black than ink is on the pen

  With no part white, only their teeth except,

  Then says that count: “I know now very well

  That here to die we’re bound, as I can tell....

This is a short documentary of the Moorish contributions to Europe. It also highlights the darkness which surrounds European perceptions of this period and the Moorish people.

Blackamoors is a decorative art form that arose as a result of the 800 year Islamist domination of Iberia. In this art form, Arabs and Berbers seem to be largely missing.

From a historians point of view, what is the reason for the disappearance of the Arab rulers from European imagination (artists and writers) and their replacement with subsaharan African slaves


texts: How prevalent were American disinformation campaigns during the Cold War?

texts:
Numerous disinformation campaigns were spread about the US during the Cold War by the KGB. Some notable examples include Operation INFEKTION, which attributed the AIDS virus to the US's involvement, as well as the fabrication of the 'nuclear winter' by the KGB in order to slow down US military development.

However, there does not seem to be a large record of the US's disinformation campaigns regarding the Soviet Union. The US CIA was heavily involved in Radio Free Europe; however, there does not seem to be evidence of intentionally spreading fake information through that program.

So the overall question is: What US operations actually caused the spread of disinformation about the Soviets? And if there weren't any, then why did the US not start campaigns like those of the Soviets?


texts: Why Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is so popular in Russian?

texts:
Recently I have seen a documentary film from "Star Media" (this is Russian film) called "The first world war". Up to this moment, I thought that the February Revolution had happened, because there was a huge economic problem and people were living in very poor conditions. Now I understand that the world war continued and this problem is obvious (but I didn't think about it before). Next, according to the film (and I believe it's true), the Bolsheviks signed a treaty of peace with very bad conditions for the Russian Empire (the Russian Empire had to pay reparations and lost some territories).

So now I'm confused, how did the Bolshevik's leader become so popular in Russia and have a lot of monuments?


texts: Was the US Army during the WW2 Western Front a motorized army, a mechanized army, or neither?

texts:
(Inspired by Was the Wehrmacht a motorized army?)

In World War II, during the American invasions of France and Germany, to what degree was the US army motorized and/or mechanized? My impression is that the supply chain was mostly motorized, but I don't know to what degree the front-line troops were motorized, mechanized, or on foot.


texts: Were NC, IL, and VA's latest concurrent constitutions' effective dates coincidental?

texts:
The latest Constitutions of North Carolina, Illinois, and Virginia all became effective on the same day (July 1, 1971). Was this coincidental, or was there some coordination going on? If so, why did they choose to concurrently make effective their Constitutions?

I've checked out the relevant Wiki pages and Googled it, but I haven't found any reason so far.


texts: Where did Cicero talk about Plato's Menexenus Funeral Oration?

texts:
I'm writing a paper on Aspasia--ancient Greek woman rhetorician--and in Plato's Menexenus he attributes a funeral oration to her. I found references in a couple of places to Cicero saying that the funeral oration was read yearly by Athenians after the Menexenus' publication, but the citations of Cicero are sloppy and I can't track it down.

Can you help me find the place where Cicero talks about it? I've found a bunch of dead ends.


texts: Interpreting two recent studies on Aryan Invasion/Migration theory?

texts:
Few months ago two studies published here in Cell and Science respectively and lot of authors in both the studies are common.

The science paper starts with

    By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and Southeast Asia.

It also concludes:

    Earlier work recorded massive population movement from the Eurasian Steppe into Europe early in the third millennium BCE, likely spreading Indo-European languages. We reveal a parallel series of events leading to the spread of Steppe ancestry to South Asia, thereby documenting movements of people that were likely conduits for the spread of Indo-European languages.

However, the Cell paper’s brief is:

    A genome from the Indus Valley Civilization is from a population that is the largest source for South Asians. The population has no detectable ancestry from Steppe pastoralists or from Anatolian and Iranian farmers, suggesting farming in South Asia arose from local foragers rather than from large-scale migration from the West.

I am trying to understand if the conclusions from two papers are consistent with each other or conflicting with each other. That is, Aryan Migration Theory is proved or disproved by this? Reason for my confusion is this article which indicates possible disagreement among the authors themselves.

There is discussion here from over 7 years ago but I thought my question requires a separate post since it is based on very recent studies.


texts: What was the final result for France after the Napoleonic wars?

texts:
What I'd like to know is if the final outcome of the wars was ultimately beneficial for France. In territorial terms.

Did it manage to keep some territorial gains?

If the question isn't clear be free to comment so I can provide clarification.


texts: Other than coffee and tobacco what major product became Cuba's source of wealth in the 18th century?

texts: How did the Industrial Revolution affect the production of this commodity? What, if any, affect did the Great Depression have on the industry?


texts: Is there a list of bills in the reign of George III & onwards?

texts: I am researching the history of trackways, canals mines and railways from the reign of George 3rd through to the end of Queen Victoria’s reign. Is there a list of all bills presented to Parliament during that quite long timespan. I am interested in both bills that were presented and not passed as well as those that received their Royal Assent.


texts: Why didn't the knights of Western Europe drive the Moors out of Granada in 1212 when they invaded Iberia?

texts:
In 1212, the knights of the Holy Roman Empire, France, and Spain pushed the Moors far down the Iberian Peninsula... but why didn't they go on and drive the Muslims completely off that peninsula? Did they have a reason for leaving southern Spain in the hands of the Almohads, when they could have easily driven them off?

Also, was this push at the Muslims in any way related to the "Children's Crusade" of the same year?


texts: Where the did the concept of "smear campaigns" originate?

texts:
In the US political system there have been campaigns against and for certain candidates, and this goes back to the first Presidential Elections, where both sides used to have editors of newspapers write slanderous stories on opponents and glowing stories on the candidate they support.  This has been well documented in many of the biopics on the Founding Fathers and on many historical books covering the American Revolution and the first few Presidencies, yet this concept had to have come from somewhere.  It seems rather advanced to have only been invented in America, does this have roots in the English Parliamentary system?  Was it imported from France?  Many of the Founding Fathers spent time in Europe so it would not surprise me that they were influenced from this during their times abroad.

Are there any sources on where this would have come from?


texts: Is there evidence that Harald Bluetooth died from an arrow to the rear?

texts: There's a popular opinion, that a famous Danish king Harald Bluetooth died as a result of taking an arrow, well... straight to his rectum. Not only have I encountered said story over the Internet on numerous occasions, but even read it in print: firstly, in Erik Roth's "With a Bended Bow" and then in Jim Bradbury's "The Medieval Archer". And both times with no reference to the source. So I searched, but couldn't find any historical text that would suggest it. Saxo Grammaticus writes that Palnatoke killed Harald while the latter was sitting in the bushes, emptying his bowels, but doesn't specify the nature of the fatal wound. Another source that gets thrown around a lot is "Jómsvíkinga Saga", but it just says that Harald was shot while resting at a campfire in the woods. Snorri Sturlusson's "Heimskringla" just mentions Harald dying from the wounds sustained in a battle with his son. Now I'm curious, is there any real evidence of the fabled butt-shot, or is it merely a modern myth?


texts:
Kamchatka was settled by Russians starting around 1700. I get the impression that by 1800 most people in Kamchatka had mixed heritages. According to UNESCO, Itelmen languages were already extinct. While those European Russians in towns were probably speaking a more formal Russian, a regional form of the language was spoken in the Kamchadal villages.

Krasheninnikov and Gromov both mentioned schools in the 1740s and 1750s, presumably primary schools. However, Langsdorff mentioned around 1805 that one Russian village school was for "the sons of soldiers only, never the Kamschadales".

Considering that the Russian language already dominated in Kamchatka by 1800, how literate were Kamchadal people?


texts: When and who did the Legislative Assembly banish from France during the French Revolution?

texts:
On what dates and what people were required to quit France by decree of the Legislative Assembly?

EDIT 21 April 2018

The following details were added by the OP in comments to an answer below

  I have a record of birth from College of Arms London where the father
  Charles Montboissier Beaufort Visconti de Canillac and Philippe
  François D’Albignac de Castelnau Bishop of Angouleme (now residing at
  Richmond in Surrey) we’re both compelled to quit France by a Decree of
  the Legislative Assembly of that country. It appears though that
  Charles may have returned to France by 1794.

  Charles is paternal cousin of Philippe Claude Montboisser, But Charles
  own details are just Charles de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canillac Marquis
  de Canillac (1812) Prince romain et de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canillac
  (1st, 1822) Vicomte de Mont......, Titre par le Pape Pie V11,
  Commandeur de l'Ordre Royal Militaire de St Louis, Officier de la
  Legion d'Honneur. Born May 1753 Chateau de Beaumont Agonges, 03002,
  Allier, Auvergne France. Died 21 May 1836 Paris. Contre-Amiral. Father
  was Edouard de Mont.... died 1764 and mother Anne Elisabeth de
  Troussebois Dame de Beaumont-Lafayette.


texts: How do art historians study the transactions of art merchants?

texts:
My question is the following: I would like to ask how to frame a research paper about transactions of art merchants and their transcription from the accounting book to a research paper. I would like to be able to have a general idea of how a report of an art accounting book should be written in the literature (how long the introductory part should be, how much time to focus on the mere descriptive part and if I should focus more on this or whether I should dig deeper in the life of some specific families that appear many times on the accounting book,...).
More details about my question:
I am analyzing and summarizing a whole art accounting book of some northern-Italian merchants of the late XVII century and I have to describe all the material they bought and sold over a period of 5 years. Besides a purely descriptive work, I was trying to figure out also the main facts about some specific families that appear more frequently on the accounting books.
More precisely, I am working on an old XVII century-book in which a rich aristocratic family of Venice took notes of all the material they sold, the names of the buyers, the name of the painting or the statue sold, the date and the price. At the beginning the work is purely descriptive: I have to digitalize the whole accounting book to have a digital version of it. Then, the work will continue by describing the merchants I am analyzing, the work I did on their accounting book and it will end with a specific research on the most frequent buyers and their lives.
Thank you very much in advance!


texts: What's the festival shown in this illustration?

texts:
This poster shows a hopping European party of a few centuries back.  Unfortunately there's no attribution or date on this old print. The text resembles German and refers to the second chapter of the gospel of John, which is when Jesus changed water into wine, and drove the moneychangers out of the temple. This looks more like the former, but if Jesus is in the image, I don't recognize him.

Where did this party happen and what was it celebrating?


texts: In the Middle Ages - 18th century, how long would it take for a blacksmith forge a regular farming scythe to a war scythe?

texts: Whenever I look up how long it took for a blacksmith to certain tools or weapons, I just get information on forging swords. Let's say a peasant is trying to make his scythe efficient for self-defense or fighting an army and takes it to a blacksmith to temporarily turn it into a war scythe. How long would this take?


texts: Did a sumo referee ever actually commit ritual suicide over a reversed decision?

texts:
The sport of Sumo wrestling has picked up quite a few traditions during its long history. One of these traditions is that the tate-gyoji, the two most senior referees, wear a knife. This knife symbolizes the referee's willingness to commit seppuku, i.e. ritually disembowel themselves, if the ringside judges reverse their decision.

In modern practice, this has been replaced by the referee tendering his resignation which is generally summarily rejected. This has happened a number of times. I am curious, however, is there a record of a referee having committed ritual suicide?


texts: Who is this person depicted on the “Ianua Nova” Latin textbooks?

texts:
My old Latin text book from school was called Ianua Nova and had a gentleman depicted on the front cover who looked like this:

I do not remember (if I ever knew) who he is. Considering that it is a Latin book, I assume it is a Roman or at least a Latin speaker. I have tried a reverse Google image search, but it only returned all kinds of unrelated busts. Quis est?


texts: Were non-pharaos under "no incest" marriage limitations in Ancient Egypt?

texts:
It is a well known fact that in ancient Egypt, it was not unknown for a Pharaoh to marry his own sister.

As such, I have 2 questions (about pre-Alexander/Ptolemaic times):

How common/uncommon was such a marriage for Pharaohs?
Was the same lax attitude extended to non-Pharaohs, especially "normal" people? Or were they prohibited from sibling marriage like a vast majority of other societies, not being "gods"?


texts: Do any historians consider superior German airpower as the most important factor in the Battle of France?

texts:
In the Battle of France, the Allies and Germans had roughly equal number of divisions and troops, and the Allies actually had more artillery and tanks. But the one area where the Germans had a clear superiority was airpower, with roughly a two to one edge.

Much has been made of the superiority of the German Blitzkrieg tactics, and the skill of the outflanking movement through the Ardennes, across the Meuse, and to the coast. It's true that the Germans used their (fewer) tanks far better than the Allies. But could these successes (and the failure of Allied countermeasures) be at least partly attributable to German air superiority? (And apparently, German air superiority was a decisive factor against superior numbers of Soviet men, tanks, and artillery in 1941.)

I've played a number of board games regarding France 1940 where "tactics" largely cancel out, but the one thing that stands out is the superior German airpower.

Has any historian(s) made the point that superior airpower, was the decisive (not merely contributing) factor and sina qua non to the German victory in France in 1940?


texts: Movie refers to "denouncing a neighbor"--as a Jew? or a Jewish sympathizer? or both?

texts:
I'm in the middle of a movie about Nazi Germany. I can't tell if a particular character, a concentration camp survivor, is supposed be Jewish or a Jewish sympathizer. It is said in the movie she was denounced by a neighbor in 1943, but it is implied she was living openly before then.

I am sure I will find out by the end of the movie who this character is. But this brings up some questions for me. Did the Nazis imprison all German Jews well before 1943 or could they have missed some? I don't mean the ones who were hiding--I mean people who were living openly, who were Jewish but perhaps didn't have a look or birth certificate that allowed the Nazis to identify them? When the word "denounce" is used, as in "person X denounced person Y," was that only used with Jews, with those who hid Jews, or both?


texts: What is that gold plaque Scottish soldiers wore around their necks?

texts: If you see pictures of Scottish officers in traditional dress, sometimes they are wearing a gold plaque hanging from a chain around their neck. It is usually kind of kidney shaped. Does anyone know what that thing is called? Below is a picture of George Washington wearing one around his neck:


texts: What was the relative social status of a "grazier" in Victorian England?

texts:
I'm looking at census returns for the village of Eversholt, Bedfordshire, in the Victorian period. Farming was the biggest employer. This is post-enclosure, 1851 to 1901. Enclosure happened in 1806.

Under "Occupation", farmers (as opposed to farm labourers) are always listed as Farmer... of 132 acres employing 3 men 2 boys. They were clearly understood to have quite a status, and sometimes the households included a servant.

Another occupation listed is Grazier. A grazier raises animals, as opposed to crops. Graziers could be well off: one of the quotations from the OED for Grazier is

  1839   Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xxxv. 338   Broad-brimmed white hat, such as a wealthy grazier might wear.

Yet the census return never gives an acreage for a grazier, nor suggests they are employers, and I have yet to find a servant in a grazier's household.

I'm trying to understand what the relative social status of a "grazier" was.

Could someone listed as a "Farmer" raise both animals and crops?
Does "Farmer" in the census always imply direct control and management of the land, as opposed to someone who sublets a field for his sheep?
Was "Grazier" just a way of saying "Farm Labourer who tends animals"?
Would someone running an entire farm which raised only livestock be listed as a "Farmer", not "Grazier"? Was this just a rule of completing the census return?

Thanks!


texts: Has there been any "invasive plants warfare" in the past?

texts:
Has there been any events of warfare in the past which used invasive plants to damage any country's (or kingdom's) food crops or its natural vegetation?
Some details:

The damage done by invasive species on a small scale is probably known to all. For example: Water hyacinth has an adverse affect on aquatic life. Many more examples could be there. For instance,

Globally, 1.4 trillion dollars are spent every year in managing and controlling invasive species
Invasive Species - Wikipedia

I was asked in comment regarding the timeline that I specifically wish to receive in answer when such an warfare (or let's say in simple terms harming another group) happened through the use of invasive plants. As I mentioned before, any event that is mentioned in History books is what I am looking for.

Initially, this question had a link of a recent news article and some updates from comments which have been removed after edit suggestions.


texts: How many hours did Andrew Carnegie's steel workers work per week?

texts: How many hours per week did Andrew Carnegie's steel workers put in on average from 1885 until 1900 when he sold his business?


texts: What percentage of the Nazis were highly educated men?

texts:
Generally when I think about the Nazis, I tend to think of them as thugs; and hence, uneducated thugs; but of course, this must be quite wrong. The Nazis were an unpopular movement but membership skyrocketed because of the humiliations suffered by Germany after the end of the First World War, and then the deliberate smashing of their economy by the victors in that particular war.

Thus, one ought to think of the Nazis, as being highly educated (and of course this raises a question about the links between ethics and education, which I don’t want to touch upon here). However, I’ve never seen figures on this.

What percentage of the Nazi membership held high school or college diplomas and university degrees and doctorates? And how does this compare with the general population?


texts: What was the nature of a widow's personal estate in Colonial America?

texts:
In books that discuss figures in Colonial America and early American history (and I believe more broadly throughout contemporaneous European history), it is relatively common to see discussions of what property was owned by that figure and what property he controlled but was owned by someone else's estate.  For example, when George Washington died, he owned 123 enslaved people who he could free in his will but there were another 153 enslaved people owned by the Custis estate at Mt. Vernon that he didn't (and to my understanding couldn't) free.
In the Washington example, the Custis estate was the estate of Daniel Parke Custis who died in 1757 some 42 years prior to Washington's death.  In the modern era, a personal estate exists as an entity just long enough to pay off the decedent's debts and distribute any remaining property to whatever heirs are specified in the will.  That can take some time in more complicated cases or when wills are contested but not 42 years.  And certainly not 42 years when there was no apparent controversy about how to distribute the Custis assets.
In my head, it seems to more or less work when I replace "estate" in these contexts with the modern idea of a trust that was implicitly created by the decedent's will and which implicitly created trustees of either the executor of the will or the person given temporary control over the property.  But I have no idea if this misses some important facet of 17th and 18th century estates.  For example, it happens from time to time that someone worries about needing to reimburse the estate if some investment turns out badly while a modern trustee would be obligated to invest the funds of the trust prudently but wouldn't be personally liable for every market downturn.


texts: Does Tanjore Brihadeeswarar Temple contain more stones than Giza pyramid?

texts:
I have heard that the Tanjore Brihadeeswarar Temple or Periya Kovil has more stones than the Giza Pyramid.

Upon performing a Google search on this, I found a website and a blog stating that Brihadeeswarar Temple has more number of stones. But I could not find any valid reference (sch as references to books,journals, etc..) on this point.

Is it true that Tanjore Brihadeeswarar Temple has more number of stones than Giza pyramid?


texts: What became of the plan to partition Angola?

texts:
At the height of the war between UNITA rebels and the MPLA government of Angola there was - I recall - for a time a plan to fully partition Angola and create two countries. UNITA would have the southern half and the existing MPLA government would hold on to the northern half (including the capital).

This would have been in the 1990s? Maps showed a line of partition approximately along the line of the Benguela railway.

Obviously the idea fizzled out because we still have one Angola. I remember it being thought of as a deeply radical solution to the seemingly interminable civil war, and probably too radical (maybe less so now we have the example of Sudan).

How far did the plan get, and why was it killed?


texts: Group term for the Celts around the Alps?

texts:
Usually when I'm trying to find something about the Celts along the Danube and North Italy, I have a hard time. What is their group term (like Gauls, Britons, Celtiberians)? Do they belong to Gaul? Are they simply referred to as "East Celtic"? Or is there no group term?

I'm looking for a term that was either used by ancient sources or modern historians.


texts: Did soldiers and/or athletes of ancient times perform any kind of stretch or warmup exercises?

texts:
There are some 'time travel' stories where the protagonist, hailing from a modern age, does stretches and warmup exercises (calisthenics, radio, etc) and the natives have no idea what that is.

There's also this old comic from Gary Larson's The Far Side depicting Viking warrior stretching out.

It begs the question, did they do any sort of warmup or stretching before exercising, training, fighting a war?

When was the first recorded case of the use of these exercises, in any form, in history?

Mostly interested in ancient-history.


texts: Is it true that Hitler led to the invention of the atomic bomb by the Americans?

texts: I am reading The Nuclear Express by Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman and on page 8, it describes the forced immigration of Jewish scientists involved in "Jewish Physics" to the United States and it explains that this led to the United States developing the Atomic Bomb, therefore equating Hitler's actions to the development of the Atomic Bomb in the United States. How accurate is this account given that neither of the authors are historians?


texts: What is the Thalassic Age? What exactly happened during that time? This came from reading that Greeks during Hellenistic period conquered some areas in Phoenicia, Mesopotamia and Egypt and developed a lot of mathematics.


texts: Accuracy of Ancient Dates of Persian/Middle East Based on Astronomy

texts: What astronomical events have helped determine the accuracy of historical dates of Middle Eastern (specifically Persian) events? Some examples of Middle Eastern/Persian events could be the year a king was reigning or the start/end of war. Some examples of astronomical events could be observed supernovae or comets.


texts: Are the Samaritans descendants of Israel's lost tribes, and so rightfully considered Israelites?

texts:
From Mi Yodeya

  The Samaritans themselves claim to be descended from the original
  Israelite inhabitants of northern Israel. The biblical account (II
  Kings 17:24ff) states that they are descended from foreigners imported
  into the land by Sennacherib after he had destroyed the northern
  Israelite state and exiled its people, but who learned the Torah from
  Israelite priests whom Sennacherib brought back at their request.
  Either way, then, the Samaritan scriptures must derive from earlier
  Israelite originals.

However, Ezra considered them foreigners and did not allow them to help in the building of the temple, or worship with the people of Judah. [1]

Which claim is correct?


texts:
Who were the Hun people who made several appearances in Eurasian history?

Were they Finno-Ugric, Paleo-Siberean, Mongolic or Turkic?

Were the Hun who attacked Roman Empire extensions of the Xiongu, the first nomadic sovereign state in Central Asia?

Were the Hun a confederation of different tribes speaking different languages, or was there one specific ethnically distinct tribe who were the Hun?


texts: Were there ever wars/battles where infantry were given multiple rifles to speed up rate of fire?

texts:
Watching videos of colonial era conflict has given me a question. A lot of portrayed conflicts are basically the "line up en masse and charge" approach.

It makes me wonder, given the relatively slow reload times (~20 seconds plus) were there ever times that a defending force had extra rifles/muskets available to quickly rotate through in defense?

It makes sense why attackers would not do this, given you'd have to carry them with you, but it seems a defending force could have benefited from having extra, preloaded weapons available (particularly before weapon reloads got fast enough to make it less of an issue). This would allow them to have effectively a higher rate of fire, at least until all the "preloaded" weapons were fired.

Was this ever something which happened historically?


texts: When did Latin cease to be an important language for international scholarly communication?

texts:
I have the impression that the names Columbus and Copernicus are not the forms actually used on a daily basis by those people, but rather Latin forms used to identify them in in scholarly or academic connection.

  The vast majority of Copernicus's surviving works are in Latin, which
  in his lifetime was the language of academia in Europe. Latin was also
  the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and of Poland's
  royal court, and thus all of Copernicus's correspondence with the
  Church and with Polish leaders was in Latin… The surname Copernik,
  Koppernigk is recorded in Kraków from c. 1350, in various spellings…
  During his childhood, about 1480, the name of his father (and thus of
  the future astronomer) was recorded in Thorn as Niclas Koppernigk.[41]
  At Kraków he signed himself, in Latin, Nicolaus Nicolai de Torunia
  (Nicolaus, son of Nicolaus, of Toruń).[42] At Bologna, in 1496, he
  registered… as Dominus Nicolaus Kopperlingk de Thorn – IX
  grosseti.[43][44] At Padua he signed himself "Nicolaus Copernik",
  later "Coppernicus". The astronomer thus Latinized his name to
  Coppernicus, generally with two "p"s (in 23 of 31 documents studied),
  but later in life he used a single "p". On the title page of De
  revolutionibus, Rheticus published the name (in the genitive, or
  possessive, case) as "Nicolai Copernici".

-Source

  The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin
  Christophorus Columbus. His name in Ligurian is Cristòffa Cónbo, in
  Italian Cristoforo Colombo and in Spanish Cristóbal Colón… Columbus
  never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a
  Genoese variety of Ligurian…

-Source

I’ve noticed too that the mathematician Gauss is sometimes called Karl (with a K, that seems more German), and sometimes called Carl (with a C, that seems to associate it with the Latin name Carolus.

How, when and why did Latin cease to be the language of international scholarly communication?


texts: Were there Muslims in 12th century England?

texts:
Ever since the 1984 ITV adaptation of Robin Hood, the addition of a Muslim warrior to the band of Merry Men has been a staple of the mythology. From a storytelling perspective, the benefits are clear: the Muslim/Western tension provides a modern resonance, and the character itself provides a valuable outsider's perspective on life in 12th century England.

But getting a Muslim warrior to England always seems to require a lot of effort on the part of the writer.

How realistic is this in general? Is there any evidence of any Muslims this far north-west in Christian Europe, around this period?
What would be the most realistic way for this to happen. Could it be part of a trade mission, a diplomatic mission? Is there any reason captured soldiers might be taken back to Europe?
How would the English respond to a Muslim in their midst? Could you walk down the street in London, or would you be in danger of arrest for just looking weird?

image source


texts: Why didn't the Allies wait for the nuclear bomb before invading Normandy?

texts: Congruent to the argument that dropping the bomb on Japan saved US and axis lives.