texts:
The Suez Canal allows one to travel from the Mediterranean or North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean without having to circumvent the continent of Africa.  A ship traveling from the UK to India could expect to save 2 weeks travel time by using the canal.  This also pertains to the Persian Gulf.

After the outbreak of WWII the Axis sent troops to North Africa(1940) to capture the canal.  Fighting in North Africa went back and forth with neither side being able to vanquish the other.  In the summer of 1942 the axis was poised to break through.  The Axis offensive launched on May - July 1942 saw Allies rolling back.

May 26: Axis forces assault the Gazala line, the Battle of Gazala and Battle of Bir Hakeim begins
June 11: Axis forces begin offensive from "the Cauldron" position
June 13: "Black Saturday". Axis inflicts heavy defeat on British armoured divisions
June 21: Tobruk captured by Axis forces
June 28: Mersa Matruh, Egypt, falls to Rommel.
June 30: Axis forces reach El Alamein and attack the Allied defences, the First Battle of El Alamein begins
July 4: First Battle of El Alamein continues as Axis digs in and Eighth Army launch series of attacks
July 31: Auchinleck calls off offensive activities to allow Eighth Army to regroup and resupply

The Allied lines held. In August of 1942, Montgomery was appointed commander of the British Eighth Army and on Oct 23 1942, he launched a major offensive from El Alamein which forced the Axis retreat.   Operation Torch Nov 8 - 10th landed Anglo American troops In French North Africa (Morocco and Algeria) cutting off the Axis forces in Tunisia. On May 13, 1943 Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.

How Important was the Suez Canal to the UK, vs British Empire?  How important was it during WW2 vs after WW2?  In a related question:  Why did the Allies Invade French North Africa?,  it was noted that all senior American military officers objected to the allies landings in North Africa,  as all of the senior British military officers and Chuchill insisted on the North African invasions.  It took FDR to order his officers to prioritize operation Torch to break the impasse.  Nobody including me in that segment mentioned the Suez Canal.   The primary reason the Axis and Allies were in North Africa.  Clearly the Suez Canal was a vital interest to the British Empire before WWII,  It was perhaps even more important after WWII for oil, even though the British began to disengage from the empire beginning in 1945 with the election of Clement Attlee as PM replacing Churchill.

  British Empire
  The pro-decolonisation Labour government, elected at the 1945 general election and led by Clement Attlee, moved quickly to tackle the most pressing issue facing the empire: Indian independence.[183] India's two major political parties—the Indian National Congress (led by Mahatma Gandhi) and the Muslim League (led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah)—had been campaigning for independence for decades, but disagreed as to how it should be implemented.

Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia for example in 1938, but in Iran in 1908.
The first British North Sear oil well dates from 1967.

My thought is oil transportation wasn't the primary value of the Suez Canal during WWII because  American oil, amounted in all "to 6 billion barrels, out of a total of 7 billion barrels consumed by the Allies for the period of World War".   (see How Important Was Oil in World War II?

  Question: How important was the Suez Canal to the Allies during WWII?

Was it's primary value in the maintenance of the British Empire?  Economically tying together the UK with it's most important colonial possession India as well as economically important China in peace time for example.


texts: World War 1: Why did Italy not fight until 1915?

texts:
Today I learnt history about World War 1 and I have a question that has been bothering me.

According to what I have studied, the Triple Alliance (1882-1915) was an alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. And the term of the alliance is that if Italy was attacked by a power, Austria-Hungary and Germany would assist her. And likewise, if Austria-Hungary and Germany were attacked, Italy would assist them too.

How did Italy cancel the "agreement" in the Triple Alliance? I meant there were "fights" and "agreements in advance". Why did not Italy and how did it have the right not to participate into the WWI?


texts: What demographic of people were the Ford Motor's Company biggest customers during the car boom of the early twentieth Century?

texts:
Who were the primary customers buying up the automobiles steadily decreasing in cost during the 20th century? Was it rural people replacing horses with vehicles? Would it have been inner city people who may have never owned a horse but decided to get a car anyways? Or was it some sort of early budding middle class suburbia families who may or may not have owned a horse but still required a degree of decent transportation?

I ask this because it still seems boggling that vehicles would have boomed in popularity during the early 20th century without modern road infrastructure and their high costs, as well as various inefficiencies (compared to a horse), and dirtiness (exhaust, etc.).


texts: Why did Britain decide to issue perpetual bonds during Napoleonic era?

texts:
Background A few years ago I was a student of an economic course about loans, debts, interests, NPV etc. The trainer mentioned "The UK took a loan to fund wars against Napoleon. This has no term, and only interests are being paid back. So this will never be ended." I could not believe it, but ok, this was not my scope of job.
Later I returned to this topic few months ago and tried to search about this loan. Unfortunately, there is lack of any detailed data in the Internet.
For example, this article only mentions (the context is that the Government wants to buy back the loans from the WW1):

Also included in the government buyback are: loans originally taken out to cover losses from the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720, debt taken on to fund Britain's fight against Napoléon Bonaparte, and some that helped finance the Slavery Abolition Act of 1835.
These loans are unusual because they were issued as perpetual bonds. This means that they payed out interest but have no maturity date, in effect making them more like owning a stock that pays a dividend than a traditional bond. The government has the right but no obligation to pay off the debt.

This article is related to the same event, but providing no more information:

Some of the debt being repaid relates to the South Sea Bubble crisis of 1720, the Napoleonic and Crimean wars, the abolition of slavery and the Irish potato famine of the mid-18th century. (...)
In 1888, chancellor George Goschen converted bonds first issued in 1752 which were later used to finance the Napoleonic and Crimean Wars, the Slavery Abolition Act (1835) and the Irish Distress Loan (1847). This debt will be repaid through the redemption of the 4% consols.

The Wikipedia article has only one sentence:

Perhaps the oldest bonds still outstanding as a result of war are the British Consols, some of which are the result of the refinancing of debts incurred during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Consols article leads to Perpetual bond article, also having one sentence:

Examples of perpetual bonds are consols issued by the UK Government.

It seems (maybe I am wrong) that before 1900 only the British government issued perpetual bonds. What stood behind this practice? Why was it better to issue a perpetual bond than "normal" loan?
At the moment the Government seems to be wanting to pay them off, of course financial market has changed, but I can't believe the economists of the era did not expect or at least suspect the things can change after 200 years. They left the door open (The government has the right but no obligation to pay off the debt.), but I'm still wondering why was it considered better than not to pay it off as soon as possible.


texts: How was the linen weaving trade learnt in 18th century Scotland?

texts:
In the 18th century, the linen weaving industry began to form a significant part of Scotland's economy and workforce, with towns like Forfar employing 500 hand loom weavers at the end of the century, some 15% of the population.

The Industrial Revolution in Scotland mentions the process of weaving, and the growth of the material used in linen production, but does not mention how a person became a weaver and acquired the skills necessary to complete the complex tasks.

How was this skill taught? Was it something young children were instructed on at an early age in school, or by their parents? Did prospective weavers become apprentices or did they simply learn on the job while working in a large cottage with other weavers?


texts: Were people happy under Ivan the terrible?

texts: I do know that the Russian nobility faced great terror under Ivan IV. The movie by Sergei Eisenstein, "Ivan the terrible" shows him as a benevolent ruler as far as people are concerned. I wish to know to what extent this portrayal of him is true.


texts: Need to identify a European uniform from around 1900

texts: This is my great grandfather...from somewhere in eastern Europe...family from Istria.


texts: Why did Emperor Nero kill his mother and others?

texts: Why did Nero kill his own mother? Was it true that she was dangerous to the point where it was "her life or his?" Did he have "good" reasons (in the sense of being understandable or acceptable at the time) for the killing of other people, and for the persecution of the Christians?


texts:
What role did the Eastern Roman Empire play in the fall of the Western Roman Empire? Did the Eastern Empire actually contribute to the fall of the West?  Was the Eastern Roman Empire able to help the Western Roman Empire around the time of their collapse (they were definitely wealthier and more populated, but did they have enough manpower and resources to significantly make a difference)?"
The following two sources are somewhat unreliable, but summarize the problem.

The Eastern Emperors did, with their vast sums of gold, pay off Hunnic and Germanic tribes that were harassing the Danube frontier from Pannonia to the Black Sea to leave them alone and go off somewhere else.  This somewhere else was the Western Empire. Allempires.com
As for the relationship between the 2, it was more often one of mistrust and interference rather than close alliance and friendship. Yahoo Answers


texts: How young were children left alive in Auschwitz?

texts:
I was reading a criticism in Wikipedia of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas which has a 9-year-old boy in the camp, but people apparently knowledgeable assert this is not realistic -- those who could not work were immediately gassed.

At the same time, Primo Levi describes a very young kid in the camp who dies near the time of its liberation. I think medical experiments were performed on children but otherwise, would there have been children?

EDIT: The guy who objected to the movie made it clear that he thought there were no 9 year olds at all in the camp (I guess Mengele would have chosen children that young on the train platform?) but what of the kid Levi describes who was not only very young (apparently) but also severely disabled?


texts: Are the quantities of gold that the Roman Empire looted and mined known?

texts:
I am having trouble finding information on the quantities of looted and mined gold by the Roman Empire.

How much did they loot from the Dacians?

How much did they loot from the Jews?

And how much did they mine in Hispania and Dacia?

Can someone provide the top 5 (and quantities) in both looted and mined gold from conquered Roman provinces?


texts: What would the Wikipedia page for Spain have said in 1490?

texts:
I'm trying to understand the Spanish empire prior to the discovery of America - I'm not looking for a book length answer, just a broad summary like what would have been on a Wikipedia page at that time.
What was Spain's foreign policy, and what constrained that policy?  I know that [Citation needed] Spain was engaged in a kind of a trade war with the Ottoman empire. How much did that affect the Spanish economy?
What was Spain's colonial strategy? How well was it working? What were the factors constraining Spain's colonies?
What were the major factors affecting the domestic agenda?  How strong was the crown? Who were the allies and adversaries of the crown?
How likely was it that Spain would collapse, fractionate, or be invaded?
Yes, it is possible to write a book length answer, but I'm looking for the fundamentals that determined Spain's future - the advantages, adversaries and fault lines that would have determined Spain's options in the decade 1490 to 1500.
It is only possible to understand how much the discovery of America meant if I understand the Spanish empire without the discovery of America.
I'm well aware that the internet and Wikipedia weren't invented (which is why I used the subjunctive tense of the verb "would have".)  The point was to clarify the level of detail sought so that the question wouldn't be closed as "too broad".
I guess I'm asking where was Spain headed at that time, had it not been Columbus's discovery that changed everything. What were the neighbors up to in relation to Spain, potential internal revolts, factions, etc.


texts: How effective were the Mongol siege equipment?

texts:
From what I understand, the mongols had engineers from China and Persia to handle the siege machinery. I'm mostly curious as if the machinery made by the Chinese engineers was unique and/or superior than the ones seen on the Muslim and Western armies and if their fortifications were ready for them.

The sieges I'm particularly interested in:

sieges of Subotai's 2nd Western campaign
against the Isma‘ili fortress of Alamut (1256)
against the ‘Abbasid caliph in Baghdad (1258)


texts: Did any Chinese revolutionaries being helped by the Japanese get suspicious of Japan's intentions?

texts:
From the way things went, it seems to me that Japan played Chinese nationalists into breaking up the Qing empire, in order to expand Japanese power in the region.
Were any Chinese revolutionaries suspicious about this happening at the time, or did they more or less get played for fools*?

Despite reading about the Dark Ocean Society and the Black Dragon Society (and links from the pages for these networks/organisations), as well as the Wikipedia pages for the Chinese figures involved, I haven't seen this angle specifically discussed. I also don't really know where to start other than emailing academics.

*Or was it all part of the revolutionaries' plan?


texts: Why did Francisco Franco never reestablish the Spanish monarchy?

texts:
Fransisco Franco, the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975, was a monarchist.  Yet for the entirety of his time in office, there was no king of Spain.  Only in 1969 did he appoint Juan Carlos I to be the next king of Spain, but he arranged it so that Juan Carlos I would only assume the throne after Franco's death.

My question is, why did Franco not reestablish the Spanish monarchy while he was still in office?  Is it that he didn't want a competing power center, even if he supported the notion of monarchy in principle?  If so, was that the official justification he gave the people, or did he give a pretext that was less self-serving?


texts: Was Lin Biao a total recluse? If so how did he get so powerful?

texts:
Lin Biao became the second most powerful man in China after Mao, but according to Wikipedia, he was a psychological basket case. If this is accurate, how did he get any power at all?

From wiki:

  The fiancee of Lin's son reported that Lin became extremely distant and socially and politically detached, even to the extent that he never read books or newspapers. His passivity made him difficult to connect with at any meaningful level: "usually he just sat there, blankly". In Lin's rare periods of activity, he used his time mostly to complain about, and seek treatment for his large variety of medical issues.


texts:
Reference on mass killings, some of which include famines (this from Reason).  Also, this site has an interesting question about the famines and Soviet leadership keeping it a secret.

Is there any historical truth to the dictators of communist regimes of the past killing farmers during famines because of the famines?  Or was agriculture during these periods the only "safe" (as in not starving to death) profession?


texts: How common was it for Americans to visit Europe in the late 19th century?

texts:
According to this article, in 2009, around 13 million people from the United States travelled overseas, of which 35% visited Europe. Given the United States' population of 320 million, we can estimate that currently, around
1.4% of Americans visit Europe annually.

What would that percentage have been in the mid- to late 19th century? All transatlantic travel back then was by ship, and likely considerably more expensive, so presumably, the fraction of Americans able to afford a trip to the Old World was much smaller than it is today. However, out of those who could afford to travel overseas today, only a relatively small fraction actually do, so that does not necessarily mean much.

Note: In the period that I am asking about, millions of people immigrated to the U.S. from Europe, and had thus "visited" Europe before they every reached American soil. Those people should not count towards the total unless they returned to Europe afterwards, with the intent to return to America later. A visit is a trip with the intention of returning.


texts: How old was the Egyptian calendar system?

texts:
I know that the Egyptians had a solar calendar, based on a certain effect of the sun over the Nile.

I also know that it held 365 days without any fix to the quarter a day a year (like Feb 29th every 4 years today).

How old and how common was the calendar?

How come the Egyptians didn't figure out that quarter of a day is missing?


texts: Under Catherine the Great were all officers appointed for five years?

texts:
I noticed that the chief commandants of Kamchatka seemed to serve terms of about five years (Koselev 1802-1807, Petrovskii 1807-1813, Rudakov 1813-1817). Their rank (IV) qualified them to be made regional commandant, and I have no idea how long they spent at rank IV, but they spent five years in charge.

Lots of sources describe decades of total service to the army, but I haven't found anything on the specific appointments making up officers' careers. A few years earlier, Catherine the Great established a rule that civil servants would get automatic promotions every seven years.

Were Imperial army officers' appointments to specific garrisons or companies all five years long?


texts: Did the Ottoman Empire lose some control over Egypt during the Crimean War?

texts: What were the effects of the Crimean War on the relationship between the British and Ottoman empires? Did they lose partial control over Egypt?


texts:
I'm listening to Mike Duncan's podcast, Revolutions, episode 3.44, and in it, he details the misfortunes of the French bumbling about the wrong side of the Rhine.

According to Duncan, Carnot, now a director of France, ordered an attack on the Austrians, now that military victories were going the French way. However, when attacking, he kept trying to cause a double pincer at the strongest of the Austrian's fortifications. This seemed surprising the second time around, as he knew from the first time that the Austrians would stop at nothing to prevent the armies from linking up.

Did he underestimate the power of the Austrians? Or was Carnot's military strategy just not that good, as his other major military accomplishment seemed to able to be attributed to Saint-Just? Or was he just oddly fixated on the double pincer strategy? Am I just reading to much into this?


texts: Did Spanish priests fight in South America?

texts:
I have been reading up (vi Wikipedia) on El Dorado and the Spanish and English expeditions through South America. It seems pretty clear that there were Priests and Scholars who would accompany conquistadors on expeditions through the jungle to "interact" with locals or to "find" treasure and natural resources. See Pedro Simón and Juan de Castellanos

I am assuming that the majority of Spanish priests would have been Catholic.

In general, I would assume that in any combat engagements a priest would typically not participate. I doubt that they would use swords or spears to fight the enemy. I wouldn't be surprised if some had weapons such as a staff, dagger, or pistol for self defense, though I am not very familiar with the Catholic and specifically Franciscan traditions to know if this would be taboo. Even if it was taboo, on the frontiers of South America would priests follow the rules very closely?

I am mostly focused on the time around 1550-1600 in Muisca (Bolivia and Columbia), but I would also be curious to hear about other denominations/times/locations that involve Spanish conquest of the Americas.

Are there documented cases of Catholic priests carrying weapons in self-defense or using them in combat?


texts: Who are the 'Tiursk tribe' of Central Asia?

texts:
I am reading this passage in a book called Overland to China (1900) which on page 66 makes mention of a Tiursk tribe in Central Asia.

Online searches didn't provide much details except referencing/associating other groups to the Tiursk.
Language of the Jakuts belongs to the Tiursk nationalities. (see OnlineLibrary.Wiley.com)
My guess is that it's a Russian word form for Turk/Turkic. But I want to be sure because the google translation is not the same.


texts:
In a youtube video, it is stated that Vespucci's original first name was "Alberto". The name by which he is popularly known, "Amerigo", was only assigned to him after reaching the New World. At least, so it is stated.
Is there any evidence for this claim?


texts: Has there ever been a case where a country adopted the currency of another country with a smaller economy?

texts:
Sometimes sovereign nations abandon their currencies (partially or fully) and adopt the currency of another state. For example, the currency of El Salvador was replaced by the United States dollar in 2001.
Has there ever been a case when a country with a larger economy was primarily using the currency of another country? In the above example Salvador's GDP is less than 1/500 of the American GDP.


texts: Why does the map of Jordan look as it does?

texts:
Most countries land borders are somewhat rounded, and it's easy to guess why - it's eazy to defend a rounded shape, and it's hard to defend "bulges" because it can be easily surrounded and occupied.

However, Jordan's map has a characteristic nearly rectangular "bulge" between Syria and Saudi Arabia, as can be seen on google maps here

The lines are straight, so you can understand that there were no valuable points to either of the sides. Also, you can't see any town on Goggle maps at this territory, only desert.

So why this territory was allotted to Jordan and not to, say, Syria or Saudi Arabia?


texts: Why was the Declaration of Independence handwritten, rather than printed with a printing press?

texts:
The United States' Declaration of Independence was handwritten by Thomas Jefferson. Why was this done instead of being printed with a printing press?

The Dunlap broadside was the first printed copy of the Declaration of Independence and was printed the night of July 4, 1776. Other broadsides were subsequently printed. Why didn't the Founding Fathers just print them out a day earlier and just sign one of those, saving the trouble of writing it out longhand and making it more legible?

Left: Handwritten original, Right: Dunlap broadside


texts: On what basis do some historians accuse the British government of genocide during the great Irish famine?

texts:
Been reading a bit around the great famine of late. It's something that seems to have slipped from public consciousness in Britain, although the suffering it engendered seems horrific almost beyond belief. It certainly seems clear there is a great deal of truth to support the famous quote that:

  "The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine."

Most modern historians seem to have coalesced around the view that the inadequate response of the British government was down to a destructive mixture of ideology and religion. That, together with the weakness of the Irish legislature that made it possible for Irish landowners and the government to pass the buck between them with neither accepting final responsibility.

Some have even suggested their intentions were good, and that there was a genuine belief, born of ignorance of conditions in Ireland, that laissez-fare would help. The reviled Trevelyan even apparently said in his instructions:

  "People must not, under any circumstances, be allowed to starve."

Which suggests that, in private, his attitude was not quite as viciously inhumane as some of his other public proclamations suggest.

Genocide is currently defined by the UN as acts intended to

  "destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group"

And even those who sought the "improvement" of poor, overpopulated Ireland through death and suffering do not seem to have sought deliberate ethnic cleansing. Rather, these attitudes seem in line with the general, brutal, opinions of poverty held by the middle and upper classes in the 19th century.

Given the modern view of incompetence and ideology over malice, what evidence do those nationalist historians who claim the famine - such as John Mitchel and Tim Coogan - was a deliberate genocide, base their view?


texts: Why were the Romans unable to conquer Germania?

texts:
Emperor Augustus ordered his army to subdue the Germanic tribes in what is modern Germany. This was promptly achieved and by 6 AD the Romans controlled Germany up to the river Elba.

The Romans were however betrayed and defeated in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, in 9 AD. Afterwards, they abandoned the region and established the limes on the Rhine and Danube rivers.

The Roman Empire outlasted this defeat for half a millennium: why there was no further attempt at conquering the region?


texts: British Warships and Their Crew In Hawaii in the Mid-1800s

texts: I am researching British warships which arrived in the Hawaiian Islands, particularly Hawaii Island a.k.a. The Big Island, in or about 1839.  I am unable to find comprehensive lists of ships and crew.  Where should I look?  I want to learn the names of the crew members on each ship, from what British port they sailed, their mission, the dates they arrived, their impact on the islands and her people, the dates they left, and the names of those who did not return with the ships when they left.


texts: What was the Soviet role in Syria during the Cold-War?

texts:
It is my understanding that the Soviet Union supported governments in Syria during the cold-war primarily as a counter-balance to American influence over regional powers particularly Saudi Arabia and Israel.  Could anyone elaborate on the relationship between the Soviet-Union and Syria, and its larger geo-political connotations?  How might the relationship between Syria and the Soviet-Union (and possibly Russia after the end of the Cold-War) have influenced Syrian politics and the present popular "Arab-spring" era reaction to current dictator Bashar al-Assad?

Bonus for well-documented sources!


texts: Were any real vehicles damaged colliding with model vehicles?

texts:
Vehicle accidents are one of the most dangerous aspects of modern life. Model vehicle accidents are usually a lot less dangerous, though there are a few cases of fatalities. Has a model vehicle ever directly damaged a real one? If so, which was the worst such incident?

Perhaps a model train or remote-control car could derail a train, but a collision between hobby aircraft (airplane, helicopter, or drone) and real aircraft seems more likely. Several experiments have sought to understand the damage airliners suffer in drone strikes, but a publicized case in Mexico was disproven; unless I am mistaken there have not yet not been any drone strikes on airplanes. I searched for some key phrases and only found mentions of collisions between pairs of model vehicles. Maybe someone else will have a better angle.


texts: Have any national leaders been kept unaware of their own wars?

texts:
I've seen a number of scifi/fantasy stories (most recently the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender) in which nominally-powerful leaders are insulated from the events of their own countries by their advisors or generals, to the point where they don't even know that a war is being waged beyond the palace walls.

In real history there have been plenty of countries with figurehead leaders whose input was more official than practical, but has there ever been a leader who was supposed to be practically in charge, but whose advisors kept them unaware of a war that they should have been leading?


texts: When was the change from kalends, ides and nones to numbers

texts:
The Romans named the days of the month by counting down to kalends, ides and nones. We use numbers counting up from one for the first day of the month. When did this change take place?

I assume that it was gradual, with people using the modern system when it was the more convenient, but I can find no information about who did it, nor when it happened, except a vague reference to the Roman system being in use until the Renaissance.


texts:
I have been asked on several occasions how could Germany afford to start such a big war as WWII. Of course, they mean multiple aspects such money and other actors (countries) allowing it. Also, Germany was not alone. However, this would take books to answer, so I will stick to financial dimension only.

Indeed, waging a war is expensive (e.g. US war in Iraq is estimated in hundreds of billions / ~ 1 trillion $, but out of a high GDP - ~ 19 trillion).

According to a this answer Germany spent about $341 billion for war related activities and its GDP is estimated to be about $400 billion.

As a side note, cost of US war in Iraq has the same order of magnitude as WWII for Germany, if inflation is considered.

So, the ratio between war cost and GDP was much higher than for US. How could Germany afford spending so much money (relative to its GDP) on war?

Question: How could Germany afford waging WWII?


texts: Was "The war to end all wars" viewed as cynically during WW1 as it is today?

texts:
I was watching Wonder Woman and noticed that it had been shifted from her typical origin story of being found by a WW2 fighter pilot to being found by a WW1 spy. Chris Pine called WW1 the war to end all wars.

Through our lens, in which WW1 certainly did not end all wars (And probably sparked a few), it seems silly to name any war that doesn't end in human annihilation the war to end all wars. Someone's gonna get pissy about something, and bam, we have a war.

That said, Industrial war was a new concept back then, and the turn of the 20th century was fairly optimistic in general (See: Worlds fair). Did people actually believe that the outcome of WW1 would actually be the end of war?


texts: Has there ever been a US election that flipped as many state seats as the 2010 midterm elections?

texts: In the 2010 United States midterm elections, the Democrats lost a net of 680 state legislative seats, which were gained by the Republicans. This manifested itself in 21 chambers which the Democrats lost control of and 19 which the Republicans gained control of. Have there been any previous instances where such a large shift in state-level legislative power took place? As there used to be fewer states, this may manifest itself in smaller numbers, but equal or larger proportions.


texts: Did Stonewall Jackson suggest to fight naked?

texts:
Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, pp. 132-3:

General [James E.] Slaughter declared that on the night after the
terrific repulse of Burnside’s army at Fredericksburg, Stonewall
Jackson had made the following suggestion :— “I am of opinion that we
ought to attack the enemy at once; and in order to avoid the
confusion and mistakes so common in a night-attack, I recommend that
we should all strip ourselves perfectly naked.”

Is this true? Apparently, some think the story was invented after the war, but Fremantle's book was published in 1863.


texts: Which emperor tried to command the tides?

texts: I remember somewhere a story about an emperor who was so convinced of his awesome powers that he attempted to command the tides to recede. All I can find on the web is the story of King Canute explaining that he lacked such power, which is the opposite of the story I remember. Does anyone know the story I remember and the name?


texts: Are "pots of memory" an historical custom?

texts:
I found a term "pots of memory" in a novel.  I searched on the web but I could not find any clues.

The novel, "Kokushikan Satsujinjiken" by Mushitaro Oguri was published 1934 in Japan and people might have inaccurate knowledge about English culture at that time.  The author might have misunderstood it or made up that story.  I'd like to know whether the custom is real or not.

About the novel and its settings:

The setting of the novel is in the 1930's Japan.  And it picks a muder case in a family.
The author sets that the family was established by a child between a Japanese man and Bianca Cappello (1548 - 1587), an Italian noble.
Because of its origin, the family is familiar with western calture.
In the novel, the term is written in English (transcription in Katakana) not only in Japanese.  So it is originally English term and translation should be correct.

About the pots:

Pots stand on a mantelpiece in a salon of a mansion.
Member of a family create a pot out of clay by their hand.
The pots serve something to remember their creator even after his death.
The pots are glazed in Spanish style.  It is unclear whether such decoration is common on the custom.  It might be a special option in the family.  And this is a point of difference from memory jugs.
Sometimes people who have an important relationship with the family (a designer of the mansion, in the novel) also create it.


texts: How can I research an old Nazi ring that grandfather brought back from war?

texts: My grandfather brought back a ring, it has the swastika on it. How can I find out more about it and the value it? I have asked several people and gone to many pawnshops, I have no idea where else to go.


texts: When did the last (formal) declaration of war occur?

texts:
Background
I have watched an interview where one participant argued that the world is experiencing less and less war compared to what it used to. To emphasize this idea, he said that declaring war is something really rare nowadays and perhaps the last time it happened was between N. Korea and U.S.
Research
I thought of digging a little bit. Not sure, but I think that so-called declaration of war that might have involved N. Korea and the U.S. did not actually happen:

A top North Korean diplomat said on Thursday that the U.S. has
“crossed the red line” and declared war against the country by placing
the country’s leader Kim Jong Un on a list of sanctioned individuals
in connection with alleged human rights abuses in the authoritarian
state.

Searching more I could find this article about Chad declaring war ("state of belligerence") on Sudan:

Chad said on Friday a "state of belligerence" existed between itself
and Sudan following attacks on an eastern border town by rebels it
said were armed and directed by the Sudanese government. While
President Idriss Deby's government stopped short of declaring war or
breaking ties with Sudan, the statement was the toughest so far
against its eastern neighbour over the Dec. 18 attacks against the
border town of Adre.

If I understand correctly, there was no actual war declaration here.
A more recent war is the Russo-Ukrainian one, but there does not seem to be any declaration of war here.
When did the last (formal) declaration of war actually occur?


texts: Who said "Nature that framed us of four elements ... doth teach us all to have aspiring minds."?

texts:
Who said “Nature, that framed us of four elements, Warring within our breasts for regiment, Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.”?

According to the Web, you'd think it was Machiavelli, but my copy of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine (I:2.7.18−26) suggests otherwise:

  Nature, that framed us of four elements
  Warring within our breasts for regiment,
  Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
  Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
  The wondrous architecture of the world
  And measure every wandering planet's course,
  Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
  And always moving as the restless spheres,
  Will us to wear ourselves and never rest,
  Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,
  That perfect bliss and sole felicity,
  The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.

Is Marlowe quoting Machiavelli here?


texts: Had the French in Paris started to learn German before their liberation in 1944?

texts:
One of Donald Trump's recent tweets states:

  Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two - How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!

Is there evidence that such was the case, in a systematic fashion (i.e. not just a few people)?

There is little mention of this in respective Wikipedia entries (e.g. Paris in World War II or German military administration in occupied France), or some newspaper articles I've found (e.g. in the Washington Post or Guardian), or less serious sources (e.g. Quora).

You would have imagined that it might have been the other way around, i.e. the Germans learning French, not the least to "keep the population happy", and make the occupation as smooth as possible, hence releasing some of their energy and resources to allocate them to more needed war efforts.


texts: Did Franco really ask "Why? Are they going somewhere?"

texts:
The story goes that Franco on his deathbed in 1975 hears the noise of a crowd outside and asks what it is. And is told:

  "The people of Spain have come to say goodbye"

Franco replies:

  "Why? Are they going somewhere?"

According to various sources the other speaker is an aide1, his daughter2, his wife3 one of his ministers4, and his doctor5. Such carelessness in the details is often a sign that a story is apocryphal. Is it too good to be true?

1 http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts-reviews/luciano-pavarotti-farewell-concert/2005/10/22/1129776000913.html
2  http://everything2.com/title/Francisco+Franco
3  Christie File. Part 3, 1967-1975
4  Spanish Hours by Simon Courtauld and Elisabeth Luard (18 Jul 1996)
5 The Bulletin, Volume 97 J. Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1975


texts: Why was the shape of German states pre-WWII (especially Prussia) so complicated?

texts:
The shapes of the Länder territories in Germany were very complicated. There was hundreds exclaves and enclaves all over the place to the point it became ridiculous.

Notably the shape of Prussia, which covered most of the territories of northern Germany, had many smaller enclaves of other Länder in its territory, and a small exclave in southern Germany which was very distant form the rest of Prussia.

The Thuringia region was also incredibly complicated, with a mix of Prussia and various other states all over the place.

This leads me to a couple of questions:

Why was the division of territory within Germany so complex?
Since Prussia was pretty much doing what it wanted in Germany, why didn't Prussia just take over those tiny states that are entirely encapsulated within it, to simply cover the entire north Germany?
Why was this changed after WWII, and, why wasn't this changed after WWI?


texts: How did Germany rebuild so quickly after World War I?

texts:
After World War I, Germany suffered severe economic damage. Germany was asked to make horrendous war reparations, suffered hyperinflation, social chaos .... In addition, world economic conditions were not helpful given that the 1930s was the period of the Great Depression.

Yet the amazing thing was that Germany rebounded so strong and so quickly that it was able to score major victories against its former enemies during the beginning of World War II. What government German policies gave Germany such a quick economic and military rebound? This may give insights to policy makers in some parts of Europe today suffering high unemployment and the pains of austerity.

Did Hitler rebuild Germany, or were earlier governments responsible?


texts: Why did people die for their religion in the 400s CE (or even now)?

texts:
Before the institution of Christianity and the evolution of Buddhism into Mahayana Buddhism, people never felt quite so strongly about religion. Suddenly, people feel ready to die for it and die trying to convert others, or even persecute others because of a different belief. What changed?

This question mainly relates to the time period in the question, but I have a feeling that the answer will lend some insights into the present situation in the Middle East.


texts: Who would have a good or fair command of Latin in medieval Western Europe?

texts:
This answer to this question states Latin was the language of diplomacy in medieval Western Europe, but this does not imply that royalty or nobility themselves knew Latin: it would suffice that a few clerks and emissaries did. This other answer to this other question states that much of the lower clergy would know little or no Latin, but this in turn does not mean knowledge of Latin was not common among the nobility.

So who would have a good or fair command of Latin medieval Western Europe? Would there be conversations in Latin among royalty or nobility. Would, say, noblemen of different native languages use Latin among themselves? Would merchants?

The original version of this question asked about 10th – 12th century Christian Iberia, which is what I’m particularly interested in. But as it has attracted no answers, I’m broadening the question, so maybe someone will know something about some corner of Europe. I’m limiting it to Western Europe, as I think in the Orthodox East hardly anyone would know Latin.


texts: Did the Soviets have an official campaign to remove foreign nationals to Siberia?

texts:
Specifically, in the Ukraine. And more specifically, to remove foreign nationals out of the way of the impending German invasion during WW 2?

The intent and impact always intersect. But the question still stands.


texts: What is so special about the location of Mexico City?

texts:
Since 1325, the area we know today as Mexico City has held some sort of cultural or historical bond.  The bond is so strong that, no matter what, no matter how bad a shape the country gets, they always return to it even though the entire city is sinking into the earth as we speak ... at just a few centimeters a year.

There have been several times throughout history where Mexico "temporarily" changed its capital city to Querétaro, Querétaro.  The change would never last over a year before they moved it back to Mexico City.

My question, what is so special about the Mexico City area that causes the government to return to it every time?  Even if they got into a situation today where they had to relocate the capital city, I am by now convinced that they would in fact return to it ... with all its air pollution, toxic waste and overfilled landfills.

Is there a definite reason for this or does the Mexican government just aim to use Mexico City until all of the buildings collapse.  I even read an article published November 1949 in Popular Mechanics were they were pitching construction techniques to accommodate for the sinking. I am baffled.


texts: Were commandos brought in to break the Grand Mosque siege French or Pakistani?

texts: In December 1979 some miscreants occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca. I have read the Wikipedia article regarding this, but i am still unclear who broke this siege. Were they Pakistan army commandos or French commandos? Were Pakistani commandos really called for help there?


texts: What were the expectations of a medieval castle or fortress hoping to break or outlast a siege?

texts: In Medieval Europe (ie before gunpowder), medieval siege tactics are well known. I am curious if there is any conventional wisdom in western Europe of how sieges were broken. If you were in a castle besieged by a well-organized force, what might give you hope to win, or would you assume it was a question of how long until you surrendered and on what terms?


texts:
In its Mexican era California attracted immigrants, principally Anglo-Americans, who often worked as merchants and capitalists. English speakers like William Hartnell and Thomas Larkin dominated trading activities.

Also surrendered in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the longer-established colony of New Mexico, which after 1830 provided a substantial flow of trade goods to California. Traders generations  before Antonio Armijo may even have reached the Pacific Ocean (see The baffling case of New Mexican traders along the California coast prior to 1769). New Mexico was also a refuge from the Inquisition for Sephardic Crypto-Jews.

About four times more populous than California, New Mexico was nonetheless isolated by geography. The contemporaneous dominance of immigrants in commerce in California and, I believe, Texas, prompts this question: before Guadalupe Hidalgo, was there also a community of non-Hispanic immigrants in New Mexico?


texts: which faction 'won' elections to the continental congress?

texts:
I know there weren't modern day political parties, but what were the issues and major groupings of the three continental congresses?

When the congress voted on something, were any 'party lines' visible?

EDIT: sorry for unclear question. I am asking who the 'sides' were in the elections, and which 'side' emerged victorious?

EDIT 2: I realise that these politicians were too precious to admit that they had any factions or groupings. George III would not have admitted he was a tyrant, but that doesn't mean it was wrong to call him one. No-one is obliged to accept their self-definitions uncritically.

Historians acknowledge that there were in fact two sides even in the earliest congressional elections: the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.1 So what were the groups in the Continental Congress?


texts: Who were some Greek Plebeian Gentes, especially from Magna Graecia?

texts: I'm looking for foreign influences on the Plebeians.  Who are some Plebeian Gentes that were Greek, perhaps from Magna Graecia or Sicily? I vaguely recall reading about one from Campania, who came in the the 5th century.


texts: Why was Stalin chosen as the First General Secretary in 1922?

texts:
At the 11th Party Congress, Stalin was voted into the position of General Secretary. This was the first time the party had a General Secretary. This was in 1922 Mar/Apr.

Why was Stalin chosen? I noticed that Lenin nominated him, but why? Why not Lenin himself? Why Stalin instead of someone else like Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, etc?

(Note: I included both tags, USSR and Russia, because technically the USSR had not been created yet but the relavence is obvious.)


texts: What did cataphract units wear under the armour?

texts:
As I understand it, scale armour, such as the Sassanid Iranian cataphract units wore, required some sort of padding under it. In Europe, a gambeson was used for this purpose, and also served as the only armour of poorer soldiers who could not afford mail.

What was used in the Sassanid empire? As I understand it, the gambeson is a very warm garment - not fit for the warmer Middle-eastern climate. Nor could I find any record of it being used this far south. (It is possible I did not look hard enough, or in the right places.) But if not the gambeson, what was used?


texts: Why did Winston Churchill say "perverted science" in his Finest Hour speech?

texts:
What exactly was Winston Churchill referring to when he said "perverted science" in his Finest Hour speech?

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/their-finest-hour

  ...But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States,
  including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the
  abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more
  protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace
  ourselves to our duties,...

What was the context for this? What was scientific development like in those days (especially compared to today)? Typically we're taught that science has been a liberating thing right from Renaissance days. How could science then threaten to bring a more sinister Dark Age in Churchill's perspective?

If it was a real threat, is it around even today?


texts:
Many African countries are currently in the bottom parts of socioeconomic rankings like GDP per capita, life expectancy, literacy, HDI, etc. Some of them possess a decent amount of natural resources and relatively low population burden, so this is disappointing.

Are there historical reasons for this to have happened? And yes, I know there are poor countries everywhere, but there seems to be an unusually high concentration of them especially in the Sub-Saharan region. And before colonization is brought up as a factor, let me remind you the United States is a former British colony.


texts: Was Mussolini's March on Rome inspired by ancient history?

texts:
As is well-known, Mussolini was very fond of ancient Rome. I am wondering whether he got the idea for the March on Rome from ancient examples.

Indeed, marching on Rome to drive home a political point was a custom with a venerable tradition, among whose adherents we find such diverse men as Sulla, Marius, Caesar, and Alaric.

So, do we know whether (from memoirs or propaganda literature) whether Mussolini was consciously and explicitly emulating the aforesaid ancient examples?


texts: How do historians decide who to refer to as 'the allies?'

texts:
In many major wars one side has been branded collectively as the allies. In WWI and WWII we refer to the American/British coalition as the allies. I have heard Rome both fighting against the 'allies' of their era and being part of the 'allies' in other wars. I have heard of the European Christians in the crusades referred to as the allies. In the Napoleonic wars the British/Prussian/Russian/Austrian coalition was referred to as the allies.

How do historians decide which side is to be referred to as 'the allies?'

I originally thought it was due to the alliances they were in, but then I recalled that the opposing side (e.g. The Axis in WWII) is often comprised of an equally (or nearly as) strong alliance.


texts: ‘Avoid sleeping on your back’ & ‘breathe in toilet smells’ were seen as precautions against the Black Death. Why did doctors think these would work?

texts:
Browsing a school book, Medieval Britain by Brenda Williams, I came across three precautions recommended by doctors to help people avoid going down with the plague. These were:

cover windows
avoid sleeping on your back
breathe in toilet smells

I am assuming that covering windows was considered a preventive measure because these doctors believed that the plague was airborne.

As for breathing in toilet smells, I can only guess that they thought that this would mean you wouldn’t be breathing in the plague – but why toilet smells specifically? It doesn't fit with miasma theory.

Another recommendation, which does fit with miasma theory, was

  carrying sweet-smelling flowers and herbs or ornate pomanders to
  purify the air....
  Keeping a sweet-smelling pomander close by was believed to offer
  protection.

Concerning ‘avoid sleeping on your back’ I'm not sure I can even guess the reasoning behind this (religious significance?).

Why did doctors apparently believe in the three precautions listed above?

Note: I’m not asking why people in medieval times held strange beliefs about disease prevention and cures (basically, a lack of scientific knowledge), just why they thought the preventive measures mentioned my question would be effective.

EDIT

Concerning the comments (understandably) doubting the accuracy of 'breathing in toilet smells', I found the following passage in L. C. Slavicek's The Black Death

  ...some medieval physicians thought that foul rather than pleasant
  odors were the best way to keep the Great Mortality at bay. Consequently, it was not unusual during the Black Death to see
  large groups of people in stricken towns leaning over the edge
  of the community latrine and inhaling deeply!

My highlighting, but the punctuation is the author's

Unfortunately, no information is given on why some physicians thought this.


texts: Was the Battle of Tours really the turning point for the Umayyad expansion into Europe?

texts:
Considering how far the Umayyad Empire had come into Europe, and their defeat at the Battle of Tours could they have pushed further into Europe?  Did Tours really stop their advance or were there other forces that kept them from further conquest?

Their empire was already large, and it's hard to see how their forces could have continued into the Frankish Kingdoms, and maintain a stable country especially considering they just took Iberia.  Looking at later times they had revolts in North Africa they were not in solid control, so if they had spread their forces more they could have fallen swifter and lost European territories if there were revolts.  So it looks like they hadn't stabilized control but pressed onwards, yet if they didn't then did they stop to stabilize control of the empire or were there other forces at work?


texts: How did lecturers magnify their voice in the days before amplification?

texts:
I am going to be portraying Mark Twain on the lecture circuit circa 1896.

I want to make the performance as realistic as possible, so that the sufferers (audience) can adopt a "willing suspension of disbelief" and imagine they really are back in that era.

The, or a, problem is amplification - I am tempted to use none (rather than wear a concealed mic) to reproduce the technology of the time as much as possible. But how did they do it? How were speakers of that pre-amplification era able to make themselves heard to large crowds?

Was it a matter of using the wooden floorboards of the stage as literal "sounding boards", bouncing their utterances off them, or what technique was used? Certainly they didn't shout their lungs out...

UPDATE

All of the comments are useful to one degree or another, but I would still like to know if the floorboards must be used as sounding boards; IOW, is it advantageous to "aim downwards" to bounce the sound off the wood?


texts: Even though Spain and Portugal had many colonies (15th/16th C), what factors permitted UK/France to become world powers later (18th/19th C)?

texts:
Some of the first European countries to acquire colonies in the "New World" (and elsewhere) were Spain and Portugal. They "discovered America" (as the euro-centric interpretation goes), and had several colonies all over the globe (Americas, getting to Japan before others, India, East Africa, etc.). It would seem obvious to conclude that in the 15th/16th centuries Spain and Portugal were some of the richest (and hence most powerful ountries in Europe, right?

However, by the start of the 20th century, UK, France, Germany, and others were now very powerful. The British Empire was massive, the French Empire included a lot of Africa, etc. So it would seem only obvious to conclude that they were now very rich and powerful countries.

What factors caused this to change? It seems obvious to think that once you're big, rich and powerful, that it's easy to stay big, rich and powerful. What factors prevented Spain & Portugal from remaining big & powerful? What prevented them from acquiring African colonies? What prevented them from becoming big players in WW1 (a war among powerful European states)?


texts: When did the first electronic body modifications take place?

texts:
I have recently been reading about a variety of body modifications ranging from a simple tattoo or ear ring. This led me to wondering about the history of body modification. I tried to ask this as a broad question, but it was too broad, so this led me to wondering when the first body modification involving electronics took place.

When did the first electronic body modification take place? What was it?


texts: Have any astronauts or cosmonauts died in space?

texts:
When I lived on the Space Coast I overheard gossip that one or more cosmonauts died in space.

Is there any truth to this?

I’m not asking about deaths from those disasters like Challenger, Columbia, or Apollo 1. I'm asking about death out in actual space.


texts: What is the origin of the name Fallopian tubes?

texts:
I read that the Fallopian tubes were described by the Italian anatomist Gabrielle Fallopio, somewhere in the 16th century.

The Wikipedia describes that the structure reminded the musical instrument, and hence the name “tubes”.

However, the tuba is an instrument that came from the Ophicleide, and that one came from the old “serpent” instrument, which is from the late 1590’s. So it strikes me that at the 16th century, there was no musical instrument that could inspire the Italian anatomist, and the tuba would still take several centuries to be invented.

Can we determine this relationship? What was the music instrument of the 16th century that inspired Gabrielle Fallopio to name the female reproductive tract structure that now carries his name?


texts:
This interviewee in a documentary claims that Chinese Warlords in the Warlord Era were supported by foreign powers. I assumed from this that the interviewee meant big ex-colonial countries, like England or France. Or local countries like Russia. However, I cannot find any evidence to support this statement.

Doing various searches in multiple places, I have found no mention to this. None especially in the sources listed below.  Was this man mistaken? Or Were the Chinese Warlords backed by other countries?

Foreign relations of China (wiki)
Warlord Era (wiki)
List of warlords and military cliques in the Warlord Era (wiki)
Warlord Era


texts: The history of rivalry between US and Britain in late 19th Century and early 20th Century

texts:
I have read the references from Wikipedia. But they were mostly talking about the American oversea trade in the Europe market. But I am more interested in Britain's reactions to the challenge posed by the USA. I also consultanted M.W. Flinn's book An Economic and Social History of Britain since 1700. He just offered a few general statements about the foreign competitions such as "Britain's lead in machinery began to be challenged by Germany and United States" and " tariff reform evoked little enthusiasm" which lacks the details I need especially general publics' attitudes

My questions are:

What was the situation of the economic relationship between US and Britain? How intense was the rivalry?
Did Britain propose any policy that attempted to limit US’s economic influence?
What were ordinary British attitudes towards American products and their economic ties with America?

Any other related material and discussion is welcome as well as comparison between the Britain-German economic relationship


texts: Colonisation of India: Which regions of the United Kingdom did colonial personnel come from?

texts:
I'm a linguist doing research on the emergence of new dialects of English spoken in former colonies, especially India. These new dialects have two major influences: (1) Interference from the mother tongues of the learners (colonised), and (2) input from the dialects spoken by the colonisers.

There is good evidence on (1) but (2) is harder to establish, at least for me. (1) is a linguistics topic I am well acquainted with, but (2) is mainly a history question. Perhaps I'm ignorant of important work in this area, but textbooks on Indian colonial history do not deal with the question in as much detail as I need.

Questions

Which regions of the United Kingdom did (a) employees of the East India Company, (b) colonial officers of the Raj, (c) military personnel during the Raj, and (d) missionaries come from?
What was their educational background? (university graduates, grammar school, only basic school education?)
How many people belonging to each of these groups came from the UK to India at what time?

Background

The Indians that learned English during the colonial period were mainly those that worked for the East India Company/the Raj. Some of them went to schools founded for that purpose, others (partly or mainly) acquired English informally. The level of education of colonial personnel is important because university graduates were likely to speak Received Pronunciation or an approximation of it, but less educated speakers were more likely to speak the dialect of their region of origin (say, Scotland or Yorkshire). Missionaries are particularly interesting because they founded many schools for Indians (many, but not all of which taught (in) English).


texts: Why were Japanese submarines not able to defend in the Battle of the Philippine Sea?

texts: During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Japanese lost 2 fleet carriers due to actions by American submarines. Why were the Japanese not able to defend against such attacks, and why were the Japanese submarines not able to execute similar attacks on the American side?


texts: Are there biographies on Boris Shumyatsky that included his history before 1921?

texts:
Zhang Guotao in his memoir recounted his meeting with Shumyatsky in 1921. The then King of Siberia was very busy but managed to treat Zhang with a private dinner in his home. After the dinner, Zhang wondered why Shumyatsky ate so well in the deep of a famine. Zhang's companion (Wedensky?) said something to the effect that equality must not be held absolutely because some comrades carried greater responsibility. Zhang replied, "Lenin eats only 3/4 pound of bread a day. How come Shumyatsky eats better than Lenin?"
Needless to say, Zhang, then 24 years old, was socially impaired, and Shumyatsky's hospitality produced the effect quite the opposite to what he had intended. Nevertheless, Shumyatsky's character is interesting and revealing. I wonder if there are detailed biographies on this person.


texts: Iran and the point four program and the mutual defense act of 1949?

texts: What were the US's and Iran's terms in these agreements? What was the total amount of aid Iran recieved from the US during this time?


texts: What was more expensive to lose in a gladiatorial fight: a gladiator or a rare animal?

texts:
We know that, aside from man-to-man combat, gladiatorial fights would often pit human gladiators against wild animals.

Is there any documented historical evidence that would show what was a bigger economic loss to the owner: losing a well trained gladiator, or losing a somewhat rare animal (say, a lion or a bear)?

For precision sake, let's define the loss in one of 2 ways:

Documented sale value of each
Documented expected profits from continuing to own each. I assume these would be harder to come by.


texts: How long might the campaigning season in the Caucasus have lasted for the Germans?

texts:
The Caucasus Mountains included some of the most southerly points in the former Soviet Union, but also some of the highest altitude points. The book, "Marching Orders" referred to "ice and snow" for large parts of the year. That might not prevent the Soviets from launching offensives during those periods, but would have hampered the Germans, in World War II. In this context, I'm not referring to the north Caucasus, e.g the Maikop area, but rather to Grozny and points south.

According to this source the German advance in the Caucasus ground to a halt in early November, 1942. Was this because of the weather, or because of supply and other problems connected with e.g.? Likewise, there was some fighting on the east coast of the Black Sea starting early April, 1943, but that was on lowlands that were not part of the Caucasus mountains proper.

So based on weather considerations, was the Germans' campaigning season in the Caucasus limited to say, five months between early June and early November?


texts: Did stock adventure groups ever exist in history?

texts:
If you are playing Role-playing games then you will know the stock adventure group by heart, but for all others here are the core concepts:

The adventure group is tight and stable: some people may come and go and be hired as specialists for a specific tasks, but some people are building the core group.
Their sole means of sustenance are tasks which are unknown for the group until they find a client willing to pay them for a task.
The group has also no specific profession or field for their tasks: It could be detective, mercenary, explorer, bodyguard....
They are searching for tasks in a typical stock tavern or looking at bulletins.

Do anyone here know if such groups as depicted here ever existed in history (at least to be notable enough) and give an example?

What does not count:

Explorer groups: While they are a consistent group (Example: Nansen, Shackleton, Scott), they always had a firm (in contrast to unknown) destination in mind (in those cases: The arctic in both hemispheres). They also needed to work on other fields to get their expeditions paid and prepared.
Migrant/transient worker: They do jobs as offered, but they lack social consistency. If someone offers a job, they take it, but as those jobs are offered to anyone, they are likely working together with unknown people, not a core group.
Professional group: They do only specific tasks, are specialized in it and their demand is based on their reputation. Examples are the Bow Street Runners and Pinkerton Agency as detectives, the Swiss mercenaries as mercenaries, theRoyal Geographical Society as contact point for exploring.


texts: How did ships acquire targets beyond the horizon in WWI?

texts:
From "The World Crisis, 1911-1928" (Winston Churchill):

  ... the 5th Battle Squadron had begun to fire, at the long range of
  17,000 yards, upon Admiral von Hipper's last two ships.

If the horizon is about 4.7km away for an observer 5'7" (1.70m) tall, how could a ship strike a target 17,000 yards (about 15.5km) away?


texts: Before Pearl Harbor, what percentage of Americans believed the US would stay out of the war?

texts:
Let us say on July 1st, 1941 (after the USSR entered the war), what percentage of Americans were confident that the US would stay out of the war? (I am thinking there might be polling data or something similar on this matter.)

Edit: Here is a closely related question:  Why did American public opinion move away from isolationism in 1940-41?.


texts: Questions regarding Royal Gorge Railroad War in Colorado

texts: I am seeking information about the Colorado Railroad War, also known as the Royal Gorge Railroad War, in the Royal Gorge, Colorado. I am specifically wondering if this conflict was resolved through a few "show down" gun fights or if it involved partisan conflict and sabotage between workers from both railroad companies.


texts: Were non-firing replica firearms ever made to the same standards of fit, finish, and from the same materials as a functioning firearm?

texts:
The term replica firearm has an imprecise meaning.  It covers everything from functioning firearms that look like historical weapons to toys that simply have the appearance of an historical or contemporary firearm.  I am not interested in modern airsoft or bb gun lookalikes.

I am interested in discovering if 'collector-grade' or 'museum-quality', 'non-firing' replica firearms were ever produced using the same materials and equipment employed for the actual firearms they replicate and sold to the general public.

I would also like to know which manufacturers did this, if any, what firearms were replicated in this manner, what time period they were produced (1900-20??), and which countries they were sold in.

A replica cannot fire or be made to fire. Otherwise it is a firearm regardless of its present state.Typically replicas have bores and chambers that will not accept any known cartridge. There may be other differences which prevent them from firing or being made to fire. I am interested in those differences as well. I can recall ads for near perfect replicas from the 70's, before the International Trade in Arms Agreement, and I wonder if they were actually made on the same equipment and used the same materials.


texts: post slavery segregation outside of the US

texts: Other than the USA did any other countries practice a codified form of segregation after abolishing slavery?


texts: What was the fate of the planters and their plantations following the American Civil War?

texts:
I had a question about the fate of the Southern planter class following the American civil war. The question was sparked by W.E.B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America.
Du Bois argues that they disappeared as a class. I highlighted the major point below:

With the Civil War, the planters died as a class. We still talk as though the dominant social
class in the South persisted after the war. But it did not. It disappeared. Just how quickly and
in what manner the transformation was made, we do not know. No scientific study of the
submergence of the remainder of the planter class into the ranks of the poor whites, and the
corresponding rise of a portion of the poor whites into the dominant portion of landholders
and capitalists, has been made. Of the names of prominent Southern families in Congress in
i860, only two appear in 1870, five in 1880. Of 90 prominent names in 1870, only four
survived in 1880. Men talk today as though the upper class in the white South is descended
from the slaveholders; yet we know by plain mathematics that the ancestors of most of the
present Southerners never owned a slave nor had any real economic part in slavery. The
disaster of war decimated the planters; the bitter disappointment and frustration led to a
tremendous mortality after the war, and from 1870 on the planter class merged their blood so
completely with the rising poor whites that they disappeared as a separate aristocracy. It is
this that explains so many characteristics of the post-war South: its lynching and mob law, its
murders and cruelty, its insensibility to the finer things of civilization.

Is it really accurate that the planters were decimated as a class? It's common to read that Johnson restored the planters to their plantation by offering a pardon to wealthy planters who were willing to at least say they were loyal to the Union. One would expect, then, that major parts of the planter class would survive into Reconstruction. What is the evidence for and against Du Bois's claim that the planter class was decimated?


texts: What really happened to the Maya civilization?

texts:
Are there any reliable sources that explain the "disappearance" of the Maya? I am highly skeptical about the following account as it states that the cities were destroyed by the war when in actual fact the ruins are almost largely intact (taking time into consideration):

In the wake of new research, it appears that Mayan cities were locked in something similar to the Cold War, only hotter. Hieroglyphs in the area reveal that two metropolitan “super-powers,” Tikal and Calakmul, were bitter rivals for centuries. Skirmishes between the kings of each city grew increasingly violent, prompting both dynasties to build alliances with other cities via raids, conquest, and royal coups. But, as more and more cities got involved, the warfare spread.
In 2002, a few more clues came to light after archaeologists discovered a stunning new set of hieroglyphic texts carved into the steps of a palace staircase at Dos Pilas (uncovered thanks to an earthquake that hit the region the previous summer). The texts told the surprising story of renegade princes from Tikal, who tried to create an empire of their own by waging a full-force attack on their home city with the help of neighboring allies. Unfortunately, their timing was poor. The invasion occurred during the height of the drought, and the result was pure devastation. Pyramids and temples were torn apart to build fortifications, and what few trees were left in the razed rainforest were cut down to build fences. Eventually, farmers had to retreat to the fast-growing weeds. The war destroyed the cities, leaving behind ruins and refugees. The land could no longer support the population due to the drought, and the government was too weak to do anything about it due to the war. Rather than to remain in the cities and face death, the people scattered, and the jungle eventually reclaimed the land.


texts: How was the Spartan "300" battle recorded?

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The famous battle of Thermopylae, when the 300 strong Spartan army lead by King Leonidas and his Athenian allies fought King Xerxes and his massive Persian army, was all recorded by a Greek scribe.

How was that possible? Especially when you consider that in the last battle the Greek soldiers were all killed. Surely King Xerxes wouldn't let a scribe at the scene of the battle survive after saying to King Leonidas he would cut all Greek scribes tongues out.


texts: Why bother attacking castles at all? Why not go around?

texts:
Castles were designed to hold people, weapons, and supplies to survive a siege. They were well-defended. Taking one could easily be a long, bloody struggle.

Why attack at all? Most castles I've seen could be trivially circumnavigated. The resident soldiers would have to come out to attack, bringing the conflict into the open and away from traps.

Why didn't armies simply ignore castles and go around?

Are there any examples of this approach succeeding or failing? Was the belief that castles are worthwhile based more on experience or imagination?


texts:
I am working with Babylonian math and some word problems mention an object called a cistern. I looked this up and it seems it can be any tank of water. Some are cylindrical, others rectangular, and others hemispherical.

In the first problem it says "a [rectangular] cistern" so that solves that but in the other it just says a cistern. Should I be assuming a cylindrical shape? I'm not sure what a standard cistern was to the Babylonians.


texts: I'm asking this question out of curiosity. In general, what was the level of technology like in central Africa, just before the scramble for Africa?


texts: Is there any country(former colony) in the world that obtained independence and then again tried to join its colonist ruler?

texts:
Is there any country(former colony) in the world that fought for/obtained independence and then again tried to join its colonist ruler?

I guess an African country did so.

Can anyone tell me?


texts: Were surname upgrades a well known practice in the Spanish Empire?

texts:
People everywhere have names, and some seek to change their name. Spanish speaking people in particular generally have two surnames, paternal and maternal, in that order. Whether the maternal one appears at all depends on formality, context, and preference.

In an era before government IDs and databases, someone whose maternal surname was not well known could quietly adopt and start to use another. Who would stop them? I have one example here of a man in New Spain around 1800 who seemingly never used his mother's surname (Fonseca), then in middle age began to use a grander looking one (de San Vicente). There may be other explanations for the change but I am inclined to read it as an attempt at social climbing. In any case, was adopting a fictitious second surname a documented practice in the Spanish empire?


texts:
Specifically, did Muslims coin it or non-Muslims?

Is there any evidence, recorded in history, about the first usage of this term?


texts: Was there a secret side-agreement between the USSR and Nazi Germany to summarily execute the Polish officer corp?

texts:
In a recently published novel by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth, IV, The Assassination Option, the authors tell a story of a dinner conversation at the Tehran Conference.  The story, mentioned as a true story by  historian Robert Gellately, in his book Stalin's Curse: Battling for Communism in War and Cold War, pp. 177-178, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt were discussing ways to prevent post-war Germany from fighing another war. Stalin reportedly proposed that between 50,000 and 100,000 German officers be summarily executed after the war to deprive Germany of experienced military leadership thereafter.  Roosevelt thought he was joking and jokingly replied that perhaps 49,000 would be enough.  However Winston Churchill, perhaps aware that the Soviets had allegedly murdered 22,000 Polish officers at Katyn Forest, was furious at the thought of "the cold-blooded execution of soldiers who had fought for their country," and left the room in disgust. Stalin brought him back into the room saying that he was joking.  Was he?  Gellately asserts that Stalin was serious and actually did the deed through a combination of the Nuremberg show trials and secret "trials" of more than 55,000 Germans and Austrians that the Soviets accused of committing war crimes.  Of those, Gellately states that the Soviets found 25,921 of them guilty? Ibid. at p 178. He presumes that most, if not all were executed.

In their novel, Griffin and Butterworth cite the Tehran Conference story and make another interesting assertion I'm not sure is fiction or fact -- that is that Russia had a secret side agreement with the Germans, negotiated with the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement.  In the agreement, Stalin promised that he would summarily execute the bulk of the Polish officer corps above field grade level.  The result was the Katyn Forest massacre.  Griffin's historic novels are generally well-researched.  Is this assertion of Germany's prior knowledge of, and possible complicity in, the Katyn Forest massacre fact or fiction?


texts: Underground Tunnels in New York City and Boston

texts: Where are the underground tunnels built by masons in New York City and Boston in 1760's~1780's? Do they exist till our present day?


texts: Why didn’t the Chinese leave troops behind in North Korea after the Korean War?

texts: Why didn’t the Chinese leave a trip wire force in North Korea after the Korean War in a similar fashion to the United States leaving a trip wire force in South Korea?


texts: In the History Channel series the Vikings, who is Ragnar?

texts:
I've been watching the Vikings series on Amazon and I am curious who Ragnar, the main protagonist is supposed to be based on?

I think he is supposed to be the "first" viking leader to raid England. I assume the English king depicted in the series is supposed to be Alfred but I am not sure. Any ideas?


texts: Why did Central and South American nations participate in WWII?

texts:
Somewhat related question: Did either of the World Wars involve South or Central America?

I've always been interested in why so many South American and Central American countries took the side of the Allies during WWII. Judging by the below map from Wikipedia, virtually every nation in the Americas sided with the Allies after Pearl Harbor. (Countries shaded in light green only joined the war post-Pearl Harbor)

I know that few to none of these countries actually deployed troops. But why on earth would countries like Haiti or Bolivia have a dog in the fight to begin with? I could see countries bordering the Pacific Ocean being concerned about Japanese supremacy, but not Caribbean and landlocked nations.

Is it simply that the US influence over the Americas was so strong it could push these countries into a war?


texts: Why were so many Soviet films shot in 1938–39 about a future German invasion?

texts:
Why were so many Soviet films about an anticipated Nazi German invasion into the USSR shot in 1938–1939, both before the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and after it?
Before the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact Nazi Germany had no shared border with the USSR, yet the movies show German (and not, say, Polish) invasion.
After the pact, the countries were formally friendly, but still the USSR issued many films about a sudden German invasion.
Could the public of the time interpret such films as an indication of Soviet desire to invade Germany (especially given in all such films the Soviets usually pushed the enemies back and defeated the Germans on German territory)?
Most of such films were destroyed after the war, but here are some examples:

Tankers (1939) - the invading power is clearly Germany, the officers with German names speak about "Versalles humilation" and superiority of Aryan race. They call themselves "Aryan army". They also consult with the "Supreme Leader". The soldiers wear Stahlhelm.

If a war is tomorrow (1938) - the officers of the invaders speak German language, speak about superiority of their race, and the helmets and tanks have swastikas (although the design of the helmets is French).

Deep raid (1938)

Squadron No. 5 (1939) - again, the invading power is Nazi Germany


texts: Why weren't the Barons of the Court of Exchequer Barons as peers?

texts:
The first sentence at Chief Baron of the Exchequer

  The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (i.e., judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas.

bemused me: Why were these judges were called "barons"? I looked it up on OED:

The list of all Barons of the Exchequer is incomplete. So I'll refer to the list of Chief Barons:

In the screenshot, nobody were barons except Lyndhurst. So why weren't the (Chief) Barons created baronies? It feels uncomely  to be Barons of the Exchequer but not "true"  Barons, though I know that UKSC justices are no longer created baronies but remain styled 'Lord' or 'Lady'.


texts: Has any G7 country deliberately defaulted on sovereign debt to punish a certain country?

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Xi Jingping said China would cancel debts to the world's least developed nations, including small island nations. China Has Forgiven Nearly $10 Billion In Debt. Cuba Accounts For Over Half. But China wasn't punishing, and is not in G7.

I ask in context of recent articles like  "How to make China pay for COVID-19" by John Yoo BA Harvard (History), JD (Yale), Law Clerk, Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court, 1994-95.

  China’s expansion into foreign property renders it vulnerable.  The United States could expropriate Chinese property in the United States. Conceivably, Washington could even cancel Chinese-held treasury debt and using the proceeds to create a trust fund that would compensate Americans harmed by the pandemic.  It could claim that in cancelling Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasury debt, the United States is only recouping China’s international debt cancelled by the Chinese Communist Party when it seized power in 1949.

Gunnar Gundersen J.D. Pepperdine University School of Law  wrote "Cancel All Debt to China"

  I have a simple, bold, and decisive step we can take: cancel all American debt held by the CPC, whether by the Chinese government or companies controlled by them. That is debt we can finance with someone else and use the money to give relief to Americans who need it and to bring manufacturing home.

But Ben White explained "Why we can't 'cancel' U.S. debt held by China"

  Why we can’t “cancel” U.S. debt held by China  — The Washington Post ran a story suggesting that President Donald Trump and some of his advisers want to retaliate against China over claims the Chinese withheld critical information about Covid-19. The story included this completely insane threat: “Some administration officials have also discussed having the United States cancel part of its debt obligations to China, two people with knowledge of internal conversations said.”

  It should go without saying — but we suppose it has to be said — that any such move would essentially explode global financial markets. The Chinese own around $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. They along with the Japanese and many other nations fund our debt and deficits. U.S. Treasury bills and the dollar underpin global financial markets. And the full faith and credit of the U.S. government to meet all its debt obligations is the main reason this is possible.

  Any move to “cancel” debt held by China — i.e. default on it — would destroy the full faith and credit of the U.S., send U.S. interest rates soaring and could ignite a global financial catastrophe. So when MM asked top White House economic officials about the suggestion, they were lightning fast to deny it, replying within moments, which as any reporter knows is not always the case.


texts: Was it common in ancient India for kings to take care of midgets?

texts:
The 13th century Hindu philosopher Vedanta Desikan, in this excerpt from his work the Rahasyatraya Sara, describes how the god Vishnu in his incarnations pretends to be distressed out of playfulness and compassion:

  Therefore in the stories of the avataras or incarnations, the distress is only of the nature of play-acting and that, too, has compassion as its cause.  It is of the nature of lila or sport to the Omnipotent [Vishnu].  Have we not seen hunchbacks and dwarfs often taken into protection by kings who do not expect any return from them?  It is a matter of lila or play to them and, at the same time, the consequence of compassion.

My question is, how common was it in ancient India for kings to take care of midget?  The passage makes it sound that kings would do it in playfulness, perhaps in their free time when they didn't have to worry about royal duties.

Are there any other ancient Indian sources that describe kings taking care of midgets?


texts: What was the motivation for the Church of England to begin recording births, marriages and deaths in 1538?

texts: I have heard that Thomas Cromwell convinced Henry VIII to institute the keeping of these registers, after seeing the practice during a tour of Europe.  It took many parishes a long time (and the threat of fines) to comply.  What was in it for the king, and why was there so much local resistance to the idea?


texts: How did Japan build an extensive rail network in Greater Tokyo?

texts:
Their rail network is like a spider web and also wondering how most of the lines are at-grade or eleveted excluding Tokyo Metro/Toei Subway lines, even though the suburbs are very dense with buldings. Did they clear out the buildings before building the rail lines or was it planned into it? A comparison would be something like the Shanghai Metro but their network is mostly underground, and it's a metro, not a commuter rail.
 Also they built most of the rail lines without having them underground which I find pretty impressive considering their cities are dense with buildings. To clarify my question, how did they manage the compromise between rail design and existing urban desity. Also my question refers to the commuter rail built, not the metro/subway lines.


texts:
Operation Barbarossa was arguably the main event of World War - had Germany succeeded, they could possibly have gone on to win the war.

They ultimately failed, but what were the major reasons for this failure?

Was the whole operation doomed from the start?


texts: Annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia

texts:
The Kingdom of Hanover existed from its creation after the Congress of Vienna in 1814 (being a duchy and electorate within the HRE prior) until its annexation by Prussia after it lost the German-German war on the Austrian side. The Prussian crown annexed the kingdom and organized it as the newly formed Prussian province of Hanover in 1866. Hanover was notable for the fact that the British monarch came from the House of Hanover starting with George I in 1714 and ending in 1837 with the death of William IV.

My question is: How was it possible that Prussia was simply allowed to annex Hanover in 1866? Hanover was the 4th largest state in the former HRE region, as a kingdom a considerably prestigious country, and by providing the British monarch for more than 100 years certainly not a diplomatic leightweight.

Was there no diplomatic outcry, no foreign protest towards such an annexation? It would seem to me that an annexation of such central German power by an already nascent Prussia in the second half of the 19th century would certainly not just have been accepted by the other Great European Powers just standing by? However, I have trouble finding sources in literature to analyse reactions in Europe at the time. Perhaps somebody can enlighten me?


texts: Are there any accounts of German junior enlisted soldiers surviving the siege of Stalingrad and subsequent captivity?

texts:
When the German Sixth Army was surrounded at Stalingrad, there were something like 330,000 soldiers. Perhaps 91,000 survived the siege to surrender two and half months later, and of these, about 5,000 survived the war, a less than 2% survival rate.

Within this group, survival chances were very unequal, by rank. It would not surprise me that most, if not all of the 24 generals survived; they got special rations* during the siege and were treated relatively well in captivity. To a lesser extent, the same would be true for other officers, especially colonels and lieutenant colonels, etc. Even "non-commissioned" officers would have more privileges, and hence more survival chances than junior enlisted soldiers.

I read of the survival and homecoming of one Emil Metzger in "Barbarians at the Gates," but he was a second lieutenant. He was also a small man, about minimum size for a soldier, meaning that his food rations went further than they would for most others.

Were there accounts of the lowest ranking junior enlisted soldiers ("privates") surviving both the siege and captivity, and if so, how? Did they work in some "strategic" area such as food processing? Did they make a deal with their Soviet captors?

*One exception to the rule was Chief of Staff, General Kurt Zeitzler, in Berlin, who put himself on soldier's rations of four ounces of bread and four ounces of meat a day during the siege--until Hitler noted his weight loss and ordered him to stop.


texts: What were the relative contributions of oral & literary education in 5th century BCE Athens?

texts:
I've read an article about Plato's Academy and how knowledge was spread in Athens in the middle of 5th century BCE. It was thought that knowledge was spread through speaking (orally). But some researches lately suggest that "books" were playing a great role by that time and that there was a great circulation of "books" in Athens.

I couldn't find a lot of info apart from that article and I would like to know if there is enough evidence of such a suggestion?


texts: Do we have any idea what people in the Middle Ages (or before them) thought the far future was going to be like?

texts: We know what people in the 20th century thought the 21st century was going to be like, but do we have any sources or documentation or books that attempt to describe the future (preferably the one we're living in right now) by medieval writers?


texts:
My brother-in-law sent me these pictures from Vitrolles, France. They would have been taken somewhere with in a two hours drive from there.

We were both wondering why in the interior of this tower he saw had all these little cubbies.  Sorry I don't know any more details about the tower, nor do I have outside pictures ( I wish I did. )

I would guess that it was just a way to save on material, but I would love to know for sure why the tower was built this way, or perhaps what it is called so that I can more easily find info on it.


texts: How much time did people have to take shelter during the Blitz in 1940-41?

texts:
Birmingham: In a BBC History article, An Air Raid Incident from World War Two relating the experiences of a Birmingham teenager during the Birmingham Blitz, the writer says (my highlighting):

  As soon as the siren sounded, Daddy would prepare to leave the house
  taking with him some cushions and the little lamp, plus a few odds and
  ends. Mother would then make a flask of tea or coffee and sometimes
  soup, some sandwiches and a biscuit tin full of cookies.

This family, at least, doesn't seem to have been in too much of a hurry to take shelter (even if the water was already boiling). Note also the use of the habitual 'would', implying predictability.

London: From what I've read about the London Blitz (7 September 1940 – 11 May 1941), there is little information on how much time people had to take shelter in London. Based on what my mother has told me - she was in London (near Lord's cricket ground) during part of the Blitz - the time between the siren going off and the first bombs falling was very inconsistent. However, my mother was only 8 or 9 at the time, it was a long time ago, and she wasn't in London for the whole duration of the Blitz so she doesn't know all the details.

Air raids (and thus sirens) could be on and off throughout the night and the warning systems were inefficient in London (though presumably they improved after a time), so it seems reasonable to conclude that predicting how much time one had to take shelter in London was difficult, at best. Also, there were apparently two warning sirens for "people doing important war work" so the 'rules' weren't the same for everyone.

In Birmingham, however, the only piece of evidence I've been able to dig up seems to imply that the time one had to take shelter was more predictable.

My questions:

1. Can anyone confirm that, in London during the Blitz (7 September 1940 – 11 May 1941), the time one had to take shelter once the air raid siren went off was unpredictable ?

2. In Birmingham, was this time more predictable? If so, is it possible to say approximately how much time people had?

Note: I would also be interested in warning times in Liverpool, Plymouth or Exeter if anyone has any information on these cities. The time period, though, should be 1940-41 and I'm not asking about the 1945 V-2 rocket as it is common knowledge that this gave no warning.


texts: Why wasn't the Republic of Ireland invaded (by either side) in WW2?

texts: Ireland was neutral in WW2, however it was never invaded (by either side). How come? Why wasn't Ireland invaded by the UK to prevent the Germans invading? Why didn't germany invade ireland? It would have allowed them to open a new front for the British, or given a staging post to invade UK. Why didn't this happen?


texts:
The British 4th Commando Brigade seems to have made a raid across the River Maas into German-occupied territory on 30th November 1944. Their leader was Brigadier B. W. Leicester, nicknamed "Jumbo."

But that's all that I've been able to discover. The relevant volume of the British Official History, Victory in the West, volume 2, The Defeat of Germany, doesn't mention it. I'd particularly like to know where the raid took place, since I'm trying to locate all the major British units in Belgium and the Netherlands in late 1944, but any information at all about it might give me keywords for further searches.


texts:
Charles Miller - fought with US Army at battle at Wounded Knee - this photographer took images during and after the Battle.  Anyone recognize the insignia?  He later became a Mason?  Could it be from that organization?

/nWTkY.jpg


texts: What tone of voice and demeanor did Winston Churchill use in the House of Commons during his "We will never surrender" comment on June ,1940?

texts: From what I have learned, on June 4, 1940 Churchill gave his great second speech to the house.    There was no contemporaneous recording, it being against the rules of the House at that time.    Likely the same or next day the speech was printed in the papers, and read on the radio by BBC announcers.    On June 18th, it is apparently quite clear that Churchill himself did record the speech in a studio for the BBC, which recording is  on the net at https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/we-shall-never-surrender/ .   In that recording, his voice is quite calm and very determined sounding, but not apparently unduly raised or agitated.    In the trailer for the recent film, "Darkest Hour", however the actor does raise his voice considerably in the scene in the House chamber.    Is there any actual evidence for this interpretation, or was this just the director's supposition?    To me, it makes a difference.


texts: Why was the Tea Horse Route through Tibet less prevalent than the Silk Road route through Tarim Basin, for contact between China and India?

texts:
The two major travellers to India, Faxian and Xuanzang visited India from the circuitous western route, while the third one Yijing travelled by sea. Xuanzang described hardships in his journey, and crossed the western frontier in defiance of a ban by the emperor.
The Tea Horse Route, through Sikkim-Tibet seems shorter and intuitively easier to cross, since the Silk Road passes through the Gobi Desert, the Taklamakan Desert, and hostile territory, under influence of Central Asian nomads.

The Western Route through Silk Road

The Tea Horse Road


texts: Did any Ethiopian leaders help the Italians?

texts:
Around the two Italo-Ethiopian wars, did any Ethiopian leaders side with the Italians?

By "around", I mean anywhere from about 1890 to 1936.

By "leaders", I mean noblemen, military officers, popular leaders, government officials, etc.


texts: Why are there no photorealistic paintings from the old days?

texts:
As proven by many recent examples, some people can develop their drawing skill to such a level as to produce drawings that are difficult to distinguish from photographs. Yet much of historical art is stylized.

How come we don't see any photorealistic drawings from the old days? They do not appear to depend on any modern technology, so it seems odd that no historical artist would try it. Was it simply because other styles were fashionable at the time, so that artists would stylize their paintings for artistic effect?

Was it because people didn't have enough free time to practice drawing, say, 1000 years ago? I find it difficult to imagine that nobody did.

Or maybe photorealistic paintings are in fact influenced by the development of photography, and the paintings we see today would simply not look particularly realistic to people before photography became mainstream?

(Another possibility is that I am simply factually wrong and photorealistic drawings from the old days exist, but are simply not famous enough for me to have seen them.)