texts:
There are quite a few famous cases of Africans who traveled to Asia (voluntary or involuntarily) prior to 1700s such as Malik Ambar (India), Yasuke (Japan), and Ibn_Battuta (India, Sri Lanka, China, and more). In the other direction, Admiral Zheng He made voyages to East Africa in the 1400s, even bringing back a giraffe to China. Even more dramatically, Austronesians (originally from Taiwan) at some point made the journey from Borneo to Madagascar circa 500 A.D.
I'm curious about a few related questions:

What is the earliest supported example of an African traveling to Southeast/East Asia? Earliest voluntary example?
What are some other notable examples of Africans in Southeast/East Asia prior to the 1700s?
Did any Africans voyage with Zheng He's fleet back to China?


texts:
The Polish coat of arms is an eagle on the red field (background):

In Poland it is always said that it is a White Eagle. This is mentioned in current Constitution (translated by me):

  Art. 28. Godłem Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej jest wizerunek orła białego w koronie w czerwonym polu.
  Article 28. Picture of a white eagle with a crown on the red field is the coat of arms of the Republic of Poland.

Almost the same is in the Coat of Arms, Colors and Anthem of the Republic of Poland, and State Seals Act:

  Art. 2. Godłem Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej jest wizerunek orła białego ze złotą koroną na głowie zwróconej w prawo, z rozwiniętymi skrzydłami, z dziobem i szponami złotymi, umieszczony w czerwonym polu tarczy.
  The coat of arms of the Republic of Poland is a picture of the white eagle with a golden crown on his head, turned right, with spread wings, a golden beak and claws, placed on the red field.

(Flag colours, white and red, are directly taken from the coat of arms colours).

As rules of heraldry say, there is no white colour, but silver is represented as white:
Source 1:

  The coat of arms is centered on a shield (...) There are five colors which are called tinctures.  There are also two metals and several furs. Gold (Or) can be depicted as yellow and silver (Argent) is depicted as white. (...)

Source 2:

  The basic colour palette: The two metals are silver and gold (white and yellow)

Source 3:

  ar•gent (ˈɑr dʒənt)
  n.
  1. the heraldic color silver or white.
  2. Archaic. the metal silver.
  adj.
  3. silvery; silvery white.
  [1400–50; late Middle English argentum < Latin: silver, money]

Some years ago I read somewhere that there are two exceptions for the rule that white is silver (argent), the one is the Polish eagle and the other is... I forgot. I'm only sure this was some important country.

Up to now I've avoided citing Wikipedia, but it seems to be necessary :-(

  Arthur Charles Fox-Davies has argued that in extremely rare circumstances, white can be a heraldic colour different from argent. He bases this in part on the "white labels" used to difference the arms of members of the British Royal Family. However, it has been argued that these could be regarded as "white labels proper", thus rendering white not a heraldic tincture. In Portuguese heraldry, white seems to be regarded as a tincture different from argent, as evidenced by the arms of Santiago do Cacém, in which the white of the fallen Moor's clothing and the knight's horse is distinguished from the argent of the distant castle, and in the arms of the Logistical and Administrative Command of the Portuguese Air Force. source

All the sources cited in the text above are however obsolete. The reference to Mr. Arthur Fox-Davies is I think his private opinion (he argued...). However after reading this I'm not sure if the second exception mentioned some paragraphs before was Portugal.

My questions are:

Is the eagle of Polish coat of arms white or silver?
If yes, it's white, is Portugal white this other exception or are there any other countries? (I remember it being important country, but I don't know if it still exists. I consider Portugal being an important country)


texts: Were Confederate pikes just a curious item to laugh at?

texts:
If you check this video you can see many Confederate pikes being unearthed. There are also other videos featuring high-tech Confederate pikes. Were these meant just to entertain troops in the field? There are no instances I'm aware of, where the pike was used in anger against the Yankee invader.

EDIT:
If you watch the first video, you will see, that the pikes were made in 1865. How could the discussion about their use and their manufacture continue up until the end of the American civil war without actual use in the field?


texts: Which operating system were the hackers at the MIT AI Lab using in 1971?

texts:
From the interview of Richard M. Stallman, I learned that when Richard Stallman joined the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971, the community of programmers (or say hackers) at AI Lab used to run a free operating system probably developed by themselves.

Now, from the history of Multics I learned that in early days of computers, (in 1960's) Time Sharing system, more precisely CTSS (Compatible Timesharing System) developed and later on (around 1965), Multics had been developed by joined effort of MIT, Bell Labs and GE. Group of developers moved from CTSS to Mutics at the end of 1968. Bell Labs withdrawn the development of Multics in April 1969 because of frustration but Ken Thompson (who earlier contributed in the development of Multics) started developing another system which called "Unix" in 1970.

So, I want to know which is the operating system and more importantly which is the kernel that hackers at MIT AI Lab used to run in 1971? Was it CTSS or Multics or newly developed Unix or something else developed by themselves?

P.S (History goes...) Later on, that operating system at AI Lab started to become non-free and free community died around 1982 which inspired stallman to start a new community for free software, GNU in 1983.


texts:
Someone has told me that all nobility, when they hunted animals, it is in armour. They are further convinced that depictions of normally clothes hunters, are either not nobles, or they are wearing armour under their tight clothes.

Thus, I would like to ask the truth of the matter. Do you know of cases of high-ranking nobility hunting dangerous animals, in armour and without armour? Written cases are preferred, as art can be interpreted very liberally.

I'll mention that I'm aware hunting with and without armour has occurred, there's nothing stopping you from practicing either method. Some cultures seem to have preferred hunting in armour.


texts: Was the name "William the Conqueror" (or its translation) actually used in William's lifetime?

texts: More generally, what early records do we have of his name?  Who called him "William the Bastard" (French Guillaume le Bâtard) - was this mostly his Anglo-Saxon enemies?


texts: What type of name did the common Mayans use?

texts:
We know that most of the lord (ajaw) used to have names related to the sun, the earth or important animals.
See for example the rulers of Copan.

Do we have any idea if it was the same for every people? Did they have some first name like in Europe or was it only animals and common names?
Did they used to have some equivalent to "John" or was it only "Smoke Jaguar" and stuff like that?

I'm really interested in the Classic period, roughly 200-900 AD.


texts: Why didn't Japan adopt western utensils?

texts: Why didn't Japan adopt the widespread use of western style utensils during its periods of westernization? For contrast Thailand seems to have done this during its efforts to westernize. Without evaluating the merit of these methods, I find it rather curious that they adopted so many other habits and fashions but then skipped this one. And yes I know that they are used, but not in a widespread everyday fashion.


texts: What Were the Primary Causes of 15th to 19th Century British Chartered Companies' Failures?

texts:
A Wikipedia list suggests that the earliest deemed English chartered trade monopoly organization was The Company of Merchant Adventurers of London in 1407 and presumably most, if not nearly all, became defunct by the 20th century.  Between that period, there were hundreds if not thousands of various monopoly charters granted by the English and Scottish crowns.

Because it's easy to profit with legal monopoly over a product with heavy demand, these companies should have financially thrived.  Save for theft and other corruption, which were not uncommon, what were the primary causes of the monopoly charters to fail or otherwise lose their chartered monopolies?


texts: Organized and intentional suicide attacks during military conflicts

texts:
First of all I want to make it clear that we're not speaking about terrorist attacks here. This question is strictly dedicated to war operations, in a dictionary meaning.

Also this question is about all the history of military conflicts, not only World War II.

Surely everybody heard about suicide missions of kamikaze, Imperial Japanese Army Air Service suicide plane attacks against American warships during World War II. Around 4000 sacrificed aviators succeeded to destroy at least 47 ships and damage 300 of them. Similar conceptions in the Empire of Japan were Shinyo suicide boats, Kaiten submarines and Fukuryu suicide divers.

But this strategy wasn't used only by Japanese military forces. Also Luftwaffe used it in the closing stage of the war. From 17 April until 20 April 1945 (during the Battle of Berlin) 35 pilots of the Leonidas Squadron flew suicide sorties against bridges at the Oder river, which now is a borderline between Germany and Poland.

I'm also aware of the already asked question Is there a written history on the Sonderkommando Elbe? regarding the similarities of that Luftwaffe unit, used against American bombers, with the difference that the aviators were expected to bail out just before colliding.

The question is, are there any other examples of organizing intentional suicide attacks in a theater of war?


texts: Why didn't the Arab states industrialize?

texts: Why didn't the states of the Arabian peninsula industrialize around the time that Europe and East Asia did? Was it simply a lack of accessible natural resources? Why not import coal?


texts: Why weren't R-4 helicopters used in the European theatre in 1944-5?

texts:
Early helicopters it seems were deployed by the American military in WW2 in the Burma and China theatres, and in the South Pacific.

Their principal use would appear to have been small scale rescue operations in difficult-to-reach terrain.

You would think that Europe also offered moderately difficult terrain in Italy, Yugoslavia and the Greek islands. Is there a reason the American military didn't use helicopters in those areas?


texts: What is the context for Napoleon's quote "[the Austrians] did not know the value of five minutes"?

texts:
Is this a real quote from Napoleon, and if so, what is the context?

  “The reason I beat the Austrians is, they did not know the value of five minutes.”
  Found on many 'quotes' sites like azquotes


texts: Why did Arthur Philip decide to move to Port Jackson two days after arriving in Botany Bay?

texts:
This wikipedia article on Botany Bay suggests the following reason:

  Governor Arthur Phillip sailed the Armed Tender Supply into the bay on
  18 January 1788. Two days later the remaining ships of the First Fleet
  had arrived to found the planned penal colony. Finding that the sandy
  infertile soil of the site in fact rendered it most unsuitable for
  settlement, Phillip decided instead to move to the excellent natural
  harbour of Port Jackson to the north.

I have always been intrigued by the decision to move as Port Jackson is not so far away from Botany Bay.

To this day there are not many buildings on the north side of Sydney Harbour, most of the settlement to my understanding was built near Farm Cove which is hardly a trek from Botany Bay.

So was the poor soil the real reason for moving to Sydney Harbour or where there other more important reasons?


texts: Teaching of Mathematics in Italy and in Germany in the fifteenth century

texts:
In is book Beyond numeracy, John Allen Paulos tells this story: “A German merchant of the fifteenth century asked an eminent professor where he should send his son for a good business education. The professor responded that German universities would be sufficient to teach the boy addition and subtraction but he would have to go to Italy to learn multiplication and division. Before you smile indulgently, try multiplying or even just adding the Roman numerals CCLXIV, MDCCCIX, DCL, and MLXXXI without first translating them.”

Paulos provides no source for this. Does anyone know whether this is real or not? And, if it is indeed real, who is this “eminent professor”?


texts: Why were the Soviets better at replacing their lost men and material?

texts:
Battle of Kursk is considered a Soviet decisive victory, no doubt it was the last major German offensive at the Eastern front. But why so?

Casualties indicate the Soviets suffered 1 million casualties (MIA, KIA, WIA) while the Germans suffered 180K casualties. The Soviets tank losses were 10 times higher than the Germans.

Why were the Soviets so efficient at recruiting and replacing the lost man-power and material?

I don't take the "Soviet had twice as big population as of Germany's" as an answer.
Germany had allies: Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland, also the occupied German territories where foreigners could join the SS (Scandinavia, Netherlands, France, Bosnia and Ukraine). Plus, Germany had occupied a huge part of the Soviet Union with many of the population still there. So the Soviet Union population wasn't really twice as big during 1941-1943...


texts: Is there any research on the (possible) ancient origins of populations in different regions in Cyprus and their movements on the island?

texts:
I was looking at a map of the kingdoms of ancient Cyprus where each kingdom was presented to have had either Greek majority , Phoenician majority or was mixed Greek/Eteocypriot so I was wondering if I can find any source that provides more details on this.
In this link you can see a wikipedia article listing the kingdoms in Cyprus and their respective reigning ethnicities/majorities(?).


texts: Does the T-34 tank engine use different strokes in the banks of the pistons?

texts:
It's relatively well documented the T-34 tank uses a V arrangement engine in all variants.

I found this CIA document that was declassified:

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP82-00457R008300010007-6.pdf

It is difficult to read but it states

Piston Stroke 180mm left block
186.7mm right block

Does the engine of the T-34 have different stroke between the left and right bank? So the pistons of one bank would have less displacement than the other one?


texts: When and why was the samurai class abolished?

texts: I am aware the Emperor Meiji abolished the Samurai class during the reformation.  Why did he do so?  How was it enforced?


texts: To what extent were practitioners of Judaism persecuted during the Soviet Union?

texts: I know that as a result of the policy that atheism was to be the only public religion, the Soviet Union did their best to attack Christianity. However, I am interested in knowing the extent that practitioners of Judaism were persecuted.


texts: How did the Graeco-Bactrian empire come to accept Buddhism?

texts:
I am trying to find something along the lines of acceptance of Buddhism by Graeco-Bactrians.  I would like to learn more about western India and Graeco-Bactrian empire especially from a political, cultural, ethnic and religious point of view and interaction between Indians, Greeks and eastern Persian tribes but i do not know which source to refer for this information.Can people here please provide me a road map for learning history of this place.

Edit: I would like to learn more about time frame between Alexander and Mahmud Ghazni especially the area of Gandhara. My goal is to understand how the society (especially ethnic and religious makeup) shifted over the course of this period.


texts: What happened to Children of Prince Halil of Ottoman Empire?

texts:
Inspired from my discussion with MA Goulding on Byzantine-Ottoman blood ties, I am curious about something.

Shehzade Halil Orhanoghlu was son of Orhan I of Ottoman Sultanate and Princess Theodora Kantakouzene of Byzantine Empire.

Halil went on to marry his first cousin, Princess Irene Palaiologina, daughter of Emperor John V Palailogos and sister of Andronikos IV.

Wikipedia says that the Prince Halil had two sons:

Shehzade Gunduz Osmanlı
Shehzade Omer Osmanlı

There is no mention of this junior line (Gunduz and Omer's) of House of Osman anywhere else. Wiki also gives them titles of Bey so I am assuming that their grandfather Orhan or uncle Murad I arranged some lands for them to hold?

TL;DR, Do we know of their fate or their descendants? Could they have fled to Byzantine Empire where their maternal uncles ruled when their father Prince Halil's rebellion failed? If not, did they play any role in Byzantine-Ottoman relations as Greeks may have been more willing to trust these Princelings rather than other Ottomans in diplomacy as they were half Greeks themselves? I know if I were Murad I and had half-Greek nephews with claims to the throne of ERE, I would use them to full extent; For diplomacy and blackmailing.


texts: Difference between an Engineer General Service Regiment and a Service Unit in WWII Era

texts: In the WWII era was there an organizational relationship between an "Engineer General Service Regiment" (EGSR) and a "Service Unit" ? I have items from both the 1303rd Engineering General Service Regiment and the 1303rd Service Unit. Are these items part of the same "1303rd" organization? The 1303rd EGSR was a temporary bridge building unit that served under General Patton's Third Army in the push from Normandy to Germany in 1944/45. I don't have any information about the 1303rd Service Unit except that it was based in Camp Lee, Virginia in 1943.


texts: When were differing hemispheric seasons first understood?

texts:
When did people - scientists or philosophers - first realise/discover/understand that the seasons in the southern hemisphere were the opposite to those in the northern hemisphere?

Additionally, when and how did they realise that times were different from east to west.


texts: What are the highest and biggest half-timbered buildings built during medieval era?

texts:
I'm interested in any part of present Europe, let's say before the fall of Constantinople (1453 AD). Also, if you can show me a drawing or a picture (if these buildings are still there), I would appreciate it.
Also, I would like to know what the average number of floors of such buildings in major cities was (Bruges, London, Paris, Prague).


texts: How did people decide which president to vote for 200 years ago?

texts: A "long time ago" before there were TV's, radios, etc. what was the general method by which a presidential candidate in the United States would try to promote himself?  Was it by distributing pamphlets?  Publishing articles in local and national newspapers?  Sending representatives to spread the word?  How did it work, generally?


texts: Are paintings in history generally darker? Are they related to the pigment verdigris?

texts:
I've long had a feeling that the scenes in the paintings created at least 150 years ago are generally darker than those created more recently. I just read the article "Why Renaissance Paintings Aren’t as Green as They Used to Be:
Once a brilliant hue, the pigment verdigris is now mostly brown" (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/renaissance-verdigris-green-pigment). It occurred to me that at least partially, the answer may be in the pigment the painters used to use. It's true that verdigris fell out of fashion by the 19th century, and it's only about the (originally) green color anyway. But could it be generally true that the painters a few centuries ago did use brighter colors than we see them today?


texts:
I guess most are familiar with the cartoonish "bomb icon". It is used to warn of metaphorical or literal explosive danger and shows a deep black sphere with a smaller cylinder attached. That is where the burning fuse starts.

(created by Wikimedia Commons User Nevit Dilmen, license: CC BY-SA 3.0)

I wonder if a historical background exists? When where bombs like these used in warfare and what is the origin of this symbol?


texts: What branch of service and rank is this 1860 photo?

texts: This is a cabinet photo taken by Kelley's in New York, but we are having a difficult time identifying his branch of service and rank. Any leads to this genealogical effort would be greatly appreciated!


texts: Did most major ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) consider the heart as the main cognitive organ?

texts:
The Egyptians, Greeks (e.g. Aristotle), and Chinese certain did so. They believed that thinking was done by the heart.
Was this true about all major ancient civilizations? Were there exceptions?
Historical conceptions be inferred via traces in different languages. For instance, people say "I learned this by heart", not "I learned this by brain", in English. This likely reflect how English-speaking people thought about the role of the heart in the past and then got passed on to us as idioms.
Preliminary research: I found some related articles, such as this one (https://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/handle/1880/47541/Reynolds_2007.pdf) However, these sources tend to focus on the West (broadly construed), but do not cover many other major ancient cultures that somewhat developed independently, and thus my question.


texts: Have US troops ever been lawfully quartered in private homes during wartime under the Third Amendment?

texts:
According to the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (my emphasis):

  No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Have US troops ever been quartered in a private house against the will of the owner during wartime in such a manner as was prescribed by law?

The following do not count:

Troops quartered against the will of the owner during peacetime (Constitutional violation)
Troops quartered against the will of the owner during wartime in a manner not prescribed by law (Constitutional violation) (e.g. if the manner prescribed that only a Colonel or above could invoke the statute and then, only after a public hearing in the affected community, but in practice Lieutenants were the ones signing the quartering orders and no hearings were actually held)
Troops quartered with the consent of the owner, whether in peacetime or wartime.
Troops quartered in private US homes by a foreign occupying power.

If no, has a "manner" for doing so ever been prescribed by law (e.g. via a Federal statute), even if no troops were ever actually quartered pursuant to such law?


texts: Do indigenous Latin Americans share any common "recent" ancestors with the Chinese?

texts:
I'm trying to understand this genetic map World map of Y-DNA Haplogroups and reading this article Settlement of the Americas. The article says North America and South America were settled by people from North Asia by way of the Beringia land bridge and/or from Northeast Asia via travel water.

So did these people from North / northeast Asia who migrated to Latin America, have any ancestors in common with the Chinese, or has there been migration from North Asia to China which would mean the modern Chinese have some ancestors in common with current Latin Americans?

I'm talking about "recent" ancestors meaning less than 50,000 years, not far ancestors from 250,000 to 2.24 millions years like the ones who originally inhabited China


texts: Why did William Wallace lose while Robert Bruce won?

texts:
At the battle of Falkirk in 1298, William Wallace (aka "Brave Heart") abandoned the guerrilla tactics that served him so well at Stirling Bridge, and adopted a strong, but "conventional" defensive position featuring formations of spearmen. The Scots were outnumbered two to one, and were badly beaten by the English "combined arms" of cavalry, archers, and pikemen.

One can dismiss this as a "mistake" except that Robert Bruce adopted (superficially, at least) somewhat similar tactics against similar two to one odds at Bannockburn in 1314 and won.

Was there something in the terrain at Bannockburn that made a decisive difference compared to Falkirk? For instance, the marshy ground around Bannockburn (and Stirling Bridge) may have proved more of an obstacle to English cavalry than at Falkirk?

Also, long bowmen apparently made the difference in favor of the English at Falkirk (and later against France in the 100 Years' War), but not at Bannockburn. Why would that be?

Finally, is it true that the Scottish "camp followers" that the English despoiled on their way to Bannockburn formed an "army" of sorts (Pat Buchanan's "peasants with pitchforks"), and hit the English from behind, or at least threatened their supply train while they were facing main the Scots army under Bruce?


texts: Were Soviet Union's best trained and equipped forces deployed on the Chinese border and not against NATO?

texts:
I heard a scholarly gentleman make this claim (without giving any details of his sources) that after the Sino-Soviet split the most capable forces were not aligned for a war with the West but were deployed against a Chinese threat.

Is there any documented evidence for this?


texts: Who were the "tyrants" that Charles Martel "crushed"?

texts:
The second chapter of Einhard says:

  It was this Charles that crushed the tyrants who claimed to rule the
  whole Frank land as their own, and that utterly routed the Saracens,
  when they attempted the conquest of Gaul

The Saracens part I get. But who are the tyrants?


texts: Why did Taft write a one cent check on his first day as Chief Justice?

texts:
I was looking at William Howard Taft's Wikipedia page, and among other things was a $0.01 check drafted by him on his first day as Chief Justice of the United States.

The check has ended up at the Smithsonian, but is there some deeper story behind it? It appears to be made out to Naldo(?) C Moore?


texts: With a lance and spear, the momentum of the horseman is concentrated on the tip of a point, allowing him to plow through a formation effectively. How does this work when the horseman has swords or sabres only? Is there a 'shock' to the charge in this case?


texts: Are there any scientific estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece?

texts:
There are a lot of population estimates for Greece of antiquity (from the Archaic period circa VIII century B.C. to the late Roman times of Theodosius 395 A.D.) in academic publications. Also, I found a few estimates for Homeric Greece, the so-called Hellenic Dark Ages but I found nothing at all for Mycenaean Greece.

Can you provide your own reasonable estimates?
Thank you.

P.S. Sorry for my English. My native language is Russian and I have only been   learning English for several months.


texts: Did the third US atomic bomb disappear without a trace?

texts:
According to some sources I have read, the third atomic bomb constructed by the US "disappeared w/o a trace" from a warship while en route to Tinian in 1946 or -47 (?).

This was duly corroborated by vice admiral Allis Zacharias, a member of the US Naval Secret Service. As late as early 1948 the US did not possess another bomb.

Is this true or false?


texts: What are the French gains after the American Revolutionary War

texts:
Did France gain anything significant (territories or other concessions) at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War? I tried to look up for it, but what I found were very minor (Senegal in Africa and the island of Tobago). This looked very minor for one of the major victors in the war and compared to huge French losses during the Seven Years War.

Did France receive other kind of compensation? If not, why did they receive so little gain as victor?


texts: How accurately could ancient soldiers/commanders maneuver during battles

texts:
I am currently working on a small strategy game/interactive simulation of historical battles, whose main goal is to give the player – playing as the general of a ancient army – a more realistic amount of control of the soldiers of the said army and more realistically depict the amount of information available to a commander in this time.

One important feature will, of course, be that the player won't be able to maneuver their soldiers around -- especially during battles -- in a way, in which a historical commander in ancient time (by which I primarrily mean circa 400 BCE to about the fall of Rome and primarily in a European/mediteranian context) would not have been able to communicate with his soldiers, making use of, for instance, flag-, trumpet or lantern signals or messengers running to and from the different parts of the army, and also in which the soldiers in a medieval or ancient army would be able to accurately understand or interpret.

I do acknowledge that great differences may exist in this regard between, for instance, the legions of the Romans and the Gauls, but I do still assume (correct me if I am wrong) that the lack of radio -- throughout both antiquity and the medieval period -- still makes it possible to say something about this which in general applies to both ancient and medieval armies.
If the differences between these groups, in this regard, are significant, I would like to know in what way they differ.

Specifically, I am interested in the following:

Is it at all accurate to divide the army into units of specific sizes, which acts may be thought of as one (making any games much easier to make), or would the entire front line melt together to one large mob of people? (and where units such as the Roman cohort thus merely a logistical tool rather than a combat unit).
During a battle and lacking any significant landscape features, How accurately (if at all) would a commander in ancient time be able to tell a group of their soldiers to move a specific distance or turn a specific angle?
During a battle, lacking any significant landscape features, how accurately would these soldiers have the ability to judge said angle or said distance?
would am ancient commander during battle be able to tell a group of his soldiers to attack (or aim for) a specific part of the enemy army? (for instance, tell their archers to aim for the place where someone spotted the enemy commander)
would am ancient commander be able to tell a group of his soldiers to move to notable landscape features (trees, houses, hills etc., and how notable would these features have to be)
How accurately would an ancient commander be able to tell a group of his soldiers to move around relative to their own army (for instance, move units from one flank to the other to prevent encirclement)

I would also very much appreciate references to either historical sources or reliable modern reenactments/experiments.


texts: Of which countries was Ludwig von Mises a citizen?

texts:
This is a question regarding the economist and political thinker Ludwig von Mises.

A short biography: Mises was born in 1881 in Lviv, then part of Austria–Hungary. He studied and worked in Vienna from 1900 until 1934, when he moved to Geneva, Switzerland (this was, I believe, due to the rise of Nazism in Germany and Austria; Mises was Jewish). In 1940, Mises moved to the United States, and became a US citizen in 1946. He lived in New York until his death in 1973.

Mises is sometimes described as having been of Austrian nationality; the German Wikipedia page, for example, says that he was an “österreichisch-US-amerikanischer.” But if Mises had in fact been an Austrian citizen, he most likely would not have been able to retain the noble particle in his name (von) when the Austrian nobility was abolished in 1919. (Friedrich Hayek, an Austrian citizen, was called Friedrich von Hayek prior to 1919.)

After the fall of the Austro–Hungarian Empire in 1918, Lviv (Mises’ place of birth) became part of Poland and remained thus until 1945, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union and integrated into Ukraine. Was Mises perhaps a Polish citizen during that same period, and could that explain why his name remained unchanged?


texts: Why did Russia give up its claims to the Oregon Country?

texts: Originally, everyone in the area claimed the Oregon Country: the British, Americans, Spanish, and Russians.  Why did Russia give up its claim to the region?  What did they get in return?


texts: Who was the sovereign of the lowest title?

texts:
It is known that there existed sovereign counts (Armagnac, count at God will). But had you read about sovereign viscounts or barons? Or some boyar/boyarin (~= baron) in Eastern Europe?

The same about some Viking titles. Eric the Red was the sovereign of Greenland, being an earl, for example. Were anywhere some sovereign bonds?

On the East, emirs and khans had sovereignty often, and I hadn't heard about sovereign beks or noyons?

Again: What was the lowest known title of an independent ruler in Western European, Eastern European, Muslim or Mongol systems. AFAIK, the lowest titles that happened to be sovereign are: count, knjaz(prince), emir, khan. Can you lower one or more of these positions?

Another system with its own lowest possible independent ruler will be appreciated, too.

Edit.
As a sovereign/idependent ruler, I propose to consider one who:

has no permanent limitation to his will from without the state. Of course, any state agreement limits the will of the ruler, but these agreements are not permanent. 100000 marks debt does not make a  ruler dependent, but permanent yearly payment of 1 mark a day is a dependency.
The only important limitations are those that are considered serious and that cannot be broken without seriously damaging the state. (serious from the point of view of that ruler)
The limitations set by commons or gentry juridical bodies are considered irrelevant for the question.
Religious matters are irrelevant for the question.
Of course, the question of the power transition should belong to the state.

Point 2 is not up to the medieval understanding of sovereignty, but I voluntarily weakened the principle in this point for not to overlook any early parlamentarian states.

Beware wikipedia: in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_nobility it says that noyon was the title just below the Khagan, but no, Batu was just below Khagan, and he was khan - that was the title between khagan and noyon.


texts: Kazakhstan and anti-capitalism in the 1990s

texts:
What drove anti-capitalist sentiments from Kazakh intellectuals and economists in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union?

It is my understanding that Kazakhstan was a low level resource provider in the chain of manufacturing and it was left largely to its own devices after breaking away from the Soviet Union. Why then would intellectuals argue that capitalism would bring ruin to the post-Soviet state? It would seem that they would support an economic paradigm that was at least different from communism which had brought them to the state of relative poverty in the first place.


texts: Why was Apple not able to compete with Microsoft in the home PC market?

texts: Most of desktop market belongs to Microsoft, which is surprising to an Apple user. What went wrong, what factors were against Apple, what decisions were made that prevented it from conquering the market despite Apple's being the "technically" better machine?


texts:
Recently I've visited a Wikipedia article called "International Women's Day" in my native language (not the English page). Under the "History" section firstly it says that "according to written sources, this celebration reaches ancient times, when on a specific day in Greece women would demand their men for special attention and even wars would have to be stopped on this day, so that soldiers can be with their women" (rough translation).

Now, it literally states in the first words that it is "according to the written sources", yet there is no source for it or any kind of further information. I've noticed this information being used by a few news sites when this day comes and it has become a trend, since my country is ex-USSR and it is fashionable to distance from the so-called communist past.

Are there any actual sources for this or is it some kind of myth/legend, because even for the myth I couldn't find anything. I only found something called Matronalia celebrated by Romans but it doesn't exactly connect with the International Women's Day. However, it mentions this Roman celebration on the Polish Wikipedia page.

I tried removing that specific line but it was reverted shortly after. I don't mind it that much except that it just smells of historical revisionism, since this celebration couldn't possibly come to my country from anywhere like Greece.


texts: How accurate is the book "Rifleman Dodd"?

texts:
I recently borrowed a Napoleonic war era book titled Rifleman Dodd, by C.S.Forester. It was a entertaining story set in Portugal in the years 1810-1811. I'm wondering if the book is a work of fiction or if it is a recording from a veteran after the war. It was written as such and even hinted that some content came from French journals, but Wikipedia has not confirmed this.

Does anyone have any extra information?

Note: The earlier title was "Death to the French".


texts: Was there an increased interest in 'the spirit world' in the aftermath of the First World War?

texts:
In this excellent answer on Literature Stack Exchange, a quote from Alexander Leggatt's 'William Shakespeare's Macbeth' states:

The sense that evil forces are at work in Macbeth may be a product of
the aftermath of the First World War, whose horrific death toll
produced a new interest in the spirit world, as those who had lost
loved ones tried to contact them through ouija boards and
table-tapping.

Was there actually a noticeable increase in interest in the 'spirit world' (afterlife, heaven, etc.) and attempting to contact lost loved ones through methods like the Ouija board in the aftermath of World War 1?


texts:
I was hoping someone here could help tell me what language this is?
The hint for this is Mary Queen of Scots, but I have no background in historical languages, and was hoping maybe someone here does.


texts: How were elders addressed in Ancient Egypt?

texts: I’m writing a book and want to know how a child would respectfully address an older male and female person—like Sir or Lord or Madam—in Ancient Egypt?


texts: Did ancient Egyptian women have legal equality with men?

texts:
Having read this article, is it fair to say that women in ancient Egypt had something of legal equality with men?  The article seems to generalize between Old and New Kingdom eras, but I would like any supporting or contrary evidence to say if Egyptian women ever did have legal equality with Egyptian men.
I would also like the answer to be contextualized by comparisons with the status of women in neighboring cultures at the time.  For example, Herodotus seemed to take offence to the way women behaved in Egypt, going so far as saying that the Egyptians had "reversed the ordinary practices of mankind"... though he was known to exaggerate sometimes.


texts: How many people did the Islamic Caliphate send to the Maghreb during the Arabization of North Africa?

texts:
I know that during the Muslim conquest of the North Africa it was more a military colonization than an Arabization an spread of their culture as the Berbers in North Africa kept their culture and were not merged to the Arabs. After that and with the Hilalian invasions to North Africa that were sent by the order of the Fatimid Caliphate, they Arabized North Africa and spread the Arabic culture. My question now is how many military troops and how many nomads were sent to the Maghreb during these conquests ?.

My sources and my researches: -Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
-Hilalien invasion of Ifriqiya (this one is available only in French)
I did not found any answers of what I'm asking in those links. I'm also trying to look for other sources in this topic but I did not found anything yet.


texts:
I remember hearing and/or reading that the US government burned corn (or destroyed it) at some point. This was not because there was anything wrong with the corn, but rather because by buying it they could sustain higher prices for the corn (pleasing corn farmers); as presumably their reserves were already full, it was disposed of.

I can't find anything that substantiates this recollection. The closest I can find is stories about the US government paying farmers to not grow crops. Has anybody else heard the same story of the government actually destroying corn? Can anybody point me to a source?


texts: At the Battle of Waterloo, why did the French army throw so many troops into the fight for Hougoumont?

texts:
The beginning of the battle of Waterloo is usually described as a French diversionary attack (of Jérôme Bonaparte’s 6th Division) on the allied position at the walled farm of Hougoumont (on Wellington’s right flank). A diversionary attack is typically characterized as an attack of a relatively small force on a target other than the main target for the purpose of drawing enemy defences away from the main target. In this case, it was intended to cause Wellington to move reserves to his threatened right flank and then break through the allied centre (near La Haye Sainte).

Wellington had recognized the importance of Hougoumont. (It is said that Wellington’s reply to officers who asked him about his instructions in case he was killed was “hold Hougoumont”.) This was emphasized by the fact that Wellington assigned some of his very best troops to its defence.

After the initial assault by Bauduin’s 1st Brigade failed, Jérôme immediately ordered Soye’s 2nd Brigade to join a second attack. The battle escalated further and drew in more and more French forces, in total about 14 000 troops. The allied force maintained the occupation of Hougoumont until the end of the battle. It probably never exceeded 3 000 troops.

Thus, the French diversionary attack had the exact opposite effect to that intended.

Why did the French army continue the attacks and throw so many troops into the battle for Hougoumont? Who was responsible for this development? Did Jérôme continue and enlarge the attacks on his own decision, or was he following orders from his superior (Reille) or even  Napoléon? (Jérôme’s 6th Division only had about 6 000 infantry. The attacks on Hougoumont involved nearly the entire II Corps of Reille.)

South wall of Hougoumont


texts: What is the meaning behind Thomas Nast's political cartoon "Compromise--Indeed!"?

texts:
I'm struggling even with this explaination here: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0127.html

Who is holding the gun? That website explains:

  Dominating this picture is the image of the cocked pistol and bullwhip, their meaning reinforced by menacing quotes-"Tilden or Blood"-printed on a profusion of papers. To cartoonist Thomas Nast, at this point, the commission was merely an institutionalized way to allow Democratic coercion to prevail.

But how were the democrats able to do this?


texts: Who was the most recent pope to crown a king or emperor?

texts:
Charlemagne was crowned by Pope St. Leo III:

But who was the most recent pope to crown a king or emperor?


texts: How did Taiwan participate in the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58?

texts:
Wikipedia's International Geophysical Year begins:

The International Geophysical Year (IGY; French: Année géophysique internationale) was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects, although one notable exception was the mainland People's Republic of China, which was protesting against the participation of the Republic of China (Taiwan). East and West agreed to nominate the Belgian Marcel Nicolet as secretary general of the associated international organization.

Question: How did Taiwan actually participate? Was there any scientific contribution or were any geodetic measurements performed (inside or outside of Taiwan)? Or was their participation mostly "cosmetic" (for lack of a better word)?
There is some discussion of the IGY and links to other related SE questions in Is Earth's “pear shape” mostly J₃? and in links therein.


texts: Did Franco ever refer to his regime as Fascist?

texts:
Italy certainly started out using the term, which is derived from Senatorial regalia.
Hitler's Germany can also pretty safely be classified as such, that's the regime most people have in mind when referring to Fasciscm.
However, did Franco ever refer to his regime as Fascist, at least during the time when the term had some level of appeal?
I am not looking to equate Franco's regime, as bad as it was, to Hitler's.  Only wondering if he, or his government, used the term "Fascism" from Mussolini and Hitler, with whom he had somewhat cordial relations and which started out as equivalently authoritarian/militaristic.
Edit re. "most people"
While this is admittedly a sloppy term, there is a strong association in the public mind of Fascism with Hitler's Germany.
Google's ngram are not applicable, but, when searching Google itself, you can see that my claim, while sloppy, has some validity:


texts: Was there a Spanish plan to retake Malta, had the siege of 1565 been succesful?

texts:
H. J. A. Sire speculates in The Knights of Malta (p71) that the Spanish fleet would quickly move and retake the island, had the siege been successful. The same claim is made - in passing - in Tim Willocks' historical novel, The Religion.  If the siege had been successful, the Spaniards would appear as liberators, and if their counterattack succeeded, the strategically positioned island would have been theirs (as the Knights Hospitaller would have been purged in the siege).

The claim is supported by the fact that the bulk of Don Garcia's relief force only arrived in the island a day before the four-month-long siege ended, and only after it became obvious that the Turks wouldn't succeed in conquering the island.

Do we know of a concrete plan for retaking the island? Were there any actual preparations? I'd appreciate answers supported by contemporary or near-contemporary Spanish sources.


texts: Has any country won a war, but lost a non-trivial portion of its territory?

texts: Has any country won a war, but lost a non-trivial amount of its territory? For example, 10% or 20%. It doesn't matter whether this country still exists or not.


texts: Why did Chicago and other cities choose an L (elevated metro) when most others chose underground subways?

texts:
From my related question, I'm trying to understand the decision-making that went into metro/subway design.

Why did Chicago choose an elevated metro system instead of an underground subway? Most other cities chose the latter.

Apparently Los Angeles, St Louis, and Detroit also had elevated metros before they were torn down in the 1950's. Did this have anything to do with Chicago's decision?


texts: Did Josephus question the date of the destruction of the First or Second Temple?

texts:
In Flavius Josephus's War of the Jews, in Book 6, Chapter 4, he described the day that the Second Temple burned. He then consoles himself by saying that all good things must come to an end, but then he makes a puzzling statement:

  However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this period thereto
  relating; for the same month and day were now observed, as I said
  before, wherein the holy house was burnt formerly by the Babylonians.

Now, in the Bible, it records the Babylonians entering Jerusalem and burning Solomon's Temple as being on the 7th or 10th (depending on the book) of the month of Av, and the Talmudic tradition says that it was destroyed on the 9th of that month. So Josephus seems to be saying that the Second Temple was indeed destroyed on the 9th of Av. So then, what does he mean by the quote above? Is he saying he doubts that the Second Temple was destroyed then (he wasn't there to record it?) or does he doubt that the First Temple was destroyed then (and there just so happened to already be a tradition it was)? Or was it an idle statement about what other people might think?


texts: Where did Japan get their oil during WWII?

texts:
To my understanding the United States was the largest exporter of oil to the Japanese prior to Pearl Harbor. The Japanese islands aren't known for their oil fields. It's also believed that the attacks of pearl harbor are the result of the US refusing to send Japan oil. Were there any other countries supporting Japan with oil?

How did the Japanese manage to maintain a military without imported oil?


texts: How widely were Ramadan observed among Muslim slaves in pre-civil war America?

texts: Muslims made up an estimated 15%-30% of Africans enslaved in the United States before the civil war. Is there a general sense of how widely the fast of Ramadan was observed among them? There were obviously practical difficulties, for example fasting while carrying out forced physical work, or maybe interference from their American masters on the religious practice.


texts: What was the first documented mention of American English different from British English?

texts: What was the first documented account (newspaper article or book) that points out American English emerging with its pronunciation, vocabulary and distinctly different from British English?


texts: What was the real name of the painter who made the Christ Pantocrator of Sant Climent de Taüll Church?

texts:
In Wikipedia he's named as the "Master of Tahull", and also on other sites that I've consulted.

Is there a record of his real name?


texts: Why don't the Americas use ISO paper sizes?

texts:
In the mid-sixties, most countries standardized on ISO paper sizes (A-series, B-series, etc.). The Americas didn't. Why not?

(Around the same time there was a failed push in the US to switch to metric, but this seems like a different issue.)


texts: What percentage of Jews were in "finance" (money-lenders) throughout Middle Ages?

texts:
The stereotypical image of a Jew in Middle Ages (and the portrayal of them) was of course "the money-lender". From Ivanhoe's Isaac of York, to Shakespeare's Shylock, to "Проклятый жид, почтенный Соломон" from Pushkin's The Miserly Knight, we see the archetype.
Wikipedia's Shylock page says this on the historical background section:

During Shakespeare's day, money lending was a fairly common occupation among Jews. This was due in part to laws banning Jews from owning farm land or entering guilds, combined with Christians staying out of the profession due to their belief that usury – at that time considered to mean charging interest of any kind on loans – would be a sin.

While the reasoning for why Jews would enter the money lending is quite obvious, what seems to be missing from the picture is all the common boring non-money-lending poor Jews (who didn't seem to enter popular culture's picture till Tevye the Dairyman from "Fiddler on the Roof").
So, what interests me is, just HOW common was money lending as an occupation among Jews in Europe in the period 1300 to 1700AD?
What percentage of the Jewish population were money-lenders, vs holding some other profession?
I don't particularly care how you define "money-lender" professionally, but my own personal non-binding suggestion is anyone who either:

Devotes >50% of their work time to this occupation, or

Derives >50% of their income from money-lending.

I don't see any point in distinguishing between money-lenders who lent to gentiles vs. those who lent to other Jews, but if you wish to put that level of finesse into an answer, power to you :)


texts: Were members of Soviet Republican Communist Parties also members of the CPSU?

texts:
I know that each Soviet Republic X had its own Communist Party of X. Question is: were members of these parties also members of the CPSU?

I am interested here only in the formal side of things - I'd like to know if there was a formal dual membership (entailing two documents the member had to possess) or if each CP of X was considered a collective member of the CPSU. Or other arrangements I haven't thought of, perhaps.

Also - which normative document defined these things? As far as I remember, the Constitution of the USSR only mentioned the CPSU, not the CP of X parties, and (again, as far as I remember) the Republics did not have their own constitutions (thought they did have separate penal codes). So did the CP of X parties exist in a juridical limbo?

P.S.
Curiously, the only republic that did not have its own separate party was.... Russia. Once you think a bit about it, it makes a lot of sense, actually... :)


texts: Why is the storming of the Bastille considered the start of revolution, and not the storming of the Hôtel des Invalides?

texts: People only stormed the Bastille to steal the gunpowder for the Weapons they stole from Hôtel des Invalides. Why is the former decided by most historians to be the start? Also, some historians consider Day of the Tiles as the start of the revolution.


texts: Examples of Romans repeating early stages of the cursus honorum

texts:
In some special cases, Romans held lower offices than some they had already held, for example Quaestor while having been a consul before.

I understand that senators, expelled by the censors for various reasons, had to gain entry to the senate once more and tried to restore their former rank by starting the cursus honorum anew.

There is also the case of Agrippa, being Aedilis while consular for the purpose of urban works.

Other than that, I can't find examples of Romans willingly going down the cursus honorum ladder. That is puzzling to me, as huge advantages were to be gained (i.e. the opportunity of staging the Roman games, provincial commands after the Praetorship, etc.). Beside that, a consular holding a second Quaestorship, for example, remained consular, so there was no rank loss.

The same is true for the tribunes of the plebs. Obviously, their vetoing power (and more) should have been tempting for consular plebeians.

Are there examples of senior politicians having tried to hold junior offices and/or tribunate of the plebs?

I'm also interested in examples of Romans holding several times the same office before going up (e.g. Quaestor-Aedilis-Praetor-Praetor-Consul).


texts: What kind of labor was used to build the Egyptian pyramids?

texts:
Most people believe the pyramids were built with slave labor (or at least it seems that way). This notion is perpetuated by movies; the building of the pyramids often evokes images of ancient Egyptians whipping slaves as they move boulders.

But how much of this is true? I remember seeing somewhere that the pyramids were most likely built with skilled labor, and that they were well paid and fed. Can't remember the source though.


texts: Why didn't Japan attack communist China in WW2?

texts:
We can see after the fact that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nourished through the Sino-Japanese War while the Nationalist Army arguably depleted their resources.

The CCP had a strategy of not committing to any engagement with the Japanese and expanding their base through grassroot political movements and guerrilla organizations in the country side. (Bear with the lack of sources here. Should anyone dispute this relatively well established notion, I will dig out the sources I once consulted.)

But non-engagement requires the enemy to do the same. Why wasn't the base of CCP (in western Shanxi?) struck by the Japanese?


texts: How did Isaac Newton support himself in the period of self-study that he conducted at 23?(after he received his B.A.)

texts:
I quote wiki :

  Soon after Newton had obtained his B.A. degree in August 1665, the
  university temporarily closed as a precaution against the Great
  Plague. Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge
  student,[15] Newton's private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over
  the subsequent two years saw the development of his theories on
  calculus,[16] optics, and the law of gravitation.


texts: How did smaller feudal vassal realms survive a war or raid?

texts: Say you're a knight or baron or just generally a landowner who swears fealty to a much more higher title than you. One day a war breaks out between a rival realm or raiders from a more tribal-like one attack and your lands get devastated, how did you recover? Especially if almost all your peasants/villeins and serfs were killed in the attack.


texts: How did Lincoln's views change up to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates?

texts: I know that Lincoln's views changed a lot from when he was growing up to the Lincoln-Douglas debates, but how did his views change? From what?


texts: Were women banned from entering the castle of Trakai?

texts:
According to legend, Vytautas the Great banned women from entering the Trakai Island Castle under penalty of death.

I read it in Russian, it is called "The Horse of knyaz Vytautas". The plot is basically that one winter was particularly snowy and lake Galve was about to flood karaims farm fields. So karaims sent delegation to knyaz to ask for advise and there was a bit of hesitation whether or not to include women in the delegation since (literally) "женщин впускать в замок было запрещено под угрозой смертной казни." The solution knyaz found was very efficient albeit quite fantastic - he let his horse drink water until the threat of flooding subsided

Did that really happen, and if so, what was the reason for the ban?


texts: Were there US troops on the WW1 eastern front?

texts:
I would like to know more about the first world war, especially
about the involvement of the USA on the eastern front. Were there
any US troops in eastern front present, if so how many?
Thanks in advance


texts: Is this true that the requirement to sacrifice to the Roman gods was put in by the Caesar only after Christianity emerged?

texts: Is this true that the requirement to worship and to sacrifice to the Roman gods was put in by the Caesar only after Christianity emerged? I just encountered a statement that this requirement was put in by the Caesar as a response to Christians' being too aggressive (like they were attacking other temples and harassed the worshipers in them). Is this true? If yes, can you, please, provide some source.


texts: Why didn't Syria operate the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther tank?

texts:
Given that Syria operated numerous Nazi-era vehicles during the Cold War, why didn't it operate the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther tank?

Syria acquired plenty of Panzer IVs, including some from France. France was one of the notable operators of the Panther tank after WWII, keeping them in service until 1950. Given that purchasing weapons from France was not a problem, it seems strange that the Panther didn't show up in Syria?

Source for information on Panzers used in the Middle East: https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/panzers-in-the-golan-heights/


texts: When did Germans begin to call themselves "Deutsche"?

texts:
Up to 1871, ancestors of today's Germans lived in different states.

What did they call themselves in those times? What did Germans call themselves in the 18th century?

Did they call themselves "Deutsche" or did they use names derived from names of states like Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, et cetera?

When did Germans start to call themselves "Deutsche" en masse?


texts: Why couldn't Heraclius and Yazdegerd coordinate?

texts:
When Muslims had almost reached Aleppo in 635, Heraclius and Yazdegerd (III) sought an alliance and Heraclius married off his [grand?] daughter to Yazdegerd and they both were set to mount a simultaneous attack on Muslims:  Heraclius from Northern Syria and Yazdegerd from Iraq simultaneously.

But why couldn't it happen and instead we saw no offensive from Yazdegerd on east while all the Muslim army (and especially all the notable commanders including Khalid ibn Walid were in Syria) and continued their progression (all the way till epic battle of Yarmouk)

So question is simple: Why couldn't Yazdegerd coordinate with his father-in-law to crush their common (and most loathed due to monotheism) enemy?


texts: Why did Shostakovich not release his 4th, but did release his 5th symphony? (The 4th was released eventually, just not when it was written)


texts: How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?

texts: The assassination of the Austrian archduke was, considered in the context of all Europe's near-explosive politics, a relatively minor event. So how did it cause such a major war?


texts: What methods were used for onboard ship communication during WW2?

texts:
What methods/devices were used for communication onboard say a fighting ship during WW2?

Did they have an intercom type system so different areas could communicate directly?  Were there ship-wide communications so that everyone could hear what the Captain announced? Or were there just different types of alarm sounds with different meanings? Did they have electronic signal panels or even direct/manual wire type signals?

I’m trying to understand how so many men on one ship could work effectively as a team on a ship and orders relayed.


texts: Why did the French return all the Dutch Colonies to the Netherlands in Paris Treaty?

texts:
It seems to me that France helped Holland a lot in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. And also gave all Dutch colonies back to Holland in the 1783 Treaty of Paris?
I was wondering why was that and what benefits the French got from doing that?


texts: How many suicide attack (kamikaze) pilots died and how many of them successfully hit ships during World War II?

texts:
Wikipedia cites two different accounts that give different estimates:

  During World War II, about 3,860 kamikaze pilots died, and about 19% of kamikaze attacks managed to hit a ship. Zaloga, "Kamikaze: Japanese Special Attack Weapons"

According to a Precision Weapons, Power Projection, and the Revolution In Military Affairs by Dr. Richard P. Hallion:

  Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sank 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and wounded over 4,800. Despite radar detection and cuing, airborne interception, attrition, and massive anti-aircraft barrages, 14 percent of Kamikazes survived to score a hit on a ship; nearly 8.5 percent of all ships hit by Kamikazes sank.

Which estimate is more reliable? Are there any other estimates available?

How many Japanese suicide bomber pilots died and how many of them successfully hit ships during WWII? (according to the most widely accepted estimate)


texts: Did the civil wars of 17th century England facilitate an independent spirit in the American colonies?

texts: From the 1620's on, it seems like England was endlessly dealing with battles between parliaments, kings and armies.  Did these battles keep English leadership from getting overly involved in the development in the colonies?  If so, did that help to create a sense of independence that helped lead toward eventual separation from the mother country; as well as a sense of personal liberty that helped shape the American constitution?


texts:
How do numbered names work, e.g. the "II" in William II?

How come there are several people named William II? How come William II is also William III and William IV? What is the official name of this numbering scheme?


texts: Why did Huldrych Zwingli and Martin Luther stand for clerical marriage?

texts: Was it an original idea of theirs? Or was it about the legitimization of an already existing custom? For example, Heinrich Bullinger's father was a married dean already in 1504 due to an unofficial sanctioning by the bishop of Constance (see Wikipedia article).


texts: How were Muslim Turks treated in Byzantine Empire?

texts:
While reading about the Palaiologan Renaissance on Wikipedia, I was intrigued to find that a mosque was rebuilt in Constantinople, which was destroyed during the fourth crusade(read about it here). I was not previously aware that Byzantines built mosques so I found it very interesting. It raised the following questions for me:

How common was it for Muslims to live in various cities under Byzantine control?
How tolerant were the Byzantine authorities towards the Muslims?
Was it common for Byzantines to build mosques? Are there any mosques built by the Byzantines remaining today?

Simple Google search did not come up with any insightful answers. Any ideas would be appreciated.


texts: How slowly, if ever, were Thracians Hellenized?

texts:
From my time in Greek school I have the impression that Thracians were very little Hellenized or Romanised. I tried to test this impression with a couple of google searches and looking into two books of Ancient Greek history, but so far have only found the tiniest scraps of information. I am more interested in the people than the elites, but I think it’s unavoidable that historical records focus on the elites.
Wikipedia states:

However, Romanization was not attempted in the province of Thracia. The Balkan Sprachbund does not support Hellenization.

And in another article:

Thracian kings were subjected to Hellenization.

But the latter seems only based on a remark made very much in passing made in The Peloponnesian War: A Military Study (Warfare and History) by J. F. Lazenby, 2003, page 224.
So, can you give some pointers about the extent or speed of Hellenization of the Thracians? Romanization would also interest me. Specifically whether any “success” in Romanization coincided with Thrace ceasing to be a border area of the empire.

Sidenote:
I have been reading some articles suggesting "culturalisation“ as a "solution to China’s ethnic problems“. This has sparked my interest in cultures that lived very close to a "dominant“ culture for a long time, but weren’t assimilated.


texts: What are the main factors that lead Germany to lose the campaign against Russia?


texts: Were there any well known royal dynasties that did not in some way cite religious mandate for their rule?

texts:
Most of the royal rulers in the last 2000 years seemed to be strongly relying - as one of the sources of their power - on the notion that they hold "divine rule"/"sanction of god"/"mandate of heaven" etc...

Examples abound - from Pharaoh in Egypt to Christian monarchs in Europe to Chinese Emperors to even Alexander the Great's supposedly half-gold ancestry.

I was wondering if there was an example of a monarch who ruled 100% purely based on secular basis, with zero claims to religious mandate.

Ideally, should be a dynasty, e.g. a succession of heirs on the throne.
20th century socialist/communist dictators don't count, even if Kim family of North Korea can be described as royalty from a certain angle.
If possible, I'd prefer a non-obscure and non-trivial example.

A king of 2 villages with population totaling 500 people on some remote island is not quite what I was looking for.

Let's say a lower bound is 50000-100000 subjects, a geographical area of at least 87 square kilometers (the size of Manhattan island if anyone cares), and the combined reign of the king and ideally his heirs exceeds 30-60 years.


texts: In Europe, why were there few portraits showing a real likeness of the subject before the 15th century?

texts:
According to the Wikipedia page on portrait painting in the middle ages, it was not until after 1350 that portraits ‘became clear likenesses’.
This seems to be confirmed, for England at least, by the following text on Richard II

This wooden panel-painting is the earliest known portrait of an
English monarch, dating from the 1390s.

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Richard_II_King_of_England.jpg
In France, it seems that Charles VI (died 1422) was the first monarch there to have his likeness captured by a contemporary artist, in 1412. It also appears that the large majority of portraits of pre-1400 monarchs such as Henry II of England and Louis VII of France were done during the 17th and 18th centuries.
This is puzzling given that accurate portraiture was common enough in ancient Greece and continued up to the 4th century in Rome (at least). After this,

the interest in an individual likeness declined considerably.

What were the reasons for this decline and why did it take so long for Europeans to become interested in lifelike portraits?
Judging by the exquisite artwork found on early medieval manuscripts, the reason could not have been lack of talent. Granted, this is a different kind of art but there is no reason, I think, why skilled portrait artists could not have flourished had there been a demand for them.
Also, for people (crusaders for example) who were away from their homeland for a long period of time:
Wouldn’t people with sufficient means have wanted and been able to afford visual images of family members and loved ones?


texts:
El Turno Pacifico alternated Conservative and Liberal rule of Spain during the Bourbon restoration. There were elections, but the practice of encasillado ensured "the outcome of elections was broadly decided in advance" (ibid.). How was this done in practice?
This is partly a question of how they fixed the results, but also of why the system was stable. Any number of nations have rigged elections, but usually it's to maintain the status quo, not to deliberately surrender power. So it couldn't have been as simple as, "we have these election laws, which those in power might edit if they feel like exacting a tighter grip on power".
How did the pact between the two major parties, and Alfonso XII and later Alfonso XIII, ensure this would work, all while giving citizens the impression of fair elections? (I add that last part because turnout was decent, suggesting people thought their votes mattered as much as in a fair election.)


texts: Are these Houthi Rebels in Yemen the same people who ran the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen?

texts: I saw on the news that the area of Houthi control roughly corresponded to North Yemen, which was a kingdom overthrown with Nasser's help in 1962. Are these Houthis the same sort of people who were the rulers of the Kingdom of Yemen?


texts: How did conditional POW exchanges work in WW2?

texts:
In Battleground Prussia Prit Buttar includes a chapter on the infamous sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945. The author notes that the ship's captain, a Friedrich Petersen, had been captured by the British at the beginning of the war

  but then repatriated to Germany because he was aged 66, on the condition that he did not command a ship again

A little later the author describes how in the panic of the retreat from the Red Army the the authorities were forced to use the Gustloff (which had seemed unlikely to put to sea again) in emergency duties ferrying refugees westwards, with Petersen thus

  breaching his parole

It's possible that Petersen's age was crucial, nevertheless was it normal for the Allies to impose conditions when repatriating German POWs? Did they have any way of policing such conditions?

It's clearly suggested that if it hadn't been for the chaotic and disintegrating situation in Germany Petersen wouldn't have put to sea and the British demands would have been honoured. Is "parole" a word the parties would have used and understood in 1945 or is it Buttar's terminology? Did Nazi Germany habitually honour such conditions?


texts: Why did Mozi's philosophy die out in China?

texts: Today in my Social Studies class we learned about Mozi by reading the material he wrote in translation. According to my teacher, despite enormous initial influence Mohism, the philosophy developed by Mozi died out. Upon research, I determined that Mohism's influence was extinguished during the Han dynasty, but I couldn't determine a satisfactory reason why this was so. So my question is, why did Mohism's influence cease by the Han dynasty?


texts: I have wondered if there are any estimates on the number of bullets used in World War 2. I have thought about the question but cannot even get a plausible attack strategy.


texts:
This nickname was apparently based on a quote by a Congressman who said, "I come from a land that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs...I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." That is to say that Missourians are skeptics or "doubting Thomases".

What was it about the state that might have caused this phenomenon. Could it have to do with the trials and tribulations of "raising corn and cotton and cockleburs," or some other agriculture-related phenomenon? Or could it be something else; e.g. Missouri is a central state in the U.S. and is torn by cultural currents coming from multiple directions?


texts: What form of home address did Romans use?

texts: Were the buildings in an ancient Roman city numbered, named or something else? How would they tell each other where they lived? Were the numbers painted on the walls? Did they have apartment numbers? What would've happened when they wanted to know where to go? Where would they tell their servants to take them?


texts: When did home weather thermometers become popular/common?

texts:
Today we look online to determine the weather. When I was little, I remember people had big thermometers hanging outside, or suctioned to the outside of, for example, the kitchen window. But when did people start doing that? Was there something they did before that to learn about the weather? (Did cities have thermometers in public places before homes had their own? anything like that?)

I discovered that oral thermometers were being promoted for self-diagnosis at home in the 1870s, but nothing about weather thermometers...


texts: Which king of Burgundy sheltered two Robertians?

texts: I am having trouble retrieving this information. A duke or king of Burgundy took custody of, I'm pretty sure, Odo and Robert, sons of Robert the Strong. It's possible that it was some later Robertians, but I remember it being two sons. Which King of Burgundy was this?


texts: When was Donald Trump's first visit to his mother's birthplace, the Isle of Lewis?

texts:
United States President Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod was a Gaelic-speaking Scotswoman from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. After emigrating to the US she frequently visited the island of her birth. Her son Donald has also visited, most recently in 2008. According to the Scotsman newspaper he also visited the island on one previous occasion, when he was a child. Since he was born in 1946, that would have been some time in the period 1946-64.

When was Donald Trump's first visit to Lewis? What has been written about it?


texts: Which fruits and vegetables did Chinese migrants introduce to Australia during the gold rush?

texts:
The gold rush in Australia saw many Chinese migrate to the country, with the Chinese population in Australia reaching around 40000 in the 1860s. Many brought with them vegetable seeds to grow near their camps and towards the late 19th century, the fruit and vegetable markets came to be dominated by Chinese growers (although not necessarily growing those of Chinese origin).

Which fruits and vegetables were introduced to Australia by Chinese migrants during the gold rush? Of those, which came to be grown commercially? How successful were attempts to sell these in cities and towns with lower concentrations of Chinese people?


texts: In Germany 1935, what happened to the Jews in the armed forces?

texts: In Germany, in 1935, after the Nuremberg Laws were put into effect, what happened to all of the German Jews that were enlisted in the German army?  You never hear anything about them in all of the documentaries.


texts: Who is depicted in this Soleimani propaganda image?

texts:
While reading news and analytics about Soleimani and the fuss his death made, there is a teaser image, where I cannot identify the shown persons. The news is in German, which can be found on telepolis.de

I know the Soleimani person, of course, in the center hugging the cloaked soldier and Chomeini on the right border (Excuse the Orthography, I use German person names.)

I am curious and would like to know more about these people and their impressions they made in the Iranian history. Perhaps I can learn more, but therefore I need names and would appreciate your help. Thank you.


texts: Where in a city would a cathedral be built?

texts:
I am creating a medieval style village in a video game I am developing. Trying to be as accurate as possible I have studied the basic form Gothic Cathedrals and come to a pretty good understanding.
 One thing I haven't been able to figure out however is where exactly in cities were they built? were they generally near the city center? I know I read chapter houses are built near by but how close?

Any info would be much appreciated thanks.


texts: Was the US's pre-emptive bombardment of Iwo Jima insufficient?

texts:
[Source:] The lessons learned on Iwo Jima served as guidelines for the following Battle of Okinawa and the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland. For example, "because of the casualties taken at Iwo Jima on the first day, it was decided to make the preparatory bombardment the heaviest yet delivered on to a Pacific island"
The lessons learned on Iwo Jima served as guidelines for the following Battle of Okinawa and the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland. For example, "because of the casualties taken at Iwo Jima on the first day, it was decided to make the preparatory bombardment the heaviest yet delivered on to a Pacific island".[36] Also, in the planning for a potential attack on the Japanese home islands, it was taken into account that around a third of the troops committed to Iwo Jima and again at Okinawa had been killed or wounded.[37]
The traditional justification for Iwo Jima's strategic importance to
the United States' war effort has been that it provided a landing and
refueling site for long-range fighter escorts. These escorts proved
both impractical and unnecessary, and only ten such missions were ever
flown from Iwo Jima.[38]
Other justifications are also debatable.

Given the Japanese military's fanaticism and militancy, I'd be surprised if the US commanders for the Battle of Iwo Jima had expected any less than what did ensue? So is the above claim true? If so, why did the commanders fail to bombard more than less, in the interest of an abundance of caution? Why not shell the island for a week, if not more, before landing infantry?
Although I'm lay in history, I ask out of my sorrow for the steep casualties, which, I want to know, was truly inevitable and necessary, in view of this island's futility (as alleged above) for the rest of WWII.
Footnote: I was originally reading this forum post, and not this Wikipedia article. Also, unlike on Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima did not seem to require an element of surprise since the IJA could predict an attack?


texts: Did the Soviet Union or its satellite states have any broadcast propaganda media for an international audience?

texts:
Since 1949, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been a U.S. Government funded broadcasting service aimed at Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.  During the Cold War, it mainly targeted the Soviet Union and its satellite states.  Similarly in Germany, Deutsche Welle has broadcast since 1953.  Many people in East Germany could receive regular West Germany radio and TV, despite being not the specific target.  Today, many countries fund broadcast media aimed at an international or specifically foreign audience.  The English language broadcasts of Russia Today started in 2005.  Russia Today has been described as propaganda.
During the Cold War, did the Soviet Union or its satellite states have any broadcast media specifically aimed at audiences in western countries?
I've found there was a magazine between 1930 and 1941, and several western European countries had communist parties with newspapers that for at least the earlier part of the Cold War, strictly followed the line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).  The latter is still indirect, and many of those newspapers diverged from the Soviet Union party line later on (as did the parties they were associated with).
Were there any more direct efforts at broadcasting radio and TV for foreign audiences by the Soviet Union or its satellite states?


texts:
Aristotle referred to the sense of hearing in his work "The Problems". He correlated hearing with the capacity of learning, he believed that the sense of hearing was the most important in order to learn things.

Was Aristotle the first to write about the hearing - and the lack of it? Is there any evidence in his work that he accepted that there is a distinction between deafness and mutism?


texts: Which army uniform is this (2nd Boer British or WWI US)?

texts:
Wondering if anyone can help me identify which army uniform this is? My GG Grandfather (b. 1878) signed up for the Second Boer War in the British army as an Irishman  and possibly WW1 in the American army after emigrating in 1902 so I don’t know which era it’s from.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!


texts: Comparison of naval fleet strengths during the Napoleonic wars

texts: Do we have knowledge on the number of vessels in the armadas of the various belligerents of the Napoleonic wars? Information on the types of boats, captured vessels, and sunk vessels will also be nice.


texts: What does the first Versal in Book of Kells refer to?

texts:
I have problems deciphering the first versal on folio 179v in the Book of Kells.
I suspect it stand for Jesus? If yes, which letters does it involve? (I suspect the fish is supposed to be a "dash".)
Is there any reference/starting point that explains such versals/abbreviations? I am also interested in a list with common ligatures in Half-Uncial/Insular Majuscule.


texts: How can I safely store historic matches?

texts:
I came upon this box of matches, it's probably from around 1900 and has significance for my family history, and I would like to add it to my "box o' historical items" but I'm concerned about flammability.  I know that old negatives can combust spontaneously, is there a similar danger with matches?  What is the recommended way to store these safely?

EDIT

I've also asked this question on chemistry.stackexchange.com


texts: Any truth to this story of Native American journeying to England?

texts:
In "A New Voyage to Carolina", John Lawson, British Surveyor-General of North Carolina, asserts that some natives once attempted to journey themselves all the way to England as an attempt to cut out the middle man in the selling of their pelts :

  They seeing several Ships coming in, to bring the English Supplies
  from Old England, one chief Part of their Cargo being for a Trade with
  the Indians, some of the craftiest of them had observ'd, that the
  Ships came always in at one Place, which made them very confident that
  Way was the exact Road to England; and seeing so many Ships come
  thence, they believ'd it could not be far thither, esteeming the
  English that were among them, no better than Cheats, and thought, if
  they could carry the Skins and Furs they got, themselves to England,
  which were inhabited with a better Sort of People than those sent
  amongst them, that then they should purchase twenty times the Value
  for every Pelt they sold Abroad, in Consideration of what Rates they
  sold for at Home. The intended Barter was exceeding well approv'd of,
  and after a general Consultation of the ablest Heads amongst them, it
  was, `Nemine Contradicente', agreed upon, immediately to make an
  Addition of their Fleet, by building more Canoes, and those to be of
  the best Sort, and biggest Size, as fit for their intended Discovery.
  Some Indians were employ'd about making the Canoes, others to hunting,
  every one to the Post he was most fit for, all Endeavours tending
  towards an able Fleet and Cargo for Europe. The Affair was carry'd on
  with a great deal of Secrecy and Expedition, so as in a small Time
  they had gotten a Navy, Loading, Provisions, and Hands ready to set
  Sail, leaving only the Old, Impotent, and Minors at Home, 'till their
  successful Return.

  The Wind presenting, they set up their Mat-Sails, and were scarce out
  of Sight, when there rose a Tempest, which it's suppos'd carry'd one
  Part of these Indian Merchants, by Way of the other World, whilst the
  others were taken up at Sea by an English Ship, and sold for Slaves to
  the Islands. The Remainder are better satisfy'd with their
  Imbecilities in such an Undertaking, nothing affronting them more,
  than to rehearse their Voyage to England.

  They never hearing more of their Fleet.

The anecdote seems to not have a lot of specific details, regarding any names or tribes, beyond that we can assume that this related to North Carolina. Are there any other sources to confirm this story?


texts: Identify these Cold War speeches from a movie trailer

texts:
I've recently seen a movie trailer that contains 2 speeches of president John F. Kennedy and one speech of Khrushchev.

Could anyone provide the links of the original speeches?

EDIT: Since some people hear "only" one speech, there is FOOTAGE of two more speeches, but there is no audio,  They are both shown on the CGI'd newspaper. It is overlapped by Kennedy's "Commencement address 1963" (Thanks to Mark C. Wallace for already finding this one!)


texts: Is Costa Rica's refusal to maintain a standing army unique?

texts: After a 44-day bloody civil war in 1948, the rebel fighters of Costa Rica banned the country from having a standing army.  Other than conquered nations under the dominion of another, is there any self-ruling nation that has ever fully disbanded its armed forces?


texts: Would every Roman army have dedicated engineers?

texts:
Would a Roman army have dedicated engineers to design and build the siege engines (onagers, scorpions etc)? Would the engineers be expected to fight?

Personally, I am particularly interested in what was done around the time of the 2nd Punic war. But if someone provided an answer that described how things changed with military reforms, it would definitely be worth a bounty.


texts: Did Cossack cavalry defeat German tanks during WW2?

texts:
I came across a reference in a history book to the Soviet 4th Cossack Cavalry Corps attacking and defeating Axis tanks during the Battle of Kushchevskaya. In the book this is presented as an "actual" cavalry charge, not just mounted infantry, with men on horseback carrying sabers attacking tanks and artillery "like an avalanche" and driving them from the field.
The book is "The Unwomanly Face of War", which is actually used as a reference in that Russian Wikipedia seven-phases-max referenced above. I've learned a lot about the battle from that link and some others, but I haven't found anything in English and I don't entirely trust google translate or else I would have written up an answer to it myself by now.
I'm curious because as far as I'm aware men on horseback charging against tanks and winning is unprecedented, but the book doesn't give any more details on the battle and I haven't been able to find any other references to the battle specifically or Cossack cavalry fighting tanks in general in English.
The date of the battle is not given, but in context occurred in late 1941 or later. The book also claims that the 4th Cossack Cavalry Corps was raised to the status of a Guards corps shortly afterward, which may help in dating it.
Did this battle actually happen as described? If so, were there any unmentioned factors that explain the outcome?


texts: Did Napoleon's coronation mantle survive?

texts: Did the coronation mantle of Napoleon survive? And if yes, is it on display somewhere?


texts: Did Queen Victoria become more flexible during later years?

texts:
I came across a English exam practice question that basically says Queen Victoria was initially very stubborn but became more flexible during her later years (on formal matters such as the state, rather than personal matters). I want to know if this is in actual history a true claim or a false one.

And if it is indeed true, I want to know some short evidence of each stage as well (I don't want to know details so one or two sentences is fine), that shows she is stubborn when young and softer after getting older.

Note: I am not a native English speaker and I have no prior knowledge about the Queen, so I would appreciate answers even seemingly trivial to Anglophiles.


texts: How did Indian diets change after arrival of Muslim kings?

texts:
I would like to know how did the diets of people changed due to the new kingdoms that came in and took over the Indian Subcontinent. Was it earlier more vegetarian due to religious reasons and shifted to non vegetarian due to the new culture and as claimed by the Right Wing Politicians in India who say that the Mughals forcefully imposed their cultures or was the diet pretty much the same.

I've read about the eating habits on websites such as here but there is no authenticity.


texts:
Tannu Tuva was a little country between Russia and Mongolia. This state became independent after the Russian Civil War, but rejoined the USSR as an autonomous republic on 1944 Oct 11.

Why? Was this done voluntarily? And, very strange to me, why did this happen when the war with Germany was still ongoing? From what I read on the article, Tuva was already helping out by donating horses and wool blankets and other stuff. As far as I can tell there is not much in that land except mountains, pasture, and nomads with horses.

I could not find the answer in the article or a google translate of the Russian version of the article. The closest thing I found through searching was this quora article that's more geared to Mongolia than Tannu Tuva.


texts: How did Hitler's personal security work?

texts:
Considering recent events and, more generally, how top politicians move about in tank like cars and with a considerable amount of body guards it is quite surprising to see all those black-and-white clips of Hitler (with Mussolini!) travelling in an open car (or walking fully exposed in front of tens of thousands of people for the totenehrung) through narrow streets in cities.
Even though Hitler was popular, he was also clearly a very controversial person, and there were millions of Germans who had reason to assassinate him (which is proved by the numerous attempts on his life during his reign), still he seems to have been reasonably accessible for the general public (As a sidenote, this heightened security is a relatively recent invention. JFK travelled - although it didn't work out that good for him - in an open car. Not even a prime minister or president in a relatively non-violent country like, e.g., The Netherlands, would do that today. Iceland maybe?).
How was Hitler's personal security handled before the war? How come he wasn't killed by his internal enemies? Sniper rifles existed and were pretty good even in the 30s.


texts: How would the family of a soldier killed in WW1 recieve his Victoria Cross?

texts:
I am writing historical fiction (setting is British Raj) and am researching the Victoria Cross, and List of Victoria Cross recipients by campaign

I know soldiers from North Indian villages were conscripted to fight in WW1.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/14/excerpts-guardian-reporting-first-world-war

https://www.firstworldwar.com/features/lionsofthegreatwar.htm

https://www.sikhnet.com/news/impact-wwi-sikh-soldiers-based-their-letters

Question is, how would the family of a soldier killed in WW1 receive the Victoria Cross on his behalf?

In my novel, the family of the soldier are simple villagers in the British Raj.

Is is possible that the officers of the regiment would break the bad news to the family, return the dead soldier's belongings, and present the Victoria Cross to the wailing Mother and Father?


texts: Did the Iraqis really only use landlines during Desert Storm?

texts:
I remember reading somewhere -- I think it was in a CIA or NSA briefing paper -- that during Desert Storm, the Iraqis refused to communicate by radio because they were too scared of the U.S. codebreakers.  Instead, they used landlines, which they thought were more secure.

Is this in any way true and, if so, is there a source for it?

(I have no security clearance with anything top secret, so if this is true it's out in the open.)


texts: What did people used to exchange for goods during the 1920s German hyperinflation while the official currency was not trusted

texts:
When the 1920s  hyperinflation happened, it seemed that the rapid currency devolution is not too hard to see. This must result in the people who own and sell goods distrust the future of the currency; than they might refuse to sell their goods for the valueless currency. And this will result a hard currency such as gold or silver product. But those hard currencies are too valuable and most of the people don't have it for exchange. So, what kind of thing (hard currencies) would most of the people trust and used for exchange(trade)?
By the way, how did those famous Germany companies exist during this disaster? The breaking of capital chain because of the currency devolution would cause horrible situation for an enterprise.


texts: Did native Mexicans prefer Spanish rulers to the Aztecs?

texts:
In his letter to Charles V, Hernan Cortes states that "it was only necessary to threaten to return them [the natives] to their native masters in order to make them serve the Spaniards very willingly." (source: "The Encomienda in New Spain: The Beginning of Spanish Mexico", pp. 61).

Is there evidence (other than Cortes' own view, which is obviously biased) to suggest that some Native Americans did in fact prefer Spanish rulers?


texts: What relief efforts did the Japanese attempt after the atomic bombings?

texts:
Obviously, once the atomic bombs dropped in 1945, the war was almost over.  There wasn't much time to rebuild, or even offer aid, to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before the Japanese surrendered and the Americans started arriving, which no doubt changed how things like war damage and reconstruction were handled.

But within that period before the end of the war, what did the Japanese government do in response to the bombings?  The Wikipedia entry contains a lot of information about the bombings, but barely any about the subsequent relief efforts or response.  Was there much of a relief effort for the survivors, or were there no resources to spare?  Did the try to rebuild anything, or did they basically just abandon the sites and focus on other areas?  Did they respond quickly, or did it take them some time to decide what to do?

And once the Americans did start arriving in Japan, did these efforts change, or did they continue largely unaffected by the surrender?


texts: Income distribution of major combatants before and after WWII?

texts: This question about GDP per capita of major combatants before and after WWI made me wonder how these GDPs were distributed. Do we know the Gini coefficient (or a similiar metric) for the major combatants in the years around WWII?


texts: How did people react to these WWI posters with their 'brutal messages'?

texts:
When war broke out in 1914,

  the British government, through the Parliamentary Recruiting
  Committee, set about producing posters to swell the ranks of Britain's
  small professional army with volunteers.

Initially, these posters focused mostly on providing information on how to enlist and on stirring up patriotism. In 1915, though, a number of posters seemingly aimed at shaming (directly or indirectly) men into enlisting appeared.

The best known of these posters is probably Daddy, what did you do in the Great War? (click here for image), but perhaps equally hard-hitting is the one below addressed To the young women of London

The Wiki article says:

  Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker have written that the
  campaign of mass propaganda, including what they describe as the
  "guilt-inducing and brutal messages" such as "Daddy, what did YOU do
  in the Great War?" were not the only contributing factor to these
  recruitment figures, writing that recruiters "quickly decided that
  using the latest forms of mass advertising had a negative effect".

The above passage isn't very clear about whether or not these posters helped or hindered recruitment and, as SJuan and Pieter Geerkens have pointed out in their comments, the stats appear to have been misused.

While it is true that later posters switched emphasis, the obvious reason for this was that conscription was introduced in 1916 so this kind of 'persuasion' was no longer necessary.

Did these kinds of posters, on balance, have a negative effect?

Are there any primary sources from the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee citing evidence of this 'negative effect'?

Were there any newspaper editorials (for example) or prominent people who voiced opposition to such posters as the ones cited here?


texts: Were door keyholes able to be peered through?

texts: Spying and subterfuge in videos games and films sometimes show characters peering through keyholes to see into the room beyond. Was there a point in time at which keyholes were actually manufactured in such a way that you could see through to the adjacent room, or is this just an interesting fantasy mechanism?


texts: Other possible inventors of the Transistor?

texts:
From Wikipedia's Article on the History of the Transistor:

The Bell Labs work on the transistor emerged from war-time efforts to produce extremely pure germanium "crystal" mixer diodes, used in radar units as a frequency mixer element in microwave radar receivers. A parallel project on germanium diodes at Purdue University succeeded in producing the good-quality germanium semiconducting crystals that were used at Bell Labs.[4] Early tube-based technology did not switch fast enough for this role, leading the Bell team to use solid state diodes instead.
...
The key to the development of the transistor was the further understanding of the process of the electron mobility in a semiconductor. It was realized that if there was some way to control the flow of the electrons from the emitter to the collector of this newly discovered diode (discovered 1874; patented 1906)

It seems that anyone experimenting with germanium diodes, would have ended up with the transistor, at some point...

My question is:
Who else, other than Purdue and Bell, had a high likelihood of being the first creator(s) of the transistor?