14
votes
1answer
128 views
in what form did William the Conqueror write the date of his own coronation?
This is a question about the English legal calendar as viewed by people living at the time, not as historians recorded it later.
New year shifts to 1-January
To the best of my understanding, the ...
14
votes
1answer
104 views
When did the use of fabricated speeches in historical works go out of fashion?
In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides includes a number of made up speeches based upon "what was called for in each situation". While this is frowned upon in modern histories, it seems ...
14
votes
1answer
361 views
Any notable battles fought with steel vs. bronze weapons?
In answering the question Was the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age violent I found out a few facts that I hadn't expected. Namely, that the early iron weapons weren't necessarily much ...
13
votes
5answers
997 views
Why weren't aircraft carriers utilized during D-day?
Why were aircraft carriers not used during and following D-Day? They could have added a great deal of range to the air support operations.
13
votes
3answers
505 views
Was the US Navy larger in 1917, and if so, why?
Following the recent discussion in the third US Presidental Debate about the size of the Navy, there actually seemed to be a good discussion buried in there.
How does the US Navy compare to its ...
13
votes
5answers
499 views
Why did Civil War officers tell their men to “aim low”?
I'm listening to Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears and the officers on both sides seem to always exhort their men to "aim low". For instance, General John Gibbon told his 2nd Division infantry:
Do ...
13
votes
4answers
648 views
Why doesn't Russia maintain significant numbers of Aircraft carriers?
The United States has 11 aircraft carriers in total. Russia has only one. We saw in the past that the USSR also didn't put much importance on constructing aircraft carriers and putting them into ...
13
votes
4answers
457 views
Do most of today's democratic nations with two-party system exhibit a civil war in recent past?
I was thinking about the two-party system in USA and comparing it to mostly multi-party systems in Europe and was wondering, if this national state of democracy is mainly caused by political decisions ...
13
votes
2answers
308 views
Were Shakespeare's plays written for “high culture” or “entertain the bawdy masses” during his time?
Currently, the plays of William Shakespeare are viewed as great English literature, and viewed as "high culture". However I heard someone say that Shakespeare was writing "bawdy, violence filled plays ...
13
votes
2answers
124 views
Babylonian tablets
The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive writes
Two tablets found at Senkerah on the Euphrates in 1854 date from 2000 BC. They give squares of the numbers up to 59 and cubes of the numbers up ...
13
votes
5answers
777 views
Why did Hitler not concentrate more on North Africa?
The Germans knew that oil would be crucial to the war and that they would likely need to capture new sources for the war effort.
The main oil-producing regions at the time that might be captured were ...
13
votes
3answers
389 views
Where are Genghis Khan's Mongols?
In the 13th century, Mongol hordes invaded most of the known world and Genghis Khan's nobles had strong legacies to rule in China, Iran and Central Asia in the the following centuries. What about the ...
13
votes
2answers
147 views
How does Nigeria stay together?
My naive mental picture of Nigeria - the second largest economy in Africa - is as follows:
A Muslim North scratching out a living in the Sahara desert
A nominally Christian South making money on the ...
13
votes
3answers
444 views
What do I need to know about Syria's history to understand the 2011-2012 uprising?
Syria is in the news a lot lately due to the current uprising, but it's not a country that many people know much about. It can trace its history back to the origins of civilization, and as a result ...
13
votes
4answers
385 views
Was the Roman Empire based on a 'plunder economy'?
It has been stated by Arnold J. Toynbee and James Burke that:
The economy of the Empire was a Raubwirtschaft or plunder economy
based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything
...
13
votes
3answers
202 views
How to research controversial history?
I wouldn't be naming the specific examples as that might (will) needlessly divert the attention away from the question itself.
Let us say I am trying to research about historical events in a region. ...
13
votes
4answers
257 views
Where and how did the concept of “incorporation” originate?
Wikipedia states that "The alleged oldest commercial corporation in the world, the Stora Kopparberg mining community in Falun, Sweden, obtained a charter from King Magnus Eriksson in 1347". Is this ...
13
votes
1answer
299 views
What is the state of the art historical analysis of claims that Carthaginians discovered America?
The Carthaginians, and the Phoenicians in general, are renowned for their seafaring abilities. There is evidence for their circumnavigation of Africa, and strong evidence for the fact that Hanno the ...
13
votes
2answers
346 views
How was life in the Iron Age different from life in the Middle Ages?
Let's say you were from the Middle Ages, 1200s England or Germany, and you got thrown back in time to the Iron Age. It's still the same place, but it's 400 BC. Apart from the language, what would ...
13
votes
1answer
219 views
How did cities operate in medieval times?
Modern fiction is often filled with fantasy versions of the Middle Ages, from Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones, and everything in between, but how did the reality of this trope operate?
There ...
13
votes
2answers
305 views
Why is Spain's base timezone UTC+1?
Looking at the time zone map on Wikipedia we can see that countries such as France and Spain technically should have a time zone of UTC+0. Wikipedia says:
France previously used GMT, but was ...
13
votes
2answers
329 views
Which cultures did *not* produce alcohol?
I've been reading Harold McGee's fascinating On Food and Cooking, and the chapter on alcohol has some interesting historical notes. He describes the widely varied and creative methods used in various ...
13
votes
4answers
2k views
What events led to the fall of the Zhou Dynasty during the Warring States period?
The title above is fairly broad, so more specifically, what specific events led to the Warring States period experienced towards the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty in ancient China? As the lineage ...
13
votes
1answer
548 views
When was Silver ever more valuable than Gold?
These days we pretty much take it as a given that gold is more valuable than silver. The obvious example is the Olympics and other such competitions that give "gold" medals for first place and ...
13
votes
1answer
374 views
How do Friedman and Bernanke's explanations about the causes of the Great Depression compare?
I know that both Friedman and Bernanke wrote papers (or books, in Friedman's case) about the cause of the Great Depression. How do their points of view compare and contrast?
13
votes
3answers
360 views
Does the number of legs in the air of a horse statue indicate how its rider died?
I have heard that the number of legs a horse has in the air in a statue indicates how the rider died. According to what I have understood:
2 legs in the air: rider died in battle
1 leg in the air: ...
13
votes
3answers
225 views
Gender Color Association: When did boys become blue and girls pink?
What historical evidence exists for the origin of the association of blue colors with boys, and pink colors with girls?
I realize this is a cultural specific trait. An article "Beyond Pink and ...
13
votes
1answer
130 views
Castaways rescued by a message in a bottle?
Has there ever been a time when people were rescued by sending out a message in a bottle to drift across the sea?
The "bottle" doesn't have to be an actual bottle. It could be a box, a cask, a ...
13
votes
3answers
224 views
What were the origins of Etruscan Civilisation?
Given the differences between Etruscan civilisation and other Italian peoples of the same period, is the conclusion that Etruscan civilisation was autochthonous sensible?
13
votes
3answers
322 views
In what ways did the rise of a true middle class in Europe during the late 19th century become apparent?
The late 19th and early 20th centuries were very transformative for Europe with the rise of a real middle class. Typically before this the middle class was more of a bourgeoisie and not the middle ...
13
votes
1answer
237 views
How did the monks whose job was to copy books react to Gutenberg's printing press?
It's typical to see people whose job it is to perform a manual task to - collectively - object when a new technology is introduced which makes their job obsolete (as the quintessential example, see ...
13
votes
1answer
254 views
Comparison of Ancient Greecian and Egyptian schools and methods of studying to modern day
I've been watching some documentary that stated that our modern schools are used to make people submit to authority and think in a linear way. Just to make us good workers.
And I wonder - What was ...
13
votes
2answers
315 views
What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
Did Arab Christians take an active role in the crusades in the Holy Land or at any point on their trip to the Holy Land. Or were they victims of the crusaders? Did the crusaders typically ...
13
votes
1answer
96 views
In the French Republican calendar: were Quintidis holidays?
I did some research on the French Republican calendar and found some contradictory information on weekly (or decadian?) holidays.
Wikipedia (and most other articles I found) mention:
The ...
13
votes
1answer
122 views
What was the Mantineian form of government and what praise did it receive?
In his comparison of the Roman form of government with those of other states, Polybius mentions Mantineia as having one which had been praised by almost all historians. However, he does not go into ...
13
votes
2answers
336 views
Why were universities created in the 11th-12th century?
I am specifically interested in information related to: the University of Bologna, the University of Paris, and the University of Oxford.
From what I have been able to find so far universities were ...
13
votes
1answer
127 views
Why didn't Japan expand into Ezo?
Throughout the first millenium of Japanese history (and before that even) the Japanese rather steadily expanded up Honshu.
Once they had taken the whole of Honshu however they seemed largely to stop. ...
13
votes
2answers
206 views
What was Libya's form of direct democracy (Jamahiria) like in practice?
I've been following the recent events in Libya and I learned about the Green Book, which outlines Gaddafi's vision for a democratic socialism. Published in 1975, it proposed a form of direct democracy ...
13
votes
1answer
358 views
Who were the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Western Europe?
I've heard it said that the Basque are conjectured to be the last remnant of Pre-Celtic Western Europe. When would have these people existed? What evidence do we have for their culture and habitation ...
13
votes
1answer
170 views
How did people react to Cavendish bananas when they first replaced the Gros Michel strain?
I was reading that the bananas we eat today (Cavendish) weren't particularly popular until the 50s, when the more popular Gros Michel variety was virtually wiped out by a nasty disease. Apparently ...
13
votes
0answers
72 views
Song school vs. Han school of Confucian thought in the Qing dynasty
The Song school eventually prevailed due to favor from the Qing emperor and also because some Han texts were determined to be not genuine by scholars of the time.
My question is, were the scholars ...
13
votes
0answers
168 views
When was the concept of “weekly day off” first introduced in Indian Subcontinent?
Did ancient & medieval indians have a weekly day off? Or was there even a generally recognized day as public holiday?
Or did the concept get introduced with Arabs or Europeans?
12
votes
5answers
666 views
How well can cavalry fight infantry?
In the Battle of Pharsalus, Caesar's infantry won by throwing their spears at the horsemen's faces.
So how come in Battle of Zama and many other battles, including the battle where Khalid ibn ...
12
votes
5answers
519 views
Is there any evidence that the catholic church reduced innovation during the middle ages?
I often hear that the rate of innovation was very high during ancient times in Greece and the Roman empire. I've also heard that the rate of innovation was reduced once the Catholic Church gained ...
12
votes
3answers
322 views
Has a state ever “attacked” another one by printing fake money?
Has any state ever performed an "economic attack" against another state, by printing fake money of the victim's currency?
Or, is it known if someone ever considered doing it, and which were the ...
12
votes
5answers
751 views
What's the advantage of the infantry column formation in the Napoleonic Wars?
In movies/books set in the Napoleonic Wars, the British are normally deployed into lines and the French into columns. The columns are usually the advancing ones, charging into the line as the line ...
12
votes
2answers
331 views
Why was the Western Front so static in World War I?
Once the German advance was halted, neither side could seriously advance for two years. This seems like an extraordinarily long time. Why didn't anyone succeed at going around the trenches or striking ...
12
votes
4answers
4k views
Why did the southern states secede from the U.S.?
Lincoln's election precipitated the secession, but didn't they have enough congressional power to continue things much as they were? It seems in the preceding two decades the slave states had managed ...
12
votes
3answers
569 views
What is the difference between the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages?
Is there any difference between the "Middle Ages" and the "Dark Ages"?
12
votes
2answers
358 views
What factors contributed to earlier democratic states failing?
Conventional wisdom says that democracy is the superior form of government.
If this is true, then factors might have contributed to earlier democratic states like Athens in 500 BCE and the Roman ...
