Questions tagged [europe]
It is the second smallest continent, forming the Western extension of Eurasia.
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What did Europeans do with captured war elephants?
I recently saw this rather tongue-in-cheek graphic:
Now I have no idea regarding the veracity of the above, but assuming it is somewhat true it begs the question: If Europeans didn't eat them, what ...
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What was the comparative privilege(wrt travel and migration) of an average Jew in Germany versus Ottoman Palestinian Arab in 1880?
I am trying to think about the privilege differences(wrt travel and migration) between a Jew in Germany (specifically the region of Prussia) versus Arab in Ottoman Palestine during 1880s time period. ...
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Why were eastern European states larger than western European states for much of history?
For reference, ever since the Treaty of Verdun in 843, large, centralized states in western Europe seemed to be the exception rather than the norm. Of course, there are exceptions, such as England and ...
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What anti-smuggling measures were implemented on the border between Ukraine and Hungary in the late 1990s and early 2000s?
Closely related cross-site: Why did Hungary joining the E.U. cause oil prices fall to be only marginally higher than they were in Ukraine?
Somewhat related cross-site: Were schoolteachers really paid ...
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Is it true that some early modern Europeans refused to believe giraffes existed?
I remember reading or hearing somewhere that some of the first Europeans to see a giraffe in Europe refused to believe that such a creature could really exist. Presumably they thought the giraffe(s) ...
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Was wool packing a main task for medieval peasants?
In Europe/UK, would a main task for peasants/working classes been to pack wool? And, if so, roughly what dates would this have been please? What did the entire process involve from obtaining the ...
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Were the Western World's general political and ideological consensus and consequent actions primarily responsible for the global ending of slavery?
Would one be accurate in stating that it was the general ideological and political consensus and subsequent actions of the Western World during the early to mid 1800s that were primarily responsible ...
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Would a common person in the 18th century have heard Mozart's music during his lifetime?
Mozart was and is one of the most influential musicians and today nearly everyone knows his name and probably some of his famous compositions.
During his lifetime he certainly was a well known ...
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(How) Did criminals in the middle ages get treatment for injuries?
Were criminals in the middle ages able to get treatment for injuries, and if so, how? I mean criminals such as bandits who wouldn't be able to seek whatever medical care was normally available, even ...
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Who is 'Ebinichibel' mentioned in the Borgia Map?
Wikipedia:BorgiaMap page gives this detail,
The Borgia map includes a legend referring to Ebinichibel, who is described as "the Saracen Ethiopian king with his dog-headed people".
Is this ...
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To what extent has ideographic script contributed to the unification of China？
The different languages of Europe are, by Chinese standards, just successive variants of one language. But the phonetic alphabet is so flexible that the same set of letters can spell almost any ...
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Did medieval peasants work 150 days a year?
The following meme arrived in my inbox.
Peasants in the medieval era worked just 150 days a year on average. The church believed it was crucial to keep them content by making frequent required ...
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Was there a time when Montenegro executed all of its millionaires?
I bought the complete works of G. K. Chesterton for $1 for my Kindle and read them. Somewhere in all those volumes (as I remember) he asserts that Montenegro executed all of its millionaires (and ...
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How would a musician travel from Venice to Dresden around 1700?
I'm writing a historical fiction TV pilot and I need some help from the history buffs here. One of my characters, a young, aspiring, musician needs to travel from Venice to Dresden, Germany. I suspect ...
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Is there a database of wars in Europe since 1945?
I'm currently improving a Timeline I build some time ago, this Timeline of Wars in Europe since 1945. I did used several sources, including Wikidata, to get the list of conflicts to include. Yet, ...
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What is "trek-leertje" and what it was used for in the 17th century Dutch Republic?
Encountered this expression in the writing of the Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. In this passage from his Arcana naturae detecta (another version little different) , he describes a tool that ...
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How difficult would it have been for a European to obtain access to US scientific journals in 1945?
On May 1, 1945, volume 158 of the Journal of Biologic Chemistry was published.
I'd like to establish to what degree –and how soon thereafter– its content may have been accessible in continental Europe ...
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What were the goals of the lesser powers in the Congress of Vienna 1814-1815?
Going into the Congress of Vienna, the Great Powers (usually defined as Great Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia) had many goals in mind of what they wanted out of the negotiations. In fact,...
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What is this Eastern European military uniform?
These photographs are of my great-granduncle who lived in the village of Velyki Laz, just outside of Uzhhorod in today's western Ukraine. He was born in 1905. I would like to identify the uniforms ...
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Are there any examples of two medieval kingdoms trying to unify but eventually failing to do so?
Recently, I started to read about history as a hobby like I used to when I was a kid. I realized that reading about "generic history" does not do it for me anymore. Instead I have some ...
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What was a plausible timetable for a train journey across Europe in 1870?
I'm writing historical fiction set in 1870 (June, some weeks before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war) in which some of the protagonists are traveling by train across Europe, from Calais to ...
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Did it really take until 1990 for "Europe"/UK to switch from glass bottles of milk to cartons? [closed]
I came across this weird claim: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_delivery#Europe
By 1975, 94% of milk was in glass bottles, but in 1990, supermarkets started offering plastic and carton containers, ...
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Why did the Vikings stop raiding Europe?
Was it because of their defeats by Alfred and the settlement of Normandy?
Were there issues at home which changed their focus?
I did search through quite a few of the questions on here, but did not ...
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How did public opinion of the wars change from 19th to the 21th century?
This question is inspired by a discussion I had with my friend recently, about ordinary people's perception and support of the many wars in the 19 and 20th century. Nowadays, the overwhelming majority ...
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Columbus 1492 - how many years for news to reach all Europe (including Ottoman empire)? [duplicate]
After Columbus reached the Americas, how many years did it take for news to reach all of the capitals of Europe (including the Ottoman empire)?
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What sorts of people were popular celebrities in 17th to 19th century Europe?
I'm writing fiction set in a world similar to pre-modern Europe, and there needs to be a conversation about celebrities with a person who doesn't know of any of that society's celebrities.
Hence my ...
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Was Ottoman control a factor in the voyage taken by Christopher Columbus? [duplicate]
I am reading A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn and it says after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople they controlled the land routes to Asia, making sea routes necessary. But I ...
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When did the cost of living differences between Switzerland and neighboring countries became noticeable?
Today it is widely known that prices of general goods in Switzerland are somewhat double those of Europe (rough generalization). There are a number of factors that contribute to this, notably the ...
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Did European elites train natives from colonial lands to help spread western values?
In 1961 Frantz Fanon wrote a book called "The Wretched of the Earth". In the preface of the book Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the following:
The European elite decided to fabricate a native elite;...
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Marriage for executioners in Medieval times
I recently heard from a city guide in Franconia, Germany, that executioners were well-paid but outcast from the Medieval society. Apparently, it was quite hard for them to get a wife because nobody ...
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Is this cairn/mound-like structure in Germany real or imagined?
EDIT: I have found the answer - it was Waldviertel Pyramid. I have provided details in the answer.
The thing is that I have either read about or seen on a TV documentary about a certain cairn-like ...
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Are there any estimates of military spending as a percentage of total government expenditure anywhere in 15th century Europe?
A little piece of information stuck in my head about the military expenditure. Namely, the current expenditure on the military is incredibly low when compared to that in the middle ages. I am not sure,...
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How large is a 19th century stage house near Kaluga, Russia?
On creating a fiction story I wanted to visit a stage house in the 19th century, and I don't have a reference for how large such an establishment can be on a main road. My fictional history setting is ...
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Do wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday? [closed]
When the Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, was asked by the German newspaper Die Welt whether Russian armed forces would start to invade the Ukraine on Wednesday February 16th, as ...
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How were "Wehrbauern" (soldier peasants) in medieval Europe even a thing, at all?
Wehrbauer (German pronunciation: [ˈveːɐ̯ˌbaʊ.ɐ], defensive peasant), plural Wehrbauern, is a German term for settlers living on the marches of a realm, who were tasked with holding back foreign ...
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What was the earliest legitimate ancient Satanist sect / cult?
According to this recount of Satanism, the belief system is a modern phenomenon. The only confirmed "Satanic Church" wasn't formed until the 1960s.
I suppose we can concede that part of this ...
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Was it uncommon to see an Englishman with a cane or walking stick during WW1? Specifically, in Europe
Was it uncommon, during the WW1 era to see a man, with a cane or walking stick in Europe?
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Was it common in Europe in the modern era that proper names were translated?
My question is partially motivated by this question. I know that up until early 20th century in Hungarian many (or even most) foreign names were translated. For example this poster from 1864 mentions &...
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How colonialism have been done right (benevolently)? [closed]
The British Empire (& Europeans, Arabs etc.) colonised many countries but the colonial experience, advertised as a "westernizing the backward people for their own good" masked the ...
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How literate were common people in Medieval Europe?
I stumbled upon a youtube video some time ago about literacy in Medieval Europe. The guy argues that probably at least one person per household was able to read - contrary to common belief. His ...
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Why were French maids apparently so common outside France?
Wikipedia article doesn't help at all. It's surprisingly thin and essentially doesn't explain anything. It's only vaguely implied that this was a thing outside of France.
Why exactly did so many ...
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How did Medieval European river passenger transport develop?
I read some sources that transport by boat over European rivers developed already in the early medieval period, ie after having developed ships with low draft as well as the invention of a ...
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Where can I find Information about small businesses in Europe who formed 'co-op' currency & traded among each other between WW1/2?
Several years ago I read an essay on a small/independent website about companies in Europe which got together during the hyper-inflationary 1920s & 30s and negotiated amongst each other for ...
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Who are the "Two Parties" of the Protestants in the Treaty of Westphalia?
The seventh section of this linked selection of the Treaty of Westphalia includes this:
But because certain religious controversies prevailing among the above-mentioned Protestants have not yet been …...
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Why were Muslims in Western Thrace and Christians in Constantinople excluded from the population exchange?
In the 1923 compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey, most Muslims living in Greece were forcibly moved to Turkey, and most Christians living in Turkey were forcibly moved to Greece.
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What's a good general history book on Italy, 1400-1600? [closed]
I'm an artist with an interest in artists of the Italian Renaissance. After reading several biographies it's clear that in order to really understand their lives I need to know more about their world....
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How aware was Europe nobility of the danger of consanguinity?
If my understanding of history is correct, it was common for much of European history for nobles and royalty to need to keep the blood 'pure' by marrying only people of similar standing. This ...
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In what countries were plague doctor masks were most common?
Based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor_costume:
The clothing worn by plague doctors was intended to protect them from airborne diseases during outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague in Europe.
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What is this lapel pin logo?
I got this lapel pin in the mid-1980s from a retired communist partisan in Hungary. He had more pins, mostly of communist/socialist organisations, trade fairs, and combines.[1]
cold-war era Eastern ...
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How common was cannibalism in Christian Europe until the 17th century?
When hearing about cannibalism, a Robinson-Crusoean narrative usually comes to my mind, where primitive tribes would engage in limited warfare and probably ritualistically consume their prisoners. ...
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