164
votes
Accepted
Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
Actually, good arguments can be put forward for both dates as the the 'start' of World War 2. In fact a number of other dates have also been suggested for the 'start' of World War 2, including:
...
- 77.2k
148
votes
Accepted
Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
Lyon's theory is rather flawed.
First of all, the Etymologiae was written in the 7th century. Just because one paragraph from one chapter in the book might possibly be construed as implying a flat ...
- 97.5k
99
votes
Why was Germany not as successful as other Europeans in establishing overseas colonies?
Which Germany do you mean?
Something that can reasonably called a German nation-state was founded only in 1871, when Prussia first defeated France and then unified most German states under their ...
- 17.4k
95
votes
Was hay invented only in the Middle Ages in Europe?
The Roman writer on agriculture Columella, who died around AD 70, gives a detailed description of the manufacture of hay (Latin: faenum) in his de re rustica 2.18, which reads as follows in the Loeb ...
- 9,700
75
votes
Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
Thomas Aquinas wrote a number of works in the 13th century, some of which were introductory (at least to medieval students - less so to today's students, who are not familiar with scholastic ...
- 1,283
72
votes
Accepted
Which European Languages are not Indo-European?
Overview
Since there are a fair amount of them, languages are grouped below by language family:
Basque
A linguistic isolate native to the Pyrenees mountains between Spain, and France.
Source: &...
69
votes
Accepted
Did medieval peasants work 150 days a year?
Probably not. The one economist this number can be traced to now says its a huge underestimate.
In 1986 economist Gregory Clark wrote a working paper that (according to citers) contained this estimate....
- 121k
64
votes
Accepted
How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?
The assassination itself did not cause the war — it only caused the first declaration of war in World War One.
What really happened between the assassination (June 28) and the eruption of war (...
- 6,267
57
votes
Accepted
How were Martello towers supposed to work?
That was the whole idea behind it. Not every bit of coastline is liable to invasion. Only on certain beaches troops could be landed. Steep cliffs and dangerous shallows didn't need protection. Place a ...
- 22.5k
56
votes
Accepted
Who is this young 'Prince'?
I don't know uniforms well enough to be completely affirmative, but all your clues and the physionomy of the boy remind me of French Imperial Prince Napoleon, son of Napoleon III.
He was born in ...
- 5,850
55
votes
Accepted
How common were marital duels in medieval Europe?
Not that common.
Very curiously, we do not see husband and wife, necessarily, in these pictures. Talhoffer only writes of man ("er") and woman ("frow"). (More illustrations, with ...
- 80.7k
53
votes
Why was the Scout movement so successful?
Baden-Powell had been besieged in the town of Mafeking during the Second Boer War. He had formed the Mafeking Cadet Corps, which was a group of youths that supported the defending troops by carrying ...
- 77.2k
53
votes
What is the oldest European royal house?
In terms of continuously dateable genealogy, it is probably the Bagratids of Georgia, the current head of which is disputed between three branches.
The Georgian branch was founded by Adarnase in the ...
- 97.5k
51
votes
Accepted
Why did Europeans (and not people in other regions) dominate oceans?
Europeans had an incentive to explore the Atlantic because they were dependent on the trade routes which pass through Arab territory. The Arabs and other peoples living in the Middle East made a lot ...
- 633
47
votes
Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?
Well, it isn't exactly true that medieval scholars understood the world to be round. They were much, much more subtle in their thinking that that. You see, it was quite clear that the world couldn't ...
- 1,815
45
votes
Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
Because it was the participation of the British and French empires, beginning with Declarations of War against Germany on Sept. 3, 1939, that turned several isolated regional conflicts into a World ...
- 72.4k
43
votes
Accepted
Has there ever been an archbishop or bishop younger than the 16-year-old James of Nicosia?
I'd imagine that the youngest ever bishop would have to be Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, the second son of King George III.
Image source Wikimedia
Born on 16 August 1763, he was ...
- 77.2k
42
votes
Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
Chronicle of the Black Death
There is a chronicle from the British Library which I will link to. It was written at the cathedral priory of Rochester between 1314 and 1350, and deals with everyday life ...
- 3,142
42
votes
How literate were common people in Medieval Europe?
Here are some semi-random quotes. I do not have time to chase the references, but they are coming from a modern professional historian, not from a You-tube personality, so I'd take his numbers ...
- 6,225
39
votes
Accepted
Was a passport needed to travel between UK and France in 1972?
Piecing together various sources, it is clear that there was a no-passport agreement between the United Kingdom and France from 1961 until 1984 and that, even after the termination of this agreement, ...
- 108k
38
votes
What is the most number of times someone has become leader of a European country?
Aristide Briand was Prime Minister of France 6 non-contiguous times:
Jul. 24, 1909 - Mar 2, 1911
Jan 21, 1913 - Mar. 22, 1913
Oct. 29, 1915 - Mar. 20, 1917
Jan. 16, 1921 - Jan 15, 1922
Nov. 28, 1925 ...
- 72.4k
38
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Europeans before Gutenberg print with woodblocks?
First I would say that during the medieval period the demand for books was much lesser than after the books became comparatively cheap after Gutenberg. The key here is the expense a quickly worn out ...
- 80.7k
37
votes
Which was the last major war in which horse mounted cavalry actually participated in active fighting?
During World War II, the USSR used nearly 200,000 horses in active cavalry fighting.
The Russians' retention of large units of cavalry long after this ancient arm had been abandoned by other major ...
- 6,267
37
votes
Why are most of the world's oldest buildings in Europe and not in the Fertile Crescent?
If you look at the details of the oldest buildings on your list, all of them are built from fieldstone or minimally-shaped quarried stone. Further, the building materials were either found on-site or ...
- 8,688
37
votes
Accepted
What should I call bands of armed men in the Middle Ages?
As Carlos Martin has noted, these soldiers are men at arms. They might be armed with swords, bows or crossbows, spears, or other pole-arms (eg pikes or halberds) depending on precise period and ...
- 72.4k
35
votes
What's the meaning of a knight fighting a snail in medieval book illustrations?
This is an example of decorative marginalia, which is quite common on medieval manuscripts. Sometimes the marginalia relates to the context of the subject of that page of the manuscript, but often it ...
- 77.2k
35
votes
How did the Druids learn the Greek language by the time of Caesar's campaign in Gaul?
They most probably got that knowledge from cultural exchange with the greek city-states from southern France, like Massilia (Marseille), which was founded around 600 BCE and had plenty of relations ...
- 484
34
votes
Did Muslim states hire Western European knights as mercenaries before the Crusades?
Yes, there were -- and vice versa. There were European (Christian knights) operating as mercenaries for Muslim rulers as well as Muslim knights/mercenaries in Christian courts.
Farfanes - Christian ...
- 6,281
33
votes
Why did the Merovingians and Pippinids adopt Christianity so fervently?
Colin McEvedy argued in his Penguin Atlas of Medieval History that conversion was a good political move for the Franks.
The thing you have to realize about France is that even though it was ...
- 121k
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