Before prohibition, distilleries were perfectly legal business' and operated legally. When the American government passed prohibition law did they pay distilleries anything due to their industry now being illegal and essentially forcing their shutdown.

If we know of Troy and the Trojan War from Homer’s Iliad, and he calls it Ilios (or Ilion, Illium, Wilusa), then why do we primarily call it Troy? Where did that name come from and why has it become the one everyone knows?

Is there any support at all among historians the idea that Columbus newest arguments about the size of the Earth were wrong but that he made them anyway hoping he could still sail across the Atlantic?

The math involved is not that complicated and considering he spent years trying to get support for the voyage, as an experienced sailor and navigator you would think he'd be able to manage the math involved.

This question has been really bugging me for a while now and I decided to just put it up here. I have recently gotten really interested in Feudal Japan and the Sengoku Era. I had always loved Medieval European history and that love grew after I watched Game of Thrones, believe it or not. I began researching more European history before I found the Sengoku Jidai. The period immediately intrigued me because it is something that I never really encountered when looking at Europe and, in my opinion, more closely resembles politics in Game of Thrones than Europe does.

My issue with the hierarchy in this time period is it seems there wasn’t really any. You have your daimyo and then there are just vassals and samurai. Were they all just referred to as “lord”? How was land divided up amongst nobles and how were these nobles differentiated from each other? These are just a couple questions that I seek answers to.

Thank You

Additionally, what did the world make of John Adams taking power?

Tibet was annexed 1950-1951, in the same time period as the Korean War and just before the Vietnam War, both of which were wars aimed at restricting the flow of communism. It's probably comparing apples to oranges given that Korea and Vietnam were more focused at stemming the spread of communism as an ideology, but China's invasion was an expansion of communism in a more literal, imperial way. How come the West didn't go to war over this? Given Tibet was a very traditional, insular society, was it considered less strategically important for the West to fight for? Or was it a watershed for action being taken in Korea and Vietnam?

The caliphates under the Islamic Golden Age was known for its prosperity and innovation in math, science, economy, philosophy, and the arts. It was also known for its tolerance towards other minorities such as religion, women, etc. Does the same apply to homosexuality? Many Muslim countries nowadays (except some like Turkey) aren't exactly LGBT-friendly, with criminal charges applied (as a Muslim, I find it very wrong on how they're poorly treated). However, the Ottoman Empire decriminalized homosexuality long before many European nations did the same.

I’m curious if this is an assumption or if there is any hard evidence supporting this. To my knowledge, there have been no human remains of any sort (mummified or otherwise) found within the pyramids. Additionally, there have been no hieroglyphs found decorating the walls, a common practice in 100% confirmed tombs. Thanks!

Also if anyone could answer these questions it would be much appreciated: Around how many crew mates where on each ship? How much on average where crew mates payed? How much cargo would a 1600 ton carrack carry? What was the effect of the different sail types?

I thought before the invention of sealed devices that allow for light to filter in such as these, the salty air quality and lack of fresh water that was available on long sea voyages prevented the reliable transportation of live flora between continents. "For All The Tea In China" by Sarah Rose seems to make the point that it was virtually impossible before the invention of such devices. If that was the case, how were early colonialists able to transport tomato plants, potatoes, tobacco, etc back to Europe without them dying?

Hey guys, newbie post, I'm a history major with a focus on Japanese history and I'm currently working on a paper that's trying to guage what changes occurred in the tactics of the samurai as a response to the initial Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274. Then how these altered tactics may have been used to successfully repel the second invasion of 1281, any suggestions for books? I'm currently reading "In Little Need of Divine Intervention" by Thomas Conlan and have tried searching for journal articles on jstor.org but that yielded few results. Suggestions even on just a good search term would be welcome! Thank you all!

I know that there's a lot that we don't know this far back, but how likely is it that this story that Lao Lzu was one of Siddartha Gautama's (the Buddha) tutors is true? Thanks!

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm curious about the amount of sovereignty and or independence Slavic women may have had among these cultures during the pre Christian period. Any suggestions to books and or studies is also appreciated, regardless of how broad they are.

I've heard before that younger women during this time were capable of exercising more independence than they would have in the more Christianized periods to follow.

Curious to learn as much about their 'life' as possible.

I was wondering how liberally this term was applied to a very old institution. Today, libraries are a place with a very low bar of entry. Most libraries you can enter and read without even registering, and you can take books out for free after you do.

Were there standards that needed to be met in order to enter and study? Could you “check out” materials? How do we know that it didn’t operate more like an aggressively curated bookstore?

Thank you! I’m looking forward to hearing what you all know.

There is currently no solid proof that Roman soldiers in any era were paid in salt, but a huge amount of people seem to treat it as fact and often will associate it with the saying "worth their salt".

When did this myth start perpetuating and how has it reached the levels of pervasiveness it currently has in the modern day?

Throughout feudal history it seems like there are a lot of conflicts where feudal figures go to war, lots of peasants die, and sometimes more or less the feudal status quo remains, maybe even no change in feudal leadership / goal's accomplished or etc.

I'm sure this is influenced by my modern sensibilities but this seems like a pretty raw deal for the peasants to the extent that I wonder how you motivate peasants to go kill other neighboring peasants only to return home to ... still be a peasants.

Were they rewarded financially for this risk? Provided more land to farm / displaced other peasants if they were victorious?

Was it often simply a case of being required by your local lord and fear of punishment if you didn't comply?

I understand this is a topic that asks about the mindset of people whose mindset we don't know much about (peasants) and the time frame might be wide ranging here, simply using 'feudal' (seems to be a vague term) but I'd be open to any answers or theories on this topic from any time frame. It would be understandable that different situations and time periods might involve different answers.