I heard they 100% knew and it was all staged to drag USA into the war.

Because you know, "War is a Racket".

Was there a sea route connecting the Mediterranean to the red sea before the cannal was built? I did not quite understand how the ships passed through Africa.

How did medieval peasants read the Bible? I heard something on the lines of the churches used the statues of demons on top of churches to scare people of what awaits them if they sin, but could peasants themselfs purchase a Bible? If so how much was it?

I am archiving and translating postcards sent to my great grandmother Dorothy by her cousin Efim from 1908 to 1910. I noticed a curious thing. The date hand written by Efim on the card sent to Dorothy, is always AFTER the date of the mail service stamp. Was it common for postcards to be pre-paid, stamped with a date and THEN composed to the intended receiver and dated by the author? Or am I missing something? How could a postcard be stamped by the mail service/post office BEFORE it's been written out?

Most countries have longer official names (eg, Principality of Andorra, Commonwealth of Australia, or Argentine Republic). Japan is... just Japan (in English, at least). How'd they end up with such a short name?

(My gut tells me that it has something to do with the US occupation but my gut is very often wrong.)

I'm aware that there are other states with such straightforward official names - Canada, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Malaysia, to name a few - but it seems that there are at most about a dozen. I'm also curious about those countries, if there's an interesting story.

The two contemporary dynasties ruled neighbouring kingdoms and had extremely similar names. According to CKIII the Georgian dynasty is a branch of the Armenian one, but according to my friend from Georgia that's not particularly accurate.

Oftentimes nowadays, especially on social media sites, almost anytime two or more people disagree on a subject, generally political in nature, one of those parties compares those they disagree with to Hitler and the Nazis, with the intention of saying that they and their beliefs are pure evil.

My question is, who did people compare their political or conversational opponents to before Hitler became the monster that history remembers him to be?

I was trying to theorise in my head what would happen if a WW3 broke out to me personally. I work for a huge global company and I regularly work with offices in north America and Asia even though I'm based elsewhere, what if our countries went to war, how would we interact as a company, would business cease etc So I was wondering if there are any examples from history at all or i guess there just weren't huge corporations back then like there are now?

First hand accounts are ok, but I have a bit of a time following ole' English translations, so a historical recollection is probably favorable or something that's been reformatted for a modern reader. Just curious about life and culture of a sailor during this period- the more detailed the better. What they ate (even the details like how they stored, prepared what they ate), how they sailed, what they sailed, etc etc. In fact the more mundane details are just as interesting as the big picture stuff. Appreciate your thoughts.

So, I'm reading the eagle series by Simon Scarrow, and the main character describes rat droppings as "rice-sized turds". The character is of equestrian class and a prefect in the roman military, and has been to some fancy dinners, but as i recall rice was never described in the books, exept from this one reference. Would it be plausible for him to know what rice is? Did rice play any role in roman quisine in 50 ad? I'm really curious about this for some reason..

Growing up in America I was taught there were folks in Australia previous to the English going there to stay in the 1780s, but that's about it. What was their society like immediately prior to colonists arrival? Before European contact? Did they encounter English violence in the same capacity that the Native Americans encountered American violence? What is their status today as a result? Do they have "reservations" or hold citizenship?

Basically what I'm asking for is to teach me about the aboriginal side of Australia's colonization, please and thank you.

A simple google search for the "last king to die in battle", says (bbc uk)," The last king to die on the battlefield in Britain was King James IV of Scotland at Flodden 500 years ago." That was a long time ago.

I understand that britain does not represent the entire world and it is not black and white, but there has to be a shift in the trend i.e., majority of kings where not leading from the frontlines.

Which raises the question why did this trend start ?

A bit of background to clarify where I am coming from:

I am pursuing the hypothesis that ,"this shift (if true) was a major factor in shaping our recent past and current politics". As in, I feel( yes ,"feelings" , not a way to frame/prove hypothesis),that the leaders went from "what can i do for my people(or tribe) " to "what the people can do for me?"

I somehow feel(again,"feelings") ,kings leading in battle and their relationship with the subjects are proportional(?).

I shouldn't be forming hypotheses of any kind without sufficient data to back it up. This entire premise might be completely wrong and kings/politics might have never worked this way. I am sorry if I am completely coming off as an idiot( i am an engineer never took history/politics seriously).

It would be great if you guys shed some light on this. Any literature(I am comfortable in reading academic literature) would be helpful.

Thanks

Also, since the US had been part of the British colonies, were early rules about who was or wasn't a natural-born US citizen laxer for those born in Britain and it's colonies than, say, for someone born in France or the Holy Roman Empire?

During 100-200 AD Rome had a relative stability. No major wars. Relative internal stability. Still a competive system were able men could make a career (not like the republican times of course) and ambition were premiered. A tax system that worked and created a surplus. Great engineers and builders.

My thoughts:

-A horrendous school system (who neglected natural sciences, mathematics etc...)

-Too many slaves (even though the influx of slaves most have diminished during this time)

-Religious beliefs (which we don´t understand? Maybe like the egyptian traditionalism and conformism?)

- A centralised system that not premiered innovation?

Your thoughts?

I was discussing this in a recent thread about the Charles Bridge in Prague, and I realized everyone was just making completely unfounded claims on both sides. Some people seemed to think that basically everything was done by hand and something like a treadmill crane was the extreme exception, others agreed that the labor savings was significant enough to justify these devices.

I'm curious to know whether, before the modern age use of kerosene, gasoline, etc., was crude oil was ever struck in mining or digging efforts?

If it was, is there any record about what the people of antiquity thought of it?

I put “Byzantine” in quotes because it’s a term coined in modern times, no “Byzantine” person ever called themselves that.

They spoke Greek and were mostly located in historical Greek lands in Anatolia and the Balkans so I assume they realized that they descended from Greeks and not Romans. So did the Greek-speaking Orthodox Christian people of the Eastern Roman Empire think they were descended from both peoples genealogically, OR did they think they were just Greeks with Roman culture, OR did they literally think they were of Roman (i.e. Italian) descent?

Note: I once read a long while back that the so-called “Byzantines” called themselves “Romioi” (Roman), and only used the name “Hellenoi” (Greek) for pagans and heretics.

In 1582 the pope Gregory the 13th introduced the gregorian calander before that we used the Julian calander in the west but it had drifted about 10 days. I was wondering when reading a date in an article does that take this drift into account? And before that the drift of the roman and Greek calanders?