Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, Columbus was celebrated as a hero in school, heralded for being the one who “discovered” the America’s. Now he’s remembered as the one who started the genocide of an entire continent. That transition in popular opinion only took about 25-30 years. Was he merely an explorer who served as a catalyst in something that would happen eventually anyway (the Americas being settled by Europeans). Was he a savage conquerer? What kind of man was he?

Me and my daughter have been watching Mulan quite a bit, and so I've been thinking a lot about Mulans father. He is a quite famous soldier (Li Shang knew him by name) but he was injured, presumably in a previous conflict. If that's so, modern sensibilities would reason he would be exempt from future conscription given his record of service and injury. So my question is this: In the era of China that mulan is set in (sometime recently after the great Wall was built since shan yu says he feels it was built as a challenge to him I'm assuming it was finished relatively recently) would there have been any provision for retired/injured soldiers to be exempt from conscription?

Sorry to come to Reddit for this but please help me settle a disagreement between my wife and I:

She is stating that there was a time, probably during the Middle Ages but she isn't sure, when everyone thought the Earth was flat. This was until a scientist discovered that the Earth was round and he was considered a heretic, ect. (I know this treatment happened to Copernicus and Galileo with Aristotelianism vs a helio-centric solar system, but my wife is making a different point).

I am saying that the idea of "everyone thought the Earth was flat" has been widely discredited by historians and was not the case. Ancient Greeks could accurately estimate the circumference of the Earth by using maths, looking at shadows shadows and the position of the sun. In addition, Babylonians and eastern cultures were well into astrology/astronomy and could track movements of starts accurately as well as understand the elliptical movements of planets and stars.

So was there ever really a period when "everyone" thought the earth was flat? Of course I can acknowledge that at those times probably most human beings were otherwise occupied by their miserable lives and didn't even consider the shape of the earth, so everyone could be "everyone considering the shape of the Earth."

Thanks!

I know the various monarchs & princesses and whatnot were nominally in total command of the military, but how many of them actually were officers and whatnot serving in the armed forces? Were dukes & whatnot actually going to see battle, or was it all cushy general staff positions?

It's something I've heard here and there from history teachers growing up. I know it has to do with him not really doing anything to quell the tensions leading to the civil war, which I think started immediately when Lincoln took office iirc.

I'd like to get a better picture of his ideology and mainly his intent: was he just a doofus who didn't realize how imminent a civil war was? Is there some political or financial gain he expected to result from his inaction?

Disclaimer: I will be comparing the responses here to a more recent presidency that is not at least 20 years old. I just want to be up front that this question is not asked in the purest of faiths.

To my understanding, the Rus from Sweden, Berserkir and ulfhednar from Norway, Danes from Denmark were never united and sometimes had truces. I'd like to know if possible where each the special groups of the Norsemen raided and generally who they traded with whether it be Asia or the middle east. If there is not enough information for the 11th century then I'd just like to know where they attacked excluding the wars between the 8th century to the 11th century.

Did they face any sort of punishment, or pressure to become a democracy? Or was Franco seen as a loyal cold war ally?

I ended up being inadvertently reminded of this topic while reading about early Ottoman history and the surrender of Gallipoli by the Byzantines. I've had a look at the previous answers to questions and they all seem to discuss the operational and strategical failures from the British side. But the Ottomans fended off invading troops who possessed an enormous numerical advantage, causing massive casualties, albeit at great costs to their own ranks, and this can hardly be understood entirely in terms of incompetence on behalf of the invaders.

Later on in his life he would probably been any to speak some kind of German given that he liked Aachen but what language would he have used as a child?

So I posted the below question a couple of years ago but didn't receive any response. Since some time has passed I thought a fresh attempt at answering this was due, if someone can lend their expertise.

Whilst briefly studying Constantine at the end of a module on the Roman Empire, it struck me that he had a pagan past and that this was partly replicated in Constantinople. When he embellished Constantinople he was a 'Christian' emperor (I put it in '' because he was not baptised until his death bed), but despite sources like Eusebius proclaiming nothing but his Christian deeds, others and the remaining archaeological evidence, such as the moving of items to Constantinople i.e. the Serpent Column and its subsequent embellishment, seem to suggest that whilst Christian, Constantine was still influenced by his pagan past. Thus, I am left to wonder whether his approach has had any lasting impact on not just Catholicism but Christianity as a whole?

One tenet of Communism is the abolishment of money (among other things). Marx suggested a system of Labor Vouchers to replace money after a socialist structure had been established. Supposedly Labor Voucher systems existed to some extent in the agricultural communes of Maoist China but information on this is hard to find. Ricardian Socialists such as the Owenites attempted to establish labor voucher systems in the 19th century, but these were only limited to small communities or exchanges such as The National Equitable Labour Exchange (not Modern States per se). As far as I have been able to find out, Democratic Kampuchea was the only Modern State to have abolished money. Is this true or was it tried in other states as well?

Were they mostly motivated by ethnic resentment of the Manchu Qing? how widespread was the religious belief in their leader being the brother of christ? to my knowledge christianity was not that widespread in China by the 1850s.

In the Early Middle Ages, it was common for family members to murder each other to secure power but by the end of the Early Modern Period, it seems to have become less frequent.

Whenever I look for primary sources or archival evidence about the CIA on the Internet (specifically in the context of the Cold War), it is quite easy to get it and there are lots of documents available. However, doing the same with the KGB, I find it much more complex, with much less information available.

This is why, I have the impression that there is much less archival evidence and primary sources about the KGB than there is from the CIA.

Is this impression correct? Are there more CIA files and sources than there are from the KGB?

My understanding of events may be entirely wrong, so in that case feel free to correct me.

In 57BCE Clodius brought street gangs and gladiators into the public assembly to stop the unbanishing of Cicero. It is my understanding that a massacre followed with several tribunes being injured.

It is also my understanding, that this act is extremely illegal in many ways (aside from it being a massacre) such as there being many illegal weapons inside the Pomerium and violence against tribunes.

This seems to me like an incredibly dire situation so my question is why didn't the senate:

A) Charge Clodius. (I understand that the he had allies in Caesar and Crassus, and maybe there was plausible deniability, so this point is less important)

B) Invoke Senatus consultum ultimum, to destroy the gangs.

C) Do anything except rely on Milo to face the gangs with his own gangs on his own initiative.

Also how did Clodius get away with everything?

Thanks!