Has there every been an effort redraw the borders of African nation's to get rid of the influence of colonial powers. From what I was always understood and was taught, colonial powers in Africa generally made borders that suited their own needs, rather than take heed of any existing national or tribal borders at the time. Has there been any effort to redraw the borders to address this issue?

Reading a book (“The First World War”, Martin Gilbert) about WWI and am beginning to appreciate how, a) immensely devastating the war was before the United States committed forces in significant numbers (relative to European powers), and, b) how limited their participation was for as long as 18 months even after declaring war on Germany. Wouldn’t it have been prudent to slowly escalate military capacity between 1914-1917, just as a precaution for if the day came when that military was needed? Was it naïveté, pacifism, US politics, all of those or something else?

I mean, obviously neither is talked about nearly as much as Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany, but I literally know Salazar's name and that's it! I can at least find books and memoirs on life and politics in Franco's Spain, but nothing about Salazar's Portugal.

So everyone knows Switzerland was neutral and didnt get involved in WW2. Which means that they didn't support the allies.

This also means that Switzerland also didnt support the Nazi empire. So my question is why didnt Hitler just steamroll through Switzerland anyway and conquer it like he did the rest of Europe?

I’m just thinking about all of the photos we’ve seen of lynchings. These were often large crowds with people of all age groups who made no attempts to disguise themselves. Were lynchings simply not prosecuted? How were people able to participate in a hanging without fear of incarceration? I know that there was tremendous racism at the time but a crime was still committed so did these lynchings go to trial and then get acquitted or was no one arrested at all? Where was the state in all of this and how were mass gatherings able to go on without law enforcement stopping it? Now, I know the simple answer is racism but I’d like to know more about how this happened for so long and if there has been a recent effort to go back and prosecute those who were part of those lynchings even though they are elderly now. Thanks!

I just recent became aware of him and some of his theories seem a bit out there. Was curious to see if he is either just a crazy guy who’s brain is fried or a legitimate researcher.

My great grandfathers Eisenhower jacket has a tan rank insignia? Any ideas?

I’ve been looking at pictures of various heraldries, surcoats the like of knights and footmen around the 100 years war for inspirational purposes. I noticed that quite a few of these show gold on the fabric. Golden lions on red and gold fleur de lis on blue, would they have been golden in colour ? Or is this artist impressions and they would have in fact been yellows?

Im trying to do research on the topic, but have only found information that doesnt *confirm* what was used. Like a manual for how to use the FN FAL in a museum dated 1960, this confirms that manuals were needed for it but not that the FN FAL was actually *the* standard issue firearm (though I do suspect it is that or the m16. maybe m1/2 carbine or m14 though I think thats unlikely?) it would be even better if someone can find jungle camouflage uniforms.

So, after line battles were beginning to become obsolete and before World War I became trench warfare, what was the common infantry tactics? Was it still a variation of line battles?

I have been trying to find an accurate representation of what regions in china were owned by Japan before and at the start of the second sino-japanese war. I have found some sources stating it was only manchuria that was occupied before the marco polo bridge incident (like i believed) however some sources state they owned land as inland as Beijing and half the chinese coast. Does anyone have accurate maps describing the progression of Japan's occupation of China?

The Roman “free grain” policy is a pretty well known form of welfare from back during the Roman Republic. My understanding of this policy is that it only applied to the citizens of Rome itself. Did the Roman Republic provide any form of support for the poor outside of Rome itself?

Did the allied forces have any plans on how to liberate France before the final D-Day plan or did they only start thinking about this later in the war?

What was it about India that was so important to the British that they guarded her so jealously against other European powers?

From what I've heard, ancient Greeks and Romans had been open about homosexuality but when exactly did things go wrong?