I understand that travel from Spain to the American territories was tightly controlled, was movement between the Viceroyalties similarly controlled?

I just thought about it and wondered where these all went after segregation ended. Wouldn't we see an extra set of bathrooms everywhere?

In Southeast Canada (around Toronto) mosquitoes are a huge issue in spring. Everybody knows that it is not a good idea to go hiking in late May until perhaps mid-July because of the insects (mostly mosquitoes, also black flies).

How did First Nations protect themselves against mosquitoes? The forests were definitely inhabited, and they did not migrate out in winter.

Not that each civilization didn't have their own measurement system, but to build something as massive as Notre Dame or Angkorian, how did the architects convey the proper measurements for both during construction and material gathering?

I am not certain if this question is allowed or if this the proper subreddit to ask, but I figure the historians here would have the best knowledge on what are the best books for the question.

I’m thinking especially after the introduction of gunpowder. Something like the Napoleonic wars must have had more than a million armed men fighting at one time. Where did the guns come from?

Were there quasi-factories set up? If not, was each gun created by a craftsman? That seems very inconsistent. Obviously though this question is general enough that it can apply to any era, it’s something that’s always bothered me.

I was watching a movie and I saw Japanese goverment banned samurais when is that happened and why ?

I spent the last hour searching for an answer to this. The only thing that I found is about Haijin. Which seem like it wasn't even enforced?

My high school teacher advocated for free trade because of this fact

I have a running fascination with the Ancient Near East, especially Babylon and Persia. I have a decent familiarity with the contents of the Hebrew Bible and the Code of Hammurabi, etc. But I still don't really understand how each major society viewed itself in contrast to its neighbors or how the bureaucracies worked below the level of satrap.

What can I read to get a sense of daily life and major social frictions? What were the taboos and prejudices? Who were the great thinkers, akin to Israel's prophets or Greece's philosophers, who tugged at the heart-strings of the societies? How did the legal system actually function, etc. You get the idea.

I listened to the Great Courses material on Ancient Persia. Like a lot of their stuff, it was like bits of a Masters level course dumbed down to about an 8th grade level. It was nice for what it was, but I'd like to understand more.

I've been seeing this circulating a lot amongst the Muslim community. I've tried to find credible source through use of Google but I couldn't find much that said Mehmet II purchased Hagia Sophia with his own money.

I checked Wikipedia although it's not the most reliable but even that has no statements saying it was purchased. The only thing I'm getting is that when Ottomans conquered the land, it was heavily looted.

Could someone explain? Thank you.

Edit: Why am I being down voted for asking a question?

Isn’t that basically a death sentence without a fair trial?

I'm interested primarily in policies and practices related to land use, migration from within and outside of the Ottoman Empire, economic activity, and local self-governance. I'm interested in the relationship of the local population in Palestine to their imperial rulers in Constantinople, as well.

Hi r/AskHistorians, first, I searched but I didn't have a conclusive answer to my question.

If there was a pie chart for the reasons for the Crusades, what were all the major reasons and how does that break down?

In school we were just told that it was about "taking back the Holy Land", Christianity vs Islam and not much else. In retrospect it sounds like a huge effort to initiate a war effort all the way from Europe towards Jerusalem just for..."religious reason". There weren't any mentions of (guessing) natural resources of the area, or fear of invasion INTO Europe etc.

I couldn't help but notice that both the Ancient Spartans and the medieval Normans held territory of roughly 3,000 square miles in area (Normandy is roughly 50 miles by 80 miles, and the southern half of the Peloponnesian peninsula- Lacodaemon at its greatest extent- is roughly 60 miles by 50 miles), and yet the muster of Normandy at Hastings and the Assembly of the Spartiates were both armies roughly 5-10,000 strong.

In both cases, the average is approximately 2.5 soldiers per square mile. Based on research I've done, the average size of a Knight's Fee (the land a Knight owned to financially support his military adventures) was roughly 10 Hides (or 1200 acres, or basically 2 square miles) of land per Knight (believable considering that, since less than a third of the Norman army at Hastings was cavalry, 2,000-3,000 Knights could be supported by 4,000 square miles), but prior discussions on r/worldbuilding suggested that Men-At-Arms/Yeomen/foot-soldiers would have a similar amount of land needed to support them. I know that the Spartiates were also given shares of land (worked by Helots) to financially support them, but 256 acres per Spartiate (based on the aforementioned average of 2.5 soldiers per square mile) seems a bit small.

Are my calculations for soldiers per square mile off? Is it realistic to raise an army of 5,000-10,000 men on 3,000 to 4,000 square miles of land?

Hello historians,

I went upon a reddit clickspree and stumbled upon a subreddit that is 'dedicated to historical and other LGBTQ erasure from academia and other spaces'. In it a post claims that Gilgamash had a gay relationship with Enkidu. Now, I know little of Sumerian mythology. But I never read Enkidu like that. Anyway, they claim puritan western cis (?) historians interpreted the mythology in a homophobic manner. I don't know much about Sumerian history but other posts seemed quite far fetched. So I thought let's ask AskHistorians!

Was Gilgamesh gay with Enkidu? Has there been a 'straightwashing' of Sumerian mythology? Or is something else going on?

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Edit: a lot of people are pm'ing asking about the subreddit's name. I'm not interested in people flooding another sub.

I've seen many news and opinions articles addressing this topic, but there is always the debate about bias and ideological preference. Considering how controversial this issue is in Spain and Catalonia, I would like to understand why some people claim it was, whilst other people claim it has always been part of Spain.

I’m doing this project about China’s history and I’m curious to know what lead them becoming an independent Republic and what lead to the end of the dynasty. Did it have anything to do with Nationalism or imperialism? I would also love to have sources for this so I can link it in my script

Hi all,

I am currently working on a screenplay in which a 26 year old man, born in rural Texas to parents that never filed a birth certificate, enlists in the military, hoping to serve in the Vietnam War. It is integral to several plot points that he was born without documentation; the few records he accumulated are misc. school records (although that requires a BC now too; it’s a sort of small-town one room schoolhouse/“sure, drive a car wherever, kid” kinda place)

I have been researching the requirements for enlisting in the military—several forms of govt ID are needed in our present-day, including a BC, but I cannot figure out what you needed then.

The process for filing for a Delayed Birth Certificate, which you'd do if your parents never filed upon your birth (far less common now), is also very different, by state and (I assume) year. All of the documentation you need today—ex. parent’s birth certificates—this guy would not have.

TL;DR: Guy in bumfuck rural Texas in 1965 was born with no birth certificate and now wants to join the military. What would he have to do, legal paperwork-wise?