I am always curious where original copies of historical documents are kept, and if they are kept intact, are they sealed or does the public have access to them at some level (e-copy?).

I was doing some research on my ancestors and they’re all pretty conventional pre-colonial settlers. They left England in the 1600s and lived in Virgina and Maryland until some of them moved west to Kentucky in the late 1700s.

One ancestor stuck out to me because he was born in Era, Texas in 1710. It looks like he lived there until he was 19

I’m really curious as to what would have brought his parents out to this area of the world at that time. From my understanding this area was still part of Mexico, and I know that the southern United States was being colonized by the French and Spanish, so I imagine trade and travel were going on, but I know very little beyond that.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm currently reading The Phoenicians and the West: Politics, Colonies and Trade by María Eugenia Aubet. She talks about how it was common practice for states like Tyre and Assyria to sponsor merchants (tamkarum) on trading expeditions, who were drawn from members of the upper class. In contrast, Greek merchants (naukleros) in this period usually came from the lower classes.

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Is it true the idea of a "merchant middle class" was a later development, and did not exist in the ancient Mediterranean?

The quote in question:

• “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

As a background of what I can find, this was said by Erhlichman to Dan Baum in 1994 for one of his book. The book released in 96 did not have the quote because it didn't fit the narrative style.

Fast forward to 2016, and Ehrlichman is now long dead, died in 1999. Dan Baum comes out and reveals this quote in 2016 from Ehrlichman and his family have denied that he said the quote.

Is there a historical consensus regarding whether this quote is true or not? Various articles, documentaries and politicians continually use this quote as evidence that the drug war was intentionally racist.

Recently in 2015 Spain issued the law 12 of 2015 in which they try to amend the horrors of the Inquisition and the wrong doings they did against the Sephardic Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal also issued a law in the same matter. As a descendant of former Jews expelled from Spain I did a lot of research of my ancestors whom were forced to leave Spain but also convert, changing their names, last names and even pretending to be catholic, but it is also appointed in some bibliography that they were in secret still practicing the Jewish traditions. Being so far from any Tribunal of the Holly Inquisition, I wonder why there are no relevant Sephardic speaking and Jewish communities in Latin America where a significant number of them were expelled.

As a side note, I have evidence that goes as far as to 1520’s in which fake Catholics came to the Americas, but even in those times they were speaking Castilian and following catholic traditions. Is there a specific reason why the language couldn’t be preserved in the Americas, but it could be preserved in places such as Turkey?

Finally, excuse my English as I said I am a native Spanish speaker and also I am glad to share any source of my research, although all of them are local and not available outside my region, and obviously are in Spanish.

Im seeing a lot of new videos of beethoven beeing black or of north african heritige. I know history has whitewashed many people, but beethoven seems odd due to living in german lands. So was he black, arab or white?

Hello, I am doing a project on the Iran coup in 1953, but I am having trouble aqquiring sources, is there any good book with an accurate summary of the events? Doesn't have to be a book can be anything from documentary to essays.

I know this is mostly a genealogy question, but I'm curious if ethnicities have maintained records to claim descendants alive today from people mentioned from the major religions? I know there are only a few cultures who have maintained records for even a few centuries back, many European, but would it be possible for people today to trace their lineage back to people from religious texts?

In the United States, we have this idea of westward expansion, across the Great Plains into the territory stolen from Native American peoples and won or purchased from European powers. Did Canada have this same idea of a western frontier and westward expansion? Did they have an "old West" up north? Or was the idea of the borderland fundamentally different?

My understanding is that the main reason that the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 was they thought the US was trying to start an Islamic jihad against communism there in order to spread it into the muslim areas of the USSR. Of course, the US did support the Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan after the Soviets invaded, but how involved was the US before the Soviets invaded?

I read A People's History of the United States in high school and recently looked it up again. I found quite a few articles which accused the book of being biased, but they didn't seem very rigorous. I was wondering what actual historians think of it, what critiques there are of it, and what the book might be leaving out.

Thanks!

I often hear that China is the oldest civilization in the world. Ive heard it is the only existing surviving civilization from ancient times. 3500 years of written history and at least 3500 of unrecorded history before that!

I’ve tried to find the answer to the above question and it generally is something like “we can consider China the same civilization as it was 1000s of years ago because it maintained cultural identity” but surely there are multiple civilizations that have achieved this? What about when China was conquered by the mongols? What defines an ongoing civilization through government changes, being conquered, border changes, etc...?

Thanks for your time

The Ottoman Empire stretched from Austria to North Africa to Crimeea at it's greatest extent, but Wallachia and Moldavia were only subjects.

To specify I mean pre 1815 firearms.

Hi, after reading the very short info about him on wiki it sounds like he must have survived and ran back to Italy eventually? Are there any more info about him and what happen to him after he escaped or does the trail completely end there? Who said that he escaped from the sultans soldiers? Is there more info in Italian or Latin?

I have always been interested in World War 1 especially for what life was like for soldiers in the trenches. I have done a lot of research about what a daily routine was like for a soldier in the trenches typically. But I have a hard time finding information about what is what like during a massive battle like the battle of the Somme. Were battles like this just constantly attack and counter attack having men go over the top en-mass everyday? How long did units spend in the trenches during heavy combat? How did a battle like this differ from the static warfare that was always going on? Did troops go over the top en-mass at times besides massive operations like the Somme or Verdun, if so why? Any memoirs or books that especially focus on life in the trenches that you could recommend would be welcome! Thank you!

Javelins was a predominant weapon used by many European and Mediterranean empires such as the Romans and Carthage, why did it stop in the Medieval period? Did it become less effective as technology grow?

If we were a republic from the start, how and why did we change? And is it true most prominent figures like Ben Franklin advised against splitting into parties?

So I was reading the wiki page of Louis XIV and came across this piece in the section of his early life:

" Louis' relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time. Contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is highly likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis' journal entries, such as:"

Why was this uncommon?