Apparently there were about 100 or so Old English words of Latin origin, presumably as a result of the Roman conquest of Britain, but did the British natives ever speak Latin semi-fluently, or was virtually no native Briton able to speak it at all?

Bit of a tangential point too, but the movie depicts bodyguards (or some type of security detail) wearing japanese kimonos and swords in the 30's. Would that be standard during this period?

History as taught where I live, says Brazil only joined WW1 because Germany attacked random civilian boats, not only hitting them with torpedos, but shooting survivors on the water too.

1. Is this true?

2. What was the point of it? What the german military hoped to achieve doing that?

When was the last time the US occupied an american city with federal troops? Lets not really count FEMA, but troops there to get control of territory through force.

Places I can think of, maybe waco? Reconstruction obviously back in the 1870s, but I'm sure I'm missing many.

Thanks!

And was these a sense of an ancient order of things being lost, and a longing for the glory days, as one sees so often in fantasy fiction?

I've always had this question in the back of mind so I'm hoping someone has something interesting to share :).

Whenever I imagine from 500 AD to around 1200 AD it's like a complete void. I have never heard of anything significant or even interesting during this 700 year period. I'm sure there's a lot but I don't even know what to look for! I understand this is a little before written records were able to be preserved until today but I don't see how the Romans and Greeks can leave so much behind and then there's this dark period where it's almost like it didn't exist. There's so many generations in 700 years, there has to be something! What's the most interesting thing you know for this time period?

I've seen in pictures, paintings and films, but never really understood why. Is there a specific reason for it, or more like an idea?

For example a British soldier serving from 1914 to the end of the war in 1918.

I've been on and off reading through the books on prehistory for the last couple of years, and now I want to somehow structure further reading. The goal is to get a good grasp on european/middle east history starting with invention of agriculture and up to around 500BC (for now), and also whatever epic literature is available. Here's what I've come up with, please help me fill out the blanks, suggest additional resources and/or better alternatives.

What I've read already:

• Mithen "After the ice"
• Mallory "In search of indo-europeans"
• Cunliffe "By steppe, desert and sea"
• Anthony "The horse, the wheel and the languagy"

The plan for futher reading:

Anatolia

• Hodder "The Leopard's tale" (damn this book is expensive)
• Something about Hittites, Phrygians, Troy etc is in order here
• Cline "1177BC" maybe?

Europe

• Cunilffe "Europe Between the Oceans"
• Manco "Ancestral Journeys"

Mesopotamia

• Crawford "Sumer and Sumerians"
• Van De Mieroop "A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 BC"
• Anything on religion?
• Gilgamesh

Canaan

• Mario Liverani "Israel's History and the History of Israel"
• Old Testament + Dore's illustrations (Should I just buy a bible? Which one?)

Egypt

• Shaw "The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt"
• Some good Egyptian religion book?

Greece

• Martin "Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times"
• Iliad, Odyssey, Hesiod

Italy

• Something about the pre-Roman times, and Roman kings must go here.

India

• Rig Veda
• Anything good on early Indian history? Indus valley civilization and coming of Indo-Europeans?

Is there any evidence that would suggest a civilization could have or did exist prior to the Sumerians in Mesopotamia? If so, would they have existed in the same region, or somewhere else entirely?

The most famous WW2 american tank is no doubt the light M4 Sherman tank. This tank is famously very cheap and fragile, the americans pretty much went for a “quantity over quality” stragety. On the other hand the germans were famous for their Tiger tank which took the complete opisite aproch, to the Sherman. In that it went for quality over quantity they were robust and strong and they clearly outmatched the american tanks everytime they would meet.

So my question is, did the americans or any other allied forces in the west european theater ever produce a bigger and better tank that had a chance at going toe to toe with the german Tiger tank?

Thanks in advance.

Did loyalists have any significant political representation? Were there efforts to alter the national trajectory in favor of loyalist goals?

I've heard of Creole communities in Louisianna, but I've heard there were other types in other states. Did they even bother staying? I can imagine it must've been a very very awkward place to live.

Since all land isn't created equal, we'll say 150 arable, 100 pasture, and the remainder buildings, forest, or swamp.

I heard somewhere that young girls were simply given a family name and numbered to distinguish from each other. Is there any truth to this? Didn't it get confusing? Was this common in other cultures?

I noticed Cicero's daughter is referred to as Tullia, which is his clan(?) name.

lately i ve been fascinated with the mongols and how they managed to extend their influence in 11th and 12 th centuries from korea to hungary. what made their armies nearly invincible and how did they manage adminstrate their large diverse lands ?

I recently had a discussion with my roommate about the justification of collateral damage and he claimed that the bombardment of german cities like Dresden were irrelevant to the outcome of the second world war. I claimed that the german population served as the backbone of the Wehrmacht and that it was therefore justified to bomb big cities. Not necessarily to target the population but to destroy their infrastructure, break their will and disrupt their support for the frontline.