I don't mean to make any moral judgments on culture. Certainly Spain and Portugal have contributed greatly to the history and culture of the whole world, by why haven't they contributed as much on a cultural level? The languages that have garnered the most Nobel Prizes in literature are English, French, and German. There have been 11 Spanish winners and only 1 Portuguese. There have been 657 major French operas, 355 German, 682 in Italian and only 58 in Spanish and just 5 in Portuguese. Philosophy has been dominated by French and German, but even Dutch and English philosophers are more recognized. In numerous lists of composers considered the greatest not one is Spanish or Portuguese.

Within about 50 years of each other William, the Duke of Normandy, famously our maneuvered two competing armies to become King of England. A group of ambitious Norman Knights took Sicily for themselves. And during the First Crusade, a handful of (mostly French) Knights and lords installed themselves as independent monarchs of loosely affiliated states in the Levant. How did their liege lords, particularly the King of France, react to this? Was it considered a breach of the social or vassal contract?

I was watching old pearl harbour and world war 2 movies and documentaries and it seems like Japan attacked US army and navy bases while the US straight up attacked innocent citizens of the country. Just looking for confirmation on that or if I’m way off here

Hey!

So I was looking for info on the attitude towards Jewish soldiers/officers in Nazi Germany.

I know antisemitism is to be expected but on the other hand the army works mostly of brotherhood and status, I'm aware there were some high ranking and distinguished Jewish officers from WW1 but I can't imagine fellow soldiers just sending them to concentration camps.

I believe they were relieved from the army before 1939, but I doubt they got the same exact destiny as other civilian Jewish

Any lead will be appreciated, Thanks!

I often see in this sub the warning that this or that writer is an "orientalist" and it's clearly a bad tag. Why is it so?

Also, I guess there are different shades of Orientalism? After all, an orientalist deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphs and another one prompted modern linguistics with a simple, insightful observation.

Aren't many of them just a bit overenthusiastic Enlightened scholars?

I read recently that during the Mid Republic, it's likely that nearly every adult man in Roman Italy had seen military service, with as many as half experiencing a major battle. Given how deadly war is even without battles, it made me wonder what kind of losses Roman legions took from disease, hunger, exhaustion, etc. I'm most familiar with the Early Modern period, where 'wastage' could deprive an army of 2% of its strength every month. Perhaps a third of all Frenchmen enlisted during the 23 years of Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars died during their service.

Applying similar loss rates to the Mid Republic period, you see staggering death on a society-wide scale. For an army of 100,000, with men serving 3 year terms, 2% monthly losses during 6 months of campaigning per year gives you a 36% chance of dying during your active service. In the 33 years between the beginning of the First and ending of the Third Macedonian Wars,, more than a million Italians probably served in the Roman army; if 36% of them died, that's just under 400,000 dead, out of a population of less than five million.

Is there evidence that Roman armies suffered death on this scale outside of major battles, or were Roman rates of wastage and attrition lower than in later periods?

Did the Red Army value more bayonet combat than their counterparts at the time? Was your average Soviet rifleman better trained at utilizing a bayonet than his German enemies?

Hello everyone. The Hittites were renowned charioteers and art frequently depicts them riding to war on chariots. This strikes me as odd, since whenever I look up a physical map of Turkey, see pictures of Turkish landscapes or play video games partly set in Turkey, I see a country that is very rocky, mountainous and seemingly not conducive to cavalry, certainly not to wheels. How did the Hittites thrive with chariots in this environment, or am I wrong about the environment?

I mean who came up with the idea of Elves and other fantasy creatures?

I hope this is a quick and easy question. Before Duke William invaded England, he resided at Château de Falaise from my understanding. The current structure originates from the early twelfth century, with added towers, etc. My question is, when William occupied the castle, say around 1050, what kind of construction would have been used? Would it have been a purely wooden structure, ala the motte and bailey design imported to England, stone construction, or some mix of the two? Thanks for any imput you can give me. The location is figuring into a comic I am working on about Harold Godwinson and I am making it a goal to be as historically accurate as possible.

I have only recently found out about them and I still can't get my head around it. They wanted children to have free education and social services and were seen as heroes fighting for the civil rights movement? On the other hand, they were violent terrorists trying to pave the way for Marxist-Leninism.

I know this is a complex topic with many opposing views on the matter which is why I'm asking it here, what really were they?

For most of Byzantium's existence the empire spanned at least two continents, so, did the Byzantine people consider themselves European, Eurasian or something else entirely?

In one of the less important, less rich Nomes.

Ranging from a simple hook-up to psuedo- gay clubs/support groups. How did (most) get away from being incarcerated?