I did some research a while back on the Old Testament (yes, I'm that kinda nerd) and realized that in many ways, the Jews of ancient Israel (or even pre-nationhood) had better debt forgiveness policies than we do in the modern world (that I'm aware of).

The Jubilee states that every seven years, all debts would be forgiven without exception. Even if the creditor is the king and the debtor a beggar, without regard for social status, all debts are released after seven years. This even extended to slaves who started as prisoners of war, granting them freedom and (from what I understand) citizenship.

That's a hell of a lot more merciful than debt forgiveness policies today in the US. For example, university loans can follow you for 25 to 30 years. Seven years of work to pay it off, then forgiveness sounds much fairer.

That said: Was this notion actually actively practiced during those times?

If so, by who? Just the Jews or was this more common than I realize?

And lastly, were there any exceptions?

Hello, folks! I’m working on a piece of writing, action of which takes place in Medieval Finland/Karelia (period 1150-1200 AD). One of my protagonist is a woman, who seeks leadership in her tribe. I need to know, whether:

1. A woman could lead a tribe (a commune) being a sister of a previous dead leader, or the right to rule immediately passed to his son or another relative man in the tribe

2. A woman could inherit property

3. A woman could be a head of her family in case her husband was dead

4. A woman could freely choose whom to marry

Please, mind that I’m interested particularly in that period (12th century) and particularly in Finnish culture.

Thank you!

By trying to wrap my head around the 30YW, one of the elements I still struggle with is the conception of the state in that time period. We are before an absolutism, after a feudalism, "nation" is not at all a thing, so when we speak about, let's say, Bohemia, is it a territory strictly delimited that belongs to a noble?

I also am aware that it probably was very different if we talk about a city like Hamburg or a church land. And also quite different in France or Spain in comparision to Austria.

It also doesn't seem to be a pure noble fights noble situation with a lot of local armies taking part out of religious, economic or self defense reasons. It is just hard to imagine how organised and how coordinated these leagues were between small localities taking arms, the emperor and someone like Spain, to mercenaries and the motivation of soliders on the ground, if we can talk about soliders at all.

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I am sorry for the confusion in the question but as you can see, I am confused. I would be also very thankful for reading reccomendation, I should be able to get it through my university.

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Thank you very much for anyone responding!

Was it a normal political party like any other seeking to get seats in parliament? Or their version of government.

What did they start out like and how did they end up being renamed nazis and hated by every and how were they used/manipulated by hitler? Please ELI5

I've seen so many documentaries and read so many witness accounts from Germans alive during the times of the Holocaust that say that for the most part the German public was not aware of the Holocaust and it's only something they learnt about after the fact, this is also backed up by testimony given by German soldiers and officers at Nuremberg in where they said it was a fairly closely guarded secret that was only known by higher ups and people that were actually involved one way or another, but largely it wasn't actually common knowledge.

I don't know how true this is but apparently Hitler forbade it being a topic of conversation in his presence and apparently he was very 'hands off' when it came to the final solution, it was something he was aware was happening but he didn't particularly like to talk about it or even really acknowledge.

Having said that, I've always assumed that like the conspiracies surrounding the Apollo Space Program, far too many people would have to of been involved for it to be a secret, and given how many people of all different ethnicities died as part of the Holocaust I really can't see how it couldn't have been public knowledge, it's not like we're talking about a small government-run project that employed only a few hundred people here, we talking about millions of people being exterminated.

So, during the early middle ages, there was a rather significant production of vaðmál (wadmal) on Iceland as far as I understand, but Iceland is, again as far as my understanding, sort of inhospitable in terms of providing grazing for livestock, so where did they get the wool for making vaðmál? Did they have enough sheep or did they import the wool from somewhere?

How does one differentiate between a pop-history book and one suitable for citation in an essay? It doesn't always seem clear, since academics often produce "popular" history works, such as Jared Diamond.

Also, how do subject matter experts play in? For example, Martin Wolf isn't strictly speaking an academic, but he is considered an authority on economics. Would books written by him be relevant in discussing, say, the Global Financial Crisis?

They would've eventually found out the news, and in trying to date the discovery, even if it was off by a year or two, would've coincided pretty closely with the turn of the millennium. Is there any evidence that they cared?

In general, did anyone in Rome/Russia/the Church celebrate or even acknowledge when the year was a nice round number like 6000 (AD 492) or 7000, or even 6666 (AD ~1158)?

Why however are there not huge common myths about the other fossils groups , for example from the front page, trilobites or huge insects?

Or if I'm off base what cultures have those stories?

Why does the magic lamp (particularly in cinematographic versions of Alladin) always depicted as a teapot? Did the word "lamp" mean "teapot" then? Was the original translation from the story went wrong and people just went along? Did lamps look like that back then? If so, how did it work as a lamp?

I can’t find anything on it on google. I assume people here might know

Was it a common thing or only on some ships?

For example today both of the Koreas consider the other one as just a part of one country which is just temporarily divided. I read that during the American Civil War the Union didn't recognize the Confederacy as a sovereign nation and that "the Union" was always a single nation. The Confederate States condidered themselves to be sovereign. So what did they consider the Union to be then? Was it just a different sovereign nation or something else?

This is my first time posting so try to bear with me.

I'm working on a short story for a historical fiction course I'm taking and am looking for a little help researching normal living situations in France (or Europe more broadly) during the First World War. I was hoping to make my two main characters, who are both male, roommates, but can't find any sources that explicitly confirm whether or not this was commonplace at the time. Was it common for men to live together in France and if so, was there any stigma surrounding this kind of living situation?

I'm open to both any information anyone may know or even just a push in the right direction in terms of which journals or sources to look at. I have done some searching on JSTOR and through my school's online databases, but I'm having trouble finding exactly what I'm looking for.

I'm assuming other senators had biographies written about them, but I'm guessing it wasn't until they were very old and near death.

Was Julius the first one to do something like this as a form of propaganda?

I'm writing an essay about how he and Augustus pioneered propaganda and want to make sure they were really the first people to do this kind of stuff.