Hi guys, I'm curious how a lot of Westward Expansion post Civil War happened. I know that at some point trains took over from wagons and that bridges were erected in more popular spots, but I don't know (and am having trouble finding) a good resource for exact dates when people switched from covered wagon to train, where exactly people went, and what was needed.

So, if I was starting in Virginia and planning on ending up in Colorado directly after the Civil War ended

-what supplies would I need -how much about would it cost (in 1860s dollars) -how long would it take -where would the major stopping points have been, or what would have been the most popular route -any other relevant information!

Thanks!

Lobotomies were performed many tens of thousands of times through the forties, and were even awarded the Nobel prize. However whenever I look up the effects of them, you only hear of cases like Rosemary Kennedy of them leaving the patient a complete wreck. I have to assume that many people had outcomes they considered "better" than this, and if nobody ever reported a positive outcome, it's hard to imagine how so many people would be convinced to have the procedure done. What was the outcome of a "successful" lobotomy like? What were the perceived benefits?

Rebellious or nothing unusual?

This may not be the best place to ask this question. However, while I was reading September Hope by John McManus it dawned on me that there were a lot of German troops that were captured during multiple engagements with the Allies, but what did we do with them when we captured them?

I was reading the wiki page about Charles II and it mentioned that between 1557 and 1666 Spain declared bankruptcy 9 times and I'm kind of confused as to how that was even possible.

So as I understand it a country declaring bankruptcy means its defaulting on its debts. And for them to go bankrupt another 8 times in that hundred years means they kept acquiring debt and then kept defaulting

Who did the Spanish government owe money to, and why/how did they keep getting money loaned to them?

And what effect did this have on the actual people of Spain and the Spanish economy? These days a country actually legitimately going bankrupt (not being bailed out by someone else or printing more money to cover its debts) tends to lead to it being declared a failed state, did this sort of economic upheaval lead to political upheaval?

As in, I believe they were coated with white stone and had a gold cap.

I have seen the argument that Chagatai had the middle because that way he could rule over the rest of his brothers, but this seems naive and I'd like to think that a man who conquered so much of the world had a better understanding of geopolitics than that

Although this isn't a question about history I thought there wouldn't be a much better place to ask this question than here. So, as someone who is going to university in the fall to study history (at a very reputable uni here in the UK) the plausibility of making a living from history has me worried. So, historians, any advice on how it will be best/possible to make my love my career?

I’ve recently finished reading the diary of a young girl by Anne Frank, and I believe she briefly mentions concentration camps when talking about her fear of discovery. But I wondered if she would have been aware that Jews were being murdered? would people have known about the atrocities that were being carried out within the camps? Or was the truth only truly discovered once the camps were liberated? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

I'm trained in Biblical Studies and understand the origins of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, but what about the Qur'an? It's believed to be the word of G-d by Muslims - but what is actually known about its historicity?

Hello Historians!

I am a Junior in high school writing my term paper on voting polls for African Americans in California. After some decent searches on the internet, I was unable to find polling data from the 1932 election of how African Americans voted or at least what they registered as. I was wondering if someone can help me out. Thanks!

Hello! I’m in the process of researching a novel about Jewish fencers in late 14th and early 15th century Germany and Italy. We have a decent amount of evidence that there were some Jews who practiced and even taught fencing in this period: the Pol Hausbuch mentions a fencing master named Andres Jud, the Codex Lew mentions a Jud Lew, and, perhaps most consequentially, we have a charter from 1385 issued by Archbishop Adolf of Mainz admitting a Jew named Josef to his court as a fencing master. A bit later in 1608, Emperor Rudolph issued a charter for the Freifechter fencing guild that included a complaint that their rivals, the Marxbrudder had been teaching Jews. Anne Tlusty’s The Marital Ethic in Early Modern Germany also mentions a number of instances of Jews getting into sword-fights or being described in period sources as carrying swords and other weapons.

However, that’s not much to go on for fleshing out a whole novel. Can anyone point me to some good sources that might shine more of a light on what life might have been like for a Jewish fencing master in this period? Sources (primary or well-researched secondary) that specifically mention Jews are great, but I’m also generally interested in what life was like for fencing masters in general.

This seems to have been a profession that overlapped with military service, but also retained a distinct set of duties and associations and I’m really curious to get a better sense of who these people were. Do we have any idea how they learned and demonstrated their skills? I know that knightly tournaments were quite popular in this period, but how did fencers from the lower classes (it seems to have been a largely lower-class trade) prove themselves and win appointments in court?

I’m also interested in Jews and dueling. The 16th century Italian Jewish engineer Abraham Colorni is mentioned in a couple of secondary sources as having fought a duel, but I can’t find any primary sources talking about it. Jews fighting duels would obviously have been quite rare, but given evidence of some Jewish fencing masters, is it possible that there were some Jewish duelists as well?

Thanks for any assistance learning more about this topic!

Landscape evolves all the time but some land/sea changes are much more dramatic. While the Netherlands is a well-known example, I recently learnt that the persian gulf was considerably more extended northward in ancient Mesopotamia. Are there other cases of large scale landscape changes in historical societies (with writing sources) that force historians to redraw the map of entire regions depending on the period studied?

I just can’t help to think that if I were a child born during the wars in the Middle East, I might find emotional value in looking at similar letters. Anyway, 100+ WWII letters going in the trash; hoping they might give someone value. Please point me to a more appropriate sub if that is what

I know Inperium can’t be achieved through being nice about it but many of the tactics used by the Japanese, particularly in the Massacre of Nanjing, Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Theatre manage to make Hitler seem tame by comparison. Why did Japan commit war crimes like Nanjing and somehow enjoy it like they were Mongols?

I know some NATO countries during the Cold War had a system in there national defense where in certain locations and regions they would hide large quantities of ordinance so in case of a Warsaw Pact invasion they could arm the civilian and act like insurgents/partisan.

My question is what happened to this weapons catches? Was the equipment brought back to military bases? Were the weapons after the Cold War destroyed? Are some of them still "online" and ready to use in case of an foreign incursion?