Considering they gave up the Philippines at the end of WW2 why would they give up such a strategic area at the brink of the Cold War. The US just fought and won the Philippine-American war years prior so they were able to project strength on the territory over insurrections. Japan was still in ashes at the end of the war. Korea hasn't developed the strong economy it has now and events were developing in a way that gave us the Korean War. China isnt much of an ally to the US after the communist revolution there. The red scare was occuring and countries in Asia could have turnt to communism that the US seem to really dislike in that time. North Korea and Vietnam eventually turn to communism. So why would the US just give up a territory like that considering it might also fall to communism along with the value the country had for the US. The Philippines seems like the strongest asset the US had in Southeast Asia to project power over communist expansion. I've heard that racism had to do with America not wanting Filipinos to assimilate into the USA (so much for that with Filipino Nurses in the later part of the 20th century) if racism was a major role in the Philippines achieving independence why was Puerto Rico and Guam kept as US territories, why was Hawaii made into a state.

Did citizens and businesses in besieged cities in the Middle Ages live their lives as usual?

Since sieges could last months, people in fortified cities had to keep doing what they did, right? Or did the entire city stop and waited for some command by the ruling noble?

Thanks!

Note: I am not an American, have never lived in America, so apologies if this is something that a US school kid would know.

Speaking about specifically Maghreb here, so Egypt isn't included. Really, I'm curious about the region from Tunisia to Morocco.

Whenever I look at historical sources, they seem to describe that region of Africa as being very prosperous and having many great cities and works of architecture. Also, there were numerous cities from Mediterranean Europe that had close ties with cities in North Africa, including trading and business ties. For example, the Italian city of Pisa was very close to Bejaia in modern Algeria. Fibonacci's father Guglielmo operated a trading post in Bejaia.

Overall, it seems to me that there is no indication that medieval North Africa was more primitive compared to Europe when it came to architecture and city building, at least from the perspective of the Europeans who visited the region.

As for people from the region, neither Ibn Khaldun or Ibn Battuta considered their native regions to be inferior architecturally/culturally compared to those parts of Europe which they visited, even in spite of the fact that from what's been passed down to us, even minor examples of medieval European architecture tend to be far more impressive than anything North Africa has to offer.

However, when we actually look at medieval North African architecture, there's essentially... nothing to look at. I mean, there are a few buildings here and there, but really nothing compared to what Europe has. In Europe you can find whole villages/towns that still look like as they did in medieval/early modern times, coupled with historical landmarks such as medieval churches, castles, administrative buildings, and so on.

For examples, you can look at medieval Italian towns like Montepulciano, Civita di Bagnoregio, Viterbo, etc. You can find examples of places like these in many European countries.

In comparison, North Africa doesn't have anything like these at all. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to even find an example of a castle in North Africa. I could probably easily list names of more castles in Wales alone than you could in all of North Africa. Not to mention how a single Gothic cathedral anywhere in Western Europe alone shows more impressive architecture than all of the (very few) historical landmarks of North Africa combined.

To me, looking at both these regions, I'm tempted to think that medieval North Africa was significantly more primitive than Europe as it failed to produce the type of impressive wonders that Europe did. However, the historical records don't seem to agree with this, and they treat the Maghreb and Mediterranean Europe as being on relatively equal terms.

So, I'm wondering how this contradiction can be resolved? Where is all the North African architecture?

Being the head of the Catholic seems like it comes with certain responsibilities, with people looking to you as a symbol of piety. Did this affect the way in which the Papal States was governed compared the rest of the Catholic world? Did the Papal States have any unique policies? For example, were you punished more lightly for committing minor crimes relative to the rest of Europe, or was blasphemy punished more severely?

A handy redditor on AskReddit suggested I might do better asking here.

It just seems odd to me that the last day of the year in the Gregorian calendar doesn't match up with the shortest day of the year. Is that a reflection of the Catholic church not wanting to promote a pretty pagan festival?

Did / does the winter solstice mark the end of the year in the Julian or any other calendars?

Thanks Reddit!

The SVT-40, SVT-38, G41, G43 ("Hitler's Garand") all had ten round magazines, whereas the M1 Garand had an eight round magazine. Were soldiers/infantry who were issued these weapons generally satisfied with the capacity? Did they wish they had 20 round magazines instead?

Give your votes to the answers that you enjoyed the most! If you see one missing, submit it yourself!

I didn't find an answer in the Reddit wiki, so I hope my question is somewhat original and new. I just wondered when this decision was made and what the reasons were. Although I'm quite literate about most backgrounds and the zeitgeist, this is a detail I could not find a convincing source for. Thank you all in advance!

Both, the Bible and The Divine Comedy, depict Satan as another prisoner suffering his punishment in hell. Why, then, do we think that Satan is the ruler of hell, and all his devilish minions will torture us for eternity?

Why is the name not a reference to Jesus, being what the person is refered as most of the time. Is it that the name Jesus was less a "thing" back then? Or is it another Roman shenanigan? I guess Jesussity sounds less catchy as well.

If the real nazis were like the nazis in the show then any general or bureaucrat, no matter how high ranking, was always one mistake away from loosing everything, was it really that bad?

So i've just read SH-5 and i want to dig in on how accurate was the death toll of Dresden, according to author it was more devastating than Hiroshima yet Wiki's resources says that is inaccurate. What do you people know about it?

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Edit: If it is really inaccurate with the death tolls we can take that the horror he experienced makes it more haunting for him than any other thing or he wanted to express it that way without clarifying it to the fulliest.

The Navajo have Dinétah, Lenapehoking for the Lenape, and the Aztec call their homeland Aztlan. What do other tribes or peoples call their ancestral homelands?

Especially during Barbarossa, as the distances covered during that offensive must have been enormous. My assumption is Norway and later on Crimean oil fields.