As the title says, is there any recorded information about the origins of the most recognizable Templar symbol? The Latin Rule dictates that brothers should wear habits "of one colour, that is white or black or brown", but doesn't mention any insignia on them. I found a pretty suspicious looking article stating that the symbol "was not an ornament (of the Templars) until 1147 when Pope Eugenius III approved of it", but it doesn't mention the circumstances of this alleged event or cite the source of the claim. I also found dubious theories about the symbol originating from the Cross of St. George, or the Templars adopting it from the Republic of Genoa, but these don't sound very plausible to me.

I'd appreciate it if anyone could shed some light on the subject.

Recently I had the opportunity to read some letters from the Napoleonic period in Westphalia. Now I am curious, how special such documents from this era are, and how much information from say the 16th century is forever lost due to lack of surviving primary sources. How much does the historical understanding degrade from proven facts to educated guesses going back in time?

Wikipedia has the numbers, but I'm less interested in those and more in the numbers by department, how many men were in which section of the ship, that sort of thing. Any navy and class is welcome, though I'm most interested in the British Queen Elizabeth class and the US Iowa class.

In modern times contraceptive methods are really close to 100% and in most modern countries if that fails you can get an abortion that’s safe. Throughout mid evil Europe what did couples do. Would married women just keep having kids until they died? Ik there’s pulling out but sperm in pre cum so that doesn’t work. Also say a women was pregnant and didn’t want to be how would she get rid of it before giving birth if that was a option. And we’re any of those ways safe or effective to terminate.

I have a few questions regarding the Edo Period in Japan:

-Social Class / Social Obligations

1. Were the Japanese people able to move social classes?
2. Could they marry out of their social class?
3. Could samurais get demoted from their rank? From what I understood there was a time during the Edo Period where samurais could choose to demote themselves, is that true?
4. What was the role of a wife to a merchant? I can find things for samurais but I can't find anything for merchants.
5. Were the roles of a wife different because of their social class or were they all the same?
6. What were the roles of a husband who was a merchant?
7. What were the social obligations of a man in the merchant class, courtesan, and woman in the merchant class?
8. Were the marriages arranged?
9. How was their class selected? Were the Japanese people born into it?
10. What was the family dynamic (wife, husband, parents of the married couple, and kids) in the merchant class?
11. Was it socially wrong for a married man in the merchant class to seek pleasure from a courtesan during that time?

-Religion/Beliefs

1. What was the samurai code of honor?
2. How did the samurai code of honor pertain to suicides?
3. Could the samurai code of honor suicide apply to other classes or was it just made for samurais?

What are some of the things you focus on for American history courses? And what is the general level of knowledge for your students before-hand?

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I’m not a Holocaust denier, I’m just trying to figure out how to respond to them

Even though Europe was decimated by WW1, US and potentially Japan still had untapped military potential for full-scale intervention (basically they could do to Russia same thing British Empire did to China in XIX century).

Hello

I am helping my nephew on a school project. The project is foods (recipes) from different eras of the students choice. He chose foods during ww2 pre and during. He is missing Germany ( I recommended Eintopf) and Japan. Do any of you fine people have any recommendations?

Say a soldier on the Western Front performed an act of heroism and his CO thought he should receive the Victoria Cross. What was the process and how long would it take? When awarded, was there some kind of ceremony? Did someone important turn up to bestow it?

It’s probably a lack of knowledge, but the 30 years war was extremely bloody considering how little it actually accomplished. For some reason the majority of Europeans felt the need in intervene in a relatively obscure issue. When Spain discovered America, they had free reign to kill millions and wage war as a default diplomatic interaction. And Julius Caesar killed untold numbers of Gauls and Romans without any real reason beyond glory and exploitation of the weak. Yet I feel like during the Victorian era, you can’t really try to conquer large areas or conquer purely for imperialism alone. If for example France tried to conquer northern Italy again all Europe would explode in anger, and no one is EVER going to call themselves the aggressor. It’s always “we were mistreated, they attacked us, we have this long list of crimes they committed against us so we’re really just getting even.” Before people said “Yeah, I killed all those innocent civilians. Yeah, I’m a conquerer and I’m proud of it. I kill and repress in the name of my glorious dynasty/country, and I don’t care about the enemy’s welfare”. Is this just propaganda speaking, or is it true?

Having a hard time finding any info on this. How were major offenses punished by tribes in the Americas? Were there "jails" in the sense of how Europeans had them? Was it more capital punishment based?

I'm asking this because there's a debate on r/TNOmod about how an in-world map of a completely shattered post-nazi-victory Russia would look like. The state of Russia in the HOI4 mod is very similar to/based on China during the Warlord Era, so this would be the best example to look to for precedence.

Did contemporaries just mark it as being part of the Republic of China?

Did any states recognize different parts of China than the ROC, and mark them accordingly?

Would maps made in states closer to the conflict (i.e. Japan) have marked down regions of control?

How much was known about internal politics by outsiders at the time, aside from it being a mess?

There is rarely only one factor that affects someone's decisions, especially in politics. However, George Washington (with his tremendous approval rating and experience) decided not to run for a 3rd term. This is usually waved away as a choice to establish a line of succession for the US but was there anything else that affected his decision

From my understanding the expulsion decree applied to the Crown of Aragon and Castille, the future colonies would sort under Castille and jews thus remained forbidden to settle there, but what about other parts of the conglomerate monarchy? Did the expulsion decree extent to Sicily? What about later acquisitions like Naples, the Spanish Netherlands, etc.? What happened to existing jewish populations there?

I was taught in school that the Mujahideen were funded by the CIA to fight the Soviet Union invasion in Afghanistan, but I’ve then read that the Taliban was created out of the Mujahideen.

What happened?

As a follow-up, why were the previously dominant religions in those regions, Hellenic paganism and Zoroastrianism (itself dualistic and monotheistic) unable to resist the spread of those faiths?

My main point of interest is how the artistic community as described in the book still seem to be living as the prerevolutionary bourgeoisie did, with expensive restaurants and fine apartments. The only concession to collectivisation appears to the waiting lists for cottage retreats.