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In the Chanson de Roland, Charlemagne's Saracen equivalent is the Emir Baligant, who is depicted as equally tall, powerful, and like Charlemagne, 200 years old. He is said to be ruler of Babylon (which in the world of the poem, is the Saracen capital).

• Is there a historical figure that the poem draws upon for the Emir?
• What is the significance of Babylon as his city? (Since ancient Babylon had long since become a ruin)

Talking about middle age.

I've heard the nukes were more a symbol to the USSR than a military necessity. With no allies and diminished resources, could Japan have survived long under a naval and aerial blockade?

So Napoleon goes into Russia with over 600,000 men and leaves with a few thousand. This was caused by multiple factors of course but I'm curious about the preparations made before the invasion and anticipated needs of the army versus the reality experienced while in Russia. Did Napoleon expect to live off the land and was surprised by the Russians burning everything as they retreated, or were his preparations just inadequate regardless of the circumstances?

During the Napoleonic wars, the UK was far from a bastion of autocracy, but wasn’t a democracy like it was during WW2. Violence between conservatives and liberals and socialists rocked the continent, with constitutions being torn up and replaced, but the UK slowly, peacefully changed over the course of the Imperial Century. How did this occur? What are examples of its change?

Whenever I read anything on amount of kills for the Air force for any nation, there is almost always a claimed and confirmed kills. And claim is usually higher (sometimes a lot) than kills. Why is this?

I've heard that many American officials knew that Japan would likely surrender without an invasion or atomic bombs after Hitler died. Does this claim hold any merit?

Note: This is not a "What if the bombs weren't dropped in WWII?" question. This is, what information did American officials have regarding whether or not Japan was ready to surrender before they decided to drop the atomic bombs.

When I think of Japanese sports, I generally think baseball, and maybe soccer, but these are Western imports of the past century and a half or so. So that got me wondering what kind of sporting activities those have replaced.

So main question is, as stated, what kind of sports were played during that period, but also, how class conscious was sporting? Were there games reserved exclusively from the Samurai classes, assuming they even played them? Or likewise, sports which were considered only playable by the peasants?

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I would also like to know, was there anyone in the government and in civil society who saw this alliance willingly?

As the title states, would it have been possible for your average peasant, artisan, etc, to own weapons like a sword or spear? Was this a common practice and was their ever anything similar to a modern 2nd amendment put in place?

Some historians view Operation Barbarossa as a preemptive attack on the Soviet Union, but was there evidence to suggest the Soviets planned to attack Germany outside of rebuilding their military and annexing European neighbors (Latvia, estonia,..,)?

Was it after world war 1? Because Britain seemed to stand fairly strong until about the beginning of the 1920's. Is there a singular event or date which can be used as a pinpoint time for when this happened? Or was it a process without a real date?

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