According to the wikipedia page of Declarations of War in WWII, Kuwait declared war on Nazi Germany in November 9th, 1939. Did they do anything to help the war effort? Such as sending troops( even if small in numbers) or resources or was it more of a symbolic declaration of war?

Edit: year fix. I wrote 1941 by accident its 1939.

According to the Gilgamesh story, which is set in Uruk, one of the leaders of the youth assembly manages to become lugal, or king.

So what was the role of the assemblies for the young vs the old. Did some have more power? Was there always a king reigning over them?

According to my uninformed knowledge of the subject matter, Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle basically invented detective stories ~150 years ago which has since spread like wildfire through the works of authors such as Agatha Christie and is now one of the most famous, well-liked and recognizable genres of the literary world.

If my uninformed knowledge is correct: why were there little to no murder mysteries prior to the late 19th century?

If my uninformed knowledge is incorrect: what major murder mystery books exist prior to... say... the year 1800?

P.S. I'm not asking: "Was there a single Roman author who wrote one murder novel once?" I'm asking: "Today like 20% of all books are murder novels. Was 20% of all Roman novels also murder mysteries?"

Thank you!

I've heard that Mount Olympus is somewhat difficult to climb, but not exceptionally challenging. I find it hard to believe that people in Ancient Greece never attempted to climb it. Was it considered taboo to do so? Are there any accounts of people who have tried?

The general understanding of Edward VIII's abdication is that it came as a result of his desire to marry a divorcee, Wallis Simpson. This was seen as incompatible with remaining the monarch by the parliament and the Prime Minister of the day (Stanley Baldwin), and he subsequently chose to (was required to?) abdicate.

We also know however that Edward had significant Nazi sympathies (eg Edward & Wallis's visit to Berlin in 1937), and per sources discovered after the war ended (the 'Marburg Files') that he may have been engaged in a plot to return to the throne under a Nazi occupation of Britain.

My question is whether Edward's political views were well known to the British government and establishment by 1936; and whether these views were deemed acceptable or unacceptable for a/the monarch to hold by the British political establishment, with another war with Germany looming.

And so perhaps whether Baldwin or others used the Simpson episode as more of a pretext for removing him from office, rather than Simpson being the real reason that his remaining on the throne became untenable.

In other words - did the British fire their King because he was a Nazi sympathizer, and not just for wanting to marry a divorcee?

I just saw a meme, that I want to believe is true but I need to verify first. The meme goes "Medieval peasants worked only about 150 days in a year. The Church believed it was important to keep them happy with frequent, mandatory holidays."

If this is true, what exactly were those holidays? I figure Sunday is a given... but that only accounts for 56 days off in a year... are weekends included in this? I'd love to know more.

Perhaps the most commonly used and known phrases surrounding all of history, what does this mean in concrete every day terms, or geopolitical analyzations.

During the recent heatwave I have retreated to my basement. My home doesn't have AC but we quickly see mold if a dehumidifier isn't periodically run in semi-basment. Got me thinking, how did people historically control moisture and mildew? Were damp, spore-filled spaces just an accepted norm? Is this something communities without high-powered household appliances have solved?

In academic research, I often see that the individuals refer to the "first mentions of a subject in hm the written record". How do historians know that they've reached the first documented mention of any subject? I'm genuinely curious to understand.

Why did the travel all the way to Africa to get slaves when it would have been faster and more efficient to just use slaves from Asia or Indigenous Americans. It would have been more cost effective to just use Indigenous Americans since they were all ready living there anyways as for American Slave owners, and Asian slaves as for European slave owners.

Was it just that black people looked the least like them, or were black people just better at slave labor for some reason? (Not trying to be insensitive, this is a black person asking to find out more about our history, because there's logically no reason to travel that far when they could use the people already there/next to them as slaves)

If it was real what was the rationale behind the law? Was it merely personal preference or was there another reason?

I saw a post talking about how mythical creatures would likely just be deification of known animals or just a mix of known animals. For instance deer have antlers so it's not too far of a stretch to imagine a Horse could have them too and now you have a Unicorn. Are there any accounts of people finding Dinosaur fossils and attributing them to Dragons or similar Mythical creatures? If so are there any examples of someone keeping bones as part of some sort of Collection? Like a noble who has the Claw or Tooth of a dragon but it's just part of a fossil

Whenever I read about the Napoleonic wars it is always mentioned that forced conscription was a key element in Napoleon's success, not the only reason for it but still a big part, as it led to massive number of armies unseen before in Europe.

However, 40 years before that, during the 7 years war France mobilized more than a million soldier (Source: Wikipedia), this means that such a large number of soldiers was used before Napoleon.

And lets not forget that while in the first coalition war France did mobilize gigantic army sizes (1,5 million. Source: Wikipedia), during the following wars the army numbers were smaller in comparison. During his invasion of Russia 1812, Napoleon mobilized 600k soldiers, and some sources mentioned that his armies had reached peak size during that time period.

So, what am I missing? Was conscription and army sizes the reason for Napoleon's success? Were his armies sizes really unprecedented in Europe?

What made Parliament able to raise money in a way the King couldn’t? Did the King simply need their approval to raise taxes or was it more complex?

Do I read it on some public printed newspaper equivalent? Is it something that's spread through speaking with others. Or do I continue living and die in say 1530, without ever hearing about the continent? I realize the answer would differ quite a bit country to country, so any answer regarding any country is interesting!

So I’m a Cobbler/Cordwainer and I like to do research on footwear. I read a lot about how certain things become to be, acceptable or more fashionable. I was reading about Napoleonic Wars and shoe making for the Grande Armée. I came across something that said soldiers were equipped with fake leather shoes with cardboard soles, before the invasion of Russia. I’ve only read about cardboard soles in a few shoe forums, but haven’t found many resource. Has anyone else read about cardboard soles being issued to troops?

I’m a high school history teacher. One of the classes I teach is American History since the Civil War and every unit/time period I cover, I have to look up information about cost of living and wages and dollar comparisons because the students really like that. For instance, if I say that the average immigrant in 1890 earned X dollars, what does that actually mean? How could students compare it to today? What did the average apartment rent cost in the year X? Etc. I feel like I can’t find one comprehensive source that clearly outlines these basics—like some sort of cheat sheet of the essential comparisons during 1880s, 1920s, 1950s, etc. Ideally with some basic subgroups differentiated. I obv use sites like gov’t hist census data, historical dollar conversion websites, and various historical resources, usually just focused on a single time period or subject.

It would be so nice to have a single, usable, clear, easy to read and search resource that provides this general info for American history. (One that is quicker to read than the tiny print on historical census data available online.) Does this make sense or am I just being lazy!?? I am tempted to just compile my own but don’t want to reinvent the wheel if it already exists. This question might be more suited for history teachers specifically, but figured I’d start with this sub first.

My husband is very knowledgeable about British history, but often points out the black hole in his knowledge around the 1100s and the next couple of hundred years after.

What are the most interesting / accessible / enjoyable books covering that period?

I’ve tried Googling but none of the popular results seem to fit the bill (most seem to be fictionalised accounts which isn’t really what he’s into).

Any suggestions hugely welcome and appreciated!