1 Answers 2019-07-15
I am very intrigued by ancient myths like the Greek and Nordic gods. So my question is how did the people of those times come up with such elaborate and creative mythologies that are extremely deep? Thank you!
1 Answers 2019-07-15
Or are these forms of address much older than I assume they are?
Was Abraham Lincoln calling his friends "dude" and "man"? Did he use other informal terms? Or was everyone just formally calling each other "sir" and "ma'am", even among their friends?
If informal personal address is a more recent phenomenon in English, when and how did it develop?
1 Answers 2019-07-15
Is there a reason for the US never pursuing a true empire (in the sense of a British or Spanish example)? In the modern world their economic dominance could be considered as neo-colonialism in many nations, but just curious as to why the US never really expanded at a sizeable scale outside of their own borders.
1 Answers 2019-07-15
2 Answers 2019-07-15
While watching the series Catch-22 about an allied bomber who wants to leave the front. It is said that once the Germans began to retreat the allied bombers were mostly supporting ground troops and bombing axis infantry strongholds.
It would seem that over the course of such a prolonged bombing campaign in a country as rich in history as Italy that some permanent damage must have been done to ruins, buildings or art. Are there pieces of history that we can no longer see in Italy as a result?
2 Answers 2019-07-15
I've heard of Dada, but most of the information I've found on it only talks about visual and literary art. Surely there was a contemporary musical equivalent of it?
The Rite of Spring jumps immediately to mind, but that was from before the war.
2 Answers 2019-07-15
Hi everybody! Recently a fairly popular META thread asked how we can make AH more popular with niche historians, exploring less commonly known histories. Popular history attracts popular questions, meaning the less a history is explored in the public domain, the less it is explored here on AH via the questions of the curious public.
We decided to address this with Media Mondays!
All of us here, questioner and answerer, are inspired by portrayals of history in popular media, like games, film and tv. The recent release of the HBO Chernobyl mini-series is a great example - we had a sudden rush of interest in the history of the disaster.
So we decided that we will do a new fortnightly series looking at popular media, exploring the histories left in the background or not shown at all. We do this with the goal of exploring niche history and giving voice to minority perspectives, drawing out experts on AH who feel like they never get a chance to answer any questions.
In the first week, our experts will analyze the media, looking at not just what was done well and what was done poorly, but especially what was not done at all, like the stories of women and children, the histories of disease, far off global trade, stories of migration, and whatever else we can think of. In the second week, our experts will ask all of the questions related to that media that you'd like to know, in an Ask Me Anything format.
All who can contribute are encouraged to do so, so long as your writing is in-depth and can be backed up by references on request. Discussions of related archaeology, primary sources and major secondary sources are also welcome.
This week, we will look at the Age of Empires game series, from the first to the third and all of their expansions, which cover the ancient world, the medieval era and the 'age of discovery' period, and are set in various locations across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Edit: Age of Mythology is also welcome.
15 Answers 2019-07-15
Nations that declared war on us first: (I leave Japan out because our formal declaration, while in response to an obvious act of war, was technically the first official declaration)
Nazi Germany
Italy
Romania
Bulgaria
Hungary
Croatia
Albania
The Philippines
Of those 8 nations, we responded by declaring war on 5 of them: Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary
Are there particular reasons why we didn’t declare war on the other 3?
1 Answers 2019-07-15
There have been so many genocides in the past century.. from the Holocaust to genocides in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia, Burma, the list goes on... is this quantity unprecedented/unique in human history? Does it have anything to do with the huge increase in populations throughout the world, or something else?
1 Answers 2019-07-15
Dallas has a museum dedicated to Samurai armor and weapons. It is apparently the largest collection of such outside Japan (or so they claim).
One of there displays showed a collection of arrowheads that I had questions about. The arrowheads weren't dated but most of the items in the collection dated during or after the early Tokugawa period so I'm guessing they might be the same. The plaque next to the display was very short on information
First, these arrowheads seem way too decorative to be practical. Are these ceremonial? Is there such a thing as a ceremonial arrowhead? What was the idea behind making such intricately decorated arrowheads.
My second question is about the arrowheads shaped like a Y, the 4th and 5th ones from the right. The accompanying plaque said that they were made to slice through straps holding armor together and so reducing their targets' fighting ability. That sounds very far-fetched. It would take an incredibly precise shot to target an armor's strap. Presumably those straps would not be in an easily accessible place to begin with and I doubt that during combat a bowman could make such a difficult shot to such a hard to reach place. What would these arrowheads have actually been used for?
Third, how well did samurai armor stand up to arrows? Were they vulnerable to any specific kind of arrowhead?
1 Answers 2019-07-15
Essentially why did they pick him to be the leader of their movement? Starting from the war I suppose.
Maybe I’m wrong and he wasn’t that popular but just the only acceptable person. Then later became propagandized. Is that the case?
1 Answers 2019-07-15
1 Answers 2019-07-15
I recently moved to a part of the Southern US that was majority black after the Civil War. I have been reading about the county history and found some problematic framing of events. Simply put, the descriptions on Wikipedia and other online history sites seem to describe the county political conflicts as a fight between white folks about government corruption that just happened to end with disenfranchisement of the black population. The accounts leave out the black residents who were shot and killed and all the black Republican leaders forced to leave (including school teachers and elected officials) under threat of lynching. Not a single black person is named. The history seems to be almost entirely based on a single book written 40 years ago.
How would a historian go about adding to or clarifying the history here? A journal article? A new book? Some Wikipedia edits to add in important information? As an amateur, is it pointless for me to do anything?
1 Answers 2019-07-15
1 Answers 2019-07-15
1 Answers 2019-07-15
I'm not talking about the kingdom-scale wars like England vs France, I mean more like counts or barons of the same kingdom fighting each other for their lands. What would happen in those cases? At what point would the king intervene or would he interven at all? Would they even happen at times of large scale war?
As for the period, was this a less common occurrance as for the later middle ages or was it still a thing during them?
1 Answers 2019-07-15
Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben (1806-1849) was a physician, philosopher, and poet. He appears to be acutely familiar with Christian concepts and phrases, which is perhaps to be expected from someone living in 19th-century Austria. For example, in a single page in his Principles of Medical Psychology (1847: 166), he mentions both "the old Adam" and a "prophet divining". However, it is difficult to gather whether he is speaking from a Christian perspective of devout belief, in which he thinks these concepts are compatible with science, or whether he is simply using them as foil, as an educated man might do in speaking to his audience. (If it helps, "Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben" is an entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia, yet it says nothing about his religious beliefs, or any contribution to the Church.)
1 Answers 2019-07-14
I'm a peasant in the middle ages. It's freezing cold out, and there's no work to be done- what am I doing all day to pass the time?
1 Answers 2019-07-14
If you want a fairly decent medieval era based sword you're going to probably have to throwdown at least around $150 (based on what I found). But how much did swords actually cost in the medieval era? Just as a generality. As there are a lot of different swords, and the "medieval era" was very large. I am mostly thinking of 16-17th century arming and or longswords.
Were the swords as expensive as they are now? (They aren't expensive) or were the cheaper or more expensive when they were originally made?
2 Answers 2019-07-14
Part of this comes from my recent reading of Gone With the Wind, which admittedly is historical fiction and an idealization of the south so it’s hardly a reliable source. However in the novel a number of slaves freely stay with their former owners (Mammy and Pork). Did this ever happen?
1 Answers 2019-07-14