Distilling is a relatively late technology to the alcohol world, and countries and regions seemed to have based their spirits around their existing traditions.

France had a lot of wine and grapes laying around, so they distilled those into cognac.

The UK region had alot of beer and malted barley, so they distilled that and Irish and scotch whiskies became a thing.

But Germany was also beer obsessed and had barley, so why did they never create a malt whiskey tradition?

These days claims that person X is the Antichrist or event X was predicted in the Book of Revelation are a dime a dozen, but what about when civilization really did seem to be on the verge of total collapse? Did people see Hitler as the Antichrist, or Lenin for that matter since the Bolsheviks were openly anti-Christian and sought to unify the world under their ideology?

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I found my great uncle on a Russian site that show the documents of Soviet WW2 soldiers. The docs say he (as an officer) led a group of sabateurs behind enemy lines and gives a list of the things they blew up in the space of a few months: 6 locomotives, a railway bridge, a highway bridge, several train cars full of troops, more full of policmen, cars full of munitions, a train hauling artillery pieces, etc. Some of my family members think this sounds pretty far-fetched for a single band of sabateurs. I've argued that the overwhelming amount of other records I've seen are "realitics." The site is podvignaroda.ru

And if so how?

I’m from Texas and I haven’t heard much about the unique African Americans except they were different in some cultural aspects. How is this possible?

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I've always heard that Gladio was NATO mission that was involved in multiple terror attacks by neo-fascist groups. There seem to be plenty of articles pushing said narrative and it even seems to come up in pop culture fairly frequently.
Yet while researching it I found that a lot of historians claim there isn't enough evidence to conclusively tie Gladio to fascist groups or the terror attacks themselves, or claiming stay behind missions were just something a lot NATO countries were doing without the NATO actually having any control over Gladio.

Is there any hard evidence for it Gladio being organized by the NATO? Is there any for Gladio troops being involved in right wing terrorism?
If not, how come this narrative is something that is so wide spread and commonly accepted?

I've read that during Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s, the communist movement was quite large in Germany. Assuming many survived the war, stayed in Germany and didn't change ideologically, would any German communists have seen Stalin's forces as liberators, despite the brutality of the war?

Were any Germans living in the west ideologically motivated to move east to live in a people's Communist paradise? And did the Soviets do any PR to encourage eastward migration?

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Hey guys, I've got a question. My Chinese grandfather is a WWII veteran in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and fought for the Chinese Red Army against the Japanese. I am going to do an interview with him, but I'm not sure what are some questions I should ask him. I've got a few ideas, but I thought maybe you guys could help? If you need to ask any questions for context, go ahead, I’ll answer them.

I will write all your suggestions down and compile it into a big list for the interview.

To be more precise, for example in XI/XII century. Did common peasants, or lower rank nobles ever get to eat cake or some kind of candy, or was it solely king's delicacy?

I've always been curious what it was like on the two lands in that Northern Japan region during that time. Were there alot of Russians coming across the North very often and vice versa with Japanese on the NorthEast side of Russia? What were towns and cities like during those times and were there battles/wars in that region? I feel like I could ask more specific questions but really my curiosity is so broad for this subject.

Was there any evidence at the time suggesting that Imperial Japan was ready to capitualte to the Allies without the use of such weapons? If so, what other credit is due for victory in Japan? Just curious about the subject after some light reading this weekend. Thanks in advance for all responses, your time and knowledge is greatly appreciated!

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I have noticed while reading up on early modern European history (particularly concerning the British parliament) that pictures of nobility often feature nobles with with really long hair almost like that of a Spaniel. What is it with curly long hair that stuck with nobility that until now this type of hairstyle has been associated to nobility and prestige so much so until now the House of Lords ceremonial outfit or judges are seen with long wigs?

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I am currently reading Ernst Junger's Copse 125, a German account of a period in the trenches in 1918. In it, he claims that early in the war a lot of soldiers wore full beards in homage to their grandfathers of 1871 (translations are my own, from the Spanish translation, Bosquecillo 125, that I am reading), but that the practice was abandoned when gas masks were issued. In fact, a lean, clean shaven face below the shadow of the steel helmet is emblematic of the WW1 warrior for the author.

During the mid-20th century, beards seem to have been massively out of favour. My grandmother, born in 1919, stills considers them (including mine) to be awful, although her sense that beard-wearers are inherently untrustworthy has diminished. I remeber similar sentiements from childhood literature including books by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl.

So, is there a connection? Was the decline of the beard really affected by the need for gas masks to seal?

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I am asking from the perspective that Scandinavia would be regarded as the backwaters of Europe, so in how far would they be updated on, let’s say, the thought of crusades and so on?

Edit title: Would*