Before the Suez canal was built, ships had to take a massive detour, sailling all around Africa in order to get from Europe to Asia.

But were there any attempts to use the shortcut provided by Suez canal before the canal was properly built? What I have in mind is, for example, ships coming from Asia unloading at the port on the Red Sea, goods then being transported overland and being loaded up into different ships in a port on the Mediterranean.

Was anything like that ever attempted or considered?

I am looking for the best and most thorough books about the Wehrmacht and Germany's general military effectiveness during WWII. Thanks in advance!

Additionally, How did the German Sudetenland play into the politics of Bohemia? Did these Germans dominate the politics of the Realm or were they just a border population?

In the movies and books it seems like the armors are often very similar, and in the mayhem of the battle it would be very likely that someone would duel somebody from its own side without even noticing.

Also if that wasnt usual, what strategies did they use to prevent this kind of problem?

I recently read that chili peppers were brought to India in the 1600s after the Spanish conquest . What was Indian food like before that?

When events were held in the Coliseum in Rome, or plays held in theaters in England, would people have paid a fee to watch? Or were these events open to the public?

Over the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of reading about Stalingrad and the eastern front. There was a specific article that I am remembering from the point of view of an experience Russian soldier having to teach new recruits from the southern and eastern republics about the war as they prepared to go into Stalingrad. These men were very untrained, didn't speak much Russian, and had no clue what the war was about. A lot of the question this soldier asked the new recruits were along the lines of "Do you know what a fascist is?" or "Do you know why you're here?" as well as needing to teach them how to load weapons quickly and how to survive.

I've had trouble finding this exact article, but it really intrigued me. If anyone could find this specific source or provide some more information about this kind of thing would be greatly appreciated

I've been watching the entire run of Downton Abbey with my wife for the first time, and I'm fascinated by the historical questions it raises, in the setting and in the writing of the different characters. So I have quite a few questions I am hoping I can get answered here. Here's the first:

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Question 1: In season two, Downton Abbey, which is real life is Highclere Castle, has been turned into a convalescent hospital for returning injured soldiers from WW1. Did this ever actually happen with manor homes like this during WW1? If so, how prevalent was it?

I am interested in any and all details you can possibly give me. Ceremonies, materials or religious texts related to both gods, everything. I'm specially interested in Edfu's Horus (even more specially in Apollonos Superioris ptolemaic Horus) and Avaris's Seth, in case there is anything specific to them.

As historians, do you anticipate that future researchers will be interested in obtaining the personal computers or digital records of important people? What are the ethics associated with this i.e. will you crack passwords to research gmail/email and social media accounts? Does this already happen and to what degree are these potential techniques discussed among historians? It seems to me that there is an increasingly large amount of data for biographers to navigate but, unlike previous data, a lot of digital information is explicitly personal or at least password protected.

Does anyone know how long it took for mail to travel between the East India Company 's Fort William in Kolkata (Calcutta) to London in the early nineteenth century?

Even intelligent conjecture would be welcome.

Thanks!

Jeannie

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I've been told that the Republicans and Democrats "switched sides" with respect to conservatism and liberalism in American politics in the 1950s. I find this event somewhat difficult to conceptualize. What did it look like to the passive American observer? Was there a mass exodus of Republicans into the Democratic party and vice versa? Did the parties just decide to flip-flop their platforms overnight? Did one party scheme to "take over" the other in order to win more votes?

I can conceptualize small shifts over time, but I find it difficult to conceptualize a very large shift at the same time from both parties that basically reversed or traded their platforms. And I also don't understand how the average American would have responded to this. If something like this happened today, I imagine people would find it utterly absurd, to the point I can't even imagine it happening today. I'm trying to imagine someone like Bernie Sanders calling himself a Republican or deciding to build a wall across the southern border of the country, and I just can't grasp this.