By "core China" I'm referring to the territory in which the Han were the majority and excluding Northern and Western regions populated by Tibetans, Turkic, Mongolian and Manchu peoples.

I have a general sense of the class, religious and ethnic distinctions that existed in Europe, the Middle East and India in the pre-industrial period. I certainly don't claim to have an exhaustive knowledge, but I have a general sense of what was going on in these areas in terms of cultural identity.

But today I realized that I don't have the slightest notion of what cultural divisions existed in China during this time period(except that the Qing dynasty was was originally dominated by Manchus who were gradually assimilated into Han Chinese culture).

Did China have a strong notion of caste or of division between aristocratic classes and peasants? Were there tensions between competing religious ideologies? Was there a signficant ethic minority presence(other then the Manchus) akin to the Jews and Gypsies in Europe or the Parsi in India*? Which groups(if any) were the focuses of bigotry and "othering"?

*I just noticed that week's theme is diasporas. So I suppose this question sort of overlaps with that.

I was looking around on Google Earth and saw that St Petersburg is called St Petersburg, and the direct area around it is to, but the region itself surrounding it and the larger area is called Leningrad Oblast. When the city was renamed, why wasn't the oblast changed as well? Apologies if this has been answered before. I checked thoroughly, but I couldn't find it. I might just be blind though.

I'd like to write my degree thesis on the Economic History of Yugoslavia after WW2. In particular, on how its economy, based on market socialism and workers' organizations, differed drastically from the countries that partecipated in COMECON. I have found multiple books through research, although there are no reviews or raccomendations. I have found nothing about the subject on the sub's Master Book List, either.

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Can any of you help me on the matter?

Obviously, there were many French kings, so I'm wondering what someone around the time of Louis XV would have learned while they were being educated. For example, I'm sure he learned about warfare and military history... but specifically, what would he have learned? E.g. would he have learned about Genghis Khan? Alexander the Great? Similarly, in regard to ruling, would he have read the likes of Machiavelli? Finally, how much of their learning was non-theoretical? For example, would they spend a few days with the army? Spend time farming? Thanks!

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EDIT: I specifically ask about the first sons of French kings because I'm wondering how someone who was viewed as being a future ruler was educated.

Would this have obviated the current situation in Palestine/Israel?

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On a recent question several answers talked about the lack of Persian sources on classical Persian history so I was wondering would a lot of that knowledge have been destroyed during the sack of Baghdad or would it have already been lost in the 17 odd centuries prior anyway?

Followup: is there thought to be a lot of knowledge lost during the sack or would it have been stored in other places around the medieval world?

I'm writing a research paper right now on the transition from handcrafted goods to factory produced goods that took place in the late 1700's in England and I'm having trouble finding any good primary sources. Turns out that Late Medieval blacksmiths didn't tend to keep diaries. Who knew, right?

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Tycho Brahe had a prosthetic nose. How was it attached?

Related: how common was prosthetic anything in the 1500s?

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I know I can look for a modern Japanese history book or read Wikipedia to learn information about Feudal Japan but what are the primary sources? I can look back at Greek and Roman history sources because I know about Tacitus and Xenophon and other Greek and Roman Works but who does a History Textbook reader go to to write about the Kamakura Period or The Sengoku Period or the others? Who wrote down the information?

In today's currency (dollars, euros, whatever is easiest) what is a rough estimation of how much an exploration like Magellan's trip around the world would have cost?

Bonus for anyone who might know: how would the costs of these trips compare to private explorations of space? Basically, is SpaceX spending as much money as Charles I did?

Apologies if this has already been answered somewhere else.

I've been reading about the Schuyler family in colonial America and noticed that they wrote in Dutch in their family bible. How did these Dutch speaking peoples, and any other non English-Scottish, feel about their relation to Great Britain and their own national identity at this time? Did new, non British, migrants to the Americas adopt their "British" nationality or would they form secluded, isolated enclaves, or would they actually call themselves American only?

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Going by the synopsis, I must assume that *Zoroastre* has no historical content beyond the name of its lead. But the opera exists nonetheless. What would people in the 1700s know of Zoroaster? What would have been their sources on him or the Zoroastrian religion? Was he a commonly known figure?

Most importantly, when do we see actual scholarship on him and the historical religion rather than treating him as the leader of an army of good genies? What inspires this research?

This was a reply to a deleted comment from a mod. I don’t know how meta questions work.

As this is my only reply I will give I will just reply here (in part because I have no idea what meta questions are).

I am subscribed to this sub. I visit it nearly every day and it’s one of my favorite subs. I probably see it too much because it’s usually a bunch of deleted threads. Once Reddit indicated I have read it my brain tells me to skip it.

I can see that the mods put a lot of work into this sub. It’s a godsend for historical info. My argument is only to look again and see if there’s a way to accept posts and replies and share them when the time is right. Thank you for what you do and for listening.

I know this seems obvious as the US did not officially declare war until after Pearl harbour. But, I have been told that the US Navy participated in antisubmarine activities on the east coast of the United States prior to that hateful day and did in fact fire depth charges etc... on Nazi submarines in support of the Royal Navy or the Canadian Navy (I think it was around June 1941 - but I am most likely incorrect on that) well before December 7th. Is this true? And if so, do we have any record of the first use of US fired armaments against Axis powers?

A loaded question here but I'll do my best to layout what I'm asking. I find it fascinating that we view Rome as a very, very early civilization, and the time period between ancient Egypt during pyramid construction and ancient Rome is a bigger gap than ancient Rome and now. How did the people of Egypt and Rome view Ancient Egypt around 2000-2500+BC?

Mainly in terms of religion, way of life, and political/religious structure (pharoah as a god)

I've seen films in which a mechanic gives the biplane's propeller a spin while the pilot works some magic in the cockpit. What, precisely, did the pilot do while the propeller was being spun? How did the two acts work together to bring the plane to life? Was there an ignition switch? A choke?