I am trying to understand what caused the An Lushan rebellion, and it looks as if one problem was the concentration of power in the hands of fewer and fewer people. Eventually, the three central ministries, the Chancellery, and the Secretariat and the Department of State Affairs didn't function as a system of checks and balances anymore and power became concentrated in the hand of the chief minister, Li Linfu, and later Yang Guozhong, whose policies were a cause for the An Lushan rebellion.

But why were the different parts of the government weakened until power become concentrated in the hands of one chief minister?

(I find it hard to believe that it's all the fault of emperor Xuanzong. )

(I should specify I mean during the period after the breaking of the land bridge between Asia and North America).

It just amazes me how far captains of ships would sail without getting lost. Did they get training through the military? Or some kind of apprenticeship?

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I realise there was a terrible famine during that time period, but I am wondering about kids who had a decent life.

I saw one with a friend from Turkey and we noted that it was common in both of our cultures. Is this because it is one of the oldest shared myths, of a result of cross contamination between cultures in more recent times?

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Almost everyone answer has been removed by the mods. Just like this question will be. I could understand removing a comment or two if they were inappropriate but deleting all answers seems like censorship. So why are the mods so afraid of free discussion?

It has just dawned upon me that I know very little about the martial history of my own country before the 1900's. Do we have any records of how warfare was conducted among the kingdoms in what is modern day Malaysia and Indonesia? Was the use of swords more prevalent over spears? What about missile weapons? Was armour used? How widespread was the use of gunpowder weapons when they first arrived from China? Was archery prevalent?

I'm thinking in particular of the sheer number of Thomases -- off the top of my head, the court saw Thomas Wolsey, Thomas Moore, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Howard, Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Wroithesley, all within a short period, and I'm sure I'm forgetting others. Or on the female side, for instance, Henry's queens featured one Jane but two Annes and three Catherines (with various spellings).

Was there a societal reason for this limited pallatte of given names, or is it primarily coincidence, or a combination of a relatively limited pallatte of names and coincidence?

I'm watching a history Channel documentary at them moment about the possible escape of Hitler and just wanted to ask you experts how probable would it be that Hitler really escaped? I know those French scientists saw his skull and are claiming it is Hitler (i believe them) but how probable would it be that he really escaped? I mean theoretically if I was a leader like him I would have tried to escape but idk