I've seen the Kongsi republics mentioned in games such as Victoria 2 but I can't seem to find much information on them. From what I have read they seem like interesting examples of Asian Republics and would like to know more.
1 Answers 2018-06-22
So many classical artists had patrons, people that paid their bills just so that artists could do art. Basically like the creative version of a retainer. Now it seems that artists will work on commission for anyone who pays them, but artists rarely work solely for one person.
So what happened? Why don't todays millionaires and billionaires acts as patrons for painters, sculptors, writers, and so on?
1 Answers 2018-06-22
Ave Forum,
In my humble opinion, the Nika riots is one of the most fascinating events in history, essentially one of the first examples of sports hooliganism, however the story is relatively obscure and I am only able to find pseudo-historic literary sources, novelizations, and passing accounts in biographical sources on Justinian and Belisarius. I realize that expecting a thorough analysis in a comment is probably too much to ask, but if you have a link/book you can share I would be very grateful. I am especially interested in the post-war socioeconomic situation leading up to the riots, as well as in personalities of Narses and Mundus (good biographies of Belisarius, Theodora and Justinian would also be appreciated), and of the treasonous nobles and Hypatius. I would also appreciate any information on the chariot racing competitions system that existed at the time, I feel like the systematic tensions between the Blues and the Greens would be vital to understanding the situation.
Thank you very much in advance!
1 Answers 2018-06-22
I’ve been reading more about Chinese history and the size of the armies fielded. While I’ve seen a lot of writers talk about the obvious exaggerations of army sizes in the west and Mesopotamia, I’ve seen less skepticism with the Chinese numbers. Have I not delved deep enough yet, or is there archeological evidence or other reasons for the lack of skepticism for what seems like massive numbers fielded at a time?
1 Answers 2018-06-22
Was it just an intentional "style", or were they somehow not advanced enough to create realistic works of art? If it was intentional, what was the motivation/explanation behind it?
1 Answers 2018-06-22
I’ve heard many people in the past say that she never actually said “let them eat cake” and that it’s just a mistranslation. What did she actually say and if she did say something like that, what did she mean?
2 Answers 2018-06-22
I often heard that African colonies were unprofitable for colonizers to the point it became a cliche in my mind. Sadly, I never heard anything concrete on the topic. Of course, it doesn't mean that colonies weren't lucrative for individual entrepreneurs, most heinous of whom was Leopold II of Belgium who ruled the Congo Free State as own private property.
1 Answers 2018-06-22
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1 Answers 2018-06-22
If I were a regular US citizen in 1860 would I have been able to see the clouds of war gathering for the civil war or would the outbreak of war in 1861 have been a complete surprise?
Background - I'm trying to find a reason why an ancestor would have described himself as 40 in the 1860 census when I know he was 35. Would he have been looking to appear above draft age already?
3 Answers 2018-06-22
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1 Answers 2018-06-22
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1 Answers 2018-06-22
Like family outings doing fun stuff like swimming and building sand structures
1 Answers 2018-06-22
it's about? Library of Congress today and saw the book in Jefferson's Library exhibit. I can't find 'Ansonious et Martialis' anywhere online. Anyone know what the book is? Can I read it anywhere?
1 Answers 2018-06-22
Ive always wondered why were the british in such a hurry to destroy the Bismark and the Tirpitz battleships that germany had. didnt the british had around 10 or more of their own? and even if they did, their massive fleet and airforce could have taken out the 2 ships pretty eaisly i would think. And why didnt hitler want more battleships to be made if the british feared them so much? even another one that would be a secret and held at one of germany's ports could have shifted the naval balance. thanks for anyone that answers
1 Answers 2018-06-22
I read a lot of non-fiction books and they often references sources that are old notes between friends, enemies, etc. Sometimes notes refer to very detailed things, like the way a rock cliff looked in the sunlight or the way a tree branch broke.
These run counter to what I see today. Do people today still takes note to a level where future historians can piece together events? I know social media is a treasure trove of information but not a lot of it is detailed in the way old diaries were detailed.
Instead of looking through attics and libraries (how do researchers know which library to go to?) will they be searching endless databases?
2 Answers 2018-06-22
I know they were heavily persecuted, but were shop owners required by law to refuse services to them?
1 Answers 2018-06-22
Ever since I saw the Battle of the Bastards (GoT s06e09), I've always wondered. In the first stage of the battle, one sees a cavalry charge intercepted by another cavalry charge, ensuing in a chaotic cavalry melee.
At first, I doubted such encounter could be plausible in medieval military history. (Boy, was I wrong.) I took into account the value of knights - the most skilled and best equipped units in the army and their war horses, which take huge effort and time to train. An encounter with two cavalries charging into each other at full gallop seems highly counter-intuitive and cannot end well for neither side. Or can it?
And yet, it did indeed happen, as in the Battle of Bouvines , where the first stage of the battle was also fought by two opposing cavalries. That is only one example, but there are several more examples, where two cavalries meet on the field, alas, I have not written them down.
There already is a number of great threads discussing cavalry charges against infantry regiments, where it was established that a cavalry was used wisely and notably as a shock troop, being most effective at assaulting flanks and rears or already demoralized troops.
Can it be that this new notion of a cavalry vs. cavalry melee somehow tackles the previous point, as it not only highly endangers the lives of the horsemen, but also puts the function of the cavalry unit into a new light?
Why would someone proceed with such high-risk high-casualty maneuver? What are your thoughts on it?
Do you believe GoT's depiction of such encounter between two cavalries was truthful to the reality?
1 Answers 2018-06-22
1 Answers 2018-06-22
For a layperson like me, "common knowledge" about the American Civil War is that the rifled musket changed the face of warfare almost overnight. Commanders steeped in Napoleonic tactics sent their troops against defenders as if they were all armed with smoothbore muskets accurate at about 50 yards. But with rifled muskets and the fast-loading minie ball, each defender became a sniper, mercilessly picking off targets from hundreds of yards away. At least, that's what I've always believed.
But how true is that?
I've heard challenges to the traditional ideas about rifled muskets before, though I don't recall the source. If I recall correctly, it went something like: in the age of black powder, having an accurate rifle wasn't that advantageous if your enemy was concealed under a thick cloud of smoke, not to mention the smoke from your own unit.* Couple that with the very real possibility that many soldiers weren't "shooting to kill" (as Grossman later observed), and I think it's worth asking whether the high casualties of the war can really be attributed to the minie ball.
Were the casualty rates of the Civil War any higher than those of previous wars? The numbers certainly were, but that could be because improved logistics meant more men could be brought to the front. So you could have bigger armies with bigger casualties, without the battles necessarily being "bloodier" in a proportional sense. Knowing the casualty rates might help answer this question.
Building off that, were officer casualty rates higher? I seem to remember this being the case but again I can't remember a source. If so, then it could be that even if most soldiers weren't shooting to kill, the few "true killers" might have been better able to pick out individual targets, like the guy with the shiny brass and the sword.
Anyway, thanks for your time!
2 Answers 2018-06-22
I've read that 1 in 28 French soldiers and 1 in 32 British soldiers died over the course of the war, but many soldiers didn't enter into combat until later in the war. What were the chances of a British or French soldier who was at Mons or Charleroi surviving to the end of the war?
1 Answers 2018-06-22
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36 Answers 2018-06-22
They were only 10 years apart, and yet their styles are so very different!
Side note: I would love for there to be an Art Nouveau revival. Its by far my favorite movement of art!
2 Answers 2018-06-22
I AM IN NO WAY DEFENDING SLAVERY! A friend recently commented that he'd heard that, while slavery was mostly terrible, some slaves in the South had good masters whom they loved. Are there any indications of this actually being the case? It sounds fishy to me...
1 Answers 2018-06-22
