I’m curious because to my knowledge Japan did not levy any kind of territory to the Europeans. I’m not certain what resources Meiji period Japan had to offer to the ever industrializing colonial powers of the west. As I understand Japan had more exotic goods rather than raw materials which would be used in the age of industrialization.

Because many of the African borders were created arbitrarily and ethnic groups were split between various nations, is there more pride in one's ethnic background, national background or both? For example, the Hausa people are split between Nigeria and Niger.

Hi, does anybody have any information about Air Crew Rest camps in Tunisia in 1943? My father was based there for 8 months until Dec 1943 and according to his service records he was based at No 2 and No 4 Aircrew Rest Camps. From 1944 until 1945 he was based in Sorrento doing the same. I only have one postcard that he sent to my grandmother from Hammam Liv in Tunisia but can't find any information about the camps. Thanks, any help greatly appreciated!

Alternatively, any insight on the topic you have would be very interesting. The reason I'm asking is because a lot of the patriarchal structures in settled societies seem to be based on the idea that "the father is the master of the house", which sometimes or often extends all the way to the structure of the government as a whole (filial piety, and so on).

Y2K was a big deal. What about Y1k ?

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Title says it all. Doing the way there was chaos and after the militaries were worn out, depleted, and spread thin so why wouldn't a foreign government take the opportunity to conquer?

I recently finished Robert Kurson's book Rocket Men describing the successful Apollo 8 mission, and in it he mentions how the Soviet Union had a good window for launching their own manned mission to the moon a couple of weeks prior to the launch of Apollo 8. The Soviet launch was ultimately scrapped, but the author does not elaborate as to why. Given how contested the space race was up to that point, and how the USSR had appeared to be winning, I'm curious as to why they wavered.

Was an early December 1968 launch planned by the Soviet Union? What stopped them from launching?

I see all sorts of historical claims on reddit and in books and just in the world in general. On reddit I have been told that there was no historical Jesus, wikipedia says that William the conquerer invaded britain in 1066, the hadith claim that Aisha married the Prophet Muhammad at age 6, Hitler claimed that Jews stabbed Germany in the back during WW1, and I recently read a biography of Mao Tse-tung that claimed he did not walk but was carried on a sedan chair for the long march.

Leaving aside which of these examples are in fact true, how do I personally go about judging the truth of an historical claim? Particularly as a layman who speaks none of the relevant languages, would be kicked out of an archeological dig, and hasn't even had access to a university library since graduating many years ago.

Not that it is right or fair to contrast history with physics, but with a physics claim I could concievably reproduce the observations and check the math. Even if I won't actually put in the work, the path for checking any claim seems reasonably clear. But, and this sounds inappropriately dismissive, with history it seems like at the root of everything we are trusting some unverifiable claim someone has told us somewhere along the way, and we just have to trust that the person making the claim as well as the original chronicler and everyone in between to correct in whatever they are asserting. That is to say, you tell me about the battle of thermopylae, but how do I evaluate your claims? Then you point to Heroditus as a source, but how do I evaluate his claims?

I really like history, and I don't like the idea of belittling it, but I can't shake the question of how is history not just a chain of mostly dead guys saying shit? And how can I personally distinguish legitimate from illegitimate claims?

I'm writing a research paper on Viking warfare, and while I have plenty of secondary resources to pull from, I'm struggling to find any primary sources to reference. Unfortunately all sources used have to be ones that could be found through my university's library, so it may be a long shot, but if there's the chance that any of them would work it would help me immensely.

How far along did the South African nuclear program go to reaching a bomb or a bomb able to deliver to a target? Any links or books on the matter?

Very interested in Germanic, Norse and Celtic tribes. Looking for any books regarding these subjects about the so called “barbarians”.

First off sorry if this is the wrong sub, but I thought maybe historians would know how to handle something that might have some historic significance... I found an obviously man made pile of geodes roughly the size of a grave in the woods in Kentucky (I don't want to be too specific of location because it's close to our house). The pile has some small trees growing through them, is on a hillside facing a creek. I'm worried it's a grave? Should I call the police or who? It's too dark tonight but I can take pictures of it tomorrow.

I can imagine a world where this person could be either ostracized in fear of associating with someone who was punished by the gods, or potentially thought of as immortal or magical and even revered, as someone who withstood the wrath of Zeus.

Thanks for any insight.