After the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama died the Buddhist community held several councils that ultimately led to the split of Buddhism into the two main schools of thought, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism (Vajrayana is sometimes considered its own school or a subdivision of the Mahayana philosophy.) These schools of thought have further split into many different “factions,” but it seems like today most contemporary Buddhists themselves aren’t very hung up or aware of these distinctions.

What caused the initial division, why was a council called in the first place? Was the split conflicted or more of a general acceptance that different groups of Buddhists focus on different parts of the Dhamma and Vinaya?

Hello! I wonder if anyone might have a more or less reliable estimate of the number of Citizens (i.e. who held a part of the franchise, not slaves, children or women) who comprised the body politic of Athens at the time of the Battle of Marathon? Any help is greatly appreciated. TY

Mne

Where did the money to pay all the newly employed men come from?

At least in popular imagination, the political collapse of the Roman empire in the west was accompanied by civilization crumbling. -- I'm just starting Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome, so maybe it's exaggerated, but anyway, western Rome isn't the point of my question.

In China, as I understand it, some dynasties effectively ended and the land fell into political disorder: Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Three Kingdoms, Northern and Southern dynasties, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Is it believed that there was a recession of civilization in those times? I think population dropped. Did cities empty, like Rome did after the 5th C? Was literacy greatly diminished? Was any technology lost? Could people or goods travel between areas, and did it happen about as much as before?

During the Revolutionary War, how were officers chosen and promoted? Recently I read that Nathanael Greene was promoted from private to Major General after only 6 months. With no previous standing army, how did the colonists choose who became an officer and how quickly they could rise in rank?

I am not focusing on political relations between Christians and Jews (e.g. pogroms, segregation, laws, etc.) but am instead curious about what internal changes occured within Judaism as a response to Christianity. When the Protestant Reformation came about, we saw the Counter-reformation occur in the Catholic Church as a response, and so in many ways the Catholic Church today has many elements that came about as a direct result of response to the Protestant advent. By the same token, was there any similar occurrences in the Jewish faith?

Throughout the time of the Winged Hussars, they won many otherwise hopeless battle, such as Vienna where they beat 100,000 Ottomans with 27,000 hussars, or the battle of Klushino where Poland won 6,000 to 35,000 with few casualties. How were they able to do this?

Zazen prayer-meditation was invented by the cult leader Dogen, who was basically the L. Ron Hubbard of Japan.

I've seen this claim a few times recently. Was Dogen a cult leader? Did he invent Zazen meditation? Did he really make up (or intentionally skew) what he claims to have learned in China? Would that mean Soto Zen Buddhism, with how influential it was in Japan and by extension the U.S., is really not Zen Buddhism?

We all know the Spartans to be the most formidable soldiers to ever walk the planet thanks to pop culture and that every mid-twenties man who has ever been to the gym likes to call themselves one, but the main reason I ask is because of my understanding of The Iliad and it's context. It's been a while since I read it but don't remember any sort of description of Lacedeamon and much less King Menelaus as upholding this archetype, especially as his brother King Agamemnon of Mycenae was the hot-tempered leader of the Greeks against Troy, and while Achilles, the greatest warrior of his time was admittedly a mythical Myrmidon from Thesally, you can't get much geographically farther away from each other within ancient Greece before you're in Macedon or Thrace.

One thing I can think of is the wars with and subsequent oppression of their surrounding people and especially Messenia. This as well as their use of helots for manual labour certainly shows a particular cruelty in their society, which certainly says something when all of the Ancient Greek world practiced slavery, but the idea of such a slave-centric society would make me sooner guess that the aristocracy was lazy and luxurious, not the bulk of a standing professional army known for eating a famously disgusting black grool.

And as a sidenote, I believe Menelaus is portrayed as the only ruler but we know from Xenophon, Thucydides and the like of the system of two Kings. Is there any light to be shone on this change aswell?

Thank you!

I was specifically thinking of the change in title in the mid 1700's for Prussia. (Kingdom in/kingdom of), but i would also be curious to know if this distinction was unique to them or if other political areas also had a similar transition in name/form.

The Easter/April Fool's Day combination is a rare occurrence, but happened in 1945.

April 1, 1945 was also the day that US forces invaded Okinawa. I've heard that they were relatively surprised by the lack of Japanese resistance on the beaches. Of course this was part of Japanese military strategy - the resistance was inland and on the south of the island, and the battle ended up lasting over two months.

Was this strategy really a surprise to the US military?

Inspired by my Easter tradition of watching the movie.

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In schools, they teach us that the Russian Civil War started when the Czech Legion clashed with Bolshevik forces around the Ural Mountains. Czech Legion got the permission to pass through Russia and travel around the world to continue fighting German forces on the Western Front. I really do not understand this explanation. There must have been other way of getting to the Western Front without having to go around the globe such as going through northern Africa or even through the Northern seas through Sweden. This seems to me like a much more efficient and quicker way if the Czech Legion actually intended to fight Germans. Can someone explain what happened with the Czech Legion and why were they even so deep in Russia