When I think of the crusades, the concept of "holy war" comes to mind, specifically regarding Christianity. However, I recently learned that some Christians opposed the crusades. I hope to learn more about why there was some strict opposition from the church and what religious debates stemmed from the crusades during the middle ages. I would also greatly appreciate sources so that I may further explore this topic. Thanks.

I'm writing a book and the main character is a Lebanese immigrant from the autonomous mountain region now known as Mount Lebanon. At the time Lebanon was still part of the Ottoman Empire, and I'm finding a lot of varying results for what it would have been called. If it is relevant, the character would've immigrated to America around the late 1860s to early 1870s.

Emperors were assassinated , killed starting from caliguila to Nero up until the crisis of the third century, it was always either the praetorian guard or the legions deciding the emperor, why didn't the senate attempt a power grap to restore the Republic? Or did they and they weren't successful?

AFAIK the Dutch were the only ones to have fought the Cromwellian dictatorship, but they weren't directly involved in the civil war. Or were they?
What was the reaction of these countries to the English Civil Wars, was there worry that a revolutionary wave would spread accross Europe, and did any of them directly intervene in the conflict?

I'm writing a story, and I need a character to save someone from poisoning, but I'm having trouble finding something that someone might have accidentally gotten their hands on in winter (I.E. No hemlock and such) and would have an antidote that the character doing the saving would have quick access to.

So far my best idea is yew poisoning treated with belladonna, but that seems a bit difficult.

I just finished the Netflix show “The Last Kingdom”. My question is why and how did Wales manage to stay independent from England and Anglo Saxon rule until around 1530?

Seems like England and Scotland/Ireland had plenty of wars but the Welsh managed to stay isolated. Seems surprising to me as the Welsh shared such a large border with Mercia and Wessex.

Hello! I'm a first-year university history student, and I came here to ask if any historians who work in academia/postgrads/or even people who studied history themselves at uni have any book suggestions for improving my history essay writing. I was also wondering if there is a book out there that would be good for referencing when it comes to doing historiographical analysis, etc. Like a sort of handbook for studying history, not necessarily a handbook to doing historical research of a specific period, like the Oxford Handbook of Environmental History, for example. Any recommendations are welcome! I'd also be okay with learning about books that would be good to have when studying history at university in general. Thanks!

Hurdy Gurdy by Christopher Wilson describes a very small one-monastery order as the setting for the story at the time of the Black Death, existing alongside the much bigger Benedictine and Cistercian orders. Was it common for there to be very small scale monastic orders or did a lot of them get absorbed quickly into bigger orders?

I’m curious because today in the United States, the case for reparations to Black Americans for slavery is a fraught and politically controversial issue. For a variety of reasons on both sides of the argument, the least of which the objections from this against it that “they”, meaning nonblack Americans, shouldn’t have to “pay” for the choices made by slavers hundreds of years ago.

So I’m curious as to how a case for reparations was made in a countries and times where both the victims and the perpetrators were both very much alive and the wounds still fresh.

Title says all; thanks in advance to anyone who answers. I'll admit this is for curiousity in a video game so I'll say this Aristocrat has a reason to be armed.

Note that I’m not asking where/when the hamburger was invented, I want to know where and when was the first time a time traveller could make a recognizable Big Mac without any major substitutions. Bonus points if they can also access fries and a coke.

Why does the region of the Indus Valley civilization de-urbanize after Vedic culture becomes dominant. No where does there seem to evidence of an invasion, and even if there was one the people of the Vedic culture don't refer to themselves as non native Indians ( as the Turks did in later invasions ), Where do things like Urban planning, Trade based economy, sophisticated drainage system go. Some people suggest a migration to the south, but how can a region lose all of these things and have virtually no remnants(there don't seem to any in South India)?

At the same time the Vedic culture seems to be outclassing everybody in language, law, philosophy, mythology etc.

Why does one culture despite being completely urban not able to develop sophisticated language philosophy, and even proper manuscripts, on the other hand one is able to do all of that despite being rural and agrarian?

This leads me to another question - what kind of an economy seems to be sustainable in a pre industrial age - an agrarian/trade based one or a war economy?

Whenever I look at old pictures of Cowboys and Outlaws I always find their hats having straight brims, no tilts whatsoever except the one where they tilt the front to the back.

There are so many ethnic groups spread out over such a large area, how is it that Moscow can keep so many of them under its control? Would Russia balkanize if a catastrophic event (like, idk a failed invasion of a neighboring country that isolated Moscow from the rest of the world and destroyed its economy) happened?

After losing WWI, a massive a bloody Civil War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, it feels like a miracle Russia is unified. Am I missing something?

I'm intrigued to know what people's positions are on the topic and specifically Leopold von Ranke's statement: ' History is a science in collecting, finding, penetrating; it is an art because it recreates and portrays that which it has found and recognized'.