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From my understanding (and please correct deficiencies!) is that the British switch to paper cartridges that were greased was believed to be an attempt to attack the religion of the populace, as it would require a soldier to essentially consume either beef or pork (offensive to Hindus and Muslims respectively). The local Company men were aware of this problem, and took steps to avoid this problem by altering drill and using non-greased cartridges that the soldiers were to grease themselves. Rather than solve the problem, this seemed to convince the mutineers of the original intent. To me, absent other provocations to the religion of the natives, that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. So what had the British done to that point to get to that level of distrust?

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I posted this yesterday, but got no responses so I'm trying one last time.

I've recently found out that one of my ancestors lived in Austrian Galicia, specifically Pawlokoma, in what is now Poland. In immigration forms, his ethnicity is listed as Polish, but his religion is Greek Catholic, which from what I can tell is what Ukrainians followed.

Anyways, I was wondering what my ancestor would have identified as. Would he be considered Polish, Ukrainian, or something else entirely? And more broadly, what was national identity like in that area around 1900? Were there divisions between Poles and Ukrainians, or was it less of a clear line between different nationalities? Would all people of the same religion have been of an ethnicity, or were there Polish Greek Catholics and Ruthenian Roman Catholics?

Follow up: What keeps you motivated to keep studying history?

I'm doing an essay on Epic of Gilgamesh and it's historic input, and, while I'm not asking any of you to write it for me, I'd like to know to which civilizations Mesopotamia was connected to so I can research further influence of the Epic. I've read somewhere that ancient civilizations weren't familiar with Mesopotamia since not even historians like Heredotus mention it (?), while on other places I've seen referenced "Epic's influence on Homer's work". Turning me onto some sites would be of great help too, in which case I'll have more material for "References" section.

Hi,

I'm trying to do some research on my grandfathers service in the Second World War. I know that he was a Pioneer Sapper with 30th Field Company in II Corps, 1st Canadian Army. He was sent to 30th Field Coy from the UK in early July 1944 and would have taken part in the end of the Falaise Gap, the clearing of the French and Belgian ports and the Netherlands campaigns.

Can anyone tell me how the structure of the RCE worked in WWII? Would he have been working with 30th Field Coy on a Corps level or were the Corps Field Companies further divided up to support the Infantry Divisions? I have found lots of wiki info on the II Corps and see that there were Engineer Field Companies assigned to the Infantry Divisions as well. Would like to know if I should concentrate on the Corps level company or if I should be looking for a Divisional Company that he would have been sent to.

I'd really like to track down a war diary for whatever unit he ended up in but have no idea where to find anything for 30th Field Company since the Forces were restructured and the Engineers were combined with the Air Force and Naval Engineering companies.

I'm reading "Condition Red", by Frederick Jackson Bell, the 1943 memoir of US Navy destroyer commander in the South Pacific 1942-43. In it, he relays the following "memory for the Marines on Guadalcanal":

"The night when seven hundred Sons of Nippon, making no attempt at concealment, came singing up the road toward Henderson Field. The Marines were waiting. When the firing stopped, there were six hundred and ninety-four dead Japs and six prisoners. There were seven dead Marines."

Is there truth to this story?

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I've been looking at "The Wake" by Paul Kingsnorth. Buccmaster, the main protagonist, leads a rebel warband against the Norman invaders. He clearly holds Christians in contempt and follows rather pagan beliefs that remind me of the Celts (which brings up another question of how Celtic was post-conquest England? The Anglo-Saxons would have been in control for centuries at this point...).

So my questions is how pagan (and Celtic?) was England by the time Guillame le Batard took over in 1066?

I've heard mixed opinions on this and have always wondered about the facts. I am guessing that there is no way to know for sure, but what are the facts around this issue. Were the bombs dropped on Japan used as a demonstration of power for the emerging cold war and live test of there effectivness, or were they believed to be the least costly method of bringing about a surrender of the Japenese?

I apologize for taking up your time if this is the wrong place to ask any of these questions. Please redirect me if this post is not appropriate for this forum.

I recall from high school history lessons that after Russia became the Soviet Union there was criticism saying that it wasn't appropriate that Karl Marx's economic theories be applied to Russia. The criticism was that Marx, roughly a contemporary of Charles Dickens, theorised that a nation had to evolve an abusive capitalistic economy before it could have a workers' revolution. Russia was still in the midst of having an agrarian economy at the time. Is this still a subject of criticism among historians? Was it ever a consensus among historians? For all I know it was a pet subject of my teacher.

Another part of my question involves Maoist China. It seems to me that China's economy has evolved similarily but after it's Communistic stage China's economy, especially Taiwan, is now well on it's way to becoming capitalistic in nature even as it's government is ostensibly Maoist. Is this a subject of historians' writings either as a comparison with Soviet Russia or on it's own?

Since the fall of the Soviet Union happened as recently as Ronald Reagan's administration, it may be too soon to qualify as history. Even so I would be interested to hear your thoughts about this as well. If that question is too general please feel free to ignore it.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

The myth implies that this is a facet of the most skillful weaving and the purple cloth of Arachne's father implies that it's an expensive craft. Is weaving scenes and pictures (beyond simple designs and borders) known to have ever been part of Greek textile production (even just for the elite)?

If yes how were these fabrics used, as clothing or decoration?

Growing up in the North Carolina hills, we were very aware of the disdain that middle America felt for us, and we never could understand why it was so publicly acceptable to disparage us but not other groups. It breeds insecurity and a sense of being alienated from American cultural life. Why is a rich white northerner calling a poor southerner a redneck not broadly seen as an example of a hateful, classist slur?

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I've read about loyalists to the British Crown during the American Revolution, and have heard about them supporting British troops or fighting alongside them during the war. What happened to loyalists after the Revolutionary War? And what caused those feelings to go away unlike how even in modern times there are still confederate sympathizers in the American South.

I've always found the presence of a Jewish Turkic society in Eastern Europe to be really fascinating, especially because the modern-day countries of Ukraine and Russia would be vibrant centers of Jewish live about a millennium after the Khazars' heyday. While I understand that there is not any evidence continuity between these Khazars and later Eastern European Jewish populations, I find it difficult to believe that all traces of Khazar society vanished after the Rus' conquest. Societies generally do not vanish overnight, and other steppe peoples like the Cumans left a substantial cultural legacy in Eastern Europe after losing their own khanate. I would expect that the Khazars' Jewishness would have also inhibited assimilation into nearby non-Jewish societies.

I understand that to what extent Khazar society was Jewish is a matter of intense debate, but even if only the ruling class had converted to Judaism, I would think that their conversion would still leave a substantial impact on the cultural and religious landscape of Eastern Europe. Steppe societies were famous multicultural and religiously syncretic. Is there evidence of Jewish religious customs, names, or other cultural practices remaining in the region after Khazar society was destroyed?

The Radhanites connected communities across the breadth of Eurasia, so their travels would have likely brought news of the existence and ultimate demise of the Khazar monarchy to the Jewish communities of Germany and Persia. Western Khazar territories like Crimea were also not that distant from early medieval Jewish population centers like Lvov and Kiev. Is there any evidence of Khazar refugees seeking shelter within the early Ashkenazic populations of Eastern Europe, who would later come to settle former Khazar territory? I've read that Yiddish may suggest some Turkic influence, but provocative claims drawn on shaky evidence are not foreign to linguistics so I'm going to take that with a grain of salt. Wikipedia mentions Jewish warrior graves in Central Europe and the Balkans, but I would expect this has to do with raiding incursions rather than western Khazar migration.

Looking back at what we call the “golden age” (1950’s) of American history, I see examples of optimism for the future. I see a point in time in which, as a collective, the society saw the future as bright and advanced, not doomed to fail as I have so vehemently encountered through my 20 years of life on this planet. Could someone explain what some of the factors that created that optimistic environment were? Or was it the same, but we’re looking back on it in rose-colored glasses?

I’d like us as a society to be optimistic about the future again, to create cities and technologies that surpass our expectations, but instead I see gloom, from the media and from friends.

I'm especially interested horror novels and how Communist ideology handled them.

What were their official / stated reasons? What do historians now believe to be their "real" / actual reasons? What is/was the history behind their decision to invade?

Pardon my English since i'm not a native speaker :)

• And i'm also sorry if this have been asked before.

There are records telling of the Persians in classical times, being able to field armies the size of more than 200 thousand soldiers. How and why was this possible and what logistics problems did they have to overcome to make that task a reality?