Can someone please answer objectively? Because Quora didn't help me much...

So as I currently understand it, a lot of historians doubt if fuedalism even truly existed in the way it's often portrayed. And if it did then it probably only followed the general representation of it on the highest level.

Still, there does seem to have been a semi-institutional hierarchy between aristocracy across Europe with kings and dukes and counts. And it also seems like on the top-level, these hierarchies were quite similiar (e.g. the king of Sweden had a similiar relation with his direct vassals as the king of France).

Where did this hierarchy (at top-level) originate, and more importantly how did it spread across Europe? I'm especially interested in regions that seem to have been relatively late adopters like Scandinavia, Ireland and Eastern-Europe.

If I completely missed the ball on this one, please tell me as well.

Why was trench warfare used despite the amount of casualties and injuries caused by it?It seems crazy that the best way of fighting was getting your men across a muddy field while the enemies picked you off.

I could imagine the lack of intellectual stimulation from school and other sources could prevent their brains' ability to develop, but I'd like to know what the consensus is among historians.

I do a lot of alternate history mapping for fun, and was thinking of working on what would happen if the Crusades were more successful. When I was trying to figure out the effects of this, I remembered the Teutonic Knights in Königsberg. This brought up some questions.

I know the Crusaders weren't one distinct group, so were the Teutonics just a band of Crusaders? If not, where did they come from and why are they often confused with these other groups? And what about the Knights Templar?

I feel like this is one of those questions whose answer will either be directly stated somewhere or hidden beyond three layers of conjecture. I'm going to admit outright that this question is prompted by an RPG, but it's something I've actually wondered about before.

Approximately how long in terms of weeks, months etc. would it take to build something like a 2-3 story house in a late medieval/early modern town in Central Europe, with materials readily available (if not literally in a pile) and a reasonable number of hired workers? The parameters aren't too strict, so any reference you have whatsoever can be helpful for extrapolation if nothing else. Even the materials used aren't really decided, but preferably a "high quality" merchant's house as opposed to a wooden hut.

I'm not asking how long it took to build something like a castle or cathedral, but info about farmhouses etc. can be applicable.

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Rewatched Fellowship of the Ring LOTR yesterday and Aragon says that they are going into the "wilds" Were there ever "wilds" / large uninhabited areas in Europe? What I remember learning is that there were a lot of small farming towns nearly everywhere and not large areas of unused land.

Gavrilo Princip was arrested for the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in 1914 and died on 28th April 1918 from tuberculosis, caused by poor prison conditions.

Over the course of World War I, did he express any feelings about the war, which was indirectly caused by his actions, and if he did, how did he feel about it?

watching ‘saving private ryan’ and when the USA army lands at Omaha beach some of the soldiers have plastic wrap on their guns.

I can’t believe this would be true but from what I can find on the internet the movie is highly accurate

I’m re-reading Anne of Green Gables and can’t help but wonder if this was a common thing to do. It doesn’t seem that the Cuthberts formally adopted Anne. From what I have gathered the orphanage just sent her on her merry way without looking into where she was going or who she was going to. Did she become their ward? Where they legally responsible for her? I’m guessing CPS might have not been a thing at that point but this seems completely irresponsible.

Furthermore, as two childless siblings did Anne become their legal heir? Not necessarily in the book but someone in that hypothetical situation. Would a child be released from what amounts to indentured servitude when they reached 18? Where there any laws about this? Did anyone abuse this seeming lax system of handing out orphans? Has anyone written any books or articles looking into this? Luckily the Cuthberts weren’t murderers but they could have been. It’s really bothering me!

I was watching the new Spielberg film "The Post" and it opened with a war scene in Vietnam set around 1968 and it featured a song by CCR. It instantly set the mood, because it's such a common thing to relate this music to this time period/setting, but I was wondering if it's based in reality, or if it's just a Hollywood trope, used to create familiarity.

Creedence's is most famous for it's anti war song "Fortunate son" so it would surprise me if soldiers in Vietnam would listen to it. Doesn't sound like counterculture/anti-war music would be good for morale in the army.

Anyone knows something about this?

A Spanish-Language documentary on Netflix titled "Los Ninos Heroes de Chapultepec" features a collection of three Mexican and one American historian discussing the Mexican American War of 1846 to 1848. At one point, the American historian, John Mason Hart of the University of Houston, responds to a question about American attitudes during the war.

He says that "Some had very aggressive thoughts. Robert E. Lee, the future Commander in Chief of the Confederacy in the South during the American Civil War, wrote a letter that is now in Pennsylvania, saying that Mexicans should be thrown into the sea so that they could make this magnificent country our own."

I found this claim very surprising. It changes my whole image of Robert E. Lee and casts it into quite a dark perspective.

Can anybody here shed light on the letter that Professor Hart cited? Did Robert E. Lee really express such a sentiment?

So I'm reading this month's 人文历史 (National Humanity History) magazine and they have a whole bunch of articles about how Qin overcame all the other states, during the warring states period, and united China. In one paragraph they suggest that Qin's elite troops might have had steel swords instead of bronze one's for the standard troops. That made me think that if the Qin were the only state with access to steel that would have given them an obvious advantage over the other states. But I don't know. So, when was steel introduced in China and how did it spread? Did have Qin access to it, and if so did other states?

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I'm specifically referring to foreign embassies based in Washington DC, USA, but if someone has a story about their country, that would be cool too. Were there embassies for Zaire, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, East Germany etc.? Maybe even farther back, such as the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires? Were the buildings repurposed, demolished, or reassigned?

Considering how vague kill-confirming is, and different sources don’t state the same number of kills to his name.

By wrestling, I mean amateur and not the staged professional wrestling.

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I found history class really boring at school, I'm not sure why, maybe just because of how it was taught. I sort of always assumed I wouldn't be interested in it, and would just tune out when it was ever a topic of conversation. As such I have reached a point in my adult life where I know embarrassingly little about any events that happened outside of my lifetime.

I've started to read some stuff here and there, some youtube videos about world war I and some stuff about the aztecs. I'm finding it fascinating and was wondering if you guys have any recommendations for books or documentaries that would be good for people like me who know next to nothing. Or even historical fiction that's more on the accurate side? I feel like I lack an understanding of the "big picture" so when I'm reading things about a specific point in history I find it hard to put it into context if that makes sense.