I am mostly trying to understand the historical reasoning for, what seems to me to be, the Sikh martial tradition, which primarily seems to take a defensive focus. I figured that if anything will have influenced Sikh militarisation, it would have been the empire within which most of them lived.

An additional, appreciated aside would be if you could explain how this tradition changed in the era of the Raj.

I was thinking about this today, people who used to be royals Kings, Queens or Emperors had to have been filthy rich. When they abdicated the throne or the crown, surely they must have held on to their money.

1. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm of the House of Hohenzollern
2. The Hapsburgs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
3. Greece's Glücksburg Royal Family

Or even going into European royalty that wasn't a king or queen or emperor, but still was royal such as:

4. The German House of Fürstenberg

Those are just examples, I'm not necessarily only talking about them (although it would be nice if anybody could update me on how those particular families are keeping their wealth).

But more generally speaking, how are these families keeping their wealth, is everybody trust fund babies? Have European ex-royalty families gone broke before and eventually start having to live like normal people? At what point do the families become so large that they have to start cutting other family members off from the family wealth?

Or sort of alright history?

They highlight the boycott of the UN Partition Plan but that wasn’t enforced at all, which spiralled into a mess that has yet to be resolved

I’m curious to see if this has ever been done before and how the public reacted

It confuses me why it took so long as late WWII for major militaries to employ APCs on a large scale. It seems really obvious in hindsight.

Did kingdoms in ancient Africa have highly trained warriors like that of Europe and Asia? If so what were they called, how were they trained, and what country were they from?

Did Caesar write it out himself, or dictate to a scribe? Were there publishers who would take in his manuscript, have it copied, and sell the copies for a profit, or did he have to arrange the copies and distribution himself? How many copies were made, and how did they get into the hands of the audience?

Hello! I've been struggling to find many examples of Dutch armor and armaments throughout history, the furthest back I can find is 30 Years War, but I've been struggling to find any examples past that, so, I'm wondering if there's any reason for this, did the Dutch not make much for armor and armaments before gaining independence from Spain? or would much of what they used be qualified as armor and armaments for the HRE (that is, while they were still under their domain)?

tl;dr, why isn't there much for early armor and armaments from the Netherlands? They were in a good amount of wars, why isn't there much to display this?

I am presently reading Paul Strathern's "Napoleon in Egypt" and am reading about how Napoleon's forces had bought back some of the men that had been captured by Bedouins. The following passage piqued my interest;

He asked one of the returned prisoners,"How did they treat you?" whereupon the man dissolved into tears. "Why are you crying?" demanded Napoleon.

Between sobs, the man explained that they had been subjected to what Bourienne tactfully describes as "the treatment so well known in the Orient."

"You big booby," remonstrated Napoleon, "That's not too bad. Serves you right for falling behind the column. You should thank heaven for having come out of it so lightly. Now stop blubbing and answer my question."

But as Bourienne drily observed, "the little time that he had spent amongst the Arabs, and the way they had treated him, had prevented him from making the least observation, and he was unable to tell his commander anything at all."

What was this treatment, and how could it be so famous and terrible that it could reduce a military man to uncontrolled sobbing, yet Napoleon would dismiss it so readily?

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I heard a commercial on the radio the other day while driving and the voice over guy used the suffix on a random word and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I didn’t know the practical use of it so I was wondering if anyone knows. Thanks!

I recently found out about the the Cloud People of Chachapoya, who are primarily described as white skinned, blonde hair tribe wiped out by war and plagues in the 16th century. Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de Leon described them as "the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have ever seen, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incans' wives and also be taken to the Sun Temple". It was also stated that the Cloud People were taller than the Spaniards. Does anybody have any more info on this tribe? Could they have possible been of descendents of lost European sailors, or Viking expansion?

For some reason for my entire life I have always had trouble understanding the origins of World War I, especially as to how the assassination of one person could lead to a world war. Recently I was asked by my son about this, so I decided I had better finally understand it better.

I can see why Austria-Hungary might want a war with Serbia. And I can see why Germany might back up Austria-Hungary. And I can see why Russia might go to war to defend Serbia. But why would Germany at the same time want to declare war on France? What would be the ultimate goal in such a war?

Thank in advance for any helpful answers.

The New World became common knowledge in Europe only after Christopher Columbus "discovered" it. Surely they had to have an accurate guess of the circumference of the Earth then, too. So was Columbus over-packed when he made his voyage, as though he expected there to be more ocean beyond when he actually made landfall?

Pretty much what the title says. I know that his daughter said that he had a strict diet and that he didn't eat sweets but is that really all proof that he didn't eat them?

disbelief? doubt? derision?

did any of them take it seriously?

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It is said that Alexandros III and his successor dynasties did this a lot with their cavalry, the reasoning being that hitting first one, then before they could surround him the other two hit from his sides a little behind the lead thrust, then three and four and the like.

Even later it is said that there were rhomboid shaped formations that broke up into two wedges. Left-Right or North-South, the leads being on the central horizontal line supposedly if I remember correctly.

Is this actually feasible or if you have a wedge the most likely thing is that you are dead before even hitting your front enemy since you are focusing everyone else's attention on you by at least one second before those behind you have the chance to harm them?

“To impart new sensations to a hardened palate a moderate use of Mequano is reccommended, but long-continued use of this tipple results in the complete shattering of the nervous system.

The manufacture of Mequano is carried on principally in Honolulu. Native coffee is roasted and crushed, then mixed with an equal part by weight of mollasses and water. The mass is allowed to ferment and the wine is then distilled.”