In mid-1944, the Allies had already cleared the Axis out of Africa and made significant advances in Italy. On top of this, Soviet forces were making fantastic gains on the Eastern front, well-assisted by Allied lend-lease and intelligence. As far as I've read on the Internet, the Red Army was virtually unstoppable by the Nazis at this point in the war.

Why, then, were two massive, costly amphibious invasions (Operations Overlord and Dragoon) undertaken on the Western front? Could the Allies not have simply rushed for Germany through the rest of Italy or, presumably better, allowed the Soviets to simply defeat Germany using Allied supply and diversion of Germany in Italy?

From the papacy of Adrian VI in 1522 to the election of John Paul II in 1978, every Pope was Italian. Was it a conscious decision for the Popes to be exclusively Italian? Are there any historical or political reasons this was the case?

Wanting to go to college this fall for history. I have always loved history and want to make a career out of it. Going into the question. Does the job need a college degree? What's the best / worst part of your day? What's the hours & pay like? What's the average day like?

I read that president Roosevetl and diplomat William Bullit pressured the government of Poland not to accept any offer of Germany to get the city of Danzig. Why?

Did that provoke the Second World War or did Hitler already instigate a war in Europe?

I'm asking about the Great War. The Russian army famously "voted for peace with its feet"; but before they did, they'd battered the Austrian army to the point where much of its front just gave way to the Brusilov offensive. The Italians essentially collapsed at Caporetto and never really recovered; it's just as well for them they were fighting the Austrians who were not in much better shape.

The French had their mutinies after the Nivelle offensive; and even the Germans finally surrendered in part because their army was refusing to hold the line any more, although some units fought stubbornly until the end. How did the British avoid this? They were in it from the start, and mass-mobilised from sometime in 1915; so it's not a question of having been a short time in the war, as with the American army.

If the US hated fascists and communists equally, then why was not the USSR criticized as much as Nazi Germany?

Curious if this was a documented issue in the last 100, 1000+ years. I was just thinking about the one coming up in August and how I need to tell my kids not to stare at it.

Additonally, if I am incorrect in my belief that Paul probably didn't know Jesus then please correct me.

As the early church could be very fractious I would imagine that at least someone will have said to Paul 'well you didn't actually meet Jesus in the flesh like Peter, Andrew etc'. Did it undermine Paul and did he address it?

Most interesting would be the length and timing of sleep. I would assume that they would be mainly dependent on the sun? Did they maybe nap in the afternoon?

I guess these are not questions which are easy to answer, so thank you to everybody for contributing.

Also, would Vikings usually have had wives and children before they sailed out? Put another way, can modern Scandinavians truly be said to be the descendants of Vikings, or did the actual Vikings leave most of their descendants elsewhere?

Additionally, does anyone have suggestions on layperson-accessible books on the history of fae folklore and any of its real-world causes/consequences/etc?

As in if you're British the Battle that you'd know of, or be taught in schools, is the Battle of the Somme. But plenty of British soldiers died at other battles like Paschendale or Ypres?

Similarly with the French and Verdun, or the Australians and Gallipoli, or Canadians and Vimy Bridge..

Why have these specific battles become iconic national memories? was there an educational/political push to promote certain battles? Were there specific factors that made some of those battles stronger in the cultural memory?

What about battles that were forgotten, like the British in Iraq - why were those battles forgotten?

Thanks!

The US government ratified the Constitution in 1789. Since then, it has not been overthrown or changed to a new system of government. I wouldn't consider the American Civil War as violating these conditions, as the US government was never destroyed.

Meanwhile, German Democratic Republic Federal Republic of Germany dates to 1949, the People's Republic of China to 1949, the French Fifth Republic to 1958, Japan (under its current constitution) to 1947, etc. Why did destabilizing wars, revolts, coups, etc. never topple the US government?

It seems that much of the major excavations in the field were conducted in the 19th to early 20th century. King 'Tut', in 1922, is one of the last tombs uncovered in the Valley of the Kings, with only KV63 uncovered since. The tools and techniques then in use pale in comparison to what we have now, and the ethics also seem to leave something lacking. Given the enormous volume of work that took place in that period, laying what seems to be most of the foundation of the entire discipline, do we have a sense of what was lost? How have Egyptologists dealt with this since then? Has recent technological advances been able to recover information previously lost, such as using imaging tech to see things that were destroyed or erased due to poor handling?

Lets say during the reign of Trajan, (98-117ad), how many pitched battles would a roman soldier participate in? Would it vary heavily based on location/position?

Usually a country name is spelled pretty similar in most languages, but the name of Germany is very different: Germany (English), Deutschland (Germany), Alemania (Spanish), Tyskland (Danish).

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