Whenever people point to the fact that from 2000 years ago there is a limited collection of recorded history, I always wonder why then does Pompeii have so much written around it? Surely if the average man could write a love poem to a prostitute, another could have written a daily diary? Was is only down to the scarcity of paper?

I teach Spanish in the UK, normally focussing on grammar and literature. However, I've been asked to provide a crash course on Spanish history for an American student. Her grounding in Latin American history is already good for a student at her level, however her knowledge of Spanish and European history is less well-grounded. She is also new to the idea of Spain as a nation containing many distinct regions.

• What key events and texts would you highlight when time is limited?
• Can a coherent narrative be formed around Spain as a whole?
• Or is it necessary to focus on one region (Castile, Catalonia, Andalusia, and even Portugal) at a time?
• How far can the history of Spain be taught independent of a broader knowledge of European history??

In short, I would be grateful for any advice on how to structure "the history of Spain" for a seventeen-year-old (whose Spanish language skills are already quite good).

Many thanks in advance for any assistance provided.

I heard it was made by Daniel Decatur Emmet and that it was spread along with blackface. Is this true?

Austria had an dominant position in the Empire for a very long time , yet they were not given the elector title. Why was that ? Why did they not declare themselves elector after becoming the Emperor ?

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Looking through Wikipedia's masses of articles on 2nd millennium noblewomen, a significant minority became nuns. Why was this? IIRC, the main reason for marrying off noble daughters was alliances, so the obvious explanation is that their families ran out of good options. However, I doubt this is the case as surely women could always marry down socially, meaning that there would always be masses of local nobles. Was this taboo for some reason? Is the reason something else entirely?

P.S. I'm especially (but by no means exclusively) thinking of Marie I, Countess of Boulogne, and Helena and Margaret of Austria.

My father served on this ship during Vietnam and has stories I'd like to give him dates for. Thanks in advance.

I love this time period, and I've noticed some seemingly conflicting information on this subject.

I've seen a couple of off-hand references that seem to indicate that the Roman Emperor appointed bishops. But that doesn't explain how bishops were chosen outside of the Roman Empire. And there were examples of multiple "anti-bishops", usually from heretical sects, who claimed authority in the same city at the same time. I even know of at least one bishop being chosen by popular acclaim from among the local citizens (St. Ambrose).

If anyone can clarify this for me, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

Chewing through /u/cthulhushrugged's excellent History of China Podcast currently, there's a repeated theme of empress dowagers overreaching with their power leading to the downfall of a dynasty, in particular during the centuries of disunity starting with Eastern Han. I recall there was an instance in Jin (?) Dynasty where the empress dowager actually need to sign off for an imperial edict to take effect. What official capacity do Empress Dowagers had in Imperial China that allowed for such power grab to take place?

Powerful empress dowagers are always portrayed very poorly, is that purely propaganda, or there's something to it?

I've seen various references to Julius Caesar being accused of war crimes by senators. What were these crimes, what kind of punishment could be expected and were accusations of war crimes commonplace? I'm assuming they were something quite different to our modern post-hague/geneva idea of war crimes and possibly related to the legality of Caesar's wars and profiteering but assumptions are no good.

It seems that the past couple decades brought about plenty of celebrities being "Knighted". Is there a specific history relevant to actors/musicians becoming knights over war-heroes?

They could have stalled or started a resistance against Japan during both wars, but they ended up ordering their army and navy to stand down both times and let the Japanese occupy Korea. The Japanese murdered the queen of Korea in 1895 and they still didn't resist or fight back.

It was my understanding that the rebellion was the first show of force between white and black so against the planter class. After they been suppressed the ruling elite were afraid of such a rebellion is occurring again and introduced was that separated and stratified The races with different treatment under the law.

When traced back to Latin

Utilize : Utile

Use : Uti

So even in* Latin it seems like it may have originally been slang, neh?

I got into a bit of a discussion with my wife (who has a B.S. in world history and a masters in ancient Korean history) about the concept of the [middle ages]. I am nowhere near as accomplished with only basic and introductory level knowledge of world history along with pieces of information i've gathered from my time surfing the internet.

She takes the side of one of her professors that it is an inaccurate way to describe a period of time (nearly 1000 years) that was full of advancement (knowledge and technology) and important events that it creates a sort of misnomer to call it "the middle ages". Also that it spans a period of time that many historians can't fully agree on the start and end of its dates.

I argue that while there was some advancement, the painfully slow spread of the technology (for example gunpowder from china to Europe) coupled with the insanely large numbers of population death from the black plague, genghis kahn's kingdom, china's conquests, the catholic and jewish crusades, and the destruction of libraries and scientific publications by the spanish inquisition that much of that time period is lost to history and large parts of the scientific growth had to be recreated. I argue that many of these events compounded on top of each other slowing the cultural and scientific growth of the known world during that millennia.

My question is: Is she correct in saying that "the middle ages" is a misnomer and should be taught differently? Or is it accurate enough to describe that time period?

edit: words for clarity.

The TV show Black Sails is coming to an end soon. This last season has been a build up the pirates' motivation for freedom from Britain's rule. They intend to start a war with Britain to gain this freedom by force. They are attempting to build up enough troops and money to make this feasible. These events take place around 1720. The American Revolution doesn't officially begin until 1765. Now, I know the 13 colonies didn't just wake up one day in 1765 and say, "Golly, I sure don't like England much anymore." That sentiment had to have been building for some time. Is the idea of revolt attributed to any particular group or event? How right or (very likely) wrong is Black Sails. My American public schooling has me thinking it was nearly all taxation based, but I have a feeling it was much more than that.

So in the civil war union snipers and crackshots were given green uniforms. So that brings up a question: Why weren't all soldiers given green uniforms? Wouldn't it make more sense to give every soldier a green uniform so the overall performance of the army increases?

Hello, it seems most texts in my local library (and even the suggested reads on this subreddit) deal with Ireland post-Norman invasion so I'm going to have to commit to purchasing some books. I would appreciate any suggestions on books and authors that detail the culture and society of Ireland before English rulers started asserting power over the island.

North Africa starting from Tunisia and going west was firmly part of the Western Roman Empire for the better part of several centuries. Gaul, Iberia, and even modern Romania were almost completely Latinized by the time Rome fell. Was North Africa similar, or were the Berber languages more widespread?

I understand Morocco is the first nation to recognize America as it's own sovereign country, but what was the last nation? I understand it's possible that there are nations that still do not recognize the United States (I'm not sure if there are) but what was the last one to do so?

anywhere on earth

Also, when was it that getting a clean shaved face became a regular event?