The US military has laws that essentially say that everyone has a duty to ignore unlawful orders, and if you follow unlawful orders you will be held accountable for your actions. Did the German military in the 1930's have a similar law or code?

With the earliest films being produced in the early 1950s, that would have been less than a decade after defeat so it seems Japan's military would still be depleted. During the 60's the Japanese military was depicted even more advanced with space-aged ships and experimental weapons. I know these movies are comedic but as a child seeing the military operate in these films always astounded me and lead me to believe they were the most advanced fighting force on the planet. What was the real state of the Japanese military during the era of this films though. Also what was up with their fascination of giant robots? Did people at time really think giant mechs would be the future of war?

When did the whole concept of insurance come about? Would a peasant be able to afford medicine or surgery? Where would they go if they were sick or injured?

During the invasion of Normandy, I've read about multiple instances where the allied attack was stalled or bottlenecked in part due to the Germans intentionally flooding certain areas.

What I don't have are the details - the books I've ready so far say 'the Germans flooded X' and leave it at that. My question is, when and how did they do this? Was it done quickly in response to the invasion or was it done months or years beforehand as part of preparing the coastal defenses? And how did they get the water there - was there an irrigation effort to divert rivers or what?

And finally, was this a new defensive tactic? I don't recall reading much about similar intentional flooding in other campaigns.

Was settlement further inland encouraged? In the piedmont region? Across the Appalachians?

Apparently c. 1850 there were over forty breweries in St. Louis, thanks to the sizable population of German immigrants. That is a highly competitive field that AB had to muscle into when they began operations in 1852. What led to their expansion and success as opposed to one of the other numerous breweries in the city?

After reading Band of Brothers over again, I've been very curious about more veteran recounts of combat. Ambrose's portrayal of combat was stunning and based on recounts from vets, but I'm dying for more.

If I remember correctly, the name "Bizantine Empire" was first use by a 19th century historian.

how did they call themselfs during their long history?

How did the other Medieval powers (both European and Muslim) call it?

As a follow up, when did they become the world standard?

though Wikipedia details the changes in armor reasonably enough, i can't find any information about the advancements in smithing and metallurgy that allowed those improvements, and whether at all they were the result of such advancements or just cultural changes, necessity, or a better armor construction. sorry if it's a bit broad.

There's an often repeated story about how Hollywood was established because Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company was based on the East Coast and filmmakers fleed to California to escape it.
Example, from /r/askreddit:

The Motion Picture Patents Company which tried to monopolized the American film industry with their patents over film technology (projectors, cameras, film stock, etc) and placed restrictions on content of the films, notably with lengths. For most of his history, it only allowed films that were 1 or 2 reels long (some independent and foreign filmmakers at this time were beginning to experiment with feature length films). While the courts were a primary means of forcing policies, they patent company was known to send thugs to productions that didn't make a licensing agreement with the company. This company was based in New Jersey which was significant in why the courts in California didn't tend to enforce their patents as they felt the patents did not apply to their jurisdiction. Worst case scenario, the escaping filmmakers could escape to Mexico if something changed. The patent company fell hard after their last patent expired in 1913 and collapsed shortly after losing an antitrust case in court in 1915.

Is there any truth to it?

Does anyone know any good books about early 20th century China or just about the Warlord era? Or even about specific Warlord groups. I was reading the Wikipedia last night and a lot of stuff happened in China 1912-1950, too much for it to be effectively condensed. Thank you.

What would the average process have been like? Or did it vary too much to really give an answer?

Apart from the obvious, the danger of the creation of a 'Greater Serbia' and subsequent loss of Austro-Hungarian territory, were there any other reasons? Perhaps the fact that other ethnic groups in the empire would also start demanding independence?

Nowadays we perceive time with a clock, and dates with a calendar. However, back in the time people had, supposedly, a different rhythm of life, and they had different calendars -as far as I know-.

What I mean to ask is, how did they perceive time and dates? Did they mostly think in seasons or were dates such as birthdays important to them?

How did he portray it to the Confederation of the Rhine, the Prussians, the Austrians, etc. if not as something simply in furtherance of French interests?

Why did they join him? What was in it for them?

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