Though obviously there was a lot of smuggling down there, I'm sure there was a load in other places too. I'm wondering if there was a particular reason for this being the stock "pirate" accent.

We're usually taught about Hannibal's crossing of the Alps and a few major tactically genius battles against the Romans, climaxing with Cannae, but, afterwards, we tend to only remember the battle of his defeat, Zama. That's more than a decade of an enemy army in the homeland. How did he survive so long there, what did he and his army do? I understand that his plan was to convince Rome's allies to leave them and assist him, but how was that meant to be achieved during the time after Cannae?

Since 1776, has there ever been an attempted coup d'état or any conspiracy suggesting such a thing, except for the civil war of 1861?

or, a Question I Would Not Ask the Wider Reddit Community

Even with the different ways that genders and gender roles are constructed in various cultures, it certainly seems like many/most have some form of patriarchy. Is this a false impression? Is it, near as we can tell, just a coincidence?

Movies always have leaders and generals leading the charge into battle in the very front of their army, but this just doesn't seem very smart. You'd think that if they would do this, then they'd get killed early on in the battle.

What is the best book on the rise of the Fascist Parties in Italy and Spain?

Which book would you recommend on this topic that would be good for a person who already has books on their shelf by Francis Fukuyama and Niall Ferguson? I.e. I need an honest and mostly neutral/objective account, rather than one that leans on the editorial or moralizing.

Thanks!

I have a colleague in the UC system right now who is going berserk over the fact that His Holiness is invited as a commencement speaker at UCSD.

I fully understand why people in the West love and adore him. I also understand on a basic level why the Chinese hate him. But I'm not understanding the details of how Chinese have been inculcated to find him a traitor and terrorist (she's equating him to Bin Laden.)

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I would have guessed it was mostly young families and married couples?

I'm Mexican by nationality. However, according to my DNA test 70% of my ancestors came from Europe and 30% were Indigenous Mexicans.

This book has become so relevant in recent years. Did the people in 1984 agree? Were authoritarian government policies criticised as Orwellian as they are today?

When watching Michael Bay's "pearl Harbor", I remember hearing a sailor shouting "I can't swim!"

Did the average WWII sailor know how to swim, and if not, when did swimming become mandatory to learn?