WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!

2017 is still four precious years away from the date that our 20 year moratorium on discussion of recent events will become the 21 year rule (then to become the 22 year rule, then 23...).

Therefore, we are pleased to announced that AskHistorians is now open for business to discuss:

• the Algerian Civil War and ceasefire

• Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov at chess

• The U.S. Supreme Court, average age 63, rules Internet porn is constitutional

• Whether Han shot first

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Harry Potter

• the Toyota Prius

• ...and the Teletubbies

May the new year bring you health, wealth, and the acquisition of wondrous historical knowledge!

If they did consider themselves to be slaves, why were they loyal to the sultan? Did they ever try to overthrow the sultan?

According to Wikipedia, Togo Shigenori married a German woman in 1922. In 1937, he was sent to Berlin as Japan's ambassador to Germany. Was there any reaction or controversy by the German government to the fact that he was married to an "aryan" woman, which was a serious crime for a "non-aryan" person at the time, according to Germany's racial laws?

I know that the Nazis considered the Japanese as "honorary aryans" for the alleged racial purity, but that would not allow mixing of Japanese and German "blood", according to the Nazi's racist ideology, would it?

My guess would be that the Nazis simply ignored it for political reasons. Is there any information this matter even came up?

I've been doing a lot of research about current neo-nazi groups and their history in Western Europe and the United States, and I haven't been able to fully grasp how the ideas of Naziism survived post WWII and took root in western civilization. I know there were always Nazi sympathizers in both regions, but it seems like there has to be more to the story than that?

I posted over at /r/NoStupidQuestions but was recommended by a user to post here.

Follow up question: who did Genghis Khan look up to?

I'm specifically looking for a sudden increase in things like psychic readings, palm readings, fortune telling... Basically things along those lines. And I'm curious if the Japanese culture saw any periods of these kinds of things spiking in popularity between the time of the two wars. Thanks so much for anyone that provides some good insight here, it's very much appreciated.

I've been looking into the Russian Revolution, because I find it really interesting, and cool, and I came across a group called the Green Movement. What were they? And how did they affect the larger war?

Was it because they wanted to extend their sphere of control or something? It seems like they were so aggressive with regard to proxy wars and spy-craft. Did they consider it a moral imperative (ie: they believed it was the correct political/economic system, therefor they felt compelled to spread Communism)?

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In 1997 divorce was legalized in Ireland. I was surprised to learn as late as 1986 proposals to legalize were voted down by a margin of 25%.

Was there a large amount of divorces in the period after it was legalized? I imagine many people just separated from spouses but it wasn't acknowledged by the government prior to this? Were there any shocking divorces among politicians, celebrities or the like that immediately wanted one? Perhaps that had rocky marriages that had been kept from the public?

My dad is under the impression that there were more black plantation owners than white, but we're out and about right now so I can't exactly look a ton of stuff up. He's also the type to claim that media is flawed unless it agrees with him, so the closer to primary sources, the better. Older stuff also works too because it's harder to refute for some reason.

Or if I'm the wrong one feel free to tell me and TIL.

So ive read a lot about the Ships of the line, employed by the European Powers during the 17th-19th Century.

I dont remember the name, but one of Swedens Battleships was allegedly the largest for a couple of years. I found this to be quite strange though. Why should a Battleship be the largest ship? It doesn't make sense from our modern perspective. No matter how large you build these carriers theyre always dwarfed by the oil tankers etc.

So i was wondering: how did the Trading and Cargo ships of this time look like? How small / big were these?

Like, in square miles.