Why is it that Muslims are opposed to the depiction of Muhammad but many name their children Muhammad, whereas many Christians are opposed to naming their children Jesus but like depictions of Jesus?

Sorry about the ridiculously long title. Did Iconoclasts name their children Jesus?

Edit: please stop sending me old links. I've received them many times.

5 Answers 2016-11-23

What interactions did occupying US Troops have with the Yakuza in Japan after the end of WWII?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

Why did Sweden join the Coalition after Bernadotte became Crown Prince? What did Bernadotte think about having to fight his former comrades and superiors?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

"Prussian noblemen and still more Prussian officers were traditionally anti-Semitic" were prussians really anti semitic? if so why?

I was reding this review: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1977/02/17/imperial-germanys-jewish-banker/

And this two quotes got my attention:

"Prussian noblemen and still more Prussian officers were traditionally anti-Semitic"

"In the 1880s a new demagogic anti-Semitism developed"

This made me wonder how far back does antisemitism go in germany? and what does this "new demagogic anti-semitism" was about and why did it started?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

Travelers, missionaries, scientists, and colonial administrators' accounts of non-Europeans in 17-18th century were generally not racist. But a century later, we got statement such as, "Negroes had never progressed beyond utter barbarism." What happened?

Although people have always thought Europeans are the better people and see Europe as superior civilization, people weren't generally racist back in 17th-18th century.

We have de Gerando for example who said, "human nature was fundamentally the same in all times and places," that although Europe is the single best civilizations, he noted, "all humans could achieve and enjoy" the same degree of superiority if they're willing to learn. There were also George Forster, who argued universalism but still recognized local differences.

But in 19th century, statements such as this from Georges Cuvier seem to be more common,

There are ... certain intrinsic causes which seem to arrest the progress of certain races, even in the most favorable [environmental] circumstances. ... The civilization of the Mongolian race had remained stationary and that Negroes had never progressed beyond utter barbarism.

What happened in a century? What theological and philosophical paradigm changed?

2 Answers 2016-11-23

Among the Germanic tribes of the late Iron Age how did the warrior-aristocracy and the Tribe King acquire the mundane foods, goods, and services required for everyday living?

Through reading this Subreddit and other sources I have a fair view of how the cattle/craft wealth of the farmstead Village Communities was created and passed around among them, and how the "Gold/Prestige economy" of the warrior-elite functioned, but I am unclear how the warrior-aristocracy, local strongman, and the King acquired the foodstuffs and provisions for everyday living, if there was no formal taxation or tribute giving, and if there was no mechanism for "buying" these goods with gold, etc. Were the members of aristocracy generally large land owners with tenant farmers or slave labour that provided these kinds of goods to them? Any clarification is greatly appreciated, thank you.

1 Answers 2016-11-23

Why wasn't NATO disbanded after the dissolution of the USSR?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

How did Margaret Thatcher change national identity in the UK?

I've read several articles about Thatcher's policies, and i've learnt about the fact that she instaured a society of personnal ambitions and really made a property owning democracy. I understand that she made a transition between and industrial economy which revolves around steel and coal to a service economy, but I can't seem to find anything more about how she influenced today's British society.

1 Answers 2016-11-23

How were British villages named and why were they named as they were?

I am wondering about the etymology of certain village/town names in England and Scotland. In the USA, most city names are taken from European city names or people's names. But in Britain, there are place names such as Nether Wallop, Upton Snodsbury, Pucklechurch, Papplewick, and my personal favorite, Great Snoring. Now my question is, how were these places named, and who decided to name these places?

Edit: Also, what led to the use of common prefixes/suffixes or similarities in names (such as - chester, lots of dashes, blank upon blank, etc.)?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

What's the real history of Thanksgiving?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

Opium was hot stuff in 19th century England. What effect did this have on culture and society?

Browsing the OED (hush you now), I notice a whole lot of "opium X" expressions noted from the very late 18th into the mid 19th century, mostly related to opium consumption and its problems (opium den, opium sky, opium-shattered, etc.). I understand the timing in the general context of trade and Chinoiserie, but how did all this opium consumption affect people's lives and the overall nature/direction of contemporary English society and culture? Like, did opium dens become "the room where it happened," or did people escape there because opium made them the room where nothing happened and if so was this seen as a problem, etc.

(I am not looking for a primer on the Opium Wars/maneuvering to legalize the opium trade.)

1 Answers 2016-11-23

When did people in Iceland realize that the Americas were where Leif Ericsson landed?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

WW2 Allied combat effectiveness vs length of service

I heard that during the 1940s, the allies did various estimates of how long a soldier would remain combat effective, with the US estimating ~250 days and the British (whose troops had longer rest periods) ~400 days...but how did this mesh with the length of service?

What I mean is, the vast majority of soldiers were conscripted for the duration of the war so how did the armies take the reduction of combat effectiveness into account?

Did they just accept that soldiers would be worse after X days or was it possible to reset the soldiers by retraining etc (or giving them extended leave periods etc)?

In ideal circumstances would they have demobilised troops who had reached this cut off point?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

Wednesday What's New in History | November 23, 2016

Previous weeks!

This weekly feature is a place to discuss new developments in fields of history and archaeology. This can be newly discovered documents and archaeological sites, recent publications, documents that have just become publicly available through digitization or the opening of archives, and new theories and interpretations.

1 Answers 2016-11-23

When Belgians were committing atrocities in Congo, did they use the usual colonial justifications?

By usual colonial justifications, I mean the whole business with 'civilising the savages' narrative that most colonial powers seem to have adopted.

1 Answers 2016-11-23

Does the German Word Kaiser come from Caesar

1 Answers 2016-11-23

The Mongol Empire is lauded for having safety, consistency of laws and lack of trade barriers offered to merchants within the large empire. Did these 'positives' create long-term prosperity? What was the net outcome of the Mongol conquests on human advancement?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

In the wikipedia article about the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, it is mentioned that the Soviets used biological warfare against the Japanese. Is this true?

Hello AskHistorians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol

According to the wikipedia article "Furthermore, up to 30% of the total casualties were due the dysentery which Japanese believed was delivered by Soviet biological-warfare aerial bombs, as confirmed by laboratory testing. To reduce susceptibility to this form of biological warfare and to wage the biological warfare on their own, future Japanese divisions will commonly include a specialized Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Departments."

However there seems to be no sources attributed to this, and I have not been able to find any other sources that talk about Soviet biological warfare at this battle.

1 Answers 2016-11-23

What were the economic/social/political causes of the Salem Witch Trials?

I'm writing an essay about the trials but I'm too broke to buy any books at the moment and many of the books I would need are not available in my country's libraries. I'm not asking you guys to write my essay for me but it would be awesome if someone could give me some secondary source quotes and possibly direct me at relevant primary sources. I'm particularly interested in 'Salem Possessed' by Boyer and Nissenbaum, John Demos' study and Carol F. Karlsen's 'The Devil in the Shape of a Woman'.

2 Answers 2016-11-23

Why was Andrew Johnson considered the 17th POTUS?

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1 Answers 2016-11-23

Who did people compare politicians to before Hitler?

Nowadays everyone is pretty much literally Hitler, but at some point people must've been comparing politicians to someone else. Who was Hitler bring compared to when he was rising to power?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

Did the Byzantines ever experiment or use gunpowder weaponry?

Is there any mention at all?

1 Answers 2016-11-23

What types of architecture was common among native Americans before the colonizers arrived?

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1 Answers 2016-11-23

NATO's Cold War strategy has been described as "fight like hell for three days, then blow up the world." How did they come to the conclusion that they could only hold out with conventional arms for a few days?

The early Cold War took place during a time in which atomic weapons had to be loaded onto bombers, and which only had yields in the dozens of kiloton range. It was only after the introduction of hydrogen bombs and ICBMs that people began to consider the end of the world as a plausible outcome for a war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

By the time "blow up the world" could have been shorthand for a full nuclear exchange with a doubtful outcome for human civilization, both NATO and the USSR were in a very different place, in terms of military technology, than they had been at the end of the WW2. That being the case, with little evidence of how both sides would fare with their updated equipment and tactics, how did NATO planners go about assessing the probable outcomes of a major conventional clash in Europe? Prior to WW2, many generals profoundly misunderstood the tank, it's implications, limitations, and how to best use it. With the introduction of new weapons like attack helicopters, ATGMs, and so on, how could war planners not avoid the same mistakes that were made in assessing how a war with second generation tanks would be fought?

To boil it down: how did they decide that the conventional conflict would last for less than a week before NATO found it necessary to deploy tactical nuclear weapons (with a plausible escalation to a strategic exchange occurring almost immediately thereafter)?

2 Answers 2016-11-23

During WW2 Germany, Italy and Japan all had vague notions of an imminent overpopulation crisis which required they obtain more land for their people. Why was this?

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1 Answers 2016-11-23

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