As the title says, the Basic Law established in 1949 contains Articles that allow the parliament to transfer powers to international institutions, although I'm not sure of what kind of legislation this would refer to, or how it has been used in the past. Also, is the united Federal Germany that we know today still implementing these Articles, or are they anachronistic?

It's so huge

I was reading a forum post about the witch hunts in Europe. They suggested up to a million people were killed for being witches. Admittedly the post was written with feminist undertones, but I'm wondering what the generally accepted numbers are?

I'm curious about the relationships of "everyday" subjects of these empires who lived along the river and in associated nearby settlements. How interconnected would the local economies, religious communities, or civil organizations have been? Was there considerable exchange, or did legal/martial/linguistic/other barriers typically get in the way? And how deeply were the imperial identities embedded? If the Romans and Parthians were in an active state of war, and I lived on one bank of the Euphrates, would I look over at the other bank and think "they are not citizens of this empire, and therefore enemies"? Or were the imperial wars of Trajan, Severus, Julian, etc, something carried out by other people with only a tenuous identification with me?

I'm reading Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale and she mentions the documents relating to soldiers songs or jokes that contain subversive humor or offensive material were confiscated and have yet to be released. Has there been any recent releases that would give us a glimpse into what the Soviet soldiers experience was like?

I went to Rome this summer, and everything was so big, like the Rome Colosseum, and the Pantheom.

How did they manage to do them so big and still standing over 2000 years without modern tools/machinery?

Recently I saw a picture contrasting the sizes of European and Chinese ships in the mentioned period. I know that China was a very developed and powerful country during this period, and I thought, why China did not organize expeditions similar to expeditions led by Magellan or Columbus? I would be glad to hear answers from both historical and economic perspectives. Also, sorry for my english.

I was reading about the old Empire of Mali, and it made constant references to it being the dominant political power in the western part of the Sudan, which confused me as I thought Sudan was on the eastern coast by Ethiopia. It turns out there are two separate geographical entities which go by the same name, and I was wondering if there is any history which links together the names.

This one is inspired by a discussion on the Mod team: A lot of historians study particularly violent periods. With violence, there is often this attitude of "I know it when I see it" but what defines violence? What is violence?

For example, does the modern state apply a different form of violence than previous political communities? Is a stateless society capable of violence on a structural level? What sort of violence does exist beyond states? Just the one between personal actors or can an institution exact violence?

Share your examples and ideas from your own study and tell us how you approach violence.

I believe that I've read that his body was taken to Alexandria by Ptolemy- and that it could still be buried there, or it could possibly have been taken by a Roman emperor later on. Is there any really good theory or evidence of a hypothesized burial location?

Hey all, I've always wondered why Hitler decided to send troops to attack North Africa and Russia? Would it not make more sense to keep his army together at least until Europe was completely conquered? I can't see the strategic sense in this. Surely it just weakened his overall force and showed other countries that Hitler was aggressive and therefore in their best interest to join the allies?

While my high school course insisted on how economic disparity fueled ethnic tensions in Quebec during the industrial revolution, walking through Montreal sometimes tells the story of a very existent francophone bourgeoisie. How big was that upper class when compared the Anglophone upper class of the city and the province?

I came across a letter online supposedly sent by the Ottoman Sultan to the Cossacks of Ukraine. In it the Ottoman emperor gives himself the title among others of "brother of the sun and moon". Apparently this letter is considered by some to be a forgery so I have to ask; did the Ottomans ever use this title and if so what did it refer to? Was their any theological or historical reasoning behind it or did it just sound cool?

Edit: thank you all for your insight. Really interesting stuff

The maintance and campaigns of his military must have cost a large part of France's gdp, beginning with 1805, when at the peak of his preparations to invade England he formed the Grand Armée. He also had a large navy, though the ships were mainly held in port through the British blockades, but everything was in top order and equiped. By 1810/12 the Grand Armée was fighting in eastern Europe as far as Russia, Germany, Portugal. Needed guns, artillery, uniforms, tents, boots, provisions...

So, how did he do? Could France afford this for very much longer? How hard were the blockades of important ports hitting French trade with her colonies?

Did the Rheinbund, Italy and others pay tribute or taxes?

And allow me one more: How well was the French economy doing when the man from Corsica took over?

In the Korean War, the US outflanked much of the North Korean Army by launching a naval invasion at Inchon. This allowed them to advance towards the Chinese Border, and likely would have won the war had the Chinese not intervened. Given that Vietnam also had a long coastline, why did the US not navally invade to outflank the NVA forces, or even attack the North itself from the sea? What factors made this impossible?

I'm particularly interested in the serfs and burghers, but if there's a different answer for the nobility, I'd love to hear that as well. Did any of them call themselves Roman? Did those of them who were learned enough venerate figures like Caesar and Cicero as their cultural forebearers? How did they feel about the Byzantines?