When I was on holiday I had a nice discussion with someone from Belgium who mentioned that the Dutch at some point perpetrated something like the Red Wedding from A Song of Ice and Fire, where they invited the leaders of a bunch of communities for some kind of meeting, at which they proceeded to kill them wholesale, ending resistance to their colonization efforts in the region. He called it the "prinsenmoorden" which translates roughly to "murder of princes."

Now, there is a tendency in The Netherlands not to talk too much about our colonial past, so I'm not too surprised I hadn't heard about this before. But I'm having a hard time finding any information about this. Googling "prinsenmoorden" only turns up two links that have nothing to do with this, for instance. Also, the period of colonization of the Dutch East Indies spans hundreds of years, so I have no idea where to start looking. I'm really curious if anything like this happened at all, and if it did, where I can find more information about it.

I am not too well versed in world history though whenever I read any Polandball comics, they all fear Germany. Quotes like "Germany had fun once, 60 million people died" What are they referring to?

Can someone give me an outline of both the positive and negative effects the practice of Keynesian economic on the British economy in the XX century (more focusing on the period after Bretton Woods)?

The American continents are kind of overwhelmingly large. Considering this, it seems unlikely there was much population pressure akin to what Europe saw. Obviously there were phenomenal large scale settlements and cities built in the Americas as well, but I guess I'm asking in a more meta- sense. Was the 'the New World' mostly trackless wilds, or were there large regions defined by permaculture or cultivation of some kind?

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Are there any connections between the mythical character and the capital of France?

I've read everything I can find but I can't find out when the Allies found out about the parts of the Ribbentrop pact that gave the Soviet Union the eastern part of Poland and a chance to invade Finland. Was that known before 39 or was it realised after the war?

It wasn't from trees, as far as I can see.

Places like Babylon or Alexandria always look impressive in illustrations but I have to imagine they smelled of literal shit most of the time. Would early Baghdad or Cairo have been an improvement?

I want to stick to the facts -- what happened that we know of -- but I guess in the back of my mind is a "what if" fallacy: what if Napoleon just stopped all campaigns in 1810 and started consolidating the peace, reopening trade and commerce, etc. Could the French Empire have lasted?

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Hi, I'm new to this subreddit, and to give some background info I'm a student studying in Singapore and am really interested to find out more about this topic.

During World War II, Singapore was invaded by the Japanese and the British came up to defend Singapore. But the British was easily defeated, and Singapore swiftly became Syonan. So after some history classes and research, I found that the Japanese simply had better strategies of attack than we did to defend. So I want to know, what did the British do to defend us? What troops did they have, what weapons, and why did we lose so quickly? I understand the basic gist of it, but I want to learn a bit more on the subject, plus it would help for school work.

Thanks in advance for anyone who explains how we were defended, and how we were so easily conquered.

I'm really curious to learn more about this period of civil war and what lead to it, socially and politically, but I've been having a tough time finding English resources. The only book I've been able to get my hands on is Samson's A History of Japan 1334-1615. The only problem is it feels like he requires something of familiarity with the subject, as even his account of Go Daigo crams a lot of information into such little space it's easy to get lost.

Are there any equivalents to Adrian Goldsworthy's books on Roman history or Anthony Everitt's Rise of Rome, that combine social and political history as well as explaining military history in a way a complete military idiot can understand?

Thank you so much for your time!

I need help, I'm writing a book on Jack The Ripper and one of the suspects, one Dr. Francis Tumblety seems to straight up disappear after he leaves England and goes to America to evade arrest, all I can find is that he went to Rochester, then to according to the 1900 census Baltimore, then to St. Louis where he died in 1903. What can I do to find out what happened to him between 1888 and 1903? If five murders can happen in under four months a lot can happen in fifteen years. So how do I find out, if I even can.

so I found out from a historian friend of mine that Spain had a gameplan for chine and SE Asia. what were the broad plan for spain's plans to conquer china and SE Asia after getting to the California coast?

From William Muller's The Elements of the Science of War (1811)

§ 774. On the Quickness of the Fire.

1. Experience has shewn that with common small arms eleven seconds are necessary to load, and with firelocks with cylindrical or equally thick ramrods, and where the powder falls by itself, through the vent from eight to nine seconds.

2. Consequently a body of men with common firelocks may fire 4,5 times, and with such as are provided with cylindrical ramrods five or six times per minute; but as accidents will often occur to render such expeditious firing impracticable, four or five times per minute is the quickest that can be expected from common guns.

It doesn't seem like he's using an tricks like Sharpe's "tap-loading". Was six shots in a minute actually possible for 18th century infantry? Was it even possible for most infantry to reload in 12 seconds?

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