I am a child in the Middle Ages, what is my life like?

2 Answers 2016-09-04

Mecca and Medina are closed off to non-Muslims. Is this a recent rule put in by the Al-Saud or have non-Muslims always been prohibited from entering the two holy cities?

3 Answers 2016-09-04

I know Germany was excluded from the Treaty of Versailles at the of WW1 but did they even have any requests for their surrender (e.g. "we'll shrink the military if you let us keep X territories" or "help us rebuild", etc.)?

And if so, why were they treated so harshly, i mean even France should've known the terrible effect the reparations would have on the German economy? Didn't Wilson even warn about punishing Germany too hard?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

What was Hitlers justification for taking the Czech lands in 1939?

I'm not talking about the Sudetenland, but about the remainder of the Czech lands that were annexed by Germany on 15 march 1939. Did the nazis give any kind of justification for this?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

Why does eisenhower not get as much attention in the Republican Party?

Helped my little brother with a school project a few days ago. e desegregated the schools and military and sent the national guard in to force it. He was also one of the greatest Generals and basically one of the reasons we won WW2. He was also an advocate of a balanced budget and warned of the military industrial complex. Why's he not the face for conservatism?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

Why did Germany have such an easy time pushing into Belgium and France during the second world war as opposed to the first?

2 Answers 2016-09-04

How did the Western countries and NATO react to the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968?

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1 Answers 2016-09-04

What are the best books about the American Civil War?

What texts do you recommend that provide a comprehensive overview or otherwise good history of the American Civil War? I'm just interested in learning more about it.

Thank you!

1 Answers 2016-09-04

Were onions eaten raw?

In George. R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (I realize its not historical, bare with me on this) characters will eat onions raw and without complaint.

A quote from A Storm of Swords has Sam Tarly pick up an onion and "...one side was black with rot, but he cut that part off with his dagger and ate the good half raw".

Did people use to eat onions raw? Is cooking onions more modern?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

We know that Germany got no say in the Treaty of Versailles at the end of WW1. What were their requests and what would've happened if they were "screwed over", so to say, by the treaty?

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1 Answers 2016-09-04

North and South Korea's terms for Korea as a whole "Choson" and "Hanguk", how did they end up using different terms?

I think the title explains itself, how did the two Koreas come to use the different terms "Choson" and "Hanguk" to refer to the peninsula?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

China was founded by ancient Egypt? Can someone explain this for me?

I saw this article the other day in foreign policy, http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/02/did-chinese-civilization-come-from-ancient-egypt-archeological-debate-at-heart-of-china-national-identity/, and am not sure what to make of it. Is this just coverage of some crazy Chinese guy? Is there any actual basis for it? Or is he just going against the grain because Chinese nationalist go on about how China is the oldest civilisation in the world and so on?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

What is the point of spending so much time/money on a castle when it only protects a small area?

I mean if an attacker wants to sack a city, why would they siege the castle? Why not just ransack the surrounding city and ignore the castle altogether?

2 Answers 2016-09-04

Sunday Digest | Interesting & Overlooked Posts | August 29, 2016–September 04, 2016

Previous

Today:

Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.

4 Answers 2016-09-04

How did the English colonies react to the English Civil War of 1642-1651?

Although the colonies were in their infancy, were they particularly in favor of one party in the Civil War? Did any fighting break out there? How aware were they of the troubles at home?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

Ancient Greek men thought the ideal male body possessed a small penis. Do we have any idea what Greek women thought?

If you Google sculpture small penis, you find plenty of pop sci articles talking about how the reason ancient statues had such small penises was because the Greeks thought small penises were a sign of being rational, intellectual and authoritative while large penises were a sign of foolishness, lust and ugliness. All of them seem to cite Kenneth Dover's [Greek Homosexuality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Homosexuality_(book)) so I'm not sure how well accepted this is within the general historical community but it's certainly a widespread belief and I haven't been able to find any sources seriously disputing this claim.

Of course, Ancient Greece was also a very male dominated society and the bulk of the perspectives from the time were written from a male's point of view. Do we have any reporting from Greek women on the issue? Were there Greek women who were size queens or talked about how their husband couldn't please them due to their penis being too small or too big? Were there Greek women who cheated on their husbands because of his penis size?

4 Answers 2016-09-04

In Europe a few hundred years ago, I know if you were born a peasant you died a peasant. But what if you were born rich - was it possible to lose or spend all of your wealth and become "peasant class"?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

In a lot of paintings depicting battles from the US war of indepence the british soldiers look much older than the americans, often even grey-haired. Why is that?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

How do Chinese nationalists explain the "century of humiliation" period?

My understanding is that Chinese nationalists believe that China's 'rightful place' as the leading civilization in the world was disrupted during the colonial period and that modern Chinese foreign policy should be focused on restoring the greatness they enjoyed before that. But if China was so powerful beforehand, how do they explain the fact that they were so vulnerable to European and Japanese power in the first place? (The same question could also be applied to the Mongol conquests and the Yuan period.)

1 Answers 2016-09-04

The Goths and the Vandals, were they from Scandinavia?

So I've become quite interested in the Goths and the Vandals and wanted to know of their exact origin. What boggles me is that there are almost no one refuting that Vandals may have originated from Scandinavia like no one cares while there's a huge debate about the origin of the Goths. I've even seen some that claim Goths coming from Scandinavia is ridiculous while not even mentioning Vandals. It often seems like the people researching this are heavily biased as I see Polish professors come up with Goths originating from Gdansk. Is there anything that can point to a definitive origin of the goths and vandals other than Jordanes?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

During the California Gold Rush, how did miners make money off the gold they found? How did they convert gold nuggets to cash?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

I read that Cato the Younger was notorius for using the filibuster to obstruct the senate. Why was this not a more common practice given that the senate had many talented orators, like Cicero, who likely could do the same? Was this looked down upon? Why did the romans not forbid this practice?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

What did the Ancient Romans believe was the meaning of life? What ultimate reason did they give for making the empire?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

In 1940 or so, did the Soviets really say they felt "threatened by Finland"?

I've seen this factoid in several places and am trying to find a good source for it. I noticed that Hitler mentioned it in his speech on 22 June 1941 (when he attacked the Soviet Union) 1, and according to him, Molotov supposedly said this during the conversations with Hitler in November 1940. But then I found the English translation of a German memorandum about those conversations 2 and there I can't see Molotov saying anything like that. So what I'm wondering about is if we have any other source besides Hitler's own word that Molotov (or some other Soviet official) said that they felt threatened by Finland.

1 Answers 2016-09-04

Why didn't Italy join WW2 in 1939?

1 Answers 2016-09-04

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