Follow up question: How did this become popularized in western culture and science fiction?

Tagged for NSFW, just in case.

Dear Askhistorians,

There are many recorded and popularly known western and Chinese explorers who traveled to the Indian subcontinent. I've tried looking but can't seem to find any references to instances of Indian explorers/travelers visiting Europe.

It seems absurd to think that the silk route consisted only of travel to India. Same for maritime travel, especially since Indians were trading with Arabs for thousands of years.

Are there any travelogues or records of Indian travelers to Europe? Who were the first Indians to visit Europe (other than the Roma)? Indian in this context means people from the subcontinent.

I am not an expert in the field and any input or thoughts on this will be appreciated!

It seems to me that before WWI most wars have been characterized as conflicts between neighboring nations or an empire expanding it's way across the world slowly but surely. How long have humans had the capability to know what's happening on the other side of the planet and get involved in real time?

My grandfather was part of the 82 airborne during WWII. Now there wasn't very many things he talked about, but tiger tanks were one thing he did. What was it about them that made them so devastating. Mobility? Fire power? Armor? And why did he make it sound like we didn't really have anything to stand up to them?

I'm writing a book set in northern italy 5,100 years ago. I am pretty certain that cave lions were long dead by then, but I know there were lions in greece at that time. How far into the continent did these lions exist? Would there have been any in italy? If not, is it reasonable to suggest the folklore of the tribes might include some memory of lions from travellers who visited greece, or even folk memory of cave lions?

I know there's no consensus and likely never will be on all the causes for the various invasions of Eurasian nomads (Alans, Huns, Mongols et al.) but it seems to be a combination of climate change and being pushed West by the conquests of Imperial China.

Are there then any known examples of tribes being pushed East by the conquests of say Greece or Rome?

I imagine this almost surely occurred during Alexander's campaign, are there records from India of seemingly random tribal invasions immediately preceding the arrival of the Greek army?

Just to be clear: I realize there's a strong argument that Alexander was the nomadic invader.

I want to know whether or not it would be perfectly legal for a US citizen to carry around a battle sword and scabbard today. If not, when did this law change and why?

I've recently started watching "Fringe", and I caught myself thinkings that there is no way Walter (the not-all-there scientist) could be successful all by himself. (sure, he has assistants, but those are just "hand me that, please" type of assistants). I mean, in the real world it's never just ONE person who invents anything. It's usually at least a pair, or a group, or a team, right? But then I got to thinking of people like Isaac Newton, Leonardo DaVinci, Marconi, etc. How did THEY do it? I mean, no one says "Marconi's Team invented radio." No, we always say "Marconi invented radio." We credit ancient discoveries/inventions/breakthroughs to ONE person.

Is that how it really happened, or do we "romanticize" ancient inventors?

Hello! Just a few questions about Britain in 1914 and 1940 especially after watching "The Pity of War" on Netflix:

• Was there an awareness in the British government that while they may well be able to beat Germany and Austria Hungary when combined with France and Russia that a fatal blow to their position of a world power may be struck?
• With the same question in mind for the Second World War, did they realize that their place in the world would be almost entirely take over by the United States if they fought another war with Germany?

Hi guys,so i was reading about Romans and Greeks and their military,and both of them made amazing accomplishments,so i wondered if they ever fought against each other who would have won ? who was better trained,who had better Equipments,Navy,Generals and soldiers. And also was Alexander the great Macedonian or Greek ?

I recently got my hands on Viking World by Brink (ed.), an excellent book. Now, I am searching for something similar for Medieval Warfare / Military History in Europe for the Middle Ages. Note that the book can be in English or German.

Background:

My problem is I have read a few articles/books recently from Rogers (vs DeVries), Bradbury and Bachrach (Medieval siege warfare: a reconnaissance). This lead me to the following preliminary conclusions:

a) nearly all older literature about medieval warfare is highly inaccurate or off. (according to Bradbury & Bachrach)

b) Bradbury in his Medieval Archer writes mostly chronological without really adding a "general chapter / overview" at the end or beginning. This is annoying, I assume from a review about his book on siege warfare that this is the same. I prefer an analytical style over the "narrative" style.

c) there is quite some debate going on and/or there are some "trolls" out there.

Apart from Fort Sumter, were any other loyal federal military units still inside Confederate territory when the various declarations of secession occurred?

I sure hope this is the type of question I can ask here. I'm an English student who worries that he doesn't do enough "concrete" historical reading, and I'm looking to expand my knowledge in a few area of interest. Can anyone suggest...

1. The best biographies on Alexander the Great?
2. The best text on the rise, existence and fall of Nazi Germany?
3. Just some suggestions of different engaging historical texts in general

Thanks so much!

I know the concept or urban sprawl, metro areas etc is a relatively new thing in the western world; in large cities (eg. New York, London, Sydney) what was the transition from urban areas to rural areas like say 100-200 years ago? Was it like having a high density city street suddenly jutting up against farmland? What was the legal process in deciding where it all started and ended? Am I being too literal?

Thanks :)

I'm used to the image of huge fields or wheat, rice, chickpeas, or similar crops. But what about others? Things like cabbage, spinach, onions, carrots, melons, fresh legumes, small/productive herbs like mint or chives, or even fruit like raspberries, and, after they were introduced, things like tomatoes and chilis (or the reverse, for Mesoamerican cultures). I assume they were sometimes grown on large farms for commercial selling, and presumably large landowners could afford to have gardens or fields of such crops. But did the average peasant farmer, say, keep an acre of land aside for growing crops purely to give some variety to their own diet? Was it most large farms of a single crop and they bought (or traded) their own crops for more variety? Did it vary by place or time - say, were there ever peasants in India or Spain that only grew ginger or lavender because it was exceptionally lucrative?