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I am reading The War that ended peace by Margaret Macmillan and at one point while talking about the various methods the British used to gain leverage and power in Morocco during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that "...and when those failed the wives of British diplomats knew what they had to do to further Britain's interests." Her reference for this rather scandalous claim is Christopher Andrew's work Theophile Declasse page 186. This is a secondary source also, and as I don't have access to a library now, I was wondering if anyone could chime in on this rather deliciously salacious matter. Thanks in advance!

We've all heard of the pool game, but what is the real story behind his life? I would love to know about his role in history , in particular, his time spent amongst the Mongols. Did he REALLY spend time in Kublai Khan's royal court? Was he REALLY left there by his merchant father? Please tell the tale of what he saw as he saw it. Marco?!

If not, did they at least establish contact?

As in, assuming the US and the USSR were able to maintain the similar budgets, but primarily focused on unmanned missions such as satellites and probes.

We seem to take for granted that "c'mon, it's [current year]" can be used as a dismissive remark against anything we see as outdated. Justin Trudeau famously said "because it's 2015" when asked why he'd insisted on having a 50/50 gender ratio in his cabinet; at the coronation of Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, a (tiny) group of anti-monarchy protesters simply used "it's 2013!" as their slogan; and a common response to ideas seen as overly conservative is "welcome to the 1950s."

However, when you think about it, it's not as self-explanatory as it seems. It implies a view of history as a march of progress towards ever better ideas, a sort of "Whig history" if you will. So, when and where did this kind of rhetoric first appear?

To what degree do historians believe the peasants truly had religious motivations? How has thought on this changed (historiography)?

Did Luther side with the Princes for political or theological reasons? How have historians differed on this?

Prussia was a major continental power, and then Hitler brought Germany back from the brink in the 3rd Reich, and now they are the bulwark of the EU. What has made this possible?

I'm mostly interested in 1865-1900, in any region of the US or Canada that could conceivably be considered Western.

Would most "soiled doves" have the luxury of retirement? Could a prostitute in a Montana railway camp return to Philadelphia without people knowing her former profession? How often did known prostitutes retire to Western settlements?

The Goths are a persistent figure in the history of the late Roman empire, i've heard a variety of theories as to their place of origin, but I don't know of much evidence. Did they come from the east and Sarmatia, or from the far North? Where did the first "Goths" come from?

Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis have a diplomacy mechanic where you can "fabricate a claim" on a province, which allows you to wage a war of conquest for that province. The in-game explanation is that the diplomat researches (and bribes, and forges) a timeline by which the province should be rightfully yours (e.g. "proving" that 300 years ago your ancestor was the losing party in a disputed succession).

Are there any historical examples of such fabricated claims? (I suppose the hundred years war would be somewhere in the spectrum, but the claim here was still fairly legitimate and well documented, I'm looking for claims relying on more obscure/clearly falsified rationales)

I'd like to learn how it felt to be facing the Normandy landings. As I understand operation fortitude was successful in deceving the Axis powers as to the location of the landings. So at what point would troops on the beach be aware that an invasion was coming and what could they do to prepare? Also, were defences on the atlantic wall spread so thin that no location could withstand a large allied invasion without prior knowledge?

I know that wars always have a profound effect on society and technology but are there any cultures or ideologies that characterize time periods?

A lot of people from Poland declared themselves as White Croats according to documents from USA involving immigrants, a lot of White Croats came from Krakow which also Pope John Paul II was born in and if I remember correctly, his mother and or father were White Croats.

Were White Croats forcefully asimilated and converted to Poles due to Polish nationalism? Were White Croats discriminated?

I am asking because something similar may have happened in Bohemia while Croats in Moravia managed to preserve their identity more or less...

Is it possible that Poles are White Croats all along, did Poles came from culture of White Croats? I heard that Rusini may came from White Croats... Something like that may happened?

Roman citizens had the right to vote, but how could they do it from France or Spain? Were they just ignored?