I love cooking and learning about cuisines of other cultures. The majority of the Indian recipes I come across include tomatoes and potatoes, which were part of the Columbian exchange. This made me wonder what the cuisine of India was like before "western" influence?

Edit: According to the angry and hate-filled PMs I've been receiving, there is some confusion. Apparently, many Redditors believe I am referring to Native Americans. I thought I was clear since I mentioned the country (India) and asked about the influence the New World had on their cuisine.

Just in case it isn't clear, I am looking for information on the cuisine of the country of India PRIOR to the Colombian exchange.

Hi all, I am a soon to be games designer, and am looking at making a pirate game, with a somewhat fantasy aspect, I am writing this to find a historian who knows a lot about pirates, from how they acted, to their beliefs in myths like the kraken. if this interests anyone here to help design a game based on pirates, and want to help in any way that would be amazing.

so I know a little about them, such as they rarely had loot on them due to wanting to spend it getting drunk and having a good time and what not, but due to working full time, and designing what i can the other you guys would be a huge help in knowing about how pirates acted towards others, like blackbeard, how they spoke etc.

I'm listening to a new podcast on WWI, and I'm just curious why and when the view/name of it shifted to WWI from The Great War. Is it mostly because of WWII, or simply a new name gathering support from credible historians of the time?

I've read all about how invincible the Mongol push was into a vast area of central Asia, Eastern Europe, Far and Middle East.

Are there any examples where they met an adversary and were beaten badly?

I couldn't decide whether to put this on ask science or ask historians so correct me if this is the wrong place to post it. I know people amputated to prevent gangrene but gangrene itself isn't a disease it's a symptom.

I'm interested in reading about various personalities and disputes taking place at the time that resulted in the infighting within the communist party at the time. Most of the books i've looked at only concentrate on one specific person, or on the overall mess and misery that was the end result. Are there a good books on the philosophical and political dimensions of that era that will help me understand why Trotsky was exiled, why so many writers were suppressed, and why Stalin felt the need for the Purges of 1936-1938 etc? Something of a reading list would be great.

Thank you.

Sorry if this has been asked before!

In terms of deity worship, practices, and traditions. Other ancient religions seem to have spread somewhat widely like with the Greek pantheon, mesopotamian beliefs, and levantine theisms like judaism. Although these seem to be spread through nomadic wandering, warfare, and quasi-colonialism. Egypt was a major power, did their religious beliefs and traditions ever spread outside of Egypt proper? Or even beyond Nubia which was influenced by Egypt

Would most books be cheap enough for an average person to purchase? Was the average person literate enough to read books? Or were they still restricted to the upper classes until after the industrial revolution?

I can't seem to find a lot of information on this at all. While Admiral Yi's exploits are well-known, I can't seem to find a lot of information on the commissioning and de-commissioning of Turtle Ships.

I found one source that has the Kobukseon go all the way back to pre-Sejong days (1415) with early designs based off the Panokseon. Is that farfetched?

And what exactly happened to the Kobukseon after the wars? Joseon seemed to have an awesome naval advantage that (seems to me) could have been put to easy use. Or at the very least, continued to develop (would have helped Korea out when the West came knocking...).

Alex Hawley from the "Topics in Korean History Pocast" talks about the idea that Kobukseon has iron plating and spikes and points out all of the reasons why that wouldn't have been a reality. Including that the rumor was possibly originally thought up by Americans in 1866 hearing about the Kobukseon and immediately drawing connections to the recent Monitor battle that saw use in their own Civil War. This of course necessitates that there were no Kobukseon for them to see.

What gives?

From what I understand, Kobayakawa was the crucial hinge of the Western Army's battle plan, expected to swing down from the right flank into the rear of Tokugawa's forces. However, other lords in the Western Army knew about his conflicted loyalties. Why did Ishida not place Kobayakawa's division where it could do no harm, and trust the right flank to a more loyal ally?

Scope can be expanded to Greece, Asia Minor, and the rest of the Roman empire, unless there were drastic differences even within those regions?

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I'm writing a novel that takes place in roughly the cultural and technological equivalent of western Europe in the fifth century CE. I want to address the various economic and social iniquities of the time, and I also want to have a good understanding of how those iniquities came to be, historically. What I really want is a good, comprehensive-but-comprehensible, hefty-but-not-too-hefty, analysis of the class struggles that occurred in Rome and its territories between the dawn of the republic and the fall of the empire.

I want to read about plebeians and patricians, the rural versus the urban poor, and especially latifundia, and how all of this led to the rise of feudalism.

As a bonus, I'd also be interested in the economic and social history of western Europe between roughly CE 476 and CE 622, so I can get an idea of how everything fell out afterward.

What would be some good books that I could read on this subject?

Is there a historical trail of how news spread? Are there any accounts of debates, fights, movements of historical significance regarding the realization? I feel at the time it had great implications/shock effect.

edit: corrected confusing wording

They had only declared statehood a very short time ago (like I think a few days beforehand) when they were attacked by almost all of their neighbours, and their huge armies? How were they able to actually win the war?

Salt and pepper are found on the tables of basically every home and restaurant (at least in N. America). Salt is a pretty obvious choice given its history and use, but black pepper seems more arbitrary. Why did pepper become the standard over all the other spices used in cooking?

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