I'm curious what you think on this issue. I used to view the Mexican American war as a justified war by the United States until I began to study US history. Now that I know what the political atmosphere was (Manifest Destiny and all that) was during the time I'm kinda disgusted at the fact that the U.S. was involved in this war. I kinda see some similarities with the Gulf War and the Mexican American War. The U.S. wanted more land just as the Iraqis and they initiated a war with a less powerful country in order to take said land. Do you think this opinion is valid? I'd like to hear some opposing views.
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I'm trying to research ways to reconstruct late medieval/early modern (duvet-style) Brigandines, but my research has, thus far, proven contradictory and incomplete. For reference, this is the style I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigandine#/media/File:Brigandine,_Italian,_c1470,_Royal_Armoury,Leeds%28internal_view%29.JPG
I imagine combatants wore some kind of padding underneath and additional armour to protect uncovered parts (arms, armpits, neck etc.).
What I've found so far is that there were, during said period, types of waisted Gambesons that would fit underneath a Jack of Plates. My first problem is that these seem to have laced-on arm pieces, which would leave the armpits unprotected. I imagine a full haubergeon would compromise the brigandine's benefit of additional flexibility. All gambesons I found with laced-on pieces of chainmail were of the non-waisted, "rectangular" variety. (Or am I completely beside the point and a gambeson wasn't worn underneath?)
Were additional pieces of armour laced to the brigandine itself, or rather to the gambeson? And what about the sword belt? Did it go over or under the armour? Some depictions show a belt around the waist, but I imagine this to be impractical/uncomfortable with the late-period "goose-bellied" duvet style.
1 Answers 2016-05-18
Hello /r/AskHistorians!
I'm looking for good books, documentaries, or other media about Hitler and the Nazi party. More specifically I'd like to find more information about things other than the holocaust, there's so much of that. My question is inspired by both Hollywood's and the video game industry's fascination with Hitler and the occult, but my interest is more broad than that. I'd just like to find more information about that era, him and his party in general; including the war just not focused on the holocaust itself. I've caught snippets and hints of some of his alternate programs regarding the war effort, that had they panned out better could have changed the course of history drastically.
I've looked through the FAQ regarding the topic and the posts were very interesting, and just whetted my appetite to dig deeper myself.
Some documentaries I'm aware of and watched:
2 Answers 2016-05-18
Hi, apologies if this isn't the appropriate subreddit for this question.
I've been studying pre-Islamic Arabia and Syria for a long time now and want to switch it up a bit.
Recently the pre-Viking Age Scandinavian culture (IE Vendel), Early Anglo-Saxon England and Three Kingdoms period China have caught my interest.
What are some of the essential books I should own for study of these periods?
I already have a translated copy of Tacitus Germania & Agricola and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
1 Answers 2016-05-18
I remember some history channel thing, mentioned something about them thinking they were from Atlantis and measured skulls in Tibet. Something about an order that Himmler ran that created a bunch of myths that people believed?
Sub question isn't the guy who rescued Mussolini, Oskar Skorzeny, guilty of some really terrible atrocities?
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The makers of Crusader Kings II clearly put a huge amount of work into making their game as realistic and historically accurate as possible. When playing the game, I often feel like I "get" how feudal rulers must have looked at the world. Have any of you medievalists played it? What were your thoughts?
1 Answers 2016-05-18
It always seemed like the U.S. was fighting defensive wars against communism. We sent our troops to fight in Vietnam and Korea to prevent the spread of communism. The Soviets did not commit troops in either of these wars. Not only that, but I've never heard of them fighting a war anywhere to promote their government. Why did we have to fight but they did not? It seems unfair!
1 Answers 2016-05-18
It seems likely to me that the United States would stand as the principle influence as the lawmakers set to their task, but I wouldn't want to jump to such conclusions, especially since the US was drawing on a very British tradition of political thought, of which I am unsure just how exposed someone brought up in the Spanish sphere of influence would have exposure to.
[19th Century - South America - Government]
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Why would you want a job that requires you to spend long stretches of time in the wilderness?
EDIT: "unsettled" by Europeans
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Sorry the timeline is so open on this question. Info from any period would be welcomed!
2 Answers 2016-05-18
I'm a bit curious. According to this article, it was more of a safety issue when they were first introduced in the 1930s, but the wiki it links to as a source says it was more about controlling supply/demand.
Are either of these accurate? I assume in either case there's more to the story than just what that article or wiki have to say.
Thanks in advance!
1 Answers 2016-05-18
To my knowledge which may very well be wrong, this is what I know of the Huns:
They originally were a tribe from the Steppes of central/ East Asia
They were driven out by the Han Dynasty during the War of Three Kingdoms
They crossed Central Asia into the Ukraine and intermingled with slavs along the way, resulting in only approximately one third looking east Asian while two thirds looked Slavic, or Hungarian by the time of Attila
Once they settle, it was in the area of modern Hungary and therefore making today's Hungarians the descendants
The Avars are the same people, just under a different name when Charlemagne fought with them
I have always assumed these points to be right, but I don't actually know for sure. If there is anything wrong here, what is it?
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Didn't Germany have strict rules on their army after ww1? How could they be prepared for a war already in 1939?
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I've been given a great opportunity to do research related to the above regions and I'd like to delve more into their respective history's as a way to gain some background. For what it's worth, the opportunity involves low-income communities, so anything historically-related that can speak to those communities in the above regional contexts will be even better. I've looked online and found the two volumes of "The American South: A History" by Cooper and Terrill which seems highly rated but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything else worthwhile (or less expensive! :) )
If there's a better place for a post of this type, please let me know!
Thanks so much!
fishinabowl
2 Answers 2016-05-18
Cities in various historical time periods are often portrayed as crowded, bustling, and even chaotic. Massive throngs of people shuffle through each other and jostling seems to be the norm.
However, I've been thinking about the world's population increase over time, and it seems to me that the cities of today are just... more populated than ever before. Looking up my modest current residential area of Ann Arbor, Michigan, the city's population density is about 4,000 people per square mile according to the city's Wikipedia page.
By comparison, the estimated population of Florence during the Renaissance period was 60,000 according to this Wikipedia page. When combined with the total area of the city according to the Florence Wikipedia page, we can calculate that 60,000/39.54 = 1,518 people per square mile.
I've never felt jostled or crowded in Ann Arbor outside of specific events, despite its apparent 2.5x person density when compared to Renaissance Florence. Are these numbers misleading due to the number of individuals that traveled into Florence's streets from the surrounding land (much like modern day work commuters)? Were Florence's borders much smaller during the Renaissance? Did people more tightly concentrate in various areas during the Renaissance? Were people on the streets more instead of inside buildings like today?
I'd like information about what it was like to be on a street market in Florence during the Renaissance. Was it more crowded than my little American college town? Traveling to the street markets of Turin and Florence today, are the modern experiences more packed with people than similar events during the Renaissance in the same locations? In Renaissance Florence, could I have committed theft at a market and escaped into a crowd if someone was attempting to catch me?
The numbers at face value just seem to indicate that I'd be incredibly comfortable walking around Renaissance Florence with relatively little "hustle and bustle", if you will. I heard that the Medici family often traveled above the city instead of on its streets due to concern for safety, but it just seems to me like there just wouldn't have been enough chaos on the streets to warrant anything more than a pair of guards. This claim itself might need some clearing up, but it's nevertheless an ubiquitous trope in popular culture that "nobility" is unsafe in the chaotic streets with the "rabble". How accurate are these portrayals (say, specifically in Game of Thrones' markets in Braavos and King's Landing).
1 Answers 2016-05-18
A friend currently in business school asked me this question, so I figured I'd ask what was out there about Soviet/Chinese business school-equivalent education.
If a communist country doesn't have "free enterprise" like a capitalist country, then what kind of training does their business class undergo?
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Picture of said weapons, and the scene in question. Relevant part is shown at 2:04.
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