I read this somewhere and It got me wondering, was it something that was inherited from ancient times or was it something that was granted to them by the emperor?

I'm looking for an instance where we can decisively point to as the US Federal government using black soldiers in formal combat against white adversaries. A specific date or battle would be appreciated if possible.

I assume it happened sometime during the Civil War right?

While researching this I couldn't really find any information of the main design architect or the group of builders that built the shrine in 780 when first built or in 1633 when it was decided by Iemitsu to be rebuilt. I was just curious if there was any concrete information out their about the designer or the construction crew who first built it during it'd lifetime.

I see the terms used so interchangeably in modern media. Are they just different iterations of the same group, did they split from each other at some point, have they always been distinct entities, or are they somewhere in between? Historically and ideologically, what sets them apart?

I'm writing a book and cannot for the life of me find any reliable information.

Edit: Thanks so much you guys! I found a bunch of good ideas and wrote some good stuff, and now I'm that much more excited to study Egyptian Mythology like that.

Several threads on /r/AskHistorians have addressed changes in what people consider attractive in a female. For example, the "ideal female form" has varied over time (and space) with respect to body shape and bust.

I hear less about changes in what was considered attractive in a male. Other than, say, beards being in fashion and then out again, I can't think of much.

One reason is that men didn't really think about what made men attractive, and since most of our sources are men, we don't have much of a record. But is this the whole story?

Did people work out in the middle ages like they do today? Excluding soldiers did the average citizen go for runs or lift weights to stay in shape?

Were those two cities chosen for any strategic or tactical reason?

I know tourism probably wasn't anything like it is today, but what about merchants or farmers or whoever coming into town on business?

Similarly, was Rome just called The City the way NY is? You can even break that down further. If you're in Astoria (Queens) and going into Manhattan, you're going into "the City."

During the colonial age, christian missionaries converted large parts of southern africa to christianity. Was there any effort to do the same, to the muslim parts of the continent?

Japan had 80 years of huge population growth instead of 50 years. But then their population started decreasing earlier than Europe.

Good morning all,

Its that time of year again when thousands of hopefuls register to take the Foreign Service Officer Test in hopes of becoming a diplomat one day.

The test is notoriously difficult in that its pretty much impossible to study for, its essentially a multiple choice game of jeopardy. The upside is I learn quite a bit from the test every year and each year it gives me new topics to read up on and broaden my horizons, for example last year I took a great interest in the Falun Gong movement, which despite being a fairly recent event, I had never heard of..

So, here's your chance to share those topics that never made it to Hollywood or the textbooks!

I'm especially interested in the case of Jan Smuts. How did he turn from actively resisting the British during the Second Boer War to crushing the Maritz rebellion and leading their armies against Germany who were one of the biggest Boer supporters?

Morocco has three times more people than Portugal, so it's not as if they didn't have the people.

It also has a long Atlantic coastline.

I was always told that France was neutral once the Vichy Regime was set up after the Fall of France - that they were no longer in the war. But how could this be true if the Allies invaded French West Africa? Isn't this basically a declaration of war on Vichy France?

As well as this, once the Germans occupied Vichy France in 1942 after Operation Torch, was there fighting again between the French and the Germans or did they just surrender?

Manliness and masculinity were important to the Victorians, but the concept went through several changes.

Edit: Or rather, the emphasis on various elements of it.

Was just wondering why there are little in the way of writings from Spartans! Was there as far as we know a literary culture in Sparta? Or were such things looked down upon? If so, were those ideas related to general anti-writing sentiments in Ancient Greece (like Plato)? Or do we only have external historians to rely on for cultural information from the era?

If anyone could clue me in, I'd really appreciate it!

(someone recommended I repost this here from /r/history (: )

I searched this up and it just shows up a wikipedia about the Aztec Empire Army, I read it and I read the last part of the Aztec Empire Army wikipedia and it doesn't show up a single thing about them having a navy. (What I fully meant was did they create wooden boats in there time or not, but you can ask me if they do have a navy or not as well).