I'm doing research for a game that I'm planning to develop. It's a 2-D scroller where you manage your caravan as you try to get from Europe (Genoa or Venice?) to China (Xian or Beijing?). I'm trying to come up with a setting (time period and cities that you encounter) based on historical events.

What would be a good route to choose between the cities I mentioned? I specifically want to avoid water route eg (Alexandria to the Indian Ocean) as that would be a boring game.

For example, in 1453 you would see the siege of Constantinople (if we force the player to go through there. However, it suffers from accuracy because the trading party would want to avoid war if possible). Can a historian give me good setting to work with? I'm willing to do the research myself, I just need a general framework to begin researching the different cities, culture, garments, people, etc, that one would meet along the way.

Ideally, the historian takes into consideration of biomes that we would journey across. I intend on showing the desert, mountains, inland sea (Mediterranean) forests, etc.

I have a few hypothesis on the matter, but I couldn't find any details on how and why those equipment came about.

I've seen artistic depictions of them sure, and they seem to have been used by a good number of these mercenaries in combat (although I have seen bare-headed combatants in those drawings as well, so I remain doubious of the accuracy of those works). But did they really wear them to battle? I mean there is still a very real risk of getting a pointed stick to their faces, wouldn't a helmet with cheek guards been better?

There's a "family legend" that my dad kicked the asses of the nation of Hungary.

Dad (David March, no middle name) worked for United Airlines in South San Francisco as a machinist. One of his co-workers was an escapee from behind the Iron Curtain, having fled as Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary in 1956. Somewhere between 1968 and 1976 as best I can figure, this guy (name unknown to me) gets a letter from the Hungarian embassy saying basically "all is forgiven, we're letting people reconnect with their families". The guy gets all excited, my dad tells him it's a trap (as do others), he goes anyways and gets grabbed by the secret police coming down off the plane over there.

At the next union hall meeting (International Association of Machinists lodge 1327 in South San Francisco California I think?) everybody is miserable. My dad stands up and says "OK, so we go on strike, and we get the AFL-CIO to go along". It worked - Hungarian ships weren't being unloaded in the US, etc. A few weeks later the guy is back, with his family from Hungary, runs up, hugs my dad.

What's my best way to confirm all this?

Is there any clear indication from Marx's writing that if he were to be the leader of a communist revolt would he be dictator in the same vain as Lenin or Stalin

Reason's why I ask this question:

Mikhail Bakunin accused Marx of being a "Closet Authoritarian"

It's still (somewhat) debatable that Marx was a revolutionary

Almost like religion, Marx's works laid the foundation for terrible atrocities.

Marx grew up and lived in privilege, never really experience the plight of the proletariat

Is it safe to assume that Marx's ideology wouldn't have been perverted by others and just perverted by the man himself?

In modern-day Marathi culture, it is commonly asserted that if the Marathas had not lost the Third Battle of Panipat, they would have beaten back the British and survived as an entity. As a matter of fact, the Marathi language used the word "Panipat" to mean an irreversible loss.

How true is this? What were the factors that collectively led to the Maratha Empire's downfall?

I may have the oppertunity to move from Japan to China in a few months, and in Japan I have found that knowing even a rough outline of the time periods, some forces at play, and the names of a few important people has really helped me appreciate my stay here more. I want to do the same with China but it just seems so daunting. I tried a Chinese history podcast, and I think it is good, but it just seems like an endless cycle of dynasty after dynasty being overthrown. I struggle with finding the important and cultural significant forces, events, and people. So where do you recomend I start for China 101. Im open to not only books, youtubes channels, podcasts, but also general hints and guidlines. For example, how much of the written history is semi mythical and where does that end?

My sister is trying to figure this out. It is on a 1942 WWII New Zealand battle service jacket. Does anyone know what unit it is from or purpose? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I stumbled upon get this article and found it fascinating - especially considering my ancestors are Lower Wendish.

But basically it rewrites history. Can some of you esteemed historians and linguists please have a look over it and the examples given and help me decide if it is plausible?

I loved it so much I use one of its terms as my Username. Trovidas. I think those passages alone are inspiring - but maybe that's just because I'm a pagan 😉

The only thing that could come to my mind would be the Soviet influence however I'm not sure how much of a Total Takeover that was.

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I asked this question before and only got a fractional response even though it was highly upvoted, so I figured I might as well ask it again.

Mostly looking for info about the Belorussian, Ukrainian, and Baltic SSRs here. Did the Soviets (legislatures) disband and try to get away? Did they flee to Moscow and act as regional governments in exile? Did they stay with local Red Army units and fight to the end? Did they defect to the Germans and phase into the military administration of the regions?

I'm asking because look through a lot of propaganda from that era, Red Cavalry, Anarchist cavalry, Cossack cavalry, etc. seem to feature by a seemingly disproportionate amount, given that popular narrative is that WWI killed off cavalry usage.

A year or two ago, Cards Against Humanity sold 1 square foot plots of land on an island in Maine for $15 as a joke/promotional deal. This got me thinking: did anyone do something similar in societies that only allowed suffrage to landowners? Like paying a pittance for a very tiny piece of land, as a sort of a loophole to gain suffrage. I imagine an entrepreneurial landowner could make decent money from selling off very small portions of worthless land for this purpose.

Edit: I'm mostly thinking of Colonial America and the early United States in this question, but I'd be interested to hear about any society that restricted suffrage in this way.

I'm looking specifically for books covering both the Ottoman Empire and Africa during the WWI era and immediately after.

It's one of the most famous photos of the 20th century: one Chinese man standing in front of a column of tanks when the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989 were put down. But he's never been identified. Are there any theories about who it might have been?

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Or at least, parts of surviving Jewish newspapers?

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Did the Japanese people desire to "die honorably" rather than face a "humiliating surrender" after World War II?