I heard a rumor a couple of years ago that America was paying Germany during ww1 while they were at war because America was using a Mauser rifle. Is this true?

In addition, how much worse were the plantation crops than, say, upcountry crops or Northern crops?

Jesus real (Hebrew) name was Yehoshua, which is often translated to Joshua in English. So how come this historical figure is only known as Jesus?

I am sure this has already been asked somewhere, though unfortunately I have been unable to find it.

I recall thinking where our affirmative nod comes from and reading that it is supposed it came from bowing.

I am most interested in the nonverbal practices of the Late Roman Empire (or early 1st millennium W. Europe in general).

Did they have a "thumbs up"? To express uncertainty, did they have something akin to a shrug? In my mind some of these things seem so ubiquitous as to be universal but to know whether the people of the Roman Empire did the same would be so interesting!

Thanks.

I want a replica armor set of 13th, 14th, or even 15th century Sweden because I plan on having a medieval sweden persona for the Society of Creative Anachronism(SCA) but I can't find any good resources on what they wore. I already know that I want to use a swordstaff but I can't find much on Swedish armor pass the viking age. So what armor did they use?

I realize this covers a long period,, and the answer might be different in different places and time, but when dueling was in vogue, how would a gentleman respond to a grave insult from someone who was their social superior or inferior?

I know it would not be considered appropriate for a commoner to challenge a Lord to a duel, or vice versa, for example. But surely if someone called you a liar to your face, or cast asperions on the honour of your wife or daughter you could not be expected to just laugh it off.

Of course, if one was in direct authority over the other, consquences could come that way: if an enlisted man strikes an officer they get flogged or thrown in the stockade; if a servant insults their employer's daughter they get sacked. But what if a lord reads an article in the paper calling him a liar in as many words, or if the lord comes down to the public house in his cups and calls the barman's mother a whore? Are the offended parties expected to just let it go? Sue for slander or else shut up?

I imagine that for much of our history, humans were unaware of how their lives compared to their ancestors, and just assumed that they way they lived was how humans had always lived. I suspect that they’re lack of awareness was due to some combination of religious beliefs about the origins of life and mankind, a lack of interest in learning about history, a lack of historical evidence indicating how ancestors lived, and a slower rate of advancement that was not apparent in one’s lifetime. When did humans start to show an awareness of the fact that they were more advanced than ancestors? For example, did ancient Greeks show any awareness of how Stone Age ancestors lived?

During the colonization period, did the European population know that soldiers were killing American natives in America in order to colonize it? Or rather they believed that America was a desolated land just waiting to be colonized, like Mars, for instance, would be for us nowadays?

I've just started reading "The Penguin History of the USA" by Hugh Brogan, and on page 4 he writes: "From time to time significant objects were washed onto the coasts of the old world: bodies of strange men, wood carvings, branches of unknown trees." He then implies that people didn't bother with these unknown objects, calling them 'clues that led to nothing' (paraphrasing there).

Reading that just made me wonder - is there any record of that happening? And what were people's reactions to it when it happened, especially in cases of a human body washing ashore?

During the early stages of the cold war, the soviets denied western entry into east germany and the berlin enclave, preventing supplies from entering in an effort to convince them to reduce their presence in west berlin.

However as we all know, the west simply flew supplies in.

Why did the soviets allow east german airspace to be used in a way that directly undermined their blockade?

I remember learning somewhere that the upper class in France prior to the French Revolution would often eat bizarre foods, just for the shock value, similar to how celebrities and wealthy people in modern times do weird stunts to get attention.

One food in particular I remember hearing about was, "bird stomachs," however, when I tried searching, "Did the french aristocracy eat bird stomachs?" or even, "cooked bird stomachs," on Google, the only results are relating to bird anatomy -- not exactly what I'm looking for.

So, did they really eat bird stomachs? What are some other bizarre foods that they ate?

It seems whenever the Song Empire is mentioned whether in literature or TV shows, or even among Chinese friends, the phrase 重文轻武 always come up. It means something like overvaluing learning while undervaluing military.

Its either used to explain why the Song Empire had so much economic, scientific and literary developments or why they had such hard time with foreign invasions, eventually leading to them being conquered.

So my question is, is this actually historically accurate and unique to the Song Dynasty that it has become their defining feature?

Hello!

I'm looking for any historian recommendations, or books written by historians, on Nazi methods on maintaining control from the period 1933 - 1939.

It would be incredibly useful since I'm struggling to find in depth (not just like, classroom lessons, if that makes sense) analysis on how they maintained that, and primary sources as well.

Thanks so much!

I'm college faculty and teach an experimental archaeology course. One of my students is interested in the hair removal technique known as sugaring but is not finding good academic sources on the topic. I've done some quick searches, but haven't found much myself (though it's really far outside my specialty). What we do both find are a lot of modern cosmetology websites parroting the same lines about how sugaring is an Ancient Egyptian practice. It all sounds like marketing appeals to gullible clients to me because the wording of the claims is consistently so similar and lacks any sources. Further, they explicitly cite sugar and lemon juice as the ingredients, neither of which would have been available so far as I'm aware in Egypt, 3,000+ years ago. Is anyone familiar with this topic or have leads on sources about Egyptian hair removal? I feel invested now because rather than a conventional experimental archaeology project, I think she could design a project using authentic Egyptian materials to test whether or not there might be any truth to highly sus contemporary claims in the absence of any hard evidence.

Hey there.

So my question is sort of weird maybe? When looking into why he was executed (and his father imprisoned and escaping execution by a day) it's a bit confusing because I can't tell if it was because of a law he broke or it was more about what King Henry VIII and others viewed his actions as being indicative of.

It seems like there were two issues. The first is more about why his sister was willing to testify against him because he wanted her to seduce the king to wield influence. She thought it was messed up (I gather) and said no.

The big reason seemed to be because he had Edward the Confessors coat of arms added to his own personal coat of arms (I think I'm saying this right). That upset... everyone? He was also technically able to claim them, so that part wasn't the issue. The most I found was that usually only the King of England put that on his coat of arms. So it was making a statement. Combine that with him being a Howard who people could certainly see as someone with legitimacy down the line to the throne and I suppose that sounds like the issue.

So I guess the question is, Henry VIII seemed quite close with the Howards. Was a particular law broken? Was it because he was is very bad health and worried for his son and what would happen if he did not execute him? Was it just Henry being Henry and he wanted what he wanted?

Thanks for any answers!

quick edit: Sorry about the title -- I meant what crime di he commit or law did he break but I'm a bit sick right now!

Most of us know that the common English we write and speak today is not the same English as 18th-century English and earlier. Did Far Eastern Asian (Chinese, Japanese, etc) languages go through the same change as well? Like there's a Ye Olde (for lack of a better term) version of them that is written and spoken differently?

Edit: slightly elaborated the last question/sentence

I know this was the first eclipse to supposedly have been predicted in advance of its occurrence. In Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (Kings of Kings I) he mentions that it was predicted by both Babylonian and Greek astronomers, how would they have done this and what tools/information would they have needed to make such a prediction?