My question is broader than the one in the title and It's a little clunkily worded in the first place, obviously slavery is incorrect no matter who is enslaved.
An example of what I am asking:
A "free" person goes to a slave trader looking to buy a slave, they're not massively wealthy, just need some extra labour or something along those lines. What's to stop the slaver simply taking their money and gaining an extra slave to sell? would a slave crying out that they should be free be listened to by passersby or just ignored?
Broadly what I'm wondering is how did societies that engaged in slavery guarantee (or give the impression) that slavery was not something that could befall the free people of that society? (since I assume that if the threat of becoming a slave was ever present to all of the populace then the whole system would quickly become unpopular)
1 Answers 2016-03-28
Or is this just us romanticizing the nobility? If so, when and why was this practice abandoned? Who is considered the last king to do so?
1 Answers 2016-03-28
https://i.imgur.com/csv7K6X.png
More specifically, how do we know how many people each of these religions killed? Wouldn't a great deal of their conquests have left so few survivors that no accurate count of the lost could be generated? Does it count the people killed within their religion who went into battle? And where did the deaths caused by Buddhism occur, and when and why?
(I love this sub and if I've broken any rules by posting this or with any of my questions I will cooperate to resolve the issue. As far as I can tell I have not. However, I understand that this graphic is inflammatory, and I believe that was it's purpose. I'm not trying to make a political statement, and if the graph is simply false then I won't waste anyone's time with it.)
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Here is the writing: http://imgur.com/Iart7Er Found it on a metal plate at my parents house.
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I've done a small amount of research into the BEF, and the major factors I could find are to do with their wasting of the 'phony war' period whilst the Germans were perfecting Blitzkrieg in Poland. Are there any other major factors other than this?
1 Answers 2016-03-28
I have heard it was so embarrassing that he hid for six weeks afterwards to avoid ridicule. I have looked for it everywhere but can only find excerpts or random accounts of his behavior but not the actual "seventeen minute speech". Anyone out there have it or know where to read it? Thanks!
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What would the likelihood of it be for a Carpenter or travelling Messiah?
1 Answers 2016-03-28
I've read that ancient Chinese such as that Confucius wrote are still mostly comprehensible in modern times, however the same cannot be said for other languages like English which is supposedly barely comprehensible only 500 years ago. Is this true for either Chinese or English? Why or why not? To what degree have Chinese texts been translated and localized for modern audiences in the way that classical European and other areas of literature have? Would a modern Chinese person be able to understand Confucius' or Mencius' writings without any kind of intermediary dilution? Or is it similar to how Greek and Latin texts have been translated into English and other European languages? How hard would it be able to understand Chinese writing from two thousand years ago compared to early Christian scriptures and literature? Does the fact that Chinese does not utilize an alphabet make it easier to understand historical documents than alphabetic languages?
2 Answers 2016-03-28
Hello everyone and welcome to the eight installment of our continuing series of Rules Roundtables! This project is an effort to demystify what the rules of the subreddit are, to explain the reasoning behind why each rule came into being, provide examples and explanation why a rule will be applicable in one case and not in another. Finally, this project is here to get your feedback, so that we can hear from the community what rules are working, what ones aren't, and what ones are unclear.
As the semester comes to a close for many people, and that paper or final you've put off studying for looms just around the corner, it seems the perfect time to use this series for our periodic revisiting of the "Homework Questions" rule. Not that this time of the year has an exclusive hold on them, but we often do find there to be an uptick either in questions which are explicitly regarding schoolwork, or else smell suspiciously similar without disclosing it (and to be clear, we are pretty good at sniffing them out, even if we won't help you out here by saying exactly what we look for!). To start off, we don't prohibit you asking questions regarding your homework here in /r/AskHistorians. Our rules state:
Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing to help. Remember: AskHistorians helps those who help themselves. Don't just give us your essay/assignment topic and ask us for ideas. Do some research of your own, then come to us with questions about what you've learned.
That is to say, if you are looking for help, don't make /r/AskHistorians your first stop. If you do some research, come here and be honest about what your assignment is and give us a run down of what your research is showing you so far, you'll find users here being quite amenable to lending a hand and pointing you in the right direction.
So what do good homework questions look like?
Explains what the assignment is and demonstrates that they have already done research already (although even this is on the brief side of what we'd like to see. You really should be giving us a proper paragraph or two). More importantly, it is about an explicit point of interest within the topic that they are having trouble with.
Asking for sources is perfectly fine, and if anything, is our most preferred type of homework question! Same as before though, make sure you are demonstrating to us your commitment and prior base of work. Simply asking other people for books though shouldn't be your first stop, and we really hope that you'll first consider using our six-part series "Finding and Understanding Sources" to get started when looking for sources. It is a fantastic resource created by our flaired users, offering great advice on the research process.
A few examples of how not to ask, and how you can improve the question
I don't know... What did you learn about in class? What resonated with you? We can throw topics at you, but that isn't going to help you any. You need to write about something you connect with, not what a stranger on the internet happens to enjoy, and that is skipping over the fact that being able to analyze the topic and come up with a good theme for an essay is a key skill that you need to learn in school!
I have an exam on 13th Century French Art coming up! What should I know about for it?
I'm writing an essay on the 1968 May Days in France. What points should I talk about in it?
Check your notes. Read through your text books. Check your library or an online resource such as JSTOR for useful sources. No one here is going to do your work for you. Come back when you have specific questions that remain a roadblock for you after doing research. If you are looking for advice on how to get started, check out the "Finding and Understanding Sources" collection, which can provide you with some great advice, but it does you no good to get someone else to do your research for you.
We have pretty good noses for homework questions, since we all had to answer them ourselves, and many of us are now in the business of writing them. This one is super obvious, but we catch many that aren't. Please, be honest and upfront. And also, Google indexes these pages. We have flaired members of the sub who found us when checking students' papers for plagiarism! So even if we don't catch you, your teacher might, and that is much, much worse! Plagiarism on this sub gets you banned from an internet forum. Plagiarism in school can get you expelled from the institution.
So that's about the sum of it. As we said at the beginning, /r/AskHistorians loves to help those who help themselves, and as long as you show up here being honest about the assignment, and being clear about what you already have done and how we can assist, you'll find people eager to show you the way. But questions which do not conform to this policy will be removed.
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I think the Macedonian phalanx would have a greater chance against the Romans with the manipular system on flat terrain, but they didn't had the heavy cavalry to protect their flanks like Alexander did. To use more Macedonian phalanx and no heavy cavalry was cheaper but it made them much more vulnerable. Why didn't the enemies exploited this weakness earlier before?
1 Answers 2016-03-28
Following the Spanish-American War, the US now controlled Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, but it seems that each one was treated quite differently in how they were handled. Cuba was given (nominal) independence quite quickly, while the Philippines were slowly walked along that path for many decades, and Puerto Rico, of course, remained bound to the United States through today.
Does this represent conscious divergence from the start, and if so, why? Or does it more demonstrate that the United States entered the imperial game without any real, concrete plans and things were just kind of played by ear, in which case, why was a uniform policy not created?
2 Answers 2016-03-28
Januar
By thys fyre I warme my handys
Februar
And with my spade I delfe my landys
Marche
Here I sette my thinge to sprynge
Aprile
And here I here the fowlis synge
Maij
I am as lyght as byrde in bowe
Junij
And I wede my corne well i-know
Julij
With my sythe my mede I mawe
Auguste
And here I shere my corne full lowe
September
With my flayll I erne my brede
October
And here I sawe my whete so rede
November
At Martynesmasse I kylle my swyne
December
And at Christes masse I drynke redde wyne*
So I found the above poem describing the yearly farming cycle. And in the second last stanza, beneath November, it says 'At Martynesmasse I kylle my swyne." So what on Earth is Martynesmasse?
1 Answers 2016-03-28
I've read that Vestals were chosen at 6-10 years old and sworn to celibacy for 30 years - after which, they were marriageable and considered a good catch. So a younger inductee could leave at the age of 36, still well within her fertile years. Is there any record of a Vestal having children? Were they given any special/different treatment or status within Roman society?
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I was just in Krakow and the museums emphasized that krakow was part of austria. In the game krakow is independent but under austrian influence, which is more accurate?
-edit- to give some more context, victoria 2 has a "sphere of influence" system in which great powers can add a weaker state into its sphere of influence. By doing so that state gives the great power priority access to its markets, and is able to secure an alliance that the weaker state must honor (with some exceptions.) So while the great power doesn't have direct control over the weaker state, they have a lot of leverage and influence.
1 Answers 2016-03-28
I know a lot about the work of religious men in the Medieval/Renaissance/Baroque/Etc periods, but there were a lot of religious women making music at that same time too! So what (if any) unique contributions did they make to music? Any techniques, compositions, styles, and such that came from nuns?
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If so, how?
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I saw an image floating around facebook with some pretty sensational sounding claims about the accuracy of the bible, the most extreme being that it is 99% accurate! Anyway, It got me interested. I know the topic on the accuracy of the bible has been asked already, I was hoping to find out what the most comprehensive books are that assess the historical accuracy of the bible.
1 Answers 2016-03-28
