When the American southern states broke away from the Union in 1861 and created the Confederacy, were there any Southern/Confederacy representatives still in the Senate and House of Representatives? Or were there large open seats left unfilled for 4 years?

That had to have be be super awkward going into congress, say as a Senator from Alabama, and voting on bills and legislation while at the same time your state is trying to form it's own country.

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What do we know about the Apiru (or Habiru) people who have been identified to have lived in the Near East between 2000 and 1200 B.C.E.?

Scholars have long debated whether the Apiru, a group of people widespread in the Near East between 2000 and 1200 B.C.E., were the Hebrews who eventually were known as Israel.

-Sigal, Philip. Judaism: The Evolution of a Faith. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988. Print.

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I've been looking around a bit for information on the Vietnam war. It always seemed to me like the US government's offensive against Minh's regime was a bit of a knee jerk reaction. As Ho Chi Minh didn't seem nearly as volatile as say Mao or Stalin, was it out of fear for a regime like that, that the US stepped in or was there more to it and Minh's policies that I'm missing?

What are the most prominent uses of flaming arrows in history? Were they as effective as they seem to be in fiction in sowing chaos and setting things on fire, or would the flames have been extinguished in flight? How frequently were they used, and did they have a heyday in any particular area or era?

Hello historians

From cathedrals and statues to castles and gravestones, most of them have a black colour.

Why is that?

What do you think about Octavian's Principate? Especially during his reign.

Specifically, queens without Kings ruling with them.

Say a soldier sustained some defect that caused him to go blind while he was still in the middle of his term. Due to the physical setback of not being able to see, will he receive an honorary discharge? Or would his officers find some light duties for him to do?

In the study of international relations, political realism refers to the tendency of nations to act only in their own interest. The term seems to imply it is inexorable.

Would you share counterpoints to this? When nations stepped outside their own interest, or took risks for the sake of others?

Also did they actually give out wooden rifles to some men to make it look like they had guns? If they were short on rifles were they also short on almost all other equipment for soldiers?

I read some stuff about the Red Brigades and the terrorism in Italy which lead my interest to Operation Gladio again. Did the CIA station specialy trained forces in non-NATO countries? I came across a case from Switzerland, where such stay-behing military units were unvealed, but the government states it didn't know about the units and that they were unlegitimate. And the other question is are there any clues pointing that false-flag operations have taken place under Operation Gladio, such as the terrorism in Italy in the 70s and 80s? Regarding the Red Brigades, there are statements that some of it's actions were orchestered by Western secret services, to form an anti-leftist tention among society. There's this other statement, that the Czechoslovak secret services supported the Red Brigades, but this sounds more unlikely, considering that Italy had more friendly politics towards the socialist states, so that statement doesn't make sense. The second logicless fact is the murder of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades, who actually led politics of compromise with the socialist states.

I'm interested in how explorers were able to communicate with people from far off places like India, China or the Americas when they were first being explored. How did two cultures learn the others language when neither could speak to the other?

So, the logic behind my question is: to have a country, you need an army. To have an army you need the kind of money only a country would have... unless you happen to have mercenaries at your disposal.

So, my question is: would it be possible for a nation to be formed in the New Word (or even Africa or Oceania) at the time of the colonization without the support of an existing country?

Would it be recognized by other countries?

Was it ever attempted?

The only kind of similar story I know is the story of Felipe de Brito, that made himself a small kingdom in Asia, but he immediatly needed the support of the King of Portugal and therefore the kingdom became just another colony.