I always see men rushing up and getting shredded by MG positions in movies and read about it in books. Surely the Navy could've just blown the beach to shreds before they put boots on the ground.

What I mean by the title is that if anything were more of a symbol of Fascist groups across history, it'd be the variety of colored shirts each particular group wore.

Germans were the Brownshirts, Italy had the Blackshirts, Romania had the Greenshirts, Ireland had the Blueshirts, etcetera.

Is it perhaps related to Fascism's fixation on the military and, thus, a standardized colored "shirt" of sorts is just a natural occurrence, or is there any specific reason that multiple fascists movements across multiple countries adopted "Blackshirts/Blueshirts/Greenshirts/so on" as a model?

I'm wondering what kind of training, if any at all, the average red army soldier had during world war two. It seems like they were just given a gun and told to point it in the right direction.

Someone asked this in /r/WhatsTheWord.

A couple people vaguely explained that "the people at Jonestown were so brainwashed / indoctrinated that they shared in a mass suicide by drinking poisoned Kool-Aid". Another suggested that they were forced at gunpoint to do it.

There's not a lot of detail, and the information is conflicting.

That brings me to here. Can someone explain what "drinking the Kool-Aid" means and its context in Jonestown?

n.b. We will be trying something new now. Rather than starting the AMA tomorrow as scheduled, we will be collecting questions and answering tomorrow. So please do not be upset if you haven't had your question answered until tomorrow as we will be waiting until around 10 EST on the 21st of Dec.

After the Thirty Years War, Central and Eastern Europe are quiet. With a terribly destructive war that still lives in the memory of Germans today, the other half of Europe is quiet while France and Britain start their Second Hundred Years War. In this time, we see something else, a rise of Kingdoms rather than nations.

In Central Europe, we see the Habsburgs change. From their multi-kingdom “empire”, they lose their hegemony and suffer a succession crisis that will allow them to strengthen the Austrian Empire. While they fight to hold on to what they have, another power rises to their north.

Mighty Prussia comes from the ashes of the Thirty Years War, renewed by 1700, Prussia will develop an army that will become feared and the model of warfare until the rise of Revolutionary France and Napoleon. While this military system pushes the world away, Prussia starts to chip away at the power and authority of the Holy Roman Empire.

While Prussia rises, Sweden falls. Strong at the end of the Thirty Years War, Sweden will be the major regional power until they push themselves too hard. While down, they’re not out and remain a major regional power that will rise again after the Napoleonic Era.

With the three major powers of Europe, another rises in the model of Europe. With Peter, Russia will go from a minor regional power to one of the greatest European powers of both the era and of all time. While Prussia has fallen, Sweden has lost Finland, and Austria lost her Empire, Russia would endure.

With this, we invite you to ask questions about these four powers.

Here we have:

/u/DonaldFDraper: While my focus is normally in France, the Austrian crown becomes a close ally of France in the later end of the 18th century. Thus I will focus on larger and broader Austrian political history and on the reign of Joseph II. If necessary I will help with Prussia as well.

/u/Itsalrightwithme: My main interest in Early Modern Europe, including the Spanish and Austrian Habsburg empires, and their dominions in Europe and elsewhere. I am happy to answer questions on how Habsburg Austria pivoted its strategic outlook in the 17th and 18th centuries.

/u/k_hopz Is also an Austria focus.

/u/Lubyak focuses on Pre-Revolutionary Austria.

/u/TenMinuteHistory is normally focused on Soviet ballet but has agreed to help with Imperial Russia.

/u/Fandorin has also agreed to discuss Imperial Russia

/u/treebalamb is also here for Imperial Russia.

/u/Facepoundr has also agreed to discuss Imperial Russia

/u/elos_ normally focuses on modern France & Prussia but will focus on Early Modern Prussia here.

Finally, we have our resident Swede, /u/Vonadler whom will talk about Sweden’s role in the world.

Please ask questions concerning Central and Eastern Europe from 1648 till 1789, between the Thirty Years War and the start of the French Revolution.

I'm asking mainly from the video games CK2 and EU4. In CK2, the only way you can raise an army is by raising your levies and the like. In EU4, you ahve to build armies over time. The problem is, there is like 0 years between the two games. In real life, when did the change happen?

It is a popular legend on the internet that Hitler was denied entry from art school, and as such he became the monstrous dictator we all know and hate today, Holocaust and all.

So my question is, how pivotal was it that he was not admitted? Would he have been in such a radically different position that he would not be a brash, extreme man who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch, and as such put him on the path that lead him to write Mein Kampf, and generally become the most infamous dictator in the history of mankind?

I've been reading a bunch of articles lately about how the plans for the Warsaw pact were to invade a nuclear devastated Western Europe, but why exactly did the Soviet Union want to conquer western Europe so badly that they'd risk scouring the planet of all life? Were they seriously that fanatically devoted to ideology? Or was there some logical reason for it?

Historians know that there was at least one Viking settlement in America; it is likely that there were more settlements and many small expeditions to North America over a few hundred years which may have reached as far as Maine. There is also evidence of Viking contact with native Americans.

If there really was this much Viking contact with America; why didn't domesticated European animals spread to America and why wasn't there a huge epidemic which wiped out much of the population like when the Spanish arrived?

I am asking cause it's been a flight of fancy for me as of late. I've been reading about the American Revolution more lately and haven't heard of anything or anyone that was a traitor other then Arnold. So I'm curious if there was a British Benedict Arnold?

Happy Holiday's Ya'll.

Mods, Im sorry if im breaking any rules. Please delete this if its not appropriate. This is the best subreddit for history, and the reading list you guys have is perfect.

This just seemed like the most appropriate place to post. My little brother is a smart kid, but he doesnt really have a passion for school because most subjects dont interest him. However, he has been enthralled with Nazi Germany for the past 5 years now, for whatever reason, and I would like to give him some materials for christmas that could stoke the fires a bit more.

He is a 17 year old Kid. He doesnt have much of an experience reading non-fiction.

He is particularity interested in

• the politics of Nazi Germany (Facism and Nationalism)

• Hitlers Invasion of Russia

• the Holocaust

• The German military itself and why they were so strong

• The Impact of Nazi Germany on the World Today

Those are just some brief areas of the period that we talked about, and he gets as amped up about it as I do with Rome. If you guys could provide me with some material that would be perfect for his age group, I would be extremely grateful. Thanks guys.

tl;dr: Could you guys provide me with some Titles on Nazi Germany suitable for a 17 Year Old High School Kid?

The last few /askhistorians threads I've read seem to have the normal lots-of-deletions, however from the Mod replies, it would appear that people are getting up in arms about it. Even I, who don't mind the mod policies here, am disheartened to see all the [deleted]s - it just makes the sub seem no fun.

Therefore I offer a solution: kill the [deleted] threads with css.

Add this to the style sheet and the feather ruffling deletions will be hidden, and free the sub of the standard speculations about why they're there (leading to more deletions) and arguments about 'fascist mods' or whatever it is people say in response to them (leading to more deletions)

.deleted {
    display: none;
}

I know this also kills the non-deleted replies, but they are useless and frustrating as well, since they just make me wonder about the mysterious deletion that they refer to.

I'm working on a side project set in the time period from just after the Third Servile War to the assassination of Julius Caesar and I'm curious as to each man's motivations pertaining to Rome. Could one assume that their thought processes were more or less in parellel even if they were at odds with each other? What would be a good source(s) to answer this as well?

I've been playing the video game Medieval 2 Total War quite a lot lately, and the game gives you the possibility to adopt generals to your royal family. I started wondering if adoption, and especially to royal or noble families, was a thing in Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire.

How did the first traders blaze caravan trails? Did they have camels already? Did the discovery of oasises or other settlements closely resemble the European age of discovery or did they have unique tools and capabilities? It seems remarkable that the traders could navigate a featureless area with so little resources or margin for error.