I know all three had separate regional interests and political divisions, but only the US held together despite a civil war. Was it just because in the American Civil War the two sides were so unequal? Could the South American states have held together somehow?

If someone knows more about the First Mexican Empire or the Federal Republic of Central America, feel free to contribute.

We hear a lot nowadays about PTSD in members of the military who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've even learned a little bit about how little support Vietnam veterans got. What happened to WWII vets after the war? Such a large part of the population was involved, but you never hear about people who weren't able to transition back.

I was talking to my therapist about my sexual anxieties, which are largely a result of being raised in a Catholic Church. To help me feel better about how difficult it can be to suppress natural urges, she told me a story about a Church or seminary or some Catholic institution, where the nuns lived in one building and the priests lived in another some distance away. Apparently, after a while somebody discovered a tunnel connecting the two buildings, and tons of baby skeletons in the tunnel. This is where the nuns and priests had come to secretly fornicate, and this is where they disposed of the resultant babies.

I had this conversation a few years ago, so I might be sketchy on the details, but does anybody know of anything like this actually happening? Where can I read more about it?

I was thinking about Prometheus the other day, and this occurred to me. I knew both of these facts, but I had never made the connection before.

Is there a chance the Greeks were aware of the regenerative capacity of the liver, or was this a coincidence? What's the significance of Prometheus having his liver eaten, anyway (as opposed to other body parts)?

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I'm seeing a meme on Facebook that says the above.

hello there /r/AskHistorians For quite some hours now i've been researching something about the Rome-Berlin Axis, but i can't quite seem to understand it fully. So far i've learned that this Agreement between these 2 fascist countries were made in 1936/1938? and were broken in 1943, when the allies invaded SouthItaly.

but for me this seems a bit weird that Mussolini would agree to be Allied with Adolf Hitler, as Mussolini declared during a conversation with Nahoum Goldman, that he were a Zionist.

My question for you clever guys is, can you explain this important event in Italy and Germany's History for me.

If you are able to explain this to me, i would like the source where you gathered your information from.

Thank you.

My aunt's father was a soldier in Hitler's unit during the first world war. She had pictures of the two of them together, but they were lost in a house fire when I was a kid. I'd like to know if there's any sort of first hand reports or biographical/autobiographical work about Hitler during that period of time which might also mention/comment about his unit mates in the war, that I could pass on to her. I just checked Mein Kampf, and it's somewhat self-centered to say the least and doesn't mention a single other soldier. Any suggestions?

In modern popular culture, there are numerous depictions of different government agencies in conflict. The reasons for this range from competition over funding, conflicting goals, ect.

A few examples (some spoilers if you watch/play these):

• In the X Files where there is conflict over whether or not the existence of Aliens should be public knowledge

• In the Grand Theft Auto video games series, two fictional government organizations called The Agency (likely the CIA) and the FIB (likely the FBI) are constantly in conflict over funding, taking credit for cases, and controlling witnesses

• In the show Sons of Anarchy, the Federal case against a motorcycle gang is not brought up because leaders of a drug cartel they're selling weapons too work for the CIA.

My questions are the following:

1. While these are all fiction, is there any basis in fact?

2. What are other moments in the post-WWII era in which U.S. governmental agencies were in conflict with each other.

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I know there seem to have been a lot France questions today, but I've been sittin on this one for a while.

Many medieval tapestries and paintings show armies on horseback on foot mostly armed with long sword or arming sword and shield. Is this true? Wouldn't most men have an axe or pole axe or mace to counter armor? Or were there still dedicated swordsmen during this period?

I know that after Switzerland was turned into the Helvetic Republic by Napoleon, they convinced the great powers of Europe to grant them neutrality. Why did the great powers agree? Wouldn't France or Austria desire Switzerland?

We often cite Hitler as a clear example of the dangers of certain type of rhetoric in modern politics, but were there any examples of outspoken critics of the dangers of Nazism before the Nazis had managed to gain enough power to silence them?

Maybe it's just a construct of movies and video games, but it seems like the sword is the bread and butter weapon of soldiers during the middle ages, and that other weapons, such as axes, were far less commonly used. Is there any truth to this? And if there is, how did the sword rise in popularity?