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I'm interested to know the extent, if any at all, of which the French cavalry was used in WW1.

I was recently reading a Maigret novel by George Simenon, which is a detective series set in France that began in the 30s, and one of the characters in the book is said to be involved in smuggling alcohol on ships from Northern Europe to the United States during the Prohibition era. Was this really a common practice in the era, or exaggeration for the novel? To what extent did Europeans participate in bootlegging?

Hey guys! I'm reading up on Cato the Younger and it is mentioned briefly that after he became a priest of Apollo, he inherits 120 talents. I have no idea how much or little money this is beyond what wikipedia is able to say which is not much. Thanks in advance to anyone who might know.

Currently I am writing a report for my university course regarding the analysis of Hesiod's Theogony and Babylonian Enuma Elish. In many books, it explicitly states that Enuma Elish was recited during the celebration of New Year in spring. But, what was the purpose of Hesiod's Theogony? I have read that he was a bard and "the work bestowed upon him by gods" was used in establishment of Greek pantheon.

Reading it as entertainment but wanted to know if I should treat it purely as such and take it with an extra grain of salt or does it sum up a lot of the research in the area faithfully.

In the musical (which is fantastic for those who haven't listened to it), their relationship is depicted in a very dramatic arc, so much that I can't really believe it reflects reality. Here are the basic strokes of he musical for those who don't know:

Hamilton looks up to Burr starting in the early 1770s, who always advises him to never show his opinions. Hamilton pushes back and always is very forthright and thereby becomes a leader in the revolution while Burr is more circumspect. They remain friends despite this, even though the musical makes it seem like everyone dislikes Burr, except for Hamilton. They practice law together after the revolution.

Burr is shown as being calculating and without any true beliefs, doing anything solely for political gain and with no regards for principle. He refuses to help write he Federalist Papers. He then defeats Hamiltons father in law for a Senate seat, harming their relationship.

Their relationship degrades when Burr uses the Reynolds affair to threaten Hamilton, threatening exposure of the affair if Hamilton crosses him.

Finally, Hamilton endorses Jefferson in 1800 over Burr, causing Burr to challenge Hamilton to a duel.

So how accurate is all this? What big picture info is missing that is really important for someone interested in the story to understand?

So I recently watched a WWII documentary about the early days of the French campaign against hitlers army and I have some questions about it.

In the show they said that the French army was considered one of the best in the world at that time or at least at the end of the First World War, what changed?

I also heard and read that early on the French had superior tank divisions, but lacked an air force that the was comparable to the Germans, any reasons for this?

Also I saw that the south part of France was free and self governed for a while after Paris was taken by the Germans, how long did it stay like this and were they considered as a whole new entity than occupied France?

Any other information would be cool, I was just curious on those on the ride home. Thanks historians!

I love Bronze Age Near East, but all I ever hear about is the city states (Ur, Uruk, Lagash, etc). As far as I'm aware, these city states contained some administrative/religious center and were supported by surrounding farmland. The walled city offered citizens (including those outlying farmers) protection when needed, but for the most part, most people probably lived and worked outside the walls.

My question is about people living far from those bright spots we hear so much about. I assume there were small villages of the type we know from the iron age, where small communities lived and farmed and built homesteads. Is this accurate? What do we know of village life in this (broad) period?

In the US, we often refer colloquially to the graphite inside as "lead." Was lead ever used in a writing utensil in, say, the early Colonial period (say, the 1600s-1700s)? If so, when did it fall out of favor for the non-toxic graphite mixture we use today?

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How did the relations between the Venetians and Byzantines go from a relationship wherein the Venetians had extensive trading rights in Constantinople and often provided the empire with a navy, to the incredibly hostile climate seen in the 4th crusade, and the massacre of the latins. Thank you for any replies!

I was just wondering what 11am looked like. Were guns blazing at 10:59?

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Do black people in Brazil and the Caribbean face the same racism as black people do in America? Has there been anything like the Civil Rights Movement in America in those countries? Does race still play a large factor in everyday life as it does in America?

Also, what would the cross section of a pyramid look like? Is it solid or does it have chambers/tunnels?

I'm reading Longitude by Dava Sobel, which is about the "longitude problem" (forgive me if I'm oversimplifying but it basically boils down to: the vagaries of the ocean - cloudy nights where you can't see the stars, rolling ships which make pendulum clocks unreliable - made finding longitude extremely difficult until the 18th century or so), specifically English attempts to solve it. It looks like it was tackled by many Western minds - was it ever approached by non-European thinkers? I know that there were rather large and far-reaching Chinese seafaring expeditions and presumably they wanted to avoid bumping into Japan if they could.