I'm not too familiar with Japanese history but considering the widespread use of the katana which specialises in cutting flesh, why didn't they use plate armor like western knights? I thought samurai were relatively well paid and high in social hierarchy so if they had to pay for it, wouldn't it have been possible?

I was playing Shogun 2 Total War recently and one of the units, referred to as Nodachi Samurai in game, carried swords that were nearly as long as they were tall. This seemed a little ridiculous to me, so I wanted to ask, historically, how long could you expect a katana to be during the Sengoku and Edo periods.

About my background first: I am german, in school history class we went through human history in order (starting in the antique going forward), eventuall we ended with the lead up to the Nazis coming to power in 1933: the great depression, not functioning political processes, etc - after that you basically spend a lot of time on Nazi Germany: goverment structure, daily live, the arming, maniqulation of the people using group dynamics, the regimes use of the media but also a heavy focus on resistance (and how it was shut down and silenced), "Mitläufertum"(=following blind, following because its easier then resisting) in the society and of course the Holocaust and the justification behind it as well as events like the Reichskristallnacht.

...all in all I have the feeling that you can assume that as a german you learn about how the Nazis came to power, what crimes "they" commited and how the people either joined, went along with it, shut their eyes or fought against it...how people were influenced by the media and sold ideas like the dagger legend or things like the economic situation being the Jews fault.

• I assume this kind of stuff would also be taught in Austria.

tl;dr: in germany you learn a lot about Nazi rule & crimes in school and beyond and while not everything is ideal, I think there is a healthy mentality of being aware of this dark chapter of history - as a way to see the signs and, well, honour the victims but also to reflect on our selfunderstanding as germans (that being the ideal case). I would say there has been some sort of mental cut (I know the cut wasnt always as clear as it is todaye) between nowday Germany and Nazi Germany.

To Japan: I have the feeling (everytime Japan and WW2 come up) that Japan never did this mental cut? That other than germany japan more or less carried on and things like crimes against for example the chinese people were never really reflected?

For instance; the western roman empire ruled the french region until it fell to the visigoths. Sometime after this the region was ruled by a large number of noble families who answered to a few kings in a feudal system. Did these nobles claim descent from roman emperors, or was the nobility raised from important members of the population or military, or some other origin?

I am making a historical mod for CK2 (crusader kings 2) with the main focus being on the mongols. And I am wondering in how far they would usurp/destroy the existing political structure after having conquered it.

Historically ,did they destroy all the nobility of for instance Khwarezmia/Jin/Sung, or did they leave a skeletal structure just strong enough so they knew how to steer the country they just invaded?

In the TV series Vikings King Ecbert has a large collection of Roman artefacts that he has hidden away from everyone except a monk he has translate the texts from Latin into what I'm assuming is Old English for him to read.

Do we know of any people in history who did this? Why they did it? What they thought of the artefacts from this older civilisation? Why they kept it secret, and what the consequences were, etc?

I would love to know more about this subject! Thanks

Saw this on FB, just wanted to know if something like this actually happened

I just started researching the Crimean War, and the sheer magnitude of criminal incompetence with British logistics personnel and officers is staggering.

The idea that some British Officers could bring their wives and LEFT during the winter is particularly maddening. Why didn't the men fight back at all?

Were there any similar mutinies during this time period?

In what way, if any, did drug use influence architecture and design within ancient societies? What part did drugs play, if any, in their understanding of design (eg. use of fractal patterns)?

I am talking about Mosque built under or operated under Non-Muslim govt so Umayyad Hispania doesnt count.

I've been reading Persian Fire by Tom Holland, and followed it up with Donald Kagans Peloponnesian War.

As of Darius' invasion of Greece, Athens had a minimal naval power. Politicians like Themistocles realised how important a strong navy would be in the impending second Greco Persian war, and made efforts to build the Athenian navy which eventually won Salamis.

However, less than 50 years later, Athens was so vastly powerful at sea that during the Peloponnesian war, it seems like people would shy well away from even a hugely outnimbered Athenian fleet. Athens used to frequently dive into naval battles with numerical inferiority and totally clean up.

My question is, what extroardinary measures led to this turnaround? 50 years does not seem like a long time to go from having zero ships to being a naval superpower.

The Yangshao potter's wheel theory is on p.388, but I've always heard that the Longshan were the first to use potter's wheels (China not having invented the wheel anyways).

EDIT: I found some more information on Rice's Pottery Analysis, Second Edition: A Sourcebook p.15

There is little evidence for the beginning of the use of the potter's wheel in China. It has been suggested that a low, thick-walled, dish-like vessel commonly found at Yangshao sites between 4800 and 3600 BC may actually have been used as a tournette, a slow or low-speed wheel (Zhou Zhen-xi 1985). The fast or true wheel was apparently used during the Zhou (Chou) period, roughly the first millennium BC (Hobson 1976:2).

Still welcoming more information though!

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