The Spanish colonies spanned a huge swath of the Americas for centuries, and their use of Jesuits and other missionaries provides a decent amount of documents about the native peoples. But this was all recorded through a Spanish Catholic lens.

So how reliable are these accounts and records? Did people try to be objective?

The source cited is

A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East, Vol.II, ed. Spencer C. Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2010), 531.

The article also mentions "innovative fortifications" used by the Russians. Is this referring to war wagons?

I've seen a number of videos of soldiers and how they were treated, but I'm curious how it was for the Romans

All credit to u/rnsei, who asked this question on a certain left 101 sub but received no answers. I didn't even know this was a thing. Why wouldn't Mongolia be welcomed with open arms? Surely the goal was to spread communism throughout the world? Was there more nuance in the geopolitical reasoning for this rejection?

It seems that the lure of piracy was not only the sailing of the high seas, wenches, and booty, but a rejection of the working conditions in most naval vessels, whether they be private shipping boats or military battleships. The pirate society was egalitarian and the working conditions were fair, with things like workers comp, good pay, the ability to remove captains, and more. Were these things only a small factor in the rise of pirates, or could it be considered one of the driving forces? Or maybe a better way to phrase this question, how important were the labor conditions of non-pirate ships to the rise of piracy?

During the Protestant Reformation Northern Europe largely became Protestan while Southern Europe mostly remained Catholic with Central Europe having a Protestant-Catholic split, why is this?

Thinking in particular about European colonial explorers in North America, but I imagine this happened elsewhere too. If the language was completely different, how did they learn? How long would it take to learn a language that no-one you knew had ever heard, let alone spoken? Were there explorers who specialized in linguistics or learning new languages?

Are all post-Constantine Emperors Christian?

I often see the legacy of the many Crusaders and lords in the Holyland to be portrayed in modern media as very French (à la langue d'oïl), but from my understanding most notable French crusaders were Occitan or came from the spoken area of langue d'oc. Wouldn't it mean that Hugues de Lusignan, who arrived to marry into the role of king, spoke a langue d'oc as his mother tongue since he was from Poitou? Does that mean that the chief communication among the lords and cultural heritage was Occitan rather than from Northern France?

I know that Medieval Muslim thinkers were influenced by ancient Greek philosophy, but did they aslo study the hisotry of the Greco-Roman the preceded them, and if so what did they think of them ?

I recently listened to a series of popular lectures on Mesoamerican history. According to it, most classical Mesoamerican cultures worshiped their ancestors in one way or another. Many considered their deceased ancestors a link to the other world. Maya even buried their ancestors under their houses.

Many of the native beliefs and traditions have perpetuated well into the colonial era. Do we have any evidence that some of them may have influenced the Day of the Dead tradition in Mexico?

I ask this because I learned that the "traditional" suit / outer coat color is black because of the legend that soot in London was so bad that one wore black in order to hide the grime. That led me to think that, even if that myth is true, then the faces and hands and other exposed parts would get dirty anyway.

So, see question: how did populations in heavily-polluted 19th century cities keep coal dust and coal soot from turning their sofas, chairs, wallpaper, whatever all completely black?

I know we can’t speak for the entirety of human existence. But when did it become generally popular and normalized to drink water instead of some form of alcohol? In that same thought was everyone just kind of constantly a little buzzed or drunk until that time?