It just seems impossible that the most powerful independent fighting force in Africa was beat by some Commie Revolutionaries.

I don't know why I started thinking about this but now I'm curious. Is there record of this from before Judaism? Did it carry into other religions/cultures? What was the reasoning, besides "impurity"?

It's commonly accepted now that North America was severely depopulated by plague that spread between first contact with Europeans (be that with the vikings or Columbus' expedition, I cannot say) and the political structure of North America by the time of colonization was vastly different before the plagues. I've heard a few scholars say that the reason this happened was because Afro-Eurasians (but more specifically, Europeans) lived with farm animals and became immune to many diseases that wiped out native Americans when introduced. As far as I am aware, the only place in the Americas with large-scale domestication of animals is the former Inca empire, with animals such as the llama and alpaca. And I believe that compared to all other states in the Americas, indigenous Peruvians, Ecuadorians and especially Bolivians make up a larger percentage of the population. Is there any evidence that these peoples were less susceptible to disease when the Spanish arrived due to living with domestic animals?

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Sorry agead of time for anyone trying to answer this, but I just learned about this fascinating chunk of land and history and am having a very hard time piecing together the exact events and how each step led to the next. Can anyone take a crack at connecting the dots?

I heard at a lecture last night that the word Palestine comes from the Roman word for Philistines, but I remember once reading that it came from the ancient deity Pales. What's the real story?

It seems most western countries outlawed slavery around the time of the industrial revolution. Is it viewed as a causal factor? If not, what historical factors contributed?

I'm rather interested in the fellowship of Charlemagne. I recently started to/ tried to read the Song of Roland but as I speak little to no french and the old, lyrical english is very hard to read/ interpret as a non-native speaker it's rather hard getting anything out of it. So I thought asking here would be a better solution.

What are the names of the paladins we know of and where were they from?

It is mostly spoken of the twelve paladins, were there actually (only) that much?

Did they get replaced, for example had Roland a successor after his death?

Were they exclusively nobles/ What was their social standing besides being a confidant of Charlemagne?

Were they all Franks? If not, how came a foreigner into such a position?

Were they even all exclusively Christian? If so (and I guess they were), were they especially devout?

How did anyone even get into the position of being named a paladin? What merits did they have? Roland was/ is called especially chivalrous, brave, etc, is that what was expected?

What were their duties/ What did they actually do? Were they just specially good fighters, did they lead armies, had they diplomatic or administrative missions?

At last, any interesting trivia or stories about any of them?

I know it's hard to differentiate between fact and fiction regarding this topic, but I'm thankful for any answer. I really don't mind lyrical sources, I'd even apprechiate it (though it would be nice to disclaim it).

Also, any recommendations for more information?

From what I've read, there was no market economy which is bizarre.

Did the jews try to fight back? Also what would happen if an earthquake were to happen and it was destroyed? based on history would the jews try to rebuild their third temple?

I recently read some texts about life in East Germany, and there were claims that it was very difficult for children of academics or priests to get accepted to higher schools or universities. How exactly did this system work and how was it justified by the state?

Europe for the longest time had views of Asia as a mythical, exoctic location to the East. But how did Asia view the rest of the world? Was Europe thought of as a crazy mythical place as well? What about Africa? Did they have any ideas of Islands to the south like Indonesia or Australia? Did they have any ideas about land masses to further East?

How was/is hermetic magic believed to work? What are the rules and central tenets?

I have several points of interest to raise, so in advance, I apologize for the scattershot nature of this question! Feel free to confine your responses to individual regions or to discrete aspects of this broad inquiry :) :

(a) What was the nature of gladiatorial combat in Rome? When and why did it die out in that culture?

(b) To what extent did regions/cultured influenced by Rome (either through subjugation or cultural exchange through trade/proximity) take to this tradition? Would we, for example, see evidence of this throughout the Roman world, or was it primarily isolated to the Italian peninsula?

(c) Was it common to force prisoners (or slaves, or what have you) to fight for onlookers amusement in such an organized and large-scale fashion? Did we see such things in other empires of the time through East Asia, or the Indian subcontinent? In the Americas?

I am looking for voting records of members of parliament post the Glorious Revolution (1680s-1730s roughly). Any idea where to begin my search? Thanks!

It seems like the internet just popped up. Was it government sponsored? How much did it cost? Seems like an amazing feat.

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Sometimes I hear on the news about countries with electoral irregularities. An international observer sometimes reports that there were suspicious circumstances during an election. I'm wondering if a well developed democracy, like the U.S., used to have election irregularities?

It seems that the Argentinian military didn't expect the British to try to recapture the islands and somebody a few years ago someone mentioned that Argentina's best troops were stationed on the border with Chile. Why didn't Argentina redeploy their best troops when the British taskforce was dispatched and how easily could Argentina resupply troops after the sinking of the General Belgrano? Furthermore what did other countries think of the chances of Britain retaking the islands?