From what I’ve read Nazi Germany was reliant to a certain degree on ore shipments from Sweden. After Weserübung Sweden was also effectively surrounded by Nazi controlled territory.

What lead to an invasion not being done? Was it militarily not possible?

I’ve read that Napoleon had plans to build an empire in North America. Did his plans include retaking Quebec and other lands lost by France during the French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War?

So I’m a black American who’s been learning more about my ancestry.

I guess i was wondering about the following scenario:

A mixed race person is born into slavery. This person—under circumstances we don’t have to explore—reproduces with a white person. Their offspring is now 75% white. In my experience this person is probably not white passing, but if they were to reproduce with a white person, their offspring probably would be.

Anyway, I’m kinda describing a hypothetical that would probably happen over many generations and would be very dependent on an individuals phenotypical expression.

But at a certain point, would it be untenable—“ethically” or legally—to keep a person in bondage?

I’m aware of things like the one drop rule, and Im ignoring situations like Sally Hemming’s offspring. Im also aware that a person who looked white enough could probably just walk off. Is that how this would have probably gone?

I hope this question doesn’t come off as too loaded, if my starting assumption is wrong please tell me.

Anyway from what I can tell, at least in the US and Western Europe where I live, socially conservative parties (more likely to oppose abortion or minority rights for example on the basis of tradition or religion, defending traditional family values) are often the same as those who promote economic liberalism (the European meaning of the word liberal) such as loosening financial regulations and labor rights, slashing social security and redistribution programs etc. This still applies today but as far as I know this has been the case for over 20 years.

I want to know how the political spectrum came to be that way, as for example some religions condemn greed and promote selflessness and helping the poor, while also being very conservative in terms of social norms.

Is there, historically, a common philosophy behind social conservatism and economic liberalism or is it more of a strategic alliance? When did it start?

Norse longships do not look like they were be good for raiding or trading at all. Every recreation I have ever seen requires it to be practically filled from bow to stern with people rowing for it to even operate, and there wasn't any below-deck storage for goods or money. So where did they keep everything? Not even just trade goods or stolen things, but even food, fresh water, medical supplies? Stuff to make a trip lasting longer than half a day?

Of course it was versatile for shallow rivers or the sea, but the ship itself seems completely impractical for long voyages, especially for the weeks or even months-long trips that would eventually lead to the New World.

I haven’t heard of any countries that used female pilots in WWII outside of Russia, so were there any common usages of female pilots in WWII?

Hello, I recently began working for USPS and am interested in learning more. Specifically, I would like to know about its historical origins during the colonial era, its evolution over time, & the eventual dissolution of the Post Office Dept. with the reorganization & creation of the Postal Service. Are there any thorough books you can recommend? Thank you for the help.

At the time of full-body armor did they just beat each until they collapsed or did they actually try to penetrate the small gaps in the armor?

I'm an Indian, and quite familiar with the abridged story. As a teenager that can now better understand the deeper philosophical nuances and such of this epic, I'd like to read the non-truncated version. There's just so many editions, I am not able to make up my mind on which one to pick up: C.Rajagopalachari? Devdutt Patnaik? William Buck? Penguin published? Krishna Dwaipayana? Krishna Dharma? And countless others?

I'm sure you get the point. I'm willing to be patient with the book if it means that the book will give me the true essence of the epic.

Did they use translators or did the guards learn certain words in Greek for simple commands

I’m probably answering my own question here but I would think the latter because by Alexios time the guard was made up of Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians and it would probably be easier than having 4-5 different translators

Another thing what if the emperor wanted to have a conversation with one of his Varangian Guards (for whatever reason of course) how much Greek would Varangians know?

I can't think of any subject I'm interested in with a worse signal/noise ratio than druids. From growing up in the UK I have an iconic image of a priestly class in white robes brandishing a ceremonial sickle beneath a sycamore tree (or an oak or a rowan). That's mostly from horrible histories and primary school lessons on roman Britain.

As an adult I read that it is essentially impossible to know how much of our written mentions of druids are Roman libel (especially re: human sacrifice) and there is the added interference of pagan revivalist mythmaking. At the risk of asking too broad a question, what do historians currently think about druids (even if they disagree with each other)?

Hi

I have been trying to figure out what my grandfathers' job was on the WW2 AC Lexington. I know from talking to my grandmother that he was a Lieutenant and that his job (description) was reading the mail of the crew and censoring it. But this is basically it, she said he had to read it to remove sensitive information and didn't know anything about the process like whose mail exactly was read and how the censoring was carried out. I am hoping someone on here can identify what his job 'title' was or the department he might have worked in and if I'm lucky can shed some light on the actual process the military/navy would have for going through letters and filtering out sensitive information.

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Thanks

If I'm making any mistake with this post, please excuse me: I'm new on this sub, and I want not to break the rules on purpose. If I'm doing something not allowed, please, I beg your pardon. Second, englis is not my first language. Third; I hope the post is not too overwhelming and long, but... I had this hyperfixation for quite a long, and I want to get these doubts out of my chest.

Giving you the basic background of my question, I'm writing a ghost novel that takes place in the 1930s, New York, and of course, I want to understand how the things worked on those times. I know the music (principally jazz, swing, etc) and a bit of the aesthetics (art déco), but my biggest query is to know: how the society of those times worked and how they looked?

I mean: I want to know how racist and xenophobic the new yorkers were with the italians, the LGBT+ people, black people, etc. I want to research and understand how the low neighborhoods looked like (Little Italy at being specific) and how their habitants interacted between eachother. My thoughts also focused on how to describe the art déco buildings and style (how to describe those arcs, patrons, stairs, walls and furnitures that mesmerized the people of the decade), how to show the reader the big depression and the prohibitionism influenced the views of a man from the working class; the fear of the italian mob caused on the people; the technology of phones (for example) and how they worked on the daily basis; I want to find the legends, the myths and show the american dream. As accurate as possible.

Of course, I tried to look for myself information and details that could help me on my process, using novels that took place on the date of the development of the plot or that were near to it, or novels that talked about the topics I needed for my research (Fer-de-lance, from Rex Stout, New York from Edward Rutherfurd, The Godfather from Mario Puzzo), but I'm afraid they weren't enough to help to quench my hunger of knowledge. So, here I am, resorting through your experience and your modesty that only redditors could have. I wish this is not too much to chew -not because I underestimate your capabilities as historians-, but these questions created by my need of doing a book full of life have been invading my mind for a lot of time, and sharing them can be found as extremely pesky. If you can give me any form of advice, however small it may be, I will appreciate it with complete honesty. Or even, where to start to search can also help me, I can cope with it very fine depending of your answers.

I must subsequently apologize if this post was exceedingly extense, and I do hope that you are not upset by my interrogations.

I'm talking about how in a video game or a game show, the smallest number of points you can earn at once might be 100 or 1000, rather than 1, and all scores are multiples of that number. I think this also happens in tabletop RPGs, with killing a goblin giving you perhaps 100 XP. I want to say it started with pinball because that's the oldest example I can think of, but is that really true or does it date back even further? And if it is pinball, is there any record of which particular game started it?

So this is a bit of a meta question, but how do we know what books or videos or articles referencing historical facts have actually got those facts right? As I understand it, history is incredibly difficult because it's often very hard to distinguish fact from fiction in writings made centuries ago. I've had several experiences now of reading one fact, and then coming across another that directly contradicts that fact. Not to mention historians must distinguish propaganda, from accidental bias, from a proper recording of facts within old texts and I don't think the average layman is qualified to make such assessments.

In light of this, does anyone have any suggestions as to how a person not in the know might be able to verify what they read about history? I don't know if this question is appropriate for this sub but I figure if anyone will be able to answer this it's historians. Hope this fits the sub's rules, apologies to the mods if it doesn't.

Following some current discussion in the media regarding Nazis, Hitler, and abortion I did a rather quick search but could not find any conclusive or readily accessible information on whether the Nazi party and Hitler supported abortion, and if they did or did not, when did they permit its use. I understand this is part of a guilt by association tactic played by different sides, but is there any clear evidence? Thanks.

I've heard it said that the Qing might've fallen had the Taiping armies decided to move to besiege Beijing immediately instead of Tianjin. Why did the Taiping delay?