Modern historians usually postulate a much smaller size for ancient armies than ancient historians, usually based on logistical constraints. For example, I have seen an estimate Darius' army at the battle of Issus to be no more than 100k, perhaps even as low as 25k.

If these logistical constraints are indeed true, what improvements were made by the napoleonic wars that allowed Napoleon to invade Russia with over 600k soldiers?

My guess is that it was about getting you use to moving in cold water in case you ever fall of a ship?

I know Britain instituted a system of rationing during the World Wars, but I'm wondering how equally it was applied. Were the nobility really limited to x amount of butter, y amount of flour a week like the vast majority of the population or were they allocated more? Also, I know that black market food was pretty common. Would an upper class person be less likely to be prosecuted for buying foodstuffs off the black market than would a lower class person?

I've been watching The Great War channel on youtube. Indie Niedel presses the point that the incompetence and the reluctance to change of the generals caused gross and needless lose of life. Examples of infantry charges into machine guns and napoleon era infantry block formation.

Is this true? Was there actually gross incompetence across the board?

This came up in a /r/worldnews thread today, but the information on the English language wikipedia is decidedly vague.

It seems they're so cool about it today and kind of buddy-buddy with all the Indian culture all over London and Bollywood is kind of a thing there.

Contrast this with the Indonesians still being pissed off about the Netherlands.

If she didn't want it, wouldn't it have been simple for her to renounce it later?

I'd read that Switzerland provided Germany with many things that were embargoed to her.

How did this work, give that Switzerland has been surrounded by axis powers from 1940-?

I'm trying to learn more about banking and money-lending during the Middle Ages. The majority of the information seems to be about the great banking families of Renaissance Italy. My question is why and when exactly did the Italian bankers disappear? I can see some were bankrupted by royal families defaulting on their loans, but surely this can't be the cause for all of them?

If I lived in a territory that changed hands (act of attainder, act of resumption, plain ol' death), would this impact my life or would the new lord have the same obligations to me as the previous lord? If it does impact me, in what ways?

I'm mostly curious about England, thanks to the Wars of the Roses, though insight into any territory is much appreciated

I know they were used in limited numbers during the American Civil War, but they never rose to any real prominence. Was it due to them being too complex? Issues with manufacture? Or was there something else?

After reading about the bomber and missile gap, I started to wonder if there are any other examples of this?

Is there any documentary evidence, primary sources or otherwise that slaveowners participated in selective breeding of the slaves they owned?

They have a fearsome reputation from Soldier of Fortune magazine, General Walker's visit in 1979, and the Rhodieboos on 4chan's /k/ board, but were they really all that effective? I mean - they lost.