Were there common factors that allowed dictatorships to flourish? e.g. American Influence, Institutionalisation of Power, Independence, Wars etc.

And if so, who were they? And what happened to them?

I am always curious about this considering that the Gaza Strip could have already been an incredibly nice beachfront property if it would have been conquered by Israel in 1948-1949.

Anyway, any thoughts on this?

I've read stuff online but it's all very inconclusive. I just want to know what were the biggest and most decisive flaws during WW2 by Germany that made them lose in such a horrendous fashion.

I was reading up a bit on the Berlin Wall, and it lead me to this question. During the time period in question, Berlin was contained entirely within East Germany / DDR. West Berlin was controlled by USA, Britain and France, while East Berlin was controlled by the USSR. The two halves were separated by the Berlin Wall. My question is this: Did the Wall separate the rest of West Berlin from the DDR? How was the flow of persons between the DDR and West Berlin maintained?

I am interested in casualties and how widespread the destruction was, and the extent of the damage caused.

Playing through The Witcher 3 got me interested in all the lore, that mostly find its roots in popular historical folklore like the rusalki and the południca (Lady Midday). Any books with more information on these sorts of things?

A quick overview. The question is about Standard French and Standard German:

• In French, the "u" is the same as the German "ü".
• The "r" is pronunced the same in both languages.
• These letters are common everyday sounds in these two languages, but rare and unusual in virtually every other major language. If they do exist, they are "special", like scientific terms or loanwords, and natives usually get them wrong.

In most other languages, the "u" is either "oo" or "uh" (as in "burden"). The "r" is that one that the French are so infamously bad at getting right, often defaulting to LW (veLWee difficult to get LWight indeed), or alternatively, it is a rolled "r" like in Italy, the stereotypical Scottish accent, and admittedly most Southern German accents.

The letters "r" and "u"/"ü" prompted my initial question, but after writing it out, I realise it goes much deeper. I can read Spanish or Italian, even Portuguese, provided the vocabulary is casual enough, but the pronunciation is so hugely different it might as well be from another planet. Latin languages sound a lot like each other, at least superficially, except for French with sounds totally different.

Meanwhile, French and German are completely separate, and yet, in almost every aspect, except arguably the French nasals like -on, there is nothing in French a German speaker couldn't pronounce with absolute ease, and vice-versa.

Why? Did they get these sounds (r/ü) from each other? If so, which came first and how did that happen? Why are they absent (or at least rare and unusual) in other major languages? Why are French and German so similar in pronunciation while much closer languages like Spanish or Italian sound nothing like French?

Essentially what I am asking is, if viking-esque raiders were around during the time of the Roman Empire, how would the Roman Empire have combated them?

And how were pirates and raiders punished as per Roman law?

I was just wondering if we have an evidence of the gods making "News"

The reason I ask is that it seems like one of the biggest setbacks for the German army was their small size. Had they recruited and attempted to build armies from the countries they conquered, I could've seen them being even more of a danger to the rest of the world. I am not extremely well versed in history so apologies if this post looks very lay-man.

Did they even exist in a format we recognized? How were things paid for? We're there waiting lists?

I guess this question is probably mostly about the Warsaw Pact countries, but other communist nations would be interesting too.