I have been watching the EdX's course on Chinese history. I am getting a bit confused on what Heaven is. What I am getting from the video is that Heaven is an actual god, not some form of area/region/space. But it also seems that Shangdi is also Heaven...okay, I am just confused. So, can anyone explain Heaven in more detail?

I know Carthage was a Phoenician colony, so i expected the answer to change depending on time period, but im also interested in seeing how it changed through the centuries.

Bonus question: are there any myths/stories for the founding of Carthage? similar Romulus, or Aeneas for the Romans

I've heard that the poor performance of soviet armor and some warplanes, even in cases where the equipment is superior on paper, is due to the soviet union producing 'monkey models', intentionally half-assed versions for export- tanks with steel ammo instead of tungsten, jets with a 20 mile radar instead of 100, etc. Obviously training and logistics were probably the critical factors in the poor performance of soviet bloc equipment versus western around the globe, but do we know how extensively 'dumbed down' export equipment was? Was this to save money, or for other reasons?

I'm reading some Lovecraft from around 1920, and he's still using 'shew' and 'shewn'; is this deliberate archaism, or was that still the common spelling?

How long before it really took effect?

Hello,

I've recently acquired a pistol captured by:

Lt.(?) Winfield C(?) Alkire/Alkins (spelling unclear).

His service number was O-1171263.

It appears he was part of the occupation force in Tokyo. He may have served in a field artillery battalion.

Does anyone know how I could find out more about this man?

Because he was an Army officer, I haven't been able to look him up at the National Archives AAD (which doesn't include the record of Army officers).

In terms of their governments. Like did they have cooperative foreign policy as little statelets or what? Both were short lived in the long term, but did they have something like camaraderie as very small states who wanted independence from their southern neighbor?

Edit: especially in regard to race and the griqua being another force not necessarily subservient to the cape

I'm wondering, besides the eastern's successful reconquest of italy, how the italian populace felt about all of this, whether there was any attempt by themselves to retain ancient roman culture, or any semblences of their military to ancient rome. Seems like they just didn't care about "roman pride" anymore and just kind of gave up.

Gaius Julius Caesar had three names, but they weren't his first, middle, and last name. What did these names mean? Augustus' name was Gaius Octavius, but he changed his name multiple times (the end result seeming to simply be a number of titles, and not really names). I'm just generally confused by Roman names, and so am seeking clarification!