Romans seemed to have used democracy (in a early sort of way), but after we returned to kings and monarchy, and back to democracy after. Was this a backwards step?

Interested in the immediate decades following Indonesian independence, but evidence (if there is any) from after Australian federation in 1901, when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony, is welcome!

Not sure if specific enough, but thanks.

Edit: I'm thinking specifically of the English one, though any info on the Dutch and French Companies would still be fab - it's an interesting concept to think about, a far-reaching monopoly!

Thanks!

I had a friend told me that before Japan made contact with Westerners, sexuality was free and open. Is this true? Were there monogamous relationships? How was sex viewed by those societies?

Having trouble finding information about the aftermath of the massacres during these years. If someone could help me out by giving me some info to guide me or informing me of some relevant sources I would appreciate it. This is for a paper and I can't seem to find anything other than description of the event. Thanks!

I was having a pub conversation the other day with a chap that had an argument that the Soviets were caught in a predicament when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa because they themselves were perched ready to attack Germany. I've done some reading and there does seem to be some circumstantial evidence that the Soviet Union was preparing for an offensive but nothing definitive of course.

Are there any historians from this period that would like to comment on any evidence or even the likelihood of such a scenario?

I thought this might be the best place to ask. I'll just jump straight into it.

These questions pertain to current day as well as when the UK had control over Hong Kong.

1. When the UK had control of Hong Kong, where they considered citizens of the UK? Could they freely move from Hong Kong to the UK and back?

2. This question assumes that the first is true... Sort of...

If a native Hong Konger moved to the UK or another country of the commonwealth/realms/empire, and then the UK gave up control to China, would the Hong Konger still be considered a citizen of the UK?

3 . I have a police man friend that moved to Ontario Canada with his parents as a child before the UK gave control to China. He's now a citizen of Canada and part of the Niagara Regional Police.

If he wanted to go back to his home country today, what problems would he face, if any? Would he still be considered part of the country as it exists today? Or would he be a UK citizen, or otherwise?

Any other information regarding Honk Kong, or just tid bits of history of Hong Kong and it's relation to the UK and the Empire are welcome.

The one thing I've learned from countless WW2 documentaries is that allied code breaking was insanely helpful to the war effort.

I'm sure axis powers were well aware of how useful it would be to read allied radio traffic, but did they actually make any serious attempts at this? Did they succeed?

Bonus question: what about other countries, which were not so clearly on either side? Like Finland and Sweden, for example.

What were they like culture wise and military wise as well.

And if so what did those plans say? When would they have recognized the CSA?

Louis 14th of France was pretty into them. And I read that heels were originally won for riding as it helped keeps the riders feet "locked" into the stirrup.