How did Spain decline so rapidly from its pinnacle during the Spanish golden age to becoming a second tier European power by the the 1700s. With all the wealth extracted from the new world you would think Spain would be in a dominant position to exert its influence in Europe.

My understanding is that inflation, Dutch independence, continuous wars with France, the failure of the Spanish Armada, and the Italian Wars all effectively contributed to its demise. Internal strife and Portugeese independence from the personal union are possible reasons as well. Can anyone give me a further explanation or a better understanding. Thanks.

How did prostitutes, mistresses and common women prevent pregnancy before the pill ?

If I had a choice between a regiment of soldiers with powder guns, and an equal size collective of longbow men, it seems like the longbow would massacre those using guns and wearing such little protection (and at a much further distance, with a higher rate of fire), right?

And as a follow-up question why did the Romanian's then join with Hitler when it was Hitler who made them give up land to both the Hungarians and the Soviets?

For French archeologists in particular, English too. Say if one wanted to be credible and publish findings.

*archaeological (silly, tired brain).

Sorry if this is mixing up the current and history. I was just thinking earlier today about how much we hear about Confucius and Daoism and the like as major influences on Chinese culture, but you don't really hear about that in dialogue about the way the Chinese live today. I was wondering if it made it past the flaming wall of Communism into modern Chinese society, or even had an effect on the way the CCP itself operates?

I tend to see a lot of people bringing up and even shaming the u.s.a for its treatment of natives during early American history. I was under the impression that all throughout history it was standard for stronger invading forces to either force assimilation of native populations or just kill them if they refused to assimilate. I do not support the actions of our ancestors in these situations, I just want to make sure I have them in the correct context.

Every depiction of historical Japanese armour I've seen looks terribly impractical; it usually has huge gaps under the arms and lots of awkward looking panels sticking out all over the place. By comparison, European armour from around the same time fits snugly over the wearer's body and leaves very few gaps. The Japanese armour also seems to lack features such as ribs and fluting to increase strength, rounded surfaces to deflect blows, etc.

Did samurai armour actually suffer from the flaws which it seems to and if so, why? Or did it actually have some kind of equivalent to arming garments with voiders which simply aren't visible?

How many personnel from British colonies served with the British Armed Forces or separate colonial formations such as the British Indian Army or the King's African Rifles?

Also, any info on the total number of casualties sustained by British colonial forces, as well as the amount of materials provided by the colonies, would be greatly appreciated.

I need it for my school final exam. I' m searching for a book about early Russian Comunism so from the change from monarchy to Comunism and so on. I' m also searching for a book about general Comunism History, something complete but not too much deepened. Sorry if I made any grammar mistake, I' m Italian.

Pretty much the title. For example. You put a key into the wall and all of a sudden statues arise which open you a new path to reach the next switch. If this is a thing how did the people back then do it mechanically?

I've just began reading Caro's novel on LBJ. It appears that many considered Kennedy's terms as both a congressman and a senator to be lackluster. Caro repeatedly quotes people who claim Kennedy was hardly in the office and extremely lazy. This is the first book I've read about Johnson and I'm curious as to what people who have read more about the subject feel about the remarks made regarding Kennedy as well as how credible they perceive Caro to be.

What ideas would he have been influenced by, and what did he take into consideration (or gave him the spark to formulate) the concept of the Special Theory of Relativity?

I honestly thought this concept to be a little bizarre - was wondering how Einstein actually came up with it. Couldn't just have been by the virtue of the fact that he was Einstein, right?

Even if it couldn't have been done during American air raids for fear of blue on blue incidents, it seems like it would have been a good way to hamper NVAF training or routine patrols.

I've been thinking about this for awhile and can't really think of a reason why besides maybe cave men could pull women away easier.