Were the bombs strategically dropped over military targets or were they dropped in civilian areas?

Did the Spanish call themselves that/encourage the natives to call them that?

I've often heard of Canadians being used as shock troops in world war I but was this more propaganda or reality?

For example, did the Chinese and Norse use north as the direct up on their maps? Did any other cultures do this, and independently of each other?

If not, what cultures referred to south as up on their maps?

I am getting some information together for a short story I'm writing and have exhausted my efforts with Google searches. I've discovered Monopoly boards, pipes and shoes with secret compartments but nothing on what I'm really looking for.

One of my characters to will reference how WWII POWs (irregardless of nationality) communicated right underneath the guards noses as part of a story he's telling. I'm specifically seeking hand gestures if possible or even something as simple as leaving an object in a certain spot.

I'm hoping to find a signal which the character can then implement with his team in the modern day an an homage. Thank you.

.....as in conditions, populations of slaves in countries, similarities/differences to the United States slave trade, and other general facts. I am very curious because as a student of the American education system, we do not learn much about this topic!

This is a topic that I have always been interested in, but I have had little success in finding satisfactory answers. I do know for sure that gold was found and used to a limited extend in South America, but other than that, I cannot find anything that relates to the understanding or development of metallurgy in pre-Colombian societies in the Americas. Anything would be helpful.

I've been watching the Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman series, and had a few questions:

1. Obviously the premise of the series is fiction, but how accurate is the setting? Do the films adequately capture the general feel of the late Edo period? Are the dress, decor, manners, and values true to real life? Are there any glaring discrepancies that crop up?

2. Zatoichi is often mistaken/employed as a masseuse. Why was this profession common amongst the blind?

3. In one film, Zatoichi stumbles across a village that doesn't allow gambling, fighting, or whoring, and comments that this is unusual. Would it be unusual for a village of the time to be missing one or all of these elements?

4. There are a number of times that Zatoichi stumbles across archery booths, similar to what you'd see in a modern county fair. Did these actually exist? Were they parts of traveling carivals, or permanent fixtures?

5. If you did find a dice game, what were the chances that it was using weighted dice or otherwise rigged?

EDIT: A couple more questions: 6) Zatoichi often identifies himself as a Yakuza, despite the fact that he doesn't work for any organization. What does Yakuza mean in this sense?

7. Plot aside, which depiction of the Edo period in media most accurately captures the essense of that time period?

Specifically, macroeconomically and microeconomically. All sources seem to indicate that it was very profitable microeconomically (for the individual slave owners), so my question is why didn't the cost of slaves increase if it was as profitable as it is. Presumably if it was so profitable for slaveowners plantation owners and others would be eager to purchase slaves and drive up their price to the point where some equilibrium in the market was reached.

Did this happen, or are most sources right that it was very profitable for slave owners and why? General commentary on the economics of slavery is also appreciated.

Okay, okay, now hang on. I know I'm in AskHistorians, not AskGeologists (if such a thing exists), so I'm not asking about the Ural Mountains and tectonic plates, etc.

Rather, I'm asking geopolitically why Europe is a continent. It seems to me that geographically it's just a little peninsula jutting off of Asia, but whenever anyone lists the continents of the world, Europe always gets a mention, when there may or may not actually be any real geographic distinction between Europe and Asia. Indeed, Europe gets mentioned more consistently than North and South America, which are sometimes amalgamated into the Americas, and Australia/Oceania sometimes gets subsumed into greater Asia.

I would guess that it's mostly because Europe has and has had all the guns and all the empires, so when the question of Europe being a continent came up in the past, it was simply 'because we said so.' And if anyone said 'you and whose army', Europe had a mighty good comeback to that.

Is that pretty much it? Is Europe only really continent because it's so powerful? Or is there another reason I can't see?

I saw a picture a while back of trenches being dug with a caption explaining that it was taken in California during WWII, as the US prepared for a potential Japanese invasion. Did this really happen?

I was thinking that maybe it originated when fire actually protruded from the end of the weapon, such as a cannon or musket. Or was the expression used before firearms? It just seemed weird to me that a legion of bowmen be commanded to "fire" why would they say that? What relevance did it have? Where did it originate from?