I just don't get how it takes the Ottoman Empire 200+ years to incompletely westernize, yet Japan managed to fully westernize in a few decades.

Information on the former country of South Yemen seem to be sparse, is their any information on how it's society and government functioned.

I am in a play set in 1885. I play a Swiss mercenary fighting in the Serbo-Bulgarian War. He is a captain, upper class, and wealthy. I was wondering what sort of hair style I should wear. My director does want me to go clean shaven so I won't need to care about facial hair.

Thanks for the help!

Minoan civilization is credited with being seafarer's. So are the Phoenicians. So are the sea people's.

Is there a common thread amongst these Mediterranean's that ties in their ship building technology? I see a timeline of the Minoan's and their ships and their decline, the rise of the sea people, and the settling in Phoenician territory who they themselves had shipbuilding technology that the Greeks and Romans eventually adopted.

My understanding is that they were recruited from settlers and raiders who traveled down through the Kievan Rus territories but I just read they were around for Constantinople's fall in the 15th century. Were they still ethnically "Northmen" or was it just a title denoting an elite fighting force by then? If so, when did the switch occur?

As in, how did international politics play out before the Thirty Years' War, and what changed?

i was studying for a history quiz and reading about the fdr/churchill/stalin alliance got me curious

This is a question that I've been curious about ever since the details of the 9/11 attackers were released. Osama bin Laden was a member of a very wealthy and politically-connected family from Saudi Arabia, and 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals, as were and are many other people belonging to or associated with al-Qaeda.

In particular, wealthy Saudi patrons have been implicated in funding and otherwise facilitating the operations of Sunni terrorist groups-including the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) most recently. From what I understand, a significant segment of the population of KSA is sympathetic to the ideals and grievances of groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.

I've read other conflicting accounts of how "modernized" Saudi Arabia is, vs. how much its culture is still extremely rooted in puritanical strains of Sunni Islam (i.e. Wahhabism). There are a lot of wealthy people in the country, but there are also a lot of Saudis-including much of the young adult male population-that face unemployment, poverty, and low social mobility.

Anyway, that was just some of what I had learned already. I would appreciate it if anyone-especially someone more familiar with this country than I-could shed some light on the question of how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia became such a hotbed of Islamic extremism.

I know the British used 17 pound guns for their AT guns and other calibres in WW2. Why did the British use poundage when most of the major powers used calibre?

Somewhere back during my school days, I acquired the notion that either Hitler and/or the Nazi high command had been planning to preserve the city of Paris, as much as possible, for the purpose of turning it into either the capitol or as a trophy city, of sorts. The thinking went that the City of Light was so revered as a symbol and exemplification of European culture, it would be spared for its later role.

However, over time while perusing this subreddit, I have come upon evidence against this long-unquestioned assumption. First, I learned of Albert Speer and his plans for Berlin as the grand capitol of the Greater Germanic Empire. Second, I came across competing evidence as to whether Hitler in fact ordered the city of Paris burned to the ground.

I apologize that I have no source for my assumption, but is there anything to the notion that Paris was to have been a, or even the, capitol of the New Europe?

As near as I can tell, 'traditional' modern Mexican food uses habaneros very sparingly - their spiciness seems to need to be very diluted within that culture. Logically, if it was always thus, people would breed their habaneros to be less spicy. Was Mesoamerican food once much spicier? Were habaneros so difficult to grow that it was worth diluting them and risking over spicing food simply to save land? Is the capsaicin content necessary to grow them effectively? What explains this?

How far did the abolishment cover?

Was it even illegal to practice Samurai traditions?

Was it necessary for it to occur the way it did?

Basically, in passing I read that The Battle of Mohacs was an Ottoman victory which contributed to the Habsburg Empire (because it led to the incorporation of Hungary).

Could someone please explain to me its wider significance? What's going on? What was the balance of power before and after? (Bear in mind that I know very little about the period).

How much has El Cid been romanticized after his death? Do historians believe that he was regarded as a Spanish hero and unifier at his death, or have his actions been exaggerated?

Is WW2 the only example of this that created the stereotype? Even in WW2 they were fully beaten so why are they called cowardly? The Germans surrendered in WW1 and Napoleons defeat was not really cowardly because his troops fought to the last man at Waterloo.

Like many people, I know convicts were sent to Australia for their crimes, but what was life like once they got there? What kind of crimes could they have been sent for? Did they ever come back? Once there, how long were they punished? Did families ever travel with them? What was the youngest person ever sent? Oldest?