During pitched battles, was there a "best" army composition between infantry/cavalry/artillery in the 19th century? So, for example, did generals strive to have a ratio of say, 10 infantry: 2 cavalry: 1 artillery piece?

And in terms of fleets (not navies), were frigates and small ships used at all in battles or was it primarily ships of the line and later ironclads?

Edit: Also how many men would man a single artillery piece in general?

I have recently read an essay by Jared Diamond, who claims that

Archeologists have proposed four conflicting theories. Most popular in Japan is the view that the Japanese gradually evolved from ancient Ice Age people who occupied Japan long before 20,000 b.c. Also widespread in Japan is a theory that the Japanese descended from horse-riding Asian nomads who passed through Korea to conquer Japan in the fourth century, but who were themselves—emphatically—not Koreans. A theory favored by many Western archeologists and Koreans, and unpopular in some circles in Japan, is that the Japanese are descendants of immigrants from Korea who arrived with rice-paddy agriculture around 400 b.c. Finally, the fourth theory holds that the peoples named in the other three theories could have mixed to form the modern Japanese.

I have never heard of the second theory, and it seems to be very....strange, especially since these supposed horse nomads apparently made no impact on southern Korea whatsoever. A Google search was unsuccessful. Is Diamond accurate here?

Also, which theory would you say is the most likely theory WRT Japanese origins? Could you point me towards good and free sources?

Why they did this and who the major players were would be interesting.

sorry if this is the wrong sub to ask this. i'll ask on /r/history if this gets removed. or /r/archaeology even though that sub looks kinda inactive. i just want to get some answers and save this thread so i can come back to it every once in a while to remind me to google them every once in a while to see if there are any new discoveries and whatnont.

the Englishman did not keep his left hand steady, and draw his bow with his right; but keeping his right at rest upon the nerve, he pressed the whole weight of his body into the horns of his bow. Hence probably arose the phrase "bending the bow," and the French of "drawing" one.

W. Gilpin. ((1791) Forest Scenery)

North Korea and North Vietnam were both (and NK still is) communist nations, while their southern counterparts were both capitalist and aligned to western influence. Why is this exactly? My thinking is that North Korea shares a large border with both China and the former USSR, so they would have easily shared aid and influence via that border. Although it doesn't make much sense with Vietnam because to my understanding China and the USSR agreed that the Soviets would support the North Vietnamese, so militarily it wouldn't make sense, but sharing a border with China would be more beneficial to them than no border at all.

How is it that many innovations occurred similarly across the globe among hunter-gatherer groups and the earliest agricultural groups; Innovations like weaponry, brick making, metallurgy and weaving (and the list goes on). I thought of this question when reading about the Bushmen of 15,000+ years ago using bows and arrows. And of course many other cultures across the world were already using them.

Is the reason simply that these innovations were passed along over time through migrations? (If so, Why did some cultures retain the technologies while others did not?) Or was it often the case that they were developed independently across world cultures and spread through random contact?

Thanks!!!

I've seen Wikipedia support that hypothesis but I'm curious as to the extent of information that can be extrapolated about his life.

Sertorius seems like a fascinating character. I wish someone like Goldsworthy would write a pop history book about him.

What did they do? Were they Greek or Roman?

I've been reading some English translations of the Rihla and it's always quite unclear about who is actually with him during different parts of his travels. I'm sure his party was constantly changing, but I'm particularly curious about his wives and slaves. Did he bring them along? If not, where did he leave them?

Was there a fear of a foreign born individual taking over with malicious intent or what?

Weird question, but I just inherited a hat from my grandfather but don't know where he got it from. It's maybe ten inches tall, and I know the company that made it closed down in 1918, so it can't be from anytime after that. My great-grandfather would have been no older than 25 in this period. How likely was it that a 25 year old would wear a top hat in 1918?

We just visited Uxmal today and I'm interested in comparing the two drastically different cultures.

The Mayan classical era was from about 500 to 950 AD.