fore-and-aft rigging sails to windward waaaaay better than square-rigging, and seems (to my mind as a modern-trained sailor at least) generally superior to square rigging, and lateen rigging was adopted widely in the middle east, so why did square-rigged ships persist so much up until the age of sail was over? Is there some other advantage to square-rigged ships that I'm just totally missing right now?

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question. Christmas is coming up and I would like to give my father a gift that centers around the War of 1812. My father loves this war and owns alot of historical pieces from this time. I was thinking about trying to find a super cool looking T-shirt or a mug that centers around this time. If someone knows of another gift I am open to suggests!

I suppose they didn't have their fancy glass fibres or high quality water resistant paint so how did they seal their boats?

What I mean is, if you took the chief military powers in history, at the height of their power and from their respective eras (e.g. British Empire in it's imperial century) and compared them to the military strength of their rivals, could you determine the strongest nation? If so, what would it be?

Frisian people once dominated the Atlantic coast of Germany and the Netherlands, but the language now is quite obscure. Frisian ships were the model used across the North Sea during the early middle ages, but I cannot name a single Frisian person.

What happened? Why did Frisian people become so overshadowed by Flemings and the Dutch?

Specifically in reference to the Beta Israel. Also, is there any historical evidence to support ties to the Kingdom of Israel under Solomon?

I have heard in the past that the people of Imperial Russia were intensely religious which was one of the reasons that the tsarist regime was able to survive so long , so how was this compatible with the communist views on religion, opiate of the mass and so on during and after the Bolshevik uprising

I am reading Thomas Asbridge: The Crusades, but want to read more about the motivation by the pope and knights to start/follow the crusades.

I'm asking not in ideological sense(as in fashists vs bolsheviks) but in combat prowess. Any accounts of admiring the enemy soldiers, complaining about your incompetent allies etc.

Similar accounts concerning WW1 are also welcome.

More specifically, is there enough primary and/or secondary sources to warrant a full investigation? I am currently preparing my dissertation on CIA activities during the Cold War in the 1950s/60s and was wondering if there was a lot more CIA activity than first thought

Writing an Affidavit for my clients Asylum application. Through extensive interviews I have a fair amount of information, but have been unable to find any information on line/in libraries on the Bashi or Shi tribes of the eastern Congo.

I'm reading 'The Challenge' by Andrew Lambert about the naval history of the War of 1812. The author mentions that just before the fight against The Chesapeake, The Shannon threw the goats overboard. No explanation as to why this was done is given.