I'm currently studying race theory in American politics and how organizations try to empower certain demographics. Were there any ancient entities that tried to implement solutions to domestic problems? Or was it usually left to the sovereigns or local heads of state head to deal with issues?

There seems to be controversy about the Dalai Lama's rule in Tibet. I've heard it described as something like a cruel system of feudalism. I'm having a hard time finding reliable information about this. Can anyone help me out or point me in the right direction? Thanks.

I'm up to the part where Emperor Napoleon and Tsar Alexander make peace at Tilsit. With Alexander's permission, Napoleon gives one of the soldiers in the Russian regiment a Legion of Honour decoration. It is later remarked by another that this soldier would then be receiving a pension from the French government as a recipient of the Legion of Honour.

Was this relatively common in real life then? What would have happened to the pension when Russia and France went to war again in 1812?

What engines are meant in the song London's Burning about the Great Fire of London? There would not have been fire engines then or did they have a form of fire engine?

Also, how did these tribes interact with older, more established tribes such as the Alemanni, Macromanni, and Suebi?

I understand that the cold war was as much about propaganda as anything else and, having just watched 'Air Force One', i wondered if there were Russian films similar to this made/still being produced to this day.

Thanks in advance

Was invading Russia the main cause for Napoleon's downfall? Or was his empire already growing uneasy by this point? What's the latest into his ruling that he could have 'taken a chill pill' and stopped starting so many wars and maintained his power?

Just been doing some light reading of him lately, and he seems to have just gone around hitting a bunch of hornets nests and getting away with it, surely even if he tried for peace, the rest of Europe would have just used it as a chance to rebuild their forces and get some payback, right?

I recently saw a reddit thread showing Nazis sharing a cigarette with a Black French POW and in the comments there was discussion about whether Blacks were persecuted in Nazi Germany. It seems that they weren't systematically slaughtered like the Jews, but they were definitely second class citizens in Germany. Was their treatment any better or worse than that of American Blacks in the 30s and 40s?

Title is self explanitory, I couldn't think of any other examples besides my unit blasting AC/DC as psych up while we were in Baghdad. I know it's common in the US military. I was just curious for more historical examples.

Horses were originally seen as masculine because of knights and so forth, no?

From what I've read, he mostly used England for a source of revenue.

In popular culture, 1920s America is often viewed like something from a Fitzgerald novel; flappers with short hair and dresses, forbidden alcohol flowing in every home, most criminals being part of criminal Mafia gangs, a boom in prosperity, exciting new products to buy and wear, and exciting new art movements like Art Deco, Jazz and the Harlem Renaissance emerging.

I understand, of course, that many would have been unable to access the luxuries above, but to what extent was this? How true are these images, and is there any truth behind the labels 'The Roaring Twenties' and 'The Jazz Age'?

African Americans involvement in the westward expansion and the 'old west' in general is something that we hear nothing about. What was it like then for African Americans, particularly in the late 1800s? BTW the book (fiction) is worth a read if you want a really great, not so predictable 'old west' tale.

I recently had a friend attribute the collapse of the USSR (at least partially) to the falling energy prices of the 1980's and that got me thinking: Just how integrated was the Soviet Union with the global economy? How integrated were other regimes like Maoist China and post-war Vietnam? I know this is going to differ from country to country over time, but I had always pictured the USSR as a more or less closed system, something like massive autarky and now I am curious.

I've trained in various martial arts (Thai, bjj, karate, kungfu) All claim to have various fanciful origin stories, many claiming to be the first etc.

What is the historical consensus is there? What was the 'first' martial art? Are there surviving manuscripts?

Thanks

Just like Europe, Japan transitioned from a classical period with a powerful emperor to a medieval period with feudal warlords. In Europe, this transition happened during the 'Dark Ages' - a pretty violent era where technological advances like aqueducts, sewers and bathhouses disappear. How 'dark' was the early medieval period in Japan?

And is there a reason why European and Japanese emperors were both replaced by feudal warlords? Are there some deep underlying socio-economic causes? In general, human organizations tend to get bigger (small bands of hunter gatherers > villages > cities > states > globalized world).