However, I don't mean ones that were never colonized, or the last one to be colonized. I mean one that was colonized eventually.

Because conflict in the 21st century is all about asymmetrical warfare involving stateless combatants (and occasionally containing only stateless combatants) I was wondering what lessons we (NATO, UNSC etc) can learn from the Bush war, and whether we can tailor these approaches to peacekeeping style operations.

And isn't the monetary value of gold just as arbitrary as the monetary value of paper currency? If so, why is it so important to have a currency backed by gold?

Hey everyone.

I will be conducting an AMA on the Sikh Empire(Sarkar-E-Khalsa) today. At it's peak the Empire encompassed most of Northern South Asia stretching from Afghanistan to Tibet across, and the Sutlej river to Kashmir. Classically speaking the Empire existed from 1799-1839 With Maharaja Ranjit Singh at it's head. But the Reign of Sikhs in the Punjab would start from Guru Hargobind Singh who militarized the Sikhs to an extent and preached the necessity of temporal authority. This AMA will focus on the Sikh Kingdom created by Banda Singh Bhadur starting with his capture of Mughal provinces in 1710, all the way to the Punjab rebellion of 1848 which was fought for the name of an infant Maharaja Duleep Singh. Any questions about the various Sikh rulers and kingdoms are fine. What I won't answer is questions about Sikhs under British Rule, or partition. As well as contemporary Sikh and Punjabi politics. Too contentious, And I might break the 20 year rule with them. I will answer general questions about Sikhi and Sikhs if it is required a context for questions. This is not IAMA Sikh, and i don't expect the questions to reflect that.

I am a graduate of South Asian History. My thesis was on the Anglo-Sikh wars and The Sikh Empire under Ranjit falls into my expertise. It is a topic I've been obsessed with since I heard about Maharaja Ranjit Singh in my Gurudawara when I was a young lad. I hope to further my education in Sikh History and South Asian history as a whole and teach down the line. More than anything I hope everyone here learns something and gain some interest in South Asian history and studies. South Asian Studies programs in Colleges and few and far apart. If you have interest in the subject and you institution offers the major/minor, check it out, i guarantee they will be some of the most interesting classes you take. If I don't answer your question today, don't worry I will get to it by the end of the Weekend.

AMA

EDIT: Thanks so much for the opportunity to answer your questions. I was astounded to see the level of depth in them, and it made me read though all the sources I had available. I apologize if I didn't answer your question I will get to it or PM you. If you have any more feel free to post them here or create a new post later on asking. I look forward to the experience of sharing my knowledge with yall. I hope this peaked your interest in Sikh and South Asian history.

Edit: Also, what military innovations during that time made Europe superior?

More specifically, would she have sympathized with the American/French Revolutions?

I'm interested to read about the creation of the Latin American countries and their separation from Spain. I believe that Símon Bolívar was key to this and would like an insight into his character and life. Also I'd like a biography on General Franco if anyone can recommend? Thanks

I can understand why they did it in the first years of the war before everything went bad for them. But later in the war it seems (from what I have understood) that human rights meant less and less for the Germans, so why did they "just" not kill all their POW to save the manpower and recourses needed to keep them imprisoned?

While the Americans did fight a guerilla war in Vietnam, there seemed to be plenty of brigade level operations against NVA units. Was there similar scale engagements against a guerilla force like the mujahideen?

Also, what is the scale and scope of Soviet airmobile operations, and how similar was it to the doctrine of American air calvary divisions?

Lost as in "we don't know where are today"

For context, I'm a third year University student writing my dissertation on Florence's military actions during the Italian Wars. I'm already using Guicciardini and Machiavelli extensively in my study, but am failing for find similar primary sources discussing the later events of the wars.

So my question is, are there any primary sources in English available that cover the later Italian Wars or the war of Siena?

Any suggestions of sources are welcome.

NOTE: I'm doing fine for secondary sources, it is PRIMARY sources I'm struggling with.

I found an old topic on this but nobody had answered. Where does it come from?

I originally posted this question in /r/Warships and didn't get a response so I'm posting it here: If I remember correctly, I've read that the US Navy planned to keep many of its Super Dreadnaughts into the 1950's, only replacing them as the battleships ordered in the late 1930's and early 1940's came into service. I've also never read anything about plans to rebuild these old ships before they retired.

My question revolves around the attack on Pearl Harbor and the rebuilding of many of these ships. Some were so rebuild that the December 6, 1941, battleship would be unrecognizable next to the ship as it was on VJ-Day. Were these rebuilds done using preexisting plans or were they kind of done on the fly? And if the redesigns were done in a very short amount of time, what limitations did some of these ships have?