I'm aware that, at least from all outstanding evidence, literacy via Linear B in Mycenean Greece was primarily confined to high level administrative and accounting purposes, but it is still a striking difference in my opinion from the culture that followed, where there is no evidence of writing. Have there been other cultures over the years where, following some sort of collapse, literacy was completely lost?

I'm not referring to, say, a people being conquered and having the indigenous form of writing and the indigenous administration replaced, but rather a situation where following the disappearance of writing there was nothing to replace it for some extended period of time.

I'm reading up on German Reunification and it seems as if it was kind of just allowed to happen by both sides and neither seemed awfully fussed. I fully understand the Soviet's weak position at the time but was there absolutely no attempt by the Soviets, or even those on the side of NATO to stop it?

Reposting this, I'm interested in an answer.

I would like to know when people started thinking about Space and really imagining things about it. When did themes like Star Wars (people living in space, etc) emerge? Thank you!

I'm thinking something along the lines of small, elite units trained for stealthy, high risk operations and/or forward reconnaissance.

I understand lots of societies had a warrior elite, but someone like a Knight or Samurai doesn't really seem too well suited to what we'd think of as a commando raid.

Was there ever a desire to return to those forms of government, and did nobody notice how they had regressed to the times of the Roman Kingdom they so loathed?

Seems unlikely and probably impossible to answer with any certainty, but I guess it's worth asking on the off chance there is info on this out there.

Hernan Cortes supported intermarriage as a way of assimilation of Natives into the Spanish way of life and Catholicism (himself taking part). Are there other examples of this viewpoint being preached (other than the huge mestizo population in Central and South America)? Or opposition?

Just like the title where did they originate from or what words did they stem from?

Was there a particular benefit for doing so?

I read this one in the recent AskReddit thread...is there anything to it?