Having travelled in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, I was impressed by the large presence of ethnic Chinese in all three countries. I looked up some numbers on Wiki and it looks like they make up a significant portion of the population in most countries in the region but there doesn't seem to be much information about their history and culture. I'd love it if anyone could provide me with more insight about them because, from my very limited experience, they seemed to be an interesting group.

Are there any essays, books, or stories that Africans, native Americans, etc. wrote during European expansion and colonization?

So much effort went into keeping East Germany in the Eastern Block it seems strange the Soviets would just hand over thier section of Austria in exchange for vague promises of neutrality. Were they not at least worried it would provide, in the event of a war, an easy southern vector of invasion deep into Czechoslovakia and Hungary? Was it later considered a mistake or temporary lapse in judgement?

I'm currently doing background research for a writing project, but I've not been able to turn up much online about motte and bailey castles. As such, I have a few questions that I would be grateful if someone could answer.

1. are there any good books available on this subject?

2. how thick could a palisade wall be made? Were they ever made from alternating horizontal and vertical beams?

3. is there any evidence of European attempts to fireproof the walls, either through plaster or partial charring (as I believe was done with some Japanese castles)?

4. is there any evidence for having two palisades separated from a short distance (like on some Maori pā), either by themselves or filled with earth?

5. is there any evidence of wooden walls with arrow slits?

I mean, obviously its effects were awful, but the Thirteenth Amendment didn't exist yet. Is it considered a poorly reasoned legal decision by scholars today, or were the justices constrained by the law as it existed back then?

I'm not very smooth with words so I'll just list what made me ask the question, in as logical an order as possible.

1. During the occupation, the official stance of the empire was that Koreans and Japanese people were one and the same.

2. However, there are ample account of violence and unfair treatment by the occupying Japanese forcr committed against Korean people.

3. So barring Comfort Women, what were the real horrors of Japanese occupation?

4. Korean-Japanese people are still minorities in current Japan. Seeing how the government refused to even acknowledge the existence of Ainu and Burakumin until very recently, I am more opt to think the treatment of Koreans during occupation would have been much, much worse.

The answers to this will probably vary, because my question is pretty broad--I want to know about the whole range of castles through different histories and cultures. How many people worked behind the scenes to keep a castle running for King Henry, for example, and what were all those different jobs? What about more in medieval times or even ancient times like for pharaoh or Caesars? How many people washed dishes, how many people cared for animals, how many people cleaned the chamber pots, how many were around just to deliver messages and run errands at the beck and call of their masters? Were there tailors and jewelers and such employed by the castle or were those kinds of things outsourced? How many people lived in the castle who weren't actually the royal family? When I watch movies or read books like Elizabeth or the Tudors or even The Princess Bride or Game of Thrones, I want to know how all of those castles functioned behind the scenes. I'd appreciate any explanations as well as any resources you can direct me to!

There is a widespread fear and hatred for muslims today, with many educated people also believing that there is something inherently wrong with Islam. From what I gather, history tells us otherwise. Examples or opinions or book recommendations?

A rather common fantasy trope is to see a fully armored person, generally in some bulky plate armor, rushing into battle on foot. This seems really off in that the majority of armored knights seemed to be on horseback. In fact, I thought that was the whole point.

But are there any accounts of armored knights charging an enemy on foot? And how effective were they? Thank you!

For example, instead of making money through writing and selling to opera houses or orchestras or theaters or to royalty and concerts or whatever (idk), a Classical artist like say Franz Schubert released his music to the public using modern technologies (DVDs albums, digital download, spotify streams etc), how would he fare as far as his success and popularity? This could go off of either today's time, which we have data for in stream numbers, download counts, and album sales, or according to the preferences of the time such classical music was released.

Despite popular opinion the civil war primarily related to slavery, I understand Lincoln's primary concern was preservation of the union. Why did he care so much? What did he find so abhorrent about the southern states forming their own country?

Working on a history paper and wanted to check here first!

I'd use /r/Anarchism or /r/Anarchy101 for this, but their resource lists tend towards polemics and hagiographies. I'm looking for secondary sources with a scholarly viewpoint.