I know that French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian (As well as Catalan too I suppose) derived from Vulgar Latin, however was there ever a time during the Roman Empire where Latin was used alongside French or something in that family? Something like in Egypt where official documentation is written in Modern Standard Arabic but the lingua franca is Egyptian Arabic, a dialect.

This question comes from /r/civ where someone pondered why a civilization never formed around Lake Victoria. I decided to look into it, but finding nothing, im wondering if there is something im missing as Lake Victoria seems like its condusive to what a civilization needs to thrive.

Im not 100% sure if this is the right place though, but I feel like since im not asking "What If a civ formed around Lake Victoria", this feels like the best place to ask.

As I understand it, these seating arrangements were why we now describe the political spectrum in terms of right and left. So, in the trope-naming assembly, would a monarchist representative of the third estate have sat to the right or the left of a democratic-minded aristocrat?

Sorry if this is a weird question, but I was riding around today and thought how unintuitive the balancing effect of biking was. Responses are appreciated :)

Not sure if this meta(?) post is against the rules but could we have a sticky with suggested reading lists? I went through one of the Wall Street summer reading lists and I was really enamored with Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals.

I know this isn't the case, but it almost seems like simply "laying low" could get you out of a lot. What technology did the Nazis have to systematically document all the citizens and find discrepancies/ hunt down anyone they were interested in?

In Rashid Khalidi's book 'the Iron Cage' he claims the governmental structure for Arabs in the Palestine Mandate was distinctly different from other colonial gov'ts and was specifically designed to dilute Palestinian power. But is this a farcical claim? Weren't all British colonial territories governed in distinct, localized ways different from all other colonial territories, and did the British not always employ methods to prevent locals from taking power? I feel this claim is kind of blowing smoke and clouding the facts of history. true?

I've noticed that I seem to have only ever heard of male composers, but I'm assuming this has to just be because I'm ignorant rather than because no women were doing stuff like this. What was going on in this field with women at the time, and why has their legacy since been so comparatively small in the mainstream?

N.B. This question has been reposted with different wording and focus at moderator request.

It seems that in the 1950s, there were many ideas of using nuclear bombs for large scale site clearance for construction, clearing areas, even the moon, etc. When did they realize this was caustic on the environment and humans that they curtailed these ideas?

I'm watching The Patriot and I was at the scene where a Loyalist says the colonies to regard themselves a separate nation is considered treason. One man asks what kind of nation and another exclaimed "an American nation"

Excuse me if this is a dumb question, I was curious.

I read that he was a peasant that ended up ruling Japan. How did he become noticed by Oda Nobunaga if he was just a peasant ?