From what I've read about the Roman Empire, Syria constantly comes up as an important province who's governorship was prestigious. Was Syria a critical Roman Province? If so, why?

Just saw the Thracian (sp?) chariot on /r/pics and was curious.

I was too young to remember it happening, and my research online has been fruitless.

Was East Germany a part of the Soviet Union? Did the USSR erect the wall? I assume East and West Germany were separately governed, so why wouldn't Reagan give his directive to the East German government?

What I mean is why call yourself a prince when you can get away with calling yourself a king?

My understanding is that some places (like Monaco f'rinstance) started as protectorates or suzerainties... but after the dust cleared could they not give themselves promotions? And also I would think (perhaps wrongly) that not all "sovereign" princes were beholden to someone/somewhere else.

Please illuminate.

What was Hitler's opinion on Luxemburg?

My own knowledge is relatively good, from years of scattered sources and learning. My wife is interested in educating herself. I figured a great way to do/intro this is by marathoning a series of high-quality documentaries. What are AskHistorians' favourites to put together from start to finish? We're looking for everything -- from the cultural movements and ideas that drove events, to the economics, personal experiences in the wars, down to the equipment and technological evolution and turning points. Certainly, historically accurate films or TV series would be great supplemental viewing here too.

So if you were to educate someone new to these wars via documentary, what would be your syllabus?

Thanks!

Considering how hard it usually is to control an area of differing culture, I'm surprise that such an action held up and the area in Anatolia was more or less in the hands of the Romans (with some interruption) up to the 13th century. Has such an action happened before, in any region of the world?

I have heard Newfoundland and such, and am fascinated by Vikings and their advanced shipbuilding I would like to know if there are any other such stories of Vikings sailing long distances from their homes.

I was told to post this here. I never really thought about it until now. I'm sure there's a logical answer.

Hello, i asked hit about a month ago, and got no reply, so decided to ask again.

I have seen many analysis or documentaries about the split of the Roman Empire, as well as the conflicts between the east and the west. Its always stated that the East is where all the money was. Augustus also refrained from further conquering Germania after the initial disaster because it simply was not worth it.

After the collapse of the empire however, we get Francia, Holy Roman Empire, Britain ect emerge is powerhouses with massive economies, populations ect, wile the east seamed unable to compete.

What happened? Why was the east more profitable during the times of the empire, and why/how did that change?

I took an international relations class and we touched upon institutional liberalism, and how IGOs were becoming increasingly more common, or attempted. Does anyone know what were some of the bigger attempts or successes?

Why did American snipers in World War 2 given the Springfield 1903 when the M1 Garand uses the type of ammunition and is Semi-Automatic?

EDIT: a word

I decided to read The Scarlet Letter. The prologue is an autobiography where the author states that his ancestors were Puritans in Salem. He imagines his ancestors would ask about himself, "What is he? A writer of story books! What kind of business in life - what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation - may that be? Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!"

Would have been being a fiddler during the time of the Salem witch trials really have been considered a degenerate profession?

My dad has recently been reading some of Bill O'Reilly's Killing (famous person here) books, particularly Killing Lincoln and Killing Jesus. I haven't been able to get my hands on them, or make time to read them if I did. Bill O'Reilly has never struck me as a font of historical knowledge, so I'm very curious to know how accurate they are. Are they pretty solid accounts of historical events, or are they right-wing neo-con crazy spewed as historical revisionism?

You look at a map of the world in 1900, and the British Empire will usually be in a light red or pink, France will be a strong blue, Germany will be one form of grey or another, Russia will tend to be green, etc. I know these are only a few examples from one context and not absolute, but there does seem to be trends for a country to identify themselves with a certain colour or two over all others.

So I'm asking, what are the reasons why some of these countries came to identify with these colours specifically? Why did the Netherlands end up orange? Why is China red? Ireland emerald?

Thanks for any responses