2 Answers 2014-07-28
Game of Thrones and other stories have used situations like this as a major plot point; is there any historical basis for this? Has a younger sibling ever effectively challenged the elder's right to the throne?
2 Answers 2014-07-28
I was going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole and reading about Aethelred/Ethelred the Unready, and noticed ten of his thirteen children had names starting with E. A look at the Wessex family tree revealed that from 519 - 750 AD, almost every single ruler's name started with C, after which they switched to E. Is there a reason for this alphabetic consistency?
2 Answers 2014-07-28
One of the groups of people that are usually mentioned when talking about American immigration during the 1800s are the Germans. They seem to be second only to the Irish in terms of number of people who traveled to America. I understand that due to the potato famine, many Irish people had to leave the country, but why did so many Germans choose to leave? Did the American Dream travel that far?
2 Answers 2014-07-28
I'm talking about the 6 string acoustic guitar, not necessarily the dreadnought shape because I know that was invented in the early 1900s by Martin. But when did an instrument that you could look at and say, "that's a guitar" come around? And what was its predecessor?
1 Answers 2014-07-28
Basically, why were the Native Americans excluded from joining the United States and becoming part of the United States' national identity?
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Many ancient religious texts and practices are not in sync with the modern world. Most communities do not practice exactly what is written in these texts be it Bible or Vedas or other major texts. Why is that Islamic society consider the text to be sacrosanct?
Just a curious question, don't mean to offend anyone.
2 Answers 2014-07-28
As title says. Were there planned bombing raids to civilian targets or were civilian casualties always collateral damage? And if so why did they target civilians?
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An odd collection of circumstances has led to me becoming curious about the Eighty Years' War, so I put a set of random holds in the local library system for books on the topic.
Among those holds was a legitimate printed-in-1908 physical copy of Motley's Dutch Nation.
I remember reading about the rise of nationalism that led to the first World War in school; and now here, in my hands, is an actual physical representation of that nationalism.
AskHistorians, I've only had an hour or so to spend time with it, but this book is filled with caricatures so one-sided that they make Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge seem balanced and well-rounded by comparison. Take, for example, the description of the Duke of Alva (p. 253):
As a man, his character was simple. He did not combine a great variety of vices, but those which he had were colossal, and he possessed no virtues.
I thought that was outlandish, but it pales in comparison with the description of Council of Troubles (or "Council of Blood," as Motley calls it) member Juan de Vargas, which begins viciously and then starts to really get mean (p. 266):
No better man could have been found in Europe for the post to which he was thus elevated. To shed human blood was, in his opinion, the only important business and the only exhilarating pastime of life. His youth had been stained with other crimes. He had been obliged to retire from Spain because of his violation of an orphan child of whom he was guardian; and in his manhood he found no pleasure but in murder. He executed Alva's bloody work with an energy which was almost superhuman, and with a merriment which would have shamed a demon. His execrable jests ring through the blood and smoke and death-cries of those days of perpetual sacrifice.
On top of all this, such effort was put into this book's printing; each right-hand page header, in lieu of the chapter title, has a short summary of the facing pages' content, and it is filled with engravings made just for the book of the various characters.
What I'm saying here is that this book is an absolute gem, so thoroughly entertaining that I intend to return all of the others and read this one thoroughly and exclusively. I do not expect to learn much of any reasonable accuracy from it, but I do expect to be completely entertained, and that's been the case in the brief time I've spent with it.
So, my question is this:
Edit: Wow, it's actually even more interesting: Apparently Motley's original three sources for this were published ~1855 or so, and this is the half-century later update and abridgment of those writings!
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I'm interested in learning about the background to the present day conflict in order to better form an opinion and would love advice as to what would be a good book or two to start with. Thanks!
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Not sure I framed that correctly. I'm very interested in the period of history that seems to (as Google tells me) extend a bit past "current history). That seems to be about 80 years. I'm interested in more like 100-120 years.
Is this time period covered as a sub-discipline within History? What resources could get me started? I have a doctorate in information systems so journal cites and a general academic response would be most helpful. Thank you. I can expand on the "why" of my interest if desired.
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I've heard conflicting things about whether his argument holds a lot of weight, with some people being super critical and others being more apologetic. Is there a way to compare these different forms of slavery, and if so does Tannenbaum provide a decent model for that? Or is comparative slavery always a doomed endeavour?
2 Answers 2014-07-28
Did Christians, Muslims, and Jews live in the same villages and towns or interact? Was Mozarabic or Arabic spoken? By all groups? Were the Muslims descendants of the Moors or the native population?
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...and probably elsewhere, but this is where I know it from.
I'm referring to the method of campaigning where the army advances across a vast, wide front, burning and pillaging as it goes. I want to say *vex-*something.
I have tried and tried to search for this, but even histories of the War don't seem to mention it.
Thanks in advance!
1 Answers 2014-07-28
Why have all the previous colonies of the British (Empire) developed their own regional/country-specific variation of the English accent, as opposed to following the uniform ('Queen's English) English accent?
For example, the Australian English accent differs to the one in Canada, as is Hong Kong and India.
1 Answers 2014-07-28