I have read that Tolkien was very influential in the history of certain mythical beings, such as the elves, but what did he take from previously established lore and what was of his own creation?

How did China get to be a permanent member with veto power in the security council? As far as I know China wasn't a member until the seventies, when they took Taiwans seat. If they achieved this in the seventies, why wasn't other countries protesting decision? And what was the view of the USSR? China and the USSR had a bad relationship in the seventies, had they not?

I have read books from the arab perspective, jewish perspective, I read some finklestien and others like him, some Said as well

Thanks in advanced.

One thing I've always wondered about the Ancient and Early Mediaeval period, was the prevalence of Chain-mail as an armour type.

From what I've read it can and often did take up to a year to make a hauberk (upper/lower chest, upper arms and upper legs coverage). Granted it was reportedly excellent at stopping slashing blows and even many piercing attacks, it offered little defence against crushing blows. And to me at least a sword is as often an edged club as it is a slashing weapon.

Wouldn't Banded armour like the Roman "Loricum Segmentum" (Lamilar) be much easier to manufacture, or Splint, Brigandine or Scale armour (small pieces of metal sewn or riveted to a leather backing.

I'm no military expert, but surely there weren't enough Germans to man the entire French coastline.

So why did the Allies have to land at a defended beach? Why did the Germans know they only had to defend certain areas e.g. Normandy?

Historically speaking the Balkans have been a hive of ethnic tensions and violence but somehow those all seem to be repressed under Tito. All throughout the region he seems to be spoken of quite fondly even after the Balkan wars so I'm curious to know what his secret was?

Sorry if this has been asked before.

How did it originate? What were the religions the Jews practiced before and what influence do those religions have on Judaism?

This question was inspired by the Master and Commander movie.

What were the roles and ranks? How did they maintain such discipline? What else is important to know about?

Thanks!!

Paul John asserts on page 108 of "A History of the American People" that "the American mainland colonies were the least taxed territories on earth" He gives no evidence and no citations.

I don't see how this can be even remotely true. I know taxes were low compared to England but how could he possibly make a claim like this. He goes on to say that it was probably the least taxed in history and close to a no-tax society. I simply can't believe this is true. Can someone point me towards some actual evidence or an explanation of this claim.

Let me fill in some context for this question first. I've been creating some characters and a few short plot lines for them for fun recently. And it's in a medieval fantasy RPG setting(Skyrim, LOTR, d&d, GoT, etc) And so of course I'm coming across the standard roles such as merchant, knight, town guard, etc.. But I realize that I have absolutely no idea how these concepts worked in real life and I don't want to just make things up.

Some questions I have for example: What was an army made of? Where did they get the non mounted troops and what were they paid? What about militias? And who was fighting who? Was the 'country' even an applicable concept then or were there many civil wars? What was the hierarchy of power? 1 king or several nobles? And how did this differ in different parts of the world.

I'm not necessarily looking for answers to these questions, but a resource I could use to find the answers myself.

I've been reading up on the Crusades recently and I noticed that in all honesty the Crusades themselves seem to have had almost no long term effects on the Islamic world. Why then are the crusades seen by many in the West and East as this great turning point in history? It seems to me that events like the Mongol invasion or even virtually unknown events the Ottoman Hapsburg wars were of more importance. Why are the Crusades given such weight? Is this a modern phenomena? My focus as a historian has mostly been the 4th Century so I'm a little out of my depth here.

I know American soldiers had dog tags; did they carry any other identification? Also, how difficult would it have been for an enemy to impersonate an American solider (perhaps using captured documents/uniforms/dog tags)? Obviously language and physical traits would be an issue, but assuming those could be overcome, are there any instances of, say, Germans impersonating American soldiers? In particular I'm wondering if any Germans might have impersonated a dead soldier to escape Germany near the end of the war, or if this would even be possible.