I mean, who decided that? Why were they so sure that was going to work best?

Why didn't the diseases already present in the America's not wipe out early colonists? When a large amount of deaths of native populations can be attributed to foreign European disease.

A friend suggested that the primary cause of Japan and West Germany's economic sucess after WW2 (by 1980 they were the 3rd and 4th largest ecomonies after US and USSR) was that the restrictions imposed by the Allies on military spending freed up that money which everyone else was spending on the cold war to invest in the economy. Is this actually the case?

I've been reading about the military excursions of the British empire against Napolean and I was wondering how navies in general but the British in particular were able to communicate, coordinate and get logistics in a time without our communication technologies. What kind of technology or cleverness was available at the time?

I went on a day trip to Richmond with my dad to visit the battle sites of the Seven Days Battles and we hired a private tour guide to take us around the battlefields and take us to the place where a family member fighting for the Confederates died.

Among other things he mentioned that at some point in the war both sides began to equip rifles, as opposed to smoothbore muskets. Unless I'm mistaken rifles were limited to sharpshooters early in the war.

From what I've read rifles are much more accurate than smoothbore guns and have greater range so, assuming that what the tour guide said was true, what did the widespread introduction of rifles to the Civil War do to casualty rates and tactics in general?

I read that after Alexander took control of Egypt, he left Macedonians in charge. Why wouldn't the local population just kill the Macedonians after the army left?

We're familiar with Ancient Athens and while not a democracy, Rome's Republic at least had a democratic element, but what about the rest of the pre-modern world? I've heard it said that Carthage was arguably more democratic, that Scandinavians during the Viking age were fairly democratic... as supposedly was Xenophon's army and many of the pirate ships during the golden age of piracy. Was it seen as a normal thing in smaller social structures? Was it still vary rare or do we think it was pretty common?

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My wife loves the last royal family of Russia, and for her birthday i am getting her a painting of Nicholas II. i would like to add a quote to the bottom of it, of something kind he said to his wife. The problem is that I can't find anything, and i believe it is because they were so private with their feelings in public. Does anyone here know anything that I might use? Thanks!

So I was wondering, was it common that Americans who already fought in the second world war were also sent to Vietnam? Also, were the veterans treated any differently compared to new recruits? Were they respected for their combat experience and placed as officers etc? How many of them were killed in combat?

Would they be talking of their jobs like farming etc... telling jokes (what about?!)....gossiping about the 'celebs' of the day (royals?)....or would they be arguing over which sports team (which sports?!) are the best?

...obviously it's likely that all of the above might be true, but which what dominated most 'idle chatter'?