Sorry if the question is worded a bit weird, I meant for it to include the German and North-German Confederation as well as the German Empire. He was minister-president under Wilhelm I while the latter was the Prussian king, and chancellor while Wilhelm was emperor, but seems to have been far more influential than him - enough so that the first part of the German Empire is now known as the Bismarck era. How did that happen, politically speaking?

I was looking at the Greek letter Chi (X) and thought that must have been confusing for Romans who had a number X. But then I read the Romans took Chi and made it into the letter X we know today. But what happened to the number X they were using?

Would a point come were sections of the walls would be knocked down and rebuilt further out or would new suburbs and such be left defenseless?

A patriarch outside of Ottoman territory.

I was thinking about how America isn't really one nation but more two, and how this has affected the social fabric and cultural ideas over the 150 years since slavery.

And I got me thinking - if whites were so adamant about not wanting to give blacks equal status, yet were still against slavery and proposal such as returning them to Africa, then were there any attempts to create a nation from African-Americans, as it were? Similar to attempts to place Natives on localized reservations, but instead for the now-free African minority?

In a recent ask Reddit thread someone post

"In World War Two, MI5 captured or turned every single German spy sent to Britain. Not some, not most: All." he cited this book as his source

The Double Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945 (1972) by John Cecil Masterman

I was wondering whether this claim actually has any fact to it but also in a more general sense how good we the British at catching people within there own system that had turned and were supplying information to the Germans or spy rings in the country

Alright, alright, I know: Germany's been around for around about a thousand years. To narrow it down, how about we talk about German superstitions before the Peace of Westphalia.

I'm curious about little-known stuff, but I'll happily learn about witchcraft and the like as well. But if you've got stories about weird werewolves, or river-spirits or anything like that, I'd love to hear it!

Mostly from the 20th century onward.

More generally, have accents always sounded like they do now, or do they change. For example, have the French always sounded "French" (or what we currently identify as French) throughout history?

Basically, were there any major events that caused European armies to disband armored units and adopt firearms?

We always hear the Indus river valley one, but I've read a lot about traces of civilizations much older, in the form of really old archaeological sites.

I would think that these countries, with their close proximity to Russia and their former membership of the Soviet Union, would remain friendly with Russia. Why haven't they? Also, I apologize if this partially violates the 20 year rule, I hope there can still be some good discussion.

I know John Browning was great at designing firearms, but it seems strange that a European firearm company would "commission" someone, instead of just having their own engineers design it.

I'm looking for books that break down battles and their battlefield tactics.

Books with illustrations of the formations etc...

Any time period is interesting, From Ancient times to Imperial or Colonial.

The reason I'm making this post is because I'm having trouble finding anything more than the "Fighting Techniques" line of books.

My grandfather was a Freemason (among a lot of crazy things) and I would love to know just what they were and what they did. Thanks!