Just confused, that's all.

From the 16th century to the 18th century it seems that the Europeans (Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish etc.) influence in the region increased massively and were able to exert themselves on the countries there. How did Europeans become such a powerful economic and political force in the Indian Ocean region?

Most of what I have currently read explains their dominance as a result of technological advantages, such as the caravels and cannons along with shock and awe tactics.

Things such as lamps, furniture, etc.. that were specifically needed for the set. I would imagine things such as desks, books and other generic stuff were colored because they were real, but things made out of cardboard or other materials made JUST for the movie, what color were they?

I've been doing casual reading on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and I read about Josip Broz Tito led the resistance movement and how effective they were. Why was this?

What other resistance movements in World War 2 are underrepresented in media?

Several films depict ice being present in desert locations and without electricity. Basically...how?

Wikipedia reads: By the 13th century, Moorish invaders had introduced the fruit to Europe

I don't think this is right, but I'd like some further input from other experts before I propose an amendment to the page. I don't believe this is correct because in Andrew Dalby's book Tastes of Byzantium, one of the sections of an old Byzantine manual titled On Fruits (taken from De Alimentis, c. AD 670) reads:

"Watermelons are not as moist or as productive of bad humours as other melons, and are not so diuretic, or so effective as emetics. Although not as good to eat as other fruits, they are better to eat than melons."

So, the question I have is: did the watermelon exist in the Roman or Byzantine Empires? Based on the previous primary source, it seems to have. But I can't seem to find any other sources mentioning watermelons specifically. Melons are certainly described for banquets, etc.

Anyways, I find it very hard to believe that Europe didn't have access to this fruit before AD 1200. From experience, (notably, with the Wikipedia fork incident) that the statement is simply more "dark ages" crap, attributing all exotic goods and new technologies of the European Middle Ages to the oh-so-advanced Moors/Caliphate, but I'll wait for others' judgments before I say any more.

Pretty much everything I've heard about reconstruction has been awful. I grew up in America (although in a state that didn't fight in the Civil War) so I know very little about reconstruction. Any outline and suggestions would be helpful to my adult education.

• What were some goals and eventual flaws of reconstruction? Is there a way to explain why Americans should have seen those results coming?

• Now that its been almost 150 years since the end of the war, what should America have done different that it would have no way of knowing to do at the time?

Other posts on this subreddit make the case that because the Byzantine Empire was a straight continuation of Rome, Rome cannot be said to have fallen. Is this the accepted view among historians? Was the Byzantine Empire just Rome with its capital moved? If not, when did the Eastern Roman Empire "become" the Byzantine Empire? How different were the Byzantine Empire's culture and institutions compared to Rome? What's some good literature on the topic?

According to a friend, he remembers something from a history class:

There was some Scandinavian king in the 1600s or something who was known for having a live goat brought to his quarters so he could tear it apart with his bare hands every morning, and somehow I can't remember his name nor find him on the internet. I feel like it was something the twelfth.

My (and others') Google searches have turned up naught, so I thought this might be the place to inquire to get a more concrete answer, one way or another. Thank you!

I know very little about the revival of Hebrew as a modern language from the ancient version, so I was wondering if the reason of the revival was a part of building a national identity or for a religious identity. Was identity a part of the reason or was it purely religious?

Those who can't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In light of recent events regarding the FCC and Net Neutrality, I was hoping we could get some historical perspective on the relationship between the old AT&T, the public, and the government.

It would be an added bonus if someone can provide specific instances where Ma Bell prevented superior or lower-cost technology from taking hold in order to preserve their monopoly.

Basically what I'm asking is how and when did education change from find your own way, your own teacher, apprenticeship to children as a matter of course go to school, our K-12 per se. (Rather than the fairly well off type of schooling, which I imagine would be a whole different topic) Who was the first to go this course? Did that last?

I googled this and found that there was no real answer as to why Japanese people in Hawaii weren't evacuated but Japanese here in Southern California as well as other nearby states were. Some speculated that maybe it was because Japanese people had a stronghold on the economy since Hawaii is mainly Japanese. I don't know. What are your thoughts?

This interests me because my dad was born in Hawaii in 1943 and is of Japanese/German descent so I always wondered why he wouldn't have been in an internment camp.

I believe there should be some kind of logician, mathematician, philosopher, or any ancient thinker around the time of moses, jesus, or muhammad.

I have been trying to find any record that shows the presence of them and their contributions/influence towards the creation of fundamental parts of those religions. Sadly, because most of the starting points of those religions were heavily revolving around liberation and salvation of lower classes and poor people, many of important characters that I found are traders, rebelling nobles, and non-scholar characters.

This is my opinion but I think the presence/nonexistence of this record can provide a supporting fact towards the argument of whether there is a bridge between religion and science or not.

With the World Cup coming up I was reading about the history of the tournament. I read about the tournament in France. I was wondering what it was like. Were there any incidents? Thanks, you guys rock!

I always see in popular culture that illiterate people signed contracts with a simple 'x'. However, this has spanned many time periods in popular culture (as many things do), and I was wondering when the practice may have started (if it ever did), and if the mark was legally binding.

How would one be identified on the contract? Would the contract be written out for each individual and an 'x' marked by that person to indicate agreement? How easily could forgeries be made? Am I thinking too deep into contract law concepts through history?

I know spies were helpful, but the logistics of it baffle me. In the movies, they always seem to meet up with all their units facing one another in perfect formation. But, in real life, i never got how they found each other over the huge expanses of land without any modern reconnaissance methods.