I read that only about a dozen nation states consider it to be a genocide.

It seems to me like the abandoning of Moscow, compared to all other choices was one of the worst choices he could have made.

I noticed when in petra recently a lot of places with directional arrows painted on the wall or floor. They were obviously modern, but the combination of them and the various more historic paintings made me wonder how long they've been used for as a way of pointing out directions. It seems obvious and near-ubiquitous, so I imagine for a while, but I wonder if there were at one point multiple different competing ways of doing it and at some point arrows won out?

(Obviously drawings of arrows and similarly pointy weapons have been around for a while. I'm specifically interested in their use as ways of indicating direction).

I mean, as yet another barbarian group falling upon a weakened Mediterranean. Works that compare the Arian Goth and Muslim Arab regimes would be great.

Primary, secondary, and even historiographic texts would be welcome.

In 1940 the Royal Navy destroyed a large part of the French fleet at anchor in Mers-el-Kébir. Why did this happen, as I understand it Churchill didn't want it to fall into German hands but was there more going on?

Furthermore how is the event interpreted today in France and in the UK. Its not something I see much debate about.

Also, these Arab and Persian philosophers seem to have largely based their philosophy on that of Ancient Greece. Was there an analogous philosophical problem to this in in Greece, and has there been one in European philosophy since then as well?

There is very little to be easily found on the subject of Asian-American segregation through American history, but this laywoman would like to try to understand the everyday life of the unheard immigrant peoples of the time.

It seems as though, in north/west Europe during the 500s-1000s, shield wall combat predominated in a lot of areas. The Romans had used such formations to batter Germanic and Celtic tribes into submission carrying their scutums and then the beaten tribes began to adopt those Roman tactics.

So my question is, aside from the iron bossed-and-linden/willow board round shield, were there any other shapes of shields that saw serious use during this post-Roman, pre-Norman time? I've seen highly ornamented Celtic shields that give a rough echo of the scutum...were they actually used in the shield wall? Did anyone else try to 'copy' the scutum rather than relying on the round shields?

Hello AskHistorians!

I've been reading Lewis' The early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han and it is a terrific read! I found it to be deeply informative and easily readable (and affordable too!).

If I can make one criticism is that it doesn't go in too much in depth with the structural organisation of the Qin-era army or other warring states forces. Lewis mentions about the implementation of Legalism and the subsequent conscription of the entire population to feed the Qin king's ruthless ambitions.

But that did not tell me of the more specific bits of the Qin army. How did the peasants get mobilized? How did they get trained? How long wes their mandatory service? How were they put into units? How did they get promoted? Was this truly an "imperial" army? And much much more.

My normally strong Google fu has failed me. I know little about Roman history and only just read about Theodosius tonight. Can anyone help with this? Thanks

Why is it that we associate an elaborate hat made of precious metal as a symbol of authority and nobility?

I'm looking for books to read to learn more about world history. I'm interested a lot in anything related to the Roman Empire (East,West,Holy), but I also want books from any other parts of history and maybe even a general history of civilization. Thanks!

I'm lacking knowledge on this part of history and I'm really curious. What was it? How did it work? How did it effect Europe in the middle ages? How was it related to the Western and Eastern Roman Empire?