I would like to find a book detailing the events of the stealing of California by John Fremont and all the dirty details like the murder of Berreyesa and the De Haros by Kit Carson etc. Can someone recommend a book for me?

The islands are very near England, I can't understand how they become mere dependencies.

How do they distinguish between themselves?

Was there like a symbol they could rally behind or a mark of prestige that everybody knew?

Something with a variety of topics would be ideal. Thanls!

As is pretty much common knowledge, we called the First World War 'The Great War' for quite some time. When did we retroactively name it World War 1?

I hear the film was based on a few different interpretations of the flood myth and would love to learn more about these types of myths without the religious angle (i.e. the implication the myth is true)

And a side question for anybody who is reading this: do you think that the same thing can happen for Iraq and Afghanistan, in regards to making a somewhat stable country?

I recently came across the story of Pope Joan being outed as a woman after giving birth in public. It seems a bit fantastical, but how much of the tale is considered true and how trusted are the sources? If true, what sort of impact did this woman have? If false, what purpose did the tale serve?

Why would Dante have placed Saladin in Limbo, in the castle with the virtuous pagans such as Socrates, Plato, Caesar, Ptolemy, Galen, etc. He also notes the Saladin was separated from the others and sat alone. It seems to me that Saladin would have been viewed as an enemy of the church, then again, my knowledge of The Crusades is severely lacking.

Okay... so I've been watching a lot of Game of Thrones, and it got me wondering if it was a realistic depiction of kings. Could a king really do as they pleased? I understand that people believed in the "divine right of kings" but were there examples of kings being deposed when they went too far?

I feel like this is the best sub for this question and my Jehovah's Witnesses brothers think that the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures is the most accurate and I was wondering if that was true.

Edit: Any scholarly sources would be greatly appreciated. By accurate, I mean most literal word for word translation.

It seems to me like the building of castles has been a predominantly European affair. I know China and Japan built castles as well, but these seem to have been made out of wood, and on a smaller scale. To my knowledge, there aren't any surviving examples in China.

When did Europeans transition from castles to fortresses?

What did the Chinese do for fortifications and how do these compare to western fortresses?

While living in Taiwan, I was told by a Chinese man that the Great Wall is held together by glutenous, sticky rice and eggs. Apparently it's an extremely sticky mixture and is strong enough to hold large stone bricks together. I've read elsewhere that at least part of the wall was put together with this mixture, though as different parts of the wall were built at different periods, not all of it was put together this way. Is it true?

Also, for science, would there be a way to know how this mixture was put together, i.e. how many parts rice to how many parts egg? Also, was it just the whites, or also the yolks? And lastly, were they chicken eggs or eggs from a different bird?

How do Muslims (particularly Shi'ite) prove they are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad? For example, black turbans are worn among some of Iran's religious leaders to show they are a descendant of Muhammad. Ayatollah Khomeini and the current Ayatollah, Khamenei, claim their lineage can be traced back to Muhammad. How do they prove this?

Sorry for spelling mistakes - on mobile

That is, was it something on everyone's mind, or a distance sort of "oh, it's there" sort of thing? Did it change life styles at all, or cause social or economic shifts?

And what was the impetus for creating such large ships? What advancement made it possible? What changed about trade and the world in general that made trade over long distances seem viable?