If so, when was put in place?

I know that the treaty that ended the War of 1812 was signed in Ghent (It at least shows neutrality between the US and Britain). I know that Belgium was somewhat neutral in WW1 and in WW2. Is Belgium always neutral in foreign conflicts/affairs, or am I just coming to quick assumptions here?

Edit: I took out the NATO part. Sorry for confusingness

Was there ever serious experimentation with putting something between line infantry and incoming fire? I assume early guns didn't have great penetration.. why not advance with a metal wall in front of you going into pitched battles?

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On a per capita basis. I remember reading a study by some historian several years back. True?

I think he counted losses from both sides since it was a civil war.

I am reading the book The Black Count by Tom Reiss, which details some of society in the french colonies of San Domingue/Jeremie/Hispaniola in the 1700s. According to this book, there were free black men and women / mulattos (language in the book) that were able to acquire education, wealth, and status, and who mingled in white society.

To what extent is this true? Is there additional reading that I could consume on this topic? (Slavery & black society... in the French colonies, elsewhere, etc, etc)

Here are two sample passages from the book for example, referring to the town of Jeremie:

"While distancing themselves as much as possible from enslaved blacks and poor whites, free people of color learned to dance, ride, and fence like white colonists, whom they often surpassed in sophistication and snobbishness. As the coffee town boomed, the fashion-conscious femmes de couleur and filles de couleur copied the Paris styles... ... and would change gowns multiple times during the course of an evening."

"Births, weddings, and the birthdays of King Louis and Marie-Antoineete were all cause for lavish mixed-race balls.... Fashion wars broke out between white and black hostesses to see who could throw more impressive balls. The femmes de couleur nearly always won, Moreau reported. They strove to acquire as much education as possible, and to appreciate the opera."

Throughout the 1800's the North American Bison were hunted to such an extreme that their numbers declined from tens of millions to under less than one thousand. I know the Bison were essential to the survival of the Indians indigenous to the prairie, but what historical events and political situations stood behind the Americans' hunting the animal?

Additionally, what part did disease play into this near-extinction?

What are some of the distinctive ideas that Lenin adopted in his version of Marxist theory that were not present before he modified it?

I know there was somewhat of a network of merchants across Europe. But how far did it go?

This tradition appears to be quite old, dating from at least the days of Pelé if not before. I had always understood it to be related to the fact that many Brazilian men have lengthy names with many middle names and patronymics, necessitating nicknames so that athletes' names can be fit by the printers on the backs of their jerseys, but this may well be an apocryphal explanation. If there is some truth to it, however, why do Brazilian men have such lengthy names? What cultural phenomenon led to such an agglutination of patronymics and such?

Also, why did this tradition not take root to the same degree in Portugal (or did it)? And why does it not apply to Brazilian women (or does it)?

On a per capita basis. I remember reading a study by some historian several years back. True?

I think he counted losses from both sides since it was a civil war.

We're reading Winter's Tale for class and I just found the scene with the bear. Did they really use a live bear back in Elizabethan times or was it just a man in a suit?

Phoenicians were supposed to have sailed all over, right? Did they (or anyone else in the near east) ever make it over to Italy back in the day?

For instance, it's been said that the US had the original English accent, and that the English changed theirs to what it is now. How did that new accent arise?