From everything I can tell Napoleon felt things were still generally on plan at this point despite some unexpected retreats from the Russians. Did Napoleon expect to lose almost half a million men to attrition, raids, and logistics maintenance from the outset?

Specifically fascist Spain, fascist Italy, and neutral Switzerland? Did he want to conquer those nations? Or was he going to let them be?

Culturally and even ethnically speaking Egyptians share more in common with Greeks and Italians that their fellow African brothers. The same can be said for Tunisia and Turkey, Syria in Asia.

Historically it makes sense to group them together but most do not. Is it because of religion or politics in general?

I asked the same question to a friend and he said it was geography but if that was the case wouldn't we group Europe with Asia? And even Africa and Asia have a land border. So if anyone would enlighten me I would be grateful.

I'm thinking specifically of the Azores and Madeira Isles, because they strike close to home (am Portuguese), and how they were discovered (or re-discovered) by men in small ships. Looking at their size in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean makes me wonder what were the processes used by the captain to decide where to go, out of the blue sea. It boggles my mind even further to think of the tiny isles in the much larger Pacific Ocean.

I can think of birds and cloud formation above the isles, as well as possible breeze due to the presence of land, but I wonder if there were other methods used.

When I was a kid, my grandpa showed me a felt badge that was given to him when he returned from WWII. He told me that after the war, soldiers were not supposed to wear their uniforms but that street clothes were in such a short supply that some had no choice. The badge, he said, was supposed to indicate that he was, in effect, not wearing his uniform, even though he was. When he passed, I asked my parents to save that badge for me, but they never found it in his things. It has bummed me out ever since and I have never been able to find out any more info or even see another of these badges. Do you know more?

I am constantly reminded by Canadians that they won the War of 1812 and burned down the White House, is this a correct narrative?

I currently teach World History in an Alternative Learning Environment at the high school level. Some of my students are competing in the 2014 History Day competition. Their projects have moved on to the State level, and they are in the process of fine-tuning them. One issue facing them, however, is research fatigue. They have been working tirelessly on their projects since November, and most of them feel that they have reached a dead end with their projects.

Any and all help would be appreciated, as I am also exhausted at this point. In return for your help, I will have the students list you in the credits for their projects. If you want to share an address, I will also have them write and send a Thank You note, as I'm trying to teach them both perseverance and gratitude.

Here are their topics and focuses:

• Alan Turing (conviction for sexual indecency, wartime efforts, British law regarding homosexuality in the 1950's)
• The Little Rock Nine (school desegregation, issues with integration into the military, other prominent school integration stories)
• Right to a Fair Trial (6th amendment, state law regarding due process in Oklahoma, appellate processes, maximum sentencing practices)
• Malcolm X (his erasure from Civil Rights history, the dichotomy between Malcolm X and Dr. King, speech transcripts and/or recordings)
• America's efforts to end polio (quotes, results of efforts, video clips, audio)

I am absolutely not asking for you to do their projects. Rather, I ask for guidance for them. Send them in a direction that you think would help them, but let them discover it. Archives and databases for primary sources are also helpful, but allow the students to interpret the sources themselves. I'm really proud of these students for their work, and I would hate for them to stop pushing themselves. Just point them in the right direction.

Thank you for any and all help. If there is any interest in this post, I will link to some of their projects in progress, along with a link to our school website.

The meta post had me thinking. Who did the "dirty work" on Roman military campaigns? Slaves? Soldiers? Free citizens of low social status? Was "latrine cleaner" an actual position, or were soldiers expected to do their business on their own?

Much is said about the Viking and Spanish discoveries of the Americas, but what of the Inuit? If I've understood correctly the peoples of Nunavut, Alaska, Siberia, and other Artic Ocean facing lands have a similar language (Inuit-Yupik) and, in my lay opinion, were able to the North pole between Canada and Siberia without much trouble.

Is there any evidence of this? When the Russians expanded into Siberia did they end up capturing populations of Native Americans? Inuits who had possibly crossed to Siberia, maybe Inuit merchant communities?

Not meaning those with more jovial names (I'm sure there was a French King known as "The Fat") but those who had more nasty nicknames - Ivan the Terrible, for example, would suggest that he wasn't the sort of chap you would go around calling Terrible while he was still alive so I would have thought that a nickname that insulting would only come into effect once said monarch was dead and not around to effect retribution for the insult.

Had a look in the FAQ and couldn't see one exactly answering this in the monarch naming section so hope this is a relevant query

My US History 2 Professor wants us to read a objective book about an event in history. I've looked online but most point to Euro and Asian history..

It would help if the book isn't big or long as the class is on a short semester. I will be comparing the book with the relevant chapters of the class textbook as part of the Essay to write after taking Final.

Thank you in advance

I've been reading about feudal Japan and the daimyos, I read that daimyo's often paid samurai to protect their land and very few could pay them in monetary terms so paid in land or food. I've been trying to find out what a typical feudal Japanese force would look like, for instance how many samurai, foot soldiers, archers etc. Also what role did samurai have, as in did they make up the majority of the force or serve as officer type roles to lesser swordsmen? Essentially I couldn't figure out who made up most of a daimyo's soldiers, where they simply peasants with a spear or trained warriors?

In light of the massive resources allocated for this most recent missing Malaysian flight. What would be considered the most costly/expensive crash/disappearance of all time?

In the Handbook of Eighteenth Century English Costume by C. Willet Cunnington and Phillis Cunnington, the authors write that covered buttons (i.e. coat buttons covered in the same material as the coat) were made illegal by acts of Anne and George I (pg. 47), though the legislation was usually ignored (pg. 189). Why was this the case?

The first memory I have of an international event is the first Gulf War, where CNN was showing a fancy infographic comparing the size of the Iraqi and Kuwaiti armies.

I can't recall the fall of the Soviet Union happening on the news, so I was wondering if there was a place where I could see how TV news networks and newspapers were covering it as it was happening (and only stuff relevant to the fall of the Soviet Union), i.e. could I see what the average American would be seeing as it was happening?