How did the average early Chinese immigrant to the United States make their way from East Asia all the way to America. It seems like that passage would have not only been expensive, but something that wouldn't have been available to a wide portion of the population. How did early Chinese immigrants even find out about such opportunities and how did they get here?

Hi, I'm an Italian amateurish lover of history and languages and often I find myself reading comments on /r/italy claiming that the concept of Italy as a country and the shared culture started way before unification in the 19th century, up to the Middle Ages, citing Dante's work as one mentioning unified Italy, usually to denigrate autonomy movements or minority languages in the region.

As I mentioned I'm interested in languages and Italy hosts the most important isogloss of the romance languages, which would suggest, in my amateurish opinion, that culture too would have some form of discontinuity.

So, did Italians consider themselves Italian after the fall of Rome? In the 14th century? In the renaissance? In modern times?

Answer to any of the above would go a long way for me, thanks!

What I mean by that is why was forming a line and shooting the strategy during the musket era? I mean was it impossible for them to fight in a way where individuals can take cover. I was playing Total War Napoleon right so I just thought that why are they forming a line? It's like the guys in front are cannon fodders. Why cant they just disperse and take cover just like the war in WW2 and modern war? Was it because of the invention of automatic and improved accuracy weapons?

Need a non theological answer than quoting a holy book which says Satan chose the beast.

When did countries decided to regularly produce and arm their respective armies?

Like when did they decide to make patterns of the same guns?

I'm genuinely curious.

Interestingly there is very little info of the standardisation of guns online, for some reason.

I really enjoy reading ancient roman works like Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars or works from Herodotus. The question I have is how do we know these works are original and were not altered (or made up entirely) later in medieval times. As far as I know, we do only have medieval copies of these works. How much original material do we have from say the 1st century AD, other than murals and carvings?

The Amistrar massacre in 1919 is often portrayed as a high water mark for imperial violence. But was colonial violence still the norm afterwards? I presume violence continued in India and I have heard of 'rebellions' in Iraq and Sudan. But I know very little of other Empires or US Philippines.

So 4 linked questions please..

Was racial and colonial violence still a major feature in the 20s and 30s, had it changed? If so has it been relatively forgotten? What are some good literature to start of with?

Thanks

Hitler invaded after horrific atrocities like the holodomor, the great purge and other goverment maltreatment of the peasants. Was it uncommon that peasants thought 'Why not German rule, how much worse can it get?'. Or was the Germanic hatred of the slavic people well-known?

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A lot of questions basically boils down to Why were inhabitants willing to fight for the soviet government after being treated incredibly poorly?

I don't know very much about the Imjin War yet, though I am hoping to look more into it once I have time and have finished some other books I'm reading. However, from what little I do know about it, one thing confuses me — what on Earth was the goal?

From what I understand, Japan was aiming at conquering China by first going through Korea, but got defeated primarily by Admiral Yi and his turtle ships. (this is a really limited understanding of it all, I know). My question is, why did they want to conquer China (and/or Korea? I still don't understand if they were merely wanting to pass through there or something else)? Would it have provided some strategic advantage? Or was it just because they wanted more territory, and if so, why did they want it? Also, how did they imagine that they, located on a small island, could conquer China, which was obviously much larger and thus likely had a larger military (or at least a larger population to draw soldiers from)?

I know that this is a lot of questions merged into one, but generally I'd like to know why Japan was trying to attack China (and Korea??), what the ultimate aim on their side of the Imjin war was, and why they thought that fighting a war with China was even feasible.

I'm aware Russia had the largest population and Moscow as the capital, but Ukraine for example was of large size and population as well. Or Kazakhstan which was technically the last state of the Union, so it would seem that they would hold a legitimate claim to the rights, treaties, weapons controlled by the Soviet union.

I am well aware that the Bible is not an accurate historical source, however, I have found certain parts of it to be somewhat insightful as a quasi-firsthand account to the Roman occupation in the East. It is from this position that I pose the posted question.

“For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.” Acts 25:11

I am wondering about the role of the Emperor in the Roman judicial process, how that role looked “on paper” vs how it actually played out, and whether or not the story of Paul’s appeal to the Emperor is partially rooted in [edit: real and practical] aspects of the Roman Judicial system.

Thank you Historians! I love what you do and I love your contributions to this sub!

I've watched Django and it got me wondering how slaves were actually treated. I've heard a lot of Lost Cause crap on how slaves were happy, having decent healthcare with rapes and beatings being illegal (no joke I've actually came across a redditor that believed that).

So how brutal were slaves treated during the 1860s? How common/uncommon were beatings and rapes of slaves? I've heard that outright killing slaves was rare, but beating them to 1 inch of life left was pretty common. Did slaves really get some sort of medical treatment from their masters because slaves were just that expensive? I know it might require a lot of writing, but I'm okay if you can answer one of the questions. Thanks in advance!

I love the movie "The Hunt for Red October"... there is, to me, a classic scene when Ramius knows Ryan wrote books, while they wait for a torpedo, and asks "What books? What books did you write?" And Ryan responds "I wrote a book about Admiral Halsey, about military tactics." Ramius considers for a second, and chuckles... "I know this book. Your conclusions were wrong, Ryan. Halsey acted stupidly."

I've looked up some about Halsey over the years, as I think about it, and am certainly not an expert. But I've not come across such an analysis as "Halsey acted stupidly"... did he? Or was it something a Russian captain in the 80s would have seen as that, either as a different POV on naval tactics or flat our propaganda? Was this more correct or a view into how the Russian captain would think in battle?

I was thinking about how much information can be gleaned from the city about fascinating elements of Roman life that would otherwise be lost to us, everything from food, to art, to city design, to graffiti. Are there comparable sites in other high profile ancient societies that managed to capture such a snapshot in time due to unusual circumstances, like a pyroclastic flow?

Specifically how quickly did things economically develop? Whenever I read about the history of Europe the areas beyond the borders of Rome go from undeveloped backwaters to well-developed kingdoms that crusaded into pagan territory or were targeted by Viking raids almost instantly.

Also how did the fall of the western empire allow/help these former backwaters to develop so much over a few hundred years considering how little their land was developed over the course of the empire?

In early Christianity March 25 was seen as the date of the Crucifixion and sometimes as well as the date of the Resurrection. This can be seen in various early Christian authors such as Tertullian of Carthage, Augustine of Hippo Hippolytus of Rome and Sextus Julius Afircanus. Here are some quotes I’ve found:

And the suffering of this “extermination” was perfected within the times of the lxx hebdomads, under Tiberius Caesar, in the consulate of Rubellius Geminus and Fufius Geminus, in the month of March, at the times of the passover, on the eighth day before the calends of April, on the first day of unleavened bread, on which they slew the lamb at even, just as had been enjoined by Moses.- Tertullian, Adversus Judaeos 8:18

Now Christ died when the Gemini were consuls, on the eighth day before the kalends of April. He rose the third day, as the apostles have proved by the evidence of their own senses.- Augustine of Hippo, City of God, book 18, chapter 54 

He suffered in the thirty-third year, March 25th, Friday, the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls.- Hippolytus of Rome, Commentary on Daniel 4.23.3

“And after his burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, he arose from the dead at dawn of the third day after this day of preparation, on the first day of the week, on the 1st day of the first Hebrew month of Nisan, which is forever one and the same day as 25 March”-Julius Africanus, Chronographiae T 93c 

However, ancient Romans celebrated a festival of Attis called Hileria on March 25 which celebrates the god Attis and his supposed resurrection. The Chronography of 354 AD is the earliest dating of the associated festival of Hilaria to March 25 I could find. However, some scholars say that this festival dates back to the mid 2nd century to the reign of Antoninus Pius. So did early Christians co-opted the date of March 25th as a celebration of the Passion and resurrection of Jesus or is it just a werid coincidence?        

I remember my history professor mentioning that it did exist in some form, but he never really went into detail and I’m curious. Thanks 😊