We know of so many ancient and different mythologies and pantheons like the Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Aztec, Incan etc but was there ever a culture that we know of that was godless or deity-less? Maybe a more realistic question would be; was there a crime we know of where religion was not a large part of daily life and took a back seat to politics, etc.

It almost strikes me as a classical Vietnam in a way.

Why were two huge superpowers so focused on a relatively tiny scrap of land for so long?

Rome didn't have a precedent of fighting proxy wars. They attacked, did whatever it took to crush their rivals entirely and moved in. We see this in Carthage, Pontus, Macedonia, Gaul, and so on.

However, after Antony they largely confined themselves for wrestling over indirect control of Armenia.

Were there any practical benefits to controlling it that justified all the effort? Why wasn't there more conflict in other theaters?

How did they grow/cultivate their information networks? Gather information? Act on it?

I have a hard time imagining this sort of thing in action. It seems as though each different type of soldier would continually be getting in the others' way.

Tojo was seen as the face behind Japanese aggression during WWII, but Hirohito was the one who surrendered after being nuked. How much power/influence did each person have over Japan's military/war efforts?

This is a multiple part question so feel free to answer as few or as many as you like.

*Where in Mediterranean Europe did they trade?

*I am particularly interested in the region that would become what is now Italy before its unification. Did they favor certain states over others? What was their trade relationship with the Papal States? With Venice?

*Where did they trade in North Africa and the Near East? Other than the Barbary Wars I know nothing about it. How much trade happened with the Ottomans?

*What did they normally bring to trade? What did they bring back? How important was the Mediterranean to the overall trade of America at this time?

Thank you in advance.

Even in WW1 I heard he was a messenger.

I know that Crimea is ethnically Russian, politically pro-Russian and everyone there speaks Russian. So how did it become part of Ukraine in 1954?

i couldn't find any while looking it up myself.

It seems like a battalion of heavy cavalry armed with reasonably long lances would be perfect for breaking infantry squares protected by bayonets. However the only use of lances in the Napoleonic era that I know of were Polish Uhlans which, I believe, were used as scouts.

I have always wondered why the Great Wall of China was as advantageous as it was to the Chinese. It spans so many thousands of miles and doesn't seem overly tall (around 25 feet high in many parts?). If an invading army or horde would just rush to a particularly remote section of the wall, they would be faced with (at first) only the guards of that particular section's towers, while the horde would number in the tens of thousands. Bring workers/slaves to create a ramp with the soil next to the wall, all the while fighting off the vastly outnumbered guards.

My estimation is that a working force of hundreds, or thousands of men digging to make a properly wide soil ramp to the wall would take on the order of days, while a proper Chinese fighting force to be alerted, assembled and brought to the particularly remote stretches of the wall would take on the order of weeks. I am just not understanding why a fast, "punch-through" tactic wouldn't have worked.

This has been driving me crazy, but I want to say the Aztecs because they were more advanced, had a developed system of writing, etc. Any thoughts?

During history class we are watching "the men who built america" and I was questioning some of the validity of their claims, since I can not find much agreeing with them.

First it says the panic of 1873 was mostly Rockefeller's fault, because he pulled his oil of the trains. Causing the stock to drop and the stock market to close.

Also it mentions that Vanderbilt made an exclusive deal with Rockefeller at the start of his oil business. Giving him cheap shipping rates.

Are these statements true?

Thank!

I've always been interested in countries like Sweden, Kurland, and others who attempted colonization but failed due to various factors. I wondered why a country close to the two best early colonizers was not able to make a significant attempt to follow in their footsteps.