I'm curious mainly about the period of the Meiji Restoration (and shortly after) when Japan could have benefited from improved relations with Britain and Russia.

Did they ever considered marrying a daughter of the imperial clan with a foreigner?

Benito Mussolini, in my experience, is typically characterized as a bumbling idiot, primarily due to Italy's terrible performance in WWII. Did his leadership inpact Italy in any positive way prior to the war?

The wikipedia article on Lost work lists much more Ancient Greco-Roman works than Chinese. The vast majority of Classical works haven't survived, even of the Big Names like Aristotle and Sophocles. Although most Wikipedia editors are from the West and presumably more familiar with Western Classics, so its not necessarily comprehensive.

From my understanding, there doesn't seem to have been as huge of a loss of Chinese works, but this could just be that I'm less familiar with them. There could be reasonable conjectures as to why more Chinese works would have survived- superior printing press and paper technology, and a more stable polity would contribute.

I was wondering if there was any truth to my impression or if it was just a biased sample. Were Chinese classical texts better preserved than western ones?

When did stores start including designated parking spots and parking lots as part of their construction? Was there push-back to the creation of these parking spots (I assume that it either narrowed streets or paved over green space)? More generally, was car-based culture assumed as normal progress or were there prominent skeptics?

edit: I can see where I was wrong on my view of this, thank you all for the replies.

During a recent visit it struck me how rather unremarkable Avignon is otherwise. No port, and vulnerable to enemy attack from the south - why did he not rather pick Paris or some bigger city?

Hi there, First time asking a question , looking for historical figures, whom:

1. Led an uprising against a morally corrupt state.
2. Failed (by whatever measure) to deliver. Or die before the uprising is succesful.
3. Can themselves be seen as at least ''lesser of two evils", at best , you know, champions of justice or something. Can be attributed some aspect of benevolence.

So there, I imagine not many of those who fail to topple an oppressive regime end up making the history books, but im interested in reading about some of the people that tried to overthrow a corrupt government or at least lead the people in a quest for freedom, get to the point of fighting the power, and either die before its finished or have the revolution fizzle.

Bonus category : Lead a benevolent revolution, get usurped by hawkish supporters, revolution succeeds to supplant government with an even worse alternative, because it's been co-opted by worse people than the government consisted of. (Eg. French revolution, orange revolution in ukraine)

Thanks so much! I imagine we're all tired of hearing about ghandi and fidel castro by now.

Pretty much in the title. I'm interested in learning more about the Aztecs. Religious beliefs, culture, hierarchy, etc. Can anyone reccommend any books?

Specifically his Lives of the Caesars. I've been told he is the primary secondary source (that just sounds weird, doesn't it?) on Caligula and Claudius, but can we really take his account of their reigns at anything near face value? Would someone like Cassius Dio or Josephus be better choices?

Hi, maybe you guys can help me with this. I'm a reference librarian trying to answer a letter a patron sent in.

The patron is looking for information about the Mountains of Kish. They know of it in conjunction with the Bible.

I was able to find information on the person Kish (the father of Saul) and the ancient city of Kish located in modern day Iraq.

I can't find anything about the Mountains of Kish though. I even looked at elevation maps of Iraq to see if that city would have been mountainous and the area that Kish was in (south of modern Baghdad) is actually a very low elevation. I also looked in the contents and index of ~15 Bible encyclopedias and atlases.

Do any of you know what she might be talking about?

Was there a lot of tension? Were there bizarre friendships that came about? Or extreme fights? What was the general air?

More specifically did it affect international relationships OTHER than the obvious China/Japan tensions, such as the relationship between Japan and the Koreas/Vietnam/Taiwan/Indonesia/Russia/etc

My rabbi was discussing the period of Jewish enlightenment which was a result of Napoleon freeing them from the ghettos. They were freed in an attempt to make them universally French. I looked at a few articles which seem to suggest that much of this had to do with eliminating usury.

My understanding of Napoleon is limited I'm sure, but what I do remember from school is that he instituted universal conscription. If so many of these Jews were suddenly made "French," were many of them automatically conscripted to the army?

Is there any evidence to suggest that this truly was a magnanimous gesture of social reform for an oppressed people, or is it more the opposite?

OK so I've asked so many people, and even knowledgeable people have never gave me a believable answer, maybe someone here can answer. Why in almost every painting of Napoleon, he has his hand tucked into his tunic.

Sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find it in the FAQ. Can someone summarize what bottlenecks forced technology to advance at the rate it did (worldwide)? In 2500 BC civilization was organized enough to build pyramids. By antiquity we had large empires with infrastructure, understanding of complex mathematics and mass production. Why did it take until the 18th/19th century for modern technology to arise? Seeing the rate of how technology has advanced since then, what held back development of these technologies before the industrial revolution?

Let me first start by mentioning that I'm not saying that NBF was a "awesome" guy. I realize he was bat shit crazy who believed and fought for awful things. But like him or not, he was a genius tactical leader and courageous as fuck in battle.

I mean he was a millionaire who signed up for the war as a private. It was only when he donated horses and money to the Army that his commanders and governor took note that a millionaire was fighting alongside peasants. It was then that they promoted him to Lieutenant Colonel. And even as a Colonel, he leaded his Escort Company (Special Forces) into dangerous battle - where they would commit war crimes as brutal, ruthless Viking type warriors.

**So I guess my question is...**was there anyone in the Union Army that had that ancient times, warrior mystic to him?

CLARIFICATION -- I'm asking if there are any Union soldiers / leaders that have this type of wild "legendary" story revolving around them? Forest goes down in Confederate history as being this Achellies type of warrior. Is there a Union "Hector"?

People had seen the Romans tactics used in battle countless times, why were they not used in the feudal age and around then?

Could I prevent this? Would they just kill me and take my possessions?

I'm looking to major in history in college due to my love for it and would like to know some jobs that historians can get depending on field of study, level of education, etc.