Around 1400, It seems like the Chinese also had every element which made European colonialism successful. They had gunpowder, as well as knowledge of metalworking and shipbuilding, along with plenty of resources. People act as though European technology was somehow new, but Chinese such as Zheng He demonstrated otherwise. Yet they never built a huge overseas empire like the Europeans would, despite theoretically having the ability to do it. Somehow, between 1400 and 1800, they fell behind the west instead. Is there something in Chinese history I’m missing that would’ve prevented them, or did they just not want to establish an empire?

I am in college to become a wastewater technician, and while the major involves practical work skills, we do not learn any history at all (beyond ones tied to safety rules/regulations). Providing clean drinking water, and disposing of waste water, is incredibly important to the development of civilization... but it feels like it's weirdly difficult to find historical accounts of what practices we used in the past.

So I'm wondering how we provided drinking water and transported wastewater during about the industrial revolution era. At this point, sewers were built--but then what? What did the process treatment path look like? What techniques did we use to dispose of sewage? Same with drinking water, how did we clean it before it was sent to people's homes? Municipal water wasn't widespread until the 19th century, but how did drinking well systems work during this time period? etc

I play chess often, and I always noticed how pawn structures are very similar to the way that medieval battle formations worked, with pushing and flanking ect.

Was chess invented to help teach medieval, roman, or antiquity generals about battle formations, or was it used soley as a fun game that generals would sometimes play to pass the time.

A lot of history books or articles treat the first caravels as some kind of particularly revolutionary ship. Why?

Middle school social studies teacher here. I was able to get my hands on the aforementioned translation of Xenophon's "Anabasis: the March Up Country" as published by Pantianos Classics. Is this a quality translation? I want to make sure I'm not reading a cheap summary of the work, as that would just be money ill spent, but I'm not cultured enough to know the difference. HGD seems to have solid credentials but it's been a while since his translation. Thanks!

I heard a story about sacrificial Celtic kings or "corn kings" These kings were supposedly sacrificed in times of famine or to placate their gods for food harvests. Apparently they were fed year round and treated like kings only to be sacrificed to appease the gods. Is this true? What real sources cite these kings?

We're all familiar with stereotypical Italian food, lots of noodles and tomato sauce, but both Tomatoes and pasta were foreign ingredients introduced to Italy through trade. Pasta was allegedly introduced by Marco Polo after his travels to China. Tomatoes were brought from the new world by conquistadors in the 16th century. But why have they come to totally dominate Italian food? And what was Italian food like before pasta and tomatoes?

I was talking with a friend about Hamas, and was reminded of the Palestinian and IRA solidarity, and it occurred to me that the IRA is often brought up in popular culture as one of the few successful terrorist organizations who actually accomplished their goal to a degree.

What's the current academic stance on how efficient and successful the IRAs many campaigns were? I'm aware there have been tons of offshoots and factions in the organization, so I'm mainly curious about the larger movements in the group.

Was Ireland likely to get independence anyway, or was the IRA a major contributing factor to Irish independence? Was the IRA actually successful in undermining British and/or Protestant power in their country?

(Apologies if this has been asked before. I don't know if the search function is messed up or what, but I don't see any relevant results in the sub, but I'd be surprised if this hasn't been asked before.)

As it was England's first attempt at settling a colony in North America, what criteria did they use when selecting them? I assume they wanted many trades and skills represented. What kind of people went? What were there reasons for choosing to go (if they had a choice at all)?

something i find fascinatingly annoying is that in medieval Europe, various kings would carve their realm up. A well known example being the Franks under Charlemagne via the Treaty of Verdun. Now, i know that ethnonationalism wasn't exactly a thing at the time, but wouldn't it make more sense to give one son the whole kingdom, or simply make the other two dukes of smaller parts (like Bavaria and Acquiataine while the elder son ruled the rest)?

If this wasn't a thing, what did naval battles of say, the 100 Years War look like? Was it like earlier naval combat, where it was mostly about ramming and boarding actions?

In the Aeneid Juno says: "gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor, Ilium in Italiam portans victosque Penates" which got me wondering about the Pentates relation with Roman mythos in general. Did some gods have a disdain for them? Were they seen as heretical?

In rewatching (for about the 8th time) a few episodes of Time Team (in this case, Season 12, episode 10), Guy de la Bedoyere mentions that Romans tended to donate/sacrifice broken jewellery and cheap/bad/damaged/forged coinage to temples and holy sites.

My understanding is that pre-Roman Iron Age and Bronze Age cultures across Europe would often make specific, "ritual quality" items, purposely break them, then lay them in sacred places (presumably to make it unsuitable for the living, and thus useful for the dead/gods?).

But I dont know if Romans purposely broke their items for the same reasons before offering them, of if the plethora of broken and poor quality offerings was more of a result of frugal, potentially cheeky Romans who had broken items, or were given bad or low value coins, and decided they "would do" for the Gods. (I think I remember something about food offerings for the gods being largely the inedible or unpleasant parts...)

Can anyone comment on that?

In lots of times in history, nomadic people/ horse archers beat up settled peoples. Mongols in China and Europe, Huns in Europe, etc... What led to their decline?

I get that we are closest to some of the apes but their diet consists of entirely plants. At what point did modern day humans transition to any meat at all in their diet and what meat was it? (Realising now maybe this is much much earlier than historians deal with - hopefully still allowed)