Were there any other kingdoms or empires with considerable power in Europe in High or Late Middle Ages apart from France, England and Holy Roman Empire?

2 Answers 2014-01-30

What is the origin of the word Estadounidense in Spanish? Further, what were the demonyms of the Las Provincias Unidas de Centroamerica y las Provincias Unidas de Sudamérica? Were they both provinciasunidenses, or were they called centroamericanos and sudamericanos?

I've been trying to track down the origin of estadounidense for about a day, but I haven't been able to find a good etymological dictionary. The online versions from the 1930's that the Real Academia Española provides only goes through the letter <C>.

:/

Anybody able to help me, or point me towards a good resource? The constitutions of Las Provincias Unidas de Centroamerica y las Provincias Unidas de Sudamérica don't help me either, nor do their wikipedia entries in Spanish or English. This page list centroamericanos as the gentilicio, but I'm not sure if it has much authority.

I'm curious as to how they should appear in academic literature, and, if they are referred to as centroamericanos/sudamericanos, what the justification was, since, after all, everyone who lives in America is an americano, and there were other countries in South America and Central America. Obviously, no country has the right to use the word americano in their denonym --with or without prefix-- since it refers to an entire continent.

It seems like you'd call them provinciaunidense, though that is also confusing, since they existed at the same time and they both used the words 'provincias unidas' in their name.

The problem is further confounded since, of course, the other Spanish country of note at the time (Spain) did not recognize them, so I can't find diplomatic stuff there.

The one corroborating academic source I can find for either is for centroamericano/a, in the book Las provincias unidas de Centroamérica: fundación de la República, by Andrés Townsend Ezcurra. I'd send him an e-mail, but he's dead.

I broke out my copy of Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina, but that didn't help either.

Some links in Spanish.

EDIT: Further research on Google's Ngram viewer reveals that estadounidense didn't come around til the 1920s. Further, In the text of the first Gazeta de Buenos Ayres, Americans are referred to as anglo-americanos and norteamericanos. Further, in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Americans are definitively called americanos.

A este efecto, inmediatamente después que se firme se expedirán órdenes a los oficiales americanos que manden dichos castillos y fortalezas, para asegurar toda la artillería, armas, aparejos de guerra, municiones y cualquiera otra propiedad pública, la cual no podrá en adelante removerse de donde se halla, ni destruirse.

Emphasis mine. There are nine other instances of the Mexican government referring to Americans as americanos, and no mention of estadounidenses.

I am now working with the theory that the word estadounidense came into existence as a response to the Big Stick Doctrine and the Banana Wars.

EDIT 2: The treaty of Paris between Spain and the United States in 1898 also makes reference to fuerzas americanas, not fuerzas estadounidenses.

2 Answers 2014-01-30

What were the religions prominent in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, etc) before the arrival of Islam? Also any interesting titbits about the region during that era would be much appreciated. Thanks!

1 Answers 2014-01-30

How exactly did the Russian revolutions of 1917 went?

Hey!

I was interested in this. I know there were 2 factions (menchviks and bolcheviks?), but what I am having the most trouble understanding is who did what. Who participated in the revolution in February of 1917 and who participated in the October one?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

The En-Bloc

I have noticed that there are a few modern rifles that use the en-bloc. Why was the en bloc used over magazines? Was the En bloc just an odd military fad?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

What happened to the Mexican Nationals in Texas when it became independent 1836?

How were they treated? Did they side with the Mexicans or the Texans?

2 Answers 2014-01-30

Has evidence of the original Hebrew Passover been found in ancient Egypt?

I came across this article from 2010 stating that, not only has Egyptologist Galit Dayan found evidence for the biblical plagues in Egypt, but evidence for Moses as well. That seems like pretty big news to me; certainly a lot of religious bloggers were quick to latch onto the story, but I'm having trouble finding peer reviews of her work.

I notice she mentions "manuscripts" (plural) as her evidence and I can't help but wonder if she's trying to build a case by prooftexting from various manuscripts.

Any thoughts on Dr. Dayan's work and theories?

2 Answers 2014-01-30

PC Gaming- When did gaming computers become necessary to run certain games?

2 Answers 2014-01-30

When the Americas were colonised by Europeans, you sometimes hear how the indigenous cultures contracted many deadly disease that European travellers were immune to. Did the Europeans ever get any diseases from the indigenous people as well or was it a one way street somehow?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

Would Xia, Shang or Zhou era Chinese people have worn modern looking Kimono type garments, or is that an anachronism we get from later Chinese illustrators (like how medieval Europeans would draw classical era and biblical people in contemporary dress)?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

"Those damn Venetians"

Teacher said this as we were leaving today and it got me thinking. Where does this term come form? and what exactly is it referring too? I tried a google search and nothing came up.

1 Answers 2014-01-30

What event 00:00 (or 24:00) time points to and why?

I mean, when someone designs measure of, say, temperature, 0 means some important stuff: water freezing or molecules not moving. I suspect 12/24-hour day is an ancient invention, so 00:00/12:00/24:00 should mean some important time, but it's far away from dawn, sunset, zenith etc. What does it mean?

2 Answers 2014-01-30

In battles involving swords, did the swords get damaged or distorted when the blades struck each other?

Every time I see a sword edge violently meet another sword edge, I can only imagine that this would severely damage the sword, perhaps leaving gashes in it. How badly did swords get damaged during fighting?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

How much more effective were improvised close combat weapons or less common melee orientated weapons than a bayonet in WWI?

I've seen many examples of weapons such as a trench club,such as a wooden club fastened with railway spikes and wrapped in metal wire that were used in WWI. How much more effective could weapons like this or things like trench knives,knuckle dusters,trench shovels,spiked chained weapons and etc be over a bayonet. Also how common was it for front-line soldiers to use such weapons? Would they be a large encumbrance or unwieldy to carry into battle?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

Question about American and Soviet attitudes towards the space race:

An /r/AskReddit thread is full of claims, and this exchange stood out to me:

Did the Russians really want to "win" the "space race" though? I remember from a previous thread getting a man to the moon being the goal was more an American invention after Russia did almost everything else space based first. I am sure the Russians probably felt they quite soundly won the space race.

Followed by:

The notion that there was a space race was an American invention. Sputnik was not considered a big deal in Russia until Russians realized that Americans were making a huge splash about it.

How accurate are these assertions?

2 Answers 2014-01-30

What was life like in the Soviet GULAG/political prison system for women?

I recently got done reading Solzhenitsin's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It gives a pretty straightforward description of the life of a man in the gulag, but what about women?

What sort of labour was expected of women in the prison system? Were they extended more generous treatment? Were they subject to sexual violence and exploitation? Did they receive different regard from the Soviet justice system than did men?

Спасибо вам!

1 Answers 2014-01-30

It's pretty clear that marijuana prohibition is beginning to fall apart worldwide. How is this proceeding similarly to and differently from the reversal of alcohol prohibition?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

Are there any recordings of the mental deterioration of torturers?

I guess I'm wondering if they were either hardened already or if there are instances of it taking a toll?

If torturer is too narrow I'd be up for instances affecting executioners, but torturers are my main interest.

4 Answers 2014-01-30

When, where, and how did the five-day workweek come about? Why not four or six?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

What drove Pedro I of Brazil to declare independence from Portugal?

I understand there were Creole pressures, but not much else. Were there economic/familial/political reasons?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

What did Russia do with its ships in the Black sea after the Crimean war?

As part of the peace treaty, Russia had to remove its ships from the Black sea. Its is quite a distance to get to the Baltic sea from there, so did they sail the ships to St. Petersburg or did they dismantle them or something along those lines?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

What one specific location, at any point in history, would you have to live in order to experience living in the greatest number of different countries in one lifetime?

6 Answers 2014-01-30

When were the first musical instruments available to the public?

And by that, I mean when did a "music shop" of sorts start making instruments and selling them to people.

I'm doing a little essay about music and class structure and I'm trying to find out when the lower classes were able to acquire instruments. Either from making them themselves or buy from those that could. And even if you can't answer the question 100%, sources that I could delve into would be awesome.

2 Answers 2014-01-30

Back when the Pope had an army and ruled over the Papal States, he fought wars and put down rebellions against people who were presumably Catholic. How did Catholic leaders and soldiers justify fighting the Pope?

4 Answers 2014-01-30

During the time period that it happened, were the Crusades called the Crusades, or was it just called Crusade?

1 Answers 2014-01-30

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