I know the infamous idea that the Chinese discovered America about 50 years before the Portuguese has been discredited. This isn’t about that. I’m mearly wondering if it is not possible that someone else could have landed there accidentally, or been even just been aware of a “mysterious land”. Russia and Alaska are only separated by 55 miles of water, which until the last 70 or so years was almost always covered in ice. Is it not possible some local tribes might have crossed over for trade or hunting?

Another example is the Japanese, who themselves were not that far from Alaska. Could they not have sailed there on accident? My final example may seem odd, but it always intrigued me. Could the Mongolians have discovered Alaska when they were at the height of this power? They expanded rapidly in that area or Siberia and China, and it always remained a question to me if they had been able to expand all the way to Chukotka. They had the means to do so, just a question of if they could have. This also leaves the door open for lesser possibilities, like the Polonesians who had managed to island hop all the way to Hawaii, or maybe a European traveler who had Columbus’ idea to sail west instead of east. Or maybe just someone who got lost and ended up there. I know the idea of someone getting lost at sea for months and ended up there aren’t high, but it always made me wonder.

Why was Pol Pot so fixated on the idea of a country full of farmers ? The more I think of his plan for Cambodia the more confused I become. What was his plan for producing vehicles and farming supply’s and what would he do if people under his regime got sick since he killed most doctors.

I (as you can expect from anyone on History comunnity) Love history, but i just know things about the roman sphere of influence, and i would love to learn more about the Far East... But there is a problem, i don't know where to start... Considering i don't know ANYTHING about China, Japan, Koreas, etc, what should i look for? (I accept any kind of suggestions, books, oversimplifieds, youtube channels, documentaries) I would be grateful to anyone that can help me, so thank you! (Also, i'm sorry if i wrote something wrong i'm not english native and that's my first reddit post)

Operation unthinkable is the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the West invading the Soviets but as weird as it is, I never really hear anything about any Soviet attempt at conquering the rest of Europe.

I recently read a list of some of the weapons used during the Vietnam war, and saw that the VC had used things like MP-40s and STGs. They were mainly supplied by the Eastern Bloc, so how did they get these?

And relatedly, have Kenyans pushed back against this stereotype?

I find it strange that a region that finds homosexual and transgender acts to be normal and protected by multiple gods dedicated to homosexuality has this king who banned the practice and both parties involved would face the death penalty.

Since male prostitutes and homosexuality was the domain of multiple well known gods, this is stranger since you'd would think they would respect the gods of their own pantheon.

Even stranger, Nezahualcoyotl was a philosopher who pushed the finality of life and how all humans are flawed. It seems insane that a philosopher would do this, even with the implication that he doubted the dominant religion of the time by certain people.

Are there any known reasons why Nezahualcoyotl put some harsh punishments on this act and how did religious sects react to a king ordering the death of followers of multiple gay gods of their own pantheon? What made him go against the grain in seemingly every way he could, even in context to the region he lived in?

The reason I ask is that in a podcast I am listening to they mention that 20% of all wealth taken from the New World was to be taxed by the Spanish crown. I am sure this is an oversimplified version of the system, but it did make me wonder how this was measured and how wealth kept in the Americas was treated? Would this create a desire to keep wealth in the New World and not send it back to Spain? Did the crown require a certain portion to be sent back to avoid this? I apologize if this is too vague!

If Tutankhamun was supposedly buried in a hurry, in someone else's tomb, does that mean the "original" tomb which was built/being built for him is still undiscovered? Or maybe it was used by someone else and all references to him removed?

There are a wide variety of estimates to how much excess mortality there was under Stalin from political repression and deportations. However, with the release of soviet archives, what is the death toll that the archives show? I’d assume those would be the most accurate

If greece was a country and persia was a country, can they only wage war/conquest as countries or could seperate states from persia and greece wage war individually without the rest of the countries tuning in? What were countries like back then, like if a person from norway with a couple of people went to england to make a state of their own, it wouldn't be Norway, the leader would be from norway but the state will be a part of england. Why is this so confusing?

I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the history of Egypt and most importantly I want to learn factual information about history involving anything pyramids, pharaohs, and the like. Does anyone know of any books that would benefit ny learning?

I have recently been listening to the History of China podcast and was amazed at how often river combat was brought up. It appears as though southern China especially has a long and storied history of river warfare. (Modern term would be Brown-Water I think) So my question is why the Europeans did not have such a history? There are large rivers in Europe, such as the Rhine or Volga, why didn't the Europeans have as much River warfare? (Or at least as much storied warfare, I don't know of any European river battles.)

During the Age of Vikings especially one would think that investing in river defence would be a worthwhile endeavor, yet to my knowledge, this did not happen, at least, not on a large scale. Why is this? Did rulers not deem it cost-effective?

I'm thinking about the Greeks living in southern mainland Italy, Sicily, Gaul, Hispania, on the coasts of the Caspian Sea, Anatolia, etc (before Alexander). Obviously concepts like "nationality" "nationalism" "nation state" are modern (last 250 years or so) so how did these Greeks think of their "national/ethnic" identity see themselves in relation to what we would consider the "Greek heartlands"?

Did the Greeks of Syracuse, Massalia and Tanais consider themselves the same people (at least roughly)? Did they consider themselves expats? Or colonisers? Or emigrants? Did they think of themselves as connected to Attica/Thessally/Laconia/etc by virtue of being Greek? Did they think of themselves as expanding the geographical extent of Greece or did they have a 'looser' understanding of Greekness as more related to language, material culture, etc? Was it somewhat similar cultural similarities between UK and USA, Canada, Australia and a New Zealand?

Thank you!

Edit: I'm specifically thinking about Greek colonisation in the Mediterranean pre Alexander but be interested in hearing about greco-bactrians, indo-greeks and byzantine/east romans and even greeks in the Ottoman Empire c1900!

Hi All!

We have a family story about an ancestor who supposedly was a conscript in the Napoleonic era. I know a decent amount about him, birthday, place of birth and residence etc.

During the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, the French became masters at mobilizing men through mass conscription. Millions of men served, but do records exist still? How would one go about searching?

I'm trying to get a picture of what he went through, and if he was anywhere famous? How did the draft process under Napoleon happen? I imagine it took a lot of organization to get SO many men under arms.

Anyway, here's some info on my ancestor to see if maybe the context clues could help my search?

His name was Andreas Schaub. He was born in 1788 in a town called Albersweiler in the Palatinate region of Germany. When Andreas was a child in 1793, the entire region was invaded by France during the Revolutionary wars and Albersweiler (along with most "German" land west of the Rhine river) was directly annexed by France, and organized in Departments and Arrondissements like all of mainland France. Albersweiler became a town in the new "Arrondissement de Mont-Tonnerre". I'm assuming the conscription age to be right around 20, so he maybe entered service in 1808?

Did French military units recruit by location during this period (similar to how the UK did, regiments based on location), or did fresh conscripts get parcelled out to whoever needed bodies most at the given time?

The only other family story we have regarding this fellow is that he was captured at one point by the UK, and they were going to send him to India at one point, until his family paid someone in jewels in order to get him out of it. The trunk these jewels were presented in stayed in the family, and even made their way to America with us (although this chest is in possession of a distant cousins; this family was BIG, my mother has 40 first cousins alone). That tidbit is probably very anecdotal and diluted through multiple retellings ,but maybe there's just enough to help me somehow.

I know this is a really specific question about a really specific guy, but I'd also love to hear about what life was like for a poor conscript being sent god knows where in the huge machine that was Napoleon's Army?

I've read this from two areas and it always seems pretty ridiculous but is there some level of truth to it?

Fairly open ended I know, but I'm really curious for any insight into the topic from the education they received to their roles in everyday life.