It seems awfully easy to murder or steal before 20th century. No fingerprints, no medicine to determin cause or time of death, no time measurement to check alibi, no photos of murderer for Wanted posters... How were crimes investigated if there were no direct witnesses of the act?

I've seen around Reddit that one reasons black Americans seem to excel at sports is because many of them come from an ancestry of slavery, and slaves were bred for certain attributes like strength, coordination, stamina, height, etc. Is there any historic evidence that slave owners consciously bred their slaves or forced certain slaves to breed? Did they have an advanced enough understanding of genetics, or was it trial and error? Is it all just total bullshit?

Were American weapons typically held in high esteem? I am particularly interested in hearing the German opinion.

You can see the extent of his conquest on a map easily enough, but how was his army compiled? Did he have special divisions of foot soldiers, archers and siege engineers? He captured so many cities i can't imagine it was one giant horde of horse archers...

I recently visited the National Museum of American History in D.C. and they had several Revolutionary War era firearms on display. I noticed that the rifles were of surprisingly large caliber .75, .81, and even 1.5! I know that these soldiers (judging by the size of the uniforms displayed) and humans in general were smaller in stature at the time, how were they able to wield these rifles without destroying their shoulders? I'm 6'2 250lbs and can barely fire a .50 rifle while standing, am I outing myself as a wuss or was there a certain technique to it?

Is there any historical proof connecting the Biblical history with modern discoveries of the Ark?

A quick and dirty overview of each would be wonderful prior to jumping into the reading.

There is some debate on the subject, but for my purposes I'm using high fantasy to mean fantasy set, mostly or entirely, in another world. Under this definition Harry Potter counts because it mostly deals with a sphere outside of normal earthly existence, but few of E. Nesbit's books would.

What are some of the things he originated in the genre? Where are the roots of his works? Is there an originator of high fantasy as a genre?

After reading up about Roman religions and the culture that surrounded them, it strikes me that they appeared to be less important concerns for most people compared to Christian societies that would succeed Rome. It appears as though the Romans were more lax with their interpretation of deities, and that even many members of the ruling class considered religion to be foolish and a distraction.

So with that in mind, how devout was the average Roman? Did they attend some sort of consistent communal worship, like going to Church for Christians? Did many of them take a literal interpretation of the legends, or were they more widely seen as just being myths and metaphors?

Thanks for replies!

I ask as they seem to be amongst the most successful colonies, and to my knowledge weren't trying get rid of British rule like some of the others.

It is a comment often heard in my US History classes that Grant wasn't really a good general. His primary virtue was his willingness to sacrifice men to advance, a cost that the Union could absorb but the Confederacy couldn't. Is there more to his generalship than that, or is that an accurate summary?

I understand that, as a former part of the Netherlands, they have spoken Dutch for a long time. My questions are: how, when, and why did French and German become a part of the linguistic scene in Belgium? Also, what are/were the attitudes of these linguistic groups towards one another? With such a stark language barrier, why are Wallonia and Flanders not separate countries?

My question pertains to the events of the French Revolution after Louis XVI's attempt to flee in 1791, specifically the conflict between the Jacobins' more moderate faction the Girondins and the more liberal group known as "The Mountain". After the sans-cullotes stormed the Kings residence on August 10, 1792 , the republic's legislature's calls for a constitutional convention seem extremely convenient, at least for "The Mountain". Not only was their base of support the exact urban mob who perpetrated the storming, but once freed from the bounds of the first French constitution through the convention "The Mountain" then began to take rather counter-revolutionary, tyrannical actions, such as Robspierre's and the Committee of Public Safety's "Red Terror", as well as the arrest of many Girondin politicians. Is it possible The Mountain's and Robespierre's actions were simply taken in the interest of consolidating their political power and an abandonment of the enlightenment ideals that started the revolution, or is this too cynical an interpretation of a legitimate divergence between the ideals of the Jacobins'?

I bought an old Hindi-English translation book which turned out to be from a Sikh Soldier in WWII, Inside folded up were two papers (the letter below) typed and signed by Commander in Chief, C.J. Auchinleck, and also another paper typed in Hindi on one side and English on the other, stating it could be traded for safety and a meal.

Sikh Soldiers,

I, the commander-in-chief in India, send you this message that you should take this opportunity to escape from the Japanese and come over to our lines. The Japanese tell you that if you return to our lines you will be shot. This is a lie. If you come over to our troops at the first opportunity and tell the whole truth they will treat you well.

Hundreds of your comrades have already returned to our lines, and many have already seen their homes and families here in the punjah. If you want to follow them, come at once. Do not miss any opportunity.

You can either bring this paper with you or leave it behind, as you like. As many of you as want to can come together, with or without a copy of this leaflet. If you have a weapon, bring it with you, holding it above your head, pointed backwards.

Come at once, do not miss any opportunity, and report your whole story truly to your officers. Our troops have been told to expect you. They will treat you well.

THIS IS MY PROMISE.

C.J. Auchinleck General Commander in chief INDIA

Hindustan 11, Jan 1945

"This man is to be given a meal and taken to an officer. Give the officer this paper."

So Transylvania, a region in Romania, has the same ending as Pennsylvania, which was an English Colony, with a large Dutch population. Where/why did "sylvania" start?

So here's the scenario. I was speaking with my girlfriend about Mossads involvement in the state sanctioned killings(I believe they called them executions in Israel) of the 18 black September members after the Olympic hostage situation. We then segued into the US MKULTRA project and how astoundingly awful some of the things they did was. Anywho, this led us to wonder how prevelant high level "black ops" were throughout the world. To challenge ourselves to find a country that seemed overall benign we settled on Canada. After an admittedly short amount of research I couldn't find really anything about Canada behaving badly on the upper echelon. So I bring this question to y'all. Please do tell if Canada has any skeletons in their closet.

My son has an assignment to look up terms and events from the American Revolution and to write about them. I'm really only finding sources that are quite a bit over his head.

Does anyone know of a good American Revolution book/site/etc. that does a good job of speaking on a 5th grade level?