He already overextended himself by invading Russia. Sure he was ambitious but how could German command not have seen it was not only futile, but irresponsible?

Was it so that he could draw the US into a two front war with Germany and Japan? That’s the only reasonable answer I can come up with, although even that logic is flawed considering the fact that EVERYONE knew the US was a massive industrial power - dormant as it was at the time.

As we know Varna system divided people into priestly (Brahmin), warrior (Kshatriya), trader (Vaishya) and servant / worker (Shudra) classes. each were assigned specific functions.

but in various mythology, we see Brahmins performing Kshatriya functions while retaining their "Brahmin" varna.

• In Ramayana, Parashurama is a warrior. Parashurama is also mentioned as warrior in various folk mythology regarding what's modern day Indian state of Kerala.

• similarly, It's said that Vasishtha taught the princes archery and other martial skills in Ramayana, and Drona in Mahabharata. Acharya Krupa and Drona even fight in Mahabharata war, even if they are condemned for that.

• In Draupadi Svayamvaram, the Pandavas get entry claiming to be Brahmins, and allowed to use the bow.

In documented history, after the caste system evolved to approximate it's modern form, there are examples of dynasties which claimed Brahman lineage. For example Kadambas of Banavasi. The talagunda Pillar inscription states about the founder of the dynasty, Mayura Sharman:

"Therefore, with the hand accustomed to handle kusa grass, (sacrificial) fuel, stone, ladle, ghee and oblations of grain, he seized flashing weapons, resolved to conquer the world."

It's possible that Brahmins could perform these things because they were the ones who made these rules. But in mythology, (as opposed to history) I don't find any mentions of Brahmin kingdoms. And don't also find any reference to them performing trader / agriculturist functions. At least not as much as references to them involving in wars. Both of these are not applicable to documented history though. As we can see many traditionally brahmin groups actually did agriculture, and some dynasties claimed brahmin lineage.

so my question is:

1. How normal was it to perform martial practice or fight in a war, for a hereditary Brahmin in Vedic times?

2. Was it that everyone were supposed to have some martial practices instead, so as to protect the state in times of war?

3. Would a brahmin involving in war be deemed unfit for certain religious rituals for killing people?

As I understand it the Wright Brothers have claimed to create the first plane in 1903, but they only managed to show it in 1908. Some other people claimed to have created planes even earlier, but they are discredited. How do we know the Wright Brothers claim differ from those earlier ones?

I'm building my world for a tabletop rpg and I want it to be largely based on the underlying logic of medieval history.

So a typical knight would wear a full suit of white armour, have decent mobility and typically wield a bastard sword in two hands or a sword/mace/axe with a shield.

I've stumbled upon an article about a breastplate with the lower half being plate and the upper being brigandine, which was a popular design in France at the time. One of the supposed reasons for this is that brigandine on the chest and shoulders gave more freedom while wielding a greatsword. So was the mobility plate armour already gave not enough for the intricate fencing with a greatsword?

Now I'm looking for similar cases. For example, what pieces of armor would hinder an archer and why?

In general, The Prince seems to be quite simplified and barely presents counter-arguments (e.g. only describing battles that support his arguments, and never any that would go against it, which there must be). But this specifically seemed questionable to me because while I don't know much about Roman history, I know that the collapse of the Roman empire is a very hot topic. So, was Machiavelli doing good history here, or?...

Using the revised Luigi Ricci translation, New American Library 1952 (yeah, it's kinda old, I just read what I have)

Hello. I'm in the process of writing a novel (have been for a while, put it on the back burner until I had more experience/confidence/an actual portfolio, and am finally ready to pick it up again) and one of the main characters is intended to be from Guam. I don't plan to have it featured too heavily in the actual story, but want to have enough information to portray anything that does need to be in a relatively accurate and appropriate light, and just for personal interest. I'm specifically looking for things around the mid to late 17th century, right around the period it was initially colonized by the Spanish (the story is taking place in the 1680-90's, and the character is 30-40 years old, and would have left Guam as a teenager/young adult) I've tried my hand online for quite a while, but it seems like anything I'm looking for either doesn't exist, or is contradictory to other sources, moreso than other cultures I've looked into. Things like the general culture, language, traditions both on a cultural and personal level, societal set-up, etc. Anything that could be useful to creating a functional, realistic character. What were the classes of society, and what defined them? Was there a varied tribal setup, or was the island all one community? If the former, how did the different communities interact with one another, were there hostilities? What about interaction with the neighbouring islands, if they were any? Were body modifications present? I've read that there's no evidence of tattooing, but I have seen things regarding staining teeth. Were these reserved for higher-class citizens? How did the people initially react to the Spanish? Any personal information or links to reliable sources would be incredibly appreciated, thank you! Sorry for the long post, and any formatting or spelling issues, I'm on mobile.

Long read, but interesting. If you don't have time, there is a TLDR at the bottom.

Lately I've been doing some research on the Titanic, particularly in the form of newspaper media reports that were released in my home country (Australia) in the days before and after the Titanic sank.

The newspaper reports before the Titanic have been fascinating to read but otherwise unsurprising and you will all be familiar with them: claims that the Titanic was unsinkable due to her watertight compartments and essentially all of her onboard luxuries.

The newspaper reports immediately after the Titanic were however, very surprising. Almost every media report from Tuesday, 16 April 1912 in Australia refers to the Titanic 'currently sinking off Cape Race, Newfoundland'. (Due to the timezone difference, bear in mind these reports were released mere hours after the Titanic sank on Monday morning Atlantic time).

For example, in The Advertiser (Adelaide), in an article titled "A Mammoth Liner", it states, "New York, April 15, 10 a.m. The Titanic is still lying off Cape Race, and is now sinking by the head. The boats have been lowered, the women and children being taken off first."

Another example is in The Brisbane Courier (Queensland): "Information has been received that the Titanic, which was in collision with an iceberg, is now at Cape Race, and is sinking by the head."

Finally, a third example is in The Register (Adelaide): "The vessel came into collision with an iceberg, and is now sinking by her head off Cape Race".

Of course we now know Titanic was well and truly at the bottom of the Atlantic when these articles were posted - she was at the bottom of the Atlantic a mere 2 and a half hours after she struck the iceberg.

You may think it's just a delay in timing due to 1912 slower communication transmission, however, I don't think that's all there is to it. The reason being, these newspaper reports do correctly refer to an estimate of how many people were saved in the lifeboats! In other words, these reports do not arise from Titanic's radio messages but rather the reports were written after the crew on RMS Carpathia had met with passengers, discussed the incident with the Titanic crew and then seemingly sent reports back to New York, as well as calculated how many people they saved. The passengers and crew would've told the crew on RMS Carpathia that the ship had sunk hours ago.

So - does anyone have any ideas as to why these reports say that the Titanic was still sinking hours and hours after she had already sunk?

TLDR: It seems the international media believed the Titanic was still sinking in "Cape Race, Newfoundland" many hours after it was at the bottom of the Atlantic and the same media reports correctly refer to the lifeboats and number of people saved (showing that the reports have arisen from conversations with those on RMS Carpathia and the survivors), so why did they also wrongly say the Titanic was still sinking by her head off Cape Race?

I'm looking for books/papers on the decline of the aristocracy in Britain during this time but I'm not sure where to find any. I really want to read something that focus more on the role of the serving class, ideally during this time bc of the changes occurring during this time but even content that focuses more on the history of the serving class in Britain would be neat :0 also want to know more about the history/role of the valet in particular but that might be too specific

I’m referring to diseases like smallpox, which decimated South America and swathes of Africa. I know bubonic plague and cholera came from Asia - but they affected their countries of origin just as severely.

In reading Isabel Fonseca's "Bury Me Standing", I've come to realise that it isn't exactly the book I was looking for. I browsed the booklist but came up empty-handed, so Askhistorians: are there any well-regarded modern books on Romani history? I realise the difficulty of compiling an accurate history of a people who tend not to keep written records, and doubly so for a group as often maligned and mistreated as the Roma. Any recommendations, scholarly or mainstream, would be appreciated.

Thank you all for your time.

I'm reading the excellent Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, about the Taiping Civil War. One thing that really has stuck out to me is the routine levels of exterminationist/eliminationist levels of violence meted out by both the rebellion and the Qing forces to non-combatants. The default fate of POWs was execution, often immediate execution. The same goes for the populace of captured cities and towns, whatever the circumstances of how that populace came to be occupied

To give a specific example, the siege of Anqing - held by the Taiping. The besieging Qing army was in turn surrounded by a Taiping relief force, which itself was then attacked by yet more Qing troops. When a series of Taiping forts in the Jixian Pass were captured, the surviving defenders were executed to a man - except for one high-ranking officer, who was tortured to death in view of the city walls. The Taiping relief force was then cut off and surrounded, where the 8,000 men surrendered quickly. Despite surrendering their weapons, all of the new POWs were executed within a day. And finally when Anqing fell to the Qing after a protracted siege, the entire populace was slaughtered (despite the Taiping garrison sneaking out via a tunnel). Essentially every single person who came into the Qing clutches during this battle was murdered, usually after the battle was finished

I know that mass violence against noncombatants, especially after sieges, is a common feature in warfare, but the extent of this in the Taiping War seems to be an enormous outlier. And I can't help but draw parallels to another conflict occurring at the same time - the American Civil War, where for the first several years of war POWs were simply paroled. Incidents of mass violence against POWs, such as the Confederate killing of Black Union soldiers, caused national outrage

Am I correct in my perception that mass violence against noncombatants was unusually common during the Taiping War? And if so, why was that the case?

Here is the quote: “Foiled of glory, [the Earl of] Nottingham took up the famous challenge of St. Ingelbert... offered to hold the lists against all comers in any form of combat for thirty days... He and his companions maintained the lists of St. Ingelbert with great courage...”

What is this challenge and what are its historical roots? Did it have anything to do with the saint himself? His Wikipedia page doesn’t have any mention of it.

I’m interested in how ice was harvested, transported, and stored in ancient cultures. Particularly if desert biomes had a way to store ice.

Was ice expensive? Did the common man/lower society know ice existed or had ever touched it?

Thanks.

Would they get a surrogate or was that not acceptable back then? Would they just not have kids or was having someone to pass the title on to too important?

I mean maybe we still are and my ignorance is showing. But I feel like we are no longer at an era to marvel at the "Magical Miracles of the Classical World" I feel like we could easily synthesize Greek Fire if we wanted to even. So, is the recipe for Greek Fire really lost to the world? No theories, or experiments in synthesizing it, just to say we could again?