Both Czechs and Slovaks are Slavic people and speak very similar languages, but apart from that, I don't understand why they joined together into Czechoslovakia instead of being 2 separate countries. Is there a historical reason for this?

The Incan empire is well regarded as masters of their mountainous territory but one look at a map of the area they inhabited shows that they were a very coastal empire and would have had as much access to the ocean as they did the Andes mountain range. However even though they had a lot of access to the pacific ocean I've never seen any mention of an Incan navy or any of their sailing abilities. Did the Inca people regularly sail/fish in these waters and have a kind of navy or were they mountain people through and through?

I presume the creature spoke French since 1) Frankenstein was from Geneva and 2) The DeLacey's, while living in Germany, are refugees from Paris.

I also presume that the three were translated from English, German and Latin.

What I'm trying to ask is this: in the modern day, we get our flu shot once a year to fight the ever mutating strains of influenza. Was this seasonal reaccurance of influenza common before 1918 - or did the pandemic begin the yearly cycle?

Experts tell us COVID-19 will likely be with us forever. Requiring regular vaccines to fight the constantly evolving virus - much like we already do with the flu. I was curious if the 1918 pandemic similarly started our now-familiar relationship with the flu.

If so, why?

Who was behind the attack of USS liberty Spy ship in the sixties, Israeli or Egyptian forces? knowing that both denied they did.

The old Swiss confederacy was formed in the 1300s out of a chunk of the Holy Roman Empire. The Habsburgs were originally from the Swiss area.

So what happened to any counts or barons or generic lords of Switzerland?

So from my understanding, theology at the time was focused on there only ever being one universal empire and one emperor that was the guardian of the church.

That's why Charlemagne was made Emperor of the Romans over the Byzantine Irene. That's why there was the constant fight between Frederick Barbarossa and the Byzantine emperor during the 3rd crusade.

And there's all the struggles over powers between the HRE and the Papacy.

So now I'm wondering if when the Church proclaimed the Spanish Habsburgs the "Catholic Monarchs" if it was an attempt to replace the HRE and the Austrian Habsburgs in the concept of the 'universal empire' without getting into all the legalities and precedents already set.

Like how during the Cuban missile crisis the US proclaimed a "quarantine" instead of a blockade because there's legal requirements necessary for a blockade. Same thing, different name.

I’ve recently become interested in the sub-Roman period of Britain and have found it striking that it appears the British managed to hold off the encroaching Angles & Saxons until well into the 6th century when it suddenly appears that there is an acceleration of Anglo-Saxon culture. How much of this is down to the Plague of Justinian (if it is even relevant), and the fact that it seems like the native Brits/Romano-British were more likely to cluster together in larger groups/towns & cities?

Posting for my wife who live large parts of her life as a Middle-easterner in N African countries. I appreciated this is a rather open ended question but any help appreciated. Interested in all aspects trade, linguistics especially, pre/post Islam. Really want to know if there were any significant events or occurrences which led to the changes.

Would I simply be pardoned for my Highland clothing or would I be seen as a sympathiser of the Stuarts and disrespected?

Was it illegal to wear the Highland dress in public in England?

The quote I've read is from Ruth Goodman's book "How to be Tudor":

"In 1515 the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus wrote in a letter that the floors of English houses ‘are, in general, laid with white clay, and are covered with rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for twenty years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish and other abominations not fit to be mentioned’."

This made me curious of a few things:

1. The question in the title: how did the English compare to Western continental Europe, for instance - France - in this regard? Would stone or wooden flooring have been more common among the French, even for those who belonged to low-middle end of society?

2. For what types of people would this practice of covering the floor with rushes been common? As he claims this applied to English houses "in general", what kind of people would he have had to have visited to have been given this impression, and where would they land on the socio-economic spectrum?

3. Finally, when did wooden flooring (or stone, but I assume wood would be more common) become the norm among farmers who were slightly more well to do? (Small landowning farmers, who would make a profit a good year and not live hand to mouth)

/* End of questions */

Just a message to the mods: you're doing such a good job. Seriously. I want to thank you as individuals for the time you put into this subreddit. Even you /u/sunagainstgold, who deleted my previous question (which was perfectly reasonable). If you review this post - don't have mercy on me. Protect the community.

Everyone has heard of the blow it dealt to the Minoan culture on Crete around 1600bc, but are there records, tales, or even myths of effects it had elsewhere?

I imagine more Aegean Islands and coastline cultures could have been inundated by the tsunamis, while some areas could have suffered under ash fall, and if it had a noticeable effect on climate do any civilisations and cultures further afield note any ensuing problems around the time?

Thanks

Hello everyone! Just read the ‘life of Avvakum’ and was confused with the translation. In the translation, there is a reference to the Greeks. I have little knowledge about Christianity and was genuinely confused by what the word orthodoxy meant in the translations. Is it catholic orthodoxy or something else ? And what’s the difference between Russian orthodoxy and Greek ?

I've seen this claim a few times but I've never read anything concrete about where this comes from. Did hitler even speak English?

What incentivised Britain to end slavery in the 19th century, after dominating the slave trade in the 18th century?

I remember reading somewhere that the reason why so many European nations supported the new state of Israel was because basically a lot of European countries wanted to get rid of their Jewish population. I know anti semitism was abundant in Europe pre-WWII, so I wasn’t sure how that carried over after the war and the Holocaust was discovered

As noted, what is the history of the filibuster? Do other countries' legislatures have similar provisions?