Was thinking about this today as before Perry arrived to represent the United States, Japan had voluntarily closed itself off from the world for centuries (except the Dutch). Because the country was essentially isolated from the rest of the planet, were there any English speakers/readers left in the country? Conversely, was there enough a Japanese-speaking population outside of Japan that Perry was able to bring along a translator? If not, how did he address the communication difficulties when he went on his mission to Japan?

Off the numbers in Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers as well as Mark Harrison's The Economics of World War II: Six Great Powers in International Comparison, most of Japan's war materiel production has increases above 100% from 1942-1944, and yet the Allied submarine campaign inflicted losses of about 66% of all Japanese shipping during that period. Most of the Japanese supplies never even reached Japan at that point in time, with Japanese fuel and oil consumption levels being far lower than pre-1942 during that period. So how are they producing thrice as much aircraft and twice as much ammunition in 1944 compared to 1942? Am I missing something? Was this due to a set of economic reforms, or something else? Who was involved in this?

I’ve read that nobody believed in the Greek polytheistic religions by the 9th century AD.

Today, an estimated 90% of Greeks belong to the Greek Orthodox Church.

But at what point in history did the tables turn in favor of Christianity over the old religion(s)?

Was there any concern about the state facilitating a potentially exploitative industry? It seems quite noticeable to me that the practice ended in colonial territory (French Guiana is technically a région of France but it's a relic of the empire) nearly 20 years after ending in the metropole. Why'd that happen?

For instance, if someone gave me a piece of paper saying: “My name is Joanne and I live I the year 200 AD, and I see dinosaurs running all over the streets all the time”

Or a better example, a book that claims to give details on the events that happened in the past, how do I determine how historically accurate these claims are?

I was just reading that, after considering it for decades, the United States and Denmark finally agreed to transfer the Virgin Islands out of concern that they would be occupied by Germany and used as a submarine base. Various sources cite the price of 25 million in gold coin, but don't mention how it was paid. Did they literally ship a chest full of gold across the Atlantic and North Sea right under Germany's nose? Or did it just happen on paper with no physical gold changing hands? If the latter, is there still a Virgin Islands' worth of gold sitting in a US vault labeled "Denmark"?

My research focuses on Rome during third and second centuries BC; it was during this period that Rome achieved hegemony over the Mediterranean during intensive and seemingly constant warfare.

My book is Soldiers and Silver: Mobilizing Resources in the Age of Roman Conquest (University of Texas Press, 2020). Here is the publisher’s blurb: 

By the middle of the second century BCE, after nearly one hundred years of warfare, Rome had exerted its control over the entire Mediterranean world, forcing the other great powers of the region—Carthage, Macedonia, Egypt, and the Seleucid empire—to submit militarily and financially. But how, despite its relative poverty and its frequent numerical disadvantage in decisive battles, did Rome prevail?

Michael J. Taylor explains this surprising outcome by examining the role that manpower and finances played, providing a comparative study that quantifies the military mobilizations and tax revenues for all five powers. Though Rome was the poorest state, it enjoyed the largest military mobilization, drawing from a pool of citizens, colonists, and allies, while its wealthiest adversaries failed to translate revenues into large or successful armies. Taylor concludes that state-level extraction strategies were decisive in the warfare of the period, as states with high conscription and low taxation raised larger, more successful armies than those that primarily sought to maximize taxation. Comprehensive and detailed, Soldiers and Silver offers a new and sophisticated perspective on the political dynamics and economies of these ancient Mediterranean empires.

My other research deals with various aspects of Roman military history, including visual representations of Roman victories, Roman military equipment, the social and political status of Republican-era centurions, and Roman infantry tactics.

Please, ask me anything!

N.B.: I am on dad duty until the after dinner---my answers will start rolling in around 7:00 PM EST--tune back then!

Update: It is 11:30 PM and my toddler gets up in six hours, so I am going to call it a day. I've enjoyed all of the thoughtful questions!

So years ago I remember being told by a park ranger that Virginia swamp water was a commodity for sailers visiting the new world. Apparently the decomposition of leaves in the swamp water created a sort of “swamp tea” killing bacteria and keeping the water fresh for a very long amount of time (important at sea). For whatever reason this has stuck with me, but I have never been able to find confirmation of this online. Was this a real thing, or was I misinformed?

Perhaps quite a broad questions, are there any good books that get into the subject? A friend asked me the question and it would be nice to have somewhere to point them!

Brazil is a huge country, with different parts of the country having different history/origins yet apart from Uruguay getting independence from Brazil as far as i'm aware brazil didn't break into different Portuguese speaking countries like how new Spain or the vice royalty of Peru split up into different Spanish speaking countries. I know Uruguay split up but they speak Spanish. How did they keep such a huge country together? There were lots of Dutch in the north region of Brazil, why would they not try to split of like how the Boers in Africa wanted their own land and country? How did it stay together and were there any attempts to break free from Brazil that i just don't know about?

I would be very grateful if anyone knows any links that would answer my title?

I understand the reason why there tends not to be much on display is due to the better quality suits surviving as display pieces, and that the poorer stuff would just be melted down post battle or later when the metal was needed for other stuff etc.

The only example ive ever seen was from a European mass grave, where a sabaton had been been left on the body. It was totally functional but looked like it had been made by an ork, and I'm fascinated by the idea of the 'everymans plate' or weapons and would be fascinated of different cultures examples.

Many thanks in advance folks! :)

Assuming that I'm literate but don't have any prior exposure to ancient texts.

I'm reading the Wikipedia* article on Operation Ten-Go and the destruction of the Yamato, and I've come across this section:

"Upon receiving contact reports ... Admiral Raymond Spruance ordered Task Force 54, which consisted mostly of modernized Standard-type battleships ... to intercept and destroy the Japanese sortie. Deyo moved to execute his orders, but Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher ... preempted Spruance and Deyo by launching a massive air strike from his carriers, without informing Spruance until after the launches were completed. As a senior naval aviation officer, "Mitscher had spent a career fighting the battleship admirals who had steered the navy’s thinking for most of the current century. One of those was his immediate superior, Raymond Spruance. Mitscher felt a stirring of battleship versus aircraft carrier rivalry. Though the carriers had mostly fought the great battles of the Pacific, whether air power alone could prevail over a surface force had not been proven beyond all doubt. Here was an opportunity to end the debate forever""

This is a new thing to me.

How serious is this section? Was there a real possibility of a battleship fight off Okinawa? I was under the impression that the US Navy didn't really go around without air support.

Was there a cabal of battleship admirals trying to sabotage the eminence of carriers during the war?

*Apologies

Hello historians! I’ve been wondering about this for a while but haven’t found much of an answer. Why are so many Black Americans drawn to Islam? I know Malcolm X was Muslim and he often shared those ideologies with his revolutionary movement. I’m curious about what in the Black American experience creates such a connection to Islam?

Assuming "Danelaw" was how the English referred to it.

In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry visited Japan with the intent of forcing Japan to open up to trade with Western countries. His visit helped trigger a series of events that ultimately led to the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and its replacement with the Empire of Japan in 1868. How responsible was Matthew Perry's visit to Japan and its aftermath for the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate? Was the shogunate already doomed to collapse even before Matthew Perry arrived? If so, why? How much longer would the shogunate have lasted had Matthew Perry not visited and forced Japan to open up to trade?

I understand that there are records (mostly by non carthagenians) regarding their love of child sacrifices. But to what degree was this phenomenon prevalent. I would also like to learn wether it involved fire as it is mentioned that in the siege of carthage some women threw their children into the fire following them themselves.

As in did they ever fear a communist/Soviet-sympathetic government in Dublin? Did the British have any contingency plans for such a possibility?

I'm wondering how people knew to avoid mixing raw meat with uncooked food prior to the discovery of germ theory, or at least before it was widely accepted in the 19th century. Did recipes simply avoid uncooked vegetables or was it common knowledge to keep meat and vegetables separate before cooking. Thanks!

I have not posted here before, so I hope this is okay. I’m doing research on prohibition for a story and was wondering if there were fast cars being used during the early 1920s. I’ve seen a lot written about how the 1930s bootlegging led to NASCAR and I assumed that was connected to the 20s, but now I’m having trouble figuring out if that’s true. I’ve seen something about Al Capone using a garage in Savannah for modifying cars, but I’m not sure of the exact dates and if it was for speed or just compartments. I know there were issues with alcohol weighing down the cars to the point people could tell. Does anyone know anything about this or have any tips for where I should be researching?