It just seems weird to me that they didn’t because it’s inside the French “natural borders” eg. west of the Rhine and north of the alps, and they’re majority French speaking. Thanks for any insight.

I am interested in understanding the role Christianity had in the development of the scientific worldview.

I know that the Church, as an institution, often clashed with philosophers and scientists that advanced ideas that contradicted the dogma.

What I would like to know is the effect Christianity - as a set of belief people had about the world and their place in it - had on the development of the scientific approach.

How did South Korea, Japan, Singapore(majority chinese population), Taiwan, China and Hong Kong manage to become so successful despite being ravaged during WW2. What advantage did these countries have over their counterparts like India and the rest of SEA?

Did they contribute to how long the war actually took? When they Surrendered, was it a serious blow to the Central Powers? Or were they merely a distraction to not focus too much on Germany

I’m curious what a spy would have earned IRL during Fleming’s time and what the incentives of a job well done would have been and how far was Bond’s lifestyle from reality?

We've all heard stories of the occasional Wehrmacht soldier that happened to be jewish, yet for one reason or another was able to avoid becoming a victim of the Holocaust, whether by pure luck in hiding their identity, or due to some high ranking officer pulling strings to keep them safe. However, I've recently gotten curious as to just how far this went.

So, my questions are, what happened to Jews and other people classed as "undesirable" by the Nazi regime that were serving in the Wehrmacht before and during WW2? Were officers treated any differently from the rank and file? And what about those in specialist roles, such as surgeons and engineers?

I keep hearing about how wheat actually became the glutenous "evil" version of itself around the 1970s, when we had the great - but obviously not very well thought out - idea to "feed the world" by changing the wheat to a GMO version, so that it grew quicker. And now everyone is getting sick from eating it.

Now, there's a lot of hype about "ancient grains" and all that jazz. But I'm wondering if it's possible to just go back a little way in time and eat the wheat our Grandparents ate. I have wonderful memories of bread and jam and baked goods and my Grandparents lived well into their 80s. I'd be happy with that!

But I can't seem to find anywhere, exactly what changed in wheat in the 1970s. I'm guessing they changed the number of chromosomes?? But more importantly, what was the strain of wheat before then called and where can I get it from now? If we managed to save Einkorn and Farro, hopefully somebody had the sense to preserve some of the 1960s stuff too?

Hello all this might seem like a silly question, but I wanted to confirm a story I heard back in the day via an image post. I’ve lost the screen cap, but paraphrasing the story went as such:

A group of pilots during a long stay conflict over an area (I think they were guarding bomber runs?) would run into the same group of enemy pilots. The story said that they would talk/ taunt the enemy over the radio and would get it the same back and forth. Apparently, it got so bad that they had to send someone to monitor the radio on the runs to make sure their pilots weren’t doing this, which led to the pilots communicating through hand gestures.

Now, obviously this story is not only vague, but also from the internet so it is most likely fake or the details are blown out of proportion (though if anyone knows the story and could confirm or deny it that would be cool.). What I will ask though is if there have been cases of pilots communicating with the enemy during combat. I read when short wave radio was still being introduced into planes it was possible to intercept and talk over channels, which was used to give bad info or scramble messages. So it would be interesting if anyone knew of stories, old or new, where pilots talked to each other while in combat.

I look forward to your responses, though in all likelihood the answer is no. Thanks everyone!

Before the 1917, the Khanate of Khiva, along with the Emirate of Bukhara, was a protectorate of the Russian empire. By 1920, these became the Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic and the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic. I’ve read a little bit about this era in Bukhara, but I haven’t been able to find much information in English about Khiva. So just what was going on in Khiva in the years after the Russian Revolution?

What sort of arrangement would have to be made with family or religious authorities.

For what I know, sumerians were mostly city states that were loosely ruled by a stronger city state, Uruk, for example. But what I don't know is if the stronger city states had the manpower and weapons to conquer another city. I read somewhere that the sumerians had around 500 professional soldiers in a city with 30000 people and that in cases of total war the number of conscripts could be around 3000. How accurate it that and how could try use this troops to conquer?

As far as I know, front lines in wars were almost always decimated, with cavalry charges and archers pointing at them first, so, how were the soldiers convinced to be put on that position, even when knowing that certain death is coming? They have the option to refuse?

England has maintained some territories in France since the Angevin Empire, finally losing Calais in 1558. Obviously they would have been "French" at the beginning (especially as the English court was essentially French as well), but by the Tudors we have English spoken at court and in parliament. Did commoners in Calais learn English or was it just a ruling-class thing?

I have seen answers here countering the claim of both Indian/china having around 20-25% of the world gdp as the results of their population and that Western Europe may have had higher gdp per capita even before colonization.

However, I think it is unfair to compare India/china to specific rich countries of europe. I am wondering whether this is true when comparing richest part of the Asia with the western europe. Is there any gdp per capita comparison between let's say Bengal/Carnatic states/Yellow/Pearl river Delta and Jingjinji with Britain/Netherlands before colonization?

Essentially, I would like to know if the great divergence in gdp per capita between the east and the west happened before Asian Colonization or after it.

The Geþyncðo states that "...if a ceorl prospered, that he possessed fully five hides of land of his own [7] a bell and a castle-gate, a seat and special office in the king's hall, then was he henceforth entitled to the rights of a thegn."

This made me question just how many ceorls possessed any number of hides at all. How exactly was it possible for hides to be representative of enough land to sustain a household if there were people who were landless and worked on the manor of a thegn or other landed noble?

Additionally, with the land tenures of folcland, lænland, and bocland, would they have been applied to individual hides or have nothing to do with them at all? If it's the former, how would any king draw out new estates to be acquired without displacing the people living on folcland or confiscating lænland/bocland?

I'm assuming the landed nobility must have held their estates as bocland, but who did they acquire these lands from unless folcland was converted by way of a royal charter granting ownership?

If they saw an elephant, a giraffe or a monkey, would it be something completely alien or would they have known about the existence of such creatures and already knew their names?