How accurate is the idea that literate Christians like monks and priests were impressed/influenced enough by classical texts of Greece and Rome to preserve them in monasteries and to copy them repeatedly so they continued to exist?

Was this a widespread practice? Or, was the role of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab civilization far more important than the monasteries of Western Europe?

Finally, where does current scholarship stand on the "darkness" of the Middle ages?

Please and thank you for any suggestions

I was curious what the effect of US civil war was on the wider world. I’ve been very curious about how pre world wars United States was viewed by world powers and the effect the US had during this time in influencing the rise of democracies. I’m particularly interested how the US civil war either inspired or discouraged people from around the world to embrace democratic reforms.

It's puzzling to me that a group of people that deal with commerce would not almost immediately become the most powerful class excluding royalty and the shogunate. I know that eventually merchants became powerful in Japanese society, especially during the 19th century. But what kept them down for so long? In many societies, 'merchants' are often at top of the social strata, and it's hard not to imagine them being at or near the top universally.

I read that Australia was “discovered” in 1606, a whole 114 years after America. How is that the case? It’s just a stones throw away from from Asia, relative to the huge oceans separating the West from North and South America. Why is this?

I recently watched The King on Netflix (a very entertaining movie, and Joel Edgerton speaks in a convincing English accent, which is refreshing to see an American actor do), which is based on Shakespeare's Henriad about King Henry V.

In the film there are 2 occasions where King Henry offers to battle one-on-one the noble representative of the opposing army instead of having the 2 armies battle. Is this a dramatization, or did nobles sometimes fight 1v1 instead of having their armies settle things? If so, how often or rare were the occurrences; did the noblemen actually fight 1v1 honorably to the death, or would soldiers loyal to their respective nobleman jump in to try and unfairly change the fight; and if noblemen did fight 1v1, would the results be honored, or would a full battle likely ensue afterwards, anyways?

My question is were there some diseases which had occurred among people living in the Americas, which they were asymptomatic carriers of? How come Native Americans didn’t pass any diseases to Europeans? Did European lack of hygiene play a role?

As the question in the title implies, why is it that the majority of cultures developed individual letters/sounds to produce words (ranging from Nahuatl to Latin), whereas eastern asian cultures developed symbols for whole words (ranging from Korean to Mandarin). Is it simply an idea that caught on in a specific area of the world, or are there more complex factors?

I'm interested to read about what happened to Britain after the empire left. I know the church stayed, but no much else. Can anyone recommend a good book on this part of history?

My understanding of a cannonball is that it’s a explosion-powered shot put, essentially a giant musket ball. They probably didn’t explode like bombs as portrayed in many movies.

However my intuition makes me think that they would kind of shatter on impact, just because of how fast they traveled.

Did cannonballs shatter, and if they do what would it have looked like?

I Recently watched “War in the Pacific - Eagle against the sun” and it said the IJN’s view on submarine were to serve adjunct to the battle and attack fleets. How did they rationalize this all while seeing their Allie in Nazi Germany decimate merchant fleets?

I am a bachelor's degree history student, and I don't know how to gain tons of knowledge, and keep them in my mind guys. So how can I do it?

I just can't figure out why the British Empire's economy was in such trouble despite having so many colonies and possessions.

What do Inca/other stories, legends, and histories tell is across the sea? Is there a tradition of speculation on this front?

I am vaguely aware of the myth of Viracocha coming from the sea, or across the sea, but I don't know much more than that. Do we have any record or oral tradition that tells of what the literate/intellectual elite of pre-Columbian South American Pacific coast believed would be found, and whether that was the same as what the common people believed?

Did they think of the sea as endless or finite, did they tell stories of peoples or other beings across the water, that sort of thing. Basically, roughly what was the cultural, religious, or mythical relationship with the sea in Incan or other nearby/predecessor cultures?

I sometimes hear conspiracy theorists site the US nuclear program as evidence that grand projects can exist without information about them leaking out. But I know that there are actual examples of individuals knowing about the program prior to the bombs being dropped: Kodak, and the editor of Astounding Stories (although, that one might be apocryphal).

CSA apologists often claim that Robert E. Lee had done many honourable and chivalrous deeds. Some claim that even though he was a slaveholder, he was still a lot more decent than other slaveholders. Others claim that he was such an excellent military leader that he managed to fight on for so long despite the Confederacy's glaring logistical disadvantage.

Whether or not these claims are true, where does it come from? Was he really that exemplary? And is there a reason why no one on the Union side has a similar reputation?

Thank you kind historian.:)

I’ve often read that in the event of a nuclear war, the U.S. had the advantage of setting up missile sites from Europe. The Soviets were somewhat pinned back by the iron curtain, so would she in the event of war; launch an attack from the west e.g Moscow across the Atlantic sea OR fire from Far Eastern Russia going across the North Pacific sea?

I don’t know if this violates the rules, but I am interested in criticism/analysis of Joseph Heinrichs The WEIRDEST People In The World from other scholars in that area, but wouldn’t know where to find it?