It seems odd to me that people from a place as harsh and scant as the deserts of the Southwest would be so sought after as traders when coming into contact with people from an incredibly resource rich area like the San Joaquin Valley

I'm curious where this phrase was even first used, and whether planners ever seriously took this promise, if it were made. It seems like a very arbitrary deadline that never would have made much sense, even logistically, should a war be short.

It seems like the phrase might have originated, at least in popular usage, with the fall 1950 offensives in the Korean War, although here again I'm not sure any officials actually made this promise, let alone thought the war would be so utterly over by late December that troops would be withdrawn. Does it have an older usage than this, I wonder?

So I’m reading the Gesta francorum for a paper and in the introduction from Rosalind Hill’s GF there was something I didn’t understand. I was wondering what he meant by ‘Italian Fiefs’:

“Bohemond was constantly recruiting Norman followers, whol he enfeoffed with Italian lands and none of his men who is mentioned in the GG has an identifiably Italian name, thoug several of them took their titles from Italian fiefs.”

I looked it up but I don’t quite understand and I’m not an English speaker... Thanks in Advance!

There were multiple times were the US civil war threatened to become a world war between US & Russia vs England & France & the CSA. I've read a lot on England dispatching troops to Canada, France and Spain's interventions in the new world and Russian and British fleet movements. However, I have not seen anything about the armies in Europe preparing for such a fight on the continent, even after Russia made it clear they would go to war if Britain and France recognized the CSA.

Were there any troop deployments or military construction on land in Europe to prepare for this? What about neutral countries that had a high chance of being brought into the conflict by geography, such as Prussia?

I've been curious about this for awhile. Nowadays I don't think twice about cooking, refrigerating, and reheating my food. What was life like before and how did these innovations change the way things worked in the kitchen? Was there any resistance to adoption?

I've read Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature and I really enjoyed the book, as it is well written and is very informative. I was just wondering of its acuracy and if the book was sufficiently critical, especially in respect to eurocentrism and plagerism. So here are some follow-up questions:

• Are accusations of Humboldt plagerising other peoples work valid? I've seen some accusation floating around but no real evidence.
• Andrea Wulf paints a gernerally favourable view on Humboldt and some of his work is undoubtfuly critical of certain colonial institutions and slavery. But is he truely well regarded or even reveered in Latin America? Is Andrea Wulf's analysis of Alexander von Humboldt too soft on him?
• How well is Andrea Wulf regarded by historians?

I dont really know the specifics of how America got Mexican land but I was wondering about the relationship between Mexicans and native Americans since I recently saw a post about old maps showing Mexico owning a large portion of would-be America. Thanks in advance.

If Hitler didn't suicide and was captured by allied forces, what would've happened to him? Would he have been tortured, put in prison, executed, or what? I think it would've been very interesting if he had lived after defeat

I was talking with a friend about how costuming for a new historic era is so difficult because there is (peer) pressure to invest in a whole new set of support garments, sometimes even for 5 years difference, and it made me wonder

How often did women update their stays, corsets, or support garments in the past?

From a practical perspective, how might the average middle class woman manage the change in silhouette in turn of the 18th or 19th century?

I know now that custom, historically sewn stays or corsets from a professional maker can run anywhere from $400-$1000, which is pretty expensive - were women looking at a similar expense when considering a change in garments?

I'm looking to learn more about Roger Williams, founder of the Providence Plantations which ultimately became the State of Rhode Island. Any recommendations?

We've all seen the meme "what year is it?" "2000 BC" "BC?" "Before Christ." "Before who?"

But it got me thinking, how did people way back then keep track of the year? Did they even care to? Was it different per civilization?

I’m curious about what the reactions and explanations ancient societies (such as the ancient Egyptians, Aztecs, Romans, or Indians) had to instances like hair standing on its end due to static electricity, static shock, and small light items being attracted to larger ones. Without a clear understanding of electricity (though please correct me if I’m wrong), it seems to me these would be quite baffling occurances to these people.

To be clear, I'm fairly aware of the immediate causes. In both the South African and Rhodesian cases, the settler class was the primary force behind independence to begin with, whereas, in the case of Kenya, Kenyan nationalists were the driving force.

I'm more interested in the historical factors which caused this divergence in the first place. Why did British and settler efforts to create a settler oligarchy in Kenya fail as opposed to South Africa and Rhodesia? Was it merely a demographic issue, because of the extent to which africans outnumbered settlers in Kenya as opposed to South Africa or Rhodesia?

I understand this is an extremely broad topic to cover, but I am trying to understand the resiliency (for lack of a better word) that Black Americans have to differing opinions from within our own community.

That's sort of a misnomer, as of course women were more than capable of creating art, but were they allowed to be artists, or were they restricted from fields like painting, sculpture, music, etc. in the Middle Ages? I mean, did nuns engage in book illumination like monks did, or were there prejudice against women being artists in Europe during the medieval period?

Some time ago I found information that there are archeological proofs of middle age Slavic settlements in southern Sweden, Denmark and even Iceland and British Isles. Is that true? Can you provide me with links to some papers discussing this topic?

Also, do people ever make bread with rice flour?

I'm intrigued to know more, especially contrasting (but not limited) to the cataclysmic redefinition of the social status quo within the 60's and 70's in USA.

So this is a question about Kresy. I know the Kresey included Ukarine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Czech Republic. Today I was surprised that it also includes Slovakia, but what parts exactly?