OK, if you are coming to this subreddit to answer this question with an anecdote, copy-paste of Wikipedia, or similar, I ask to to please reconsider posting. This is AskHistorians, where we have strict rules that are actively enforced. It's frustrating to everyone to find an interesting question with all the "answers" removed, so please do not answer unless you can answer the question thoroughly and accurately, the way a historian would.

Thank you.