I wrote this 7-part answer documenting the political history of Bermuda from 1834 to 1998, with emphasis on how the white-dominated and conservative United Bermuda Party was able to maintain 35 years of majority government on the island despite a numerical black majority in the general voting population. Highlights include the story of how a handful of 20somethings essentially sparked a non-violent revolution that toppled racial segregation in Bermuda in 1959, and how an ill-fated attempt to open a McDonalds franchise on the island in the 1990s played a major role in helping to topple the conservative government.

This week, I was lucky enough to write two answers that were just plain fun:

• What was it like to attend a royal wedding in the Middle Ages?
• How fashion-forward was Isabeau of Bavaria, controversial queen of France?

And on topic of the second: a reminder that this week's Tuesday Trivia is the ever popular You Give Love A Bad Name theme. So polish up those stories that bless the Rains of Castamere, not the ones down in Africa!

i did a lot of research and writing this week to answer the following questions:

• It is to my understanding that people from the warrior class in Edo Japan tended to marry very early. What did these marriages look like, and are there any sources on what the involved children thought of it?

• The Tale of the Heike contains a story describing the first official enemy of Japan's imperial court: a long-legged spider with superhuman strength. How would 13th Century Japanese listeners have interpreted this story?

And also on the Japan front, I want to recommend /u/ParallelPain's answer to the question:

• How did the Tokugawa Shogunate manage to keep internal peace and control in Japan, given the warlike nature of the Daimyos and the previous Shogunate's inability to maintain order

I really liked these questions and their responses:

• "Were stories about changelings inspired by what we'd now call autistic folks or folks with developmental disabilities?" answered by /u/itsallfolklore

• "Did people have any knowledge of genetics before Mendel?" answered by /u/restricteddata and /u/Instantcoffees (this thread is impressvely succinct but fascinating)

• "How close did England come to abolishing the monarchy and feudalism, and adopting some form of proto-socialism during the 14th century peasant's revolt? Were the rebels' goals realistically attainable?" (super cool from a Marxist angle and from a "what did the rebels actually concretely want to achieve?" angle)

• "What was Isabeau of Bavaria's influence on fashion?" answered by /u/sunagainstgold (in a great takedown of the "Isabeau popularized pierced and decorated nipples" thing that gets trotted out periodically and also a great straight answer of the thread-title question)

I would like to nominate /u/kieslowskifan for the Order of the Golden Emerod in dealing with "Did Nazi euthanasia, sterilization and death camp programs actually help the German economy in the long run?".

The question was thoroughly hideous. kieslowskifan's answers were thorough, definitive, and apparently calm.

I answered this old question that was still open that I felt had not received a proper response:

• "Conscripted men in the US army generally aren't portrayed as any different from volunteer soldiers while in other countries they are shown as poorly trained, poorly armed, and with very low morale. Were conscripted units in America trained, armed and treated just as well as its enlisted men?"

I am relatively happy with this answer I gave on why the Safavids fell, although I was perhaps a bit unclear in places.

/u/Lion_And_Sun answered "Why did the Safavid Empire collapse so easily?"

"I'm an English tradesman in 1355 who's handy with a bow. Why do I want to join King Edward's army and fight in France?" answered by /u/Hergrim and sunagainstgold.

/u/PartyMoses and Iphikrates on "Why was the phalanx replaced by sword and shield? What advantages did the later have against the former?"

Several weeks late to the question, but I rather enjoyed answering:

• Why did Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg believe that the Mayan civilization might have originated with the lost continent of Atlantis?

I’ve recently found out that my mothers family is originally Chaldean and would love to know more about the people. Does anyone have any sources of info I can read up on? Or anything interesting about the people in general?