Please Be Aware: We expect everyone to read the rules and guidelines of this thread. Mods will remove questions which we deem to be too involved for the theme in place here. We will remove answers which don't include a source. These removals will be without notice. Please follow the rules.
Some questions people have just don't require depth. This thread is a recurring feature intended to provide a space for those simple, straight forward questions that are otherwise unsuited for the format of the subreddit.
Here are the ground rules:
Questions should be clear and specific in the information that they are asking for.
Questions which ask about broader concepts may be removed at the discretion of the Mod Team and redirected to post as a standalone question.
We realize that in some cases, users may pose questions that they don't realize are more complicated than they think. In these cases, we will suggest reposting as a stand-alone question.
Answers MUST be properly sourced to respectable literature. Unlike regular questions in the sub where sources are only required upon request, the lack of a source will result in removal of the answer.
Academic secondary sources are prefered. Tertiary sources are acceptable if they are of academic rigor (such as a book from the 'Oxford Companion' series, or a reference work from an academic press).
The only rule being relaxed here is with regard to depth, insofar as the anticipated questions are ones which do not require it. All other rules of the subreddit are in force.
How do historians draw accurate political maps of empires in periods before a rigorous discipline of cartography existed? I.e. how does a historian today take the evidence presented by the Mongols or the Mali Empire and determine where precisely the border of those empires stood? In the days before widespread distribution of political maps, would someone “on the border” of a particular empire be aware of their presence within an empire?
Why don't Latin derived languages use something similar to the Latin word for "assassin"?
How is it that French, English, Spanish, and Italian all use a word derived from Arabic instead?
Was something derived from the Latin word for "assassin" originally being used, only to be replaced by a form of "assassin" over time?
What concentration camp was it that had a resistance working in it that was able to send a message out to the Allies and the United States answered? I can't remember at all, but I just thought about it for the first time in a few months for some random reason. I know they sent the message in English, French and Russian, and the US was the first to reply and say they were on the way to liberate them. Any help would be great.
Edit: I FOUND IT! It was Buchenwald
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald_concentration_camp#Liberation_from_Nazi_Germany
"To the Allies. To the army of General Patton. This is the Buchenwald concentration camp. SOS. We request help. They want to evacuate us. The SS wants to destroy us.
The text was repeated several times in English, German, and Russian. Damazyn sent the English and German transmissions, while Leonov sent the Russian version. Three minutes after the last transmission sent by Damazyn, the headquarters of the US Third Army responded:
KZ Bu. Hold out. Rushing to your aid. Staff of Third Army."
The recently deleted question about allergies in history reminded me of something I saw a few days ago, about a late medieval papal dispensation.
Supplication was made to Rome later by his Gediminid cousins such as Grand Duke Vytautas and his wife Anne, who asked among other things to be allowed to eat flesh and dairy products during periods of abstinence because she was allergic to fish and the flesh of other non-lactating animals, and to take baths on Sundays for the sake of his health, when such frivolous labours are banned (indirectly) by the Third Commandment...(p.406)
Darius Baronas & S.C. Rowell, The Conversion of Lithuania: From Pagan Barbarians to Late Medieval Christians (Institute of Lithuanian Literature & Folklore, 2015)
The request for dispensation is sourced to Codex Mednicensis seu Samogitiae Dioecesis, I, no. 25, pp. 58-9 (27 August 1418).
This isn't digitised online anywhere as far as I can see, so it's not possible to post the Latin to check what Rowell has translated as "allergic".
I seem to remember that dispensations for fasts were sometimes granted for health reasons, although this was mostly because someone was unwell and weak. Are there any others people have seen that, like this one, involve some kind of sensitivity to certain foods?
Does anyone have some rough estimates for a time period when the Christian church stopped being the definitive center of European life, when it started revolving more heavily around the self-forged socities? Obviously church life has never went away, but when did it start and stop becoming the be-all-end-all community joiner in most European countries? I have in my mind it's about 1000-1800, but that's based off of a wide guesstimation.
Horrible histories one time had a sketch(season 1 episode episode 2), about this guy titled Squadron Leader Higgins, whom they said made many escapes, so much so that the Nazis spent a lot of time trying to catch them.
Despite clearly being an actual guy, they never actually said his full name, and they did not give enough detail on his life for me to find him.(Heh)
I believe that (in the U. S. armed forces, at least) the commander of a ship or other unit identifies themself on the radio as "[designator] actual", but the ordinary person on the radio who speaks on behalf of the unit is "[designator]". When and how did the term "actual" in this sense originate?
What is a good, current book to read on the formation, rise, and fall of early states ? I’m interested in a comparative, systemic look at the topic, by a reputable author.
Which career paths are available after doing an M.A in history and is it important to do it from the very best Universities in the world or average rated Universities suffice?
This isn't exactly a question, but I'm looking for general information about the Spanish Civil War. Text, audio, or visual sources are fine.
What is something most historians would like to see become reality but isn't the case anywhere?
Specifically I mean a lot of historians probably believe the world would be better off "if it knew/always remembered that X". How do you imagine history becoming a more important part of everyone's lives, be it in media presence, law-making, inter-field exchange enforcement, etc.
What are "bounties" in the context of Alexander Hamilton's economic policy? Did he succeed in having them implemented?
I figure there's a lot of Rome nerds here.
Why did the legions use tents made out of goathide in the days of the republic, instead of using canvas tents which are popular in the modern era, say made out of hemp? From what I understand later on in the imperial era they did switch to canvas tents. What spurred the change? Was it the introduction of some new manufacturing technology or crop?
Was it even legal to sell boys in the 19th century UK?
I watched Oliver Twist, and there was the "Boy for sale!" scene. Was it legal back then in the UK? Wasn't slavery illegal in the U.K.? And Oliver Twist was not even African. If it was legal, how much was 7 guineas in today's U.S. dollars? And if I bought a boy, I could just make him do any work without paying him (other than, probably providing minimum food and a place to sleep)?
Was there ever a coup, that happened during otherwise unrelated foreign invasion, with revolutionists using that invasion for their own benefit?
I know this is a long shot, but I'm trying to learn more about a story my grandfather told me many years ago, before his mind starting going, and Google is not coming up with anything. Bear with me here because my memory is fuzzy.
When he was in the US Navy serving aboard a surface ship, one of the radar systems ran on the same frequency as a civilian broadcast station near the ship's home port. The radar was supppsed to stay turned off whenever the ship was within a certain distance of port, but one time as they were putting out to sea the radar operator switched the system on and let it complete at least one full sweep before realizing his error, and as Papaw told the story, it damaged or destroyed the civilian broadcast transmitter. I don't know if it's a true story or even possible, but it sounds good. I think this would have happened on the West Coast (I don't remember him saying anything about cruises in the Atlantic) and for time it would have been sometime between the mid 50s when he changed his MOS from Torpedoman to Electronics Technician until 1961 or '62 when he was assigned to the construction of Naval Air Station Lemoore.
Was a communist revolution after WW 1 ever likely in Britain?
I'm not American and I've seen memes like this https://i.imgflip.com/192wd8.jpg about General Sherman, I understand a lot of Confederates don't like him or Grant, are there any specific actions or tactics they used that made them infamous to the Confederates?
I see dates in the french revolutionary calendar written as 9 Thermidor. Is this just an abbreviation or did they drop the ^th
In the Bible, Jesus says multiple times that people don't have to wash their hands before they eat, because generally what goes into you doesn't defile you, what comes out does. Did this strange prescription play into the early resistance of doctors to washing hands before surgery?
How did the Roman Empire know about modern day U.K. before they ever sailed there?
How does one pronounce Franklin Pierce's last name? I always pronounced as pierce, but someone told me it is more like purse.
