Short Answers to Simple Questions | March 20, 2019

by AutoModerator

Previous weeks!

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.

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  • 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.

partiallycoherent

How did medieval peasant women nurse in those long high necked dresses? I'm thinking of clothing like that shown in this video "Getting dressed in the 14th century" https://youtu.be/Ibj7GsfsCpI

Most period clothing I can figure out how they could have made it work, but not this.

surreal_strawberry

What was the primary mode of local transport for 15th-16th century Asians of the middle class? Were horse/oxen pulled wagons the norm?

iorgfeflkd

I've seen claims that Asian cultures evolved to be more collective compared to the individualistic West; is this a real thing supported by scholarship, or a Eurocentric bias from people who (for lack of a better term) can't tell Asians apart?

linearcontinuum

This might be a vague question, but how does a military form? For example, you have the People's Liberation Army, which is really big right now, but it started out with ordinary people. Did people at first just fight without any training whatsoever? How did they learn about fighting techniques, and how did their training plans develop from a group of people who are just random civilians, to a force who can win wars?

Denver_Stylee

Did scientists actually shoot the elephants foot at Chernobyl? I was reading about it, and somewhere it said that if wasn't able to be harmed by a drill but could be harmed by a Kalashnikov rifle.

Obliging_Fellow

How gruesome were the beaches of Normady on D day? This might be a question for a veteran, but I've been told that most people never set foot on sand before they died; they just set foot on dead people or in a sea of blood. I am curious as to how tramautizing this event really was compared to how it was depicted in the most accurate movie depiction, Saving Private Ryan. Im on that WW2 movie binge.

TheScottishElephant

How many of the British royal marriages were for love rather than politics or was there any that started for politics yet turned to love?

CSSCoder

How large was Cyrus the younger army?, all I'm seeing is the 10,000 greek mercenaries but I can't find the combined size of the army including the hellenes and Persians etc

EBR_995

Which democracy and which republic lasted the longest? I don't mean which was the first or which current is the oldest, but which democracy and which republic in history survived the longest? Is it the Roman Republic (509-27 B.C. -> 482 years)?

hooddolphen

did tecumseh give his speech to the osage's before any of the battles of the war or 1812 happened including the one that burnt down prophetstown?

TheyTukMyJub

In Baibars' Wikipedia entry it says:

Baibars was described as fair-skinned in contrast to the "swarthy" skin of the native Egyptians,[13] broad-faced with small eyes, very tall (which was typical in both Arabic and European descriptions of Turkic men), and having a cataract in one of his eyes.

Is there any truth to this? I was under the impression altaic peoples were considered short and stubby by European standards.

zhongzhen93

Why did ancient civilization first sprang around the fertile crescent and why did other areas (china/india) take centuries longer to appear? Is this question short and simple?

BubblegumTitanium

What is a good method to get notified about a post once it’s been properly answered? Sometimes a topic is interesting and I want to continue reading about it but then I forget about it which is too bad.

Tr1ngap0re

Is there any evidence that supports the thought that the motivation for the Battle of Verdun was not to 'bleed the French white'?

DivisonNine

Where there any civilizations that inhabited modern sibera in the before 1500?

tastiestflesh

Wasn't sure if this was too in depth for this thread, but it seemed like it didn't deserve its own question.

I just wondered, can someone give me a brief rundown of what was going on in Berlin in May of 1944?

I just bought a gun that was manufactured in a Berlin factory during that month and I was just curious about what the city was up to when it was built, and any interesting events that happened in that month.

esm8m

What do historians think of Rivers of Empire by Donald Worster? I'm starting to read it and I'm wondering what current consensus is about its ideas.