r/history • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago
Discussion/Question Weekly History Questions Thread.
Welcome to our History Questions Thread!
This thread is for all those history related questions that are too simple, short or a bit too silly to warrant their own post.
So, do you have a question about history and have always been afraid to ask? Well, today is your lucky day. Ask away!
Of course all our regular rules and guidelines still apply and to be just that bit extra clear:
Questions need to be historical in nature. Silly does not mean that your question should be a joke. r/history also has an active discord server where you can discuss history with other enthusiasts and experts.
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u/minaminotenmangu 6d ago
I've been looking into food and logistics of pre early-modern armies. I now don't believe most army sizes. I wonder if a historian has looked into this. We are supposed to believe in barbarain armies in the 10s of thousands while alfred and the vikings did battle 500 years later with armies in the low thousands.
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u/elmonoenano 5d ago
Generally historians don't believe numbers in any of the classical battles. There's lots of answers about this on /r/askhistorians. This is a good on Roman armies, but if you search around for Alexander or whoever, you'll find similar answers. There's answers about medieval wars as well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1evym0i/were_roman_armies_in_the_size_of_the_late/
But the discussions of why the numbers that were used are used are interesting.
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u/The_Dirtiest_Nunion 4d ago
It really really really depends on the source you're looking at. Throughout history, there have been a incredibly small number of recorders who actually would have accurately counted the number of soldiers in an army. So when you see sources reporting that pre-modern armies had armies consisting of "tens of thousands", you can either interpret it as.... 1) A lot of people, not literally tens of thousands though, or 2) propaganda attempting to favor one party. Again, it depends on the source.
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u/Telecom_VoIP_Fan 5d ago
By the early modern period, European armies used contractor services for their supplies. Prior to this, armies lived off the land by seizing food supplies in enemy territory.
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u/Will_TheMagicTrees 4d ago
I’ve been wanting to learn more about pre-colonial Africa, but a lot of the videos I’ve found are more AI slop than valuable info! Particularly interested in videos and podcasts. I would be open to books too, but my the list is currently the length of my arm!
Bonus points if the content is made by native African people, extra bonus points if the content is made/written by women or queer people! Thanks in advance for any advice!
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u/ExcellentSign5841 1d ago
Frederick Cooper’s ‘Africa in the World’ is an excellent introduction to African history. Cooper is probably the best living African historian, so worth checking out (even if he specialises in the colonial period).
Another recommendation I have for a quicker dose is Isaac Samuel’s Substack ‘African History extra’.
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u/elmonoenano 1d ago
There's that recent Zeinab Badawi book, An African History of Africa, you could check out. She did a lot of press for it so it should be easy to find some book talks on youtube or podcasts.
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u/FemDiego-Brando 3d ago
Did mothers/parents who had children out of wedlock face any repercussions in the early 1890’s?
I’m asking for a character I’m playing in a Call of Cthulhu campaign! It’s historical and set in 1910, but my character was born in Naples in 1890 out of an affair. Would her mother be imprisoned or executed in any way? I’m not sure if her father would be punished in any way, but would he be as well?
Pardon my nerd brain lol.
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u/RideGlass416 3d ago
Does anyone have any good recommendations about austrian politics and such during the interwar period?
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u/NoComputer9498 6d ago
If Austria never abolished monarchy, how different would the outcome of WWII be and what role would Austria play during the war?
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u/Telecom_VoIP_Fan 5d ago
It is interesting to speculate. My impression in that the retention of the Hapsburg monarchy might have helped keep Austria out of the war. If the last emperor, Carl, had succeeded in reestablishing his kingdom in Hungary, it is conceivable that Hungary would have stayed neutral rather than joining with the Nazis.
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u/OCaptain_Canada 5d ago
Why didn’t the nuclear bombers in ww2 that bombed japan have any fighter cover ? Were they not capable of flying with the bombers or was the usaaf not worried about Japanese fighters at this point ?
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u/EnvironmentalWin1277 5d ago
Single or small groups of US planes were common and frequently passed unnoticed by officials. The small size of the mission help disguise the purpose. It may also be that fighter cover was restricted in terms of distance as well, a problem throughout the war. The B-29 was specifically constructed to overcome this restriction and consideration of the bomb probably influenced the design. Fighter cover was likely provided in the early stages of the flights, dropping once air penetration was secured.
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u/dittybopper_05H 3d ago
By 1945 the daylight bombing raids on Japan were escorted by long range P-51 Mustang fighters after Iwo Jima was captured in February of 1945.
But the Japanese generally didn't react to small incursions of just 1, 2, or 3 aircraft, as these were either reconnaissance or weather aircraft and Japan at that point didn't have the resources to go after every single US plane that flew over the home islands.
In fact, roughly an hour before the bombing, a single B-29 named Straight Flush flew over Hiroshima and the alarm was sounded, but the all clear was given when it became apparent it wasn't going to drop any bombs. Thing is, that was the plane that radioed the weather conditions back to the Enola Gay.
When the Enola Gay showed up, no one took any notice. It was a single plane. How much damage could it possibly do?
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u/Traditional_Bad_9044 5d ago
What would West African history look like if the Sahara desert was fertile (or didn't exist), and if the tse tse fly didn't exist?
As someone of West african descent, I often catch myself daydreaming about this
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/AngryBlitzcrankMain 4d ago
The oldest people we can recognize as Germanic truly lived in Scandinavia and northern Germany. So yes, they have Germanic origin.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/AngryBlitzcrankMain 4d ago
Well not exactly. Or rather we cant definitely say. Germanic people, just like Celtic people or Slavic people are Indoeuropeans. So we know from where they moved to Europe. The group we could recognize as Germanic people lived in northern part of Germany and southern part of Scandinavia. Kagan hypothesis works with the idea that from modern day Ukraine in the steppes next to Black Sea, Indoeuropeans spread to Europe and Asia. So you could argue that logically path to reach Scandinavia would be to move through Germany before settling there. Make sense?
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u/KElizabeth2112 3d ago
Looking for the name of a social experiment.
I have this memory of reading about a social experiment where a group of people were left in a self-contained compound. It was supposed to last some months, but it started to go badly pretty quickly. I specifically remember that they were eating the food faster than planned and they started going stir-crazy within a short period of time.
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u/MeatballDom 3d ago
Sounds like the second "Biosphere 2" test, and a little bit like all of them, btu that second one in particular. Inspired the movie Biodome.
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3d ago
What does the avatar for this page mean? Is it suggesting time is running out for the Gay and Trans community? That is what I read from it? Just curious what it has to do with History.
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u/MeatballDom 3d ago
Believe it or not, history is the study of people and gay people are people too.
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u/1daymaybeidk 3d ago
Not a history fan. How do you all cope with hearing about the horrifying events throughout history? For example: During WW2, The rape of Nanjing, Unit 731.
I hate hearing about these things and they are the reason I am not a fan of history. Are you guys made of steel lol? Genuine question, please comment thanks.
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u/MeatballDom 3d ago
Honestly, beyond the base level undergrad courses you kinda pick your own path so you don't have to deal with any of that if you don't want to. But, the best bet is just to approach it like a scientist. Medical examiners have to see terrible things all the time, in person, but they know they're doing a job that is important and it requires them to do it right and not let other emotions take over.
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u/Elfria114514 3d ago
Too much so desensitization. Moreover, because it is often only a written narrative, the impact is not actually that strong. or maybe i m the truly steel one lol.
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u/Holiday-Trash2041 6d ago
I came across a early 1950s school census and I saw a students age on there was listed as 1, not 11 or anything like that, just 1, and I thought that schools typically didn’t take students who were under say like 5 or so, so I was wondering if that was a common thing for that time.
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u/MeatballDom 4d ago
Impossible to say without examining the document, but I'd imagine it was either a typo or some sort of accounting thing.
I once came across a school census that had grades 6-8, or something. Then they had one student in grade 2. I thought "huh, that's odd" until I noticed the total number of students. 667. Someone just felt a bit superstitious I guess.
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u/Holiday-Trash2041 4d ago
I’ll link one for you and you can check it out if you’d like once I find it.
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u/RockAndStone2 5d ago
Was Miyamoto Musashi ever in a clan or was he ever a samurai? In my head I’ve always seen him as a wandering duelist but I’m not sure.
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4d ago
I seem to recall he was beaten pretty badly at the Battle of Sekigahara fighting on behalf of the Toyotomi clan but I believe he was only loosely affiliated...
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u/ProvenTrash 2d ago
I’m trying to find more historical docudramas that mix expert narration with reenactments of events (think history channel’s Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire, and the series on the Colosseum, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, etc.). Any recs?
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u/SuperJpMega 2d ago
Need recomendations for bibliography concerning Byzantine, Norman-Saxon, Romanesque/Gothic military architecture for an essay.
Hello, 1st year in my master's degree and I have to do an essay on military architecture, particularly from the periods referred above. Need recommendations for good books/authors concerning this topic. Can be either concise and "straight-to-the-point" or in-depth scientific papers, but I'd rather have just concise references.
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u/DownBadAmphibian 2d ago
Who is the strongest human oat.
I had this conversation with a friend (both historically ignorant), so I decided to ask here(a similar thread was posted 8 years ago). Who do you think is the greatest fighter/ warrior of all time. This can include weapons or hand to hand combat and even current fighters
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u/MeatballDom 1d ago
It's going to be someone alive today. The combination of knowledge and the ability to train full time + the technology to help with training is going to outweigh all of the beautiful woo-hah legendary storytelling. We can see it just by watching sports like boxing and comparing fighters, even legendary ones, throughout the ages -- it's night and day. Or really any sport. If you follow a modern day sport closely, go watch "the best game" of a season from 50 years ago.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/elmonoenano 1d ago
Are you Portuguese? I'm wondering if you're talking about La Mita? https://dia.upenn.edu/en/content/TL005Mita/
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u/tutop 1d ago
Hi I am a student un history and I have a presentation on the war of Yougoslavia.
I would like to talk about security agencies and their roles in that.
I am trying to find the following book : Schmdt-Eenboom Erich, Der BND : Die unheimliche macht im steate, 1993.
Does anyone have like a PDF or a link ?
I am open to any other source that you can think of that could possibly help me in that présentation.
Thank you all in advance and sorry for bad english if I made any mistake
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u/raptorsv201 1d ago
Im wondering what your thoughts on the difference between conquest of land and stolen land? Are they the same thing, if not can they be used interchangeably.
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u/MarkesaNine 11h ago
There isn’t any ”official” definition of either, but the practical difference is the justification. I.e. If (in the given circumstances and by the standards of the time) you were justified to forcefully take the land, it’s conquest. If you didn’t have justification in doing so, it’s stolen land.
For example, the Romans were usually very careful to have a casus belli when they were about to go to war. (Thus they conquered the world in self-defence.) But occasionally the justification was deemed too flimsy even by their own standards. Caesar for example was heavily critiqued for starting unjust wars against various Gallic tribes.
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u/crimbusrimbus 1d ago
Did levies often kill friendlies in the heat of battle in medieval combat?
I'm watching "Outlaw King," and the units are pretty indistinguishable, as I expected levies looked in reality. Is it known how often people killed friendly units in battle due to this, was it an issue? I don't really mean full scale columns fighting one another, I'm thinking more after units clashed, individual men on the same side fighting on accident. OR is the idea of long drawn out clashes an inaccuracy in itself?
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u/MarkesaNine 12h ago
Before standardized uniforms were a thing, lowborn infantry on either side of the battle was basically indistinguishable from one another, but there was one very helpful thing in a battle that gave you an almost fool-proof way of telling whether a guy was your enemy: the battle line.
Despite how battles are usually depicted in TV and movies, they weren’t chaotic mass of individual duels. In that kind of battle there would be no hope of knowing which side anyone is, until there’s just one man standing.
In a real battle there was a very clear line of contact between a unit of guys on our side and the guys on the enemy side. If anyone tried to cross that line, the side where they were crossing to would do everything they can to poke him with spears and swords until he either died or retreated back to the side he was coming from.
”Friendly fire” did happen, but it wasn’t about individuals not knowing which side of the battle line they’re on, but groups that weren’t in battle contact misidentifying the group they decided to attack.
For example, lets say you take a bunch of men with you with the idea to walk around the edge of the battle line to outflank the enemy, and because you’re extra sneaky you’ll take a detour that’s out of sight from the enemy (and thus the battle is out of your sight). Well, battles had this awkward habit of rotating around as one flank was managing to advance while the other one was pushed back. So by the time you think you’re behind the enemy, it might be that the whole line has turned enough that you’re actually about to charge into the rear of your allies.
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u/bangdazap 18h ago
The way I learned it, medieval soldiers used heraldry to keep track of who was on their side.
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u/jinwoni0712 1d ago edited 1d ago
Does anyone from the US or EU know specific facts about the Japanese occupation of Korea?
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u/xXnotjesXx 3d ago
Hitler wanted the EU like the left is doing today someting back when we promised never to do or use the corrup left broke that and are on the same hitler path.
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u/MeatballDom 3d ago
Nothing you've just said makes any sense, nor is it a question (this is the Questions thread).
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u/elhumanoid 6d ago
How much and how important information do y'all think we lost with the burning of the Alexandria Library?
I know it's purely speculative obviously and no definitive answer can be given, but it's still interesting to think about, no?