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What were the strong points of supply or strategy for the German army in WWII?
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[
"For supply, the german rail system was quite resilient to Allied bombing. They were short on triangular junctions, but were able to repair most traffic blockages in short order. Specialized units were created for such work, and manpower was also requisitioned from local sources. Only at the very end of the war did German train service break down, and this was despite the paltry resources allocated to its defense or expansion. Christian Wolmar covers this in depth in *Engines of War*."
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
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Caligula got his nickname from "little boots" (IE "Caligula" in latin) he wore as a child as part of a soldier costume he wore while accompanying his father on campaign in Germania. how unusual was it for a Roman general to take his young children on campaign with him?
|
[
"Not an answer, but a question to add onto this, did the Roman Legion have a series of camp followers? What was life like for these people?"
] |
[
"I GOT THIS! In ancient rome, generals weren't allowed to march their troops into the city armed for fear that they would overthrow the goverment. When a particularly impressive and popular general had some great conquest the city would grant him \"Freedom of the city\" which effectively allowed him to bring his troops into the city in a parade or something along those lines. It was a sign that meant \"you're trusted and receive extra freedom because you have proven yourself an ally of the city\". The \"Freedom of the city\" gradually evolved into the ceremony we now label the giving of the \"keys of the city\" Edit: Source demanded, this generally should cover it: _URL_0_"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
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My grandmother inherited a huge amount of historical artifacts, from many different countries and continents and time periods. How do I proceed to help her figure out what to do with all of it?
|
[
"Any possible answer would depend entirely on what types of artifacts. In other words, if she's incredibly wealthy and has a vast collection of ancient Greco-Roman statuary acquired through quasi-legal means, the answer would be *entirely* different than if she has a salt-and-pepper shaker set that (possibly) at one point was in the possession of Grover Cleveland. Most likely would be printed documents of some sort? If so, again, it entirely depends on what sorts of artifacts."
] |
[
"Please don't throw them away! A massive problem for historians trying to study the day to day lives of people outside the ruling classes of society is the lack of written documents concerning their lives. The problem is, as you have said, that people regard these letters as superfluous due to their content and don't bother preserving them or just throw them away. This leads to a shortage of actual primary sources that we can use to find out about the day to day lives of ordinary people. Letters between ordinary people are a useful way of finding out about how they lived, what things were of greatest concern to them (usually mentioned frequently in letters or often at the beginning) and what relationships they had. It might be worth trying to find someone who can do a proper transcription and translation and give you a better idea of what the letters say. I'm sure future generations of your family will be fascinated to read about their ancestors lives and to have such a physical link."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
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I have heard a long time ago that the Nazis had a plan to place all of the world's Jewish population on Madagascar, is this true ?
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[
"Not trying to discourage further discussion, especially as your question is somewhat different, but you will find some information in this thread from earlier today: _URL_0_ *Edit* Particularly the exchange between u/Makratus and u/commiespaceinvader"
] |
[
"The actual reason for this phenomenon is roughly understood. One of the leading theories for this behavior is that it imitates their spaceships. The ones they used over 2000 years ago to make contact with the ancient Egyptians and enslaved them to create beautiful statues."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
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Are texts from the classical era still being discovered with any frequency? Or do we have about as much as we ever will?
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[
"There was a similar thread posted today with several responses that you might find helpful [What are the chances that 'lost' Roman texts are still extant] (_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"The honest answer is, no one has any real idea what they sounded like. We can only make assumptions at this point."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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Friend found this old photo in his parents stuff. Can anyone recognise what USA Army regiment it is? And in what Concentration Camp that picture was taken?
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[
"Well, i am thinking that might be Nordhausen-Dora camp, and soldiers we can see at this photo are from 3rd Armored Division. 100% sure. [Same body.](_URL_1_) And overall, you can see that it's the same place by comparing [it](_URL_2_) to other photos, like this [one](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"It could be that he was attached to an RAF squadron. Do you know what unit he belonged to?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about history:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about history:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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How to find primary sources (aka from the period) ?
|
[
"I always start with [Modern History Sourcebook](_URL_2_). It is a great jumping off point to primary sources and usually gets me started. For French Revolution specific documents, start here at the [Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media](_URL_0_). Going to the websites of national museums can be fruitful ([Smithsonian](_URL_3_), [British Museum](_URL_4_), [Lourve](_URL_1_)) Sometimes a simple Google search can provide either a database or the file you want (i.e. searching in Google \"French Revolution\" \"primary source\") After those steps, I usually consult my universities research librarian. In most cases I am floored with the information they find, they usually get nerdy excited to do so. Also looking at the bibliography of a secondary source can tell you where they go their information from."
] |
[
"\"et to Brute\" is a quote from Wm Shakespeare's play, not history Historical quotes are generally based on the most reliable written sources we have from the period, often cross referenced between sources."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
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How and When did we "discover" the nutritional value of food?
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[
"Just to provide a little encouragement, this is definitely answerable! The Greeks, Romans, Middle Ages Christians, and Hindus all definitely wrote down or alluded to their understandings of food's necessity and the operation of the body. I would even be willing to bet we can glean some understanding of earlier views on the subject, by analyzing sacrificial customs and myths."
] |
[
"It is not about the carbs, it is about the vitamins, minerals, and natural fiber."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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What became of the sword that was used to execute Anne Boleyn?
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[
"I don't know what happened to the sword, and in my readings I have not come across any accounts of anyone who claims to know. (So if someone does know, I would be quite interested myself.) However, for Anne Boleyn's execution, a renowned swordsman from the continent was brought over for the execution. This was seen as a sign of \"mercy\" for her. It was merciful because he was very skillful at his job, meaning he could sever the head with one motion and therefore minimize pain. So because it was a private executioner who brought his own sword, my assumption is that the sword would have stayed in his possession and been used for other jobs he was hired for. It likely stayed in his family's possession until it was lost to history."
] |
[
"The Romans didn’t like the idea of someone to rival their king. So they crowned Jesus king of the Jews and crucified him."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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What does it mean when a ruler conquers lands? For example, when leaders expanded their empires, did they kill the indiginous people or simply gain power through taxation?
|
[
"This is a very broad question that is fundamentally unanswerable as it is. Do you have any specific place and time period in mind? I gave a very cursory answer to a similar question [here](_URL_0_) that might help you narrow down what you're confused about."
] |
[
"\"Conquer\" is a loose word, he subjugated local kings and warlords who governed large territories. So you go attack the king in his capital, you defeat him, and you make him pay tribute to you. That is what conquered means. You don't go through each town and village and fight throughout the entire territory. Once your forces move on and the local king feels relatively safe, he stops paying tribute and becomes independent once again. This isn't to minimize Alexander's accomplishments, it's just to describe and contextualize his empire."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
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Did China lose the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895 due to corruption?
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[
"In terms of economics, Japan had spent roughly 30 years industrializing since the Meiji Restoration. An industrial economy has a huge edge over a rural economy during war time, as seen during the Civil War. Corruption had little to do with it."
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
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Why is Rhode Island not an island?
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[
"I presume that you mean that the US State commonly referred to as \"Rhode Island\" does not appear to be geographically identical to a particular island. The full and proper name of the state in question is \"the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations\". This state does include a large island named \"Rhode Island\" (also called Aquidneck Island), a city on the North American mainland named \"Providence\", and some of the surrounding regions. Sources: _URL_1_ _URL_0_"
] |
[
"The answer depends on whether you're British or American."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
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"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage about Science and Technology:"
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When have American forces (local, state, federal, official or unofficial) used airplanes violently against citizens?
|
[
"Battle of Blair Mountain (August - September 1921) Privately owned airplanes, directed by the Logan County Sheriff, were used to bomb miners. In addition, the US Army Air Corps deployed aircraft (under the direction of Billy Mitchell) for the purpose of breaking up fortifications but were ultimately used for reconnaissance. [Blair Mountain: The History Of A Confrontation](_URL_1_) [13 Planes Will Bomb Marchers, Washington Times, September 01, 1921, FINAL HOME EDITION, Page 2, Image 2, Col. 1-2.](_URL_0_) Shogan, Robert (2006) The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising."
] |
[
"(Loosely) The DoD manages the military (Army, Navy, etc.; foreign and domestic military bases; etc.), the DHS runs security inside the country to protect citizens from terrorism and other threats. Traditionally, the military of a country fights other countries' militaries. They can also fight terrorists, but after the September 11th terrorist attacks, it was decided that a different department of the government would be able to better prevent terrorism than if anti-terrorism and security inside the U.S. was added to the military's already long list of responsibilities."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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How has cheering (applause, yelps, etc.) changed over the years?
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[
"As for cheering I cannot say, but i can speak for expressing dissatisfaction. In a podcast called \"The History of Rome\", I remember hearing an instance where someone proclaimed Julius Caesar the King of Rome. Back then, instead of \"booing\" as we do today, they would just remain silent. When this was said, the entire audience remained completely silent, to the point where \"you could have heard a pin drop\". Julius then responded by saying \"Only Jupiter is the King of Rome\", and the crowd erupted in applause."
] |
[
"Literally, because of tradition and etiquette. It is strictly prohibited to clap in the House of Commons, so they yell instead. It's been this way for centuries."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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Did Saddam Hussein try to nationalize his oil before 9/11?
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[
"Iraq nationalised its oil industry in 1972 and joined in the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo against the US and selected allies (there'd also been an earlier rather ineffectual one in 1967). Iraqi oil exports were severely limited under UN sanctions in 1991-2003 and were briefly suspended by the regime in 2002, but I'm unaware of a separate retaliatory embargo against the US."
] |
[
"1. Oil: Iraq has some of the largest oil reserves on the planet. Oil is the most traded commodity on earth and economies are dependent on it. 2. A regime the US did not like: there was mutual enmity between the US and Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf War 3. The Iraqi regime was weak: over a decade of harsh US-led sanctions had crippled the Iraqi economy/military, starved a million Iraqis to death, and turned it into a non-state 4. Iraqi exiles convinced Americans that the invasion/occupation of Iraq would be easy: characters, like Ahmad Chalabi, insisted that US troops would be welcomed with trails of rose petals and jubilant cheers 5. 9/11: the US was in a hysterical climate from the WTC attacks and could be convinced of just about anything. The government falsely implicated Iraq in the attacks as a justification for war"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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Based on Europe's economical patterns, can a case be made that Europe was not, in fact, on the brink of war before WWI happened?
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[
"These [two] (_URL_1_) [answers] (_URL_0_) I've given should answer your question. Economically, there was little to incentivize war in 1914, which itself came about based on decisions made by narrow cliques of leaders in Vienna, Berlin and, to an extent, St. Petersburg. They were more influenced by perceived weakness or strength, and geopolitical/strategic concerns; essentially, it was statecraft, not economic rivalry and competition, which brought about the war in 1914."
] |
[
"In terms of economics, Japan had spent roughly 30 years industrializing since the Meiji Restoration. An industrial economy has a huge edge over a rural economy during war time, as seen during the Civil War. Corruption had little to do with it."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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Are there any other documented mass movements of soldiers a la Flight of the Wild Geese and other Jacobite forces?
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[
"Following the collapse of the Khwarezmian empire to Genghis Khan, numerous Khwarezmian soldiers moved to northern Mesopotamia where they served as mercenaries. They would later move further south and seize Jerusalem in 1244 and eventually be absorbed into Mamluk Egypt. Following the battle of Hastings, it seems a substantial amount of Anglo-Saxons migrated to serve in the Varangian Guard. There was also some 12,500 Christian Indonesian soldiers, including their families, who were settled in Netherlands after it proved troublesome to demobilize them in Indonesia. This was in 1951."
] |
[
"I'm going to ask this as a question: Are there not still legacy treaties in place between USA and Holy Roman Empire? Stemming from Revolutionary War mercenaries that performed well?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
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Why is Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill?
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[
"Jackson didn't really appoint Calhoun and to his credit he very much wanted to kill Calhoun by the time he left office. While you listed a lot of reasons that Jackson is a shitty President it should not be forgotten that under him and his successors the number of people able to vote dramatically increased, the democratic party was founded, and tensions over slavery were more or less kept in check. So while I personally believe he wasn't a great president you should keep in mind that there is much debate amongst historians regarding his standing. edit: With that said because of the Trail of tears I wouldn't be surprised if he was one day taken off the bill even though the worst aspects actually occurred under then Van Buren administration."
] |
[
"What is the veracity of the claim that TR was included so there would be two Republicans on Mt. Rushmore?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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During WW2 were there ever any operations aimed specifically at taking out the talented military leadership?
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[
"Yamamoto (Japanese naval officer famous for the attack on Pearl Harbor and possibly even more famous for the \"sleeping giant\" quote which he never actually said) was specifically killed by the Americans. Intercepted and cracked messages stated that Yamamoto was going on an inspection tour of Japanese bases in the Pacific. FDR gave the orders for Yamamoto to be killed. His flight was intercepted by a flight of P-38s and his plane was shot down and he was killed. The pilots of the P-38s were not told who they were after."
] |
[
"There was not much backlash. 1) Killing civilians during total war (the kind of war we were in) is not considered a crime or atrocity. During total war the entire society of the nations involved are a part of the war. Civilians make the weapons, grow the food, and are the replacement troops. They are not innocent, they are just low priority targets. 2) The Cities were legitimate military targets. One held major weapons manufacturing centers, a supply depot, a troop deployment point, and a military headquarters. The Other held a major shipyard, a portion of the Japanese fleet, and weapons manufacturing. 3) The two bombs killed fewer civilians than the traditional bombing methods used against larger cities such as Tokyo were killing. Edit: Additionally we won. The winner is the one that dictates if misdeeds were carried out during a war generally. Or at least that is how it has been for most of history."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
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How did antebellum American slaveowners justify enslaving their own children?
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[
"While it is a bit broader in focus, [this answer of mine](_URL_0_) does touch on some of this and a few of your specific questions, so might be of interest. Additionally, [this one](_URL_1_), while a rather unique case, also is relevant."
] |
[
"Because Black Americans who are descendants of slaves usually don't know their family's country of origin. Slave owners and traders were not interested in the ethnic origins of their slaves and kept only the most rudimentary records. Many Black Americans find it impossible to trace their families back more than a few generations."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
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What's the best way to educate yourself on history properly and accurately?
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[
"The other commenters here make good points, something I'd add: if you are a college student and you have off-campus access to university resourcs - JSTOR, T & F Online etc - then go nuts. It's a brilliant source of really interesting stuff."
] |
[
"I'm looking for recommendations for books to read if I want an overview of the history of the LGBT+ movement in the United States but don't have any previous background knowledge in the subject."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Literature:"
}
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Found this on my grandfathers flight jacket
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[
"It's a bit worn, but that is the patch of [VPB-102](_URL_0_), a U.S. Navy patrol bomber unit that was in existence from 1943 to 1994. The patch depicts a green dragon hurling a bomb while perching on top of a cloud (VPB-102 was first known as the \"Dragons,\" and then as the \"Blue Geese\"). During WWII, VPB-102 flew PB4Y-1s (the Navy designation for the stock B-24 Liberator) on missions from Hawaii and islands in the central Pacific. A rather detailed history of the squadron can be found [here](_URL_1_), from pages 133 to 142. The PDF is very large, so it might take a while to open. **Source:** * Roberts, Michael D. (2000). *Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons, Volume 2, Chapter 3, Section 5: Patrol Squadron Histories for 3rd VP-22 to 3rd VP-25*. Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy. pp. 133–142."
] |
[
"Because it was meant to go on your sandwich, not your nuggets."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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What did military leaders from WW1 think of or have to say about WW2 and the way it was conducted?
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[
"A follow up question, how was General Pershing viewed by American generals during World War 2? Was he involved in raising war bonds or other positions away from the front lines or back at home? Thank you in advance!"
] |
[
"Follow up question: What other types of bootcamp training strategies would drill instructors use? Also what were training structures like when there was a massive influx of troops who needed to be trained quickly, such as when the US joined WWII after Pearl Harbor?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
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Did massive shoulder armor as commonly seen in games and movies (sometimes with huge spikes protruding forth and thick elaborate plating) really serve to protect the warriors of old? Or are they impractical and cumbersome in reality?
|
[
"[That kind of shoulder guards](_URL_0_) never existed in real life. Shoulder plates serve two primary functions; 1) To protect your shoulders without restricting movement. 2) To protect your neck from direct blows and glancing blows. For the second reason mentioned here you sometimes see a [\"ridge\" along the upper part of the shoulder plate](_URL_1_). Adding things like spikes and shoulder guards several inches thick never existed because: 1) Spikes fill no function other than weakening the armor and adding weight. 2) Massively thick plates add lots of weight, restrict movement and offer no additional protection. Why add several centimeters of heavy steel where a few milimeters will do the same job?"
] |
[
"I like most of the answers below, especially m4nu, but there's one big thing no one's mentioning: Armor. As technology progressed, muskets made armor utterly useless. Then, when hand to hand combat did occur, there was no need for a sword so heavy it would break a man's ribs through iron, just something to stab him with would do just fine. I always thought it was interesting that through Korea people quit using personal body armor and now it's coming back. Modern soldiers look about as covered up as a knight these days."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title about movie accuracy:",
"pos": "Represent the document about movie accuracy:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
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Where did the concept of “the heart” come from?
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[
"More can always be said, but [I've answered a similar question previously - hope that helps!](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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What's the difference between a historian and a antiquarian?
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[
"An antiquarian is someone interested in antiquities, i.e. not just history but specifically historical *objects*. By contrast historians study the past through written texts. Archaeologists study the past through material remains, so in a sense antiquarians can be thought of as amateur archaeologists. However, it's mostly a historical term; few people would describe themselves as antiquarians today. It carries the connotation of being interested in merely collecting artefacts and obsessing over physical minutiae, rather than using them to learn about the past."
] |
[
"How much demand is there for a poet or painter, compared to a lawyer or doctor?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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We all can name plenty of great leaders who are very articulate, but are there any great leaders of nations who are timid/shy/unable to deliver great speeches ?
|
[
"> But Moses pleaded with the LORD, \"O Lord, I'm not very good with words. I never have been, and I'm not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.\" -Exodus 4:10 What's interesting and funny about the rest of the passage is how God argues with Moses and gives him leadership lessons, how to manage people, etc."
] |
[
"I guess it's about your personality traits and how those fit into being a leader. For example charisma is pretty important, but some people, with their own traits, can be more charismatic, perhaps because they are extroverts, less prone to anxiety and more assertive."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
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Have any past Presidents of the United States ever criticized their successors?
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[
"An example that immediately springs to mind is Grover Cleveland. He had lost reelection after one term to Benjamin Harrison, but ran (and won) again four years later. Since he was a \"former president\" at that time, and he had to campaign against the sitting president, he naturally had to criticize Harrison's policies."
] |
[
"It's common for a new President to replace the old Administrations Ambassadors with his own, as it's often a reward given to campaign contributors. It's unusual for a new President to fire every single Ambassador the moment he takes office with no replacement in place."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about History:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about History:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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What were the agricultural inovations and policies that ultimately doomed the Great Leap Forward?
|
[
"I'm no expert, and this list is by no means exhaustive, but here are a few: [Four Pests Campaign]( _URL_0_) – in which Mao encouraged citizens to eradicate the country of various pests, including Sparrows; the problem was that sparrows preyed on lots of actual pests, like locusts, and the locusts eventually destroyed rice crops. He also encouraged the construction of [backyard furnaces](_URL_2_) in most communes for steel production. The furnaces did not produce quality steel, and their construction/use resulted in massive deforestation. Another: “Mao hoped to increase China's agricultural output. He relied, however, on nonsensical Soviet farming ideas, such as planting crops very close together so that they could support one another, and plowing up to six feet deep to encourage root growth.” (From [here](_URL_1_))"
] |
[
"Could the rebuilding of Japan after WWII be considered a partial colonization by the United States?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
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What kinds of watercraft were built across the pre-Columbian Americas?
|
[
"hi! I would love to see more contributions on this topic, but for now, you may be interested in a few previous posts on pre-Columbian naval technology * [Did any of the Pre-Colombian Native American tribes (North or South America) participate in oceanic explorations/trade routes/conquests?](_URL_10_) - featuring /u/Reedstilt * [What was the pinnacle of Native North American boating technology - is there any history of larger, long-distance watercrafts used for cargo or transportation, or even naval warfare?](_URL_8_) - featuring /u/ahalenia * [Do we know anything about naval trade or naval technology in the Pre-Columbian Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico?](_URL_6_) - featuring [deleted] * [What was war like in the Pacific Northwest before European contact?](_URL_9_) - featuring /u/retarredroof, /u/Reedstilt, and /u/thegodsarepleased and some information scattered throughout this section of the FAQ * [Pre-Columbian Trade and Contact](_URL_7_)"
] |
[
"The native peoples of Scandinavia have European ancestors. The ancestors of the native peoples of the Americas came across the Bering Strait and were the descendants of East Asian peoples."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
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"neg": "Represent the document about History:"
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Civil War literature suggestions?
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[
"Depends on how committed you are, but Shelby Foote's *The Civil War: A Narrative* is pretty much the gold standard in Civil War history. It's a three volume work, very long and thorough."
] |
[
"Are there any good introduction books to historiography in general? JFK in particular? Thank you"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
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How did an hour become an hour?
|
[
"This goes back to Babylon (and probably before), which used a (sort of) base 60 system to simplify the arithmetic. It's the same reason we have 360 degrees in a circle: there are a large number of convenient factors that make the maths simpler. All sorts of things divide neatly into it. The same holds for 12. An hour was long defined (in Europe anyway) in two different ways: as 1/12 of the day and 1/12 of the night, which caused serious problems (the hour would have different lengths throughout the year), and also as a set unit of time roughly equal to the above. The latter was necessitated by the development of certain mechanical measuring devices such as water clocks, etc, which wouldn't vary with the seasons. This problem wouldn't really disappear until mechanical timekeeping became the standard."
] |
[
"You can only have a Weekend at Bernie's situation for so long."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
In the Chinese Civil War, why did the Soviets recognize the KMT?
|
[
"This [answer](_URL_0_) by u/ParkSungJun, about why soviet-sino relations broke down, partly answers why the soviets supported the KMT over CPC initally."
] |
[
"Aside from /u/ParallelPain I have to disagree with all the other answers in this thread. For the most part they seem to be treading the narrative of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is to say that Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists were ineffective, corrupt, and did not fight well against the Japanese while Mao's Communists did. If anything, it is generally accepted by historians, such as in Rana Mitter's Forgotten Ally, that the CPC was severely weakened by KMT offensives up to the Xi'an Incident, that the KMT bore the overwhelming brunt of the fighting, that Chiang was not in cahoots with the US to stomp out the Communists during the Second World War (if anything the US was considering assassinating Chiang for being a stubborn anti-Western dictator), and so forth. I talk a bit about the perverse historiography, as well as about the war itself, in detail [here](_URL_0_)."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
|
As a person who has never done world history, I need to teach The Russian Revolution to 6th graders. How do I go about designing the lecture outline?
|
[
"Pretty difficult task since 6th graders usually have not encountered the concept of revolution and the transition of monarchal to popular government yet. How about juxtaposing pre- and post-revolutionary Russia by listing the most important structures of both systems and the problems they faced. out of curiosity: what kind of school includes the Russian Revolution in its curriculum for 6th graders? (I'll be a teacher myself)"
] |
[
"I'm looking for recommendations for books to read if I want an overview of the history of the LGBT+ movement in the United States but don't have any previous background knowledge in the subject."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer about Literature:"
}
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Drunk Americans today enjoy gorging on wings, pizza, and other bar/drunk foods. However, these foods are quite new. What did drunk Americans eat before deep fryers and pizza?
|
[
"You may want to x-post this over at /r/AskFoodHistorians"
] |
[
"In order for a food to become popular in an area, you need: * access to ingredients * skill to prepare it * demand * lack of alternatives For example, I was visiting a friend in Australia, and wanted to cook Mexican food for him. The supermarket had tortilla chips and hot sauce. So unless I wanted to whip up tortillas from scratch, I was out of luck. Whereas here in the western US, I (or a restaurant owner) can head down to the local panaderia can get fresh, cheap, authentic tortillas whenever I want. Also be aware of the role lack of alternatives plays. Local cuisine is often born of necessity, solving some problem or avoiding scarcity. Many Asian foods come from lack of meat, Jewish foods work with strict dietary restrictions, and Southern soul food is based largely on what was leftover to slaves after their owners ate all the good stuff. Other communities, when not faced with these restrictions often bastardize recipes (e.g. beef vindaloo) to include what is locally available."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
}
|
Was there a particular case that prompted Johnny Cash to remark about shooting a man in Reno to watch him die?
|
[
"Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force at Landsberg, Bavaria (itself the location of a famous prison). Cash recounted how he came up with the line \"But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die\": \"I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind."
] |
[
"This whole thing happened 11 days ago. The Texas Rangers and the FBI are both investigating the case. It takes longer than a week and a half to bring charges against someone. Give it a little time before we all break out the pitchforks."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Did countries outside of Europe try to colonize/participate in imperialism?
|
[
"Huh. That is actually a pretty interesting question. When the Roman Empire conquered Germania and Britain, for example, does that count as \"colonialism\"? When a smaller power buys off the bigger power with tributes (e.g., when the Malacca sultanate sends tribute to the Emperor of China in the 15th century, or the Malay states doing the same to Siam two centuries later), can that be considered at least proto-colonialism?"
] |
[
"The end game would have been pretty much Italy forming a new \"Roman Empire\" with colonies in North Africa, Middle east, and territory in the Balkans. Japan was trying to create a \"Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere\" where their idea was basically to take over China, Korea, and South East Asia and modernize them (read: Japanize them) to compete with the Europeans. Germany was basically going to conquer Eastern Europe and try to settle the land with Germans and then Germanize/kill/relocate the Slavs living there. Hitler didn't really want to conquer good Germanic people like the Dutch, Scandinavians and Brits, he actually thought they would join him. So most likely there would have been Fascist governments put up throughout the rest of Europe."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
BS History w/concentration in "Applied & Public History"
|
[
"If you want to do museum work or some other type of public history, I would advise you to do the B.S. in history with the applied and public history concentration. If you are interested in traditional academic history, especially someday a PhD program, do the traditional B.A. degree. Sometimes there is not a lot of difference between a B.A. and a B.S., but most of the time the distinction is that a B.A. requires substantial foreign language coursework, as Eistean notes. It might seem like skipping the foreign language is a good idea, but that would actually be a mistake if you want to go on to a graduate degree. Graduate programs generally require reading proficiency in multiple languages for any field except American history, and many require at least one even for Americanists."
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
|
Why do we use the word "boy" in America while other English speaking countries use the word "lad?"
|
[
"[Etymology of boy](_URL_0_) [Etymology of lad](_URL_1_) These unfortunately don't show too much about their usage from place to place, but I have a problem with your supposition regarding the dialectical distribution of \"boy\" and \"lad\". Certainly, \"boy\" is used far more often in the US than \"lad\", but I don't think you're necessarily correct in assuming that everywhere else uses \"lad\"... but some people from the UK/Australia/New Zealand/Canada/South Africa etc. would need to chime in here."
] |
[
"They're different dialects of the same language. Some words are different, and some spellings are different. For instance, an American would say \"What color are your pants?\" whereas a person from the UK would say \"What colour are your trousers?\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Was the technology of the bow and arrow brought over the Beringia land bridge or did both peoples in the old and new world both develop the tech?
|
[
"It is believed that the bow and arrow were developed independently at a number of locations about 3-4 thousand years ago. See [this post](_URL_13_). So, no paleoindians did not come to the Americas equipped with the bow and arrow. Edit: after further reading, bow and arrow probably developed 2500-3000 years ago in the northern portion of North America and 1500-100 years BP in western North America. See [this article](_URL_14_) for further discussion."
] |
[
"They were descendents from a group of humans that crossed from what is now Russia over to what is now Alaska. This happened 16k to 11k years ago. Eventually as the ice age ended sea levels rose leading to the land they crossed to end up under water. This meant the humans being able to populate the New World without interacting with the humans elsewhere. Columbus also wasn't the first European to come across the New World. Edit - It wasn't an ice bridge."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
}
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In World War II, were there any consequences for Red Army soldiers who had a relationship with one of their comrades, and if so how severe it would be?
|
[
"While you wait for a fuller answer (personally I think this is ground so far little-tread in this sub), the inestimable u/Georgy_K_Zhukov has an answer for [this topic.](_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Also, would her military experience be any useful in finding a job? Did women serve in the British military during World War 1 and if so, did they go back into the workforce afterwards?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
}
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Why was the Golden Horde called like this?
|
[
"According to John Man^1 it was called this as Genghis's family was known as the 'Golden Clan', and the Mongolian word ord/orde meant a palace, or for the Mongols a tent. Hence Batu's (initial leader of the khanate) apparent use of a gold coloured tent as his 'palace', and the shift of ord/orde to horde led to the khanate being called the Golden Horde. Worth noting that initially it was known as the Khanate of Qipchak^2 (named after the nomads who previously inhabited that area) and according to David Morgan the popularization of Golden Horde came about later. --- ^1: The Mongol Empire, John Man ^2: David Morgan, The Mongols"
] |
[
"Because many empires have attempted to wage war there. Empires who have had great success in war have been defeated in what we now call Afghanistan. This quote from the princess bride sums it up fairly well. > You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is \"never get involved in a land war in Asia\" It's the Afghanistan region they are referring to by Asia. According to Wikipedia previous invaders (unsuccessful invaders) have included some fairly big names. The likes of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, various Persian Empires, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States have all tried and all mostly failed."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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What sorts of things would one study in pursuit of a mathematics degree in/around the 1200s?
|
[
"University students in the 13th century would not pursue a degree in math. Students would be taught the trivium first followed by the quadrivium with all classes and coursework conducted in Latin. The only advanced degrees were theology, law, and medicine with the former being considered the most prestigious. The University of Cambridge has a nifty little [summary of the medieval university](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"To put this into a rather poor analogy: building architect is to construction worker as software engineer (SE) is to programmer. A good SE is able to program, but is also capable of designing the system and creating specifications to which a programmer codes. Computer science includes both of these disciplines, but is also concerned with the theoretical aspect of computing. For example, a computer scientist can tell you if a problem is computationally solvable. Another simple analogy: CS is to SE'ing as research is to application. Source: Me - I'm graduating with my Bachelors of Science in CS after seven years of study at a top 5 US university, concentrating in Artificial Intelligence and Systems & Architecture. I'm a computer scientist, software engineer, and programmer; in THAT order."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
|
Was the Boshin War fought over a hypocrisy?
|
[
"It's important to keep in mind that situations changed quickly. Both the leaders of the Bakufu and the leaders of the New Government were very clear that they needed to westernize. And both sides had imported western arms and called for western experts. Due to the failed action against western powers and the lost of of high political support due to the death of Emperor Kōmei, *jōi* was basically dead (though they still hoped to renegotiate the unequal treaties). The fighting was due to a disagreement on who was to lead the new government (the Bakufu had *voluntarily* ended, though it might have been restored had the fighting gone the other way, we'll never know). That said, considerable number of the rank-and-file of the men on the New Government side thought they were betrayed by their leaders, which contributed to the early-Meiji rebellions. The great /u/NientedeNada went into more details on this [here](_URL_0_)."
] |
[
"Why do we have generals when we have a President? Why did Europe have Lords when they had a King? The Emperor was the head of state, but during the Shogunate periods... he was really just a figurehead. The Shogun held real power by basically being the strongest warlord in the country. Feudal Japan (the Sengoku Jidai, or Warring States Period) was basically a bunch of feudal lords (Daimyos) fighting over who would be Shogun and trying to manipulate the Emperor to make them Shogun. During this time the Emperor was basically powerless."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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As I understand it in ancient times although people understood things like politics changed over time, they assumed their basic way of life would just stay the same forever. When did people start to think of technological change as something constant and on going like we do in modern times?
|
[
"I know I've quoted this before here, but... > **Everything is at its Acme**; especially the art of making one's way in the world. There is more required nowadays to make a single wise man than formerly to make Seven Sages, and more is needed nowadays to deal with a single person than was required with a whole people in former times. > > - [Gracian's Manual,](_URL_0_) 1637. If Baltasar Gracian's any example, \"information overload\" goes back at least 400 years."
] |
[
"I would say that history is important because it gives you a sense of perspective on things. The way things are now is not the way they've always been, and therefore not the way they always *will* be. Different cultures have had different morals, different practices, different aspirations: therefore, our own morals, practices, and aspirations are just one set among many. Everything changes; nothing lasts forever; this too shall pass; tempus fugit; \"the moving finger writes, and, having writ, moves on\"; and so on. Before I got into history, I was into science fiction. And, what both of these things teach us is that we are not special. There were people before us, with different ways of living; there will be people after us, with different ways of living. We're just one ripple on the great flow of humanity, past, present, and future."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
}
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Would the type of gun used to assassinate Lincoln have a shell?
|
[
"The firearm used to kill Lincoln was a .44-caliber muzzle-loading, percussion-cap Derringer-style pistol. The bullet -- a round ball -- would be forced down the barrel after a powder charge was poured, and a percussion cap affixed to the nipple. As this was a cartridge-less pistol, there would be no \"shell\" (in that \"shell\" generally refers to the metal casing that contains the primer, powder, and bullet in more modern ammunition). Moreover, even if there were a cartridge I have a very hard time picturing *any* cartridge having enough kinetic energy to puncture anything but wet tissue paper. The spent casing of a bullet carries only the kinetic energy of a few grams being dropped from shooting height. As for the bullet itself, it was recovered from Lincoln's brain. The FBI has a fantastic article discussing at length the firearm in question: _URL_0_"
] |
[
"A concealed deadly weapon designed specifically to harm unarmed unsuspecting personnel and nothing else. It's worse than a gun with that definition."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
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Question about the queue hairstyle worn by the Manchus.
|
[
"The Queue was a Manchu style, and an imposition by the Manchu's on to the rest of the Chinese. It was first mandated in 1645. The purpose of the mandate was to delineate loyalty to the Qing from Ming loyalists. It had nothing to do with handles for decapitation, sadly. The misconception might come from or be represented well by [this painting](_URL_0_) by an italian artist."
] |
[
"As a follow up to that reply - Why did all of the riflemen miss?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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There is a hot debate in France about the representation of the French revolution in Assassin's Creed Unity. What is your opinion on this matter? Could you expand on the history of the representations of the Revolution in France?
|
[
"Well this is one of the first and most famous historiographical debates. There are a variety of different views expressed by different historians, with most falling into a few camps. Marxists, such as Lefebvre and Soboul, argue that the Revolution was a bourgeois social revolution. Revisionists, like Cobban, argue that the revolution was mainly political, and downplay the social involvement of the bourgeoisie. Others, like Schama and Furet, take more unorthodox views, such as Schama's stressing of popular violence, and Furet's interpretation of the regime as an authoritarian control system."
] |
[
"What are the must read books about the American revolution published within the last five years? What are the current arguments being discussed by historians who study the era?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer about Literature:"
}
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Is Spartan military strength over exaggerated?
|
[
"I highly recommend you check these posts by /u/Iphikrates, who's basically the patron god of Spartan history. [Is the military worship of the Spartans justified?](_URL_0_) [How does Sparta compare to Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century BCE?](_URL_2_) [Were the Spartans really all that great as warriors?](_URL_3_) [Why didn't Sparta enslave/destroy Athens after the Peloponnesean War?](_URL_5_) [Why did Persia side with the Spartans in the Peloponnesean War?](_URL_1_) [In 387BC, Sparta successfully concluded the Corinthian War. 15 years later on the eve of Leuctra it was loosing the fight against the Second Delian League and for peace. Why?](_URL_4_)"
] |
[
"Also, how historically accurate is this show? I can imagine some is exaggerated."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
}
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Have there been many armed conflicts between Australia and New Zealand throughout history?
|
[
"Unless you include Australian involvement in actions against Maori, there have been no armed conflicts between Australia and New Zealand as state parties."
] |
[
"Also, would her military experience be any useful in finding a job? Did women serve in the British military during World War 1 and if so, did they go back into the workforce afterwards?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
}
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Does anyone have any good resources on the troop movements of the German Imperial Army circa 1916 on the division level or access to regimental histories? Trying to solve a family mystery.
|
[
"I suspect the confusion is between that of the 54th Infantry Division (which fought in Verdun) and the 54th Infantry Regiment (which fought in the Baltics) in 1916. The 54th Infantry Regiment was part of the 36th Reserve Division, which was curiously seeing action in both Ukraine and near Riga around this time. It is likely that the division was temporarily split (probably due to the Brusilov Offensive, where many German units were sent as reinforcements to stop the Russian attack in West Ukraine) and your uncle may have remained in the Riga area, which was also where the 87th Infantry Division was serving at the time. If the main divisional HQ and rear area units had moved to Ukraine as well, they would likely rely on the postage of whichever nearby divisional post office was available, which in this case would have been that of the 87th."
] |
[
"As for finding records of his service you would have to have one of his surviving kin, you as a grand child do not count, to request copies of his paper work. My mother got a copy of my grandfathers DD214 among other paperwork. _URL_0_ This is the link to how you start. Your best bet to following his steps would be obtaining his paper work and noting his division, regiment, and unit, and then finding HOPEFULLY a website of survivors of said division who have kept a detailed record of the events or some general information online. My grandfather was in the 7th armored division, so I can look at their website and determine generally exactly where he was and what actions he was part of, such as I know he was involved in the \"Battle of the Bulge\"."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
A user says some things mostly about the influence of Jews on the start and course of WW 1 + 2. Is this user correct, or simply taking things out of context?
|
[
"It's incredible easy to quickfire some claims and state a 'conclusion'. Examining each claim, putting it in context, and possible refuting the claim takes a lot more time and effort. Similarly, examining the logic and arguments used to draw the conclusion and seeing where it goes right or wrong takes a lot of time and effort. In general, it's not really worth it to make such an effort. People who are invested in an idea (a \"Jewish conspiracy\") and have used motivated reasoning to support that idea will not be dissuaded by good arguments or discussion. For me, when I see an anti-semitic argument being made such as the one you linked I just walk away. It's not worth my time. One could argue that posts such as those should be refuted to help people like you, who are not sure what to think. The flip side though is that engaging in a discussion will give these anti-semitic ideas legitimacy. Anyone who talks about a \"Jewish conspiracy\" is full of nonsense."
] |
[
"I'm just going to point out that accusing wealthy Jews of pulling the strings of power behind the scenes for nefarious purposes is, well, not exactly a new thing."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
}
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What was the Green Army in the Russian Civil War and what were they fighting for?
|
[
"The Green Armies weren't an organised force in the same way that the Reds and Whites were during the Russian Civil War, rather it's a term used to describe a number of peasant groups that resisted the Reds in defence of their communities and regions. Early in the Bolshevik Revolution, the Reds instituted a system called War Communism that called for the collection of grain and recruits to sustain the new government and it's civil war effort. In response to this forced requisitioning of supplies, Green armies comprised of peasant farmers sprung up to protect their communities and livelihoods. The Green armies were not officially involved in the political scene of revolutionary Russia, though their members and actions were anti-communist by action rather than ideology. While the Green armies constituted a reasonable threat to Soviet influence in rural areas, they petered out by the early 1920s with the end of the Russian Civil War."
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
}
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How soon after cars started to become prevalent did average people learn how to do basic maintenance?
|
[
"Model Ts came with a toolkit and instruction book so that owners could do many of their own repairs. [The Model T Ford Club of America](_URL_2_) has an impressively detailed history of the toolkit [here](_URL_0_). They also have a copy of an instruction book that came with a 1911 Model T ([here](_URL_1_)), and note, \"That the new owner would be expected to make the repairs outlined in these instruction books seems surprising in these modern times.\" John Steinbeck famously said, \"Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than about the clitoris, about the planetary system of gears than the solar system of stars.\""
] |
[
"They carried extra gas cans with them. The first cars were also prone to overheating and gas stations actually started out as water stations so car owners could cool down their cars and then the network expanded from there. But it was a while before people used cars for long trips."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How did black soldiers react to a propaganda against their own country in the Korean war?
|
[
"There a few defections (by few I mean very very few) by African Amerians during the Korea War. One example is that of Corporal Clarence Adams, who was captured by Chinese forces. Instead of being repatriated to the US at the end of the war, declared that he wanted to stay in China because of the racial discrimination (including Jim Crow) he faced in the US. He ended up working for Chinese foreign press and did propaganda broadcasts for Communist forces during the Vietnam War, telling black soldiers to defect. He eventually returned to the US during the cultural revolution and was dishonorably discharged."
] |
[
"A related question were there public figures at the time who were apologists that tried to justify for the actions of the Japanese military at Pearl Harbor?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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When / why did it become a custom to put your hand on your heart for patriotic moments (specifically US pledge of allegiance and national anthem)
|
[
"The hand over one's heart is a civilian salute. It is for use by civilians (people who are not in a nation's armed forces) at moments that would be appropriate for a military salute. Some countries (the US, Italy, etc.) use the hand over the heart as a civilian salute, some (Latin American countries for example) have different civilian salutes - like the hand across the chest with the palm facing down - while others (UK, Canada) have no official civilian salute. In the US, prior to 1942, the Bellamy Salute (similar to the Roman/Nazi salute) was the official civilian salute."
] |
[
"We don't. There is no law requiring children to pledge allegiance. The right to not participate in the pledge has been upheld in court numerous times over the last 100 years. Ignore the idiots in here posting about brainwashing."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Where to find Scholarly writing online?
|
[
"[Directory of Open Access Journals](_URL_1_) is a good source for free scholarship, along with its companion, [Directory of Open Access Books.](_URL_0_) You can browse by subject."
] |
[
"Bot explained how bots work. Thank you Internet."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
}
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Resources on the Duchy of Burgundy
|
[
"By sources do you mean primary or secondary material? There is a wealth of Anglophone scholarship on fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Burgundian socio-political history and elite culture (in these spheres Malcolm Vale is the authority), I'm sure there is also a wealth of economic analysis, although that is beyond my purview and interests. There have been some English translations of primary materials but these are, generally, 'to spec', as an example the Manchester Medieval Sources series are generally written for specialist undergraduate courses (with generous introductions and explanitive notes). Let me know what you're interested in, and I'll point you towards whatever I can. Sourcebooks: (eds) Brown, A. and Small, G., *Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian Low Countries, c.1420-1530*, Manchester, 2008. (ed.) Cohn, Jr., S., *Popular protest in late-medieval Europe: Italy, France and Flanders*, Manchester, 2004. (ed.) Taylor, C., *Joan of Arc: La Pucelle*, Manchester, 2006."
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Why was there so much hype around beanie babies in the 1990's? What caused the inevitable price crash?
|
[
"Here's [a book about the Beanie Baby bubble](_URL_0_), and [an interview with its author](_URL_1_). tl/dr: the creator of the toy line was constantly modifying the designs, and certain collectors wanted to get all possible designs. Consequently, the ones that were only produced for a short while, with the design _just so,_ become very valuable in the eyes of collectors. The price crash is a sort of natural result of economic bubbles; similar things happen to housing prices, stock prices, etc. The difference is that houses and stocks are usually still worth a fair amount after the crash, but Beanie Babies are only worth as much as stuffed animals, and that's the price they reverted to."
] |
[
"A bubble is when the prices of a thing are inflated far beyond their actual value. Typically this attracts more and more people who are not interested in owning that actual thing, they are just trying to cash in. So you just have speculators selling from one to another until the price eventually gets too high, there are no more sucker to buy them, and the bubble \"pops.\" One example would be Beanie Babies, if you are old enough to remember that. They became a massive craze in the 1990s, such that people were investing in them in expectation of big profits. But once everyone realized,\"wait a minute, these are cheap plush toys.\" then the bottom fell out immediately."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
}
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What are some good resources on the San Patricios during the Mexican-American war?
|
[
"You did see the movie, right? *One Man's Hero* starring Tom Berenger? The wikipedia article on the battalion is surprisingly well referenced (or at least has more than your average number of references). [Wiki Jump!] (_URL_0_)"
] |
[
"Just asked this in the other sticky, but maybe this is the better place for it: Does anyone have any good book recommendations about the Nigerian Civil War or about Biafra as a country?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment about Literature:"
}
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I heard the Burgundian dukes tried to re-establish the Lotharingian empire. How would they do this?
|
[
"Maybe you can tell us from where you heard this, and of what period you are talking about?"
] |
[
"Your first question is a great question that I will do some follow-up research about; however I will attempt to answer your bonus question with an example from the Carolingian empire. Granted the Carolingian's were not the greatest or largest empire, but they still had the problems that most empires face: revolts. The Carolingian's main problem was the Saxons, a decidedly different culture then the Catholic Franks. The Capitulary for Saxony tells us that the Carolingian's created wholly new laws, just for the Saxons. Most of these laws were related to religion, thus one can observe that one of the ways of ensuring the empire did not revolt was to try and assimilate the different cultures within your empire. This is a relatively small answer to a part of your question but I hope it helps! You can find the Capitulary for Saxony at this website: _URL_1_"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Tuesday Trivia | Pets and Other Animals
|
[
"It's not a widely known thing, but Tenochtitlan kept a rather extensive zoo of animals as well as botanical gardens. There is some recent evidence, however, that Teotihuacan may have also had a zoo long before the Mexica made one. It makes me wonder whether the zoo practice was taken up by the Mexica because the practice of having a zoo was passed on from Teotihuacan to other intermediaries like the Toltec before Tenochtitlan made theirs. However, Teotihuacan may have just kept animals in captivity for future sacrifice and since you don't want your sacrifices to die before you need them than you would have to feed them. I don't think anyone has identified a structure at Teotihuacan and could say with certainty that it was a zoo and not something else. But then, I'm also not aware that they've identified Tenochtitlan's zoo since it was either destroyed in the centuries after the Conquest or is buried under Mexico City."
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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What is the tradition according to which God preserves humanity for the sake of ten just individuals?
|
[
"The reference is to Genesis chapter 18. God and Abraham are having a conversation about Sodom and Gomorrah, and whether God will destroy the cities. God tells Abraham he is going to destroy the cities, and Abraham asks if God would spare the cities if he could find 50 good men. God says sure. So Abraham's like shit I can't find 50 and eventually bargains God down to ten. So if Abraham could find ten good men, God would spare the cities. The quote no doubt references that Ford was one of the ten good men that could be counted in order to save the cities aka man kind. Ninja edit: Ford was an Episcopalian and noted the role of his religion in his life in some of his reflection papers. The link includes a photo of those reflections. _URL_0_"
] |
[
"It's their religious practice. According to their holy text, God instructed them to do it as a sign to set them apart as His chosen people."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
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14/88 is a phrase used by neo-nazis today, but did the number 88 hold any significance to nazis during the 1940s?
|
[
"It didn't have any significance. 88 stands for Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler wasn't a banned slogan in Nazi Germany. It started in the Neonazi scene (I'm not sure about the date but I am very sure that it wasn't directly after the war) as a code as it was banned by the \"Wiederbetätigungsgesetz\" (the nazism ban law). So it only started to get used as a way to circumvent anti-nazi laws *after* the war. As a source, Austrian DÖW (Documentation archive of Austrian resistance) works also on modern right wing extremism and they say that too. Online it is only in German."
] |
[
"I could follow up with a similar question: My understanding is Skinheads were not originally necessarily neo-Nazis. When and why did Skinheads start to become associated with them?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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How did "confinement" amongst upper class women evolve over the centuries?
|
[
"Postpartum confinement is still practiced today in several cultures, especially China. I think the word 'confinement' is a bit off-putting to some since it isn't against the mother's will. Unfortunately, I could really only speak about the modern version of it, and not at all about the western version. Hopefully someone can address the medieval portion."
] |
[
"Follow up question (please don't delete) how influential were nobility titles on economic upward mobility in the Europe of that same time?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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When did nations begin to regularly levy taxes?
|
[
"Can you winnow this question down more, whether geographically, temporally or both? It's quite broad, considering that taxation was introduced, disappeared, and reintroduced at varying times as well as varying regions throughout history. Are you talking about taxation in antiquity? Late medieval European feudal taxation? Or specifically state taxation of the early modern period? Taxation in coin, or taxation in kind? Please be more specific."
] |
[
"Because the 16th amendment to the Constitution of the US says that the Federal government has the authority to impose taxes. These taxes can be for just about anything. The Supreme Court decided that imposing taxes for not purchasing health insurance is constitutional."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Do we know of any "curse tablets" (defixiones or the like) of Roman/Greek slaves or freedmen that tried to harm/insult their master or patron in any way?
|
[
"As far as I know, we don't have any specific examples of what you're looking for. That's not to say it didn't happen, just that we haven't found a surviving example. [This website](_URL_0_) has some really great examples of defixiones found in Britain. You'll notice they're mostly condemning thefts, a common problem around baths. We do know some slaves would obtain lead tablets with magical inscriptions that were supposed to allow them to escape without being caught by their master, but those weren't defixiones."
] |
[
"As a follow up, did Roman citizenship carry and weight outside the borders of the empire? If a Roman was in, say, Persia or India would local authorities be reluctant to treat the merchant poorly/demand bribes or something, out of fear that the Romans might do something?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Is there a historical reason for Canadian's having a polite culture?
|
[
"Difficult question to answer since it's so ambiguous. One explanation that might contribute to that idea is the general character of Ontario, which is where I suspect this stereotype is derived. Up until the 1960s, Ontario was fairly British, Protestant and Conservative. As in, you couldn't drink on Sunday, and you bought liquor from the LCBO in brown bags so as not to 'offend' people. This culture produced Ontarians that were (stereotypically) quiet, demure, polite, etc. Of course by no means was all of the province like that, but probably the urban elite of Toronto with whom most Americans would have interacted could have been at the root of this idea. Imagine that British stiff upper lip idea with a conservative Protestantism, minus the powerful British Empire identity... And you might get a polite English Canadians. Again, this question is difficult to answer as (as far as I know) there aren't exactly sources pointing to the cause. So take mine with a grain of salt."
] |
[
"What do you mean by downfall? This is still a dominant part of current culture."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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Did the Germans count on being able to use the Czech tanks?
|
[
"Opening a can of worms here. There was actually no such thing as the Blitzkrieg so it'd be a bit hard for something to be an essential part of it. Blitzkrieg was more of a media term to explain things that they didn't understand and the whole idea that it was some well developed doctrinal way of waging war by the Germans just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. That being said, the Germans did make a habit of appropriating captured enemy equipment, reddesignating with German names, and then using them. However, the Germans expected to have a few more years to prepare for a major war and so they expected to have more of their Panzerkampfwagen III and IVs, and possible even some heavy tanks since the Tiger had been in development since the late 1930s, by then instead of mostly the Is and IIs they went to war with, supplemented with captured Czech equipment."
] |
[
"For a bunch of reasons: * It would have been difficult to drag their tanks in there because Switzerland is, mostly, surrounded by mountains. Mountain fighting alone is pretty deadly but one of the major advantages that Germany had early in the war was the speed of their tank attacks. * Swiss had a conscription process so every man was a trained soldier with their weapons at home. * The Swiss had set up every bridge and tunnel to be destroyed in case of attack. * It's not a fun air war in Switzerland. Crossing the alps requires lighter loads. * There isn't a lot of military benefit in owning Switzerland. The Swiss really couldn't go on the offensive and Germany had all of the surrounding land. * By the time that the Germans were operationally ready to attack Switzerland they were already fighting on both sides of Europe. They really didn't want a launching site in the middle."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
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In the section "Rice Paddies and Math Tests" of his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that modern differences between Eastern educational practices and Western educational practices can be traced back to their respective agricultural legacies. To what extent are his claims accurate?
|
[
"Could you provide the specific claims? What is the causal link Gladwell draws?"
] |
[
"Don't speak for the entire field of historians. They've already spoken for themselves. Your historiography should take these statements and make an attempt at understanding their meanings and implications. What, based on their choices of analysis, has governed their focus in writing? What implications does this have for our understanding of Haitian history?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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How much did the SS/Einsatzgruppen collaborate with Unit 731?
|
[
"No, or at least not to my knowledge. The Axis Pact was pretty much a hollow alliance and proved strategically worthless for Japan and Germany. Geographic distance and logistics were one major difficulty. But you actually chose the wrong country. The more interesting and relevant country here is not Nazi Germany but the United States. After the war, the US military granted Unit 731 doctors immunity from war crimes prosecution in exchange for the biological and chemical warfare data extracted from human experimentation. So it was the US, not Germany, who ultimately benefited from Unit 731 research."
] |
[
"The Wehrmacht was the German Army. It existed well before the Nazis came to power. The SS replaced the SA. It was a paramilitary organization with different arms doing different things. Some were State security units, some were guards at Concentration camps, some were actually infantry and armored regiments that engaged the enemy in combat."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about history:"
}
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How to find details of a specific USN aircraft casualty from Okinawa
|
[
"I found this detail from Douglas E Campbell's book *U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard aircraft lost during World War II*: > On 16 June, [*West Virginia*] was firing an assignment for the 1st Marines off southwestern Okinawa when her spotting plane, a Vought OS2U Kingfisher, took hits from Japanese anti-aircraft fire and headed down in flames, her pilot and observer bailing out over enemy-held territory. Within a short time, aided by *Putnam* (DD-757) and an LCI, *West Virginia* closed and blasted enemy guns in an attempt to rescue her plane crew who had \"dug in for the day\" to await the arrival of the rescuers. The attempt to recover her aircrew, however, was not successful. {note: I have also found this passage *verbatim* in Robert Martin's book on the *West Virginia*- I am not sure if Campbell plagiarized or the other way around} This [forum post](_URL_0_) has some more information on the plane, including the names of its crew and some clippings from period newspapers about the incident."
] |
[
"Sadly the details on that particular squadron seem to be scarce. [Here's](_URL_2_) a New York Times article reporting their return from Europe on November 22 aboard the SS Minnekahda, allong with approximately 7,000 more troops. The article states there were 2 officers and 230 enlisted men in the squadron. [This post on a forum](_URL_0_) indicated they were probably not deployed overseas more than six months. [Brooklyn NY Daily Star newspaper](_URL_1_) Very first article on the top left: \"Astoria Soldier shouts joy as he sees home town\" The man interviewed in the article is Sergeant Henry Koerner, and the article say he was deplyed for two months at Chateau Thierry. That's all I could find about the 177th Aero Squadron. Are you sure it's a bullet hole the chevron has? It could've happened in other circumstances after the war. You might have some better luck asking on some more niche forums, like WWI or aviation in general forums."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
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}
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How do we know the "crazy" stories about Roman Emperors aren't just old propaganda?
|
[
"A lot of them are fake. The one about Caligula is more certainly not true. [Here is a good post about it](_URL_0_) from /u/Bathman1902"
] |
[
"They aren't. The people either weren't actually dead, or the stories are complete fabrications. No zombie apocalypse for you."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Did the Ancient Romans have any concept of ecology?
|
[
"Virgil's Georgics arguably make some ecological claims. This is an idea that's fleshed out in literature about Virgil's re-interpretation through early modern English writers, like Milton and Marvell. See: Poetry and Ecology in the Age of Milton and Marvell, DK McColley"
] |
[
"How well regarded are the writings of Joseph Campbell by historians?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
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How did the ancient Romans and Greeks explain the many cognates between their languages? (e.g. decem=deka, magnus=megas, duo=duo)
|
[
"[A comment](_URL_0_) in a previous thread linked[ this paper](_URL_1_), which says that some philosophers in the Roman-era *did* try to explain the similarity between Greek and Latin as Latin being a divergent Greek dialect."
] |
[
"\"sign\" comes from \"signum\" (Latin, \"mark, token\"). \"design\" comes from \"designare\" (Latin \"to designate\") \"paradigm\" comes from Greek \"para-\" (\"beside\") + \"deikunai\" (Greek \"to show\") - > \"paradeikunai\" - > \"paradeigma\" \"foreign\" comes from \"fores\" (Latin \"door\") - > \"foras/foris\" (\"outside\") - > forein (Old French) modified in spelling by association with sovereign (English) (which itself comes from \"regnum\")"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
}
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Are there any books or long-form publications that publish annually about the prior year's history?
|
[
"It's not devoted to history but since 1868 \"Whitaker's Almanack\" has been published annually . Part of its content is descriptions of events in the previous year or \"recent history\"."
] |
[
"Just asked this in the other sticky, but maybe this is the better place for it: Does anyone have any good book recommendations about the Nigerian Civil War or about Biafra as a country?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence about Literature:"
}
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How did Japan's modern censorship laws come to be?
|
[
"I posted about this on Reddit 5 years ago: _URL_0_ I wouldn't use that snarky tone today, but basically, yes, censorship laws were created in response to heavy criticism from Christians about Japanese \"barbarism\". Christian missionaries organized international campaigns against geisha, sake, mixed bathing, and pornography from the 1870s up until literally the day of the Pearl Harbor attacks, when they were all peacefully sent home. (It's kind of amazing to me that Japan was tolerating foreign missionaries up through 1941, but fascism doesn't necessarily mean imitating Germany, I guess.) As for why they continue to exist, well, that response to Christian morality became embedded in the culture and now people think it's an essential part of avoiding obscenity. Japanese Wikipedia does not actually discuss why this law was put in place, although it has a list of [relevant Japanese Supreme Court cases](_URL_1_)."
] |
[
"Could the rebuilding of Japan after WWII be considered a partial colonization by the United States?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
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Philanthropy in Ancient Rome
|
[
"It can only be loosely called philanthropy, as capitalist enterprise and the idea of charitable institutions did not and could not exist at that time. & #x200B; Simply and briefly put, Roman society was held together by the patron and client bond, in which a patron would serve as a kind of legal and material guardian for clients, who in return provided services. & #x200B; Providing the community with impressive buildings or circuses was a way for a patron to gain more clients and prestige. In many ways this is like philanthropy today, but perhaps not totally. For instance, the Gates foundation is more of a way for Bill Gates to liquidate his vast fortunes and do the greatest possible good with it. I think this would be quite strange to a Roman and was not something I've ever heard of them practicing."
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Why has the legal age to drink in the United States never been overturned by the supreme court? Being that the draft is 18 it seems like it would be a inevitable eventuality...
|
[
"actually it is legal for 18 year olds to drink under federal law it is the state that sets your drinking age. Its a little known fact but the drinking age is enforced via the funding of interstate highways. If a state lowers its drinking age in any county to below 21 the Federal government will stop assisting them with interstate highway funding meaning basically the entire states roads would degrade to the point of being unusable. Just to note the legal drinking age in New Orleans was 18 up till when Katrina hit, after that they didnt have the funding to rebuild the highways without raising the drinking age and it hasnt gone back down since."
] |
[
"The drinking age was more variable in the past in the US, as it used to be a state decision, though, generally it was 18. In 1984, a law was passed, the effectively changed the drinking age to 21, everywhere and took power from the states (technically its a more complicated than that, but effectively, its all the same). So why was it changed? Well a lot of groups, such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) hugely lobbied for the age to change, and won. Guns were traditionally 18, though in some states, buying a handgun is 21 (long guns are 18 still usually though). There has never been serious realities of changing this, and is still mostly a state thing. Lastly. These are not the same and should not be compared."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
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Are there any lesser-known shipwrecks currently being searched for that would be incredibly significant for world history?
|
[
"To give a slightly different example that /u/Vampire_Seraphin's a current excavation off of the coast of Sri Lanka at a fishing village called Gotavaya is the first marine excavation of an ancient shipwreck in Indian waters. It is dated from the first century BCE/CE, which was the peak of the ancient trade, but as of yet there has been no marine archaeology to help fill, out our picture, which is an enormous gap when one considers how much marine archaeology has added to our picture of trade in the Mediterranean. The excavation has only just begun so there is no published material, but the team [maintains a blog](_URL_9_)."
] |
[
"THAT'S why you never announce a large ocean find. You bring it up, package and re-sink it in a secret location until you have infrastructure to in place to protect and sell it. Once ready you bring it up in small parts and distribute slowly. You announce only after you've sold all the pieces and placed all the proceeds into protected off shore accounts that no nation can seize. That last thing you do is to destroy all records of who bought what pieces and for how much so authorities can never track them down. EDIT: One thing you should definitely do is maintain good archaeological records for maritime historians. History should know what you found, where you found it, and all the historical details of the wreck. Its none of the modern world's business what you do with the artifacts though."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about History:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about History:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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Qing reaction to the Manila massacre of 1740
|
[
"While /u/PangeranDipanagara has rightly pointed out that the Qing response was not going to be an immediate turn to war, I think OP is heavily underselling Qing *perceptions* of naval power. Whist in objective terms the Qing navy was not particularly powerful, the last times that Chinese fleets had fought European ones they were generally successful – Zheng Zhilong against the Dutch at Liaoluo Bay in 1633; Koxinga against the Dutch in Taiwan in 1661-2. As of yet there was no clear indication that a Chinese fleet, despite known technological inadequacies, could not deal with a European one. To add a more relevant bit about restriction of trade, even on the eve of the First Opium War many in the Qing government did genuinely believe they could hold Western countries hostage through embargoes. Lin Zexu, for example, believed that the cutting of tea and rhubarb exports to Britain would lead to mass fatal constipation and insinuated as much in his open letter to Queen Victoria in 1839."
] |
[
"In the 1570s, several English pirates (from the Spanish view) allied with bands of runaway slaves in Panama. These included Francis Drake and John Oxenham. Eventually, Spanish military efforts resulted in peace accords with the slaves and the foundation of two free black towns in Panama, the first in the Americas. There is a nice synopsis in a relatively recent article by Ruth Pike: Pike, Ruth. \"Black rebels: the Cimarrons of sixteenth-century Panama.\" The Americas 64.2 (2007): 243-266."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
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What pre-gunpowder weapon had the longest effective range?
|
[
"In terms of hand-held weaponry, the bow and arrow had the longest effective range. At the height of the English Longbow during the reign of Edward III, the average professional archer was said to have been able to shoot a distance of 365 metres (399 yards). That claim is a bit contentious though, but no practice range was allowed to be less than 200 metres (220 yards) during the reign of Henry VIII. The effective range would be different in a battle situation though, as while the archer might not be able to hit an individual soldier, he could hit someone in a charging army. The ballista used by the Roman Empire had a range of around 460 metres (500 yards). There are accounts from soldiers of ballista operators being able to 'snipe' or pick off single targets. There are also tales of charging rows of soldiers being pinned together by a single bolt."
] |
[
"I mainly deal with European history and was going to chime in on the firearms, but there is just no way to generalize without being more specific. For example, the term \"musket\" covers weapons used from the 13th century up until the 19th century, and rifles are still used today. A Ming Dynasty musket and a Napoleonic Era musket are going to be vastly different weapons. Lastly, what does \"damage\" mean when it comes to deadly weapons? Being hit by anything from a bullet to a thrown rock could either kill you or deflect off your skull and do only superficial damage. How do you rate armor piercing when you have thousands of years of armor to compare it to? I don't know how to pin down the era you are trying to replicate when you have weapons like slings and Pilum that were only rarely used in the last 1500 years next to rifles, a rather modern invention only really proliferated in the post-Napoleonic era."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the query:",
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How the user of Julian calendar perceived the date of 1123 AD - was it 1123 years from the birth of Christ for him?
|
[
"I don't know that he would even recognize the calendar shift, unless he noticed the extra day in February of 1992. Our time traveler would be slightly confused that the year began in January, rather than at Easter, but several conventions for when to start the year were already extant. He would not recognize the system of numbering days, as he would have still used the Roman system of the Kalends, Ides, and Nones. He would also not immediately recognize the current way we lay out the calendar (his would be much more like [this](_URL_0_)). But other than this, yes, the calendar functioned in the same way as ours, and it was identical as far as years went."
] |
[
"> Did they count down the years at the time, like BC They couldn't have. They'd have no idea what to count down to. > did they count up, like AD Usually they did, however when they count up from varied. For example the Mayans (of 2012 fame) had a calendar based on counting the days since 'creation', which happens to be August 11, 3114 BC on our modern calendars. So for example August 31, 3114 BC to a Mayan would be day 20 and December 21, 2012 is day 1,872,000. Other cultures based their years on the reign of their current monarch. So a date may be recorded as March 15, in the 3rd year of King Derp; or something similar. It's this system which was used in our current calendar, using the birth of Christ instead of the rise of a monarch."
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
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In 1938 Neville Chamberlain came back from Munich with the agreement and claimed it was "Peace for our time". Did he really believe that? Did people believe him when he said it?
|
[
"The British negotiated with Ireland to return the so called treaty ports and end the Anglo Irish economic war. Part of the agreement was Irish neutrality . Reading accounts of the negotiations by participants they were surprised at the speed of the deal and were told war was on its way. Ireland's neutrality was agreed then in 1938 to keep Ireland in Britains sphere of influence. State papers are available [here](_URL_0_) Churchill opposed the return of the treaty ports to Ireland but was out of favour. The Irish had reason to fear a German backed civil war based on intelligence based on the Spanish Civil War. I am sure that he believed war was inevitable.I am convinced that based on his policy towards Ireland but believe he thought he had time to spare . He hadn't set up agreement with Indian politicians and other commonwealth nations which he would have done if he thought war was imminent."
] |
[
"I think its pretty simple: For - No one wanted another war, I don't even think Hitler did. Against - Hitler and the Nazis weren't to be trusted. Chamberlain was hailed as a great statesman for getting the agreement signed and \"taming\" Hitler. It all relied on Hitler keeping his word, which of course didn't happen. In hindsight it was naive to believe he would, but given the aversion to war (for leaders and the general public alike) I guess every possible avenue had to be tried before war became inevitable. if you can find it you might be interested in reading this: _URL_0_"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
}
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Where there US professors who wanted to overwhelm the welfare system in hopes of creating a socialist America?
|
[
"You are reffering to Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, both of the Columbia University School of Social Work. Also research George Wiley, and the National Welfare Rights Organization, which later became ACORN/SEIU/The \"Working Families\" Party. Wiley's stated goal was to sign so many people on welfare and support, that it would cause the economy to crash, at which time the Federal Government and Constitution could be overthrown, and a new Communist/Socialist Government could rise in it's place."
] |
[
"Follow up, if this warrant a new post please tell me: How did politicians and the general public react when they found out these companies were aiding Nazi forces in WW2?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
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{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Was the California Gold Rush of 1848 generally positive or negative for America?
|
[
"This is a bit of a broad question, but generally there are two major, long term effects of the Gold Rush--the rapid development of California, and the beginning of immigration of East Asia, particularly China. Both of these have been fantastic for the US. So long term, I think there is no question that it was good. However, I would be quite interested to hear of the short term economic effects. The population in 1850 was something like thirty million, and a few hundred thousand people suddenly going to the other side of the country might have had a profound impact. Comparative evidence suggests it would be positive, because it would decrease the labor surplus. It was not generally successful people who moved. My understanding comes from an abiding interest in the Gold Rush, particularly from personal diaries."
] |
[
"Could the rebuilding of Japan after WWII be considered a partial colonization by the United States?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
}
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Do we know of any 'faked' royal births?
|
[
"There is a particularly mad example of this in Polynesian oral history/folklore. The Tuʻi Tonga rulers in the pacific were supposed to always be the sons of the previous ruler. When Talatama, the eleventh tui tonga, died without having a child his brother, Talaihaʻapepe, attempted to claim the throne but was refused as he wasn't the son of the previous tui. So, according to the folklore, he produced a wooden sculpture or Tiki which had sacred connotations, the gods were supposed to have made the first men by breathing life into a tiki. He named this tiki as the son, creation, of his brother and so the legitimate ruler. The wooden sculpture was then the official ruler with Talaihaʻapepe acting as regent in his name."
] |
[
"Follow up question: Does anybody have any info on how early elections were overseen to avoid electoral fraud?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
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Did King Arthur ever excist? And also does the round table excist or is it a myth?
|
[
"Posting these links should not discourage further responses, but here are some earlier answers that you may find interesting: u/alriclofgar and u/itsallfolklore on [Did King Arthur Exist?](_URL_0_) u/Whoosier on [Where did we get the King Arthur lore from?](_URL_1_)"
] |
[
"So when and where did playing cards as we know them come into being anyways?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
}
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Thursday Reading & Recommendations | October 11, 2018
|
[
"I'm sure it's been raised multiple times before, but I'm reading \"Devil in the White City\" by Erik Larson. Have read his books on the Lusitania and Weimar Germany before, but this one on the Chicago World's Fair is very engaging and interesting! I haven't looked closely at reviews of his accuracy, but they are very solid reads."
] |
[
"1. The First Salute by Barbara Tuchman 2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown 3. The Civil War by Shelby Foote 4. Reconstruction by Eric Foner 5. The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman 6. Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch 7. Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War by John Ellis 8. The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro 9. A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan 10. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn 11. 1491/1493 Charles C Mann Sorry, couldn't keep it to 6."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Literature:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about Literature:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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The American Gilded Age: A Better Understanding
|
[
"Start here: _URL_0_ EDIT: Then go to your library and pick up a copy of Leon Fink's *Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era* Once you've poked around a bit and develop specific questions, ask away. The period is too big to give one or even a dozen specific book rec's."
] |
[
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
}
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Before electricity, how did people get up on time?
|
[
"[You could start here](_URL_0_). There's also another article in the FAQ but I can't seem to locate it."
] |
[
"They are not. Modern electrical lighting and society has shifted it. Try going camping for a week or so with only one flash light. You will wake and sleep more or less with the sun very quickly."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about History:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about History:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Sleep and fatigue:"
}
|
Why did South Africa decide to develop nuclear weapons when Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all chose not to?
|
[
"That's a strange group of countries to chose from! Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were all under explicit \"nuclear umbrellas,\" for one thing (through NATO and SEATO), whereas South Africa was a pariah state. Their situations with regards to security and international relations are really not at all comparable, even if they share a colonial legacy (though even that is a pretty complicated comparison). The reasons that South Africa developed nuclear weapons were very complex, as much about internal shifts in power as anything else. [I have written a bit about this here](_URL_1_), and you might also look at [this response](_URL_0_) by /u/The_Alaskan."
] |
[
"The nuclear non-proliferation treaty says two important things: 1. All countries have a right to research and develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, and the more-developed countries should help them. 2. The goal for the entire world is global nuclear disarmament, the permanent abolition of nuclear weapons. Until then only China, Russia, the US, the UK, and France may possess nuclear weapons and they must make gradual efforts toward dismantling their arsenals. India thinks this is unfair, because China has them, and China acts fairly aggressively towards India sometimes, meaning India wants nuclear weapons to defend themselves. Pakistan also has disputes with India and felt threatened that India had them, so they created their own. Signing the treaty means they can't have them anymore, so they refuse."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Help understanding the study of History
|
[
"I generally ask myself, \"would I be able to teach a lesson on this?\", or \"would I be able to explain these key concepts clearly and confidently to someone?\" It's also a good habit to take notes on texts you're reading, to actually summarise and rewrite what you're reading, rather than just try and take it in. Write on four-by-six inch index cards, for example. Don't just read the book for hours on end - I generally don't read non stop for more than one hour. If you're more interested in this, Barbara Tuchman has written a book called *Practising History* (1983) which has information on writing, note-taking and more. Some of my favourite quotes from that book: \"*The most important thing about research is to know when to stop...research is endlessly seductive; writing is hard work.*\" \"*Distillation is selection, and selection, as I am hardly the first to affirm, is the essence of writing history.*\""
] |
[
"I need an ELI5 for whatever this question means."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
}
|
How did the people of the Soviet Union view America pulling out of Vietnam? Was it a victory for Soviet morale?
|
[
"Happy the war was over, decreasing the risk for direct military action between USA and USSR, especially nuclear. Opening up for thawing of relations between the two. Pride in USSR's role as a communicator and at times unofficial mediator in the drawn out peace process ('63-'73). Some pride in the little nation that could somewhat stand up to massive western imperialism. Troubled by the political ground won by USSR's main competitor in SEA - China. That's the general idea, hard to say how it was practically disseminated in the general public. *Sources: Ilya V. Gaiduk - The Soviet Union and the Vietnam War. Confronting Vietnam: Soviet Policy toward the Indochina Conflict.*"
] |
[
"I think the US believed in the domino effect at the time, that if one country became communist, more and more countries would adopt it. It also served as a proxy war with russia IIRC."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
}
|
Is it true that the USSR did not teach the Big Bang theory because they thought it had theistic undertones?
|
[
"I thought it was a good question, so I checked Russian Wikipedia and it mentions [this](_URL_0_) and cites some sources (last paragraph of the Критика Теории) To rephrase, it wasn't a theism per se, the problem was that eternity and infinity of the Universe was an established marxist dogma. Thinking otherwise would lead to some sort of idealistic thinking, including, but not limited to theism. So they found an interesting solution - it was accepted that Big Bang was a start of the Observable Universe, while the Universe (or matter in a broad sense) is deemed as something larger, infinite and eternal. You can think of it in this way - the Observable Universe with its time and size limits was left to physicists, while philosophers kept theirs infinite and eternal marxist Universe to themselves. Doublethink wasn't that uncommon in the USSR."
] |
[
"FSM is an intelligent designer theory that was created to point out to the Kansas Board of Education that teaching biblical creation was not science."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
CIA Capabilities in the 1950-60s
|
[
"Are you willing to travel to Washington DC?"
] |
[
"The Chinese were equipped with Soviet made MiG-15 fighters. They outclassed everything that the UN could put into the air and it stayed that way largely until the introduction of the North American Sabre. While the Sabre closed the performance gap, it was by no means a superior aircraft. Source: Xiaoming Zhang, \"China and the Air War in Korea, 1950-1953,\" The Journal of Military History 62, no. 2 (1998). pp. 349"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
}
|
Did people shorten years before the 20th century? (Ex: '97, back in '08)
|
[
"The \"Crime of '73\" springs to mind - late 19th-century I think, but I don't know if it was used as early as the 1870s. And of course California had its '49ers, a still more novel form. Before then Scotland's Jacobite rebellions were known as \"the '15\" and \"the '45\", perhaps not long after the latter though again early mentions are elusive."
] |
[
"Based on how we read the date out. We say \"February 25th, 2012,\" so we write it as \"2/25/2012.\" As opposed to \"25th of February, 2012.\""
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence about Education:"
}
|
What do Historians Think of Mary Beard's "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome"?
|
[
"While you're waiting for more responses from some others, /u/mythoplokos answered this question a year ago here with a good response: _URL_0_"
] |
[
"1. The First Salute by Barbara Tuchman 2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown 3. The Civil War by Shelby Foote 4. Reconstruction by Eric Foner 5. The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman 6. Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch 7. Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War by John Ellis 8. The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro 9. A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan 10. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn 11. 1491/1493 Charles C Mann Sorry, couldn't keep it to 6."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
}
|
What is the longest war in history?
|
[
"You would need to define \"war\" for the purposes of longest here. Do you mean the longest continuous active conflict between the same belligerents? Or perhaps the longest technical state of war featuring an armistice or prolonged truce (e.g., the Korean War)? Or perhaps the longest period of war featuring the same belligerents, but with some interspersed times of peace between them (e.g., the Hundred Years' War)? You would also maybe want to take into consideration \"wars\" in which only a single participant continually fought multiple, sequential enemies, in which case virtually the entirety of the existence of Classical Rome might be considered. You would also perhaps want to isolate for \"longest wars\" relative to the existence of the political entities involved therein. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been in a continual state of war for its entire existence, for example. Interesting question, but I think it requires a bit more definition."
] |
[
"Was any Asian country capable of helping the United States during the revolutionary war?"
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
}
|
When I think or imagine, it actually feels like that is happening inside my head. Prior to the notion that the brain is responsible for thought, did ancient people "feel" their thoughts elsewhere in the body?
|
[
"I used to be versed enough in the subject to confidently post an extended answer on the question, but the short answer is Yes! Consider how inert the mind feels compared to other parts of the body when undergoing stress or intense emotion (Heart, liver, gut/intestines). Different aspects of lived experience, such as religious rapture, inspiration, and fear were tied to different parts of the body, which would be felt as most active during these times. Of course the correlation between lived internal experience and organs varied from culture to culture. This also extended to the bodily origin of thoughts. [Here](_URL_0_) is a fascinating read on the subject. In the culture analyzed by this book, thoughts are considered to originate in the liver, and drift their way up into the head."
] |
[
"One dream theory states that our upper brains (cerebrum) receive random signals from the lower brain (brain stem, cerebellum etc.) and the upper brain tries to make sense of them. It takes the data, interprets it and then experiences what that interpretation states should be experienced. That isn't to say that you can't feel out of place in a dream. I sure have. Plenty of my dreams have freaked me out even whilst in the dream."
] |
eli5_question_answer
|
{
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text about dreams:"
}
|
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