Hello,

I am wondering what methods farmers used to either reduce the effects of droughts or to prevent drought severity.

For context: I am running a realistic 13th century pen and paper set in Germany and we're about to enter summer.

Im preparing for a university exam in Italy that has a general knowledge and history section. In my country we barely covered any international conflicts other that ww1,ww2 and the cold war so can anybody recoment me the best resources to prepare such as books, articles, important topics or video essays. Here are some example questions ive found

What is the "battle for grain"?

In which time period was the people's republic of China established?

In which city was the Italian Social republic ?

Who designed the royal palace of Caserta?

Which of the following historical events does not relate to the period of italian unification?

Who wrote the musical composition used for the anthem of the european union

When were the Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys first composed? It seems as though the first physical evidence we have of it is from around 300 BCE. Would these songs/lamentations have been sung at funerals prior to this? If not, how would the funerals have looked like?

The picture on its Wiki and the one you see in history books. The most info I can find on it is that it was just a random war photographer and it doesn't have a listed author in the US Coast Guard National archives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation\\_Overlord

I recently read Black Like Me. As the main character was traveling from New Orleans to Alabama, he mentioned southerners resorting to blaming the illuminati, zionism, etc... as a scapegoat. I didn't really hear much about these topics until 9/11. The book was written or set in the 50s or 60s, so I was surprised to see it referenced. Does it go back even further?

Any answers are appreciated. Thanks!

Royal courts throughout history developed some surprisingly bizarre customs, especially around marriage, dining, sleeping, succession, and even personal hygiene.

I recently came across several examples that made me wonder which ones historians consider the most unusual.

What are some particularly strange royal traditions you know of?

The West Coast of the US is a similar distance from Japan as the East Coast is to Europe. During and after Hideyoshi's reign Japanese technology and centralization was not that much worse than Europe's and it seems to me like if it had been marked as a major priority, their naval capacity could have been improved enough to send fleets of similar size to the Spanish conquistadors to the West Coast. They could have potentially gained engineering assistance from the Dutch for this if needed.

Let's say in a counterfactual situation where Hideyoshi had been convinced that Japan could gain great benefits from holdings in the Americas, and had decided to work on this project instead of Korea, how plausible is it that a Japanese colonial project could have been successful?

Does anyone have any information on the 2677th OSS Regiment that was in North Africa and Italy during World War II? I'm trying to find information on this specific unit, especially their operations in Rome. There isn't much information on the web and the archives are very difficult to navigate.

For people who believe the atomic bombs were not necessary, what would you have done instead in Truman's place?

You have to consider what the United States knew at the time. The U.S. did not know if Japan was actually considering surrender, and Japan had not agreed to surrender. The U.S. was also preparing for a full invasion of Japan, which could have caused a huge number of deaths.

If you were Truman, what alternative would you have chosen?

hello all, i’ve been looking for some scholarly or first/second person texts on African History! Specifically I am interesting in the following: the Malian Empire, Egypt and plant life, pre colonial kingdoms in Africa, African Botany (western preferably) and pre colonial religions. Any and all sources or ideas welcome!!

Even though he was a very popular leader and war hero. I wonder how his party managed to lose decisively? Usually it is the opposite: war time leaders keep in power after victorous wars, which give a huge boost to their reputation.

In Deuteronomy, it says that if a husband accuses his wife of not being a virgin at their wedding night, her parents should present the bloodied sheets from their wedding night as evidence to clear their daughter's name. And the Talmud describes methods for proving virginity.

Ive read that the hymen wasnt discovered until the 4th century, and never described before then in either jewish or Christian sources. Still, the passage from the Torah proves that the belief women bleed during their first time existed for much earlier.

Both the Torah and the Talmud support that virginity for new brides was of major importance for ancient jews, and in patriarchal societies in general female sexuality was controlled for the benefit of men; it was mainly to ensure paternity.

Are there any examples in the historical record of a bride or her family getting in trouble because she was found not to be a virgin at her wedding night, because she didnt bleed? And were bloodied sheets actually used as evidence of virginity?

The Portuguese Empire was one of the most successful maritime empires in the 1600s and 1700s. It held huge landholdings in Africa such as Angola and Mozambique, as well as Brazil in the Americas.

But in Asia, it's a different story. Rival European Empires had entire countries under their possessions. The British had Burma, Malaysia and the Indian Subcontinent. France had Laos and Vietnam. The Spaniards had the Philippines and Taiwan at some point. The Dutch had Indonesia. But the Portuguese? It only had a string of colonial port cities like Goa, Malacca and Macau.

What is the reason for this? Why did Portugal failed in holding an entire Asian country or landmass similar to the British, Dutch, French and Spaniards?

Thanks to whoever can provide an insight. ❤️

By Austria, I largely mean Cisleithania. Was Austria's December Constitution more liberal than Bismarck's Constitution? I know Franz Joseph was an old-school autocrat, but Kaiser Bill wasn't all that different...

Hi!
For a project I'm looking to find out as much as I can about the production process of small arms ammunition during WWI. The only fitting video I was able to find was the one I've linked below. I would like to study the process from a workers perspective. Handling machines, combining things manually, maybe measuring powders etc. as depicted in the video.
It would be super awesome if you could provide sources where I can read up on or perhabs even see images of the machines that were used.
I've got a very rough overview of the process from Google AI:

1. Drawing the Cartridge Case
2. Bullet Manufacturing
3. Loading and Assembly

if you could point me to any sources describing these steps in detail, that would be fantastic as well!

Small arms ammunition production video from WWI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2OJa01pXgg

I was thinking and had a thought the dissolution of monastries abbeys etc didnt it empower the gentry class as they got bulk of the land through monastries and the trend only increased.

I know the gentry class were already a fixture before the dissolution but this extended their class strengthened their positions and power locally.

I think we all know how consequential the gentry class where from sciences arts military administration politics at so many levels were pioneers and in my opinion the backbone to the later british empire.

I know it wasnt a master plan by henry and was done as they were broke but the church break did create the class who would later be the backbone of the english society.

And then there is the navy he did create an actual navy instead of just converting merchant vessels or privateers and the naval board etc so i would still like to give him that .

Thanks to my son's Titanic phase, I am baffled about Violet Jessop's relative lack of fame. She sailed as a stewardess on all three of the White Star Line's Olympic class vessels, being present for the major disasters that befell all three.

She joined White Star at 19, and sailed on the RMS Olympic for several years, the first of Titanic's sister ships. There, she met her future husband. In 1911 Olympic suffered a collision with the destroyer HMS Hawkeye.

She was selected shortly after to crew the RMS Titanic for its infamous 1912 maiden voyage, and survived in one of lifeboats.

The RMS Britannic, already under construction when Titanic sank, was commandeered as a hospital ship during WWI. Jessop volunteered to stay on as a nurse's aid, and narrowly escaped with her life when the ship was sank by either a German torpedo or mine (no one is sure which) in the Mediterranean. After trying to get as many injured as possible to the lifeboats, she was left on the quickly flooding aft deck. Moments before the ship disappeared below the sea, she leapt from the stern, but struck her head, and was knocked unconscious. Luckily she was quickly spotted, and dragged aboard a lifeboat.

This is just the basic stuff, but when you dig deeper, this woman could be an adventure soap opera all on her own.

So, who do you know about that should have their own TV show?

I don't mean ugly or barbaric, but someone describing that a language sounded odd and different to the languages they were used to hearing in their surroundings.

Hello, I'm working on a historical romance novel involving two completely fictional men. One is a King of Denmark and the other a King of Prussia. I have a few questions that I'm finding hard to get answers to from google and I'm trying to make my novel as accurate as possible (bar some creative liberties I'm taking for the plot).

1. Just how influential was the nobility in having a say in what policies a king wished to enact? For example, my King of Denmark is going to decriminalize homosexuality (Yes, I am aware this is not historically accurate. This is one of those creative liberties), however, I would like the nobility's reactions to be authentic in nature. What kind of powers would the nobles have against a policy change a king is pushing?
2. How exactly was Prussia split during the early-mid 1700s? My book takes place between 1739-1824. I understand there was the Duchy of Prussia as well as Brandenburg-Prussia. Who controlled the Duchy?

Lastly, how did Frederick the Great go from King in Prussia to King of Prussia? Was it the Holy Roman Empire that made that call? And what exactly did Frederick do to change his title?

Apologies for the long post. I love history, but I struggle to understand the more complex details of politics. Thank you all for any answers you can provide me!

When did Osama turned evil? Why.. what made him, who made him, where made him? And what was his thought.. Appreciate your insights THank you very much everyone

The Enlightenment spanned from 1637 to 1789/1804. But then in the Victorian era we see similar intellectual activity with people like John Stuart Mill, the Radical movement, The Chartist movement, Mary Wollstonecraft, Emmeline Pankhurst.

So I've recently looked up quotes and I came across some quotes that were apparently said by people in the 1200- 1800s , or even before. But how do we know, that was actually said? It's not that back then people were walking around with phones in their hand, recording their thoughts. I know the literate people had journals, but not every quote I read came from someone's journal.

For example Native American sayings, African Proverbs...

Apparently the " let them eat cake" by Marie Antoinnete was made up.

Not allowing kids to vote is obvious, but a thought crossed my mind (won't pretend it's original or groundbreaking or whatever) that old people might not be a good voting base either. 

The arguments for it are the same as in politicians' case. Older people will always overwhelmingly support the status quo, for example keeping housing prices high to support the savings they've amassed, to the detriment of the young and the future of their country, not to mention the usual mental issues that come with old age.

Limiting the age of politicians is a thought being floated around a lot lately, but I haven't noticed anyone talking about the people, who vote for them. So I'm trying to see what smarter people have already thought about it.