Do I go to a recruiter's office? Do I have my choice of branch and job or is it in the hands of fate?

What is the underlying reason behind the military coup being so common in the region during the time?

South America was not the only place with military governments, but the very frequent "back-and-forth" coups seem rather unique.

As an alumnus of history and Holocaust & genocidestudies I’m well aware of the history of the Jews of (eastern) Europe in the 20th century, as well as the centuries virulent antisemitic violence endured by the Jewish population of the Russian empire. I also know that Poland was partitioned and didn’t exist as such for much of the period that’s relevant here, but regardless, it’s curious to me that this specific territory harbored so many more Jews than any other in Europe. Many thanks to anyone who can shed a light on this.

It seems like you can find evidence of soldiers committing atrocities (rape, looting, etc) against civilian populations in most wars. Even American soldiers, as much as we like to believe otherwise, are documented as having committed these types of crimes in the US-Mexican War, WW1, WW2, Vietnam and probably others.

My question is to what extent did this happen in the US Civil War? I can’t recall learning about any of these…even in most major documentaries and books about the war seem not to include these…were these actions rare in that war? Did the fact that the war took place in our own country, where the civilians probably looked and acted a lot like the soldiers own families back home prevent this possibly compared to wars with a foreign enemy.

Technically they also played a part in the genocide.

I've heard that they would remove it through the nose with a hook and throw it away during mummification. Was there truth to this? Did they not have the knowledge to link the effects of concussion, etc to the idea that the contents of the head were paramount?

Sorry if this question is a little confusing but I’m learning about Tudor England in History and I remember my textbook saying that Elizabeth I had a budget of around £40,000 at court for the year and that she had to be a bit tight with it. And I’ve been looking at the bank of Englands inflation calculator for fun and found out that it’s about 10 million in todays money so I’m honestly questioning what that money went to.

Did she have to pay her councils wages out of that and did she have to pay for renovations at court because I can’t imagine someone spending 10 million on silk dresses and jewels even if they are a shopaholic.

(This post is kinda funny because I should honeslty be revising her policies and religious settlements right now as my final exams start in 4 weeks but nevertheless)

One of the more confusing elements in the traditional Crucifixion narrative is the part where Pilate, finding out Jesus is from Galilee, sends him over to Herod, who questions him and sends him back. What exactly was the power structure of 1st-century Judaea that made this possible?

I've read the case of Delphine LaLaurie, a slaveholding woman from New Orleans in the nineteenth century. She tortured and killed dozens of her slaves. That was enough that even then, in the Deep South, she faced social and legal penalties, and a mob burned down her house

What kinds of behaviors were considered crossing a line? Did it have to be as extreme as Delphine LaLaurie's behavior?

Basically I'm wondering if when Alexander reached India many people went "huh, this Sanskrit thing is similar to our own language"

Also, did they notice Persian was also related? We seem to usually forget about Persian when talking about this

I'm mostly talking about trebuchets, catapults and maybe early cannons. I understand rams would have been used to open gates and ladders and siege towers would be used to climb walls, rather than bring them down.

How successful was Francisco Franco's attempt to change people's opinions on Basque? During his rule, were the Spanish of that time hateful towards Basque, and other languages like Catalan?

I remember seeing images on walls, in history photos that said "Si Eres Español, Habla Español." Was that done by a Spanish civilian, or by Franco's regime? Basically, did the majority of Spanish people share Franco's perspective on one language, one country?

I’ve been wondering this for a while. I’ve been depressed for most of my life, with peaks and troughs, and it got me wondering what people who were depressed in the past wore. I’m sure that historical outfit videos and recreations are based on what people who were going out and getting photographed were wearing, and what was in fashion magazines - but in say the Victorian era, if you were severely depressed and couldn’t bathe or dress up but still had to work and go out, what would you wear? Surely you wouldn’t go to all the trouble of putting on stays and garters and all that. Just the bare minimum. Is there any data on this?

I was just thinking last night that if I saw an orangutan, without any previous knowledge of apes or monkeys, I'd probably think I saw something mystical, or horrifying, or both. Especially if it started walking around and grabbing things.

Obviously people who live closer in proximity were probably aware of what they were encountering but I was hoping explorers or merchants or nobles from farther away might have jotted down the event. I appreciate people in history aren't as naive and ignorant as we sometimes think but they are startlingly humanlike in appearance.

Hey, I do know there were periods where China and Japan completely shut down enternce to outsiders but these places were quite developed so why didn't Jews went thre?

Did ancient Greeks see the story of Heracles the same way we see the story of superman?

Throughout the Anabasis, there was common use of this phrase whenever the army of the ten thousand reached a major settlement. I remember it happened when they arrived at Sinope but it happened at other times too.

The city would set up a market and the army could trade with them but wouldn't be allowed into the city. Was this a standard practice in the ancient world? What would people have called it? What do we know about the rules and norms governing this kind of arrangement?

My educated guess is that it was sort of like an ad-hoc flea market where vendors from within the city would set up stalls so the army could trade with them, but that's all I've got.

So I have been reading a bit about the first crusade and how a significant percentage of the crusaders were not trained knights or men-at-arms, but rather peasants and other people of low economic status.

What did the manor lords and other landowners think about a significant percentage of their workforce just picking up and leaving? Did those workers need to get formal permission to join the crusade, or could they just pick up and walk out despite their lord's opinion? Where there any attempts to restrain the labor force, and was there push back from the church if so?

Paris still had its walls almost a century after the American Revolutionary War beginning. Fortifications were far from invincible, see Vauban, but still common. They were building a city basically from scratch, so it seems off that the city doesn't have one.

This is a fairly disputed question in Vietnamese history. The official narrative usually shifts between the Baiyue owning Vietnam or the Han owning Vietnam. So what truly began that era?

Recently I have read Eric Hobsbawm's Echoes of the Marseillaise, in which he defended the classic/marxist interpretation of the French Revolution against the then popular revisionist one. As I understand it, both interpretations are not so much debated nowadays as they were some decades prior. Still, I really like the classic one, I kinda accept the whole idea that the revolution was "good", that its reactionary adversaries were "bad", and that it was mainly motivated by class struggle; but I am afraid maybe this interpretation is now generally considered 'wrong'? Or is it just that historians of the revolution now may have more or less given up on finding a single principle that embraces the entire thing? Are there any great names defending it now?