From Henri-Gustave Delvigne who work on a precursor of it to Claude-Étienne Minié himself, it seem the French military of the 1830s and 1840s have a decent head start on the research regarding rifled musket ie muzzle loading rifle. And it is not like they are experience a time of peace either, since the adoptation of it was driven by the war French was having in North Africa.

But, as far as my research show, the adoptation of the rifled musket using Minie ball in French stopped at arming them for the Zouaves of the Imperial Guard through not newly designed and made rifled masket like the three powers mentioned in the title, but converted rifled.

What give? Obviously they jump to the superior concept of needle rifle in the Chassepot which supposedly they rearmed the entire army with in 1868. However, that is still like nearly 2 decades in between.

Bonus trivia: who was the one prime minister whose native language was not English?

I read from Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang on the Korean War chapter of the book and she states that Mao Zedong overexxagerated the USA invasion to China to have an excuse to enter the war and milk the Soviet Union for military technology.

Mao's goal were to purposely prolong the war so that he can acquire a air force and navy to continue his war along the Taiwan Straits later on.

I read Fushigi Yugi which is heavily based on Chinese mythology and ancient religions. The antagonist of the story comes from an ancient tribe of worshipers of demon Gods and they were wiped out by the governments of the lands they live in for engaging in a taboo religion.

In addition I also seen Sony Chiba's Ninja Wars and in the movie Buddhist Warrior monks were sent to raid a temple of people who worship Akuma, Japanese equivalent of demon lords, and mass fighting ensure between the dark cult and the Buddhist militants.

In the early Prince of Persia games not only is Jafar shown as evil for using dark spells, but I remember at least one installment showing he worships Ahriman or some ancient evil Zoroastrian god and the Prince fights his way to stop his ritual.

In Asterix the Gaul a few chapters of comic book stories has Asterix stopping some druids who were abusing the Celtic magick to summon a powerful creature or casting curses on people and other cliched use of black magic shown in modern TV programs like Supernatural. Despite Asterix as a Gaul worshipping Celtic gods himself.

So it makes me wonder....... Were witches and other people who practised black magic not necessarily accepted in contemporary society and same for pagans and polytheists who worshiped dark gods who were evil spirits esp those who were the equivalent of Satan in their religion?

Were they possibly even persecuted? Sure these are all works of fiction but Ninja Wars was explicitly revolved around on Buddhist cliches in Japanese culture and Fushigi Yugi was specifically based on various sacred customs of Chinese B.C. The fact that even non-Christian non-Western cultures are showing the persecution of devil-worshipers and black magick is really making me curious.

So, I am a South Asian Muslim and all the prophets in Quran are either Jewish or were sent to Arab communities liked Aad and Thamud etc. The same thing can also be said for Jewish literature and Christian literature because Jesus was a Jew himself.

I always wished that there should be at least one prophet where God (God of Israel, Allah, Jesus) had said ‘I sent this prophet to other than the Middle East.’ But I found none. So, why is that the Abrahamic God is always focusing on the Middle Eastern area only and Not on anywhere else?

I have seen statistics from a study of Joseon Korea that showed that approximately ~7% of their serfs escaped or illegally migrated, so the lifetime chance of a serf escaping was pretty low. Do we have figures for Imperial Russia?

During the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington's forces despite carrying the Union Jack were 46% German compared to 36% from the British Isles. Chiang Wei-Kou (Chiang Kai-Shek's son) served in Nazi Germany while Mao An-Ying (Mao Tse-Tung's son) fought in Battle of Berlin. Then there's also the case of John Paul Jones who, after his service with the U.S Navy, served in the Russian Empire before getting kicked out for being accused of raping a 10 year old girl..

Compared to modern militaries that exclusively allow military service to their citizens only, what factors led these nations, which were in a period of growing nationalism, to allow foreigners to freelance their skills and officially serve in their military without being labeled as paid mercenaries?

Fun fact. The saying "history is written by the winners" was first coined by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

And which one is good for what situation?

Is there anyone associated with the womens or civil rights movement that deserves more recognition, isn’t technically famous, and has limited biographies written of them?

Were there stylus sharpeners for clay tablets? Latrine plumbers? Catapult mechanics?

The earliest such job I've found is alchemist (obsoleted by actual chemistry) from around the 1500s. The most fascinating is probably the Resurrectionist, a professional grave robber for doctors studying anatomy. They were obseleted in the 1800s by laws that gave the bodies of people who couldn't afford graves and executed criminals to hospitals (thanks Wikipedia).

A job like pyramid builder is too obvious; I want to learn about jobs that people would have been experts in, but were made obsolete by advancements (probably technology) so long ago that they are virtually unheard of today.

Hey all, I’m doing a us history project and I’m in need of good/reliable sources for my research on it. I have been looking but cannot seem to be able to find many. Let me know, thanks!

Born to a Protestant family

Any recommendations?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that even in the recent past, there were major slums and "Hoovervilles" in the big cities of the Western world.

Of course, there are still homeless encampments in many developed countries, but they seem to be the exception rather than the norm. When did these become rare/uncommon?

Information from any city/country would be interesting

"The Hoa-tun (Hephthalites, White Huns) "living to the north of the Great Wall ... practiced polyandry." Among the Hephthalites, "the practice of several husbands to one wife, or polyandry, was always the rule, which is agreed on by all commentators. That this was plain was evidenced by the custom among the women of wearing a hat containing a number of horns, one for each of the subsequent husbands, all of whom were also brothers to the husband. Indeed, if a husband had no natural brothers, he would adopt another man to be his brother so that he would be allowed to marry."

In several cultures, including Portugal and Brazil, horns are associated with cuckoldry, with the word "corno" (horn) being the pejorative term for a man cheated on by his wife, so the idea of women wearing a hat with one horn for each husband is extremely funny to portuguese speakers.

For example:

https://youtu.be/MjqN4rmX8no

Minute 0:33

How many sword cuts like the one in that video could the mail resist before leaving the soldier's padded clothing or skin exposed and very unprotected?.

So, I recently came to know that after a war probably by Babylonians (I might be wrong here). Some tribes of the Jews were lost. Can someone tell where they went or were they all kill? Or maybe they changed their religion? Thanks for the comment!

This question arose when I watched Shogun, where the European sailors often carries a loaded flintlock pistol. There is even a part where after being shipwrecked a man still draws his pistol and aims it at the protagonist. I assume the powder would be too wet to be able to ignite in this case, but it made me think about the general situation at sea. Without direct contact with water would a flintlock pistol that's been loaded for say a week still be functional? How does moist affect the gunpowder in the loaded weapons in a naval situation like this? Any source or knowledge regarding the general time where these types of weapons were in use would be appreciated.

Hi! So, I am going to try and give a shot at the John Locke Essay Competition, which has prompts ranging from topics in theology to economics. I decided upon the following prompt: Why do civilizations collapse? Is our civilization in danger? I already have a good foundation in state collapse because of world history class, but I figured I should ask real-world historians about this to get a sense of where I'm going. I just want to know about some of the intricacies and the "open-endedness" of this question. I would also really appreciate it if you suggested some resources to read and look at as well (like books, papers, etc.). I have plenty of time to do extensive research for this; I have around 3 months to write a 2000-word essay. By the way, I have already started reading Collapse by Jared Diamond to learn more about civilization collapse. Thanks!

It seems that while Lutheranism influenced the reformation itself Calvinism was the strain of protestantism that influenced the English reformation the most, while Anglicanism is neither and there are probably a lot of Anglicans closer to Lutheranism Anglicanism in many ways can be described as high church/episcopal Calvinism or arminianism, while Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were outright Calvinist, can anyone explain why?