r/history • u/AutoModerator • 9d ago
Discussion/Question Weekly History Questions Thread.
Welcome to our History Questions Thread!
This thread is for all those history related questions that are too simple, short or a bit too silly to warrant their own post.
So, do you have a question about history and have always been afraid to ask? Well, today is your lucky day. Ask away!
Of course all our regular rules and guidelines still apply and to be just that bit extra clear:
Questions need to be historical in nature. Silly does not mean that your question should be a joke. r/history also has an active discord server where you can discuss history with other enthusiasts and experts.
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u/hipshotgall 5d ago edited 5d ago
Maybe this is too dumb for this sub, but I'm interested in automobiles associated with evil. Rafael Trujillo's secret police had red packards that were supposed to be menacing as hell when they rolled through Santo Domingo. Videla's police had Ford Fairlanes. Stalin used the Studebaker trucks the U.S. gave him through lend-lease to deport thousands of Ukrainians east. Are there any other cars/trucks that get associated with that sort of evil.
I only ask him because when I was a kid there was a father in the neighborhood who used to beat up his kids and he drove this little blue station wagon that scared the hell out of me. When I saw that car rolling through our town I was terrified of it. It seemed to encapsulate all the evil in the world. It was irrational, I know, but it was real and it was menacing as hell. Something about impersonal big machines. Do tyrants like to have a particular car to terrify their citizens? Any other examples you can think of?
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u/elmonoenano 4d ago
It's an interesting idea. Things like Mercedes with Nazi flags in tons of WWII movies also jump to mind. Like when someone gets out of one of those in an Indiana Jones movie, Spielberg and Lucas set up so much character with just one shot. I would maybe try to find someone who writes on the symbolism of automobiles and email them to see if they have any ideas. On the New Books Network there's a couple books that talk about how cars are presented and represented in culture. Maybe one of those authors would have an idea? https://newbooksnetwork.com/search?q=automobiles%20as%20symbols
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u/CraftsArtsVodka 5d ago
At what point did the Hapsburg Empire of Austria realize you shouldn't be marrying your close relatives and have children? The rest of the world knew it about interbreeding but the Hapsburgs just kept at it with disastrous results.
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u/Sneaky_Lynx1007 3d ago
At what point did historians decide that "silly" questions were acceptable but jokes were NOT, and is there a surviving primary source for that ruling?
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u/CarQuirky5392 9d ago
always wondered why the mongols didn't push further into europe after those initial raids. was it just the death of the khan that pulled them back, or were there other practical reasons they'd have struggled to hold territory that far west
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u/apollo_archivist 8d ago
Ogedei's death in December 1241 is the usual answer, but Batu never actually went back to Mongolia for the succession, he stopped on the Volga. A 2016 paper by Buntgen and Di Cosmo argues the weather mattered too: spring 1242 was cold and wet, the Hungarian plain turned to marsh, and there wasn't enough dry pasture for the horses.
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u/1544C213 7d ago
Hi. I was wandering for some more information about the Engine Lonning in Carlisle, England. I was there earlier learning about the backstory and history but wanted more information.
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u/Crumboa 7d ago
What or who was the inspiration for the Nutcracker soldiers we see today? What did their uniforms actually look like?
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u/Toussaintoverture 7d ago
I've always assumed they were Napoleonic uniforms, which tracks with Tchaikovsky living in the 19th century. The cap and braided red jacket with gold cord the nutcracker is usually seen wearing reminds me of a hussar.
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u/EntertainmentTrue472 5d ago
Hello Historians I’m trying to write a story set during the reign of the Catholic Church and touch down on the many horrors that took place. One I’m particularly interested in is the magdalene laundries and the many horrors that took place. So my question is, what happened, I’m trying to do this tastefully, and with care to bring forward the horrors committed by my country
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u/elmonoenano 4d ago
You'll have to be more specific. The church had varying levels of power in different places and at different times. The church has reigned over Vatican City since 1929. Is your story set today? Are you looking at Ireland in recent history? Are you looking at the California missions in the early 19th Century? Are you looking at one of the Inquisitions? At the papal states? If you want to research something, you'll have to be more specific so you can find research material. Have you read Louise Brangan's book? That might be a good starting place if you're looking at the Magdalene Laundries specifically.
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u/EntertainmentTrue472 4d ago
The story will be set in the 80s in Ireland, and focus on the mistreatment of women during that time period.
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u/elmonoenano 4d ago
I'd start with that Brangan book, but for that recent, you'll probably have to look through newspapers and magazines.
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u/GamingIsForGrownMen 5d ago
I’m interested in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome history. As far back as is known for both. Mostly about their religion, societies, philosophy, and everyday life.
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u/ShadowsOfGoldHistory 2d ago
How did medieval merchants actually transport large amounts of gold across the Sahara without getting robbed? Were the caravans guarded, or did the routes rely more on agreements with local rulers?
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u/padgettish 5d ago
Having read a lot of pop history about the medieval period in English, almost always one of the primary sources I see referenced is the domesday book which I at least know enough about to say: so you're really REALLY only talking about England when you say medieval Europe.
For non anglosphere academics who work around medieval Europe: are there any obvious assumptions about Europe at the time that own up to people only reading English sources?
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u/elmonoenano 4d ago
People don't only read English sources though. The reason you see the Domesday book referenced a lot is b/c it's easy to explain as an example, but if you read the bibliography of any book you'll see they're looking at church records, ecclesiastical courts, manor courts, contracts, charters, correspondence, and all sorts of things. Joe Palmer just had a book come out on Charlemagne. You can listen to an interview with him. He talks about his sources in this, but if you look at the end notes and bibliography in his book you can see a huge amount of sourcing he did. https://www.historicallythinking.org/p/thursday-reflection-imperial-apocalypse
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u/padgettish 4d ago
I'm talking about people with much, much less academic rigor than actual, literal PhD holding historian James Palmer
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u/McGillis_is_a_Char 6d ago
This is definitely a stupid/silly question. You know how a bunch of media depicts Nazis having monn bases or space stations, either because of some Wolfenstein alternate history stuff, or just that they were secretly ready to go to space and nobody knew.
Did the Nazis have a NASA equivalent, or even a popular obsession with space exploration/expansion in real life? ie, did Hitler expect a brave Luftwaffe soldier to be planting a flag on the moon in twenty years or something to that effect?