In 300, how accurate was King Xerxes appearance to the real person? Was it close?

What about the Persian military? Did they have rhinos? Were the immortals a legion of masked elite warriors?

I saw a video claiming it wasnt and cited the lack of upwards mobility in slave owning societies as a major reason. But both the us and England started industrialization while being slave owning societies. Between a google rabbit hole and asking ai I got to early industrialization is possible in a slave owning society but historians and economists argue that the two systems dont work well together because slave owners dont have motivation to make labor saving machines, so full industrialization beyond getting cheap materials is impossible.

This doesn't seem like a good enough answer to me. Was there some kind of industrialization cap that societies hit before they banned slavery? Is slavery the reason the us south was less industrialized than the north? Are there any societies that did industrialize while having slavery? Is slavery itself really something that hinders industrialization?

It kinda hypocritical for the American declaration to claim all men are equal and have right to liberty and happiness yet they kept slaves

Also what about women? Were they included in "Men" part similar to how the word men is used sometimes to mean Humans or it was literally just men and Woman were excluded

In popular tv show Mad Men, guys says something like "hang Lee Oswald, then let's take care of Texas. Better yet complete South".

Did North blamed south for it? And was it very helpful that Texas governor was also injured next to Kennedy? Did south really celebrated, at least partially, that JFK died? What was the main reason for the hate: that JFK was against segregation etc?

When the USSR took over former Konisberg at the end of WWII, they expelled the native German population and then settled that land with ethnic Russians. In addition, they renamed it to Kalingrad, and rebuilt most of the city. This, to me, seems to be a clear example of settler colonialism, as the native people were entirely forced out and replaced by the USSR. Is it widely considered to be so?

In addition, can settler colonialism be applied to other actions of the USSR post WWII? While Konisberg/Kalingrad is what I know best about, I know that the USSR committed mass deportations of many ethnic minorities and settled Russians in their place in places such as Estonia and Crimea. Can all of these deportations and settlings post WWII be considered a trend of settler colonialism by the Russian majority in the USSR?

Looking at examples of execution in Islamic history, flaying the skin from someone executed for going against the Caliph and then stuffing it and putting it on public display shows up repeatedly, Fadluya, Abu Yazid, Marco Antonio Bragadin, and Dionysios Skylosophos all have it done to them. Is there some sort of precedent or relegious reason for this?

Following The Terror Attacks on 9/11 There Was Sweeping Airport Security Changes Around the World. For example, U.S. airspace opened back up on September 13.

What were the immediate changes to airport security after 9/11? What resources did airports/FAA use to increase security immediately after/on September 13? How could they have implemented these resources across the entirety of USA in such a short period? How did they decide what was allowed on planes and what wasn't immediately following 9/11?

I am not looking to understand the changes we see today, because that is already well answered. But I am looking for immediate changes that occurred following the reopening of U.S. airspace.

How did people act? How did they treat one another? What was the end result of a lawless society?

And was there ever a gap when major parties were not courting a racist voting bloc?

Frisian,Székelys,Ruthenians,Karelians, Bretons maybe?,Abkhazian,Ossetian,Circassian,

Those are the ones I can name off the top of my head. What are some of the other many minor ethnic groups of Europe and what are their stories?

Whats the history of them? Is the animal cruelty angle a new thing or has that been part of historical accounts of veganism, if there are any?

While not exactly history he writes about history in a very entertaining and engaging style. But is he a reliable narrator?

It seems like Florida already has plenty of coastline, and perhaps Alabama could join in on the tourism money benefits.

According to what I have been reading, societies with the tradition of "Strange King" was common in Asia, Africa and Americas. And commonly they were not the land owner class, they didn't rule people and in many cases they didn't even collected taxes/tributes. They usually obtained wealth by robbing people from other regions. If that was the case, would it be the origing of robber baron class and colonialism?

For millennia, cities would have walls,moats, gates etc to protect from attackers. As we transition into modern history despite wars still being prevalent, people stopped building them, even demolishing old walls. Why?

The early Norwegian black metal scene was chaotic. The arguable epicenter of it was the band Mayhem, lead by guitarist Euronymous. The band, and Norwegian black metal as a whole, presented themselves as Satanists out to disrupt society. Euronymous stated in interviews he had no problem killing people in cold blood and demanded obedience to Satan. Whether or not he actually believed that depends on who you ask and is out of scope for this question, but he certainly gave the impression he did.

My question is, how seriously was this threat taken? Listening to the music in 2026, it comes off more as corny than anything else and it's hard to imagine someone taking the lyrics seriously. When Mayhem collapsed in on itself (the suicide of singer Dead and then the murder of Euronymous by bassist Count Grishnackh (Varg Vikernes)) it must have convinced some people, I'd imagine. But, overall, where they considered a serious threat?

Recently been reading about Achaemenian empire and their real names. Cyrus was Kurus, his father was Kambujiya, mother Mandana. Their family traced their lineage from Sakha-muni (Haxa-munis/Achaemenid). Region was called Parsu/Parsa. People called themselves Ariya. Kuru killed Mada/Mara king, who later transformed in to a multi-headed serpent in Armenian mythology. Mar also means snake in old Persian.

Compare them with Mahabharat time names. There is Kurus. There is Kamboj. There is Madra; Madri, Pandu's second wife, claimed to be from Madra kingdom (Bahlika). Gandhari is from Gandhāra. Sakya-muni is epithet for Buddha, which sounds similar to Sakha-muni. Not to forget entire Krishna birth story is copy/inspired from Cyrus birth story (or Zeus birth story).

Wondering if there has been confusion about location of all these kingdoms? And, incidents which inspired initial Jaya story (old Mahabharat) were based in Iran?

Or, these names were imposed later?

If I understand correctly, the selection was announced in 1931. While the Nazis weren't in control of the whole control, Germany wasn't what you would call "politically stable." Assassinations seemed common and the government didn't have a monopoly on the use of force.

The title.

TL;DR: What are the earliest documented salient examples of people questioning the moral norms of their own societies? What historical conditions enabled this? And when/how did this develop into ideas like "moral progress"?

I'm interested in the history of moral self-criticism: when people began explicitly questioning whether the moral norms inherited from their communities, cultures or traditions were actually justified.

In particular, I'm interested in historical cases where people argued that widely accepted moral practices in their own societies were mistaken, rather than simply condemning the practices of outsiders.

What circumstances encouraged this kind of questioning? For example, was it contact with other cultures, philosophical reasoning, religious developments, changes in political institutions, or something else?

I'm also interested in whether such criticism involved the idea that societies could make genuine moral progress - improving not merely their practices, but their understanding of what was morally right.

I realise there may have been no single historical transition. Though I'm happy for any answers, I'd be particularly curious about early documented cases from historians' respective areas of expertise, including what enabled these developments and how the people involved understood them.

Hello!! I've recently gotten into learning more about history (started off with the history of Pakistan which later made me curious about Mesopotamia, The Indus Valley, Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, WW1 and 2 and obviously Pakistan's history as well) BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO START???

I initially thought that I'd use chatgtp as a starting ground where I can divide everything up and use it as basics and later add onto my knowledge by using other sources but here is where the problem lies:
1) I have NO idea what sources are legit and what aren't
2) I've read so much about how chatgtp is quite SHIT

I do feel like I've fallen victim to AI slowly ruining the way people think and use their brains (even though I try my best not to and mostly use it to build quizzes and questions out of my powerpoint presentations for class)

PLEASE HELP!!

Not sure this is the question fits the sub guidelines, tell me if not.

Something that I always found weird is that the pound has been a 'name' for a currency for many years. Sure, it was not always 'the same' pound (if you think about the 1500s) but compared to the younger currencies (say the euro), it seems that it started at a much higher purchasing power level.

Something valued at 1 euro was always relatively small, something you would buy a child as a treat. The pound only recently converged to this level of purchasing power - 100 years ago, 1 pound was a much more considerable amount of money, and (I believe) people in their everyday lives used the shilling or the pence much more often for everyday transactions.

So why is this the case? Is this as unusual as I think, or is the euro that it's unusual? Why was the pound, the basic 'units of measurement' for the british currency, set to such a high level decades ago, such that only now its purchasing power has converged with the rest of the world's currencies?

Note: I am aware the other direction is much more common. The old Italian Lira's used to be measured in the thousands, just like the Japanese Yens are today. Which supports my point: You start off with 1 lira / yen being used to buy something small in every day life, and then inflation takes care of increasing prices so that you need 1 thousand liras instead.

The pound seems to have taken the opposite direction - start off incredibly high, and only with inflation it is now at the 'normal' level we expect from modern currencies. I find this odd.

Will be happy to get any insights!

Excuse the vague title.

Suppose we tallied up the information contained in the entire world historical archive: books, newspapers, stone carvings, paintings, cave paintings, letters etc. How much "information" is there, and how could it be broken down. e.g. what fraction is in books? What fraction is in the British Library? How many words are there in total in all the texts written over 100 years ago? Could the entire lot fit on a 1 TB hard drive? Are there more historic paintings found in museums and historic archives than can be found in the sum held in the houses of ordinary people around the world? If each painting were scanned with sufficient resolution to maintain the major detail and stored as a JPEG, how much data would be required to store the entire record?

I would welcome any answer on this topic, or any suggestion to a resource which discusses the themes.

I assume dwindling numbers of church goers are at fault here.

I know that some of it still remains today, but during the dark ages a lot of technological capability was lost. What did your average person, as well as a noble think of these ruins. Did they believe it was a long lost civilization, did they understand why history around the Roman empire etc?