Confucius discussion of loyalty is ...... Going to be very complicated with neo Confucianism or even just his disciples interpretation of it.
The ask questions about history thread.
- Location
- Sweden
I have a question. It is said that the left and right of the political spectrum stems from how the different parties seated themselves in the National assembly during the French revolution. But was it their right and left or the left and right from someone seated facing the assembly?
- Location
- Volksstaat Hessen, Deutsches Reich
From the president/speaker facing the assembly, same way parties are still ordered today in most European countries and beyond.
During the First Crusade there's mentions of wells around Jerusalem being poisoned. Any way to find out what kind of poison? Would it be animal carcasses or more of a hellebore situation? Or something else entirely?
In all cases that I can remember where poisoned wells are mentioned in a historical context it is via dead animals or feces. I can't think of a single case in a historic warfare context where a more complicated poison was used.
I've seen cases where plant poisons were used, including hellebore, which is why I brought it up.
- Location
- The Final Frontier
I wrote my college senior thesis on this in the context of the Anarchy. Long story short: oaths matter, but people weren't stupid. If an oath would stop you from doing something you'd want to do, people would find a (often legalistic) way to get out of it.
Or create an entire new church
Sachertorte
The Twilight of Boredom
To what extent was the USSR responsible for the Cold War? For history class tomorrow, of course.
CV12Hornet
Riter.
- Location
- Tacoma, Washington
Less than the United States, but still significant. Stuff like the 1946 Iran Crisis, the 1948 coup of the Czechoslovak government to stop them from accepting Marshall Plan aid, and the Berlin Blockade are all things that confirmed all the worst American fears.
The Iran Crisis in particular was a completely unforced dick move by the Soviets.
The Iran Crisis in particular was a completely unforced dick move by the Soviets.
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- Location
- The Final Frontier
Even before that, the Lublin Poles, the annexation of the Baltics, the Bulgarian, Romanian, and Hungarian puppet governments; the Cold War emerges directly out of the behavior of the USSR in the Second World War. It is obviously true that the USSR fought heroically to defeat Naziism. It is also true that they used the Second World War to extend the Russian Sphere from (in 1945) Manchuria to the Adriatic.
- Location
- Sweden
I have, in passing, heard something about there being large cities in the Amazon, that were overgorwn when the civilization building them "fell". IIRC they were rediscovered by LIDAR. Does anyone know more about this and did they cover the whole Amazon or just a part of it?
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
"Overgrown" is a bit of a loaded term here. From what (little) I have read, anthropologists originally tended to dismiss the journals of early Spanish explorers who reported large societies within the "jungle" because you need a lot of food to support that population.
However, some later scholars have argued that the Amazon wasn't a wild jungle, it was a carefully managed orchard - effectively a form of forest agriculture that the earlier western experts, used to thinking in terms of farming fields, missed.
So, while technically there is overgrowth, using the term kinda puts one in the wrong mindset. Don't think of the trees as natural and opposite to human development/exploitation of the land, the trees are part of a human-cultivated system.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
I've found myself wishing I had more of an interest in medievalism. Can anyone recommend any entertaining writing (up to and including historical fiction, if it feels grounded in the period, this isn't an academic interest) about how life was lived back then? A good place to start would be wonderful.
Old Spice Guy
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
- Location
- Riding a horse, backwards
Christian Cameron. The Chivalry series is hidtorical fiction and exactly what you are looking for imo. He also has the Tom Swan series in a similar vein.
So just to highlight how diabolical politics could be.
Henry II of England - Wikipedia
Henry the II had been expanding his power and lands in both France and England. How this started was his father control of Normandy. As a deal to formalise Henry ownership, he swore fealty to King louis of France, as Duke of Normandy.
He then married Eleanor of Aquitaine, the former wife of King Louis which threatened to give him ownership over more French lands than any other noble. It also deprived King Louis daughters of Aquitaine lands.
Thierry, Count of Flanders - Wikipedia
Yeah.....
Henry tries to repeat this for
However, the presence of his feudal lord , despite the fact that Henry was here trying to take over more and more of said feudal lord lands stopped Henry from attacking Toulouse.
You can see multiple times how the oath of fealty can be manipulated, or barons would just openly rebel if they felt you were not worthy of being their king. Or were courted by your own son .
It's examples like this which shows why the "idealisation" of feudalism simply never existed.
However, the fact remains that such paths justified the king rule. A king couldn't break such oaths willy nilly, or he would suffer the consequences to his government. Hence why despite grabbing King louis lands, King Henry refused to attack simply because his feudal lord was present. Breaking such an oath would threaten his own royal authority and justification of rule
When moving against the Church and his friend Beckett, the consequences of breaking such rules meant his son could find ample support amongst rebellious nobles to fight against Henry.
- Location
- Luton Airport
For an introduction, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives is a nice pop-history taster, that nonetheless undercuts a lot of commonly held myths about the era. The entire series is on YT, I believe.
The Horrible Histories tv series is another in a similar vein, albeit not specific to the medieval era.
Yeah, rather than the simplistic pyramid set up of "classic feudalism", it makes more sense to think of a lot of interlocking and interacting spheres of influence and magisteria, where a Bishop can be a Lord and a vassal but also a "superior" who can maybe get you excommunicated, and a notional commoner could be a banker who can make or break mere Princes.
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What I find interesting is how the "law" applies thru the land, since the judicial function is both part of the role of Lordship, with success conferring legitimacy to rule.
For England , county assizes Vs manor courts Vs church... Add in the concept of church as sanctuary and well.... It's interesting as hell.
- Location
- Luton Airport
Plus the whole idea of benefit of clergy, or living in a free town for sufficient period extinguishing a serf's status. It bears noting that something like the stereotypical HRE map is a vast simplification of the interactions at work.
Its an apt reminder that nothing we know of historical governments is as simple as we think.
Be it Roman, Chinese or etc. it's just a matter of how much we know about the civilisation that allows us to see more nuance and changes.