History

Why Did The Aztecs Practice Human Sacrifice?

May 30, 2023 Leave a Comment

Sacrifice was a common theme in the Aztec culture. In the Aztec “Legend of the Five Suns”, all the gods sacrificed themselves so that mankind could live.

Some years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a body of the Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from this traditional practice. The Aztec priests defended themselves as follows:

Life is because of the gods; with their sacrifice, they gave us life. … They produce our sustenance … which nourishes life.

What Life Was Like Under Nazi Occupation?

May 3, 2023

The most quickly felt impact of German occupation was general shortage. All products of value were seized by the Germans, and French citizens received ration cards for just about everything. Coal and fuel were difficult to get, so people were freezing in winter time, made their own clothes, and mostly used bicycles. Food shortage was most felt in cities : meat, coffee, fruit, sugar, almost everything was scarce. As rutabagas and Jerusalem artichokes became staple diets, there was immediately a thriving black market. Wholesale dealers of “butter, eggs and cheese” made fortunes buying restricted products from farmers.

Why Did The Soviet Union Collapse?

April 26, 2023

The biggest factor was nationalism. The USSR was one large super-state made up of many smaller states that had been independent countries in the past; sort of like the United States, if Texas, California, and Idaho had all spoken separate languages for centuries and considered themselves, to varying extents, different races before being united under one federal government.

What Happened To The Prison Guards Of Dachau Concentration Camp When It Was Liberated?

April 18, 2023

Walenty Lenarczyk, a prisoner at Dachau, stated that following the camp’s liberation "prisoners swarmed over the wire and grabbed the Americans and lifted them to their shoulders… other prisoners caught the SS men.

The first SS man elbowed one or two prisoners out of his way, but the courage of the prisoners mounted, they knocked them down and nobody could see whether they were stomped or what, but they were killed."

How Effective Were Kamikaze Attacks In WW2?

April 4, 2023 Leave a Comment

By 1944 suicide attacks had become de facto conventional air attacks for most Japanese pilots attacking American naval task forces.

For example, the Battle of the Philippine Sea justly earned the nickname the “Marianas Turkey Shoot” because the Japanese air units lost over five-hundred aircraft attacking the US fleet with only minor damage to the USS South Dakota to show for their efforts.

What Were Aztec Sacrifices Ritual Actually Like?

March 21, 2023 Leave a Comment

They were religious events first. The Aztecs believed that their gods got their sustenance from human sacrifice; and one of the basic duties of Religion is caring for your gods. The most important of these sacrifices were carried out during the 18 monthly festivals of the Solar Year.

One of these, to give you an example, was the Tlacaxipehualiztli, the Festival of the Flaying of Men, celebrated at spring equinox before the rainy season, one of the most brutal and complex.

What was Hitler’s last day on Earth like?

March 20, 2023 Leave a Comment

In late April 1945, chaos reigned in Berlin. Years of war had turned former superpower Germany into a battleground, and its cities from strongholds into places under siege. The Red Army had completely circled the city, which now called on elderly men, police, and even children to defend it. But though a battle raged on in the streets, the war was already lost. Adolf Hitler’s time was almost up.

What Was it Like Living in Occupied France During WWII For the Average Person?

March 6, 2023

In France, the Nazis split France into an occupied and unoccupied zone – occupied being the north, unoccupied, or Vichy, being the south. Nazis would have been living in the occupied zone – you would have had to board one for several days at a time – from 1940, and into the unoccupied zones from 1942.

Did Some Southerners Immigrate to Brazil after the Civil War?

March 1, 2023 Leave a Comment

Meet the Confederados

Defeated in the Civil War, some Southerners refused to live in a land without slavery. They also hated the idea of being part of the Union, so they left the United States.

Where did they go? Some 10,000 – 20,000 packed up and headed further south to Brazil, where they would be known as the Confederados. Some returned during the reconstruction, but most stayed and built new lives in their new country.

Did Japan Have a War Plan Against The US After Pearl Harbor?

February 27, 2023 Leave a Comment

Japan’s hopes was that after destroying the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that it would take at minimum 2 years for the US to rebuild the fleet back up to seriously take on the Japanese fleet.