History

What Was Life Like For a Jester In The Medieval Era?

November 30, 2022 Leave a Comment

Stanczyk by Jan Matejko

(art: Stańczyk by Jan Matejko)

Being a true Jester was very hard work. You had to be a one-man entertainment machine.

One had to be able to memorize long-form poetry, tailor jokes to fit the crowd, tactfully tease your patron without committing offense, and zing guests that your patron wasn’t fond of.

You had to play instruments, sing, dance, perform acrobatics, and design and maintain your own motley.

They would learn puppetry, ventriloquism, juggling, balancing, and slight of hand.

What Was Life Like During The Holodomor: The Great Famine Of Ukraine 1932 to 1933

November 10, 2022 Leave a Comment

holomodor

It is known as the Holodomor. The communist induced famine killed up to 3.9 million people between 1932-33 in Ukraine alone.

The reasons for the famine are a subject of scholarly and political debate. Some scholars suggest that the man-made famine was a consequence of the economic problems associated with changes implemented during the period of Soviet industrialisation. There are also those who blame a systematic set of policies perpetrated by the Soviet government under Stalin designed to exterminate the Ukrainians.

So what was life like during the famine?

How Did Germany De-Radicalize Its People After The Fall of The Nazi Party?

November 2, 2022 Leave a Comment

(Force confrontation: German soldiers react to footage of concentration camps, 1945.)

The process of denazification and the trials of various war criminals in Germany was enormous. The Nazi party had 8.5 million members by the end of the war. Somewhere in the region of 18 million people served in the German armed forces during the war, many of whom had committed atrocities and war crimes. 17.2 million people voted for the Nazi party in the 1933 election. Almost 22 million had been members of the German Labour Front, the Nazi replacement for the Trade Unions. Perhaps as many as 45 million individuals were members of or associated with organs of the Nazi party. As such, the process of denazification would have to be conducted on an epic scale.

How Were Pilots Chosen To Become Kamizakes?

November 1, 2022 Leave a Comment

how were kamikaze pilots chosen

Because the tokkōtai operation was a guarantee of death, the top military officers, quite hypocritically, decided not to make this operation an official part of the imperial navy or army, where orders were issued in the name of the emperor. They preferred to make it appear that the corps was formed voluntarily and that men volunteered to be pilots.

How Did The United States Get So Powerful?

October 27, 2022 Leave a Comment

Geography

Size: It is the 3rd largest in area and population. The two countries bigger than the US – Russia and Canada have way too much unusable land. The 2 countries bigger than the US in population – India and China are still climbing up from the colossal destruction faced in the 19th century – early 20th century and also face severe resource constraints. Russia has still not settled in terms of governance. Australia & Canada have too few people. That leaves the US in a nice sweet spot.

I’m a German soldier in 1939. What are my chances to survive until 1945?

September 21, 2022 Leave a Comment

By the end of the war the Germans had 12.5 million men under arms. Over 4 million died during the war.

Survival depended upon where you were stationed.

If you were in the East there was a much higher chance of being killed and wounded than if you were in the West or in Denmark or Norway.

At the edges of the most vicious battles, such as the fighting near Vienna near the end of the war, or in Silesia, or in Czechoslovakia (where the Germans won major victories til the very last day) the chances of dying were very high.

How Was The Soviet Government Structured?

September 15, 2022

The Soviet structure changed multiple times in history. I’m going to talk about the pre-1989 system. There’s a lot of really weird “communist” administrative names that get used, so it gets pretty confusing.

The Soviet system is based around the idea of “soviets”, which roughly means workers’ council. Furthermore, the administrative system is split between the actual government and the Communist Party.

What Was The Scariest Thing For a German Soldier To See During WW2?

September 12, 2022 Leave a Comment

Churchill Crocodile tank

This isn’t a regular tank. It’s a Churchill Crocodile outfitted with a super-powered flamethrower.

Many Germans in WWII were incinerated alive shortly after seeing this view. Here’s an excerpt of a first-hand account from a German who went up against a Churchill Crocodile.

What Was The Last Night Like For Kamikaze Pilots

August 17, 2022 Leave a Comment

kamikaze pilots

Despite the numerous published testaments, photographs, and films that depict smiling pilots saluting or waving goodbye as they take off on their final mission, a rare description of the night before departure tells a very different story. It occurs in a letter written on June 21, 1995, by Kasuga Takeo, who was eighty-six years old at the time, addressed to Umezawa Shōzō.Kasuga was drafted and assigned to look after the meals, laundry, room cleaning, and other daily tasks for the tokkōtai pilots at the Tsuchiura Naval Air Base. He describes the night before their final flights:

How Did Germany Defeat France So Easily In WW2?

August 10, 2022 Leave a Comment

how did germany defeat france so easily in ww2

It was a combination of factors.

One thing that’s very overplayed is the Maginot Line; the line of fortifications that France built along its border with Germany. In the popular imagination people often say that the French sat behind the Maginot Line and the Germans went around it through Belgium, but that’s just completely false. The French in fact built the Maginot Line to force the Germans to go through Belgium. The French sent their best forces and tanks to Belgium when the Germans attacked.

But what happened is that the Germans took a big gamble that paid off. Belgium can be roughly divided into two parts: