history

We already have a threat about interesting maps, but I thought I would start one specifically about historical maps as they are so many of them. Map of Roman expansion Linguistic map of the Roman world at its height Linguistic map of Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire...

A new genomic study published in Science has overturned a long-held belief about when domestic cats arrived in Europe, finding that they were introduced not by Neolithic farmers thousands of years ago, but rather around 2,000 years ago — most likely from North Africa. Background and Previous...

A landmark new study published in Nature sheds unprecedented light on the people who lived along the old Roman frontier in southern Germany between 400 and 700 CE — and overturns some long-held assumptions about migration, marriage, and mortality in the post-Roman world. The Study at a Glance...

I was wondering where and when exactly did lions start being adopted on coat of arms in Medieval Europe. I did my research and here is what I found. Anjou (1128 / Geoffrey Plantagenet) León (1134 / Alfonso VII) Flanders (1158–63 / Philip of Alsace) Holland (1160–62 / Floris III) Swabia (1181)...

This is probably the best economic history of Britain I've seen in video. It explains how the country lost its Empire to the United States after the Second World War, how the Americans stabbed the Brits in the back in 1956 to make sure that they didn't rebuild even part of their commercial...

Can you guess where it is and why they celebrate WW2 occupation? Don't forget to watch YouTube videos with an ad blocker or even better a browser with an inbuilt ad blocker like Vivaldi or Opera.

Back in 2013 I wrote an article about the Longest lived empires/states in history. I thought it would be fun to look at it from the opposite perspective and see which were the shortest lived empires in history. Here is the list of the 13 empires that lasted for less than 100 years...

There is an interesting study comparing the regional income per capita and income inequality across the Roman Empire and the Han Empire. GDP per capita was considerably higher in the Roman Empire. Nature: A comparison of income inequality in the Roman and Chinese Han empires Abstract The...

Frederick II is one of the most interesting Holy Roman emperors in history. In addition to being emperor he was king of Sicily and Southern Italy and at one point also king of Jerusalem. He led the only crusade (the 6th) that was successful almost entirely through diplomacy, with minimal...

Very entertaining. Turns out that I had heard of or read most of these "lies" somewhere even though I am not American. I cannot remember where exactly. One of the most interesting in my opinion is that there were in fact eight presidents of the United States before George Washington. I asked...

This is rather mind-boggling when you think about it. This Dutch bond has been paying interests non-stop for the last 400 years! Perplexity News: Oldest Bond Turns 400 "The world's oldest perpetual bond, issued in 1624 by the Dutch water authority Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams, recently...

The following article is AI generated and comes from Perplexity news. Based on reports from Johns Hopkins University, archaeologists have unearthed evidence of the world's oldest known alphabetic writing in an ancient Syrian tomb, dating back to approximately 2400 BCE and predating previously...

This video captures exactly how I've been feeling all my adult life about modern architecture. Many famous architect strive to create the most original buildings possible without thinking about their functionality, how it fits within the city where it is built, or even whether they are...

Potsdam is Germany's Versailles. Located Southwest of Berlin it became the seat of the Hohenzollern family, rulers of Brandenburg, then Prussia, then the whole of Germany. The city was carpet bombed by the British just a few days before the end of World War II and further disfigured by the...

Have you ever wondered how many ancestors you had 200 years ago, or 500 years ago, 1000 years ago, 2000 years ago? Venture to take a guess? It's easy enough to count how many ancestors we have after 3 generations (8 great-grand-parents), 4 generations (16 g-g-grandparents), etc. But what about...

I was wondering what Europe would look like if the various separatist movements had their way. I checked the list of active separatist movements in Europe and selected only the regions with reasonable claims of independence based on the percentage of population supporting independence. This is...

Have you ever wondered what the oldest board games were? Which country has produced the most board games that are usually found in people's homes? Or the most board games per capita? Here is a table to summarise it all. Board game Year invented Place invented The Game of Life 1860 USA...

A friend of mine is starting a new YouTube channel (Sons of Mars) to explain famous historical battles using video scenes he shot while playing Total War in high definition and edited with a special programme. He plans to recreate mostly battles from the Antiquity and teh Middle Ages. It looks...

I have just written a new article attempting to answer the question: Who were the best and worst Kings and regent Queens of France in history? As usual your feedback is welcome.

Genetics Percentage of genetic similarity between humans and animals Genetic inheritance: why people can be closer to one parent than the other genetically How adventurers, outcasts and remainers shape the evolution of society Are humans genetically programmed to live in hierarchical...