The Persians extracted kerosene from asphalt and oil shale in the early Middle Ages. This could have changed lighting, cooking and home heating world wide.
Agriculture includes farming and animal husbandry. The oldest domesticated animal was the dog. Although that didn’t count as agriculture since dogs weren’t livestock but part of the hunter gatherer lifestyle. Some say the dog was what made modern humans superior hunters to the Neanderthals. Even...
In China horse archers lasted into the 19th century and it’s super thick walled cities stood into the 20th. Gunpowder transform warfare IF you waged war in a certain way. If you’re engaged in ritualistic wars of intimidation it would have far less relevance.
If you look at the failed Syrian offensive in 1973, that was caused by among many things, unsupported armor attack against well defended positions. A few Su-25 at the right place and time could have made all the difference. Even if hundreds are lost it would be better than losing thousands of...
Technically France decolonized. But if you talk to anyone in Francophone Africa their government follows the direction of France more than their people. The French military routinely conduct operations in their former colonies at the invitation of governments they prop up. France has more direct...
There’s no end of pressure US can bring down on France. Not counting trade and banking, US never pushed France to give up it’s colonies in Africa. France remains the only colonial empire still running under the radar today. Then there’s all those strikes and student unrest of 1968.
Look at all...
France backed down to US pressure during the Suez Crisis even with the British Empire on their side. It’s also a country with deep internal cleavages with coups and strikes in the 60s. I doubt think they would risk getting on America’s bad side then or now.
Kammler was not a rocket scientist but a civil engineer. He was head of the program but his job was building the facilities to build the rockets. He had no unique skills like that of Von Braun. Not saying he wouldn’t be valuable enough to get his crimes whitewashed, but he’s not a great prize.
There’s much dispute over if the Indonesian Communists were responsible for the assassination at all. That they were caught completely surprised by the anti-Communist massacre and made no attempt to defend themselves give credence that their leadership was not involved. It seems more likely to...
The recoilless guns wasted a lot of propellent but the PAW 600 was a totally different system. It has recoil just less. The ammunition actually use less propellent. It ignites inside a high pressure chamber in the case then fill the case with low pressure gas, at which point the projectile is...