Search results

My understanding, subject to correction by anyone who knows more obviously, is that cuirassiers were best employed in an anti-cavalry role. It was noted that saber armed cavalry were best suited for the melee engagements whereas lancers were suited for the charge. So cuirassiers were ideally...

A minor point, but it’s worth noting that the distinction between lawyer and businessman was a great deal murkier in the time period being discussed. And it’s not exactly a firm line now. Until late 19th century one became a lawyer through apprenticing with a practicing lawyer to develop the...

I think this is the crux of it. Sticking existing cavalry units into cuirassier equipment wouldn’t do anything. But training the soldiers to the French standard and, I think critically, training the commanders in how to properly handle this type of cavalry would create a unit that would see...

@Tyche and @Philip have the right of it, I think. Post-White, the only way for a state to legally secede would be for Congress to consent to the secession, states can neither secede nor be expelled unilaterally. Pre-White the answer was debated, but was of course resolved by the Civil War. So...

I can’t see any reason why the vehicle couldn’t be invented earlier, perhaps even with the very first machine guns like the Gattling or the Maxim (maybe the Nordenfelt?). I’d guess the main restriction on it would be seeing the role for the tachanka and having light enough machine guns that it...

On the subject of hashish, I think you are vastly more likely to see both tobacco and marijuana (in a smoked or consumed form) in widespread use than you are to see marijuana instead of tobacco. To my understanding, the effects are different enough that I don’t think they’d really be...

Do we know how long the gestation period actually was for Steller’s sea cows? All I can find online is that it lasted over a year, but camels have a gestation period of 13-14 months so it isn’t inherently unworkable. That said the slow growing might be an issue, as they probably only had 1 calf...

As others have noted there’s no meaningful way to distinguish “maladministration” from “policy or President I don’t like”. The OTL set up at least maintains the idea that impeachment should be based on some illegal act. Including maladministration would let Congress remove the President at any...

How do you get around all of the issues that come with domesticating a marine mammal? Controlling the population, controlling reproduction, supplying enough food, etc? You could probably solve each of them, at least in theory but it certainly looks like a stretch. To me, it seems too far to have...

I find it interesting to think about the Rus culture expanding east into and across the lower Volga and the Caspian coast.

A quick google check indicates that the Aztecs do seem to have made substantial use of bows, that arrow wounds were reasonably common when the Spanish engaged the Aztecs, and that they did, at least on accassion, deliver them as a barrage to break the enemy formation. That said, they don't seem...

I'll agree with those taking issue with the idea that this proposed Ecuadorian Meridian is in any way more objective than the existing Prime Meridian- or any of the other national Prime Meridians for that matter. The Prime Meridian is an inherently arbitrary line; just like the convention of...

To be fair, that one trips up a hell of a lot of native English speakers too... although I suspect it has rather more to do with the quality of the speaker’s education in the language than anything else. On the simplified spelling itself: 1) I can’t be the only person looking at those...

What makes you say that? I don't see any reason why this scenario would be likely to create a fundamentally divided China. I think it's vital to think of it not as a Korean state ruling north China, but as a Chinese state that includes Korea and is dominated by an ethnically, and initially...

Koreans is my vote. For a long time Korean settlement seems to have extended quite a ways into modern Manchuria and the Liaodong peninsulas. You also have Korean states that extended their rule over that region, such as Goguryeo and its successor state Balhae amongst others. I’d say the best...

History? Awful subject, don’t waste your time with it. :openedeyewink: I can give recommendations for a couple of those topics now, and a couple more later when I have a chance to double check some titles- it’s been a while since I read some of these. Also, what kind of access do you have? Are...

How can we create a situation where the New Guinea lowlands are dominated by Austronesian cultures, and what would the consequences of such a change be? Ideally, how can we create a scenario where the New Guinea lowlands are home to Malay peoples and incorporated into the Malay...

The Sassanians did exactly that. It's called the Great Wall of Gorgan and runs through roughly the western half of modern Uzbekistan.

It's not from antiquity, but in the Rennaissance and Early Modern periods, galley fleets were controlled with a very sophisticated system of flags and lanterns. Generally, commanders' ships were large and equipped with a big signal lantern on the stern (seriously, I've seen one in the Arsenale...

Best bet for this would be recognition by Britain after the 1904 Younghusband Expedition. IOTL Britain and Tibet agreed a fairly draconian treaty but it was practically unenforceable. In any case, in 1906 Britain came to an agreement with China on Tibet wherein it acknowledged Chinese...