Recent content by davidsmith

The question is why a civilisation didn't become dominant on the island of new guinea. They have some highly productive land which was utilised for food development.

I think this whole thread should be put into chat or closed down. Nothing good will come of it.

I got a little confused - did she reward the pirates and then blow up their boat? Also a few more maps would be helpful, I am struggling to work out who is who and where they are exactly. However I am enjoying the whole saga

I think they would choose a religious christian name - New Jerusalem perhaps

I'm British, but I don't really care how we are described, we were big enough and bad enough to have earned it and mostly are in denial of that. I was more concerned about the post indian independence comments and also the references to Israel / Arab countries

Enjoying the story, but the first paragraph is pretty offensive and borderline racist

Was the desertification of Iraq due to the overuse of aquifers or gradual climate change?

The defeat of Turkey by Greece in the wars falling ww1 resulted in the annexation of far great portions of anatolia that were initially given to Greece in the treaty of sevres. More than 1/3 of western anatolia fell under Greek control. This lead to a renaissance of greek culture and also...

The name given to the aggressive charge by Cathay Pacific CEO Michael Wang to dominate the Asian airline industry, just prior to the Covid Pandemic of 2020 -2022 resulting in the most expensive bankruptcy in Chinese history. The dark night of Daniel Day-Lewis

The Fieramosca was a submarine of the Italian navy in ww2. In 1942 she dropped an Italian special forces team near Portsmouth who successfully shot and killed Winston Churchill who was carrying out a secret visit. Rather than surrender after being surrounded by british task force in the...

I'm not sure what people are expecting here. The reformation started with the religious protestant reformation. I'm not an expert on it, but I always understood it as a return to the basics of the bible and the removal of syncretic beliefs that catholic christianity had aquired. In islam this...

I think a lot of the possible scenarios ignore the population boom that took place in Europe. From 61 million in 1100 to 95 million in 1500. Although smaller states have frequently conquered larger ones in history. France alone had 17 million people before the black death. The Mali empire...

This question seems to imagine subsaharan africa was an empty place with primitive peoples . It wasn't, parts were teeming with peoples and civilisations. Empires, rose, declined and were replaced. As with most civilisations in Asia there was warfare, science and medicine. There are a range of...

When I say inferior, I don't mean in quality I mean in numbers. By the end of the ww2, Britain had run out of men to fight with which was of concern to its generals given how pugnacious Churchill was about fighting the USSR I understand Britain mobilised 10 million of its men in total, which...

The British empire reached a max pop of 538 in 1938 apparently. In land area it was the largest as well. I don't think you could legitimately call modern china or india empires. The question is did the british empire have the financial resources and political will to militarise the economies...