History thread
Use this thread to discuss past times that interest you.
Times like the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). It all started with the Defenestration of Prague (the second one!), launching a war between the Catholic and Protestant states of Europe. But then France's Prime Minister, one Cardinal Richilieu, switched sides and no one knew what they were fighting for. This may or may not be related to Cardinal Richilieu fighting the Three Musketeers. In any case, a peace treaty was eventually concluded at Westphalia that defined the powers of the modern state.
Did I mention that the Holy Roman Empire, though having officially named itself "the German nation" in 1512, had soldiers from all over the place?
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Antartica has no permanent human residents.
Or at least it didn't at the time, there might be some nowadays, but I think most of the scientists who live up there come home for the winter.
So anyway, history. The past has always kind of interested me, but i've never gotten really into history, mainly because most of what we studied in school was politics and wars, which aren't really that interesting to me.
Anyone have a favourite historical period?
I was really into ancient Egypt as a kid.
I briefly had a similar flirtation with pre-industrial Japan, but it never blossomed as much as mine with Egypt's did.
I used to have an Ancient Egypt Encyclopedia that included a seven-page generally agreed-upon chronology of all known Pharaohs in it. I fucking loved that thing.
Also I still think Herihor (a high priest of Amun who, for a time, ruled much of Egypt by de facto) is a kickass name.
Honestly I'm amazed at how much Egyptian stuff I remember.
I can still go on about the wadjet eye and the notation archaeologists use to transliterate hieroglyphics into latin characters and everything.
I also used to really resent Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire, because I kinda felt he killed Egypt, even if the Persians had technically conquered it before.
i am quite bad at remembering, especially dates. For some reason i can usually manage decades, particularly from the 1920s onwards.
it's a shame we'll never know the name of the man or woman who well may have invented composing as we know it.
Also "A Zaluzi to the Gods" is pretty good for the first song title ever.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
One man and his name and his skills
Otto
Bismarck
And that's all that will remain.
The dude manipulated the two biggest powers in Central Europe and then crushed the socialist movement in Germany by giving them some of what they wanted.
The guy was literally a twirly moustache away from being a super villain.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Yes, the man was a scoundrel, but he's one of those scoundrels that you end up rooting for. And he was a bit smarter than the other European rulers at the time, being less gung-ho about colonizing Africa and predicting that Wilhelm II would screw up things for Germany with his building up of the military. And while he did oppose Socialism, he was one of the first European leaders to focus on welfare.
I did forget exactly how much of a jerk he was.
☭
B̤̺͍̰͕̺̠̕u҉̖͙̝̮͕̲ͅm̟̼̦̠̹̙p͡s̹͖ ̻T́h̗̫͈̙̩r̮e̴̩̺̖̠̭̜ͅa̛̪̟͍̣͎͖̺d͉̦͠s͕̞͚̲͍ ̲̬̹̤Y̻̤̱o̭͠u̥͉̥̜͡ ̴̥̪D̳̲̳̤o̴͙̘͓̤̟̗͇n̰̗̞̼̳͙͖͢'҉͖t̳͓̣͍̗̰ ͉W̝̳͓̼͜a̗͉̳͖̘̮n͕ͅt͚̟͚ ̸̺T̜̖̖̺͎̱ͅo̭̪̰̼̥̜ ̼͍̟̝R̝̹̮̭ͅͅe̡̗͇a͍̘̤͉͘d̼̜ 
⚢