To understand Russia, read this. “Siberia was the easy part. But it still left Moscow completely exposed to southern and western threats. Conquering those lands would prove harder though.” https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/problem-of-russia
Montains matter. “Arguably, civilization would have had a much harder time developing in the Americas if the land had been much flatter and low-lying. It’s not a coincidence that the Incan Empire was a mountain empire and was the only… Read More »Why Warm Countries Are Poorer
Equasion to make interesting content.
Reading Magna Carta is quite interesting. Most people, like me, think it is about freedom as such, but in the end it is a business contract. And war was necessary to have it written. “Neither we nor our officials will… Read More »Magna Carta, 1215 – The National Archives
Adverbs matter. “‘great’ is not the superlative of ‘good’ (that, as a reminder, is ‘best’); I am not asking if the United States has had a positive impact on the world here (once again a deeply subjective question). Instead ‘greatness’… Read More »Collections: Is the United States Exceptional?
Definitions matter. Especially if people want to misuse terms for shady purposes. “by the narrow, technical definition, the United States is not, and has never been, a nation and is unlikely to become one in the near future.” https://acoup.blog/2021/07/02/collections-my-country-isnt-a-nation/
Archeology is like arithmetic to historians. “It is thus relevant that over the past half-century or so, it has so happened that effectively all ancient historians have had to develop a strong grasp of archaeological data; we don’t all necessarily… Read More »Collections: Rome: Decline and Fall? Part III: Things
Various ways to look at power. “vassals are also not vassals to a title but to a person; a duke with two ducal titles who is deprived of one loses no vassals because they do not belong to the title,… Read More »Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part I: Making It Personal
Diseases helped colonized Americas but saved Africa in a way. “Rates of disease mortality among European soldiers stationed at the relatively less malarial port-and-fort posts they maintained (which we’ve discussed in this series) in the period period to the Scramble… Read More »Collections: Teaching Paradox, Victoria II Part III: World’s Fair
Our brains are hungry. “Although the brain represents just 2 per cent of body weight, it consumes about 20 per cent of our energy at rest. Every perception, memory, emotion and idea is metabolically expensive. Thought itself is an energy-hungry… Read More »Fuel for thought