Short Answers to Simple Questions | December 25, 2024

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[u/GalahadDrei]

What are good history books for reading more about the anti-communist purges committed by the KMT and/or the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-Shek in mainland China starting with the Shanghai Massacre in 1927 and the years after that during the civil war?

I have seen estimates of deaths from around 400k to more than a million people but I have been having trouble finding English-language sources that talk about these massacres in depth.

[u/Fine-Independence976]

Where is the capital of Great Moravia nowdays? It was Valigrad (or Veligrad) if I understand correctly but where would it be nowdays?

[u/seakingsoyuz]

The Wikipedia article for the first German Kaiser has had the following claim on it for over seventeen years:

He fought under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battles of Ligny and Waterloo.

This claim was added in an edit by an anonymous user and was initially unsourced. The source that now appears is a dead link to a page on the Deutsches Historisches Museum website, and the Wayback Machine version of the page doesn't appear to say anything about Waterloo.

There are other online sources that also state that Wilhelm was present at Waterloo, but I suspect that these could be due to citogenesis rather than representing independent confirmation. There is also the possibility that the anonymous user confused him with his uncle, also called Prince Wilhelm, who commanded the IV Corps cavalry in the Waterloo campaign.

So where was Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig von Hohenzollern on 18 June 1815?

[u/CasparTrepp]

Where did Napoleon say "There is no immortality but the memory that is left in the minds of men...to have lived without glory, without leaving a trace of one’s existence, is not to have lived at all"? Could someone provide me with the original quote in French?

[u/gerardmenfin → u/CasparTrepp]

It's a literary rewriting of an actual quote from a letter from Napoléon to General Lauriston, dated 12 December 1804. He was trying to convince Jacques Lauriston to lead an expedition to Suriname to fight the British invasion there.

General Lauriston, the Ministers of the Navy and War have sent you your instructions. You will see that, to make you stronger, I have reunited you with General Reille. I need the frigate La Muiron for other purposes. The season is already too far advanced; leave without delay; fly my flags on this beautiful continent; justify my confidence, and if, once established, the English attack you, and you experience vicissitudes, always remember these three things: joining forces, activity and a firm resolution to perish with glory. It is these three great principles of the military art that have always made fortune favourable to me in all my operations. Death is nothing; but to live defeated and without glory is to die every day [La mort n’est rien ; mais vivre vaincu et sans gloire, c’est mourir tous les jours]. Don't worry about your family, and give yourself entirely to this part of [my family] [sic] that you are going to conquer.

Lauriston got full and detailed instructions in the next letter. The fleet actually departed from Toulon, but the winds got bad, the ships returned, and the expedition was cancelled. So much for glory.

A mangled version of the quote appears in the memoirs of Bourrienne, Napoléon's secretary, who says mistakenly that it was in a letter to Joseph, the Emperor's brother.

[u/FuckTheMatrixMovie]

This wikipedia page has a section for a "real life Quasimodo". The page only cites this telegraph article which I do not have access to. After some quick searching I could not find any more robust sources. So.... what's the scholarly consensus on the inspiration for Quasimodo? Is there any sources one can recommend for further reading? Thanks

[u/LordSnuffleFerret]

I'm in the process of watching a History Channel documentary about King Arthur, and an interesting point brought up was that during the invasion of 1066, the Bretons fighting alongside the Normans had a bard singing about Arthur.

Does anyone have any examples of Breton music pertaining to King Arthur from this time period? Actual played music would be nice (I found an Medieval Breton ballad on YouTube, but not a lot else)