Ask me about Medieval History & Combat.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about Medieval History & Combat.

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

Railtus posted:

A problem with my sources, however, is that they are overwhelmingly English, and England was quite the unusual place in the medieval period. Florence had a guild of innkeepers listed in 1236, so other parts of Europe might have moved faster than England on this subject.

Sorry if this is a throwaway comment, but what do you mean by England being a unusual place in the medieval period? Just curious in what why they were unusual.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2013 22:26

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 13:20

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

Arglebargle III posted:

It should be noted that this was the much-reduced Southern Song, which had already lost the Yellow River Valley and Central China Plain to the invading Jurchen. The Jurchen set up yet another Jin Dynasty (there are so many) in northern China but they picked a terrible time to found a new empire as the Mongols were only 100 years behind them. The relative ease with which the Mongols conquered China, and thus some part of their successful campaigns elsewhere, can be attributed to their fortuitous timing in finding China divided and drained by decades of warfare between the Jin and Song.

The Central China Plain is the heartland of Chinese civilization, and at the time it was still the population center and political center of the Empire. Although southward migration in times of trouble had been a recurring trend, the Song Dynasty saw the most massive transfer of people and resources south up until that point in Chinese history. The Song Dynasty really established the south as an inseparable part of Chinese civilization and politics. Unfortunately for the Song, they didn't really last long enough to benefit from this demographic shift as they were still really hurting from the loss of population, arable land, developed cities, and treasure from losing the north when the Mongols showed up and started their campaigns. Even worse the Jin dynasty folded almost immediately, leaving the huge population and resources of the north in Mongol hands. Chinese infantry from the north was critical to the Mongols' siege of Xiangyang.

The role of warfare between the Jin and Song really can't be overstated in the Mongol invasion. This wasn't simply border friction; the Jin and Song both made major penetrations deep into each other's territory throughout the century between the fall of Kaifeng and the Mongols' arrival. The Song even recaptured Kaifeng at one point. The fighting was vicious and destabilizing to both states. You can see the enormous resources poured into warfare in the elaborate fortresses described above, which were certainly built as border forts in the war against the Jin, not the Mongols.

Despite its losses, the Southern Song was a hugely wealthy dynasty in the midst of a technological and economic golden age when the Mongols showed up.* The Song was militarily weak in its first century but the army and navy both improved considerably over the war with the Jin. If this state had not been cut in half by the Jin invasion, not lost its capital, its densest population center, and its ancient line of northern fortifications, it may have been able to resist the Mongols for a long time.It may even have withstood them entirely in the south, given the amazing defensive terrain around the Yangtze River which has thwarted dozens of armies over the millennia. Who knows what the Mongol Conquests would have looked like then?

*The Mongols ruined the party to a great extent; they were less enlightened than Kublai Khan would make you think. We have less extant documentation in Chinese from the Yuan dynasty than either the Song or the Ming; it seems they suppressed or destroyed a lot of writings. But what we do have suggests the Chinese were not very happy with their Mongol overlords.

Basically, one band of Islamic engineers changed the fate of history? Stuff like this always reminds you how fickle history is, and how every little things builds on others in hugely complex ways.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2013 13:08

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

HEY GAL posted:

Anything in there about how the Venetian Inquisition invented the practice of defense lawyers for people who couldn't afford their own? No? It was very important.

Huh? Any chance of an effortpost about that? Didn't know defense laywers were so recent, considering lawyers as a profession are old.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2014 22:06

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

JaucheCharly posted:

You're dangerous now, eh?

Bowmaking? Bowmaking

Shaping was more difficult than expected

Coated with thin glue and ready for the sinew

Weighting the first layer of sinew

Soaking the sinew in water

Hideglue added to the fishglue

Melted and almost ready

Taking the sinew out of the water and combing

Then some poo poo happened, but it turned out ok I think. Backstrap is so long that it's almost impossible to control when slippery, that's why the Koreans let the bundle gel on the board. The form of this type of bow doesn't lend itself to backstrap, unlike the korean bow. Anyway, it's already done and I learned something.

Pulled into reflex

5 days later I cleaned it up. Looked good then, not like on the pics. The next sinew layer was applied today and there's more reflex

Tomorrow the sinew will the made even with a sponge and a wooden dowel. In 2 weeks, I'll remove the string and the bow will have gained even more reflex and stay in this shape for seasoning for the next 6 months or so. Maybe less. Eventually the core will be cleaned up and carefully sanded for a better appearance. There's this ugly lump of sinew that I left on the grip, so that I don't have to lay it in the fades, which would make the shape uneven. Doesn't matter, it's going to be sanded away. What strikes me is, that the differences in the core thickness that I measured while shaping is already visible. It's like 0,2-0,3mm

I'm wondering how strong this bow will turn out. It's entirely possible that it will turn out too strong for me to shoot.

All your posts on bowmaking and the bow bending in the process really empathize how much skill and technique goes into making these. Its a wonder that people managed to produce these types of bows in large enough quantities for use in warfare.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 20:18

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

HEY GAL posted:

there's a long-rear end time in the early modern where english people make great soldiers as long as they're in an army that knows what it's doing but england as such consistently sucks.

Why are they considered great soldiers? I can understand why English armies suck (being on a island leaves you a bit out of practice) but what qualities were English soldiers said to have?

# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 12:37

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

Baudolino posted:

What was the last Crusade? Kings kept retroactivly declaring their wars a crusade for a long time. It`s really hard to define cut off point. Did they only end with the Napoleon`s capture of Malta?( then occupied by a still military active templar order).

If you require that Crusades have to be called by a Pope, then either Varna in 1444, where Pope Eugene IV published a Crusading bull and Hungary+Poland+Bohemia invaded the Ottomans (and lost), or in 1480, where in response to the Ottomans taking Otranto in southerrn Italy, Pope Sixtus IV called for a crusade to throw them out, and Hungary did send troops to help Naples kick them out. The use of calling a war a "Crusade" is rhetorical sense probably continued for much longer, and so did the crusading orders.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2015 18:09

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

loquacius posted:

A large part of my problem is that I have no idea what kind of price I should even be looking at. A lot of these sites have some really cool poo poo I thoroughly enjoyed clicking but no price information displayed on them. The Arms And Armor site seems to be an exception; I'll start shopping around there. Thanks guys

Alot of the stuff is made to order, which is the rough reason why.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2015 20:55

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

On the other hand, almost getting universal male sufferage in the 17th century is as cool as hell, even if the New Model Army never got to implement it.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 23:08

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

Mr Enderby posted:

Yeah, but that doesn't seem very plausible to me because why would you just borrow some random guy's gun and start firing it off. Who was carrying a loaded gun in a theater?

Although apparently some chucklefuck turned up to your reenactment with a sharp sword so maybe...

Isn't this still a time period where most city-dwellers would carry a sword/long dagger with them most times? I assume the same thing could apply to guns.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2016 02:22

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

JaucheCharly posted:

I heard you like armor and stuff.

A good place to have nearby when the zombie apocalypse happens.

Where is this?

# ¿ Feb 21, 2016 20:51

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

Went and saw Carisbrooke castle today, a nice medial castle with the beginnings of a start fort around it. Not exactly the perfect defense left, after 500 years, but nice to see one, even if it would have been useless in the middle of the Isle of Wight.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2016 17:54

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 13:20

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

Assuming that unification is "natural" and treating the HRE not unifying as a bad thing is wrong. Asking "why didn't the HRE unify, it seemed to be the trend of other states" is fine. Although "unification" is a pretty hazy concept in itself - the UK was pretty much always more unified politically that most of Europe, for a long time when it was just England still.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2017 18:00

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