History Buff Talk

Alright, this is for us guys over at the old Map Game thread who were talking about history and stuff. Fire away, guys!

I was tempted to make a thread for this and then decided not to. Well Done for doing what I decided not to do! Lol

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ok, so… this is just a general purpose “let’s talk about history” thread?

pulls up a chair

Yeah. :smile: Can you move my large three paragraph Japanese history post to this topic please @SteveAdamo? :heart:

Yes he did. To give a little more depth to the situation:

The country was fairly unified under the Ashikaga Shogunate. Tensions began to rise because of issues surround an heir and war broke out in the capital (Onin War) between the Ashikaga and Hosokawa with the Hosokawa coming out the victors and puppet of the Shogunate. Tensions started to rise more and the daimyo lost trust in the Shogunate and began to feud and the country dove into chaos (Sengoku-ji [Warring States Period]).

Oda Nobunaga nearly unified Japan before dying. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, loosly unified the remaining daimyo and turned his attention to attempting to attack Korea. After Hideyoshi died with no heir Tokugawa Ieyasu seized the opportunity and unified Japan and was proclaimed the new Shogun and the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled from 1600 to 1868 when the government was modernized.

So you can say that Tokugawa unified Japan, but it wasn’t just his work.

And that’s your simplified Japanese History Lesson Of The Day. :sake:

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done and done… time to read up, it seems… :smile:

So not to brag but I have a Masters in Military History, so I’m happy to try to clarify any history-related questions people have, or at least point in the right direction to find an answer.

-Will

What would military history classify as? Is it just Land warfare history or also Naval? Does it just cover battles/wars or also the weaponry and warfare technology used? Does it include historical stratagems? Do you only know about a few countries military histories or do you know all of them?

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My degree covered all aspects of military history; land/sea/air, specific wars/battles, technology/weapons, tactics/strategy/doctrine, along with general trends in military operations. We also spent a lot of time on the political and economic ramifications of warfare, and learning the basic skills of being a good historian (such as knowing to treat sources with skepticism!). We did all of this covering a time span from the Late Bronze Age to the present day, so obviously we didn’t become experts on every single conflict. In general the program spent a lot of time wrestling with the big questions (or at least they are big if you are into Military History), such as is there a unique ‘Western Way’ of war, does the 16th century represent the start of a ‘revolution in military affairs’, and when exactly did the idea of ‘total war’ arise and is it even a valid concept? I go could go and on but that’s the gist of what I know,

-Will

Hm… I believe Japan had a brief flirtation with democracy before reverting to imperialism, correct? (Post Meji Restoration, of course)

This I don’t know much about, but from what I can remember they were pushing towards democracy during the 1910s and 1920s but their government wasn’t strongly rooted yet and succumbed to the economic crisis of the great depression and became militarized.

Totally NOT my area of expertise, but before WWII there was a Japanese ‘Diet’, with an elected house and a house of hereditary peers. The voting franchise was pretty limited though. As Avairian says, the stresses of the great depression (and prior economic issues in Japan) led to the military gaining greater power in government, IIRC, at this time the Prime Minister and his cabinet was appointed by the Emperor as well, which was one of the avenues by which the military was able to access political power.

-Will