New CBB

As the title says, WTF moments in history.

My favourite one was that Romans had so much trouble with Parthians, they went in with thousands upon thousands of troops, attacked, and left with 500~ soldiers and without an emperor, who was captured and used as a stool for mounting horses. The fun times.

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Rooacözanaatöözaqaxzsefäzskaelasaar tözaseleela.
Even though it could be smelled that the two of them were eaten and butchered around as if the other ones had experience, I can obviously tell you two are eating peacefully without being disturbed.

Valerian, right?

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I am not responsible for the accuracy of my sources; they're responsible for their own mistakes, if any, and also responsible for defending their own statements if you disagree with them.

Hmmmm. How about this story from Herodotus? Herodotus is wonderful for WTF moments... but his veracity is sometimes doubtful.

Candaules, the ruler of Lydia from 735 BCE to 718 BCE loved his wife so much that he bragged to his bodyguard Gyges how amazingly beautiful she was, and told Gyges to come with him and look at her naked from the closet. Of course, Gyges being a good little boy, he refused at first, but then agreed, because Candaules was the king, after all.

So they did that. And the queen found out.

The queen went to Gyges (actually, she summoned him to her, but whatever) and gave him an ultimatum: either you must commit suicide, or you must kill Candaules and become my husband. She reasoned that only one person in the world should know what she looked like naked, and that should be her husband, and there could only be one husband. So one of the two had to be killed.

Gyges kills Candaules, and becomes the next ruler of Lydia.

He was a good king, too.

I have to answer this one.

1. Song Dynasty, China.

You cannot beat an industrial revolution happening 500 years before the current one. They didn't go far enough, but they were about to bring it. Shame on you Mongols.

2. Edo Period, Japan

This might be the first true modern urban culture in the world, and it was outside anything christian. Sure, things weren't perfect, but at least, they knew how to make live a millionaire city without current technology. There are reasons why the biggest city in the world is still in Japan.

3. Prehistory

It was a hard time, you could die very young. But at least, you lived pretty well it seems, if you were not sick. 40 years of vivid life is better than 80 years of boring routine.

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Ie Ien Iras Ĉiu
- Daneydzaus
Te tosrastai karsuraka me toskarmai!
- Yau 300-yai

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From what I know some scholars suggest the reason why a Chinese Industrial Revolution never happened was because China didn't have the socio-economic prerequisites for the Industrial Revolution, unlike in Europe, although personally I think that's Eurocentric BS. Make of it what you will, of course.

Actually the possibilities of alternate history are the true WTF Moments in History, in a sense. Everything could have been so, so different had it not been for just this one little thing.

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I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce

Descriptions of 12th century Kaifeng sound like 18th century London!

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Mekoshan
Alpic

And people wonder why I go all crazy and that my favorite Kanji is :

宋

For those illiterate, it is the kanji used for the Song dynasty.

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Ie Ien Iras Ĉiu
- Daneydzaus
Te tosrastai karsuraka me toskarmai!
- Yau 300-yai

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That's me!

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___________________ I am the Great Rabbit. Fear me, O Crabs!

Illiterate? You make it sound like knowing hanzi is required.

The Song Dynasty is one of my favorites.

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[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
Nōn quālibet inīqua cupiditāte illectus hōc agō.
[tiː.mɔ.tʉɥs god.lɐf hɑwk]

Six-day-war.

Gott mit uns!

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(native)
(learning)

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Języki sztuczne i lingwistyka, po polsku.

It sure is for me, but that's because Japanese was my major. And I'm planning to move to Japan and work there. Kind of... required, if you ask me.

:P

It is my favorite ever since I read about it.

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Ie Ien Iras Ĉiu
- Daneydzaus
Te tosrastai karsuraka me toskarmai!
- Yau 300-yai

, , , , ,

Qin and Tang here.

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♀♥♀
Dotjen
Kotanese

Meh, the interdynastic wars are more interesting :D
春秋、戰國、三國時代

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力在公蝦米????

flags

我看书看三国。 (for class. Can't say that quite yet.)

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♀♥♀
Dotjen
Kotanese

The biggest WTF moment?
The sheer stupidity of the Kaiser in WWI in that he didn't make peace when he could have.
He had easily almost won the war in 1915, but in 1916 and 1917 the tables turned. Germany couldn't fund the war quite well.

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Svo hvernig get ég annað en glott á þig dauðlega?

I wonder how the world would have changed if Germany actually did win WWI. Back then they weren't Nazis, right?

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そうだ。死んでいる人も勃起することが出来る。
俺はその証だ。

Nazis came because of WWI failures.
Had the Kaiser won in 1915, the February and October revolutions would have been stomped since Russia would've had more troops than it did in 1917 (it even dropped out of the war due to the revolution)

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Svo hvernig get ég annað en glott á þig dauðlega?

Parallel to Julian the Apostate's burning the Byzantine navy when he invaded Persia so his troops couldn't retreat; and not accepting the Persians' repeated offers to surrender while the Persian army slowly gathered its scattered strength.

General lesson; When you've won, say "We win!", take your winnings, make friends with your erstwhile opponents, and go home.

Hell, Detroit/Windsor and nearby areas have lots of casinos where people still fail to learn that lesson.

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I am not responsible for the accuracy of my sources; they're responsible for their own mistakes, if any, and also responsible for defending their own statements if you disagree with them.

Right. Is it possible a German victory in WWI would have been better considering WWII? If the Nazis never came about or at least didn't come to power, how many lives could not have been saved? But perhaps then WWII could have come about for different reasons and be just as devastating even without the holocaust?
Wow, I really shouldn't get into this discussion. I know far too little really, and this is definitely the wrong place to have one. The thread will get clogged and locked in a flash and I might be held responsible. Please forgive me, aszev!

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そうだ。死んでいる人も勃起することが出来る。
俺はその証だ。

Yeah, the Germans definitely weren't Nazis in WWI. It's an unfortunate misconception people still have. While I can understand why someone would think WWII as a good vs. evil war (though I'll have reservations on that), WWI was definitely not a good vs. evil war. WWI, from what I learned, was definitely a war where either side could have won.

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I now have a blog. Witness the horror.

I think I think, therefore I think I am.
- Ambrose Bierce