Adderbox76

Half of Paris would already be ash.

And the U.S. got all the money to build up their industrial base by the fact that they were they only country able to give out loans to the European nations fighting in the First World War since every european country spent everything they had and then some fighting each other.

World War One represented the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. It was bigger than the economic exploitation by the British Empire of Africa, India and Asia combined. In four years, the U.S. basically held all the cards and (I know this is controversial) only ended up getting involved militarily when it seemed possible that the allies would lose and therefore be unable to pay off their loans.

And you know what...all credit to the Americans; they took that new found wealth and built up the strongest, most powerful industrial base the world had ever seen; an industrial base that, without which, the second world war would have been nearly impossible to win (Russian blood, British Strategy, American Industry...isn't that the saying?)

It's what they proceeded to do with that industrial base afterwards that lead us to where we are now.

In reality, "Democracy" as invented by the Greeks was never intended to be held by the uneducated. Ever citizen got a vote, but frankly not everyone was a citizen.

The rights of a citizen came with certain expectations, and that included knowledge of the Ars Liberalis, or "Liberal Arts", which...far from today's demonized meaning created in order to attack higher learning, literally translated in the greek world as "the exercise of freedom".

In other words, citizenship and voting rights obligated a person to be knowledgeable of things like Logic, History, Rhetoric, etc... You TRAINED to partake in the affairs of state just like you would prepare for any other task that requires skill and THAT was what granted you the priviledge of citizenship. (Well...that an being part of the wealthy class....)

Modern "Democracy" is predicated on the opposite; not just citizens that are ill-informed, but citizens that are so intellectually incurious that they can't be bothered to exercise their right properly.

Admitting your country has problems is "woke", though. /s

The fact that McHitler hasn't stroked out by now is all the proof I really need to say that there is no god directing all this shit.

The reason is simple. They refused to help him out by sending their eggs.

What the fuck did the idiot THINK was going to happen?

Definitely uncut. All the extra shit they can add to it just dilutes the high.

His Big Mac was served cold on Monday.

Yes. There's no doubt that the English longbows were a force to themselves. They were lethal in piercing armour but they were still used in generally the same manner. To open up the battle by forcing the enemy to take a defensive stance and "thinning the herd" (so to speak) before your own infantry engages their forces.

Once the infantry engaged however, you didn't want to be raining down arrows on your own men and so the purpose of the archers largely changes to a completely different purpose; controlling the flow of battle with strategic use of volleys.

And yes...the Mongols changed everything with their horse archers. There's a reason a good part of the population is descended from Genghis Khan...

Archers were strategic weapons, not the main crux of killilng. They were used to do things like keeping an enemy division pinned down so that your cavalry can move around them or one of your own divisions can reach a more advantageous position. A well placed concentrated barrage could force an enemy to move in a direction that is more advantageous to you, etc...

They weren't the primary means of killing people. They were the means of steering the battle where the general wanted it to go.

Actually, it worked pretty much exactly this way in the first stages of battle.

In the opening moves of a medieval battle, archers were essentially like the "creeping fire" that they used in World War 1; it's purpose is to keep the enemy immobile behind their shields and unable to advance as fast as they would like. Your army can't rush to take an advantageous position if they're constantly having to stop and hide under their shields.

In WW1, in the Somme especially, the artillery would lay down what they called "creeping fire" to keep the enemy huddled in their trenches while their own soldiers advance behind the wall of firepower. Archers basically played the same role.