The war between Teutonic Order and the Lithuanian pagans was one of the longest conflicts ever! There was some kind of fighting almost every year from 1283 to 1406, but very few big battles. It was basically a war of attrition, but with both sides getting stronger in the process.
The fighting revolved around raids into enemy territory where both sides pillaged enemy territory back and forth. However these raids had to be well organized and the logistics were very difficult. Campaigning was only possible for a limited time of the year!
This is primarily due to two things: geography and climate. These lands were covered by dense forests, bogs, lakes and rivers. There was a belt of uncleared land between the two enemies as a no man's land. This presented logistical challenges that were very difficult to overcome.
Furthermore campaigning was not possible for most of the year because of weather conditions. In fact, there were only two sets of weather conditions that allowed campaigning at all! And even in this case, sudden weather changes would be disastrous and could trap the army.
One weather condition was a very specific type of winter that was not too cold yet sharp enough to harden the ground and freeze over the rivers. The cold was devastating but a weak winter was even worse as it was impossible to move men and horses unless the ground froze.
The other weather condition for campaigning was hot sun combined with drying winds. This could happen any time from April to October, or not at all, and was unlikely to last for more than a month! When it did, they could combined both land and water transport for raids.
The both sides raided each other to no end while getting continuously strengthened and reinforced by their expanding economies in the hinterland away from the front. This caused this brutal endless war to last so long!
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It's crazy how Americans bought the myth that during the time of Columbus people thought that the earth was flat, a complete lie popularized by quasi-historian Washington Irving in 1828.
This globe was literally made before Columbus' discovery, and has no America on it.
Washington Irving completely invented a fictional dialogue between Columbus and the Council of Salamanca, where the clergy supposedly objected him on the ground that the earth was flat.
His fraudulent book would become the most popular book on Columbus in English-speaking world.
This lie was then picked on in America and expended as some sort of anti-Catholic anti-medieval founding myth, where Columbus was supposedly representing enlightenment rationalism against irrationality and dogmatism of the Church.
The idea that monarchy and republic are opposed to each other is a modern thing.
The term republic (res publica) was often used to describe medieval kingdoms.
Even by 16th century the Kingdom of France was still called both a republic and a monarchy at the same time!
The Kingdom of France defined itself by the phrase of "chose publique" (res publica) from 1350s to 1580s, also using the word respublique, to describe the relation between the King of France and his subject.
The term was then replaced by State (État).
The absolutist French monarchy which emerged in 17th century preferred the term State over republic, and talked of the "good of the State".
However the term state also comes from earlier medieval concepts like status regis at regni (the state of the king and the kingdom).
16th century Romans developed an interesting tradition of "talking statues", attaching anonymous political commentary on statues.
The Pasquino was the first of such statues.🧵
The Pasquino is an old statue in Rome dating back to Antiquity.
It was one of many random statues in Rome until early 16th century when Cardinal Oliveiro Carafa decorated the statue with Latin epigrams on the occasion of the Feast of Saint Mark.
The Cardinal's actions unintentionally inspired ordinary Roman people to start writing satirical poems and attaching them to the Pasquino.
It is speculated that these were first only consisting of lowbrow humor, but they soon began including controversial political criticism!