German Peasants: Did you mean...?

A 1943 photograph of an 88mm anti-aircraft gun used by Germany during the Second World War (1939-45). These guns were usually placed in batteries of six or eight guns.(German Federal Archives)

This is a 6th century CE gravestone for a German man named Leo. The text is in Latin. (Translation of the text into English: "In this tomb rests in peace Leo of good memory. He lived for 52 years. He died the day before the Ides of October."...

A captured German bunker with 50-mm gun at Gold Beach, attacked during the D-Day Normandy landings of 6 June 1944. (Imperial War Museums)

A rapier made by German swordmaker Meves Berns c. 1610-1620 CE. Steel blade, hilt decorated with silver and copper wire. Solingen, Germany. 120.2 cm (47 5/16 in). (Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

A photograph taken during the Christmas Truce of 1914 on the Western Front during the First World War (1914-18). Possibly showing Riflemen Andrew (middle) and Grigg (second from the right, background) of the London Rifle Brigade with troops...

A photograph taken during the Christmas Truce of 1914 on the Western Front during the First World War (1914-18). British troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector. (Imperial War Museums)

Domesday Book was a comprehensive survey and record of all the landowners, property, tenants and serfs of medieval Norman England. It was compiled in 1086-7 under the orders of William the Conqueror (r. 1066-87). The record is unique in European...

Medieval serfs (aka villeins) were unfree labourers who worked the land of a landowner (or tenant) in return for physical and legal protection and the right to work a separate piece of land for their own basic needs. Serfs made up 75% of...

So, we haven't talked much about Italy and Germany so far in Crash Course Euro, and that's because prior to the mid-19th Century CE, those two nation-states weren't really a thing. Today we'll look at how Italy and Germany pulled it together...

The Shimabara Rebellion was a peasant uprising that occurred from 17 December 1637 to 15 April 1638 in Japan's southern island of Kyushu. Economic desperation, famine, and religious persecution led the peasants of the Shimabara peninsular...