Vir Victus
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vir-victus.bsky.social
Vir Victus
@vir-victus.bsky.social
790 followers 100 following 460 posts
Studied historian (MA). Early Modern History - English and British East India Company. Flair and member of the Askhistorians Community. Yes, I love sailing ships, how did you know?
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vir-victus.bsky.social
Vir Victus @vir-victus.bsky.social · Nov 18
Hello there! As my Profile description says, I am one of the flaired members of, contributing to and answering questions for the Askhistorians Community over on Reddit. An oasis of professionalism in the otherwise very confusing and irritating land of Reddit!
new.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
r/AskHistorians
The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive, or they will be removed.
new.reddit.com
Reposted by Vir Victus
askhistorians.bsky.social
Why was India colonized while China managed to retain independence? @vir-victus.bsky.social takes a look at the situation in India itself, and what contributed to the British occupation & colonization.
Vir-victus's comment on "Why was India colonized while China managed to retain independence?"
Explore this conversation and more from the AskHistorians community
buff.ly
July 9, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Vir Victus
bretdevereaux.bsky.social
I don't usually post on r/askhistorians, but this is my research area, so I have tried by best, may the moderators have mercy on my answer.

www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
May 26, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Vir Victus
bretdevereaux.bsky.social
This week on the blog: The logistics of Road War in Mad Max (and similar) settings: given logistical and tactical constraints, how might we actually expect warfare to be waged in a post-apocalypse?

The answer is...a little bit technical.
acoup.blog/2025/05/23/c...
Collections: The Logistics of Road War in the Wasteland
This week, we’re doing another ‘silly’ topic, but this being me, it is a silly logistics topic, because – as the saying goes – amateurs talk tactics, professionals tal…
acoup.blog
May 23, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by Vir Victus
rachaelking70.bsky.social
This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?
May 20, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Vir Victus
roelkonijn.bsky.social
A deep dive on the nuggets of real history in 300: Rise of an Empire (the one in which Themistokles rides a horse into battle at Salamis)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw-e...
Historian Breaks Down '300: Rise of an Empire' Movie | Deep Dives
YouTube video by History Hit
www.youtube.com
May 19, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Vir Victus
cthomasjamh.bsky.social
For a personal touch, I would also recommend Vaughn's The Politics of Empire at the Accession of George III: The East India Company and the Crisis and Transformation of Britain's Imperial State. I actually studied under Vaughn and his work is incredible. www.amazon.com/Politics-Emp...
The Politics of Empire at the Accession of George III: The East India Company and the Crisis and Transformation of Britain's Imperial State (The Lewis ... in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)
The Politics of Empire at the Accession of George III: The East India Company and the Crisis and Transformation of Britain's Imperial State (The Lewis ... in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History) [Vaughn, James M.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Politics of Empire at the Accession of George III: The East India Company and the Crisis and Transformation of Britain's Imperial State (The Lewis ... in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)
www.amazon.com
May 12, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Vir Victus
rijksmuseumart.bsky.social
The Arms of the Dutch East India Company and of the Town of Batavia #artbots #rijksmuseum
https://botfrens.com/collections/216/contents/1003901
These shields feature the arms of the Dutch East India Company, ornamented with Neptune and a mermaid, and those of Batavia, flanked by Dutch lions. According to the inscription on the latter, the city of Jacatra (now Jakarta) was ‘Conquered on 30 May in the year 1619’. That same year Governor-General Jan Pietersz Coen renamed it Batavia and built a castle with dockyards, warehouses and offices.
May 11, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Vir Victus
evanschultheis.bsky.social
Anyone I know near NYC who wants to adopt a cat named after Byzantium who's scheduled for Euthanasia?

She needs dental surgery and is wasting away because she can't eat without it.

nycacc.app#/browse/224669
May 4, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Reposted by Vir Victus
princejvstin.com
Volley fire of longbow arrows looks cool in movies, but its bollocks as an actual battlefield tactic. It never happened.
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social takes us through it

acoup.blog/2025/05/02/c...

(aLso @michaellivingston.com 's book on Agincourt gets a mention too)
Collections: Why Archers Didn’t Volley Fire
This week we’re looking at a specific visual motif common in TV and film: the arrow volley. You know the scene: the general readies his archers, he orders them to ‘draw!’ and then…
acoup.blog
May 3, 2025 at 11:46 AM
vir-victus.bsky.social
Remove a letter, ruin a movie.
Double entry:

Das Boo
Mad Ma: Fury Road
dhmontgomery.com David H. Montgomery @dhmontgomery.com · May 3
Remove a letter, ruin a movie.

Mater and Commander
kwcollins.bsky.social Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · May 3
Remove a letter, ruin a movie.

Concave
May 3, 2025 at 3:10 AM
vir-victus.bsky.social
An apt comparison to Askhistorians?
A meme with two panels which references/utilizes the 'fall of Osgiliath'-scene from 'Lord of the Rings - Return of the King'. In the movie, the orcs launch a surprise attack over the river, of which the Gondorian forces remain unaware for quite some time. Once they take note of it, the defenders rush down to the river to intercept the overwhelming avalanche of incoming opponents. This premise is paraphrased or rather adapted for the Reddit community of Askhistorians: The premise (and suitably named title) read as/are 'A popular post on Askhistorians about a controversial topic', setting up the first panel in which the sizeable amount of unfitting comments (titled as 'speculation/jokes/anecdotes/revisionism' - all of which appear often on such popular threads despite violating the rules on quality and depth required of top-level responses) are represented by the incoming orcs. Cue panel two: the moderators - akin to the Gondorian soldiers - hastily rush to the river to take up defensive positions in anticipation of the insurmountable horde of (in this case) poor comments they will have to deal with.
April 30, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Vir Victus
askhistorians.bsky.social
AskHistorians has joined with thirty other research- and academia-focused subreddits to issue this statement condemning recent and ongoing efforts to undermine scholarly research and intellectual freedom in the United States.

Please share widely!

www.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...
From the AskHistorians community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the AskHistorians community
www.reddit.com
April 29, 2025 at 1:41 PM
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ryanabt.bsky.social
Turns out that the people who said removing statues was trying to remove history were lying about caring about history.
April 27, 2025 at 6:34 PM
vir-victus.bsky.social
While I am writing the more detailed version, here are m main gripes with said video I complained about - in particular the inaccuracies or unprofessional popularized narratives as depicted or perpetuated in said video: 1) Bombay was given to the EEIC in 1661. 2) The English were pathetic, ...
April 26, 2025 at 1:51 AM
vir-victus.bsky.social
So Kings and Generals released their video about the rise of the EIC today...after the first 5 minutes alone there are so many mistakes, popular misconceptions and narratives being spread...guess that is worth a write-up on r/badhistory.
a man in a suit and tie sitting in a chair
Alt: a man in a suit and tie sitting in a chair
media.tenor.com
April 25, 2025 at 9:55 PM
vir-victus.bsky.social
A meme: a woman lies in bed, attempting to sleep (titled 'Me, who had planned to go to sleep'). Meanwhile a man leans over from the other side of the bed, waking her up/keeping her up with the caption 'A new Askhistorians question on the British colonization of India just dropped'.
April 15, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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imincorrigible.bsky.social
Trump Dec 2022: "If we don't have Free Speech, then we just don't have a Free Country. It's as simple as that."

Trump Apr 2025: "I am so honored to be suing 60 Minutes, CBS Fake News, and Paramount... They should lose their license!"

#r4today
pickardje.bsky.social Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · Apr 14
and yet they come to Europe and lecture everyone on free speech
April 14, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Reposted by Vir Victus
askhistorians.bsky.social
Good Choose Your Own Adventure stories make the choices important and impactful. They put the player in the hot seat, and give them prompts like "The East India house ponders the issue of independence, what do you do? "
buff.ly/S2uGd03
The image shows the Choose Your Own Adventure prompt that reads; "It is the first time the General Court of Proprietors of the East India Company convenes in Leadenhall Street following the recent acquisition of the 'diwani' in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa (1765). With civil and - of paramount importance - fiscal administration now firmly in the hands of you and your fellow shareholders of the most honourable Company, the world lies at your feet: The pesky french rival has just been reduced to a role of utter irrelevance, no longer able to contest your suzerainty and dominion as the THE European power on the Indian subcontinent, a position you and your skilled colleagues enjoy at the expense of several ten thousands soldiers in your service, your own private army; the Company, YOUR Company has evolved into a Company-state, a corporate-nation hybrid reaping the benefits of both trade ventures as well as lucrative tax revenues. Furthermore, new opportunities have become available, allowing for hitherto unprecedented, seemingly limitless extents of self-enrichment, means by which many of your friends, colleagues and rivals already have gotten absurdedly rich, so much so as to simply buy themselves a seat at the table, and by table I mean Parliament, which ironically does not provide tables for its seated members. But despite the high spirits, there is a downside: your newly acquired, very much deserved fortune and source of immeasurable wealth, possibly ushering in a new era for you and your kind, has attracted the attention of the State: the government, ever envious rascal, is deliberating on how to best tap into the Companys wealth through the 'diwani'. As you are blissfully and lovingly spending your time daydreaming about all the riches you could loot and steal amass for your own desires the benefit of the Company and other honourable causes at the expense of both India and the EIC itself and in doing so picturing yourself as a joyful duck diving into a pond of gold -
April 1, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Vir Victus
askhistorians.bsky.social
We invite any and all historians to share their views on these developments, including from the perspective of methodology, implications and/or global and historical precedents.
March 29, 2025 at 3:49 PM
vir-victus.bsky.social
Since @liketexas.bsky.social and @evanschultheis.bsky.social voiced their rightful distaste for AI-generated content so aptly and creatively, I reckon since this is another 'dunk on gen-AI day', I ought to share my own intriguing, coincidental encounter of today. A historical content creator...
1/3
March 28, 2025 at 2:54 PM
vir-victus.bsky.social
Me in the national security group chat:
March 25, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Vir Victus
askhistorians.bsky.social
Spend some time with a fantastic answer from @vir-victus.bsky.social that examines some popular myths about British rule over India, and exactly how long it lasted.
Why Do We Blame the Mughals but Ignore British Raj Atrocities? : r/AskHistorians
2.3M subscribers in the AskHistorians community. The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments…
buff.ly
March 17, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Vir Victus
askhistorians.bsky.social
Did the British in India Ever Consider Establishing an Independent State Separate from Britain? A three part answer from @vir-victus.bsky.social details why it was unlikely.
Did the British in India Ever Consider Establishing an Independent State Separate from Britain? : r/AskHistorians
2.3M subscribers in the AskHistorians community. The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments…
buff.ly
March 10, 2025 at 8:28 PM
vir-victus.bsky.social
Ok, need of advice. Suddenly found my Reddit account to have been suspended. I got notification, warning or mail about it. Since I dont even remotely post anything that violates the TOS, i assume this might have been done in error. Any way how I can clear this up or get to the bottom of this?
March 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
vir-victus.bsky.social
So remember my idea for the article about how politicised (right-wing) popular history tries to discredit academia (featuring Metatron)? I initially thought it was gonna be 15-20 pages; well this is going to be definitely more than 100, possibly FAR more, pending future revisions. Metatron just...
March 8, 2025 at 3:11 PM