Recent comments in /f/history

jezreelite t1_j6dxbiy wrote

Reply to comment by cphug184 in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator

In the morning, you'd wake up and have a sponge bath using a wash basin and a pitcher. A full bath would likely only be once a week. If you were a poor person, you would probably share the bath water with your family members.

Your hair would likely be washed only once a week and probably with soap. Shampoo was first introduced to Europeans in 1814, but those in rural areas would likely not have had access to it. There were a lot of hair care tonics available, often of dubious benefit, and very wealthy women were known to wash their hair in things like cognac and eggs.

For your teeth, you'd use a toothbrush or a tooth cloth and tooth powder or paste. A tooth cloth would be likely for people in rural areas and their tooth paste or powder would likely be homemade. At this point, the fact that sugar causes cavities was not understood by most, but having bad breath was still a faux pas.

After pooping, you'd probably use a rag, water, newspaper, brown paper, or your hands, unless you happened to be particularly rich. Toilet paper was not made commercially until the 1850s and only the wealthy used it.

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NorthOfTheBigRivers t1_j6dnlvr wrote

Reply to Mysterious shipwreck identified as Dutch warship that sank after surprise attack in 1672 - identified as the Dutch warship Klein Hollandia by ArtOak

1672 is still taught in schools as to be the rampjaar (disaster year). The Netherlands were attacked by the English, The French and by the bishop of Munster (Nowadays Germany). The Dutch were very rich and the countries defense was more or less asleep: Money needed to go to trading and the traders and not to the defense of the country. That was not a great idea, so the rampjaar happend. We managed to survive and are still a proud nation.

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