Things that you have learned from history

[Gaius Scribonius Curio]

that in order to successfully invade Britain the British must be: a) split up in different tribes ( the romans) b) still recovering from the retreat of the previous occupant(the Saxons) c) must be recovering from beating back a previous invasion and if you have a righteous claim to the throne(the Normans--> i thought for a long time these guys where the vikings because in dutch ,a viking is sometimes called a "noorman" which is old language for man from the north :p)

The Normans were, technically, an offshoot of the Vikings. William the Conqueror's great-great-great grandfather was, supposedly, a Viking called Rolf the Ganger who plundered Northern France, and got paid off with a duchy by the French King. By the time they invaded however they were basically French.

I learned that the 'British' who were steamrollered by the Romans are actually the Welsh and Cornish... (that was ages ago though).

Treating the defeated well defeats the entire purpose of war, which is to impose your conditions on your enemy...

Machiavelli is right, but he's what I call "No Duh!" right, meaning that he is pretty much stating the obvious, not to mention that the obvious he stated is unachievable and illogical (in the sense that you don't fight a war and then treat the vanquished enemy well). Then again, I seriously doubt that Machiavelli was actually advocating the good treatment of enemies. He was just warning the reader of the results of war.

I agree totally, the only reason for a war is a difference of opinion, usually because one side wants something that the others have, and the others won't give it up. In other words, in order to resolve the conflict in your favour, you have to disregard the opposing sides wishes. Therefore, how can you treat them that well? Machiavelli is sneaky like that, it may be the perfect solution on the surface, but in reality, it is entirely unattainable.

That people like to be led, and told what's right or wrong, and have someone else tell them what "God" wants out of them, usually conveniently one god or another created by that same ruling class, or passed down over hundreds/thousands of years from ruler to ruler...

It's just the same story over and over again throughout all of known history.

People wanting to be told what to do, human nature... sigh...

History really is just one way of demonstrating that no matter how much everything changes, there are some things that never change.