Humanities desk
< April 4	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 6 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 5

Artwork "The execution of Raja Shambhaji"

This pic, uploaded on Commons as "own work" in 2022, is used on several WP:s. However, it's been on the internet longer than that, and factmuseum.com (see François_Gautier#Photography_and_painting_exhibitions for context) gives it the caption "Exhibit No. 38: The execution of Raja Shambhaji (son of Shivaji) on Aurungzeb’s orders after capture. (February, 1689)" [1].

So, is factmuseum.com correct here, are there WP:RS on motive, artist, source, year, etc? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:21, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte's death toll

I read the Wikipedia page and 2,279 seems rather low. Is this an accurate reflection of the figure? The maximum I can figure is 4,000 or so dead but that is if you stretch the numbers (Use maximum disappearances and assume a larger estimate is only dead.). John Not Real Name (talk) 19:12, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No one could tally the countless summary executions, which were not documented. The low number reflects (I suppose) the killings that could be positively confirmed. The highest estimate I've seen is 10,000 people.^[2] I don't know what this estimate is based on. It seems unlikely high,^[3] but the difficulties in giving an accurate estimate of the number of disappeared people is such that one cannot say this is definitely impossible. ‑‑Lambiam 09:34, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That seems like a copout answer. The 2,279 figure includes disappearances (Assumed dead.) and again if you assume 3,200 are dead and the remaining 1,469 disappeared as Gabriel Boric Font suggested then you arrive at 4,669 as an upper-bound. The source for the claim is a New York Times article: ( https://www.nytimes.com/es/2023/08/30/espanol/chile-golpe-estado-desaparecidos.html ). Nevertheless Thank You for the sources. John Not Real Name (talk) 13:16, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, a parenthesis within a sentence ought not to have either a capital letter or a closing stop. —Tamfang (talk) 04:53, 12 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Tariffs and exchange rates

As an American living in Australia, I watch the AUD/USD exchange rate carefully. Presumably in response to Trump's new tariffs, very early yesterday morning the exchange rate went to US$1=A$1.66, representing the weakest point for AUD (aside from a brief spike in early COVID) in at least ten years. Why do tariffs cause such a spike? I found this article from the Journal of international money and finance, but most of the article is unavailable without a subscription, most of the available portion is too technical for me to understand, and the bits that I do understand are talking about the effects of adjustments to interest rates, caused by monetary authorities responding to other effects of the tariffs. Based on [4], I don't believe that there have been any changes to the US federal funds rate since last year, so this isn't relevant. Nyttend (talk) 20:49, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The exchange rates reflect what the markets "think", an inscrutable process emerging from the imaginations and murmurs of myriad minds, some more bubbled-up than others. The euro and yen went sharply up, while the British pound went through a pronounced dip but restored quickly; why these differences? One would think it reflects expectations of the relative strengths of how much the economies of the respective trade partners will suffer in this unprovoked war, which would determine or influence interest rate adjustments. ‑‑Lambiam 09:14, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Markets may be overreacting to Trump's new tariffs. As a result, the yen, pound, and euro could see sharp rises and falls in the coming months. Stanleykswong (talk) 17:45, 8 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Flight to safety. The US Dollar is seen -- rightly or not -- as a safer store of value. DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 17:04, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This does not explain the drop of the Aussie with respect to the euro. News sources attribute the drop to China's countermeasures.^[5][6][7][8] Another article links it to the hit on the yuan.^[9] Quoting from this article: "Chief economist at the Australia Institute Greg Jericho told SBS News the two currencies are linked, which means when the Yuan takes a hit, it can impact the Australian dollar." ‑‑Lambiam 20:34, 6 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is no doubt that if the new tariffs are implemented as Trump says, China will be hit hard. The renminbi will face significant depreciation pressure, and the Chinese central bank may want to see the renminbi fall to mitigate the impact of the new tariffs. Australia sells large quantities of natural resources such as coal and iron ore to China. If the Chinese economy gets into trouble, Australia will be severely affected. I think this is why the Australian dollar has been so weak and I expect it to continue to be weak over the coming months. Stanleykswong (talk) 17:53, 8 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The market believes that Trump's new tariffs could lead to a global recession. The demand for natural resources could drop dramatically. Affected by this, the Australian dollar has fallen sharply recently against the country's major trading partners, and has fallen to its lowest point since 2020 against the euro, pound sterling and US dollar. Stanleykswong (talk) 17:39, 8 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Palauan politician

I've written an article on Grace Y. Sam, a Palauan politician, but the only sources I have are the one cited and one journal article that mentions her in a footnote (download link). Are there free online newspaper and/or government archives for Palau (or, more specifically Koror)? If not, is there anyone with access to relevant libraries or archives that can search for information on Sam? Thanks, voorts (talk/contributions) 23:24, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]