Not looking for an ethical argument, I'm more interested if there were specific historical incidents which shaped the language of the conventions or inspired the emphasis against "no quarter."
This is kind of a weird one. I'm aware that sailors have been a generally heterogenous lot, since they could come from all over; and the close quarters about sailing vessels would make most US separate-but-equal accommodations difficult, especially for ships not based in the US but just visiting.
So how did it work in practice? Did the U.S. Navy segregate white and non-white sailors? Did commercial shipping have to abide by segregation when in US jurisdiction? Or was it basically unenforceable aboard ship?
Kind of a wonky chain of thought, but: Islam dietary laws prohibit drinking alcohol, and most vinegar is derived from wine or other alcoholic beverages. Obviously, not everybody abided by Islamic prohibition against drinking, but to the degree that the spread of Islam impacted alcohol production, did this impact vinegar production in those areas as well?
I'm aware that in the UK forces at least, the influx of troops from India and other parts of the Empire required different ration choices, but was there any thought given to US troops to avoid serving pork to Jewish troops?
Bonus sub-question: Was US approach to rations and dietary laws in WWII subtantially different than in WWI?
Or other form of political union that preserved the individual Italian states in a super-national structure. It feels like something somebody would have proposed or tried to implement, but I'm curious what the problems were and if that led to unification as it happened.
I realize there might not be a definitive answer to this question, but I'm thinking that the contemporary profession of an independent gunsmith - i.e. someone whose trade is to manufacture, modify, and repair firearms - is deeply entwined with the history of firearms. But where did the gunsmith trade develop from? There are aspects of the trade that might derive from the carpenter, machinist, blacksmith, and goldsmith, but were these originally separate individuals involved in firearm manufacture, or did the trade start when individuals began combining skills from multiple trades to build firearms?