Context: Abdulhamid II was the Ottoman sultan from 1876 to 1909. He started off sounding like a reformer, but soon suspended the constitution and parliament and ruled with a tight grip and a ton of spies. His whole energy was desperately trying to keep the empire from falling apart, which is why he gets meme'd as the guy holding it all together. He also pushed pan-Islamism to unite Muslims under his rule, but in the end the Young Turks deposed him. Classic 'they had us in the first half' material.

Context: Before Mu'awiya, caliphs were kind of chosen for being the best fit for the job, at least in theory. Then Mu'awiya came along, said "nah," and made it a family business by naming his son Yazid as the next caliph. That move basically founded the Umayyad dynasty and crushed the whole meritocracy idea. This meme is just him dumping that tradition into the void with pure tribal politics energy.

Context: The meme is about how people always obsess over German WW2 hypothetical super weapons like the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte, but forget that other countries had their own wild paper projects. The left side shows the Tillman Battleships, HMS Incomparable, and N3/G3 ships, which were equally ridiculous naval designs. It's a nudge that every nation had crazy ideas, but only the German ones get all the hype.

Context: the Byzantine Empire was the actual eastern half of Rome, so their claim to be "the Roman Empire" is pretty straightforward. The Holy Roman Empire was a Germanic kingdom that wanted the Roman legacy too, but they had to do some serious mental gymnastics to justify it. The meme mocks how they used things like conquering Rome, the Pope's approval, and even language as flimsy reasons. Meanwhile Byzantines just sat there saying "we never stopped."

Context: Vietnam's 1978 invasion of Cambodia actually ended the Khmer Rouge's genocide. After Pol Pot's rule, many Cambodians literally welcomed the tanks as liberators, which is the joke here. The Vietnamese soldiers' 'what?' reaction is very appropriate.

Context: Vietnam basically went through a 30 year brawl. First they fought the French, then a civil war with the US backing the south, then the Khmer Rouge next door dragged them in, and finally a quick fight with China. By the time that was over, 'I'm tired, boss' is putting it mildly.

Context: So the whole '40 acres and a mule' thing was a real promise made to newly freed slaves after the Civil War. It was supposed to be their fresh start, but the government never actually came through. This meme is just comparing that broken promise to ordering a pepperoni pizza and getting three tiny sad pepperonis instead.

Full title: August 24th 79 AD is the believed date that the City of Pompeii was covered in meters of volcanic ash, after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Thanks to Giuseppe Fiorelli we can see some of their last moments.

Context: These aren't petrified bodies. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, the victims were buried under ash. Over time their bodies decomposed and left hollow spaces in the ash. Archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli realized you could pour plaster of paris into these holes to make a perfect mold of the person's final pose. That's why we have these creepy but fascinating casts today. It's like a 3D snapshot of a Roman's last moment.

Context: This is a fun take on a real piece of history. When Pearl Harbor happened in 1941, the Polish government in exile officially declared war on Japan. Japan, however, had a soft spot for Poland and didn't really feel like fighting, so they just responded with a flat 'No' and ignored the whole thing. They simply refused to go to war with Poland, which makes this meme a perfect 'Just Say No' moment.

Context: The Hawker Hurricane is often overshadowed by the prettier Spitfire, but during the Battle of Britain it really did the heavy lifting. It accounted for roughly 60 percent of Luftwaffe losses. Skeletor here is just giving credit where it's due before disappearing back into the shadows.

context: This meme compares ironic deaths of powerful guys. Julius Caesar took 23 stab wounds before his old body finally gave out. Mithridates VI was so used to poison that he couldn't kill himself with it, so he had to get someone to behead him. Phalaris built a torture device to roast people alive, then got thrown into it himself. And Alexander the Great, who conquered half the world, was taken out by a mosquito (probably malaria). Big fellas, hard falls.

Context: The swole doge is the British Empire at its peak, the largest empire in human history, controlling a quarter of the planet. The Quora screenshot is peak irony because English literally comes from England, and the Brits spread it across the globe. Asking why Brits speak an American language is hilariously backwards.

Context: That's a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber. It had a siren fitted to its wings called the Jericho Trumpet, which let out that horrible screaming noise as it dove. Pure psychological warfare. I'd be terrified too.

Context: This meme is about Kafur, also known as Abu al-Misk Kafur. He was a Black eunuch from Ethiopia who was sold into slavery at a young age. He rose through the ranks to become the de facto ruler of Egypt, basically running the whole thing. The poet mentioned is Al-Mutanabbi, who had been in Kafur's court but got no reward. So he wrote some savage poems mocking Kafur. A man who went from a castrated slave to ruling Egypt, and people mostly know him today because a poet roasted him. Classic.

context: The meme pokes fun at the idea that the Marshall Plan was a totally consensual deal. The US and Western Europe agree to it, but Stalin, representing the Eastern Bloc, flat out refuses. The bottom line asks if someone was forgotten, pointing out the irony that the Eastern Bloc was never really asked if they wanted the plan, and they sure as hell didn't consent to it.

Context: For anyone who grew up before 2006, Pluto was the ninth planet. Then the International Astronomical Union changed the definition of a planet and poor Pluto got demoted to dwarf planet status. Now it's just a nostalgic memory, and Grandpa Simpson says it best.

Context: This meme is about the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. The CIA trained about 1,500 Cuban exiles to invade Cuba. They were pretty confident that once they landed, the Cuban people would rise up against Castro. Spoiler: they didn't. The invasion failed in about three days, and Castro stayed in power for decades. The joke is that the CIA made a huge assumption without checking with the locals first.

context: In 1991 the US finally outlasted the Soviets and thought it was done with great power rivalries. Then by 2005 China shows up and it's like, "Oh, we've got another one." History really has a sense of humor.

Context: So this is a meme about Operation Tracer. During WWII, the British were worried Germany might capture Gibraltar. So they built a secret cave inside the Rock and picked six men, including a surgeon, to be sealed inside it if the worst happened. They'd stay down there for up to seven years, reporting enemy ship movements by radio. The plan never actually had to be used, and the cave stayed hidden until it was found in 1997. Basically real life Vault-Tec, minus the radioactive wasteland.

Context: In the late 1930s Mussolini decided pasta was too dependent on foreign wheat so he pushed Italians to eat rice instead. The people were not exactly thrilled. This meme is just a dramatic chess move for a policy that made him really unpopular at dinner time.