A lot of media in Hollywood tries to make it seem like there were white people who cared about the Natives. How true is this? I'd like to believe the number isn't zero, but at the same time, Hollywood does try to make history conform to modern ideologies. I can't seem to find any details about…
By 1391 the Ottomans had the run of Thrace and, increasingly, the Balkans. They helped Manuel II depose John V and were able to order both Manuel and John VII to take part in the siege of Philadelphia. By the sounds of it the Empire had no army, no money, and no allies at that point. So why didn't…
Haiti, Jamaica, and many of the other Caribbean islands were apparently ludicrously profitable in their slave plantation heydays, but none of these countries are extremely rich now. Was this because it was only profitable with respect to money being extracted for a tiny group of peolle that made it…
When piracy in antiquity is discussed, it almost always focuses on the Mediterranean. But there were rich trade routes across the Indian Ocean, with India being a major trading hub, rich in resources of its own while also connecting trade between Rome and China. So it seems natural that with so…
A lot of cliches in pirate fiction can be attributed to Treasure Island (buried treasure, one-legged pirates, parrots, songs about rum, etc). My question is were these tropes invented by Robert Louis Stevenson, or was he merely using things that were already popular beforehand?
In the 1818 edition of Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavanza was Victor Frankenstein's cousin. In the 1831 edition, her background is changed to make her an orphan adopted by the Frankensteins, unrelated by blood. Did this change reflect a change in public attitudes in the intervening 13 years?
Seems to be that from way back in the neolithic until relatively recent Russian colonial settlement, the region has only been inhabited by nomadic societies - from PIEs to, maybe arguably, the cossacks. Why hasn't a sedentary farming society developed in the region despite its richness in…
I've been reading a lot about the Byzantine Empire and how Greek was the common language for centuries in huge swathes of the Mediterranean world. Yet today Greek is pretty much only spoken in Greece and Cyprus, and has no major related languages to it in the same way that Latin morphed into the…
I have heard Copts were actually a majority of the Egyptian population until something like the 1300s, and I know part of the idea of the crusades was to build ties with eastern Christians. I also know a few of the crusades were actually in Egypt so that the Copts could not have possibly avoided…
This tweet just popped up in my timeline: https://twitter.com/andreloez/status/1554754683721465858 The quote in the title is part of a longer paragraph in Andrew Roberts' "The Storm of War" and he claims that there is no official French history of the 2nd World War because more French fought for…
So, how would the average King in the middle ages (we'll say mid-middle ages) in Western Europe have eaten, how much variety of food would they have had? How would the quality of their food compared to something that the average middle class North American have access to nowadays in terms of…
As the story goes, the Dutch thought Suriname would be worth more; and we chuckle to ourselves, knowing how obviously wrong that turned out to be. The implied value of New York in this retelling turns out to be its location: it has natural harbors and was smack dab in the middle of all the European…
Tobias Lear wrote: > In the evening the Papers were brought from the Post Office, and he sat in the > parlour, with Mrs Washington & myself reading them till about nine > o’clock—when Mrs W. went up into Mrs Lewis’ room, who was confind in Child > bed, and left the General & myself reading the…
Just a shower thought, but now i'm curious. I know what i'm essentially asking for here is thousand year old polling data lol but hey who knows.
This was a very specific pet peeve for me a a kid. When I watched cartoons, I always saw the characters pouring cereals to their bowls directly from the cardboard box, without any protective plastic bag within. Is this an animation shortcut, to avoid drawing an additional container within the…
The series of blog posts "This Isn't Sparta [https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-i-spartan-school/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email]."
I know that most Italian Americans came from southern Italy, but i can’t find much information about German Americans, does anyone know?
Recently I watched a wonderful video on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OSXiivR04A&ab_channel=howistoast] with its subject being if the ancient Romans could make BigMacs, in turn based on a question posted right…
According to Wikipedia, after Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights in 1981, most countries consider it illegitimate because "land gained by either defensive or offensive wars cannot be legally annexed under international law". Even most of Israel's allies do not recognise the annexation of the…
They had settlements as large as 46,000 people, practiced agriculture, and even have evidence of developing an early version of the wheel (potter's wheel) and depictions of wheeled vehicles well before they were invented in the Near East around 3000 BCE. Yet whenever people talk about "early…
I feel like I see this all the time in movies, either the plot follows a federal agency (FBI, CIA, DEA, etc.) working to take down corrupt members of another agency, or it is revealed throughout the movie to the main characters that some agency has “had guys on the inside” and the movies…
Saw this post on Witchesvspatriarchy about Native Americans not liking Christian missionaries doing proselytization. Just want to know if this statement is true or not
I came across a fascinating thread on Twitter on monkeypox and related diseases. It essentially claimed that milkmaids and agricultural workers of yore contracted cowpox, which conferred immunity to smallpox. As a result milk maids did not have smallpox scars, and we began to associate…
I was watching "Boundless"/"Sin límites" on Amazon, and Magellan keeps saying that he knows a strait exists to the south of South America because of his "calculations" and studying the logbooks and maps in the Portuguese treasury. They never really elaborate on his reasoning, though, and I could…
1 Koku is the rice needed to feed one person for an year. So is it saying that the fief the Daimyo owns produces that many rice? Or maybe just the rice collected as tax? Or is it just a rough estimate of their overall wealth (for some reason given in rice)?
From the 1805 Memoir of Lady Hyegyeong: > The prince often summoned blind fortunetellers. When they said something he > did not like, he killed them. Many medical doctors, astronomers, and servants > were also killed or injured. It reached a point where every day many dead > bodies and victims of…
I ask this because I'm writing a character backstory for D&D, and it involves a character being abandoned with their blacksmith father shortly after birth, and I'm trying to figure out how a peasant or commoner in Medieval/Renaissance Europe would feed a still milk-dependant infant without access…
I understand there would probably be a gap of a few years between the end of the war and the start of any big migrations of former slaves. Reconstruction did offer the prospect of things getting better after all. But once Reconstruction ended in the late 1870's I'm curious why the African-Americans…
It had already completed its top secret mission and had stopped in Guam after Tinian to exchange some crew. Why was the decision made to have it go alone from Guam to Leyte without any escort ships? If it had had an escort accompanying it, they could've aided in rescuing much of the USS…
This is how I (and most other people) grew up understanding the Yugoslav Wars, but I've seen certain things that challenged this narrative in recent years. The main challenges I've seen are: 1. Having multiple ethnicities did not inevitably doom Yugoslavia to failure. After all, there are…
From what I understand, all literate peoples in medieval Europe and the Middle East were aware of China, even if direct contact between Chinese people and western-Eurasians was quite rare. Was the image of China more vivid in the minds of nomadic peoples whose ancestors had interacted with China,…
Another way to ask this question would be to ask how polygamist marriage and concubinage worked in ancient Israelite nobility around the time of the writing of the Books of Kings. Obviously Solomon himself is a legendary figure and the historicity of all these wives should be taken with a grain of…
The image of an old school scientist wearing a wool suit and smoking while mouth pipetting some deadly chemical is a bit of a meme in the scientific community. Not to mention scientists strapping ampules of radium to their arms to observe the radiation burns or chemists listing “taste” among the…
There are many web pages I can find (random example here: https://grapecollective.com/articles/prohibitions-grape-bricks-how-to-not-make-wine) which post images of these bricks, indicating that the bricks existed, but not the specifics that there were direct prohibition-dodging instructions…
As I understand it, that description of the British navy is misattributed to Winston Churchill. Regardless of who said it, the fact that it stuck and no one found it preposterous makes me suspect homosexuality wasn’t terribly uncommon in the British navy. Was it commonplace? And if it was, was it…
The quote in question: "Keep in mind also that there is a clear disconnect from how the myths portrayed him and how the Ancient Greeks saw him, with many a philosopher disdaining the myths for tainting Zeus' reputation (in fact some, like Plato considered the myths basically blasphemous for their…
My crops are ruined, the fields are covered in dead bodies, all my livestock has been eaten. Do I get compensation, told to suck it up?
“The Quran has stayed the same throughout history” This claim is very common for Muslims to make. I am curious however about the history of the Quran. Are there different versions of the Quran throughout history? Wha is the oldest known copy? What do we know about who wrote it? What do we…
In an era when ſaving ſpace was ſeen as important, when printing coſts were hiȝ, it ſeems like þe letter Þ would've been prioritized more. Didn't Gutenberg ever þink to make a Þ ſort? It's not like þe Engliſh weren't buying printing preſſes too. Would it really have been too much effort for him to…
Obviously the most famous Onion Knight in popular culture today, especially in the west, is Ser Davos Seaworth from George R.R. Martin's fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as its HBO adaption. That character, at least within the context of the story, got his name after being knighted…
It's a very common trope that those shipped off to Vietnam were the poor (and often Black) Americans while anyone with means found a way to evade the draft? How true is this? I know that there were ways of getting out of it, was it utterly pervasive or has it been hyped up beyond proportionality as…
I'm aware that the Black Hand was a secret military group started by Serbian officers. That brings into question: 1. Did the Serbian government support this group? 2. If not, why didn't Serbia allow Austro-Hungary to conduct an investigation on Serbian soil? 3. I suppose this may be…
Being as mighty an empire as Rome was, I'm curious to know what is the furthest extent in the world that someone would have heard of it. If I asked a middle class Japanese or South African person of that time, would he be at least familiar with the name? How about other isolated areas like Siberia…
As far as I'm aware, all of North America refer to pants as trousers, whereas in the UK, if you say pants most people will think you mean underwear. However, as found in this [https://old.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/w8hj0r/to_which_item_of_your_clothing_do_you_refer_to_as/] thread, it seems that…
Welcome to Tuesday Trivia! If you are: * a long-time reader, lurker, or inquirer who has always felt too nervous to contribute an answer * new to /r/AskHistorians and getting a feel for the community * Looking for feedback on how well you answer * polishing up a flair application * one of…
Dawn seems like a more natural starting point, even today many people refer to the next morning as "tomorrow" even if it's past midnight. So, why isn't dawn considered the start of the day ? And when did midnight take that place ? Is it a modern development originating with clocks or does it…
1. Were temper tantrums ever documented by other employees or bosses? 2. Did they need (or get) "snack breaks"? 3. For the kids as young as 4 or 5, were they toilet trained? Did they get bathroom breaks? 4. Are there documented instances of crying for their moms, etc? I just imagine that…
I was thinking that most depictions of ancient Romans show them with a short haircut and a clean shaven face whereas other people have long hair or beards or mustaches. The Gauls, depictions of Vercingetorix show him with long hair and mustache. The Germanic tribes are described by Romans as…
To quote Wikipedia: > In a 1967 essay "The Primacy of Domestic Politics", Mayer made a Primat der > Innenpolitik ("primacy of domestic politics") argument for the origins of > World War I. Mayer rejected the traditional Primat der Außenpolitik ("primacy > of foreign politics") argument of…
According to the Gilgamesh story, which is set in Uruk, one of the leaders of the youth assembly manages to become lugal, or king. So what was the role of the assemblies for the young vs the old. Did some have more power? Was there always a king reigning over them?
Across the centuries facial hair or the lack thereof was very important in many cultures and/or religions in many different parts of the world. How did the different native american tribes view facial hair, what role did it play for their men, if it even played a role at all?
I've heard that Mount Olympus is somewhat difficult to climb, but not exceptionally challenging. I find it hard to believe that people in Ancient Greece never attempted to climb it. Was it considered taboo to do so? Are there any accounts of people who have tried?
The 1997 movie depicts the third class passengers as being European immigrants to America. Had the Titanic gone on to make a return voyage, is there any evidence of who was buying those third class tickets? Was there an equivalent number of people emigrating back to Europe at that time? Lower class…
Do I read it on some public printed newspaper equivalent? Is it something that's spread through speaking with others. Or do I continue living and die in say 1530, without ever hearing about the continent? I realize the answer would differ quite a bit country to country, so any answer regarding any…
Could I expect any assistance from the government in the form of money or materials? Would I be better off petitioning the state government or the federal government? Am I just on my own and have to pick up the pieces by myself?
Have any historians looked into the “historical Muhammad?” Are there any books, articles, podcasts, etc about the topic?
I keep hearing about how when the HMS Dreadnought was launched, all previously built battleships became obsolete on the spot and it basically reset the Anglo-German naval arms race. But AFAIK the British fought no naval battle from its launch until 1914, so how was the total superiority of going…
I realise the Senate had a mostly nominal role after the Republic fell, especially during the years of the Dominate. Even so, I have a hard time imagining what specifically the Senate did during the reign of Odoacer and his heirs. The empire was in shambles, the infrastructure barely (if at…
I saw this tweet [https://twitter.com/Calthalas/status/1550105715913670656] and it made me wonder if this was true! If so, how would this have functioned? What was the quality of the wine? Were these literally just leading to taps in people's homes, or to a central location? Or was it not actually…
I'm curious about this. In media adaptations of the Regency Period, it seems like everyone knows how to dance the exact same steps whenever there's a dance sequence. This happens all the time. From Bridgerton to Jane Austen adaptations such as Pride and Prejudice, it seems as if everyone on the…
Hey everyone! I just finished reading Dostoevsky's The Double, and met yet another Titular councilor who works as a copier for a government ministry. This seems especially interesting to me considering the vast majority of the Russian population was illiterate at the time! This seems to be a very…
I'm a tabletop wargamer and I've always had an amateur interest in military history. Recently I've started doing some research into The Crusades. Because this is an area I've always had a casual interest in, but I've really dug into it with any depth. I started off gathering some books and…
I'm surprised by how widespread this superstition is. I've for example heard that Romanians traditionally believe it attracts death, according to Turkish and Japanese traditions you invite devils or demons into the house, while Indians believe it attracts (supernatural?) thieves. This is one of…
I'm aware that monastic life in medieval abbeys were far from the dry hagiographic accounts passed down to us today, and that the religious vocation was filled with humor, drama, and the occasional debauchery. With that said, do we have any firsthand accounts from monks/nuns that illuminate the…
I never hear of a “German mob” in America or Scandinavian crime lords in the diaspora. I have seen individual Germans and Scandinavians involved in crime historically but no organized mob-like group. What was it about their immigration stories that differed?
Romans mined asbestos from all over the Empire. Because of all its good qualities, its fibres were incorporated into all manner of cloth items, as well as vuilding materials for insulation. Her's the thing. We are aware that lead products in Rome caused problems with health, but what about…
The scene is available here [https://youtu.be/CO2pREcnQ0I] at around 57 minutes. The full quote is: A nation took up the sword of Turenne and propelled across Europe the first army of justice. And for 100 years, this ragged army fulfilled the noblest dreams of the world. They dethroned 20 kings,…