/r/askhistorians
I know that heads of state, as well as other important persons, often don't speak the same language. So, I assume a lot of power rests with interpreters. Are there any large-scale instances of interpreters influencing world events through their miscommunications?
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What happened to the World's Fair? What caused it's decline in popularity and general loss of grandiosity?
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The advent of firearms largely made the bow and arrow obsolete, but also the heavy body armor that could defend against arrows. As infantry became increasingly unarmored, was there ever a resurgence of the bow and arrow before firearms became so advanced as to obsolete them entirely?
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When Columbus returned to Spain how was he received by his detractors and those who had doubted his estimate about the size of the world? How did people figure out that he still hadn't discovered the East Indies?
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At the lower levels, Martin Luther King is often taught as an ideologically static figure. How true is this? Were there substantial changes in King's views between the start of the Civil Rights movement and his death?
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Dwight Eisenhower is usually described as a fiscal conservative but he also established numerous new federal taxes and embarked on the most ambitious infrastructure project in the nation's history. How does this make sense?
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The series Vikings depicts ritual sacrifice candidates as going willingly, even eagerly, to their deaths. Is there are historical evidence suggesting that such willingness or eagerness existed in ancient Nordic religion?
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