askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
We all know of Mansa Musa, possibly the richest man to ever exist. To Westerners, he seems to have been the greatest of Mali rulers, as visible in games like Civilization. Yet native sources seem to pay him little attention. Who would native Malians have considered their greatest ruler?	2947
George Washington, describing his behavior as president, declared that he did not want to be shut away from citizens “like an eastern Lama.” How would an American statesman know about the Dalai Lama in faraway Tibet?	2808
The Iron Confederacy was a highly multicultural Great Plains polity that dominated Western Canada, and at its height, controlled the trade coming out of many British forts. Yet little information is available about them online. What was their history, & what are some good sources to learn about it?	1875
TIL that Wisconsin historically had many socialist and social democratic policies, in addition to very strong unions. Why is that? What in particular caused it to be so left-leaning?	363
We know that “southern China” was originally populated by many non-Chinese indigenous peoples. What did Chinese migration southwards actually look like, for both incoming migrants and indigenous Yue peoples?	122
East Timor was freed from a long period of Indonesian and UN occupation in 2002. Why was there even an independent nation there in the first place for Indonesia to occupy? Why wasn’t it part of Indonesia by default?	37
A massive volcano eruption and tsunami is currently devastating the Pacific Island of Tonga. How did ancient Pacific Island peoples deal with these kinds of disasters? Could they tell tsunamis were coming in advance?	35
Atheism developed in Eurasia early, most prominently in the Cārvāka school of Indian philosophy. Were there any similar instances of atheism, agnosticism, or religious skepticism in Pre-Columbian Native American societies?	23
Thousands of ex-Confederate soldiers and their families fled to Brazil and other South American countries after the Civil War. What was their goal in doing so? Were they just seeking economic opportunity away from the Union? Or were there any thoughts on one day returning to restore the Confederacy?	22
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of Chinese history was dominated by Shatuo Turk regimes. Yet traditional histories don’t treat it as a “barbarian” period like the Sixteen Kingdoms or Yuan. Why is that?	21

« < > »