askhistorians

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In Brazil, pretty much no one acknowledges the Wright brothers invented the airplane. Most say it was Santos Dumont who did. Was that really the case?	4440
Portugal and France were fierce enemies in South America, and several time did Portuguese and French armed forces clash in modern Brazil. Why weren't colonial wars waged in mainland Europe? Why did France never invade Portugal/Lisbon after the Battle of Rio de Janeiro?	377
"[...] we have access to more Roman literature - and more Roman writing in general - than any one person could now thoroughly master in the course of a lifetime" - how did all this data survive for over 2000 years?	304
Media is currently reporting that University of Exeter researchers have found remnants of 81 towns that had about 1 million inhabitants, from 1000 to 1400 AC, in the centre of Amazon. Where did they go? How come the Portuguese did not find them when arriving in Brazil?	144
The Guardian just wrote that North Korea was "once one of the most prosperous and industrialised [countries] in the region". Is that true? If so, when?	58
How was South Korea's astonishing progress ever since the Korean War possible?	24
Early Norse and Norse-influenced cultures (Rus' and other East Slavs), both people traditionally associated with warring customs, apparently lacked corporal or capital punishments in their legal systems. Why was this?	19
What's with head veils and old Southern/Eastern European ladies? Are they a Muslim legacy?	17
Most countries, developed and developing alike, allow for life imprisonment sentences. No Portuguese-speaking countries have life sentences and Portugal was seemingly the first country in the world to forbid them in the 19th century. Why?	13
Mary Beard writes that Cicero denounced Gaius Verres on, among other things, his "profiteering of the corn supply" - but didn't corn only arrive to Europe with the Spanish/Portuguese in the 16th century? What was Cicero's "corn"?	5

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