AskHistorians

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Julius Caesar and some of his generation were described as dressing, talking, and behaving in a sort of cool and edgy way--which ruffled the feathers of the conservative factions. Are there other similar examples of a "proto" counter-culture movement in ancient societies?	205
Where did town criers get their information from? Was it state sponsored, private info networks, regulated?	66
Were roads in medieval times as dangerous and lawless as they are portrayed in films and television?	53
Was the average person in medieval-early modern Europe constantly on the edge of financial ruin?	42
Downton Abbey is obviously fiction, but the do wager Countess in a famous line says "What is a weekend?". Is there any accuracy to this ignorance to the term, or just humor? Further, did people break up weeks differently in different periods?	24
How connected were the British American colonies to the Spanish American colonies economically? Would people in New York in 1750 be doing business with Mexico City?	19
From what I can tell, Cortez was an absolutely unremarkable part of the conquest of the "New World" for his first decade+ in the Caribbean. What was he doing in those years that the Spanish were romping around the Caribbean trying to carve out Empire? Do we know how he rose from relative obscurity?	12
What was life like in British Florida compared to Spanish rule before and after?	11
Would your average Mexican have noticed a big difference in their lives under the First Mexican Empire versus their lives under the Spanish Empire?	10
The story of spices driving some of European colonialism is well known, but were there any culinary specialties from Europe that the rest of the world desired so fervently?	9

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