AskHistorians

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Was thorough hazing common in guilds and gilds? Is the Hanseatic League's Bergen-style severe hazing and initiation ceremonies (Trial of Smoke, Trial of Water, Trial of flogging) considered normal or outlandish? Do we have any accounts why these practices occured?	6
By modern standards of liberal democracy, how truly democratic were the Zaporozhian/Don Cossack Hosts?	6
Is there any historical basis to the Mount and Blade style unaffiliated mercenary captains as seen in With Fire and Sword?	5
Were there holdouts in China who rejected Confucian belief in sacrificing the self for the family, and instead preached individualistic belief/cultural systems?	5
In Sienkiewicz's novel, With Fire and Sword, it is described that the German mercenaries wielded rapiers. With how ambiguous the term is, do we know what they really wielded?	5
A lot of time during Literature, my teacher remarks just how dirty and unhygenic people were in pre-modern Hungary. However, I remember that the vikings were very clean compared to the Anglo-Saxons, did this hygenic nature stay with the Danish/Swedish/Norwegians/Icelanders throughout history?	5
How did chemists of old prevent or treat laboratory accidents, before the invention/spread of acid resistant gloves that is?	5
How did the institution of serfdom survive the mongol invasion and consequent depopulation of Hungary in 1241?	5
What has caused U.S and continental european universities to diverge so steeply?	4
I've read that in high medieval german cities, both men and women were expected to join the workforce at the age of 14. Is this true? If so, did it apply across all commoner classes, or only those of little wealth?	4

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