askhistorians

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What is the woman second from the bottom left wearing in the 1859 Harper's Weekly depiction of the Seneca Falls Convention? Is the outfit meant to be theatrical or something worn in everyday life at the time? Was it supposed to be scandalous for the era? (link to image in post)	1
Ernesto Zedillo, the last of the unbroken 71-year line of PRI presidents in Mexico, is sometimes credited for enabling the country's first (somewhat) open presidential elections. How much was he personally responsible for this, rather than, e.g., a broader decline in the PRI's institutional power?	0
Why are many formerly Spanish-ruled Latin American countries notably corrupt while Spain itself (at least post-Franco) doesn't seem to differ significantly from its Western European neighbors in terms of corruption? (Re-repost)	0
The 18th-c. English poet Alexander Pope was, true to his surname, from an English Catholic family. Do we know if there is any connection between his family's Catholicism and how they came by that ever-so-appropriate last name?	0
Modern-day Scandinavians seem, for lack of better descriptors, very peaceful and laid-back. How long have they been seen as such? Does it have anything to do with the most warlike persons "going a-viking" and having their children abroad, leaving only the peaceful Scandinavians to reproduce at home?	0
In the 1990s, both the Labour Party in the UK and the Democratic Party in the US shifted toward the center of the political spectrum. Are there any transnational causes underlying this parallel shift for these two traditionally center-left parties, or was it purely coincidental?	0
What was the reaction (if any) in Egypt to Steve Martin's "King Tut" (1978)? Was it found offensive?	0
The earliest versions of Mexican independence hero Miguel Hidalgo's Shout of Dolores have him saying "Long live Ferdinand VII!", so why is seemingly nobody willing to say he was a small-r royalist or a monarchist who was merely opposed to the colonial government in New Spain?	0
In Jimmy Soul's "If You Wanna Be Happy" (1963), a dialogue mid-song has one guy telling another that his wife is ugly, to which the other responds: "But she sure can cook!" Would 60's listeners have interpreted "cook" in this context as a euphemism for a different four-letter word ending in "k"?	0
Most early versions of the Shout of Dolores by Mexican independence leader Miguel Hidalgo have him saying "Long live Ferdinand VII!" In that case, why do searches for "Miguel Hidalgo was a royalist" (or its Spanish equivalent) turn up nothing?	0

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