askhistorians

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The Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched an invasion of Korea that lasted from 1592 to 1598 with the ostensible intent of conquering China. Did the Japanese have real reason to believe they could have conquered the Ming Empire, or was this too far-fetched from the start?	14
The Mongol Empire was nominally unified under a single ruler until Kublai Khan. How much effective control did the Great Khan have over the largest empire by landmass in history? Was there a cohesive, centralized bureaucracy that managed these lands, or were they more like tributary states?	14
Was the Roman practice of damnatio memoriae really intended to erase all memory of the person it targeted? If so, how do we still know about all the people who were condemned?	13
Was Galenic/humoral medicine actually useful? Did doctors actually help their patients or was it at best a placebo effect?	12
Why did Indira Gandhi's Congress Party win in a landslide in the 1980 Indian general election only three years after the Emergency, when she had taken up dictatorial power?	11
On his inscription on the Kabah of Zartusht, the great Zoroastrian priest Kartir mentions that he has suppressed various religions in the Sasanian Empire, including Christians, Jews, Manichaeans, but also Buddhists, and Brahmins. How prevalent were Buddhists and Brahmins in the Sasanian Empire?	10
The 12th century Nizari Isma'ili state is the origin of the English word "assassin." Why were they so successful in the surprise killings of their political adversaries?	6
Was Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide overthrown by the US and France because he demanded reparations for the debt France forced upon Haiti after the Haitian Revolution?	5
Why did varied ways of deciding inheritance all inevitably collapse to primogeniture?	3
The Indian warrior-king Shivaji's legacy as an opponent of the Mughal Empire has been appropriated by Indian, Marathi, and Hindu nationalists. What were his real motivations in carving out his empire? To what extent, if any, was he truly a reviver of Hinduism and enemy of foreign/Islamic rule?	3

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