AskHistorians

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In Tokugawa Japan, why did the Shogunate continue to allow the daimyo to exist? It seems the shogun had the power to reassign daimyo at will, and some daimyo posed a consistent threat to his power. Why not just remove them all and transfer local administrative duties to the provinces or something?	13
I'm a linguist with no experience in Assyriology, looking to understand the current state of research on the Sumerian language. Are there any overviews of current consensus/debates in the field that might be somewhat accessible to me?	11
In the stone age, flint knapping was used to make tools. In the age of flintlock firearms, similar techniques were used to make gun flints. What is the history of these techniques between those two eras? How was knowledge of flint knapping passed on from the ancient past to the early modern period?	8
Recommended reading on the Chiapas conflict/EZLN?	7
What is the current state of preservation and digitization of the Timbuktu manuscripts? I understand that quite a lot of the manuscripts are held by private individuals; to what degree have these been accessible to historians?	7
What should I know about Marxist historiography before reading a Marxist/Marxian historian?	6
What is the history of using this particular musical style (examples linked in post) to represent "outer space"?	5
What is the history of firearms in Africa prior to colonization	5
A slightly gross question: what did ancient people think farts were? Where did they think farts came from? Did they understand them as the build up of a particular type of gas the way we do today?	5
What is the history of sword manufacturing/production after swords ceased to be used commonly as weapons by most of the world's militaries (i.e. from the late 19th/early 20th century onwards)?	5

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