askhistorians

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Generations of workers spent 312 years building the magnificent Cologne Cathedral — and then stopped in 1560, leaving it unfinished for 280 years. In 1840, their descendants picked the project up again and completed it in 1880. Can we talk about what happened here?	124
What role did the financial industry play in US slavery? Were southern plantations buying slaves with bank loans? Were the slaves insured by insurance companies? Were these financial firms primarily northern?	124
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was annoyed by the bad BO of some of his courtiers and subjects and decided to inform them of their stinky state. Was intolerance to BO common before modern deodorants? Did people have a way to address it besides washing with water?	123
By the time the US railroad boom wrapped up in 1916, 254,000 miles of track had been laid, and 40,000 passenger locomotives were in service. Was rail travel affordable for the average person, or just something middle class and rich people used?	122
Children in the ancient and medieval world seem cowed compared to the screaming hellions of today. Has the modern world become more permissive toward childhood misbehavior, or are our perceptions warped by limited knowledge of premodern child-rearing?	121
Peter the Great disguised himself as a carpenter to study shipbuilding. Was anyone fooled?	118
When the Antonine plague broke out, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius leaned on the polymath and physician Galen to advise him. Did Galen give worthwhile advice, considering that germ theory was unknown?	118
About to be hanged? In France and Denmark you could agree to marry a woman and be freed due to particular laws, according to Montaigne. What was the origin and purpose of these laws?	118
After so many European countries decided they couldn't maintain their empires in Africa and withdrew, why did Portugal keep spending immense amounts of money and lives suppressing guerilla wars there? Did the Portuguese really believe victory was realistic?	118
Historian Pekka Hämäläinen claims that it was the decentralized nature of North American native societies that brought Spanish expansion to a halt, and that the Natives won as often as they lost when confronting Europeans. Is this accurate?	117

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