askhistorians

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Thirty-four years after scribbling E = mc2, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt to warn him the Nazis were turning his famous theory into a nuclear weapon. How did Einstein know this, and did Roosevelt actually read his letter?	3056
The 20,000 human sacrifices carried out at the Aztect's Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan each year must have created a river of blood and mound of decaying bodies. How did the Aztecs clean this up to prevent disease outbreaks? Where did the remains get buried? It must have been a hygiene nightmare.	3027
The Rubicon River is one of the most famous in history because Julius Caesar started a civil war when he crossed it. "Crossing the Rubicon" now means to do something you can't take back. So how did we manage to lose the Rubicon River? Why don't we know where it is?	3023
Ireland had a huge population in 1821 relative to its size — 6.8 million. Egypt only had only 4.3 million. Scotland: 2.1 million. Austria 3.1 million. USA 9.1 million. Mexico: 6.5 million. Why was Ireland so populous? Did it come down to early adoption of the potato?	3010
Ancient Romans collected incredibly expensive tables made from African citrus wood — a craze called, "mensarum insania." Cicero paid a million sestertii for one, — enough to purchase a huge estate. What was so special about these tables? What started the craze? Why were they so expensive?	3008
The American Revolutionary War hero and Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette said, “I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery." He must have known the colonies had slavery. Did he think the new nation would ban it?	2955
"The Darkening Age," by Catherine Nixey, argues that Christianity was hugely destructive to western civilization, destroyed art and classical thinking, and retarded the improvement of the Roman Empire. How well supported is her argument?	2922
Do we know how or why marriage ended up the near-universal way of managing human social relations across major civilizations? Did marriage ever have major competition from a different arrangement?	2865
Most of Japan's former colonies still resent their conquest, years after gaining freedom. But the Taiwanese seem to remember Japanese rule fondly, and have a great relationship with modern Japan. What explains this difference? Did the Japanese treat Taiwan better?	2828
Americans moved west in the 19th century, often fleeing eroded and exhausted farmsteads and searching for new land to cultivate. You don't hear about farmers ruining land in Asia, even over dozens of generations. Why were colonial Americans so destructive to the land?	2750

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