AskHistorians

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I'm a European lowly peasant in the middle ages. Although it's unlikely, what's my best chance to climb the social ladder? Army? Skilled trade? Priesthood? Bonus: Is the answer different for medieval China/Japan/Middle East?	78
Wikipedia says that by 1979, 70% of the Rhodesian military was black. How was that possible?	77
Did ancient forms of mass entertainment have the ancient equivalent of advertisement? For example, did the Roman coliseum have something like banners from sponsors hanging in it?	73
What is the historical origin of cheerleading?	70
Why was it so hard for Steppe empires to maintain their identity when conquering peoples outside of the Steppe?	64
In the 20th century, we see many colonial independence movements that style themselves as "Marxist" or "socialist" even though they are more interested in self-rule than any unified political agenda. So why was this pretense of socialism widespread?	63
According to Wiki, the Germans and Japanese essentially divided up the world during WWII, which led to difficulty in coordination as neither could cross into the other's "sphere" without consultation. How true is this?	62
How is it that the Greco-Bactrian kingdom was one of the richest in the world, if modern-day Afghanistan is so poor?	61
What does AskHistorians think about the so-called "continuity thesis" -- that Germany's atrocities in its colonies during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries gave rise to an emphasis on racial superiority in Germany itself, which was later exploited by the Nazis?	56
Did the Portuguese already have a distinct language and identity during the Muslim occupation of the Iberian peninsula? Or did that come later?	49

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