AskHistorians

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Is it true that the Jewish people were originally polytheistic, and the claim that Judaism was the first monotheistic religion is false?	33
I am a healthy German man in 1939, work in a non-essential position and I really don't wanna go fight in this war. Is there any way I can spend the years until 1945 dodging draft?	33
We used the Rosetta Stone to translate hieroglyphs but how did we translate Norse runes?	33
I heard that Medieval people generally believed that the world is in decay. How long was this belief held and why did they hold it?	33
When did historians or the general public started calling the war against Nazi Germany as "World War II" and the Great War as "World War I"? When and how did the tacit acknowledgment of the connection between the two wars come about?	33
Why did the Justinian Plague create a famine in the Byzantine empire but the black plague improved living conditions in its aftermath?	33
From 1815 to 1822/25, Portugal was known as the 'United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves'. Considering that Algarve was territorially adjacent to the rest of Portugal in Europe, why was it recognized as a third kingdom?	33
We might take it for granted that the rise of Macedon under Phillip II & Alexander in the 4th Century BC happened in that way empires came and went in the ancient world. But, isn't it kind of insane that this peripheral state became the hegemon in one generation, basically? What caused that?	33
Why was Robespierre seen as the leader of France when he was just one member of the Committee of Public Safety?	33
How much travel would a typical historical civilian living in a large city (e.g. London, Rome) expect to do in their life-time?	33

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