askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
It is estimated that about 50000 Filipino and Japanese war brides immigrated to the US immediately after WW2. How were these interracial marriages perceived back then, especially with the ban on mixed marriages in many states?	3232
Why do we seemingly accept the massive numbers given by Roman sources about their battles in antiquity, but disregard others as being "exaggerations"? What's the evidence that 80,000 Romans did in fact fight ar Cannae, and that this is not just another wild big number Polybius uses for impact?	2241
The Netherlands seemingly went from cutting edge to obsolescent and backwards to cutting edge again in our modern day. What happened there? How did the Dutch, who industrialized quite late, surpass the Belgian early adopters?	2114
How does the Roman legions (let's say, 80-180 AD) military training compare to our modern day "boot camp"?	623
What was the point of the USSR having "autonomous republics" such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc. Which were separate from Russia? How much autonomy did they actually have, and what prompted them to leave the Union entirely, rather than simply adopting market reforms?	576
How did "Noble" and "Old/Respected" families BECOME noble in the first place?	318
Why did Knights still use swords after the invention of Plate? Wouldn't the Mace become the more favorable and even "romantic" weapon?	271
You guys research by using a university library, the internet, etc. But how would an ancient historian such as Plutarch or Tacitus do THEIR research? What resources would be available to them?	246
Where did the Huns go? I see some patriotic Hungarians claim descent from them but I thought Hungary was Magyar. How did the Huns "disappear"?	241
What would "boot camp" be like for the Prussian soldier under Fredrick the Great? How would this differ from the Napoleonic army under Blücher?	228

« < > »