AskHistorians

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When Columbus returned to Spain how was he received by his detractors and those who had doubted his estimate about the size of the world? How did people figure out that he still hadn't discovered the East Indies?	861
If I was in ancient Rome and wrote the number nine as "VIIII" instead of "IX" would the people around me roll with it, or would they call me an illiterate buffoon?	827
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake resulted in surface displacement of up to 20 feet near the faultline. Did this lead to any major property disputes? Was there already a legal precedent for handling cases where the land under a property line literally moved on its own?	582
I read a biography on Stalin when I was younger which claimed that where he grew up, many people still walked around in chain mail. Is this accurate for late 19th century Georgia? Also, during the middle ages would it have been common for people to wear mail or other armor outside of warfare?	339
In "Mount&Blade: Viking conquest" Irish troops are almost all portrayed not wearing socks, unlike the Welsh, anglo-saxons, and Danes. Is this accurate? And if so why didn't the Irish like socks	242
In Mount&Blade: Viking Conquest, the game makes it a point when recruiting that village leaders are more willing to offer up loiterers and delinquents as soldiers than productive members of the community. How much of a problem was this during the middle ages?	217
I have sometimes heard Roman legionaries described as "combat engineers" do we know if that involved any extra training? Did Roman soldiers need to learn architecture? Math? Measuring? Was there a mandatory shop class?	177
Why did the sons of liberty decide to dress up as Indians during the Boston tea party? Did they actually think no one would see through their disguise or was it intended to be a political statement?	165
Was "Indian-Style" warfare, ie. guerrilla warfare, ambushing, and skirmishing from behind cover, always the norm for tribes north of mesoamerica, or did it develop as a result of european contact?	113
What was hunting like in Qing China? Was hunting for food heavily regulated? Was it mostly limited to an upper class sport like in western europe? What were the most common methods of hunting?	103

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