askhistorians

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I have read that Columbus brought back 10 to 25 natives from his first voyage to the Americas. Seven or eight are said to have made it to Spain alive. Do we have any idea what happened to these seven or eight survivors?	2126
Why does it seem like the Persian Empires get shafted in popular history and culture? The Parthians & Sassanids are barely mentioned, if at all in textbooks, even though they rivaled the Roman Empire. Is this Western bias, or are there a lack of sources? Even little old Carthage gets more love.	1835
How did the modern German state of Saxony get its name? Wasn't Saxony originally near modern-day Denmark? How did a state in eastern Germany bordering the Czech Republic end up with the name Saxony?	803
How much of a game changer were stirrups? I have been told that they revolutionized warfare and made the Mongols seemingly unstoppable. Is that really true?	192
When Vasco da Gama came back with two ships loaded with some spices, he became filthy rich. So how valuable were these spices? E.g. in the 15th century, how much would 12 ounces of black pepper be worth or something similar? Do we have any ballpark figures?	102
How were states like Prussia and the Habsburg Empire (for lack of a better term) able to match the prestige and at times power of colonial powers like France and Britain when they totally lacked a colonial empire?	95
If Isaac Newton "discovered" gravity, what did Galileo think he was dealing with when he did his experiments with dropping objects? Did he have a name for the effect that he was seeing?	85
Did the Spanish show any admiration for the Aztec or Maya architecture? I read that Cortes deliberately destroyed the great temples of the Aztecs in what is now Mexico City. Was this lamented by European contemporaries? This seems like a terrible cultural crime even by contemporary standards.	34
Would the historical Jesus have been a "Romanized or Hellenized" Jew? As I understand it, Jesus lived in an era where Judea had become very culturally influenced by the Greco-Roman world. Would this extend to fashion and style? How Hellenized was the world he lived in?	34
How did prince-bishoprics in the Holy Roman Empire work?	31

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