AskHistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
How is Mao currently viewed in China?	246
How did restaurants cope without alcohol for cooking purposes during Prohibition? Were French restaurants allowed to import wine for cooking?	209
When did Byzantine culture begin to think of the Western Roman provinces as independent kingdoms as opposed to occupied provinces to which it still had de jure rights or claims?	200
Is anyone looking for Alexander the Great's tomb?	189
Reading Spanish and Portuguese accounts of their trips to India, they seem to regard the Arab traders as being foes like the Moors they had defeated in the Reconquista. How tuned in were Arab traders in the Indian ocean to developments in the West i.e. the fall of Grenada? Would they have cared?	179
If slavery in Japan was banned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (according to Wikipedia), then what was the legal status of girls sold by their families to brothels, panders or pimps? What transaction actually took place when money was exchanged if it wasn't transfer of human property?	154
During the Roman Empire, guys with armies in the provinces liked to declare themselves Roman Emperor. Charlemagne was a guy with an army from a former Roman province that declared himself Roman Emperor. Is there continuity there? Was Charlemagne drawing on history for his legitimacy?	140
If I were to enter an Algonquin or Iroquoian longhouse on the eastern coast of North America prior to European contact, how pleasant would the smell of smoke be? That is, did they burn nice-smelling materials commonly?	131
Why didn't British savory puddings and pies (aside from chicken pot pie) survive in American cuisine? Or did these become popular after the period when America was colonized?	124
The Wikipedia article on Puyi says that the palace eunuchs wore necklaces with jars of brine holding their testicles and penises. Is this true, and if so when was this custom instituted?	123

« < > »