askhistorians

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In the manga Vagabond, set in early Edo period Japan, a character argues with a Catholic priest over whether his mother is in Hell. Would Catholic missionaries actually preach that a peoples' ancestors were in Hell?	64
Duels between champions prior to a battle show up a lot in Chinese movies and media. Were such duels a feature of real antique and medieval Chinese warfare?	61
What's the history of Irish-American donations to the IRA? Were Americans making contributions to the IRA during the Troubles?	60
How did Buddhism go from being about a monk's journey to enlightenment to a popular religion? That is, what process made non-monks identify as 'Buddhists' and what was early relationship between the monastic community and non-monastic Buddhists like? What brought them to the monasteries?	58
Were nobles in the Austro-Hungarian empire limited to the number of horses they could use to draw a carriage by rank? And what rank would a 6-horse carriage imply?	55
Before the modern era where did people go to report crimes? Who were their 'police' basically?	54
What exactly was a Roman king? Since their kingship wasn't hereditary what exactly defined it in opposition to a dictator-for-life or a tyrant?	51
Did nomadic pastoralism (as opposed to subsistence hunting) ever develop in the Americas prior to European colonization?	48
How exaggerated was Prince George's dumbness in Blackadder the Third?	46
Reading the biographies of Sengoku-era warlords, I notice often their concubines were of seemingly noble heritage. Was giving your daughter away as a concubine not seen as a dishonor to either her family or the woman herself?	44

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