askhistorians

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In 1971, the Pahlavi dynasty celebrated 2500 years of Persian civilization. How much continuity would an average Iranian have felt with those earlier civilizations? How much did Mohammad Reza Pahlavi have to do to create that national myth?	49
I am a Massachusett farmer in 1400. What is my connection to other nations in the area like the Abenaki? As a farmer, do I have anything to trade with them? If so, how and where would I go about doing it?	47
Why do ex-colonial nations still control small islands in the middle of the ocean? [Conformity]	39
What led to the bicycle boom of the early 1970s?	36
Why did Muammar Gaddafi remain a colonel?	34
New Guinea is divided between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia by a perfectly straight line — except for a brief stretch where the border follows the Fly River. How and why did this happen? Has the arrangement caused or worsened ethnic tensions?	31
"Leveller" movements existed in both the English Revolution and the American Revolution. How much, and in what ways, did the American Levellers draw on their English counterparts from a century earlier? How were they different?	27
The British Guiana 1c magenta stamp has "passed through an increasingly prestigious list of the greatest names in philatelic history." But what is the history of stamp-collecting? And what are some of those names?	22
My friend's Iranian emigrant father once described Iran as "a cat surrounded by trouble". How far back does this idea of Iran looking like a cat go? Is it an emigrant/Western thing, or do Iranians have this trope too?	21
Who was Pseudo-Odo? How do we know he was not the same person as Odo? And why did we think he was?	17

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