askhistorians

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Is that safe to assume to at least some families in the West have patrilineally maintained wealth and prestige continually from Roman times to today, even without surnames or reliable genealogies bridging across the Middle Ages? Or do historical/societal disruptions make this highly unlikely?	1886
Why did Christianity grow in South Korea after WWII to the point that now a third of the country is Christian, while Japan hasn't risen above 3% Christian--considering that both countries had to rebuild themselves from scratch after the war(s) and came under heavy American influence?	249
Why is it so that France is generally more economically left/progressive compared to the UK, as is Quebec vs. English speaking Canada, French speaking Switzerland vs. German speaking, or Wallonia vs. Flemish Belgium, despite their often unrelated histories?	126
Why did various Germanic languages and dialects in what is today Germany, Austria, and Switzerland agree on using a common written form, High German, while Sweden, Norway, and Denmark kept separate written standards despite being very similar languages?	105
Why is it that in most majority-Christian countries that Christmas is de facto treated as a more important holiday (more days off, more attention) than Easter, despite the arguably heavier theological significance of the latter? Was it always like this?	103
What effects did the mass emigration of Europeans to the US in the late 18th/early 19th century have on Europe, politically, socially, and demographically?	81
Was the cost of housing/real estate always so relatively expensive (in relation to people's earnings) throughout various human civilizations? Even in societies/times where private ownership wasn't a thing?—I mean just the combined labor/materials costs.	15
If Spain and France both spent long parts of history being centralized states and monarchies, why are French regional identities relatively weaker than in Spain, where regional identities often supersede the Spanish one for many people?	9

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