askhistorians

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Since gay people weren’t allowed to serve in the military until pretty recently did draft dodgers pretend to be gay during the Vietnam war? What were the repercussions or roadblocks to doing so?	2594
Is it true that the British used to consider the Irish “black” and felt like they looked very different from one another?	78
The Greek island of Milos doesn't seem particularly large, how did subduing them lead to a world famous "Melian dialogue?" The current pop is only 5,000. How did they necessitate any discussion at all?	76
Where did all these misconceptions about the council of Nicaea come from? Dan Brown?	74
I'm intrigued by the new David Graeber book Dawn of Everything how credible do his claims feel to qualified academics and historians?	40
Apparently, Cortés told the Aztecs that he and his men "suffered from a disease of the heart which is only cured by gold." True or not, how did Cortez and the Aztecs (/the other groups he allied with) learn to understand each other, in what seems like a relatively short amount of time?	34
Before the civil war the US gov didn’t mint the currency, relying instead on more than 8,000 private banks and businesses, which had the freedom to determine what and whom to depict. How was this system regulated and maintained?	19
From my limited understanding Russia’s relationship with the Cossacks is odd. They’re Ukrainian but very loyal to the tsar and Soviet leaders. Yet Stalin starved Ukraine during his rule. What explains this relationship?	16
Did Russian interactions with indigenous Siberian’s, or Japanese interactions with indigenous Anui mirror European interactions with native Americans in any way?	14
Why was IRA Chief, Seamus Twomey arrested by Irish republican forces in 1977? I always assumed The Republic of Ireland would have been pro IRA? What is the history of this relationship and this specific case?	12

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