Subreddit: AskHistorians

Created on 28/08/2011. 2217058 subscribers.

Submissions

Sunday Digest | Interesting & Overlooked Posts | January 26, 2025

created by AutoModerator on 26/01/2025 at 14:00 UTC - 23 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

Short Answers to Simple Questions | January 29, 2025

created by AutoModerator on 29/01/2025 at 17:00 UTC - 4 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

Is there any slight chance the ancient Olmecs could've been African? cause I just got called racist and sexist in a black studies class for disputing it?

created by TheChickenWizard15 on 30/01/2025 at 02:46 UTC - 237 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

23 comments

Why do so many countries have 'Guinea' in their names?

created by DrDMango on 29/01/2025 at 19:18 UTC - 344 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

18 comments

Were survivors of Auschwitz surprised when the camps were liberated? Or were there signs beforehand?

created by ccm596 on 29/01/2025 at 21:00 UTC - 171 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

15 comments

Chief Justice Taney, President Buchanan, and others involved in the pro-slavery result of the infamous Dredd Scott decision seem to have been surprised by the extremely hostile reaction to the decision and its failure to resolve the slavery question. Why?

created by MaxAugust on 30/01/2025 at 02:59 UTC* - 54 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

1 comments

The Native people of the Canarias traded extensively with the Romans, then, suddenly, all trade stopped when the western Roman Empire fell and the islands got forgotten until the Spanish rediscovered them a thousand years later, do we know what the natives thought of this sudden disappearance?

created by PeopleHaterThe12th on 29/01/2025 at 08:57 UTC* - 707 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

11 comments

Was there some sort of conspiracy theorists who doubted the existence of America when it was "discovered" ?

created by Zenon_B on 29/01/2025 at 20:20 UTC - 77 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

3 comments

Why did FDR identify Douglas MacArthur as "The Most Dangeous Man in America?"

created by Neno287 on 29/01/2025 at 14:19 UTC* - 167 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

2 comments

Who Were the Cossacks, and Why Aren’t They as Popular as Vikings or Samurai?

created by GalaidaStudio on 29/01/2025 at 14:44 UTC - 135 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

10 comments

According to Moorish traveler Ibn Battuta, Hindus considered widow burning "a commendable act," but "not compulsory." However, any woman who refused to go along with it was "despised," which sounds contradictory. Were women really forced to commit suicide on their husband's funeral pyre?

created by Fuck_Off_Libshit on 29/01/2025 at 12:41 UTC - 168 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

11 comments

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens of Mexican ancestry were unlawfully expelled from the United States during the Mexican Repatriation (1929-1939). Were Native Americans also affected inadvertently?

created by holomorphic_chipotle on 29/01/2025 at 16:42 UTC - 75 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

1 comments

If lbj was personally racist why did he support civil rights?

created by Capital_Tailor_7348 on 29/01/2025 at 23:01 UTC - 21 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

4 comments

Did any past people consider themselves to be living through an apocalypse?

created by chinchabun on 29/01/2025 at 19:05 UTC - 39 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

3 comments

Did the Soviet Union have Instant Ramen?

created by NukecelHyperreality on 30/01/2025 at 03:08 UTC - 7 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

2 comments

Why didn’t Christianity spread that much in Arabia pre-Islam?

created by Life-Question-6476 on 29/01/2025 at 17:18 UTC - 34 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

2 comments

Consequences for local police forces who refused orders (from Nazis or NKVD) to kill?

created by scabrousdoggerel on 30/01/2025 at 00:17 UTC - 9 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

2 comments

Why did the US east coast not experience major colonisation by Europeans until the 1600s?

created by BiscuitsAreBetter on 30/01/2025 at 03:05 UTC - 5 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

3 comments

I'm going to the local grocery store in a large Midwestern city in the 1900s to 1920s. What's the general procedure for shopping there and how to the products compare to a modern supermarket?

created by LivingGhost371 on 30/01/2025 at 01:57 UTC - 6 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

1 comments

Is there a reason why French kings were not named Pepin?

created by cherry_armoir on 29/01/2025 at 23:44 UTC - 9 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

1 comments

Why is Auschwitz often seen as "the face" of the holocaust when the straight death camps like Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor are often overlooked or even unknown to the general public?

created by GrilledSoap on 28/01/2025 at 15:53 UTC - 2830 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

106 comments

Why Didn't the Mali Empire Under Mansa Musa Produce More Monumental Architecture?

created by NoGodsNoSpotters on 29/01/2025 at 18:12 UTC - 22 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

2 comments

Was Aaron Burr a rake, as Gore Vidal seems to portray him as in his novel “Burr”?

created by Damned-scoundrel on 29/01/2025 at 18:55 UTC - 19 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

2 comments

Why did the Egyptians Act of 1530 refer to Roma people as Egyptians?

created by PickleRick1001 on 29/01/2025 at 21:57 UTC - 11 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

3 comments

There's a very particular kind of penmanship from the nineteenth century that I've seen on photos and in the endpapers of old books. One of its distinguishing characteristics is a capital A with a square top. Was that a particular style of penmanship with a name? If so, what was it called?

created by DerbyWearingDude on 30/01/2025 at 00:39 UTC - 5 upvotes (https, www.reddit.com)

1 comments