I'm watching The Crown and I realize I don't understand anything about the history between the UK and the IRA. I understand the history is complicated and long, but please help an ignorant American understand the history behind this feud.

International flights?

Flights from the south? To the south?

I've heard that the Aztecs, specifically, thought that the Spaniards were gods. Did they think smallpox might be divine retribution of some sort?

Hello, I'm wondering if there is any book that broadly covers the topic, or is at least a good starting point. This is the kind of history that feels absolutely buried, at least to me, I just know a few things here and there. I remember a friend of mine telling me about "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" and I hadn't realized how awful the Spanish had fully been, and I get a feeling there was some of that going on in the US most likely. Tbh I really only know a few events you learn in school or movies, like Wounded Knee, Trail of Tears, and the Navajo codetalkers. Wondering any good starting points on the history here.

I was wondering if someone could suggest to me what they consider the best general history of the Opium Wars, and explain why you consider it the best one. In addition to looking for a book to read, I am also looking to understand what the major debates/controversies among historians are surrounding the conflict.

I was reading about the thracian bulgar and assyrian genocide, when i noticed that the greeks and the kurds helped the young turks to commite those genocide.

Were lowercase letters, such as α, β, γ, and δ commonly used in Greek manuscripts around the 2nd century? I'm particularly interested to see if Phlegon of Tralles used such lower case letters in his works when referring to certain dates.

In historical shows set in Medieval times or even further back in Rome or Greece, there are always scenes of a person of importance having a very important conversation, generally involving sensitive information with like 5 servants or guards standing around them hearing every word. Generally they're in the background and play no role in the story but did that actually happen irl? Even if they were irrelevant lowborn people weren't they worried about what they might hear and possibly share? Could they not bear to not have a servant around for 10 minutes?

Btw, today (15 Nov) marked the death of this immensely influential figure in Chinese history.

The book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, claims that the corpus of texts in Nahuatl is larger than the corpus of Classical Greek texts. Here is the full quote:

”Yet Athens had a coruscating tradition of rhetoric, lyric drama, and philosophy. So did Tenochtitlan and the other cities in the Triple Alliance. In fact, the corpus of writings in classical Nahuatl, the language of the alliance, is even larger than the corpus of texts in classical Greek.”

When I read this I was immediately sceptical. A citation is provided, specifically to someone named Frances Karttunen, but no specific work is cited. How accurate are these claims?

What do we know about them? I've done some research on the subject and found various answers. It's know their connection with the Greek states to the South and how Macedonian might have been a Greek dialect, the worship of Greek gods and at least their elite had taken part in Greek culture and their participation in panhellenic games such as the olympics, but I did read that Alexander I name doesn't show up in the Olympic winner's list. At the same time I've read that Macedonia also shared cultural aspects with the Thracians and they both shared a similar political government. I've read that the Argeads participated in Thracian cults like that of the Thracian Hero and payed their respects at Thracian sanctuaries.

Our written surviving were written by Greeks and mostly focus on the Macedonian aristocracy. So I guess my question is how much do we know about the Macedonian people as a whole.

What did Germany as a country do to renounce their Nazi ties and then heal the country, and how long did it take for his supporters to see the error of their ways (if at all)?

I live in the US where the standard of a full time job is a pretty rigid 40 hours per week/8 hours per day. Business hours are 8am-5pm. I understand this varies country to country, but where did this standard come from?

The exploits of the Chinese treasure fleets under Zheng He during the reign of the Yongle Emperor are well known, but equally well known is how those same voyages were cancelled and the ships laid up under the Hongxi Emperor. Some of the old narratives (specifically referring to Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers identify this as an example of how the “unified” China had its overseas expansion cut off by a single directive whereas a fractious Europe could always see an explorer travel to a neighbouring polity which may support what its rivals would not.

So this is a bit of a two part question: 1) Why did the Ming dynasty cancel its naval program? 2) What is the current consensus on the idea that unified government in China prevented further Chinese expansion through a single order unlike in Europe?

Is there any protest from the Chinese diplomats? What was the Chinese people's reaction of the treaty of Versailles giving away their territory? Did China concede any economical or commercial or even territorial adavatages to Japan to get it back? Is there any the other winner apologized to any of the China at any time for this?

In 1853 commodore perry famously sailed into Tokyo bay and demanded that they open up trade relations. Why did they think that Japan would be such a valuable trading partner and was the government legitimately willing to go to war over this situation?

Scholars such as Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo are widely known to have travelled extreme distances to the kingdoms of Central and East Asia, most notably to China and even Japan. Considering the relatively close distance between West Africa and Brazil (2500km I believe), why was there no trans-oceanic Ibn Battuta that explored the oceans? As far as I know, that distance wasn’t insurmountable with the technology at the time, as the Normans and Vikings invaded several lands even farther away from their homelands than that. (I am aware that most of those journeys stuck close to land and thus could resupply; obviously that isn’t possible on the open Atlantic).

Thanks for any answers!

Hwæt, /r/AskHistorians we are a team of flaired users who all specialize in different aspects of the Viking Age! With the recent release of the latest Assassin's Creed game, set in the period of Viking raids on England in the 9th century, we decided to come together and answer any questions you may have on the time period in question!

If you want to know why the Viking Age started, the intricacies of Norse religious traditions, the arms and armor of the Anglo-Saxons and Norse, or any other topic that tickles your fancy sound off with a question!

(Note, if you have a very specific question about a certain aspect of the game it might help to include a screenshot or relevant video for context, we don't all have the game nor have we all finished playing it!)

Today, joining us we have

/u/bristoneman A doctor of archaeology and medieval history, and who wrote their thesis on English defensive infrastructure during the Danish invasions, and its role in the unification of England

/u/kelpie-cat A PhD student in Celtic and Scottish Studies with a degree in medieval history, wit a focus on Christian conversion and early Christianity in the Insular world; Insular art; women in England, Scotland and Ireland; and the Picts.

/u/textandtrowel A PhD in history with a focus on the Viking slave trade.

/u/mediaevumed Is game (pun intended) to talk to the Norse Diaspora more broadly, questions of gender, religion, raiding etc. They are also keen to discuss the topic of medievalisms: how Vikings get reinterpreted and used in media (esp. Video Games) and how and why AC flirts with (or diverges from) reality.

/u/goiyon Can answer any questions you have about the cultural cousins of the Anglo-Saxons in Frisia!

/u/thefeckamidoing Mainly focused upon the Viking impact on Ireland and the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles.

/u/eyestache Who focuses on Anglo-Saxon and Norse material culture and weaponry.

/u/sagathain Their focus is on the imagined Vikings, both in medieval texts and in modern medievalisms, including games.

Finally, myself /u/Steelcan909 I'm a moderator here on AskHistorians and I usually answer questions on Norse and Anglo-Saxon society/culture generally, though my actual focus academically is on Anglo-Saxon legal history.