AskHistorians Archive Observer

Why was the Ottoman Empire better able to fend off European colonialist incursions than the Safavid Empire and its various successor states?

2 Answers 2015-01-23

What's the method used to arrive at such a precise figure for the claim that "1 in 200" men are descendants of Genghis Khan"?

Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/08/1-in-200-men-direct-descendants-of-genghis-khan/

1 Answers 2015-01-23

Why did the Carolina colony split into North and South Carolina?

2 Answers 2015-01-23

Before the American Civil War why was Tennessee, a state in the middle of the Confederacy, so against secession?

2 Answers 2015-01-23

I was wondering if there are any good references you all could suggest that compare and contrast the rebuilding of Japan after World War II to Germany after World War I?

1 Answers 2015-01-23

After whom was the M1 Tank initially to be named?

If I recall correctly, the tank was not originally to be named after Gen. Abrams; however, I cannot recall (nor determine via Google) the original intended namesake. The closest I can determine is Gen. Westmoreland, but that doesn't sound right to me..

1 Answers 2015-01-23

What if Russia kept it's monarchy?

2 Answers 2015-01-23

When did people begin calling the Eastern Roman Empire the Byzantine Empire?

I realize that the Greeks themselves still called themselves Romans, but when did the West start to refer to them as Byzantines?

1 Answers 2015-01-23

Has there been any real, fundamental change in human nature since the beginning of human history?

1 Answers 2015-01-23

After watching the Amazon pilot episode called Point of Honor, I was wondering if Virginia slaveowners could free their slaves in 1861?

I watched the new Amazon series called Point of Honor and it's about a Virginian family who fights for the South yet frees their slaves at the beginning of the war in 1861. As a history major I recalled in my Civil War class that manumission became illegal after the Nat Turner rebellion. Is this show accurate or are the creators running with a untrue plot line? Btw the show was awful.

1 Answers 2015-01-23

Why were the British so concerned with surface raiders during the Battle of the Atlantic?

Bismarck, Tirpitz, that one in Uruguay...

2 Answers 2015-01-23

Why did the naval ram used by Greeks, Romans etc. disappear during Byzantium?

What changed in ship designs in the 600's that made it so that ramming other ships was not as valuable of a tactic? Wasnt Greek fire rather rare in usage? Were ships to big and not fast enough to be used a rammers anymore? Or was it just a lost tactic?

1 Answers 2015-01-23

Is it against sub rules to ask for help on history related homework here?

If not I have some questions regarding Tsar Nicholas II. I posted over in /r/homeworkhelp and am waiting for a response but I noticed some questions don't get answered over there so I was going to post it over here.

The questions are :

What attributes would Nicholas have to display to be an effective monarch?
Did he live up to expectations?

Thanks for any help!

2 Answers 2015-01-23

When did walking become used as an exercise and not just a way of getting around?

I am doing a project for phys ed. We have to choose an exercise we enjoy and will do in our later years. I love walking, and it's easy enough, but I have to provide a history of the activity. I have way back at the start it evolved as an evolutionary tool, but when did it become a way to keep in shape? I assume when we didn't need it anymore due to cars or carriages, but I wondering if I could get a little more information. Thanks!

1 Answers 2015-01-23

How did women deal with going from "Rosie the Riveter" types to primarily homemakers/mothers when WW2 ended?

As they were being replaced by returning soldiers in the factories.

1 Answers 2015-01-23

Why were early transatlantic sailors in danger of starvation? Couldn't they just catch fish if they ran out of food during the voyage?

1 Answers 2015-01-23

How badly did nature's predators(wolves, lions, bears ect) effect early man's lifestyle/population?

Just curious

1 Answers 2015-01-23

When monarchies were the norm, did any contemporary political theorists write about the madness of appointing a child as king or queen?

8 Answers 2015-01-23

How did Iran turned from majority Sunni to a majority Shia nation?

1 Answers 2015-01-23

Were there any instances of US and Soviet troops directly fighting one another during the cold war?

2 Answers 2015-01-23

Does someone have examples of people using wild animals(bears, lions, monkey's, etc.) for human jobs in history, and for what purpose where they 'used'?

1 Answers 2015-01-22

WW2: How were coded/ciphered messages "intercepted", and how did the - presumably in different countries/regions - generals/radio operators/whatever agree on the code/ciphers in the first place?

First, to my friend - this is my shameless "stupid questions and crohn's" account. Please don't judge. hahaha.

So I searched the sub, and I found a really helpful post on how cracking the codes work. But it's left out a couple key points.

First, how did they intercept the messages in the first place? It seems that a bunch of messages were sent over radio, so did they just have a bunch of people, and a different person listening to every single radio channel, and hope that someone in the room got lucky? Like, I've got the whole deciphering part. I don't get the whole, how did, say, the Allies get ahold of the German's communications to thus decipher?

Second, how did they agree on the code? So, let's say the US and England are sending messages between each other. And let's say these messages are coded using a one time pad encryption key, right? Or a rotation. So, before any messages can be sent, the US and England both have to KNOW that this is how they're going to send messages. Does a guy fly to england and is like, "hey dudes, here's the encryption key and we're using a 13 rotation also"? There's no way they send it plaintext "What's up everybody, hope Hitler's not listening in, here's the code we're using from here on out." Like, okay. Different platoons used different codes, sure, but there's still the giant overarching issue of say, Churchill and Roosevelt. They coordinated Normandy, right? Legit planning. How did the generals all agree "yup this is how we'll talk"?

And how did they know when a code was cracked, and once they did, how did they decide what the new code was going to be (and how did they tell each other)?

Thanks!

1 Answers 2015-01-22

What was it like being Asian American right after Pearl Harbor if you weren't Japanese?

Hello everyone,

I know that the Japanese Americans were put through hell after Pearl Harbor, but I'm curious as to what happened to the other Asian Americans. More specifically, did people manage to successfully differentiate between, say, the Japanese and the Chinese in order to be "correctly" racist? Were they mistakenly attacked?

Thank you, I appreciate your time.

1 Answers 2015-01-22

Were there any exchange of disease in colonial times from indigenous people to the Europeans colonizing them?

I've read a lot about Europeans bringing smallpox and influenza to the Native Americans and Aborigines among others, but were there any diseases that were picked up and taken back to Europe?

1 Answers 2015-01-22

Why isn't the implementation of the Oder-Neisse line, and the ensuing exodus of ethnic Germans, percieved as being a catastrophe in the same vein as the Partition of India, or Palestine's An-Nakba?

The consensus appears to be that between 1 and 2 million ethnic Germans died when East Prussia and the "Recovered" Territories were ceded to the USSR and Poland after World War 2. If this is accurate, then this puts it in the same range of casualty and displacement as the other two mentioned above, which are the most oft-cited instances of chaos as a result of geopolitical division.

1 Answers 2015-01-22