I recently learned that Polynesia was the first to settle Hawaii, in as early as 500 CE. Upon learning that, I thought of a few questions. How is it possible that Polynesia settled an island chain so far off from Asia? How did they remain in contact with Hawaii? Why did they never sail east from Hawaii and reach the Americas?

(sorry if this is a bad question, first time posting)

To what extent was early slavery justified on religious grounds? Did the conversion of slaves to Christianity help motivate slaveholders to find a different (racial) justifications for owning people?

Looking at early modern firearms (1500-1700, muzzle loading arquebus' and matchlocks), how effective were these weapons at stopping an infantry charge/attack in the field?

Historically, was a line of matchlock troops, or several ranks using volley fire, able to break a charging/advancing group of infantry through gunfire alone?

Or were additional "melee" troops necessary for support when the enemy attack reached the line?

I'm wondering not how gays were treated, but whether there are any significant examples of people in ancient times who identified as another sex. All periods/civilizations are welcome.

edit: perhaps I should include examples of transsexualism as well, which would probably be more common.

Sorry.... title Typo. :(

Basically what percentage came from France, what percentage came from England or Germany etc.

I'm curious because I have done a lot of reading about both those units and it got me thinking, if they were regimental body guards, why where they sent to fight it wars, shouldn't they stay and protect the leader they were assigned. Im kind of confused.

So I've been working on an assignment on Georges Duby lately and it left me wondering...what do historians think about him and his works today? From what I could find out about him he was a prominent figure in the field of medieval studies around the '60-'70s but I barely ever see him mentioned here on /r/askhistorians despite the abundance of questions on the Middle Ages. Were his studies surpassed by more recent works?

Hello, I am currently a History Major at my university. I had passed my historical methods class, where we learn to read and write as historians. Due to some financial issues I had to take a semester off, and when I came back to academia I realized that I had forgotten how to find relative information for my research.

I plan on writing a paper,on my free time this break, on the consequences of the Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti case. I am using my university's library e-resources and starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of secondary sources and resources.

How do you sort all this information to what is relevant to you? What resources do you use to find primary sources?

Any help would be amazing, and I would be grateful.

I recently finished All the President's Men. It was an interesting read, but I feel that I am missing a lot of the context surrounding the scandal. What exactly made it so serious? What were other factors, politically, socially, economically, diplomatically, that were occurring that influenced how Watergate was viewed?

Both are religions founded in India, yet the majority of Buddhist practitioners aren't there. Based on Wikipedia it looks like the majority are in China, SE Asia, Japan and Mongolia. On the other hand, Hinduism is still the predominant religion in India.

What historical factors led to this?

for instance, what happened within France's african colonies and in places like French Guinea? As well as places like French Polynesia.

Many films and TV shows like to portray officers as pompous, sometimes cowardly individuals who didn't care for the men under their command, with some even abusing them.

Is there any truth to these cliches? If so, are there any good examples of officers who were like this?

Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Scotland, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Galicia people all have different phenotypes. Was there an unique "celtic look", or did the different tribes differ in appearance?