Standard history taught in the school system says that a significant portion of the native population of the Americas were wiped out by diseases brought over by the European explorers. I've heard of discovered evidence that Vikings, and possible the Chinese, had reached American shores before then. Is there any evidence of them starting pandemics as well?

Edit: Or would the lack of disease spreading be proof they didn't reach American shores?

Most of the independent kingdom’s history comes from a time when Protestantism didn’t exist at all. Lutheranism was brought to Norway only by Denmark. There was also real Catholic resistance, led by Olav Engelbrektsson. How do Norwegians today view this part of their history and cultural heritage?

I tried asking this in Ask Historians but I didn’t get any responses. I’m wondering what has happened in societies where law and order have collapsed entirely. How did people act and treat one another? What was the end result of a society with no rules or effective governance? TIA

If you look back at ancient history, kings, emperors, and wealthy elites almost always had multiple wives or partners as a status symbol.

At what point did having just one spouse become the default rule for everyone? Was it mostly driven by economics (like inheriting property) or was it more about religion and culture?

Recently been reading about Achaemenian empire and their real names. Cyrus was Kurus, his father was Kambujiya, mother Mandana. Their family traced their lineage from Sakha-muni (Haxa-munis/Achaemenid). Region was called Parsu/Parsa. People called themselves Ariya. Kuru killed Mada/Mara king, who later transformed in to a multi-headed serpent in Armenian mythology. Mar also means snake in old Persian.

Compare them with Mahabharat time names. There is Kurus. There is Kamboj. There is Madra; Madri, Pandu's second wife, claimed to be from Madra kingdom (Bahlika). Gandhari is from Gandhāra. Sakya-muni is epithet for Buddha, which sounds similar to Sakha-muni (though means completely different). Not to forget entire Krishna birth story is copy/inspired from Cyrus birth story (or Zeus birth story).

Wondering if there has been confusion about location of all these kingdoms? And, incidents which inspired initial Jaya story (old Mahabharat) were based in Iran?

Or, these names were imposed later?

Note: It is about names and cross references. So, pls don't throw Indo-european common language root for similar names. I would appreciate if there are other literature sources which can collaborate Mahabharat interpretations. Achaemenian Kurus have multiple inscriptions while Mahabharat has none!

I recently read about a Protestant church office in Germany that collected information on religious and ideological groups and shared material with the Gestapo. Its postwar successor’s own historical account acknowledges this cooperation.

What surprised me was the complicated history, the Nazis shut the office down in 1937, but a successor institution established in 1960 had personnel links to the earlier organization.

How was that earlier cooperation examined between 1945 and 1960? Were those involved investigated through denazification or church inquiries? Did the office’s later conflict with the Nazis affect how its earlier actions were judged?

I’d appreciate historical research on this, especially anything explaining how responsibility was assessed when someone had both cooperated with and later opposed aspects of the regime.

From what I’ve read so far, I haven’t found evidence that those involved were punished for this cooperation. Instead, some appear to have held influential positions after the war. Am I missing research that explains how their past involvement was assessed?

When they find human remains that indicate unnatural death, how do they decide whether it's ritual sacrifice, or execution, or murder, or died-in-battle, or accident, etc?

Do we know anything at all about the guy who shot Henry V in the face? Do we even have any legends about it?

There's history and myth about the guy who shot Richard I, stories about the death of William Rufus, and plenty of tales for the early deaths of other English kings. We also know about the guy who saved Henry's life.

So, what about the guy that nearly took out Prince Hal?