Topic

Vanished worlds

The past is stranger than the textbook version. Empires that crumbled, single days that changed everything, whole beliefs everyone once held that turned out to be wrong, and customs so odd they are hard to believe were ever normal.

great powers that collapsed, and why

Civilisations that fell

History

Why did the Roman Empire fall?

There was no single cause: the Western Roman Empire came apart slowly under many overlapping pressures. Economic decline,…

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History

Why did the Maya civilization collapse?

First, the myth: the Maya did not vanish, more than seven million Maya people live today. The 'collapse' means the…

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History

Why was the Library of Alexandria destroyed?

There was no single great fire. Most historians now think the Library of Alexandria declined gradually across centuries, worn…

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History

Why was Stonehenge built?

There is no single answer, and that is the honest truth: Stonehenge was used for more than 1,500 years, so it almost…

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single catastrophes, dissected

When disaster struck

History

Why did the Titanic sink?

The Titanic struck an iceberg late on 14 April 1912 while racing at about 22 knots through a known ice field. The glancing…

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History

Why did the Great Fire of London spread so fast?

The fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane on 2 September 1666 and spread so fast because everything was against London:…

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History

What caused the Black Death?

The Black Death was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, confirmed by DNA taken directly from the teeth of plague…

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History

Why did 400 people dance themselves to death in 1518?

The dancing plague of 1518 was almost certainly mass psychogenic illness, a stress-driven trance that spread socially. A town…

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things everyone once knew that were wrong

Beliefs we outgrew

History

Why did we believe in the four humours?

Because it explained everything. The four humours mapped illness, personality, the seasons and the elements onto one neat…

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History

Why did people think the Earth was flat?

Mostly, they didn't. Educated people have known the Earth is a sphere since ancient Greece, and by around 240 BC Eratosthenes…

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History

Why were tomatoes thought poisonous?

Because the tomato is a nightshade, botanically kin to deadly nightshade and mandrake, so early herbalists treated it as…

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History

Why did doctors once recommend cigarettes?

Because for a while it was good marketing, and later it was good defence. In the 1930s to 1950s cigarette brands wrapped…

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habits of the past that baffle us now

Curious old customs

History

Why did people wear powdered wigs?

Wigs began as concealment: syphilis and its toxic mercury cure caused patchy hair loss and open sores, and a wig hid the…

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History

Why did the Victorians photograph the dead?

Because for much of the Victorian era a photograph was rare, expensive, and often taken only once. With child mortality…

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History

Why were people buried with a bell?

Because the 18th and 19th centuries were seized by a genuine terror of being buried alive. Medicine could not always tell…

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History

Why did medieval courts put animals on trial?

Because a trial was how a community turned chaos into an answer. From the 1200s into early modern times, European secular…

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