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1500 questions
33
votes
5 answers
Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian?
This question has been confusing me for a while. Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian?
He was born in Pella, Macedonia, but is he considered Greek? Did nationality and ethnicity mean different things at the time of the Greeks as they do now…
The Byzantine
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33
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9 answers
Are there any accounts written by torturers on their actions?
Often, in antiquity, rulers would order some horrific things to happen like extreme torture, flaying and so forth. The Hongwu Emperor ordered 5000 women flayed alive for instance.
Obviously the rulers themselves didn't carry out these things so…
Calin Leafshade
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33
votes
2 answers
Why did Roosevelt and Churchill use voice-based telecommunication, instead of simpler text-based options which were easier to encrypt?
Roosevelt and Churchill used an extremely sophisticated telephone encryption system, SIGSALY, to communicate during WWII. In fact, they did not use it all the time because apparently it changed the voices a lot.
At the time, teletypes with automatic…
J Fabian Meier
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33
votes
3 answers
Has there been any "invasive plants warfare" in the past?
Has there been any events of warfare in the past which used invasive plants to damage any country's (or kingdom's) food crops or its natural vegetation?
Some details:
The damage done by invasive species on a small scale is probably known to all.…
user45361
33
votes
3 answers
Why is the island of Java so populated?
Java is the most populated island in the world, with 141.4 million residents. However, it is smaller than many other islands. There are other islands, such as Madagascar, Borneo, Sulawesi, Honshu (Japan), and Sri Lanka, which I would expect to have…
user44626
33
votes
4 answers
In the Medieval period, how long would an average swordsmith need to forge an average sword?
Based on this question over in RPG, I'm trying to figure out how long it took to forge a sword in the Medieval/Renaissance smith to make swords. I am recalling a figure of about 9-12 months per sword, some other references indicate that Katanas…
Pulsehead
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33
votes
4 answers
Were there any travel restrictions during the Black Death pandemic?
From the Wikipedia article Black Death:
The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence, Great Bubonic Plague, the Great Plague or the Plague, or less commonly the Great Mortality or the Black Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in…
Mikael Dúi Bolinder
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33
votes
4 answers
Why, in old movies and TV series, do they always use such extremely exaggerated wheel turns when driving a car?
In old movies and TV episodes from the 1950s (for instance), they would frequently have a car in a studio with a background consisting of a screen showing a pre-recorded sequence of somebody driving a car. The driver always seems to be turning the…
Avalon Hughes
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33
votes
2 answers
Is this medieval picture of hanging 5 royals showing an historical event?
I was reading up on medieval hanging and came across this picture. It shows five royals (kings? princes?) being hanged from trees, but the articles I read don't mention any royal hangings.
I had a look online and found the same picture on two other…
bonzo-lz
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33
votes
2 answers
When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?
When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?
We all know the declaration was made on July 4th, 1776. But when did news reach Buckingham Palace and do we have records of their reaction to it?
CodyBugstein
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33
votes
4 answers
Did ancient Romans anticipate the fall of Rome?
Background: The Fall of Rome
The Roman Empire collapsed as a political entity in several stages during the 5th, 6th, and 7th century CE. Specifically, these are:
the crossing of the Rhine by the Germanic tribes that could not be repelled in 406
the…
0range
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33
votes
2 answers
Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
In a book, Land of the Seven Rivers by Sanjeev Sanyal, I saw a claim made by the author which says that Cleopatra and her son Caesarion wanted to flee to India to evade Roman arrest. Sanjeev Sanyal goes on to say that Cleopatra famously poisoned…
Rohit Hari
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33
votes
6 answers
Was World War I a war of liberals against authoritarians?
An essay by Robert Kagan in the Washington Post, March 14, 2019, argues for rethinking the big theme of 20th-century history as a struggle between liberalism and authoritarianism, and for an interpretation of authoritarianism as explicitly…
user2848
33
votes
4 answers
What is the oldest European royal house?
What is the oldest European royal or princely house, either enthroned or dethroned, that patrilineally survives nowadays?
Ignacio Hill Oliveira
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33
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5 answers
Were Russians in the cold war era USA discriminated against for their ethnicity?
As a Chinese living in the western world, I am a little bit concerned about the next decades where there might be a war or a series of conflicts between the rising Chinese power and the current world order lead by the US. This made me naturally…
Boyu Fang
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