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1500 questions
21
votes
3 answers
Why did baseball become more popular than cricket in the USA?
Recently I started reading a very interesting comic about high school baseball. I found that baseball shares so many similarities with cricket. So I tried to look for some information regarding the origins of both the games. I found that both games…
kartshan
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21
votes
3 answers
What does Russia want in Chechnya?
I have heard that Russia has been fighting with the Chechens on and off for about 300 years, occasionally losing control and reconquering. What exactly does Russia have to gain by retaining control of Chechnya?
I am not sure how Russia benefits by…
Historian
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21
votes
4 answers
How did Richard I sail through the strait of Gibraltar?
Here's something that puzzles me. At the start of the third crusade, Richard I sailed to the holy land around Europe, through the strait of Gibraltar and across the Mediterranean.
At the time, the south of the Iberian peninsula was under the…
Peter
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21
votes
2 answers
Did ancient miners have ways of predicting ore/stone deposits?
When miners in the ancient world went looking for materials in the earth, like gold or iron, did they have ways of predicting where those might be found? For example, we now know that diamonds are often found in cone-shaped deposits in old…
Nerrolken
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21
votes
2 answers
Why was Iceland not a part of the Danish-Swedish deal in Kiel in 1814?
In the Treaty of Kiel of 1814, Norway was essentially given from Denmark to Sweden as a "sorry we were on the other side", but Iceland was not a part of this deal at all. This is in spite of the fact that Iceland had been a part of Norway since 1261…
noocyte
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21
votes
1 answer
What happened to Soviet citizens on Finnish territory before and during winter war?
How many Soviet citizens were on Finnish territory immediately before the Winter War? Other than diplomats. I suppose there would have been trading officials, some engineering personnel etc.
What happened to them in Finland?
Were all of them…
user904
21
votes
3 answers
Why didn't the Persians make and use ballistas and other kinds of artillery?
In 1980 E.P.Thompson published an interesting paper called *Barbarian Invaders and Roman Collaborators *. Among other subjects he consdiers there the leakage from Rome to its enemies of technical knowledge needed to construct and deploy ancient…
Felix Goldberg
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21
votes
1 answer
What was the first successful mass tank battle of WW1?
What was the first big scale (over 50 tanks used) battle with the use of tanks in WW1?
Please note that the typical examples don't constitute good answer:
Battle of Flers-Courcelette (Somme) was the first use of tanks but definitely not…
DVK
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21
votes
7 answers
When was Jerusalem destroyed by the Babylonians?
When reading literature about the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, I always wonder which year it took place. Some books say 586 B.CE. and some say 587 B.CE. Is this because we don't know? Or is there some other reason? If we don't know, what are…
Niclas Nilsson
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20
votes
3 answers
What were the first local currency systems in history?
What were the first local currency systems in history we have detailed information on? I don't think it was gold/silver or other hard to produce materials. Probably these became more important currencies after intercontinental and intercultural…
Hauser
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20
votes
1 answer
Why has Hainan been so little fought over?
There are two really substantial islands off the coast of China, namely Taiwan (Formosa) and Hainan. Whereas Taiwan has been occupied, colonised, renamed and fought over for the last 600 years, Hainan gets hardly a footnote in most histories.
The…
Tea Drinker
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20
votes
1 answer
Did Noah Webster ever state why he Americanized spelling?
I am aware that Noah Webster (1758--1843 AD) is responsible for the majority of the differences between British and American spelling (IE: "color" v "colour"). Over time, it seems, in his Speller textbook, he slowly phased out the British spellings…
Gwen
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20
votes
5 answers
In ancient Rome, did a lot of people feel guilty about owning slaves?
Do we have historical evidence which shows whether significant number of people felt guilty about owning (without necessarily abusing) slaves in the ancient Roman era, e.g. 1-2 century AD?
Louis Rhys
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20
votes
1 answer
What was it like for a coastal village to experience a Viking raid in around the tenth century?
Were fishing villages really completely at the mercy of these Vikings, or could they defend them selves? Did villagers have their own weapons? Could they expect any support from a Lord or Land Baron? Why did Vikings put so many buildings to the…
Starkers
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20
votes
2 answers
Why did the Arabs start the 1973 War during Ramadan, and did it affect their performance?
The Arab-Israeli War in 1973, besides the Jewish Holiday, also took place during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, during which practicing Muslims observe mandatory daytime fasting. Did this affect the performance of the Arab (Egypt and Syrian)…
ASandhiyudha
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