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1500 questions
32
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2 answers
Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars?
Why in WW1 or WW2 or ever nobody invaded Switzerland? All other countries was in some wars. How Switzerland do it and should we learn from them?
I hear that many people with power have money in swiss banks, is that factor or not?
Adam
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Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
Dictator was originally a title from Ancient Rome, which some modern regimes have used. I'm asking who was or is the most recent to do that.
I'm just assuming it was probably a man since most rulers are men, especially prior to the last few…
Ne Mo
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32
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Why could Phoenicians sail past Cape Bojador but later Europeans could not until 1434?
Cape Bojador is unknown to most people today but it was considered as the edge of the world for much of the worlds history. Any ship that sailed past it never returned. Only in the 15th century, the Iberians found a way to build ships that could…
Orsinus
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32
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2 answers
When did the term "Nationality" first come into use? How did ancient civilizations refer to themselves? By ethnicity?
When was the term "Nationality" first came into use? How did ancient civilizations refer to themselves? When we refer to Ancient Civilizations, did they consider themselves a nation in the modern sense and applied this to other civilizations? Saying…
The Byzantine
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32
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6 answers
What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
Most books about WWII speak of the naval battles of Allied and Axis powers during the war, but none about the Soviet Navy. The Soviets had an active fleet at the time - why did it not engage the Germans at sea?
The Byzantine
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32
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8 answers
Why do revolutions "eat their own?" What is the sociological dynamic here?
We have a number of cases in history of revolutionary movements growing increasingly radicalized by a kind of internal dynamic that eliminates more moderate factions. Instances include the Jacobins, the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, as discussed in a…
Nelson Alexander
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32
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2 answers
Why are there so many laws about eye injuries in the Code of Hammurabi?
Why are there so many laws about eye injuries in the Code of Hammurabi? (And so few laws about other body parts injuries.)
I want to concentrate on injuries mentioned as the crimes of physical violence, not as penalties.
So, there are blows and…
Igor
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32
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1 answer
Were the first sonic booms predicted?
Applying the Doppler Effect to the breaking of the sound barrier would have allowed scientists to predict that a shockwave (a "boom") would be created before pilots began actually breaking the sound barrier. The Doppler Effect was discovered in…
user312440
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32
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2 answers
How were Kurds involved (or not) in the invasion of Normandy?
In defending his decision to withdraw from northern Syria and cease supporting Kurdish fighters in the face of the 2019 Turkish invasion, Donald Trump said:
[The Kurds] didn’t help us in the second world war, they didn’t help us with Normandy as an…
TypeIA
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32
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6 answers
Did Pope Urban II issue the papal bull "terra nullius" in 1095?
Countless sources claim that the origin of the term terra nullius is from a papal bull issued by Pope Urban II in 1095 called "Terra nullius". Here are a two:
Pramod K. Nayar, The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary, 2015
Terra nullius comes from the…
Stand with Gaza
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1 answer
What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
Following up on this answer...
@mark, in the answer, writes that "[i]n the event that the crew of Enola Gay had to abort their mission, they had no intention of trying to land with the bomb still aboard".
That sounds like there was a plan to drop…
Kryten
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32
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6 answers
Was the tugboat ever part of a WWII battle group?
It would seem a pretty logical addition to a WWII battle group to have one of more tugs for the capital ships (heck, any ship), yet I don't see much evidence of that. Let me elaborate.
I was an Army officer for support company. If I recall correctly…
ds_practicioner
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32
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7 answers
What describes the average pre-colonial NA Native American lifestyle (across several tribes)?
Late last night I found myself in a remarkable argument with my partner - she, growing up in Idaho, had been taught that Native Americans, regardless of tribe, generally lived short, brutish, savage lives of hardship. I argued otherwise, that life…
Caleb Jay
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32
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9 answers
Were there any high-ranking female soldiers during the Middle ages?
There are several fictional works describing female knights in a fantasy world, but do they have any real world counterpart? For example, a knight or a high-ranking female military officer during the middle ages.
EDIT: As others have informed, I…
Zeick
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32
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1 answer
What happened to these buildings near the Seine?
I was looking at these before after images and was concerned what happened to these beautiful buildings near the Seine in Paris. Were they destroyed in a war? Has there been any attempt to reconstruct them?
Mohammad
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