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1500 questions
63
votes
17 answers
Was the secession of the Confederate states illegal?
Putting aside their reasons for wanting to do so and all the emotional responses they would provoke, was the secession of states from the Union to eventually form the Confederacy an illegal act in itself? Was it just something that nobody was sure…
Garrett Albright
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63
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8 answers
Why was Britain willing to return Hong Kong but not Gibraltar?
Why was Britain willing to return Hong Kong to China, but not Gibraltar to Spain?
Was it because Gibraltar has more strategic value than Hong Kong?
user8781
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63
votes
16 answers
What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
One of the common reasons given for the Renaissance and the subsequent scientific revolution is the rediscovery of classical works by scholars in Europe and the social change that the study of those works brought.
However the Byzantine Empire and…
Opt
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62
votes
6 answers
Why didn't Wehrmacht soldiers refuse to kill civilians?
Why didn't Wehrmacht Soldiers refuse to execute civilians (and Kids) when it was clear that they did nothing wrong?
I know that they were probably told they're partisans or Jews or something along those lines but still I find it hard to believe…
user18596
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62
votes
5 answers
Why did the Germans spare Allied troops trapped at Dunkirk?
I haven't seen the movie but know enough of the story to understand that Allied troops had fallen back to Dunkirk for evacuation but were trapped there until transport came.
I also understand that the German army called off the…
The_MN_MechE
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61
votes
6 answers
Which came first: polytheism or monotheism?
It seems a common position that monotheism tends to evolve out of polytheism. Wikipedia offers a few historical examples of this.
However, many polytheistic religions seem to have monotheistic overtones.
Some native American mythology speaks of an…
Flimzy
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61
votes
7 answers
How did the USSR manage to innovate in an environment characterized by government censorship and high bureaucracy?
Despite the high bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, some design bureaus still achieved spectacular feats in science and engineering (mostly in defense and aerospace) e.g. Mir space station, Soyuz rockets, Mil V-12, Caspian Sea Monster, Antonov 225…
Kevin Muhuri
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61
votes
6 answers
Why are the German and French languages so different?
My understanding (which could be wrong) is the following:
During and before the period of the fall of western Rome (roughly 400 AD), the Franks and the Alemanni were tribal people who moved around a lot. The Romans called both of those people…
Roman
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61
votes
9 answers
How did Nazi Germany finance itself during WW2?
How did Nazi Germany finance itself during the war? They produced a large amount of war material during 1939-1945, but how was this production financed? What were Germany's revenue streams that enabled them to purchase and transport the raw…
David Pointer
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60
votes
4 answers
How has hearing loss been avoided in war?
Guns are very loud, even in an open field. In a trench or inside a city, I can only imagine they would be louder, and quite capable of causing hearing loss. How have armies ensured that their troops weren't all deaf by the end of the first battle or…
hhoburg
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60
votes
3 answers
Were ancient ships named?
Nowadays almost all civilian and military vessel have a name. Was this so in the antiquity, did the ships of Athens, Carthage or Rome have formal individual names?
b.Lorenz
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60
votes
6 answers
Was England called England in the days of King Arthur?
King Arthur is a legendary king who is said to have ruled Britain in the early days of post-Roman Britain. Now Thomas Malory's famous novel "La Morte D'Arthur" puts the following inscription on the stone that Arthur pulls the sword out of: "Whoso…
Keshav Srinivasan
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60
votes
4 answers
Why did Columbus cross the mid-Atlantic instead of exploring from Greenland?
Greenland was known to Europe since long before 1492. In fact, Leif Erikson reached modern Canadian lands around the year 1000, coming from Greenland. That journey was forgotten, but he chose a logical exploration path by starting from the…
DrZ214
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60
votes
11 answers
Why didn’t Japan attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II?
In the early months of World War II, the United Stated spent several millions of dollars to fortify the West Coast against possible Japanese attack, going as far as to stretch a gigantic submarine net across the Juan de Fuca Strait and to cover the…
George A. Solodun
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60
votes
9 answers
Why are so many metros underground? Isn't that more expensive than an elevated system?
Starting with the London Underground in 1863, why are so many metros/subways built underground (as opposed to en elevated metro)? This requires a lot of digging and excavation, which to me seems a lot more expensive than an elevated metro like the…
DrZ214
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