/r/askhistorians
Did the Washington Post's Watergate reporting actually lead to Nixon's downfall, or just did it document the process?
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When Japanese people first travelled (at least for the first time in some centuries) to the west in 19th centuries, how did they react to the contrast between Japan's set up and that of industrialized countries? How did they describe Europe to their countrymen back home?
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I’ve read that in 17th century Kraków, the various guilds of the city were each assigned a tower they had the responsibility of manning in the event of an attack. How did this work in practice? Was this common practice? And did any guilds ‘perform’ worse than others in this task?
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Were naval explorers (Polynesians, Vikings, Spanish) concerned that they would sail forever without hitting land or did they plan to turn back after a certain amount of time? Did they re-supply while sailing (fishing, collecting rain water)?
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In the game Crusader Kings, feudal society is organized in a very strict hierarchy. Emperors > Kings > Dukes > Counts > Barons/Mayors/ Bishops. Did medieval society consider these ranks to be part of a strict hierarchy like that or was the "chain of command" (so to speak) much more fluid?
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The book “Cocktails of the world and how to mix them” (Boothby, 1908) describes a Hawaiian beverage by the name Mequano, supposedly produced by fermenting coffee, but I have failed to find any further information on it. Was this a real thing? Did similar beverages exist elsewhere?
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I've heard that concrete was lost for hundreds of years after the ancient Roman empire fell. Are there any technologies we know existed hundreds of years ago, but we still can't recreate today?
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Today, Syria and Libya use Arabicised Greek names Sūrīyah and Lībiyā instead of more traditional Arabic names like al-Shām and Ṭarābulus, but Egypt still calls itself Miṣr (or, Maṣr). Was there ever any debate or support for changing the name to something derived from Aigyptos or Kmt/Kmy?
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