askhistorians

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Through the silk road goods could be traded between nations with no direct contact. Did any polity send expeditions with their merchants to learn more about them, or perhaps maps were exchanged that would inform of distant places (as India and China would have been to Rome, for example)?	109
Aqueducts are vulnerable to being cut during a siege. What measures have been taken historically either to mitigate the loss of external water sources, or to prevent the damage itself from occurring?	91
It has been said that Takeda Shingen was one of the few who could stop Oda Nobunaga. Yet shortly after his death, Takeda power is forever broken at Nagashino and the clan is destroyed a few years later. How powerful and influential were the Takeda? And how was it that they were destroyed so quickly?	85
The milkman was a common sight in Britain, but now a relic of a bygone time. When did the transition from local deliveries to centralised supermarkets take place, and what shifted the public attitudes?	69
Anna Komnena's Alexiad is perhaps our main source on the Romans under the Komnenoi. But to what extent can we actually trust what she is saying?	57
Who were the Sabeans?	52
Although difficult to reach by Land, the region of modern Yemen and Oman can be reached by sea. Given their position (access to the Indian ocean and further markets), why did no external empire seek to take the region? (Antiquity)	47
[META] As historians, how do you recognise and avoid biases that will have formed due to the culture and environment that you grew up and live in? How do you avoid under/overcompensating?	46
When did the Netherlands begin reclaiming land with their dams, and why did they decide to do so? When nobody else did to nearly their extent.	45
The Abassid Caliphate created a new irrigation system in Iraq, to the point that it, non Egypt, became the breadbasket of the empire. What developments and advances in irrigation (and other waterworks) methods and technology emerged during this time under their rule?	44

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