AskHistorians

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The word 'liquidate' is a staple of discussions about 20th century totalitarianism, especially the USSR. What is the origin of this strange word? How did it evolve to be a euphemism for "kill", and why does it sometimes mean something much less severe? (It clearly means "neutralize" sometimes)	31
How important was the city of Vienna to projecting power into Central Europe? Was the failure of the Ottomans to capture it the major setback if often is claimed to be?	30
In the Early Modern Period, composite monarchies often found fierce resistance to being integrated, even when contiguous. What exactly did Aragon/Portugal fear from Castile, and Scotland from England? If they did get integrated, did it (e.g. loss of power/wealth/influence) actually come to pass?	28
Churchill seems to have been given way too many opportunities in the cutthroat arena of British politics despite being a huge liability [left party ‘04, lost routine election ‘08, Gallipoli, Currency Debacle, betrayed party AGAIN ‘24]—how did he so consistently win favor with the inner circle?	28
In most discussions of the American history, it is taken for granted that soil was "used up" (stripped of its nutrients) by the commodity cash crops the slave-plantation system relied on. Thus slavery had to "Expand or Die". How large was this degradation, both as a perception and as a reality?	26
Israel Finkelstein published his incredible archaeological synthesis “The Bible Unearthed” 22 years ago. What recent works can I read to fill in the subsequent two decades of finds about the Iron Age Hebrews?	25
During the later Middle Ages [1200 - 1400], there was constant experimentation with battlefield tactics: where to place archers, when to flank, how to balance rest and initiative. With the benefit of hindsight and modern statistics, do we see any best practices or trends in determining outcomes?	24
The historian of science H. Floris Cohen heavily emphasizes the 1453 fall of Constantinople and subsequent interest in the Greek natural philosophy tradition in spurring the Scientific Revolution. Is this widely accepted?	24
The Protestant Reformation plays an important part in the history of German nationalism, but it is also said that a pre-existing proto-nationalism helped incite it. Did "Germans" really resent paying the church because it was "Italian", or is that a later gloss on people who did not think that way?	22
Under the Achaemenids, the Ancient Near East's literary culture shifted from Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform imprinted on clay to alphabetic Aramaic written on parchment. Is it a coincidence that the language, script, and media changed simultaneously? Would it have been hard to write Aramaic on clay?	21

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