askhistorians

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The Ottoman Empire can be traced to the year 1299 and was more than 600 years old when WW1 started. I ask then, was this antique empire really on the verge of collapse after all those centuries of existing? Was the empire condemned or was the Great War directly responsible for the collapse?	564
The military planners of the Second Reich were famously afraid of an industrialized Russia, which was seen as inevitable, yet today Russia is hardly an industrial powerhouse. Why?	449
The German Empire was dominated politically by Prussia, the main force behind unification. Why didn't the same occur with Italy and Sardinia Piedmont?	409
I've heard Czechoslovakia had one of the biggest, best equipped armies in interwar Europe, yet the Germans walked in after the Munich Agreement. How powerful was Czechoslovakia before the Munich Agreement? How harmful was losing the Sudetenland to their military / economic standing?	166
Was Israel almost defeated in the Yom Kippur war, as claimed in this article (The Economist) ?	148
Germany unified in 1871. The Scramble for Africa began in 1884 with the BERLIN Conference. Why is it then that Germany had such a small colonial empire?	107
Is there a consensus among historians on the claims that Nixon's campaign sabotaged Lyndon B. Johnson's peace talks with Vietnam?	91
On July 31st, 1985, Chase Manhattan Bank stopped lending to Apartheid South Africa. A days earlier report by Citibank said that the country's finances were in chaos. What caused this chaos?	61
What caused France and Britain to break their territorial promises to Italy after WW1?	46
According to an article I read on BBC, East Germany enjoyed higher living standards than the Soviet Union. Is this true? How? Wasn't East Germany forced to pay massive reparations to the Soviets? Did any other Soviet satellites enjoy better living standards?	38

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