askhistorians

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Today is the 30th anniversary of the independence of Slovenia. For a thousand years Slovenes had a distinct cultural and national identity, yet lived under foreign, particularly Habsburg, rule for most of the time. Why did they fail to establish an independent Slovene state for so long?	5
Did the US have plans to intervene in the event of a Soviet civil war during the tumultuous time from 1989 to 1991, especially in light of rebels potentially securing nuclear weapons and even using them? If so, what did these plans look like?	5
"The empire, long divided, must unite [...]." Thus says the famous opening line of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". But were there ever any aspirations/attempts by local rulers, such as the post-1916 warlords, to establish their own sovereign state, independent of China, with its own identity?	5
Why have there existed multi-turreted tanks, but no double-barrelled tanks? Have there ever existed designs or blueprints of double-barrelled tanks?	5
Finland built the 100 ton submarine Saukko specifically to be used on Lake Ladoga. Yet ultimately they did not do this. Why?	5
The Allied Strategic Bombing Campaign	4
An old comment on this subreddit says: "[...] think of Japanese medieval armies switching to massed spear formations, [...]." How true is this? What did these formations and their tactics look like? How do they compare to the pike formations of the contemporary pike and shot era of European warfare?	4
What did Bulgaria do during WW2?	4
The Chinese Empire is always portrayed as this highly centralized place, yet the Provinces and their ruling Governors seemed to have a lot of power. So much so, that post-1916 several of them became ruling Warlords. So which portrayal is right and how and why did this severe decentralization happen?	4
Was "Greek Fire" ever used on land? It seems to be a wasted opportunity not to try and build a "Medieval Flamethrower" with it.	4

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