askhistorians

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The Confederacy started off the Civil War far behind the Union in terms of industrial capacity. Was there any concerted attempt made to close the gap during the war? Was it successful?	12
What did the Aztec economy look like? Was it a free market? Heavily regulated? Totally planned like the Incas to the South?	12
In an age of subservient women, did priestesses in classical Mediterranean cultures have outsized independence, power, or influence?	11
What do you make of this 1909 reference to "Mexican" currency, and "gold," cents in use in China?	11
Why was Pope Gregory X unable to rally Europeans to assist the ailing Crusading States? Had there been some sort of shift that made further crusades less appealing?	11
Americans built a naval base and claimed the Japanese island of Chichijima in 1853. In 1862 a Tokugawa Shogunate ship entered the harbor at Chichijima and proclaimed Japanese sovereignty. The Americans appear to have let it go without a fight. Why?	11
Pope Pius XII famously stayed silent as Italy's Jews were carted away to concentration camps. Was the pope worried he would be dethroned or killed, or that the newly-independent Vatican would be reabsorbed into Italy? How complicit was the pope?	11
Why did some civilizations, like the Vikings, struggle with declining soil fertility, while other civilizations don't seem to have been affected by it much? What technologies or practices set those that maintained soil fertility apart?	11
Why were the Numidians such a dominant cavalry force, and how did they adapt to become "civilized" so quickly?	11
What was meant by "$300, Mexican" and other currency terms in this early 20th century text?	11

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