askhistorians

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Would combatants fighting or moving in chainmail, scalemail, and plate have produced a lot of noise from the scrape of metal on metal?	6
Obsidian arrowheads and spear tips can be just as sharp as iron. So was the primary advantage in upgrading to iron the increased reusability because iron is stronger and less likely to break on impact, or were there other factors at play?	6
Modern countries within the old Hasburg Empire have higher degrees of public trust and lower levels of corruption. What did the Hasburg Empire do to foster this good governance?	6
The Roman military increasingly relied on cavalry starting in late antiquity. Did all those Roman military roads built for infantry work well for cavalry?	6
The First Crusade drew 80-100k soldiers from Western Europe to the Middle East. Did this significantly deplete the continent's fighting power?	6
Crusading nobles from Europe mortgaged their lands so they could afford to lead men to Jerusalem. What happened to all those mortgaged estates? Did some lords or their heirs get it back, or was it all seized by creditors?	6
World War I surprised the world when it broke out, but World War II was widely predicted. Why did contemporaries see signs for the second war-in-the-making, but not the first?	6
Were PTSD-like symptoms or a reluctance to socialize with groups noteded results of the 1918 pandemic?	6
What was the floating island off the coast of Hong Kong described in this 1909 travelogue, and why were the British police so concerned with people slipping away from Hong Kong?	6
The Chinese built thousands of miles of canals, dams, dikes, and other water infrastructure in the premodern era in part of tame the floods that regularly ravaged the country. Did any of this really work?	6

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