askhistorians

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At the time of US independence, the 13 colonies had 2+ million inhabitants, whereas the mother country, Britain, had only 8+ million. How is it possible a colony could grow organically to 25% of home population in such a short time? No other colonial power faced the same power disparity.	7582
How is it possible that France/UK could afford 20+ capital ships prior to ww1, whereas today France struggles to keep 1 Aircraft Carrier, and UK could only scrap together for 2? Surely, their modern sophisticated economies outclass theirs from a century ago?	121
How fast did Roman soldiers march? And was it faster than current armies?	78
When an army was on the march in enemy territory in ancient times, how did they reliably feed such a large force (say 50k+), without any supplies from the home country?	33
When former British colonies transitioned towards independence, how was the choice to have a FirstPastThePost electoral system made? Was it perhaps not even debated and just taken for granted as normal?	17
What happens to a country's debt, if its former entity breaks up?	9
Did ancient civilizations also plant re-plant trees?	8
How come it took France 8 more years to develop a nuclear weapon, than the UK? I mean, at that time, after the US and USSR, the UK and France were next in line of greater powers. Why such disparity in technological prowess? France is by no means an undeveloped country.	8
How did the Romans deal with inflation? Also, how did they keep management of supply/demand throughout the Empire? (I imagine one could say they had a communist style 'plan-economy' to simplify, right?)	7
How did ancient civilizations deal with insect infestations on their crops? In general how did human agriculture fare before the advent of pesticides?	6

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