askhistorians

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According to Wikipedia, Montenegro "was the only Balkan country never to be fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire." How can this be the case for such a small nation?	13
Why was cannabis, a drug used for thousands of years in the Middle East, banned by Western nations in the 1800s even though they found little to no harmful effects? Was there an element of xenophobia?	9
The period between de Gaulle's two positions as the leader of the Fourth and Fifth Republic from 1948 to 1957 is termed as his "crossing of the desert". What metaphorical “desert” was he crossing?	9
During the Napoleonic Wars, why were there no major guerrilla resistance movements against the French in the Netherlands, Germany, or Italy like there was in Spain?	7
After his troops mutinied at the Hyphasis River to turn back, Alexander the Great ordered the construction of "twelve altars, as high as the biggest towers and broader even than towers would be." Is there any knowledge of what these structures looked like?	7
All of the American aircraft in the Doolittle Raid save one crashed before reaching their intended destinations in China due to lack of fuel, and they were only able to reach the mainland due to a "tail wind". How was this major flaw not accounted for in the planning stage?	6
These quotes seem to indicate that Napoleon realized he was going to lose after his invasion of Russia and before the Battle of Leipzig. What was his psychological state at the time?	5
The period between de Gaulle's two positions as the leader of the Fourth and Fifth Republic from 1948 to 1957 is termed as his "crossing of the desert". What metaphorical “desert” was he crossing?	4
How was the An Lushan Rebellion so devastating if it was instigated by a single power-hungry general? Where did his support come from?	3
How did Communist governments in the Warsaw Pact try to legitimize themselves since they had been established due to the occupation of a foreign power rather than class struggle?	3

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