164
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Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
Actually, good arguments can be put forward for both dates as the the 'start' of World War 2. In fact a number of other dates have also been suggested for the 'start' of World War 2, including:
...
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50
votes
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Why did no other empire contest Russia's colonization of North-Asia?
Siberia was colonized earlier than the 18/19th centuries. There actually were a few challenges by great powers to Russia's colonial empire as it expanded and later: from China to some extent early on, ...
- 23.2k
45
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Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
Because it was the participation of the British and French empires, beginning with Declarations of War against Germany on Sept. 3, 1939, that turned several isolated regional conflicts into a World ...
- 72.3k
43
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Did all the the -stan sovereign state names appear synchronously?
The Persian suffix stān is much older than any of the “stans” in modern Central Asia. It goes back to proto-Indo-Iranian as represented by Sanskrit sthāna- “standing place” (already in the Rigveda) ...
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40
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"Never fight a land war in Asia." Okay, has anyone won a NON-land war in Asia?
Logically, in every war ever fought in Asia, there must have been a winner. If not overly pacifist in its reading, or expecting all too many stalemates.
This dictum is a jokingly formulated advice, ...
- 80.8k
31
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Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
Short Answer
The Wikipedia entry for World War II uses the start date of 1 September 1939 because Wiki is applying the Wikipedia definition of the term "world war" as a basis, for internal ...
- 6,187
26
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What would people have been smoking in 700 AD Central / Eastern Asia?
Historically:
They wouldn't have been smoking anything.
This is some evidence that Arabian traders brough opium to Tang dynasty China, and one might reason it could've been accessible to steppe nomads....
- 97.5k
24
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Did all the the -stan sovereign state names appear synchronously?
No, the terms are not all contemporary. Afghanistan is recorded in the 13th century; some of the others appear to date to the 20th century. Pakistan is 1933, the others probably date from either the ...
MCW♦
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20
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Why didn't Asians discover Australia?
The people living along the northern coastline of Australia, in the Kimberley, Arnhem Land, Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York had encounters with various visitors for many thousands of years. People ...
- 1,258
19
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"Never fight a land war in Asia." Okay, has anyone won a NON-land war in Asia?
First Opium War
In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor, rejecting proposals to legalise and tax opium, appointed Viceroy Lin Zexu to go to Canton to halt the opium trade completely. Lin wrote an open letter ...
- 6,125
12
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Did all the the -stan sovereign state names appear synchronously?
One additional thing to add to the excellent answers already given is that -stan is actually used productively in Persian for other words as well, such as bimarestan (بیمارستان) for “hospital” — ...
- 2,276
11
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Why didn't Asian teams participate in the 1950 World Cup?
Only four Asian teams – Burma, India, Indonesia and the Philippines - entered the 1950 World Cup qualification rounds and these were placed in Group 10 with the top team qualifying for the finals in ...
- 108k
11
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Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
As to why en.wikipedia lists particular start dates, I commend to you en.wikipedia’s arcane consensus policies, the article’s page history and talk page history. For why anglophone editors from the ...
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10
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Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?
SHORT ANSWER
There is evidence of the use of dictionaries and dialogues but we should not imagine that the resources available came anywhere close to matching the vast array of second language ...
- 108k
10
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When and why did "Near East" become "Middle East?"
This article at the Washington Post claims the name Middle East for what was the Near East started changing after World War I, when the British started governing territories that were formerly part of ...
- 283
9
votes
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Were Archimedes screws used in pre-modern times in the far east?
Evidence of the Archimedes screw pump being used in Japan first appears in 1618, though the idea of a screw had been introduced around the middle of the previous century. In China, it is mentioned in ...
- 108k
9
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Who is this Asian figure?
It's a figure of Lu Dongbin (also spelled Lu Tung-Pin), one of the Eight Immortals of Taoism.
Quoted from Learn Religions:
Lu Dongbin’s emblem is the magic two-edged sword, which dispels evil spirits,...
8
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"Never fight a land war in Asia." Okay, has anyone won a NON-land war in Asia?
The wars which ideally fit your conditions are Portuguese wars of conquest.
They occurred in 16th century between Portugal (a non-Asian power) and various Asian (and African) powers, most important of ...
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8
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"Never fight a land war in Asia." Okay, has anyone won a NON-land war in Asia?
What about the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05? Granted, that included land battles, but it seems that the war was effectively ended by the naval Battle of Tsushima.
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Why wasn’t Japan colonized by the European empires?
Japan was in fact vulnerable in the 16th century when the Portuguese and later the Spanish arrived.
But Japan had, despite the civil war, an educated and competent elite as well as an effective ...
- 131
7
votes
How did China become so **populous**?
China is not so populous. By population density it is on 84-th place, after
Italy (65), Nigeria (64), Germany (58), Pakistan (56), United Kingdom (51),
Japan (40), India (33), Netherlands (31), ...
- 38.5k
7
votes
How did China become so **populous**?
Long history of strong agricultural production
Long periods of stability and prosperity
Large land area
Culture that encourages more than 2 children
Long history of a large state encompassing a large ...
- 7,477
7
votes
Accepted
Was the end date of Soviet-Japanese Border War the direct reason of starting Soviet invasion on Poland in 1939
The question has it backwards: It was the planned invasion of Poland that caused the peace agreement to happen, not visa versa.
This war was never officially declared, and it took place on the border
...
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7
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Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
As the World War II Article says:
Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937[5][b]—though neither side had declared war on the other. World war is generally ...
- 1,369
7
votes
What did the ancient Eastern world think of the ancient Greeks?
This question is periodically asked here in various forms. Apparently the problem is that none of the literature of Persian empires (Achaemenid, Parthian, Sasanian) survived. If there was any, it was ...
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7
votes
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How were Cumans physically?
As far as the masks go, it does appear that there was a cultural fashion among the steppe nomads of that time to use face masks with facial features on their helmets. Also the only two we have from ...
- 118k
6
votes
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Where/when does the wok start to differentiate itself from pot-style cooking vessels?
The Chinese word itself from which we borrowed our concept of this implement seems to be much older than the actual pan/pot we understand this utensil to be now.
The frying/cooking methods this ...
- 80.8k
5
votes
Why didn't Asian teams participate in the 1950 World Cup?
The excuse given was apparently that FIFA had instituted a rule prohibiting players from playing barefoot But the real reasons, according to Saileen Manna, seem to be that financing both the World Cup ...
- 72.3k
5
votes
Accepted
Where did Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (Thieu) learn his English?
His wikipedia entry mentions among other things that:
Thiệu was a son of a small, well-off landowner who earned his living by farming and fishing. [...] His elder brothers raised money so that he ...
- 23.2k
5
votes
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How do the efforts of the Jesuits in China differ from their efforts in Japan?
As user5751924 said, many differences arose due to differences in reception by Chinese/Japanese authorities – which also changed in the centuries, causing change within those countries.
According to ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible