99
votes
Why was Germany not as successful as other Europeans in establishing overseas colonies?
Which Germany do you mean?
Something that can reasonably called a German nation-state was founded only in 1871, when Prussia first defeated France and then unified most German states under their ...
- 16.8k
58
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Portugal found universities in its colonies like Spain?
SHORT ANSWER
Spanish policy was rooted in the tradition of setting up universities in conquered territories, accompanied by the aim of converting the local people to Catholicism in order to bind them ...
- 108k
50
votes
Accepted
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
46
votes
Accepted
Did Pope Urban II issue the papal bull "terra nullius" in 1095?
It seems likely this is a historical myth.
According to WikiPedia's list of Papal Bulls*, Urban II did issue a bull that year, but it had to do with who was allowed to excommunicate the ruler of the ...
- 118k
43
votes
Why did epidemic disease spread only from Europe to America and not both ways in the Columbian Exchange?
It is not true that the exchange was one-sided - e.g., a major hypothesis for the origin of Syphilis is that it was brought from Americas:
The history of syphilis has been well studied, but the exact ...
- 3,235
38
votes
Accepted
Why did China annex Tibet?
The other two answers speak in terms of Tibet's legal status; and these answers, while correct, don't properly explain why Tibet is important to China. This answer relates entirely to geography. The ...
- 7,468
33
votes
Accepted
Why was Germany not as successful as other Europeans in establishing overseas colonies?
Germany arrived late to the party, and did so unenthusiastically
Germany basically was a mess of small states at the onset of the colonial era. It took a very long time for Brandenburg-Prussia to ...
- 23.2k
32
votes
Are there historical instances of settlers who were largely uncontacted and undisturbed after settling?
The peopling of Hawaii in the 1100s or 1200s may qualify. Drifters or shipwrecks could have arrived in the following centuries (for which see Braden's On the Probability of Pre-1778 Japanese Drifts to ...
- 27.6k
31
votes
Accepted
Why did epidemic disease spread only from Europe to America and not both ways in the Columbian Exchange?
@Roger V.'s answer is a good one and I've upvoted it. There are some other additional plausible reasons worth adding:
First (and probably most importantly), mankind evolved in the Old World and this ...
- 7,598
28
votes
Why was Germany not as successful as other Europeans in establishing overseas colonies?
In order to support a global empire, you need to be capable of supplying and defending your outposts with a strong Navy. The five other European nations that you named all had long naval traditions ...
- 19.3k
28
votes
Accepted
Why did it take over 100 years for Britain to begin seriously colonising America?
Here is a list with the major factors. This list focuses on the period Oct 1492 to April 1607 and is extracted from this Timeline of Colonial America. The timeline already contains links to sources ...
- 2,487
27
votes
Were the Islamic Caliphates (Umayyad and Abbasid) and the Mongol Empires truly as benevolent as they are portrayed?
If your textbook indeed says this, it is evidently biased. First of all, these things (the Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, and European empires) belong to very different historical periods, and thus ...
- 38.5k
26
votes
Accepted
Why didn't Britain or any other European power colonize Abyssinia/Ethiopia before 1936?
Abyssinia / Ethiopia (the borders of which expanded and contracted frequently over the centuries) maintained its independence until 1936 by a combination of diplomatic skill in playing would-be ...
- 108k
25
votes
Did Japanese modernisation have an effect on Ethiopia?
Addis Hiwet first used the term 'Japanizer' to one group of modernisers in post-WWI Ethiopia who took the example of Meiji Japan as giving a model for development away from feudal forms. The model ...
23
votes
Accepted
Why has Nepal never been conquered or colonized?
There were some times Nepal was partially conquered.
Most were during the early medieval period. Documentation during this period can be problematic, but there are records of the Muraya Empire ...
- 118k
19
votes
Accepted
Why did United Kingdom not keep the colonies after Napoleon's defeat?
Unlike the earlier European wars of the 18th Century, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, from a British perspective, were not about acquiring or retaining territory. The purpose of war for ...
- 19.3k
18
votes
Accepted
Why were Morocco and Tunisia made a French protectorate, but Algeria annexed as part of France?
One of the main differences between Algeria and other Maghreb countries controlled by France was the extensive settlements established there. European settlers began arriving immediately after the ...
- 7,092
16
votes
Why didn't colonial empires exchange their colonies with others empire to make their territories whole?
The shorthand answer is that the age of colonial empires was not a board game where each empire has a a strategy, and there's a way of scoring a winner. Empires -- like everything human -- were ...
- 7,598
15
votes
Why did China annex Tibet?
tl;dr
Why invade?
Because government, in order to be legitimate (I'm using the term "legitimate" in the same sense as Fukyama - that the citizens perceive the government's actions as ...
MCW♦
- 32.4k
15
votes
Accepted
What caused the shift from annexation of territory, to colonization of territory?
Part of the problem is "colony" is a floaty term. I think there are at least three basic ways a country dominates land:
Colony: replacing the natives with your own people (the Americas, Australia, ...
- 54.9k
15
votes
Why didn't Russia colonize in the scramble for Africa?
You got your facts wrong.
The peak of the scramble for Africa was the Berlin Conference of 1878.
Alaska was sold to the USA in 1867.
Russia had (and has) great resources, but always had (and has) ...
- 20.9k
14
votes
Why do Afro-Caribbeans have English names whereas Indo-Caribbeans still have Indian(ish) names?
Afro Carribeans:
Afro-Caribbeans are Caribbean people who trace their heritage to Sub-Saharan Africa [...] Between the 16th and 19th centuries, European-led triangular trade brought African people ...
- 5,602
14
votes
Are there historical instances of settlers who were largely uncontacted and undisturbed after settling?
It doesn't reach the bars in the OP of 200 settlers and 3 centuries, but in case you are interested in a smaller experience, Pitcairn Island was settled in 1790 by 27 people. The community they built ...
- 5,839
13
votes
Why was the duration of territorial contracts often 99 years?
The origins of the 99-year lease are unknown, but have been a matter of speculation for centuries. However, that figure had become commonplace in many countries by the eighteenth and nineteenth ...
- 77.4k
13
votes
Are views in Thailand on Axis powers influenced by colonization?
Probably, to some extent. But clearly Nazi imagery just lacks the stigma it has in the west--not just in Thailand but throughout many Asian countries with very different histories. For a few examples ...
- 18.9k
12
votes
Why did China annex Tibet?
The short version is that to the minds of a lot of Chinese, that was historically Chinese territory. They were just reclaiming what was theirs.
A lot of modern Chinese territorial claims go back to ...
- 118k
12
votes
Has there ever been a situation where the "motherland" treated its colonies well anywhere in the world?
Some of the UK colonies became independent on very friendly terms, and still maintain close ties to the UK. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand come to mind. However... their indigenous populations ...
- 3,441
12
votes
Did Pope Urban II issue the papal bull "terra nullius" in 1095?
Short answer
Pope Urban II issued no such bull for the First Crusade. The source which first made this claim, possibly Pramod K. Nayar, in 'The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary', appears to have ...
- 108k
11
votes
How long would it take to travel from England to western Africa in the late 1890's?
SHORT ANSWER
Based on evidence from the period 1894 to 1897, the trip would have taken between 21 and 35 days, depending on how many ports were stopped at on the way. Possible ports of call are shown ...
- 108k
11
votes
Why was the area now known as Liberia chosen as the location for repatriation of African slaves in the US?
The initial plan was for somewhere close to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where the British had already resettled freed slaves with (it was perceived) some success.
The area now known as Liberia was only ...
- 108k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible