102
votes
Accepted
What fueled the street lights in 13th-century Cordoba?
I have traced back this claim to its original source. Come along with me on this journey! Let's start with a source which used to be linked on Wikipedia and is commonly cited online:
For ten miles in ...
- 2,326
100
votes
Why was Britain willing to return Hong Kong but not Gibraltar?
Despite common misconception, both Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula were ceded to the United Kingdom in perpetuity, via the Treaty of Nanking and the Convention of Peking, respectively. ...
- 96.2k
58
votes
Accepted
Why does the King of Spain still claim defunct titles like the King of Hungary?
They're maintained as a matter of tradition, which is not unusual in monarchies. It's used both for prestige and as a relic of an era when European diplomacy revolved around territorial claims of the ...
- 96.2k
55
votes
Why was Spanish Fascist dictatorship left in power after World War II?
WW II was primarily a power struggle, and to a lesser degree an ideological struggle.
This means that your assumption about the motivations of WW II are incorrect. If it had been an ideological ...
- 3,469
37
votes
Accepted
Why does a Star of David appear at a rally with Francisco Franco?
Q Why does a Star of David appear at a rally with Francisco Franco?
Because the symbol was much more ambiguous at the time, and not a one-to-one signifier of "Jewishness".
Because Franco ...
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33
votes
Accepted
Why was Spanish Fascist dictatorship left in power after World War II?
The OP said this in a comment:
technically speaking, Spain was a satellite state. However, the treaty was mainly intended for the countries within the big blocks so I assume it was just ignored.
The ...
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31
votes
Accepted
How and when was Portugal created?
I mean if the people felt they were Portuguese how could they accept kings with Asturian origins?
Because they didn't feel they were "Portuguese" until later on.
Firstly, you are taking the modern ...
- 12.1k
31
votes
Accepted
Why isn't there a single trace of Germanic influence in Iberian Languages?
(Note that there are definitively many traces of Germanic influence on Spanish/Portuguese. For example, as @AlbertYago's pointed out, the Iberian vocabulary contains several Germanic imports; ...
- 96.2k
30
votes
Why was Britain willing to return Hong Kong but not Gibraltar?
I find it interesting that many answers belong to "armchair generals", that point only to the military power, and logistics,¹ but forget to mention the issues that could lead to a war in the first ...
- 12.1k
29
votes
Why were Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?
Actually, Portugal and England have the longest alliance in the world -- one signed in the Treaty of Windsor (1386). The Portuguese and English agreed that neutrality for Portugal was the most viable ...
- 291
27
votes
Accepted
Did the Allies try to "bribe" Franco to join them in World War II?
Stanley G Payne's Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany and World War II is a good study of Spain's relationships with Germany, and secondarily with the UK and USA, during the war.
The Allies never tried ...
- 28.1k
24
votes
Accepted
What kind of knife could this be?
Got it, is a Spanish M1969 Bayonet, check it here: https://www.preferredarms.com/weapons/daggers.php
- 1,870
23
votes
How has Catalonia ended up being so nationalist?
Short answer: The latest flareup is the most recent of many that have taken place over the centuries.
More details are found in this wiki article on Catalonia. But basically, Catalonia was always the ...
- 103k
22
votes
Why does a Star of David appear at a rally with Francisco Franco?
Although we can't tell the colours from the OP's photo, and although the dimensions are different, circumstantial evidence suggests this may be the flag of the Khalif of Morocco, the puppet ruler who ...
- 106k
21
votes
Why was Britain willing to return Hong Kong but not Gibraltar?
Gibraltar was defensible, but Hong Kong was not. In the 1990s, the distance from the UK would have made Hong Hong impossible to defend. Also, Hong Kong is primarily occupied by Chinese, unlike ...
- 37.3k
20
votes
How and when was Portugal created?
As mentioned in the comments, the Wikipedia entry on this subject does not adequately describe the situation and causes of the foundation of Portugal.
The creation of Portugal was nothing short of a ...
- 37.3k
18
votes
Accepted
How long did it take to get news of the sighting of the Spanish Armada from Land’s End to London?
It seems to me that there are a number of variables to this, many of which would vary from beacon to beacon, so getting an 'accurate' transmission time for the information is going to be almost ...
- 4,688
16
votes
Why does the King of Spain still claim defunct titles like the King of Hungary?
It's actually not that unusual for monarchs to claim titles in pretence as a means of increasing their prestige. The Kings of England and Great Britain had famously claimed to also be Kings/Queens of ...
- 76.4k
16
votes
Accepted
Did any Moors accompany Hernando de Soto in his exploration of Mississippi?
I understand that there are four surviving accounts of de Soto's expedition.
Three of those accounts were written by survivors:
Rodrigo Rangel or Ranjel, who was de Soto’s personal secretary;
Luys ...
- 76.4k
14
votes
Why did Charlemagne retreat after the Battle of Pamplona?
The short answer is that Charlemagne didn’t have much choice. Roger Collins, in ‘Early Medieval Europe 300 – 1000' asserts that
The expedition that Charles led into the Ebro valley in 778 was ill-...
- 106k
14
votes
Accepted
Do medieval historic references to "Semites" refer to Jews or to speakers of Semitic in general?
There are no medieval historic references to "Semites". The word did not exist until the late 18th Century. It was coined by Historian August Ludwig von Schlözer to have a useful word to describe that ...
- 110k
14
votes
Did the Allies try to "bribe" Franco to join them in World War II?
Short Answer
Not only is there no evidence that the Allies tried to 'bribe' Spain to declare war on the Axis, there is strong evidence that the Allies knew any such attempt would be futile for several ...
- 106k
13
votes
Why was Britain willing to return Hong Kong but not Gibraltar?
One other aspect to this discussion is water. Once the UK had returned the leased territories (as they would have had to do), all China needed to do was turn off the tap supplying water to the rest ...
- 131
13
votes
How has Catalonia ended up being so nationalist?
a response from a mostly neutral, catalan born citizen.
TL;DR:
Catalonia isn't suffering a rise of nationalism, but of neo-autonomism / pro-independence, mainly due to loss of civil rights, economic ...
- 1,479
12
votes
Accepted
Could the nukes involved in the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash have detonated?
It seems unlikely that the 1966 incident could have resulted in the nuclear explosion of one or more of the four hydrogen bombs that fell at Palomares, and I am not aware of any serious claims to the ...
- 76.4k
12
votes
Accepted
What is the approximate value of a Spanish ducat in 1557?
Lifting the contents of the very helpful link provided by @gvk into an answer:
Source: Fiat Money in 17th Century Castile, by François R. Velde, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Warren E. Weber, ...
- 12k
12
votes
Accepted
Did Franco ever refer to his regime as Fascist?
No. Franco was a Falangist, and called himself that. (In real life more of a military opportunist, who grabbed his chance.) Fascists were the followers of Mussolini. Hitler was a National-Socialist. ...
- 17.8k
12
votes
Accepted
What was the expected retirement age for men in Spain in 1936?
In the Ley del Retiro Obrero from 1919, the age for retirement of workers was established at 65 years.
The Law was applied from 1923 on, but it was criticized by the patrons and the high corruption ...
- 639
11
votes
Why were Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?
You're looking at few different questions.
1) Why did Franco not bring Spain into the war voluntarily in 1939-40?
a) Popular war fatigue: the Spanish people had been put through three years of a ...
- 161
11
votes
Accepted
What would the style of wanted posters be in 1500's
I don't believe there were any wanted posters in Spain in the 1500's. If you have evidence, please document your preliminary research in your question.
The first record I can find of a wanted poster ...
MCW♦
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