HERE ARE QUESTIONS and brief answers about four really big events in history: Why did Sparta lose its hegemonic position in Greece just thirty-three years after victory in the Peloponnesian War? Because Spartans loved their horses more than their country. Why did Ferdinand and Isabella decide to fund Columbus? Because he agreed to work cheap. How could World War I have been avoided? By British sailors taking a summer cruise to the Adriatic. How could World War Ii have been avoided? By German Social Democrats making nice to the pope.
