Weekly History Quiz No.239

Carried out two months after the 'D-Day' Operation Overlord landings in Normandy, Operation Dragoon saw over half a million Allied troops landed on beaches between Cannes and Toulon, before moving North to liberate Southern France.

The Greek Civil War was fought in Greece from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek government army (backed by the United Kingdom and the United States), and the Democratic Army of Greece, the military branch of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), backed by Yugoslavia and Albania as well as by Bulgaria. The fighting resulted in the defeat of the Communist insurgents by the government forces. It led to the Truman Doctrine to counter Soviet geopolitical spread during the Cold War. It was first announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman in 1947, and further developed in 1948 when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey.

Louis XV succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five, the sole survivor of a family devastated by measles. He ruled for 58 years, becoming the second longest ruling French monarch, with the record held by his predecessor.

One of the most widely analysed works in Western painting for the way its complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, it was painted by Velázquez when he was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal.

The foundations of the New Zealand nation state – and the basis of its sovereignty – lie in the historic agreement between Māori and Pākehā that was made in 1840. But there is more to this history.

Formerly an Ottoman province, in 1920 the British mandate of Iraq took over. The Hashemite monarchy under King Faisal, installed by the British and imported from Syria, struggled to balance the challenge of forming a new nation for the interests of the people of Iraq without resisting British interests.

Despite Iraq’s independence being officially granted in 1932, the subsequent 1936 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty granted Britain a military presence and air bases in Iraq.

In the Holy Roman Empire the imperial office was traditionally elective by the mostly German prince-electors. In theory the emperor was considered the first among equals of all Europe's Catholic monarchs.

First used by Richard I as a battle cry, it was formally adopted as the royal motto of England by King Henry V and has been retined since.

Re-naming streets outside Embassies is a well utilised diplomatic tactic. In the wake of the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 several countries, including Norway, Czechia and Latvia, changed the name of the street outside the Russian Embassy to 'Heroes of Ukraine street' or 'Ukraine Square'.

Cornelius Tacitus was responsible for numerous works that describe the empire's military conquests and other history. He was also the son-in-law of Governor of Britain Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the subject of his book Agricola.