History Guild General History Quiz 129
See how your history knowledge stacks up!
Want to know more about any of the questions? Once you’ve finished the quiz click here to learn more.
Have an idea for a question? Suggest it here and we’ll include it in a future quiz!
The stories behind the questions
1. When was the ‘New Model Army’ created?
1645 – The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660.
2. The ‘Spanish Main’ refers to what area?
Mainland Central America – During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish Main was the collective term for the parts of the Spanish Empire that were on the mainland of the Americas and had coastlines on the Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico.
3. What was the future Queen Elizabeth II’s rank during WW2?
Second subaltern – In February 1945, she was appointed an honorary second subaltern (female equivalent of second-lieutenant) in the Auxiliary Territorial Service where she trained as a driver and mechanic. Her service number was 230873. She was promoted to the rank of honorary junior commander (female equivalent of captain) five months later.
4. Gregor MacGregor is famous for creating which colony?
Poyais – Gregor MacGregor managed to dupe many into believing that he had founded a nation in Latin America. Here, investors and settlers were told they would make a fortune from the established and extremely fertile lands of Poyais. This scheme lead to his being known as the greatest conman in history.
5. Which was the largest land empire the world has ever seen?
Mongol Empire – The Mongol Empire began in the Central Asian steppes and lasted throughout the 13th and 14th centuries. At its greatest extent it included all of modern-day Mongolia, China, parts of Burma, Romania, Pakistan, Siberia, Ukraine, Belarus, Cilicia, Anatolia, Georgia, Armenia, Persia, Iraq, Central Asia, and much or all of Russia. Many additional countries became tributary states of the Mongol Empire.
This created the the Pax Mongolica, or Mongol Peace, which allowed trade, technologies, commodities, and ideologies to be disseminated and exchanged across Eurasia.
6. Which of these was one of the original 13 colonies of the USA?
New Jersey – The 13 original colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Ohio became a state in 1803, Florida in 1845 and California in 1850.
7. When was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia formed?
1918 – After World War I, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later called the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, or the First Yugoslavia, was formed. It only recognised those three nationalities in its constitution. It existed until April 1941, when Germany invaded the country. King Peter II and the government fled into exile, and during the war two resistance groups formed, the Chetniks under Royalist General Draža Mihailović and Josip Broz Tito’s Communist Partisans. The Communists were the more successful group, and in 1945 they abolished the monarchy. The Communist authorities created Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, covering roughly the same territory as the Kingdom had, now a federal republic ruled by the Communist Party rather than a unitary monarchy.
8. The Battle of Buna was part of which conflict?
WW2 – The Battle of Buna was part of the Battle of the Beachheads, which was the bloodiest of all the Papuan campaigns. The resolve and tenacity of the Japanese defenders was, to Allied perceptions, unprecedented to the point of being “fanatical”, and had not previously been encountered.
9. Which was the first monarch to be Shakespeare’s patron?
Elizabeth I – Elizabeth I reigned from 1558 to 1603. Shakespeare, born in 1564, spent the majority of his life under her rule. The influence of the Queen, and the way in which she portrayed herself, was pervasive, and can be seen in many of Shakespeare’s plays.
While most of his plays were written after her death, we do know she saw a few of Shakespeare’s plays performed and that he performed at Court. We know she saw The Merry Wives of Windsor performed thanks to a published copy of the play proclaiming:
“As it hath been divers times Acted by the right Honorable my Lord Chamberlaines servants. Both before her Majestie, and else-where.”
10. Which was the last imperial dynasty in China?
Qing – At the peak of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), China ruled more than one-third of the world’s population, had the largest economy in the world, and by area was one of the largest empires ever.
