History Guild General History Quiz 209
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The stories behind the questions
1. Which empire did Nebuchadnezzar I rule?
Babylonian -Nebuchadnezzar I was one of the most famous rulers of the Babylonian empire. He enjoyed military successes for the first part of his career, then turned to peaceful building projects in his later years.
The Babylonian Empire suffered major blows to its power when Nebuchadnezzar’s sons lost a series of wars with Assyria, and their successors effectively became vassals of the Assyrian king.
2. Which of the following was one of the Crusader States, established by Europeans in the Middle East?
Principality of Antioch – There were four major crusader states: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. These states not only served as bastions of Western European influence in the Levant but also became focal points of intricate political dynamics, involving interactions with each other and neighbouring Muslim and Orthodox Christian powers.
3. Which organisation was responsible for infiltrating British agents into occupied Europe during WW2?
SOE – Special Operations Executive was the WW2 British secret service dealing with sabotage and propaganda, and was looking to set up Resistance groups in Nazi-held territories. One of its most interesting members was Virginia Hall, an American woman who served with the British SOE in France in 1941–1942. She then joined its US equivalent, the Office of Strategic Services, and became a founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency.
4. When did Egypt become independent from the UK?
1922 – British government offered to recognise Egypt as an independent sovereign state, but only upon certain conditions. The following matters were reserved to the discretion of the British government: the security of the communications of the British Empire in Egypt, the defense of Egypt against foreign aggression, and the protection of foreign interests in Egypt and the Sudan. This remained the case until the Suez crisis in 1956.
5. Where did the Titanic sink?
Atlantic Ocean – The Titanic sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.
6. Which country deployed Female soldiers in combat during WW1?
Russia – The ‘women’s battalion of death’ was one of 16 all female combat units created by the Russian military in 1917. They saw significant combat prior to the Russian revolution and Russia’s subsequent withdrawal from the conflict.
7. When did humans first reach the The Galapagos Islands?
1535 CE – The first humans known to have reached them did so in1535, when the Spanish bishop of Panama Tomás de Berlanga found the islands they visited uninhabited and so arid and barren that two men and ten horses died for lack of fresh water and the rest were forced to subsist on cactus pads.
8. Which country named the Molotov cocktail?
Finland – The name ‘Molotov cocktail’ was coined by the Finns during the 1939 Winter War, a pejorative reference to Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Despite the now infamous name, the formal Finnish military term for the weapon type was, and continues to be, ‘burn-bottle’. These were first used in combat in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.
9. Who was Alexander the Great’s father?
Philip II of Macedon – Achieving success through his reformation of the army, Phillip II laid the groundwork for Alexander’s great successes.
10. Which country did the UK collaborate with to break the German Enigma code?
Poland – Polish mathematicians working with the Polish intelligence service were critical in breaking the Enigma code.
