History Guild General History Quiz 96
See how your history knowledge stacks up!
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The stories behind the questions
1. What year was Nelson Killed?
1805 – Nelson, Britain’s most famous Admiral, was killed on the cusp of his great victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets off Trafalgar, Spain. He was hit by a musket ball, fired from the mizzen-top of the French Ship Redoutable, which was only 15m away. He died several hours later.
2. Which of these languages developed from Latin?
Portuguese – Portuguese is a Romance language, which developed out of Latin after the decline of the Roman Empire. German and English are both Germanic languages. All three are part of the Indo-European language family. Hungarian is one of the few languages spoken in Europe that is not Indo-European, it is part of the Uralic language family. Read more about how the languages of Europe developed.
3. What armoured vehicle is this?
Sd Kfz 251 – A WW2 German armoured personnel carrier designed by the Hanomag company, designed to transport the Panzergrenadiers into battle. Over 15,000 were produced, they saw service widely.
4. In what year was Benazir Bhutto assassinated?
2007 – Prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996, she was the first woman to lead a democratic, majority Muslim country. Her political ideology were liberal and secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from the 1982 until her assassination in 2007.
It was widely thought that she had a strong chance of becoming the country’s next Prime Minister in the 2008 national elections, after there was growing dissatisfaction with Pervez Musharraf, who had launched a military coup in 1999 and became the country’s President. She survived an assassination attempt that killed 149 people in October 2007, she was killed by a suicide bomber on 27th December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
5. Which country had the largest economy in the world in 1600CE?
China – The Chinese economy was the largest in the world, representing about 29% of global GDP. All of Western Europe combined represented only 20% of global GDP. Over the period 1000CE to 1820CE the top position switched between China and India, with Western Europe steadily increasing from 1700CE onwards. The reasons for this change is examined here.
6. What was MI9’s role?
Assisting POW’s to escape – MI9 was created and supported escape and evasion lines, especially in France and Belgium, which helped over 5,000 Allied airmen evade capture or return after escaping from POW camps. The usual routes of escape from occupied Europe were either through Switzerland or to southern France and then over the Pyrenees to neutral Spain and Portugal. MI9 also trained allied soldiers and airmen in tactics for evading and escaping and helped prisoners of war to escape by establishing clandestine communications and providing escape devices to them.
7. Which American President signed the Indian Removal Act?
Andrew Jackson – Read more about the calamitous results of this decision.
8. What year did Stalin die?
1953 – This is explored in the excellent, and darkly comedic movie The Death of Stalin.
9. What weapon is this soldier using?
FG 42 – Developed for the German Fallschirmjäger airborne infantry, it combined the characteristics and firepower of a light machine gun and a rifle. The FG 42 influenced post-war small arms development, and many features of its design were copied in later firearms.
10. Which group of people, originating in the Congo delta, expanded to colonise the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa?
Bantu – Read more about the Bantu Expansion here.
