20 hard history trivia questions, for people who already know the basics

The ancient world

1. 1Mesopotamia · Babylonian astronomy

   Babylonian astronomers left a legacy still visible on every clock face. What is it?

   • ACounting in base 60, which gives us 60 minutes and 360 degrees
   • BThe seven-day week
   • CThe division of the year into twelve months
   • DThe concept of zero
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   A. Counting in base 60, which gives us 60 minutes and 360 degrees. Sexagesimal counting survived every empire that followed. Sixty divides cleanly by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30 — useful before decimals existed.

   From the “Ancient Mesopotamia – Sumer, Babylon, Assyria” story in Histia · Full story: Ancient civilizations timeline

2. 2China · c. 1250 BCE

   The Shang is the first Chinese dynasty confirmed by written evidence. What kind of evidence?

   • ASilk scrolls recording the royal genealogy, buried with the kings
   • BOracle bones, inscribed and then cracked by heat to read the ancestors' answers
   • CStone stelae set up at the capital listing each year's harvest
   • DBronze coins stamped with the names and titles of the reigning kings
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   B. Oracle bones, inscribed and then cracked by heat to read the ancestors' answers. Ox shoulder blades and turtle shells, unearthed near Anyang. The script on them is the direct ancestor of the characters used today.

   From the “Ancient China – Shang to Han Dynasties” story in Histia · Full story: Ancient civilizations timeline

3. 3China · c. 1046 BCE

   The Zhou justified overthrowing the Shang with an idea that outlived them by three thousand years. What was it?

   • AThe Mandate of Heaven: heaven grants the right to rule and withdraws it from the unjust
   • BThe principle that the strongest army holds the only legitimate claim
   • CThe rule that the ruler is chosen by agreement among the great families
   • DThe doctrine that the emperor descends in a direct line from the sun
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   A. The Mandate of Heaven: heaven grants the right to rule and withdraws it from the unjust. It legitimised rebellion as well as rule: a dynasty that fell had evidently lost the mandate. Every later Chinese dynasty used the same argument.

   From the “Ancient China – Shang to Han Dynasties” story in Histia · Full story: Who was Confucius?

4. 4Greece · 490 BCE

   The modern marathon race takes its distance from a story attached to this battle. What does the historical record actually say?

   • AThe messenger was a captured Persian who carried the news under escort
   • BThe distance was paced out and recorded by Miltiades after the fighting ended
   • CThe run to Athens is a later legend; the earliest account has a runner sent to Sparta before the battle
   • DHerodotus describes the run from the battlefield to Athens in considerable detail
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   C. The run to Athens is a later legend; the earliest account has a runner sent to Sparta before the battle. Herodotus describes Pheidippides running to Sparta to ask for help — around 240 km. The dying messenger crying 'we have won' at Athens appears only centuries later, in Plutarch and Lucian.

   From the “Battle of Marathon” story in Histia · Full story: What happened at the Battle of Marathon?

5. 5Greece · 431 BCE

   What caused the Peloponnesian War?

   • AA quarrel over the conduct of the Olympic Games at Elis
   • BMacedonian expansion southward into Thessaly and Boeotia
   • CA renewed Persian invasion of Attica that Athens refused to resist
   • DSpartan fear of Athens' growing power and its empire over the other Greek states
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   D. Spartan fear of Athens' growing power and its empire over the other Greek states. Thucydides' own diagnosis, and the origin of what is now called the 'Thucydides trap' — a rising power frightening an established one into war.

   From the “Classical Greece – City-states to Hellenistic” story in Histia

6. 6Central Asia · 138–125 BCE

   The journey took thirteen years. What delayed Zhang Qian so long?

   • AHe was set to surveying the Taklamakan desert for a Han garrison
   • BHe was held hostage by the Yuezhi against a promise of tribute
   • CHe was captured by the Xiongnu and held for over a decade before escaping
   • DHe was shipwrecked and spent years working his way back overland
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   C. He was captured by the Xiongnu and held for over a decade before escaping. He married and had a son in captivity, then continued the mission when he got free — and reported back to an emperor who had assumed him dead.

   From the “Opening the Silk Road” story in Histia · Full story: What was the Silk Road?

7. 7Germany · 1877

   The name 'Silk Road' is not ancient. Where does it come from?

   • AMarco Polo uses it throughout his account of his travels
   • BA nineteenth-century German geographer coined it
   • CRoman records refer to the route as the via serica
   • DIt was the Han court's own official name for the route
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   B. A nineteenth-century German geographer coined it. Ferdinand von Richthofen coined *Seidenstraße* in 1877. Nobody who travelled it ever called it that, and it was a network rather than a road.

   From the “Opening the Silk Road” story in Histia · Full story: What was the Silk Road?

The Middle Ages

1. 8Rome · 800

   On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor in Rome. Why was that provocative?

   • ARome lay outside his kingdom and belonged to the Lombard crown
   • BThere was already an emperor at Constantinople who held the title to be his alone
   • CNo pope had ever before claimed the authority to crown a secular ruler at all
   • DCharlemagne had not been baptised and was still formally a pagan king
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   B. There was already an emperor at Constantinople who held the title to be his alone. The Roman Empire had never ended in the east. Reviving the western title in Rome amounted to declaring the Byzantine claim void.

   From the “Charlemagne” story in Histia · Full story: Charlemagne: facts about the father of Europe

2. 9The Frankish empire · c. 800

   Carolingian minuscule was a new script. Why did it matter?

   • AClear lowercase letters and spaces between words made texts far quicker to read and copy
   • BIt allowed scribes to write on paper, which was far cheaper than parchment
   • CIt replaced Latin with the spoken vernacular in official documents
   • DIt was the first European script to be written from left to right
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   A. Clear lowercase letters and spaces between words made texts far quicker to read and copy. Renaissance humanists mistook it for genuine Roman writing and revived it. The lowercase letters you are reading now descend from it.

   From the “Charlemagne” story in Histia · Full story: Charlemagne: facts about the father of Europe

3. 10France · 1415

   Why were French casualties so heavily concentrated among the nobility?

   • AThe English archers had orders to spare commoners and kill the well-armoured
   • BOnly men of noble rank were permitted to take the field in a royal battle
   • CThey fought dismounted in the front ranks, and armour that trapped them in mud made them easy to kill
   • DThey were executed in reprisal after the surrender of the surrounding castles
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   C. They fought dismounted in the front ranks, and armour that trapped them in mud made them easy to kill. France lost much of a generation of its aristocracy in a few hours — a political wound that outlasted the military one.

   From the “Henry V at Agincourt” story in Histia · Full story: How long was the Hundred Years' War?

4. 11France · 1429

   Joan insisted on marching to Reims. Why did that city matter so much?

   • AThe royal treasury and the crown jewels had been moved there for safekeeping
   • BIt was the strongest fortress in France and controlled the roads to the east
   • CIt was the seat of the parliament whose consent a new king required
   • DFrench kings were crowned and anointed there, which would make Charles's kingship undeniable
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   D. French kings were crowned and anointed there, which would make Charles's kingship undeniable. The anointing with holy oil was what made a king legitimate in the eyes of his subjects. Reims lay deep in enemy territory, which is what made the march so audacious.

   From the “Joan of Arc” story in Histia · Full story: Who was Joan of Arc?

1490 to 1800

1. 12Portugal and Spain · 15th century

   What technical developments made these voyages possible?

   • ACharts of the prevailing winds and currents compiled over centuries of Arab voyaging in the Indian Ocean
   • BIron hulls and watertight bulkheads that let ships ride out Atlantic storms without breaking up in heavy weather
   • CAccurate marine clocks that at last allowed longitude to be fixed at sea, and cannon light enough to be carried aloft
   • DRigging that let a ship sail against the wind, plus compass and astrolabe for navigating out of sight of land
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   D. Rigging that let a ship sail against the wind, plus compass and astrolabe for navigating out of sight of land. The caravel's lateen rig let a ship beat to windward — which is what made the return voyage, not just the outward one, survivable. Accurate longitude had to wait until the 1760s.

   From the “Age of Exploration” story in Histia · Full story: Did Columbus discover America?

2. 13Tordesillas · 1494

   The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 did what?

   • ASettled the long war between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean
   • BBound both crowns to end the shipping of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic
   • CDrew a north–south line across the Atlantic dividing new discoveries between Spain and Portugal
   • DRecognised England's right to settle the northern coast of the Americas
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   C. Drew a north–south line across the Atlantic dividing new discoveries between Spain and Portugal. It is why Brazil speaks Portuguese and the rest of South America speaks Spanish. No other nation was consulted, and none accepted it for long.

   From the “Age of Exploration” story in Histia · Full story: Did Columbus discover America?

3. 14Milan · 1490s

   Leonardo's colossal bronze horse for the Sforza family was never cast. What happened?

   • ASforza refused to pay for the metal
   • BThe clay model collapsed under its own weight
   • CLeonardo abandoned the design as impossible
   • DThe bronze was requisitioned to make cannon as war approached
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   D. The bronze was requisitioned to make cannon as war approached. The full-size clay model stood for years and was reportedly used as target practice by French crossbowmen when they took Milan in 1499.

   From the “Leonardo in Milan” story in Histia · Full story: Leonardo da Vinci: facts behind the genius

4. 15Germany · 1524–1525

   German peasants revolted in 1524–25, partly invoking Luther's ideas. How did he respond?

   • AHe took command of the peasant armies and led them against the princes
   • BHe condemned the revolt and urged the princes to put it down by force
   • CHe brokered a settlement between the peasants and the German nobility
   • DHe said nothing publicly and withdrew from the controversy entirely
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   B. He condemned the revolt and urged the princes to put it down by force. Spiritual freedom, he argued, was not social freedom. Perhaps 100,000 peasants died, and the movement lost much of its popular base.

   From the “Martin Luther” story in Histia · Full story: What did Martin Luther do?

5. 16Russia · 1773–1775

   The Pugachev Rebellion of 1773–75 revealed what about Catherine's Russia?

   • AThat the Orthodox Church was organising resistance to her rule
   • BThat serfdom was harsh and bitterly resented, and her reforms had never reached the peasantry
   • CThat the nobility had turned against the monarchy and wanted a republic
   • DThat the army's loyalty could be bought by Russia's enemies abroad
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   B. That serfdom was harsh and bitterly resented, and her reforms had never reached the peasantry. Pugachev claimed to be the murdered Peter III and drew hundreds of thousands. After crushing it, Catherine tightened serfdom rather than easing it.

   From the “Catherine the Great” story in Histia · Full story: Catherine the Great: facts behind the legend

1815 to the Cold War

1. 17Vienna · 1815

   What did the powers that defeated Napoleon do at the Congress of Vienna?

   • APartitioned France itself among the victorious powers as Poland had been partitioned
   • BAbolished hereditary monarchy across the German and Italian states
   • CCreated a permanent European parliament to settle disputes between states
   • DRedrew the map of Europe to balance the great powers and contain any future French expansion
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   D. Redrew the map of Europe to balance the great powers and contain any future French expansion. The settlement of 1815 held, more or less, until 1914 — the longest stretch without a general European war in modern history.

   From the “Napoleon Bonaparte” story in Histia · Full story: Why was Napoleon exiled instead of executed?

2. 18Crimea and Britain · 1850s

   Her sanitary reforms worked before germ theory was accepted. Why did they work anyway?

   • AThe diseases prevalent in the wards happened not to be transmissible between patients
   • BCleanliness, ventilation and clean water break disease transmission whatever the theory behind them
   • CHer patients were moved to a drier climate where such illnesses do not occur
   • DShe had privately observed bacteria and kept the discovery to herself
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   B. Cleanliness, ventilation and clean water break disease transmission whatever the theory behind them. She held to miasma theory — that bad air caused disease. The remedy was right even though the explanation was wrong.

   From the “Florence Nightingale” story in Histia

3. 19United States · 1939–1945

   What was Einstein's relationship to the atomic bomb?

   • AHe argued publicly for using the weapon against Japan, on the grounds that it would end the war more quickly
   • BHe signed a letter urging Roosevelt to research it before Germany could, but took no part in building it and later regretted the letter
   • CHe designed the first self-sustaining nuclear reactor and supervised its construction beneath a Chicago stadium
   • DHe directed the Manhattan Project from its laboratories at Los Alamos, and chose the targets himself
   Show the answer

   B. He signed a letter urging Roosevelt to research it before Germany could, but took no part in building it and later regretted the letter. He was denied security clearance as a political risk. He spent his last years campaigning against nuclear weapons.

   From Histia's quiz bank · Full story: Albert Einstein: facts behind the legend

4. 20Cuba · 1962

   How was the Cuban Missile Crisis resolved?

   • AThe United Nations took custody of the missiles and supervised their removal
   • BThe Soviets withdrew after American aircraft destroyed the launch sites from the air
   • CThe Soviets withdrew the missiles; the US promised not to invade Cuba and quietly left Turkey
   • DCuba expelled its Soviet advisers on its own initiative and dismantled the sites
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   C. The Soviets withdrew the missiles; the US promised not to invade Cuba and quietly left Turkey. The Turkish half of the bargain was kept secret for decades, so the outcome looked like a pure Soviet climb-down at the time. A direct Washington–Moscow hotline followed.

   From the “Cold War” story in Histia · Full story: What was the Cold War, really?