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History General Knowledge #3

Can you answer these random history questions?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 24, 2019
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First submittedJanuary 8, 2015
Times taken65,682
Average score55.0%
Rating4.50
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Question
Answer
What empire, based in Cusco, once controlled much of the Andes?
Inca Empire
Who is said to have cut the Gordian Knot?
Alexander the Great
What word, starting with S, refers to the noble warrior caste of feudal Japan?
Samurai
What country imported an estimated four million slaves before finally
banning slavery in 1888?
Brazil
Who invented the printing press in Europe?
Johannes Gutenberg
What product did Gandhi march to the sea to obtain?
Salt
What trade did the Dutch East India Company dominate in 17th and 18th centuries?
Spice
Who captained the Golden Hind on the second circumnavigation in world history?
Sir Francis Drake
What island chain did Charles Darwin visit that inspired his theory of natural selection?
Galápagos Islands
Who held the title of "generalísimo" as leader of Spain from 1939–1975?
Francisco Franco
What ancient kingdom was ruled by King Nebuchadnezzar II?
Babylon
Who famously had children with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony?
Cleopatra
Who said "honey, I forgot to duck" after being shot in 1981?
Ronald Reagan
What Native American confederacy is composed of six tribes including the
Mohawk and Seneca?
Iroquois
What Christian city was sacked during the Fourth Crusade?
Constantinople
What did Alfred Nobel invent?
Dynamite
Who commissioned the Domesday Book to survey his conquests?
William the Conqueror
What city was led by a doge?
Venice (or Genoa)
What location in Greece was home to the most well-known oracle of Apollo?
Delphi
What island chain did Captain Cook discover before being killed by the
people who already lived there?
Hawaii
+3
Level 67
Feb 21, 2015
Both Venice and Genoa (there were some smaller cities lead by doges too) were lead by doges, so you should add something to show that the answer your looking for is Venice and Zadar is also a Christian city, sacked by the Fourth Crusade. In my opinion, you should correct your quiz.
+3
Level ∞
Apr 24, 2015
Genoa will work now
+2
Level 83
Oct 28, 2015
Oh, so that's why Genoa worked when I was guessing random Italian cities. I was trying to work out what connected two cities on opposite sides of Italy.
+2
Level 38
Jan 18, 2017
I'm pretty sure Venice got sacked by crusaders some where along the line...or perhaps just moderately burgled
+8
Level 79
Apr 10, 2017
Venice was itself the leading force of the Fourth Crusade which sacked Constantinople.
+3
Level 82
Apr 24, 2015
Got 100%. Maybe you should accept the Sandwich Islands as a type-in. That's what Cook named the islands, before we reverted to using the indigenous name.
+3
Level ∞
Apr 24, 2015
Okay
+11
Level 92
Apr 24, 2015
But it's Istanbul, not Constantinople!
+4
Level 75
Apr 24, 2015
Not back then, just as Babylon is now part of Iraq.
+2
Level 50
Jan 15, 2021
Sorry I only know it as Byzantium
+7
Level 58
Jan 21, 2021
Istanbul was Constantinople

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople

Been a long time gone, oh Constantinople

Why did Constantinople get the works?

That's nobody's business but the Turks

+3
Level 82
Jun 18, 2023
even old New York was once New Amsterdam
+1
Level 66
Aug 11, 2023
Istanbul was my first guess and I moved on when it wasn't accepted :(

Is there a reason not to accept it's current name?

+14
Level 77
Apr 24, 2015
wow...such venice...many canal...doge rule....wow
+4
Level 56
Oct 13, 2017
"What city was led by a doge?" England
+2
Level 59
Oct 13, 2017
Pardon?
+2
Level 79
Nov 4, 2019
Good water!
+4
Level 78
Apr 24, 2015
I kept typing "dynomite" like I was J.J. Walker.
+2
Level 84
Jan 16, 2021
I think you meant either Jimmie Walker, or J.J. Evans - the "Good Times" character he played.
+2
Level 44
May 12, 2016
can you accept TNT for dynamite
+7
Level ∞
Feb 14, 2017
TNT is not dynamite
+21
Level 66
Oct 13, 2017
It is to AC/DC
+2
Level 58
Jan 21, 2021
I also tried TNT a thousand times before noticing that it should be dynamite hahaha
+2
Level 38
Jan 18, 2017
Not bad pretty easy though. I always forget the galapoguses
+4
Level 34
Jan 1, 2018
Just to ask if Haudinoshonee would also work for Iroquois. Both terms are used in Canada.
+1
Level 53
Jun 9, 2023
It does accept haudenosaunee. You have to spell it correctly which is always a problem for me, so I copied and pasted it. Someday, when people have taken the time to learn what indigenous groups actual names are, it will accept Haundenosaunee or 6 Nations but not Iroquois.
+3
Level 66
Jun 20, 2019
Nit picking, but Gutenberg invented the movable type for printing presses, as well as other innovations. Printing presses had used blocks of wood carved for each page prior to his contribution.
+2
Level 76
Mar 6, 2020
To be nitpicky, there were more oracles of Apollo in antiquity, for example in Didyma. The one in Delphi is (and was) just the most famous.
+5
Level 70
Jan 14, 2021
Please accept Haudenosaunee for Iroquois. Iroquois is the name given by the French and is becoming less used. Thanks!
+4
Level 48
Jan 14, 2021
There was no such thing as "nations" in antiquity, categorising Babylon as one is anachronistic
+2
Level 54
Jan 14, 2021
Please accept Byzantium
+4
Level 60
Jan 14, 2021
Idk, but could you accept Haudenosaunee for Iroquois.
+6
Level 67
Jan 16, 2021
Not sure how one "discovers" a place that already has a thriving civilization. Maybe Cook "found" Hawaii?
+4
Level 57
Jul 7, 2021
Easy, you're discovering it for your own cultural consciousness. There's no etymological or logical difficulty in the same thing being discovered multiple times.

The feats of exploration and discovery by the polynesians were truly incredible. If we knew who first discovered Hawaii I'm sure they'd be justly celebrated.

+4
Level 69
Sep 22, 2021
He discovered it because neither he nor anyone from his culture had known about it before.

Just like the ruins of ancient city of Pompeii were discovered when people who did it were obviously not the first people ever to have known about the city, because someone had built it and lived there before.

Or William Herschel would still have discovered Uranus even if there had already been intelligent species living there.

The act of discovering something is almost always relative to your own state of knowledge. It's about finding something out on your own rather than learning from someone else.

+1
Level 69
Sep 22, 2021
Look out the definitions of the word "to discover" in dictionaries. To do something as the first human being ever is not the only possible way to understand and use this word. And if it were, we could well never use it because it's almost always impossible to prove nobody has seen or thought about something before you.
+2
Level 58
Jun 9, 2023
Just because a word can be used this way doesnt mean there arent better or worse uses. In this case the use of the word promotes a European/Western first mentality that if things werent 'discovered' by them then they might as well not exist. If this site is meant to cater to everyone, it makes sense that for someone native to Hawaii it is not a 'discovery' like it is for someone from England. If the site wants neutral and factually correct language then it shouldn't use discover here.

A futher point is that this use of the word is historically ingrained with problematic histories of imperialism, violence, and colonialism - so people are understandably sensitive to it. It is easy to just change the wording to 'found' or 'stumbled upon' and simultaneously recognize that people had been there long before Cook 'discovered' it for only a fraction of the world.

+5
Level 53
Jan 18, 2021
Haudenosaunee should be accepted for Iroquois. It's what they call themselves. It's perhaps a Canadian/American thing, but in Canada this group refers to itself as 6 Nations or Haudenosaunee, not Iroquois.
+4
Level 73
Jan 25, 2021
1204 never forget
+3
Level 53
Mar 10, 2021
"discovered"...???
+1
Level 61
Mar 1, 2022
The VOC (Dutch East India Company) had a monopoly on cloves, nutmeg and mace. Either of them should be correct too, not just the general word spice.
+1
Level ∞
Mar 1, 2022
Those will work now.
+2
Level 57
Jul 10, 2022
Please accept Istanbul for Constantinople and Haudenosaunee for Iroquois
+1
Level ∞
Apr 14, 2023
Haudenosaunee will work now.
+1
Level 66
Aug 11, 2023
Why not accept Istanbul?
+2
Level 67
Apr 25, 2023
I got Alexander when guessing for William
+3
Level 50
Jun 9, 2023
Instanbul should be accepted for Constantinople.
+1
Level 48
Jun 13, 2023
Johannes Gutenberg did not invent the printing press in Europe. What Gutenberg did was:

- to introduce the movable-type technology in europe (which allowed more latitue with creating the printing text, and was a huge improvement on the diversity of texts to be printed)

- related to the above, Gutenberg also created new metal alloys for the formation of the mechanical types to be sued to form the letters. These were more durable and did not break when the pressed on the paper, also a considerable improvement.

+1
Level 36
Jun 18, 2023
Please, accept Delphoi.
+1
Level 65
Sep 4, 2023
Please accept Chaldean for the Nebuchadnezzar question
+1
Level 56
Nov 6, 2023
you should accept iroquoi without the s at the end