Q 01/05

Which sultanate fought Britain in history's shortest recorded war, an 1896 bombardment lasting under an hour?

A) Oman

B) Brunei

C) Zanzibar

D) Morocco

Answer · why

C) Zanzibar

Zanzibar's palace was shelled on 27 August 1896 after Khalid bin Barghash seized the throne without British approval, and the fighting lasted 38 to 45...

Q 02/05

Failure to meet quotas of which commodity was punishable by death in the Congo Free State of the 1890s?

A) Rubber

B) Copper

C) Cotton

D) Palm oil

Answer · why

A) Rubber

Rubber quotas were enforced by the Force Publique, whose punishments for shortfalls made severed hands the symbol of the Congo Free State; the outcry ...

Q 03/05

Which territory did Secretary of State William Seward buy for the US in 1867, a deal opponents dubbed 'Seward's Folly'?

A) Louisiana

B) Alaska

C) Florida

D) Greenland

Answer · why

B) Alaska

Alaska cost $7.2 million, less than two cents an acre; Russia offered it for sale because it feared losing the territory to its rival Britain in a fut...

Q 04/05

Which Pacific kingdom's queen was deposed in an 1893 coup, five years before a foreign power annexed the islands?

A) Tonga

B) Fiji

C) Hawaii

D) Tahiti

Answer · why

C) Hawaii

Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown on 17 January 1893 after marines landed from the USS Boston; the United States annexed the islands by joint...

Q 05/05

From which country did Panama secede in 1903, with a US warship offshore, days before signing a canal treaty?

A) Venezuela

B) Costa Rica

C) Nicaragua

D) Colombia

Answer · why

D) Colombia

Colombia had rejected the canal treaty, so Washington sent warships to back the rebels; the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty followed two weeks later, signed ...