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) Johor

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) Ivory

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 William Seward buy from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, a deal mocked as 'Seward's Folly'?

A) Louisiana

B) Alaska

C) Florida

D) Greenland

Answer · why

B) Alaska

Alaska cost about two cents an acre; the deal looked foolish until the gold rushes of the 1890s, and the territory became the 49th state in 1959.

Q 04/05

Which Pacific kingdom's queen was deposed in an 1893 coup, after which the United States annexed the islands in 1898?

A) Tonga

B) Fiji

C) Hawaii

D) Tahiti

Answer · why

C) Hawaii

Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown on 17 January 1893 after 162 sailors and marines landed from the USS Boston; Congress annexed the islands b...

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 backed the rebels: the USS Nashville landed at Colón on 2 November 1903, and the Hay–Bunau-Varil...