Q 01/05

Which Venezuelan river town, host of Simón Bolívar's 1819 congress, gave its name to a cocktail bitters?

A) Maracaibo

B) Angostura

C) Barquisimeto

D) Cumaná

Answer · why

B) Angostura

Angostura bitters began as a stomach tonic mixed by Johann Siegert, a German surgeon general in Bolívar's army. The town on the Orinoco is now called ...

Q 02/05

Which disease destroyed much of the army Napoleon sent to retake Saint-Domingue in 1802, killing its commander Leclerc?

A) Typhoid fever

B) Malaria

C) Dysentery

D) Yellow fever

Answer · why

D) Yellow fever

Yellow fever killed around 15,000 French soldiers in just two months. The disaster helped persuade Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States.

Q 03/05

Which parish priest rang his church bell on 16 September 1810 to launch Mexico's war of independence?

A) Ignacio Allende

B) Mariano Matamoros

C) Miguel Hidalgo

D) Juan Aldama

Answer · why

C) Miguel Hidalgo

Miguel Hidalgo is honored as the Father of the Nation. Mexico's president rings the same bell from the National Palace each year on the eve of Indepen...

Q 04/05

José de San Martín led his army across which mountain range in 1817, a 21-day march often compared to Hannibal's?

A) The Andes

B) The Pyrenees

C) The Sierra Madre

D) The Sierra Nevada

Answer · why

A) The Andes

The Andes crossing set out from Mendoza and brought his army down into Chile to free it from Spanish rule.

Q 05/05

Which nation, the only country in history founded by a slave revolt, declared independence from France in 1804?

A) Dominica

B) Grenada

C) Haiti

D) Saint Lucia

Answer · why

C) Haiti

Haiti was also the first country in the Americas to officially abolish slavery and the second republic in the hemisphere.