Q 01/05

Which Central American country shares Panama's western border?

A) Nicaragua

B) Costa Rica

C) Honduras

D) Guatemala

Answer · why

B) Costa Rica

Costa Rica: the border is the longer of Panama's two, and the neighbours jointly protect the cloud forests along it as a single World Heritage park, L...

Q 02/05

Which Spanish explorer crossed the isthmus in 1513 as the first European to see the Pacific from the Americas?

A) Hernan Cortes

B) Vasco Nunez de Balboa

C) Francisco Pizarro

D) Rodrigo de Bastidas

Answer · why

B) Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Vasco Nunez de Balboa waded into the surf in full armour to claim the 'South Sea' for Spain; a few years later a rival governor had him tried for trea...

Q 03/05

Panama City, founded on the Pacific in 1519, became the launch pad for Spain's conquest of which empire?

A) The Aztec

B) The Inca

C) The Maya

D) The Muisca

Answer · why

B) The Inca

The Inca: the expeditions that toppled Peru set out from the new port, and for generations afterwards Peruvian gold and silver came back the same way ...

Q 04/05

Which privateer sacked the city of Panama in 1671?

A) Francis Drake

B) Henry Morgan

C) William Kidd

D) Edward Teach

Answer · why

B) Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan struck after England and Spain had made peace, so he was arrested and shipped to London; two years later the king knighted him and sent h...

Q 05/05

A failed colony on the Isthmus of Panama in 1698 nearly bankrupted which European country?

A) Scotland

B) Denmark

C) Portugal

D) The Netherlands

Answer · why

A) Scotland

Scotland sank a large share of its capital into the colony, and the ruin it left is often cited as a reason the country accepted union with England a ...