Q 01/05

Panama shares land borders with Costa Rica and which other country?

A) Venezuela

B) Colombia

C) Nicaragua

D) Ecuador

Answer · why

B) Colombia

The two are joined only by roadless jungle; Panama was actually part of Colombia until 1903.

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

He called it the South Sea; Panama's currency is named after him, and he was executed in 1519 by the governor who had replaced him.

Q 03/05

Panama City was founded in 1519 by which Spanish governor?

A) Diego de Almagro

B) Pedro Arias Davila

C) Rodrigo de Bastidas

D) Alonso de Ojeda

Answer · why

B) Pedro Arias Davila

It became the launch pad for the conquest of the Inca and is the fourth-oldest of the Americas' modern capital cities.

Q 04/05

Which Welsh privateer sacked and burned the city of Panama in 1671?

A) Francis Drake

B) Henry Morgan

C) William Kidd

D) Edward Teach

Answer · why

B) Henry Morgan

The city was then the second most important in Spanish America; it was rebuilt 8 km away two years later, and the ruins are now the Panama Viejo World...

Q 05/05

A failed 1698 Panama colony drained which country's finances before its 1707 union?

A) Denmark

B) Scotland

C) Portugal

D) The Netherlands

Answer · why

B) Scotland

The Darien scheme swallowed a large share of Scotland's capital; the debt was a factor in the Act of Union with England.