Q 01/05

Which African empire kept its independence by routing an invading Italian army at the Battle of Adwa in 1896?

A) Sokoto

B) Buganda

C) Ethiopia

D) Kanem-Bornu

Answer · why

C) Ethiopia

Ethiopia was the only African country of its day to owe its independence to a battlefield victory, and within months Italy signed a treaty recognising...

Q 02/05

Which European king ran the Congo Free State as his own private property rather than as a colony of his country?

A) Leopold II

B) Wilhelm II

C) Umberto I

D) Carlos I

Answer · why

A) Leopold II

Leopold II never once visited the Congo, yet he remained its sole owner for more than two decades until the Belgian state took it over in 1908.

Q 03/05

Which island sultanate off East Africa lost history's shortest recorded war, to British warships in 1896?

A) Grande Comore

B) Zanzibar

C) Socotra

D) Anjouan

Answer · why

B) Zanzibar

Zanzibar's new sultan had taken the throne without British consent; the shelling lasted under 45 minutes, and he fled his burning palace for the Germa...

Q 04/05

Which animals killed workers building Britain's Uganda Railway at Tsavo in 1898, halting work on a bridge?

A) Leopards

B) Crocodiles

C) Hyenas

D) Lions

Answer · why

D) Lions

Lions, two maneless males hunting as a pair, dragged workers from their tents for nine months; their skins now stand mounted in Chicago's Field Museum...

Q 05/05

Which West African republic, founded as a home for freed American slaves, was never colonised by a European power?

A) Liberia

B) Sierra Leone

C) Senegal

D) Gambia

Answer · why

A) Liberia

Liberia declared independence in 1847 and is Africa's oldest republic; European powers largely left it alone because they saw it as an American protec...