Below The Fold Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith's seminal treatise on the development of a free-market economy was first published on March 9, 1776. The two volume treatise argued that the best way for a nation to grow its economy was to remove the constraints of government upon industry and allow change and growth to occur organically. Smith's theories, which form the basis for the capitalist free market economic model, mesh perfectly with the political concept of open government espoused by the American Declaration of Independence. At root, the American Revolution was as much economic in nature as political. The American colonists desired the means to retain and control the wealth generated by their efforts. The achievement of this economic goal is represented in the political rights of self-determination espoused by the Declaration.

While "The Wealth of Nations" was published just months before the Declaration was released the work was the culmination of over a decade of work by Adam Smith. Smith thought a great deal on the future of Britain's overseas colonies and concluded that overall the cost of the defense of the colonies outweighed their value to the economy. Smith felt that either providing the colonies direct representation in the British Parliament in exchange for increased taxes, or permitting their independence and engaging in open trade (freed from military support costs) with the former colonies was a better alternative. Ultimately, Smith concluded that Britain was unlikely to give up the colonies without a fight.

Answer: Genghis Khan

Most experts place June 1, 1215 as the start of the sack of Beijing by Ghengis Khan and the Mongol Army. At this time Beijing or Zhongdu as it was called then was the capital of the Chin Empire (from which we get the name China today) and was ruled by the Jin Dynasty. The Jin ruled most of the Northern area of modern China including Manchuria. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Song Dynasty ruled much of Southern China below the Yangtze River. The Mongols began raiding Jin lands in force in 1211, despite the protection afforded the Jin by the Great Wall. In June 1215, after a long siege, the Mongol forces broke the Jin defenses and entered Beijing forcing the Jin to retreat south. In time, the Mongols were able to subdue both the Jin and the Song Empires and most of modern China into the greater Mongol Empire.

In 1215, England's John I faced civil rebellion from his barons and feudal lords. John had suffered disastrous losses in seeking to expand his territory in France and repeatedly demanded higher tax payments from his vassals. The wealthy barons, many without interests in France themselves, refused to further fund John's ventures. The two sides fought with mixed results. Ultimately, John became more concerned with the threat of attack from France, so he agreed to a peace settlement in the form of a charter (Magna Carta means Great Charter in Latin) setting some limits to the monarch's power.

Answer: Jews

The history of the Jewish people in Spain is filled with persecution and exploitation. Returning Crusaders in 1212 massacred a large portion of the Jewish community in Toledo and Jews were massacred in Granada (1366) and Seville (1391). Spanish antisemitism in the Middle Ages culminated in the 15th century Inquisition. During the reign of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon thousands of Jews were either forcibly converted to Catholicism or killed. Only the extortion of large monetary payments from the combined Jewish merchants to the Crown staved off a complete exile for the religious group. That changed on March 2, 1492 when the Monarchy passed the Alhambra Decree (Edict of Expulsion) declaring that all Jews must leave Spain on or before July 31, 1492. By August 3, 1492 Jews had a choice of proving conversion, be out of Spain or face death. It is estimated that the expulsion affected over 225,000 people.

Christopher Columbus and his three ships also left Spain on August 3, 1492 to start his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Due in part to the timing of the voyage, some scholars have speculated whether Columbus might have been Jewish or from a family of Jewish "Conversos" (Jews who converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition). The majority of historians conclude Columbus was a Catholic born in Genoa. However, the answer to the question of Columbus' origin remains a mystery that is unlikely to be answered with any certainty. It is interesting to note that contrary to popular belief, Columbus' first voyage was funded not by the Spanish Monarchy, but a loan to the Crown from two prominent Conversos and other Spanish Jews.

Answer: Aldous Huxley & C.S. Lewis

The assassination of US President John F Kennedy on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald was a seminal event in world history and certainly dominated the news headlines. Endless debate has arisen as to whether Oswald, a former US Marine marksman, planned and completed the murder alone. Oswald himself did not survive longer than 48 hours after the shooting as he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby when Oswald was being moved through the Dallas Police Headquarters.

On the same day as the world mourned JFK, both Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis passed. Huxley, famed for the dystopic classic "A Brave New World" died at the age of 69 of cancer in Los Angeles, California. Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis is best known as the creator of the beloved Christian influenced fantasy realm of Narnia. In addition to the Narnia series, Lewis was a prodigious author of fiction and non-fiction and served as a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge universities. Lewis died in his Oxford home at the age of 64.

Answer: Isaac Newton

It is impossible to determine whose contribution to science and human development is more significant between Galileo and Newton, so let's not even try. Galileo died at the age of 77 on January 8, 1642. Galileo developed and designed improved telescopes allowing advancements in astronomy. Galileo pioneered the use of the scientific method of research and was an important supporter of the Copernican theory of heliocentricity. When visiting Florence, Italy, you can visit the Galileo Museum where amongst other rare artifacts you can view a tooth, thumb and forefinger from Galileo's body.

Isaac Newton was born either on December 25, 1642 or January 4, 1643 depending on which calendar you use. England (along with other Protestant - and Othodox countries) resisted the hange from the older Julian calendar to the modern Gregorian calendar. England and its colonies did not convert to Gregorian dating until 1752. Whether you credit that Newton was born in 1642 or 1643, his remarkable contributions to gravitational physics, mathematics and optics are indisputable. Newton died in March 1727 in the same year that the British King George I died.

Answer: Alaouite

The Alaouite Dynasty came to power in Morocco when Mulai Al-Rashid expanded his territorial rule from the city of Tafiliat in Eastern Morocco westward. The dynasty is named for the first Alaouite ruler of Tafiliat, Al-Rashid's father Moulay Ali Cherif, who came to power in 1630. In 1666, Al-Rashid defeated a Berber army to gain control of the important Northern Morocco city of Fez, then proclaimed himself Sultan of Morocco. Al-Rashid consolidated his power over the country in 1669 by occupying Marrakesh.

By the 1660s, London was the economic and political epicenter of Great Britain. In 1665 one of the last of the great medieval plague epidemics killed an estimated 80,000 citizens. Devastated by disease, the last thing London needed was another disaster. Yet on September 1, 1666 a fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. A week later the fire had ravaged over 75% of London, destroying over 13,000 homes and buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless and displaced.

Answer: Italy

The American Civil War nearly destroyed the country. Fought from 1861-1865, the war claimed over 700,000 lives. This total exceeds by several hundred thousand the number of Americans that died in World War I and World War II combined. By early February 1861, seven States had seceded from the US and formed the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis a Senator from Mississippi was elected President of the new country and inaugurated on February 18th. War between the newly formed CSA and the US Union began in earnest on April 12, 1861 with the attack by Confederate troops on the Union held FT. Sumter South Carolina.

At the same time, Italy, long divided into rival city-states or parceled between larger European powers was being forged into a unified nation by Victor Emmanuel II, the King of Sardinia and Giuseppe Garibaldi. After ascending to the Sardinian throne in 1849, Victor Emmanuel used a combination of tactical military campaigns and shrewd diplomacy to consolidate much of Northern Italy under his control by the end of the 1850s. Victor secretly assisted Garibaldi's rebellion in Sicily and Southern Italy and Garibaldi in turn gave over to Victor sovereignty to his territory. On February 18, 1861, after having subdued the army of the Papal States, a newly formed Italian Parliament named Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy.

The Kingdom of Italy founded in 1861 was, however, incomplete: Venetia was added in 1866, and Rome and its environs in 1870. The Southern Tyrol and Trieste were added after World War I.

Answer: Gallipoli

The Lusitania was a luxury cruise ship owned by the Cunard Line. The Lusitania regularly sailed from Liverpool England to New York. At the outbreak of World War I the Lusitania remained a civilian cruise ship, but she was also listed as an auxiliary munitions ship and used to carry some allied troops and equipment. On May 7, 1915 the German submarine U-20 attacked and sank the Lusitania nearly in sight of Liverpool harbor. Only six of the ships 48 life boats were launched successfully and of the nearly 2000 people on board, 1195 crew and passengers were killed. The sinking of the Lusitania increased the support for the Allies particularly in the United States, and also highlighted the value of submarines in naval warfare.

The Battle of Gallipoli was the keynote of the Allied attempt to establish a supply route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea by controlling the Dardanelles. The campaign as waged primarily by British Australian and New Zealand troops fighting Turkish troops of the Ottoman Empire. The landing of the Allied forces along the Gallipoli Peninsula, near the Turkish city of Gallipoli, on April 25, 1915 is remembered as ANZAC Day and is a major memorial remembrance in both Australia and New Zealand. The Ottoman forces under the command of Mustafa Kemal were able to push back the Allied forces and retain control of the strategic waterway. It is estimated that over 225,000 Allied troops and an equal number of Ottoman troops died if illness or wounds suffered in the campaign.

Mustafa Kemal parlayed his success in defense of the Turkish homeland and became the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey. Kemal's efforts to preserve Turkey and modernize the Country earned him the name Atatürk (Father of the Turks).

Answer: William Bligh

The storming of the Bastille fortress on July 14, 1789 is a seminal date in the chronology of the French Revolution. The Bastille dates from the 14th century and was constructed to protect the walled city of Paris from English attack during the Hundred Years' War. In the 17th century, the now obsolete fort was converted to a prison. In the late 18th Century, the Bastille housed "State" or political prisoners. During 1789 food shortages and general unjust in Paris created a tinderbox for revolution. An angry mob of Parisian seized the Bastille and its munitions stores. Once the Bastille was seized much of the French military and Parisian civilian authorities resigned and supported the revolutions. So hated was the Bastille, that by February of 1790 the last brick of the fortress was torn down and removed.

The popular myth surrounding Captain William Bligh was that he was a tyrant who abused the crew of the HMS Bounty, creating the justification for the mutiny of April 28, 1787. Historical records however do not support this contention. Indeed Bligh and lead mutineer Fletcher Christian were previously interrelated and considered close companions. Bligh and 18 loyal crewmen were set adrift with limited stores in a small launch from the Bounty. In a remarkable display of seamanship, Bligh navigated the boat some 4100 miles across the Pacific Ocean to the island of Timor, losing only one crew member in the process.

Answer: Confucianism and Buddhism

The Empire created by the Persian Achaemenid Dynasty stretched at its height from Northern Greece and Turkey across the Middle East and Asia to India and into North Africa. In the mid 6th century BC, the Medes controlled modern Iraq and the east of Turkey having subdued the Assyrians. However, the Medes were defeated in 550 BC by their southern neighbor led by Cyrus II of Persia. Before his death Cyrus II (Cyrus the Great) conquered Babylon and Chaldea. The descendants of Cyrus ruled their vast empire until 331 BC when Alexander the Great defeated the Persians and ended the Achaemenid rule.

While unrelated to each other, 550 BC is important to both Confucianism and Buddhism. The great Chinese philosopher, Confucius, was born in 551 B.C, in the area of modern Shandong province in China's northeast. Confucius espoused the belief that personal morality and ethics were the building blocks of government and society including coining the "Golden Rule" to do to others what you would see done to yourself. In life, Confucius was a diplomat and politician. After his death, Confucianism spread throughout China and became an integral part of imperial Chinese government.

550 BC is also significant as a turning point in the life of Prince Siddhartha Gautama. According to traditional Buddhist texts, the founder of Buddhism, Prince Siddhartha, having achieved enlightenment, began to teach his philosophy to his disciples in the first "sangha" or community. While debate exists as to the exact dates of the life of the Buddha, a Buddhist shrine in Lumbini, Nepal was discovered in 2013 that dates to around 550 B.C.