History Repeats Itself Trivia Quiz

The Second Punic War was the middle of three such wars, fought between the Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Empire between 264 and 146 BC. The name Punic was derived from the Roman name for the Phoenicians, founders of the North African colony that became Carthage. At stake was control of the Mediterranean region, both on land and at sea. Spoiler alert: Rome won.

The second installment (218-201 BC) is remembered at least in part for the Carthaginian leader Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, with war elephants, to surprise Rome with an attack overland. Despite some initial successes, Rome eventually prevailed.

The Crusades were a series of loosely related religious wars fought in the region now known as the Middle East, over nearly two hundred years between 1096 and approximately 1270. Sources vary as to how many there were, but the number is at least eight and possibly as many as thirteen. The combatants were the emerging Muslim nations of the region, opposed by the Christian countries of western Europe. Whilst each side could claim some victories, in the long run the Muslim states came out on the winning end.

The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) was embarked upon at the behest of Pope Innocent III and in latter days the sack of Constantinople in 1204 has been described as one of the worst atrocities of the era, exacerbating as it did the split between the western Christian church and Greek orthodoxy.

The nomenclature of the Northern Wars of northern and northeast Europe is confusing, to say the least. Depending on which source one uses, they began in the 1500s or 1600s and several separate conflicts have been described as the First Northern War, meaning that more than one has also been called the Second in the series. For the purposes of this quiz, however, this is of no consequence, as all of them fall into the same slot in the sequence of wars used here.

The war that covered the years 1700-1721 is known variously as the Second (or Third) Northern War, or the Great Northern War. In all scenarios it is seen as the final war of the set, resulting in a victory for the anti-Swedish forces, including the Russian Empire.

The Third (Anglo-)Maratha War (1817-1819) was the final conflict in a series of wars fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company, for control of a large part of India and the trade carried out therein. The first of these ran from 1775 until 1782, while the second, which saw great loss of territory by the Marathas, covered 1803-1805.

Military operations during the Third Maratha War resulted in a resounding British victory, leaving the East India Company in control of a large part of the Indian subcontinent.

The Second Seminole War (1835-1842) was the middle of three such conflicts, also known as the Florida Wars. The belligerents in all three were the United States versus a number of native tribes, including the Seminole, Creek and Choctaw. One of the sticking points was the relocation of numbers of native tribes from Florida to what later became Oklahoma, though in the end this is exactly what happened to the majority of the Seminoles.

The Opium Wars of the nineteenth century were disputes between the UK, USA, France and Russia against China, over the operation of the opium trade with the latter country. The second of these ran from 1856 until 1860, and resulted in an Allied victory.

Amongst other outcomes, Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island became part of British Hong Kong, remaining so until 1997 when Hong Kong reverted to being part of China.

The aim of the Second Afghan War (1878-1881) was to eliminate the threat of Russian interference in the country, and was carried out between British-Indian forces versus Afghan forces of the emir Sher Ali, who had shown signs of favouring the Russians. The British prevailed, eventually, but not without a number of costly setbacks in familiar-sounding places like Kabul and Kandahar.

The First Afghan War of 1839-1842 had been something of a disaster for the British army, while the Third Afghan War of 1919, while brief, was a threat to British control of the region.

Taking place from 1899 until 1902, this conflict is most often referred to as simply the Boer War or the South African War, but these names fail to take into account the First Boer War of 1880-1881 which resulted in a measure of self-governance for the Transvaal.

The Second Boer War saw British forces joined by contingents from Canada and Australia and other parts of the Empire, to quell the bid for independence by the Boers. The early part of the conflict was characterised by the sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking and the campaigns to lift these sieges. Thereafter the Boers turned to commando tactics, drawing the war out for several years until the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed in 1902, and the Boer republics became British colonies. A few years thereafter the Union of South Africa became a self-governing dominion, part of the British Empire.

The Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 were brief but bloody, involving conflict between the Ottoman Empire and most of the nations of the Balkan Peninsula, including Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. It seems that at one time or another each of these was fighting one or more of the others, not always being aligned with the same allies.

In the Second Balkan War, for example, Bulgaria fought battles with countries of whom she had been an ally in the First Balkan War. The confused and volatile nature of the conflicts gave rise to the description of the area as the Powder Keg of Europe. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 confirmed this status.

The generally accepted dates for the conflict known as the Second World War or World War II, are 1939 until 1945. Belligerents included most countries in the world on one side or the other, or in some cases both, and even many who remained neutral were affected in some manner. Victory over the Axis powers, most notably Nazi Germany and Japan, went to the Allies, led by the United Kingdom and her empire, and from 1941, the USA.

The First World War (WWI), known formerly as the Great War was fought between 1914 and 1918, with similar lineups of belligerents. It was fought to a large extent in Europe, but also to a lesser extent in the Middle East, including Gallipoli, Africa and at sea.