Independence Day Trivia Quiz

Answer: Haiti

The Haitian Revolution was a successful slave revolt against French colonial power. The nearly 13-year-long struggle culminated in the Haitians forming their own government on January 1st, 1804.

Prior to the slave revolt, the French colony of Saint-Domingue was producing 60% of the world's coffee and 40% of the world's sugar. Is it any wonder that France fought so hard to hold onto such a lucrative asset? At its height, the French colony had roughly 450,000 black slaves and only 40,000 whites.

Answer: Estonia

It wasn't as simple as all that. The Salvation Committee of the Estonian National Council drafted the "Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia" and distributed it in Tallinn on February 24th, 1918, the day before that city was occupied by the advancing German forces. (They had landed on the coast the week before on the 18th). By March 4th the entire country was under the control of Germany. Shortly after Armistice Day (November 11th), power was formally handed over to the Estonian government. The Germans were gone, but then the Russians came back, invading Estonia on the 28th of November, 1918.

The Estonian War for Independence against Russia continued until the Peace Treaty of Tartu was signed on February 2nd, 1920.

Answer: Bangladesh

The Mountbatten Plan (June 3rd, 1947) determined the partition of British India into India and Pakistan. The former Bengal province became East Pakistan (and West Bengal (India), and the former Punjab province were divided into Punjab (West Pakistan) and Punjab (India). Essentially, Pakistan (East and West) were the Muslim regions, while India was the Hindu regions of the former British India.

At the time of the partition, the option of Bangladeshi independence was not an option under the Plan, and Pakistan, consisting of two separate parts, was governed by West Pakistan.

After the commencement of hostilities on March 26th, 1971 (and the Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence), the two sides were at war for approximately nine months before the dust settled. Once India joined the battle on the side of Bangladesh (December 3rd), West Pakistan could not prevail. By December 16th, hostilities had ended.

Answer: Romania

Unfortunately, signing a treaty with the Russians ended up being akin to making a deal with the devil. After Russia and the Ottoman Empire agreed to a peace on March 3rd, 1878, they did not honour their previous agreement with Romania to recognize their sovereignty.

The treaty between Russia and Romania was not recognized by the 1878 peace conference held in Berlin. Instead, the Great Powers forced a compromise on Romania (and Russia). Romania gained independence, but had to cede the region of Bessarabia to Russia in exchange for access to the Black Sea (the port of Tomis), and the region of Dobruja.

Answer: Korea

At the time, Korea was one country, but that was soon to change as the postwar ambiguity surrounding Korean self-government was complicated by the very late Soviet entry into the war against Japan, which hastened the Japanese capitulation and surrender. But while Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's official surrender on August 15th, the Soviets continued to advance into Japanese-held territory (and encounter resistance) into September. They moved into the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, but stopped short of their goal of occupying the entire peninsula when the Americans landed at Inchon in the south on September 8th.

Of course, as a result, the Korean War was soon to come.

Both North and South Korea, however, recognize August 15th as an Independence Day. In the North it is referred to as Chogukhaebangŭi nal (Liberation of Fatherland Day), while in the South it is called Gwangbokjeol (Restoration of Light Day).

Answer: India

That new Prime Minister was Jawaharlal Nehru, who raised India's flag over the Lahore Gate of Dehli's Red Fort.

India's independence movement, primarily influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, was led (towards the end) by Mohandas K. Gandhi, who credited Vivekananda with increasing his "love for his country a thousandfold." Gandhi was a proponent of achieving change through nonviolent civil disobedience.

Proponents for India's independence had not always been peaceful in their choice of methods; more violent examples of revolution can be found in the leadership of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh.

The Dominion of India became the Republic of India on January 26th, 1950, when the new Constitution of India came into effect and India became a republic.

Answer: Indonesia

Prior to control by the Dutch government, the region was a collection of colonies under the control of the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602), which established a capital in Batavia (present day Jakarta). So for the Indonesian people in 1945, it had not only been 145 years of control by the Dutch, but nearly 200 years longer than that!

Following the events of World War II, the Netherlands tried to hold onto Indonesia, but a combination of its own losses during the war and the Japanese occupying forces encouraging anti-Dutch sentiment (mostly found in already the already existing independence movement) resulted in the Indonesian War of Independence. The conflict continued until international pressure forced The Netherlands to recognize Indonesian sovereignty, which was formally transferred on December 27th, 1949.

Answer: Uruguay

Officially known as 'The Oriental Republic of Uruguay', the country's motto speaks to its history: "Libertad o Muerte" ("Freedom or Death"). The original national hero of Uruguay was José Gervasio Artigas, who led a revolution against Spanish authority in 1811, then again in 1815. His 'Liga de los Pueblos Libres' was short-lived with the invasion of Portuguese Brazil one year later.

It was another national hero, Juan Antonio Lavalleja, leading the Treinta y Tres Orientales (a revolutionary group), who declared Uruguay's independence from Brazil on August 25th, 1825.

Answer: Brazil

Portugal first laid claim to Brazil in the year 1500 and began settlements there as early as the 1530s. After roughly 300 years of Portuguese control, Brazil's path to independence began (unintentionally) with Napoleon. In 1807, Prince Regent João decided to move the royal court (and his mother, Maria I, Queen of Portugal and the Algarves) to Brazil when Napoleon's forces invaded Portugal.

In 1815, Prince Regent João upgraded Brazil to a kingdom, and Maria I became the Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Later that year, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo (June 18th); the Portuguese royal court stayed in Brazil.

In 1816 João finally became King in name as well as in reality (he'd been Prince Regent since 1799). With the Constitutionalist Revolution in Portugal in 1820, the Cortes demanded the return of Dom João VI; he finally returned in 1821, leaving governance of Brazil to his son, Prince Pedro. Over the subsequent year and a half, the Portuguese Cortes began treating Brazil like a subservient colony again, to the displeasure of many. In January of 1822, Pedro decided to stay and fight for Brazil's interests, rather than accede to demands to return to Portugal. By September it was clear to all those governing Brazil that things were not going to get any better, and more unilateral decisions by the Portuguese Cortes prompted Prince Pedro's proclamation of independence on September 7th.

Prince Pedro was named Emperor Pedro I on October 12th, and in November of the following year, he accepted the surrender of Portuguese forces in Brazil.

Answer: Mexico

The early 1800s were a bad time for Spanish colonial rule. Napoleon's conquest of Spain prompted many countries in Spanish America to opt for independence while Spain's influence was weakened by the war in Europe. The year 1810 was an especially bad year, beginning with Venezuela (April 19th), followed by the May Revolution in Argentina, then Colombia (July 20th), Mexico (September 16th), and Chile (September 18th).

In Mexico, Hidalgo was joined by military leader Ignacio José de Allende y Unzaga, who eventually succeeded Hidalgo as leader of the revolution. For the next ten years, the essentially civil war continued, and by 1820 it looked as though the royalists would win, but further upheaval in Spain itself (a military coup against Ferdinand VII) led the royalists in Mexico to actually join with rebels in a common cause. Colonel Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu, sent to crush the rebels once and for all, ended up leading the newly combined forces!

With victory by rebel forces now a certainty, representatives of the Spanish crown and Iturbide signed the Treaty of Córdoba on August 24th, 1821, officially recognizing Mexican Independence. Iturbide became the President of the Regency of Mexico on September 28th, and later was named Emperor (May 19th, 1822).