People, Places and Things in World History Quiz

Answer: Henry IV and Joan of Navarre

Joan of Navarre was Henry IV's second wife, whom he married in 1402/1403. Already having nine children, she was the widow of Duke John V of Brittany. The fact that she had no more children led to rumors of witchcraft against her. Joan was an excellent stepmother and Henry V called her "his dearest mother". She died on July 9, 1437 and was buried with Henry IV.

Answer: Estonian

Baron Guldenstubbe conducted an experiment by locking blank paper and a pencil in a box to see if spirits would write on it. After several tries, a message appeared in Estonian, his native language. This inspired him to leave paper near statues of famous dead people to see what they would write if given a chance.

When writing appeared, it was always in the person's native language (Greek for Plato, Latin for Cicero, etc). Most of his five hundred collected messages can be found in his book "Positive and Experimental Pneumatology: The Reality of Spirits and the Marvellous Phenomenon of their Direct Handwriting".

Answer: Florence

Giovanni Boccacio wrote a detailed but sometimes exaggerated account of the plague in Florence. In his writings he claims 100,000 people died of the Black Death, when only about 80,000 people lived in Florence at the time. The actual death toll, the worst in Italy, may have been as high as 60,000.

A more truthful part of his account states, "In the face of so much death and misery, all respect for the laws of God and man had virtually broken down and been extinguished in our city ... Hence everyone was free to behave as he pleased." His most famous work is "Decameron", stories told from different viewpoints that describe aspects of life in the Middle Ages.

Some of the stories are decidedly risqué.

Answer: Asoka

Asoka was a ruler of the Mauryan Empire in ancient India and created the pillars as a way of communicating his laws and beliefs/values to his subjects. He converted to Buddhism after the battle of Kalinga in which 100,000 people died, making it more popular as a religion. Asoka was the last strong emperor of the dynasty and the Mauryan Empire collapsed not long after his death.

Answer: Ukrainians

By 1944, it was estimated that almost 2 million Russians, Ukranians and Balts were fighting alognise or working with the Germans in Russia, a huge number considering the Germans had just started accepting large numbers of these volunteers in 1943. As the Germans retreated, whole areas of the Russian countryside emptied of people following the German army in its retreat. Peoples of the Caucasus and the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, in particular, moved west fleeing Stalin.

The forced repatriation by the Western Allies of many of these soldiers and refugees after the war to the Soviet Union is estimated to have resulted in the death of over one million people.

Answer: Chan Chan

The Chimus ruled almost all of the north coast of Peru until about 1470, when the empire fell to the Incas. The capital of Chan Chan was over 2.3 square miles and had an irrigation system. When a king died, he was turned into a mummy, his wives and servants sacrificed and placed into a tomb with him and his most valuable possesions.

The tomb was left open so the mummy could be brought out for important ceremonies.

Answer: Francois-Marie Arouet

Voltaire was known to be a critic of the Catholic Church because it taught people to believe in miracles, which he thought went against the laws of nature. In "Candide", his most famous work, he encourages people to take steps to improving humanity instead of focusing on idealism and philosophy. Jean Luc Picard is the fictional captain of the Enterprise on "Star Trek: The Next Generation".(One of my favorite shows). Talleyrand was Napolean's foreign minister who helped restore the Bourbon dynasty.

Answer: Buddhism, India

Siddhartha Gautama was something like a prince, born in India in about 566 BC. (India had no kings at the time). At the age of 29, he left his wife and family to become a spiritual wanderer. After a long period of meditating, he achieved enlightenment and became Buddha, "The Enlightened One".

He then travelled India until his death with a small group of followers. Buddhism first became popular as the result of Asoka, one of the rulers of the Mauryan Empire, converting to Buddhism.

Answer: Greeks

In 329 BC, Alexander the Great established the city of Alexandria Eschate, "Alexandria the furthest" in what is now Tajikstan. The Greeks stayed in Asia for three hundred more years under the Seleucid Empire and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.

Answer: Michael I, Nicholas II

Michael I was elected czar unanimously by a national assembly in February 1613. He wouldn't accept until the boyars told that they would hold him responsible to God for the destruction of Muscovy. Nicholas II was the last czar of Russia, forced to abdicate in 1917, during the Russian Revolution.

His whole family was murdered in Ekaterinburg in July 1918 and made saints by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1981. Nicholas II is regarded as the last the last czar. When he was forced to abdicate, Michael, who was in line to succeed him declined the throne and handed over to the Provisional Government