Question 1

Martin Luther ignited the Protestant Reformation in 1517 when he posted which text on the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany:

Accepted Answer

Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses are considered the most noteworthy event leading to the Protestant Reformation and challenge of the Catholic Church's institutional control over Christianity. While Luther's writing challenged many Church practices, the sale of indulgences (or forgiveness from sin) was the practice to which he objected most.

Question 2

The combined population of European Union member states constitutes approximately how much of the world population?

Accepted Answer

The combined population of the European Union is about 500 million people, which is a little more than 7% of the world population. Following World War II, the confederation began with 6 member states, but it has grown to include 27 states as of 2012. It is an intergovernmental alliance that endeavors to stabilize economic exchange within Europe and promote peaceful coexistence and diplomacy.

Question 3

Abraham Lincoln was born on the same exact day as which famed European intellectual?

Accepted Answer

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on February 12, 1809. Lincoln, of course, was born in the United States; Darwin was born in England. The coincidence of their shared birthday has compelled historians to compare the two men extensively and speculate on each man's opinion of the other, though no written account by one regarding the other has ever been found.

Question 4

Which of the following religions does not feature the figure known as Jesus or Jesus Christ of Nazareth in either its teaching or cultural history?

Accepted Answer

Jainism does not involve any central or peripheral allegory pertaining to Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ. He is a central figure in Judaism, but is not considered the Messiah. Jesus is one of the holy prophets in the Islamic faith, and is mentioned in the Quran even more than Muhammad. While Buddhism does not include Jesus as a principle figure, the deep and innumerable similarities between the faith and Christianity have spurred debates for centuries over the degree to which one religion influenced the other. The similarities between Jesus Christ and Buddha are viewed as exceptionally noteworthy, and many theologians argue are too pronounced to not have some correlation. Jainism is a faith found primarily in India that, like Buddhism, advocates a path of non-violence.

Question 5

Which of the following American presidents has not won the internationally renowned Nobel Peace Prize, handed out annually in Oslo, Norway?

Accepted Answer

John Kennedy never won the Nobel Peace Prize. Theodore Roosevelt was the first American president to win the award when he received the recognition in 1906 for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Woodrow Wilson received the recognition in 1919 for his pivotal role in creating the League of Nations (which, ironically, the United States did not join). Barack Obama won less than a year into his presidency, in a controversial recognition for his commitment to diplomacy and international cooperation. Many viewed the award as more of a rebuke against the Bush presidency and its uninhibited use of military force abroad.

Question 6

This nation annually celebrates the anniversary of a failed, circa 1605 attempt to assassinate nearly every member of its government in an explosion:

Accepted Answer

Every year on November 5, England celebrates Guy Fawkes Day to commemorate the foiled attempt to assassinate King James I in an explosion that was to be ignited by a cache of gunpowder stashed under the House of Lords. The day is named in honor of the would-be assassin who was discovered guarding the gunpowder in the hours leading up to the planned attack, which was referred to as "the Gunpowder Plot." King James was the intended target, but the explosion, planned to take place during the state opening of Parliament, would have certainly destroyed all or nearly all of the British government.

Question 7

Which of the following political leaders was not assassinated?

Accepted Answer

Vladimir Lenin was not successfully assassinated, though two attempts were made on his life, both in 1918. He died in 1924 after a series of three strokes; the lingering damage from the assassination attempts is believed to have indirectly contributed to his death. His ability to twice elude assassination contributed to his mythic status among the Russian people. Trotsky, a Russian Marxist leader was killed in exile in 1940. Bhutto, the first female prime minister of an Islamic nation (Pakistan), was the targeted casualty in a 2007 suicide bombing. Sadat, the President of Egypt from 1970 to1981 and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was assassinated in a rare multi-assassin attack during a parade in Cairo in '81.

Question 8

Which of the following is not one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

Accepted Answer

The Great Sphinx of Giza is not one of the Seven Wonders of Ancient World. However, the Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders, and is also the only ancient wonder that remains standing in the modern day. The other six wonders of the ancient world were: the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Question 9

The final years of this Dynasty were marred by dual assassinations which claimed one regent, and less than 40 years later, claimed his grandson, the final member of the family to rule:

Accepted Answer

The Romanov Dynasty was the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia, and the final decades of that period included multiple assassinations. Alexander II, whose reign began in 1855, was viewed as one of the greatest reformers in Russian history alongside the likes of Peter the Great. He was assassinated in 1881 when a bomb was thrown into his closed carriage. His son and successor, Alexander III, was rather regressive and reversed many of his father's reforms. When he died in 1894, his son, Nicholas II ascended to the throne. Kind but unprepared to rule, Nicholas continued his father's conservative policies, which contributed to the mounting desire for revolution. The February Revolution of 1917 was successful in the first stage of ending the Romanov reign, when the revolutionaries forced Nicholas to abdicate the throne, effectively ending the Romanov Dynasty. The family was kept under house arrest for a year before Nicholas, his wife, all five of their children and several servants were executed. A day later, extended members of the family were executed, as well. Surviving members of the Romanov family fled the country and never attempted to regain power.

Question 10

Who was the first woman to venture into outer space?

Accepted Answer

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Terehkova became the first woman to enter space on June 16, 1963. She was only 26 at the time, 10 years younger than the youngest American astronaut of the time, Gordo Cooper. Though the Americans and Soviets battled in "the Space Race" throughout the '60s and '70s, ultimately splitting the "firsts in space" honors, the Soviets bested the Americans significantly when it came to women in the space program. The first American woman to enter space, Sally Ride, did not fly until 1983.

Question 11

Napoleon Bonaparte was twice forced into island exile when his political career floundered, first in 1814, then again after a comeback that was squandered on a defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The two islands to which he was remanded were:

Accepted Answer

Napoleon was exiled to Elba, 20 kilometers off the coast of Tuscany, in 1814; he staged a comeback and regained control of the army, only to be exiled again the following year to the African island St. Helena, where he ultimately died. While in Elba he was allowed to retain the title of emperor and to rule the 12,000 island inhabitants. However, he lived for six years on St. Helena in conditions less refined than those that formal governmental agreements originally ordered.

Question 12

Which two nations were involved in the diplomatic debacle known as the XYZ Affair of 1798?

Accepted Answer

The United States and France were attempting to broker a deal in their strained relationship when three French negotiators to whom President John Adams referred as "X," "Y," and "Z," requested a list of bribes that the American delegation refused to consider. When accounts of the incident were released to the American public, a wave of anti-French sentiment overtook the nation, leading to an undeclared, unofficial war on the high seas. The entanglement lasted for about a year, until Napoleon Bonaparte's overthrow of the French government shifted the country's interest.

Question 13

Australia shares a colonial history similar to that of which U.S. state?

Accepted Answer

Australia and the U.S. state of Georgia share similar colonial histories, as both were originally penal colonies for Great Britain. Georgia was founded in 1732 as a place in which debtors could work off the money they owed in England. Australia was founded in 1788 to replace the pre-Revolutionary war natural resources and role in jurisprudence of the American colonies in the British Empire.

Question 14

Mohandas Gandhi cited The Kingdom of God Is Within You and A Letter to a Hindu by this Russian writer as integral to the formation of his personal ideology:

Accepted Answer

Two notable works by Russian author Leo Tolstoy were pivotal in the ideological development of Indian activist Mohandas Gandhi. Upon writing Tolstoy for permission to republish A Letter...in Gujarati for the benefit of the Indian people, the two began a correspondence that they maintained until the author's death.

Question 15

Which of the following documents encouraged President Franklin Roosevelt to begin the Manhattan Project and develop the first atom bomb, which ultimately featured into the final acts of World War II?

Accepted Answer

A letter written by German émigré scientists residing in the United States, including Albert Einstein, encouraged President Roosevelt to begin work on the atom bomb as soon as possible. The scientists were emphatic that Hitler was already attempting the feat and would not hesitate to use the bomb if he ever developed it. After the bomb was ultimately used to annihilate Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, Einstein said that signing the letter was the one great mistake of his life, given that Hitler never managed to develop the weapon for Nazi use.

Question 16

During the Cold War era, what was the main reason why were the United States and the Soviet Union reluctant to engage in direct military conflict?

Accepted Answer

During the Cold War era, the main reason why the United States and the Soviet Union were reluctant to engage in direct military conflict because there was a great potential for global nuclear destruction.
Key Takeaway: For the first four and a half decades after World War II, much of the world was divided into two hostile camps, led by the Soviet Union and the United States. This gigantic global struggle was known as the Cold War. During this time, the superpowers engaged in a nuclear arms race, which was the most expensive and largest buildup of weapons in history. The Soviet Union and the United States were reluctant to engage with each other precisely because of this nuclear arms race and the devastating effect it could have upon the world. Although they themselves never warred against each other, they instead used other nations as proxies to do so.

Question 17

During the third century BCE, which of the following was the biggest change in the Chinese political state under Emperor Qin Shihuangdi?

Accepted Answer

During the third century BCE, the biggest change in the Chinese political state under Emperor Qin Shihuangdi was the centralization of rule of the Chinese empire.
Key Takeaway: Emperor Qin Shihuangdi established the Qin dynasty and is famous for proclaiming himself as the "first emperor" of China. Although emperors had actually existed before, none had fully established a centralized government with military defense, a government-regulated written language, and law. Qin Shihuangdi ruled using Legalism, a philosophical system that was very different from Confucianism or Buddhism.

Question 18

What was the largest environmental problem for ancient Mesopotamia?

Accepted Answer

The largest environmental problem for ancient Mesopotamia was that the soil was no longer as fertile as it used to be.
Key Takeaway: Early civilizations that were of any significant size greatly relied upon the fertility of the soil in order to achieve a desired population density. Ancient Mesopotamians used farming practices and irrigation that caused the soil to dramatically lose its fertility. Much of this was due to the fact that the water used in irrigation evaporated, leaving behind a great amount of salt residue.

Question 19

What does the Swahili language demonstrate about African civilization during the 1200s and 1300s?

Accepted Answer

The Swahili language demonstrates the connection between African civilization with trade routes in Asia and the Middle East during the 1200s and 1300s.
Key Takeaway: Largely a blended language, Swahili developed in cities on the east coast of Africa that engaged with trade with Arab merchants and people from the Indian Ocean area. In general, Africa had a great amount of diversity in its spoken languages, but Swahili especially shows a large connection to the rest of the Indian Ocean basin.

Question 20

Which of the following caused the Second Age of Islamic conquest, which began in the 1200s?

Accepted Answer

In the 1200s, the Second Age of Islamic conquest began. This was largely due to the Crusades and the fact that they had brought about new militaristic dynasties.
Key Takeaway: The Islamic Empire was in a great state of decline and fragmentation before the Crusades. A succession of weak and corrupt rulers had left the Empire vulnerable to attacks and invasion from the Byzantines, Turks, Crusaders, and the Mongols. As a result of this, leaders such as Saladin created strong military dynasties which gave rise to a new era of conversions and conquests for the Muslims in Africa and Eastern Europe.

Quiz 52: US Society