WELCOME TO WORLD HISTORY TEST I

— The First Civilizations to 1492 —

 

The following 100 questions will test your knowledge of world pre-history, ancient history, and the Middle Ages.

Page and text by Chris. PHP by Justin.

World History Test II – The New World to the Digital World will be released in the summer.

Good luck!

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I.  Evolutions & Emergences: The First Civilizations

1.  We begin with "Lucy", one of the best-preserved prehistoric human remnants, dating back 3.9 to 3 million years ago. This skeleton was discovered on November 24th, 1974, by a group of anthropologists in the Afar Depression of Ethiopia. According to the most recent anthropological evidence, Lucy belonged to which early species of hominids?

2.  The Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) was a species of the Homo genus that lived from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, during the Middle Paleolithic period. Generally speaking, which continent (or region of the world) did they inhabit?

3.  In 1806, Danish archaeologist Christian Jurgensen Thomsen developed the famous three-age system for subdividing human pre-history. Which of these was NOT an 'age' in Thomsen's system?

4.   In general, which is NOT a societal change often associated with the Neolithic Revolution?

5.  Mesopotamia was the fertile alluvial region between which two rivers?

6.  "If a seignior [noble] has knocked out the tooth of a seignior of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth. But if he has knocked out a commoner's tooth, he shall pay one-third mina of silver." - from the Code of Hammurabi, ca. 1780 BCE

Which idea of Babylonian society does this excerpt from the Hammurabi code of law reflect?

7.  The title hero-god of the world's first epic poem, produced by the Sumerians around 2000 BCE, was:

8.  One of the best-preserved ziggurats is Choqa Zanbil in western Iran, dating back to about 1250 BCE. A ziggurat was:

9.  During the 6th century BCE, Persian religion was given new life by the religious thinking of this principal prophet of Zoroastrianism.

10.  It was this ancient culture which divided the day—and night—into 24 temporal hours (another lasting contribution from this culture was the fixed and constant year of 365 days).

11.  Which New Babylonian king supposedly built the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon along with many other monumental buildings around 600 BCE?

II.  Autocrat and the Afterlife: All for One in Ancient Egypt

12.  The history of ancient Egypt proper starts sometime around 3100 BCE, when 'Upper' and 'Lower' Egypt was unified into one state by this Egyptian pharaoh (also founder of the first dynasty in the 32nd century BCE).

13.  Royal tombs of Egypt's Archaic Period (ca. 3100-2686 BCE), found at Saqqara, among other sites, are known by what name?

14.  The second largest pyramid at Giza was built sometime in the 26th century BCE, during the reign of this cruel and ruthless Egyptian Pharaoh of the 4th dynasty.

15.  Which reflects the proper introduction of Egyptian scripts in terms of chronological order?

16.  In Egyptian mythology, this Egyptian god was the patron of mummification and the dead on their path through the underworld, represented as a man with the head of a jackal (probably due to the fact that jackals would hunt at the edges of the desert, near the necropolis and cemeteries throughout ancient Egypt).

17.   The area referred to as Lower Egypt is located in which part of Egypt? If you answer correctly, Aten is pleased.

18.   She was the most famous female Egyptian pharaoh, having reigned over two decades in the late 16th century BCE. After her death, the succeeding king of Egypt—Thutmose III, her stepson—had her statues destroyed and her inscriptions replaced with his own name.

19.   The course of ancient Egyptian history spans over 3,000 years, from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3100 BCE, to the Persian invasions in the 4th century BCE. Historians divide this timeframe into periods (or kingdoms) of political stability and influence, which are separated by the 'Intermediate' periods, marked by weak leadership and fractured kingship. How many Intermediate periods were there in Ancient Egypt?

20.   Aided by their new revolutionary methods of warfare—and military hardware including the composite bow and horse-drawn war chariot—this Asiatic people occupied the Nile delta during the Second Intermediate Period.

III.  The Dawn of Mesoamerica

21.   Many claim this Mesoamerican group (flourishing between 1200 BCE to about 800 BCE) to be the progenitors and "mother culture" of every primary element common to later Mesoamerican civilizations (their name means "the rubber people", after their apparent invention and use of the rubber ball in sports games).

22.   In what region of Mesoamerica did the Mayan culture originate?

23.   The Maya are best known for their achievements in:

24.   The Chavín were an early Mesoamerican civilization believed to have developed around 900 BCE in the western regions of this present-day country.

25.   Meaning "Council Book" or "Book of the Community", this is the book of scripture of the Quiché, a kingdom of the Maya civilization in Guatemala (with descendants living in the same region to this day). It is the most extensive and complete pre-Columbian literary text known today, and is currently housed at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Ill.

26.   This was the language of the Aztec Empire, and therefore served as the lingua franca in much of Mesoamerica from 7th century CE until the late 16th century, when its prominence and influence was displaced by the Spanish conquest of the New World. (Such words as 'avocado', 'coyote', 'tomato', 'chili', and 'chocolate' derive from this language).

27.   Despite the drawbacks of the marshy, snake-infested Lake Texcoco, the Aztec founded their island capital city in 1324 CE, naming it this (means "place of the prickly pear cactus on the rock" in their native language).

IV.   Orients & Oracles: Origins of the Far East

28.  This civilization emerged along the Indus river valley system (in present-day Pakistan and northern India) around 3300 BCE. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures (the smallest division ever recorded on a scale of the Bronze Age was marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal, at approximately 1.704mm).

29.   The earliest written record of China's past dates from perhaps the 13th century BCE, and takes the form of inscriptions of divination records on the bones or shells of animals—the so-called oracle bones. They serve as records of this confirmed historic first Chinese dynasty, ruling for nearly six centuries (1600-1046 BCE) in the flood-prone Yellow River region of northeastern China.

30.   Which characteristic did the early civilizations that developed along the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, and the Huang He (Yellow River) have in common?

31.  This religion originated as a movement of reform against the Hindu caste system and the domination of Brahmins in the practices of Hinduism in the sixth century BCE. It is today the religion of choice for over 350 million people worldwide.

32.  In traditional Chinese culture, which philosophy had the greatest influence on the development of social order and political organization?

33.  The earliest known records of Indian history are the Vedas, a corpus of ancient Indo-Aryan religious literature that is associated with the Vedic civilization, which flourished sometime in the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE (though some Hindu scholars date it as early as the 7th millennium BCE). The Vedas were written in this classical language:

34.  Although traditional Japanese mythology founds Japanese culture in the 7th century BCE by the ancestral Emperor Jinmu, Japan does not appear in written history until 57 CE, when it is first mentioned in Chinese records as the nation of "Wa" (in Chinese, "Wo"), meaning this:

35.  This period of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185 CE, is considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. Meaning "peace" in Japanese, this period also saw the rise of the samurai class, which would eventually take power and start the feudal period of Japan.

V.  Glory and Grandeur: The Classical Mediterranean

36.  The most famous single event in the Aegean Sea (before the fall of Troy in early 13th century BCE) was the cataclysmic eruption of a volcano-isle in 1650 BCE, on which had lived a developing "Minoan" culture. Virtually half of the island collapsed in the blast. Today's archaeologists have only begun to excavate the culture's ruins, entombed in several meters of solidified ash. This fragmented island is now called:

37.   Besides the Minoan civilization on Crete, the Aegean Sea also saw the rise (and collapse) of this pre-Greek civilization, which flourished from 1600-1100 BCE on the Aegean islands and Greek mainland. They are the civilization (according to legend) that defeated Troy, the powerful city-state that rivaled their power.

38.   Although the word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet ('alpha' and 'beta'), these letters themselves are derived from the Phoenician letters 'aleph' and 'beth', which mean, respectively:

39.   This ancient astronomer, born on the Greek island of Samos in the 3rd century BCE, is the first recorded person to propose a heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun—not the Earth—at the center of the known universe.

40.  In Greek mythology, this ancient goddess sprang fully formed from the head of Zeus, and is the goddess to whom the Parthenon (in present-day Athens) is dedicated.

41.  In Greek mythology, this member of the Nine Muses is the inspiration behind the dance.

42.   The war between Athens and Sparta for dominance in Hellenic Greece (late 5th century BCE) was called the:

43.  Many historians have ranked the Battle of Salamis (September 480 BCE) as one of the most decisive military engagements of all time, as it essentially ensured the emergence of Western civilization as a major force in the developing world. The naval battle was fought between an outnumbered Greek fleet of 371 triremes, and the 600 ships of this invading Empire.

44.  This 5th-century BCE historian wrote what is considered one of the first histories written in western civilization, History of the Persian Wars. He is often referred to as the "father of history", since his work is the earliest lengthy text to survive intact.

45.   This classical order of Greek and Roman architecture was said to have been invented by the Greek architect Callimachus, who was inspired by the sight of a votive basket that had been left on the grave of a young girl. A few of her toys were in it, and a square tile had been placed over the basket, to protect them from the weather. An acanthus plant had grown through the woven basket, mixing its spiny, deeply cut leaves with the weave of the basket.

46.   According to legend, the Greek philosopher Socrates was tried and convicted of various crimes against society (namely, impiety and corrupting the youth in Athens with his philosophical teachings), and was sentenced to death by drinking a cup of this poisonous substance.

47.   Alexander of Macedonia, one of the most famous military figures in history, was tutored by this Greek "naturalist" philosopher.

48.   Which of the following founders of Hellenistic kingdoms was NOT a general under Alexander the Great?

49.   Still standing after 2300 years of foreign conquests (and camera-wielding tourists), the Acropolis and the Parthenon are two structures built during the Age of:

50.   In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, driven by unsettled conditions at home, ancient Greeks sailed west and colonized various parts of the Mediterranean, bringing with them a lasting imprint of their Hellenic civilization. Some of the major Greek settlements included (in the original Greek) Syracusa, Egesta, and Akragas, now major cities of this Mediterranean island.

51.   This short-lived yet vibrant culture resided in northern Italy in the 1st millennium BCE, and ruled the Latins (later called Romans) through kings until ca. 510 BCE.

52.  According to legend, Romulus and Remus—the traditional founders of Rome—were the twin sons borne to the priestess Rhea Sylvia and this Roman god of war.

53.   This series of wars was fought between Rome and the Phoenician city of Carthage in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. It resulted in land-hungry Rome becoming the dominant Mediterranean power after conquering Carthage's entire empire and razing Carthage itself into the very ground.

54.   For nearly 2,000 years, the Dead Sea Scrolls sat undisturbed in tall earthen jars hidden in a honeycomb of caves in the Judean desert. They were discovered in 1947, when Bedouin goat-herders, searching the cliffs along the Dead Sea for a lost goat, came upon these caves containing jars filled with manuscripts. The majority of these manuscripts (over 90% of them) were written in which language?

55.  The Gallic Wars were fought over nine years in 50s BCE, and resulted in the expansion of the Roman Republic across Gaul. The battles and conquests of these Wars are famously described in the Commentarii de Bello Gallico, written by:

56.   Although it was never formally incorporated into the Roman Empire, the Romans called this region Hibernia, (from hibernus, meaning "wintery").

57.   He was the first (and one of the most important) of the Roman emperors, as he ended a century of civil war and gave Rome an era of peace, prosperity, and imperial greatness during the 1st century CE, known as the Pax Romana (Roman Peace).

58.  Built in the 70's CE, the Flavian Amphitheatre (popularly known as the Colosseum) was completed during the reign of this emperor. He inaugurated the grand opening of the amphitheatre—whose construction began under Vespasian, his father—with a 100-day celebration in which 10,000 wild animals were killed, and over 500,000 hot dogs were sold.

59.  On August 24th, 79 CE, this European volcano violently erupted, ejecting a column of ash 20 miles into the sky, releasing about 1 cubic mile of ash and rock and cinder in 19 hours onto the nearby villages of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and exposing the whole region to a merciless burning rain of tephra rockfall and poisonous sulphuric gases (bad scene).

60.  This lover of Greek culture was the adopted son of Emperor Trajan. He ruled from 117 to 138 CE and built the Pantheon in Rome.

61.  The newly developed material concrete—Roman recipe called for quicklime, pozzolanic ash, and pumice aggregate—made possible the paved, durable Roman roads, many of which were still in use a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The most important road in the ancient empire, connecting the city of Rome to southern Italy, was called:

62.   Ruling from 161 to 180 CE, this adopted son of Antoninus Pius–turned Roman Emperor wrote The Meditations while on a 10-year military campaign against Germanic tribes. In the work, he laments the plight of humans as "puppets on the strings of desire," an epithet of Stoic philosophy.

63.  In the late 3rd century CE, Emperor Diocletian introduced a radical political reform known as the Tetrarchy, whereby a western and an eastern Augustus (senior emperor) were appointed, each seconded by a junior emperor styled Caesar. Each of these four figures defended and administered their respective quarters of the Roman Empire, called prefectures. Present-day France belonged to which prefecture of this politically fragmented Roman Empire?

64.  This independent European country of only 28,000 people claims to be the continent's oldest republic—established in 301 CE by Marinus from Rab, a Christian stonemason fleeing the religious persecution of Roman Emperor Diocletian.

65.  In 311 CE, Emperor Constantine made a small Anatolian village named Byzantium the capital of the newfound Eastern Roman Empire, and was renamed Constantinople in his honor. The city would fast become the successor to ancient Rome as the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, and is today the city of:

66.  Ruling only from 361 to 363 CE, this Roman emperor initiated a pagan revival throughout the empire after Christianity had already been accepted. For this, he is usually nicknamed "The Apostate" (from the Greek apostasis, meaning "standing apart").

67.   Led by Alaric I, this Germanic tribe sacked a starving defenseless Rome over three quick days in 410 CE (it was the first time Rome was sacked by 'barbarians' since the Gallic invasions of the 4th Century BCE).

68.  On June 20th, 451 CE, the allied military forces of the western Roman empire fought in (and won) the historic Battle of Chalons (in present-day France). Here they staved off the brutal advance of a warlike nomadic tribe that had previously triggered massive Germanic migrations into the already-unstable Roman empire. Name this warlike tribe.

69.  Having lasted for the better part of twelve centuries, the rule of imperial Rome in the west came to a quiet end on the 4th of September, 476, when the Germanic chieftain Odoacer, a man of fortune and condition, kindly forced the last Western Roman emperor to abdicate. Odoacer would become sole ruler of Italy; and this young emperor, suddenly dethroned and without a profession, would found a monastery in the countryside.

~ It was in the reign of this youthful Emperor that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled. Good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now. ~

~ INTERMISSION ~

VI.  Indulgences & Integrations: The Middle Ages

70.  Sunrise, sunset. Life goes on. Although there are no precise, incontrovertible dates to define the beginning (or end) of the Middle Ages, many scholars agree that the start of the medieval era is marked by a very significant development that occurred in the 5th century CE. What is that development?

71.  This thin-faced elderly man, often depicted with a receding hairline and long pointed beard, is widely considered to be central to the early development and spread of Christianity, particularly westward from Judea.

72.  Saint Augustine (354-430), author of such important works as The City of God and The Confessions, is important in European history because he:

73.  The conversion to Christianity of this pagan Frankish king in 496 was a crucial event in the history of Europe, as it strengthened the bonds between his Roman subjects and their Germanic conquerors (other successor-kingdoms would soon follow his model of cultural integration).

74.   Which is the correct chronological order, from earliest to most recent, of the origins of these religions?

75.  From the reign of Justinian I (6th century CE), the official language of the Byzantine Empire was:

76.  In the 6th century, a set of rules for Western monasteries was created, aiming to provide a moderate path between individual zeal and formulaic institutionalism in Western monasticism. Which monk was responsible for the creation of this Rule?

77.  This great church built during the reign of Justinian I stands as one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, and is today the fourth largest cathedral in the world (by size).

78.  The exquisite architecture of the medieval Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain, is characteristic of the extensive cultural influence of this Muslim empire, which had invaded Visigothic Christian Spain in 711.

79.   The adoption of the Eastern Orthodox religion and the Cyrillic alphabet by the Russian people in the 10th century occurred as a result of:

80.  The flowering of classical Japanese culture was aided by the 9th-century invention of two syllabic scripts for writing Japanese language, collectively known as:

81.  Russia has Catherine the Great. Macedonia, Alexander the Great. Rome/Byzantium, Constantine the Great. The only English monarch to be awarded the epithet "the Great" by his people was this 9th-century king of Wessex, famous for his defense of the kingdom against the Viking invasions.

82.   For the Sunni sect, the Five Pillars of Islam are the five most important acts of a Muslim, and which devout Muslims will perform faithfully, considering them essential to please Allah. Which of the following articles is NOT one of the Five Pillars, as held by the Sunni sect?

83.  The Tang Dynasty (618-907), with its capital at Chang'an (present-day suburb of Xi'an, China), the most populous city in the world at the time, is regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization—surpassing that of the Han Dynasty. Not only did it see a flourishing of Chinese literature and art, but it saw many technological innovations, some several centuries before they saw the light of day in Europe. Which of the following was NOT a technological innovation of the Tang Dynasty?

84.   In the Middle Ages, Muslim conquest of western Europe reached as far as:

85.  Feudalism was a form of government concerned with the rights and powers of:

86.  On Christmas Day of 800, this founder of the great Carolingian Empire was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

87.   The Great Schism, the event that divided Christianity into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, is normally dated on this year, when Pope Leo IX (in Rome) and Patriarch Michael I (in Constantinople) excommunicated each other.

88.  According to the best archaeological evidence, about the year 1000 this Norse explorer became the first European to have discovered North America by way of Greenland, landing in the present-day Canadian province of Newfoundland. The 'discovery' of the New World by this explorer precedes that of Christopher Columbus's voyages by almost 500 years.

89.   In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England and defeated the Saxon army at the Battle of Hastings. From which region of France did William come from?

90.  The first universities were established in major European cities during the 11th century, although many of these institutions evolved from much older schools and monasteries concerned with the study of liturgy and prayer. Originally known as The Studium, or Studio, this was the first recognized European university, established in 1088 (among its later students were Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca).

91.   An important Japanese contribution to world literature (namely, by lady Murasaki Shikibu) in the 11th century was:

92.   Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a Gothic cathedral?

93.  A certain ravenous roaming empire had conquered China by 1259 and was now interested in the offshore nation of Japan. An invasion was attempted in 1274 on the island of Kyushu, however it was curtailed by inclement weather after only a few hours of fighting. Many took sick, did not feel like fighting, and withdrew to the mainland where it was warm. A second invasion was attempted seven years later, yet again the invaders withdrew due to bad weather. Name the invading empire, which eventually gave up on Japan, no more the merrier.

94.   This movement within Islam emphasized mysticism and charismatic worship, reaching its peak of intense activity during 1200-1500.

95.  Although full English recognition of Scottish independence was not achieved until 1328 (with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton), Scottish King Robert the Bruce's ability to re-establish Scotland as a sovereign state was greatly strengthened by the Scottish victory in this famous 1314 battle.

96.   Thirteenth-century Europe saw a brief period of astounding trans-Eurasian contact—and conflict—with a series of eight military campaigns (or Crusades) fought by Western European Christians in an effort to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Fourth Crusade owes much of its 'success' to the contribution of naval provisions and foot soldiers by which maritime power?

97.   One of the last regions of the world to be reached by humans was the islands of present-day New Zealand. Early Polynesian voyagers set out on their large ocean-going canoes, called waka, and reached these untouched islands sometime between 1200-1400, and later established this indigenous culture.

98.   The Crusades indirectly contributed to the discovery of the New World by:

99.   Prompted by the 15th-century expeditions of Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama, the initiative for Western exploration and conquest came from this kingdom.

100.   After more than two months at sea, the crew of the Pinta, Niña, and Santa Maria had grown homesick and threatened the captain of the expedition, Christoforo Colombo, to sail back to Europe. On October 7th, the crew spotted shore birds flying west and changed direction to make their landfall. Land was sighted shortly after midnight on October 12, 1492, by a sailor aboard the Pinta named Rodrigo de Triana. At daybreak, Colombo set foot on this richly wooded island and called it San Salvador. The dark-skinned native Taíno called it Guanahani, and today the island is called Samana Cay, a part of this country.

 

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