Great Unifiers Trivia Quiz

Answer: United States of America

Although he may be partly to cause for the secession of the Confederate States, once they broke away, Lincoln took steps to re-unite the Union. His conduct of the Civil War maintained the unity of the Union.

Answer: Germany

On behalf of the King of Prussia, Wilhelm I, Bismarck fought a few wars and brought the dozens of German states together in 1871. As a result he formed the (Second) German Empire and Wilhelm became Kaiser.

Answer: China

Qin, whose title means "the first emperor," unified the Six Kingdoms of China in 221 BC. Since his personal name was actually Zhao Zheng, Qin is the name of the state he inherited and ruled, and is the source of the word China, which we use for the country he first unified. He is famous for building much of the Great Wall as well as for the Terracotta Army found near Xi'an.

Answer: Italy

While Garibaldi led the army of unification, Count Cavour of the Piedmont provided the political leadership, leading Italy to unify and make Victor Emmanuel II its king. Giuseppe Mazzini established a movement called Young Italy, which added the philosophical background for unification. In 1871 Rome was made the capital of the new nation.

Answer: Egypt

Although actually a legendary figure, Narmer is believed to have united Upper and Lower Egypt and establishing a capital at Memphis. The accepted date is around 3,150 BC. "Menes" is described as an honorific, meaning "he who endures."

Answer: Japan

In 1603 Tokugawa Ieyasu established a shogunate at Edo (today's Tokyo) which would produce peaceful rule in a unified Japan for 265 years. This period is known as the Edo Period and would end when rule by the emperor was restored in the Meiji Restoration.

Answer: Akkadian Empire

Sargon was the first man to create an empire when he conquered and unified all of the states of southern Mesopotamia around 2500 BC. His legendary birth includes being found floating in a basket among reeds along the Euphrates River. He was considered the model of Mesopotamian rulers for the next 2,000 years.

Answer: Greece

Father of Alexander the Great, Philip created the League of Corinth in 337 BC. His next project was to be an invasion of Persia, but before he could do so he was assassinated by one of his bodyguards. As a result, Alexander, son of Philip's seventh wife, made a name for himself by conquering everything else as far as India.

Answer: Vietnam

Along with traveling in America, Britain, the Soviet Union and China, Ho got his political education in France. In 1941 as head of the Viet Minh, he began the long road of leading Vietnam to freedom from Japan and then France. Although he did not live to see the re-unification of Vietnam, he no doubt was instrumental in its achievement.

In 1976 Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Answer: Spain

The 1469 marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile had long-ranging results in Spain. After completing the Reconquista by driving out the Moors in 1492, they employed Columbus to search for a western sea route to China.