Hardest Declarations of Independence Trivia Quiz | Geography

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which of these African nations declared independence first? Hint: The only African nation to have its capital city offshore, while having the majority of its territory on the African mainland.

Answer: Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea declared independence from Spain in 1968, the other countries declared independence in the 1970s. Angola from Portugal in 1975, Seychelles from the UK in 1976 & Djibouti from France in 1977. In an interesting side note, Equatorial Guinea is split into two.

The Rio Muni continental region which is on the continent & Bioko island, which is offshore and the site of its capital, Malabo.

2. Which one of these Caribbean nations declared independence first? Hint: the flag of this country has a trident at its center.

Answer: Barbados

All of these Caribbean nations declared independence from the UK. However, Barbados was the first to declare independence, in 1966. Grenada was next in 1974, followed by Antigua in 1981. St Kitts was the last out these four, declaring independence in 1983.

3. Moving onto Asia, which of these nations was the first to declare its independence?

Answer: Indonesia

Indonesia declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945. India was next, declaring independence from the UK in 1947 while Sri Lanka also declared independence from the UK, but in 1948. Laos is last in this question, declaring independence from France in 1949.

4. Now for the Pacific, which of these Pacific Islands declared independence first? Hint: The only country on this list to be a former New Zealand territory.

Answer: Samoa

Samoa declared independence from New Zealand in 1962. The next nation on this list is Fiji, which declared independence from the UK some years later, in 1970. Papua New Guinea declared independence from Australia in 1975 followed by Kiribati in 1979 (UK).

5. Now for some South American nations. Which of these countries was the first to declare independence? Hint: This nation declared independence in 1810, but it was not recognized until 1819.

Answer: Colombia

This is a bit of a trick question here. Paraguay was the first country in this list to have its independence officially recognized, but it was not the first to actually declare independence. Colombia was first, in 1810, followed by Paraguay in 1811 (both Spain). Paraguay's independence was recognized in 1811, however Colombia had to wait till 1819 before Spain recognized it. Argentina is next, declaring independence from Spain in 1816, whereas Brazil declared independence from Portugal in 1822.

6. Back to Africa, which of these former British colonies was the first to declare independence?

Answer: Nigeria

Nigeria was the first of these former British colonies to declare independence, in 1960. Uganda followed in 1962, Zambia in 1964 and poor old Swaziland drew the short straw, declaring independence in 1968.

7. From which country did Liberia gain its independence in 1847?

Answer: USA

In 1847 Liberia declared its independence from the USA, though it was never, strictly speaking, an American colony, but rather one of the American Colonization Society. Most African nations only declared independence in the 1960s or 1970s

8. Time for an Africa/Pacific mixture, which of these nations declared independence first? Hint: The capital city begins with an m.

Answer: Lesotho

Lesotho is first on this list, declaring independence from the UK in 1966 (Maseru). Tonga followed in 1970 (Nuku'alofa). Cape Verde (Praia) is next, having declared independence from Portugal in 1975. Last is Vanuatu (Port Vila), declaring independence from a joint British-French condominium in 1980.

9. True/False: Lithuania was the first Baltic nation to declare independence from the USSR?

Answer: True

It's true! Lithuania was the first of the Baltic states to declare independence. Lithuania declared its independence first, on March 11 1990. Latvia followed two months later, on May 4. Estonia declared independence the following year, on the 25th August 1991.

10. True/False: Uzbekistan was the first of the central Asian republics to declare independence?

Answer: False

Uzbekistan was actually joint first to declare its independence, doing so on August 31 1991. Kyrgyzstan also declared independence on the 31st of August 1991. The other central Asian republics declared independence at later dates. Tajikistan was next barely a week later, having declared independence on September 9. Turkmenistan is next declaring independence on October 27 and Kazakhstan somewhat surprisingly is last on this list, having declared independence on December 16.

Source: Author quel_tipo

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Exit10 before going online.
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Declarations of Independence Trivia Quiz

In this quiz I give you four countries and you have to decide which one declared independence first. Countries, whose independence wasn't recognised at first, count.

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