Disputed Territories Trivia Quiz

Answer: Quemoy

When the Chinese Nationalists were driven from the mainland by the Communists in 1949 they managed to retain control of Quemoy and nearby Matsu island. The heavily fortified Quemoy became a symbol of defiance to the Communist mainland by the Nationalist government in Taiwan with sporadic shelling in both direction occuring in the 1950s and 60s.

Its status remains in dispute as part of the larger Taiwan -China conflict. Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 after a long period as a British colony. Hainan is a large island off the south coast of China. Iwo Jima is a small volcanic island off the SW coast of Japan and was the scene of a major battle during World War II.

Answer: Kurile islands

The Kuriles are administered as part of Russia's Sakhalin Oblast. The treaty of St Petersburg in 1875 awarded the Kuriles to Japan in return for Russian control of Sakhalin island. The Soviet Union seized the island chain in the dying days of WW II but Japan maintains its claim to the four southernmost islands of Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan, and Habomai. The European parliament offered support for Japan's claim in 2005 provoking a furious response in Russia indicating that this is very much unfinished business.
The Aleutians are a chain of islands between Russia and Alaska.
The Ryuku islands form a chain between southern Japan and Taiwan.

Answer: 1962

The Mcmahon line drawn in 1914, delineating the border between India and Tibet was disputed by Qing dynasty China and this carried through to the time of the Peoples Republic of China and the Indian republic. After the Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959 the validity of the line came into focus once again and China occupied the disputed areas in a short sharp border war with India in 1962.

Some estimates suggest that both sides suffered over 10,000 casualties in the conflict. The war coincided with the Cuban missile crisis and reinforced western fears of world wide communist aggression. Chinese and Indian forces remain separated by a Line of Control in both disputed areas to this day.

Answer: Falkland islands

The Falkland islands have been variously claimed by France, Britain, and Spain. When Argentina won its independence from Spain it maintained the claim to what were called Islas Malvinas as part of the administrated area of the former colonial power. Britain seized the islands by force in 1833, repatriating to Argentina settlers who had arrived there in the meantime and established a permanent presence with their own settlers. Argentina continued its claim into the 20th century when eventually a ruling junta seized them in 1982 using the claim as an excuse to distract attention from human rights abuses and a failing economy. Britain ousted the invaders in a short, fiercely fought war and maintains a strong military garrison there to deter further aggression.
The Galapagos islands are in the Pacific and are administered by Ecuador.
The Faeroe islands are in the North Atlantic and are administered by Denmark.
The South Orkney islands are part of Britain's Antarctic territory.

Answer: 1967 Six Day War

After independence and the war that followed, the Upper Galilee became part of the new state of Israel with Syria in control of the high ground which overlooked this area. Tensions in the years before the 1967 Six Day War led to sporadic shelling by Syrian forces of the Israeli settlements in the valley below. Israel seized the area on the last day of the Six Day War and repulsed a Syrian counter-attack in one of the most intensive tank battles in history during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israel officially extended its law to the region in 1981 and has established many settlements in the area with settlers now outnumbering the original Druze inhabitants.

The original inhabitants have kept their Syrian citizenship after a thwarted attempt to issue them Israeli ID's. Syria maintains its claim to the Golan and the United Nations monitors an uneasy truce in the area.

Answer: Paracel islands

The Paracel islands have been administered by China since they expelled South Vietnamese forces in the battle of Hoang Sa in 1974. Vietnam maintains its claim to the islands as they were part of the former colonial power France's administerd area of Indo-China. Japan occupied the islands during WW II. The Republic of China (Taiwan) also maintains a claim to the islands.

The Rowley shoals are off the North West coast of Australia. The Andaman islands are in the Bay of Bengal and are administered by India. The Cocos islands are an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean and were the scene of the famous HMAS Sydney Emden battle of 1914.

Answer: Israel and Lebanon

Lebanon revived its claim to the Shebaa farms in response to pressure from Hizbollah in 2000 following an Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon. Israel maintains they are part of the Golan Heights administered area but the United Nations declares this administration null and void.

The dispute goes back to a French failure to delineate the border in 1923 when an Anglo-French agreement set the borders for the mandated territories of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. The local people regard themselves as Lebanese although most of them were absentee landlords living in the nearby Lebanese village of Shebaa at the time of the 1967 war when Israel occupied the area as part of the Golan operation. Syria has made no claim on the region although maps drawn up after the 1949 armistice show the area as Syrian. Hizbollah has seized on the issue to justify continued hostility toward Israel.

Answer: Morocco

When Spain relinquished control of the Western Sahara in 1975 Morocco occupied most of it as part of "Greater Morocco" while Mauritania took over the southern portion. Resistance from the indigenous Polisario Front, supported by Algeria and the rest of the African Union, which regards as sacrosanct the colonial borders of Africa, forced Mauritania to give up its portion which was promptly occupied by Morocco. Morocco is supported by most of the arab world but is the only African country not a member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) because of its stance.

Answer: All six of them

The imbroglio of claims and counter-claims by rival states over the status of the various Spratly Islands would truly test the wisdom of Solomon. The discovery of oil in the area in 1968 and their location across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes lent new urgency to the sovereignty issue.

Some islands are fortified, reinforcing particular claims but all parties are currently content to observe the status quo.

Answer: Four

France gained control of the area of Alsace and Lorraine after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 which ended the Thirty Years War. After France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 the area became part the recently unified German Reich (one).

After Germany was defeated in WW I France regained the territories at the Treaty of Versailles (two), ending a short lived independent Republic of Alsace Lorraine. When Hitler defeated France in 1940 the territories were once more incorporated into the Greater German Reich (three).

At the end of WW II in 1945 France once more regained sovereignty (four). France now administers the region as Alsace-Moselle.