Forgotten Countries #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Galicia

Galicia was formed after the Romans left Spain, when the Suebi people settled in Gallaecia, as Rome had named it, around 411. In 584, after generally stable rule, the Visigoths raided Galicia and conquered the land for well over a century. Following the collapse of the Visigoths and their capital at Toledo in 711, the Moors invaded Spain and held Galicia. The Asturians, led by Alfonso I of Asturias, ran the Moors out of Spain and seized control of the region.

Following the death of Ferdinand I of León, Galicia was given to Garcia II of Galicia, Ferdinand's son, but soon afterwards was annexed by Alphonso VI of Castile, another son of Ferdinand, in order to put together his father's former kingdom, including Portugal. In 1157, Galicia and León formally combined into one entity. In the late 1400s, Spain finally controlled Galicia though the Kingdom of Galicia officially existed until 1833.

In 1936, a statute was voted upon deciding whether to give Galicia semi-autonomous status, but the Spanish Civil War took precedence. After Francoist Spain ended in 1975, the process started again. By 1981, King Juan Carlos I and President Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo signed the Galician Statute of Autonomy, a somewhat more restrained version of the 1936 statute. The statute recognized that Galicia was historically autonomous and had the right of self-government.

Answer: Kingdom of Kandy

Senkadagalapura, also known as Kandy, is located in central Sri Lanka, surrounded by hills and heavy vegetation, providing perfect cover to hide from Europeans. In the late 1500s and early 1600s, the Portuguese slowly expanded their control over the island by absorbing smaller kingdoms, but never truly threatened Kandy. Portugal finally left after Kandy allied with the Dutch and were driven out militarily. The Dutch then simply took the place of the Portuguese, and after several conflicts they were also driven out of the country in the late 1700s.

Unfortunately, this meant the island was open for Britain to move in. The British quickly moved in on Kandy, but when they arrived, nobody was home. When they left, the Kandyans recaptured the city and chased them back to British holdings. Following a temporary peace, another war erupted and by early 1815 the British had captured Kandy for good. In the following ten years, four uprisings occurred, but the new rulers of Ceylon put them all down.

Answer: Magna Frisia

King Audulf, considered the first king of Magna Frisia when it was founded, first defeated the Franks during his rule, allowing his small country to expand as far south as to what is now Belgium, and curving around Frankish territory to roughly the current border of the Netherlands.

While Frisia fought the Franks for nearly a century and a half, Charles Martel landed the final blow after a failed surprise attack by sea by the Frisian King Poppo in the Battle of the Boarn. The Frankish Empire annexed East Frisia, ending Magna Frisia's independence.

In the late 700s, Frisians mounted two sizable uprisings, but Charlemagne himself severely put down the rebels.

Answer: Lippe

Lippe survived for nearly 800 years as a very small state most likely because it threatened virtually no other country. Napoleon ignored it during his conquest of Europe, and afterwards Prussia surrounded Lippe instead of annexing it. Prince Leopold IV abdicated in 1918 and became the Free State of Lippe, joining the Weimar Republic following World War I.

While the country no longer existed, Leopold IV still headed the House of Lippe, and when he died in 1949 it was passed on to Armin, Prince of Lippe.

Answer: Rashidun Caliphate

Despite its short history, the Rashidun Caliphate made amazing territorial strides. After Abu Bakr (Muhammad's father-in-law) was made the first caliph, several revolts began against him which threatened the new caliphate, which was then little more than the area from Mecca to Medina and the area around Sana'a (in modern Yemen). The following Ridda Wars led to the conquest of the entire Arabian Peninsula by Abu Bakr. Riding the wave of confidence, he invaded the Persia in early 633 and by the end of the year the Caliphate owned land north to Iraq. While on a roll, the Islamic forces fought the Byzantine Empire in Syria, though Caliph Abu Bakr would die in August 634.

Umar ("the Great" as he would eventually be known) then became Caliph, and he continued the incredible expansion of the newly-founded empire. While Umar did expect the conquered lands to pay taxes to the Caliphate, that was almost it - the lands under his control did not have to convert to Islam, though it was certainly encouraged. By the time Umar died in 644, the Caliphate had conquered lands from modern day Libya to southern Pakistan, and as far north as modern Georgia, including about a third of Turkey.

Uthman ibn Affan (a son-in-law of Muhammad) expanded the Caliphate to across most of Afganistan, and west to the Atlantic Ocean, including a small portion of Spain. However, in 655 massive revolts shocked the empire, and he was killed in 656. The fourth and final caliph, Caliph Ali (Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law), considered the first Imam by Shi'a Muslims, was assassinated only five years later after continuous internal strife, and the Umayyad Caliphate was constructed over the ruins of the Rashidun Caliphate.

Answer: Grand Duchy of Moscow

After the Mongols raided Moscow in the early-to-mid 1200s, the city - little more than a trading post in the Russian wilderness - was rebuilt before it was ransacked again later in the century. Yuriy, son of Daniel I, allied himself with the Golden Horde and gained enough power to assert some control over nearby Novgorod. Ivan I followed Yuriy, and managed to avoid more Mongol attacks by working with their former enemies. When Tver rebelled in 1327, Mongols and Moscow both put it down, greatly increasing Muscovite prestige and power.

In the mid-1300s, Lithuania and Tver tried on three separate occasions to take Moscow, but failed each time. The military success of Moscow continued as Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great, took power. Ivan took over nearby areas such as Ryazan, Pskov, Rostov, and Yaroslavl, and named himself the Tsar of Russia. After Vasili III, Ivan the Great's son, died, his son, Ivan the Terrible, became Grand Prince of Moscow at only three years old. When he turned 16, Ivan officially became the first Tsar of the Tsardom of Russia, hailing the end of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Answer: Trebizond

Alexios I of Trebizond, the grandson of the dethroned Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I, captured the city of Trebizond with the help of his cousin Tamar, Queen Regnant of Georgia, in 1204. Alexios had been raised in Georgia following the deaths of his grandfather and father (Manuel Komnenos), and after the takeover the two nations remained loyal to one another.

Alexios III of Trebizond saw the capital grow to its richest in history by playing Italian city-states, especially Genoa and Venice, against each other. This led to enormous resentment, and Venice attempted to overthrow him to put a Venetian on the Trebizond throne. It failed, and Trebizond gained a huge upper hand over Venice in later deals.

Unfortunately, by the early 1400s the Ottoman Empire had greatly increased in power, and though Trebizond attempted to keep it away using alliances and royal marriages, once Constantinople fell for the last time in 1453, it was only a matter of time before Trebizond did as well. The last emperor, David of Trebizond, tried to wield more power than he carried while trying to get Europe's aid against the Ottomans. It failed, and only a few months after the Ottomans attacked Trebizond in 1461, the last of Byzantium was gone.

Answer: Zunghar Khanate

The Zunghar Khanate, owing its name to Dzungaria, the area in which the Oirats united, could have been an Asian power if not for the Qing Dynasty. By the early 1680s, the Zunghars had pushed well into Kazakhstan and held the area until its fall. Later in the decade, the Zunghars found that their rival, Khalkha, another group of Mongols, had made an enemy of Russia. In a joint attack, the Zunghar Khanate and Russia attacked Khalkha, earning the Zunghars land in modern Mongolia.

Following defeat at the hands of Manchu in the late 1690s, the khanate had a brief time of peace before invading Tibet in 1717 to kill the son of Lhabzang Khan that the khan himself had named Dalai Lama. When they began ransacking holy places, the Chinese sent an army but the Zunghars enjoyed a rare military victory. In 1720, they were finally thrown out of Tibet and the Chinese named Kälzang Gyatso the seventh Dalai Lama.

Internal strife beginning in 1745 started the downfall of the khanate. Several relatives fought for control, and China took advantage. In 1755, a large attacking force conquered Dzungaria and the khanate fell the next year. The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty then ordered the genocide of the Zunghars, leading to several hundred thousand Mongols being killed between 1755 and 1758. In 2000, fewer than 50,000 Dzungars remained in existence, though the Oirat population as a whole was over 500,000 strong.

Answer: Berg

Though Berg split with Mark in 1160, it did not affect the principality's power. In the Battle of Worringen, the combined forces of Berg, Mark, and Brabant crushed Cologne, Guelders, Luxembourg, and Nassau, which left the city of Cologne separated from the archbishopric of the same name. Berg continued to be a force in Germany, collecting Jülich, Ravensberg, and combining with Cleves.

In 1609, the Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, John William, died childless, and the Thirty Years' War began within the next decade which helped solve the succession.

In 1666, it all became official when Berg and Jülich joined Neuburg while Cleves and Mark were sent to Brandenburg.

Answer: Fouta Djallon

In 1725, the Fulbe people took control of the Fouta Djallon region in modern Guinea, leading to the foundation of the Kingdom of Fouta Djallon. There is little knowledge of wars that Fouta Djallon fought with others, but for the most part their outside dealings appear to have been with the French. Eventually, the two royal houses of Fouta Djallon both wanted power, so they devised a system that switched leadership every two years.

The French decided to take advantage of this system and played both sides against each other, and defeated the kingdom to colonize the area at the conclusion of the 19th century.