Meet My New Friend Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lithuania

Most of the former Soviet republics entered the 1992 Olympics as part of the Unified Team. Lithuania entered as an independent country, despite having only gained independence about two years earlier. It was the first of the former Soviet republics to gain independence.

One of their top players, Sarunas Marciulionis was playing for the Golden State Warriors at the time and was able to gather American support to help fund the team, including enlisting the support of the San Francisco based band, The Grateful Dead. The team started wearing tie-dyed tee shirts which became an unofficial uniform.

In the Olympics, the team finished second in their group but lost to the United States Dream Team in the semi finals before coming back and defeating the Unified Team in the Bronze Medal game.

Answer: Brunei

Brunei occupies a section of Borneo along with Indonesia and Malaysia. It is the smallest of the three countries present on the island. The country is ruled by the Sultan of Brunei, a hereditary monarch. It was controlled as a British Protectorate from the late 19th century until it gained independence on January 1, 1984.

Brunei is a Muslim country and is one of the wealthiest nations in the world due in large part to its oil reserves.

Answer: Georgia

Georgia is on the Europe/Asia border and was in the southwestern part of the Soviet Union. It gained independence in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union. The Caucasus Mountains run through Georgia making it primarily a mountainous country.

Answer: Czech Republic and Slovakia

The Czech Republic and Slovakia had been united as Czechoslovakia until January 1, 1993 when they split into two separate countries. The Czech Republic borders Germany and the acceptance of Germany's occupation of the country in 1938 is considered the most well known example of appeasement.

Answer: Ukraine

In April, 1986 there was an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant which was the worst nuclear reactor incident of the 20th century. The plant was about ten miles away from Ukraine's border with Belarus. Just over five years later, Ukraine became an independent country with the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Answer: Palau

Palau consists of a group of islands in Micronesia, just east of the Philippines. After World War II it was under the control of the United States from whom it gradually became independent over the next 50 years until 1994 when it was granted full sovereignty.

Both the tenth and sixteenth seasons of "Survivor" were filmed in Palau, although the sixteenth season was called "Survivor: Micronesia". "Survivor: Palau" (season ten) was filmed in late 2004, just over ten years after Palau gained independence.

Answer: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a double landlocked nation in central Asia. It borders Afghanistan as well as the other four former Soviet republics which end in "stan", all of which are landlocked. According to the CIA World Factbook, Uzbekistan is mostly desert with only about 10% of its land arable.

Answer: Croatia

Croatia had been one of the republics making up Yugoslavia which came into being at the end of World War I. In the early 1990s, several of the republics tried to split apart, but unlike the Soviet Union where the breakup was generally peaceful, there was war in Yugoslavia for most of the first half of the 1990s as Yugoslavia tried to retain control. Because there were several different ethnic populations spread throughout Yugoslavia, these wars saw attempts at ethnic cleansing as people who were caught in the wrong part of the country were killed based on their ethnic origin.

Answer: Germany

Germany was one country for most of the first half of the 20th century but was then split into four occupied zones at the end of World War II. Three of those zones, the French, English, and American, combined to form West Germany, while the Soviet zone became East Germany. The two countries remained separate until 1991 when they combined again to form a united Germany.

Within the country of East Germany, the capital city of Berlin was split into two separate sections, East and West Berlin with the two sections belonging to their separate countries. Thus, West Berlin was an enclave of West Germany lying entirely within East Germany. This led to the construction of the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s to prevent people from defecting from East to West Berlin. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked one of the first signs of the fall of the iron curtain and the breakup of many communist countries.

Answer: Namibia

Namibia is on the west coast of southern Africa and was colonized by Germans. When Germany was defeated in World War I, South Africa took over control of Namibia.

It is a very dry country as it contains parts of two separate deserts, the Namib and the Kalahari. According to the CIA World Factbook, less than 1% of the land is arable.