Settle Down! Trivia Quiz

Answer: St. John's

The city of St. John's, capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, sits at the near-easternmost point of the North American continent, stretching out into the chilly Atlantic Ocean at the edge of 'The Rock'. Often windy and often cold, St. John's is quaint as far as provincial capitals go in the modern day, but it would be unsurprising to find this fishing city to be quite the harsh place to settle as John Cabot's men touched down there in the late fifteenth century.

It took until the seventeenth century before the English monarchy regarded it as an established colony though it was used consistently up until that point. L'Anse aux Meadows, meanwhile, was occupied for a short time by Leif Ericson. Found on the northwest edge of Newfoundland, it became an early UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Answer: Havana

Havana, Cuba is one of the oldest and largest cities in the Caribbean and was an important site for Spanish explorers from the 16th century on. While Santo Domingo holds the record as the oldest in the region for European explorers, Havana eventually became the largest such settlement in terms of area; it takes up a large portion of the northern coast of Cuba and contains the nation's most prominent old forts, cathedrals, plazas, and theatres. Settlers originally attempted to make their first cities along the southern coast of Cuba but none stuck until Havana. King Philip II of Spain used it to propel exploration in the West Indies and, eventually the rest of the southern U.S. and Central America.

Answer: Panama

The image here is a photo of Panamá Viejo, a part of the old ruins of Panama that sit on the edge of the Pacific Coast. The Panama Canal, of course, links the Atlantic to the Pacific at that point, where the continent is near its narrowest. Founded in 1519 by conquistadors, Panama Viejo was eventually set ablaze by Henry Morgan, who was considered by many to be an early pirate. Panamá Viejo, now, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is still visited regularly by tourists when, originally, it was visited by travellers heading south toward Peru.

Answer: San Juan

San Juan, Puerto Rico, would eventually build up to become one of the most fortified cities of the United States with many of its walls and forts becoming modern day tourist spots. San Juan, while not part of the continental U.S., would become a U.S. territory after the Spanish-American War, becoming overseen by the military in 1900. Before this it was a key port and trading city for the Viceroyalty of New Spain which, at one time, stretched all throughout Central America and up into the U.S. On the continent, Spain wouldn't settle until 1526 in the failed colony of San Miguel de Gualdape, Georgia.

Answer: Québec City

Charlesbourg-Royal was built at the confluence of two rivers, one of which was the immensely-critical Saint Lawrence, and it predated the inevitable Québec City by nearly six decades, acting as a trading post and base of operations for French settlers in the region. Today, it's part of Cap-Rouge along the Québec City riverfront, just a short trip away from the Citadelle de Québec. Old Québec remains notable in North America, being the northernmost city on the continent to contain still-intact city walls (the next being in Mexico).

Its Old Town is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Answer: New Mexico

Española still exists in Northern New Mexico, but unlike a number of surrounding cities, it never really ballooned in population outside the Great Depression, at which point the railroad made it a spot for opportunists. This said, the area was used by settlers and Native Americans (like the Anasazi) because of its closeness to the Rio Grande.

The Spanish had already taken Santo Domingo as their capital long before stepping foot on the continent, but Española became a new outpost for explorers, even on a small scale as New Mexico started forming.

It would later be greatly overtaken as settlers moved in along the east coast and America obtained its independence, heading westward and settling on the Pacific.

Answer: Tadoussac

Found where the Saint Lawrence and the Saguenay River meet before flowing into the Atlantic, the town of Tadoussac rests on the shores and was used by native tribes as a meeting place before the French arrived and established the spot as a town. Today, the town is still very rural but acts as a great jumping-off point for tourists looking to go whale watching or, otherwise, relax along the idyllic, rocky shores. Tadoussac, today, is northeast of Québec City though on the opposite side of the river for anyone heading to the Maritimes.

At that point along the Saint Lawrence, you'd need to take a ferry to get across; it's too wide for a bridge.

Answer: Santa Fe

Santa Fe wouldn't officially become a capital until 1912 when New Mexico achieved statehood (it was the 47th in the Union!), but Santa Fe was established more than three hundred years before, being one of the longest-lasting settlements of the to-be-American Southwest and one of the major Spanish trading posts of the region.

The city has had a rough history, especially with revolt between Navajo native citizens and European settlers, but it has since grown into an artist haven known for its Pueblo architecture and historical sites.

Answer: Albany

Beating the pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts by less than a decade, the Dutch explorers who set out reached the middle of New York in 1614 to build Fort Nassau for fur trading purposes. The English would later take over the fort fifty years later. Albany became one of a handful of cities in the Province of New York which, in 1776, received statehood as part of the original Thirteen Colonies. Albany would later become the state capital due to its importance in colony trade; situated on the Hudson it had access to the Great Lakes as well as the sea.

Answer: Manhattan

Although the Dutch originally founded New Amsterdam on Governor's Island in 1624, four years after the pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the sprawl of what would become the largest city in the Americas was centred on the edge of the island of Manhattan (the borough to which Governor's Island belongs). Though it was the capital of the Dutch province that took up this part of the new world, it ended up falling under English rule (like Albany) and was renamed to New York.

In exchange, as per the 1674 Treaty of Westminster (I'm sure we've all read it), the Third Anglo-Dutch War ended with the English taking New Netherland (and New York) in exchange for the the Dutch keeping control of Suriname.