Beds are Burning Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ethnic conflict

Surprisingly perhaps, international treaties were being signed during the 20th century to sanction population transfers. Ethnic and religious conflicts were the main reasons for such transfers.

An example was the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe and from Germany east of Oder-Neisse Line following the Second World War, which was sanctioned by the Allies in the Potsdam Agreement of 1945. Some 12 million ethnic Germans and citizens were involved and upwards of 500,000 died as a result, with some estimates putting this figure as high as 2 million.

It is now considered to be in breach of International Law although this does not prevent it from happening. Such population movements differ from individually-motivated migrations although in times of war or famine, the lines are frequently blurred.

Answer: Railway networks

Transporting people around by rail was potentially a much more efficient way of controlling the movement of people. They could be moved to specific locations and met on arrival. It was also less disruptive to the populations through which the displaced people passed.

Answer: North America and the Caribbean

This was the time of plantation estates in Viginia and the Caribbean. Many of those deported went into indentured servitude, having to work up to seven years to clear the debt of their passage. Much of the confiscated lands in Ireland were given to the soldiers of the New Model Army in lieu of pay.

The Cromwellian invasion was one of three 17th century events leading to the mass movement of the Irish. The Irish Rebellion and the English Civil War were the others. Some estimate that a third of the Irish population died during this period.

Answer: Fridtjof Nansen

The Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 resulted in a precarious position for the Muslim and Orthodox Christian minorities Greece and Turkey respectively. An agreement on a population exchange was reached between the two countries. It was facilitated by Nansen as the first High Commissioner for Refugees for the League of Nations with finance being organised to compensate some of those affected.

This, together with arranging repatriation of nearly half a million World War One prisoners and the resettlement of two million refugees displaced by the Russian Revolution, gained Nansen a Nobel Prize for Peace.

Answer: Partition

British India was partitioned in 1947 to form the independent countries of India and Pakistan. The Dominion of Pakistan (as it was known then) consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan (which became Bangladesh in 1971). The British Indian provinces of Bengal and Punjab were split to create Pakistan.

Religious tension was ultimately the reason for the partition with the Muslim population seeking their own territory, although the trigger for the population exchange was the partition itself. In the lead up to partition, between 200,000 and two million died in vengeance killings. Some 14 million were involved in the exchange in the following four years, with at least 500,000 dying in the process.

Answer: Integration

When new groups of people were conquered, they were dispersed around the Inca Empire to aid ethnic integration through the adoption of Quechua culture and language. It was not particularly successful until the time of the Spanish conquistadors when these policies helped create an united front against Spanish rule.

Answer: Reduced flooding

Flooding was a major problem on the Yangtze River before the dam was built. Floods in 1954 saw over 33,000 die and more than 18 million displaced. The level in the dam is reduced during the dry season to provide capacity to absorb winter rains and reduce flooding downstream.

Of the other answers: (a) the dam traps silt and so reduces silt levels downstream. This is believed to increase erosion of river banks during floods and also makes Shanghai (built some 1,600 km downstream on a sedimentary plain) more vulnerable to inundation; (b) the reduced river flow in fact increases the pollution levels; and (c) unfortunately fish life suffers when dams are built - the best known casualty on the Yangtze River is the baiji (or Yangtze River dolphin) which has been declared functionally extinct, with the dam perhaps being the nail in the coffin for the dolphin.

Answer: Pripyat

The reason for the forced migration was the meltdown of Chernobyl nuclear power station. Pripyat was the city which serviced the nuclear power station and was only three kilometres away from the site of the accident. The other cities are also in Ukraine. Slavutych, some 45 km from Pripyat, was built to house the former Pripyat citizens, many of whom still work in the nuclear industry.

Answer: With UK and US military assistance

At the Yalta Conference in 1945, Britain, America and USSR signed a Repatriation Agreement. This paved the way for the return of British and American prisoners of war in Soviet-held territory. Both the British and American military assisted in handing over Soviets in their zones, sometimes forcefully. Most of the transfers were from Europe. However, there was at least one occasion when some Soviet citizens were forcefully deported from the USA.

Millions of Soviet citizens were involved, including 1.5 million prisoners of war, 3 million displaced Soviets used by the Germans as forced labour and tens of thousands of Cossacks and Ukrainians who had fought with the Germans in the war. The fates of returning Soviets ranged from release or re-enlistment to forced labour camps or execution.

Answer: Missile testing ground

The Pintupi were moved from their traditional homeland between 1940s and 1980s to make way for the Blue Streak missile testing ground. The missile programme was cancelled before it entered full production.

During the 1960s, the Menzies Liberal government went further and instituted a policy of re-education as a step towards assimilation within Australian society. This entailed relocation of the population and suppression of Aboriginal language and culture, as well continuing the policy of the forcible placement of Aboriginal children into foster care or government and church institutions.