European History - Some Key Aspects Quiz

Answer: Parthenon

The Parthenon is located on the Acropolis of Athens. The temple is built in the Doric style. It was built after the first temple of Athena was destroyed during the Persian invasion of 480 BCE. In the past it has served as a Christian church and a Muslim mosque; for the latter purpose a minaret was added. In 1801-1805 several ancient sculptures were removed from the site, shipped to Britain and acquired by British Museum in 1816.

Knossos, an ancient Greek city, is the largest Bronze Age archeological site on the Greek island of Crete. Archeologists and historians generally presume it served as the political and ceremonial centre of the Minoan civilisation, which ruled Crete from approximately 2700 to 149 BCE. The first finds in Knossos date from 1878. Nowadays it is the largest ancient Greek tourist attraction on Crete.

Salamis was an ancient city-state on the island of Cyprus; its oldest finds go back to the eleventh century BCE. In 1952 the Cypriot government started excavations and renovations which resulted in a very impressive archeologic site. Since the Turkish invasion (1974) the excavations have ceased; the current political situation prevents tourists from visiting Salamis en masse.

Propylaea is a Greek word, meaning "gateway". The most famous propylaea is the one that served as the impressive entrance to the Acropolis of Athens. Its remainders still attract huge crowds of tourists every year. The Propylaea of Athens was built from 437 till 432 BCE. The famous Brandenburger Tor of Berlin was modelled after the ancient Greek building.

Answer: Romulus

Plutarch and Livy claim Romulus (771-717 BCE) and Remus (771-753 BCE), twin sons of Princess Rhea Silvia and god of war, Mars, founded the city of Rome. According to the legend the twins were raised by a wolf. After a dispute on who should become the first King of Rome, Romulus killed his brother and started his reign, during which much land was added to the young city. For years it was commonly accepted that Romulus was a mythic figure, but the discovery of Murus Romuli - a defensive wall on the Palatine Hill believed to have been built by Romulus during the foundation of the city - made the possibility of Romulus as an actual historical figure accepted by several experts on Roman history.

From its foundation until the formation of the republic in 509 BCE, Rome was a kingdom. Between 44 and 31 BCE Augustus and Marcus Antonius fought several battles for the power in Rome. Eventually Augustus won and was proclaimed the first Emperor of Rome. At that time, Rome was the biggest city in the world, with a population estimated between 450,000 and 3.5 million. The city expanded to an empire that stretched from Asia to the British Isles. The year 476 is generally seen as the year when the Roman Empire fell in the West.

Answer: Charlemagne had to share the power over the Franks.

After his father's death, Charlemagne had to share the power with his brother Carloman. The two did not get on well with each other, but Carloman's death in 771 prevented a fraternal war.

Charlemagne was crowned by the noblemen of the Franks according to the tradition that the eldest son of the ruler became the next monarch. It was however also Frankish tradition to split the kingdom between all the sons of a ruler, which is why half of the kingdom was inherited by Carloman.

Charlemagne died in 814 of pleurisy. He is buried in the Aachen Cathedral.

Answer: False

There is some speculation that the Vikings explored large parts of North America, but it is commonly believed that the Viking expeditions did not reach further than Newfoundland. The Vikings played an important role in Northern European history from the 8th till the 11th centuries.

The Vikings sailed to parts of the world as far apart as Newfoundland in the West and the Volga river (Russia) in the east. They had an immense impact on the developments in the Scandinavian peninsula, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland and the British Isles.

Answer: Portugal

Although Great Britain and more so the Netherlands left a huge footprint on the Cape of Good Hope, it was Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias who first rounded the Cape and consequently became the first European to enter the Indian Ocean, discovering a sea passage to India en route.

Answer: True

On its foundation in 1602 the VOC became the world's first ever multinational corporation. It was also the first corporation in the world to issue stock. For two centuries it paid an annual dividend of 18 per cent per year until it went bankrupt in 1800 and was dissolved.

The VOC was founded to improve the spice trade with the Asian colonies. Up to its formation the spice trade in Asia was dominated by the Portuguese, but with the creation of the VOC the Republic of the United Netherlands took over that leading role.

Answer: Montesquieu

Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) lived in the Enlightenment Era during which he put his mark on politics. He articulated his opinions on the best way of governing democratic states; a theory which became known as the Trias Politica or the Separation of Powers.

The Trias Politica is based on the ideas of mixed government, a governance that was used in ancient Greece and Rome. Montesquieu described two types of governmental powers: the sovereign and the administrative, the latter being divided into the executive, legislative and judicial powers.

Answer: Triple Entente

The reasons why the six main powers of Europe sought alliances with each other in the early 20th century are diverse. By this time, almost the entire world had been divided between the various European countries. They were tired of fighting wars to protect their overseas colonies and hoped alignments would give them rest. With a century of wars behind them (among which the Napoleontic wars, the Franco-Prussian War and the Russian-Japanese war) the countries were in search for peace. Since Germany had only become a nation-state in 1871, it had missed out on the chance of becoming an imperialist leader. Germany desired overseas colonies and actively pursued that goal through their 'Weltpolitik'. To protect their colonies from being attacked by Germany, alliances were created between the remaining super powers.

The alliance between Great Britain, Russia and France was called the Triple Entente (1907). It was the result of the Entente Cordiale - an aligment between Britain and France (1904) - and two separate aligments that Russia had with both France and Britain.

The Triple Alliance was the name of the alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

The League of Nations was created after World War I and was intended to unite the nations of the world through diplomacy in order to prevent a second World War. It served as an example for the United Nations.

Answer: 1923

After the Turkish Independence War (1919-1923) the Republic of Turkey was founded on 29 October 1923, with Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) as its first president.

1915 is an important year in Turko-Armenian history, since it marks the start of what is now known as the Armenian Genocide. The genocide took place from 1915 till 1917 and was characterised by the use of deportations and massacres directed towards the Armenians, believed to be disloyal to their Ottoman rulers because of their shared Christian beliefs with the Russians. It is unclear how many Armenians died during the genocide, but the death toll is widely estimated to be around 1.2 million.

In 1919 the Turkish Independence War started. During the next four years the Ottoman administration was overthrown and in the end a new Republic was formed, followed by the ratification of the constitution in 1924.

In 1934 Turkish women were granted full political rights. In 1923 the first political party of the new republic was formed: Kadinlar Halk Firkasi (Women's People Party) led by Nezihe Muhiddin. Since at that time women had not yet received full political rights, the party was quickly prohibited.

Answer: 1989

On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, ending nearly 3 decades of separation. It marked the collapse of the Iron Curtain and was the final act in the peace negotiations that Gorbachev, president of the USSR, and Reagan, president of the USA, started in 1985.