Freshman World History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Akbar

Akbar ruled India from 1556 to 1605. His reign is known for its tolerance, efficiency, and cultural achievements. Temujin is the personal name of Genghis Khan, the great Mongol conqueror. Kamehameha was a king of Hawaii. Salah ad-Din is known in English as Saladin, the Kurd who stymied Richard the Lion-hearted in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade. Coincidentally, Akbar's "first" name is sometimes written as Jalal ud-Din.

Answer: intellectual

Also known as the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment was centered in France during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Often referred to as an "intellectual movement," the Enlightenment featured such well-known thinkers as John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Baron de Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, and Rene Descartes.

Answer: Incas

The language of the Incas (or Inkas) was Quechua. The Quechua name for their empire was Tawantinsuyu. The word "Inka" means ruler.

Answer: Timbuktu

Mali was the world's second largest land empire after that of the Mongols. It was located in West Africa along the Niger River. Zimbabwe was a great city in southern Africa. Constantinople was the capital of the Ottoman Empire of the Turks and is now known as Istanbul. Samarkand is located in modern Uzbekistan and was the capital of Tamerlane, a great Turkish-Mongol warrior and conqueror.

Answer: Chichen Itza

The ruins of dozens of Maya cities and ceremonial centers are located in the jungles of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and in Guatemala. Cuzco was the Inca capital in South America. Pueblo Bonito was a great Anasazi city in Chaco Canyon of New Mexico. Tenochtitlan was the Aztec capital located where Mexico City is today.

Answer: Adam Smith

Smith, whose father's name was also Adam Smith, was an eccentric who often talked to himself. He once absent-mindedly wandered 15 miles from his home in his nightgown before ringing church bells broke the spell he was in. Although Watt was also a Scot, Owen was Welsh and Marx was German.

Answer: England

Divine right is the political idea that the ruler receives his power and legitimacy directly from God, and his rule cannot therefore be questioned. The British put that idea to bed with the execution of Charles I in 1649.

Answer: Germans

In some German states, such as Wurttemberg and Brandenburg, population loss was over 50 percent, while overall in Germany the number of men was reduced by almost half. One study estimated that a third of all German towns were destroyed just by Swedish forces fighting for the Protestant side.

Answer: They were all Muslims.

Modern Turkey emerged from the Ottoman Empire, while modern Iran eventually emerged from the Safavid Empire. The Mughals were descendants of Mongols who had conquered India.

Answer: Giuseppe Garibaldi

Garibaldi was famous for a red shirt he wore. He was a famous general and a leader of the Risorgimento, the movement that resulted in the creation of a unified Italian state. He also traveled to South America, where he met and married a woman known as Anita.

The two of them led military forces and fought in nationalistic battles in Brazil and Uruguay before returning to Italy and his greatest achievements.