History of Warsaw Trivia Quiz

Answer: It burned down

Brodno was founded sometime around the end of the 9th century (or possibly early 10th). It was a very small settlement located near where the present-day neighborhood Brodno is located. The original Brodno had walls but, nonetheless, it was burned down in the mid 11th century by warring princes. A similar fate befall other early small settlements in what is now Warsaw.

Answer: Income

Warsaw was an extremely divided city based on the income of its residents. The city was ruled by extremely wealthy princes and aristocrats while most of the residents were extremely poor tradesmen and their families. In 1525, the peasants revolted and secured a power-sharing deal establishing a house of government for the lower class.

This agreement was short lived because the last Masovian prince was likely poisoned by the Polish Crown and Warsaw became part of Poland as a result, although this body of government remained with changes.

Answer: Large population and fully developed

Warsaw only had a modest population in 1596 and other cities such as Krakow and Gdansk were more populated. Warsaw was also very small at the time and lacked many of the important buildings other cities in the kingdom already had. Warsaw did have city walls which protected it somewhat from invaders (although invaders would later be successful).

The most important factor that led to Warsaw becoming the capital was its location. It is located roughly halfway between the major cities of Krakow and Vilnius and away from other lands (such as Sweden) who were always trying to invade the Polish Kingdom. Warsaw was small but growing at this time and King Sigismund III Vasa selected it as his new capital after a fire destroyed the palace in Krakow.

Answer: Brandenburg-Prussia

The Battle of Warsaw was fought between Polish-Lithuanian forces against the Swedish-Prussian coalition. Although, Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia won the battle, the victory was insignificant as Polish forces led by John II Casimir quickly fled the battlefield with only about 2,000 casualties.

However, the battle was one of the first major wins for Brandenburg-Prussia despite being vastly outnumbered. Prussia quickly established itself as a major military force in Eastern Europe. The battle is also notable because it was one of the first skirmishes the future Polish King John III Sobieski fought in. He would later become one of the most important Polish kings in history. John III Sobieski brought stability to Poland and led military campaigns that successfully fought off invaders such as the Ottoman Empire.

Answer: Great Northern War

The Great Northern War was fought by Sweden and Russia during the first two decades of the 18th century with Poland getting caught in the middle. Warsaw was invaded by both Sweden and Russia numerous times during the conflict. Warsaw's struggles can be attributed to Polish King Augustus II's negligence of his kingdom as he focused on the worldly affairs of Saxony and elsewhere in Europe. Polish aristocrats were unhappy with Augustus who sided with Russia while the noblemen sided with Sweden. Augustus was dethroned when Sweden captured the city but reinstated when Russia took it. Warsaw was heavily damaged throughout the war, was constantly rebuilt only to be destroyed again.

Answer: Stanislaw Mokronowski

The 1794 Warsaw Uprising was part of the larger Kosciuszko Uprising, although Polish hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko took no direct part in this event as he was elsewhere. The uprising was a revolt against Russian control of Poland, specifically of Warsaw. The revolt was led by Stanislaw Mokronowski and Jan Kalinski. Kalinski was a shoemaker who served in the local council and Mokronowski was a soldier who served in the Sejm.

The conflict, which began on just one street in Warsaw's Old Town, quickly spread to the whole city and many Russians troops were trapped and Polish forces declared victory within two days on April 19. The victory was short-lived, however, as Russian forces sought revenge and massacred about 20,000 Polish civilians in the Warsaw neighborhood of Praga and Russian recaptured the city in November of the same year.

Answer: Belweder Palace

The November Uprising was another Polish rebellion against Russian rule. The event began on November 29, 1830 when Piotr Wysocki, then a young cadet, led a group of insurgents in an attack on Belweder Palace, home of the Russian Grand Duke in Warsaw. Grand Duke Constantine, however, escaped the palace by dressing as a woman.

The rebels took over the palace and local garrison but the Russian outnumbered and outmaneuvered them to quash the rebellion. Warsaw was left in shambles and the Russians completely took over control of Poland.

They closed down many of the institutions in Warsaw, including Warsaw University. Many Catholic churches were rechristened as Russian Orthodox churches. In addition, many Polish customs and practices, including the language, were banned.

Answer: End of World War I

Warsaw was heavily damaged during World War I. Still largely under Russian influence, Warsaw was sieged by the Germanys in 1915. As the Russian Army fled, they destroyed almost all of the city's bridges and other pieces of infrastructure. When the Germans claimed the city, they sided with the local Polish population and revived much of the Polish culture that had been forbidden under Russian rule. Germany expanded the land area of Warsaw to incorporate many of the surrounding suburban villages before leaving Poland in November 1918, granting Polish independence.

Answer: Polish military leaders fled the country

The September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany is seen as one of the major events that sparked World War II. Warsaw fell under attack on September 1 which caused many, if not all, of the Polish military leaders to flee to Romania. Crucially, they took much of the supplies and weapons that been prepared to defend the city with them. This left Warsaw practically defenseless and the Germans took it over by the month's end despite a spirited defense by the local population. Over 31,000 Polish people were killed in September 1939 and city surrendered on September 27.

Warsaw Mayor (also called President) Stefan Starzynski attempted to seize power to better defend the city but it was too late and he was arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp. Starzynski's date of death and his exact fact are unknown but it is widely believed he died sometime in 1943 after being executed at Dachau, although many other possibilities remain.

By the war's end, over 85% of Warsaw's buildings were destroyed. Among them was the Royal Palace which was burned down during the initial invasion in September 1939 and over 700,000 Warsaw residents died.

Answer: Independent trade unions

During the 1980s and earlier, Poland was grappling with the Communist hold on the country. Most notably, the Communist Party's crackdown of various freedoms and establishment of martial law caused civil unrest throughout the country. Things heated up in 1979 when the then new pontiff, Pope John Paul II who was Polish, visited Warsaw and delivered a mass in Victory Square which encouraged democratization of Poland and an end to communism. The Pope's speech sparked interest in the budding Solidarity Movement, although such a trade union was illegal at the time.

In 1989, the Communist Government meant with leaders of Solidarity and others to negotiate an end to the social unrest in Poland. The agreement became known as the Round Table Agreement which legalized independent trade unions, weakened the power of the Communist Party by establishing a nationally elected president, among other reforms.