Match the Battle to the War Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alexander the Great's Conquest of Persia

The Battle of Gaugamela was fought in 331 BC. It was a decisive victory for Alexander the Great. The Persian forces under the command of their king, Darius III, were utterly routed. In the aftermath of the battle, Darius was betrayed and assassinated by one of his own satraps, called Bessus.

When Alexander learnt of his enemy's demise, he covered the dead Persian ruler with his own cloak and ordered that Bessus to be hunted down. When Alexander's men arrested him, Bessus was put to death for murdering his king.

Answer: Second Punic War

The Battle of Zama was fought in 202 BC. The Romans, under Publius Scipio, later dubbed Africanus, defeated the Carthaginians under Hannibal in their own territory. The battle ensured the prevailing of Rome against Carthage, despite the defeates they had suffered by Hannibal earlier in the same war. Carthage's status as a worldpower was greatly diminished, but it was not until 146 BC and the Third Punic War that the Romans destroyed the Phoenician city.

Answer: Norman Conquest of England

The Battle of Hasting was fought in 1066. The Normans, led by William the Conqueror, defeated the Saxons, under Harold Godwinson. Harold himself perished in the battle, with a Norman arrow striking him in the eye, as tradition says. The battle is depicted in the Bayeaux tapestry.

As a result of his stunning victory at Hastings, William was crowned King on Christmas Day, 1066, in Westminster Abbey. At the place the armies clashed, William later founded a monastery, with the high altar of the church being placed at the spot where Harold fell.

Answer: Hundred Years' War

The Battle of Agincourt was fought in 1415. The English were led by King Henry V. The French were led by Charles d'Albret. Despite the massive numerical superiority of the French, the English prevailed, due to the nature of the terrain, the heavy rain that fell the day before the battle, which harassed the movements of the Franch cavalry and by the usage of the longbow, which was not used by the French. William Shakespeare's work "King Henry V" is primarily about Henry's victory at Agincourt, which came at a cost of only 112 men killed, while the French lost more than 7000 men killed and more than 1500 taken prisoner.

Answer: Wars of the Roses

The Battle of Bosworth Field was fought in 1485. The forces of the House of Tudor, supported by the forces of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of France, under the leadership of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, later King Henry VII, defeated the forces of the House of York, led by King Richard III. Richard himself was killed in the battle.

Despite the fact that the last battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought almost two years later, Henry's victory at Bosworth Field paved the way for the end of the division of England in two factions, the White and the Red Rose, and led to the establishment of the Tudor dynasty.

Answer: Jacobite Rebellion

The Battle of Culloden was fought in 1746. It pitted the forces of Great Britain against those of the Jcobites, which were aided by the Kingdom of France. The British were led by Prince William, the Duke of Cumberland. The Jacobites were led by Charles Edward Stuart.

The battle proved a tremendous victory for the British, since they lost only 50 killed and 259 wounded, whiel the Jacobites suffered more than 1500 killed and wounded and more than 150 captured, while the French suffered just over 200 men captured. Thus, any hope of restoring the pro-Catholic Stuart dynasty in the British throne was lost.

The House of Hanover now reigned supreme.

Answer: Napoleonic Wars

The Battle of Austerlitz was fought in 1805. The belligerents were the First French Emipre, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, against the Third anti-Freanch Coalition, bakced by the the Holy Roman Empire and the Russian Empire. Napoleon gained a decisive victory, suffering only 9000 casualties, while his opponents suffered 36000 casualties.

The Coalition's disaster shook the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (who, on the previous year, had founded the Austrian Empire and was, simultaneously, Francis I of Austria and Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire) to such an extent, that he agried to the Treaty of Pressburg, which forced Austria to cede all her lands in Italy, as well as dominion over Germany.

Answer: Austro-Prussian War

The Battle of Koniggratz, also known as Battle of Sadowa, was fought in 1866. The Prussians were led by Helmut von Moltke and the Austrians by Ludwig von Benedek. The Prussians were victorious. Because of that victory, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck was free to proceed with his plans of German unification under the banner of Prussia. With Austria defeated, Bismarck turned his eye to France, which was diplomatically isolated, and warred against France in 1870-71, in a war known as the Franco-Prussian War, in which the Prussians were victorious. Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor, which initiated the Second Reich, which lasted until the end of World War One, in 1918.

Answer: World War I

The Battle of the Somme was fought in 1916. It was initiated by Great Britain, in order to relieve the pressure on the French in Verdun. The battle lasted for months, until the middle of November, 1916. The number of the casualties was horrendous for both sides. One century after the Battle of the Somme, hisotrians still debate the need, significance and outcome of it. Among the British soldiers who fought and bled in the tranches of the Somme was author J.R.R. Tolkien, more well-known as the author of "The Lord of the Rings".

Answer: World War II

There were, in fact, two Battles of El Alamein, both fought in 1942. The first was fought in July, beginning on July 1 and ending on July 27. Although neither side won a clear-cut victory, the advance of Nazi Germany towards Alexandria was halted. The second battle began on October 23 and ended on November 4. That one was a decisive victory for the Allies.

The Second Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Stalingrad, fought in late 1942 and early 1943, ending with a victory of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, are considered the two battles that turned the tide of the war in favor of the Allies.