More Marching Orders Trivia Quiz

Answer: New Zealand

The Flagstaff War was also known as Hone Heke's Rebellion, the Northern War or the First Mâori War. It was fought between the British (plus some of their Mâori allies) and the Mâori people led by Hone Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti. Under the terms of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi (of which Hone Heke was a signatory), the British had annexed New Zealand - the Flagstaff War developed from Mâori grievances over its implications.

The flagstaff in question had been a gift to the first British settler in the country from Hone Heke. As tensions rose it was chopped down several times, but the fourth incident in 1845 escalated into a full scale battle that resulted in the destruction of the town of Kororareka (now named Russell), with the colonists being forced to flee on British and US naval vessels. After several more battles the war was ended by peace treaty with neither side really able to claim a clear victory. Symbolically, a new flagstaff was raised in 1848.

The incorrect options are all countries that were British colonies in 1845.

Answer: Mohandas Gandhi

The Salt March was organised by Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi as an act of non-violent protest against British policies in India. The Barthiya people traditionally produced salt from seawater and a British tax on salt (and a government monopoly on its supply) meant that such practices had been deemed illegal. People were left either to buy salt at inflated prices or go without if they couldn't afford it.

Gandhi's Salt March, also known as the Dandi March or the Salt Satyagraha, started at his home near the city of Ahmedabad and continued for 390 km (240 miles) to the coastal village of Dandi in Gujarat. Once he reached the sea, Gandhi illegally processed salt from seawater resulting in his arrest, a huge amount of international publicity and the spark for nationwide acts of civil disobedience. Although the march had little direct impact on India's eventual independence, it remains one of the best-known events of the time. However, the salt tax was not repealed until March 1947 under Nehru's interim government ahead of the country becoming an independent nation in August 1947.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India (serving from 1947 to 1964), Rajendra Prasad was the first President of India (1950 to 1962) and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the first Vice President of India (1952 to 1962).

Answer: Finland

The Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland lasted from November 1939 to March 1940. Finland had been part of the Russian Empire from 1809 until its collapse into revolution in 1917 - the Soviet Union's attack on the country shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War was an attempt to regain the lost territory - especially since their capital city, Leningrad, was situated just 32 km (20 miles) from the Finnish border.

Despite the vast discrepancy in the size and power of the two nations (the Soviet Union had three times as many soldiers and much more equipment) the war was surprisingly evenly balanced to begin with and Finland's defences much stronger than the Soviet Union had anticipated. Eventually, after five months of fighting in unpleasantly cold conditions, the Finns were forced to seek a peace settlement and the war was concluded by the Treaty of Moscow. This granted over 10% of Finland's territory and nearly a third of its economic assets to the Soviet Union - a much better deal for the Soviets than they had initially demanded before the war.

The incorrect options are all other European countries which bordered the Soviet Union.

Answer: Eli Whitney

The device in question is the mechanical cotton gin - an invention generally credited to Eli Whitney (although several other inventors of the time produced similar equipment). Although his patent was granted on March 14th 1794, he had a lot of trouble enforcing it and spent a lot of time, money and effort on legal challenges against cotton plantation owners who had copied his device. By the time the law finally upheld his claim over the cotton gin he was left with little time to earn any money from it before the patent expired.

Whitney's device not only enabled the expansion of the South's cotton industry in the early 19th century, but also contributed to the growth of the slave trade. He is also known, however, for popularising the concept of interchangeable parts in the firearms industry in particular and consequently the manufacturing industry in general - a development that became an important factor in the North's victory in the American Civil War and the fight against slavery.

The incorrect options were all British inventors of various spinning machines in the late 18th century.

Answer: Religious freedom

The Royal Declaration of Indulgence of 1672 was King Charles II's attempt to introduce religious freedom. Protestantism had been the dominant religion of the country since King Henry VIII had split from the Roman Catholic Church (with a few exceptions such as the reign of Queen Mary I) - and Charles wanted to help both Catholics and Protestant dissenters by cancelling the Penal Laws that disadvantaged and discriminated against non-followers of the Church of England. Unfortunately, Parliament was fiercely anti-Catholic in that period and Charles was swiftly forced to withdraw the declaration and sign further oppressive laws such as the Test Act.

Although he was a Protestant monarch, Charles was converted to Catholicism on his death bed in 1685 and succeeded by his Catholic brother, King James II. James also tried to reintroduce religious freedom by issuing a further Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 - however, that also lasted little more than a year as he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

The incorrect options were all granted by the 1689 Bill of Rights, which was enacted following the Glorious Revolution that overthrew James II and placed William and Mary on the throne instead.

Answer: Adolf Hitler

Bohemia and Moravia were areas of central Europe that constituted the main Czech-speaking parts of the former Czechoslovakia. In the run up to the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany were following a policy of expansionism by annexing and occupying surrounding countries. Needless to say, Czechoslovakia didn't escape their attentions - the area known as the Sudetenland was annexed by Germany (as a result of the Munich Agreement - the failed attempt at appeasement); the Slovak areas became the heavily Nazi-influenced Slovak Republic; and the remainder became the Nazi-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Adolf Hitler's proclamation of the creation of the Protectorate from Prague Castle followed an invasion of the remainder of the Czechoslovakia by German troops. During the Second World War Czechoslovakia's manufacturing and industrial capability were utilised for the German war effort; its weaponry was added to the arsenal of the German armed forces; and its people were brutally oppressed either through forced labour, arrest and execution, or transfer to the Nazi's concentration camps.

The incorrect options were all political leaders of the time - Edvard Benes was the leader of the Czech government-in-exile; Emile Hácha was the leader of Czechoslovakia at the time of the invasion and the puppet President of the Protectorate; and Konstantin von Neurath was the German Foreign Minister turned 'Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia' until 1943, but in 1941 his post became purely nominal when power was transferred to Heydrich.

Answer: Edward, the Black Prince

The title of Duke of Cornwall was created in March 1337 for Edward, the Black Prince - the eldest son and heir of King Edward III. Since then, the title and the lands that go with it have traditionally been reserved for the monarch's eldest son - with the exception of the title being passed on to Edward's son Richard in 1376 and being granted to Richard, Duke of York when he was made heir apparent to King Henry VI in 1460.

The Duchy of Cornwall includes land not just in the English county of Cornwall (for which it is named) but also in neighbouring Devon and other parts of the country such as Somerset and Herefordshire. By the 21st century its holdings account for around 0.2% of the UK's total land area and it provides a significant income (nearly £20 million in the 2014-15 tax year) for the Duke - who is generally better known as the Prince of Wales.

The incorrect options were all holders of the title during the 15th century - Edward of Westminster was the son of King Henry VI, Edward of Middleham was the son of King Richard III and Arthur Tudor was the eldest son of King Henry VII.

Answer: Knights Templar

The Knights Templar were otherwise known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon or the Order of Solomon's Temple and were formed around 1119 to fight in the Crusades. Jacques de Molay was the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar before they were disbanded by order of Pope Clement V in 1312. Many of its members had been arrested in 1307 (including de Molay) and falsely charged with a range of offences from denying Christ and idolatry to the more mundane fraud and corruption. Jacques de Molay was imprisoned until his death in 1314 while the King and the Catholic Church argued over his interrogation and the various confessions he had made and then retracted. He was finally executed by being burnt on a scaffold on the Ile des Juifs, a small island in the River Seine now connected to Paris's Île de la Cité by the construction of the Pont Neuf.

Somewhat ironically Philip IV was also known as Philip the Fair - but this moniker was derived from his handsome appearance rather than his sense of justice or equality. The Knights Templar weren't the only group of people to suffer at his hands; he is also remembered for arresting Pope Boniface VIII, seizing the assets of rich abbots and bankers and expelling the Jews from France.

The incorrect options are all other Catholic military orders founded in the 11th and 12th centuries. The Knights of Saint Thomas were an English order dissolved by King Henry VIII, however the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Order have both survived into the 21st century.

Answer: Libya

The Libyan Civil War began in February 2011, part of a series of uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world that came to be collectively known as the 'Arab Spring'. Following a period of protests and growing tensions, rebel forces attacked those loyal to the government of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - who had held power in the country since a successful coup d'état in 1969. By March 2011, the UN Security Council had passed a resolution that allowed the international community to use "all necessary means" to protect the civilian population from attack and enforce a 'no-fly zone' over the country. On March 19th Canadian, French, UK and US forces began the international military action, which ultimately assisted the Libyan rebels to oust Gaddafi from power and create a new government. Gaddafi himself was captured and killed by rebel forces a few days before the official end of the war in October 2011. Sadly however the bloodshed did not result in a stable government or a lengthy peace - the Second Libyan Civil War had broken out by May 2014.

The 'Arab Spring' is a term used to cover revolutionary protests in a large number of Arab and Islamic countries that started in December 2010. Leaders of various other countries that were also ousted from their positions included President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. None of the other African countries listed as incorrect options were affected.

Answer: The Republican Party

The Republican Party formed from a coalition of ex-Whigs, modernists, the Free-Soil Party and other anti-slavery activists. The driving factor behind this collaboration was the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 that basically repealed the anti-slavery Missouri Compromise and allowed slave owning settlers to spread further north and west. The meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin was one of many smaller events that occurred prior to the first official party convention in July 1854 and the swift rise in their popularity to become the main political party of the Northern States by 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected as the first Republican US President.

Victory in the US Civil War began a period of Republican domination of US politics - just three Democrats held the presidency between 1861 and 1933 (Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson). Once an anti-slavery party was no longer specifically needed, the Republican Party branched out with other aims being post-war reconstruction and support for business. In the longer term their policies have become largely associated with conservativism.

The Democratic Party, the Republicans long-time rival and main opponent, was founded in 1828. The Libertarian Party and Constitution Party are much smaller and newer organisations, founded in 1971 and 1991 respectively.