My Colonial Name Was Trivia Quiz

Answer: Falkland Islands

This group of islands is an archipelago located 300 miles off the east coast of Argentina in the South Atlantic Ocean. Tellingly, when you enter "Las Malvinas" in English Wikipedia, it redirects you to "Falkland Islands," so even the basic name of the place is unsettled.

Its discovery, colonization, and especially modern jurisdiction was and still is a matter of controversy and dispute among involved nations, chiefly Britain and Argentina. The two nations went to war over the islands in 1982, when Argentinian troops temporarily occupied them. British sovereignty was re-established in two months. 649 Argentine and 255 British military personnel died during the hostilities.

The conflict was irreverently described by since deceased Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges as "two bald men fighting over a comb." Latest United Nations estimate has the population at 2,915 permanent inhabitants, most of whom are of British ancestry.

Answer: Ceylon

The island nation of Sri Lanka is located in the Indian Ocean, southeast of the Indian peninsula. It's a mere 32 kilometers across the Palk Strait from Sri Lanka to Dhanushkodi, India. Despite the succession of foreign powers who interfered with the island over the centuries, a portion of the island maintained independent status as the Kingdom of Kandy from the 1500s through the early 19th century, when Britain consolidated control over the whole island.

The Portuguese were the first to arrive in 1505, followed by the Dutch, who were invited in by the Kandy monarchy to expel the Portuguese. Unfortunately for the natives, the Dutch stayed around, making the island a key stop while transporting goods along the "silk road." The area was known as Ceylon from the beginning of British rule in 1802 until 1972.

Answer: British Honduras

Belize is the only Central American country without a border on the Pacific Ocean, and the only one with English as the official language. Mayan peoples settled in the area some time before 1200 B.C.E., and existed there for the next two thousand years. Belize sits nestled between Mexico and Guatemala on the Caribbean Sea.

The origin of the country name is somewhat murky, but possibly derives from the travel log of an early Spanish explorer priest who encountered the Balis River in 1677. Another theory connects it to Spanish mispronunciation of Scotch pirate Peter Wallace, who adventured there in the 1630s. Shipwrecked British seamen established the first recorded colony in 1638, but piracy, intermittent native attacks, and conflicts with nearby Spanish settlements characterized the ensuing 150 years.

The British officially established "The Colony of British Honduras" in 1840 and it became a crown colony in 1862.

Answer: Dutch Guiana

Other than the island nation of Aruba, Suriname is the only country in the Americas to have Dutch as its official language. It's located on the north coast of the continent, between Guyana and French Guiana. It is the smallest independent nation in South America, at 163,000 square kilometers, with a 2016 population of under 600,000 people, mostly concentrated on the coast, in and around the urban area of the capital, Paramaribo.

Like so many other lands in the Americas, Suriname was explored and exploited by numerous European powers. The Dutch gained primary control in the late 1600s. During the colonial period, the territory was largely a plantation economy, featuring sugarcane, coffee, cotton and cocoa, and run on the labor of African slaves. Due to brutally harsh conditions, revolts were common and a number of slaves escaped into the jungle, where they mixed with indigenous peoples and successfully established some independent settlements out of reach of the settlers on the coast. These runaways were known as "Maroons" and their forays and raids on the colonial settlements for food and women were a source of fear and irritation for the Dutch, who went so far as to launch some official "wars" against them {see "Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Suriname" by John Stedman}.
The Dutch finally abolished slavery in 1863, but continued to hold many laborers in paid servitude. Eventually, they imported indentured servants from The Dutch East Indies, which included Chinese, Javanese and Indian people (known in Suriname as 'Hindustanis'). These south Asian immigrants and their descendants combine with with African Creoles, descendants of the Maroons, indigenous Amerindians and Dutch Europeans to make Suriname one of the most racially and ethnically diverse countries.
Suriname gained independence from Holland in 1975. The official name of the country was changed from "Surinam" to the present "Suriname" in 1978.

Answer: Rhodesia

Zimbabwe and its citizens have endured a complex and painful journey from white minority rule to independence. The nation formerly known as Southern Rhodesia declared itself as the new nation of Rhodesia, independent from Britain, in 1965. Following 13 years of international isolation and brutal warfare with indigenous African guerilla forces, colonialist ruler Ian Smith finally gave in and accepted bi-racial rule.

However, the enmity toward him was too strong, and two years later he stepped down and the state of Zimbabwe was recognized as an independent nation in 1980. Since that time, the dictatorial and volatile Robert Mugabe has ruled the country with an iron fist.

He has been accused of human rights abuses and rampant government corruption, and the nation is basically bankrupt. By 2017, he was 93 years old, so there is some hope things may improve soon.

Answer: Burma

Myanmar/Burma is one of the most unfortunate and troubled areas in the world. The international community cannot agree on the name of this country. In the Burmese language, since the 13th century, the country was Mranma Pran. From 1885 until 1989 it was known to most of the world by the English name, "The Union of Burma." In 1989, the military government converted many English colonial names to local names.

The country became "Pyihtaungsu Thamada Myanmar Naingngandaw"(Republic of the Union of Myanmar).

This is listed on Encyclopaedia Britannica website. The capital city of Rangoon became Yangon. The United Nations and the majority of Asian nations now refer to the country as the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar." Canada and the UK still refer to it as "Burma" and the United States lists "Burma(Myanmar)" on its website. Got all that? Meanwhile, a horrendous crisis is occurring in Myanmar. To simplify: the fiercely persecuted Muslim minority population, known as the Rohingya, is being killed off by paramilitary groups. Tens to hundreds of thousands of civilians, including women and children, are trying to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. That government is understandably reluctant and unable to handle this flood of refugees, so many are in camps along the border.

Many unbiased UN observers consider this a genocide which started in 2016, but which of course has older historical roots.

Answer: Formosa

"Ilha Formosa" (literally beautiful island) was the Portuguese colonial-age name for Taiwan, but it was the Dutch who formally colonized the island starting in the 1620s. The Spanish briefly occupied the north of the island, but the Dutch drove them out and retained hegemony until 1662, when they were driven out by Chinese Ming Dynasty loyalists. Fast forward to the present.

The Chinese government, representing the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the approximately 1.4 billion people of mainland China, insist Taiwan is part of China and claim sovereignty over it.

They also refuse to have diplomatic relations with any country who recognizes Taiwan as a country. The Taiwanese insist they are the rightful rulers of all of China (highly unrealistic at this point).

They maintain 'The Republic of China' as their official name. In 1971, the United Nations recognized the PRC as the sole representative of "China" and expelled the Taiwanese representative. A deliberately ambiguous status quo enables most western countries to maintain de facto relations with the Taiwanese government without official embassies and diplomatic ties.

Answer: Dutch East Indies

Indonesia is made up of more than 13,000 islands, making it the world's largest island nation. It's the fourth most populous nation, ranking behind only China, India and the USA, and it's also the world's largest majority Muslim nation. As the earliest explorers returned from east Asia with tales of exotic cultures and incredible treasures, the race was on among European nations to get their share of the spoils.

India, huge, richly diverse and poorly defended, became the defining exploitable area, and Great Britain, as the pre-eminent naval power of the time, made it her crown jewel in Asia. Everything else became known as "the Indies." The Netherlands established The Dutch East India Company in 1602, and soon after got a foothold in Batavia.

The company was hugely successful, becoming the dominant player in the whole archipelago for the next 200 years. When the company went bankrupt, the homeland nationalized the colonies in the area and became the official administration in 1800. For the next century, their agents expanded influence and gained hegemony over even more of this desirable territory, winning prominence in spice and cash crop trading. 'Indonesia' came into use as a geographical term in the late 19th century, and local intellectuals conceived of the idea of an independent nation state some time after 1900.

The Japanese occupied the country during WWII, dismantling much of what the Dutch had put in place. After Japan's surrender, Indonesian nationalists declared independence and fomented a revolution, which included sporadic armed conflict with the remaining Dutch. Although controlling the major cities with the help of some allied forces, the Dutch military were never able to secure much of the countryside or quash guerilla activity, and international pressure forced them to capitulate, which they did in 1949, leading to an independent Indonesia.

Answer: Upper Volta

As with many African nations, Burkina Faso's journey to modern, self-determined statehood has been a bumpy one. The area in question was historically the home of the Mossi peoples, who had their roots in Ghana, according to their origin mythology. This intrepid warrior tribe used their mastery of the horse to establish a strong kingdom in the 15th century which was able to resist conquering attempts from North African Muslim tribes.

The French incursion was a different story. They invaded during the "scramble for Africa" in the 1890s and colonized most of western Africa.

The landlocked area in question was separated from Senegal and Niger and renamed "Haute Volta" (Upper Volta) in 1919. At least the name makes sense because the three branches of the Volta river which run through it.

As independence movements took hold throughout Africa, the Republic of Upper Volta was established in 1958 as a "self-governing colony"(oxymoron!) of France, soon followed by true independence in 1960. After the obligatory several decades of infighting and messy coups, Thomas Sankara, known in some quarters as "the Che Guevara of Africa," became president in 1983 and fashioned the new name of Burkina Faso.

It's from the Mossi and Dyula languages and can be translated as "Upright Fatherland."

Answer: Gilbert Islands

Kiribati is an independent island nation in the central Pacific Ocean, approximately midway between Hawaii and Australia. It is made up of at least thirty two coral atolls and reef islands, many uninhabited, but the capital of South Tarawa, on Tarawa Atoll, is busy and crowded with locals and tourists.

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate (from 1892) and colony (from 1917) until 1976, when the two island groups separated. The southern group became the nation of Tuvalu. The name "Kiribati" is the local language enunciation of "Gilberts." Japanese forces occupied Tarawa Atoll and other of the Gilbert Island group for two years during WWII.

In some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting in US Marine Corps' history, US forces finally ousted them late in 1943.