No Trespassing Trivia Quiz

Answer: Parthian Empire

The Parthian Empire was located in Persia, and parts of what today is Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Armenia, among other areas. This empire constantly battled with the Armenian Kingdom and the Romans. Romans intended to take over the Parthian Empire in 53 B.C, under the lead of Marcus Licinius Crassus.

However, they didn't count on the fact that the Parthians had well-armed and quick-moving armies, and had war tactics unknown to the Romans. The Parthians emerged victorious from the Battle of Carrhae, symbolizing an important failure for the Roman Empire.

Answer: Mongols

The Mongol Empire was very powerful, to the point that it used to stand in the territory of 40 modern countries, and yet it only existed 162 years! The Mongols were initially led by Genghis Khan, who started the Great Khan chain of government, of which Kublai Khan was a member years later.

Before the attempt of invasion took place, the Mongols had lost the majority of their troops and supplies as they were caught in strong storms while at sea. The Japanese stopped the Mongols from trespassing their territory in two occasions - 1274 and 1281.

Answer: Toyotomi Hideyoshi

General Toyotomi Hideyoshi is a very important figure in the history of Japan. Hideyoshi restricted the privilege of carrying weapons to samurais, and rebuilt several temples. He was also a very successful military man, even though his last military operation resulted in his death.

In the late 1580s, Hideyoshi led Japanese troops to invade Korea. After a seven-year war, Koreans, helped by the Chinese, managed to defeat the Japanese and stop them from the massive invasions they had planned. The invasion finally ended with the death of Hideyoshi.

Answer: Russia

In 1812, Napoleon had used brilliant military tactics to conquer a great part of Europe, and had allies all over the continent. On June 23, 1812, Napoleon launched an attack to Russia, starting what he called the "Second Polish War". The reason he called it this way was to gain support from the Polish, which didn't happen.

The Russians retreated inside their vast country, ordering farmers to burn their crops and buildings so that the French had no food and little shelter. So the French died of hunger and cold, since the climate in Russia is extremely cold in winter. Besides, the Russian army emerged victorious from most battles.

Answer: United Kingdom

In 1812, the British Empire was at war with France, in a conflict best known as the Napoleonic Wars. Trying to take advantage of this, the United States, whose President was James Madison, thought that taking Canada would be a very easy feat, since the population of the U.S. was by far bigger than the Canadian, and the British would be too busy with the Napoleonic Wars to do something about it.

During the War of 1812, which involved the United States against the United Kingdom and its allies, the United States considered invading Canada and annexing the territory to them. On July 12, 1812, American forces entered Canada hoping that the population would think of them as "liberators" from the British. Shawnee leader Tecumseh and British commander Isaac Brock stopped the Americans from proceeding with their plan. The Canadian campaign ended with the Treaty of Ghent, which forced the U.S. to return any Canadian territory they had obtained in return for American territory taken by the British.

Answer: Dardanelles

Regarded as one of Churchill's worst decisions, the Gallipoli Campaign was launched by the Allies on April 25, 1915, when they landed in Gallipoli. More than 200,000 lives from both sides were lost in this battle. The Ottoman/Turkish army fought against Allied troops and actually defeated the Allies.

The Dardanelles strait is located in northern Turkey and links the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea and to the Sea of Marmara. The Allies intended to open up the strait and secure it, but all the invasion brought was death.

Answer: Operation Barbarossa

On June 22, 1941, Germany tried to invade the Soviet Union in a campaign known as Operation Barbarossa. The result was the loss of many German soldiers and one of the largest military operations in history. Josef Stalin, leader of The Soviet Union, ignored warnings from the United States, Britain and his own spies since he didn't think Germany was ready to attack.

Hitler, probably carried away by a string of easy successes in 1940 thought that he could conquer the Soviet Union, but he failed. Millions of German soldiers died, either in battle, from hunger or from the freezing climate conditions of Russia.

Answer: Fidel Castro

The previous ruler of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, had been a dictator, and even though he initially supported and was supported by the United States, both sides started having tensions. Meanwhile, a movement led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara overthrew Batista's government and turned Cuba a socialist state.

President Eisenhower had approved the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion, and John F. Kennedy decided to execute the mission. The Cuban armed forces managed to defeat the CIA-trained brigade from the United States, and months later, the Cuban Revolution was successful, with Fidel Castro rising as an authority figure.

Answer: Afghanistan

In 1978 there was a Communist coup in Afghanistan with very limited support from the people. In December 1979 the Soviet Union, then under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, decided to intervene to prop up the régime. The result of this was disastrous for the Soviets; thousands of soldiers died and millions of rubles were lost in an invasion that was an absolute failure. Even though parts of Afghanistan were Communist, and wanted to get rid of the Taliban, most Afghans fought the Soviets.

The United States supplied and trained the Afghans through the CIA, which would backfire later with Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. After ten years of fighting between Afghans and Soviets, and many deaths from both sides, the country ended in a very bad shape, and a few years later, the Taliban took over the country.

Answer: George W. Bush

In March 2003, then-U.S. President George W. Bush, who was in power from 2000 to 2008, ordered the start of the invasion of Iraq, backed up by the majority of the Congress. His administration argued that dictator Saddam Hussein was aiding terrorists and that they had weapons of massive destruction that needed to be eliminated.

Although the invasion removed the régime, it found no weapons of mass destruction and provoked insurgency on an unexpected and massive scale. This was accompanied by a huge upsurge in Islamic fundamentalism.