We Go On, Fighting With Each Other Quiz

Answer: Pope Urban II

The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started by the Roman Catholic Church with the dual aims of securing control of holy sites considered sacred by both parties and wiping out competing religions. The first Crusade was launched by Pope Urban II in response to a request from Emperor Alexius I of Byzantium.

There were eight major Crusade expeditions between 1096 and 1291, comprised of bloody, violent, and ruthless conflicts. The judgment of history is that they were unsuccessful, but only after they had claimed an estimated 3,000,000 lives.

Answer: 10 years

The French Revolution was a period of radical political and societal change. The country's peasants and urban poor were heavily taxed and starving, while the rich and royal frolicked and partied carefree. France was on the brink of bankruptcy caused by its costly involvement in the American Revolution and the extravagant spending of King Louis XVI and his predecessor.

The conflict officially kicked off with the meeting of the Estates General of 1789 and ended a decade later with the formation of the French Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte in November 1799.

It played a critical role in shaping modern nations by showing the world the power inherent in the will of the people and the dangers implicit in a government totally out of touch with its citizens.

Answer: Britain

Over the next 30 years Mexico gained control of the region, but by this time thousands of American citizens had settled there. These immigrants eventually rebelled against the Mexican state in 1835, winning independence as the Republic of Texas, which lasted until 1846 when it officially became part of the United States. Border disputes with Mexico escalated and eventually led to the Mexican-American War, which ran from 1846 to 1848.

The US won the conflict and forced Mexico to concede what is now New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, parts of Texas, and other areas of the southwest United States.

Answer: Allied Countries

World War I started on July 28, 1914, and ended at 11am on November 11, 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). It was also known as the "Great War" and "The war to end all wars" (as if!). This term was taken from H G Wells' 1914 book "The War That Will End War".

The line up was France, Russia and Britain against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. It is estimated that 9 million were killed in combat, while over 5 million civilians died. Far from being the war to end all wars, its resolution in the form of the Treaty of Versailles is seen as a significant contributory factor to World War II.

Answer: Russia

In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and the battle lines were drawn with Germany, Japan, and Italy (the Axis) fighting against Britain, France, and China (the Allies). These were joined by Russia (then, the Soviet Union) and the United States in 1941, the latter getting involved in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.

It is estimated that some 60 million people died, made up of about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. Between 11 to 17 million civilians are thought to have died in the Holocaust as a result of Hitler's racist policies targeting Jews, Roma (gypsies), ethnic Poles, ethnic Serbs, homosexuals, people with dark skin, communists, the mentally ill, and ultimately anyone who did not conform to the blond hair/blue eyed ideal.

But even that was not the war to end all wars. It led to the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers and to the beginning of the Cold War.

Answer: Japan

After the end of WWII, Korea was divided into the Soviet-backed Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. Both governments of the two new Korean states claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent. In June 1950, war broke out when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People's Army invaded the south, this being the first military action in the context of the Cold War (1946-1991). North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations, principally the United States.

In July 1953, peace was declared, but not before 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives. The civilian death toll was proportionally higher than that of WWII, and virtually all major cities were destroyed. This conflict is sometimes referred to as "The Forgotten War". Today, there remains a demilitarized zone between North and South Korea as set up by the Korean Armistice Agreement. No peace treaty was ever signed, so technically the two Koreas are still at war.

Answer: Thailand

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a legacy of the French colonization of Indochina in the late 19th century. Resentment against the foreign rulers led to the creation of a left-wing revolutionary movement called the Viet Minh, that rose up against the French in the First Indochina war. Having lost this war, the French pulled out of Indochina in 1954, leaving part of Vietnam aligned with communist China and the Soviet Union and the other part aligned with the West, principally the US.

With the Cold War already in full swing and Western eyes on the lookout for 'communist threats', the US became increasingly involved in the area, especially after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, although it never officially declared war. The death toll is estimated at two million civilians on each side, 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters, and between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers. This war was hugely unpopular with many factions of the American public, who were horrified by the violence, expense, and seeming lack of purpose. Eventually, 20 years later the U.S. pulled out after having achieved virtually nothing.

Answer: Constitutional monarchy

The Kingdom of Afghanistan was a constitutional monarchy ruled by a king for over 47 years until the coup d'état that took place in 1973 and led to the abdication of KIng Zahir Shah. The new government, which had close ties with the Soviet Union, was unpopular with the traditional population, resulting in rebellion, civil war, and ruthless government crackdowns. The first Soviet troops invaded the country in 1979, and there ensued a nine-year guerilla war between insurgent groups known collectively as the Mujahideen on the one hand and the Afghan Republic and the Soviet Army on the other.

It finally resulted in victory for the Mujahideen, who were supported by funding and weapons from the West, and the withdrawl of Soviet troops. It had huge consequences on future global politics, contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden.

Answer: September 11th terrorist attacks in the US

Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the US demanded the extradition of Osama bin Laden, who had masterminded these attacks and many other mass-casualty atrocities worldwide. The Taliban, a conservative Islamic organization that had come to power in 1996, refused and the United States, supported by the United Nations, invaded as part of President George W Bush's Global War on Terrorism.

The subsequent conflict that lasted for almost 20 years was the longest in US history. Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in 2011, but the US failed to devise and implement a workable exit strategy. In the end, the world witnessed a chaotic and catastrophic exit in 2021 that left a power vacuum that was rapidly filled by the increasingly powerful and brutal Taliban régime with their extreme interpretation of Muslim law. Again, on the face of it, a long drawn out war that killed a lot of people, cost a lot of money, and achieved very little.

Answer: Supposed weapons of mass destruction programme

The Iraq War lasted from 2003 to 2011 and was based on the rationale that the country had a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programme in place. The US-led coalition forces started the war by launching a 'shock and awe' bombing campaign and quickly overwhelmed the Iraqi military and overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein, who was captured during Operation Red Dawn and tried and executed in 2005/2006.

The removal of Saddam Hussein led to a power vacuum that resulted in widespread civil war and extensive insurgency against coalition forces. Because no stockpiles of WMDs or evidence of an active WMD program were ever found in Iraq, along with the fact that the region is still plagued by instability and that the cost of the war was close to $2 trillion, many people draw comparisons between this war and that of Vietnam.