Which Country (1936)? Trivia Quiz

Answer: France

The French seemed a natural ally of the left-wing (Republican) government. The French government at the time consisted of a coalition of mostly socialist and other left-wing groups. The Communists had decided not to be involved in the government, but had joined a single platform with the socialists before the elections, under the name the "Popular Front" - the same name used by the combined left-wing parties in Spain.

In France, however, the memory of World War I still overshadowed foreign politics, and the government's main concern was to avoid anything like it happening again. It therefore chose strict neutrality in the Spanish conflict, and made other countries promise the same. Although all major European powers made such promises, they were broken on a large scale by Italy and Germany, which supported the (right-wing) Nationalists. In reaction, the (left-wing) Republicans got support from the Soviet Union. Portugal supported the Nationalists, though not on such a grand scale as the Italians and Germans did.

Answer: Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo (full name Santo Domingo de Guzmán) was destroyed by a hurricane in 1930, giving the megalomanic dictator Rafael Trujillo, who had come into power only a few weeks earlier, the chance to rebuild the city in accordance with his own ideas. When it was finished, he had it renamed Ciudad Trujillo. After Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, the city got its old name back.

Answer: Germany, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The Summer Olympics were held in Berlin, also in Germany, and this was no coincidence. Three of the first four Winter Olympics were held in the same country as the Summer Olympics of the same year: Paris and Chamonix in 1924, Los Angeles and Lake Placid in 1932 and Berlin and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936.

The same was also planned for 1940, when the Games were cancelled because of World War II: Tokyo had been chosen for the Summer, Sapporo for the Winter Games. The exception was 1928 when the Summer Olympics were held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, a land without mountains or annual snow and ice, and St. Moritz was chosen for the Winter Olympics.

Answer: Germany

Probably more of you would have this question right if I had given the LZ129's other name: it is also known as the Hindenburg, named after the former German general and politician Paul von Hindenburg. It was almost 245 meters long and over 40 meters wide. On its first voyage, the LZ129 travelled from Friedrichshafen to Rio de Janeiro, later in 1936 it set a record time of 62 hours on its first voyage to North America.

In 1937 however, it caught fire in a tragedy in Lakehurst, New Jersey, which ended the era of the airship.

Answer: Turkey

The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 delineated the boundaries of Turkey, but it also stipulated that the Dardanelles and Bosporus, which form the connection between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, would be demilitarized, and open to shipping of all nations.

In the tense international situation of the 1930s, Turkey wanted to review these terms. International reaction was positive, comparing Turkey's action with that of Germany, which earlier in a similar situation had simply sent its troops into the demilitarized Rhineland breaking the Treaty of Locarno. Negotiations were opened, resulting in the Montreux Convention, which specified that Turkey was to control the Straits, that they were open for all civilian shipping, but that non-Turkish military ships were significantly restricted.

Answer: Ethiopia

Italy had attacked Ethiopia in 1935, and in 1936, Addis Abeba was captured. Just before the city was captured, emperor Haile Selassie fled the country, and by way of Djibouti and Jerusalem went to the United Kingdom. He spoke to the League of Nations in Geneva, condemning the Italian action in a spirited speech, which however was not successful in getting the League members to take action against the Italian aggression.

He lived in Bath, United Kingdom until the British reconquered Ethiopia in 1941 in the course of their World War II campaigns.

Answer: United Kingdom

King Edward VIII had become king in January 1936, on the death of his father, George V. However, he soon got into problems with his wish to marry Wallis Simpson. The main problem was that she was a divorcee of two earlier husbands - the Anglican Church, of which Edward as King was the head, did not allow people to remarry after a divorce as long as their previous husband was still alive. Other problems included the fact that Wallis was American, that she was not of noble birth, and that Edward's relationship with her seems to have had masochistic elements. There were also rumors that she might spy for the Germans.

Edward declared that he loved Wallis, and would marry her anyhow. He tried to get to a solution where he could marry her, but she would not become official Queen consort and their children would not be eligible to inherit the throne. The government, distrustful of Wallis Simpson, and also not very happy with Edward's modernization of kingship as well as his socialistic actions in political affairs, refused to accept that option, leaving Edward no choice but to abdicate from the throne. His brother Albert succeeded him, taking the royal name of George VI.

Answer: Mongolia from Japan

Tensions between the Soviet Union and Japan had been running high because of the trouble in Manchuria. Manchuria was a Chinese possession, with a large Japanese presence, but had in the previous years become a nominally independent country, but actually a Japanese vassal state.

There were problems with the railways in Manchuria, which were important to both Japan and the Soviet Union, and the borders between Manchuria and the Soviet Union were at several places ill defined, leading to a number of border incidents. Japan in 1936 was once again putting pressure on China to get an even larger part of the country under its control.

Inner Mongolia (the Chinese area bordering Mongolia) had already declared its independence under Japanese influence.

Answer: France

The mandate status had come into being World War I. Until then, Syria had been a part of the Turkish empire, but it had been conquered by a mixture of French, British and Arab troops. For a short while, it had been an independent kingdom, but then it was conquered by the French in 1920, and then given to them as a mandate by the League of Nations. The Syrians, however, continued to fight the French occupatoin.

The planned full independence in 1939 did not happen, the French reneging on their promise and not ratifying the treaty. Independence for Syria finally came in 1941, when it had been 'liberated' by the French and British after falling into the hands of the Vichy German vassal government in France. Still, it had to wait until 1944 until Syria's independence (declared for the second time) was widely recognized, and until 1946 till the French troops actually left the country.

Answer: Japan

The Axis Treaty between Germany and Italy also dates from 1936, and the Anti-Comintern pact was joined by Italy in 1937. Other Axis powers as well as Spain later joined the Anti-Comintern Pact as well.