100 Drill Questions for Modern Times Flashcards
Who was the powerful merchant family who ruled Florence for 300 years?
Medici
What is the name of the prince from this family who educated the people?
Lorenzo the Magnificent
What is an association of persons of the same trade called?
guild
When did Constantinople fall to the Turks?
1453 AD
Who invented the printing press around the same time Constantinople fell?
Gutenberg
Which Portuguese explorer was the first to sail eastward to India?
Vasco da Gama
Who was the navigator that discovered the southern tip of Africa?
Bartholomew Diaz
What is the name of the southern tip of Africa?
the Cape of Good Hope
What did Columbus name the first island he discovered off the coast of America?
San Salvador
Name the king and queen of Spain who sponsored Columbus’ voyages.
Ferdinand and Isabella
Who was the “knight without fear and without reproach”?
Chevalier Bayard
What were the French Protestants called in Europe?
Huguenots
What is the channel of water that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans called?
Strait of Magellan
Name the Spanish fleet that invaded England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Spanish Armada
What is the Spanish name for “the gilded man” in the legend of hidden gold?
El Dorado
What is the name of Henry VIII’s first wife?
Catherine of Aragon
Henry VIII divorced his first wife to marry whom?
Anne Boleyn
Which cardinal sought to help Henry VIII acquire his divorce?
Cardinal Wolsey
Which Turkish sultan conquered Constantinople?
Suleiman the Magnificent
What is the name of the document that Martin Luther nailed to the church door?
Ninety-Five Theses
What is the name of the movement that was inspired by Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses?
the Reformation
Who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe?
Sir Francis Drake
When was the globe first circumnavigated by the English?
1580 AD
Which queen of England led Britain’s rise in naval power and began colonizing America?
Elizabeth I
Which Englishman started several colonies in America, only to be beheaded?
Sir Walter Raleigh
When was the Jamestown colony settled?
1607 AD
Where was the “Lost Colony” located?
Roanoke Island
Who was Virginia named after?
Queen Elizabeth I (the Virgin Queen)
Which grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella became king of Spain and Emperor of Germany?
Charles V
What is the name of the pirate who controlled the Mediterranean for the Turks?
Barbarossa
Who is the Spanish explorer who conquered Mexico for Spain?
Hernando Cortes
What is the name of the king of Mexico that Cortes defeated?
Montezuma
What is a strip of land connecting two larger masses of land called?
isthmus
Name the French decree giving Protestants and Catholics equal rights.
Edict of Nantes
Name the theory that says that the sun is at the center of the solar system?
Copernican System
What is the Catholic assault upon the French Huguenots in Paris called?
Massacre of Bartholomew
What is the member of a church founded on principles of the Reformation called?
Protestant
What is the great religious authority of France called?
the Sorbonne
Name the religious war fought in Europe between Catholics and Protestants.
Thirty Years War
When did the Thirty Years War take place?
1618 - 1648 AD
What is the chief minister appointed by a ruler called?
prime minister
Who was the mathematician, physicist, and astronomer conviceted of heresy?
Galileo
Give the name for one who rules during the minority, absence, or disability of a monarch?
regent
When was the Edict of Nantes signed?
1598 AD
Who was Louis XIII’s prime minister, responsible for making Louis’ monarchy absolute?
Richelieu
Who was the Protestant king who signed the Edict of Nantes?
Henry IV of Navarre
Who gave himself the title of Lord Protector of England?
Oliver Cromwell
When did the Lord Protector dissolve Parliament?
1653 AD
Who was the great Bohemian Catholic military leader in the Thirty Years War?
Wallenstein
Who was the great Swedish king and Protestant military leader in the Thirty Years War?
Gustavus Adolphus
Name the king of England who was removed from the throne and beheaded over a disagreement with Parliament over control.
Charles I
When was Galileo convicted of heresy against the church?
1633 AD
Name the theory which says that all objects with mass are drawn towards each other by a powerful force?
Law of Gravitation
Name Isaac Newton’s work that details his laws of motion.
Principia
When was Newton’s work on the laws of motion published?
1687 AD
Name the document signed by William and Mary that resembles the Magna Carta.
Declaration of Rights
Who was the Russian czar who modernized Russia, founded St. Petersburg, and built a Russian navy?
Peter the Great
When was St. Petersburg founded?
1703 AD
Who was the Polish king who stopped the Turk invasion of the German Empire?
Sobieski
When was the Declarations of Rights signed?
1689 AD
Name the strait that connects the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara.
Dardanelles
When was the Seven Years War?
1756 - 1763 AD
Who was the Prussian king who made Prussia a great European power?
Frederick the Great
Name the war between major European powers that began with an attack on Saxony.
Seven Years War
What is the war of independence called that freed America from British rule?
Revolutionary War
Who was the Polish hero who helped America in her fight for independence?
Kosciusko
What is the rebellion of the American colonists against British taxes called?
Boston Tea Party
Who was the English prime minister who spoke for the rights of American colonists?
William Pitt
Name the king of England who denied the American colonists their rights under the Declaration of Rights.
George III
Who was the commander of the American army in the Revolutionary War?
George Washington
Who was the commander of the British troops who surrendered, ending the Revolutionary War?
Lord Cornwallis
What was the last battle of the Revolutionary War?
battle of Yorktown
Who was the first First Lady of the U.S.?
Martha Custis Washington
When was the US Constitution signed?
1789 AD
What is Robespierre’s tyrannical reign of France called?
the Reign of Terror
When was the French Revolution?
1789 - 1799 AD
Who was the French revolutionary who made himself emperor and attempted to conquer the world?
Napoleon Bonaparte
Name the French king who was executed in the French Revolution.
Louis XVI
What great English naval commander died in the battle of Trafalgar?
Lord Horatio Nelson
When did the battle of Trafalgar take place?
1805 AD
Name the island where Napoleon was exiled before escaping.
Elba
What was Napoleon’s last battle?
Waterloo
When did Napoleon’s last battle take place?
1815 AD
How is “Honest Abe”?
Abraham Lincoln
Who is the “hero of the red shirt”?
Garibaldi
What is the name of the document that allowed Missouri to be a slave state?
Missouri Compromise
What are the states called that seceded from the Union?
the Confederacy
Name the document that freed the slaves in the states that refused to rejoin the Union.
Emancipation Proclamation
Who was the sixteenth First Lady of the U.S.?
Mary Todd Lincoln
When did the American Civil War take place?
1861 - 1865 AD
Who was the US president responsible for the abolition of slavery?
Abraham Lincoln
Who was the Polish patriot who saw his country conquered and divided between Russia and Prussia?
Kosciusko
Who was the Italian military and political leader who was central to the unification of Italy?
Garibaldi
What was the territory called over which the pope had civil as well as religious control?
Papal States
Name the Prussian military hero who was central to the unification of Germany?
Count von Bismarck
Who was the Prussian king who became the first emperor of unified Germany?
William I
Name the Prussian hero who became the first prime minister of unified Germany?
Count von Bismarck
When were Germany and Italy unified?
1871 AD
Name the war between France and Prussia that resulted in the unification of Germany.
Franco-Prussian War
Who was the British politician, prime minister, and great parliamentary orator?
William Gladstone
