History - Facts

Question 1

How many people died or were wounded in WW1?

Answer 1

18 million dead. 23 million wounded.

Question 2

How many people died in WW2?

Answer 2

50 million in the fighting. 80 million if you include disease and famine caused by it.

Question 3

Where and when was the first democracy established?

Answer 3

The earliest democracy in the world began in Athens, in 510 BC; in Athens they let all the free adult men who were citizens vote, rich or poor.

Question 4

How large was the British Empire at it height?

Answer 4

23.84% of the total land in the world in 1920. This is the largest empire ever in the world.

Question 5

How large was the Roman Empire at its height?

Answer 5

3.36% of the total land in the world in 117.

Question 6

How large was the Mongol empire at its height?

Answer 6

20% of the total land in the world in 1270 and 1309.

Question 7

How many people were killed by Spanish flu in 1917?

Answer 7

50-100m, 3-6% of the world’s population died.

Question 8

What was the world’s population in 1750?

Answer 8

700 million.

Question 9

When did world population reach 1 billion?

Answer 9

In 1900.

Question 10

When did the world’s population reach 7 billion?

Answer 10

In 2011

Question 11

Who was President Tito of Yugoslavia?

Answer 11

A benevolent dictator, he was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol his father was Croat and his mother Slovene.
When he died in the 1980s the country fell into civil war and Croatia and Slovenia became separate countries.

Question 12

Who was Sadam Hussein?

Answer 12

President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was originally an army general. His rule was a dictatorship. His regime was corrupt and cruel.

Question 13

Who was Gandhi?

Answer 13

Mohandas Gandhi (October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian activist who was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Question 14

Who was Martin Luther King?

Answer 14

Martin Luther King Jr. January 10, 1957 – April 4, 1968 aged 39, was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 through 1968. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and inspired by the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi.

Question 15

Who is Adolf Hitler?

Answer 15

20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party , Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer (“Leader”) of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As a dictator, Hitler initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939, and was central to the Holocaust.

Question 16

Where was democracy first created?

Answer 16

Athens, Athenian democracy developed around the fifth century BC in the Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, and is the first known democracy in the world. Other Greek cities set up democracies, most following the Athenian model, but none are as well documented as Athens.

It was a system of direct democracy, in which participating citizens voted directly on legislation and executive bills. Participation was not open to all residents: to vote one had to be an adult, male citizen i.e. neither a foreign resident, slave or a woman and the number of these varied between 30,000 and 50,000 out of a total population of around 250,000 to 300,000 or no more than 30 percent of the total adult population.

Question 17

Who was Chairman Mao?

Answer 17

Mao was a Chinese communist leader and founder of the People’s Republic of China. He was responsible for the disastrous policies of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the ‘Cultural Revolution’.

Question 18

Who was Isambard Kingdom Brunel?

Answer 18

Brunel was one of the most versatile and audacious engineers of the 19th century, responsible for the design of tunnels, bridges, railway lines and ships in Britain in the industrial revolution.

Question 19

Who was the main opponent of the slave trade in Britain who succeeded in getting parliament to abolish it.

Answer 19

William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was a deeply religious English member of parliament and social reformer who was very influential in the abolition of the slave trade and eventually slavery itself in the British empire in 1833.

Question 20

What was the triangular trade?

Answer 20

Sale of slaves in the Americas in exchange for raw materials, cotton, sugar, cocoa etc these materials could be made into goods in Europe and some used to buy more slaves in Africa. In the way boats sailed from Africa to Americas to Europe in a never ending triangle of trade.

Question 21

When did the French Revolution happen?

Answer 21

1789.

Question 22

When did the Russian Revolution happen?

Answer 22

1917.

Question 23

What percentage of people worldwide consider themselves to be part of a religion?

Answer 23

84%. One third of those are Christian.

Question 24

What is a good example of dictatorship what has brought wealth and success?

Answer 24

Singapore.

Question 25

Who was Charles Darwin?

Answer 25

A nineteenth century scientist who wrote The Origin of Species. This book was the first to propose the idea of evolution and to suggest that people evolved from monkeys.

Question 26

What is a disadvantage of democracy?

Answer 26

Decision making can be slow because everyone needs to agree.

Question 27

What is pacifism?

Answer 27

The idea that war and violence are unjustifiable, and that conflicts should be settled in a peaceful way.

Question 28

What is colonialism?

Answer 28

Colonialism is the policy of a nation seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of developing or exploiting them to the benefit of the colonizing country.

Question 29

What is patriotism?

Answer 29

Patriotism is the ideology of attachment to a homeland. This attachment can be a combination of many different features relating to one’s own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.

Question 30

What is imperialism?

Answer 30

Imperialism is an action that involves a nation extending its power by the acquisition of inhabited territory. It may also include the exploitation of these territories, an action that is linked to colonialism.

Question 31

What is nationalism?

Answer 31

Nationalism is a political, social, and economic system characterized by promoting the interests of a particular nation particularly with the aim of gaining and maintaining self-governance, or full sovereignty, over the group’s homeland.

Question 32

What is communism?

Answer 32

In political and social sciences, communism (from Latin communis, “common, universal”) is the philosophical, social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money and the state.

Question 33

What is fascism?

Answer 33

Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and control of industry and commerce, which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I before it spread to other European countries. Opposed to liberalism, Marxism and anarchism, fascism is usually placed on the far-right within the traditional left–right spectrum.

Question 34

What is dictatorship?

Answer 34

Dictatorship is a system of government in which a country or a group of countries is ruled by a single party or individual (a dictator) or by a polity and power is exercised through various mechanisms to ensure that the entity’s power remains strong. A dictatorship is a type of authoritarianism in which politicians regulate nearly every aspect of the public and private behaviour of citizens. Dictatorship and totalitarian societies generally employ political propaganda to decrease the influence of proponents of alternative governing systems.

Question 35

What is aural history?

Answer 35

This is history using the spoken word as a source. The sources are sounds recordings (TV, interviews)

Question 36

What is social history?

Answer 36

The study of the lives of ordinary people. How did they live, what were conditions like, health, beliefs, occupations, education etc.

Question 37

What is political history?

Answer 37

Study of political leaders, diplomacy, wars and government.

Question 38

What is a revolution?

Answer 38

A revolution (Latin: revolutio, “a turn around”) is a fundamental change in political power and political organisation, which occurs relatively quickly when the population revolt against their oppression (political, social, economic) by the existing government.

Revolutions have occurred through human history and vary widely in terms of methods, duration, and motivating ideology.

Their results include major changes in culture, economy, and socio-political institutions, usually in response to overwhelming autocracy or plutocracy.