Ancient Civilizations
This Persian king led the massive invasion of Greece in 480 BC, ultimately defeated at the Battle of Salamis.
Who is Xerxes I?
This 1803 Supreme Court case, decided by Chief Justice John Marshall, established the principle of judicial review.
What is Marbury v. Madison?
This 1648 series of treaties ended the Thirty Years' War and established the modern concept of national sovereignty.
What is the Peace of Westphalia?
This Ottoman sultan conquered Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire, earning the title 'the Conqueror.'
Who is Mehmed II (Mehmed the Conqueror)?
The Swahili Coast, a major trading hub connecting Africa to the Indian Ocean world, runs along the eastern coast of this modern continent.
What is Africa?
The Peloponnesian War was a decades-long conflict between Athens and this rival city-state alliance, ending in 404 BC.
Who is Sparta?
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri as a slave state while admitting this state as a free state to maintain balance.
What is Maine?
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 dramatically modernized this country after centuries of feudal isolation.
What is Japan?
She served as prime minister of India from 1966 to 1984, the first and only woman to hold that office.
Who is Indira Gandhi?
The Hanseatic League was a powerful medieval trading network centered in this region of northern Europe.
What is Northern Germany or the Baltic Sea region?
This ancient Mesopotamian law code, one of the earliest in history, was commissioned by a Babylonian king around 1754 BC.
What is The Code of Hammurabi?
This Reconstruction-era amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The 15th Amendment
This 1916 battle on the Western Front was one of WWI's bloodiest, lasting over four months with over a million combined casualties.
What is the Battle of the Somme?
This Haitian revolutionary leader defeated Napoleon's forces and led the world's first successful slave rebellion to independence in 1804.
Who is Jean-Jacques Dessalines or Toussaint Louverture?
Stretching over 24,000 miles through mountains, deserts, and jungles, this pre-Columbian road network was so well-engineered that Spanish conquistadors used it to help conquer the very civilization that built it.
What is The Inca Road?
The term 'Punic Wars' refers to three conflicts between Rome and this North African city-state between 264 and 146 BC.
Who is Carthage?
President Truman's 1947 doctrine, committing the US to containing communism globally, was initially a response to crises in these two countries.
Greece and Turkey
The Non-Aligned Movement, founded in 1961, was a coalition of nations that refused to align with either this Cold War superpower bloc.
What is NATO or the Warsaw Pact?
This Enlightenment philosopher wrote 'The Social Contract' in 1762, arguing that legitimate government rests on the general will of the people.
Who is Jean-Jacques Rousseau?
The only continent in the world with land in all four hemispheres, this landmass is also the only one to be crossed by both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.
What is Africa?
This Egyptian pharaoh, known as 'the heretic king,' temporarily replaced Egypt's polytheistic religion with worship of a single sun deity.
Who is Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)?
This 1944 program, officially the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, provided veterans with education, housing, and loan benefits after WWII.
What is The GI Bill?
Convened by Otto von Bismarck, this 1885 gathering of 14 European nations formalized the 'Scramble for Africa' and established rules for colonial claims — without a single African representative present.
What is The Berlin Conference?
Known as 'The Lady of the Lamp,' this British nurse revolutionized field medicine and sanitation during the Crimean War.
Who is Florence Nightingale?
The Columbian Exchange introduced this staple crop from the Americas to Europe and Asia, where it became a critical food source and later caused devastating famine in Ireland.
What is the potato?