Asian History Quiz

1. The Silk Road was a network of trade routes connecting China to Europe. What was its primary commodity?

1. Silk and porcelain only
2. Silk only
3. Silk, spices, precious metals, glassware, and ideas (including Buddhism, Islam, and plague)
4. Spices and gold only

2. Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. At its height, it was:

1. An empire centred only on Central Asia
2. The largest empire in Asia only
3. The world's largest contiguous empire, spanning from the Pacific to Eastern Europe
4. The world's largest empire by total area including oceans

3. Japan's Meiji Restoration (1868) was significant because:

1. Japan became a democracy for the first time
2. Japan modernised rapidly, adopting Western technology and institutions to avoid colonisation
3. Japan opened to trade after centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate only
4. Japan was defeated by China and forced to modernise

4. Which dynasty built the Great Wall of China?

1. The Han Dynasty only
2. The Ming Dynasty (who rebuilt much of it), though it began under the Qin Dynasty
3. The Song Dynasty
4. The Tang Dynasty

5. The Indian independence movement was led primarily by the Indian National Congress and which leader?

1. Both Gandhi and Nehru
2. Jawaharlal Nehru
3. Mahatma Gandhi
4. Subhas Chandra Bose

6. The Mughal Empire ruled most of the Indian subcontinent. Who founded it in 1526?

1. Akbar the Great
2. Aurangzeb
3. Babur
4. Shah Jahan

7. The Taj Mahal was built by which Mughal emperor, and why?

1. Akbar, to mark his reign's greatest achievement
2. Aurangzeb, as a mosque
3. Humayun, to mark India's unity
4. Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal who died in childbirth

8. China's 'Long March' of 1934-35 was:

1. A forced march of prisoners across China
2. A military retreat by Mao Zedong's Communist forces covering over 9,000 km to evade Nationalist forces
3. A series of trade caravans across the Silk Road
4. An annual festival march through Beijing

9. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 triggered which event?

1. Britain's declaration of war against Japan only
2. Japan's declaration of war against only the USA
3. The beginning of the Pacific War
4. US entry into World War II in both the Pacific and Europe

10. The partition of British India in 1947 created which two new nations?

1. India and Bangladesh
2. India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
3. India and Pakistan
4. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh

11. The Cultural Revolution in China (1966-76) was initiated by whom and what was its aim?

1. Deng Xiaoping, to open China to capitalism
2. Jiang Zemin, to promote Chinese nationalism
3. Mao Zedong, to eliminate 'bourgeois' elements and reassert Communist revolutionary ideals
4. Zhou Enlai, to modernise China's economy

12. The Korean War (1950-53) ended in a stalemate. Korea remains divided along approximately which parallel?

1. The 35th parallel
2. The 38th parallel
3. The 40th parallel
4. The Yalu River

13. The Vietnam War ended in 1975 with what outcome?

1. A peace agreement created two permanently separate Vietnams
2. North Vietnam and the Viet Cong captured Saigon, unifying Vietnam under communist rule
3. The USA withdrew but South Vietnam remained independent
4. USA and South Vietnam won

14. The Tiananmen Square protests in China in 1989 ended with:

1. A military crackdown by the Chinese government, killing an unknown number of protesters
2. Successful democratic reforms
3. The fall of the Communist government
4. The resignation of Deng Xiaoping

15. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975-79. What were they notorious for?

1. A genocide that killed an estimated 1.5-2 million Cambodians (about a quarter of the population)
2. Building Angkor Wat
3. Defeating the USA in the Vietnam War
4. Economic reforms that modernised Cambodia rapidly

16. The Japanese internment camps during WWII held which group of people within the USA?

1. All Asian-Americans
2. German-Americans
3. Italian-Americans
4. Japanese-Americans (including US citizens)

17. India's caste system, among the world's oldest social stratifications, has how many main varnas (castes)?

1. 3
2. 4
3. 5
4. 7

18. Which was Asia's first independent republic, established after a revolution against Spain in 1899?

1. India
2. Indonesia
3. The Philippines
4. Vietnam

19. The economic miracle of the 'Asian Tigers' in the late 20th century refers to which four economies?

1. China, Japan, India, South Korea
2. Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan
3. Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan
4. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia

20. The Opium Wars between Britain and China (1839-42 and 1856-60) resulted in China being forced to:

1. Adopt Christianity as a state religion
2. Join the British Empire voluntarily
3. Pay reparations and cede Hong Kong to Britain, among other concessions
4. Stop all trade with other nations