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Exploring European History and Geography

A quiz designed to test knowledge on European history, geography, and cultures, focusing on significant events, migrations, and cultural contributions.

#European History #Geography #Cultural Heritage #Migration #Religious Conflict

1 After the staggering ________ in 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback.

2 [47] In Europe itself, the Church organised the ________ against heretics.

3 There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, ________, Saxons, Slavs, Avars, Bulgars and, later still, the Vikings and Magyars.

4 ^ d: Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey are ________ of the United Kingdom.

5 In addition, polar bears may be found on ________, a Norwegian archipelago far north of Scandinavia.

6 4 Name disputed by Greece; see ________.

7 Other religions including Judaism and ________ are minority religions.

8 Europe, in particular ________, is the birthplace of Western culture.

9 The boundary continues to the Caspian Sea, the crest of the Caucasus Mountains or, alternatively, the Kura River in the Caucasus, and on to the Black Sea; the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles, and the ________ conclude the Asian boundary.

10 [25] Neanderthal man (named for the Neander Valley in ________) first migrated to Europe 150,000 years ago and disappeared from the fossil record about 30,000 years ago.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the influence of Ancient Greece on wine has played a formidable role in the history of nearly every major European wine region and of wine itself.
  • the cabriole leg (pictured) is a furniture style occurring in ancient China and Greece that re-emerged in Europe around 1700.
  • the Christianization of Lithuania (pictured) was completed in 1413 when Samogitia, the last pagan nation in Europe, was converted.
  • the Alpirod, a defunct 1,000-kilometre (620 mi) European sled dog race, was the longest competition of its kind outside of North America.
  • the Albanian Songs of the Frontier Warriors are still sung by Albanian bards, who are assumed to be the very last traditional native singers of epic verses in Europe.
  • the 1951 Polish-Soviet territorial exchange was one of the biggest border corrections in Europe after 1945.
  • the Abbey of Fontenay, near Dijon in France, was founded by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1118 and is one of the oldest and most complete Cistercian abbeys in Europe.
  • the Comedian Harmonists was one of the most successful 20th century musical groups in Europe before World War II.
  • the Saffron Parasol is actually a small orange mushroom found throughout temperate regions of Europe and North America.
  • the flora of Scotland includes the world's tallest hedge, a yew which may be Europe's oldest tree, and Dughall Mor ("big dark stranger") – Britain's tallest tree.
  • the Fonthill vase (pictured) is the earliest documented example of Chinese porcelain to have reached Europe, in the middle of the 14th century.
  • the falkuša sailboat raced in one of the oldest fishermen's regattas in Europe, held from 1593 to 1936 on the island of Vis, Croatia.
  • the Ever Victorious Army, consisting of Chinese imperial forces led by a European officer corps, was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion.
  • the Eberswalde Hoard (pictured), a collection of 81 gold objects weighing 2.59 kilograms (5.7 lb), is an important find from the European Bronze Age.
  • the Evelyn tables, acquired by John Evelyn in Padua in 1646, are thought to be the oldest anatomical preparations in Europe.
  • the Środa treasure, one of the most valuable archeological finds in 20th-century Europe, was originally lost during the Black Plague.
  • the Swiss municipality Rüegsau is connected to its neighbor Hasle bei Burgdorf by what is probably the longest wooden arch bridge in Europe, at a length of 58.5 meters.
  • the Armenian oil magnate Alexander Mantashev (pictured) handpicked 50 talented young Armenians and sent them to study at the best universities of continental Europe and Russia.
  • the Canary Islands are one of the few places left where there are still substantial numbers of angelsharks (pictured), once common all around Europe.
  • the 1635 Treaty of Sztumska Wieś between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden was of much interest to contemporary European diplomacy.
  • the 1402 Korean Kangnido map fully depicts the Old World, from Europe and Africa to Japan, long before European explorations.
  • since as early as the 10th century, Nabulsi soap, a traditional olive oil-based soap, has been exported across the Arab world and even to Europe.
  • the 2006 novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery was a "publishing phenomenon" in Europe.
  • the European fascist alliance New European Order split in 1955 due to a dispute over the issue of whether South Tyrol should be Italian or Austrian.
  • the European great raft spider eats small fish and tadpoles.
  • the naval victory of Travancore State over Dutch East India Company in the Battle of Colachel in 1741 is considered the first example of an Asian power defeating a European navy.
  • the President of Latvia said the result of the 2003 Latvian European Union membership referendum wiped out the divisions of Europe created by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.
  • the German KarstadtQuelle AG is the largest department store corporation in Europe with over 100,000 employees.
  • the General Ban Chao led a Chinese military expedition to the doorstep of Europe during the 1st century CE.
  • the dum dum bullet invented by Neville Bertie-Clay was used by the British Army against African and Asian opponents but was considered "too cruel" for use against Europeans.
  • the French navigation authority Voies navigables de France manages 3,800-kilometre (2,400 mi) of canals and 2,900-kilometre (1,800 mi) rivers on the largest network of waterways in Europe.
  • the Georgian Uprising of Texel is sometimes described as the last European battlefield of World War II.
  • the Giro di Castelbuono is one of Europe's oldest road running competitions, having been first held in Castelbuono, Sicily, in 1912.
  • the bright red mushroom Hygrocybe miniata is found in rainforest and eucalypt forest in Australia and meadows in Europe and North America.
  • the first print portrait produced in Europe of a living, identifiable person (pictured) was of artist Israhel van Meckenem and his wife Ida.
  • the library of the Flyfishers' Club has been described as one of the finest angling collections in Europe.
  • the annual Global Peace and Unity conference held at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London is the largest Muslim event in Europe.
  • the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, a book of Aztec herbal remedies in Latin, was returned to Mexico by Pope John Paul II after more than four centuries of changing hands in Europe.
  • the Ythan Estuary in Scotland contains the most extensive dunes formation in Europe and is also the site of a Stone Age settlement.
  • the Almanach de Gotha is a directory of European nobility first published in 1763.
  • the man intensely reading in the oil portrait The Bookworm (pictured) represents the inward looking attitudes that affected Europe during the time of its creation.
  • the only remaining instance of active use of the death penalty in Europe is in capital punishment in Belarus.
  • the sports hall of Europe's largest prison complex in Istanbul was converted into a courtroom because the existing one was not big enough to accommodate the hearings of the Ergenekon trial.
  • the use of speech scrolls (example pictured) developed independently in European and Mesoamerican art.
  • the samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga led the first Japanese Embassy to the Americas and Europe in 1615.
  • the removal of President Rolandas Paksas from office by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania was the first successful case of impeachment of a head of state in the history of Europe.
  • the portrait by Pontormo of Maria Salviati with the young Giulia de' Medici (pictured) is one of the first portraits in Europe of a child with presumed African and European ancestry.
  • the remnants of defensive walls and stone shelters built by shipwreck survivor Wiebbe Hayes and his men on West Wallabi Island in 1629, are Australia's oldest known European structures.
  • the Webster ruling is a legal precedent clarified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2008, which extends to professional footballers in Europe the same contractual freedom of movement as workers in other industries.
  • the Vercors Cave System contains the largest cave entrance in Europe.
  • the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track (pictured) in Lake Placid, New York was the first track to host the bobsleigh and luge world championships outside of Europe, doing so in 1949 and 1983, respectively.
  • the Mucking excavation, one of the largest archaeological digs of its time in Europe, uncovered artifacts spanning a period of some 3,000 years.
  • the Kryvbas economic region in Ukraine is one of the largest iron ore and steel industry centers in Europe.
  • the Kirchberg convent (pictured), built in 1237, is one of the oldest female church houses in central Europe.
  • the Hare Indian dog, now extinct, was not known to bark, but puppies learned to imitate the barking of other dogs when the breed was introduced to Europe.
  • the Kiev tram was the first electric tramway in the Russian Empire, and the second one in Europe, after the Berlin Straßenbahn.
  • the National Youth Orchestra of Wales has the distinction of being the first national youth orchestra in the world and is Europe's longest-standing national youth orchestra.
  • the Oscar B. Balch House (pictured) was the first building Frank Lloyd Wright designed after returning from an extended trip to Europe with a client's wife.
  • the Romanian riots of 1989 led to the only bloody overthrow of a Communist regime in Europe.
  • the Stourbridge fair, first held in 1211 in Cambridge, England, was once the largest fair in Europe.
  • the Roşia Poieni copper mine represents the largest copper reserve in Romania and the second largest in Europe.
  • the Rhodes blood libel — the accusation that the Jews of Rhodes ritually murdered a Christian boy in 1840 — enjoyed active support from the consuls of several European countries.
  • the Port of Piraeus is the largest passenger port in Europe and one of the largest in the world with total traffic of 21,522,917 people in 2007.
  • the railways of Jamaica were the first built outside of Europe and continental North America and the first in a British colony.
  • in the June 2005 Swiss referendum, Switzerland became the first country in Europe to hold a referendum on increased rights for same-sex couples.
  • in the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny against the British Raj, European families, mostly women and children, were given refuge in the Jag Mandir (pictured), India, by Maharana Swaroop Singh.
  • Bernardo the Japanese, a disciple of Saint Francis Xavier, is the first Japanese person known to have set foot in Europe.
  • Brancaleon, a 15th century Venetian painter who gained fortune, fame and notoriety in his adopted home of Ethiopia, is an example of early contacts between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Calcot Manor in Gloucestershire sold its principal roof to an American new town that wished to emulate the appearance of a medieval European village.
  • Beckomberga hospital (pictured) in Stockholm was designed according to a strict symmetrical pattern and used to be one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in Europe.
  • Baltic Finns are considered to be among the early indigenous inhabitants of Europe according to the Settlement Continuity Theory.
  • Voltaire's 1730 poem about Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orleans, was banned in most of Europe.
  • Arsenal Park Transilvania, one of Europe's few military-themed amusement parks, has villas named after Douglas MacArthur, Julius Caesar, and Eremia Grigorescu.
  • Catherina Margaretha Linck is the last European known to have been executed for lesbianism.
  • Clara the rhinoceros, the fifth living rhinoceros to be seen in Europe in modern times, became famous during a seventeen year tour of Europe from 1741 to 1758.
  • Ewale a Mbedi may have been the first Duala leader to trade with Europeans in Cameroon.
  • Ey Sham was the first entry in the Eurovision Song Contest from a country outside of geographical Europe.
  • Edgar Stillman Kelley and his wife traveled around Europe lecturing on American classical music.
  • Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed was the largest science fiction bookshop and comic store in Europe during the 1970s.
  • Cockaigne was a legendary peasant utopia of medieval Europe.
  • Dürer's Rhinoceros (pictured), a woodcut of the first rhinoceros seen in Europe in a millennium, was created by Albrecht Dürer in 1515 without him ever seeing the animal itself.
  • Rabbi Leon Klenicki called the We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah significant in establishing that "the deniers of the Holocaust in Europe now have to deal with the Vatican".
  • prehistoric ridgeway trails, though often steep, were usually the firmest and safest cart tracks before the advent of paved roads in western Europe.
  • Dorothea Mackellar wrote her patriotic Australian poem "My Country", which contains the line I love a sunburnt country, while she was homesick when travelling in Europe.
  • Europe's most powerful supercomputer, MareNostrum, will be used in human genome research, protein research, weather forecasting and the design of new drugs.
  • Canadian-born Jim Koleff spent three decades in Europe as an ice hockey player, coach and manager after telling coach Dave Chambers that he would play in Italy for one year.
  • Brazil has recently opened a commercial fishery targeting the Colares stingray, for export to Europe.
  • "experienced Euro watcher" Tony Connelly wrote Don't Mention the Wars: A Journey Through European Stereotypes, examining the stereotypical views of Europeans.
  • blues singer Jesse Fortune, better known as the "Fortune Tellin' Man," passed on performing in Europe because he did not want to disappoint customers at his Chicago barbershop.
  • French geography professor Henri Enjalbert theorized that Albania, the Ionian islands and southern Dalmatia were the only European regions with grapevines following the last Ice Age.
  • French Army soldiers killed between 15,000 and 45,000 Algerian civilians in the Setif massacre of May 8, 1945, the same day as V-E day in Europe.
  • Paris-based Naye Prese was the sole Yiddish-language communist daily newspaper in Europe during the interbellum period.
  • Polish bishop Józef Andrzej Załuski, founded Załuski Library, one of the largest 18th century European libraries.
  • Lithuanian artist Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas designed interiors for over sixty churches in the United States, Europe and Australia.
  • Kolkota, India is called the City of Palaces because of its abundance of European-style buildings.
  • Germany is the European leader in Christmas tree production.
  • Japanese Imari porcelain was made specifically for export to Europe.
  • Gazette d'Amsterdam was one of the most important European newspapers of the Enlightenment period.
  • goanna oil was sold amongst early European settlers of Australia as a panacea much like snake oil was in the Old West.
  • Lytocaryum weddellianum, an endangered species of palm trees endemic to Brazil, may be saved from extinction as it has become a common potted plant in Europe.
  • King Henry VIII was a talented musician and composer, and his song Pastime with Good Company became a popular tune throughout Renaissance Europe and remains a choral favorite.
  • about one million animals are used every year in Europe in toxicology testing.
  • Zara Yaqob was the first Emperor of Ethiopia (1434–1468) to send a diplomatic mission to Europe.
  • Withington Community Hospital was, at its height, the largest teaching hospital in Europe.
  • Ulf Sterner of Sweden was the first European player in the National Hockey League.
  • VolgaGES in Russia is the largest hydroelectric station in Europe as it produces 2541 MW.
  • after Joel Sweeney (pictured) popularized the banjo in the United States he did the same in Europe as a member of the Virginia Minstrels.
  • after fighting in six wars throughout Europe and Russia, General Hotze (pictured) was killed within 32 km (20 miles) of his birthplace on 25 September 1799 at the Second Battle of Zurich.
  • in Europe, the human consumption of pork, wild boar, and horse meat are the main sources of infection from the parasite Trichinella britovi.
  • in medieval Europe, a town clockkeeper would often be well-paid to monitor and regulate the town clock.
  • in 2007, internet users in Slovenia had the highest Firefox use rate among European countries.
  • in 1814, Mary Shelley (pictured) eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley, later publishing her first work History of a Six Weeks' Tour, about their walking tour of Europe.
  • all of early 14th-century Europe was consecrated under the protection of Our Lady of Europe (statue pictured) in Gibraltar where devotion has continued for over 700 years.
  • between 1922 and 1926, Soviet Russia was the only country in Europe where homosexual relations between consenting adults were legal.
  • Tristán de Luna y Arellano built the first European settlement within the continental boundaries of the United States at modern-day Pensacola.
  • sanitation deficiencies are thought to be responsible for about 14,000 deaths per day at present, and were a major cause of 25 million deaths from the plague in Europe in 1348.
  • Maria Yakunchikova (pictured) was a Russian painter who lived in Paris and was active primarily in western Europe.
  • Marlon Stockinger is the first Filipino to have won a formula race in Europe.
  • Main Market Square (pictured) in Kraków is one of the biggest medieval market squares in Europe.
  • Kazakhstan Temir Zholy is building a transshipment railway to connect China with Europe using standard gauge.
  • John Bower was the first non-European to ever win in any events at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 1968.
  • Josef Pleskot designed the administrative building of the ČSOB Bank, the first European building awarded the gold certificate of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
  • Matsuura Takanobu was an early host and patron to the Jesuits, whom he hoped would influence an increase in trade between European traders and Japan.
  • mellah is a walled Jewish quarter of a city in Morocco, an analogue of the European ghetto.
  • Avondale Park, a Park Ship sunk on 7 May 1945, was one of two Allied ships destroyed by enemy action in the last hour of the Second World War in Europe.
  • Safi Faye is a Senegalese film director whose work is better known in Europe than in her native Africa.
  • Orlov trotters (pictured) were the fastest racing horses of Europe until they were superseded by American standardbreds in the 1870s.
  • Niepołomice Forest in Poland incorporates the most protected nature reserve inhabited by European bison called wisent (pictured), the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe.
  • Metop-A is the first polar orbiting meteorological satellite launched by Europe, and is the second largest Earth observation satellite built in Europe, after ENVISAT.
  • Nathaniel Butler introduced the first potato found by Europeans in North America to Jamestown, Virginia.
  • "Pink Fairhead" is a common name for Calocybe carnea, a small pink mushroom of grassy areas in Europe and North America.
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