1. What was a Sbirr (plural: Sbiri) ?
ANSWER: The dreaded police of the Papal State, (and some other Italian states, too, I believe) before the unification of Italy.
2. During WWII two events with international consequences occured in Vienna (the first and second Vienna ....). What were these ?
ANSWER: Diplomatic conferences that changed some borders on the Balkans. The most important was probably the transfer of a large part of Transsylvania from Roumania to Hungary. The Axis powers had few diplomatic successes during WWII. One that they did have was the feat of making those two countries fight on the same side, which their basic instinct was against.
3. When Nikita Chrustchev was disposed of in 1964, the new Soviet leadership was often referred to as a Troika (after the Russian way to arrange three horses to pull a sleigh). After a few years Breshnev had over-shadowed Kosygin. But who was the third member of this troika ?
ANSWER: Podgorny - a shadowy figure, who both succeded and predecessed Breshnev as head of state (Chairman of the Supreme Soviet).
4. Where in the world do you find this lovely situation:
Country # 1 is in two geographically separated parts, one big and one small. Country # 1 is also bordering on two separate nations (countries # 2 and # 3) that both have the same word in the official name of their states. One point for the names of countries # 1, 2 and 3.
ANSWER: Angola and Congo (Brazzaville and Kinshasa, ex-Zaire)
0.5 bonus point for the name of the smaller part of country # 1.
ANSWER: Cabinda
5. In what country was the "Military Border" an important national institution ?
ANSWER: Austria-Hungary - an interesting institution. Immigration was encouraged, and feudal oppression was limited in exchange for military service. This part of the reason for the complicated ethnical pattern of former Yugoslavia.
6. In what city did the First International have it's last HQ in the 1870s ?
ANSWER: New York
COMMENTS:
This round was a little too hard - usually all the questions gets a correct answer from this good group as a whole, but this time # 1 and # 6 didn't do so.
PM had the best score with 3.5 points, followed by MARK KIRBY with 1.5 p. CONGRATULATIONS !
ANSWER: The dreaded police of the Papal State, (and some other Italian states, too, I believe) before the unification of Italy.
2. During WWII two events with international consequences occured in Vienna (the first and second Vienna ....). What were these ?
ANSWER: Diplomatic conferences that changed some borders on the Balkans. The most important was probably the transfer of a large part of Transsylvania from Roumania to Hungary. The Axis powers had few diplomatic successes during WWII. One that they did have was the feat of making those two countries fight on the same side, which their basic instinct was against.
3. When Nikita Chrustchev was disposed of in 1964, the new Soviet leadership was often referred to as a Troika (after the Russian way to arrange three horses to pull a sleigh). After a few years Breshnev had over-shadowed Kosygin. But who was the third member of this troika ?
ANSWER: Podgorny - a shadowy figure, who both succeded and predecessed Breshnev as head of state (Chairman of the Supreme Soviet).
4. Where in the world do you find this lovely situation:
Country # 1 is in two geographically separated parts, one big and one small. Country # 1 is also bordering on two separate nations (countries # 2 and # 3) that both have the same word in the official name of their states. One point for the names of countries # 1, 2 and 3.
ANSWER: Angola and Congo (Brazzaville and Kinshasa, ex-Zaire)
0.5 bonus point for the name of the smaller part of country # 1.
ANSWER: Cabinda
5. In what country was the "Military Border" an important national institution ?
ANSWER: Austria-Hungary - an interesting institution. Immigration was encouraged, and feudal oppression was limited in exchange for military service. This part of the reason for the complicated ethnical pattern of former Yugoslavia.
6. In what city did the First International have it's last HQ in the 1870s ?
ANSWER: New York
COMMENTS:
This round was a little too hard - usually all the questions gets a correct answer from this good group as a whole, but this time # 1 and # 6 didn't do so.
PM had the best score with 3.5 points, followed by MARK KIRBY with 1.5 p. CONGRATULATIONS !
. If Australia is considered a continent (otherwise it would be the second largest island) the 15 largest islands in the world, in order, are:
