50 Fun Facts About Asian History

Which Mexican port received the Manila galleons that carried Chinese silk across the Pacific from 1565?

Acapulco received the galleons for 250 years, from 1565 to 1815, and 26 of the 108 ships that sailed the route were captured or sunk in wartime. The trade ended when the Mexican War of Independence broke out.

Who became the world's first female prime minister by winning Ceylon's July 1960 election?

Sirimavo Bandaranaike took office in July 1960, a year after her husband, Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, was assassinated. She went on to serve three separate terms, the last ending in 2000.

Which Gulf state was founded on 2 December 1971, with Ras Al Khaimah joining it in February 1972?

The UAE began with Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah, and Ras Al Khaimah made it seven on 10 February 1972. Britain had held treaties with the coast's sheikhdoms since 1820.

Which Southeast Asian nation became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century, on 20 May 2002?

East Timor, officially Timor-Leste, voted for independence in a 1999 UN-run referendum after 24 years of Indonesian occupation, then spent three years under UN administration before sovereignty.

Which site in Nepal, marked by a pillar Ashoka set up in the 3rd century BCE, is revered as the Buddha's birthplace?

The Ashokan pillar at Lumbini carries a Brahmi inscription recording the emperor's visit and naming the spot as where the Buddha was born. Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar mark his enlightenment, first sermon and death.

Which territory stayed Portuguese from 1510 until Indian troops annexed it in December 1961?

Goa was captured by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510 and served as the capital of Portugal's eastern empire for four and a half centuries. Operation Vijay took it in two days in December 1961.

Which of Japan's great unifiers died in 1582 when retainer Akechi Mitsuhide ambushed him at Honnō-ji temple?

Oda Nobunaga controlled most of Honshu by 1582 and had pioneered massed musket volleys at Nagashino seven years earlier. His death opened the way for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who avenged him within days.

Which nation became sovereign on 16 December 1971 after a nine-month war against Pakistan that India joined?

Bangladesh had been East Pakistan, separated from the west by the whole width of India, and its Mukti Bahini guerrillas fought alongside Indian forces. Pakistan's eastern army surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December.

Which country is held to have become the first to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301?

Armenia's King Tiridates III was converted by Gregory the Illuminator, making the Armenian Apostolic Church the oldest national church. The Roman Empire did not make Christianity official until 380.

Which 1905 battle saw Japan annihilate a Russian fleet that had sailed 18,000 nautical miles from the Baltic Sea?

Tsushima was the only decisive clash ever fought between fleets of modern steel battleships, and the first where radio played a vital role. Admiral Tōgō's victory forced Russia to the peace table within months.

Which Korean admiral, left with only 13 ships, held the Myeongnyang strait against 133 Japanese warships in 1597?

Yi Sun-sin used the strait's racing tides to engage the Japanese piecemeal, and thirty-one of their ships were destroyed. His 13 vessels were all that survived a disastrous defeat under Admiral Won Gyun weeks earlier.

Which Philippine president fled to Hawaii in February 1986 after four days of mass protests on Manila's EDSA avenue?

Ferdinand Marcos was flown out by the US Air Force via Guam and landed in Hawaii on 26 February, while Corazon Aquino was sworn in as president in his place. The demonstrations ran from 22 to 25 February 1986.

Which Arabian Sea port was Pakistan's first capital from 1947 until the government moved north to Rawalpindi?

Karachi was the capital from 1947 to 1959, then Rawalpindi served as a stopgap while the planned city of Islamabad was built in the 1960s. It remains Pakistan's largest city, with over 20 million people.

Which fan-shaped artificial island off Nagasaki held the Dutch traders who were Japan's only Western contact from 1641?

Dejima housed the Dutch post from 1641 to 1858, and after Napoleon annexed the Netherlands it was for a time the only place on earth where the Dutch flag still flew. Western science reached Japan through it as 'Dutch studies'.

Which Ming loyalist, born to a Japanese mother, drove the Dutch from Taiwan in 1662 after besieging Fort Zeelandia?

Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) set up a dynastic state on Taiwan that outlived him until 1683, and he died of illness only months after the Dutch surrendered. He had been planning to attack Spanish Manila next.

Which samurai leader, romanticised as 'the last samurai', led the 1877 revolt against Japan's Meiji government?

Saigō Takamori was mortally wounded as the uprising collapsed in September 1877, ending the samurai's last armed stand; a conscript army of commoners had beaten the old warrior class. The 2003 film The Last Samurai loosely draws on him.

Which Qing emperor, reigning from 1735, received George III's Macartney embassy in 1793 and abdicated three years later?

Qianlong officially stepped down in 1796 yet kept ultimate power until his death in 1799, one of the longest effective reigns in history. His letter to George III said China possessed all things and had no use for British goods.

Which Han-dynasty polymath presented the first known seismoscope to the imperial court in 132 CE?

Zhang Heng's bronze seismoscope is regarded by many historians as his most impressive invention, able to indicate the direction of a distant quake. He was also an astronomer, mapmaker and poet.

Which south Indian dynasty, under Rajendra I, sent a fleet across the Bay of Bengal to raid Srivijaya in 1025?

The Chola raid sacked Kadaram (Kedah) on the Malay Peninsula and Pannai on Sumatra, a rare overseas expedition by an Indian power. Chola bronzes of the dancing Shiva are among India's most celebrated art.

Which Sri Lankan rock fortress did King Kashyapa build in the 5th century atop a granite column some 180 metres high?

Sigiriya became Kashyapa's capital after he seized the throne in 477 and feared revenge from the half-brother he had displaced. Its lion-paw gateway and painted 'cloud maidens' still survive on the rock.

Which Khmer king, crowned in 1181 after expelling Cham invaders, built Angkor Thom and the face-towered Bayon?

Jayavarman VII was a devout Buddhist, and the Bayon's serene stone faces reflect that turn away from Hindu kingship. He also built hospitals and rest-houses along the empire's roads.

Which Java-based empire did Gajah Mada serve, swearing his Palapa oath to forgo spices until the archipelago was united?

Majapahit was founded in 1293 by Raden Wijaya, shortly after he turned on the Mongol expedition that had helped him to power. Indonesia's Palapa communications satellites are named after Gajah Mada's oath.

Which Malay sultanate, a great spice entrepôt, fell to a Portuguese fleet under Afonso de Albuquerque in August 1511?

Malacca's capture on 15 August 1511 gave Portugal control of the strait linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea, and the conquerors built the A Famosa fortress from stones of mosques and graves. The Dutch seized it in 1641.

Which kingdom, founded by Anawrahta in 1044, left over 2,000 surviving temples and pagodas on the Irrawaddy plain?

Bagan's rulers and wealthy subjects built over 10,000 religious monuments in 250 years, and the remains of more than 2,200 survive on a 104-square-kilometre plain. The kingdom collapsed after Mongol invasions in the 1280s.

Which kingdom, founded by Fa Ngum in 1353 with its royal seat at Luang Prabang, was the forerunner of modern Laos?

Lan Xang means 'a million elephants', the name Fa Ngum gave a realm that later shifted its capital to Vientiane in 1560. The kingdom is the basis of Laos's national identity.

Which Vietnamese leader launched a revolt at Lam Sơn in 1418 and took the throne in 1428 after driving out the Ming?

Lê Lợi is the hero of Hanoi's returned-sword legend: a golden turtle rose from a lake to reclaim his magic blade, and the lake became Hoàn Kiếm, 'Lake of the Returned Sword'. His ten-year campaign restored Dai Viet's independence.

Which Filipino novelist, author of Noli Me Tángere, was executed by Spain in 1896 and became the national hero?

José Rizal was shot for rebellion even though he favoured peaceful change over revolt; his novels exposed colonial abuses and galvanised reformers and armed revolutionaries alike. His death day, 30 December, is a national holiday.

Which city, where the Nobel brothers set up in 1873, was supplying half the oil sold on world markets by 1900?

Baku drilled its first oil well in 1846, and the Nobel brothers' company there grew so large that about 12% of the fortune Alfred Nobel left for his prizes came from its shares. Pipeline transport was pioneered near the city in 1878.

Which religion, founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab around 1500, centres on the Golden Temple at Amritsar?

Sikhism teaches Ik Onkar, that one God dwells in every creation, and Nanak was the first of ten Gurus; the line ended when the scripture itself, the Guru Granth Sahib, was declared the eternal Guru.

Which dynasty, ruling China from 618 to 907, produced the poets Li Bai and Du Fu?

The Tang era is traditionally considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry, and its verse was gathered in a 300-poem anthology that schoolchildren still memorise. Its capital Chang'an was then among the world's largest cities.

Which Korean dynasty, founded by Taejo in 1392, ruled for five centuries until the Korean Empire replaced it in 1897?

Joseon's 500-year run made it one of the longest-lived dynasties anywhere, and its Confucian scholar-officials shaped Korean culture so deeply that its court dress, cuisine and etiquette still define 'traditional' Korea.

Which monarch flew out of Iran on 16 January 1979, two weeks before Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile?

Mohammad Reza Shah was the second and last ruling monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty, and he left at the urging of his own prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, who hoped to calm the protests. He died in exile in Egypt the next year.

In which year did the United States recognise Philippine independence, signing the Treaty of Manila on 4 July?

1946 saw President Truman sign Proclamation 2695 and the Treaty of Manila on the same day, ending 48 years of American rule that began when Spain ceded the islands in 1898. Filipinos later moved their national day to 12 June.

Which Indian community, descended from Zoroastrians who fled persecution, produced the Tata business dynasty?

The Parsis take their name from 'Persians', and legend says they landed in Gujarat promising a local king they would sweeten his realm like sugar in milk. Their fire temples still burn in Mumbai.

Which Timurid sultan built a great observatory at Samarkand in the 1420s and catalogued 1,018 stars?

Ulugh Beg's catalogue listed eleven fewer stars than Ptolemy's, but his giant sextant fixed their positions with unmatched precision. He ruled only two years as sultan before being killed on his own son's orders in 1449.

Which empire did Genghis Khan invade in 1219 after its governor of Otrar executed a Mongol trade caravan?

The Khwarazmian shah compounded the Otrar outrage by killing a Mongol envoy sent to demand the governor's punishment, and within three years his empire was gone. The campaign was Genghis Khan's first thrust into the Islamic world.

Which Arab people carved Petra from Jordan's sandstone cliffs and grew rich controlling the incense routes?

The Nabataeans made Petra their capital in the 2nd century BCE and thrived in the desert through ingenious rainwater collection; Hadrian, visiting in 130, stamped his own name on the city.

Which seafaring people of the Levant devised a 22-letter alphabet from which the Greek and Latin scripts descend?

The Phoenicians wrote only consonants, leaving vowels implicit; the Greeks added vowel letters, and from Greek came Latin and Cyrillic, while the Aramaic branch led to Arabic and Hebrew.

Which spice made the Banda island of Run so prized that the Dutch let England keep Manhattan to secure it in 1667?

Nutmeg and its husk spice mace made tiny Run, only 3 km long, a prize worth more to the Dutch than New Amsterdam, which England kept and renamed New York. The Treaty of Breda let each side keep what it held.

Which Assyrian king's library at Nineveh, some 30,000 clay tablets, preserved the Epic of Gilgamesh?

Ashurbanipal's collection was written mostly in Akkadian cuneiform, and the British Museum counts more than 30,000 tablets and fragments from it. A flood story on one tablet startled Victorian readers when it was deciphered in 1872.

Which Baghdad institution, funded by Caliph al-Ma'mun, translated Greek science into Arabic in the 800s?

The House of Wisdom's scholars, many of them Syriac Christians, rendered Galen, Euclid, Archimedes and Ptolemy into Arabic over a century and a half, and al-Ma'mun visited them in person. The Mongols destroyed it in 1258.

Which Sumerian city, legendary seat of Gilgamesh, held perhaps 50,000 people around 3100 BCE, then the world's largest?

Uruk is where the earliest examples of writing appear, in its Eanna district, and the oldest known text naming a person, an accountant called Kushim, was found there. Gilgamesh ruled it in the 27th century BC, per the Sumerian King List.

Which sultanate's ruler Said bin Sultan moved his capital to Zanzibar at the peak of its East African empire?

Oman's influence once stretched from the Strait of Hormuz to the Swahili coast, and Said's heirs split the realm, leaving Zanzibar a separate sultanate until its 1964 revolution. The Al Bu Said dynasty has ruled since 1744.

Which 7th-century ruler unified Tibet, built Lhasa's Jokhang temple and married princesses from both Nepal and China?

Songtsen Gampo is the first of Tibet's 'Three Dharma Kings', and his Nepali wife Bhrikuti and Chinese wife Wencheng are credited with bringing Buddhism to his court. He moved the capital to Lhasa.

Which city did Ahmad Shah Durrani make the capital of the empire he founded in 1747, the seed of modern Afghanistan?

Kandahar was where Ahmad Shah, a former commander for Persia's Nader Shah, was chosen king by tribal chiefs after his master's assassination; Afghans honour him as father of the nation. Kabul became capital under his son.

Which Central Asian state was the last Soviet republic to proclaim independence, on 16 December 1991?

Kazakhstan waited until after the failed August 1991 coup in Moscow, and its declaration came just ten days before the Soviet Union itself was dissolved. It then inherited the world's fourth-largest nuclear arsenal, which it gave up.

Which island kingdom, paying tribute to China while a vassal of Satsuma, became Japan's Okinawa Prefecture in 1879?

Ryukyu's kings sent tribute to the Ming and Qing emperors while secretly answering to Satsuma after its 1609 invasion, a double act that let the Japanese domain profit from the China trade. Its Shuri Castle was rebuilt after 1945.

Which Buddhist text, printed in Korea in 1377, is the earliest known book made with movable metal type?

Jikji, a collection of Zen teachings compiled by the monk Baegun, was printed at Heungdeok temple in 1377, some 78 years before Gutenberg's Bible. Its surviving volume sits in France's national library.

Which grandson of Genghis Khan ended the Abbasid caliphate by sacking Baghdad in 1258 and founded Persia's Ilkhanate?

Hulagu was sent west by his brother, the Great Khan Möngke, and his advance through Syria was halted only by the Mamluks at Ain Jalut in 1260. The Ilkhanate he founded ruled Iran and Mesopotamia for most of the next century.

Which 1898 modernising drive under the Guangxu Emperor did Empress Dowager Cixi's September coup bring to an abrupt end?

The Hundred Days' Reform put the emperor under house arrest for the rest of his life and sent six leading reformers to execution, yet its one lasting creation was the Imperial University of Peking, today's Peking University.