49 Fun Facts About Asian History

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

Acapulco received the galleons for 250 years, until 1815. Their Asian cargo was then hauled overland through Mexico City to Veracruz on the Gulf coast and loaded onto the treasure fleet for Spain.

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

Sirimavo Bandaranaike led her assassinated husband's party to victory in July 1960, a year after his murder. When she took the office for the last time, in 1994, the president who appointed her was her own daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Which emirate's ruler, Sheikh Zayed, became the first president of the United Arab Emirates when it was founded in 1971?

Abu Dhabi. Six sheikhdoms launched the union on 2 December 1971 and Ras Al Khaimah held out for two more months, while Bahrain and Qatar, invited into a federation of nine, chose to go it alone.

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

East Timor, officially Timor-Leste, was a Portuguese colony until 1975 and was then held by Indonesia until 1999. Its people voted to leave in a UN-run referendum that year, and peacekeepers held the ground until the handover.

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

Lumbini's pillar records that Ashoka came in person to honour the spot where the Buddha was born. The place was later forgotten for centuries, until the pillar and its inscription were rediscovered in 1896.

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

Goa fell to Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510 and became the capital of Portugal's eastern empire. When India invaded in 1961 its governor defied Lisbon's order to fight to the last man, surrendered the next day and was expelled from the army.

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

Oda Nobunaga controlled about half of Japan when his own general turned on him as he set out on campaign. Toyotomi Hideyoshi destroyed the traitor within two weeks and carried on the work of unifying the country.

Bangladesh's nine-month war of independence against Pakistan ended on 16 December 1971 with a surrender in which city?

Dhaka. Bangladesh had been Pakistan's eastern wing, cut off from the west by the whole width of India, whose army joined the war in its last two weeks and took the eastern garrison's surrender.

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

Armenia's King Tiridates III had thrown Gregory the Illuminator into a pit and left him there for over a decade. In the traditional account the prisoner then healed the ailing king and converted him, his court and his kingdom.

Which 1905 battle saw Japan wreck a Russian fleet that had sailed halfway round the world from the Baltic Sea?

Tsushima cost Russia almost every heavy ship it had sent, and within months both sides were at a peace table in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Theodore Roosevelt brokered the treaty that ended the war.

Which Korean admiral, left with only 13 ships, held the Myeongnyang strait against more than 130 Japanese warships in 1597?

Yi Sun-sin had been stripped of command by court rivals and reduced to the ranks; he was recalled only after his successor, Won Gyun, lost almost the whole fleet. His 13 ships then sank about 30 of the enemy in the strait's currents.

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

Ferdinand Marcos had himself sworn in at the palace on 25 February, the day Corazon Aquino took the oath elsewhere in Manila. By evening he was heading into exile, and crowds were pouring into the palace to see how he had lived.

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

Karachi was the capital until 1959, when a commission found it unsuitable and picked a site beside Rawalpindi. Rawalpindi stood in as capital while the new city, Islamabad, was built next door.

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

Dejima was built in the 1630s to pen in Portuguese traders; when they were expelled, the Dutch were moved onto it instead. For two centuries Western science reached Japan through this one small island, as 'Dutch learning'.

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 had helped found the Meiji government and quit it in 1873. He died as his revolt collapsed in September 1877, the old warrior class beaten by an army of conscripted commoners, and the samurai never took the field again.

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

Qianlong stepped down after 60 years so as not to outlast his grandfather Kangxi, who had reigned for 61. The gesture cost him little: as retired emperor he went on holding real power until his death in 1799.

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

Zhang Heng's device dropped a bronze ball to show the direction of a distant quake. It once fired when nobody at court had felt a thing, and the doubters were silenced days later, when a courier reported an earthquake far to the west.

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

The Chola fleet struck Kedah on the Malay Peninsula and Srivijaya's heartland on Sumatra, and took its king prisoner. Rajendra then added 'conqueror of Kadaram', the Tamil name for Kedah, to his titles.

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 because he had murdered his father, the king, by walling him up alive, and expected his exiled half-brother to come back for revenge. Its lion-paw gateway and painted 'cloud maidens' survive on the rock.

Which temple did the Khmer king Jayavarman VII raise at the centre of Angkor Thom, its towers carved with giant smiling faces?

Bayon. Jayavarman VII broke with the Hindu god-kings before him to rule as a fervent Buddhist, and beside his temples he gave the empire more than 200 hospitals and rest houses.

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

Malacca commanded the narrow strait through which all sea trade between India and China had to pass, which is why Albuquerque wanted it. Portugal held the port for 130 years, until the Dutch took it in 1641.

Which kingdom, built into an empire by Anawrahta from 1044, left over 2,000 surviving temples and pagodas on the Irrawaddy plain?

Bagan's kings and wealthy subjects built more than 10,000 temples to earn religious merit. On one account the tax-free land donated to religion starved the treasury, and the kingdom fell apart after Mongol invasions in the 1280s.

The kingdom of Lan Xang, founded by Fa Ngum in the 14th century, was the forerunner of which modern country?

Laos. Fa Ngum grew up in exile at Angkor, married a Khmer princess and came home at the head of a Khmer army to carve out his kingdom from Muang Sua, today's Luang Prabang.

Legend says a golden turtle reclaimed the magic sword of Lê Lợi, who freed Vietnam from Ming rule, in which city's lake?

Hanoi. The lake has been Hoàn Kiếm, 'Lake of the Returned Sword', ever since; the real Lê Lợi was as gracious in victory, giving the defeated Ming troops ships and supplies to sail home.

Which Filipino novelist, author of Noli Me Tángere, was executed by Spain in 1896 and is honoured as 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 built their oil company, was supplying half the oil sold on world markets around 1900?

Baku drilled its first oil well in 1846, thirteen years before the first American strike, and between 1898 and 1901 it pumped more oil than all of America.

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

Sikhism teaches Ik Onkar, faith in one creator, 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 is remembered as the golden age of Chinese verse, and for centuries children learned to read from an anthology of 300 of its poems. A well-known tale has Li Bai drown, drunk, reaching from his boat for the moon's reflection.

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

Joseon's Confucian scholar-officials shaped Korean manners so deeply that its court dress and etiquette still define 'traditional' Korea. Under its fourth king, Sejong, scholars also devised the Korean alphabet.

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

Mohammad Reza Shah left because his new prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, had taken the job only on condition that he go. He said he was taking a short holiday abroad; he died in exile in Egypt the following year.

Which country recognised Philippine independence in 1946, ending 48 years of colonial rule?

The United States chose its own Independence Day, 4 July, for the handover. Filipinos now mark their independence on 12 June instead, the date of their 1898 declaration against Spain.

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

The Parsis, whose name means 'Persians', were shipbuilders and traders in Gujarat who moved to Bombay and prospered with its trade. Legend has their first arrivals promise a local king to blend in like sugar in milk.

Which Timurid sultan built a great observatory at Samarkand in the 1420s and compiled the first full star catalogue since Ptolemy?

Ulugh Beg was a better astronomer than ruler: his star tables set the standard for two centuries, but he lost his grip within three years of inheriting the throne and was put to death at the urging of his own son.

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.

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

The Nabataeans began as desert nomads and became masters of water: channels and cisterns caught enough rain to keep a caravan city alive, and their hold on the spice and incense trade made it rich.

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 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 tablets survived because his city burned: when Nineveh was sacked in 612 BCE the fire baked the clay hard. Deciphered in 1872, one of them held the Gilgamesh flood story and made its translator famous overnight.

Which Baghdad library, patronised by Caliph al-Ma'mun, is remembered as the hub for putting Greek science into Arabic?

The House of Wisdom is remembered as the home of Baghdad's translators, many of them Syriac-speaking Christians who sometimes worked from Greek by way of Syriac. It perished when the Mongols took the city 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 writing began, around 3200 BCE, and its first tablets are bookkeeping, not literature: tallies of barley, some marked 'Kushim', which may be the oldest personal name on record.

Which Arabian state'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, tradition says, married princesses from 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.

Before Kabul took over, which city did Ahmad Shah Durrani make the first capital of the Afghan empire he founded in 1747?

Kandahar is where the tribal chiefs chose Ahmad Shah, a cavalry commander of Persia's murdered Nader Shah, as their king. He took the title 'pearl of pearls', which named his dynasty, and his son moved the court to Kabul.

Which Central Asian state, home to the Baikonur space launch site, was the last Soviet republic to declare independence, in December 1991?

Kazakhstan held out because its leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, feared that leaving would be economic suicide and kept urging the others to save the union. Its declaration came just ten days before the Soviet Union was dissolved.

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

Ryukyu's kings kept sending tribute to China for more than two and a half centuries after Satsuma's invasion of 1609, serving two masters at once. Japan ended the balancing act in 1879 by abolishing the kingdom outright.

Which Buddhist text, printed in Korea in 1377, is the oldest surviving 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 ended with the emperor confined for the rest of his life and six leading reformers executed. Among the few measures to survive was the Imperial University of Peking, today's Peking University.