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50 free Asian History trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Asia's past runs from the first cities and alphabets of the Near East to the empires of the steppe, the courts of Korea and Japan, and the independence movements that redrew the map after 1945. These 50 questions move across the whole continent rather than parking in one country. Expect dynasties and their founders, temple-building kings, admirals and astronomers, trade routes and spice ports, and the treaties, revolts and declarations that made today's nations. Each answer comes with a short explanation and a cited source. Good for a pub round, a classroom warm-up or a solo test of what you remember: broad questions up front, deeper cuts as you go.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Mexican port received the Manila galleons that carried Chinese silk across the Pacific from 1565?
Acapulco
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.
Q 02Who became the world's first female prime minister by winning Ceylon's July 1960 election?
Sirimavo Bandaranaike
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.
Q 03Which Gulf state was founded on 2 December 1971, with Ras Al Khaimah joining it in February 1972?
The UAE
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.
Q 04Which Southeast Asian nation became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century, on 20 May 2002?
East Timor
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.
Q 05Which site in Nepal, marked by a pillar Ashoka set up in the 3rd century BCE, is revered as the Buddha's birthplace?
Lumbini
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.
Q 06Which territory stayed Portuguese from 1510 until Indian troops annexed it in December 1961?
Goa
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.
Q 07Which of Japan's great unifiers died in 1582 when retainer Akechi Mitsuhide ambushed him at Honnō-ji temple?
Oda Nobunaga
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.
Q 08Which nation became sovereign on 16 December 1971 after a nine-month war against Pakistan that India joined?
Bangladesh
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.
Q 09Which country is held to have become the first to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301?
Armenia
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.
Q 10Which 1905 battle saw Japan annihilate a Russian fleet that had sailed 18,000 nautical miles from the Baltic Sea?
Tsushima
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.
Q 11Which Korean admiral, left with only 13 ships, held the Myeongnyang strait against 133 Japanese warships in 1597?
Yi Sun-sin
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.
Q 12Which Philippine president fled to Hawaii in February 1986 after four days of mass protests on Manila's EDSA avenue?
Ferdinand Marcos
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.
Q 13Which Arabian Sea port was Pakistan's first capital from 1947 until the government moved north to Rawalpindi?
Q 21Which Khmer king, crowned in 1181 after expelling Cham invaders, built Angkor Thom and the face-towered Bayon?
Jayavarman VII
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.
Q 22Which Java-based empire did Gajah Mada serve, swearing his Palapa oath to forgo spices until the archipelago was united?
Majapahit
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.
Q 23Which Malay sultanate, a great spice entrepôt, fell to a Portuguese fleet under Afonso de Albuquerque in August 1511?
Karachi
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.
Q 14Which fan-shaped artificial island off Nagasaki held the Dutch traders who were Japan's only Western contact from 1641?
Dejima
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'.
Q 15Which Ming loyalist, born to a Japanese mother, drove the Dutch from Taiwan in 1662 after besieging Fort Zeelandia?
Koxinga
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.
Q 16Which samurai leader, romanticised as 'the last samurai', led the 1877 revolt against Japan's Meiji government?
Saigō Takamori
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.
Q 17Which Qing emperor, reigning from 1735, received George III's Macartney embassy in 1793 and abdicated three years later?
Qianlong
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.
Q 18Which Han-dynasty polymath presented the first known seismoscope to the imperial court in 132 CE?
Zhang Heng
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.
Q 19Which south Indian dynasty, under Rajendra I, sent a fleet across the Bay of Bengal to raid Srivijaya in 1025?
Chola
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.
Q 20Which Sri Lankan rock fortress did King Kashyapa build in the 5th century atop a granite column some 180 metres high?
Sigiriya
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.
Malacca
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.
Q 24Which kingdom, founded by Anawrahta in 1044, left over 2,000 surviving temples and pagodas on the Irrawaddy plain?
Bagan
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.
Q 25Which kingdom, founded by Fa Ngum in 1353 with its royal seat at Luang Prabang, was the forerunner of modern Laos?
Lan Xang
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.
Q 26Which Vietnamese leader launched a revolt at Lam Sơn in 1418 and took the throne in 1428 after driving out the Ming?
Lê Lợi
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.
Q 27Which Filipino novelist, author of Noli Me Tángere, was executed by Spain in 1896 and became the national hero?
José Rizal
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.
Q 28Which city, where the Nobel brothers set up in 1873, was supplying half the oil sold on world markets by 1900?
Baku
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.
Q 29Which religion, founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab around 1500, centres on the Golden Temple at Amritsar?
Sikhism
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.
Q 30Which dynasty, ruling China from 618 to 907, produced the poets Li Bai and Du Fu?
Tang
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.