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100 free Global History trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
16 free Global History trivia questions with answers. Global History trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is World History trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Which writing system, pressed into clay tablets, did the Sumerians develop in Mesopotamia?
Cuneiform
Cuneiform, meaning 'wedge-shaped,' was developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia around 3400-3000 BCE. It is considered one of the earliest forms of writing and was inscribed on clay tablets using a stylus.
Q 02The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas split newly found lands outside Europe between Castile and which other seafaring kingdom?
Portugal
Portugal and Castile drew their line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands; the far side of the globe was only divided in 1529, by the Treaty of Zaragoza.
Q 03Mansa Musa, famous for the gold he spent on his pilgrimage to Mecca, ruled which West African state?
Mali
His reign marked the Mali Empire's territorial peak, at a time when West Africa supplied an estimated two-thirds of the gold circulating in the medieval Mediterranean.
Q 04Which Greek philosopher founded the Peripatetic school, also known as the Lyceum?
Aristotle
Aristotle, a student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great, established the Lyceum in Athens, where he taught and developed his philosophical system, influencing Western thought for centuries.
Q 05In what year was the Roman Republic traditionally established, following the overthrow of the monarchy?
509 BCE
According to tradition, the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BCE after the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was expelled, leading to the establishment of a new form of government.
Q 06Born Temüjin, which ruler united the nomadic tribes of the Mongolian plateau and founded the Mongol Empire in 1206?
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan, born Temüjin, was proclaimed ruler of all the Mongols at a kurultai (assembly) on the Onon River in 1206, the founding moment of the Mongol Empire.
Q 07Which explorer led the first circumnavigation expedition but did not complete the journey?
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan initiated the first expedition to sail around the world in 1519. Although he was killed in the Philippines, one of his ships, the Victoria, completed the circumnavigation under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522.
Q 08Which city served as the capital of the Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years?
Constantinople
Constantinople, founded by Emperor Constantine I on the site of ancient Byzantium, became the capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire in 330 AD and remained so until its fall in 1453.
Q 09Which Italian-born explorer, sailing for the Spanish crown, made four Atlantic crossings that opened the Americas to European colonisation?
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was Genoese by birth but sailed under the Spanish flag, making four crossings between 1492 and 1504 in the name of the Catholic Monarchs.
Q 10Which Mongol ruler completed the conquest of China and established the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century?
Kublai Khan
Kublai proclaimed the Great Yuan in 1271, and by 1279 his forces had crushed the last Song resistance, making him the first non-Han ruler of all of China.
Q 11Which Turco-Mongol conqueror founded the Timurid Empire in 1370 and campaigned across Central Asia, Persia and India?
Tamerlane
Tamerlane, also known as Timur, was a warlord of the Turco-Mongol Barlas tribe who ruled his empire from 1370 until his death in 1405.
Q 12Which ancient figure is traditionally credited with unifying Upper and Lower Egypt?
Narmer
Narmer is widely considered to be the first pharaoh who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, laying the foundation for one of the longest-lasting civilizations in history. Some scholars identify him with the legendary Menes.
Q 13Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, in which fifth-century year?
476 CE
Q 21Magna Carta was sealed by King John at which meadow near Windsor in June 1215?
Runnymede
Runnymede, a meadow beside the Thames near Windsor, is where King John sealed Magna Carta on 15 June 1215; Pope Innocent III annulled the charter within months, sparking the First Barons' War.
Q 22Which Archbishop of Canterbury first drafted Magna Carta to make peace between King John and his barons?
Stephen Langton
Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207, mediated between John and the rebel barons and is credited with drafting the charter, whose terms were to be enforced by a council of 25 barons.
Q 23The Inca called their empire Tawantinsuyu, a Quechua name meaning what?
Realm of the Four Parts
After the deposition in 476 CE the Senate sent the imperial insignia east to Emperor Zeno, and the Eastern Empire carried on for centuries.
Q 14Which country is widely recognized as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution?
Great Britain
Great Britain, with its coal, canals and textile mills, saw the Industrial Revolution begin around 1760; it spread to continental Europe and the United States by about 1840.
Q 15Which 1942-43 battle on the Volga ended with the surrender of Germany's Sixth Army?
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad, fought between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, was one of the largest and deadliest battles in history and is widely regarded as a critical turning point on the Eastern Front of World War II.
Q 16What post-WWII US initiative funded Western Europe's reconstruction?
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, officially known as the European Recovery Program, was a U.S.-sponsored initiative launched in 1948 to help rebuild war-torn Western European economies and counter the spread of communism.
Q 17The Black Death of 1346-1353 was caused by which bacterium?
Yersinia pestis
Yersinia pestis, the plague bacterium carried by fleas on rats, caused the Black Death; between 1346 and 1353 it killed an estimated 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population.
Q 18Roughly how long was the overland Silk Road network at its fullest extent?
Over 6,400 km
The overland Silk Road stretched over 6,400 km (about 4,000 miles) from Chang'an in China to the Mediterranean; the name was coined by geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877.
Q 19Johannes Gutenberg, who invented mass-produced movable type around 1440, trained in which craft?
Goldsmith
Gutenberg trained as a goldsmith in Mainz and Strasbourg; that metalworking skill produced his hand mould, which cast uniform metal type quickly and in large quantities.
Q 20Roughly how many impressions could a European printing press produce in a 15-hour workday around 1600?
Up to 3,600
A press crew around 1600 could pull up to 3,600 impressions in a 15-hour day, roughly 240 an hour, whereas a scribe copying by hand managed only a few pages a day.
Tawantinsuyu means 'Realm of the Four Parts': the empire's four suyus (Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Collasuyu and Cuntisuyu) met at Cusco, its capital.
Q 24Which Portuguese explorer became the first European to reach the Inca Empire, in 1524?
Aleixo Garcia
Aleixo Garcia, a shipwrecked Portuguese sailor, marched west from the Brazilian coast with Guaraní allies and raided the Inca frontier, eight years before Pizarro's conquest began in 1532.
Q 25The Meiji Restoration of 1868 restored practical power to which institution in Japan?
The Emperor
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 returned ruling authority to the Emperor, the young Meiji, ending the Tokugawa shogunate and launching Japan's rapid industrialisation.
Q 26On what date did East Germany begin building the Berlin Wall?
13 August 1961
Construction began overnight on 13 August 1961, when East German troops sealed the border with barbed wire; the GDR officially called the Wall the 'Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart'.
Q 27The Rosetta Stone records a decree issued in 196 BC on behalf of which ruler?
Ptolemy V Epiphanes
The Memphis decree of 196 BC, carved in hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek, was issued by priests to honour the young king Ptolemy V Epiphanes, who had inherited the throne as a child in 204 BC.
Q 28The Rosetta Stone was found in July 1799 by an officer of which army?
The French
French officer Pierre-François Bouchard found the stone in July 1799 while Napoleon's army was rebuilding a fort at Rashid (Rosetta); Britain seized it under the 1801 Capitulation of Alexandria.
Q 29Which scholar announced the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs in Paris in 1822?
Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion presented his 'Lettre à M. Dacier' to the Académie des Inscriptions in September 1822, showing hieroglyphs recorded sounds as well as ideas; rival Thomas Young had earlier identified only some phonetic signs.
Q 30The best-known sections of the Great Wall of China were built by which dynasty?
Ming
Ming builders used bricks and stone instead of the rammed earth of earlier walls.