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60 free Hard History trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This is hard history trivia, and hard is the point. There is nothing here about who was the first US president or which year the Second World War ended. Instead you get the emperor captured at Manzikert, the Nawab's general bribed before Plassey, the two cities where the Peace of Westphalia was signed, and the Russian death that saved Frederick the Great in 1762. The 60 questions range across the whole world and 3,000 years: ancient Egypt and Assyria, Rome and Byzantium, the caliphates and the Mongols, West African empires, Ming China and Meiji Japan, and the treaties and wars of modern Europe. Difficulty runs from tough to expert, so it suits pub-quiz setters looking for a killer round, history students revising, and anyone who finds ordinary history quizzes too easy. Every answer was checked against a reference page and cited before publishing, so when you get one wrong you can trust that it was actually wrong.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas drew its meridian how many leagues west of the Cape Verde islands?
370
The line was later shifted at Portugal's request, which is one reason Brazil speaks Portuguese while the rest of South America speaks Spanish.
Q 02Who was the last reigning Byzantine emperor, killed when Constantinople fell in 1453?
Constantine XI Palaiologos
He shared a name with the city's founder, so the empire began and ended with a Constantine.
Q 03Which Ethiopian emperor commanded the army that crushed an Italian colonial force at Adwa in 1896?
Menelik II
Much of his army carried modern rifles imported from France and Russia, which is one reason the result shocked Europe.
Q 04Mansa Musa's gift-giving on his 1324 pilgrimage reportedly sank gold's value in which city?
Cairo
Chroniclers also claimed he built a mosque every Friday along the route.
Q 05The 1618 Defenestration of Prague helped trigger which war?
Thirty Years' War
It was the third famous defenestration in Prague's history; the first, in 1419, helped start the Hussite Wars.
Q 06Which US state was NOT on the list of territory the 1917 Zimmermann Telegram offered Mexico?
California
British codebreakers intercepted the message and its publication helped push the United States into the First World War.
Q 07At the Battle of Talas in 751, a Tang Chinese army was defeated by the army of which Muslim dynasty?
Abbasids
Chinese prisoners taken at Talas are traditionally credited with introducing papermaking to West Asia, though the story is disputed.
Q 08The Catholic coalition that defeated the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571 was known by what name?
Holy League
Pope Pius V arranged the coalition, and its fleet was led by the navies of Spain and Venice.
Q 09Which Austrian statesman chaired the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15?
Metternich
It was the first time national representatives from across a continent gathered in one city to negotiate treaties together.
Q 10The 1648 Peace of Westphalia was signed in two cities: Osnabrück and which other?
Münster
The two treaties closed a conflict that killed somewhere between 4.5 and 8 million people.
Q 11Which Holy Roman Emperor presided over the 1521 Diet of Worms that condemned Martin Luther?
Charles V
The resulting Edict of Worms branded Luther a notorious heretic and banned the spread of his ideas across the empire.
Q 12After Toussaint Louverture's capture, which lieutenant led Haiti to final victory over France?
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Yellow fever did much of the work, ravaging the French army as it tried to hold the colony.
Q 13The 'Year Without a Summer' in 1816 is blamed mainly on the eruption of which volcano?
Mount Tambora
The eruption dropped average global land temperatures by about one degree Celsius, enough to wreck harvests across Europe and North America.
Q 21The 1555 Peace of Augsburg established 'cuius regio, eius religio'. What does the phrase mean?
Whose realm, his religion
Princes could choose Lutheranism or Catholicism for their lands, but Calvinism was not yet an option.
Q 22The War of Jenkins' Ear, which began in 1739, was fought between Great Britain and which country?
Spain
Captain Robert Jenkins claimed his ear was partly cut off by a coastguard searching his brig for smuggled sugar.
Q 23The 'Miracle of the House of Brandenburg' saved Frederick the Great in 1762 when which ruler died?
Elizabeth of Russia
Q 14Which pope called the Council of Clermont in 1095, launching the First Crusade?
Urban II
The council met for eleven days in November in Auvergne, then part of the Duchy of Aquitaine.
Q 15Before the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Robert Clive bribed which commander of the Nawab of Bengal's army?
Mir Jafar
In return he was promised the throne of Bengal, and his inaction on the day decided the battle.
Q 16Otto von Bismarck organised the 1884-85 Berlin Conference on Africa at the request of which monarch?
Leopold II
Fourteen countries attended, and not one African state was represented.
Q 17Which Roman emperor issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, making Nicene Christianity the state church?
Theodosius I
He had been baptised in Thessalonica after a severe illness shortly before issuing it.
Q 18Which Byzantine emperor was captured by the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071?
Romanos IV
It was the only time a Byzantine emperor became the prisoner of a Muslim commander.
Q 19Which Mongol prince led the army that sacked Baghdad in 1258?
Hulegu
He later estimated the death toll at around 200,000, and the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad ended with the city.
Q 20Which force halted the Mongol advance into the Middle East at Ain Jalut in 1260?
Mamluks of Egypt
The general Baibars used a feigned retreat, a Mongol trick, against the Mongols themselves.
Her nephew and successor Peter admired Frederick and promptly signed a peace with Prussia.
Q 24The Chakri dynasty, founded in 1782 by Rama I, still reigns in which country?
Thailand
Its founding coincided with the move of the capital to Bangkok.
Q 25The decree carved on the Rosetta Stone was issued in 196 BC on behalf of which king?
Ptolemy V Epiphanes
A French officer found the stone in July 1799 during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt.
Q 26In what year did Saladin destroy the Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin?
1187
Jerusalem fell to him within months, triggering the Third Crusade.
Q 27Which numbered Crusade ended with the sack of Constantinople in April 1204?
Fourth
The crusaders never reached the Holy Land; they carved up the Byzantine Empire to settle debts to Venice instead.
Q 28Who captained the ship Victoria on the final leg of the first circumnavigation of the Earth?
Juan Sebastián Elcano
Of five ships and roughly 240 men that left Spain, one ship and 18 European survivors returned.
Q 29Hannibal's victory at Cannae in 216 BC is the classic example of which tactic?
Double envelopment
Roughly 86,000 Romans and allies took the field, and most were trapped and slaughtered.
Q 30Who commanded the Umayyad army defeated by the Franks at Tours in 732?
Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi
In Arabic sources the fight is remembered as the Battle of the Highway of the Martyrs.