Download GauthierSteinbaum - Collegiate Quiz Bowl Packet Archive

2011 Chicago Open History Tournament
Packet by Paul Gauthier and Marshall Steinbaum
1. One important center of this polity was at Tall-i Malyan, while another was the short lived city of Dūr-Untaš [dur
untash] at modern Choga Zanbil. This polity was a battleground between the kingdom of Marhashi and the rulers of
Agade, and one third-millennium ruler of it invented a still undeciphered “linear” script. Home to the Awan and
Shimaski dynasties, another dynasty to rule this polity took the title Sukkalmah and formed a coalition with
Eshnunna against Hammurabi and his allies. Another king from this polity captured Enlil-nādin-ahi, ending the
Kassite dynasty, while an earlier king had brought an end to the third dynasty of Ur. A major center at Susa marked,
for 10 points, what Iranian kingdom that was the perennial foe of Mesopotamian empires?
ANSWER: Elam
2. One siege of this city aimed at overthrowing Stanislaw Leszczynski [“Lechinsky”], whose daughter was married
to Louis XV and who thus enjoyed French as well as Swedish support. Russian forces under the Irishman William
de Lacy were victorious after the French fleet was forced to withdraw from Westerplätte in 1734, ending that war in
Russia’s favor with the ascension of the Saxon candidate Augustus III. An earlier siege of this city in 1577 ended
inconclusively, with this city gaining an independent charter from Stefan Bathory in exchange for supporting his
claim to the throne of Poland and paying a huge ransom. Those events are alluded to by the fictitious Oskar
Matzerath after he participates in the Defense of the Polish Post Office, which took place in this city on September
1, 1939 and constituted Nazi Germany’s overthrow of the Free State instituted in this city by the Treaty of
Versailles. For 10 points, name this now-Polish Hanseatic city where Lech Walesa led the first Solidarity strike.
ANSWER: Gdansk (or Danzig)
3. Conflict over this economic resource was the defining characteristic of the Chincha Islands War, during which a
Spanish fleet seized the islands, ostensibly in place of reparations for the Talambo Incident. This resource is also
responsible for the past wealth and current poverty of the island of Nauru, and in 1856 the US Congress passed an
act that recognized any American claims to islands containing this resource. Though this resource isn’t coffee, Kopi
Luwak could be considered the most expensive form of this resource. For 10 points, name this economic resource
used more commonly as fertilizer and explosives, the solid waste product of animal digestive systems.
ANSWER: feces (accept equivalents, especially guano)
4. This island featured a group of young, itinerant religious personnel known as Arioi, and one king of this island
regained power at the battle of Feii. The father of that ruler was aided by his good relations with the London
Missionary Society in unifying the island, and his great-grandson was deposed, ending the dynasty. That dynasty
also saw the fifty-year reign of queen ʻAimata, during whose rule the Consul George Pritchard was expelled by
admiral Dupetit Thouars. Home to the Pomare dynasty, its monarchy was abolished by the French in 1880. For 10
points, identify this island in French Polynesia, a sojourn on which led to the Mutiny on the Bounty.
ANSWER: Tahiti
5. This region was the focus of the missionary efforts of Macarius II, and the battle of Chuvash Cape saw the
Kuchum, leader of its eponymous polity, expelled by forces under Yermak. Johann Georg Gmelin and Gerhard
Friedrich Müller were part of the 18th century Great Northern Expedition sent to this region, and indigenous peoples
from this region were required to pay the Yasak tax. Southern expansion from this region was halted by the Treaty
of Nerchinsk, and it was also home to the Evenki, the Buryats, and the Yukaghirs. Home to many adherents of a
religious sect led by the priest Avakum, the south east of this region included the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
Named for the Khanate of Siber, this was, for 10 points what large eastern region of Russia?
ANSWER: Siberia
6. Members of this polity squeezed Philip II by stopping the payment of gold to his troops in the Netherlands, which
eventually led to unpaid troops looting Antwerp. This polity had become a major Spanish banking hub after the
decline of the Fuggers. This polity ruled Corsica for over 400 years, and for much of the thirteenth century it
controlled Caffa in the Crimea. This polity allied with Michael VIII Paleologus to overthrow the Latin Empire of
Constantinople and it defeated a Pisan fleet at the battle of Meloria. It was incorporated into the Ligurian Republic
by Napoleon and defeated by Venice in the War of Chioggia. For 10 points, identify this northeastern Italian city
that was home to a maritime republic and the birthplace of Andrea Doria and Christopher Columbus.
ANSWER: Republic of Genoa
7. The last Chinese member of this group was Sun Yaoting, who died in 1996. They were prohibited from serving as
clergy by the council of Nicaea, although the patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople was one. In the Ottoman court,
they were divided into black and white groups, with the chief black one controlling access to the Sultan, and in
Assyria they included the rab-ša-rēši (rab-sha-re-shi). They commanded the Divine Strategy army under the Tang,
and dominated the inner court, and a failed plea for a disgraced general led to Sima Chian being made into one.
Narses and Zheng He exemplified, for 10 points, what castrated males who served in official roles?
ANSWER: eunuchs
8. Under the ruler Water Mask, this polity suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Tarascan empire, and a large
portion of its agricultural production came from “floating gardens.” It had a system of universal education with
commoners sent to the telpohcalli (tel-poch-CAL-li), and nobility to the calmecac (cal-ME-cac), and it often used
the murder of its pochteca (poch-TE-ca) merchants as an excuse for war. Described at length in the Florentine
Codex of Bernardino de Sahagún., the ruler of one of its three ruling cities, Fasting Coyote, was famed as a poet in
the Nahuatl (NA-wa-tl) language. A series of defeats let to the poisoning of Tizoc, and to regain credibility with his
vassals, his successor Ahuitzotl (a-WI-tzo-tl) sacrificed 80,000 captives during the re-dedication of one of the main
temples. For 10 points, identify this empire last ruled by Mocteuczoma (mo-tequ-SO-ma) Xocoyotl (sho-CO-yo-tl)
from its capital at Tenochtitlan.
ANSWER: the Aztec Empire (or the Triple Alliance)
9. A bombardment of this city by a fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Peter Parker on June 28th, 1776 proved
unsuccessful due to the construction of the fort at the southern end of Sullivan’s Island. The second British attempt
to capture this city, again at the overall direction of Henry Clinton, involved troops shifted from New York and
Newport, who landed on James Island and captured this city after a six-week siege, including the surrender of 5000
continental troops under Benjamin Lincoln on May 12, 1780. That defeat sparked the guerrilla campaign of Francis
Marion. For 10 points, name the commercial center of the southern colonies, then the capital of South Carolina.
ANSWER: Charleston
10. Polities from this period and region had officials called lawagetas and the equetai were associated with their
leaders. The leader himself was known as a wanax, while guasileus was a type of chief. Its archaeological remains
include two famous circles of shaft graves and tholos tombs. Also known for cyclopean wallas and the Lion Gate,
there is a long running debate whether it is to be identified with Ahhiyawa in Hittite texts. Tripods and chariots both
appear in administrative documents from this period and region, and its end has been linked to the arrival of the Sea
Peoples. It constructed palaces at Tyrins, Pylos, and Knossos and used the Linear B writing system. For 10 points,
identify this civilization of late Bronze Age Greece named for the capital of Agamemnon.
ANSWER: Mycenean Greece
11. One group of these entities are thought to arise from parts in medieval passion plays, which were locally
hereditary, such as “Maiden” and “Death.” In Quebec, examples of these entities were once preceded by the word
“dit” as in “one says,” in which case they often to refer to geographic features. The diffusion of these entities is
nearly always a state-led enterprise to facilitate taxation, as the spread of their use in medieval England was broadly
from south to north and from upper classes to lower, in line with the population’s interaction with officialdom as it
expanded. A Prussian state edict of 1812 offered full citizenship to Jews on the condition they take on one of these
entities, and over the course of the nineteenth century that emancipatory tendency was replaced by the requirement
that Jews assume one from a closed list, such as “Rubenstein” or “Hirsch.” For 10 points, what is this identifier, the
most common of which is “Smith” in the US?
ANSWER: last names (accept equivalents, including surnames)
12. This man inherited his initial political power from his namesake and great uncle, who likely fled Athens having
opposed the Pisistratids, though Herodotus recounts he left of his own accord to rule over several Athenian colonies
in the Thracian Chersonese as the result of an oracle. This man ruled that area, the present Gallipoli, as a tyrant. He
offered homage to Darius I and participated in the latter’s anti-Scythian operations, but he later joined the Ionian
Revolt. The ensuing failure forced this man to take refuge in Athens, where he was nonetheless held prisoner as a
tyrant but secured release upon protesting his opposition to Persia. He was then made strategos, in which capacity
he earned his greatest fame, convincing the War Archon Callimachus to fight the Persians in 490 BC. For 10 points,
name this victorious general of the Battle of Marathon.
ANSWER: Miltiades
13. Early structures from this culture include pithouses of the basketmaker type. One site of this culture was at
Bandelier, and its sites feature underground ritual rooms known as Kivas. Producing the ruins in the mis-named
Aztec Ruins National Park, a find at Cowboy Wash may be evidence that its people practiced cannibalism. There is
also a long running debate over the road system in one of its canyon sites, which seem to have served largely ritual
purposes. Known for constructing “great houses” of several hundred rooms including that at Pueblo Bonito, this
culture produced the ruins found at Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. Often known by the Navajo word for ancestors,
this is, for 10 points what archaeological culture of the American Southwest known for its elaborate cliff dwellings?
ANSWER: Ancestral Pueblo (or Anasazi)
14. This man lost one appointment when he said that “fighting for democracy” is “bunk” in a newspaper interview.
This man orchestrated the sending of a million telegrams to Congress in order to intimidate the Roosevelt
administration out of repealing the arms embargo on Republican Spain, mimicking Fascist propaganda about
atrocities committed against monasteries there. This man offered to finance the nascent 1956 presidential campaign
of Lyndon Johnson on the condition that Johnson promise to make a certain selection for the vice presidency, an
offer that Johnson rejected, not needing the money and not wanting to generate a rival for the Democratic
nomination in 1960. That’s exactly what happened regardless. For 10 points, name this first chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Commission, to whom FDR reportedly gave the job because “it takes a crook to catch
one.”
ANSWER: Joseph Kennedy (or Joe Kennedy; prompt on “Kennedy” or “J. Kennedy”)
15. Corona Regia, a satire in the form of an encomium to this king, praises him for elevating John Ramsay and
Robert Carr to the peerage for paederastical reasons. The former’s honor occurred after he stabbed the Earl of
Gowrie, thereby defending this king from an assassination attempt. Carr was this king’s main advisor after the death
of Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, prompted this king to attempt to rule largely independent of council, and this king
granted a divorce to Frances Howard to marry Carr. Howard and perhaps Carr conspired to poison Thomas
Overbury while he was imprisoned in the Tower for disobeying this king and, essentially, for opposing Howard
influence, in a major scandal during this man’s reign. For 10 points, name this king who imagined himself the victim
of an attempted bewitching at sea and so instigated the North Berwick witch trials and who really was the intended
victim of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.
ANSWER: James I of England (or James VI of Scotland)
16. An official called a defterdar was responsible for implementing these measures, which were typically auctioned
off via the muqata’ah. The haraj was the most important one of these measures during the reign of Mehmet II by an
order of magnitude or more. Haraj could be considered an example of jizya, which signified a higher status than
zakat during the early Islamic period, since the latter was associated with nomads while the former pertained to
Christians, members of the community of the faithful. Devshirme may be considered a form of this, in that case paid
in kind as it enslaved children to the Ottoman state, where they came to be a ruling class. For 10 points, these are all
Islamic examples of what type of coercive measures enacted to finance state activities?
ANSWER: taxes
17. Forces from this polity during this war were routed at the battle of Kolubara. Its principal armed forces were
known by the abbreviation KUK, and it would later see an end to hostilities with the armistice of Villa Giusti. A
force of 60,000 defectors originally from this polity formed the “legions” that briefly occupied the Trans-Siberian
railroad, and it suffered its last major defeat in this war at Vittorio Veneto. Conrad von Hötzendorf’s attempt to
relieve this polity’s besieged fortress of Przemysl led to a disastrous campaign in the Carpathians, and its army was
unable to recover from its 750,000 casualties in the Brusilov offensive. Its most spectacular success came at
Caporetto. Embarrassingly defeated by Serbia at the outbreak of the war, this was, for 10 points, what nation whose
attack on Serbia started the First World War?
ANSWER: Austria-Hungary (do not prompt on separate names)
18. Holders of this title were entitled to use a staff with an ivory hand on top of it. In addition to the “hand of
justice,” holders of this title were given funerals in which an effigy of them was served food for several days. While
not the pope, holders of this title were guarded by a group known as the Hundred Swiss. Holders of this title were
also anointed with oil from the Holy Ampula of St. Remegius, and were given the sword whose name translates
as“Joyous” at their installation. Entitled to take communion in both kinds, the holder of this title was also alleged to
be able to cure scrofula, like his counterpart in a nation to the north. The heir to this title was referred to by the name
of an aquatic mammal, and the highest ranking officials after him and his own family were the princes of the blood.
The husbands of Anne of Brittany, Maria Theresa, and Catherine de Medici all held, for 10 points, what title given
to the head of Ancien Regime?
ANSWER: the King of France
19. This document, in calling for “socialistic productive associations,” displayed the influence of Ferdinand
Lassalle. The adoption of this document constituted a rapprochement between Lassalle’s ADAP, which had
cooperated with Bismarck’s policies, and the anti-Prussian Eisenach faction of Wilhelm Liebknecht and August
Bebel. This document promised universal suffrage, a universal income tax, unlimited right of association, a ban on
child labor, and workplace safety inspections, and it promised to “abolish exploitation of every kind” and to “bring
the brotherhood of all mankind to a full realization.” Nonetheless, this document earned criticism in an open letter
that articulated the principle “from each according to his ability; to each according to his need,” and this document
was eventually replaced by the more orthodox Erfurt program, which called for nationalization of industry. For 10
points, name this 1875 founding platform of the SPD of which Karl Marx wrote a famous “critique.”
ANSWER: Gotha Program
20. The Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu appointed himself abbot of this site although it had been abandoned for some
time, and it produced the first known writing in the Khotanese language. Its most famous artifacts were first
discovered and purchased by Aurel Stein, and Paul Pelliot studied manuscripts form this site at a rate of over one
thousand in a single day. It also yielded Sogdian language texts, and writings about Nestorian Christianity and
Manicheanism in addition several hundred copies of the Diamond Sutra and numerous other Buddhist texts.
Including 492 Buddhist temples, for 10 points identify this complex of caves in central Asia, home to a vast cache of
manuscripts and a great number of images of the Buddha.
Answer: Dunhuang caves (or Magao Caves or Cave of the Thousand Buddhas)
X. One text in epistolary form from this man’s reign describes his attack on the kingdom of Shurbia, and this ruler
employed the substitute king ritual at least three times. In another text he argues that a time span of 70 years fated by
divine decree was converted to 11 when a god turned the tablet upside down. Famously superstitious, his reign was
dominated by his mother Naqia-Zakūtu. This man also arranged for two of his sons to succeed him as joint rulers of
the two main parts of his empire, an arrangement mentioned in his numerous extant vassal treaties with median
rulers, and he died during a campaign against Egypt, which he had conquered earlier in his reign. His reign also saw
an unsuccessful attempt to return the statue of Marduk to Babylon, which he rebuilt after his father destroyed it. The
father of Šamaš-šum-ukīn (shamash-shum-ukin) and the restorer of Babylon, for 10 points identify this father of
Ashurbanipal, and son of Sennacherib, a king of Assyria.
ANSWER: Esarhaddon (or Aššur-ahhē-iddina or “Aššur has given brothers”)