Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Thursday Quiz XXXIX

This Thursday Quiz has been spell-checked for your protection.

The Thursday Quiz!

The Thursday Quiz is an "Is It or Isn't It" game. From the list of twelve items, your job is to determine whether each IS or ISN'T a true example of the week's category.

Remember always Your Obligations With Regards to Others:
No research, Googling, Wikiing, or use of reference books. The Thursday
Quiz is a POP quiz. Violators will have to make it on their own.
This Week's Category will end the fighting, once and for all.

Treaties

Is it is, or is it ain't, a truthy description of an actual treaty?

1. Treaty of Verdun, 843. Charlemagne's grandsons partition his empire into a Western Realm, which will eventually become France, an Eastern Realm, which will much later become Germany, and a Middle Realm, which fragments almost immediately.

2. Treaty of Constantinople, 1011. Establishes the Ottoman Empire as the successor state to the Byzantine Empire, and gives it authority over modern Turkey, Egypt, and the area we now call the Middle East.

3. Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494. Spain and Portugal divide ownership rights to the non-Christian world between themselves along a vaguely defined north-south meridian. The non-Christian world is not consulted.

4. Peace of Westphalia, 1648. A pair of treaties ending both the Thirty Years' War in Germany and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands. These settlements imply that it is countries, rather than monarchs, that are sovereign, and are therefore an important step in the creation of the international order we know and love today.

5. Treaty of Paris, 1783. Some guys meet in a hotel in Paris to sign a treaty formally ending the American Revolutionary War.

6. Treaty of Madrid, 1817. Newly powerful in the wake of the War of 1812, the United States of America forces the European powers to renounce all current and future colonial claims in the Western Hemisphere. Also known as the "Monroe Doctrine," after the American President James Monroe, this is the oldest international treaty still considered to still be in force.

7. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848. Under military occupation after the Mexican-American War, Mexican officials know that the U.S. government is considering total annexation of their country. The only option available to them is to swallow hard and sign this treaty, ceding the less-populated northern half of their territory to the victors.

8. First Geneva Convention, 1864. Tired of seeing wounded soldiers die horribly after battles from thirst, exposure, or bayonet thrust, sixteen countries get together to create rules for truces and the provision of medical assistance to enemy combatants. Later conventions will establish protocols for the treatment of prisoners of war and for the treatment of civilians during wartime.

9. Treaty of Bonn, 1887. Ends the Franco-Prussian War, but creates long-term European tensions by forcing Germany to pay enormous reparations and cede three provinces to the victorious French.

10. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918. The newly-created Soviet Union pulls out of World War I under humiliating circumstances, ceding huge chunks of Eastern Europe to Germany and the Axis powers. Although the treaty remains in effect for less than a year, it catastrophically sours the new country's relationships with Western Europe and the U.S. as well as with the population in the ceded territories, who must be essentially reconquered in the vicious Russian Civil War.

11. Treaty of Rome, 1957. Six European countries establish the European Economic Community, an independent organization for economic cooperation and one of the predecessors of the European Union.

12. Treaty of Beijing, 1972. At a summit skillfully orchestrated by U.S. President Richard Nixon, the Western powers finally recognize China as an independent country and extend full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than 500 years.

Submit your answers to the court of world opinion in the comments.

14 comments:

Karin said...

Are you serious? I give up.

Sort of.

odd #s: are
even #s: aren't

Cartophiliac said...

1. no
2. no
3. yes
4. yes
5. yes
6. no
7. yes
8. yes
9. no
10. no
11. yes
12. no

I think you're being "tricksy" on some of these...

The Calico Cat said...

Hardee Har Har - I'm not even guess on these... I don't recognize some of the names let alone the facts & fictions...

d said...

hahahahahaha

1n, 2y, 3n, 4n, 5y, 6n (that is so not the monroe doctrine), 7y(hesitantly-the name doesn't seem right, but that's kind of what happened. right?) 8y, 9y, 10y, 11n, 12n

sometimes? you know, i wish my brain wasn't a giant sieve.

Elizabeth said...

What a treat ...

1. Truthy.
2. Falsies.
3. Falsies.
4. Truthy.
5. Truthy.
6. Falsies.
7. Guessing Truthy.
8. Truthy.
9. Falsies.
10. Falsies.
11. Truthy.
12. Falsies.

Nichim said...

I have got to get my dad to play these quizzez. Geez.

1. Yeah
2. No.
3. This happened for sure, and the date seems reasonable, but was that what it was called? I'll say: No
4. Yeah
5. No
6. See #3, but this time I'll say: Yeah
7. Yeah, unless the date's wrong
8. No
9. Yeah.
10. No
11. No
12. Yeah

But really, I have no idea. But when I find out the answers, I'm gonna make flashcards.

Anonymous said...

1 / Ain't
2 / Is
3 / Ain't
4 / Ain't
5 / Is
6 / Is
7 / Ain't
8 / Ain't
9 / Is
10 / Is
11 / Is
12 / Ain't

Suggestion -- Make this the rare Thursday Golf-Scoring quiz, where low score wins.

Rebel said...

1 isn't
2 is
3 isn't
4 is
5 is - this is the only one that I actually kinda think I might be right about.
6 is
7 isn't
8 is... not that we actually abide by it anymore. =(
9 isn't? sounds a little like the treaty Germany had to sign after WW1 though.
10 isn't
11 is?
12 is?

Jennifer said...

Okay, any time there are *this* few people posting by this time in the day, I figure I might as well make random guesses too:

1. Y
2. N
3. N
4. Y
5. Y
6. N
7. Y
8. N
9. N
10. N
11. N
12. N

Notice how undaunted I am by the improbable pattern of yeses and nos! That alone is worth, well, nothing, I'm sure, but still. . .

Anonymous said...

1 Uh, no.
2 Uh, no?
3 Yes.
4 Uh, yes.
5 Yes?
6 Yes?
7 No?
8 Yes?
9 No?
10 Yes?
11 No?
12 Yes?
Well, the good news is my late-in-the-day timing is almost certainly not going to be an issue!

Anonymous said...

1. Is
2. Isn't
3. Is
4. Is
5. Isn't
6. Is
7. Is
8. Is
9. Is
10. Isn't
11. Isn't
12. Is

I am most certain I have embarrassed myself. I swear if it came to almost anything to do with junk food I would get it. It's a popcorn for dinner night.

Fool for paper said...

In the spirit of the day, I have set my random number generator to answering this quiz - let's see how it matches up to truth!

1) no
2) no
3) yes
4) no
5) yes
6) no
7) yes
8) yes
9) no
10) yes
11) no
12) yes

Or vice versa....

Michael5000 said...

And here are the actual answers:

1. Treaty of Verdun, 843. -- TRUE.

2. Treaty of Constantinople, 1011. -- NO WAY. The Byzantine Empire is still around as late as the 15th Century.

3. Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494. -- TRUE.

4. Peace of Westphalia, 1648. -- TRUE

5. Treaty of Paris, 1783. -- TRUE

6. Treaty of Madrid, 1817. -- NO. The Monroe Doctrine was just an idea expressed in one of Monroe's State of the Union speeches. It's an important concept, but has no formal expression.

7. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848. -- ABSOLUTLY

8. First Geneva Convention, 1864. -- YEP

9. Treaty of Bonn, 1887. -- NO. The Victorious GERMANS were the ones doing the humiliating after the Franco-Prussian War. This inspires the French to humiliate the Germans in revenge after World War I. And from there, you know the story.

10. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918. -- You betcha.

11. Treaty of Rome, 1957. UH HUH, OH YEAH.

12. Treaty of Beijing, 1972. NO WAY.

Michael5000 said...

Did you find this one challenging? I thought it was pretty challenging.

Cartophiliac takes home the TQXXXIX Gold Star, his FIFTH as he continues to dominate the top spot of the Thursday Quiz.

Also with 10/12, Elizabeth nabs her first Silver Star.

Karin saw enough of a pattern to take her fifth Blue Star; she moves into a tie for the most Blues of all time.

And Jennifer ties with Karin to earn a Green Star; it is the first TQ Bling to grace her trophy case.

Fool for Paper gets a big, hearty Thursday Quiz Salute for honesty, good humor, and experimental enterprise... but that's all.