Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Wednesday Quiz III:3 -- Country Name Changes


The Wednesday Quiz -- Season III -- Quiz 3

Country Name Changes

The Wednesday Quiz is a "closed-book" test of knowledge and intuition; please do not look up answers, ask others for help, or answer as a team.

Questions about the rules and the ~Fabulous Prizes~ are answered here.

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In the course of human events, it occasionally happens that control of a country or territory will transfer from one political entity to another. When this happens, sometimes the new rulers will change the name of the country, often to reflect deeply-felt national aspirations or to dispense of offensive names imposed by outside imperialist rulers. I find that most people act as if this were an obnoxious practical joke played on them personally by ornery people far-away whose sole purpose is to undermine the geography lessons they endured in their school days and make them look foolish.

Let's see how foolish they've made ~you~ look! Give the new names -- or, in a few cases, the old names -- of the following countries! 8 1/3 points apiece, again.
1. It was called Siam until 1949.
2. It was called South-West Africa until 1968, officially, and practically until well into the 1980s
3. It was called Ceylon until 1972.
4. It was called British Honduras until 1973.
5. It was called Dahomey until 1975.
6. It was called French Somaliland and then Afars and Issas before taking its current name in 1977.
7. It was known as the Gilbert Islands before independence in 1979; the new name starts with a "K."
8. It was called the New Hebrides in 1980, when it gained independence and a new name starting with a "V."
9. It was part of Rhodesia, and then it was Southern Rhodesia until 1980.
10. In 1984, it became Burkina Faso.
11. It was called Moldavia until 1991.
12. In 1997, it became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Submit your answers in the comments!

23 comments:

Aviatrix said...

Ooh, I'm not acing this one, but I still like it. A few of these I thought still existed. Thanks for the hints. I might miss next week's quiz, so I'm making my answers extra long to make up for it.

1. Thailand - elephants!
2. Swaziland - never heard of SW Africa, but geography and "SWA-land" match
3. Sri Lanka - tea!
4. Bahamas - I originally put Trinidad & Tobago because I met someone from there who looked Honduran and had a British accent, and all the Bahamians I know have American-like accents, but if they had one name to begin with, why would they jump to two? I definitely think T&T should pick one name, though.
5. Senegal - the double-jointed girl in my math class was from there, and she confused the math teacher by using French punctuation in numbers, the reverse of English. I was going to put Côte Ivoire but then I realized I just like typing the ô.
6. Angola - because I often forget it exists, so maybe it's because it wasn't on the old globe I had when I was a kid.
7. Kauru - that's probably a New Zealand bird, or a teenage pop singer, but it just came to me. And you must admit, it begins with K.
8. Vanuatu - It's an island and it starts with a V and it's small, because the only person I know from there has only one name, and I'd never heard of it until I met him in 1984.
9. Zimbabwe - I thought it was always plain Rhodesia, but Zimbabwe is the bit that borders South Africa and Tanzania is the bit that doesn't, so maybe Zanzibar was northern Rhodesia.
10. Mali - It had a short boring name, anyway. And the new name means "Land of Incorruptible Men" or some such.
11. Moldova - I thought there was still a Moldavia and that I just wasn't very good at spelling it.
12. Zaïre - or maybe that's the Belgian Congo

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Cartophiliac said...

1. Thailand
2. Namibia
3. Sri Lanka
4. Belize
5. Senegal
6. Djbouti
7. Kuklafranandalia
8. Vanuatu
9. Zimbabwe
10. Upper Volta
11. Moldova
12. Zaire

Christine M. said...

1. Thailand
2. Namibia
3. Sri Lanka
4. Belize
5. Senegal
6. dunno
7. Kelley's Island
8. dunno
9. Zimbabwe
10. Upper Volta
11. Moldova
12. Zaire

Elizabeth said...

1. Thailand
2. Guessing Gabon
3. Sri Lanka
4. Belize?
5. No idea
6. Somalia ...
7. Sheesh!
8. Vanuatu, what do I know.
9. Always with the African countries.
10. Orwellistan.
11. Moldova
12. I should know this, but I don't.

Sigh.

Nichim said...

1. THAILAND!!!
2. ??
3. Sri Lanka
4. Belize
5. I feel like there was a girl in a story I read once with that name. A Black girl. Maybe it was an allegory that I totally missed?
6. Somalia
7. Krakatoa - no wait, that's a volcano. But it could be big enough to be a whole bunch of islands, right?
8. Vanuatu!!!
9. I stopped stamp collecting too early. Mali??
10. Upper Volta
11. Moldova?
12. Zaire??

Dug said...

1. Thailand
2. Namibia
3. Sri Lanka
4. Belize
5. Benin
6. Eritrea
7. Kiribati
8. Vanuatu
9. Zimbabwe
10. Upper Volta
11. Moldova
12. Zaire

DrSchnell said...

1. Thailand
2. Namibia
3. Sri Lanka
4. Belize
5. Benin
6. Djibouti
7. Kiribati?
8. Vanuatu
9. Zimbabwe
10. Upper volta
11. Moldova?
12. Zaire

Anonymous said...

1. Thailand
2. Namibia
3. Sri Lanka
4. Nicaragua (I think?? not sure)
5. Benin (another arbitrary choice)
6. Djibouti
7. Kiribati
8. Vanuatu
9. Zimbabwe
10. Upper Volta
11. Moldova
12. Zaire

mrs.5000 said...

This promises to be my most egregious fiasco in some time...
1 Thailand
2 Botswana
3 Sri Lanka
4 Belize
5 Swaziland
6 Somalia
7 oh, whatsit...Kiribos?
8 Vanuatu
9 Zimbabwe
10 Uganda
11 Croatia
12 Republic of the Congo

Ben said...

I'm betting I'll be looking pretty foolish indeed...

1. Thailand
2. Gambia
3. Sri Lanka
4. Belize
5. Dacrib
6. Somalia
7. Ketchikan
8. Very New Hebrides
9. Rwanda
10. George Orwellia
11. Macedonia
12. Zaire

Ben said...

Nice to see that my sister-and-law and I were on the same wave-length for question #10.

Morgan said...

1. Iran
2. No idea
3. Madagascar
4. Nicaragua
5. I dunno, but it sounds like something a rapper would say.
6. Somalia
7. Kanary Islands.
8. Vietnam
9. Zimbabawe
10. French West Africa
11. Albania
12. Zaire

UnwiseOwl said...

Hrmm...
1. Thailand.
2. My African Geog. isn't the best, but I think this one is Namibia... They have a reasonable second class cricket team.
3. Sri Lanka, a good first class cricket team.
4. No idea...Guatemala.
5. Benin...I have no idea about their cricket team.
6. Bleh..Somalia?
7. Finally, something local. This is Kiribati, yes?
8. Vanuatu.
9. I want Zimbabwe, (another good cricket team), but I didn't realise that there was another part of Rhodesia...oh dear.
10. Upper Volga! I bet all your American readers get this one.
11. Never heard of Moldavia...I hope it's the same thing as Moldova?
12. Zaire.
Hrmm...I hope some people did better than me...

Michael5000 said...

You are probably curious about the answers. Here goes:

1. Siam = Thailand
2. Southwest Africa = Namibia
3. Ceylon = Sri Lanka
4. British Honduras = Belize
5. Dahomey = Benin
6. French Somaliland = Afars and Issas = Djibouti
7. Gilbert Islands = Kiribati; half marks for a phonetic spelling ("Kiribati" is pronounced "Kiribis")
8. New Hebrides = Vanuatu
9. Southern Rhodesia = Zimbabwe
10. Burkina Faso = Upper Volta
11. Moldavia = Moldova
12. D.R. Congo = Zaire

Michael5000 said...

With a result that DrSchnell (PhD, Geography) takes this one, followed by close behind by dug (MS, Geography) and Jack, a newcomer to the Quiz whose academic credentials I am not familiar with.

Next week's Quiz will not be even remotely Geographic. But it's pretty brutal. I'm looking forward to it.

Morgan said...

I think I should get like 2 points for my "French West Africa" answer.

Anonymous said...

My degree's in math but I stared at maps a lot when I was a kid. I found your blog through reading geohashing reports while bored... I geohash in Seattle every so often and post under "OtherJack" since Jack was taken.

Did I talk to you on the irc geohashing channel briefly? Or was it somebody else?

Elizabeth said...

Ben and I should get to reserve .33 points of extra literary credit for application towards future such quizzes.

Michael5000 said...

E: Yeah, what's up with the George Orwell connection? I dunno what you're talking about.

Morgan: Yeah, that's fair. Half credit.

Jack: I'm a geohasher, but I'm not sure what the irc geohashing channel is...

Anonymous said...

OK, never mind then, that must have been somebody else. But yeah, I did find this blog through your geohashing page.

Elaine the Late said...

1. Thailand
2.
3. Sri Lanka
4. Guyana
5.
6. Somalia
8.
9. Uganda
10.
11. Moldova
12. Belgian Congo
Not only was i out of town, I don't know most of these answers, either. Tut.