Moments That Changed Everything
From Tambora's year without a summer to Mansa Musa's gold-wrecked economies and the Battle of Talas. 30 questions on the hinges history turned on.
Try 3 questions
1. Johannes Gutenberg's printing press (around 1450) transformed Europe, but movable type itself was invented earlier. Where?
- Ancient Egypt, where temple scribes carved reusable hieroglyph blocks generations before papyrus scrolls
- The Islamic world, where printers in Baghdad mass-produced bound books in the 900s
- East Asia, where Chinese and Korean printers used movable type centuries before Gutenberg
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Answer: East Asia, where Chinese and Korean printers used movable type centuries before Gutenberg
Bi Sheng in Song China developed ceramic movable type around 1040, and Korea cast metal movable type by the 1200s — the Jikji of 1377 survives as the oldest extant book printed that way, decades before Gutenberg.
2. The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 is remembered as a turning point for Africa. What did the European powers there mainly do?
- Agreed on rules for abolishing slavery across the whole African continent
- Recognised the sovereignty and borders of existing African kingdoms among themselves
- Agreed on rules for dividing and claiming African territory among themselves
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Answer: Agreed on rules for dividing and claiming African territory among themselves
Convened by Bismarck, the Berlin Conference set ground rules such as effective occupation for European claims in Africa, accelerating the Scramble for Africa; no African rulers were present to represent their states.
3. The Haitian Revolution, completed in 1804, changed world history because it produced:
- The first republic established anywhere in the Americas after colonial rule
- The first written constitution adopted by any nation anywhere in the world
- The first lasting nation created by a successful revolt of enslaved people
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Answer: The first lasting nation created by a successful revolt of enslaved people
Enslaved people in Saint-Domingue overthrew French colonial rule and slavery, founding Haiti in 1804 — the only enduring state born of a slave uprising (the United States, a republic, had already existed since 1776).
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