Sample questions from the National History Bowl

Congratulations to my old high school, which had a team among the finalists for the National History Bowl competition.  The website for the competition offers sets of sample questions; here are some examples -

10. This amendment is the only one adopted by state conventions instead of state legislatures. Utah’s ratification brought it into effect in 1933, which is somewhat ironic in a sense. Name this amendment to the Constitution, the only one to repeal a different amendment, the 18th, which had introduced Prohibition, which came to an end with this amendment’s passing.

6. The inhabitants of this city may have participated in child sacrifice in their worship of the god Baal. Dominated for years by the Barca family, It is described in Book 1, Line 12 of the Aeneid as being both ancient and settled by colonists from Tyre. For ten points, name this city in modern-day Tunisia which was destroyed after the third Punic War with Rome.

6. Although a colony of Portugal not of Britain, it is still a member of the Commonwealth Nations. And although not home to a communist government, its flag still features the star of Marxism and an AK-47. Just like another Portuguese colony, roughly 1500 miles to its northwest, Angola, it won independence in 1975. For twenty points, name this country on the east coast of Africa whose foreign relations with neighboring Zimbabwe and South Africa improved dramatically in the 1980’s.

8. He was clearly the most competent commander for his state in World War I, although that couldn’t prevent his state’s defeat at the hands of Lawrence of Arabia, among others. His military prowess also proved useful in the war against Greece which soon followed. Following the war, he helped institutionalize secular principles in his country and introduced the Latin alphabet in lieu of Arabic. For twenty points, name this man whose mausoleum can be seen in Ankara, the founder of modern Turkey.