Useless trivia knowledge

[TheEarl]

I have a request. I have a mandate!

1. (Nice and easy to start) Which one is the odd one out of all of these and why? England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
2. The Treaty of Versailles:
a) Why was the treaty signed in Versailles?
b) Name 3 bits of mainland European territory that the German Empire had to surrender.
3. What nationality are the guardians of the Pope?
4. What was agreed at the Treaty of Brest Litovsk (bonus point if you can name any of the ancilliary terms)?
5. Who was the next monarch after Henry VIII?

The Earl

 

[TheEarl]

Bump for no reason

The Earl

 

[R. Richard]

Perdita:
Thanks for the info on Romani.

Based on what you dug up, I would call Romani a language, not a creole. Of course Romani is split into many dialects, since the Roma do not have a country and are widely scattered. However, the fact that even widely dispersed groups of Roma seem to be able to communicate at very low level in 'basic Romani' would seem to indicate to me that it is indeed a language.

JMHO.

 

[Guest]

RR, I agree with you, and wonder now how it was that Romani was labeled creole.

Cealy: thanks for the source, I'd always heard the golf quote attributed to Twain but did not know if it had been written or merely spoken and recounted.

Earl: the Swiss guard the pope (your other questions were too boring for me ).

Pear

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Brest Litovsk was where the Russians sued for peace with Germany in WWI. Russia had just had its revolution (fueled in no small part by the revolt of the Russian army against the disastrous bungling of the Russian general stuff in fighting the Germans) and was in no shape to continue the war, so Lenin and Trotsky signed a non-agression pact with the wiley Hun.

They got screwed too. They were in no position to demand anything, and so they ended up ceding the Ukraine, Finland, and hapless Poland to the Germans, maybe some more stuff too.

WW II was something, but nothing comes close to WW I in terms of unrelenting horror and unmitigated disaster. More than any other event, WW I put an end to the old Victorian world and ushered in the modern era. In a lot of ways, WWII was nothing more than WWI take two in that it was the Treaty of Versailles that paved the way for Hitler's rise to power.

The Treaty of Versailles was what Germany was forced to sign to end WWI, and I believe it was signed in Versailles because that's where the Germans forced the French to sign the treaty ending the Franco-Prussian war. (Or was that just the same railroad car? Something like that.) The conditions the French iimposed on Germany were so severe that Germany was finally forced to abrogate the treaty, which was what gave Hitler such a step up.

How'd I do?

---dr.M.

 

[oggbashan]

1. Wales was never a kingdom, but a Principality. England, Scotland and Ireland were Kingdoms. Wales is not represented on the Union Flag.

Og

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Edward the VI was the next one down. An actual male heir who ruled from the lovely age of 10 to the lovely age of 16 by sitting on a throne and having his uncle plot and scheme for him. His death led to the rise of Bloody Mary. Don't ask me why I know this.

Territories for Versailles I believe are Alasce-Lorraine (sp?), Memel, Hutschin, the city of Danzig, and a couple of other ones...

And didn't the naming of the treaty have something to do with Parisian suburbs, because it was at the Paris Peace Conference where these were all written? I remember reading a while back that that's how all the treaties were named.

 

[TheEarl]

I have a request. I have a mandate!

1. (Nice and easy to start) Which one is the odd one out of all of these and why? England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
2. The Treaty of Versailles:
a) Why was the treaty signed in Versailles?
b) Name 3 bits of mainland European territory that the German Empire had to surrender.
3. What nationality are the guardians of the Pope?
4. What was agreed at the Treaty of Brest Litovsk (bonus point if you can name any of the ancilliary terms)?
5. Who was the next monarch after Henry VIII?

The Earl

1) Oggbashan is correct - Wale has never been a country, only a principality.

2) The treaty was signed in the Palace of Versaille's hall of mirrors, because that was where France had signed a surrender to Prussia to end the Franco-Prussian war. Pieces of territory that come to mind that Germany ceded in the treaty are: Alsace-Lorraine to France, Schleswig-Holstein to Denmark, Danzig as an independent free port, the Sudetenland to the newly formed Czechoslovakia, Vilnis to Latvia, an area of Eastern Germany to Poland, a temporary ceding of the Rhinemark to France and several others which I'm afraid I've forgotten.

3. Swiss Harlequins guard the Pope, as so aptly observed by the bored Pear. They scare away threats with silly uniforms.

4. Dr M is spot on - Brest Litovsk was the treaty that ended Russia's involvement in WW1. Russia actually tried playing hardball with the Germans over the terms of the treaty, despite having no leg to stand on and were forced to accept a ridiculous treaty when Germany redeclared war and threatened to wipe them out. The treaty was declared null and void after Versailles.

5. Edward VI was the next on the throne after Henry VIII, but I was under the impression he only ruled for 6 months, before dying of an unspecified 'illness.' He was a sickly child, mainly due to his father being syphilitic, but his death was probably more attributable to Mary or Elizabeth offing him than to natural causes.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

Swiss Harlequins guard the Pope, as so aptly observed by the bored Pear. They scare away threats with silly uniforms.

When I'm obscenely famous I shall hire you to write my autobio; I like your observations of me, kid.

Pear (rarely bored by The E.)