History quiz

[Prussian to the Iron]

while I agree that Meth deserves it, admittedly he didn't say "Hemp" in it, which may or may not be critical to it. I don't know the cleaning properties of hemp steam, but maybe he wanted specifics.

[The Wizard]

It wasn't steam, it was weed smoke

[miotas]

Meth's steam response did spark my memory, but the hemp part was the bit that was strange about it.

I like this question question because it invokes a "what the..." reaction.

In what year did Australia invade and take German territory? For bonus points, what was the territory called?

[A Very Super Market]

German New Guinea, obviously. 1914.

There's a reason why it's called the Bismarck sea...

[miotas]

Yep, Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and surrounding islands, your turn.

[A Very Super Market]

I was captured in peacetime in an odd way. I was vomiting into some knee high water, in a modern day capital of a nation. A large crowd of people had seen me jump in, and I was quickly apprehended. My crime? [euphenism] Roadwork. [/wordplay]

[Veho Nex]

Not a clue...

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

If I am correct, it is such an easy answer, but so beautifully presented as to make it complicated. Gravrilo Princip?

[A Very Super Market]

Excrutiatingly close, but Gravrilo was on dry land.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Of course, it would have to be Cabrinovic. The roadwork refers to the crater he created with the bomb, correct?

[A Very Super Market]

Yep. In the most poorly executed assassination attempt in history, Cabrinovic makes himself stand out by forgetting his grenade's timer, missing the archduke's car anyways, making a fool of himself by ingesting poor-quality cyanide and vomiting, and misjudging the Miljacka river by a good 10 feet.

Your turn.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

The French named a bridge after me for concluding an alliance with them that was the result of the fall of a brilliant statesman, only two years before my untimely death caused by an inflammation. Who am I, and what was the alliance?

Bonus points for whoever gets the bridge and the other statesman.

[_Tristan_]

It is the Alexandre III Bridge named after the Russian Tsar Alexandre III.

The first stone of the bridge was laid in 1986 by Nicholas II, two years after his father's death. It commemorates the Franco-Russian Alliance signed in 1893.

The other statesman would be Bismarck (though not so sure about this...)

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Correct, though I think you meant 1886 and not 1986.

[A Very Super Market]

Oh those time-travelling Russians...

[Veho Nex]

Pfft Communist can't travel back in time, they are required by the law of the universe to stay in the present time, only totalitarian dictatorships that have focus on space and time technology can go back and forth through time.

[Snite]

This thing seems dead. Let us attempt to revive it with something a little easy:

What European people checked the expansion of the following empires/migrations into their lands: The Romans, The Magyars, The Mongols, and the Turks?(though that last one involved a coalition of numerous other nations).

[aimlesswanderer]

Hmm, well, the Germanic tribes fit the description the best, though the Mongols were stopped more by the death of the Khan than by a battle or battles. The various European armies (including Germans) got thumped repeatedly from memory.

[The Lurker Below]

guessing Slavs just based on proximity

[Prussian to the Iron]

the ruskies? though romans wouldnt fit that...

maybe the greeks. probably seems like an odd choice for magars and mongols, but considering the proximity to constantinople and the rest of the eastern roman empire, it should work.

[Snite]

aimlesswanderer got it. And my understanding was that the Mongols got defeated at Vienna, same as the Turks would be later.

[aimlesswanderer]

As far as I have read the German Empire/HRE stood around and did nothing about the Mongols. The Mongols made it to the Adriatic but left, and the death of the Khan meant that offensive operations ceased. They never got that far into Europe again.

My question:

I was the second son, and largely through my military leadership our family re united the fragmented country, which had fallen into chaos when the previous dynasty had over allocated resources to war and great engineering projects. My father became Emperor, but I objected to my older brother as his successor and a civil war followed. After winning the war I became Emperor, and in the eyes of many I am thought of as one of my country's greatest rulers. Who am I?

Extra clues if needed.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Our home area was the base which previous dynasties had sprung from, and was known as "the land between the passes", and we took the name of our original fief as our dynastic name.

[The Lurker Below]

the people that started at the castle of the hawks were in so many places for so long. hmmmm

[A Very Super Market]

Li Shimin, Second emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

[aimlesswanderer]

That's right AVSM, Tang Taizong (reign name), second Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Over to you.

[A Very Super Market]

I will pass it to the next poster

[Prussian to the Iron]

During the Salem Witch Trials, what slave supposedly taught the girls the fortune telling technique, and was subsequently named as a witch?

[gaelic cowboy]

It was Tituba

I'm alnost 99% certain this correct so here is my question

Who supposedly in anger at a diplomatic snub by Harold Alexander at a state dinner in Canada declared his country to be a republic.

should be easy enough this one

[aimlesswanderer]

Now, if I can just remember back to the 0.000001 second we spent on Canadian history at school.... Wayne Gretsky? Thank you winter olympics for that deep knowledge.

[gaelic cowboy]

Now, if I can just remember back to the 0.000001 second we spent on Canadian history at school.... Wayne Gretsky? Thank you winter olympics for that deep knowledge.

Eh wha?? No thats not correct guess again