2024-2025 National History Bee Study Guide PDF

2024-2025 Regional Tournament Study Guide – Blue Question Set Instructions: This study guide should be your first resource in preparing for the National History Bee Regional Regional Tournaments on the Blue Question Set. Many of the facts below are found at some point in the 120 questions that comp...

2024-2025 Regional Tournament Study Guide – Blue Question Set Instructions: This study guide should be your first resource in preparing for the National History Bee Regional Regional Tournaments on the Blue Question Set. Many of the facts below are found at some point in the 120 questions that compose the Blue Question Set. Thus we have selected these facts for this study guide to help make your preparation easier and more efficient. Remember that the questions are all short paragraphs on a particular topic, so if a topic is referenced below, then it is a good idea to learn a bit more about it on your own than what is listed here (since additional facts about a topic will also be referenced in the question). It is also helpful to read the introduction of a Wikipedia page on a topic to gain additional historical context about why it is significant. Please also use the National Capitals Study Guide and our past question sets (especially National History Bee Regional Finals questions from past years) which can all be found here. Many of the topics that are found in past years’ questions will again be found in the questions at this year’s Regional Tournaments, and at the National Championships too. Good luck! Note: Dates of peoples’ lives are provided mostly for reference. With very few exceptions (e.g. mentioning the year of an assassination), birth and death dates are almost never directly mentioned in questions. Please do not waste time trying to memorize any dates if they are only provided in parentheses below. African History 1. Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) was a businessman who named a colony whose territory makes up modern Zambia and Zimbabwe. 2. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was the leader of the African National Congress who was the first black president of South Africa. 3. Ghana is a West African nation that was a British colony known as the Gold Coast until its 1957 independence. Asian History 1. Mao Zedong (1893-1976) was the first leader of Communist China, who ordered the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. 2. The Battle of Okinawa was a 1945 World War II battle fought on the largest of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. 3. Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was the first female Prime Minister of India, who was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. 4. The Indus River was home to a namesake “Valley” civilization located on the India-Pakistan border. Ancient History 1. Cyrus the Great (c. 600-530 BC) was the founder of the Achaemenid, or Persian, Empire. 2. Pharaohs were the monarchs of ancient Egypt, many of whom are buried in the Valley of the Kings. 3. Hieroglyphics were a writing system used in ancient Egypt, which was deciphered by comparing it with Greek script found on the Rosetta Stone. 4. The ancient Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held in Greece between 776 BC and 393 AD/CE, when they were halted per the orders of Theodosius I. European History 1. The Holocaust was a mass extermination of Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II that killed at least six million people. 2. Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was the last Tudor monarch of England, whose reign saw the rise of English drama by authors such as William Shakespeare. 3. Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) was the Portuguese explorer who led the first circumnavigation of the world, although he was killed before the end of the voyage. 4. Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) was the founder and first leader of the Soviet Union. 5. George III (1738-1820) was the British king at the time of the American Revolution. 6. The Hapsburgs were an Austrian dynasty that ruled at different times over Austria, the Holy Roman Empire, and Spain. 8. Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) was the first Chancellor of Germany and oversaw the nation’s reunification. 9. Louis XIV (1638-1715), known as the “Sun King”, was the French king who reigned for longer than any other European monarch. Latin American History 1. The high rate of yellow fever infection among the builders of the Panama Canal inspired Walter Reed to develop a cure for that disease. 2. Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican surrealist painter who often painted self-portraits. She was married to Diego Rivera, himself a famous artist who painted many murals. 3. Argentina was once led by President Juan Peron, under whose administration the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann hid out in Buenos Aires for 15 years. 4. Machu Picchu is an abandoned Incan fortress and UNESCO World Heritage Site located near Cusco. U.S. History 1. Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) was the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe in World War II and the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. 2. Betsy Ross (1752-1836) is the seamstress who is credited with creating the first American flag. 3. The Mexican-American War was a 1846 to 1848 war ended by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 4. Jamestown is a city in Virginia that was the first permanent English colony in America. 5. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 invalidated segregation in public accommodations. 6. Mike Pence (1959- ) was the U.S. Vice President from 2017-2021 during Donald Trump’s first term. 7. Crazy Horse (1840-1877) was the Lakota Sioux leader who won the Battle of the Little Big Horn. 8. John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was the sixth U.S. President, who was accused by Andrew Jackson of winning election in 1824 based on a “corrupt bargain” with Henry Clay.