These are hard trivia questions about history: world history in four rounds, with no easy or medium questions at all. Each answer shows its reason and the article it was read in.
Read the full guide
Difficult history trivia questions in four rounds
Prehistory and the first civilizations runs from bone flutes to the Moche. Empires of the classical world covers Nineveh, the Han, Aksum and the Guptas. The post-classical world, 500 to 1500 takes in the Almohads, Silla, the Ilkhanate and Ayutthaya. The last round runs from the Safavids to the Self-Strengthening Movement.
For a table that knows its history
Read the four choices aloud; many of the wrong ones are real dynasties and places from the same century. Tally points on paper. The site's easy history pack is the place to start a mixed table.
Tips
For super hard history trivia questions, read the question without the choices and ask for a written answer.
Questions and answers
What are the hardest history trivia questions here?
Try these three. Which Korean kingdom conquered Baekje in 660? Which dynasty ruled Morocco while the Ottomans took the rest of North Africa? What is the Price Revolution? The answers are Silla, the Saadi dynasty and a surge in inflation.
Are there any easy questions in this pack?
No. Every question is marked hard. The site keeps its easy and medium world history in a separate pack, and no control on this page changes the level.
What does the long nineteenth century mean?
It is a historian's period that traditionally starts with the French Revolution in 1789 and lasts until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, so it is longer than the calendar century.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Human history, which every question links. Death tolls, the founding stories of religions and the article's last decades are not asked.
By at least 8500 BCE, Mesopotamia had wheat, barley, sheep and which other domesticated animal?Answer: Goats. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The cycle of glacial and interglacial periods that may have driven human evolution began about how long ago?Answer: 3.2 million years. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The earliest known musical instruments other than the voice are bone flutes about 40,000 years old. In which German region were they found?Answer: The Swabian Jura. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The most important difference between Homo habilis and Australopithecus was a 50 percent increase in what?Answer: Brain size. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Speakers of which languages began expanding across Central, Eastern and Southern Africa as early as 3000 BCE?Answer: The Bantu languages. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Watson Brake, an earthwork begun before 3000 BCE, is in which present-day state?Answer: Louisiana. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which Andean culture is noted for ceramics that depict many aspects of daily life?Answer: The Moche. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which civilization emerged on the coast of Peru around 3100 BCE?Answer: Norte Chico. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which crop did people of the Sahara cultivate between 8000 and 5000 BCE?Answer: Sorghum. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which domesticated plant appeared in Central America by 7800 BCE?Answer: Arrowroot. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Writing may have developed independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and which fourth place?Answer: Lowland Mesoamerica. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Empires of the classical world 9
In South India three prominent Dravidian kingdoms emerged, known together as the Three Crowned Kings: the Cheras, the Cholas and which third?Answer: The Pandyas. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
In which year did the Gupta Empire fall, leaving North India a network of smaller kingdoms?Answer: 550 CE. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The Kingdom of Aksum, a trading empire that controlled the Red Sea trade, was centered in which present-day country?Answer: Ethiopia. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The stirrup spread from Central Asia in the 1st century CE and, before that, from which place?Answer: India. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
To which centuries CE is the innovation of paper in China dated?Answer: The 1st and 2nd. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Under which emperor did the Roman Empire reach its peak, holding land from England to Mesopotamia?Answer: Trajan. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which dynasty of China invented the compass?Answer: The Han. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which empire made Persian Zoroastrianism an institution?Answer: The Achaemenid Empire. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Who sacked Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in 612 BCE?Answer: The Medes. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The post-classical world, 500 to 1500 12
After Möngke Khan died in 1259 the Mongol Empire split into four states. Which one ruled Iran?Answer: The Ilkhanate. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Around which year did the Turks found the Ottoman Empire?Answer: 1299. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
From the 9th to 13th centuries Central Asia was divided among the Samanid, the Seljuk and which other empire?Answer: The Khwarazmian. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
In the 12th century the Almoravids of the Maghreb were subsumed by which caliphate?Answer: The Almohad Caliphate. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
In which year did Japan's Heian period, the peak of imperial power, end?Answer: 1185. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
In which year did the Khmer Empire replace an earlier state in Southeast Asia?Answer: 802 CE. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The Medieval Warm Period aided farming and population growth in parts of Europe and Asia. Across which centuries did it run?Answer: The 10th to the 13th. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Over which kingdoms did the Kanem-Bornu Empire project its power?Answer: The Hausa Kingdoms. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The Polynesians who colonized Remote Oceania were descendants of which peoples?Answer: The Lapita. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The Tripartite Struggle of the 9th century for North India was fought by the Pratihara, the Pala and which third empire?Answer: The Rashtrakuta. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which kingdom of the Thais dates from 1351?Answer: Ayutthaya. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which Korean kingdom conquered Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668?Answer: Silla. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
From 1450 to the long nineteenth century 12
Between which years is a common break between the medieval period and the early modern period placed?Answer: 1450 and 1500. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
The Fula jihads led to the Sokoto Caliphate, the Massina Empire and which third state?Answer: The Tukulor Empire. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
In 19th-century southern Africa, what was the upheaval called that led to the founding of several African kingdoms?Answer: The Mfecane. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
In the 16th century the Ottomans conquered all of North Africa except Morocco. Which dynasty ruled Morocco at the time?Answer: The Saadi dynasty. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
In the first wave of democratization, between 1828 and 1926, democratic institutions were established in how many countries?Answer: 33. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
What do historians call the rise of Europe whose causes they still debate?Answer: The Great Divergence. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
What is the surge in inflation called that followed the flow of gold and silver from the Americas into Western Europe?Answer: The Price Revolution. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
What was the reform effort of 19th-century China called?Answer: The Self-Strengthening Movement. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which dynasty came to rule Persia in 1501?Answer: The Safavids. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which kingdom conquered most of Madagascar in the 19th century?Answer: Imerina. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which period of Japan ran from 1568 to 1600, just before the Edo period?Answer: The Azuchi-Momoyama period. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
Which sultanate did the Portuguese overthrow in 1511?Answer: The Malacca Sultanate. Source: Wikipedia: Human history
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Human history. The text of each article was fetched on October 2, 2026, and on October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in it before the question was kept. Every question is marked hard. Left out on purpose: death tolls, the founding stories of religions, anything about the last few decades, and the facts the site's easier history packs and its hard general pack already ask. The level is our estimate. Each question also carries the date its article was read (checkedOn). Licence: own work