Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1270s

The 1270s are starting to feel pretty modern and well documented.  This was the easiest decade quiz to write thus far.  Which is not to say it will be any easier to take.   

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1. On August 10, 1270, Yekuno Amlak overthrew the Zagwe dynasty. Claiming decent from the royal family of ancient Axum and ultimately from King Soloman, he established a dynasty that would rule his county continuously until 1974, when the last emperor was deposed in a coup d’état.  What country?

2. In 1270, Louis IX of France took sick and died outside of Tunis; in 1271 prince Edward of England raided and sacked towns in the Eastern Mediterranean, established a brief alliance with the Mongols, and then signed a peace treaty with the Sultan of Egypt. And that was pretty much the end of what?

3. In 1271, a young Venetian merchant set off with his dad and his uncle on a trip to the mysterious East. After he returned 24 years later, he narrated an account of his travels that has pretty much stayed in print ever since. What was his name?

4. In 1273, Rudolf I of German was elected Holy Roman Emperor, ending the 20 year Great Interregnum. What’s an interregnum?

5. In 1274, a Mongol army attempted to invade Japan. Despite superior numbers, technology, and tactics, the Mongols were repulsed by the Japanese. Part of the reason for the Japanese victory was the appearance of a kamikaze – not a suicidal fighter pilot, of course, but the thing the suicidal fighter pilots were allegorically named after. What is a kamikaze?

6. Finished in 1275, this medieval French poem “styled as an allegorical dream vision” claims to be a teaching about the “art of love.” With its “emphasis on sensual language and imagery,” the poem was naturally “both popular and controversial—one of the most widely read works in France for three centuries.” It was translated into numerous European languages. What was the name of this early international best-seller?

7. Originally (and still) the flag of Genoa, the red “St. George’s Cross” began to be used as the flag for what other European country in the 1270s?

8. In 1278, the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix resolved a dispute over a chunk of land in the Pyrenees by agreeing to an unusual arrangement of joint sovereignty. Surprisingly, this setup endures today, with the Count of Foix’s piece of the action having been taken over by the King of Navarre, and then by the French head of state. This is the essential history of what country?

9. We haven’t talked about the Cholas for a long time, and this is our last chance! For, The Pandyas in the south had risen to the rank of a great power who ultimately banished the Hoysalas from Malanadu or Kannada country, who were allies of the Cholas from Tamil country, and the demise of the Cholas themselves ultimately was caused by the Pandyas in 1279. Where was all of this happening?

10. The Cholas were not the only ancient empire to perish in 1279. The newly-organized Yuan Dynasty defeated the Song Dynasty at the Battle of Yamen in that year, extinguishing an imperial line that had been around since 960. Who was now the emperor of all China?

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Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1260s

1. The Egyptian Mamluks defied Hulagu Khan, the Mongols attacked, and the Egyptians handed them their asses. It was the first major defeat for the Mongols, who would never advance any further to the southwest.
2. That Baptistry would be by Nicola Pisano.
3. The end of the Latin Empire was the rebirth of the Byzantine Empire, or the Roman Empire as they themselves would have had it.
4. Mindaugas is the father of Lithuania.
5. Dadu / Khanbaliq is still the capital; we call it Beijing.
6. The Kingdom of Cusco would eventually accumulate the Inca Empire.
7. Simon de Montfort's big meeting is sometimes called the "Model Parliament," and it was by some reckonings the first real English Parliament.
8. The smart theologian? Thomas Aquinas.
9. Norway turned over Man and the other islands over to Scotland, ending years of war between the two countries.
10. After Clement IV died, the Cardinals took three years to elect a new pope. They clung to their stalemate after having been locked in a room and then having their food reduced to bread and water, and only caved as the roof was being removed.

Excellent answers all around, but I'm going to give the Mindaugas Cup to pfly, who not only shows his work in an amusing and successful fashion, but was the only one to catch on that this was the decade where it stopped going all the Mongols' way.

IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THANK A TEACHER.

IF YOU CAN READ THIS IN OTHER THAN MONGOLIAN, THANK A MAMLUK.