To make this, we used a browser in incognito mode with a VPN server in the United States. As you know, Google tracks your location as well as nearly everything you do on the internet. If you do these searches, you might get different results tailored to your specific situation.
This quiz was also made more difficult because Google highly sanitizes these autocompletes to avoid offending people.
Cavour and Garibaldi didn't unify it along with the rest of Italy, which is why it's still independent. I don't know why it didn't become part of Italy, but I do know that Garibaldi was given shelter there so that may be part of it. I'm no expert in Italian history or the Italian Unification, I just know what I learned from AP Euro and random geography videos on YouTube.
Probably just because it wasn't significant enough to warrant conquering. Every other country that was swallowed up into the unified Italy was either large, rich or strategically important. San Marino was none of the above.
I agree... some might come across as ignorant at first glance, but definitely not arrogant. I say at first glance because upon reflection, if I wasn't a regular Jetpunk user I would've asked most of these questions myself, and so would most regular people I know, and we're not American, soo...
Missed Japan and Indonesia. Had no idea about the former and thought the latter was about independence and couldn't get that out of my head once it was in there.
It's a dialectal variation with two parts; Firstly, in British English "on" can only refer to a one-day period, which is why Brits say "at the weekend" while Americans say "on the weekend". Second, in American English "Christmas" often refers specifically to Christmas Day while in Britain it normally refers to a period of several days starting on Christmas Eve. Hence American "on Christmas" can be translated as "at Christmas" or "on Christmas Day".
It's these little differences that make life interesting!
- Saudi Arabia has so much oil mostly by chance, but also by being a large country.
- France killed its king for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Louis XVI handled the French Revolution about as poorly as he could have.
- Germany invaded Poland because Poland had historically already been ruled by Germans, so it fit into Hitler's world view of a greater Germany with plenty of 'lebensraum'.
- Singapore banned chewing gum because it's the worst enemy of anyone who's ever had to clean a street.
- Brazil is good at football because of all the football-loving countries in the world, it has one of the largest populations (and thus talent pool).
- India is called a subcontinent because it sits on a separate tectonic plate.
- Portugal is not part of Spain because Spain never managed to conquer it, despite many, many, many attempts. The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance had a role to play in that.
- Indonesia became Muslim because of Arab traders.
- Costa Rica doesn't have an army because they use other ways to ensure territorial integrity and internal security.
- Ireland has no snakes because they were wiped out during the last ice age, and haven't made it back yet.
- Japan eats KFC on Christmas because it's American (or more broadly Western), and from their point of view, so is Christmas, I guess? Don't know this one.
- Venezuela has high inflation because of government mismanagement.
- Russia took Crimea (illegally, I might add) because of the strategic importance of the port of Sevastopol.
- China built the Great Wall to keep nomadic peoples from the Eurasian Steppe out. Didn't work when the Mongols came knocking.
- Monaco is so rich because it has managed (historically largely thanks to its casino, nowadays thanks to taxes) to profile itself as a haven for millionaires.
- Turkey is a member of NATO because Turkey has a centuries-old rivalry with Russia, and because it controls strategically important sea routes.
- South Africa has three capitals because those were the former capitals of the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and Transvaal, the three countries that made up the Dominion of South Africa.
- Pakistan wants Kashmir because they interpret the British-drawn border in a way that would make it theirs.
- Australians say 'mate' because most native English speakers outside North America do.
- Romania speaks a Romance language because of the Roman Empire, and a lack of Slavic settlement there.
- San Marino exists because Italy never tried to conquer it.
- Belgium colonised the Congo because Leopold II wanted a slice of the pie at the Berlin Conference of 1884.
- Norway hunts whales because they have done for centuries. They only hunt northern minke whales, which are not endangered.
- People from New Zealand are called Kiwis because the Kiwi bird is a national symbol, and both New Zealand's people and most famous export (kiwi fruits) were named after the bird.
This quiz was also made more difficult because Google highly sanitizes these autocompletes to avoid offending people.
But why?
It's these little differences that make life interesting!
Their entire existence is questioned.
Surprised it was
- Saudi Arabia has so much oil mostly by chance, but also by being a large country.
- France killed its king for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Louis XVI handled the French Revolution about as poorly as he could have.
- Germany invaded Poland because Poland had historically already been ruled by Germans, so it fit into Hitler's world view of a greater Germany with plenty of 'lebensraum'.
- Singapore banned chewing gum because it's the worst enemy of anyone who's ever had to clean a street.
- Brazil is good at football because of all the football-loving countries in the world, it has one of the largest populations (and thus talent pool).
- India is called a subcontinent because it sits on a separate tectonic plate.
- Portugal is not part of Spain because Spain never managed to conquer it, despite many, many, many attempts. The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance had a role to play in that.
- Indonesia became Muslim because of Arab traders.
- Ireland has no snakes because they were wiped out during the last ice age, and haven't made it back yet.
- Japan eats KFC on Christmas because it's American (or more broadly Western), and from their point of view, so is Christmas, I guess? Don't know this one.
- Venezuela has high inflation because of government mismanagement.
- Russia took Crimea (illegally, I might add) because of the strategic importance of the port of Sevastopol.
- China built the Great Wall to keep nomadic peoples from the Eurasian Steppe out. Didn't work when the Mongols came knocking.
- Monaco is so rich because it has managed (historically largely thanks to its casino, nowadays thanks to taxes) to profile itself as a haven for millionaires.
- Turkey is a member of NATO because Turkey has a centuries-old rivalry with Russia, and because it controls strategically important sea routes.
- Pakistan wants Kashmir because they interpret the British-drawn border in a way that would make it theirs.
- Australians say 'mate' because most native English speakers outside North America do.
- Romania speaks a Romance language because of the Roman Empire, and a lack of Slavic settlement there.
- San Marino exists because Italy never tried to conquer it.
- Belgium colonised the Congo because Leopold II wanted a slice of the pie at the Berlin Conference of 1884.
- Norway hunts whales because they have done for centuries. They only hunt northern minke whales, which are not endangered.
- People from New Zealand are called Kiwis because the Kiwi bird is a national symbol, and both New Zealand's people and most famous export (kiwi fruits) were named after the bird.