Dear Colleagues,

The answers to last year's Christmas Quiz.

As there were no entries, no prize will be awarded.

The Quiz & Answers

Q 1 The International Date Line was shortened significantly in 1910.
1.1 What was the name of the island causing the previously longer
line?
1.2 What was this island's geographical position?
1.3 What specific 'property' of this island led to the shortening
of the International Date Line?
1.4 What was the name of the person whose activities, once they
became recognized as criminal, led to the redrawing of the
International Date Line?

Q 1 Answers
1.1 Morrell Island
1.2 29° 57 North, 174° 31 East
1.3 It has never existed
1.4 Captain Benjamin Morrell

Q 2 A thumbnail-sized piece of paper led to the following sequence of
events:
- Secession of one province from the mother country
- Temporary cession of an integral part of the new country's
territory to a distant power
- Achievement of a remarkable engineering project.
2.1 From which country did this piece of paper originate?
2.2 In which year did this piece of paper see the light of day?
2.2 What exactly was shown on it?
2.3 Why was this so important?

Q 2 Answers
2.1 Nicaragua
2.2 1900
2.3 The Nicaraguan volcano Momotombo, belching smoke
2.4 The stamp, circulated among US senators, led to the canal being
built in Panama instead of Nicaragua

Q 3 What did the demarcation commission of the China/Burma boundary in
the 1960s do to improve the visibility of the boundary?

Q 3 Answer
They planted flowering trees

Q 4 The boundary between the two German states was finally demarcated
in the 1970s, except for the stretch running along the river
Elbe.
The GDR claimed the boundary to be along the center of the river
bed,
whereas the FRG claimed the width of the river up to the tips of
the
breakwaters on the northern bank. This conflict remainded
unsolved
until 1989.
4.1 In the original agreement 1944, what words did the Allies
choose to describe the boundary of the Allied Zones of
Occupation
in the Elbe area?
4.2 Of the 93.7 km Elbe boundary, over what length did the boundary
according to the wording in the 1944 protocol actually run
along the centre of the river bed?
4.3 Which territory bordering the Elbe was subsequently handed over
to another Allied Zone of Occupation following a formal
bilateral
agreement?
4.4 Apart from the territory mentioned in 4.3, how many territorial
fragments along the river changed hands between the United
Kingdom
and the Soviet Union?
4.5 On what grounds did the FRG claim the entire width of the river
bed?

Q 4 Answers
4.1 "The territory of Germany ... situated to the East of a line
drawn from the
point on Lübeck Bay where the frontiers of Schleswig-Holstein
and
Mecklenburg meet, along the western frontier of Mecklenburg to
the frontier
of Hanover, thence, along the eastern frontier of Hanover, to
the frontier of
Brunswick; thence along the western frontier of the Prussian
province of
Saxony to the western frontier of Anhalt ... will be occupied
by armed forces
of the U.S.S.R. ..."
4.2 40.5 km
4.3 Neuhaus Strip
4.4 Four
4.5 The FRG claimed that handing over the Neuhaus Strip to the
U.S.S.R.
did not include the adjoining river bed.

Q 5 At the end of World War II, French troops occupied a large part of
Southern Germany, including the region along Lake Constance and
the river Rhine.
But what about the Büsingen enclave...
5.1 How many members of the French occupation force were allowed
into Büsingen at any one time?
5.2 Were these persons allowed to carry weapons?
5.3 Which route were these persons to take from 'mainland' Germany?
5.4 When and where was the formal agreement on this matter signed?

Q 5 Answers
5.1 10, including customs officials
5.2 Yes
5.3 From Gailingen along Laagstrasse
5.4 3 November 1945 in Bern

Q 6 In August 1969, military action was taken to help resolve a
territorial dispute by force.
6.1 A number of pilots for this mission under the command of
Captain Nascimento were given the rank of Major. Why?
6.2 Which territory was the military action designed to capture?
6.3 According to one of the pilots' report, which unexpected
obstacle did the troops encounter in the target area?
6.4 What nationality was the only fatality of the confrontation,
and what was his cause of death?

Q 6 Answers
6.1 The final decision for the assault had to rest with the pilots.
They therefore had to hold at least the rank of Major.
6.2 The New River Triangle in southern Guyana/Suriname
6.3 The target runway was obstructed by survey poles
6.4 One Surinamese soldier drowned, when the boat he fled in
capsized.

Q 7 Some political geographers in the past advocated the maximum
stability for countries with a circular boundary and the capital
at its centre. Who said mathematics has no place in political
geography?
Let's imagine an ideal plane shared by countries as close to the
'ideal' shape as possible, without leaving any gaps.
This would obviously be a honeycomb structure of adjacent
regular hexagons.
If we now consider an ideal globe without oceans or large lakes,
without seasons and different climate zones.
The task is to cover the surface with 32 countries of equal area,

without leaving gaps, while keeping the boundary length of each
country to the minimum
(for reasons of simplicity we assume a polyeder instead of a true

sphere).
7.1 Which shape(s) must these countries have?
7.2 How many countries are required of each shape type?
7.3 How is the area of each type of shape calculated?

Q 7 Answers
7.1 Regular pentagons and hexagons with two different sides,
the longer one equalling the side of the pentagon
7.2 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons
7.3 Regular pentagon: Area = a2 * 1.7205
Hexagon: Area = 0.433 * (a2 + 4ab + b2)

Q 8 The McDonalds Theorem of War and Peace basically says that no two
countries ever went to war against one another if there was at
least one
branch of McDonalds fast food chain in both countries.
For this theorem, civil wars and unrests do not count.
8.1 Name an exception, i.e. both war parties and the year
8.2 In this example, how long until the fast food branches on the
territory
of one participant were closed?

Q 8 Answers
8.1 Yugoslavia and the NATO countries in October 1999
8.2 2 days

Q 9 We all know these jokes like 'How many (insert group to be derided)
does it take to change a lightbulb?'.
In a more serious vein If the answer to the question 'The state

authorities of how many countries have to be involved to change a

lightbulb?' is 'Four' -
9.1 Where is this street lamp located (village/town/city as well as
street/square name)?
9.2 Which four states' authorities would be involved?
9.3 During which period of history has this taken place?

Q 9 Answers
9.1 "West Berlin, Platz vor dem Brandenburger Tor" or
"East Berlin, Pariser Platz"
9.2 1. Federal Republic of Germany/West Berlin Senate,
2. United Kingdom (The lamp posts were in the UK Sector),
3. Soviet Union (The light bulbs were in Soviet Sector
airspace),
4. German Democratic Republic (to actually carry out the
repair)
9.3 Between 1945 and 1989

Q 10 The Channel Island of Guernsey's subdivision into ten Parishes has
produced fragments of almost communal Liechtenstein magnitude.
A Parish in Guernsey is a clerical as well as a communal
subdivision.
10.1 Which Parishes are fragmented, if the Parish boundaries at
low water level are taken into account?
10.2 Identify the smallest fragment on the island; what is its area

in square meters?
10.3 There is a tight bottleneck in the west of the island, where
two Parishes nearly meet at one point. By what distance do
we
miss out on a biparochial quadripoint, rounded to the
nearest
meter?

Q 10 Answers
10.1 Torteval, St. Martins, St. Sampsons
10.2 St. Martins Exclave, to the west of the main Parish, 24.123
sqm
10.3 30.4 m -> 30 m

Q 11 The state of Bremen is the smallest of the 16 constituent states
of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the City of
Bremen and the City of Bremerhaven, a territorial fragment
some 50 kilometers downriver from Bremen.
11.1 In what way does the inner harbour area of Bremerhaven
qualify as a territorial curiosity?
11.2 What is the smallest fragment of the city state of Bremen
called, and roughly where is that exclave located in
relation to
Bremen territory?
11.3 What characterizes the population of this fragment, if any?

Q 11 Answers
11.1 It forms part of the city of Bremen, not part of the city of
Bremerhaven
11.2 Exclave Fehrmoor, just north east of Bremerhaven
11.3 Non-permanent people in weekend houses

Q 12 Three days after the end of World War 2, the first post-Nazi de
facto government on German territory took office.
12.1 What territory did this government effectively control?
12.2 Why did the Allied forces allow this to happen?
12.3 On what date did this government hand over control to Allied
forces?

Q 12 Answers
12.1 The district (Landkreis) of Schwarzenberg in Western Saxony.
12.2 The Soviet troops kept their agreement with the US forces and
stopped
east of Schwarzenberg, whereas the US troops stopped west of
the
territory. Some sources say this was an oversight by the
Americans.
Others claim the power vacuum gave the Americans the chance
to
transfer millions of German soldiers from adjacent Bohemia
into their
control. In view of the impending Cold War scenario with the
USSR
this was apparently more desirable than leaving them for
capture by
the Soviet forces.
12.3 On 24 June 1945, the Action Committees of Republik
Schwarzenberg
handed over control to the Soviet commander.

Q 14 Micronations are entities created by individuals who want to see
the dream of their own state come true. The world at large
usually ignores
them, except during the silly season.
Nevertheless, one such micronation gained recognition by a
subject
of International Law. After protest from the 'mother country',
which doesn't recognize the secession, this subject of
International
Law 'de-recognized' that micronation.
14.1 Where is this micronation located and what is its name?
14.2 Which subject of International Law recognized it?
14.3 What is so peculiar about 'de-recognizing' a
country/micronation?

Q 14 Answers
14.1 Near Northampton in Western Australia,
called "Hutt River Province Principality"
14.2 Hong Kong
14.3 International Law does not know the process of de-recognizing
a country. In other words: recognition is irreversible.