Why Nations Fail quiz

More questions about Why Nations Fail

These visible examples show the question style. LearnClash turns the full topic into ranked duels and spaced repetition.

1. 1 Easy

   In which country did the Industrial Revolution begin due to inclusive institutions?

   Answer: Great Britain

   Why: Britain's 1688 institutional shift protected patents, allowing innovators like James Watt to profit from their inventions.

2. 2 Medium

   How did the dual economy in South Africa primarily benefit white farmers?

   Answer: Eliminating black competition

   Why: White farmers did not want African rivals buying farms, so the 1913 Natives Land Act barred them from buying or hiring land outside reserves of about 7 percent.

3. 3 Hard

   What contract allowed young Venetian merchants to trade with capital?

   Answer: Commenda

   Why: One partner put up the capital and the other made the voyage, splitting the profit so a man with no money could start.

4. 4 Easy

   Why was early Venice able to become a trade power?

   Answer: Social mobility

   Why: In 1297 the Serrata reserved Great Council seats for a hereditary nobility, and by the 1330s poorer families were shut out of the richest trade.

5. 5 Medium

   In Why Nations Fail, why did the Black Death increase peasant freedom?

   Answer: It increased labor's bargaining power

   Why: England fixed wages at pre-plague levels by law in 1351; the book says that after the 1381 Peasants' Revolt nobody tried to enforce it again.

6. 6 Hard

   According to Why Nations Fail, why did the Kingdom of Kongo not adopt the plow?

   Answer: Insecure property rights

   Why: A rival theory blames the tsetse fly, lethal to livestock; Marcella Alsan found fly-prone African areas used draft animals and plows less.