Compound names, acronyms and mnemonics for groupings of places are frequently used in modern discourse as short-hand memory aids. The word Benelux is derived from the first 2 letters of Belgium, the Netherlands and the first 3 letters of Luxembourg and initially referred to the Benelux customs union agreed in 1944.  BRICS comes from the initials of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and represents significant major economies in the 21st century. The acronym PIIGS refers to Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain and characterised fiscally vulnerable members during the Eurozone crisis of the 2010s.
 
Below are listed some compound names, acronyms and mnemonics representing groups of geographical places, states, countries, counties, cities and towns etc which were historically linked together for varying reasons. Can you guess the groupings or the names of the places?
 
1. CAT SPAt = Corinth, Argos, Thebes, Sparta, Persia, Athens (main players during the Corinthian War 395–387 BC)




2. NYLon THongS = New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai (5 cities which contain the world's 7 largest stock exchanges, from 1986 to 2006 New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong were the Big 4 until the financial crisis of 2007 which propelled Shanghai into the big league)  




3. FranK MUM WASHES BABIES = Frankfurt, Kempten, Magdeburg, Ulm, Mansfeld, Wurttemberg, Anhalt, Saxony, Hesse, Einbeck, Strasbourg, Brunswick, Augsburg, Bremen, Isny, Esslingen, Schwarzburg (the Schmalkaldic League formed in the 1530s as a defensive alliance of Lutheran rulers against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and thus turning protestantism from an ecclesiastical debate into a temporal force)




4. FAT LAD / FAT DAD = Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Derry/Londonderry, Armagh, Down (6 Ulster counties which formed Northern Ireland in 1922)




5. LoB Glas Chic = London, Budapest, Glasgow, Chicago (cities with urban railways before 1900)




6. I JAB GRUF = Italy, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Britain, Germany, Russia, United States of America, France (the Eight-Nation Alliance which brought the Boxer Rebellion in China to an end in 1900)





7. FANNZ = Finland, Australia, Norway and New Zealand (4 independent sovereign states today which achieved equal suffrage before the First World War, in 1893 New Zealand women were the first to achieved the right to vote in parliamentary elections while in 1906 women in Finland were the first to be able to stand for election to parliament)




8. TOFS = the Transvaal and the Orange Free State (the Afrikaner or Boer republics which co-existed uneasily with the British empire in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th Century)




9. ViC, GeMMa, PenNY ‘N JeN HaD No Car RISC = Virginia, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Delaware, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina (Thirteen American Colonies which declared independence in 1776)




10. NIWS = Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland (the question 'relevant NIWS?' began to be used by editors on UK-wide news desks in London following devolution in 1999 - i.e. were England-only stories relevant to readers, listeners and viewers elsewhere)




11. BLUnt SoUr FriZZ BAGSS= Berne, Lucerne, Unterwalden, Solothurn, Uri, Fribourg, Zug, Zurich, Basel, Appenzell, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Schwytz (Thirteen Cantons which comprised the Old Swiss Confederacy from 1513 to 1798)




12. A BIG FUSE = Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Uruguay, Spain, England (former winners of the FIFA World Cup)

No. 4 FAT LAD - the Six Counties of (UK) Northern Ireland - Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Londonderry, Armagh, Down, or FAT DAD if you shorten Londonderry to just Derry, no?

Yes - the 6 of 9 Ulster counties which formed Northern Ireland in 1922.

Am I right in assuming that the NZ bit of FANNZ might be New Zealand? Or that anything with NYLON in it relates to New York and London (like Nylon itself)?

The NZ does refer to New Zealand and an historical first for that country. The other three countries listed in No.7 followed on close behind (one of those others also achieved another related historical first). Genuine fans - not flappers.

And NYLON indeed relates to New York and London. People working in the relevant institutions in the 5 cities listed in No. 2 are also likely to be those who might coin terms such as PIIGS as used in the opening post.

This is difficult ... I've tried thinking of things/events like the countries that were signatories to the Treaty of Rome, the 13 American Colonies that declared independence from Britain, the Confederate States that ceded from the Union, even groupings like the Cinq Ports or the seven hills of Rome ... but none of them seem to fit, but am I at least vaguely thinking along the right lines for the menemonic ones?

I'm guessing then that the NYLON THONGS one relates to major stock exchanges?

As in New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and either Shanghai or Singapore ...

Though what these have exclusively in common defeats me.

EDIT: and does FANNZ have something to do with suffrage or women allowed stand for parliament? In which case Finland, Australia, Netherlands and NZ are early runners (though by no means pioneers).

Meles - the signatories of the Treaty of Rome are not there and neither are the Confederate States (well not the American ones anyway) nor are the Cinque Ports. The Thirteen Colonies, however, are there. And, yes, most of the solutions are mnemonic.

Well done nordmann for getting No. 2 the major stock exchanges and also No. 7 the first countries to achieve enduring equal suffrage at the highest level. (The N is for Norway not the Netherlands.) As you say there were plenty of other forerunners and pioneers before New Zealand but those examples were either not enduring and/or not at the highest level. There were also several states, territories and provinces at that time (mainly in the western half of North America) which also had equal suffrage but not as independent sovereign entities either then or now. Finland recently celebrated 100 years of independence. It's quite remarkable, however, to consider that equal suffrage and full political rights for women were achieved when it was still a Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire.

P.S. The opening post is now in upper and lower case which should make deciphering names slightly easier.

I would never have thought of Norway as suffrage pioneers - they allowed women vote in the 1913 Stortinget election but it was another decade before they received the same borgerskapsrettigheter in local elections and a constitutional law guaranteeing suffrage was drafted, and the late 1920s before the share of women actually voting in general elections exceeded 35% of the possible total, so ingrained was the sexual bias in society. The Arbeidspartiet was the first major party to actively encourage women to vote, and it was in the first post-war election that women at last matched men at the polls in terms of representation. I can understand why Norwegians will point to the 1913 dispensation as a "first", but it's a tad disingenuous. In fact it was an extension of the dispensation that allowed them vote for a monarch 8 years previously. And indeed, the first time women voted in a general election in Norway it was was actually some decades beforehand, when it was essentially part of Sweden (but we don't talk about that any more).  

Out of interest, which of the S's that I mentioned is deemed "major" and which isn't? Singapore or Shanghai?
EDIT: I see it's Shanghai that's rated as bigger from your first post here now - thx.

Thanks for that clarification nordmann re the voting situation in Norway at the time. I wasn't aware that women could vote in parliamentary elections there but not in local elections. In this Norway seems to have reversed the contemporary trend by which in many countries (such as the UK) women could vote in local elections but not in parliamentary elections.

I suppose if anyone should be aggrieved with the arbitrary 1914 cut-off then maybe it should be Denmark where women achieved full voting rights in 1915. A Dane might say - "Your silly war was nothing to do with us. We were neutral. Don't be so war-centric." And perhaps with some justification.

P.S. Re stock exchanges - yes, Shanghai not Singapore. The latter does, however, always manage to punch well above its weight in global economic affairs.

Ah ha ... then No.9 must be the Thirteen American Colonies that declared independence from Britain in 1776 ... although as a mnemonic it's not particularly memorable .

Oh Vizzer, why couldn't you have asked something like Richard of York Gained Battles in Vain or FACE for the spaces on the upper stave and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour/Fun - even I might have been in with a chance then (mind you I haven't a clue about the lower stave).  Still I'll take the opportunity of learning from the answers proffered by more erudite members of the site.

Meles meles wrote:

Ah ha ... then No.9 must be the Thirteen American Colonies that declared independence from Britain in 1776 ... although as a mnemonic it's not particularly memorable .

Well done Meles. As for the memorability of it then the additional clue was going to be "They were well insured but the didn't like paying the tax" but you got there anyway without it. There is another Thirteen Colonies mnemonic which I've heard which goes something like 'Crismas ham, vino, carols' or some such but I can't remember it exactly. Does anyone know?

Don't give up LiR. I've added additional clues to the opening post.

5. LoB Glas Chic
From the clue it suddenly all makes sense (I hope). Underground train systems from oldest to fourth-oldest?
London Budapest Glasgow Chicago

EDIT: I'm thinking the Greek/Persian clue for the first one points to a city-state alliance back in the day. However as these had between 50 and 70 members I'm struggling to reduce them down to six, or why Attica and Athens should rule each other out. Wrong track entirely, I suppose ...

Yes - No. 5 are cities which had urban railways before 1900 - the London Underground, the Budapest Metro, the Glasgow Subway and the Chicago 'L' (elevated railway). 1900 would see the Paris Metro open in time for the World's Fair and the following 10 years would witness a veritable metro mania with the likes of Berlin and New York etc opening their own versions.

No. 1 lists the main players during the Corinthian War (Argos not Attica). I take your point nord that the Peloponnesian League and the Delian League meant that there were literally scores of players (and not just during that war) but let's just say that the former is covered by Sparta and the latter by Athens.

The Atticans won't be best pleased with that one! Proud lot ...

I've worked out the I JAB GRUF one (eventually), thanks to your clue modification. I believe it's the eight state alliance that lined up against the Boxers in China - Italy, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Britain, Germany, Russia, the USA, and France.

Well done with that. The rather brutal Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 and its equally brutal suppression by a crude precursor of the League of Nations / United Nations.

So we're more than half-way thru. Only 5 left to solve.

11. BLUnt SoUr FriZZ BAGSS looks like it could be towns/cities in Switzerland, but I can't see any logic to this particular grouping so I'm not too sure.

That's right - they're 13 Swiss cantons. Many people will have heard of, and be able to name, the founding 3 (Uri, Schwytz and Unterwalden). This soon grew to 8 cantons and stayed that way for much of the 14th and 15th centuries. It then grew to 13 and stabilised at that number for nearly 300 years until invasion by Revolutionary France in 1798.

Ah, I was thrown by Unterwalden. If it ever existed as a single canton politically (even the Swiss don't agree on that one) it was almost immediately split into the two cantons Obwalden and Nidwalden that still operate today, so it certainly expired long before the bulk of the others in your list. The word continued to be used as a collective term to describe the delegations from these cantons in the Swiss canton assembly, but had no meaning beyond that. In the Pact of Brunnen Nidwalden was described as Unterwalden, and therefore a founding member of the Confederacy as it used to be dated. Obwalden people have always objected to this, their documentary evidence showing that they also were recognised as Unterwalden some decades prior to this and in fact helped initiate the first Confederacy when they signed up to the Rütlischwur. So nowadays the Swiss trace their origin as a country to this pre-Brunnen association and hardly mention Unterwalden at all (it's a sore point still among those living in the valleys below the woods). Arnold von Melchtal, the signatory from the region, has been repatriated in history books too - as either an Ob or a Nid, depending on which side of the valley you're on.

EDIT: Is number 8 Transvaal and Orange Free State?

I can't believe no-one has got number 10.

Easiest one of the lot.

I live in S.

Now, back into hibernation.

What, you live in the Services part of the Northern Ireland Water Service????

Oh! And there was me thinking Trike was a member of the Nunavut Inuit Wildlife Secretariat ... or was it the National (Indian) Institute of Watersports, or maybe it was the National (US) Institute of Workplace Safety?

Or maybe he's just a fan of the Moody Blues ... and is indeed, very contentedly, spending endless nights betwixt white satin sheets .   ♫♪♫

Re Unterwalden, yes, it's a complex picture. One way I've heard it described is as being a Switzerland within Switzerland. In other words it was federation of 2 cantons within the larger Swiss Confederacy. 

Correct nordmann on number 8 - the Boer republics. 

Trike - neither can I believe that no-one has got number 10. 

P.S. You can't live in S and Hibernation. They're 2 separate places - although often confused with each other in the past and sometimes today.

Sounds like you're getting at Scotland versus Hibernia, in which case Trike's supposition is correct. But if so, why isn't there an E in the list? Hmmm ...

I'll have a stab so at the so-called "Celtic" bits of Britain designated as countries: Norn Iron, Whales, and Scotchland?

EDIT: Could A BIG FUSE be the seven World Cup winners so far? Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Germany (including West Germany), Uruguay, Spain and Ingerland?

(now for those bloody washed babies ....)

nordmann wrote:

But if so, why isn't there an E in the list?

That's the point. But you've got it.

And also No. 12 - the former winners of the footy thing.  

Those washed protestant babies might be feeling small and cold - 'smallcold'? Or how someone with a Dutch or German accent might pronounce 'smallcold'.

Ouch! You're getting desperate to end this quiz, methinks ....

The Schmalkaldic League, obviously. I dare not even attempt to list all the cities/regions though I detect Franfurt, Hesse, Brunswick, Anhalt, Saxony, and maybe Belfast? (Just joking on the last one)

That's the one. You did well nordmann to list the principalities you did. The subsequent Schmalkaldic War would see the number of adherent states ebb and flow but those listed above were the kernel. Denmark was an important ally of the League but (needless to say) Belfast was just a sandy fishing village at that time. The conclusion of the war saw the Peace of Augsburg 1555 and the coining of the phrase cuius regio, eius religio (in whose realm, his own religion) which can either be seen as the beginning of confessional tolerance in mainland Europe or else the establishment of institutional sectionalism there depending upon one's point of view.

A challenging quiz, Vizz. Many thanks!

Speaking of Augsburg - I recommend a visit to the little Lutherstiege (Luther Stairs) Museum there which, though obviously concentrating on Martin L's childhood and career, also has a segment devoted to The Peace of Augsburg and its actual ramifications for Europe (in which "peace" plays a largely insignificant role). It's a cosy little museum but very much state of the art technologically, one brilliant concept being pull-out drawers containing actual historical documents related to the Reformation and the region which one can scan and translate. Lovely building too - it was a Benedictine monastery adjunct to St Anna's church, both of which can be toured as part of the visit.

Thanks for that Vizz. I'm sorry that after my initial flair, or flare, I got occupied with other things, and so rather left the field to Nordmann. Nevertheless cogitating about those sort of puzzles throughout the day is just the thing, so my doctor says, to keep the mind active. Puzzles, quizzes and all that are good!

You're welcome folks - glad it was appreciated.

I was minded to try a word-based quiz (rather than a picture or audio quiz) following a request by Priscilla. It was rightly suggested by nordmann that internet search engines have now severely reduced the possibilities of word-based quizzes. One way round that, I thought, was to go down the cryptic road – hence the acronym/mnemonic effort above.

Far from being desperate to end the quiz I was surprised at just how quickly it was solved. As a reward I think that all who took part have deserved to ‘sink’ a SHaNDHy = Sandwich, Hastings, New Romney, Dover, Hythe.

(Thanks to Meles for that suggestion which really should have been in the quiz considering it’s the part of the world that I’m from!)