useless trivia: What Word Means: Boasts?

Questions

At the outbreak of World War I, the American ----------- consisted of only fifty men.?

Before the Chinese take-over of Tibet in 1952, 25 percent of the males in the country were --------------------?

Birth-control campaigns in ----------- in the late 1970s failed because village women ended up wearing the pills in lockets, as talismans.?

------------------- lost 41 of his 98-men crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795, the importance of eating citrus was realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships.?

-----------, Illinois was originally named Fort Dearborn, Indian Territory.?