World History MCQs

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Japan was the first country in Asia to industrialize on a large scale. Industrialization began in Japan after the fall of the Tokugawa government in 1868. Japan industrialized faster than many European countries.
Japan’s industrialization was prompted by the need to improve the nation’s defenses against foreign threats. Local clans developed industrialization by copying Western examples and using traditional craft skills. Japan’s production included steel, machinery, metal goods, and chemicals, which were produced in quantities large enough for export.
Other Asian countries that have industrialized include: South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong.

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The Maastricht Treaty is responsible for the establishment of the European Union in 1993, and it introduced the concept of European citizenship.

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The North-South Dialogue refers to the process through which the developing and newly independent nations of the “third world,” predominantly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, engaged the industrialized countries of North America and Western Europe in negotiations over changes to the international economic system.

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Angola was under Portuguese colonization until 1975. Portuguese explorer Diogo Cao reached the Angolan area in 1484. The Angolan War of Independence from 1961-1974 lead to overthrow of Portuguese from Angola.

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From the mid-17th century to the mid-19th century Portuguese Empire had a colonial presence in Benin. The Portuguese empire was engaged in the massive slave trade with Benin. This continued till the abolition of slavery through the Slave Trade Act, 1807 which weakened Benin’s (previously Dahomey) status. This lead to the emergence of French power in Benin’s soil during the mid-19th century. And finally, due to the anti-colonial stand of Beninese during the later years, France was forced to independence to Benin in 1960.

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Chile’s economic history is associated with the term “Chicago Boys”. Chicago Boys were a group of Chilean economists of 1970s and 1980s, who were trained at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago, USA. They were trained under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger. They were taken into various key positions of the Chilean Government from 1970 to 1990 and transformed the Chilean economy to Latin America’s best-performing economy.

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From the late 9th century to the early 11th century the Dutchy of Bohemia (present-day the Czech Republic) were under the control of Great Moravian Empire. In 1198, the Holy Roman Empire undertook the control and established the Kingdom of Bohemia with Prague as its capital. In 1526, through Battle of Mohacs, it got annexed to Habsburg Monarchy under the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the Bohemian Czech got annexed into the Austrian Empire. In 1918, the First Czechoslovak Republic got established following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War II. It became the only democracy in Central Europe during the interwar period. And, from 1938 till the end of World War II, Nazi Germany annexed Czechoslovakia. After World War II, Germans got expelled and established Communist Party of Czechslovakia under Soviet influence. They unleashed a one-party Communist state through a coup in 1948 and ruled with lots of restrictions, dissatisfaction and curbs on basic freedoms. This lead to the Prague Spring of 1968, a movement to enforce and introduce basic reforms of decentralisation and democratization. This attracted the ire of the Soviet Union and they invaded Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia remained controlled by the Soviet Union until the 1989 Velvet Revolution for Gentle Revolution. The Velvet Revolution of 1989 was a non-violent peaceful transition of power which ended the Communist Rule and re-established democratic-capitalist state which finally culminated in the partition or dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 into two independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This dissolution or self-determined split is informally known as the Violet Divorce.

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The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in China. The ‘Yellow River’ passed through rich yellow soil and made the land very fertile. The river is sometimes called “Sorrow of China” because of the devastating floods.

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The Shang dynasty is the earliest recorded Chinese dynasty supported by archaeological evidence. The Shang dynasty ruled china from 1600 B. C. to 1050 B. C. Under the Shang dynasty, there were advances in maths, astronomy, art, and military technology.

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The yellow river cause devastating floods in china and thus Chinese conditioned themselves well to meet this annual calamity. They used the dykes, canals, etc to control the floods and became good farmers.  They came to be known as “farmers of forty centuries”.