World History MCQs

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Apartheid was a system of racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. The National Party governed South Africa from 1948 until 1994. During this time, South Africa was a partial democracy because non-white people were barred from voting after 1958.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organization that opposed the South African apartheid system. The AAM supported South Africa’s non-white population who were persecuted by the policies of apartheid.
Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President of South Africa in 1994. He was known for his internal resistance to apartheid.

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One of the most famous speeches of the Cold War period in which former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe is also called as Iron Curtain Speech.

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Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany in 1938, an event known as the Anschluss. The annexation lasted until 1945, when the Allied Powers removed Austria from the Third German Reich. The provisional Austrian government, led by Karl Renner, declared the country’s independence after the fall of the Third Reich.

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The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is a legal agreement between countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. It is to evolve rules of game for international trade.

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The diplomatic relations between China and the United States of America of the early 1970s were known as “Ping-pong Diplomacy”. Ping-pong is the Chinese word of Table Tennis. It involves the exchange of table tennis players between the United States of America and China in the early 1970s. This particular gesture boosted the Sino-American Relations with the visit of President Richard Nixon to Beijing in 1972.

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The “Cuban Thaw” was the term used to manifest the normalisation and restoration of friendly relations between the governments of Cuba and the United States of America. This peaceful gesture ended a 54-year stretch of hostility between two nations. This happened on 20 July 2015 and Barack Obama became the first USA president to visit Cuba since 1928. It was mediated by the Pope Francis of the Holy See and the Government of Canada. This restored the diplomatic relations between the two governments.

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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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Some of the major Mesopotamian civilizations include the Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations. The upper part of Mesopotamia was known as Assyria whereas the lower part was called Babylon which consisted of Sumer and Akkad. The Mesopotamian civilization flourished almost at the same time as the Egyptian civilization.

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The Assyrians owed their success to three primary factors:
1) Their weapons were made of iron.
2) They used horses and chariots in the war.
3) They were superior warriors, more skilled in warfare.

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Draco codified laws of the Greek Civilization whereas Solon introduced reforms in the economy and in political affairs. Pisistratus introduced land reforms whereas Cleisthenes put into practice the idea of Ostracism.