World History MCQs

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Gerboise Bleue was the codename of the first French nuclear test. It was conducted by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command on 13 February 1960, at the Saharan Military Experiments Centre near Reggane, French Algeria in the Sahara desert region of Tanezrouft, during the Algerian War. General Pierre Marie Gallois was instrumental in the endeavour and earned the nickname “father of the A-bomb”.

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Germany’s naval sailors revolted in the “Kiel Mutiny”. The Kiel mutiny was a major revolt by sailors of the German High Seas Fleet on 3 November 1918. The revolt triggered the German revolution which was to sweep aside the monarchy within a few days. It ultimately led to the end of the German Empire and to the establishment of the Weimar Republic.

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Germany’s private army was “Freikorps”. Freikorps were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries, the first so-called Freikorps were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades, and deserters. In the aftermath of World War I and during the German Revolution of 1918–19, Freikorps consisting largely of World War I veterans were raised as right-wing paramilitary militias. They were ostensibly mustered to fight on behalf of the government against the Soviet-backed German Communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar Republic. But, the Freikorps largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters.

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The period of Nazi Germany, also known as the Third Reich, began with the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933 and ended with the defeat of Germany in 1945. The Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, came to power through a combination of political maneuvering, propaganda, and repression. Once in power, the Nazis implemented their vision of a totalitarian state based on their ideology of National Socialism, which combined elements of racism, militarism, and anti-Semitism.

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The United Kingdom, the United States, France and the Soviet Union were the four countries that occupied Germany, upon the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Allied-occupied Germany was the state of Germany upon the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II when the victorious Allies asserted joint authority and sovereignty over Germany as a whole, defined as all territories of the former German Reich west of the Oder–Neisse line, having declared the destruction of Nazi Germany at the death of Adolf Hitler. The four powers divided “Germany as a whole” into four occupation zones for administrative purposes under the United States, United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union, respectively. This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference (17 July to 2 August 1945). The four zones were as agreed in February 1945 by the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union meeting at the Yalta Conference; setting aside an earlier division into three zones (excluding France) proposed by the London Protocol.

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Administration of Germany, post World War II, was the subject-matter/agenda of “Potsdam Conference”. The Potsdam Conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945. The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, represented respectively by Premier Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. They gathered to decide how to administer Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier on the 8th of May (Victory in Europe Day). The goals of the conference also included the establishment of the postwar order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war.

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Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev are the participants of the “Reykjavik Summit, 1986”. The Reykjavik Summit was a summit meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, held in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 11–12 October 1986. The talks collapsed at the last minute, but the progress that had been achieved eventually resulted in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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The 1953 Iranian coup d’etat is also known as the “28 Mordad coup d’etat”. The 1953 Iranian coup d’etat, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d’etat, was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on 19 August 1953. It was orchestrated by the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project or “Operation Ajax”) and the United Kingdom (under the name “Operation Boot”).

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Iran crisis of 1946 is also known as the “Azerbaijan Crisis”. The Iran crisis of 1946, also known as the Azerbaijan Crisis, was one of the first crises of the Cold War, sparked by the refusal of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union to relinquish occupied Iranian territory, despite repeated assurances. The end of World War II should have resulted at the end of the Allied joint occupation of Iran. Instead, Pro-Soviet Iranians proclaimed the separatist Azerbaijan People’s Government[5] and the Kurdish separatist Republic of Mahabad. The United States pressure on the Soviet Union to withdraw is the earliest evidence of success with the new strategy of Truman Doctrine and containment.

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The 14 July Revolution, also known as the 1958 Iraqi coup d’etat, took place on 14 July 1958 in Iraq and resulted in the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq that had been established by King Faisal I in 1921 under the auspices of the British. King Faisal II, Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said were killed during the uprising. As a result of the overthrow of the Iraqi Hashemite dynasty, the coup d’etat established the Iraqi Republic.