World History MCQs

Notes:
The Ottoman–Egyptian Invasion of Mani was a campaign during the Greek War of Independence that consisted of three battles. The Maniots fought against a combined Egyptian and Ottoman army under the command of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt. This leads to the Greek victory.

Notes:
The 1954 Guatemalan coup d’etat, code-named Operation PBSuccess, was a covert operation carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. It installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala.

Notes:
Indonesia’s ruling regime collapse was the “Fall of Suharto”. Suharto resigned as president of Indonesia on 21 May 1998 following the collapse of support for his three-decade-long presidency. The resignation followed severe economic and political crises over the previous six to twelve months.

Notes:
In March 1918, despite opposition by their political allies, the Bolsheviks made peace with Germany at Brest Litovsk. However, this peace treaty was very humiliating as Germany annexed almost one third of the total European territories of Soviet Russia in this treaty. Lenin agreed to this treaty so that the Bolshevik party could focus on internal consolidation and winning the civil war. So, statement 1 is correct. Soviet Russia soon became a one-party state as all the parties, other than the Bolshevik Party, were banned. Trade unions were kept under strict party control. The secret police (called the Cheka first, and later OGPU and NKVD) punished those who criticised the Bolsheviks. So, the statement 2 is correct.

Notes:
The infant Weimar Republic was being made to pay for the sins of the old empire. In the Treaty of Versailles, Weimar Republic was compelled to accept the ‘war guilt’ clause, meaning that it unwillingly accepted that the Germany alone was to be blamed for the WWI. The republic carried the burden of national humiliation and was financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation. Those who supported the Weimar Republic, mainly Socialists, Catholics and Democrats, became easy targets of attack in the conservative nationalist circles. They were mockingly called the ‘November criminals’. This mindset had a major impact on the political developments of the early 1930s, as we will soon see. So, option ‘a’ is the correct answer.

Notes:
The British needed forests in order to build ships and railways. The British were worried that the use of forests by local people and the reckless felling of trees by traders would destroy forests. So, they decided to invite a German expert, Dietrich Brandis, for advice, and made him the first Inspector General of Forests in India. So, statement 1 is correct. Dietrich Brandis set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest Act of 1865. The Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up at Dehradun in 1906. The system they taught here was called ‘scientific forestry’.In scientific forestry, natural forests which had lots of different types of trees were cut down. In their place, one type of tree was planted in straight rows. Forest officials surveyed the forests, estimated the area under different types of trees, and made working plans for forest management. They planned how much of the plantation area to cut every year. The area cut was then to be replanted so that it was ready to be cut again in some years. So, statement 2 is correct.

Notes:
Russian revolution took place in two stages. The first stage occurred in the month of February in 1917. Hence, it is called the ‘February Revolution’. During this stage, the Czar was overthrown and a provisional government was formed under the leadership of middle class leaders like Kerensky. During the 2nd stage, called the October Revolution, Bolsheviks took over and Russia officially became Soviet Russia after this point. So, statement 1 is correct. Lenin was in exile in Switzerland at the time of February Revolution. Under his leadership, the Bolshevik Party took over the command of communist movement and overthrew the provisional government in a planned coup. So, statement 2 is also correct.

Notes:
The First World War and the Civil War in the wake of Bolshevik revolution had ravaged the Russian economy. Famines had consumed millions of people. In 1921, industrial production was 14% of what it had been before 1914. Redistribution of land had affected food production. Soviet government had adopted the War Communism to deal with the unprecedented situation. Whatever was produced in the industries and on farms was highly rationed. All this created widespread resentment. In 1921, a new policy, called the New Economic Policy (NEP) was adopted and the War Communism was withdrawn. It was launched by Vladimir Lenin. Peasant control was restored on their produce, salaries were paid in cash, trade in goods was reopened and efforts were made to rehabilitate the economy. In some industries, private management was introduced and many small industries were allowed to remain in private hands. A large number of cooperatives were set up. Along with this, strategically important industries remained under government control. So, all the statements are true.

Notes:
The Japanese industrial development had taken place under conditions of extreme exploitation of the workers. The heavily subsidized industries were set up by the government in the beginning. When these industries became self-sufficient, they were sold at nominal value to the private sector. This was also because maintaining these industries was fiscally burdensome for the government. Due to such a large scale privatization in such a short period of time, all these industries were bought by only a few banking houses/families. Thus, the industry and the banks were under the domination of the Zaibatsu, a small group of money-cliques. The Zaibatsu had close links with the Japanese government. So, option a is the correct answer.

Notes:
Even though the Soviet Union- which was already directly fighting the Nazi Germany across Eastern Europe- had been demanding opening of a second front against the Nazi Germany in the Western Europe, allied powers did not agree to it for a few years. Eventually, in June 1944, the Allied troops opened the ‘Second Front’ in Western Europe. On 6th June 1944, known as the ‘D Day’, the first allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, on the north coast of France. By the end of June, the number of the Allied troops which had landed in France had gone up to 1600000. So, option c is the correct answer.