World History MCQs

Notes:
Democrats, monarchists and moderate socialists all were the opponents of Bolsheviks in Russian Civil War. It was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire. It took place immediately after the two Russian Revolutions of 1917.

Notes:
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering the 2nd world war. In response to German aggression, Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany in response to the attack of Germany.

Notes:
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the most important peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers.

Notes:
Bolsheviks created the Soviet Union from the Russian Empire. The Russian Revolution took place in 1917, during the final phase of World War I. Russia was removed from the war which brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), replacing Russia’s traditional monarchy with the world’s first Communist state.

Notes:
The Portuguese established outposts in Timor and Maluku islands of Lesser Sunda Islands of Malay Archipelago. Effective European occupation of a small part of present-day East Timor began in 1769 when the city of Dili was founded and the colony of Portuguese Timor declared. For the Portuguese, East Timor remained little more than a neglected trading post until the late nineteenth century, with minimal investment in infrastructure, health, and education. Sandalwood continued to be the main export crop with coffee exports becoming significant in the mid-nineteenth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a faltering home economy prompted the Portuguese to extract greater wealth from its colonies, which was met with East Timorese resistance. Following the 1974 Portuguese Revolution, Portugal effectively abandoned its colony in Timor and civil war between East Timorese political parties broke out in 1975. The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) resisted a Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) coup attempt in August 1975, and unilaterally declared independence on 28 November 1975. Fearing a communist state within the Indonesian archipelago, the Indonesian military launched an invasion of East Timor in December 1975. Indonesia declared East Timor its 27th province on 17 July 1976. The UN Security Council opposed the invasion and the territory’s nominal status in the UN remained as “non-self-governing territory under Portuguese administration”.The 1991 Dili Massacre was a turning point for the independence cause and an East Timor solidarity movement grew in Portugal, the Philippines, Australia, and other Western countries. The Santa Cruz Massacre (also known as the Dili Massacre) was the shooting of at least 250 East Timorese pro-independence demonstrators in the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili, on 12 November 1991, during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and is part of the East Timorese genocide. Following the resignation of Indonesian president of Suharto, an UN-sponsored agreement between Indonesia and Portugal allowed for an UN-supervised popular referendum in August 1999. A clear vote for independence was met with a punitive campaign of violence by East Timorese pro-integration militia supported by elements of the Indonesian military. With Indonesian permission, an Australian-led multinational peacekeeping force (INTERFET) was deployed until the order was restored. On 25 October 1999, the administration of East Timor was taken over by the UN through the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), headed by Sergio Vieira de Mello. The INTERFET deployment ended in February 2000 with the transfer of military command to the UN. On 30 August 2001, the East Timorese voted in their first election organised by the UN to elect members of the Constituent Assembly. On 22 March 2002, the Constituent Assembly approved the Constitution. By May 2002, over 205,000 refugees had returned. On 20 May 2002, the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of East Timor came into force and East Timor was recognised as independent by the UN.

Notes:
Finnish Civil War was a civil war fought in Finland from 27 January 1918 to 15 May 1918 between Finnish Reds, supported by Soviet Russia, and Finnish Whites, supported by the German Empire to take leadership and control of Finland during the country’s transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russsian Empire to an independent state. Finally, Finnish Whites were victorious and lead to the hegemony of the German Empire over Finland which further leads to the division in Finnish society.

Notes:
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, set by France’s National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from and inspired by the French Revolution. The Declaration was drafted by the Abbe Sieyes and the Marquis de Lafayette, in consultation with Thomas Jefferson. Influenced by the doctrine of “natural right”, the rights of man are to be held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place.

Notes:
The War of 1870, also known as the Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, was a conflict between the Second French Empire (and later, the Third French Republic) and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, the conflict was caused primarily by France’s determination to restore its dominant position in continental Europe, which it had lost following Prussia’s crushing victory over Austria in 1866.

Notes:
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was fought from 13 March to 7 May 1954 in Dien Bien Phu, a city of Vietnam in the then French Indochina region. It was a climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War which was fought between the French Unions French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. This war leads to the decisive Viet Minh victory.

Notes:
Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in Belgium, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: A British-led coalition consisting of units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington; and a Prussian army under the command of Field Marshal von Blucher. This battle marked the final defeat of Napoleon and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon’s rule as Emperor of France and ended his First French Empire.