World History MCQs

Notes:
There were many factors that resulted in the outbreak of the Second World War. some of which were:
1) Growth of Militarism in Japan.
2) The French search for security.
3) The rise of communism and its propaganda machinery.

Notes:
The Allied powers principally the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, United States, and France which came out victorious negotiated the details of peace treaties with Italy, the minor Axis powers (Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria), and Finland, following the end of World War II in 1945.

Notes:
Continuation War was fought as part of the Eastern Front of World War II from 25 June 1941 to 19 September 1944 by Finland and Nazi Germany on one side and the Soviet Union on the other side. This war began after the Interim Peace period from 13 March 1940 to 25 June 1941 following the Winter War. Finland invaded the Soviet Union to regain the territories lost during the Winter War. The Continuation War led to the victory of the Soviet Union which further leads to the signing of the Moscow Armistice which ceded the Petsamo region and leased the Porkkala Peninsula to the USSR.

Notes:
Finlandization is a general term used to denote the foreign subjugation of a smaller country by another powerful country. It is a process by which one powerful country makes a smaller neighboring country abide by the farmer’s foreign policy rules while allowing it to keep its nominal independence and its own political system. The term means “to become like Finland”, referring to the influence of the Soviet Union on Finland’s policies during the Cold War.

Notes:
The French Revolution was a period of social and political upheaval in France and its colonies beginning in 1789 and ending in 1799. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy, established a republic, catalyzed violent periods of political turmoil, and finally culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon, who brought many of the revolution’s principles to areas he conquered in Western Europe and beyond. Inspired by liberal and radical ideas such as equality before the law, the Revolution influenced the decline of absolute monarchies while replacing them with republics and liberal democracies.

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.

Notes:
Germany was the location of the “Spartacist Uprising”. The Spartacist uprising, also known as the January uprising, happened as part of German Revolution of 1918–1919, was a general strike (and the armed battles accompanying it) in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. The uprising was primarily a power struggle between the moderate Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) led by Friedrich Ebert and the radical communists of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who had previously founded and led the Spartacist League. The revolt was improvised and small-scale and was quickly crushed by the superior firepower of government troops.

Notes:
Germany was the location of the “Peaceful Revolution”. The Peaceful Revolution was the process of sociopolitical change that led to the opening of East Germany’s borders with the west, the end of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the transition to a parliamentary democracy, which enabled the reunification of Germany in October 1990. This happened through non-violent initiatives and demonstrations. These events were closely linked to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s decision to abandon Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe as well as the reformist movements that spread through Eastern Bloc countries.

Notes:
Germany was the location of the “Berlin Wall”. The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails, and other defences. In 1989, a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries—in Poland and Hungary in particular—caused a chain reaction in East Germany that ultimately resulted in the demise of the Wall. The demolition of the Wall officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in November 1991. The “fall of the Berlin Wall” paved the way for German reunification, which formally took place on 3 October 1990.

Notes:
Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends was a secret organization founded in 1814 in Odessa, whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state. Society members were mainly young Phanariot Greeks from Constantinople and the Russian Empire, local political and military leaders from the Greek mainland and islands, as well as several Orthodox Christian leaders from other nations that were under the Hellenic influence, such as Kara?or?e from Serbia Tudor Vladimirescu from Romania, and Arvanite military commanders. One of its leaders was the prominent Phanariote Prince Alexander Ypsilantis. The Society initiated the Greek War of Independence in the spring of 1821.