World History MCQs

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:
German Reunification was actually the output/result 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:
In the year 1958, Guinea gained independence from France. Guinea’s colonial period began with French military penetration into the area in the mid-19th century. French domination was assured by the defeat in 1898 of the armies of Samori Toure, Mansa (or Emperor) of the Ouassoulou state and leader of Malinke descent, which gave France control of what today is Guinea and adjacent areas. In 1958, the French Fourth Republic collapsed due to political instability and its failures in dealing with its colonies, especially Indochina and Algeria. The founding of a Fifth Republic was supported by the French people, while French President Charles de Gaulle made it clear on 8 August 1958 that France’s colonies were to be given a stark choice between more autonomy in a new French Community or immediate independence in the referendum to be held on 28 September 1958. The other colonies chose the former but Guinea—under the leadership of Ahmed Sékou Toure whose Democratic Party of Guinea-African Democratic Rally (PDG) had won 56 of 60 seats in 1957 territorial elections – voted overwhelmingly for independence. The French withdrew quickly, and on 2 October 1958, Guinea proclaimed itself a sovereign and independent republic, with Sekou Toure as president.

Notes:
1915-1934 was the period of the event “United States occupation of Haiti”. The United States occupation of Haiti began on July 28, 1915, when 330 US Marines landed at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on the authority of US President Woodrow Wilson. The July intervention took place following the murder of dictator President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam by insurgents angered by his political murders of elite opposition. The occupation ended on August 1, 1934, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt reaffirmed an August 1933 disengagement agreement. The last contingent of US Marines departed on August 15, 1934, after a formal transfer of authority to the Garde d’Haiti.

Notes:
Hungary formally ended World War I between most of the Allies of World War I through the “Treaty of Trianon”. The Treaty of Trianon was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It formally ended World War I between most of the Allies of World War I and the Kingdom of Hungary. French diplomats played the major role in designing the treaty, with a mind to establishing French-led coalition of the newly formed nations. It regulated the status of the independent Hungarian state and defined its borders generally within the ceasefire lines established in November–December 1918 and left Hungary as a landlocked state.

Notes:
In the year 1989, the Hungarian Round Table Talks happened. The Hungarian Round Table Talks were a series of formalized, orderly and highly legalistic discussions held in Budapest, Hungary in the summer and autumn of 1989, inspired by the Polish model, that ended in the creation of multi-party constitutional democracy and saw the Communist Party, formally the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSzMP), lose its 40-year grip on power.

Notes:
Indonesia invaded East Timor through “Operation Lotus”. The Indonesian invasion of East Timor, also known as Operation Lotus, began on 7 December 1975 when the Indonesian military invaded East Timor under the pretext of anti-communism to overthrow the Fretilin regime that had emerged in 1974. The overthrow of the popular and briefly Fretilin-led government sparked a violent quarter-century occupation.

Notes:
Iran was the target location of the “Operation Eagle Claw” ordered by the United States of America in 1980. Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas in Iran, was a United States Armed Forces operation ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis by rescuing 52 embassy staff held captive at the Embassy of the United States, Tehran on 24 April 1980.

Notes:
In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon family of kings ascended the throne of France. Bourbon dynasty had been ruling France for a while. Louis XVI was a very powerful Bourbon King. So, statement 1 is incorrect. The term Old Regime is usually used to describe the society and institutions of France before 1789.The members of the first two estates, that is, the clergy and the nobility, enjoyed certain privileges by birth. Rest of the population, which was more than 90% of the total, belonged to the third estate, which included big businessmen, merchants, court officials, lawyers, peasants, artists, landless labourers, servants etc. So, statement 2 is correct. The Church extracted its share of taxes called tithe from the peasants, and all the members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state. These included a direct tax, called taille, and a number of indirect taxes which were levied on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco. So, statement 3 is correct.