World History MCQs

Notes:
The Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944, taking the assumption that no peace could last if economic and financial chaos prevailed, established two important financial institutions:
1) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [IBRD]
2) The International Monetary Fund [IMF].

Notes:
In its early period, Estonia was under the colonial subjugation of Germans, Danes, Swedes, Poles and Russians. In 19th and early 20th centuries, Estonia witnessed a movement promoting and propagating “Estonian National Awakening” in which Estonians started acknowledging themselves as a nation deserving the right to govern themselves. This lead to the Estonian War of Independence from 1918 to 1920 which lead to the Estonian victory and the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty, finally proclaiming the independence of Estonia from Russia. After independence, initially, Estonia followed a democratic political system which got culminated into an authoritarian rule post-Great Depression period from 1934 to 1940. This period was known as the Era of Silence. During World War II from 1939 to 1945, Estonia was under German and Soviet Union occupation, which finally ended with Soviet Union subjugation of Estonia through a puppet government, so as to continue the de jure status of Estonia. Annoyed with the subjugation of Soviet Rule, Estonians started “Singing Revolution” from 1987 to 1991 seeking the restoration of independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from Soviet Rule. This lead to the formal restoration of independence of Estonia from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Notes:
After the second Italo-Ethiopian war, Italy occupied and annexed Ethiopia in 1936 and made Italian Ethiopia. Italy unleashed a ruthless administration in Ethiopia. The infamous Yekatit 12 Massacre sanctioned by Italian administration happened during this period. During World War II, the British Empire defeated the Italian rulers of Ethiopia and restored the full sovereignty of Ethiopia in 1941. In 1947, Italy recognized the sovereignty and independence of Ethiopia.

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:
The Ancien Regime was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France from the Late Middle Ages of the 15th century until the French Revolution of 1789 which lead to the abolition of hereditary monarchy and of the feudal system of the French nobility in 1792. The late Valois and Bourbon dynasties ruled during the Ancien Regime.

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:
The “Second Schleswig War” was fought as a part of the wars of German unification. The Second Schleswig War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 February 1864, when Prussian and Austrian forces crossed the border into Schleswig. Denmark fought the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire. Like the First Schleswig War (1848–1852), it was fought for control of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. The war started after the passing of the November Constitution of 1863, which integrated the Duchy of Schleswig into the Danish kingdom in violation of the London Protocol. The war ended on 30 October 1864, with the Treaty of Vienna and Denmark’s cession of the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Saxe-Lauenburg to Prussia and Austria.

Notes:
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.

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:
The Viannos massacres were a mass extermination campaign launched by Nazi forces against the civilian residents of around 20 villages located in the areas of east Viannos and west Ierapetra provinces on the Greek island of Crete during World War II.