Post-WWII Take Home Test

The table of the Age Composition of the British Population supports the statement that

(E) The average age of the British population was higher in 1967 than in 1841.

What country was a Soviet-dependent regime NON-existent in 1948?

(E) Yugoslavia

The final collapse of the communist party in the Soviet Union in 1991 was triggered by

(C) A failed coup.

This is NOT typical of social conditions as they have evolved in twentieth-century Western Europe

(C) An increasingly rigid class structure.

The most violent uprising leading to the overthrow of a communist regime in the period 1989-91 took place in

(E) Romania

This occurred as a result of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo of the 1970s

(A) A rapid rise in inflation and unemployment in the developed world.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) moved its headquarters in the 1960s because

(A) De Gaulle wanted to build a French military policy independent of NATO.

Nikita Khrushchev did what?

(A) Denounced Stalin's cult of personality.

Which was a major result of the Catholic Church's Second Vatican Council (1959-65)?

(A) Dialogue toward common understandings with Protestants was promoted.

After the death of Stalin, Khrushchev modified Soviet policy by

(A) Emphasizing the production of consumer goods.

This is NOT associated with the feminist movement following the Second World War

(A) Equality with men in holding high political office.

Konrad Adenauer, Alcide De Gaspari, and Robert Schumann were alike in their

(A) Leadership of the Christian Democratic parties in their respective countries after 1945.

A Russian political cartoon from the Cold War era ridicules the motivation of the

(A) Marshall Plan.

The "Green Party" of the 1980s can best be described as

(A) Militant environmentalists.

A major achievement of Soviet society during the Khrushchev years

(A) Soviet space successes exceeded those of the United States.

"We must be ever vigilant, applying pressure when needed and make sure every move made by the USSR is met with a counter move." This statement summarizes the key elements of

(A) The containment policy pursued by the United States.

A major grievance of student protesters in 1968 in Paris was

(A) The overthrowing of student classrooms and dormitories.

This statement about twentieth-century existentialists like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre is true

(A) They questioned the efficiency of reason and science in understanding the human condition.

The condition of guest workers in post-Second World War Europe

(A) They were given little opportunity to achieve citizenship in many host countries.

A result of the Marshal Plan

(A) United States political and economic influence increased in Western and Southern Europe.

The primary instrument of economic integration in Western Europe since the Second World War has been the

(B) European Union (EU)

What nation was least willing to grant independence to its colonial possessions following the Second World War?

(B) France.

In the 1960s a factor that distinguished Soviet social structure from the societies of advanced industrial nations in Western Europe was the Soviet Union's

(B) High percentage of workers engaged in agriculture.

What is true of the Catholic Church's Second Vatican Council of 1962?

(B) It promoted dialogue with other faiths.

The indentations at points X and Y on both sides of the graph of Age Structure of the French Population in 1960 are best explained as the result of

(B) Low number of births during the First and Second World Wars.

What is true of both the 1956 revolt in Hungary and the 1968 revolt in Czechoslovakia?

(B) Neither received assistance from the United States because they were within the Soviet sphere of influence.

One of the first actions taken by Mikhail Gorbachev when he became leader of the Soviet Union in 1985 was to

(B) Propose a series of reforms designed to save the failing communist regime.

Following the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, which leader prompted a series of wars by claiming land for Serbia?

(B) Slobodan Milosevic.

This triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

(B) The failure of a hard line coup and Boris Yeltsin's subsequent challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership.

The Western Allies and the Soviet Union did NOT agree to this measure to be implemented after the Second World War

(B) The placing of Germany under the control of the United Nations.

Despite the wartime leadership of Conservative prime minister Winston Churchill, the Conservative Party was defeated by the Labour Party in the British elections of 1945 largely because of

(C) Concern that Churchill and the Conservative Party would not do enough to alleviate economic hardship in postwar Britain.

A primary goal of the Christian Democratic parties in Western Europe after the Second World War

(C) Continuation of a strong anti-communist foreign policy.

Nikita Khrushchev's program of de-Stalinization did NOT involve this

(C) Disbanding agricultural collectives.

Which two countries laid the foundation for peace and prosperity in the World War II era by reaching out to cooperate with one another?

(C) France and Germany.

The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) is NOT associated with this

(C) Government ownership of heavy industry.

"We are convinced that society can no longer be saved without strong and vigorous resolutions on the part of the Governments in establishing the principle of stability. Union between monarchs must now be followed to save society from total ruin. Let them be just, but strong; beneficent, but strict. Let them maintain religious principles in all their purity, and not allow the faith to be attacked." Which political figure is associated with these words, and in what context?

(C) Metternich, justifying the Concert of Europe.

This resulted from the close relationship between science and government in industrialized nations during the Second World War

(C) Much scientific research became financially dependent on military funding.

Which eastern European nation was the most dissatisfied with Soviet rule after the Second World War and was the first to overturn its communist government in 1989?

(C) Poland.

The immediate aim of the Truman Doctrine of 1947 was to

(C) Prevent the overthrow of the Greek and Turkish governments.

After the Second World War, Western European governments employed what to avoid the type of widespread social unrest that had plagued them in the interwar period?

(C) Providing extensive social welfare benefits.

Which was a major political goal of President Charles De Gaulle of France (1958-69)?

(C) Pursuing a foreign policy independent of the two superpowers.

This was NOT a major goal of the European feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s

(C) Suffrage for women over the age of 21.

Pope John Paul II (1978-2005)

(C) Supported the Solidarity labor movement in Poland.

This does NOT characterize existentialism

(D) A buoyant optimism about human existence and perfectibility.

As described in the Treaty of Rome (1957), the European Economic Community most closely resembled

(D) A tariff union.

A major goal of the 1991 Maastricht Treaty was to

(D) Create a single currency and central bank for the European Union.

The movements of nineteenth-century Germany unification and of late twentieth-century German reunification were similar in that both

(D) Created fear about the disruption of the European balance of power.

The primary message of one cartoon is to show Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's

(D) Determination to overcome the opposition of organized labor.

The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 demonstrates

(D) Further efforts toward European economic integration.

Decolonization after WWII did NOT take place for this reason

(D) German leadership.

This was most directly responsible for the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958

(D) Political conflict over the war in Algeria.

"Inasmuch as the regime, because of its rigidity, will find it increasingly more difficult to raise industrial output, it is obvious that the standard of living in many sectors of our society may be threatened." This statement was most likely written by a contemporary observer of

(D) The Soviet Union at the time of Brezhnev.

This is NOT a feature of the postwar economic recovery in Western Europe from 1945 to 1965

(D) The decline in the relative value of the American dollar.

What did the European nations commit to when they signed the Treaty of European Union (Maastricht Treaty) in 1992?

(D) The introduction of a common currency.

An example of Existentialist thought

(E) "A person is the sum of his or her acts."

"...we are for a socialism that is proper to a highly developed country and is devoid of those repulsive features imposed upon our country by a handful of narrow-minded, dogmatic, power-hungry careerists and unscrupulous despots. We have no reason to assume an anti-Soviet attitude insofar as the Soviet Union's internal policy is concerned. We object only to brutal interference in the affairs of other nations." This passage reflects the attitude of

(E) A Czech dissident in 1969.

During the 1950s many Western European countries experienced

(E) A rapid increase in the birth rate.

Political violence and armed conflict in the first and last decades of the twentieth century resulted from disputes over the status of what territory?

(E) Bosnia.

A major goal of the European Economic Community was to

(E) Coordinate industrial and agricultural policies of the members.

The most difficult challenge facing the European Union in the 1990s has been

(E) Establishing a common foreign policy.

Hungary, East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia after 1955 were all

(E) Members of the Warsaw Pact.

The term "Prague Spring" refers to the

(E) Reforms by the Czechoslovak government in 1968.