20th Century European History Practice Test

20th Century European History Practice Test

1. Which nation did not fight on the side of the Allied/Entente powers during World War I?

A. Austria

B. Britain

C. France

D. Italy

2. Which Soviet leader announced that the USSR would take no further part in the self-government of other nations?

A. Leonid Brezhnev

B. Mikhail Gorbachev

C. Nikita Khrushchev

D. Joseph Stalin

3. During the revolutionary period and the civil war in Russia, members of the old guard ______________ by the thousands.

A. joined the Red Army

B. emigrated to Europe

C. committed suicide

D. ran for political office

4. In what respect was World War I different from any European war that preceded it?

A. It was fought among the traditional Great Powers of Europe.

B. It was largely motivated by nationalism.

C. It caused major changes to the map of Europe.

D. It involved the major participation of a non-European nation.

5. What effect did the first Five-Year Plan have on the Russian peasants?

A. They gained the right to own their own land.

B. They were forced to work on collective farms.

C. They gained the right to vote.

D. They lost the right to vote.

6. _______________ was established after World War II as an international peacekeeping organization.

A. The Quadruple Alliance

B. The League of Nations

C. The United Nations

D. The Warsaw Pact

7. In 1917, Germany agreed to withdraw troops from Russia if the Russians would agree to ________________

A. sign a nonaggression pact.

B. cooperate with them in a double invasion of Poland.

C. cede a large swath of territory to Germany.

D. pay an annual tribute to the German government.

8. __________________ succumbed to a period of nationalist civil war after the end of the Cold War.

A. Germany

B. The former Soviet republics

C. Poland

D. Yugoslavia

9. The most successful of the short-lived Communist regimes that arose after the First World War was in

A. Bavaria.

B. Czechoslovakia.

C. Germany.

D. Hungary.

10. _______________ suffered by far the largest number of casualties in World War II.

A. France

B. Germany

C. Italy

D. Soviet Union

11. ______________ disappeared from the map at the end of the Cold War.

A. Austria

B. Czechoslovakia

C. Poland

D. Romania

12. ______________ is one major reason the Soviet Union withdrew from the affairs of state of the Iron Curtain nations in the 1980s.

A. The high expense of the arms race

B. The prospect of an all-out war with the United States

C. The threat of revolution within the USSR

D. The establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States

13. Lenin opposed a parliamentary form of government because he believed that it was only a mouthpiece for

A. artists and intellectuals.

B. large and small farmers.

C. business owners and managers.

D. workers.

14. After World War I, northern Italian landowners were anti-Socialist primarily because the Socialists

A. supported the overthrow of the monarchy.

B. had unionized and thus acquired negotiating power.

C. were agitating for ownership of their own land.

D. had new demands after their return from military service.

15. Which non-European nation would play a major role in European history from World War I to the end of the Cold War?

A. China

B. India

C. Soviet Union

D. United States

16.________________ was divided by the Iron Curtain and broke into two nations in 1949.

A. Austria

B. Germany

C. Hungary

D. Poland

17. The USSR installed nuclear missiles in Cuba in order to

A. expand its power base.

B. make an ally of Cuba.

C. intimidate the United States.

D. fulfill a UN requirement.

18. As a result of an agreement with Mussolini, the Catholic Church _______________ in 1929.

A. ceded control of the public school system

B. officially recognized the state of Italy

C. supported the underground anti-Fascist movement

D. shut down its seminaries throughout Italy

19. At Yalta in 1945, the Soviet Union promised the United States that it would ______________ after victory was declared in Europe.

A. be the first to march into Berlin

B. join U.S. troops in the war with Japan

C. hold free elections in Moscow

D. establish communism throughout Eastern Europe

20. All these means of popular resistance contributed to the end of the Cold War except

A. demonstrations in the streets.

B. assassinations of Communist leaders.

C. publication of writings that criticized the Communist regimes.

D. support for non-Communist leaders.

21. The king of Italy refused to put down the Blackshirts in 1922 because

A. he hoped that they would form part of the new coalition government.

B. he had made a secret agreement with Mussolini.

C. he believed the army and the Blackshirts would both turn on him.

D. he was afraid a confrontation would lead to civil war.

22. ______________ was the primary reason for Serbia’s resentment of the Austrian takeover of Bosnia in 1908.

A. Anarchism

B. Communism

C. Nationalism

D. Imperialism

23. What was the main reason for Stalin’s distrust of the other Allied leaders during the peace process in 1945?

A. He felt that they had allowed the Soviets to do most of the fighting.

B. He resented their sharing of the credit for taking Berlin.

C. He had to rely on interpreters to tell him what they said.

D. He believed they intended to impose a capitalist economy on Germany.

24. What effect did World War II have on the international status of the Great Powers of Western Europe?

A. They became superpowers.

B. They became secondary or minor powers.

C. They fell under Communist control.

D. They became American satellite states.

25. _____________ was the German equivalent of Mussolini’s Blackshirts.

A. The Nazi Party

B. The Gestapo

C. The SS

D. The Luftwaff e

26. ______________ is notable for being the only Communist head of state in Eastern Europe to successfully defy the authority of the Soviet Union.

A. Vaclav Havel

B. Josip Broz (Tito)

C. Walter Ulbricht

D. Konrad Adenauer

27. All these statements are true of both Hitler and Napoleon except

A. he was not born in the country in which he seized power.

B. he awarded himself an imperial title once he was in power.

C. he attempted to take over most of Europe.

D. he was an extreme nationalist.

28. In what way was Yugoslavia in the 1920s similar to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 1800s?

A. Both were Communist states.

B. Both were constitutional monarchies.

C. Both had conservative leaders.

D. Both had diverse ethnic populations.

29. Before the outbreak of World War II, which two nations signed a nonaggression pact?

A. Britain and France

B. France and Germany

C. Germany and the Soviet Union

D. the Soviet Union and Britain

30. Which two forms of government amount to exactly the same thing?

A. communism and fascism

B. communism and anarchism

C. fascism and republicanism

D. democracy and fascism

31. The term Velvet Revolution refers to a 1989 regime change in

A. Czechoslovakia.

B. East Germany.

C. Poland.

D. Yugoslavia.

32. ______________ defeated Russia in a short-lived war between 1920 and 1921.

A. Austria

B. Germany

C. Poland

D. Hungary

33. The chief Soviet goal during the Cold War was

A. to annex new territory into the USSR.

B. to set up Communist governments throughout the world.

C. to rebuild the Soviet economy and infrastructure.

D. to take over West Berlin.

34. Politically, the National Front in 1930s Spain is best described as

A. Communist.

B. Socialist.

C. conservative.

D. democratic.

35. Which best describes the purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?

A. to eliminate nuclear missiles from the world

B. to make communism illegal throughout the West

C. to provide for the defense of any member nation that was attacked

D. to maintain international peace

36. Which best describes a major weakness in the German strategy for World War II?

A. dividing the armed forces to fight on multiple fronts

B. forming an alliance with the Soviet Union

C. attacking the western front before the east was secured

D. relying on insufficient industrial output

37. Historians agree that _______________ was a main contributing cause to World War II.

A. the Great Depression

B. the Treaty of Versailles

C. the Spanish Civil War

D. the Lateran Treaty

38. Among the Communist states that briefly arose in Europe after the First World War, which lasted the longest?

A. Bulgarian

B. German

C. Hungarian

D. Slovakian

39. ______________ led most combat veterans to support Fascist leaders.

A. Extreme nationalism

B. Economic concerns

C. Income-tax issues

D. The desire for peace

40. After 1945, which best describes the nations of Western Europe (i.e., those not behind the Iron Curtain)?

A. puppet governments subordinate to the United States

B. Communist states subordinate to the USSR

C. major world powers with international empires

D. minor or secondary world powers

41. Trench warfare during World War I resulted in a stalemate primarily because of

A. the technological changes in weapons.

B. the imbalance in numbers of troops on the two sides.

C. the location of the trenches in central Europe.

D. the lack of sufficient weapons, rations, and other supplies.

42. Prime Minister Azaña of Spain was forced out of office due to the opposition of the _________________

A. reformers.

B. liberals.

C. workers.

D. establishment.

43. All of these nations were members of the Warsaw Pact of 1955 except _____________

A. Austria.

B. Hungary.

C. Poland.

D. Romania.

44. The European Union became possible when the traditional enemies _____________ became allies.

A. Britain and France

B. France and Germany

C. Germany and Russia

D. Russia and Britain

45. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles imposed all the following conditions on Germany except

A. the drastic reduction of its army.

B. the payment of billions of marks in reparations.

C. the admission of full responsibility for the war.

D. the replacement of its monarch with a freely elected government.

46. The siege of ________________ caused the Soviets to take a brutal revenge when they marched into Berlin in 1945.

A. Moscow

B. Leningrad

C. Kiev

D. Warsaw

47. Which best explains why West Berlin became the symbolic heart of the Cold War struggle?

A. It was the largest city in Europe.

B. It was the only free city behind the Iron Curtain.

C. It demonstrated the failure of capitalism.

D. It refused to accept Marshall Plan aid.

48. Why did the Russian peasants hoard grain under the New Economic Policy?

A. because they hoped to overthrow the new regime

B. because the state usually failed to pay them for the grain

C. because they planned to migrate to the cities to fi nd work

D. because they needed grain to bribe the state police

49. Which national leader did not take part in the Potsdam Conference of 1945?

A. Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union

B. Harry Truman of the United States

C. Winston Churchill of Britain

D. Charles de Gaulle of France

50. The Great Powers redrew the European map at Versailles in order to

A. create new states on the basis of a population’s ethnic identity.

B. take Russian territory away from the new Communist government.

C. create an alliance between Germany and France.

D. eliminate the need for European nations to maintain standing armies.

Answers