History Expert Q&A

Why did the German Democratic Republic construct the Berlin Wall in 1961?

A) to guard against a NATO invasion
B) to keep West Germans from coming to East Berlin
C) to keep East Germans from going to West Berlin
D) to control the flow of anti-communist propaganda from West Germany
E) to control the flow of consumer goods from West Germany

Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika introduced what reforms?

A) reduction of the Soviet nuclear arsenal
B) elimination of the KGB to allow for more open expression
C) economic reforms that included material incentives for workers
D) bans on foreign investment to make the Soviet Union more self-sustaining
E) incorporation of representatives from Warsaw Pact nations into the Soviet Union's government

How did Jacques Chirac begin his presidency?

A) by ordering the execution of Mitterrand
B) by providing health care to all working class people
C) by authorizing the resumption of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific
D) by invading Great Britain
E) by postponing all upcoming elections

With what nation did the United Kingdom fight a short war in 1982 over the sparsely populated Falkland Islands?

A) Spain
B) Angola
C) Yugoslavia
D) Argentina
E) Brazil

What was the right-wing nationalist party that came to power in Poland whose policies risked compromising the independence of the judiciary?

A) Blood and Iron
B) Law and Justice
C) Strength and Honor
D) Blood and Soil
E) Life and Freedom

Beginning in the late 1960s,what was a major factor in the increasing percentage of the foreign-born workforce across Europe?

A) refugees coming to Europe from wars in Central Africa
B) refugees from communism in Eastern Europe
C) guest-worker programs created to make up for labor shortfalls
D) emigration of Europeans to North America
E) emigration of Europeans to South and East Asia

What change did the East German government make to increase satisfaction among its people in the wake of the 1953 Berlin uprising?

A) It introduced de-Stalinization plans.
B) It provided more consumer goods.
C) It cut off connections with West Germany to improve the effects of its own propaganda.
D) It asked for a larger Soviet military presence to keep resisters quiet.
E) It introduced democratic measures in local elections.

How did the Korean War contribute to Cold War tensions in Europe?

A) The Allies feared the Soviet Union would invade the German Federal Republic as North Korea had invaded South Korea.
B) Western European nations demanded the United States withdraw its nuclear weapons from the continent so that the Soviet Union would not invade.
C) Charles de Gaulle used the Korean War as a pretense to label the Algerian independence movement a communist movement.
D) Western European nations began a process of détente with the Soviet Union,against the wishes of the United States.
E) At the end of the war,North Korea deployed its soldiers in Eastern Europe.

What nation did the Soviet Union invade in 1979,bringing an end to détente?

A) Iran
B) Finland
C) Afghanistan
D) Turkey
E) Poland

How did Leonid Brezhnev change the tack of Soviet policy after taking control from Nikita Khrushchev?

A) He stepped up efforts to place nuclear weapons in Cuba.
B) He reduced the production of consumer goods.
C) He attempted to make peace with the United States and end the Cold War.
D) He purged the party of old Stalinists.
E) He returned the Soviet Union to communist orthodoxy.

What was the Polish organization of trade unions led by Lech Walesa named?

A) Polish United Workers
B) Gierek
C) Euro-Communism
D) Danzig
E) Solidarity

What was one factor that allowed the Gaullist government and French companies to head off the 1968 strike movement,leaving students alone in their protests?

A) They promised to investigate police brutality.
B) They promised to end French support for the American war in Vietnam.
C) They promised new elections to remove Georges Pompidou from office.
D) They promised to legalize the Communist party.
E) They promised to raise wages.

Which European leader feared American domination of Europe and insisted that France maintain an independent nuclear capability?

A) Willy Brandt
B) Margaret Thatcher
C) Erich Honecker
D) Charles de Gaulle
E) Francisco Franco

Which nation interfered in the U.S.presidential election in 2016,with hopes of bringing Donald Trump to power?

A) France
B) Turkey
C) Russia
D) Ukraine
E) Poland

In 2015,nearly every nation in the world signed an agreement to try to prevent further climate change in which European capital?

A) Brussels
B) Berlin
C) London
D) Paris
E) Rome

What early 1950s conflict was the first site of open warfare between communist and non-communist forces (following,of course,the Greek civil war in the previous decade) ?

A) Korean War
B) Vietnam War
C) Algerian War for Independence
D) Congolese Civil War
E) Suez War

Which European nation supported the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003?

A) France
B) Germany
C) Russia
D) Spain
E) Britain

What was the Spanish government's response to Catalonians voting for independence in 2017?

A) It agreed to allow Catalonia to leave if it would join a new Spanish commonwealth.
B) It kicked Catalonia out of Spain before independence could be approved.
C) It imposed direct control on Catalonia from Madrid.
D) It demanded a new election on different terms.
E) It agreed to depose the Spanish king and abolish the monarchy.

Which guerrilla leader threatened the French government that he could spare ten deaths in his nationalist army for every French death,and still win independence?

A) Bao Dai
B) Ho Chi Minh
C) Ahmed Ben Bella
D) Frantz Fanon
E) Sekou Touré

Which allied leader telegraphed Franklin Roosevelt in 1945,warning of an "iron curtain" descending across Europe?

A) Winston Churchill
B) Charles de Gaulle
C) Konrad Adenauer
D) Clement Attlee
E) Imre Nagy