World History Final Exam Review

Which factor most contributed to the creation of new nations in the decades immediately following the Second World War?

• Decisions by the United Nations to create new nations

• Financial aid by the United States to impoverished cultures

• Independence movements among people within European colonies

• The growing military strength of both the United States and Soviet Union

Which event at the conclusion of Second World War initiated the Cold War?

• The United States used atomic weapons against Japanese cities.

• Germany was reorganized into two separate nations with differing political systems.

• European democracies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with the United States.

• The Soviet Union refused to permit self-determination in nations liberated from German control.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. . . . The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy. —Winston Churchill, speech before Westminster College, March 1946 ****Based on the information in the excerpt, which Soviet action contributed to the beginning of the Cold War?

• Building a wall in East Berlin

• Establishing the Warsaw Pact

• Allowing free elections in Czechoslovakia

• Dominating Eastern European governments

How did the political division of post-war Germany heighten Cold War tensions?

• The West German government was unsuccessful in efforts to reunite the two halves during the Cold War because of resistance by Western allies.

• Western allies maintained possession of the western half of Berlin located within the Soviet-controlled portion of Germany.

• The West German government was unsuccessful in efforts to reunite the two halves during the Cold War because of resistance by Western allies.

• Many Slavic people in West Germany did not have Soviet protection.

Following the Second World War, the status of the United States in the world changed because the United States —

• emerged as a world super power in competition with the Soviet Union

• supported the formation of a nation for Jews that had survived the war

• isolated from other nations as the economy recovered from the costs of war

• built an empire by claiming lands in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia

How did the circumstances of the Cold War contribute to the data trend in the graph?

• Nuclear weapons were too expensive to maintain.

• The American and Soviet militaries raced to have the most nuclear weapons.

• The American military required fewer nuclear weapons since they were more powerful and accurate than Soviet nuclear weapons.

• The industry of the Soviet Union was able to produce nuclear weapons faster than the United States.

The world breathed a collective sigh of relief after the superpowers reached an agreement ending the immediate threat of nuclear war. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to dismantle all Russian missiles in the region and ship them back to the Soviet Union. The announcement was made in a public message to President John F. Kennedy broadcast on Moscow Radio. In response, President Kennedy said the decision to remove the missiles was an "important contribution to peace." He also promised the U.S. will not invade and will eventually lift the blockade that was imposed. The blockade will continue until effective UN inspection ensures that the missiles have been dismantled. —“October 28,” On This Day, British Broadcasting Corporation website http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday (accessed November 14, 2014)

******The excerpt refers to which Cold War event?

• The Berlin Blockade

• The Gulf of Tonkin incident

• The Soviet placement of missiles in Cuba

• The U.S. missile construction in Eastern Europe

Which historical event resulted from the 1948 Soviet blockade of the French, U.S., and U.K. sectors of Berlin?

• Berlin Airlift

• Reunification of Berlin

• Marshall Plan for Berlin

• Building of the Berlin Wall

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." "There is a point beyond which they must not advance." And this -- this is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said, "The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we're spirits -- not animals." And he said, "There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty." You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness. —Ronald Reagan, "A Time for Choosing," televised speech, October 1964

****Based on the information in the excerpt above, President Reagan argued that the Cold War would be ended by —

• creating an alliance between the British and Americans

• continuing America’s resolve to stand up to the Soviet Union

• strengthening the conversations between diplomatic leaders

• forging a bond between democratic nations and communist nations

Some credit Pope John Paul II with bringing about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe because he

• helped to organize a workers strike in Poland

• negotiated the peaceful exit of communist leaders

• frequently condemned communism in his speeches

• survived an attempted assassination by communist operatives