Deck 30: After the Fall: The Western World in a Global Age Since 1985

Question 1

Is capitalism the dominant force on the planet today? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Answers will vary.

Question 2

Compare and contrast the experiences of Russia and its Eastern European neighbors since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Answer 2

Answers will vary.

Question 3

What role has popular culture played in the Western world since 1985?

Answer 3

Answers will vary.

Question 4

What major economic challenges have plagued the West from the 1980s through the early twenty-first century?

Question 5

Is the world facing a "clash of civilizations" in the near future? Why and/or why not?

Question 6

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Václav Havel

Question 7

What attitudes and actions have determined American foreign policy since 1985?

Question 8

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Mikhail Gorbachev

Question 9

How and why did the Cold War end? Did anyone "win" this conflict? Who? Why?

Question 10

How have women's lives changed by the late twentieth and early twenty-first century? What gains have they made? What obstacles still exist? In what countries have women seen the greatest gains, and which countries have been slower to change?

Question 11

Discuss the impact of terrorism on the West, the "Western mindset", and the relationship between western countries and the rest of the world (specifically, the Middle East).

Question 12

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Vladimir Putin

Question 13

Was Mikhail Gorbachev responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union? If not, who or what was? Explain.

Question 14

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Boris Yeltsin

Question 15

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Nicolae Ceausescu

Question 16

"Globalization is going to be the salvation of civilization." Do you agree or disagree? Explain, citing evidence to make your case.

Question 17

How do the problems and antagonisms among the other countries of the former Yugoslavia exemplify the continuing force of nationalism in contemporary Europe?

Question 18

With the world increasingly inter-connected via transportation and communication networks, does the name "Western Civilization" still make sense?

Question 19

"The Iraq war was the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time." Discuss with specifics to support or refute the quotation.

Question 20

What has been gained and what has been lost as a result of the digital revolution? Discuss, citing specific examples.

Question 21

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
fall of the Berlin Wall

Question 22

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
multinational corporation (transnational corporation)

Question 23

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Bosnia

Question 24

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Baader-Meinhof gang/Red Army Faction and the Red Brigades

Question 25

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
September 11, 2001, and the World Trade Center

Question 26

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
ethnic cleansing

Question 27

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
NGOs

Question 28

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the European Union/EU

Question 29

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the euro

Question 30

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Pope John Paul II

Question 31

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Yugoslavia

Question 32

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the Taliban and war in Afghanistan

Question 33

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
the Persian Gulf War

Question 34

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
al-Qaeda

Question 35

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Maastricht Treaty

Question 36

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Office of Homeland Security

Question 37

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Iraq war

Question 38

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Kosovo

Question 39

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Osama bin Laden

Question 40

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
Digital Age

Question 41

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

Question 42

What did Mikhail Gorbachev intend to do under perestroika ?

A)Frighten the United States with more military spending
B)Create a more free and open political culture in the U.S.S.R.
C)Turn all power over to the people
D)Restructure the economic and political systems
E)End communism and adopt western-style democracy

Question 43

Who was the politician who kept the fractious state of Yugoslavia together for decades after World War II?

A)Marshall Tito
B)General Filopovic
C)President Milosevic
D)Prime Minister Kostunica
E)Marshall Petain

Question 44

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
open-forum social media

Question 45

Which area witnessed the first independence movement among the Soviet republics during Gorbachev's rule?

A)Afghanistan
B)Azerbaijan
C)Lithuania
D)Georgia
E)Chechnya

Question 46

Which leader of Czechoslovakia in 1990 replaced the Communist government and was a former dissident writer and philosopher?

A)Erich Kádár
B)Gustáv Husák
C)Aleksander Dubcek
D)Václav Hável
E)Marshall Tito

Question 47

Who was the Russian president after Boris Yeltsin?

A)Mikhail Gorbachev
B)Vladimir Putin
C)Nikita Khrushchev
D)Dmitry Medvedev
E)Gary Kasparov

Question 48

Which dictator, known for his violent suppression of the people, was tried and executed with his wife in late December 1989?

A)Gustáv Husák
B)Václav Hável
C)Aleksander Kwasniewski
D)Nicolae Ceausescu
E)Erich Honecker

Question 49

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia was plagued by all of these problems EXCEPT

A)a renewed Communist Party majority which took over the government.
B)organized crime.
C)an uprising in largely Muslim Chechnya.
D)economic hardships.
E)a president who was often ill.

Question 50

Who succeeded Vladimir Putin as president of Russia?

A)Lech Walesa
B)Mikhail Gorbachev
C)Dmitry Medvedev
D)Yuri Andropov
E)Andrei Sakharov

Question 51

Under Vladimir Putin's presidency, all of the following occurred EXCEPT

A)power was centralized in the federal government.
B)Russia ended its war in Chechnya.
C)as many as 40 percent of the population lived in poverty.
D)the economy grew significantly and the government had a budget surplus.
E)the economy significantly depended upon exports of oil and natural gas.

Question 52

By the 1980s Soviet problems included all of the following EXCEPT

A)a collapse of the space exploration program.
B)a decline in the standard of living.
C)rigid, centralized planning.
D)the failure to keep pace with the West in the production of high technology.
E)the inability of the Communist Party and state agencies to solve problems quickly.

Question 53

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
globalization

Question 54

The newest member of the EU, having joined in 2013, is

A)Lithuania.
B)Estonia.
C)Poland.
D)Slovenia.
E)Croatia.

Question 55

Which country held the first free parliamentary elections to occur in Eastern Europe for forty years in 1988?

A)Hungary
B)Austria
C)Poland
D)Estonia
E)Lithuania

Question 56

Which party won nearly 50 percent of the vote in East Germany's 1990 election?

A)Nazis
B)Communists
C)Christian Democrats
D)Green Party
E)Libertarians

Question 57

On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked ____ airplanes as part of a planned assault on the United States.

A)two
B)three
C)four
D)five
E)six

Question 58

For each historical identification question, define the term and briefly describe its historical significance.
multiculturalism

Question 59

What best describes the ruling policies of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union?

A)They forced the exportation of Russian Communism to Central and South America.
B)They evoked a "New Thinking" about internal and global politics, as well as an emphasis on openness and reform.
C)They increased political repression in Russia and in Eastern Europe.
D)They grew out of Russian misperceptions of United States strengths and failed to appreciate that American military spending and tax reductions under Ronald Reagan had greatly increased American budget deficits.
E)They led to a reform of Soviet Communism and the permanent strengthening of the Soviet regime.

Question 60

Which Eastern European republic came into existence in 1993 with the breakup of a previously existing state and which was fueled by ethnic rivalries?

A)Lithuania
B)Estonia
C)Albania
D)Lichtenstein
E)Slovakia

Question 61

Who succeeded Tony Blair as Britain's prime minister in 2007?

A)Gordon Brown
B)John Major
C)Clement Attlee
D)Nicolas Sarkozy
E)Bill Clinton

Question 62

In 1998, a survey showed that one-third of the children in London's inner cities

A)could not read.
B)lived in single-parent households.
C)were raised by gay parents.
D)did not speak English.
E)did not have access to adequate food each day.

Question 63

George H.W. Bush's defeat to Bill Clinton in his 1992 reelection attempt was due largely to

A)Bush's failures in the Gulf War.
B)government budget deficits and an economic downturn.
C)Bush's conservative social agenda.
D)Bill Clinton's youth and charisma.
E)Bush's inability to connect with voters.

Question 64

All of these actions contributed to growing anti-U.S. sentiments in the Islamic world in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century EXCEPT

A)U.S. support for Israel.
B)the rise to power of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.
C)the Gulf War and U.S. liberation of Kuwait.
D)the U.S.'s seizing of Saudi Arabian oil fields.
E)the growth of insurgent and extremist groups in the Middle East, such as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant).

Question 65

An example of the growing anti-immigration sentiments globally in the 1990s and 2000s, ____ enacted a law requiring would-be immigrants to pass a language and culture test before being admitted to the country.

A)France
B)the Netherlands
C)Germany
D)United States
E)Great Britain

Question 66

What was the reason for Yugoslavia dividing into warring factions?

A)Demands for separatism among the varying republics
B)Differences of political goals
C)Support of the Serbs
D)Lack of cultural diversity
E)Religious uniformity

Question 67

Challenges facing the European Union in the early twenty-first century include

A)the lack of a common currency.
B)the lack of any military force.
C)that many Europeans remain committed to a national identity and do not see themselves as "Europeans."
D)lack of economic assistance to Europe's farming community.
E)the failure to create a truly single internal market.

Question 68

Under whose leadership was the reunification of Germany accomplished?

A)Willy Brandt
B)Conrad Adenauer
C)Helmut Schmidt
D)Gunter Grass
E)Helmut Kohl

Question 69

The winner of the 2000 U.S. presidential election was ultimately decided by

A)the citizens of Florida.
B)Governor Jeb Bush.
C)Al Gore, who conceded halfway through the process.
D)the United States Supreme Court.
E)the Florida Supreme Court.

Question 70

Bosnians, Croatians, and Serbs met in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995 and

A)for the first time, truly unified Yugoslavia.
B)negotiated an end to the war in Bosnia.
C)were unable to come to an accord on any policy matters.
D)agreed to adhere to the Geneva Accords as their multi-party conflict raged on.
E)agreed to join the European Community.

Question 71

A controversial 2004 French law prohibited Muslim

A)families from arranging marriages for their children.
B)female students from wearing a headscarf (hijab)to school.
C)men from praying in public.
D)groups from erecting a mosque near government buildings.
E)men and women from working in the French government.

Question 72

Which group most brutally employed the tactic of "ethnic cleansing," the murder or forcible removal of ethnic minorities from their lands in the former Yugoslavia?

A)Serbs
B)Croatians
C)Bosnians
D)Herzgovenians
E)Slovenes

Question 73

In the early twenty-first century, the European Union established qualifications for potential new members that included

A)disavowal of communism.
B)acceptance of NGOs.
C)a commitment to market capitalism and democracy.
D)willingness to provide economic assistance to Europe's farming community.
E)acceptance of each country's national currency.

Question 74

Which conservative British Prime Minister resigned after an inconclusive election and was succeeded by Liberal Democrat David Cameron?

A)Helmut Kohl
B)Margaret Thatcher
C)Tony Blair
D)Bill Clinton
E)Gordon Brown

Question 75

What caused massive rioting in the suburbs of Paris in 2005?

A)Higher taxes
B)The end of free national health care
C)Resentment of some young Muslims about unemployment and living conditions
D)Anti-Muslim hysteria amongst a majority of other Parisian residents
E)The opening of a new McDonald's restaurant

Question 76

All of these factors contributed to George W. Bush's declining popularity by his second term as president EXCEPT

A)his strong support for environmental programs that were opposed by major business interests.
B)the war in Iraq.
C)tax cuts that primarily benefitted the wealthy.
D)poor handling of the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
E)financial corruption in the Republican Party.

Question 77

What was the Maastricht Treaty?

A)It was military alliance between the members of the European Community.
B)It was an attempt to create a true economic and monetary union among the members of the European Community.
C)It was an attempt to break up the European Community.
D)It was an attempt to revive the ideological conflicts of the Cold War.
E)It was an attempt to challenge the economic supremacy of the United States.

Question 78

Who was the Yugoslavian president ousted from power in 2000 and was subsequently put on trial for war crimes against humanity?

A)Vojislav Kostunica
B)Nicolae Ceausescu
C)Wladyslaw Gomulka
D)Todor Zhivkov
E)Slobodan Milosevic

Question 79

The major issue that troubled Italian society in recent decades has been

A)Islamic terrorism.
B)Catholic fundamentalism.
C)political corruption.
D)a significant increase in the birth rate.
E)economic collapse, with high unemployment and bankruptcies.

Question 80

What was a consequence of the war in Bosnia?

A)Yugoslavia was truly unified for the first time.
B)Bosnia was split into a Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation.
C)Nothing was accomplished.
D)Bosnia agreed to adhere to the Geneva Accords as their multi-party conflict raged on.
E)Bosnia agreed to join the European Community.