Deck 2: The Historical Evolution of International Politics

Question 1

Why did anarchy result from the Westphalian system?

A)Sovereignty meant that no higher power could tell states what to do, so there was no one to prevent states from attacking one another.
B)The Westphalian system destroyed the concept of states and left the world in chaos.
C)The Westphalian system should have created an international organization to promote international peace.
D)The Westphalian system created the League of Nations, which had the power to dictate state behavior.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What is the best definition of sovereignty?

A)Each state has complete authority over its own territory.
B)Each state can interfere in the internal workings of another state if certain conditions are met.
C)All states are different in terms of power.
D)The presence of a number of competing actors or ideas in a state makes it stronger.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which Greek scholar wrote the great study of international politics, the History of the Peloponnesian War ?

A)Sparta.
B)Pericles
C)Aristotle
D)Thucydides

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Following the Treaty of Westphalia, what/who were the main actors in the international system?

A)Religious organizations
B)States
C)International organizations
D)European kings and queens

Question 5

In which of the following ways was the Treaty of Westphalia important?

A)It established territorial boundaries that indirectly laid the foundation for the Cold War.
B)It united Eastern and Western Europe.
C)It recognized the existence of sovereign states.
D)It was the first treaty to promote human rights.

Question 6

In political science, which of the following best defines anarchy?

A)Chaos in the world
B)The acceptance by the international community of a state's sovereignty over its territory
C)A situation in which there is no central government
D)A situation in which democratic rule is expanded

Question 7

What is the best definition of a balance of power?

A)A situation in which no more than two countries are equal in power
B)A situation in which more than six countries have equal power
C)A situation in which one state has more power than all the others
D)A situation in which no one state is sufficiently powerful to defeat the others

Question 8

What did Thucydides posit in his theory of international politics?

A)That morality drives the ambitions of states
B)That great men determine the shape of history through their personal charisma or genius
C)That states are the key actors in international politics and the distribution of power among them is a key factor
D)That a balance of power among states provides the least stable system of politics

Question 9

The Treaty of Westphalia established a system in which the main actors were states and there was no higher authority than the state. This is known as which of the following?

A)The unipolar system
B)The balance of power system
C)The sovereign state system
D)The bipolar system

Question 10

In what ways was the feudal system in Europe different from the Roman Empire?

A)While there were many overlapping political authorities under feudalism, there was only a single government under the Roman Empire.
B)While the political authorities during the feudal period were not Christian, those during the Roman Empire were.
C)The feudal system was capitalist, while the Roman Empire was socialist.
D)During the Roman Empire citizenship was limited to Romans, while all people in the given territory were able to vote under feudalism.

Question 11

During which declining Chinese dynasty did Western powers begin to exploit China?

A)Ming
B)Qing
C)Zhou
D)Shang

Question 12

According to Thucydides, which key factor, that is still relevant today, helps explain the Peloponnesian War?

A)Money
B)Power
C)Territory
D)Population

Question 13

What form did most states take from the end of the Thirty Years' War until the early 1800s?

A)Most states were democracies.
B)Most states were undemocratic monarchies.
C)Most states had parliamentary systems of rule.
D)Most states were communist dictatorships.

Question 14

Which conflict over religion sprang from the Protestant Reformation?

A)The Peloponnesian War
B)The European Civil War
C)Battle of Waterloo
D)The Thirty Years' War

Question 15

Which of the following is true about international politics?

A)When sovereign states are recognized by other sovereign states, they have a greater chance of surviving.
B)When sovereign states are recognized by other sovereign states, they have a greater chance of having elections.
C)When sovereign states are recognized by other sovereign states, they have a greater chance of being democratic.
D)When sovereign states are recognized by other sovereign states, they have a greater chance of going to war.

Question 16

When did the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan conquer China?

A)The fourteenth century CE
B)The fifteenth century CE
C)The thirteenth century CE
D)The sixteenth century CE

Question 17

Which two Greek city-states fought in the Peloponnesian War?

A)Sparta and Athens
B)Baghdad and Sparta
C)Athens and Istanbul
D)Constantinople and Thebes

Question 18

Which of the following best describes China during the first millennium BCE?

A)China's system varied between an empire, with a single dominant leader, and a pluralistic system.
B)China was controlled by a monarchy.
C)China was divided into a pluralistic system similar to the Westphalian system.
D)China was always controlled by outsiders.

Question 19

In the sixteenth century, which country founded a colony called Macao in China?

A)Portugal
B)England
C)France
D)Russia

Question 20

In 1648, European countries signed the Treaty of Westphalia. What did the Treaty of Westphalia accomplish?

A)The treaty united Christian and Muslim countries.
B)The treaty ended the Thirty Years' War.
C)The treaty created a free trade alliance.
D)The treaty reestablished the Roman Empire.

Question 21

Which of the following best describes nationalism?

A)Nationalism is the doctrine by which large groups of people perceive themselves to be fundamentally similar to each other and distinct from other groups.
B)Nationalism is an intense dislike or fear of foreign people and their customs.
C)Nationalism is choosing to go to war for one's country.
D)Nationalism is an acceptance of different world views.

Question 22

Which of the following is true about the Concert of Europe period?

A)Wars occurred often
B)Wars were considered illegal
C)Only a few limited wars occurred
D)Wars were global in scope

Question 23

Which of the following countries stood to gain the most from the disintegration of the Ottoman empire prior to World War I?

A)Russia
B)Great Britain
C)Austria-Hungary
D)Germany

Question 24

When was the Concert of Europe established?

A)Following World War I
B)Following the European Civil War
C)At the Congress of Paris
D)At the Congress of Vienna

Question 25

Which of the following helped cause Napoleon's defeat?

A)Russia's huge army and the frigid winters in Russia
B)Russia's effective use of the draft
C)Napoleon's effective use of new weapons of war
D)Napoleon's use of trench warfare

Question 26

What was one of the most significant changes that Napoleon initiated in warfare?

A)He mobilized the entire population behind his war effort.
B)He developed a small professional army.
C)He conscripted citizens of defeated states into his army.
D)He separated political and military power in government.

Question 27

European countries were successful in dominating the rest of the world for all the following factors EXCEPT:

A)The development of superior technology
B)Capitalism providing the means for expansion
C)Christianity offering an ideology that justified expansion
D)English emerging as the dominant language

Question 28

What is it called when one country controls another country or its territory?

A)Imperialism
B)Satrapy
C)Tutelage
D)Domination

Question 29

Which of the following was true of multinational empires in the nineteenth century?

A)Nationalism resulted in a dominant language.
B)Nationalism evolved into a xenophobic ideology.
C)Nationalism increased the industrial capacity of the state.
D)Nationalism created pressure to break larger states into smaller ones.

Question 30

What was the spark that ignited World War I?

A)The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo
B)Germany's invasion of Poland
C)Britain's naval blockade in the Atlantic
D)The storming of the Bastille in Paris

Question 31

At the start of World War I, Britain, France, and Russia belonged to the which of the following groups?

A)The Triple Entente
B)The United Nations
C)The World Trade Organization (WTO)
D)The Triple Alliance

Question 32

What was one major goal of colonialism?

A)To embrace local culture and customs
B)To establish world dominance
C)To exploit the local economy to benefit the colonizers
D)To eradicate all trace of local culture and customs

Question 33

Which two developments in European politics made possible Napoleon's rise in the late eighteenth century possible?

A)Republicanism and rationalism
B)Enlightenment and education
C)Democracy and emancipation
D)Nationalism and democracy

Question 34

Which of the following social scientists attributed Europe's economic success to its Protestant Christian values?

A)Huldrych Zwingli
B)Martin Luther
C)Max Weber
D)Jared Diamond

Question 35

The intense competition among European powers at the beginning of the twentieth century manifested in part in which of the following?

A)The colonization of the southern hemisphere
B)The establishment of a European-wide currency
C)The reestablishment of the slave trade
D)The development of a nuclear weapons program

Question 36

Prior to the First World War, which declining empire controlled the Balkans?

A)The Austro-Hungarian empire
B)The Ottoman empire
C)The Russian empire
D)The French empire

Question 37

The nineteenth century is known for the rise of what two related phenomena?

A)War and capitalism
B)Nationalism and imperialism
C)Nationalism and capitalism
D)Imperialism and isolationism

Question 38

The Triple Alliance was a pact among three countries, pledging to help the other in case of attack. Which countries were members of the Triple Alliance?

A)Britain, France, and Russia
B)The U.S., Canada, and Britain
C)Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy
D)Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia

Question 39

Which of the following was an example of a multinational empire in Europe?

A)The Russian Empire
B)The Armenian Empire
C)The German Empire
D)The Kurdish Empire

Question 40

National self-determination is a concept closely related to which of the following?

A)Fascism
B)Socialism
C)Nationalism
D)Authoritarianism

Question 41

Under what circumstances did Adolf Hitler come to power in Germany?

A)After democratic elections confirmed him as Chancellor
B)As a result of a coup d'état launched in Munich
C)As a result of a Nazi revolution
D)After the assassination of the German President, von Hindenburg

Question 42

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain advocated a strategy of avoiding war by acceding to the demands of Germany. What is this strategy called?

A)Deliberation
B)Isolationism
C)Appeasement
D)Collective security

Question 43

After, World War I, leaders sought to prevent future wars through the use of which strategy?

A)Collective security
B)Nation-building
C)Liberal use of foreign aid
D)Apartheid

Question 44

The result of World War I was a shift in global power toward which of the following countries?

A)England
B)France
C)China
D)The United States

Question 45

Which of the following does fascism seek to accomplish?

A)The subservience of the individual to the state
B)The establishment of a liberal civil society
C)The creation of commitments to international organizations
D)The development of democratic institutions

Question 46

The United States dropped nuclear weapons on which cities?

A)Berlin and Stuttgart
B)Rome and Naples
C)Hiroshima and Nagasaki
D)Moscow and Khabarovsk

Question 47

Which Cold War event posed the greatest threat to the United States?

A)Berlin airlift
B)Great Depression
C)Cuban Missile Crisis
D)Vietnam War

Question 48

Which of the following types of weapons were NOT developed in the run up to World War I?

A)Nuclear weapons
B)Barbed wire
C)Poison gas
D)Machine guns

Question 49

At the beginning of the twentieth century, which great power was most threatened by the rapid rise of Germany?

A)Russia
B)Italy
C)France
D)Great Britain

Question 50

Provisions in the Treaty of Versailles called for all of the following EXCEPT

A)The creation of the League of Nations
B)The establishment of a plan for Germany to pay reparations
C)The specification of limits on Germany's ability to rearm
D)The creation of the International Court of Justice

Question 51

The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted between what years?

A)1941-1945
B)1946-1991
C)1955-1965
D)1981-1991

Question 52

Mutual assured destruction (MAD)refers to which situation?

A)Suicide terrorists with means to destroy others
B)The inability of either side to win a nuclear war, even if one side wages a successful surprise attack
C)The possibility of conflict between smaller countries in the developing world
D)The use of proxy wars to avoid WWIII

Question 53

Avoiding punishing either Japan for invading Manchuria or Italy's invasion of Ethiopia demonstrated the weakness of which policy?

A)Collective security
B)Socialism
C)Nuclear deterrence
D)Peacekeeping

Question 54

Britain's willingness to go to war in 1914 was based on logic similar to that of the Spartans in 421 BCE. Thucydides justified their logic, which most closely resembled which of the following?

A)If war is likely, it is better to fight it before the enemy became even stronger.
B)If war is likely, it is better to spend enough money on arms to win.
C)If war is likely, it is better to have strong allies.
D)If war is likely, money does not matter as much as a draft.

Question 55

When did the United States enter World War I?

A)At the beginning of the conflict
B)In the middle of the conflict
C)Near the end of the conflict
D)At the request of Kaiser Wilhelm

Question 56

What did the great powers do in response to Germany's demand that it be allowed to occupy the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia?

A)Britain advocated a policy of appeasement.
B)Poland launched a military assault to help its Czechoslovakian allies.
C)The United States threatened to drop a nuclear bomb on Munich, hence this became known as the Munich Crisis of 1938.
D)Russia signed an alliance pact with Germany to split Czechoslovakia.

Question 57

With which countries is fascist political ideology most closely associated?

A)Russia and China
B)The United States and France
C)Italy and Germany
D)Hungary and Poland

Question 58

What was the name of the treaty that ended World War I?

A)Treaty of Westphalia
B)Treaty of Versailles
C)Treaty of Maastricht
D)Treaty of Paris

Question 59

What were the major reasons why the idea of collective security failed?

A)Because of Europe's fatigue with war following World War I and the U.S.'s return to a policy of isolationism
B)Because of the disintegration of the British Empire and the rise of Russia's power
C)Because of Germany's inability to pay reparations and the rise of Russia's power
D)Because of the U.S.'s return to a policy of isolationism and the disintegration of the British Empire

Question 60

During World War II, which of the following countries joined the Allied Powers?

A)France, Britain, Soviet Union, and the United States
B)Germany, Italy, and Japan
C)Brazil, Argentina, and Chile
D)The European Union and the United States

Question 61

The first major arms control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union followed which event?

A)The Battle of Potemkin
B)The Cuban Missile Crisis
C)The Bay of Pigs Incident
D)The creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Question 62

After World War II, from which country did Vietnam seek independence?

A)France
B)China
C)Japan
D)The United States

Question 63

Which of the following is an example of a nonstate actor?

A)The Soviet Union
B)The European Union
C)The United States
D)The People's Republic of China

Question 64

Which of the following is a company with business operations in more than one country?

A)A nongovernmental organization
B)An international organization
C)A multinational corporation
D)A global entity

Question 65

What were "proxies" during the Cold War?

A)Government officials who acted on behalf of their countries
B)Countries in the developing world that were used by the superpowers to wage war indirectly through their allies
C)Colonies that provided a lot of raw materials to their colonizers
D)Important diplomats who negotiated arms treaties

Question 66

After the Cold War, nationalism led to the fragmentation of which of the following three states in Europe?

A)The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia
B)Ukraine, Romania, and Poland
C)Russia, Romania, and Germany
D)Spain, Russia, and France

Question 67

The 2014 Ebola outbreak reportedly originated in which part of the world?

A)The South Pacific
B)The Middle East
C)Western Africa
D)A South American rainforest

Question 68

When did the fall of the Berlin Wall, which ushered in the end of the Cold War, occur?

A)1989
B)1961
C)1991
D)1995

Question 69

What are the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the Ogaden War all an example of?

A)Genocide
B)Nationalistic movements
C)Proxy wars
D)Ethnic cleansing

Question 70

What did the poor, oil-producing countries do in the 1970s in order to stimulate their economic development?

A)They banded together into the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)in order to force global oil prices higher.
B)They banded together and created the Middle Eastern Alliance in order to establish gold as the international medium of exchange.
C)They froze all oil exports in an effort to increase their own domestic supplies.
D)They used the international oil trade to distribute power equally among themselves.

Question 71

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)was the precursor to which of the following?

A)The World Trade Organization (WTO)
B)The European Union (EU)
C)The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
D)The International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Question 72

In 1955, many African and Asian nations met to create an agenda that was to avoid taking sides in the Cold War. What was this group called?

A)The World Trade Organization
B)The Non-Aligned Movement
C)The North Atlantic Organization
D)The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Question 73

Which two countries were considered superpowers during the Cold War?

A)France and England
B)China and the Soviet Union
C)The United States and the Soviet Union
D)The United States and Germany

Question 74

The World Bank is considered which type of nonstate actor?

A)A multinational corporation
B)A European Union member
C)An international organization
D)An international advocacy group

Question 75

What did the collapse of communism lead to?

A)A new wave of democratization that was characterized by many successful transitions to democracy and very few failures
B)A new wave of democratization that led to some successful transitions to democracy and other less than successful transitions that ended in authoritarian regimes
C)The end of systematic world conflict, as many had anticipated
D)Increased terrorism around the world

Question 76

What major problem do most third world countries share?

A)Poverty
B)Homogenous populations
C)Limited population growth
D)Large amounts of arable land

Question 77

Which of the following was the central goal of the Bretton Woods system?

A)The Bretton Woods system sought to end the Cold War.
B)The Bretton Woods system sought to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
C)The Bretton Woods system sought to expand international trade.
D)The Bretton Woods system sought to establish mutual assured destruction pacts between the U.S.US and the USSR.

Question 78

Why was the Vietnam War waged?

A)In part, the Vietnam War was waged because the United States thought that Japan would intercede on behalf of the Vietnamese.
B)In part, the Vietnam War was waged because the United States feared that Vietnam would join China in the communist camp.
C)In part, the Vietnam War was waged because the United States assumed that Vietnam would soon have access to nuclear weapons.
D)In part, the Vietnam War was waged because the United States suffered an attack on its embassy that was orchestrated by the Vietnamese.

Question 79

A new system of post-World War II international economic stability and coordination came from which agreement?

A)Bretton Woods agreement
B)Treaty of Versailles
C)European Union treaty
D)Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

Question 80

How many members does the European Union consist of?

A)15
B)27
C)6
D)45