World History MCQs

Notes:
Although the Germans were the first to use phosgene on the battlefield, it became the primary chemical weapon of the Allies. Phosgene was responsible for 85% of chemical-weapons fatalities during World War I. Mustard gas, a potent blistering agent, was dubbed King of the Battle Gases.

Notes:
The 1911 Revolution is also known as the Chinese Revolution or the Xinhai Revolution. This revolution overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty. This revolution leads to the abdication of Puyi, the last imperial ruler of China; end of imperial China; establishment of the Republic of China. This revolution happened from 10 October 1911 to 12 February 1912.

Notes:
Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign of China launched by Mao Zedong, the Chairman. It was developed by the Communist Party of China. This campaign was from 1958 to 1962. This campaign leads to the formation of people’s communes so as to develop a communist society and to transform China’s agrarian economy. But this campaign was a disaster and lead to Great Chinese Famine.

Notes:
From the late 9th century to the early 11th century the Dutchy of Bohemia (present-day the Czech Republic) were under the control of Great Moravian Empire. In 1198, the Holy Roman Empire undertook the control and established the Kingdom of Bohemia with Prague as its capital. In 1526, through Battle of Mohacs, it got annexed to Habsburg Monarchy under the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the Bohemian Czech got annexed into the Austrian Empire. In 1918, the First Czechoslovak Republic got established following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War II. It became the only democracy in Central Europe during the interwar period. And, from 1938 till the end of World War II, Nazi Germany annexed Czechoslovakia. After World War II, Germans got expelled and established Communist Party of Czechslovakia under Soviet influence. They unleashed a one-party Communist state through a coup in 1948 and ruled with lots of restrictions, dissatisfaction and curbs on basic freedoms. This lead to the Prague Spring of 1968, a movement to enforce and introduce basic reforms of decentralisation and democratization. This attracted the ire of the Soviet Union and they invaded Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia remained controlled by the Soviet Union until the 1989 Velvet Revolution for Gentle Revolution. The Velvet Revolution of 1989 was a non-violent peaceful transition of power which ended the Communist Rule and re-established democratic-capitalist state which finally culminated in the partition or dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 into two independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This dissolution or self-determined split is informally known as the Violet Divorce.

Notes:
Enlil was the chief deity of Sumerians. He was the god of earth and air and Enki was the god of the waters. The Sumerians buried the dead-bodies in their own house.

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As a gift to his wife, Amytis, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II was said to have constructed the luxurious Hanging Gardens in the sixth century B.C. because she was homesick for the beautiful vegetation and mountains of her native Media.

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Like other river valley civilizations, the Chinese civilization also flourished in the flat rich land through which flowed the two great rivers – the Hwang ho and the Yang tse kiang.

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Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the Great Wall of China around 221 B.C. The labor force that built the wall was made up largely of soldiers and convicts. The construction of the Great Wall of China was started in the 7th Century BC and lasted until 1878.

Notes:
Naval competition with ancient Phonicians turned the Greeks into good mariners. Gradually they were able to conquere and colonize the whole of the Mediterranean region. This region came to be known as ‘Magna Grecia’ or Greater Greece.

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Homer wrote the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’ in the 7th century B.C. The subject matter of ‘Iliad’ is the Spartan victory over Troy after a decade-long war, as well as the exploits of their legendary hero, Achilles whereas the ‘Odyssey’ describes the adventurous return journey of Odysseus from Troy.