Embedded Files
INTERWAR PERIOD EXAM (1919–1939)
INTERWAR PERIOD EXAM (1919–1939)
20 Multiple-Choice Questions
PUNTUACIÓN:
_________________________________________________
• Total preguntas: 20
• Calificación máxima: 10 puntos
• Cada acierto: +0,5 puntos
• Cada error: -0,17 puntos
• No contestada: 0 puntos (ni suma ni resta)
Fórmula: Nota final = (Aciertos × 0,5) - (Errores × 0,17)
Nota: Los errores restan 1/3 del valor de un acierto para
evitar que contestar al azar beneficie al estudiante
1. Which treaty formally ended World War I with Germany and imposed full war guilt on it?
A) Treaty of Trianon
B) Treaty of Versailles
C) Treaty of Saint-Germain
D) Treaty of Sèvres
2. What was the main purpose of the League of Nations, created after WWI?
A) To redistribute colonial territories
B) To maintain collective security through diplomacy
C) To enforce German reparation payments
D) To establish a European economic union
3. Which major power never joined the League of Nations, weakening its effectiveness?
A) France
B) United Kingdom
C) United States
D) Italy
4. The Treaty of Trianon (1920) is associated with which country?
A) Austria
B) Bulgaria
C) Hungary
D) Turkey
5. What was the most severe economic crisis that destabilized Europe and the world during the Interwar Period?
A) The Hyperinflation Crisis
B) The Great Depression
C) The Ruhr Crisis
D) The Wall Street Crash of 1929
6. Who led the Fascist Party to power in Italy in 1922?
A) Adolf Hitler
B) Francisco Franco
C) Benito Mussolini
D) Victor Emmanuel III
7. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
A) The collapse of the German banking system
B) The Wall Street Crash of October 1929
C) The failure of the Dawes Plan
D) The Sudeten Crisis
8. Which German crisis in 1923 led to the devaluation of the currency and widespread poverty?
A) The Ruhr Crisis and hyperinflation
B) The Berlin Uprising
C) The Beer Hall Putsch
D) The Munich Agreement
9. The Treaty of Locarno (1925) is best described as:
A) A reparation agreement for Germany
B) A series of treaties guaranteeing western European borders
C) An alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union
D) The agreement that created the League of Nations
10. Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in:
A) 1929
B) 1931
C) 1933
D) 1936
11. The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was significant because:
A) It was the first war fought entirely with nuclear weapons
B) It served as a proxy conflict between fascism and communism
C) It united all European powers against Franco
D) It led to the immediate outbreak of WWII
12. Which agreement allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in 1938?
A) Treaty of Versailles
B) Munich Agreement
C) Nazi-Soviet Pact
D) Kellogg-Briand Pact
13. The Nazi-Soviet Pact (August 1939) contained a secret protocol that:
A) Established a military alliance against France
B) Divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence
C) Created a permanent peace between Germany and the USSR
D) Gave Germany control of the Baltic states
14. What was the immediate event that triggered the outbreak of World War II in Europe?
A) The Anschluss with Austria
B) The occupation of Czechoslovakia
C) The German invasion of Poland
D) The Italian invasion of Ethiopia
15. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) attempted to:
A) Limit naval armaments
B) Outlaw war as an instrument of national policy
C) Establish the League of Nations
D) Redraw the borders of Eastern Europe
16. Which Turkish leader emerged during the reorganization of the Ottoman Empire and established modern Turkey?
A) Enver Pasha
B) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
C) Mehmed VI
D) Ismet Inönü
17. Stalin's Great Purges (1936–1938) primarily targeted:
A) Foreign diplomats and spies
B) Perceived political opponents within the Communist Party
C) German sympathizers
D) Kulaks during collectivization
18. Which event demonstrated the League of Nations' inability to stop aggression in the 1930s?
A) The Locarno Conference
B) The Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
C) The Washington Naval Conference
D) The Genoa Conference
19. The "New Deal" was introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to:
A) Prepare the US for war
B) Combat the effects of the Great Depression
C) Establish alliances with European democracies
D) Expand American colonial territories
20. The Rome-Berlin Axis (1936) was an agreement between:
A) Germany and Japan
B) Italy and Germany
C) Germany and the Soviet Union
D) Italy and Spain
1. Which treaty formally ended World War I with Germany and imposed full war guilt on it?
A) Treaty of Trianon
B) Treaty of Versailles
C) Treaty of Saint-Germain
D) Treaty of Sèvres
Correct Answer: B) Treaty of Versailles
Rationale: The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty signed with Germany after WWI. Its most controversial provision was Article 231, the "War Guilt Clause," which placed full responsibility for the war on Germany and its allies. This clause was used to justify the heavy reparations imposed on Germany. The other treaties affected different nations: Trianon (Hungary), Saint-Germain (Austria), and Sèvres (Ottoman Empire).
2. What was the main purpose of the League of Nations, created after WWI?
A) To redistribute colonial territories
B) To maintain collective security through diplomacy
C) To enforce German reparation payments
D) To establish a European economic union
Correct Answer: B) To maintain collective security through diplomacy
Rationale: The League of Nations was President Woodrow Wilson's vision, embodied in his Fourteen Points. Its primary purpose was to prevent future wars through collective security—the principle that an attack on one member would be considered an attack on all, resolved through diplomacy, arbitration, and economic sanctions rather than military force. It was not designed for colonial redistribution, reparation enforcement, or economic union.
3. Which major power never joined the League of Nations, weakening its effectiveness?
A) France
B) United Kingdom
C) United States
D) Italy
Correct Answer: C) United States
Rationale: Despite President Wilson being the League's chief architect, the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles or join the League due to isolationist sentiment and fears of being drawn into future European conflicts. Without the world's emerging superpower, the League lacked the authority and military backing needed to enforce its decisions, significantly undermining its effectiveness from the start.
4. The Treaty of Trianon (1920) is associated with which country?
A) Austria
B) Bulgaria
C) Hungary
D) Turkey
Correct Answer: C) Hungary
Rationale: The Treaty of Trianon was signed with Hungary after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was exceptionally harsh, reducing Hungary's territory by approximately two-thirds and its population by about half, leaving many ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries. This created deep national trauma and revisionist ambitions that would later align Hungary with Nazi Germany. Austria (Saint-Germain), Bulgaria (Neuilly), and Turkey (Sèvres/Lausanne) were covered by different treaties.
5. What was the most severe economic crisis that destabilized Europe and the world during the Interwar Period?
A) The Hyperinflation Crisis
B) The Great Depression
C) The Ruhr Crisis
D) The Wall Street Crash of 1929
Correct Answer: B) The Great Depression
Rationale: While the Wall Street Crash (D) triggered it and hyperinflation (A) and the Ruhr Crisis (C) were serious earlier crises, the Great Depression (1929-1939) was the most severe and widespread economic downturn of the 20th century. It caused global industrial collapse, mass unemployment (over 30% in some countries), a sharp decline in international trade, and had profound political consequences—weakening democracies and strengthening extremist movements like Nazism and fascism across Europe.
6. Who led the Fascist Party to power in Italy in 1922?
A) Adolf Hitler
B) Francisco Franco
C) Benito Mussolini
D) Victor Emmanuel III
Correct Answer: C) Benito Mussolini
Rationale: Benito Mussolini, known as "Il Duce," founded the Fascist Party and led the March on Rome in October 1922, after which King Victor Emmanuel III (D) appointed him Prime Minister. Mussolini established Europe's first fascist dictatorship, characterized by extreme nationalism, suppression of opposition, corporatist economics, and aggressive expansionism (invasion of Ethiopia in 1935). Hitler (A) came to power later in Germany (1933), and Franco (B) in Spain after the Civil War (1939).
7. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
A) The collapse of the German banking system
B) The Wall Street Crash of October 1929
C) The failure of the Dawes Plan
D) The Sudeten Crisis
Correct Answer: B) The Wall Street Crash of October 1929
Rationale: The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash in October 1929, often called "Black Tuesday" (October 29). The crash wiped out millions of investors and led to a cascade of bank failures, reduced consumer spending, and industrial collapse. Because of interconnected global markets and the U.S. economy's central role, the crisis quickly spread worldwide, causing the decade-long economic catastrophe. The German banking collapse (A) and Dawes Plan failure (C) were consequences, not causes.
8. Which German crisis in 1923 led to the devaluation of the currency and widespread poverty?
A) The Ruhr Crisis and hyperinflation
B) The Berlin Uprising
C) The Beer Hall Putsch
D) The Munich Agreement
Correct Answer: A) The Ruhr Crisis and hyperinflation
Rationale: In 1923, when Germany failed to pay reparations, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr industrial region. The German government responded with passive resistance and printed money to pay striking workers, triggering catastrophic hyperinflation. The currency became worthless—at its peak, one U.S. dollar equaled 4.2 trillion German marks. This crisis wiped out middle-class savings, created immense poverty, and fueled political extremism, though it was temporarily stabilized by the Dawes Plan (1924).
9. The Treaty of Locarno (1925) is best described as:
A) A reparation agreement for Germany
B) A series of treaties guaranteeing western European borders
C) An alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union
D) The agreement that created the League of Nations
Correct Answer: B) A series of treaties guaranteeing western European borders
Rationale: The Locarno Treaties (1925) were seen as the "spirit of Locarno"—a hopeful period of reconciliation. Germany voluntarily accepted its western borders with France and Belgium (guaranteed by Britain and Italy) and agreed to demilitarize the Rhineland. However, Locarno did not guarantee Germany's eastern borders, leaving the door open for future revisionism. It temporarily improved relations and led to Germany joining the League of Nations (1926). It was not a reparation agreement (A), alliance with USSR (C), or creation of the League (D).
10. Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in:
A) 1929
B) 1931
C) 1933
D) 1936
Correct Answer: C) 1933
Rationale: Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, by President Paul von Hindenburg. This was not a seizure of power through revolution but a legal appointment following the Nazi Party's electoral successes. Once in power, Hitler rapidly consolidated control: the Reichstag Fire (February 1933) allowed emergency decrees suspending civil liberties, and the Enabling Act (March 1933) gave him dictatorial powers. By 1934, after Hindenburg's death, Hitler merged the presidency and chancellorship, becoming absolute dictator.
11. The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was significant because:
A) It was the first war fought entirely with nuclear weapons
B) It served as a proxy conflict between fascism and communism
C) It united all European powers against Franco
D) It led to the immediate outbreak of WWII
Correct Answer: B) It served as a proxy conflict between fascism and communism
Rationale: The Spanish Civil War became a preview of WWII, with international powers intervening on both sides. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany supported Francisco Franco's Nationalists, using the war to test new weapons and tactics (e.g., the bombing of Guernica). The Soviet Union aided the Republicans, while Western democracies (Britain, France, U.S.) remained neutral. This ideological polarization—fascism versus communism—foreshadowed the larger global conflict. The war ended with Franco's victory just months before WWII began.
12. Which agreement allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in 1938?
A) Treaty of Versailles
B) Munich Agreement
C) Nazi-Soviet Pact
D) Kellogg-Briand Pact
Correct Answer: B) Munich Agreement
Rationale: The Munich Agreement (September 1938) was signed by Germany, Italy, Britain, and France, allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland—a region of Czechoslovakia with a large German-speaking population. This policy of "appeasement," championed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, aimed to avoid war by conceding to Hitler's demands. Chamberlain famously declared "peace for our time," but the agreement only encouraged further Nazi aggression. Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, violating the Munich terms.
13. The Nazi-Soviet Pact (August 1939) contained a secret protocol that:
A) Established a military alliance against France
B) Divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence
C) Created a permanent peace between Germany and the USSR
D) Gave Germany control of the Baltic states
Correct Answer: B) Divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence
Rationale: The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) publicly pledged neutrality between Germany and the USSR. However, its secret protocol divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and eastern Poland went to the Soviet sphere; western Poland and Lithuania to Germany. This cynical agreement allowed Hitler to invade Poland without Soviet interference and enabled Stalin to expand Soviet territory. The pact was shattered when Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941.
14. What was the immediate event that triggered the outbreak of World War II in Europe?
A) The Anschluss with Austria
B) The occupation of Czechoslovakia
C) The German invasion of Poland
D) The Italian invasion of Ethiopia
Correct Answer: C) The German invasion of Poland
Rationale: On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, using the false flag "Gleiwitz incident" as a pretext. Britain and France, having guaranteed Poland's independence, declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, marking the official start of World War II in Europe. Previous aggressions—Anschluss (1938), occupation of Czechoslovakia (1939), and Italy's Ethiopia invasion (1935)—had been met with appeasement or ineffective League sanctions, but Poland was the "red line" that finally triggered war.
15. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) attempted to:
A) Limit naval armaments
B) Outlaw war as an instrument of national policy
C) Establish the League of Nations
D) Redraw the borders of Eastern Europe
Correct Answer: B) Outlaw war as an instrument of national policy
Rationale: The Kellogg-Briand Pact, initiated by U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, was signed by 62 nations. It solemnly renounced war as an instrument of national policy and pledged to resolve disputes peacefully. While idealistic and morally significant, the pact had no enforcement mechanism—it was essentially a statement of intent. Its weakness became apparent in the 1930s when aggressor nations violated it with impunity, demonstrating that treaties without enforcement are meaningless.
16. Which Turkish leader emerged during the reorganization of the Ottoman Empire and established modern Turkey?
A) Enver Pasha
B) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
C) Mehmed VI
D) Ismet Inönü
Correct Answer: B) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Rationale: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk led the Turkish National Movement in the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), resisting the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres, which would have partitioned Anatolia. After defeating Greek forces and abolishing the Ottoman Sultanate, he established the Republic of Turkey in 1923, becoming its first president. Atatürk implemented radical secularization and modernization reforms, transforming Turkey into a modern nation-state. The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) replaced Sèvres and recognized Turkish sovereignty.
17. Stalin's Great Purges (1936–1938) primarily targeted:
A) Foreign diplomats and spies
B) Perceived political opponents within the Communist Party
C) German sympathizers
D) Kulaks during collectivization
Correct Answer: B) Perceived political opponents within the Communist Party
Rationale: The Great Purges (or Great Terror) were Stalin's campaign to eliminate real or perceived opponents. While kulaks (wealthy peasants) had been targeted earlier during collectivization (D), the purges focused on the Communist Party elite, military leadership, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens. Show trials convicted old Bolsheviks like Zinoviev and Bukharin. An estimated 700,000-1.2 million people were executed, and millions more sent to Gulag labor camps. The purges consolidated Stalin's absolute control but severely weakened the Soviet military and state apparatus.
18. Which event demonstrated the League of Nations' inability to stop aggression in the 1930s?
A) The Locarno Conference
B) The Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
C) The Washington Naval Conference
D) The Genoa Conference
Correct Answer: B) The Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
Rationale: The Italian invasion of Ethiopia (then Abyssinia) in 1935 was a decisive failure for the League of Nations. Ethiopia appealed to the League, which condemned Italy and imposed limited economic sanctions—but crucially, these did not include oil, and the Suez Canal remained open for Italian ships. Britain and France, seeking to maintain good relations with Mussolini, pursued secret negotiations (Hoare-Laval Pact) to appease Italy by offering to partition Ethiopia. The League's weakness was exposed, encouraging further aggression by Germany and Japan.
19. The "New Deal" was introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to:
A) Prepare the US for war
B) Combat the effects of the Great Depression
C) Establish alliances with European democracies
D) Expand American colonial territories
Correct Answer: B) Combat the effects of the Great Depression
Rationale: The New Deal (1933-1939) was FDR's ambitious series of programs, public works projects, financial reforms, and regulations designed to provide relief (for the unemployed), recovery (of the economy), and reform (of the financial system). Key measures included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), Social Security Act, and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). While the New Deal did not end the Depression (WWII ultimately did), it transformed the role of the federal government and provided a safety net for millions of Americans.
20. The Rome-Berlin Axis (1936) was an agreement between:
A) Germany and Japan
B) Italy and Germany
C) Germany and the Soviet Union
D) Italy and Spain
Correct Answer: B) Italy and Germany
Rationale: The Rome-Berlin Axis was a formal agreement between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, announced by Mussolini in November 1936 after earlier cooperation in supporting Franco during the Spanish Civil War. It aligned the two fascist powers ideologically and diplomatically, though it was not yet a full military alliance. This was followed by the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan (1936-1937) and later the Pact of Steel (1939), which created the military alliance that became the Axis Powers in WWII.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse