Western Civilization Since 1500 Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
This course explores the major political, social, economic, and cultural developments in Western civilization from 1500 to the present. Emphasizing transformative events such as the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, revolutions, industrialization, imperialism, world wars, and the Cold War, the course examines the shaping of modern Western societies. Students will analyze primary sources, trace the evolution of key ideas and institutions, and consider the global impacts of Western expansion and interaction. Through lectures, discussions, and readings, the course provides a foundation for understanding the complexities and legacies of the Western world in the modern era.
Recommended Textbook
Western Civilization Volume II Since 1500 9th Edition by Jackson J. Spielvogel
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17 Chapters
1261 Verified Questions
1261 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Reformation and Religious Warfare in the
Sixteenth Century
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72 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Under which English monarch did England seek reconciliation with the Catholic Church?
A)Elizabeth I
B)Mary I
C)Henry V
D)Henry VIII
E)Edward VI
Answer: B
Q2) Henry VIII of England wanted to divorce Anne Boleyn so that he could marry Catherine of Aragon.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) What was true of the newly established Lutheran churches?
A)They mirrored the organization of the Catholic Church.
B)They were state-dominated.
C)They had more female than male members.
D)They were most successful in southern Europe.
E)They only appealed to city dwellers.
Answer: B
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Europe and the World: New Encounters
1500-1800
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Sample Questions
Q1) Mercantilist policy makers sought to establish a favorable balance of trade.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Which state was the major western rival to the British in India in the seventeenth century?
A)Portugal
B)France
C)Spain
D)the Netherlands
E)Russia
Answer: B
Q3) In the early fifteenth century, Portuguese fleets explored the western coast of Africa in search of
A)spices.
B)gold.
C)salt.
D)tobacco.
E)silk.
Answer: B
Page 4
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Chapter 3: State Building and the Search for Order in the
Seventeenth Century
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71 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Nobles rebelled in _____ between 1648 and 1652 to halt the growth of royal power.
A)France
B)Sweden
C)Switzerland
D)Russia
E)Spain
Answer: A
Q2) Mazarin tried to carry on the policies of A)Locke. B)Calvin.
C)Henry IV.
D)Richelieu.
E)Louis XVI.
Answer: D
Q3) The Russian nobility was known as boyars.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: The Eighteenth Century: an Age of Enlightenment
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Q1) Except in ____, judicial torture remained an important tool of European criminal-justice systems in the eighteenth century.
A)Russia
B)France
C)Spain
D)England
E)Prussia
Q2) Most French philosophes came from the lower orders of society.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Who were the philosophes? What common characteristics did they have?
Q4) Which city was the recognized capital of the Enlightenment?
A)Geneva
B)Berlin
C)London
D)Vienna
E)Paris
Q5) What were the chief characteristics of popular religion in the eighteenth century?
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Q6) How did the Enlightenment contribute to changes in European judicial systems?
Chapter 5: The Eighteenth Century: European States
International Wars and Social Change
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Sample Questions
Q1) Among the French aristocracy between 1650 and 1780, the average A)number of children increased.
B)lifespan decreased.
C)size of landholdings decreased .
D)number of children declined.
E)rate of literacy decreased.
Q2) A Prussian attack on which Habsburg province sparked the outbreak of the War of Austrian Succession in 1740?
A)Transylvania
B)Bavaria
C)Silesia
D)Bohemia
E)Prague
Q3) Since medieval times, ____ had served as military officers.
A)monks and friars
B)store owners and merchants
C)landed aristocrats
D)wealthy peasants
E)parish priests
Q4) How did European family structure and life change in the eighteenth century?
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Chapter 6: A Revolution in Politics: the Era of the French Revolution
and Napoleon
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72 Verified Questions
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Q1) American success in the War for Independence depended on forming an alliance with Prussia.
A)True
B)False
Q2) On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly voted to abolish
A)the death penalty.
B)monarchial government.
C)aristocratic privileges.
D)slavery.
E)private property.
Q3) What was true of the National Convention during the early stages of the "Radical Revolution"?
A)It was comprised primarily of professionals, like its predecessor, the National Assembly.
B)It successfully resisted the Parisians' radical attempts to control the Convention.
C)It favored ending the disastrous European war.
D)It failed to create any kind of large standing army.
E)It requested that Napoleon become dictator.
Q4) How did Louis XVI respond to the revolutionary challenges to the Old Regime?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: The Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on
European Society
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120 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ____ revolution helped produce the first Industrial Revolution in Britain.
A)diplomatic
B)American
C)French
D)agricultural
E)urban
Q2) By 1850, trains could reach speeds of ____ miles per hour.
A)50
B)20
C)125
D)80
E)170
Q3) Early efforts to reduce the evils of the industrial factory focused on women and children.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What point were the British trying to make with the Great Exhibition of 1851?
Q5) child labor
Q6) Great Exhibition of 1851
Q7) canals Page 9
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Page 10
Chapter 8: Reaction Revolution and Romanticism 1815-1850
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most conservatives believed that
A)the French Revolution was a good thing.
B)militarism was the source of all evil.
C)nationalism was a force for good.
D)people should be obedient to political authority.
E)organized religion was unimportant.
Q2) Which statement best describes the state of the Italian peninsula following the Congress of Vienna?
A)It was entirely unified as a single country.
B)It remained divided into several states subject to the domination of other European powers.
C)It had been devastated by the last campaigns of Napoleon.
D)It had been completely annexed by Austria, a move confirmed by the Congress.
E)It sunk into complete anarchy and chaos.
Q3) What did the French constitution of 1848 create?
A)The Second Republic with a one-house legislature
B)A liberal state with limited political participation
C)The Third Republic
D)An absolutist monarchy
E)A socialist state
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Chapter 9: An Age of Nationalism and Realism 1850-1871
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Sample Questions
Q1) Who was primarily responsible for the germ theory of disease?
A)Charles Darwin
B)Joseph Lister
C)Louis Pasteur
D)Friedrich Engels
E)Samuel Gross
Q2) Mid-nineteenth century literary Realists
A)embraced aspects of Romanticism.
B)avoided flowery and sentimental language.
C)found few readers during their lifetimes.
D)were closely aligned with political conservatives.
E)often drew on medieval literature for inspiration.
Q3) Bismarck was appointed prime minister by
A)Frederick III.
B)William I.
C)Frederick William II.
D)Otto V.
E)William II.
Q4) Why was slavery a threat to American unity in the mid-nineteenth century?
Q5) What were the causes and consequences of the Crimean War?
Page 12
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Chapter 10: Mass Society in an Age of Progress 1871-1894
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Q1) What did Eduard Bernstein claim in his book Evolutionary Socialism?
A)The only hope for the workers was a violent revolution.
B)Socialism could best be achieved through the democratic process.
C)Unions should bargain with employers and avoid politics.
D)The poor were too ignorant to be allowed to vote.
E)True communism would take hundreds of years to evolve.
Q2) How long did France's Third Republic last?
A)10 years
B)65 years
C)50 years
D)25 years
E)5 years
Q3) What is meant by the phrase "mass society"? How was the growth of this mass society related to changes in the urban environment?
Q4) By 1914, what percentage of Britain's population lived in cities?
A)100 percent
B)50 percent
C)10 percent
D)40 percent
E)80 percent
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Chapter 11: An Age of Modernity Anxiety and Imperialism
1894-1914
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Sample Questions
Q1) Social Darwinists argued that
A)each human being was absolutely unique.
B)much more should be done to help the poor.
C)interracial marriage was essential to human progress.
D)race was a human construct, not a biological reality.
E)human societies were organisms that changed over time.
Q2) Compare and contrast the responses of China and Japan to European and American imperialism?
Q3) What led to the scramble for Africa? How did the colonization of Africa affect relations between the European powers?
Q4) What did the Pan-German League advocate?
A)German withdrawal from world affairs and concentration on internal political reforms
B)The development of a global German colonial empire
C)German leadership in the development of international pacifist organizations
D)Strict limitations on development of German industry
E)A German takeover of western Poland
Q5) Compare and contrast political developments in Britain and France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. How would you explain the differences you note?
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War and Revolution
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Q1) Which nationalist organization was responsible for assassinating Archduke Ferdinand and his wife?
A)The German Bund
B)The White Knights
C)The Austrian Revolutionaries
D)The Black Hand
E)The Serbian Brotherhood
Q2) How did World War I contribute to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution?
Q3) What was the main reason why European diplomats were incapable of slowing a rush toward war as early as late July of 1914?
A)European kings, tsars, and emperors were too bent on war to heed their advice.
B)The complex, rigid, and demanding mobilization plans devised by European army generals made immediate military action essential.
C)Ordinary people everywhere went to the polls and voted for immediate opening of the war on all fronts.
D)European industrialists, seeking to profit from mass destruction, induced the politicians they owned through bribery to push declarations of war through all European legislatures.
E)Communications was slow in a pre-computer era.
Page 15
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Chapter 13: The Futile Search for Stability: Europe Between
the Wars 1919-1939
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Sample Questions
Q1) What best describes Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies in the United States?
A)They were successful by 1932.
B)They virtually eliminated unemployment.
C)They brought about government ownership of most industries.
D)They brought about a partial economic recovery.
E)They were all declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Q2) Who were the squadristi?
A)Mussolini's closest advisors
B)Armed bands of fascists who used violence to intimidate enemies
C)Elite soldiers of the Fascist state
D)Officers in the Italian military
E)Military opponents of Mussolini
Q3) For what development was the physicist Walter Heisenberg most noted?
A)Developing the uncertainty principle
B)Being among the first team to split the atom
C)Resurrecting the scientific predictability of classical physics
D)Contributing to the development of the atomic bomb
E)Correcting Einstein's errors in the latter's theory of relativity
Q4) What role did ideas of race and military power play in the development of the Nazi state?
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Chapter 14: The Deepening of the European Crisis: World
War 2
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Q1) The Japanese presented themselves as the liberators of Asia from European imperialists.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What was the main priority of the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor?
A)Defeat Japan as quickly as possible
B)Recover the Hawaiian Islands
C)Defeat Germany first and then turn its great naval war machine against Japan
D)Remain neutral, while buying time to build up industrial and military supplies
E)Defend "Fortress America" from the expected combined Japanese and German invasion of the United States
Q3) In Hitler's view, which group threatened Germany from the east?
A)The Japanese
B)The Chinese
C)The Muslims
D)The Slavs
E)The Mongols
Q4) How did the British respond to Hitler's demands with respect to Czechoslovakia? Why did they make the choices they did?
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Chapter 15: Cold War and a New Western World 1945-1965
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist government fled to A)Shanghai.
B)Hong Kong.
C)Kuala Lumpur.
D)Taiwan.
E)Japan.
Q2) Josip Broz (Tito) led the effort to create an independent communist state in A)Romania.
B)Albania.
C)Yugoslavia.
D)Hungary.
E)Bulgaria.
Q3) What was the result of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962?
A)The improvement of communications between the U.S.and Soviet Union to prevent nuclear war
B)The installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba
C)The overthrow of Cuba's Soviet-supported government by the U.S.
D)John Kennedy backing down to the threats of Nikita Khrushchev
E)Fidel Castro giving up his military authority, but not his political control, in the Cuban government
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Chapter 16: Protest and Stagnation: the Western World
1965-1985
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Sample Questions
Q1) College and university students in the 1960s opposed all of these conditions in higher education EXCEPT
A)declining enrollments.
B)lack of relevant educational content.
C)crowded classrooms.
D)authoritarian administrators.
E)inattentive professors.
Q2) What is true about the Solidarity movement in Poland?
A)It was temporarily crushed by General Lech Walesa in 1981.
B)It failed to gain massive support due to stiff opposition from the conservative Catholic church.
C)It was formed by Wladyslaw Gomulka in 1956.
D)It lacked solidarity and quickly disintegrated and disappeared in 1980.
E)It was outlawed in 1981 and its leaders arrested.
Q3) Which American president journeyed to the People's Republic of China in 1972?
A)Lyndon Johnson
B)Jimmy Carter
C)John Kennedy
D)Gerald Ford
E)Richard Nixon
Page 19
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Chapter 17: After the Fall: the Western World in a Global Age
Since 1985
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Q1) 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
Q2) 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
Q3) 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
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Q4) How and why did the Cold War end? Did anyone "win" this conflict? Who? Why?