AP Euro U7 Progress Check MCQ

"Believe me, it is not in Russia's interest to try and embroil Austria and Germany. You too often lose sight of the importance of being one of three on the European chessboard. That is the invariable objective of all the Cabinets, and mine above all. Nobody wishes to be in a minority. All politics reduces itself to this formula: to try to be one of three, so long as the world is governed by the unstable equilibrium of five Great Powers.

There was a time when [Russia] entertained the illusion of a close alliance with England. I wished then to enter that alliance as a third, and Austria would not have been necessary to me if that combination had been achieved. But I soon realized that it was a chimera. There is still too much antagonism [between Russia and Great Britain] in the East; you will need a great 'Königgrätz'* one day in order to settle this great Asiatic dispute. Since that time, my favorite idea has been the Triple Alliance with [Russia and] Austria."

* The decisive victory by Prussia over Austria in 1866

Letter from German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to Russian Ambassador Saburov, 1880

The "unstable equilibrium" referred to by Bismarck in the first paragraph is best explained by which of the following developments in European politics?

The unification of the German Empire under Prussian leadership

3 multiple choice options

"Believe me, it is not in Russia's interest to try and embroil Austria and Germany. You too often lose sight of the importance of being one of three on the European chessboard. That is the invariable objective of all the Cabinets, and mine above all. Nobody wishes to be in a minority. All politics reduces itself to this formula: to try to be one of three, so long as the world is governed by the unstable equilibrium of five Great Powers.

There was a time when [Russia] entertained the illusion of a close alliance with England. I wished then to enter that alliance as a third, and Austria would not have been necessary to me if that combination had been achieved. But I soon realized that it was a chimera. There is still too much antagonism [between Russia and Great Britain] in the East; you will need a great 'Königgrätz'* one day in order to settle this great Asiatic dispute. Since that time, my favorite idea has been the Triple Alliance with [Russia and] Austria."

* The decisive victory by Prussia over Austria in 1866

Letter from German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to Russian Ambassador Saburov, 1880

Bismarck's approach to power politics as seen in the passage is best explained by his adoption of

a realist and materialist worldview

3 multiple choice options

"Believe me, it is not in Russia's interest to try and embroil Austria and Germany. You too often lose sight of the importance of being one of three on the European chessboard. That is the invariable objective of all the Cabinets, and mine above all. Nobody wishes to be in a minority. All politics reduces itself to this formula: to try to be one of three, so long as the world is governed by the unstable equilibrium of five Great Powers.

There was a time when [Russia] entertained the illusion of a close alliance with England. I wished then to enter that alliance as a third, and Austria would not have been necessary to me if that combination had been achieved. But I soon realized that it was a chimera. There is still too much antagonism [between Russia and Great Britain] in the East; you will need a great 'Königgrätz'* one day in order to settle this great Asiatic dispute. Since that time, my favorite idea has been the Triple Alliance with [Russia and] Austria."

* The decisive victory by Prussia over Austria in 1866

Letter from German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to Russian Ambassador Saburov, 1880

Bismarck's conclusion regarding the feasibility of an alliance between Britain and Russia in the second paragraph is best explained by which of the following?

The growing imperial rivalries among European states

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following best explains how racialist ideology influenced nationalism in the late nineteenth century?

It provided a supposedly scientific way of defining national cultures.

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following best explains how Zionism emerged as a response to nationalism in the late nineteenth century?

Increasing anti-Semitism convinced some European Jews that the creation of their own nation was the logical response.

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following best explains why the Habsburgs created the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867 ?

They sought to prevent nationalist fragmentation by recognizing the political rights of one of the empire's major ethnic groups.

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following best explains the cartoonist's apparent skepticism of Bismarck's diplomacy?

German unification created a military and economic power that was capable of challenging Great Britain's dominance.

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following is the most likely explanation for the cartoonist's choosing to portray Bismarck in a military uniform?

The cartoonist was commenting on the fact that while Bismarck presented himself as a diplomat, he used military force to achieve his aims.

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following best explains why some members of the British public may have been sympathetic to Bismarck's foreign policy?

Bismarck's alliance system was designed to isolate France, which was also Britain's longtime rival.

3 multiple choice options

"The tendency to social conduct is a product of evolution resulting from the survival of the group in which this instinct was most strongly developed and most rationally guided. . . . If we trace that evolution from the folk-lore and custom of the most barbarous groups up to the highest stages of civilization, we recognize no permanent code of moral action apart from our social relations. Moral conduct is social conduct, and immoral conduct is anti-social conduct. And what is social and what is anti-social depends upon the condition of the society with which we are dealing."

Karl Pearson, "The Bearing of our Present Knowledge of Heredity upon Conduct," lecture delivered in London, 1904

Which of the following describes a limitation of Pearson's argument?

Social conduct is a concept that is difficult to measure or describe in precise terms.

3 multiple choice options

"The ancients had no conception of progress; they did not so much as reject the idea; they did not even entertain the idea. Asian nations are just the same now. Since history began they have always been what they are. Savages again, do not improve; they hardly seem to have the basis on which to build, much less the material to put up anything worth having. Only a few nations, and those of European origin, advance.

The strongest nation has always been conquering the weaker; sometimes even subduing it, but always prevailing over it. Every intellectual gain, so to speak, that a nation possessed was in the earliest times made use of—was invested and taken out—in war; all else perished. Each nation tried constantly to be the stronger, and so made or copied the best weapons; by conscious and unconscious imitation each nation formed a type of character suitable to war and conquest. Conquest improved mankind by the intermixture of strengths; the armed truce, which was then called peace, improved them by the competition of training and the consequent creation of new power. . . . All European history has been the history of the superposition of the more military races over the less military—of the efforts, sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessful, of each race to get more military; and so the art of war has constantly improved."

Walter Bagehot, British journalist, 1873

Which of the following is a major limitation of Bagehot's argument?

His assumption that non-European nations are incapable of progress

3 multiple choice options

"The ancients had no conception of progress; they did not so much as reject the idea; they did not even entertain the idea. Asian nations are just the same now. Since history began they have always been what they are. Savages again, do not improve; they hardly seem to have the basis on which to build, much less the material to put up anything worth having. Only a few nations, and those of European origin, advance.

The strongest nation has always been conquering the weaker; sometimes even subduing it, but always prevailing over it. Every intellectual gain, so to speak, that a nation possessed was in the earliest times made use of—was invested and taken out—in war; all else perished. Each nation tried constantly to be the stronger, and so made or copied the best weapons; by conscious and unconscious imitation each nation formed a type of character suitable to war and conquest. Conquest improved mankind by the intermixture of strengths; the armed truce, which was then called peace, improved them by the competition of training and the consequent creation of new power. . . . All European history has been the history of the superposition of the more military races over the less military—of the efforts, sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessful, of each race to get more military; and so the art of war has constantly improved."

Walter Bagehot, British journalist, 1873

Which of the following is another major limitation of Bagehot's argument?

His assertion that military progress equates with overall progress

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following best describes the shift to modernism in late-nineteenth-century European cultural and intellectual life?

A new relativism in values together with a loss of confidence in objective knowledge

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following contributed most significantly to the late-nineteenth-century European philosophical belief that conflict and struggle led to progress?

Darwinism

3 multiple choice options

Which of the following developments most directly undermined the Newtonian view of the universe?

Einstein's theory of relativity

1 multiple choice option

Source 1

“It was becoming obvious that in many parts of the world Britain would no longer enjoy the free hand that it had been able to take for granted for so long. . . . By the 1880s assumptions that, because of Britain’s absolute naval supremacy, the only serious threats to the empire would be from powers able to attack British colonies overland no longer seemed valid. . . . In 1897, in spite of a great expansion of the British fleet, the battleships of the other powers outnumbered the Royal Navy by ninety-six to sixty-two. Britain had lost its naval monopoly. Thus from the 1880s other powers were acquiring the means to support probes into areas where Britain had not faced serious competition before, especially in the Far East and in Africa. . . . To many British people, the more active roles being played by the French, Germans, and Russians outside Europe were symptoms of much deeper changes on the continent itself.”

P. J. Marshall, historian, “1870–1918: The Empire under Threat,” in The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire. Reprinted in Samson, The British Empire: A Reader, 2001

Source 2

“Perhaps the most astonishing element of this formal imperial expansion was the division and conquest of almost all of Africa—the so-called scramble for Africa. Prior to the 1870s, the sections of this vast continent controlled by outside powers were limited to small enclaves. . . . Formal European imperialism in Africa was in recession in the late nineteenth century, and no new imperial push was in sight. In fact, in 1865 a British Parliamentary Committee recommended withdrawing from West Africa entirely in light of anti-imperial popular opinion and a lack of economic motivation. Nor did any other European governments seem to want the costs associated with an African empire. By 1914, this situation was entirely reversed. In the intervening half-century, almost all of Africa had been claimed as colonies or protectorates by European powers . . . Although many Africans still denied and even fought against colonial domination, the often violent process of ‘pacifying’ local populations was well under way.”

Trevor Getz and Heather Streets-Salter, historians, Modern Imperialism and Colonialism: A Global Perspective, 2011

Which of the following best explains the “symptoms of much deeper changes” described by the author of Source 1 ?

The growing industrial and military power of rival European states

3 multiple choice options

Source 1

“It was becoming obvious that in many parts of the world Britain would no longer enjoy the free hand that it had been able to take for granted for so long. . . . By the 1880s assumptions that, because of Britain’s absolute naval supremacy, the only serious threats to the empire would be from powers able to attack British colonies overland no longer seemed valid. . . . In 1897, in spite of a great expansion of the British fleet, the battleships of the other powers outnumbered the Royal Navy by ninety-six to sixty-two. Britain had lost its naval monopoly. Thus from the 1880s other powers were acquiring the means to support probes into areas where Britain had not faced serious competition before, especially in the Far East and in Africa. . . . To many British people, the more active roles being played by the French, Germans, and Russians outside Europe were symptoms of much deeper changes on the continent itself.”

P. J. Marshall, historian, “1870–1918: The Empire under Threat,” in The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire. Reprinted in Samson, The British Empire: A Reader, 2001

Source 2

“Perhaps the most astonishing element of this formal imperial expansion was the division and conquest of almost all of Africa—the so-called scramble for Africa. Prior to the 1870s, the sections of this vast continent controlled by outside powers were limited to small enclaves. . . . Formal European imperialism in Africa was in recession in the late nineteenth century, and no new imperial push was in sight. In fact, in 1865 a British Parliamentary Committee recommended withdrawing from West Africa entirely in light of anti-imperial popular opinion and a lack of economic motivation. Nor did any other European governments seem to want the costs associated with an African empire. By 1914, this situation was entirely reversed. In the intervening half-century, almost all of Africa had been claimed as colonies or protectorates by European powers . . . Although many Africans still denied and even fought against colonial domination, the often violent process of ‘pacifying’ local populations was well under way.”

Trevor Getz and Heather Streets-Salter, historians, Modern Imperialism and Colonialism: A Global Perspective, 2011

Which of the following changes described in both sources had the most significant political effect on late nineteenth-century Europe?

Political tensions increased between the European powers as imperial conflicts strained alliances.

3 multiple choice options

Source 1

“It was becoming obvious that in many parts of the world Britain would no longer enjoy the free hand that it had been able to take for granted for so long. . . . By the 1880s assumptions that, because of Britain’s absolute naval supremacy, the only serious threats to the empire would be from powers able to attack British colonies overland no longer seemed valid. . . . In 1897, in spite of a great expansion of the British fleet, the battleships of the other powers outnumbered the Royal Navy by ninety-six to sixty-two. Britain had lost its naval monopoly. Thus from the 1880s other powers were acquiring the means to support probes into areas where Britain had not faced serious competition before, especially in the Far East and in Africa. . . . To many British people, the more active roles being played by the French, Germans, and Russians outside Europe were symptoms of much deeper changes on the continent itself.”

P. J. Marshall, historian, “1870–1918: The Empire under Threat,” in The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire. Reprinted in Samson, The British Empire: A Reader, 2001

Source 2

“Perhaps the most astonishing element of this formal imperial expansion was the division and conquest of almost all of Africa—the so-called scramble for Africa. Prior to the 1870s, the sections of this vast continent controlled by outside powers were limited to small enclaves. . . . Formal European imperialism in Africa was in recession in the late nineteenth century, and no new imperial push was in sight. In fact, in 1865 a British Parliamentary Committee recommended withdrawing from West Africa entirely in light of anti-imperial popular opinion and a lack of economic motivation. Nor did any other European governments seem to want the costs associated with an African empire. By 1914, this situation was entirely reversed. In the intervening half-century, almost all of Africa had been claimed as colonies or protectorates by European powers . . . Although many Africans still denied and even fought against colonial domination, the often violent process of ‘pacifying’ local populations was well under way.”

Trevor Getz and Heather Streets-Salter, historians, Modern Imperialism and Colonialism: A Global Perspective, 2011

Which of the following best explains how European education systems in colonial areas began to facilitate the resistance alluded to at the end of Source 2 ?

Western-educated colonial subjects began to question colonial powers' supposed commitment to economic uplift and social reform in the colonies.

3 multiple choice options

Van Gogh's choice of subject matter in this painting provides most effective evidence for which of the following?

Realist artists' concern with calling attention to social issues

3 multiple choice options

Van Gogh's painting technique in this picture best provides evidence for which of the following tendencies in late-nineteenth-century European art?

The abandonment of strictly representational forms in favor of more expressive styles

3 multiple choice options

The fact that, when first introduced, paintings in the Impressionist style like this image sold poorly and were harshly attacked by critics is evidence of the continued influence of which of the following ideas?

The idea that art should convey shared ideals such as beauty and patriotism

3 multiple choice options

"If I am asked what our policy in China is, my answer is very simple—it is to maintain the Chinese Empire, to prevent it falling into ruins, to invite it into the paths of reform, and to give it every assistance which we are able to give it to perfect its defense and increase its commercial prosperity. By so doing we shall be aiding its cause and our own."

Lord Salisbury, British Foreign Minister, public speech, 1898

Salisbury's expression of Britain's concern for the stability of the Chinese Empire is best explained by which of the following features of late-nineteenth-century European diplomacy?

Rivalries among European powers seeking to expand their overseas empires

2 multiple choice options

"If I am asked what our policy in China is, my answer is very simple—it is to maintain the Chinese Empire, to prevent it falling into ruins, to invite it into the paths of reform, and to give it every assistance which we are able to give it to perfect its defense and increase its commercial prosperity. By so doing we shall be aiding its cause and our own."

Lord Salisbury, British Foreign Minister, public speech, 1898

Which of the following best explains the economic interest in China that Salisbury expresses in the passage?

The need for industrialized countries to secure export markets for their products

3 multiple choice options

"If I am asked what our policy in China is, my answer is very simple—it is to maintain the Chinese Empire, to prevent it falling into ruins, to invite it into the paths of reform, and to give it every assistance which we are able to give it to perfect its defense and increase its commercial prosperity. By so doing we shall be aiding its cause and our own."

Lord Salisbury, British Foreign Minister, public speech, 1898

Which of the following British actions is most consistent with Salisbury's stated position regarding the Chinese Empire?

The sending of an expeditionary force to fight the Boxer Rebellion, which sought to end foreign influence in China

3 multiple choice options