Home › Certifications › High School World History › Cold War and Decolonization
15 multiple-choice questions and 30 flashcards on Cold War and Decolonization, about 5% of the High School World History bank. Every one carries a written rationale.
Cold War and Decolonization is one of 12 chapters in CoStudy's High School World History bank, and it holds 15 of the bank's 278 multiple-choice questions — roughly 5% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.
Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.
9 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.
Decolonization after WWII was driven by:
Answer: D — Wartime weakening of European powers, rising nationalist movements, and Cold War pressures
D) Multi-causal: weakened metropoles, anti-colonial mobilization, superpower competition. A/B/C) Each understates the dynamic.
Apartheid in South Africa:
Answer: C — Was a legally codified system of racial segregation formalized from 1948 and dismantled through negotiations culminating in 1994 elections
The National Party government built apartheid law from 1948; F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela negotiated its end; Mandela was elected in 1994. 'Never legally existed' is the classic trap-reversal contradicting documented South African law.
The Soviet Union formally dissolved in:
Answer: A — 1991, following failed reforms under Gorbachev, an August coup attempt, and negotiations by Yeltsin and other republican leaders
The Belovezha Accords in December 1991 dissolved the USSR into successor states. 1917 is the classic trap because it is when the Soviet state began, not when it ended.
Gandhi's nonviolent resistance led to:
Answer: C — Indian independence from Britain (1947); inspired civil rights movements worldwide; Gandhi assassinated 1948
Gandhi: nonviolent civil disobedience (satyagraha). Salt March (1930). Influenced MLK, Mandela. India and Pakistan independent 1947 with painful Partition (~1M dead, mass migrations). Hindu-Muslim divisions persist.
The Vietnam War (from a U.S. perspective) escalated most sharply during which administration?
Answer: A — Lyndon B. Johnson, who committed large-scale U.S. ground forces from 1965
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) preceded Johnson's escalation. Reagan is the classic trap because his name is associated with Cold War hawkishness, but the U.S. war in Vietnam had already ended by his presidency.
The Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962):
Answer: D — Brought the U.S. and USSR to the brink of nuclear war before Kennedy and Khrushchev negotiated Soviet missile withdrawal in exchange for a public U.S. non-invasion pledge and a private removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey
The negotiated resolution is generally regarded as the closest the Cold War came to nuclear conflict. 'Peaceful trade dispute' is the classic trap-reversal that trivializes the crisis; it was a nuclear standoff, not a tariff argument.
The Marshall Plan (from 1948):
Answer: B — A large U.S. aid program to reconstruct western European economies, which the USSR and its bloc rejected participation in
Roughly $13 billion in U.S. aid supported western Europe's recovery and reinforced its non-communist orientation. The 'Soviet plan' trap is a direct reversal, since the Marshall Plan was a U.S. initiative.
Indian independence in August 1947 was accompanied by:
Answer: B — Partition into two states (India and Pakistan), massive population transfers, and communal violence that killed hundreds of thousands
Partition displaced roughly 15 million people and produced enormous casualties. 'Peaceful and orderly with no significant displacement' is the classic trap-reversal that erases one of the largest forced migrations in history.
The end of European colonial rule in most of Africa came predominantly in:
Answer: B — The 1960s, sometimes called 'the year of Africa' for the wave of 1960 independences
In 1960 alone, seventeen African states became independent, and the following decade largely completed the process (with important exceptions like Portuguese colonies until 1975 and settler-ruled southern Africa longer). The 1830s trap is a chronology error — the era of European colonial expansion was still under way then.
4 cards from the 30 in this chapter.
When did the Soviet Union dissolve?
December 1991, into 15 independent republics.
What was the Korean War's outcome?
1953 armistice divided the peninsula at the 38th parallel into communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea — no peace treaty.
What was the Iron Curtain?
Churchill's 1946 metaphor for the Soviet-controlled boundary dividing Eastern Europe (communist) from Western Europe (capitalist).
What was OPEC?
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (founded 1960), which coordinates oil production and prices.
These are a sample. The full Cold War and Decolonization chapter runs 45 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.
Open High School World History in CoStudy →