Global Conflicts and Cold War Europe Flashcards

Which provision of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) provided the legal and moral basis for demanding reparations from Germany?

Answer: Article 231, the so-called "war guilt" clause

Article 231 made Germany and its allies responsible for the losses and damage of the war, which justified reparations. Germans resented it as a national humiliation.

The Locarno Treaties of 1925 are best understood as significant because they

Answer: had Germany voluntarily accept its western borders with France and Belgium

At Locarno, Germany agreed to respect its western frontiers and the demilitarized Rhineland, with Britain and Italy as guarantors. It signaled reconciliation, often called the "spirit of Locarno."

The Dawes Plan of 1924 attempted to stabilize the European economy mainly by

Answer: restructuring German reparations payments and arranging American loans to Germany

The plan scaled German payments to its capacity to pay and brought in U.S. loans, helping end the hyperinflation crisis and the Ruhr occupation. It created a cycle of American money flowing to Germany, reparations to Britain and France, and war-debt payments to the U.S.

The Munich Agreement of September 1938 did which of the following?

Answer: Transferred the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany without Czechoslovak participation in the talks

Britain, France, Germany and Italy agreed that Germany would annex the Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia was not part of the negotiations. It became the best-known example of appeasement.

What was the significance of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939?

Answer: It pledged Germany and the USSR not to attack each other and included a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence

The pact removed the threat of a two-front war for Germany, and its secret protocol set out spheres of influence including a partition of Poland. Germany invaded Poland about a week later.

The Truman Doctrine of 1947 was first applied through U.S. aid to which pair of countries?

Answer: Greece and Turkey

Truman asked Congress for aid for Greece, where a communist insurgency was fighting the government, and for Turkey, which faced Soviet pressure. The doctrine pledged support for free peoples resisting subjugation.

What event directly triggered the Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948?

Answer: The introduction of a new currency in the Western occupation zones

The Western powers introduced the Deutsche Mark in their zones and West Berlin, which the USSR saw as a step toward a separate West German state. Stalin cut land access to West Berlin and the Allies responded with the airlift.

The Brezhnev Doctrine, articulated after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, held that

Answer: the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in a socialist state where socialism was considered under threat

After Warsaw Pact forces crushed the Prague Spring reforms of Alexander Dubček, the Soviet leadership asserted a duty to defend socialism in bloc countries. It justified intervention in their internal affairs.

The 1975 Helsinki Final Act is notable in Cold War history because it

Answer: recognized existing European borders while also including human-rights commitments that dissidents later invoked

The Soviet bloc gained recognition of postwar frontiers, while the human-rights provisions gave dissident movements such as Charter 77 and Solidarity a basis for their claims. It was signed by 35 states, including the U.S., Canada and the USSR.

The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 is significant in the history of European integration because it

Answer: established the European Union and set a path toward a common currency

Maastricht created the European Union with its three-pillar structure and set criteria and a timetable for economic and monetary union, which led to the euro. It built on the earlier European Community.