According to Article 3 of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, where does all sovereignty reside?The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, "Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789"; California standard 10.2.2
According to John Locke, what may the people do when a government fails to protect their rights?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Locke's Political Philosophy"; California standard 10.2.1
Article 1 of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) opens with which idea?The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, "Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789"; California standard 10.2.2
The English Bill of Rights of 1689 declared one way of raising money for the Crown illegal. Which one?The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, "English Bill of Rights 1689"; California standard 10.2.2
The English Bill of Rights says that the election of members of Parliament ought to be what?The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, "English Bill of Rights 1689"; California standard 10.2.2
Show all 109 questions (104 more)
Democratic Ideas and Revolutions, continued
The French Revolution lasted from 1789 until 1799. What happened to King Louis XVI in January 1793?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The United States and the French Revolution, 1789–1799"; California standard 10.2.4
The Haitian Revolution began on August 22, 1791. How did it begin?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The United States and the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804"; California standard 10.2.3
How did Napoleon Bonaparte come to power in France in 1799?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Napoleonic Wars and the United States, 1803–1815"; California standard 10.2.4
In 1215 King John of England put his seal on Magna Carta at Runnymede. Who had forced him to accept it?National Archives, Featured Documents, "Magna Carta"; California standard 10.2.2
John Locke argued that people have rights that do not depend on the laws of any one society. Which rights did he name?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Locke's Political Philosophy"; California standard 10.2.1
Montesquieu argued that despotism is best prevented by which arrangement?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat"; California standard 10.2.1
The U.S. Bill of Rights protects a speedy trial, trial by jury and due process of law. From which medieval document do these rights descend?Library of Congress, Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor, "Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution"; California standard 10.2.2
When Haiti became independent in 1804, what place did it take among the countries of the Americas?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The United States and the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804"; California standard 10.2.3
Which document states that "excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted"?The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, "English Bill of Rights 1689"; California standard 10.2.2
Which of these four documents is the oldest?National Archives, Featured Documents, "Magna Carta"; California standard 10.2.2
Which work did Montesquieu publish in 1748?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat"; California standard 10.2.1
The Industrial Revolution 10
Eli Whitney received a patent in 1794 for which machine?National Archives, Educator Resources, "Eli Whitney's Patent for the Cotton Gin"; California standard 10.3.2
How did the Meiji government help Japan to industrialize?Asia for Educators, Columbia University, "The Meiji Restoration and Modernization"; California standard 10.3
In 1868 the Tokugawa shogun lost his power in Japan and the emperor again became the supreme ruler. What is this event called?Asia for Educators, Columbia University, "The Meiji Restoration and Modernization"; California standard 10.3
In 1876 Thomas Edison opened a facility at Menlo Park that was the first of its kind anywhere. What kind of place was it?National Park Service, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, "Edison Biography"; California standard 10.3.2
In the early 1900s Lewis Hine photographed children at work in coal mines, textile mills and canneries. What was the goal of the committee that employed him?National Archives, Teaching With Documents, "Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor"; California standard 10.3.4
In which year did the United States "Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves" take effect?National Archives, Educator Resources, "The Slave Trade"; California standard 10.3.4
Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto with which co-author?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Karl Marx"; California standard 10.3.6
Louis Pasteur showed that microorganisms cause both fermentation and disease. Which theory did his research support?Science History Institute, Scientific Biographies, "Louis Pasteur"; California standard 10.3.2
What was the most significant effect of the cotton gin in the American South?National Archives, Educator Resources, "Eli Whitney's Patent for the Cotton Gin"; California standard 10.3.2
Who wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776?Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Adam Smith's Moral and Political Philosophy"; California standard 10.3.6
The New Imperialism 13
After the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded which territories to the United States?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Spanish-American War, 1898"; California standard 10.4.2
Before the First Opium War, what change in trade troubled the government of China?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Opening to China Part I"; California standard 10.4.3
In the mid to late 19th century, how did the industrializing powers of Europe view Africa and Asia?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960"; California standard 10.4.1
On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry led four American ships into Tokyo Bay. What was he seeking?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The United States and the Opening to Japan, 1853"; California standard 10.4.1
The Treaty of Portsmouth ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. What did it affirm?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Treaty of Portsmouth and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905"; California standard 10.4.2
What did Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Notes of 1899 and 1900 call for?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Secretary of State John Hay and the Open Door in China, 1899–1900"; California standard 10.4.1
What did the Chinese Revolution of 1911 achieve?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Chinese Revolution of 1911"; California standard 10.4.4
What did the two Opium Wars force on China?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Chinese Revolution of 1911"; California standard 10.4.3
What was the Boxer Rebellion of 1900?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Secretary of State John Hay and the Open Door in China, 1899–1900"; California standard 10.4.3
Which war ended in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanjing between Great Britain and China?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Opening to China Part I"; California standard 10.4.2
Who began digging a canal across Panama in 1880, before the United States built its own?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Building the Panama Canal, 1903–1914"; California standard 10.4.2
Who led the Revolutionary Alliance, which wanted to replace Qing rule in China with a republican government?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Chinese Revolution of 1911"; California standard 10.4.4
Why did fighting break out in the Philippines in February 1899?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902"; California standard 10.4.3
World War I and the Peace 15
The Armenian genocide of 1915 and 1916 took place in which empire?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "The Armenian Genocide (1915-16): Overview"; California standard 10.5.5
The fourteenth of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points proposed what?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Wilson’s Fourteen Points, 1918"; California standard 10.6.1
France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr in 1923 after Germany missed a reparations payment. What happened to the German currency?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Dawes Plan, the Young Plan, German Reparations, and Inter-allied War Debts"; California standard 10.6.2
The heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown was assassinated on June 28, 1914, sparking World War I. In which city?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "World War I"; California standard 10.5.1
How did the Bolshevik takeover in Russia affect World War I?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles"; California standard 10.5.3
How did the Treaty of Versailles limit the military of Germany?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Treaty of Versailles"; California standard 10.6.1
In January 1917 British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from the German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmermann. What did it offer Mexico?National Archives, Milestone Documents, "Zimmermann Telegram (1917)"; California standard 10.5.3
What did Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, known as the "War Guilt Clause," require of Germany?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Treaty of Versailles"; California standard 10.6.1
What happened when the Treaty of Versailles and the League Covenant came before the U.S. Senate in March 1920?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The League of Nations, 1920"; California standard 10.6.1
What was the primary motivation behind President Wilson’s decision to lead the United States into World War I in 1917?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "U.S. Entry into World War I, 1917"; California standard 10.5.3
When did the fighting on the western front of World War I stop?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "World War I"; California standard 10.5.2
Which four countries were the "Big Four" that dominated the Paris Peace Conference of 1919?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles"; California standard 10.6.1
Which of these fought on the side of the Central Powers in World War I?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "World War I"; California standard 10.5.1
Which of these principles was among the Fourteen Points that Wilson presented on January 8, 1918?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Wilson’s Fourteen Points, 1918"; California standard 10.6.1
Which territory did the Treaty of Versailles return to France?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Treaty of Versailles"; California standard 10.6.2
Dictators and World War II 19
After World War II, what did the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg do?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Nuremberg Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (1945–1948)"; California standard 10.8.6
The Atlantic Charter of August 1941 was a joint declaration by which two leaders?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Atlantic Conference & Charter, 1941"; California standard 10.8.4
The German-Soviet Pact of August 23, 1939, had a public part and a secret part. What did the secret protocol do?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "German-Soviet Pact"; California standard 10.8.1
How did Adolf Hitler become Germany's chancellor on January 30, 1933?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Hitler Comes to Power"; California standard 10.7.3
How did Joseph Stalin set the stage for absolute power in the second half of the 1920s?Library of Congress, Revelations from the Russian Archives, "Internal Workings of the Soviet System"; California standard 10.7.2
How did World War II begin in Europe?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "World War II in Europe"; California standard 10.8.3
In the Munich Agreement of 1938, what did the leaders of Great Britain and France concede?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968"; California standard 10.8.2
Nazi leaders used the term "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." What did it refer to?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, ""Final Solution": Overview"; California standard 10.8.5
On which two Japanese cities did the United States drop atomic bombs in August 1945?Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, "The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb"; California standard 10.8.3
What did Japan do after an explosion destroyed a section of railway track near Mukden on September 18, 1931?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Mukden Incident of 1931 and the Stimson Doctrine"; California standard 10.8.1
What followed Stalin’s forced collectivization of peasant farms?Library of Congress, Revelations from the Russian Archives, "Internal Workings of the Soviet System"; California standard 10.7.2
What happened at Stalingrad on February 2, 1943?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "World War II in Europe"; California standard 10.8.3
What was Operation OVERLORD, carried out on June 6, 1944?Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, "World War II: D-Day, The Invasion of Normandy"; California standard 10.8.3
What was the Gulag?Library of Congress, Revelations from the Russian Archives, "Internal Workings of the Soviet System"; California standard 10.7.1
What was the Holocaust?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Introduction to the Holocaust"; California standard 10.8.5
Which battle of June 1942 was the turning point of the war in the Pacific?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "World War II in the Pacific"; California standard 10.8.3
Which event drew the United States into World War II?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "World War II in the Pacific"; California standard 10.8.3
Which three leaders met at Yalta in the Crimea in February 1945?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Yalta Conference, 1945"; California standard 10.8.3
Who founded the fascist movement in Italy in 1919 and seized power after the March on Rome in 1922?United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Fascism"; California standard 10.7.3
The Cold War 25
The constitution that Japan adopted in 1947, during the Allied occupation, did which of these?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Occupation and Reconstruction of Japan, 1945–52"; California standard 10.9.1
George F. Kennan formulated the basic United States strategy for the Cold War with the Soviet Union. What was it called?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Kennan and Containment, 1947"; California standard 10.9.2
How did the Cuban Missile Crisis end on October 28, 1962?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962"; California standard 10.9.3
How did the demonstrations in Hungary in 1956 end?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Khrushchev and the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party, 1956"; California standard 10.9.5
How did the Korean War begin in June 1950?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Korean War and Japan’s Recovery"; California standard 10.9.3
In June 1947 Secretary of State George C. Marshall called for a program that became known as the Marshall Plan. What was it?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Marshall Plan, 1948"; California standard 10.9.3
In June 1948 Soviet forces blockaded rail, road and water access to the Allied sectors of Berlin. How did the United States and United Kingdom respond?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Berlin Airlift, 1948–1949"; California standard 10.9.2
In the speech of March 12, 1947, that gave rise to the Truman Doctrine, President Truman asked Congress for aid to which two countries?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Truman Doctrine, 1947"; California standard 10.9.3
Mikhail Gorbachev introduced policies called perestroika and glasnost. What do the two words mean?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989"; California standard 10.9.7
On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of which state?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Creation of Israel, 1948"; California standard 10.9.6
Representatives of 50 nations met from April to June 1945 to complete the Charter of the United Nations. In which city?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Formation of the United Nations, 1945"; California standard 10.9.8
The Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955 as a counterbalance to which alliance?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1955"; California standard 10.9.8
What did Berliners wake to find on the morning of August 13, 1961?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Berlin Crisis, 1958–1961"; California standard 10.9.2
What did Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announce on July 26, 1956, setting off the Suez Crisis?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Suez Crisis, 1956"; California standard 10.9.2
What did the members of NATO agree to in the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 1949"; California standard 10.9.8
What happened in Berlin on November 9, 1989?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989"; California standard 10.9.7
What happened in Chile on September 11, 1973?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Allende Years and the Pinochet Coup, 1969–1973"; California standard 10.9.2
What happened in Vietnam after the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu fell in May 1954?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Dien Bien Phu & the Fall of French Indochina, 1954"; California standard 10.9.3
What set off the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962"; California standard 10.9.3
What was Sputnik-1, which the Soviet Union launched on October 4, 1957?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Sputnik, 1957"; California standard 10.11
When was the Soviet flag lowered over the Kremlin for the last time?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Collapse of the Soviet Union"; California standard 10.9.7
Where did many soldiers and officials of the defeated Republic of China go when the civil war ended in 1949?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Rapprochement with China, 1972"; California standard 10.9.4
Which U.S. president traveled to the People’s Republic of China in 1972 and met Mao Zedong?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Rapprochement with China, 1972"; California standard 10.9.4
Who declared the creation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Chinese Revolution of 1949"; California standard 10.9.4
Why did the Soviet Union lead Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia on August 20, 1968?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968"; California standard 10.9.5
New Nations and the World Economy 11
Between 1945 and 1960, what happened to about three dozen territories in Asia and Africa?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960"; California standard 10.10.2
Founded in 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community was the first step toward what?European Union, "History of the European Union 1945–59"; California standard 10.11
From which European country did the Congo gain its independence on June 30, 1960?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The Congo, Decolonization, and the Cold War, 1960–1965"; California standard 10.10.2
In April 1994, who was elected the first black president of South Africa?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The End of Apartheid"; California standard 10.10.3
What did the students who gathered in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the spring of 1989 call for?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Tiananmen Square, 1989"; California standard 10.9.4
What was apartheid?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "The End of Apartheid"; California standard 10.10.2
What was the Bandung Conference of April 1955?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Bandung Conference (Asian-African Conference), 1955"; California standard 10.10.1
Which document did the United Nations General Assembly proclaim in Paris on December 10, 1948?United Nations, "Universal Declaration of Human Rights"; California standard 10.9.8
Which organization was established on January 1, 1995, by the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations?World Trade Organization, "What is the WTO?"; California standard 10.11
Which two institutions were created at the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Bretton Woods-GATT, 1941–1947"; California standard 10.11
Whose economic reforms transformed China in the decade after 1979?Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Milestones, "Tiananmen Square, 1989"; California standard 10.10.2
How this list was compiled: Our own questions. Outline: History–Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools, grade ten, World History, Culture, and Geography: The Modern World (standards 10.1 to 10.11), California Department of Education, https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf, read 2026-10-10; California is named as the publisher of the outline and nothing more. Each fact rests on the public page named under its answer, opened 2026-10-10: the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State (its Milestones series, which the office has retired and keeps online), the National Archives and two presidential libraries, the Library of Congress, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Avalon Project at Yale Law School (the texts of the English Bill of Rights and the French Declaration), the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Asia for Educators at Columbia University, the National Park Service, the Science History Institute, the United Nations, the European Union and the World Trade Organization. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site. Short quotations from public documents are marked as quotations and named. Nothing is copied or reworded from a state test, a released form, a sample item, a textbook or another practice test.
How it works
Unofficial practice for a tenth grade world history class: 109 questions written for this page. They follow the units of California's grade ten standards, named here as one published outline. No school's or state's test is copied, so no pass mark is implied.
Read the full guide
What the 109 questions cover
Seven units in the order of the standards: democratic ideas and revolutions has 16 questions, the Industrial Revolution 10, the New Imperialism 13, World War I and the peace 15, dictators and World War II 19, the Cold War 25, and new nations and the world economy 11.
If your class is not in California
California is the example because its standards are public and run from the democratic revolutions to the present. A class elsewhere may teach the units in another order or stop at another date, so start with the units your class has reached.
The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 comes back in the questions on the 1920s, so learn its terms once.
Pair each alliance with its year: NATO 1949, the Warsaw Pact 1955.
A wrong date among the choices is often another real event. Place each date before you choose.
Questions and answers
What is on a 10th grade world history test?
It depends on the school and the state. In California's standards the year runs from the democratic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution through imperialism, the two world wars and the Cold War to nation-building today.
Is there a 10th grade world history practice test with answers?
Yes. Every question here shows the right answer, a short reason and a link to its public source, at once in practice mode and at the end in exam mode. The paper test prints with an answer key.
Does 10th grade world history cover ancient history?
Only as background in this outline. The standards begin with the Greek, Roman, Jewish and Christian roots of Western political thought, then move to the English, American and French revolutions.
Is this an AP World History practice test?
No. It follows a regular tenth grade course. The AP World History pages are separate: unit 1, unit 2, unit 3 and unit 4.