The correct answer is (E). The statements lettered (A) through (D) are essentially assertions of fact

Choice (C), for example, can be proved or disproved by the examination of historical records. (E) differs from these statements because (E) makes a value judgment. Whether Greece or Rome was more important in the history of western civilization cannot be settled by reference to any single document or set of statistics.

55. The correct answer is (C). One result of the European expansion overseas in the sixteenth, seven-teenth, and eighteenth centuries has been called the commercial revolution. It included increased world trade, a shift in the center of economic power away from northern Italy, and the adoption of mercantilism. Interested in increasing the holding of royal treasuries, the mercantilists placed great importance on amassing stocks of precious metals. According to this theory, wealth was accumulated by encouraging exports and discouraging imports. Ideally, a nation would be owed the difference and could collect the difference in the form of precious metals such as gold and silver.

56. The correct answer is (E). Russia had no particular interest in Africa. Rather it looked to the Far East, specifically to China, as a possible area of colonial expansion.

57. The correct answer is (E). When you think of Gothic architecture, think of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris with its flying buttresses. The flying buttresses were necessary to support the thin walls of that style of architecture.

58. The correct answer is (C). In 1815, Metternich organized the Quadruple Alliance to enforce the Vienna settlements and to suppress revolution. In 1818, France became a member. This cooperative effort is referred to as the Concert of Europe.

59. The correct answer is (A). Kipling’s poem was written in 1899 to generate support for such acts as the United States’ annexation of the Philippines. It calls on developed nations to “take up the White Man’s burden.” That “burden” is to take charge of people the poem refers to as “half devil and half child.”

60. The correct answer is (C). This is one part of the famous Monroe Doctrine announced by President James Monroe in his annual address of 1823. The other part warns European powers against trying to reestablish control over countries that were formerly colonies. Actually, the announcement of the Monroe Doctrine was rather a nonevent in Europe. European nations either ignored it or indicated that they would abide by it only if it suited them. It is true that European powers by and large left Latin America alone during the rest of the nineteenth century, but this is because the European nations that might otherwise have decided to intervene in Latin America feared that the British navy would stop them. Certainly, at the time the United States didn’t have the naval power to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. Between its initial formulation and the end of the nineteenth century, the Monroe Doctrine languished in obscurity, cited only once or twice. In 1895, Secretary of State Richard Olney cited the Monroe Doctrine as giving the United States priority over Great Britain in resolving a border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana. Thereafter, the Monroe Doctrine became an important part of American foreign policy.

Seward’s Folly, as you probably remember, refers to the decision of Secretary of State William Seward to purchase Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. It was also referred to as “Seward’s Icebox.” The American System refers to a plan proposed by Henry Clay in 1824 to make the United States economically self-sufficient. Laissez-faire refers to an economic theory according to which government takes a “hands off” policy toward business. Finally, in 1797, President Adams sent a special mission to Paris to try to reduce hostilities between the United States and France. French agents insulted the delegates by demanding a bribe before they would commence negotiations. Adams reported the incident to Congress, designating the three French agents simply as X, Y, and Z.

61. The correct answer is (E). Compare the following excerpts of John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and the language of the Declaration of Independence:

Locke:

Men being, as has been said, by Nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this Estate, and subjected to the Political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby any one devests himself of his Natural Liberty, and puts on the bonds of Civil Society is by agreeing with other Men to joyn and unite into a Community, for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure Enjoyment of their properties . . . .

And ‘tis not without reason, that he seeks out, and is willing to joyn in Society with others . . . for the mutual Preservation of their Lives, Liberties and Estates, which I call by the general Name, Property.

[W]hen by the Miscarriages of those in Authority [political power] is forefeited; upon the Forfei-ture of their Rules, or at the Determination of the Time set, it reverts to the Society, and the People have a Right to act as Supreme, and continue the Legislative in themselves, or erect a new Form . . . as they think good.

The Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes de-structive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government . . . .

62. The correct answer is (B). World War I was precipitated by the assassination of the Austrian Arch-duke at Sarajevo in 1914, but the United States did not immediately enter the war. Although most Americans tended to sympathize with Great Britain and to distrust Germany, the express policy of the United States government was neutrality. Gradually, however, the events of the war, amplified by British propaganda, polarized the Americans, and most favored the British. The immediate cause for U.S. entry into the war was German submarine warfare. In 1915, hoping to stop supplies coming from Britain, Germany announced that it would thenceforth consider the waters surrounding the British Isles a war zone and warned neutral ships to stay clear. The main weapon for enforcing the blockade was the submarine. In 1915, a German U boat (for unterseeboot) torpedoed and sank the British passenger liner Lusitania. Over a hundred American passengers were lost. After strong protest by the United States, the German government promised that it would sink no more passenger ships.

But in March 1916, a German submarine mistakenly sank the ferry Sussex in the English Channel.

This time the German government responded with the Sussex Pledge promising that it would not attack merchant vessels without warning. This move reduced tensions with the United States but also permit-ted supplies to reach the Allied forces in Europe. In 1916, Wilson’s supporters coined the slogan “He kept us out of war.” But in early 1917, Germany decided that it could not win the war without enforcing the blockade and announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Several American mer-chant ships were sunk. In February, the British intercepted a message from the German foreign secre-tary, Alfred Zimmerman, to the German ambassador in Mexico, instructing the ambassador to offer Mexico a military alliance against the United States with the promise it would help Mexico recover lost territory. On April 2, President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war.

63. The correct answer is (E). Inflation is a rise in prices that is not the result of some increase in the value of goods purchased. Inflation is said to erode the purchasing power of money. Assume, for example, that a loaf of bread cost $1.00 last year. If a similar loaf of bread costs $1.10 this year, then there has been a 10 percent increase in the price of bread that is not the result of some improvement in the quality of the bread. This is inflation. Most industrialized countries experience some inflation, but the rate of price increases is not intolerable. When prices rise tremendously in a short period of time, as described above, the result is runaway inflation. Runaway inflation has disastrous consequences because wages don’t keep pace with prices. People with relatively fixed incomes, for example, pen-sions, rental income from long-term leases, and government employees, are particularly hurt. The social upheaval that followed the runaway inflation after World War I in Germany was one factor in the rise to power of the Nazis.

64. The correct answer is (E). In the late nineteenth century, the corporation became the most important form of business organization. The corporation is a legal entity created by a government that is, in effect, an artificial person. As an artificial person, it enjoys certain advantages over a real person. First, by selling shares of stock a corporation can raise the money it needs to operate. Second, the individual investors or shareholders of the company are not personally liable for the debts incurred by the com-pany. Third, the company can continue to accumulate wealth even after the death of a shareholder.

65. The correct answer is (D). The first artificial satellite to orbit the earth was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. The United States followed with Explorer I in 1958.

66. The correct answer is (B). In the late nineteenth century, in order to protect its “lifeline” to the Far East, Great Britain acquired a controlling interest in the Suez Canal. In 1956, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that Egypt would nationalize the canal. This prompted the intervention of French and British troops. Militarily, the operation was successful, but the French and British had miscalculated American reaction. The United States and the Soviet Union, cooperating at the United Nations, forced the British and French to accept a cease fire. The Suez crisis is important because it represents the end of a chapter in the history of British imperialism.

67. The correct answer is (E). Inflation is a rise in prices that is not the result of some increase in the value of goods purchased. Inflation is said to erode the purchasing power of money. Assume, for example, that a loaf of bread cost $1.00 last year. If a similar loaf of bread costs $1.10 this year, then there has been a 10 percent increase in the price of bread that is not the result of some improvement in the quality of the bread. This is inflation. Most industrialized countries experience some inflation, but the rate of price increases is not intolerable. When prices rise tremendously in a short period of time, as described above, the result is runaway inflation. Runaway inflation has disastrous consequences because wages don’t keep pace with prices. People with relatively fixed incomes, for example, pen-sions, rental income from long-term leases, and government employees, are particularly hurt. The social upheaval that followed the runaway inflation after World War I in Germany was one factor in the rise to power of the Nazis.

68. The correct answer is (B). In 1803, Napoleon amassed a large army on the French coast as a prelude to an invasion of England. For two years, the expeditionary force waited for the French navy to establish control over the English Channel. On October 21, 1805, a British squadron under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson decisively defeated the French navy in the Battle of Trafalgar. Unable to execute the planned invasion of England, Napoleon concentrated on acquiring territory on the Continent.

69. The correct answer is (D). Between 1832 and 1928, a series of reform bills gradually extended the franchise to provide for universal suffrage for all persons over the age of 21. This explains why the number of people eligible to vote reflects an increasing portion of the population over 21.

70. The correct answer is (A). Great Britain did not join the EEC until 1971 because her two applica-tions for membership were vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle, who feared that British membership might jeopardize his goal of making France the dominant power in Europe.