Lesson Y9-U07-L02

Y9-U07-L02 From Allies to Enemies 1945-47 Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 20

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y9-U07-L02, From Allies to Enemies 1945-47: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 20: Year 9: The Cold War, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What does 'ally' mean?

    • A country that refuses to trade with others and keeps its borders closed
    • A country that fights or works on the same side as another
    • A country that rules over another by force and collects taxes from it
    • A country that has no army at all and relies on its neighbours for defence

  2. What was the main reason the wartime alliance held together?

    • A shared enemy, Hitler, rather than shared values
    • A shared belief in communism and a common plan for the postwar world
    • A shared currency and trade rules agreed in a treaty signed in London
    • A shared language across Europe and a common religion for all states

  3. Why did the USA and Britain distrust the USSR during the war?

    • The USSR was a one-party communist dictatorship
    • The USSR had banned the Red Army from fighting on any front at all
    • The USSR had sold oil to Hitler's Germany through a secret trade deal
    • The USSR had refused to fight Germany for most of the war years

  4. What did Stalin complain about regarding the 'second front'?

    • The West never planned any front at all
    • The West attacked the USSR from the south
    • The West opened it too early in 1941
    • The West delayed opening it until 1944

  5. What did the Big Three refer to at Yalta?

    • Roosevelt, Truman and Churchill
    • Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin
    • Truman, Attlee and Stalin
    • Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin

  6. Where did the Big Three meet in February 1945?

    • Potsdam, near Berlin
    • Paris, in the French capital
    • Yalta, in the Soviet Crimea
    • Moscow, in the Kremlin

  7. What did the Allies agree at Yalta about Germany?

    • To unite Germany under a single Allied government
    • To give Germany back its colonies in Africa
    • To divide Germany into four zones after the war
    • To split Germany between France and Britain only

  8. What was the new peace-keeping body agreed at Yalta?

    • The NATO alliance
    • The United Nations
    • The League of Nations
    • The Warsaw Pact

  9. What did Stalin promise at Yalta for Eastern Europe?

    • Equal shares of Germany's factories
    • Communist rule across the whole continent
    • Free elections in the liberated countries
    • Military bases for the USA in Poland

  10. What was the main sticking point at Yalta?

    • Greece, where the USA wanted to join the war in the Balkan region
    • Poland, where Stalin wanted a friendly communist-leaning government
    • Italy, where the Allies could not agree on the borders of the north
    • Japan, where the USSR refused to fight until the end of the war

  11. What did Stalin agree to do at Yalta concerning Japan?

    • Sign a peace treaty with Japan at once
    • Remain neutral in the Pacific war forever
    • Send the Red Army to occupy Britain
    • Join the war against Japan once Germany was beaten

  12. Why did the mood change between Yalta and Potsdam?

    • The Allies won the war and then fell out over food
    • New leaders, the atomic bomb and the Red Army in Eastern Europe
    • Stalin left the alliance at Yalta and never returned
    • The United Nations was disbanded in 1945

  13. Who replaced Roosevelt as US president before the Potsdam conference?

    • Kennedy
    • Eisenhower
    • Attlee
    • Truman

  14. Who replaced Churchill during the Potsdam conference?

    • Truman
    • Eden
    • Attlee
    • Stalin

  15. What did Truman tell Stalin at Potsdam about a new weapon?

    • That the USA would give up its navy
    • That the USA had built a new tank
    • That the USA would send troops to Moscow
    • That the USA had a powerful new weapon

  16. What was the reparations row at Potsdam about?

    • The USSR wanted huge payments from Germany, while the West feared crushing Germany again
    • Whether Japan should pay the USSR for the war damage it caused in Manchuria and Korea
    • Whether France should return its colonies to Germany after the peace treaty was signed
    • Whether Germany should pay Britain for its ships and naval equipment after the war ended

  17. What is a 'satellite state'?

    • A country officially independent but controlled by a stronger one
    • A country that has never had a government of its own at any time
    • A country that rules a large colony overseas through local governors
    • A country that launches rockets into space from a base in the north

  18. What did Churchill say in his Fulton speech of March 1946?

    • The war with Japan is over and peace will follow
    • The United Nations has failed in its first year
    • Germany must pay all its debts to the USSR
    • An iron curtain has descended across the Continent

  19. Which broken promise from Yalta was central to the breakdown of the alliance by 1946?

    • Dividing Japan into four zones
    • Sharing the atomic bomb with the USSR
    • Free elections in Eastern Europe
    • Forming an alliance against Britain

  20. How did the Iron Curtain divide Europe?

    • The Atlantic was split from the Pacific
    • Britain was split from France
    • Northern Europe was split from the south
    • A capitalist West was split from a communist East

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