The principal aims of Stalin's five-year plans were to develop a strong industrial economy centered on steel production, develop a powerful state army, increase agricultural production, and create a more socialist society. The development of artistic and literary talents was not one of the primary aims. In fact, Soviet art and literature became highly political during this era and was heavily influenced by propaganda.

Answering this question really requires you to understand which Estate represents which social grouping, as once you know this information, the correct answer should be fairly obvious. The First Estate was the clergy and other religious leaders who probably accounted for no more than one percent of the population; the Second Estate was the nobility, who could not have ever been more than five percent of the population; and the Third Estate was essentially everyone else (peasants, bourgeoise, urban workers, etc.), so the Third Estate was by far the largest of three groups. The Fourth Estate is a term sometimes used to describe the media; the Fifth Estate does not exist.

The Celts were a people that dominated the early European landscape. This group is difficult to define specifically, as many northern European countries were Celtic but not all Celts are the same, which was the case for Britain. Before the Celts, Britain was peopled by various tribes of stone age peoples. These are the people who are likely responsible for Stonehenge.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. He was assassinated on June 28, 1914.

The Bastille was a medieval fortress in Paris, France. Its storming on July 14, 1789 is commemorated by the French with a public holiday, known as Bastille Day.

The French nobility of this time period had been dramatically weakened by the cost of fighting a long series of wars against the English. The finances of many members of the aristocracy were completely exhausted, so as the French kings consolidated power and centralized authority, they began to include the bourgeoise in the political process for the first time. The French rulers did this to keep power out of the hands of the nobility and also to raise funds from the bourgeoise, but the inclusion of the middle class in the affairs of government would have profound implications for the development of French political society.

As a result of its location at the head of the Adriatic Sea and utilization of its waterways, Venice developed into a naval and commercial power during the eleventh century. The flourishing city developed into a centerpiece of the trade between Western Europe and the rest of the world.

England was a relatively small and insignificant island nation at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, in the middle of the sixteenth century. Dwarfed by Spain's colonial and continental power and massively eclipsed in population and wealth by France, the English population was a little less than four million, at a time when Spain’s population approached ten million and France’s exceeded fifteen million. England would dramatically grow in significance over the next two hundred years.

The Trans-Siberian Railroad was constructed in the 1890s and 1900s and connected European Russia on the Baltic with Asiatic Russia on the Pacific for the first time. It accelerated the industrialization of the Russian economy and the urbanization of Russian society.

The relevant fact to know here is that the seventeenth century coincided with the Golden Age of French history: the reign of the Sun King Louis XIV. The French population at this time was close to twenty million, more than twice as much as England, Sweden, and the Netherlands and comfortably more than Spain. Roughly a quarter of Europe’s population lived in France during the seventeenth century.