The Interwar Years & World War II

Who was the last tsar to rule Russia?

Nicholas II

After Lenin seized control of Russia in 1917,

the fight for power resulted in a civil war between the communists and the "whites" (royal supporters)

In the early 1900s, how much contact did a Russian tsar have with the people?

A tsar was removed from the people and was rarely seen, especially after he went to fight on the front lines in World War II.

The term ________________ was used by writer Gertrude Stein to describe those left deeply disillusioned by World War I.

Lost Generation

What did Einstein believe regarding human perception?

What humans perceive with their senses is not always true.

What notion was challenged by the work of postwar-era scientists?

Science can explain everything.

Which best describes many of the postwar era's writers and their works?

pessimistic

How did World War I change women's roles in the United States?

Women replaced men in the workforce, since the men were drafted into the military.

What happened to women during the Great Depression?

They were removed from the workplace to make room for men to get jobs.

To pay reparations after World War I, Germany

printed more money.

Weimar Republic

German republic founded after the WWI and the downfall of the German Empire's monarchy. Printed too much paper money. Was weak and criticized by Hitler

What was Benito Mussolini's attitude toward personal liberties?

The state should decide which personal liberties were needed.

What actions characterize authoritarian governments? Check all that apply.

Leaders often seize power by illegitimate means.

A single leader or a very powerful group rules.

Leaders refuse to tolerate dissenting views.

Six months after the Munich Conference, Hitler annexed

Czechoslovakia.

Why were idealistic supporters of the Nazi party willing to endorse Hitler's annexation of Austria?

They wanted a quick return to the former power and glory of Germany.

The Nazi party most strongly appealed to the German people because it

blamed others for losing the war.

When Hitler assumed control of the Nazi party, he immediately

began enforcing his personal nationalistic and racist views.

Why did Hitler most likely assume he could annex Austria and Czechoslovakia?

He believed that Great Britain and France would choose not to respond to his actions.

In 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact in which they agreed to divide up ________________

Poland

Babyn Yar

Ukrainian site of a Nazi murder of Ukrainian Jews

Great Britain's success in the Battle of Britain and the Soviet defense of Russia proved that Hitler's army could be ______________

defeated

Which countries entered the war in 1941?

United States & Soviet Union

Which aggressive action did Germany take in the 1930s?

annexing Austria and Czechoslovakia

Before invading Poland, Hitler reached a secret agreement with the

Soviet Union

What is the best definition of a "blitzkrieg"?

rapid invasion by air and land

To win the war in the Pacific, the United States adopted a strategy called

island-hopping.

An official government order that limits trade with another nation to punish or pressure that nation in some way is known as

an embargo.

Which of these terms best describes the official foreign policy of the United States at the start of World War II in 1939?

isolationist

Who was president of the United States when World War II started in Europe?

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The mass murder of a group of people on the basis of their race, beliefs, or culture is known as

genocide

When it came to racial beliefs, Hitler believed that Germans were

superior to other peoples, especially Jews.

To isolate them from the general population, Jews in Hitler's Germany were required to

wear yellow stars.

Which best describes why the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan?

Japan refused to surrender after the first bomb was dropped.

Japan was unable to launch any more major offensives after losing the Battle of

Midway.

In the years prior to World War I, the government of Russia was

an autocratic monarchy.

Why was the D-Day invasion crucial for the Allies' Europe First strategy?

The invasion was key in forcing the Germans to retreat east.

What happened during Kristallnacht?

Nazis attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues

How did Hitler's military strategy change when he attacked Great Britain?

He used heavily armed planes.

In a speech to the British people near the beginning of World War II, Churchill said the following:

Let us brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

—Winston Churchill

What was Churchill hoping to encourage with this speech?

For British citizens to be brave in the coming war with Germany.

The passage below contains testimony from the commander of Auschwitz, given at a war crimes trial in 1946.

DR. KAUFMANN: Is it furthermore true that Eichmann stated to you that in Auschwitz a total sum of more than 2 million Jews had been destroyed?HÖSS: Yes.DR. KAUFMANN: Did you yourself ever feel pity with the victims, thinking of your own family and children?HÖSS: Yes.DR. KAUFMANN: How was it possible for you to carry out these actions in spite of this?HÖSS: In view of all these doubts which I had, the only one and decisive argument was the strict order and the reason given for it by the Reichsführer Himmler.

How did Rudolf Höss defend his actions to the court?

He said he was just following orders.

In 1941, Japan's desire for expansion in the Pacific led to war with

the United States.

How do the WWI soldiers feel coming home from war?

Lost, not heroic because of the destruction and loss from the industrialized war

Many British and French soldiers who fought in the trenches come home with...

facial injuries, that help to spur the plastic surgery field

Shellshock

Mental injuries incurred by WWI soldiers, caused by the trauma and stress of war, involving nightmares, flashbacks

All Quiet on the Western Front

(1929) a novel written by Erich Maria Remarque illustrating the horrors of World War I and the experiences of veterans and soldiers

A Farewell to Arms

E. Hemingway. A love story which draws heavily on the author's experiences as a young soldier in Italy. Lieutenant Frederic Henry, a young American ambulance driver during WWI. Falls in love with nurse Catherine Barkley. In Switzerland, their child is born dead, and Catherine dies due to hemorrhages. REVEALS THE LOSS THAT SOLDIERS EXPERIENCE

Einstein's theory of relativity and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle make people think...

that they can no longer count on science / that they can no longer rely on things that we thought were true

Which nation has the most stable economy after WWI immediately ends?

The United States

After WWI, the European economy is dependent on...

the US loaning money to Germany, so that Germany could make their reparation payments to Britain and France

During the Interwar Years, "export economies" suffer because...

Europe and the US don't have the funds to purchase their exports

In the US in the 1920s...

the economy is booming, and people are spending lots of money, including borrowing money to finance their consumerism

At some point in the 1920s...

people need to stop spending and pay back their debt

During an economic depression, there is...

high unemployment and slowed business production

A crash in the stock market refers to

a sharp fall in prices, because people are selling their stock to get cash

Why did banks close during the depression?

They didn't have cash, because they had invested in the stock market, which crashed in 1929.

Protective tariffs

Taxes places on imported goods, often to raise prices and thus encourage consumers to purchase the domestic product

What do protective tariffs lead to in the depression?

A decline in international trade

Initially when the depression starts, governments adopt _____ policies.

laissez-faire

Keynesian economics

Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes, stating that government spending should increase during business slumps to help jumpstart the economy

When Franklin Roosevelt becomes president, he adopts economic policies consistent with _____

Keynesian economics

New Deal

The name of President Roosevelt's program for getting the United States out of the depression; involves passing laws to create jobs, inspire confidence in banks, and getting people money

Downside to the New Deal

government spent too much money and incurred a deficit

Governments that promote Keynesian economics believe that

governments should take a direct role in improving the economy

Lenin's war communism

Lenin's first economic plan, involves seizing private property, big businesses, church land / ends in failure as peasants strike and workers rebell from not having enough food

New Economic Policy

1921 plan that permitted some capitalist activity in Russia in order to increase food production

Stalin

Russian leader who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist Party and created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition (1879-1953)

Five Year Plan

Stalin's economic policy to rebuild the Soviet economy after WWI. Involved rapidly industrializing the Soviet Union by building factories making steel and machines and farm collectivization

Farm collectivization

this was under Stalin's communism when he would collect the crops grown and the government would redistribute it out to the people / unsuccessful, as some people did not receive food and starved

Holodomor

1932 killing of 7 million poor peasants in Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin. Most were starved to death from famine; caused by farm collectivization

Great Purge

The widespread arrests and executions of over a million people by Josef Stalin between 1936 and 1938. Stalin was attempting to eliminate all opposition to his rule (including fellow communists who were unhappy with the negative consequences of farm collectivization) of the Soviet Union.

Unlike the US, which manufactured _________________, the Soviet Union manufactured _______________________.

consumer goods; steel and heavy machinery

Mussolini and Hitler promote....

fascism

Fascism

A far-right political system headed by a dictator that calls for a return to the glory of the past, extreme nationalism, militarism, and racism and no tolerance of opposition

Did Hitler and Mussolini like Stalin?

No, Hitler and Mussolini are far-right, and they opposed the far-left communist ideas of Stalin.

Benito Mussolini

Fascist dictator of Italy (1922-1943). He led Italy to conquer Ethiopia (1935), joined Germany in the Axis pact (1936), and allied Italy with Germany in World War II. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy.

Characteristics of Italian fascism

No other political parties allowed, no free speech, no free press, no strikes, no labor unions

Axis Powers in WWII

Germany, Italy, Japan

Mein Kampf

"My Struggle"-a book written by Adolf Hitler during his imprisonment in 1923-1924, in which he set forth his anti-semitic beliefs and plan for reviving the glory of the German Empire

Nuremberg Laws

1935 laws defining the status of Jews and withdrawing citizenship from persons of non-German blood.

Kristallnacht

(Night of the Broken Glass) November 9, 1938, when mobs throughout Germany destroyed Jewish property and terrorized Jews.

Tojo Hideki

Prime Minister of Japan (1941-1944) and leading advocate of Japanese military conquest during World War II.

Similarities between Germany, Italy, Japan before WWII

All withdraw from League of Nations, engage in violent territorial acquisition, unhappy with terms of Treaty of Versailles

Battle of Midway

1942 World War II battle between the United States and Japan, a turning point in the war in the Pacific, because the US destroys the Japanese navy

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor in Dec 1941?

Because the US put an oil embargo on Japan

Just like WWI, World War II is a...

total war

Operation Barbarossa

Codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II; Germany unable to conquer Soviet Union during winter

Nazi Soviet NonAggression Pact

Agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union not to fight one another, which allowed Hitler to concentrate on a one front war once the war started

Munich Conference

1938 conference at which European leaders attempted to appease Hitler by turning over the Sudetenland to him in exchange for promise that Germany would not expand Germany's territory any further.

Before WWII, Japan violently invaded

China

Land that Mussolini conquers

Albania, Libya, Egypt

Hitler's first step in violating Treaty of Versailles

Militarizing the Rhineland

Hitler trains _______ during Spanish Civil War

air force

New weapons used in WWII

atomic bomb, used by the US against Japan

Anschluss

Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938

Britain and France appease Hitler at Munich Conference to keep

peace for the the time

Hitler violates the Munich Agreement by

annexing all of Czechoslovakia

WWII begins with

German invasion of Poland

In the early months of WWII, Germany is able to

invade and conquer most of continental Europe

Battle of Britain

An aerial battle fought in World War II in 1940 between the German Luftwaffe (air force), which carried out extensive bombing in Britain, and the British Royal Air Force, which offered successful resistance.

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII, gave Londoners courage during Battle of Britain to never give up