Western Civ Final Exam

What treaties and alliances helped lead to WWI?

The Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy)

What was the immediate cause of WWI in Saravejo?

It was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by the Black Hand. Used by Austrians as an issue to run with to start war

What was the key political movement that triggered WWI?

Nationalism and especially by the Serbian Nationalist movement known as Black Hand.

What encouraged Austria to attack Serbia and lead to WWI?

Germany’s “Blank Check” said Germany would back up Austria. The agreement was very loose and not too specific.

Why was Serbia at the heart of a power struggle?

Russia and Austria-Hungary both wanted Serbia, and the Black Hand desired Pan-Slavic unification

What was Germany’s Schlieffen plan?

A plan to avoid 2-Front war with Russia and France. Germany wanted to take out France quickly, then turn all attention to Russia.

Why did Britain enter WWI?

Britain entered to protect the balance of power threatened by Germany’s invasion of neutral Belgium with Belgian ports very close to Britain

What was the period of “August Madness”?

Excitement and celebration in the belief that WWI would be a quick victory. Farmers, workers, socialists not so happy because they would need to fight

What happened after one year in WWI on the Western Front?

Germany couldn’t get Belgium. Germany and the French army created trenches, trying to flank each other, which was 500 miles long

What was Trench Warfare?

long periods of boredom, deadly/suicidal artillery barrages, and frontal assaults. Trenches were rat-infested, full of body parts, and putrid water

Who used Poison Gas first?

Germany used Chlorine on allied troops in 2915 at the Battle of Ypres

Who joined Germany’s side during WWI?

Ottoman Turks, which led to the battle with the ANZACs

What did the stalemate in the Western Front do?

Make the conditions in the trenches worse

What is the Cult of the Offensive?

It was an idea that many military commanders, despite Trench Warfare’s defensive strategy, believed sending offensive charges on No Man’s Land was a good idea.

What caused the fall of the Tsar in Russia?

It was due to the strike in Petrograd, heavy wartime casualties, Tsar Nicholas’ incompetence, and the influence of Rasputin

Who was Vladimir I. Lenin?

The leader of the Bolsheviks’ revolution, who promised “peace, land, and bread”

How many Armenians in Turkey were killed at the end of WWI?

1 million dead Christian Armenians

What is the League of Nation?

A peace maintenance group made by Britain, France, USA (USA never did join due to isolationism)

What did the Treaty of Versailles demand?

Germany takes the blame for the war and pays reparations

What did the reparations Germany had to pay do?

France seized the Ruhr Valley, which led to passive resistance from Germany, led to hyperinflation

What was the “stabbed in the back” conspiracy Germany believed?

That they didn’t lose the war, and felt that a Jewish/Capitalist-Bolshevik group betrayed them

What was the Dawes Plan?

The USA demanded realistic reparations, so they encouraged Massive private US investment in German Businesses

What was the major cause of the Great Depression in Europe?

The recall of Dawes Plan loans after the American Stock market crashed, Germany suffered about 35-40% unemployment

What was the effect of the Depression in Europe?

It allowed the rise of authoritarian governments

What did FDR’s “New Deal” do?

It brought partial economic recovery but full employment would not come until the armament for WWII

What is Keynesian Economics?

It was deficit spending, governments had to spend their way out of recession (creating the Work Progress Administration in the USA)

Where did totalitarian regimes want full control in?

Germany, Italy, Soviet Union

What did Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship bring?

censorship of publications, secret police, popular fascist youth organizations - control italian parliament after 1942

What happened to Weimar Republic in Germany?

They saw uprisings from Left and Right-wing groups, which led to much instability

What did Hitler’s failed Nazi “Beer Hall Putsch” revolution do?

It led to his imprisonment, where he wrote Mein Kampf, an autobiography showing his Aryan supremacy and anti-semitism

How did the Nazis rise to power?

By fueling people’s fear of Communism and Jews

How were the Nazi rallies?

They were very popular political demonstrations - largest was at Nuremberg

What is Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will?

A major propaganda film depicting these rallies

What was “Nazi culture” centered around?

Bourgeois art with strong heroic Aryan themes

What did Hitler do to bring Germany out of the Depression?

He used rearmament and public works

What happened during Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)?

Attack on synagogues and Jewish businesses in Germany

What did Stalin do to the government in the 1930s?

He arrested millions of citizens, top political and military figures he believed opposed him. Sent them to gulags

What were the factors leading to WWII?

Failure of the League of Nations, “Stabbed in the back” belief, Britain failed to follow terms, US isolationism

What did Lebensraum mean?

A nation’s power depended on the land it occupied and Germany wanted Russia’s land

Why did Britain’s PM Neville Chamberlain follow a policy of appeasement?

They saw Germany as a bulwark against Soviet communism and he didn’t want another war

What was Hitler’s first act of aggression?

In 1936 when Germany occupied the Rhineland

What is the 6 steps to WWII?

Ongoing rearmament, New Alliances, Austria’s union with Germany, Czechoslovakia invaded by Germany, Soviet side with Germany, Hitler invades Poland

What did Hitler demand at the Munich Conference in 1938?

He demanded the Sudetenland (the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia)

What does Bewegungskrieg mean?

it was the combined arms of mechanized columns, panzers, infantry, and air support moving Fast together

What is the period known as the “Phony War”

Germany invaded poland, so Britain and France declared war but did nothing

Who was on the Grand Alliance?

Britain, France, Russia & USA

Who was in the Axis Powers?

Germany, Italy, Japan

What is Auschwitz?

A Nazi death camp in Poland and more than 1 million Jewish people died there

What happened at Dunkirk?

Evacuation of 330,000 Allied troops by British naval and civilian boats

Who became the new PM of Britain and what did Hitler think?

Winston Churchill became the PM of Britain and Hitler didn’t want war with Britain

What happened in the Battle of Britain?

Hitler attempted to target Britain’s airfields and military targets to gain Channel control. He lost and then decided to do nighttime terror bombing of civilians and cities (The Blitz)

Who was the Nationalist leader in China and what was the “Rape of Nanking”?

Chiang Kai-Shek was the leader and it was Japan’s rape and killing of Nanking

When did the Japanese military ops in China reach a violent pinnacle?

at the “Rape of Nanking”

What was the Grand Alliance agreement?

fight the Axis powers until they surrendered unconditionally

What happened after Pearl Harbor?

USA joined WWII and decided to focus on Germany first and then deal with the Japanese

Who is Doris Miller?

African American soldier who fought back during Pearl Harbor. He was the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross

What was Vichy France?

The southern portion of france that was officially “free”, but only if they were loyal to Nazis

What were the 3 turning points for WWII?

Battle of Midway, Battle of El Alamein, and the Battle of Stalingrad

When did the Non-Aggression Pact Between Russia and Germany end?

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in a surprise attack in 1941

How many people did the Soviet Union lose in WWII?

nearly 27 million

What did the invasion of Normandy represent?

The Allied needed to open a 2nd front

What was the Ghost Army/Operation Bodyguard?

a diversion using fake tanks and trucks. Designed to make Hitler believe the Allies would attack at the Pas de Calais

What is the Normandy Landing on D-Day?

Largest invasion forces in modern history including US, Britain, and Canada

Why did Truman decide to use the Atomic Bombs?

To end the war quickly and avoid heavy American casualties if Japan had to be invaded

What lead to the surrender of the Japanese Government?

combination of the atomic bombs and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria

Who is the leader of the Schutzstaffel?

Heinrich Himmler

What is the Manhattan Project and who ran it?

A US led plan to develop the atomic bomb. Ran by Robert Oppenheimer

Who acquired the four divided “occupation” zones in Germany after WWII?

US, Britain, France and Russia

In the Potsdam Conference what was the main argument between Stalin and Truman?

The ability of Eastern Europe countries to CHOOSE their government and hold free elections

What is Bletchley Park?

The center of British intelligence and codebreaking throughout the war

What did Alan Turing do?

He designed a “computer” that helped break the German Enigma codes and shorten the war by about 2 years

What was Hitler’s “Final Solution”?

His plan to exterminate all European Jews, made by SS Lt Gen. Reinhard and made official at the Wannsee Conference

Who, besides the Jews, were exterminated?

homosexuals, mentally disabled, Roma, “degenerates” inc artists, and Slavs

What happened at the Wannsee Conference?

Heydrich created the “Death Camps” with the only purpose to do mass extermination, experiments were done at Chelmno

What was the T-4 Euthanasia Program?

It was were Nazis committed “mercy killings” of physically and mentally disabled. It helped perfect gassing techniques

How many people did Auschwitz kill?

The death of 1 million jews

How were people killed inside the gas chambers in Extermination camps?

Carbon monoxide and Zyklon B cyanide gas was used and estimated to kill 60,000 per day nationwide

Who were the Sondercommandos?

The prisoners in camps tasked with disposing of the bodies at death camps

What is Zyklon B?

A pesticide that came in pellets, but vaporized into hydrogen cyanide. It was used to kill millions of Jews in death camps

After WWII what replaced European “power politics”?

it was USA vs USSR

What were the key contributions to the Cold War?

Stalin’s desire to set up Communist States in Eastern Europe. Truman’s Marshall Plan to offer money to states that rejected Communism

What is the Truman Doctrine?

$400 million in aid to nations threatened by communist aggression

How did Truman respond to Stalin’s blockade of West Berlin?

With Berlin Airlift - more than a year of flights that brought food and fuel to West Berliners

Who founded the United Nations?

The “Big Four” - US, Britain, Russia, Nationalist China

What happened to Nationalist China in the Cold War?

Mao Zedong’s Communist party took over in 1949, Chiang was exiled to Taiwan

What was the Communist response to NATO?

The WARSAW PACT led by Russia, another alliance with their allies

What was the US policy against Communism?

Containment

Where was the first “Proxy War”and why did it occur?

The superpowers couldn’t use nuclear weapons without destroying the world, so they fought small wars

What is the US Bay of Pigs invasion?

A plan to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba, it failed. Kennedy had cold feet

What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?

closest we came to nuclear war (Kennedy and Khrushchev"). Nuclear Missiles being placed in Turkey and Cuba

What happened after the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Both leaders worked towards “Detente” a calming of the tension and the US and USSR did a deal to remove nuclear missiles

What was Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward”?

A plan to bring rapid industrialization through collectivization, led to a famine that killed 40 million Chinese

What did Stalin’s economic policies emphasize?

Development of heavy industry, weapons, space craft

What did the US utilize in Vietnam?

Chemical warfare. The US used 1000s tons of napalm and Agent Orange in South Vietnam - who were our Allie!

Who were the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement

Rosa Parks, Lyndon B Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X