Unit VII: Stimulus Based Questions

Which of the following was most likely employed by Mussolini to influence public opinion?

(A) Censorship and control of the press

(B) Suppression of traditional public education

(C) Positive connections between church and state

(D) Creation of Fascist youth organizations

(A) Censorship and control of the press

"Hitler had learned several lessons from the reoccupation of the Rhineland. The first was that words of condemnation by the League of Nations had little effect because the organization possessed no real power. The second and more important lesson was that France and England would back off from meeting force with force if they thought the action might lead to another war."

Giblin, James, The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler, 2002

Based on the argument in the above excerpt, European reaction to Hitler's activities is best described as a policy of

(A) intervention through diplomatic channels

(B) toleration and pacifism

(C) limited military responses

(D) imposing economic sanctions

(B) toleration and pacifism

"Hitler had learned several lessons from the reoccupation of the Rhineland. The first was that words of condemnation by the League of Nations had little effect because the organization possessed no real power. The second and more important lesson was that France and England would back off from meeting force with force if they thought the action might lead to another war."

Giblin, James, The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler, 2002

The League of Nations' ineffectiveness against Hitler, as portrayed in the passage above, was most clearly the result of which of the following?

(A) Structural issues limiting resolution enforcement

(B) Historical affinities and alliances among European states

(C) A lack of global representation within the organization

(D) The inability to negotiate treaties

(C) A lack of global representation within the organization

"Hitler had learned several lessons from the reoccupation of the Rhineland. The first was that words of condemnation by the League of Nations had little effect because the organization possessed no real power. The second and more important lesson was that France and England would back off from meeting force with force if they thought the action might lead to another war."

Giblin, James, The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler, 2002

What historical evidence best supports James Giblin's argument that Hitler's military successes were based most clearly on the French and British aversion to war?

(A) Nazi activities confined within Austria

(B) European concerns over the rise of Fascism in Italy

(C) European distrust for the Soviet Union

(D) His tactics of gradual encroachment followed by peace

(A) Nazi activities confined within Austria

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe.... All these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere....

The safety of the world...requires a unity in Europe....Surely we should work... within the structure of the United Nations....

In a great number of countries...Communist fifth columns are established and work in...absolute obedience to the directions they receive from the Communist center.... The Communist parties or fifth columns constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization....

The agreement which was made at Yalta...was extremely favorable to Soviet Russia....

But what we have to consider here today while time remains is...the establishment of conditions of freedom and democracy...in all countries. Our difficulties and dangers...will not be removed by a policy of appeasement."

Winston Churchill, "Iron Curtain Speech," Westminster College. Fulton, MO, March 5, 1946.

The concerns expressed by Churchill in the excerpt above were a response to which of the following historical events?

(a) Countries in Eastern Europe came under the military, political, and economic domination of the Soviet Union.

(b) American and British industrial, scientific, and technological power and the all-out military commitment of the Soviet Union were crucial to the Allied victory in World War II.

(c) British fears of another war, American isolationism, and deep distrust between democratic states and the Soviet Union allowed fascist states to expand their territories.

(d) The newly created United Nations fostered international cooperation.

(a) Countries in Eastern Europe came under the military, political, and economic domination of the Soviet Union.

"Since I first went to Berchtesgaden more than 20,000 letters and telegrams have come in...I have seen enough to know that the people who wrote did not feel that they had such a cause for which to fight, if they were asked to go to war in order that the Sudeten Germans might not join the Reich....

Does the experience of the Great War and of the years that followed it give us reasonable hope that if some new war started that would end war any more than the last one did? No. I do not believe that war is inevitable.... It seems to me that the strongest argument against the inevitability of war is ...hatred of the notion of starting to kill one another again....

I do not think that at any time there has been a more complete identity of views between the French Government and ourselves than there is at the present time. Their objective is the same as ours—to obtain the collaboration of all nations, not excluding the totalitarian states, in building up a lasting peace for Europe...."

Neville Chamberlain, Speech to the British House of Commons on the Munich Crisis, 1938

Chamberlain's speech best serves as evidence of in which of the following European developments in the late 1930s?

A) A policy of appeasement carried out by Western democracies enabled fascist states to re-arm and expand their territory.

B) Deep distrust existed between Western democratic, capitalist nations and the communist Soviet Union.

C) Western democracies failed to overcome the Great Depression and were weakened by extremist movements.

D) New communication and transportation technologies multiplied the connections across time and space.

A) A policy of appeasement carried out by Western democracies enabled fascist states to re-arm and expand their territory.

"Since I first went to Berchtesgaden more than 20,000 letters and telegrams have come in...I have seen enough to know that the people who wrote did not feel that they had such a cause for which to fight, if they were asked to go to war in order that the Sudeten Germans might not join the Reich....

Does the experience of the Great War and of the years that followed it give us reasonable hope that if some new war started that would end war any more than the last one did? No. I do not believe that war is inevitable.... It seems to me that the strongest argument against the inevitability of war is ...hatred of the notion of starting to kill one another again....

I do not think that at any time there has been a more complete identity of views between the French Government and ourselves than there is at the present time. Their objective is the same as ours—to obtain the collaboration of all nations, not excluding the totalitarian states, in building up a lasting peace for Europe...."

Neville Chamberlain, Speech to the British House of Commons on the Munich Crisis, 1938

The ideas expressed in the excerpt most strongly reflect which of the following interwar factors?

A) French and British fears of another war

B) weaknesses in economies worldwide

C) postwar bitterness and economic instability in Germany and Italy

D) Wilson's principle of national self-determination

A) French and British fears of another war

"Since I first went to Berchtesgaden more than 20,000 letters and telegrams have come in...I have seen enough to know that the people who wrote did not feel that they had such a cause for which to fight, if they were asked to go to war in order that the Sudeten Germans might not join the Reich....

Does the experience of the Great War and of the years that followed it give us reasonable hope that if some new war started that would end war any more than the last one did? No. I do not believe that war is inevitable.... It seems to me that the strongest argument against the inevitability of war is ...hatred of the notion of starting to kill one another again....

I do not think that at any time there has been a more complete identity of views between the French Government and ourselves than there is at the present time. Their objective is the same as ours—to obtain the collaboration of all nations, not excluding the totalitarian states, in building up a lasting peace for Europe...."

Neville Chamberlain, Speech to the British House of Commons on the Munich Crisis, 1938

In what way did mentalities across Europe prior to World War I differ from the mood reflected in Chamberlain's 1938 speech?

A) Europeans were enthusiastic and patriotic about going off to war in 1914.

B) Europeans found extremist movements attractive in the 1930s when democracies had failed to overcome the Great Depression.

C) Prior to World War I, Europeans were generally confident in the ability of science and technology to address human needs and problems.

D) Prior to World War II, racial ideologies fueled plans to create a new order across Europe.

A) Europeans were enthusiastic and patriotic about going off to war in 1914.

"Thoroughly convinced by the knowledge that the purity of German blood is essential for the further existence of the German people and animated by the inflexible will to safe-guard the German nation for the entire future, the Reichstag [the German legislature] has resolved upon the following law unanimously, which is promulgated herewith:

Section 1

Marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they are concluded abroad....

Section 2

Relation[s] outside marriage between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden....

Section 5

A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 1 will be punished with hard labor.

A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 2 will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor."

Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, from the Nuremberg Laws, September 15, 1935

Which of the following most directly prompted the Reichstag (the German legislature) to pass the above law?

A) internal political disagreement over the definition of Jewish identity

B) the German Nazi party's attempts to establish a new racial order in Europe

C) the early success of Germany's Blitzkrieg warfare in Europe

D) the German Nazi party's use of terror and manipulation to exploit postwar bitterness

B) the German Nazi party's attempts to establish a new racial order in Europe

Excerpt from "The Doctrin of Fascism," an essay attributed to Benito Mussolini, 1931

Fascism attacks the whole complex of democratic ideologies and rejects them both in their theoretical premises and in their applications or practical manifestations. fascism denies that the majority, through the mere fact of being a majority, can rule human societies; it denies that this majority can govern by means of a periodical consultation; it affirms the irremediable, fruitful and beneficent inequality of men, who cannot be leveled by such a mechanical and extrinsic fact as universal suffrage. By democratic regimes we mean those in which from time to time the people is given the illusion of being sovereign, while true effective sovereignty lies in other, perhaps irresponsible and secret forces.

If it is admitted that the nineteenth century has been the century of Socialism, Liberalism and Democracy, it does not follow that the twentieth must also be the century of Liberalism, Socialism and Democracy. Political doctrines pass; peoples remain. It is to be expected that this century may be that of authority, a century of the "Right," a Fascist century. If the nineteenth was the century of the individual it may be expected that this one may be the century of "collectivism" and therefore the century of the State.

The keystone of Fascist doctrine is the conception of the State, of its essence of its task, of its ends. For Fascism the State is an absolute before which individuals and groups are relative.

According to this piece, Fascism can best be described as

A) A source of hope following the end of WWII

B) An excess of nationalism in period leading up to WWI

C) Bitterness stemming from the disillusions of WWI

D) Optimism after the Russian Revolution

(B) An excess of nationalism in period leading up to WWI

Excerpt from "The Doctrin of Fascism," an essay attributed to Benito Mussolini, 1931

Fascism attacks the whole complex of democratic ideologies and rejects them both in their theoretical premises and in their applications or practical manifestations. fascism denies that the majority, through the mere fact of being a majority, can rule human societies; it denies that this majority can govern by means of a periodical consultation; it affirms the irremediable, fruitful and beneficent inequality of men, who cannot be leveled by such a mechanical and extrinsic fact as universal suffrage. By democratic regimes we mean those in which from time to time the people is given the illusion of being sovereign, while true effective sovereignty lies in other, perhaps irresponsible and secret forces.

If it is admitted that the nineteenth century has been the century of Socialism, Liberalism and Democracy, it does not follow that the twentieth must also be the century of Liberalism, Socialism and Democracy. Political doctrines pass; peoples remain. It is to be expected that this century may be that of authority, a century of the "Right," a Fascist century. If the nineteenth was the century of the individual it may be expected that this one may be the century of "collectivism" and therefore the century of the State.

The keystone of Fascist doctrine is the conception of the State, of its essence of its task, of its ends. For Fascism the State is an absolute before which individuals and groups are relative.

To what is the piece referring when it describes liberalism as the ideology of the 19th century?

A) The French Revolution-and the revolutions that followed it shaping the 19th century

B) By the end of the 19th century, almost everyone in Europe had the right to vote

C) The United States extensive participation European politics during the century

D) The formation of the United Nations

A) The French Revolution-and the revolutions that followed it shaping the 19th century

Mussolini's theories regarding government and power were most clearly based on which of the following?

(A) Social reforms aimed at reducing class struggles

(B) Leadership based on a cult like status

(C) Policies that provided economic growth through capitalism

(D) Universal suffrage and free parliamentary elections

(B) Leadership based on a cult like status