20th-Century Global Conflicts Flashcards

Flashcards for reviewing 20th-Century Global Conflicts.

What is militarism?

Maintaining and building up a strong military.

What are alliances?

A system by which countries politically align themselves with other countries.

What is Imperialism?

Empire-building; extending a country’s power through diplomacy or military force.

What is nationalism?

Pride in one’s country, and the desire for political independence from an empire.

What was the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand?

The heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist group (the Black Hand) in Sarajevo.

How did trench warfare lead to a stalemate in fighting?

Forward advancement was not easily possible; people stayed in the trenches and attempted to “go over the top,” which led to massive suffering and casualties.

List three new technologies that impacted fighting styles in World War I.

Answers will vary. Machine gun; barbed wire; submarine; airplane; poison gas; tank.

How was World War I a “total war”?

Answers will vary. The home front was actively involved in the war effort through rationing and active monetary support to the government.

Describe the role of propaganda in World War I.

Answers will vary. Propaganda was utilized to mobilize the war effort, encourage rationing, create a common enemy, unite people together, and give money to the government.

Why did protests on the home front emerge as the war continued?

Answers will vary. The war lasted much longer than anticipated due to the military stalemate; massive death tolls; national mobilization and total war led to insurrection within countries against the war effort.

List two non-European theaters impacted by World War I.

Answers will vary, but should include colonies in Africa and Asia, as colonies were also required to support the war effort.

What happened after the end of World War I?

Austria-Hungary separated into independent nations, the United States became a global superpower, and lands in the former Ottoman Empire were broken up via the League of Nations’ Mandate System.

How did World War I lead to the emergence of the US as a global superpower?

Answers will vary. The US was involved in the war but did not face the same consequences of the war, as it was not fought on US soil. The US was part of the Allied Powers, strengthening its alliances. The US built up its military as a result of the war.

List some long-term factors that led to the Russian Revolution in 1917.

History of serfdom and poor treatment of peasants; class consciousness arises with university students after Alexander II abolished serfdom; Alexander II’s and Sergei Witte’s push for industrialization led to mobilization and strikes.

List some short-term factors that led to the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Food shortages; governmental corruption with Tsar Nicholas II dissolving the Duma; loss in the Russo-Japanese War; Russia’s involvement and devastating loss in World War I.

Identify two effects of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Officially ends Russia’s involvement in World War I; Russia lost a quarter of its territory in eastern Europe, and had to cede Poland and the Baltic States to Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Explain the symbolism behind the Soviet Union’s emblem.

The hammer and sickle represent the industrial and agricultural working class - the industrial and peasant workers - to signify proletarian solidarity.

How did women's rights change under the creation of the Soviet Union?

According to the Soviet Constitution, women were supposed to be equal to men, and many entered the workforce.

How did economics change under the creation of the Soviet Union?

Ended Lenin’s NEP, and Stalin’s massive reforms led the USSR to become a global power by 1940.

How did industry and agriculture change under the creation of the Soviet Union?

Five Year Plans for industry and collectivization of agriculture led to rapid development, but not always quality growth.

Why did Britain and France want to punish Germany during the Versailles Peace Conference?

The majority of the war existed around Germany’s borders, and they believed Germany contributed to the start of the war. Germany’s industrialized warfare was atrocious for the Allied Powers.

Explain one of the reasons why the League of Nations failed.

The United States failed to become a part of the League of Nations, and its nonparticipation led to the weakening of the alliance.

What was the war-guilt clause of the Treaty of Versailles?

Germany was forced to take the blame for starting the war.

What were the reparations of the Treaty of Versailles?

As a result of the war-guilt clause, Germany had to pay billions of dollars in reparations - war debts - to Allied Powers.

What was the demilitarization provision of the Treaty of Versailles?

Germany’s army was stripped down to 100,000 men, and they were forbade from having aircraft, submarines, or artillery. The Allied Powers were able to control the Rhineland - between France and Germany.

How did Germany lose territory as a result of the Treaty of Versailles?

Germany loses 13% of its total land by ceding its colonies in Africa and Asia.

Explain the critique of the Treaty of Versailles presented in the American political cartoon.

The cartoonist argues that the Treaty of Versailles and its provisions - its harsh treatment toward Germany - led directly to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.

Use this map to identify the eight countries impacted by the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Rumania (Romania), Yugoslavia, Italy.

Describe a similarity between the mandate system after World War I and the European partition of Africa in the Berlin Conference.

This was the legal process of transferring colonies from one country to another country. Former Ottoman Empire lands were divided up for their resources - mainly oil - and indigenous language and ethnic groups were not considered in the division, just like in Africa.

List two economic causes that led to the Great Depression in Europe.

The US Stock Market crashed, and because global economies were intertwined (US banks recalled their loans from European banks), it negatively impacted Europe. Global trade stopped, and protective tariffs were raised by countries, exacerbating the crisis.

Describe a new economic theory that emerged during the interwar years.

Answers will vary. Keynesian economics in Britain; government intervention is needed to bring an economy out of a depression; social action in Scandinavia; socialist political parties like the Popular Front in France.

How did this economic crisis undermine newly-formed democracies in Europe?

In this time of economic crisis, Europeans turned to strong, charismatic leaders, who promised to bring people out of the depression. Newly formed democracies struggled to retain power during this crisis, and were ultimately weakened by extremist movements.

Define fascism.

Ultranationalist political ideology that is led by one charismatic leader. Often includes a glorification of war, suppression and control of the media including propaganda, and often highlights one particular racial or ethnic group.

Explain one impact of Western democracies’ inaction in the Spanish Civil War.

The fact that Western democracies did not intervene in the Spanish Civil War encouraged and motivated Hitler and Mussolini to mobilize and gain power and traction.

Explain the significance of Joseph Goebbels in Hitler’s rise to power.

Hitler’s Reich Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels was responsible for cultivating a favorable view of the Nazis and curating Hitler’s cult of personality through his propaganda campaigns.

How did Stalin maintain his political authority in the USSR?

In his “Great Terror,” Stalin organized the imprisonment, murder, and execution of anyone who challenged his authoritarian rule, including the Old Bolsheviks, people in the army, and intellectuals. He had a secret police and sent people who spoke out against him to gulags.

Identify two similarities between Hitler and Mussolini.

Both were fascist leaders; both utilized propaganda to support their rule; both reorganized the economy; both were anti-democratic; both were anti-labor unions; both glorified war.

Explain one similarity between Hitler and Stalin.

Answers will vary. Hitler and Stalin both maintained their power by forcibly removing or murdering dissidents. In his Great Purges, Stalin sent his enemies to gulags in Siberia in order to strike fear into Russians and to remove enemies; likewise, Hitler created concentration camps, where he sent political opponents or anyone who spoke out against the Nazi Party.

Use this map to explain Hitler’s desire for lebensraum.

Hitler wanted more living space for his Aryan race. He desired to join Germans and Germanic-speaking people together into one larger Reich - or realm, empire - and did so by annexing or invading those lands.

Explain a specific way in which Hitler implemented anti-Semitic policies once he came to power.

Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, and quickly began passing legislation that restricted the rights of Jews. He deprived them of the ability to hold public office and passed segregation laws. This culminated in the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, which made Jews legally different from non-Jews.

Explain the purpose of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.

In signing this document, Hitler and Stalin agreed to not take military action against each other for 10 years. This allowed Germany to not fight a two-front war, and facilitated the Soviet Union’s and Germany’s partition of Poland.

At the start of World War II, who were the major Allied Powers?

France, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union

At the start of World War II, who were the major Axis Powers?

Germany, Italy, and Japan

Describe Germany’s blitzkrieg military strategy.

Blitzkrieg, or “lighting war,” was utilized by the Nazis in order to achieve swift victories. It included three waves of attack, from artillery bombing, to infantry support, to air support. The purpose was to psychologically destroy the enemy due to quick and fast destruction.

Describe one difference between British Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill’s political policies.

Neville Chamberlain sought to keep the peace in Europe and prevent another war through his appeasement policies, which were attempts to pacify Hitler during his aggression. Churchill met Hitler’s aggression with British aggression, and took a harder stance against the Nazis.

Explain one effect of Operation Barbarossa.

The Germans invaded the Soviet Union, breaking their non-aggression pact. This brought the Soviets into the war on the side of the Allied Powers, and was the turning point that allowed the Allied forces to push the Axis back.

Describe how military technology changed from World War I to World War II.

Answers will vary. More advanced and industrialized warfare and weaponry - like newer tanks, stronger airplanes, and more advanced machine guns - led to intense destruction. Technology like the atomic bomb and radar were also developed.

Contextualize the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.

Nationalism in Europe rose during the 1800s, which came with concomitant anti-Semitism. In the late 1800s, the Dreyfus affair occurred, resulting in both an awareness of and a rise in anti-Semitism. As a result of this, Theodor Herzl forms a new political party focused on Jewish nationalism, called Zionism.

Besides European jews, identify two more groups that were targeted by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Roma, gay people, people with disabilities, ‘asocial elements,’ political dissidents.

According to this map, in what region of Europe were the majority of extermination camps located?

While concentration camps existed mainly in the Axis Power countries in central Europe, the extermination camps were mainly located in Poland.

Describe how new scientific thought in the 20th-century challenged the traditional Newtonian view of the universe.

Physicists like Einstein and Schroedinger started to posit theories that challenged the order of the Newtonian universe through experiments that showed the uncertainty of physics, paving the way for irrational philosophers.

Using Otto Dix’s Der Krieg (The War), explain the psychological effect of World War I on those involved in the conflict.

World War I created a disillusioned and lost generation, marked by chaos, disorder, sadness, cynicism, and death.

How did World War I and World War II transform the lives of women?

As men were soldiers drafted to fight in the war, many women were responsible for helping support the war effort through engaging in the workforce. These new freedoms and rights engendered women to fight for more rights, like suffrage, after the war.

What are the two images on either side of Mussolini’s portrait at the top?

Fasces (fasci), the symbol of fascism in Italy.

Why was that a symbol of Mussolini’s Italy?

This comes from the Imperial Roman symbol of power, showing unity and strength.

This document was created in 1936. Discuss the economic and political context in Europe at the time of the creation of the document.

Economic: The Great Depression created an economic crisis. Political: Hitler was Chancellor in Germany; Spanish Civil War under Franco; Hitler is aggressively expanding and has remilitarized the Rhineland.

Whom was this document originally created for?

Children.

Knowing the intended audience, why was this document created?

To promote nationalism in the youth in Italy; to promote fascist ideology and loyalty to a person.