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World History Semester Two Study Guide
Well, here it is folks: the study guide you’ve been waiting for. Enjoy!
Note on the final: The final will consist of an objective portion (100 questions), which
should take you no more than 70 minutes and the essay portion, which should take you
about 30-40 minutes.
Part I Semester Two Final Essay Questions
You will be required to write a response (one to two pages—about five paragraphs) to
one of the following questions:
1. WWI: Can the Treaty of Versailles be viewed as a successful settlement of the war?
Explain why or why not.
2. WWII: In what ways did the Allies’s appeasement of Hitler contribute to the causes
of WWII?
3. Cold War: Explain the events that led to the end of Soviet control of Eastern Europe.
Focus on the years 1980 to 1991.
Part II: Main points and terms for the objective portion
WORLD WAR I
Part I: Nationalism in the Late-19th and Early 20th Centuries:
1. What is nationalism? How did it serve to unify Germany and Italy and divide AustriaHungary and the Ottoman Empire.
2. Be familiar with these key terms: Garibaldi, Count Cavour, Victor Emmanuel,
Risorgimento, Bismarck, Prussia, “Blood and Iron,”
3. “Madhouse of Nationalities,” Balkans, “Sick Man of Europe,” Armenian Massacre.
Part II: World War I
1)Describe the 4 MAIN causes of the War and how each contributed to the outbreak of
World War I. This will be an essay question.
2) Why were the Balkans considered a "powderkeg of Europe"? Where are the Balkans?
3) What were the two major alliances in Europe? Who was in each?
4) Who was involved with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand? How did
this assassination lead to the outbreak of war? Why did A-H declare war on Serbia?
5) What was Russia's main interest in joining the war?
6) List several new weapons that contributed to the staggering death tolls in WWI.
7)Why did Russia withdraw from the war?
8) Why did Germany enter the war? Britain? France?
9 ) How did gov't mobilize the home fronts (home front = those not fighting in this
case) during the war? (think total war)
10.)How did the war impact women?
11.)What was life like in the trenches?
Why did the US enter the war?
What were the key ideas behind Wilson's 14 points? What was the goal behind
this philosophy?
What were the key points in the Versailles treaty? (What losses did Germany
suffer? Limitations, etc.
12.)What was Article 231, the War Guilt clause?
13.) Why wasn’t Russia at the Versailles Conference?
14.)Who were the Big Four?
15.)What land did Russia lose?
16.)Why were some Americans against the Treaty and the League?
17.)What did people in Africa and Asia think?
18.) How was the mandate system like European colonialism?
19) Be able to identify the significance of the following Battle lines
A) The Western Front - and 3 key battles (especially what your text calls the most
significant
battle) How close to Germany get to Paris?
B) The Eastern Front - 1 key battle
c) the Italian Front –1 key battle
d) Japanese entry – where did they fight? Who? Why?
20) What epidemic caused more deaths in 1918 than in all four years of the war
combined? Why was it so hard to stop?
21. Why did Japan enter the war?
22. What did TE Lawrence do?
23. What happened to former colonies after the war??
24. Which countries made up the Allies?
25. Which countries made up the Central Powers?
26. Why did Italy support the Allies?
27. What new countries emerged after WWI?
28. Know the maps of Europe before and after the war.
29. Who was excluded from the League of Nations?
Key terms: Be able to explain what happened with each of the following events/terms.
Also be able to explain why they are important.
nationalism:
mobilization:
stalemate:
Gallipoli:
armistice:
Zimmerman Telegram:
ultimatum:
Schlieffen Plan;
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk:
Propaganda (what type was most used):
Lusitania:
attrition:
reparations:
Total war
Total number of deaths
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Self-determination
mandate:
Years of WWI
conscription
Which country suffered the most deaths?
How many did the US suffer?
League of Nations (why didn’t the US
join?)
WORLD WAR II
Rise of Totalitarianism
1. Be able to describe the art movements of Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism.
2. Explain the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic. Whom did
Germans blame for their problems?
3. Describe Weimar Germany’s Inflation problems. Why wheelbarrows.
4. What was the Dawes Plan? Explain how this temporarily solved the
economic crisis in the early 1920s.
5. Define fascism and totalitarianism. Define Nazism.
6. Contrast fascism and communism
7. How did Mussolini rise to power in Italy? How did he gain the support of the
middle class?
8. How did Hitler rise to power in Germany? What was his background?
Why did Hitler hate the Treaty of Versailles?
9. Explain the term Der Fuhrer.
10. Know the following events: Munich Putsch, Night of Long Knives, Enabling
Act, Reichstag Fire.
11. Know the following terms: lebensraum, Schutzstaffel (SS) Gestapo, Mein
Kampf, Kristallancht.
12. Describe Hitler’s anti-Semitism.
13. Describe the ecnonomc changes that occurred in Germany during the time of
Nazi rule (unemployment rates, etc.).
14. Describe Hitler’s control of the media, books, etc. How was this totalitarian?
15. Describe Mussolini’s imperialistic ambitions (Ethiopia, etc).
World War II in Europe
16. Hitler’s aggressive steps (Know the order and what happened)
Define Appeasement.
Occupation of the Rhineland
Annexation of Austria
Sudetenland
Czechoslovakia
Poland (began WWII); Blitzkrieg and sitzkrieg (phony war)
Belgium
France (Vichy v. Resistance)
Battle of Britain (Blitz);
17. What were the details of the Soviet-German Nonaggression Pact?
18. Be able to describe the details of Francisco (that’s fun to say) Franco and the Spanish Civil War;
Guernica
19. Why did Hitler invade the Soviet Union? How did the Soviet’s respond?
20. How did the US respond to German and Japanese aggression, initially? What was the purpose of the
Lend-lease Act?
21. Explain the Allied response to Hitler (North Africa, then Italy then France).
22. Who was Rommel?
23. Explain the significance of the following battles: Stalingrad, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, and VE
Day.
World War II in Asia
1. Explain the events that led to Japanese aggression in Asia (Occupation of Korea, invasion of Manchuria,
Invasion of China (Rape of Nanjing) and the Invasion of Indochina. How did the US respond?
2.
Why did Japan attack Indochina and Pearl Harbor? How did the US respond?
3.
What’s the significance of the Battle of Midway? Coral Sea?
4.
Explain the details of the fire bombings of Tokyo and other Japanese cities (as well as German
cities).
5.
Explain the details behind the creation and use of the atomic bombs. Manhattan project,
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
6.
Victory Japan Day
The End
7. Explain who the Axis and Allies Powers were.
8.
Who were the leaders of each of the Axis and Allied nations?
9.
What were the total casualties and losses in WWII?
10. Which country suffered the most?
Holocaust/ End of WWII
Know the following for our quiz, which will be Tuesday 3/15
1.
The details of each of the events on our Holocaust timeline
a. Boycott of Jewish Businesses
b. Nuremburg Laws
c. Concentration Camps
d. Kristallnacht
e. Final Solution
f. Ghettos
g. Deportation
2. Number of people killed in Holocaust. Jews?
3. Wannsee Conference
4. Country with the highest percentage of Jews. Country that lost the most Jews. Second country?
5. other groups killed in the Holocaust.
6. link the 8 stages of genocide with some of the events of the Holocaust.
7. Nuremburg Trials
8. What were the Nuremburg Laws? What did they require?
9. What was Hitler’s final solution? What did he want to do and how did he attempt to do it? (Be
sure to describe some of the steps that were taken to lead to the final solution).
10. What happened to Germany after WWII?
11. How was Europe divided after WWII?
COLD WAR
Master the following:
1. Definition of the Cold War
2. two competing sides and the terms that fit with each: individualism and
capitalism; equality and socialism.
3. cold map terms: Iron Wall, Truman Doctrine, Marshall and Molotov plans,
NATO and Warsaw Pact, Atomic Bomb, Berlin Blockade and Airlift; Berlin
Wall; Hungarian Revolt of 1956, etc.
All the stuff from the Homework and classwork during the Cold War:
Cuba: Castro and Bay of Pigs; Cuban Missile Crisis; agreement afterwards.
Guatemala: overthrow of Arbenz
Iran: Mossaddeq and Shah; why did we support the Shah? Iranian Rev. of 1979 and
hostage crisis. Ayatollah. Why?
Afghanistan: soviet invasion of and US response
Nicaragua: Somoza, Sandanistas and the Contras
El Salvador: Romero, FMLN, etc.
Détente and Nixon
Bandung Conference
Independence movements in Soviet Controlled Europe:
Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, East German, etc. Know that names that go
with each.
End of the Soviet Union
1. Gorbachev
2. Glasnost and Perestroika
3. Lithuania was the first country to do what?
4. August Coup
5. Boris Yeltsin
6. list a few former Soviet Republics
CHINA
Fall of Qing Dynasty
Opium War
Sun Yixian (Sun Yat Sen)
Warlord era (1911-1920s)
Foreign influence
Jiang Jeishi
Nationalist Party (Guomindang or Kuomintang)
Peasant Life (Percentage of China’s Population as peasants)
Chinese communist party: its support base
The Long March
WWII alliance between communists and nationalists (1937-1949)
Victory of communists and Mao Zedong (1949)
Retreat to Taiwan
Mao’s China
Invasion of Tibet; Dalai Lama
5 Year plan: Russians, plans, successes
Great Leap Forward: Mao’s reasoning, commune system, results
Cultural Rev.: 4 olds, Red Guards, Little Red Book, Gang of Four; Effects
After Mao and Deng Xiaoping’s Reforms
Family Responsibility System
Differences in Mao’s and Deng’s Doctrines
Four modernizations
Human Rights Issues
Tiananmen Square Massacre