Download Study Guide – WWII Exam

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World History
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Study Guide – Interwar Years and WWII Exam
1. Explain the changes that took place in the following countries/regions following World War I
a. China
b. India
c. The Middle East
d. Africa
2. Who were Jiang Jieshi and Mao Zedong, and how did they alter the history of China?
3. How did Gandhi work for change in India?
4. Explain how the Balfour Declaration influenced events in the Middle East following World War I.
5. Why did African Nationalism grow following World War I?
6. What happened to the U.S. economy during the 1920s?
7. How did the Depression spread throughout the United States?
8. How did the Depression affect the world?
9. How did John Maynard Keynes attempt to fix the problems created by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Act?
10. Describe how the following major provisions of the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the
beginning of World War II:
 War Guilt Clause

Reparations

Demilitarization of Germany
11. What was the economic effect of the reparations that the Germans paid at the end of WWI?
12. How was prosperity created again in Europe after WWI?
13. What caused the Great Depression of the 1930s?
14. What different responses did countries have to the Great Depression?
15. What changes took place in Japan during the 1920s? Why did their military gain influence?
16. Why did Japan invade Manchuria?
17. What was the Nanjing Massacre, and why was it significant?
18. What was the Anti-Comintern Pact? Who was involved?
19. What was the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere? Who created it? Why?
20. Define Totalitarianisma. Which interwar governments and leaders were totalitarian?
21. Define Fascisma. Which interwar governments and leaders were fascist?
22. Define Communisma. Which interwar governments and leaders were communist?
23. What type of ruler was Benito Mussolini? Where did he rule?
24. Why did Italy invade Ethiopia? What was the result of the invasion?
25. What type of ruler was Joseph Stalin? Where did he rule?
26. How did Stalin use fear and violence to rule? (Know- gulag, purges)
27. What were the goals of Stalin’s Five-Year Plans?
28. What types of policies did the Nazis political party support?
29. What were the Nazis trying to do during the Beer Hall Putsch? How did they change their
methods after it?
30. What type of information is contained in Hitler’s book Mein Kampf?
31. Define anschluss. Why was it significant?
32. How did Hitler eventually rise to become the “Fuhrer” (supreme leader) of Germany?
a. What act (law) legalized his take over?
33. What were the Nuremburg Laws and why were they significant?
34. What and when was the first act of violence against the Jews in Germany?
35. Define appeasementa.
Why did the western democracies practice a policy of appeasement against Germany,
Italy, and Japan?
36. How did Hitler take over Austria?
37. Why did Hitler justify a take over of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia?
38. What did the Munich Pact do?
39. What invasion marks the beginning of WWII?
40. What was the Phony War (Sitzkrieg)?
41. How did the British and French respond to Germany’s expansion and aggression?
42. Explain the German invasion of France.
43. With whom did Hitler seek alliances during the late 1930s?
44. What was the international impact of the Spanish Civil War?
45. Who was Winston Churchill, and why was he significant?
46. Who were the Axis powers?
47. Who were the Allied powers?
48. Who led the British during WWII?
49. Who led the Americans during WWII?
50. Who led the Soviets during WWII?
51. Why was the evacuation of Dunkirk known as the Miracle of Dunkirk?
52. What happened during the Battle of Britain?
53. Who won the battle for the Atlantic? Why was that significant?
54. Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? Who planned and led the attack?
55. How did the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor impact public opinion in the United States?
(include- isolationism)
56. How did Americans get involved on the home front?
57. How did the American entry into World War II change the course of the war?
58. How did the war in North Africa and Italy progress?
59. Who was Erwin Rommel and why was the Battle of El Alamein significant?
60. Why was the Battle of Stalingrad a turning point in World War II? What made it such a bloody
battle?
61. What is Blitzkrieg?
62. Where did the U.S. decide to focus on first in WWII? Why?
63. What is island hopping? Why did the Americans use this tactic in the Pacific War?
64. Why is the Battle of Midway considered a turning point in the Pacific War?
65. Who were the kamikazes? Why did the Japanese use them in World War II?
66. What was D-Day? What effect did it have on the war in Europe?
67. Explain Nazi anti-Semitism during the 1930s.
68. What was the Holocaust? When did it take place?
69. Who were the targets of the Holocaust? Why?
70. What was the “Final Solution?” How did the Nazis attempt to carry out this plan?
71. What was the War Refugee Board, and why was it significant?
72. How did the world react to the killing of Jews and other groups?
73. Why did the Allies dread the idea of invading the major islands of Japan?
74. How did the development of the atomic bomb affect the world in the years after World War II?
75. Where were the first two atomic bombs dropped?
76. Why did Truman drop the atomic bomb?
77. What were the Allied plans for the world following World War II?