7.6 Causes of World War II Flashcards
What was the Weimar Republic?
The government democratically elected by Germans to replace the monarchial rule of the kaiser.
What was the name of the anti-semitic book Adolf Hilter wrote that was allegedly semi-autobiographical?
Mein Kampf
Members of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party were known as what?
Nazis
When the Nazis burnt the Reichstag, or German Parliament building, who got the blame?
Radical Extremists
What is scientific racism?
A psuedo-scientific theory (bullshit) that certain races of humans are genetically superior to others
Who did Hitler say were the most superior people?
Aryans
Hitler wanted German purged of people who considered unpure. Who were some of the groups of humans that made Hitler’s long list of unpure humans
Jews
Gays
Slavs
Communists
Roma
What did the Nuremberg Laws do?
Prohibited marriage between gentiles and Jews
Took away German citizenship from Jews
pushed Jews to the margins of German society
What was the name of the military pact Hitler made with Italy?
The Rome-Berlin Axis
What was the Anti-Comintern Pact?
An agreement made between Germany, italy and Japan based on a shared distrust of communism that sought to promote their military interests.
Kristallnacht, in 1938, was a night of outrage against Jews where nearly every synagogue in Germany was destroyed. 7000 Jewish shops were destroyed, 90 Jews were killed, and more th an 30,000 Jews were dragged from their home and arrested to be sent to concentration camps. The night was engineered by the Nazi party. What did they try to blame it on?
The assisination of a German diplomat by a Jewish teenager.
How did Hitler first openly breach the Treaty of Versailles?
Marched trouples into the Rhineland - a buffer zone between Germany and France.
What were two reasons Britain adopted a policy of appeasement with Germany before World War II commenced?
- They didn’t want to return to war.
- They thought Central Europe needed a strong anti-communist leader.
What did Hitler call his new, German Empire?
The Third Reich
What was the Anschluss?
The official annexation of Austria to Germany
Did the Ancschluss involve violence?
Not especially. Hitler pressured the Austrian chancellor to give Nazis more control in Austrian parliament. With more Nazis in parliiament, Autria allowed German troops to move in and occupy Austria.
Where was the Sudetenland?
Czechoslovakia
Why did Hitler argue that Sudetenland was a natural extension of the German Empire?
The locals spoke German
Neville Chamberlain was the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister of Britain, was a proponent of what policy when dealing with Nazi Germany?
Appeasement
What was the Munich Agreement?
An agreement between Britain and Germany that Germany could annex Sudentenland in return for a promise that Germany would not annex any more of Czechoslovakia
Did the Munich Agreement appease Hitler?
No. It showed Hitler that Germany could take European land and Britain wouldn’t do anything.
What was the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact?
An agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany to not attach one another.
What was the secret deal between Stalin and Hitler regarding Poland?
If Stalin stood by while Germany invaded Western Poland, the Soviet Union could have control of eastern Poland and the Baltic States.
Why did Britain and France declare war on Germany?
Germany invaded Poland.
What was Lebensraum?
The Lebensraum or “living space” policy of Nazi Germany that involved expanding German territories to the east to provide land and material resources for the German people, while driving out Jewish and Slavic peoples.
What was Danzig?
Following World War I, the Treaty of Versailles (1918) declared Danzig to be a free city administered by Poland and the League of Nations. Germany resented the loss of this largely German city. Hitler was determined to overturn the military and territorial provisions of the Versailles treaty. After invading Poland in September 1939, Nazi Germany annexed Danzig.
