Chapter 22: Depression, Dictators, and World War II

Question 1

Causes of the Great Depression

Answer 1

• Overproduced consumer and agricultural goods, driving down the prices and incomes.
• Consumers did not have enough money or credit for these products.
• American stock market crash.
• People withdrew loans and money from banks (bank runs) and banks failed.
• Government cut down spending and budgets.
• America raised tariffs, and other nations retaliated.
• Declines in global trade.

Question 2

Impact of the Great Depression

Answer 2

• Replaced the previous optimism with more fear and doubt.
• Created uncertainty for many workers.
• Increase in government intervention.
• Allowed dictators to exploit people’s fears.

Question 3

Conservative Authoritarianism

Answer 3

They were committed to the existing social order, but opposed popular participation in the government.

Question 4

Totalitarianism

Answer 4

Had total control over the citizens, used technology to manipulate and censor information, and used education to mold loyal citizens and demonize scapegoats.

Types of totalitarianism include fascism and communism.

Question 5

Fascism

Answer 5

• One leader, one party.
• Condemned democracy.
• State-sponsored capitalism.
• Glorified war and aggressive nationalism.
• Control over the media.

Question 6

Communism

Answer 6

• “dictatorship of the proletariat.”
• Condemned capitalism.
• State ownership of everything.
• Manipulation of the media.
• Glorified the working class.

Question 7

New Economic Policy

Answer 7

Lenin’s temporary compromise with capitalism. He saw this was necessary due to the failing economy, unrest, and widespread famine.

Small businesses were denationalized, people could have free markets, but big industries were still owned by the communist government.

The New Economic Policy revitalized Russia’s economy.

Question 8

Stalin vs. Trotsky

Answer 8

After Lenin died, there was a power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky. Stalin ended up winning with his cunning and ruthless behind-the-scenes way of handling the situation and expelled Trotsky from the Communist Party.

Question 9

Five Year Plans

Answer 9

Designed to transform the Soviet Union’s economic and social structure. Had the following goals:

1. Collectivise agriculture (not as successful).
2. Rapidly develop large industries.
3. End the New Economic Policy.
4. Create a socialist command economy.

The five year plans were successful, and by the end, Russia was just barely trailing behind the US and Germany.

Question 10

Kulaks

Answer 10

Resisting peasants to the collectivizing agriculture goal from the five year plans. The peasants who did not want to join collective farms were deemed kulaks, and sent to labor camps, executed, starved.

Question 11

The Great Terror

Answer 11

Stalin proved to be a ruthless totalitarian dictator. He launched the Great Terror to expel the Old Bolsheviks, which expanded to include military officers, intellectuals, and normal citizens. Many people were innocently killed and sent away to gulags.

This ended when Stalin had eliminated all possible enemies and competitors (and then some), and resulted in a new Communist Party with complete loyalty to Stalin.

Question 12

Gulags

Answer 12

Forced labor camps that many Russians were sent to during Stalin’s Great Terror.

Question 13

Postwar Italy

Answer 13

Italy had initially joined WWI to get in on the mandates of Germany, but when they didn’t get anything, they were bitter. Italy was also facing an economic crisis of severe inflation, unemployment, and debt, which caused many Italians to fear a communist revolution like Russia had underwent.

Question 14

Benito Mussolini

Answer 14

Italy needed a strong leader in all of this confusion, and Benito Mussolini rose up and ended the power vacuum, promising a better economy and military. Mussolini was then named the prime minister.

Question 15

Fascist Italy

Answer 15

• Made Italy a Fascist state.
• Outlawed all political parties except fascism (censorship).
• Used propaganda throughout Italy.

Question 16

Mussolini’s Corporate Economy

Answer 16

Created a capitalist economy with state control over economic decisions. Mussolini made 22 state corporations to control all parts of the economy and made many economical decisions.

Outlawed strikes, and set wages and prices.

Question 17

Lateran Accord

Answer 17

Mussolini needed to fix relationships between the Pope and the government. So in return of the pope recognizing the new fascist government, Mussolini gave the pope control over the independent Vatican City.

Question 18

Weimar Republic Failure

Answer 18

• Many Germans believed the reason they lost so badly in WWI was because of betrayals within politicians in the Weimar Republic.
• The Great Depression caused many to loose faith in the Weimar Republic.
• Inflation from printing so much money to pay back the reparations.
• Nationalists were pissed that Germany failed so hard in WWI.
• Article 48 ruined the republic because it allowed rulers to rule by decree in “emergencies.”

Question 19

Why Hitler Rose to Power

Answer 19

• Strong, charismatic leader.
• Achieved power electorally, not revolutionarily.
• Modern propaganda.
• Nazism exploited people’s fears.

Question 20

Nazism

Answer 20

Included the following spheres of influence:

• Nationalism
• Anti-communism
• Anti-semitism
• Master race
• Führer

Question 21

Nazi Germany

Answer 21

Nazi Germany was ruthlessly turned into a totalitarian state by Hitler. All other political parties were outlawed, and used the Gestapo to control this. Businesses, agriculture, media were all supervised by the government. The ideal nazi woman was a homemaker, and had domestic duties.

Question 22

Gestapo

Answer 22

The secret police Hitler implemented to make sure people were conforming to the Nazi policies.

Question 23

Anti-Semitism

Answer 23

Even though Jews were a very small portion of the German population, Hitler used them as scapegoats for their problems, creating a common enemy. It started with Hitler banning Jews from holding public office, then the Nuremberg laws. Continuous violence against the Jews only grew, and escalated to mob violences such as Kristallnacht.

Question 24

Hitler and the Treaty of Versaille

Answer 24

Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of Nations, and openly began a program of rearmament, and ordered his troops to the demilitarized zone of Rhineland.

Question 25

Mussolini and Ethiopia

Answer 25

Mussolini ordered a massive invasion of the independent Ethiopia. Even though the League of Nations condemned Italy, nothing truly happened because the League of Nations had no army.

Question 26

Why Didn’t Democracies Do Anything?

Answer 26

• Many countries underestimated Hitler and his thirst for power and conquest.
• Many Americans though American intervention in European affairs was a mistake, and thus did not want to intervene again.
• Countries had bigger domestic problems to deal with first.
• People thirsted for peace after the horrific WWI.

Question 27

Spanish Civil War

Answer 27

Spain was deeply divided, and some people wanted a continued republic (Loyalists) while the Nationalists favored a fascist government like Italy.

Led by General Franco, the nationalists rebelled, in which Germany and Italy allied this group, and Russia sent in allies for the Loyalist side.

Escalated when German troops bombed the defenseless Guernica. The republican resistance collapsed, and Franco implemented an authoritarian regime in Spain.

Question 28

Munich Conference

Answer 28

Hitler wanted to rapidly expand his empire, and focused on Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The Munich Conference was called by Britain, Italy, and France to negotiate Hitler’s demand that Czech give up Sudetenland.

This empowered Hitler to want to attack Poland as well, Munich Conference came to represent a symbol of surrender, and the Europeans vowed never again to appease a ruthless dictator.

Question 29

Outbreak of WWII

Answer 29

Hitler attacked Poland with blitzkrieg after the Munich Conference. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Question 30

Hitler’s Empire in Europe

Answer 30

1940ish. Hitler released a second blitzkrieg against France, Belgium, and Scandinavia, which left Great Britain the only unconquered force. Led by Churchill, the RAF defeated Hitler, and Hitler knew that the RAF could not be defeated, nor could the spirit of the British people be crushed.

Hitler then retaliated by doing an all out invasion of Russia, to which Hitler now controlled a vast empire.

Question 31

Holocaust

Answer 31

The systematic killing of Jews. Factors that contributed to the Holocaust included the minority of Jewish people, propaganda, the Gestapo, which culminated into the murder of millions of Jews and abduction to death camps.

Question 32

Japan in Asia

Answer 32

Roosevelt called a total embargo with Japan. The Japanese retaliated with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which caused an angry America determined to crush Germany and Japan.

Question 33

Grand Alliance

Answer 33

Roosevelt and Churchill believed that Hitler needed to be eliminated first, as he posed a major international threat with his giant empire. So Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin joined together to combat Germany and Japan.

Question 34

War in Europe

Answer 34

1942-1945. Germany soon faced war on both fronts, and trapped, Hitler committed suicide and Germany was forced to surrender.

Question 35

War in Asia

Answer 35

1942-1945. The US stopped the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. The United States then went “island hopping,” and stopped the Japanese Pacific empire.

Question 36

Atomic Bomb

Answer 36

The US had developed a frightening, new nuclear weapon. Truman told the Japanese to surrender or face the “the utter devastation” of Japan. When the Japanese ignored this, the US let down the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan formally surrendered in 1945.