Study Guide 10 Flashcards
What factors lead to the radicalization of a population ? For example, what role did the Great Depression play in leading to the rise of many dictatorships and totalitarian governments in the 1930s ? Why does democracy often seem to lead to dictatorship ?
In what ways was William Butler Yeat’s poem The Second Coming prophetic ?
- Partial answer: extreme hardships and chaos (massive unemployment, paralysis of business, paralysis of parliament, violence in the streets)
Because people turn to charismatic leaders to solve their problems.
The Rise of Hitler:
a. In the last free elections of Weimar Germany, what percentage of people voted against Hitler and the Nazis ? Why did Hitler nevertheless become Prime Minister of Germany ?
b. What frightening event occurred shortly after Hitler’s ascension to power that allowed him to
seize dictatorial power in the form of “emergency powers” ?
c. In what way did Hitler destroy Germany during the Gleichschaltung ? In other words, what
policies did he pursue that were similar to what had already occurred in Mussolini’s Italy
and Stalin’s Russia ?
d. What did Hitler call his realm, how long did he claim it would last, and how long did it in fact
exist ?
e. What were some of Joseph Goebbel’s chilling insights into the effectiveness of propaganda
[for example, what did he identify as the strongest emotion, and what did he believe
about the effectiveness of the lie] ?
f. What did Hitler call himself and what does this title mean?
g. What do these descriptions mean: “atomization of the individual” and “internal exile”?
h. Upon whom did Hitler wreak vengeance in the “Night of the Long Knives”?
i. For whom did Hitler build the first concentration camps? What was the Gestapo?
j. What did the Nuremberg Laws do, what was the Kristalnacht, and what was Hitler’s government trying to encourage the Jews in Germany to do?
- Partial answer: Goebbels: There are two great emotion which control mankind: love and hatred; of the two, the stronger is hatred.
People will believe the greatest lie if it is repeated over and over and over. - Partial answer: “the atomization of the individual” > the creation of mass organizations which turned the individual into an isolated unit, unable to create communities of resistance;
“internal exile” > when people chose to withdraw from society (into political indifference) into their private lives for their own protection, rather than to flee abroad (exile) - Partial answer: “the Night of Long Knives” > Hitler’s revenge against his old enemies as well as a purging of opponents within the Nazi Party itself
a. Because the inner elite makes him prime minister, hoping to use him for their purposes.
b. the burning of the parliament building, which Hitler blamed on the communists. He uses these powers to destroy most political organizations, including the governments. (The atomization of the individual.)
c.
d. The Third Reich (1,000 years) because the first Reich DID last 1,000 years. Only lasted for 12 years.
e.
f. Calls himself “the leader”
g.
h.
i. For his political enemies, for the socialists and communists, and then they expand to ever larger groups of people. The secret police.
j. primary purpose of all policies against Jews was to encourage the Jews to leave and seize their property.
Were Hitler’s ideas and policies unusual for Europe during the 1930s ? Explain.
Why was National Socialist Germany admired by so many Europeans and Americans in the 1930s ?
Not unusual at the time. Because they were the only country that was able to pull itself out of the Great Depression. Seemed to be stable and prosperous from the outside.
The Spanish Civil War
a. What were the two sides that fought in this civil war ?
b. Why did the Western powers decide not to intervene ?
c. Which powers did send reinforcements, and to whom ? And for what reason ?
d. Which two countries, by aiding Gen. Franco, drew closer together and soon formed the Axis
alliance ? And which Asian country also joins the Axis alliance that year ?
e. What frightening war tactic was used for the first time in Spain ?
- Partial answer: the two sides: Communists & Socialists (plus Republicans) against conservatives, Fascists, General Franco
- Partial answer: aerial bombing of cities
b. didn’t want to make the war worse.
c. Soviet Union supported the communists, and Italy supported the Fascists
d.
e. Aerial bombardment of cities (tried in the first World War, but now much more effective)
Between 1936 and 1939, Hitler’s government remilitarized the Rhineland (German troops secure
Germany’s western borders once again), annexed Austria (the Anschluss), annexed the German Sudetenland (in Czechoslovakia), invaded the rest of the Czech regions and created the satellite country of Slovakia — yet Britain and France did nothing. What were the weaknesses of the British and the French which Hitler so effectively exploited ?
Fear of war happening again, and they are also aware of the fact that Germans are leading in technology. Secondly, what Hitler is doing is legitimate (righting the wrongs of the Versailles Treaty).
What was the main point of the British government’s appeasement policies under Neville Chamberlain during the late 1930s ? Why is this ironic considering the desires of the German Imperial government in the years preceding World War One ?
This government ironically wanted to work with Hitler’s government in the same way the German government wanted to work with the British before WWI. They wanted peace by working together.
The year 1937
a. Which aircraft was the first to fly 1 million miles (and in only 9 years !!) ? What were its
primary routes and what other great accomplishment did this aircraft have ?
b. What great constitutional crisis roiled England in this year ?
c. What great aircraft disaster occurred in New Jersey and what was the cause of this disaster ?
a. Graf Zeppelin, which is an airship or blimp (first to circle entire world)
b. The king is in love with a twice-divorced woman (and American)
c. The Hindenburg disaster
By 1939, were most countries in Europe liberal democracies or dictatorships ?
dictatorships
In August 1939, Hitler’s government makes an alliance with which country ? Why does this stun Europe and the world ?
With Soviet Union. Because they always seemed to be enemies.
The beginning of World War II:
a. The invasion of which country by Hitler’s Germany sparked World War II ? Why had the relationship between these two countries been so poor over the past 20 years ?
b. This invaded country was rapidly defeated and occupied by which 2 powers ?
c. Which countries thereupon declared war on Germany ?
d. How was the outbreak of war received by the European public, and how was this reaction
different from popular reaction to the outbreak of war in 1914 ?
e. What was the Blitzkrieg ?
f. What policies did Hitler’s government then implement in this defeated country, and what was the result ?
g. Which countries did the Soviet Union invade within a year ?
a. Poland. Because when Poland was created, it tried to take over German territory.
b. Germany and Soviet Union.
c. Britain and France
d.
e.
f.
g. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
What did Britain and France expect to happen to themselves in the fall of 1939, and what did actually occur ?
They expected they would be attacked as well (nothing happens), so it becomes known as the “Phony War”.
What was “the Phony War” and how did it acquire this name ?
(above)
The year 1940
a. Which countries were overrun by Nazi Germany in April ?
b. Which countries were overrun by Nazi Germany in May ?
c. What occurred at Dunkirk ?
d. What was Vichy France, and who led this country ?
e. Which Baltic countries were annexed by the Soviet Union ?
f. What was “the Battle of Britain” and who won ? Why, apparently, did Hitler not pursue his advantages in this regard ? Which famous cathedral was destroyed ?
g. What was the attitude of the American public towards this new war ?
h. What was the attitude of the American government under F.D. Roosevelt ?
a.
b. Belgium, Netherlands, and France
c.
d. Continuation of Third Republic, General Petain
e.
f. Coventry cathedral
g. Isolation (they did not want to enter the war)
h. Not the attitude, however, of FDR who wanted to support the British.
How was it possible for Nazi Germany to conquer much of Europe in a total of just 12 weeks (!!!) ?
Possible because didn’t actually want to fight, so there was passivity, and also tremendous terrorization of populations, such as the bombing of the city of Rotterdam (largest Dutch city, that had one of the biggest ports in Europe).
Who were the Axis powers in 1941 ? And which countries were satellite states ? In what ways does the Europe of 1941 reflect the Europe under Napoleon in 1812 ? What is the main difference between these two “empires” ?
- Partial answer: Nazi satellite states: Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece
Main difference is that they are totally different ideologies.
