U5L8 Aggression Overseas and Isolation at Home

Question 1

How did the government in Italy and Germany look like?

Answer 1

In Italy and Germany, totalitarian leaders exerted complete control over the government and society. These dictators were fascists.

Question 2

What was fascism? What were fascist leaders aiming for?

Answer 2

Fascism was rooted in militarism, extreme nationalism, and blind loyalty to the state. Fascist dictators vowed to create new empires.

Question 3

How did community gain support? How did fascists get their support?

Answer 3

While Communists drew much of their support from the working classes, fascists found allies among business leaders and landowners.

Question 4

In 1922, which fascist party seized control of Italy?

Answer 4

Benito Mussolini and his Fascist party

Question 5

Why didn’t Mussolini like the Versailles Treaty?

Answer 5

Many Italians felt cheated because the treaty did not grant Italy the territory it wanted.

Question 6

What did Mussolini use to gain power?

Answer 6

Economic unrest and fears of a communist revolution plagued Italy, and many looked to Mussolini to stabilize the nation.

Question 7

Once Mussolini was in power in Italy, what happened to the other political parties? What happened to the freedom of speech (if there was any to begin with)?

Answer 7

Once in power, Mussolini outlawed all political parties except his own. He controlled the press and banned criticism of the government. Critics were jailed or simply murdered. In schools, children recited the motto “Mussolini Is Always Right!”

Question 8

What did Mussolini do to distract Italians from economic problems?
(1930s)

Answer 8

Foreign conquest

Question 9

What did Mussolini promised to the Italians that caused him to embark on a program of military aggression?

Answer 9

He promised to restore the greatness of Ancient Rome

Question 10

Which country did Mussolini invade?

1935

Answer 10

Mussolini invaded the African nation of Ethiopia in 1935. The Ethiopians fought bravely. However, their cavalry and outdated rifles were no match for Italy’s modern tanks and airplanes.

Question 11

While Mussolini attacked Ethiopia, the Ethiopian emperor Haile Salassie asked the League of Nations for help. Why didn’t the help for the League of Nations change the outcome?

Answer 11

The League responded weakly. Britain and France were caught up in their own economic problems and unwilling to risk another war. Without help, Ethiopia fell.

Question 12

In Germany, what did Adolf Hitler bring to power?

Answer 12

National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazis, to power

Question 13

Like Mussolini, why did Hitler hate about the Versailles treaty?

Answer 13

Germans bitterly resented the treaty because it blamed their country for World War I and made them pay heavy war costs.

Question 14

Which group of people did Hitler blame for Germany losing the war?

Answer 14

Hitler assured Germans that they had not lost the war. Rather, he said, Jews and other traitors had “stabbed Germany in the back.”

Question 15

Why did Germans believe Hitler when he said that the Jews “stabbed Germany in the back”?

Answer 15

The argument was false, but in troubled times people were eager to find a scapegoat—a person or group on whom to blame their problems.

Question 16

Why did many Germans like Hitler?

Answer 16

Hitler was a powerful speaker and skillful politician. By the time depression struck, many Germans looked to him as a strong leader with answers to their problems.

Question 17

When did Hitler become the ruler of the German government?

Answer 17

1933

Question 18

Two years after being in power, what did Hitler do to Democracy?

Answer 18

Within two years, he ended democratic rule and created a militaristic totalitarian state.

Question 19

In Nazi German, what did the government control?

Answer 19

In Nazi Germany, the government controlled the press, the schools, and religion.

Question 20

Why did Hitler start the persecution of Jews?

Answer 20

Hitler preached that Germans belonged to a race that was biologically superior to Jews, Gypsies, and other peoples. The Nazi government singled out the Jews for special persecution. Jews were deprived of their citizenship, forbidden to use public facilities, and driven out of almost every type of work. Later, Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, prison camps for civilians who are considered enemies of the state.

Question 21

How did Hitler defy the Versailles treaty? What did the League of Nations about this?

Answer 21

Hitler claimed that Germany had a right to expand to the east. In defiance of the Versailles treaty, he began to build up Germany’s armed forces. Although the League of Nations condemned his actions, Hitler predicted that the rest of Europe would “never act. They’ll just protest. And they will always be too late.”

Question 22

Hitler predicted that the rest of Europe would “never act. They’ll just protest. And they will always be too late.” How did Hitler’s words become true when he moved his troops into the Rhineland, near the border of France and Belgium?

Answer 22

In 1936, German troops moved into the Rhineland, near the border with France and Belgium. The Versailles treaty had banned German troops from this region. France and Britain protested, but they took no other action.

Question 23

How were the Totalitarian leaders different from fascist leaders?

Answer 23

Unlike Italy and Germany, these leaders were not fascist. They did, however, seek complete control. They were unhappy with the terms of the Versailles Treaty and hoped to bring new glory to their nations. As in western Europe, the political changes underway in these regions drew the world closer to war.

Question 24

What government did Vladimir Lenin set up in the Soviet Union?

Answer 24

Vladimir Lenin set up a communist government in the Soviet Union.

Question 25

When Vladimir Lenin died, who gained power?

Answer 25

Joseph Stalin

Question 26

What did Stalin rule as?

Answer 26

Stalin ruled as a totalitarian dictator.

Question 27

What is the definition of a totalitarian state?

Answer 27

A single party controls the government and every aspect of people’s lives. Citizens must obey the government without question. Criticism of the government is severely punished.

Question 28

How did Stalin modernize Soviet Industry and agriculture?

Answer 28

He ordered peasants to hand over land and animals to government-run farms. Millions who resisted were executed or sent to labor camps.

Question 29

What did Stalin do about his political enemies?

Answer 29

Many confessed to false charges under torture.

Question 30

In Japan, why did the military take over?

Answer 30

Japan’s economy suffered severely during the Great Depression. As many Japanese grew impatient with their democratic government, military leaders took power.

Question 31

Like Hitler, what did military leaders preach?

Answer 31

Racial superiority
…
They believed that the Japanese were purer than, and superior to, other Asians as well as non-Asians.

Question 32

Why did Japanese forces seize northern China?

1931

Answer 32

In 1931, Japanese forces seized a region in northeastern China known as Manchuria. The region was rich in coal and iron, two resources scarce in Japan.

Question 33

China called on the League of Nations for help. What “help” was provided?

Answer 33

The League condemned Japanese aggression but did little else. The United States refused to recognize Manchukuo but took no action.

Question 34

What did many Italians look to Mussolini to do?

Answer 34

stabilize the nation

Question 35

What is a scapegoat?

Answer 35

a person or group on whom to blame problems

Question 36

How did Stalin handle his political enemies?

Answer 36

He staged trials and executions.

Question 37

In America, what were the Neutrality Acts do?

1935

Answer 37

In 1935, Congress passed the first of a series of Neutrality Acts, which banned arms sales or loans to countries at war.

Question 38

What did Congress warn Americans ships of?

1935

Answer 38

Congress also warned Americans not to travel on ships of countries at war. By limiting economic ties with warring nations, isolationists hoped to stay out of any foreign conflict.

Question 39

Closer to home, the United States tried to improve relations with Latin American nations. How did they do this?

Answer 39

In 1930, President Hoover rejected the Roosevelt Corollary. The United States, he declared, no longer claimed the right to intervene in Latin American affairs.

Question 40

Concerned about the problems in Asia and Europe, Franklin Roosevelt worked to build friendlier relations with Latin America. What was the Good Neighborhood Policy?

Answer 40

FDR withdrew American troops from Nicaragua and Haiti. The policy also emphasized trade and cooperation. Roosevelt also canceled the Platt Amendment, which had limited the independence of Cuba.

Question 41

How did Roosevelt improve relationships with the Soviet Union?

Answer 41

He restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet government in 1933, although he remained wary about allying too closely with the communist nation. In addition to benefiting the American economy, Roosevelt had hoped improved relations with the Soviet Union would decrease Japanese expansion in Asia.

Question 42

What warning did Congress issue to Americans about travel?

Answer 42

Congress warned Americans not to travel on ships of countries at war.

Question 43

What did Roosevelt do under the Good Neighbor Policy to build friendlier relations with Latin America?

Answer 43

withdrew American troops from Nicaragua and Haiti

Question 44

What did Roosevelt hope improved relations with the Soviet Union would do?

Answer 44

decrease Japanese expansion in Asia