World War 2 Flashcards
Which countries lost their monarchies as a result of WWI?
Austria-Hungary
Russia
Ottoman Empire
Germany
What were they replaced with?
Democracies
Why was the Weimar Republic despised by the German people from the start?
Was blamed for losing the war
Was blamed for signing the Treaty of Versailles
What prompted Germany to hyperinflation its economy? What was the effect of this?
Was in response to France invading them to take resources as payments
Destroyed the German economy
What is the Dawes plan, and did it work?
The United States gave Germany money to restart its economy
Yes, it worked better than expected
Which country was the world economy build around?
The United States
What are two reasons that the US economy grew so fast after WWI?
We didn’t have to rebuild anything
We had sold the world its war goods, and now we sold them its construction goods
What were two underlying structural problem with our economy?
Uneven distribution of wealth led to too many poor, who then bought everything on credit
Overproduction of goods led to lowered prices and layoffs
How did most countries get out of the Great Depression?
The governments printed money and hired people as a way to get the money to the citizens
What happened to most of the new democracies in Europe?
They collapsed to fascists
What are five characteristics that all fascists share?
Extreme devotion to one leader and the nation
Worldview based on hyper-nationalism (your race is better than all others)
Nations were either taking over another, or getting taken over
Obsessed with military strength
Hatred of Communism
In what ways are fascists similar to Communist dictators?
Replacing religion with leader worship
Censorship
Propaganda
Police State
What does Nazi stand for?
National Socialist German Workers Party
What two institutions did both Hitler and the original Nazi party despise?
The Treaty of Versailles
Weimar government
What was the Beer Hall Putsch, and was it successful?
Hitler’s first attempt at taking power through force. His supporters were shot by the military
How did the Hitler’s trial help the Nazi party?
He was able to tell the entire country his ideas
What were Hitler’s views on race that he wrote about in Mein Kampf?
That the German race was responsible for all good things in the world, and all bad things were the fault of Jews and Communists
What is Lebensraum? What does Hitler want to do with it?
Living Room. He needs to get more land for the growing German population, which he would get from Poland and Russia. He would remove the Poles and Russians and place Germans there.
What event caused the German public to again take notice of Hitler? Why?
Great Depression. Without Hitler, the Nazi party collapsed. More importantly, Germany was doing much better with the help of the Dawes Plan. The Great Depression caused huge problems in Germany, with the economy collapsing, along with law and order. Communism was becoming popular, and Hitler was violently anti- communist. His militia was seen as the only thing keeping the Communists from taking over.
How did the Reichstag fire help the Nazis gain power?
The Communists were blamed, and Hitler was able to arrest them, and use it as a scare tactic to make people think he was keeping them safe. In the following elections, the Nazi party won a majority.
What was the Enabling Act?
The act the Nazi controlled Reichstag passed to make Hitler a dictator
What were the first two ways that Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles? What was the Allied response?
He remilitarized Germany
Stopped payments to the Allies from WWI
Nothing
How did Hitler take over Austria?
Using threats of invasions to protect Germans from “mistreatment”
How did Hitler gain control of the Sudetenland?
Using threats of invasions to protect Germans from “mistreatment.” The Allies met Hitler and agreed not to stop him if he invaded.
What was the Munich Conference?
The meeting in Germany in which the French and English agreed to not intervene in Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised not to take anything else
What was appeasement, and how did it help Hitler be able to take over Europe so quickly?
Giving in to a threat in order to avoid war. It gave Hitler the ability to take over countries that were smaller without anyone stopping him. It also gave him time to build his massive military before the Allies joined.
Who were the Axis power? What did they have in common?
Germany, Italy, Japan. They were all fascist dictatorships, that had agreed to expand their empires through war
Why was the United States not participating in world affairs?
We had passed laws saying we couldn’t get involved. This was meant to keep us from getting into another war
What was the Non-Aggression Pact?
Agreement between Russia and Germany not to attack each other
What were both sides promised?
German wouldn’t get a 2-front war, and Russia wouldn’t have any war at all
They secretly agreed to invade Poland together to regain territory lost in WWI
What is odd about Hitler and Stalin signing the pact?
Stalin and Hitler hated each other
What was the first country the Nazis took over by force?
Poland
What does Blitzkrieg mean, and how does it work?
Means “lightning war.” Attacking with planes, followed by tanks, followed by troops at the same time, without warning.
What was the Phony War?
The 9 month period before the invasion of France. Germany was busy shifting its army from its eastern side in Poland, to the west.
Why does Hitler attack Denmark and Norway?
They were important to maintain trade
What was the Maginot line?
A line of very powerful forts along the German/French border. Meant to keep Germany out of France.
What happened at Dunkirk?
The Allied troops were surrounded on a beach, but Hitler allowed them to be rescued by the British Navy and civilians in boats and taken to England. They would later be part of the D-Day invasion.
Why was it a positive for the Allies?
It allowed us to save the troops, who participated in the D-Day invasion a few years later.
How was it also a disaster for them?
They lost all their supplies and weapons. It also basically gave France to Hitler.
What was the Vichy government?
The French government that worked closely with Hitler, including arresting Jewish citizens.
Why didn’t Hitler invade Britain?
It is an island, and transporting an entire army by boat was suicide because the British Navy was so good
What was his alternative strategy to deal with them?
Bombing them into surrender during the “Battle of Britain”
What technology helped to save the British?
Radar
Why were the Italians fighting in Egypt? Who were they fighting?
Control of the Suez Canal and the oil in the Middle East
Britain
What were two reasons that Hitler thought the Balkans were important to conquer?
Oil fields
As a staging area to prepare for the invasion of Russia
Who broke the Non-Aggression Pact?
Germany
What were the Russians doing as they retreated? Why?
Destroying everything so the Germans would have nothing to use as fuel, food or shelter they got drawn into Russia
In what way did the blitzkrieg backfire for the Germans?
They attacked so fast they weren’t able to supply themselves
What happened to the German Army outside Moscow?
They froze to death in massive numbers
What was Hitler’s original plan for the Jewish citizens of his empire?
To make life so awful they would leave
What did the Nuremberg Laws take away from German Jews?
Citizenship, along with all the rights and protections that go with it. They also lost the right to work in more jobs
What happened on Kristallnacht? Why is this a significant event?
The German government plan and led an uprising of citizens in numerous cities that destroyed Jewish property, and began arresting German Jews and sending them to concentration camps
What were ghettos?
Cities in Poland that had been made into prisons. They were meant to starve the Jews to death.
Where were the death camps? Why?
They were located in Poland, because that is where the most Jewish people lived
How many people in total were killed in the Holocaust? Who else, besides the Jewish people, was targeted?
11-12 Million. Communists, political opponents, homosexuals, the handicapped, terminally ill, gypsies, Catholics
What is Pearl Harbor? When is it attacked?
It is a navy base in Hawaii
December 7, 1941
Why did the Japanese attack us?
They knew we would join anyway, and would beat them. This was an attempt to take us out of the war early before we got fully prepared for a war
What was the real target for the Japanese? Were they successful?
Aircraft carriers. No
As we were rebuilding our navy, what was Japan doing?
Quickly expanding its empires
What are three reasons that Stalingrad had strategic value?
It sits on the only river into Moscow, so it is important as a way to choke off transportation
It is near massive oil fields
It is a large industrial center full of factories making war goods
Why did it become symbolic?
It was named after Stalin, so it was important for propaganda
Who ends up with control of the city?
Germany
What is the Russian response?
To surround the city and starve the Germans
What was the casualty rate of the German army?
Out of 1 million, only 40,000 survived
What battle saw the most people killed in history?
Stalingrad
How many troops did the Allies pull together to reinvade France, and where did they put them?
3.5 million
England
When and what is D-day
June6, 1944. It was the day the Allied countries launched an invasion on the beaches of Northern France.
Why was the landing in France a big problem for Hitler?
It was the beginning of another front of the war, when he was already losing to Russia
Which army was the first to take control of Berlin?
Russia
How did Hitler deal with the loss?
committed suicide
What is island hopping?
The method the US used to get to Japan. We would skip over less important islands, and cut of supplies to them
Why did we not want to invade the Japanese home islands?
It would have been incredibly deadly
What did we do instead?
Used atomic bombs against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to make them surrender
How many were killed instantly? How many were killed in the following weeks from radiation poisoning?
100,000 and 300,000
What problems did post-war Europe face?
Lack of homes, jobs, power, food, sanitation, medicine, transportation, etc.
What was the purpose and result of the Nuremberg Trials?
To convict the Nazi leadership for their roles in the Holocaust and atrocities committed during the war
How did the end of WWII set up future conflicts between the US and Russia?
Russia and the US were the only remaining powers. They wanted to use Europe as a buffer, and make them Communists. We wanted to use Europe as trade partners and make them capitalists and democratic.
