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 by the Non-Aggression Pact?
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